The Fatal Jealousie (1673) | Page 2

and
The Morning Ramble was shown at the same theater three months later.
Both plays were performed before the King (Allerdyce Nicoll, A
History of Restoration Drama, 1923, p. 309). Payne's third and last
play, The Siege of Constantinople, which reached the stage in
November 1674, is of particular interest in view of his long association
with the cause of James, Duke of York. Payne found his plot in the
General Historie of the Turkes by Knolles, but he altered history to
produce a work which would compliment James. It is significant that
there is no prototype in Knolles for Thomazo (James), the brother of
the last Christian emperor of Constantinople (Charles). At the end of
the play the Turks conquer the city (_sc._, the Dutch and London) and
the Emperor is slain. Here was a warning to Englishmen of what would
happen if their double-dealing "Lord Chancellor" (Shaftesbury)--the
villain of the piece--were to succeed in alienating the two royal
brothers.
During the years 1678-1680 Payne's name dodges in and out of the
thousands of words written about the Popish plot. He was pretty
certainly a friend of Edward Coleman (Secretary to the Duchess of
York) who was executed for treason in December, 1678. After a
hearing before the Privy Council, Payne was held over for trial and
imprisoned in the King's Bench. Confinement did not in the least hinder
him from giving aid to the Catholic party in organizing its
counter-attack. According to _Mr. Tho. Dangerfields Particular
Narrative_ (1679) he was one of the chief devisers of the Presbyterian
Plot and, as "chief Pen-man" for the Catholics, the author of several
"scandalous books" about their enemies. Payne was again before the
Privy Council in November 1679, but eventually all the principals in
the Catholic plots to discredit the government were released.
After the accession of James II Payne kept more respectable company.
References to him during these years say nothing about any work for

the theater, but his pen was still busy--from 1685 to 1687 in the cause
of religious toleration. In 1685 the Duke of Buckingham published _A
Short Discourse upon the Reasonableness of Men's having a Religion
or Worship of God_. A portion of this pamphlet had been written as a
letter to Payne. When Buckingham's work brought on a pamphlet war,
Payne (together with William Penn) rushed to his defence. The debate
grew hotter when James made the first Declaration of Indulgence in
April 1687. Payne was one of the chief controversialists in the war of
words that followed. Another literary friend of these years, and an
extravagant admirer of his devotion to the Stuarts, was Aphra Behn.
She dedicated her Fair Jilt to Payne in 1688 in terms which suggest
that he had favored her in tangible ways.
With the deposition of James, the years of Payne's greatest activity
begin. The story of his life for the next twelve years is intricate and
exciting, for he has now moved out of the company of writers into the
dark world of secret agents and prison-guards. Though he was confined
in the Fleet by January 1688/89, Payne went boldly ahead with plans
for what would be the first Jacobite conspiracy, the Montgomery Plot.
By some means he contrived to escape to Scotland, where his plans had,
of course, more fertile soil in which to grow. Once more in custody, he
was moved from one prison to another, but the Privy Council was
incapable of persuading the Scottish authorities to "put the rogue to it."
As more and more evidence came out showing how deeply involved
Payne was in the Montgomery Plot, the Scottish Privy Council finally
was prevailed upon to put Payne to the torture. On Dec. 10, 1690, he
bore the pain of two hours under thumb and leg screws with such
fortitude that some of the Councilors were "brangled" and believed that
his denials must be the words of an honest man. The Earl of Crawford,
one of the witnesses to this, the last occasion in Britain in which a
political prisoner was tortured, was so moved that he reported to the
Earl of Melville that such manly resolution could come only from a
deep religious fervor: "[Payne] did conceive he was acting a thing not
only generous towards his friends and accomplices, but likewise so
meritorious, that he would thereby save his soule, and be canoniz'd
among the saints" (_Letters ... to George Earl of Melville_, Bannatyne
Club, 1843, pp. 582-3).

For nearly eleven years more Payne was moved from one Scottish
prison to another, while the Scottish Privy Council sought to turn him
over to the English and the Privy Council in London endeavored to
force him to trial in Scotland. The truth is that Jacobitism was so rife in
high places that they whose