AN

OPERA

_Discite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere divos._
VIRG.

ALBION AND ALBANIUS.

This opera, like the play which precedes it, had an avowed political
object. It was intended to celebrate the victory of the crown over its
opponents, or, as our author would have expressed it, of loyalty over
sedition and insurrection. The events, which followed the Restoration,
are rapidly, but obviously and distinctly, traced down to the death of
Charles, and the quiet accession of his brother, who, after all the
storms which had threatened to blast his prospects, found himself
enabled to mount the throne, with ease sufficient to encourage him to
the measures which precipitated him from that elevation. The leading
incidents of the busy and intriguing reign of Charles II. are
successively introduced in the following order. The city of London is
discovered occupied by the republicans and fanatics, depicted under
the allegorical personages Democracy and Zeal. General Monk, as
Archon, charms the factions to sleep, and the Restoration is
emblematized by the arrival of Charles, and the Duke of York, under
the names of Albion and Albanius. The second act opens with a council
of the fiends, where the popish plot is hatched, and Democracy and
Zeal are dismissed, to propagate it upon earth, with Oates, the famous
witness, in their train. The next entry presents Augusta, or London,
stung by a snake, to intimate the revival of the popular faction in
the metropolis. Democracy and Zeal, under the disguise of Patriotism
and Religion, insinuate themselves into the confidence of the city,
and are supposed to foment the parliamentary opposition, which, ending
on the bill of exclusion, rendered it necessary, that the Duke of York
should leave the kingdom. We have then, in allegorical representation,
the internal feuds of the parties, which, from different causes,
opposed the crown. The adherents of Monmouth, and the favourers of
republican tenets, are represented as disputing with each other, until
the latter, by the flight of Shaftesbury, obtains a final ascendancy.
In the mean while, Charles, or Albion, has recourse to the advice of
Proteus; under which emblem an evil minded whig might suppose Halifax,
and the party of Trimmers, to be represented; actuated by whose
versatile, and time-serving politics, Charles gave way