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The capital letters are in the original. James the Just? Selden, the friend whom
Jonson praised that very year as 'the Law book of the Judges of England', was in
detention. Was anyone listening?
Jonson cuts just as close to the bone in a later scene, in which the Third Gypsy
describes a troop of drunken soldiers who declare that they have a right to steal
food,
As being by our Magna Carta taught
To judge no viands wholesome that are bought.
The Great Charter was the revered touchstone of the rights of subjects towards
their rulers.Originally written in1215,itwasthebackbone oftheancient constitu-
tion, which insisted, among other things, that 'no freeman shall be imprisoned but
by the law of the land'. Selden owned half a dozen manuscript copies of Magna
Cartaandcitedthetextregularlyinhiswritings.Jonsonwouldhaveknownallthis.
So who was it who was really joking with the law? Luckily for Jonson, James had
a tin ear for political rhetoric when it was disguised as verse. He was too delighted
by the masque to notice the barb.
Bythetimethemasquewasperformed,however,Seldenwasoutofprison.The
crisis was over; hearts could be light again.
____________________
ThearresthadbeenawarningtoSelden,butonehedeclinedtotake;indeed,ithad
the opposite effect. Rather than feel chastened, the short spell in prison galvanised
him to oppose anything his king tried to do 'for speciall causes & reasons of State'
that impaired the rights of citizens. He would spend the next three decades coun-
tering every such attempt to use extra-judicial means to force compliance, whether
by the king or, even more radically, by Parliament.
In the next Parliament, of 1624, Selden did not just advise the House of Com-
mons but sat as a member. Before controversy could pit Parliament too squarely
against James, the 'lord of the four seas, king of the less and greater isles', as Jon-
sononcecalledhim,hadthegoodgracetodie.HissonwascrownedCharlesI.The
arrogance and ambition of the new king put him on a collision course with Parlia-
ment right from the start, and Selden was inexorably drawn into the fray. Buck-
ingham (now the duke of) continued to be the son's favourite as he had been the
father's. Disliked under James, he was loathed under Charles, and Parliament set
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