d the Reflections, before the tragedy was published, that they were
infinitely concerned to prevent any farther operation of it. It
appears from the general consent of the audiences, that their party
were known to be represented; and themselves owned openly, by their
hissings, that they were incensed at it, as an object which they could
not bear. It is evident by their endeavours to shift off this parallel
from their side, that their principles are too shameful to be
maintained. It is notorious, that they, and they only, have made the
parallel betwixt the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Monmouth, and that
in revenge for the manifest likeness they find in the parties
themselves, they have carried up the parallel to the heads of the
parties, where there is no resemblance at all; under which colour,
while they pretend to advert upon one libel, they set up another. For
what resemblance could they suggest betwixt two persons so unlike in
their descent, the qualities of their minds, and the disparity of
their warlike actions, if they grant not, that there is a faction
here, which is like that other which was in France? so that if they do
not first acknowledge one common cause, there is no foundation for a
parallel. The dilemma therefore lies strong upon them; and let them
avoid it if they can,--that either they must avow the wickedness of
their designs, or disown the likeness of those two persons. I do
further charge those audacious authors, that they themselves have made
the parallel which they call mine, and that under the covert of this
parallel they have odiously compared our present king with king Henry
the Third; and farther, that they have forced this parallel expressly
to wound His Majesty in the comparison: for, since there is a parallel
(as they would have it) it must be either theirs or mine. I have
proved that it cannot possibly be mine: and in so doing, that it must
be theirs by consequence. Under this shadow all the vices of the
French king are charged by those libellers (by a side-wind) upon ours;
and it is indeed the bottom of their design to make the king cheap,
his royal brother odious, and to alter the course of the succession.

Now, after the malice of this sputtering triumvirate (Mr Hunt, and the
two Reflectors), against the person and dignity of the king, and
against all that endeavour to serve him (which makes their hatred to
his cause apparent), the very charging of our play to be a libel, and
such a par