Which once achieved, he spurred his palfrey, And beat, at least three lengths, the wind. So ended the Second Part of "Hudibras" as published in 1664. "An Heroical Epistle of Hudibras to Sidrophel," which is a short detached satire, was added to the edition of 1674. The Third Part of the poem, which did not follow until 1678, two years before Butler's death, begins with open division between Knight and Squire : They both approach the Lady's bower, By fairies and hobgoblins made. The fiends broke in on the discourse between Hudibras and the Lady as it grew dark. He had Ensconced himself as formidable As could be underneath a table, Where he lay in retirement close T' expect th' arrival of his foes. He was ignominously dragged out and belaboured. A sturdy elf planted a cloven hoof on his neck, reproved him for his perjuries, and compelled him to a true confession that he loved the Lady only for her money, had picked her out as one with the least wit and most to lose, had not been such an ass as to scourge himself, and had set up as a hypocrite because there was no more thriving trade. More confession was got from him, in sharp satire on the Puritans, and then the fairies vanished with the light, And left him in the dark alone With stinks of brimstone and his own. He then heard in the dark the voice of a doleful spirit that conversed with him, and horsed him like a sack, and, being indeed Ralpho, carried him out of the Lady's castle. The Second Canto then drops the thread of the story and is given wholly to satire upon the divisions of the saints and the conflict of parties before the Restoration. In the Third Canto the thread of narrative is taken up again and then is dropped for ever. The Argument of the closing Canto, which abounds in satire on the worse side of the law, tells how it treats of The knight and squire's prodigious flight And one more fair address to get her. The book ends with the Knight's letter to the Lady, and the Lady's answer. It will have been observed that Butler has given breadth to his work, by connecting Hudibras and Ralpho in one way or another with satire that was, no doubt, designed to touch insincerity in all the forms of English life. The pedantry of the erudite, the contentions of theologians, the pretensions of false science, the false notes of the love-poets and the worldliness of love, the weak side of the lawyers -over all these and more the satire has actually ranged, and the poem would probably have been closed when Butler felt that he had fairly taken his Knight and Squire round the whole circle of human weakness and folly. Then Hudibras would have reached his appointed term of life, and the killing of the Knight would possibly have closed the poem with a canto specially devoted to the doctors. CHAPTER XV. DRYDEN'S "ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL." THE breadth of Butler's plan, which associated in "Hudibras" a general satire upon the follies of life with the jest against the Puritans, is not in Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel." Dryden's satire was written for one immediate political purpose, and had that only in view. There was hard earnest underlying it, for it was written seven or eight years before the Revolution, with a full consciousness of danger to the monarchy as it then stood. It was a weapon sharpened for the king's defence, and it was aimed directly at the life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, whom the king regarded as his chief opponent. Great writers do not labour to small ends. He is no true man of genius who does not look to the essentials of the life about him, and the group of poems written by Dryden in and immediately after the year 1681 deals with the most vital questions of the time. "Absalom and Achitophel "-a political pamphlet in verse-is perhaps the most vigorous satire in our literature. When we have passed from it and cross over to this side of the English Revolution, there will be little to detain us among longer poems until we come to the beginning of the nineteenth century. goodwill to Monmouth made it conceivable that he might be prevailed upon to join the Parliament in putting aside the succession of the Duke of York in Monmouth's favour. At first this was not suggested. An Exclusion Bill passed the Commons on the 21st of May, 1679, by a majority of 207 to 121. The king stopped its farther progress by dissolving that Parliament. The next Parliament stopped supplies and refused money till the Exclusion Bill passed into law. King Charles dissolved that Parliament also. The people, stirred with fiercer zeal, carried elections to the next Parliament resolutely against the Court. The king summoned that Parliament to meet him at Oxford. He surrounded himself with armed followers. The Commons also gathered arms for their protection. Then Shaftesbury suggested that the problem of the Duke of York's exclusion might be solved by settling the succession on the Duke of Monmouth. Thus Shaftesbury became the Achitophel who stirred Absalom to rebellion against David. The king refused the compromise, and the Commons again brought in the old Exclusion Bill. It was read a first time on the 28th of March, 1681, and the king, who had smuggled his robes and crown into the House in a sedan chair, immediately dissolved that House of Commons, and for the rest of his life he never called another. The king's policy now was to secure concord by making himself the single centre of authority. There were earnest thinkers who believed then that the way out of discord was by making the whole body of the State obedient to a single will. One of two things was necessary: either that the authority of the Crown should be made absolute, or that it should be definitely and strictly limited. Opinion was honestly divided. The natural bias of Dryden's mind, from the time when he broke with the doctrines into which he had been educated without choice of his own, was always, to the last hour of his life, in the direction of a peace to be secured by obedience to one central authority. Having got rid of Parliament, the king resolved to secure rule for himself by a bold stroke against the head of the opposing force. That was the Earl of Shaftesbury, a man of eager, active mind, housed in a small, frail body. An accusation was obtained against him, upon which, on the 2nd of July, 1681, he was committed to the Tower. There was then only the grand jury between him and the scaffold. When the indictment was presented, if it passed the grand jury, Shaftesbury has nothing to hope from the judges. That was the position of affairs when Dryden, to support the king's policy, "Absalom and Achitophel" was published anonymously on the 17th of November, 1681, and there were five editions of it before the end of 1682. It is a poem of rather more than a thousand lines, and complete as first issued. What is called the second part was a poem by another hand, to which Dryden contributed some passages to give it currency. The king's brother, James, Duke of York, after-published his poem upon Shaftesbury and Monmouth wards James II., and last of the Stuart kings, was an avowed Roman Catholic. For this reason there was a widespread desire for his exclusion from succession to the throne. Charles II. had no legitimate son; his brother James, therefore, was lawful heir. Who, then, could be suggested as a substitute? The eldest of the king's illegitimate sons was James, Duke of Monmouth, who was thirtytwo years old in 1681. He shared the profligacy of the Court, and was pleasant in the eyes of his father. He was the Absalom of Dryden's poem, Charles II., of course, being the royal David. The king's "Absalom and Achitophel." It was published seven days before the bill of indictment was to come before the grand jury, and was designed to do all that it was in Dryden's power to do towards influencing public opinion and securing the success of the king's policy. "Absalom and Achitophel" was published on the 17th of November, and on the 24th of November the grand jury threw out the bill. Shaftesbury was delivered from the Tower; there was great rejoicing among the people, and a medal was struck to commemorate this happy deliverance. Dryden continued his battle for the king's cause in A.D. 1681.] another satire called "The Medal." But we will look only at "Absalom and Achitophel." The plan of the pamphlet-poem is simple. It is first suggested that the outcry over the asserted Popish plot in 1678 bred faction and stir; thence came Shaftesbury's action. Then follows a sketch of his reasoning to draw Monmouth from his allegiance to his father, and Monmouth's answer, care being taken here and throughout the satire to avoid dealing severely with Monmouth himself. Then follow little vignette portraits of the minor associates in the rebellion. Absalom then appeals to the people. The plot ripens. What friends has David? Here follow short characters of some of the king's chief friends. What counsel do they give? Then follows David's speech, setting forth in clear popular form the king's resolve 'If," he says, they will upon a master-stroke. not have my mercy, let them have law." When David had thus explained why Charles II. had resolved to strike down opposition in the person of the Earl of Shaftesbury, the argument was complete. Heaven thundered assent to David's policy. As he would have it, so it was, and there was peace in the land for years. So, however, it was not, and peace was secured only by the exclusion of the Duke of York after he had become King James II.; the exclusion then being of all Stuart kings, with a firm resettlement of the relations between sovereign and people. 66 66 The only unworthy part of Dryden's poem is its opening, in which, since he must dwell upon Monmouth's illegitimacy, he seeks to veil any suggestion of evil in the king's amours under the mantle of David, and even goes beyond to imply an assent to them that he could not honestly feel. Dryden himself lived an honourable domestic life, but he lived when profligacy was in fashion, and he bowed down After this sometimes in the house of Rimmon. opening, which is to us readers of after-time a heavy stumble at the threshold of his poem, Dryden passes to Absalom as bravest and most beautiful of all the numerous progeny of David. Early in foreign fields he won renown, 1 Anne Scott, Countess of Buccleugh in her own right, and the richest heiress in Europe. The duke after his marriage took his wife's name, having no name of his own except FitzRoy to give her. He was not faithful to her, but gave himself to Lady Harriet Wentworth. Was called a just revenge for injured fame.2 Some by their friends, more by themselves thought wise, Opposed the power to which they could not rise. Some had in courts been great, and thrown from thence, Like fiends were hardened in impenitence. And o'er-informed the tenement of clay. Pleased with the danger when the waves went high, Else, why should he, with wealth and honour blest, To compass this the triple bond he broke; Then, seized with fear, yet still affecting fame, Oh! had he been content to serve the crown, 1 Shaftesbury. The lines between square brackets [] were added by Dryden in the second edition. And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree. Then follows Achitophel's search for a fit instrument, and his address of persuasion to Absalom. "For David," he says-in a passage where Egypt stands for France, and Pharaoh for the King of France "What strength, can he to your designs oppose, What cannot praise effect in mighty minds, Made drunk with honour, and debauched with praise. Half loth, and half consenting to the ill, For royal blood within him struggled still,— He thus replied: "And what pretence have I To take up arms for public liberty? My father governs with unquestioned right, Inclined to mercy, and averse from blood. The dog-star heats their brains to this disease. But what was right in them were crime in me. And that”—But here he paused; then sighing, said— "Is justly destined for a worthier head, For when my father from his toils shall rest, Him staggering so, when hell's dire agent found, While fainting virtue scarce maintained her ground, He pours fresh forces in. Then follow, always with keen satire in the turn that is given to them, the further arguments by which Absalom is persuaded. Then the throngs of the discontented are gathered into force, most numerous among them all being -the herd of such Who think too little and who talk too much. Next comes the little sketch of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, as Zimri. Such were the tools; but a whole Hydra more Remains of sprouting heads too long to score. Some of their chiefs were princes of the land; In the first rank of these did Zimri stand, That every man with him was God or Devil. The following sketches include a vigorous one of Titus Oates. The poem then proceeds to set forth the growth of the influence of Monmouth. Surrounded thus, with friends of every sort, Yet oh! that I alone could be undone, And he alone from my revenge is freed. Take then my tears"-with that he wiped his eyes, |