At Sarum take a Cavalier And castles taken yet i' th' air? 170 tance of his fellow servants, played off a succession of alarms and delusions, with such dexterity and success as to expel the intruders from the royal mansion. (ED.) v. 167. At Sarum, &c.] *Withers has a long story in doggerel of a soldier of the King's army, who being a prisoner at Salisbury, and drinking a health to the Devil upon his knees, was carried away by him through a single pane of glass. v. 169. As Withers in immortal rhyme, &c.] This Withers was a Puritanical officer in the Parliament army, and a great pretender to poetry, as appears from his poems enumerated by A. Wood, (Athen. Oxon, vol. 1. col. 274, &c. 1st edit.) but so bad a poet, that when he was taken prisoner by the Cavaliers, Sir John Denham the Poet (some of whose land, at Egham in Surry, Withers had got into his clutches) desired his Majesty not to hang him; because so long as Withers lived, Denham would not be accounted the worst poet in England. Wood, ibid. col. 274. Bishop Kennet's Register and Chronicle, p. 694. Ibid. Withers, though damn'd to everlasting fame, as a dunce, by the spleen of Butler and Pope, possest no inconsiderable share of poetic talent. The greater number of his multifarious productions are deservedly forgotten, but his Shepherd's Hunting, his Fidelia, and a few other pieces, are sufficient to establish his claim to a more honourable immortality than that bestowed on him by the witty malice of his political opponents. His happier efforts are distinguished by a tender and pastoral turn of thought, and contain many passages of great sweetness and beauty. (ED.) v. 171, 172. Do not our great reformers use―This Sidrophel to forebode news] Hear, O reader! one of these great reformers thus canting forth the services of Lilly. "You do not know the many services this man hath done for the Parliament these many years; or how many times in our greatest distresses we applying unto him, he hath refreshed our Of battles fought at sea, and ships Sunk, two years hence, the last eclipse? 175 In Cornwall, horse and foot, next spring? languishing expectations; he never failed us of a comfort in our most unhappy distresses. I assure you his writings have kept up the spirits both of the soldiery, the honest people of this nation, and many of us parliament men." (See Lilly's Life, p.71)-[Mr. B.] Lilly was one of the close committee to consult about the King's execution: (See Mr. Echard's History of England, vol. 2. p. 641) and for pay, foretold things in favour of all parties, as has been before observed, the truth of which is confirmed from the following passage, in a letter of intelligence to Secretary Thurloe from Bruges, Sept. 29, 1656, (Thurloe's State Papers, vol. 5. p. 431.) "Lilly, that rogue, who lives by Strand Bridge, hath sent a letter unto Sir Edward Walker, who is one of his Majesty's secretaries, who is also an astrologer, to wish them to have a good heart, and be courageous. He was confident, and foresaw by art, that the King and his adherents would be restored in the year 57 to the throne and kingdom of England: And hereupon they depend much, because such a prophet saith it; who hath rightly prophesied of the former King's death; so he must needs have an infallible prophecy of this man's restoration." v. 173. To write of victories next year] The writer of Memoirs of the Years 1649-50, (Butler's Spurious Remains) has exposed Lilly's ignorance in the following words: “O (says he) the infallibility of Erra-Pater Lilly! The wizard perhaps may do much at hot-cockles, and guess well at blind man's huff; but I durst undertake to poze him with a riddle, and stand his intelligence in a dog in a wheel: An overturned salt is a surer prophet: the sieve and shears are oracles to him: A whining pig sees further into a storm; rats will prognosticate the ruin of a kingdom with more certainty: And as for palmestry, a gipsy, or DERRIC (See the word D. E. R. I. C. explained, Guteri Fax Art. tom. 1. cap. 3. p. 322.) may be his tutor. The wittal is cuckolded over and over, and yet the (Edipus is blind; like the old witch, who being consulted to discover a thief, could not discover who had shit at her own door. Indeed he is excellent at foretelling things past; and calculates the Deputy's nativity after he is beheaded; and then, by starting a prophecy, he excites the credulous vulgar to fulfil it: thus can he antedate Cromwell's swift And has not he point-blank foretold Whats'e'er the Close Committee would? 180 The Ram, the Bull, and Goat declare malice, depose the King five-years before-hand, and instruct Rolf how to be damned. Impious villain, to make the spheres like the associated counties, and the heavenly houses, so many lower houses, fix a guilt upon the stars, and persuade the planets were rebels, as if it were a sequestration star, or any constellation looked like a committee." His reputation was lost upon his false prognostick upon the eclipse, that was to happen on the 29th of March, 1652, commonly called Black Monday, in which his predictions not being fully answered, Mr. Heath observes, (Chronicle, p. 210.) "That he was regarded no more for the future, than one of his own worthless Almanacks." Dr. James Young (Sidrophel Va pulans) makes the following remark upon him. "I have (says he) read all Lilly's Almanacks, from 40 to 60 in the holy time of that great rebellion, to which he was accessary; and find him always the whole breadth of Heaven wide from truth: scarce one of his predictions verified, but a thousand contrary wise: It's hard, that a man shooting at rovers so many years together, should never hit the right mark." (See Sir Edward Walker's Historical Collections, published 1707, p. 227, &c. v. 174. And castles taken yet i' th' air ?] A sneer probably upon the report published in 1642, in a tract, intitled, A great Wonder in Heaven, shewing the late Apparitions and prodigious Noises of War and Battles seen at Edge-hill, near Keinton in Northamptonshire-Certified under the Hands of William Wood, Esq. Justice of the Peace in the said County: Samuel Marshall, Preacher of God's Word at Keinton; and other Persons of Quality. London, printed for Thomas Jackson, Jan. 23, Anno Dom. 1642, penes me. In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Edward the Third, Ralph Higden says, (see Polychronicon, translated by Treviza, Lib. Ult. chap. 1. fol. 317, b.) there appeared both in England and France, and many other places, two castles in the air, out of which issued two hosts of armed men, the one clothed in white, the other in black. v. 179, 180. And has not he point-blank foretold—Whats'e'er the Close Committee would ?] The Parliament took a sure way to secure all The Scorpion take the protestation, 185 prophecies, prodigies, and almanack-news from stars, &c. in favour of their own side, by appointing a licencer thereof, and strictly forbidding and punishing all such as were not licensed. Their man for this purpose was the famous Booker, an astrologer, fortune-teller, almanack- maker, &c. See v. 1093 of this Canto, and the note thereon. See also note upon Part I. Canto II. v. 650. The words of his license, in Rushworth, are very remarkable: "For mathematicks, almanacks, and prognostications.” If we may believe Lilly, both he and Booker did conjure and prognosticate well for their friends the Parliament. He tells us, "When he applied for a license for his Merlinus Anglicus Junior, (in April 1644) Booker wondered at the book, made many impertinent obliterations, framed many objections, and swore it was not possible to distinguish between a King and Parliament, and at last licensed it according to his own fancy. Lilly delivered it to the Printer, who being an arch Presbyterian, had five of the ministers to inspect it, who could make nothing of it, but said it might be printed: For in that he meddled not with their Dagon." (Lilly's Life, p. 44.) Which opposition to Lilly's book arose from a jealousy, that he was not then thoroughly in the Parliament's interest: which was true; for he frankly confesses, "That till the year 1645, he was more Cavalier than Roundhead, and so taken notice of: But after that, he engaged body and soul in the cause of the Parliament." (Life, p. 45.) Afterwards we find (among other curious particulars) that when there was a difference between the army and Parliament, he and Booker were carried in a coach with four horses to Windsor, (where the army's head quarters then were) were feasted in a garden where General Fairfax lodged, who bid them kindly welcome, and entered into a conference with them: (Life, p. 57.) That when Colchester was besieged, Booker and himself were sent for, where they encouraged the soldiers, assuring them (by figures) that the town would shortly surrender; that they were well entertained at the head quarters two days: (Life, p. 67, 68.) That in Oliver's Protectorship, all the soldiers were friends to Lilly; and the day of one of their fights in Scotland, a soldier stood up with his Anglicus in his hand, and as the troops passed by him, read that month's prediction aloud, saying, Lo! Quoth Hudibras,-The case is clear, This said, he turn'd about his steed, Where leave we him and Ralph a while, To let our reader understand What's useful of him, before-hand. 190 195 200 He had been long t'wards mathematics, 205 Hear what Lilly saith, you are in this month promised victory; fight it out, brave boys. (Lilly's Life, p. 83.)—[Mr. B.] v. 181, 187. Made Mars, &c.-Made all the royal stars recant.] The hidden satire of this is extremely fine; by the several planets and signs here recapitulated, are meant the several leaders of the Parliament army who took the covenant; as Essex and Fairfax, by Mars and Saturn. But the last made all the royal stars recant, &c. evidently alludes to Charles Elector Palatine of the Rhine, and King Charles the Second, who both took the covenant. (Mr. W.) v. 196. Gymnosophist] Vide Jo. et Fra. Pici Mirandulæ op. passim; Chambers's Cyclopædia: and their method of educating their disciples, Spectator, no. 337. v. 205. He had been long t'wards mathematicks.] See J. Taylor's Poem, intitled, A Figure Flinger, or, Couzning-cunning Man, Works, p. 12. Gruteri Fax. Art. tom. 6. part 2. p. 536, 537. |