No More Learning

The facts handed down to us about this early and prolific Newspaper writer were
in my childhood; but by that time they were lost and disperst. His sons were gunners and soldiers, and scoured their guns with them; but he showed me several old deeds granted by the lord abbots, with their seals annexed. "
MARCHAMONT NEDHAM. 99
collected by Anthony Wood, whilst Nedham's name was yet fresh in the public mind ; and, not forgetting the strong political bias of the biographer, we may glean from his descriptions a more favourable account of this scribe than the author of the Athense Oxoni-
ensis would have us entertain. Nedham was born at Burford in Oxfordshire, in 1620, and was sent for education to Oxford, where he took a degree. His subsequent career is thus sketched by his political opponent :—
At length, being invited to London, he had conferred upon him an usher's place in Merchant Taylors' School, but how long he continued there I cannot justly tell. Sure it is that, upon the change of the times, he became an under clerk in Grey's Inn, where, by virtue of a good legible court hand, he obtained a comfortable subsistence. Soon after, siding with the rout and scum of the people, he made them weekly sport by railing at all that is noble in his intelligence called Mercurius Britannicus, wherein his endeavours were to sacrifice the fame of some lord or person of quality, nay of the King himself, to the beast with many heads. Diego writeth that Barceus meeting with the Devil sitting at his ease upon a chair bid him rise up and give place to his betters. The tale was moralized in Britannicus, who might very well have challenged the precedency of Satan, to have thrust him out of his chair, the seat of the scornful ; where he sate several years, and outrailed all the Shimeis and Rabsekebs, and out-railed all the Simmiasses and Pseudolusses that ever sate in that chair. So that this Nedham being become
popular, and an active man in person among the rout, he was commonly called Captain Nedham of Grey's Inn, and what he said or wrote was looked upon as gospel. About that time he studied physic: followed the chemical way; and, by 1645, began to practice and by that and his writing maintained himself in very genteel fashion. But so was, that either by his im prisonment in the Gate-house for libel on His Majesty, in the opening or explaining his cabinet letters, an. 1645, or for some
H
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a it
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100 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
scorn or affronts put upon him, he forthwith left the blessed cause, and obtaining the favour of a known Royalist to introduce him into His Majesty's presence at Hampton Court, an. 1647, he then and there knelt before him, and desired forgiveness for what he had written against him and his cause, which being readily granted, he kissed His Majesty's hand, and soon after wrote Mercurius Pragmaticus, which being very witty, sati rical against the Presbyterians, and full of loyalty, made him known to, and admired by the bravadoes and wits of those times. But he, being narrowly sought after, left London, and for a time skulked at Minster Lovel, near Binford in Oxfordshire, in the house of Doctor Peter Heylin. At length being found out,
imprisoned in Newgate, and brought into danger of his life, Lenthall, the Speaker of the House of Commons, who knew him and his relations well, and John Bradshaw, President of the High Court of Justice, treated him fairly, and not only got his pardon, but, with promise of rewards and places, persuaded him to change his style once more, meaning for the Independents
then carrying all before them. So that being brought over, he wrote Mercurius Politicus, so extreme contrary to the former, that the generality for a long time, especially the most generous Royalists, could not believe that that intelligence could possibly be written by the same hand that wrote the M. Pragmaticus. The truth is, these last were written for about an year and an half, and were endeavoured by the Parliamenteers to be stifled ; but the former, (the Politici,) which came out by authority, and flew every week into all parts of the nation for ten years, had very great influence upon numbers of inconsiderable persons, such who have a strange presumption that all must needs be
true that is in print. He was then the Goliah of the Philis tines—the great champion of the late usurper, whose pen in comparison of others was like a weaver's beam.
After some further fierce abuse of the tone adopted by Nedham in his political writings, Wood thus con tinues his description of that writer's career :—
In the year 1660, he being conscious to himself that he might be in danger of the halter once more, skulked, (some say
nedham's career. 101
fled into Holland,) till such time as he could get his pardon, or that the act of oblivion should pass. In the mean time were not wanting some forward Loyalists to complain of and write against him. But notwithstanding all verbal and printed com plaints, he, for money given to an hungry courtier,* obtained his pardon under the great seal, which was his defence oftentimes, particularly at Oxford act in 1661, when these several acts upon him in St. Mary's Church to hale him before a justice, and so to prison for treason ; so that I say, being free, and at liberty by reason of that seal, which he several times produced, he exer cised the faculty of physic to his dying day among the brethren, which was a considerable benefit to him. He was a person endowed with quick natural parts, was a good humanitian, poet, and boon droll, and had he been constant to his cavaliering
principles he would have been beloved by, and admired of all ; but being mercenary, and valuing money and sordid interest, rather than conscience, friendship, or love to his prince, was much hated by the Royal party to his last, and many cannot yet endure to hear him spoken of.
Among other works published by Nedham, was Mercurius Britannicus, communicating the Affairs of Great Britain for the better Information of the People. These Mercuries began about the middle of August 1643, and were carried on thence, week by week every Monday, in one sheet, to the latter end of 1646 or beginning of 1647.
Mercurius Pragmaticus, communicating Intelligence from all Parts, touching all Affairs, Designs, Humours and Conditions throughout the Kingdom, especially from Westminster and the Head-quarters. There were two parts of them, and they came out weekly in one sheet in quarto. The former part commenced the 14th September, 1647, and ended the 9th of January, 1648. The other which was entitled Mercurius Pragmaticus, for King Charles the Second, and commenced the 24th April, 1649, but quickly ended. There were now and then other Pragmatici that peeped forth, but they were counterfeit.
* 1659, Aug. 15. Resolved that Marchamont Nedham, gentleman, be, and is hereby, restored to be writer of the Publick Intelligence, as formerly. Journals of the Home of Commons, Vol. VII. , p. 758, Cole.
102 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Mereurius Politicus. Comprising the Sum of Foreign Intel ligence, with the Affairs now on foot in the three Nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
In speaking of Nedham's Mercury, Anthony Wood gives some information about other Newspapers that appeared at the same time and soon afterwards. These statements, it should be borne in mind, come from a cotemporary authority. He says : —
These Mercuries came out weekly, every Wednesday, in two sheets quarto, commencing 9th June, 1649, and ending 6th of June, 1650. At which time, being Thursday, Nedham began again with number 1, from Thursday, June 6 to Thursday, June 13, 1650. Beginning—"Why should not the Commonwealth
****
have a fool as well as the King had his? "
The Mercurii Politici (wherein were many discourses against Monarchy, and in behalf of a free state, especially in those which were before Oliver Cromwell gaped after a supremacy,) were constantly carried on until about the middle of April, 1660, when (as several times before) the author was prohibited by order of the Council of State. By virtue of which order, Henry Muddiman and Giles Dury were authorized to publish their Intelligence under the titles of Parliamentary Intelligencer and Mercurius Publicus, which continued (Dury soon after giving over) till the middle of August, 1663 ; and then Roger L'Estrange published the Intelligence twice every week in quarto sheets,
under the titles of the Public Intelligencer and the News. The first of which came out the 31st August, and the other on the 3rd September, an. 1663. These continued to the 29th January, 1665, at which time L'Estrange desisted, because in November going before, were every other kind of Newspapers published twice every week in half a sheet in folio. These were called The Oxford Gazette, and the first commenced 7th November, 1665, the King and Queen with their Courts being then at Oxon. These for a little time were written, I think, by Henry Muddi man : but when the said courts removed to London, they were entitled and called the London Gazette ; the first of which, that
nedham's antagonists. 103
was published there, came forth on the 5th of February following, the King being then at Whitehall. Soon after, Mr. Joseph Williamson, Under-secretary of State, procured the writing of them for himself; and thereupon employed Charles Perrot, M. A. , and fellow of Oriel College, Oxon, who had a good command of his pen, to do that office under him, and so he did, though not constantly, to about 1671. After which time they were constantly written by under-secretaries belonging to those that are principal, and do continue so to this day.
The Public Intelligencer communicating the chief occurrences and Proceedings within the Dominions of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c, came out weekly, every Monday, but contained mostly the same matter that was in the Politici*
The animus of this sketch of Nedham and his writings is too apparent to mislead an impartial reader. The damage that his pen had done to the Royal cause explains the feeling manifested against him by a bio grapher, who, being a Royalist, wrote when monarchy was again in the ascendant. The great bulk of Ned- ham's writings were in aid of the popular cause, and those who cried out so loudly about his unprin cipled, though temporary, service on the opposite side, offer us no evidence to show that his pen was not taken up upon compulsion. Yet the acrimony of Wood pursues its victim even beyond the grave, as we
see in the following last notice :—
At length this most seditious, mutable, and railing author, Marchamont Nedham died suddenly in the house of one Kidder, in D'Evreux-Court, near Temple-bar, London, in 1678, and was buried on the 29th November, (being the Vigil of St. Andrew,) at the upper end of the body of the church of St. Clement Danes near the entrance into the chancel. Soon after, that church being pulled down and rebuilt, and the letters on his grave taken away and defaced, you shall have in their place this
* Wood's Athenie Oxoniensis, VoL III. , p. 1180.
104 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
epitaph, made on him an. 1647, printed at the end of Mercurius Britannicus, his welcome to Hell :—
Here lies Britannicus, Hell's barking cur, That son of Beliel, who kept damned stir :
And every Maiday spent his stock of spleen
In venomous railing on the King and Queen, Who tho' they both in goodness may forgive him, Yet (for his safety) we '11 in Hell receive him. *
The pen that abuses Nedham might be expected to praise those who were his political opponents, and, accordingly, we find the writers on theRoyal side treated with much more lenity, though they seem to have been little more respectable than the scribes of the Parlia
mentary cause. John Birkenhead, the chief antagonist
of Mercurius Britannicus, is thus delineated Wood:—
John Birkenhead was the son of Randall Birkenhead of Northwych in Cheshire, saddler, was born there, became a ser- viter of Oriell College under the tuition of Humphrey Lloyd,
(afterwards Bishop of Bangor,) in the beginningof the year 1632, aged 17 years, where continuing until he was Bachelor of Arts became amanuensis to Dr. Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, taking a liking to him for his ingenuity, did, by his diploma, make him Master of Arts in 1639, and, by his letters commen datory thereupon, he was elected probationer-fellow of All Souls' College in the year following. After the Rebellion broke out,
and the King and his Court had settled themselves at Oxford, this our author Mr. Birkenhead was appointed to write the Mercurius Aulicus; which, being very pleasing to the loyal party, His Majesty recommended him to the electors, that they would choose him Moral Philosophy Reader; which being accord ingly done, he continued in that office, with little profit from
till 1648, at which time he was not only turned out thence, but from his fellowship by " the Presbyterian visitors. " Afterwards
* Wood's Athens Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 1819.
by
it,
JOHN BIRKENHEAD. 105
he retired to London, suffered several imprisonments for His Majesty's cause, lived by his wits, at helping young gentlemen out at dead lifts in making poems, songs, and epistles on and to their respective mistresses, as also in translating and writing several little things and other petite employments. After His Majesty's Restoration he was, by virtue of his letters sent to the University, actually created Doctor of the Civil Law, and, in 1661, he was elected a burgess for Wilton to serve in that Parlia
ment which began at Westminster on the 8th of May the same year. In 1662, Nov. 14, he received the honour of knighthood from His Majesty ; and, in 1663, he was constituted one of the Masters of Requests, (in the place of Sir Rich. Fanshaw, when he went ambassador into Spain,) he being then, also, Master of the Faculties, and a Member of the Royal Society. A certain anonymus tells us that this Sir John Birkenhead was a poor alehouse keeper's son, and that he got by lying (or buffooning) at Court, to be one of the Masters of Requests and Faculty Office, and in boons at court £3000. The truth had he not been
given too much to bantering, which now taken up by vain and idle people, he might have passed for good wit and had he also expressed himself grateful and respectful to those that had been his benefactors in the time of his necessity, which he did not, but rather slighted them (showing thereby the bareness of his spirit) he might have passed for friend and loving com panion. He hath written —
Mercurius Aulicus, Communicating the Intelligence and Affairs of the Court (at Oxon) to the rest of the Kingdom. The first of these was published on the 11th of Jan. 1642, and were carried on till about the end of 1645, after which time they were published but now and then. They were printed weekly in one sheet, and sometimes in more, in quarto, and con tained great deal of wit and buffoonery, * All that were then in Oxford knew well enough that John Birkenhead
began and carried them on, and in his absence P. Heylin sup plied his place, and wrote many of them. *
The different fate of the men who espoused the Wood's Athenee Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 1203.
*
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106 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
royal and the popular cause is made manifest in the pages of Anthony Wood. Birkenhead was knighted, made a doctor of laws by royal command, was elected a member of Parliament, and obtained lucrative ap pointments under the Crown. Nedham, in his old age, had to work as a practitioner of the healing art for his bread. When Birkenhead died, no scurrilous epitaphs were suggested for his tomb, though in scur rility he certainly equals his less-favoured opponent. " Sir John Birkenhead," says Wood, " died within the
of Whitehall, on the 4th of December, or thereabouts, in 1679, and was buried on the 6th day of the same month, near to the school door in the churchyard of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the city of Westminster ; leaving then behind him a choice col lection of pamphlets, which came into the hands of his executors, Sir Richard Mason and Sir Muddiford Bramston. "
The other chief writer in the Court paper was less fortunate than Birkenhead, so far as worldly rewards went :—
Peter Heylin, the coadjutor of John Birkenhead, was born
at Pentrie-Heylin in Montgomeryshire, 29th November, 1599, and died at Westminster, 1662. He was a staunch Royalist, and suffered much in the cause, but would seem not to have been well rewarded at the Restoration; for, in 1660, upon His
precincts
return to these kingdoms, he was restored to his
Majesty's
spiritualities,
minster, which was a wonder to many, and a great discontent to him and his ; but the reason being manifest to those that well knew the temper of the person, I shall forbear to make mention of that matter any further. He was a person endowed with singular gifts, of a sharp and pregnant wit, solid and clear judgment. In his younger days he was accounted an excellent
but never rose higher than Sub-dean ofWest
PETER HEYLIN.
poet, but very pragmatical ; in his elder, a better historian, a noted preacher, and a ready and extemporanean speaker. He was a bold and undaunted man among his Mends and foes (though of very mean port and presence) ; he was accounted too high and proud for the function he professed.
In 1642, leaving his prebend of Westminster, and his rectories in Hampshire, upon a foresight of ruin to come, he followed the King to Oxon, where, having little to live upon, did, by the King's command, write the weekly intelligence called Mercurius Aulicus, which had been begun by John Bir kenhead, who pleased the generality of his readers with his waggeries and buffooneries far more than Heylin. *
Heylin seems to have been profound, clever, and proud, whilst Birkenhead was talented, unscrupulous, and amusing. The difference in the amount of their rewards for Court service is easily understood, when we remember that Charles the Second was the Monarch at whose hand they sought payment—a King who liked amusement far better than duty, and who used a restored sceptre for little else than to compel the means of an enlarged profligacy.
Another Newspaper writer was obtained from the Church in the person of Bruno Ryves, who, during the Civil Wars, wrote the Mercurius Rusticus. He supported the Royal cause, and thus subsequently earned preferment for himself and children in the Church.
Bruno Ryves was born in Dorsetshire, made one of the clerks of New College in 1610, where continuing till he was Bachelor of Arts, became one of the chaplains of Magdalene College in 1616. Soon after he proceeded in arts, became a most noted and florid preacher, vicar of Stanwell in Middlesex, rector of St. Martin's-de-le-Vintry in London, chaplain to His
* Wood's Athena; Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 556.
108 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Majesty Charles the First, and, in 1639, proceeded to the degree of doctor of divinity ; but the Rebellion breaking out soon after, he was sequestered of his rectory by the Presbyterians, plun dered and forced to fly, and at length losing his vicaridge, he shifted from place to place, and, by the favour of His Majesty, had the deanery of Chichester and the mastership of the hospital there conferred upon him, though little or no profit accrued thence till after the Restoration of King Charles the Second. About which time, being sworn chaplain in ordinary to him, had the deanery of Windsor conferred on him, in which he was installed 3rd September, 1660, and so consequently was dean of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire. Afterwards he became rector of Acton in Middlesex, was sworn Scribe of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, 14th January, 1660, and about that time was made rector of Horsley, near to and in the county of Oxford, which I think is annexed to his deanery, as the deanery of Wolverhampton but all separated by Mr. Baxter, thereby to make him great pluralist, without any consideration had to his great sufferings occasioned by the Presbyterians. He hath written —
Mercurius Rusticus or, The Countrie's Complaint, recount ing the sad Events of this lamentable War. Which Mercurius in number at least 19, commencing from 22 Aug. 1642, came out in one sheet, sometimes in two in quarto.
Mercurius Rusticus. The second Part in Number giving an account of the Sacrileges in, and upon, several Cathe drals. *
Ryves lived to see one of his sons dean, and the other "an eminent divine in the Church. " This Newspaper writer died in 1677; the Mercurius Rus ticus was afterwards reprinted.
One more portrait of writer of Mercuries may be quoted from the pages of the Royalist chronicler but will be seen that, as the original aided the Presbyterians with his pen, Anthony Wood cannot
•Wood's Athenae Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 1110.
it
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GEORGE WITHER. 109
bring himself to speak favourably of him. George Wither may be called the satirical rhymster of the
Revolutionary era, whilst Milton was its great poet. Wither belonged to a good family in Hampshire ; was educated at Magdalene College, and afterwards entered as a student in the legal region of Lincoln's Inn. But the dry law was forsaken for more pleasant occupations.
His geny hanging after things more smooth and delightful, he did at length make himself known to the world (after he had taken several rambles therein) by certain specimens of poetry ; which being dispersed in several hands, became shortly after a public author, and much admired by some in that age for his quick advancement in that faculty. But so it was that he shewed himself too quick and satirical in his " Abuses stript and whipt," was committed prisoner to the Marshalsea; where, continuing several months, was then more cried up, especially by the Puritanical party, for his profuse pouring forth of English rhyme, and more afterwards by the vulgar sort of people for his
prophetical poetry, in regard that many things were fancied by them to come to pass which he pretended to predict. In 1639 he was a captain of horse in an expedition against the Scots, and quartermaster-general of the regiment wherein he was captain, viz. , of that regiment of, or next under, the earl of Arundel, gen eral of the forces in the said expedition. But this our author, who was always from his youth Puritannically affected (suffici ently evidenced in his satires), sided with the Presbyterians in the beginning of the civil wars raised by them, an. 1642, became an enemy to the King and regality, sold the estate he had, and, with the moneys received from raised a troop of horse for the Parliament, was made a captain, and soon after major, having this motto on his colours, " Pro Rege, Lege, Grege but being taken prisoner by the cavaliers, Sir Jo. Denham, the poet, (some of whose land at Egham, in Surrey, Wither had got into his clutches,) desired His Majesty not to hang him, " because that so long as Wither lived Denham would not be accounted the worst poet in England. " About that time he was consti
a ;"
it,
110 THE FOUETH ESTATE.
tuted by the said Long Parliament a justice of peace in quorum for Hampshire, Surrey, and Essex (which office he kept 16 years), and afterwards was made by Oliver major-general of all the horse and foot in the county of Surrey, in which emplo y ment he licked his fingers sufficiently, gaining thereby a great odium from the generous Royalists. After the King's Restora tion in 1660, he lost all the lands that had belonged to Royalists and bishops, which he before had either bought or had con ferred upon him for the love and zeal he had to the blessed cause. And being then looked upon as a dangerous person to the King and State, especially for a scandalous and seditious libel he had then dispersed, was committed prisoner to New gate, and afterwards, upon his own confession, and the oaths of two persons that he was the author of he, by order of the House of Commons, was sent in custody and committed close prisoner to the Tower of London, to be debarred from ink and paper, and about the same time (24 March, 166j) an impeach ment was ordered to be drawn up against him. In both which prisons he continued three years and more, wrote several things by the connivance of the keeper, of which some were afterwards made public, yet could never refrain from shewing himself a Presbyterian satirist. * * * The things that he hath written and published are very many, accounted by the gene rality of scholars mere scribbles, and the fancies of conceited and confident, if not enthusiastical, mind. Among them was —
Mercurius Rusticus printed 1643. This was written in imitation of the Weekly Intelligence then published, offering, between jest and earnest, some particulars to consideration, relating both to civil and military transactions, and hinting notions then pertinent to those times, &c. The beginning of this Mercurius Rusticus (to distinguish Mercurius Rusticus written by Dr. Ryves) this —" By your leave, gentlemen, when seriousness takes not effect, perhaps trifling may," &c*
At length, after this, our author had lived to the age of 79 years, mostly spent in rambling unsettled condition, con cluded his life on the second day of May, 1667 whereupon his body was buried between the east door and south end of the
* "Wood's Athens Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , 767.
p.
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GEORGE WITHER. Ill
church (which stands north and south) belonging to the Savoy hospital in the Strand, near London. *
" He would," says Aubrey, " make verses as fast as he could write them, and though he was an easie rhymer and no good poet, he was a good vates. He had a strange sagacity and foresight into mundane affairs. He was an early observer of quicquid agunt homines ; his wit was satyrical. "
In the paper war which these first Newspaper writers waged with each other, though they had lofty topics for discussion, and discussed them, yet at other times they descended to low trivialities and gross per sonal abuse. Thus, in the Papers of 1642, we find the Britannicus, t the Aulicus,t and a friend of the latter the Aquaticus, indulging in a contest of this kind. The following passage is from the 1 8th Number of the Britannicus : —
Though I thought it beneath my pen to dip into the lies, and follies, and calumnies of such an Oxford pamphlet, (the Mercurius Aulicus,) yet because I was informed it was not the work of one but many ; viz. , Deckenhead the scribe, Secretary Nicholas the informer, George Digly the contriver, and an assessement of wits is laid on every college, and paid weekly for the continuation of this thing called Mercurius Aulicus ;— upon these considerations, and to vindicate the honour of a Parliament, I tooke my pen, I have discovered the lies, forgeries, insolencies, impieties, prophanations, blasphemies, Popery of the two sheets, and now I have done ; and you, most excellent Senates, (this is addressed to the Parliament,) that you may see how justly I have replyed, and how unjustly ye are calumniated,
* Wood's Athena Oxoniensis, Vol. III. , p. 767.
t" Mercurius Britannicus, communicating the Affairs of Great Bri
tain for the better information of the people. 1642. "
J "A Diurnall, communicating the Affairs and Intelligence of the
Court to the Rest of the Kingdom. Oxford, Printed by H. Hall for W. Webb, Anno Dom. , 1642. "
112 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
I have summed up his last abused, printed at Oxford, formerly an university, now a garrison of Popery, His Majesty's own Royall Court for the recreation of their nobility and gentry, and clergy, and other leige people.
Then follows "A Catalogue of the Abuses, Re
proaches, and Calumnies against the present Parlia ment, this last week in the first sheet. "
The nature of the collection of epithets may be well imagined. One of the "wits," for whom an assessement was stated to be laid on every college, accordingly replied without loss of time in a succeeding publication. * The wit of the colleges would appear to lie in parody, to judge from the answer in question.
Though I thought it beneath my pen to dip into the lies, follies, and calumnies of such a foolish London pamphlet, yet because I was informed that it was not the act of one, but many, which for a while made me think that this monster piece of vanity was the abortive issue of Mr. Saltmarsh the scribe, until I remembered that he had spent more than all his own wit upon his Epigrammarasacra : the Close-Community, the Infor mer, till I considered that it stood not with the policy of their state, that they should inform any but the Close Committee of the Common Counsell, that should inform Captain Ven, that should inform the Prentices and Butchers when 't was fit to make a tumult at Whitehall, and the Brownists when at West minster, and also the Woemen and Schoolboys to petition against evil counsellers ; Tom May, the contriver and chief engineer, (but that I thought he was better at translation than invention,) and especially because I heard an assessement of wit was laid upon the Synod, and every lecturer and private conventicler, from Mr. Marshall at Margaret's to Green the felt-maker in
* "Mercurius Aquaticus," or the Water Poet's Answer to all that hath or shall be (! ) writ by Mercurius Britannicus. Fi-inted at the Waine of the Moone. Page 121, and Number 16 of Mercurius Britannicus. 1643.
THE MARINE MERCURY. 113
the tub, and paid weekly for the continuation of this thing called Mercurius Britannicus, —upon these considerations, and not to vindicate Aulicus, who is only unhappy, in that he must weekly write to their capacity, who have not more brains than Britannicus, I take up my pen.
"
The writer then goes on to catalogue the abuses and reproaches levelled against the Court, as in the other case ; but his list need not be repeated, for it is dull and spiteful, and we have had specimens enough of the Newspaper writing of that time to show its manner and temper when it descended to personality.
The title Mercurius was not limited to papers of News. Thus we find in the Museum Collection " The Marine Mercury, or a true relation of the strange appearance of a Man Fish about three miles within the river Thames, having a musket in one hand and a petition in the other, credibly reported by six sailors, who both saw and talked with the monster, whose names here following are inserted. To which is added a relation of how Sir Simon Heartly with his company gave battle to a company of rebels and slew 500, took four colours, and routed 1500 more, this being performed on the 6th of January, 1641, &c. Printed in the year 1 642. "
According to the monster's own account of himself, he came on a friendly errand, and the paper he held in his hand contained an account of the plots of foreign princes against the country. He also offered his assistance as a courier to collect News, for which he was well adapted, seeing that his steeds were the rapid monsters of the deep, " that Barbary, Roebuck, and Hart were but mere dromedaries to that he rode
on, and that within half an hour he could be in the VOL. I. I
114 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
remotest parts of the ocean for the discovery of the most intricate designs that were in agitation. "
There exists an old play, printed in the year 1641, called " Mercurius Britannicus, or the English Intelli gencer; A Tragic- Comedy at Paris, acted with great applause. " The subject of the play is political, and refers to the extra-judicial opinions of the judges in the case of Ship money.
The friends of Royalty published a Mercurius Poeticus,* in which the King's cause is advocated and the Parliament abused in good set terms, if not in the best verse. The " poem" concludes thus: —
Great Charles, be pacified, for now ThouIt see rebellion fall,
Thy traitorous subjects must allow Thee King, or perish all.
With a morsel of "foreign News" from a jour nal + of the year 1642, these extracts and the present chapter may close : —
Leipsic, 30th June. The Swedes play master everywhere, they have taken Brunne, Zagerdorf and Ratibore, they have commanded some thousands towards Bing, and 4000 horsemen towards the drawbridge of Vienna. At Zitlin in the Marquis- ate of Bradenburgh was seen at Noon-day a black cloud, in it
* Mercurius Poeticus, discovering the Treasons of a thing called Parliament, also giving perfect intelligence of all the most remarkable undertakings from the Kingdom of Scotland, Pembrook Castle, and other parts now in a military posture, for the restoration of His Majesty and the laws of the Kingdom. No. 1. From Friday May 5, to Friday May 13, 1648.
t An excut Coranto from most parts of Christendom from July 3, to this present, viz. , from Cullen, Leipsich, Newherne, Aldenburg,
Bohemia, Vienna, Prague, Collen, (Cologne,) Hamburgh. London, printed by L. N. and J. F. , for E. Husbands, and J. Frank.
OLD "marvellous" paragraph. IIS
two fighting swords, and out of it rained much blood, and fiery skulls fell out of it to the ground, and so consumed.
This morsel of the marvellous, prepared for the appetite of News-readers two centuries ago, is doubtless
the great progenitor of that famous paragraph which, from time to time, runs the round of the Newspapers in this our nineteenth century, headed — "A Shower of Frogs. "
i2
CHAPTER IV.
THE PRESS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, THE RESTORATION, AND THE REVOLUTION.
" This is true liberty, when free-born men,
Having to advise the public, may speak free, Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise ; Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace : What can be juster in a state than this V
Eubip. Sicetid. in Areopagitica.
Bacon and Sir Lionel Cranfield. —The Long Parliament and the Press. — Ordinances. —Milton's Plea for Unlicensed Printing. —The Restora tion shackles the Press. — Trial and Fate of Twyn. — L'Estrange the Censor and Editor. —The London Gazette appears. —The Revolution of 1688.
BACON, after he was sentenced in Parliament, met Sir Lionel Cranfield, whom King James had then just made Lord Treasurer. The disgraced
philosopher, having first congratulated the newly- appointed dignitary on his advancement to so emi nent a place of honour and trust, says Petyt,* told him, between jest and earnest, that he would recom mend to his Lordship, and in him to all other great officers of the Crown, one considerable rule, to be carefully observed, which was, to Remember a Par liament will come.
Was this only a friendly warning to the newly- installed minister to avoid the shoals of corruption
* Miscellanea Parliamentaria. Lond. , 1680. Preface.
THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE PRESS. 117
upon which his own bark had been wrecked ? Or did the author of the Organon see into the future, when the people should seize the reigns of power, to correct abuses which kings refused to reform ? Certain it is, that the prophetic words of the disgraced philosopher gained strange significance by the progress of subse quent events.
A Parliament did come, and it gave the nation an account of its stewardship ; but though it continued to state its affairs openly so long as it had power, yet it betrayed at times a morbid sensibility when its con duct was attacked. Hence a number of ordinances for the regulation of printers and printing, and for the control of the issue of the very reports which this Parliament was the first to permit.
A Committee of the House of Commons had been appointed, in February, 1640, " to consider and examine all abuses of printing, licensing, importing, and suppressing books of all sorts ;" and, in the May of the following year, a committee was named to consider the printing of speeches. * This was only the commencement of a series of steps on the subject, which had in view the suppression of such publi cations as were thought objectionable. Nor did the members who had the courage to show a bold front to their King, hesitate to act very summarily on any of their own body who gave cause of offence. An instance of this occurred in the case of Sir E. Dering, who, on the 2nd of February, 1641, was expelled from the House of Commons, by a vote of that
assembly,
for printing his speeches. These publi- * Journ. Ho. Comm. , Vol. II.
US THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cations were also ordered to be burnt by the common hangman in Westminster, Cheapside, and Smithfield. Sir Edward was brought to the bar of the Commons, where he knelt whilst the Speaker pronounced his sentence. He was then ordered into custody, and was imprisoned in the Tower, but was discharged a few days afterwards.
It was thus shown that, whilst the Parliament were willing enough to admit the general rigM. cfibfi4ieople to printed information of pj^UojjfMrs, they were yet ready enough to exercise the power in their hands, as such power had customarily been used, for the purpose ofcrushing the manifestation. ilf. . &ny . spirit regarded as especially dangerous to their authority. Still the press went on enlarging the field of its power and extending its influence. The Newspapers from time to time gave bold utterance to popular thoughts, and had a strong tendency to tell unpalateable truths. The increase of this temper, by the middle of the succeeding year, gave rise to another order of the House of Commons, dated June 14, 1642, "for preventing the printing and pub lishing of any scandalous or libellous pamphlets that
reflect upon the King or the Kingdom, the Parliament or Scotland, and for suppressing of such as have already been printed. " The Diurnals that first told of Parliamentary doings appeared with an imprint, simply giving the names of those who printed and offered the sheets to the public. It was apparently an open trade for those who chose to embark in it ; but these orders upon the subject of printing soon effected a change in this, and we begin to find " authorities" appended to various publications. Thus, in this same
may
THE BOOK OF SPORTS. 119
year, 1642, the Commons ordered the speech of Mr. Hollis, on impeaching the nine Lords at York, to be printed by some one appointed by him; and we see in the title of the pamphlet the formal words, " I appoint that none shall print this but ThomasUnderhill, Denzil Hollis. " The " True Diurnal" of Parliamentary proceedings also displays the signature " Io. Browne, Cler. Parliamentor. " But types and presses had been unshackled, and they increased ; and now it became day by day more difficult, amid the struggle of parties, to prevent the printing of what the belligerents were anxious the people should see and consider. The special wrath of the Parliament was directed against what they chose to regard as irreligious publications ; and we find the men who smarted under the intolerant
tyranny of the Star Chamber, when that Court at tempted to suppress attacks on Prelacy, inclined to be
almost equally intolerant when any writer's productions were thought to be injurious to the Puritan cause. There are bigots in infidelity as well as bigots in faith, and proofs of this tendency to intolerant temper were shown in the Long Parliament. On the 5th of May, 1643, an order of Parliament was made,* "that the book, enjoining and tolerating of Sports upon the Lord's day, be forthwith burnt by the hands of the common hangman in Cheapside and otherusual places. " The sheriffs of London and Middlesex were to attend and see this order duly executed, and all persons who had any of the denounced books were ordered " to bring them to one of the sheriffs for their utter destruc tion. "
* Pari. Hist. , Vol. Ill, p. 114.
120 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
But still on, on went the writers and the printers, and still hotter and hotter became the battle fought through the press. Only a month after the Book of Sports had helped to raise the hangman's fire in Smith- field, and had been burnt for the edification of the prentices of Cheapside, the Parliament was again compelled to resort to an ordinance still more stringent than those which had preceded it. The liberty of the
press, says the Parliamentary historian,* "having of late been very grevious," the Commons passed an ordinance to restrain and to strengthen some for mer orders made for that purpose. The preamble to this ordinance sets forth: —
" That whereas divers good orders have been lately made, by both Houses of Parliament, for suppressing the great abuses and frequent disorders in printing many false, forged, scandalous, seditious, libellous, and unlicensed papers, pamphlets, and books to the great defamation of religion and government; which have taken little or no effect, by reason the bill in preparation, for redress of the said disorders, hath hitherto been retarded and that through the present distractions, very many persons, as well stationers and printers, as others of sundry other pro fessions, have taken upon them to set up private printing presses in corners; and to print, vend, publish, and disperse books, pamphlets and papers, in such multitudes, that no in dustry could be sufficient to discover or bring to punishment all the several abounding delinquents therefore," &c. The most material clauses are these —" That no Order or Declaration of either House shall be printed without order of one or both the said Houses nor any other book, pamphlet, paper, nor part of
any such book, pamphlet, or paper, shall from henceforth be printed, bound, stitched, or put out to sale, by any person or persons whatsoever, unless the same be first approved and licensed under the hands of such persons as both, or either, of the said
* Pari. Hist. , Vol. III. , p. 131.
;
:
it,
:
:
PARLIAMENTARY ORDINANCE. 121
Houses shall appoint for licensing of the same, and be entered in the Register Book of the Company of Stationers, according to ancient custom, and the printer thereof to put his name thereto. The master and wardens of the said Company, the gentleman-usher of the House of Peers, the Serjeant of the Com mons House, and their deputies, together with the persons formerly appointed by the committee of the House of Commons for examinations, are authorized and required to make diligent search in all places, where they shall think meet, for all unli censed printing presses, and all presses any way employed in the printing of scandalous or unlicensed papers, pamphlets, or books ; and to seize and carry away such printing presses, letters, and other materials, of every such irregular printer, which they find so misemployed, unto the common-hall of the said Company, there to be defaced and made unserviceable, according to ancient custom ; and likewise to make diligent search in all suspected printing-houses, ware-houses, shops, and other places, for such scandalous and unlicensed books, papers, pamphlets, and all other books, not entered nor signed with the printer's name as aforesaid, being printed contrary to this Order ; and the same to seize and carry away to the said common-hall, there to remain till both or either House of Parliament shall dispose thereof; and likewise to apprehend all authors, printers, and other persons whatsoever employed in compiling, printing, stitching, binding, publishing and dispersing of the said scan dalous, unlicensed, and unwarrantable papers, books, and pam phlets as aforesaid ; and all those who shall resist the said parties in searching after them, and bringing them before either of the Houses or Committee of Examinations, that so they may receive such further punishments as their offences shall demerit; and not to be released until they have given satisfaction to the parties employed in their apprehension for their pains and charges, and sufficient caution not to offend in like sort for the future. All justices of the peace, captains, constables, and other officers, are ordered and required to be aiding and assisting to the aforesaid persons in the due execution of all and singular the premises, and in the apprehension of all offenders against the same ; and in case of opposition, to break open doors and locks, &c. "
122 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
This order recoiled on those who made for, whilst fettered them, their adversaries set at naught, and continued the war of unlicensed words as zealously as
ever. The Diurnal J>ore thn stamp of authority, * but other papers appeared withouLifc. This effort towards restraint had also another and more memorable result. It called to the contest mind of the loftiest stamp, whose nobility of intellect had been startled and shocked by the wrong sought to be done to the cause of freedom of thought, by the very men to whom free dom owed so much. A youth of study two years of opening manhood spent in travel; an acquaintance with Galileo, and others the most eminent of their age and love of liberty, ardent as ever displayed itself in the words or deeds of man, made up the mind that now spoke out for the liberty of unlicensed printing. The Parliament threw down the gauntlet, and the poet- patriot Milton took up.
Parliament. This discourse has long been regarded
as the masterpiece of its author in prose composition,
and its eloquence must have told upon the mind of the country, failed to convince at once the bigotted authors of the parliamentary ordinance.
The Areopagitica,
spe_ech_ fqrj^fi. . . liherty- of unlicenseTprinting,. was the ofFeriagMJ^iltonj^o„the cause of the press in those early days^whjn, jt&jtery
powerful
existence was perilled by the wrath of a
* "A Perfect Diurnal of some passages of Parliament, and from other parts of the kingdom, from Munday the 11 of September till Munday the 18 of Septemb. Anno 1643. "
" This licensed, and entred into the Register Book of the Company of Stationers according to Order. " In 1644 we find the imprint modi fied thus — "Printed according to Order. "
is
if it
it a
a
a
;
;
it
it,
it
MILTON. 123
Milton spoke in words worthy of the bard who was afterwards to sing of Paradise Lost. He brought classic scholarship, eloquent sentences, and sound logic to the task, and fought the battle for liberty of printed thought with the earnestness and warmth of one who felt strongly impressed with the importance of the cause he sought to establish. He reminded the authorities that their order availed nothing to the sup pressing of the publications they sought to destroy, whilst it acted towards " the discouragement of all learning, and the stop of truth, not only by dis- exercising and blunting our abilities in what we know already, but by hindering and cropping the discovery
that might be yet further made, both in religious and civil wisdom. " He called upon those who would check the printing press to consider well the value of its
" Books," said he " are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are ; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And
products.
on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image ; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. It is
yet,
124 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
true, no age can restore a life, whereof, perhaps, there is no great loss; and revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse. We should be wary, therefore, what persecution we raise against the living labours of public men, how we spill that sea soned life of man, preserved and stored up in books ; since we see a kind of homicide may be thus committed, sometimes a martyrdom ; and if it extend to the whole impression, a kind of massacre, whereof the execution ends not in the slaying of an elemental life, but strikes at the ethereal and fifth essence, the breath of reason itself; slays an immortality rather than a life. " Follow ing this fine thought finely wrought out, he gave a rapid but learned historical sketch of what had been done in like circumstances by ancient and famous Commonwealths. When speaking of the early struggles of Christian truth, he ingeniously held up before the Puritan Parliament what had been done by the censors of the Church of Rome, and thus compelled an infer
ence favourable to liberty of the press :—
The primitive councils and bishops were wont only to declare what books were not commendable, passing no farther, but leaving it to each one's conscience to read or to lay by, till after the year 800, is observed already by Padre Paolo, the great unmasker of the Trentine council. After which time the Popes of Rome, engrossing what they pleased of political rule into their own hands, extended their dominion over men's eyes, as they had before over their judgments, burning and prohibiting to be read what they fancied not ; yet sparing in their censures, and the books not many which they so dealt with ; till Martin the Fifth, by his bull, not only prohibited, but was the first that excommunicated the reading of heretical books ; for about that time Wickliffe and Husse growing terrible, were they who
MILTON'S PLEA FOR THE PRESS. 12. 5
first drove the Papal Court to a stricter policy of prohibiting. Which course Leo the Tenth and his successors followed, until the Council of Trent and the Spanish Inquisition, engendering to gether, brought forth or perfected those catalogues and expurging indexes, that rake through the entrails of many an old good author
with a violation worse than any could be offered to his tomb. Nor did they stay in matters heretical, but any subject that
was not to their palate, they either condemned in a prohibition, or had it straight into the new purgatory of an index. To fill up the measure of encroachment, their last invention was to ordain that no book, pamphlet, or paper should be printed (as if St. Peter had bequeathed them the keys of the press also as well as of Paradise) unless it were approved and licensed under the hands of two or three gluttonous friars. For example :—
" Let the chancellor Cini be pleased to see if in this present work be contained aught that may withstand the printing.
" Vincent Rabbata, Vicar of Florence. "
I have seen this present work, and find nothing athwart the catholic faith
Attending the precedent relation, it is allowed that this present work of " Davanzata may be printed. '' Vincent Rabbata," &c.
It may be printed, July 15.
" Friar Simon Mompei d'Amelia, Chancellor of the
Holy Office in Florence. "
Sure they have a conceit, if he of the bottomless pit had not long since broke prison, that this quadruple exorcism would but bar him down. I fear their next design will be to get into
their custody the licensing of that which they say Claudius intended, but went not through with. Vouchsafe to see another of their forms, the Roman stamp :—
" Imprimatur, If it seem good to the reverend master of the Holy Palace. " " Belcastro, Viceregent. "
Imprimatur, Friar Nicholo Rodolphi, Master of the Holy Palace. "
Sometimes five imprimaturs are seen together, dialogue- wise, in the piazza of one title page, complimenting and ducking each to other with their shaven references, whether the author, who stands by in perplexity at the foot of his epistle, shall to the press or to the spunge. These are the pretty responsories, these are the dear antiphonies, that so bewitched of late our prelates
"
"
and good manners ; in witness whereof I have given, &c.
" Nicolo Cini, Chancellor of Florence. "
126 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
and their chaplains, with the goodly echo they made ; and besotted us to the gay imitation of a lordly imprimatur, one from Lambeth house, another from the west end of Paul's ; so apishly Romanizing, that the word of command still was set down in Latin ; as if the learned grammatical pen that wrote it would cast no ink without Latin ; or perhaps, as they thought, because no vulgar tongue was worthy to express the pure con ceit of an imprimatur ; but rather, as I hope, for that our English, the language of men ever famous and foremost in the achiev- ments of liberty, will not easily find servile letters enow to spell such a dictatory presumption Englished.
And thus ye have the inventors and the original of book licensing ripped up, and drawn as lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be heard of, from any ancient state, or polity, or church, nor by any statute left us by our ancestors elder or later ; nor from the modern custom of any reformed city or church abroad ; but from the most anti-Christian council, and the most tyrannous inquisition that ever inquired. Till then books were ever as freely admitted into the world as any other birth ; the issue of the brain was no more stifled than the issue of the womb : no envious Juno sat cross-legged over the nativity of any man's intellectual offspring ; but if it proved a monster, who denies but that it was justly burnt, or sunk into the sea ? But that a book, in worse condition than a peccant soul, should be to stand before a jury ere it be born to the world, and undergo yet in darkness the judgment of Radamanth and his colleagues, ere it can pass the ferry backward into light, was never heard before, till that mysterious iniquity, provoked and troubled at the first entrance of reformation, sought out new limboes and new hells wherein they might include our books also within the number of their damned. And this was the rare morsel so officiously snatched up, and so ill-favouredly imitated by our inquisiturient bishops, and the attendant minor ities, their chaplains. That ye like not now these most certain authors of this licensing order, and that all sinister intention was far distant from your thoughts, when ye were importuned the passing all men who know the integrity of your actions, and how ye honour truth, will clear ye readily.
it,
milton's arguments. 127
Having brought ancient learning and Christian
to bear upon his theme, Milton next turns for scriptural authority to aid him. He reminds the Parliament that " to the pure all things are pure, not only meats and drinks but all kinds of knowledge, whether of good or evil : the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and the con science be not defiled. " " What wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to forbear, without the know ledge of evil ? He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet ab stain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and seeks her adver sary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather; that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue, therefore, which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects but blank virtue, not pure; her whiteness but an excremental
whiteness. "
history
The impracticability of the attempted suppression of thought was not forgotten —
" If we think to regulate printing, thereby to rec tify manners, we must regulate all recreations and pastimes, all that delightful to man. No music must be heard, no song be set or sung, but what grave and doric. There must be licensing dancers,
is
is
:
is it, is
a
a
12S THE FOURTH ESTATE.
that no gesture, motion, or deportment be taught our youth, but what by their allowance shall be thought honest ; for such Plato was provided of. It will ask more than the work of twenty licensers to examine all the lutes, the violins, and the guitars in every house ; they must not be suffered to prattle as they do, but must be licensed what they may say. And who shall silence all the airs and madrigals that whis per softness in chambers? The windows also, and the balconies, must be thought on ; these are shrewd books, with dangerous frontispieces, set to sale : who shall prohibit them, shall twenty licensers ? The villages also must have their visitors to inquire what lectures the bagpipe and the rebec reads, even to the ballatry and the gamut of every municipal fiddler; for these are the countryman's Arcadias, and his Monte
He reminds them that the order has been inoperative against Sir John Birkenhead's Mercurius Aulicus. "Whatever thing we hear or see, sitting, walking, travelling, or conversing, may be fitly called our book, and is of the same effect that writings are ; yet grant the thing to be prohibited were only books, it appears that this order hitherto is far insufficient to the end which it intends. Do we not see, not once or oftener, but weekly, that continued court-libel against the Parliament and city, printed, as the wet sheets can witness, and dispersed among us for all that licensing can do. " And then, a few pages further on, we have the fine passage in which he tells what he saw and thought when in Italy :— V
Mayors. "
" And lest some should persuade ye, Lords and Commons, that these arguments of learned men's dis
MILTON AND GALILEO. 129
at this your order are mere flourishes, and not real, I could recount what I have seen and heard in other countries, where this kind of inquisition tyrannizes ; when I have sat among their learned men,
(for that honour I had,) and been counted happy to be born in such a place of philosophic freedom, as they
supposed England was, while themselves did nothing but bemoan the servile condition into which learning amongst them was brought; that this was it which had damped the glory of Italian wits — that nothing had been there written now these many years but flattery and fustian. There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo, grown old, a prisoner to the inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Fransciscan and Dominican licensers thought.
And though I knew that England then was groaning loudest under the PrekUMaljoke, nevertheless I took it as a pledge of future happiness, that other nations were so persuaded of her liberty. "
Milton's exhortation may be said to have been addressed to a nation under arms, and before long their weapons were in more active use than ever. The battle of Naseby hastened the day when the ruler of the sword should be the ruler of the Parliament. As affairs became more perplexed, the press laboured on both sides for an audience and for converts; each party lacking the power, if they had the desire, to stop the tide of publication. It was not till General Fairfax, in defiance of Parliamentary orders, had marched into London, that the writers and printers were again interfered with.