Note 365 — QUARRELS OF AUTHORS; (continued 4)
Reading edition
The papers of Aubrey confirm my suggestion. I shall give the words—“There was a report, and surely true, that in parliament, not long after the king was settled, some of the bishops made a motion to have the good old gentleman burned for a heretique; which he hearing, feared that his papers might be searched by their order, and he told me he had burned part of them.”—p. 612. When Aubrey requested Waller to write verses on Hobbes, the poet said that he was afraid of the Churchmen. Aubrey tells us—“I have often heard him say that he was not afraid of Sprights, but afraid of being knocked on the head for five or ten pounds which rogues might think he had in his chamber.” This reason given by Hobbes for his frequent alarms was an evasive reply for too curious and talkative an inquirer. Hobbes has not concealed the cause of his terror in his metrical life—
“Tunc venit in mentem mihi Dorislaus et Ascham, Tanquam proscripto terror ubique aderat.”
Dr. Dorislaus and Ascham had fallen under the daggers of proscription. [The former was assassinated in Holland, whither he had fled for safety.]