  Source.—Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel. ... The false Achitophel[12] was ... A name to all succeeding ages curst. For close designs and crooked counsels fit, Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit, Restless, unfixed 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-informed the tenement of clay. A daring pilot in extremity, Pleased with the danger, when the wave went high, He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, 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 unfeathered two-legged thing, a son 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[13] for a foreign yoke. Then, seized with fear, yet still affecting fame, Usurped 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 none 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 Abbethdin[14] 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 soul been freed From cockle that oppressed the noble seed, David[15] 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. Achitophel, grown weary to possess A lawful fame and lazy happiness, Disdained 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, Held up the buckler of the people's cause Against the Crown, and skulked behind the laws. The wished occasion of the Plot[16] he takes; Some circumstances finds, but more he makes; By buzzing emissaries fills the ears Of listening crowds with jealousies and fear Of arbitrary counsels brought to light, And proves the King himself a Jebusite.[17] Weak arguments! which yet he knew full well Were strong with people easy to rebel. For governed by the moon, the giddy Jews[18] Tread the same track when she the prime renews. And once in twenty years, their scribes record, By natural instinct they change their lord. Achitophel still wants a chief, and none Was found so fit as warlike Absalom.[19] Not that he wished his greatness to create, For politicians neither love nor hate: But, for he knew his title not allowed 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. [12] Shaftesbury. [13] England. [14] The President of the Jewish judicature. Shaftesbury had been made Lord Chancellor in 1672. [15] Charles II. [16] The Popish Plot. [17] A Roman Catholic. [18] The English people. [19] Monmouth, whom Shaftesbury proposed as Charles II.'s successor during the Exclusion controversy (1679-1681). |
|
