ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.—­Nothing which he had yet written is so true an index to the political history as his “Absalom and Achitophel,” which he published in 1681.  The history may be given in few words.  Charles II. had a natural son by an obscure woman named Lucy Walters.  This boy had been created Duke of Monmouth.  He was put forward by the designing Earl of Shaftesbury as the head of a faction, and as a rival to the Duke of York.  To ruin the Duke was their first object; and this they attempted by inflaming the people against his religion, which was Roman Catholic.  If they could thus have him and his heirs put out of the succession to the throne, Monmouth might be named heir apparent; and Shaftesbury hoped to be the power behind the throne.

Monmouth was weak, handsome, and vain, and was in truth a puppet in wicked hands; he was engaged in the Rye-house plot, and schemed not only against his uncle, but against the person of his father himself.  To satirize and expose these plots and plotters, Dryden (at the instance of the king, it is said,) wrote Absalom and Achitophel, in which are introduced, under Scripture names, many of the principal political characters of the day, from the king down to Titus Oates.  The number of the names is 61.  Charles is, of course, David, and Monmouth, the wayward son, is Absalom.  Shaftesbury is Achitophel, and Dr. Oates figures as Corah.  The Ethnic plot is the popish plot, and Gath is that land of exile where Charles so long resided.  Strong in his praise of David, the poet is discreet and delicate in his handling of Absalom; his instinct is as acute as that of Falstaff:  “Beware! instinct, the lion will not touch a true prince,” or touch him so gently that the lion at least will not suffer.  Thus, Monmouth is represented as

    Half loath, and half consenting to the ill,
    For royal blood within him struggled still;
    He thus replied:  “And what pretence have I
    To take up arms for public liberty? 
    My father governs with unquestioned right,
    The faith’s defender and mankind’s delight;
    Good, gracious, just, observant of the laws,
    And heaven by wonders has espoused his cause.”

But he may, and does, roundly rate Achitophel, who tempts with satanic seductions, and proves to the youth, from the Bible, his right to the succession, peaceably or forcibly obtained.  Among those who conspired with Monmouth were honest hearts seeking for the welfare of the realm.  Chief of these were Lord Russel and Sidney, of whom the latter was in favor of a commonwealth; and the former, only sought the exclusion of the Roman Catholic Duke of York, and the redress of grievances, but not the assassination or deposition of the king.  Both fell on the scaffold; but they have both been considered martyrs in the cause of civil liberty.

And here we must pause to say that in the literary structure, language, and rhythm of the poem, Dryden had made a great step toward that mastery of the rhymed pentameter couplet, which is one of his greatest claims to distinction.