Part 1 (1/2)
An Apologie for the Royal Party (1659); and A Panegyric to Charles the Second (1661).
by John Evelyn.
INTRODUCTION
On October 24, 1659, a quarto pamphlet was published in London with the following t.i.tle: ”The Army's Plea for Their present Practice: tendered to the consideration of all ingenuous and impartial men. Printed and published by special command. London, Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the Army, dwelling in Aldersgate Street next door to the Peac.o.c.k. 1659”.
Three days afterwards, on October 27, John Evelyn had finished writing an answer, which was published a week later, on November 4, under the t.i.tle: ”An Apologie for the Royal Party ... With a Touch At the pretended Plea for the Army. Anno Dom. MDCLIX”. No author's name, printer or place was given. Evelyn afterwards made the note in his Diary under the date November 7, 1659, that is, three days after the actual publication: ”Was publish'd my bold Apologie for the King in His time of danger, when it was capital to speak or write in favour of him. It was twice printed, so universaly it took.”[1] Evelyn was by conviction an ardent royalist, but by temperament he was peaceable, and the publication of this pamphlet was a courageous act on his part, involving considerable risks.
The _Apologie for the Royal Party_ contains an eloquent and outspoken attack upon the parliamentary party, the depth of the author's feelings making his style of writing more effective than it usually was.
Events were at this date nearing their climax, and Evelyn, soon after the publication of his pamphlet, made persistent attempts to induce Colonel Henry Morley, then Lieutenant of the Tower of London, to declare for the King. In the edition of Baker's _Chronicle of the Kings of England_, edited by Edward Phillips, 1665, is given the following account of the negotiations (p. 736): ”Mr. Evelyn gave him [Col. Morley] some visits to attemper his affection by degrees to a confidence in him, & then by consequence to ingage him in his designes; and to induce him the more powerfully thereunto, he put into his hands an excellent and unanswerable hardy treatise by him written and severall times reprinted, int.i.tuled _An Apology for the Royall Party_, which he backed with so good Argument and dextrous Addresses in the prosecution of them, that, after some private discourse, the Colonel was so well inclin'd, as to recommend to him the procurement of his Majestie's Grace for him, his Brother-in-law Mr. f.a.gg, and one or two more of his Relations”. Phillips added an account of a letter written by Evelyn to Colonel Morley, and gave him great credit for the influence which he exerted, though Evelyn endorsed a draft of the narrative with a statement saying there ”was too much said concerning me”.
Nevertheless part of the narrative was confirmed by Evelyn when he wrote on the t.i.tle-page of the copy of the pamphlet here reproduced: ”Delivered to Coll. Morley a few daies after his contest w^th Lambert in the palace yard by J. Evelyn”. The ”contest” with General Lambert took place on October 12 or 13 when Morley, pistol in hand, refused to allow him at the head of his troops to pa.s.s through the Palace Yard.
Evelyn also wrote on the t.i.tle-page of this copy of his pamphlet ”three tymes printed”. In fact there were four printings, all described in the writer's _John Evelyn, a Study in Bibliophily & a Bibliography of his Writings_, New York, The Grolier Club, 1937, the one here reproduced being the fourth and final form. Nevertheless all four issues are now extremely scarce, the first printing being known in three copies (one in the United States), the second in seven (two in the United States), the third in one, and the fourth in one. This apparently unique relic of Evelyn's bold gesture on behalf of his King is in the writer's possession and is still as issued, edges untrimmed and with its eight leaves st.i.tched in a contemporary paper wrapper. It has been reprinted only in Evelyn's _Miscellaneous Writings_, 1825, pp. 169-192.
When Charles II actually returned to England in 1660 Evelyn's feelings were deeply stirred. He had played some part in the restoration of the monarchy, and, with his literary instinct, naturally felt impelled to be among those who wished to present the King with an address on the day of his Coronation. This took place on April 23, 1661, and on the following day Evelyn recorded in his Diary: ”I presented his Ma^tie with his Panegyric in the Private Chamber, which he was pleas'd to accept most graciously: I gave copies to the Lord Chancellor and most of the n.o.blemen who came to me for it.”[2] Evelyn's _Panegyric_ was thus distributed privately and no doubt in small number, so that it is today extremely uncommon, being known only in five copies, not more than one of which is in the United States of America. Evelyn possessed a copy in 1687 according to his library catalogue compiled in that year, and a copy (not necessarily the same one) is now among his books in the library of Christ Church, Oxford, but it seems to have been unknown in 1825 and was not included in the _Miscellaneous Writings_. William Upcott, the editor, in fact erroneously identified the _Panegyric_ with the anonymous piece in folio: ”A Poem upon his Majesties Coronation ... Being S^t Georges day ...
London, Printed for Gabriel Bedel and Thomas Collins ... 1661”. This mistake was not put right until a copy of the true _Panegyric_ with Evelyn's name on the t.i.tle-page was acquired for the British Museum in 1927 from the Britwell Court Library. The copy here reproduced is in the writer's collection, and has a few corrections in Evelyn's hand: (a) _x.x.xIII. of April_, on t.i.tle-page corrected to _XXIII_; (b) p.6. l.18 _Family_ altered to _Firmament_; (c) p.8. l.16 from bottom _suffer_ altered to _surfeit_.
When the _Panegyric_ was identified it was realised that it was not a poem, but an eloquent and extravagant composition in prose, in which Evelyn invested Charles II with every conceivable virtue and all wisdom.
This was no doubt written with sincere enthusiasm, though Evelyn suffered a profound disillusionment in later years; and if he ever read his effusion again it must have caused him some distress. The _Panegyric_ is now reprinted for the first time.
Geoffrey Keynes
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Evelyn's _Diary_, ed. Wheatley, vol. II, p. 108.
[2] Evelyn's _Diary_, ed. Wheatley, vol. II, p. 130.
AN A P O L O G I E FOR THE R O Y A L P A R T Y: Written in a LETTER to a Person of the late _COUNCEL_ of _STATE_, By a Lover of Peace and of his Countrey: With a Touch at the _pretended Plea_ for the Army.
_SIR_,
The many Civilities which you are still pleased to continue to me, and my very great desire to answer them in the worthiest testimonies of my zeal for your service, must make my best Apology for this manner of Addresse; if out of an extream affection for your n.o.blest Interest, I seem transported a little upon your first reflections, and am made to despise the consequence of entertaining you with such Truths, as are of the greatest danger to my self; but of no less import to your happiness, and, which carry with them the most indelible Characters of my Friends.h.i.+p. For if as the Apostle affirms, _For a good man, some would even dare to dy_, why should my Charity be prejudged, if hoping to convert you from the errour of your way, I despair not of rendring you the Person for whose preservation there will be nothing too dear for me to expose?
I might with reason beleeve that the first election of the Party wherein you stood engaged, proceeded from inexperience and the mistake of your zeal; not to say from your compliance to the pa.s.sions of others; because I both knew your education, and how obsequious you have alwayes shewed your self to those who had then the direction of you: But, when after the example of their conversion, upon discovery of the Impostures which perverted them; and the signal indignation of G.o.d, upon the several periods which your eyes have lately beheld, of the bloudiest Tyrannies, and most prodigious oppressors that ever any age of the world produc'd, I see you still persist in your course, and that you have turn'd about with every revolution which has hapned: when I consider, what contradictions you have swallowed, how deeply you have ingaged, how servilely you have flatter'd, and the base and mean submissions by which you have dishonour'd your self, and stained your n.o.ble Family; not to mention the least refinement of your religion or morality (besides that you have still preserved a civility for me, who am ready to acknowledge it, and never merited other from you) I say, when I seriously reflect upon all this; I cannot but suspect the integrity of your procedure, deplore the sadness of your condition, and resolve to attempt the discovery of it to you; by all the instances, which an affection perfectly touch't with a zeal for your eternall interest can produce. And who can tell, but it may please Almighty G.o.d, to affect _you_ yet by a weak instrument, who have resisted so many powerfull indications of his displeasure at your proceedings, by the event of things?
For, since you are apt to recriminate, and after you have boasted of the prosperity or your cause, and the thriving of your Wickedness (an Argument farr better becoming a _Mahumetan_ then a _Christian_) let us state the matter a little, and compare particulars together; let us go back to the source, and search the very principles; and then see, if ever any cause had like success indeed; and whether it be a just reproach to your Enemies, that the judgments of G.o.d have begun with them, whilst you know not yet, where they may determine.
First then, be pleased to look North-wards upon your Brethren the Scots, who (being first instigated by that crafty _Cardinal_ [SN: Richlieu] to disturb the groth of the incomparable _Church of England_, and so consequently the tranquility of a Nation, whose expedition at the Isle of _Ree_, gave terrour to the French) made Reformation their pretence, to gratifie their own avarice, introduce themselves, and a more then _Babylonish_ Tyranny, imposing upon the Church and state, beyond all impudence or example. _I_ say, look upon what they have gotten, by deceiving their Brethren, selling their King, betraying his Son, and by all their perfidie; but a slavery more then _Egyptian_, and an infamy as unparallel'd, as their treason and ingrat.i.tude.
Look neerer home on those whom they had ingaged amongst us here, & tell me if there be a Person of them left, that can shew me his prize, unless it be that of his Sacriledg, which he, or his Nephews must certainly vomite up again: What is become of this ignorant and furious zeal, this pretence of an universall perfection in the Religious and the Secular, after all that Blood and Treasure, Rapine and Injustice, which has been exhausted, and perpetrated by these Sons of Thunder? Where is the King, whom they swear to make so glorious, but meant it in his _Martyrdome_? Where is the Cla.s.sis, and the a.s.sembly, the Lay-elder; all that geare of Scottish discipline, and the fine new Trinkets of Reformation? Were not all these taken out of their hand, while now they were in the height of their pride and triumph? And their dull Generall made to serve the execution of their Sovereign, and then to be turn'd off himself, as a property no more of use to their designes? Their riches and their strength in which they trusted, and the Parliament which they even idoliz'd, in sum, the prey they had contended for at the expence of so much sin and d.a.m.nation, seizd upon by those very instruments, which they had rais'd to serve their insatiable avarice, and prodigious disloyalty. For so it pleased G.o.d to chastise their implacable persecution of an excellent Prince, with a slavery under such a _Tyrant_, as not being contented to butcher even some upon the Scaffold, sold divers of them for slaves, and others he exild into cruell banishment, without pretence of Law, or the least commiseration; that those who before had no mercy on others, might find none themselves; till upon some hope of their repentance, and future moderation, it pleased G.o.d to put his hook into the nostrills of that proud _Leviathan_, and send him to his place, after he had thus mortified the fury of the Presbyterians.
For unlesse G.o.d himself should utter his voice from Heaven, _yea, and that a mighty voice_, can there any thing in the world be more evident, then his indignation at those wretches and barefac't Impostors, who, one after another, usurped upon us, taking them off at the very point of aspiring, and praecipitating the glory and ambition of these men, before those that were, but now, their adorers, and that had prost.i.tuted their consciences to serve their l.u.s.ts? To call him the _Moses_, the _Man of G.o.d_, the _Joshua_, the _Saviour_ of _Israel_; and after all this, to treat the _Thing_ his son with addresses no lesse then blasphemous, whose Father (as themselves confess to be the most infamous Hypocrite and profligate Atheist of all the Usurpers that ever any age produc'd) had made them his Va.s.salls, and would have intaild them so to his posterity for ever?
But behold the scean is again changed, not by the Royall party, the Common Enemy, or a forreign power; but by the despicable _Rumpe_ of a Parliament, which that _Mountebanke_ had formerly serv'd himself of, and had rais'd him to that pitch, and invest.i.ture: But see withall, how soon these triflers and puppets of policy are blown away, with all their pack of modells and childish _Chimaeras_, nothing remaining of them but their Coffine, guarded by the Souldiers at Westminster; but which is yet lesse empty then the heads of those Polit.i.tians, which so lately seemed to fill it.