Hither in fummer evenings you repair mind. What to your cares we owe, is learnt from hence, When even your pleasures serve for our defence. Beyond your court flows in th'admitted tide, 111 Where in new depths the wondering fishes glide: Here in a royal bed the waters fleep; When tir'd at fea, within this bay they creep. Here the mistrustful fowl no harm fufpects, 115 So fafe are all things which our king protects. From your lov'd Thames a bleffing yet is due, Second alone to that it brought in you; "Dry Ver. 102. To taste the fraicheur of the purer air:] den had a vanity unworthy of his abilities; to fhew, as may be fufpected, the rank of the company with whom he lived, by the ufe of French words, which had then crept into converfation; fuch as fraicheur for coolness, fougue for turbulence, and a few more, none of which the language has incorporated or retained. They continue only where they ftood firft, perpetual warnings to future innovators."-Johnfon's Life of Dryden. JOHN WARTON. Ver. 104. With Cafar's heart that rofe &c.] Cæfar, when in fome danger on board fhip, obferving the mariners affrighted, bade them remember they carried Cæfar and his fortune. DERRICK. A queen, near whofe chafte womb, ordain'd by fate, The fouls of kings unborn for bodies wait. 120 This must receive a crown, or that must lofe. And crowns that grow upon the facred boughs. Your fubjects, while you weigh the nation's fate, Sufpend to both their doubtful love or hate: Chufe only, fir, that so they may poffefs, 135 With their own peace their children's happiness. Ver. 136. their children's] What effect this poem might have on the public mind we know not; but the effect of another poem, the incomparable Hudibras, was deep, univerfal, and lafting. This work is original in our language, though the idea is evidently taken from Don Quixote. The wit of Butler is inexhauftible, and more new images are brought together than are to be found in any language. A want of events and action is the only blemish to be difcerned. No writer has difplayed fuch a fund of various learning, nor applied it with fuch dexterity. The measure, though blamed by Dryden, is exactly suited to the fubject. It will remain an eternal difgrace to Charles II, not to have rewarded amply this fingular genius, fo ufeful to his caufe and government. The Satire Menippée, published in France, 1597, had a fimilar effect in that country. The prefident Henault, one of the most curious and accurate of all their writers, informs us, p. 388, 4to. that Le Roi, canon of Rouen, was the fole author of the Catholicon. Pafferat and Rapin compofed the verfe part; M. Gillot compofed the harangue of the Cardinal Legate; P. Pithou that of M. d'Aubrai; and Rapin that of the archbishop of Lyons."Perhaps," fays Henault," the Satire Menippée was not of lefs ufe to Henry IV. than the battle of Ivri. Ridicule has more force than we can well imagine." Dr. J. WARTON. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR HYDE*. PRESENTED ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1662. MY LORD, WHILE flattering crouds officiously appear, To give themselves, not you, an happy year; Edward Earl of Clarendon, to whom this poem is addreffed, having followed the fortune of the king, was appointed fecretary of ftate at Bruges, and conftituted lord high-chancellor of England on the demife of Sir Richard I.ane. He was confirmed in this laft poft at the Restoration, when he was also chofen chancellor of the university of Oxford, in the room of the Duke of Somerfet, and created Baron Hindon, Vifcount Cornbury, and Earl of Clarendon. He was too honeft for a court; his plain dealing and integrity ruined him; the king, abandoned to pleasure, was impatient of admonition, and Hyde was not fparing of it: this paved the way for his difgrace. He was profecuted with great acrimony by the Earl of Bristol, who impeached him in the Houfe of Peers. Finding his party too weak to fupport him, he retired to Rouen, where he died in 1674. He is faid to have been concerned in felling Dunkirk to the French. He was an able lawyer, a great ftatefman, and an elegant writer. DERRICK. Ver. 1. While flattering crouds] Few pieces of biography are fo interefting as the life of Lord Clarendon, written by himself, and publifhed from his original manufcripts by the university of Oxford. In which is given, with openuefs and frankness, an ac count of his early habits and ftudies, and intimacy with the. greatest men of that age, whofe characters he has drawn with a And by the greatness of their prefents prove How much they hope, but not how well they love; mafterly hand. He foon became eminent both at the bar and in parliament. And entering into the king's fervice at the commencement of the civil wars, foon rose to such a degree in his favour and friendship, that the king entrusted him to draw up feveral very important state papers, published in the king's own name, and fuppofed to be his own productions. He followed Charles II. into exile, shared all his fortunes, and continued his faithful adviser till the Restoration. Burnet, who did not love him, fays, he used to give his advice in too magifterial a manner and it is certain that Charles II. had always for him more veneration than affection. As he never degraded himself by flattering the Duchefs of Portsmouth, and fhewed a marked contempt of the debauched parafites that furrounded his mafter, they employed every poffible method of wit and ridicule, to depretiate him in the eyes of his mafter, who, when Buckingham imitated the gait and air, and folemn step of the Chancellor, had the weakness to join in the laugh. But what chiefly alienated the King's regard for him, and in truth provoked a deep indig nation, was, that Clarendon engaged the Duke of Richmond to marry the beautiful Mrs. Stuart, with whom the king was violently in love. So that when the Sectarifts, the Catholics, and even fome difappointed Royalifts, all joined in enmity to Cla rendon, and laid to his charge all the misfortunes that had befallen the kingdom, the bad payment of the feamen, the fale of Dunkirk, the difgrace at Chatham, and an unfuccefstul war; the king, with matchlefs ingratitude, gave up into the hands of his enemies his old, able, and faithful Counsellor, who was im mediately impeached by both boufes of parliament. He therefore thought proper to retire to France, where he lived privately for fix years, and wrote his hiftory of the civil wars; a work, which, no:withstanding fome (perhaps pardonable) partialities, will for ever be read with attention and applaute; and is in truth compofed with a dignity, majefty, and ftrength of ftyle, rarely to be found in modern hiftory. The praises of twenty fuch poets as Dryden could not have conferred fuch lafting honour on Lord Clarendon, as thofe words of the virtuous Earl of Southampton, at the Council Board: "This man," faid he, " is a true Proteftant, and an honeft Englishman; and while he enjoys power, we are fecure of our laws, liberties, and religion.-I dread the confequences of his removal." Dr. J. WARTON. |