tells Absalom in "Absalom and
Achitophel,"is "a Godlike
John Dryden's Absalom and
Achitophel is the subject of chapter 7, and in it Murphy considers how Dryden struggles to reconfigure lineal succession in the literal absence of reproduction, in order to support James II's nomination as successor to Charles II, who had no legitimate progeny.
Thus, Lord North's counsel was "as the counsel of
Achitophel in the days of David king of Israel,"
Achitophel being the king's advisor who counseled him against his own interest; American courtiers, "like the locusts of Egypt, they devoured every goodly thing." (46)
It makes you wonder when the minister last sat down and read Absalom and
Achitophel and The Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot or when his advisers last visited an English classroom.
"Foolishness" as a term for blind folly occurs once in II Samuel, when God himself intervenes decisively to favor David's cause and acts to "turn the counsel of
Achitophel into foolishness" and thus cause Absalom's foiled advisor, his consiglieri
Achitophel, to commit suicide.
Morrice possessed copies of Richard Brome's Rump; or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs (1662), The Country Club: A Poem (1679), Abraham Cowley's Poems (1656) and Dryden's Absalom and
Achitophel (1681).
Dryden argues for the apostolic succession of the Catholic Church in The Hind and the Panther as eloquently as he had argued for the legitimate royal succession in his earlier poems Astraea Redux and Absalom and
Achitophel. In Astraea Redux (Justice Returned,1660), Dryden celebrates the restoration of Charles II to the throne after the end of Puritan rule in the Commonwealth, ushered in by the beheading of Charles I.
311: Great wits to madness sure are near allied--John Dryden, Absalom and
Achitophel (1690)
The editors have wisely included the whole of Mac Flecknoe, Absalom and
Achitophel, Religio Laici and The Hind and the Panther.