For ftill they look on you with fuch kind eyes,
As those that fee the church's fovereign rife;
From their own order chofe, in whole high ftate,
They think themfelves the fecond choice of fate.
When our great monarch into exile went,
Wit and religion suffer'd banishment.
Thus once, when Troy was wrap'd in fire and
fmoke,

By you our monarch does that fame affure,
Which kings must have, or canrot live fecure:
For profperous princes gain their subjects heart,
Who love that praife in which themselves have part.
By you he fits those subjects to obey,
As heaven's eternal monarch does convey
His power unfeen, and man to his defigns,
By his bright minifters the stars, inclines.

The helpless gods their burning shrines forfcok;
They with their vanquith'd prince and party go,
And leave their temples empty to the foe.
At length the Mufes ftand, reftor'd again
To that great charge which nature did ordain ;
And their lov'd Druids feem'd revived by fate,
While you difpenfe the laws, and guide the state.
The nation's foul, our monarch, does difpenfe,
Through you, to us, his vital influence;
You are the channel, where thofe fpirits flow,
And work them higher, as to us they go.
In open prospect nothing bounds our eye,
Until the earth feems join'd unto the sky:
So in this hemifphere our utmost view
Is only bounded by our king and you :
Cur fight is limited where you are join'd,
And beyond that no farther heaven can find.
So well your virtues do with his agree,
"That, though your orbs of different greatness be,
Yet both are for each other's ufe difpos'd,
His enclofe, and yours to be inclos'd.
Nor could another in your room have been,
Except an emptinefs had come between.
Well may he then to you his cares impart,
And share his burden where he shares his heart.
In you his fleep ftill wakes; his pleasures find
Their fhare of business in your laboring mind.
So when the weary fun his place refighs,
He leaves his light, and by reflection fhines.
Juftice, that fits and frowns where public laws
Exclude foft mercy from a private caufe,
In your tribunal most herself does please ;
There only fmiles because the lives at eafe;
And, like young David, finds her strength the more,
When difincumber'd from thofe arms the wore.
Heaven would our royal master should exceed
Moft in that virtue, which we moit did nced;
And his mild father (who too late did find
All mercy vain but what with power was join'd)
His fatal goodness left to fitter times,
Not to increafe, but to abfolve, our crimes:
But when the heir of this vaft treasure knew
How large a legacy was left to you
(Too great for any fubject to retain),
He wifely ty'd it to the crown again:

Our fetting fun, from his declining feat,
Shot beams of kindness on you, rot of heat:
And, when his love was bounded in a few,
That were unhappy that they might be true,
Made you the favourite of his last sad times,
That is a fufferer in his fubjects crimes:
Thus thofe firft favours you receiv'd, were fent,
Like heaven's rewards in earthly punishment.
Yet fortune, confcious of your destiny,
Ev'n then took care to lay you softly by;
And wrap'd your fate among her precious things,
Kept fresh to be unfolded with your king's.
Shewn all at once you dazzled fo our eyes,
As new-born Pallas did the gods furprize :
When, fpringing forth from Jove's new-closing
wound,

Yet, paffing through your hands, it gathers more,
As ftreams, through mines, bear tincture of their

ore

While empiric politicians ute deceit,

Hide what they give, and cure but by a cheat;
You boldly fhew the fkill which they pretend,
And work by means as noble as your end:
Which should you veil, we might unwind the clue,
As men do nature, till we came to you.
And as the Indies were not found, before
Thofe rich perfumes, which, from the happy fhore,
The winds upon their balmy wings convey'd,
Whofe guilty fweetness first their world betray'd;
So by your counfels we are brought to view
A rich and undiscover'd world in you.

She ftruck the warlike fpear into the ground;
Which fprouting leaves did fuddenly inclose,
And peaceful olives thaded as they rofe.

How ftrangely active are the arts of peace,
Whofe reftlefs motions lefs than wars do ceafe!
Peace is not freed from labour but from noife;
And war more force, but not more pains employs :
Such is the mighty fwiftnefs of your mind,
That, like the earth, it leaves our fense behind,
While you fo fmoothly turn and rowl our sphere,
That rapid motion does but rest appear.
for, as in nature's fwiftnefs, with the throng
Of flying orbs while ours is borne along,
All feems at reft to the deluded eye,
Mov'd by the foul of the fame harmony,
So, carried on by your unwearied care,
We reft in peace, and yet in motion share.
Let envy then thofe crimes within you fee,
From which the happy never must be free;
Envy, that does with mifery refide,
The joy and the revenge of ruin'd pride.
Think it not hard, if at fo cheap a rate
You can fecure the conftancy of fate,
Whofe kindness fent what does their malice feem,
By leffer ills the greater to redeem.

Nor can we this weak shower a tempest call,
But drops of heat, that in the fun-fhine fall
You have already wearied fortune fo,
She cannot farther be your friend or foe;
But fits all breathlefs, and admires to feel
A fate fo weighty, that it flops her wheel.
In all things elfe above our humble fate,
Your equal mind yet fwells not into state,
But, like fome mountain in thofe happy ifles,
Where in perpetual spring young nature smiles,
Your greatnefs thews: ro honor to affright,
But trees for fhade, and flowers to court the fight:
Sometimes the hill fubmits itself a while
In fmall defcents, which do its height beguile;
And fometimes mounts, but fo as billows play,
Whofe rife not hinders, but makes short our way.
Your brow, which does no fear of thunder know,
Sees rowling tempests vainly beat below;

WHEN, for our fakes, your hero you refign'd

To fwelling feas, and every faithless wind;
When you releas'd his courage, and let free
A valour fatal to the enemy;

You lodg'd your country's cares within your breast
(The manfion where foft love fhould only reft):
And, ere our foes abroad were overcome,
The nobleft conquest you had gain'd at home.
Ah, what concerns did both your fouls divide!

SATIRE ON THE DUTCH. Your honour gave us what your love denied:

And 'twas for him much easier to fubdue
Thofe foes he fought with, than to part from you.
That glorious day, which two fuch navies saw,
As each unmatch'd, might to the world give law.
Neptune, yet doubtful whom he should obey,

Court the rich knaves that gripe their mort- Held to them both the trident of the fea:

As awfully as when Cod's people past:
Thofe, yet uncertain on whofe fails to blow,
Thefe, where the wealth of nations ought to flow
Then with the duke your highness rul'd the day:
While all the brave did his command obey,
The fair and p.ous under you did pray.

How powerful are chalte vows! the wind and tide
You brib'd to combat on the Erglish fide.
Thus to your much-lov'd lord you did convey
An unknwn fuccour, fent the nearest way.
New vigour to his wearied arms you brought,
(So Mofes was upheld while Ifrael fought)
would While, from afar we heard the cannon play,
Like diftant thunder on a fhiny day.

To the METROPOLIS of GREAT-BRITAIN, the most renowned and late flourishing CITY of LONDON, in its REPRESENTATIVES, the LORD-MAYOR and Court of ALDERMEN, the SHERIFFS and COMMON-COUNCIL of it.

A

S perhaps I am the first who ever prefented a work of this nature to the metropolis of any nation; fo it is likewife confonant to juftice, that he who was to give the first example of fuch a dedication should begin it with that city, which has fet a pattern to all others of true loyalty, invincible courage, and unshaken constancy. Other cities have been praised for the fame virtues, but I am much deceived if any have fo dearly purchafed their reputation; their fame has been won them by cheaper trials than an expenfive, though neceffary war, a confuming peftilence, and a more confuming fire. To fubmit yourselves with that humility to the judgments of heaven, and at the fame time to raise yourselves with that vigour above all human enemies; to be combated at once from above and from below, to be ftruck down and to triumph: I know not whether fuch trials have been ever paralleled in any nation: the refolution and fucceffes of them never can be. Never had prince or people more mutual reafon to love each other, if fuffering for each other can endear affection. You have come together a pair of matchlefs lovers, through many difficulties; he, through a long exile, various traverfes of fortune, and the interpofition of many rivals, who violently ravished and with-held you from him: and certainly you have had your fhare in fufferings. But providence has caft upon you want of trade, that you might appear bountiful to your country's neceffities; and the rest of your afflictions are not more the effects of God's difpleasure (frequent examples of them having been in the reign of the most excellent princes) than occafions for the manifefting of your chriftian and civil virtues. To you therefore this Year of wonders is juftly dedicated, because you have made it fo. You, who are to ftand a wonder to all years and ages; and who have built yourselves an immortal monument on your own ruins. You are now a Phoenix in her athes; and, as far as humanity can approach, a great emblem of the fuffering Deity: but heaven never made fo much piety and virtue to leave it miferable. I have heard, indeed, of fome virtuous perfons who have ended unfortunately, but never of any virtuous nation: Providence is engaged too deeply when the caufe becomes fo general; and I cannot imagine it has refolved the ruin of that people at home, which it has bleffed abroad with fucceffes I am therefore to conclude, that your fufferings are at an end; and that one part of my poem has not been more an hiftory of your destruction, than the other a prophecy of your reftoration. The accomplishment of which happinefs, as it is the wish of all true Englishmen, fo it is by none more paffionately defired, than by,

The greatest of your admirers,

And most humble of your fervants,
JOHN DRYDEN.

ΕΝ.

I

AN ACCOUNT OF THE ENSUING POEM,

HON.

SIR,

IN A LETTER TO THE

SIR ROBERT HOW A R D.

AM fo many ways obliged to you, and fo little able to return your favours, that, like those who owe too much, I can only live by getting farther into your debt. You have not only been careful of my fortune, which was the effect of your nobleness, but you have been folicitous of my reputation, which is that of your kindnefs. It is not long fince I gave you the trouble of perufing a play for me, and now, instead of an acknowledgment, I have given you a greater, in the correction of a poem. But fince you are to bear this perfecution, I will at least give you the encouragement of a martyr; you could never fuffer in a nobler caufe. For I have chofen the most heroic fubject, which any poet could defire: I have taken upon me to defcribe the motives, the beginning, progrefs, and fucceffes, of a moft juft and neceffary war; in it, the care, management, and prudence of our king; the conduct and valour of a royal admiral, and of two incomparable generals; the invincible courage of our captains and feamen; and three glorious victories, the refult of all. After this, I have, in the Fire, the moft deplorable, but withal the greateft, argument that can be imagined the destruction being so swift, so sudden, fo vaft and miferable, as nothing can parallel in story. The former part of this poem, relating to the war, is but a due expiation for my not having ferved my king and country in it. All gentlemen are almoft obliged to it and I know no reafon we fhould give that advantage to the commonalty of England, to be foremost in brave actions, which the nobles of France would never fuffer in their peasants. I thould not have written this but to a person who has been ever forward to appear in all employments whither his honour and generosity have called him. The latter part of my poem, which defcribes the Fire, I owe, firft to the piety and fatherly affection of our monarch to his fuffering fubjects; and, in the second place, to the courage, loyalty, and magnanimity of the city; both which were fo confpicuous, that I wanted words to celebrate them as they deferve. I have called my poem Hiftorical, not Epic, though both the actions and actors are as much heroic as any poem can contain. But fince the action is not properly one, nor that accomplished in the last fucceffes, I have judged it too bold a title for a few ftanzas, which are little more in number than a fingle Iliad, or the longeft of the Eneids. For this reason (I mean not of length, but broken action, tied too feverely to the laws of hiftory) I am apt to agree with thofe, who rank Lucan, rather among hiftorians in verse, than Epic poets in whofe room, if I am not deceived, Silius Italicus, though a worse writer, may more juftly be admitted. I have chofen to write my poem in quatrains, or ftanzas of four in alternate rhyme, because I have ever judged them more noble, and of greater dignity, both for the found and number, than any other verse in ufe amongst us; in which I am fure I have your approbation. The learned languages have certainly a great advantage of us, in not being tied to the flavery of any rhyme; and were lefs conftrained in the quantity of every fyllable, which they might vary with fpondees or dactyls, befides fo many other helps of grammatical figures, for the length

ening

ening or abbreviation of them, than the modern are in the clofe of that one fyllable, which often confines, and more often corrupts, the fenfe of all the reft. But in this neceffity of our rhymes, I have always found the couplet verfe more eafy, though not fo proper for this occafion: for there the work is fooner at an end, every two lines concluding the labour of the poet; but in quatrains he is to carry it farther on, and not only fo, but to bear along in his head the troublefome fenfe of four lines together. For thofe, who write correctly in this kind, muft needs acknowledge, that the last line of the flanza is to be confidered in the compofition of the firit. Neither can we give ourfelves the liberty of making any part of a verfe for the fake of rhyme, or concluding with a word which is not current English, or using the variety of female rhymes; all which our fathers practifed: and for the female rhymes, they are ftill in ufe amongst other nations; with the Italian in every line, with the Spaniard promifcuously, with the French alternately; as those who have read the Alarique, the Pucelle, or any of their later poems, will agree with me. And befides this, they write in Alexandrins, or verfes of fix feet; fuch as amongft us is the old tranflation of Homer by Chapman : all which, by lengthning of their chain, makes the sphere of their activity the larger. I have dwelt too long upon the choice of my stanza, which you may remember is much better defended in the preface to Gondibert; and therefore I will haften to acquaint you with my endeavours in the writing. In general I will only fay, I have never yet feen the defcription of any naval fight in the proper terms which are used at sea: and if there be any fuch in another language, as that of Lucan in the third of his Pharfalia, yet I could not avail myfelf of it in the English; the terms of art in every tongue being more the idiom of it than any other words. We hear indeed among our poets, of the thundering of guns, the fmoke, the diforder, and the flaughter; but all these are common notions. And certainly, as those who in a logical difpute keep in general terms, would hide a fallacy; fo thofe who do it in any poetical description, would veil their ignorance.

:

"Defcriptas fervare vices operumque colores,

"Cur ego, fi nequeo ignoroque, Poeta falutor?"

For my own part I had little knowledge of the fea, yet I have thought it no shame to Jearn and if I have made fome few mittakes, it is only, as you can bear me witness, becaufe I have wanted opportunity to correct them; the whole poem being first written, and now fent you from a place where I have not fo much as the converfe of any feaman. Yet though the trouble I had in writing it was great, it was no more than recompenfed by the pleasure. I found myself fo warm in celebrating the praises of military men, two fuch efpecially as the prince and general, that it is no wonder if they infpired me with thoughts above my ordinary level. And I am well fatis fied, that, as they are incomparably the beft fubject I ever had, excepting only the royal family, fo alfo, that this I have written of them is much better than what I have performed on any other. I have been forced to help out other arguments; but this has been bountiful to me they have been low and barren of praife, and I have exalted them; and made them fruitful; but here" Omnia fponte fua reddit justisĥma tellus." I have had a large, a fair, and a pleasant field; fo fertile, that without my cultivating, it has given me two harvests in a fummer, and in both oppreffed the reaper. All other greatnefs in fubjects is only counterfeit it will not endure the teft of danger; the greatnefs of arms is only real: other greatnefs burdens a nation with its weight; this fupports it with its ftrength. And as it is the happiness of the age, fo it is the peculiar goodnefs of the best of kings, that we may praise his fubjects without offending him. Doubtless it proceeds from a juft confidence of his own virtue, which the luftre of no other can be fo great as to darken in him; for the good or the valiant are never fafely praised under a bad or a degenerate prince.

But