think fit. God is infinitely merciful, and his vicegerent is only not so, because he is not infinite. The true end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction; and he who writes honestly is no more an enemy to the offender, than the physician to the patient, when he prescribes harsh remedies to an inveterate disease; for those are only in order to prevent the chirurgeon's work of an ense rescindendum, which I wish not to my very enemies. To conclude all if the body politic have any analogy to the natural, in my weak judgment an act of oblivion were as necessary in a hot distempered state, as an opiate would be in a raging fever. A KEY TO ABSALOM AND ACHITÓPHEL. Abdael . General Monk, Duke of Albe marle. The name given, through this Poem, to a Lord Chancellor in general. Duke of Monmouth, natural son Anthony Ashly Cowper, first John Sheffield, Earl of Mul- . Sir Edmundbury Godfrey. Mr. Seymour, Speaker of the Sir Heneage Finch, Earl of Win- 、 Egypt Eliab Ethnic-plot Hebron . . Anne, Duchess of Monmouth, the daughter and sole heir of Francis, Earl of Buccleugh. Sir William Waller. A character drawn by Tate for Dryden, in the Second Part of this Poem. . Earl of Huntingdon. Barnet. Duke of Ormond. General Sackville. Rev. Samuel Johnson. Duke of Beaufort. Ford, Lord Grey of Werk. Dr. Titus Oates. King Charles II. Elkanah Settle, the City poet. France. Sir Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington. The Popish-plot. The Land of Exile, more parti cularly Brussels, where King Charles II. long resided. Scotland. Hebrew Priests.. The Church of England Clergy. Pharaoh Rabsheka Ferguson, Teacher. a canting Sir Robert Clayton, Alderman, Catharine, Queen of Charles II. Henry D. of Grafton, natural Son of King Charles II. by the Duchess of Cleveland. Forbes. King of France. Sir Thomas Player, one of the Sagan of Jerusalem Dr. Compton, Bishop of Lon don, youngest Son to the Earl of Northampton. Parliament. Oliver Cromwell. Slingsby Bethel, Sheriff of Lon don in 1680. Sir Roger L'Estrange. |