The Greatest Works of Charles Carleton Coffin. Charles Carleton Coffin
Читать онлайн книгу.the Jesuits! Hang them! No popery in England!” they cried.
Some of the leaders were hung; some fled to other countries; many were imprisoned. So intense was the hatred that a Roman Catholic was not safe on the streets. If one appeared, the mob pelted him with stones. They could hold no worship, and could only cherish their belief in silence.
The bishops of the Church of England, the ministers in all the parishes, preached bitter sermons against the Papists and Jesuits. The ballad-writers wrote songs against them, which were sung by minstrels at all the county fairs, arousing the hatred of the people. Ever as November 5th came round, the boys in London, and in every town and village, made a mock pope, stuffing old clothes with straw, putting a mitre on the head of the image, dragging it through the streets, and pelting it with stones. He who could hit it in the eye was the best fellow. When evening came they tied it to a stake, piled fagots around it, and danced in savage glee while it was burning. “Pope’s Day” was the jolliest of the year. It was a day on which all England drank the health of the king and shouted “No popery!”
The Jesuits had sowed Bigotry, and they were reaping the legitimate fruit. If they were having a hard time in England, the Protestants were having a harder time in France, Holland, and Germany. Bigotry and Intolerance alike were regarded as virtues by the Church of Rome and the Church of England. The world was very far from understanding the meaning of Christian charity. We need not wonder if, farther along, we see Intolerance taking root in the New World.
James was so wise in some things, and foolish in others, that he was called a “wise fool.” He believed that men and women, by making a league with the devil, could bewitch people, and wrote a book about witchcraft; also a book against the smoking of tobacco. He tried to suppress the habit, but smoking increased; tobacco-shops were opened all over London.
James believed that he was especially and divinely appointed of God to be king — to rule as he pleased— and that subjects had only to obey. The bishops agreed with him, and said that he was inspired by the Holy Ghost.
When the king travelled, he was accompanied by a great number of earls, lords, and bishops. Noblemen spent their fortunes in entertaining him. One Sunday he dined with Sir Arthur Lake at Houghton Hall, and this was the bill of fare:
First Course.
Pallets.
Boiled Capon.
Boiled Mutton.
Boiled Chicken.
Boiled Duck.
Roast Mutton.
Roast Veal.
Pallets.
Cold Roast Heron,
Costards.
Boast Venison.
Barred Capon.
Hot pasty of Venison.
Roast Turkey.
Barred Veal.
Roast Swan.
Hot Chicken-pie.
Cold Rabbits.
Jiggets of boiled Mutton.
Snipe-pie.
Boiled Breast of Veal.
Roast Capon.
Cold Tongue-pie.
Boiled Sprod.
Roast Pig.
Second Course.
Hot Pheasant.
Quails.
Partridges.
Poults.
Roast Pigeon.
A made Dish.
Turkey-pie.
Hogs Cheeks, dried.
Cold Turkey.
Artichoke-pie.
Chicken.
Roast Curlew.
Battered Pease.
Rabbits.
Ducks.
Burred Chicken.
Pea Taits.
Plovers.
Red Deer-pie.
Burred Pig.
Hot Roast Heron.
Roast Lamb.
Gammon of Bacon.
Pullets and Greens.
Dried Tongue.
Pheasant Tarts.
A great deal of meat, and not much besides.
After dinner the servants presented a petition to the king, requesting permission to engage in sports and games on Sunday afternoon. The king gave them liberty to wrestle, run races, play ball, pitch quoits, throw-iron bars; but they were not to set cocks to fighting, or worry bulls with dogs on Sundays. On week-days they might attend cock-fights, or engage in any other brutal sport. He had a cockpit of his own near the palace, and took great delight in seeing the cocks peck one another to pieces.
James took great pleasure in attending the theatres, although many of the plays were very indecent. The theatres were foul places. The king, the ladies and gentlemen of the court, the noblemen, occupied the boxes, but down in the pit there was a dirty crowd, sitting on benches that had no backs. Between the acts they guzzled beer, which was drawn from a barrel in the centre of the pit. The language of the plays was vile, and interlarded with oaths and ribaldry. There were indecent scenes; but the king, queen, lords, and ladies witnessed them without blushing.
Writers record the thoughts of the age in which they live, and the spirit of any period will ever be seen in the literature of the time. Ben Jonson tells us how vile the drama was in the time of James.
“In dramatic or stage poetry,” he says, “nothing but ribaldry, profanation, blasphemies, all license of offence toward God and man is pictured. Nothing but filth of mire is uttered.”
The actors ridiculed the Bible, called Moses a juggler, and maintained that religion was a farce. Many ladies and gentlemen thought it an accomplishment to use profane language; and if a person did not interlard his conversation with oaths, he was set down as being a Puritan, and subjected to all manner of ridicule.
“Every stage and every table,” wrote Lucy Hutchinson, “belched forth profane scoffs upon the Puritans. The drunkards made the songs, and all fiddlers and musicians learned to abuse them.”
Shakespeare never ridiculed the honest convictions of men. He wrote nothing against the Puritans, perhaps because his daughter Judith, as is supposed, was a Puritan; perhaps because he never forgot the Sundays of his boyhood, when he walked beneath the stately trees in the church-yard at Stratford, on the green banks of the Avon, and listened to the sermons preached in the old stone church. Either from the sermons or from the Bible, he obtained such a comprehension of duty, obligation, conscience, and retribution, that when, in after years, he sat down to write, he produced plays which portray vice in its hatefulness and virtue in all its loveliness.
James had married Anne of Denmark, and when her father, the King of Denmark, came to make a visit, Ben Jonson, the poet-laureate, wrote a dramatic poem which represented the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon.
James gave a grand entertainment in his palace to all the ladies and gentlemen of the court, some of whom were selected to perform Jonson’s play. Unfortunately, the noble lady who personated the Queen of Sheba had drunk so much wine, that when she kneeled: before the King of Denmark, who personated Solomon, to present a tray containing a goblet of wine, a dish of custard, a pitcher of cream, and a plate of cakes, she lost her balance and spilt them in his lap. The King of Denmark was in a sorry plight, but the servants came with napkins and wiped him off. He attempted to dance, hut was so tipsy that