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 |
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 | A Metrical History of England |  |
Allan Ramsey.
“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.
Wags of the Day.
“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.
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;
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, and Viscount St. Albans the “Prophet of Arts, which Newton was sent afterwards to reveal.” Horace Walpole.
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. | A Metrical History of England | |