Volume 9 — NOTES ON THE PANEGYRIC ON THE CORONATION.
Reading edition
Note I.
Some guilty months had in your triumphs shared.
After the Restoration, several of the regicides were condemned to death; but the king, with unexampled lenity, remitted the capital punishment of many of these deep offenders. Only six of the king's judges were executed; and, when to that number are added, the fanatic Peters, who compared the suffering monarch to Barabbas, Coke, the solicitor, who pleaded against Charles on his mock trial, and Hacker, who commanded the guard, and brutally instigated, and even compelled them to cry for execution, we have the number of nine, who suffered for a fact, the most enormous in civilized history, till our age produced a parallel. There was also an insurrection of the fierce and hot-brained sect of fanatics, who called themselves fifth-monarchy men, and devoutly believed, that the Millennium, and the reign of the saints, was about to begin. Willing to contribute their share to this happy consummation, these enthusiasts, headed by the fanatic Venner, rushed into the streets of London; and, though but sixty in number, were not overpowered without long resistance, and much bloodshed. These incidents, Dryden, always happy in his allusion to the events of the day, assigns as a reason for deferring the coronation to an untainted year. Perhaps, however, he only meant to say, that, as Charles was not restored till May, 1660, the preceding months of that year were unworthy to share in the honour, which the coronation would have conferred upon it.
Note II.
The jealous sects—— You for their umpire, and their synod take, And their appeal alone to Cæsar make.
The conferences held at Savoy House, betwixt the presbyterians and the bishops, excited hopes among those who did not understand the temper of theological controversy, that these two powerful divisions of the protestant church might be reconciled to each other. The quakers, anabaptists, and other inferior sects, applied, by petitions and humble addresses, to the king, to be permitted to worship God, according to their consciences. Thus, the whole modelling of ecclesiastical matters seemed to be in the hands of the king.
Note III.
In stately frigates most delight you find.
Charles the Second had a strong mechanical genius, and understood ship-building, in particular, more completely than became a monarch, if it were possible that a king of England could be too intimately acquainted with what concerns the bulwark of his empire. The king's skill in matters of navigation is thus celebrated by the author of a Poem upon his Majesty's Coronation, the 22d April, 1661, being St George's day.
The seaman's art, and his great end commerce, Through all the corners of the universe, Are not alone the subject of your care, But your delight, and you their polar-star; And even mechanic arts do find from you, Both entertainment and improvement too.
Note IV.
Beyond your court flows in the admitted tide.
By the improvements made by Charles the Second on St James's Park, there was a connection made with the river, which Waller has celebrated in these lines, as a work of superior merit to founding a city.
Instead of rivers rolling by the side Of Eden's garden, here flows in the tide. The sea, which always served his empire, now Pays tribute to our prince's pleasure too. Of famous cities we the founders know; But rivers old as seas, to which they go, Are nature's bounty: 'tis of more renown, To make a river, than to build a town. On St James's Park, as lately improved by His Majesty.
Note V.
Here the mistrustful fowl no harm suspects.
The canal in St James's park formed a decoy for water-fowl, with which it was stocked. This circumstance, like the former, is noticed by Waller:
Whilst over head a flock of new-sprung fowl Hangs in the air and does the sun controul. Darkening the air, they hover o'er, and shrowd The wanton sailors with a feathered cloud.
The water-fowl, thus celebrated, were particular favourites of the king, who fed them with his own hand. His affection for his dogs and ducks is noticed in many a libel.
Note VI.
Thus from your Royal Oak, like Jove's of old, Are answers sought, and destinies foretold; Propitious oracles are begged with vows, And crowns that grow upon the sacred boughs.
This is in allusion to a device exhibited over the triumphal arch, in Leadenhall street, through which the king passed in his way from the Tower to Whitehall, on the day of his coronation. Behind a picture of the king appeared, deciphered in a large table, "the Royal Oak, bearing crowns and sceptres, instead of acorns; amongst the leaves in a label
Miraturque novas frondes et non suà poma.
As designing its reward, for the shelter it afforded his majesty, after the fight at Worcester."[76] These devices were invented by John Ogilby, gent., to the conduct of whom the poetical part of the coronation, as it is termed in his writ of privilege, was solely entrusted. The same fancy is commemorated, by the author of "Loyal Reflections on his Majesty's Restoration, Procession, and Coronation," who thus apostrophises the Royal Oak:
Thou vegetive soul, whose glory 'tis and pride To suffer wounds, or sink, not to divide; Whose branches Ogilby's rich fancy made Bear crowns for nuts, but thy best fruit was shade. When Charles lodged in thy boughs, thou couldst not want Many degrees to be a sensitive plant.