The severity of his satire on Charles’s court may be well understood by the following lines:—

“A colony of French possess the court,
Pimps, priests, buffoons, in privy-chamber sport;
Such slimy monsters ne’er approached a throne
Since Pharaoh’s days, nor so defil’d a crown;
In sacred ear tyrannick arts they croak,
Pervert his mind, and good intentions choak.”

“The Historical Poem,” given in the poems on State affairs, is so personal in its attacks on the vices of Charles, that it is marvellous how its author escaped punishment. “Hodge’s Vision from the Monument” is equally strong, while the “Dialogue between two Horses” (that of the statue of Charles I. at Charing-cross, and Charles II., then in the city), has these two strong lines of regret:—

“——to see Deo Gratias writ on the throne,
And the king’s wicked life say God there is none.”

The satire ends with the question:—

“But canst thou devise when things will be mended?”

Which is thus answered:—

“When the reign of the line of the Stuarts is ended!”.—Ed.

[311]

So Burnet tells us.