Swift and the prosecuted Nottingham speech
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Citation Quinlan, Maurice J. 1957. Swift and the prosecuted Nottingham speech. Harvard Library Bulletin XI (3), Spring 1957: 296-302.
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URING the period I 710-14 Jonathan S,vift occupied an un- usual position as chief spokcsn1an for the Tory party·. I--Ic had been urged by· llobcrt 1-Iarley, Queen Anne's Lord_ Treasurer, to publicize the party's point of vic\v and to en1p]oy·his satiric pen to attack the aggressive ,~1hig opposition. S,vjfr.,
though q11ite,villing to act in this capacit)7 ., refused to accept a.ny financia] con1pcnsation for hjs services. Undoubtedly he hoped to receive an cvcnn1al rc,vard in the forn1 of church prefern1ent. But 111can,vhilchis unofficial status in the govcrnme-nt nllo\vcd hin1 a degree of independence far greater than that of a political hack like Daniel Defoe. Consequently, although he regularly conferred \Vith I-Iaricy and the other T Of)T 1c adcrs, he exercis cd con sid era ble freed 01n in dctcrtnining ,vhich of the ,,rhigs to single out for attack and still greater independence .of judgrnent in deciding ,vhat forn1 his satiric thrusts should take. As tin1e ,vent ont his increasing partisanship and his ca ustic ,vi t 1cd hin1 to p nrsnc a son1C\ v hat rcckl css co11rse. Th is b o Id
policy reached a cli1nax in 17 I 4 ,vhcn 1 f ollo\vjng the appearance of l1is Public Spirit of the T-T7higs,,the I1ousc of Lords declared this ,vork to be (a false, 1nalicious,,and factious libel' and offered a rc,vard of three . hundre tbe lnteuded Speech of a Fn1uousOrator against z:1eace1 subsequent developn1ent5,nan1ely the prosecution of the alleged printer of a Nottinghan1 speech, have proved baffiing.2 One difficulty arises from the fact that there is no con1plete list of S,vift"s ,vorks. J...,ikemost political propagandists of the dme.,he published anonymously·, and it 1 Ricardo B. Quintana,. Tbe 1lfind and Art of ]cn1athttu 8'l.vift,. 2nd ed. (J..ondoni [953 )! p. 194+ . :ic Tbe 'Po~1J1sof Jonathan Swiftt ed. I-Iarold Wjllfarns (Oxford,. 1937)1 I! 141-[42. 296 Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XI, Number 3 (Autumn 1957) Swift aud the ProsecutedNottingbant Speecb 297 is not al ,va ys easy to deter1ni ne , v hi ch of nlunerous ,v ri ti ng.s on the Tor} 7 side arc his. Anotl1er con1plication ICsultsfron1 the n1ultiplicity of ,vorks on the same jssue, 1nany ,vith similar if not identical titles. As a result it is son1ctin1 es p uzzIi n g to kno,v ,v hich of several simi I ar 1 y titled ,vorks js the specific one being alluded to in con temp or~ry accounts. Such is the problem ,vith respect to S,vifes Excellent New Song. In the past it has beenthought that this balla.d1 containing a mock speech of Lord Nottingham, ,vas the ,vork that led to the prosecution of the printer Andrc,v Hind~ The purpose of this paper is to point out that there ,vere at least three sham Nottingham speeches and to indicate ,vhich of these became the subject of prosecution by the House of Lords. The events that Jed S,vift to con1pose his ballad on Nottinghan1 are outlined in the Journalto Stella. In Dccc1nber, 17 11, ,vhile the Tories \Vere attempting to bring the Jong-protracted ,var ,vith France to an end, thC) 7 ,vcre bitterly annoyed by the desertion of Lord N ottinghant, This pro1nincnt statesman, ,vith a record for heing nn ardent Tory, suddenly decided to join the \Vhigs in opposing any peace that made no provision for ren1oving Spain f ram the dominion of France .. The peace treaty ,vas scheduled for discussionin the House of Lords on Decen1ber 7,. and the Tories ,vere disconcerted by the prospect that Nottingha1n, ,vho hnd a reputation for eloqucncet ,vould speak in oppositionto their tcrn1s. Under the date of December 5 S,viftt ,vho had been dining ,-vith I1arlcy, ,vrites~ 'Lord treasnrer ,vas hinting as if he ,vished a ballad ,vas n1adc on him~and I ,vill get up one against to-n1orro,v.' The next da.y· he reports~ 'I ,vas this morning making the ballad, t\VO degrees above Grubstreer.' Upon finishing itt he sent the manuscript to the printer, ,vho brought hjm copies that evcn.ing48 S,ltifes ballad,. consisting of .fifty-four lines, is introduced by a disparaging description of Notting ha.n1as a person al\vays ruled by personal cxpedienC)7 • rhc remaining forty-four Jines are de\~otedto the n1ock 5peech jn ,vhich J~ord Nottinghatn confessesthat he has been bribed by the Duke and Duchess of ~1arlborough to oppose ending the ,var ,vith France4 The introductory lines run as follo,vs~ An Orator dis;nal of Nottiughmus!,ire., vVho has forty Years let out his Conscience to hire, Out of 7~al for his Counrryt and want of a Place, Is co111eup 1 w & a111Iis,to break the Q - )s Peace. ."l Journal to Stella,:ed. Harold '"-riJtbms (Oxford) 1948), TI, 430-43 L Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XI, Number 3 (Autumn 1957) Harvard Library Bulletin He has vamptt an old Speech~ and the Court to their sorro\v, Shall hear Him harangue against PRIOR to !v1orro\tl'. \~'hen once he begins, he never ,vill flinch, llut repeats the san1c Note a ,vhole Day·,like n Fh1ch. I have hc;-ird all the Speech repegted by Hoj)py .. And, 1nistnkesto prcventJ I have obtain'd a Copy.-1 On Dcce1nber 151 nine days after S,vjfes ballad had appeared, a co1nplaint ,vas registered in the House of Lords against the printing and publishing of '1,be Earl of Nottjnghan1,s Speecb to tbe Ho11011rable House of l.. ords; L.ondontprinted bJ1 j. To1nsont near Covent-Garden, 171 r ..' A con1mittcc designated to investigate the publication reported on Decc1nber 22 that the ,vork had been printed under 'a sham Na.me/ and that, on evidence provided by Sarah Vickers, the real printer \Vas 'Andrew I-Ii11d,living jn Peterborough-Court,near Fleet-Street.' Hind, having been taken into custody·, ,vas cvcntuall) 7 released ,vith re primnnd.u In the Jour1urlto Stella S,vift strongly denied that he \Vas the author of the prosecuted speech. He ,vrites: 'There ,,ras printed a Grub-street speech of lord Nottingham; a.nd he ,vas such an o,vl to co1nplainof jt in the house of loTds, ,vho ha'vc taken up the printer for it. I heard at Courtl that \~'alpole (a great \\ 7hig mc1nbcr) .said, th8t I and n1y ,vhimsical cluh "'rit it at one of our 1neetings, and that I should pay for it. He ,vill find he lies; and I .shalllet him kno,v by a third hand my 6 thoughts of hi111.t If S,vifes statc1nent js to be trusted 1 it 1nust be assun1edthat another speech ,vas really the subject of the prosecution .. Evidence that at least t,vo shan1 specchcs·,vcre circulated appears in the correspondence of Lord Raby.,,vho, in a letter of 18 Decernber x7 1 1, ,vTitcs: 'l\1y Lord N-- made a complaint of a grub street speech they had cry·,d about, as spoke by hin1in the house, of ,vhich he said he had not spoke one ,vord, and no,v they cry up and do,vn a sham speech of his vindication from the f orn1er.' 7 Furthermore there is in the I-Iarvard CollegeLibrary a rare copy of a Poe1nr, ed. ''-'i1liam£, I, 141-143. Nottinghan1j ,;,d1osefan1ily na1ne ,vas Finch9 ,va~ nickna1ncd .iDisnrnl' because of his s,varthy comp]c-xionTlvh.tthc,v Prior had rccentl y en gaged in ~ccrct ncgocia tions ,vith F.rance lo to,va rd a peace~ 'H oppy 1 ma.y be the Rt. Hon. Ed ,vard I-Iop kins. ri Journals of t/Jc flo1ue of Lordr, XIX ( 1709---14),. 343, 349, 361, 36:2. 13Jou nw I tG St ell a, ed. ,,l'jjJ iams! 11, 44 L-44 2.. '1 Tbe TFentwortb Papen 1705-l7 39, c:d. J~mcs J. C.-uhvrlght (Londonj 1883 )! p. 225. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XI, Number 3 (Autumn 1957) Swift and the ProsecutedN ottinghanr Speecb 2 9 9 Nottingham ballad that bears a title similar to S\vift's.a This second ballad runs to forty-eight lines. Although it borro,vs some of S,vifes phraseology, it consists of an enti reI y di ff c rent set of verscs.. It appears on a half-sheet,.subscribed "Printed jn the Year 1711' but bearing no printer's name. A fe,v Jines are reproduced here so that it can be com- pared ,v ith S,Vi f esbaBad: THE Nottingham Ballad. An Excellent Ne\V Song.. Being the Intended .SP:EECH of a Famous Orator. An Orator was found in Nottinghamshire., l f-'bo for /Jirgreat Parts ~tts r11nn11011'd to appear At Court, to give tbe necssary Assistance tbere, TJ7bose deep Judgu;eutt and great Education then, Sh i11'd before t 1,e ,Host Exp erte st A1en; His knor-,;mZeal for !,ishis County deserv'd a Place, Not vi & annist but fit hon de grace. The Scandalous Crelv tbat bhn do defa111e1 Ought to be pu11isb1 d by tbe Great Not in game; I-fis Speeches bns heen always loy1.1ln11d truer Tho' b/acke111 d by a hellisb and diabolical Crew. To v1n11p11p a Speecb is nn idle Story., His Oratory's Noble, and wttb Prior, will glory, To spend bis Brend, for England's Glory., 1-Vitboutinsipid Pride wbich he d otb disdain; And like a Ft11cbi,vill tune it o're all Day, For his CountryJs goodt all deep Intriegues display. In vic,v of S,vift's dcnjal that he ,vas the author of the prosecuted spcccht this feeble ballad n1ightappear to be the one that led to a com- plaint, even though it attc1npts to defend Nottinghan1. Actually, ho,v- c\~cr, the prosecuted publication ,vas a third and entirely diff crcnt ,vork .. 1t \v1ll be observed th-at SYvift~nd his conternporaries never allude to it as a ha.llad, hut 1nerely as a shatn speech. It \Vas in fact, not a poern, hut a prose piece that n1ight easily be taken as a f2ithful transcript of Not- tinghan1)sreal speech. The problen1 has been solved by the publication of the 1ninntcs of the I~-ords' con1111ittcethat prosecuted Andrc\v Hind nnd, n1orc par- ll Catalogued under ,.EBB (,vhere nled alphabedcaUy). A check of major collec- tions else\\'11 ere has rcvca led no other copy. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XI, Number 3 (Autumn 1957) 300 Harvard I..Jbrary Bulletin ticu larly, by the rcprintin g of ·the copy·of the sh am speech" entitled 'The Earl of Nottingharnts Speech to the I-Ionourable House of · J...,ords~'that served as evidence.~ Un]ikc the printed copies of the nvo ballads\ the original sheet on ,vhich the prose speech appears bears the subscription, ,:London, Prntcd [sic] by J.. T 01nson, near Covent- Garden t r 7 1 I 4"l O Th is designation, it ,vill be observed, agrees ,vith the description of the prosecuted \Vork in Journals of the House of Lords411 T11e 111in 11 tes of the conun i ttee also supply addi ti onaI inforn1 ati on ahou t the n1ysterious An dre,v Hind4 As the previous1y published records indicate, Sarah \ 7ickers reported that he had printed the Not- tingha1n speech. ,~lhen charged ,vith this offense.,he protested that he \vas at "\Vestchesterabove six ,veeks before and continued there some tin1e after the said speech ,vas prjnted and published.,and never heard or knc,v thereof until he ,vas taken into custody4 His ,vife since in- f orn1ed him that she bought a copy of the speech for eighteen pence f rurn an unkn9,vn person ..' Having p1e.aded,be..~ides his innocence, . that he had a ,vifc and hvo children to support, Hind ,vas given a reprimand and discharged on 19 Januar)T 1712 upon the payment of a fce. 12 · I(no\ving the contents of the shan1 speech~ ,vc can better understand · ,vl1yit \Vasprosecuted~ Nottinghan1 may have lacked a sense of hun1or, but he ,vould have rec9gnizcd that no one ,vould be likely·to mistake either of the ballads a.shis a cru al ad dress. For that 1nattcr nci thcr ba l]ad· represented itself ~o be anything more than tthc intended speech of a famous orator.' The prose piece) on the olher hand~ bore n title frandu ... lently· describing it as the real speech .. Furthermore it appears to have grossly n1isrcprescnted the vie,vs that No ttinghan1 had expressed on ma.king a peace ,vj th France. '''hen that subject had come up for discussion in the House of Lords, Nottingha:n1had urged that, in the forn1al address of thanks to the Queen for inaugurating peace ncgotiatio1is, the H ousc should ind icatc its disapproval of any peace that left Spain and the '\\' est 11 In Hi sturk11l IVJ:.tnusc.ripts- Con1rni.ssion 1 The Al anu u~riptsof t lie I -Iouse of J..,,o rd f 1 n. s., IX ( 17 I o-l i ) 1 cd Maurice F. Bond (London., r949 ), 169, 368-369. Jo I am indebted for th c description of the orj ginal docurn en t to Ma urke F. Bond 1 C1erk of Records jn the House of Lords. In his letter he adds: that the pro.se Notting- h 1n1 sp E:ech is pr jnted on one side of a sh c.er m c3 su ring 8. 3 h,r r 3.1 inches and b ea~ing an endorscincn t in the hand of the Clc r k of the Par l ia tncnts. ]1 XlX, 343. Afn1Jus-cripts af tbc House of Lo1·ds1 n. s.i JX~169. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XI, Number 3 (Autumn 1957) Swift and tbe Prosecuted Notting/Jani Speech 30 I Indies under the control of the Bourbons.. Although there 8ppcars to be no record of the exact ,vords he cn1ploycd on this occasion, Bishop Burnet reports that Nottingham spoke ,:copiously' on the dangers that ,vonld ensue from 8 future alliance bcnvccn the Bourbon Philip of Spain and his grandfather, Louis XI\T of Francc} 3 "\\Thenthe question came to n vote, Notting ha tn and his n e, v 1i\'hi g 2 llies prevailed by -a vote of 62 to 54 ..14 Consequently the fonnal address to Queen Anne concluded ,vith the statcincnt that it \Vas 'the I-lu1nble Opinion 2nd Advice of this House, That no Peace can be .safe or honourable to Gteat Britain or Europe, if Spain and Tbe Tl'est-Indies ~re to be allotted to any Branch of the House uf B011rbou. 1 1~ • Although this political crisis resulted in at least three spurious speeches, Nottingham's real speech i.vas never printed. It is i1npossible therefore to say exactly in ,vhat respects the prosecuted speech differed fron1 the original. That it distorted and 1nisrcprcscnlcd N ottingh~11n;,s declaration on the subject seems clear from the fact that the invcstigat~ ing co1n1nittce of the I-Iouse of Lords tcrn1cd it ifa1se and scandalous.' F urthcrmorc the text of the shnn1 docu111cnt in dicatcs that it ,vns d c- signed to discredit Nottinghan1 and the \i1i'higs. In the Eharn speech Nottingham is n1adc to appear unalter~bly opposed to the Qucen,s negotiations by scornful references to ~arash and un prcn1cditatcd peace' and to "a deceitful treaty/ The danger of having a Bol1rbon on the throne of Spain, ,vhich had been Nottinghun1's basic subject of con- tcntiont is never 1ncntioncd. A1ost significant of 2ll, lie js represented :1ssaying, 'It is my opinion, that a vigorous prosecution of the next cmnpaign in conjunction ,vith our allies, ,vill be the n1ost suitable 1nca.nsto put it out of his [Louis XI\ 1] po,vcr to do us any in jury, and to fore c hin1 to c omc to our o,vn tcrn1s, ,vi thou t a d ccci t ful treaty, to the fuH satisfaction of all the confederates." Thus the shan1 declaration 11111deNottinghnn1 appear to be in favor of continuing the ,var~although in 1·cali ty he sccn1s nJCrcly to hav c u r gc d th c n ccessit,T of pro vi ding j n th c peace terms against a future Bourbon alliance. \~lhoever ,vrote the shanl prose speech, it ,v'd.5undoubtedly one of the Tories. For, ,vith S,vift as their chief spokesman, they had insisted that l\1arlborough.,"the money-changers,' and the '''higs ,vished to con- Risbop JJurnet's Hl!tory of His Ou.m Tbnei ed. 1\1.artin J. Rout hi 1nrl ed. (Ox- f o.rd, 1833 ), VI, 79--81. H George l\-1.Trcvclyau, England under Queen Anne (Londont l93o-J4), Illt 196, :iii; Jour11a!1 of the Houre of I..ord.s,XIX1 339. · Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XI, Number 3 (Autumn 1957) 302 Harvard Lihrary Bulletin tinuc the \Var for reasons of pcr.sonal pro.fit nnd aggrandizcn1cnt. 1s Since this 1noti v e cou}d easily be in1plied f ron1 th c prose vcrsi on of the Nottingham speecht the document ,vas clever! y contri vcd to support the Tory- point of vie,·v. "\:VhetherSn:-ift had a hand in con1posing it remains uncertain. I-le ,vas jngenious enough to have devised this strata gem, and it j s kn O\Vn th a.t he son1ctin1cs supplied id cas for other Tory ,vriters to execute. On the other hand, his strong denial of author-- ship in the ]ott.rnal to Stella makes it doubtful that he ,vas the actual con1poser of the prosecuted speech. l\1AURICE J. QUINLAN j~ So Swift in The Conduct of tbe Alliesj l7 l 1 ( T/Je Prose ll' orks of Jonathan Swift, cd~ Herbert Davis, Vlt Oxford, 19r r 1 4 3 ) • Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XI, Number 3 (Autumn 1957) List of Contributors GEonGr. S~~RTONtlate Professor of the History of Science! Har\~ard University i\ifAURlr.F. J. QuINLANt Professor of English, Doston CoUege JACK SrtLL INGER, Teaching F c1lo,v jn English, }I arva rd University \.'' ALTER GRosSi\-IANNt Specialfat in Book Selection in the Harvard CoHegc Library J. CuEstEY i\t~.'l'HF:\VSj Associate Professor of Eng1ishi Unh'crsity of Californi:1., Sant a Barbara Co Ucg c ELI'l.ABF.'l"H BANCROFT ScnLESINGERt Ca1nbridgci l\18ssachusctts CnARLEsRYsKAl\t 1>1 Instructor in Eng1ishi-Princeton University 39J Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XI, Number 3 (Autumn 1957)