[51] The same compound is used in "Absalom and Achitophel," as has been noticed by Mr Malone:
Gods they had tried of every shape and size,
That godsmiths could produce, or priests devise.
[52] The Scots, about Dryden's time, had many superstitions concerning individuals, whom they supposed to be shot-proof, by virtue of a satanic charm. The famous Viscount of Dundee was supposed to be invulnerable to bullets of lead; and when Archbishop Sharpe was murdered, the assassins having missed him, although very near when they first discharged their pieces, imputed the scorched marks left by the powder on his skin to contusions received from their balls. But the word warlock, or warlough, means a male sorcerer in general; and has not, as Dryden seems to suppose, any reference to this particular charm. It seems rather to be derived from wird and laere, a compound which would imply "skilled in futurity."
[53] The vulgar, to use Gay's account, believe,
How if on Swithin's feast the welkin lowers,
And every pent-house streams with hasty showers;
Twice twenty days shall clouds their fleeces drain,
And wash the pavements with incessant rain.
[54] The son of Sir Walter Moyle, an accomplished scholar, whom Dryden elsewhere mentions with esteem. He died in 1621.
[55] It is agreeable to see, from this and other passages, that, notwithstanding an intervening rupture, our author, at the latter end of his life, was on good terms with his brother-in-law, to whom he was so much indebted at the commencement of his poetical career.
[56] Author of the "True Intellectual System of the Universe," folio, 1678.
[57] Milbourne is very severe on our author for crediting this story, of Virgil having condemned the Æneïd to the flames. But it is sanctioned by the Elder Pliny. "D. Augustus carmina Virgilii cremari contra testamenti ejus verecundiam, vetuit; majusque ita vati testimonium contigit, quam si ipse sua probasset."—Hist. Nat. vii. 30.
[58] I am afraid, this passage, given as a just description of love, serves to confirm what is elsewhere stated, that Dryden's ideas of the female sex and of the passion were very gross and malicious.