But little learning needs in noble blood.[273]
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t may be doubted, whether the reverend father was highly pleased withthis sarcastic description, or whether he admitted readily the apology,that the poet, speaking in the character of the heretical church, wasobliged to use Protestant colouring. The close correspondence of the fable with the real events may befarther traced, and admit of yet more minute illustration: The Raven, from the withered oak,Left of their lodging,---- may be conjectured to mean Tennison, within whose parish Whitehallwas situated, and who stood in the front of battle during all theRoman Catholic controversy. As Petre is the Martin who persuaded theCatholics not to leave the kingdom, his preparations for maintainingtheir ground there are also noticed: He ordered all things with a busy care,And cells and refectories did prepare,And large provisions laid of winter fare. This alludes to the numerous schools and religious establishments whichthe Jesuits prepared to establish throughout England.[274] The chapelwhich housed them is obviously the royal chapel, where the priestswere privileged to exercise their functions even during the subsistenceof the penal laws. The transient gleam of sunshine which invited theSwallows forth from their retirement, is the Declaration of Indulgence,in consequence of which the Catholics assumed the open and generalexercise of their religion. The Irish Catholics, with the sanguineTalbot at their head, may be the first who hailed the imaginary returnof spring: they are painted as ----Swifts, the giants of the Swallow kind,Large limbed, stout hearted, but of stupid mind. I cannot help thinking, that our author, still speaking in thecharacter of the English church, describes himself as the "foolishCuckow," whose premature annunciation of spring completed the Swallow'sdelusion. Perhaps he intended to mitigate the scornful description ofPetre, by talking of himself also as a Protestant would have talked ofhim. The foreign priests and Catholic officers, whom hopes of promotionnow brought into England, are pointed out by the "foreign fowl," whocame in flocks, To bless the founder, and partake the cheer. The fable concludes in a prophetic strain, by indicating the calamitieswhich were likely to overwhelm the Catholics, as soon as the death ofJames, or any similar event, should end their temporary prosperity. Itis well known, how exactly the event corresponded to the prophecy; eventhe circumstance of the rabble rising upon the Catholic priests wasmost literally verified. In most of the sea-port towns, they watchedthe coasts to prevent their escape; and when King James was taken atFeversham, the fishermen, by whom he was seized, were employed in whatthey called by the cant phrase of "priest-codding," that is, lying inwait for the fugitive priests.
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