NOTES

The epigraph is from Horace, De Arte Poetica, ll. 361-2. 'If you
stand nearer it will attract you more.

TO THB READER

5. Whig and Tory. 'Whiggamore, later shortened to Whig,

was first apPplied to the Scottish insurgents in 1648 and I666; and
so, in 1679, to the Exclusionists who opposed the
succession of
the Duke of York. Tory' (Irish tóraidhe, a pursuer) was first
applied to the dispossessed Irish who plundered the English
settlers; later, to any Irish Catholic or royalist in arms; and
in 1679, to members of the king's party.
II. an Anti-Bromingham: a Tory. The Whigs were called
Birmingham Protestants, from the false coin counterteited in
that town.
34-you Common-wealths-men. See Absalom and Achitophel,. 1 82,
note.
68-9. to hope with Origen, &c. Some of Origen's adversaries
accused him of teaching diabolum esse salvandum'. References to
Shaftesbury as a rebellious diabolus are common. Cf. Absalom and
Achitophel, . 373-4; Dryden's play, The Spanish Fryar (1681).
V.ii:
Raymond. What Treason is it to redeem my King,
And to reform the State?
Torrismond. That's a stale Cheat,
The primitive Rebel, Lucifer, first us'd it,
And was the first Reformer of the Skies.
78. Ense rescindendum: something to be cut off with the sword.
Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 191.
 48
NOTES

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL

I-6. Inpious times, &c. Cf. Donne,
happy were our
Syres in ancient times,Elegies,
&c.
xvii. 38-49, 'How
7. Israel's Monarch:
Charles II. (I Sam. xii.
11. Michal:
13-14)
Catherine of Braganza,
(1638-170s), who married Princess of
Charles II in 1662.
(2 Portugal
Sam. vi.
I5. like slaves: 23.)
a
Charles was 'at the command of sly inversion of the common
belief that
Ct. I. 71o, note. any woman like a slave
(Pepys).
18. Absolon: James Scott
(1649-85),
Lucy Walter; Duke of Monmouth; son of Charles II and one
the and, on his marriage with
Countess of
Buccleuch
Dalkeith. He served
in 1663, Duke of Buccleuch and Earl of
at sea
1664-6, and with the French in Holland
1672-3. He commanded the
the Scottish king's
torces with
great bravery in
campaign of 1679. His
exterior graces, Charles's love for contemporaries speak of his
him, and his popularity with
women-the universal terror of husbands and lovers.
30. Paradise was
21; Chaucer, Troilus,
open'd in his face. Cf. Dante, Paradiso, xvii.
v. 817.
34.Annabel: Anne, Countess of Buccleuch
of great beauty and intelligence, and a (1651-1732), a lady
court. patron of Dryden's
at

39. Amnon's Murther. Dryden

probably refers to the vicious
attack on Sir John Coventry in December
1670, at Monmouth s
instigation. Coventry had publicly insulted the
king. (2 Sam. xüi.)
45. The Jews: the
English.
5I-52. These Adam-wits, &c.
342-56, xii. 82-90. Since Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, ix.
Adam's 'original lapse'
true Libertie
Is lost, whichalwayes with right Reason dwells
winnd, and from her hath no
dividual being:
 NOTES
49
Reason in man obscur'd, or not obey'd,
Immediately inordinate desires

to servitude reduce
Man till then free.
55-56. They led their wild desires, &c. An
carly use of the idea,
later common, that savages live in primitive virtue and liberty.
So Dryden's Almanzor, in the First Part of The
(1672), I: Conquest of Granada
I am as free
Nature first made Man,
as
E're the base Laws of Servitude
When wild in Woods the noble began,
Savage ran.
In the Dedication of All
for Love (1678) Dryden derides 'that
Name of a
Republick.... We have already all the speci-
ous

which Free-born
Subjects Liberty
License.
can
enjoy; and all beyond it is but

S7-58. Saul. . .
Ishbosheth: Oliver Cromwell and his
Richard. (2 Sam. son
ii-iv.)
s9. Hebron: Scotland, Charles
was crowned
January 16SI, and king of England on 23 Aprilking
of Scots on
1661. (2 Sam. v.
1-5.)
72. dishonest: disgraceful; a latinism. Cf.
668, 'dishonest, with lop'd Arms', translatingDryden's AÆneis, vi.
Virgil's 'inhonesto
vulnere (Aeneid, vi. 497)
82. The Good old Cause reviv'd. There
that the
Whig
widespread beliet
was a

extremists were working for the restoration ota

commonwealth. Some of them had certainly been
in 1679
Shaftesbury said that, assured of a Protestantrepublicans.
succession
and civil liberties, 'he would rather be under kingly goverument,
but he could
if not be satisfied of that. .. he was for a Common-
wealth
86. Jebusites: Roman Catholics. (Joshua xv. ó3.)
87. An imitation of the Virgilian half-line.
 NOTES

94. deprived: by the penal laws.

107. eat and drink: in the Eucharist.
I08. that Plot. See Introduction, pp. I-2.
I18-21. Egypt is Catholic France(cf. lI. 281-6). Jibes at Catholic
beliefs, and especially at the doctrine of trans-substantiation, were
common during trials for the Plot.

123. Ten to One . was odds. It has been estimated that the
proportion of Anglicans to Papists at this time was about 180 to
I, and that there were less than 100 Papist priests in the country.
130-I. A Benedictine lay-brother, Thomas Pickering, and a
layman John Grove, were tried on 17 December 1678 on a charge
of attempting to shoot the king, and condemned to death.

144-5. Some had . . . been Great, &c. The comparison is with

Lucifer and the rebel angels who, cast out from heaven, settled in
unrepentant evil in hell. Cf. I. 273-4, note.
150. the false Achitophel: Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-83),
who fought on the royalist side in the Civil War; became one of
Cromwell's council; was associated with Charles II's return in
I660; and in 1672 was made Earl of Shaftesbury and Lord Chan-
cellor. He conducted himself in that ofice with dignity and dis-
tinction (l. 186-93). Dismissed in 1673, he moved into opposition,
and became leader of the "country party. He had, says Bishop
Burnet, 'a wonderfül
faculty in speaking
and 'a popular assembly
to a
particular talent to make others trust to his judgment, and
depend on it. . . . He had a wonderful faculty at opposing, and
running things down; but had not the like force in
.He was not ashamed to reckon up the many turns building
he up.
had
made: And he valued himself the
season, and in the best manner.
on
doing it at the
properest
163-4. Great Wits, 8c. Cf. Seneca, De
nullum magnum ingenium sine Tranq. Animi, xvii. I0,
has been no great
mixtura dementiae fuit: "there
genius without some mixture of madness.
170-I. Dryden applies the
man, 'a wo-legged unfeathered supposedly Platonic defunition of
animal, to
Shaftesbury's son
 NOTES
SI
Anthony. He was born two weeks before Shaftesbury joined a
committee of Cromwell's Parliament in 1652.
175-7. In 1668 England formed the Triple Alliance with Hol-
land and Sweden; but in May 1670 Charles
signed the secret
Treaty of Dover with Louis XIV. In return for subsidies Charles
was to declare himsclf a Cathöic at an
never came), and
opportune moment (which
join with France against the Dutch. Shaftesbury
shares responsibility for involving
Holland in 1672, but hardly tor
England in the war against
France. Dryden, however, turns
fitting her to the foreign yoke of.
popular fear of France, and the
suspicion that the war had been a
camouiage for arbitrary designs
and popery, to
polemical account against him.
179. Usurp'd a Patriott's
All-attoning Nane. Cf. the anonymous
Character of a Disbanded Courtier, 1681:
with his Prince, and °Having lost his Honour
Reputation with
and creeps, and sneaks, to the lowest
the best of Men, he
cringes,
and basest of the People, to
procure himself . an empty, vain-glorious, and undeserved
. .

Name, the Patriot of his

Country.
180-91. These lines were added in the second edition. Lines
180-5 are a rhetorical elaboration of lL.
explanatory elaboration of l. 192-3, and178-9;
lI.
enhance186-91 are an
the effect of
Dryden's satire
by balancing blame with praise.
188. Abbethdin: 'father of the court of
presiding judges of the Jewish civil court. justice,
one of the two

193. to the Gown:i.e., to the profession of the law.

195. Cockle, weeds. The word is used in early translations of
Matt. xi. 25, where the A.V. has 'tares. Cf.
Shakespeare,
Coriolanus, III. i. 67-70: in soothing 'the mutable ranke sented
Meynie' we nourish the Cockle of Rebellion, Insolence, Sedition'.
196-7. 'David would have sung his praises instead of writing
a psalm, and so Heaven would have had one immortal song the
less.

200. to
possess: of possessing.
204. manifest of Crimes: his crimes apparent. A latinisn1. C.
 NOTES
$2
Sallust, Bellam Iugurthinum, oxv. 8, 'Tugurtha manifestus taniti
weleris.
20. The wishd oaasion. . takes. The Whigs patronized and
encouraged Oates. Shaftesbury is said to have rcInarked, on the
Plot: Twill not say who started the Game, but I am surc I had the
full Hunting of it. A certain lord, 1aýs Roger North, asked Shaftes
bury 'what he intemded to do with the Plot, which was so full of
Nonsensc. .. . Its no Matter, said he, the more Nonsensical the
better, if we cannot bring them to swallow worse Nonsense than
that, we shall never do any Good with them. C£. Introduction,
p. 2.

216-19. Prime: the beginning of a cycle; confusedly applied to

the 'golden number, the number of any year in the lunar cycle of
nincteen years. Dryden refers to English demands for a change of
government at intcrvals of about nineteen years: the Long
Parliament, the Restoration, and the troubles of 1679-81.
220-7. The Exclusionists encouraged the belief that Monmouth
was lcgitimate, and so the rightful heir to the throne, in the face
of Charles's formal denial in 1679 that he had been married to
Monmouth's mothcr. A Whig advocate of Monmouth's cause
reminded his readers of the rule, 'He who hath the worst title ever
makes the best King ; that instead of God and my right, his mottoo
...

nay be God and my people (An Appeal from the Country to the City,
1679)
224-5. 'But because he knew that Monmouth, without a full
and legitimate title to the crown, would for that reason
be dependent on popular support. always
230-1.
mouth shared
Dryden may have known that Shaftesbury and Mon-
an interest inastrology. The constellation seen at
mid-day
of "high
on Charles If's
birthday was popularly taken as an
invents undertakings and no common omen
glory'.
. .

a similar omen for Achitophel

Absaiom.
233-5. Their cloudy
Pillar, &c. Exod. xiv.
239. The 19-31.
Young-mens Vision, &c. Jocl ii. 28.
252-61. Heav'n, has lo all
allotted, &c. Cf.
Shakespeare, Julius
 NOTES
$3
Casar, IV, ii. 217 ff., There is a Tide in the
Dryden takes his images of Fortune from theaffayres
of men, &c.
cmblem-books still
popular in his day. It is sometimes represented as winged a
bal
ct. . 250-9); otten as a goddess on a rolling spherc, bald behind
but with her locks
streming before her to be grasped by the
opportunist (ct. l. 260-1).
264. Gath: Brussels. (I Sam. xxvii. I-4.)
268-9. Behold him setting, &c. Cf. Shakespcare, Richard II, I.
iv. 18-24; Dryden's Fables, "Sigismonda and Guiscardo', 11.
337-8:
But 'tis too
late, my glorious Race is run,
And a dark Cloud o' ertakes my
setting Sun.
270. Jordan's Sand: Dover beach. (2 Sam. xix. 9-15.)
273-4. Shaftesbury draws a parallel between Charles, who in
the opinion of the Whigs sought
arbitrary power, and Lucifer,
who said in his heart, 1 will ascend into heaven, I will exalt
my
throne above the stars ot God (Isa. xiv. 12-13). The parallel is
ironic; Dryden is portraying Achitophel himself as an
and tempter. aspirant
281-8. If Pharaoh's doubtfull Succour, &c. See l1. 175-7, note.
299-302. And Nobler is a limited Command, &c. See l1. 220-7,
note.

310. Angells Metal. The double quibble, common in Elizabethan

poetry, on) angel' and the coin 'angel-noble' (ef. The Merry
Wives of Windsor, I. i. 5o), and (i) 'metal' and 'mettle (cf.
Measure for Measure, I. i. 47-49).
320. Wonders: deliverance from the Fire, the plague, and the
Dutch in 1666, which is Dryden's Amus Mirabilis. The Year of
Wonders.
326. Enclin'd to Mercy, which is 'enthroned in the hearts of
Kings (Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, IV. i. 193-6). Despite
his policy of letting the anti-papist madness run its course, Charks
again and again expressed his aversion to blood.
329-30. What could he gain, &c. Cf. Charles's speech to the
54 NOTES

Oxford Parliament in 1681: "I, who will never use

government myselt, am resolved not to
others....sufter it in arbitrary
is much my
as
nterest..as yours, to preserve the
subject; because the Crown can ncver be safe liberty of the
when that is in
danger
334. The Dog-star: Sirius, which' was thought to cause
heat on the earth (ct. Virgil, Georgics, ii. 353). grcat

353. His Brother: James Duke

of York. Sce Introduction, p. 2.
363-72. Yet oh that Fate, &c. See
Introduction, pp. 6-7.
373-5. See Introduction, p. 6.
Sanhedrin: the supreme
390. court and
Jews; here, Parliament. legislative court of the
395-6. When he runs out of money he must for the war by
seling the remnants of his independence to the pay
Parliament.
417-18. e'r Saul they Chose, &&c. The
ledged God alone as their king, but they republicans acknow-
Cromwell. were
dispossessed by
438. a
Legacy of Barren Land: probably the Border
Monmouth's wite. estates of

439-40. th old Harp, &c. Charles II, like David, was a lover of
nusic. What remains of hispoetry is as undistinguished as
Achitophel implies.
453. The Prostrate Vulgar... Spares. An ancient belief, derived
from Pliny, Nat. Hist., vii. 19.
458. Self-defence is Natures Eldest Law. So Hobbes, Leviathan, I.
Xav: "The Right of Nature. . is the Liberty each man hath,
use his own
.

power, as he will himselfe, for the

to
his own Nature; that is
to say, of
preservation or
his own Lite.
472. Like womens Leachery, to seem Constrain'd. Proverbial: ct.
Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen
of Verona, I. ii. 53-54.
S13. The Solymæan Rout: the London rabble. Solyma or
Hierosolyma, Jerusalem.
 NOTRS
s17. Ethnick: of the Gentiles (7d itvn), i.e. the Jebusites or
Catholics.
S19. Levites.. . From th Ark: the dissenting ministers deprived
of their benefices by the Act of Uniformity, 1662. (2 Chron. xi.
14-15)
525-6. For who so fit, &c. The Dissenters. Cf. The Character of
a Fanatick, 1675: '... his Language 1s, Overfiurn, Overturn, Overturn.
And now he makes his Doctrine suitablc to his Text, and owns
Nature: That the
. . .that Dominion is founded in Grace, not
Elect's.'
Goods of this World are properly the
s36. Adord theirfathers God, and Property. Many of the Whigs
were landed gentry, merchants, and wealthy dissenters, upholding
the principles of religious toleration and the sanctity of private

property.
Viliers (1628-87), second Duke of Buck-
544. Zimri: George there-
between 1667 and 1674 Charles's
chief minister,
ingham; Burnet's character of
after associated with the Whigs. Bishop
to Dryden's: "He had a great
Buckingham is a prose parallel things into
liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning all
And for some years
ridicule:... he was drawn into chymistry: stone.
he was near the finding the philosopher's
he thought very
He had no principles of religion, vertue, or triendship.
diversion was all that he aid to
. .

Pleasure, trolick, or extravagant

not true to himself. He
heart. He was true to nothing, for he was

He could nevertix his thoughts,

no steadiness nor conduct.
...
had is
govern his estate,
tho' then the greatest in England.' Dryden
and captain of halt his
nor
of Elah
probably recalling Zimri,
servant

him (1 Kings xvi. 8-20; Kings

2
chariots, who conspired against
ix. 31
and cold Caleb. Balaam is probably either
574. well hung Balaam
ot
seventh Earl Huntington,
Theophilus Hastings (1650-1701), and was received
of his adherence to Shaftesbury
who repented 2 Peter ii. I5-1ó; Num.
(cf.
xxuL.
favour in 1681
back into royal
Francis Winnington (1634-17o0),
Charles's solicitor-
I1); or(i) Sir of the exclusion bill,
from 1678 a supporter
general in 1674, but Well hung, a double entendre:
Pleader' (Evelyn). Caleb 1s
and a famous
Num. xxii. 5-6) and liccntious (Rev. ii. 14).
fuent (cf.
 NOTES

probably Arthur Capel (1632-83), Earl of Essex,

Îreland I672-7, an Exclusionist, and a sober, wise, viceroy in
pondering person' (Evelyn). judicious, and
S75. Canting Nadab: William, Lord Howard of
Escrick
(1626-94), formerly a sectarian preacher, and a railer at king and
Church. Porridge: hotchpotch, applied by dissenters the
services and prayer book. Howard was to Anglican
sent to the Tower in
March I68I on a charge of libeling Charles, and is said there to
have taken the sacrament according to the Book of Common
Prayer, using lamb's wool-a hot ale mixed with apple pulp-for
wine. (Exod, vi. 23; Lev. x. 1.)
$81. Jonas: Sir Wiliam Jones (1631-82), attorney-general and
director of prosecutions for the Plot until November 1679, and
thereafter an Exclusionist.

s85. Shimei: Slingsby Bethel (1617-97), clected one of Lon

don's two Whig sheriffs in 1680. He had been a republican, and
his election was contrived to pack juries with party men. He
was very unacceptable to the body
ived meanly as
sherift, "which
of the citizens, and proved a great prejudice to the party (Burnet).
(2 Sam. xvi. s-14.)
drunkenness and immorality
s98. The Sons of Belial:
connotes
but Dryden
xix. 22-25; Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 500-5);
Judges Deut. xii. I3, 2 Sam. XX. I-2).
reters primarily to rebellion (cf. at
'Balliol/Belial' was applied to Whigs the
The familiar pun on
accom-
Oxford Parliament, when Balliol College
the time of the
modated the Whig leaders.

617. Rechabite: see Jer. xxxv.

son of a
Norfolk weaver
Oates (1649-1705),
632. Corah: Titus Roman Church
in 1677,
received into the
turned preacher; Valladolid and returned
from the English College at Oates'ss
in 1678. Oates
expelled St. Omers
with ignominy from
the seminary at with the
institutions was manipulated
Catholic narrative of the o
experience of to fill the
out or
the maniacal Tonge as saviour
help ot mid-1681 his credit
ntroduction, pp. I-2). By witness, w e r e
in decline
ce and his terrible power
as a
xV)
the nation, ofhis fortunes. (Num.
Dryden's satire struck
him at the crisis
 NOTES 57
633. thou Monumental Brass. Num. xxi. 6-9. Dryden may also
be recalling the Old Testament
impudent in sin' (ct. Jer. vi. 28).
application of "brass to 'a people
641. Oates, embarrassed by his mean birth, had his pedigree
made out. A blazon, says Roger North, 'was engraved on his
Table and other Plate; for he'was rich, set up for a solemn House
keeper, and lived up to his Quality'.
642-3. Acts vi. 9-I5.
645. His Tribe were Godalmightys Gentlemen. See Num. xvi.
8-9; ct. I. 519-22.
647. Sure signs, &c. Ironic; Oates's conduct fits traditional
accounts of choleric men, 'bold and impudent, . . . impatient in
discourse, stiff, irrefragable and prodigious in their tenents; and it
they be moved, most violent, outragious, ready to disgrace
(Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, I. i. 1. 3).
649. Corah has the red face of the sensual priest of comedy;
but Dryden ironically interprets his brightness as the illumination
of the prophet, and
compares the revealer of the Plot with Moses,
whose tace shone when he came down from Sinai with the tables
of testimony (Exod. xxxiv. 29).
657-9. Oates claimed that while at Valladolid he travelled to
Salamanca and was admitted Doctor of Divinity. The Salamanca
authorities strenuously denied this.
668-71. It had become apparent that personal malice underlay
many of Oates's accusations.

672-3. His Zeal, &c. Oates made no direct charges against

Charles; but he lived with insulting flamboyance in Whitehall,
accused the qucen of high treason, and charged her
with
physician
complicity plot
in a to poison Charles with her
approval.
ó76. Agag: probably the Catholic Lord Stafford, who was
imprisoned on Oates's accusations in October 1678 and con-
demned on Oates's evidence in December 168o. (1 Sam. xv.
32-33-)
697. Hybla: a Sicilian town famed for its honey.
 NOTES
$8
700. Behold a Banisht man. 1679 Monmouth was
In September
sent to Holland. He
returned in Novcmber without Charles's
leave and was grected with public acclamation. The king refused
to see him, and he retired to his Whig friends in the City.
Francc and Holland. Cf. Ezek. xxvi.
7o5. gypt and Tyrus:
32-34, XVI. 2.

710. Bathsheba:
Louise-Renée de Keroualle (1649-1734), a
Breton maid of honour to Charles's sister; the king's mistress
'She stuck firm to the
from 167I; Duchess of Portsmouth 1673.
and her
French interest,' says Burnet, 'and was its chief support';
much contempt and
infuence with Charles 'exposed him to
distrust. (2 Sam. xi.)
from London
729-30. On 26 July I680 Monmouth set out
towards Bath, 'attended with several of the gentry and nobility,"
and North
and made a triumphal progress through Somerset
and set out for
Devon. n September he returned to London,
Oxford, where he was by the city.
entertained

&c. Cf. Job xxxvii, 7, 'the

morn-
733-4. Fame runs before him,
stars sang together, and all the sons
of God shouted for joy.
ing
'Protestant Squire, Tom
738. Wise Issachar: the senseless ot
(I648-82) of Longleat in Wiltshire, a supporter
Thynne
Monmouth. Issachar was 'a strong ass couching down between

two burdens and 'a servant unto (Gen. xlix. 14-I5).

tribute
Thynne's burdens were (i) the expense of entertaining Monmouth,
and () the legal and financial embarrassments of his marriage
November
with Lady Ogle, which was the joke of the town in
1681.
York was not touched
750. Indangerd by a Brother anda Wife.
and Tonge; but by August
1n ne original depositions of Oates to mplicate
I680 Oates and his confederates felt secure enough sec u.
Duke in a plot against the king's life. Ou the qucen
the
672-3, note.
759-810. See Introduction, p. 4.
like the
786-8. flowing to the mark, runs faster out: Huctuates
tides which are, like lunacy, under the moon's intluence. Snce
 NOTES 59
the time between tides is constant, a high tide is followed byya
relatively rapid cbb.
794. Natures state. 'During the time men live without a com-
mon Power to keep them all in awc,' says Hobbes, 'they are in
that condition which is called Warre.. in which] there be.... ..

no Mine and Thine distinct,°but onely that to be every mans,

that he can get; and for so long, as he can keep it. This is the
state in which man is placed "by meer Nature (Leviathan, i. 13).
800. Innovation: novae res, revolution. C£. Shakespeare, 1 Henry
IV, V. i. 74-78.
804. touch our Ark. See Kings vii. 9 and r Chron. xii.

817. Barzillai: James Butler (IP1o-88), twelfth Earl and first

Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for Charles I and
Charles II (1. 819-20). He committed his whole fortune in the
royalist cause and followed Charles II into exile. During 1677-82
he was persistently criticized by the Whigs, but resisted attempts
to remove him from his post.
monde.
825. The Court he practisd: a Gallicism, pratiquer le grand
826-8. In 1669 Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury, com-

mended Ormonde as his successor in the Chancellorship of

Oxford, both for his virtue and eminence and for his love of
learning.
who
831. His Eldest Hope: Thomas, Earl of Ossory (1634-So),
and 1672-4,
distinguished himself in the naval wars of 1665-7
and against the French in 1677-8 (l1. 841-3): 'a brave Souldicer,
a

bountifull
Virtuous Courtier, a Loyal Subject, an honest man, a
Master, & good Christian' (Evelyn)
dies, nisi fallor,
832-4. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, v. 49-so, 'iamque
adest,' &c. Unequal Fates: 'fata iniqua (Aen. ii. 257, 380).
x.

is Dryden's favourite
838-9. Oh Narrow Circle, &c. The circle
Stanzas on Cromwell, .
symbol of perfection. Cf. his Heroique
17-20, a Fame so truly Circular with 'equall perkect
parts.

Virgil, Aen. 878-80, 'heu

844-5. Oh Ancient Honour, &c. Cf.
pietas, heu prisca fides, &c.
 NOTES
60
851. Starry Pole: the hcavens, following Latin usage.
858-9. Herse: the structurc erected over a bier, adorned with
banners and devices, and carrying epitaphs from friends.
864. Zadock the Priest: William Sancroft (1617-93), appointed
Dean of St. Paul's in 1664 and Archbishop of Canterbury in I678:
in the view of the court, says Burnet, a man, who might be
entirely gained to serve all their ends; or, at least . . . give them
little opposition.
866. the Sagan of Jerusalem: Henry Compton (1632-1713),
youngest son of the Earl ot Northampton, and Bishop of London
since 1675. Sagan: the Jewish high priest's deputy.
868. Him of the Western Dome: John Dolben (r625-86),
wounded in the royalist cause at Marston Moor and York; Dean
of Westminster 1662; Bishop of Rochester 1666; Archbishop of
York 1683. 'A man of more spirit than discretion, and an excellent
preacher (Burnet). Lines 870-I refer to the boys of Westminster
School; cf. Acts ii. 25.
877. Adriel: John Sheffield (1648-1721), third Earl of Mulgrave
and later Marquis of Normanby; soldier, courtier, orator, poet,
and Dryden's patron in all his changes ot tortune,
880-I. When Charles deprived Monmouth of his places in
1079, Sheiticld got the Lord Lieutenancy ot the East Kidng.

882. Jotham: George Savile (1633-95), first Baron Savile

Viscount (1668) and Marquis (1682) of Halifax. He worked with
attesbury s party 1674-9, retired to the country in I680, but
came back in the autumn of that year to 'hear all sides and then
choose wisely' on the issue of Exclusion. In the debate in the
Lords on 18 November he spoke against Shaftesbury, and was so
closcly 1dentified with the defeat of the Exclusion Bill that tne
Tmoms addressed Charles to remove Halifax from his counsels
tor
cver Jotham protested eloquently against the attempt ot the
men of Shechem to prefer the usurper Abimilech (Judges ix. I-21)

B88.
Hushai: Laurence Hyde (1642-1711), Clarendon's second
On, Created Earl of Rochester in 1682. He negotiated the Anglo
Dutch alliance
of 1678. He has,' says Burnet, 'high noO
 NOTBS 61
Government, and thinks it must be maintained with great
severity. He was first lord of the Treasury 1679-85. Dryden
dedicated two of his plays to
Hyde, and owed hm particular
Obligations. (2 Sam. xvi. I6-19; I Chron. XXvii. 33.)
899. Amiel: Edward Seymour
(1633-1708), Speaker of the
House of Commons 1673-8; son of a great family; said by
Burnet to have been skilled in
tavour of the court's interest.
turning events in Parliament in
(Ir Chron. xxvi. 4-8.)
910-I1. The comparison is with Phacton (Ovid, Metamor-
phoses, il. I-324).
939-1025. David's speech, a calm and reasonable statement of
the king's policy, owes much to His
Introduction, p. 2). Dryden makes all heMajesties
Declaration (see
can of the
the Whigs were charge that
trying to destroy constitutional government.
944. Ti Offenders question my Forgiving
questioned Charles' s right to pardon his Right.
The Commons
minister Danby, im-
peached in 1679. In December 1680 the sheriffs disputed his
to commute the penalty for Stafford from power
quartering to decapitation. hanging, drawing and

955-6. fmy Young Samson, &c. See Judges xv. 25-31.

965-8. Gull'd with a Patriots name, &c. Cf. 1.
179, note.
982. Esau's Hands, &&c. Cf. Gen. xxvii. 22.
987. Unsatiate as the barren Womb or Grave. C£. Prov.
I-16. xxx
I006-9. "The Whigs demand law, and shall have
are not content with my clemency and
law. They
which are the
hinder parts of law and can be seen safely, grace,
but rashly
see the face of law itself. "Grace' is demand to
by II. 991-1003. explained by ll. 939-44, Law
TOIO-11. By their arts, &c. Cf. Ovid, De Arte Amandi, i.
own
055-6, neque enim lex, &c.
IOI2. Against themselves their Witnesses will Swear. Several
nformers against the Catholics in
prosecutions for the Plot
62 NOTES

changed sides; and when Absalom and Achitoplhel was nearing

publication, Irish informers who had been in Shaftesbury's
service were being prepared to witncss against him.
IOI3. Viper-like their Mother Plot they tear. The young of the
viper were traditionally supposed to feed on her. Cf. the fate of
the offspring of Errour in Spenser, he Faerie
Queene, I. i. 25-6.
1OI6. Belial (wicked), a Hebrew devil; cf. 2 Cor. vi. 15.
Beelzebub, 'the prince of the devils, (Mark ii. 22).
1026-7. Th Almighty, nodding, &c. C£ Virgil, Aen. ix. 104-6.
1028-9. The renewal of time by royal action is a favourite
motif inDryden. Cf. Virgil, El. iv. 4-7.
 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL

A POEM
-Si Propids stes
Te Capict Magis

TOTHE READER

T Somenotwill
my intention
think it needs
to make
no an
Excuse;
Apology
andforothers
my Poem:
will re-
ceive none. The Design, I am sure, is honest: but he who draws
hisPen for one Party, must expect to mnake Enemies of the other.
For, Wit and Fool, are Consequents of Whig and Tory: 5
And every man is a Knave or an Ass to the contrary side.
There's a Treasury of Merits in the Phanatick Church, as
well as in the Papist; and a Pennyworth to be had of Saint-
ship, Honesty, and Poetry, for the Leud, the Factious, and the
Blockheads: But the longest Chapter in Deuteronomy, has to
not Cursesenow for an Anti-Bromingham. My Comfort is,
their manifest Prejudice to my Cause, uwill render their Judg-
ment of less Authority against me. Yet if a Poem have a
Genius, it will force its own reception in the World. For
there's a sweetness in good Verse, which Tickles even while 15
it Hurts: And, no man can be heartily angry with him, who
pleases him against his will. The Commendation of Adver-
saries, is the greatest Triumph of a Writer; because it never
comes unless Extorted. But I can be satisfhed on more easy
termes: f I happen to please the more Moderate sort, I shall 20
be sure of an honest PartyY; and, in all probability, of the best
Judges; for, the least Concern'd, are commonly the least
Corrupt: And, I confess, I have laid in for those, by rebating
 IO TO THB READER

the Satyre, (whcre Justice woud allow ir) from carrying too
sharp an
Edge. They, who Critize so weakly, as to 25
can

imagine I have done

my Worst, may be Convinc d, at their
own Cost, that I can write
can Gently. I have but
Severely, with more ease, than I
I coud have declainn'd
laught at some mens Follies, when
Vertues I have
against theif Vices; and, other mens
commended, as
freely as I have tax'd their 20
Crimes. And now, if
you are a Malitious Reader,
I expect
you should return upon mie, that I
Impartial than I am. But, ajfect
to be
thought
more
their if men are not to be
judg by
d
Professions, God forgive you
for professing so plausibly for the Common-wealths-men,
so
Unconscionable, as to charge meGovernment.
for not
You cannot be 3s
Name; for that woud
who never dare, reflect grosly uponSubscribing
too
your
of my
though they have the
own
Party,
secure them.
Yyou like not my Poem, advantage of Jury to a
be in my
Writing: (though 'tis hard fortheanjault may, possibly,
Authour to judge 4o
against himself;) But, more
bear the truth ofprobably,
which cannot
'tis in your Morals,
it. The Violent, on both
will condemn the
Character of Absalom, as either too sides,
ourably, or too hardly drawn. But, they are not the fav-
whom I desire to Violent,
please. The fault, on the right hand, is to 45
Extenuate, Palliate and Indulge; and, to
endeavourd to commit it. Besides the confess freely, I have
respect which I owe is
Birth, I have a
greater for his Heroique Vertues; and, Davd
himself, coud not be more tender of the Young-man's Le
than I woud be
of his Reputation. But, since the most exceliet
Natures are always the most
easy; and, as being such, are
soonest perverted by ill Counsels, especially when baiteu t
Fame and Glory; 'tis no more a wonder that he withstood
not the temptations of Achitophel, than it was for Adam,

ave resisted the two Devils: the Serpent, and tne

Woman. The conclusion of the Story, I purposelyforbon t
 TO THE READER
II
prosecute; because, I coud not
obtain from my self, to shew
Absalom Unfortunate. The Frame of it, was cut out, but for
a Picture to the
Wast; and, if the Draught be so
as much as I
design' d. far true, tis
Were I the Inventour, 60
whg am only the Historian, I shoud
ceriainly conclude the Piece, with the Reconcilement
Absalom to David. And, who knows
but this may come to
of
pass? Things were not brought to an
the Story: There
seems, yet, to be room
Extremity where I left
hereafter, there may only be for pity. I left for a Composure; 65
have not, so much as
an uncharitable
Wish against
to be Accus' d Achitophel; but, am
of a good naturd Errour; and, to content
Origen, that the Devil hope with
which reason, in this himself may, at last, he sav'd. For
Poem, be is neither brought to set his
House in order, nor to 7o
in Wisedom shall dispose of his Person
afterwards, as he
think fit. God is
Vicegerent is only not so, because heinfinitely
is not
merciful; and his
The true end of
Satyre, is the amendment Infinite.
tion. And he who writes ofVices by correc-
Honestly,
Offendour, than the Physician
is no more an
Enemy to the 7s
to the
prescribes harsh Remedies to an Patient, when he
inveterate Disease: for those,
are
only in order to
present the
rescindendum, which I wish Chyrurgeon'
not to my
s work of an Ense
conclude all, If the very Enemies. To
Natural, in
Body Politique have any Analogy to the so
weak
my
as
necessary in
judgment, an Act of Oblivion were
a Hot, Distemper d State, as an
woud be in Opiate
a
Raging Fever.