which the author should seek to preserve; but in a poem of which elegance of expression and ingenuity of device are the principal attributes, an allusion to the customs of Greece, or of Rome, while it gives a classic air to the composition, seems as little misplaced, as an apt quotation from the authors in which they are recorded. The first edition of this poem is printed in folio* by J. M. for Henry Herringman, 1660. It affords few and trifling corrections. * [Astræa Redux. A Poem, on the Happy Restoration and Return of His Sacred Majesty Charles the Second. By John Driden. Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna. London: Printed by J. M. for Henry Herringman, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Blue Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange. 1660. —ED.] ASTREA REDUX. A POEM, ON THE HAPPY RESTORATION AND RETURN OF HIS SACRE 1660. Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna. The last great age, foretold by sacred rhymes, VIRG. Now with a general peace the world was blest, Thus when black clouds draw down the lab'ring skies, Ere yet abroad the winged thunder flies, * The small wits of the time made themselves very merry with this couplet; because stillness, being a mere absence of sound, could not, it was said, be personified, as an active 10 Though in his life he blood and ruin breathed, agent, or invader. Captain Ratcliff thus states the objection Laureat, who was both learned and florid, Was damned, long since, for "silence horrid;" Nor had there been such clatter made, But that this silence did "invade." Invade! and so't might well, 'tis clear; But what did it invade?-an ear. And for some other things, 'tis true, 'We follow fate, that does pursue.' In the "Dialogue in Bedlam," between Oliver's porter, fiddler, and poet, the first of these persons thus addresses L'Estrange and Dryden, "the scene being adorned with several of the poet's own flowers: "- O glory, glory! who are these appear? Old Hodge, the constant, Johny the sincere! While not one sound of voice from you I spy. But, as Dr. Johnson justly remarks, we hesitate not to say, the world is invaded by darkness, which is a privation of light; and why not by silence, which is a privation of sound? The royal line of Sweden has produced more heroic and chivalrous monarchs than any dynasty of Europe. The gallant Charles x., who is here mentioned, did not degenerate from his warlike stem. He was a nephew of the great Gustavus Adolphus; and, like him, was continually engaged in war, particularly against Poland and Austria. He died at Gottenburgh in 1660, and the peace of Sweden was soon afterwards restored by the treaty of Copenhagen. †The death of Cromwell, and the unsettled state of England, prevented the execution of those ambitious schemes which Cardinal Mazarine, then prime minister of France, had hoped to accomplish by the assistance of Britain. The Cardinal was therefore, in 1659, induced to accede to the treaty of the Pyrenees, by which peace was restored betwixt VOL. IX. с 15 25 While our cross stars denied us Charles his bed, The vulgar, gulled into rebellion, armed, If Jove and Heaven can violated be?) France and Spain; the union being cemented by the marriage of the Infanta to Louis XIV. Charles I., then a needy fugitive, was in attendance upon the ministers of France and Spain, when they met on the frontiers for this great object; but he, who was soon to be so powerful a monarch, experienced on that occasion nothing but slights from Mazarine, and cold civility from Don Louis de Haro. * This does not mean, as Derrick conceived, that these emblems of authority had as little effect upon the mob as if they had been shown to an elephant; but that the sight of them animated the people to such senseless fury as elephants, and many other animals, are said to show upon seeing any object of a red colour. [Christie supposes the sacred purple to refer to the Lords spiritual, and the scarlet gown to the Lords temporal.-ED.] 30 35 40 The lesser gods, that shared his prosperous state, Was forced to suffer for himself and us! He, tossed by fate, and hurried up and down, His wounds he took, like Romans, on his breast, 45 50 55 60 But those, that 'gainst stiff gales laveering* go, 65 * ["Laveer"=" louvoyer," to tack. Said to be borrowed from Dutch.-ED.] The Emperor Otho, whose mind and manners exhibited so many contradictions, is described as one of the most effeminate of men in his outward habits; his mind, however, was active and energetic. "Non erat Othonis mollis et corpori similis animus.”—Taciti, Lib. i. Historiarum. He slew himself after the battle of Brixellum, in which he was vanquished |