"Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide."
Dryden believes that true genius is borderline insane. Any person of great intelligence will also struggle with sanity by normal standards. Not only is a genius perceived as abnormal, but they will also be received as almost crazy. The difference between genius and madness is difficult to distinguish. Achitophel fits this description perfectly: he is wise, accomplished, and witty, but at the same time he is discontented with his position, preferring danger and turmoil. Dryden says of Achitophel: "A daring pilot in extremity, / Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high, / He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit, / Would steer too nigh the sands, to boast his wit" (lines 160-162).
"All empire is no more than power in trust."
In this quotation, Dryden explains the nature of authority. Authority is granted to those in power by those who are subject. In other words, those in power only have as much authority as the people will give to them; it's borrowed power. Thus an empire is a large collection of power which is concentrated in the hands of a few but which at any second can be taken back by the people. Another implication here is that empires are temporary establishments because none will last forever, as if they are merely loans.
"Nor is the people's judgement always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few."
Contrary to many people's claims that the majority knows what is best and should be heeded, Dryden notes that the masses aren't always correct: just because a lot of people come to the same conclusion, doesn't mean it's the right conclusion. People can be easily manipulated, swayed, and forced. In a mass, they find it easy to go along with things that they may not wholly agree with on an individual basis. It is no surprise that David comments at the end of the poem, "save me most from my petitioners!" (986).
"Beware the fury of a patient man."
Dryden provides many maxims throughout this work. In this quotation, he warns against underestimating a patient person. Patience does not mean passiveness. Often a patient person will tolerate so much before they erupt in an outburst much worse than the casual anger of a less controlled person. David doesn't respond to Achitophel and Absalom for a while, watching as they begin their machinations. However, when he does speak, it is in a measured but extraordinarily powerful and compelling fashion.
These Adam-wits, too fortunately free,
Began to dream they wanted liberty:
According to one key for the poem, this passage is "Apparently a reference to those who, like Adam, could not be satisfied with the true freedom under God's law and wrongly yearned for more. To Dryden the English of the late seventies and early eighties who complained of arbitrary government, like their predecessors of the forties, would have been Adam-wits.” This is one example of how skillfully Dryden utilized biblical allusions and how he was able to subtly but compellingly use them to comment on the people and events of his one day. Not all of his phrases are easily accessible to modern readers, but once they are defined, they yield continual revelations as to Dryden's wit and genius.
This set the heathen priesthood in a flame;
For priests of all religions are the same.
Dryden has a lot to say about religious groups and their leaders, and none of it is very positive. He writes of the "moody" and "headstrong" Jews, or the English, who are loath to keep a ruler for more than twenty years, and acknowledges their apprehension of the Jebusites, the stand-in for Catholics. In this quote, he refers to Jebusite/Catholic priests as heathens, but he is insulting "priests of all religions." In fact, Dryden notes that "Of whatsoe'er descent their godhead be" (100) they are quick to see kinship in other priests. Even if those priests do terrible things or support the wrong causes, those pledged to their faith will tacitly or explicitly condone them. Dryden is suggesting that religious men are just as self-interested as political men.
And every hostile humour, which before
Slept quiet in its channels, bubbles o'er;
So several factions, from this first ferment,
Work up to foam, and threat the government.
The humors are not the immediately recognizable medical/literary/philosophical subject they once were, so an analysis of these lines is necessary for the modern reader. The humors were, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, "part of Shakespearean cosmology, inherited from the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen. Organized around the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire; the four qualities of cold, hot, moist, and dry; and the four humors, these physical qualities determined the behavior of all created things including the human body." Psychology Today explains, "The ancient names for these humors—melancholic (black bile), choleric (yellow bile), sanguine (blood), and phlegmatic (phlegm)—represented different temperaments, and still do. Melancholic people are despondent and gloomy. Choleric people are bad-tempered. Sanguine people are courageous, hopeful, and amorous. Phlegmatic people are calm, cool, and unemotional." Thus, in suggesting that a "hostile humour" is bubbling over, Dryden is creating a metaphor suggesting that the tensions of the people are boiling and will soon erupt into rebellion.
“Auspicious prince, at whose nativity
Some royal planet ruled the southern sky;
Thy longing country's darling and desire;
Their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire;
Their second Moses, whose extended wand
Divides the seas, and shows the promised land;
Whose dawning day, in every distant age,
Has exercised the sacred prophet's rage;
The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!
Thee, Saviour, thee the nation's vows confess,
And, never satisfied with seeing, bless;"
Achitophel knows exactly how to appeal to Absalom here. First, he calls him "auspicious." Second, he suggests that his birth was ordained by heaven, and he uses the word "royal" to connect him to the throne. Third, he calls him his country's "darling and desire" because the people love him so. Fourth, he even calls him a god; that is what the "cloudy pillar" and "guardian fire" refer to. Fifth, he calls Absalom a "second Moses" and paints a picture of him leading the Jews into the promised land. Sixth, he calls him a Saviour. Achitophel is thus very skilled at appealing to Absalom without pressuring him or seeming like he is doing anything immoral or unjust.
Few words he said; but easy those and fit,
More slow than Hybla-drops, and far more sweet.
"Hybla-drops," a key to the poem explains, reference honey. Hyblaean honey was exceedingly sweet, derived from the southeast mountains of Sicily. It was well-known in ancient times and referenced in works like Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. This reference effectively conveys the nature of Absalom's address to the people and why it was so effortlessly successful. His words are sweet, short, and easy to understand. He evokes sympathy for himself and identifies his struggles with those of the people. He does not explicitly attack David, but he allows the people to acknowledge their king's shortcomings and see him, Absalom, as a worthy successor.
Oh, that my power to saving were confined!
Why am I forced, like heaven, against my mind,
To make examples of another kind?
Must I at length the sword of justice draw?
Oh curst effects of necessary law!
One of the things that makes David's relatively short speech so effective is that he suggests to the people that he has to go against his natural proclivities of tenderness and mildness and take up the literal and metaphorical sword against his enemies in order to protect the throne. Here, he values the power of the throne as far greater than his own, and he says that he must do as it requires. He knows what is required of him and he will do it, but the people must know he is at heart a peaceful man—he simply knows that there are bigger things than his love of his son. David has undergone the shift from "gentle, longsuffering father-king to severe, forceful executor of justice" (Marshall).
