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A59451
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Some reflections upon the pretended parallel in the play called, The Duke of Guise : in a letter to a friend.
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Shadwell, Thomas, 1642?-1692.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing S2873; ESTC R22792
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13,559
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32
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other by Assasination viz. Scomberg Maugiron Quelus and St. Mesgrin especially for the death of Maugiron and Quelus whose Heads he caused to be shaved and kept their fair Hair and from the latter he took the Pendants off his Ears which he had before with his own hands put on them This puts me in mind of a Book though not so publick as others called the Memoires of the Evesque de Gras the Bishop of Gras Almoner to Margaret Queen of Navarre this Hen. the Third's Sister where he is accused de Peccatis non nominandis of Sins not to be named and amongst the rest of too great a familiarity with that Sister who as the Bishop says made him institute the Order of the Holy Ghost an Order of Knighthood for her the Letters in the Coller which is worn being the Greek Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for fi-delta the Italian word for Constancy and H. and M. the two first Letters of their Names interwoven together The Bishop of Rhodes says p. 27. that there never was a Court more vicious or corrupted than this of Hen. 3. Impiety Atheism Witchcraft all horrible Wickedness black Ingratitude and Perfidiousness Poysonings and Assasinations reigning there in the highest degree Now upon the whole Matter though it cannot really reflect upon a KING who is no more a Parallel to this than Heaven is to Hell does not this Villain deserve to be hang'd drawn and quartered for his Intention And 't is pitty the Law should not reach him for offering to make the best of Kings parallel with one of the worst who was overtaken for his foul Impieties by the Judgment of God at St. Clou in the same Room where the Massacre was agreed upon on the same day of the same Month at the same Hour by one of the same Party for which he with others committed that Massacre Well this is true he has expos'd Hen. 3. but he magnifies the King of Navarre sufficiently he scarce thinks he can praise this King in reversion enough though the King in possession is little obliged to him Would he have this King of Navarre a Parallel too how can that serve his turn I need not cite any Pages of Books to shew the vast Perfections of this Heroe for all the Authors that write of him render him a Prince who justly merited the Title he obtained of Henry le Grand In D'Avila so far as Henry was concern'd in the Civil Wars you have an Account and you may find a particular one of his Life and Actions in Mezeray and the Bishop of Rhodes His renown in War was never surpass'd by any Man having been a General at fifteen and Head of the Protestants He was almost continually in Arms till five and forty and so often in Action that he was said to wear Boots more than Shoes And as a French Author says in a piece call'd Reeueil de quelques Belles Actions Paroles de H. le Grand he signalized his Valour in four or five pitch'd Battels in above a hundred bloody Encounters and two hundred Sieges He sustained seven Wars that ended with Treaties of Peace with a handful of Men when he often had several Royal Armies against him at once sometimes as the Bishop of Rhodes says he had seven or eight Armies against him He was of invincible Courage toyling and hazarding as much as any private Souldier He had infinite Prudence Readiness Sagacity Vigilance Industry and Activity great Mercy and Clemency Temperance Justice Generosity and Gentleness and was void of all Gall or Malice see the Bishop of Rhodes p. 141. In his Conversation he was free sincere and wise and still preserving a Majesty pleasant and extreamly witty innumerable are the wise and witty Sayings of his which are registred and transmitted from Father to Son and at this day quoted by every Frenchman And when by his unparallel'd Courage and Address he surmounted greater Difficulties than ever Monarch did to get a Throne he made himself King of all France not of a Party and the least Party as Henry the Third did He bore himself with equal Justice and Clemency to all forgiving and obliging all the Heads of the League one after another He had such an entire Affection for his People that in his Letters to Governors of Provinces his Sur-intendants and Parliaments viz. his Courts of Justice he would conjure them in this manner Ayez soin de mon Peuple ce sont mes Enfants Dieu m'en a commis la Garde I'en suis responsable Have a care of my People they are my Children God has committed the preservation of them to me I must answer for it or in words to this purpose He sought nothing so much as the Love of his People and did not like a Tyrant scorn and hate them and endeavour to govern them by Fear No Prince fears the People but he that injures them No Prince would have the People afraid of him but he that 's afraid of them nor dâ—es any one hate and scorn the People who is not hated and scorn'd by them This Prince was the Love of France and Terror of Spain And 't is a Princely thing to be a Terror to the Neighbouring Nations which never King can be without the Love of his Subjects This Henry esteemed his Word as Sacred he hated Lewd Prelats and Corrupt Iudges above all Men and could not endure to have his Subjects grieved and vex'd by Law He encouraged Learned Men and gave Pensions to Cardinal Gondy Perron and to Scaliger Causabon and many Learned Forreigners For his Generosity he made a Souldier who had wounded him in the War be taken into his Guards under the Command of Monsieur Vitry and being one day in his Coach with the Mareschal d' Estrees he shewed him to him saying Voila le Soldat qui me blessa a la Iournee d' Aumale And when it was told him that a certain Captain who had been in the League a stout Fellow notwithstanding he had pardoned and done him good yet would not love him He answered Ie lui veux faire tant de bien que Ie le â—orceray de m'aimer malgrè lui I 'le do him so much good that I will make him lovo me in spite of his Teeth Though he was easily inclined to pardon yet against horrible Facts he was severely just when a Gentleman petitioned for the Life of his Nephew a Murtherer or Assasinate said he I am sorry I can't grant your desire it becomes you to do like an Unkle and me like a King I excuse your Request do you excuse my refusal This was not like H. 3 d's suffering one of his Minions Monsieur Villequer to murther his Wife big with Twins in his own Court then at the Castle of Pontois unpunished The Instances are innumerable of the Vertues and gallant Actions the wise and witty Sayings of this Henry the truly Great and I leave the Poet to find out a Parallel but I
Parisian Masacre under one cruel persidious King and Rebel a and Traitor to another and at the head of the most Impious Popish League and Conspiracy which nothing can come near but that which I fear the Popish World is now carrying on tho with somewhat more silence for the Extirpation of the Northern Heresy and a Confederate with the Spaniard a Forreign Enemy Even this Duke would he parallel for so he plainly intends with an innocent loyal Protestant Prince at the Head of no League whatsoever Son to our most Excellent and Gracious King who cannot certainly for all the Conspiracies of his Enemies against him but be extreamly pleased to see his own and all the Vertues of his Ancestors shining in him A Prince who hath sufficiently shewn to all the World his Illustrious Bravery in Action and his Heroick Magnanimity in suffering one of such constant Equanimity that he is no more to be charmed from his Conscience with Allurements than terrified from it by Dangers and is unalterable by either feirce in War gentle in Peace a most profound honourer of his Father a most Loyal Subject to his Prince as his Action at Bothwell-Bridg can testify a constant frequenter of his Church a zealous Detester of Popery a resolute Asserter of the Protestant Religion and a sincere Lover of his Country eminently charitable to his Enemies generously kind to his Friends sweetly affable to all a Lover of and beloved by Mankind a Prince against whom they have nothing to object but the unsought Love of the People who admire him for his Vertues and is this a Crime Must he so far from being Rebellious or in any way a Disturber of his Majesties Peace that he cannot be proved guilty so much as of a Riot be a Parallel to so pernicious a Man as Guise most infamous and ungrateful Libeller And next to sum up all this Fellow 's impious Designs in one that of endeavouring to make his King in his Play whom he hath shewn to be Fearful Weak Wicked Bloody Perfidious and Hypocritical even to fawning a Parallel to our most Excellent and Gracious King for besides that the whole course of the Play would seem to insinuate his Intentions he says a Royal Star shone at his Birth which did at Noon at the Birth of Ours is Treason with a Witness he would execute his King in Effigie and would be even that Iudas he speaks of with the last Sop that would betray him for Gain But his Villany extends farther than the Play for he knows the Histories of this Hen. 3. are so common that scarce any one escapes the reading of them And now let us see what Manner of Prince these Histories make this Henry That he was privy to that Massacre by which above an 100000 Protestant Throats were cut in France the death of Ligneroles plainly proves and that he was a Designer of it no Man doubted himself appearing as D'Avila says p. 375. in the Head of a Regiment of Guards the day after that bloody Eve of St. Bartholomew to perfect it in Paris But as he says there were scarce any Protestants left alive they that were were such who out of Terror wore the White Cross the Mark of Distinction to save their Lives by and this at the Marriage of his Sister to the King of Navarre when all the Protestants of Quality by all the sacred Promises of Peace and Amity were drawn together at Paris to do honour to the Wedding of that King This was a greater Impiety than ever was perpetrated by any Prince since Herod An Act against which the Bishop of Rhodes in his Life of H. 4 thus Exclaims Execrable Action which never had nor never shall if it please God find its Parallel Besides D'Avila who speaks most modestly of him tells us lib. 6. p. 478. 479. That for going publickly in the Sreets with Processions and Penitents and revelling with all manner of Luxury and Effeminacy at home equally dividing his Time between Ladys and Minions Penitents Monks and Friers dissoluteness and devotion and by the way superstition and leudness together is the worst of all Mixtures and for slighting all the chief Princes and Noblemen and raising Men of slender Fortunes and little Interest to insolent Minions and extreamly harrassing the Clergie and the Commons to enrich those Minions he became odious and contemptible to his People and the hatred of him was general which D'Avila says gave an easy occasion to the founding of the League He was besides faithless both to Protestants and Papists He mortally hated both Parties and endeavoured to keep them up one against another by a lingering Destruction to waste them while he and his Minions took their ease and lull'd themselves in Effeminacy and Luxury He has been often heard to break out into this Latin saying De inimicis meis Vindicabo inimicos meos see D'Avila p. 627. and more of this 651 and 656. In other Authors you may find much more particularly in a Book written by one who lived in that Time called Iournal de choses memorables advenuës durant tout le Regne de H. 3. see p. 28. La Corruption estant telle en ce temps que les Farceurs Bouffons Putains Mignions avoyent tout le Credit viz. The Corruption of this Time being such that Farce-Players Buffoons Whores and Minions had all the esteem And for his dissoluteness he says he would go in Masquerade in Womens Habits and in Carnaval Time masked with his Minions he would scour the Streets till morning cu ils fivent mille Insolences where they would commit a thousand Insolencies and Outrages His Effeminacy had made him mean-spirited for otherwise he would as Monsieur de Villeroy advised him have been sincere and headed the Army himself for he hated the Protestants and died a Papist and then as he said the Power of the Guises would have vanished before him as shadows in the Sun-shine He might have recovered his former Majesty and the People would have followed his Standard And as 't is expressed in D'Avila Men would rather take Water from the Fountain than the Brook p. 625. He joined with the League but did little and was never sincere The forementioned Iournal says that on the 14 th of December he swore upon the Sacrament of the Altar a perfect Reconciliation with Guise and on the 23 d of the same month he caused him to be murdered coming to the Council which he called that Morning on pretence of dispatching some Business that he might retire to his Devotion against the Holy Time and when he saw him dead he insulted over him and with his Sword struck him o're the Face saying Voila le Roy de Paris There lies the King of Paris It was not for nothing that he gave himself over to such immoderate Grief for the death of some of his beau Mignons his young handsome Favorites that were killed three of them in a private Quarrel and the