The New Exchange--The Earl of Salisbury proprietor--Opened by
James I.--Popular Allusions--The First Edition of _Othello_
published Here--Samuel Pepys a Frequent Visitor--Henry
Herringman--Otway--Etherege--Wycherley--Dryden--Addison--Durham House
in Decay--Acquired by the Earl of Pembroke--Various Public Offices in
Durham Yard--Charles II. helps to extinguish a Fire Here--Archbishop
Le Tellier--Godfrey Kneller--David Garrick, wine merchant--Dr
Johnson--Voltaire--Murder in the New Exchange.
LEAVING for a moment Sir Walter Raleigh in his vain endeavour to
uphold his claim to Durham House, let us glance at the Strand portion
of the establishment. It teems with romance and literary interest.
The stabling, which looked upon the Strand, had fallen into decay,
and, early in the reign of James I., it was converted by Robert, Lord
Salisbury, into the New Exchange. Its frontage extended from the
present George Court to Durham House Street. The foundation stone was
laid on June 10, 1608, and, in the following July, as we find from the
State Papers, "The New Burse proceeds apace."
The allusion in the State Papers was due to a letter which the Lord
Mayor had written, on June 30, to the Lord Treasurer, enclosing a
petition from the shopkeepers of the Royal Exchange "concerning a
building in course of erection at Durham House in the Strand," which
they considered was meant to be employed as "a Pawne or Exchange for
the sale of things usually uttered in the Royal Exchange, and which,
being situated near to Whitehall and in the highway, would be injurious
not only to the shopkeepers and citizens at large," but would tend to
the destruction of trade. Another authority says: "The new Bourse at
Durham House goes up apace, where the Citizens, and especially the
Exchange men, begin to grumble ... and thereupon have made a petition
to the Lord Mayor to provide _ne quid detrimenti republica capiet_."[9]
Scant notice, if any, was taken of this petition from the City, and the
building of Britain's Burse proceeded without hindrance. The Exchange
consisted of four separate places: the Outward Walk below Stairs;
the Inner Walk below Stairs; the Outward Walk above Stairs; and the
Inner Walk above Stairs. Its opening, on April 11, 1609, was graced by
the presence of James I. and his queen, "when," according to Anthony
Munday, the poet and playwright and literary executor of Stow, whose
_Survey_ he produced in 1618, "it pleased his most excellent Majesty,
because the work wanted a name, to entitle it Britain's Burse."
Stow also says: "Now to speak somewhat of later time concerning this
Durham House, it was well knowne and observed, for how many yeers I
know not, that the outward part belonging thereto, and standing North
from the houses, was but a low row of Stables, old, ruinous, ready
to fall, and very unsightly, in so public a passage to the Court at
Westminster. Upon which consideration, or some more especial respect in
the mind of the right honourable Robert, Earl of Salisbury, Lord High
Treasurer of England: it pleased him to take such order in the matter,
that (at his owne cost and charges), that deformed row of Stabling
was quite altered, by the erection of a very goodly and beautiful
building instead thereof, and in the very same place. Some shape of
the modelling, though not in all respects alike, was after the fashion
of the Royall Exchange in London, with Sellers underneath, a walk
fairly paved above it, and Rowes of Shops above, as also one beneath
answerable in manner to the other and intended for the like trades and
mysteries.
"The work was not long in the taking down, nor in the erection againe:
for the first stone was laid on the 10. day of June, 1608, and also was
fully finished in the next ensuing November after. Also, on Tuesday,
being the 10. day of April following, divers of the upper shops were
adorned in rich and beautiful manner, with wares most curious to
please the eye; so ordered against his Majesties comming thither, to
give a name to so good a building. On the day following, it pleased
his highnesse, with the Queene, prince, the Duke of Yorke, and the
Lady Elizabeth to come thither, attended on by many great Lords and
choise Ladies. Concerning their entertainment there, though I was no
eye-witnesse thereof, yet I know the ingenuity and mind of the Nobleman
to be such, as nothing should want to welcome so great an expectation.
And therefore, what variety of devices, pleasing speeches, rich gifts
and presents as then flew bountifully abroad, I will rather referre
to your imagination, than any way come short of, by an imperfect
narration. Only this I adde, that it then pleased his most excellent
Majestie, because the worke wanted a name before, to entitle it
_Britaines Bursse_, or _Busse_."[10]
A most interesting description of the Royal visit, on the occasion
of the opening of the Exchange, was given by Marc' Antonio Correr,
the Venetian Ambassador in England, in a letter of May 6, 1609, to
the Doge and Senate of Venice. The original document is preserved in
the Venetian archives, and the following is a translation: "Hard by
the Court, the Earl of Salisbury has built two great galleries,
decorated, especially outside, with much carving and sculpture. Inside
each of these galleries, on either hand, are rows of shops for the sale
of all kinds of goods. These will bring in an immense revenue. Last
month, he took the King, the Queen, and the Princes to see them. He
has fitted up one of the shops very beautifully, and over it ran the
motto: 'All other places give for money, here all is given for love.'
To the King he gave a Cabinet, to the Queen a silver plaque of the
Annunciation, worth, they say, four thousand crowns. To the Prince, he
gave a horse's trappings of great value, nor was there any one of the
Suite who did not receive at the very least a gold ring."
[Illustration:
_John Herries._ 1715.
THE NEW EXCHANGE, STRAND.]
The Exchange is thus described by Strype: "In the place where certain
old stables stood belonging to this house is the New Exchange, being
furnished with shops on both sides the walls, both below and above
stairs, for milleners, sempstresses, and other trades, that furnish
dresses; and is a place of great resort and trade for the nobility and
gentry, and such as have occasion for such commodities."[11]
The connection of the Earl of Salisbury with the New Exchange, and,
incidentally, with the Durham House property, is somewhat curious. As
already observed, there had been a fire in part of the buildings, in
1600, and, as Salisbury House was adjacent, the neighbouring ruins must
have been an unpleasant prospect for the "crook-backed" and thrifty
earl. So he bought the Strand part of the ground from Sir Tobie Matthew
(1577-1655), who had secured from his father, Bishop Matthew, "an
interest in certain outlying portions of Durham House and its purlieus,
which was valuable enough to be purchased by Robert Cecil, in the year
following the Bishop's translation to York, for the sum of 1200 L."
This was in 1607, and, in 1609, he obtained a lease of the courtyard
of Durham House, the rest of the property remaining in the possession
of the see of Durham until 1630. Cecil, who had been created Earl of
Salisbury by James I. in 1605, was in high favour with the King at this
period, so that he was able to reply to the petition of the citizens
against his building of the Exchange "that Westminster being the place
where he was born and of his abode, he sees not but that he may seek to
benefit and beautify it" (J. Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton). At the
same time, he seems to have behaved fairly enough in another matter,
for on September 25, 1609, the then Bishop of Durham, William James,
wrote to Thomas Wilson, Lord Salisbury's steward, thanking the Earl for
causing stables to be built for him at Durham House, and requesting the
delivery of the key to his servant "in order that hay and straw may be
provided there, against his coming up to Parliament."
The New Exchange was never a great rival of the old--the
Royal--Exchange, and, in 1623, only fourteen years after its opening,
there were rumours that it was to be converted into dwelling-houses.
"Lady Hatton," it was stated, "is said to have bought Britain's Burse
for £6000, and means to make the upper part her dwelling-house; the
lower part lets for £320 a year." The rumour was wrong, however, for
the place, although it fell into disrepute, existed until nearly the
middle of the seventeenth century--until, as a matter of fact, 1737.
Its most flourishing period was during the Restoration, when London
had doubled in population as compared with the reign of James I., and
Covent Garden was the fashionable quarter. There is hardly a dramatist
of Charles II.'s time whose works do not contain some reference to
it, while one of the playwrights, Thomas Duffet, had been a milliner
in this very place before he took to burlesquing Dryden, D'Avenant,
and the contemporary writers. The Grand Duke Cosmo gives an accurate
picture of the place as it was in Charles II.'s time: "We went to see
the New Exchange, which is not far from the place of the Common Garden,
in the great street called the Strand. The building has a façade of
stone, built after the Gothic style, which has lost its colour from
age and become blackish. It contains two long and double galleries,
one above the other, in which are distributed, in several rows, great
numbers of very rich shops of drapers and mercers filled with goods of
every kind, and with manufactures of the most beautiful description.
These are for the most part under the care of well-dressed women, who
are busily employed in work, although many are served by young men
called apprentices."[12]
The stage has a great claim upon the history of the Adelphi, not only
by reason of Garrick's residence here, but because the first edition
of _Othello_ was published within its precincts. This was in 1622, six
years after Shakespeare's death, and a year before the issue of the
first folio. The title-page of this quarto is as follows:
The
Tragoedy of Othello,
the Moore of Venice.
As it hath beene diverse times acted at the
Globe, and at the Black Friers, by
His Maiesties Servants.
Written by William Shakespeare.
London,
Printed by N.O. for Thomas Walkley, and are
to be sold at his shop at the Eagle and Child,
in Brittans Bursse.
1622.
A player and publisher of plays, Will Cademan, lived at the Pope's
Head, in the Lower Walk. Samuel Pepys was a visitor to the New Exchange
on several occasions. On June 22, 1668, the diarist went to the King's
playhouse and saw "an act or two" of Dryden's comedy, _An Evening's
Love, or the Mock Astrologer_, but "liked it not. Calling this day at
Herringman's, he tells me Dryden do himself call it but a fifth-rate
play." Henry Herringman, who was the principal publisher in London
before Jacob Tonson, had his shop "At the Sign of the Blue Anchor"
in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange. Here, in 1679, was published
Horace's _Art of Poetry_, "made English" by the Right Hon. the Earl of
Roscommon. Otway, in the character of Mrs Furnish, in _The Atheist,
or the Soldier's Fortune_, first acted in 1682, gives a good idea of
the cries in the Upper Walk of the New Exchange: "Gloves or ribands,
sir? Very good gloves or ribands. Choice of fine essences." The Strand
houses near the Exchange were let to "country gentlewomen newly come
to town, who loved to lodge in the very centre of fashion." Pert, in
Sir George Etherege's comedy, _The Man of Mode_ (1676), says: "That
place is never without a nest of 'em. They are always, as one goes by,
glaring in balconies or staring out of windows." In another play by the
same author, _She Would if She Could_ (1668), and _The Country Wife_
(1675) of Wycherley, scenes are laid in the New Exchange. Dryden, who
was well acquainted with the place, makes Mrs Brainsick escape from her
husband by pretending to call at her tailor's here "to try her stays
for a new gown."
Such a place, in such an age, was bound to deteriorate. In Addison's
day, the gallants of the town spent much of their time in lounging
about the stalls and indulging in ribald talk. "I have long letters,"
he says in the _Spectator_, "both from the Royal and New Exchange on
the" subject of the indecent licenses taken in discourse. "They tell
me that a young Fop cannot buy a Pair of Gloves, but he is at the
same time straining for some Ingenious Ribaldry to say to the young
Woman who helps them on. It is no small Addition to the Calamity, that
the Rogues buy as hard as the plainest and modestest Customers they
have; besides which, they loll upon their Counters half an Hour longer
than they need, to drive away other Customers, who are to share their
Impertinencies with the Milliner, or go to another Shop."[13]
The rules for the conduct of the New Exchange are very curious. Under
the heading of Orders for ye Burse, and dated November, 1609, they are
printed in the _State Papers_.[14] They are as follows:--"Imprimis
no shop to be lett within ye said new building to any art, trade,
science, or mistery, other than these following or such as shal bee
noe annoyance to ye rest of ye shopkeepers ther, and allowed by
writting under ye hand of the right honble the Erle of Salisbury
lord Treasurer of England, that is to say, Haberdashers of hatts,
Haberdashers of smale wares, stockinsellers, Linen-drapers, Seamsters,
Goldsmiths or Juellers but not to worke with hammer, such as sell china
wares, Milliners, Perfumers, Si(l)ck-mercers, Tyremakers or Hoodmakers
stationers Booksellers Confectioners, such as sell picktures, mapps or
prints, Girdelers &c.
"Item no shopkeeper to open shop on Christenmas day the Purification of
the blessed virgin Easter hollidaies Whitson-hollidaies The nativity of
St Jo. Baptist the feast day of All saints nor upon any sabboth day
throughe out ye whole yeare.
"Item from ye 25 day of March till ye 29 of September the dores &
windowes to bee opened by 6 in ye morning & to bee shut by 8 att night:
& from ye 29 of September till ye 25 of March, ye dores to bee open by
seven in ye morning and shutt by seaven att night. These houres to bee
duly kept except it bee upon some speciall occasion agreed on by the
shopkeepers, or ye greater part of them.
"Item my lord to mentione one sufficient man of honest & good report to
bee housekeeper to make cleane & sweepe the house as often as shal be
needfull & to watch or keepe some to watch in ye nights & to see to the
opening and shutting of ye dores, every shopkeeper in ye house allowing
him 2s by ye yeare.
"Item all ye dores saving one to bee made fast on ye Inner syde & that
one to have 3 locks and 3 keyes whereof the howskeeper to have one &
the other 2 to bee kept by 2 of the Tenants quarterly & they to see ye
shutting in of ye house themselves or in theyr absence to appoint some
other.
"These 2 men to be chosen by ye shopkeepers & they to collect ye
forfeitures herafter imposed and mentioned.
"Item a bell to bee kept & maintained within the said new building by
the said Erle & the same to bee rong by the howskeeper att xj of ye
clock before dinner and half an howre before ye shopkeepers are to
shutt up their shops att night & att ye ringing thereof in ye evening
every one to sweepe forth his shop & then ye houskeeper to sweepe &
make cleane ye whole house, upon payne of every one that shall make
default to forfait 4d for every default which shal be imployed to ye
use of ye pore, where and when ye Tenants of ye house shall think fitt.
[Illustration:
_Benjamin Green._
"THE BUILDINGS, CALLED THE ADELPHI," 1777.]
"Item a paire of stocks or some other publique punishment for such
as shal be taken pilfering or stealing to be mayntained by the said
Erle.
"Item no man to forstall his neighbour eyther by hanging forth any
thing or setting forth in his stalle upon payne of forfeiture of 5s
for every default to bee levyd to ye use aforesaid.
"Item no man to call any man that is buying or selling from an other
mans stall, or to pull or hale any man as he cometh by to buy or sell
as hee is going along by his stall upon payne to forfait for every
offence 15d which shal be likewise levyd & employed to ye use of ye
poore.
"Item if any strife or contention shal hapen betwixt any of the
Tenants ye same to bee referred to 4 or 6 of ye rest to bee ended &
both parties to stand to their award, hee that refuseth to pay for a
forfeiture 40s which shal be likewise employed to ye use afforesaid.
"Item no signe that shal be hanged out to hang furder out into ye walk
then another.
"Item wheras many Maisters are not resident there, by means wherof
there is great disorder by servants & apprentizes viz. hunting of
doggs with greate noise & howling, playing att foyles & cudgles
stricking ye balle (which breaketh ye windowes) buffitting & fighting
one with another, to ye greate reproache of ye place & hinderance of
traders there, bee it therfore by consent of my lord & every one of us
confirmed that if herafter any servant or apprentize in any of the
ranges wher shopps bee do comitt any such disorders that then the Mr
of such person or personnes so offending shall uppon complaint made by
ye 2 houskeepers for the tyme being in some private roome in the Burse
appointed for the said purpose correct or beate their said servantes,
in ye presence of ye said 2 houskeepers, or ells to pay presently for
every offender 12 to the use afforesaide.
"Item if any shopkeepers eyther Maisters of (or?) Mrs do braule
scould or rayle on one an other with reproachfull words or speeches,
to the ill example of their servants, amazment of passengers & to the
greate disgrace of themselves & thier nieghbors than then both & so
many personnes so offending shall pay for every defalt 2s 6d ells to
have their theyr (_sic_) signe taken downe by the 2 howskeepers for
one weeke that such scould or scoulds may not be noted nor the Burse
disgraced.
"Item that if any do throw or powre out into the walk or range or outt
att any of the windowes any noysome thing &c. that then that person so
offending shall pay for every default xijd if it bee a servant then
to have correction as afforesaid or theyr Mr or Mrs to pay 6d for
theyr default.
"Item that all and every shopkeeper shall subscrib to these orders that
for the good of the house they may be performed without partiallity,
and that some course may bee to force the breakers of them to pay
theyr fynes wee humbly entreate may be taken.
"Item if any sell or offer to sell any ware in the howse except it
bee to a shopkeeper the same party so offending to bee sett in the
stockes for 2 howres and to have his wares taken from him to bee kept
for a tyme to ye discretion of ye house or to be delivered to ye party
offending as they shall thinke good.
"Item my lord to find lights for the stairs and walkes his Executors
and assignes.
"Item whosever of the Tenants shall keepe ye key of ye dores if the key
bee not there ready by 6 a clock in ye morning they shall forfeit for
every default viijd to bee employed to ye use afforesaid.
"Those things which ye keeper of ye Burse must have care of appointed
by my lord att the errection thereof.
"To suffer none to fetch watter by ye staires or walks or carry coals
or other carying by ye watter gate to any of ye neghbours in ye streete
but only for the shopkeepers howses save Mr Wilsons.
"To be obeydient to Mr Wilson's command in all things concerning ye
said buisines."
Returning to Durham House, we recall that, on the death of Queen
Elizabeth, the property was restored to the see of Durham and that Lord
Salisbury had become possessed of the Strand portion. The history
shortly after this period is not particularly clear, for, although on
February 16, 1612, we find that the aforesaid William James, Bishop
of Durham, wrote to Lord Salisbury thanking him for his "honourable
dealings in the purchase of Durham House," on the other hand, John
Howson, who was Bishop of Durham from 1628 to the year of his death,
1632, was residing here two years prior to his decease. The "honourable
dealings," of course, related to that part of the grounds and stabling
of Durham House which had been transferred to Lord Salisbury in
1607 and 1609. Durham House itself fell into decay in the middle of
the seventeenth century. It--or a portion of it--was inhabited by
Lord-Keeper Coventry, who died here in 1640.
Part of the ground was acquired by Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and
Montgomery, in consideration of his payment to the see of Durham of
£200 per annum, the grant being confirmed by Act of Parliament in 1640.
And, according to Strype, "It was by his son built into tenements or
houses, as now they are standing, being a handsome street descending
down out of the Strand." This was Durham Yard, which ran down to the
river, and is now covered by the buildings on the west side of the
Adelphi. In 1667-1668, the office of Commissioners for Accounts was in
Durham Yard, and we get an interesting word-picture of it from the
pages of Samuel Pepys. On January 31, "Up," he recorded, "by coach,
with W. Griffin with me, and our Contract-books, to Durham Yard, to
the Commissioners for Accounts; the first time I ever was there; and
staid awhile before I was admitted to them. I did observe a great many
people attending about complaints of seamen concerning tickets, and
among others Mr Carcasse, and Mr Martin, my purser. And I observe a
fellow, one Collins, is there, who is employed by these Commissioners
particularly to hold an office in Bishopsgate Street, or somewhere
thereabouts, to receive complaints of all people about tickets; and I
believe he will have work enough. Presently I was called in, where I
found the whole number of Commissioners, and was there received with
great respect and kindness; and did give them great satisfaction,
making it my endeavour to inform them what it was they were to expect
from me, and what was the duty of other people; this being my only way
to preserve myself, after all my pains and trouble. They did ask many
questions, and demanded other books of me, which I did give them very
ready and acceptable answers to; and, upon the whole, I do observe they
do go about their business like men resolved to go through with it, and
in a very good method, like men of understanding. They have Mr Jessop,
their secretary; and it is pretty to see that they are fain to find
out an old-fashioned man of Cromwell's to do their business for them,
as well as the Parliament to pitch upon such for the most part in the
lowest of people that were brought into the House for Commissioners.
I went away giving and receiving great satisfaction." Various other
public offices were in Durham Yard at this period. In 1664, the Coal
Meter's Office was here, and, in 1675, His Majesty's Office for
granting wine licenses.
On April 26, 1669, Pepys records: "A great fire happened in Durham Yard
last night, burning the house of one Lady Hungerford, who was to come
to town to it this night; and so the house is burned, new furnished,
by carelessness of the girl sent to take off a candle from a bunch of
candles, which she did by burning it off, and left the rest, as it is
supposed, on fire. The King and Court were here, it seems, and stopped
the fire by blowing up the next house." The Merry Monarch, having
stopped the fire in Durham Yard, was up betimes next morning and off to
Newmarket.
Several other side-lights on the subject are furnished by Pepys.
Thus, on February 1, 1663-1664, he notes that, "I hear how two men
last night, justling for the wall about the New Exchange, did kill
one another, each thrusting the other through; one of them of the
King's Chapel, one Cave, and the other a retayner of my Lord Generall
Middleton's." In the year of the Great Fire, 1666, he is "up by five
o'clock" on September 7, "and, blessed be God! find all well; and by
water to Pane's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned,
and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roofs fallen,
and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's school also,
Ludgate, and Fleet Street. My father's house, and the church, and a
good part of the Temple the like. So to Creed's lodging, near the
New Exchange, and there find him laid down upon a bed; the house all
unfurnished, there being fears of the fire's coming to them. There
borrowed a shirt of him, and washed. To Sir W. Coventry, at St James's,
who lay without curtains, having removed all his goods; as the King at
White Hall, and everybody had done, and was doing." Three months later,
the "very good newes is just come of our four ships from Smyrna, come
safe without convoy even into the Downes, without seeing any enemy;
which is the best, and, indeed, only considerable good news to our
Exchange since the burning of the City; and it is strange to see how
it do cheer up men's hearts. Here I saw shops now come to be in this
Exchange; and met little Batelier who sits here but at 3 L. per annum,
whereas he sat at the other at 100 L.; which he says he believes will
prove as good account to him now as the other did at that rent."
Dean Crofts of Norwich and various others of some standing were living
in Durham Yard in 1675, and in that year some waterworks, which are
not to be confused with those of the York Buildings company, were
established by Sir Robert Vyner and others. In 1677, Durham Yard had
gone to ruin, and was notorious as a place of ill repute. In April
of that year Le Tellier, Archbishop and Duke of Rheims, crossed the
Channel in order to "treat about a marriage with the Lady Mary,
daughter of the Duke of York, with the Dauphin." In some ribald verses
by the libellous Anthony Wood (or, as he dubbed himself, Anthony à
Wood, 1632-1695) we read that:
"The Bishop who from France came slowly o'er
Did go to Betty Beaulie's"--
this Betty being a person of notorious character who lived in Durham
Yard. Dryden, in his 1667 comedy, _Sir Martin Marrall_, makes Lady Dupe
refer to Durham Yard as the customary landing-place for Covent Garden.
And _The Tatler_ of June 7, 1709, alludes to "a certain lady who left
her coach at the New Exchange door in the Strand, and whipt down Durham
Yard into a boat with a young gentleman for Fox Hall."
[Illustration: THE SOCIETY OF ARTS, JOHN STREET, ADELPHI.]
Durham Yard was the first residence in London (1675) of Godfrey
Kneller. David Garrick and Samuel Johnson are closely connected
with the place. It was here that the volatile Garrick, at the age
of twenty-three, was in partnership with his brother, Peter, as a
wine-merchant. I do not think that he lived here, but, certainly,
the brothers had their wine vaults in Durham Yard. But the union did
not last long. "Peter was calm, sedate, and methodical; David was gay,
volatile, and impetuous, and, perhaps, not so confined to regularity
as his partner could have wished." Therefore, as Garrick's biographer,
Thomas Davies, puts it, "to prevent the continuance of fruitless
and daily altercation," friends intervened, and the partnership was
dissolved amicably. Another most interesting memory of Durham Yard is
associated with Garrick's friend, Samuel Johnson, who, at the time
of the wine partnership, was living (March, 1741) "at the Black Boy
over against Durham Yard"--this is not to be confused with Johnson's
"garret," which was in Exeter Street, Strand. Samuel Foote, in his
ill-natured way, used to say that he remembered "Davy" in Durham
Yard "with three quarts of vinegar in the cellar, calling himself a
wine merchant." Thanks to wine, we have another notable association
with Durham Yard. Here was a wine merchant named Brisden, whose shop
was frequented by Voltaire. On his return to France, Voltaire wrote
to "Dear John," wishing him "good health and a quick sale to your
Burgundy." He knew this neighbourhood well, for, during his abode in
England, 1726-1729, he constantly visited his friend Congreve, the
dramatist, in Surrey Street, Strand. Voltaire lodged in Maiden Lane,
a few yards from the Adelphi, over a French barber's shop, which
was distinguished by the sign of the White Peruke. He was thoroughly
familiar with English, and, on one occasion, a mob of roughs assailed
him and twitted him for being--his appearance left no doubt as to his
nationality--a "Frenchy." Voltaire nimbly "mounted an adjacent doorstep
and addressed the crowd in good English, extolling the liberty of
England and the people. His speech was a success. The mob took on at
once, and cheered him; eventually they mounted him on the shoulders of
a couple of stout fellows and carried him in triumph to his lodgings.
Never after that was he molested in his walks."[15]
Leigh Hunt, in _The Town_, describing Voltaire's visit to England,
says that he wrote to Swift from Maiden Lane, in English, but that the
language "seems a little too perfect." There is a second letter to
Swift "which looks more authentic. But there is no doubt that Voltaire,
while in England, made himself such a master of the language as to be
able to write in it with a singular correctness for a foreigner. He
was then young. He had been imprisoned in the Bastille for a libel,
came over here on his release; procured many subscriptions for the
_Henriade_; published in English an essay on epic poetry, and remained
some years, during which he became acquainted with the principal men
of letters--Pope, Congreve, and Young. He is said to have talked so
indecently at Pope's table (probably no more than was thought decent
by the belles in France) that the good old lady, the poet's mother,
was obliged to retire. Objecting, at Lord Chesterfield's table, to
the allegories of Milton, Young is said to have accosted him in the
well-known couplet:
'Thou art so witty, profligate, and thin,
Thou seem'st a Milton, with his Death and Sin.'
But this story has been doubted. Young, though not so thin, was
as witty and profligate in his way as Voltaire; for, even when
affecting a hermit-like sense of religion, he was a servile
flatterer and preferment-hunter. The secret of the gloomy tone in
his _Night-Thoughts_ was his not having too much, and his missing a
bishopric. This is the reason why the _Night-Thoughts_ are overdone,
and have not stood their ground. Voltaire left England with such a
mass of subscriptions for his _Henriade_ as laid the foundation of
his fortunes, and with great admiration of English talent and genius,
particularly that of Newton and Locke, which, with all his insinuations
against our poetry, he took warm pains to extend and never gave up.
He was fond to the last of showing he had not forgotten his English.
Somebody telling him that Johnson had spoken well of his talents, he
said, in English, 'He is a clever fellow'; but the gentleman observing
that the doctor did not think well of his religion, he added, 'A
superstitious dog.'"
An affair which had a tragic ending occurred in the New Exchange in
1653. The circumstances are fully related in the _State Papers_. In
the winter of that year there came to England an ambassador from the
King of Portugal, with a very splendid equipage; and in his retinue his
brother, Don Pantaleon de Sa, a Knight of Malta, and "a gentleman of a
haughty and imperious nature." One day in November, Don Pantaleon was
walking with two friends in the Exchange, when a quarrel arose between
them and a young English gentleman, named Gerard, who accused the
Portuguese of speaking in French disparagingly of England. One of the
Portuguese gave Mr Gerard the lie, and then began to jostle him; swords
were drawn, and all three fell upon Gerard, and one of them stabbed him
with his dagger in the shoulder. A few unarmed Englishmen interfered,
separated the combatants, and got the Portuguese out of the Exchange,
one of them with a cut upon his cheek.
On the next evening, Don Pantaleon came to take his revenge,
accompanied by fifty followers; "two Knights of Malta led on by
a Portuguese Captain in buff; all having generally double arms,
swords and pistols, and coats of mail; two or three coaches brought
ammunition, hand-grenades, and bottles, and little barrels of powder
and bullets; and boats were provided ready at the water-side. They had
resolved to fall upon every Englishman they should find in or about
the Exchange. They entered all with drawn swords; the people fled for
shelter into the shops; there were few Englishmen present, but of
these four were severely wounded by the Portuguese." A Mr Greenaway,
of Lincoln's Inn, was walking with his sister and a lady whom he was
to have married. These he placed for safety in a shop; he then went
to see what was the matter, when the Portuguese, mistaking Greenaway
for Gerard, gave the word, and he was killed by a pistol shot through
the head. The crowd grew enraged, and Don Pantaleon and the Portuguese
retreated to the house of embassy, caused the gates to be shut, and put
all the servants in arms to defend it. Meanwhile the Horse Guard on
duty had apprehended some of the Portuguese, and Cromwell sent Colonel
Whaley in command, who pursued others to the ambassador's house with
his horse, and there demanded that the rest should be given up. The
Ambassador insisted upon his privilege, and that by the law of nations
his house was a sanctuary for all his countrymen; but finding the
officer resolute, and that he was not strong enough for the encounter,
desired time to send to the Lord General Cromwell, which was granted,
and he complained of the injury, and desired an audience. Cromwell
sent a messenger in reply, to state that a gentleman had been murdered,
and several other persons wounded, and that if the criminals were not
given up, the soldiers would be withdrawn, and "the people would pull
down the house, and execute justice themselves." Under this threat,
Don Pantaleon, three of his retainers, and an English boy, the Don's
servant, were given up; they were confined in the guard-house for the
night, and next day sent prisoners to Newgate, whence, in about three
weeks, the Don made his escape, but was retaken.
By the intercession of the Portuguese merchants, the trial was delayed
till the 6th of July in the following year, when the prisoners were
arraigned for the crime of murder. Don Pantaleon at first refused to
plead, as he held a commission to act as Ambassador in the event of
his brother's death or absence from England. He was then threatened
with "the press," that horrible form of torture, pressing to death, or
_peine forte et dure_, whereupon he pleaded not guilty.[16] A jury of
English and foreigners brought in a verdict of guilty, and the five
prisoners were sentenced to be hanged. Every effort was made to save
Don Pantaleon's life; but Cromwell's reply was: "Blood has been shed,
and justice must be satisfied." The only mercy shown was a respite of
two days, and a reprieve from the disgraceful death of hanging; the
Ambassador having craved permission to kill his brother with his own
sword, rather than he should be hanged.
A remarkable coincidence concluded this strange story. While Don
Pantaleon lay in Newgate, awaiting his trial, Gerard, with whom
the quarrel in the Exchange had arisen, got entangled in a plot to
assassinate Cromwell, was tried and condemned to be hanged, which,
as in the Don's case, was changed to beheading. Both suffered on the
same day, on Tower Hill. Don Pantaleon, attended by a number of his
brother's suite, was conveyed in a mourning-coach with six horses,
from Newgate to Tower Hill, to the same scaffold whereon Gerard had
just suffered. The Don, after his devotions, gave his confessor his
beads and crucifix, laid his head on the block, and it was chopped off
at two blows. On the same day, the English boy-servant was hanged at
Tyburn. The three retainers were pardoned. Pennant says that Gerard
died "with intrepid dignity; the Portuguese with all the pusillanimity
of an assassin." Cromwell's stern and haughty justice, and the perfect
retribution exacted on this occasion, have been much extolled.
His decision tended to render his Government still more respected
abroad; and it settled a knotty point as to "the inviolability of
ambassadors."[17]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: _Court and Times of James I._, Birch, vol. i., p. 75.]
[Footnote 10: Stow, ed. 1633, pp. 494-5.]
[Footnote 11: Strype, B. VI., p. 75.]
[Footnote 12: _Travels of the Grand Duke Cosmo_, vol. iii., p. 296.]
[Footnote 13: _The Spectator_, No. 155.]
[Footnote 14: _Domestic_, James I., vol. xlix., p. 5.]
[Footnote 15: Callow, _Old London Taverns_, p. 281.]
[Footnote 16: "The press" was administered to prisoners who refused to
plead in answer to a charge. The sentence was as follows: "That you be
taken back to the prison whence you came, to a low dungeon, into which
no light can enter; that you be laid on your back on the bare floor
with a cloth round your loins, but elsewhere naked; that there be set
upon your body a weight of iron as great as you can bear--and greater;
that you have no substance, save on the first day three morsels of the
coarsest bread, on the second day three draughts of stagnant water
from the pool nearest to the prison door, on the third day again three
morsels of bread as before, and such bread and such water alternately
from day to day until you die." This barbarous law remained in force
until 1772.]
[Footnote 17: _The Romance of London_, Timbs, vol. i., pp. 105-8.]