Note 294 — NOTES ON ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.
Reading edition
See a very scurrilous one, entitled, "The Queen's Ball," in the State Poems, Vol. III. p. 74, beginning,
Reform, great queen, the errors of your youth, And hear a thing you never heard, called Truth. Poor private balls content the Fairy Queen; You must dance, and dance damnably, to be seen. Ill-natured little goblin, and designed For nothing but to dance and vex mankind, What wiser thing could our great monarch do, Than root ambition out, by showing you? You can the most aspiring thoughts pull down.