The Medall a Satyre against Sedition…
The Medall a Satyre against Sedition. By the Authour of Absalom and Achitophel.
London: Jacob Tonson, 1682.
Small quarto, 32pp.; protected in modern wrapper.
First edition, second issue: the second of Dryden's political satires.
First edition, second issue: the second of Dryden's political satires.
The acquittal of the Earl of Shaftesbury on charges of treason for opposing the succession of the Catholic James was regarded as a great Whig victory. Flushed with success, they issued a medal, Shaftesbury's head on the obverse, the sun rising over the Tower of London on the reverse. It was the perfect prompt for Dryden's mock-heroic satire: "Of all our Antick Sights, and Pageantry, Which English Ideots run in crowds to see, The Polish Medall bears the prize alone…."
Grolier, Wither to Prior, 313.
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