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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55423	The memoires of Monsieur Du Vall containing the history of his life and death. Whereunto are annexed his last speech and epitaph.	Pope, Walter, d. 1714.; Duval, Claude, 1643-1670.; Pope, William, attributed name.	1670 (1670)	Wing P2912; ESTC R203010	11,143	23

little love lost one who thought the Filou lay in State enough in not being buried under the Gallows This story of lying in State seem'd to me so improbable and such an audacious mocquerie of the Laws that till I had it again and again from several Gentlemen who had the curiosity to see him I durst not put it down here for fear of being accounted a notorious Lyer The night was stormy and rainy as if the Heavens had sympathiz'd with the Ladies and ecchoed again their Sighs and wept over again their Tears As they were undressing him in order to his lying in State one of his Friends put his hands in his pocket and found therein the Speech which he intended to have made written with a very fair hand a Copy whereof though I have with much cost and industry procured I do freely make it publick because I would not have any thing wanting in this Narration DU VALL's SPEECH I Should be very ungrateful which amongst Persons of Honour is a greater Crime than that for which I die should I not acknowledge my Obligation to you fair English Ladies I could not have hoped that a Person of my Nation Birth Education and Condition could have had so many and powerful Charms to captivate you all and to tie you so firmly to my interest that you have not abandon'd me in distress or in prison that you have accompanied me to this place of Death of Ignominious Death From the Experience of your true Loves I speak it nay I know I speak your Hearts you could be content to die with me now and even here could you be assured of enjoying your beloved Du Vall in the other world How mightily and how generously have you rewarded my little Services Shall I ever forget that universal Consternation amongst you when I was taken your frequent your chargeable Visits to me at Newgate your Shreeks your Swoonings when I was Condemned your zealous Intercession and Importunity for my Pardon You could not have erected fairer Pillars of Honour and respect to me had I been a Hercules and could have got fifty Sons in a Night It has been the Misfortune of several English Gentlemen in the times of the late Usurpation to die at this place upon the Honourablest Occasion that ever presented its self the indeavouring to restore their Exil'd Sovereign Gentlemen indeed who had ventured their Lives and lost their Estates in the Service of their Prince but they all died unlamented and uninterceded for because they were English How much greater therefore is my Obligation whom you love better than your own Country-men better than your own dear Husbands Nevertheless Ladies it does not grieve me that your Intercession for my life prov'd ineffectual For now I shall die with little pain a healthful body and I hope a prepared mind For my Confessor has shewed me the Evil of my way and wrought in me a true Repentance witness these tears these unfeigned tears Had you prevail'd for my life I must in gratitude have devoted it wholly to you which yet would have been but short for had you been sound I should have soon died of a Consumption if otherwise of the POX He was buried with many Flambeaux and a numerous train of Mourners most whereof were of the Beautiful Sex He lies in the middle I le in Covent-Garden Church under a plain white marble stone whereon are curiously ingrav'd the Du Valls Arms and under them written in black this Epitaph DU VALL's EPITAPH HEre lies Du Vall Reader if Male thou art Look to thy Purse if Female to thy Heart Much havock has he made of both For all Men he made stand and Women he made fall The second Conquerour of the Norman Race Knights to his Arms did yield and Ladies to his Face Old Tiburn's Glory England's Illustrious Thief Du Vall the Ladies Joy Du Vall the Ladies Grief The AUTHORS APOLOGY WHY HE Conceals his NAME SOme there are without doubt that will look upon this harmless Pamphlet as a Libel and invective Satyre because the Author has not put his Name to it But the Book-sellers Printing his true Name and place of abode wipes off that Objection But if any Person be yet so curious as to enquire after me I can assure him I have conjured the Stationer not to declare my Name so much as to his own Wife not that I am ashamed of the Design no I glory in it nor much of the manner of Writing for I have seen Books with the Authors Names to them not much better written neither do I fear I should be proud if the Book takes and crest-faln if it should not I am not a Person of such a tender Constitution Valeat res ludicra si me Palma negata macrum donata reducat opimum But upon other pressing and important Reasons Though I am resolved not to be known yet I intend to give you some account of my self enough to exempt me from being so pitiful and inconsiderable a fellow as possibly some incensed Females may endeavour to represent me I was bred a Scholar but let none reproach me with it for I have no more Learning left than what may become a well-bred Gentleman I have had the opportunity if not the advantage of seeing all France and Italy very particularly Germany and the Spanish Netherlands en passant I have walkt a Corant in the hands of Monsieur Provost the French Kings Dancing Master and several times pusht at the Plastron of Monsieur Filboy le vieux Now I hope these qualities joyn'd with a white Peruke are sufficient to place any person hors de la porteè out of the reach of Contempt At my return from France I was advised by my Friends to settle my self in the world that is to Marry when I went first amongst the Ladies upon that account I found them very obliging and as I thought coming I wondred mightily what might be the reason could make me so acceptable but I afterwards found 't was the sent of France which was then strong upon me for according as that perfume decaied my Mistresses grew colder and colder But that which precipitated me into ruine was this following Accident Being once in the Company of some Ladies amongst other discourses we fell upon the comparison betwixt the French and English Nation And here it was that I very imprudently maintained even against my own Mistress That a French Lacquey was not so good as an English Gentleman The Scene was immediately chang'd they all lookt upon me with anger and disdain they said I was unworthy of that little breeding I had acquired of that small parcel of wit for they would not have me esteemed a meer Fool because I had been so often in their Company which nature had bestowed upon me since I made so ill use of it as to maintain such Paradoxes My Mistress for ever forbids me the House and the next day sends me my Letters and demands her own bidding

THE MEMOIRES OF Monsieur Du Vall CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF HIS LIFE and DEATH Whereunto are Annexed His last Speech and Epitaph Si quis Opprobriis dignos latraverit integer ipse Solventur risu tabulae Horat. LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun near the West-End of St. Pauls 1670. THE LIFE and DEATH OF Claude Du Vall. Claude Du Vall was born Anno 1643. at Domfront in Normandy a place very Famous for the Excellency and Healthfulness of the Air and for the Production of Mercurial Wits at the time of his Birth as we have since found by Rectification of his Nativity by Accidents there was a Conjunction of Venus and Mercury certain Presages of very good Fortune but of a short Continuance His Father was Pierre Du Vall a Miller his Mother Marguerite de la Roche a Tailors Daughter I hear no hurt of his Parents they lived in as much Reputation and Honesty as their Conditions and Occupations would permit There are some that confidently averr he was born in Smock-Ally without Bishopsgate that his Father was a Cook and sold boil'd Beef and Pottage But this report is as false as it is defamatory and malicious and 't is easie to disprove it several ways I will only urge one Demonstrative Argument against it If he had been born there he had been no Frenchman but if he had not been a Frenchman 't is absolutely impossible he should have been so much beloved in his Life and lamented at his Death by the English Ladies His Father and Mother had not been long married when Marguerite long'd for Pudding and Mince Pie which the good Man was fain to beg for her at an English Merchants in Rouen which was a certain sign of his inclination to England They were very merry at his Christning and his Father without any grumbling paid also then the Fees for his Burial which is an extraordinary Custom at Domfront not exercis'd any where else in all France and of which I count my self obliged to give the Reader a particular Account In the days of Charles the ninth of that name the Curate of Domfront for so the French name him whom we call Parson and Vicar out of his own head began a strange Innovation and Oppression in that Parish that is he absolutely denied to baptize any of their Children if they would not at the same time pay him also the Funeral Fees and what was worse he would give them no reason for this alteration but only promised to enter Bond for himself and his Successors that hereafter all persons paying so at their Christning should be buried gratis What think ye the poor people did in this case they did not pull his Surplice over his Ears nor tear his Mass-Book nor throw Crickets at his head no they humbly desired him to alter his Resolution and amicably reasoned it with him but he being a capricious fellow gave them no other answer but What I have done I have done take your Remedy where you can find it 't is not for men of my Coat to give an Account of my Actions to the Laity Which was a surly and quarrelsome Answer and unbefitting a Priest Yet this did not provoke his Parishioners to speak one ill word against his Person or Function or to do any illegal Act. They only took the regular way of complaining of him to his Ordinary the Archbishop of Rouen Upon Summons he appears the Archbishop takes him up roundly tells him he deserves deprivation if that can be proved which is objected against him and asks him What he has to say for himself After his due reverence he answers that he acknowledges the Fact to save the time of examining Witnesses but desires his Grace to hear his Reasons and then do unto him as he shall see cause I have been saies he Curate of this Parish these seven years in that time I have one year with another baptized a hundred Children and buried not one At first I rejoyced at my good Fortune to be placed in so good an air But looking into the Register Book I found for a hundred years back near the same Number yearly baptiz'd and not one above five year old buried And which did more amaze me I find the number of the Communicants to be no greater now than they were then this seem'd to me a great mystery but upon further inquiry I found out the true cause of it for all that are born at Domfront were hanged at Rouen I did this to keep my Parishioners from hanging incouraging them to die at home the burial duties being already paid The Archbishop demanded of the Parishioners Whether this was true or not they answered that too many of them came to that unlucky end at Rouen Well then said he I approve of what the Curate has done and will cause my Secretary in perpetuam Rei Memoriam to make an Act of it which Act the Curate carried home with him and the Parish cheerfully submitted to it and have found much good by it for within less than twenty years there died fifteen of natural Deaths and now there die three or four yearly But to return to Du Vall 't will not I hope be expected that I should in a true History play the Romancer and describe all his Actions from his Cradle to his Saddle telling what childish Sports he was best at and who were his play-fellows that were enough to make the Truth of the whole Narration suspected only one important Accident I ought not to omit An old Frier counted very expert in Physiognomy and Judicial Astrology came on a time to see Pierre du Vall and his Wife who had then by extraordinary good Fortune some Norman Wine that is Cider in their house of which they were very liberal to this old Frier whom they made heartily welcome thinking nothing too good for him For those silly people who know no better count it a great honour and favour when any Religious Person as a Priest or Frier are pleas'd to give them a visit and to eat and drink with them As these three were sitting by the fire and chirping over their Cups in comes Claude and broke the Friers Draught who fix'd his eyes attentively upon him witout speaking one word for the space of half an hour to the amazement of Claude's Parents who seeing the Frier neither speak nor drink imagined he was sick and courteously askt him Brother what ails you are you not well why do you so look upon our Son The Frier having rous'd himself out of his Ecstasie Is that Stripling saies he your Son to which after they had replied Yes Come hither Boy quoth he and looking upon his head he perceived he had two Crowns a certain sign that he should be a Traveller II This Child saies he will be a Traveller and he shanever during his life be long without money and where-ever he goes he will be in extraordinary favour with Women of the highest Condition