A Metrical History of England :: :: University of Virginia Library

A Metrical History of England

Or, Recollections, in Rhyme, Of some of the most prominent Features in our National Chronology, from the Landing of Julius Caesar to the Commencement of the Regency, in 1812. In Two Volumes ... By Thomas Dibdin

Dibdin, Thomas (1771-1841)

II.

PART THE NINTH.

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9. PART THE NINTH.

From the Accession of James I. to the Restoration.

CONTENTS.

James I.—Gunpowder Treason.—Charles I.—Civil Wars, and Martyrdom of the King.—The Commonwealth.—Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.—Richard Cromwell.—Restoration and Accession of Charles II.

HOUSE OF STUART.

“Peggy noo the King's come.”
Allan Ramsey.

“The Prince, who drunk with flatt'ry, dreamt
“His vain pacific counsels ruled the world;
“Tho' scorn'd abroad, bewilder'd in a maze
“Of fruitless treaties, while at home enslav'd,
“He lost his people's confidence and love.”
Thomson.

“Rex fuit Elizabeth, nunc est Regina Jacobus.”
Wags of the Day.

“Pray remember
“The fifth of November.”
Schoolboys annual Petition.

THE KINGDOMS OF ENGLAND and SCOTLAND UNITED, IN JAMES, The First King of Great Britain.

Question.
Who to Elizabeth succeeded?

Answer.
She named the King of Scots, and he did.

Q.
Was James most fond of peace or fighting?

A.
Peace, study, and polemic writing.
Set little store by worldly riches,
Believed in sorcery and witches;
Religion in his breast by turns,
Is lukewarm or with ardour burns;
Zealous and cold he scorns the devil,
And cures, or tries to cure, the evil.

Q.
Were there no plots against his throne?

A.
For Arabella Stuart one;
For which that jewel of Eliza's reign,
Raleigh, incarcerated did remain
Twelve years, then met an unexpected fate.
The jealous Spaniards wrath, 'tis said, to sate,
Yet Raleigh left a deathless name,
To learning dear and dear to fame;
For val'rous enterprize his life renowned,
Intrepid in his death that life he crown'd;

Nor will I apprehend rebuke that here,
Penn'd by himself, his dying words appear.—
“Ev'n such is time, which takes in truth,
“Our youth, our joy, and all we have,
“And pays us nought but age and dust,
“When in the dark and silent grave.
“When we have wander'd all our ways,
“Shut up the story of our days;
“And from which grave, and earth, and dust,
“The Lord will raise me up, I trust.

A Volume of his Works was published of Polemic Tracts, also Dæmonologia, and (by way of constrast) “A Counterblast to Tobacco;” and many pieces of poetry, Annotations, puns, scripture, wittiscims, superstition, oaths, vanity, prerogative and pedantry were the ingredients of all his sacred Majesty's performances. Catalogue of Royal Authors.

Gondamar, ambassador from Spain.—Sir Walter's exploits against St. Thomas and other Spanish settlements made him an object of Iberian anger.

Q.
Did Ararella fall in James's power?

A.
She did, and died while prisoner in the Tower.

Q.
Were other plans against the monarch framed?

A.
One, almost too atrocious to be named,
Of most peculiar horror, which, the eye
Of Providence o'erseeing, heaven thought good
It's flame to stifle with the traitor's blood.
Sir Everard Digby, Catesby, and a band
Of matchless villains, murd'rously plann'd
That King, Lords, Commons, at one dreadful blast,
“No reck'ning made” with God, should breathe their last.

Q.
What saved the nation from so fell a scheme?

A.
Omnipotence alone, as it should seem,
Inspired a number of the trait'rous horde,
With caution's pen to warn a loyal Lord;
Who, to his country and his sov'reign true,
The scroll exposed, and foil'd the impious crew.
Enquiry soon laid bare the embryo act,
The bigot Faux , detected in the act
Of pre-arrangement, mourned his smother'd hope;
The rest resisting fall, or grace the felon's rope.

Lord Mounteagle.

Faux, Digby, Rookewood, Keys, Grant, Bates, and the two Winters, were hanged; Catesby, Percy, and the two Wrights, were slain in the endeavour to take them.

Q.
Did James by commerce add to his domain?

A.
What great Eliza had begun, this reign
Improved, and saw our envied colours fly
O'er many a well-established colony;
While daring Britons fresh adventures seek,
From Thames, translucent, to the Chesapeake.

Q.
What favorites of noble note had James?

A.
Villiers and Car, unequal to the names
Of Verulam and Raleigh, “sage grave men”
Whose reputation scorns my feeble pen.

Q.
Had London of improvements any share?

A.
A river brought, by Middleton, from Ware;
Each street and house most copiously supplied,
And gave the hint to other plans since tried.

Duke of Buckingham.

Earl of Somerset.

Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, and Viscount St. Albans the “Prophet of Arts, which Newton was sent afterwards to reveal.” Horace Walpole.

Q.
What else of moment does to James relate?

A.
No more than that he met our common fate;
At Theobald's—Serene his British reign,
Who liv'd sans effort, and who died sans pain.

It is said, however, by Andrews, that he died not without suspicion of being poisoned by Lord Buckingham; the same author, observing on the Royal Line of Stuart, calls them a race as steadily unfortunate as ever were recorded in History; their misfortunes having continued, with unabated succession, during 390 years— of which he adduces the following melancholy proots:

Robert III. broke his heart, because his eldest son, Robert, was starved to death; and his youngest, James, was made a captive.

James I. after having beheaded three of his nearest kindred, was assassinated by his own uncle, who was tortured to death. for it.

James II. was slain by the bursting of a cannon.

James III. when flying from battle was thrown from his horse, and murdered in a cottage, into which he had been carried for assistance.

James IV. fell in Flodden Field.

James V. died of grief for the wilful ruin of his army at Solway Moss.

Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was assassinated, and then blown up, in his palace.

Mary Stuart was beheaded in England.

James VI (and First of England,) died under circumstances just related.

Charles I. was beheaded at Whitehall.

Charles II. was exiled for many years.

James II. lost his crown, and died in banishment.

Ann, after a reign, which though glorious, was rendered unhappy by party disputes, died of a broken heart, occasioned by the quarrels of her favoured servants.

The posterity of James II. have remained wanderers in foreign lands.

Antient and Modern Andcdotes by J. P. Andrews.

101

“With firmness forced, apparently serene,
“The fated Monarch meets th' afflicting scene;
“But when he views his Children's opening charms,
“Clouded in grief, and folds them in his arms—
“Paternal yearnings all his heart possess,
“His firmness stagger, and his soul oppress.”
C. Dibdin, Jun.

“Murder most foul, as in the best it is,
“But this most foul, strange and unnatural.”
Shakespeare.

“Nor agonies, nor livid death disgrace
“The sacred features of the Monarch's face;
“In the cold visage, mournfully serene,
“The same indignant majesty is seen.”
Rowe's Lucan.

“Le crime fait la honte et non pas l'echafaud
“Chez le peuple aux exces le passage est rapide;
“Furieux aujourd'hui, demain il est timide;
“Un rien le rend cruel, un rien peut le toucher,
“Il dresse tour-a-tour l'Autel & le Bucher;
“Et ne suivant jamais que les loix de caprice
“Son idol est toujours au bord du precipice.”
Le Vicomte D---.

“Yet for the Royal Martyr's prayer
“(The Royal Martyr prays we know,)
“This guilty isle, oh Heaven! spare,
“Hear but his soul above, and not his blood below.”
Cowley.

102

CHARLES THE FIRST.

While Raleigh wrote “The World” one dreary day,
He heard, beneath his prison bars, a fray;
But on enquiry, could not learn, forsooth,
Which party err'd, or which declared the truth.
The foil'd historian cast his pen aside,
“Dare I presume old tales to tell,” he cried,
“When, from what happens, almost in my sight,
“I find no clue to teach me wrong from right?”
If penetration, deep as his, could falter,
I claim excuse enough,—I'm no Sir Walter.—
Some writers of our martyr'd Charles believe
He was religious, brave; wou'd ne'er deceive:
Was affable, chaste, temp'rate, wise, nor can
You take, than theirs, a nobler view of man.
Others with pertinacity declare
Him weak, oppressive, govern'd by the fair;

103

Fond of prerogative, to fav'rites kind,
Yet to his people's real int'rest blind.
Haply could we with truth inspect his heart,
We might behold some weakness claim a part;
Where many a brilliant grace and virtue blend,
Observed by many foes, and many friends.
Unequal with an host, alas! to cope,
Alternate prey to flattery, fear, and hope;
The monarch's deeds should large allowance claim,
With whom too often, to a nation's shame,
Success is virtue, and misfortune, blame!

The outset of the hapless monarch's reign,
Was mark'd by war (bequeathed by James) with Spain;
When Buckingham, our blood-stain'd records tell,
By gloomy Felton's savage dagger fell.
The northern presbytery, near and far,
Cry “havock! and let slip the dogs of war;”
And “league and covenant,” those terms of peace,
Engender troubles, not for years to cease.
Oh! for the force of Butler's biting pen,
To stygmatize false zeal and hot brain'd men!

104

The King takes arms,—the leaguers in a trice,
Ask peace,—'tis violate,—and granted twice;
One party roundly swear 'twas Charles who broke it,
While cavaliers affirm the Scots provoke it.

The English Parliament themselves proclaim
Perpetual, and the royal acts disclaim;
Degrade the King's best friends, his mandates mock,
And sentence Laud and Strafford to the block.
Various the fatal contests that took place,
Betwixt descendants of one British race;
Children and father variously essay
The doubtful issue of each hard-fought day;
Tadcaster, Edgehill, Gisbro', Braddock down,
The blood imbibe shed 'gainst and for the crown;
Newberry, Chaldgrave, Saltheath, Stratton plain,
Allesford and Rounday, Lansdown still remain
Graves of the conquering and conquer'd slain.

105

Crop'dey, and Langport, each a blood-stain'd field,
Decided not which cause was doom'd to yield;
But Marston Moor and Rupert's foil and flight,
Proved mournful preludes to the fatal fight.
Of Naseby,—Naseby! thy thrice “blasted heath,”
Betray'd a monarch to a traitor's death!

Few are the lines that may the sequel tell,
How tried, insulted, sold, the sov'reign fell;
How, to each judge debas'd, with honest pride,
Th' exalted King all legal pow'r denied.

And when the murderer, trembling at his task,
Brandish'd the axe, yet shrank behind his mask:
The King superior to the guilty race,
(While radiant majesty illum'd his face,)
With thoughts on kingdoms everlasting placed,
Left this, for ever by his fall disgraced!

Nor Juxon be thy pious worth unsung,
(Howe'er unworthily the lyre be strung,)
Thy dying master's woes who dared to sooth,
And death's sharp avenue to mercy smooth.

106

So, in our days, when Gallia's father fell;
If future times should credit what we tell,
That priest will meet due praise, whose holy care,
Led him unaw'd by parricide Santerre,
To say, or e're the fatal blow was given,
“Son of St Louis! you ascend to Heaven!!!”

As music is to poetry a kin,
(Sisters, the sons of erudition say,)
We may, perchance, presume, “withouten sin,”
Here to insert, what hath “proclaymed bin,”
Of martial music in King Charles's days.
A subject all, I ween,
Have interest in,
Who know how oft our lads have play'd their parts,
To tunes that rous'd their own, and quailed their foemen's hearts.

He wrote, also, and his works, after his death, published in a volume, intitled “Reliquiæ Sacræ Carolinæ; or, the Works of that great Monarch and glorious Martyr, King Charles I. both civil and sacred.” After the Restoration, his famous Εικων Βασιλικη was published, which went through forty-seven impressions, including 48,000 copies; “the greatest run,” says Burnet, “that any book has had in our age.” Catalogue of Royal Authors; Harris's Life of Charles I.; Burnet's History of his own Times.

When the Lieutenant of the Tower offered Strafford a coach, lest he should be torn to pieces by the mob, in passing to execution, he replied, “I die to please the people, and I will die their own way.” Royal and Noble Authors.

111

“When civil dudgeon first grew high,
“And men fell out, they knew not why;
“When pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,
“Was beat with fist instead of a stick.”
Butler.

Why “Then a monstrous rabblement there pass'd
“Of rude mis-shapen Wights, a horrid shew;
“'Till, slowly pacing, onward came at last,
“A long lean spectre, imp of vice and woe,
“Hight melancholy, with deportment low.”
Leigh Hunt.

“Established violence and lawless might,
“Avow'd and hallow'd by the name of right.”
Rowe's Lucan.

“Fell Anarchy!
“As thy loud trumpet calls
“To deadly rage and fierce alarms,
“Just Order's goodly fabric falls;
“Whilst the mad people cry, to arms! to arms!
“With thee, Proscription, child of Strife,
“With death's choice implements is seen,
“Her murd'rous gun, assassin's knife.—
Poetry of the Antijacobin.

INTER-REGNUM;

OR, THE COMMONWEALTH.

Reader, pardon that the muse
Such uphill drudgery should chuse,

112

As make a list, tho' odd, yet true,
Of some of Praise-God Barebones crew;
“Praise-God Barebones,” so do we,
From such mongrels to be free;
Such strange names, and such strange men,
Ne'er may England see again.

The names that follow, I assure ye,
Says Hume, once form'd a Sussex jury;
For me, if their meaning I've wrongly exprest,
My meaning pray pardon, it's meant for the best.

Make-Peace Heaton, like Hudibras fought;
Fly-Debate Roberts, a wrangling calf;
More-Fruit Fowler, thy fruit is worth nought;
Weep-Not Billing, thy name makes us laugh.
Earth Adams, Call'd Lower, and Brewer the Meek;
Spelman Return, nor with blockheads be found;
Faint-not Hewit, God knows thou art weak;
Stand-fast Stringer, 'tis ticklish ground.

113

Be-faithful Joiner, of traitors the tool;
Fight-the-good-fight White, with those you've misled;
Hope-for Bending, the fate of a fool;
Kill-Sin Pimple, cut off thine own head,
Accepted Trevor, by reason refused;
Compton Redeemed, to common sense lost;
Grateful Harding, a name most abused:
God-reward Smart, with a smart whipping post.

With what contempt you'd treat an age,
That gives such fools to history's page;
Did it not also bring to view,
Hobbes, Harrington, and Harvey too.
Harvey, by whom first understood
The circulation of the blood.
And Denham, who can charm us still,
Living, tho' dead, on Cooper's Hill;
Cowley, “whose Wit, tho' thousand shapes it bears,
“Yet comely in a thousand shapes appears.”

114

Waller and Dryden both cou'd deign to sing,
I grieve to say,
In eulogaic lay,
Usurping Cromwell and his murdered King.

“Unhappy Dryden! in all Charles's days,
“Roscommon only boasts unspotted lays;”
So Pope has written, but 'tis plain,
We but anticipate the foll'wing reign.

From Barebones, and his late named crew,
'Tis known to all, that Butler drew
His Puritanic Quixote's pranks,
With great success and little thanks.

What bard now rises with seraphic flight,
With eye of mind and soul of light!
'Tis Milton! cease! dare I record his fame,
I'd use no panegyric, but his name.

Cowley's Ode on Wit.

What politic matters took place, 'twere as well,
Under Cromwell's protectorship briefly to tell;
So I'll end with four couplets, from whence may be deem'd,
How Noll'smen and King'smen each other esteemed.

115

At a staunch cavalier, thus a parliament man,
To rail “in set terms,” about goodness began:
“All carnal excesses you royalists twine,
“Dress, eating, and sporting, cards, women, and wine.”

“I own,” says the knight, “we've the vices of men,
“Who want some reforming, 'tis granted, but then,
“Your tyrant rebellion produces one evil,
“Call'd spiritual pride,—that's the vice of the devil.”

118

“The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose;
“An evil soul producing Holy Writ,
“Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
“A goodly apple rotten at the core.”
Shakespeare.

“Both Cain and Abel back are come
“In vizards most divine;
“God bless us from a pulpit drum,
“And preaching Cataline.”
Sir John Birkinhead.

“Guile, violence and murder, seiz'd on man;
“And, for soft milky streams, with blood the rivers ran.”
Thomson.

OLIVER CROMWELL,

PROTECTOR.

Charles now no more, his best adherents fled,
Or those who dare espouse the martyr's side,
Or own the son of him unjustly dead,
Like him the victim of rebellion died.

Montrose thy loyalty and glorious lot
Will, to thine honor, live when traitors are forgot;

119

Scotland awhile deserves good men's applause,
By kind adherence to the royal cause.
The son of Charles essays to gain his right,
'Till all his hopes expire at Wor'ster fight;
Derby! the scaffold by thy foes decreed,
Graces the cause for which you nobly bleed.
The “King enacts more wonders than a man,”
Patient in suff'ring, hoping better fate;
He proves that fortune, threaten what she can,
Still never overcomes the truly great.
Eclips'd, like Alfred, in a peasant's guise,
He stoops to conquer, and submits to rise!
And long shall May thy gilded honors bring,
Kind Boscobel, the shelter of a King.

Cromwell now seated in the ruling chair,
To tell his virtues haply were but fair;
But, not at present knowing what they were,
We'll just sum up his actions, first premising,
That, from our souls, we cannot help despising
The wretch whose nonchalance, while Charles's fate
Was canvass'd, with the cushion where he sate
Play'd like a schoolboy,—when the fatal scroll
Of death was signing, Cromwell, void of soul,

120

In fiend-like sport, black characters could trace,
With ink on his too black associates face.

England's respect, her navy and her trade,
In justice let us own he well supported;
(But that his interest prompted.) and his aid,
And close alliance more than once were courted.
Van Trump, DeWit, DeRuyter, led the Dutch,
And swept our seas, or dared to say as much;
'Till Monk, and Blake, the Nelson of that day,
With Pen and Ascue, in hard well fought fray,
Tore their high-top-broad-bottom'd-brooms away

The Quakers with incipient fermentation
Of spirit moving, next disturb the nation;
One calls himself the saviour of mankind,
Another, sword in hand, the senate meets:
And swear to kill each Rump that he may find,
At home, in parliament, or in the streets.
A third begins a fast of forty days,
But does not live to end it; yet my lays
Mean not to blame their present blameless race,
Facts, and not comments, here alone have place.

121

Therefore, to please you, we'll look back again,
And finish Cromwell's self-appointed reign.

Regardless of promises, honor, and word,
He Drogheda's garrison puts to the sword;
At Dunbar and Wor'ster defeating the Scots,
For slaves sells his pris'ners, to India, in lots.
In private proposing to make himself King,
He cou'dn't get colleagues in concert to sing;
Rules over the English as Turks govern Moors,
A senate first forms, and then kicks out of doors;
Then fierce as Achilles, more bully than Hector,
That Government cancels, which makes him Protector.
The army maintained by this arrogant elf,
Kept popular liberty all to himself;
And, scorning to imitate Kings, he had houses
More num'rous than they, or their sons, or their spouses:
When fortune placed loyal men under his hands,
Or rather his feet, as the true matter stands,
If their heads he remitted, he cut off their lands.
Ungrateful to him who inspir'd all he knew,
(And to keep from his patron, the devil, his due)
As sure as his dark highness looks over Lincoln,
Noll made it high treason his death but to think on.

122

Tho' much disappointed, not mounting a throne,
He prank'd up a pert House of Peers of his own;
Last, vext he'd nought further to flatter his pride,
Like big Alexander, he manfully cried,
And so had his court, but by good luck he died.

Members of what was nick-named the Rump Parliament.

124

“As honest as the skin between his brows.”
Shakespeare.

“Le Second Protecteur R. C. n'ayant pas les qualities du premier, ne pouvait en avoir la fortune. Son Sceptre, n'etait point sontenue par l'Epee; et n'ayant ni l'intrepidite ni l'hypocrysie d'Olivier, il ne scut ni se faire craindre de l'Armeé, ni imposer aux parties, et aux sectes qui divisaient l'Angleterre.” Voltaire.

“Old Noll is marching off;
“And Dick, his heir apparent,
“Succeeds him in the Goverment;
“A very lame Vicegerent.
“He'll reign but little time, poor tool
“But sinks beneath the State.
“That will not fail to ride the fool
“'Bove common horseman's weight.”
Butler's Vicar of Bray.

“I positively forbid,” said Richard, to one of his adherents who pressed him to exert more vigour against the Royalists, “I positively forbid shedding the blood of a single man in my cause; I would rather relinquish the post I hold, than proceed to such unwarrantable extremities; I wish to retain my situation no longer than shall be consistent with the public good, and the wishes of those I govern.” Lounger's Common Place Book.

RICHARD CROMWELL,

PROTECTOR.

This gentleman sat not two years in the chair,
And we don't hear of much he effected while there;

125

For Lambert and Fleetwood, and Parliament long,
With the army, reduced all his pow'r to a song.
So he said he was willing to go or to stay,
If they'd pension his life, and his creditors pay.
Next Monk took the changeable symbols of pow'r,
And sent Messrs Lambfrt and Co. to the Tow'r.
Invited the King, who in splendor came over,
And recognized loyalty once more at Dover;
To London escorted, a grand coronation
Ensued, while the toast drank throughout the whole nation,
Was “down with the Rumps, and long live Restoration.”

END OF PART THE NINTH.