allel as these ignoramuses would render it, is almost as
great an affront to His Majesty, as the libellous picture itself, by
which they have exposed him to his subjects. For it is no longer our
parallel, but the king's, by whose order it was acted, without any
shuffling or importunity from the poets. The tragedy (cried the
faction) is a libel against such and such illustrious persons. Upon
this the play was stopt, examined, acquitted, and ordered to be
brought upon the stage: not one stroke in it of a resemblance, to
answer the scope and intent of the complaint. There were some
features, indeed, that the illustrious Mr Hunt and his brace of
beagles (the Reflectors) might see resembling theirs; and no other
parallel either found or meant, but betwixt the French leaguers and
ours: and so far the agreement held from point to point, as true as a
couple of tallies. But when neither the king, nor my lord chamberlain,
with other honourable persons of eminent faith, integrity, and
understanding, upon a strict perusal of the papers, could find one
syllable to countenance the calumny; up starts the defender of the
charter, &c. opens his mouth, and says, "What do ye talk of the king?
he's abused, he's imposed upon. Is my lord chamberlain, and the
scrutineers that succeed him, to tell us, when the king and the duke
of York are abused?" What says my lord chief baron of Ireland to the
business? What says the livery-man templer? What says Og the king of
Basan to it? "We are men that stand up for the king's supremacy in all
causes, and over all persons, as well ecclesiastical as civil, next
and immediately under God and the people. We are for easing His Royal
Highness of his title to the crown, and the cares that attend any such
prospect; and we shall see the king and the Royal Family paralleled at
this rate, and not reflect upon it?"

But to draw to an end. Upon the laying of matters fairly together,
what a king have these balderdash scribblers given us, under the
resemblance of Henry the Third! How scandalous a character again, of
His Majesty, in telling the world that he is libelled, and affronted
to his face, told on't, pointed to it; and yet neither he, nor those
about him, can be brought to see or understand it. There needs no more
to expound the meaning of these people, than to compare them with
themselves: when it will evidently appear, that their lives and
conversations, their writings and their practices, do all take the
sa