The Pictorial Press Part 5

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARICATURE, 1644.]

The Welshman came in for a share of the satirist's wit at the commencement of the Civil War. He generally figures under the name of 'Ap s.h.i.+nkin,' and is made to speak English much the same as the Scottish Highlander does in Scott's novels. '_The Welsh mans Postures, or the true manner how her doe exercise her company of Souldiers in her own Country in a warlike manners_,' is a satire of a very broad character, and is ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut representing men exercising with the pike. s.h.i.+nkin is also ridiculed for the share he took in the battle of Edgehill, the first important engagement in the Civil War. There is an ill.u.s.trated tract with the following t.i.tle: '_The Welsh mans Complements: or the true manner how s.h.i.+nkin wood his Sweetheart Maudlin after his return from Kenton Battaile_. _Also Fair Maudlin's reply and answer to all s.h.i.+nkin's Welch complements, full of merry wit and pleasant mirth._' The 'merry wit' is certainly not refined, and the 'pleasant mirth' is founded on s.h.i.+nkin's supposed hasty departure from the neighbourhood of the fight. The woodcut represents s.h.i.+nkin and Maudlin in conversation.

Prince Rupert is often the mark for the satirist's wit. In '_Rupert's Sumpter, and private Cabinet rifled, and a Discovery of a Pack of his Jewels, by way of Dialogue between Mercurius Brittanicus and Mercurius Aulicus_,' there is a discussion as to the Prince's merits and demerits, and he is charged with aiming at the crown. Both the King and Queen were brought under the caricaturist's lash. In 1644 there was an ill.u.s.trated pamphlet published, representing the King, Queen, and a bishop, with the following t.i.tle: '_The Suss.e.x Picture, or an Answer to the Sea-gull_.'

The address to the reader is headed: 'The Sceptre's Submission, the Distaffs Triumph, and the Crosiers Combination. Reader, If thou hast view'd that stately Picture, which was lately sent up to the Parliament by Collonel Morley, and was taken in a Flemish s.h.i.+p upon the Suss.e.x Sh.o.r.e; Thou hast beheld therein the weaker s.e.xe triumphing over the stronger, and by the help of a Miter, thou hast seen a Scepter doing homage to the Distaffe. If thou hast never seen the Originall, yet here is to be seen a poore, rude, counterfeit of the chief part in it; use thy judgement freely, and impartially: let both the Peece itself, and that which is said by both sides, in judgement thereupon, be put into one equal ballance. If the Dutch Author be not to undergo censure, as if he intended an English Storie, yet neither art thou to be censured for doubting his intention, or for standing amazed at his phancie. Shadows which are not fas.h.i.+oned by some certain, neer, interposing body present nothing to the eye, and therefore work nothing upon the understanding.

The language of a picture is to be borrowed from the veritie of the matter, if that be wanting, neither the Art of the Limner nor the imagination of the spectator can supply its vocall organs.' This caricature may have referred to the influence which the Roman Catholic Queen was supposed to exercise over the Protestant king under clerical guidance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PARLIAMENT OF LADIES, 1644.]

Charles I. summoned a Parliament at Oxford in 1644, consisting of such members of both Houses as were devoted to his interests. There exists a satirical tract ridiculing this Parliament, and, in fact, representing it as a Parliament of old women. The tract is ent.i.tled '_An exact Diurnall of the Parliament of Laydes_,' and is ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut. It sets forth that 'Countesses and other Ladies (on Monday morning early in a Prosopopia) being met in Mary Maudlins Hall in Oxford, they first made choyce of their speaker; and it was agreed by all that the Lady Oboney should have the chaire, the Lady Rivers was made Chancellor, Nurse Windham High Constable, the Countess of Derby High Treasurer, and the Countess of Ess.e.x High Chamberlain. These Ladies having all taken their places, Mrs. Powell was appointed cheefe Clerk to the House, and Mrs. Peele Chaire Lady to the Close Committee, and Moll Cut-Purse was made Sergeant at Arms.' Prince Rupert and others are tried and sentenced for various crimes, but the ladies afterwards relent, and pardon all the prisoners brought before them. I give on the preceding page a reduced copy of the rough woodcut which ill.u.s.trates this curious burlesque.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARICATURE, 1644.]

A writer of much verbosity satirised the a.s.sembly of Divines at Westminster in another ill.u.s.trated pamphlet, printed 'by Martin Claw-Clergy for Bartholomew Bang-Priest, and sold in Toleration-street, at the sign of the Subject's Liberty, opposite to Persecuting Court.'

The author states on the t.i.tle-page that his production displays 'many witty Synodian Conceits both pleasant and commodious,' and adorns his work with the above curious engraving, which probably had some reference to a Papal Bull, but at this distance of time we look in vain for the point and meaning of many of these old caricatures.

Having glanced at the satirical side of ill.u.s.trated journalism at the epoch of the Civil War, I will quote two or three examples relating to the social and political condition of the country before entering upon the stirring events of that time.

A great variety of subjects are embraced in this section. There are accounts of apparitions, signs and portents in the heavens, monstrous births, duels and murders, criminal trials and executions, besides many tracts relating to the vices and follies of the age. One of the first ill.u.s.trated pamphlets we come to in this division of our subject describes a duel fought in vindication of the good name of King Charles I. The pamphlet is ent.i.tled, '_Sir Kenelme Digby's Honour maintained by a most couragious Combat which he fought with the Lord Mount le Ros, who by base and slanderous words reviled our King_. _Also the true relation how he went to the King of France, who kindly intreated and sent two hundred men to guard him so far as Flanders. And now he is returned from Banishment, and to his eternal honour lives in England._' This is a tract written by an undoubted Royalist. It begins in praise of valour, which is divided into three kinds--that which is allied to rashness, that which is born of the fear of death, and temperate or true valour.

It describes how Sir Kenelme Digby was dining with a French lord, who, having toasted most of the kings of Christendom, then proposed the health of the most arrant coward in the world; and on Sir Kenelme inquiring who that was, he was told, after he had drunk the toast, that it was meant for the King of England: 'At which the good knight seemed very much discontent, knowing in what nature his Soveraigne was wronged; yet very wisely did he seeme to pa.s.s it by untill dinner being ended, then did he desire the same lord the next day to come and dine with him, who promised him upon his honour that he would.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIR KENELM DIGBY's DUEL, 1641.]

The next day the French Lord repaired to Sir Kenelme's lodgings, where an entertainment befitting his rank was provided: 'Neither did Sir Kenelme seeme to remember the former daies discontent, but was very frolic and merry, and in the midst of dinner time desired them all to be bare, for he would beginne a health to the bravest king in the world.

The French Lord asked whom that was, Sir Kenelme made answer that when it had gone about he should know; well, about it went and then Sir Kenelme said that it was the health of the bravest king in the world, which is the King of England, my royal Master, for although my body be banished from him, yet is my heart loyally linkt; the French Lord at those words seemed to laugh repeating the same words before mentioned, then was Sir Kenelme throughly moved in the behalf of our Soveraigne King Charles whereupon he whispered the Lord in the eare, telling of him how that twice he had reviled the best King in the world in the hearing of me which am his faithful subject, wherefore for satisfaction I require a single combate of you, where either you shall pay your life for your sawcinesse, or I will sacrifice mine in the behalfe of my King. The French Lord being of a resolute spirit condescended to fight, the place was appointed, dinner being ended, they both arise from table and privately went together, being in field off they pluckt their doublets, and out they draw their weapons.

'Mars would have bashful beene to have seene himselfe by n.o.ble Digby there excelled, long work with the contemptible French Lord, he would not make, for fear lest any should lye in ambush and so he might hazard his own life, wherefore in four bouts he run his rapier into the French Lords brest till it came out of his throat againe, which so soon as he had done, away he fled to the Court of France, and made all knowne to the King thereof, who said the proudest Lord in France should not dare to revile his brother King.

'A guard was presently chosen to conduct Sir Kenelme into Flanders, which they did, where he tooke s.h.i.+pping for England, where he now is, where in peace and quietnesse may he still remaine.

'As for the French Lord he was paid according to his desert, and may all be so rewarded which shall dare to revile the Lords anointed, who suffers by other Nations, for the clemency he hath shown to his own Nation, _sed beati sunt pacifici_, but blessed is the peace maker; good king for thy patience in this world there are Crownes of immortal glory laid in store for thee in the world to come, there shall not traitors dare to show their faces, nor shall perplexity proceed from the great care of ruling of a kingdome, in the meanwhile may more such n.o.ble Digbies increase to rebuke all cursing _Achitophels_ and reviling _Rabshakey's_.

'Let G.o.d arise and then shall the enemies of our gracious King be sure to be scattered.

'Now I conclude commanding fame to show Brave Digby's worthy deed, that all may know He lov'd his king, may all so loyal prove And like this Digby to their king show love.'

Many portraits of Charles I. were published in tracts about this time.

One of the best is contained in a poetical welcome to the King on his return from Scotland. '_King Charles his Entertainment and Londons Loyaltie_,' 1641, contains a precept issued by the Lord Mayor, directing how the aldermen and citizens shall meet the King, on his return from Scotland, at Sh.o.r.editch Church, and conduct him to the Guildhall to a banquet, and afterwards to Westminster. There is also a a very spirited woodcut of a City trumpeter in this pamphlet, which is copied above.

City entertainments to sovereigns and princes have always been fruitful occasions for ill.u.s.trated newspapers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CITY TRUMPETER, 1641.]

The wholesale executions that used to take place at this period would astonish the modern newspaper reader. Sometimes as many as twenty-four persons were executed in one day at Tyburn. '_A Coppy of the Prisoners judgement condemned to dy, from Nugate on Monday the 13 of December, 1641_,' gives an account of eight Jesuits and several other prisoners who were executed. A descriptive list is given of the condemned, and amongst them are the following:--

'Charles James, an handsome gentile young man, was convicted for Robery and Burglary.

'John Hodskins, a fine Scholler, a pretty fellow, yet wanted grace.

'John Davis, a l.u.s.ty stout personable man.

'Francis Middlefield, a pretty youth, and a good Scholler, convicted of felonie.'

Several highwaymen, horse-stealers, and coiners, are also included in this gloomy list, which is adorned with a woodcut of an execution.

The regulation of the licensed victuallers' trade and the Sunday closing movement appear to have been as troublesome questions in the seventeenth century as they are now. As early as 1641 the publican was uttering the complaints which he still continues to utter. In a pamphlet of that date there is a dialogue between a tapster and a cook, which sets forth the grievances of both these worthies. The pamphlet is ent.i.tled, '_The Lamentable Complaints of Nick Froth the Tapster and Rulerost the Cook, concerning the restraint lately set forth against drinking, potting, and piping on the Sabbath day, and against selling meate_.' The publican expresses himself thus:--'I much wonder Master Rulerost why my trade should be put downe, it being so necessary in a commonwealth; why the n.o.ble art of drinking, it is the soul of all good fellows.h.i.+p, the marrow of a Poet's Minervs, it makes a man as valiant as Hercules though he were as cowardly as a Frenchman; besides I could prove it necessary for any man sometimes to be drunk, for suppose you should kill a man when you are drunk, you shall never be hanged for it untill you are sober; therefore I think it good for a man to be always drunk; and besides it is the kindliest companion, and friendliest sin of all the seven, for most sins leave a man by some accident or other, before his death, but this will never forsake him till the breath be out of his body; and lastly a full bowle of strong beere will drown all sorrows.'

To which master Cook rejoins:--'Master Nick, you are mistaken, your trade is not put downe as you seem to say; what is done is done to a good intent; to the end that poor men that worke hard all the weeke for a little money, should not spend it all on the Sunday while they should be at some church, and so consequently there will not be so many Beggars.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COMPLAINT OF THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS, 1641.]

Froth--'Alack you know all my profit doth arise onely on Sundays, let them but allow me that privilege, and abridge me all the weeke besides; S'foot, I could have so scowered my young sparks up for a penny a demy can, or a halfe pint, heapt with froth. I got more by uttering half a Barrell in time of Divine service, than I could by a whole Barrell at any other time, for my customers were glad to take anything for money, and think themselves much ingaged to me; but now the case is altered.'

Cook--'Truly Master Froth you are a man of a light const.i.tution, and not so much to be blamed as I that am more solid: O what will become of me!

I now think of the l.u.s.ty Sirloines of roast Beefe which I with much policy divided into an innumerable company of demy slices, by which, with my provident wife, I used to make eighteene pence of that which cost me but a groat (provided that I sold it in service time,) I could tell you too, how I used my halfe cans and my Bloomsbury Pots, when occasion served; and my Smoak which I sold dearer than any Apothecary doth his Physick; but those happy days are now past, and therefore no more of that.'

This pamphlet is ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut showing the Cook and Tapster in confabulation, while in the background joints are roasting, and guests are seated in boxes, refres.h.i.+ng themselves with 'half-cans and Bloomsbury pots.'

The abuses of the Ecclesiastical Courts did not escape the notice of the seventeenth-century pamphleteers. Doctors' Commons and the Proctors were quizzed in an ill.u.s.trated pamphlet, wherein 'Sponge, the Proctor,' and 'Hunter, the Parator,' hold a long conversation, and express their opinion that the only way to make men live in quietness is to beggar them with long suits and large fees. Other evil-doers were shown up in a similar manner. A certain Edward Finch, Vicar of Christ-church, London, gave so much offence to the paris.h.i.+oners by his manner of life that a pet.i.tion was presented to Parliament on the subject. The pet.i.tioners said they were offended by their Vicar's 'frequent and unreasonable bowings' before the altar, and by his 'scandalous life and conversation.' They set forth in the pet.i.tion that they are 'troubled in their church with singing, organs, and other Instruments of Musicke, not understood by them, whereby they are greatly distracted in the service of G.o.d, the same being altogether unprofitable, and no way tending to their spirituall edification.' The Vicar is charged with drunkenness and incontinence--with exacting unreasonable fees--with being a non-resident; and the evidence in support of the pet.i.tion shows that on one occasion he went to Hammersmith in a coach with certain loose companions and spent the day in a manner unfit for a clergyman. He is proved to have attempted to administer the Sacrament to a dying woman while he was in a state of drunkenness, and to have been guilty of many other disgraceful acts. The House of Commons pa.s.sed a vote of censure on this graceless Ritualist; and the pet.i.tion setting forth his misdeeds was printed and published, ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut showing the journey to Hammersmith in a coach. Notwithstanding the condemnation of Parliament, the Rev. Edward Finch continued in his evil courses, and conducted his 'life and conversation' much the same as before.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EVIL DOINGS OF THE REV. EDWARD FINCH, 1641.]

From the 'perambulations' of a Ritualistic clergyman we come to a nunnery, in a pamphlet published in 1641, ent.i.tled, '_The Arminian Nunnery, or a briefe description and relation of the late erected Monasticall Place, called the Arminian Nunnery at Little Gidding, in Huntingdons.h.i.+re_.' The writer of this pamphlet gives a minute and by no means 'brief' description of the inst.i.tution, which he evidently believes to be Roman Catholic, or a stepping-stone to it, though the 'Deacon' who attended him on his visit a.s.sured him to the contrary. He, however, sets down all the tapers and crosses, the bowings and prostrations, as so many proofs of idolatry, and marvels that, in a settled Church government, the Bishops should suffer any such inst.i.tutions to exist; particularly that Archbishop Laud, professing to be such an 'Anti-Papist and enemy to superst.i.tion and idolatry, should permit this innovation and connive at such canting betwixt the barke and the tree in matter of Religion.' While censuring the prelates for their criminal slothfulness, the writer gave his countrymen the benefit of his own acuteness and energy, and published his description, ill.u.s.trated with an engraving representing one of the nuns, with a portion of the nunnery in the background.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NUNNERY AT LITTLE GIDDING, HUNTINGDONs.h.i.+RE, 1641.]

The next ill.u.s.trated pamphlet we come to is a curious attempt on the part of its author to satirise his literary contemporaries for the falsehoods contained in their writings, and he burlesques their productions by relating many things as lies which, however, he means to be understood as truths. It is called '_The Liar, or a contradiction to those who in the t.i.tles of their Books affirmed them to be true, when they were false; although mine are all true yet I term them lyes.

Veritas Veritatis_.'

'There was an Englishman which travelled to the Swedish Army, and began to relate very strange pa.s.sages which he had seen here in England, thinking that travellers might lye by authority; for said he in the County of Berke, at a place called Abingdon, when the Earle of Strafford lost his head, was such thundering and lightning, and earthquakes, that it is almost incredible. Surely I think it is incredible indeed, for I know 'tis no such matter.

'He told too that the very same day that my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury was committed to the Tower, there was a child born in the County of Somerset with a Mitre on its head, a marke on his breast like a Crucifix, and many other strange things which were there seene.'

Having invented the travelling Englishman for a mouth-piece and selected the Swedish army for an audience, the writer goes on to relate many other strange things, which, though told as lies, are evidently intended to be taken as truths.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LIAR ON THE RACK, 1641.]

'They heard him with patience till he had made an end of his lying, and then they asked him whether yea or nay he saw these things he spake of, he presently swore all the oaths of G.o.d that he saw these things with his own natural eyes, which he had reported, and he would maintaine it, though he spent his dearest blood in the doeing of it; well, they heard his protestations, and made a full account that they would prove his constancie whether he would be a Martyr yea or nay, in the meane time they horsed him, and this was the manner of it.

'There was a great high thing raised to the height of twelve or fourteen yards, made of Iron, whereon he was seated, with two great weights on his toes, and the like on his hands where he sate in great paine, if he should chance to ease himselfe upwards, there were sharp nailes over his head which would p.r.i.c.k him, thus he sate and thus he suffered, till they had sufficiently made a laughing stock of him; well, when he had suffered enough they let him downe.'

There is a woodcut representing the lying traveller on his 'horse,' and the tract winds up thus:--

'Gentle Reader, I have heere related under the name of lies nothing but true tales, for if a man doth now speake truth he shall be sure to smart for it now-a-daies, either here or in other places: read gentlie and buy willingly.'

When the Plague visited London in 1641 the theatres were closed and the players were thrown out of employment. This state of things is discussed in a dialogue between 'Cane of the Fortune and Reed of the Friars,' in a tract ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut which was frequently used afterwards in broadsides. Bartholomew Fair, which was proclaimed for the last time in 1855, was in all its glory in the days of Charles I. A contemporary tract gives a graphic description of the fair, and is ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut representing a man swallowing a serpent. This probably represented a picture hung outside one of the shows. The t.i.tle of the tract is, '_Bartholomew Faire, or Variety of Fancies, where you may find a faire of wares and all to please your mind; with the several enormities and misdemeanours which are there seen and acted_.' The fair is described as beginning 'on the twenty-fourth day of August, and is then of so vast an extent that it is contained in no lesse than four several parishes, namely, Christ Church, Great and Little Saint Bartholomew's, and Saint Sepulchre's. Hither resort people of all sorts, High and Low, Rich and Poore, from cities, townes, and countreys; of all sects, Papists, Atheists, Anabaptists, and Brownists, and of all conditions, good and bad, virtuous and vitious.' It is said to be 'full of gold and silver-drawers; just as Lent is to the Fishmonger so is Bartholomew Faire to the Pickpocket; it is his high harvest, which is never bad but when his cart goes up Holborn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BARTHOLOMEW FAIR WONDER, 1641.]

'It is remarkable and worth your observation to behold and hear the strange sights and confused noise in the Faire. Here a knave in a fool's coat, with a trumpet sounding, or on a drum beating, invites you and would fain perswade you to see his puppets; there a rogue like a wild woodman, or in an Antick shape like an incubus, desires your company, to view his motion; on the other side Hocus Pocus, with three yards of tape or ribbin in's hand, shewing his art of Legerdemain, to the admiration and astonishment of a company of c.o.c.koloaches. Amongst these you shall see a gray goose cap (as wise as the rest), with a what do ye lacke in his mouth, stand in his boothe, shaking a rattle, or sc.r.a.ping on a fiddle, with which children are so taken, that they presently cry out for these fopperies; and all these together make such a distracted noise that you would think Babell were not comparable to it. Here there are also your gamesters in action, some turning of a whimsey, others throwing for pewter, who can quickly dissolve a round s.h.i.+lling into a three-halfpenny saucer. Long Lane at this time looks very faire, and puts out her best cloaths, with the wrong side outward, so turned for their better turning off. And Cloth Faire is now in great request; well fare the ale-houses therein; yet better may a man fare (but at a dearer rate) in the pig market, alias Pasty-nooke, or Pye Corner, where pigges are all hours of the day on the stalls piping hot, and would cry (if they could speak) come eate me.'