Note 341 — NOTES ON ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. (continued 2)
Reading edition
War, and war's darling goddess, left him last; As living he adored her, he embraced Her dying, in his pangs he held her fast; Still at Tangier his waving ensigns flye, Forts, bulwarks, trenches, glide before his eye; And though, by fate itself disarmed, he dies, Even his last breath his sooty foes defies; He still his visionary thunder poured, And grasped the very shadow of a sword.
These lines occur in Settle's poem, and are illustrated by this Note: "All the delirium of his fever was wholly taken up with defending Tangiers, and fighting the Moors."