Chapter V: Part II: 319 (5)

Thus fighting fires a while themselves consume,
But straight, like Turks forced on to win or die,
They first lay tender bridges of their fume,
And o'er the breach in unctuous vapours fly.

247.

Part stay for passage, till a gust of wind
Ships o'er their forces in a shining sheet;
Part creeping under ground, their journey blind,
And climbing from below their fellows meet.

248.

Thus to some desert plain, or old wood-side,
Dire night-hags come from far to dance their round;
And o'er broad rivers on their fiends they ride,
Or sweep in clouds above the blasted ground.

249.

No help avails; for, hydra-like, the fire
Lifts up his hundred heads to aim his way;
And scarce the wealthy can one half retire,
Before he rushes in to share the prey.

250.

The rich grow suppliant, and the poor grow proud;
Those offer mighty gain, and these ask more;
So void of pity is the ignoble crowd,
When others' ruin may increase their store.

251.

As those who live by shores with joy behold
Some wealthy vessel split or stranded nigh;
And from the rocks leap down for shipwrecked gold,
And seek the tempests which the others fly:

252.

So these but wait the owners' last despair,
And what's permitted to the flames invade;
E'en from their jaws they hungry morsels tear,
And on their backs the spoils of Vulcan lade.

253.

The days were all in this lost labour spent;
And when the weary king gave place to night,
His beams he to his royal brother lent,
And so shone still in his reflective light.[187]

254.

Night came, but without darkness or repose,
A dismal picture of the general doom;
Where souls, distracted when the trumpet blows,
And half unready, with their bodies come.

255.

Those who have homes, when home they do repair,
To a last lodging call their wandering friends;
Their short uneasy sleeps are broke with care,
To look how near their own destruction tends.

256.

Those, who have none, sit round where once it was,
And with full eyes each wonted room require;
Haunting the yet warm ashes of the place,
As murdered men walk where they did expire.

257.

Some stir up coals and watch the vestal fire,
Others in vain from sight of ruin run;
And while through burning lab'rinths they retire,
With loathing eyes repeat what they would shun.

258.

The most in fields, like herded beasts, lie down,
To dews obnoxious on the grassy floor;[188]
And while their babes in sleep their sorrows drown,
Sad parents watch the remnants of their store.

259.

While by the motion of the flames they guess
What streets are burning now, and what are near,
An infant, waking, to the paps would press,
And meets, instead of milk, a falling tear.

260.

No thought can ease them but their sovereign's care,
Whose praise the afflicted as their comfort sing;
E'en those, whom want might drive to just despair,
Think life a blessing under such a king.

261.

Meantime he sadly suffers in their grief,
Outweeps an hermit, and outprays a saint;
All the long night he studies their relief,
How they may be supplied, and he may want.

262.

"O God," said he, "thou patron of my days,
Guide of my youth in exile and distress!
Who me, unfriended, brought'st by wond'rous ways,
The kingdom of my fathers to possess:

263.

"Be thou my judge, with what unwearied care
I since have laboured for my people's good;
To bind the bruises of a civil war,
And stop the issues of their wasting blood.

264.

"Thou, who hast taught me to forgive the ill,
And recompense, as friends, the good misled;
If mercy be a precept of thy will,
Return that mercy on thy servant's head.

265.

"Or if my heedless youth has stepped astray,
Too soon forgetful of thy gracious hand,
On me alone thy just displeasure lay,
But take thy judgments from this mourning land.

266.

"We all have sinned; and thou hast laid us low,
As humble earth, from whence at first we came:
Like flying shades before the clouds we show,
And shrink like parchment in consuming flame.

267.

"O let it be enough what thou hast done;
When spotted deaths ran arm'd through every street,
With poisoned darts, which not the good could shun,
The speedy could out-fly, or valiant meet.[189]

268.

"The living few, and frequent funerals then,
Proclaimed thy wrath on this forsaken place;
And now those few, who are returned again,
Thy searching judgments to their dwellings trace.

269.

"O pass not, Lord, an absolute decree,
Or bind thy sentence unconditional;
But in thy sentence our remorse foresee,
And in that foresight this thy doom recal.

270.

"Thy threatnings, Lord, as thine, thou may'st revoke;
But, if immutable and fixed they stand,
Continue still thyself to give the stroke,
And let not foreign foes oppress thy land."[190]

271.

The Eternal heard, and from the heavenly quire
Chose out the cherub with the flaming sword;
And bade him swiftly drive the approaching fire
From where our naval magazines were stored.

272.

The blessed minister his wings displayed,
And like a shooting star he cleft the night:
He charged the flames, and those that disobeyed,
He lashed to duty with his sword of light.

273.

The fugitive flames, chastised, went forth to prey
On pious structures, by our fathers reared;
By which to heaven they did affect the way,
Ere faith in churchmen without works was heard.

274.

The wanting orphans saw, with watery eyes,
Their founders' charity in dust laid low;
And sent to God their ever-answered cries;
For he protects the poor, who made them so.

275.

Nor could thy fabric, Paul's, defend thee long,
Though thou wert sacred to thy Maker's praise;
Though made immortal by a poet's song,
And poets' songs the Theban walls could raise.[191]

276.

The daring flames peeped in, and saw from far
The awful beauties of the sacred quire;
But since it was prophaned by civil war,
Heaven thought it fit to have it purged by fire.

277.

Now down the narrow streets it swiftly came,
And, widely opening, did on both sides prey;
This benefit we sadly owe the flame,
If only ruin must enlarge our way.

278.

And now four days the sun had seen our woes;
Four nights the moon beheld the incessant fire;
It seemed as if the stars more sickly rose,
And farther from the feverish north retire.

279.

In the empyrean heaven, the blessed abode,
The Thrones and the Dominions prostrate lie,
Not daring to behold their angry God;
And an hushed silence damps the tuneful sky.

280.

At length the Almighty cast a pitying eye,
And mercy softly touched his melting breast;
He saw the town's one half in rubbish lie,
And eager flames drive on to storm the rest.[192]

281.

An hollow crystal pyramid he takes,
In firmamental waters dipt above;
Of it a broad extinguisher he makes,
And hoods the flames that to their quarry drove.

282.

The vanquished fires withdraw from every place,[193]
Or, full with feeding, sink into a sleep:
Each household genius shows again his face,
And from the hearths the little Lares creep.

283.

Our king this more than natural change beholds;
With sober joy his heart and eyes abound:
To the All-good his lifted hands he folds,
And thanks him low on his redeemed ground.

284.

As when sharp frosts had long constrained the earth,
A kindly thaw unlocks it with cold rain;
And first the tender blade peeps up to birth,
And straight the green fields laugh with promised grain.

285.

By such degrees the spreading gladness grew
In every heart which fear had froze before;
The standing streets with so much joy they view,
That with less grief the perished they deplore.

286.

The father of the people opened wide
His stores, and all the poor with plenty fed:
Thus God's anointed God's own place supplied,
And filled the empty with his daily bread.

287.

This royal bounty brought its own reward,
And in their minds so deep did print the sense,
That if their ruins sadly they regard,
'Tis but with fear the sight might drive him thence.

288.

But so may he live long, that town to sway,
Which by his auspice they will nobler make,
As he will hatch their ashes by his stay,
And not their humble ruins now forsake.[194]

289.

They have not lost their loyalty by fire;
Nor is their courage or their wealth so low,
That from his wars they poorly would retire,
Or beg the pity of a vanquished foe.

290.

Not with more constancy the Jews, of old,
By Cyrus from rewarded exile sent,
Their royal city did in dust behold,
Or with more vigour to rebuild it went.[195]

291.

The utmost malice of the stars is past,
And two dire comets, which have scourged the town,
In their own plague and fire have breathed their last,
Or dimly in their sinking sockets frown.

292.

Now frequent trines the happier lights among,
And high-raised Jove, from his dark prison freed,
Those weights took off that on his planet hung,
Will gloriously the new-laid works succeed.[196]

293.

Methinks already from this chemic flame,
I see a city of more precious mould;
Rich as the town[197] which gives the Indies name,
With silver paved, and all divine with gold.

294.

Already labouring with a mighty fate,
She shakes the rubbish from her mountain brow,
And seems to have renewed her charter's date,
Which heaven will to the death of time allow.

295.

More great than human now, and more august,[198]
Now deified she from her fires does rise;
Her widening streets on new foundations trust,
And opening into larger parts she flies.[199]

296.

Before, she like some shepherdess did show,
Who sat to bathe her by a river's side;
Not answering to her fame, but rude and low,
Nor taught the beauteous arts of modern pride.

297.

Now, like a maiden queen, she will behold,
From her high turrets, hourly suitors come;
The East with incense, and the West with gold,
Will stand like suppliants to receive her doom.

298.

The silver Thames, her own domestic flood,
Shall bear her vessels like a sweeping train;
And often wind, as of his mistress proud,
With longing eyes to meet her face again.

299.

The wealthy Tagus, and the wealthier Rhine,
The glory of their towns no more shall boast;
And Seyne, that would with Belgian rivers join,[200]
Shall find her lustre stained, and traffic lost.

300.

The venturous merchant, who designed more far,
And touches on our hospitable shore,
Charmed with the splendour of this northern star,
Shall here unlade him, and depart no more.

301.

Our powerful navy shall no longer meet,
The wealth of France or Holland to invade;
The beauty of this town, without a fleet,
From all the world shall vindicate her trade.

302.

And while this famed emporium we prepare,
The British ocean shall such triumphs boast,
That those, who now disdain our trade to share,
Shall rob like pirates on our wealthy coast.

303.

Already we have conquered half the war,
And the less dangerous part is left behind;
Our trouble now is but to make them dare,
And not so great to vanquish as to find.[201]

304.

Thus to the eastern wealth through storms we go,
But now, the Cape once doubled, fear no more;
A constant trade-wind will securely blow,
And gently lay us on the spicy shore.[202]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 98: Note I.]

[Footnote 99: Precious stones at first are dew condensed, and hardened by the warmth of the sun, or subterranean fires. _Dryden._]

[Footnote 100: According to their opinion who think, that great heap of waters under the Line, is depressed into tides by the moon towards the poles. _Dryden._]

[Footnote 101: Note II.]

[Footnote 102: The Spaniard.]

[Footnote 103: Note III.]

[Footnote 104: Alluding to the successful war of Cromwell against the Dutch, in 1653.]

[Footnote 105: Note IV.]

[Footnote 106:

_Cœruleus Proteus immania ponti
Armenta, et magnas pascit sub gurgite phocas._
]

[Footnote 107: Note V.]

[Footnote 108: The planet Venus, which was visible in the day-time about the birth-day of Charles II., was by court astronomers affirmed to be a new star. See page 51.]

[Footnote 109: Note VI.]

[Footnote 110: Note VII.]

[Footnote 111: Protesilaus, the first Grecian who landed on the Trojan shore, was killed in disembarking.]

[Footnote 112: Opdam, the admiral of Holland. See note VIII.]

[Footnote 113: The war began, by mutual aggressions, on the coast of Guinea.]

[Footnote 114: Note IX.]

[Footnote 115: Note X.]

[Footnote 116: _Si bene calculum ponas, ubique fit naufragium._ PETRONIUS.]

[Footnote 117: Note XI.]

[Footnote 118: Note XII.]

[Footnote 119: Note XIII.]

[Footnote 120: Prince Rupert, and duke Albemarle. See note XV.]

[Footnote 121: Note XIV.]

[Footnote 122: _Examina infantium, futurusque populus._ Plin. jun. in pan. ad Trajanum.]

[Footnote 123: Note XVI.]

[Footnote 124: Where the Olympic games were celebrated.]

[Footnote 125: _Credas innare revulsas Cyclades._]

[Footnote 126: "Ahey! what, in the wind's eye, brother? Where did you learn your seamanship."--_Commodore Trunnion._]

[Footnote 127: _Built_, for _build_ or _structure_.]

[Footnote 128: Note XVII.]

[Footnote 129: Note XVIII.]

[Footnote 130: The Gauls, when they first entered the Roman senate, were so much struck with the solemn appearance of the venerable senators on their chairs of state, that, for a time, their fury was absorbed in veneration.--_Liv. His._ Lib. V. cap. 41.]

[Footnote 131: Note XIX.]

[Footnote 132: Note XX.]

[Footnote 133: _Spem vultu simulat, premit alto corde dolorem._--VIRGIL.]

[Footnote 134: _Tell_, for _number_.]

[Footnote 135: Note XXI.]

[Footnote 136: Note XXII.]

[Footnote 137: Note XXIII.]

[Footnote 138:

_Ille autem ---- ---- ---- ----
Faucibus ingentem fumum, mirabile dictu
Evomit, involvitque domum caligine cæca,
Prospectum eripiens oculis, glomeratque sub antro
Fumiferam noctem, commixtis igne tenebris._ VIRGIL.
]

[Footnote 139: A falcon, I believe, is said to _fly at check_, when, having missed her stroke, she deserts her proper object of pursuit for a crow, or some other bird.]

[Footnote 140: Note XXIV.]

[Footnote 141: Note XXV.]

[Footnote 142: _Vestigia retro improperata refert._--VIRGIL.]

[Footnote 143:

_Nec trucibus fluviis idem sonus: occidit horror
Equoris, antennis maria acclinata quiescunt._
STATIUS.
]

[Footnote 144: The third of June, famous for two victories by the English fleet over the Dutch in 1653 and 1665. On the last occasion, the fleets met on the third, though the Dutch avoided fighting till the fourth of the month.]

[Footnote 145: Note XXVI.]

[Footnote 146: Note XXVII.]

[Footnote 147:

_Quum medii nexus, extremæque agmina caudæ
Solvuntur; tardosque trahit sinus ultima orbes._
VIRGIL.
]

[Footnote 148: Corruptly for _flax_; her _down_ or _fur_.]

[Footnote 149:

---- ----_Quos opimus,
Fallere et effugere triumphus est._ Note XXVIII.
]

[Footnote 150: Note XXIX.]

[Footnote 151: Note XXX.]

[Footnote 152: To _imp_, generally, is to ingraft; but here there is a reference to falconry, in which, when the broken feather in a hawk's wing is supplied by art, it is said to be _imp'd._]

[Footnote 153:

_Qualis apes, æstate nova, per florea rura,
Exercet sub sole labor, cum gentis adultos
Educunt fœtus, aut cum liquentia mella
Stipant, et dulci distendunt nectare cellas;
Aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto
Ignavum fucos pecus a præsepibus arcent;
Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella._
Æneid. Lib. I.
]

[Footnote 154: Sweden was the only continental ally of Britain during this war.]

[Footnote 155: _Marline_, a piece of untwisted rope, dipped in pitch, and wrapped round a cable to guard it.]

[Footnote 156: _Tarpawling_, pitched canvas.]

[Footnote 157: Note XXXI.]

[Footnote 158: _Extra anni solisque vias._--VIRGIL.]

[Footnote 159: By a more exact measure of longitude. _Dryden._]

[Footnote 160: Apostrophe to the Royal Society.]

[Footnote 161: Note XXXII.]

[Footnote 162: Note XXXIII.]

[Footnote 163: Note XXXIV.]

[Footnote 164: Note XXXV.]

[Footnote 165: Note XXXVI.]

[Footnote 166: Note XXXVII.]

[Footnote 167: Note XXXVIII.]

[Footnote 168: _Gross_, used as a substantive for "main body."]

[Footnote 169: _Levat ipse tridenti, et vastas aperit syrtes._--VIRGIL.]

[Footnote 170: Note XXXIX.]

[Footnote 171: _Expires_, in the unusual sense of "is blown forth."]

[Footnote 172: _Possunt quia posse videntur._--VIRGIL.]

[Footnote 173: Note XL.]

[Footnote 174: Spar-hawk. A lark is said to be _dared_ by any object of terror which makes it sit close.

Farewell nobility! E'en let his grace go forward,
And dare us with his cap, like larks.----
]

[Footnote 175: St James, patron of Spain, on whose festival this battle was fought. See note XLI.]

[Footnote 176: Philip II. of Spain, against whom the Hollanders rebelling, were aided by Queen Elizabeth. See notes XLI. and XLII.]

[Footnote 177: Note XLII.]

[Footnote 178: Note XLIII.]

[Footnote 179: Note XLIV.]

[Footnote 180: _Hæc arte tractabat cupidum virum, ut illius animum inopia accenderet._]

[Footnote 181: Note XLV.]

[Footnote 182: _Sigæa igni freta late relucent._]

[Footnote 183: Note XLVI.]

[Footnote 184: The word _gross_, as already noticed, signifies "main body." It was a military phrase of the time.]

[Footnote 185: Note XLVII.]

[Footnote 186: Note XLVIII.]

[Footnote 187: Note XLIX.]

[Footnote 188: Note L.]

[Footnote 189: Note LI.]

[Footnote 190: Note LII.]

[Footnote 191: Note LIII.]

[Footnote 192: Note LIV.]

[Footnote 193: Note LV.]

[Footnote 194: Alluding to the city's request to the king, not to leave them.]

[Footnote 195: Note LVI.]

[Footnote 196: Note LVII.]

[Footnote 197: Mexico.]

[Footnote 198: _Augusta_, the old name of London.]

[Footnote 199: Note LVIII.]

[Footnote 200: Alluding to the alliance betwixt France and Holland.]

[Footnote 201: The disgraceful surprise of Chatham, in 1667, baffled this prophecy.]

[Footnote 202: Referring to the monsoons, which the navigators fall in with upon doubling the Cape of Good Hope.]

NOTES

ON

ANNUS MIRABILIS.

Note I.

_In thriving arts long time had Holland grown,
Crouching at home, and cruel when abroad;
Scarce leaving us the means to claim our own;
Our king they courted, and our merchants awed._
St. 1. p. 104.

The jealousy of commerce between Holland and England recommended a Dutch war to the nation; while the king, insensible to the many advances made him by the States, cherished a hearty detestation at their mode of government, and the manners of their people in general. Some of the regicides had sought shelter in Holland; and it was only by the uncommon alertness of Downes, the British ambassador, that they were seized and sent to England. Nay, De Witt, and other leaders in the States, kept up a secret correspondence with Ludlow, and the other banished republican English, in hopes that their party might yet find work for Charles in his own kingdom. Meanwhile, they extended beyond measure their personal deference for Charles; willing to avoid a war, which, in any event, must be prejudicial to their commerce, and which, from the valour which the English had displayed in 1653, might probably be unfortunate. But the interest of the East Indian and African Companies, both of which were highly favoured by Charles in the beginning of his reign, and the unatoned injuries which they had sustained from the Dutch, were a sufficient counterpoise to every pacific overture on the part of Holland.

Note II.

_And this may prove our second Punic war._
St. 5. p. 105.

The first being that which the Parliament declared against the States, and which Cromwell carried on with great success in 1653-4.

Note III.

_See how he feeds the Iberian with delays,
To render us his timely friendship vain;
And while his secret soul on Flanders preys,
He rocks the cradle of the babe of Spain._
St. 8. p. 105.

France, a nation ever remarkable for seeing, almost intuitively, her own interest, was not willing that the domineering spirit of Cromwell should revive under the restored monarchy of England. Richelieu had been forced to comply, to a certain extent, with the rash, and often impolitic, but always energetic and daring, schemes of the Protector, endeavouring, at the same time, to make them subservient to his own purposes. But when there was no danger of England uniting with Spain and Holland against France, it was much more the interest of that kingdom, that the two great naval powers should waste their strength in mutual warfare, or even that France should assist the weaker, than that she should join with the stronger, to oppress the other entirely. Besides, the French faction, with De Witt at their head, was now paramount in Holland; and the indirect effect of any signal success of the English must be the restoration of the house of Orange, so closely allied to Charles II., and the hereditary enemy of France, to the dignity of the office of Stadtholder; an office, which, with the family who held it, has been uniformly respected or degraded, as the English or French faction prevailed in the United Provinces. The French court had therefore various reasons for making the Dutch "lords by sea," since they could give them "law by land;" and these finally weighed so deeply, as to lead them to take a part, though but a cold one, against Britain in this very war.

The Spanish provinces in the Netherlands had always been the object of French cupidity; and, according to count D'Estrade, a scheme was now formed for dividing them between France and Holland; which, however, the French court took great and successful care to conceal from the party who were to be sufferers. This policy Dryden has termed, "rocking the cradle of the babe of Spain."

Note IV.

_Him aged seamen might their master call,
And chuse for general, were he not their king._
St. 14. p. 107.

"As it is on all hands confessed, that never any English, perhaps I might say, any prince, without distinction of countries, understood maritime affairs so well as Charles II. did; so it cannot surprise any intelligent reader, when we assert, that the English navy received very great advantages from his skill and care in matters of this nature. It must indeed be allowed, that he found the fleet, at his restoration, in an excellent situation, and abundance of very able men employed therein; and it must likewise be confessed, to the honour of his government, that he preserved them in their several posts, without any respect to party, which, without question, contributed not a little to the increase of our naval power. How intent he was, for the first ten years of his reign, in promoting whatever had a tendency this way, appears from all the candid histories of those times, from the collections of orders, and other public papers relating to the direction of the navy while the duke of York was admiral, published of late;[203] and, in a short and narrow compass, from the speech made by the lord-keeper Bridgeman, who affirmed, that, from 1660 to 1670, the charge of the navy had never amounted to less than 500,000l. a year."--_Lives of the Admirals_, Vol. II. p. 331.

Note V.

_And heaven, as if there wanted lights above,
For tapers made two glaring comets rise._
St. 16. p. 107.

A comet was seen on the 14th of December, 1664, which lasted almost three months; and another, the 6th of April, 1665, which was visible fourteen days.--_Appendix to Sherburn's Translation of Manilius_, p. 241. Comets, it is well known, were in extremely bad repute among the astrologers of this period. Lilly, an unquestionable authority, treats these stars with extreme severity; hardly justifiable by his blunt averment, that "truth is truth, and a horse is a horse."[204] Dryden himself, not contented with turning these two blazing stars into farthing candles, has elsewhere, in this poem, charged them with causing the pestilence, and the great fire of London:

The utmost malice of the stars is past;
And two dire comets, which have scourged the town,
In their own plague and fire have breathed their last,
Or dimly in their sinking sockets frown.

The evil opinion which the astrologers entertained of comets, they summed up in these barbarous lines:

_Octo Cometa mala hæc fulgendo per Æthera signat;
Ventus, Sterilitas, Aqua, Pestis prædominantur
Rixa, Tremor, moritur Dux, fit mutatio regni._

Note VI.

_Victorious York did first, with famed success,
To his known valour make the Dutch give place;_
St. 19. p. 108.

This battle, one of the most decisive and glorious fought during the war, our author had already celebrated in the verses to the Duchess, immediately preceding this poem; to which, and to the notes, the reader is referred. The famous Dutch admiral Opdam, in his flag-ship, the Eintracht, blew up, while closely engaged with the duke of York in the Royal Charles. Shortly afterwards, four or five Dutch vessels became unmanageable, fell on board of each other, and were all burned by a single fire-ship. Three others were destroyed in the same condition, and by the same means. Two Dutch vice-admirals were killed, whose ships, bearing away, drew many out of the line, so that Van Tromp, who fought gallantly, had, out of a hundred and three ships, only thirty left, to continue a retreating action. This victory was gained on the 3d. June, 1665.

Note VII.

_And therefore doomed that Lawson should be slain._
St. 20. p. 108.

Sir John Lawson, the gallant seaman here mentioned, rose from a mean station in the navy, to be an admiral under the Parliament. He distinguished himself in the Dutch war of 1653, by the incredible damage which the flying squadron he commanded did to the commerce of the States. He entered afterwards into some cabals with the fifth-monarchy-men, a set of pretended saints, who would hear of nothing but a theocracy. It does not appear, whether, on the part of Lawson, this was an alliance of policy or principle; but it cost the admiral an imprisonment under the vigilant administration of Cromwell. He was set at liberty, and declared by the Parliament vice-admiral of the Channel fleet, which he induced by his influence to declare for the Restoration. The admiral was rewarded for this service by the honour of knighthood, and high trust from his sovereign. In the great battle off Loestoff, sir John Lawson met the glorious death which Dryden has here commemorated. He was rear-admiral to the duke of York, and maintained his high character for valour and seaman-ship till late in the action, when he received a musket-shot in the knee, and by its effects was prevented from enjoying the victory, to which he had greatly contributed. He died a few days after the action, in full enjoyment of his country's triumph, and his own glory.

Note VIII.

_Their chief blown up, in air, not waves, expired,
To which his pride presumed to give the law._
St. 22. p. 108.

The Dutch occasionally conducted their naval expeditions with great and insolent affectation of superiority. Upon one occasion their admiral sailed with a broom at his main-top-gallant-mast, to signify, he had swept the narrow seas of the English. Opdam, as already mentioned, blew up, while along side of the Duke of York. Some imputed this accident to the revenge of a negro slave; others, to some carelessness in the distribution of the ammunition.

Note IX.

_Like hunted castors, conscious of their store,
Their way-laid wealth to Norway's coasts they bring._
St. 25. p. 109.

This alludes to an action variously judged of, and very much noted at the period. The Turkey and East India fleets of Holland, very richly laden, and consisting, according to D'Estrades, of ten Indiamen, seventeen ships from Smyrna, and twenty-eight from other ports, valued at 25 millions of livres, having gone north about to avoid encountering the English, and finding, that they could not with safety attempt to get into their own harbours even by that circuitous route, had taken shelter in the bay of Bergen. The earl of Sandwich, who now commanded the fleet, the duke of York having gone ashore, dispatched sir Thomas Tydiman with a squadron to attack them. It is said, that the king of Denmark privately encouraged this attempt, on condition of sharing the wealthy spoils of the Hollanders, and that messengers were actually dispatched by him, bearing orders to the governor of Bergen to afford them no protection. If this was so, the English admiral, after lying three days inactive before the bay, ruined the design by a premature attack upon the fleet ere the royal mandate had arrived, when the Danish governor took the natural and generous course of vindicating the neutrality of his harbour, permitted the Dutch to fortify themselves by erecting batteries on shore, and supported them by the fire from the castle, which covered the bay. Notwithstanding this interference of the Danes, which seems to have been unexpected, the English admiral bore into the bay, commenced the assault with great fury, and continued it until a contrary wind, joined to the brave opposition of the Dutch and Danes, obliged him to desist from the attempt. On this subject, we may, I think, conclude, that the attack was premature, if the admiral had good reason to expect the assistance of Denmark, but too long delayed if he was to depend on his own strength. The scheme is thus satirized by Rochester:

The Bergen business was well laid,
Though we paid dear for that design,
Had we not three days parleying staid,
The Dutch fleet there, Charles, had been thine.
Though the false Dane agreed to sell 'um,
He cheated us, and saved Skellum.
_The Insipids._

Another wit of the time says,

To Bergen we with confidence made haste,
And the secret spoils by hope already taste.
Though Clifford in the character appear
Of supra cargo to our fleet, and there
Wearing a signet ready to clap on,
And seize all for his master Arlington.[205]

* * * * *

Now can our navy see the wished for port,
But there (to see the fortune) was a fort;
Sandwich would not be beaten, nor yet beat;
Fools only fight, the prudent use to treat.
His cousin Mountague, by court disaster,
Dwindled into the wooden horse's master;
To speak of peace seemed amongst all most proper,
Had Talbot treated then of nought but copper;
For what are forts, when void of ammunition,
With friends, or foes, what would we more condition?
Yet we, three days, till the Dutch furnished all,
Men, powder, money, cannon--treat with wall:
Then Tydeman, finding the Danes would not,
Sent in six captains bravely to be shot,
And Mountague, though drest like any bride,
And aboard him too, yet was reached and died.

The following more serious account of the Bergen attempt is taken from a poet, who started with our author in the race of panegyric, on the exploits of the naval war. His work is entitled _a Poem, being an Essay upon the Present War with the Dutch 1666, by John James_.

Trusting the north as the securer way,
They court the night for treasures of the day;
Sweet spices, gums, and all the sun can boast,
Or the indulgence of the Indian coast,
Pay tribute to their hopes, which, lest they may
Perish near home, in withered Norway stay;
Where that rough Satyr, Bergen, is possessed
Of the rich spoils of the luxurious east.
The port was the dark burden of that womb,
Whose liquid bowels are the greedy tomb
Of trade and hope, by art improved to be
From foes a refuge, boisterous winds, and sea.
The worth and safety, though not equal fate
Of this fair prize, might Jason's emulate;
That yellow fleece, bulls hoofed with thunder kept,
And a near watchful guard, that never slept.
This cloistered, in the hostile harbour lay,
Maintained by castles and a treacherous way.
The English, that this proud return did wait,
More conscious of revenge than guilty fate,
Attempt, with one bold squadron of their fleet,
To render vows, though not their hopes, complete.
Obsequious to their courage, they dispense
Through the sad lake a bloody influence;
Which bears in sight of the unfaithful shore,
And spoils the freight we would have saved before.
Art, fury, all to ruin had designed
These joys of peace, but the enamoured wind,
Which, like a Phœnix, in that nest would lie,
And with a surfeit of these odours die,
Thus jealous grown, does with full cheeks oppose
These flames, which ships dissembled to our foes.
Retreating thence as lions, which some wile,
Or stratagem, did of their prey beguile,
We cleave the briny element, to meet
Dodona, sacred to our Jove, the fleet.

Note X.

_Nor wholly lost we so deserv'd a prey;
For storms, repenting, part of it restor'd:
Which, as a tribute from the Baltic sea,
The British ocean sent her mighty lord._
St. 31. p. 110.

The famous De Witt set sail at the head of the Dutch fleet in person, to relieve the ships, which were still detained in Bergen by the Danish governor. It seems they had found a new enemy in their old protector, who refused to let them sail, until they paid a ransom of 100,000 crowns. The arrival of De Witt made Alfeldt change his note, and the persecuted Hollanders sailed from their harbour of dubious refuge, at no heavier a composition, than leaving the cannon, which they had sent ashore, to mount the land batteries against the English. But in their return, De Witt's large fleet and valuable cargo were scattered in a storm: the vice-admiral, and rear-admiral of the East India fleet, ships of immense value, with several merchant vessels and men of war, were picked up by the English squadrons, and so furnished the tribute which Dryden alludes to in this and the following verses.

Note XI.

_Let Munster's prelate ever be accurs'd,
In whom we seek the German faith in vain._
St. 37 p. 111.

Tacitus had informed our author, that the German faith was proverbial, "_Nullos mortalium fide aut armis ante Germanos esse_." Bertrand Von Der Ghalen, the warlike Bishop of Munster, whom the poet pronounces an exception to this honourable distinction of the Germans, was the only ally of Charles upon the Continent, during this war. He burst into the United States, at the head of a mercenary army of 20,000 men. With this force, he over-ran the province of Overyssell, where his soldiers distinguished themselves less by military valour, than by an exorbitant licence, rapine, and cruelty, which did little honour to their reverend general. But his progress was speedily checked by a French army; and, as the elector of Brandenburgh threatened his states with invasion, he found himself compelled to make a separate peace, assigning as a reason, amongst others, the irregularity of remitting the promised subsidies from England. This is rather inconsistent with Dryden's charge, that "money given, had tempted him to ill;" but in such cases, the party subsidized usually thinks he has received too little for his service, as those, who pay him, are apt to suppose he has had too much. Sir William Temple was dispatched, to prevent the Bishop from making the separate peace here complained of, but he did not arrive till after it had been signed.

Note XII.

_With France, to aid the Dutch, the Danes unite;
France as their tyrant, Denmark as their slave._

St. 42. p. 112.

France, unwilling to expose her infant navy in a war with England, long endeavoured to mediate between the two great maritime states, and did not undertake to support the Dutch in then perilous conflict, until all means of negociation had been exhausted, and the tottering state of Holland rendered immediate aid necessary. About the same time, Denmark, after much vacillating and double-handed policy, at length openly united with France and Holland, against England. The French declaration of war was made in January 1665-6, and that of Denmark soon afterwards.

Note XIII.

_Lewis had chased the English from his shore;
But Charles, the French, as subjects, does invite._

St. 43. p. 112.

By the French declaration of war, all intercourse was prohibited between the belligerent nations, and the subjects of England were ordered to leave France. But, in the English counter-declaration, this usual prohibitory clause was qualified by the king's declaration, "That all such of the French or Dutch nation remaining in his dominions, as should demean themselves dutifully, without corresponding with his enemies, should be safe in their persons and estates, and free from all molestation and trouble;" and further the king declared, "That if any of the French or Low Country subjects upon any reason should come into his kingdoms, they should be all protected in their persons and estates, and especially those of the reformed religion, whose interest should ever be particularly owned by him."--RALPH'S _History_. Vol. I. p. 159.

Note XIV.

_The double charge his subjects' love supplies,
Who in that bounty to themselves are kind;
So glad Egyptians see their Nilus rise,
And in his plenty their abundance find._--St. 46. p. 112.

This beautiful and appropriate simile is applied to the liberal supply, voted by the House of Commons, mentioned in the address to the king, at the prorogation in 1665. After reminding the king of their engagement, to assist him with their lives and fortunes against the Dutch, the address proceeds: "The English man useth to speak as he writes, and the English parliament, to speak as they think. No security on earth can be greater than the engagement of your two houses of parliament. _Sed quid verba audiam, dum facta videam!_ As a demonstration of their fidelity, I am commanded to present unto your Majesty this bill, whereby they have given into your Majesty twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds, to be levied in two years, beginning from Christmas next, by quarterly payments, added to the former royal aid. And, that your Majesty's occasions may be supplied with ready money, we have, by the bill, prepared an undoubted security for all such persons as shall bring their monies unto the public bank of the Exchequer. As the rivers do naturally empty themselves unto the sea, so we hope the veins of gold and silver in this nation will plentifully run into this ocean, for the maintenance of your Majesty's just sovereignty of the seas." It is possible, that the quaint expressions, contained in the last sentence, suggested to Dryden the simile, which so far excels that of the speaker.

Note XV.

_With equal power he does two chiefs create._--St. 47. p. 112.

The Duke of York being the heir apparent of the crown, it was not judged proper that he should expose himself in a second sea-fight, likely to prove as bloody and dangerous as that of the 3d June 1664. Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle were appointed to the command of the grand fleet, in the absence of the Earl of Sandwich, who was then absent, as ambassador in Spain. These two great men had neither of them been bred to the sea. Prince Rupert was well known by the distinguished part which he had taken for his uncle, Charles I., in the great civil war. When the royal cause became untenable on land, he long endeavoured to maintain it by sea, assuming for that purpose the command of the fleet, which had revolted from the Parliament to the Prince of Wales. The Prince did not relinquish his war against the Commonwealth, and their Spanish allies, until his whole fleet had been destroyed, by severe service and tempests. At the period of the Dutch war, age, and a long train of misfortunes, had chastened the original fire of his temper, and taught him that prudence, which he wanted in the civil wars; when, with his impetuous but ill-disciplined cavalry, he usually bore down all before him, but vanished from the field in pursuit of the vanquished, leaving his less successful friends exposed without support. In other respects, he was fitted for a great commander, both by his natural talents and acquired endowments, and was a great favourite with the nation, because, though a foreigner, he bore a heart truly English.

George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, the restorer of English monarchy, united in his person some very different qualities. With a steady, reserved, and even tardy manner, he was in action fierce and daring to the last degree; adopting the most desperate course, with the air and manner of the most cool deliberation. He had signalized himself against the Dutch, during the war of the commonwealth, being in the chief command of the fleet, when they received the dreadful defeat in 1653, to which our poet alludes in the following lines:

The Duke beheld, like Scipio, with disdain
The Carthage which he ruined rise once more;
And shook aloft the fasces of the main,
To fright those slaves with what they fell before.

The Duke accepted the joint command with Prince Rupert, in 1665, much against the advice of his friends, who accounted it rash in him to stake upon the issue of a battle the well-earned fame which he had acquired by signal successes in war, and by accomplishing a mighty revolution without bloodshed. But he resolved to exert his talents once more for his country in this trying crisis; a circumstance highly gratifying to the seamen, who crowded to man the fleet, saying, they were sure, "_Honest George would see them well fed and duly paid_;" a compliment more honourable than many of more courtly expression.

Note XVI.

_Our fleet divides, and straight the Dutch appear,
In number, and a famed commander, bold._--St. 54. p. 114.

When Prince Rupert and Albemarle were about to sail from the Downs, they received advice from the king, that the French had fitted out a strong squadron to join with the Dutch fleet, accompanied by a positive order, that Prince Rupert, with seventy men of war, should sail in quest of the French, and fight them before the intended junction. This order occasioned the separation of the fleet; a circumstance, which, as the intelligence concerning the supposed French squadron was totally false, occasioned a heavy, and, but for the bravery of Albemarle, an overwhelming disaster. On the first of June, the Duke descried the Dutch fleet, consisting of seventy six sail, under the famous De Ruyter, whereas he himself had not above fifty. After calling a council of war, in which it was agreed in spite of all odds to engage the enemy, the Duke began the battle, which was continued with incredible fury during that whole day. The event will be found in the ensuing notes.

Note XVII.

_And as the built, so different is the fight;
Their mounting shot is on our sails designed:
Deep in their hulls our deadly bullets light,
And through the yielding planks a passage find._

St. 62. p. 115.

The narrative of this fight, published by authority, has this passage. "It is certain, that they must every where have suffered a much greater loss of men than we, from the difference in our manner of fighting; for they, shooting high, and at a great distance, damaged us most in our rigging; and we, on the other hand, forbearing to shoot but when we came near, and then levelling most at the hulls, must needs have done more execution upon their men." The Dutch, on the other hand, did great damage to the rigging of the British squadron by the use of chain-shot, then a new invention:

Ruyter no less with virtuous fury burns,
And prodigies for miracles returns;
Yet he observed how still his iron balls
Recoiled in vain against our oaken walls;
How the hard pellets fell away as dead,
By our inchanted timber fillipped.
Leave then, said he, the invulnerable keel;
We'll find their feeble, like Achilles' heel.
He, quickly taught, pours in continual clouds
Of charmed dilemmas through our sinewed shrouds;
Forests of masts fall with their rude embrace,
Our stiff sails mashed and netted into lace,
Till our whole navy lay their wanton mark,
Nor any ship could sail but as the ark:
Shot in the wing, so at the fowler's call,
The disappointed bird doth fluttering fall.
Yet Monk, disabled, still such valour shews,
That none into his mortal gripe dare close;
So some old bustard maimed, yet loth to yield,
Duels the fowler in Newmarket field.

_Instructions to a Painter, p. 2._

It is curious to observe how long this characteristic difference, betwixt the English mode of fighting and that of the seamen of all other nations, appears to have distinguished them.

Note XVIII.

_Heroes of old, when wounded, shelter sought:
But he, who meets all danger with disdain,
Even in their face his ship to anchor brought,
And steeple-high stood propt upon the main._

St. 62. p. 115.

The daring spirit of Monk was not more conspicuous at any period of his adventurous life than in this grand and desperate action. Mulgrave avers he saw him charge a pocket-pistol, with the desperate design of firing it into the powder-room, if he should be reduced to extremity. In the course of the action, a chain-shot took away part of his breeches, without disconcerting the steady countenance of the wearer.[206] Having made a sudden tack to avoid a sand bank, his ship carried away her top-mast, so that he was compelled to lie bye for two or three hours to repair that damage, in the face of the enemy.

Note XIX.

_Berkley alone, who nearest danger lay,
Did a like fate with lost Creusa meet._--St. 67. p. 116.

Vice-admiral Sir William Berkley endeavoured to fight his way through the enemy, who were five to one. When his ship was a wreck, his crew almost cut to pieces, and himself desperately wounded, he continued to refuse quarter, killed with his own hand several of the enemy who attempted to board, and, at length, when mortally wounded by a musket-ball in the throat, retired into his cabin, where he was found dead, stretched at length upon the table, and covered with the blood which flowed from his wounds.

Note XX.

---- ---- _Joyful lines they hear
Of ships, which, by their mould, bring new supplies;
And in their colours Belgian lions bear._--St. 72. p. 117.

The Dutch, in the morning of the 2d of June, were reinforced by a fresh squadron of sixteen men of war, giving them a decided and dreadful superiority to the English, whom, at the very first, they had greatly outnumbered.

Note XXI.

"_If number English courages could quell,
We should at first have shun'd, not met our foes,
Whose numerous sails the fearful only tell;
Courage from hearts, and not from numbers grows._"

St. 76. p. 118.

The famous speech of Monk is thus given in the Lives of the Admirals.

"If we had dreaded the number of our enemies, we should have fled yesterday; but, though we are inferior to them in ships, we are in all things else superior. Force gives them courage; let us, if we need it, borrow resolution from the thoughts of what we have formerly performed. Let the enemy feel, that, though our fleet be divided, our spirit is entire. At the worst, it will be more honourable to die bravely in our element, than to be made spectacles to the Dutch. To be overcome is the fortune of war, but to fly is the fashion of cowards. Let us teach the world, that Englishmen had rather be acquainted with death than fear."--Vol. 2. p. 367.

Note XXII.

_Our little fleet was now engaged so far,
That like the sword-fish in the whale they fought._

St. 79. p. 118.

The battle was renewed on the second day, with the same desperate courage, which had distinguished the first battle. The English _charged_, as was then the expression, twice through the whole Dutch fleet, doing and receiving infinite damage. But this unequal warfare could not last long, "when, at each tack, our little fleet grew less."

The English had by this time lost, at least, nine vessels sunk and taken; and Monk bearing away with twenty six, being all that remained in a condition to fight, was pursued by De Ruyter with nearly three times that number.

Note XXIII.

_Close by, their fire-ships, like jackals, appear,
Who on their lions for the prey attend._

St. 82. p. 119.

Fire-ships, now only employed against fleets in harbour, and seldom even then, were at this time used during every great naval engagement. The Dutch wars, especially, were distinguished by the frequent use of these dreadful engines of destruction on both sides. The last instance, I believe, of their being employed in open sea in the British service, occurred in the engagement of Matthews and Lestock in the Mediterranean, where they did little execution. The reason of their disuse appears to be, that modern fleets consist of a few large vessels, which easily communicate by signal, and are little apt to fall into such confusion as that fire-ships can approach them with safety, and with any chance of effect. In the 17th century, fleets consisted of a very great number of comparatively small vessels, sometimes a hundred and upwards, which, from the imperfect nature of their signals, were perpetually getting into disorder, and affording opportunities for the fire-ships to act with all their fearful consequences. In the battle of Southwold Bay, in 1672, the gallant Earl of Sandwich, in his fine ship the Royal James, after sinking three fire-ships, was burned by a fourth; and the contest of the Harry with three fire-ships, in this very battle, will be found in a subsequent note.

Note XXIV.

_He drew his mighty frigates all before,
On which the foe his fruitless force employs:
His weak ones deep into his rear he bore,
Remote from guns, as sick men from the noise._

St. 91. p. 120.

Dryden has here inverted the order of the Duke's retreat. His disabled or shattered ships were all ordered to stretch a-head, and he himself in the rear, with sixteen of his ablest vessels, his own occupying the centre, sustained all the efforts of the Dutch pursuers. The disabled vessels were therefore the headmost ships, and not placed in the rear, where, in the circumstances, they must inevitably have been taken.

Note XXV.

_The foe approached; and one, for his bold sin,
Was sunk, as he that touched the ark was slain._

St. 94. p. 121.

The simile is taken, not very decently, from _1 Chronicles_, Chap. XIII.

Verse 7. "And they carried the ark of God in a new cart, out of the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.

8. "And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidin, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled.

10. "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark; and there he died before God."

Note XXVI.

_For now brave Rupert from afar appears,
Whose waving streamers the glad general knows._

St. 105. p. 123.

The English, upon the 3d of June, seemed to have nothing left them save the glory of a desperate defence, when, about noon, a third fleet was descried, crowding every sail to the assistance of the vanquished English, or to complete the triumph of the victorious Hollanders. It might have been the French squadron under the Duke of Beaufort, and the naval power of England was ruined for ever. Albemarle, however, bore boldly down towards the advancing strangers, and, with inexpressible sensations, discovered Prince Rupert, with the white squadron of England, hastening to his relief. Betwixt the fleets of Albemarle and Rupert lay some dangerous shoals, noticed by Dryden in Stanza 114. On one of these, called the Galloper, Admiral Sir George Ayscue was so unfortunate as to strand his vessel, the Royal Prince, one of the largest in the fleet, and forced by his own seamen to strike his flag. He was made prisoner by the Dutch, who burned his ship, and, after leading him in a sort of triumph through various parts of the United Provinces, at length imprisoned him in the castle of Louverstein. Albemarle observing the cause of this disaster, and that the Dutch had sent a squadron of their fleet to the edge of the sands, as if to provoke the Prince, acquainted him by signal and message, that he should by no means bear up against that squadron, there being a dangerous sand between them; and that the appearance of the Dutch in that place was to tempt him into the toil. SKINNER'S _Life of Monk_. The English fleets, however, formed a junction, which completed the business of the third day's action.

Note XXVII.

_Thus reinforced, against the adverse fleet,
Still doubling ours, brave Rupert led the way._

St. 119. p. 125.

On the morning of the 4th of June, this long and bloody contest was again renewed. The English were now the assailants, as in the first action. Prince Rupert, with his fresh squadron, led the van, and was followed by Albemarle. The fleets fought their way five times through and through each other; when, after much and desperate fighting on both sides, both the English admirals were disabled, and the combatants, after four days constant and bloody fighting, finally separated, as if by mutual consent.

Note XXVIII.

_This lucky hour the wise Batavian takes,
And warns his tattered fleet to follow home;
Proud to have so got off with equal stakes,
Where 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercome._

St. 134. p. 128.