"
10. "Curse ye Meroz," was a text much in vogue among the fanatic
preachers in the civil wars. It was preached upon in Guildhall,
before the Lord Mayor, 9th May, 1630, by Edmund Hickeringill,
rector of All Saints, in Colchester:
There's Colchester Hickeringil, the fanatic's delight,
Who Gregory Greybeard and Meroz did write,
You may see who are saints in a pharisee's sight.
_The Assembly of the Moderate Divines, stanza 18._
Gregory Greybeard was probably some ballad, alluding to the
execution of Charles I, who was beheaded by a person disguised by a
visor and greybeard. The name of the common hangman, at that time,
was Gregory.
11. Jaques Clement, a Jacobin Monk, stabbed Henry III. on the 1st of
August, 1589. He expired the following day.
12. "All crowned heads by poetical right are heroes. This character is
a flower, a prerogative so certain, so inseparably annexed to the
crown as by no poet, no parliament of poets, ever to be invaded."
_Rymer's Remarks on the Tragedies of the last age_, p. 6l. This
critical dogma, although here and else-where honoured by our
author's sanction, fell into disuse with the doctrines of passive
obedience, and indefeasible right.
13. The Earl of Arlington, Lord Chamberlain.
14. Charles II. and his brother the Duke of York, were grandchildren
of Henry IV.
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