Doeg (2 syl.)
,in the satire of Absalom and Achitophel, by Dryden and Tate, is meant for Elkaʹnah Settle, a poet who wrote satires upon Dryden, but was no match for his great rival. Doeg was Saul’s herdsman, who had charge of his mules and asses. He told Saul that the priests of Nob had provided David with food; whereupon Saul sent him to put them to death, and eighty-five were ruthlessly massacred. (1 Sam. xxi. 7; xxii. 18.)
“Doëg, though without knowing how or why,
Made still a blundering kind of melody … .
Let him rail on; let his invective Muse
Have four-and-twenty letters to abuse,
Which if he jumbles to one line of sense,
Indict him of a capital offence.”
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