"ACHITOPHEL, or the Picture of a wicked Politician;" being the substance of three sermons on 2 Sam. xvii. 23, which he had formerly preached at Oxford. This book was printed at Dublin in quarto, in 1627, and again at Oxford in the next year but some objections being made to several passages, which were supposed to favour Arminianism, it was castrated by Laud in various places, and afterwards went through five editions, between 1629 and 1642. "The sceane (says the writer, in a Dedication to Archbishop Usher,) wherein I have bounded my discourse, presents unto your Grace a sacred tragedy, consisting of four chief actors; viz. David, an anointed King, Absolon, an ambitious Prince; Achitophel, a wicked politician; and Cushay, a loyal subject; a passage of history for variety pleasant, for instruction useful, for event admirable." Though, from the number of editions it went through, this must have been a common book, it may be doubted whether Dryden had ever seen it; for I do not find that he took a single hint from it." Carpenter inveighs in general

If Dryden had met with this book, he would probably have made some use of the following judicious observation, which contains an eternal truth, peculiarly applicable to our own times:

"Envy and detraction, like two venomous serpents, lurk alwaies in the paths of justice, and the best rulers seldom find the freest passage. He that goes about to persuade a multitude they are not so well governed as they ought to be, shall sooner want argument than atten

against the inordinate ambition and subtle prac tices of Courtiers and Politicians; so that even supposing that his book had fallen into our author's hands, though it might have furnished him with the title, it would detract nothing from the originality, of his poem. His adaptation of the story to Shaftesbury and Monmouth was his own."

Tate, who was likely to be well informed, relates, that this poem was undertaken at the desire

tion. The reason whereof (as a learned man has observed) is, because the abuses and corruptions in every State most inevitable are, for the most part, sensible to vulgar capacities; but the hindrances of reformation only apparent to men of experienced judgments."

The learned man alluded to, if I remember right, is Bacon.

7 After Dryden's poem appeared, (of which we have two Latin versions, one by Francis Atterbury, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, the other by Dr. Coward,) the parallel between the King and David, and Achitophel and Shaftesbury, was a frequent theme in the pulpit,— In a Satire, entitled THE BADGER, published a few months before our author's poem, (July 8, 1681,) we find Shaftesbury thus denominated:

"Some call me Tony, some Achitophel,

"Some Jack-a-dandy, some old Machiavel.".

But it was then doubtless known that Dryden was writing a poem on this subject; and Achitophel there, and in some other productions of that day, is used merely to signify a person unfaithful to his prince.

8 Of the early history of this voluminous versifier, who wore the laurel for four-and-twenty years, very little is

VOL. I.

1

of King Charles the Second in 1680; he means, I conceive, towards the end of the year, that is, in February or March, 1680-81. If I am right in this conjecture, about nine months elapsed between its commencement and completion; for it was not published till the middle of Nov. 1681. It might however have been ready some time before, and some other works perhaps were executed during its progress. On the 28th of March, 1681, the Parliament which had been assembled at Oxford, was dissolved, and on the 2d of the following July, Shaftesbury was committed to the Tower, on a charge of High Treason; where he remained above four months. At this critical time, a few days before a bill of indictment was presented against him, appeared the poem of ABSALOM AND ACHITOphel. It was read with such avidity that the first edition was sold in about a month; and a second was issued out before the end of December. Two, if not three, other editions of this piece were published in 1682; and in 1684 a sixth edition ap

known. He was born in Dublin in the year 1652, and bred in Trinity College, as appears from the entry of his admission:

"go Junii, 1668. Nahum Teat, Pensionarius, filius FaithfullTeat, Presbyteri, natus annos sexdecim, natus Dublinii, educatus sub magistro Savage, Belfast.-Tutor. Geo. Walker." Regr. Universitat. Dublin. Being called by the less polished of his countrymen, Tate, according to the ordinary Irish pronunciation, he probably, when he came to England, adopted the new spelling of his name.

peared in the first volume of our author's Mis

CELLANIES.

When Dryden issued his several works from the press, he in general seems to have dismissed them from his thoughts, and to have been little solicitous about rendering them more perfect. Of his carelessness in this respect the Preface to the second volume of his MISCELLANIES, published in 1685, furnishes a remarkable instance: "There is one mistake of mine," says he, [in the translation of part of the fourth book of Lucretius,]" which I will not lay to the printer's charge, who has enough to answer for, in false pointings: it is in the word viper. I would have the verse run thus:

The scorpion, love, must on the wound be bruis'd."

A few years afterwards (1692) this volume wast reprinted, and in the new edition we find the very same observation in the Preface, and the same errour in the text. This instance, indeed, relates only to the typographical accuracy of his works; but in the Preface to the second edition of THE INDIAN EMPEROR, he is very explicit on this subject; for having mentioned that he had corrected such errours of the press as he had observed in the former edition, he adds, "As for the more material faults of writing, which are properly mine, though I see many of them, I want leisure to amend them. It is enough for those who make one poem the business of their lives, to leave that 12

VOL. 1.

correct: yet, excepting Virgil, I never met with any that was so in any language,"

To his general negligence in this respect there are, however, several exceptions. The second edition of his TYRANNICK LOVE is said in the titlepage to have been reviewed by the author. When, in 1684, he had occasion to reprint his ESSAY OF DRAMATICK POESY, he revised it with the greatest care, and made various alterations in the language of it in almost every page, though he did not, I think, add a single sentence. From one of his letters, we learn, that he gave nine entire days to the revision of his translation of Virgil; and he made some slight improvements in MACFLECKNOE, which will be mentioned hereafter. But the most memorable change he ever made, is that found in the second edition of his ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL; in which, beside some verbal alterations, he introduced twelve new lines in the character of Shaftesbury, and four relative to Monmouth towards the end of the King's speech. In Shaftesbury's portrait, immediately after the words "Usurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name," these verses were added:

So easy

still it proves, in factious times,

With publick zeal to cancel private crimes. "How safe is treason, and how sacred ill,

24.

When none can sin against the people's will;

- At the end of this Essay, (vol. i. part ii. p. 135-142.) the principal alterations made in the second edition are noticed.