Absalom and Achitophel is a celebrated satirical poem by John Dryden, written in heroic couplets and first published in 1681. The poem tells the Biblical tale of the rebellion of Absalom against King David; in this context it is an allegory used to represent a story contemporary to Dryden, concerning King Charles II and the Exclusion Crisis . The poem also references the Popish Plot and the Monmouth Rebellion .
“In friendship false, implacable in hate,
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.”
Pt. I, lines 173–174.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Pt. I, lines 545–550.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Variant: A man so various, that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome;
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was everything by starts, and nothing long;
But, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.
“Beware the fury of a patient man.”
Pt. I, line 999–1005. Compare Publius Syrus, Maxim 289, "Furor fit læsa sæpius patientia" ("An over-taxed patience gives way to fierce anger").
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Variant: Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.
Context: Oh that my Pow'r to Saving were confin’d:
Why am I forc’d, like Heav’n, against my mind,
To make Examples of another Kind?
Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw?
Oh curst Effects of necessary Law!
How ill my Fear they by my Mercy scan,
Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.
“But far more numerous was the herd of such,
Who think too little, and who talk too much.”
Pt. I, lines 532–533. Compare Matthew Prior, Upon a Passage in the Scaligerana, "They always talk who never think".
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
“Great wits are sure to madness near alli'd;
And thin partitions do their bounds divide”
Pt. I, lines 159–172.
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Context: A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands, to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near alli'd;
And thin partitions do their bounds divide:
Else, why should he, with wealth and honour blest,
Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?
Punish a body which he could not please;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease?
And all to leave, what with his toil he won
To that unfeather'd, two-legg'd thing, a son:
Got, while his soul did huddled notions try;
And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy.
Pt. II, lines 462–469.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
“Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet
In his own worth.”
Pt. I, lines 900–901.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
“Behold him setting in his western skies,
The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.”
Pt. I line 268.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Pt. I, lines 455–458.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Pt. II, line 440.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
“Whate’er he did was done with so much ease,
In him alone 't was natural to please.”
Pt. I line 27-28.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Pt. I, lines 230–239.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Pt. I, lines 554–557.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
“Thus in a pageant-show a plot is made;
And peace itself is war in masquerade.”
Pt. I, lines 750–751.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Pt. I, lines 197–199. Compare Knolles, History (under a portrait of Mustapha I): "Greatnesse on Goodnesse loves to slide, not stand,/ And leaves, for Fortune’s ice, Vertue’s ferme land".
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
