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 |  |
T. Dibdin's Song.
“To quit the realm, and many a scheme resolves;
“But let him go, nor heed, though thus you make
“The gentle Duke his lonely journey take.”
Hoole's Ariosto.
“Pour fouler a vos pieds les loix et la patrie
“Je la defends, Siegneur, au péril de ma vie.”
Voltaire.
JAMES THE SECOND.
We nought inscribe but homely truth
Would we could mingle as we write
With information more delight;
Which might instruct and yet amuse;
So should our pen be spared the pain
Of tracing James the Second's reign.
In north and southern British lands;
To answer every stated want,
Two millions revenue we grant.
Scotia, on loyalty's best grounds,
Adds near three hundred thousand pounds;
Yet unpropitious in the main
Commenced King James the Second's reign.
In doom severe of Titus Oates;
(When perjury was much in vogue)
Was of his sacred order stripp'd,
And, nearly to death's threshold, whipp'd;
Mortal more smart did ne'er sustain
Than he, in James the Second's reign.
With rebel banner lands at Lyme;
At Taunton caus'd the bells to ring,
While fools proclaim'd him England's King,
But forced on Sedgemore plain to yield
To Feversham, in hard fought field;
His bold attempt proved rash and vain
To shorten James the Second's reign.
Of Monmouth's downfall and disgrace;
The hapless Duke, half starved, half drown'd,
In covert of a ditch was found.
Sans trial, shorter by the head,
A month beheld him crown'd,—and dead;
While his best friends their life blood drain,
For thwarting James the Second's reign.
Lands, but to fall, the bold Argyle;
Him too a month sufficed to try
His fortune in the field and die.
While dread proscription's reckless work,
By Jefferies and relentless Kirk,
Forbids repentance to obtain
Mercy in James the Second's reign.
Of who by legal murder fell,
From hospitable Lady Lisle,
(Disgrace befal the jury vile,
Her angel sex, her silver hair)
To meanest varlet, meanly slain
By tools of James the Second's reign.
A gibbet high was bade prepare,
To execute some rebel elf,
Then forced to hansel it himself,
By one who more enjoy'd the jest,
Because he was the victim's guest;
Who on that day did entertain
The friend of James the Second's reign.
Such agony refined to plan,
As promise to a weeping maid
Her father's life, and when betray'd,
Shew'd her his corse! thou void of shame,
“Thine own Gods damn thee!” beastly stain
To James the Second's luckless reign!
Or ere they on the scaffold died;
And Gaunt, whose sex nor virtue claims
Exemption from tormenting flames,
With hundreds more of victims, swell
The catalogue of those who fell;
And bid the Muse, in mournful strain,
Weep James the Second's gloomy reign.
The King demands, in which foul cause
And prelates punish'd with the Tower;
While Cam and Isis feel the rod,
And whips profane the man of God:
Sinks freedom bound in slavery's chain,
Under King James the Second's reign.
To Innocents most holy see,
And homage pay to Peter's rights,
The Nuncio Dada James invites;
And sends ambassador to Rome,
Where most himself had been at home,
One Palmer, Earl of Castlemain,
A wight of James the Second's reign.
For health of church begin to arm,
United, zealous in the cause
Of trampled rights and spurn'd at laws,
With great Nassau for freedom treat;
Nassau equips a gallant fleet,
Our dying charters to maintain,
And finish James the Second's reign.
And offers ample aid to James,
Who tries by lenitives, too late,
To ward his near impending fate;
And fools who dared their trust abuse,
'Gin tremble in their recreant shoes,
As rapidly they mark the wane
Of ill-star'd James the Second's reign.
And Auverquerque, the willing wave
To govern Britain's sea-girt shore.
Britain, who now successful fights
To gain her native Bill of Rights:
Whose independent sons disdain
To bend to James the Second's reign.
From Faversham an ill-judged flight;
Whence, by persuasion led to town,
He virtually yields the crown;
His second flight and abdication,
Seal the deliverance of the nation;
Nor explanation did he deign
For closing James the Second's reign.
Receives the man of feeble mind;
Britons with ardent zeal embrace
The royal pair who claim his place:
Nor, tho' without success essayed,
Have we for his re-entrance pray'd;
Incalculable ours the gain,
When James the Second ceas'd to reign.
Oates, Dangerfield, and others, had perjured themselves in accusing James, while Duke of York, of a plot against his brother; the Author by no means seeks to extenuate this man's guilt, but to throw deserved odium on the sanguinary severity with which corporal punishments were inflicted in this Reign; compared to many of which hanging or decollation had been mild and merciful. Burnet, and other respected Historians, tell us that James was naturally cruel; and when in Scotland, (in his Brother's Reign) where several were tortured before the Privy Council, to force confession relative to plots, and where, to use the Prelate's words, “the sight was so dreadful, that without an order restraining such a member to stay, the board would be forsaken, the Duke was so far from withdrawing, that he looked on, all the while, with indifference, and with an attention as if he had been to look on some curious experiment; this gave a terrible idea of him to all that observed it, as of a man that had no bowels nor humanity in him.”
The Earl of Feversham defeated Monmouth, (whose plea was, that Mrs. Barlow, also called Lucy Walters, his mother, had been lawfully married to Charles II.); and the unfortunate Duke was beheaded a month and four days from his ill-advised landing.
Alicra, Lady Lisle, above eighty years old, was tried for concealing two fugitives from the battle of Sedgemoor. The Jury acquitted her three times, but were as often sent back; and Jefferies' threats at last prevailed on them to find her guilty; she was condemned to be burnt the same afternoon, and, as a great favour, permitted to lose her head.
This monster in human shape was a Sir Anthony Kingston, who dined with the Mayor immediately prior to his unlooked-for execution.
By some 'tis said her brother was the victim; that she was seduced to sacrifice her virtue to Kirk, on a solemn promise of her relative's pardon, whose corpse afterwards shewn to her hanging on a sign-post; which dreadful sight deprived her of her reason is incontestibly true. Kirk caused ninety others to be executed at Taunton, his drums and trumpets playing in derision of their dying agonies. Jefferies condemned above six hundred in the West of England, most of whom suffered. Vide Pomfret's Pathetic Poem of “Cruelty & Lust.”
Cornish had been Sheriff of London. Bateman was an eminent Surgeon. Elizabeth Gaunt was burnt for giving momentary shelter to one of Monmouth's fugitive adherents.
The Bishop of London was suspended, and Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of St. Asaph, Ely, Chichester, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, and Bristol, for their attachment to the Protestant Religion were imprisoned in the Tower; afterwards tried in the King's Bench, and acquitted, for which the Judges in their favour were displaced.
The Reverend Mr. Johnson, for espousing the cause of the established Church, was most cruelly whipped, pillored, and fined 500 marks.
This Nobleman puns on a Palmer being sent to Rome; he published several pieces, and is celebrated in the Catalogue of Noble Authors.
The King of France offered a fleet, and an army of 30,000 men; King James refused this succour, under a supposition he should have no occasion for it.
The Prince of Orange and suite had embarkad on the 19th of October, but were driven back by stress of weather. The Earl of Dartmouth, who commanded the King's fleet, made no opposition, and Lord Cranbury, son to the Earl of Clarendon, set an example in the Army, which was soon forward of declaring against King James. Prince George of Denmark, married to the King's Daughter; Lord Churchill, (afterwards the great Duke of Marlborough, the King's favorite); the Dukes of Ormond, Grafton, &c. &c. joined the Prince of Orange.
He had desired to withdraw to Rochester, where he threw the great seal into the river, from whence he privately and suddenly embarked. Jefferies was taken, and escaped in female apparel from the enraged populace; who, however, accoiding to Hume, discovered, and so abused him, that he died in consequence.
| A Metrical History of England | |