Though he suffered and lost all for the
Stuarts, he was forgotten by them at the Restoration, and died
in extreme poverty.
Besides Wither and Bunyan, Charles II. imprisoned Baxter,
Harrington (the author of 'Oceana'), Penn, and many more. All
these men solaced their prison hours with writing. Baxter wrote
some of the most remarkable passages of his 'Life and Times' while
lying in the King's Bench Prison; and Penn wrote his 'No Cross no
Crown' while imprisoned in the Tower. In the reign of Queen Anne,
Matthew Prior was in confinement on a vamped-up charge of treason
for two years, during which he wrote his 'Alma, or Progress
of the Soul.'
Since then, political prisoners of eminence in England have been
comparatively few in number. Among the most illustrious were De
Foe, who, besides standing three times in the pillory, spent much
of his time in prison, writing 'Robinson Crusoe' there, and many
of his best political pamphlets. There also he wrote his 'Hymn to
the Pillory,' and corrected for the press a collection of his
voluminous writings. (9) Smollett wrote his 'Sir Lancelot
Greaves' in prison, while undergoing confinement for libel.
Of recent prison-writers in England, the best known are James
Montgomery, who wrote his first volume of poems while a prisoner
in York Castle; and Thomas Cooper, the Chartist, who wrote his
'Purgatory of Suicide' in Stafford Gaol.
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