In Prison-in Captivity-in Exile

Many works which have brought enduring fame to their authors were written in prison or during captivity or exile.

First.-"The Review," by Daniel Defoe. This author, whose most successful works took the form of satires, was prosecuted for libel in consequence of a book published in 1702, called "The Shortest Way with Dissenters." In it he ironically proposed to get rid of the dissenting element in England by hanging its ministers and banishing their people. He was condemned to be fined, pilloried and imprisoned. In 1704, while in his cell at Newgate, he began to issue, in periodical form, a little paper called The Review, which was the legitimate forerunner of The Tattler, The Spectator, and other literary ventures of that sort, which flourished during the earlier half of the eighteenth century. After his release, he plunged himself into fresh trouble by a series of pamphlets directed against the Jacobins, one of them entitled "What if the Queen Should Die?" and another "What if the Pretender Should Come?" Their satire was mistaken for earnest argument; and Defoe was imprisoned again, finishing there "The Review," in 1713, which he had begun nine years before in prison.

Second.-The first part of "Pilgrim's Progress" and "Grace Abounding," written by John Bunyan while imprisoned at Bedford because he would preach as a dissenting evangelist after the Restoration, in 1660. He was released in 1671, largely through the kind offices of Dr. Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln.

Third.-"The King's Quhair" (The King's Book), written by James I., of Scotland, while detained as a captive in England, chiefly at Windsor Castle, for nineteen years, beginning with 1405. This work was a poem in six cantos, in which the author paid a literary tribute to his lady-love, Lade Jane Beaufort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, and niece of Henry IV. His poetry was so acceptable that the seven-line stanza which he followed throughout the poem is still called, in his honor, the "rhyme royal." The cause of the young king's captivity was the hostility then existing between England and Scotland.

Fourth.--A "History of the World" was written by Sir Walter Raleigh, during his long imprisonment in the Tower of London, from 1603 to 1615. This incarceration was the result of an unjust judgment of high treason rendered against him through the efforts of the king, James I., who disliked him. The "History," as it has come down to us, is only a fragment, but a fine specimen of English style in that era. Thompson's tribute is: "He with his prisoned hours enriched the world."

Fifth.--"The Revelation of St. John the Divine." St. John was the son of the fisherman Zebedee and Salome, and, with his brother James, was among the first followers of our Lord. He is generally known, by his own description, as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He seems to have been at all times a constant companion of the Master, and present on all the most honorable occasions during His ministry on earth. He witnessed the Transfiguration; he leaned on the bosom of Jesus at the Last Supper; he stood beside the Cross; he helped to lay the crucified body of Jesus in the sepulchre; was among the first to the tomb on the third day, and beheld His resurrection. After the death of the Virgin Mother, whom Jesus had committed to his care, St. John went about preaching the Gospel with St. Peter. He then travelled into Asia Minor, and founded the Seven Asiatic Churches, residing chiefly at Ephesus. During the persecution of the Christians under Domitian, St. John was sent in fetters to Rome, where, according to tradition, he was plunged into a caldron of boiling oil, but "came out of it as out of a refreshing bath." He was then accused of magic and exiled to Patmos, a lonely, barren, mountainous islet in the AEgean Sea, where he wrote the book of the Revelation, with which the New Testament ends. After the death of Domitian, St. John was released and returned to Ephesus (date not accurately ascertained), where he died, being nearly a century old.

Sixth.--"The Divine Comedy" of Dante (see Vol. I.). This great work was mainly written during the exile of Dante from his native city, Florence. A political feud which raged in Florence about the year 1300, between two factions (the Guelphs and the Ghibellines), was settled, through the advice of Dante, by banishing the heads of both factions. This aroused the enmity of the parties, and resulted in Dante's being banished forever from Florence. After nineteen years of homeless wandering, he died September 14th, 1321, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.