[Footnote 134: Charles I. was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
The precise spot was a matter of doubt till an accidental aperture was
made in 1813 into the vault of Henry VIII., when a lead coffin was
discovered bearing the inscription "King Charles, 1648." It was opened
in the presence of the Regent; and the corpse was in a sufficient state
of preservation to enable the spectators to recognise the likeness of
the countenance to Vandyke's portraits of the king, and to ascertain
that the head had been severed from the body.]
[Footnote 135: Originally thus in the MS.
Oh fact accurst! oh sacrilegious brood,
Sworn to rebellion, principled in blood!
Since that dire morn what tears has Albion shed,
Gods! what new wounds, &c.--WARBURTON.]
[Footnote 136: To say that the plague in London, and its consumption by
fire, were judgments inflicted by heaven for the murder of Charles I.,
is a very extraordinary stretch of tory principles indeed.--WARTON.]
[Footnote 137: This couplet is directed at the Revolution, considered by
Pope, in common with all jacobites, to be a like public calamity with
the plague and the fire of London.--CROKER.
Pope had in his mind, when he wrote the couplet, Creech's Hor., Ode
xxxv. lib. 1.
I blush at the dishonest show,
I die to see the wounds and scars,
Those glories of our civil wars.]
[Footnote 138: Thus in the MS.
Till Anna rose, and bade the Furies cease;
_Let there be peace_--she said, and all was _peace_.--WARBURTON.
It may be presumed that Pope varied the couplet from perceiving the
impropriety of a parody on the fiat of the Creator.]
[Footnote 139: Dryden's Annus Mirabilis:
Old Father Thames raised up his rev'rend head.
And again, at the conclusion of his Threnodia Augustalis:
While, starting from his oozy bed,
Th' asserted ocean rears his rev'rend head.--WAKEFIELD.