nt to his
monarchial tenets, since North himself admits, that at the first
opening of the plot, the chiefs of the loyal party joined in the cry.
Indeed, that mysterious transaction had been investigated by none more
warmly than by Danby, the king's favourite minister, and a high
favourer of the prerogative. Even when writing Absalom and Achitophel,
our author by no means avows an absolute disbelief of the whole plot,
while condemning the extraordinary exaggerations, by which it had been
rendered the means of much bloodshed and persecution[3]. It seems,
therefore, fair to believe, that, without either betraying or
disguising his own principles, he chose, as a popular subject for the
drama, an attack upon an obnoxious priesthood, whom he, in common with
all the nation, believed to have been engaged in the darkest intrigues
against the king and government. I am afraid that this task was the
more pleasing, from that prejudice against the clergy, of all
countries and religions, which, as already noticed, our author
displays, in common with other wits of that licentious age[4]. The
character of the Spanish Friar was not, however, forgotten, when
Dryden became a convert to the Roman Catholic persuasion; and, in many
instances, as well as in that just quoted, it was assumed as the means
of fixing upon him a charge of inconsistency in politics, and
versatility in religion[5].

The tragic part of the "Spanish Friar" has uncommon merit. The opening
of the Drama, and the picture of a besieged town in the last
extremity, is deeply impressive, while the description of the noise of
the night attack, and the gradual manner in which the intelligence of
its success is communicated, arrests the attention, and prepares
expectation for the appearance of the hero, with all the splendour
which ought to attend the principal character in tragedy. The
subsequent progress of the plot is liable to a capital objection, from
the facility with which the queen, amiable and virtuous, as we are
bound to suppose her, consents to the murder of the old dethroned
monarch. We question if the operation of any motive, however powerful,
could have been pleaded with propriety, in apology for a breach of
theatrical decorum, so gross, and so unnatural. But, in fact, the
queen is only actuated by a sort of reflected ambition, a desire to
secure to her lover a crown, which she thought in danger; but which,
according to her own statement, she only valued on his acco