suffered; that her name was Anastasia, and that her marriage took place on Christmas day, on which also the feast of St Anastasia is kept; we must allow that Dryden has shown his usual skill, and address, in adapting these topics to the occasion, and has exhibited them with the fancy and language of a poet.
P. 209. l. 9.Their father's innocence and truth to show.
Both Hume, and Fox, in the places cited above, have borne ample testimony to the innocence of Lord Stafford.
Then, as the storms are more allay'd,
And waves decay'd,
Send out the beauteous blooming maid:
And let that virgin dove bring to her house again
An olive-branch of peace in triumph o'er the main.
These beautiful lines afford a further proof, that this marriage did not take place, till some years after the execution of Lord Stafford. I imagine, that soon after his death, his family, to avoid the persecution of the times, went abroad; and that their return, probably to celebrate this marriage, is alluded to in the conclusion of the last line.
P. 211.When innocence and truth became a crime, &c.
It is probable, that Mr Holman, and many other Catholics, with their families, would leave England at this most unfortunate and turbulent period. The poet has given him a high character.
This Pindaric ode appears to me, to be, in every respect, worthy of the genius, and fame of Dryden.
P. 213. Of Sir Richard Fanshaw, the reader will find some account, in the "General Biographical Dictionary," in Wood's "Fasti," xi. 43. and in Ellis's Specimens." He distinguished himself so much as a translator, as to draw from Sir John Denham, the following high encomium:
That servile path thou nobly dost decline,
Of tracing word by word, and line by line.
