Unless the new-found poisoning trick of France?
And when their art of rats-bane we have got,
By way of thanks, we’ll send them o’er our Plot.
Scott suggests that the allusion is to the murder of Mr. Thynne, but this did not occur till some months after the production of the play. Christie refers it to the assault made upon Dryden himself in Rose Alley in December 1679; but the reference to the plot makes it far more probable that Dryden had in his mind the murder of Godfrey and the sham attempt on Arnold eighteen months later. He would certainly class the two together, for he attributed Godfrey’s death to Oates:—
And Corah might for Agag’s murder call
In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul.
Absalom and Achitophel, 676, 677.
[138] Sir George Sitwell gives a most instructive and entertaining description of these, The First Whig, chap. vi.
[139] What Gunpowder Plot was 13.
[140] Tuke, Memoirs of Godfrey 1–15. Sidney Lee, Article on Godfrey in Dict. of Nat. Biog. Gentleman’s Magazine, January 1848. Godfrey’s Christian names are variously spelt. I give the most correct form in writing, but in quoting retain that used by the writer or reporter.