Already labouring with a mighty fate, She shakes the rubbish from her mounting brow, Which Heaven will to the death of Time allow. More great than human now, and more august, Before, she like some shepherdess did show, Now like a maiden queen she will behold, From her high turrets, hourly suitors come; The silver Thames, her own domestic flood, With longing eyes to meet her face again. ODE TO THE MEMORY OF MRS ANNE KILLIGREW.1 Thou youngest virgin-daughter of the skies, Thou tread'st, with seraphim, the vast abyss: Thou wilt have time enough for hymns divine, Hear then a mortal Muse thy praise rehearse, But such as thy own voice did practise here, This young lady, the niece of Thomas Killigrew, the celebrated wit of the court of Charles II., obtained some reputation for the small-pox in the 25th year of her age. blest that our language has produced." her talents in poetry and painting. She died of This ode Johnson calls undoubtedly the noHe adds, "all the stanzas are not indeed equal." To make thyself a welcome inmate there; And candidate of heaven. If by traduction came thy mind, A soul so charming from a stock so good; Was form'd, at first, with myriads more, Who Greek or Latin laurels wore, And was that Sappho last, which once it was before. Than was the beauteous frame she left behind : O gracious God! how far have we * What can we say t' excuse our second fall? Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child. Art she had none, yet wanted none; 1 Dr Henry Killigrew, Master of the Savoy, and one of the prebendaries of Westmin ster. 2 Of all the bards of the courts of Charles and James," Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays." Licentiousness was the characteristic of every department of poetry, and especially of the stage. Here Dryden himself was one of the most conspicuous transgressors and it will scarcely be admitted as an excuse that he was "hurried down." The licentiousness of Lyndsay has, in many instances, a political, or may it be said, a religious aim, since respectable names have claimed him as one raised by Providence to be an instrument of the Reformation; that of the age of Shakespeare is frequently the indelicacy of a generation emerging into refinement; that of the age of Charles II. is a corrupt rank exotic, of aimless profligacy, prurient yet passionless;" disgusting, and, from this very cause, fortunately ephenieral. Dryden's mind had two streams; one that flowed clear and shining in moral purity; the other charged with the fetid waters of what is commonly termed "the taste of the age." 3 See Note 3, p. 189. So rich in treasures of her own, She might our boasted stores defy : That it seem'd borrow'd, where 'twas only born. By great examples daily fed. Ev'n love (for love sometimes her Muse exprest) Was but a lambent flame which play'd about her breast: So cold herself, while she such warmth exprest, 'Twas Cupid bathing in Diana's stream. When in mid-air the golden trump shall sound The judging God shall close the book of fate; For those who wake, and those who sleep; From the four corners of the sky; And foremost from the tomb shall bound, 66 THE CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY DELINEATED AS ACHITOPHEL. Of these the false Achitophel was first; 1 See note 5, p. 45. 2 Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury (Achitophel), was the soul of the party of Monmouth (Absalom). At the time of the publication of this satire he was in the tower on an accusation of treasonable connection with Monmouth's designs. His acquittal some time after gave rise to Dryden's piece," the Medal." An adherent of the court party and a member of the infamous cabal ministry, he afterwards in his multitudinous intrigues became the champion of the country party. His connection with Monmouth ultimately exiled him; he died in Holland.-See Hume, chap. lxix. X In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace, And o'er informed its tenement of clay: Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high Else, why should he, with wealth and honours blest, In friendship false, implacable in hate, Where crowds can wink, and no offence be known, With more discerning eyes or hands more clean,* Oh had he been content to serve the crown He" is allowed to have been a principal adviser of the Dutch war in 1672, by which the triple alliance between England, Sweden, and Holland, the chef d'oeuvre of Sir W. Temple's negociation, was broken."-Scott. See Hume, chap. lxv. 2 England. The poet symbolises the whole policy, persons, and geography of the times under Jewish appellations. The foreign yoke is that of France, to whose policy Charles 11. became fatally subservient.-See Hallam's England, chap. xi xii. 3 By going over to the popular party, to escape the odium attached to the measures he had himself recommended. Others have praised Shaftesbury for his judicial integrity.-See Scott's Note, Dryden, ix 264. Abethdin; Ab-beth-din (Father of the House of Judgment): the second dignitary, or vice-president of the Sanhedrim, the Jewish council of government, from about the period of the Macabees. Charles II. But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand; VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, DELINEATED AS ZIMRI. Blest madman, who could every hour employ That every man with him was god or devil. Beggared by fools whom still he found too late; 66 THE POSITION OF MAN IN THE SCHEME OF REDEMPTION. Thus man by his own strength to heaven would soar: And would not be oblig'd to God for more. 1 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the son of the favourite of Charles I. (see p. 166.) His immense fortune and versatile talents were exerted in a career of unparallelled profligacy, marked even with dark and deadly crime. Like Shaftesbury a member of the Cabal ministry, he deserted the court party, and was distinguished in the agitation of the Popish plot. He ultimately died in poverty and sordid wretchedness. His end has been commemorated by Pope. Dryden may be considered in his satire merciful to Buck. ingham. The Duke had personally and deeply injured him in the satirical farce the Rehearsal, yet the poet confines his strictures simply to his follies and his weakness. A second part of Absalom and Achitophel was published, but Dryden contributed to it only a castigation of his literary enemies Settle and Shadwell, under the names of Doeg and Og. The remainder is by Nahum Tate, the versifier of the English Psalms. 2 For Dryden's objects in the composition of this poem, see his preface; and Scott's preliminary observations, Dryden, vol. x. |