popularity of _Absalom and
Achitophel_ with the layman in politics and to the Whigs' fear of its
harming their cause. Settle's was of course a mercenary pen, and it is
amusing to note that after ridiculing Halifax here he was quite prepared
to publish, fourteen years later, _Sacellum Apollinare: a Funeral Poem
to the Memory of that Great Statesman, George Late Marquiss of Halifax_,
and on this count his place among Pope's Dunces seems merited. In
tracing his quarrel with Dryden up to the publication of _Absalom
Senior_, critics have tended to overlook the fact that by 1680 there
was already hostility between the two;[11] less has been said about
the effect on Dryden of the poets themselves. The spleen of his
contributions to the Second Part of _Absalom and Achitophel_ is
essentially a manufactured one and for the public entertainment;
personally he was comparatively unmoved--the Og portrait, for example,
is less representative than his words in "The Epistle to the Whigs"
prefixed to _The Medal_. Here, as in _Mac Flecknoe_, he appears to have
been able to write vituperation to order. "I have only one favor to
desire of you at parting," he says, and it is "that when you think of
answering this poem, you would employ the same pens against it, who have
combated with so much success against _Absalom and Achitophel_; for then
you may assure yourselves of a clear victory, without the least reply."
Is it for the best that this forecast proved the right one?

[Footnote 11: e.g., over _The Empress of Morocco_; see Scott's
_Dryden_, XV, 397-413.]

For permission to reproduce their copies of texts comprising the present
reprint thanks are expressed to the University of Florida Library
(_Absalom Senior_) and to the Trustees of the British Museum (the other
two poems). The University of Leeds and the City of Manchester Public
Library are also thanked for leave to use contemporary marginalia in
each's copy of Settle's poem. The provenance of the latter two copies
of this piece is unknown; the first, now in the Brotherton Collection,
bears the name William Crisp on its last blank leaf and, in abbreviated
form, identifies some characters; the second, of unidentified ownership,
is fuller.

HAROLD WHITMORE JONES

_Liverpool, England

November_, 1959

TABLE OF ALLUSIONS

NAMES

The persons and places referred to in the allegories are identified
in the following lists of names. M ind