"But like the Prince of Angels, from his height
"Comes tumbling downward with diminished light:
"Betrayed by one poor Plot to public scorn,
"(Our only blessing since his curst return,)
"Those heaps of people, which one sheaf did bind,
"Blown off and scattered by a puff of wind.
"What strength can he to your designs oppose,
"Naked of friends,* and round beset with foes?
"If Pharaoh's t doubtful succour he should use,
"A foreign aid would more incense the Jews;
"Proud Egypt would dissembled friendship bring,
"Foment the war, but not support the King:
"Nor would the royal party e'er unite

275

280

285

"With Pharaoh's arms to assist the Jebusite;

"Or, if they should, their interest soon would break
"And with such odious aid make David weak.
"All sorts of men, by my successful arts
"Abhorring kings, estrange their altered hearts
"From David's rule: and 'tis the general cry,
"Religion, commonwealth, and liberty.
"If you, as champion of the public good,
"Add to their arms a chief of royal blood,
"What may not Israel hope, and what applause
"Might such a general gain by such a cause?
"Not barren praise alone, that gaudy flower,
"Fair only to the sight, but solid power;
"And nobler is a limited command,
"Given by the love of all your native land,
"Than a successive title, long and dark,

290

295

300

"Good, gracious, just, observant of the laws;
"And Heaven by wonders has espoused his cause.

320

Naked of is a Gallicism. Dryden uses dry similarly in his play "Amphitryon," act 3, sc. 1: "dry of those embraces. See note on thick of, in Stanzas on Oliver Cromwell, 14.

Pharaoh, Louis XIV. king of France (Egypt).

"Amor atque deliciæ generis humani," said of the Emperor Titus by Suetonius, chap. 1.

"Whom has he wronged in all his peaceful reign?
"Who sues for justice to his throne in vain?
"What millions has he pardoned of his foes
"Whom just revenge did to his wrath expose.
"Mild, easy, humble, studious of our good,
"Inclined to mercy and averse from blood.
"If mildness ill with stubborn Israel suit,
"His crime is God's beloved attribute.
"What could he gain his peopic to betray
"Or change his right for arbitrary sway?
"Let haughty Pharaoh curse with such a reign
"His fruitful Nile, and yoke a servile train.
"If David's rule Jerusalem displease,

"The dog-star heats their brains to this disease.

325

330

Why then should I, encouraging the bad,

335

"Turn rebel and run popularly mad?

"Were he a tyrant, who by lawless might
"Oppressed the Jews and raised the Jebusite,

"All but his kingly diadem he gives:

"And that "-But there he paused, then sighing said,

"Is justly destined for a worthier head;

"For when my father from his toils shall rest

"And late augment the number of the blest,

350

"His lawful issue shall the throne ascend,

Or the collateral line, where that shall end.
"His brother, though oppressed with vulgar spite,

"Yet dauntless and secure of native right,

* The Duke of York's character is thus drawn by Dryden in "The Duke of Guise' (act 5, sc. 1', the King of France praising his "brother of Navarre' to the Archbishop of Lyons:

"I know my brother's nature; 'tis sincere,

Above deceit, no crookedness of thought:

Says what he means, and what he says performs;
Brave, but not rash; successful, but not proud;
So much acknowledging that he's uneasy

Till every petty service be o'erpaid.

Archb. Some say revengeful.

King.

Some then libel him:

But that's what both of us have learnt to bear;
He can forgive, but you disdain forgiveness."

The play of "The Duke of Guise" was first acted in December 1682.

66

Why should I then repine at Heaven's decree
"Which gives me no pretence to royalty?
"Yet oh that Fate, propitiously inclined,
"Had raised my birth or had debased my mind,
"To my large soul not all her treasure lent,
"And then betrayed it to a mean descent!
"I find, I find my mounting spirits bold,
"And David's part disdains my mother's mould.
"Why am I scanted by a niggard birth?
"My soul disclaims the kindred of her earth
"And, made for empire, whispers me within,
"Desire of greatness is a god-like sin."*

Him staggering so when Hell's dire agent found,
While fainting virtue scarce maintained her ground,
He pours fresh forces in, and thus replies:

"The eternal God, supremely good and wise,
"Imparts not these prodigious gifts in vain.
"What wonders are reserved to bless your reign!

66

Against your will your arguments have shown,
"Such virtue's only given to guide a throne.
"Not that your father's mildness I contemn,

365

370

375>

385

"But manly force becomes the diadem.

"For lavish grants suppose a monarch tame
"And more his goodness than his wit proclaim.

'Tis true he grants the people all they crave,
"And more perhaps than subjects ought to have:

385

"Let him give on till he can give no more,

"If not when kings are negligent or weak?

"But when should people strive their bonds to break,

390

"The thrifty Sanhedrin + shall keep him poor;
"And every shekel which he can receive
"Shall cost a limb of his prerogative.
"To ply him with new plots shall be my care,
"Or plunge him deep in some expensive war;
"Which when his treasure can no more supply,
"He must with the remains of kingship buy.
"His faithful friends our jealousies and fears
"Call Jebusites and Pharaoh's pensioners,
"Whom when our fury from his aid has torn,
"He shall be naked left to public scorn.
"The next successor, whom I fear and hate,
"My arts have made obnoxious to the State,

Compare another passage of Dryden :

"Ambitious fools we are,

And yet ambition is a god-like fault!
Or rather 'tis no fault in souls born great,

Who dare extend their glory by their deeds."

King Arthur, act 1, sc. 2.

The Sanhedrin, the Parliament.

395

400

"Turned all his virtues to his overthrow,
"And gained our elders to pronounce a foe,
"His right for sums of necessary gold

405

"Shall first be pawned, and afterwards be sold;

"Till time shall ever-wanting David draw

"To pass your doubtful title into law.

"If not, the people have a right supreme

"To make their kings, for kings are made for them,

410

66

All empire is no more than power in trust,

"Which, when resumed, can be no longer just.
"Succession, for the general good designed,
"In its own wrong a nation cannot bind :
"If altering that the people can relieve,
"Better one suffer than a nation* grieve.

"The Jews well know their power: ere Saul they chose

413

"God was their King, and God they durst depose. †

"Or let him lay his vain pretence aside.

"God said, He loved your father; could He bring

"A better proof than to anoint him King?

430

"It surely showed, He loved the shepherd well
"Who gave so fair a flock as Israel.

"Would David have you thought his darling son?

"What means he then to alienate the crown?

"The name of godly he may blush to bear;

435

"Tis after God's own heart to cheat his heir.

Perhaps the old harp on which he thrums his lays "Or some dull Hebrew ballad in your praise.

440

"Then the next heir, a prince severe and wise,

'Already looks on you with jealous eyes,

66

"Sees through the thin disguises of your arts,

"And marks your progress in the people's hearts;

• Million in first edition instead of nation.

↑ Dryden represents the government of the Commonwealth before Cromwell's Protectorate as a theocracy. Compare line 522, "their old beloved theocracy."

The meaning of this is that Charles may blush to call himself " godly," when he declines to cheat the Duke of York of his succession, to do which would be "after God's own heart" Derrick turned this line into a question, changing 'tis into is't:

"Is't after God's own heart to cheat his heir?"

This change makes an unmusical beginning of the line, and deprives the passage of meaning. Yet it has been established in the modern editions, including Scott's. David was "after God's own heart" because he fulfilled all his will. See note on line 7.

"Though now his mighty soul its grief contains,
"He meditates revenge who least complains;
And like a lion, slumbering in the way

Or sleep dissembling, while he waits his prey,
"His fearless foes within his distance draws,
"Constrains his roaring and contracts his paws,
"Till at the last, his time for fury found,

*

445

450

"The prostrate vulgar passes o'er and spares,

"He shoots with sudden vengeance from the ground, ́^

455

"But with a lordly rage his hunters tears;
"Your case no tame expedients will afford,
"Resolve on death or conquest by the sword,
"Which for no less a stake than life you draw,
And self-defence is Nature's eldest law.)
"Leave the warm people no considering time,
"For then rebellion may be thought a crime.
"Prevail yourself of what occasion gives, +
"But try your title while your father lives;
"And, that your arms may have a fair pretence,
66 Proclaim you take them in the King's defence;
"Whose sacred life each minute would expose
"To plots from seeming friends and secret foes.
"And who can sound the depth of David's soul?
Perhaps his fear his kindness may control :

66

"He fears his brother, though he loves his son,
"For plighted vows too late to be undone.

400

465

470

"If so, by force he wishes to be gained,

"Like women's lechery to seem constrained.

"Doubt not but, when he most affects the frown,
"Commit a pleasing rape upon the crown.
"Secure his person to secure your cause:

475

66

They, who possess the Prince, possess the laws."

He said, and this advice above the rest

With Absalom's mild nature suited best ;
Unblamed of life + (ambition set aside),
Not stained with cruelty nor puffed with pride,

How happy had he been, if Destiny

480

Had higher placed his birth or not so high!

And blessed all other countries but his own;
But charming greatness since so few refuse,
'Tis juster to lament him than accuse.

His kingly virtues might have claimed a throne

485

* This simile reappears in "Sigismunda and Guiscardo" (line 241) in describing Tancred's fury:

"For malice and revenge had put him on his guard:

So, like a lion that unheeded lay,

Dissembling sleep and watchful to betray,

With inward rage he meditates his prey.'

+ Prevail, Dryden's word, is here restored; avail was substituted by Derrick, and has been printed by all editors who have followed him. See note in p. 39.

Unblamed of life: a frequent Latinism with Dryden, as "turbulent of wit" in line 153 Swift of despatch," line 191.