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small difference betwixt them, that the ends of the one are directly opposite to the other; one with the Queen's approbation and conjunction, as head of it; the other without either the consent or knowledge of the King, against whose authority it is manifestly designed. Therefore you do well to have recourse to your last evasion,-that it was contrived by your enemies, and shuffled into the papers that were seized, which yet you see the nation is not so easy to believe, as your own jury; but the matter is not difficult, to find twelve men in Newgate, who would acquit a malefactor.

I have one only favour to desire of you at parting, that when you think of answering this poem, you would employ the same pens against it, who have combated with so much success against ABSALOM AND ACHITO PHEL; for then you may

5 Several Answers to ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL were published in 1681 and 1682. One of these (a single half-sheet,) which appeared so early as the 10th of Dec. 1681, is entitled " Towser the Second, a Bulldog, or a short Reply to ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL." Four days afterwards appeared-" Poetical Reflections on a late Poem entitled ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL, by a Person of Honour;" who is supposed to have been George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; and if he was indeed the author of this piece, it would furnish a strong presumption that his associates wrote much more of THE REHEARSAL than his Grace; for it is miserable. stuff. On the 20th of the same month another Answer appeared, (a half-sheet,) under the title of " A Panegyrick on the Author of ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL,

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assure yourselves of a clear victory, without the least reply. Rail at me abundantly, and not to break a custom, do it without wit; by this method you will gain a considerable point, which is wholly to wave the answer of my arguments. Never own the bottom of your principles, for fear they should be treason. Fall severely on the miscarriages of government; for if scandal be not allowed, you are no freeborn subjects. If God has not blessed you with the talent of rhyming, make use of my poor stock and welcome : let your verses run upon

occasioned by his former writing of an Elegy in praise of Oliver Cromwell (lately reprinted.)" All these, however, were only the light infantry of his adversaries : in about three months afterwards the heavy horse began to charge; for early in April, Elkanah Settle published"ABSALOM SENIOR, or ACHITOPHEL transprosed, a Poem," in folio. He is also said to have been the author of AZARIAH AND HUSHAI, another poem, on the same subject. To all these must be added the wellknown poem, entitled-DRYDEN'S SATIRE TO HIS MUSE, and THE WHIP AND KEY. See n. 6.

TO THE MEDAL various Answers also were published. One, entitled "THE MUSHROOM, or a Satyr against libelling Tories and prelatical Tantivies, &c." was written, according to a manuscript note in Mr. Bindley's copy, by Edmund Hickeringill. In April appeared—“ THE ROYAL MEDAL VINDICATED, a Poem," in folio. THE MEDAL was also attacked in a poem, entitled-THE MEDAL REVERSED (printed in 4to.) a very dull performance, ascribed to Settle. In the same form appeared THE MEDAL OF JOHN BAYES, a very bitter satire, the preface to which contains some anecdotes of Dryden. Of this piece I know not the author.

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my feet; and for the utmost refuge of notorious blockheads, reduced to the last extremity of sense, turn my own lines upon me, and in utter despair of your own satire, make me satirize myself. Some of you have been driven to this bay already; but above all the rest commend me to the nonconformist parson, who writ the WHIP AND KEY." I am afraid it is not read so much as the piece deserves, because the bookseller is every week crying help at the end of his gazette, to get it off. You see I am charitable enough to do him a kindness, that it may be published as well as printed; and that so much skill in Hebrew derivations may not lie for waste-paper in the shop. Yet I half suspect he went no farther for his learning than the index of Hebrew names and etymologies, which is printed at the end of some English Bibles. If Achitophel signify the brother of a fool, the author of that poem will pass with his readers for the next of kin ; and perhaps it is the relation that makes the kindness. Whatever the verses are, buy them up, I beseech you, out of pity; for I hear the conventicle is shut up, and the brother of Achitophel out of service.

Now, footmen, you know, have the generosity to make a purse for a member of their society,

It was

"Of this poem I have never met with a copy. printed in 4to. in 1682, in answer to ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL, for Richard Janeway, the bookseller who published THE MEDAL OF JOHN BAYES, and probably was written by the same author.

who has had his livery pulled over his ears; and even protestant socks are bought up among you, out of veneration to the name. A dissenter in poetry from sense and English will make as good a protestant rhymer, as a dissenter from the church of England a protestant parson. Besides, if you encourage a young beginner,who knows but he may elevate his style a little above the vulgar epithets of prophane and saucy Jack, and atheistick scribbler, with which he treats me, when the fit of enthusiasm is strong upon him; by which wellmannered and charitable expressions I was certain of his sect, before I knew his name. What would you have more of a man? he has damned me in your cause, from Genesis to the Revelations; and has half the texts of both the Testaments against me, if you will be so civil to yourselves as to take him for your interpreter; and not to take them for Irish witnesses.* After all, perhaps you will tell me that you retained him only for the opening of your cause, and that your main lawyer is yet behind. Now if it so happen he meet with no more reply than his predecessors, you may either conclude that I trust to the goodness of my cause, or fear my adversary, or disdain him, or what you please; for the short on't is, it is indifferent to your humble servant, whatever your party says or thinks of him.

* In the different trials on the Popish Plot, several Irish witnesses had been guilty of perjury.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

RELIGIO LAICI."

A POR

POEM with so bold a title, and a name prefixed, from which the handling of so serious a subject would not be expected, may reasonably oblige the author to say somewhat in defence both of himself and of his undertaking. In the first place, if it be objected to me, that being a layman, I ought not to have concerned myself with speculations which belong to the profession of Divinity, I could answer, that perhaps laymen, with equal

* This poem was first printed in quarto, in 1682.

I have elsewhere (Vindication of Shakspeare, p. 212.) had occasion to observe, that several of our English writers have borrowed titles for their pieces from their predecessors. For the title of the poem to which this preface was prefixed, our author was indebted to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who annexed to his book DE VERITATE a tract entitled DE RELIGIONE LAICI, first printed at Paris in 1633, and afterwards at London in 1645-In the year after our author's RELIGIO LAICI appeared, Charles Blount, who afterwards destroyed himself, published a short treatise with the same title, which is little more than an abstract of Lord Herbert's work. In the Epistle Dedicatory, addressed to his "muchhonoured friend, John Dryden, Esqre." the author says, "I have endeavoured that my discourse should only be