"The death of Cromwell was the first public event which called forth Dryden's poetical powers. His heroic stanzas have beauties and defects; the thoughts are vigorous, and though not always proper, shew a mind replete with ideas; the numbers are smooth, and the diction, if not altogether correct, is elegant and easy.

"Davenant seems at this time to have been his favourite author, though Gondibert never appears to have been popular; and from Davenant he learned to please his ear with the stanza of four lines alternately rhymed." Johnson's Life of Dryden. JOHN WARTON.

Ver. 1. And now 'tis time;] We are not to wonder that Dryden, after this panegyric on Cromwell, should live to be appointed poet laureat to Charles II., any more than that Dr. Sprat, after a similar panegyric, should live to write the History of the Rye-house Plot, and become Bishop of Rochester. Men were dazzled with the uncommon talents of the Protector, "who wanted nothing to raise him to heroic excellence, but virtue;" they were struck with his intrepidity, his industry, his insight into all characters, -his secrecy in his projects, and his successes, beyond all hope and expectation, in the course of human affairs. The most manly and nervous of all Waller's poems, are the Stanzas to Cromwell, which are far superior to the poem on his death, (though that excels this of Dryden,) and on the War with Spain. 'Tis observable that Milton never addrest any poem to Cromwell; but only one admirable sonnet, in which, not like a mean flatterer, he assumes the tone of an adviser, and cautions him against the avarice and the encroachments of the Presbyterian clergy, whom he calls "hireling wolves." The University of Oxford, notwithstanding its ancient loyalty, sent him a volume of Latin verses, on his making peace with the Dutch: in which collection are to be found the names of Crew, Mew, Godolphin, South, Locke, and Busby. Dr. J. WARTON.

Ver.3. Like eager Romans, &c.] It was usual to conceal an eagle on the top of the funeral pile, destined to receive the dead body of the Roman imperator. When the pile was set on fire, the bird was set at liberty, and mounting into the air, was supposed by the common people to carry with it to heaven the soul of the deceased. DERRICK.

V.

How shall I then begin, or where conclude,
To draw a fame so truly circular?
For in a round what order can be show'd,
Where all the parts so equal perfect are?

VI.

His grandeur he derived from Heaven alone; For he was great, ere fortune made him so: And wars, like mists that rise against the sun, Made him but greater seem, not greater grow.

VII.

No borrow'd bays his temples did adorn,
But to our crown he did fresh jewels bring;
Nor was his virtue poison'd soon as born,
With the too early thoughts of being king.

VIII.

Fortune (that easy mistress to the young,
But to her ancient servants coy and hard)
Him at that age her favourites rank'd among,
When she her best-loved Pompey did discard.

IX.

He, private, mark'd the fault of others' sway, And set as sea-marks for himself to shun: Not like rash monarchs, who their youth betray By acts their age too late would wish undone.

X.

And yet dominion was not his design;

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We owe that blessing, not to him, but Heaven, Which to fair acts unsought rewards did join; Rewards, that less to him than us were given.

Ver. 17. How shall I then begin, or where conclude.] He probably had in his mind the following passage of Theocritus, in his panegyric on Ptolemy, ver. 9.

Ιδαν ἐς πολύδενδρον ἀνὴρ ὑλητόμος ἐνθὼν,
Πατταίνει, παριόντος άδην, πόθεν ἄρξεται ἔργο
Τί πρᾶτον καταλεξω ;
JOHN WARTON.

Ver. 20. Where all the parts so equal perfect are?] Instead of equally perfect. Such slight inaccuracies Dryden's fervid genius little regarded. JOHN WARTON.

Ver. 23. And wars, like mists that rise against the sun, Made him but greater seem, not greater grow.] A sublime thought, which reminds us of the passage in Milton; although he applies the same appearance of nature, the sun rising through a mist, in a different

manner.

"As when the sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air, Shorn of his beams." Par. Lost, bk. i. 1.595, "But herein will I imitate the sun, Who doth permit the base contagious clouds To smother up his beauty from the world; That when he please again to be himself, Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at, By breaking through the foul and ugly mists Of vapours, that did seem to strangle him." Shak. Henry IV. Act 1. Sc. 2. JOHN WARTON. Ver.36. By acts their age too late would wish undone.] Infectum volet esse, dolor quod suaserit et mens. Hor. 1, Ep. ii. 1. 60. JOHN WARTON.

Ver. 48. To staunch the blood by breathing of the vein.] The loyalists supposed that by this line Dryden meant to allude to Cromwell's murder of his Sovereign. Thus in "The Laureat," or "Jack Squabb's History in a little drawn, Down to his evening, from his early dawn," ver. 21-25. "Nay, had our Charles, by heaven's severe decree, Been found, and murther'd in the royal tree, Even thou hadst praised the fact; his father slain, Thou call'st but gently breathing of a vein." Ver. 56.

lib. ii. ver. 44.

MALONE.

galaxy with stars is sown.] Lucretius, -"Lumine conserit arva." JOHN WARTON. Ver. 63. Bologna's walls thus mounted in the air,

To seat themselves more surely than before.]

It is said that at the siege of Bologna, in 1512, a mine blew up that part of the wall of the church of Sancta Maria del Baracano, on which stood a miraculous image of the blessed Virgin. Though it was carried so high, that both armies could see one another through the breach, yet it fell again exactly into its place, so that it was impossible to see where it had been separated. DERRICK.

Ver. 86. Made France and Spain ambitious of his love;) The 9th of March, 1661, died at Vincennes, Cardinal Mazarin, at upwards of fifty years of age. Cardinal Richelieu lived nearly the same number of years. They had governed France successively as prime ministers, each of them nearly eighteen years, with much the same kind of authority that the Grand Viziers exercise among the Turks. Both were ambitious; Mazarin was more timid, more designing, more subtle, pliant, and unsteady; Richelieu was more resolute, more warm, had greater parts, was more obstinate, and more fixed and determined. Mazarin's genius for business was more limited: he was better acquainted with the foibles of mankind, and knew well how to keep them in suspense. Richelieu, with more extensive talents, was better versed in business, and maintained his power by awing some, and amusing others with hopes. Mazarin had a greater knack at speeching, and was more happily formed to please the ladies: Richelieu would much sooner gain the confidence of a man; and he persuaded more by deeds than words. It is said that on March 17, 1653, Monsieur Bourdeaux, the ambassador extraordinary, sent by Mazarin from the King of France to Cromwell, made his public entry, and on the way had his audience at the Banqueting-house, Whitehall; when he extolled the virtues of his Highness, begs his friendship, and says that the Divine Providence, after so many calamities, could not deal more favourably with these nations, or cause them to forget their miseries, with greater satisfaction, than by submitting them to so just a government. Cromwell gained an entire ascendant even over the artful Mazarin. In the treaty the Protector's name was inserted before that of the King. Thurloe, vol. iii. p. 103. Dr. J. WARTON.

Ver. 91. His fortune] Cromwell, it is said, appeared precisely at a time when he could succeed. Under Elizabeth he would have been hanged; under Charles II. ridiculed. He appeared when England was disgusted with Kings, and his son Richard when they were equally disgusted with Protectors. Some men owe their fame and eminence to the circumstances of the age in which they happened to live; to the taste of their particular times; to the exigencies of the state; to the enemies they found to combat, and to other favourable circumstances and events. the following great men would have been great in all ages, and in all countries:-Homer, Hippocrates, Epaminondas, Philip, Aristotle, Archimedes, Scipio, Virgil, Horace, Cæsar, Hannibal, Mango-Copac, Confucius, Mahomet II., Cervantes, Cortez, Kepler, Copernicus, Bacon, Newton, Marlborough, Molière, Fontenelle, Turenne, Machiavel, Milton, Montecucoli, Dante, and Columbus. Dr. J. WARTON.

But

designment] He has borrowed this word

from Spenser, F. Q. II. xi. 10.

"Gainst which the second troupe dessignment makes:" That is, plot. Dryden, however, uses it simply for design or plan. It should be added, that dessignment is the reading of Spenser's second edition; as the first reads, without perspicuity, assignment. TODD.

Ver. 113. He made us freemen] We may be said to have been made freemen of the continent by the taking of Dunkirk, which was wrested from the Spaniards by the united forces of France and England, and delivered up to the latter in the beginning of 1658. DERRICK.

Ver. 120. Although an Alexander] ander VII. sat in the papal chair.

At this time AlexDERRICK.

Ver. 135. Till he, press'd down by his own weighty_name] Not unlike Livy, who, describing the progress of the city of Rome, says, "Quæ ab exiguis perfecta initiis, eo creverit ut jam magnitudine laboret suâ." JOHN WARTON.

Ver. 145. His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest,] Our poet's prophetical capacity here failed, for we read in the accurate memoirs of the Protectorate-House of Cromwell, by Mark Noble, F.S.A.-"He was elected Protector December 12, 1653, and inaugurated again, with more state, June 20, 1657; and died peaceably in his bed (worn out by excessive fatigue of mind and body, by grief in domestic misfortunes, and his load of debts), at his palace at Whitehall, upon his auspicious September 3, 1658; and was │ buried with more than regal pomp, in the sepulchre of our monarchs; from whence, at the Restoration, his body was dragged to, and exposed upon, the gallows at Tyburn, the trunk thrown into a hole beneath it, and his head set upon a pole at Westminster-hall."-Noble's Memoirs, vol. i. p 145. JOHN WARTON

Now with a general peace the world was blest,
While ours, a world divided from the rest,
A dreadful quiet felt, and worser far
Than arms, a sullen interval of war:

Thus when black clouds draw down the labouring

skies,

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10

Ere yet abroad the winged thunder flies,
An horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we the tempest fear.
The ambitious Swede, like restless billows toss'd,
On this hand gaining what on that he lost,
Though in his life he blood and ruin breathed,
To his now guideless kingdom peace bequeath'd.
And Heaven, that seem'd regardless of our fate,
For France and Spain did miracles create;
Such mortal quarrels to compose in peace,
As nature bred, and interest did increase.
We sigh'd to hear the fair Iberian bride
Must grow a lily to the lily's side,
Whilst our cross stars denied us Charles his bed,
Whom our first flames and virgin love did wed.
For his long absence Church and State did groan;
Madness the pulpit, faction seized the throne: 22

15

Ver. 1. Now with a general] Waller, as well as Dryden, altered his sentiments, and changed his notes, on the Restoration; and when the King hinted to him the inferiority of his second poem to the former, answered, "Poets, sir, succeed better in fiction than in truth." What notice Charles took of Dryden's Astræa we are ignorant. Dr. J. WARTON.

Ver. 7. An horrid silence first invades the ear,] Thomson's impending storm in Summer, v. 1116.

"A boding silence reigns,

See

Dread through the dun expanse; save the dull sound
That from the mountain, previous to the storm,
Rolls o'er the muttering earth, disturbs the flood,
And shakes the forest-leaf without a breath."
JOHN WARTON.

Ibid. An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.] This distich was laid hold of by the wits of the times, and among others by Capt. Alexander Radcliff, in his News from Hell, who ridicules it thus:

"Laureat, who was both learn'd and florid,
Was damn'd long since for silence horrid:
Nor had there been such clutter made,
But that this silence did invade:
Invade and so 't might well-that 's clear:
But what did it invade an ear."

Ver. 19. edition. TODD.

DERRICK.

denied us Charles his bed,] Original

Ver. 22. Madness the pulpit,] From the numerous sermons preached before the Parliament, particularly from 1640 to 1650, a variety of curious examples might be

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The vulgar, gull'd into rebellion, arm'd;
Their blood to action by the prize was warm'd.
The sacred purple then and scarlet gown,
Like sanguine dye, to elephants was shown.
Thus, when the bold Typhous scaled the sky,
And forced great Jove from his own heaven to fly.
(What king, what crown from treason's reach is free.
If Jove and Heaven can violated be?)
The lesser gods, that shared his prosperous state.
All suffer'd in the exiled Thunderer's fate.
The rabble now such freedom did enjoy,
As winds at sea, that use it to destroy:
Blind as the Cyclop, and as wild as he,
They own'd a lawless savage liberty,
Like that our painted ancestors so prized,
Ere empire's arts their breasts had civilised.
How great were then our Charles his woes, who thus
Was forced to suffer for himself and us!
He, toss'd by fate, and hurried up and down,
Heir to his father's sorrows, with his crown,

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50

adduced to prove the justness of Dryden's assertion. And who can wonder at this assertion, when he is told that notifications of the following kind were affixed on walls and door-posts: "On such a day such a brewer's clerk exerciseth; such a taylor expoundeth; such a waterman teacheth!" See the Preface to Featley's Dippers Dipt, 4to, 1647. For a minute account of the ravings and rantings of many of the preachers before the Parliament, the reader is referred to a collection of extracts from their discourses, entitled Evangelium Armatum, printed soon after the Restoration of King Charles II. TODD.

Ver. 46. They own'd a lawless] "Perhaps," says Swift, vol. x. p. 188, "in my own thoughts, I prefer a well-instituted common-wealth before a monarchy; and I know several others of the same opinion. Now, if on this pretence I should insist on liberty of conscience, form conventicles of republicans, and print books, preferring that sort of government, and condemning what is established, the magistrate would with great justice hang me and my disciples." Dr. J. WARTON.

Ver. 49. How great were then our Charles his woes.] Original edition, and rightly so printed for the sake of the metre. TODD.

Could taste no sweets of youth's desired age;
But found his life too true a pilgrimage.
Unconquer'd yet in that forlorn estate,
His manly courage overcame his fate.

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65

His wounds he took, like Romans, on his breast,
Which, by his virtue, were with laurels dress'd.
As souls reach heaven while yet in bodies pent,
So did he live above his banishment.
That sun, which we beheld with cozen'd eyes
Within the water, moved along the skies.
How easy 'tis, when destiny proves kind,
With full-spread sails to run before the wind!
But those that 'gainst stiff gales laveering go,
Must be at once resolved, and skilful too.
He would not, like soft Otho, hope prevent,
But stay'd and suffer'd fortune to repent.
These virtues Galba in a stranger sought,
And Piso to adopted empire brought.
How shall I then my doubtful thoughts express,
That must his sufferings both regret and bless?
For when his early valour Heaven had cross'd;
And all at Worcester but the honour lost;
Forced into exile from his rightful throne,
He made all countries where he came his own;
And, viewing monarchs' secret arts of sway,
A royal factor for his kingdoms lay.
Thus banish'd David spent abroad his time,
When to be God's anointed was his crime;
And, when restored, made his proud neighbours

rue

Those choice remarks he from his travels drew.
Nor is he only by affliction shown

To conquer others' realms, but rule his own:
Recovering hardly what he lost before,
His right endears it much; his purchase more.

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75

80

85

Ver. 57. His wounds he took, like Romans, on his breast,] My reader will not be displeased with the following citation from Elian's Various History, lib. 12, cap. 21. "The matrons of Lacedæmon, when they received the news that their sons were slain in battle, were accustomed to go forth to inspect their wounds, both before and behind; and when they found the greater number was before, they conducted the bodies of their children to the monuments of their ancestors with great solemnity, and a kind of stern pride in their countenances; but if they perceived any wounds behind, weeping and blushing for shame, they departed with the utinost secrecy, leaving the dead bodies to be interred in the common sepulchre, or carried them away by stealth to be privately buried at home."

To which we may add these spirited lines of Tyrtæus, so peculiarly applicable at this important juncture.

Αυτός δ' εν προμάχοισι πεσων φίλον ώλεσε θυμόν,
Αστυ τε και λαους και πατέρ' ευκλεῖσας"
Πολλα δια στέρνοιο και ασπίδος ομφαλοέσσης,
Και δια θωρηκος προσθεν εληλαμένος.
Τον δ' ολοφύρονται μεν όμως νέοι κ δε γέροντές,
Αργαλέω δε ποθω πασα κεκηδε πολις.

"Now fall'n, the noblest of the van, he dies!
His city by the beauteous death renown'd;
His low-bent father marking, where he lies,

The shield, the breast-plate, hackt by many a wound.

The young, the old, alike commingling tears, His country's heavy grief bedews the grave; And all his race in verdant lustre wears Fame's richest wreath, transmitted from the brave." Polwhele's Translation. JOHN WARTON. Ver. 78. A royal factor for his kingdoms lay.] Origina edition, their kingdoms. TODD.

Ver. 86. His right endears] "It is remarkable," says Algarotti, "that no great people is governed by families that have been originally natives. China is governed by Tartars; the Euphrates, the Nile, Orontes, Greece, Epirus, by Turks. It is not an English race that governs England; it is a German family that has succeeded a Dutch prince

Inured to suffer ere he came to reign,
No rash procedure will his actions stain:
To business ripen'd by digestive thought,
His future rule is into method brought:
As they who first proportion understand,
With easy practice reach a master's hand.
Well might the ancient poets then confer
On Night the honour'd name of Counsellor,
Since struck with rays of prosperous fortune blind,
We light alone in dark afflictions find.

In such adversities to sceptres train'd,

The name of Great his famous grandsire gain'd;
Who yet a king alone in name and right,
With hunger, cold, and angry Jove did fight;
Shock'd by a Covenanting League's vast powers,
As holy and as catholic as ours:

Till fortune's fruitless spite had made it known,
Her blows not shook but riveted his throne.
Some lazy ages, lost in sleep and ease,

No action leave to busy chronicles:
Such, whose supine felicity but makes

In story chasms, in epoches mistakes;

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"Such is not Charles' too too active age."

See also before, ver. 49. Too too active age, was an ancient formulary. So in H. Parrot's Springes for Woodcocks, 12mo. London, 1613, Epigram 133,lib. I.

"tis knowne her iesting's too too evill."

And even in prose, as in Penri's Exhortation into the Gouernors, &c. of Wales, 1588, p. 51. "The case is too too manifest." Too too for exceeding is also used in the Lancashire dialect. I venture to add part of P. Fletcher's well-drawn character of Lasciviousness personified, Purp. Isl. edit. 1633, p. 90,

"Broad were his jests, wilde his uncivil sport; His fashion too too fond, and loosly light: A long love-lock on his left shoulder plight, Like to a woman's hair, well shew'd a woman's sprite." TODD. who secure before,] Original edition. TODD.

Ver. 115.

Ver. 117. Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail,] An Homeric simile. JOHN WARTON.

Ver. 119. With alga who the sacred altars strews? To all the sea-gods Charles an offering owes: A bull to thee, Portunus, shall be slain, A lamb to you, ye tempests of the main:] He had not yet learned, indeed he never learned well, to forbear the improper use of mythology. After having thus rewarded the heathen deities for their care, he tells us in the language of religion,

"Prayer storm'd the skies, and ravish'd Charles from thence, As heaven itself is took by violence." JOHNSON.