d ignoramus by the grand jury, at the Old Bailey,
November 1681: For which the Whig party made great rejoicings by ringing
of bells, bonfires, &c. in all parts of London. The poem is introduced
with a very satirical epistle to the Whigs, in which the author says,
'I have one favour to desire you at parting, 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.
Rail at me abundantly, and not break a custom to do it with wit. By this
method you will gain a considerable point, which is wholly to wave the
answer of my arguments. If God has not blessed you with the talent of
rhiming, make use of my poor stock and welcome; let your verses run upon
my feet, and for the utmost refuge of notorious blockheads, reduced to
the last extremity of sense, turn my own lines against me, and in utter
despair of my own satire, make me satirize myself.' The whole poem is a
severe invective against the earl of Shaftsbury; who was uncle to that
earl who wrote the Characteristics. Mr. Elkanah Settle wrote an answer
to this poem, entitled the Medal Reversed. However contemptible Settle
was as a poet, yet such was the prevalence of parties at that time,
that, for some years, he was Dryden's rival on the stage. In 1682 came
out his Religio Laici, or a Layman's Faith; this piece is intended as a
defence of revealed religion, and the excellency and authority of the
scriptures, as the only rule of faith and manners, against Deists,
Papists, and Presbyterians. He acquaints us in the preface, that it
was written for an ingenious young gentleman, his friend; upon his
translation of Father Simons's Critical History of the Old Testament,
and that the stile of it was epistolary.

In 1684 he published a translation of M. Maimbourg's. History of the
League, in which he was employed by the command of King Charles II. on
account of the plain parallel between the troubles of France, and those
of Great Britain. Upon the death of Charles II. he wrote his Threnodia
Augustalis, a Poem, sacred to the happy memory of that Prince. Soon
after the accession of James II. our author turned Roman Catholic, and
by this extraordinary step drew upon himself abundance of ridicule from
wits of the opposite faction; and in 1689 he wrote a Defence of the
Papers, written by the late King of blessed me