William James Linton:

49) Harry Marten's Dungeon-Thoughts.

n.d. / n.p. (London, ca. 1845)

Folded leaflet. First edition. Signed: W.J. L.

Henry Marten was a prominent member of the puritan Long Parliament that had signed the death warrant of King Charles I.  After the restoration he was found guilty of regicide and had to spent the remaining twenty years of his life in prison.  Linton lets him bemoan the cowardice of his fellow countrymen and envision a bright Republican future. In 1855, Linton published a literary portrait of Henry Marten in his journal The English Republic, and in 1865 he reproduced the Dungeon- Thoughts in Claribel, his first selection of poems.