47.
Balaam's Ass. Circa 1619.
Speculum Regale. Circa 1619.
These two books were written by John Williams, Esquire, of Essex, barrister of the Middle Temple, who had been expelled the House of Commons on account of his being a Roman Catholic, and in them he affirmed that the king would die in the year 1621, grounded upon the prophecy of Daniel. These books Williams at his trial told the court were enclosed in a box sealed up, and thus secretly conveyed to the king; and were never printed or published. On May 3rd, 1619, he was arraigned at the King's Bench, Westminster, for this libel, and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, which sentence was carried out two days afterwards over against the Mews at Charing Cross.
Two manuscript copies of Balaam's Ass are extant, one in the University Library of Cambridge (Dd. III, 84, art. 2), and another in the Lansdowne M.S., No. 213, p. 59. It is entitled "Balaam's Asse, or a Free Discourse touching the Murmurs and Feared Discontents of the Time, and directed to his then Majestie King James, by way of Humble Advertisement."
Among the manuscripts in the Cambridge University Library is a duodecimo (class mark Ii, vi. 51), written in a hand of the seventeenth century, containing "Notes of cases in the Star Chamber, 17-20 James I." On the last leaf is written the following, in the same hand:—
"A parcel of a pamphlett cast in the courte by Williams, bearinge the title of Balaam's Ass, for which he were after executed.
"4 letters doe the persoun shewe,
"The place, the tymes, the tymes of woe.
H. E. E. I.