_The Three Dukes_ (Vol. ii., pp. 9, 46, 91.).--Andrew Marvel thus makes
mention of the outrage on the beadle in his letter to the Mayor of Hull,
Feb. 28, 1671 (_Works_, i. 195.):--
"On Saturday night last, or rather Sunday morning, at two
o'clock, some persons reported to be of great quality, together
with other gentlemen, set upon the watch and killed a poor
beadle, praying for his life upon his knees, with many wounds;
warrants are out for apprehending some of them, but they are
fled."
I am not aware of any contemporary authority for the names of the three
dukes; and a difficulty in the way of assigning them by conjecture is,
that in the poem they are called "three bastard dukes." Your
correspondent C. has rightly said (p. 46.) that none of Charles II.'s
bastard sons besides Monmouth would have been old enough in 1671 to be
actors in such a fray. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes on _Absalom and
Achitophel_, referring to the poem, gives the assault to Monmouth and
some of his brothers; but he did so, probably, without considering
dates, and on the strength of the words "three bastard dukes."
Mr. Lister, in the passage in his _Life of Clarendon_ referred to by Mr.
Cooper (p. 91.), gives no authority for his mention of Albemarle. I
should like to know if Mr. Wade has any other authority than Mr. Lister
for this statement in his useful compilation.
Were it certain that three dukes were engaged in this fray, and were we
not restricted to "bastards," I should say that Monmouth, Albemarle, and
Richmond (who married the beautiful Miss Stuart, and killed himself by
drinking) would probably be the three culprits. As regards Albemarle, he
might perhaps have been called bastard without immoderate use of
libeller's licence.
If three dukes did murder the beadle, it is strange that their names
have not been gibbeted in many of the diaries and letters which we have
of that period. And this is the more strange, as this assault took place
just after the attack on Sir John Coventry, which Monmouth instigated,
and which had created so much excitement.
The question is not in itself of much importance; but I can suggest a
mode in which it may possibly be settled. Let the royal pardons of 1671
be searched in the Rolls' Chapel, Chancery Lane. If the malefactors were
pardoned by name, the three dukes may there turn up. Or if any of your
readers is able to look through the Domestic Papers for February and
March, 1671, in the State Paper Office, he would be likely to find there
come information upon the subject.
Query. Is the doggerel poem in the _State Poems_ Marvel's? Several poems
which are ascribed to him are as bad in versification, and, I need not
say, in coarseness.
Query 2. Is there any other authority for Queen Catharine's fondness for
dancing than the following lines of the poem?
"See what mishaps dare e'en invade Whitehall,
This silly fellow's death puts off the ball,
And disappoints the Queen's foot, little Chuck;
I warrant 'twould have danced it like a duck."