the exclusion. He had also the boldness to republish his high
church tract in favour of the bishops' jurisdiction, with a whig
postscript tending to destroy his own arguments.--_Ath. Ox._ II, p.
728.
2. A tory paper, then conducted with great zeal, and some
controversial talent, by Sir Roger L'Estrange.
3. Alluding to the fate of Stephen College, the Protestant joiner; a
meddling, pragmatical fellow, who put himself so far forward in the
disputes at Oxford, as to draw down the vengeance of the court. He
was very harshly treated during his trial; and though in the toils,
and deprived of all assistance, defended himself with right English
manliness. He was charged with the ballad on page 6. and with
coming to Oxford armed to attack the guards. He said he did not
deny he had pistols in his holsters at Oxford; to which Jefferies
answered, indecently, but not unaptly, he "thought a chissel might
have been more proper for a joiner." Poor College was executed; a
vengeance unworthy of the king, who might have apostrophised him as
Hamlet does Polonius:
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell;
I took thee for thy betters--take thy fortune.
Thou findst, to be too busy is some danger.
4. Anthony Wood is followed by Mr Malone in supposing, that Hunt
himself is the Templar alluded to. But Dryden seems obviously to
talk of the author of the Defence, and the two Reflectors, as three
separate persons. He calls them, "the sputtering triumvirate, Mr
Hunt, and the two Reflectors;" and again, "What says my lord chief
baron (i.e. Hunt) to the business? What says the livery-man
Templar? What says Og, the king of Basan (i.e. Shadwell) to it?"
The Templar may be discovered, when we learn, who hired a
livery-gown to give a vote among the electors.
THE
VINDICATION
OF
THE DUKE OF GUISE.
In the year of his majesty's happy Restoration, the first play I
undertook was the "Duke of Guise;" as the fairest way, which the Act
of Indemnity had then left us, of setting forth the rise of the late
rebellion; and by exploding the villainies of it upon the stage, to
precaution posterity against the like errors.
As this was my first essay, so it met with the fortune of an
unfinished piece; that is to say, it was damned in p
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