Nor trust the father in a jealous prince!
Your trivial faults if he could so resent,
To doom you little less than banishment,
What rage must your presumption since inspire?
Against his orders your return from Tyre?
Nor only so, but with a pomp more high,
And open court of popularity,
The factious tribes - And this reproof from thee? The prince replies, O statesman's winding skill, They first condemn that first advis'd the ill! Illustrious youth, return'd Achitophel, Misconstrue not the words that mean you
The course you steer I worthy blame conclude,
But 'tis because you leave it unpursu❜d.
A monarch's crown with fate surrounded lies,
Who reach, lay hold on death that miss the prize.
Did you
for this expose yourself to show,
And to the crowd bow popularly low?
For this your glorious progress next ordain, With chariots, horsemen, and a numerous train? With fame before you like the morning star, And shouts of joy saluting from afar?
Oh from the heights you've reach'd but take a view,
Scarce leading Lucifer could fall like you!
And must I here my shipwreck'd arts bemoan?
Have I for this so oft made Israel groan?
Your single interest with the nation weigh'd, 200
And turn'd the scale where your desires were laid?
Ev'n when at helm a course so dangerous mov'd
To land your hopes, as my removal prov❜d.
I not dispute, the royal youth replies, The known perfection of your policies, Nor in Achitophel yet grudge or blame The privilege that statesmen ever claim; Who private interest never yet pursu❜d, But still pretended 'twas for other's good: What politician yet e'er scap'd his fate,
Who saving his own neck not sav'd the state?
From hence on every humorous wind that veer'd,
With shifted sails a several course you steer'd.
What form or sway did David e'er pursue,
That seem'd like absolute, but sprung from you?
Who at your instance quash'd each penal law,
That kept dissenting factious Jews in awe;
And who suspends fix'd laws, may abrogate,
That done, form new, and so enslave the state.
Even property, whose champion now you stand,
And seem for this the idol of the land,
Did ne'er sustain such violence before,
As when your counsel shut the royal store;
V. 216. Who at your instance quash'd each penal law] Suspending the penal laws, and granting liberty of conscience, was owing to the advice of our Achitophel; and was an affair of dangerous tendency, as being one great step towards enslaving the state. D.
V. 223. shut the royal store] Or the exchequer, in the beginning of 1672, he being in great want of money; a transaction that occasioned much confusion, for there being thereby a stagnation of all public payments, the banks also stopped; but the king having assured the bankers and merchants, that the present deficiencies should be soon made good, matters flowed
Advice, that ruin to whole tribes procur'd,
But secret kept till your own banks secur❜d.
Recount with this the triple covenant broke,
And Israel fitted for a foreign yoke;
Nor here your counsel's fatal progress staid,
But sent our levied powers to Pharaoh's aid.
Hence Tyre and Israel, low in ruins laid,
And Egypt, once their scorn, their common terror
E'en yet of such a season can we dream,
When royal rights you made your darling theme.
For power unlimited could reasons draw,
And place prerogative above the law;
Which, on your fall from office, grew unjust,
The laws made king, the king a slave in trust:
Whom with state-craft, to interest only true,
You now accuse of ills contriv'd by you.
To this Hell's agent-Royal youth, fix here,
Let interest be the star by which I steer.
Hence to repose your trust in me was wise,
Whose interest most in your advancement lies,
A tie so firm as always will avail,
When friendship, nature, and religion fail;
On ours the safety of the crowd depends,
Secure the crowd, and we obtain our ends,
Whom I will cause so far our guilt to share,
Till they are made our champions by their fear.
again in their proper channel, though it was a stretch of power not easily forgotten or digested. D.
What opposition can your rival bring,
While Sanhedrims are jealous of the King?
His strength as yet in David's friendship lies,
And what can David's self without supplies?
Who with exclusive bills must now dispense,
Debar the heir, or starve in his defence.
Conditions which our elders ne'er will quit,
And David's justice never can admit.
Or forc'd by wants his brother to betray,
To your ambition next he clears the way;
For if succession once to nought they bring,
Their next advance removes the present king:
Persisting else his senates to dissolve,
In equal hazard shall his reign involve.
Our tribes, whom Pharaoh's power so much alarms,
Shall rise without their prince to oppose his arms:
Nor boots it on what cause at first they join,
Their troops, once up, are tools for our design.
At least such subtle covenants shall be made,
Till peace itself is war in masquerade.
Associations of mysterious sense,
Against, but seeming for, the king's defence:
E'en on their courts of justice fetters draw,
And from our agents muzzle up their law.
By which a conquest if we fail to make,
'Tis a drawn game at worst, and we secure our stake.
He said, and for the dire success depends
On various sects, by common guilt made friends,
Whose heads, though ne'er so differing in their creed,
I' th' point of treason yet were well agreed.
'Mongst these, extorting Ishban first appears, 280
Pursu'd by a meagre troop of bankrupt heirs.
Blest times, when Ishban, he whose occupation
So long has been to cheat, reforms the nation!
Ishban of conscience suited to his trade,
As good a saint as usurer ever made.
Yet Mammon has not so engross'd him quite,
But Belial lays as large a claim of spite;
Who, for those pardons from his prince he draws,
Returns reproaches, and cries up the cause.
That year in which the city he did sway,
He left rebellion in a hopeful way.
Yet his ambition once was found so bold,
To offer talents of extorted gold;
Could David's wants have so been brib'd, to shame
And scandalize our peerage with his name;
For which, his dear sedition he'd forswear,
And e'en turn loyal to be made a peer.
Next him, let railing Rabsheka have place,
So full of zeal he has no need of grace;
A saint that can both flesh and spirit use,
Alike haunt conventicles and the stews:
extorting Ishban first appears,
Pursu'd by a meagre troop of bankrupt heirs] Sir Robert Clayton, an alderman of the city, and one of its members, who remarkably opposed the court. Though he was very avaricious, he had offered a large sum to be made a peer; and those who consider the king's wants will believe with me, he was sorry the alderman's money was not tangible. D.
V. 301. conventicles] He accents the word again on the
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