John Baillie

“ O yes, my lady, we have a good pleasant gentleman, who has been here these three days, because his servant was taken ill upon the road, Sir John Hazelwood, and his nephew with him; and we have a strange kind of a gentleman who has been here these three weeks, just to be quiet, as he says himself, and to study the musics, tho' I can't say we ever hear him play upon any thing neither. Howsomever, he diverts himself all day long after his own fashion, poor man, writing bits of metre upon the windows and such like, and does harm to nobody. ”

“ With the woman of your choice and a competency, Amaryllis, you will be in the most favourable state of all others for courting the muses.
AMARYLLIS.
Yes, Sir John; with my own slender patrimony and the fortune my wife brings to me, I hope to make my little cot no unfavoured haunt of the fair sisters. I am not the first poet who has been caught by the artless charms of a village maid; and my wife will have as much beauty in my eyes, dress'd in her russet gown, as the——
DOLLY.
But I won't wear a russet gown tho': I have money of my own, and I'll buy me silk ones. ”

“ But, worse and worse for Baillie's feelings, not only did it appear that the victory had been gained by the English of the joint army rather than by the Scottish contingent, but gradually the rumour was confirmed, which had been first borne to London on the wings of the wind, that the Englishman by whose conduct, if by that of any one man, the fate of the battle had been decided, was Lieutenant-general Cromwell. "The left wing, which I commanded, being our own horse, saving a few Scots in our rear, beat all the Prince's horse. God gave them as stubble to our swords. ”

“ So argued Baillie and the Presbyterians. But, indeed, they saw more behind the Accommodation Order. The Toleration it sought to provide might seem, from the wording, only a moderate Toleration in the interest of the Independents of the Assembly and their immediate adherents. From what Baillie says, one infers that Mr. Solicitor St. John and Mr. Marshall had been drawing up the Order in this moderate form, and that Cromwell and Vane would fain have had more. "The great shot of Cromwell and Vane," says Baillie, "is to have a liberty for all religions, without any exceptions." ”

“ BLOUNT (coming forward) .
⁠It is best to reef one's sails when a hurricane is abroad.
SIR JOHN.
⁠Why did you not speak to her, Blount? She is your old acquaintance.
BLOUNT.
⁠I have known a lady called Miss Gozling, in whose presence I have stood undismayed; but I must take to my studies, I trow, before I accost my Lady Worrymore.
SIR JOHN.
⁠That is prudent, Frank; you are rather far behind in book-learning.
MISS FRANKLAND (glancing at Clermont) .
⁠And have not yet penned a sonnet, I believe.
BLOUNT.
⁠Faith, I don't know a sonnet from a roundelay ”

“ LADY WORRYMORE.
⁠Clermont! Have I the pleasure of beholding the writer of that beautiful sonnet, which has been mentioned to me with so much praise?
SIR JOHN (presenting Clermont) .
⁠A poet who will think himself honoured indeed by the notice of such a critic as Lady Worrymore.
LADY WORRYMORE.
⁠O no, Sir John! an ardent admirer of the Muses, but no critic.—To what a charming department of poetry, Mr. Clermont, you have devoted your pen! The sonnet!—the refined, the tender, the divine sonnet! O how it purifies and separates the mind from all commonness and meanness of Nature! ”

“ No, good nephew, moderate your laughter a little: Amaryllis has been playing the fool in a very different way from you; for he has married his bride without expecting one farthing with her, and learns on returning from church, as our good landlady has been informing me, that an uncle of hers is just dead, who has left her a very handsome fortune.
(Worshipton, whose mirth stops in a moment, endeavours to resume the laugh again, but finding it wont do, retires in confusion to the bottom of the stage.)
SIR JOHN HAZELWOOD (to Amaryllis and Dolly) . ”

“ Argyle in the meantime had fled to Edinburgh, to lay his complaints before the Convention of Estates. To meet the exigence of the moment, a considerable army was raised under General Baillie, a Presbyterian officer of skill and fidelity, with whom was joined in command the celebrated Sir John Urrie, a soldier of fortune like Dalgetty, who had already changed sides twice during the Civil War, and was destined to turn his coat a third time before it was ended. Argyle also, burning with indignation, proceeded to levy his own numerous forces, in order to avenge himself of his feudal enemy. ”

“ Her uncle and she had never been in sympathy. Evidently she had nobody else at all to whom she could appeal for her baby's sake to take some interest in her. She had always been a good and very quiet, steady girl, yet her uncle found it a little hard to believe in the story of her marriage.
There was a young man at Vane Abbey—John Mauleverer, the eldest son. But he was a shy, retiring, delicate youth, by no means the kind of man whom one suspects of making love to the governess. Rankin Leigh had made a few inquiries at the time, but had learnt nothing to confirm such a suspicion. ”

“ We hope the back of the Malignant [Royalist] Party is broken; [but] some fears the insolence of others, to whom alone the Lord has given the victory of that day." The news of the taking of Carlisle at last by the Scots (June 28) may have helped to revive his spirits; but that also may have been an indirect consequence of Naseby, and the subsequent small success of the Scots during those months when Fairfax, Cromwell, and the New Model were succeeding so splendidly in the South- West, again threw Baillie into despondency. ”

“ The terms, indeed, were thought far too liberal by the Presbyterians. "The scurvy base propositions which Cromwell has given to the Malignants at Oxford has offended many," writes Baillie, June 26; [Footnote: Baillie, II. 376] the reason for the offence being that it was but too clear that the Independents had been in haste to obtain Oxford on any terms whatever, in order that the army might be free to act, if necessary, against the Scots in the north. Anyhow the surrender had taken place. The Princes Rupert and Maurice had left the city with a retinue and promise of liberty to go abroad ”

“ Plying his learning in this fashion, and assisted by Whitlocke, St. John, and the other lawyers in the Assembly and in Parliament, Selden had, throughout 1645, kept up an Erastian obstruction to the Presbyterians. Now, as Prynne out of doors, with all his Presbyterianism, was also lawyer-like, and therefore staunchly Erastian, and as the Independents in Parliament made common cause with the Erastians wherever they could, the obstruction had been very formidable. "The Erastian party in the Parliament is stronger than the Independent, and is like to work us much woe," wrote Baillie in May 1645 ”

“ It was worse than Baillie could have guessed. After much inquiry and consultation about the Assembly's Petition, the Commons, on the 11th of April 1646, came to two sharp votes. The first was on the question "Whether the House shall first debate the point concerning the Breach of Privilege in this Petition;" and it was carried in the affirmative by 106 Yeas, told by Evelyn of Wilts and Haselrig, against 85 Noes, told by Holles and Stapleton. The question was then put "Whether this Petition, thus presented by the Assembly of the Divines, is a Breach of Privilege of Parliament;" ”

“ While Baillie was writing the passage above quoted, the Scottish Commissioners, along with the Lord-general Essex, and some of Essex's chief adherents, including Denzil Holles and Sir Philip Stapleton, were consulting how they might trip Cromwell up. At a conference late one night at Essex-house, to which Whitlocke and Maynard were invited, the Scottish Chancellor Loudoun moved the business warily in a speech which Whitlocke mischievously tries to report in its native Scotch—"You ken vary weele that Lieutenant-general Cromwell is no friend of ours," &c. ”

“ ROBERT.
⁠No one, Ma'am; he is alone.
MADALINE.
⁠Then he has not found him; where can he possibly have gone to?—Humphry, I hope, has not told his mistress of his having been in his father's closet before he went out, and his suspicions about the fowling-piece.
ROBERT.
⁠He has not; and, indeed, he thinks now that the fowling-piece was carried to the gunsmith's some little time ago.
MADALINE.
⁠Humphry must be at hand now. Call to him.
ROBERT (thrusting his head again out at the door) .
⁠ Holla! holla, there!—It is him, Madam; he answers me.
Enter Mrs. Arden, running eagerly. ”

“ The philosopher's stone, thou knowest, may as well fall into my hands as those of any other wanderer, so pray thee, man, dont look so ruefully upon me.
HERMAN.
Ah, my dear master! there is something here that hangs heavy on my heart, and says, if I leave you now, some evil will befal you: I beseech you let me stay with you, I shall find something to do in this town, and I can————
RAYNER.
No, no, no! Speak of this no more—we have argued this point already. And what is this which thou puttest down so slyly upon the table? ”

“ BAILLIE, WILLIAM (fl. 1648) , Scottish general, was the son of Sir William Baillie of Lamington, an adherent of Queen Mary of Scotland. His mother was a daughter of Sir Alexander Hume, lord provost of Edinburgh, and he was born during the lifetime of his father's first wife, Margaret Maxwell, countess of Angus. Sir William Baillie, on the death of the countess, married his mistress, but the son was not thereby legitimatised, and the estates were inherited by Margaret Baillie, the eldest daughter by the first marriage. ”

“ Thine aching head, like the poor wand'rer's wife,
Who, on his seat of turf, beneath heaven's roof,
Rests on his way.—The storm beats fiercely on us:
Our nature suits not with these worldly times,
To it most adverse. Fortune loves us not;
She hath for us no good: do we retain
Her fetters only? No, thou shalt not go!
(Twining her arms round him.)
By that which binds the peasant and the prince,
The warrior and the slave, all that do bear
The form and nature of a man, I stay thee!
Thou shalt not go.
CONSTANTINE.
Would'st thou degrade me thus? ”

“ SCENE III. Lady Sarah's bed-room, almost dark, with a feeble light thrown across the floor, as from a bad fire. Enter Sir Crafty Supplecoat and Sharp, stealing softly on their tiptoes.
Sir C. Hist, hist! which is the door. Sharp?
Sharp. Never fear, Sir; come this way. (opening the door of an adjoining room.) Go in, Sir, and fear nothing. But you must sit in the dark, and not be impatient: Pry wont fail to pump her lady, and you'll hear every word that is said. (putting Sir Crafty into the room, and pretending to lock the door upon him, then exit laughing to himself as he goes out.) ”

“ Murrain take thee and thy love too! thou hast no more spirit in thee than a worm.
Bar. Bravo, Boy! thou hast enough of it, I see; and I'll put a stand of colours into thy hand as soon as thou art strong enough to carry them. Thou art my boy now; I will protect thee.
Page. I thank you, Baron.—And my sister; will you protect her too?
Bar. Yes, Child; both of you.
Page. Refuse him then, Nina: hast thou no more pride about thee?
Nina. Alas! I should, have more pride: I know l should; but I have been sadly humbled.
Page. Thou'lt be still more so if thou art his wife, trust me! ”

“ Full oft returning from the field, become
Beneath their shading helmets aged men:
But ah! the kind, the playful, and the gay;
They who have gladden'd their domestic board,
And cheer'd the winter fire, do they return?
(shaking her head sorrowfully.)
I grieve you all: I will no more complain.
Dear mother, lead me hence. (to Sig.)
(To Sel.) I thank you, gentle Selred, this suffices.
(Exeunt Bertha supported by Sigurtha.
Sel. (to Mollo, who has sat for some time with his face cover'd.) What, so o'ercome, my father?
Moll. I am o'ercome, my son; lend me thine arm. ”

“ BERTRAM.
Heav'n bless your honour! O, if by your means
He might have grace!
HARDIBRAND.
⁠Come, let us go to him.
BERTRAM.
Not now, an' please you: he is now engaged
With one most dear to him. But an hour hence
I will conduct you to his cell.
HARDIBRAND.
⁠So be it.
Mean time, stay thou with me, and tell me more
Of this unhappy youth: I have a mind.
With the good keeper's leave, to view the prison.
⁠ (Exeunt.
Enter Mira and Alice by opposite sides, both muffed up in cloaks and their faces conceal'd.)
MIRA (stopping Alice) . ”

“ ROVANI.
Ah! such a resolution! Heard I right?
To leave his wife and child?
HERMIT.
Question me not, my son; there is good cause:
'T is meet that he should go.
ROVANI.
Forgive me, Father!
That solemn voice and sorrowing eye too well
Asserts there is a cause,—a fearful cause.
I will obey thee. (Going, but returns again.)
Is there aught further thou would'st have me do?
HERMIT.
He will, perhaps, desire to see his lady;
But till he be prepared to leave the castle,
And take his last farewell, methinks 't were better
They should not meet. ”

“ The very air rests thick and heavily
Where murder hath been done.
(Sighing heavily.) There is a strange oppression in my breast:
Dost thou not feel a close unwholesome vapour?
Rud. No; ev'ry air to me is light and healthful,
That with thy sweet and heavenly breath is mix'd.
Or. (starting up.) Thou here!
(Looking round.) Cathrina gone?
Rud. Does Orra fear to be alone with one,
Whose weal, whose being on her favour hangs?
Or. Retire, Sir Knight. I chuse to be alone.
Rud. And dost thou chuse it, here, in such a place,
Wearing so near the midnight hour?—Alas! ”