Whenever these terms were first introduced, and whatever might be
their original meaning, it is certain that in the reign of Charles the
Second they carried the political signification which they still
retain. Take, as a proof, the following nervous passage from Dryden's
Epilogue to "The Duke of Guise," 1683:
"Damn'd neuters, in their middle way of steering,
Are neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring:
Nor whigs, nor Tories they; nor this nor that;
Not birds, not beasts, but just a kind of bat:
A twilight animal, true to neither cause,
With _Tory_ wings, but _Whiggish_ teeth and claws."
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