"And does thy northern dedications fill. "Thou art my blood, where Jonson has no part: By which one way to dulness 'tis inclined, "Which makes thy writings lean on one side still, And, in all changes, that way bends thy will. "Nor let thy mountain belly make pretence "Of likeness; thine's a tympany of sense. "A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ, "But sure thou art but a kilderkin of wit. "Like mine, thy gentle numbers feebly creep; 'Thy tragic Muse gives smiles, thy comic sleep. "With whate'er gall thou setst thyself to write, "Thy inoffensive satires never bite; "In thy felonious heart though venom lies, "It does but touch thy Irish pen, and dies. 'Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame "In keen Iambics, but mild Anagram. "Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command "Some peaceful province in Acrostic land. “There thou mayest wings display and altars raise, 170 180 190 "And torture one poor word ten thousand ways; 200 NOTES. FIRST PART OF ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. PREFACE. P. 1, 1. 5. Whig and Tory. The nickname Whig was conferred on the Petitioners (see Introduction) in 1679. Two explanations of it are given, one by Roger North in his Examen, p. 321 : "The Anti-Exclusionists called their opponents Birmingham Protestants,' alluding to false groats counterfeited at that place : this held a considerable time but the word was not fluent enough for hasty repartee and after diverse changes the lot fell upon Whig which was very significative as well as ready, being vernacular in Scotland (from whence it was borrowed) for corrupt and sour whey." But Burnet's explanation, now generally received as the correct one, is this: "The south-west counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to serve them round the year, and the northern parts producing more than they need those in the west come in the summer to buy at Leith the stores that come from the north and from a word whiggam used in driving their horses all that drove were called the Whiggamors, and shorter the Whigs." It had been employed, he adds, as a political designation in Scotland from the rising under Argyll in 1648, subsequent to which "all that opposed the Court came in contempt to be called Whigs" (History of His Own Time, vol. i. p. 43). Tories was the nickname conferred in the same year on the Abhorrers, and was derived from the Tories or Popish banditti and bog-trotters in Ireland, the point being that they were savages, robbers, and papists, and that the Duke of York favoured the Irish. It has been variously derived from the Irish words toiridhe, tor, toraigheoir, a pursuer; toirighim, I follow closely; and toir, a corruption of tabhair, give there,' the supposed demand of a robber. 1. 11. an Anti-Bromingham, an anti-Whig. See preceding note for the term Birmingham, and cf. the lines quoted by Mr. Christie, "No mobile gay fop With Bromingham pretences." P. 2, ll. 4, 5. Rebating the satire. To rebate is to blunt the edge (Old French rebatre). Now obsolete, but common in Elizabethan and seventeenth century writers. Mr. Christie quotes Palamon and Arcite, book ii. 502, "The keener edge of battle rebate." 11. 11, 2. tax their crimes, censure. Properly to put a rate upon. French taxer, to tax or rate. 1. 17. so unconscionable, devoid of conscience or reason, unreasonable. dealing with Monmouth He knew that the King 1. 24. the character of Absalom. In Dryden was in a very difficult position. was in his heart greatly attached to his favourite son,' and that a reconciliation might take place. "David himself could not be more tender of the young man's life than I would be of his reputation are his words in the Preface. It will be seen that throughout the poem he carefully abstains from all harsh censure, or rather contrives to flatter him. All the blame is thrown on Shaftesbury. "Were I the inventor I should certainly conclude the piece with the reconcilement of Absalon to David. And who knows but this may come to pass?" ... P. 3, 1. 14. to hope with Origen. The eminent Father of the Church, Origines Adamantius, born circa A.D. 186, died A.D. 253 or 254. The reference is to an erroneous deduction from Origen's well-known doctrine of the universal restoration of the guilty. Origen, however, expressly asserts that the devil alone will suffer eternal punishment. 1. 24. chirurgeon, the obsolete form of surgeon. From the Greek xepoupyia, a working with the hands, but immediately from the French chirurgie. 1. 25. Ense rescindendum. From Ovid, Met. i. 191. 7. Israel's monarch etc., David, and so by analogy Charles II. Cf. i. Samuel, xiii. 14, "The Lord sought him a man after his own heart." Cf. too Acts, xiii. 20. These opening verses, in explaining the trouble caused by the King's having no legitimate issue, somewhat profanely palliate his notorious profligacy. reference, of course, is to his numerous children by his numerous mistresses. The 11. Michal, of royal blood, Saul's daughter and David's wife Catharine of Braganza, married to Charles II. in May, 1662, but she had borne him no children. = 13. several mothers. Lucy Walters, mother of Monmouth and a daughter afterwards married to a Mr. William Sarsfield; the Duchess of Cleveland, mother of the Duke of Southampton, the Duke of Grafton, the Duke of Northumberland, the Countess of Sussex, the Countess of Litchfield, and a daughter who became a nun; the Duchess of Portsmouth, mother of the Duke of Richmond; Nell Gynn, mother of the Duke of St. Albans and of James Beauclerk; Mary Davis, Lady Shannon, and Catharine Peg, by whom Charles became the father respectively of Lady Derwentwater, the Countess of Yarmouth, and the Earl of Plymouth. 18. Absalon, Duke of Monmouth; so spelt metri gratiâ. 23. Early in foreign fields. Monmouth served two campaigns as a volunteer in Louis XIV.'s army against the Dutch in 1672 and in 1673, particularly distinguishing himself at the siege of Maestricht. In 1678 he was in command of the British troops in coalition with the Dutch against the French, and again acquitted himself with great distinction in August, 1678, at the battle of St. Denis. 21. conscious destiny, i.e. conscious of his worth, which predestined him to greatness. 24. allied to Israel's crown, Holland and France. 26. as he were, as if he were, a not uncommon ellipse. Cf. Macbeth, i. 4, as 'twere a careless trifle." 66 29. accompanied with grace. In this, and above, we have allusions to Monmouth's great personal beauty. See Introduction. 30. And Paradise, etc. Pope echoes this line "And Paradise was open'd on the wild." 32. His youthful image. Cf. Livy, lib. xx. cap. 1, of the young Hannibal," Hamilcarem juvenem redditum sibi veteres milites credere." 34. the charming Annabel, Monmouth's wife, Anne Scott, Countess of Buccleuch, the only surviving daughter of Francis, Earl of Buccleuch, and one of the richest heiresses in Europe. They were married in April, 1663. Her charms have been celebrated both by Madam Dunois and Evelyn. She was a patroness of Dryden, who dedicated The Indian Emperor to her. 39. And Amnon's murder. This allusion has never been satisfactorily explained. Sir Walter Scott supposes it to refer to the slitting of Sir John Coventry's nose by Monmouth's agency, in consequence of a sarcastic allusion of Coventry's in the House of Commons to the King's amours. But this was not murder. |