But, as I speak, new glories strike my eyes,
Glories, which Heaven itself does give, and prize,
Blessings of peace; that with their milder rays
Adorn his reign, and bring Saturnian days.
Now let rebellion, discord, vice, and rage,

1070

That have in patriots' forms debauched our age,
Vanish with all the ministers of hell;
His rays their poisonous vapours shall dispel :
'Tis he alone our safety did create,

1075

*

His own firm soul secured the nation's fate,
Opposed to all the boutefeus of the state.
Authors, for him your great endeavours raise;
The loftiest numbers will but reach his praise.
For me, whose verse in satire has been bred,
And never durst heroic measures tread;
Yet you shall see me, in that famous field,

1080

With eyes and voice, my best assistance yield;

Offer you lessons, that my infant muse

Learnt, when she Horace for her guide did chuse ;

1085

Second your zeal with wishes, heart, and eyes,

And afar off hold up the glorious prize.

But pardon too, if, zealous for the right,

A strict observer of each noble flight,

From the fine gold I separate the allay,

1090

And show how hasty writers sometimes stray;
Apter to blame, than knowing how to mend;
A sharp, but yet a necessary friend.

*Boutefeu, a Gallicism for incendiary: in Dryden's time it was a word of good reputation, but is now obsolete.

ON THE YOUNG STATESMEN.

THE following verses have been ascribed to Dryden upon slight authority, and contrary to internal evidence. They display a good deal of the turn of wit and structure of verse which may be observed in similar jeux d'esprit of Dorset, to whom I am tempted to ascribe them, though the name of Dryden may have been borrowed to give them publicity.

They ought to have preceded, in point of time, those entitled "Tarquin and Tullia," but were accidentally misplaced.

As nicknames are easily perpetuated, I observe that these verses entailed upon the young statesmen the names of Chit Sunderland, Chit Lory, etc., in the satires of the day. This Administration came into office in the latter years of Charles II.'s reign. The satire turns on a comparison between them and their predecessors of what was called the Cabal. There is a parody on these lines in the "State Poems," in which they are applied to Stillingfleet. [In ascribing them to Dorset, Scott, no doubt, thought of the well-known lines, "Tell me, Dorinda, why so gay." But I do not think they are Dorset's. Though very good, they are not at all like Dryden, who, moreover, had no reason for attacking either Danby or Lawrence Hyde, the latter of whom, at least, was his patron.—ED.]

ON

THE YOUNG STATESMEN.

CLARENDON had law and sense,
Clifford was fierce and brave;
Bennet's grave look was a pretence,
And Danby's § matchless impudence
Helped to support the knave.

But Sunderland, Godolphin, Lory,||
These will appear such chits in story,
"Twill turn all politics to jests,
To be repeated like John Dory,
When fiddlers sing at feasts.

Protect us, mighty Providence !

What would these madmen have?
First, they would bribe us without pence,
Deceive us without common sense,
And without power enslave.

Shall free-born men, in humble awe,
Submit to servile shame,

Who from consent and custom draw
The same right to be ruled by law,
Which kings pretend, to reign?

*The famous Chancellor.

† Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, a member of the Cabal Adminis

tration.

Bennet, Earl of Arlington, also of the Cabal.

§ Osborne, Earl of Danby.

|| Lawrence, Earl of Rochester, son of Lord Clarendon.

The Duke shall wield his conquering sword,
The Chancellor make a speech,

The King shall pledge his honest word,
The pawned revenue sums afford,
And then, come kiss my breech.

So have I seen a king in chess

(His rooks and knights withdrawn, His queen and bishops in distress), Shifting about grow less and less, With here and there a pawn.

TARQUIN AND TULLIA.

THIS piece, and that which immediately follows, bear no trace of Dryden's hand. They have been attributed, by Mr. Malone, with much probability, to Mr. Mainwaring, a violent Jacobite. The satire is coarse and intemperate, without having that easy flow of verse, and felicity of expression, which always distinguishes the genuine productions of our author.

The comparison of William and Mary with Tarquin and Tullia was early insisted upon as a topic of reproach. It occurs in a letter concerning the coronation medal, which, as is well known, represented, on the reverse, the destruction of Phaeton. The letter-writer says, that "one gentleman seeing the chariot, but not understanding the Latin inscription, and having heard the town talk of Tullia, who instigated her husband Tarquinius to kill her father Servius Tullius, king of the Romans, that he might succeed him in the throne, and, as Livy says, caused her chariot to be driven over his mangled body, cried out, 'Is this Tullia's chariot?' This, I say, shocked me, and raised my anger against the contriver, who had chosen so ill an emblem, which, upon so superficial a view, brought such an odious history into men's minds."-SOMERS' Tracts, p. 333.

VOL. XV.

R