Thus poor mechanic arts in public move, Whilst the deep secrets beyond practice go. Nor died he when his ebbing fame went less, But when fresh laurels courted him to live; He seem'd but to prevent some new success,

As if above what triumphs earth could give. His latest victories still thickest came,

As near the centre motion doth increase; Till he, press'd down by his own weighty name, Did like the Vestal under spoils decrease.

But first the Ocean as a tribute sent

That giant prince of all her watery herd; And th' isle, when her protecting genius went, Upon his obsequies loud sighs conferr'd.

No civil broils have since his death arose,
But Faction now by habit does obey,
And Wars have that respect for his repose

As winds for halcyons when they breed at sea.

His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest;

His name a great example stands, to show How strangely high endeavours may be blest, Where piety and valour jointly go.

SATIRE ON THE DUTCH.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1662.

As needy gallants, in the scrivener's hands,
Court the rich knaves that gripe their mortgaged

lands,

The first fat buck of all the season's sent,
And keeper takes no fee in compliment:
The dotage of some Englishmen is such
To fawn on those who ruin them, the Dutch.
They shall have all, rather than make a war
With those who of the same religion are.
The Streights, the Guinea trade, the herrings too;
Nay, to keep friendship, they shall pickle you.
Some are resolved not to find out the cheat,
But, cuckold-like, love them that do the feat.
What injuries soe'er upon us fall,
Yet still the same religion answers all.
Religion wheedled us to Civil war,

Drew English blood, and Dutchmen's now would

spare.

Be gull'd no longer; for you'll find it true,
They have no more religion, faith! than you.
Interest's the god they worship in their State,
And we I take it have not much of that.
Well monarchies may own religion's name,
But states are atheists in their very frame.
They share a sin; and such proportions fall,
That, like a stink, 'tis nothing to them all,
Think on their rapine, falsehood, cruelty,
And that what once they were they still would be.
To one well-born th' affront is worse and more,
When he's abused and baffled by a boor.
With an ill grace the Dutch their mischiefs do;
They've both ill nature and ill manners too.
Well may they boast themselves an ancient nation,
For they were bred ere manners were in fashion;
And their new Commonwealth has set them free
Only from honour and civility.

Venetians do not more uncouthly ride
Than did their lumber State mankind bestride.
Their sway became them with as ill a mien
As their own paunches swell above their chin.
Yet is their empire no true growth but humour,
And only two kings' touch can cure the tumour.
As Cato fruits of Afric did display.
Let us before our eyes their Indies lay;
All loyal English will like him conclude,
Let Cæsar live, and Carthage be subdued.

ABSALOM AND ACHITHOPHEL A POEM.

IN TWO PARTS.

TO THE READER.

others will receive none. The design I am sure is honest; but he who draws his pen for one party must expect to make enemies of the other: for wit and fool are consequents of Whig and Tory; and every man is a knave or an ass to the contrary side. There is a treasury of merits in the Fanatic church as well as in the Popish, and a pennyworth to be had of saintship, honesty, and poetry, for the lewd, the factious, and the blockheads: but the longest chapter in Deuteronomy has not curses enough for an Anti-Bromingham. My comfort is, their manifest prejudice to my cause will render their judgment of less authority against me. Yet if a Poem have genius, it will force its own reception in the world; for there is a sweetness in good verse which tickles even while it hurts; and no man can be heartily angry with him who pleases him against his will. The commendation of adversaries is the greatest triumph of a writer, because it never comes unless extorted. But I can be satisfied on more easy terms: if I happen to please the more moderate sort, I shall be sure of an honest party, and in all probability of the best judges; for the least concerned are commonly the least corrupt. And I confess I have laid in for those, by rebating the satire (where justice would allow it) from carrying too sharp an edge. They who can criticise so weakly as to imagine I have done my worst, may be convinced, at their own cost, that I can write I severely with more ease than I can gently. have but laughed at some men's follies, when I could have declaimed against their vices; and other men's virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes. And now, if you are a malicious reader, I expect you should return upon me, that I affect to be thought more impartial than I am. But if men are not to be judged by their professions, God forgive your Commonwealth's men for professing so plausibly for the government. You cannot be so unconscionable as to charge me for not subscribing my naine; for that would reflect too grossly upon your own party, who never dare, though they have the advantage of a jury to secure them. If you like not my Poem, the fault may possibly be in my writing, though it is hard for an author to judge against himself; but more probably it is in your morals, which cannot bear the truth of it. The violent on both sides will condemn the character of Absalom, as either too favourably or too hardly drawn: but they are not the violent whom I desire to please. The fault, on the other hand, is to extenuate, palliate, and indulge; and, to confess freely, I have endeavoured to commit it. Besides the respect which I owe his birth, I have a greater for his heroic virtues; and David himself could not be more tender of the young man's life than I would be of his reputation. But since the most excellent natures are always the most easy, and, as being such, are the soonest perverted by ill counsels, especially when baited with fame and glory, it is no more a wonder that he withstood not the temptations of Achithophel, than it was for Adam not to have resisted the two devils, the serpent and the woman. The conclusion of the story I purposely forbore to prosecute, because I could not obtain from myself to show Absalom unfortunate. The frame of it was cut out but for a picture to the waist, and if the draught be so far true, it is as much as I designed.

Were I the inventor, who am only the historian, I should certainly conclude the piece with the reconcilement of Absalom to David; and who knows but this may come to pass; Things were not brought to an extremity where I left the story. there seems yet to be room left for a composure, hereafter there may be only for pity. I have not so much as an uncharitable wish against Achithophel, but am content to be accused of a good-natured error, and to hope, with Origen, that the devil himself may at last be saved; for which reason, in this poem, he is neither brought to set his house in order, nor to dispose of his person afterwards as he in wisdom shall think fit. God is infinitely merciful, and his vicegerent is only not so, because he is not infinite.

The true end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction; but he who writes honestly is no more an enemy to the offender than the physician to the patient, when he prescribes harsh remedies to an inveterate disease; for those are only in order to prevent the chirurgeon's work of an ense rescindendum, which I wish not to my

very enemies. To conclude all, if the body politic have any analogy to the natural, in my weak Judgment an act of oblivion were as necessary in a hot-distempered state as an opiate would be in a raging fever.

ABSALOM AND ACHITHOPHEL.

PART I.

Adriel. John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave.
Agag.-Sir Edmundbury Godfrey.

Amiel.-Mr. Seymour, Speaker of the House of
Commons.

Auri. Sir Heneage Finch, Earl of Winchelsea, and Lord Chancellor.

Annabel.-Dutchess of Monmouth.
Arod.-Sir William Waller.

Asaph.-A character drawn by Tate for Dryden, in
the Second Part of this Poem.
Balaam.-Earl of Huntingdon.
Balak.-Barnet.

Barzillai.-Duke of Ormond.
Bathsheba.-Dutchess of Portsmouth.
Benaiah.-General Sackville.

Ben Jochanan.-Rev. Mr. Samuel Johnson.

Bezaliel.-Duke of Beaufort.

Caleb.-Ford, Lord Grey, of Werk.

Corah. Dr. Titus Oates.

David.-King Charles II.

Doeg.-Elkanah Settle, the City poet,
Egypt.-France.

Eliab.-Sir Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington.
Ethnic Plot.-The Popish Plot.

Gath. The Land of Exile, more particularly Brus:sels, where King Charles II. long resided. Hebron.-Scotland.

Hebrew Priests.-The Church of England Clergy.
Helon.-Earl of Feversham, a Frenchman by
birth, and nephew to Marshal Turenne.
Hushai.-Hyde, Earl of Rochester.
Jebusites.-Papists.

Jerusalem.-London.

Jers.-English.

Jonas. Sir Wm. Jones, a great Lawyer.
Jordan.-Dover.

Jotham.-Saville, Marquis of Halifax.
Jothran.-Lord Dartmouth.

Ishban.-Sir Robert Clayton, Alderman, and one
of the City Members.
Ishbosheth.-Richard Cromwell.
Israel. England.

Issachar. Thomas Thynne, Esq, who was shot in his Coach.

Judas.-Mr. Fergusson, a canting Teacher.

Mephibosheth.-Pordage.

Michal.-Catherine, Queen of Charles II.
Nadab.-Lord Howard of Eseric.
Og.-Shadwell.

Othniel.-Henry Duke of Grafton, natural son of
King Charles II. by the Dutchess of Cleveland.
Phaleg.-Forbes.

Pharaoh.-King of France.

Rabsheka.-Sir Thomas Player, one of the City Members.

Sagan of Jerusalem.-Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, youngest Son to the Earl of Northampton. Sanhedrim.-Parliament.

Saul.-Oliver Cromwell.

Shimei. Slingsby Bethel, Sheriff of London in 1680.

Sheva. Sir Roger L'Estrange.
Sion.-England.

Solymean Rout.-London Rebels.
Tyre.-Holland.

Uzza. Jack Hall.

Zadoc.-Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Zaken. A member of the House of Commons.
Zimri.-Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
Ziloah.-Sir John Moore, Lord Mayor in 1682.

IN pious times, ere priestcraft did begin,
Before polygamy was made a sin,
When man on many multiply'd his kind,
Ere one to one was cursedly confined,
When Nature prompted, and no law deny'd
Promiscuous use of concubine and bride;
Then Israel's monarch, after Heaven's own heart,
His vigorous warmth did variously impart
To wives and slaves, and, wide as his command,
Scatter'd his Maker's image through the land.
Michal, of royal blood, the crown did wear,
A soil ungrateful to the tiller's care:
Not so the rest; for several mothers bore
To godlike David several sons before:
But since like slaves his bed they did ascend,
No true succession could their seed attend,
Of all the numerous progeny was none
So beautiful, so brave, as Absalom:
Whether, inspired by some diviner lust,
His father got him with a greater gust,
Or that his conscious destiny made way,
By manly beauty, to imperial sway;
Early in foreign fields he won renown,
With kings and states ally'd to Israel's crown.
In peace the thoughts of war he could remove,
And seem'd as he were only born for love.
Whate'er he did was done with so much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please:
His motions all accompany'd with grace,
And Paradise was opened in his face.
With secret joy indulgent David viewed
His youthful image in his son renew'd;
To all his wishes nothing he deny'd,
And made the charming Annabel his bride
What faults he had (for who from faults is free!)
His father could not, or he would not, sec.
Some warm excesses, which the law forebore,
Were construed youth, that purged by boiling o'er;
And Amnon's murder, by a specious name,
Was call'd a just revenge for injured fame.
Thus praised and loved, the noble youth remain'd,
While David undisturb'd in Sion reign'd,
But life can never be sincerely blest,
Heaven punishes the bad, and proves the best.
The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murm'ring race,
As ever try'd the extent and stretch of grace;
God's pamper'd people, whom, debauched with

ease,

No king could govern, nor no god could please;
(Gods they had try'd of every shape and size
That god-smiths could produce, or priests devise :)
These Adam-wits, too fortunately free,
Began to dream they wanted liberty;
And when no rule, no precedent, was found
Of men by laws less circumscribed and bound,
They led their wild desires to woods and caves,
And thought that all but savages were slaves.
They who, when Saul was dead, without a blow
Made foolish Ishboshetl. the crown forego;
Who banish'd David did from Hebron bring,
And with a general shout proclaim'd him king;
Those very Jews who, at their very best,
Their humour more than loyalty exprest,
Now wonder'd why so long they had obey'd
An idol monarch which their hands had made;
Thought they might ruin him they could create,
Or melt him to that golden calf, a state.
But these were random bolts; no form'd design
Nor interest made the factious crowd to join
The sober part of Israel, free from stain,
Well knew the value of a peaceful reign;
And looking backward, with a wise affright,
Saw seams of wounds, dishonest to the sight;
In contemplation of whose ugly scars
They cursed the memory of Civil wars.
The moderate sort of men, thus qualify'd,
Inclined the balance to the better side;
And David's mildness managed it so well
The bad found no occasion to rebel.
But when to sin our biass'd nature leans,
The careful devil is still at hand with means,
And providently pimps for ill desires;
The good old cause revived, a plot requires.

Plots, true or false, are necessary things
To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.
Th' inhabitants of old Jerusalem

Were Jebusites; the town so call'd from them,
And theirs the native right-

But when the chosen people grew more strong,
The rightful cause at length became the wrong;
And every loss the men of Jebus bore,

They still were thought God's enemies the more.
Thus worn or weaken'd, well or ill content,
Submit they must to David's government:
Impoverish'd and deprived of all command,
Their taxes doubled as they lost their land;
And what was harder yet to flesh and blood,
Their gods disgraced, and burnt like common wood.
This set the Heathen priesthood in a flame:
For priests of all religions are the same.
Of whatsoe'er descent their godhead be,
Stock, stone, or other homely pedigree,
In his defence his servants are as boid
As if he had been born of beaten gold.
The Jewish Rabbins, though their enemies,
In this conclude them honest men and wise:
For 'twas their duty, all the learned think,

To espouse his cause by whom they eat and drink.
From hence began that plot, the nation's curse,
Bad in itself, but represented worse;
Raised in extremes, and in extremes decry'd,
With oaths affirm'd, with dying vows deny'd;
Not weigh'd nor winnow'd by the multitude,
But swallow'd in the mass unchew'd and crude.
Some truth there was, but dash'd and brew'd with

lies,

To please the fools, and puzzle all the wise,
Succeeding times did equal folly call,
Believing nothing, or believing all.

Th' Egyptian rites the Jebusites embraced,
Where gods were recommended by their taste.
Such sav'ry deities must needs be good
As served at once for worship and for food.
By force they could not introduce these gods;
For ten to one in former days was odds.
50 fraud was used, (the sacrificer's trade)
Fools are more hard to conquer than persuade.
Their busy teachers mingled with the Jews,
And raked for converts ev'n the court and stews;
Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took,
Fecause the fleece accompanies the flock.
Some thought they God's anointed meant to flay
By guns, invented since full many a day:
Our Author swears it not; but who can know
How far the devil and Jebusites may go?
This plot, which fail'd for want of common sense,
Had yet a deep and dangerous consequence;
For as when raging fevers boil the blood,
The standing lake soon floats into a flood,
And every hostile humour, which before
Slept quiet in its channels, bubbles o'er;
So several factions, from this first ferment,
Work up to foam, and threat the government.
Some by their friends, more by themselves thought
wise,

Opposed the power to which they could not rise: Some had in courts been great, and thrown from thence,

Like fiends, were hardened in impenitence:
Some, by their monarch's fatal mercy, grown
From pardon'd rebels kinsmen to the throne,
Were raised in power and public office high,
Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie.
Of these the false Achithophel was first,
A name to all succeeding ages curst:
For close designs and crooked counsels fit,
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Restless, unfix'd in principles and place,
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace;
A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay,

And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;

Pleased with the danger, when the waves went

high

He sought the storm; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near ally'd,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide;
Else why should he, with wealth and honour blest,
Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?
Punish a body which he could not please;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease;
And all to leave what with his toil he won
To that unfeather'd, two-legg'd thing, a son;

I Got while his soul did huddled notions try,
And born a shapeless lump, like Anarchy.
In friendship false, implacable in hate,
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.
To compass this the triple bond he broke,
The pillars of the public safety shook,
And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke;
Then seized with fear, yet still affecting fame,
Usurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name:
So easy still it proves, in factious times,
With public zeal to cancel private crimes.
How safe is treason, and how sacred ill,
Where none can sin against the people's will?
Where crowds can wink, and no offence be known,
Since in another's guilt they find their own?
Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge;
The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge.
In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abethdin
With more discerning eyes, or hands more clean;
Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress,
Swift of despatch, and easy of access.

Oh! had he been content to serve the Crown
With virtues only proper to the gown,
Or had the rankness of the soil been freed
From cockle that oppress'd the noble seed,
David for him his tuneful harp had strung,
And Heaven had wanted one immortal song.
But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand,
And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.
Achithophel, grown weary to possess
A lawful fame, and lazy happiness,
Disdain'd the golden fruit to gather free,
And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree.
Now manifest of crimes contrived long since,
He stood at bold defiance with his prince;
Heid up the buckler of the people's cause
Against the Crown, and skulk'd behind the laws.
The wish'd occasion of the plot he takes,
Some circumstances finds, but more he makes;
By buzzing emissaries fills the ears

Of listening crowds with jealousies and fears
Of arbitrary counsels brought to light,
And proves the King himself a Jebusite.
Weak arguments! which yet he knew full well
Were strong with people easy to rebel:

For govern'd by the moon, the giddy Jews
Tread the same track when she the prime renews;
And once in twenty years, their Scribes record,
By natural instinct they change their lord.
Achithophel still wants a chief, and none
Was found so fit as warlike Absalom:
Not that he wish'd his greatness to create,
(For politicians neither love nor hate)
But, for he knew his title not allow'd'
Would keep him still depending on the crowd;
That kingly power, thus ebbing out, might be
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
Him he attempts, with studied arts, to please,
And sheds his venom in such words as these:"
Auspicious Prince, at whose nativity
Some royal planet ruled the southern sky,
Thy longing country's darling and desire,
Their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire;
Their second Moses, whose extended wand
Divides the seas, and shows the promised Land;
Whose dawning day, in every distant age,
Has exercised the sacred prophet's rage:
The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!
Thee, Saviour, thee the nation's vows confess,
And never satisfied with seeing, bless:
Swift unbespoken pomps thy steps proclaim,
And stammering babes are taught to lisp thy

name;

How long wilt thou the general joy detain,
Starve and defraud the people of thy reign;
Content ingloriously to pass thy days
Like one of virtue's fools that feed on praise:
Till thy fresh glories, which now shine so bright,
Grow stale and tarnish with our daily sight?
Believe me, royal Youth! thy fruit must be
Or gather'd ripe, or rot upon the tree:
Heaven has to all allotted, soon or late,
Some lucky revolution of their fate;
Whose motions, if we watch and guide with skill,
(For human good depends on human will)
Our fortune rolls as from a smooth descent,
And from the first impression takes the bent;
But if unseized, she glides away like wind,
And leaves repenting folly far behind.
Now, now she meets you with a glorious prize,
And spreads her locks before you as she flies.

Had thus old David, from whose loins you spring,
Not dared, when Fortune call'd him to be king,
At Gath an exile he might still remain,
And Heaven's anointing oil had been in vain.
Let his successful youth your hopes engage,
But shun th' example of declining age;
Behold him setting in his western skies,
The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.
He is not now as when, on Jordan's sand,
The joyful people throng'd to see him land,
Covering the beach, and blackening all the strand;
But, like the prince of angels, from his height
Comes tumbling downward with diminish'd light,
Betray'd by one poor plot to public scorn,
(Our only blessing since his cursed return)
Those heaps of people, which one sheaf did bind,
Blown off, and scatter'd by a puff of wind.
What strength can he to your designs oppose,
Naked of friends, and round beset with foes?
If Pharaoh's doubtful succour he should use,
A foreign aid would more increase the Jews;
Proud Egypt would dissembled friendship bring,
Foment the war, but not support the King;
Nor would the royal party e'er unite
With Pharaoh's arms t' assist the Jebusite;
Or if they should, their interest soon would break,
And with such odious aid make David weak.
All sorts of men, by my successful arts,
Abhorring kings, estrange their alter'd hearts
From David's rule; and 'tis their general cry,
Religion, Commonwealth, and Liberty.
If you, as champion of the public good,
Add to their arnis a chief of royal blood,
What may not Israel hope, and what applause
Might such a general gain by such a cause?
Not barren praise alone, that gaudy flower,
Fair only to the sight, but solid power;
And nobler is a limited command,
Given by the love of all your native land,
Than a successful title, long and dark,
Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark.

What cannot praise effect in mighty minds,
When Flattery sooths, and when Ambition blinds?
Desire of power, on earth a vicious weed,
Yet, sprung from high, is of celestial seed.
In God 'tis glory; and when men aspire,
"Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire.
Th' ambitious youth, too covetous of fame,
Too full of angels' metal in his frame,
Unwarily was led from Virtue's ways,
Made drunk with honour, and debauch'd with

praise:

Half loath and half consenting to the ill,
(For royal blood within him struggled still)
He thus replied;-And what pretence have I
To take up arms for public liberty?
My father governs with unquestion'd right,
The faith's Defender, and mankind's delight;
Good, gracious, just, observant of the laws,
And Heaven by wonders has espoused his cause.
Whom has he wrong'd in all his peaceful reign?
Who sues for justice to his throne in vain?
What millions has he pardon'd of his foes,
Whom just revenge did to his wrath expose
Mild, easy, humble, studious of our good,
inclined to mercy, and averse from blood.
If mildness ill with stubborn Israel suit,
His crime is God's beloved attribute.
What could he gain his people to betray,
Or change his right for arbitrary sway?
Let haughty Pharaoh curse with such a reign
His fruitful Nile, and yoke a servile train.
If David's rule Jerusalem displease,
The dogstar heats their brains to this disease.
Why then should I, encouraging the bad,
Turn rebel, and run popularly mad?
Were he a tyrant, who by lawless might
Oppress'd the Jews, and raised the Jebusite,
Well might I mourn; but Nature's holy bands
Would curb my spirits and restrain my hands:
The people might assert their liberty;

But what was right in them were crime in me.
His favour leaves me nothing to require,
Prevents my wishes, and outruns desire:
What more can I expect while David lives?
All but his kingly diadem he gives:

And that but here he paused; then sighing said-
Is justly destined for a worthier head.
For when my father from his toils shall rest,
And late augment the number of the bless'd,
His lawful issue shall the throne ascend,
Or the collateral line, where that shall end,

His brother, though oppress'd with vulgar spite,
Yet dauntless, and secure of native right,
Of every royal virtue stands possess'd,"
Still dear to all the bravest and the best:
His courage foes, his friends his truth proclaim,
His loyalty the King, the world his fame:
His mercy even th' offending crowd will find,
For sure he comes of a forgiving kind.
Why should I then repine at Heaven's decree
Which gives me no pretence to royalty?
Yet, oh that Fate, propitiously inclined,
Had raised my birth, or had debased my mind;
To my large soul not all her treasure lent,
And then betray'd it to a mean descent!
I find, I find my mounting spirits bold,
And David's part disdains my mother's mould.
Why am I scanted by a niggard birth?
My soul disclaims the kindred of her earth,
And, made for empire, whispers me within
Desire of greatness is a godlike sin.

Him staggering so when Hell's dire agent found, While fainting Virtue scarce maintain'd her ground, He pours fresh forces in, and thus replies;

Th' eternal God, supremely good and wise,
Imparts not these prodigious gifts in vain:
What wonders are reserved to bless your reign?
Against your will your arguments have shown
Such virtue's only given to guide a throne;
Not that your father's mildness I contemn,
But manly force becomes the diadem.
'Tis true he grants the people all they crave,
And more perhaps than subjects ought to have;
For lavish grants suppose a monarch tame,
And more his goodness than his wit proclaim:
But when should people strive their bonds to break,
If not when kings are negligent or weak?
Let him give on till he can give no more,
The thrifty sanhedrim shall keep him poor;
And every shekel which he can receive
Shall cost a limb of his prerogative.

To ply him with new plots shall be my care,
Or plunge him deep in some expensive war,
Which, when his treasure can no more supply,
He must, with the remains of kingship, buy
His faithful friends, our jealousies and fears,
Call Jebusites and Pharaoh's pensioners,
Whom, when our fury from his aid has torn,
He shall be naked left to public scorn.
The next successor, whom I fear and hate,
My arts have made obnoxious to the state,
Turn'd all his virtues to his overthrow,
And gain'd our elders to pronounce a foe.
His right, for sums of necessary gold,
Shall first be pawn'd, and afterwards be sold,
Till time shall ever-wanting David draw
To pass your doubtful title into law;
If not, the people have a right supreme,

To make their kings; for kings are made for them.
All empire is no more than power in trust,
Which, when resumed, can be no longer just.
Succession, for the general good design'd,
In its own wrong a nation cannot bind:
If altering that the people can relieve,
Better one suffer than a nation grieve.
The Jews well know their power; ere Saul they
God was their king, and God they durst depose.
Urge now your piety, your filial name,
A father's right, and fear of future fame;
The public good that universal call,

[chose,

To which even Heaven submitted, answers all.
Nor let his love enchant your generous mind;
'Tis Nature's trick to propagate her kind.
Our fond begetters, who would never die,
Love but themselves in their posterity.
Or let his kindness by th' effects be tried,
Or let him lay his vain pretence aside.
God said he loved your father: could he bring
A better proof than to anoint him King?
It surely show'd he loved the shepherd well
Who gave so fair a flock as Israel.
Would David have you thought his darling son?
What means he then t' alienate the crown?
The name of godly he may blush to bear,
Is't after God's own heart to cheat his heir?
He to his brother gives supreme command,
To you a legacy of barren land,

Perhaps th' oid harp, on which he thrums his lays,
Or some dull Hebrew ballad in your praise.
Then the next heir, a prince severe and wise,
Aiready looks on you with jealous eyes;
Sees through the thin disguises of your arts,
And marks your progress in the people's hearts;

Though now his mighty soul its grief contains,
He meditates revenge who least complains;
And, like a lion slumbering in the way,
Or sleep dissembling while he waits his prey,
His fearless foes within his distance draws,
Constrains his roaring, and contracts his paws,
Till at the last his time for fury found,

He shoots with sudden vengeance from the ground;
The prostrate vulgar passes o'er and spares,
But with a lordly rage his hunters tears.
Your case no tame expedients will afford;
Resolve on death, or conquest by the sword,
Which for no less a stake than life you draw,
And self-defence is Nature's eldest law.
Leave the warm people no considering time,
For then rebellion may be thought a crime.
Avail yourselves of what occasion gives,
But try your title while your father lives;
And, that your arms may have a fair pretence,
Proclaim you take them in the King's defence,
Whose sacred life each minute would expose
To plots from seeming friends and secret foes.
And who can sound the depth of David's soul?
Perhaps his fear his kindness may control.
He fears his brother though he loves his son,
For plighted vows too late to be undone.
If so, by force he wishes to be gain'd,
Like women's lechery to seem constrain'd.
Doubt not; but, when he most affects the frown,
Commit a pleasing rape upon the Crown.
Secure his person to secure your cause;
They who possess the prince possess the laws.
He said and this advice, above the rest,
With Absalom's mild nature suited best;
Unblamed of like, ambition set aside,
Not stain'd with cruelty, nor puff'd with pride,
How happy had he been if Destiny
Had higher placed his birth, or not so high?
His kingly virtues might have claim'd a throne,
And bless'd all other countries but his own.
But charming greatness since so few refuse,
"Tis juster to lament him than accuse.
Strong were his hopes a rival to remove,
With blandishments to gain the public love;
To head the faction while their zeal was hot,
And popularly prosecute the plot.
To further this Achithophel unites
The malecontents of all the Israelites;
Whose differing parties he could wisely join
For several ends to serve the same design.
The best, and of the princes some, were such
Who thought the power of Monarchy too much;
Mistaken men, and patriots in their hearts,
Not wicked, but seduced by impious arts.
By these the springs of property were bent,
And wound so high they crack'd the government.
The next for interest sought t' embroil the state,
To sell their duty at a dearer rate,

And make their Jewish markets of the throne,
Pretending public good to serve their own.
Others thought kings a useless heavy load,
Who cost too much and did too little good:
These were for laying honest David by,
On principles of pure good husbandry.

With them join'd all the haranguers of the throng
That thought to get preferment by the tongue.
Who follow next a double danger bring,
Not only hating David but the King:
The Solymean rout, well versed, of old,
In godly faction, and in treason bold;
Cowering and quaking at a conqueror's sword,
But lofty to a lawful prince restored;
Saw with disdain an Ethnick plot begun,
And scorn'd by Jebusites to be outdone.
Hot Levites headed these, who pull'd before
From th' ark, which in the Judges' days they bore,
Resumed their cant, and with a zealous cry
Pursued their old Beloved Theocracy;
Where Sanhedrim and priest enslaved the nation,
And justified their spoils by inspiration:
For who so fit to reign as Aaron's race,
If once dominion they could found in grace?
These led the pack; though not of surest scent,
Yet deepest mouth'd against the government,
A numerous host of dreaming saints succeed,
Of the true old enthusiastic breed:
'Gainst form and order they their power employ,
Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.
But far more numerous was the herd of such
Who think too little and who talk too much;
These out of mere instinct, they knew not why,
Adored their fathers' God and property;

And by the same blind benefit of Fate
The devil and the Jebusite did hate;
Born to be saved, e'en in their own despight,
Because they could not help believing right.
Such were the tools: but a whole hydra more
Remains of sprouting heads, too long to score.
Some of their chiefs were princes of the land :
In the first rank of these did Zimri stand;
A man so various that he seem'd to be
Not one but all mankind's epitome;
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was every thing by starts, and nothing long;
But in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chymist, fiddler, statesman and buffoon!
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.
Bless'd madman! who could every hour employ
With something new to wish or to enjoy!
Railing and praising were his usual themes,
And both (to show his judgment) in extremes;
So over violent, or over civil,

That every man with him was God or devil,
In squandering wealth was his peculiar art;
Nothing went unrewarded but desert.
Beggar'd by fools, whom still he found too late;
He had his jest, and they had his estate.
He laugh'd himself from Court; then sought relief
By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief:
For, spite of him, the weight of bus'ness fell
On Absalom and wise Achithophel:
Thus, wicked but in will, of means bereft,
He left not faction, but of that was left.

Titles and names 't were tedious to rehearse
Of lords below the dignity of verse:
Wits, warriors, Commonwealths' men were the
best;

Kind husbands and mere nobles all the rest.
And therefore in the name of Dulness, he
The well-hung Balaam and cold Caleb free;
And canting Nadab let oblivion damn,
Who made new porridge for the paschal lamb.
Let friendship's holy band some names assure,
Some their own worth, and some let scorn secure.
Nor shall the rascal rabble here have place,
Whom kings no title gave, and God no grace:
Not bull-faced Jonas, who could statutes draw
To mean rebellion, and make treason law.
But he, though bad, is follow'd by a worse,
The wretch who Heaven's anointed dared to curse,
Shimei, whose youth did early promise bring
Of zeal to God, and hatred to his king,
Did wisely from expensive sins refrain,
And never broke the Sabbath but for gain;
Nor ever was he known an oath to vent,
Or curse, unless against the government.
Thus heaping wealth, by the most ready way
Among the Jews, which was to cheat and pray,
The City, to reward his pious hate

Against his master, chose him magistrate.
His hand a vase of justice did uphold;
His neck was loaded with a chain of gold.
During his office treason was no crime;
The sons of Belial had a glorious time:
For Shimei, though not prodigal of pelf,
Yet loved his wicked neighbour as himself.
When two or three were gather'd to declaim,
Against the Monarch of Jerusalem,
Shimei was always in the midst of them;
And if they cursed the King when he was by,
Would rather curse than break good company,
If any durst his factious friends accuse,
He pack'd a jury of dissenting Jews,
Whose fellow-feelings in the godly cause
Would free the suffering saint from human laws,
For laws are only made to punish those
Who serve the king, and to protect his foes.
If any leisure time he had from power,
(Because 'tis sin to misemploy an hour)
His bus'ness was, by writing, to persuade
That kings were useless, and a clog to trade:
And, that his noble style he might refine,
No Rechabite more shunn'd the fumes of wine
Chaste were his cellars, and his shrieval board
The grossness of a City-feast abhorr'd;
His cooks, with long disuse, their trade forgot;
Cool was his kitchen, though his brains were hot.
Such frugal virtue malice may accuse,
But sure 'twas necessary to the Jews:
For towns, once burnt, such magistrates require,
As dare not tempt God's providence by fire.
With spiritual food he fed his servants well,
But free from flesh that made the Jews rebel;