[Footnote 53: 'Beastly brace:' Duchess of Portsmouth and Nell Gwynn.] [Footnote 54: 'Earnely:' Sir John Earnely, one of the lords of the treasury.] [Footnote 55: 'Aylesbury:' Robert, the first Earl of Aylesbury.] [Footnote 56: 'Danby:' Thomas, Earl of Danby, lord high-treasurer of England.] [Footnote 57: 'Merriest man alive:' Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury.] [Footnote 58: 'Nokes and Lee:' two celebrated comedians in Charles II.'s reign.] [Footnote 59: 'New earl:' Earl of Essex.] [Footnote 60: 'Tropos:' Sir William Scroggs. See Macaulay.] [Footnote 61: 'Ned Howard:' Edward Howard, Esq., a dull writer. See Butler's works.] [Footnote 62: 'Sid:' brother to Algernon Sidney.] [Footnote 63: 'Hewet and Jack Hall:' courtiers of the day.] [Footnote 64: 'Killigrew:' Thomas Killigrew, many years master of the revels, and groom of the chamber to King Charles II.] [Footnote 65: 'Bessus:' a remarkable cowardly character in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of 'A King and no King.'] * * * * * ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.[66] TO THE READER. It is not my intention to make an apology for my poem: some will think it needs no excuse, and others will receive none. The design I am sure is honest: but he who draws his pen for one party, must expect to make enemies of the other. For wit and fool are consequence of Whig and Tory; and every man is a knave or an ass to the contrary side. There is a treasury of merits in the Fanatic church, as well as in the Popish; and a pennyworth to be had of saintship, honesty, and poetry, for the lewd, the factious, and the blockheads: but the longest chapter in Deuteronomy has not curses enough for an Anti-Bromingham. My comfort is, their manifest prejudice to my cause will render their judgment of less authority against me. Yet if a poem have genius, it will force its own reception in the world. For there is a sweetness in good verse, which tickles even while it hurts; and no man can be heartily angry with him who pleases him against his will. The commendation of adversaries is the greatest triumph of a writer, because it never comes unless extorted. But I can be satisfied on more easy terms: if I happen to please the more moderate sort, I shall be sure of an honest party, and, in all probability, of the best judges; for the least concerned are commonly the least corrupt. And I confess I have laid in for those, by rebating the satire (where justice would allow it), from carrying too sharp an edge. They who can criticise so weakly as to imagine I have done my worst, may be convinced, at their own cost, that I can write severely, with more ease than I can gently. I have but laughed at some men's follies, when I could have declaimed against their vices; and other men's virtues I have commended, as freely as I have taxed their crimes. And now, if you are a malicious reader, I expect you should return upon me that I affect to be thought more impartial than I am. But