The Pictorial Press Part 3

Many other ill.u.s.trated pamphlets relating to current events were published at this time. It would appear that in 1641 there was a visitation of the plague in London, and a tract of that date has reference to it. It is ent.i.tled:--'_London's Lamentation, or a fit admonishment for City and Country, wherein is described certain causes of this affliction and visitation of the Plague, yeare 1641, which the Lord hath been pleased to inflict upon us, and withall what means must be used to the Lord, to gain his mercy and favour, with an excellent spirituall medicine to be used for the preservative both of Body and Soule._' The 'spiritual medicine' recommended is an earnest prayer to heaven at morning and evening and a daily service to the Lord. The writer endeavours to improve the occasion very much like a preacher in the pulpit and continues his exhortation thus:--'Now seeing it is apparent that sin is the cause of sicknesse: It may appear as plainly that prayer must be the best means to procure health and safety, let not our security and slothfulnesse give death opportunity, what man or woman will not seem to start, at the signe of the red Crosse, as they pa.s.se by to and fro in the streets? And yet being gone they think no more on it. It may be, they will say, such a house is shut up, I saw the red crosse on the doore; but look on thine own guilty conscience, and thou shalt find thou hast a mult.i.tude of red crimson sinnes remaining in thee.' I have copied the ill.u.s.tration to this tract, and it will be seen that it is divided into two parts--one representing a funeral procession advancing to where men are digging two graves--the other showing dead bodies dragged away on hurdles. The first is labelled 'London's Charity.' The second 'The Countrie's Crueltie.' This was perhaps intended to impress the reader in favour of the orderly burial of the dead in the city churchyards, a subject on which public opinion has very much changed since that time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 1641.]

We have already noticed that the vicissitudes of the sea and the accidents of maritime life, which supply so much material to modern newspapers, were not less attractive to the early news-writers. There is a very circ.u.mstantial account of the voyage and wreck of a ship called the _Merchant Royall_ in a pamphlet published in 1641. The engraving it contains is the same block used by Thomas Greepe in 1587. It is ent.i.tled, '_Sad news from the seas, being a true relation of the losse of that good Ship called the Merchant Royall, which was cast away ten leagues from the Lands end, on Thursday night, being the 23 of September last 1641 having in her a world of Treasure, as this story following doth truly relate_.' Another ill.u.s.trated pamphlet, dated 1642, contains a long and minute narrative of how a certain ship called the _Coster_ was boarded by a native of Java, who, watching his opportunity, murdered the captain and several of the crew, but who was afterwards killed when a.s.sistance arrived from another ship. There is a woodcut representing the murders, and the t.i.tle runs as follows:--'_A most Execrable and Barbarous murder done by an East Indian Devil, or a native of Java-Major, in the Road of Bantam, Aboard an English ship called the Coster, on the 22 of October last, 1641. Wherein is shewed how the wicked Villain came to the said ship and hid himself till it was very dark, and then he murdered all the men that were aboard, except the Cooke and three Boyes. And lastly, how the murderer himselfe was justly requited. Captain William Minor being an eye-witnesse of this bloudy Ma.s.sacre. London: Printed for T. Banks, July the 18, 1642._' The very full particulars given in this pamphlet show how minute and circ.u.mstantial the old news-writers were in their narratives. It will be seen by the following extracts that the story has an air of truth given to it by careful attention to various small matters of detail:--

'On Friday the 22 of October last 1641 towards night there came aboard an English ship called the _Coster_, in a small Prow (or flat Boat with one paddle) a proper young man, (a Java, which is as much as to say as a man born or native of the Territory of Java.) This man, (or devill in mans shape) with a pretence to sell some Hews, (hatching mischiefe in his d.a.m.ned minde,) did delay and trifle time, because he would have the night more dark for him to do his deeds of darknesse. At last he sold 6 Hews for half a Royall of 8 which is not much above two shillings. There came also another Java aboard, (with the like small Prow or Boat) to whom he gave the half Royall, sent him away and bade him make haste; he being asked for what the other Java went for, the answer was that he had sent him for more Hews and Goates to sell.

'Night being come, and very dark, (for it was the last night of the wane of the Moone) this inhumane dog staid lurking under the half deck having 2 Crests (or dangerous waving daggers) and a Buckler, of which he would have sold one and the Buckler with it, and as he was discoursing he took off one of the Crests hefts and put cloth about the tongue of the Blade, and made it sure fast: on the other Crest he rolled the handle with a fine linnen cloth to make it also sure from slipping in his hand; these things he did whilst the Master, Robert Start, Stephen Roberts, his mate, Hugh Rawlinson, Chirurgeon, William Perks, Steward, James Biggs, Gunner, and 3 Boys or Youths attending. At supper they were very merry, and this Caitiffe took notice of their carelessnesse of him to suffer him to sit on the quarter deck upon a Cot close by them.

'Supper being ended about 6 at night the Master went to his Cabin to rest, the Gunner asked leave to go ash.o.r.e, (the ship riding but half a mile from landing.) Afterwards Robert Rawlinson and Perks walked upon the quarter deck; and the devilish Java perceiving the Master to be absent, he asked the Boyes where he was, who answered he was gone to sleepe. This question he demanded 3 or 4 times of the Boyes, and finding it to be so, he arose from the place where he sate, which was on the starboard side and went about the Table next the Mizzen Mast (where Roberts, Rawlings and Perks were walking) with his Target about his Neck for defence against Pikes, or the like; and his 2 Crests in his hand, and upon a sudden cries _a Muck_, which in that language is I hazard or run my death. Then first he stabd Roberts, secondly he stabd Rawlinson, thirdly Perks, all three at an instant. After that he let drive at the Boyes, but they leapd down, and ran forward into the forecastle, where they found the Cooke, to whom the Boyes related what had happened.'

Further details are given at great length, showing how the savage continued his b.l.o.o.d.y work, and how he was finally overpowered. The narrative thus winds up:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: MURDERS ON BOARD AN ENGLISH SHIP, 1642.]

'It is observable that of all these men that were thus butchered, the Hel-hound did never stab any man twice, so sure did he strike, nor did he pursue any man that kept clear of his stand under the quarter-deck.

So there dyed in all (in this b.l.o.o.d.y action) Robert Start, Master, Stephen Roberts, his Mate, Hugh Rawlinson, Chirurgeon, William Perks, Steward, Walter Rogers, Gunner's Mate, and Francis Drake, Trumpeter of the _Mary_. And after the Muck, Java, or Devill, had ended the first part of this b.l.o.o.d.y Tragedy, there was only left in the ship, the Cooke, 3 Boyes, and one John Taylor, that was almost dead with a shott he foolishly made. So that 7 men were unfortunately lost (as you have heard) and the Gunner escaped very narrowly through G.o.d's merciful prevention, from the like of these related disasters and suddaine mischiefs, Good Lord deliver us.'

The engraving, like all those belonging to this period, is very rough; but it was evidently prepared specially for the occasion, and some care appears to have been taken to represent the '_Java_' as he is described.

It is a genuine attempt to ill.u.s.trate the story, and on that account is more interesting than some of the woodcuts in the early newspapers.

The Earl of Strafford, who was executed on Tower Hill, May 12, 1641, forms the subject of more than one ill.u.s.trated tract of this period. In 1642 was published a curious pamphlet, consisting of an engraved t.i.tle and eight pages of ill.u.s.trations, representing the princ.i.p.al events of 1641-2. There are sixteen ill.u.s.trations, exclusive of the t.i.tle, two on each page. They are all etched on copper, and are done with some freedom and artistic ability. I shall have occasion to refer to this pamphlet hereafter; but at present I have copied the engraving ent.i.tled, 'The Earle of Strafford for treasonable practises beheaded on the Tower-hill.'

In this example of ill.u.s.trated news the artist has faithfully represented the locality in his background, but there the truth of his pencil stops. Strafford himself, although his head is not yet severed from his body, lies at full length on the scaffold, and instead of the usual block used for decapitations the victim's head rests on an ordinary plank or thick piece of wood. There is no one standing on the scaffold but the executioner, whereas history a.s.serts that the Earl was attended in his last moments by his brother, Sir George Wentworth, the Earl of Cleveland, and Archbishop Usher. These omissions, if they were noticed at all, were no doubt looked upon as trivial faults in the infancy of ill.u.s.trated journalism, and before a truth-loving public had learnt to be satisfied with nothing less than 'sketches done on the spot.' What appears to be a more correct view of the execution was, however, published at the time. In the British Museum are two etchings by Hollar (single sheets, 1641), representing the trial and execution of the Earl of Strafford. They both look as if they had been done from sketches on the spot, that of the execution giving a correct view of the Tower and the surrounding buildings, but they are too crowded to admit of reproduction on a reduced scale.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXECUTION OF STRAFFORD, 1641.]

The taste of the time tolerated the publication of satires and petty lampoons even upon dead men. Soon after Strafford's death a tract was published ent.i.tled '_A Description of the Pa.s.sage of Thomas, late Earle of Strafford, over the River of Styx, with the Conference betwixt him, Charon, and William Noy_.' There is a dialogue between Strafford and Charon, of which the following is a specimen:--

'_Charon._--In the name of Rhodomont what ayles me? I have tugged and tugged above these two hours, yet can hardly steere one foot forward; either my dried nerves deceive my arme, or my vexed Barke carries an unwonted burden. From whence comest thou, Pa.s.senger?

'_Strafford._--From England.

'_Charon._--From England! Ha! I was counsailed to prepare myselfe, and trim up my boat. I should have work enough they sayd ere be long from England, but trust me thy burden alone outweighs many transported armies, were all the expected numbers of thy weight poor Charon well might sweat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STRAFFORD CROSSING THE STYX, 1641.]

'_Strafford._--I bear them all in one.

'_Charon._--How? Bear them all in one, and thou shalt pay for them all in one, by the just soul of Rhodomont; this was a fine plot indeed, sure this was some notable fellow being alive, that hath a trick to cosen the devil being dead. What is thy name?

'(Strafford sighs.)

'_Charon._--Sigh not so deep. Take some of this Lethaean water into thine hand, and soope it up; it will make thee forget thy sorrows.

'_Strafford._--My name is Wentworth, Strafford's late Earle.

'_Charon._--Wentworth! O ho! Thou art hee who hath been so long expected by William Noy. He hath been any time these two months on the other side of the banke, expecting thy coming daily.'

Strafford gives Charon but one halfpenny for his fare, whereat the ferryman grumbles. Then ensues a conversation between Strafford and William Noy, part of which is in blank verse. The tract is ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut, representing Strafford in the ferryman's boat with William Noy waiting his arrival on the opposite bank.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BURLESQUE PLAY ABOUT ARCHBISHOP LAUD. ACT I. 1641.]

No man of his time appears to have excited the hostile notice of the press more than Archbishop Laud. The Archbishops of Canterbury had long been considered censors of the press by right of their dignity and office; and Laud exercised this power with unusual tyranny. The ferocious cruelty with which he carried out his prosecutions in the Star Chamber and Court of High Commission made his name odious, and his apparent preference for ceremonial religion contributed to render him still more unpopular. Men were put in the pillory, had their ears cut off, their noses slit, and were branded on the cheeks with S. S. (Sower of Sedition), and S. L. (Schismatical Libeller). They were heavily fined, were whipped through the streets, were thrown into prison; and all for printing and publishing opinions and sentiments unpleasing to Archbishop Laud, under whose rule this despotic cruelty became so prevalent that it was a common thing for men to speak of So-and-so as having been 'Star-Chambered.' No wonder, when the tide turned, that the long-pent-up indignation found a vent through the printing-press.

Amongst the numerous tracts that were published after the suppression of the Star Chamber were many which held up Laud to public execration. He was reviled for his ambition, reproached for his cruelty, and caricatured for his Romish sympathies. During the four years between his fall and his execution, portraits of him and other ill.u.s.trations relating to his career may be found in many pamphlets. I propose to introduce the reader to some of these, as examples of the kind of feeling that was excited by a man whose character and actions must have contributed not a little to bring about a convulsion which shook both the Church and the throne to their foundations. It must have been with a peculiar satisfaction that Prynne, one of the chief sufferers under Laud's rule, found himself armed with the authority of the House of Commons to despoil his old enemy. Probably a similar feeling caused many others to chuckle and rub their hands when they read, '_A New Play called Canterburie's Change of Diet_, printed in 1641.' This is a small tract ill.u.s.trated with woodcuts, and is written in the form of a play.

The persons represented are the Archbishop of Canterbury, a doctor of physic, a lawyer, a divine, a Jesuit, a carpenter and his wife. The doctor of physic is intended for either Dr. Alexander Leighton, or Dr.

John Bastwick, both of whom had their ears cut off; the lawyer is Prynne; and the divine is meant for the Rev. Henry Burton, a London clergyman, who also suffered under Laud's administration. In the first act enter the Archbishop, the doctor, the lawyer, and the divine. Being seated, a variety of dishes are brought to the table, but Laud expresses himself dissatisfied with the fare placed before him and demands a more racy diet. He then calls in certain bishops, who enter armed with muskets, bandoleers, and swords. He cuts off the ears of the doctor, the lawyer, and the divine, and tells them he makes them an example that others may be more careful to please his palate. On the previous page is a copy of the cut which ill.u.s.trates the first act.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BURLESQUE PLAY ABOUT ARCHBISHOP LAUD. ACT II.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BURLESQUE PLAY ABOUT ARCHBISHOP LAUD. ACT III.]

In the second act the Archbishop of Canterbury enters a carpenter's yard by the waterside, and seeing a grindstone he is about to sharpen his knife upon it, when he is interrupted by the carpenter who refuses to let him sharpen his knife upon his grindstone, lest he should treat him (the carpenter) as he had treated the others. The carpenter then holds the Archbishop's nose to the grindstone, and orders his apprentice to turn with a will. The bishop cries out, 'Hold! hold! such turning will soon deform my face. O, I bleed, I bleed, and am extremely sore.' The carpenter, however, rejoins, 'But who regarded "hold" before? Remember the cruelty you have used to others, whose bloud crieth out for vengeance. Were not their ears to them as pretious as your nostrils can be to you? If such dishes must be your fare, let me be your Cooke, I'll invent you rare sippets.' Then enters a Jesuit Confessor who washes the bishop's wounded face and binds it up with a cloth. There is also an ill.u.s.tration to this act which is here copied.

[Ill.u.s.tration: a.s.sAULT ON LAMBETH PALACE, 1642.]

In the third act the Archbishop and the Jesuit are represented in a great Cage (the Tower) while the carpenter and his wife, conversing together, agree that the two caged birds will sing very well together.

The woodcut to this act represents a fool laughing at the prisoners.

There is a fourth act in which the King and his Jester hold a conversation about the Bishop and the confessor in the cage. There is no printer's or publisher's name to this play, only the date, 1641.

The pamphlet previously referred to as containing a picture of Strafford's execution, has also an engraving showing how the tide of public feeling had set against Archbishop Laud. The powerful Churchman had been impeached for high treason; he was deprived of all the profits of his high office and was imprisoned in the Tower. All his goods in Lambeth Palace, including his books, were seized, and even his Diary and private papers were taken from him by Prynne, who acted under a warrant from the House of Commons. The engraving under notice is ent.i.tled 'The rising of Prentices and Sea-men on Southwark side to a.s.sault the Archbishops of Canterburys House at Lambeth.'

In a tract ent.i.tled '_A Prophecie of the Life, Reigne, and Death of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury_,' there is a caricature of Laud seated on a throne or chair of state. A pair of horns grow out of his forehead, and in front the devil offers him a Cardinal's Hat. This business of the Cardinal's Hat is alluded to by Laud himself, who says, 'At Greenwich there came one to me seriously, and that avowed ability to perform it, and offered me to be a Cardinal. I went presently to the king, and acquainted him both with the thing and the person.' This offer was afterwards renewed: 'But,' says he, 'my answer again was, that something dwelt within me which would not suffer that till Rome were other than it is.' It would thus appear that the Archbishop did not give a very decided refusal at first or the offer would not have been repeated; and that circ.u.mstance, if it were known at the time, must have strengthened the opinion that he was favourably inclined towards the Church of Rome. At all events, the offer must have been made public, as this caricature shows.

Though Laud behaved with dignity and courage when he came to bid farewell to the world, if we are to believe the publications of the time, he was not above pet.i.tioning for mercy, while any hope of life remained. In 1643 a pamphlet was published with the following t.i.tle, '_The Copy of the Pet.i.tion presented to the Honourable Houses of Parliament by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, wherein the said Archbishop desires that he may not be transported beyond the Seas into New England with Master Peters in regard to his extraordinary age and weaknesse_.' The pet.i.tion is dated 'From the Tower of London this 6th of May 1643,' and in it the pet.i.tioner sets forth that out of a 'fervent zeal to Christianity' he endeavoured to reconcile the principles of the Protestant and Roman Catholic religions, hoping that if he could effect this he might more easily draw the Queen into an adherence to the Protestant faith. He deplores that his endeavours were not successful, and he begs the honourable Parliament to pardon his errors, and to 'looke upon him in mercy, and not permit or suffer your Pet.i.tioner to be transported, to endure the hazard of the Seas, and the long tediousnesse of Voyage into those trans-marine parts, and cold Countries, which would soon bring your Pet.i.tioners life to a period; but rather that your Pet.i.tioner may abide in his native country, untill your Pet.i.tioner shall pay the debt which is due from him to Nature, and so your Pet.i.tioner doth submit himselfe to your Honourable and grave Wisdoms for your Pet.i.tioners request and desire therein. And your Pet.i.tioner shall humbly pray &c.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARICATURE OF THE DEVIL OFFERING LAUD A CARDINAL'S HAT, 1644.]

If Archbishop Laud was really the author of this pet.i.tion he appears to have expected that his long imprisonment would end in banishment rather than death. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, January 10, 1645. There is a woodcut portrait of the Archbishop printed on the t.i.tle-page of the pet.i.tion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARCHBISHOP LAUD.]

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Life of Gustavus Adolphus_. Family Library.

CHAPTER III.

Ben Jonson's Ridicule of the Early Newspapers--Fondness of the Old News-Writers for the Marvellous--The Smithfield Ghost--The Wonderful Whale--The Newbury Witch--Satirical Tracts and Caricatures at the Commencement of the Civil War--Religion Tossed in a Blanket--Caricatures of the Pope and the Bishops--Pluralists and Patentees--Taylor, the Water Poet--_Mercurius Aulicus_--Activity of the Pamphleteers--Welshmen Satirised--Satires on Prince Rupert--On the King and Queen--The Ladies' Parliament--Ill.u.s.trated Tracts relating to Social and Political Subjects--Sir Kenelm Digby's Duel--The King entertained by the City of London, 1641--Executions in 1641--The Liquor Traffic and Sunday Closing in 1641--Abuses of the Ecclesiastical Courts--Ritualism and Nunneries in 1641--Truths enforced by Lieing--Stage Players and the Plague in 1641--Bartholomew Fair in 1641--Destruction of Charing Cross and Cheapside Cross--Strange Apparition--Method of Enforcing their Views adopted by the Puritan Pamphleteers--Parodies of Roundhead Sermons--Matthew Hopkins the Witch-finder--_The Welsh Post_ of 1643--William Lilly the Astrologer--Three Suns seen in London on the King's Birthday.

When Ben Jonson called the newspaper 'a weekly cheat to draw money,' and ridiculed the growing taste for news, he had some reason for satirising the journalism of the period. To satisfy the craving for news all kinds of impositions were freely circulated. Nothing was too wonderful for the credulity of the age, and people eagerly accepted what was placed before them, fully believing that whatever was in print must be true. It was not, however, till many years after Ben Jonson's death that the so-called newspapers put forward their full powers as purveyors of the marvellous. _Mercurius Democritus_ was the _Punch_ of that day. While he satirised men and things he laboured to satisfy the popular taste for the wonderful, as in the following account of a ghost that was said to haunt the neighbourhood of Smithfield:--'There is a great report of a ghoast that walks every Night amongst the Butchers at _Smithfield Barrs_, the _Shambles_, White-_Chappell_, and _Eastcheape_, in the habit of _Mallet_, the Lawyer, pulling the meat off the Butchers Tainters; many have adventured to strike at him with Cleavers and Chopping-knives, but cannot feel anything but Aire, every Sat.u.r.day at night between 9 and 12, he walks his stations, in this very habit as you see, doing more mischiefe to the _Butchers_ than ever _Robin Goodfellow_ did to the Country Hindes.'