“Of these the false Achitophel was first; A name to all succeeding ages curst; For close designs and crooked counsels fit; Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit; Restless, unfix’d in principles and place; In power unpleas’d, impatient of disgrace: A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pygmy body to decay, And o’er inform’d the tenement of clay.”

Then he puts into the mouth of Achitophel the following description of Absalom:⁠—