To speak with you; and he does promise great satisfaction By a word to the wise. PLAY. Tell him, the wise are not at leisure now To hear his sov'reignship. What would he have? HOUS.-K. He would hire the turband, sceptre, and Throne of our Solyman the Magnificent; and reign. PLAY. He was an enemy To the exil'd Comics. I will not hear him. HOUS.-K. Consider well! He'll draw spectators hither. PLAY. Yes, such as will give no more to see him here Than in the street to see a blazing star. Money is the main material of rent: Your kings of Munster pay in prophecies only. PLAY. Bills of exchange sign'd long ago at Solyman the Magnificent is one of the characters in the "Siege of Rhodes," then recently performed at the theatre in Portugal Row.-See the Play itself in our third volume. + John Buckhold, otherwise called John of Leyden, was a butcher there: "a crafty fellow, very eloquent, very perfect in the Scriptures, subtle, confident, more changeable than Proteus, a serious student of sedition,-briefly, a most fervent anabaptist," John Mathias, a baker of Haarlem, calling himself a prophet, appointed him his successor, in 1534, the anabaptists. with Mathias as their chief leader having, in the earlier part of the year, taken possession of Munster, and repulsed the Bishop's forces who besieged it, with a loss of 4000 men. Buckhold assumed the magistracy, exercised great cruelty, allowed polygamy, took to himself three wives, one being Mathias' widow, whom he afterwards dignified by the title of Queen, on his creating himself King of Munster, which he did after another new prophet, one John Tuysentschreuer, a goldsmith of Warendorp, had foreshadowed such a Bid him be gone! HOUS.-K. He's not such an enemy to the Comics, As one without is a foe to him; One who desires admittance too. PLAY. What is he? HOUS.-K. A man of metre, a poet. PLAY. Dismiss your doling, and let in your poet. We must be ever civil to the Muses. HOUS.-K. The poet has a special train behind him; Though they look lean and empty, PLAY. Let him enter! and send his train to our House-inn, the Grange. [Exit House-Keeper. result. This man proclaimed in the market place that the "most holy prophet, John Buckhold of Leyden, was to be exalted to kingly dignity, and that he should inherit the eternal seat of his father David, and should possesse it with farre greater majesty." This Buckhold kneeling down said, that "so much had been revealed to him from God the Father ten dayes before; though it was against his inclination to undertake the difficulties of government." After being invested with all the regalia of supreme authority, he degraded the twelve councillors of state, and appointed his own officers. His titles were, "the King of Justice, the King of the New Jerusalem." He caused money to be coined, and all things were to be common among his followers. The aim of the Anabaptists was universal monarchy. They attempted to take Amsterdam during the night of the 10th May 1535, but were worsted. Shortly afterwards the city of Munster itself was betrayed to the Bishop for a sum of money by Buckhold's contidant, John Longstrat. After a firm resistance and much bloodshed, Buckhold and several of his confederates were taken, and, in January 1536, were brought to execution, being fastened to a stake and pulled piecemeal by two executioners, "with pincers red-hot out of the fire." Thereafter their carcases were put into iron baskets, and hung out of the tower of St. Lambert, "as anathemas of eternal example." See "Apocalypsis: or, the Revelation of certain notorious advancers of Heresie." Appended to Ross's Pansebeia. Lond. 1655. 12mo. John of Leyden is the hero of Meyerbere's opera "Le Prophete." Virgil himself, as ancient poets say, Was once a groom, and liv'd by oats and hay. Enter HOUSE-KEEPER and POET. POET. The bill upon your door shews that Your house was not of late much haunted. HOUS.-K. Not with play-visitors, nor is it now With spirits, for you see none are afraid To hire it. POET. I did not suspect, sir, it could be haunted With spirits, for you players never hide money. PLAY. You poets do; for, 'tis but seldom, sir, That any has been found about ye. POET. D'you set up of your selves, and profess wit Without help of your authors? Take heed, sirs! You'll get few customers. HOUS.-K. Yes, we shall have the Poets. POET. 'Tis because they pay nothing for their entrance. But, my friends, leave off the endeavour to Grow witty without occasion. I pray Be in earnest. Do you mean to get money? PLAY. That's the cause why we endeavour at wit. POET. Wit will not do your work alone. You must have something of a newer stamp to make your Coin current. Your old great images of Love and honour are esteem'd but by some Antiquaries now. You should set up with that Which is more new. Of romances travestie? What think you PLAY. Explain yourself! POET. The garments of our fathers you must wear The wrong side outward, and in time it may Become a fashion. HOUS.-K. It will be strange, and then 'tis sure to take. POET. You shall present the actions of the heroes, Which are the chiefest themes of tragedy, In verse burlesque. PLAY. Burlesque and travestie? These are hard words, And may be French, but not law-French.* Take heed, sir, what you say; you may be ques tion'd for't. We would do nothing, sir, but what is legal. Hous.-K. If it be French, I pray translate it to us. PLAY. Good sir, no French translation till the Term ; It is too precious for vacation-ware. Most of the men of judginent are retir'd As not constrain 'em to the pains of thinking. PLAY. We had a trial here of so much force POET. You meet my judgment in a direct line. In dialogue: their speeches are too long. POET. Indeed, such single length in their debates Bears some resemblance with that famous duel, Which, in the fields of Finsbury, was fought. The Reports of the Law pleadings in the Courts in England were, for a long time, printed in French. Whilome at Rovers with long bow and arrows: Sun-setting; whilst they each did gather up PLAY. Such length of speeches seem not so unpleasing As the contracted walks of their designs, POET. Which are as narrow as the allies in Our City-gardens. PLAY. I perceive you take the Air sometimes within the walls of London. As to their lawyer's chambers, not for mirth, PLAY. You'd take our house for poetry-burlesque ? POET. I would, and introduce such folly as shall Make you wise; that is, shall make you rich. * Rovers: arrows shot with an elevation generally at 45 degrees. There were marks on the target also so called. An Act was passed in Edward IV. for butts to be erected in every township, where the inhabitants were obliged to shoot up and down on feast days, or forfeit a halfpenny for every omission. Several statutes were made to promote archery in Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, which were strictly enforced till Charles II., who was himself an archer, and who issued a commission to the Lord Mayor and certain of his privy-council to prevent the fields near London being so enclosed as "to interrupt the necessary, and profitable exercise of shooting." So late as 1753, targets were erected in Finsbury Fields during the Easter or Whitsun holidays, for shooting at with the long bow. |