Panegyric and Satire
In Astraea Redux and Threnodia Augustalis Dryden boldly adopts innovations in order to conserve a tradition. The heroic forms pioneered by Waller and Cowley are modified by Dryden to serve the oratorical functions of traditional panegyric. During the same period, from 1660 to 1688, however, the reverse is also true. Dryden adopts the tradition of panegyric in order to perfect three of the most innovative poems of the seventeenth century. Specifically, Dryden incorporates panegyrical oratory into the design of his own heroic or quasi-heroic poems, Mac Flecknoe, Absalom and Achitophel, and The Hind and the Panther .
At crucial moments in each of these poems, the themes and values of Dryden's satire are defined by panegyrical oratory. This is evident in Fleckno's orations, lines 29-59 and 139–210 of Mac Flecknoe, in Achitophel's first address to Absalom, lines 230–302 of Absalom and Achitophel, and in the speech of the pigeon "more mature in Folly than the rest," lines 1108–1140 of The Hind and the Panther, part 5. In each of these instances Dry-
den unites deliberative and demonstrative oratory for satiric purposes. What these speeches reveal, in sum, is that Dryden's major satires depend in part on the conventions of panegyric.
Earl Miner has described Mac Flecknoe as " 'mock-heroic,' if the term may be applied beyond its strict generic meaning to include as well ironic versions of panegyric, of coronation, and of religion."[32] Although a variety of other influences have been discovered to bear on the poem, the metaphor linking the kingdoms of poetry and state does suggest an ironic version of panegyric.[33] Dryden ironically adopts panegyrical conventions for three basic purposes: (1) to establish the overall pattern of the poem, the movement from empire to exile, (2) to develop the two major "scenes" of the poem, procession and coronation, and most significantly, (5) to provide the topics for Fleckno's two orations, the first demonstrative and the second deliberative.
The progress of dullness in Mac Flecknoe reverses the direction of the royal progress described, for example, in Astraea Redux . In serious panegyric the movement is traditionally from absence or exile to return; Astraea Redux begins with the suffering of Charles the exile and concludes with the return and triumph of Charles the king.
Oh Happy Age! Oh times like those alone
By Fate reservd for Great Augustus Throne!
[32] Earl Miner, Dryden's Poetry (Bloomington, Ind., and London, 1968), p. 89. My own discussion of Mac Flecknoe has benefited significantly from chapter 5 of Professor Miner's book.
[33] For the other influences on the poem, see H. T. Swedenberg's notes to the poem in the California Dryden, II, 299–327.
When the joint growth of Armes and Arts foreshew
The World a Monarch,CH:160>and that Monarch You.[34]
The last lines of this heroic panegyric thus anticipate the famous first lines of Dryden's mock-heroic panegyric.
All humane things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, Monarchs must obey :
This Fleckno found, who, like Augustus, young
Was call'd to Empire, and had govern'd long . . .[35]
The important words "Fate," "Augustus " and "Monarch(s)," which the passages have in common, function in both poems to create a classic image of the golden age. The difference, of course, is that Astraea Redux is about restoration, whereas Mac Flecknoe is about "decay." By the end of the poem we find Shadwell exiled to a literary Elba, "Some peacefull Province in Acrostick Land" (206); the once great "Empire" is ultimately reduced to "one poor word" (208). Prophetically extending this exile indefinitely into the future, Fleckno modifies the two Indies topos to show the extent of his son's rule over the domains of nothingness. "Heavens bless my Son, from Ireland let him reign / To farr Barbadoes on the Western main . . ." (139–140).
Within this general pattern, Dryden concentrates on two familiar ceremonies, procession and coronation. In serious panegyric the processional topos expresses the idea of national reconciliation, as men and women, old and young, people and nobles unite in consent to the rule of the monarch. In Mac Flecknoe, too, the procession attracts the "Nations" (96), but this potentially human
[34] Astraea Redux, 320–323.
[35] Mac Flecknoe, 1–4, Poems, I, 265.
audience is reduced (in almost Swiftian fashion) to a pile of books, papers, and excrement.
No Persian Carpets spread th' Imperial way,
But scatter'd Limbs of mangled Poets lay :
From dusty shops neglected Authors come,
Martyrs of Pies, and Reliques of the Bum .
Much Heywood, Shirly, Ogleby there lay,
But loads of Sh—— almost choakt the way .
Bilk't Stationers for Yeomen stood prepar'd,
And H——was Captain of the Guard . (98–105)
This scene, cluttered with the works of dull authors, is a direct reflection of the poem's hero: "But loads of Sh —— almost choakt the way." Only at the very end of this passage does humanity reappear to set the stage for the second ceremony, coronation. In serious panegyric coronation signifies the union of ceremony and power, sometimes (as in To His Sacred Majesty ) expressed as a union of church and state. In Mac Flecknoe the two worlds of panegyric are united in the figure of Fleckno, the modern jack-of-all-trades, who bequeathes his virtues to the new monarch. "The King himself the sacred Unction made, / As King by Office, and as Priest by Trade" (119–120). Within the overall movement from empire to exile, the ironic versions of traditional ceremonies—procession and coronation—separate Fleckno's two orations, confirming the demonstration of the first and anticipating the deliberation of the second.
The function of the first oration, placed before the ceremonies, is to elevate the man into a monarch. A demonstrative oration, the topics of praise demonstrate Shadwell's qualifications for the monarchy of dullness. This elevation through praise naturally includes inver-
sions of conventional topics. For obvious example, instead of le roi soleil, Fleckno's speech presents le roi brouillard .
Some Beams of Wit on other souls may fall,
Strike through and make a lucid intervall;
But Sh—'s genuine night admits no ray,
His rising Fogs prevail upon the Day . . .(21–24)
The core of the first speech, however, is the extended but obscure allusion to Shadwell as some kind of royal bandmaster.
My warbling Lute, the Lute I whilom strung
When to King John of Portugal I sung,
Was but the prelude to that glorious day,
When thou on silver Thames did'st cut thy way,
With well tim'd Oars before the Royal Barge,
Swell'd with the Pride of thy Celestial charge ;
And big with Hymn, Commander of an Host,
The like was ne'er in Epsom Blankets tost .
Methinks I see the new Arion Sail,
The Lute still trembling underneath thy nail .
At thy well sharpned thumb from Shore to Shore
The Treble squeaks for fear, the Bases roar :
Echoes from Pissing-Ally, Sh— call,
And Sh— they resound from A— Hall. (55–48)
Although the biographical reference has never been discovered, the literary background of the passage has been identified as Waller's heroic panegyric on the king's escape at Santander.[36] In Waller's poem, however, Arion sings "of our Albion kings," and although this is presumably Shadwell's task as well, the name that "Echoes from Pissing-Ally " to "A——Hall " is the poet's own. Shadwell, apparently, sings only of Shadwell. Beyond
[36] See Kinsley, IV, 1916.
foggy stupidity and benighted somnolence, the essential qualification for monarchy in this poem is solipsism. The importance of the echo motif is confirmed by the ensuing processional ceremony where Shadwell's solipsism is revealed in the mirror figure, Shadwell reflected in the "loads of Sh——" that line the way of his procession.
The second speech, which follows both procession and coronation, is patently designed to instruct the newly crowned monarch. A deliberative speech, it takes the common form of a father educating his son. The initial rhetorical pattern of the speech resembles Theodosius's speech to Honorius in Claudian's Panegyricus De Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augusti . Theodosius begins by making a distinction between the empires of the east and the Roman empire, thereby offering his son a prescription for rule based on a Roman tradition:
altera Romanae longe rectoribus aulae
candicio. virtute decet, non sanguine niti .[37]
Very different is the state of Rome's emperor. 'Tis merit, not blood, must be his support.
Fleckno, similarly, establishes a contrast between the empires of wit and dullness, and delivers his own prescription for rule on the basis of this contrast. "Success let others teach, learn thou from me / Pangs without birth, and fruitless Industry" (147–148). He expands this contrast by naming various English writers as exempla, Jonson and Etherege from the empire of wit, himself and Ogilby from the realm of dullness. Just as Trajan and Theodosius are the instructive models for Honori-
[37] Claudian, IV Cons ., 219–220.
us's rule of Rome, so Ogilby and Fleckno are the models for Shadwell's rule over the realms of nonsense.
The balance of the speech is concerned specifically with Shadwell's education as the ruler of dullness in drama, but by the conclusion Fleckno is actually advising Shadwell to quit the stage altogether.
Thy Genius calls thee not to purchase fame
In keen Iambicks, but mild Anagram:
Leave writing Plays, and chuse for thy command
Some peacefull Province in Acrostick Land . (203–206)
Advice to the prince becomes advice to the exile, as the second speech undercuts the first one. The solipsism of Shadwell revealed earlier is punctured by this final revelation of his true insignificance. The two orations are entirely contradictory; the first elevates Shadwell to the throne, whereas the second admonishes him to go into eternal exile. Satirically these two orations thus complement each other perfectly to create a unified impression of Shadwell as a puffed-up nonentity.
By separating the demonstrative and deliberative functions of panegyric and then ironically playing them off against each other, Dryden first creates and then negates the hero of the poem.[38] There is, moreover, no doubt that Shadwell is indeed a hero as well as a monarch. The famous allusions to the gospel and to Vergil which satirically define Shadwell's mock-heroic stature are staples of English panegyric. Comparisons that appear ridiculous or even blasphemous in the context of Mac Flecknoe are taken very seriously in Astraea Redux, for example, where Charles is both Christ and Aeneas. In the satire,
[38] See Miner's discussion, Dryden's Poetry, 77–105.
Fleckno and Shadwell are first compared to John the Baptist and Christ and later to Aeneas and Ascanius. This means that Shadwell himself emerges as Christ and Ascanius rather than as Christ and Aeneas. The reason for this small shift from convention is evident enough, for Shadwell is consistently portrayed as the "filial dullness" (136), as Mac Flecknoe, as Christ the son, and logically then as Ascanius.
The hoary Prince in Majesty appear'd,
High on a Throne of his own Labours rear'd .
At his right hand our young Ascanius sate
Rome's other hope, and pillar of the State . (106–109)
But Dryden also had a Latin precedent on his side in sustaining the comparison between the young Ascanius and "the hopefull boy" (61) of Mac Flecknoe . Claudian in his panegyric on Honorius's fourth consulship, had seriously developed the same comparison to celebrate the young emperor.
ventura potestas
claruit Ascanio, subita cum luce comarum
innocuus flagraret apex Phrygioque volutus
vertice fatalis redimiret tempora candor.
at tua caelestes inlustrant omina flammae .(192–196)
Clear was the prophecy of Ascanius' coming power when an aureole crowned his locks, yet harmed them not, and when the fires of fate encircled his head and played about his temples. Thy future the very fires of heaven foretell.
The image here of the light crowning the boy's head, adapted from the Aeneid (II, 682–684), is also suggested somewhat more obliquely in Mac Flecknoe . "His Brows thick fogs, instead of glories, grace, / And lambent dullness plaid arround his face" (110–111). Although the
word "lambent" in particular suggests that Dryden had Vergil's line 684 ("lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci") directly in mind, the context of Dryden's allusion closely parallels that in Claudian.
In Mac Flecknoe —and specifically in its heroic allusions, its combination of demonstrative and deliberative oratory, and its metaphoric occasion—we can perceive the conventions and defining characteristics of the genre that Dryden had adopted for his serious public poetry. The central irony of the poem, moreover, is derived from the central concern of poems like Astraea Redux : the use and abuse of power. Mac Flecknoe is finally a mock-heroic panegyric because it celebrates impotence rather than power. Dull poets are powerless poets, and this category includes both father and son.
Like mine thy gentle numbers feebly creep,
Thy Tragick Muse gives smiles, thy Comick sleep.
With whate'er gall thou sett'st thy self to write,
Thy inoffensive Satyrs never bite.
In thy fellonious heart, though Venom lies,
It does but touch thy Irish pen, and dyes . (197–202)
In Absalom and Achitophel, on the other hand, we have a struggle between father and son for real political power, and power is the subject of Achitophel's first speech. This oration represents a second and far more menacing combination of demonstrative and deliberative oratory because it attempts to make incipient usurpation the new occasion for panegyric. Fleckno as orator is no threat to anyone. Achitophel as orator, however, is a very serious threat to the whole nation.
Bernard Schilling has emphasized the importance of
eloquence in Absalom and Achitophel and, like others before him, has been explicit in pointing out the Miltonic influence on Achitophel's first speech.[39] But Achitophel's oratory should not be dismissed as a "temptation speech." It is that, but it is more than that, for the temptation is cast in the form of panegyric. The speech combines the elements of demonstrative and deliberative oratory; the first fourteen lines (230–243) are pure praise, while the rest of the speech (244–302) is Achitophel's advice to the would-be ruler.
The orator crowds into the demonstrative opening several of the most characteristic topics of panegyric.
Auspicious Prince! at whose Nativity
Some Royal Planet rul'd the Southern sky;
Thy longing Countries Darling and Desire;
Their cloudy Pillar, and their guardian Fire:
Their second Moses, whose extended Wand
Divides the Seas, and shews the promis'd Land:
Whose dawning Day, in every distant age,
Has exercis'd the Sacred Prophets rage:
The Peoples Prayer, the glad Deviners Theam,
The Young-mens Vision, and the Old mens Dream!
Thee, Saviour, Thee, the Nations Vows confess;
And, never satisfi'd with seeing, bless:
Swift, unbespoken Pomps, thy steps proclaim,
And stammerring Babes are taught to lisp thy Name . (230–243)
[39] Bernard Schilling, Dryden and the Conservative Myth: A Reading of Absalom and Achitophel (New Haven and London, 1961), p. 45–65, 195–199. Although he does not deal specifically with Dryden's panegyrics. Schilling indirectly illuminates them through his discussion of Absalom and Achitophel . I am indebted to him generally for his discussion of the law, pp. 146–153, and particularly for his emphasis on the "cause"/"laws" rhyme in the poem, pp. 151–152.
The first couplet, and especially the first word, of the speech establish the optimistic orientation of the genre and echo a host of earlier poems. Claudian, for classical example, opens his panegyric on Honorius's fourth consulship :
Auspiciis iterum sese regalibus annus
induit et nota fruitur iactantior aula . (1–2)
Once more the year opens under royal auspices and enjoys in fuller pride its famous prince . . .
In the Renaissance Thomas More views the outset of Henry's reign in similar terms.
Rex init auspiciis regna Britanna bonis.[40]
The king undertakes amid happy auspices the rule of Britain.
In his Restoration panegyric Abraham Cowley uses the word "auspicious" in conjunction with a reference to Charles's nativity star.
Auspicious Star again arise,
And take thy Noon-tide station in the skies,
Again all Heaven prodigiously adorn ;
For loe! thy Charles again is Born.[41]
Later Dryden himself was to extract significance from the position of the sun at the birth of Prince James, the "Auspicious Heir" and the "auspicious Infant."[42] In short, Achitophel is giving Absalom conventional, even exaggerated, treatment by locating the "auspicious"
[40] Thomas More, Carmen Gratulatorium, line 42, The Latin Epigrams of Thomas More, ed. and trans. Leicester Bradner and Charles Arthur Lynch (Chicago, 1953), p. 17.
[41] Cowley, Ode Upon His Majesties Restoration and Return, 20–23.
[42] Britannia Rediviva, 17, 321, Poems, II, 541, 550.
planetary sign that ruled his birth and forecast his reign. The irony is that Absalom's birth was anything but "auspicious." It is precisely because he is a bastard that he has no right to the throne. The first couplet of Achitophel's oration thus gives us a clue to the whole; the speech begins with a topos that is true to tradition, but entirely false to the occasion and the man.
From this starting point Achitophel multiplies demonstrative topics in line after line. Absalom becomes Moses, the sun, the answer to national prayers, the savior who unites the people in celebration, "The Young-mens Vision, and the Old mens Dream!" In this panegyric, however, the traditional praise of the new prince as redeemer is effectively negated by the poem's Biblical context. It is obvious that Absalom is not the "second Moses " is not the "Saviour," as Jesus is Christ, the true messiah. Allegorically, moreover, Shaftesbury's praise of Monmouth is refuted by Dryden's own praise of Charles II, the true king. In Astraea Redux Dryden had already compared Charles to both Moses and Christ: "Thus when th' Almighty would to Moses give" (262); "The Prince of Peace would like himself confer" (139). If, in Biblical history Absalom is not Jesus, in English history Monmouth is not Charles. In this speech Dryden places panegyrical conventions in the mouth of Achitophel to illuminate the false premise on which both the speech and the plot are based: that the bastard should be king.
Dryden provides ample authority for viewing this passage of Absalom and Achitophel in light of earlier panegyrics and especially in light of his own Astraea Redux . Later in the speech, after he has shifted from demonstrative to deliberative oratory, Achitophel describes the Res-
toration in terms that demand comparison with Dryden's first Stuart panegyric.
He is not now, as when on Jordan's Sand
The Joyfull People throng'd to see him Land,
Cov'ring the Beach, and blackning all the Strand:
But, like the Prince of Angels from his height,
Comes tumbling downward with diminish'd light ;
Betray'd by one poor Plot to publick Scorn,
(Our only blessing since his Curst Return :)
Those heaps of People which one Sheaf did bind,
Blown off and scatter'd by a puff of Wind . (270–278)
What had been described as the "white" clothing of penitence in 1660 is now dyed black. The Restoration has become the King's "curst Return," as Achitophel repeals the "blessings" of 1660 and appropriates the word "blessing" to describe the "Plot." In this process of inversion, Charles, the Christ of the earlier poem, here becomes Lucifer; the political world of Astraea Redux, defined in the traditional terms of panegyric, is turned upside down to make the usurper Christ and the legitimate monarch Satan.
In his revision of Astraea Redux, however, Achitophel does more than simply change the metaphoric identifications. He also changes the theory of history on which the earlier poem is based. It should be recalled that the Restoration was achieved, according to Dryden, by "delay." " 'Twas not the hasty product of a day, / But the well ripened fruit of wise delay" (169–170). Achitophel adapts the imagery of ripeness to convey a very different moral. "Believe me, Royal Youth, thy Fruit must be, / Or gather'd Ripe, or rot upon the Tree" (250–251). This
image defines the theory of history that is adduced to justify Absalom's usurpation.
Heav'n, has to all allotted, soon or late,
Some lucky Revolution of their Fate:
Whose Motions, if we watch and guide with Skill,
(For humane Good depends on humane Will,)
Our Fortune rolls, as from a smooth Descent,
And, from the first Impression, takes the Bent:
But, if unseiz'd, she glides away like wind;
And leaves repenting Folly far behind, (252–259)
The providential order restored in Astraea Redux is now replaced by a man-centered idea of history based on "humane Will" and expressed by human action. "Now, now she meets you, with a glorious prize, / And spreads her Locks before her as she flies" (260–261). Urging Absalom to act, Achitophel repeats one of the catchwords of panegyric, only "now" is no longer the occasion for restoration but has become instead the occasion for usurpation.[43] To follow Achitophel's advice is to follow the
[43] "Now" or the Latin nunc often initiates the demonstrative theme of restoration. Erasmus's verse panegyric to Philip includes the line, "Nunc nunc videor mihi reddita demum." Gratulatorium Carmen, line 7, The Poems of Desiderius Erasmus, ed. C. Reedijk (Leiden, 1956), p. 273. Thomas More echoes Erasmus in lines 21–26 of his Carmen Gratulatorium to Henry VIII, where the word nunc is repeated three times. The opening words of Ammonius's poem on the same occasion are "Nunc, nunc. . . ," Elegia De Obitu Regis Henrici VII Et Felici Successione Henrici Octavi, line 1, Andreae Ammonii Carmina Omnia, ed. Clemente Pizzi (Florence, 1958). In Haddon's poem to Elizabeth, nunc introduces the characteristic weather imagery which defines the theme of restoration:"Nunc Zephyrus mollis iucundas commovet auras, / Anglia vere novo nunc recreata viret." In auspicatissimum, lines 13–14, The Poetry of Walter Haddon, ed. Charles J. Lees (The Hague, 1967), p. 169."Now" emphatically introduces the demonstrative theme in the English panegyrics of Daniel, Jonson, Cowley, and Waller. It appears in the first stanza of the panegyrics by Daniel and Cowley (Ode Upon His Majesties Restoration and Return ) and in the first line of those by Jonson and Waller (Of the Danger His Majesty . . . Escaped in the Road at Saint Andrews ). Moreover, in Astraea Redux Dryden implicitly contrasts the "Now" that is the first word of the poem to the "now" that initiates the concluding prophecy. Although its significance varies somewhat from poem to poem, the emphatic recurrence of this word suggests the historical perspective of panegyric. "Now" is the fulcrum on which history turns, as evil gives way to good, usurpation to restoration. Achitophel reverses this historical pattern and makes the "now" in his oration a time for usurpation.
self-defeating course of Charles X, Sforza, and the Puritan revolutionaries.
If Absalom does pick the fruit, as Achitophel advises, then he falls as Adam fell. Dryden leaves no room for doubt on this score, for Achitophel is modeled partially on Milton's Satan. By defining the ethos of the panegyrist in Satanic terms, Dryden exposes Achitophel's perversion of one of the conventional patterns of Renaissance panegyric: paradise lost in usurpation and regained in restoration. Achitophel perverts panegyric from its traditional function of celebrating redemption to that of encouraging the fall. In political terms, the orator invites the would-be monarch to place his "cause" above the "laws," to become king by violating the institution of kingship.
Achitophel's panegyric does, then, function as a temptation speech and the bauble that tempts Absalom is power.
What may not Israel hope, and what Applause
Might such a General gain by such a Cause?
Not barren Praise alone, that Gaudy flower,
Fair only to the sight, but solid Power:
And Nobler is a limited Command,
Giv'n by the Love of all your Native Land,
Than a Successive Title, Long, and Dark,
Drawn from the Mouldy Rolls of Noah's Ark .(295–302)
Here the orator concentrates on the fundamental concern of panegyric: "Not barren Praise alone . . ./ . . .but solid Power." Like many a panegyrist before him, Achitophel insists on the ideal of "a limited Command" ensured by "the Love of all your Native Land." He thus ingeniously and outrageously works his inverted, perverted panegyric around to the traditional theme of limitation. The ideal of "a limited Command" is traditional and unobjectionable. What this rhetoric ignores, however, is that this ideal has already been realized in the person of David, a fact which Absalom himself confirms.
My Father Governs with unquestion'd Right,
The Faiths Defender, and Mankinds Delight:
Good, Gracious, Just, observant of the Laws;
And Heav'n by Wonders has Espous'd his Cause .(317–320)
The "cause"/"laws" rhyme here recalls the limitations placed on the king in Astraea Redux . "Your Pow'r to Justice doth submit your Cause, / Your Goodness only is above the Laws" (266–267). As monarchical power is already limited by the law, the ideal of a limited command is an insufficient argument for "innovation." The real issue is not limitation, but simply power.
Desire of Power, on Earth a Vitious Weed,
Yet, sprung from High, is of Caelestial Seed:
In God 'tis Glory: And when men Aspire,
'Tis but a Spark too much of Heavenly Fire .(305–308)
In these lines, softened to exculpate Absalom, Dryden calls on divine authority to refute the Satanic argument. Power is derived from God, not from men. A more complete answer to Achitophel's argument is permanently embodied in Dryden's serious panegyrics, of which this speech is a clever but self-evident mockery.
Later in the poem, after completing his gallery of rebel portraits, Dryden lists the names of those who resisted rebellion. "These were the chief, a small but faithful Band / Of Worthies, in the Breach who dar'd to stand" (914–915). By identifying himself with this "small but faithful Band" Dryden foreshadows the demise of his political constituency that occurs after 1688. Even more indicative of Dryden's changing relationship with his national audience, however, is The Hind and the Panther . The speech of the pigeon "more mature in Folly than the rest" (III, 1108–1140), Dryden's third satiric combination of demonstrative and deliberative oratory, indirectly suggests the increasing futility of Dryden's serious attempts at persuasive oratory.
The alternating speeches of the Hind and the Panther have been discussed as oratory by Phillip Harth. "Dryden's problem," Harth writes, "is one of creating an objective ethos for each speaker which is appropriate to his purpose of making the Hind's arguments credible to the audience, and those of the Panther unconvincing. The character and motivation of the two combatants are as opposite as the positions they adopt in their dispute."[44] Although the "domestic conversation" of part 3 is rather far removed from pure classical oratory, it may
[44] Phillip Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (Chicago and London, 1968), p. 45.
still be profitable to discuss these speeches in traditional rhetorical terms.
For the first almost nine hundred lines of part 3 we are given a blend of judicial and deliberative oratory. The forensic element, carried over from the theological debate of part 2, makes it clear that the ultimate judge of this long argument is God. In one of the more heated moments of the debate, the Hind pauses, having "suppress'd / The boiling indignation of her breast," to remind herself and the Panther of this very fact. "Be vengeance wholly left to pow'rs divine, / And let heav'n judge betwixt your sons and mine . . ."[45] But because the issues in part 5 are predominantly ecclesiastical and political, rather than theological, this legal language is more often applied to temporal concerns, such as the Test Act. In this judicial contest the Hind is the plaintiff, the Panther the defendant, as even the Panther admits.
To this the Panther sharply had reply'd,
But, having gain'd a Verdict on her side,
She wisely gave the loser leave to chide;
Well satisfy'd to have the But and peace,
And for the Plaintiff's cause she car'd the less,
Because she su'd in formâ Pauperis . . .[46]
Behind these judicial roles, moreover, are related political ones. The Hind's arguments have a clear political purpose: reconciliation between Anglicans and Catholics. Her speeches are thus deliberative, designed to persuade the recalcitrant Panther to a kind of peaceful
[45] The Hind and the Panther, III, 261–262, 279–280, Poems, II, 510–511.
[46] The Hind and the Panther, III, 756–761. See Miner's note in the California Dryden, III, 435.
coexistence, if not to the national reconciliation desired by the Lion.
If as you say, and as I hope no less,
Your sons will practise what your self profess,
What angry pow'r prevents our present peace?
The Lyon, studious of our common good,
Desires, (and Kings desires are ill withstood,)
To join our Nations in a lasting love . . . (III, 672–677)
The Panther, however, rejects all of the Hind's conciliatory proposals and refuses to be persuaded. The Hind, as a result, abandons her attempt to persuade.
The Matron woo'd her Kindness to the last,
But cou'd not win; her hour of Grace was past.
Whom thus persisting when she could not bring
To leave the Woolf, and to believe her King,
She gave Her up, and fairly wish'd her Joy
Of her late Treaty with her new Ally:
Which well she hop'd wou'd more successfull prove,
Than was the Pigeons, and the Buzzards love . (III, 892–899)
Here the Hind turns away from both the judicial and the deliberative and toward the one kind of oratory that requires no persuasion, the demonstrative. What follows this turning point is demonstrative oratory in its negative form of censure. Yet the whole of this speech is taken up by the fable of the Pigeons and the Buzzard, and within this fable Dryden gives us a splendid set piece of deliberative oratory, the speech of the most foolish pigeon. Here, then, Dryden unites the two types of oratory that define panegyric in a new and highly original way: he encloses a deliberative speech within a demonstrative one.
Although the speech of the pigeon begins as indirect
discourse, it becomes direct discourse as soon as he mentions the Buzzard. The argument is that the pigeons should confer the kingship on "Some Potent Bird of Prey" who will take up their cause against the "encreasing race of Chanticleer ." The nominee of the orator is the "noble Buzzard." As this argument from circumstance satisfies the pigeons, the oration is followed by a brief glimpse of the immediate result, procession and coronation.
After a grave Consult what course were best,
One more mature in folly than the rest,
Stood up, and told 'em, with his head aside,
That desp'rate Cures must be to desp'rate Ills apply'd:
And therefore since their main impending fear
Was from th' encreasing race of Chanticleer:
Some Potent Bird of Prey they ought to find,
A Foe profess'd to him, and all his kind:
Some haggar'd Hawk, who had her eyry nigh,
Well pounc'd to fasten, and well wing'd to fly;
One they might trust, their common wrongs to wreak:
The Musquet and the Coystrel were too weak,
Too fierce the Falcon, but above the rest,
The noble Buzzard ever pleas'd me best;
Of small Renown, 'tis true, for not to lye,
We call him but a Hawk by courtesie.
I know he haunts the Pigeon -House and Farm,
And more, in time of War, has done us harm,
But all his hate on trivial Points depends,
Give up our Forms, and we shall soon be friends.
For Pigeons flesh he seems not much to care,
Cram'd Chickens are a more delicious fare;
On this high Potentate, without delay,
I wish you would conferr the Sovereign sway:
Petition him t' accept the Government,
And let a splendid Embassy be sent .
This pithy speech prevail'd, and all agreed,
Old Enmity's forgot, the Buzzard should succeed.
Their welcom Suit was granted soon as heard,
His Lodgings furnish'd, and a Train prepar'd,
With B's upon their Breast, appointed for his Guard.
He came, and Crown'd with great Solemnity,
God save King Buzzard, was the gen'rall cry . (III, 1108–1140)
Although the speech retains something of the comic pretentiousness of Fleckno's orations, the issues involved here are closer to those raised by Achitophel.
Both Achitophel and the pigeon would have a monarch chosen by the people. Although in both poems Dryden's opinion of this electoral procedure is succinctly expressed by the repeated phrase, "the dregs of a democracy," the later poem expresses greater intransigence.[47] In the essay on innovation in Absalom and Achitophel, Dryden concedes Shaftesbury's premise tor the sake of argument. "Yet, grant our Lords the People Kings can make, / What Prudent men a setled Throne would shake?" (795–796). In The Hind and the Panther, on the other hand, Dryden passes over the democratic argument with evident contempt.
The Hind thus briefly, and disdain'd t' inlarge
On Pow'r of Kings, and their Superiour charge,
As Heav'ns Trustees before the Peoples choice:
Tho' sure the Panther did not much rejoyce
To hear those Echo's geiv'n of her once Loyal voice .
(III, 887–891)
This passage, placed just before the Hind's fable, refutes the very premise of the pigeon's oration before he even stands up to suggest his "desp'rate Cures."
[47] See Absalom and Achitophel, 227; The Hind and the Panther, I, 211.
Condemned from the start by the Hind, the pigeon nevertheless condemns himself by his choice of the Buzzard to be king. As Earl Miner has shown by reference to the tradition of sacred zoography, the buzzard, as a member of the hawk family, is a typological representation of impiety. Drawing on Wolfgang Franzius's Historia Animalium Sacra, Miner writes: "Not only was the buzzard (butaeo ) related to the hawk family, but also Franzius noted in this genus a palumbaris accipiter, or pigeon hawk. The hawk family is a type of all impious creatures (omnium impiorum ), according to Franzius . . ."[48] The pigeon, then, would confer power on impiety, in effect, directly violating the traditional ideal of monarchy. Moreover, as Franzius points out and Miner emphasizes, the bird's impiety was conventionally specified by comparison with the devil. The Buzzard, then, is not a king, but a usurper. The deliberative oration of the pigeon finally calls for nothing less than the overthrow of the political values defined by the tradition of panegyric. Piety will be replaced by impiety; the divinely sanctioned monarch will be supplanted by the popularly chosen usurper.
Although the political issues are thus very similar to those raised in Achitophel's speech, the ethos of the speaker himself is very different. Achitophel is cunning; the pigeon is just a fool. By enclosing the pigeon's deliberative speech within the Hind's demonstrative one, Dryden censures the whole proceeding of the pigeons from the outset. "For Fools are double Fools endeav'ring to be wise" (III, 1107). The purpose of providing this
[48] Miner, note to lines 1141–1194 in the California Dryden, III, 451.
context is not only to ridicule the pigeon's speech, but also to reveal the dangerous folly of being persuaded by such oratory. Consequences unforeseen by the pigeons are foreseen by the Hind.
'Tis said the Doves repented, tho' too late,
Become the Smiths of their own Foolish Fate:
Nor did their Owner hasten their ill hour:
But, sunk in Credit, they decreas'd in Pow'r:
Like Snows in warmth that mildly pass away,
Dissolving in the Silence of Decay.
The Buzzard not content with equal place,
Invites the feather'd Nimrods of his Race,
To hide the thinness of their Flock from Sight,
And all together make a seeming, goodly Flight:
But each have sep'rate Int'rests of their own,
Two Czars, are one too many for a Throne.
Nor can th' Usurper long abstain from Food,
Already he has tasted Pigeons Blood:
And may be tempted to his former fare,
When this Indulgent Lord shall late to Heav'n repair .
(III, 1267–1282)
Dryden thus relies on the conventions of panegyric not, as customary, to affirm royal piety, but rather to satirize the efforts of others to crown impiety.
In The Hind and the Panther, as in Mac Flecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel, Dryden's satire is sustained in part by normative values derived from the tradition of panegyric. Dryden's creative combinations of deliberative and demonstrative oratory in these three poems reveal the importance of panegyric as a source of topics and ideals for his poetry. The recurrent adaptation of panegyrical conventions for satiric purposes, however, also reveals a waning faith in panegyric as a serious kind of poetry. By placing panegyrical oratory in the mouths
of Fleckno, Achitophel, and a fool of a pigeon, Dryden undermines the very genre he was still attempting to write seriously as late as 1688. After the revolution Dryden follows the path already staked out by his own Hind and abandons persuasive oratory.