JAMES THE SECOND.

109

satirical ditties under his windows. Some fragments of theserenades which then disturbed the High Street have beenpreserved. The burden of one ballad was this:

“ Old ObadiahSings Ave Maria.”

When the actors came down to Oxford, the public feelingwas expressed still more strongly. Howard’s Committee wasperformed. This play, written soon after the Restoration,exhibited the Puritans in an odious and contemptible light,and had therefore been, during a quarter of a century, afavourite with Oxonian audiences. It was now a greaterfavourite than ever; for, by a lucky coincidence, one of themost conspicuous characters was an old hypocrite namedObadiah. The audience shouted with delight when, in thelast scene, Obadiah was dragged in with a halter round hisneck; and the acclamations redoubled when one of theplayers, departing from the written text of the comedy, pro-claimed that Obadiah should be hanged because he hadchanged his religion. The King was much provoked by thisinsult. So mutinous indeed was the temper of the Universitythat one of the newly raised regiments, the same which is nowcalled the Second Dragoon Guards, was quartered at Oxfordfor the purpose of preventing an outbreak. *

These events ought to have convinced James that he hadentered on a course which must lead him to his ruin. To theclamours of London he had been long accustomed. Theyhad been raised against him, sometimes unjustly, and some-times vainly. He had repeatedly braved them, and mightbrave them still. But that Oxford, the seat of loyalty, thehead quarters of the Cavalier army, the place where his fatherand brother had held their court when they thought them-selves insecure in their stormy capital, the place where thewritings of the great republican teachers had recently beencommitted to the flames, should now be in a ferment of dis-content, that those high-spirited youths who a few months

• Wood’s Alhenae Oxonienses; Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber;Cilters, March ,V 16 S 6 .

CHAP.

VIII.

1687 .