[_Rupertismus_] '_To P. Rupert_' in the _1647_ texts (Bodley and Case copies). The odd title _Rupertismus_ was first given in _1651_. This poem expresses the earlier and more sanguine Cavalier temper, when things on the whole went well. Rupert's admirable quality as an officer naturally made him a sort of Cavalier cynosure and (with his being half a foreigner) a bugbear to the Roundheads; while neither party had yet found out his fatal defects as a general. Hence 'Rupertismus' not ill described the humour of both sides. The dog who figures so largely was a real dog (said of course to be a familiar spirit), and Professor Firth tells me that he has a pamphlet (1642) entitled _Observations upon P. R.'s white dog called Boy, carefully taken by T. B._, with a picture of the animal. It was replied to by _The Parliament's Unspotted Bitch_ next year.] [Lines: 1, 2 The 'legislative knack' to vote oneself everything good and perfect has always been a gift of Houses of Commons. It was rather shrewd of Cleveland to formulate it so early and so well.] [Line: 4 Bannerets being properly dubbed on the field of battle. 'Adventure' _1677_: 'Adventures' _1647_, _1651_, _1687_: 'adventurers' _1653_ and its group.] [Line: 5 Cacus' trick] of dragging his cattle by the tails.] [Line: 7 spirit] A word their abuse of which was constantly thrown in the face of the Puritans till Swift's thrice rectified vitriol almost destroyed the abuse itself.] [Line: 8 malignant] in the technical Roundhead sense.] [Line: 9 The gibe at Huntingdon, clear enough from the passage, is one of many old local insults. I can remember when it was a little unsafe, in one of the Channel islands, to speak of a donkey. This particular jest recurs in Pepys (May 22, 1677), who was in a way a Huntingdon man.] [Line: 11 Elsing] Clerk to the House of Commons.] [Line: 13 'thus' _1677_: 'but' _1647_ and the earlier texts. write] _1653_, 'right'--evidently one of the numerous mistakes due to dictating copy.] [Line: 14 '_The_ Prince' was a title which Rupert monopolized early and kept till his death.] [Line: 15 'these' _1677_: 'the' _1647_, _1651_, _1653_, _1687_.] [Line: 20 _1677_ 'th' equitable'.] [Line: 24 The rhyme of '-cles' to an _ee_ syllable occurs in Dryden.] [Line: 31 'Who' _1653_ and its group.] [Line: 35 Carthage. Rupert's devotion to ladies was lifelong.] [Line: 39 'White' or noiseless powder was a constant object of research.] [Line: 45 Essex was _twice_ divorced on the ground mentioned, and his efficiency in the field was not to be much greater than that in the chamber.] [Line: 53 _1677_, &c., '_his_ barren theme'.] [Line: 65 _1654_ 'faculty'. _1677_ 'Reason Queen'. I am not sure which is right.]