The second act opens with a council
of the fiends, where the popish plot is hatched, and Democracy and
Zeal are dismissed, to propagate it upon earth, with Oates, the famous
witness, in their train. The next entry presents Augusta, or London,
stung by a snake, to intimate the revival of the popular faction in
the metropolis. Democracy and Zeal, under the disguise of Patriotism
and Religion, insinuate themselves into the confidence of the city,
and are supposed to foment the parliamentary opposition, which, ending
on the bill of exclusion, rendered it necessary, that the Duke of York
should leave the kingdom. We have then, in allegorical representation,
the internal feuds of the parties, which, from different causes,
opposed the crown. The adherents of Monmouth, and the favourers of
republican tenets, are represented as disputing with each other, until
the latter, by the flight of Shaftesbury, obtains a final ascendancy.
In the mean while, Charles, or Albion, has recourse to the advice of
Proteus; under which emblem an evil minded whig might suppose Halifax,
and the party of Trimmers, to be represented; actuated by whose
versatile, and time-serving politics, Charles gave way to each wave,
but remained buoyant amid the tempest. The Rye-house plot is then
presented in allegory,--an unfit subject for exultation, since the
dark intrigues of the interior conspirators were made the instruments
of the fall of Sidney and Russell.
Pages:
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253