There cannot be a better representation of “Guy Fawkes,” as he is borne
about the metropolis, “in effigy,” on the fifth of November, every year,
than the drawing to this article by Mr. Cruikshank. It is not to be
expected that poor boys should be well informed as to Guy’s history, or
be particular about his costume. With them “Guy Fawkes-day,” or, as
they as often call it, “Pope-day,” is a holiday, and as they reckon
_their_ year by their holidays, this, on account of its festivous
enjoyment, is the greatest holiday of the season. They prepare long
before hand, not “Guy,” but the fuel wherewith he is to be burnt, and
the fireworks to fling about at the burning: “the _Guy_” is the last
thing thought of, “the bonfire” the first. About this time ill is sure
to betide the owner of an ill-secured fence; stakes are extracted from
hedges, and branches torn from trees; crack, crack, goes loose paling;
deserted buildings yield up their floorings; unbolted flip-flapping
doors are released from their hinges as supernumeraries; and more
burnables are deemed lawful prize than the law allows. These are
secretly stored in some enclosed place, which other “collectors” cannot
find, or dare not venture to invade. Then comes the making of “the Guy,”
which is easily done with straw, after the materials of dress are
obtained: these are an old coat, waistcoat, breeches, and stockings,
which usually as ill accord in their proportions and fitness, as the
parts in some of the new churches. His hose and coat are frequently “a
world too wide;” in such cases his legs are infinitely too big, and the
coat is “hung like a loose sack about him.” A barber’s block for the
head is “the very thing itself;” chalk and charcoal make capital eyes
and brows, which are the main features, inasmuch as the chin commonly
drops upon the breast, and all deficiencies are hid by “buttoning up:” a
large wig is a capital achievement. Formerly an old cocked hat was the
reigning fashion for a “Guy;” though the more strictly informed “dresser
of the character” preferred a mock-mitre; now, however, both hat and
mitre have disappeared, and a stiff paper cap painted, and knotted with
paper strips, in imitation of ribbon, is its substitute; a frill and
ruffles of writing-paper so far completes the figure. Yet this neither
was not, nor is, a _Guy_, without a dark lantern in one hand, and a
spread bunch of matches in the other. The figure thus furnished, and
fastened in a chair, is carried about the streets in the manner
represented in the engraving; the boys shouting forth the words of the
motto with loud huzzas, and running up to passengers hat in hand, with
“pray remember Guy! please to remember Guy.”
[Illustration: ~Guy Fawkes.~]
Please to remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot;
We know no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Holla boys! holla boys! huzza--a--a!
A stick and a stake, for king George’s sake,
A stick and a stump, for Guy Fawkes’s rump!
Holla boys! holla boys! huzza--a--a
Scuffles seldom happen now, but “in my youthful days,” “when Guy met
Guy--then came the tug of war!” The partisans fought, and a decided
victory ended in the capture of the “Guy” belonging to the vanquished.
Sometimes desperate bands, who omitted, or were destitute of the means
to make “Guys,” went forth like Froissart’s knights “upon adventures.”
An enterprise of this sort was called “going to _smug_ a Guy,” that is,
to steal one by “force of arms,” fists, and sticks, from its rightful
owners. These partisans were always successful, for they always attacked
the weak.
In such times, the burning of “a _good_ Guy” was a scene of uproar
unknown to the present day. The bonfire in Lincoln’s Inn Fields was of
this superior order of disorder. It was made at the Great Queen-street
corner, immediately opposite Newcastle-house. Fuel came all day long, in
carts properly guarded against surprise: old people have remembered when
upwards of two hundred cart-loads were brought to make and feed this
bonfire, and more than thirty “Guys” were burnt upon gibbets between
eight and twelve o’clock at night.
At the same period, the butchers in Clare-market had a bonfire in the
open space of the market, next to Bear-yard, and they thrashed each
other “round about the wood-fire,” with the strongest sinews of
slaughtered bulls. Large parties of butchers from all the markets
paraded the streets, ringing peals from marrow-bones-and-cleavers, so
loud as to overpower the storms of sound that came from the rocking
belfries of the churches. By ten o’clock, London was so lit up by
bonfires and fireworks, that from the suburbs it looked in one red heat.
Many were the overthrows of horsemen and carriages, from the discharge
of hand-rockets, and the pressure of moving mobs inflamed to violence by
drink, and fighting their way against each other.
This fiery zeal has gradually decreased. Men no longer take part or
interest in such an observance of the day, and boys carry about their
“Guy” with no other sentiment or knowledge respecting him, than
body-snatchers have of a newly-raised corpse, or the method of
dissecting it; their only question is, how much they shall get by the
operation to make merry with. They sometimes confound their confused
notion of the principle with the mawkin, and for “the Guy,” they say,
“the Pope.” Their difference is not by the way of distinction, but
ignorance. “No popery,” no longer ferments; the spirit is of the lees.
* * * * *
The day is commonly called Gunpowder treason, and has been kept as an
anniversary from 1605, when the plot was discovered, the night before it
was to have been put in execution. The design was to blow up the king,
James I., the prince of Wales, and the lords and commons assembled in
parliament. One of the conspirators, being desirous of saving lord
Monteagle, addressed an anonymous letter to him, ten days before the
parliament met, in which was this expression, “the danger is past, so
soon as you have burnt the letter.” The earl of Salisbury said it was
written by some fool or madman; but the king said, “so soon as you have
burnt the letter,” was to be interpreted, in as short a space as you
shall take to burn the letter. Then, comparing the sentence with one
foregoing, “that they should receive a terrible blow, this parliament,
and yet should not see who hurt them,” he concluded, that some sudden
blow was preparing by means of gunpowder. Accordingly, all the rooms and
cellars under the parliament-house were searched; but as nothing was
discovered, it was resolved on the fourth of November, at midnight, the
day before the parliament met, to search under the wood, in a cellar
hired by Mr. Percy, a papist. Accordingly sir Thomas Knevet, going about
that time, found at the door a man in a cloak and boots, whom he
apprehended. This was Guy Fawkes, who passed for Percy’s servant. On
removing the wood, &c. they discovered thirty-six barrels of gunpowder,
and on Guy Fawkes being searched, there were found upon him, a dark
lantern, a tinder-box, and three matches. Instead of being dismayed, he
boldly said, if he had been taken within the cellar, he would have blown
up himself and them together. On his examination, he confessed the
design was to blow up the king and parliament, and expressed great
sorrow that it was not done, saying, it was the devil and not God that
was the discoverer. The number of persons discovered to have been in the
conspiracy were about thirteen; they were all Roman catholics, and their
design was to restore the catholic religion in England. It appears that
Guy Fawkes and his associates had assembled, and concerted the plot at
the old King’s-head tavern, in Leadenhall-street. Two of the
conspirators were killed, in endeavouring to avoid apprehension; eight
were executed. Two jesuits, Oldcorn and Garnet, also suffered death; the
former for saying “the ill success of the conspiracy did not render it
the less just;” the latter for being privy to the conspiracy and not
revealing it.
A corporation notice is annually left at the house of every inhabitant
in the city of London, previous to lord mayor’s day. The following
(delivered in St. Bride’s) is its form: