ASTRÆEA REDUX.

A POEM

ON THE HAPPY

RESTORATION AND RETURN OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY CHARLES II. 1660.

Jam redit & Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna. VIRG.

The laft great age foretold by facred rhymes
Renews its finifh'd courfe; Saturnian times
Roll round again,

Now with a general peace the world was bleft,

While our's, a world divided from the reft,
A dreadful quiet felt, and worfer far

Than arms, a fullen interval of war:

Thus when black clouds draw down the lab'ring

fkies,

Ere yet abroad the winged thunder flies,

5

Ver. 1. Now with a general] Waller, as well as Dryden, altered his fentiments, and changed his notes, on the Restoration; and when the King hinted to him the inferiority of his fecond poem to the former, anfwered," Poets, Sir, fucceed better in fiction than in truth." What notice Charles took of Dryden's Aftræa we are ignorant. Dr. J. WARton.

An horrid ftillness firft invades the ear,
And in that filence we the tempeft fear.
The ambitious Swede, like restless billows toft,
On this hand gaining what on that he lost, 10
Though in his life he blood and ruin breath'd,
To his now guidelefs kingdom peace bequeath'd.
And heaven, that feem'd regardless of our fate,
For France and Spain did miracles create ;
Such mortal quarrels to compofe in peace,
As nature bred, and intereft did increafe.
We figh'd to hear the fair Iberian bride
Muft grow a lily to the lily's fide,
While our cross stars deny'd us Charles his bed,
Whom our first flames and virgin love did wed,

15

Ver. 7. An horrid filence first invades the car,] See Thompfon's impending ftorm in Summer, v. 1116.

— A boding filence reigns,

Dread thro' the dun expanfe; fave the dull found
That from the mountain, previous to the storm,
Rolls o'er the muttering earth, difturbs the flood,
And fhakes the foreft-leaf without a breath."

JOHN WARTON,

This distich

Ibid. An horrid ftillness firft invades the ear, And in that filence we the tempeft fear.] was laid hold of by the wits of the times, and among others by Capt. Alexander Radcliff, in his news from Hell, who ridicules it thus:

"Laureat, who was both learn'd and florid,
"Was damn'd long fince for filence horrid :
"Nor had there been fuch clutter made,
"But that this filence did invade :

"Invade! and fo't might well, --that's clear:
"But what did it invade?- -an ear."

Ver. 19.

DERRICK.

deny'd us Charles his bed,] Original edition. TODD.

24

For his long abfence church and state did groan;
Madness the pulpit, faction feiz'd the throne:
Experienc'd age in deep defpair was loft,
To fee the rebel thrive, the loyal croft:
Youth, that with joys had unacquainted been,
Envy'd gray hairs that once good days had feen:
We thought our fires, not with their own con-
tent,

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Had ere we came to age, our portion spent.
Nor could our nobles hope their bold attempt,
Who ruin'd crowns would coronets exempt.
For when by their defigning leaders taught
To ftrike at pow'r which for themselves they
fought,

35

The vulgar, gull'd into rebellion, arm'd ;
Their blood to action by the prize was warm'd.
The facred purple then and scarlet gown,
Like fanguine dye, to elephants was fhewn.
Thus when the bold Typhoeus fcal'd the sky,
And forc'd great Jove from his own heav'n to

fly,

Ver. 22. Madness the pulpit,] From the numerous fermons preached before the Parliament, particularly from 1640 to 1650, a variety of curious examples might be adduced to prove the juftnefs of Dryden's affertion. And who can wonder at this affertion, when he is told that notifications of the following kind were affixed on walls and door-pofts: "On fuch a day fuch a brewer's clerk exerciseth; fuch a taylor expoundeth; fuch a waterinan teacheth!" See the Preface to Featley's Dippers Dipt, 4to. 1647. For a minute account of the ravings and rantings of many of the preachers before the Parliament, the reader is referred to a collection of extracts from their difcourfes, entitled Evangelium Armatum, printed foon after the Restoration of King Charles II.

TODD.

(What king, what crown from treason's reach

is free,

If Jove and Heav'n can violated be?)

40

The leffer gods, that shar'd his prosperous state,
All fuffer'd in the exil'd Thunderer's fate.
The rabble now fuch freedom did enjoy,
As winds at fea, that use it to destroy:
Blind as the Cyclop, and as wild as he,
They own'd a lawless favage liberty.
Like that our painted ancestors fo priz'd,
Ere empire's arts their breasts had civiliz’d.
How great were then our Charles his woes, who

thus

Was forc'd to fuffer for himself and us!

age;

45

50

He, tofs'd by fate, and hurry'd up and down,
Heir to his father's forrows, with his crown,
Could taste no fweets of youth's defired
But found his life too true a pilgrimage.
Unconquer'd yet in that forlorn estate,
His manly courage overcame his fate.
His wounds he took, like Romans, on his breast,
Which by his virtue were with laurels drest.

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Ver. 46. They own'd a lawless]" Perhaps," fays Swift, Vol. x. p. 188, in my own thoughts, I prefer a well-inftituted common-wealth before a monarchy; and I know feveral others of the fame opinion. Now, if on this pretence I fhould infift on liberty of confcience, form conventicles of republicans, and print books, preferring that fort of government, and condemning what is eftablished, the magiftrate would with great juftice hang me and my difciples." Dr. J. WARTON. Ver. 49. How great were then our Charles his woes,] Original edition, and rightly fo printed for the fake of the metre.

TODD.

Ver. 57. His wounds he took, like Romans, on his breast,] My

60

As fouls reach heaven while yet in bodies pent,
So did he live above his banishment.
That fun, which we beheld with cozen'd eyes
Within the water, mov'd along the skies.
How eafy 'tis, when destiny proves kind,
With full-spread fails to run before the wind!
But thofe that 'gainft ftiff gales laveering go, 65
Must be at once refolv'd and kilful too.

reader will not be difpleafed with the following citation from Ælian's Various Hiftory, 1. 12, cap. 21. "The matrons of Lacedæmon, when they received the news that their fons were flain in battle, were accustomed to go forth to infpect their wounds, both before and behind; and when they found the greater number was before, they conducted the bodies of their children to the monuments of their ancestors with great folemnity, and a kind of stern pride in their countenances; but if they perceived any wounds behind, weeping and blushing for fhame, they departed with the utmoft fecrecy, leaving the dead bodies to be interred in the common fepulchre, or carried them away by stealth to be privately buried at home."

To which we may add thefe fpirited lines of Tyrtæus, fo peculiarly applicable at this important juncture.

Αυτος δ' εν προμαχοισι πεσών φίλον ώλεσε θυμον,
Αςυ τε και λαός και πατερ' ευκλεϊσας

Πολλα δια Γερνοιο και ασπίδος ομφαλοέσσης,
Και δια θώρηκος προσθεν εληλαμένος.
Τον δ' ολοφυρονται μεν ομως νεοι ηδε γεροντες,
Αργαλεω δε ποθω πασα κεκηδε πολις.

Now fall'n, the nobleft of the van, he dies!

His city by the beauteous death renown'd;

His low-bent father marking, where he lies,

The fhield, the breaft-plate, hackt by many a wound.

The young, the old, alike commingling tears,

His country's heavy grief bedews the grave;

And all his race in verdant luftre wears

Fame's richest wreath, tranfmitted from the brave.

Polwhele's Translation.
JOHN WARTON.