Iter Boreale. 1682. Fter long-practis'd Malice in the South, A Brutus (the People's Ear, the People's Mouth 1 At length most prudently has sally'd forth, His poyson he has left behind in London, By whose infection Whigland's chiefs are undone. 2 Wou'd all our Nobles to his Nine-pence bring. But since great ends by Providence are cross'd, 5 In Peoples'-Right, force Demagogues to th' Tower; 10 20 i.e. Patience Ward's. Which suckled long both Good Old Cause and Trent," 9 Since neither Wapping Treats, nor Whigs'-Head Clubs,10 Assert the right of Perkin or the Tubs; Since Truth and only Truth must now prevail, Maugre St. Tony's Tap, or Stephen's Flail; 30 40 208 Notes to the present Iter Boreale. And Brutus, lately London's Demagogue," [ [In White-letter. No woodcut. Probable date, December, 1682.] Notes to the foregoing "Iter Boreale." 1 See preceding pages of Introduction as to Brutus. = avoid 2 Probably quibbling on the name of Slingsby Bethel, the Whig Sheriff renowned for miserliness. Compare the Mouse extract on our p. 165. 3 Titus Oates, the "Salamanca Doctor," his Depositions. 4 The Elliot mentioned is Adam Elliot, Master of Arts, and a Priest of the Church of England, known as "Parson Elliot;" who in January, 168, caused Titus Oates to be arrested for having spoken scandalous words against him. Elliot laid his action at 5007., and had Oates committed to the Compter Prison, whence he was set free on bail. Elliot wrote A Modest Vindication of Titus Oates, the Salamanca Doctor, from Perjury; or, An Essay to demonstrate him only forsworn in several instances. The same Elliot on the 16th February, 1683, at Guildhall submitted himself to Charles Lord North and Gray, who had brought against him an action of scandalum magnatum for this libel, the Modest Vindication, published by Joseph Hindmarsh; wherein Lord North had been shown up to ridicule. Having asked pardon in open Court, Elliot obtained forgiveness. We possess in our private collection the Modest Vindication, and esteem it highly, as a clever biting satire, although rambling and long-winded, in prose, of fiftysix pages, folio. He himself jests about Oates having declared that I was a Mahumetan, and had been thereupon circumcised, and also that I was a Popish Priest, having received Orders from the See of Rome." A Dr. Elliot was impeached by the Commons in July, 1689, for dispersing King James II.'s Declaration, and was probably the same person. His talent and adventurous spirit deserved a happier fate. He is mentioned in Midsummer-Moon; or, The LiveryMan's Complaint, 1682 (which begins, "I cannot hold, hot struggling Rage aspires"). Preceding lines refer to the Duke of York's escape from shipwreck in the Gloucester Frigate (Sir John Berry, Captain: see his Letter), 8th May, 1682; the poem is a virulent satire on York, in blind rage and spitefulness:Tho' Heav'n in anger sometimes may relieve, Pardons still do not follow a Reprieve. Not fell Charibdis, Godwin's, and the Ore, If Fate ordain 't, shall keep a Prince from shore; 35 35 Notes on "the Brazen Head," and Calves' heads. 209 5 George Villiers (son of Barbara), Baron of Pomfret vel Pontefract, 1674. 6 Perhaps the Guildhall Riot, at election of Sheriffs, is here meant. 7 For the Republican Good Old Cause of Rebellion and anarchy see previous Monmouth Group in vol. iv. pp. 263, 598 to 603, etc. Trent is here mentioned as an equivalent for "the Power of Rome," of course, in allusion to the Council of Trent, 1563. That people who became disgusted at the extreme bigotry of "True-Blue Protestantism" went over to Rome is illogical, but not surprising. 8 The old story of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay having constructed a Head of Brass, which they expected to speak, yet left it to be watched by a silly clown, who failed to awaken them when it intermittently spoke, "Time is!" "Time was!" and "Time is past!" has always been a favourite subject with our poets. Robert Greene (whose works have been at last collected and edited in thirteen quarto vols. of the valuable Huth Library by the Rev. Dr. Alexander Balloch Grosart, of Blackburn, Lancashire,) introduced it in his play of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 1594. Byron alluded to it in Don Juan, Canto Ist, stanza 217, Now like Friar Bacon's Brazen-Head I 've spoken, Time is!' Time was!' Time 's past!' a chymic treasure Is glittering youth, which I have spent betimes, My heart in fancies, and my head in rhymes. W. M. Praed intended to make use of the myth in a serial, but unfortunately never continued into a second attempt his "Chant of the Brazen Head." We find the anonymous author of The Court Burlesqued thus employing the allusion, when mentioning the second Duke of Buckingham's fopperies of chymistry:— Or else he would have bless'd the Nation And bring his Gold to worthless dross : At which himself is most expert. 9 Post equitem sedet atra Cura.-Hor. Od. III. 40. 10 Shaftesbury's predilection for the unsavoury district of Wapping, where his "ten thousand brisk boys" lurked, ripe for mischief, ought by this time to be as well understood as the frequent allusions to the silver "Tap," i.e. the issue in his side. The Whigs' Calf's-Head Clubs, on 30th January, in brutal mockery of the Execution of Charles I., date from Cromwellian days, and like most evils of the Commonwealth descended to modern time. Stephen College and his Protestant Flail were already noticed on pp. 35, 36. Perkin Monmouth. 11 Brutus, as already shown, might be disguise for Slingsby Bethel, or the Duke of Monmouth. The place of refuge is Holland, whither they retreated. 12 Probably, this Neswell is intentional disguise-misprint for Mother Cresswell, with whom the Chamberlain Sir Thomas Player had evil connection (p. 246). VOL. V. P W Foolish Fancy." Monmouth's “Foolish "Let 'em in Ballads give their Folly vent, And sing up Nonsense to their Hearts' content." -A Lenten Prologue refused by the Players. 1682. HILE the months of 1682 were rolling swiftly away, the position of James Duke of Monmouth showed the reverse of improvement. He had lost all his public offices, but felt no immediate pressure on the score of money, since for twelve years he drew the bulk of his wife's annual income, leaving her less than a bare hundred out of her own thirteen thousand, which he felt no compunction in spending on his loose companions of both sexes. From a contemporary Satire, The Court Burlesqued, we draw this unflattered likeness of her husband James Scott, Duke of Monmouth : Another Duke, the spurious Son Of him that tamely rules the Th[ron]e, With his Star shining at his breast: And none but crafty knaves about him, Who, tho' they court him, yet they flout him. Gay as a Peacock at a Ball, Très humble Serviteur to all; A busy Fop among the Ladies, To show 'em what an am'rous blade he 's. Forward to fight, in battle warm, Altho', poor thing! he means no harm- Or to his Popish Uncle rather; Ready in all things to oppose His country's friends, instead of foes. The only idol of the town, That struts and rattles up and down, That all the factious fools, who hope it Will one day reign, may view the puppit : That they may fill his empty Grace With noisy shouts and loud huzzas, And make him use his worst endeavours Shaftesbury's opinion on the Religion of Sensible-men. 211 That many think thou may'st as soon When Fortune turns the ticklish scales. For tho' thou hast been twice forgiven, He tried to forget the aforesaid "bastard blot," and it was noticed that, when he rode in his carriage after return from Holland, he bore on the panels the Royal Arms, but with the bend-sinister carefully painted out. Like Buckingham and Shaftesbury, he had turned to curry favour with the citizens, Aldermen and Shrieves, after being forbidden to present himself contumaciously at Court. With wealth at his command, his wife's money, and what the rich merchants were willing to advance for the help of his pretensions as the possible Protestant Heir to the Crown, he found no difficulty in attracting towards him his own little Court of flatterers, revellers, and libertines. Grave plotters looked askance at the gaudy butterflies whom he chose for his associates. But since each set only used him selfishly to further their own ends, there was no open quarrel. Nevertheless, a coolness began to show itself between Monmouth and Shaftesbury. The following ballad rebukes Monmouth for having yielded himself trustfully to the guidance of 'Tony Shaftesbury. He had certainly been flattered and "fool'd to the top of his bent," by the wily Achitophel; in whom the ambition of thereafter pulling the strings of this weak but handsome puppet, "England's Darling," had been mingled with the strongest personal hatred towards the "Popish Successor," James Duke of York. There is no certainty, and scarcely a probability that Shaftesbury had ever really felt any loving friendship for Monmouth. Their mock reverence for austere Protestantism was the most bare-faced imposture. Shaftesbury admitted that the only religion he held by was that which suited intellectual self-guided men; and he skilfully avoided committing himself dangerously, after such unusual candour, by explaining that they kept this secret unspoken. He became willing to abandon Monmouth as problematical Heir, and take instead the eldest son of "Madam Carwell," the young Duke of Richmond, Charles Lennox. As a competitor for the Crown of England, in succession to their putative father Charles II., Richmond was an equally good-looking favourite of the crowd. We believe that Aphra Behn describes him faithfully, in the Poem entitled Bajazet to Gloriana, 168: |