Stands despising Storms arising, And can ne'er be made a slave. Alb. Unhelped I am, who pitied the distressed, And, none oppressing, am by all oppressed; Betrayed, forsaken, and of hope bereft. Aca. Yet still the gods, and Innocence are left. Against rebellion armed with zeal, To rule by love, But here below, Let princes know, "Tis fatal to be good. Chorus of both. To rule by love, &c. Aca. Your father Neptune, from the seas, Has Nereids and blue Tritons sent, To charm your discontent. Nereids rise out of the Sea, and sing; Tritons dance. From the low palace of old father Ocean, II. Every nymph of the flood, her tresses rending, Enter TYRANNY, DEMOCRACY, represented by Men, attended by ASEBIA and ZELOTA, Women. Tyr. Ha, ha! 'tis what so long I wished and vowed: Our plots and delusions Have wrought such confusions, That the monarch's a slave to the crowd. Dem. A design we fomented, Tyr. By hell it was new! Dem. First with promised faith we flattered. Zel. Our business was to please the throng, And court their wild applause; Aseb. For this we bribed the lawyer's tongue, And then destroyed the laws. Cho. For this, &c. Tyr. To make him safe, we made his friends our prey; Dem. To make him great, we scorned his royal sway, Tyr. And to confirm his crown, we took his heir away. Dem. To encrease his store, We kept him poor; Tyr. And when to wants we had betrayed him, To keep him low, Pronounced a foe, Whoe'er presumed to aid him. Aseb. But you forget the noblest part, And master piece of all your art,— You told him he was sick at heart. Zel. And when you could not work belief In Albion of the imagined grief; Your perjured vouchers, in a breath, For every man's a king. Zel. Then let the mask begin, The Saints advance, To fill the dance, And the Property Boys come in. The Boys in white begin a Fantastic Dance *. Cho. Let the saints ascend the throne. Dem. Saints have wives, and wives have preachers, Gifted men, and able teachers; These to get, and those to own. Cho. Let the saints ascend the throne. Aseb. Freedom is a bait alluring; Them betraying, us securing, By the White Boys or Property Boys, are meant the adherents of the Duke of Monmouth, who affected great zeal for liberty and property, and assumed white badges, as marks of the innocence of their intentions. When the Duke came to the famous Parliament held at Oxford, "he was met by about 100 Batchellors all in white, except black velvet caps, with white wands in their hands, who divided themselves, and marched as a guard to his person.' Account of the Life of the Duke of Monmouth, p. 107. In the Duke's tour through the west of England, he was met at Exeter, by" a brave company of brisk stout young men, all cloathed in linen waistcoats and drawers, white and harmless, having not so much as a stick in their hands; they were in number about 900 or 1000." ibid. p. 103. See the notes on Absalom and Achitophel The saints, on the other hand, mean the ancient republican zealots and fanatics, who, though they would willingly have joined in the destruction of Charles, did not wish that Monmouth should succeed him, but aimed at the restoration of the commonwealth. Hence the following dispute betwixt Tyranny and Democracy. While to sovereign power we soar. Zel. Old delusions, new repeated, Shews them born but to be cheated, As their fathers were before. Six Sectaries begin a formal affected Dance; the two gravest whisper the other four, and draw them into the Plot; they pull out and deliver Libels to them, which they receive. Dem. See friendless Albion there alone, Without defence But innocence; Albanius now is gone. Tyr. Say then, what must be done? Dem. The gods have put him in our hand*. Zel. He must be slain. Tyr. But who shall then command? Dem. The people; for the right returns to those, Who did the trust impose. Tyr. "Tis fit another sun should rise, To cheer the world, and light the skies. Dem. But when the sun His race has run, And neither cheers the world, nor lights the skies, "Tis fit a common-wealth of stars should rise. Aseb. Each noble vice Shall bear a price, And virtue shall a drug become; An empty name Was all her fame, But now she shall be dumb. Zel. If open vice be what you drive at, A name so broad we'll ne'er connive at. *The atrocious and blasphemous sentiment in the text was actually used by the fanatics who murdered Sharpe, the archbishop of St Andrews. When they unexpectedly met him. during their search for another person, they exclaimed, that "the Lord had delivered him into their hands." Saints love vice, but, more refinedly, Dem. Fall on; e'er Albion's death, we'll try, The White Boys dance about the Saints; the Saints draw out the Association, and offer it to them; they refuse it, and quarrel about it; then the White Boys and Saints fall into a confused dance, imitating fighting. The White Boys, at the end of the dance, being driven out by the Sectaries, with Protestant Flails.* Alb. See the gods my cause defending, When all human help was past! Acac. Factions mutually contending, By each other fall at last. Alb. But is not yonder Proteus' cave, Below that steep, Which rising billows brave? Acac. It is; and in it lies the god asleep; And snorting by, We may descry The monsters of the deep. Alb. He knows the past, And can resolve the future too. It is easy to believe, that, whatever was the nature of the schemes nourished by Monmouth, Russel, and Essex, they could have no concern with the low and sanguinary cabal of Ramsay, Walcot, and Rumbold, who were all of them old republican officers and commonwealth's men. The flight of Shaftesbury, whose bustling and politic brain had rendered him the sole channel of communication betwixt these parties, as well as the means of uniting them in one common design, threw loose all connection between them; so that each, after his retreat, seems to have acted independantly of, and often in contradiction to the other. |