[216] Century White, See [Note XV.]
[217] The Hind intimates, that, as the sunshine of Catholic prosperity, in the fable, depended upon the king's life, there existed those among her enemies, who would fain have it shortened. But from this insinuation she exempts the church of England, and only expresses her fears, that her passive principles would incline her to neutrality.
[217a] Note C: [Note XVI.]
[218] Louis XIV. whose revocation of the Edict of Nantes has been so frequently alluded to. As that monarch did not proceed to the extremity of capital punishment against the Huguenots, Dryden contends his edicts were more merciful than the penal laws, by which mass-priests are denounced as guilty of high treason.
[220] The poet alludes to the enchantress Duessa, who, when disrobed by Prince Arthur, was changed from a beautiful woman into
A loathly wrinkled hag, ill-favoured, old,
Whose secret filth good manners biddeth not be told.
Spenser's Fairy Queen, Book I, canto 8.