Nor could his acts too close a vizard wear,
To 'scape their eyes whom guilt had taught to
fear,

And guard with caution that polluted nest,

Whence Legion twice before was dispossest: *
Once sacred house, which when they entered in,
They thought the place could sanctify a sin;
Like those, that vainly hoped kind heaven would
wink,

While to excess on martyrs' tombs they drink.

* Alluding to Cromwell's dissolution of the Long Parliament, with the memorable words, "Ye are no longer a Parliament; I tell you, ye are no longer a Parliament; the Lord has done with you." General Harrison then pulled the Speaker from the chair; and Worsley, with two file of musketeers, expelled the refractory members, Cromwell loading each of them with personal revilings. When the House was cleared, he, with great composure, locked the doors, and took the key home in his pocket. Legion was a second time dispossessed by the same kind of exorcism, when the House of Commons was occupied by that extraordinary assembly usually called, from the name of a distinguished member, "Praise God Barebone's Parliament." This motley assembly of crazy fanatics, having shown some disposition to extend the reign of the saints, in a manner rather inconsistent with Cromwell's views of exclusive domination, were suddenly dissolved by him. A remnant, headed by the frantic enthusiast Harrison, continued to sit till their deliberations were interrupted by White with a party of soldiers, who demanded, "what they did there?" "We are seeking the Lord," answered they. "Then go seek him elsewhere," rejoined the commander; "for to my knowledge he has not been here these many years." Or Dryden may have referred to the terms upon which Cromwell parted with his last Parliament; to whom he swore, by the living God, they should not sit an hour longer; and calling upon the Lord to be judge between them (to which many members answered, Amen), turned them about their business. Indeed, when we consider that the Long Parliament was, after Cromwell's death, restored and cashiered more than once, the line might have more properly run

Whence Legion oft before was dispossessed.

180

185

And, as devouter Turks first warn their souls
To part, before they taste forbidden bowls,*
So these, when their black crimes they went
about,

First timely charmed their useless conscience out. 190
Religion's name against itself was made;

The shadow served the substance to invade :
Like zealous missions, they did care pretend
Of souls, in show, but made the gold their end.
The incensed powers beheld with scorn, from high, 195
An heaven so far distant from the sky,

Which durst, with horses' hoofs that beat the
ground,

And martial brass, bely the thunder's sound.†
"Twas hence, at length, just vengeance thought

it fit

To speed their ruin by their impious wit:
Thus Sforza, cursed with a too fertile brain,
Lost by his wiles the power his wit did gain.‡

* When a Turk is disposed to transgress the precept of the Koran by drinking wine, he requests the favour of his soul to go into some retired corner of his body, in order to avoid contamination from the horrible potion.

+ Salmoneus, tyrant of Elis, made such a contrivance to imitate thunder, for which he was destroyed with lightning by Jupiter; which is here fancifully compared to the military terrors by which the fanatics supported their religious tenets.

This subtle politician was Lodovico, son of Francisco Sforza. He was one of the most restless and intriguing spirits that Italy, the mother of political genius, has ever produced. His natural brother, Francisco Sforza, had acquired, by marriage, the duchy of Milan, which he left to his son Giovanni Galeazzo Sforza. Lodovico, under pretence of acting as his nephew's tutor, took into his own hands the supreme power; and, tired of governing under the name of another, at length deposed and murdered the young Duke. In order to secure himself in his usurped domination, he invited the French into Italy, which they overran and conquered under Charles VIII. He became

200

Henceforth their fougue* must spend at lesser

rate,

Than in its flames to wrap a nation's fate.
Suffered to live, they are like Helots set,
A virtuous shame within us to beget; t

soon suspicious of these too powerful allies, and leagued
with the Venetians to cut off the retreat of the French from
Naples. In 1594 he made a pretended peace with Charles;
and, in the year following, invited into Italy the Emperor
Maximilian, by whose assistance he hoped to secure himself
in Pisa, of which he had taken possession, and to conquer
the Florentines, with whom he was at war. In all these,
and many other ambiguous and versatile transactions, Sforza
was so happy, that he used to call himself the Son of Fortune,
as he was termed by others the Moor, from his dark com-
plexion, acute genius, and cruel disposition. But, in 1599,
Louis XII., who had pretensions upon the dukedom of Milan,
as the grandson of Valentine Visconti, daughter of Giovanni
Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, invaded the Milanese territory
with a force which Sforza was unable to resist, and compelled
him to fly into Germany with his treasures. In 1600 Sforza
again returned to Italy at the head of an army of Swiss
mercenaries, and repossessed himself of Milan, Como, and
other places of importance. The Swiss, however, mutinied
at Novara, and not only refused to fight in his behalf, but
even to guard him to a place of security. As these unworthy
Helvetians had made a private convention with the French,
they permitted them to seize the person of Sforza, who was
discovered among the ranks of his faithless mercenaries,
dressed and armed like a private Swiss soldier—a lamentable
instance of the inconstancy of fortune. He was carried
prisoner to France, where he ended his days in prison, A.D.
1608.

* [In first edition "fogue."-ED.]

Those persons who had sat in any illegal High Court of Justice, with a few others, were, at the Restoration, declared incapable of bearing any public office. In expressing their violent spirit, our author uses the unnecessary Gallicism fougue, although it might have been as well described by the English fire. Thus disqualified, the poet compares these republicans to the Spartan slaves, made drunk to excite the contempt of the youth for that degrading vice. By-the-by, Dryden's kinsman, Sir Gilbert Pickering, was among the persons so incapacitated.

205

For, by example most we sinned before,
And glass-like* clearness mixed with frailty bore.
But since, reformed by what we did amiss,
We by our sufferings learn to prize our bliss:
Like early lovers, whose unpractised hearts
Were long the may-game of malicious arts,
When once they find their jealousies were vain,
With double heat renew their fires again.
"Twas this produced the joy, that hurried o'er
Such swarms of English to the neighbouring
shore,+

To fetch that prize, by which Batavia made
So rich amends for our impoverished trade.

210

21:

Oh, had you seen from Scheveline's barren shore,‡
(Crowded with troops, and barren now no more,) 220
Afflicted Holland to his farewell bring
True sorrow, Holland to regret a king!§

* First edition has, "like glass." [Not so.-ED.]

+ "Several persons now came to Breda, not as heretofore to Cologne and to Brussels, under disguises, and in fear of being discovered, but with bare faces, and the pride and vanity to be taken notice of, to present their duty to the King; some being employed to procure pardons for those who thought themselves in danger, and to stand in need of them; others brought good presents in English gold to the King, that their names, and the names of their friends who sent them, might be remembered among the first who made demonstrations of their affections that way to his Majesty by supplying his necessities, which had been discontinued for many years, to a degree that cannot be believed, and ought not to be remembered.”—Clarendon, vol. iii. part ii. p. 766. "In the meantime, Breda swarmed with English ; a multitude repairing thither from all other places, as well as London, with presents, and protestation, how much they had longed and prayed for this blessed change, and magnifying their sufferings under the late tyrannical government, when some of them had been zealous instruments and promoters of it."—Ibidem, p. 767.

A small village near the Hague, at which Charles embarked on his joyful voyage.

§ The States not only maintained Charles in royal splen

While waiting him his royal fleet did ride,
And willing winds to their lower'd sails denied.
The wavering streamers, flags, and standart *

out,

The merry seamen's rude but cheerful shout;
And last the cannon's voice that shook the
skies,

And, as it fares in sudden ecstasies,
At once bereft us both of ears and eyes.
The Naseby, now no longer England's shame,
But better to be lost in Charles his name, †
(Like some unequal bride in nobler sheets)
Receives her lord; the joyful London meets
The princely York, himself alone a freight;
The Swiftsure groans beneath great Gloster's
weight:+

dour during his residence at Breda, and at the Hague, but
loaded him with valuable gifts at his departure, particularly
a bed worth £1000, and linen valued at £1000, both which
articles his hardships had taught him to value, by sad ex-
perience of the want of them.

* So the first edition; the others read "standards." The royal standard is meant.

When the English fleet came on the coast of Holland, the Duke of York took possession of it, as Lord High Admiral. "After he had spent the day there in receiving information of the state of the fleet, and a catalogue of the names of the several ships, his Highness returned with it that night to the King, that his majesty might make alterations, and new christen these ships, which too much preserved the memory of the late governors, and of the_republic."—Clarendon. [So also Pepys, May 25, 1660.-ED.] The Naseby was too odious a name to be preserved, and it was changed to the Royal Charles, and the Swiftsure to the James. The Royal Charles fell into the hands of the Dutch at the surprise of Chatham.

Henry of Oatlands, Duke of Gloucester, third son of Charles I. He embarked on this occasion with his brother, by whom he was dearly beloved. He died of the small-pox on the 13th September following, deeply and generally lamented.

225

230

235