Loud praises to prepare his paths he sent,
And then himself pursued his compliment;
But by reverse of fortune chased away,
His gifts no longer than their author stay:
He shakes the dust against the ungrateful race,
And leaves the stench of ordures in the place.
Oft has he flatter'd and blasphemed the same;
For in his rage he spares no Sovereign's namo:
The hero and the tyrant change their style
By the same measure that they frown or smile.
When well received by hospitable foes,
The kindness he returns, is to expose :
For courtesies, though undeserved and great,
No gratitude in felon-minds beget;

2454

2461

As tribute to his wit, the churl receives the treat.2465 His praise of foes is venomously nice;

So touch'd, it turns a virtue to a vice:

"A Greek, and bountiful, forewarns us twice."
Seven sacraments he wisely does disown,
Because he knows Confession stands for one;
Where sins to sacred silence are convey'd,
And not for fear, or love, to be betray'd:
But he, uncall'd, his patron to control,
Divulged the secret whispers of his soul;
Stood forth the accusing Satan of his crimes, 2475
And offer'd to the Moloch of the times.
Prompt to assail, and careless of defence,
Invulnerable in his impudence,

2480

2435

He dares the world; and eager of a name,
He thrusts about, and justles into fame.
Frontless, and satire-proof, he scours the streets,
And runs an Indian-muck at all he meets.
So fond of loud report, that not to miss
Of being known (his last and utmost bliss)
He rather would be known for what he is.
Such was, and is the Captain of the Test,
Though half his virtues are not here express'd;
The modesty of fame conceals the rest.
The spleenful Pigeons never could create
A prince more proper to revenge their hate:
Indeed, more proper to revenge, than save;
A king, whom in his wrath the Almighty gave:
For all the grace the landlord had allow'd,
But made the Buzzard and the Pigeons proud;
Gave time to fix their friends, and to seduce the
crowd.

2490

2495

They long their fellow-subjects to inthral,
Their patron's promise into question call,
And vainly think he meant to make them lords
of all.

2500

False fears their leaders fail'd not to suggest,
As if the Doves were to be dispossess'd;
Nor sighs, nor groans, nor gogling eyes did want;
For now the Pigeons too had learn'd to cant.
The house of prayer is stock'd with large increase;
Nor doors, nor windows can contain the press :
For birds of every feather fill the abode;
E'en Atheists out of envy own a God:
And, reeking from the stews, adulterers come,
Like Goths and Vandals to demolish Rome.
That Conscience, which to all their crimes was
mute,

Now calls aloud, and cries to persecute:
No rigour of the laws to be released,

2505

2510

And much the less, because it was their Lord's request:

They thought it great their Sovereign to control, And named their pride, nobility of soul.

"Tis true, the Pigeons, and their prince elect, Were short of power, their purpose to effect.

2514

But with their quills did all the hurt they could,
And cuff'd the tender Chickens from their food:
And much the Buzzard in their cause did stir,
Though naming not the patron, to infer,
With all respect, he was a gross idolater.

2520

2525

2530

But when the imperial owner did espy, That thus they turn'd his grace to villany, Not suffering wrath to discompose his mind, He strove a temper for the extremes to find. So to be just, as he might still be kind; Then, all maturely weigh'd, pronounced a doom Of sacred strength for every age to come. By this the Doves their wealth and state possess, No rights infringed, but licence to oppress: Such power have they as factious lawyers long To crowns ascribed, that Kings can do no wrong. But since his own domestic birds have tried The dire effects of their destructive pride, He deems that proof a measure to the rest, 2535 Concluding well within his kingly breast, His fowls of nature too unjustly were oppress'd. He therefore makes all birds of every sect Free of his farm, with promise to respect Their several kinds alike, and equally protect. 251 His gracious edict the same franchise yields To all the wild increase of woods and fields, And who in rocks aloof, and who in steeples builds. To Crows the like impartial grace affords, And Choughs and Daws, and such republic birds: 2545 Secured with ample privilege to feed, Each has his district, and his bounds decreed : Combined in common interest with his own, But not to pass the Pigeons' Rubicon.

Here ends the reign of this pretended Dove; 2550
All prophecies accomplish'd from above,
For Shiloh comes the sceptre to remove.
Reduced from her imperial high abode,
Like Dionysius to a private rod,

The Passive Church, that with pretended grace 2555
Did her distinctive mark in duty place,
Now touch'd, reviles her Maker to his face.
What after happen'd is not hard to guess:
The small beginnings had a large increase,
And arts and wealth succeed (the secret spoils of

Ver. 2519. And much the Buzzard in their cause did stir, Though naming not the patron, &c.]

On the fifth of November, 1684, Burnet preached a sermon in the Rolls chapel against Popery, in which he dropped some oblique reflections on the king. On this account it was ordered he should preach in that place no more, and he soon after found it necessary to withdraw to Holland. The king demanded him of the States as a traitor, but they refused to acquiesce. It is said £3000 was ordered to be paid by the treasury to any person that could contrive to deliver him into the king's hands. DERRICK. Ver. 2537. His fowls of nature, &c.] His fowl, &c. Original edition. TODD.

Ver. 2583. Thus did the gentle Hind] It is observable that in this poem, full of fine versification and weak argument, our author keeps to some leading doctrines of Popery, and makes no defence of several of its absurd tenets, purgatory, monkery, celibacy, confession, reliques, nor of two which Swift has inimitably ridiculed, holy water and the Pope's bulls.

"Another discovery, for which Peter was much renowned, was his famous universal pickle. For having remarked how your common pickle in use among housewives, was of no further benefit than to preserve dead flesh, and certain kinds of vegetables; Peter, with great cost as well as art, had contrived a pickle proper for houses, gardens, towns, men, women, children and cattle; wherein he could preserve them as sound as insects in amber. Now this pickle to the taste, the smell, and the sight, appeared exactly the same, with what is in common service for beef, and butter, and herrings, (and has been often that way applied with great success,) but for its many sovereign virtues was quite a different thing. For Peter would put in a certain quantity of his powder pimperlimpimp, after which it never failed of success. The operation was performed by Spargefaction, in a proper time of the moon." The patient who was to be pickled, if it were a house, would infallibly be preserved from all spiders, rats, and weazels. If the party affected were a dog, he should be exempt from mange, madness, and hunger. It also infallibly took away all scabs and lice, and scald heads from children, never hindering the patient from any duty, either at bed or board.

"But of all Peter's rarities, he most valued a certain set of bulls, whose race was by great fortune preserved in a lineal descent from those that guarded the golden fleece, though some who pretended to observe them curiously, doubted the breed had not been kept entirely chaste;

because they had degenerated from their ancestors in some qualities, and had acquired others, very extraordinary, but a foreign mixture.

The bulls of Colchos are recorded to have brazen feet; but whether it happened by ill pasture, and running, by an allay from intervention of other parents, from stolen intrigues: whether a weakness in their progenitors had impaired the seminal virtue; or by a decline necessary through a long course of time, the originals of nature being depraved in these latter sinful ages of the world: whatever was the cause, 'tis certain that Lord Peter's bulls were extremely vitiated, by the rust of time in the metal of their lead. However, the terrible roaring peculiar to their lineage was preserved; as likewise that faculty of breathing out fre from their nostrils, which, notwithstanding, many of their detractors took to be a feat of art, and to be nothing so terrible as it appeared, proceeding only from their usual course of diet, which was that of squibs and crackers."

Pope, it is said, used to mention this poem as the most correct specimen of Dryden's versification. I must own I cannot assent to this opinion. He tells us himself that he intended to give the majestic turn of heroic poesy to the first part. In this design he has woefully miscarried. The perspicuity and plausibility of his reasonings, however false and futile, show a great command of language. This poem our author intended as a defence for his sudden conversion to Popery, especially after his having written the Religio Laici, where such opposite opinions were maintained and enforced. Whether this conversion was the effect of pure truth and conviction, must be left to the great Searcher of our hearts to determine; but such a change in so abjeci a flatterer, would naturally be imputed to mercenary motives. It is remarkable that Congreve, in his laboured and elegant defence of his friend's character, speaks not a syllable on the subject. The conversions of two greater men to Popery, that of Henry IV. and Marshal Turenne, were reckoned interested and insincere. The following very severe lines are preserved in the State Poems, on this occasion:

"At all religions to the last from first,

Thou still hast rail'd, and then espoused the worst;
In this thy wisdom such as 'twas before,

T' abuse all woman kind-then wed a whore."

Dr. J. WARTOS. Ver. 2588. And setting stars admonish'd both to sleep.] "Suadentque cadentia sidera somnos."--Virgil.

JOHN WARTON,

OUR Vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes

care

"On the 10th of June, 1688, the queen was suddenly seized with labour-pains, and delivered of a son, who was baptised by the name of James, and declared Prince of Wales. All the Catholics and friends of James were transported with the most extravagant joy at the birth of this child; while great part of the nation consoled themselves with the notion that it was altogether supposititious. They carefully collected a variety of circumstances, upon which this conjecture was founded; and though they were inconsistent, contradictory, and inconclusive, the inference was so agreeable to the views and passions of the people, that it made an impression which, in all probability, will never be totally effaced. Dr. Burnet, who seems to have been at uncommon pains to establish this belief, and to have consulted all the Whig nurses in England upon the subject; first pretends to demonstrate, that the queen was not with child; secondly, that she was with child, but miscarried; thirdly, that a child was brought into the queen's apartment in a warming-pan; fourthly, that there was no child at all in the room; fifthly, that the queen actually bore a child, but it died that same day; sixthly, that the supposititious child had not the fits; seventhly, that it had the fits, of which it died at Richmond: therefore the Chevalier de St. George must be the fruit of four different impostures." -Smollett's History of England. DERRICK.

Ver. 1. Our vows are heard] It might be expected, that a late and zealous convert to Popery would join in the general triumph and exultation, felt by all his brethren, on the birth of a prince who might be the means of perpetuating the Catholic religion on the throne of these kingdoms, especially as this important event was imputed to a vow made by the Duchess of Modena to the Holy Virgin at Loretto, that her daughter might by her means have a son.

"Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto." Which was the motto of a long poem in hexameter verse, and not bad Latin, now before me, written by Mr. J. Plowden at this time. Burnet certainly has disgraced his history by collecting all the idle and incredible tales, and inconsistent accounts of the birth of this prince, in order to prove it was a supposititious child, and has given a narration more worthy of a nurse or midwife, than of a bishop and historian. King William, with that generosity and magnanimity that distinguished his character, gave no credit or countenance to this improbable fiction. Dr. J. WARTON.

20

25

*Last solemn sabbath saw the Church attend; The Paraclete in fiery pomp descend; But when his wondrous + octave roll'd again, He brought a royal infant in his train. So great a blessing to so good a king, None but the Eternal Comforter could bring. Or did the mighty Trinity conspire, As once, in council to create our sire? It seems as if they sent the new-born guest To wait on the procession of their feast; And on their sacred anniverse decreed To stamp their image on the promised seed. Three realms united, and on one bestow'd, An emblem of their mystic union show'd: The Mighty Trine the triple empire shared, As every person would have one to guard.

30

35

Hail son of prayers! by holy violence Drawn down from Heaven; but long be banish'd thence,

And late to thy paternal skies retire:
To mend our crimes whole ages would require;
To change the inveterate habit of our sins,
And finish what thy godlike sire begins.
Kind Heaven, to make us Englishmen again,
No less can give us than a patriarch's reign.

The sacred cradle to your charge receive,
Ye seraphs, and by turns the guard relieve;
Thy father's angel, and thy father join,
To keep possession, and secure the line;

40

45

Ver. 13. Her bloomy beauties] Original edition. Derrick, by an absurd error, has gloomy. TODD.

* Whit-Sunday. Original edition. Ver. 20. The Paraclete in fiery pomp descend;] So Parnell: "The fiery pomp ascending left the view." JOHN WAETON Trinity Sunday. Original edition.

Ver. 37. And late to thy paternal skies retire:] "Serus in cœlum redeas."-Hor.

JOHN WARTON.

Or, did not Heaven by its eternal doom
Permit those evils, that this good might come?
So manifest, that e'en the moon-eyed sects
See whom and what this Providence protects. *
Methinks, had we within our minds no more
Than that one shipwreck on the fatal ore,"
That only thought may make us think again,
What wonders God reserves for such a reign.
To dream that chance his preservation wrought,
Were to think Noah was preserved for nought;
Or the surviving eight were not design'd

To people earth, and to restore their kind.
When humbly on the royal babe we gaze,
The manly lines of a majestic face
Give awful joy: 'tis paradise to look

Oh still repining at your present state,
Grudging yourselves the benefits of fate,
Look up, and read in characters of light
A blessing sent you in your own despite.
The manna falls, yet that celestial bread
Like Jews you munch, and murmur while you
feed.

May not your fortune be like their's, exiled,
Yet forty years to wander in the wild:
Or if it be, may Moses live at least,
To lead you to the verge of promised rest.

70

Though poets are not prophets, to foreknow What plants will take the blight, and what will

The crescent which the Turks bear for their arms. Original edition.

The Pope in the time of Constantine the Great, alluding to the present Pope. Original edition.

Ver. 84. Behold another Sylvester, &c.] The Pope, in James the Second's time, is here compared to him who governed the Romish Church in the time of Constantine, to whom the king is likened a little lower down. DERRICK.

King James the Second. Original edition. Ver. 89. The former too was of the British line] St. Helen, mother of Constantine the Great, was an Englishwoman; and Archbishop Usher affirms, that the emperor himself was born in this kingdom. DERRICK.

99

106

110

In early pomp; how through the mother's eyes
The father's soul, with an undaunted view,
Looks out, and takes our homage as his due.
See on his future subjects how he smiles,
Nor meanly flatters, nor with craft beguiles;
But with an open face, as on his throne,
Assures our birthrights, and assumes his own.
Born in broad day-light, that the ungrateful

rout

115

Loth to confess the godhead clothed in earth:
But sicken'd, after all their baffled lies,
To find an heir apparent of the skies:
Abandon'd to despair, still may they grudge,
And, owning not the Saviour, prove the judge.
Not great Æneas stood in plainer day,
When, the dark mantling mist dissolved away,
He to the Tyrians show'd his sudden face,
Shining with all his goddess mother's grace:
For she herself had made his countenance
bright,

138

Breathed honour on his eyes, and her own purple

light.

135

If our victorious Edward, § as they say, Gave Wales a prince on that propitious day, Why may not years revolving with his fate Produce his like, but with a longer date? One, who may carry to a distant shore The terror that his famed forefather bore. But why should James or his young hero stay For slight presages of a name or day? We need no Edward's fortune to adorn That happy moment when our prince was born:

140

Enough of ills our dire rebellion wrought, When, to the dregs, we drank the bitter draught; Then airy atoms did in plagues conspire, Nor did the avenging angel yet retire,

155

160

But purged our still increasing crimes with fire.
Then perjured Plots, the still impending Test,
And worse but charity conceals the rest :
Here stop the current of the sanguine flood;
Require not, gracious God, thy martyrs' blood;
But let their dying pangs, their living toil,
Spread a rich harvest through their native soil:
A harvest ripening for another reign,
Of which this royal babe may reap the grain.
Enough of early saints one womb has given; 165
Enough increased the family of heaven:
Let them for his and our atonement go;
And reigning blest above, leave him to rule below.
Enough already has the year foreslow'd
His wonted course, the sea has overflow'd,
The meads were floated with a weeping spring,
And frighten'd birds in woods forgot to sing:
The strong-limb'd steed beneath his harness faints,
And the same shivering sweat his lord attaints.
When will the minister of wrath give o'er?
Behold him, at Araunah's‡ threshing-floor:
He stops, and seems to sheathe his flaming brand,
Pleased with burnt incense from our David's hand.
David has bought the Jebusite's abode,
And raised an altar to the living God.

170

175

180

211

215

220

Whom arms and arts did equally adorn,
Free of the breast was bred, whose milky taste
Minerva's name to Venus had debased;
So this imperial babe rejects the food
That mixes monarch's with plebeian blood:
Food that his inborn courage might control,
Extinguish all the father in his soul,
And, for his Estian race, and Saxon strain,
Might reproduce some second Richard's reign.
Mildness he shares from both his parents' blood:
But kings too tame are despicably good :
Be this the mixture of this regal child,
By nature manly, but by virtue mild.
Thus far the furious transport of the news
Had to prophetic madness fired the Muse;
Madness ungovernable, uninspired,
Swift to foretel whatever she desired.
Was it for me the dark abyss to tread,
And read the book which angels cannot read?
How was I punish'd, when the sudden blast,
The face of heaven, and our young sun o'ercast!
Fame, the swift ill, increasing as she roll'd,
Disease, despair, and death, at three reprises
told:

225

230

At three insulting strides she stalk'd the town,
And, like contagion, struck the loyal down.
Down fell the winnow'd wheat; but mounted

high,

The whirlwind bore the chaff, and hid the sky. 235
Here black rebellion shooting from below,
(As earth's gigantic brood § by moments grow)
And here the sons of God are petrified with woe:
An apoplex of grief: so low were driven
The saints, as hardly to defend their heaven.
As, when pent vapours run their hollow round,
Earthquakes, which are convulsions of the
ground,

240

Break bellowing forth, and no confinement brook, Till the third settles what the former shook; Such heavings had our souls; till, slow and late, Our life with his return'd, and faith prevail'd on fate.

246

or the name of God, unlawful to be pronounced by the Jews. Original edition.

Ver. 199. Thus the true name of Rome was kept conceal'd.] Some authors say, that the true name of Rome was kept a secret: "Ne hostes incantamentis deos clicerent." Original edition.

* Candie, where Jupiter was born and bred secretly Original edition.

† Pallas, or Minerva, said by the poets to have been bred up by hand. Original edition.

edit.

The sudden false report of the prince's death. Orig.

? Those giants are feigned to have grown fifteen ells every day. Original edition.