Troilus and Criseyde was Boccaccio's poem Il Filostrato. Though the direct originals of The Wife of Bath's Tale and The Cock and the Fox are unknown, Chaucer certainly did not invent the plot of either of them; the first story is probably of Celtic origin, the second is found in the medieval beast epic of Reynard the Fox.

7432, 2. Who love, etc. Cf. 3561, 4 (Arg.), n. 57. Inopem, etc. Metamorphoses, iii. 466: "Plenty has made me poor."

744', 2. Bartholomew Fair. By Ben Jonson. Dryden apparently remembers vaguely the general course of the action of the play, and the words of Littlewit at the opening of it: "A pretty conceit, and worth the finding! I have such luck to spin out these fine things still, and, like a silkworm, out of myself. When a quirk or a quiblin does 'scape thee, and thou dost not watch and apprehend it, and bring it afore the constable of conceit, .. let them carry thee out o' the archdeacon's court into his kitchen, and make a Jack of thee, instead of a John."

7. Virgil, etc. Cf. 252; 5022, 48, n. 22. They who, etc. Cf. 5142, 515.

25. The turn of words, etc. Cf. 3192, 41, n; 3852, 5 f; 5131, 7 f.

53. One of our late great poets. Cowley; cf. 1811, 45, n.

7442, 11. Lord Rochester. Cf. 5151, 46-48; B. S. XXV, xxvi; 2832, 4, n.

16. Nimis poeta. "Too much a poet." The source is not Catullus, but Martial, iii. 44. 21. Auribus, etc. "Fitted to the ears of that time." Tacitus (Dialogus, 21) describes an oration of Calvus as auribus iudicum accommodata.

29. 'T is true, etc. This refers to a passage in Speght's preface to his edition of Chaucer, published in 1598 and 1602, reprinted in 1687, quoted by Scott: "And for his [Chaucer's] verses, although in divers places they seem to us to stand of unequal measures, yet a skilful reader, who can scan them in their nature, shall find it otherwise." Modern study of the pronunciation of English in Chaucer's time has shown the correctness of Speght's view, which is now universally accepted.

51. Harrington. "Sir John Harrington's translation of the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto appeared in 1591." [KER.]

52. Our numbers, etc. Rymer's summary of the contents of chapter vi of his Short View of Tragedy, from which an excerpt has already been given (n. 7411, 50) contains the passage: "Chaucer refin'd our English. Which in perfection by Waller. His Poem on the Navy Royal, beyond all modern Poetry in any Language. Before him our Poets better expressed their thoughts in Latin."

But, as Christie points out, Dryden had already written, in the dedication of The Rival Ladies (1664):

an art; first show'd us to conclude the sense
most commonly in distichs, which, in the
verse of those before him, runs on for so
many lines together that the reader is out of
breath to overtake it. This sweetness of Mr.
Waller's lyric poesy was afterwards follow'd
in the epic by Sir John Denham, in his
Cooper's Hill, a poem which,
for the

majesty of the style, is, and ever will be, the exact standard of good writing." (SS. ii. 137.) Cf. 91; 3192, 44 f; 5122, 5; 5141, 52, n. 54. I need, etc. The little that Dryden says of Chaucer's life is of course inaccurate; correct accounts are now easily accessible.

7451, 13. Augustus, etc. Cf. 5131, 35–52. 22. The tale of Piers Plowman. Referring to The Plowman's Tale, a spurious poem included in all editions of Chaucer from 1542 to 1775, when Tyrwhitt rejected it from his Canterbury Tales.

31. The scandal, etc. Cf. 7342, 18, n.

52. Scandalum magnatum. "Words spoken in derogation of a peer, a judge, or other great officer of the realm. This was distinct from mere slander in the earlier law, and was considered a more heinous offense." BOUVIER, Law Dictionary.

7452, 7. A king of England. "It is almost unnecessary to mention their names - Henry II and Thomas à Becket." SCOTT. 13. Dr. Drake. Dr. James Drake wrote, in answer to Collier, a work called The Antient and Modern Stages Survey'd; or, Mr. Collier's View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage set in a true light, published anonymously in 1699.

21. Prior læsit. "He was the aggressor." 47. Baptista Porta. Giambattista della Porta (15437-1615), Neapolitan physician. His De Humana Physiognomia Libri IV was published in 1586.

7461, 19. My enemies. Collier and Blackmore, and possibly Milbourne also: cf. 734 (To MOTTEUX), n; 7482, 27, nn.

40. Totum, etc. "I wish all this unsaid." 46. Novels. Cf. 4872, 11, n.

7462, 17. Wincing, etc. From The Miller's Tale, 77, 78.

25. Reviving. So SS. and K; F reads receiving. 26. The late Earl of Leicester. Philip Sidney (1619-98), third Earl of Leicester, to whom Dryden had dedicated Don Sebastian in 1690. He was the elder brother of Algernon Sidney. 7471, 34. My lord, etc. For evidences of Dryden's earlier reading of Chaucer, v. 220, 212, D; 241, 1806, n; 242, 1860, n. He may have been prompted to it by the appearance of a reprint of Speght's Chaucer in 1687; cf. n. 7442, 29.

43. Multa, etc. HORACE, Ars Poet. 70-72: "Many words that now have declined shall be born again; and others, which are now in honor, shall fall, if usage wills it, on which depend the judgment and the law and the rules of our discourse." In the first line nunc is Dryden's error for jam; in the same line F reads renascuntur.

7472, 6. Some old Saxon friends. The most distinguished Saxon student of Dryden's time was George Hickes (1642-1715), but the editor can find no evidence that he was a friend of Dryden. Professor Ker conjectures that "Dryden was probably thinking particularly of Rymer."

21. Grandam gold. Professor Ker points out that Dryden uses the phrase old grandamand-aunt gold in The Wild Gallant (act iv, sc. 1; SS. ii. 93).

31. Facile, etc. "It is easy to add to what is already invented."

38. Mademoiselle de Scudéry. The famous French writer of chivalric romances (16071701): cf. B. S. xix. "Her huge romances, Artamenes and Clelia, were in my childhood still read in some old-fashioned Scottish families, though now absolutely forgotten, and in no chance of being revived." [SCOTT.] 43. Provençal. v. n. 7411, 50. 748', 49. Palamon and Arcite. On the real source of the poem, v. n. 743', 43. On the duration of the action of an epic poem, v. 5071, 23 f.

7482, 27. M. Luke Milbourne (1649-1720), a clergyman of the Church of England, had himself planned a translation of Virgil. He attacked Dryden's version in Notes on Dryden's Virgil (1698), where he fortified his criticisms by specimens of his own verses. Scott states (SS. xi. 76) that he also attacked Dryden's " person, and principles political and religious." Cf. 785, 87.

B

Sir Richard Blackmore (1650?1729), physician and poet, had written two epic poems, Prince Arthur (1695) and King Arthur (1697). In a passage of the preface to the former (quoted by Malone, III, 647649) he attacked Dryden for the indecency of his writings, resulting from his "irreligion and folly." In A Satyr against Wit, dated 1700, but probably published in the previous year, he renewed the charge. (Among the books mentioned in the Term Catalogue for Hilary Term, 1700, is A Satyr upon a late Pamphlet entituled A Satyr against Wit.) Dr. Johnson gives a specimen of Blackmore's raillery in this poem, and states that in a later edition of it, angered by Dryden's reply, he omitted a compliment to the poet which had mitigated the satire of the first edition. Cf. 785, 83; 8991, 16, n.

41. Ogleby. v. 135, 102, n; cf. 1762, 3-9. 61. If I, etc. Cf. 3821, 20, n.

749, 20. The guardian angels, etc. Cf. 2892-2911. 23. Dares, etc. v. 585, 533-559.

30. Mr. Collier. v. B. S. xxxvi; 734 (To MoTTEUX), n.

47. "The zeal, etc. v. Psalm lxix. 9; John ii. 17. 7492, 20. Seneffe. F reads Senneph. "The battle

of Seneffe in Flanders, in which the Prince of Condé was opposed to the Prince of Orange, was fought on August 11, 1674. Condé, not content with having defeated the rear guard of the enemy, in attempting to destroy the remainder of the Prince of Orange's army,

he

who had left his flank exposed decamped, lost a great number of men." [MALONE.]

29. Demetri, etc. HORACE, 1 Satires, x. 90, 91: "You, Demetrius and Tigellius, I bid lament among the chairs of your scholars." Blackmore had once been a schoolmaster. TO THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND. "Lady Mary Somerset, second wife of the duke. She was second daughter of Henry Somerset, first Duke of Beaufort." [SCOTT.] Cf. 150, 941, n. 4 (verse). A doubtful palm, "Dryden here says of Chaucer in reference to Virgil what Juvenal said of Virgil in reference to Homer: "The composer of the Iliad shall be sung, and the lays of high-sounding Maro, which make the palm of victory doubtful' (Satires, xi. 180, 181)." (CHRISTIE.]

750, 14. Plantagenet. Scott thought that the reference was to Blanche, first wife of John of Gaunt, Chaucer's patron, the fourth son of Edward III. Like her husband, this lady was a Plantagenet, being the daughter of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, the grandson of Edmund, brother of Edward I. But Professor Craik is doubtless right in rejecting this supposition. "The explanation" given by Scott, he writes, "leaves the principal part of the passage entirely unexplained. Chaucer's Plantagenet here is clearly not the Duchess Blanche, but Joan, daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, second son of Edward I by his second wife, Margaret of France, famous as the Fair Maid of Kent, married for the third and last time to Edward the Black Prince, by whom she was the mother of Richard II, having been previously the wife, first (it is understood) of Thomas Holland (later Earl of Kent], . . . secondly, of William Montague [Montacute], Earl of Salisbury (making the three contending princes), and commonly believed to be the Countess of Salisbury from whom the Order of the Garter, according to the well-known story, derived its name." (History of English Literature, 1871, vol. ii. pp. 116, 117.)

The fact that the Fables volume includes a version of The Flower and the Leaf, with its compliment to the Order of the Garter (v. 852, 546-558), is an additional argument in favor of Professor Craik's explanation. 29. Platonic year. "A cycle imagined by some ancient astronomers, in which the heavenly bodies were supposed to go through all their possible movements and return to their original relative positions (after which, according to some, all events would recur in the same order as before)." N. E. D.

30. O true Plantagenet, etc. "John of Gaunt had by his mistress, Catharine Swynford, whom he afterwards married, three sons and a daughter, who were legitimated by act of parliament. John de Beaufort, the eldest of these, was created Earl of Somerset, and from him the ducal family of Beaufort are lineally descended. The patent of the first duke, the father of this Duchess of Ormond,

bears to be in consideration of his services, and of his most noble descent from Edward III." [SCOTT.]

46. Etesian. Properly, a name applied by Greek and Latin writers to certain annual winds, especially those that blow for forty days during the dog-days. Dryden uses it here of a gentle, steady breeze. N. E. D. quotes from Phil. Trans. xiv. 561 (1684): "These Eastern Winds (which I call our English Etesians)."

48. Portunus. Cf. 8, 121, n; 582, 314, 315. 51. The land, etc. Cf. 10, 251, n.

59. Nor hear the reins. Christie aptly cites Neque audit currus habenas. (VIRGIL, Georgics, i. 514.)

62. As Ormond's harbinger. The Duchess of Ormond went to Ireland in April, 1697, and her husband followed in October. (LUTTRELL, Brief Relation, 1857, vol. iv, pp. 214, 288.)

64. The waste, etc. "Alluding to the wars of the Revolution in Ireland." SCOTT.

65. Pales. The god (goddess?) of flocks and shepherds; Ceres, the goddess of agriculture: cf. 464, 1; 787, 7, 8.

70. As when, etc. Cf. 1071, 1 f. 751, 101. Nor dare, etc. "She seems to have been just recovered from a fever." SCOTT. 125. Young Vespasian. Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus, better known, as a Roman emperor, by his first name. During the siege of Jerusalem, which he directed, he sought to spare the temple, and he mourned its destruction.

130. The table of my vow. The tabula votiva of Horace (Odes, i. 5. 13; 2 Satires, i. 33). Persons saved from shipwreck used to hang up in the temple of Neptune or some other appropriate divinity a picture representing their escape; cf. 703, 1114, 1115.

131. Morley's. "Dr. Christopher Love Morley, a physician of eminence." SCOTT. 133. The Macedon, etc. Alexander the Great; cf. 365, note 6. The story is told by several writers, as Quintus Curtius, ix. 8.

752, 162. Elisa. Another name of Dido; cf. 12, 65.

PALAMON AND ARCITE. On this and Dryden's other translations and adaptations from early English, see Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ch. vii; Schöpke, Ueber Dryden's Bearbeitung Chaucer'scher Gedichte (in Anglia, ii. 314-353, iii. 35-58); Tupper, Dryden and Speght's Chaucer (in Modern Language Notes, xii. 347-353). 12. With Love, etc. Repeated in 897, 518. 753, 115. His pennon. "The poet here introduces a distinction well known in heraldry. The banner was a square flag, which only barons of a great lineage and power had a right to display. The pennon was a forked streamer borne by a knight: Theseus carried both to the field, each bearing a separate device. Chaucer says:

And by his baner born is his penoun."

SCOTT.

754, 175. To do th' observance, etc. Cf. 760, 44, which translates Chaucer's:

And, for to doon his observaunce to May. 204. Was one partition, etc. "This may mean that the tower and the palace had a party wall in common, or that the tower was part of the outer wall of the palace." SAINTSBURY. 755, 222. Shady walks between. A reminiscence of Milton:

- a pillared shade High overarched, and echoing walks between. Paradise Lost, ix. 1106, 1107.

230. Thick of bars. Cf. 5, 55, n. Chaucer's words are thikke of many a barre.

756, 301, 308. Council. So F; in Dryden's time council and counsel were not yet carefully distinguished: cf. 816, 367.

358. Perithous. Dryden seems always to use this form in place of the correct Pirithous; cf. 787, 50.

361. Man. F places a full stop after this word. 757, 404. Extremest line. Professor Saintsbury explains this as outermost region. Perhaps it is easier to suppose that Dryden was seeking to draw a metaphor from the two poles of the earth, where day and night are each six months long.

427. Guilty of their vows. "A Latinism, voti reus; cf. 582, 307, n." [CHRISTIE.] 758, 500. Or Mars, etc. "Dryden has introduced Mars and the quartil; they are not in Chaucer. [CHRISTIE.] Cf. 182, 13, n; 50, 1165, n. 515. Beholds, etc. "This play of words, which is truly Ovidian, does not occur in Chaucer, nor is it in conformity with our author's general ideas of translating him: v. 743, 45 f; 744, 25 f." [SCOTT.]

759, 552. Argus'. v. 398, 399, 856-1003. 760, 12. In causes. "One of Dryden's frequent scholasticisms; in their causes would have been clearer." SAINTSBURY.

34. Style. Christie thinks that the word is used here in the sense of the Latin stylus, and refers for support to 151, 1051. His argument is not convincing.

761, 88. And angry, etc. Cf. 521, 2.

89. Curst, etc. Chaucer has simply, "Alas, that day that I was bore." Warton thinks that Dryden remembered Job iii. 3 f.

93. Cadmus, etc. Cf. 542, 436. 115, 116. Of such, etc. This couplet (with the readings times leave and That burnt) concludes a short poem by Carew, A Cruel Mistress. Warton noted Dryden's appropriation of it.

149. And Jove, etc. Cf. 727, 714, 715. 764, 364. The proverb, etc. Amare et sapere viz deo conceditur. "To love and to be wise is hardly granted to a god." From Publilius Syrus.

383. Lover's. F reads Lovers.

765, 414. The bars. "The palisades of the lists." [SCOTT.]

766, 483. Sigils. Cf. 853, 606, n.

489. Down-look'd. With a downcast glance. 498. Citheron. Cf. 770, 145, n.

515. Below. So F; but the sense requires above. 527. Thrace. Cf. 466, 143.

548. Strait. F has streight, which, as often, obviously stands for strait, not straight. 167, 565. Soft smiling. So SS.; F reads soft, smiling.

580. Sat. So F; it might be better to substitute sate, to point the rhyme.

600. Conquest. This is personified, Conquest, in Chaucer; Dryden has confused the passage by prefixing the article.

614. Two geomantic figures. Chaucer wrote

And over his heed ther shynen two figures
Of sterres, that been cleped in scriptures,
That oon Puella, that other Rubeus.

On this Speght comments, partially incorrectly: "The names of two figures in geomancy, representing two constellations in heaven. Puella signifieth Mars retrograde, and Rubeus Mars direct." This is sufficient to explain Dryden's rehandling of the passage; for an explanation of the subject matter, see Skeat's note on Cant. Tales, A 2045. 623. Calisto. A nymph of Diana, who was seduced by Jupiter. When her guilt had been discovered by Diana, as they were bathing, Juno turned her into a bear, in which form she was nearly slain by her son, Arcas. Jupiter, to avert this crime, gave mother and son places in the skies, as the constellations of the Great and the Little Bear. (F reads Calistho; the correct form is Callisto. Cf. p. 76, where Calisto is retained from the early editions.)

Manifest of shame. Cf. 112, 204, n. 627. Actaon. A hunter who chanced to see Diana bathing. She changed him into a stag, and he was torn in pieces by his own dogs. 631. Daphne. v. 394, 606 f. 634. The Caledonian beast. This is an error, by Dryden or the printer, for Calydonian; cf. 787, 1, n. On the story, v. 787-792. 768, 639. The Volscian queen. v. 624, 1094 f; 681-688, 753-1256.

661. So princes, etc. Dryden's complaint, not Chaucer's; cf. 414, 100, n.

8. Such chiefs, etc. Cf. 623, 975.

31. Pruce. Prussia. SCOTT.

769, 100. Their honest god. Cf. 460, 540, n; 732,

52.

104. Posts. The editions of 1700 and 1713 read Pots. The emendation to posts, adopted by all modern editors except Professor Saintsbury, seems practically certain; cf. 897, 561. 770, 129. Creator Venus, etc. Dryden here mingles Lucretius with Chaucer; cf. 182, 1-27. Spenser also imitates the same passage; v. Faerie Queene, IV. x. 44-47.

145. Thou gladder, etc. This line is directly from Chaucer; the island Cythera, not the mountain Citharon, was really sacred to Venus. Cf. 766, 498.

146. Increase of Jove. Cf. 256, 208, and Dryden's footnote.

147. Adonis. Cf. 725, 577; 811, 382, n.

771, 201. But such, etc. Dryden here remembers

Juvenal, vi. 314.

773, 381. Leaden. His planetary metal." SAINTSBURY.

388. Outridden. Dryden has "most ridiculously mistaken" (Tyrwhitt) the sense of Chaucer's outrede (at-rede in Skeat's text), which really means surpass in counsel.

389. Trin'd. v. 50, 1165, n.

774, 411. Bought senates, etc. "This line, containing a political allusion to the events of the Revolution, is Dryden's exclusively." [SCOTT.]

426. Chronos'. i. e. Saturn's.

442. Leaning, etc. Cf. 9, 154.

775, 545. Many. In this substantive use of many there is probably confusion with the noun meiny, retinue; cf. 732, 107.

777, 665. The people, etc. Cf. 732, 107.

672. The standing army. Cf. 3561, 4 (Arg.), n. 689. Popularly low. Cf. 118, 689.

778, 757, 758. Destroy'd: void. The repetition of this rhyme just below (l1. 766, 767) is a sign of Dryden's haste in writing.

779, 787. Spirit 's. F reads Spirits. 844-853. But... know. Dryden has modified Chaucer's lines into a passage that gives expression to his own sceptical temperament, which, however, did not preclude acceptance of the doctrines of the Catholic Church. On the concluding couplet, cf. 164, 165, 208211.

780, 891. With words, etc. Here Dryden adds a touch of sarcasm not found in Chaucer. 781, 927. Mourning Bride. The italics (retained from F) point the compliment to Congreve's tragedy The Mourning Bride, acted and published in 1697.

960. Mountain-ash. So F.

982. Swound. F reads Swoond.

985. While, etc. In this description Dryden follows Chaucer closely, but compare also 675, 281-303.

782, 1066. A drop. Cf. 811, 384.

783, 1074. Rechless. F reads Retchless. 1144. Eros and Anteros. Here understood by Dryden as the gods of Love and Reciprocal Love.

784. TO JOHN DRIDEN. This country gentleman was the second son of Sir John Driden, baronet, the elder brother of Erasmus Dryden (or Driden), the poet's father (Malone, I, 1, 321). He was born in 1635; he represented the county of Huntingdon in parliament in 1690, and from 1700 till his death in 1708.

Some interesting information as to this poem is contained in Dryden's letters. His former antagonist, Charles Montagu (v. n. 216, HIND AND PANTHER), was now First Lord of the Treasury, and a prominent member of the ministry to which John Driden of Chesterton, as is evident from 11. 127-134, 171-194, of the poem, was opposed. Desiring his patronage for his projected translation of Homer, the poet wrote to him in October, 1699, inclosing the epistle to his cousin: "Sir,

These verses had waited on you with the former [those To the Duchess of Ormond], but

that they wanted that correction which I have given them, that they may the better endure the sight of so great a judge and poet. I am now in feare that I have purg'd them out of their spirit; as our Master Busby us'd to whip a boy so long, till he made him a confirm'd blockhead. My cousin Driden saw them in the country; and the greatest exception he made to them was, a satire against the Dutch valour in the last war. He desir'd me to omit it, (to use his own words) out of the respect he had to his Sovereign. I obey'd his commands, and left onely the praises, which I think are due to the gallantry of my own countrymen. In the description which I have made of a Parliament-man, I think I have not only drawn the features of my worthy kinsman, but have also given my own opinion of what an Englishman in Parliament ought to be; and deliver it as a memorial of my own principles to all posterity. I have consulted the judgment of my unbyass'd friends, who have some of them the honour to be known to you; and they think there is nothing which can justly give offence in that part of the poem. I say not this, to cast a blind on your judgment, (which I cou'd not do, if I indeavour'd it,) but to assure you, that nothing relateing to the publique shall stand without your permission; for it were to want common sence to desire your patronage, and resolve to disoblige you: And as I will not hazard my hopes of your protection, by refusing to obey you in any thing which I can perform with my conscience or my honour, so I am very confident you will never impose any other terms on me." (Malone, I, 2; 90, 91; the remainder of the letter is given in n. 7421, 23.)

For other notices, see the excerpts on p. 737. Malone (I, 1, 325-327) mentions a tradition, of which he doubts the accuracy, that the noble present to which Dryden refers was the sum of five hundred pounds. Lines 7-13 of the poem, according to Scott, are added to John Driden's epitaph in the church at Chesterton.

43. But you, etc. "Sir Robert Driden inherited the paternal estate of Canons Ashby, while that of Chesterton descended to John, his second brother, to whom this poem is addressed, through his mother, daughter of Sir Robert Bevile." [SCOTT.]

53. Industrious of. Cf. 233, 1143.

785, 75. Pity, etc. "It is a pity that the generous kind, etc." [CHRISTIE.]

82. Gibbons. Cf. 367, 126, n; 7091, 13. 83. Maurus. Cf. 7482, 27, n; 899', 16, n. The editor cannot find that Blackmore robb'd and murder'd Maro's Muse, and thinks that in l. 85 he may be confused with Milbourne.-"The fourteen-syllable line is of course used intentionally, and, as it were, pictorially. The sweep of the verse is as vast as that of Maurus." [SAINTSBURY.] Cf. 129, 94, n.

87. M-lb-rne. Milbourne; cf. 7482, 27, n. 107. Garth. "Sir Samuel Garth (1661-1719), the ingenious author of The Dispensary (1699).

Although this celebrated wit and physicia differed widely from Dryden in politica, being a violent Whig, they seem, nevertheless, to have lived in the most intimate terms. Sir Samuel had the honor to pronounce a Latic oration at the funeral of our poet. Garth's generosity consisted in maintaining a Dispensary for issuing advice and prescriptions gratis to the poor. This was highly disap proved of by the more selfish of his brethres and by the apothecaries. The resulting dis putes led to Sir Samuel's humorous poem" [SCOTT.]

109. The viper's brood.

Thou mak'st th' ingratefull Viper (at his birth)
His dying Mother's belly to gnaw forth.

SYLVESTER, Dubartas his First Weeke(Strih
Day, 11. 250, 251).

118. Produce. F has periods after both this word and bear (1. 122); after wit (1. 124) it has an exclamation point, and after found (1. 126) a question mark. SS. and C. retain the period after produce and place a colon after bear. 786, 140. Munster. Cf. 30, 145, n. 142. Our foes, etc. "A very bloody war had been recently concluded by the Peace of Ryswick in 1697. The House of Commons were averse to a renewal of the conflict, and. from fear of tyranny, were jealous of every attempt to maintain any military force. In 1698 the army was reduced to 7000 men, and in 1699 William saw himself compelled to dismiss his faithful and favorite Dutch guards

The subsequent lines point obliquely at these measures, which were now matter of public discussion. Dryden's cousin was one of the Whig faction that opposed the king on the question of the army. As for the poet, his Jacobitical principles assented to everything that could embarrass King William. But, for the reasons which he has assigned in his letter to Montagu, he leaves his opinion concerning the disbanding of the army to be inferred from his panegyric on the navy, and his declamation against the renewal of the war." [SCOTT.] Cf. 3561, 4 (Arg.), n.

152. Namur. The capture of Namur in Belgium by William III in 1695 had led up to the Peace of Ryswick two years later. 188. Your gen'rous grandsire. Malone, and Scott following him, stated, apparently without other evidence than this poem, that this was Sir Robert Bevile, maternal grandiather of John Driden of Chesterton. Christie writes, on the other hand: "The laborious and accurate Mr. Holt White, in his MS. notes, ascertained that Sir Erasmus Dryden, the common grandfather of the two cousins, is referred to; and he refers to a list in Rushworth's Historical Collections (i. 473), where occurs the name of Sir Erasmus Draiton, as one of those sent to prison on account of the loan money, and liberated on the eve of the general election for Charles I's third parlisment, 1628."

787, 1. Calydonians. F reads Caledonians (and