"_Earnest._ Silly chit! has he not learned the apologue of the Serpent and the File? But fare him well."--_Heraclitus Redens_, No. 50. From the last part of this passage, it appears that Settle was then labouring upon his answer to "Absalom and Achitophel," for which Dryden condemned him to a disgraceful immortality. At length he came forth with "Absalom Senior, or Achitophel Transprosed."[431] In this piece Dryden's plan is followed, by applying the names and history of scripture to modern persons and events. Thus, Queen Elizabeth is Deborah, and Sir Francis Drake, Barak; the Papists are the worshippers of Baal, and the Duke of York is Absalom. This circumstance did not escape the wit of Dryden, who says of Settle, in the text, For almonds he'll cry whore to his own mother, Or call young Absalom King David's brother. Indeed, Elkanah seems himself to have been sensible of the absurdity of this personification, by which the king's brother, almost as old as himself, was converted into the blooming son of David; and apologizes, in his preface addressed to the Tories, for "the freedom of clapping but about a score of years extraordinary on the back of Absalom. Neither is it," he continues, "altogether so unpardonable a poetical licence; since we find as great slips from the author of your own 'Absalom,' where we see him bring in a Zimri into the court of David, who, in the scripture story, died by the hand of Phineas, in the days of Moses.[432] Nay, in the other extreme, we find him, in another place, talking of the martyrdom of Stephen, so many ages after; and, if so famous an author can forget his own rules of unity, time, and place, I hope you'll give a minor poet some grains of allowance." Sir E. Godfrey's murder is disguised under that of Amnon, Tamar's rape being explained the discovery of the plot: Baal's cabinet intrigues he open spread; The ravish'd Tamar, for whose sake he bled. As Settle's poems have long fallen into total oblivion, from which his name has only been rescued by the satirical pen of Dryden, and as he was once thought no unequal rival for that great poet, the reader may be curious to see a specimen of his style; I have therefore inserted the few of the leading characters of "Absalom Senior," in which he has "rhymed and rattled" with most tolerable success. DUKE OF MONMOUTH. In the first rank the youthful Ithream stood, His princely veins filled with great David's blood; With so much manly beauty in his face, Scarce his high birth could lend a nobler grace; And for a mind fit for this shrine of gold, Heaven cast his soul in the same beauteous mould, With all the sweets of prideless greatness blest, And affable as Abraham's angel guest. SHAFTESBURY. That second Moses' guide resolved to free Our Israel from her threatening slavery; Idolatry and chains, both from the rods Of Pharaoh masters and Egyptian gods.