When this indulgent lord shall late to Heaven repair.
Bare benting times and moulting months may come,
When lagging late they cannot reach their home;
Or rent in schism (for so their fate decrees)
Like the tumultuous College of the Bees,

1285

They fight their quarrel, by themselves opprest;

The tyrant smiles below, and waits the falling feast.'

Thus did the gentle Hind her fable end,

1290

Nor would the Panther blame it nor commend;
But, with affected yawnings at the close,
Seemed to require her natural repose;
For now the streaky light began to peep,
And setting stars admonished both to sleep.
The dame withdrew, and wishing to her guest
The peace of Heaven, betook her self to rest.
Ten thousand angels on her slumbers wait
With glorious visions of her future state.

1295

NOTES.

NOTES.

Stanzas on Oliver Cromwell.

1. The death of Cromwell was on September 3, 1658; the funeral was celebrated on November 23. The meaning of this stanza is, that now 'tis time,' after the funeral, to write in honour of Cromwell's memory, and that those who wrote before were too hasty. The comparison with the Romans refers to the custom of letting fly an eagle at the close of the funeral ceremonies of a Roman emperor, which were his consecration or apotheosis. The eagle flying upwards symbolized the ascent of the soul of the deceased emperor to take its place among the gods. These funeral ceremonies are minutely described by Herodianus in the case of the Emperor Severus (Hist. Roman. lib. iv.) Dryden makes reference to this custom again in his play, Tyrannic Love, Act iv. Sc. 2:

'A God indeed after the Roman style,

An eagle mounting from a kindled pile.' Stanza 1, line 1. officious baste. officious means 'friendly,' 'obliging.' Poem on the Coronation, 42:

'Officious slumbers haste your eyes to close.'

And Threnodia Augustalis, 370:

The officious Muses came along.'

Compare also officious flood' in Annus Mirabilis, stanza 184. 'Officious' has the same meaning in Milton:

'Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries
Officious, but to thee, Earth's habitant.'

Paradise Lost, viii. 99.

2. 4. authentic, stamped with authority, authoritative. This is the usual meaning with Dryden and his contemporaries. Compare The Hind and the Panther, Part iii. 838. One of Dryden's Prologues to the University of Oxford (1673) ends with this couplet:

'Kings make their poets whom themselves think fit,
But 'tis your suffrage makes authentic wit.'

In his Dedication of Aurengzebe, Dryden, speaking of the King, says, 'he has made authentic my private opinion.'

4. 3. prevent, anticipate; the ordinary meaning with Dryden. Compare Astræa Redux, 67 and 282; Absalom and Achitophel, 344; The Hind and the Panther, Part ii. 641. In stanza 11 of this poem, prevent may mean either anticipate' or 'hinder,' but the former is probably the meaning.

Q