Some of these works still bear evident marks that the “pursuivants” were hunting the printers. “The Protestatyon of Martin Mar-Prelate, wherein, notwithstanding the surprising of the printer, he maketh it knowne vnto the world that he feareth neither proud priest, tirannous prelate, nor godlesse cater-cap; but defieth all the race of them,” including “a challenge” to meet them personally; was probably one of their latest efforts. The printing and the orthography show all the imperfections of that haste in which they were forced to print this work. As they lost their strength, they were getting more venomous. Among the little Martins disturbed in the hour of parturition, but already christened, there were: “Episto Mastix;” “The Lives and Doings of English Popes;” “Itinerarium, or Visitations;” “Lambethisms.” The “Itinerary” was a survey of every clergyman of England! and served as a model to a similar work, which appeared during the time of the Commonwealth. The “Lambethisms” were secrets divulged by Martin, who, it seems, had got into the palace itself! Their productions were, probably, often got up in haste, in utter scorn of the Horatian precept. [These pamphlets were printed with difficulty and danger, in secrecy and fear, for they were rigidly denounced by the government of Elizabeth. Sir George Paul, in his “Life of Archbishop Whitgift,” informs us that they were printed with a kind of wandering press, which was first set up at Moulsey, near Kingston-on-Thames, and from thence conveyed to Fauseley in Northamptonshire, and from thence to Norton, afterwards to Coventry, from thence to Welstone in Warwickshire, from which place the letters were sent to another press in or near Manchester; where by the means of Henry, Earl of Derby, the press was discovered in printing “More Work for a Cooper;” an answer to Bishop Cooper’s attack on the party, and a work so rare Mr. Maskell says, “I believe no copy of it, in any state, remains.”]
As a great curiosity, I preserve a fragment in the Scottish dialect, which well describes them and their views. The title is wanting in the only copy I have seen; but its extreme rarity is not its only value: there is something venerable in the criticism, and poignant in the political sarcasm.
|
“Weil lettred clarkis endite their warkes, quoth Horace, slow and geasoun, Bot thou can wise forth buike by buike, at every spurt and seasoun; For men of litrature t’endite so fast, them doth not fitte, Enanter in them, as in thee, their pen outrun thair witte. The shaftis of foolis are soone shot out, but fro the merke they stray; So art thou glibbe to guibe and taunte, but rouest all the way, Quhen thou hast parbrackt out thy gorge, and shot out all thy arrowes, See that thou hold thy clacke, and hang thy quiver on the gallows. Els Clarkis will soon all be Sir Johns, the priestis craft will empaire, And Dickin, Jackin, Tom, and Hob, mon sit in Rabbies chaire. Let Georg and Nichlas, cheek by jol, bothe still on cock-horse yode, That dignitie of Pristis with thee may hau a long abode. Els Litrature mon spredde her wings, and piercing welkin bright, To Heaven, from whence she did first wend, retire and take her flight.” |
“Pasquill of England to Martin Junior, in a countercuffe given to Martin Junior.”
“Most of the books under Martin’s name were composed by John Penry, John Udall, John Field, and Job Throckmorton, who all concurred in making Martin. See ‘Answer to Throgmorton’s Letter by Sutcliffe,’ p. 70; ‘More Work for a Cooper;’ and ‘Hay any Work for a Cooper;’ and ‘Some layd open in his Colours;’ were composed by Job Throckmorton.”—MS. Note by Thomas Baker. Udall, indeed, denied having any concern in these invectives, and professed to disapprove of them. We see Cartwright, however, of quite a different opinion. In Udall’s library some MS. notes had been seen by a person who considered them as materials for a Martin Mar-Prelate work in embryo, which Udall confessed were written “by a friend.” All the writers were silenced ministers; though it is not improbable that their scandalous tales, and much of the ribaldry, might have been contributed by their lowest retainers, those purveyors for the mob, of what they lately chose to call their “Pig’s-meat.”
The execution of Hacket, and condemnation of his party, who had declared him “King of Europe,” so that England was only a province to him, is noted in our “General History of England.” This was the first serious blow which alarmed the Puritanic party. Doubtless, this man was a mere maniac, and his ferocious passions broke out early in life; but, in that day, they permitted no lunacy as a plea for any politician. Cartwright held an intercourse with that party, as he had with Barrow, said to have been a debauched youth; yet we had a sect of Barrowists; and Robert Brown, the founder of another sect, named after him Brownists; which became very formidable. This Brown, for his relationship, was patronised by Cecil, Earl of Burleigh. He was a man of violent passions. He had a wife, with whom he never lived; and a church, wherein he never preached, observes the characterising Fuller, who knew him when Fuller was young. In one of the pamphlets of the time I have seen, it is mentioned that being reproached with beating his wife, he replied, “I do not beat Mrs. Brown as my wife, but as a curst cross old woman.” He closed his life in prison; not for his opinions, but for his brutality to a constable. The old women and the cobblers connected with these Martin Mar-Prelates are noticed in the burlesque epitaphs on Martin’s death, supposed to be made by his favourites; a humorous appendix to “Martin’s Monthminde.” Few political conspiracies, whenever religion forms a pretext, is without a woman. One Dame Lawson is distinguished, changing her “silke for sacke;” and other names might be added of ladies. Two cobblers are particularly noticed as some of the industrious purveyors of sedition through the kingdom—Cliffe, the cobbler, and one Newman. Cliffe’s epitaph on his friend Martin is not without humour:—