The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 17Dryden, John
General
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 17
Dryden, John
English literature
My author makes mention of another conspiracy against Henry IV., for
the seizing of his person at Mante, by the young Cardinal of Bourbon,
who was head of the third party, called at that time the Politics, that
is to say, in modern English, Trimmers. This, too, was a limb of our
conspiracy; and the more moderate party of our traitors were engaged in
it.[37] But had it taken effect, the least it could have produced, was
to have overthrown the succession; and no reasonable man would believe,
but they who could forget their duty so much as to have seized the king,
might afterwards have been induced to have him made away, especially when
so fair a provision was made by the House of Commons, that the Papists
were to suffer for it.
But they have not only rummaged the French histories of the League for
conspiracies and parricides of kings; I shall make it apparent, that
they have studied those execrable times, for precedents of undermining
the lawful authority of their sovereigns. Our English are not generally
commended for invention; but these were merchants of small wares, very
pedlers in policy; they must like our tailors, have all their fashions
from the French, and study the French League for every alteration, as our
snippers go over once a year into France, to bring back the newest mode,
and to learn to cut and shape it.
For example: The first estates convened at Blois by Henry III. (the
League being then on foot, and most of the three orders dipped in it,)
demanded of that king, that the articles which should be approved by the
three orders should pass for inviolable laws, without leaving to the king
the power of changing any thing in them. That the same was designed here
by the leading men of their faction, is obvious to every one: for they
had it commonly in their mouths in ordinary discourse; and it was offered
in print by Plato Redivivus,[38] as a good expedient for the nation, in
case his Majesty would have consented to it.
Both in the first and last estates at Blois, the bill of exclusion
against the King of Navarre was pressed; and in the last carried by all
the three orders, though the king would never pass it. The end of that
bill was very evident; it was to have introduced the Duke of Guise into
the throne, after the king’s decease: to which he had no manner of title,
or at least a very cracked one, of which his own party were ashamed. Our
bill of exclusion was copied from hence; but thrown out by the House of
Peers, before it came to the king’s turn to have wholly quashed it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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