Part 5 (1/2)
The verses of Dunbar to which this result can be partially attributed are those known as 'The Sweirers and the Devill.' It is certainly remarkable that the framers of the Act would seem to have prepared its clauses with Dunbar's poetry open before them. At all events, the statute literally recites the ”ugsome oaths” that are used by the old versifier. There is a severity in the statute at which Dunbar himself would have been surprised had he lived down to Mary's reign. In particular, it enacts that ”a prelate of kirk, earl or lord,” shall for the first offence be fined to the extent of twelve pennies, but for the fourth the delinquent shall be banished or imprisoned for a year.
Dunbar's treatment of his subject is very similar to that of the nameless author of the 'Moralite des Blasphemateurs' which we have previously noticed. He supposes the devil to have a.s.sumed human shape, an a.s.sumption which in those times would have been thought nothing out of the way, and in that guise to be conversing with the traders in a Lowland market. As is usual in these episodes, he invites them to join him in the use of the most delectable oaths that he can lay before them.
The honest market-folk are so taken by his allurements that we have the maltman, the goldsmith, the ”sowter,” and the ”fleshor” vieing with one another in their choice of ribaldry. In this friendly contest, needless to say, it is the parish priest who carries off the prize. One hopes that his excuse was as valid as that of the monk in Rabelais. ”How now,”
exclaims Ponocrates, ”you swear, Friar John!” ”It is only,” replies the friar, ”to grace and adorn my speech; it is the colour of a Ciceronian rhetoric.”
The place in literature left vacant by Dunbar was soon occupied by Lindsay, the
”Sir David Lindsay of the Mount Lord Lion, king at arms,”
whose name and t.i.tles are so familiar to the readers of Scott. He likewise appears to have led up to the impending legislation, if not indeed to have been the immediate cause of it. His 'Satyre of the Three Estaitis,' performed at Coupar in 1535, besides containing other objectionable matter, is a wild medley of oaths.
Apart from what was pa.s.sing in and near the capital, the local authorities from Glasgow to Aberdeen were up in arms against swearers before any movement of the kind had taken place in the other division of the island. To judge from the borough records of the former city,[37]
the prevalency of the habit was a source of great scandal to the presbytery of that town. The number of Janet Andersons and William Crawfords who were arraigned before the high bailiff for offences of this character is something considerable. At Aberdeen[38] in 1592 the attention of the council was specially engaged in repressing the swearing of ”horrible and execrable oaths.” They proceeded to put on foot a system of fines, and with a degree of confidence that is hardly commendable, they authorised the heads of families to keep a box in which to place the mulcts they were empowered to inflict in their households. Servants' wages were liable to be taxed at the will of their masters, and wives' pin-money at the instance of their lords. A few years later the presbytery went further than even the magistracy had already done. They directed the master of the house to keep a ”palmer,”
or instrument for inflicting pain upon the palm of the open hand. This we suppose to have been the last argument used against offenders whose wages or whose pin-money had been sworn away. Altogether the attempt to make people moral by Act of Parliament seems to have been productive of much strife in Scotland, without securing, so far as can be perceived, any positive gain. The Act of 1551, that under which the local and spiritual authorities derived their powers, was further supplemented by Acts of 1567 and 1581.
We now arrive at the point at which legislation upon the subject was to cross the border and take a prominent place in the counsels of King James' reign.
We have seen that it was Queen Elizabeth's G.o.dson Sir John Harington, who first recorded the positive introduction of the d.a.m.natory oath. A long time, however, must have elapsed before the bantling took heart of grace and found strength to run alone. An examination of Elizabethan writings does not conduce to the idea of the term having had a widespread acceptation. The reference we have given to the comedy of Nat Field, 'Amends for Ladies,' tends to show that the British s.h.i.+bboleth was still regarded as of exotic growth. The truth would seem to be that the literature of the country, gross and abusive as it often was, was singularly free from terms of this particular description, while the conversation of the humbler orders was not so unexceptionable.
Already it had become a source of uneasiness to the Legislature. In 1601 a measure was introduced into the Commons ”against usual and common swearing,” but, having been carried up to the Lords, it dropped after the first reading. This would appear to have been the first attempt at legislation on the subject.[39] On the accession of James I. the topic was again brought to the notice of the House, but the early Parliaments of this reign were too much occupied with the work thrown upon them in consequence of the Gunpowder Treason to formulate any code for the regulation of this abuse. Although no less than five separate bills, having the prevention of swearing for their object, were presented during the course of this reign, it was not until 1623 that an enactment was finally carried defining and controlling the offence. The statute of that year[40] provided that every offender should forfeit the sum of twelve pence. In default of payment the culprit was to be placed in the stocks for three hours, or if under the age of twelve years was to be severely whipped.
The attack made by the Puritans upon performances of a dramatic nature had resulted in a kindred piece of legislation especially affecting the stage. By an Act[41] pa.s.sed in 1606 it was provided that a penalty of 10_l._ should be borne by every person who jestingly or profanely used the name ”of G.o.d, or of Christ Jesus, or the Holy Ghost, or of the Trinity,” in any interlude, pageant or stage-play. It was in consequence of the rigour of this enactment that Ben Jonson narrowly escaped a prosecution for blasphemy. On the production of the 'Magnetic Lady,' the language employed upon the stage gave great offence in legal quarters, and the author was sent for from a sick-bed and severely questioned by the Master of the Revels. An examination of the play will show the charge, as against Jonson, to have been unfounded; even the author was at a loss to understand the occasion for the accusation being preferred.
The actors in the piece were accordingly called together, and when confronted with the dramatist, were forced to admit that the objectionable expletives were those of their own supplying.
When some months later the play of 'The Wits' was presented to the licenser, previous to its production on the stage of the Blackfriars, that dignitary was particularly careful to expunge all such pa.s.sages as struck him as unparliamentary. Sir William D'Avenant, the author of the comedy, complained to the king of this exercise of the censors.h.i.+p, and His Majesty, after reading the play for himself, negatived the decision of the licenser. He ruled that the words ”s'death,” ”s'light,” and such kindred terms, were a.s.severations merely, and not oaths. The court functionary does not appear to have been any the more satisfied, and has left an entry in his diary, submitting indeed to his master's judgment, but maintaining his own opinion. The play was returned to D'Avenant, having the full sanction of the king, who on its first production took boat to the Blackfriars playhouse to witness the performance.[42]
The stage has continued to enjoy a species of traditional immunity from all the reprobation which swearing is presumed to incur. So long as the action pa.s.sing on the boards is in ever so remote a degree in affinity with its supposed natural counterpart, and is suited with dialogue that is fairly appropriate, the use of expletives is not omitted in deference to the susceptibilities of an audience. The theatre may in some sense be called a school of swearing, and in that capacity has frequently brought upon itself the castigations of its appointed supervisors. Of all the censors who from time to time have made a stand against this traditional licence, George Colman is to be remembered as the most violent and the most inconsistent.
As a writer he had scandalised a whole generation of playgoers. The 'Heir-at-Law' and the 'Poor Gentleman,' comedies with which he has permanently benefited stage literature, do not certainly halt at any extreme. His very appointment as censor was due to the bottle-acquaintance that had sprung up with the regent Prince of Wales. Yet so squeamish did he become when once the official mantle had descended upon his shoulders, that even the exclamations ”lud!” and ”la!” were ruthlessly expunged from productions submitted to his censors.h.i.+p. The words ”Oh, Providence!” were also rigidly excised, and the very names of heaven and h.e.l.l were flatly condemned as savouring of irreverence.
Says Mr. Dutton Cook, in treating of this feature of the Georgian drama:--”Men swore in those days not meaning much harm or particularly conscious of what they were doing, but as a matter of bad habit, in pursuance of a custom certainly odious enough, but which they had not originated and could hardly be expected immediately to overcome. In this way malediction formed part of the manners of the time. How could these be depicted upon the stage in the face of Mr. Colman's new ordinance?
There was great consternation among actors and authors. Critics amused themselves by searching through Colman's own dramatic writings and cataloguing the bad language they contained. The list was very formidable. There were comminations and anathemas in almost every scene.
The matter was pointed out to him, but he treated it with indifference.
He was a writer of plays then, but now he was Examiner of Plays.”
The persecution under which Jonson suffered was due to the steady growth of Puritan principles. Measures of austerity were speedily generated by this ascetic philosophy; and among others we find that a scheme for bringing oaths, in a liquidated shape, to the aid of the national resources, was put into operation. Letters patent were granted in the month of July 1635, for establis.h.i.+ng a public department for enforcing the laws against swearing. One Robert Lesley was appointed to the office of chief inquisitor, and was authorised to take all necessary steps for carrying out the act in every parish of the kingdom. Whatever moneys might be realised were to be paid over to the bishops for the benefit of the deserving poor. Lesley appointed deputies in the parishes, who, we notice, were at liberty to deduct 2_s._ 6_d._ in the for their pains.
A copy of one of these appointments to a London parish appears among the State papers, but no balance-sheet from which we might learn something of the ”turn-over” of the office appears to be forthcoming.[43]
With what feelings the army of the Parliament regarded this offence may be gathered from two sentences pa.s.sed upon offenders convicted under military law. In March 1649, a quartermaster named Boutholmey was tried by council of war for uttering impious expressions. The man was found guilty and condemned to have his tongue bored with a red-hot iron, his sword broken over his head, and himself ignominiously dismissed the service. In the following year a dragoon was similarly sentenced by court-martial to be branded on the tongue.[44] Even in districts removed from martial severity the monetary tax on oath-taking was frequently demanded. We perceive from a recent writer,[45] who has collected the ancient records of quarter sessions, that swearing was severely visited upon the lieges of Somerset and Devon. John Huishe, of Cheriton, was convicted for swearing twenty-two oaths. Humfrey Trevitt, for swearing ten oaths, was adjudged to pay 33_s._ 4_d._ for the use of the poor.
William Harding, of Chittlehampton, was held to be within the act of swearing for saying ”Upon my life,” and Thomas b.u.t.tand was fined for exclaiming ”On my troth!”
To glance at Scotland at this time, we find the governing body enacting laws of a more searching and stringent character than any that had preceded them. The Parliament of 1645 ordered that whoever should curse or blaspheme should upon a second conviction be ”censurable” in the manner prescribed, that is, a n.o.bleman should pay twenty pounds Scots, a baron twenty marks, a gentleman ten marks. The Act antic.i.p.ates the case of a minister of religion coming under its provisions. The punishment in that case was the forfeit of the first part of his year's stipend. In 1649 a further enactment was pa.s.sed, the previous one being admittedly too lenient, and in the same session the offence of cursing a parent was made punishable by sentence of death. It is certainly curious to witness the extremes to which the Scottish nation were prepared to go in legislating against the commission of this offence. In 1650, when the country was rus.h.i.+ng to arms to resist the invasion of Cromwell, an Act of Parliament was prepared which disqualified for command all officers who were addicted to swearing.
The code which, in this country, had proved sufficient for the Puritans remained in force until the manners of the Restoration had rendered further legislation imperative. This took the shape of the statute of William and Mary, by which, as we have seen, the Dean of St. Patrick's was so greatly exhilarated. After an interval of some fifty years the interference of Parliament was again felt to be necessary, and an Act of George II. was pa.s.sed which still regulates the law upon the subject of swearing.[46]
The preamble admits that the existing laws were not sufficiently powerful to meet the circ.u.mstances for which they were designed. A more onerous scale of penalties was to be prescribed, commencing with a fine of one s.h.i.+lling in the case of a labourer, and rising to five s.h.i.+llings in the case of a swearer of gentleman's degree. That this measure should not want for publicity, it was ordered to be read quarterly in every church and chapel throughout the kingdom.