Monmouth's Western Progress, 1680.

"To thee, ungrateful! what has Monmouth done,
That Parson-like thou call'st him Absalom ?

And by that name dost foolishly infer

He from Old David's head the Crown wou'd tear.
Was he ambitious, he had kept his place,

Stood high in David's as the People's grace,

And Warlike Chief of the Prætorian bands,

To the whole Nation's hearts had joyn'd their hands. . .
Monmouth's brave mind cou'd no disguise endure,

Still noble ways preferring to secure.'

-The (so-called) Dryden's Satyr to his Muse?

EXCEPT in connection with Thomas Thynne (see the ballad on

his Murder in the next volume, V.), and as an illusory foretokening of the Lyme and Taunton insurrection, we have little to do in these pages with the "Western Progress" made by Monmouth in August, 1680; or his second progress, through Daventry, Coventry, Chester, and Liverpool, in September, 1682. The earlier of these triumphant tours was the more enthusiastically welcomed. It was a series of festive receptions at country houses, with spontaneous joy of crowds at market towns, where the supposed son of their sovereign might be flattered by those who saw in him a handsome Prince, a wellmeaning and sound Protestant, while others held in view the possi bility of his becoming thereafter a leader in the struggle against Popery and Absolutism.

The second progress, two years later, in 1682, was of a different character. It was abruptly ended by Monmouth being arrested at Stafford, and appearing before Sir Leoline Jenkins, Secretary of State. Monmouth by this time stood plainly committed in opposition to the Court, almost in direct rebellion to its authority. Consequently all persons who now favoured him knew well that they were imperilling themselves, and could only hope to succeed by determined support of the new claims wheresoever they were urged by warfare. Thus there was a much less general show of favour, and among those who declared themselves to be his adherents the utterly reckless rioters offered an awkward preponderance. Seditious toasts were given at these tumultuous assemblies. Sober people kept aloof from such perilous meetings. Hot Tories, on the contrary, felt pleasure in encountering the zealots, and resisting them with force, to a breach of the peace. There was ample justification for the arrest of such a disturber of the nation as Monmouth now proved to be.

1 The authorship of this lampoon on Dryden rests between Thomas Shadwell and John, Lord Somers. Pope denied the correctness of the attribution to Somers, and affirmed that the denial came from him. But there are reasons for distrusting l'ope's report, one being the unlikelihood of such confidence being placed in him.

Monmouth's Western Progress, in 1680.

623

It is the first of these two Progresses that Dryden describes in Absalom and Achitophel:

Youth, beauty, graceful action, seldom fail,
But Common-interest always will prevail;
And pity never ceases to be shown

To him, who makes the People's wrongs his own.
The Crowd (that still their Kings oppress)
With lifted hands their young Messiah bless;
Who now begins his Progress to ordain,
With chariots, horsemen, and a numerous Train.
From East to West his glories he displays,
And, like the Sun, the Promis'd Land surveys.
Fame runs before him, as the Morning Star,
And shouts of joy salute him from afar;
Each house receives him as a Guardian God,
And consecrates the place of his abode :
But hospitable Treats did most commend
Wise Issachar, his wealthy Western friend.

This moving Court, that caught the People's eyes,
And seem'd but Pomp, did other ends disguise;
Achitophel had form'd it, with intent

To sound the depths, and fathom where it went,
The People's hearts; distinguish friends from foes,
And try their strength before they came to blows.
Yet all was colour'd with a smooth pretence
Of specious Love and Duty to their Prince.
"Religion" and " Redress of Grievances,"
Two names that always cheat, and always please,
Are often urg'd; and "good King David's life
Endanger'd by a Brother and a Wife."

730

[Tom Thynne.

740

[=Shaftesbury.

[=Charles II.

750

One such triumph was distasteful enough to the Court, following as it did on Monmouth's unsanctioned return to England, his refusal to obey the King's command to again depart, and with such obstinacy that one by one his public honours had to be recalled, viz. the Captaincy of the Guards, the government of Hull (transferred to Earl Mulgrave), Lieutenancy of Yorkshire East Riding, and Wardenship of Forests "this side of Trent." He was no longer to be Master of the Horse: the office being put into commission. He still refused to be under controul, and was rich enough to be independent; owing to his wife's fortune, which he squandered without compunction, leaving her the barest pittance. Soon followed the recall of the Duke of York to the English Court: but to meet this move some further bold play was advised and attempted, which brings us to our next section: The Obscure Prince and the undiscoverable Black Box.

Monmouth and the Black Bor.

"No Head remains our Loyal Cause to grace,

For Monmouth is too weak for that high place:
More proper for the Court where he was rais'd,
His Dancing envy'd and his Dressing prais'd;
Where still such Folly is so well protected,
Those few that ha' n't it are oblig'd t' affect it.
For Statesman, King, and eлoч, and all have sworn
T' advance such wit and vertue as their own."

-The Imperial Trimmer, 1683.

THE weakness of Monmouth had been forebodingly measured by

the shrewder minds of friends and foes. The words of our motto were written early in 1683, when the death of Shaftesbury disorganized his party. But at present we mark events of April, 1680.

As to the illegitimacy of Monmouth there had been great debate, and on the Duke of York being invited back to London, with enthusiastic welcome, his opponents attempted to strengthen the claim of the only available rival, "England's Darling," so lately the popular Captain of the Guards. Industriously were circulated pamphlets declaring that Charles had been lawfully married at Cologne, by William Fuller, to Lucy Walter, alias Waters, alias Mrs. Barlow, Monmouth's mother. Robert Ferguson, who was connected with most of the forgeries and abortive treasons of the time, is accredited with having originated the specious tale of The Black Box. It was to the effect that, long ago in Paris, during the time when Monmouth was under the tutelage of Thomas Ross,' Dr. Cosin had shown the contract or certificate of marriage to the tutor, and had afterwards placed it for safety within a Black Box, and left it in charge of his own son-in-law Sir Gilbert Gerard. Dr. Cosin was Bishop of Durham, from 1660 to 1674. The Council investigated this story, summoning as witnesses those surviving persons whose names had been mixed up with it; but they one and all denied knowledge of the contract, the marriage, or the Black Box. Among them was Sir Gilbert Gerard. King Charles solemnly declared before the Council that he had never been married to Lucy Waters alias Barlow, or to any woman whatever except the Queen. This declaration was twice published in the Gazette, Nos. 1507, 1520, April 26, 1680. Thus was the dangerous scandal nipt in the bud. A contemporary poem, in defence of the claim to legitimacy, affects to embody the remonstrances of Monmouth, thus:—

1 He injudiciously informed the boy of his Royal parentage, and thus did much to unsettle his mind by delusive hopes of the future. In our Bagford Ballads, p. 805, we printed a poem entitled "Tom Ross's Ghost to his Pupil, Monmouth,” beginning,Shame of my Life, Disturber of my Tomb," which belongs to this date of the Black Box. It was written by Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon.

The Black-Box, and its apocryphal Certificates. 625

The Obscure Prince; or, The Black Bor bored.

Heavens the weakness of my unkind Father!

"Heavens

He would not black himself, his Wife defame,
And after marriage Bastard me proclaim;
Through panic fear thus in Perillus roar,1
To gratify a Brother or a элонда,

Honour disclaim, by Fools and Knaves beguil'd;
Nay, would it pass, deny me for his Child;
Destroy my Right 'gainst God and Nature's Laws,
To prop the falling of their tott'ring Cause:
Pursue a Chace more of the Goose than Fox,
Call 't the shamm'd Story of the blackened Box;
Deny the Truth long in the Ashes hid,
Disowning now what Bishop Fuller did; 2
How he perform'd the Marriage Office, e'er
You cou'd enjoy my wronged Mother dear.
All other Terms she scorned with her Soul,
Tho' means were us'd with her both fair and foul;
Witness your self what Mother-Queen did do,3
Besides the offers that were made by you.
When mighty Passions brought you down so ill,
Your grief befool'd the French Physician's skill,
And at grim Death's approaches out did cry,
O let me marry with her, or I die.'
"Twas then she yielded and became your Wife.
Sir, this is truth, I'll prove it with my life.

'But you may save the trouble, if you please,
Speak like yourself, and all the Kingdom ease.
You are my Father, Sir; I'll duty pay
Unto your self unto my dying day.

But when that falls (which God foreslow), Sir, I
Will take the name of Royal Majesty,
Without offence to any, as my due,

Giv'n me by God, by Nature, Sir, and You.
Then (if I live) the wronged World shall know
In wedlock I was got, and born in't too;
That I am Heir undoubted to the Crown,
And will enjoy it when you lay it down,
In spite of Papists, maugre all their Hate,
Their Hope shall find I am legitimate.
England stand by me with your utmost breaths,
I'll ruin Rome, or die ten thousand Deaths;
And make France tremble also e'er I've done;
Destroy those Plagues that murder Christendom,
That true Religion in the Land may flow,
Not forms and int'rest which are called so:
And should I ever alter what I say,
Let God forsake me on my dying day."

The inventor of the brazen bull, in which he was afterwards himself encased and baked, to roar with agony. Tippoo Sahib took pleasure in a toy, a mechanical tiger, crushing an English soldier; the hand-organ imitated groans and roaring. 2 William Fuller, Bishop of Lincoln, 1667 to 1675.

3 The Queen Dowager, Henrietta Maria; who made a pet of young Monmouth.

VOL. IV.

2 s

626 Monmouth's remonstrance urged on Charles the Second.

Enough, brave Prince, we'll take your Royal Word,
And will defend you by the dint of Sword,

'Gainst all Opposers whosoe'er they are;

We'll stand or fall, and in your Fortunes share :
And, after Charles, who wrongs you of your Crown,
Shall cut a Million of true English down.
"Honi soit qui mal y pense."

[Probably by Robert Ferguson.]

50

Among the numerous verses which brought before the public the Duke's claim to be considered legitimate, and therefore the probable successor to Charles II., few are of equal importance to "A Letter from the Duke of Monmou]th to the King," and "The King's Answer." Like "The Obscure Prince," the former complains of his unhappy position. We give both the Letter and The King's Answer:

A Letter from the Duke of Monmou]th to the King.

"D1

Isgraced, undone, forlorn, made Fortune's Sport,
Banish'd your Kingdom first, and then your Court;

Out of my Places turn'd, and out of doors,
And made the meanest of your sons of sex;
The theme of laughter, and the common Chats
Of your [rank fav'rites], and your other Brats;
Forc'd to a private Life, to [rake] and drink,
On my past Grandeur and my Follies think.
Would I had been the Brat of some mean Drab,
Whom fear or chance had caus'd to choak or stab,
Rather than be the Issue of a King,

And by him made so wretched, scorn'd a thing.
How little cause has mankind to be proud
Of Noble Birth, the Idol of the Crowd!
Have I abroad in battels Honour won,
To be at home dishonourably undone ?
Mark'd with a Star and Garter, and made fine
With all those gaudy Trifles, once call'd mine;
Your Hobby-horses, and your joys of State,
And now become the object of your hate;
But, d- -ee, Sir, I'll be legitimate.

I was your Darling, but against your will;

And know that I will be the People's still.

And when you're dead, I and my Friends, the Rout,
Will with my Popish Uncle try a Bout;

And to my troubles this one comfort bring,
Next after you, by -, I will be King.'

In printed copy this reads "post Grandeur," and it may possibly be correct: alluding to the former position as Captain of the Royal Guards. A recent quarrel with the Duchess of Portsmouth was believed to have been the chief cause of Monmouth's banishment, more than antagonism to James Duke of York. The text has "s eg," and to “ãoчm and drink”; but, as always, we mark the interpolations by square brackets. In Roxburghe Ballads, we feel loath to make even these alterations, for reasons explained in our Introduction to the volume.