10 Milton D. Baumgartner 



his numerous sons of the one most resembling him; the elimina- 

 tion of all the others, because a beam of wit escapes their souls 

 at times ; the ridiculous personal appearance of the heir ; the ac- 

 knowledgment by the king that he was sent to prepare the way for 

 his heir; the musical ability of the king and his heir; the tears of 

 joy shed in rapture over the hopeful son at the conclusion of the 

 first monologue ; the description of the environment and seat of 

 the crowning celebration ; the prophecy foretelling the reign of 

 the prince of ignorance in the playhouse ; the spreading of the 

 report of the crowning celebration through the town ; the detailed 

 account of the crowning celebration such as the arrival of a large 

 concourse of people, the carpeting of the way with the leaves of 

 the works of forgotten poets, the bodyguard composed of disap- 

 pointed publishers, captained by the publishers of Dryden and 

 Wernicke ; the cloud of dullness hovering over the heir as he sits 

 next to Rome's other hope ; the oath of office compared to that of 

 Hannibal ; the vow to maintain dullness in the realm until death ; 

 the anointment prepared by the king's own hands ; the crown of 

 flowers ; the omen of the owls compared with that of Romulus ; 

 the sire's prophecy of the expansion of the realm; the interruption 

 of the monologue by the "Amen" of the people ; the admonition to 

 increase in impudence and ignorance and to suffer " pangs without 

 birth in fruitless industry " ; to toil without wit ; to let others in 

 triumph tread the stage ; to sketch his fools and heroes in his own 

 image so that posterity might recognize them as his own issue ; to 

 trust nature and write naturally-dull ; the quotations and parodies 

 of the opponents, Shadwell and Postel ; the inoffensive satires of 

 the opponents ; the opponent's plays are only farces ; the admoni- 

 tions to practice anagrams and set their own songs to music : and 

 finally the disappearing of the declaiming bard through a trap 

 door, and the leaving behind of his robe to the new king with a 

 double blessing of his art. 



The two motives which Wernicke took from the other satires 

 of Dryden have already been referred to above. The first is from 

 the passage in Absolom and Achitophel (555-556), devoted to 

 satirizing Zimri (Buckingham). It acuses him of going to ex- 

 tremes in favorable criticism of friend and unfavorable of foe. 



298 



