Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
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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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SOME REFLECTIONS UPON THE Pretended PARALLEL IN THE PLAY CALLED The Duke of Guise In a Letter to a Friend London Printed for Francis Smith sen. 1683. SIR ACcording to your Commands I went several times to see the so long expected and so much talk'd of Play called the Duke of Guise in order to give you my Opinion of it and thô I was very much wearied with the dulness of it and extreamly incensed at the wicked and barbarous Design it was intended for yet the obedience to your Commands made me throughly observe it even to every Line And certainly never was Mountain delivered of such a Mouse nor was ever the Expectation of the People more deceived insomuch that even the fiercest Tories notwithstanding the violence of their Humours and the rashness and insolence of their present Tempers have been ashamed to defend this Piece Yet there are few Follies and Villanies that seem to contribute to their Wicked Ends which they will not publickly and most audaciously vindicate They will assert the lawfulness of using Force upon Elections that have been heretofore always free and ever ought to be so They will justify the carrying those Elections by the Minority or by bringing in False and excluding True Electors They will encourage Men to the resigning of Franchises and Priviledges which they swear when they are admitted into to defend and maintain making their Loyalty as they falsly call it to be founded upon Perjury and Treachery in betraying the Rights of present Freemen and their Posterity They will accuse the Wisest Richest most conscientious Iuries for not finding Bills upon the Testimony of Profligate and Perjur'd Rascals whom they themselves believe not and applaud their Juries for giving most prodigious and unheard of Damages where no Damages were sustained They would promote and defend the imposing of the most xorbitant and unpresidented Fines such as would make the Star-Chamber in vain abolished Yet still they who have any sparks of Wit amongst them are so true to their Pleasure that they will not suffer Dulness to pass upon them for Wit nor Tediousness for Diversion which is the Reason that this Piece has not met with the expected Applause And truly if I may be allowed to Judge as Men that do not Poetise may be Judges of Wit Humane Nature and Common Decences I never saw any thing that could be called a Play more deficient in Wit good Characters or Entertainment than this is This Play at first as I am inform'd by some who have a nearer communication with the Poets and Players than I have was written by another intending to expose that unparallel'd Villany of the Papists in the most horrid Parisian Massacre And Bayes himself as I am also told expressed then an intention of writing the Story of the Sicilian Vespers to lay open the treacherous inhumane bloody Principles of the Disciples of that Scarlet Whore But he is since fallen from all Modesty and common Sense and is not content with his own devil-like Fall but like old Satan he tempts his Friend poisons and perverts his good Intentions and by his wicked Management of the Play turns it from the honest Aim of the first Author to so diabolical an End as methinks it should make a Civil Government blush to suffer it or not to put the highest mark of Infamy upon it But 't is observable though this could not be acted as it was first writtent against the Papists yet when it was turn'd upon Protestants it found Reception I cannot believe the first Author of himself guilty of such evil Intentions because I have heard better things of him but the old Serpent Bays has deluded him as he would have done of the Reputation if any had been gotten by it for so as I am told he did endeavour to do in Discourse with all his own Friends when he joyn'd with him in Oedipus which deserved Applause and since he hath found that this hath gotten little or no Esteem in the Town he renounces all he can of it and endeavours to cast the greatest Odium upon his Partner But Reproaches are thrown away upon this Wretch who is hardned in his Folly and Wickedness as much as any Irish Witness therefore I shall as little as I can touch him hereafter But at present I shall fall upon the Consideration of this Parallel as he impudently calls it in his Prologue as I take it and it is publickly known he intended to have had it acted by that Name before it was forbidden to be acted by the Lord Chamberlain's Order And 't is not enough when he meets some of his old Acquaintance whom he knows to be of an Opinion which he once profess'd to be of and much different from what he now pretends that he thinks as they do still but he must write as he does he is put upon it c. For certainly most exemplary Punishment is due to him for this most devilish Parallel and methinks Magistrates that respect their Oaths and Office should put the Law in Execution against this lewd Scribler First I shall consider in his pretended Parallel the City of Paris in the time of Hen. 3. of France the most tumultuous seditious rebellious City flesh'd in Murthers and Massacres Destruction of Protestants Root and Branch a City which with their Barricades approach'd their King in his Palace cut the Throats of his Guards in the Town and terrified him into Flight from amongst them and when they had him out they kept him out turn'd out all his Friends or abused or imprisoned them rifled their Houses and committed innumerable Outrages nay forced a part of the Parliament of Paris to sit and made the President sign what they pleased and named Officers themselves as the King's Advocates c. which you may see in a Deposition of Brison the Primier President signed before two Notaries in a Book called Le Iournal de Regne de H. 3. p. 145. in short they renounced him for their King and were absolved by the Clergy from their Obedience to him And that City at that time would he make a Parallel to the City of London in this King's Reign whom God long preserve to this City that was so mainly instrumental in his happy Restauration which has been his Bank ever since when he has needed it which has not suffered so much as a Riot to pass unpunished during his Government the Behaviour of whose Citizens has been peacable to one another and loyal to his Majesty And even since these unhappy Divisions when the Majority as the Polls they have published inform us thinking themselves in the highest and dearest Priviledg the choice of those who should govern them injur'd by the Court of Aldermen yet make use of no other Weapons than Petitions and those not satisfactorily answered fly to the King's Iustice alone in his own Courts of Law for a Redress And when arm'd Men were brought into Guild-Hall and some of the Aldermen haled more
call'd a Religion And would these impious Iesuited Wretches bring such detested Practices into a Protestant Country And having by the good Providence of God miss'd of the King's Life would they attaque that of his Innocent Son which is at present so great a Guard to his Father that could they but compass the one 't were much to be feared they would not long spare the other The great Industry Craft and Violence that have been practised to smother that damnable Popish Plot against his Sacred Life and turn it into Ridicule with this Design following it at the Heels would convince any reasonable Man that it is still going on and God avert the success of the Conspiracy That some Papists should think the Assassination of the Duke of Monmouth a good thing I do not so much wonder but that any who call themselves Protestants should herd with such Monsters and join in the Cry as it is said they do and even some whom he rais'd who owe it to him that they eat now who would in the height of his Power have out-fawn'd his Dogs this is most monstrous this plainly shews one Error of his Life the preferring of such Miscreants This Design shews such base and Villanous Principles in the Poet and his Party that had I had so little wit to have been one of them before I must have quitted 'em now or have quitted all Pretentions to Sense or Honesty Those who so industriously zealously and passionately press'd and sollicited for the acting of this Play after it was forbidden by the King did in that sufficiently testify their perfidious and bloody Inclinations and who-ever they were I wish his Majesty would set a Mark upon them and take care to secure his Sacred Person from them I am sure let them be as Great as they can it is a base thing to incourage a Murder and Assassination as they did who deceived his Majesty in getting Him to License this Play which he could not endure when he saw it only to satisfy their Malice But most certainly they that set this Tool of a Poet at work at first as he says he was put on by Great Persons must have all the Vices of Henry the Third and none of the Vertues of Henry the Fourth But let them assure themselves the best and wisest of the People will not be deluded And our King as he is too Good and Great to harbour any such Thoughts within his Royal Brest so he has a Judgment too piercing not to see through these impious Designs and discern who are the Authors of them and would to God he would punish all that Work Evil against him And amongst the rest that he would put a stop to the insolence of such Licentious Poets whose foolish and impious Works join'd with the false Instructions of Ignorant Petulant and conceited Tutors with the French Education and the vicious Examples in Paris and this City have been the main Causes of the corruption of the Heads and Hearts the Intellectuals and Morals of so great a part of our young Gentry that it can never be sufficiently bewailed by all sober Men. For his Majesty I wish to God that all his Subjects Hearts were open to Him that he might truly distinguish between his Friends and his Enemies and that he may long reign with all content and prosperity here and arrive at Eternal Felicity hereafter shall ever be the Prayer of him who truly honours his King and sincerely loves his Country and is SIR Your most humble Servant SIR I Shall shortly send you some Observations upon the Faults of the Play considering it as a Play But it appears to me that Bays did not intend it for a Diversion but for a Direction and Advice what was to be done and has more mind to recommend himself as a Counsellor than a Poet in this 'T is a fine Age when Mercinary Poets shall become Politicians and their Plays business of State FINIS