Page images
PDF
EPUB

1945

1950

As for my sons, the family is bless'd,
Whose every child is equal to the rest:
No Church reform'd can boast a blameless line;
Such Martins build in yours, and more than mine:
Or else an old fanatic author lies,
Who summ'd their scandals up by centuries.
But through your parable I plainly see
The bloody laws, the crowd's barbarity;
The sunshine that offends the purblind sight:
Had some their wishes, it would soon be night.
Mistake me not: the charge concerns not you:
Your sons are malecontents, but yet are true,
As far as non-resistance makes them so;
But that's a word of neutral sense, you know,
A passive term, which no relief will bring,
But trims betwixt a rebel and a king.

1955

1960

Rest well assured, the Pardelis replied, My sons would all support the regal side, Though Heaven forbid the cause by battle should be tried.

1965

The matron answer'd with a loud Amen, And thus pursued her argument again. If, as you say, and as I hope no less, Your sons will practise what yourselves profess, What angry power prevents our present peace? The Lion, studious of our common good, Desires (and Kings' desires are ill withstood) 1970 To join our nations in a lasting love; The bars betwixt are easy to remove; For sanguinary laws were never made above. If you condemn that prince of tyranny, Whose mandate forced your Gallic friends

to fly,

1975

Make not a worse example of your own;
Or cease to rail at causeless rigour shown,
And let the guiltless person throw the stone.
His blunted sword your suffering brotherhood
Have seldom felt; he stops it short of blood: 1980
But you have ground the persecuting knife,
And set it to a razor-edge on life.
Cursed be the wit, which cruelty refines,
Or to his father's rod the scorpion joins ;
Your finger is more gross than the great monarch's
loins.

1985

But you, perhaps, remove that bloody note, And stick it on the first Reformers' coat. Oh, let their crime in long oblivion sleep: "Twas theirs indeed to make, 'tis yours to keep. Unjust, or just, is all the question now; 'Tis plain, that not repealing you allow.

1990

1995

To name the Test would put you in a rage; You charge not that on any former age, But smile to think how innocent you stand, Arm'd by a weapon put into your hand. Yet still remember, that you wield a sword Forged by your foes against your Sovereign Lord; Design'd to hew the imperial cedar down, Defraud succession, and dis-heir the crown. To abhor the makers, and their laws approve, Is to hate traitors, and the treason love. What means it else, which now your children say, We made it not, nor will we take away?

Suppose some great oppressor had, by slight Of law, disseised your brother of his right, Your common sire surrendering in a fright; Would you to that unrighteous title stand, Loft by the villain's will to heir the land

2000

2005

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

2055

Your answer is, they were not dispossess'd;
They need but rub their metal on the test
To prove their ore: 'twere well if gold alone 503
Were touch'd and tried on your discerning stone;
But that unfaithful Test unfound will pass
The dross of Atheists, and sectarian brass:
As if the experiment were made to hold
For base productions, and reject the gold.
Thus men ungodded may to places rise,
And sects may be preferr'd without disguise:
No danger to the Church or State from these;
The Papist only has his writ of ease.
No gainful office gives him the pretence
To grind the subject, or defraud the prince.
Wrong conscience, or no conscience, may deserve
To thrive, but ours alone is privileged to sterve.
Still thank yourselves, you cry; your noble race
We banish not, but they forsake the place;
Our doors are open: true, but ere they come,
You toss your 'censing Test, and fume the room;
As if 'twere Toby's rival to expel,

2040

2043

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Ver. 2039. The Papist only has his writ of ease.] By the Test Act transubstantiation is to be abjured, a principal tenet of the Papists. DERRICK.

[blocks in formation]

2085

Which, well inform'd, will ever be the same.
But yours is much of the cameleon hue,
To change the dye with every distant view.
When first the Lion sat with awful sway,
Your conscience taught your duty to obey:
He might have had your Statutes and your Test;
No conscience but of subjects was profess'd.
He found your temper, and no farther tried,
But on that broken reed, your Church, relied.
In vain the sects assay'd their utmost art,
With offer'd treasure to espouse their part;
Their treasures were a bribe too mean to move
his heart.

2090

2095

But when, by long experience, you had proved,
How far he could forgive, how well he loved;
A goodness that excell'd his godlike race,
And only short of Heaven's unbounded grace;
A flood of mercy that o'erflow'd our isle,
Calm in the rise, and fruitful as the Nile;
Forgetting whence our Egypt was supplied,
You thought your Sovereign bound to send the
tide:

2100

2105

2110

Nor upward look'd on that immortal spring,
But vainly deem'd, he durst not be a king:
Then conscience, unrestrain'd by fear, began
To stretch her limits, and extend the span;
Did his indulgence as her gift dispose,
And made a wise alliance with her foes.
Can Conscience own the associating name,
And raise no blushes to conceal her shame?
For sure she has been thought a bashful dame.
But if the cause by battle should be tried,
You grant she must espouse the regal side:
Oh Proteus conscience, never to be tied!
What Phoebus from the Tripod shall disclose,
Which are, in last resort, your friends or foes?
Homer, who learn'd the language of the sky, 2115
The seeming Gordian knot would soon untie;
Immortal powers the term of Conscience know,
But Interest is her name with men below.
Conscience or Interest be 't, or both in one,
(The Panther answer'd in a surly tone)

2120

Ver. 2083. with every distant view. The original edition has-with every different view. TODD. Ver. 2098. fruitful as the Nile;] The religions rites and notions of any country, that are founded on the physical state of that country, continue notwithstanding all external changes of religion. The Nile in Egypt, and the Ganges in India, are still adored, notwithstanding the establishment of Mahometism. The difficulties of converting the Hindoos and some other Indian castes, and the Chinese, seem almost insuperable, without supernatural aid. Dr. J. WARTON.

Ver. 2106. And made a wise alliance, &c.] Orig. edit. TODD.

2130

The first commands me to maintain the crown,
The last forbids to throw my barriers down.
Our penal laws no sons of yours admit,
Our Test excludes your tribe from benefit.
These are my banks your ocean to withstand, 2125
Which proudly rising overlooks the land;
And, once let in, with unresisted sway,
Would sweep the pastors and their flocks away.
Think not my judgment leads me to comply
With laws unjust, but hard necessity:
Imperious need, which cannot be withstood,
Makes ill authentic, for a greater good.
Possess your soul with patience, and attend:
A more auspicious planet may ascend;
Good fortune may present some happier time,
With means to cancel my unwilling crime;
(Unwilling, witness all ye Powers above)
To mend my errors, and redeem your love:
That little space you safely may allow ;
Your all-dispensing power protects you now. 2140
Hold, said the Hind, 'tis needless to explain;
You would postpone me to another reign;
"Till when you are content to be unjust:
Your part is to possess, and mine to trust.
A fair exchange proposed of future chance,
For present profit and inheritance.

213

2145

2150

Few words will serve to finish our dispute; Who will not now repeal, would persecute. To ripen green revenge your hopes attend, Wishing that happier planet would ascend. For shame let Conscience be your plea no more: To will hereafter, proves she might before; But she's a bawd to gain, and holds the door. Your care about your banks infers a fear Of threatening floods and inundations near: If so, a just reprise would only be

2155

Of what the land usurp'd upon the sea;
And all your jealousies but serve to show
Your ground is, like your neighbour-nation, low.
To intrench in what you grant unrighteous laws,
Is to distrust the justice of your cause;
And argues that the true religion lies
In those weak adversaries you despise.

Tyrannic force is that which least you fear; The sound is frightful in a Christian's ear: Avert it, Heaven! nor let that plague be sent To us from the dispeopled continent.

2161

2165

But piety commands me to refrain; Those prayers are needless in this monarch's reign.

Behold! how he protects your friends op

press'd,

2170

2175

Receives the banish'd, succours the distress'd:
Behold, for you may read an honest open breast.
He stands in day-light, and disdains to hide
An act, to which by honour he is tied,
A generous, laudable, and kingly pride.
Your Test he would repeal, his peers restore;
This when he says he means, he means no more.
Well, said the Panther, I believe him just,
And yet

And yet, 'tis but because you must; You would be trusted, but you would not

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

2210

2215

He took possession of his just estate:
Nor rack'd his tenants with increase of rent;
Nor lived too sparing, nor too largely spent;
But overlook'd his hinds; their pay was just,
And ready, for he scorn'd to go on trust:
Slow to resolve, but in performance quick;
So true, that he was awkward at a trick.
For little souls on little shifts rely,
And cowards' arts of mean expedients try;
The noble mind will dare do anything but lie.
False friends (his deadliest foes) could find no
way

2220

2225

But shows of honest bluntness, to betray:
That unsuspected plainness he believed;
He look'd into himself, and was deceived.
Some lucky planet sure attends his birth,
Or Heaven would make a miracle on earth;
For prosperous honesty is seldom seen
To bear so dead a weight, and yet to win.
It looks as fate with nature's law would strive,
To show plain-dealing once an age may thrive:
And, when so tough a frame she could not
bend,

Exceeded her commission to befriend.

2230

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

But fluttering there, they nestle near the throne,
And lodge in habitations not their own,
By their high crops and corny gizzards known.
Like Harpies, they could scent a plenteous
board,

Then to be sure they never fail'd their lord: 2256
The rest was form, and bare attendance paid;
They drunk, and eat, and grudgingly obey 'd.
The more they fed, they raven'd still for more;
They drain'd from Dan, and left Beersheba
poor.

All this they had by law, and none repined; 2900
The preference was but due to Levi's kind:
But when some lay-preferment fell by chance,
The Gourmands made it their inheritance.
When once possess'd they never quit their claim;
For then 'tis sanctified to Heaven's high name;
And hallow'd thus, they cannot give consent,
The gift should be profaned by worldly
management.

Their flesh was never to the table served; Though 'tis not thence inferr'd the birds were starved;

But that their master did not like the food, 270
As rank, and breeding melancholy blood.
Nor did it with his gracious nature suit,
E'en though they were not Doves, to persecute:
Yet he refused (nor could they take offence)
Their glutton kind should teach him absti-

[blocks in formation]

2300

2306

Fain would they filch that little food away,
While unrestrain'd those happy gluttons prey.
And much they grieved to see so nigh their hall,
The bird that warn'd St. Peter of his fall;
That he should raise his mitred crest on high,
And clap his wings, and call his family
To sacred rites; and vex the etherial powers
With midnight matins at uncivil hours:
Nay more, his quiet neighbours should molest,
Just in the sweetness of their morning rest.
Beast of a bird, supinely when he might
Lie snug and sleep, to rise before the light!
What if his dull forefathers used that cry,
Could he not let a bad example die?
The world was fallen into an easier way;
This age knew better than to fast and pray.
Good sense in sacred worship would appear
So to begin, as they might end the year.
Such feats in former times had wrought the

falls

2310

2315

Of crowing Chanticleers in cloister'd walls.
Expell'd for this, and for their lands, they fled;
And sister Partlet, with her hooded head,
Was hooted hence, because she would not pray
a-bed.

2320

2325

2330

The way to win the restive world to God, Was to lay by the disciplining rod, Unnatural fasts, and foreign forms of prayer: Religion frights us with a mien severe. Tis prudence to reform her into ease, And put her in undress to make her please: A lively faith will bear aloft the mind, And leave the luggage of good works behind. Such doctrines in the Pigeon-house were taught: You need not ask how wond'rously they wrought; But sure the common cry was all for these, Whose life and precepts both encouraged ease. Yet fearing those alluring baits might fail, And holy deeds o'er all their arts prevail; (For vice, though frontless, and of harden'd face, Is daunted at the sight of awful grace,) An hideous figure of their foes they drew, Nor lines, nor looks, nor shades, nor colours true; And this grotesque design exposed to public view. One would have thought it some Egyptian piece, With garden-gods, and barking deities, More thick than Ptolemy has stuck the skies. All so perverse a draught, so far unlike, It was no libel where it meant to strike. Yet still the daubing pleased, and great and small, To view the monster, crowded Pigeon-hall. There Chanticleer was drawn upon his knees Adoring shrines, and stocks of sainted trees; And by him, a misshapen, ugly race; The curse of God was seen on every face.

2335

2340

2345

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

2335

A law, the source of many future harms, Had banish'd all the poultry from the farms; With loss of life, if any should be found To crow or peck on this forbidden ground. That bloody statute chiefly was design'd For Chanticleer the white, of clergy kind; But after-malice did not long forget The lay that wore the robe and coronet. For them, for their inferiors and allies, Their foes a deadly Shibboleth devise: By which unrighteously it was decreed, That none to trust, or profit, should succeed, Who would not swallow first a poisonous wicked

weed:

Or that, to which old Socrates was cursed,
Or henbane juice to swell them till they burst.
The patron (as in reason) thought it hard
To see this inquisition in his yard,

2370

2576

By which the Sovereign was of subjects' use debarr'd.

All gentle means he tried, which might withdraw The effects of so unnatural a law:

23880

But still the Dove-house obstinately stood
Deaf to their own, and to their neighbours' good;
And which was worse, (if any worse could be,)
Repented of their boasted loyalty:

2390

2305

Now made the champions of a cruel cause, 2385
And drunk with fumes of popular applause;
For those whom God to ruin has design'd,
He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
New doubts indeed they daily strove to raise,
Suggested dangers, interposed delays:
And emissary Pigeons had in store,
Such as the Meccan prophet used of yore,
To whisper counsels in their patron's ear;
And veil'd their false advice with zealous fear.
The master smiled to see them work in vain,
To wear him out, and make an idle reign:
He saw, but suffer'd their protractive arts,
And strove by mildness to reduce their hearts :
But they abused that grace to make allies,
And fondly closed with former enemies;
For fools are doubly fools, endeav'ring to be wise.
After a grave consult what course were best,
One, more mature in folly than the rest,
Stood up, and told them, with his head aside,
That desperate cures must be to desperate ills
applied:

2400

2405

And therefore, since their main impending fear
Was from the increasing race of Chanticleer,
Some potent bird of prey they ought to find,
A foe profess'd to him, and all his kind:
Some haggard Hawk, who had her eyrie nigh, 2410
Well pounced to fasten, and well wing'd to fly;
One they might trust, their common wrongs to

wreak;

The Musquet, and the Coystrel were too weak, Too fierce the Falcon; but, above the rest, The noble Buzzard ever pleased me best;

2415

Ver. 2361. A law, the source, &c.] Penal laws against Popish recusants. DERRICK.

Ver. 2401. For fools are doubly fools, &c.] The original edition has, double fools. TODD.

Ver. 2414.

Above the rest, The noble Buzzard ever pleased me best;] The character of the Buzzard was drawn for the ccle

2420

Of small renown, 'tis true; for, not to lie,
We call him but a Hawk by courtesy.
I know he hates the Pigeon-house and Farm,
And more, in time of war, has done us harm:
But all his hate on trivial points depends;
Give up our forms, and we shall soon be friends.
For Pigeons' flesh he seems not much to care;
Cramm'd Chickens are a more delicious fare.
On this high potentate, without delay,

I wish you would confer the sovereign sway: 2425
Petition him to accept the government,
And let a splendid embassy be sent.

This pithy speech prevail'd, and all agreed,
Old enmities forgot, the Buzzard should succeed.
Their welcome suit was granted soon as
heard,

2430

His lodgings furnish'd, and a train prepared, With B's upon their breast, appointed for his guard.

brated Bishop Burnet, out of compliment to King James II., to whom he had been, on many accounts, obnoxious. He is introduced as a prince, because his spirit and activity raised him to be regarded by many of the opponents to the courtmeasures, as the head of their party; and certainly none of the clergy was so meddling and inquisitive as he was; so that it is not unjust of our poet to say, that

He dares the world; and, eager of a name,
He thrusts about, and justles into fame.

The bishop was good-humoured, conversable, and charitable; absent, credulous, and talkative;

More learn'd than honest, more a wit than learn'd.

It is certain he gave room for this impeachment of his honesty, by drawing up two papers in defence of divorce and polygamy; a task very unworthy of a clergyman: and by his behaviour, with regard to the Earl of Lauderdale's affairs in the House of Commons, where he was examined as to what he heard that nobleman say, about arming the Irish Papists, and bringing a Scotch army into England, to support some arbitrary measures intended to be set on foot by the king, and to overawe the Parliament. He at first refused to answer upon the latter point, and was dismissed he then returned,

uncall'd, his patron t control,
Divulged the secret whispers of his soul;
Stood forth the accusing Satan of his crimes,
And offer'd to the Moloch of the times.

Having waited for some time in the lobby, in hope of being called in again, he desired to be re-admitted, and now revealed everything that had passed between them in private conversation; for which conduct he makes but a poor excuse in his History of his Own Times. The House of Commons laid great stress upon his declaration, and thus furnished with fresh matter, renewed their address against the earl.

The papers above mentioned were written to support a design set on foot by Shaftesbury and his emissaries, to divorce the king and procure him another wife, whose issue might exclude the Duke of York from the succession: they are to be found in Mackay's Memoirs. Burnet first came from Scotland, where he was born, to London, to complete the Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton. The Earl of Lauderdale, at that time, received him with great hospitality, and a friendship that merited a different return from what he received. Nor was his behaviour to the Duke of York less indefensible, his Highness having given him some distinguishing marks of his favour, which he requited with becoming one of his severest enemies; not so much from any views of serving these kingdoms, but because that object that seemed most immediate to his interest. most engaged his attention; and he thought opposition the swiftest way to preferment. It is certain King James hated him, not without reason, and would have made him feel his resentment, if he had not retired to the Prince of Orange, with whom he returned to England in 1688. The bishop has revenged himself, by calling Dryden, in the History of his Own Times, a monster of impurity, and by mentioning him in his Reflections on Varillas, with a contempt to which he was infinitely superior. DERRICK.

Ver. 2418. I know he hates, &c.] I know he haunts, &c.] Orig edit. Todd.

2435

He came, and crown'd with great solemnity,
God save king Buzzard was the general cry.
A portly prince, and goodly to the sight,
He seem'd a son of Anak for his height:
Like those whom stature did to crowns prefer:
Black-brow'd, and bluff, like Homer's Jupiter:
Broad-back'd, and brawny-built for love's de-
light;

A prophet form'd to make a female proselyte.
A theologue more by need than genial bent;
By breeding sharp, by nature confident.
Interest in all his actions was discern'd;
More learn'd than honest, more
learn'd:

Or forced by fear, or by his profit led,

a wit than

Or both conjoin'd, his native clime he fled :
But brought the virtues of his heaven along :
A fair behaviour, and a fluent tongue.
And yet with all his arts he could not thrive;
The most unlucky parasite alive.

2445

2450

Ver. 2435. A portly prince,] This character of Buzzard was intended to ridicule Bishop Burnet, who had attacked Dryden for a translation of Varillas. Montague and Prior make their Bayes speak thus of this passage:-"The ercellence of a fable is in the length of it. Æsop indeed, like a slave as he was, made little, short, simple stories, with a dry moral at the end of them, and could not form any noble design. But here, I give you fable upon fable; and after you are satisfied with beasts in the first course, serve you up with a delicate dish of fowl for the second: now I was at all this pains to abuse one particular person; for Igad I'll tell you what a trick he served me: I was once translating a very good French author, but being something long about it, as you know a man is not always in the humour; what does this Jack do, but puts out an answer to my friend before I had half finished the translation; so there was three whole months lost upon his account. But I think I have my revenge on him sufficiently, for I let all the world know that he is a tall, broad-backed, lusty fellow, of a brown complexion, fair behaviour, a fluent tongue, and taking amongst the women; and to top it all, that he 's much a scholar, more a wit, and owns but two sacraments. Don't you think this fellow will hang himself? But, besides, I have so nick't his character in a name, as will make you split. I call him, 'gad I won't tell you, unless you remenber what I said of him.

[ocr errors]

Smith. Why that he was much a scholar, and more a wit. Bayes. Right, and his name is Buzzard. Ha! ha! ha!" Dr. J. WARTON.

Ibid. A portly prince,] This violent and cutting satire on Bishop Burnet, which approaches the very verge of downright and disgusting ribaldry, must be accounted for (I will not say apologised) by the bishop's having called Dryden a monster of impiety, for the obscenities, blasphemies, and falsehoods, with which he said our author's works abounded. Burnet's own character appears every day to be more and more approved and brightened by calm examination. His History of his Own Times, allowing, per haps, that it is written in too careless and familiar a style. yet abounds in most curious facts that otherwise would have been unknown, and this very familiarity is pleasing His History of the Reformation is surely a most valuable and important work, and one of the most decisive blows Popery ever received. His Exposition of the Articles is sensible, acute, and candid; with a laudable endeavour to free them from some seeming absurdities and contradictions. And his short account of Lord Rochester a most useful, pious, and instructive little narrative. Dr. .' WARTON.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »