the gryphons for the gold which the monsters guarded. 180. 1029. The utmost orb. The outermost of the ten concentric spheres which, according to Ptolemaic astronomy, constituted the universe; at the center was the earth. BOOK XII 604. He ended. The archangel Michael, who had been sent to drive Adam and Eve out of Paradise. AREOPAGITICA 181. "I wrote my Areopagitica," said Milton in his Defensio Secunda, "in order to deliver the press from the restraints with which it was encumbered; that the power of determining what was true and what was false, what ought to be published and what to be suppressed, might no longer be entrusted to a few illiterate and illiberal individuals, who refused their sanction to any work which contained views or sentiments at all above the level of the vulgar superstition." The treatise appeared in November, 1644, four months after the defeat of Rupert at Marston Moor, and when Milton felt confident that the Parliamentary cause would prosper. 46. The thing. The custom of requiring 182. 58. Lullius. Raymond Lully, a scientist of the thirteenth century. Sublimate. extract. 67. That unapocryphal vision. See Acts, x: 9-16. 85. Mr. Selden. John Selden (15841654), a writer on law and constitutional history and member of Parliament for Oxford University. 107. Omer. A measure, mentioned in Exodus, xvi: 18. It was between half and four-fifths of a gallon. 128. Seeds which were imposed on Psyche. The story, told in Apuleius's Golden Ass, pictures Venus as punishing Psyche for winning the love of Cupid by forcing her to arrange in proper piles all the seeds of a vast heap of mixed grain. The ants, taking pity on Psyche, performed the labor for her. 164. Scotus; Aquinas. Duns Scotus, (1265-1308), a famous mathematician; Thomas Aquinas (1224?-1274), the “angelic doctor" of the scholastic philosophers. 183. 166. Guyon. The knight of temperance, hero of Book II of the Faerie Queene. 181. It. The licensing act. 183. 187. Pluralities. The churchman who was the possessor of several benefices was said to hold a plurality. 219. Ferular. Rod. Fescu. Pointer. 220. Imprimatur. Let it be printed; the word signifying that the book had been licensed for publication. 247. Palladian. Pertaining to Pallas Athene, goddess of wisdom. 184. 359. Pyrrhus. After the battle of Heraclea (280 B. C.) Pyrrhus declared that if he had Roman soldiers the control of the world would be easy. 185. 412. Janus. The two-faced god of the Romans, whose temple doors were opened only in war-time. 426. Beyond the discipline of Geneva. Beyond what seems proper to the Presbyterians. 459. The old Proteus. Proteus, the sea god, whose power of assuming many forms has given its significance to the adjective Protean, prophesied when bound in chains. 464. Micaiah before Ahab. See 1 Kings, xxii: 13-15. 186. 502. Many subdichotomies. Many minor subdivisions. 187. 613. She is now fallen from the stars. The Star-chamber court was abolished in 1641. 620. These sophisms and elenchs of merchandise. False arguments used by the bookselling trade. PEPYS THE DIARY 23. The Covenant. The Scottish Covenant, or agreement for the conduct of the church, was promulgated in 1638; in 1643 the "Solemn League and Covenant between the Parliamentary forces and Scotland was signed, providing for the abolition in England of Popery and Prelacy. In 1662 Charles abrogated the covenants. 34. My Lord. Sir Edward Montagu, to whom Pepys was secretary, and who afterwards secured Pepys's appointment as Clerk of the Acts in the Navy Office. 39. The Long Reach. The part of the river between Erith and Gravesend. 188. 73. Trimmed in the morning. Thus In Pepys records his visits to the barber. 108. His escape from Worcester. 1651 Cromwell won what he called the crowning mercy" at Worcester, when he defeated Charles II and his army of Scottish supporters. 143. Wide canons. Ornaments attached to the legs of a pair of breeches. 167. General Monk. Cromwell's old companion-in-arms, whose decision to welcome Charles II was largely influential in bringing about the Restoration. 190. 301. The Three Cranes. A tavern on upper Thames Street. 190. 379. The Custom of the Country. A tragi-comedy by Fletcher; printed in the 1647 edition of Beaumont and Fletcher. 191. 391. By link. By the light of a torch, or link. 407. Sir Martin Mar-all. A comedy adapted for the stage by Dryden, from a translation by the Duke of Newcastle. 445. The Indian Emperor. Dryden's heroic drama dealing with the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. The play was a brilliant success. Nell. Nell Gwynn, the most popular actress of the day; a favorite of Charles II. 459. The Black Prince. Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), won a considerable success with Mustapha; The Black Prince was a comparative failure. LOYALIST STALL-BALLADS not The long struggle to dispossess the House of Stuart, beginning in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, was finally ended until Prince Charles Stuart, "the Young Pretender," grandson of James II, had been defeated at Culloden, in 1746, by the Duke of Cumberland. As the fortunes of the Stuarts waned, their attacks on their opponents-Parliamentarians, Whigs, Hanoverians-became more bitter. During the Civil War, and again at the time of the Revolution of 1688, the flood of satire of which these street songs are typical examples, was of almost unbelievable magnitude. The six ballads here printed are from the time of the Civil War and the Commonwealth. THE PROTECTING BREWER 193. The legend that Cromwell was a brewer by trade appears in many of the songs and satires of the period. THE LAWYERS' LAMENTATION Charing Cross had been torn down by Parliament along with many other insignia of royalty and ecclesiasticism. DRYDEN ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL 195. The poem appeared in 1681, when the question of the successor to Charles II, in the event of the King's death, was agitating all England. The heir-apparent was the King's brother James, the Duke of York, who was generally unpopular on account of his Catholicism. James, Duke of Monmouth, the Absalom of the poem, an illegitimate son of Charles, was a Protestant, and in general favor with the Whig and anti-Catholic parties. Despite the stain on his birth his friends, led by Anthony Ashley Cooper, first earl of Shaftesbury (Achitophel) planned to set aside tradition and present Monmouth as a sort of people's candidate in opposition to the Duke of York. For many years Shaftesbury had been the virtual leader of the Whigs and Protestants. During the " Popish Plot " he had been Titus Oates's most prominent supporter; he championed the Exclusion Bill, and was accused of fomenting a rebellion in Scotland. In July, 1681, he was imprisoned in the Tower on charge of high treason; but when his case came before the grand jury at the end of November, he was released through an ignoramus verdict. In November, 1682, he fled to Holland, where in 1683 he died. The Duke of Monmouth made his ill-fated attempt to win the crown in 1685, but his followers were dispersed at the battle of Sedgemoor, and he himself was soon afterwards beheaded. Dryden undertook in Absalom and Achitophel to influence public opinion against Shaftesbury, and timed its publication so that it appeared only two weeks before the earl's trial was to begin. For the Biblical account of the revolt of Absalom see 2 Samuel, xiii-xviii. 7. Israel's monarch. David of the poem. Charles II, the 23. In foreign fields he won renown. Monmouth had won something of a reputation as a soldier during three campaigns on the continent. 34. The charming Annabel. Anne Scott, 39. Amnon's murder. It is uncertain 45. The Jews. The English. 196. 82. The good old cause. The cause of the Commonwealth; the phrase was 118. The Egyptian rites. French rites. 197. 150. Achitophel. Shaftesbury. 175. The triple bond. An alliance formed in 1668 between England, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic. 197. 177. A foreign yoke. An alliance with France. 188. Abbethdin. The highest officer of the Jewish court of justice. 198. 264. Gath. Brussels. 270. Jordan's sand. Dover beach, where Charles II landed at the Restoration. 199. 352. The collateral line. James, Duke of York, brother of the king, stood at the head of this line of descent. sar 200. 529. A numerous host of dreaming saints. The non-conforming Protestants, castically called "saints." 539. Born to be saved. A sarcastic reference to the doctrine of election. 66 544. Zimri. George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who in The Rehearsal had satirized Dryden as John Bayes." In his Discourse Concerning Satire Dryden afterwards wrote: "The character of Zimri in my Absalom is, in my opinion, worth the whole poem: 'tis not bloody, but 'tis ridiculous enough; and he for whom it was intended was too witty to resent it as an injury." 585. Shimei. Slingsby Bethel, whom the Whigs had elected one of the two Sheriffs in 1680. 201. 617. No Rechabite, etc. "The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none." Jeremiah, xxxV: 14. 202. 817. Barzillai. James Butler, Duke of Ormond, always a staunch loyalist. 902. The Sanhedrin. The House of Commons. 910. Unequal ruler of the day. Apollo's son Phaethon, who could not guide successfully his father's car of the sun. 203. 921. The true successor. James, Duke of York. MAC FLECKNOE 204. After the release of Shaftesbury in 1681, his Whig friends caused a medal to be struck commemorating the event. Dryden at once published The Medal: A Satire Against Sedition. Among the replies was a violent one by Thomas Shadwell, The Medal of John Bayes. In October, 1682, Dryden answered with Mac Flecknoe, than which nothing illustrates more effectively the caustic nature of his satire. 3. Flecknoe. An inoffensive poet who had died in 1678, over whose shoulder Dryden strikes Shadwell. 29. Heywood and Shirley. Elizabethan dramatists, not deserving of such harsh criticism. 36. To King John of Portugal I sung. King John had entertained Flecknoe at Lisbon. 42. In Epsom blankets tossed. " Tossing in a blanket is the punishment visited upon Sir Samuel Hearty in The Virtuoso. There is also a reference to the title of 204. 43. The new Arion. Arion was a Greek musician of the eighth century B. C. 53. St. André. A French dancing-master. 54. Thy own Psyche. One of Shadwell's plays. 205. 57. Singleton. A contemporary singer who had taken the rôle of Villerius in Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes. 64. Fair Augusta. London, which at the time was fearful of Popish plotters. 74. A Nursery. A theatre given over to training young actors. 78. Maximin. A defiant character in Dryden's Tyrannic Love. 79, 80. Buskins, socks. See notes on L'Allegro, l. 132, and Il Penseroso, l. 102. 81. Gentle Simkin. A clown. 84. Panton. "A celebrated punster, according to Derrick." (Scott.) 105. Herringman. A contemporary publisher. 122. Love's Kingdom. A play by Fleck noe. 206. 149. Let Virtuosos, etc. The Virtuoso was a play by Shadwell. 151. Gentle George. Sir George Ether- 163. Let no alien Sedley interpose. Sir 168. Sir Formal. Sir Formal Trifle appears in Shadwell's The Virtuoso. 172. By arrogating Jonson's hostile name. Shadwell was fervid in his praise of Ben Jonson. 179. Prince Nicander. A character in Shadwell's Psyche. 185. Oil on water's flow. noun. Flow is a ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY 1. Neander. The essay is in dialogue form, Neander representing Dryden; Eugenius may be Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset. 2. The Silent Woman. A play by Ben Jonson. 212. 36. Clenches. Puns. 43. Quantum lenta, etc. As the cypresses rise above the low shrubs. 45. Mr. Hales of Eton. John Hales (1584-1656), fellow of Eton, an English scholar and critic. 54. The last king. Charles I. 84. Humor. A man's particular bent, or ruling passion, was called his "humor." 213. 156. The greater wit. The greater genius. DEFOE THE TRUE-BORN ENGLISHMAN re In 1701 a satirist named Tutchin lampooned King William as a Dutchman." Defoe, "filled with a kind of rage,' plied in The True-Born Englishman. 215. 39. Shibboleth. See Judges, xii: 6. 45. The Norman bastard. William the Conqueror. 91. Blue-coat Hospitals. Charity schools. Christ's Hospital, the famous "BlueCoat School" of which Lamb wrote so delightfully, was founded by Henry VI, and was originally intended to be a school for orphans. The scholars wore a blue gown and blue cap. The Bridewell, later a reformatory, was originally a school of the same nature. 95. The Counter. A London prison. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS 216. The Dissenters, or Nonconformists, were members of the various anti-episcopal sects which had flourished during the Civil War, had been suppressed, sometimes by the sword, under Charles II and his brother James, and had again revived under the sympathetic government of William III. In the spring of 1702 Anne, a Stuart, succeeded to the throne; in November of the same year a Tory ministry introduced a bill against "occasional conformity." The practice thus attacked was a means whereby Dissenters, through occasional attendance at the Church of England, made themselves eligible to office. Had the bill passed, and the Queen was ardently in favor of it, this avenue of escape would have been closed, and the pains and penalties of the old Stuart régime, with some modifications, would have been again in force. Defoe, a Nonconformist, at once attacked the government in this pamphlet. Writing with an ironic gravity hardly surpassed by Swift in his Modest Proposal, he argued that at last the time had arrived for wiping the Dissenters out of existence, and proposed measures far more rigorous than Tory or High-churchman had dreamed of. At first neither party saw through the veil of irony, and the pamphlet was accepted at its face value. But when the government discovered that it had been hoaxed, Defoe was arrested, fined, exhibited three times in the pillory, and imprisoned in Newgate, and his pamphlet was burned in public by the hangman. 1. Sir Roger L'Estrange. A seventeenth century pamphleteer, founder of The Gazette. 13. Some people. The Nonconformists. 23. Near fourteen years. William III took the throne, by invitation of Parliament, in 1688. 216. 56. Act of Toleration. Passed in 1689, abolishing the old penalties for nonconformity. 217. 72. A Dutch government. was Prince of Orange. William III The III. The Huguenots in France. French Protestants had been persecuted more viciously than English Nonconformists; in 1685 they were expelled from the country. 143. A sordid impostor. Cromwell. 218. 213. Rye House Plot. A conspiracy, discovered in 1683, to murder Charles II and his brother James. Although certain men were executed for their complicity in the plot, many persons felt that there was little besides party jealousy at the bottom of the exposé. 232. The late king. James II. 219. 291. The common enemy. France. 351. The act "De heretico comburendo." For burning heretics. 374. Delenda est Carthago. must be destroyed. Carthage 220. 432. The Counter. A prison in London. 433. A Conventicle. Meeting of Nonconformists for worship. 221. 502. Religious houses. Monasteries and convents. THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL This narrative had always been considered an admirable example of Defoe's ability to write pure fiction so that it would seem simple truth, until Mr. George Aitken published in The Nineteenth Century, Jan., 1895, an article showing that Defoe in all probability was telling a story in which, as Aitken puts it, "nearly all the details are true, . the characters are real persons," and in which "Defoe invented nothing, or next to nothing, but . . . told, very skilfully, a ghost story which was attracting notice at the time." 224. 324. Escutcheons. Hatchments; funeral tablets bearing the arms of the deceased person. SWIFT THE TALE OF A TUB 226. The Tale of a Tub was published anonymously in 1704; Swift had written it some time before, during the closing years of the seventeenth century. It consisted of eleven sections, and was introduced by four satirical prefaces. Of the eleven sections constituting the body of the work, five (II, IV, VI, VIII, XI) contain the story of the three brothers, in the course of which Swift pictures the development of Christian faith to the end of the seventeenth century. The other sections are more general in their import, and, like Gulliver's Travels, expose the vanity and absurdity of human nature in the large. 226. 35. Hobbes's Leviathan. The Leviathan of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), which appeared in 1651, was an inquiry into the nature of the State, and the theory of government. 227. 25. My will. The New Testament. 52. Duchess D'Argent, etc. Duchess of Money, My Lady of Great Titles, and the Countess of Pride. 63. Locket's, Will's. The first was a London inn; the second, the coffee house which Dryden and the wits of the age frequented. 70. Sub dio. In the open air. 228. 96. A sort of idol. The tailor, god of the fashionable world. 112. Primum mobile. In the Ptolemaic 117. Water-tabby. Tabby was a material, 229. 200. Tertio modo. By a third method. 226. In the passage omitted Swift tells how as the fashions changed, and shoulder knots gave place to gold lace, and gold lace to satin linings, the brothers juggled with their father's will, and in each case gratified their desires. 232. A certain lord. This was Constantine the Great, from whom the popes pretended a donation of St. Peter's patrimony, which they have never been able to produce. (Swift's note.) Section IV tells how Peter, representing the church of Rome, got the upper hand of his brothers after driving the legal heirs out and getting the "certain lord's " house for himself. His pride increased with his success; he claimed to be his father's sole heir, and assumed the titles of Father Peter, My Lord Peter, and finally Emperor Peter. When the two other brothers finally protested, Peter drove them from the house. The story is resumed in section VI. 230. 66, 68. Martin. Martin Luther; Jack. John Calvin. Martin stands for the moderate reform in the Church of England; Jack, for the more violent reform of the Dissenters. |