[Footnote 245: Hemlock.] [Footnote 246: _Quos Jupiter vult perdere, prius dementat._] [Footnote 247: The foolish fable of Mahomet accustoming a pigeon to pick peas from his ear, to found his pretensions to inspiration, is well known.] [Footnote 248: Gilbert Burnet, D. D. afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. See Note XXVII.] [Footnote 249: Note XXVIII.] [Footnote 250: Note XXIX.] [Footnote 251: Note XXX.] [Footnote 252: ----_timeo Danaos et dona ferentes._ Æneid, II. lib.] [Footnote 253: Note XXXI.] [Footnote 254: Note XXXII.] [Footnote 255: Note XXXIII.] [Footnote 256: The promise to maintain the church of England, made in James's first proclamation after his accession; and which the church party alleged he had now broken. Note XXXIV.] [Footnote 257: See note XXXIII.] [Footnote 258: Declaration of indulgence. Note XXXV.] [Footnote 259: Note XXXVI.] [Footnote 260: The tyrant of Syracuse, who, after being dethroned, taught a school at Corinth.] [Footnote 261: _Quisque suæ fortunæ faber._ SALLUST.] [Footnote 262: Note XXXVII.] [Footnote 263: Note XXXVIII.] NOTES ON THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. PART III. Note I. _And mother Hubbard, in her homely dress, Has sharply blamed a British Lioness; That queen, whose feast the factious rabble keep, Exposed obscenely naked, and asleep._--P. 197. The poet, in the beginning of this canto, anticipates the censure of those who might blame him for introducing into his fables animals not natives of Britain, where the scene was laid. He vindicates himself by the example of Æsop and Spenser. The latter, in "Mother Hubbard's Tale," exhibits at length the various arts by which, in his time, obscure and infamous characters rose to eminence in church and state. This is illustrated by the parable of an Ape and a Fox, who insinuate themselves into various situations, and play the knaves in all. At length, Lo, where they spied, how, in a gloomy glade, The Lion, sleeping, lay in secret shade; His crown and sceptre lying him beside, And having doft for heat his dreadful hide. The adventurers possess themselves of the royal spoils, with which the Ape is arrayed; who forthwith takes upon himself the dignity of the monarch of the beasts, and, by the counsels of the Fox, commits every species of oppression, until Jove, incensed at the disorders which his tyranny had introduced, sends Mercury to awaken the Lion from his slumber: Arise! said Mercury, thou sluggish beast, That here liest senseless, like the corpse deceast; The whilst thy kingdom from thy head is rent, And thy throne royal with dishonour blent.