Read Ebook: Explanatory Notes of a Pack of Cavalier Playing Cards Temp. Charles II. Forming a Complete Political Satire of the Commonwealth by Goldsmid Edmund

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 98 lines and 10416 words, and 2 pages

Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics . A carat character is used to denote superscription: a single character or bracketed group following the carat is superscripted .

EXPLANATORY NOTES

A PACK OF

Cavalier Playing Cards

FORMING

A COMPLETE POLITICAL SATIRE

THE COMMONWEALTH.

EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.,

F.S.A. .

Edinburgh:

E. & G. GOLDSMID.

Introduction.

Lord Nelson, unfortunately, had lost, or never had in his possession, two Cards, the ace and three of hearts. After much trouble, these have been supplied from another source, and, with the exception that the figures of Cromwell and Fairfax in the latter are on a somewhat smaller scale than those on the threes of the other suits, it would be difficult to suspect that they did not belong to the original pack.

In the following notes, I have merely attempted to explain the allusions contained in the Cards. A few however remain riddles to me.

EDMUND GOLDSMID.

A PACK OF CAVALIER PLAYING CARDS.

In 1650, Cromwell was named Commander-in-Chief in Ireland; Ireton, his son-in-law, his deputy; and Hewson or Huson governor of Dublin. In the plate they are sailing away from the sun of loyalty towards the night of treason. The portrait of Cromwell at the stern is not to be mistaken. Next to him is Hewson distinguished from Ireton by his older features.

"The charge and accusation, upon which they resolved to proceed against the King, being thus settled and agreed upon, they began to consider in what manner and form to proceed, that there might be some appearance of justice.... A new form they did erect never before heard of. They constituted and erected a Court that should be called the High Court of Justice. The number of the Judges named was about an hundred and fifty ... Bradshaw ... was named president ... and with great humility accepted the office, which he administered with all the pride, impudence, and superciliousness imaginable."--.

William Lenthall, of Lincoln's Inn, a Counsellor at Law, and Speaker of the House of Commons. "Oliver once made a spunge of him, and squeezed him out of ?15,000. Who turning him and his tribe out of doors, he veered about to save himself and his great offices; and he that had been so long bell-weather in the Commons House, was thought, for his compliance and his money, to deserve to be one of the herd of Lords in the Other House," John Lenthall, son of the speaker, was knighted by Oliver Cromwell, made a Colonel of foot, and governor of Windsor Castle.

Query, Sir George Parry, one of the Commissioners for Dorsetshire, who with those of Somerset and Cornwall, met Prince Rupert at Bridgewater shortly before the Battle of Naseby?--.

"Sir Henry Vane was of very ordinary parts by Nature, and had not cultivated them at all by art, for he was illiterate. But being of a stirring and boisterous disposition, very industrious and very bold, he still wrought himself into some employment.... His malice to the Earl of Strafford transported him to all imaginable thoughts of revenge, ... and that disposed him to sacrifice his honour and faith and his Master's interest, that he might ruin the Earl, and was buried himself in the same ruin; for which, being justly chastised by the King and being turned out of his service, he was left to his own despair.... He grew into the hatred and contempt of those who had made most use of him; and dyed in universal reproach, and not more contemn'd by any of his enemies than by his own son; who had been his principal conductor to destruction."--.

On the 26th of June, 1657, the ceremony of conferring the protectorate on Cromwell took place. "After a short speech, ... Withrington, the Speaker, with the Earl of Warwick and Whitlock. vested him with a rich purple velvet robe lined with ermines; ... then the Speaker presented him with a fair Bible of the largest edition, richly bound; then he, in the name of all the people, girded a sword about him; and lastly, presented him with a sceptre of gold, which he put in his hand, and made him a large discourse of those emblems of government and authority. Upon the close of which, there being little wanting to a perfect formal Coronation but a crown and an Archbishop, he took his oath, administered to him by the Speaker."-- Bulstrode and Whitlock spoken of as two men on the Card, are one and the same. "Bulstrode Whitlocke, ... before the troubles was an intimate friend to Sir Richard Lane, who, going to Oxford, entrusted him with his chambers in the Temple; of which, with all the goods and an excellent library, he hath kept possession ever since; and would not own that ever he knew such a man, when Sir Richard's son was brought to wait upon him in his greatness.... Under Dick he was made Commissioner of the Seal; and, he being discarded, wheeled about and worshipped the Rump.... He hath a good fleece, and heir to Lilly the Astrologer."--.

"Henry Martin, colonel of a regiment of horse and a regiment of whores. He had given him ?3000 at one time, to put him upon the Holy Sisters, and take off from the Levellers. He had the reputation of a precious saint from his youth, in reference to all kinds of debauchery, uncleanness, and fraud, having sold his estate three times over."--.

One of the riddles I have spoken of in the Introduction, unless it refers to Cromwell having urged the trial of the King.

"The few, Because they're wasted to the stumps, Are represented best by rumps." .

"There was a wonderful difference, throughout their whole proceedings, between the heads of those who were thought to sway the Presbyterian Counsels, and those who govern'd the Independents, though they were equally masters of dissimulation, and had equally malice and wickedness in their intentions, though not of the same kind.... The Presbyterians submitted to their senseless and wretched clergy; whose infectious breath corrupted, and govern'd the People, and whose authority was prevalent upon their own wives, and in their domestic affairs in order to corrupt and seduce them ... whereas Cromwell and the Independents ... considered what was necessary to their main end; and then, whether it were right or wrong, made all other means subservient to it; couzen'd and deceiv'd men as long as they could induce them to contribute to what they desired; and when they would keep company with them no longer, compelled them by force to submit to what they should not be able to oppose: and so the one resolv'd, only to do what they believ'd the People would like and approve; and the other, that the People should like and approve what they had resolv'd." .

Archibald Campbell, Marquis of Argyle, a zealous partisan of the Covenanters, and the opponent of Montrose. Born in 1598 he succeeded to his fathers titles in 1638. In the same year he was called to London with other Scotch Nobles, and advised the abolition of Episcopacy in Scotland. In 1641 he was created Marquis. He acquiesced in the Protectorate of Cromwell, and for this at the restoration he was committed to the Tower. In 1661 he was sent to Scotland, tried for high treason and beheaded.

"It was agreed that the committee of safety should consist of three-and-twenty persons, ... men try'd, and faithful to the public interest ... besides three or four others who had been the kings judges, with Warreston, Vane, Steel, and Whitlock."--.

On the 29th of January 1643, a letter was addressed by Members of both Houses at Oxford to the Earl of Essex. Clarendon observes "This letter was subscribed by His Highness the Prince, the Duke of York, and three-and-forty Dukes, Marquises, Earls, Viscounts, and Barons, and 118 Members of the House of Commons; ... so that the numbers at London were very thin; for there were not above two-and-twenty peers, who either sat in the Parliament, or were engaged in their party; that is to say, the Earls of Northumberland, Pembroke, Essex, etc."--.

According to Clarendon, vol. ii. pp. 127-128, the Earl of Pembroke was a weak man with a great sense of his own importance, whom disappointed ambition "Got into actual rebellion, which he never intended to do."

It is said that in the year 1642, Sir H. Mildmay got mixed up in a brawl in Fleet Street. Whether this Card alludes to that fact or not, I cannot tell. Clarendon states that Sir John Danvers and Sir H. Mildmay were the only two members of the High Court of Justice, whom the King knew besides the officers in the army.--.

Sir William Waller was defeated at the battle of Roundway Down by Lord Wilmot, losing 600 killed, 900 prisoners, all their cannon, arms, ammunition and baggage. He was again defeated at Cropredy Bridge, by the army under the King in person, when he again lost all his artillery. He was however, subsequently named Lieutenant of Ireland.--.

With reference to the proposal in Parliament to elect Cromwell King, Clarendon observes: "That which put an end to the present debate was that some of his own family who had grown up under him, and had their whole dependance upon him, as Desborough, Fleetwood, Whaley, and others, passionately contradicted the motion."--

Major-General Skippon was left in charge of the Army by the Earl of Essex, when the latter fled from Fowey to Plymouth. Skippon surrendered all his Artillery, 100 barrels of powder, and about 6000 arms on condition that the officers should be convoyed in safety to Poole or Southampton. Skippon was originally a waggoner, as stated in the Card.--

"Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes, brother of Lord Say and Sele, who had been educated at Winchester College, and had been admitted to a Fellowship at New College, Oxford, in quality of Founder's kin, surrendered Bristol to Prince Rupert on 26 July and on the last day of the same month reached Southampton, at the head of 80 horse, each of whom had a woman riding behind him."-- This, I presume, is the tale alluded to.

Harrison was the son of a butcher near Nantwich, in Cheshire, and he it was who, with Ireton, succeeded in bringing the King before the High Court of Justice.-- Of the beast in Daniel, it is said, "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the Saints ... but the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end."--

Feek was one of Cromwell's officers, who at the celebrated meeting at Windsor, in 1648, declared that in a vision the Almighty had appeared to him and announced that Monarchy should never more prevail in England.--

At Edgehill, "the reverend and renowned Master Marshall, Master Ask, Master Mourton, Masters Obadiah and John Sedgwick and Master Wilkins, and divers others, eminently pious and learned pastors rode up and down the army through the thickest dangers and in much personal hazard most faithfully and courageously exhorting and encouraging the soldiers to fight valiantly and not to fly, but now, if ever, to stand to it and fight for their religion and laws."--

When Lambert was cashiered by Parliament, he and eight other officers of the Army conspired to wrest the power from Parliament. The badge adopted by the conspirators was a yellow tulip.

Scott was one of the members of the long parliament, and with Robinson was sent to Monk to "give some check to that license of addresses and resort of malignants."--

"Haselrigg was of a rude, and stubborn nature, and of a weak understanding."--.

Hewson, who had originally been a cobbler, became Lt.-Col. of Cromwell's Ironsides.

Parliament had voted that "the militia of the city of London should be put into such hands as the army should desire.... Many thousands, apprentices and young citizens, brought petitions to parliament" in opposition. Parliament "durst not deny concurrence, the apprentices behaving themselves so insolently, that they would scarce suffer the door of the House of Commons to be shut."--. The army assembled at Hounslow Heath, and Colonel Rainsborough having seized in the night the defences of London Bridge, "the army of horse, foot and cannon marched next day through the city."--.

Parliament had appointed a committee "for the raising of men ... and listing in all places, companies of volunteers" which met at Derby House.

The Army having declared against the Committee of Safety, Lenthall the Speaker recovered his spirit and went into the city uniting with the army against the committee.--

The explanation of this Card will be found above.

Parliament, after the battle of Edgehill appointed a committee to sit at Haberdashers Hall to consider the fines to be imposed upon those of the King's adherents who had been taken prisoners there.

This card speaks for itself.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet