the gryphons for the gold which the monsters guarded. 180. 1029. The utmost orb. The outermost of the ten concentric spheres which, according to Ptolemaic astronomy, constituted the universe; at the center was the earth.

BOOK XII

604. He ended. The archangel Michael, who had been sent to drive Adam and Eve out of Paradise.

AREOPAGITICA

181. "I wrote my Areopagitica," said Milton in his Defensio Secunda, in order to deliver the press from the restraints with which it was encumbered; that the power of determining what was true and what was false, what ought to be published and what to be suppressed, might no longer be entrusted to a few illiterate and illiberal individuals, who refused their sanction to any work which contained views or sentiments at all above the level of the vulgar superstition." The treatise appeared in November, 1644, four months after the defeat of Rupert at Marston Moor, and when Milton felt confident that the Parliamentary cause would prosper. The immediate occasion was the enactment, in June, 1643, of an order forbidding the printing or sale of any book that had not been properly licensed. 14. Those fabulous dragon's teeth. The dragon's teeth, sown by Jason, sprang up armed men.

46. The thing. The custom of requiring a license.

182. 58. Lullius. Raymond Lully, a scientist of the thirteenth century. Sublimate.

extract.

67. That unapocryphal vision. See Acts, x: 9-16.

85. Mr. Selden. John Selden (15841654), a writer on law and constitutional history and member of Parliament for Oxford University.

107. Omer. A measure, mentioned in Exodus, xvi: 18. It was between half and four-fifths of a gallon.

128. Seeds which were imposed on Psyche. The story, told in Apuleius's Golden Ass, pictures Venus as punishing Psyche for winning the love of Cupid by forcing her to arrange in proper piles all the seeds of a vast heap of mixed grain. The ants, taking pity on Psyche, performed the labor for her.

164. Scotus; Aquinas. Duns Scotus, (1265-1308), a famous mathematician; Thomas Aquinas (1224?-1274), the “angelic doctor" of the scholastic philosophers.

183. 166. Guyon. The knight of temperance, hero of Book II of the Faerie Queene. 181. It. The licensing act.

183. 187. Pluralities. The churchman who was the possessor of several benefices was said to hold a plurality.

219. Ferular. Rod. Fescu. Pointer. 220. Imprimatur. Let it be printed; the word signifying that the book had been licensed for publication.

247. Palladian. Pertaining to Pallas Athene, goddess of wisdom.

184. 359. Pyrrhus. After the battle of Heraclea (280 B. C.) Pyrrhus declared that if he had Roman soldiers the control of the world would be easy.

185. 412. Janus. The two-faced god of the Romans, whose temple doors were opened only in war-time.

426. Beyond the discipline of Geneva. Beyond what seems proper to the Presbyterians.

459. The old Proteus. Proteus, the sea god, whose power of assuming many forms has given its significance to the adjective Protean, prophesied when bound in chains.

464. Micaiah before Ahab. See 1 Kings, xxii: 13-15.

186. 502. Many subdichotomies. Many minor subdivisions.

187. 613. She is now fallen from the stars. The Star-chamber court was abolished in 1641.

620. These sophisms and elenchs of merchandise. False arguments used by the bookselling trade.

190. 379. The Custom of the Country. A tragi-comedy by Fletcher; printed in the 1647 edition of Beaumont and Fletcher. 191. 391. By link. By the light of a torch, or link.

407. Sir Martin Mar-all. A comedy adapted for the stage by Dryden, from a translation by the Duke of Newcastle. 445. The Indian Emperor. Dryden's heroic drama dealing with the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. The play was a brilliant success. Nell. Nell Gwynn, the most popular actress of the day; a favorite of Charles II.

459. The Black Prince. Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), won a considerable success with Mustapha; The Black Prince was a comparative failure.

was not

LOYALIST STALL-BALLADS The long struggle to dispossess the House of Stuart, beginning in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, finally ended until Prince Charles Stuart, "the Young Pretender," grandson of James II, had been defeated at Culloden, in 1746, by the Duke of Cumberland. As the fortunes of the Stuarts waned, their attacks on their opponents-Parliamentarians, Whigs, Hanoverians-became more bitter. During the Civil War, and again at the time of the Revolution of 1688, the flood of satire of which these street songs are typical examples, was of almost unbelievable magnitude. The six ballads here printed are from the time of the Civil War and the Commonwealth.

THE PROTECTING BREWER

193. The legend that Cromwell was a brewer by trade appears in many of the songs and satires of the period.

THE LAWYERS' LAMENTATION Charing Cross had been torn down by Parliament along with many other insignia of royalty and ecclesiasticism.

DRYDEN

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL

195. The poem appeared in 1681, when the question of the successor to Charles II, in the event of the King's death, was agitating all England. The heir-apparent was the King's brother James, the Duke of York, who was generally unpopular on account of his Catholicism. James, Duke of Monmouth, the Absalom of the poem, an illegitimate son of Charles, was a Protestant, and in general favor with the Whig and anti-Catholic parties. Despite the stain on his birth his friends, led by Anthony Ashley Cooper, first earl of

Shaftesbury (Achitophel) planned to set
aside tradition and present Monmouth as
a sort of people's candidate in opposi-
tion to the Duke of York.
For many
years Shaftesbury had been the virtual
leader of the Whigs and Protestants.
During the Popish Plot " he had been
Titus Oates's most prominent supporter;
he championed the Exclusion Bill, and
was accused of fomenting a rebellion in
Scotland. In July, 1681, he was im-
prisoned in the Tower on charge of high
treason; but when his case came before
the grand jury at the end of November,
he was released through an ignoramus
verdict. In November, 1682, he fled to
Holland, where in 1683 he died. The
Duke of Monmouth made his ill-fated
attempt to win the crown in 1685, but his
followers were dispersed at the battle
of Sedgemoor, and he himself was soon
afterwards beheaded. Dryden under-
took in Absalom and Achitophel to in-
fluence public opinion against Shaftes-
bury, and timed its publication so that
it appeared only two weeks before the
earl's trial was to begin. For the Biblical
account of the revolt of Absalom see
2 Samuel, xiii-xviii.

7. Israel's monarch. Charles II, the
David of the poem.

23. In foreign fields he won renown. Monmouth had won something of a reputation as a soldier during three campaigns on the continent.

34. The charming Annabel. Anne Scott,
Countess of Buccleuch, whom Monmouth
married in 1665.

39. Amnon's murder. It is uncertain
just what Dryden had in mind; perhaps
an assault on Sir John Coventry in which
Monmouth had been involved in 1670;
the Duke had also participated in a park
riot in which a beadle was killed.
42. Sion. London.

45. The Jews. The English.
57. Saul. Oliver Cromwell.

58. Ishbosheth. Richard Cromwell.
59. Hebron. Scotland, where Charles II
was first crowned.

196. 82. The good old cause. The cause of
the Commonwealth; the phrase was
generally used with this meaning, and
usually with a tinge of sarcasm.
85. Old Jerusalem. London.
86. Jebusites. Roman Catholics. The
chosen people (1. 88) were the Protestants.
108. That Plot, the nation's curse.
Popish Plot of 1678-79.

The

118. The Egyptian rites. French rites. "Where gods were recommended," etc., is an attack on the doctrine of transubstantiation.

197. 150. Achitophel. Shaftesbury.

175. The triple bond. An alliance formed in 1668 between England, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic.

197. 177. A foreign yoke. An alliance with France.

188. Abbethdin. The highest officer of the Jewish court of justice.

198. 264. Gath. Brussels.

270. Jordan's sand. Dover beach, where Charles II landed at the Restoration. 199. 352. The collateral line. James, Duke of York, brother of the king, stood at the head of this line of descent.

200. 529. A numerous host of dreaming saints. The non-conforming Protestants, castically called "saints."

sar

539. Born to be saved. A sarcastic refer-
ence to the doctrine of election.
544. Zimri.

George Villiers, Duke of
Buckingham, who in The Rehearsal had
satirized Dryden as "John Bayes."
his Discourse Concerning Satire Dryden
In
afterwards wrote: The character of
Zimri in my Absalom is, in my opinion,
worth the whole poem: 'tis not bloody,
but 'tis ridiculous enough; and he for whom
it was intended was too witty to resent
it as an injury."
585. Shimei.

Slingsby Bethel, whom the Whigs had elected one of the two Sheriffs in 1680.

201. 617. No Rechabite, etc.

"The words

of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none. Jeremiah, xxxV: 14. 202. 817. Barzillai. James Butler, Duke of Ormond, always a staunch loyalist.

899. Amiel. Edward Seymour, who from 1673 to 1679 was Speaker of the House of Commons. 902. The Sanhedrin. The House of Commons.

910. Unequal ruler of the day. Apollo's son Phaethon, who could not guide successfully his father's car of the sun. 203. 921. The true successor.

of York.

MAC FLECKNOE

James, Duke

204. After the release of Shaftesbury in 1681, his Whig friends caused a medal to be struck commemorating the event. Dryden at once published The Medal: A Satire Against Sedition. Among the replies was a violent one by Thomas Shadwell, The Medal of John Bayes. In October, 1682, Dryden answered with Mac Flecknoe, than which nothing illustrates more effectively the caustic nature of his satire.

3. Flecknoe. An inoffensive poet who had died in 1678, over whose shoulder Dryden strikes Shadwell.

29. Heywood and Shirley. Elizabethan dramatists, not deserving of such harsh criticism.

36. To King John of Portugal I sung. King John had entertained Flecknoe at Lisbon.

42. In Epsom blankets tossed. "Tossing in a blanket is the punishment visited upon Sir Samuel Hearty in The Virtuoso.

875

There is also a reference to the title of
Shadwell's play Epsom Wells."—(Noyes;
Camb. ed., p. 959).

204. 43. The new Arion. Arion was a Greek musician of the eighth century B. C.

53. St. André. A French dancing-master. 54. Thy own Psyche. One of Shadwell's plays. 205. 57. Singleton.

A contemporary singer who had taken the rôle of Villerius in Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes.

64. Fair Augusta. London, which at the time was fearful of Popish plotters.

74. A Nursery. A theatre given over to training young actors.

78. Maximin. A defiant character in
Dryden's Tyrannic Love.

79, 80. Buskins, socks.
See notes on
L'Allegro, l. 132, and Il Penseroso, l. 102.
81. Gentle Simkin. A clown.
84. Panton. "A celebrated punster,
according to Derrick.' (Scott.)

105. Herringman. A contemporary publisher.

122. Love's Kingdom. A play by FleckThe Virtuoso

noe.

All

151. Gentle George. Sir George Etheredge, the contemporary dramatist. 152. Dorimant, Loveit, Cully, etc. characters in plays by Shadwell. 163. Let no alien Sedley interpose. Sir Charles Sedley, who had assisted Shadwell in his play-writing.

168. Sir Formal. Sir Formal Trifle appears in Shadwell's The Virtuoso.

172. By arrogating Jonson's hostile name. Shadwell was fervid in his praise of Ben Jonson.

179. Prince Nicander. Shadwell's Psyche.

A character in

185. Oil on water's flow.

noun.

Flow is a

207. 43. The Boar. The Anabaptists.

49. In German forests. "The sect originated in Germany, where their early history is connected with a revolt of the peasantry." (Noyes.)

208. 53. False Reynard. The Unitarians. Athanasius (293-373) was instrumental in having the early church embody the Trinitarian conception of God in the Nicene creed. Socinus was opposed to this orthodox Trinitarian belief.

327. The Panther. The Church of England.

338. The Wolf. The Presbyterians.

SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY'

On this day, November 22, a London musical society annually held a festival in honor of St. Cecilia, patron saint of music. Pope and others wrote similar songs.

ALEXANDER'S FEAST

209. 29. Spires. Coils.

LINES UNDER THE PORTRAIT OF MILTON

211. The three poets referred to are Homer, Virgil, and Milton.

ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY

1. Neander. The essay is in dialogue
form, Neander representing Dryden;
Eugenius may be Charles Sackville, Lord
Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset.
2. The Silent Woman. A play by Ben
Jonson.

212. 36. Clenches. Puns.

43. Quantum lenta, etc. As the cypresses rise above the low shrubs.

45. Mr. Hales of Eton. John Hales (1584-1656), fellow of Eton, an English scholar and critic.

54. The last king. Charles I.

84. Humor. A man's particular bent, or ruling passion, was called his "humor." 213. 156. The greater wit. The greater genius.

THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS

216. The Dissenters, or Nonconformists, were members of the various anti-episcopal sects which had flourished during the Civil War, had been suppressed, some times by the sword, under Charles II and his brother James, and had again revived under the sympathetic government of William III. In the spring of 1702 Anne, a Stuart, succeeded to the throne; in November of the same year a Tory ministry introduced a bill against "occasional conformity." The practice thus attacked was a means whereby Dissenters, through occasional attendance at the Church of England, made themselves eligible to office. Had the bill passed, and the Queen was ardently in favor of it, this avenue of escape would have been closed, and the pains and penalties of the old Stuart régime, with some modifications, would have been again in force. Defoe, a Nonconformist, at once attacked the government in this pamphlet. Writing with an ironic gravity hardly surpassed by Swift in his Modest Proposal, he argued that at last the time had arrived for wiping the Dissenters out of existence, and proposed measures far more rigorous than Tory or High-churchman had dreamed of. At first neither party saw through the veil of irony, and the pamphlet was accepted at its face value. But when the government discovered that it had been hoaxed, Defoe was arrested, fined, exhibited three times in the pillory, and imprisoned in Newgate, and his pamphlet was burned in public by the hangman.

1. Sir Roger L'Estrange. A seventeenth century pamphleteer, founder of The Gazette.

13. Some people. The Nonconformists. 23. Near fourteen years. William III took the throne, by invitation of Parliament, in 1688.

216. 56. Act of Toleration. Passed in 1689, abolishing the old penalties for nonconformity.

217. 72. A Dutch government. William III was Prince of Orange.

III. The Huguenots in France. The French Protestants had been persecuted more viciously than English Nonconformists; in 1685 they were expelled from the country.

143. A sordid impostor. Cromwell. 218. 213. Rye House Plot. A conspiracy, discovered in 1683, to murder Charles II and his brother James. Although certain men were executed for their complicity in the plot, many persons felt that there was little besides party jealousy at the bottom of the exposé.

232. The late king. James II.

219. 291. The common enemy.

France.

351. The act "De heretico comburendo."

For burning heretics.

THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL

This narrative had always been considered an admirable example of Defoe's ability to write pure fiction so that it would seem simple truth, until Mr. George Aitken published in The Nineteenth Century, Jan., 1895, an article showing that Defoe in all probability was telling a story in which, as Aitken puts it, "nearly all the details are true, the characters are real persons," and in which "Defoe invented nothing, or nothing, but . . told, very skilfully, a ghost story which was attracting notice at the time."

next to

224. 324. Escutcheons. Hatchments; funeral tablets bearing the arms of the deceased person.

SWIFT

A TALE OF A TUB

226. A Tale of a Tub was published anonymously in 1704; Swift had written it some time before, during the closing years of the seventeenth century. It consisted of eleven sections, and was introduced by four satirical prefaces. Of the eleven sections constituting the body of the work, five (II, IV, VI, VIII, XI) contain the story of the three brothers, in the course of which Swift pictures the development of Christian faith to the end of the seventeenth century. The other sections are more general in their import, and, like Gulliver's Travels, expose the vanity and absurdity of human nature in the large.

226. 35. Hobbes's Leviathan. The Leviathan of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), which appeared in 1651, was an inquiry into the nature of the State, and the theory of government.

227. 25. My will. The New Testament.

52. Duchess D'Argent, etc. Duchess of Money, My Lady of Great Titles, and the Countess of Pride.

a

63. Locket's, Will's. The first was London inn; the second, the coffee house which Dryden and the wits of the age frequented.

70. Sub dio. In the open air. 228. 96. A sort of idol. The tailor, god of the fashionable world.

112. Primum mobile. In the Ptolemaic
astronomy, the outermost sphere, con-
taining and imparting motion to the other
smaller spheres.

117. Water-tabby. Tabby was a material,
such as silk, that had been watered.
152. The coats their father had left them.
The coats represent church organization,
as appears in the remainder of the satire.
186. Totidem verbis. In so many words.
189. Totidem syllabis. In so many syl-
lables.

229. 200. Tertio modo. By a third method.
Totidem literis. In so many letters.
215. Q. V. C. Quibusdam veleribus
codicibus. In some ancient manuscripts.
224. Jure paterno. In accord with the
paternal law.

226. In the passage omitted Swift tells how as the fashions changed, and shoulder knots gave place to gold lace, and gold lace to satin linings, the brothers juggled with their father's will, and in each case gratified their desires.

232. A certain lord. This was Constantine the Great, from whom the popes pretended a donation of St. Peter's patrimony, which they have never been able to produce. (Swift's note.)

Section IV tells how Peter, representing the church of Rome, got the upper hand of his brothers after driving the legal heirs out and getting the "certain lord's house for himself. His pride increased with his success; he claimed to be his father's sole heir, and assumed the titles of Father Peter, My Lord Peter, and finally Emperor Peter. When the two other brothers finally protested, Peter drove them from the house. The story is resumed in section VI.

230. 66, 68. Martin. Martin Luther; Jack. John Calvin. Martin stands for the moderate reform in the Church of England; Jack, for the more violent reform of the Dissenters.