10
A SCENE IN THE STAR CHAMBER.
Prynn; he hath long waited for judgment, and I have here abundant evidence."
" Spare us Histrio Mastix at this late hour, Mr. Attorney," said a speaker from the lower end ofthe board ; " Histrio Mastix , or a scourge for the stage-players ,' would have served Goliath instead of his shield ; besides, how know you but even a few passages from that book-mountain may so convince us all of the iniquity of stage plays, that our brethren of the inns of court may run restiff; and, to save their pockets, lay claim to* a conscience, and drop the masque they have at our instance offered to their majesties ?"*
" Never mistrust them, my good Sir Edward ; and, if you will dine with me after council this day, you shall hear sundry of the masque committee report progress ; a rare show will it be, Sir Edward, not unworthy of our body, or of their majesties' presence !"
" I do beseech ye, then, let us have this pestilent fellow brought in, and make an end ; and , as he hath wrought a whip for others, so let us whip the whipper," said the president.
"Amen," said all the lords present ; and Mr. Prynn was commanded to be brought before the board on the morrow, to be tried for having put forth a book called Histrio Mastix , being a collection of all the passages against theatrical performances that he had found in the fathers, and other grave authors, together with his own prolix remarks thereon ; the whole making a light elegant folio of a thousand pages, singularly offensive to the court, where masques and mummings, drolls and dancings, were greatly in request.
Looking back at this time of day upon the whole affair, surprise and a sense of the ludicrous mingle with the graver feelings excited by the result of the prosecution. Prynn was an arrogant bigot, who wrote a book in barbarous taste ; moreover, he loved neither the power nor the trappings of royalty ; indulged himself in unseemly invectives, and manifested altogether a most unmanageable temper. But Prynn was a brave and conscientious bigot, and his honest endeavours, in after-life, to save king Charles from the block, should, though it was late and unavailing, be admitted as evidence in his favour. Remembering, too, the savage treatment he had experienced at the hands of Charles's ministers, his conduct deserves to be called generous ; for he wrote on the king's behalf when so to write involved personal risk. This, however, is a digression from the star-chamber and that fearful folio, Histrio Mastix.
On the morrow, the awful court being assembled in full number, the offender, William Prynn, barrister at law, was brought up from the tower, where, for twelve months, he had been incarcerated, to be tried, judged, and condemned; standing the whole time behind lord chief justice Richardson and archbishop Neale. Great was the outward contrast between the prisoner and his judges; between the meanly-attired, dis graced, prison-worn, yet fiery-hearted puritan, and those whom he considered " silk and satin divines," and courtiers " purple with pride." Yet he stood before them all with as strong and soul-felt a conviction that God was on his side as could be felt by the king upon the throne, or by that somewhat kindred spirit engaged on the opposite cause-archbishop Laud himself. From the thousand pages that poor Prynn had put together, " drawing all things to one," church ceremonies and libels on the court; music and hairdressing; doctrines and diversions ; bishops and bonfires ; queens and coifs ; Mr. Attorney-General found no difficulty in selecting many hard sayings. " Hear ye," cried the crown lawyer, who seems to have had an ear for music, " hear what charitable terms he bestoweth on church melody, calling it not a noise of men, but rather a bleating of brutes, wherein choristers bellow the tenor amongst them like oxen-bark a counter point like a kennel of dogs- roar a chorus like a sort of bulls-and grunt out a bass as if it were a number of pigs ! All stage-players he terms them rogues, in which he doth falsify the very act of parliament, for unless they go abroad they are not rogues. The same term he giveth unto scholars' acting. Mr. Prynn had a purpose in this to infuse it into men's minds that we are now running into Paganism and Gentilism. He falleth upon those things that have not relation to stage plays. He falleth upon hunting, public festivals, Christmas-keeping, May-poles , the dressing up a house with green ivy, yea, perukes do offend him. Then for the time of compiling this book, seven years ago it was compiled, and is since then grown seven times bigger and seven times worse . If then, may it please your lordships , he hath fallen foul upon all things, all persons, all sexes , the king's magistrates, the king's household , and even the king himself. He taketh upon him to teach a remedy, but the remedy is worse than the disease !" Then Mr. AttorneyGeneral called for divers passages, scandalous to the king and government, to be read from Mr. Prynn's book ; and after that arose his counsel to endeavour to defend him , who was condemned already. The specches of that counsel were interesting endeavours to shield their client without compromising their own credit ; never did truth in a court of justice assume so lamb-like a part, or speak with such a faltering tongue. Not a word beyond apology for the prisoner ; and praise only short of adulation of the marvellous ability of the king's counsel ; and a unanimous casting of their cause under the honourable feet gathered under the council board !
That cause being heard and sifted, but not in one day, nor yet in two, the lords sat themselves down to pass sentence on Mr. Prynn. And first spoke the lord Cottington, chancellor of the exchequer; he cited fresh matter ofan objectionable nature, how Mr. Prynn had in his book called our English ladies shorn and frizzled, how he liked not music, nor dancing, nor hawking, the love of which recreations he considered a cause of the untimely end of many princes-" my ---
- The masque here alluded to, and which was actually
given, cost the learned revellers twenty-one thousand pounds.
