den, have all represented this celebrated poem as having been written in 1689, in consequence of his being then devested of the office of Laureate; and some or other of them led Dr. Johnson into the same errour.

To those who have an opportunity of perusing the many malicious and scurrilous libels against Dryden, issued out in the course of this year, his retaliation in this exquisite satire will appear extremely mild and moderate. What number of editions it passed through in a separate form, I am unable to ascertain, having only seen the first edition in quarto, which has been just mentioned. It was republished by Tonson in the first volume of Dryden's MISCELLANIES, early in 1684, with a few slight alterations, which, to gratify the curious reader, I shall give below: and probably a second, if not

of Dryden; and perhaps furnished him with an image which he has happily improved in the well-known lines on Settle:

66

He was too warm on picking-work to dwell, "But fagotted his notions, as they fell,

"And, if they rhym'd and rattled, all was well."

}

For his learning, (says Flecknoe, describing a schoolboy.) 'tis all capping verses, and fagoting poets' loose lines, which fall from him as disorderly as fagot-sticks, when the band is broke." ENIGMATICAL CHARACTERS, 8vo, 1658, p. 77.

s About thy boat the little fishes throng,

And gently waft the [thee] over all along.—1st ed.
As at the morning toast, that floats along.-1684.

a third, impression in quarto had been previously dispersed. Shadwell, a few years afterwards, in the Dedication of a very contemptible translation of

Thou wield'st thy paper-1st ed.

Thou wield'st thy papers-1684.

From near Bunhill, to distant Watling-street.-1st ed. From near Bunhill, and distant, &c.—1684.

High on a state, of his own labours rear'd :—1st edit. High on a throne, of, &c.-1684.

And lambent dullness play'd about his face. 1st ed. around his face. 1684.

That he to death true dullness would maintain; 1st ed. That he till death, &c. 1684.

Would bid defiance unto wit and sense. 1st ed.

Ne'er to have peace with wit, nor truce with sense.

1684.

Was placed a mighty mug-1st ed.

He placed, &c.

His temples, last, with poppy were o'erspread,-1st ed. with poppies were o'erspread,-1684

The advancing throng loud acclamations make,
And omens of the future empire take;-1st ed.
The admiring throng, &c.

And omens of his future, &c.-1684.

And from his brows damps of oblivion shed:
Full of the filial dullness long he stood-1st ed.
And from his brows damps of oblivion shed
Full on the filial dulness: lang he stood, &c.-1684.
Beyond Love's KINGDOM may he stretch his pen!-
1st edit.

- Let him stretch, &c.—1684.

Juvenal's Tenth Satire, (a happy foil to our poet's excellent version of the same piece,) had the audacity to assert, that when he taxed Dryden with being the author of MAC-FLECKNOE, " he denied it with all the execrations he could think of."—It is certain, however, that in the List of his Poems, which he subjoined, in 1690, to one of his plays, he did not enumerate either this satire or the Eulogy on Cromwell; but the omission of MACFLECKNOE in that list probably arose from delicacy, and the peculiar situation in which he then stood. In such an authoritative catalogue of his

Pangs without birth, a fruitless industry.—1st. ed.
Pangs without birth, and fruitless, &c. 1684.

Let gentle George with triumph-1st ed.
Let gentle George in triumph-1684.

Let them be all of thy own model made—1st ed.

by thy own model-&c. 1684.

Not copies drawn, but issues of thine own.-1st ed. but issue, &c.-1684.

But let no alien Sydney interpose-1st ed.

But write thy best on th' top, and in each line
Sir Formal's oratory wit be thine:-1st ed.
But write thy best and top, and in each line
Sir Formal's oratory will be thine:-1684.

that boasted bias of the mind,-1st ed.
thy mind,-1684.

And down they sent the yet declining bard:-1st ed. the yet declaiming bard:-1684.

Two or three of these variations, however, are manifestly

mere corrections of errours of the press.

poetical works, he might not wish publickly to avow himself the author of so bitter a satire on one whom his old friend, and at this time recent benefactor, thought worthy of that laurel which had been wrested from his own head.

Shadwell's reasoning on the propriety of the title of this poem furnishes a proof of the truth and accuracy of our author's delineation. Not being conscious, it should seem, that he is described as the poetical son of Flecknoe, and in sober sadness supposing himself represented as a native of Ireland, he expresses his wonder at Dryden's stupidity, which, he says, shews clearly that "he is not the dullest of mankind ;" and asks, "what possible reason can the author have for giving me the Irish name of MAC, when he knows I never saw Ireland till I was three-and-twenty years old, and was there but four months ?"

When MAC-FLECKNOE is perused, it is not easy to suppose that the writer should be able shortly afterwards to produce another satire of still more poignancy, on the same person; yet I know not whether the character of Og, which appeared in the Second Part of ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL, in less than a month after MAC-FLECKNOE, (Nov. 10, 1682,) is not entitled to that praise. Of the greater portion of the Second Part Tate was the author; but Dryden, having in the original work confined himself to the great political leaders of the party which he opposed, afterwards extended his satire to the hirelings of the cause,

priests

without grace, and poets without wit;" and enriched the continuation of his poem with near two hundred lines, in which are found, beside the highly-finished portraits of Shadwell and Settle' under the names of OG and DOEG, the characters of Ferguson, a turbulent incendiary in the pay of Shaftesbury, under the name of JUDAS, and of Samuel Johnson under that of BEN JOCHANAN, with three or four other scribblers of less note, all wrought with equal felicity as those of ZIMRI and ACHITOPHEL.

In the same month in which the Second Part of ABSALOM appeared, was published his RELIGIO LAICI, a philosophical poem, which, though considered by Dr. Johnson as a composition of great excellence, seems to have been little read; for it did not in his life-time reach to a second edition. In this piece, which is addreffed to a young friend of the author, who had recently translated Father Simon's "Critical History of the Old Testament,"

Settle, in addition to his other offences, had attacked our author in a Prologue to one of his plays, then entitled "THE EMPEROR OF MOROCCO, with the Death of Gayland:" which was acted at the Theatre Royal, on the 11th of March, 1681-2:

poets, we all know, can change, like you, "And are alone to their own interest true; "Can write against all sense, nay ev'n their own: "The vehicle call'd pension makes it down.

No fear of cudgels, where there's hope of bread; "A well-fill'd paunch forgets a broken head."