FROM THE “ELEGIES." ODE TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW.1 Thou tread'st, with seraphims, the vast abyss: Hear then a mortal Muse thy praise rehearse, But such as thy own voice did practise here, And candidate of heaven. If by traduction came thy mind, A soul so charming from a stock so good; Was form'd, at first, with myriads more, And was that Sappho last, which once it was before. Than was the beauteous frame she left behind: * * * O gracious God! how far have we * 243 1 This young lady, the niece of Thomas Killigrew, the celebrated wit of the court of Charles II., obtained some reputation for her talents in poetry and painting. She died of the small-pox in the 25th year of her age. This ode Johnson calls "undoubtedly the noblest that our language has produced." He adds, "all the stanzas are not indeed equal." 2 Dr. Henry Killigrew, Master of the Savoy, and one of the prebendaries of Westminster. Made prostitute and profligate the Muse, What can we say t' excuse our second fall? Art she had none, yet wanted none; That it seem'd borrow'd, where 'twas only born. Ev'n love (for love sometimes her Muse exprest) Was but a lambent flame which play'd about her breast: So cold herself, while she such warmth exprest, 'Twas Cupid bathing in Diana's stream. When in mid-air the golden trump shall sound For those who wake, and those who sleep; From the four corners of the sky; When sinews o'er the skeletons are spread, And foremost from the tomb shall bound, 1 Of all the bards of the courts of Charles and James, "Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays." Licentiousness was the characteristic of every department of poetry, and especially of the stage. Here Dryden himself was one of the most conspicuous transgressors and it will scarcely be admitted as an excuse that he was "hurried down." The licentiousness of Lyndsay has, in many instances, a political, or may it be said, a religious aim, since respectable names have claimed him as one raised by Providence to be an instrument of the Reformation; that of the age of Shakespeare is frequently the indelicacy of a generation emerging into refinement; that of the age of Charles II. is a corrupt rank exotic, of aimless profligacy, "prurient yet passionless;" disgusting, and, from this very cause, fortunately ephemeral. Dryden's mind had two streams; one that flowed clear and shining in moral purity; the other charged with the fetid waters of what is commonly termed the taste of the age." 2 See note 3, p. 192. FROM ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. For they are cover'd with the lightest ground; FROM "ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL." 245 THE CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY DELINEATED Of these the false Achitophel1 was first; And o'er informed the tenement of clay : Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide: Else why should he, with wealth and honours blest, In friendship false, implacable in hate, To compass this the triple bond he broke,2 And fitted Israel with a foreign yoke; Then, seized with fear, yet still affecting fame, Usurped a patriot's all-atoning name; 1 Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury (Achitophel), was the soul of the party of Monmouth (Absalom). At the time of the publication of this satire he was in the tower on an accusation of treasonable connection with Monmouth's designs. His acquittal some time after gave rise to Dryden's piece," the Medal." An adherent of the court party and a member of the infamous Cabal ministry, he afterwards in his multitudinous intrigues became the champion of the country party. His connection with Monmouth ultimately exiled him; he died in Holland. 2 He is allowed to have been a principal adviser of the Dutch war in 1672, by which the triple alliance between England, Sweden, and Holland, the chef d'œuvre of Sir W. Temple's negociation, was broken."-Scott. 3 England. The poet symbolises the whole policy, persons, and geography of the times under Jewish appellations. The foreign yoke is that of France, to whose policy Charles II. became fatally subservient. By going over to the popular party, to escape the odium attached to the measures he had himself recommended. So easy still it proves, in factious times, With more discerning eyes or hands more clean,1 Oh had he been content to serve the crown VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, DELINEATED AS ZIMRI. A man 3 so various that he seemed to be Not one but all mankind's epitome; Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was every thing by starts, and nothing long; 1 Others have praised Shaftesbury for his judicial integrity.-See Scott's Note, Dryden, ix. 264. Abethdin; Ab-beth-din (Father of the House of Judgment); the second dignitary, or vice-president of the Sanhedrim, the Jewish council of government, from about the period of the Maccabees 2 Charles II. 3 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the son of the favourite of Charles I. (see p. 167). His immense fortune and versatile talents were exerted in a career of unparalleled profligacy, marked even with dark and deadly crime. Like Shaftesbury a member of the Cabal ministry, he deserted the court party, and was distinguished in the agitation of the Popish plot. He ultimately died neglected, at Kirkby Moorside, in Yorkshire, but not in the wretched circumstances described by Pope. Dryden may be considered in his satire merciful to Buckingham. The Duke had personally and deeply injured him in the satirical farce the Rehearsal, yet the poet confines his strictures simply to his follies and his weakness. A second part of Absalom and Achitophel was published, but Dryden contributed to it only a castigation of his literary enemies Settle and Shadwell, under the names of Doeg and Og. The remainder is by Nahum Tate, the versifier of the English Psalms. FROM "RELIGIO LAICI." But, in the course of one revolving moon, * Blest madman, who could every hour employ That every man with him was god or devil. Beggared by fools whom still he found too late; FROM "RELIGIO LAICI." OPENING OF THE "RELIGIO LAICI."1 Dim as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere; 247 THE POSITION OF MAN IN THE SCHEME OF REDEMPTION. Thus man by his own strength to heaven would soar: 1 The opening lines in most of Dryden's poems shew the bold sweep of his versification, and his command of the stores of the English language. The above is eminently beautiful. 2 In his preface, Dryden alleges his belief that "the principles of natural worship are only faint remnants or dying flames of revealed religion in the posterity of Noah.' |