MacLean, Gerald, editor. The Return of the King : An Anthology of English Poems Commemorating the Restoration
of Charles II / edited by Gerald MacLean
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
|
Table of Contents for this work | | All on-line databases | Etext Center Homepage |
Anthony Sadler: The Subject's Joy1
Among the poetic tributes which poured from the English press in 1660 to welcome the newly appointed monarch, Anthony Sadler's "sacred masque" presents something of an anomaly, so it is not surprising that this work should have gone unnoticed until very recently.2 Although court masques enjoyed something of a revival in the early years of the Restoration, their season was a brief one.3 In both form and narrative concerns, however, The Subject's Joy immediately precedes the Restoration itself, and in crucial ways links the highly politicized print culture of the late 1650s with a tradition of Stuart poetics reaching back to the 1630s and 1640s. Poised between Renaissance and Restoration, Sadler's masque is a closet drama clearly intended to be experienced in printed form rather than staged performance.4
[1] Wing: S267. Qto. O Mal.194940, copy text; CH 147664; L1 163.h.52; L2 644.f.43, described as "removed from the Thomason collection," this copy was reported missing in January 1996; WF 154181; Y; WLC [the "Huth" copy] PR 3671.S114 S8. I would like to thank specially Suzanne Gossett, Robert Hume, Laura Knoppers, Lois Potter, Dale B. J. Randall, and Nigel Smith for valuable advice and suggestions with Sadler's masque.
[2] Suzanne Gossett's "Recent Studies in the English Masque," ELR 26: (1996): 586-627, surveys "scholarship on all aspects of the English masque from 1509 to 1660" (p. 586) and finds nothing to report on Sadler's piece. Nancy Klein Maguire, in Regicide and Restoration: English Tragicomedy, 1660-1671 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), calls The Subject's Joy an "intriguing and totally neglected masque" (p. 86), and briefly compares it with Cosmo Manuche's Banished Shepherdess. Sadler's masque is also noticed by Dale B. J. Randall in Winter Fruit: English Drama 1642-1660 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995), p. 369. Laura Lunger Knoppers discusses the frontispiece in her recent study of portraits of Cromwell in ELR.
[3] See Joanne Altieri, The Theatre of Praise: The Panegyric Tradition in Seventeenth-Century Drama (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1986), and Andrew Walkling, "Politics and the Restoration Masque: The Case of Dido and Aeneas," in MacLean, ed., Culture and Society in the Stuart Restoration, pp. 52-69.
[4] On the distinction between the "literary" and the "theatrical" masque, see Jerzy Limon, The Masque of Stuart Culture (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1990) which does not, however, take the story up to the Restoration. For a recent examination of print culture after the Restoration, see Harold M. Weber, Paper Bullets: Print and Kingship under Charles II (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996).
I. The Subject's Joy: Text and Date
The Subject's Joy is a small quarto that collates: frontispiece + A-F4 = leaves. Running headers between sigs. A2v-A3v read "The Epistle Dedicatory;" between sigs. B1v-F4v read "A Divine Masque." The frontispiece, {to be} reproduced from the copy in the Bodleian Library, is also present in the Huntington Library copy, but has become detached from the copies in the British Library, Folger Library, Yale University Library, and Library of Congress. Texts of all these copies are identical.
The titlepage tells us that this work was printed for James Davis "to be sold at the Greyhound" in 1660. It seems most likely that Sadler had the text on hand and ready for the printers before Charles actually arrived, and in print during the early part of May. Internal claims that it was published during May are congruent with Sadler's hasty handling of contemporary details and are supported by the handwritten "May 17" on the copy associated with George Thomason's collection.5
From Thomason's dates we also know that Sadler had rushed his broadside Majestie Irradiant through the press in time for the first of May -- a full week before the king's return was formally proclaimed, and weeks before Charles actually landed on the 25th. Clearly Sadler was keen to appear among those who welcomed Charles back before he had actually returned, and had successfully established working relations with printers.6Other internal evidence complicates the question of when The Subject's Joy might actually have appeared, but proves inconclusive. In the "private Speech of the Author" immediately preceding the speeches, songs, and shews making up the text of the masque proper, Sadler calls this work the "younger" of two printed pieces dedicated to the restored house of Stuart. "The Elder," he writes, "is a Sybillian; and (to acheer the King) doth (by a Prophetick Pen) write a Prædiction, in a Lamentation." Here, Sadler is clearly referring not to his own Mayday broadside, Majestie Irradiant, but to yet another loyal tribute he published that year, a two-gathering quarto entitled The Loyall Mourner, Shewing the Murdering of King Charles the First. Fore-shewing the Restoring of King Charles the Second, "Printed by T. C. for L. Sadler. 1660." While it is very likely that Sadler is thinking of the chronological order in which he wrote the works -- one on the death of Charles I, the other on the return of Charles II -- his insistence that they are both "dres'd in Print" deserves attention since it is not clear when The Loyall Mourner first appeared.
Thomason, who was normally swift to buy and date his collection of printed works, did not date his copy of the "Elder" work, The Loyall Mourner, until December.7 But this fact alone does not necessarily point to a date later than May for the appearance of the "younger" masque since the copy of the elegy currently in the Thomason collection, like that in Lambeth Palace Library,8 is evidently a re-issue of an earlier printing. In both these copies, the two gatherings of The Loyall Mourner have been broken up and interleaved with the titlepage and text of Mercy in a Miracle, a sermon preached by Sadler on 28 June that also shows up as a separate publication. Since not all copies of The Loyall Mourner contain the June sermon, unsold copies of an original printing were probably reissued with Sadler's sermon sometime in early December. The undated copy of The Loyall Mourner currently in the Huntington collection,9 for example, contains an identical printing bound in with two engraved portraits of Charles but lacking any of the material from Mercy in a Miracle, strongly suggesting an original issue of the elegy that might well have appeared earlier, perhaps at the same time as The Subject's Joy in line with Sadler's claim.
If, as seems likely, Sadler's masque was indeed published in May, then it was presumably being written before there was any certainty that Charles would be recalled. And this is the historical moment into which the text insinuates itself, opening with an epistle to General Monk in which Sadler declares himself ready "to chant an Hosanna for the Kings Reception," and encourages Monk to "enthrone" the king. Following this epistle, verses addressed "TO THE Candid Reader" -- the oversized and bolded "C" and "R" signal "Carolus Rex" -- announce "this is The Month of May" when "the Prince . . . is Deliver'd."
Nothing in The Subject's Joy indicates detailed knowledge of specific events or public issues after Charles had actually stepped on English soil, while the culminating action of the masque -- the casting down of Cromwell's iconic portrait -- anticipates the start of the new king's reign.
[5] Dale Randall reports this date in Winter Fruit, p. 369. The copy in question, reclassified from the Thomason Collection to British Library shelfmark 644.f.43, was reported missing in January 1996. My own records indicate that I examined this copy in 1984 at which time I too noted the "May 17" annotation.
[6] Persuading a printer to take on a lengthy set of verses like the text of The Subject's Joy after May could prove difficult in the extreme since printers had quickly become booked up with poetic tributes as spring turned into summer. Henry Oxenden finished his long heroic poem, Charls Triumphant in June, but was still checking proofs in March 1661. See Dorothy Gardiner, ed., The Oxinden and Peyton Letters 1642-1670 (London: Sheldon Press, 1937), pp. 235, 241, 242, 246.
[7] LT E.1053(6).
[8] Lambeth Palace, shelfmark H5133.
[9] CH 51701.
II. "Theatrical, New, and Strange:" The Sacred Masque
Sadler himself claims of his masque:
This Peece (I confess) is Theatrical, New, and Strange; Strange, but yet Pertinent; New, but yet Serious; and Theatrical, but yet Sacred.
Although Sadler later includes a speech that claims to precede an actual performance, there is little reason to think The Subject's Joy was ever performed.10 The singular literary achievements of Sadler's "sacred masque" can best be approached in terms of print culture and the history of the book on the eve of the Restortation. By 1660, the very activity of printing had itself become firmly politicized as a result of two decades during which the press came into its own as a central agent of political change.11 Lois Potter has shown with what energy royalists managed to continue printing despite the largely successful censorship campaigns of the late 1640s and 1650s, using the press to comment on contemporary events while keeping alive arguments for belief in monarchy.12 In many respects a jeremiad directed at those who rebel against divinely ordained monarchs, The Subject's Joy may be linked with other mixed genres employed in the cause of royalist propaganda during the early months of 1660 -- such as Scutum Regale, The Royal Buckler; or, Vox Legis, A Lecture to Traytors by the young lawyer Giles Duncombe -- that seek to attack and undermine the authority of the "traitors" currently losing control over the nation. Back in May, Sadler's epistle to Monk also links the appearance of his masque with the royalist revival of theatrical entertainments held for the General by the various London Guilds during March and April. Although it seems most likely that the masque was never performed, Sadler can nevertheless rightfully claim that the appearance of the text puts its author "upon the joyfull stage" of national history.
So in its claim to be theatrical, new, and strange, The Subject's Joy is very much a product of its precise historical moment, political allegiances, and the agency of print. By recasting traditional features of the masque into an account of an imaginary performance, Sadler looks backward to the court culture of the 1630s and 1640s, but instead of the neoclassicism at the heart of Stuart court culture back then, this Anglican divine opts for a biblical theme. Simply by reason of appearing in print, his text shifts the scene from the exclusive world of court entertainment to the public sphere of print culture that was opening up in 1660. Besides delighting in the use of striking print fonts and bolded anagrams, Sadler's text fully embraces the possibilities of print, integrating both its own frontispiece and textual status into the action of the masque, which ends when "Psyche (with an observant haste) goes, to present the King, with the Masque, in writing." In the frontispiece Cromwell appears in the type of Jeroboam, he of the golden calves. And it is Jeroboam's portrait -- presumably the engraved frontispiece itself -- that the Levites smash at the feet of the returning King Abijah or Charles. In these respects, it is only as a printed document, complete with frontispiece, that Sadler's celebration of returning monarchy fully engages the resources of print in order to turn the iconoclastic impulses of the revolutionary decades against themselves in a reconfiguring of old testament history.
Nevertheless, The Subject's Joy not only calls itself a masque, but displays a strong commitment to many of the structural and generic features of the form, framing the text of the masque within an imaginary account of a performance. Following the prose epistle to Monk and verses addressed to the reader, Sadler announces "In this MASQUE are 6. Shewes. Speeches. 3. Songs," as indeed there are. First, however, Sadler treats us to the "Private Speech" before "Friends," that purports to have been spoken before a performance. Here he details how his initial plans to write a masque on the Gunpowder Plot led him to ponder Old Testament rebels who had plotted against the divine authority of sacred kings. Zedekiah, Corah, Zimri, Shallum: Sadler ponders them all before he finally settles on the most wicked of them all, Jeroboam. The action begins when a Levite steps forward to speak "The Argument."
Here, Sadler quarries accounts of Jeroboam from 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, inviting the reader to apply this exemplary figure, who not only sinned but also caused Israel to sin, to Oliver Cromwell. Jeroboam's wicked reign eventually fails when King Abijah accedes to the throne of David and destroys Jeroboam's army. A young prince then steps forward to speak a verse "Prologue" by way of introducing Psyche, the titulary spirit of the masque. From here, the shews, speeches and songs follow a general pattern of lamenting rebellion but finding hope in Old Testament examples, a pattern that leads to an "antique" dance during which Psyche enthrones King Abijah.
Each of the descriptive shows introduces the next speaker or set of characters in emblematic context. The exception is the last in which Jeroboam finally appears, only to be torn apart and cast into hell by the Devil. During the Levite's song which follows, the iconic portrait is smashed and Psyche presents the king with the written copy of the masque. Each of the speeches invariably details loyalist attitudes toward rebellion against sacred monarchy. King David appears and asks why God allows the wicked to prosper. King Abijah/Charles laments "was ever grief like mine?" echoing George Herbert's "The Sacrifice." Other members of the Stuart family and court recall sacred examples of how God punishes wicked rebels. Finally an "Old Man" appears, who turns directly to Jeroboam and precipitates the final show. Much like the speeches, the songs provide catalogues of loyalist sentiments -- grief at the tyranny of rebels, delight at their eventual overthrow. No tunes are indicated for any of the songs.
Sadler clearly has the general framework of English politics very much in mind in casting and ordering biblical materials for his masque. Jeroboam frequently figures in the Old Testament as the type of leader who compounded his own sins by encouraging others into sin through rebelling with him.13
It is said of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, That he not onely sinned himself, but that he made Israel to sin; and there were those of his Confederates that then sinned with him and after he was dead and gone, of whom it is recorded, That they walked in the ways, and departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin.
The parallel hereof we have on England in this our day: Oliver the late Protector (so called) who (Jeroboam-like) so greatly appeared with the people for Justice and Freedom against Oppression, highly professing and declaring for the same, hath sinned in the breach of those Protestations and Declarations, in building again those things he had been so greatly instrumental to destroy; therein surpassing not onely the deeds of the wicked who were cut off upon the like account, but also of Jeroboam, who never made such professions and declarations as he had done.14 Where Wharton argues that Cromwell exceeds the parallel with Jeroboam, Sadler vicariously invents a gory end for him at the hands of the Devil.
Sadler's Subject's Joy claims to be the first English masque to use sacred history.
However we might assess his adherence to masque form, Sadler wants to draw attention to the novelty of his design, but he quickly solicits the authority of two fathers of the early church for his practice here. "Nor am I in This," he writes in the epistle to Monk, "either singular, or affected; while Apollinarius and Nazianzen (two antient Fathers of the Primitive Church) are known to be exemplary in this very way." Apollinarius is an appropriate precedent for turning sacred history into profane form, but as Milton knew, there were two examples of that name.15 Sadler probably has Apollinaris the younger, bishop of Laodicea, (361-77, died 392) in mind, rather than his father, though both translated scripture: "The father prepared a Christian grammar, turned the Penteteuch into an epic and the `Former Prophets' into tragedies,"16 while his son of the same name composed, "to replace Homer, a biblical history in twenty-four hymns and reproduced the content of the gospels in Pindaric meters."17
Sadler's other authority, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, whose church in the Cappadocian village of Güzelyurt is now a mosque, is perhaps even more revealing of the loyal minister's design since Gregory's Carmen de vita sua, is "a self-pitying autobiography in iambic verse"18 written in retirement during 381 after he resigned in anger from the Council of Constantinople which had challenged his nomination as bishop of Constantinople.19 Though hardly self-pitying when he published the masque in 1660, Sadler no doubt began composition during a period of defeat for royalists. Perhaps this explains why The Subject's Joy, as the final chorus reminds us, is "Psyche's play," not simply a public declaration of royalist sentiments, but also a very personal if not psychological document, a testament of beleaguered loyalty and faith to a seemingly lost cause that has finally and miraculously proved victorious.
In celebrating the Restoration, Sadler's literary imagination is often typical of his generation of royalists. On one hand he desperately wants to produce a novel sort of literary celebration, to invent a new kind; on the other, he feels compelled to show how he is taking his literary forms from the traditions and authority of the past. As an Anglican poet, Sadler often recalls and echoes Herbert, especially when focussing on the sufferings of fallen monarchy. But the biblical narrative is seldom from his thoughts. Sadler calls the new king a "Nursing Father," a key trope in the defense of the sacramental authority of kings that poets used to legitimate Charles II.20 In recasting episodes from biblical history, he makes no attempt to draw out a sustained parallel narrative in the Restoration manner soon to become familiar from Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel. He does not recast the order of biblical narrative in order to predict or offer advice on pressing political issues. When he recalls specific moments from Jeroboam's reign, he does so as part of a general pattern of using Old Testament examples of rebels who are eventually overthrown. Sadler's model is the sermon, not the parallel history. Indeed the very lack of direct engagement with contemporary political issues links Sadler's masque with the emblematic mode of the 1630s and 1640s rather than the more didactic 1660s.
Although the sacred masque proved to be a generic dead end, Sadler's Subject's Joy embraces the possibilities of print in order to celebrate the king's return by imagining the downfall of English traitors in terms of sacred history. One of the more compelling tropes of the poetry written on the Restoration, the downfall of traitors motif returned from July through October with specific vigour, violence, and indignant blood-lust during the trials leading up to the execution of the regicides. One of the longest verse works to celebrate Charles's return, The Subject's Joy is a remarkable instance of nostalgic anticipation generated by the cultural and literary excitement of the early months of the year of Restoration.
[10] Maguire writes that it "may not have been performed," Regicide and Restoration, p. 86.
[11] For recent work on the political agency of the press during the 1640s and 1650s, see Nigel Smith, Literature and Revolution in England, 1640-1660 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), and Joad Raymond, The Invention of the Newspaper: English Newsbooks, 1641-1660 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996); more generally see Steven N. Zwicker, Lines of Authority: Politics and English Literary Culture, 1649-1689 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993); and MacLean, "Literature, Culture, and Society in Restoration England," in Culture and Society, pp. 3-27.
[12] Potter, Secret Rites and Secret Writing: Royalist Literature, 1641-1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
[13] See, for example, 2 Kings 15: 9, 18, 28. The comparison between Jeroboam and Cromwell was not original with Sadler; we find it in the political journalism of the royalist George Wharton in 1658: 10.
[14] Wharton, A Second Narrative of the Late Parliament (Printed in the Fifth year of Englands Slavery under its New Monarchy, 1658), pp. 34-35.
[15] See Areopagitica, in Merritt Y. Hughes, ed., John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose (New York: Macmillan, 1957), p. 726.
[16] B. J. Kidd, A History of the Church to A. D. 461. Volume II: 313-408 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922), p. 198.
[17] Karl Baus, et al, The Imperial Church From Constantine to the Early Middle Ages, trans. Anselm Biggs (New York: Seabury, 1980), p. 56. It was Apollinaris the younger who gave his name to the view that Christ differed from man by reason of having the divine logos instead of a natural mind.
[18] Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969), p. 150.
[19] See Kidd, History of the Church, pp. 283-84.
[20] Faced with his countrymen's infidelity, Moses complained to the Lord of his burden to "carry them" in "his bosom, as a nursing father" (Num. 11: 12). On the figure of the nursing father, see also Isaiah 49: 23: "And kings shall be thy nursing fathers." Compare J. P., The Loyal Subjects hearty Wishes To King Charles the Second, line 43; Sadler's Majestie Irradiant, lines 120-26; and contrast Thomas Pecke, To The Most High and Mighty Monarch Charles the II: "CHARLES with maternal Care, kept LONDON plump," line 331.
Anthony Sadler:
The Subject's Joy21
I have reproduced the original text except for dropping running headers, and correcting printer's errors as reported in the notes. Since the text is arranged into discrete parts, I have not added line numbers. Prose passages preserve original line-breaks, including hypenated word-breaks. I have recorded inked corrections to the copy in the Bodleian which are mostly adjustments to scansion since they might well be authorial: who else would have bothered?
[21] Wing S273. Copies: O Mal. 194(4); L1 644.f. [removed from LT], ms dated "17 May," reported missing January 1996; L2 163.h.52, frontispiece missing; WF 154181 frontispiece missing; CH 147664; LC; MB; MH; Y.
THE
SUBJECTS JOY
FOR
The Kings Restoration,
Cheerfully made known
IN
A Sacred MASQUE:
Gratefully made publique
FOR
His SaCRed Majesty.
By the Author of
INQUISITIO ANGLICANA.
2 King. XI. 12.
And he brought forth the Kings Son, and put the Crown upon
him; and gave him the Testimony, and they made him
King; and Anointed him, and clapt22
their hands, and said -- -God save the KING.
LONDON:
Printed, in the year of Grace, for James Davis, and are to be sold at the Greyhound in St. Pauls Church-yard. 1660.
[22] and clapt] and they clapped Authorized Version.
To His EXCELLENCY
The Lord General
MONCK.
Heroick Sir,
THE present affairs of this Kingdom, are, so providentially managed, by God; so prudentially, by You; and so happily -- - opportunely, for the building up, the Ruins; and re- pairing of the Breaches, both in Church, and State: that, the Factionist, malignes; the Temporist, ad- mires; and Royallist, congratulates; so hopeful a beginning.
Let it not then displease (my Lord) if now, one of those poor grateful Royallists; hath (in this spring of hope) so cheerful a boldness, as to beg the favour of your Excellency, to Patronize this Peece.
This Peece (I confess) is Theatrical, New, and Strange; Strange, but yet Pertinent; New, but yet Serious; and Theatrical, but yet Sacred. Nor am I in This, either singular, or affected; while Apollinarius and Nazianzen (two antient Fathers of the Primitive Church) are known to be exemplary in this very way.23 The truth is, I am now upon the well-tun'd Pin (with my Palm, and my Psalm) to chant an Hosan- na for the Kings Reception.
I am now upon the joyful Stage, to play the devout Comædian; and by a new Triumphal, to court the affections, of the most Disloyall.
Upon the Stage I am, that (as by a true reflection, to shew the radiancy of my divine zeal) so, I might (by congruous Divinity) render Corah (notwith- standing his holy Plea) Rebellious:24 and Treason (notwithstanding Garnet's Straw, and Becket's Canonization) in the Abstract, hateful, both to God, and man.25
Religion and Allegience, are the wings of the soul, to mount her unto Heaven: and the present Masque, is, but to preserve the Beauty, of so fair an Allegati- on; and to attest before the world, my utter abhor- rency of the least Confederation, against the Higher Powers.
Oh Sir! may the Higher Powers be, as safe, as sacred: and may That saCRed Person, into whose hands, God, by his Grace; Nature, by Descent; and the Law, by Right; have successively given the Globe and the Scepter: may, He, -- -- -ah may He be, as happy, as He is Good; and as Good, as He is Great: the Best of Men, crowned with the Best of Blessings.
Sir -- -- your Excellency is now, the Renowned Instrument, of wonderful Transactions: In the name of God, go on, and prosper.
Certainly (my Lord) if your auspicious self, shall (with this hopefully-happy Parliament) go on, to Act for God; and the good of his distressed People:
By Enthroning
The most Illustrious Prince,
And
Our Lawful King,
Charles the Second:
For the Setling, of the State:
For the Reforming, of the Church:
For the Establishing, of the Lawes:
And the Maintaining, our Religion;26 That most true, Protestant Religion, Of the Church of England:
I am confident, -- -- -You shall as surely Prosper, in having, The Holy Spirit of God, to be Your Guid:
The holy Angels of God, to be Your Guard:
Here, to be Famous; and Hereafter, to be Glorious; as there is a God, in Heaven.
So Believeth, and Affirmeth; -- -- -
Ever Devoted -- -- -
To God: -- -- --
His Prince: -- -- --
And Countrey,
Anthony Sadler.
[23] On these church fathers, see the headnote
[24] Corah led a celebrated revolt against Moses' authority, claiming "all the congregation are holy, every one of them," but at Moses' request, the Lord caused the earth to open up and swallow the rebels (Numbers 16: 3, 31-5). Sadler returns to Corah as a type of republican in the "First" speech, and again in more detail in the "Ninth" speech.
[25] Sadler's examples of treason are both Catholic martyrs. When Henry Garnet was executed in May 1606 for his part in the gunpowder plot of the previousyear, "all Catholic Europe was listening with eager credulity to the story of Garnet's straw. It was said that one of the straws used upon the scaffold had a minute likeness of the martyr's head on one of the husks" (Samuel R. Gardiner, The History of England ... 1603-1642, 10 vols. [London: Longman, Green 1883], 1:282). An engraved image of the miraculous straw appears on the titlepage of the poem The Jesuits Miracles, or new Popish Wonders. Containing the Straw, the Crowne, and the Wondrous Child, with the confutation of them and their follies (1607).
[26] Religion] Reiigion
TO THE Candid Reader.27
1: THis is the Month, this is That Month of Mirth,28
2: Which Tunes our Noats to sing our Princes Birth.
3: This is that Month, this is The Month of May,
4: Which Loyall London cals her Holy-day.
5: The Prince (as now new Born) from the wombe,
6: Of Hardest Travail, is Deliver'd. -- -- -Come -- -- -
7: The Midwifery of Heaven, doth Present
8: A saCRed Monarch, to the Parliament:
9: And That, to Us; and We, to Heaven again,
10: Present our Thanks, and Bless our Soveraign.
11: Rejoyce (my soul) to see the Prince of Worth,
12: (The Worlds wonder) brought so Timely forth.
13: Rejoyce Blest Prince, thy Throne is blest with Peace:
14: Thy welcome Income, makes our Wars to cease.
15: Rejoyce my Fellow Subjects, All, as One,
16: Congratulate the Rising of This Sonne;
17: Whose Royall Lustre hath dispell'd our Fears,
18: And Clouds of Grief, to drop with Joyful Tears.
Anthony Sadler
[27] The caps C and R are larger typeface and bolded -- for Charles Rex.
[28] Perhaps echoing the opening line of Milton's "Nativity Ode": "This is the month, and this the happy morn." My thanks to Lois Potter for this suggestion.
In this MASQUE are
6 Shewes.
10 Speeches.
3 Songs.
The Persons in the Several Shews,
Speaking the several Speeches,
Are
Psyche.
King David.
King Abijah.
His Queen-Mother.
Two Dukes, his Brothers.
The High Priest.
The Lord General.
The Prophet Shemaiah.
The Scene,
For the Land is Canaan.
For the Place is Bethel.
For the Person is Jeroboam.
A Divine Masque.
The private Speech
OF
The AUTHOR
In Society with Friends, to entertain the
Time before the Masque begun.
YOu know (Dear Friends) That, Video, Vindico;30 is God's Motto upon Traitors: but it is our duty to wait Gods time; for, he that shall come, will: and he that will come, is; to the help of his Anointed.
God (hath in mercy) made his people to return, return to their duty, of Praying for the King.
His very Name now, is pretious; his Presence, long'd for; and a General joy, attends the hope, to see him, in his Throne.
1: So that now (seeing) the Royal Son, begin to rise;
2: and my Loyal fancy, to be as lucky, as divine:
3: My heart reviv'd, my Muse rejoyc'd, to bring,
4: Her Off-spring out, to welcome in, the King.
5: Two Virgins (dress'd in Print) with blest accord,
6: To give a Salve, unto our Soveraign Lord.
7: The Elder, is a Sybillian: and (to acheer the King)31
8: doth (by a Prophetick Pen) write a Prædiction, in a
9: Lamentation.
10: The Younger, is a Masquer; and she also (to
11: acheer the King) doth (by pretty Scenes) præsaging-
12: ly-præact, his (just) Inauguration.
13: They are Both, the Issue, of one Parent; Legiti-
14: mate, and Loyal: but -- -upon the very Concepti-
15: on of the Masquer; much troubled I was; on whom,
16: and where, and how, to lay the Scene.
17: I once thought to have made England, the Na-
18: tion; Westminster, the Place; and then -- -
19: My purpose was, the Powder-traitors Plot;
20: For to have made my Subject; and their Lot,
21: (To Ruine cast) have shewn. I had thought,
22: To've made their way, a Warning; and had brought,
23: Examples, pertinent; prophane, but true;
24: To make their shame, as fearful, as its due.
25: But, this not fully reaching, to the aim,
26: Of what I would; I then, begun again;
27: Consulted God, and took my Object higher;
28: I made my Subject, sacred; and came nigher,
29: To shew a Traitors Doom from Scripture: then --
30: I pitch'd on Zedekiah. -- -- 32
31: Knowing well,
32: That, Zedekiah when he did Rebell,
33: Against th' Covenant, made; and Oath, he took;
34: To be the King of Babels Vice-Roy -- -- look.
35: Oh how the faithful God, did take to heart;
36: The wrong, thus offer'd, unto Either Part:
37: His (1) Name; the Heathens (2) Right, and Israels (3) Law:
38: Made (1) Vain; as (2) Void; and (3) Vile: by Zedekiah.
39: Treasons abhord: and God would make him know it;
40: And (maugre Egypt, and all's Force) did show it.
41: The Caldee Army came at length, to prove,
42: A Traitors tongue, calls Vengance from Above;
43: And God, and Man, to right such wrongs doth move.
44: Jerusalem -- -that strong and stately City,
45: Is close besieg'd; without regard, or pity,
46: Of either Place, or Persons; want, within;
47: And Fear, without; makes every face look thin.
48: Within, they faint; without the walls, they fall;
49: The City's broken up; the King, and All,
50: Fly for their Lives: -- -- but, whither shall they fly,
51: Whom God pursues, with's Anger's Hue and Cry?
52: King Zedekiah (now the woful scorn,
53: Of the Chaldean Army) is forlorn:
54: (Pursude, and taken) he is Vilifi'd;
55: To Riblah hurried: and there justly tri'd:
56: Tri'd by the Prince abus'd; and the same King;33
57: Who gave him leave to Rule, as Underling;
58: He is his Judge; and rightfully condemns,
59: His Treason, and his Traitrous stratagems.
60: He slayes his Sons before him; makes him see,
61: His Sin hath ruind his Posterity.
62: Then puts he out his Eyes, as having been,
63: The Visible Contrivers of that Scene.
64: At last he (bound in Chains) in Prison lies;
65: And (living Poor, and Blinde) there (wretched) dies.
66: And here, I stopt; -- -
67: Two Subjects more (more fit)
68: Courting my Fancy; thus my Fancy writ.
69: Zimri would be King of Israel:
70: And so would Shallum too:34
71: Two Subjects: but, Both, Traitors:
72: Both, Murderers: and Murdered:
73: A wicked Pair well met; and truly matcht;
74: For Fate, and Fortune, equal: strangely hatcht
75: Each, was a King:
76: In Name; but, not by Right:
77: Not by Succession; but, by Trechery:
78: Not by Choyce; but, Usurpation:
79: Not by Conquest; but, Rebellion:
80: They matter'd not which way;
81: So the End were gotten.
82: But, -- -- ah how soon,
83: Is the Head of Ambition, turn'd round?
84: With what prodigious speed,
85: Doth the short time, of their Tryumphing fly?
86: A certain shame,
87: Waits on, their fickle glory;
88: And their deceitful Glass,
89: Of false-reflecting-Beauty
90: While 'tis but lookt upon, 'tis broken.
91: Though Presumption leads the Van;
92: Despair, brings up the Rear;
93: Of all their Squadrons.
94: Zimri, is scarce seated in the Throne;
95: But, Vengeance follow him:
96: And seven dayes Reign, is dearly bought;
97: And his End, is as dreadful, as his Treason.
98: He saves the Executioner, a labour;
99: And by a Strange Device,
100: To put his Ashes in a Royal Urn,
101: He Fires the Pallace, and Himself doth burn.
102: And was not Shallum haunted,
103: With as ill Success, in as high a Fortune?
104: Past Grace, past Shame.
105: He dares Heaven to defend the King:
106: While he conspires to Murder him.
107: Not because, Zachariah was Bad, as Any;
108: But because, He was Above All:35
109: He had the Supremacy;
110: And Shallum longs for't.
111: And now, his Pride;
112: Admits no Obstacle, -- -- as legal:
113: The Thirst of his Ambition,
114: Must be quench'd with Blood;
115: Not Popular; but Royal;
116: Not of Any Prince; but his Own;
117: Not a in Private; but a Publique way;
118: Not by Others; but his Own hands:
119: Thus, he contrives to Kill;
120: And Kills, to Reign;
121: And Reign, he doth; -- --
122: A Rebel, -- -- but no Soveraign.
123: Yet now, -- (as arrogant as the Devil)
124: The Glory of the world's His:
125: He won it, by the Sword:
126: And by the Sword, he'le keep it.
127: A Traitors Plea right:
128: He that set him, to this School;
129: Taught him his Lesson well.
130: But, -- -- the Feet of wool, have Hands of Iron:
131: God, is Slow, but Sure:
132: Shallum (with a vengance) findes it;
133: He findes it: but -- --
134: Not so much Slow -- -- and -- -- Sure,
135: As Sure -- -- and -- -- Sudden.
136: Shallum kill'd his Lord;
137: And the Servant, kill'd Shallum.
138: Zimri was destroyed by Himself:
139: Shallum, by Another:
140: Zimri, at a Weeks End:
141: And Shallum, at a Months.
142: Thus, he that Kills his Prince, to wear his Crown;
143: To warm his Fingers, burns a Pallace down:
144: Deludes, destroyes himself; and while he venters,
145: To round, a seeming Heaven; Hell, concenters.
146: Villain forbear: do'nt suck thy Princes Blood:
147: Forbidden meat, is no fit meat for Food,
148: And here (notwithstanding the time I had spent;
149: and model, I had made; and had (as in a manner)
150: laid the Scene, upon these Persons, and this Peece, of
151: thus revenged Treason: yet,) my minde was farther
152: prest, to take another, and to begin anew.
153: At last, the Needle left her trembling Round:
154: And my Magnetick Fancy, fixt I found.
155: I found my Subject: and when All is done,
156: My Subject's Jeroboam, Nebat's Sonne.
157: Jeroboam
158: Whose Hope, though (at the last) it was deceived;
159: and his Policy, defeated; and his Pride, debased; and
160: his Person destroyed; (for
161: The Lord strook him, and he died.)
162: Yet, this Catastrophe, -- -- -- -- -
163: Of That
164: Ominous Politician:
165: Was (for many years) as really Improbable; as was,
166: the Settlement of Abijah, seemingly Impossible. -- --
167: But stay, This ruder Peece, is dedicated to the pub-
168: lick view; and the contingency of censure: I will
169: (therefore) no longer detain you, from your Places;
170: nor anticipate your fancy.
171: My good wishes, wait upon your favour; and the
172: better Omen of the Masque, upon your Persons, and
173: your Fortunes.
174: So we All arose, and went into the Theater;
175: where (we being Sate) four Trumpeters did enter;
176: and having sounded a Victoria, a Levite presents him-
177: self, and speaks -- -- -
The Argument.
I King.11.26: In the dayes of Rehoboam (the Son of Solomon)
did Jeroboam (the Son of Nebat) rebel against his King.
I King. 12.19: In which Rebellion, when he had continued
2 Chron. 13.1: eighteen years: then began Abijah (the Son of Reho-
boam) to reign over Juda.
Ver. 2.: In the third year of whose Reign, he waged war;
and set the Battel in Aray, against Jeroboam: who,
I King. 14.20.: when he had plaid Rex, so long a time, as two and
2 Chron. 13.3.: twenty years: and had an Army, so Great, as of Eight hundred Thousand, chosen men, being mighty
men of Valour: yet then, even then; was the Lord
pleased, to make his Arm, bare; his Justice,
known; the Truth, prevalent; and his Name, glor-
ious.
For, this so successful Treason, this numerous
Chron. 13.: Army, and unhapppily-happy-Traitor; were, in their
13.: best Condition; and their greatest Confidence, to-
15.: tally subdued, and fearfully overthrown; five hun-
16.: dred thousand of them slain: their General enforc't
17.: to fly; and (as a Warning to all Rebels) exem-
19.: plarily struck dead by the Hand of the Lord.
20.: In a grateful Commemoration, of which Signal
Victory; and in an holy Preomination of the years
succeeding, Fortunate, to the Truth and Loyalty;
was, this new-mysterious Masque first made; -- -- -
wherein -- -- -
Abijah, and King's Cause;
Jeroboam, and the Rebels;
(With the justice, and success, of Both) are timously36 made obvious; to
The Comfort, and Encouragement,
Of
All Loyal Subjects.
Psal.37.36,37.: I my self (saith the Royal Prophet) have seen
the Ungodly in great power, and flourishing like a green
Bay Tree:
And I went by, and lo, he was gone; I sought him,
but his Place could no where be found.
Psal.92.6,7.: An Unwise man (saith the same Author) doth not
well consider This; and a fool doth not understand it.
When the Ungodly are green, as the Grass; and when
all the workers of wickedness, do flourish;
then shall they be Destroyed for ever.
Epis. 3.: For (saith Ignatius Martyr) Nemo qui se contra
Præstantiorem extulit; impunitus unquam
abiit.37
[With that (he going off the Stage) a young Prince Enters; wearing a Purple Robe, and his head, Crown'd: in the one hand, holding an Olive branch; in the other, a Palm; and speaks -- -- -]
The Prologue.
178: What means this Dress,
179: And to what purpose, thus
[He walks
stately; and
looks upon
himself.]
180: Am I Attir'd?
181: The manners ominous;
182: A true Præsage, of strange Events; to come,
183: On After Ages; by a Present Doome.
184: What means this Place,
185: What Persons do I see?
186: I see, great Persons; and their Places, be,
187: Upon Sesostris wheele:
188: My Soveraign's Crown,
189: In's Grand-child's time's usurpt; and Rebels own.
190: I see again,
191: By Scripture, and by Reason;
192: An End, both Sad, and sure; attends on Treason:
193: His Sin is Fatal, who his Fall laments not;
194: His Fall, is Final; who his Sin repents not.
195: Traitors, as Witches are;
196: And Witches never,
197: Become Converted, but Condemned ever.
198: When Loyal Subjects,
199: (Howsoere they Fare)
200: As Blessed Angels (Angels blessed) are.
201: Their hope -- -and -- -love espouse,
202: And faith doth ty,
203: Their true Allegiance, fast, to Soveraignty.
204: 'Tis not the Tempest of the roughest Crosses,
205: Can shipwrack their Obedience, with their Losses.
206: It's so observ'd:
207: And Psyche (by the way)
208: Is Staid, and Pray'd, their Banner to display;
209: And here it's done, in a Triumphant Story;
210: Which flouts, and routs, all traitors shameful-glory.
211: This is the Subject, of the Sequel Masque;
212: Which Psyche now, makes Mine: and I, your Task:
213: I, to resume; and You, for to revolve;
214: And Each, by Application, to resolve;
215: That this Sad-Sacred-pleasing-Scene, is laid;
216: To make the Good, rejoyce; the Bad, afraid.
217: But hark -- -- -- -
218: The Musick sounds;
219: To my preventing:
220: May all, have Mirth: and Psyche -- --
221: True contenting.
222: Exit.
[The loud Musique sounds
And
The First Shew's Presented
Being
A Landskip in form of a Square; having in the one Angle, a Promontory; whereon the rural Nymphs were sporting, and under it, the Sea; wherein, was a gallant Navy sayling.
In another Angle, was a Garden; giving all the de- light that dainty flowers; pleasant walks; and Musical water-works could yeild.
In the Third Angle, was a Castle, strongly, and bravely fortified; in the face whereof, was an Army compleatly Armed, marching in Aray.
In the fourth Angle, was a Park; well-wooded, and stor'd with Deer: Gallants a hunting, and the Hounds upon a full Cry.
In the middle of this Quadrangle, was a Grove of Cedars; out of which came a Shepherdess, in a green Gown, and a Garland on her Head; attended by a Swain, in a Shepherds Coat, and a Pipe in his Hand: Each then, saluting other; the One Playes; and Both, Dance: which done -- they pull off their Disguises, and discover themselves, to be, an Angel, and Psyche: Psyche then (instructed by the Angel) making an hum- ble Address, and due Observance to R. A. the King. Kneels down, and Speaks. ]
The first Speech.
223: Dread Sir -- -- I crave your Pardon;
224: Which, if You,
225: Shall please to grant;
226: I crave your Patience too,
227: Which, if you promise;
228: Then I crave your Ear;
229: Which, if you deign;
230: Then, let your Highness hear.
231: What was that Heathen, that he should out-brave38,Goliath
232: God's Cause, and Army, and a Challenge crave?
233: Or, what's this Traitor, that the Gauntlet throwes,
234: In scorn of God, and doth the King oppose? Jeroboam
235: At length, -- Abijah
236: A Youth, but with a Stone and Sling; David.
237: Answer'd, and Conquer'd, that fell Phylistine.
238: And so, ere long,
239: As mean a Meanes, may Be,
240: The Scenes to Act this Villaines Tragedie.
241: Believe it' King Abijah,
242: You shall find;
243: The fall of Jeroboam is design'd.
244: Not from that Giant; but, this Rebell;
245: I -- -- -- -
246: Foresee the Sequel, by Imparitie:
247: For, True that Monster was;
248: And his Strange Pride,
249: Did Vaunt but's Valour, to advance his Side.
250: But This,
251: -- -- -- Was monstrous False:
252: And's frantick Zeal,
253: To turn a Kingdom, to a Common-weal;
254: Prayes, and Betrayes;
255: Swears, and Forswears; to further,
256: -- -- -The King in's Throne:
257: -- -- -The King at's Gate, to Murder.
258: Corah's was nothing, if compar'd to This;
259: -- -- -This perjur'd Changling's Metamorphosis:
260: The Way, was worse;
261: And may a worser Fate,
262: Then Corah's, or Goliath's;39
263: Antedate -- -- -the Transformation:
264: Prodigious Stars, portend his Fall;
265: By Famine, Plague, or Wars.
266: May Loyalty, be blest:
267: Your Highness, Crownd:
268: And God, Convert; or else your Foes Confound.
269: May you obtrude Intruders, from the Keyes;
270: And keep them Sacred to Divine Decrees.
271: May Aarons Rod still flourish:40 and You be,
272: A Nursing Father, both to It, and Me.41
273: Still may the Lord, your Majesty defend;
274: And Peace, or Patience, to your Subjects send.
275: Long may you live, -- -- -- -
276: And live so long, to Reign;
277: Till Treason be Reveng'd, and Traitors slain.
278: This, This I ask, -- --
279: Which granted, I'le give ore:
280: And Bless my God, and You; -- -- -
281: And ask no more.
[The King then drew off his Glove, and (holding out his hand) Psyche rose up; and (kneeling down again) she kiss'd it.
The Queen then (observing Psyche, to have a cu- rious Voyce) desired her to Sing: and (without denial, or reply) her good Angel standing by her, playing on a Lute, she sung -- -- ]
The first Song.
1.
282: No more, no more, to ask,
283: Of God, and King,
284: Too sad's a Task,
285: In this glad Masque;
286: To undertake, and sing.
2.
287: But, since my Loyal tongue;
288: Hath Royal greeting;
289: 'Twere double wrong,
290: A single Song,
291: For to deny this Meeting.
3.
292: Angels, and Men, shall know;
293: And All, hold forth;
294: The Zeal I ow,
295: And love I show,
296: Unto my Princes worth.
4.
297: And now, in grateful-wise,
298: I'le kneel agen;
299: To Sympathize,
300: The Peoples Cryes,
301: God save the King. Amen.
[She kneels.
With that (an Acclamation being made) the Scene, upon a suddain, chang'd; and then (the loud Musique sounding a second time.)
The Second Shew's presented
being
A pleasant Plain, encompassed with Hills: in the middle of which Plain, was a fair City; and in the City a glorious Temple; and in the Temple, a goodly Jerusalem Person: Which Person (having on, a Robe of fine lin- King David nen; and a curious Ephod upon the Robe; and a golden Girdle upon the Ephod) walketh into the Sanctum San- ctorum, with the Book of the Law, in his hand, and thus speaks -- -- -]
The Second Speech.
302: In this Asylum -- --
303: Doth (for certain) dwell,
304: God, and my Devotions Oracle.
305: Hence am I Taught:
306: And Here I am; to know;
307: The Reason why, the wicked Prosper so?42
308: I know, the Lord is Just:
309: But yet, -- -- -his wayes,
310: Seem very strange, and many doubtings raise.
311: For, -- -- he fulfils the wicked man's request;
312: And more then's Vote, doth correspond his Brest.
313: He fears not Death:
314: Nor doth his Body feel,
315: The darts of Sickness, or the Sword of Steel.
316: His Arm is brawny;
317: And his Army's stout;
318: And bravely Valiant, when he Marches out.
319: They -- -- deck themselves with Pride, as with a chain,
320: And as a Garment, so they wear Disdain.
321: They Drink: they Drab:
322: And live licentious Lives:
323: They mock at God:
324: And yet -- -- -- -their Doing thrives.
325: They kill -- -- -their King:
326: Their Brethen, they Enslave:
327: They Rob, and Spoil: and no Religion have.
328: As Beasts of Prey, they have devouring Paws:
329: As bloody Tyrants, they have broke all Laws:
330: The Laws of God:
331: Of Nature:
332: And the Land:
333: And Crown'd their Treason, with Supreme Command.
334: Yet -- -- -God's not move'd:
335: Except, it be to Bless;
336: Such Ill Proceedings, with a good Success.
337: At night,
338: He guards them, in their safe Reposes;
339: And when 'tis Day,
340: He trims their Heads with Roses.
341: This, -- -- -- -makes them bragg;
342: Their Cause, is most Divine:
343: And Stately Fortune, makes their Cause to Shine.
344: This, -- -- -makes Me grieve;
345: For This, I come, to know;
346: The Reason why, the wicked Prosper so?
347: With that,
348: A soft-small-voyce, deep silence brake;
349: And thus,
350: This Answer, to the Question spake.
The Oracle.
351: Let God be true, and every man a Lyar:
352: The Bramble-bush, is but (at best) a Bryar;
353: It cannot be a Cedar.43
354: The wicked may,
355: Walk in the broader; but, not safer way.
356: To stand upon a Pinacle in pride;
357: Is very vain, and perilous beside.
358: The more the wicked have; the more's their score;
359: Upon the Audit-Book to reckon for.
360: They are the less excus'd, in having thus,
361: All as they would, exceeding prosperous.
362: Their prosperous State, is as a Chance that's cast;
363: And lucky Chances, do not alwayes last.
364: Their only Portion, on the Earth is given;
365: Excluded ever, from a part in Heaven.
366: They are the Rods of God; and when his turn
367: Is serv'd upon his Children, he will burn.
368: Their seeming Chrystall is but reall Ice;
369: They slide, and fall, and perish in a trice.
370: Their former Honour shall be quite forgot;
371: And Jeroboam, with his fame, shall rot.
372: He and all Rebells do ride post to Hell;
373: And this for Truth the Oracle doth tell.
374: Then -- -- let thy Faith, and Hope, and Love, be firm;
375: (Whoere's aboard,)44 it's God that sits at th'Stern.
376: He will thee guide with Councell;
377: If thou lov'st him:
378: And never fail thee,
379: Whensoere thou prov'st him.
380: Continue constant in thy fervent praying;
381: Hee'l Crown thy Expectation -- -- -
382: And my saying.
Then was a noyse of chearfull Musique heard, And sights of Joy (and Angels seen) appear'd; And therewithall -- --
[The Third Shew's presented
being
A stately Pallace, wherein, was a Room of Ala- blaster (hang'd with Cloth of Gold, richly and curiously Embroydered, with the lively, and Emboss'd Imagery of David and Solomon; with the Histo- ry of both: in the Hangings, were severall Rowes of Jewels; whose Lustre was irradiant; and as so many Starres enlightened all the Room) where- into (attended by Fifty Persons, all cloth'd alike, in Coats of Crimson Velvet, with green Sattin sleeves; their Stockings green Silk; with Garters and Roses; of Gold and Crimson) came -- --
The King of Judah,
The Queen his Mother,
Two Dukes, his Brothers,
The High-Priest,
TheLevites,
The Generall of the Army,
And the Captain of the Guard.]
The King, Queen, and Princes, sate in their Chairs of State: All the rest at a distance sate bare-headed.
Then the King (lifting up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven) smote upon his Breast; and thus his minde express'd -- -- -in -- -- -
The Third Speech.
383: It makes up sport, to play with Easie Cares;
384: When, Heavier, make us Dumb.
385: The Greater Fears,
386: Put Speech it self to silence; and the Ears,
387: To hear no Language but the Voyce of Tears.
388: Yet I -- -- -
389: Th'unhappy Grand-Sonne of that King;45
390: Whose Wealth, and Wisdome;
391: Power, and Peace; do ring;
392: With Everlasting Fame:
393: I -- -- I am Hee -- -- -- -
394: Must hear such Fame blasphem'd by Obloquie:
395: Must Hear't, and doe:
396: And Speak on't too.
397: Was ever Grief like mine?46
398: I am the Object, wrongfully displac'd:
399: Of Honour sham'd: and Majesty debas'd:
400: Of Favour, much despis'd: of Power, made weak:
401: Of SaCRed Peace, made Civil Peace to break.
402: Was ever Case like mine?
403: My Kingdome's Ravisht:
404: And47 my Virgin Throne,
405: Basely's Deflowr'd by Rebellion:
406: My Royall Robe is rent:
407: My Scepter, broke:
408: My Crown, is fallen:
409: And the Loyall Yoak,
410: Of Legall Tribute (to my greater crosse)
411: With scorn, is torn, to my greatest losse.
412: Was ever wrong like mine?
413: The Traytors fury is without respect,
414: Of Persons, and of Duty:
415: Their neglect -- -- -
416: Doth know no Bounds:
417: They will doe, as they say;
418: Their Will's their Law; and with their Swords they sway.
419: Were ever Foes like mine?
420: These -- -- -
421: With their Old Projector (to our woe)
422: Have caus'd our grief, and grievous overthrow:
423: These -- -- -
424: Fought to kill -- -- my Father:
425: And can I -- -- -
426: Expect good Quarter, from such Soldiery?
427: Alas! they are inhuman;
428: And no means,
429: Of Princely Favour;
430: Shining from the Beams,
431: Of Majesty it self;
432: Can make them know,
433: Or once acknowledge,
434: They subjection owe,
435: To any, but the stronger:
436: These be they -- -- -
437: Whom self-advantage turns any way:
438: Were ever Foes like mine?
439: And such as, these; -- -- -
440: Or rather just the same;
441: Were some that fled, and to our Party came;
442: Came, -- -- but, as Spies;
443: And so it prov'd at length;
444: We lost their duty when we lost our strength:
445: Were ever Friends like mine?
446: This, -- -- -
447: In my Fathers Reign was sadly -- true;
448: And what can I against so false a Crue?
449: They have disclaim'd my Right:
450: And few, or none;
451: But only God's my Consolation.
452: I am by SaCRed and by Civill claim;
453: To all the Tribes, the Lawfull Soveraign:
454: Yet I -- -- -their KING -- -- -
455: Must see my Right, made Voyd;
456: And all Allegiance to my Crown destory'd:
457: Was ever Realm like mine?
458: What shall I say?
459: I am an Exile driven,
460: To Forrein parts, -- -- -
461: And of my Home bereaven.
462: What shall I doe?
463: -- -Alas, wherere I goe;
464: My Life's in danger by a cruel Foe:
465: I know not whom to trust:
466: And all my care,
467: Is, -- -how my Subjects in my Fate will fare.
468: Ah me -- -forsaken -- -and -- -forlorn!
469: Nor Realm, nor Wrongs,
470: Nor Case, nor Grief,
471: Nor Foes, nor Friends:
472: Were ever like to mine.
With that he sigh'd; and ceas'd.
And then begun,
The Mother Queen;
And thus bespoke her Son,
in
The Fourth Speech.
473: My dearest Son, and Soveraign;
474: Hear I pray -- -- -
475: A Mothers Counsell, and her words obey.
476: It's true -- -- -
477: Your Case, so sad; and Grief, so deep;
478: O'reflowes the tears of Mourners (hir'd to weep)
479: Your Verball Friends, but Reall Foes in Deeds;
480: The deepest Grief, and saddest Case exceeds.
481: Your Realm's in Common -- -- -
482: And in Chief, your wrong;
483: Outvyes the Cryes of Hadadrimmons tongue.48
484: Yet -- -- -
485: May'nt base Fear, your Noble heart surprize;
486: For, we do'nt know, nor may, the mysteries,
487: Of God's permissive Providence: -- -- -Oh no;
488: His winding Feet, upon the Waters goe:
489: There is no Tract, nor Line, nor Rule, whereby,
490: His Paths to finde; or Footsteps to descry.
491: Yet -- -- -
492: In an hopefull wonder, see 'tis Day,
493: Although the Sun's Eclips'd,
494: His Lightsome Ray,
495: Will pierce, ere long, the darkest Clouds.
496: Your Crown -- -- -
497: And Throne, and Scepter, may be hurled down:
498: Your Forces, beaten:
499: And your Self, made flie,
500: With dreadfull speed for your security:
501: In outward shew, past Help:
502: Admit -- -- -yet then,
503: The Lord of Hosts, can Rally up agen.
504: By Him, Kings Reign:
505: And upon whom, he please;
506: He Crowns the Issues of his close Decrees.
507:
507: His Prescience, is a Secret;
508: And we must,
509: Submit (in Duty) to His Will;
510: And trust his Word Reveal'd:
511: For why? we cannot tell,
512: How soon the Traitor shall be dragg'd to Hell.
513: God hath his Time:
514: Then use what means you can;
515: To Repossesse your Rights;
516: 'Tis God not Man;
517: By many, or by few, the Conquest gives;
518: Before the Traitor his Reproach outlives.
519: Serve God, in truth:
520: And when his Time is come,
521: He can advance you to a Peacefull Throne.
522: He is the same, he was:
523: In Mercy still, most infinite;
524: If't be his Holy Will,
525: He can, and may Enthrone you; -- -- -howsoere,
526: Let not your Hope, be overcome by Fear.
No (saith the Duke) and (with a pretty smile) Thus Courts the King, his Brother: -- -- -in
The fifth Speech.
527: Wee -- -- -
528: (For consolation met)
529: Are, in Consultation set,
530: That comfort, and assistance might,
531: Be given for your Native Right:
532: And (lo) an Angel doth appear,
533: Which puts us in a Hopefull -- -fear.
[A bright Cloud is seen, and an Angel in the Cloud: his face shining like the Sun: and armed like a man of war, and having in the one hand a Golden Crown; in the other, a Flaming Sword; he brandishes the sword, then sets the Crown upon the Kings head, and so vanishes, being
The Fourth Shew.
Whereupon the Prince proceeds; and sayes, ]
534: See, See, -- -- -
535: A Vision doth foretell,
536: The Rebels woe, my Soveraigns weal.
537: Not he, that girds his Harnesse on;
538: But, puts it off; the Field hath won.
539: The men of Ai prevail'd at first,49
540: And forc'd Gods Forces to the worst:
541: Whle Achan plunder'd, there could be;
542: No hope, of any Victory:
543: But found, and punisht; God returns:
544: Defeats the Foe: the City Burns:
545: God's Cause, and Captain, did (at last) prevail;
546: And so shall ever, though a while they fail.
547: Ah Sir! I know, we have Offended:
548: And what's Amiss, must be Amended:
549: Some Person, or some Thing, there is;
550: God Plagues, with such Calamities.
551: Let's search, and try our wayes; and then,
552: God will lead In, and Out, your Men:
553: Your Cause, is Good; and in the End,
554: The Vision doth your Good portend:
555: Cheer up (dear Sir) and trust the King of Kings,
556: You shall prevail, and do the highest things.
557: Yea, said the other Duke, in -- -- -
The Sixt Speech.
558: -- -- -- -- -- And so You shall,
559: Rise most Tryumphant, from your lowest Fall.
560: You shall -- -- -
561: For, God Rewards; and wil, ere long;
562: The bloody Actors, of a Princes wrong.
563: We finde the end, of Shimei; who Revil'd
564: His Soveraign Lord; And Traiterously Stil'd,
565: The King; a man of Belial:50 though the same,
566: He did Confess; and for his Pardon came,
567: With all Submission; yet -- -- -he guilty stood,
568: And's hoary Head, went to the Grave, in Blood.
569: God owns Kings so, that, who so wrongs their right,
570: Out-faces God, and doth his Power despite.
571: For -- solo Deo minor,51 is the King;
572: And He is Gods Immediate Underling.
573: There's no Coercive Power under heaven,
574: Against the King; but what's Directive given.
575: All Kings, are Sacred: and their Unction, is;
576: Oyl-Holy -- -- -Gods: and All, mysterious Ties,
577: From Evil, in the Heart; and Tongue; and Hand;
578: Against their Persons, and their just Command.
579: Hence (sure) it was, that Absolon, was so;52
580: With fatal Arrows, smitten three times through:
581: For's Heart, and Hand, and Tongue, did all, go on;
582: To Act a threefold Treason; All, in One.
583: Or else because, that Rebels are the Foes;
584: Which do the blessed Trinity oppose.
585: Or else because, they do resist the Way;
586: Of God's: of States: and of the Churches Sway.
587: A wretched End he had: twixt Heaven and Earth,
588: Hang'd by his Hair, as in a Snare for death:
589: In's height of Sin, and in his strength of Treason;
590: He's slain, untimely; in a timely Season.
591: Most Timely, as for David;
592: Though untimely, as for Absolon.
593: Then said Shemaiah,53
594: Speaking
The Seventh Speech.
595: We must not think, unequal are God's wayes;
596: Or, He denies us, when he us Delayes:
597: We must not think, because he doth forbear;
598: That he forgets, what Sins, and Sinners are.
599: God cannot be, but what he is: most True:
600: Most Mighty: Wise: and what's most Just, will do.
601: The Soul that Sins; shall Dye. God's only Son,
602: (As one that Sin'd) before the Judge must come:
603: Not for to Plead, yet can; nor strive, yet able;
604: Both to confute, and to confound, the Rabble:
605: But, as made Sin for Us; that Sin'd; that so -- -
606: We that so Sinn'd, may be (as Just) let go:
607: Him, as for Us; Us, as in Him; God tries:
608: He bears our blame; and for our Sins he dies.
609: Because Christ took our Nature; to become,
610: Our Pledge; our Price; and our Redemption:
611: God is so Just, he will not spare his Son,
612: But Sinful made -- -- by Imputation:
613: The Soul that Sins shall dye. And will God then,
614: Excuse the sinfull'st of the Sons of Men?
615: The Father's Sin, sha'nt ly upon the Son;
616: And shall the Subjects, on the King: and's Throne?
617: Shall Rebels be unpunisht, or shall they -- -- -
618: That have condemn'd, -- -- and made their King away,
619: By an unheard-of-murder? shall they be
620: Exempt from Justice, as by Law made Free?
621: Shall They, that have despis'd the Son of God;
622: And's Word, and's Will, (as under foot) have trod?
623: Shall They be ever Green? and shall the Bayes,
624: Of such Offences, flourish to their Praise?
625: Then, is our Faith in vain; and all our Hope,
626: Of Retribution, as a Sandy Rope.54
627: We cleanse our heart, & wash our hands, for nought,
628: But Inward Peace; which now as nothing's thought.
629: We suffer much, and All, to Little end;
630: If All to Loss, and to Misfortune tend.
631: Why then did Moses, leave the Princely Sport,
632: Of Such a Pallace, as was Pharaohs Court?
633: Or, why did Joseph shun the Courting Stream,
634: Of Stollen waters, from his Princely Dame?55
635: Why were the Scriptures writ? and what ado -- --
636: Is there of Judgement, and Damnation too?
637: What do we talk of God, of Heaven, or Hell,
638: If they be best, that in the Worst excel.
639: 'Twere vain indeed, the General sayes,
The Eighth Speech.56
640: 'Twere boot; -- --
641: To Rant, and Rore; and have a Requiem to't.
642: But it as True, as Old; and each one knows;
643: That, Traitors Tryumphs, have their overthrows.
644: Though Haggith's Son, with Royal wings doth fly;
645: And Joab, and Abiather stand by:57
646: Though He (by Them) have All, and Each, as Vile,
647: Besides Himself; Himself admires awhile.
648: Though's Colours fly: and Drums in triumph beat:
649: And Sounding Trumpets serve, to serve in's meat:
650: Though All seem well; and nought as Ill, to see;
651: What ere He does, and where so ere He be:
652: Though Horse, and Chariots, and his fifty Boyes,
653: Do run before his Kingship: -- -- All, are Toyes.
654: For fall He shall: and fall He did: that Day,
655: He made's Request, He made his Life away.
656: Thus, -- -- -its as true, as old; and Each one Knows;
657: A Traitors weal, is Usher to his Woes.
658: Unlawful Acts, by means unlawful done;
659: Are thin, and weak; and by the Spider spun.
660: You Sacred Sir, can tell.
661: I can: and Here;
662: By Sacred Story, it shall plain appear,
663: Saith the High Priest -- -- -in -- -- -
The Ninth Speech.
664: When Corah's craft, had blear'd the Peoples Eyes,58
665: And made so many of the Princes Rise:
666: The chiefest men; the men of most renown:
667: Famous, for Birth; and for their Worth, made known:
668: He as the Best; and only man for Zeal;
669: Becomes the Speaker, for the publique Weal:
670: And (by a kind of hellish witchcraft led)
671: They all submit to this Rebellious Head:
672: Who, having thus, such Members to assist him;
673: He goes to Moses; and doth thus resist him.59
674: You -- -- -you, Sir Moses and your Brother too: Corah.
675: Must All of Us, be trampled, on by You?
676: What is the Reason, of Advancing thus,
677: Your selves above your Brethren? God's with Us,
678: As well as You: and All of Us (as One)
679: Are Holy, in the Congregation.
680: Wee'l not be Fool'd into a Regal way;
681: And You, Command; and we (forsooth) Obey.
682: What have you done (quoth Dathan) thus to be, Dathan.
683: The only Two, for your Supremacy?60
684: Is't not enough, that from a wealthy Land
685: (With Milk and Hony flowing) thy Command, -- --
686: Hath led Us higher, to this barren Place;
687: To be the Food, for Famine, and Disgrace:
688: Except Thou be our Prince: and make Us bow,
689: And yield our Necks, to thy Subjuging too?
690: Yes (quoth Abiram)61 -- -- Abiram.
691: -- -- Where are those Fruitful fields;
692: That Milk and Honey, and such plenty yeilds?
693: What wilt thou do? Dost think, we do not see;
694: Thy proud Intention, what thou meanst to be?
695: No, no, wee'l not come up: call -- -- call agen;
696: Let Them come up, that know no Stratagem.62
697: We'l make you know your Princedom's not so great,
698: But we are able to defeat your Feat.
699: There's Corah come, and tell Him truly now,
700: (Or we will make you) why ye make Us bow.
701: Thus what with words, and mixing Threats withall,
702: Moses and Aaron on their Faces Fall:63
703: As strangely sham'd: or zealously affear'd:
704: To see the Lightning, from such Thunder hear'd.
705: They could not speak, as yet: but ere awhile;
706: Moses doth tell them, in a fair-foul Stile;
707: What they should do; and should from thence infer;
708: What Stars, were fixt; and what, Erratique were.
709: They soon should know who were the good, or bad;
710: That God Secluded, or Selected had,
711: To Minister before him: They should see
712: Who Holy were, and who Unholy be.
713: The Rebels then, they took (as Moses said)
714: Censers, and Fire; and thereon Incense laid:
715: And then (with Moses and with Aaron) stood,
716: Before the Place, where God his Glory shew'd.
717: Before (their Prince and Priest, and now) the Lord,
718: They stand (presuming upon Corah's word)
719: And dare Appeal (as free from All Offence)
720: To God's strict Justice, and Omniscience.64
721: Thus, -- -- damned Pride, leads Traitors to the worst,
722: Of wilful Sins, to make them most Accurst:
723: From One Sin, to Another; still they go;
724: And fear no Evil, till they feel the Blow:
725: Which, shall so Sudden, and so Dismal be;
726: As, by the Vengence; you, their Sin shall see.
727: This -- -- God, to Moses: He, the People shews;
728: Who, Corahs tents, and Congreation views.
729: They touch not, ought, is Theirs: but agen,
730: Review, for Separation: Moses then,
731: Bespeaks them thus.65
732: Now, shall you hereby know;
733: Both who I am, and whence; and what I do,
734: Is all from God: and what a Horrid Sin,
735: ReBellion is, the way that Corah's in.
736: If you shall see, the Earth in sunder cleave;
737: And all these men, and whatsoe'er they have;
738: Be swallowed, quick; and go alive, to Hell;
739: Then by the Vegeance; you, their Sin may tell.
740: And as he spake, it was: a dismal Grave,
741: Did them, their Tents and all their Goods receave:66
742: And (nothing left) the Earth did close agen,
743: To be a warning for Rebellious Men,
744: Who, but for speaking, though they did not Do;
745: The murderous Act, of bloudy Treason too:
746: Yet, -- -- see how strictly, God in fury smites,
747: The mouthy Tauntings, of the SaCRed Rites:
748: The Earth, destroyes: the Fire, doth devour:
749: The bold Blasphemers, of the Higher Power.
With that all the Levites stood up, and having each
of them an Instrument of Musique in his hand:
They make Obeysance to the King,
And then they Play, and thus they sing.
The Second Song.
750: Sir, wait awhile; while God your Patience tries,
751: By suffering Traitors, in their Villanies:
752: For, there are woes
753: For your Foes,
754: Prepared:
755: Not a Common Visitation, shall,
756: Bold-Bloody-Rebels, at the last befall,
757: Then let not Those,
758: That Oppose,
759: Be fear'd.
Chorus.
760: Though Pharaoh Boast,
761: He'l Israel confound:
762: Yet Pharoh's crost,
763: And he and's Host are Drownd.
764: Sir be content; as Moses was, by you:
765: Moses foretold: and may your Highness too:
766: That, there are woes,
767: For your Foes,
768: Prepar'd:
769: As Moses did: So shall your Highness see,
770: In Corah's, Jeroboam's Destinie:
771: Then, let not Those,
772: That Oppose,
773: Be fear'd,
Chorus.
774: Though Pharaoh boast,
775: He'l Israel confound;
776: Yet Pharoh's crost,
777: And He, and's Host are Drownd.
[Then, as they made a Warbling Close, both of their Song, and Musique; Behold,]
[The Fifth Shew's presented;
Being
A spacious Field, and two Armies, in Aray; the Kings, and the Rebels: and joyning Battel, the Kings side prevails.
Whereupon (all crying Victoria, Victoria) an Old man (wearing a Mantle of Camels Hair, girt about with a Lethern Girdle)67 presents Himself before the King; to whom (being demanded who he was, and what he would) he said -- -- -]
The Tenth Speech.68
778: What needed Endors Witch, by Magick Spell,
779: To make the Devil, a Prophet; and to tell -- --
780: The fatal State of Saul?69
781: For, (first) his cursed sparing Agag's Self: I.
782: Then (secondly) his Lying for the Pelf:702.
783: Thirdly, his killing the Lord's Priests:713.
784: And (fourthly) Hunting for -- -- - 4.
785: The pretious Life of David:
786: (Whose worth, the Virgins, in a Dance did Sing:
787: And next to Saul, was the Anointed King.)72
788: Fiftly, (despairing) his presuming Folly, 5.
789: In Samuel's place, to be (unholy) Holy:
790: Lastly, from God, unto a Witch, he going;
791: Resolves the Question (to his just Undoing.)73
792: That Vengeance waits on Sinners: such, as still;
793: Resist the Good, and do persist in Ill:
794: Sin, with delight; and in their Spite, Oppose,
795: God's way, and Will: God will (at last) Depose.
796: What needed Endors Witch,
797: By Magick Spell, -- -- -
798: To make the Devil, a Prophet?
799: This Truth, this Day, is with a Sun-beam writ;
800: And these, and After-times shall witness it.
801: For th' bloud, of many hundred thousands shed;74
802: The hideous Cries, of thousands, almost dead:
803: The total-strange Defeat: and direful Fate,
804: Of Jeroboam; -- -- In his tenfold State:
805: His two and twenty years Possession:
806: His mighty Host: Eight hundred thousand strong;75
807: His cunning Ambush: and his Forces, double:
808: (Flouted, and routed; to his treble trouble.)76
809: Then, -- -- his sad Exit, from the Stage of warre;
810: Shew, -- -- what the Issues of Rebellion are.
811: See, how the Field is staind with Blood: and then -- --
812: Observe the number: rally up agen,
813: Thy thankful thoughts; don't wonder; in such wayes,
814: (Although so long permitted; -- -- ) that, their days;
815: (At longest) are but short; and bad (at Best)
816: Not all their Pomp, can give one hour of Rest.
817: Their Guards are vain: their strongest Bars, are weak:
818: Their Sentinels, by night, and day, do speak,
819: Their Guilt, and Fear. Where's Jeroboam now?
820: (The Old Commander) unto whom, did bow;
821: So many, and they All;
822: (The Sons of Belial.)
823: Where's his Calf -- -- Gods,
824: And Idol (self-made) Priests,
825: Where's all his double-odds?77
826: Oh how is Israel, bewitcht, with Treason!
827: Though God himslef, be Captain for his King;
828: And lead the van: and Angels, either Wing:
829: Yet, -- -- joyn they Battel; and their shooting to't:
830: Till God draws out, & breaks through Horse & Foot,
831: Disranks, Disorders, and Destroyes the Foe,
832: And gives at once, an utter Overthrow.78
833: I see it now, -- -- and now, upon the Day;
834: I come, the Tribute of my thanks to pay;
835: To pay, devoutly tender'd unto God;
836: Who with his Holy Arm, and Iron Rod;
837: Hath made the Truth, most timously to bring,
838: Praise, to his Name; and Safety, to his King.
[Upon this, was an Allarm from within; and lamen-
table out-cryes made; and thereupon,
The Sixt, and last Shew's presented,
Being
Two Cities, Dan, and Bethel: and in Bethel, the Juncto-Council; wherein, sate Jeroboam, in a Chair of State: Hell, under him; the Devil, behind him: and King Abijah in a Throne, above him: whom when the Rebel saw; he cries out -- -- O Treason, Treason: what have I done, and how was I bewitch't. O Treason, Treason: ceasing, to be Loyal; I left to be Religious; I first, forsook my King: and then my God:
Thus, by degrees I fell; and now, I fall;
To be more wretched, then Accursed Saul.
With that, the Devil tares him in pieces, and throwes him into Hell. Whereupon, the Party for Abijah, clap their hands: and (praising God, and Praying for the King) the Levites take again their several Instruments of Musick; and (one holding up the Picture of Jerobo- am, in a frame of Gold.) they sung
The Third and last song.
As they began, there came in six Masquers; each in green silk; wrought over with gold spangles: their Temples wreath'd with Bayes; their Vizards all diffe- rent, but beautiful and smiling.
These six (at the close of every Eight verses) dance the Antique; and Dancing, sing the Chorus.)]
1.
839: The Person, and his Power's gone:
840: What's worth your Contemplation?
841: This Picture? or this fairer Frame?
842: (Deserving better then it's Name)
843: No, no, th'memory, the Sight;
844: Each Part, and Faculty, that's right;
845: Abhors the Shadow of the fairest, Paint,
846: Which makes the foulest Devil seem a Saint.
[He throws the
Picture down,
and breaks it]
The CHORUS.
847: Come, dance we may,
848: 'Tis Psyche's Play;
849: And Holy-day,
850: At Court,
851: At Court,
852: And Holy-day,
853: At Court:
854: Traitors (though Crown'd,
855: And most Renown'd)
856: God will confound,
857: With sport,
858: With sport;
859: God will confound,
860: With sport.
2.
861: God did, and doth, and ere will Bless,
862: The Better Cause, with Best Success.
863: Traitors may speed awhile; and bring;
864: And shameful EXIT, on their King:79
865: Rebels may Rule, untill their Sins,
866: Be ripe for Judgment: then begins,
867: The just Observer of the Prince's wrongs;
868: To plead their Rights, in spite of Rebels tongues.
CHORUS.
869: With Musique choyce,
870: Of Hand and Voyce;
871: Sing and rejoyce;
872: We may,
873: We may;
874: Sing, and rejoyce,
875: We may:
876: The Traitors Crown,
877: And all's Renown,
878: Is fallen down,
879: To day,
880: To day,
881: Is fallen down
882: To day.
3.
883: The Lord of Hosts, the King is for;
884: The Regicide doth most abhorre:
885: He'le fright, and smite the proudest He,
886: That's guilty of Disloyaltie.
887: The Scepter, from Usurpers hands,
888: Shall fall by horrid Countermands.
889: And all the Guiltless Blood, that hath bin spilt;
890: Shall (to their torment) be their Endless Guilt.
CHORUS.
891: Come, dance, we may,
892: 'Tis Psyche's Play,
893: And Holy-day,
894: At Court,
895: At Court;
896: And Holy-day,
897: At Court:
898: Traitors (though Crown'd,
899: And most Renown'd)
900: God will confound,
901: With sport,
902: With sport:
903: God will counfound,
904: With sport.
4.
905: Here's Jeroboam, who of late,
906: Did Check the King; hath now Check mate,
907: And all his Chosen men of Warre,
908: Eight hundred thousand strong; yet are,
909: Defeated, and destroyed so,
910: With such a fearfull fatall blow:
911: The Highest Traitor may his Downfall see;
912: And in's Rebellion finde a Prodigie.
CHORUS.
913: With Musique choyce,
914: Of Hand, and Voyce;
915: Sing, and rejoyce,
916: We may,
917: We may,
918: Sing, and rejoyce,
919: We may.
920: The Traitors Crown,
921: And all's Renown.
922: Is fallen down,
923: To day,
924: To day,
925: Is fallen down,
926: To day.
[With that, there was a Sound of Drums and Trum pets: and Psyche (with an observant haste) goes, to present the King, with the Masque, in writing. Which done, Psyche's good Angel bespeaks her thus;]
927: Come prethee Psyche haste away,
928: Upon the Earth,
929: Is no long mirth:
930: And I am gone, nor may You stay.
931: She hears, she answers; and she cryes,
932: Let none think much,
933: Our mirth is such;
934: And by an Eccho, He replies.
935: as followeth, in
The EPILOGUE.80
Psyche.
936: Ah woe is me (unhappy One)
937: And is my Guide, and Guard, thus gone?
Angel.
938: ECCHO.
939: Gone.
Psyche.
940: But hark, ye'nt81 That, the Musique choyce,
941: Of his fair Hand, and warbling Voyce?
Angel.
942: O-yes.
Psyche.
943: The Eccho's His: ah could I know,
944: But whether I am mockt, or no?
Angel.
945: Noe.
Psyche.
946: Oh (my dearest) were I there,
947: Or (my dearest) were you here.
Angel.
948: ECCHO.
949: U -- here.
Psyche.
950: Descend I prethee, and fulfill,
951: Or mine, or Thine; what's your's my will.
Angel.
952: I -- will.
Psyche.
953: Oh haste, I faint; what shall I say?
954: What shall I doe? Oh speak, I pray.
Angel.
955: Pray.
Psyche.
956: The Duty's just; and I'le persever,
957: (If thou wil Teach me) in It ever.
Angel.
958: Ever.
[With that, she Bowes, & Kneels; and (Kneeling) prayes:
The Angel comes, and each (Ascending) sayes:]
959: Farewell,82
960: Fare-well:
-- -- Yea, Wellfare may our Farewell83 be,
To his most saCRed Majesty.
The (1) Oak, the (2) Olive, and the (3) Vine,
Their Boughs, as well as Roots, entwine.
965: The (1) stately, (2) cheerfull, (3) fruitfull Trees. 84
966: Emblematize Prosperitie:
967: That; (1) Power, (2) Peace, (3) & Plenty, may -- -
968: Be still our Pillars, for our Stay.
969: Enough, -- -- now, our Divining Masque is done:
970: We must attend upon the Rising Sunne.
971: Leaving Good Times, to prove our Better Newes,
972: As True, as Told, in Speeches, Songs, and Shewes.
THE END.
[30] "I saw, I avenged."
[31] Opening parenthesis missing.
[32] Sadler's version of the story of Zedekiah, which follows, sticks close to the account in 2 Kings 24: 17-20 and 25: 1-7.
[33] i.e. Nebuchadnezzar; see 2 Kings 25: 6.
[34] Both Zimri and Shallum conspired against and slew kings of Israel. On Zimri, see 1 Kings 16: 8-20. Zimri sinned "in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin" (1 Kings 16: 19). Dryden later used the name for George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham in Absalom and Achitophel. On Shallum, see 2 Kings 15: 10-11.
[35] Zachariah "departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin" (2 Kings 15:9).
[36] At an early or appropriate time; OED.
[37] "No-one who exalts himself in the face of Superiors has ever gone unpunished." Ignatius, third bishop of Antioch, was sent to Rome to be killed by the beasts in the amphitheatre. Among the most famous documents of early Christianity, his letters to Christian communities frequently exhort obedience to their bishop, and appear in a number of Greek recensions. I have been unable to find an exact source for Sadler's Latin in any version of the "third" epistle, to the Thrallians. But Archbishop James Ussher published an edition of Ignatius that incorporates materail from Robert Grosteste's Latin version of a lost Greek original. In this version of the second epistle, to the Magnesians, Ussher supplies: "Nemo enim inultus remansit, qui se contra potiores extulit," Ignatii, Polycarpii, et Barnabae, Epistolae (Oxford: Leonard Lichfield, 1643), p. 51. Since all but one copy of this work were destroyed by a fire at the printing house, Ussher's edition was reissued as Polycarpi et Ignatii Epistolae (Oxford: Henry Hall, 1644). See Kirsopp Lake, trans., The Apostolic Fathers, 2 vols. (London: Heinemann, 1925), vol. 1.
[38] Goliath] Goliah
[39] Goliath's] Goliah's
[40] Here a symbol of divine authority against rebellion. When asked by Pharoah for proof that he was on the Lord's mission, Aaron turned his rod into a "serpent." When the Egyptian court wizards imitated the trick, his rod swallowed up theirs (Ex. 7: 10-12). The Lord later commanded Moses to take up Aaron's rod "for a token against the rebels" (Num. 17: 10; and see Heb. 9: 4).
[41] "Nursing Father:" a key trope in the defense of the sacramental authority of kings that is not uncommonly invoked in estoration panegyrics to Charles. Faced with his countrymen's infidelity, Moses complains to the Lord of his burden to "carry them" in "his bosom, as a nursing father" (Num. 11: 12), and see Isaiah 49: 23: "And kings shall be thy nursing fathers." Compare J. P., The Loyal Subjects hearty Wishes To King Charles the Second, line 43; Sadler's Majestie Irradiant, lines 120-26; and contrast Thomas Pecke, To The Most High and Mighty Monarch Charles the II: "CHARLES with maternal Care, kept LONDON plump," line 331.
[42] An obvious problem for royalists, especially following the execution of Charles I. Although the phrase is not specifically Davidic, the question of God punishing the wicked saturates Psalms and Proverbs. See especially Psalm 94, which Sadler probaby had in mind here, and see Job 21: 7, Eccl. 11: 16, Jer. 12: 1.
[43] Sadler's Oracle echoes Jotham's parable foretelling the ruin of Abimelech's conspiracy; see Judges 9: 8-20, esp. 15.
[44] Closing parenthesis missing.
[45] Clearly refering to both Solomon and James, thereby one of the points where Sadler's use of biblical parallels are not simply localized in the moment of 1660.
[46] See Herbert, "The Sacrifice," adapted in 1647 as a monologue for (supposedly) Charles I.
[47] And] Aud
[48] See Zech. 12: 11.
[49] Joshua's progress westward required the reduction of the city of Ai, but his troops were initially unsuccessful. See Joshua 7, which conflates the story with that of Achan's transgression.
[50] See 2 Sam. 16: 5-7.
[51] "Only less than God."
[52] See 2 Sam. 18 for the defeat and death of Absalom.
[53] Shemaiah is the Levite priest through whom the Lord speaks to Rehoboam during the rebellion of Jeroboam; see I Kings 12: 22-24, and 2 Chron 11: 2.
[54] Compare George Herbert's "The Collar," line 22.
[55] Both Moses and Joseph kept their faith even while rising to positions of eminence in the Egyptian court. Joseph resisted the sexual advances of his master's wife (Gen. 39: 7-20), but Sadler's conceit -- "shun the Courting Stream, / Of Stollen waters" -- remains obscure.
[56] Eighth] Eight
[57] Adonijah, David's son by Haggith, proclaimed himself king during his father's old age with the support of Joab and Abiather. When news that David had annointed Solomon king was announced at Adonijah's feast, his guests fled. Solomon pardoned Adonijah on the promise of good behavior, but subsequently had him put to death for requesting a wife. Abiather is deprived of the priesthood, and Joab slain. See I Kings 1-2.
[58] Sadler's version of the rebellion of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram against Moses follows Numbers 16.
[59] Echoing Numbers 16: 3.
[60] Echoing Numbers 16: 13.
[61] Closing parenthesis missing.
[62] Echoing Numbers 16: 14.
[63] Numbers 16: 22.
[64] Numbers 16: 19.
[65] Echoing Numbers 16: 28-30.
[66] Echoing Numbers 16: 32.
[67] Sadler's speaker combines features of the woman of Endor's vision of Samuel -- "an old man . . . covered with a mantle" (1 Sam. 18: 14) -- and Matthew's description of John the Baptist, who "had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins" (Mat. 3: 4).
[68] The speech of the Old Man marks the final stage in Sadler's recounting of sacred history, bringing the catalogue of Old Testament rebels who eventually fell up to Jeroboam.
[69] As the speech shows by listing several of his previous sins, Saul didn't need to consult the woman of Endor to find out that he deserved punishment.
[70] By sparing Agag's life and by not destroying the wealth of the Amelikites, Saul disobeyed Samuel's command from the Lord and then lied about it: see 1 Samuel 15: 9-23.
[71] 1 Sam. 22: 17.
[72] Saul plots against David in 1 Sam 19:8-11.
[73] 1 Samuel 28: 7-20.
[74] For Jeroboam's overthrow by King Abijah, see Chron. 13.
[75] 2 Chron. 13: 3.
[76] 2 Chron. 13: 13.
[77] Echoing Abijah's speech summoning the tribes shortly before overthrowing Jeroboam; 2 Chron. 13: 7-8.
[78] 2 Chron. 15-18.
[79] On 15 March 1660, "the eve of the day when the Parliament was at length to pronounce its own dissolution . . . A working painter, accompanied by some soldiers, and carrying a ladder in his hand, approached a wall in the city near the Royal Exchange, where eleven years before an inscription in Latin had been placed, Exit Tyrannus, regum ultimus, anno libertatis Angliæ restitutiæ primo, annoque Domini 1648. The workman effaced the inscription, and threw his cap into the air, exclaiming, `God bless KING CHARLES II!' The crowd joined its acclamations, and bonfires were lighted on the spot" (M. Guizot, The History of England From the Earliest Times to the Accession of Queen Victoria, edited by Madame de Witt, trans. Moy Thomas, 3 vols. [London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1877-79], 2: 553). See also An Exit To The Exit Tyrannus: Or, Upon Erasing that Ignominious and Scandalous Motto, which was set over the place where King Charles the First Statue stood, in the Royall Exchange, which appeared on 17 March. My thanks to Lois Potter for suggesting this.
[80] Sadler's epilogue recalls Herbert's religious echo-poem, "Heaven." (Lois Potter).
[81] ye'nt] copy text
[82] Farewell] Farwell e struckout by hand in Bodleian copy.
[83] Farewell] Farwell e struckout by hand in Bodleian copy.
[84] Trees] Tree s struckout by hand in Bodleian copy.