CHAPTER III. 63

Ben Jonson's Ridicule of the Early Newspapers--Fondness of the Old News-Writers for the Marvellous--The Smithfield Ghost--The Wonderful Whale--The Newbury Witch--Satirical Tracts and Caricatures at the Commencement of the Civil War--Religion Tossed in a Blanket--Caricatures of the Pope and the Bishops--Pluralists and Patentees--Taylor, the Water Poet--_Mercurius Aulicus_--Activity of the Pamphleteers--Welshmen Satirised--Satires on Prince Rupert--On the King and Queen--The Ladies' Parliament--Illustrated Tracts relating to Social and Political Subjects--Sir Kenelm Digby's Duel--The King entertained by the City of London, 1641--Executions in 1641--The Liquor Traffic and Sunday Closing in 1641--Abuses of the Ecclesiastical Courts--Ritualism and Nunneries in 1641--Truths enforced by Lieing--Stage Players and the Plague in 1641--Bartholomew Fair in 1641--Destruction of Charing Cross and Cheapside Cross--Strange Apparition--Method of enforcing their Views adopted by the Puritan Pamphleteers--Parodies of Roundhead Sermons--Matthew Hopkins the Witch-finder--The _Welsh Post_ of 1643--William Lilly the Astrologer--Three Suns seen in London on the King's Birthday.