FOOTNOTES:
[1] "What can be more extraordinary, than that a person of mean birth, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, which have sometimes, or of mind, which have often, raised men to the highest dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the happiness to succeed in, so improbable a design, as the destruction of one of the most ancient, and most solid founded monarchies upon the earth? That he should have the power, or boldness, to put his prince and master to an open and infamous death? To banish that numerous and strongly allied family? To do all this under the name and wages of a parliament? To trample upon them, too, as he pleased, and spurn them out of doors when he grew weary of them? To raise up a new and unheard-of monster out of their ashes? To stifle that in the very infancy, and set up himself above all things that ever were called sovereign in England? To oppress all his enemies by arms, and all his friends afterwards by artifice? To serve all parties patiently for a while, and to command them victoriously at last? To over-run each corner of the three nations, and overcome with equal facility both the riches of the south and the poverty of the north? To be feared and courted by all foreign princes, and adopted a brother to the gods of the earth? To call together parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter them again with the breath of his mouth? To be humbly and daily petitioned, that he would please to be hired, at the rate of two millions a year, to be the master of those who had hired him before to be their servant? To have the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal, as was the little inheritance of his father, and to be as noble and liberal in the spending of them? And, lastly, (for there is no end of all the particulars of his glory,) to bequeath all this with one word to his posterity? To die with peace at home, and triumph abroad? To be buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity? And to leave a name behind him, not to be extinguished but with the whole world, which as it is now too little for his praises, so might have been too for his conquests if the short line of his human life could have been stretched out to the extent of his immortal designs?"—Cowley's Works, Vol. II. p. 583.
Perhaps the facetious Tom Brown has hit upon the true reason of Dryden's choice of a subject, when he makes him say, "that he had no particular kindness for the person of Oliver; but that it was much the same with the poets as with the Jews—a hero cannot start up in any quarter of the world, be his quarrel right or wrong, but both are apt to think him the Messias, and presently pitch upon him as the fittest person to deliver the twelve tribes and the nine muses out of captivity."—Reasons of Mr Bayes' changing his religion.
Verses to the happy Memory of the late Lord Protector.
[3] This edition occurs in the Luttrell Collection, and the title runs thus: "An Elegy on the Usurper O. C. by the Author of 'Absalom and Achitophel;' published to show the loyalty and integrity of the Poet."
Postscript.
London, printed for J. Smith, 1681. J. D.
[4] Sir Roger L'Estrange, whose skill in music is said to have amused Cromwell, who had some turn that way.
[19] To which deity the Romans usually sacrificed before marching to war, according to an ancient institution of Romulus.
[23] The author seems to allude to the old proverb, "Sapiens dominabitur astris." The influence of the stars yielded reluctantly to Cromwell's heroic virtues, as the commons submit sullenly to be taxed.
[30] A principal evil, amongst the native Scottish judges, was a predilection for their own allies and kinsmen. A judge, who lived within the eighteenth century, justified this partiality for "kith, kin, and ally," by saying, "that, upon his conscience, he could never see any of his friends were in the wrong;" and the upright conduct of Cromwell's English judges being objected to him, he answered, "it was not wonderful, since they were a set of kinless louns who had no family connections to bias them."
[31] There are all shapes and forms of poetical addresses upon this occasion, by clergymen, and scholars, and persons of honour. Among them, the verses by Waller are most celebrated; though inferior to those which he composed on the Protector's death. When Charles made this remark, the bard, with great felicity, reminded his Majesty, that poets always excel in fiction. Among other topics, he enlarges on the "tried virtue, and the sacred word," of the witty monarch. It is singular, that, of the three distinguished poets, who solemnized by elegy the death of the Protector, Dryden and Waller should have hailed the restoration of the Stuart line, and Sprat have favoured their most arbitrary aggressions upon liberty.
[32] In "A Poem to His Most Excellent Majesty, Charles the Second, Ego beneficio tuo (Cæsar) quas ante audiebam hodie vidi Deos: Nec feliciorem ullum vitæ meæ aut optavi aut sensi Diem, by H. Buston, Winton; together with another, by Hen. Bold, olim Winton," the royal genealogy is thus deduced from the primitive father of mankind:
[42] Henry IV. of France, maternal grandfather of Charles II.
[44] First edition, epoches.
[45] This mode of forming the genitive is adopted from the first edition, as smoother than "Charles's."
[51] 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.
[54] First edition has, "like glass."
[58] So the first edition; the others read standards. The royal standard is meant.
[69] The first edition reads and for all.
[74] Spain and Portugal, both desirous to ally themselves with Charles by marriage.
[76] Ogilby's relation of his Majesty's entertainment passing through the city of London to his coronation.
[77] Alluding to the hoped for union between France and England, and to the cure, by touching, for the Evil.
[78] Cato is said to have laid before the Senate the fine figs of Africa, and to have reminded them, that the country which produced these choice fruits was but three days sail from Rome. He used also to conclude every speech with the famous expression, Delenda est Carthago.
[79] See Memoires de Grammont, Chapitre VIII. for the Duchess's conduct towards these temoins a bonne fortune, as Hamilton happily calls them.
[80] Even Harman did not escape suspicion on this occasion. Marvell gives the following account of his examination before Parliament:
"Yesterday Harman was brought to the house, to give an account of slackening sail in the first victory. He had a very good reputation at his coming in; but when he said, that Mr Bronkard only used arguments, and justified the thing himself, saying, 'That he had been a madman had he not done it;' and other witnesses clearly contradicting this, and proving, that Bronkard brought him orders in the Duke's name, he lost all credit with us; and yet more, when, upon recollection, he confessed that Mr Bronkard did bring orders as from the Duke: so he is committed to the sergeant, and will doubtless be impeached. Both he and Mr Bronkard, who was also heard, will probably, on Tuesday next, taste the utmost severity of the house." Andrew Marvell to the Mayor of Hull. See his Works, Vol. I. p. 104.
[83] Essay by Dr Aikin on the Heroic Poem of "Gondibert."
[84] See stanza 146, and those which follow.
[85] Stanzas 213, 214.
[86] See stanzas 131, 132. I wish, however, our author had spared avouching himself to have been eye-witness to so marvellous a chase. The "so have I seen" should be confined to things which are not only possible, but, in a certain degree, of ordinary occurrence. Dryden's ocular testimony is not, however, so incredible as that of the bard, who averred,
Such chaces, if not frequent, have sometimes happened. In the north of England, in ancient days, a stag and a famous greyhound, called Hercules, after a desperate course, were found dead within a few paces of each other, and interred with this inscription:
[87] Malone's Prose Works of Dryden, Vol. III. p. 250.
[88] Sir Robert Howard was son to the Earl of Berkshire, and brother to Lady Elizabeth Dryden, our author's wife. This epistle is dated from Charlton, the seat of Lord Berkshire.
[89] Probably "The Indian Queen," which was a joint production of Dryden and Howard.
[90] The author alludes to the privilege, anciently used, of throwing an accentuation on the last syllable, of such a word as noble, so as to make it sound nobley. An instance may be produced from our author's poem on the Coronation:
[91] These translations are, however, in fourteen, not twelve syllables; a vile hobbling sort of measure, used also by Phayr, and other old translators.
[92] This is one of Dryden's hasty and inaccurate averments. The ancient dramatic authors were particularly well acquainted with nautical terms, and applied them with great accuracy. See a note in Gifford's excellent edition of Massinger, vol. II. p. 229.
[93] We need not here suppose, that Dryden speaks particularly of those to whom he had offered panygyricks: undoubtedly, he had written poems on many subjects, which, remaining unpublished, have not descended to us.
[94] Understood in the large sense, of the regulated exercise of the imagination.
[95] Commonly called a pun.
[96] These notes are all retained in this edition, as well as the smaller foot notes, by which the poet thought proper to explain difficult passages. They are distinguished by the addition of his name.
[97] In the early editions of the Annus Mirabilis, the verses to the Duchess are here inserted.
[99] Precious stones at first are dew condensed, and hardened by the warmth of the sun, or subterranean fires. Dryden.
[100] According to their opinion who think, that great heap of waters under the Line, is depressed into tides by the moon towards the poles. Dryden.