The Patriot tells the story of a man who has come into power amid the acclamations of the crowd as the hero of the people. But popular favour is fickle, and in one short year he is reviled and led to execution. He suffers, not because he has failed in his duty, but simply because he has failed to please the fickle crowd. To those who have read history the sub-title An Old Story will need no further explanation.
2. myrtle. The leaves of the myrtle were used to make wreaths for those who won triumphs in the arts of peace. It is an emblem of peace and joy.
6. a mist. Of course this is not to be taken literally. It is a poetic way of saying that the air is filled with the sound of bells.
8-10. If I had objected that I did not like noise but that I wished them to give me the sun from out the sky they would have been quite willing to give me not only the sun but anything else they had.
17. a palsied few. Too feeble to follow the crowd.
20. Shambles’ Gate. A fictitious name for the place of execution. Shambles are the places where animals are slaughtered or where butchers’ meat is sold. Hence, as here, a place of butchery.
25. my year’s misdeeds. What the rabble consider as misdeeds.
27. The man who has been honoured by the world, even if he drops dead in the midst of his triumph, has been paid, and perhaps more than paid, for his good deeds, and if men’s rewards and punishments are balanced up, in the next world, such a man may find that he is in God’s debt. But the speaker, “The Patriot,” is suffering so much injustice and wrong that he is sure that some balance of reward will be due him in the next world.