Deaf to complaints, they wait upon the ill, They thought the place could sanctify a sin; 180 Like those that vainly hoped kind Heaven would wink, 185 And as devouter Turks first warn their souls So these, when their black crimes they went about, To part, before they taste forbidden bowls, First timely charmed their useless conscience out. The shadow served the substance to invade. The incensed powers beheld with scorn from high 190 Which durst with horses' hoofs that beat the ground To speed their ruin by their impious wit; And glass-like clearness mixed with frailty bore. 195 200 205 210 Referring to Cromwell's ejection of the Rump of the Long Parliament in April 1653, and to Lambert's dissolution of it in October 1659, after it had been restored on Richard Cromwell's deposition. Salmoneus, king of Elis, son of Æolus, wishing to be called a God and treated as such by his subjects, imitated thunder and lightning by driving his chariot over a brazen bridge, and flinging burning torches around him. Jupiter, provoked, struck him dead with a thunderbolt, See Virgil, En. vi. 585 (789 of Translation): "Salmoneus suffering cruel pains I found Lodovico Sforza, who murdered his nephew Giovanni Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan, and usurped his dukedom, and after a course of very successful intrigues, was in 1499 driven from Italy by Louis XII. of France, and ultimately died a prisoner in France in 1508. $ Fogue. So printed in the two early editions, from the French fougue. Scott, who has placed glass-like between two commas, says in a note that the original edition has like glass;" but this is a mistake. Both the early editions have "glass-like" without commas. Compare Shakespeare in "Measure for Measure," act 2, sc. 4. Like early lovers, whose unpractised hearts Like some unequal bride in nobler sheets, 215 220 225 230 The Swiftsure groans beneath great Gloucester's weight: 235 He that was born to drown might cross the seas. 240 Afraid to blow too much, too faintly blew ; Or out of breath with joy could not enlarge Their straightened lungs, or conscious of their charge. 245 The ship "Naseby," in which Charles embarked for Dover, received from him, as he was on the point of starting, the name "Royal Charles." See Pepys's Diary, May 23, 1660. The "Richard" was at the same time christened " Royal James. Henry, Duke of Gloucester, younger brother of Charles II. who died in September 1660. When Publius Valerius, being Consul, called the Roman people together to vindicate himself from false accusations, he made the lictors who preceded him with the fasces, emblems of his consular rank, lower them in recognition of the people's superior power; and Livy says, "submissis fascibus in concionem escendit” (ii. 7). The land returns, and in the white it wears 255 But you, whose goodness your descent doth show By that same mildness which your father's crown 260 265 When through Arabian groves they take their flight, 270 And as those lees that trouble it refine The agitated soul of generous wine, 275 Methinks I see those crowds on Dover's strand, Who in their haste to welcome you to land Choked up the beach with their still growing store While, spurred with eager thoughts of past delight, 280 When you renewed the expiring pomp of May! 285 That star, that at your birth shone out so bright+ "And He said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." (Exodus xxxiii. 20.) "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." (xxxiv. 6.) A star appeared at noon, on the day of Charles II.'s birth, May 29, 1630, as the King his father was proceeding to St. Paul's to give thanks to God for the event. Charles II. entered London, when restored to his throne, on his birthday; and Dryden ascribes renewed force to the star which had been observed on the day of his birth thirty years before. There is nothing to support Scott's unnecessary conjecture that the same star was again visible on May 29, 1660. Cowley, in his Ode on the Restoration, celebrates the star in the same way: "No star amongst ye all did, I believe, Such vigorous assistance give, As that which, thirty years ago, His future glories and this year foreshow: Be assured of from that powerful ray Which could outface the sun and overcome the day." Compare "Annus Mirabilis," stanza 18. Lilly, the astrologer, declared it to be the planet Venus. It stained the duller sun's meridian light, 290 295 Not now content to poise, shall sway the rest. Abroad your empire shall no limits know, Your much-loved fleet shall with a wide command 300 305 310 At home the hateful names of parties cease, And factious souls are wearied into peace. The discontented now are only they Whose crimes before did your just cause betray: 315 Of those your edicts some reclaim from sins, But most your life and blest example wins. Oh happy Prince, whom Heaven hath taught the way By paying vows to have more vows to pay! Oh happy age! Oh times like those alone 320 By fate reserved for great Augustus' throne, When the joint growth of arms and arts foreshew * This use of white in the sense of fortunate is a Latinism : "Sed current albusque dies horæque serenæ." SILIUS ITAL. XV. 53. + Compare the first stanza of "Annus Mirabilis," where Holland is described, "crouching at home and cruel when abroad." And the same idea is presented in Dryden's play of "Amboyna," at the beginning and at the end. "We are secure," says Harman the Governor, before the massacre, of our superiors there: well, they may give the King of Great Britain a verbal satisfaction, and with submissive fawning promises make show to punish us, but interest is their god as well as ours" (act 1, sc. 1). And, at the end, says the Fiscal, "Now for a smooth apology, and then a fawning letter to the King of England, and our work's done." 1 Charles had quitted Paris to live at Cologne in the beginning of 1656, when the negotiations which led to the alliance of France with Oliver Cromwell began. His departure had not been suggested by the French king, but he did not press Charles to stay, and indeed encouraged him to go when Charles proposed it. Or the reference may be to Cardinal Mazarin's dislike of the visit of Charles to Fuentarabia in the autumn of 1559, when the treaty of the Pyrenees was being negotiated, TO HIS SACRED MAJESTY, A PANEGYRIC ON HIS CORONATION. 1661. IN that wild Deluge where the world was drowned, With various notes of joy the Ark did fill: Yet when that flood in its own depths was drowned, It left behind it false and slippery ground, And the more solemn pomp was still deferred Had warmed the ground and called the damps away. Now our sad ruins are removed from sight, *The Coronation was on April 24, 1661, and the year was then reckoned to begin on March 25. Dryden probably refers to the part of the preceding year before the Restoration in May, as "guilty months." |