the young Marcellus, who died in his twentieth year: v. 609, 1188-1226. POEMS INCLUDED IN SYLVE, 1685. The editor has been unable to consult the second edition of this volume. The motto is Eneid, vi. 143, 144: cf. 596, 215, 216. In the letter quoted Dryden refers to Montaigne, livre iii, ch. 5, Sur des Vers de Virgile. (The editor is here indebted to Professor C. H. C. Wright, of Harvard University.) 175', 5 (prose). History of the League. v. n. 1612, 8. 1761, 10. Lord Roscommon's Essay, etc. v. 1732, n. 27. Dutch commentator. Dryden's dilettante patronizing of men like Franciscus Dousa and Daniel and Nikolaes Heinsius reminds one of certain literary critics of the present day. 1762, 8. Our Oglebys. v. 135, 102, n; 7482, 40-46. 177, 8. A late noble painter. Sir Peter Lely (1618-80), the court painter of Charles II. 50. Hand-gallop. An easy gallop, in which the horse kept well in hand. 51. Carpet-ground. Ground smooth as a carpet; cf. 3102, 11. 52. Synalephas. v. 3852. 1772, 5. My definition of poetical wit. "From that which has been said, it may be collected that the definition of wit. . is only this: that it is a propriety of thoughts and words; or, in other terms, thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject." The Author's Apology for Heroic Poetry, prefixed to The State of Innocence (1677): v. SS. v. 124. Dryden really took this idea from Rapin: "La vertu la plus essentielle au discours, après la clarté, c'est la pudeur et la modestie, comme remarque Demetrius le Phaleréen. Il faut, dit-il, de la proportion entre les paroles et les choses et rien n'est plus ridicule que de traiter un petit sujet d'un grand style: parce que ce qui est disproportionné, est ou toutà-fait faux, ou du moins badin et puerile." Reflexions sur la Poëtique, part 1, § 30. The source for Rapin is Demetrius Phalereus, De Elocutione, 120: "Fitness must be observed, whatever the subject; or in other words the style must be appropriate, subdued for humble topics, lofty for high themes." (Roberts's translation.) 18. Hannibal Caro Lived 1507-66: on his translation, cf. 5132, 14-19. 23. Tasso, etc. "Not in a letter, but at the end of the first of his Discorsi dell' Arte Poetica." KER. 178', 16. Lord Roscommon, etc. O may I live to hail the glorious day, And sing loud pæans through the crowded way, And in the Roman majesty appear, Which none know better, and none come so near. 26. Breakings. Dryden may use breaking as equivalent to casura (metrical pause), but more likely as hiatus (the use of a word ending in a vowel before one beginning with a vowel, without elision): cf. 512', 15-35, where Dryden incorrectly uses casura in the sense of elision. 44. When Lausus died, etc. The text reads When Lausus fell; v. 927, 226, and cf. 671, 1299, 1300. 1782, 29. Our poet and philosopher of Malmesbury. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). 1792, 47. Essay on Poetry. By the Earl of Mulgrave; cf. 490. Roscommon's Essay begins: Happy that author, whose correct Essay Roscommon also, in the same Essay, con- 180', 17. Viper. v. 188, 26. The editor has naturally let the verse stand as the printer left it. 23. Non ego, etc. Ars Poet. 351-353. But in a poem elegantly writ I would not quarrel with a slight mistake, 41. Translator of Lucretius. Thomas Creech (1659-1700), whose Lucretius appeared in 1682: cf. 9202. "In his translation he omitted the indelicate part of the Fourth Book, a deficiency which Dryden thought fit to supply, for which he has above assigned some very inadequate reasons." [SCOTT.] 181', 1. His satires, etc. Contrast Dryden's later verdict, pp. 307-316, which is in favor of Juvenal. 4. Any part. Ed. 1 reads no part, but the mistake is corrected in the errata. 8. As difficult, etc. HORACE, Odes. iv. 2. 1-4. 26. Curiosa felicitas. "The felicity gained through diligence." PETRONIUS, Sat. 118. 27. Feliciter audere. "To be happily bold:" v. Horace, 2 Epistles, i. 166. 33. One ode, etc. v. 199. The present Earl of Rochester was Laurence Hyde: v. 120, 888, n. Dryden distinguishes him from the nobleman mentioned in B. S. xxii, xxv, xxvi. 45. Mr. Cowley. For Dryden's varying estimate of this author, v. 91; 2832; 3201; 5141, 53 f; 5171; 7441, 53 f. 1812, 36. Quod nequeo, etc. "What I cannot express, but only feel; " adapted from Juvenal, vii. 56, Hunc qualem nequeo monstrare et sentio tantum. 48. Fungar, etc. HORACE, Ars Poet. 304, 305. But I must rest contented as I am, 185, 138. Store. Ed. 1 places a comma after this word, and a semicolon after more in the next line. misprint for 188, 26. The viper, etc. Cf. 1801, 17. 8 Possibly 191, 218. Neither. neither's, as Saintsbury suggests. 253. Nor pierces, etc. "Notice here, what is very unusual in Dryden, an Alexandrine couplet." SAINTSBURY. 260. Who after, match'd, etc. Ed. 1 reads, Who, after match'd, which may possibly be correct. But cf. 180', 14-16. 192', 18. Hand supplies. Ed. 1 reads, Hands supplies. 193, 72. Beauties'. Ed. 1 reads beauties, which may mean beauty's. THEOCRITUS: IDYLLIUM THE TWENTY-THIRD. This piece and the following are probably not by Theocritus. 196, 35. Queen Elizabeth. For the introduction of the modern allusion, cf. 98, 17, n; 1691, 31, n; 1992, 40; 324, 122; 367, 126. 44. Scarecrow. Ed. 1 reads scar Crow. 197, 82. Menalcas. Ed. 1 reads Menelaus, by a ludicrous misprint. The following words apparently mean: "He is a plain yeoman, not Master Menalcas." [SAINTSBURY.] 198. The Earl of Roscommon. v. 173. 1991, 32. Pointed. For the word, cf. 478, 152. HORACE, THE TWENTY-NINTH ODE, etc. v. 181', 33, n. 1992, 40. The new Lord May'r, etc. Cf. 152, 1135, n. Dryden inserts political allusions even into his translations. Cf. 98, 17, n; 196, 35, n. 201, 14. Trimmer. v. n. 120, 882. 202. THE FAIR STRANGER. The original edition does not separate or number the stanzas. 2032. SONG. In the text of this song in the Second Part of Miscellany Poems, 1716, lines 3, 4; 7, 8; 9, 10; 13, 14; 15, 16; 18, 19 form single lines. That text furnishes the following variant readings: 1. 5, so frequent a Fire; 1. 14, and all my; 1. 16, so faithful, so faithful a Lover; 1. 18, I'll die, I'll die, I'll die. The 1704 text is reprinted without change in the second edition, 1716, of The Fifth Part of Miscellany Poems. 203. THRENODIA AUGUSTALIS. Of the first edition of this poem there were two issues, both of which are owned by the Harvard Library. One of them (the later) is in larger type than the other. The second edition, as a careful comparison has shown, was apparently printed from the same type as the later issue of the first, without resetting, but with a few corrections of the text, apparently due to Dryden himself. The variations between the two issues of the first edition are very minute. The principal ones are as follows: 1. 70 (small type) sat, (large type and ed. 2) sate; l. 125 (sm.) then they, (1. and ed. 2) that they; 1. 232 (sm.) in which, (1. and ed. 2) on which; 1. 259 (sm.) inexhausting, (1. and ed. 2) inexhausted; l. 484 (sm.) The best, (1.) There best, (ed. 2) Their best. The text in Poems and Translations, 1701 (ed. 3), disregards Dryden's corrections and restores the readings of the later issue of ed. 1, from which it was evidently set up. But v. n. 206, 188. The motto of the poem is Eneid, ix. 446, 447; cf. 646, 597, 598. 204, 7. Niobe. Niobe, stricken with grief for the loss of her children, who were slain by Apollo and Artemis, was turned into stone. 22. No sickness, etc. Charles, who had always been in the best of health, was taken seriously ill on the morning of February 2. 28. This now, etc. Cf. 275, 306. 31. The flaming wall. Christie cites flammantia mania mundi, "the flaming walls of the world" (Lucretius, i. 73). 36. Our Atlas, etc. "Alluding to the fable of Hercules supporting the heavenly sphere when Atlas was fatigued." SCOTT. 70. An iron slumber. Christie cites Virgil's ferreus somnus (Eneid, x. 745). 80. Heav'n, etc. On February 5, according to Macaulay, the London Gazette announced that the physicians thought Charles out of danger. 205, 100. The first, etc. "A very ill-timed sarcasm on those who petitioned Charles to call his parliament." SCOTT. v. n. 112, 179. Christie remarks: "The line must mean that these were the first rude petitioners who were well-meaning." 106. His death, etc. v. 2 Kings xx. 1-11; but the parallel is by no means exact. 126. Friends, etc. Eds. 1 and 3 read: Each to congratulate his friend made haste. 150. The laboring moon. Cf. 342, 571, 572. "When the moon was eclipsed, it was supposed that magicians and witches were endeavoring to bring her down from heaven to aid them in their enchantments, and that she could be relieved from her sufferings by loud noises, beating of brass, sounding of trumpets, &c., to drown the voices of the enchanters." J. D. LEWIS, note on Juvenal, vi. 442. 153. On liking. "To engage on liking (an image rather too familiar for the occasion) is to take a temporary trial of a service, or business, with license to quit it at pleasure." [SCOTT.] 206, 164. Never was losing. Eds. 1 and 3 read Was never losing. 173. Th' extremest ways, etc. "The patient was bled largely. Hot iron was applied to his head. A loathsome volatile salt, extracted from human skulls, was forced into his mouth." MACAULAY. 188. Even Short himself. So eds. 1 and 2; ed. 3 reads Even Short and Hobbs. On this Christie well remarks: "Hobbes was a surgeon of eminence at the time of Dryden's death, and had attended Dryden in his last illness; but there is no other known mention of him among the medical men who attended the bedside of Charles II. This is a very suspicious change of the text in Tonson's volume of 1701." As a further proof that the change was not made by Dryden, it may be noted that in the preceding line (187) he remains in the text of ed. 3, but is altered to They in the errata. "Dr. Thomas Short was a Catholic and a Tory. To this circumstance he probably owes the compliment paid him by our author." [ScOTT.] 236. Exile. Referring to the duke's enforced absence from England during the excitement over the Popish Plot: cf. 1332, 22, n. 239. That king, etc. v. 1 Kings ii. 1-9, where David charges his successor Solomon to take vengeance on certain of his enemies. NOTES 207, 244. Those, etc. A glance at Monmouth, of 267. Camillus. Camillus, the Roman general 288. Still voice. Eds. 1 and 3 read still Sound. 354. Geneva weeds. Referring of course to the 364. As when, etc. Dryden had already used 371. Choir, like. Ed. 2 reads Quire like; eds. 1 372. The Muse, etc. v. Astræa Redux, p. 7. 209, 421. For twelve, etc. Charles had been king Virgil's Iliacis exercite fatis (Æneid, iii. 182); 435. False heroes, etc. For a similar passage, 441. The Cyclops, etc. v. 632, 633, 579-596. 447. Alcides. Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. In his infancy he strangled two serpents sent against him by the jealous Juno; in maturity, one of his labors was to overcome the Lernean hydra; after his death he was numbered among the gods. 456. Legitimately. In reference to the defeat of the aspirations of the Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II. 465. As after, etc. Numa was really followed by the martial Tullus Hostilius. Ancus Martius (hence, probably, Dryden's blunder), who succeeded Tullus, led the Romans against the Latins. 494. Strong. Eds. 1 and 3 read great. 210, 517. The fasces of the main. v. 10, 249, n. PROLOGUE AND EPILOGUE TO ALBION AND ALBANIUS. This opera celebrates the triumph of the royal brothers, Charles and James, over their Whig adversaries. The editor has been unable to consult the broadside text of the prologue and epilogue. 3. John Ketches. The name of John Ketch (d. 1686), who seems to have been public executioner from 1663 to his death, has become a nickname for his successors in office. Cf. 1561, 30; 3132, 46. 6. Oates. v. 117, 632, n. In May, 1685, Oates was sentenced to so terrific a flogging that it is a wonder he survived. He was reported to have bribed the executioner to inflict the punishment lightly. 2111, 4. Plain Dealing. "From this epilogue we learn, what is confirmed by many proofs elsewhere, that the attribute for which James desired to be distinguished and praised, was that of openness of purpose, and stern, undeviating inflexibility of conduct. He forgot that it was only the temporizing concessions of his brother which secured his way to the throne, when his exclusion, or a civil war, seemed the only alternatives." [SCOTT.] Contrast Dryden's praise of Charles, 208, 388-398, n. 2112. TO MY FRIEND, MR. J. NORTHLEIGH. These verses have been collated with a copy of the first edition, made at the Bodleian Library. For the scriptural references, v. Genesis xli. 25-36, 1 Kings iii. 16-28, and The History of Susanna (in the Apocrypha). In the last case there is of course a sarcastic reference to the Presbyterian party. To MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW. The first edition of this poem has the following variant readings: (12) be thy place; (124) gave Shape unto the Name; (128) King the Eye; (139-141): As in that Day she took from Sacred hands The Crown; 'mong num'rous Heroins was seen, More yet in Beauty, than in Rank, the Queen! (148) their Progress. Mrs. (Mistress) was in Dryden's time applied both to married and to unmarried women. 212, 26. Thy father, etc. Henry Killigrew had written a tragedy, The Conspiracy, published in 1638, and "reprinted in a revised form in 1653, under the title of Pallantus and Eudora." (WARD.) 43. In trine. Cf. 50, 1165, n. 50. And if, etc. An allusion to the fable that 213, 79. Her father's life. Other writers do not I 128. Our martial king. James II. 214, 147. To such, etc. Cf. the motto from Martial NOTES Orinda." [SCOTT.] Her talents as a poetess were praised by Cowley and other eminent men, and, what is important in the present connection, by Anne Killigrew, who addressed some verses to her. Both Mrs. Philips and Anne Killigrew died of the smallpox. Henry Killigrew 165. Her warlike brother. (d. 1712), a captain in the navy, who later became admiral. 180. The Valley of Jehosaphat. v. Joel iii. 2. On SIR GEORGE ETHEREGE. A LETTER ΤΟ Etherege's life, and the date of this Letter, v. Gosse, Seventeenth Century Studies. 2. As map informs. The latitude of Ratisbon is really about 49°: Dryden has followed a mistaken statement of Etherege in his letter to Middleton. The jests that follow are in reply to the same letter. 215, 28. What region, etc. A reference to Virgil's line: Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris. Eneid, i. 460. 30. Triptolemus. Ceres gave a chariot drawn by dragons and laden with wheat to her favorite Triptolemus, who rode in it over the earth, spreading among men a knowledge of agriculture. 47. Three holy miter'd Hectors. The three ecclesiastical electors were the archbishops of Treves, Cologne, and Maintz. These, with five temporal lords (the Count Palatine and the rulers of Bohemia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Brandenburg), constituted at this time the college of Electors. 49. Is sunk. The 1702 ed. reads is drunk; the correction is made in the following (fourth) edition of Sylvæ (1716). 73. The Duke St. Aignan. François de Beauvillers (1610?-87), a favorite of Louis XIV. A play called Bradamante was attributed to him. The spelling of the original edition is St. Agnon. The Rehearsal is said to have been begun about 1663, though it was acted only in 1671. 75. His Grace of Bucks. v. B. S. xxi. 7. Bauble. "A truncheon, with a fool's head 216, 22. Your author's principle. v.354, 533-561. Ed. 3 of this poem usually agrees with ed. 2; its readings, The first line of the motto is from Eneid, This poem produced a famous and truly Professor Williams's excellent commentary 973 cases not directly indicated in the following To the Reader. During the early part of his reign James II showed no tolerance for Protestant Dissenters, and tried to carry out his designs in behalf of the Catholic religion by the aid of his Tory Church of England subjects, who professed the doctrine of passive obedience. He disregarded in behalf of Catholics alone the Test Act of 1673, which excluded from office all men who refused to declare their disbelief in the doctrine of transubstantiation, and to receive the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England. This had hitherto banished every honest Catholic, and most of the Dissenters, from any position under the government, but had not affected some of the less strenuous Dissenters. (The Test Act of 1678, which required of all members of parliament an oath professing disbelief in transubstantiation, but did not require the taking of the sacrament according to the Anglican rites, was Finding aimed against Catholics alone.) that he could not win the support of the Church of England for his dispensing power, James turned for help to the Dissenters, and on April 4, 1687, issued a Declaration of Indulgence, suspending the Test Act and all penal laws against both Catholics and Dissenters, and giving to both the freedom of public worship. By this he hoped to gain the Dissenters to his own side. But the more clear-headed among them saw that this temporary indulgence was only a political trick, and refused to be duped by it. Dryden in this poem, planned and written while James was carrying out his earlier policy, breathes a spirit of hostility to the dissenting sects, such as the Wolf, the Bear, and the Fox. He hopes for a reconciliation of the Church of England with the Catholic Church (v. 222, 327-330; 244, 245, 19642049). The Declaration of Indulgence, issued only a week before The Hind and the Panther was licensed for the press, probably startled Dryden as much as it did the rest of the nation not in the king's confidence. In this prose preface he adapts himself to changed circumstances, praises toleration, and censures those who refused to accept it from a Catholic king. Cf. n. 245, 2090. 2162, 22 (prose). I hope, etc. Most readers will, I think, acknowledge with me the extreme awkwardness with which Dryden apologizes for hoping well of those sectaries against whom he had so often discharged the utmost severity of his pen." [SCOTT.] 217, 1. 'T is not, etc. Referring to Louis XIV's revocation, in 1685, of the Edict of Nantes of 1598, which had secured religious freedom in France. A severe persecution of the Huguenots followed. 7. That he has, etc. Scott points out that a similar phrase is found in an actual address of the period. 28. Classical ordination. Ordination by a classis or presbytery; cf. n. 220, 180. 38. Cyrus. v. Ezra i. 1-4. 41. In specie. In kind. 2172, 1. 'T is evident, etc. In 1685 and 1686 King James ordered published two papers in defense of the Catholic religion, said to have been written by King Charles II, and to have been found in his strong box, and a third paper, said to be by Anne, Duchess of York, the first wife of King James, telling how she came to adopt the same faith. An anonymous Answer to these papers soon appeared, of which Stillingfleet, a learned Church of England divine, was the principal author. This occasioned a Defense of the Papers, in the last division of which, concerning the paper of the Duchess of York, Dryden was concerned. Stillingfleet and his coadjutors then returned to the charge with A Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers (1687), to which Dryden here refers under the title Answer to the Defense of the late King's Papers. Cf. 237, 1454, n. 12. Socrates's. So ed. 1; eds. 2 and 3 read Socrate's. 19. Treatise of Humility. At the end of his Defense Dryden had written: "In the mean time, the spirit of meekness and humble charity would become our author better than his boasts for this imaginary victory . . but it is the less to be admired that he is such a stranger to that spirit, because, among all the volumes of divinity written by the Protestants, there is not one original treatise, at least that I have ever seen or heard of, which has handled distinctly, and by itself, that Christian virtue of humility" This Stillingfleet terms "a bare-faced assertion of a thing well known to be false, since within a few years such a book hath been published in London." Stillingfleet referred without doubt to A Practical Discourse of Humility, by William] A [llen], London, 1681. Dryden confuses this with a magnified piece of Duncomb, which turned out to be a translation from the Spanish Jesuit Alonso Rodriguez. Of Duncomb's work the editor can learn nothing: the British Museum Catalogue mentions "A Treatise of Humilitie, translated by T. B.] into English" from Rodriguez, Rouen, 1631. 33. Matter of fact. Dryden echoes a phrase of Stillingfleet at the opening of the Answer to the Defense of the Third Paper, which concludes his Vindication: "I have now done as to matter of reason and argument: the third paper chiefly relates to matter of fact." But by matter of fact Stillingfleet does not refer to the mere question of the reality of the duchess's conversion. v. Stillingfleet, Vindication, page 102 (SS. xvii. 255). Cf. n. 239, 1604. 42. Mrs. James. Eleanor James, a printer's wife who had published a pamphlet called Mrs. James's Vindication of the Church of 218, 1. Hind. The Catholic Church. Professor Williams points out that Dryden may have been influenced by scriptural passages such as Genesis xlix. 21; 2 Samuel xxii. 34; Proverbs v. 19. 6. Scythian shafts. "The Scythians tip their arrows with vipers' poison and human blood: for this frightful mixture there is no remedy: it brings death immediately at a slight touch." PLINY, Natural History, xi. 53 (115). Professor Williams cites Ovid's Scythica sagitta (Met. x. 588). 13. Of these, etc. "The Roman Catholic priests executed in England at different times since the Reformation, and regarded as martyrs and saints by those of their communion." SCOTT. 14. Caledonian wood. "Not Scottish, but taken generally for Britain, as Hercynian wood might be for Germany." SAINTSBURY. 15. Vocal blood. Cf. Genesis iv. 10. 19. So captive Israel, etc. v. Exodus i, 7–14. 35. Bear. The Independents, (the predecessors of the modern Congregationalists,) who rejected all ecclesiastical authority above that of the individual congregation, and discarded most forms and ceremonies. Cf. 886, 559-562. 37. Hare. The Quakers, who refused to take oaths of any sort, being guided by Matthew v. 34. 39. Ape. The Freethinkers. "The Earl of Sunderland, one of the principal ministers under Charles II and James II, was supposed to hold such opinions, for he made his change to Popery without even the form of previous instruction or conference. Dryden probably intended a sarcasm at him or some such timeserving courtier, for his occasional conformity with the royal faith, of which there were several instances at the time." [SCOTT.] To this Christie replies: "Dryden would hardly wish to offend any Roman Catholic convert, and he was not at all likely at this time to run a risk of offending Sunderland, who was in power. He had flatteringly dedicated Troilus and Cressida to Sunderland in 1679." Finally, Sunderland apparently did not become a Catholic until many months after the date of this poem: v. H. C. Foxcroft, Life of Halifax, i. 508. 41. Lion. The King of England. 43. Boar. The Anabaptists. The sect originated in Germany, where their early history is connected with a revolt of the peasantry. In 1534 they seized the city of Münster, where their rule (ending in June, 1535) was marked by many excesses, which brought the sect into disrepute. The Baptists were severely persecuted in England: some of the Independent congregations seem to have held Baptist views. 44. But whiten'd, etc. "The foam of sanctity refers to the Anabaptist dogma that every true believer attains in this life perfect freedom from sin." WILLIAMS. |