Rokeby

2 July 1644

Battle of Marston Moor

ADVERTISEMENT

The Time occupied by the Action is a space of Five Days, Three
of which are supposed to elapse between the end of the Fifth and
the beginning of the Sixth Canto.

The date of the supposed events is immediately subsequent to
the great Battle of Marston Moor, 3d July, 1644. This period of
public confusion has been chosen without any purpose of combining
the Fable with the Military or Political Events of the Civil War,
but only as affording a degree of probability to the Fictitious Nar-
rative now presented to the Public.

CANTO FIRST

XXXIV

He starts — a step at this lone hour!

A voice! — his father seeks the tower,
With haggard look and troubled sense,
Fresh from his dreadful conference.
‘Wilfrid! — what, not to sleep addressed?
Thou hast no cares to chase thy rest.
Mortham has fallen on Marston Moor;
Bertram brings warrant to secure

His treasures, bought by spoil and blood,
For the state’s use and public good.

NOTES

NOTE 7, p. 20.

Crotnwell, with his regiment of cuirassiers, had a principal
share in turning the fate of the day at Marston Moor; which was

437

NOTES

NOTE 25, p. 73

After the battle of Marston Moor, the Earl of Newcastle
retired beyond sea in disgust, and many of his followers laid
down their arms, and made the best composition they could with
the Committees of Parliament. Fines were imposed upon them
in proportion to their estates and degrees of delinquency, and
these fines were often bestowed upon such persons as had
deserved well of the Commons. In some circumstances it hap-
pened, that the oppressed cavaliers were fain to form family
alliances with some powerful person among the triumphant
party. The whole of Sir Robert Howard’s excellent comedy of
The Committee turns upon the plot of Mr. and Mrs. Day to
enrich their family, by compelling Arabella, whose estate was
under sequestration, to marry their son Abel, as the price by
which she was to compound with Parliament for delinquency;
that is, for attachment to the royal cause.

NOTE 26, p. 76