The sixteen poems included in this section were printed during, or describe events from the perspective of, the period between December 1659 and the end of April 1660. They demonstrate how both poetic genres and political opinions were hesitant and uncertain during these months when royalists lived in hopeful anticipation of a return to monarchy. Experimentation in a wide variety of poetic genres contributed to the sense of general uncertainty about possible futures even as General Monk -- "the most important single agent in bringing about the Restoration"¹⁰⁴ -- led his army south to London. These poems offer numerous revisions of recent past events, while also attempting to document the immediate present as closely as they can in order to interpret, advise, and set the terms for what they hope will come about. ¹⁰⁵

   Milton scholars will be familiar with these weeks as the period when The Readie and Easie Way was being written and revised, in a desperate attempt to prevent a return to monarchy. Austin Woolrych's "Historical Introduction" to the revised seventh volume of The Complete Prose Works of John Milton (1980) provides an indispensible and detailed guide to the political and social activities of these weeks. In what follows, I will presume that readers will refer to Woolrych's account for a more fully detailed account of persons and events; here I seek only to offer a broad outline focussing on matters of interest to royalist poets.

   While General Monk was bringing his army south to London and negotiating with both Parliamentary and city interests, poets writing in support of restoring the king commonly set conditions, often quite specific ones, to that recall. Although Charles would not be formally acclaimed until Tuesday 8 May, during the previous two months, royalist poets expressed confidence that he would be recalled, and felt empowered to begin enumerating the advantages his return would, or should, bring to a broad range of social, economic, and political interests.

   Poems have been included in this group when there is evidence, usually marginal dates from George Thomason and Anthony Wood, for dating their availability, or if the work addresses events specific to this period but does not claim that the king's return has been formally proclaimed. This group has been further restricted to poems that advocate the king's return by directly addressing the figure of the king himself. Left out, then, are the large number of topical anti-Rump satires that Lucy Hutchinson remarked upon in her description of the king's return:

And indeed it was a wonder in that day to see the mutability of some, and the hypocrisy of others, and the servile flattery of all. Monck, like his better genius, conducted him, and was adored like one that had brought all the glory and felicity of mankind home with this prince.

The officers of the army had made themselves as fine as the courtiers, and everyone hoped in this change to change their condition, and disowned all things they had before adored. And every ballad singer sung up and down the streets ribald rhymes made in reproach of the late commonwealth and of all those worthies that therein endeavoured the people's freedom and happiness.¹⁰⁶

    Lucy Hutchinson was by no means alone in her responses during the spring of 1660, and her sensitive account of what Christopher Hill calls "the experience of defeat," should come to mind whenever we are reading the often quoted words of Pepys and Evelyn.

   Also left out are all the verses, in a wide variety of genres, that were addressed to General Monk. Although I have included two broadsides that are properly anti-Rump satires (see A Psalme and The Case is Altered), I have not attempted to catalogue all such works; though doing so would enable us to examine how they represent the possibility of a return to monarchy. Recent studies by David Norbrook, Laura Knoppers, Nigel Smith and others have started to extend our understanding of these important works by examining specific titles, but a fully historicized and archivally informed study of anti-Rump satire is very much needed.¹⁰⁷

   So too, Monk's importance as the subject of verse propaganda is sufficiently massive a topic to deserve independent study. I have included, as an appendix to this preface, a preliminary checklist of works containing poems to Monk: it does not claim to be comprehensive. The most deserving of close analysis are the verses addressed to him during the entertainments and masques held in his honor by the various London Guilds, many of which were subsequently published. How might the evidence of these omitted works change the picture of poetic activity that emerges from these sixteen pro-monarchy pieces? Do the satires on the Rump invariably recommend a return to monarchy? How influential were the various masques and "Entertainments" organized for Monk after his arrival in London? Leaving these works out remains a practical matter of limiting the scope of this edition to the work of a single life-time, but the consequences are worth briefly exploring.

   By including only poems addressing the king as a desired monarch, my concern has not been to suggest that poets constituted or imagined themselves an early consensus; on the contrary I am concerned rather with charting how the specific differences in form and attitude show a discourse being constructed from disparate ideological programmes. As these sixteen poems demonstrate, poets advocating the king's return in these months before his formal recall by Parliament frequently disagreed among themselves about what such a return should mean and how to write about it. Although the trade Guilds comissioned poets to address and advise Monk, and stationers comissioned ballads that encouraged pro-Restoration sentiments, such activities hardly constitute evidence that the press was being enrolled on behalf of an organized pro-Restoration campaign of verse propaganda during these early months. On the contrary, the common use of anonymous or false colophons and imprints on royalist publications -- such as "printed for Charles Prince, in the year, 1660" -- suggests there were still perceived dangers. Harold Weber in Paper Bullets has powerfully demonstrated how Charles and his governments used and controlled the press for their own purposes, but as Brian Weiser has noted, such efforts at control were neither uniform in operation nor consistent throughout Charles's reign.¹⁰⁸ Certainly, during the early months of 1660, there is little evidence of a centralized royalist effort to control the published representations of the king. Moreover, poems representing the king were far fewer in number than the verse attacks on the Rump and the poems addressed to Monk which I have omitted, reminding us that the king was not yet fully the center of poetic attention.

   Diarists of the time confirm that these first months of 1660 were a time of hesitation and uncertainty. In December 1659, when Pepys began his Diary in anticipation of great events, it would not have seemed very likely, even to him, that the king would be back in power by May. Pepys recalls personal and family events, money troubles and illnesses, but keeps a keen eye on current events. For Bulstrode Whitelocke, negotiating with the Stuart exiles seemed a reasonable option before Christmas; for him, loyalty to the old regime proved impossible to maintain once the regicides, Thomas Scot and John Lambert, struggled to keep the Rump in power. Skirmishes and bloodshed as early as 5 December resulted from demonstrations on behalf of recalling the excluded members.

   Freeing Parliament from the Rump was on many people's minds; but not all were necessarily hoping for the return of a Stuart king. The General Counsel of the officers signed against kingship on the 13th. By the 20th of December, Whitelocke wished "himselfe out of these dayly hazards, butt knew not how to gett free of them, the distractions were strangely high & daily increasing," and later records personal and political anxieties over what Monk and the army would demand once they arrived in London. Many began fearing that the king would be recalled; on 2 January a bill was approved by all members of Parliament against the title of Charles to the throne.

   With the collapse of the Rump on 16 January, Whitelocke saw the tide turning and went into hiding. He noted increasing evidence that Monk was playing an ambiguous game from news that was being brought to him by his wife who, from then on, served as his public intelligencer.

   Meanwhile, in Essex, Ralph Josselin had been nervous of renewed civil disturbance since August 1659, but December was for him as for Pepys a month of family illnesses and reassuring reports that all seemed mercifully quiet in London. Reporting word of Monk's journey to London as early as 15 January, Josselin reserves judgment: "General Monck is coming up to London, wee shall see to what intent, god remember his in mercy and all shall bee well."

   Monk's journey south is the subject of the best known poetic account of events during the first months of 1660. Robert Wild's Iter Boreale may mostly be remembered for drawing Dryden's contempt in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668). Wild, Eugenius pronounces, "is the very Wither of the City ... When his famous poem first came out in the year 1660, I have seen them reading it in the midst of 'Change time; nay so vehement they were at it, that they lost their bargain by the candles' ends."¹⁰⁹ This scene of reading could not have occured until after 23 April when Wild's poem appeared, mere days before the Convention Parliament sat for the first time. Whether real or imagined, Dryden's recollection of a moment, eight years previously, when the appearance of Wild's Iter Boreale interfered with the more important business of making money, suggests a sustained interest in reading about Monk and his journey to London, at the head of the army that would pressure the Rump to restore the excluded members and dissolve itself, thus precipitating the call for Charles to return.

    By late April, Monk was already a national hero much celebrated in print. Since January, he had been the direct subject of more than twenty poems, while Charles was the direct subject of fewer than sixteen. On the second of January Monk crossed the Tweed and immediately began attracting a great deal of attention from poets and propagandists. In short order, the ruddy-faced Devonian squire became the subject of a mythology linking him with the legendary Christian knight, St George. Before Monk left Scotland, his name was linked with the patron saint of England, though by witty negation. "'Tis not Saint George we sing of here," declared The Noble English Worthies, a broadside that Anthony Wood collected in December. Monk's Westcountry origins were swiftly and regularly elaborated upon as the mythology of a new St George, the "glory of the West," took shape.¹¹⁰

   By Wednesday, 11 January he reached York and on this day "complete victory was his" (Hutton 1985: p. 84) since any danger of armed resistance from Lambert's supporters had crumbled away. On Saturday 14 January, Monk's fellow Devonians, the "gentlemen" of Exeter, took it upon themselves to be among the very first to declare themselves publicly in favor of restoring the excluded members¹¹¹. Bulstrode Whitelocke recorded in his diary on 23 January that he had received word how a "tumult in Excester, the people declaring for a free Parlement, [had been] quieted" (Whitelocke, Diary, p. 563).

   During the last days of January, petitions for restoring the excluded members appeared from various parts of the country. Many were addressed to Monk personally. On 24 January, Canterbury and Northampton had joined Exeter petitioning for Parliamentary reform. On the 25th, Ralph Josselin cynically noted in his diary, "the nacion looking more to Charles Stuart [than to Cromwell's family] out of love to themselves not him." The republican and friend of Milton, Colonel Robert Overton, declared himself ready to defend Hull against Monk's army, if need be, until 12 March, when he obeyed the Council of State and handed the city over to Fairfax. ¹¹²

   Whitelocke, Josselin, and Overton were by no means alone in feeling ill-disposed to the way events seemed to be going as Monk and his army moved south on London. Not all writers wanted to see in Monk a new St George from the West. Before January was over, the mythology surrounding Monk took a new turn as he became involved in the published libels of the times. An obscene and scurrilous prose tract that George Thomason dated "20 Jan." and entitled To His Excellency General Monck. The Humble Petition of the Lady Lambert,¹¹³ imagines "Lady Lambert" offering herself to Monk, hoping to divert him from his course. Three days later, however, Thomason collected another tract, A Curtain-Conference, in which John and "Lady" Lambert are imagined in bed, planning for the inevitable return of monarchy. ¹¹⁴ Before Monk had even reached London, royalist satirists were already imagining the dissolution of the Rump to be inevitable, given unfolding events, and sought to defame and demoralize opponents of the movement toward monarchy. But verses addressed to Monk were seldom scandalous. On the last day of January, a broadside appeared advising Monk to bring in a king:

NOw George for England, that brave Warrior bold,
That would not be by Lambert's force controul'd;
But did endeavour for the good o'th'Nation,
We hope to work a blessed Reformation,
And settle Kingly Power in this Dominion,
And then thou shalt be great in the Opinion
Of all good people that do fear the Lord,
And then no doubt they will with thee accord,
And say, Long live brave George in Wealth and Peace,
Bless thee with Honors, Plenty and Increase.
¹¹⁵

   Once he arrived in London on 3 February, poets announced the arrival of England's new St George who would victoriously rout the dragonish Rump Parliament. Some advised him that he must bring in the king, others hoped he would. An acrostick from later this month shows how Monk's very name mysteriously offered him advice:

M    Mount thy Horse,
O    On thy Army bring,
N    Neuter stand till
K    Restores the KING.

   Historians have noticed how Monk's "studied neutrality" continued during his negotiations with political forces in the capital city.¹¹⁶ Throughout the year, poets continued to recollect various details of incidents that took place from the time of Monk's arrival, suggesting that many of them were themselves in London at the time, or turned to newsbooks to refresh their memories.

   On Wednesday, 8 February, two days after Monk first addressed the House of Commons, householders and freemen of the city of London petitioned the Lord Mayor not to permit any authority that could not rightly claim legislative authority. Their petition started a rumour that citizens were preparing to withold taxes, in response to which the Committee of Safety ordered the Secretary of State, Thomas Scott, to command Monk to use his troops to subdue the city. Almost immediately, the Common Council of the city voted a tax strike that would remain in effect until the excluded members were readmitted. The next morning, Thursday the 9th, Scott ordered Monk to display his power over the city by arresting those citizens named as ringleaders in the tax strike, by removing the chains used to secure city streets, and by removing the city gates. Monk equivocated. On the 9th, Monk reluctantly complied with part of the order, arresting nine of the eleven named ringleaders and removing the chains. But he demurred about taking down the gates until the 10th, and then only after receiving a repeat command to do so (see Davis 1955: 278-79; Hutton 1985: 91-93). The next day, however, Monk turned on the Rumpers and presented his own ultimatum demanding new elections. This was "the first good omen" according to John Evelyn. Others agreed. That night, 11 February, the citizens of London took back the streets in a night of bonfires and carnival that Ronald Hutton has called "possibly the greatest expression of popular rejoycing London has ever known" (Hutton 1985: 93).

   Details about these days of early February often surface in the works of poets writing after Charles had returned, and there is plenty of contemporary evidence that, for many who were caught up in these events, the tensions and excitement that began with Monk's arrival in London and ended with the bonfires of 11 February marked a moment after which the Restoration seemed a likely option, however much Monk might keep his intentions to himself. At the time, nothing was very certain. One supporter of the king who seems to have been printing his personal chronicle of these events even as they were taking place, a young law student named Giles Duncombe, captured the passionate uncertainty of eager royalists during early February in his Scutum Regale: The Royal Buckler; or, VOX LEGIS, A Lecture to Traytors: Who most wickedly murthered CHARLES the I, AND Contrary to all Law and Religion banished CHARLES THE II. 3d MONARCH of GREAT BRITAIN. Towards the end of his peroration against those who have brought down and kept out monarchy, Duncombe vividly describes the indignity felt by many Londoners when Monk destroyed the defences which had been erected against royal intrusion back in 1643:

Monck prov'd worse than Pharaoh himself, and instead of relieving of our distressed Jerusalem ... he heaped misery to misery, and executed such a grand piece of Tyranny that none in the world ... could invent. On Thursday the ninth day of February, 1659 ... he drew up all his souldiers into the City, with their matches lighted, in a warlike posture, doubled his guards, and tore down all the gates, and posts of the City; neither did his intoxicated malice stay upon the gates, but leapt upon the Aldermen, and other Citizens, whom he presently cast into prison, so that now he is become odious, and stinks in the nostrils of all the Citizens and People: and whereas he was the common hopes of all men, he is now the common hatred of all men, as a Traytor more detestable than Oliver himself; who, though he manacled the Citizens hands, yet never took away the doores of their City, whereby all manner of beasts, (as well the Wolves at Westminster, as other out-lying Foxes, and Birds of prey) may come in, and destroy them when they please. (pp. 373-74).

   Within three pages, however, Duncombe starts all over again with a new section -- "Englands Redemption" -- and finds himself recanting his earlier complaint rather than cancelling the earlier pages:

No sooner had I written these last words of the momentary prosperity of the wicked, but immediately the same hour, news was brought me, that General Monck and the City were agreed, and resolved to declare for a free Parliament, and decline the Rump ... I was strucken with amazement, joy made me tremble, and the goodnesse of the news would scarce permit me to believe it. (p. 377)¹¹⁷

   Duncombe's interrupted narrative makes Scutum Regale one of the most interesting ephemeral publications of the Restoration year. Advertized in the Parliamentary Intelligencer 22 for the week 21-28 May (p. 348), copies of Scutum Regale show evidence of considerable stop-press actitivity. The Virgilian motto "Iam redit Astræa, Redeunt Saturnia regna," used by Dryden in June, also appears as a motto to the frontispiece found in some copies of Scutum Regale, one of which comes from Charles II's own collection. The Epistle to the Reader, anagrammatically signed "Cimelgus Bonde," ends with a prayer for the arrival of "Charls the 2^d our Augustus, and Cæsars Successor" (sig. A4v), suggesting that Duncombe may very well have been the earliest writer to name Charles as Augustus in print.

   Throughout February and March, verses addressing Monk and his heroic achievements battling the Rump continued to appear. On Tuesday 21 February, he brought in the excluded members,¹¹⁸ and poets were quick to celebrate the event in ballads such as Saint George, and the Dragon, Englands Triumph. Or The Rump Routed, which declares itself written "To the Tune of, Fill up the Parliament full," "G. Tichwhit"'s General Monks Welcome ... To the Tune of, When the King Enjoys his Own again, and Redemptio Ab Aquilone which ends:

Then George for England strike up thy Drum
And do thy devoir this Rump destroy,
That Noble King Charles the second may come,
And our streets may eccho with Vive le Roy.

   Similar works continued to appear during March (see Appendix). In this month William Davenant and John Denham published the first formal panegyrics addressed to the general on behalf of royalist interests. The Clothworkers and Drapers were the earliest of the London guilds to commission verse speeches addressing Monk to be performed at entertainments held in his honour. During April, the Skinners, Goldsmiths, Vintners, and Fishmongers all held entertainments for Monk involving performance pieces that were subsequently printed. On St George's day, 23 April, Wild's Iter Boreale appeared. Two weeks later, the Convention Parliament declared Charles king and by May, Monk had resigned his position as centre of interest to the poets. But not entirely. Monk continued to appear in poems directly addressed to the king and continued to attract poems in his honour well into the summer.

   Once it started to look extremely likely that Charles would be returned, poets began directing their attentions more directly to the man who was about to become king. Several ballads representing Charles appeared following the dissolution of the Rump on 16 March. Engraved portraits of Charles, with verses by John Ogilby, appeared early as late March, marking a distinct interest in the personal appearance of the future king. But during April, the presses remained relatively quiet on the subject of the king.

   This section ends with the formal verse "portrait" by Richard Flecknoe, although this undatable work almost certainly appeared later in the year.

   This list of verses addressed to Monk is certain to have omitted works that should have been included. It requires supplementing by a carefull examination of the many prose tracts in the Thomason Tracts and elsewhere.

   Works are calendared in chronological order; shelfmarks are given to copies I have examined and are not a comprehensive list of extant works.

   The Noble English Worthies. "'Tis not Saint George we sing of here." LONDON, Printed by Tho. Milbourn and are to be sold at his House in Jewen Street. brs. 0 Wood 416(24); LT 669.f.22(36), ms dated "December 1659"; L c.20.f.4(75).

   The Glory of the West or, The Tenth Renowned Worthy, and most Heroick Champion of this Brittish Island. Being an unparallel'd Commemoration of General Monck's coming towards the City of London. London, printed for Charles Gustavus. brs. O Wood 416(39), ms dated "January 1659"; L1 c.20.f.2(36); L2 82.L.8(25).

   Advice to Gen. Monck: By a Friend that wisheth his Happiness. brs. LT 669.f.23(19), ms dated "31 Jan 1660"; OW L.R.8(32), ms dated "Feb 1659."

   Saint George, and the Dragon, Anglice, Mercurius Poeticus: To the Tune of, The Old Souldjour [sic] of the Queens, &c. brs. LT 669.f.23(66), ms dated "28 Feb 1659/60"; OW L.R.8.32.

   Englands Triumph. Or The Rump Routed By the true Assertor of Englands Interest, Generall George Monck. A Sonet. To the Tune of, Fill up the Parliament full. London: Printed for James Johnson. O Wood 416(48), ms dated "Feb. 1659."; L1 c.20.f.2(34); L2 c.20.f.4(72).

   Redemptio Ab Aquilone, Or some Good out of Scotland, To the Tune of Cook Laurell. O Wood 416(46), ms. dated "1659: feb".

   "G. Tichwhit," General Monks Welcome (From the Citie) to Whitehall. To the Tune of, When the King Enjoys his Own again. O Wood 416(52), ms dated "Feb 1659"; OW L.R.8.32.

   Monasticon, OR LONDON's Gratulation to the Lord General. The sixth of March, 1660. brs. L 82.L.8(24).

    The Second Part of Saint George for England. To the Tune of, To drive the cold Winter away brs. O Wood 416(54), ms dated "March 1659/60"; LT 669.f.24(4), ms dated "7 March 1659/60."

   A Speech Made To The Lord General MONCK, at Clotheworkers Hall in London The 13. of March, 1659. at which time he was there entertained by that Worthie Companie O1 Wood 398(3); O2 Firth b.20(16); LT 669.f.24(8); L c.20.f.2(27).

   William Davenant, A Panegyrick to his Excellency, The Lord General MONCK. London, Printed for Henry Herringman, 1659. O Wood 416(66), ms dated "March"; LT 669.f.24(33), ms dated "24 March"; L c.20.f.2(25).

   A Speech Spoken to his Excellency the Lord General Monk, By one Representing the Genius of ENGLAND at Drapers-Hall, Wednesday the 28. of March. Printed for Richard Andrews. brs. LT 669.f.24(46); L c.20.f.2(26); OW L.R.8.32.

   Dialogue betwixt Tom and Dick The former a COUNTRY-MAN, The other a CITIZEN, presented to his EXCELLENCY and the COUNCIL of STATE, at Drapers-Hall in LONDON, March 28. 1660. (To the tune of I'le never love thee more.) O Firth b. 20(21); LT 669.f.24(49), ms dated "30 March"; L1 c.20.f.2(38); L2 c.20.f.4(63); L3 c.40.m.11(5).

   Walter Yeokney, A Speech Made to his Excellency The Lord General MONCK, and the Councell of State, at Drapers-hall in London: The 28th of March, 1660. At which time they were entertained by that honourable Company. "The Reader may take notice that the other Speech is a forged cheat, and disowned by Walter Yeokney." LONDON: Printed for Henry Broome at the Gun in Ivy-lane, 1660. O Wood 398(5); LT 669.f.24(46).

   [John Denham?], A PANEGYRICK ON HIS EXCELLENCY The LORD GENERAL GEORGE MONCK: Commander in Chief of all the Forces IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LONDON, Printed for Richard Marriot in Fleetstreet, 1659. L1 Ashley 624; L2 Lutt.II.72; L3 c.20.f.2(34); O Wood 319(8), ms note: "March: said to be made by Jo. Denham: see whether it be in his works -- -". See also Woods, AO (1721 ed) 2: 423. Banks in Poems accepts and includes this; O Hehir in Harmony from Discords isn't so sure (pp. 152-53).

   "T. B.", The Muses congratulatory Address to his Excellency the Lord General MONCK. "Awake ye sacred Quire the night is past..." O Wood 416(72), ms dated "March 1660"; LT 669.f.24(54), ms dated "5 April".

   A Speech to the Lord General Monck at Skinners-hall April the fourth, 1660. Spoken by Mr. W. Bard. London, Printed for John Towers 1660. O Wood 398(6); LT 669.f.24(55), ms dated "5 April".

   Walter Yeokney, A Song to his Excellency the Ld. General Monck, at Skinners-Hall on Wednesday April 4. 1660...The Reader may take notice that this is the right Speech, sung by W. Yeokney. Printed for William Anderson, 1660. L c.20.f.2(29).

   Thomas Jordan, A Speech Made to his Excellency the Lord General Monck, and the Council of State, at Goldsmiths Hall in London, the tenth day of April, 1660. At which time they were entertained by that honourable Company. London, Printed for H. B. at the Gun in Ivy-Lane, 1660. O Wood 398(7); LT 669.f.24(59), ms dated "11 april"; L c.20.f.2(30).

   Walter Yeokney, The Speech spoken to the Lord General Monck at Goldsmiths-Hall April the tenth, 1660. By Walter Yolkney. London, printed for John Towers. LT 669.f.24(58), ms dated "11 April".

   Thomas Jordan, A Speech made to his Excellency George Monck General, &c. The Twelfth day of Aprill, M.DC.LX. At a Solemn Entertainment at Vinteners-Hal. Wherein his Illustrious Virtues are shaddowed forth under the Emblem of a Vine. O Wood 398(8); Manchester Chetham Halliwell-Phillips #2746 (copy torn and cropped at bottom); LT 669.f.24(61), ms dated "13 April"; L c.20.f.2(31); OW L.R.8.32.

   Cyprian Southaick, Fames Genius. OR, A PANEGYRICK Upon tHis Excellency the Lord General Monck. At Vintners-Hall, Thursday the 12th of April 1660. London, Printed for J. Jones and are to be sold at the Royal Exchange in Cornhil, 1660. LT 669.f.24(62), ms dated "13 April".

   Thomas Jordan, A Speech made to his Excellency the Lord General Monck and the Council of State, at Fishmongers-Hall in London. The Thirteenth of April, 1660. At which time they were entertained by that Honorable Company. "After a Song of Difference betwixt the Lawyer, the Soldier, the Citizen and the Countrey-man. The Chorus being ended. Enter the Ghost of Massianello Fisher-man of Naples. [text] Spoken by Walter Youkcny [sic]". London, Printed by W. Godbid over against the Anchor Inn in Little Brittain. 1660. O Wood 398(9); Manchester Chetham Halliwell-Phillips #2747 (torn); L c.20.f.2(32) (torn); OW L.R.8.32.

   Bacchus Festival, Or, a New medley Being A Musical Representation at the Entertainment of his Excellency the Lord General Monck. At Vintners-Hall, April 12. 1660. brs. LT 669.f.24(64), ms dated "13 April".

   Robert Wilde, Iter Boreale. Attempting something upon the Successful Matchless March of the Lord General George Monck, From Scotland to London, The Last Winter, &c. By a Rural Pen. London, Printed on St George's Day, for George Thomason at the Rose and Crown in St Pauls Churchyard, 1660. LT E.1021(13), ms dated "23 April"; OB 910.h.13(26), Nicholas Crouch bought this copy for 1d in the 1690s.

   Richard Farrar, A Panegyrick to his Excellency the Lord General Monck. London, Printed by John Macock. May 22. 1660. brs. LT 669.f.25(29), date in colophon.

   "J. H." Englands Joy, Expressed in an 'EPINI'KON, To the most Renowned Man of Honor, and Temporal Redeemer of the Prince, Peers, and People of this Land, His Excellencey The Lord General Monck. London, Printed for M. B. 1660. brs. LT 669.f.25(50), ms dated "25 June".

   This broadside was attributed to James Howell by Hazlitt, but William H. Vann, in Notes on the Writings of James Howell (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 1924), argues against the attribution thus: Payne Fisher left it out of his edition of Howell's Poems and Howell did not write "political verses", though some of the idioms are suitable. Vann suggests "If he did write the lines to Monk, he was probably the same J. H. who, on April 30th of that year gave forth "England's Genius Pleading for King Charles," a one-sheet broadside, and "England's Joy For the coming of King Charles II," May 4th. All these give evidence of the same hand; but I am doubtful whether Howell was the author" (pp. 62-3). Curiously, neither of these works, which are included in this anthology, are signed "J. H." The latter is by Henry Brome; a shorter version appeared under the title "For General Monk his Entertainment at Cloath-workers Hall" in Brome's Poems (1661).

   W. Drummond, Anagram Of his Excellency the Lord Generall George Monck, King Come Ore. brs. LT 669.f.25(63), ms dated "25 July"; HH [not found]. To be included in this anthology.

   The title has been torn away from the only copy of this broadside that I have been able to find, so I have adopted the catch phrase from the chorus.

   The "J. W." who signed this ballad remains obscure. The publisher, John Andrews, issued numerous early works celebrating the Restoration, including another broadside also signed "J. W.," The King and Kingdomes Joyful Day of Triumph, as well as a second issue of Alexander Brome's ENGLAND'S JOY For the Coming in of our Gracious Soveraign, A Glimpse of Joy, and "J. P."'s The Loyal Subjects hearty Wishes, which was found among the "trunk" ballads. Although written to a different stanzaic pattern, The King and Kingdomes Joyful Day of Triumph picks up the story of Charles's return exactly where "A Second Charles" leaves off, suggesting they may have been commissioned by Andrews from the same balladeer.

   Ebsworth has proposed that the "J. W." who wrote this later ballad may have been John Wade, who sometimes published his work with Andrews, and who often signed with his initials (RB, 9:33-34). The British Library catalogue has accepted that Wade was the "J. W." who authored a ballad to Monck, Englands Heroick Champion, which was also published by Andrews.¹²⁰ Further, Ebsworth also attributes The Royall Oak, printed by Charles Tyus, and signed "J. W." to Wade, but with no special evidence in either case.¹²¹ In the absence of further precise evidence, while there is no reason to suppose that the "J. W." in each case may not be the same, whether it is Wade or not seems inconclusive.

   In this work, the king is implored, "Do but return and save us now," and promised that were he to do so, "we will Crown thy lovely Brow." These, and the closing lines of the ballad, are the only internal evidence for dating this ballad, and suggest that "A Second Charles" may have appeared early in the year, before or shortly after Monk entered London. Certainly the general terms of desire described here suggest a moment before it was known whether Monk would support a return to monarchy.

   Although this anti-Rump satire anticipates the Restoration only obliquely, and addresses the king not at all, I have included it here since the treatment offered of the events of Saturday 11 February -- the day of the "roasting of the Rump" -- seems sufficiently important to warrant inclusion. Pepys recorded a detailed description of the celebrations following Monk's presentation of his ultimatum to the Rump. Returning home from Cheapside that evening, "it being about 10 a-clock," he noticed

the common joy that was everywhere to be seen! The number of bonefires, there being fourteen between St. Dunstan's and Temple Bar. And at Strand bridge I could at one view tell 31 fires. In King-streete, seven or eight; and all along burining and roasting and drinking for rumps -- there being rumps tied upon sticks and carried up and down. The buchers at the maypole in the Strand rang a peal with their knifes when they were going to sacrifice their rump. On Ludgate-hill there was one turning of the spit, that had a rump tied upon it, and abother basting of it. Indeed, it was past imagination, both the greatness and the suddeness of it.

   But there is nothing in Pepys's account that indicates he thought the spontanious joy in any way anticipated the king's return.

   Thomason dated his copy of this ballad on 15 February.

   The two copies of this ballad I have examined indicate stop-press activity and suggest that the stationers William Gilbertson and Charles Tyus employed the same print shop. The copy of this ballad in the British Library has been printed on the back of The beautiful Shepherdesse of Arcadia. A new pastarell Song of a courteous young Knight, and a supposed Shepheards Daughter. To a gallant tune, called the Shepheards Delight, which was printed in London for William Gilbertson. The copy in the Euing collection of Glasgow University is identical apart from the title, which is given as The Royall Subjects Joy. In both instances, the stationer is named as Charles Tyus.

   Why has this ballad been ascribed to Thomas Robins, and not The Royall Subjects Warning-piece to all Traytors, issued later in the year, which is also signed "T. R." but bears no stationer's colophon?² It may be mere chance that the two broadsides happen to be bound next to each other in the Euing collection, but they would seem to have been printed by the same press. But if they are by the same printer and author, why would Charles Tyus sign a piece of work early in the year when things might still have gone the other way, and then not sign what is presumably a later work?

   Robins was a prolific writer of ballads who seems to have been specially active in the period 1650-1670 (see Wing STC).

   This ballad is optimistic of the future if Charles and Monk can come to some agreement, so has been placed in late February. The claim that there is money at hand to pay soldiers their back wages is as optimistic as the hope that Charles will "pull all Taxes down."