isputably Best.
_text reads "indsputably"_
This final Resolution made, at last
_line printed after break, but not indented_
But t'Heavens Vice-gerents, Soul, Sense, Reason, all,
_the word "vice-gerent" occurs twice_
Why did not th'Oaths of his once-great Colleagues,
_apostrophe missing_
Th'Embroiderd Mantle from his Neck he threw.
_apostrophe missing_
By profane Crowds in dirt his Prophets spurn'd,
_apostrophe invisible_ ]

* * * * *

Poetical Reflections
on a Late

POEM

Entituled,
Absalom and Achitophel.

_By a Person of Honour._

[Decoration]

_LONDON:_
Printed for _Richard Janeway_. 1681.

TO THE READER.

If ever anything, call'd a _Poem_, deserv'd a severe Reflection, that
of _Absalom_ and _Achitophel_ may justly contract it. For tho' Lines
can never be purg'd from the dross and filth they would throw on others
(there being no retraction that can expiate the conveying of persons to
an unjust and publick reproach); yet the cleansing of their fames from a
design'd pollution, may well become a more ingenious Pen than the Author
of these few reflections will presume to challenge.

To epitomize which scandalous Phamphlet (unworthy the denomination of
_Poesy_) no eye can inspect it without a prodigious amazement; the
abuses being so gross and deliberate, that it seems rather a Capital
or National Libel, than personal exposures, in order to an infamous
detraction. For how does he character the King, but as a broad figure
of scandalous inclinations, or contriv'd unto such irregularities,
as renders him rather the property of Parasites and Vice, than suitable
to the accomplishment of so excellent a Prince? Nay, he forces on King
_David_ such a Royal resemblance, that he darkens his sanctity in spite
of illuminations from Holy Writ.

Next (to take as near our King as he could) he calumniates the Duke
of _Monmouth_ with that height of impudence, that his Sense is far
blacker than his Ink, exposing him to all the censures that a Murderer,
a Traytor, or what a Subject of most ambitious evil can possibly
comprehend: and it is some wonder, that his Lines also had not hang'd
him on a Tree, to make the intended _Absalom_ more compleat.

As to my Lord _Shaftsbury_ (in his collusive _Achitophel_), what