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CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE,
THE LITERARY CHARACTER ILLUSTRATED.
BY
I. C. D'ISRAELI, ESQ. D.C.L. F.S.A.
WITH
CURIOSITIES OF AMERICAN LITERATURE,
BY
RUFUS W. GRISWOLD.
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.
WORLD PUBLISHING HOUSE,
139 EIGHTH STREET,
NEW YORK.
187 5.




PREFACE.
TiIs miscellany was first formed, many years ago, when two of my
friends were occupied in those anecdotical labours, which have proved so
entertaining to themselves, and their readers.* I conceived that a collection of a different complexion, though much less amusing, might prove
somewhat more instructive; and that literary history afforded an almost
unexplored source of interesting facts. The work itself has been well
enough received by the public to justify its design.
Every class of readers requires a book adapted to itself and that book
which interests, and perhaps brings much new information to a multitude
of readers, is not to be contemned, even by the learned.  More might be
alleged in favour of works like the present than can be urged against them.
rl'hey are of a class which was well known to the ancients. The Greeks
were not without them; the Romans loved them under the title of Varia
Eruditio; and the Orientalists, more than either, were passionately fond
of the-s agreeable collections.  The fanciful titles, with which they de
corated their variegated miscellanies, sufficiently express their delight.
The design of this work is to stimulate the literary curiosity of those,
who, with a taste for its tranquil pursuits, are impeded in their acquirements  The characters, the events, and the singularities of modern literature, are not always familiar even to those who excel in classical studies.
But a more numerous part of mankind, by their occupations, or their indolence, both unfavourable causes to literary improvement, require to obtain the materials for thinking, by the easiest and readiest means. This
work has proved useful: it has been reprinted abroad, and it has been
translated; and the honour which many writers at home have conferred
on it, by referring to it, has exhilarated the zealous labour which seven
editions have necessarily exacted.
* The late William Seward, Esq., and James Pettit Andrews, Egq.




CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE
LIBRARIES.                           Caesar, and Cicero, have, amoig others, been celebrated
THE passion for forming vast collections of books has ne-  for their literary splendour.  Lucullus, whose incredible
cessarily existed in al; periods of human curiosity; but  opulence exhausted itself on more than imperial luxuries,,ong it required royal munificence to found a national libra-  more honourably distinguished himself by his vast collec.
ry.  It is only since the art of multiplying the productions   tions of books, and the happy use he made of them by the
cf the mind has been discovered, that men of letters have  liberal access he allowed the learned.' It was a library,
been enabled to rival this imperial and patriotic honour.  says Plutarch,' whose walks, galleries, and cabinets, were
The taste for books, so rare before the fifteenth century,  open to all visiters; and the ingenious Greeks, when at
has gradually become general only within these four hun-  leisure, resorted to this abode of the Muses to hold literary
dred years; in that small space of time the public mind of  conversations, in which Lucullus himlself loved to join?
Europe has been created.                                   This library, enlarged by others, Julius Caesar once pro.
Of LIBRARIES, the following anecdotes seem  most in-  posed to open for the public, having chosen the er udite
teresting, as they mark either the affection, or the venera-  Varro for its librarian; but the daggers of Brutus and his
tion, which civilized men have ever felt for these perennial  party prevented the meditated projects of Caesar.  In this
repositories (of their minds.  The first national library   museum, Cicero frequently pursued his studies, during the
founded in Egypt seemed to have been placed under the  time his friend Faustus had the charge of it, which he de.
protection of the divinities, for their statues magnificently  scribes to Atticus in his 4th Book, Epist. 9.  Amidst his
adorned this temple, dedicated at once to religion and to  public occupations and his private studies, either of them
literature.   It was still farther embellished  by a well  sufficient to have immortalized one man, we are astonishknown inscription, for ever grateful to the votary of litera-  ed at the minute attention Cicero paid to the formation of
ture; on tile front was engraven,' The nourishment of the   his libraries, and his cabinets of antiquities.
soul;' or, according to Diodorus,'The medicine of the        The emperors were ambitious at length to give their
mind.'                                                     names to the libraries they founded; they did not consider
The Egyptian Ptolenmies founded the vast library of  the purple as their chief ornament. Augustus was himself
Alexandria, which was afterwards the emulative labour of  an author, and in one of those sumptuous buildings called
rival monarchs; the founder infused a soul into the vast  Thlermes, ornamented with porticoes, galleries, and statues
bo:dy he was creating, by his choice of the librarian De-  with shady walks, and refreshing baths, testified his love of
metrius Phalereus, whose skilful industry amassed from   literature by adding a magnificent library, one of these
all nations their choicest productions.  Without such a  libraries he fondly called by the name of his sister Octavia;
librarian, a national library would be little more than a   and the other, the temple of Apollo, became the haunt of
literary chaos.   His well exercised memory and critical  the poets, as Horace, Juvenal, and Persius have cornme.
iudngmeut are its best catalogue.  One of the Ptolemies re-  morated.  The successors of Augustus imitated his ex.
fused supplyina the famnished Athenians with wheat, until  ample, and even Tiberius had an imperial library chiefly
they presented him  with the original manuscripts of Es-  consisting of works concerning the empire and the acts of
chylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; and in returning copies  its sovereigns.  These Trajan augmented by the Ulpian
of these originals, he allowed them to retain the fifteen ta-  library, so denominated firom the family name of this prince.
lents which he had pledged with them  as a princely    In a word we have accounts of the rich ornaments the
security.                                                  ancients bestowed on their libraries; of their floors paved
Even when tyrants, or usurpers, possessed sense as  with marble, their walls covered with glass and ivory, and
well as courage, they have proved the most ardent patrons  their shelves and desks of ebony and cedar.
of literature; they know it is their interest to turn aside the  The first public library in Italy, says Tiraboschi, was
public mind from political speculations, and to afford their  founded by a person of no considerable fortune: his credit,
subjects the inrexhaustible occupations of curiosity, and the   his frugality, and fortitude, were indeed equal to a trea.
consoling pleasures of the imagination.  Thus Pisistratus  sury.  This extraordinary man was Nicholas Niccoli, the
is said to have been among the earliest of the Greeks, who   son of a merchant, and in his youth himself a merchant;
projected an immense collection of the works of the learn-  but after the death of his father he relinquished the beaten
ed, and is believed to have been the collector of the scat-  roads of gain, and devoted his soul to study, and his fortered works, which passed tinder the name of Homer.         tune to assist students.  At his death he left his library to
The Romans, after six centuries of gradual dominion,  the public, but his debts being greater than his effects, the
must have possessed the vast and diversified collections of  princely generosity of Cosmo de Medici realized the inten~
the writings of the nations they conquered; among the   tion of its former possessor, and afterwards enriched it, by
most valued spoils of their victories, we know that manu-  the addition of an apartment, in which he placed the Greek,
scripts were  considered as more precious than vases   Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldaic, and Indian Mss.  The intre.
of gld. Paulus Emilius, after the defeat of Perseus, king   pid resolution of NTicholas V, laid the foundations of the
of Macedon, brout!ht to Rotoe a great number which he   Vatican; the affection of Cardinal Bessarion for his coun.had amassed in Greece, and which he now distributed   try, first gave Venice the rudiments ofa public library; and
among his sons, or presented to the Roman people.  Sylla  to Sir T. Bodley we owe the invaluable one of Oxford.
follo.wed his example.  After the siege of Athens, he dis-  Sir Robert Cotton, Sir H. Sloane, Dr Birch, Mr Crach.
covered an entire library in the temple of Apollo, which   erode, and others of this race of lovers of books, have all
having carried to Rorne lie appears to have been the founder  contributed to form these literary treasures, wlich our naof the first Romnan public library.  After the taking of  tion owe to the enthusiasm of individuals, who have found
Carthage, the Rornanl senate rewarded the family of Re-  such pleasure in consecrating their fortunes and their days
gulus with the books found in the city. A library was a   to this great public object; or, which in the result produces
national gift, and the inost honourable they could bestow.  the same public good, the collections of such men have
From the intercourse of the Iovmans wish the Greeks, the   been frequently purchased on their deaths, by government,
passion for forming libraries rapidly increased, and indivi-  and thus have entered whole and entire into the great na"uals began to pride themsil;ves on their private collections.  tional collections.
Of many illootruous Romlans, their magnificent  taste in   Literature, like virtue, is its own reward, and the en.
Ides libraries brsS been recorded. Asinius Pollio, Crassus  I thusiasm some experience in the permanent enjoyments ol




4                                       CURIOSITIES OF
a vast library, have far outweighed the neglect or the ca-  on the continent, about 1440. It is a circumstance worthy
lumny of the world, which some of its votaries have receiv-  observation, that the French sovereign, Charles V, sure
ed. From the time that Cicero poured forth his feelings  named the Wise, ordered that thirty portable lights, witk
in his oration for the poet Archias, innumerable are the  a silver lamp suspended from the centre, should be illumin..
testimonies of men of letters of the pleasurable delirium of  ated at night, that students might not find their pursuits intheir researches, that delicious beverage which they have  terrupted at any hour. Many among us, at this moment,
swallowed, so thirstily, from the magical cup of literature.  whose professional avocations admit not of morning studies,
Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, Chancellor and high  find that the resources of a public library are not accessible
treasurer of England so early as 1341, perhaps raised the  to them from the omission of the regulation of the zealous
first private library in our country.  He purchased thirty  Charles V of France.  An alarming objection to night.
or forty volumes of the abbot of St. Albans for fifty pounds  studies in public libraries is the danger of fire, and in our
weight of silver. He was so enamoured of his large col-  own British Museum  inot a light is permitted to be carried
lection, that he expressly composed a treatise on his love  about on  any pretence whatever.  The history of the
of books, under the title of' Philobibliot,' an honourable tri-'Bibliotheque du Roi' is a curioun incident in literature 
Dute paid to literature, in an age not literary.         and the progress of the human mind and public opinion
To pass much of our time amid such vast resources,  might be traced by its gradual accessions, noting the
that man must indeed be not more animated than a leaden  changeable qualities of its literary stores chiefly from theo..
Mercury, who does not aspire to make some small addition  logy, law  and medicine, to philosophy, and elegant litera.
to his library, were it only by a critical catalogue!  He  ture.  In 1789 Neckar reckoned the literary treasures to
must be as indolent as that animal called the sloth, who  atount to 225,000 printed books, 70,000 manuscripts, and
perishes on the tree he climbs, after he has eaten all its  15,000 collections of prints. By a curious little volume
leaves.                                                  published by M. Le Prince in 1782, it appears that it was
Henry Rantzau, a Danish gentleman, the founder of the  first under Louis XIV that the productions of the art of
great library at Copenhagen, whose days were dissolved  engraving were collected and arranged; the great minister
in the pleasures of reading, discovers his taste and ardour  Colbert purchased the extensive collections of the Abbd de
in the following elegant effusion:                       Marolles, who may be ranked among the fathers of our
print-collectors.  Two hundred and sixty-four ample portSalvete aureoli mei libelli,                 folios laid the foundations, and the catalogues of his collec.
Mew delicime, mei lepores.                    tions, printed by Marolles himself, are rare, curious, and
Quam vos saepe oculis juvat videre,           high-priced.  Our own national print-gallery is yet an inEt tritos manibus tenere nostris  fant establishment.
Tot vos eximii, tot eruditi,                    Mr Hallam  has observed, that in 1440, England had
Prisci lumina saeculi et recentis,            made comparatively but little progress in learning-and
Confecere vin, suasque vobis                  Germany was probably still less advanced.  However
Ausi credere lucubrationes:
Et sperare decus perenne seriptis;            there was in Germany a celebrated collector of books in
Neque hbec irrita spes fefellit illos.       the person of Trithemius, the celebrated abbot of. Spanheim, who died in 1516; he had amassed about two thou.
IMITATED.                          sand manuscripts, a literary treasure which excited such
Golden volumes! richest treasures            general attention, that princes and eminent men of that
Objects of delicious pleasures!               day travelled to visit Trithemius and his library. About
You my eyes rejoicing please,                 this time six or eight hundred volumes formed a royal colYou my hands in rapture seize!                lection, and their high value in price could only be furnishBrilliant wits and musing sages,              ed by a prince.  This was indeed a great advancement in
Lights who beatou d through many ages!        libraries, when at the beginning of the fourteenth century
Left to your conscious leaves their story,    the library of Louis IX  contained only four classical auAnd dared to trust you with their glory;
And now their hope of fame achiev'd,          thors, and that of Oxford, in 1300, consisted of 4 a fe
Dear volumes!-you have not deceived!         tracts kept in chest.'
The pleasures of study are classed by Burton among
Tnss passion for the acquisition and enjoyment of books,  those exercises or recreations of the mind which pass
tas been the occasion of their lovers embellishing their out-  within doors. Looking about this' world of books' he exsides with costly ornaments; a rage which ostentation may  claims,' I could even live and die with such meditations,
have abused; but when these volumes belong to the real man  and take more delight and true content of mind in thenm,
of letters, the most fanciful bindings are often the emblems  than in all thy wealth and sport! there is a sweetness,
of his taste and feelings.  The great Thuanus was eager  which, as Circe's cup, bewitcheth a student, he cannot
to purchase the finest copies for his library, and his volumes  leave off, as well may witness those many laborious hours,
are still eagerly purchased, bearing his autograph on the  days and nights, spent in their voluminous treatises.  So
last page. A celebrated amateur was Grollier, whose li-  sweet is the delight of study.  The last day is prioris dis.
brary was opulent in these luxuries; the Muses themselves  cipltus.'' Heinsius was mewed up in the library of Levcould not more ingeniously have ornamented their favourite  den all the year long, and that which to my thinking should
works.  I have seen several in the libraries of our own cu-  have bred a loathing, caused in him a greater liking.  I
rious collectors.  He embellished their outside with taste  no sooner, saith he, come into the library, but I bolt the
and ingenuity.  They are gilded and stamped with pecu-  door to me, excluding Lust, Ambition, Avarice, and al.
liar neatness, the compartments on the binding are drawn,  such vices, whose nurse is Idleness, the mother of Ignor.
and painted, with different inventions of subjects, analogous  ance and Melancholy.  In the very lap of eternity amongst
to the works themselves; and they are farther adorned by  so many divine souls, I take my seat with so lofty a spirit,
that amiable inscription, Jo Grollierii et am-icorum. pur.  and sweet content, that I pity all our great ones and rich
porting that these literary treasures were collected for him-  men, that know not this happiness.' Such is the incense
self and for his friends!                               of a votary who scatters it on the altar.tss for the cere.
The family of the Fuggers had long felt an hereditary  mony than front the devotion.
passion for the acoumulation of literary treasures; and    There is, however, an intemperance in study, incompa.
their portraits, with others in their picture gallery, form a  tible often with our social or more active duties. The
curious quarto volume of 127 portraits, excessively rare  illustrious Grotius exposed himself to the reproaches of
even in Germany, entitled'Fuggerorum Pinacotheca.'  some of his contemporaries for having too warmly pursued
Wolfius, who daily haunted their celebrated library, pours  his studies, to the detriment of his public station. It was
ollt his gratitude in some Greek verses, and describes this  the boast of Cicero, that his philosophical studies had
Bibliotheqiie as a literary heaven, furnished with as many  never interfered with the services he owed the republic,
books as there were stars in the firmament; or as a lite-  and that he had only dedicated to them  the hours which
rary garden, in which he passed entire days in gathering   others gave to their walks, their repasts, and their plea.
fruit and flowers, delighting and instructing himself by per-  sures.  Looking on his voluminous laboturs, we are sur.
petual occupation.                                        prised at this observation: how honourable is it to him,
In 1364 the royal library of France did not exceed twen-  that his various philosophical works bear the titles ofthe
ty volumes.  Shortly after Charles V increased it to nine  different villas he possessed; which shows that they were
hundred, which bvy the fate of war. as much atleast as that  composed in their respective retirements.  Cicero must
of money, the Duke of Bedford afterwards purchased and   have been an early riser; and practised that magic art a.
ransported to London, where libraries were smaller than   employing his time, as to have multiplied his davs,




LITERATURE. 
THE BIBLIOMAVIA.                         tion, which never appeared, a literary man argued, tthamt
it was much better to have two editions of' a book than to
The precedirn  article is honourable to literature, yet   t
impartial truth must show that even a passion for collect-  deprive himselfof the advantage which the reading of the
ing, books is not always a passion for literature.         first might procure him; and it was a bad economy to
The,  ibliomania, or the collecting an enormous heap  iprefer a few crowns to that advantage.  It has frequently
of books without intelligent curiosity, has, since libraries   hpened,  besides, that in second editions, toe anthor
omits, as well as adds, or makes alterations fromtprudential
have existed, infected weak minds, who imagine that they   reasons; the displeasing truths which he correctsu as he
themselves acquire knowledge when they keep it on their
shelves. Their motley libraries have been called the mad   might call them, are so many losses incurred by Truth
itself.  There is an advantage in comparing the first with
houses of the human mind; and again, the tomb of books,
when the possessor will not communicate hem, and cof-  subsequent editions; for among other things, we feel great,fins them  up in the cases of his library —and as it was   stsato  ntaigtevrain  fawrwe  ara
satisfaction in tracing the variations of a work, when.a man,fins them Lip in the cases of his library-and as it was of geni us  has revised it.  There are also other secrets,
facetiously observed, these collections are not without a of genius has revised it. There are also other secrets,
fLoei on the huntsa         cl Unederstanding.*   aentwhot well known to the intelligent curious, who are versed in
L oThe Bhuimaniahs neverragedm oe         affairs relating to books. Many first editions are not to be
The Bibliomania has never raged more violently than in      chsdfrtetel  au   fltroe.Let no ]over
the present day. [t is fortunate that literature is in no   purchased forhe treble value of later ones.
ways injured by the follies of collectors, since thoh  of books be too hastily censured for his passion, which, if
n  t rey ehe  indulges  with judgment, is useful. The collector we
preserve the worthless, they necessarily defend the good   he indulges with judgment, is useful.
rsomve crlecthortis    they necessarily defeon   the   goodo.   have noticed friequently said, as is related of Virgil,'I colp~~~~~~~~~laet aoll theirfu'sdug. fiamded  the, vi  sofma
splendid library, where volumes arrayed in all the pompe of  lect gold from Ennius's dung.' I find, added lie, t some
lettering, sid linings, triple gold bans  ard tinted leather,  neglected authors, particular things, not elsewhere to be
lettering, stilk linings, triple gold bands and tinted leather,Pg'.
found. He read them, indeed, not with equal attention,
are locked up in wire cases, and secured from  the vulgar
r, but many, I'Sicut canis ad NVilum bibens etj~tgiens,' like at
hands of the mere reader, dazzling our eyes like eastern    ot many, Sicut canis ad   lu  hiens etriens,' like a
Deauties peering through their jealousies!                do  at the  ile, drinking and runing.
"     ",                                      Fortunate are those who only coisider a book for the
Bruyere has touched on this mania with humour:'Gf 
iuch a collector,' says he,'as soon as I enter his house, I  utility and pleasure they may derive from its possession.
am ready to faint on the staircase, from a strong smell of  Those students, who, though they know much, still thirst
Morocco leather: in vain he shows me fine editions, gold                                                    et  i
leaves, Etruscan bindings, &c., naming them  one after  that sea they may suffer nay shipwrecks. Great ollc
tions of books are subject to certain accidents bDesides tho
another, as if he were showing a gallery of pictures! a gal-  ios of oos are sulject to certain accidens   sides t
lery by the by which he seldom  traverses when alone, for  damp, the worms, and the rats; one riot less coinroir Is
he rarely reads, but me he offers to conduct through it! I   that of the borrowers, not to say a word of the purloinrs.
thank him for his politeness, and, as little as himself, care               LITERARY  JOURN/iLS.
to visit the tan-house, which he calls his library.'          When wters  were not numerous, and readers rare, tho
When writers were not numerous, and readers rare, tho
Lucian has composed a biting invective against an ig-  unsuccessful author fell innsibly  into oblivion; he dis
Z.                 ~~~~~~unsuccessful author fell inlsensibly into oblivion; he dis.
norant possessor of a vast library.  Like him, who in the   solved away in his own weakness; if i  committed the
present day, after turning over the pages of an old hook,  pve fy   inin wa                ne  w         rche  he
private fblly of printing what no one would purchase, he
chiefly admires the date. Lucian compares him to a pilot,  was not arraigned at the public tribunal-and the awful
who was never taught the science of navigation; to a rider
terrors of his day of judgment consisted only in the retri.
who cannot keep his seat on a spirited horse; to a man   btiions of his publisher's final accounts.  At length, a
who not having the use of his feet, wishes to conceal the   taste for literature spread throuh the body of the people,
taste for literattire spread lhroug-h the body of the people,
diefect by wearing embroidered shoes; but, alas! he can-.
defect by weaing embroidered shoes; but, alas  he can-   vanity induced the inexperienced and the ignorant to asnot stand in them! He ludicrouslycompares him to Ther-  pire to literary honors.  To  pos  thse forcible entries
pire to literary honours. To opipose these forcible entries
sites wearinj the armour of Achilles, tottering at ever
sites wearin  the armour ofAchilles, totterng at every  into the haunts of the Muses, periodical criticism brandstep; leering with his little eyes under his enormous hel-    ed its formidable weapon; and the fall of rny, taught
ished its formidable weapon; and the fall of many, taught
met, and his hunch-back raising the cuirass above his
et, and his hunchback raising the cuirass above his  some of our greatest geniuses to rise.  Multifarious writ.
shoulders.  Why do you buy so many books? he says:-   ings produced multifarious strictures, and public criticism
you have no hair, and you purchase a comb; you are   raleit
blyou have no hairnd, and you purcwill have a combgrand mirror; you are reached to such perfection, that taste was generally diffusblind, and you will have a rand mirror; you are deaf, and   ed, enlightening those whose occupations had otherwise
you will have fine musical instruments! Your costly bind-  never permitted them to judge  of literary compositions.
onlya surc  ofvextio  andyouareconinully never permitted them to judge of literary compositions.
iags are only a source of vexation, and you are continually
ings are ol     or  o  eai, a   y    r cniul                 The invention of Reviews, in the form which they have
discharging3 your librarians f~or not preserving them from
discharging your librarians for not preserving them from   at length gradually assumed, could not have existed but in
the silent invasion of the worms, and the nibblinr, triumphs
othe rslent invasin   of rs  worms, and tne nibbliso triumphs   the most polished ages of literature; for without a conof tuc~~~he raollec~~~ts! or   cstant supply of authors, and a refined spirit of criticism,
Such collectors will contemptuously smile at the collec-  they could not excite a perpetual interest among the lovers
tion of the amiable, Melancthon.  He possessed in his  of literature.  These publications are the chronicles of
library only four authors, Plato, Pliny, Plutarch, and   taste and science, and present the existing state of the
Ptolemv the geographer.
Ptolemy  the aeographer.                               public mind, while they form  a ready resource for those
Ancillon was a great collector of curious books.an
Ancillon  was a great collector of curiuous books, and   idle hours, which men of letters do not choose to pass idly.
dexterously defended himself when accused of the Biblio-     Their multilicity  has undofttedly  prodtced much evil;
Their multiplicity has undoubtedly produced much evill;
mania.  He gave a good reason for buyinga the most ole-  puerile critics, and venal drudges, manufacture reviews:
gant editions; which he did not consider merely as a liter-   hece that shameful discordance of opinion, which is the
hence that shameful discordance of opinion, which is the
ary Ihxury.  He said the-less the eyes are fatigued in  scorn and scandal of criticism.  Passions hostile to the
reading a work, the more liberty the mind feels to judge of  peaceful tths of literature have likewise made tremendit: and as we perceive niore clearly the excellencies and   paeu  n
it: and as we perceive more clearly the excelencies and   ous inroads in the republic, and every literary virtue has
defects of a printed book than when in Ms; so we see   been lost!  In  Calamities of Authors,' I have given the
them more plainly'in good paper and clear type than when   history of a literary conspiracy, conducted by a solitary
the impression and paper are both bad. He always pur-  critic Gilbert Stuart, against the historian Henry.
chased first editions, and never waited for second ones;     These works may disgust by vapid panegyric, or gross
though it is the opinion of some that a first edition is gene-  invective;weary by uniform dulness,ortartalrzebysuper.
rally the least valuable, and only to be considered as an   ficial knowedge.   Sometimes  ere  written    catch the
imperfect essay, which the author proposes to finish after  ficial knowledge. Sometimes merely written to catch the
imperfect essay, which the author proposes to finish aftr   public attention, a malignity is indulged against authors,
he  has  tried  the  sentiments  of the  literary  world.  to season the caustic leaves. A  reviewer has admired
Bayle approves of Ancillon's plan. Those who wait
ayle  approves of Ancillon's plan.  Those   ho wait  those works in private, which he has condemned in his ofcalmly for a book, says he, till it is reprinted, show plainly  ficial capacity.  But good sense, good temper, and good
that they are resigned to their ignorance, and prefer the  taste, will ever for  an etimable  ourlist, who will inI  I      I                           ~~~~~~~~~~~taste, will ever form an estimable journalist, who will inraving of a pistole to the acquisition of useful knowledge.  spire confidence, and give stability to his decisions.
With one of these persons, who waited for a second edi-       Totheloversofliterature thsevolumeswhen theyhave
* An aiusion and pun which occasioned the French trans-  outlived their year, are not unimportant. They constitute
pun wc occasions    rench trans   a great portion of literary history, and are indeed the an.
lator of the present work an unlucky blunder: puzzled no  nals of the r
doubt by my facetiousness, he translates I mettant comme on   s of the republic.
l'a tres-jutticitasement fait observer, l'entendement humain  To our own reviews, we must add the old foreign jour..
sous la Clef.' The book, and the author alluded to, quite  nalF wvhich are perhaps even more valuable to the man of
ecspsed him.                                               lehters. Of these the variety is considerable; and many




6                                      CURIOSITIES OF
of their writers are now known. They delight our curiosi-  by Basnage more successfully in his Histoire des Oucrages
ty by opening new views, and light up in observing minds  des Spavans.
many projects of works, wanted in our own literature.    The contemporary and the antag'nist of Bavle was Le
Gibbon feasted on them; and while he turned them over  Clerc. His firm industry has produced thre Bibliotheques
with constant pleasure, derived accurate notions of works,  -  Universelle et Historique -  Choisie — and Ancienne et
which no student can himself have verified: of many works  1Moderne, forming in all 82 volumes, which, complete, bear
a notion is sufficient, but this notion is necessary.      a very high price.  Inferior to Bayle in the more pleasing
The origin of so many literary journals was the happy   talents, he is perhaps superior in erudition, and shows
project of Denis de Sallo, a counsellor in the parliament of  great skill in analysis: but his hand drops no flowers!
Paris.  In 1665 appeared his Journal des Sgavans.  He  Apostolo Zeno's Giornale de' Litterati d'Italia, from 1710
published his essay in the name of the Sieur de Hedou-  to 1733, is valuable.  Gibbon resorted  to Le Clerc's
ville, his footman i! Was this a mere stroke of hurnour, or  volumes at his leisure,'as an inexhaustible source of
designed to insinuate that the freedom  of his criticism   amusement and instruction.'
could only be allowed to his footman?  The work, how.    Beausobre and L'Enfant, twolearned Protestants,wrote
ever, met with so favourable a reception, that Sallo had   a Bibliotheque Germanique, from 1720 to 1740, in 50vols.;
the satisfaction of seeing it, the following year, imitated   our own literature is interested by the.Bibiotheque Britan..
throughout Europe, and his journal, at the same time,  nique;  written by some literary Frenchmen, noticed by
translated into various languages. But as most authors  La Croze in his'Voyage Litteraire,' who designates the,ay themselves open to an acute critic, the animadversions  writers in this most tantalizing manner:' Les auteurs sent
of Sallo were given with such asperity of criticism, and   gens de merite et que entendent tous parfaitement l'An.
such malignity of wit, that this new journal excited loud   glois; Messrs S. B. le M. D. et le savant Mr D.' Posmurmurs, and the most heart-moving complaints.  The  terity has been partially let into the secret; De MIissy was
learned had their plagiarisms detected, and the wit had his  one of the contributors, and Warburton communicated his
claims disputed.  Sarasin called the gazettes of this new   project of an edition of Gelleius Paterculus.  This useful
Aristarchus, Hebdomadary Flarms! Billevezees hebdoma-  account of only English books begins in 1733, and closes
daries! and Menage, having published a law-book, which  at 1747, Hague, 23 vols.; to this we must add the Journas
Sallo had treated with severe raillery, he entered into a  Britannique, in 18 volumes, by Dr Maty, a foreign phylong argument to prove, according to Justinian, that a law-  sician residing in London; this journal exhibits a view of
yer is not allowed to defame another lawyer, &c.  Sena-  the state of English literature from 1750 to 1755. Gibbon
tori maledicere non licet, remaledicerejusfasque est. Others  bestows a high character on the journalist, who sometimes
loudly declaimed against this new species of imperial t:-' aspires to the character of a poet and a philosopher; one
ranny, and this attempt to regulate the public opinion by   of the last disciples of the school of Fontenelle.'
that of an individual.  Sallo, after having published only   Maty's son produced here a review known to the curlhis third volume, felt the irritated wasps of literature   ous; his style and decisions often discover haste and heat,
thronging so thick about him, that he very gladly abdicated   with some strikin, observations: alluding to his father,
the throne of criticism.  The journal is said to have suf-  Maty, in his motto, applies Virgil's description of the young
fered a short interruption by a remonstrance from  the  Ascanius,'Sequitur patrem non passibus aquis.' He says
nuncio of the pope, for the energy with which Sallo had  he only holds a monthly conversation with the public; but
defended the liberties of the Gallican church.             criticism demands more maturity of reflection and more
Intimidated by the fate of Sallo, his successor, AbbW  terseness ofstyle.  In his obstinate resoluticn of carrying
Gallois, flourished in a milder reign.  He contented him-  on this review without an associate, he has shown its f'olly
self with giving the titles ofbooks, accompanied with ex-  and its danger; for a fatal illness produced a cessation, at
tracts; and he was more useful than interesting.  The   once, of his periodical labours and his life.
public, who had been so much amused by the raillery and      Other reviews, are the Iemoires de Treioux, written
severity of the founder of this dynasty of new critics, now   by the Jesuits.  Their caustic censure and vivacity of
murmured at the want of that salt and acidity by which  style made them  redoubtable in their day; they did not
they had relished the fugitive collation.  They were not  even spare their brothers. The JournalLitteraire, printed
satisfied in having the most beautiful, or the most curious  at the Hague, and chiefly composed by Prosper Marchparts of a new work brought together; they wished for the  and, Sallengre, Van Effen, who were then young writers.
unreasonable entertainment of railing and raillery.  At  This list may be augmented by other journals, which
length another objection was conjured up against the re-  sometimes merit preservation in the history of modern
view; mathematicians complained they were neglected  literature.
to make room for experiments in natural philosophy; the      Our early English journals notice only a few publicshistorian sickened over the works of natural history; the  tions, with but little acumen.  Ofthese, the' Memoirs of
atitiquaries would have nothing but discoveries of Mss, or  Literature,' and the'Present State of the Republic of
fragments of antiquity.  Medical works were called for  Letters,' are the best.  The Monthly Review, the veneby one party and reprobated by another. In a word, each  rable mother of our journals, commenced in 1749.
reader wished only to have accounts of books which were      It is impossible to form a literary journal in a manner
interesting to his profession or his taste. But a review is a  such as might be wished; it must be the work otmany of
work presented to the public at large, and written for more  different tempers and talents.  An individual, however
tihan one country.  In spite of all these difficulties, this  versatile and extensive his genius, would soon be exhaustwork was carried to a vast extent.  An index to the  ed  Such a regular labour occasioned Bayle a dangerous
Journal des Sqavans has been arranged on a critical plan,  illness, and Maty fell a victim to his review.  A prospect
occupying ten volumes in quarto, which may be consider-  always extending as we proceed, the frequent novelty of
ed as a most useful instrumc nt to obtain the science and  the matter, the pride of considering one's self as the arbiliterature of the entire century.                         ter ofliterature, animate a journalist at the commencement
The next celebrated reviewer is Bayle, who undertook,  of his career; but the literary Hercules becomes fatigued;
in 1684, his Nsouvelles de la Republique des Lettres.  He   and to supply his craving pages he gives copious extracts,
possessed the art, acquired by habit, of reading a book by  till the journal becomes tedious, or fails in variety.  Ahbb
His fingers, as it has been happily expressed; and of com-  Gallois was frequently diverted from continuing his journal,
prising, in concise extracts, a just notion of a book, with-  and Fontenelle remarks, that this occupation was too reout the addition of irrelevant matter.  He had for his day  strictive for a mind so extensive as his; the Abbd could
sufficient playfulness to wreathe the rod of criticism  with  no. tvsist the charms ofrevelling in a new work, and graroses; and, for the first time, the ladies and all the beau  tifyr.g any sudden curiosity which seized him; which inmonde took an interest in the labours of the critic.  Yet  terrupted perpetually that regularity the public expects
even Bayle, who declared himself a reporter and not a  from a journalist.
jtidge, Bayle the discreet sceptic, could not long satisfy his  To describe the character of a perfect journalist, would
readers.  His panegyric was thought somewhat prodigal;  be only an ideal portrait!  There are however some achis fluency of style somewhat too familiar; and others af-  quirements which are indispensable. He must be tolerably
fected not to relish his gayety. In his latter volumes, to still  acqurainted with the subjects he treats on  no common
the clamour, hie assumed the cold sobriety of an historian:  acqcirement! He must posses-s the literary history of his
and has bequeathed no mean legacy to the literary world,  own times! a science which Fontenelle observes, is almost
in thirty-six small volumes of criticism, closed in 1687.  distinct from any other. It is the result of'n active curt.
Thewse were continued by Bernard, with inferior skill: and  osity, which leads us to take a lively interest in the tastes




LITERATURE.                                                        7
and pursuits of the age, while it saves the journalist firom  In these times, manuscripts were important articles of
some ridiculous blunders. VTe often see the mind of a re-  commerce; they were excessively scarce, and preserved
viewer half a century remote from the work reviewed. A   with the utmost care.  Usurers themselves considered
fine feeling, of the various manners of writers, with a  them  as precious objects for pawn; a student of Pavia,
style, adapted to fix the attention of the indolent, and to  who was reduced by his debaucheries, raised a new forwin the untractable; but candour is the brigthest gem of  tune by leaving in pawn a manuscript of a body of law;
criticism! He ought not to throw  every thing into the  and a grammarian, who was ruined by a fire, rebuilt his
crucible, nor should he suffer the whole to pass as if he  house with two small volumes of Cicero.
trembled to touch it. Lampoons, and satires, in time will    At the restoration of letters, the researches of literary
ose their effect, as well as panegyrics.  He must learn   men were chiefly directed to this point; every part of Eu.
to resist the seductions of his own pen; the pretensions of  rope and Greece was ransacked, and the glorious end concomposing a treatise on the subject, rather than on the  sidered, there was something sublime in this humbie indusbook he criticises, proud of insinuating that he gives in a  try, which often produced a lost author of antiquity, and
auzen pages, what the author himself has not been able  gave one more classic to the world. This occupation was
to perform in his volumes.  Should he gain confidence by  carried on with enthusiasm, and a kind of mania possessed
a popular delusion and by unworthy conduct, he may   many who exhausted their fortunes in distant voyages,
chance to be mortified by the pardon or the chastisement  and profuse prices. In reading the correspondence of the
of insulted genius. The most noble criticism is that, in  learned Italians of these times, much of which has descend.
which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival  ed to us, their adventures of manuscript-hunting are very
of the author.                                           amusing, and their raptures, their congratulations, or at
RElCOVERY OF MAeNUSCRsPs.                   times their condolence, and even their censures, are all
immoderate and excessive. The acquisition of a province
Our ancient classics had a very narrow escape from to-  would not have given so much satisfaction as the discovery
tal annihilation. Many, we know, have perished: many   of an author little known, or not known at all.' Oh, great
we possess are but fragments; and chance, blind arbiter  gain!  Oh, unexpected felicity! I intreat you my Poggio,
of the works of genius, has given us some, not of the high-  send me the manuscript as soon as possible, that I may
est value: *which, however, have proved very useful, serv-  see it before I die!' exclaims Aretino, in a letter overflowing, as a test to show the pedantry of those who adore an-  ing with enthusiasm, on Poggio's discovery of a copy cf
tiquity not from true feeling but from traditional prejudice.  Quintilian.  Some of the half-witted, who joined in! this
One reason, writes the learned compiler L'Esprit des  great hunt, were often thrown out, and some paid high for
Croisades, why we have lost a great number of' ancient a u-  manuscripts not authentic; the knave played on the bungthors, was the conquest of Egypt by the Saracenrs, which  ling amateur of manuscripts, whose credulity was greater
deprived Europe of the use of the papyrus.  The igno-  than his pulse.   But even among the learned, much ill
rance of that age could finid no substitute; they knew no  blood was inflamed: he who had been most successful in
tither expedient but writing on parchment, which became   acquiring manuscripts was envied by the less fortunate, and
every day more scarce and costly.  Ignorance and barba-  the glory of possessing a manuscript of Cicero, seemed
rism unfortunately seized on Roman manuscripts, and in-  to approximate to that of being its author. It is curious to
dustriously defaced pages once imagined to have been   observe that in these vast importations into Isalv of manun
immortal! The most elegant compositions of classic Rome   scripts from Asia, John Aurispa, who brought many hun.
were converted into the psalms of a breviary, or the prayers  dreds of Greek manuscripts, laments that he had chosen
of a missal. Livy and Tacitus'hide their diminished heads'  more profane than sacred writers; which circunistance he
to preserve the legend of a saint, and immortal truths were  tells us was owing to the Greeks, who would not so easily
converted into clumsy fictions.  It happened that the most  part with theological works, but they did not highly value
voluminous authors were the greatest sufferers; these  profane writers!
were preferred, because their volume being the greatest,    These manuscripts were discovered in the obscurest reit most profitably repaid their destroying industry, and fur-  cesses of monasteries; they were not always imprisoned
D2ished ampler scope for future transcription. A Livy or a  in libraries, but rotting in oblivion: in dark unfrequented
Diodorus was preferred to the smaller works of Cicero or  corners with rubbish. It required no less ingenuity to find
Horace; and it is to this circumstance that Juvenal, Per-  out places where to examine, than to understand the value
sius, and Martial have come down to us entire, rather pro-  of the acquisition, when obtained. An universal ignorance
bably than to these pious personages preferring their ob-  then prevailed in the knowledge of ancient writers.  A
scenities, as some have accused them.  Not long, ago at  scholar of those times gave the first rank among the Latin
Rome, a part of a book of Livv was found, between the   writers to one Valerius, whether he meant Martial or
lines of a parchment blt half effaced, on which they sub-  Maximus is uncertain; he placed Plato and Tully among
stitnted a book of the Bible.                            the poets, and imagined that Ennius and Statius were
That, however, the monks had not in high veneration   contemporaries.  A  library of six hundred volumes was
the profane authors, appears by a facetious anecdote. To   then considered as an extraordinary collection.
read the classics was considered as a very idle recreation,    Among those whose lives were devoted to this purpose,
and some held them in great horror. To distinguish them   Poagio the Florentine stands distinguished; but h:e comfirom other books, they invented a disgraceful sign: when   plains that his zeal was not assisted by the great. He
a monk asked for a pagan author, after malting the gene-  found under a heap of rubbish in a decayed coffer, in a
ral sign they used in their manual and silent language when  tower belonging to the monastery of St Gallo, the work of
they wanted a book, he added a particular one which con-  QLuintilian.  He is indignant at its forlorn situation; at
sisted in scratching under his ear, as a do., which feels an  least, he cries, it shounld have been preserved in the library
itching, scratches himnself in that place with his paw-be-  of the monks; but I found it in teterrimo quodam et obscure
cause: said they, an unbeliever is compared to a dog!  carcere-and to his great joy drew it out of its grave! The
In this manner they exp.ssed an itching for those dogs,  monks have been complimented as the preservers of liteVirgil or Horace!                                       rattire, but by facts like the present, their real affection
There have been ages A.'en for the possession of a   mav be doubted.
manuscript, some would transfer an estate; or leave in     The most valuable copy of Tacitus, of whom so much
pawn for its loan hundreds of golden crowns; and when  is wanting, was likewise discovered in a monastery of
even the sale or loan of a manuscript was considered of  Westphalia.  It is a curious circumstance in literary hissuch importance as to have been solemnly registered in  tory, that we should owe Tacitus to this single copy; for
public acts. Absolute as was Louis XI, he could not ob-  the Roman emperor of that name had copies of the works
tain the MS of Rasis, an Arabian writer, to make a copy,  of his illustrious ancestor placed in all the libraries of the
from the library of the faculty of Paris, without pledging a  empire, and every year had ten copies transcribed; but
hundred golden crowns; and the president of his treasury,  the Roman libraries seem to have been all destroyed, and
charged with this conimission, sold part of his plate to  the imperial protection availed nothing against the teeth
make the deposit. For the loan of a volume of Avicenna,  of time.
a baron offered a pledge of ten marks of silver, which was  The original manuscript of Jostinian's code was dis.
refutsed: because it was not considered equal to the risk  covered by the Pisans, accidentally, wvhen they took a city
Incurred of losing a volume of Avicenna! These events  in Calabria; that vast code of laws had been in a manner
occurred in 1471. One cannot but smile at an anterior  unknown from  the time of that ermperor.  This curious
veriod, when a countess of Anjou bought a favourite book  book was brought to Pisa, and when Pisa was taken b)
ot homilies, for two hundred sheep, some skins of martins,  the Florentines, was transferred to Florence, where it ix
ln.i bushels of wheat and rye.                           still preserved.




J8                  -CURIOSITIES OF
It sometimes happened that manuscripts were discover-    Recently a valuable secret history by Sir George Maced in the last agonies of existence. Papirius Masson  kenzie, the king's advocate in Scotland, has been rescued
found, in the house of a book-binder of Lyons, the works  from a mass of waste paper sold to a grocer, who had the
of Agobart; the mechanic was on the point of using the  good sense to discriminate it, and communicate this curi.
manuscripts to line the covers of his books. A page of  ous memorial to Dr M'Crie; the original, in the handthe second decade of Livy it is said was found by a man of  writing of its author, has been deposited in the advocates'
letters in the parchment of his battledore, while he was  library. There is an hiatus, which contained the history
amusing himself in the country. He hastened to the maker  of six years. This work excited inquiry after the rest of
of the battledore-but arrived too late! The man had  the Mss, which were found to be nothing more than the
finished the last page of Livy-about a week before!    sweepings of an attorney's office.
Many works have undoubtedly perished in this mnanu-    Montaigne's journal of his travels into Italy have been
script state.  By a petition of Dr Dee to Queen Mary, in  but recently published. A prebendary of Perigord, travel.
the Cotton library, it appears that Cicero's treatise de Re-  ling through this province to make researches relative to its
publica was once extant in this country. Huet observes  history, arrived at the ancient chateau of Montaigne, m
that Petronius was probably entire in the days of John of  possession of a descendant of this great man. He inquired
Salisbury, who quotes fragments, not now to be found in  for the archives, if there had been any. He was shown
the remains of the Roman bard. Raimond Soranzo, a  an old worm-eaten coffer, which had long held papers unlawver in the papal court, possessed two books of Cicero  touched by the incurious generations of Montaigne.  The
on Glory, which he presented to Petrarch, who lent them   prebendary, with philosophical intrepidity, stifled himself
to a poor aced man of letters, formerly his preceptor.  in clouds of dust, and at length drew out the original manuUrged by extreme want, the old man pawned them, and  script of the travels of Montaigne. Two thirds of the
returning home died suddenly without having revealed   work are in the hand-writing of Montaigne, and the rest
where he had left them. They have never been recovered.  is written by a servant who served as his secretary, and
Petrarch speaks of them with ecstasy, and tells us that he  who always speaks of his master in the third person. But
had studied them perpetually.  Two centuries afterwards  he must have written what Montaigne dictated, as the ex.
this treatise on Glory by Cicero was mentioned in a cata-  pressions and the egotisms are all Montaigne's.  The bad!ogue of books bequeathed to a monastery of nuns, but  writing and orthography made it almost unintelligible. It
when inquired after was missing; it was supposed that  proves also, says the editor, how true is Montaigne's obPetrus Alcyonius, physician to that household, purloined   servation, that he was very negligent in the corrrection of
it, and after transcribing as much of it as he could into his  his works.
own writings, had destroyed the original. Alcyonius in his    Our ancestors were great hiders of manuscripts; Dr
book de Exilio, the critics observed, had many splendid   Dee's singular Mss were found in the secret drawer of a
passages which stood isolated in his work, and were quite  chest, which had passed through many hands undiscoabove his genius. The beggar, or in this case the thief,  vered; and that vast collection of state-papers of Thurloe's
was detected by mending his rags with patches of purple  the secretary of Cromwell, which formed about seventy
and gold.                                               volumes in the original manuscripts, accidentally fell out
In this age of manuscript, there is reason to believe, that  of the false ceiling of some chambers in Lincoln's-Inn.
when a man of letters accidentally obtained an unknown    A considerable portion of Lady Mary Wortley Monwork, he did not make the fairest use of it, and cautiously  taau's letters I discovered in the hands of an attornevy.
concealed it from his contemporaries. Leonard Aretino,  There are now many valuable manuscripts in the family
a-distinguished scholar at the dawn of modern literature,  papers of the descendants of celebrated persons; but poshaving found a Greek manuscrilpt of Procopius de Bello  thumous publications of this kind are usually made from
Gothico, translated it into Latin, and published the work,  the most sordid motives: discernment, and taste, would
but concealing the author's name, it passed as his own, till  only be detrimental to the views of bulky publishers.
another manuscript of the same work being dug out of its
grave, the fraud of Aretmo was apparent. Barbosa, a                   SKETCHES OF CRITICISM.
bishop of Uzento, in 1649, has printed among his works a
treatise, which, it is said, he obtained by having perceived  It may perhaps be some satisfaction to show the young
one of his domestics brineina in a fish rolled in a leaf of  writer, that the most celebrated ancients have been as
written paper, which his curiosity led him to examine.  rudely subjected to the tyranny of criticism  as the moHe was sufficiently interested to run out and search the  derns. Detraction has ever poured the' waters of bitterfish market, till he found the manuscript out of which it  ness.'
had been torn. He published it under the title de Officio    It was given out, that Homer had stolen from anterior
Episcopi.  Machiavelli acted more adroitly in a similar  poets whatever was most remarkable in the Iliad and
case; a manuscript of the Apophthegms of the ancients  Odyssey.  Naucrates even points out the source in the
by Plutarch having fallen into his hands, he selected those  library at Memphis in a temple of Vulcan, which accordwhich pleased him the best, and put them into the mouth  ing to him the blind bard completely pillaged. Undoubtof his hero Castriucio Castricani.                     edly there were good poets before Homer; how absurd to
In more recent times, we might collect many curious  conceive that a finished and elaborate poem could be the
anecdotes concerning manuscripts.  Sir Robert Cotton  first! We have indeed accounts of anterior poets, and
one day at his tailor's, discovered that the man was hold-  apparently of epics, before Homer; their names have come
ing in his hand, ready to cut up for measures-an orignal  down to us. Aelian notices Syaurus, who composed a
Magna Charta, with all its appendages of seals and sig-  poem  on the Siege of Troy; and Suidas the poem of Conatures. He bought the singular curiosity for a trifle, and  rinnus, from which it is said Horner greatly borrowed.
recovered in this manner what had long been given over  Why did Plato so severely condemn the great bard, and
for lost!  This anecdote is told by Colomids, who long re-  imitate him?
sided, and died in this country. An original Magna Charta  Sophocles was brought to trial by his children as a luis preserved in the Cottonlan library; it exhibits marks  natic; and some, who censured the inequalities of this
of dilapidation, but whether from the invisible scythe of  poet, have also condemned the vanity of Pindar; the
time, or the humble scissors of a tailor, I leave to archaio-  rough verses of 2Eschylus; and Euripides, for the conlogical inquiry.                                        duct of his plots.
"Cardinal Granvelle carefully preserved all his letters;    Socrates, considered as the wisest and the most moral
he left behind him several chests filled with a prodigious  ofmen, Cicero treated as an usurer, and the pedant Athe.
quantity, written in different languages, commented, noted,  nmus as illiterate; the latter points out as a Socratic folly,
and under-lined by his orwn hand.  These curious manu-  our philosopher disserting on the nature of justice before
scripts, after his death, were left in a garret to the mercy   his judges, who were so many thieves.  The malignant 
of the rain and the rats. Five or six of these chests the  buffoonery of' Aristophanes, who, as Jortin says, was a
steward sold to the grocers. It was then that a discovery  great wit, but a great rascal, treats him much worse; but
was made of this treasure.  Several learned men occupied  though some would revive this calumny, such modern witthemselves in collecting as many of these literary relies as  nesses may have their evidence impeached in the awful
they possibly could. What were saved formed eighty  cort of history.
thick folios. Among these original letters, are found great    Plato, who has been called, by Clement of Alexandria,
numbers written by almost all the crowned heads in Eu-  the Moses of Athens; the philosopher of the Christians
rope, with instructions for ambassadors, and many other  by Arnobius; and the god of philosophers. by Cicero
ftte-papers.                                           Athenmus accuses oi envy; Theopompus, of Lying; Sui~




LITERATURE.
Jas, of avarice; Aulus Gellius, of robbery; Porphyry, of  says of his work, that some will cry out,'This is a thinge
incontinence; and Aristophanes, of impiety.             of mere industrie: a collection without wit or invention; a
Aristotle, whose industry composed more than four hun-  very toy! So men are valued! their labours vilified by
dred volumes, has not been less spared by the critics;  fellows of no worth themselves, as things of naught; who
Diogenes Laertius, Cicero, and Plutarch, have forgotten  could not have done as much. Some understande too
nothing that can tend to show his ignorance, his ambition,  little, and some too much.'
and his vanity.                                           Should we proceed with the list to our own country, and
It has been said, that Plato was so envious of the ce-  to our own times, it might be currently augmentsd, and
lebrity of Democritus, that he proposed burning all his  show the world what men the critics are! but, perhalws
works; but that Amydis and Clinias prevented it, by re-  enough has been said to sooth irritated genius, and to
monstratinc that there were copies of them every where;  shame fastidious criticism.' I would beg the critics to reand Aristotle was agitated by the same passion against all  member,' the Earl of Roscommon writes, in his prleface
the philosophers his predecessors  to Horace's Art of Poetry,' that Horace owed his favcur
Virgil is destitute of invention, if we are to give credit  and his fortune to the character given of him by Virgil aniid
to Pliny, Carbilius, and Seneca. Caligula has absolutely  Varius; that Fundanius and Pollio, are still valued by what
denied him  even mediocrity; Herennus has marked his  Horace says of them; and that in their golden age, thereo
faults; arid Perilius Faustinus has furnished a thick vol.  was a good understanding among the ingenious, and thosewith his plagiarisms.  Even the author of his apology has  whowere the most esteemed were thb best natured.'
confessed that he has stolen from Homer his greatest beau-          THE PERSECUTED LEARNED.
ties; from Apollonius Rhodius, many of his pathetic passages; from Nicander, hints from his Georgics; and this    Those who have laboured most zealously to Instruct:
does not terminate the catalogue.                      mankind, have been those who have suffered most from.
Horace censures the coarse humour of Plautus; and Ho-  ignorance; and the discoverers of new arts and sciences:
race, in his turn, has been blamed for the free use he made  have hardly ever lived to see them accepted by the world..
of the G~reek minor poets.                             With a noble perception of his own genius, Lord Bacon,.
The majority of the critics regard Pliny's Natural His-  in his prophetic will, thus expresses'himself.' For my
tory only as a heap of fables; and seem to have quite as  name and memory, I leave it to menis charitable speeches,,
little respect for Quintus Curtius, who indeed seems to  and to foreign nations, and the next aaes.' Before the
have composed little more than an elegant romance.     times of Galileo and Harvey, the world believed in the
Pliny cannot bear Diodorus and Vopiscus; and in one  stagnation of the blood, and the diurnal immovability of the.
comprehensive criticism, treats all the historians as narra-  earth; and for denying these the one was persecuted and
tors of fables.                                        the other ridiculed.
Livy has been reproached for his aversion to the Gauls;    The intelligence and the virtue of Socrates were ptlnDion, for his hatred of the republic; Velleius Patercults,  ished with death. Arnaxagoras, when he attempted to pro-.
for speaking too kindly of the vices of Tiberius; and He-  pagate a just notion of the Supreme Being, was dragged to,
rodotus and Plutarch, for their excessive partiality to their  prison. Aristotle, after a long series of persecution, swal,.
own country; while the latter has written an entire trea-  lowed poison. Heraclitus, tormented by his countrymen,,
tise on the  malignity of Herodotus.  Xenophon  and  broke off all intercourse with men. The areat geometriQuintus Curtius have been considered rather as novelists  cians anid chemists, as Gerbert, Roger Bacon, anid others,.
than historians; aiid Tacitus has been censured for his  were abhorred as magicians. Pope Gerhert, as Bishop,
audacity in pretending to discover the political springs and  Otho gravely relates, obtained the pontificate by having:
secret causes of events.  Dionvsius of Halicarnussus has  given himself up entirely to the devil: others suspected;
made aln elaborate attack on Thucydides for the unskilful  him too of holding an intercourse with demons; but this.
choice of his sulbjects and his manner of treating it. Dio-  was indeed a devilish age.
nysius would have nothineg written but what tended to the    Virgilius, Bishop of Saltzburg, having asserted that there,
glory of his country and the pleasure of the reader; as if  existed antipodes, the archbishop of Mentz declared himn a.
history were a song! adds Hobbes: while he also shows  heretic, and consigned him to the flames: and the Abbobt
that there was a personal motive in this attack. The same  Trithemiuls. who was fond of improving steganography, or
Dionysius severely criticises the style of Xenophon, who,  the art of secret writingr, having published several curious.
he says, whenever he attempts to elevate his style shows  works on this subject, they were condemned, as works full
he is incapable of supportina it. Polybius has been blamed  of diabolical mysteries; and Frederick II, Elector Pala.for his frequent introduction of moral reflections, which  tine, ordered Trithemius's original work, which was in hisinterrupt the thread of his narrative: and Sallust has been  library, to be publicly burnt.
blamed by Cato for indulging his own private passions, and    Galileo was condemned at Rome publicly to disavow sen.
studiously concealing many of the glorious actions of Cice-  timents, the truth of which must have been to him abulnro. The Jewish historian Josephus is accused of not having  dantly manifest.' Are these then my judges?' he exclaimed:
designed his history for his own people so much as for  in retiring from the inquisitors, whose ignorance astonished:
the Greeks and Romnans, whom he takes the utmost care  him. He was imprisoned, and visited by Milton, who tells
never to offend. Josephus assumes a Roman name, Fla-  us he was then poor and old. The confessor of his widow,,
vius; and considering his nation as entirely subjugated, he  taking advantage of her piety, perused the mss of this;
only varies his story to make them appear venerable and  great ohilosopher, and destroyed such as in his judgment,
dignified to their conquerors, and for this purpose, alters  were not fit to be known to the world!
what he himself calls the Holy books. It is well known    Gabriel Naude, in his apology fobr those great men who,
how widely he differs from the scriptural accounts. Some  halve been accused of magic, has recorded a melancholy
have said of Cicero, that there is no connexion, and, to  number of the most eminent scholars, who have found, that
adopt their own figures, no blood and nerves, in what his  to have been successfiul in their studies was a success
admirers so warmly extol. Cold in his extemporaneous  which harassed them with continued persecution, a prison,
effusions, artificial in his exordiums, trifling in his strained  or a grave.
raillery, and tiresome in his digressions.  This is saying a    Cornelirus Agrippa was compelled to fly his country, and
good deal about Cicero!                               the enjoyment of a large income, merely for having display.
Quintilian does not spare Seneca; and Demosthenei   ed a few  philosophical experiments, which now every
called by Cicero the prince of orators, has, according t,  school-boy can perform; but more particularly having at.
Hermippus, more of art than of nature. To Demades,  tacked the then 1prevailing opinion, that St Anne had three
his orations appear too much laboured; others have thought  husbands, he was so violently persecuted, that he was
him too dry; and, if we may trust._Eschines, his language  obliged to fly fi-om place to place. The people beheld him
is by no means pure.                                    as an object of horror; and not unfreqiuently, when he
The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius and the Deipnoso-  walked, he found the streets empty at his approach. He
phists of Athenaeus, while they have been extolled by one  died in an hospital.
party, have been degraded by another.  They have been    In these times, i't was a common opinion to suspect
considered as botchers of rags and remnants; their dili-  every great man of an intercourse with some familiar spirit,
gence has not been accompanied by judgment; and their  The favoirite black dog of Agrippa was supposed to be a
taste inclined more to the frivolous than to the usefill.  demon. When Urban Grandier, another victim tothe age
Compilers, indeed, are liable to a hard fate, for little dis-  was led to the stake, a large fly settled on his head: a
tinction is made in their ranks; a disagreeable situation, in  monk, who had heard that Beelzebub signifies in Hebrew,
which honest Burton seems to have been placed; for he  the God of Flies, reported that he saw this spirit coune ta
2




10                                   CURIOSITIES OF
take possession of him. Mr De Langear, a French mini-  purchase firing, and I have them not to give him.' The
ster, who employed many spies, was frequently accused  Portuguese, after his death, bestowed on the man of geni.s
of diabolical communication.  Sixtus the Fifth, Marechal  they had starved the appellation of Great! Vondel,
Faber, Roger Bacon, Caesar Borgia, his son Alexander  the Dutch Shakspeare, after composing a number of poVI, and others, like Socrates, had their diabolical attend-  pular tragedies, lived in great poverty, and died at ninety
ant.                                                    years of age; then he had his coffin carried by fourteen
Carda.n was believed to be a magician. The fact is, that  poets, who without his genius probably partook of his
he was for his time a very able naturalist; and he who  wretchedness.
happened to know something of the arcana of nature was    The great Tasso was reduced to such a dilemma, that
immediately suspected of magic. Even the learned then-  he was obliged to borrow a crown from a friend to subsist
selves, who had not applied to natural philosophy, seem to  through the week. He alludes to his dress in a pretty
have acted with the same feelings as the most ignorant; for  sonnet, which he addresses to his cat, entreating her to
when Albert, usually called the Great, an epithet he owed  assist him, during the night, with the lustre of her eyesto his name De Groot, constructed a curious piece of' Non averdo candele per iscrivere i suoi vers/.' having no:mechanism, which sent forth distinct vocal sounds, Thomas  candle to see to write his verses!
Aquinas was so much terrified at it, that he struck it with    When the liberality of Alphonso enabled Ariosto to
this staff, and to the mortification of Albert annihilated the  build a small house, it seems that it was but ill furnished.,curious labour of thirty years!                       When told that such a building was not fit for one who
Petrarch was less desirous of' the laurel for the honour,  had raised so many fine palaces in his writings, he answer-,than for the hope of being sheltered by it from the thunder  ed, that the structure of words and that of stones was not,of the priests, by whom both he and his brother poets were  the same thing.' Che porvile pietre, eporvi le parole, non
-continually threatened. They could not imagine a poet,  e it medesimo!' At Ferrara this house is still shown.' Par.
-without supposing him to hold an intercourse with some  va sed apta' he calls it, but exults that it was paid with his
-demon. This was, as Abbe Resnel observes, having a  own money. This was in a moment of good-humour,
anost exalted idea of' poetry, though a very bad one of poets.  which he did not always enjoy; for in his Satires he bitterAn antipoetic Dominican was notorious for persecuting all  ly complains of the bondage of dependence and poverty.,verse makers; the power of which he attributed to the  Little thought the poet the commune would order this small
~effects of heresy and magic. The lights of philosophy have  house to be purchased with their own funds, that it might;dispersed all these accusations of magic, and have shown  be dedicated to his immortal memory!,a dreadful chain of perjuries and conspiracies.          The illustrious Cardinal Bentivoglio, the ornament of
Descartes was horribly persecuted in Holland, when he  Italy and of literature, languished, in his old age, in the
first published his opinions. Voetius, a bigot of great in-  most distressful poverty; and having sold his palace to safluence at Utrecht, accused him of atheism, and had even  tisfy his creditors, left nothing behind him but his reputaprojected in his mind to have this philosopher burned at  tion. The learned Pomponius Latus lived in such a state
Utrecht in an extraordinary fire, which, kindled on an  of poverty, that his friend Platina who wrote the lives
eminence, might be observed by the seven provinces. Mr  of the popes, and also a book of cookery, introduces him
]Iallam has observed, that' the ordeal of fire was the great  into the cookery book by a facetious observation, that i.
purifier of books and men.' This persecution of science  Pomponius Lntus should be robbed of a couple of eggs,,and genius lasted till the close of the seventeenth century.  he would not have wherewithal to purchase two other eggs.
If the metaphysician stood a chance of being burned as  The history of Aldrovandus is noble and pathetic; having.a heretic, the natural philosopher was not in less jeopardy  expended a large fortune in forming his collections of na-as a magician,l is an observation of the same writer  tural history, and employing the first artists in Europe, he
which sums up the whole.                                was suffered to die in the hospital of that city, to whose
fame he had eminently contributed.
POVERTY OF T~HE LEARNED.                     Du Ryer, a celebrated French poet, was constrained to
F:,rtune has rarely condescended to be the companion  labour with rapidity, and to live in the cottage of an obof genius: others find a hundred by roads to her palace;  scure village. His booksellers bought his heroic verses
there is but one open, and that a very indifferent one, for  for one hundred sols the hundred lines, and the smailerones,men of letters. Were we to erect an asvlum for venerable  for fifty sols. What an interesting picture has a contemgenius, as we do for the brave and the helpless part of  porarv given of his reception by a poor and ingenious author
~our citizens, it might be inscribed a Hospital for Incurables!  in a visit he paid to Du Rver!' On a fine summer day we
W',Then even Fame will not protect the man of' genius from   went to him, at some distance from town. He received us
famine, Charity ought.  Ne. sqhould such an act be consi-  with joy, talked to us of' his numerous projects, and show.,dered as a debt incurred by the helpless member, but a just  ed us several of his works. But what more interested us
tribute we pay in his person to Genius itself. Even in  was, that though dreading to show us his poverty, he con-,these enlightened times such have lived in obscurity while  trived to give us some refreshments. We seated ourselves,their reputation was widely spread; and have perished in  under a wide oak, the tablecloth was spread on the grass,,poverty, while their works were enriching the booksellers.  his wife brought us some milk, with fresh water and brown
Of the heroes of modern literature the accounts are as  bread, and he picked a basket of cherries. He welcomed
copious as they are melancholy.                         us with gaiety, but we could not take leave of this amiable
Xylander sold his notes on Dion Cassius for a dinner.  man, now grown old, without tears, to see him so ill treatHe tells us, that at the age of eighteen he studied to ac-  ed by fortune, and to have nothing left but literary honour!9
quire glory, but at twenty-five he studied to get bread.  Vaugelas, the most polished writer of the French IanCervantes, the immortal genius of Spain, is supposed to  guage, who devoted 30 years to lhis translation of Quintus
have wanted bread; Camoens, the solitary pride of Portli-  Curtius (a circumstance which modern translators can
gal, deprived of the necessaries of life, perished in an hos-  have no conception of,) died possessed of nothing valuable
pital at Lisbon. This fact has been accidentally preserved  but his precious manuscripts.  This ingenious scholar left
in an entry in a copy of the first edition of the Lusiad, in  his corpse to the surgeons for the benefit of his creditors 
the possession of Lord Holland. In a note written by a    Louis the Fourteenth honoured Racine and Boileau
friar, who must have been a witness of the dying scenes of  with a private monthly audience. One day the king asked,
the poet, and probably received the volume which now   what there was new in the literary world?  Racine an
preserves the sad memorial, and which recalled it to his  swered, that he had seen a melancholy spectacle in the
mind, from the hands of the unhappy poet.' What a la-  house of Corneille, whom he found dying, deprived even of
ncultable thing to see so great a genius so ill rewarded! I  a little broth! The king preserved a profound silence:
saw him die in an hospital in Lisbon, without having a  and sent the dying poet a sum of money.
shteet or shroud, una sanuana, to cover him. after having    Dryden, for less than three hundred pounds, sold Tontriumphed in the East Indies, and sailed 5500 leagues!  son ten thousand verses, as may be seen by the agreement
W'Vhat good advice for those who weary themselves night  which has been published.
and day in study without profit.' Camoens, when some    Purchas, who, in the reign of our First James, had
ltidalgo complained that he had not performed his promise  spent his life in travels and study to form his Relation of
in writing some verses for him, replied, When I wrote  the World, when he gave it to the public, for the reward
verses I was youtng, had sufficient food, was a lover, and  of his labours was thrown into prison, at the suit of his
beloved by many friends, and by the ladies; then I felt  printer.  Yet this was the book which, he informs us in
poetical ardour; now I have no spirits, no peace of mind.  his dedication to Charles the First, his lather read every
fW.ee there mrY Javanese who asks me for two pieces to  night with great profit and satisfaction.




LITERATURE.                                                            11
The Marquis of Worcester, in a petition to parliament,  so much as sixteen or eighteen hours In these enlarging
In the reign of Charles [I, offered to publish the hundred  lexicons and Polyglot Bibles.'
processes and machines, enumerated in his very curious       Le Sage resided in a little cottage while he supplied the
Cenentary of Inventions,' on condition that money should   world with their most agreeable novels, and appears to
be granted to extricate him from the difficulties in which he  have derived the sources of' his existence in his old age
had involved himself, by the prosecution of useful discoveries.  from the filial exertions of an excellent son, who was an
The petition does not appear to have been attended to!  actor of some genius.  I wish, however, that every tman of
Many of these admirable inventions were lost. The steam   letters could apply to himself the epitaph of this delightful
ntgine and the telegraph may be traced among them.         writer:
It appears by the Harleian Mss, 1524, that Rushworth,              Sous ce tombeau git Le Sage abattu,
the author of' Historical Collections,' passed the last             Par le ciseau de la Parque importune;
years of his life in jail, where indeed he died.  After the          S1il ne fut pas ami tie la fortune,
RIestoration, when he presented to the king several of the           I1 fut toujours ami de la vertu.
privy council's books, which he had preserved from  ruin,    Many years after this article had been written, I pubhe received for his only reward, the thanks of his majesty.  lished' Calamities of Authors,' confining myself to those
Rymer, the collector of the Foedera, must have been  of our own country; the catalogue is very incomplete, but
sadly reduced, by the following letter, I found addressed by  far too numerous.
Peter le Neve, Norroy, to the Earl of Oxford:                        IMPRISONMENT OF THE LEARNED.' I am  desired by Mr Rymer, historiographer, to lay       Tmprisonment has not always disturbed the man or letbefore your lordship the circumstances of his affairs. lie
beas forced some years back to part withu h  afll his choie  ters in the progress of his studies, but often unquestionably
was forced some years back to part with all his choice has greatly promoted them.
printed books to subsist himself; and now, he says, he       In prison Boethius composed his work on the Consolam
must be forced, for subsistence, to sell all his Ms collec-  tions of Philosophy; and Grotius wrote his Commentary
tions to the best bidder, without your lordship will be pleased   on Saint Matthew, with other works: the detail of his
to buy them for the queen's library.  They are fifty vols.  allotment of time to different studies, during his confined
in folio, of public affairs, which he hath collected, but not   ent, is very instructive.
printed.  The price he asks is five hundred pounds.'            chanan in the duneon  of a moastery in Portuga
Simon Ockley, a learned student in Oriental literature     Buchanan in the durgeon of a monastery in Portugal,
Simon Okley, a learned student in Oriental literature,  composed his excellent Paraphrases of the Psalms of David.
addresses a letter to the same earl, in which he paints hie  Cervantes composed the  roost agreeable book in the
s     Cervantes composed the most agreeable book in the
distresses in glowing colours.  After having devoted his
Spanish language during his captivity in Barbary.
life to Asiatic researches, then very uncommon, he had the   Fieta, a well known law production, was written by a
mortification of dating his preface to his great work from   person coifined in the Fleet for debt; the name of the
Cambridge Castle, where he was confined for debt; and,  place, though not that of the author, has thus been prewith an air of triumph. feels a martyr's enthusiasm in the   served; ati another work,  leta  inor, or the Laws of
cause in which he peri'shes.          served; and another work,' Fleta Minor, or the Laws of
cause in wfich he perishes.
cau1s in which be perishes.Art and Nature  in knowing  the Bodies of Metals, &c.,
He published his finrt volume of the History of the Sa-                                         s..*
*e pulished his first volume of the History of the Sa-  by Sir John Pettus, 1683;' who gave it this title from the
racens, in 1708; and ardently pursuing his oriental studies,  circumstance of his having translated it from the German
published his second volume ten years afterwards without  during his confnement in this prison.
any patronage.  Alluding to the encouragement necessary       Louis the Twelfth, when the Duke of Orleans, was long
to bestow on youth, to remove the obstacles to such studies,  imprisoned in the Tower of Bourges, applying himself to
he obseris          on     e          d         in ohe  Tower                        of Bourges,  appIlyng himself' to
he observes, that'young men will hardly cone in on the  lhis studies, which he had hitherto neglected; he became,
prospect of finding leisure, in a prison, to transcribe those  in consequence,  an enlightened   monarch.
papers for the press, which they have collected with inde-   Margaret, queen of Henry the Fourth, kin of France,
fatigable labour, and oftentimes at the expense of their  confined in the Louvre, pursued very warmly the studies
rest, and all the other conveniences of life, for the service   of elegant literature and composed a very skilful apology
of the public.  No, thounh I were to assure them from my   f  the irreularities of her conduct.
own experience, that I have enjoyed more true liberty,    Charles the  rst during hs cruel confinement at Ho
more happy leisure, and more solid repose, in six months              the Ronal Imanemn  address
by, wrote the Eikon Basilike,'the Reyal Image,' address.
here, than in thrice the same number of years before. Evil isver, been attributed by
the condition of that historian who undertakes to write the   ed to his   o Dr Gauden, howeveras incapable oattributed by
his enemies to Dr Gauden, who was incapable of writing
lives of' others, before he knows how to live himself! Not   the book, though not of disowning it.
that I speak thus as if I thought I had any just cause to be   ueen Elizabeth, while oed  by her sister Mary,
angery with the world-[ did always in my judgment give
atigry with the world-I did  always in roy jtdgrent give    wrote several poems, which we do not find she ever could
the possession of wisdom the preference to that of riches    equal after her enlargement;   ard it is said  Mary!ueen
Spenser, the child of Fancy, languished out his life in   e. h.
Spensery., the chid  of F'ancy, languished ou his life in Iof Scots, during her long imprisonment by Elizabeth, promisery.' Lord Burleigh,' says Granger,' who it is said
1 1. r          r                   t _,  }  s duced many pleasing poetic compositions.
prevented the queen giving him a hundred poulnds, seems       Sir Walter Rale's   iised History o te   orld
Sir Walter Rawlgih:h's unfinished History of ihe.World,
to have thought the lowest clerk in his office a more de-   which leaves us to regret that later ages had not been celeserving person.' Mr Malone attempts to show that Spen-   brated by his sublime eloquence, was the fruits of eleven
ser had a small pension; but the poet's querulous verses   years of imprsonment.  It was written for the use
must not be forgottenmust not he forgotten —                      Prince Henry, as he and Dailington, who also wrote'Apho-'Full little knowest thou, that hast not try'd     risms' for the same prince, have told us; the prince' What Hell it is, in suing long to bide.'         looked over the manuscript.  Of Rawleigh it is onserved,
To lose good days-to waste longf nights —and as he   to employ the language of Hume,' They were struck with
feelingly exclaims,                                        the extensive genius of the man, who, being educated
amidst naval and military enterprises, had surpassed, in the'To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run,     pursuits of literature, even those of the most recluse and' To speed, to give, to want, to be undone  sedentary lives; and they admired his unbroken magnaniHow affecting is the death of Sydenham, who la.d de-   mity which at his age, and under his circumstances, coula
voted his life to a laborious version of Plato.  He tied in   engage him to undertake and execute so great a work as
v sputnging-house, and it was his death which appears to   his History of the World.  Ile was, however, assisted in
have given rise to the Literary Fund' for the relief of  this great work by the learning of' several eminent persons;
distressed authors.'                                       a circumstance which has not been noticed.
Who shall pursue important labours when they read          The plan of the Henriade was sketched, and the greater
these anecdotes?  Dr Edmund Castell spent a great part  part composed, by Voltaire, during his imprisonment in
of his life in compiling his Lexcon HeptaFglotton, on which   the Bastile; and' the Pilgrim's Progress' of Bunyan waa
he bestowed incredible pains, and expended on it no less   produced in a similar situation.
than 12,00101., and broke his constitutiot, and exhausted    Howel, the author of' Familar Letters,' wrote the child
his fortune.  At length it was printed. but the copies re-   part of them, and almost all his other works, during ais
trained unsold on his hands.  He exhibits a curious pic-  long confinement in the Fleet-prison; he employel his
trre of literary labour in his preface.' As for myself, I   fertile pen for subsistence; and in all his books ve find
have been unceasinaly occupied for suich a number of years   much entertair.nent.
ia this mass,'.-lolendino he calls them,'tthat that day    Lvdiat, while confined in the IKing's Bench, for dsL,
eetlmed, as it were, a holiday in which I have not laboured   wrote his Annotations on the Parian Chronicle, which wa,;



12                                     CURIOSITIES OF
first published by Prideaux. This was that learned scholar  relaxed  his profound speculations by rearing del.ca,
whom Johnson alludes to; an allusion not known to Bos-  flowers.
well and others.                                         Conrad ab Uffenbach, a learned German, recreated his
The learned Selden, committed to prison for his attacks  mind, after severe studies, with a collection of prints o'
on the divine right of tithes and the king's prerogative, pre-  eminent persons, methodically arranged; he retained this
pared during his confinement, his history of Eadmer, en-  ardour of the Grangerite to his last days.
riched by his notes.                                     Rohault wandered from shop to shop to observe the meCardinal Polignac formed the design of refuting the ar-  chanics labour; Count Caylus passed his mornings in the
guments of the sceptics which Bayle had been renewing  Sudwos of artists, and his evenings in writing his numerous
in his dictionary; but his public occupations hindered him.  works on art. This was the true life of an amateur.
Two exiles at length fortunately gave him the leisure; and    Granville Sharp, amidst the severities of his studies, found
the Anti-Lucretius is the fruit of the court disgraces of its  a social relaxation in the amusement of a barge on the
author.                                                Thames, which was well known to the circle of his
Freret, when imprisoned in the Bastile, was permitted  friends; there, was festive hospitality with musical delight.
only to have Bayle for his companion. His dictionary was  It was resorted to by men of the most eminent talents
always before him, and his principles were got by heart.  and rank. His little voyages to Putney, to Kew, and to
To this circumstance we owe his works, animated by all  Richmond, and the literary intercourse they produced,
the powers of scepticism.                              were singularly happy ones.' The history of his amuseSir William Davenant finished his poem of Gondibert  ments cannot be told without adding to the dignity of his
during his confinenient by the rebels inr Carisbroke Castle.  character,' observes Mr Prince Hoare, in the very curious
De Foe, when imprisoned in Newgate for a political  life of this great philanthropist.
pamphlet, began his Review; a periodical paper, which    Some have found amusement in composing treatises on
has extended to nine thick volumes in quarto, and it has  odd subjects.  Seneca wrote a burlesque narrative of
been supposed served as the model of the celebrated papers  Claudian's death.  Pierious Valerianus has written an
of Steele. There he also composed his Jure Divino.     eulogium on beards; and we have had a learned one re.
Wicquefort's curious work on'Ambassadors' is dated  cently, with due gravity and pleasantry, entitled'Eloge
from his prison, where he had been confined for state af-  de Perruques.'
fairs. He softened the rigour of those heavy hours by se-    Holstein has written an eulogium on the North Wind;
veral historical works.                                Heinsius, on' the Ass;' Menage,'the Transmigration of
One of the most interesting facts of this kind is the fate  the Parasitical Pedant to a Parrot;' and also the' Petition
of an Italian scholar, of the name of Maggi.  Early ad-  of the Dictionaries.'
dicted to the study of the sciences, and particularly to the    Erasmus composed, to amuse himself when travelling
mathematics and military architecture, he defended Fa-  in a post-chaise, his panegyric on Moria, or Folly; which,
magusta, besieged by the Turks, by inventing machines  authorized by the pun, he dedicated to Sir Thomas More.
which destroyed their works.  When that city was taken    Sallengre, who would amuse himself like Erasmus,
in 1571, they pillaged his library, and carried him away in  wrote, in imitation of his work, a panegyric on Ebriety.
chains. Now a slave, after his daily labours he amused a  He says, that he is willing'to be thoueht as drunken a man
great part of his nights by literary compositions;'De  as Erasmus was a foolish one.  Synesius composed a
Tintinnabulis,' on Bells, a treatise still read by the curious,  Greek panegyric on Baldness; these burlesques were
was actually composed by him when a slave in Turkey,  brought into great vogue by Erasmus's Morte Encomium.
without any other resource than the erudition of his own    It seems, Johnson observes in his life of Sir Thomas
memory, and the genius of which adversity could not de-  Browne, to have been in all ages the pride of art to show
prive him,                                             how it could exalt the low and amplify the little. To this
ambition perhaps we owe the frogs of Homer; the gnat
and the bees of Virgil; the butterfly of Spenser; the shaAmong the Jesuits it was a standing rule of the order,  dows of Wowerus; and the quincunx of Browne.
that after an application to study for two hours, the mind  Cardinal de Richelieu, amongst all his great occupations,
of the student should be unbent by some relaxation how-  found a recreation in violent exercises; and he was once
ever trifling. When Petavius was employed in his Dog-  discovered jumping with his servant, to try who could reach
mata Theologica, a work of the most profound and extensive  the highest side of a wall. De Granmmont, observing the
erudition, the great recreation of the learned father was at  cardinal to be jealous of his powers, offered to jump with
the end of every second hour to twirl his chair for five  him; and in the true spirit of a courtier, having made
minutes. After protracted studies Spinosa would mix with  some efforts which nearly reached the cardinal's, confess.
the family-party where he lodged, and join in the most tri-  ed the cardinal surpassed him. This was jumping like a
vial conversations, or unbend his mind by setting spiders to  politician; and by this means he is said to have ingratiated
fight each other; he observed their combats with so much   himself with the minister.
interest that he was often seized with immoderate fits of    The great Samuel Clarke was fond of robust exercise;
laughter. A continuity of labour deadens the soul, observes  and this profound logician has been found leaping over
Seneca, in closing his treatise on' The Tranquillity of the  tables and chairs: once perceiving a pedantic fellow, he
Soul,' and the mind must unbend itself by certain amuse-  said,' Now we must desist, for a fool is coming in.'
ments. Socrates did not blush to play with children; Cato,    What ridiculous amusements passed between Dean
over his bottle, found an alleviation from the fatigues of  Swift and his friends, in Ireland, some of his prodigal
government; a circumstance, he says in his manner, which   editors have revealed to the public.. He seems to have
rather gives honour to this defect, than the defect dishonours  outlived the relish of famre, when he could level his mind
Cato. Some men ofletters portioned out their day between  to such perpetual trifles.
repose and labour. Asinius Pollio would not suffer any    An eminent French lawyer, confined by his business to a
business to occupy him beyond a stated hour; after that  Parisian life, amused himself with collecting from the clastime he would not allow any letter to be opened during his  sics all the passages which relate to a country life. The
hours of relaxation, that they might not be interrupted by   collection was published after his death.
unforeseen labours. In the senate, after the tenth hour, it    Contemplative men seem  to be fond of amusements
was not allowed to make any new motion.                 which accord with their habits. The thoughtful game of
Tycho Brahe diverted himself with polishing glasses for  chess, and the tranquil delight of angling, have been favourall kinds of spectacles, and making mathematical instru-  ite recreations with the studious. Paley had himself paintments; an amusement too closely connected with his stu-  ed with a rod and line in his hand; a strange character.
dies to be deemed as one.                               istic for the author of'Natural Theology.' Sir Henry
D'Andilly, the translator ofJosephus, after seven or eight  Wotton called angling'idle time not idle spent;' we may
hours of study every day, amused himself in cultivating   suppose that his meditations and his amusements were
trees; Barclay, the author of the Argenis, in his leisure  carried on at the same moment.'
hours was a florist; Balsac amused himself with a collec-    The amusements of the great Daguessean, chancellor
tion of crayon portraits; Peiresc found his amusement  of France, consisted in an interchange of studies: his re.
amongst his medals and antiquarian curiosities; the Abbe  laxations were all the varieties of literature.' Le change.
de Maroles with his prints; and Politian in singing airs to   ment de l'ttude est mon soul delassement,' said this great
his lute. Descartes passed his afternoons in the colversa-   man; and Thomas observes,' that in the age of the pastion of a few friends, and in cultivating a little garden  in  sions, his only passion was study.'
pA  morning, occupied by the system  sf' the world. ie   Seneca has observed on amusements proper for literary




LITERA TURE.                                                         13
men, in regard to robust exercises, that these are a fblly,  stamping an impression was daily practised, and in fact,
and indecency to see a man of letters exult in the strength  they possessed the art of printing without being aware ot
of his arm, or the breadth of his back! such amusements di-  it) how were these portraits ofVarroso easily propagated?
minish the activity of the mind. Too much fatigue exhausts  If copied with a pen, their correctness was in some danger,
the animal spirits, as too much food blunts the finer facul-  and their diffusion must have been very confined and slow;
ties; but elsewhere he allows his philosopher an occasional  perhaps they were outlines.  This passage of Pliny's exslight inebriation; an amusement which was very preva-  cites curiosity, which it may be difficult to satisfy.
lent among our poets formerly, when they exclaimed,          Amongst the various advantages which attend a colleeFetch me Ben Jonson's skull, and fil't with sack,    tion of portraits of illustrious characters, Oldys observes,
Rich as the same he drank, when the whole pack
Rich as the same he drank, when the whole pack       that they not only serve as matters of entertainment and
Of'jolly si~ters pledged, and did agree              curiosity, and preserve the different modes or habits of the
It was no sin to be as drunk as he  fashions of the time, but become of infinite importance, by
Seneca concludes admirably,'whatever be the amuse-  settling our floating ideas upon the true features of famous
Se~neyou~ca ose rtuno rotoefheboy persons they fix the chronological particulars of their birth
merits you choose, return not slowly from those of the body   age death sometimes with short characters of them, beage, death~ sometimes with short characters of them, beto the mind; exercise the latter night and day. The mind   sides the names of painter, designer, and engraver.  It is
is nourished at a cheap rate; neither cold nor heat, nor  thus a single print, by the haSopiedgra    n
age itself can interrupt this exercise; give therefore all  come a varied  banquet.    nd of a skilful artist, may be~~~~~your cars o    pssssonwscome a varied basquet.  To this Granger adds, that in a
your cares to a possession which ameliorates even in its  collection of engraved portraits, the contents of many gal~~~~~~~old age ~! ~leries are reduced into the narrow compass of a few volAn ingenious writer has observed, that'a garden just  numes; and the portraits of eminent persons, who distinaccommodates itself to the perambulations of a scholar,  guished themselves for a long succession of ages, may be
who would perhaps rather wish his walks abridged than turned over in a few hours.
turned over in a few hours.
extended.'  There is a good characteristic account of the'Another advantage,'Granger continues,' attending
mode in which the literati take exercise in Pope's letters.  such an assble  s, that the methodical arrangeent,'I, like a poor squirrel, am continually in motion indeed,  has a surprising effeet upon the memory.  We see the
hsasurprising effect upon the memory.   We see the
but it is about a cage of three foot; my little excursions are  celebrated contemporaries of every age almost at one
like those of a shopkeeper, who walks every day a mile or  view; and the mind is insensibly led to the history of that
two before his own door, but minds his business all the  view; and t ma dtoheaniprnistorycm
while.' A turn or two in a garden will often very happily period. I may add to these, an important circumstance,
A turn or two in a garden will oftenvery  appiy   which is the power that such a collection will have in
close a fine period, mature an unripenedthought, and raise   awakening genus.  skilful preceptor wil presenty
up fresh associations, when the mind like the body be-  awakening genius.   A  skilful preceptor will presently
upfresh                                           soiaio n s, wh eern  the sm inie pt he blfo d be-  perceive the true bent of the temper of his pupil, by his
comes rigid by preserving the same posture.  Biffon o-  beinc struck with a Blake or a Boyle, a Hyde or a Mibeinz struck with a Blake or a Bo0yle, a Hyde or a Milten quitted the apartment he studied in, which was placed  ton.'
in the midst of his garden, for a walk in it; Evelyn loved   A circumstance in the life of Cicero confirms this obserA circumstance in the life of Cicero confirms this obser-'books and a garden.''~~books and a garden.'  ~vation.  Atticus had a gallery adorned with the images of
PORTRAITS OF AUTHORS.                       portraits of the great men of Rome, under each of which
With the ancients, it was undoubtedly a custom  to  Cornelius Nepos says, he had severally described their
M~it  theancents  it  as  ndoutedl  a  usto  toprincipal acts and henours in a few concise verses of his
place the portraits of authors before their works.  Mar-  principal acts and honors in a few concise verses of his
tial's 186th epigram of his fourteenth book in a mere play   own composition.  It was by the contemplation oftwo of
on words, concerning a little volume containing the works  these portraits (Old Brutus and a venerable relative in one
picture) that, Cicero seems to have incited Brutus by the
of Virgil, and which had his portrait prefixed to it.  The   picture)  that Cicero seems to hve  incited Brtus  by the
volume and the characters must have been very diminu-  exaple of hee hiseat ancestorsto dissolve the tyranny
tive. Qaof Cesar.  Fairfax made a collection of engraved  portraits of warriors. A story much in favour ofportrait-col.
Quam  brevis immensum cepit membrana Maronemi!    lectors is that of the Athenian courtezan, who, in the midst' psiuas Vultus prima tabella gerit.'
Ipsius Vutus prima tabela gent.         of a riotous banquet with her levers, accidentally casting
Martial is not the only writer who takes notice of the   her eye on the portrait of a philosopher that hung opposite
ancients prefixing portraits to the works of authors. Sene-  to her seat, the happy character of temperance and virtue
ca, in his ninth chapter on the Tranquillity of the Soul,  struck her with so lively an image of her own unworthiness,
complains of many of the luxurious great, who, like so  that she instantly quitted the roin, and retired for ever
many of our own collectors, possessed libraries as they  from the scene of debauticherv.  The orientalists have felt
did their estate and equipages.' It is melancholy to oh-  the same charm  in their pictured memorial; for'the im.
serve how the portraits of men of genius, and the works of  perial Akber,' says Mr Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs,
their divine intelligence, are used only as the luxury and     employed artists to make portraits of all the principal
the ornaments of walls.'                                   omrahs and officers in his court; they were bound together
Pliny has nearly the same observation, Lib. xxxv, cap.  in a thick volume, wherein, as the Aveen Akbery or the
2. He remarks, that thecustom  was rather modern in his  Institutes of Akber express it,' The Past are kept in livetime; and attributes toAsinius Pollio the honour of having  ly remembrance: and the Present are insured immorintroduced it into Rome.'In consecrating a library with  tality.'
the portraits of our illustrious authors, he has formed, if I  Leonard Aretin, when young and in prison, found a por.
may so express myself, a republic of the intellectual  trait of Petrarch, on which his eyes were perpetually fixed;
powers of men.'  To the richness of book-treasures, As-  and this sort of contemplation inflamed the desire ofimitasinius Pollit had associated a new source of pleasure, in  ting this great man: Buffon hung the portrait of Newton
placing the statues of their authors amidst them, inspiring  before his writing-table.
the minds of the spectators even by their eyes.              On this subject, how sublimely Tacitus expresses himA taste for collecting portraits, or busts, was warmly  self at the close of his admired biography of Agricola.'I
pursued in the happier periods of Rome; for the celebrat-  do nriot mean to censure the custom of preserving in brass or
ed Atticus, in a work he published of illustrious Romans,  marble, the shape and stature of eminent men; but busts
made it more delightful, by ornamenting it with the por-  and statues, like their originals, are frail and perishable.
traits of those great men; and the learned Varro, in his  The soul is formed of finer elements, its inward form is not
biography of Seven Hundred celebrated Men, by giving  to be expressed by the hand of an artist with unconscious
the world their true features and their physiognomy, in  matter; our manners and cur morals may in some degree
some manner, aliquo modu imaginibus is Pliny's expres-  trace the resemblance.  All of Agricola that gained our
slon, showed that even their persons should not entirely be  love and raised our admiration still subsists, and ever will
annihilated, they indeed,adds Pliny, form a spectacle which  subsist, preserved in the minds of men, the register ofages
the gods themselves might contemplate; for ifthe godls sent  and the records offame.'
those heroes to the earth, it is Varro who' secured their    What is more agreeable to the curiosity ofthe mind and
immortality, and has so multiplied and distributed them in  the eve than portraits of gre-. characters? An old philosall places, that we may carry them about tis, place them   opher whom  Marville invied to see a collection of landwherever we choose, and fix our eyes on them  with per-  scapes by a celebrated artist,'d,  landscapes I prefer
petual admiration.  A spectacle that every day becomes  seeing in the country itself, buh     fond of pntemplating
more varied and interesting, as new heroes appear, and as  the pictures of illustrious men.'  This opinion has some
works of this kind are spread abroad.                     truth: Lord Orford preferring an interesting portrait, to
But as printing was unknown to the ancients (though   either landscaue or historical painting.'A  landscape,




14                                     CURIOSITIES OF
said he,' however excellent in its distributions of wood,             DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS.
and water, and buildings, leaves not one tract in the mem-    The literary treasures of antiquity have suffered fromr
ory; historical painting is perpetually false in a variety  the malice of men, as well as that of time.   It is remarkof ways, in the costume, the grouping, the portraits, and is  able that conquerors, in the moment of victory, or in the
nothing more than fabulous painting; but the real portrait  unsparing devastations of their rage, have not been satisfi.
is truth itself; and calls up so many collateral ideas as to  ed with destroying men, but have even carried their venfill an intelligent mind more than any other species.   geance to books.
Marrelle justly reprehends the fastidious feelings ofthose    Ancient history records how the Persians, from hatred
ingenious men who have resisted the solicitations of the  of the religion of the Phoenicians and the Eyptians, de.
artist, to sit for their portraits. In them it is sometimes as  stroyed their books, of which Eusebius notices they pos.
much pride as it is vanity in those who are less difficult in  sessed a great number. A remarkable anecdote is recordthis respect. Of Gray, Shenstone, Fielding and Akenside,  ed of the Grecian libraries; one at Grnidus was burnt by
we have no beads for which they sat; a circumstance re-  the sect of Hippocrates, because the Gnidians refused to
gretted by their admirers, and by physiognomists.       follow the doctrines of their master. If the followers of
To an arranged collection of Portraits, we owe seve-  Hippocrates formed the majority, was it not very unorthoral interesting works. Granger's justly esteemed volumes  dox in the Gnidians to prefer taking physic their own way?
originated in-such a collection. Perrault' Eloges of' the  The anecdote may be suspicious, but faction has often an.
Illustrious men of the seventeenth century,' were drawn up  nihilated books.
to accompany the engraved portraits of the most celebrated  The Romans burnt the books of the Jews, of the Chris.
characters of the age, which a fervent lover ofthe fine arts  tians, and the philosophers; the Jews burnt the hooks of the
and literature had had engraved as an elegant tribute to the  Christians and the Pagans; and the Christians burnt the
fame of those great men. They are confined to his nation,  books of the Pagans and the Jews. The greater part of the
as Granger's to ours.  The parent of this race of books  books of Origen and other heretics were continually burnt by
may perhaps be the Eulogiums of Paulus Jovius, which  the orthodox party. Gibbon pathetically describes the empty
originated in a beautiful Cabinet, whose situation he has  library of Alexandria after the Christians had destroyed it.
described with all its amenity.' The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or dePaulus Jovius had a country house, in an insular situa-  stroyed; and near twenty years afterwards the appearance
tlion of a most romantic aspect. It was built on the ruins of  of the empty shelves excited the regret and inrdianalion r,t
the villa of Pliny; and in his time the foundations were still  every spectator, whose mind was not totally darkened by
to be traced. When the surrounding lake was calm, in its  religious prejudice. The compositions of ancient genius, so
lucid bosom were still viewed sculptured marbles,the trunks  many of which have irretrievably perished, might surely
of columns, and the fragments of those pyramids which had  have been excepted from the wreck of idolatry, for the
once adorned the residence of the friend of Trajan. Jovius  amusement and instruction of succeeding ages and either
was an enthusiast of literary leisure; an historian, with  the seal or avarice of the archbishop might have been satithe imagination of a poet; a bishop nourished on the sweet  ated with the richest spoils which were the rewards of his
fictions of pagan mythology.  His pen colours like a pen-  victory.'
cil. He paints rapturously, his gardens bathed by the wa-    The curious narrative of Nicetas Choniates of the ravaters of the lake, the shade and freshness of his woods, his  ges committed by the Christians of the thirteenth century in
green hills, his sparkling fountains, the deep silence, and  Constantinople, was fraudulently suppressed in the printed
the calm of solitude.  lHe describes a statue raised in his  editions; it has been preserved by Dr Clarkle.  W~e cangardens to Nature; in his hall an Apollo presided with  not follow this painful history, step by step, of the pathetic
his lyre, and the Muses with their attributes; his library  Nicetas, without indignant feelings. Dr Clarke observes,
was guarded by Mercury, and an apartment devoted to  that the Turks have committed fewer injuries to the works
the three Graces was embellished by Doric columns, and  of art than the barbarous Christians of that age.
paintitngs of the most pleasing kind. Such was the interi-    The reading of the Jewish Talmud has been forbidden
or!  Without, the pure and transparent lake spread its  by various edicts, of the Emperor Justinian, of many of the
broad mirror, rolled its voluminous windings, while the  French and Spanish kings, and numbers of popes. All
banks were richly covered with olives and laurels, arid in  the copies were ordered to be burnt; the intrepid persevethe distance, towns, promontories, hills rising in an amphi-  rance of the Jews themselves preserved that work from antheatre blushing with vines, and the elevations of the Alps  nihilation.  In 1566 twelve thousand copies were thrown
covered with woods and pasturage, and sprinkled with herds  into the flames at Cremona.  John Retuchlin interfered to
and flocks.                                             stop this universal destruction of Talmuds; for which he
In the centre of this enchanting habitation stood the  became hated by the monks, and condemned by the ElecCJabinet, where Paulus Jovius had collected, at great cost,  tor of Mentz, but appealing to Rome, the prosecution was
the Portraits of the celebrated men of the fourteenth and  stopped; and the traditions of the Jews were considered
two succeeding centuries.  The daily view of them ani-  as not necessary to be destroyed.
mated his mind to compose their eulogiums.  These are    Conquerors at first destroy with the rashest zeal the nastill curious; both for the facts they preserve, and the happy  tional records of tihe conquered people; hence it is that the
conciseness with which Jovius delineates a character. He  Irish deplore the irreparable losses of their most ancient
had collected these portraits as others from a collection of  national memorials,which their invaders have been too sucnatural history; and he pursued in their characters what  cessful in annihilating.  The same event occurred in the
others de in their experiments.                         conquest of Mexico; and the interesting history of the
One caution in collecting portraits must not be forgotten:  New World must ever remain imperfect in consequence
it respects their authenticity.  We have too many sulppo-  of the unfortunate success of the first missionaries; who
sititious heads, and ideal personages. Conrade.ab Uffen.  too late became sensible of their error.  Clavigero, the
bach, who seems to have been the first collector who pro.  most authentic historian of Mexico, continually laments
jected a methodical arrangement. condemned those por-  this affecting loss. Every thing in that country had been
traits which were not genuine, as fit only for the amuse-  painted. and painters abounded there, as scribes in Euments of children.  The painter does not always give a  rope.  The first missionaries, suspicious that superstition
correct likeness, or the engraver misses it in his copy.  was mixed with all thieir paintings, attacked the chiefschool
The faithful Vertue refused to engrave for Houbraken's  of these artists, and collecting, in the market-place, a
set, because they did not authenticate their originals; and  little mountain of these precious records, they set fire to
some of these are spurious.  Busts are riot so liable to  it; and buried in the ashes the memory of many most in.
these accidents.  It is to be regretted that men of genius  teresting events.  Afterwards sensible of their error, they
have not been careful to transmit their own portraits to  tried to collect information from the mouths of the Indians;
their admirers; it forms a part of their character: a false  buttheIndians were indianantly silent; when they attemptdelicacy has interfered.  Erasmus did not like to have his  ed to collect the remains of these painted histories, the
own diminutive person sent down to posterity, but Holbein  patriotic Mexican usually buried in concealment the re.
was always affectionately painting his friends; Bavle and  maining records of his country.
others have refused; but Mfotesquieu once sat to Dacier    The story of the Caliph Ornar proclaiming throrlihoult
after repeating denials.' h over by the ingenious argu-  the Kingdom, at the taking of Alexandria, that the Koran
ment of the artist;'r     not think,' said Dacier,'that  contained every thing which was useful to believe and to
there is as much prid.- refusing my offer as in accept-  know, and he therefore, ordered all the books in the Alex.
ig it?'                                                andrian library to be distributed to the masters of She baths




LI TE RATURE.                                                    15
amounting to 4000, to be used in heating their stoves dur-  never be long subservient to a tyrant, they struck one fatal
ing a period of six months, modern paradox would attempt  blow at the national literature: every book they condemned
to deny. But the tale would not be singular even were it  was destroyed, even those of antiquity: the annals of the
true: it perfectly suits the character of a bigot; a barba-  nation were forbidden to be read, and writers were not
rian. and a blockhead. A similar event happened in Per-  permitted even to compose on subjects of Bohemian literasia. When Abdoolah, who in the third century of the  ture.  The mother tongue was held out as a mark of vulMohammedan era governed Khorasan, was presented at  gar obscurity, and domiciliary visits were made for the
Nishapoor with a Ms3, which was shown as a literary cu-  purpose of inspecting books and the libraries of the Bohe.
riosity, he asked the title of it, and was told it was the tale   mians.  With their books and their language they lost
of Wamick and Oozra; composed by the great poet, No-  their national character and their independence.
shirwan. On this Abdoolah observed, that those of his     The destruction of libraries in the reign of Henry VIII,
country and faith had nothing to do with any other book   at the dissolution of the monasteries is wept over by John
than the Koran; and that the composition of an idolator  Bale; those who purchased the religious houses took the
must be detestable! Not only he declined accepting it, but  libraries as part of the booty, with which they sooureo
ordered it to be burnt in his presence; and further issued  their furniture, or sold the books as waste paper, or sent
a proclamation commanding all Persian sass, which should  them abroad in ship-loads to foreign bookbinders.
be found within the circle of his government to be burned 1    The fear of destruction induced many to hide manunMuch of the most ancient poetry of the Persians perished   scripts under ground, and in old walls. At the Reformaby this fanatical edict.                                tion popular rage exhausted itself on illuminated books, or
Cardinal Ximenes seems to have retaliated a little on   Mss that had red letters in the title-page; any work which
the Saracens; for at the taking of Granada he condemned   was decorated was sure to be thrown into the flames as a
to the flames five thousand Korans.                     superstitious one. Red letters and embellished figures
The following anecdote respecting a Spanish missal,  were such marks of being papistical and diabolical.  Wetr
called St Isldore s, is not incurious; hard fighting saved it  still find such volumes mutilated of the gilt letters and ele.
from destruction. In the Moorish wars, all these missals  gant flourishes, hut the greater number were annihilated.
had been destroyed excepting those in the city of Toledo.  Many have been found under ground, being forgotten:
There in six churches the Christians were allowed the free  what escaped the flames were obliterated by the damp 
exercise of their religion. When the Moors were expelled   such is the deplorable fate of books during a persecution!
several centuries afterwards from ToledoAlphonsus theVI  The puritans burnt every thing they found which bore
ordered the Roman missal to be used in those churches;  the vestige of popish origin.  We have on record many
but the people of Toledo insisted on having their own pre-  curious accounts of their pious depredations,of their maimferred, as being drawn ip by the most ancient bishops, and  ing images and erasing pictures.  The heroic expeditions
revised by St Isidore. It had been used by a great number  of one Dowsing are journalised by himself; a fanatical
of saints, and having been preserved pure during Moorish   Quixotte, to whose intrepid arm  many of our noseless
times, it seemed to them that Alphonsus was more tyran-  saints sculptured on our cathedrals owe their misfortunes.
nical than the Turks. The contest between the Roman       The followin  are some some details fiom the diary of this reand the Toletan missals came to that height, that at length  doubtable Goth, durina his rage for reformation. His enit was determined to decide their fate by single combat;  tries are expressed with a laconic conciseness,and it would
the champion of the Toletan missal felled by one blow the   seem with a little dry humour.' At Sunbury, we brake
knight of the Roman missal. Alphonsus still considered   down ten mighty great angels in glass. At Barham, brake
this battle as merely the effect of the heavy arm  of the   down the twelve apostles in the chancel, and six superstidoughty Toletan, and ordered a fast to be proclaimed, and  tious pictures more there; and eight in the church, one a
a great fire to be prepared, into which, after his majesty  lamb with a cross (f) on the back; and digged down the
and the people had joined in prayer for heavenly assistance   steps and took up four superstitious inscriptions in brass,'
in this ordeal,both the rivals (not the men, but the missals)  &c.' Lady Bruce's house, the chaple, a picture of God
were thrown into the flames-again St Isidore's missal  the Father, of the Trinity, of Christ, of the Holy Ghost,
triumphed, and this iron book was then allowed to be or-  and the cloven ton, ues, which we gave orders to take
thodox by Alphonsus, and the good people of' Toledo were  down, and the lady promised to do it.' At another place
allowed to say their prayers as they had long been used  they' brake six hundred superstitious pictures, eight Holy
to do. HEowever, the copies of this missal at length be-  Ghosts, and three of the Son.' And in this manner he
came very scarce; for now when no one opposed the read-  and his deputies scoured one hundred and fifty parishes!
ing of StIsidore's missal, none cared to use it. Cardinal  It has been humourously conjectured, that from this ruthXimenes found it so difficult to obtain a copy, that he  less devastator originated the phrase to give a Dowsing.
printed a large impression, and built a chapel, consecrated  Bishop Hall saved the windows of his chaple at Norwich
to St. Isidore, that this service might be daily chanted as  from destruction, by taking out the heads of the figures,
it had been by the ancient Christians.                  and this accounts for the many faces in church windows
The works of the ancients were frequently destroyed at  which we see supplied in white glass.
the instigation of the monks.  They appear sometimes to    In the various civil wars in our country, numerous lihave mutilated them, for passages have not come down to  braries have suffered both in ass and printed books.'I 
us, which once evidently existed; and occasionally their  dare maintain,' says Fuller,' that the wars betwixt York
interp 2ations and other forgeries formed a destruction in a  and Lancaster, which lasted sixty years, were not so de.
new shafe, by additions to the originals.  They were in-  structive as our modern wars in six years.' He alludes to
defatigable in erasing the best works of the most eminent  the parliamentary feuds in the reign of Charles I.' Fot
Greek and Latin authors, in order to transcribe their ridi-  during the former their differences agreed in the same re.
culous lives of saints on the obliterated vellum. One of the  ligion, impressing them with reverence to all sacred muni.
books of Livy is in the Vatican most painfully defaced by  ments; whilst our civil wars, founded infaction and varietd
some pious father for the purpose of writing on it some  of pretended religions, exposed all naked church records a
missal or psalter, and there have been recently others dis-  prey to armed violence; a sad vacuum, which will be sencovered in the same state. Inflamed with the blindest zeal  sible in our Elng-lish historie.'
against every thin. pagan, Pope Gregory VII ordered that    The scarcity of books concerning the catholics in this
tne library of the Palantine Apollo, a treasury of literature  country is owing to two circumstances; the destruction ot
formed by successive emperors, should be committed to  catholic books and documents by the pursuivants in the
the flames! He issued this order under the notion of con-  reign of Charles I, and the destruction of them  by the
fining the attention of the clergy to the holy scriptures!  catholics themselves, from the dread of the heavy penalFrom that time all ancient learning which was not sane-  ties in which their mere possession involved their owners.
tioned by the authority of the church, has been emphati-    When it was proposed to the Great Gustavus of Swesally distinguished as profane-in opposition to sacred.  den to destroy the palace of the Dukes of Bavaria, that
rhis pope is said to have burnt the works of Varro, the   hero nobly refused, observing,' Let us not copy the exlearned Roman, that St Austin should escape from the   ample of our unlettered ancestors, who by wagina war
charge of plagiarism, being deeply indebted to Varro for  against every production of genius, have rendered the
much of his great work the'City of God.'              name of Goth universally proverbial of the rudest state of
The jesuits,sent by the Emperor Ferdinand to proscribe  barbarity.'
Lutheranisrm   from Bohemia, converted that flourishing   Even the civilization of the eighteenth century could not
kingdom comparati% ely into a desert, from which it never  preserve from the savage and destructive filry of a disorcecovred  coav'nced that an enlightened people could  derly mob, m the most polished city of Europe, the valuable




18                                   CTCURIO.SITIES OF
Mss of the great Earl Mansfield, which were mnidly con-  wards consoled himself with composing a little treatise aD
signed to the flames during the riots of 1780.          Bibliotheca incendio. I. must have been sufficiently cu.
In the year 1599, the hall of the stationers underwent  rious.'Even in the present day, men of letters are sub.
as great a purgation as was carried on in Don Guixote's  ject to similar misfortunes; for though the fire-offices will
library.  Warton gives a list of the best writers who were  insure books, they will not allow authors to value their
ordered for.immediate conflagration by the prelates Whit-  own manuscripts!
gift and Bancroft, urged by the puritanic and calvinistic  A fire in the Cottonian library shrivelled and d;estroysc
factions. Like thieves and outlaws, they were ordered to  many Anglo-Saxon Mss, a loss now irreparable. The an.
be taken wheresoever they may be found.-' It was also de-  tiquary is doomed to spell hard and hardly at the bakat
creed that no satires or epigrams should be printed for the  fragments that crumble in his hand.
future. No plays were to be printed without the inspec-    Meninsky's famous Persian dictionary met wi.t a sad.
tion and permission of the archbishop of Canterbury and  fate. Its excessive rarity is owing to the siege of Vienna
the bishop of London; nor any English historyes, I sup-  by the Turks; a bomb fell on the solitary author's house
pose novels and romances, without the sanction of the  and consumed the principal part of his indefatigable la.
privy council. Any pieces of this nature, unlicensed, or  bours. There are few sets of this high-priced work which
now at large and wandering abroad, were to be diligently  do not bear evident proofs of the bomb; while nmany parts
sought, recalled, and delivered over to the ecclesiastical  are stained with the water sent to quench the flames.
armn at London-house.'                                    The sufferings of an author for the loss of his manuAt a later period, and by an opposite party, among other  scripts is nowhere more strongly described than in the case
extravagant motions made in the parliament, one was to  of Anthony Urceus, one of the most unfortunate scholars
destroy all the records in the tower, and to settle the na-  of the fifteenth century. The loss of his papers seems
tion on a new foundation. The very same principle was  immediately to have been followed by madness. At Forli,
attempted to be acted on in the French revolution by the  he had an apartment in the palace, and had prepared an
true' sans-culottes.' With us Sir Matthew Hale showed  important work for publication. His room was dark, and
the weakness of the proposal, and while he drew on his  he generally wrote by lamp-light.  Having gone out, he
side' all sober persons, stopped even the mouths of the  left the lamp burning; the papers soon kindled, and his
frantic people themselves.'                            library was reduced to ashes. As soon as he heard the
To descend to the losses incurred by individuals, whose  news, he ran furiously to the palace, and knocking his head
name ought to have served as an amulet to charm away  violently against the door, uttered this blasphemous lan.
the demons of literary destruction. One of the most in-  guaoge;'Jesus Christ, what great crime have I done! who
teresting is the fate of Aristotle's library; he who ny a  of those who believed in you have I ever treated so cruel.
Greek term was first saluted as a collector of books! his  ly? Hear what I am saying, for I am in earnest, and am
works have come down to us accidentally, but not with-  resolved: if by chance I should be so weak as to address
out irreparable injuries, and with no slight suspicion re-  myself to you at the point of death, don't hear me, for I
specting their authenticity. The story is told by Strabo in  will not be with you, but prefer hell and its eternity of torhis thirteenth book. The books of Aristotle came from   ments.' To which, by the by, he gave little credit. Those
his scholar Theophrastus to Neleus, whose posterity, an  who heard these ravings tried to console him, but they
illiterate race, kept them locked up without using them,  could not. He quitted the town, and lived franticly, wanburied in the earth! One Apellion, a curious collector,  dering about the woods!
purchased them, but finding the Mss injured by age and    Ben Jonson's Execration on Vulcan was composed on a
moisture, conjecturally supplied their deficiencies.  It is  like occasion; the fruits of twenty years' study were conimpossible to know how far Apellion has corrupted and  sumed in one short hour; our literature suffered, for among
obscured the text. But the mischief did not end here;  some works of imagination there were many philosophical
when Sylla at the taking of Athens brought them to Rome,  collections, a commentary on the poetics, a complete critihe consigned them to the care of one Tyrannio, a gram-  cal grammar, a life of Henry V, his journey into Scotland
marian, who employed scribes to copy them; he suffered  with all his adventures in that poetical pilgrimage, and a
them to pass through his hands without corrections, and  poem on the ladies of Great Britain. What a catalogue
took great freedoms with them; the words of Strabo are  of losses!
strong.' Ibique, Tyrannionem  grammaticum iis vsum      Castelvetro, the Italian commentator on Aristotle, havatquat (ut fama est) intercidisse, aut in~ertisse.' Ile gives  inm  heard that his house was on fire, ran through the
it indeed as a report; but the fact seems confirmed by the  streets exclaiming to the people, alla Poetics! alla Poetistate in which we find these works; Averroes declared  ca! To the Poetic! To the Poetic! He was then writing
that he read Aristotle forty times over before he succeeded  his commentary on the Poetic of Aristotle.
in perfectly understanding him; he pretends he did at the    Several men of letters have been known to have risen
one and fortieth time! And to prove this has published  from their death-bed, to destroy their Mss.  So solicitous
five folios of commentary.                              have they been not to venture their posthumous reputation
We have lost much valuable literature by the illiterate  in the hands of undiscerning friends. Marmontel relates
or malignant descendants of learned and ingenious persons.  a pleasing anecdote of Colardeau, the elegant versifier of
Many of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's letters have  Pone's epistle of Eloisa to Abelard.
been destroyed, I am informed, by her mother, who did not    This writer had not vet destroyed what he had written
approve that she should disgrace her family by adding to it  of a translation of Tasso. At the approach of death, he
literary honours; and a few of her best letters, recently  recollected this unfinished labour; he knew that his friends
published, were found buried in an old family chest. It  would not have courage to annihilate one of his works; this
would have mortified her ladyship's mother, to have heard  was reserved for him. Dying, he raised himnself, and as
that her daughter was the Seviane' of Britain.          if animated by an honourable action, he dragged himself
At the death of the learned Peiresc, a chamber in his  along, arid, with trembling hands, seized his papers, and
house filled with letters from the most eminent scholars of  consumed them in one sacrifice. I recollect another in.
the age was discovered: the learned in Europe had ad-  stance of a man of letters, of our own country, who acted
dressed Peiresc in their difficulties, who was hence called  the same part. He had passed his life in constant study,'The Avocat general' of the republic of letters. Such  and it was observed that he had written several folio vols.,
was the disposition of his niece, that although repeatedly  which his modest fears would not permit him to expose to
entreated to permit them to be published, she preferred to  the eye even of his critical friends. He promised to leave
regale herself occasionally with burning these learned epis-  his labours to posterity; and he seemed sometimes, with a
ties to save the expense of fire-wood!                 glow on his countenance, to exult that they would not be
The Mss of Leonardo da Vinci have equally suffered  unworthy of their acceptance. At his death his sensibility
from his relatives. When a curious collector discovered  took the alarm; he had the folios brought to his bed; no
some, he generously brought them to a descendant of the  one could open them, for they were closely locked. At
great painter, who coldly observed, that'he had a great  the sight of his favourite and mysterious labours, he paus.
deal more In the garret, which had lain there for many  ed; he seemed disturbed in his mind, while he felt at every
years, if the rats had not destroyed them!' Nothing which  moment his strength decaying; suddenly he raised his
this great artist wrote but showed an inventive genius.  feeble hands by an effort of firm resolve, burnt his papers,
Menage observes on a friend having had his library de-  and smiled as the greedy Vulcan licked up every page.
stroyed by fire, in which several valuable MIS had perish-  The task exhausted his remaining strength, and he soon
ed, that such a loss is one of the greatest misfortunes that  afterwards expired.  The late Mrs Inchbald had written
can happen to a man of letters. This gentleman after   her life in several volumes; on her death-bed, from a me



LITERATURE.                                                           I7
tive perhaps of too much delicacy to admit of any argu-  Romaris; these works were enriched with portraits. When
ment, she requested a friend to cut them into pieces before  wt consider that these writers lived familiarly with the
her eyes-not having sufficient strength herself to perform  finest geniuses of their times, and were opulent, hospita.
this funeral office.  These are instances of what may be  ble, and lovers of the fine arts, their biography and their
called the heroism of authors.                           portraits are felt as an irreparable loss to literature. 1
The republic of letters has suffered irreparable losses by  suspect likewise we have had great losses of which we are
shipwrecks.  Guarino Veronese, one of those learned  niot always aware; for in that curious letter in which the
Italians who travelled through Greecis for the recovery of  younger Pliny describes in so interesting a manner the
less, had his perseverance repiad by the acquisition of  sublime industry, for it seems sublime by its greatness, of
many valuable works. On his return to Italy lie was  his uncle (Book III, Letter V, of Melmouth's translation}
shipwrecked, and unfortunately for himself and the world,  it appears that his Natural History, that vast register ot
says Mr Roscoe, the lost his treasures! So pungent was  the wisdom and folly of the ancients, was not his most ex..
his grief on this occasion that, according to the relation of  traordinary labour. Among his other works we find a
one of his countrymen, his hair became suddenly white.    history in twenty books, which has entirely perished. We
About the year 1700, Hudde, an opulent burgomaster  discover also the works of writers, which by the accounts,
of Miiddieburgh, animated solely by literary curiosity, de-  of them, appear to have equalled in genius those which,
voted himself and his fortune. He went to China to in-  have descended to us. I refer the curious reader to suchi
struct himself in the language, and in whatever was re-  a poet whom Pliny, in Book I, Letter XVSI, has feelingly
markable in this singular people. He acquired the skill of  described. He tells us that' his works are never out of
a mandarine in that difficult language; nor did the form of  my hands; and whether I sit down to write any thing ma.his Dutch face undeceive the physiognomists of China.  self, or to revise what I have already wrote, or am in a disC
He succeeded to the dignity of a mnandarine; ihe travelled   position to amuse myself, I constantly take up this agree-.
through the provinces under this character, and returned   able author; and as often as I do so, he is still new..  He
to Europe with a collection of observations, the cherished   had before compared this poet to Catullus; and in a critic
labour of thirty years; and all these were sunk in the bot-  of so fine a taste as Pliny, to have cherished so constant
tomless sea!                                            an intercourse with the writings of this author, indicates
The great Pinellian library after the death of its illus-  high powers. Instances of this kind frequently oecur.
tnous possessor, filled three vessels to be conveyed to    The losses which the poetical world has sustained are
Naples.  Pursued by corsairs, one of the vessels was  sufficiently known by those who are conversant with the
taken; but the pirates finding nothing on board but books,  few invaluable fragments of Menander, who would have
they threw tlhemi all into the sea; such was the fate of a  interested us much more than Homer: for he was evidentgreat portion of this famous library. National libraries  ly the domestic poet, and the lyre he touched was formed
have often perished at sea, from the circumstance of con-  of the strings of the human heart. He was the painter of
querors transporting them into their own kingdoms.       manners, and the historian of the passions.. The c-inion
SO ME NOTICES OF LOST WORKS.                 of Quintilian is confirmed by the golden fragments preserved for the English reader in the, eleant versions of
Although it is the opinion of some critics that our litera-  Cumberland. Even of shyus,  ophocles, and Eri
ry losses do not amount to the extent which others ima-  pides, who each wrote about one hundred dramas, seven
gine, they are however nmuch greater than they allow. Our  only ave bn preserved, and ninetee  ofEuripides.   Of
felt in the historical province, and par-  only have been preserved, and nineteen of Euripides. Of
-severest losses are felt in the, historical province, and par-the one hlundred and thirty comedies-of Plautus, we only
ttiularly iu the earliest records, which might not have been    herit twenty imperfct ones.
the least interesting to philosophical curiosity.herit twenty imperfect ones.
the least interostittf to philosophical curiosity, suI believe that a philosopher would consent to lose any
The history of Phoenicia by Sanchoniathan, supposed
to be a cotetetuporary with Solomoa n is onily known to us  poet to regain an historian.; nor is this unjust, for some
by a few valuale frarnents preserved by Eusebius.  ohe  future poet may rise to supply the vacant place of a lost
poet, but it is not so with,, the, historian. Fancy may be
same ill forttne attends Manetho's history of Egypt, and  poet, but it is not so with the historian. Fancy  ay be
Berosus's history of Chaldea. Tthe yresearches of the  supplied; but Truth once lost, in the annals of mankind,
Berosus's history of Chaldea.  The researches of the
philosopher are therefore limited: and it cannot be doubted that the histories of these most ancient nations, how-     qUODLIBETS, OR SCEcOLASTIC DISQUISITIONS.
ever veiled in fables, or clouded by remoteness, would    Menage observes that the scholastic questions were
have presented to the philosopher sinrgular objects of con-  called Qrestiones Qssodlibetice; and they were generally
tetiflathios.                                           so ridiculous that we have retained the word Quodlibet in
Of the history of Polybius, which once contained forty  our vernacular languaae, to express any thing ridiculously
books, we have now only five; of the historical library of  subtile; something which comes at length to be distin.
3iodorus Siculus, fifteen hooks only remain out of forty;  guished into nothingness,
and half the Roman antiquities of Dionysius Halicarnassensis has perished.  Of' the eighty books of the history'With al the rash dexterityofwit.'
of Dion Cassius, twenty-five only remain.  The present    The history;.of the scholastic philosophy might furnish a
opening books of Amntianus Marcellinus is entitled the  philosophical writer with an instructive theme; it would
fourteenth. Livy's history consisted of one hundred and  enter into the history of the human mind, and fill a niche in
forty books, and we only possess thirty-five of that pleas-  our literary- annals; the works of the scholastics, with
ing historian.  What a treasure has been lost in the thirt  the debates.of these Quodlibetarians, would at once show
books of Tacitus; little more than four remain. Murphy  the greatness and the littleness of the human intellect
elegantly observes, that' the reign of Titus, the delight of  for though they often degenerated into incredible absurdi.
human kind, is totally lost, and Domitian has escaped the  ties. those who have examined the works of Thomas Aqui.
vengeance of the historian's pen.' Yet Tacitus in frag-  nas and Duns Scotus have confessed their admiration ot
ments is still the colossal torso of history.  It is curious to  that Herculean texture of brain which they exhausted in.
observe that Velleius Paterculus, of whom a fragment only  demolishing their aerial fabrics.
has reached us, we owe to a single copy: no other having    The followinga is, a slight sketch of the:school divinity.
ever been discovered, and which occasions the text of this    The Christian docrrines in the primitive ages of the
historian to remain incurably corrupt. Taste and criticism   gospel were adapted to the simple comprehension of the
have certainly incurred an irreparable loss in that Treatise  multitude; metaphysical subtilties were not even. employ.
on the causes qf the Corruption of Eloquence, by Quintilian;, ed by the fathers, of whom  several are eloquent.  Evenr
which he has himself noticed with so much satisfaction in. the cH6milies explained by an obvious interpretation some
his'Institutes.' Petrarch declares, that in his youth he  scriptural point, or inferred bv artless illustration sonme
has seen the works of Varro, and the second Decade of  moral doctrine,  5When the Arabians became the only
Livy; but all his endeavours to recover them were fruit-. learned people, and their;empire extended over the greeaft
less.                                                   est part of the known world, they impressed their own;
These are only some of the most known losses which-  genius on those nations with whom they were allied as
have occurred in the republic of letters; but in reading con*. friends, or reverenced as masters.  The Arabian genius.
temporary writers we are perpetually discoverinc new and  was fond of abstruse studikes, it was highly metaphvsical
important ones. gWe have lost two precious works in an-  and mathematical, for the fine arts their reiigion did not
cient biography; Varro wrote the lives of seven hundred  admit them  to culttvate; and it appears that the first
illustrious Romans, and Atticus, the friend of Cicero, corn-  knowledge which modern Europte obtained of FEulclid aoQd
posed another on the actions of the great men among the  Aristotle was through the medium  of Latin transla:ions
3.




18                                     CURIOSITIES OF
after Arabic versions. The Christians in the west re-  that to this work are appended 19 folio pages of double
ceived their first lessons from the Arabians in the east;  columns of errata, and about 200 of additional index!
and Aristotle, with his Arabic commentaries, was en-    The whole is thrown into an Aristotelian form; the difthroned in the schools of Christendom.                  ficulties or questions are proposed first, and the answers
Then burst into birth from the dark cave of metaphysics  are then appended. There are 168 articles on Lovea numerous and ugly spawn of monstrous sects; unnatural  358 on Angels-200 on the Soul-85 on Demons-151 on
children of the same foul mother, who never met but to des-  the Intellect-134 on Law-S  on the Catamenia-237 on
troy each other. Religion became what is called the study   Sins-17 on Virginity, and others on a variety of topics.
of divinity; and they all attempted to reduce the worship of    The scholastic tree is covered with prodigal foliage, tat
God into a system! the creed into a thesis! and every  is barren of fruit; and when the scholastics employed
point relating to religion was debated through an endless  themselves in solving the deepest mysteries, their philosochain of infinite questions, incomprehensible distinctions,  phy became nothing more than an instrument in the hands
with differences mediate and immediate, the concrete and   of the Roman Pontiff.  Aquinas has composed 358 articles
the abstract, a perpetual civil war was carried on against  on angels, of which a few of the heads have been culled fol
common sense in all the Aristotelian severity. There exist-  the reader.
ed a rage for Aristotle: and Melancthon complains that in  He treats of angels, their substance, orders, offices,
sacred assemblies the ethics of Aristotle were read to the   natures, habits, &c,-as if he himself had been an old expeople insteaA of the gospel. Aristotle was placed ahead   perienced angel!
of St Paul; and St Thomas Aquinas in his works distin-    Angels were not before the world!
guishes him by the title of' The Philosopher;' inferring  Angels might have been before the world!
doubtless that no other man could possibly be a philosopher    Angels were created by God-They were created imwho disagreed with Aristotle. Of the blind rites paid to   mediately by him-They were created in the Empyrean
Aristotle, the anecdotes of the Nominalists and Realists  sky-They were created in grace-They were created in
are noticed in the article' Literary Controversy' in this  imperfect beatitude. After a severe chain of reasoning he
work.                                                   shows that angels are incorporeal compared to us, bult corHad their subtile questions and perpetual wranglings  poreal compared to God.
only been addressed to the metaphysician in his closet'    An angel is composed of action and potentiality: the
and had nothing but strokes of the pen occurred, the scho-  more superior he is, he has the less potentiality. They
lastic divinity would only have formed an episode in the   have not matter properly. Every angel differs firom anocalm narrative of literary his.ory but it has claims to be  ther angel in species. An angel is of the same species as
registered in political annals, from the numerous persecu-  a soul. Angels have not naturally a body united to them.
tions and tragical events with which they too long puzzled   They may assume bodies; but they do not want to assume
their followers, and disturbed the repose of Europe.  The   bodies for themselves, but for us.
Thomists, and the Scotists, the Occamites, and many       The bodies asumed by angels are of thick air.
others, soared into the regions of mysticism.             The bodies they assume have not the natural virtues
PeteriLombard had laboriously compiled after the cele-   which they show, nor the operations of life but those
brated Abelard's' Introduction to Divinity,' his four books  which are common to inanimate things.
of' Sentences',' from the writings of the Fathers; and for    An angel may be the same with a body.
this he is called' The Master of Sentences.' These senr    In the same body there are, the soul formerly giving
lences, on which we have so many commentaries are a   being, and operating natural operations; and the angel
tollection of passages from the Fathers, the real or appar-  operating supernatural operations.
rnt contradictions of whom he endeavours to reconcile.    Angels administer and govern every corporeal creature.
But his successors were not satisfied to be mere commen-    God, and angel, and the soul. are not contained in space,
tators on these'Sentences,' which they now only made   but contain it.
use of as a row of peas to hang on their fine-spun meta-    Many angels cannot be in the same space.
physical cobwebs.  They at length collected all these     The motion of an angel in space is nothing else than
quodlibetica questions into enormous volumes, under the   different contacts ofdifferent successive places.
terrifying forms, for those who have seen them, of Sum-   The motion of an angel is a succession of his different
maries of;:iinity.  They contrived by their chimerical  operations.
speculations says their modern adversary Grimaldi, to     His motion may be continuous and discontinuous as he
question the plainest truths, to wrest the simple meaning   will.
of the Holy E criptures, and give some appearance of truth  The continuous motion of an angel is necessary through
to the most ridiculous and monstrous opinions.          every medium, but may be discontinuous without a meOne of the subtile questions which agitated the world in  dium.
the tenth century, relating to dialects, was concerning   The velocity of the motion of an angel is not according
universals, (as for example, man, horse, dog, &c,) siani-  to the quantity of his strength, but according to his will.
tying not this or that in particular, but all in general. They  The motion of the illumination of an angel is three-fold,
distinguished universals, or what we call abstract terms,  or circular, straight and oblique.
by the genera and-species rerum; and they never could de.    In this account of the motion of an angel we are remindcive whether these were substances-or names! That is  ed of the beautiful description of Milton, who marks it by
whether the abstract idea we form of a horse was not really  continuous motion,
a~being as muoh as the horse we ride! All this and some
congenial points respecting the origin of our ideas, and
what ideas were, and whether we really had an idea of a   The reader desirous of being merry with Aquina's angels
thing before we discovered the thing itself-in a word, what  may find them  in Martilus Seriblerus, in Ch. VII, who
they call universals, and the essence of universals; ofall  inquires if angels pass from one extreme to another withthis nonsense on which they at length proceeded to accu-  out going through the middle?  And if angels know things
sations of heresy, and forwhich many learned men were  more clearly in a morning? How many angels can dance
excommunicated, stoned, and what not, the whole was de-  on the point of a very fine needle, without jostling.,one anrived from the reveries of Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno, about  other?
the nature of ideas; than which subject to the present day  All the questions are answered with a subtilty and nicety
no discussion ever degenerated into such insanity. A mo-  of distinction more difficult to comprehend and remember
dern metaphysician infers that we have no ideas at all!  than many problems in Euclid; and perhaps a few of the
Of these scholastic divines, the most illustrious was  best might still be selected for youth as curious exercises
Saint Thomas Aquinas, styled the Angelical Doctor.  of the understandintg. However, a great part of these peSeventeen folio volumes not only testify his industry, but  culiar productions are loaded with the most trifling, irreveeven his genius. He was a great man,'busieed all his life  rend, and even scandalous discussions. Even Aquinas
with making the charades of metaphysics.                could gravely debate, Whether Christ was not an Herma*
My learned friend Sharon Turner, has favoured me with  phrodite?  Whether there are excrements in Paradise?
a notice of his greatest work-his' Sum of all'Theology,'  Whether the pious at the resurrection will rise with their
rsmrnma totius Theoeogm, Paris, 1615.'It is a metaphysi-  bowels?  Others again debated-Whether the angel Gacological treatise, or the most abstruse metaphysics of the-  briel appeared to the Virgin Mary in the shape of a serpent,
ology. It occupies above 1250 folio pages, of very small  of a dove, of a man, or of a woman?  Did he seem to be
close print in double columes. It may be worth noticing  young or old?  In what dress was he? Was his garmen;




LITERATURE                                                             19
white or of two colours?  Was his linen clean or foul?  and deeply for the philosopher's stone, which though he
Did he appear in the morning, noon, or evening?  What  did not find, yet in his researches he discovered a very
was the colour of the Virgin Mary's hair?  Was she ac-  useful purging salt, which bears his name.
quainted with the mechanic and liberal arts?  Had she a      Maupertuis, in a little volume of letters written by him,
thorough knowledge of the Book of Sentences, and all it  observes on the Philosophical Stone, that we cannot prove
contains? that is, Peter Lombard's compilation from the  the impossibiiity of obtaiting it, but we can easily see the
works of the Fathers, written 1200 years after her death,  folly of those who employ their time and money in seeking
But these are only trirring matters; they also agitated,  for it.  This price is too great to counterbalance the little
Whether when during her conception  the Virgin was  probability of succeeding in it. However it is still a bantseated, Christ too was seated, and whether when she lay  ling of modern chemistry, who has nodded very affectiondown, Christ also lay down?  The following question was  ately on it! —Of the Perpetual IMotion, he shows the ima favourite topic for discussion, and thousands of the acutest  possibility, at least in the sense in which it is generally
ogicians, through more than one century, never resolved   received.  On the Quadrature of the Circle, he says he:t: I When a hog is carried to market with a rope tied   cannot decide if this problem is resolvable or not; but he
about its neck, which is held at the other end by a man,  observes, that it is very useless to search for it any more
whether is the hog carried to market by the roze or the   since we have arrived by approximation to such a point of
man?'                                                     accuracy, that on a large circle, such as the orbit which
In the tenth century (says Jortin in his Remarks on  the earth describes round the sun, the geometrician will
Ecclesiastical History, Vol. V, p. 17,) after lon!, and in-  not mistake by the thickness of a hair.  The quadrature
effectual controversy about the real presence of Christ in  of the circle is still, however, a favourite game of some
the sacrament, they at length universally agreed to strike   visionaies, and several are still imagining that they have
a peace! Yet it must not be imagined that this mutual  discovered the perpetual motion; the Italians nick-name
moderation and forbearance should be ascribed to the pru-  them matto perpetuo; and Bekker tells - of the fate of one
dence and virtue of those times.  It was mere ignorance   Hartmann of Leipsic, who was in such aespair at having
and incapacity of reasoning which kept the peace, and de-  passed his life so vainly, it studying the perpetual motion,
terred them from entering into debates to which they were  that at length he became himself one in the long letter of
unequal!                                                   Erasmus, by means of the fatal triangle; that is, he hanged
Lord Lvttleton in his Life of Henry If, laments the   himself; for the long letter of Erasmus is the Greekphi
unhappy effects of the scholastic philosophy on the pro-  which is imagined to bear some resemblance to the suspengress of the human mind.  The minds of men were turned   sion of an unlucky mortal.
iifrom classical studies to the subtilties of school divinity,ITATORS.
which Rome encouraged as more profitable for the main.
tenance of her doctrines.  It was a great misfortune to       Some writers, usually pedants, imagine they can supply
religion and to learning, that men of such acute under-  by the labours of industry the deficiencies of nature.  It is
standing as Abelard and Lombard, who might have done   recorded of Paulus Manutius, that he frequently spent a
much to reform  the errors of the church, and to restore   month in writing a single letter.  He affected to imitate
science in Europe, should have depraved both, by apply-  Cicero.  But although he has painfully attained to someing their admirable parts to weave those cobwebs of sophis-  thing of the elegance of' his style, he is still destitute of the
try, and to confound the clear simplicity of evangelical  native graces of unaffected composition.  He was one of
truths by a false philosophy and a captious logic          those whom  Erasmus bantered in his Ciceronianos, so
slavishly devoted to Cicero's style, that they ridiculously
FAME CONTEMNED.                          enmploved the utmost precautions whein they were seized
All men are fond of glory, and even those philosophers  by a Ciceronian fit. The Nosoponus of Erasmus tells us
All men are fond of glory, and even those philosopheru   ~hs eoi  t   cr;     h   he   ndx    o  l  s
who write against that noble passion prefix their names to  of his devotion to Cicero; of his three indexes to all hi
their own works.  Itha is worthy of observation that the au words, and his never writing but in the dead of night; em.
pIt is worthy of observation that the au    loving months upon a few lines, and his religious venerathors of two religious books, universally received, have con-  tion for ors, with his total indifference about the see.
0                               ~~~~~~~~~~~tion for words, with his total indifference about the sense.
cealed their names from the world.  The'Imitation of    Le Brun, a Jesuit, was a single instance of such unhap.
Christ' is attributed, without any authority, to Thomas                   He was also a Latin poet, and his thees
A'Kempis; and the author of the'I  hole Duty of Man'  pyimitation.
were religious. He formed the extravagant project ofsubntill remains undiscovered. Millions of their booksv lhave
been dispersed in the christian  orld.      stituting  a religious Virgil and Ovid merely by adapting
been dispersed in the christian world.'
To have revealed their names, would have given them   his works to their titles. His Christian Virgil consists, like
To have revealed their namres, would have: given them    teP~nVri   f~lgeGcris  n   fa   pco
the Pagan Virgil of Eclogues, Georg-ics, and of an Epic ot
as much worldly fame as any moralist has obtained-but  tePe    Virgi o Els   GeoIsa                     on  Eco
they contemned it!  Their religion was the purest, and   twelve books, with this difference, that devotional subjects
theyg cuntraned  it!  Their religaion was the purest, and   aesbtttdfrfluosoe.Wsei steIncal
raised above all worldly passions!  Some profane writers   are substituted for fabulous ones. His epic is the lgnaciad,
or the pilgrim.ge of Saint Ignatius.  His Christian Ovid
indeed have also concealed their names to great works,              Z
is in the same taste; every thing, wears a new face.  The
but their motives were of a very different cast. 
t  r cast.   Epistles are pious ones; the Fasti are the six days of the
THE SIX FOLLIES OF SCIENCE.                    Creation; the Elegies are the Lamentations of Jeremiah;
Nothing is so capable of disordering the intellects as an   a poem on the love of God is substituted for the Art of love;
intense application  to any one of these six things: the   and the history of some Conversions supplies the place of
Quadrature of the circle; the Multiplication of the Cube;  the I;eetamorphoses?  This is much in the style of those
the Perpetual Motion; the Philosophical Stone; Magic;   who have projected the substitution of afamily Shakspeare.
and Judicial Astrology.  In youth we may exercise our        A poet of far different character, the elegant Sannazarius,
imagination on these curious topics, merely to convince us  has done much the same thing in his poem De partu  ir..,f their impossibility; but it shows a great dlefect in judg-  ginus. The same servile imitation of ancient taste appears.
ment to be occupied on them ia ia. advanced age.'It is  It professes to celebrate the birth of Christ, yet his name
proper, however,' Fontenelle remarks,'to apply one's self  is not once mentioned in it.  The Virgin herself is styled
to these inquiries: because we find, as we proceed, many,    s deorum!  The hope of the Gods!  The ncarsitio i
valuable discoveries of which we were before ignorant.  is predicted by Proteus-Virgin, instead of consulting the
The same thought Cowley has applied, in an address to  sacred writings, reads the Sybilline oracles!  Her attendTheisam   mhait  olyhstapid i   n                 ress, tous
his mistress, thus-                                    ants are Dryads, N'ereids, 4.c.  This monstrous mixture
of polytheism, with the mysteries of Christianity appeared'Although I think thou never wilt be found,       in every thing he had about him. In a chapel at one of his
Yet I'm resolved to search for thee;               country seats he had two statues placed at his tomb, Apoie
The search itself rewards the pains,             and 3linerva; catholic piety found no difficulty in the preSo though the chymist his great secret miss,
(For neither it in art or nature is)
Yet things well worth his toils he gains;        kind, to inscribe the statue ofApollo with the name of Doa
And does his charge and labour pay                 vid, and that of Minerva with the female one of Judith.'
With good unsought experiments by the way.'           Seneca, in his 114th Epistle, gives a curious literary
anecdote of that sort of imitation by which an inferior mind
The same thought is in Donne.  Perhaps Cowley did  becomes the monkey of an original writer. At Rome, when
not suspect, that he was an imitator.  Fontenelle could   Sallust was the fashionable writer, short sentences, uncomnot have read either; he struck out the thought by his   mon words, and an obscure brevity, were affected as so
own reflection; it is very just.  Glau er searched long   many elegancies.  Arruntius, who wrote the history of the




20                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Punic Wars, painfully laboured to imitate Sallust.  Ex-  into the heart of the doubts; his languish about the sub..
pressions which are rare in Sallust are frequent in Arrun-  ject, and delay our expectations. Those are proper for the
tius, and, of course, without the motive that induced Sal-  schools, for the bar, and for the pulpit, where we have leiust to adopt them. What rose naturally under the pen of  sure to nod, and may awake a quarter of an hour after,
the great historian, the minor one must have run after with  time enough to find again the thread of the discourse.  It
a ridiculous anxiety.  Seneca adds several instances of the  is necessary to speak after this manner to judges, whom a
servile affectation of Arruntius, which seems much like those   man has a design, right or wrong, to incline to favour his
we once had of Johnson, by the undiscerning herd of his  cause; to chidren and common people, to whom a man
monkeys.                                                 must say all he can.  I would not have an author make it
One cannot but smile at these imitators; we have abound-  his business to render me attentive; or that he should cry
ed with them. In the days of Churchill, every month pro-  out fifty times 0 yes! as the clerks and heralds do.
duced an effusion which tolerably imitated his rough and' As to Cicero, I am of the common opinion that, learn.
slovenly versification, his coarse invective, and his careless  ing excepted, he had no great natural parts. He was a
mediocrity —hut the genius remained with the English Ju-  good citizen, of an affable nature, as all fat heavy mec
venal. Sterne had his countless multitude, and in Field-  -(gras et gausseurs are the words in the original, mean.
ing's time, Tom Jones produced more bastards in wit than  ing perhaps broad jokers, for Cicero was not fat) —such am
the author could ever suspect.  To such literary echoes,  he was, usually are; but given to ease, and had a mighty
the reply of Philip of Macedon to one who prided himself  share of vanity and ambition.  Neither do I know how to
on imitating the notes of the nightingale, may be applied;  excuse him for thinking his poetry fit to be published.'I prefer the nightingale herself!' Even the most success-'Tis no great imperfection to write ill verses: but it is aa
ful of this imitating tribe must be doomed to share the fate  imperfection not to be able to judge how unworthy bad
of' Silius Italicus in his cold imitation of Virgil, and Caw-  verses were of the glory of his name. For what concerns
thorne in his empty harmony of Pope.                     his eloquence, that is totally out of comparison, and I be.
To all these imitators I must apply an Arabian anecdote.  lieve will never be equalled.
Ebn Saad, one of Mahomet's amanuenses, when writing
what the prophet dictated, cried out by way of admiration
-Blessed be God the best creator! Mahornet approved of    A preface being the entrance to a hook, should invite
the expression, and desired him to write those words down   by its beauty. An elegant porch announces the splendour
also as part of the inspired passage'.  The consequence   of the interior.  I have observed, that ordinary readers
was that —Ebn Saad began to think himself as great a pro-  skip over these little elaborate compositions.  The ladies
phet as the master, and took upon himself to imitate the   consider them  as so many pages lost, which might better
Koran according to his fancy; but the imitator got him-.  be employed in the addition of a picturesque scene, or a
self into trouble, and only escaped with life by falling on. tender letter to their novels. For my part, I always gather
his knees, and solemnly swearing he would never again  amusement from  a preface, be it awkwardly, or skilfully
imitate the Koran, for which he was sensible God had   written; for dulness, or impertinence, may raise a laugh
never created him.                                       for a page or two. A pretface is frequently a superior composition to the work itself; for long before the days oe
CXs~CsFto. PUNS.          Johnson, it had been a custom with many authors to solicit
I should,' says Menage, have received great pleasure  for this department of their work the ornamental contribu.
to have conversed with Cicero, had I lived in his time.  tion of a man of genius. Cicero tells his friend Atticus,
He must have been a mar very agreeable in conversation,, that he had a volume of prefaces or introductions always
since even Caesar carefully collected his bon mots. Cicero  ready by him to be used as circumstances required. These
has boasted of the great actions he has done for his courn-  must have been like our periodical essays. A good pretry, because there is no vanity in exulting in the perform-  face is as essential to put the reader into good humour, as
ance of our duties; but he has not boasted that he was the   a good prologue is to a play, or a fine symphony to an
most eloquent orator of his age, though he certainly was;  opera, containing something analogous to the work itself;
because nothing  is more disgusting than to exult in our in-.  so that we may feel its want as a desire nriot elsewhere to
tellectual powers.' -                                    be gratified.'The Italians call the preface I.e salsa del li.
Whatever were the ben. motsof Cicero, of which few   bro, the sauce of the book, and if well seasoned it creates
have come down to us, it is certain that Cicero was an in-  an appetite in the reader to devour the book itself. A pre.
veterate punster; and he seems to have been more ready   face badly composed prejudices the reader against the
with them tuan with repartees. He said to a senator, who. work. Authors are not equally fortunate in these little inwas the son of a tailor,'Rem  acu, tetigisti.' You have  troductions; some can compose volumes more skilfully
touched the thing with sharpness.  To the son of a cook,  than prefaces, and others can finish a preface who could'Ego quoque tibi jure favebo.' The ancients pronounced   never be capable of finishing a book.
coce and quoque like co-ke, which alludes to the Latin co-    On a very elegant preface prefixed to an ill-written book,
cus, cook, besides the ambiguity of jure, which applies to  it was observed that they ought never to have come togeth.
broth or law-jus. A  Sicilian suspected of being a Jew,  er; a sarcastic wit remarked that he considered such marattempted to get the cause of Verres into iris own hands;  riages.were allowable, for they were not of kin.
Cicero, who knew that he was a creature of the great    In prefaces an affected haughtiness or an affected huculprit, opposed hi-rn, observing,'What has a Jew to do   mility are like despicable.  There is a deficient dignity in
with swine's flesh?'  The Romans called a boar pig   Robertson's; but the haughtiness is now to our purpose.
vetrres.  I regret to afford a respectable authority for fo-  This is called by the French'La Morgue litteraire,' the
rensic puns; but to have degraded his adversaries by such   surly pomposity of literature.  It is sometimes used by
petty personalities, only proves that Cicero's taste was not  writers who have succeeded in their first work, while the
exquisite.                                               failure of, their subsequent productions appears to have
There is something very original in Montague's censure  given them  a literary hypochondriasm.  Dr Armstrong,
of this great man. Cotton, the Frenchman's translator,  after his classical poem, never shook hands cordiallywith
has not ill expressed the peculiarities of his author, though  the public for not relishing his barren labours.  In the
he has blundered on a material expression.               preface to his lively'Sketohes' he tells us,' he could giwve
Boldly to confess the truth, his way of writing and that  them much bolder strokes as well as more delicate touches,
of all other long-winded authors, appears to me very te-  but that he dreads the danger of srriting too well, and fe ols
dious; for his preface, definitions, divisions, and etyniolo-  the value of his own labour too sensible to bestow it upoit
gies, take up the greatest part of his work, whatever there  the mobility.  This is pure milk compared to the gall in.
is of life and marrow, is smothered and lost in the prepara-  the preface to his poems. There he tells us,' that at last
tion,.  When I have spent an hour in reading him, which   he has taken the trouble to collect them!  What he has de.
is a great deal for me, and recollect what I have thence   stroyed would, probably enough, have been better received
extracted of juice and substance, for the most part I find   by the great majority of readers.  But he has alwn.ys most
nothing but wind; for he is not yet come to the arguments  heartily despised their opinion.'  These prefaces remrnd
that serve to his purpose, and the reason that should pro-  one of the prologi galeati, prefaces with a helmet!, as St
perly help to loose the knot I would untie.  For me, who   Jerome entitles the one to his Version of the Scriptures.
only desired to become more wise, not more learned or elo-  These armed prefaces were formerly very common in the
quent, these logical or Aristotelian disquisitions of poets  age of literary controversy: for half the tbisiness of an au.
are of no use. I look for good and solid reasons at the  tihoer consisted then, either in replying or anticipating a
first dash.  I am for discourses that give the first charge   reply to the attacks of his opponent.




LITE RATURE.                                                         21
Prefaces ought to be dated, as these become after a  ous sympathy of two lovers.  A princess is relating to her
setes of editions leading and useful circumstances in lite-  confidante the birth of her passion:
rary history.                                                E't comme un jeunc coeur est bientot enflamme,
Fuller with quaint humour observes on Indexes-' An          I1 me vit, il m'aima, je le via, l'aimai.,
Index is a necessary implement and no impediment of a          Soon is the youthful heart by passion moved
book, except in the same sense, wherein the carriages of      He saw, and loved me-him I saw, and loved.
an army are termed Impedimenta. Without this, a large      Calderon s ore extrava; he says on a similar
author is but a labyrinth without a clue to direct the reader           ore extravagant stll; he says on a smlar
therein.  I confess there is a lazy kind of learning which   occasion
is only Indical; when scholars (lihe adders which only bite' I saw and I loved her so nearly together,that I do not know
the horse's heels) nibble but at the tables, which are calces  if I saw her efore I loved her, or loved her before I saw her.'
lhbrorum, neglecting the body of the book. But though the  An old French poet, Pichou, in his imitation of Bonarelidle deserve no crutches(let not astaffbe used by them, but  li's Filli de Sciro, has thtis ingenious thought. A nymph is
on them,) pity it is the weary should be denied the benefit  discovered by her lover, fainting under an unbrageous oak
thereof, and industrious scholars prohibited the accommoda-  -the conflict of beauty and horror is described by a pretty
tion of an index, most used by those who most pretend to  conceitcontemn' it.' Si l'amour se mouroit, on diroit, le voici!
THE ANCIENTS AND MODEIRNS.                         Et si la mort aimoit, on la peindroit ainsi.
If Love were dying, we should think him here I
Frequent and violent disputes have arisen on the sub-       If Death could love, he would be pictured thus 
ject of the preference to be given to the ancients, or the moderns. The controversy of Perrault and Boileau make a    The same lover consents at length that his mistress shal
considerable figure in French literature; the last of whom,  d not inelegantly expresses his feelings in
said that the ancients had been moderns, but that it was by  theperplexed situation.
no means clear the moderns would become ancients. The' Je veux bien que ton ame un double amour s'assembb
dispute extended to England; Sir William Temple raised       Tu peux aimer sans crime Aminte et NIise ensemble;
even his gentle indolence against the bold attacks of the    Et lors que le trepas finira mes douleurs
Avoir pour l'un des feux, et pour l'autre des pleures.
rough Wotton.  The literary world was pestered and tir-      Aoi po  so des feux, et pour lautre des p
ed with this dispute, which at length got into the hands of  Yes with a double love thy soul may burn 
insolence and ignorance.  Swift's' Battle of the Books,'    Oh tis no crime to love Amilte and Nise 
And when in my last hour my grief shall close,
by his irresistible vein of keen satire, seems to have laid  And when in my last hour mi  grief shall close,
this' perturbed spirit.' Yet, surely, it had been better if
these acrid and absurd controversies had never disgraced   It was said of Petronius, that he was pera impurltas,
the republic of letters. The advice of Sidonius Apollinaris  purely impure: pura, because of his style; iipuratas, beis excellent; he says, that we should read the ancients  cause of his obscenities.
with respect, and the moderns without envy.                Quam multa! quam paudes! is a fine expression, which
was employed to characterise a concise style pregnant
SOME INGENIOUS THOUGHTS.                    with meaning.
How tenderly does Tasso, in one verse, describe his
Apnlleius calls these neck-ikerchiefs so glassy fine,(may I  Olindo! So much love and so much modesty!
so express myself?) which in veiling, discover the beauti-'
ful bosom of a woman, ventum textilem; which may be
translated woven air. It is an expression beautifully fanciful.    An exquisite verse, which Hoole entirely passes over in
A  Greek poet wrote this inscription for a statue of  his version, but which Fairfax's finer feelings preserves:
Niobe-                                                           —.' He, full of bashfulness and truth.
The Gods, from living turned me to stone:  Loved much, hoped little, and desired naught.'
Praxiteles, from stone, restored me to life.     It was said of an exquisite portrait, that to judge by the
eye it did not want speech; for this only could be detected
P. Commire, a pleasing writer of Latin verse, says oftheb theear
fight of a butterfly,                                   by the ear.
peManca il parlar; di vivo altro non chiedi:
Florem, pusares nare per lclqciidum methera.             Ne manca questo ancor, S'agli occhi credit.
It FLIES, and swims a flower in liquid air!,
Perrault has very poetically informed us, that the anVoiture, in addressing Cardinal Richelieu, says,-How   cients were ignorant of the circulation of the bloodmuch more affecting is it to hear one's praises from  the' l    gnoroit jusqlu'aux route certaines
mouth of the people, than from that of the poets.             Du meadre vivant qui coule dans les veines.
Cervantes, with an elevation of sentiment, observes         Unknown to them what devious course niantalns
that one of the greatest advantages which princes possess     The live meander flowing in their veins.
above other men, is that of being attended by servants as    An Italian poet makes a lover who has survived his mis.
great as themselves.                                    tress thus sweetly express himself-.Lususque salesque,'Piango la sua morte, e la mia vita.'
Sed lectos pelago, quo Venus orta, sales.
DSed letos pelago, quo Venus orta, sales.  Much I deplore her death, and much my life.
This is written by a modern Latin poet; but is in Plu-    It has been usual for poets to say, that rivers flow to contarch, in the comparison of Aristophanes and Menander;  vey their tributary streams to the sea.  This figure, being
In the comedies of Menander there is a natural and divine  a mark of subjection proved offensive to the patriotic Tasso,
salt, as if it proceeded from that sea where Venus took her  and he has ingeniously said of the river Po, because of its
birth.'  This beautiful thought, observes Monnoye, has  rapiditybeen employed by seven or eight modern writers.
Seneca, amongst many strained sentiments, and trivial
r*"<~~~~~~~ *                     * Che porti guerra, e non tribute al mare.,
points, has frequently a happy thought. As this on anger: 
I wish that the ferocity of this passion could be spent at its  See rapid Po to Ocean's empire bring
A war, and not a tribute, from his spring!
first appearance, so that it might injure but once: as in the
case of the bee, whose sting is destroyed for ever at the                 EARLY PRINTING.
first punctutre it occasions.                             There is some probability that this art originated in
Aristtenetus says of a beauty, that she seemed most  China, where it was practised long before it was known in
beautiful when dressed; yet not lessbeautifitl when ndres-  Europe. Some European traveller might have imported
ted. Of two beauties he says,'they yielded to the Graces  the hint.  That the Romans did not practise the art of
only in number.'                                        printing cannot but excite our astonishment, since they
AMenage has these two terse and pointed lines on the por- ealy possessed the art, and may be said to have enjoyed
really possessed theart, and may be said to have enjoyed
trait of a lady-                                        it. unconscious of their rich possession.  I have seen Ro-'Ce portrait resemble  la belts,         man stereotypes, or printing immoveable types with which
11 est;nsensible comme elle!'          they stamped their pottery.  How in daily practising the
In this portrait, my fair, thy resemblapce I see;  art though confined to this object, it did not occur to so
An insensible ctarnmer it is-just like thee!      ingenious a people to print their literary works, is not easily
A French poet has admirably expressed tlie nstantare-  to h-e accounted for. Did the wise and grave senate dread




22                                    CURIOSITIES OF
those inconveniences which attended its indiscriminate use?  editions were then valued according to the abilities of th
Or perhaps they did not care to deprive so large a body as  corrector.
their scribes of their business. Not a hint of the art itself    The prices of books in these times were considered as an
appears in their writings.                              object worthy of the animadversions of the highest powers.
WVhen first the art of printing was discovered, they only   This anxiety in favour of the studious,appears from a privimade use of one side of a leaf; they had not yet found out  lege of Pope Leo X, to Aldus Manutius for printing Varro,
the expedient of impressing the other. Specimens of these   dated 1553, signed cardinal Bembo. Aldus is exhorted to
early printed books are in his Majesty's and Lord Spen-  put a moderate price on the work, lest the Pope should
cer's libraries. Afterwards they thought of pasting the blank   withdraw the privilege, and accord it to others.
sides, which made them appear like one leaf. Their blocks  Robert Stephens, one of the early printers surpassed in
were made of soft woods, and their letters were carved;  correctness those who exercised the same profession. It is
but frequently breaking, the expense and trouble of carving  said that to render his editions immaculate, he hung up the
and gluing new letters suggested our moveable types,which   proofs in public places and generously recompensed those
have produced an almost miraculous celerity in this art.  who were so fortunate as to detect an errata.
Our modern stereotype consists of entire pages of solid    Plantin, though a learned man, is more famous as a printblocks of metal, and not being liable to break like the soft  er. His printing-office claims our admiration: it was one
wood at first used, is profitably employed for works which   of the wonders of Europe.  This grand building was the
require to be perpetually reprinted.  Printing on carved   chief ornament of the city of Antwerp. Magnificent in its
blocks of wood must have greatly retarded the progress of  structure, it presented to the spectator a countless number
universal knowledge; for one set of types could only have  of presses, characters of all figures and all sizes, matrices
produced one work, whereas it now serves for hundreds.   to cast letters, and all other printing materials; which BailWVhen their editions were intended to be curious, they  let assures us amounted to immense sums.
omitted to print the first letter of a chapter, for which they    In Italy, the three Manutii were more solicitous of czrleft a blank space, that it might be painted or illuminated,  rections and illustrations than of the beauty of their printing.
to the fancy of the purchaser. Several ancient volumes of  It was the character of the scholar, not of the printer, of
these early times have been found where these letters are   which they were ambitious.
wanting, as they neglected to -have them printed.         It is much to be regretted that our publishers are not liteThe initial carved letter, which is generally a fine wood-  rary men.  Among the learned printers formerly a book
cut, among our printed books, is evidently a remains or  was valued because it came from the presses of an Aldus
imitation of these ornaments. Among the very earliest books  or a Stephens and even in our time the names of Bowyer
printed, which were religious, the Poor Man's Bible has  and Dodsley sanctioned a work. Pelisson in his history of
wooden cuts in a coarse style, without the least shadowing  the French academy tells us that Carnusat was selected as
or crossing of strokes, and these they inelegantly daubed  their bookseller from  his reputation for publishing only
over with colours, which they termed illuminating and sold  valuable works. He nwas a man of some literature and good
at a cheap rate to those who could not afford tojpurchase  senlse, and rarely printed an indifferent work; when we
costly missals, elegantly written and painted on vellum.  were young I recollect that we alwvays made it a rule to
Specimens of these rude efforts of illuminated prints may   purchase his publications. His name was a test of the goodbe seen in Strutt's Dictionary of Engravers. The Bodlleian  ness of the work. A publisher of this character would be of
library possesses the originals.                       the greatest utility to the literary world; at home he would
In the productions of early printing may be distinguished  induce a number of ingenious men to become authors, for it
the various splendid editions they made of Primers or  would be honourable to be inscribed in his catalogue; and
Prayer-books.  They were embellished with cuts finished  it would be a direction for the continental reader.
in a most elegant taste; many of them were ludicrous, and  So valuable a union of learning and printing did not,
several were obscene.  In one of them an angel is repre-  unfortunately, last.  The printers of the seventeenth censented crowning the Virgin Mary, and God the Father  tury became less charmed with glory than with gain. Their
himself assisting at the ceremony. Sometimes St Michael  correctors and their letters, evinced as little delicacy oh
in overcoming Satan; and sometimes St Anthony is attack-  choice.
ed by various devils of the most clumsy forms-not of the    The invention of what is now called the Italic letter in
grotesque and limber family of Callot!                 printing was made by Aldus Manrttius, to whom learrning
Printing was gradually practised throughout Europe from   owes much. He observed the many inconveniences result.
the year 1440 to 1500. Caxton and his successor Wynkyn  ing from the vast number of abbreviations which were thea
de Worde, were our own earliest printers.  Caxton was  so frequent among the printers, that a book was difficult ta
a wealthy merchant, who in 1464, being sent by Edward  understand: a treatise was actually written on the art of
IV, to negotiate a commercial treaty with the Duke of  reading a printed book, and this addressed to the learned!
Burgundy, returned to his country with this invaluable art.  He contrived an expedient, by which these abbreviations
Notwithstanding his mercantile habits he possessed a  might be entirely got rid of, and yet books suffer little inliterary taste, and his first work was a translation from a  crease in bulk.  This he effected by introducing what is
French historical miscellany.                          now called Italic letter, though it formerly was distinguishThe tradition of the devil and Dr Faustus was derived  ed by the name of the inventor, hence called the Aldine.
from the odd circumstance in which the Bibles of the first
printer,Fust,appeared to the world. When he had discover-                     ERRATA.
ed this new art, and printed offa considerable number of co.    Besides the ordinary errata, which happened in printing
pies of the bible,to imitate those which were commonly sold  a work, others have been purposely committed that the
1n MSS, he undertook the sale of them at Paris. It was his  errata may contain what is not permitted to appear in the
interest to conceal this discovery, and to pass off his printed  body of the work. Wherever the Inquisition had any powcopies for sass. But as he was enabled to sell his bibles at  er, particularly at Rome, it was not allowed to employ the
sixtycrowns,while the other scribes demanded five hundred,  wordfatum, orfata, in any book. An author, desirous of
this raised universal astonishment; and still more when he  using the latter word adroitly invented this scheme: he
produced copies as fast as they were wanted, and even low-  had printed in his bookfacta, and, in the errata, he put for
ered his price.  The imiformity of the copies increased  Jhcta, readfata.
wonder.  Informations were given in to the magistrates    Scarron has done the same thing on another occasion.
against him as a magician; and in searching his lodgings  He had composed some verses, at the head of which he
a great number of copies were found.  The red ink, and  placed this dedication.-A  Guillemevte, Chiennae de ma
Fust's red ink is peculiarly brilliant; which embellished his  Srur; but having a quarrel with his sister he maliciously
copies was said to be his blood; and it was solemnly adjudg-  put into the errata instead of Chienne de ma,_eur, readl
ed that he was in league with the devil.   Fust was at  ma Chienne de S(eur.
length obliged to save himselffrom a bonfire, to reveal his    Lully at the close of a bad prologue said, the word.fn
art to the Parliament of Paris, who.discharged him from   duprologue was an erratum, it should have beeanfi du prow
all prosecution in consideration of this useful invention.  logue.
When the art of printing was established, it became the    In abook, there was printed ldocte Thlrel. A wag pla
glory of the learned to be correctors of the press to eminent  into the errata, for le docte.Morel, rea(l e dcoctenur lMorel.
printers. Physicians, lawyers, and bishops themselves, oc-  This Mordl was not the first docteur n at docte.
cupied this department. The printers then added frequent-    When a fanatic published a mystical work full of uninm
ly to their name those oh the correctors of the press; and  telligible raptures, and which he entitled Les Delices da




LITERATURE.                                                      23
L'Esprit, it was proposed to print in his errata, for Delices,  thus alterina the sentence from' and he shall be thy LORD,'
read Delires.                                          (Herr) to  and he shall be thy FOOL,' (Narr.)  It is
When the author of' an idle and imperfect book ended  said her life paid for this intentional erratum; and that
with the usual phrase of cetera desiderantur, one altered it  some secreted copies of this edition have been bought up
non desiderantur sed desunt; the rest is wanting, but not  at enormous prices.
wanted.                                                  We have an edition of the Bible, known by the name of
At the close of a silly book, the author as usual printed  The vinegar.Bible; from the erratum in the title to the 20th
the word FIrNs —A wit put this among the errata, with  Chap. of St Luke, in which,'Parable of the V'ineyard,' is
this pointed couplet;                                  printed' Parable of the Vinegar.' It was printed in 1717,
at the Clarendon press.
Finis! an error, or a lie, my friend         at the Clarendon press.
writing 8foolish books —there is no End!       We have had another, where' Thou shalt commit adultery' was printed, omitting the negation; which occasioned
In the year 1561, was printed a work, entitled the Ana-  the archbishop to lay one of the heaviest penalties on the
tomy of the Mass. It is a thin octavo, of 172 pages, and  Company of Stationers that was ever recorded in the anit is accompanied by an Errata of 15 pages! The editor,  nals of literary history.
a pious monk, informs us that a very serious reason in-    Herbert Croft used to complain of the incorrectness of
duced him to,undertake this task: for it is, says he, to  our English Classics, as re-printed by the booksellers. It
forestall the artifices of Satan. He supposes that the Devil,  is evident some stupid printer often changed a whole text
to ruin the firuit of this work, employed two very nmalicious  intentionally.  The fine description by Akenside of the
frauds: the first before it was printed, by drenching the  Pantheon,' SEVERELY great,' not being understood by the
Mss in a kennel, and having reduced it to a most pitiable  blockhead, was printed serenely great. Swift's own edistate, rendered several parts illegible: the second, in  tion of'the City Shower,' has'old ACHES throb.' Aches
obliging the printers to commit such numerous blunders,  is two syllables, but modern printers, who had lost the
never yet equalled in so small a work. To combat this  right pronunciation, have aches as in one syllable; and
double machination of Satan he was obliged carefully to  then to complete the metre, have foisted in' aches will
re-peruse the work, and to form this singular list of the  throb.' Thus what the poet and the linguist wish to preblunders of printers under the influence of the Devil. All  serve is altered, and finally lost.
this he relates in an advertisement prefixed to the Errata.    It appears by a calculation made by the printer of SteeA furious controversy raged between two famous scho-  ven's edition of Shakspeare, that every octavo page of
lars from a very laughable but accidental Erratum; and  that work; text and notes, contains 2680 distinct pieces of
threatened serious consequences to one of the parties.  metal; which in a sheet amount to42,880-the misplacing
Flavigny wrote two letters criticising rather freely a poly-  of any one of which would inevitably cause a blunder!glot Bible edited by Abraham Ecchellensis. As this learned  With this curious fact before us, the accurate state of our
editor had sometimes censured the labours of a friend of printing, in general, is to be admired, and errata ought
Plavigny, this latter applied to him the third and fifth verses  more freely to be pardoned than the fastidious minuteness
of the seventh chapter of St Matthew, which he printed in  of the insect eye of certain critics has allowed.
Latin.  Ver. 3. Quid vides festucam in OCULO.fratris tui,    Whether such a miracle as an immaculate edition of a
et trabem in OCULO tuo non vides.  Ver. 5. Ejice primum   classical author does exist, I have never learnt; but an attrabem de ocULO tauo, et tune videhis ejicere festucam de  tempt has been made to obtain this glorious singularityOCUrLO fratris tui.  Ecchellensis opens his reply by ac-  and was as nearly realized as is perhaps possible: the
cusing Flavigny of an enormous crime committed in this  magnificent edition of As Luciadas of Camoens, by Dom
passage; attempting to correct the sacred text of the  Joze Souza, in 1817. This amateur spared no prodigality
Evangelist, and daringly to reject a word, while he sup-  of cost and labour, and flattered himself that by the assist.
plied its place by another as impious as obscene! This  ance of Didot, not a single typographical error should be
crime, exa gerated with all the virulence of an angry de-  found in that splendid volume. But an error was afterclaimer, closes with a dreadful accusation.  Flavigny's  wards discovered in some of the copies, occasioned by one
morals are attacked. and his reputation overturned by a  of the letters in the word I,vusitano having got misplaced
horrid imputation. Yet all this terrible reproach is only  during the working of one of the sheets. It must be con.
founded on an Erratum! The whole arose from  the  fessed that this was an accident or misfortune-rather than
printer having negligently suffered the first letter of the  an Erratum!
word Oculo to have dropped from the form, when he hap-    One of the most remarkable complaints on ERRATA iS
pened to touch a line with his finger which did not stand  that of Edw. Leigh, appended to his curious treatise' on
straight! He published another letter to do away the im-  Religion and learning.' It consists of two folio pages, in
putation of Ecchellensis; but thirty years afterwards his  a very minute character, and exhibits an incalculable numrage against the negligent printer was not extinguished; her of printers' blunders.'We have not,' he says,' PlanCertain wits were always reminding him of it.          tin nor Stephens amongst us; and it is no easy task to
One of the most egregious of all literary blunders is that  specify the chiefest errata; false interpunctions there are
of the edition of the Vulgate, by Sextus V. His holiness  too many; here a letter wanting, there a letter too much;
carefully superintended every sheet as it passed through  a syllable too much, one letter for another; words parted
the press; and, to the amazement of the world, the work  where they should be joined; words joined which should
remained without a rival-it swarmed with errata!  A   be severed; words misplaced; chronological mistakes,
multitude of scraps were printed to paste over the errone-  &c.' This unfortunate folio was printed in 1656. Are
ous passages, in order to give the true text. The book  we to infer by such frequent complaints of the authors of
makes a whimsical appearance with these patches; and  that day, that either they did not receive proofs from the
the heretics exulted in this demonstration of papal infalli-  printers, or that the printers never attended to the corbility! the copies were called in, and violent attempts  rected proofs?  Each single erratum seems to have been
made to suppress it; a few still remain for the raptures of  felt as a stab to the literary feelings of the poor author!
the biblical collectors; at a late sale the bible of Sextus
V, fetched above sixty guineas-not too much for a mere                       PATRONS.
book of blunders!  The world was highly amused at the    Authors have too frequently received ill treatment, even
bull of the editorial Pope prefixed to the first volume,  from those to whom they dedicated their works.
which excommunicates all printers who in re-printing the    Some who felt hurt at the shameless treatment of such
work should make any alteration in the text.           mock Mtecenases have observed that no writer should
In a version of the Epistles of St Paul into the Ethiopic  dedicate his works but to his FRIENDS; as was practised.anguage, which proved to be full of errors, the editors al-  by the ancients, who usually addressed theirs to those who,ege a very good-humoured reason-' They who printed  had solicited their labours, or animated their progress.
the work could not read, and we could not print; they     Theodosius Gaza had no other recompense f)r having
helped us, and we helped them, as the blind helps the  inscribed to Sextus IV, his translation of the book ofArisblind.'                                                totle on the Nature of Animals, than the price of the bindA printer's widow in Germany, while a new edition of ing, which this charitable father of the church munificently
tne Bible was printing at her house, one night took an  bestowed upon him.
opportunity of going into the office, to alter that sentence    Theocritus fills his Idylliums with loud complaints of the
of subjection to her husband, pronounced upon Eve in  neglect of his patrons; and Tasso was as little successful
Genesis, Char. 3. v. 16. She took out the two first let-  in his dedications.
tlurs of the word HERR, and substituted NA in their place  Ariosto, in presenting his Orlando Furioso to the Cardi.




z4                                   CURIOSITIES OF
nal d'Este, was gratified with the bitter sarcasm  of-  trayed the features of his soul, as his pencil had his Dhvsa'Dove diavolo avete pigliato tante coglionerie?'  Where  ognomy. If genius has too often complained of its pa4
the devil have you found all this stuff?                trons, it has often too-overvalued their protection.
When the French historian Dupleix, whose pen was
indeed fertile, presented his book to the Duke d'Epernon,  POETS, FPIlLOSOPHERS, AND ARTISTS, MADE BY
this Maecenas, turning to the Pope's Nuncio, who was                        ACCIDENT.
present, very coarsely exclaimed-' Cadedis! ce Monsietur a un flux enrage6, il chie un livre toutes les lunes!'
geniuses to display their powers. It was at Rome, says
Thomson, the ardent author of the Seasons, having ex- ibbon on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing
travagantly praised a person of rank, who      Gibbon, on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing
travagantly praised a person of rank, who afterwards apeared to.b undeservinp n of. u m so X l.aft erwards ap-  amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the bare-footed friars
4peared to be undeserving of eulogiurs, properly employed  were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the
his pen in a solemn recantation of his error. A very dif-  idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started
ferent conduct from that of Dupleix, who always spoke  to my mind.
highly of OQueen Margaret of France for a little place he    Father Malebranche having completed his st
Father Malebranehe having completed his studies in
held in her household: but after her death, when the place  philosophy and theology without any other intention than
became extinct, spoke of her with all the freedom of satire.     himself to some religious order, little expected the
devoting himself to some relhglous order, little expected the
Such is too often the character of some of the literati, who  celebrity his works acquired for him. Loitering in an idle
only dare to reveal the truth when they have no interest to  hour in the shop of a bookseller, and turning over a pare
conceal it..     eel of books, L'Homme de Descartes fell into his hands.
Poor Mickle, to whom we are indebted for so beautiful  Havin dit into some p    arts,    he read wit h such delight
a version of Camoens' Lusiad, having dedicated this work,  that tdi  into ome parts, he read with such delight,
the continued labour of five years, to theuke of Buc-  that te palpitations of his heart compelled him to lay the
tofive  Deeuke  f       volume down. It was this circumstance that produced
cleugh had the mortification to find, bet the discovery of a  those profound contemplations which made him the Plato
friend, that he had kept it in his possession three weeks  ofhis age.
before he could collect sufficient intellectual desire to cut    Cowey became a poet by accident. In his mother's
open the first pages! and what is worse, the neglect he            e found, when very young, Spenser's Fairy
had experienced from this nobleman preyed on his mind,  aparteny 
I  Queen; and, by a continual study of poetry, he became
and reduced him to a state of despondency.  This patron    en, a  t,
wasI~~~~~~~~~~  a  a e t th p     o            so enchanted of the Muse, that he grew irrecoverably a
was a political economist, the pupil of Adam Smith! It  poet.
is pleasing to add, in contrast with this frigid Scotch patron,    Dr Johnson informs us, that Sir Joshua Reynolds had
that when Mickle went to Iisbon, where his translation  the first fondness of his art excited by the perusal of Rihad passed before him, he found the Prince of Portugalchardson's Treatise.
waiting on the quay to be the first to receive the translator    Vaucanson displayed an uncommon genius for mech
of this great national poem; and during aresidence of sixnics. His taste was first determined by an accident -
monoths, Miclle was warmly regarded by every Portuguese  when young, he frequently attended his mother to the resinoblerman.                                             dence of her confessor; and while she wept with repent.'Every man believes,' writes Dr Johnson, in a letter to  ance, e wept with weariness! In this state of disaoreea.
Baretti, I that mistresses are unfathfill, and patrons are' ble vacation, says Helvetius he was struck with the unicapricious. But he excepts his own mistress, and his own  form motion of the pendulum of the clock in the hall. His
patron.                                                curiosity was roused; he approached the clock case, and
A patron is sometimes obtained in an odd way. Ben-  studied its mechanism; what he could not discover, he
serade attached himself to Cardinal Mazarine; bitt his  guessed at. He then projected a similar machine; and
friendship produced nothing but civility. The poet-every  gradually his genius produced a clock. Encouraged by
day indulged his easy and charming vein of amatory and ~ this first success, he proceeded in his various attempts;
panegyric poetry, while all the world read and admired   and the genius which thus could form a clock, in time
his verses. One evening the cardinal, in conversation  formed a fluting automaton.
with the king, described his mode of life when at the papal        If Shakspeare's imprudence had not obliged him to
court. He loved the sciences; bitt his chief occupation   quit his wool trade, and his town; if he had not engaged
was the belles lettres, composing little pieces of poetry;  with a company of actors, and at length, disgusted with
he said that he was then in the court of Rome what Ben-  being an indifferent performer, he had not turned author,
serade was now in that of France. Some hours after-  the prudent wool-seller had never been the celebrated
wards the friends of the poet related to him the conversa-  t.
tion of the cardinal. He quitted them abruptly, and ran' ccident determined the taste of Moliere for the stage.
to the apartment of his eminence, knoclking with all his  His grandfather loved the theatre, and frequently carried
force, that he might be certain of being heard.  The car-  him there   The young man lived in dissipation; the
dinal had just gone to bed. In vain they informed him of  father observing it, asked in anger, if his son was to be
this circumstance, while he persisted in demanding en-  made an actor. "Would to God," replied the grandfather,
trance; and as he continued this incessant disturbance,  "he was as good an actor as Montrose."  The words
thev were compelled to open the door. He ran to his  struck young Moliere; he took a disgust to his tapestry
eminence, fell upon his knees, almost pulled off the sheets  trade* and it is to this circumstance that France owes he
of the bed in rapture, imploring a thousand pardons for  greatest comic writer.'
greatest ucomic
thus disturbing him, but such was his joy in what he had' Corneille loved; he made verses for his mistress, bejust heard, which he repeated, that he could not refrain  came a poet, composed Melite, and afterwards his other
from  immediately giving vent to his gratitude and his  celebrated works. The discreet Corneille had remained
pride, to have been compared with his eminence for his  a lawyer.'
poetical talents!  Had the door not been immediately' Thus it is, that the devotion of a mother, the death of
opened, he should have expired; he was not rich, it is  Cromwell, deer-stealing, the exclamation of an old man,
true, but he should now die contented! The cardinal was  and the beauty of a woman, have given five illustrious
pleased with his ardour, and probably never suspected his  characters to Europe.'
flatterty;  and the next week our new actor was pensioned.    W   owe the great discovery of Newton to a very trivial
On Cardinal Richelieu, another of his patrons, he grate-  accident. When a student at Cambridge, he had retired
fully made this epitaph,                               during the time of the plague into the country. As he was
reading under an apple-tree, one of the fruit fell, and struck
Cy gist, otty gist par ia mortbleu          him a smart blow on the head. When he observed the
t e  qui Cardnaus de  chmn ennuy            smallness of the apple, he was surprised at the force of
Ma pension avec lui.                        the stroke.  This led hint to consider the accelerating
motion of falling bodies; from whence he deduced the
Here lies, egaosd  tis very true!            principle of gravity, and laid the foundation of his philoThe illustrious Cardinal Richelieu;           sophy.
My griefis genuine-void of whim!
Alas i my pension lies with him e               Ignatius Loyola was a Spanish gentleman, who was
dangerously wounded at the siege of Pampaluna. Having
Le Brln, the great French artist, pain.ted his own por-  heated his imagination by reading the Lives of the Saints.
ttit, holding in his hand that of his earliest patron.  In  which were brought to him in his illness, instead of roe
this accompaniment Le Brun may be said to have pour.  mance, be conceived  i strong ambition to be the founder




LITERATURE.                                                     25
of a religious order; whence originated the celebrated so-  Tintoretto —hora eguale a Titiano, hora minora del Tinto.
ciety of the Jesuits.                                  retto-I have seen Tintoret now equal to Titian, and now
Rosseau found his eccentric powers first awakened by  less than Tintoret.'
the advertisement of the singular annual subject which the    Trublet very justly observes-The more there are beau.
academy of Dijon proposed for that year, in which he  ties, and great beauties, in a work, I am the less surprised
wrote his celebrated Declamation against the arts and  to find faults, and greatfaults.  When you say of a work
sciences. A circumstance which determined his future  -that it has many faults; that decides nothing, and I do
literary efforts.                                      not know by this, whether it is execrable, or excellent.
La Fontaine, at the age of twenty-two, had not taken  You tell me of another-that it is without any faults; if
any profession, or devoted himself to any pursuit. Having  your account be just, it is certain the work cannot be ex.
accidentally heard some verses of Malherbe, he felt a sud-  cellent.
den impulse, which directed his future life. He immediately bought a Malherbe, and was so exquisitely delight-                        AND EXPRESSION.
ed with this poet, that after passing the nights in treasur-    There are men who have just thoughts on every sub.
ong his verses in his memory, he would run in the day-time  ject; but it is not perceived, because their expressions are
to the woods, where, concealing himself, he would recite  feeble.  They conceived well, but they produce badly.
his verses to the surr-ounding dryads.                   Erasmus acutely observed-alluding to what then much
Flanistead was an astronomer by accident.  He was  occupied his mind-that one might be apt to swear that
taken from school on account of his illness, when Sacro-  they had been taught, in the confessional cell, all they
bosco's book de Sphtera having been lent to him, he was  had learnt; so scrupulous are they of disclosing what they
so pleased with it, that he immediately began a course of  know. Others, again, conceive ill, and produce well; for
astronomic studies. Pennant's first propensity to natural  they express with elegance, frequently, what they do not
history was the pleasure he received from an accidental  know.
perusal of Willoughby's work on birds: the same accident,   It was observed of one pleader, that he knew more
of finding on the table of his professor, Reamur's History  than he said; and of another, that he said more than he
of Insects, of which he read more than he attended to the  knew.
lecture, and having been refused the loan, gave such an   The judicious Quintilian observes, that we ought at'first
instant turn to the mind of Bonnet, that he hastened to ob-  to be more anxious in regard to our conceptions than our
tain a copy, but found many difficulties in procuring this  expressions-we may attend to the latter afterwards.
costly work; its possession gave an unalterable direction   While Horace thought that expressions will never fail with
to his future life; this naturalist indeed lost the use of his  luminous conceptions.  Yet they seem  to be different
sight by his devotion to the microscope.               things, for a tian may have the clearest conceptions, and
Dr Franklin attributes the cast of his genius to a similar  at the same time be no pleasing writer; while concepaccident.' I found a work of De Foe's, entitled an " Es-  tions of no eminent merit may be very agreeably set off
say on Projects," from which perhaps I derived impres-  by a warm and coloulring diction.
sions that have since influenced some of the principal    Lucian happily describes the works of those who abound
events of my life.'                                     with the most luxuriant language, void of ideas. He calls
I shall add the accident which occasioned Roger As-  their unmeaning verbosity anemony-words (anemonae verchem to write his Schoolmaster, one of the most curious  borum;) for anemonies are flowers, which, however bril.
and useful treatises among our elder writers.          liant, can only please the eye, leaving no fragrance. Pratt,
At a dilnner given by Sir William Cecil, during the plague  who was a writer of flowing, but nugatory verses, was
in 1563, at his apartments at Windsor, where the queen  compared to the daisy; a flower indeed, but without the
nad taken refuge, a number of ingenious men were invited.  fragrance.
Secretary Cecil communicated the news of the morning,                  E
that several scholars at Eton had run away on account of                              DICTION,
their master's severity, which he condemned as a great    There are many sciences, says Menage, on which we
error in the education of youth. Sir William Petre main-  cannot, indeed, compose in a florid or elegant dictiontained the contrary; severe in his own temper he pleaded  such as geography, music, algebra, geometry, &c. When
warmly in defence of hard flogging. Dr Wootton, in soft-  Atticus requested Cicero to write on geography, the latter
er tones, sided with the Secretary.  Sir John Mason,  excused himself, observing, that its scenes were more
adopting no side, bantered both. Mr Haddon seconded   adapted to please the eye than susceptible of the embellishthe hard-hearted Sir William Petre, and adduced, as an   ments of style. However, in these kinds of sciences, we
evidence, that the best schoolmaster then in England was  may lend an ornament to their dryness by introducing octhe hardest flogger. Then was it that Roger Ascham in-  casionally some elegant allusion, or noticing some incident
dignantly exclaimed, that if such a master had an able  suggested by the object.
scholar it was owing to the boy's genius, and not the pre-       Thus when we notice some inconsiderable place, for
ceptor's rod. Secretary Cecil and others were pleased  instance, Woodstock, we may recall attention to the resiwith Ascham's notions. Sir RichardSackville was silent,  dence of Chaucer, the parent of our poetry; or as a late
but when Ascham after:dinner went to the queen to read  traveller, in' an Autumn on the Rhine,' when at Ingelone of the orations of Demosthenes, he took him aside,  heirl, at the view of an old palace built by Charlemagne,
and frankly told him that though he had taken no part in  adds, with' a hundred columns brought from Rome,' and
the debate, he would not have been absent from that con-  was the scene of' the romantic amours of that monarch's
versation for a great deal; that he knew to his cost the  fair daughter, Ibertha, with Evinhard, his secretary;' ant.
truth Ascham  had supported; for it was the perpetual  viewing the Gothic ruins on the bank of the Rhine, has
flogging of such a schoolmaster, that had given him an un-  noticed them as having been the haunts of those illustrious
conquerable aversion to study. And as he wished to re-  chevaliers voleurs, whose chivalry consisted in pillaging the
medy this defect in his own children, he earnestly exhorted   merchants and towns, till in the thirteenth century, a citiAscham to write his observations on so interesting a topic.  zen of Mayence persuaded the merchants of more than a
Such was the circumstance which produced the admirable  hundred towns to form a league against these little princes
treatise of Roger Ascham.                              and counts; the origin of the famous Hanseatic league,
which contributed so much to the commerce of Europe.
IWEQUALITIES OF oENIUS.                   This kind of erudition gives an interest to all local histories
Singular inequalities are observable in the labours of  and associates tn our memory the illustrious personages
genius; and particularly in those which admit great enthu-  who were their inhabitants.
siasm, as in poetry, in painting, and in music.  Faultless  The same principle of composition may be carried with
mediocrity industry can preserve in one continued degree;  the happiest effect into some dry investigations, though the
but excellence, the daring and the happy, can only be at-  profound antiquary may not approve of these sports of wit
trined, by human faculties, by starts.                 or fancy. Dr Arbuthnot, in his Tables of Ancient Coins,
Our poets who possess the greatest genius, with, per-  Weights, and Measures, a topic extremely barren of
haps, the least industry, have at the same time the most  amusement, takes every opportunity of enlivening the dulsplendid and the worst passages of poetry. Shakspeare htess of his task; even in these niathematical calculations
and Dr) den are at once the g eatetst and the least of our  he betrays his wit; and observes, that' the polite Augus.
poets.'With some. their (treat fault consists in having  tus, the Emperor of the World, had neither any glass in
none.                                                  his windows, nor a shirt to his back!' Those uses ot
Carraccio sarcasticailv said 1f Tintoret. —Ho veduto il  glass and linen were, indeed, not known in his time. uur
A




26                                      CURIOSITIES OF
physician is not less curious and facetious in the account  rant. The bishop of Ephesus, the clergy, the nigistrates,
of thefees which the Roman physicians received.             the people, and, it is said, the Emperor Theodosius him.
self, hastened to visit the cavern of the Seven Sleepers
LEGENDS.                             who bestowed their benediction, related their story and a.
Those wild, ludicrous, but often stupid histories entitled  the same instant peaceahly expired.
the same instant peaceably expired.
L.egends, are, said to have originated in the following cir..     hspplrtleMloitland  hnh   rv   i' This popular tale Mahomet  learned when he drove his
Legndsanre   said to have originated in the following cir-  camels to the fairs of Syria; and he has introduced it, as a
ctimstance.
*Before colleges wern established in the monasteries   divine revelation, into the Koran. -The same story has
been adopted and adorned, by the nations from Bengal to
where the schools were held, tihe professors in rhetoric fre-  been  adopted and adorned, by the nations fro  Bengal to
quently gave their pupils the life of some saint for a trial of rica, who profess the  Mahometan religion.
t  The too curious reader may perhaps reqtire  other spe.
their talent at amplification. The students, being constant-     
ly at a loss to fiurnish out their pages, invented most of these  cimens of the more unlucky inventions of this Golden Lewonderful adventures, Jortin observes, that the Christians  gend;' as characteristic of a certain class of minds, the
philosopher will not contemn these grotesque fictions.
used to collect out of Ovid, Livy, and other pagan poets and   P 1
historians, the miracles and portents to be found there, and  These monks imagined that holiness was often prepor.
accommodated them to their own monks and saints. The   tioned to a saint's filthiness.  St Ignatius, say they, deaccommodated them to their own monks and saints. Thelihetoaprabadwhod ityses;enve
good fathets of that age, whose simplicity was not inferior  lighted to appear abroad with old dirty shoes; he never
to their devotionh, were so delighted with these fowers io  used a comb, but let his hair clot; and religiously abstained
to their devotion) were so delighted with these flowers of
rhetoric, that they were induced to make a collection of  from paring his nails. One saint attainedto such piety as
these miraculous compositions; not imagining that, at some   to have near three hundred patches on. his breeches
to have near three hundred patches on his breeches;
distant period, they would become amatters of faith.  Yet,  which, after his death, were hung up in public as an incenwhen James de Voragine, Peter Nadal, and Peter Riba-  tive to imitation. St Francis discovered by certain experideneira, wrote the lives of the saints, they sought for their  ece tat the devils were frightned  away by such kid of
materials in the libraries of the monasteries; and, awaken- breeches, but were animated by clean clothing to tempt
nbreeches, but were animated by clean clothing to tempt
ing from the dust these manuscripts of amplification, ima-    d  educe the wearers; and one of their heroes declares
ined they made an invaluable present to the world, hy lay-  that the purest souls are in the dirtiest bodies. On this
ing before them these voluminous absurdities. The people  they tell a story which ma not be very agreeable to fasreceived these pious fictions with all imaginable simplicity   tidious delicacy.  BroterJniper  was a gentleman prct    fectly pious on this principle; indeed so great wa~l his
and as the book is adorned with a number of cuts, these  fectly pious on this principle; indeed so great wast his
miracles were perfectly intelligible to their eyes. Tille-  merit in this species of mortification, that a brother dcarmont, Fleury, Baillet, Launoi and Bollandus, cleared away ed he could always nose Brother Jonitier when within a
r,                   ~~~~~~ed he could always nose Brother Juniper when within a
much of the rubbish; the enviable title of GoldenLegend,   mile of the monastery, provided the wind was at the due
by which James do Voragine called his work, has been dis.  point.  Once, when the blessed Jtniper, for he was no
saint.ws Onues, whis tholssed unperou ofo the hasnouro ne
puted; iron or lead might more aptly express the character  sant, was aest, his host, proud of the honour of enterof this folio.                                        taining so pious a personage, the intimate friend of St
When the world began to be more critical in their read-  Francis, provided an excellent bed, and the finest sheets.
ing, the monks gave a graver turn to their narratives; and   Brother Juniper abhorred such luxury. And this too evi~~~~~~~~~~~~~rthdertl apnperabored atrhssudde deparury. ind this tooer~ia
became penurious of their absurdities. The faithful Catho-  dently appeared after his sudden departure in the mornilg
lic contends, that the line of tradition has been preserved   unknown to his kind host.  The great Juniper did thi',
unbroken; notwithstanding that the originals were lost in  says his bioranher, having told us what he did, not sthe general wreck of literature  fi'om  the barbarians, or  much from  his habitual inclinations for which he was so
came down  in a most imperfect state.                      justly celebrated, as from his excessive piety, and as much
Baronius has give the lives of many apocryphal saints;  as he could to mortify worldtly pride, and to show how a
for instance, of a saint Xinoris whom he calls a martyr of  true saint despised clean sheets.
Antioch; but it appears that Baronius having read in Chry-   In the life of St Francis we find, among other grotesqut
sostomn this wvord, which signifies a couple orpair,he nistook   niracles, that he preached a sermon in a desert, bu  hs
it for the name of a saint, and contrived to give the most soon collected an immense audience. The birds shrill;
authentic biography of a saint who never existed!  The   warbled to every sentence, and stretched out their necks
Catholics confess this sort of'blunder is not uncommon, but  opened their beaks, and when bhe finished, dispersed wit
then it is only fools who laugh! As a specimen of the   a holy rapture into four companies, to report his sermon t*
happier inventions, one is given, embellished by the dic-  all the birds in the universe.  A grasshopper remained a
tions of Gibbon —                                          week with St Francis during the absence of the Virgin'Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I  Mary, and pittered on his head. HeI-I grew so companionsa..
am tempted to distitnguish the memorable fable of the Seven   ble with a nightingale, that when a nest of swallows began
Sleepers; whose imaginary date corresponds with the rein  to babble, he hushed them by desiring them  not to tittleof the younger Theodosius, and the, conquest of Africa;y  tattle of their sister, the nightingale. Attacked by a wolf,
the Vandals. WVhen the Etperor Decius persecuted the  with only the sign manual of the cross, he held a long diaChristians, seven notable youths of Ephesus concealed  logue with his rabid assailant, till the wolf, meek as a lapthemselves in a spacious cavern on the side of an adjacent  dog, stretched his paws in the hands of the saint, followed
mountain; where they were doomed to perish by the ty-  him through towns, and became half a Christian.
rant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly     This same St Francis had such a detestation of the
secured with a pile of stones.  They immediately fellinto  good things of this world, that he would never suffer his
a deep slumber, which was miractlously prolonged without  followers to touch money. A friar having placed in a wininjuring the powers of life, during a period of one hundred   dow some money collected at the altar, he desired him to
and eighty-seven years. At the end of that time the slaves  take it in his mouth, and throw it on the dung of an ass!
of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had   St Philip Nerius was such a lover of poverty, that he fredescended, removed the stones to supply materials for some   quently prayed that God would bring him  to that state as
rustic edifice. The light of the sun darted into the cavern,  to stand in need of a penny, and find nobody that would
and the Seven Sleepers were permitted to awake.  After  give him one!
a slumber as they thought of a few hours, they were press-   But Saint Macaire was so shocked at having iled a
ed by the calls of hunger; and resolved that Jamblichus,one   louse, that he endured seven years of penitence amonlg the
edbyth  cls f uner;an  rsov'n    thorns and briars of a forest. A circumstance which seems
of their number, should secretly return to the city to pur-  thorns and briars ofa forest A circumstance which seems
chase bread for the use of his companions. The youth, if  to have reached Moliere, who gives this stroke to the chab
we may still employ that appellation, could no longer recog-  racter of his Tartuffe:
nize the once famniliar aspect of his native country; and his          impute a pec    a mondr bagatele
surprise was increased by the appearance of a large cross,         Jtsquest- a qui so vint, lausiurs'accuser
surprise wa,                   I                 ~~~~~~~~~~~Jusques-la  qulil se vint, P'autt ajOUrS'accuser
triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephesus.           D'avoir pris une puce en faistet sa priere,
His singular dress and obsolete language confounded the            Et de l'avoir tu,, avec trop de colere!
baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as
the current coin of the empire; arid Jamblichus, on the sus-  I give a miraculous incident respecting two pious mas.
piion of a osvcret trea.uire, was dragged before the judge.  dens[ The night of the Nativity of Christ, after the first
Their muttal inquiries produced  the amazing discovery,  mass, they both retired into a solitary sot, of'their nunnethat two centuries were almost elapsed since Jamblichus  rv till the second mass was rung.  One asked the other,
and his friends had escaped from  the rage of a Pagan tv-'W~hv do you want two cuishions, when I have only one 




LITERATURE.                                                           27'
The other replied,  I would place it betweeri us, for the  his studious hours,resorted to the cultivation of truit-trees;
child Jesus; as the Evangelist says, where-there are two  and the fruit of Port-Royal became celebrated for its size
or three persons assembled I am  in the midst of them.'  and flavour.  Presents were sent to the Queen-Mother of
This being done, they sat down, feeling a most lively plea-  France, Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarine, who
sure at their fancy; and there they remained from the Na-  used to call it  Frutti beni.' It appears that'families of
tivity of Christ to that of John the Baptist; but this great  rank, affluence, and piety, who did not wish entirely to give
interval of time passed with these saintly maidens as two  up their avocations in the world, built themselves countryhours would appear to others.  The abbess and her nuns  houses in the valley of Port-Royal, in order to enjoy the
were aiarmed at their absence, for no one could give any  society of its religious and literary inhabitants.'
account of them.  In the eve of St John, a cowherd pass-    In the solitude of Port-Royal Racine received his educain,, by them, beheld a beautiful child seated on a cushion  tion; and, on his death-bed desired to be buried ill its ctbetween this pair of runaway nuns. He hastened to the  metery, at the feet of his master, Hamon.  Arnauld, perabbess with news of these stray sheep,who saw this lovely  secuted, and dying in a foreign country, still cast his linchild playfully seated between these nymphs, who, with  gering looks on this beloved retreat, and left the society
blushing countenances, inquired if the second bell had al-  his heart, which was there inurned.
ready rung? Both parties were equally astonished to find     Anne de Bourbon, a princess of the blood royal, erected
our young devotees had been there firom the Natvity of  a house near the Port-Royal, and was, during her life, the
Jesus to that of St John.  The abbess asked after the  powerful patroness of these solitary and religious men: but
child who sat between them; they solemnly declared they  her death in 1679, was the fatal stroke which dispersed
saw no child between them, and persisted in their story.    them for ever.
Such is one of these miracles of'the Golden Legend,'    The envy and the fears of the Jesuits, and their rancour
which a wicked wit nmight comment on, and see nothing  against Arnauld, who with such ability had exposed their
extraordinary in the whole story.  The two nuns might  designs, occasioned the destruction of the Port-Royal Sobe missing between the Nativities, and be found at the  ciety.  Exinani:e, exinanite tsque adfitsdamentum in ae!
last with a child seated between them.  They might not  Annihilate it, annihilate it, to its very foundations! Such
choose to account either for their absence or their chil-d-   are the terms in the Jesuitic decree.  The Jesuits had
the only touch of miracle is, that they asseverated, they  long called the little schools of Port-Royal the hot-beds of
saw no child-that I confess is a littlelchild) too much.   heresy.  Gregoire, in his interesting memoir of'Ruins of
The lives of the saints by Alban Butler is a learned   Port-Royal,' has drawn an afflcting picture of that virwork, and the most sensible history of these legends; Ri-  tuous society when the Jesuits obtained by their intrigues
tradenaira's lives of the saints exhibit more of the legenda-  an order from government to break it up. They razed the
rv spirit, for wanting judgment and not faith, he is more  buildings, and ploughed up the very foundation; they exvoluminous in his details, and more ridiculous in his nar-  hausted their hatred even on the stones, and profaned even
ratives.                                                   the sanctuary of the dead; the corpses were torn out of
their graves, and dogs were suffered to contend for the rags
THE P0ST ROYAL socITx             of their shrouds.  When the Port-Royal had no longer an
Every lover of letters has heard of this learned society,  existence, the memory of that asylum  of innocence and
which, says Gibbon, contributed. so much to establish in  learning was still kept alive by those who collected the enFrance a taste fror just reasoning, simplicity of style, and  gravings representing that place by Mademoiselle Hortephilosophical method. Their'Logic, or the Art of Think-  mels. The police, under Jesuitic influence, at length seizing,' for its lucid, accurate, and diversified matter, is still  ed on the plates in the cabinet of the fair artist.  How
an admirable work; notwithstanding the writers at that  caustic was the retort courteous which.Arnauld gave the
time had to emancipate themselves from the barbarism of  Jesuits-' I do not fear your pen, but its knife.'
the scholastic logic with cautious boldness. It was the    These were men whom the love of retirement had united
conjoint labour of Arnauld and Nicolle.  Europe has he-  to cultivate literature, in the midst of solit:de, of peace,
nefited by the labours of these learned men: but not many   and of piety.  They formed a society of learned men, of
have attended to the origin anrid dissolution of this literary  fine taste and sound philosophy.  Alike occupied on sasociety.                                                   cred, as well as on profane writers, they edified, while they
In thlie year 1637, Le Maitre, a celebrated advocate, re-   enlightened the world.  Their writings fixed the French
signed the bar,.and the honour of being Counseiller d'Etat,  lauguage.  The example of these solitaries shows how
which his uncommon merit had obtained him, though then   retirement is favourable to penetrate into the sanctuary of
only twenty-eight years of age. His brother, De Sericourt,  the Muses: and that by meditating in silence on the ora4
who had followed the nmilitary profession, quitted it at the   cles of taste, in imitating we may equal therm.
same time. Consecrating themselves to the service of    An interesting anecdote is related of Arnauld on the oc.
God, they retired into a small house near the Port-Royal of  casion of the dissolution of this society.  The dispersion
Paris, where they were joined by their brothers De Sacy,  of these great men, and their young scholars, was lamented
De St Elme, and De Valmont.  Arnauld, one of their  by every one but their enemies.  Many persons of the
most illustrious associates, was induced to enter into the   highest rank participated in their sorrows.  The excellent
Jansenist controversy, and then it was they encountered   Arnauld, in that moment, was as closely pursued as if he
the powerful persecution of the Jesuits.  Constrained to   had been a felon.
remove from that spot, they fixed their residence at a few   It was then the Duchess of Longueville concealed Ar.
leagues from Paris, and called it Port-Royal des Champs.  nauld in an obscure lodging, who assumed the dress of a
With these illustrious recluses many distinguished per-  layman, wearing a sword and full-bottomed wig. Arnauld
sons now retired, who had given up their parks and houses   was attacked by a fever, and in the course of conversation
to be appropriated to their schools; and this community   with a physician, Arnauld inquired after news.'They
was called the Society of Port-Royal.                      talk of a new book of the Port-Royal,' replied the doctor,
Here were no rules, no vows, no constitution, and no' attributed to Arnauld or to Sacy; but I do not believe it
cells formed. Prayer and study, and manual labour were  to come from Sacy; he does not write so well.'' How,
their only occupations.  They applied themselves to the   Sir!' exclaimed the philosopher, forgetting his sword and
education of youth, and raised up little academies in the   wig;' believe me, my nephew writes better than I do.'
neighbourhood, where the members of the Port-Royal,   The physician eyed his patient with amazement-he hasthe most illustrious names of literary France, presided.  tened to the Duchess, and told her,'The malady of the
None considered his birth entitled him to any exemption   gentleman you sent me to is not very serious, provided you
from their public offices, relieving the poor and attending   do not suffer him to see any one, and insist on his holding
on the sick, and employing themselves in their farms and   his tongue.'  The Duchess, alarmed, immediately had
gardens; they were carpenters, ploughmen, gardeners,  Arnauld conveyed to her palace. She pave him an apart.
anird vinedressers, &c. as if they had practised nothing   ment, concealed him in her chamber, and persisted to at.
else; they studied physic, and surgery, and law; in trmth,  tend him herself.' Ask,' she said,' what you want o
it seems that from  religious motives, these learned men   the servant, but it shall be myself who shall bring it to
attempted to form a community of primitive Christianity.   yon.'
The IDuchess of Lonrgueville, once a political chief, sa-  How honourable is it to the female character, that in all
crificed her ambition on the altar of Port-Royal, enlarged   similar events their sensibility is nit greater than their forthe monastic inclosure with spacious gardens and orchards,  titute! Bit the Duchss ofLonteucville saw in Arnauld a
built a noble hottse, and often retreated to its seclusion.    model of human fortitude, which wartVrs never excelled.
The learned D'Andilly, the translator of Josephus, after  His remarkable reply to Nicollthe..hen' they were bunted




28                                  CURIOSITIES OF
rom place to place, can never be forgotten: Arnauld  study of the law so late, answered, that indeed he began it
wished Nicolle to assist him in a new work, when the lat-  late, but should therefore master it the sooner.
ter observed,' We are now old, is it not time to rest?'    Dryden's complete works form the largest body of poetry'Rest!' returned Arnauld,' have we not all eternity to  from the pen of one wiiter in the English language; yet he
rest in'' The whole of the Arnauld family were the most  gave no public testimony of poetical abilities till his twenextraordinary instance of that hereditary character which  ty-seventh year. In his sixty-eighth year he proposed to
ts continued through certain families: here it was a sub-  translate the whole Iliad; and the most pleasing pro.
rime, and, perhaps singular union of learning with religion.  ductions were written in his old age.
The Arnaulds, Sacy, Pascal, Tillemont, with other illus-    Michael Angelo preserved his creative genius even in
trious names, to whom literary Europe will owe perpetual  extreme old age; there is a device said to be invented by
obligations, combined the life of the monastery with that  him of an old man represented in a go-cart, with an hourof the library.                                        glass upon it; the inscription Ancorck impara!-YET I AM
LEARNING
THE PROGRESS OF OLD AGE IN NEW STUDIES.               We have a literary curiosity in a favourite treatise with
Of the pleasures derivable from the cultivation ofthe arts,  Erasmus and men of letters of that period, De Ratione StuSciences, and literature, time will not abate the growing  dii, by Joachim Sterck, otherwise Fortius de Rhingelberg.
passion; for old men still cherish an affection and feel a  The enthusiasm of the writer often carries him to the verge
*routhful enthusiasm in those pursuits, when all others have  of ridicule; but something must be granted to his peculiar
ceased to interest.  Dr Reid, to his last day, retained a  situation and feelings; for Baillet tells us that his method
most active curiosity in his various studies: and particular-  of studying had been formed entirely from his own practi.
ly in the revolutions of modern chemistry.  In advanced  cal knowledge and hard experience; at a late period of life
life we may resume our former studies with a new pleasure  he commenced his studies, and at length he imagined that
and in old age we may enjoy them  with the same relish  he had discovered a more perpendicular mode of ascending
with which more useful students commence.  Professor  the hill of science than by its usual circuitous windings
Dugald Stewart tells us that Adam Smith observed to him   His work Mr Knox compares to the sound'of a trumpet.
that' of all the amusements of old age, the most grateful    Menage, in his Anti-Baillet, has a very curious apology
and soothing is a renewal of acquaintance with the favour-  for his writing verses in his old age, by showing how many
ite studies and favourite authors of youth-a remark,  poets amused themselvesnotwithstanding their gray hairs,
which in his own case seemed to be more particularly  and wrote sonnets or epigrams at ninety.
exenlplified while he was reperusing, with the enthusiasm  La Casa, in one of his letters, humorously said, lo credo
of a student, the tragic poets of ancient Greece.  I heard  ch'iofaro Sornnetto venti cinque anni, o trenta, poi che io sahim repeat the observation more than once while Sopho-  ro morto. I think I may make some sonnets twenty-five, or
cles and Euripides lay open on his table.'              perhaps thirty years after I shall be dead! Peteau tells us
Socrates learned to play on musical instruments in his old  that he wrote verses to solace the evils of old ageage; Cato, at eighty thought proper to learn Greek; and
Plutarch, almost as late in life, Latin.                                -    Petavius leger
Theophrastus began his admirable work on the Charac-           Cantabat veteris qumerens solatia morbi.
ters of Men at the extreme age of ninety.  He only ter-    Malherbe declares the honours of genis were his, yet
minated his literary labours by his death.             youngPeter Ronsard, one of the fathers of French poetry, ap-    Je las posseday jeune, etles possede an-cre
plied himself late to study. His acute genius, and ardent            A la fin de mes jours.
application, rivalled those poetic models which he admired;        moralises on this subject,
and Boccaccio was thirty-five years of age when lie conm- Maynard
menced his studies in polite literature.                       En cheveux blancs il me faut done aller
The great Arnatuld retained the vigour of his genius,      Comme un enfant tous l]es ours a'ecole;
and the command of his pen, to his last day; and at the      Qlle Je suis ou dvapprendre a bicn parter
age of eighty-two was still the great Arnauld.               Lorsque la mort viect moter la parole.
Sir Henry Spelman neglected the sciences in his youth,                 SPANISH POETRY.
but cultivated them at fifty years of age, and produced    Pere Bouhours observes, that the Spanish poets disgood fruit. His early years were chiefly passed in farming,  play an extravagant imagination, which is by no means
which greatly diverted him from  his studies; but a re-  destitute of esprit-shall we say wit? but which evinces
markable disappointment respecting a contested estate,dis-  little taste or judgment.
gusted him with these rustic occupations; resolved to at-    Their verses are much in the style of our Cowlev-trivia.
tach himself to regular studies, and literary society, he  points, monstrous metaphors, and quaint conceits.  It is
sold his farms, and became the most learned antiquary and  evident that the Spanish poets imported this taste from the
lawyer.                                                time of Merino in Italy; but the warmth of the Spanish
Colbert the famous French minister, almost at sixty re-  climate appears to have redoubled it, and to have blown
turned to his Latin and law studies.                   the kindled sparks of chimerical fancy to the heat of a VulTellier, the chancellor of France, learned logic, merely  canian forge.
for an amusement, to dispute with his grandchildren.     Lopes de Vega, in describing an afflicted shepherdess,
Dr Johnson applied himself to the Dutch language but a  in one of his pastorals, who is represented weeping near
few years before his death.  The Marquis de Saint Au-  the sea-side, says' That the sea joyfully advances to
lalre, at the age of seventy, began to court the Muses, and  gather her tears; and that, having enclosed them in shells,
they crowned him with their freshest flowers. The verses  it converts them into pearls.'
of this French Anacreon are full of fire, delicacy, and' Y el mar como imbidioso
sweetness.                                            I         A tierra por las lagrimas salia,
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were the composition of his        Y aleere de cogertas
latest years; they were begun in his fifty-fourth year, and,as guarda in conchas, y convierte en perlas.'
finished in his sixty.first.                             Villegas addresses a streanl —  Thou who runnest over
Ludovico Monaldesco, at the extraordinary age of 115,  sands of gold, with feet of silver,' more elegant than our
wrote the memoirs of his times, a singular exertion, notic-  Shakspeare's' Thy silver skin laced with thy golden blood.'
ed by Voltaire, who himself is one of the most remarkable  Villegas monstrously exclaims,' Touch my breast, if you
Instances of the progress of age in new studies.       doubt the power of Lydia's eyes-you will find it turned to
The moost delightful of auto-biographers for artists, is  ashes.' Again-' Thou art so great that thou canst only
that of Benvenuto Cellini; a work of great originality,  imitate thyself with thy own greatness;' much like our
which, was not begun till' the clock of his age had struck' None but himself can be his parallel.'
fifty-eight.'                                            Gongora, whom the Snaniards once greatlv admired, and
Koornhert began at "orty to learn the Latin and Greek  distinguished by the epithet of The  gVonderful, is full ol.anguages, of,which he became a master; several students,  these points and conceits.
who afterward; dis;irnuuished themselves, have commenced  He imaginses that a nightingale, who enchantingly varied
as late in life -heir literarv pursulits. Ogilby, the transla.  her notes, and sang in different manners, had a hundred
tot of Homer and Virgil, knew little of Latin or Greek till  thousand other nightingales in her breast which alternately
he was past fifi v; and Franklin's philosophical pursuits be-  sang through her throatgan when he had netlrlv reached his fiftieth year.              Con diferencia tal, con gracnt tanta,
Accorso, a treat lawyer neink. asked why he began the       Ag quel rlysenor lIora, cue soslwnlho




LITERATURE.                                                      29
que teine otros cien mil dentro del pecho       I do not seek in men what they have of evil, that I may
Que alterna su dolor por su garganta.'           censure; I only discover what they have ridiculous, that I
Of a young and beautiful lady he says, that she has but  may be amused. I feel a pleasure in detecting their folfew years of life, but many ages of beauty.          lies; I should feel a greater in communicating my discovefewbos siglo yearshermo uraries did not my prudence restrain me. Life is too short,
Muchos siglos de hermosura                 according to my ideas, to read all kinds of books, and to
load our memories with an endless number of things at the
Many ages of beauty is a false thought, for beauty be-  cost of our judgment. I do not attach myself to the obcomes not more beautiful from its age; it would be only a  servations of scientific men to acquire science, but to the
superannuated beauty. A  face of two or three ages old  most rational that I may strengthen my reason. Somecould have but few charms.                              times, I seek fior more delicate minds, that my taste may
In one of his odes he addresses the River of Madrid  imbibe their delicacy; sometimes for the gayer, that I may
by the title of the Duke of Streams and the Viscount of  enrich my genius with their gayety; and, although I ca6Rivers.                                                 stantly read, I make it less my occupation than my plea-'Manganares, Mancanares,                   sure. In religion, and in friendship, I have only to paint
Os que en todo el aguatislno,              myself such as I am-in friendship more tender than a
Esois Duque de Arroyos,                   philosopher; and in religion as constant and sincere as a
Y Visconde de los Rios.'                   youth who has more simnplicity than experience. My piety
He did not venture to call it a Spanish grandee, for, in  is composed more of justice and charity than of penitence.
fact, it is but a shallow and dirty stream; and as Quevedo  I rest my confidence on God, and hope every thing from
wittily informs us,'J anqanares is reduced, during the  his benevolence. In the bosom of providence I find my
summer season, to the melancholy condition of the wicked  repose, and my felicity.'
rich man, who asks for water in the depths of hell.'
Concernina this river a pleasant witicism  is recorded.   MEN OF GENIUS DEFICIENT IN CONVERSATION.
Though so small, this stream  in the time of a flood can    The student who may, perhaps, shine a luminary o,
spread itself over the neighbouring fields; for this reason  learning and of genius, in the pages of his volume, is found,
Philip the Second built a bridge eleven hundred feet long!  not rarely, to lie obscured beneath a heavy cloud in collo-A  Spaniard passing it one day, when it was perfectly  quial discourse.
dry, observing this superb bridge, archly remarked,' That    If you love the man of letters seek him in the privacies
it would be proper that the bridge should be sold to pur-  of his study. It is in the hour of confidence and tranquillity
chase water.'-Es menester, vender la puente peor comrprur  his genius shall elicit a ray of intelligence, more fervid than
a      ouga.                                            the labours of polished composition.
The following elegant translation of a Spanish madrigal    The great Peter Corneille, whose genius resembled that
of the kind here criticised I found in a newspaper, but it  of our Shakspeare, and who has so forcibly expressed
is evidently by a master-hand.                          the sublime sentiments of the hero, had nothing in his exOnithesfflreen mar   of the land,  terior that indicated his genius; on the contrary, his conOn the green G aualhorein of  hisway,versation was so insipid that it never failed of wearying.
WNhory lauy layhore: windshiswayNature who had lavished on him the gifts of genius, had
My lady lay:
With golden key Sleep's gentle hand                forgotten to blend with them her more ordinary ones. He
Had closed her eyes so bright-                   did not even speak correctly that language of' which he was
Her eyes, two suns of light-                     such a master.
And bade his balmy dews                            When his friends represented to him how much more he
Her rosy choeek suffuse.                         might please by not disdaining to correct these trivial erThe River God in slumber saw her laid,            rors, he would smile and say —' I am not the less Peter
With rised  sa drippinr  head,                   Corneille!' Descartes, whose habits were formed in soliClad in his wat'ry robes approach'd the maid,     tude and meditation, was silent in mixed company; and
And with colht Ibiss, like death,                Thomas described his mind by saying that he had received
Drank the rich perfume of the maiden's breath    his intellectual wealth from nature in solid bars, but not in
The maiden felt that icy kiss,                    current coin; or as Addison expressed the same idea, by
Her suns unclosed, their flame                   comparing himself to a banker who possessed the wealth
Full and onclouded on the intruder came.         of his friends at home, though he carried none of it in his
Amazed ih' intruder felt,                        pocket, or as that judicious moralist Nicolle, one of the
His fri'hy body melt,
And heard the radiance on his bosom hiss;         Port-Royal Society, who said of a scintillant wit-' He
And, forced in blind confusion to retire,       conquers me in the drawing-room, but he surrenders to me
Leapt in the water to escape the fire.          at discretion on the staircase.' Such may say with The.
SAINT EVREMOND.                       mistocles, when asked to play on a lute,-' I cannot fiddle,
but I can make a little village a great city.'
The portrait of St Evremond, delineated by his own    The deficiencies of Addison in conversation are well
hand, will not be unacceptable to many readers.         known. He preserved a rigid silence amonast strangers;
This writer possessed delicacy and wit, and has written  but if he was silent, it was the silence of meditation. How
well, but with great inequality. His poetry is insipid, and  often at that moment, he laboured at some future Specta.
his prose abounds with points; the antithesis was his fa-  tor!
vourite figure, and its prodigalitv fatigues.  The compari-    Mediocrity can talk; but it is for genius to observe.
sons he forms between some of the illustrious ancients will    The cynical Mandeville compared Addison, after having
interest from their ingenuity.                          passed an evening in his company, to'a silent parson in
In his day it was a literary fashion for writers to give  a tie-wig.' It is no shame for an Addison to receive the
their own portraits; a fashion that seems to have passed  censures of a Mandeville; he has only to blush when he
over into our country, for Farquhar has drawn his own  calls down those of a Pope.
character in a letter to a lady. Others offour writers have    Virgil was heavy in conversation, and resembled more
gaven these self-miniatures. Such painters are, no doubt,  an ordinary man than an enchanting poet.
great flatterers, and it is rather their ingenuity, than their    La Fontaine, says La Bruyere, appeared coarse, heavy,
truth, which we admire in these cabinet pictures.       and stupid; he could not speak or describe what he had' I am a philosopher, as far removed from superstition as  just seen; but when he wrote he was the model of poefrom impiety  a voluptuary, who has not less abhorrence  try.
of debauchery than inclination for pleasure; a man, who    It is very easy, said a humourous observer on La Fonhas never known want or abundance. I occupy that sta-  taine, to be a man of wit or a fool; but to be both, and that
tion f iife vwich is contemned by those who possess every  too in the extreme degree, is indeed admirable, and only to
thinie: envied by those who have nothing, and only re-  be found in him. This observation applies to that fine na.
lished by those who make their felicity consist in the  tural genius Goldsmith.  Chaucer was more facetious in
exercise of their reason.  Young, I hated dissipation;  his tales than in his conversation, and the Countess of
convinced that a man must possess wealth to provide for  Pembroke used to rally him by saving that his silence was
the comforts of a long life. Old, I disliked economy; as I  more agreeable to her than his conversation.
believe that we need not greatly dread want, when we    Isocrates, celebrated for his beautiful oratorical compohave but a short time to be miserable. I am satisfied with  sitions, was of so timid a disposition that he never ventured
what nature has done for me, nor do I repine at fortune.  to speak in public. He compared himself to the whet.




so                                    C IS URIOSITIES OF
stone which will not cut, but enables other things to do  that time and patience are rare requisites for the enjoyment
this; for his productions served as models to other orators. -of these Iliads in prose.
Vaucanson was said to be as much a machine as any he'The misfortune of her having written too abundantly
had made.                                              has occasioned an unjust contempt,' says a French critic.
Drvden said of himself,-' My conversation is slow and' We confess there are many heavy and tedious passages
dull, my humour saturnine and reserved. In short, I am  in her voluminous romances; but if we consider that in the
none of those who endeavour to break jests in company,  Clelia and the Artemene are to be found inimitable delicate
or make repartees.                                     touches, and many splendid parts which would do honour
to some of our living writers, we must acknowledge that
VIDA.                           the great defects of all her works arise from her not wri.
What a consolation for an aged parent to see his child,  ting in an age when taste had reached the acnlm of cultivaby the efforts of his own merits, attain from the humblest  tion. Such is her erudition that the French place her
obscurity to distinguished eminence! What a transport  next to the celebrated Madame Dacier. Her works, confor the mar of sensibility to return to the obscure dwelling  taining many secret intrigues of the court and city, her
of his parent, and to embrace him, adorned with public ho-  readers must have keenly relished on their early publicanours. Poor Vida was deprived of this satisfaction; but  tion.'
he is placed higher in our esteem by the present anecdote    Her Artamenes, or the Great Cyrus, and principally her
than even by that classic composition, which rivals the Art  Clelia, are representations of what then passed at the court
of Poetry of his great master.                         of France. The MVap of the Kinigdom of Tenderness, in
Jerome  ilda, after having long served two Popes, at  Clelia, appeared, at the time, as the happiest invention.
length attained to the episcopacy. Arrayed in the robes of  This once celebrated map is an allegory which distinouishhis new dignity he prepared to visit his aged parents, and  es the different kinds of tenderness, which are reduced to
felicited himself with the raptures which the old couple  esteem, gratitude, and inclination.  The map represents
would feel in embracing their son as their bishop. When  three rivers, which have these three names, and on which
he arrived at their village, he learnt that it was but a few   are situated three towns called Tenderness: Tenderness
days since they were no more! His sensibilities were ex-  on Inclination; Tenderness on Esteem: and Tenderness
quisitely pained. The muse, elegantly querulous, dictated  on Gratitude. Pleasing Attentions, or Petit Soins, is a
some elegiac verse; and in the sweetest pathos deplored  village very beautifully situated. Mademoiselle de Scu.
the death and the disappointment of his parents.       dery was extremely proud of this little allegorical map; and
had a terrible controversy with another writer about its
THE SCUDERIES.                       originality.
Bien heureux Scudery, dont la fertile plume         George Scudery, her brother and inferior in genius,
Pent tout les mois sans peine enfanter un volume.  had a striking singularity of charactor:-he was one of the
most complete votaries to the universal divinity of Vanity.
Broileau  has written this couplet on the Scuderies, the  With a heated imagination, entirely destitute of judgment,
brother and sister, both famous in their day for composing  his military character was continually exhibiting itself b
romances, which they sometimes extended to ten or twelve          ul instrument the pen, so that he exhibits a most
volumes. It was the favourite literature of that period,  that peacef
amusing contrast of ardent feelings in a icool situation; not
as novels are nowv. Our nobility not unfrequently conde'  liberally endowed with genius, but abounding with its semscended to translate these voluminous compositions.    blance in the fire of eccentric gasconade; no man has
The diminutive size of our modern novels is undoubtedly  pourtraved his own character with a bolder colouring thi
an improvement; but in resembling the size of primers, it  himself in his numerous prefaces and and addresses  surround
were to be wished that their contents had also resembled  ed by a thousand self-illusions of the most sublime class,
their inoffensive pages. Our great grandmothers were in-  every thing that related to himself had an Eomeric grancommoded with overgrown folios: and, instead of finish-  deur of conception.
ing the eventful history of two lovers at one or two sittings,    In an epistle to the Duke of Montmorency, he says,' 
it, was sometimes six months, including Sundays, before  will learn to write with my left hand, that my right hand
they could get quit of their Clelias, their Cyrus's, and Par-  may more nobly be devoted to your service;' and alluding
thenissas.                                             to his pen, (plume,) declares,'he comes from  a fainily
Mademoiselle Scudery, Menage informs us, had com-  who never used one, but to stick in their hats.' When he
posed ninety volumes!  She had even finished another ro-  solicits small favours from the great, he assures them' that
mance, which she would not give to the public, whose taste,  princes must not think him importunate, and that his writshe perceived, no more relished this kind of works. She  ings are merely inspired by his own individual interest;
was that unfortunate author who lives to more than nine-  nog! he exclaims, Iam studious only ofyour glory, while I
ty years of age; and consequently outlive their immor-  am careless of my own fortune.'  And indeed, to do him
tality.                                                but justice, he acted up to those romantic feelings. After
She had her panegyrists in her day: Menage observes,  he had published his epic of Alaric, Christina of Sweden'What a pleasing description has Mademoiselle Scudery  proposed to honour him with a chain of gold of the value of
made in her Cyrus, of the little court at Ramboillet! A   five hundred pounds, provided he would expunge from his
thousand things in the romances of this learned lady ren-  epic the eulogiums he had bestowed on the Count of Garder them inestimable. She has drawn from the ancients  die, whom she had disgraced.  The epical soul of Scudtheir happiest passages, and has even improved upon  ery magnanimously scorned the bribe, and replied, that'if
them; like the prince in the fable, whatever she touches  the chain of gold should be as weighty as that chain menbecomes gold. We may read her works with great profit,  tioned in the history of the Incas, I will never destroy any
if we possess a correct taste, and love instruction. Those  altar on which I have sacrificed!'
who censure their length, only show the littleness of their    Proud of his boasted nobility and erratic life, he thus adjudgment; as if Homer and Virgil were to be despised,  dresses the reader:' You will lightly pass over any faults
because many of their books are filled with episodes and  in my work, if you reflect that I have employed the greater
incidents that necessarily retard the conclusion. It does  part of my life in seeing the finest parts of Europe, and
not require much penetration to observe that Cyrus and  that r have passed more days in the camp than in the li.
Clelia are a species of the epic poem.  The epic must em-  brary. I have used more matches to light my musket
brace a number of events to suspend the course of the  than to light my candles; I know better how to arrange
narrative; which only taking in a part of the life of the  columns in the field than those on paper; and to square
hero, would terminate too soon to display the skill of the  battalions better than to round periods.' In his first publipoet.  Without this artifice, the charm of uniting the  cation, he began his fiterary career perfectly in character,
greater part of the episodes to the principal subject of the  by a challenge to his critics!
romance would be lost. Mademoiselle de Scudery has so    He is the author of sixteen plays, chiefly heroic trage.
well treated them, and so aptly introduced a variety of  dies: children who all bear the features of their father.
beautiful passages, that nothing in this kind is comparable  He first introduced in his'L'Amour Tyrannique' a strict
tc t;er productions. Some expressions, and certain turns,  observance of the Aristotelian unities of time and place;
have become somewhat obsolete, all the rest will last for  and the necessity and advantages of this regulation are
ever, and outlive the criticisms they have undergone.'  urged, which only shows that Aristotle goes but little to
Menage has here certainly uttered a false prophecy.  the composition of a pathetic tragedy. In his last drama,
The curious only look over her romances.  They contain'Arminius,' he extravagantly scatters his panegyrics on
Aobtless many beautiful inventions' the misfortune is,  its fifteen predecessors; but of the present one he has the




LITERATURE.
most exalted notion: it is the quintessence.of Scudery  foucault lived a close domestic life; and that there must
An ingenious critic calls it' The downfall of mediocrity!'  be at least as much theoretical as practical knowledge in
[t is amusing to listen to this blazing preface-' At length,  the opinions of such a retired philosopher.
reader, nothing remains for me but to mention the great    Chesterfield, our English Rochefoulcault, we are also inArminius which I now present to you, and by which I have  formed, possessed an admirable knowledge of the heart of
resolved to close my long and laborious course. It is in-  man; and he too has draowe a similar picture of human
deed my master-piece! and the most finished work that  nature! These are two noble authors whose chief studies
ever came from my pen; for whether we examine the fable,  seem to have been made in courts. May it not be possi.
the manners, the sentiments, or the versification, It is cer-  ble, allowing these authors not to have written a sentence
tain that I never performed any thing so just, so great, nor  of apocrypha, that the fault lies not so much in human namore beautiful; and if my labours could ever deserve a  ture as in the satellites of Power?
crown, I would claim it for this work!'                               PRIOR'S HANS CARVE:L.
The actions of this singular personage were in unison                                         our best mt.
with hiswritings:  he gives a pompous desctription of a  dern stories we should often discover the illegitimacy of
most unimportant government which he obtained near,                                    I
Marseilles, but all the grandeur existed only in our au-  otur favourites; we should indeed trace them frequently to
thor's heated imagination. Bachaumount and De la Cha-  the East. My well-read friend Mlr Douce, has collected
p     two wits of those times, in their playful Voyage   materials for such a work; but his modesty has too long
describe itwo wits of those times, in their            prevented him from receiving the gratitude of the curious
describe it with humour:
in literature.
Male ijl flaut VoUs pjarler dou Fort           The story of the ring of Hans Carvel is of very ancient
Qui sanis.dotte est une merveille *           standing, as are most of the tales of this kind.
C'est notre dame de la garde                    Menage says that Poggius, who died in 1459, has the
Gouvernement commode et beau,                 merit of its invention; but I suspect he only related a very
A qui sutfit pour tout garde,                 popular story.
Uin Suisse avec sa halebarde                    Rabelais, who has given it in his peculiar manner,
Point sur la porte du chateau'               changed its original name of Philelphus to that of Hans
Carvol.
A fort very commodiously guarded; only requiring one    This tale is likewise i the eleveth of Les Cet.
sentinel, and that sentinel a soldier painted on the door!    elles. Notale is   colleted in   1461, f the eleventh of Ls C ent  o
In a poem on his disgust with the world, he tells us how    ellos.  NIuwells collected n  1461, fr the a s
ii timate he has been with princes: Europe has known           XI, when Dauphin, and living in solitude.
him through all her provinces; he ventured every thing in    Ariosto has borrowed it, at the end of his fifth Satire,
a thousand combats:                            but, by his pleasant manner of relating it, it is fairly approa thousand combats:                                   priated..
L'on me vit obeir, I'on me vit commander,             In a collection of novels at Lyons, in 1555, it is also emEt mon poil tout poudreux a blanchi sous les Armes;  ployed in the eleventh novel.
11 est peu de beaux arts ou je ne sois instruit;      Cello Malespini has it again in page 288 of the second
En prose et en vers, mon nom fit quelque bruit;     part of his Two Hundred Novels, printed at Venice in
Et par plus d'un cheminje parvins  la gloire!      1609.
Fontaine has prettily set it off, and an anonymous writer
IMITATED,                         has composed it in Latin Anacreontic verses; and at
Princes were proud my friendship to proclaim,       length our Prior has given it in his best manner, with
And Europe gazed where'er her Hero came'           equal aaiety and freedom.  After Ariosto, La Fontaine,
I grasp'd the laurels of heroic strife,             and Prior, let us hear of it no more; yet this has been
The thousand perils ofa soldier's life!            done.
Obedient in the ranks each toilful day!              Voltaire has a curious essav to show that most of our
Though heroes soon command, they first obey.        best modern stories and plots originally belonged to the'Twas not for me, too long a time to yield
Born for a chieftain in the tented field            eastern nations, a fact whicbh.as been made more evident
Around my plumed helm, my silvery hair              by recent researches.  The Amphitrion of Mo!iere was
Hung like an honour'd wreath of age and care;       an imitation of Plautus, who borrowed it from the Greeks,
The finei arts have charm'd my studious hours,      and they took it from the Indians! It is given by Dow in
Vers'd inl their mysteries, skilful in their powers;  his History of Hindostan. In Captain Scott's Tales and
In verse an(l prose my equal genius glow'd,         Anecdotes from Arabian writers, we are surprised at findPursuing glory, by no silngle road i
In so many of our favourites very ancient orientalists.Stch was the vain George Scudery! whose heart how-  The Ephesian Matron, versified by La Fontaine, was
er   wborrowed fiotn the Italians; it is to be foulnd in Petronius,
over was warm: poverty could never degrade hhn; adver-  and Petronius had it from the Greeks. Btt where did the
y never broke down hs magnanimous spiritGreeks find it? In the Arabian Tales! And from whence
DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT.                     did the Arabian fabulists borrow it? From the Chinese!
It is found in Du Halde, who collected it from the Versions
The maxims of this noble author are in the hands of  of the Jesuits.
every one.  To those who choose to derive every motive
and every action from the solitary principle of self-love,      THE STUDENT IN THE METROPOLIS.
they are inestimable.  They form one continued satire on    A man of letters, who is more intent on the acquisitions
human nature; but they are not reconcilable to the feelings  of literature than on the plots of politics, or the speculations
of the man of more generous dispositions, or who passes  of commerce, will find a deeper solitude in a populous me.
through life with the firm integrity of virtue. Even at court  tropolis than if he had retreated to the seclusion of the
we finld a Suilly, a Malesherbes and a Clarendon, as well  country.
as a Rochefoucault and a Chesterfield.                   The student who is no flatterer of the little passions of
The Duke de la Rochefoucault says Segrais, had not  men, will not be much incommoded by their presence,
studied; but he was endowed with a wonderful degree of  Gibbon paints his own situation in the heart of the fashion.
discernment, and knew the world perfectly well.   This  able world.-' I had not been endowed by art or nature
afforded him  opportunities of making reflections, and re-  with those happy gifts of confidence and address which unducing into maxims those discoveries which he had made  lock every door and every bosom.  While coaches were
in the heart of man, of which he displayed an admirable  rattling through Bond-street, I have passed many a solitary
knowledge.                                             evenina in my lodging with my books. I withdrew without
It is perhaps worthy of observation that this celebrated  reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds
French duke, according to Olivet in. his History of the  without company, and dissipation without pleasure.' And
French Academy, could never summon resolution, at his  even after he had published the first volume of his History,
election, to address the academy.   Although chosen  he observes that in London his confinement was solitary
member, he never entered; for such was his timidity, that  and sad;'the many forgot my existence when they saw me
he could not face an audience and pronounce the usual  no longer at Brookes's, and the few who sometimes had a
compliment on his introduction; he whose courage, whose  thought on their friend, were detained by business or plea.
birth, and whose genius, were alike distinguished.  The  sure, and I was proud and happy if I'could prevail on
fact is, that it appears by Mad. de Sevigne, that Roche-  my bookseller Elmsly to erliven the dulness ofthe evening.




32                                  CURIOSITIES OF
A situation very elegantly described in the beautifully-  When these traditions first appeared, the keenest contropolished verses of Mr Rogers, in his'Epistle to a  versy has never been able to determine. It cannot bedeFriend;'                                                nied that there existed traditions among the Jews in the
When from his classic dreams the student steals    time of Jesus Christ. About the second century they
Amid the buzz of crowds, the whirl of wheels,      were industriously collected by Rabb i Juda the holy, the
To muse unnoticed, while around him press          prince of the rabbins, who enjoyed the favourof Antoninus
The meteor-fobrms of equipage and dress;           Pius. He has the merit of givwng some order to this very
Alone in wonder lost, he seems to stand            multifarious collection.
A very stranger in his native land.                  It appears that the Talmud was compiled by certain
He compares the student to one of the seven sleepers in  Jewish doctors, who were solicited for this purpose by their
the anciernt legend,                                     nation, that they might have something to oppose to their
Descartes residing in the commercial city of Amsterdam,  Christian adversaries.
The learned W. Wotton, in his curious'Discourses I on
writing to Balzac, illustrates these descriptions with great   The tradition  s of the Scribes aid Pharisees, supplies aon
force and vivacity.                                      the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees, supplies  an
You wish to retire; and your intention is to seek the so-  analysis of this vast collection; he has translated entire
litude of the Chartreux, or, possibly, some of the most  two divisions of this code of traditional laws with the orbeautiful provinces of France and Italy.  I would rather  ginal text and the notes.
advise you, if you wish to observe mankind, and at the     There are two Talmuds: the Jerusalem and  the Babvy
same time to lose yourself in the deepest solitude, to join lonian. The last is the most esteemed, because it is the
me in Amsterdam. I prefer this situation to that even of  mostbulkv.
your delicious villa, where I spent so great a part of the    R. Juda, the prince of the rabbins, committed to writing
last year; for however agreeable a country-house may be,  all these traditions, and arranged them under six general
a thousand little conveniencies are wanted, which can only  heads, called orders or classes.  The subjects are indeed
be found in a city. One is not alone so frequently in the  ctrious for philosophical inquirers, and multifarious as the
country as one could wish: a number of impertinent visi-  events of civil life.  Every order is formed of treatises:
ters are continually beseiging you. Here, as all the world,  every treatise is divided into chapters, every chapter into
except myself, is occupied in commerce, it depends merely  mishnas, which word means mixtures or miscellanies, in
onr myself to live unknown to the world. I swalk every day  the form of aphorisms. In the first part is discussed what
amongst immense ranks of people, with as much tranquil. relates to seeds, fruits, and trees; in the second,feasts; in
lity as you do in your green valleys.  The men I meet  the third, usomee, their duties, their disorders marriages
with make the same impression on my mind as would the  divorces, contracts, and nssptieis; in the fourth, are treated
trees of your forests, or the flocks of sheep grazing on your  the damages or losses sustained by beasts or men; of
common. The busy hum too of these merchants does not  things found; deposits; usuries; rents; farms; partnerdisturb one more than the purling of your brooks. If some-  ships in commerce; inheritance; sales and purchases; oaths;
times I amuse Inyself in contemplating their anxious mo-  witnesses; arrests; idolatry; and here are named those by
tions, I receive thle same pleasure which you do in observ-  whom the oral law was received and preserved.  In the
ing those men who cultivate your land; for I reflect that  fifth part are noticed sacrifices and holy things; and the
the end of all their labours is to embellish the city which I  sixth treats of purifications; vessels; furniture; clothes;
inhabit, and to anticipate all my wants. If you contem-  houses; leprosy; haths; and numerous other articles. All
plate with delight the fruits of your orchards, with all the  this forms the MISHNA.
rich promises of abundance, do you think I      feel less in ob-    The GEnIARA that is, the complement,.orperfection. conserving so many fleets that convev to me the productions  tains the Disputes and the Opinions, of the RABBINS On
of either India? What spot on earth could you find, which  the oral traditions.  Their last decisions. It must he
like this, can so interest your vanity and giatify your  confessed that absurdities are soretimes elucidated by
taste?                                                   other absurdities; but there are many admirable things in
this vast repository.  The Jews have such veneration for
TrHE T.ALMUD.                       this compilation, that they compare the holy writings to
The Jews have their Talmud; the Catholicst their Le-  water, and the Talmud to wine; the text of Moses to pepgends of Saintts; and the Turks their Sonnah.  The Pro-  per, but the Talmud to aromatics. Of the twelve hours of
testaut has nothing butt his Bible.  The former are three   which the day is composed, they tell us that God employs
kindred works. Men have imagined that the more there  nine to study the Talmud, and only three to read the writis to be believed, the more are the merits of the believer.  ten law!
Hence all traditionists formed the orthodox and the strong-    St Jerome appears evidently to allude to this work, and
est party.  The word of God is lost amidst those heaps of  notices its I Old Wives' Tales,' and the filthiness of some
human inventions, sanctioned by an order of men connect-  of its matters.  The truth is, that the rabbins resembled
ed with reliiouns duties; they ought now, however, to be  the Jesuits and Casuists; and Sanchez's work on'I tlatriregarded rather as Curiosities of Literature.  I give a  monio' is well known to agitate matters with such scrupmusufficiently anmple account of the Talmud and the Legends   lous niceties, as to become the most offensive thing possible.
but of the Sonnah I only know that it is a collection of the  But as among the schoolmen and the casuists there have
traditional opinions of the Turkish prophets, directing the  been great men, the same happened to these gemaraists.
observance of petty superstitions not mentioned in the  Maimonides was a pillar of light among their darkness.
Koran.                                                   The antiquity of this work is of itself sufficient to make it
The TALMUD is a collection of Jewish traditions, which  very curious.
have been orally preserved. It comprises the MiSHr4A,    A specimen of the topics may be shown from the table
which is the text, and the GEMARA, its commentary. The  and contents of' Mishnic Titles.' In the order of seeds,
whole forms a complete system of the learning, ceremo-  we find the following  heads, which presents no uninterest.
nies, civil and canon laws of the Jews; treating indeed on  ing picture of the pastoral and pious ceremonies of the an.
all subjects; even gardening, manual arts, &c. The rigid  cient Jews.
Jews persuaded themselves that these traditional explic(a-    The Mishna, entitled the Corner, i. e. of the field. The
tions are of divine origin.  The Pentateuch, say they, was  laws of gleatning are commanded according to Leviticus;
written out by their lpeislator before his death in thirteen   xix, 9, 10. Of the corner to be left in a corn-field. When
copies, distributed among the twelve tribes, and the remain-  the corner is due, and when not. Of the forgotten sheaf.
ing one deposited in the ark. The oral law Moses con-  Of ears of corn left in gathering. Of grapes left upon the
tinually taught in the Sanhedrim, to the elders and the rest  vine. Of olives left upon the trees. When and where
ot the people. The law was repeated four times; buit the  the poor may lawfilly glean.  What sheaf, or olives, or
interpretation was delivered only by word of mouth from   grapes, may be looked upon to be forgotten, and what not.
generation to generation.  In the fortieth year of the flight  Who are the proper witnesses concerning the poor's due,
from Egypt, the memory of the people became treacherous,  to exempt it from tithing, &c.  They distinguish uncirand Moses was constrained to repeat this oral law, which   cumcised fruit: —it is unlawful to eat of the fruit of any
had been conveved by successive traditionists.  Such is  tree till the fifth year of its growth: the first three years
the account of honest David Levi: it is the creed of every  of its bearing, it is called uncircumcised; the fourth is ofrabbin. David believed in every thing, but in Jesus.     fered to God; and the fifth may be eaten.
This history of the Talmutd some inclined to suppose     The Mishna, entitled Heterogeneous l:ixtures, contains
apocryphal, even among a few of the Jews themselves. I several curious horticultural particulars.  Of divisions bo



LITERATURE.                                                        33
tween garden-beds and fields, that the produce of the seve-  vation which had been capable of achieving great purposes.
ral sorts of grains or seeds may appear distinct. Of the   The owner of an innocent beast only pays half the costs
distance between every species. Distances between vines  for the mischief incurred.  Man is always convict, and for
planted in corn-fields from one another and from the corn;  all mischief' he does he must pay full costs.  However
between vines planted against hedges, walls, or espaliers,  there are casual damages,-as when a man pours water
and any thing sowed near them.  Various causes relating   accidentally on another man; or makes a thorn-hedge
to vineyards planted near any forbidden seeds.           which annoys his neighbour; or falling down, and another
In their seventh, or sabbatical year, in which the pro-  by stumbling on him incurs harm; how such compensations
duce of all estates was given up to the poor, one of their  are to be made. He that has a vessel of another's in
regulations is on the different work which must not be  keeping, and removes it, but in the removal breaks it, must
omitted in the sixth year, lest (because the seventh being   swear to his own integrity: i. e. that he had no design to
devoted to the poor) the produce should be unfairly dimin-  break it. All offensive or noisy trades were to be carried
ished, and the public benefits arising from this law be frus-  on at a certain distance from a town. Where there is an
trated.  Of' whatever is not perennial, and produced that  estate, the sons inherit and the daughters are maintained;
year by the earth, no money may be made; but what is  but if there is not enough for all, the daughters are mainperennial may be sold.                                   tained, and the sons must get their living as they can, or
On priest's tithes, we have a regulation concerning eat-  even beg.  The contrary to this excellent ordination has
ing the fruits they are carrying to the place where they are  been observed in Europe.
to be separated.                                           These few titles may enable the reader to form a geneThe order of women   is very copious. A husband is  ral notion of the several subjects on which the Mishna
obliged to forbid his wife to keep a particular man's company   treats.  The Gemara or Commentary is often overloaded
before two wilnesses.  Of the waters of jealousy by which   with ineptitudes and ridiculous subtilties.  For instance, in
a suspected woman is to be tried by drinking, we find many  the article of' Negative Oaths.'  If a man swears he will
ample parriculars. The ceremonies ofclothing the accused   eat no bread, and does eat all sorts of bread, in that case
woman at her trial.  Pregnant women, or who suckle, are  the perjury is but one; but if he swears that he will eat
not obliged to drink; for the rabbins seem to be well con-  neither barley, nor wheaten, nor rye-bread, the perjury is
vinced of the effects of the imagination.  Of their divorces   multiplied as he multiplies his eating of the several sorts.
many are the laws; and care is taken to particularize bills  Aqain, the Pharisees and the  Sadducees had strong
of divorces written by men in delirium or dangerously ill.  differences about touching the holy writings with their
One party of the rabbins will not allow of any divorce, un-  hands.  The doctors ordained that whoever touched the
less something light was found in the woman's character,  book of the law must not eat of the truma (first fruits of
while another (the Pharisees) allow divorces even when a   the wrouliht produ.ice of the ground,) till they had washed
woman has only been so unfortunate as to suffer her bus-  their hands.  The reason they gave was this. In times
band's soup to be burnt!                                 of persecution they used to hide those sacred books in
In the order of damages, containing rules how to tax the   secret places, and good men would lay them  out of the
damages done by man or beast, or other casualties, their  way when they had done reading them. It was possible
distinctions are as nice as their cases are numerous. What  then that these rolls of the law mighlit be gnawed by rmice.
beasts are innocent and what convict.  By the one they   The hands then that touched these books when they took
mean creatures not naturally used to do mischief in any  them out of the places where they had laid them up, were
particular way; and by the other, those that naturally, or  supposetd to be unclean, so far as to disable them from eat.
by a vicious habit, are mischievous that way. The tooth  inc the truma till they were washed.  On that account they
of a beast is convict when it is proved to eat its usual food,  made this a general rule, that if any part of the Bible (exthe property of another man; and full restitution rmnmt be   cept Ecclesiastes, because that excellent book tieir eagacimade; but if a beast that is used to eat fruits and herbs,  ty accounted less holy than the rest) or their phylacteries,
gnaws clothes or damages tools, which are nriot its usual  or the strings of their phylacteries, were touched by one
food, the owner of the beast shall pay but half the damage   who had a right to eat the truma, he might not eat it till he
when committed on the property of the injured person; but  had washed his hands. An evidence of that superstitious
if the injury is committed on the property of the person  trifling for which the Pharisees and the later Rabbins have
who does the damage, he is free, because the beast gnawed   been so justly reprobated.
what was not its usual food. As thus; if the beast of A    They were absurdly minute in the literal observance of
gnaws or tears the clothes of B, in B's house or grounds,  their vows, and as shamefully subtile in their artful evasion
A shall pay half'the damages; but if B's clothes are in-  of them.  The Pharisees could be easy enough to them.
jured in A's grounds by A's beast, A is free, for what had  selves when convenient, and always as hard and unre!ent.
B to do to put his clothes in A's grounds?  They made  ing as possible to all others.  They quibbled, amid dissolved
such subtile distinctions, as when an ox gores a man or  their vows with experienced casuistry.  Jesus reproaches
beast, the law inquired into the habits of the beast; whether  the Pharisees in Matthew xv, and Mark vii, for flagrantly
it was an ox that used to gore, or an ox that was not used   violating the fifth commandment, by allowing the vow of a
to gore. However these were niceties sometimes acute,  son, perhaps made in hasty anger, its full force, when he
they were often ridiculous.  No beast could be convicted   had sworn that his father should never be the better for
f being vicious till evidence was given that he had done   him, or any thing he had, and by which an indigent father
mischief three successive days; but if he leaves off those   might be suffered to starve.  There is an express case to
vicious tricks for three days more, he is innocent again.  this purpose in the Mishna, in the title of Vows.  The
An ox may be convict of goring an ox and not a man, or of  reader may be anmused by the story.-A man made a vow
goring a man and not an ox: nay, of goring on the sabbath,  that hisfather should not profit by him.  This man afterand not a working day. Their aim was to make the pun-  wards made a wedding-feast for his own son, and wishes
ishment depend on the proofs of the design of the beast that  his father should be present; but he cannot invite him bedid the injury; butt this attempt evidently led them to dis-  cause he is tied up by his vow. He invented this expeditinctions much too subtile and obscure. Thus some rab-  ent:-he makes a gift of the court in which the feast was
bins say that the morning prayer of the Shemah must be  to be kept, and of the feast itself, to a third person in trust,
read at the time they can distinguish blue from white; but  that his father should be invited by that third person with
another, more indulgent, insists it may be when we can  the other company whom he at first designed.  This third
distinguish blue from green; which latter colours are so  person then says,-If these things you thus give me are
near akin as to require a stronger light. With the same  mine, I will dedicate them to God, and then none of you
remarkable acuteness in distinguishing things, is their law   can be the better for them.  The son replied, —I did not
respecting not touching fire on the sabbath. Among those,give them to you that you should consecrate them.  Then
which are specified in this constitution, the rabbins allow   the third man said,-Yours was no donation, only you
the minister to look over young children by lamp-light, but  were willing to eat and drink with your father.  Thus,
he shall not read himself.  The minister is forbidden to  says R. Juda, they dissolved each other's intentions; and
read by lamp-light, lest he should trim his lamp; trut he  when the case came before the rabbins, they decreed, that
may direct the children where they should read, because   a gift which may not be consecrated by the person to whom
that is quickly done, and there would be no danger of his  it is given is not a gift.
trimming his lamp in their presence, or suffering any of   The following extract from the Talmud exhibits a subtile
them to do it in his. All these regulations, which some  mode of reasoning, which the Jews adopted when the earn.
may conceive as minute anti frivolous, show a great inti-  ed of Rome sought to persuade them to conform to their
macy with the human heart, and a spirit of profound obser-  idolatry.  It forms an entire Mishna. entitled SederNeai5




34                                     CURIOSITIES OF
kin, Avoda Zara, iv, 7, on idolatrous worship, translated   waiting for any emergency. It is observable, that the Ara%
by Wotton.                                               bians who have many stories concerning Solomon, alwavs
Some Roman senators examined the Jews in this man-  describehimas a magician. Hisadventureswith Aschmener:-If God had no delight in the worship of idols, why   dai, the prince of devils, are numerous; and they both (the
did he not destroy them?  The Jews made answer, —If  king and the devil) served one another many a slippery
men had wcrshipped only things of which the world had had  trick. One of the most remarkable is when Aschmedai,
no need, he would have destroyed the objects of their wor-  who was prisoner to Solomon, the king having contrived to
ship; but they also worship the sun and moon, stars and   possess himself of the devil's seal-ring, and chained him,
planets; and then he must have destroyed his world for the   one day offered to answer an unholy question put to him by
sake of these deluded men.  But still, said the Romans,  Solomon, provided he returned him his seal-ring and loosenwhy does not God destroy the things which the world does   ed his chain.  The impertinent curiosity of Sotlomon indunot want, and leave those things which the world cannot be   ced him to commit this folly. Instantly Aschmedai swalwithout?  Because, replied the Jews, this would strength-  lowed the monarch, and stretching out his wings up to the
en the hands of such as worship these necessary things,  firmament of heaven, one of his feet remaining on the earth,
who would then say,-Ye allow now that these are gods,  he spit out Solomon four hundred leagues from him. This
since they are not destroyed.                            was done so privately that no one knew any thing of the
matter. Aschmedai then assumed the likeness of Solonmon,
RABBINICAL STORIES.                      and sat on his throne. From that hour did Solomon say,
The preceding article furnishes some of the more seri-' This then is the reward of all my labour,' according to Ec.
ous investtgations to be found in the Talmud. Its levities  clesiasticus, i, 3; which this, means, one rabbin says, his
may amuse. I leave untouched the gross obscenities and   walking staff; and another insists was his ragged coat.
immoral decisions. The Talmud contains a vast collec-  For Solomon went a begging from door to door; and whertion of stories, apologies, and jests; many display a vein  ever he came he uttered these words' I the preacher,
of pleasantry, and at times have a wildness of invention   was king over Israel in Jerusalem.' At length coming bewhich sufficiently mark the features of an eastern parent.  fore the council, and still repeating these remarkable words
Many extravagantly puerile were designed merely to re-   without addition or variation, the rabbins said;'This
create their young students.  When a rabbin was asked   means something; for a fool is not constant in his tale!
the reason of so much nonsense, he replied that the ancients   They asked the chamberlain if the king firequently saw
had a custom of introducing music in their lectures, which   him  and he replied to them, No! then they sent to the
accomlpaniment made them more agreeable; but that not  queens, to ask if the kinig came into their apartments? and
having musical instruments in the schools, the rabbins in-  they answered, Yes! The rabbins then sent them a mesvented these strange stories to arouse attention. This  sage to take notice of his feet; for the feet of devils are like
was ingeniously said; but they make miserable work when  the feet of cocks.  The queens acquainted then; that his
they pretend to give mystical interpretations to pure non-  majesty always came in slippers, but forced them to emsense,                                                   braces at times forbidden by the law. He had attempted
These rabbinical stories, and the LEGENDS ofthe Catho-  to lie with his mother Bathsheba, whom he had almost torn
lies, though they will be despised, and are too often despica-  to pieces. At this the rabbins assembled in great haste,
ble, yet as the great Lord Bacon said of some of these inven-  and taking the beggar with them, they gave him the ring
tions, they would' serve for winter talk by the fire-side;'  and the chain in which the great magical name was engraand a happy collection from these stories is much wanted.  ven, and led him to the palace. Aschmedai was sitting on
In 1711, a German professor of the Oriental languages,  the throne as the real Solomon entered; but instantly lihe
Dr Eisenmenger published in two iarge volumes quarto,  shrieked and flew away. Yet to his last day was Solomon
his' Judaism discovered,' a ponderous labour, of which the   afraid of the prince of devils, and had his bed guarded by
scope was to ridicule the Jewish traditions.             the valiant men of Israel, as is written in Cant. iii, 7, 8.
I shall give a dangerous adventure into which King David  They frequently display much humour in their invenwas drawn by the devil.  The king one day hunting, Satan  tions, as in the following account of the manners and moappeared before him in the likeness of a roe. David dis-  rals of an infamous town which derided all justice. There
charged an arrow at him, but missed his aim. He pursued   were in Sodom four judges, who were liars, anrid deriders of
the feigned roe into the land of the Philistines.  Ishbi, the  justice. When any one had struck his neighbour's wife
brother of Goliath, instantly recognized the king as him,  antil caused her to miscarry, these judges thus counselled
who had slain that giant.  He hound him, and bended him  the husband;'Give her to the offender that he may get her
neck and heels, and laid him under a wine-press in ortder to   with child for thee.' When any one had cut off an ear of
ress him to death. A miracle saves David.  The earth  his neighbour's ass, they said to the,)wner, —  Let hinr
beneath him became soft, and Ishbi could not press wine   have the ass till the ear is grown again, that it may be re.
out of him.  That evening in the Jewish congregation a  turned to thee as thou wishest.' When any one had
dove, whose wings were covered with silver, appeared in   wounded his neighbour, they told the wounded man to' give
great perplexity; and evidently si2nified the King of Israel  him a fee, for letting him blood.' A toll was exacter[ in
was in trouble.  Abishai, one of the king's counsellors, in-  passing a certain bridge; but if any one chose to wade
quiring for the king, and finding him absent, is at a loss to  through the water, or walk round about to save it, he was
proceed, for according to the Mishna, no one may ride on   condemned to a double toll. Eleasar, Abraham's servant,
the king's horse, nor sit upon his throne, nor use his scep-  came thither, and they wounded him. —W1rhen before the
tre.  The school of the rabbins however allowed these  judge he was ordered to pay his fee for having his blood
things in time ofdanger. On this Abishai vaults on David's  let, Eleasar flung a stone at the judge and wounded him;
horse, and (with an Oriental metaphor) the land of the  on which the judge said to him,-Whiat meaneth this'!
Philistines leaped to him instantly! Arrived at Ishbi's  Eleasar replied,-Give him who wounded me the fee that
house, he beholds his mother Orpa spinning. Perceiving  is due to myself for wounding thee. The people of this
the Israelite, she snatched up her spinninig-wheel and threw   town had a bedstead on which they laid travellers who ask.
it at him, to kill him; but not hitting him, she desired him   ed to rest.  If any one was too long for it, they cut off his
to bring the spinning-wheel to her.  He did not do this ex-  legs; and if he was shorter than the bedstead, they strained
actly, but returned it to her in euch a way that she never  him to its head and foot. When a beggar came to this
asked any more for her spinning-wheel.  When Ishbi saw   town, every one gave him a penny, on which was inscribthis, and recollecting that David, though tied up neck and   ed the donor's name; but they would sell him no bread.
heels, was still under the wine-press, he cried out,' There  nor let him escape. When the beggar died from hungeV3
are now two, who will destroy me!' So he threw David  then they came about him, and each man took back his
high up into the air, and stuck his spear into the ground,  penny.  These stories are curious inventions of keen
imagining that David would fall upon it and perish.  But  mockery and malice, seasoned with humour.  It is said
Abishai pronounced the magical name, which the Talmud-  some of the famous decisions of Sancho Panza are to be
ists frequently made use of, and it caused David to hover be-  found in the Talmud.
tween earth and heaven, so that he fell not down! Both    Abraham is said to have been jealous of his wives, and
at length unite against Ishbi, and observing that two young   built an enchanted city for them.  He built an iron city
fions should kill one lion, find no difficulty in getting rid of  and put them  in.-The walls were so high and dark the
the brother of Goliath.                                  sun could not be seen in it.  He gave them a bowl full
Of Solomon, another favourite hero of the Talmudists a   of pearls and jewels, which sent forth a lieht in this dari
fine Arabian story is told.  This king was an adept in ne-  city equal to the sun.  Noah, it seems, when in the ark.
4omancy, and a male and a female devil were always in  had no other light than jewels and pearls. Abraham is




LITERATURE. 3R
travelling to Egypt brought with him a chest. At the cus-     Their detestation of Titus, their great conqueror, ap.
tom-house the officers exacted the duties, Abraham would   pears by the following wild invention.-After having nar.
have readily paid, but desired they would not open the chest.  rated certain things too shameful to read, cf a prince whom
They first insisted on the duty for clothes, which Abraham    Josephus describes in far different colours, they tell us that
consented to pay; but then they thought by his ready ac-   on sea Titus tauntingly observed in a great storm that the
quiescence that it might be gold.-Abrahamrn  consens to   God of the Jews was only powerful on the water, and that
pay for gold. They now suspected it might be silk. Abra-  therefore he had succeeded in drowning Pharaoh and Sisra.
ham  was willing to pay for silk, or more costly pearls;'Had he been strong he would have waged war with me
and Abraham generously consented to pay as if the chest  in Jerusalem.' On uttering this blasphemy, a voice from
contained the most valuable of things. It was then they re-   heaven said,'Wicked man! i have a'little creature in the
solVed to tpen and examine the chest.  And behold as   world which shall wage war with thee!' When Titus
soon as the chest was opened, that great lustre of human  landed, a gnat entered his nostrils, and for seven years tobeauty broke out which made such a noise in the land of   gether made holes in his brains.  When his skull was
Egypt;  it was Sarah herself!  The jealouis Abraham, to   opened the gnat was found as large as a pigeon: the mouth
conceal her beauty had locked her up in this chest,        of the gnat was of copper and the claws of iron.
The whole creation in these rabbinical fancies is strange-  That however there are some beautiful itnventions in the
ly gigantic and vast.  The works of eastern nations are   Talmud, I refer to the story of'Solomon antd Sheba,' ia
full of these descriptions; and Hesiod's Theogony, and   the present collections.
Milton's battles of angels, are puny in comparison with        ON THE CUSTOM OF SALUTING AFTER SNEEZING.
these rabbinical heroes, or rabbinical things.  Mountains
are hurled with all their woods with  reat ease, an   rr-  It is probable that this custom, so universally prevalent,
are hurled with all their woods with great ease, and crealures start into existetice too terrible for our c:ncepions.  originated in some ancient superstition; it seems to have
The winged monster in the' Arabian Nights,' called the   excited teqiiry among all eatiots.
Somne Catholics, says Father Feyjoo, have attributed
Roc, is evidently one of the creatures of rabbinical fan:y;   te        thi   sa       therFeo   ae  ait
it would somnetimies, when very hitengry, seize and fly away the origin of this custom to the ordinaiice of a pope, Saint
it would -sometinmes, when very hungry, seize a nd fly away
with an elphan.  Captain Co  fud a bird's nGreg'ory-who is said to have instituted a short benedic-.
with an elephant. Captain Cook found a bird's nest in an    -n.
islandnear New-Holland, built with sticks on the gromid,   i    o be usd on uch occasions, at a tine when, during
tao oeuseon.  tuh  ccasiosa wa  atendedb  sneezng, aduring
six-and-twenty feet in circumfnrence, and near three  eet       l ce, ti  crisis was atended by sneezing, and in
in height. But of the rabbinical birds, fish, and anirmals, it   ost cases followed by death.
inot probable any circumnavigator will ever trace eve       B.  e  ains  who have a story for every thing, say,.e slightest vestige  or reseniblauce.             taint before Jacob, men never sneezed but once, and then..e slightest vestige or resemblance.
iOutiatlyied: they assure us that thtat patriarch was
One of their birds, when it spreads its wings, blots out the   inediately lid: they assure us that that patriarch was
the first wh~o died by natural disease, before him all men
sun. An egg from another fell out of its nest, and the white   te first who died by natural disease, before  ie all men
thereof broke and l.lued about three hundred cedar-trees,  dte by steezina;  the memory of which was ordered to be
and overflowed a village.  One of them  stands up to the     sd   in all ntion  by a command of every prince to
lower joint of the leg in a river, and some mariner imagin-   his ittjects to etploy some salutary exclamation after the
act of sneezingY. But these are Talmudteal dreams, and
ing the water was not deep, were hasting to bathe, when     act f Sezig   But these are Talmdical drams, and
voice from  heaven said,-' Step not in there, for seven   only serve to prove that so familiar a custom  has always
years ago there a carpenter dropped his axe, and it hath   crested inquiry.
not yet reached the bottom.'                                  Even Aristotle has delivered some considerable nonThe following passage concerning fat geese is perfectl   sense on this custom; he says it is an honourable acknows   edunsel of this csetom; goo sensei i and holnouable eadkoin the style of these rabbins.' A rabbin once saw in a de-  ledment of the seat of good sense and genius-the hadsert a flock of geese so fat that their feathers fell off, and   to listieguish it front two other offensive eruptions of air,
the rivers flowed in fat.  Then said I to them, shall we   which are never accompanied by any benediction from the
then raiv I to tliem, shall we   bystanders.  The custom at all events existed lon 
have part of you in the other world when the Messiah                                                             prior
shall come'! And one of them lifted up a wing, and another  to Pope Gregory.  The lover in Apulieus, Gyton in Pea leg, to signify these parts we should have.  We should  tronies, and allusions to it in Pliny, prove its antiqtity;
trnuand allusoirn tof ith Frnc ainy, protes ithe antiquty
otherwise have had all parts of these geese; but we Israel- a.d a memoir of the French academy notices the pracc
n  in the New  World on the first discovery o
ites shall be called to an account touching these fat geese,f  merica.
because their sufferings are owing to us.  It is our iniquli-   Every where man is saluted for sneezing.
ties that have delayed the coming of the Messiah, and         An amusing account of the ceremonies whic  atten
these geese suffer greatly by reason of their excessive fat   the sneezing of a king of  enomotapa, shows what a na
which daily and daily increases, and will increase till the   tional concern may be the sneeze of despotism.-Those
~Mer~ssiah crir~mes!~'  ~who are near his person, when this happens, salute him in
Mhttesmnaws wiah comintewidres. ha
What the manna was which fell in the wildeness  has   so loud a tone that persons in the antichamber hear it and
often been disputed, and still is disputable: it was suffi-  joi in the acclamation; in the adjoining aparmens they
cient for the rabbins to have found in the Bible that the taste   do the same, till the noise reaches the street, and becomes
of it was'Ias a wafer made with honey,' to have raised   propagated throughout the city; so that at each sneeze of
their fancy to its pitch.  They declare it was'like oil to   his majesty, results a most horrid cry from the salutations
ther fncytoitspith. They declare it was'like oil to
of many thousands of his vassals.
children, honey to old men, and cakes to middle age.' It  of many thousands of his vassals.
had every kind of taste except that of cucumbers, melons,     When the king of Sennaar sneezes, his courtiers imme.
garlic, and onions, and leeks, for these were those Egyp-   diately turn their backs on him, and give a loud slap on
their right thigh.
tian roots which the Israelites so much regretted to have   their right thigh.
lost.  This manna had, however, the quality to accomo-  With the ancients sneezing was ominous; from  the
lost. This manna had, however, the quality to aeeomo-rihitwscndedaupios;ndPtrhn   s
date itself to the palate of those who did not murmur in the   right  it was considered ayspicio, s  and Plotartt, in his
wilderness: and to these it became fish, flesh, or fowl.   life  of Thenistocles, says, hat before a naal battle it was
T[;e rabbins never advance an absurdity without quoting   a sig of conquestm  Cstullusain his pfoasing poem of Acme...... ~~~~~~~~~~and Seplimius, makes~ this action from  the d~ity  of Love
a text in scripture; and to substantiate this fact they quote
Dent. ii, 7, where it is said, through this g  from the left the source of his fiction.  The passage has
these  forty years the  ord thy  God  ath  been with thee    been elegantly versified by a poetical friend, who finds au.
these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee,thrytathegdsnzi                         otergtinham4
and thou hast liacked nothing!' St Austin repeats this ex-  tstoity that he gods sneezing on the rihe in  eue, i
planation of the rabbins, that the faithful found in this upposed to come to us on earth on the left.
manna the taste of their favourite food! However the
Israelites could not have found all these benefits as the             Cupid sneezing  in his flight
Once was heard upon the right,
rabbins tell us, for in Numbers xi, 6, they exclaim, There            Boding w  to lovers trte;
is nothing at all, besides thi smanna before our eyes!' They         Btt now upon the left he flew,
had just said that they reniembered the melons, cucumbers,            And witb sportive sneeze divine,
&c, which they had eaten of so freely in Egypt.  One of               Gave ofjoy the sacred sign.
the hyperboles of the rabbins is, that the manna fell in such         Acme bent her lovely fare,
mountains that the kings of the east and the west beheld              Flush'd with rapture's rosy grace,
Anid those eyes that swam in -bliss,
them; which they found in a passage in the 23d Psalm:                 And those eyes that swam in bliss,
Pres't with many a breathing kiss;'hlou preparest a labia before  me in the pre-ence of                 Pres't with many a breathing kissl
Breathing, murmuring, soft, and lowr,
minte enemies!' These may serve as specimens of the                  Thus might life for ever flow!
forced interFretations on which their grotesque fah as are' Iove of my life, and life of love.
rounded.                                                              Cupid rules our fates above,




56                                   CURIOSITIES OF
Ever let us vow to join                       read the scriptures, and to write his Commentaries on the
In homage at his happy shrine.'               New Testament. In the course of this work he fell ill, but
Cupitd heard the lovers true,                 as soon as he recovered his health he composed his treatise,
Again upon thie left he flew,                 in Dutch verse, on the Truth of the Christian Religion
And with sportive sneeze divine,              Sacred and profane authors occupied him alternately. His
Renew'd of joy the sacred sign.               only mode of refreshing his mind was to pass from one
work to another. He sent to Vossius his Observations on
the Tragedies of Seneca. He wrote several other works:
A happy art in the relation of a story is, doubtless, a  particularly a little Catechism, in verse, for his daughter
very agreeable talent-it has obtained La Fontaine all the  Cornelia: and collected  materials to form his Apology.
applause his charming naivete deserves.                 Add to these various labours and extensive correspondence
IBeonaventure de Periers, Valet de Chambre de la Royne  he held with the learned and his friends; and his letters
de NlVaare,' of whom the French have three little volumes  were often so many treatises.  There is a printed collecof tales in prose, shows that pleasantry and sportive vein  tion amounting to two thousand. Grotius had notes ready
in which the tales of that time frequently abounld. The fol-  for every classical author of antiquity whenever they pre.
lowing short anecdote is not given as the best specimen of  pared a new edition; an account of his plans and his perour author, but as it introduces a novel etymology of a  formances might furnish a volume of themselves; yet he
word in great use.                                      never published in haste, and was fond of revising them;'A student at law, who studied at Poitiers, had tolera-  we must recollect, notwithstanding such interrupted literary
bly improved himself in cases of equity; not that he was avocations, his hours were frequently devoted to the public
overburdened with learning, but his chief deficiency was  functions of an ambassador.'I only reserve for my stua want of assurance and confidence to display his know-  dies the timie which other ministers give to their pleasures,
ledge. His father passing by Poitiers, recommended him  to conversations often useless, and to visits sometimes unto read aloud, and to render his memory more prompt by  necessary;' such is the language of this great man! Al
continued exercise. To obey the injunctions of his father  though he thus produced abundantly, his confinement was
he determined to read at the Ministery.  In order to ob-  not more than two years.  We may well exclaim here,
tain a certain assurance, he went every day into a garden,  that the mind of Grotius had never been iniprisoned.
which was a very secret spot, being at a distance from    Perhaps the most sincere eulogium, and the Inost grateany house, and where there grew a great number of fine  ful to this illustrious scholar, was that which he received at
large cabbages.  Thus for a long time he pursued his stu-  the hour of his death.
dies, and repeated his lectures to these cabbages,,ddress-    When this great man was travelling, he was suddenly
mng them by the title of gentlemen; and balancing his le-  struck bv the hand of death, at the village of Rostock.
riods to them as if they had composed an audience o' scho-  The parish minister, who was called in his last niomenta,
lars. After a fortnight or three weeks preparation, ha  ignorant who the dying man was, began to go over the usual
thought it was high time to take the chair; imagining that  points; but Grotius, who saw there was no time to lose in
he should be able to lecture his schoiars as well as he had  exhortations, turned to him, and told him, that he needed
before done his cabbages.  He comes forward, he begins  them not; and concluded by saying, S'umn Grotius-I am
his oration-but before a dozen words his tongue freezes  Grotius.  Tu magnus ille Grotius?-' What! are you the
between his teeth! Confused and hardly knowing where  great Grotius? interrogated the minister.-What ai euhe was, all he could bring out was-Dl)omini, Ego bene  logium! This anecdote seems, however, apocryphal; for
video quod non estis caules; that is to say-htor there are  we have a narrative of his death by the clergyman him.
some who will have every thing in plain English-Gentle-  self. On the death of Grotitis a variety of tales were
men, I now clearly see you are not cabbages! In the garden  spread concerning his manner of dying raised by different
he could conceive the cabbages to be scholars; but in the  parties.'
chair, he could not conceive the scholars to be cabbages.'  In the approbation of the censeur to print this'Vie de
On this story La Monnoye has a note, which gives a  Grotius,' it is observed that while' his history gives us a
new origin to a familiar term.                          clear idea of the extent of the human mind, it will further'The hall of the School of Equity at Poitiers, where the  inform us, that Grotius died without reaping any advantage
institutes were read, was called La Ministerie. On which  from his great talents.'
head, Florirnond de Remond (book vii, ch. 11,) speaking
of Albert Babinot, one of the first disciples of Calvin, after      NOBLEMEN TURNED CRITICS.
having said he was called' The good man,' adds, that be-    I offer to the contemplation of those unfortunate mortals
cause he had been a studert of the institutes at this Alinis-  who are necessitated to undergo the criticisms of loads,
terie of Poitiers, Calvin, and others, styled him Mr Minis-  this pair of anecdotester; from whence, afterwards, Calvin took occasion to    Soderini, the Gonfaloniere of Florence, having had a
give the name of MINISTERs to the pastors of his church.  statue made by the great MIichael Angelo, when it was
GROTIUS.                         finished came to inspect it; and having for somne time sagaciously considered it, poring now on the face, then on the
The life of Grotius has been written by De Burlgny; it  arms, the knees, the form of the leg, and at length on the
shows the singular felicity of a man of letters and a states-  foot itself; the statue being of such perfect beauty, he found
man; and in what manner a student can pass his hours in  himself at a loss to display his powers of criticism, but by
the closest imprisonment.  The gate of the prison has  lavishing his praise. But only to praise, might appear as
sometimes been the porch of famne.                     if there had been an obtuseness in the keenness of his cri.
Grotius was born with the happiest dispositions; stu-  ticism. He trembled  to find a fault, but a fault must be
dious from his infancy, he had also received from Nature  found. At length he ventured to mutter something conthe qualities of genitus; and was so fortunate as to find in  cerning the nose; it might, he thought, be something more
his father a tutor who had formed his early taste'and his  Grecian. Angelo differed from his grace, but he said he
moral feelings. The younger Grotius, in imitation of  would attempt to gratify his taste. He took up his chisel,
Horace, has celebrated his gratitude in verse.          and concealed some marble dust in his hand; feigning to
One of the most interesting circumstances in the life of  retouch the part, he adroitly let fall some of the dust he
this great man, which strongly marks his genius and for-  held concealed.  The cardinal observing it as it fell, tran.
titude, is displayed in the manner in which he employed  sported at the idea of his critical acumen, exclaimedhis time during his imprisonment.  Other men, con-'Ah, Angelo! you have now given an inimitable grace.'
demned to exile and captivity, if they survive, they de-    When Pope was first introduced to read his Iliad to Lord
spair: the man of letters counts those days as the sweetest  Halifax, the noble critic did not venture to be dissatisfied
of his life.                                            with so perfect a composition; but, like the cardinal, this
When a prisoner at the Hague, he laboured on a Latin  passage, and that word, this turn, and that expression,
essay on the means of terminating religious disputes, which  formed the broken cant of his criticisms. The honest poet
occasion so many infelicities in the state, in the church,  was stung with vexation; for, in general, the parts at which
and in families; when he was carried to Louvestein, he re-  his lordship hesitated were those of which he was most sasumed his law studies, which other employments had in-  tisfied. As he returned home with Sir Samuel Garth he
terrupted. He gave a portion of his time to moral philoso-  revealed to him the anxiety of mind.' Oh,' replied Garth,
phy, which, engaged him to translate the maxims of the an-  laughing,' you are not so well acquainted with his lordship
cient poets, collected by Stobteus, and the fragments of  as myself; he must criticise. At your next visit read to
Menander and Philemon. Every Sunday was devoted to  him those very passages as they now stand; tell him that




LITERATURE                                                           37
you have recollected his criticisms; and I'll warrant you   describes no one has known.  He calculates that he has
of his approbation of them.  This is what I have done a   found near eight hundred thousand Jews, of which about
hundred times myself.' Pope made use of this stratagem;  half are independent, and not subjects to any Christian or
it took, like the marble dust of Angelo; and my lord, like   Gentile sovereign.  These fictitious travels have been a
the cardinal, exclaimed-' Dear Pope, they are now ini-   source of nmuch trouble to the learned; iparticularly to those
m.table!'                                                 whose zeal to authenticate them  induced them  to follaw
the aerial footsteps of the Hyppogriffe of Rabbi Benjanmit.'
LITERARY IM5OS~TURE.            He affirms that the tomb of Ezekiel, with the library of
Some authors have practised singular impositions on the   the first and second temples, were to be seen in his time
public.  Varillas, the French historian, enjoyed for some   at a place on the banks of the river Euphrates; Wesselius
time a great reputation in his own country for his historic   of Groningen, and many other literati, travelled on purcompositions, but when they became more known, the scho-  pose to Mesopotamia, to reach the tomb and examine the
lars of other countries destroyed the reputation he had un-  library, but the fairy treasures were never to be seen, nor
ustly  acquired.  His continual professions of sincerity   even heard of!
prejudiced many in his favour, and made him  pass for a       The first on the list of impudent impostures is Annius of
writer who had penetrated inito the inmost recesses of the   Viterbo, a Dominican, and master of the sacred palace uncabinet; but the public were at length undeceived, and   der Alexander VI.  He pretended he had discovered the
were convinced that the historical anecdotes which Varil-  genuinie works of Sanchoniatho, Manetho, Berosus, and
las put off for authentic facts had no foundation, being   other works, of which only firagments are remnaining. He
wholly his own inventing:-though  he endeavoured to  published seventeen books of antiquities! but inot having
make them pass for realities by affected citations of titles,  any Mss to produce, though he declared hie had fiound them
instructions, letters, memoirs, and relations, all of them   buried in the earth, these literary fabrications occasioned
imaginary!' He had read almost every thing historical,  great controversies; for the author died before he had made
printed and manuscript; but he had a fertile political ima-   up his mind to a confession.  At their first publication uni.
gination, and gave his conjectures as facts, while he quoted   versal joy was diffused among the learned.  Suspicion
at random his pretended authorities. Burnet's book against  soon rose, and detection followed. However, as the forger
Varillas is a curious little volume.                       never would acknowledge himself as such, it has been inGentelli Carreri, a Neapolitan gentleman, for many   geniously conjectured that he himself'was imposed on, rayears never quitted his chamber; confined by a tedious in-  ther than that. he was the impostor; or, as in the case of
disposition, lie amused himself with writing a Voyagerround   Chatterton, possibly all may not be fictitious.  It. has been
the JVorld; giving characters of men, au-d descriptions of  said that a great volume in Mss anterior by two hundred
countries, as if he had really visited thei; and his volumes   years to the seventeen folios of Antinius, exists in the Bibliare still very interesting.  Du Halde. who has written so   otheque Colbertine, in which these pretended histories were
voluminous an accomnt of China, compiled it from the Me-  to be read; but as Annius would never point out the sources
moirs of the missionaries, and never travelled ten leasues  of his seventeen folios, the whole is considered as a very
from Paris in his life; thouth ibe appears, by his writings,  wonderful imposture. I refer the reader to Tyrwhittt's Vim
to be very familiar with Chinese scenery.                  dication of his Appendix to Rowley's or Chatterton's
Damlerger's travels, miore recently made a great sen-  Poems, p. 140, for some curious observations, and some
sation-and the public were duped; they proved to be the   facts of literary imposture.
ideal voyages of a member of the German Grub-street,         One of the miost extraordinary literary impostures was
about his own garret! Too many of our' Travels' have   that of one Joseph Vella, who, in 1794, was an adventurer
been manufactured to fill a certain size; and some which  in Sicily, and pretended that he possessed seventeen of the
bear names of great authority, were not written by the pro-  lost books of Livv in Arabic: he had received this literary
fessed authors.                                            treasure, he said, firom a Frenchman who had purloined it
This is an excellent observation of an anonymous au-  fromn a shelf in St Sophia's church at Constantinople.  As
thor:-' writers who never visited foreign countries, and   many of the Greek and Roman classics have been trans.
travellers who have run through immense regions with fleet-  lated by the Arabians, and many were first known in Euing pace, have given us long accounts of various countries   rope in their Arabic dress, there was nothing improbable in
and people; evidently collected fiom the idle reports and   one part of his story.  He was urged to publish these long.
absurd traditions of the ignorant vulgar, from whom only   desired books; and Lady Spencer, then in Italy,-offered to
they could have received those relations which we see   defray the expenses.  He had the effrontery, by way of
accumulated with such undiscerning credulity.'             specimen, to edit an Italian translation of the sixtieth book,
Some authors have practised the singular imposition of  but that book took up no more than one octavo page! A
announcing a variety of titles of works as if preparing for   professor of Oriental literature in Prussia introduced it in
the press, but of which nothing but. the titles have been   his work, never suspecting the fraud; it proved to be nowritten.                                                   thing more than the epitome of Florus.  He also gave out
Paschal, historiographer of France, had a reason for  that he possessed a code which he had picked up in the
these ingenious inventions; he continually announced such   abbey of St Martin, containing the ancient history of Sicititles, that his pension for writing on the history of France   hy, in the Arabic period comprehendinot above two hundred
mightnot be stopped. When he died, his historical labours   years; and of which ages, their own historians were en.
did not exceed six pages!                                  tirely deficient in knowledge.  Vella declared he had a
Gregorio Reti is an historian of much the same stamp   genuine official correspondence between theArabian goveras Variilas.  He wrote with great facility, and hunger   iors of Sicily and their superiors in Africa, from  the first
generally quickened his pen.  He took every thing too   landing of the Arabians in that island.  Vella was now
lightly; yet his works are sometimeslooked into for many   loaded with honours and pensions!  It is true he showed
anecdotes of English history not to be found elsewhere;   Arabic Mss, which, however, did not contain a syllable of
and perhaps ought not to have been there if truth had been   what he said.  He pretended he was in continual corresconsulted.  His great aim was always to make a book:   pondence with friends at Morocco and elsewhere.  Thu
he swells his volumes with digressions, intersperses many   King of Naples furnished him with money to assist his reridiculous stories, and applies all the repartees he collected   searches.  Four volumes in quarto were at length pubfrom old novel-writers, to modern characters.             lished! Vella had the adroitness to change the Ara!ic
Such forgeries abound; the numerous'Testamens   Mss he possessed, which entirely related to Mahomet, to
Politiquies' ofColbert, Mazarine, and other great ministers,  matters relative to Sicily; he bestowed several weeks lawere forgeries usually from the Dutch press, as are many   hour to disfigure the whole, altering page for page, line for
pretended political'Memoirs.'                             line, and word for word, but interspersed numberless dots,
Ofour old translations from the Greek and Latin authors,  strokes, and flourishes, so that when hie published a fac.
many were taken from French versions.                      simile, every one admired the learning of Vella, who could
The travels written in Hebrew, of Rabbi Benjamin of  translate what no one else could read.  He complained ho
Tudela, of which we have a curious translation, are, 1 be-   had lost an eye in this minute labour; and every one
lieve, apocryphal.  He describes a journey, which if ever  thought his pension ought to have been increased. Every
he took, it must have been with his night-cap on; being a   thing prospered about him, except his eye, which some
perfect dream! It is said that to inspirit and give impor-  thought was not so bad neither. It was at length disco.
tance to his nation, he pretended he had travelled to all  vered by his blunders, &c, that the whole was a tbrgery;
thie synagogues in the east; places he mentions he does  though it had now been patronized, translated, amid ex.
not sappear ever to have seen, and the different people he   tracted throughout Europe.  When this azo was examined




38                                   CURIOSITIES OF
by an Orientalist, it was discovered to be nothing but a   as a model to his numerous successors-it was an ambi.
history of 1-ahomet and hisfamily. Vella was condemned   dextrous trick! Green sold his'Orlando Furioso' to two
te impriscnment.                                           different theatres, and is supposed to have been the first
The Spanish antiquary, Medina Conde, in order to fa-  author in English literary history who wrote as a troader;
your the pretensions of the church in a great lawsuit, forged   or as crabbed Anthony Wood phrases it in the language of
deeds and inscriptions, which he buried in the ground,  celibac  and cynicism,' he wrote to maintain his wife, and
where he knew they would shortly be dug up. Upon their  that high and loose course of living which poets generally
being found, he published engravings of them and gave ex-  follow.  With a drop still sweeter, old Anthony describes
planations of their unknown characters, making them  out  Gayton, another worthy;' he came up to London to live
to be so many authentic proofs and evidences of the con-  in a shirking condition, and wrote trite things merely to get
teited assumptions of the clergy,                          bread to sustain him, and his wife.' The Hermit Anthony'rTbe Morocco ambassador purchased of him a copper  seems to have had a mortal antipathy against the Eves t
bracelet of Fatimna, which Medina proved by the Arabic  literary men.
inscription and many certificates to be genuine, and found                 CRDINL RICHEIEU.
among the ruins of the Alhambra, with other treasures of                    CAIALRcei
its last king, who had hid them there in hope of better days.  The  present anecdote concerning Cardinal Richelieu
This famous bracelet turned out afterwards to be the   may serve to teach the man  of letters how he deals out
work of Medina's own hands, and made out of an old brass   citicism  to the great, when they ask his opinion of manucandlestick!                                              scripts, be they in verse or prose.
George Psalmanazer, to whose labours we owe much of        The cardinal placed in a gallery of his palace the porthe great Universal History, exceeded in powers of decep-   traits of several illustrious men, and lie was desirous of
tion any of the great impostors of learning.  His island of  composing the inscriptions to he placed round the portraits.
6   ~        ~~~opsn Tht he  rsipionstoenplaed orMonfund the pnrclofrtrance,
Formosa was an illusion eminently bold, and maintained   That he intended for Montluc, the marechal of France,
with as much felicity as erudition; and great must have   was conceived in these terms: Multafeat, plura scripait,
been that erudition which could form a pretended language   vir tamin magnusfuit.  He showed it without mentioning
and its grammar, andtfertile the genius which could invent  the aruthor to Bourbon, the royal professor in Greek, and
the history of an unknown people; it is said that the de-   asked his opinion concerning it; He reprobated it, and
ception was only satisfactorily ascertained by his own peni-  considered tat. he Latin was much in the style of' the
y as~~~~~conieredthat    h       ain               wa muc pei-   tesyeo h
tential confession; he h-ad defied and baffled the most  breviary; and, if it had concluded with an alleluyah, it
learned.  The literary impostor Lauder had much more   would serve'or ai) anthem to the magni/cant. The cardiaudacity than ingenuity, and he died contemned by all the   nal agreed with the severity of his strictures; and even
world. Ireland's Shakspeare served to show that commen    acknovledged the discernment of the professor;'for,' he
sackoldge Ih itiscrealrittent by a professor; Bu howeve he
tators are not blessed, necessarily, with an interior and   said,'it is really written by a priest.' But however he
unerring tact.  Genius and learning are ill directed in   might approve of Bourbon's critical powers, he punished
forming literary impositions, but at least they must he   without mercy his ingenuity.  The pension his majesty
distinguished from the fabrications of ordinary impostors.   had bestoved on him was withheld the next year.
Thecrial wastonedof those ambos miheld who nextyea.
A singular forgery was practised on Captain Wilford by     The cardinal was one of those ambitios men who fool
shatemp toardival ever kind of thoenamitius meand whofool
a learned Hindoo, who, to ingratiate himself and his studies  ishly attempt to rival every kind of genis; and seeing
with the too zealous and pious European, contrived amon    himself constantly disappoiited, he envied, with all the
other attempts to give the history of Noah and his three   venom  of rancour, those talents which are so frequently
sons, in his i Purana,' under the designation ofSatyavrata.  the all that men of genius possess.
Captain Wilford having read the passage, transcribed it for  He was jealous of Balzac's splendid reputation; and
Sir William Jones, who translated it as a curious extract;  offered the elder Heinsius ten thousand crowns to writ6 a
the whole was an interpolation by the dextrous introduction   criticism  which shotld ridicule his elaborate compositions.
Icriticism which should ridicule his elaborate compositions.
of a forged sheet, discoloured and prepared for the purpose   This Heinsius refused, because Saimasius threatened to
of deception, and which, having served his purpose for the   revenge Balzac on his erodes ifiia.
moment, was afterwards withdrawn.  As books in India         He attempted to rival the reputation of Corneille's cCid,'
are not oound, it is not difficult to introduce loose leaves.  by opposing to it one of the most ridiculous dramatic pro.
byuopposin toit was othe allegoridcalou tragemalled IpErope,
To confirm  his various Impositions this learned forgerer   ductions; it was the allegorical tragedy called'Europe,'
had the patience to write two voluminous sections, in which   in which the minister had congreated the four quarters of
he connected all the legends together in the style of the   the world!  Much political matter was thrown together,
Puranates, consisting of 12,000 lines.  When Captain Wil-  divided into scenes and acts. There are appended to it keys
Jord resolved to collate the manuscript with others, the   of the Dramatis persont and of the allegories. In thistra.
learned Hindoo began to disfigure his own manuscript, the   gedy. Francia represents France; Ibere, Spain; Parthecaptain's, and those of the college, by erasing the name of  nope, Naples, &c,and these have their attendants -ilian
the country and substituting that ofEgypt.  With as much   (alluding to the French lilies) is the servant of Francion,
pains, and with a more honourable direction, our Hindoo   while Hispale is the confident of Ibere.  But the key to the
a n d ~ ~   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~algre  wistuh  amo horor be drcopionous H-liond
Lauder might have immortalized his inverted invention.     allegories is much more copious -Albione signifies Eng
We have authors who sold their names to be prefixed to  land; three knots of the hair of Austrasie, mean the towns
works they never read; or, on the cointrary, have prefixed   ofClermont, Stenay, and Jamet, these places once belong.
the names of others to their own writing.  Sir John Hill  ing to Loraine. A hoxof diamonds ofAustrasie, is the town
owned to a friend once when he fell sick, that he had over-  of Nancy, belonging once to the dukes ofLoraine. The key
fatigued himself with writingseven works atonce!  One of  of Iberia's great porch is Perpignan, which France took
which was on architecture, and another on cookery! This  from  Spain; and in this manner is this sublime tragedy
hero once contracted to translate Swammerdam's work on   composed I When he first sent it anonymously to the
insects for fifty guineas. After the agreement with the   French Academy it was reprobated. He then tore it in a
bookseller, he perfectly recollected that he did not under- rage, and scattered it about his study. Towards evening,
in          _ ~~~rage, and scattered it about his study. Towards evening,
stand a single word of the Dutch language! nor did there  like another Meda lamenting over the members ofher own
exist a French translation.  The work however was not  children, he and his secretary passed the night in uniting
the less done for this small obstacle.  Sir John bargained   the scattered limbs.  He then ventured to avow himself;
with another translator for twentyfive guineas.  The   and having pretended to correct this incorrigible tragedy,
second translator was precisely in the same situation as  the submissive Academy retracted their censures, but the
the first; as ignorant, though not so well paid as the knight.  public pronounced its melancholy fate on its first represen.
He rebargained with a third, who perfectly understood his  tation.  This lamentable tragedy was intended to thwart
original, for twelve guineas!  So that the translators who   Corneille's'Cid.' Enraged at its success, Richelieu even
could not translate feasted on venison and turtle, while the   commanded the academy to publish a severe critique of it
modest drudge, whose name never appeared to the world,  well knovn in French literature. Boileau on this occasion
broke in patience his daily bread! The craft of authorship   has these two well-turned verses:has many mysteries.  Thegreat patriarch and primeval'En vain contre le Cid. on ministre se ligne;
dealer in English literature, is said to have been Robert      Tout Paris, pour Chimene, a les yeux de Rodriguo.'
Green, one of the most facetious, profligate, and indefatigable of the scribleri family.  He laid the foundation of  T  ppse the Cid, in vain the statesman tries
All Paris, for Ghimene, has Roderick's eyes.
anew dynasty ofliterary emperors. The first act by which       Al Paris, for Chimene, has  oderick's eyes.
he proved his claim to the throne of Grub-street has served  It is said that in consequence of the fall of this tragedy




LITERATURE.                                                        S3
the French custom is derived of securing a number of  marries no person of an inferior rank. If she resides at
friends to applaud their pieces at their first representations.  Chalcis, she shall occupy the apartment contiguous to the
I find the following droll anecdote concerning this droll tra-   garden; if' she chooses Stagira, she shall reside in the
gedy in Beauchamp's Recherches sur le Theatre.           house of my father, and my executors shall furnish either
The minister after the ill success of his tragedy retired   of those places she fixes on.'
unaccompanied the same evening to his country h:.use at    Aristotle had studied under the divine Plato; but the
Ruel. He then sent for his favourite Desmarets, who was  disciple and the master could not possibly agree in their
at supper with his friend Petit.  Desmarets, conjecturing   doctrines: they were ofopposite tastes and talents. Plato
that the interview would be stormy, begged his friend to   was the chief of the academic sect, and Aristotle of the
accompany him.                                          peripatetic.  Plato was simple, modest, frugal, and of'Well!' said the cardinal as soon as he saw them,' the   austere manners; a good firiend and a zealous citizen, but
French will never possess a taste for what is lofty: they   a theoretical politician: a lover indeed of benevolence,
seem not to have relished my tragedy.'-' My lord answer-  and desirous of diffusing it amongst men, but knowing
ed Petit,' it is riot the fault of' the piece, which is so admi-  little of them as we find them; his' republic' is as chirable, but that of the players. Did not your eminence per-  merical as Rousseau's ideas, or SirThomas More's Utopia.
ceive that riot only they knew not their parts, but that they  Rapin, the critic, has sketched an ingenious parallel of
were all drunk?'-' Really,' replied the cardinal, something  these two celebrated philosophers.
pleased,' I observed they acted it dreadfully ill.'       The genius of Plato is more polished, and that of ArisDesmarets and Petit retirned to Paris, flew directly to  totle more vast and profound.  Plato has a lively and
the players to plan a new mode of performance, which was  teeming imagination; fertile in invention, in ideas, in exto secure a number of spectators; so that at the second re-  pressions, and in figures; displaying a thousand different
presentation bursts of applause were frequently heard!   turns, a thousand new colours, all agreeable to their subRichelieu had another singular vanity of closely imitating   ject; but after all it is nothing more than imagination.
Cardinal Ximenes. Pliny was not a more servile imitator  Aristotle is hard and dry sn all he says, but what he says
of Cicero. Marville tells us that, like Ximenes, he placed  is all reason, though it is expressed dryly: his diction, pure
himself at the head of an army: like him he degraded   as it is, has something  uncommonly austere; aid his obprinces and nobles; and like hint rendered himself formida-  scurities, natural or affected, disgust and fatigue his reable to all Europe. Arid because Ximenes had established   ders. Plato is equally delicate in his thoughts and in his.
schools of theology, Richelieu undertook likewise to raise   expressions. Aristotle, though he may be more natural,
into notice the schools of the Sorbonne. And, to conclude,  has not any delicacy: his style is simple and equal, but
as Ximenes had written several theological treatises, our  close and nervous; that of Plato is grand and elevated, but
cardinal was also desirous of leaving posterity various po-  loose and diffuse. PLato always says more than he should
lemical works.  But his gallantries rendered him more ri-  say: Aristotle never says enough, and leaves the reader
diculous.  Always in ill health, this miserable lover and   always to think more than he says. The one surprises
grave cardinal would, in a freak of love, dress himself with.  the mind, and charms it by a flowery and sparkling characa red feather in his cap and sword by his side. He was  ter: the other illuminates and instructs it by a just and
more hurt by a filthy nicknamer given him by the queen of  solid method.  Plato communicates something of genius
Louis XIII than even by the hiss of theatres and the criti-  by the fecundity of his own; and Aristotle something ol
cal condemnation of academies.                           judgment and reason by that impression of good sense which
Cardinal Richelieu was assuredly a great political genius.  appears in all he says. In a word, Plato frequently only
Sir WVilliam Temple observes, that he instituted the French  thinks to express himself well; and Aristotle only thinks
Academy to give employment to the tits, and to hinder  to think justly.
them from inspecting too narrowly into his politics antd his  An interesting anecdote is related of these philosophers.
administration.  It is believed that the Marshal de Gram-  Aristotle became the rival of Plato.  Literary disputes
niont lost an important battle by the orders of the car.dinal;  long subsisted betwixt them.  The disciple ridiculed his
that in this critical conjuncture of affairs his majesty, who   master, and the master treated contemptuously his disciwas inclined to dismiss him, could not then absolutely, do   pie.  To make this superiority manifest, Aristotle wished
without him.                                             for a regular disputation before all audience where erudiVanity in this cardinal levelled a great genius. He who  tion and reason might prevail; but this satisfaction was
would attempt to display universal excellence will be im-  denied.
pelled to practise meannesses, and to act follies which, if  Plato was always surrounded by his scholars, who took
he has the least sensibility, must occasion him many a   a lively interest in his glory.  Three of these he taught to
pang and many a blush.                                   rival Aristotle, and it became their mutual interest to depreciate his merits. Unfortunately, one day Plato found
himself in his school without these three favourite scholars.
No philosopher has been so much praised and censured   Aristotle flies to him-a crowd gathers and enters with
as Aristotle: but he had this advantage, of which some of  him.  The idol whose oracles they wished to overturn was
the most eminent scholars have been deprived, that he en-  presented to them. He was then a respectable old man,
joyed during his life a splendid reputation.  Philip of Ma-  the weight of whose years had enfeebled his memory. The
cedon must have felt a strona conviction of his merit when   combat was not long. Some rapid sophisms embarrassed
he wrote to him on the birth of Alexander:-' I receive   Plato. He saw himself surrounded by the inevitable traps
from the gods this day a son; but I thank them not so much   of the subtlest logician.  Vanquished, he reproached his
for the favour of his birth, as his having come into the world  ancient scholar by a beautiful figure:-' He has kicked
at a time when you can have the care of his education;  against us as a colt against his mother.'
and that through you he will be rendered worthy of being   Soon after this humiliating adventure he ceased to give
my son.'                                                 public lectures. Aristotle remained master in the field of
Diogenes Laertius describes the person of the stagyrite.  battle. He raised a school, and devoted himself to render
His eyes were small, his voice hoarse, and his legs lank.  it the most famous in Greece. But the three favourite
He stammered, was fond of a magnificent dress, and wore  scholars of Plato, zealous to avenge the cause of their mas.
costly rings. He had a mistress whom he roved passlon-  ter, and to make amends for their imprudence in having
ately, and for whom he frequently acted inconsistently with  quitted him, armed themselves against the usurper. Xethe philosophic character; a thing as common with philo-  nocrates, the most ardent of the three, attacked Aristotle,
sophers as with other men. Aristotle had nothing of the  confounded the logician, and re-established Plato in all his
austerity of the philosopher, though his works are so aus-  rights. Since that time the academic and peripatetic
tere: he was open, pleasant, and even charming in his  sects, animated by the spirits of their several chiefs, avow.
conversation; fiery and volatile in his pleasures; magnifi-  ed an eternal hostility. In what manner his works have de.
cent in his dress. He is described as fierce, disdainful, and   scended to us has been told at page 15 of this volume.
sarcastic.  He joined to a taste for profound erudition that  Aristotle having declaimed irreverently of the gods, and
of an elegant dissipation. His passion for luxury occasion-  dreadirg the fate of Socrates, wished to retire from Athens.
ed him such expenses when he was young that he consumed   In a beautiful manner he pointed out his successor. Tnere
all his property. Laertius has preserved the will of Aris-  were two rivals in his schools: Menedemlusthe Rhodian,
totle, which is curious. The chief part turns on the future  and Theophlrastus the Lesbian. Alluding delicately to his
welfare and marriage of his daughter.'If, after my death  own critical situation, he told his assembled scholars that
she chooses to marry, the executors will be careful she  the wine he was accustomed to drink was injurious to hrm,




40                                   CURIOSITIES OF
and he desired them to bring the wines of Rhodes and   world got them by heart, and the name of his mlsltress waa
Lesbos. He then tasted both, and declared they both did  spread from province to province.
honour to their soil, each being excellent, though different    What a gratification to the enthusiastic, the amorous,
in quality.  The Rhodian wine is the strongest, but the  the vain Eloisa! of whom Lord Lyttlefon in his curious
Lesbian is the sweetest, and that he himself preferred it.  life of Henry II, observes, that hal she not been compelled
Thus his ingenuity pointed out his favourite Theophras-  to read the fathers and the legends in a nunnery, but had
tus, the author of the' Characters,' for his successor.  been suffered to improve her genius by a continual applicaABEBLARD AND 1ELOISA.                     tion to polite literature, from what appears in her letters9
she would have excelled any man of that age.
Abelard, so famous for his writings and his amours with  Eloisa, I suspect, however, would have proved but a
Eloisa, ranks among the heretics for opinions concerning   very indifferent polemic. She seems to have had a ctr.
the Trinity! His superior genius probably made him  ap-  tain delicacy in her manners which rather belongs to the
pear so culpable in the eyes of his enemies.  The cabal fine lady. We cannot but smile at an observation of hers
formed aginst him disturbed the earlier part of' his lifeb  on the apostles which we find in her letters.'We read
with a thousand persecutions, till at length they persuaded  that the apostles, even in the company of their master,
Bernard, his oldfriend, but who had now turned saint, that  were so rustic arid ill bred that, regardless of common depoor Abelard was what their malice described him to be.  corum, as they passed through the corn fields they plucked
Bernard, inflamed against him, condemned unheard the un-  the ears and ate them  like children. Nor did they wash
fortunate scholar. But it is remarkable that the book which  their hands before they sat down to table.  To eat with
was burnt as unorthodox, and as the composition of Abe-   unwashed hands, said our Saviour to those who were oflard, was in fact written by Peter Lombard, bishop of Pa-  fended, doth not defile a man.'
ris; a work which has since been canonized in the Sorbonne,    It is on the misconception of the mild apologetical reply
and on which the scholastic theology is founded.  The   of Jesus, indeed, that religious fanatics have really conobjectionable passage is an illustration of the Trinity by   sidered that to be careless of their dress, and not to free
the nature of a syllogism!-' As (says he) the three pro-  themselves from filth and slovenliness, is an act of piety,
positions of a syllogism form but one truth, so the Father  just as the late political fanatics, who thought that republiand Son constitute but one rssence.  The major represents  canism consisted in the most offensive filthiness.  On this
the Father, the minor the Son, and the conclusion the Holy  principle, that it is saintlilke to go dirty, ragged, and sloven.
Ghost!' It is curious to add that Bernard himself has ex-  ly, says Bishop Lavington,' enthusiasm of the Methodists
plained this mystical union precisely in the same manner,  and Papists,' how piously did Whitfield take care of the
and equally clear.' The understanding,' says this saint,  outward man, who in his journal writes,' My apparel' s the imnage of God.  We find it consists of three parts:  was mean-thought it unbecoming a penitent to havepow.
memory, intelligence and will. To memory, we attribute all  dered hair-I wore woolen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty
which we know, without cogitation; to intelligence, all truths  shoes!'
we discover which have not been deposited by 7nemory.      After an injury, not less cruel than humiliating, Abelard
By memory, wtv resemble the Father; by intelligence the  raises the school of the Parac!ete; with what etnthusiasm is
Son, and by rill the Holy Ghost.' Bernard's Lib. de   he followed to that desert! His scholars in crovds hasten
Anima. Cap. I, Num. 6, quoted in the' Mem. Secretee  to their adored master.  They cover their mild sheds with
de la Republique des Lettres.' We may add also, that  the branches of trees. They do ntit want to sleep under
because Abelard, in the warmth of honest indignation, had   better roofs, provided they remnail by the side of their
reproved the monks of St Denis, in France, and St. Gildas   unfortunate master.  How  lively must have been their
De Ruys, in Bretagne, for the horrid incontinence of their  taste for study! It formed their solitary passion, and the
lives, they joined his enemies, and assisted to embitter the  love of glory was gratified even in tihat desert.
life of this ingenious scholar; who perhaps was guilty of no  The two reprehensible lines in Pope's Eloisa, too celeother crime than that of feeling too sensibly an attachment  brated among certain of its readers.
to one who not only possessed the enchanting attractions'Not Cmesar's empress would I deign to prove;
of the softer sex, but what indeed is very unusual, a con-'No,-make me mistress to the man I love!'
geniality of disposition, and an enthusiasm of imagination.                                                    are, however, foiind in her original letters.  The author of
that ancient work,' The Romaunt of the Rose,' has giv.' Is it, in heaven, a crime to love too well?'  en it thus naiveley: a specimen of the natural style in those
It appears by a letter of Peter de Cluny to Eloisa, that  days.
she had solicited for Abelard's absolution. The abbot. ave         Se le'empereur, qui est a Rome
it to her. It runs thus:   Ego Petrus Cluniacensis Abbas,          Soulsz qui doyvent etre touit homme,
qui Petrum Abaelardum  in monachum Cluniacenrsum  re-              Me dlastrsoit plentlre pour sa femme,
cepi, et corpus ejus furtim delatum Heloissoe abattissma et        Et me faire eu nionde dame;
Si vouldroye-je mieux, dist-elle
moniali Paracleti concessi, auctoritate omnipotentis Dei et        Et Dieu en tesmoing en alpelle
omniutrn sanctorurn absolvo eum pro officio ob omnibus pec-        Etre sa Putaine appEel16e
catis suis.                                                        Qu'etre emperiere couronn6e.
An ancient chronicle of Tours records that when they
deposited the body of the Abbess Eloisa in the tomb of her                   PHYSIOGNOMY.
lover Peter Abelard, who had been there interred twenty    A very extraordinary physiognomical anecdote has been
years, this faithful husband raised his arms, stretched them,  given by De la Place in his' Pieces interessantes et pew
and closely embraced his beloved Eloisa. This poetic ftic-  connues.' v. i,v p. 8.
tion was invented to sanctify, by a miracle, the frailties of    A friend assured him that he had seen a voluminous and
their youthful days. This is not wonderfl: —but it is  secret correspondence which had been carried on between
strange that Du Chesne, the father of French history, not  Louis XIV, and his favourite physician De la Charmbre
only relates this legendary tale of the ancient chroniclers,  on this science: the faith of the monarch seems to have
but gives it as an incident well authenticated, and main-  been gureat, and the purpose to which the correspondence
tains its possibility by various other examples.  Such fan-  tended was extraordinary indeed, and perhaps scarcely cre.
ciful incidents once not only embellished poetry, but enliv.  dible. Who will believe that Louis XIV was so convinced
ened history.                                            of that talent which De la Chambre attributed to himself
Bayle tells us that billets doux and amorous verses are  of deciding merely by the physiognomy of persons not only
two powerful machines to employ in the assaults of love;  on the real bent of their character, but to what employment
particularly when the passionate songs the poetical lover  they were a dapted, that the king entered into a secret eor.
composes are sung by himself.  This secret was well  respondence to obtain the critical notices of his physiogno.
known to the elegant Abelard. Abelard so touched the  mist?  That Louis XIV should have pursued this system,
sensible heart of Eloisa, and infused such fire into her  undetected bv his own courtiers, is also singular; but it
fiame, by employing hisfine pen and hisfine voice, that the   appears by this correspondence that this art, positively
poor woman never recovered from  the attack.  She her-  swayed him ins his chotice of officers and favourites.  On
selfinforms us that he displayed two qualities which are  one of the backs of those letters De la Chambre had writ.
rarely found in philosophers, and by which he could instant-  ten,' If' I die before his majesty, he will incur great risk
Iv win the affections of the female;-he wrote and sung   of making many an unfortunate choice!'
tnely. He composeAd'oe-verses so beautifll, and songs so   This collection of physiognomical correspondence, if it
agreeably, as well tor the words as the airs, that all the   does really exist, would form a curious publication; we




LIT ERATURE.                                                         41
have heard nothing of it. De la Chambre was an enthu- I general preface to that work, those papers are distinguish.
siastic physiognomist, as appears by his works;' The   ed for their felicity of imagination.  The following paper
Characters of the Passions,' four volumes in quarto;' The   was published in the year 1700, in a volume of' Philoso.
Art of knowing Mankind; and' The Knowledge of Ani-  phical Transactions and Collections,' and the two numbers
mals:' Lavater quotes his'Vote and Interest' in favour  of Addison in the year 1710.  It is probable that this
of his favourite Science.  It is, however, curious to add,  inimitable writer borrowed the seminal hint fronm;his work.
that Philip, Earl of Pembroke, under James I, had formed   I A conjecture at dispositions from the modulations of
a particular collection of Portraits, with a view to physiog-  the voice.
aumuical studies. According to Evelyn on Medals, p. 302,' Sitting in some company, and having been but a little
such was his saaacity in discovering the characters and  before musical, I chanced to take notice, that in ordinary
dispositions of men by their countenances, that James I  discourse words were spoken in perfect  olates; and that
made no little use of his extraordinary talent on thefirst ar-  some of the company used eighths, somefifthls, some thirds;
rival of ambassadors at court.                          and that his discourse which was nmost pleasing, his words,
The following physiological definition of PHYsIGNOMY y   as to their tone, consisted most of concords, and were of
is extracted from a publication by Dr Gwither, of the year  discords of such as made up harmony.  The same person
1604, which, dropping his history of' the Animal Spirits,'  was the most affable, pleasant, and best natured in the
is curious.                                             company. This suggests a reason why many discourses
Soft wax cannot receive more various and numerous  which one hears with much pleasure, when they come to
impressions than are imprinted on a man's face by objects  be read scarcely seem the same ihings.
moving his affections: and not only the objects themselves' From  this difference of MvsIc ill SPEECH, we may
have this power, but also the very images or ideas; that is  conjecture that of TEMPERS. We know, the Doric mood
to say, any thing that puts the animal spirits into the same  sounds gravity and sobriety; the Lydian, buxomniess and
motion that the object present did, will have the same effect  freedom; the 2Eolic, sweet stillness and quiet comrposure;
with the object.  To prove the first, let one observe a  the Phrygian, jollity and youthful levity; the Ionic is a
man's face looking on a pitifill object, then a ridiculous,  stiller of storms and disturbances arising from passion.
then a strange, then on a terrible or dangerous object, and  And why may not we reasonably suppose that those whosea
so forth. For the second, that ideas have the same effect  speech naturally runs into the notes peculiar to any of these
with the object, dreams confirm too often.              moods, are likewise in nature hereunto congenerous?  C
The manner I conceive to be thus: The animal spirits  Fa ut may show me to be of an ordinary capacity, though
moved in the sensory by an object, continue their motion to  good disposition.  G Sol re ut, to be peevish and effemi.
the brain; whence the motion is propagated to this or that  tate. Flats, a manly or melancholic sadness. He who
patticular part of the bodt, as is most suitable to the desin   haili a voice which will in some measure agree with all
of its creation; having first made an alteration in the face  cliffs, to be of good parts, and fit for variety of employby its nerves, especially by the pathetic and oculorum mo.  n-ents, yet somewhat of' an inconstant nature. Likewise
torii actuating its many muscles, as the dial-plate to that  frois the TIMES; so semibriefs may speak a temper dull
stupendous piece of clock-work which shows what is to be   and phlegmatic; minurnms, grave atld serious; crotchets, a
expected next from the striking part. Not that I think the   prompt wit; quavers, vehemency of passion, and scolds use
motion of the spirits in the sensory continued by the im-  them.  Semi-brief-rest, may denote one either stupid or
pressran of the object all the way, as from a finger to the  fuller of thoughts than lie caln utter; mniium-rest, one that
foot: I know it too weak, though the tenseness of the  deliberates; crotchet.-rest, one in a passion. So that from
nerves favours it. But I conceive it done in the medulla  the natural use of MooD, NOTE, and TIMiE, we may colof the brain, where is the common stock of spirits; as in an  lect DISPOSITIONS.'
organ, whose pipes being uncovered, the air rushes into
them; but the keys let go, is stopped again.  Now, if by                       MILTON.
repeated acts or fi-equent entertaining of a favourite idea,
of a passion or vice, which natural temperament has hur-    It is painful to observe the acrimony which the mnost
ried one to, or custom dragged, theface is so often put into  eminent scholars have infised frequently in their controver.
that posture which attends such acts, that the animal spi-  sial writings. The politeness of the present times has in
rits find such latent passages into its nerves, that it is some-  some degree softened the malignity of the man, in the dig.
times unalterably set: as the Indian religiotus are by long  nity of the author, but this is by no means an irrevocable
continuing in strange posture in their pagods. But most  law.
commonly such a habit is contracted, that it falls insensi-    It is said not to be honourable to literature to revive such
bly into that posture when some present object does not  controversies; and a work entitled' Qtuerelles Litteraires,'
obliterate that more natural impression by a new, or dis-  when it first appeared, excited loud murmurs.  But it has
simulation hide it.                                    its moral; like showing the dIrunkard to a youth that he' Hence it is that we see great drinkers wilh eyes gene-  may turn aside disgusted with ebriety. Must we suppose
rally set towards the nose, the adducent muscles being of-  that men of letters are exempt from the human passions?
ten employed to let them see their loved liquor in the class  Their sensibility, on the contrary, is more irritable than
at the time of drinking; which were therefore called bibi-  that of others. To observe the ridiculous attitudes in which
torv. Lascivious persons are remarkable f)r the oculorum   great men appear, when they employ the style of the fishllmobilis petulanztia, as Petronius calls it. From this also we   market, may be one great means of restraining that feromay solve the Quaker's expecting face, waiting for the pre-  cious pride often breaking out in the republic of' letters.
tended spirit; arid the melancholy face of the sectaries; the  Johnson at least appears to. have entertained the same
studious face of men of great application of mind; revenue-  opinion; for he thought proper to republish the low invecful and bloody men, like executioners in the act: and though  tive of Dryden against Settle: and since I have published
silence in a sort may a while pass for wisdom, yet, sooner  my' Quarrels of Authors,' it becomes tle to say no more.
or later, Saint Martin peeps through the disguise to undo  The celebrated controversy of Salma.sius continued by
all. A changeableface I have observed to show a changes-  Morus with Milton-the first the pleader of King Charles,
ble mind.  But I would by no means have what has been  the latter the advocate of the people-was of that magnisaid understood as without exception: for I doubt not but  tude, that all Europe took a part in the paper-war of these
sometimes there are found men with great and virtuous  two great men.  The answer of Milton, who perfectly
souls under very tnpromisino outsides.'                 massacred Salmasius, is now read but by the few. WhatThe great Prince of Conde was very expert in a sort of  ever is addressed to the tinres, however great may be its
physiognomy which showed the peculiar habits, motions,  merit, is doomed to perish with the times; yet on these
and postures of familiar life and mechanical employments.  pases the philosopher will not contemplate in vain.
He would sometimes lay wagers with his friends, that he   It will form no uninteresting article to gather a few of
would guess, upon the Point Neuf, what trade persons were  the rhetorical weeds, forflowers we cannot well call them,
ce that passed by, frcm their walk and air.             with which they mutually presented each other. Their
rancour was at least equal to their erudition, the two most
cHSARACTERSS DESCRIBED BY MUSICAL NOTES.            learned antagonists of a learned age!
The idea of describing characters under the names of    Salmasius was a man of vast erudition, but no taste.
Musical Instruments has been already displayed in two  His writings are learned; but sometimes ridiculous. He
most pleasing napers which embellish the Tattler, written   called his work Defensio Regut, Defence of Kings. The
by Addison. He dwells on this idea with uncommon sue-  opening of this work provokes a laugh.' Englishmen! who
css.. It has been applauded for its originality.; and in the  toss the heads of kings as so many tennis-balls; who play
6




42                                    CURIOSITIES OF
with crowns as if they were bowls; who look upon seep-  but too many instances of this worst of passions; the arti*
ters as so many crooks.'                                pathies of politics!
That the deformity of the body is an idea we attach to
the deformity of the mind, the vulgar must acknowledge;               ORIGIN OF NEWSPAPERS.
but surely it is unpardonable in the enlightened philosopher    We are indebted to the Italians for the idea of newotpa.
thus to compare the crookedness of corporeal matter with  pers. The title of their gazzettas was perhaps derived from
the rectitude of the intellect: yet Melbourne and Dennis,  gazzera, a magpie or chatterer; or more probably from a
the last, a formidable critic, have frequently considered, that  farthing coin, peculiar to the city of Venice, called gaetta,
comparing Dryden and Pope to whatever the eye turned   which was the common price of the newspapers. Another
from with displeasure was very good argument to lower  etymologist is for deriving it from the Latin gaza, which
their literary abilities. Salmasius seems also to have en-  would colloquially lengthen into gazette, and signify a little
tertained this idea, though his spies in England gave him  treasury of news. The Spanish derive it from the Latin
wrong information; or, possibly, he only drew the figure of  gaza, and likewise their gazatero and our gazetteer for a
his own distempered imagination.                        writer of the gazette, and what is peculiar to themselves,
Salmasius sometimes reproaches Milton as being but a  gazetista, for a lover of the gazette.
puny piece of man; an humunculus, a dwarf deprived of    Newspapers then took their birth in that principal land
the human figure, a bloodless being composed of nothing  of nmdern politicians, Italy, and under the government of
but skin and bone; a contemptible pedagogue, fit only to  that aristocratical republic Venice. The first paper was a
flog his boys; and sometimes elevating the ardour of his  Venetian one, and only monthly; but it was merely the
mind into a poetic frenzy, he applies to him the words of  newspaper of the government.  Other governments afterVirgil,'IMonstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen  wards adopted the Venetian plan of a newspaper, with
ademptur.'  Our great poet thought this senselessdecla-  the Venetian name; from a solitary government gazette,
mation merited a serious refutation; perhaps he did not  an inundation of newspapers has hurst upon us.
wish to appear despicable in the eyes of the ladies; and he    Mr George Chalmers, in his life of Ruddiman, gives a
would not be silent on the subject, he says, lest any one  curious particular of these Venetian gazettes.' A jealous
should consider him as the credulous Spaniards are made  government did not allow a printed newspaper: and the
to believe by their priests, that a heretic is a kind of rhino-  Venetian gazetta continued lhng after the invention of
ceros or a dog-headed monster. Milton says, that he does  printing to the close of the sixteenth cenltury, and even to
tot think any one ever considered him as unbeautiful; that  our own days, to be distributed in manuscript.'. n the
his size rather approaches mediocrity than the diminutive; *Magliabechian library at Florence are thirty volumes ot
that he still felt the same courage and the same strength   Venetian gazettas all in manuscript.
which he possessed when young, when, with his sword, he   Those who first wrote newspapers, were called by the
felt no difficulty to combat with men more robust than him-  Italians menanti; because, says Vossius, they intended
self; that his face, far firom being pale, emaciated, and   commonly by these loose papers to spread about defamas
wrinkled, was sufficiently creditable to him; for though he  tory reflections, and were therefore prohibited in Italy by
had passed his fbrtieth year, he was in all other respects  Gregory XIII, by a particular bull, under the name ot
ten years younger. And very pathetically he adds,' that  menantes, from the Latin minantes, threatening. Menage,
even his eyes, blind as they are, are unblemished in their  however, derives it front the Italian menare, which signifies
appearance; in this instance alone, and much against my   to lead at large, or spread afar.
inclination, I am a deceiver!'                           Mr Chalmers discovers in England the first newspaper.
Morus, in his Epistle dedicatory of his Regii Sanguinis  It may gratify national pride, s-ays he, to be told that manClamor, compares Milton to a hangman; his' disordered   kind are indebted to the wisdom  of Elizabeth and the pruvision to the blindness of his soul, and vomits forth his  dence of Burleivh for the first newspaper.  The epoch of
venom.                                                  the Spanish Armada is also the epoch of a genuine news.
When Salmasius found that his strictures on the person   paper. In the British Museum  are several newspapers
of Milton were false, and that on the contrary it was un-  which were printed while the Spanish  fleet was in the
commonly beautiful, he then turned his battery against  English Channel during the year 1588. It was a wise po,
those graces withwhich Nature had so liberally adorned  licy to prevent, during a moment of general anxiety, the
his adversary. And it is now that he seems to have laid  danger of false reports, by publishing real information. The
no restriction on his pen; hut raging with the irritation of  earliest newspaper is entitled' The English Mercurie,
Milton's success, he throws out the blackest calumnies, and   which by authority' was imprinted at London by her highl
the most infamous aspersions.                           nesses printer, 1588.' These were, however, but extra
It must be observed, when Milton first proposed to an-  ordinary gazettes, not regularly published. Ins this obscure
swer Salmasius he had lost the use of one of his eyes; and  origin they were skilfully directed by the policy of that
his physicians declared, that if he applied himself to the con-  great statesman Burleigh, who to illflame the national feeltroversy, the other would likewise close for ever! His pa-  ing, gives an extract of a letter from Madrid which speaks
triotism was not to be baffled but with life itself. UTnhap.  of putting the queen to death, and the instruments of torpily, the predictions of his physicians took place! Thus a  ture on board the Spanish fleet.
learned man in the occupations of study falls blind; a cir-    Mr Chalmers has exultingly taken down these patriar.
cumstance even now not read without sympathy. Salma-  chal newspapers, covered with the dust of two centuries.
sitis considers it as one from which he may draw caustic  The first newspaper in the collection of the British Muridicule and satiric severity.                          sceum is marked No 50, and is in Roman, not in black let.
Salmasius glories that Milton lost his health and his eyes  ter. It contains the usual articles of news like the London
in answering his apology for King Charles! He does not  Gazette of the present day. In that curious paper, there
now reproach him with natural deformities; but he malig-  are news dated from Whitehall, on the 23d July, 1588.
nantly sympathizes with him, that he now no more is in  Under the date of July 26 there is the following notice:
possession of that beauty which rendered him so amiable' Yesterday the Scots ambassador being introduced to Sir
during his residence in Italy. He speaks more plainly in  Francis Walsingham, had a private audience of her maa following page; and in a word, would blacken the austere  jesty, to whom he delivered a letter from the king his monqvirtues of Milton with a crime too infamous to name.    ter, containing the most cordial assurances of his resoleImpartiality of criticism obliges its to confess that Milton  tion to adhere to her majesty's interests, and to those of
was not destitute of rancour. When he was told that his  the protestant religion. And it may not here be improper
adversary boasted he had occasioned the loss of his eyes,  to take notice of a wise and spiritual saying of this young
he answered, with the ferocity of the irritated puritan-   prince (he was twenty-two) to the queen's minister at his' And I shall cost him his life?  A prediction which was  court, viz. That all the favour he did expect from the
soon after verified: for Christina, Queen of Sweden, with-  Spaniards was the courtesy of Polypherre to Ulysses, to
drew her patronage from Salmasius, and sided with Milton.  be the last devoured. Mr Chrnmers defies the gazetteer of
The universal neglect the proud scholar felt, hastened his  the present day to give a more decorous account of the indeath in the course of a twelvemonth.                   troduction of a foreign minister.  The aptness of King
How the greatness of M.ilton's mind was degraded! He  James' classical saying carried it from the newspaper into
actually condescended to enter in a correspondence in Hol-  history. I must add, that in respect to his wit no man has
land to obtain little scandalous anecdotes of his miserable  been more injured than this monarch. More pointed senadversary Mlorus, and deigned to adulate the unworthy  tences are recorded of James I than perhaps of any prince,
Christina of Sweden, because she had expressed herself  and yet, such is the delusion of that medium by which the
kvsurahly on his' Defence.' Of late years we have had  popular eye sees things in this world, that lie is usually




LITERATURE.                                                       43
considered as a mere royal pedant. I have entered more   Needharn  of Gray's Inn; and whatever he now wrote wan
largely on this subject in an' Inquiry of the literary and   teemedl oracular. But whether firom a slight imprison.
political character of James First.'                    ment for aspersiig Charles I, or some pique with his own
From one of these' Mercuries' Mr Chalmers has given   party; he requested an audience on his knees wit. the
some advertisements of books, which run much like those   king; reconciled himself to his majesty, and showed himof the present times, and exhibit a picture of the literature  self a violent royalist in his' Mecurius Pragmaticus,' and
of those days. Aii these publications were'imprinted   galled the presbyterians with his wit and quips. Some
and sold' by the queens printers, Field and Barker.     timne af'ter, when the popular party prevailed, ie was still
1st. An admontion to the people of England, wherein  further enlightened, and was got over by President Bradare answered the slancierous untruths reproachfully uttered   shaw, as easily as by Charles I. Our Mercurial writer
by  ltar-prelate, and others of his brood, against the bishops  became once more a virulent presbyterian, and lashed the
and chief of the clergy.*                               royalists outrageously in his' Mercurius Politicus;' at
2dry. The copy of a letter sent to Don Bernardin Men-  length on the return op' Charles II, being now conscious,
doza, ambassador in France, tbr the king of Spaini; declar-  says our friend Anthony, that he might he in danger of the
ing the state of England, &c.  The second edition.      halter, once more he is said to have fled into Holland, wait3dly. An exact journal of all passages at thile siege of  ing for an act of oblivion. For money given to a hungry
Bergen-op-Zoom.  By an eye-witness.                     courtier, Needham obtained his pardon under the great
4thly. Father Parson's coat well dusted; or short and   seal. He latteriy practised as a physician among his parpithy animadversions on that infatmous fardle of abuse and  ty, hut lived. universally hated by the royalists, and now
falsities, entitled Leicester's Commonwealth.*          only commntted harmless treasons with the College of
5thly. Elizabethe Triumpihans, an heroic poem by James  Physicians, on whom he poured all that gall and vinegar
Askci; with a declaration how her excellence was enter-  which the government had suppressed from flowing through
tained at the royal course at Tilbury, and of the overthrow   its natural channel.
of the Spanish fleet.                                     The royalists were not without their Needham  in the
Periodical papers seem first to have been more general-  prompt activity of Sir John Birkenhead.  In buffoonery,
ly used by the English, during the civil wars of the usurper  keenness, and botldness, havinobeen frequently imprisoned,
Cromnwe!l, to disseminate amongst the people the senti-  he was not inferior, nor was he at times less an adventurer.
ments of royalty or rebellion, according as their authors   His Mercurius Aulicus was devoted to the court, then at
were d sposed.  Peter Heyli:, in the preface to his Cosino-  Oxford. But he was tile fertile parent of numerous politigraphy mentions, that'the affairs of' each town or war  cal pamphlets, which appears to abound in banter, wit, and
were better presented to the reader in the J'Veekly News-  satire.  He had a promptness to seize on every temporary
books.' Hence we find some papers entitled News from   circumstance, and a facility in execution. His'Paul's
Hull, Truths from York, Warranted Tidings from Ireland,  Church Yard' is a bantering pamphlet, containing fictitious
&c. We find also' The Scot's Dove' opposed to' The   titles of books anid acts of parliament, reflecting on the mad
Parliament Kite,' or' The Secret Owi.'-Keener animosi-  reformers of these times. One of his poems is entitled
ties produced keener tidles:' Heraclitus ridens' found an' The Jolt,' being written on the Protector having fallen off
antagonist in' Democritus ridens,' and' The weekly Dis-  his own coach-box: Cromwell had received a present from
coverer' was shortly met by' The discoverer stript naked.'  the German Count Oldenburgh, of six German horses, and'Mercurius  Britannicus' was grappled by Mercurius   attempted to drive them himself in Hyde Park, when this
Mastix, faithfully lashing all Scouts, Mercuries, Posts,  Ireat political Phaeton met the accident, of which Sir John
Spies, and others.' Under all these names papers had   Birkenhead was not slow to comprehend the benefit, and
appeared, but a Mercury was the prevailing title of these   hints how unfortunately for the country it turned out! Sir'News-Books,' and the principles of the writer were  John was during the dominion of Cromwell an author by
senerally shown by the additional epithet.  We find an   profession. After various imprisonments for his majesty's
alarming number of these Mercuries, which, were the   cause, says the venerable historian of English literature,
story not too long to tell, might excite some laughter; they   already quoted,'he lived by his wits, in helping youn
present us with a very curious picture of those singular  gentlemen out at dead lifts in making poems, songs, and
times.                                                  epistles on and to their mistresses; as also in translating,
Devoted to political purposes they soon became a public  and other petite employments.' He lived however after
nuisance by serving as receptacles of party malice, and  the Restoration to become one of the masters of requests,
echoing to farthest ends of the kingdom the insolent voice   with a salary of 30001 a year. But he showed the baseof all factions. They set the minds of men more at variance,  ness of his spirit, (says Anthony,) by slighting those who
inflamed their ternmpters to a greater fierceness, and gave a   had been his benefactors in his necessities.
keener edge to the sharpness of civil discord.            Sir Roger L'Estrange among his rivals was esteemed
Such works will alwa:ys find adventurers adapted to their  as the most perfect model of political writing. The temper
scurrilous purposes, who neither want at times, either ta.  of the man was factious, and the compositions of the author
lents, or boldness, or wit, or argument. A vast crowd   seem to us coarse, yet I suspect they contain much idiomaissued from the press, and are now to be found in a few   tic expression. His JEsop's Fables are a curious speciprivate collections. They form a race of authors unknown   men of familiar style.  Queen Mary showed a due conto most readers of these times; the names of some of their  tempt of him after the Revolution, by this anagram;
chiefs however have just reached us, and in the minor chro.
nicle of domestic literature I rank these notable heroes;                Roger LEstranee.
Roge L'strange.Rge
Marchamont Needhamn, Sir John Birkenhead, and Sir                        Lie strange Roger
Roger L'Estranw-e.                                        Such were the three patriarchs of newspapers. De
Marchamont Needham, the great patriarch of newspa-  Saint Foix, in his curious Essais historiques sur Paris, gives
per writers, was a man of versatile talents and more versa-  the origin of newpapers to France.  Renaudot, a physitile politics; a bold adventurer, and most successful, be-  clan at Paris, to amuse his patients was a great collector
cause the most profligate of his tribe.  We find an ample  of news; and he found by these means that he was more
account of him in Anthony Wood. From college he came   sought after than his more learned brethren. But as the
to London: was an usher in Merchant Taylor's school;  seasons were not always sickly, and he had many hours
then an under clerk in Gray's Inn; at length studied phy-  not occupied by his patients, he reflected, after several
sic, and practised chemistry; and finally he was a captain,  years of assiduity given up to this singular employment,
and in the words of honest Anthony,' siding with the rout  that he might turn it to a better account, by giving every
and scum of the people, he made them weekly sport by rail-  week to his patients, who in this case were the public at
ing at all that was noble, in his Intelligence, called Mercu-  large, some fugitive sheets which should contain the news
rius Britannicus, wherein his endeavours were to sacrifice   of various countries. He obtained a privilege for this pur.
the fame of some lord, or any person of quality, and of the   pose in 1632.
king himself, to Ihe beast with many heads.' He soon be..    At the Restoration the proceedings of parliament were
came popular, and was known under the name of Captain  interdicted to be published, unless by authority; and the
* I have written the history of tho Mar-prelate faction,    first daily paper after the Revolution took the popular title
* I have wr~itten   the history of the Mar-prelate faction,in o'h~ag  Itlignce
Quarrels of Authors,' which our historians appears not to  of IThe Orane Intelligencer.'
have known. Tihe materials were suppressed by government,    In the reign of Queen Anne, there was but ce daily
and not preserved even in our national depositories.    paper: the others were weekly. Some attempted to inA curious secret history of the Earl ot'Leicester, by the Je-  iroduce literarysubjects, and others topics of a more geneauit Parson.                                             ral speculation. Sir Richard Steele formed the plan of his




44                                     CURIOSITIES OF
Tatletr. He designed it to embrace the three provinces, of  pute respecting the boundaries of their possessions, lot &
manners and morals, of literature, and of politics.  The   piece of turf of the contested land he dug up by thile Jiudge,
public were to be conducted insensibly into so different a   and brought by him into the court, and tile two parties shL:;
tract from that to which they had been hitherto accustom-   touch it with the points of their swords, calling on God as
ed. Hence politics were admitted into his paper.  But it  a witness of their claims; —after this let theni combat, and
remained for the chaster genius of Addison to banish this  let victory decide on their rigihts 
painful topic from his elegant pages.  The writer in polite   In Germany, a solemn circumstance was practised in
letters felt himself degraded by sinking into the diurnal  these judicial combats.  In the midst of the lists, they
narrator of political events, which so frequently originate   placed a bier.-By its side stood the accuser and the acin rumours and party fiction.  From  this time, news-  cused; one at the head and the other at the foot of the
papers and periodical literature became distinct works-at   bier, and leaned there for some time in profound silence,
present, there seems to be an attempt to revive this union;  before they began the combat.
stisaretrogradestepfortheindependentdignityofliterature.      Mr Ellis, in his elegant preface to Way's Fabhliaux
AND FOF  UILT NSURSIOUS ES, shows how faithfully the manners of the age are paintea
TRIALS AND PROOFS OF GUILT IN SUPERSTITIOUS AGES.  in these ancient tales, by observing thile judicial combat
The strange trials to which those suspected of guilt were  introduced by a writer of the fourteenth century, who in
putin the middle ages, conducted with many devout cere-   his poem  represents Pilate as challenging Jesus Christ
monies, by the ministers of religion, were pronounced to  to single combat, and another who describes the person
be the judgments of God! The ordealconsisted of various   who pierced the side of Christ as a kni ht who jovsted with
kinds: walking  blindfold amidst burning ploughshares   Jesus.
passing throuh fires; holding in the hand a red hot bar;     Judicial combat appears to have been practised by the
and plunging the arm into boiling water: the popular affir-  Jews.  Whenever the rabbins had to decide on a dispute
mation,-t I will put my hand into the fire to confirm this,'  about property between two parties, neither of which could
appears to be derived tfrom this solemn custom of our rude   produce evidence to substantiate his claim they terminated
ancestors. Challenging the accuser to single combat, when   it by single combat.  The rabbins were impressed by a
frequently the stoutest champion was allowed to supply   notion that conciousness of right would give additional
their place; swallowing a morsel of consecrated bread;   confidence and strength to the rightful possessor.  This
sinking or swimming in a river for witchcraft; or weighing   appears in the recent sermon of a rabbin.  It may, howa witch: stretching out the arms before the cross, till tlhe   ever, be more philosophical to observe that such judicial
champion soonest wearied dropped his arms, and lost his  combats were more frequently favourable to the criminal
estate, which was decided by this very short chancery suit,  than to the innocent, because the bold wicked man is usualcalled the judicium crucis.  The bishop of Paris and the   ly more ferocious and hardy thIan hlie whomn he singles out
abbot of St Denis disputed about the patronage of a mo-   as hIis victiim, and who only wishes to preserve his own
nastery: Pep in the short, not being able to decitle on their  quiet enjoyments-in this case the assailant is the more
confused claims, decreed one of these judgments of God,  terrible combatant.
that of the cross.  The bishop anid abbot each chose a        In these timnes those who were accused of robbery were
man, and both the men appeared in the chapel, where they   put to trial by a piece of barley-bread, on which the inass
stretched out their arms in the form ofa cross. The spec-  had been said; anditl if they could not swallow it they were
tators, more devout than the mob of the present day, but  declared guilty.  This mode of trial was improved by addstill the mob, were piously attentive, but betted however  ing to the bread a slice of cheese; and such were their crenow for one man, nrow for the other, and critically watched   dulity and firm dependence on Hieaven in these ridiculous
the slightest motion of the arms.  The bishop's man was   trials, that they were very particular in this holy brad and
first tired:-he let his arms fall, and ruined his patron's  cheese called the corsned.  The bread was to be of unleacause forever! Though  sometimes these trials might be   vened barley, and the cheese made of'ewe's nilk in the
eluded by the artifice of the priest, numerous were the in-   month of May.
nocent victims who unquestionably suffered in these super-    Du Cange observes, that the expression-' May this
stitious practices.                                        piece of bread choke me!' comes from this custom.  The
From the tenth to the twelfth century they were very   anecdote of Earl Godwin's death by swallowing a piece of
commoi.  Hildebert, bishop of Mans, being accused of  bread, in making this asseveration, is recorded in our hishigh treason by our William Rufuis, was preparing to un-  tory.  If it be true, it was a singular misfortune.
dergo one of these trials; when Ives, bishop of Chartres,     Amongst the proofs of guilt in superstitious ages was
convinced him that they were against the canons of the   that of the bleeding of a corpse.  If a person was murdered,
constitutions of the church, and adds, that in this manner  it was believed that at the touch or approach of the murInnocentiam defendere, est innocentiam perdere.            derer the blood gushed out of the body in various parts.
An abbot of St Autbin of Angers in 1066, having refused   By the side of the bier, if the slightest change was observato present a horse to the Viscount of Tours, which the vis-   ble in the eyes, the mouth, feet, or hands of the corpse, the
count claimed in right of his lordship, whenever an abbot  nmurderer was conjectured to be present, and many innofirst took possession of that abbey: the ecclesiastic offered   cent spectators must have suffered death;' fti when a
to justify himself by the trial of the ordeal, or by duel, for   body is full of blood, warmed by a sudden external heat
which he proposed to furnish a man.  The viscount at first  and a putrefaction coming on, some of the blood-vessels
agreed to the duel; but, reflecting that these combats,  will burst, as they will all in time.' This practice was
though sanctioned by the church, depended wholly on the   once allowed in England, and is still looked on in some of
skill or vigour of the adversary, and could therefore afford  the uncivilized parts of these kingdoms as a detection of
no substantial proof of the equity of his claim, he proposed   the criminal.  It forms a rich picture in the imagination of
to compromise the matter in a manner which strongly   our old writers; and their histories and ballads are labourcharacterizes the times: he waived his claim, on condition   ed into pathos by dwelling on this phenomenon.
that the abbot should not forget to mention in his prayers,   Robertson observes that all these absurd institutions were
himself, his wife, and his brothers!  As the orisons ap-   cherished from  the superstitions of the age believing the
peared to the abbot, in comparison with the horse, of little  legendary histories of those saints, who crowd and dis.
or no value, he accepted the proposal.                     grace the Roman calender.  These fabulous miracles had
In the tenth century the right of representation was not  been declared authentic by the bills of the popes and the
fixed: it was a question, whether the sons of a son ought  decrees of councils; they were greedily swallowed by the
to be reckoned among the children of the family; and suc-   populace; and whoever believed that the Supreme Being
ceed equally with their uncles, if their fathers happened to   had interposed miraculously  on those trivial occasions
die whileitheir grandfathers survived.  This point was de-   mentioned in legends, could not but expect his intervention
cided by one of these combats.  The champion in behalf  in matters of greater importance'when solemnly referred to
of the right of children to represent their deceased father   his decision. Besides this ingenious remark, the fact is,
proved victorious.  It. was then established by a perpetual  that these customs were a substitute for written laws which
decree that they should henceforward share in the inheri-  that barbarous period had not; and as no society can exist
tance, together with their uncles.  In the eleventhcentury   without lawus, the ignorance of the people had recourse to
the same mode was practised to decide respecting two   these customs, which, bad and absurd as they were, served
rival Liturgies!  A pair of knights, clad in complete ar-  to ciose controversies which otherwise might have given
nour, were the critics to decide whi:h was the authentic   birth to more destructive practices.  Ordeals are in trnth
aid true Liturgy.                                          the rude laws of a barbarous people who have not yet ob
If two neighbours, say the capitularies of Dagobert. dis-  tained a written code, and not advanced enough in civilize.




LITERATURE.                                                      45
tion to enter into the refined inquiries, the subtile distinc-  the heretics they were sent to convert, that mnost of them
tions and elaborate investigations, which a court of law   were assasinated at Toulouse in the year 1200.  IHe
demands.                                                called in the aid of temporal arms, and published aginst
May we suppose that these ordeals owe their origin to  them a crusade, granting, as was usual with the popes on
that one of Moses, called the' Waters of Jealousy?'  similar occasions, all kind of indulgences and pardons to
The Greeks likewise had ordeals, for in the Antigonuis of  those who should arm  against the Mahometans, so he
Sophocles, the soldiers offer to prove their innocence by  styled these unfortunate men. Once all were Turks when
handling red-hot iron, and walking between fires. One  they were not catholics!  Raymond, Count of Toulouse,
cannot but smile at the whimsical ordeals of the Siamese.  was constrained to submit. The inhabitants were passed
Among other practices to discover the justice of a cause,  on the edge ofthe sword, without distinction of age or sex.
civil or criminal, they are particularly attached to using cer-  It was then he established that scourge of Europe.  The
tain consecrated purgative pills, which they make the con-  Inquisition: for having considered that though all might
tending parties swallow.   He who retains them  longest  be compelled to submit by arms, numbers might remain
gains his cause! The practice of giving Indians a conse-  who would profess particular dogmas, he established this
crated grain of rice to swallow is know to discover the  sanguinary tribunal solely to inspect into all families, and
thief, in any company, by the contortions and dismay evi-  inquire concerning all persons who they imagined were
dent on the countenance of the real thief.              unfriendly to the interests of Rome.  Dominic did so much
But to return to the middle ages. They were acquaint-  by his persecuting inquiries, that he firmly established the
ed in those times with secrets to pass unhttrt these singular  inquisition at Toulouse.
trials.  Voltaire mentions one for undergoing the ordeal of    Not before the year 1484 it became known in Spain.boiling water.  Our late travellers in the east have con-  To another Dominican, John de Torquemada, the court of
firmed this statement.  The Mevleheh dervises can hold   Rome owed this obligation.  As he was the confessor of
red hot iron between their teeth. Such artifices have been  QOueen Isabella, he had extorted from her a promise that if
often publicly exhibited at Paris and London. Mr Sharon   ever she ascended the throne, she would use every means
Turner observes on the ordeals of the Anglo Saxons, that  to extirpate heresy and heretics. Ferdinand had conquer.
the hand was not to be immediately inspected, and was  ed Granada, and had expelled from the Spanish realm
left tu.hte chance of a good constitution to be so far healed   multitudes of unfortunate Moors. A few remained, whom,
during three days (the timne they required it to be bound up   with the Jews, he compelled to become Christians: they,
and sealed, before it was examined) as to discover those  at least assumed the name; but it -was well known that
appearances when inspected, which were allowed to be sa-  both these nations naturally respected their own faith. ratisfactory. There was likewise much preparatory training  ther than that of the Christian. This race was afterwards
suggested by the more experienced; besides, the accused   distinguished as Christianos Novos: and in forming marhad an opportunity of going alone into the church, and  riages, the blood of the Ilidalgo was considered to lose its
makin, terms with the priests. The few spectators were al-  purity by mingling with such a suspicious source.
ways distant; an d coltd iron, &c, might be substituted, and  Torquernada pretended that this dissimulation would
the fire diminrished at the moment, &c.                 greatly hurt the interests of the holy religion.  The queen
Doubtless they possessed these secrets and medicaments,  listened with respectful diffidence to her confessor; and at
which they had at hand, to pass through these trials in  length gained over the king to consent to the establishment
perfect security. Camerarius, in his' Horte Subscecivte,'  of this unrelenting tribunal. Torquemada, indefatigable
gives an anecdote of these times which may serve to  in his zeal for the holy seat, in the space of fourteen years
show their readiness.  A  rivalship existed between the  that he exercised the office of chief inquisitor, is said to
Auistin friars and the Jesuits. The father general of the  have prosecuted near eighty thousand persons, of whom
Austin friars was dinring with the Jesuits; and when the  six thousand were condemned to the flames!
table was removed, he entered into a formal discourse of    Voltaire attributes the taciturnity of the Spaniards to the
the superiority of the monastic order, and charged the Je-  universal horror such proceedings spread.''A general jealsuits in unqualified terms, with assuming the title of'fra-  ousy and suspicion took possession of all ranks of people:
tres,' while they held not the three vows, which other  friendship and sociability were at an end! Brothers were
monks were obliged to consider as sacred and binding. The   afraid of brothers, fathers of their children.
general of the Austin friars was very eloquent and very   The situations and the feelings of one imprisoned in the
authoritative;-and the superior of the Jesuits was very  cells of the inquisition are forcibly painted by Orobio, a
unlearned, but not half a fool.                         mild, and meek, and learned man, whose controversy with
He did not care to enter the list of controversy with the   Limnborch is well known. When he escaped from Spain
Austin friar, but arrested his triumph by asking him if he  he took refilge in Holland, was circumcised, and died a
would see one of his friars, who pretended to be nothing   philosophical Jew. He has left this admirable description
more than a Jesuit, and one of the Austin friars who reli-  of himself in the cell of the inquisition.' Inclosed in this
giously performed the aforesaid three vows, show instantly  dungeon I could not even find space enough to turn myself
which of them would be the readier to obey his superiors?  about; I suffered so much that I felt my brain disordered.
The Austin friar consented.  The Jesuit then turning to   1 frequently asked myself, am I really D;,n Bathazaar
one of his brothers, the holy friar Mark, who was waiting   Orobio, who used to walk about Seville at my pleasure,
on them, said,' Brother Mlark, our companions are cold.  who so much enjoyed myself with my wife and children?
I command you, in virtue of the holy obedience you have   I often imagined that all my life had only been a dream,
sworn to me, to bring here instantly out of the kitchen fire,  and that I really had been born in this dungeon!  The
and in your hands, some burning coals, that they may   only amusement I could invent was metaphysical diswarm themselves over your hands.' Father Mark in-  putations. I was at once opponent, respondent, and pra.stantly obeys, and to the astonishment of the Austin friars,  ses!'
brought in his hand a supply of red burning coals, and held    In the cathedral at Saragossa is the tomb of a famous
them to whoever chose to warm himself; and at the com-  inquisitor; six pillars surrounded his tomb, to each is
mand of his superior returned them to the kitchen hearth.  chained a Moor, as preparatory to his being burnt. On
~rhe general of the Austin friars, with the rest of his bro-  this St Foix ingeniously observes,' If ever the Jack Ketch
therhood, stood amazed; he looked wistfully on one of his  of any country should be rich enough to have a splendid
monks, as if he wished to command him to do the like.-  tomb, this might serve as an excellent model.'
But the Austin monk, who perfectly understood him, and    The inquisition, as Bayle informs us, punished heretics
saw this was not a time to hesitate, observed,-'Reverend   byfire, to elude the maxim, Ecclesia non nmovit sanguinem:
father, forbear, and do not command me to tempt God! I  for, burning a man, say they, does not shed his blood!
am ready to fetch you fire in a chafing dish, but not in my   Otho, the bishop at the Norman invasion, in the tapestry
bare hands.' The triumph of the Jesuits was complete;  worked by Matilda the queen of William the Conqueror,
and it is not necessary to add, that the miracle was noised  is represented with a mace in his hand, for the purpose, that
about, and that the Austin friars could never account  when he despatched his antagonist, he might not spill blood,
for it, notwithstanding their strict performance of the three  but only break his bones! Religion has had her quibbles
vows!                                                   as well as law
NqUI5SITION.. The establishment of this despotic order was resisted
in France; but it may perhaps surprise the reader that a
Innocent the Third, a pope as enterprising as he was  recorder of London iii a sneech turged the necessity of sit.
successfin in his enterprises, having sent Dominic with  ting tup an inquisition in Entland! It was on the trial of
some misslonares into Languedoc, these men so irritated   Penn the quaker, in 1670, who was acquitted by the jury,




46                                      CURIOSITIES OF
which seems highly to have provoked tile said recorder,  terest is apt to prevail over our conscience,-Macede
Iagsna Charta,' writes the prefacer to the trial,' with the   praised the Inquisition up to heaven, while he sank the
recorder of London, is nothing more than Magna F-!'   pope to nothing 
It appears that the jury after being kept two days and two    Among the great revolutions of this age, and since the
nights to change their verdict, were inthe end both fined   last edition of thes, volumes, the inquisition in Spain and
and imprisoned.  Sir John Howell, the recorder, said,  Portugal is abolished-but its history enters into that of the
Till now I never understood the reason of the policy and   human mind; and thie history of the inquisition by Lim.
prudence of the Spaniards in suffering the iiquisition among   botch, translated by Chandler, with a very curious' Intro.
them; and certainly it will not be well with us, till some-  duction,' loses none of its value with the philosophical mind.
thins like unto the Spanish inquisition he in England.'-   This monstrous tribunal of human opinions aimed at the
Thus it will ever be, wlhiie both parties struggling for the   sovereignty of the intellectual world without intellect.
pre-eminence, rush to the sharp extremity of things, and., SINGULARITIES OBSERVED ]8Y  VARIOUS NATION6I lit
annihilate the treibling balance of the constitution.  But   SNULARTE  OBSERVED   Y   ARSOUS   ATON 
the adopted motto of Lord Erskine must ever be that of                         TER  REPAT.
every Britoni,' Trial by Jury.'                              The philosophical compiler of L'Esprit des Usages d1
So late as the year 1761,Gabriel Malagrida, an old man   des Coutumes, has arranged the greater part of the present
of seventy was burnt by these evangelical executioners.-   article.
His trial was printed at Amsterdami, 1762, from the Lisbon    The Maldivian islanders eat alone.  They retire into
copy.  And for what was this unhappy Jesuit condemned'!  the most hidden parts of their houses; and they draw down
Not,as some have imagined,for his having been concerned   the cloths that serve as blinds to their windows, that they
in a conspiracy against the king of Portugal.  No other  may eat unobserved.   This custom  probably arises from
charge is laid to him in this trial, but that of having indulg-  the savage, in the early periods of society, concealing him.
ed certain heretical notions, which any other tribunal but  self to eat: he fears that another with as sharp an appetite,
that of the inquisition wouldl have looked upon as the de-  but more strong than himself, shoulti come and ravish his
lirious fancies of an old fanatic.  Will posterity believe   meal from hint.   The ideas of witchcraft are also widely
that in thle eighteenth century an aged visionary was led to  spread among barbarians; and they are not a little fearthe stake for having said, atnongst other extravagances, ful that some incantation may be thrown among their
that'The Holy Virgin having commanded him to write  victuals.
the life of Anti-Chnrist, told him that he, Malagrida, was a  In noticing the solitary meal of the Maldivian islander,
second John, but more clear than John the Evangelist:  another reason may be alleged for this mnisanthropical re.
that there were to be three Anriti-Christs, and that the last  past.  They never will eat with any one who is inferior to
should be born at Milan, of a monk and a nun, in the year  them in birth, in riches, or in dignity; and as it is a difficult
1920; and that he would marry Proserpine, one of the in-  matter to settle this equality, they are condemned to lead
fernal furies?'                                           this unsociable life.
For such ravings as these the unhappy old man was          On the contrary, the islanders of the Philippines are reburnt in recent times.  Granger assures us that in his  markably sociable.  Whenever one of them finds himseli
remembrance a horse that had been taught to tell the  without a companion to partake of his mteal, he runs till he
spots upon cards, the hour of the day, &c, by significant  meets with one; and we are assured that, however keen
tokens, was, together with his owner, put into the inquisi-  his appetite may be, he ventures not to satisfy it without a
tion for both of them dealing with the devil! A man of let-  guest.
ters declared that, having fallen into their hands, notlhing  Savages, (say Montaigne) when tiey eat,'S'essuyeni
perplexed him so much as the ignorance oi the inquisitor  les doigts aut  cuisses, 4 In   urse des gdni!oires, et 4 la
and his council; and it seemed very doubtful whether they  plante des pieds.'  We cannot forbear exulting in the polhad read even the scriptures.                              ished convenience of napkins!
One of the most interesting anecdotes relating to the ter-  The tables of the rich Chinese shine with a beautifiul
rible inquisition, exemplifying how the use of the diabolical   varnish, and are covered with silk carpets very elegantly
engines of torture force men to confess crimes they have   worked.  They do not make use of plates, knives, and
not been guilty of, is related by a Portuguese gentleman.   forks: every guest has two little ivory or eborny sticks,
A nobleman in Lisbon having heard that his physician   which he handles very adroitly.
and friend was imprisoned by the inquisition, under the       The Otaheitans, who are naturally sociable, and very
stale pretext of Judaism, addressed a letter to one of them    gentle in their manners, feed separately from each other.to request his freedom, assuring the inquisitor that his friend   Al the hour of repast, the members of each family divide
was as orthodox a christian as himself.  The physician,  two brothers, two sisters, and even husband and wife, flanotwithstanding this high recommendation, was put to the  ther and mother, have each their respective basket. They
torture; and, as was usually the case, at the height of his  place themselves at the distance of two or three yards
sufferings confessed every tiing they wished.  This en-  from each other; they turn their hacks, and talke their
raged  the nobleman, and feigning a dangerous illness, he  meal in profound silence.
begged the inquisitor would come to give him his last spiri-  The custom of drinking at different hours from  those
tual aid.                                                  assigned for eating, is to be met with amongst many seAs soon as the Dominican arrived, the lord, who had   vage nations. It was originally hbegu0, tom necessity. It
prepared his confidential servants, commanded the inquisi-  became a habit, which subsisted even when the fountain
tor in their presence to acknowledge himself a Jew, to   was near to them.  A people transplanted, observes our
write his confession, and to sign it. On the refusal of the  ingeniious philosopher, preserve in another climate modes
inquisitor the nobleman ordered his people to put on the   of living which relate to those from whence they originally
inquisitor's head a red hot helmet,which to his astonishment  came.  It is thus the Indians of Brazil scrupulously abstain
in drawing aside a screen, he beheld glowing in a small  from eating when they drink, and from drinking when they
furnace.  At the sight of this new instrument of torture,  eat.
Luke's iron crown,' the monk wrote and subscribed the        When neither decency nor politeness are known, the
abhorred confession.  The nobleman then observed,' See   man who invites his friends to a repast is greatly embarnow the enormity of your manner of proceeding with un-  rassed to testify his esteem  for his guests, and to present
happy men!'My poor physician, like you, has confessed   them with some amusement; for the savage guest imlposes
Judaism; but with this difference, only torments have   on him this obligation.  Amongst the greater part of the
forced that from him, which fear alone has drawn from   American Indians, the host is continually on the watch to
you!'                                                      solicit them to eat, but touches nothing himself.  In New
The inquisition has not failed of receiving its due praises.   France he wearies himself with singing, to divert the
Macedo, a Portuguese Jesutit, has discovered the' Origin   company while they eat.
of the Inquisiion' in the terrestrial Paradise, and presumes  When civilization advances, men wish to show their
to allege, that God was the first who began the fuinctions  confidence to their friends: they treat their guests as reof an inquinitoroverCain and the worlikmen of Babel! Ma-  lations; and it is said that in'China the master of the
cedo, however is not so dreaming a personage as he ap-   house to give a mark of his politeness, absents himself
pears; for he obtained a professor's chair at Panda for the   while his gtiests regale themselves at his table with undis,
arguiments he delivered at Venice against the pope, which   turbed revelry.
were published by the title of'The literary Roarin..s of    The demnonstrations of friendship in a rude state have a
the Lion at St Mark;' besitles he is the author of 109 dif-  savage and gross character, which it is not a little curious
ferent works; but it is curious to observe how far our in-  to observe.  The Tartars pull a man by the ear to press




LITERATURE.                                                     47
him  to drink, and they continue tormenting him till he   out the use of his shoulders for a few pence.  At this they
opens his mouth, then they clap their hands and dance be.  were as much surprised, as they were doubtful at first
fore him.                                               whether the porter could be his majesty.  At lengtlh they
No customs seem more ridiculous than those practised   ventured to express their complaints, that so great a perby a Kamschatkan, when he wishes to make another his  sonage should debase himself by so vile an employ.  His
friend.  He first invites him  to eat.  The host and his   majesty having heard, answered therm,-' Upon mly honour,
guest strip themselves in a cabin which is heated to an un-  gentlemen, the load which I quitted is by far heavier than
common degree. While the guest devours the food with  the one you see me carry here: the weightiest is but a
which they serve him, the other continually stirs the fire.  straw, when compared to that world under which I labour.
The stranger must bear the excess of the heat as well as  ed.  I have slept more in four nights than I have during
of the repast.  He vomits ten times before he will yield;  all my reign.  I begin to live, and to be king of myself.
but, at length obliged to acknowledge himself overcome, he   Elect whom you choose. For me, who am so well, it were
begins to compound matters.   He purchases a moment's  madness to return to court.'  Another Polish king, who
respite by a present of clothes or dogs; for his host threat-  succeeded this philosophic monarch and porter, when they
ens to heat the cabin, and to oblige him to eat till he dies.  placed the sceptre in his hand, exclaimed, —' I had rather
The stranger has the right of retaliation allowed to him:  manage an oar!'  The vacillatingy fortunes of the Polish
he treats in the same manner, and exacts the same pre-  monarchy present several of these anecdotes; their mosents.  Should his host not accept the invitation of him   narchs appear to have frequently been philosophers; and
whom he had handsomely regaled, in that case the guest  as the world is made, an excellent philosopher proves but
would take possession of his cabin, till he had the presents  an indifferent king.
returned to him which the other had in so singular a man-  Two observations on kings were made to a courtier with
ner obtained.                                           great naivete by that experienced politician the Duke of
For this extravagant custom a curious reason has been   Alva.-' Kings who affect to be familiar with their comalleged.  It is meant to put the person to a trial, whose  panions make use of men as they do of oranges they take
friendship is sought. The Kamschatdale, who is at the   oranges to extract their juice; and when they are well
expense of the fires, and the repast, is desirous to know if  sucked they throw them away.  Take care the king does
the stranger has the strength to support pain with him, and   not do the same to you; be careful that he does not read
if he is generous enough to share with him some part of  all your thoughts; otherwise he will throw you aside to the
his property.  While the guest is employed on his meal,  back of his chest, as a book of which he has read enough.
he continues heating the cabin to an insupportable degree' The squeezed orange,' the king of Prussia applied in his
and for a last proof of the stranger's constancy and attach-   dispute with Voltaire.
ment he exacts more clothes and more dogs.  The host    When it was suggested to Dr Johnson that kings must
passes throutgh the same ceremonies in the cabin of the  be unhappy because they are deprived'of the greatest of
stranger; and he shows, in his turn, with what degree of  all satisfactions, easy and unreserved society, he observed
fortitude he can defend his friend.  The most singular cus-  that'this was an ill-fotunded notion.  Being a king does
toms would appear simple, if it were possible for the phi-  not exclude a marl from such society.  Great kings have
losopher to understand them on the spot.                always been social.  The ling of Prussia, the only great
As a distilgutishing mark of their esteem, the negroes of  king at present, (this was the great Frederic) is very soArdra drink out of one cup at the same time.  The king   cial.  Charles the Second, the last king of England who.f Loango eats in one house, and drinks in another. A   was a man of parts, was social; our Henrys and Edwards
Kamschatkan kneels before his guest; le cuts an enor-  were all social.'
mous slice front a sea-calf; he crams it entire into the  The Marquis of Halifax in his character of Charles II,
mouth ot' his friend, furiously crying out'Tana!'-There!  has exhibited a trait in the Royal character of a goodand cutting away what hangs about his lips, snatches and   natured monarch; that trait, is sauntering.  I transcribe
ewallows it with avidity.                               this curious observation, which introduces us into a,evee.
A barbarous magnificence attended the feasts of the'There was as much of laziness as of love in all those
ancient monarchs of France.  After their coronation or  hours which he passed arnongst his mistresses, who servea
consecration, when they sat at table, the nobility served   only to fill up his seraglio, while a bewitching kind of pleatheim on horseback.                                     sure, called Sauntering, was the sultana queen he delighted in.
MoNAncHS.'The thing called saullterinr is a stronger temptation to
Saint Chrysostom  has this very acute observation on   princes than It is to others.  The being galled with imporkings: many monarchs are infected with the strange wish  tunities, pursued from one room to another with asking
that their successors may turn out bad princes.  Good   faces; the dismal sound of unreasonable complaints and
kings, desire it, as they imagine, continues this pious poll-  ill-grounded pretences; the deformity of fraud ill-disguis.
tician, that their glory will appear the more splendid by the   ed: —all those would make any Inan run away from them,
contrast: and the bad desire it, as they consider such   and I used to think it was the motive for making him walk
kings will serve to countenance their own misdemeanors.   so fast.'
Princes, savs Gracian. are willing to be aided, but not
surpassed; which maxim is thus illustrated.             OF THE TITLES OF ILLUSTRIOUS, HIGHNESSx  AND EXA Spanish lord having frequently played at chess with                      CELLENCE.
Philip II, and won all the games, perceived, when his ma-    The title of illustrious was never given, till the reign of
jesty rose from play, that he was much ruffled with chagrin.  Constantine, but to those whose reputation was splendid
The lord when he returned home, said to his family,-' My   in arms or in letters. Adulation had not yet adopted this
children, we have nothing more to do at court; there we  noble word into her vocabulary.  Suetonius composed a
must expect no favour; for the king is offended at my hav.  book to record those who had possessed this title; and, as
ing won of him every game of chess.' —As chess entirely  it was then bestowed, a moderate volume was sufficient to
depends on thls genius of the players, and not on fortune,  contain their names.
King Philip the chess player conceived he ought to suffer    In the time of Constantine, the title of illustrious was
no rival.                                               given more particularly to those princes who had distinThis appears still clearer by the anecdote told of the  guished themselves in war; but: it was not continued to
Earl of Sunderland, minister to George I, who was partial  their descendants. At length, it became very common,
lo the game of chess.  He once played with the Laird of  and every son of a prince was illustrious. It is now a con.
Cluny, and the learned Cunningham  the editor of' Horace.  venient epithet for the poet.
Cunningham with too much skill andl too much sincerity,    There is a very proper distinction to be made between
beat his lordship.' The Earl was so fretted at his supe-  the epithets of illustrious, and famous.
riority and surliness, that he dismissed him  without any  Niceron has entitled his celebrated work, MIemoirs pour
reward. Cluhny allowed himself sometimes to be beaten;  8ervir a Phistoire des hommes illustres dans la Republique
and by that means got his pardon, with something hand-  des Lettres.  The epithet illustrious is always received in
some besides.'                                          an honourable sense; yet in those Memoirs are inserted
In the criticon of Gracian, there is a singular anecdote   many authors who have only written with the design of
relative to kings.                                      combating religion and morality. Such writers as Vanini,
A great Polish monarch having quitted nis companions   Spinosa, Woolston, Toland, &c, had been better charao
when he was hunting, his c:mrtlers found himn, a few days  tensed under the more general epithet of famous; for it
after, in a market-place, disguised as a porter, and lending   may be said, that the illustrious are famous but that  ha




48                                     CURIOSITIES OF
famous are not always illustrious. In the rage for titles                  TITLES OF SOVEF tIGNS.
the ancient lawyers in Italy were nriot satisfied by calling  In countries where despotism  eists in all its force, and
kings illustres; they went a step higher, and would have  is gratified in all its caprices, either the intoxication of pow.
emperors to be super-illustres, a barbarous coinage of their  er has occasioned sovereigns to assume the most solemn
own,                                                        and the most fantastic titles; or the royal duties and funcIn Spain, they published a book of titles for their kings,  tions were considered of so high and extensive a nature,
as well as for the Portuguese; but Selden tells us, that  that the people expressed their notion of the pre mnar'their Cortesias arid giving of tit les grew at length, through   ta  h   epe xrse  hi  oino  h    uen~nr
their Cortesis and giving of ties rew at length, through   chical state, by the most energetic descriptions of oriental
the afifectation of heaping great attributes on their princes,  fancy.
to such an insufferable forme, that a remedie was provided    The chiefs of the Natches are regarded by their people
auainistit.' This remedy was an act published by Philip
a'aiist it.'  This remedy was an act published by Philip   as the children of the sun, and they hear the name of their
Ifi, which ordiaired that all the Cortesias, as they termed   father.
these strange phrases, they had so servilely and ridiculous-  The titles which some chiefs assume are not always holy invented, should be reduced to a simple subscription,  nourable in themselves; it is sufficient if the people respect
To the king our lord,' leaving out those fantastical attri-  them.  The king of Quiterva calls himself the -eat lion
outes which every secretary had vied with his predecessors
ots which every secretary  ad vied with his predecessors   and for this reason lions are there so much respected, that
in increasing their number.                                they are not allowed to kill them, but at certain royal
It would till three columns of the present pages to tran-  hntings.
scribe the titles and attributes of the Grand Signior, which  The king of Monomotapa is strrouided by musicians
he assumes in a letter to Henry IV.  Selden, in his Ti-  and poets, whoadulate him by such refined flatteries as
ties of Honour, firsl part, p. 140, has preserved it, This  lord of thesun andmoon; great magician; and great thief!'emperor of victorious emperors,' as he styles himself, at    The Asiatics have bestowed what to us appear as ridilength condescended to agree with the enperor of Ger-  culous titles of honour on their princes.  The king of Armany, in 1606, that in all their letters and instruments they   racan assumes the following ones;'Emperor of Arracan,
should be only styledfather and son: the emperor calling   possessor of he white elephant, and the tso ear-rings, and
the sultan his son; and the sultan the emperor, in regard,  in virtue of this mossession legitimate heir of Pegu and
of his years, hisfather.                                   Bramrna;  lord of the twelve provinces of Bengal, and the
Formerly, says Houssaie, the title ofhighness was only  twelve kings who place their heads under his feet.
given to kings; but now it has become so common, that
Igiven  to ktns;  hut now it has become so common, that    His majesty of Ava is called God; when he writes to a
all the great houses assume it.  All the great, says a mrn-  forein sovereign he calls himself the king of kings, whom
dern, are desirous of being confounded with princes, and      ohers should obey, as he is the cause oftIe preservaare ead  to eiz on he riviege of oya digity    We all others should obey, as he is the cause of the preserveare ready to seize on the privileges of royal dignity.  We   tion of all animals; the regulator of the seasons, the absohave already come to highness.  The pride of our descen-  lute master if the ebb aid flow of the sea, brother to the
b                         ~~~~~~~~~lute master of the, ebb anid flo,v of the sea, brother to the
dants, I suspect will uturtp that of majesty.              sun, and king of the four and twenty umbrellas!  These
Ferdinand, king of' Arragon, and his queen Isabella, of
Ferdinand, kin  of Arraon, and his qeen Isabella, of   umbrellas are always carried before him as a mark of his
Castile, were only treated with the title of highness, Charles   dignity.
was the first who took that of majesty: not in his quality    The titles of the king of Achem are singular though vo
of kiiig of Spain, but as emperor.  St Foix informs us,  luminous.  The most striking ones are sovereign of the
that kings were usually addressed by the titles of most il-  universe, whose body is as luminous as the sun: whom
lu.strious, or your serenity, or your grace; but that the cus-  God created to be as accoiplished as the moon at her pietom of givin, them that of majesty, was only established   nitude; whose eye glitters like the northern star; a king
by Louis XI, a prince the least majestic in all his actions,  as spiritual as a ball is round; who when he rises shades
his manriners, and his exterior —a severe monarch, but no   all his people; from under whose feet a sweet odour is
ordinary man, the Tiberius of France; whose manners   wafted, &c, &c.
were of the most sordid nature:-in public audiences he      Dr Davy, in his recent history of Ceylon, has added to
dressed like the meanest of the people, and affecled to sit  this collection the authentic title of the Kandryan soveon an old broken chair, with a fiithy dog on his knees. In  reign   He too is called Dewo (God.)  In a deed of gift
an account found of his household, this majestic prince has   heroclaims his extraordinary attributes.'The protector
acharge made him, for two new sleeves sewed on one of        polish
a charge made him, for two new sleeves sewed on one of   f religion, whose fame is infinite, and of surpassing excelhis old doublets.                                                  
~his old doubletr~s.                       ~lence, exceeding the moon, the unexpanded jessamine.
Formerly kings were apostrophized by the title of your  buds, the stars, &c; whose feet are as fragrant to the
grace.  Henry VIII was the first, says Houssaie, who as-  noses of other kings as flowers to bees; our most noble
sumed the title of highness; and at length majesty. It was   patron and god by custom, &c.'
Francis I, who saluted him with his last title, in their in-  After a long enumeration of the countries possessed by
terview in the year 1520, though he called himself only the   the king of Persia, they give him sone poetical distincfirst gentleman in his kingdom!                                                            i    oep
first gentleman in his kingdom!i                           tions; the branch of honour; the mirror of virtue; and the
So distinct were once the titles of highness and excellence,  rose of delight.
that, when Don Juan, the brother of Philip II, was permitted to take tip the latter title, and tlie city of Granada                ROYAL DIVINITTES.
saluted him by the title of highness, it occasioned such se-  There is a curious dissertation in the' Memoires de l'Arious jealousies at court, that had he persisted in it, he   cademrnie des inscriptions et Belles Lettres, by the Abb6
wouldt have been condemned for treason.                    Mongault,'on the divine honours which were paid to the
The usual title of cardinals, about 1600, was seignoria   governors of provinces during the Roman republic;' during
illustris.ma; the Duke of Lerma, the Spanish rminister  their life-time these originally began in gratitude, and at
and cardinal in his old age, assumed the title of excellencia  length degenerated into flattery. These facts curiously show
reverendssima.  The church of Rome was in its glory,  how far the human mind can advance, when led on by cusand to be called reverend was then accounted a higher ho-  toms that operate invisibly on it, anrid blind us in our absurnour than to be styled the illustrious.  But by use illus-  dities. One of these ceremonies was exqutisitely ridiculoes.
trious grew familiar, and reverend vulgar, and at last the   When they voted a statue to a proconsul, they placed it
cardinals were distinguished by the title of eminent.      among the statues of the gods in the festival called LectisAfter all these historical notices respecting these titles,  ternium; from the ridiculous circumstances of this solemn
the reader will smile when he is acquainted with the rea-  festival.  On that day the gods were invited to a repast,
son of an honest curate, of Montserrat, who refused to be-  which was however spread in various quarters of the city,
stow the title of highness on the duke of Mantua, because  to satiate mouths more mortal. The gods were however
he found in his breviary these words, Tu solus Dominus, tu  taken down from their pedestals, laid on beds ornamented
solus Altissimus; firom all which he concluded, that none  in their temples; pillows were placed under their marble
but the Lord was to be honoured with the title ofhighnes.s.   heads; and while they reposed in this easy posture they
The' Titles of Honour' of Selden is a very curious vol-  were served with a magnificent repast. When Caesar had
ume, and as the learned Usher told Evelyn, the most  conquered Rome, the servile senate put him to dine with
valuable v ork of this great scholar.  The best edition is a   the gods! Fatigued by, and ashamed of these honours, he
folio of about 1000 pages.  Selden vindicates the right of   desired lhe senate to erase from his statue in the capitol,
a lung of England to the title of emperor.                 tihe title they had given him of a demi-god!
We know that the first Roman emperors did not want
And never yet was title did not move:                flatterers, and that the adiulations they sometimes lavished
And never eke a mint, that title did not love.'      were extravagant.  But perhaps few know that they were




LITERATURE.                                                      49'
ess offensive than the flatterers of the third century under     In the month of August, 1641, I beheld the old queen
the Pagan, and of the fourth under the Christian emperors.  mother of France departing from London, in company of
Those who are acquainted with the character of the age  Thomas earl of Arundel. A sad spectacle of mortality it
of Augustulus, have only to throw their eyes on the one,  was, and produced tears from  mine eyes and many other
and the other code, to find an infinite number of passages  beholders, to see an aged, lean, decripit, poor queen ready
which had not been bearable even in that age. For in-  for her grave, necessitated to depart hence, having no place
stance, here is a law of Arcadius and Honorius, published   of residence in this world left her, but where the courtesy of.
in 404:                                                 her hard fortune assigned it. She had been the only stately'Let the officers of the palace be warned to abstain  and magnificent woman of Europe: wift to the greatest
from frequenting tumultuous meetings; and that those who,  king that ever lived in France; mother unto one king and:
instigated by a sacrilegious temerity, dare to oppose the  unto two queens.'
authority of our divinity, shall be deprived of their employ-    In the year 1595, died at Paris, Antonio king of Portuments, and their estates confiscated.' The letters they  gal. His body is interred at the Cordeliers, and his heart
write are holy. When the sons speak of their fathers, it is  deposited at the Ave-Maria. Nothing on earth could cor-'Their father of divine memory;' or' Their divine father,'  pel this prince to renounce his crown.  lie passed over to
They call their own laws oracles, and celestial oracles. So  England, and Elizabeth assisted him with troops, but at
also their subjects address them by the titles of' Your per-  length he died in France in great poverty. This dethroned
petuity, your eternity.' And it appears by a law of Tb eo-  monarch was happy in one thing, which'is indeed rare: in
dore the Great, that the emperors at length added this to  all his miseries he had a servant, who proved a tender and
their titles. It begins,'If any magistrate after having con-  faithful friend, and who only desired to participate in his
eluded a public work, put his name rather than that of our  misfortunes, and to soften his miseries; and for the recomperpetuity, let him be judged guilty of high treason. All  pense of his services he only wished to be buried at the
this reminds one of' the celestial empire' of the Chinese.  feet of his dear master.  This hero in loyalty, to whom
Whenever the great Mogul made an observation, Ber-  the ancient Romans would have raised altars, was Don
nier tells us that some of the first omrahs lifted up their  Diego Bothei, one of the greatest lords of the court of
hands, crying,' Wonder! wonder! wonder!' And a pro-  Porfugal, and who drew his origin from the kings of Boverb current in his dominions, was,'If the king saith at  hernia.
noonday it is night, you are to say, behold the moon and  Hume supplies me with an anecdote of singular royal
the stars!' Such adulation, however, could not alter the  distress. He informs us that the queen of England, with
general condition and fortune of this unhappy being, who  her son Charles, had'a moderate pension assigned her:
became a sovereign without knowing what it is to be one.  but it was so ill paid, and her credit ran so low, that one
He was brought out of the seraglio to be placed on the  morning when the Cardinal de Retz waited on her, she inthrone, and it was he rather than the spectators, who  formed him that her daughter, the princess Henrietta, was
might have truly used the interjection of astonishment!    obliged to lie a-bed for want of a fire to warm her. To
such a condition was reduced, in the midst of Paris, a
D)ETHiRONED MONARCHSs.
DETHRONED  MONARCHS.           queen of England, and daughter of Henry IV of France!
FORTUNE never appears in a more extravagant humour  We find another proof of her excessive poverty. Salma.
than when she reduces monarchs to become medicants.  sius, after publishing his celebrated political book, in faHalf a century ago it was not imagined that our own times  your of Charles II, the Defensio Regia, was much blamed
should have to record many such instances. After having   by a friend for not having sent a copy to the widowed
contemplated kings raised into divinities, we see them now   queen of Charles, who, he writes, though poor, would yet
depressed as beggars. Our own times, in two opposite  have paid the bearer!
senses, may emphatically be distinguished as the age oJ   The daughter of James the First, who married the
kings.                                                  Elector Palatine, in her attempts to get her husband
In Candide or the Optimist, there is an admirable stroke   crowned, was reduced to the utmost beggary, and wanderof Voltaire's. Eight travellers meet in an obscure inn, and   ed frequently in disguise as a mere vagrant.
some of them with not sufficient money to pay for a scurvy  A strange anecdote is related of Charles VII, of France.
dinner. In the course of conversation, they are discovered   Our Henry V. had shrunk his kingdom into the town of
to be eight monarchs in Europe, who had been deprived of  Bourges. It is said that having told a shoemaker after he
their crowns!                                          had just tried a pair of his boots, that he had no money to
What added to this exquisite satire was, that there were   pay for them, Crispin had such callous feelings that he reeight living monarchs at that moment wanderers oin the  fused his majesty the boots!'It is for this reason,' says
earth;-a circumstance which has since occurred.        Comines,'I praise those princes who are on good terms,adelaide, the widow of Lothario king of Italy, one of the   Cmns'
Adelaide, the widow of Lothario king of Italy, one of the   with the lowest of their people; for they know not at what
most beautiful women in her age, was besieged in Pavia by   hour they may want them.'
Berenger, who resolved to constrain her to marry his son  Many monarchs of this day have probably experienced
after Pavia was taken; she escaped from  her prison with   more than once the truth of the reflection of Comines.
her almnoner. The archbishop of' Reggio had offered her    We may add here, that in all conquered countries the
an asylum: to reach it, she and her almoner travelled on  descendants of royal families have been found among the
foot through the country by night, concealing herself in the   dregs of the populace. An Irish prince has been discoverday time among the corn, while the almoner begged for  ed in the person of a miserable peasant; and in Mexico,
alms and food through the villages.                     its faithful historian Clavigero notices that he has known a
The Emperor Henry IV', afte'r having been deposed and itfatflhsoanCvcrontcetatehskowa
The Emperorb Henry IV,  after having been deposed and  locksmith who was a descendant of its ancient kings, and
imprisoned by his son, Henry V, escaped from prison; a tailor of one of its noblest families.
poor, vagrant, and without aid, he entreated the bishop of
Spires to grant him a lay prebend in his church.'I have                 FEUDAL CUSTOMS.
studied,' said he,' and have learned to sing, and may there-  Barbarous as the feudal customs were, they were the,
fore be of some service to you.' The request was denied,  first attempts at organizing European society.  The norand he died miserably and obscurely at Liege, after having  them nations, in their irruptions and settlements in Europe,
drawn the attention of Europe to his victories and his  were barbarians independent of' each other, till a sense ot
grandeur,                                               public safety induced these hordes to confederate. But the.
Mary of Medicis, the widow of Henry the Great, mo-  private individual reaped no benefit from the public union;
ther of Louis XIII, mother-in-law of three sovereigns, and   on the contrary, he seems to have lost his wild liberty in
regent of France, frequently wanted the necessaries oflife,  the subjugation; he in a short time was compelled to sufand died at Cologne in the utmost misery, The intrigues  fer from his chieftain: and the curiosity of the philosopher
Richelieu compelled her to exile herself, and live an un-  is excited by contemplating in the feudal customs a barbarhappy fugitive. Her petition exists with this supplicatory   ous people carrying into their first social institutions their
opening:'Supplie Marie, Reine de France et de Navar-  original ferocity. The institution of forming cities into
re, disant, que depuis le 23 Fevrier, elle aurait 6t6 arretde   communities at length gradually diminished this military
prisonniere au chateau de Compiegne, sans dtre ni accu-  and aristocratic tyranny; and tile freedom of cities, origisee ni soupgonn6e, &c.' Lilly, the astrologer, in his Life  nating in the pursuits of commerce, shook off the yoke of
and Death of King Charles the First, presents us with a   insolent lordships. A famots ecclesiastical writer of that
mInelancholy picture of this unfortunate monarch. He has  day, who had imbibed the feudal prejudices, calls these
also described the person of the old queen mother of  communities, which were distinguished by the name of
France.                                                Ilibcrtates (hence probably our municipal term the liberties,)
7




60                                   CURIOSITIES OF
as' execrable inventions, by which, contrary to law and   and one ofhis legs naked, is comn pelled by an ancientcustors
justice, slaves withdrew  themselves from that obedience  to conduct him to the door of his abbey leading his horse by
which they owed to their masters.' Sulch was the expiring  the bridle.
voice of aristocratic tyranny! This subject has been in-  The feudal barons frequently combined to share among
geniousiy discussed by Robertson in his preliminary vol-  themselves those children of their villains who appeared to
utne to Charles; but the following fa.ts constitute the   be the most healthy and serviceable, or who were remarka.
picture which the historian leaves to be gleaned by the   ble for their talents; and not unfrequently sold them in their
mnouter inquirer.                                       markets.
The feudal government introduced a species ofservitude  The feudal servitude is not, even in the present enlight.
which till that time was unknown, and which was called   ened times, abolished in Poland, in Germany, and in Ruts
the servitude of the land. The bondmen or serfs, and the   sia. In those countries the bondmen are still entirely de.
villains or country servants, did not reside in the house of  pendent on the caprice of their masters.  The peasants of
the lord; but they entirely depended on his caprice; and   Hungary or Bohemia frequently revolt, and attempt to
he sold them, as he did the animals, with the field where  shake off the pressure of feudal tyranny.:they lived, and which they cultivated.                   An anecdote of comparatively recent date displays their
It is difficult to conceive with what insolence the petty  unfeeling caprice. A lord or prince of the northern coun.
lords of those times tyrannized over their villains; they not  tries passing through one of his villages, observed a small
only oppressed their slaves with unremitted labour, insti-  assembly of peasants and their families amusing them.
gated by a vile cupidity; but their whim and caprice led  selves with dancing. He commands his domestics to part
them to inflict miseries without even any motive of in-  the men from the women, and confine them in the houses.
terest.                                                 He orders the coats of the women to be drawn up above
In Scotland they had a shameful institution of maiden  their heads, and tied with their garters.. The men were
rights; and Malcolm the Third only abolished it, by order-  then liberated, and those who did not recognize their wives
ing that they might be redeemed by a quitrent. The truth  in that state received a severe castigation.
of this circumstance Dalrymple has attempted, with excu-    Absolute dominion hardens the human heart; and
isable patriotism, to render doubtful. There seems how-  nobles accustomed to command their bondmen will treat
ever to be no doubt of the existence of this custom; since  their domestics as slaves, as the capricious or inhuman
it also spread through Germany, and various parts of Eu-  West Indians are known to do their domestic slaves.
rope.; and the French barons extended their domestic   Those of Siberia punish theirs by a free use of the cudgel
tyranny to three nights of involuntary prostitution.  Mon-  or rod. The Abbe Chappe saw two Russian slaves untesquieu is infinitely French, when he could turn this  dress a chambermaid, who had by some trifling negligence
shameful species of' tyranny into a bon mot; for he coldly  given offence to her mistress; after having uncovered as
observes on this,', L'etoit bien ces trois nuits la, qu'ilfalloit  far as her waist, one placed her head betwixt his knees;
hoisir4; car pour:les autres on n'auroit pas donnd beaucoup   the other held her by the feet: while both armed with two
d'argent.' Thelegislator in the wit forgot the feelings of  sharp rods, violently lashed her back till it pleased the dohis heart.   mestic tyrant to decree it was enough!
Others, to preserve this privilege when they could not    After a perusal of these anecdotes of feudal tyranny, we
enjoy it in all its extent, thrust their leg booted into the bed   may exclaim with Goldsmith- -
of the new-married couple.  This was called the droit de'I fly from petty tyrants-to the throne.'
cuisse. When the bride was in bed, the esquire or lord
performed this ceremony, and stood there, his thigh in the   the Middle-ages,' rent view of  this short artile of Europerfuous
bed, with a lance. in his hand: in this ridiculous attitude he
remained till he was tired; and the bridegroom was not  in a philosophical view.
suffered to enter the chamber, till his lordship had retired.               JOAN OF ARC.:Such indecent privileges.nust have originated in the worst    Of the Maid of Orleans I have somewhere read that a
of intentions;.and when afterwards they advanced a step   bundle of faggots was substituted for her, when she was
rin more humane manners, the ceremonial was preserved   supposed to have been burnt b  the Duke of Bedford.,from  avaricious motives. Others have compelled their
roiN avaricious motives.  Others have compone  of our historians notice this anecdote: though some,subjects to pass the first night at the top ofa tree, and there
to consummate their marriage; to pass the bridal hours in   and was even married  that after her death   an imp ostor arose,;a river; or to be bound naked to a cart, and to trace some  she had several children.  Whether she deserved to have,furrows as they were dragged: or to leap with their feet  been distinguished by the appellation of The Maid of Or-,tied over the horns of stags.
tiSometimes their         manded the bridegroom to the horns ofstags.  leans we have great reason to suspect; and some in her
Sometimes their caprice. commaded the bridegroom to  days, from her fondness for man's apparel, even doubted her
~appear in drawers at their castle, and plunge into a ditch   We know little of one so celebrted as to have form
f mud; and sometimes they were compelled to beat the  9sex. We know little of one so celebrated as to have formof mud; and sometimes they were compelled to beat the 
waters of the ponds to hinder the frogs from disturbing the  ed the heroine of epics.  The following epitaph on her I,lord!                                                  find in Winstanley's' Historical Rarities;' and which,
Wardship, or the privilege of guardianship enjoyed by  po ssing some humour, merits to be rescued from total
gsome lord, was one of the barbarous' inventions of the feu-,dal ages; the guardian had both the care of the person, and' Here lies Joan of Are; the which
for his own use the revenue of the estates.'This feudal       Some count saint, and some count witch;
custom was so far abused in England, that the king sold         Some count man, and something more;
these lordships to strangers; ~and when the guardian had       Some count maid, and some a whore.:fxed on a marriage for the infant, if the youth or maiden     Her death s in  oubt by lona or right.
Her death'I in doubt, by laws or might.
did tnot agree to this, they forfeited the value of the, mar-  Oh, innocence! take heed of it,
riage; that is, the sum the guardian would have obtained       How thou too near to guilt doth sit.
by the other party had it taken place.  This cruel custom       (Meantime, France a wonder sawwas a source of domestic unhappiness, particularly in love-    A woman rule, against salique law!).ffafrs, and has served as the ground-work of many a pa-        But, reader, be content to stay
thetic play by our elder dramatists.                           Thy censure till the judgment day;
There was a time when the' German lords reckoned             Then shalt thou know, and not before,
amongst their privileges, that of robbing on the high ways     Whether saint, witch, man, maid, or whore.
of their territory; which ended in raising up the famous
Hanseatic Union to protect their commerce against rapine  Gaming appears to be an universal passion. Some hay
and avaricious exactions of toll..attempted to deny its universality; they have imagine4
Geoffrey, lord of Coventry, compelled his wife to ride  that it is chiefly prevalent in cold climates, where such a
naked on a white pad through the streets of the town; that  passion becomes most capable of a(gitating and gratifying
by this mode he might restore to the inhabitants those pri-  the torpid minds of their inhabitants.
vileges of which his wantonness had deprived them. This.The fatal propensity of gaming is to be discovered, as
anecdote some have suspected to be fictitious from its ex-  well amongst the inhabitants of the frigid and torrid zones,
treme barbarity; but the character of the middle-ages will.as amongst those of the milder climates. The savage and
admit of any kind of wanton barbarism.                  the civilized, the illiterate and the learned, are alike capti.
When the abbot of Figeac makes his entry into that  vated by the hope of accumulating wealth without the Ia.
te wa, the lord of Montbrun, dressed in a harlequin's coat,  hours of industry.




LITERATURE.                                                      51
Barbeyrac has written an elaborate treatise on gaming,' beating his breast and tearing his hair in the violence of
and we have two quarto volumes by C. Moore, on suicide,  rage, for having lost three hattrhets at one of these races,
gaming, and duelling, which may be put on the shelf by  and which he had purchased with nearly half his property.
the side of Barbeyrac.  All these works are excellent ser-    The ancient nations were not less addicted to gaming;
mons, but a sermon to a gambler, a duellist, or a suicide!  Persians, Grecians, and Romans; the Goths, the Germans,
A dice-box, a Sword and pistol, are the only things that  &c. To notice the modern ones were a melancholy task:
seem to have any power over these unhappy men, fior ever  there is hardly a family in Europe which cannot record
lost in a labyrinth of their own construction.         from their own domestic annals, the dreadful prevalence ol
I am much pleased with the following thought.' The   this passion.
ancients (says the author of Amusemrnens serieux et co-   Gamester and cheater were synonymous terms in the time
miques) assembled to see their gladiators kill one another;  of Shakspeare and Jonson: they have hardly lost much of
they classed this among their games! What barbarity  their double signification in the present day.
But are we less barbarous, we who call a game an assem-    The following is a curious picture of a gambling-house,
bly who meet at the faro table where the actors themselves  from a contemporary account and appears to be an establish.
confess they only meet to destroy one another?' In both   ment more systematic than the' hells' of the present day.
these cases the philosopher may perhaps discover their'A list of the officers established in the most notorious
origin in one cause, that of the listless perishing with ennui  gaming-houses,' from the Daily-Journal, Jan. 9th, 1731.
requiring an immediate impulse of the passions; and very  1st. A Commissioner, always a proprietor, who looks in
inconsiderate on the fatal means which procures the de-  of a night; and the week's account is audited by him and
sired agitation.                                       two other proprietors.
The most ancient treatise by a modern on this subject,    2d. A Director, who superintends the room.
according to Barbeyrac, was that of a French physician,    3d. An Operator, who deals the cards at a cheating
one Eckeloo, who published it in 1569, entitled De Alea,  game, called Faro.
sive de curanda ludendi in pecuniam cupiditate, that is,' of    4th. Two Crowpees, who watch the cards, and gather
games of chance, or the malady of playing for money.'  the money for the bank.
IThe treatise itself is only worth noticing from the circum-    5th. Two Puffs, who have money given them to decoy
stance of the author being himself one of the most invete-  others to play.
rate gamblers; he wrote this work to convince himself of    6th. A Clerk, who is a check upon the Puffs, to see that
this folly. But in spite of all his solemn vows, the prayers  they sink none of the money given them to play with.
of' his friends, and his own book perpetually quoted before    7th. A Squib is a puff of lower rank, who serves at halfhis face, hie was a great gamester to his last hour! The   pay salary while he is learning to deal.
same circumstance happened to Sir John Denham.  They     8th. A Flasher, to swear how often the batnk has beer
had not the good sense of old Montaigne, who gives us the  stript.
reason why he gave over gaming.' I used to like former-    9th. A Dunner, who goes about to recover money los.
ly games of chance with cards and dice; but of that folly I  at play.
have long been cured; merely because I found that what-    10th. A Waiter, to fill out wine, snuff candles, and at.
ever good countenance I put on when I lost I did not feel  tend the gaming-room.
my vexation the less.' Goldsmith fell a victim to this    11th. An Attorney, a Newgate solicitor.
madness.  To play any game well requires serious study,    12th. A Captairi, who is to fight any gentleman who is
time, and experience. If a man of letters plays deeply,  peevish for losing his money.
ne will be duped even by shallow fellows, or by professed  13th. An Usher, who lights gentlemen up and down
gamblers.                                              stairs, and gives the word to the porter.
Dice, and that little pugnacious animal the cock, are the  14th. A Porter, who is generally a soldier of the Feot
chief instruments employed by the numerous nations of the  Guards.
East, to agitate their minds and ruin their fortunes; to    15th. An Orderly Man, who walks up and down the
which the Chinese, who are desperate gamesters, add the  outside of the door, to give notice to the porter, and alarm
ues of cards. When all other property is played away, the  the house at the approach of the constable.
Asiatic gambler scruples not to stake his wi/fe or his child,    16th. ARunner, who is toget intelligence ofthejustice's
on the cast of a die, or courage and strength of a martial  meeting.
bird. If still unsuccessful, the last venture he stakes is    17th. Link-boys, Coachmen, Chairmen, or others who
himself.                                               bring intelligence of the justices' meetings, or of the conIn the island of Ceylon, cock-fighting is carried to a great  stables being out, at half a-guinea reward.
height.  The Sumatrans are addicted to the use of dice.    18th. Common-bail, Affidavit men, Ruffians, Bravoes,
A strong spirit of play characterizes a Malayan. After  Assassins, cum multis aliis.
having resigned every thing to the good fortune of the win-    The' Memoirs of the most famous Gamesters from the
-ner, he is reduced to a horrid state of desperation; he then  reitn of Charles II to Queen Anne, by T. Lucas,  Esq.
loosens a certain lock of hair, which indicates war and de-  1714,' appears to be a bookseller's job; but probably a few
struction to all the raving gamester meets. He intoxicates  traditional stories are preserved.
himself with opium; and working himself up into a fit of
phrenzy, he bites and kills every one who comes in his
way. But as soon as this lock is seen flowing it is lawfsl    The Arabic Chronicle of Jerusalem is only valuable
to fire at the person, and to destroy him as fast as possible.  from the time of Mahomet.  For such is the stilpid superI think it is this which our sailors call' To run a muck.'o stition of the Arabs, that they pride themselves on, being
Thus Dryden writes-                                    ignorant of whatever has passed before the mission oftheir
Prophet. The most curious information it contains is con-'Frontless, and satire.proof, he scours the streets,  cerninthe crusades: according to Longeruewho said
cerning the crusades: according to Longerue, who said
And runs an Indian muck at all he meets.'         he had translated several portions of it, whoever would be
Thus also Pope-                                        versed in the history of the crusades should attend to this
chronicle, which appears to have been written with impar-' Satire's mny weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run a m ucke and tilt atall I meet.'        tiality. It renders justice to the christian heroes, and particularly dwells on the gallant actions of the Count do
Johnson could not discover the derivation of the word   Saint Gilles.
mnuck. To' run a muck' is an old phrase for attacking   Our historians chiefly write concerning  Godfrey de
madly and indiscriminately: and has since been ascertain-  Bouillont; only the learned know that the Count de Saint
ed to be a Malay word.                                  Gilles acted there so important a character.  The stories
To discharge their gambling debts, the Siamese sell their  of the Saracens are just the reverse: they speak little
possessions, their families, and at length themselves.  The   concerning Godfrey, and eminently  distinguish  Saint
Chinese play night and day, till they have lost all they are  Gilles.
worth; and then they usually go and hang thenmselves.    Tasso has given into the more vulgar accounts, by mak.
Such is the propensity of the Japanese for high play, that  ine the former so eminent, at the cost of the other heroes,
they were compelled to make a law, that,' Whoever ven-  In his Jerusalem Delivered.  Thus Virgil transformed bh
lures his money at play, shall be put to death.' In the   his magical power the chaste Didointo a lover; and Homer
newlv-discovered islands ofthe Pacific Ocean, they venture  the meretricious cPenclope into a moaning matron. It is
even their hatchets, which they hold as invaluable acquis;..  not requisite for poets to be historians, but historians should.orts, on running-matches:-' We saw a man,' says Cook,  not be no frequently poets. The same charge, I ha~t




52                                    CURIOSITIES OF'
been told, must be made to the Grecian historians.  The  in any one state, instead of inimpoving his being, had made
Persians are viewed to great disadvantage in Grecian his-  it worse, he fell back into a worse condition to commence
tory. It would form a curious inquiry, and the result might  again his purifying revolutions. Humanity was the limit of
be unexpected to some, were the Oriental student to com-  the degraded transmigrations.  All the changes above hu.
ment on the Grecian historians.  The Grecians were not  manity produced felicity. Humanity is the scene of the
the derni-gods they paint themselves to have been, nor  contest, and after man has traversed every state of animathose theyv attacked the contemptible multitudes they de-  ted existence, and can remember all that he has passed
scribe.  These boasted victories might be diminished.  through, that consummation follows which he attains in the
The same observation attaches to Caesar's account of his  circle of felicity. It is on this system of transmigration that
British expedition. He never records the defeats he fre-  Taliessin the Welsh bard, who wrote in the sixth century,
quently experienced.  The national prejudices of the Ro-  gives a recital of his pretended transmigration.  He tells
man historians have undoubtedly occasioned us to have a  how he had been a serpent, a wild ass, a buck, or a crane,
very erroneous conception of the Carthagenians, whose  &c; and this kind of reminiscence of his former state, this
discoveries in navigation and commercial enterprises were  recovery of memory, was a proof of the mortal's advances
the most considerable among the ancients. We must in-  to the happier circle. For to forget what we have been,
deed think highly of that people, whose works on agricul-  was one of the curses of the circle of evil. Taliessin theretoure which they had raised into a science, the senate of  fore, adds Mr Turner, as profusely boasts of' his recovered
Rome orderd to be translated into Latin.  They must  reminiscence as any modern sectary can do of his state of
indeed have been a wise and grave people. Yet they are  grace and election.
stigmatized by the Romans for faction, cruelty and cowar-    In all these wild reveries there seems to be a moral fable
dice; and their bad faith has come down to us in a pro-  in the notion, that the clearer a man recollects what a bruts
verb; but Livy was a Roman! and there is a patriotic  he has been, it is certain proof that he is in an improved
malignity!                                             state!
According to the authentic Clavigero, in his history of.IETEMPSYCHOSlS.                      M        e                                         o.Mexico, we find the Pythagorean transmigration carried on
If we except the belief of a future remuneration beyond  in the west, and not less fancifully than in the countries of
this life for sufferinlg virtue, and retribution for successful  the east.  The people of Tlascalabelieve that thee souls of
crimes, there is no system so simple, and so little repugnant  persons of rank went after their death to inhabit the bodies
to our understanding, as that of the metempsychosis. The  of beautiful and sweet singing birds, and those of the nobler
pains and the pleasures of this life are by this system  con-  quadrupeds; while the souls of inferior persons were supsidered as the recompense or the punishment of our actions  posed to pass into weasels, beetles, and such other meaner
in an anterior state: so that, savs St Foix we cease to  cnimals.
wvonder that among men and animals, some enjoy an easy    There is something not a little ludicrous in the descripand agreeable life, while others seem born only to suffer all  tion Plutarch gives at the close of his treatise on' the delay
kinds ofrh iseries:-preposterous as this system may appear,  of'heavenly justice.' Thespesius saw at length the souls
it has not wanted for advocaltes i. the present age, which  of those who were condemned to return to life, and whom
indeed has revived everv kind of fanciful theories. Mer-  they violently forced to take the form of all kinds of animals.
cier, in L'an deux mille quatre cents quarante, seriously  The labourers charged with this transformation, forge with
maintains          the present one,        metemps    their instruments certain parts; others, a new form; and
If we seek for the origin of'the opinion of the metempsy-  made some totally disappear; that these souls might be renchosis, or the transmigration of souls into other bodies, we  dered proper for another kind of    and other habits.
Imtst plunge into the remotest antiquity; and even then we  Among these he perceived the soul of Nero, which had al.
shall find it impossible to fix the epoch of its first author. ready suffered long torments, and which stuck to the body
The notion was long extant in Greece before the time cf  by nails red from the fire. The workmen seized on him to
Pythagoras.   Herodotus assures is that the Egyptian   make a viper of, under which form he was now to live, after
priests taught it; but he does not inform us of the time it  having devoured the breast that had carried him.,-But in
began to spread. It probably followed the opinion of the  this Plutarch only copies the fine reveries of Plato
immortality of the soul. As soon as the first philosophers
had established' this dogma, they thought they could not                SPANISH. ETIQUETTE.
maintain this immortality without a transmigration ofsouls.
The opinion of-the metempsychosis spread in almost every    The etiquette or the rules to be observed in the royal
region of the earth; and it continues, even to the present  palaces is necessary, writes Baron Bielfield, for keeping
time in all its force among those nations who have not yet  order at court. In Spain it was carried to such lengths as
embraced christianity.  The people of Arracan, Peru,  to make martyrs of their kings. Here is an instance, at
Siam, Camboya, Tonquin, Cochin-China, Japan, Java,  which, in spite of the fatal consequences it produced, one
and Ceylon still entertain that fancy, which also forms the  cannot refi'ain from smiling.
chief article of the Chinese reigion.  The Druids believed    Philip the Third was gravely seated by the fire-side;
in transmigration. The bardic triads of the Welcsh are iull  the fire-maker of the court had kindled so great a quantity
of this belief; and a Welsh antiquary insists that by an  of wood, that the monarch was nearly suffocated with heat,
emigration which formerly took place, it was conveyed to  and his grandeur would not suffer him  to rise from the
the Bramins of India from Wales! The Welsh bards tell  chair; the domestics could notpresume to enter the apartus that the souls of men transmigrate into the bodies of those  ment, because it was against the etiquette. At length the
animals whose habits and characters they most resemble,  Marquis de Pota appeared, and the king ordered him to
till after a circuit of such chastising miseries, they are ren-  damp the fires: but he excused himself; alleging that he
dered more pure for the celestial presence; for man may be  was forbidden by the etiquette to perform sulch a function,
converted into a pig or a wolf, till at length he assumes the  for which the duke d&Usseda ought to be called upon, as it
inoffensiveness of the dove.                            was his business. The duke was gone out; the fire burnt
My learned friend Sharon Turner, the accurate and phi-  fiercer; and the king endured it, rather than derogate from
losophical historian of our Saxon ancestors, has explained,  his dignity. But his blood was heated to such a degree,
in his' Vindication of the ancient British Poems,' p. 231,  that an erysipelas of the head appeared the next davy,
the Welsh system of the metempsychosis. Their bards  which succeeded by a violent fever, carried him off in 1621,
mention three circles of'existence.  The circle of the all-  in the twenty-fourth year of his age.
inclosing circle, holds nothing alive or dead but God. The   The palace was once on fire; a sordier, who knew the king's
second circle, that of felicity, is that which men are to per-  sister was in her apartment, and must inevitably have been
fade after thev have passed through theircterrestrial changes.  consumed in a few moments by the flames, at the risk of
The circle of evil is that in which human. nature passes  his. lif'e rushed in, and brought her highness safe out in his
through those varying stages of existence which it must un-  arms: but- the Spanish etiquette was here wofully broKen
dergo before it is qualified to inhabit the circle of felicity.   into! The loval soldier was brought to trial, and as it. was
The progression of man through the circle of evil is mark-  impossible to deny that he had entered her apartment, the
ed by three infelicities: necessity, oblivion, and deaths.  juidges condemned hini to die! The Spanish Princes, howThe deaths which follow our changes, are so many escapes  ever condescended in consideration of the circumstance,
from their power. Man is a fi'ee agent, and has the liberty  to pardon the soldier, and very benevolently saved his life
of choosing; his sufferings and changes cannot be foreseen.    When Isabella, mother of Philip II, was ready to be (eBy his misconduct he may happen to fall retrogale into the  livered of him. she commanded that all the lights should be
lowest state from which he had emerged.  If his tondutct  extincuisned ~ that if the violence of her pain should occa.




LITERA TURE.                                                      53
sion her face to change colour, no one might perceive it.  the clergy, with the monastic spirit of the darkest ages,
And when the midwife said,'Madam, cry out, that will  published the present paper, which I shall abridge for the
give you ease,' she answered in good Spanish,' How   contemplation of the reader, who may wonder to see such
dare you give me such advice'?  I would rather die than  a composition written tn the eighteenth century.
cry out.'On Wednesday, February the 2d, 1757, the Presbytery
of Glasgow came to the following resolution. They having
Spain gives us pride —which Spain to all the earth                                                     X.
May largely give, nor fear herself a dearth~  seen a printed paper, intituled.' An admonition and ex},-lay largely give, nor fear herself a dearth!'
ChCurchill.   hortation of the reverend Presbytery of Edinburg;' which,
among other evils prevailing, observing the following nme.
Philip the Third was a weak bigot, who suffered himself  lancholy but notorious facts: that one who is a minister of
to be governed by his ministers. A patriot wished to  the church of Scotland, did himself write and compose a
open his eyes, but he could not pierce throilgh the crowds of  stage-play, intituled," The tragedy of Douglas," and got
his flatterers; besides, that the voice of patriotism  heard  it to be acted at the theatre of Edinburg; and that he
mi a corrupt court would have become a criime never par-  with several other ministers of the church were present;
doned. He found, however, an ingenious manner of con-  and some of them  oftener than once, at the acting of the
veying to him his censure. He caused to be laid on his  said play before a numerous audience. The presbytery
table one day, a letter sealed, which bore this address-   being deeply affected with this new and strange appearTo the King of Spain, Philip the Third, at present in  ance, do publish these sentiments, &c.  Sentiments with
the service of the Duke of Lerma.'                      which I will not disgust the reader; but which they apIn a similar manner, Don Carlos, son to Philip the So-  pear not yet to have purified and corrected, as theyave
cond, made a book with empty pages, to contain the voy-  shown in the case of Logan and other Scotchmen, who
ages ot his father, which bore this title-' The Great and  have committed the crying sin of composing dramas!
Admirable Voyages of the King Mr Philip.' All these               CRITICAL HISTORY OF POVERTY.
voyages consisted of going to the Escurial from Madrid,
and returning to Madrid from the Escurial. Jests of this    Mr. Morin, in the memoirs of the French academy, has
kind, at length, cost him his life.                    formed a little history of Poverty, which I abridge.
The writers on the genealogies of the gods have not
THE GOTHS AND HUNS,                       noticed this deity's though admitted as such in the pagan
The terrific honours which these ferocious nations paid  heaven, while she has had temples and altars on earth.
to their deceased monarchs are recorded in history, by the  The allegorical Plato has pleasingly narrated, that at the
interment of Attila, king of the Huns; and Alaric, king  feast which Jupiter gave on the birth of Venus, Poverty
of the Goths.                                     modestly stood at the gate of the palace to gather tho
Attila die in 453, and was buried in the midst of a vast  fragments of the celestial banquet; when she observed the
cAttila die in 453, andhic was burioed in th  mds of a vastgod of riches, inebriated with nectar, roll out of the heachampaign in a coffin which was inclosed in one of gold,
another of silver, and a third of iron. With the body  venlv residence, and passing into the Olympian gardens,
another of silver, and a third of iron. With the bodythevimlfoavrnlak.Seszd  hspor
thre'w himself on a vernal bank. She seized this opporwere interred all the spoils of the enemy, harnesses em-   th      h mefa la           he  sd The frolicsome
broidered with gold and studded with jewels; rich silks,  tui  to become familiar with the god.    froiso
andi whatever they had takren most precious in the'alaces deity honoured her with his caresses; and from this amour
andof the kingsver they had pillaged:  and that the place of his  sprng the god of love who resembles his father in jollity
of the kings they had pillaged: and that the place of his
interment might for ever remain concealed, the Huns deintemen miht fr eer emai coceaed, he onsdo-and mirth, and his mother in his nudity.  The allegory is
rprivd  of life all who assisted at his burial      ingenious.  The union of poverty with riches, must inerprived of life all who assisted at his burial! 
tably produce the must delighttffl of pleasures.
The Goths had done nearly the same for Alaric in 410,  tably produce the must delightful of pleasures.
The golden age, however, had but the duration of a
at Kosenca, a town in Calabria.  They turned aside the      e      n age, however, had  ut the duration of a
flower; when it finished. poverty began to appear. The
river Vasento; and having formed a grave in the midst              n it finished, poverty began    appear.
of its bed where its course was most rapid, they interred  ancestors of the human race, if they (lid not meet her
this king with prodigious accumulation of riches. After  face to face, knew her in a partial degree; the vagrant
-.,                                  Cain encountered her. She was firmly established in the
having caused the river to reassume its usual course, they
patriarchal age.  We hear of merchants who publicly
murdered without exception, 1ll those who had been con-  patriarchal age.  We hear of merchants who publicly
ornred win ithit e piongula gve. d bn    practised the commerce of vending slaves, which indicates
erned in digging this singular grave.     the utmost degree of poverty. She is distinctly marked
OF VICARS OF BRAY,                     by Job: this holy man protests that he had nothing to reThe vicar of Bray, in Berkshire was a papist under the  proach himself with respecting the poor, for he had assisted
reign of Henry the Eighth, and a protestant under Edward  them in their necessities.
the Sixth; he was a papist again under Mary, and once    In the scriptures, legislators, paid great attention to their
more became a protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When  relief. Moses, by his wise precautions, endeavoured to
this scandal to the gown was reproached for his versatility  soften the rigours of this unhappy state.  The division of
of religious creeds, and taxed for being a turncoat and an  lands, by tribes and families: the septennial jubilees; the
ineonstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied,  regulation to bestow at the harvest time a certain portion' Not so neither! for if I changed my religion, I an sure  of all the fruits of the earth for those families who were
I kept trie to my principle; which is, to live and die the  in want; and the obligation of his moral law to love one's
vicar of Bray!'                                        neighbour as one's self; were so many mounds erected
This vivacious and reverend hero has given birth to a  against the inundations of poverty. The Jews under their
proveirb peculiar to his county,'The vicar of Bray will  Theocracy had few or no mendicants. Their kings were
be vicar of Bray still.' But how has it happened that this  unjust; and rapaciously seizing on inheritances which were
vicar shouild be so notorious. and one in much higher rank,  not their right, increased the numbers of the poor. From
acting the same part should have escaped notice?  Dr  the reign of David there were oppressive governors, who
Kitchen, bishop of Llandaff, from  an idle abbot under  devoured the people as their bread. It was still worse
Henry VIII, was made a busy bishop; protestant utinder  tinder the foreign powers of Babylon, of Persia, and the
Edward, he returned to his old master under Mary; and  Roman emperors. Such were the extortions of their pubat last took the oath of supremacy under Elizabeth, and  licans, and the avarice of their governors, that the number
finished as a parliament protestant. A pun spread the  of mendicants dreadfully augmented; and it was probably
odium of his name; for they said that he had always  for that reason that the opulent families consecrated a
loved the kitchen better than the church!              tenth part of their property for their succour, as appears
in the time of the evangelists. In the preceding ages no
~~DOUOI~AS~.  ~more was given, as their casuists assure us, than the forIt may be recorded as a species of Puritanic savageness  tieth or thirtieth part; a custom which this unfortunate naand Gothic barbarism, that no later than in the year 1757,  tion still practise. If there are no poor of their nation
a man of genius was persecuted because he had written a  where they reside, they send it to the most distant parts.
tragedy which tended by no means to hurt the morals;  The Jewish merchants make this charity a regular charge
Out on the contrary, by awakening the piety of domestic  in their transactions with each other; and at the ctose of
affections with the nobler passions, would rather elevate  the year render an account to the poor of their nation.
and purify the mind.                                      By the example of Moses, the ancient legislators'.ere
When Home, the author of the tragedy of Dotglas,  taught to pay a similar attention to the poor. Like him
bsd it performed at Edinburg, and because some of the  they published laws respecting the division of lands; arid
diaines: his acquainiance,  attended the representation,  nry rv crdinances were made for the benefit of those whore




54                                  CURIOSITIES O1
fires, inundations, wars, or bad harvests had reduced to  Constantine.  This prince published edicts in favour o
want.  Convinced that idleness more inevitably introduced  those christians who had been condenmed in the precedpoverty than any other cause, it was rigorously punished;  ing reigns to slavery, t. the mines, the galleys, or prisons.,,e, gyptians made it criminal, and no vagabonds or  The church felt an inundation of prodigious crowds of these
talendicants were suffered under any pretence whatever.  miserable men, who brought with them urgent wants and
Those who were convicted of slothfulness, and still re-  corporeal infirmities.  The christian families were then
fused to labour for the public when labour was offered to  not numerous; they could not satisfy these cla;mants.
them, were punished with death. The Egyptian taskmas-   The magistrates protected them; they built spacious busters observed that the Israelites were an idle nation, and  pitals, under different titles, for the sick, the aged, the inpbliged them to fulrnish bricks for the erection of those fa-  valids, the widows, and orphans.  The emperors and the
mous pyramids, which are probably the works of men who  minost eminent personages, were seen in these hoslpitals exotherwise had remained vagabonds and mendicants.         amining the patients; they assisted the helpless; they
The same spirit inspired Greece. Lycurgus would not  dressed the wounded. This did so much honour to the
have in his republic eitherpoor or rich: they lived and la-  new religion that Julian the Apostate introduced this cusboured in common. As in the present times, every family  tom among the pagans. But the best things are seen conhas its stores and cellars, so they had public ones, and dis-  tinually perverted.
tributed the provisions according to the ages and constitu-    These retreats were found insufficient. Many slaves,
tions of the people. If the same regulation was not pre-  proud of the liberty they had just recovered, looked on
cisely observed by the Athenians, the Corinthians and the  them  as prisons; and under various pretexts, wandered
other people of Greece, the same maxim  existed in full  about the country.  They displayed with art the scars of
force against idleness.                                  their former wounds, and exposed the imprinted marks of
According to the laws of Draco, Solon, &c, a conviction  their chains.  They found thus a lucrative profession in
of wilful poverty was punished with the loss of life. Plato,  begging, which had been interdicted by the laws. The pro-.
more gentle in his manners, would have them only banish-  fession did not finish with them: men of an untoward, tured. He calls them enemies of the state; and pronounces  bulent, and licentious disposition, gladly embraced it. It
as a maxim, that where there are great numbers of men-  spread so wide that the succeeding emperors were obliged
dicants, fatal revolutions will happen; for as these people  to institute new laws; and individuals were allowed to
have nothing to lose, they plan opportunities to disturb the  seize on these mendicants for their slaves and perpetual
public repose.                                           vassals: a powerful preservative against this disorder. It
The ancient Romans, whose universal object was the  is observed in almost every part of the world, but ours;
public prosperity, were not indebted to Greece on this  and prevents that populace of beggary which disgraces Euhead.  One of the principal occupations of their censors  rope. China presents us with a nobler example. Nobegwas to keep watch on the vagabonds.  Those who were  gars are seen loitering in that country.  All the world are
condemned as incorrigible sluggards were sent to the  occupied, even to the blind and thelame; and only those
mines, or made to labour on the public edifices. The Ro-  who are incapable of labour, live at the public expense.
mans of those times, unlike the present race, did not con-  What is done there may also be performed here. Instead
sider the far niente as an occupation: they were con-  of that hideous, importunate, idle, licentious poverty, as
vinced that their liberalities were ill-placed in bestowing  pernicious to the police as to morality, we should see the
them on such men. The little republics ofthe bees and the  poverty of the earlier ages, humble, modest, frugal, roants were often held out as an example; and the last, par-  bust, industrious, and laborious. Then, indeed, the faticularlv where Virgil says, that they have elected over-  ble of Plato might be realised: Poverty may be embraced
seers who correct the sluggards.                         by the god of Riches; and if she did not produce the voPars agitia cogunt,          luptuous offspring of Love, she would become the fertile
L  amoas.~    Vir,      mother of Agriculture, and the ingenious mother of tho
Castigantque ~noras.'             Virgil.                                     Z
MCast gaotque mrs                Vti        Arts and Manufactures.
And if we may trust the narratives of our travellers, the                SOLOMON AND SHEBA.
beavers pursue this regulation more rigorously and exactly
than even these industrious societies.  But their rigour,    A  Rabbin once told me of an ingenious invention,
aithotgh but animals, is not so barbarous as that of the  which in the Talmud is attributed to Solomon; and this
ancient Germans; who Tacitus informs us, plunged the  story shows that there are some pleasing tales in that imidlers and vagabonds in the thickest mire of their marshes,  mense compilation.
and left them to perish by a kind of death which resembled  The power of the monarch had spread his wisdom to the
their inactive dispositions,                            remotest part of the known world.  Queen Sheba, atYet, after all, it was not inhumanity that prompted the  tracted by the splendour ofhis reputation, visited this poetancients thus severely to chastise idleness: they were in-  ical king at his own court; there, one day to exercise the
duced to it by a strict equity; and it would be doing them   sagacity of the monarch, Sheba presented herself at the
injustice to suppose, that it was thus they treated those  foot of the throne; in each hand she held a wreath; the
untfortunate poor, whose indigence was occasioned by in-  one was composed of natural, and the other of artificial
firmities, by age or unforeseen calamities. Every family  flowers.  Art, in the labour of the mimetic wreath, had
constantly assisted its branches to save them from being  exquisitely emulated the lively hues of nature; so that at
reduced to beggary; which to them appeared worse than  the distance it was held by the queen for the inspection of
death.  The magistrates protected those who were desti-  the king, it was deemed impossible for him to decide, as
tute of friends, or incapable of labour. When Ulysses  her question imported, which wreath was the production
was disguised as a mendicant, and presented himself to  of nature, and which the work of art. The sagacious SoEurvmachus, this prince observing him to be robust and  lemon seemed perplexed; yet to be vanquished, though in
healthy, offered to give hinm emoloyment, or otherwise to  a trifle, by a trifling woman, irritated his pride.  The son
leave him to his ill-fortune. When the Roman emperors,  of David, he who had written treatises on the vegetable
even in the reigns of Nero and Tiberius, bestowed their  productions' from the cedar to the hyssop,' to acknowledge
largesses, the distributors were ordered to except those  himself outwitted by a woman, with shreds of paper and
from  receiving a share whose bad conduct kept them in  glazed paintings!'The honour of the monarch's reputamisery; for that it was better the lazy should die with  tion for divine sagacity seemed diminished, and the whole
hunger than be fed in idleness.                          Jewish court looked solemn and melancholy.  At length,
Whether the police of the ancients was more exact, or  an expedient presented itself to the king; and it must be
whether they were more attentive to practise the duties of  confessed worthy of the naturalist. Observing a cluster
humanity, or that slavery served as an efficacious correc-  of bees hovering about a window, he commanded that it
tive of idleness; it clearly appears how little was the mis-  should be opened: it was opened; the bees t:ushed into
ev, and how few the numbers of their poor. This they  the court, and alighted immediately on one of the wreaths,
did too, w;thoit having recourse to hospitals.          while not a single one fixed on the other. The baffle
At the esrabi,;hment of christianity, when the apostles  Sheba had one more reason to be astonished at the wis.
commanrled a community ofwealth among their disciples,  dom of Solomon.
the miseries of the poor became alleviated in a greater de-    This would make a pretty poetical tale.  It would yield
gree. If they did not absolutely live together, as we have   an elegant description, and a pleasing moral; that the bee
seen reliouins orders, vet the rich continually supplied their  only rest. on the natural beauties, and neverfixees on the
dlstressed brethren: but matters greatly changed under  pointed flowers, however inimitably the colours may be




LITERATURE.                                                       5,
aid on. Applied tothe ladies, this would give it pungency.  time of Jesus, and therefore could not be benefited by
In the' Practical Education' of the Edgeworths, the read-  the redemption' Speaking of young Tiberius, who was;
er will find a very ingenious conversation of the children  compelled to fall on his own sword, Tlllemont adds,' Thus
about this story.                                       by his own hand he ended his miserable life, to begisn
another, the misery of which will never end!' Yet history
HELL.                           records nothing bad of this prince. Jortin observes that
Oldham, in his' Satires upon the Jesuits,' a work which  he added this reflection in this latter edition, so that the good
would admit of a curious commentary, alludes to their  man as he grew older grew more uncharitable in his relit'lying legends,' and the innumerable impositions they  gious notions.  It is in this manner too that the Benedicpractised on the credulous. I quote a few lines in which  tine editor of Justin Martyr speaks of the illustrious pahe has collected  some of those legendary miracles,  gans. This father, after highly applauding Socrates, an4
which I have noticed in the article on Legends, and the  a few more who resembled him inclines to think that they
amours of the Virgin Mary, are detailed in Religious  are not fixed in Hell. But the Benedictine editor takes
Nouvellettes.                                            great pains to clear the good father from the shanieful imputation of supposing that a virtuous pagan might be saved
Tell, how blessed Virgin to come down was seen       as well as a Benedictine monk! For a curious specimen
Like play-house punk descending in machine,          of this odium theologicum, see the censure of the Sorbonne
How she writ billet-doux and love discourse,         on Marmontel's Belisarius.
Made assignations, visits, and amours;
wMade assignations, visits, and amours;                The adverse party, who were either philosophers or re.
Which vanquished   smokes  - r banner wore          formers, received all such information with great suspi-    - how fish in conventicles met,                 cion. Anthony Corneilius, a lawyer in the 16th century,
And mackerel were with bait of doctrine caught:      wrote a small tract, which was so effectually suppressed,
How cattle have judicious hearers been!             as a monster of atheism, that a copy is now only to be
How consecrated hives with bells were hung,          found in the hands of the curious. This author ridiculed
An}d bees kept mass and holy anthems sung.           the absurd and horrid doctrine of inJfnt damnation, and
How pigs to th' rosary kneel'd, and sheep were taught  was instantly decried as an atheist, and the printer proseTo bleat Te Deum and Magnificat;
How fly-flap, of churchcensure houses rid            cuted to his ruin! Cmlius Secusndus Curio, a noble ItaOf insects, which at curse of friar died.           lian, putblished a treatise De Amplitudine beati regni Des,
How ferrying cowls religious pilarims bore           to prove that Heaven has more inhabitants than Hell, or in
O'er waves, without the help of sail or oar;         his own phrase that the elect are more numerous than the
How zealous crab, the sacred image bore,             reprobate. However we may incline to smile at these
And swam a catholic to the distant shore,            works, their design was benevolent.  They were the first
With shams like these the giddy rout mislead,
With shams lily an  their se the giddy rout mislead,  streaks of the mnorning light of the Reformation.  Even
such works assisted mankind to examine more closely, and
All these are allusions to the extravagant fictions in' the  hold in greater contempt, the extravagant and pernicious
Golden Legend.' Among other gross impositions to de-  doctrines of the domineering papistical church.
ceive the mob, Oldham likewise attacks thenr for certain                  THE ABSENT MAN.
publications on topics not less singular.  Tie tales he has                                  M
recounted, Oldham says, are only baits for children, like    With the character of Bruyer's Absent Man the read.
toys at a fair; but they have their profounder and higher  er is well acquainted.  It is translated in the Spectator
matters for the learned and inquisitive. He goes on:     and it has been exhibited on the thetrc.  The general
opinion runs that it is a fictitious character, or at least one
One undertakes by scales of miles to tell            the author has too highly coloured. It was well known
The bounds, dimensions, and extent of Hell;          however to his contemporaries to be the Count De BranHow many German leagues that realm contains;         cas. The present anecdotes concerning the same person
How many chaldrons Hell each year expends            have been unknown to, or forgotten by, Bruyere; and are
In coals for roasting Hugonots and friends.         to the full as extraordinary as those which characterise
Another friihts the rout with useful stories         Menalces, or the Absent Man.
Of wild Chimeras, limbo's Purgatories;
W'here bloated souls, in smoky durance hung,           The count was reading by the fire-side, (but Heaven
Like a Westphalia gammon or neat's tongue,           knows with what degree of attention,) when the nur3e
To be redeemed with masses and a song.               brought him his infant child. He throws down the book;
Satyr IV.    he takes the child in his arms. He was playing with her,
when an important visiter was announced. Having forThe readers of Oldham, for Oldham must ever have read-  got he had quitted his book, and that it was his child he
ers among the curious in our poetry, have been greatly  held in his hands, he hastily flung the squalling innocent on
disappointed in the pompous edition of a Captain Thomp-  the table.
son, which illustrates none of his allusions. In the above  The Count was walking in the street, and the Duke de
lines Oldham alludes to some singular works.            la Rochefoucault crossed the way to speak to him.' God
Treatises and topographical descriptions of Hell, Pur-  bless thee, poor man!' exclaimed the count.  Rochefougatory, and even Heaven, were once the favourite research-  cault smiled, and was beginning to address him:-' Is it
es among certain zealous defenders of the Romish church,  not enough,' cried the count, interrupting him, and somewho exhausted their ink-horns in building up a Hell to  what in a passion;' it is not enough that I have said, at
their own taste, or for their particular purpose.  We have  first, I have nothing for you? such lazy beggars as you
a treatise of Cardinal Bellarmin, a jesuit, on Purgatory;  hinder a gentleman from walking the streets.' Rochefouhe seems to have the science of a surveyor, among all the  cault burst into a loud laugh, and awakening the Absent
secret tracks and the formidable divisions of' the bottom.  Man from his lethargy, he was not a little surprised, himless pit.                                               self, that he should have taken his friend for an importunate
Bellarmin informs us that there are beneath the earth  mendicant! La Fontaine is recorded to have been one of
four different places, or a profound place divided into four  the most absent of men; and Furetiere relates a circumparts. The deepest of'these places is Hell; it contains  stance which, if true, is one of the most singular distracall the souls of the damned, where will be also their bodies  tions possible. La Fontaine attended the burial of one of
after the resurrection, and likewise all the demons. The   his friends, and sometime afterwards he called to visit him.
place nearest Hell is Purgatory, where souls are purged,  At first he was shocked at the information of his death, but
or rather where they appease the anger of God by their  recovering from  his surprise, he observed-' It is true
sufferings.  He says, that the same fires and the same tor-  enough! for now I recollect I went to his funeral.'
merits are alike in both these places, the only difference
between Hell and Purgatory consisting in their duration.                      WAX-WORK.
Next to Purgatory is the limbo of those infants who die   We have heard of many curious deceptions occasioned
without having received the sacrament; and the fourth  by the imitative powers of wax-work. A series of anatc.
place is the limbo of the fathers; that is to say, of those   mical sculptures in coloured wax projected by the Grand
uest men who died before the death of Christ.  But since   Duke of Tuscany, under the direction of Fontana. Twenty
the days of the Redeemer, this last division is empty, like   apartments have been filled with those curious imitations,
an apartment to be let. A later catholic theologist, the   They represent in every possible detail, and in each sue.
famous Tillemont, condemns all the illustrious pazans to  cessive stage of denudation, the organs of sense and
the eternal torments of Hell! because they lived before the   production; the muscular, the vascular, the nervous, and




CURIOSITIES OF
the bony system. They imita.e equally well the form, and  the second the prose pasquinades published at Basle, 1544.
nmore exactly the colouring of nature than injected prepa-    The rarity of this collection of satirical pieces is en.
rations; and they have been employed to perpetuate many  tirely owing to the arts of suppression practised by the patransient phenomena of disease, of which no other court  pal government. Sallengre, in his Literary Memoirs, has
could have made so lively a record.                     given an account of this work; his own copy had formerly
There is a species of wax-work, which, though it can  belonged to Daniel Heinsius, who, in two verses, written
hardly claim the honours of the fine arts, is adapted to af-  in his hand, describes its rarity and the price it cost
ford much pleasure. I mean figures of wax, which may           Roma meos fratres igni dedit, unica Phoenix
be modelled with the great truth of character.                 Vivo, auriesque veneo centum Hensio.
Menage has noticed a work of this kind. In the year' Rome gave my brothers to the flames, but I survive a soli.
1675, the Duke de Matne received a gilt cabinet, about the  tary Phenix.  Heinsius bought me for a hundred golden
size of a moderate table. On the door was inscribed,  ducats.'' The apartment of Wyit.' The inside exhibited an alcove    This collection contains a great number of pieces comnand a long gallery. In an arm-chair was seated the fi-  posed at different times, against the popes, cardinals, &c.
gure of the duke himself composed of wax, the reserm-  They are not indeed materials for the historian, and they
blaince the most perfect imaginable. On one side stood  must be taken with grains of allowance; but IMr Roscoe
the Duke de la Rochefoucault, to whom he presented a pa-  might have discovered in these epigrams and ptins, that of
per of verses for his examination. Mr de Marcillac and  his hero Leo X, and the more than infamous Lucretia of
Bossuet Bishop of Meaux, were standing near the arm-  Alexander VI; even the corrupt Romans of the day were
chair. In the alcove, Madame de Thiangesand Madame  capable of expressing themselves with the utmost freede la Fayette sat retired reading a book. Boileau, the  dom.*  Of these three respectable personages we find sesatirist stood at the door of the gallery, hindering seven or  veral epitaphs.  Of Alexander VI we have an apology
eight bad poets from  entering. Near Boileau stood Ra-  for his conduct.
cine who seemed to beckon to La Fontaine to come for.
ward. All these figures were formed of wax; and this            Vendt lexa prus, vender aves, atara, hrst
philosophical baby-house, interesting for the personages it'Alexander sells the keys, the altars and Christ;.5                           Alexander sells the keys.  altars, an
imitated, tmight induce a wish in some philosophers to play  As he bought them first, he had a right to sell them!'
once more with one.                                       On Lucretia:There was lately an old canon at Cologne who made a
collection of small wax models of characteristic figures,       Hoc tumulo dormi filretia  nomine, sed re
such as, personifications of misery, in a haggard old man       Thats; Alexadri filiae sponsa, nurus!
with a scanty crust and a brown jug before him: or of ava-'Beneath this stone sleeps Lucretia by name, but by na
ttre  Thais;  the daughter, the wife,the daughter-in~lawo I
rice in a keen looking Jew miser counting his gold, which  Alexander, the wife, te    gher a 
were done with such a spirit and reality that a Flemish                                     e a
painter a Hogarth or Wilkie, could hardly have worked uprequent butt or the arows of Pasthe feeling of the figure more impressively. All these  quin
were done with a truth and expression which I could not        Sacra sub extrema, si forte requiritis, hora
have imagined the wax capable ofexhibiting, says the lively      Cur Leo non potuit sumere; vendiderat.
writer of' an Autuntri on the Rhine.' There is some-' Do you ask why the Lion did not take the sacrament on
thing very infantine in this taste; but I have preserved it  his death.bed?-How could he? He had sold it!'
long in life, and only lament that it is very rarely gratified  Many of these satirical touches depend on puns.  Urby such close copiers of nature as was this old canon of  ban VII, one of the Barberini family, pillaged the pantheon
Cologne.                                                of brass to make cannon, on which occasion Pasquin was
PASQUIN AND MARFORIO.                     made to say --
All the world have heard of these statues: they have      Quod non fecerunt Barbari Romae, fecit Barberini.'
served as vehicles for the keenest satire in a land of the    On Clement VII, whose death was said to be occasionmost uncontrolled despotism. The statue qfPasquin (from   ed by the prescriptions of his Physician:
whence the word pasquinade) and that of Marforio are
placed in Rome in two different quarters..llarforio's is      Curtius occidit Clementem, Curtius auro
an ancient statue that lies at its whole length: either Pa-       Donandus, per quem publica parta salts.
narium Jovum; or the river Rhine.  That of Pasquin is' Dr Curltius has killed the pope by his remedies; he ought
a marble statue,, greatly mutilated, which stands at the  to be paid as a r.an who deserves well of the state.
corner of the palace of the Ursinos supposed to be the fi-    Another calls Dr Curtius,' The Lamb of God who aagure of a gladiator. Whatever they may have been is  nuls or takes away all worldly sins.'
now oflittle consequence; to one or other of these statues,    The following, on Paul III, are singular conceptions:during the concealment of the night are affixed those sas     Papa Medustelm caput est, coma turba Nepotum
tires or lampoons which the authors wish should be dispers-     Perseus cnede caput, Cresaries periit.
ed about Rome without any danger to themselves. When
ZMarforio is attacked, Pasqusin comes to his succour  and' The pope is the head of Medusa; the horrid tresses are his
when Parsquin is the sufferer he finds in hMrforio a; con-  nephews; Perseus, cut off the head, and then we shallbe rid
stant defender. Thus, by a thrust and a parry, the most  onother is sarcasticserious matters are disclosed; and the most illustrious
personages are attacked by their enemies, and defended         Ut canerent data multa olim stint Vatibus aera:
by their friends.                                                Ut taceam, quantum tu mihi, Paule, dabis?
Misson in his travels in Italy, gives the following ac-' Heretofore money was given to poets that they might sing:
count of the origin of the name of the statue of Pas-  how much will you give me, Paul, to be silent.'
gain:-                                                   The collection contains, among other classes, passages
A satirical tailor, who lived at Rome, and whose name  from the Scriptures which have beent applied to the cotirt o!
was Pasquin, amused himself with severe raillery, liberal-  Rome; to different nations and persons  and one of  Sore
ly bestowed on those who passed by his shop; which in  teR   Virgiliance per Pasquillom  collec,'s -passages from
time became the lounge of'the news-mongers.  The tailor  Virgil frequently happily applied and those who are cue
had precisely the talent to head a regiment of satirical  rious in the history of those times, will find this portion
wits. and had he had time topublish, he would have been  interesting.  The work itself not quite so rare as Dathe Peter Pindar of his day; but his genius seems to have
been satisfied to rest cross-legged on his shop-board. When  * It appears by a note in Mr. Roscoe's catalogue of his Li
any lanmpoons or amusing bon-mots were current in Rome,  brary, that three of the sarcastic epigrams here cited, are given
they were usually called from his shop, pasquinades. After  in the Life of Leo X. At this distance of time I cannot account
his death this statue of an ancient gladiator was found un-  for my own inadvertency. It has been, however, the occa
der the pavement of his shop. It was soon set up; and   sion of calling down from Mr Roscoe an admirable reflection,
by universal consent was inscribed with his name; and they   which I am desirous of preserving, as a canon of criticism.
~~~by          un~~ivscstsnidihneahy'It is much safer, in general, to speak ofthe contents of books
still attempt to raise him from the dead, and keep the caus-  positively than negatively, as the latter requires that they
tic tailor alive, in the marble gladiator of wit.       should first be read.' I regret that our elegant and nervous
There is a very rare work, with this title:-' Pasquil-  waiter should have considered a casual inadvertence as worth
lorvn, Tomi Duo.' The first containing the verse, and   his attention




LIT E RATURE.                                                       57
niel Heinseius imagined; the price might now reach from   speaks to the same purpose in the Adages, c. 189 as
five to ten guineas.                                    J~rtin observes, p. 90. Blackwell in his curious Life of
Marforio is a statue of Mars, found in the Forum;)  Homer, after showing that the ancient oracles were the
which the people have corrupted into MarJorio.  These  fountains of knowledge, and that the god of Delphi actualstatues are placed at opposite ends of the town, so that  ly was believed by the votaries, from the oracle's perfect
there is always sufficient time to make Marforio reply to  acquaintance with the country, parentage, and fortunes of
the gibes and jeers of Pasquin, in walking from one to the  the suppliant, and many predictions having been verified;
other. I am obliged for the information to my friend iVIr  that besides ail this, the oracles that have reached us dis.
Duppa, the elegant biographer of Michael Angelo.         cover a wide knowledge of every thing relating to Greece;
-he is at a loss to account for a knowledge that he thinks
FEMALE BEAUTY AND ORNAMENTS.                   has something divine in it: it was a knowledge to be found
Theladies in Japan gild their teeth, and those of the  nowhere in Greece but among the oracles.  He would acIndies paint them red.  The pearl of teeth must be dyed  count for this phenomenon, by supposing there existed a
black to be beautiful in Guzurat. In Greenland the wo-  succession of learned men devoted to this purpose. He
minen colour their faces with blue and yellow. However  says,'Either we must admit the knowledge of thile priests,
fresh the complexion of' a Muscovite may be, she would  or turn converts to the ancients, and believe in the omniscience
think herself very ugly if she was not plastered over with  of.Apollo, which in this age I know nobody in hazard of.
paint.  The Chinese must have their feet as diminutive  Yet to the astonishment of this writer, were lhe now living,
as those of the she goats; and to render them thus: their  he would have witnessed this incredible fact! Even Erasyouth is passed in tortures.  In ancientPersia, an aqua-  mus himself might have wondered.
line nose was often thought worthy of the crown; and if    We discover the origin of modern platonism, as it may be
there was any conception between two princes, the peo-  distinguished among the Italians. About the middle of
pie generally went by this criterion of majesty.  In some  the fifteenth century, some time before the Turks had becountries, the mothers break the noses of their children;  come masters of Constantinople, a great number of philo.
and in other pressthe head between two boards, that it  sophersflourished. Gemisthus Pletho was once distinguishmay become square. The modern Persians have a strong  ed by his genius, his erudition, and his fervent passion for
aversion to red hair; the Turks, on the contrary, are warm  platonism. Mr Roscoe notices Pletho;'His discourses
admirers of it.  The female Hottentot receives from  the  had so powerful an effect upon Cosmo  de MIedici, who
hand of her lover, not silk or wreaths of flowers, but  was his constant auditor, that he established an academy
warm guts and reeking tripe, to dress herself with enviable  at Florence for the sole purpose of cultivating this new and
ornaments.                                               more elevated species of philosophy.' The learned MarIn China small round eyes are liked; and the girls are  silio Ficino translated Plotinus, that great archimage of
continually plucking their eye-brows that they may be thin  platonic mysticism.  Such were Pletho's eminent abiities,
and long. The Turkish women dip a gold brush in the  that in his old age those whom his novel system had greatly
tincture of a black drug, which they pass over their eye-  irritated, either feared or respected him. He had scarcely
brows. It is too visible by day, but looks shining by night.  breathed his last when they began to abuse Plato and our
They tinge their nails with a rose-colour;  An African  Pletho.  The bfollowing account is written by George of
beauty must have small eyes, thick lips, a large flat nose,  Trebizond.
and a skin beautifully black.  The Emperor of Monomo-'Lately has arisen amongst us a second Mahomet: and
tapa would not change his amiable negress for the most  this second, if we do not take care, will exceed in greatness
brilliant European beauty.                               the first, by the dreadful consequences of his wicked dcAn ornament for the nose appears to us perfectly unne-  trine, as the first has exceeded Plato.  A disciple and
cessary.  The Peruvians, however, think otherwise; and  rival of this philosopher in philosophy, in eloquence, and in
they hang on it a weighty ring, the thickness of which is  science, he had fixed his residence in the Peloponnese.
proportioned by the rank of their husbands.  The custom   His common name was Gemisthus, but he assumed that
of boring it, as our ladies do their ears, is very common in  of Pletho.  Perhaps Gemisthus, to make us believe more
several nations. Through the perforation are hung vari-  easily that he was descended from heaven, and to engage
ous materials; such as green crystal, gold stones, a single  us to receive more readily his doctrine and his new law,
and sometimes a great number of gold rings. This is rather  wished to change his name, according to the manner of the
troublesome to them in blowing their noses; and the fact  ancient patriarchs; of whom it is said, that at the time the
is, some have informed us, that the Indian ladies never  name was changed they were called to the greatest things.
perform this very useful operation.                      He has written with no vulgar art, and with no common
The female head-dress is carried in some countries to  elegance. He has given new rules for the conduct of life,
singular extravagance.  The Chinese fair carries on her  and for the regulation of human affairs; and at the same
head the figure of a certain bird. This bird is composed  time has vomited forth a great number of blasphemies
ofcopper, or of gold, according to the quality of the per-  against the catholic religion. He was so zealous a plason: The wings spread out, fall over the front of the head-  tonist that he entertained no other sentiments than those
dress, and conceal the temples. The tail, long and open,  of Plato, concerning the nature of the gods, souls, sacriforms a beautiful tuft of feathers. Tile beak covers the  fices, &c. I have heard him  myself, when we were totop of the nose; the neck is fastened to the body of the ar-  gether at Florence, say, that in a few years all men on the
tificial animal by a spring, that it may the more freely play,  face of the earth would embrace with one common consent,
and tremble at the slightest motion.                     and with one mind, a single and simple religion, at the first
The extravagance of the Myantses is far more ridiculous  instructions which should be given by a single preaching.
than the above. They carry on their heads a slight board,  And when I asked him if it would be the religion of Jesus
rather longer than a foot, and about six inches broad: with  Christ, or that of Mahomet? he aswered, ":Neither one
this they cover their hair, and seal it with wax. They   nor the other; but a third, which will not greatly differ
cannot lie down, nor lean. without keeping the neck straight;  from paganism."  These words I heard with-so mitch inand the country being very woody, it is not uncommon to  dignation, that since that time I have always hated him:
find them with their head-dress entangled in the trees;  I look upon him as a dangerous viper; and I cannot think
whenever they comb their hair, they pass an hour by the  of him without abhorrence.'
fire in melting the wax; but this combing is only perfbrm-    The pious writer of this account is too violently agitaed once or twice a your.                                 ted: he might perhaps, have bestowed a smile of pity or
The inhabitants of the land of Natal wear caps, or bon-  contempt; but the bigots and fanatics are not less insano
nets, from  six to ten inches high composed of the fat of  than the impious themselves.
oxen. They then gradually anoint the head with a purer    It was when Pletho died full of years and honours, that
grease, which mixing with the hair, fastens the bonnets  the malice of his enemies collected all its venom. A cirfor their lives.                                        cumstance that seems to prove that his abilities must have
been great indeed to have kept such crowds silent: and it
MODERN PLATONISM.                       is not improbable, this scheme of impiety was less impious
Erasmus in his age of religious revolution expressed an  than some people imagined. Not a few catholic writers
alarm, which in some shape has been since realized. He   lament that his book was burnt, and greatly regret the loss
strangely, yet acutely observes, that' literature began to  of Pletho's work; which, they say, was not meant to sub.
make a great and happy proeress; but,' he adds,'I fear  vert the christian religion, but. only to unfold the system of
two things, that the study of Hebrew will promote Judaism,  Plato and to collect what he and other philosophers had
and the study of philoiogy will revive Paganism.' He   written on religion and politics.
8




5~8         ~CURIOSITIES OF
Of his religious scheme, the reader may judge by this  ing, and perhaps more capriciously grotesque, though witr
summary account,. The general title of the volume ran  infinitely less taste than the present generation. Were a
thus:' This book treats of the laws of the best form of  philosopher and an artist, as well as an antiquary, to com
government, and what all men must observe in their public  pose such a work, much diversified entertainment, ans
and private stations, to live together in the most perfect,  some curious investigation of the progress of the arts ant
the most innocent, and the most happy manner.' The  taste, would doubtless be the result: the subject otherwise
whole was divided into three books. The titles of the  appears of trifling value; the very farthing pieces of history.
chapters where paganism  was openly inculcated, are re-    The origin of many fashions was in the endeavour to
ported by Gennadius, who condemned it to the flames, but  conceal some deformity of the inventor; hence the cushions,
who has not thought proper to enter into the manner of his  ruffs, hoops, and other monstrous devises. If a reirning
arguments, &c.  The impiety and the extravagance of  beauty chanced to have an unequal hip, those who hal
this new legislator appeared above all, in the articles which  very handsome hips, would load them with that false rump
concerned religion. He acknowledges a plurality of gods;  which the other was compelled by the unkindness of nasome superior, whom  he placed above the heavens; and  ture to substitute. Patches were invented in England in
the others inferior, on this side the heavens.  The first  the reign of Edward VI by a foreign lady, who in this
existing from the remotest antiquity; the others younger,  manner ingeniously covered a wen on her neck. When
and of different ages. He gave a king to all these gods;  the Spectator wrote, full-bottomed wigs were invented by
and he called him ZEYI], or Jupiter, as the pagans named  a French barber, one Duviller, whose name they perpetuthis power formerly.  According to him, the stars had a  ated, for the purpose of concealing an elevation in the
soul; the demons were not malignant spirits; and the world  shoulder of the Dauphin.  Charles VII of France introwas eternal. Hie established polygamy, and was even in-  duced long coats to hide his ill-made legs.  Shoes with
dined to a -community of women. All his work was filled  very long points, full two feet in length, were invented by
with such reveries, and with not a few impieties, which  Henry Plantagenet Duke of Anjou, to conceal a large exmy pious author will not venture to give.                crescence on one of his feet.  WThen Francis I was oblig..
What the intentions of Pletho were, it would be rash to  ed to wear his short hair, owing to a wound he received in
determine. If thle work was only an arrangement of pa-  his head, it became a prevailing fashion at court. Others
ganism, or the platonic philosophy, it might have been an  on the contrary adapted fashions to set off their peculiar
innocent, if not a curious volume. He was learned and ht-  beauties, as Isabella of Bavaria, remarkable for her gallanmane, and had not passed his life entirely in the solitary  try, and the fairness of her complexion, introduced the
recesses of his study.                                   fashion of leaving the shoulders and part of the nieck unTo strain human curiosity to the utmost limits ofhuman  covered.
credibility, a modern Pletho has arisen in Mr Thomas Toy-    Fashions have frequently originated from circumstances
Ior, who, consonant to the platonic philosophy, at the pre-  as silly as the following one. Isabella, daughter of Philip
sent day religiously professes polytheim!  At the close  II, and wife of the Archduke Albert, vowed not to change
of the eighteenth century, be it recorded, were published   her linen till Ostend was taken; this siege, unluckily fur
I                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~her coinent tla stend theeyars taknd thile Spsiede ulcklyor
many volumes, in which the author affects to avow himself  her comfort, lasted three years; and the supposed colour
a zealous Platonist, and asserts le can prove that the  of the archduchess's linen gave rise to a fashionable colour,
christian religion is a' bastardized and barbarized Platon-  hence called L'Isbeau, or the Isabella; a kind of whitishism!' The divinities of Plato are the divinities to be  yellow-dingy.  Or sometimes they originate in some ternadored, and we are to be taught to call God Jupiter; the  porary event; as after the battle of Steenkirk, where the
Virgin, Venus; and Christ, Cupid! And the Iliad of  allies wore large cravats, by which the French frequently
Homer allegorized, is converted into a Greek bible of the  seized hold of them, a circumstance perpetuated on the mearcana of nature! Extraordinary as this literary lunacy  dals of Louis XIV, cravats were called Steenkirks; and afmay appear, we must observe, that it stands not singular  ter the battle of Ramillies, wigs received that denomination.
in the annals of the histor t he the human mind. The Flo-    The court in all ages and in every country are the mo..
rentine academy which Cosmo founded, had, no doubt,  dellers of fashions, so that all the ridicule, of which these
some classical enthusiasts bhut who, perhaps according to  are so susceptible, must fall on them, and not upon their
the political character of their country, were. prudent and  servile imitators the citizens.  This complaint is made
reserved.  The platonic furor, however, appears to have  even so far back as in 1586, by Jean des Caures, an old
reached other countries. The following remarkable anec-  French moralist, who, in declaiming against the fashions
dote has been given by St. Foix, in his' Essais histori-  of his day, notices one, of the ladies carrying mirrors fixed
ques sur    In the reign of Louis XII, a scnolar  to their waists. which seemed to employ their eyes in pernamed Hemon de la Fosse, a native of Abbeville, by con-  petual activity.  From this mode will result, according to
tinually reading and admiring the Greek and Latin writers,  honest Des Caures, their eternal damnation.'Alas (he
tinall radig nd dtirig he Greek and Latin writers,
became mad enough to persuade himself that it was im-  exclaims,) in what an age do we live; to see such depravipossible that the religion of such great geniuses as Homer,  ty which we see, that induces them  even to bring into
Cicero, and Virgil was a false one.  On the 25th of Au-   hch these scandlous mirror  hanging about their wa!
Leturc hithres vne humcandalu pirorsfangin abeonutltheir it
gust, 1503, being at church, he suddenly snatched the host  Let all histories divine, human, and profane be cnsulted;
from the hands of the priest, at the moment it was raised   never will it be found that these objects of vanity were ever
xlaiig;' what always this folly' He was ime   thus brought into public by the most meretricious of the sex.:ictlyi seized wat! plwain thison I                     thus hop       thaio    ft he sx
IrAtely seized and put in prison.  In the hope that he  It is true, at present none but the ladies of the court venture
would abjure his extravagant errors, they delayed his pun-  to wear them' but long it will not be before every citizen's
ishment; but no exhortation nor intreaties availed.  He  daughter, and everyfemale servant, will wear them!' Such
ishment; but no exhortation nor intreaties availed. He 
ersisted in maintaining that Jupiter was the sovereign  in all timres has been the rise and decline of fashion; and
od of the u niverse, and that there was no other paradise  the absurd mimicry of the citizens, even of the lowest clasUord of the universe, and that there was no other paradises         rvyrunintan
th~~~~anteEsinfl ds. He was burnt alive, after havina
than the Elsyan fields.           rin                    se, to their very ruin, in straining to rival the newest
Me wa burt alve, ater avin   fashi..,n, has mortified and galled the courtier.
first had his tongue pierced, and his hand cut off. Thus
perished an ardent and learned youth, who ought only to    On this subject old Camden, in his remains, relates a
have been condemned as a Bedlamite.                      story of a trick played off on a citizen, which I give in the
Dr More, the most rational of our modern Platonists,  plainness of his own venerable style.' Sir Philip Calthrop,
D~ ~~~~~~~~~~~predJh Draes, the mstatoemake of ouritmodern ltohite
abounds, however, with the most extravagant reveries,  pured John Drakes, the shoemaker of.N'orwich, in  h. n           i e ofr Kin, H.r,IIo  h   ru hmu   hc  u
and was inflated with egotism and enthusiasm, as much as  tim  of Kin  Henry VII, of the proud humur which our
any of his mystic predecessors. He conceived that he  peoplehave to beof thegentleman's ct. This knightbought
hda an intercourse with the divinity itself! that he had been  on a time as mucn fine French tawny cloth as should make
In                                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~him a gown, and sent it to the tailor's to be made. John
shot as a fiery dart into the world, and he hoped he had   him a gown, and sent it to the tailor's to be tiiassid. John
hit the mark. He carried his self-conceit to such extra-  Dks a shoemaker of that town, comi  t this said taivagarce, that he thought his urine smelt like violets, and  br's, and seeing the knight's gown cloth iaying there, Ikin, it well, caused the tailor to buy him as much o)f the
his body in the spring seasoi had a sweet odour; a per i t wel c  anod  the to     to buy him as much  if ta.
fectiors petculiar to himself. These visionaries indulge the
fectio'  pecuiar o hiisef.  Tese  isioaris inulgethe same cloth and price to the same extent, and further bade
most fanciarl voanitysl Teevsoaisi dugt                him to make it of the same,fishion, that the knight would
have his made of. Not lona after, the knight comning to
ANECDOTES OF FAStION.                     the tail,,r's to take the measure of his gown, perceiving the
like cloth lying there, asked of the tailor whose it was',
A volume on this subject might be made very curious   Qiuoth the tailor, it is John Drakes the shoemaker, who
and entertaining, for our ancestors were not less vacillat-  will have it made of' the self-same fashion that yours i maci




LITERATURE.                                                        59
of! " Well!".aid the knight,   in gnod time be it! I   declamation of the moralist, and the favourite object of
will have mine made as full of cuts as the shears can make  fashion.  If the beau monde wore their hair luxuriant, or
it."'" It shall be done!" said the tailor; whereupon, be-  their wig enormous, the preachers, as in Charles the Secause the time drew near, he made haste to finish both   cond's reign, instantly were seen in the pulpit with their
their garments. Johni Drakes had no time to go to the   hair cut shorter, and their sermon longer, in consequence;
tavlor's till Christmas day, for serving his customers, when   respect was however paid by the world to the size of the
he hoped to have worn his gown; perceiving the same to  wig, in spite of the hair-cutter in the pulpit.  Our judges,
be full of cuts, began to swear at the tailor, for the making   and till lately our physicians, well knew its magical effect.
his gown after that sort.  " I have done nothing," quoth  In the reign of Charles If the hair-dress of the ladies was.he tailor, " but that you bid me, for as Sir Philip Cal-  very elaborate; it was not only curled and frizzed with tfe
thorp's garment is, even so have I made yours!"  "By   nicest art, but set off with certain artificial curls, then to,.
my latchet!" quoth John Drakes, "I will never wear gen-  emphatically known by the pathetic term of' heart-breakers
tlimen'sfashions again."'                                 and love-locks.  So late as William  and Mary, lads, and
Sometimes fashions are quite reversed in their use in  even children wore wigs; and if they had not wigs, they
one age fromn  another.  Bags, when first in fashion in  curled their hair to resemble this fashionable ornament.
France, were only worn en dishabille; in visits of ceremo-  Women then were the hair-dressers.
ny, the hair was tied by a riband and floated over the       It is observed by the lively Vigneul de Marville, that
shoulders, which is exactly reversed in the present fashion.  there are flagrant follies in fashion which must be endured
In the year 1735 the men had no hats but a little chapeau   while they reign, and which never appear ridiculous till
de bras; in 1745 they wore a very small hat; in 1755they  they are out of fashion.  In the reign of Henry III of
wore an enormous one, as may be seen in Jeffrey's curl-  France, they could not exist without an abundant use of
ous'Collection of Habits in all Nations.' Old Putten-  comfits.  All the world, the grave and the gay, carried
ham, in his very rare work,'The Arts ofPoesie,' p. 239,  in their pocket a comfit-box as we do snuff-boxes.  They
on the present topic gives some curious information.  used them even on the nmost solemn occasions: when the'Henry VIII caused his own head, and all his courtiers  Duke of Guise was shot at Blois, he was found with his
to be polled, and his beard to be cut short; before that time  comfit-box in his hand.  Fashions indeed have been car..
it was thought more decent, both for old men and young, to  ried to so extravagant a length as to have become a public
be all shaven, and wear long haire, either rounded or  offence, and to have required the interference of govern.
square.  Now again at this time (Elizabeth's reign,) the   ment.  Short and tight breeches were so much the rage
young gentlemen of the court have taken up the long haire  in France, that Charles V was compelled to banish this
trayling on their shoulders, and think this more decent;  disgusting mode by edicts which may be found in Meze.
for what respect I would be glad to know.'                 ray.  An Italian author of the fifteenth century supposes
When the fair sex were accustomed to behold their loy-  an Italian traveller of nice modesty would not pass through
ers with beards, the sight of a shaved chin excited feelings  France, that he might not be offended by seeing men
of horror and aversion; as much indeed as, in this less  whose clothes rather exposed their nakedness than hid it.
heroic age, would a gallant whose luxurious beard should   It is curious that the very same fashion was the comStream like a meteor to the troubled air.'         plaint in the remoter period of our Chaucer, in his Par-' Stream like a meteor to the troubled air.,        o'sTl.
son's Tales.
When Louis VII, to obey the injunctions of his bishops,    In the reign of our Elizabeth the reverse of all this took.
cropped his hair, and shaved his beard, Eleanor, his con-  place; then the mode of enormous breeches was pushed
sort, found him, with this unusual appearance, very ridicu-  to'a most laughable excess.  The beaus of that day stuffIous, and soon very contemptible.  She revenged herself  ed out their breeches wilh rags, feathers, and other light
as she thought proper, and the poor shaved king obtained   matters, till they brought them  out to a most enormous
a divorce. She then married the Count of Anjou, after-  size.  They resembled wool-sacks, and in a public spec.
wards our Henry II.  She had for her marriage dower  tacle, they were obliged to raise scaffolds for the seats o.
the rich provinces of Poitotu and Guvenne, and this was  those ponderous beaus.  To accord with this fantastica,
the origin of those wars which for ihree hundred years  taste the ladies invented large hoop farthingales.  Two
ravaged France, and cost the French three millions of  lovers aside could surely never have taken one another by
men.  All which, probably, had never occurred, had  the hand.  In a preceding reign the fashion ran on square.
Louis VII not been so rash as to crop his head and shave  toes; insomuch that a proclamation was issued that na
his beard, by which he became so disgustful in the eyes of  person should wear shoes above six inches square at the
our Queen Eleanor.                                         toes!  Then succeeded picked-pointed shoes!  The naWe cannot perhaps sympathize with the feelings of her  tion was again, in the reign of Elizabeth, put under the
majesty, though at Constantinople she might not have  royal authority.'In that time,' says honest John Stowe,
been considered quiiite unreasonable.  Theremust be some-'he was held the greatest gallant that had the deepes'
thing more powerful in beards and mustachois than we are  7mtffe and longest rapier: the offence to the eye of the one
quite aware of; for when these were in fashion, with what  and hurt unto the life of the subject that come by the other:
enthusiasm were they not contemplated! When  nusta-  this caused her Majestie to make proclamation against
ehois were in general use, an author, in his Elements of  them both, and to place selected grave citizens at every gate
Education, published in 1640, thinks that' hairy Excre-  to cut the rujies, and break the rapier points of all passen.
mpnt,' as Armado in'Love's Labour  Lost' calls it, con-  gers that exceeded a yeard in length of their rapiers, and
tributed to make men valorous.  He says,' I have a fa-  a nayle of ayeard in depth of their ruffes.'  These' grave
vourable opinion of that young gentleman who is curious  citizens,' at every gate cutting the ruffes and breaking the
in fine mustachois.  The time he employs in adjusting,  rapiers, must doubtless have encountered in theirludicrous
dressing, and cturling them, is no lost time; for the more  employment some stubborn opposition; but this regula.
he contemplates his mustachois, the more his mind will  tion was, in the spirit of that age, despotic and effectual.
cherish, and be animated by masculine and courageous   The late Emperor of Russia ordered the soldiers to stop
notions.  The best reason that could be given for wearing   every passenger who wore pantaloons, and with their
the longest and largest beard of any Englishman, was that  hangers to cut off, upon the leg, the offending part of these
of a worthy clerovmant in Elizabeth's reign,'that no act  superfluous breeches; so that a man's legs depended
of his life might be unworthy of the gravity of his appear-  greatly on the adroitness and humanity of a Russ or a
ance.'                                                     Cossack; however this war against pantaloons was very
The grandfather of the Mrs Thomas, the Corinna of  successful, and obtained a compl**e triumph in favour op
Cromwell, the literary friend of Pope, by her account,  the breeches in the cotrse of the week.'was very nice in the mode of that age, his valet being      A shameful extravagance in dress has been a most ve.
some hours every morning in starching his beard, and curl-  nerable folly.  In the reign of Richard [I, their dress was
ins his whiskers; during which time he was always read   sumptuous beyond belief. Sir John Arundel had a change
to.' Taylor, the water poet, humorously describes the  ofno less than 52 new suits of cloth of gold tissue.  Tho
great variety of heards in his time, which extract may be  prelates indulged in all the ostentatiotus luxutry of dress.
found in Grey's Hudibras, Vol. 1, p. 300.  The beard,  Chaucer says, they had'chaunge ofclothing everie dale.
savs Granger, dwindled eradually under the two Charles's,  Brantome records of Elizabeth, Queen of Pitilip II, of
till it was reduced into whiskers, and became extinct in the  Spain, that she never wore a gown twice; this was told him
reign of James IT, as if its fatality had been connected   by her majesty's own tailleur, who from a poor man soon
with that of the house of Stuart.                          became as rich as any one he knew.  Our own Elizabeth
The hair has in all ages been an endless topic of the  left no less than three thousand different habits in her ward.




ESO0                     UCURIOSITIES OF
robe, heni she died. She was possessed of the dresses of  the manner of a church window. The ladies ofthat pe.
all countries,                                          riod were not less fantastical.
The catholic religion has ever considered the pomp of    The wild variety of dresses worn in the reign of Henry
the clerical habit as not the slightest part of its religious   VIII, is alluded to in a print of a naked Englishman holdceremnomes; their devotion is addressed to the eye of the  ing a piece of cloth hanging on his right arm, and a pa. oif
people. In the reign of our catholic, ueen Mary, the   shears in his left nand.  It was invented by Andrew
dress of a priest was costly indeed; and the sarcastic and   Borde, a facetious wit of those days. The print hears the
goodohumoured Fuller gives, in his Worthies, the will of  following inscription:a priest, to show the wardrobe of men of his order, and     I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here,
desires that the priest may not be jeered fotbr the gallantry  Musing in my mind, what rayment I shall wc:e
of his splendid apparel. Hie bequeaths to various parish    For now I will were this, and now I will were that,
churches and persons,' My vestment of crimson satin-       And now I will weie, what I cannot tell what.
my vestment of crimson velvet-my stole and fanon set    At a lower period, about the reign of Elizabeth; we are
with pearlt-my black gown faced with taffeta, &c.'      presentted with a curious picture of a man of fashion.  I
Chaucer has minutely detailed in'  The Petsone's Tale,'  make this extract fromn Puttenham's very scarce work on
the grotesque and the costly fashions of his day: and the   The Art of Poetry, p. 250. This author was a travelled
simplicity of the venerable satirist will interest the anti-  courtier, and has interspersed his curious work with many
quary and the philosopher. Much, and curiously, have  lively anecdotes, and correct pictures of the times.-This
his caustic severity or lenient humour descanted on the  is his fanitastical beau in the reign of Elizabeth.' May it
moche superfluitee,' and' wast of cloth in vanitee,' as  not seeme enough for a courtier to know how to weare a
well as'the disordinate scantnesse.' In the spirit of the  feather and set his cappe aflaunt; his chain en echarpe; a
good old times he calculates'the coste of the embrouding  straight buskin, al Inglese; a loose a la Turquesque; the
or embroidering; endenting or baring; ounding or wavy;  cape alla Spaniola; the breech a la Frangois, and by
paling or imitating pales; and winding or bending; the  twentie maner of new-fashioned garments, to disguise his
costiewe furring in the gounes; so much pounsouing of  body and his face with as many countenances, whereof it
chesel to maken holes (that is punched with a bodkin:) so  seems there be many that make a very arte and studie,
moche dagging of shores (cutting into slips;) with the su-  who can show himnselfe most fine, I will not say most foolperfluitee in length of the gounes trailing in the dong and ish or ridiculous.' So that a beau of those times wore in
in the myre, on horse and eke on foot, as wel of man as of  the same dress a grotesque mixture of all the fashions in
woman-that all thilke trailing,' he verily believes, which  the world. About the same period the ton ran in a diffewastes, consumes, wears threadbare, and is rotten with  rent course in France.  There, fashion consisted in an
dung, are all to the damage of'the poor folk,' who might  affected negligence of dress; for Montaigne honestly labe clothed only out of the flounces and draggle-tails of  ments in Book i, Cap. 25-' I have never yet been apt to
these children of vanity. But then his Parson is not less  imitate the negligent garb which is yet observable among
bitter against'the horrible disordinat scanthesse of cloth-  the young men of our time; to wear my cloak on one shoul.
ing,' and very copiously he describes, though perhaps in  der, my bonnet on one side, and one stocking in something
terms, and. with a humour too coarse for me to transcribe,  more disorder than the other, meant to express a manly dis,
the consequences of these very tight dresses. Of these   dain of such exotic ornaments, and a contempt of art.'
persons, among other offensive matters, he sees'the but-    The fashions of the Elizabethan age have been chronitokkes behind as if they were the hinder part of a sheape  cled by honest John Stowe. Stowe was originally a taisr
in the ful of the mone.' He notices one of the most gro-  and when he laid down the shears and took up the pen,
tesque of all modes; that one they then had of wearing a  the taste and curiosity for dress was still retained.  He is
parti-coloured dress; one stocking, part white and part  the grave chronicler of matters not grave.  The chronolored; so that they looked as if they had been flayed; or  gy of ruffs, and tufted taffetas; the revolution of steel powhite and blue; or white and black: or black and red;  king-sticks, instead of the bone or wood used by the laun.
that this variety of colours seems as iftheir members had   dresses; the invasion of shoe buckles, and the total rout
been corrupted by St Anthony's fire, or by cancer, or  of shoe roses; that grand adventure of a certain Flemish
other mischance!                                        lady, who introduced the art of starching the ruffs with
The modes of dress during the thirteenth and four-  a yellow tinge into Britain; while Mrs Mountaaue emuteenth centuries were so various and ridiculous, that they  lated her in the royal favour, by prebenting her highness
afforded perpetual food for the eager satirist.  Extrava-  the queen with a pair of black' silk stockings, instead of
gant as some of our fashions are, they are regulated by   her cloth hose, which her majesty tow forever rejected;
a better taste.                                         the heroic achievements of the Right Honourable EdThe conquests of Edward III introduced the French   ward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who first brought. from
fashions into England; and the Scotch adopted them by  Italy the whole mystery and craft of perfiumery, and costly:heir alliances with the French court, and close intercourse   washes; and among other pleasant things besides, a perwith that nation.                                       fumed jerkin, a pair of perfumed gloves trimmed with
Walsinghaml   dates the introduction of French fashions  roses, in which the queen took such delight, that she was
among us, from the taking of Calais in 1347; buit we ap-  actually pictured with those gloves on her royal hands, and
pear to have possessed such a rage for imitation in dress,  for many years after, the scent was called the Earl of Oxthat an English beau was actually a fantastical compound  ford's Perfume.  These, and other occurrences as memoof all the fashions of Europe, and even Asia, in the reign   rable, receive a pleasant kind of historical pomp in the imof Elizabeth. In Chaucer's time the prevalence of French   portant, and not incurious, narrative of the antiquary and
fashions was a comnmon topic with our satirist; and he no-  the tailor.  The toilet of Elizabeth was indeed an altar of
tices the affectation of our female citizens in speaking the   devotion, of which she was the idol, and all her ministers
French language: a stroke of satire which, after more   were her votaries; it was the reign of coquetry, and the
than four centuries, is not yet obsolete. A superior edu-  golden age of millinery! But of grace arnd elegance, they
cation, and a residence at the west end of the town, begin  had not the slightest feeling! There is a print by Vertue,
however, to give another character to the daughters of  of Queen Elizabeth going in a procession to Lord Hunsour citizens.  In the prologue to the Prioresse, Chaucer  don.  This procession is led by Lady Hunsdon; who no
has these humorous lines:-                             doubt was the leader likewise of the fashions; but it is
impossible, with our ideas of grace and comfort, not to
Entewned in her voice full seemoly,              commiserate this unfortunate lady, whose standing-ip wire
And French  shoe spake full feBeously;           ruff, rising above her head; whose stays or boddice, so
After the Scole of Stratford at Bowe,
The French of Paris was to her unknowe.
The French of Paris was te her unkuowe.         long waisted as to reach to her knees, and the circumference of her large hoop farthingale, which seems to enclose
A beau of the reign of Henry IV has been made out by   her in a capacious tub, mark her out as one of the most
the laborious Henry. I shall only observe, that they wore  pitiable martyrs of ancient modes.  The amorous Sir
then long-pointed shoes to such an immoderate lengh, that  Walter Raleigh must have found some of her maids of
they could not walk til they were fastened to their knees   honour the most impregnable fortification his gallant spirit
with chains.  Luxury improving on this ridiculous mode,  ever assailed: a coup de main was impossible.
Lhet, chains the English beau of the fourteenth centuiry  I shall transcribe from old Stowe a few extracts, which
had made of gold and- silver; but the grotesque fashion did   may amuse the reader:;ot finish here; for the tops of their shoes were carved in'IIn the second yeere (if Queen Elizabeth 1560, her




LITERATURE.                                                      61
ilke woman, Mistris Mountague, presented her majestie  ther allowance. A  learned Scotch professor informed
for a new yeere's gift, a paire of black silk knit stockings,  me, on my pointing out this passage, that white wine was
*he which, after a few days wearing, pleased her highness  used for these purposes. They also made a bath of milk.
so well, that she sent for Mistris Mountague, and asked  Elder beauties bathed in wine, to get rid of their wrinkles;
her where she had them, and if she could help her to any  and perhaps not without reason, wine being a great astrinmore, who answered, "I made them very carefully of  gent.  Unwrinkled beauties bathed in milk, to preserve
purpose only for your majestie, and seeing these please  the softness and sleekness of the skin. Our venerable
you so well, I will presently set more in hand."  "Do so,  beauties of the Elizabethan age were initiated coquettes;
(quoth the queene,) for indeed I like silke stockings so well,  and the mysteries of their toilette might be worth unveil.
because they are pleasant, ine, and delicate, that henceforth I  inEg.
tcll wear no more cloth stockins"-and from that time unto  The reign of Charles II was the dominion of French
her death the queene never wore any more cloth hose, but  fashions. In some respects the taste was a little lighter,
only si'ke stockins; for you shall understand that King  but the moral effect of dress, and which no doubt it has,
Henry the Eight did weare onely cloth hose, or hose cut  was much worse. The dress of this French queen was
out of ell-broade taffatv, or that by great chance there  very inflammatory; and the nudity of the beauties of the
came a pair of Spanish silke stockins from Spain. King  portrait painter, Sir Peter Lely, has been observed. The
Edward the Sixte had a payre of long Spanish silkestock.  queen of Charles II exposed herbreast and shoulders withings sent him for a great present.  Duke's daughters then   out even the glass of the Ihghtest gauze; and the tucker
wore gowns of satten of Bridges (Bruges) upon solemn   instead of standing up on her bosom, is with licentious
dayes.  Cushens, and window pillows of welvet and da-  boldness turned down, and lies upon her stays. This cusmaske, formerly only princely furniture, now be very plen-  tom of baring the bosom was much exclaimed against by
teous in most citizens' houses.'                        the authors of that age.  That honest divine, Richard' Milloners or haberdashers had not then any glovesim-  Baxter, wrote a preface to a book, entitled' A  just and
broydered, or trimmed with gold, or silke; neither gold  seasonable reprehension of naked breasts and shoulders.'
nor embroydered girdles and hangers, neither could they  In 1672 a book was published, entitled,'New instructions
make any costly wash or perfume, until about the fifteenth  unto youth for their behaviour, and also a discourse upon
veere of the queene, the Right Honourable Edward de  some innovations of habits and dressing; against powderVere, Earl of Oxford, came from Italy, and brought with  ing of hair, naked breasts, black spots, (or patches,) and
him gloves, sweete bagges, a perfumed leather jerkin, and  other-unseemly customs.' A whimsical fashion now pre.
other pleasant things; and that yeere the queene had a  vailed among the ladies, of strangely ornamenting their
pair of perfumed gloves trimmed onely with four tuffes, or  faces with abundance of black patches cut into grotesque
roses of coloured silk. The queene tooke such pleasure in  forms, such as a coach and horses, owls, rings, suns,
those gloves, that she was pictured with those gloves upon  moons, crowns, cross and crosslets.  The author has preher handes, and for many years after, it was called " The  fixed two ladies' heads; the one representing Virtue, and
Earl of Oxford's perfume."'                            the other Vice. Virtue is a lady modestly habited, with
In such a chronology of fashions, an event not less im-  a black velvet hood, and plain white kerchief on her neck,
portant surely, was the origin of starching; and here we  with a border. Vice wears no handkerchief, her stays
find it treated with the utmost historical dignity.     cut low, so that they display great part of the breasts; and'In the year 1564, Mistris Din-hen Van den Plasse,  a variety of fanitastical patches on her face.
borne at Ttenen in Flaunders, daughter to a worshipful    The innovation of fashions in the reign of Charles Tr,
knight of that province, with her husband came to London  were watched with a jealous eye by the remains of those
for their better safeties, and there professed herselfe a  strict puritans, who now could only pour out their bile in
starcher, wherein she excelled,unto whom her owne nation  such solemn admonitions.   They affected all possible
presently repaired, and payed her very liberally for her  plainness and sanctity. When courtiers wore monstrous
worke. Some very few of the best and most citriots  wigs, they cut their hair short; when they adopted hats,
wives of that time, observing the neatness and delicacy of  with broad plumes, they clapped on round black caps, and
the Dutch for whiteness and fine wearing of linen, made  screwed up their pale religious faces; and when shoe.
them cambricke ruffes, and sent them to Mistris Dinghen  buckles were revived, they wore strings to their shoes.
to starche, and after awhile they made them ruffes of lawn,  The sublime Milton, perhaps, exulted in his intrepidity of
which was at that time a stuff most strange, and wonder-  still wearing latchets! The Tatler ridicules Sir William
full, and thereupon arose a general scoffe or by-word, that  Whitlocke for his singularity in still affecting them.' Thou
shortly they would make ruffes-of a spider's web; and then   dear Will Shoestring, how shall I draw the'e 7 Thou dear
they began to send their daughters and nearest kinswomen  outside, will you be combing your wi_, playing with your
to Mistris Dinohen to learne how to starche; her usuall  box, or picking your teeth, &c. ~Wigs and snuff-boxes
price was at that time, foute orfive pound, to teach them   were then the rage. Steele'e own wig, it is recorded
how to starche, and twenty shillings how to seeth starche.'  made at one time a considerable part of his annual expenThus Italy, Holland, and France, supplied us with  diture. His large black periwig cost him, even at that
such fashions and refinements.  But in those days they  day, not less than forty guineas!-Wle wear nothin, at
were, as I have shown from  Puttenhan, as extravagant  present in this degree of extravagance.  But such a wig
dressers as any of their present supposed degenerate de-  was the idol of fashion, and they were performing perpetscenr-.ts.  Stowe affords us another curious extract.  uallv their worship with infinite self-complacency; then'Diver, noble personaes made them ruffes, a full quarter  combing their wigs in public was the very spirit of galof a yearde deepe, and two lengthe in one ruffe. This fa-  lantry and rank. The hero of Richardson, youthful and
shion in London was called the French fashion: but when  elegant as he wished him to be, is represented waiting  at
Englishmen came to Paris the French knew it not, and in  an assignation,and describing his sufferings it bad weather
derision called it the English monster.' An exact parallel  by lamenting that'his wig and his linen were dripping
this of many of our own Parisian modes in the present  with the hoar frost dissolvina on them.' Even Betty, Claday; and a circumstance which shows the same rivality  rissa's lady's maid, is described as'tapping on her snuffin fashion in the reign of Elizabeth, as in that of George  box,' and frequently taking snuff. At thits time nothing
the Fourth.                                             was so monstrous as the head-dresses of the ladies in
This was the golden period of cosmetics.  The beaux  Queen Anne's reign: they formed a kind of edifice of
of that day, it is evident, used the abominable art of paint-  three stories high; and a fashionable lady of that day
ing their faces as well as the women. Our old comedies  much resembles the mythological fitire  of Cybele, the
abound with perpetual allusions to oils, tinctures, quint-  mother of the gods, with three towers on her head.
essences, pomatums, perfumes, paint, white and red, &c.    It is not worth noticing the changes in fashion, unless to
One of their prime cosmetics was a frequent use of the  ridicule them. However, there are some who find amusebath, and the application of wine. Strutt quotes from an   ment in these records of luxurious idleness; these thouold Ms a recipe to make the face of a beautiful red colour,  sand and one follies! Modern fashions, till very lately a
The person was to be in a bath that he might perspire,  purer taste has obtained among our females. were geneanid afterwards wash his face with wine, and'so should  rally mere conies of obsolete ones, and rarely originally
be both faire and roddy.' In Mr Lodge's'Illustrations of  fantastical. The dress of some of our beaux will only be
British History,' I observe a letter from  the Earl of  known in a few years hence by their caricatures. In 1751
Shrewsburv, who had the keeping of the unfortunate  the dress of a dandy is described in the Inspector.   A
Queen ot Scots.  The earl notices that the queen bathed   black velvet coat, a green and silver waistcoat, yellow velin wine, and complains of the expense, and requires a fur-  vet breeches, anti blu, stockings.  This too was the era




62                                    CURIOSITIES OF
of black silk breeches; an extraordinary novelty, against  Stockholm, composed of forty chosen jesuits, to decide on
which' some frowsy people attempted to raise up worsted   every affair of state. He published a declaration in their
in emulation.' A  satirical writer has described a buck  favour, presented them with letters-patent, and invested
about forty years ago; one could hardly have suspected  them with the royal authority.
such a gentleman to have been one of our contemporaries.    While this senate of jesuits was at Dantzic waiting for'-A coat of light green, with sleeves too small for the arms,  a fair wind to set sail for Stockholm, he published an edict,
and buttons too big for the sleeves; a pair of Manchester  that they should receive them as his own royal person. A
fine stuff breeches, without money in the pockets; clouded  public council was immediately held. Charles, the uncle of
silk stockings, but no legs: a club of hair behind larger  Sigismond, the prelates, and the lords, resolved to prepare
than the head that carries it; a hat of the size of sixpence  for them a splendid and magnificent entry.
on a block not worth a farthing.'                         But in a private council, they came to very contrary
As this article may probably arrest the volatile eyes of  resolutions: for the prince said, he could not bear that a
my fair readers, let me be permitted to felicitate them on  senate of priests should command, in preference to all the
their improvement in elegance in the forms of their dress;  honours and authority of so many princes and lords, naand the taste and knowledge of art which they frequently  tives of the country. All the others agreed with hiin in
exhibit. But let me remind them  that there are certain  rejecting this holy senate.  The archbishop rose, and
principles independent of all fashions, which must be cher-  said,' Since Sigismond has disdained to be our king, we
ished at all times.   Tacitus remarks of Poppea, the con-  also must not acknowledge him as such; and from this
sort of Nero, that she concealed a part of her face; to the moment we should no longer consider ourselves as his
end that, the imagination having fuller play by irritating  subjects. His authority is in suspenso, because he has be.
curiosity, they might think higher of her beauty, than if  stowed it on the jesuits who form this senate. The peo.
the whole of her face had been exposed.  The sentiment  ple have not yet acknowledged them. In this interval of
Is beautifully expressed by Tasso, and it will not be diffi-  resignation on the one side, and assumption of the other
cult to remember it:-                                  I absolve you all of the fidelity the king may claim frovr'Non copre sue bellezze, e non l'espose.'       you as his Swedish subjects.' When he had said this, th
I conclude by preserving a poem, written in my youth,  Prince of Bithynia addressing himself to Prince Charles
not only because the great poet of this age has honoured it         king, said,'I own no other king tian you
by placing it in' The English Minstrelsy,' but as a me-  and I believe you are now obliged to receive us as your afmorial of some fashions which have beconme extinct in my  fectionate subjects, and to assist us to hunt these vermin
mown days.   fashions which have become extinct in my  from the state.' All the others joined him, and acknow.
ledged Charles as their lawful monarch.
STANZA4SI                           Having resolved to keep their declaration for some time!ddressed to Laura, entreating her not to Paint, to Powder'  secret, they deliberated in what manner they were to reor to Game, but to retreat into the Country.     ceive and to precede this senate in their entry into the
Ah, Laura! quit the noisy town,                  harbour, who were now on board a great galleon, which
And Fashion's persecuting reign;               had anchored two leagues from  Stockholm  that they
Health wanders on the breezy down,               might enter more magnificently in the night, when the fire.
And Science on the silent plain.               works they had prepared would appear to the greatest
advantage. About the time of their reception, Prince
Shal     t thou a mimic charm received s       Charles, accompanied by twenty-five or thirty vessels,
Believe, my fair' tho e  faithful muse,        appeared before the senate. 5Wheelingo about and forming
ThBelieve, y fair the  fablush thfuley cannot give,  a caracol of ships, they discharged a volley, and emptied
all their cannon on the galleon of this senate, which had
Must ruthless art, with torturous steel,         its sides pierced through with the balls.  The galleon imThy artless locks of gold deface,              mediately filled with water and sunk, without one of the
In serpent folds their charms conceal,           unfortunate jesuits being assisted; on the contrary, their
And spoil, at every touch, a grace.            assailants cried to them that this was the time to perform
Too sweet thy youth's enchanting bloom,          some miracle, such as they were accustomed to do in InTo waste on midnight's sordid crews:           dia and Japan; and if they chose, they could walk on the
Let wrinkled age the night consume:              waters!
For age has but its hoards to lose!             The report of the cannon and the smoke which the
Sacred to love and sweet repose,                 powder occasioned, prevented either the cries or the subBehold that trellis'd bower is nigh!          mersion of the holy fathers from being observed; and as if
That bower the  lilac walls enclose,             they were conducting the senate to the town, Charles enSafet from pursuing Scandal!s eye.             tered triumphantly; went into the church, where they
There, as in every lock ofagold                  sung Te Deum; and to conclude the night, he partook of
Some  flower of pleasing hue  weave,  the entertainment which had been prepared for this illSome flower of pleasing hue I weave,           fated senate.
A goddess shall the muse behold,                   The jesuits of the city of Stockholm having come, about
And  many a votive sih shall heave.  midnight, to pay their respects to the fathers of the seSo the rude Tartar's holy rite                   nate, perceived their loss. They directly posted up plaA feeble mortal once array'd;                  cards of excommunication against Ckarles and his adherThen trembled in that mortal's sight,            ents, who had caused the senate of jesuits to perish.
And own'd divine the power he made.*           They solicited the people to rebel: but they were soon
A SENATE OF JESUITS.                    expelled the city, and Charles made a public profession of
Lutheranism.
In a book intituled' Inter6ts et Maximes des Princes et    Sigismond, king of Poland, began a war with Charles
des Etats Souverains, par M. Le Duc de Rohan; Co-  in 1604, which lasted two years. Disturbed by the inva.
logne, 1666,' an anecdote is recorded concerning the je-  sions of the Tartars, the Muscovites, and the Cossacks, a
suits; so much the more curious, as neither Puffendorf  truce was concluded; but Sigismoud lost both his crowns,
nor Vertot have noticed it in their histories, though its au-  by his bigoted attachment to Roman Catholicism.
thority cannot be higher.
Whetn Sigismond, king of Sweden, was elected king of                 THE LOVER'S HREART
Poland, he niade a treaty with the states of Sweden, by   The following tale is recorded in the Historical, M1e
which he obliged himself to pass every fifth year in that  moirs of Champagne, by Bougier.  It has been a favour.
kingdom. By his wars with the Ottoman court, with Mus-  ite narrative with the old romance writers; and the princovy, and Tartary, obliged to remain in Poland to encoun-  cipal incident, however objectionable, has been displayed
ter such powerful enemies, he failed, during fifteen years,  in several modern poems. It is probable, that the true
of accomplishing his promise. To remedy this in some  history will be acceptable for its tender and amorous incishape, by the advice of the jesuits, who had gained the  dent, to the fair reader.
ascendant over him, he created a senate to reside at   I find it in some shape related by Howel, in his'Familiar
* The Lama, or God of the Tartars, is composed of such  Letters,' in one addressed to Ben Jonson. He recomnhail materials as mere mortality; contrived, however, by the  mends it to him as a subject' whicn peradventure you may
power of priestcraft, to appear: immortal  the succession of  make use of in your way;' and concludes by saying,' In
lanmaU never iailing!                                  my opinion, which vails to yours, this is choice and rich




LITE RATURE.                                                       63
stuff for you to put upon your loom and make a curious  But are not these mere conjectures, and has not the Chalweb of.'                                                dean paraphrast taken a liberty in his version?
The Lord De Coucy, vassal to the Count De Cham-    Xenophon gives a clear and distinct account of gloves.
pagne, was one of the most accomplished youths of his  Speaking of the manners of the Persians, as a proof of
time.  He loved, with an excess of passion, the lady of the  their effeminacy, he observes, that not satisfied with cover.
Lord Du Fayel, who felt a reciprocal affection. With the  ing their head and their feet, they also guarded their hands
most poignant grief this lady heard from her lover, that he  against the cold with thick gloves. oiemer, describing
had resolved to accompany the king and the Count De  Laertes at work in his garden, represents him with gloves
Champagne to the wars of the Holy Land; but she would  on his hands, to secure them from the thorns.  Varro, an
not oppcse his wishes, because she hoped that his absence  ancient writer is an evidence in favonr of their antiquit)
might dissipate the jealousy of her husband.  The time  among the Romans. In lib. ii, cap. 55, de Re Rustica, he
of departure having come, these two lovers parted with  says, that olives gathered by the naked hand, are preferasorrows of the most lively tenderness.  The lady, in quit-  ble to those gathered with gloves. Atheneu s speaks.of a
ting her lover, presented him with some rings, some dia-  celebrated glutton who always came to table with gloves
mondls, and with a string that she had woven herself of his  on his hands, that he might be able to handle and eat the
own hair, intermixed with silk and buttons of large pearls,  meat while hot, and devour more than the rest of the com.
to serve him, according to the fashion of those days, to tie  pany.
a magnificent hood which covered his helmet.  This he      These authorities show, that the ancients were not
gratefully accepted.                                    strangers to the use of gloves, though their use was not
In Palestine, at the siege of Acre, in 1191, in gloriously  common. In a hot climate to wear gloves implies a conascending the ramparts, he received a wound, which was  siderable degree of effeminacy.  We can more clearly
declared mortal. He employed the few moments he had  trace the early use of gloves in northern than in southern
to live in writing to the Lady Du Fayel; and he poured  nations.  When the ancient severity of manners declined,
torth the fervour of his soul. He ordered his squire to  the use of gloves prevailed among the Romans; but not
embalm his heart after his death, and to convey it to his  without some opposition from the philosophers. Musonius,
beloved mistress, with the presents he had received from   a philosopher, who lived at the close of the first century of
ker hands in quitting her.                              christianity, among other invectives against the corruption
The squire, faithful to the dying injunction of his mas-  of the age, says It is shameful that persons in perJect health
ter, returned to France, to present the heart and the pre-  should clothe their hands and feet with soft and hairy coversents to the lady of Du Fayel. But when he approached  rings.  Their convenience, however, soon made the use
the castle of this lady, he concealed himself in the neigh-  general. Pliny the younger informs us, in his account of
bouring wood, till he could find some favourable moment  his uncle's journey to Vesuvius, that his secretary sat by
to complete his promise. He had the misfortune to be ob-  him ready to write down whatever occurred remarkable;
served by the husband of this lady, who recognized him,  and that he had gloves on his hands, that the coldness of
and who immediately suspected he came in search of his  the weather might not impede his business.
wife with some message from his master. He threatened    In the beginning of the ninth century, the use of gloves
to deprive him of his life, if he did not divulge the occasion  was become so universal, that even the church thought a
of his return.  The squire assured him that his master  regulation in that part of dress necessary. In the reign
was dead; but Du Fayel not believing it, drew his sword  of Lewis le Debonnaire, the council of Aix ordered that
on him, This man, frightened at the peril in which he  the monks should only wear gloves made of sheep-skin.
found nimself, confessed  every thing; and put into his    That time had made alterations in the form of this, as
hands the heart and letter of his master. Du Fayel,  in all other apparel, appears from the old pictures and moprompted by the fellest revenge, ordered his cook to mince  numents.
the heart; and having mixed it with meat, he caused a    Gloves, besides their original design for a covering of the
ragout to be made, which he knew pleased the taste of his  hand, have been employed on several great and solemn
wife, and had it served to her.  The lady ate heartily of  occasions; as in the ceremony of investitures, in bestowthe dish. After the repast, Du Fayel inquired of his wife  ing lands, or in conferring dignities.  Givinr. possession,
if she had found the ragout according to her taste: she  by the delivery of a glouve, prevailed in several parts of
answered him that she had found it excellent.'' It is for  Christendom in later ages. In the year 1002, the bishops
this reason, that I caused it to be served to you, for it is a  of Paderborn and Moncerco were put into possession of
kind of meat which you very much liked. You have, Ma-  their sees by receiving a glove.  It was thought so essendam,' the savage Du Favel continued, eaten the heart of  tial a part of the episcopal habit, that some abbots in
the Lord De Coucy.' But this she would not believe, till  France presuming to wear gloves, the council of Poitiers
he showed her the letter of her lover, with the string of his  interposed in the affair, and forbad them the use, on the
hair, and the diamonds she had given him. Then shud-  same principle as the ring and sandals; these being pecudering in the anguish of her sensations, and urged by the  liar to bishops, who frequently wore them richly adorned
darkest despair, she told him-' It is true that I loved that  on their backs with jewels.
heart, because it merited to be loved; for never could it    Favin observes, that the custom  of blessing gloves at
find its suiperior; and since I have eaten of so noble a  the coronation of the kings of France, which still subsists,
meat, and that my stomach is the tomb of so precious a  is a remain of the eastern practice of investiture by a
heart, I will take care that nothing of inferior worth shall  glove. A remarkable instance of this ceremony is reever be mixed with it.' Grief and passion choaked her  corded.  The unfortunate Conradin was deprived of his
utterance.  She retired to her chamber; she closed the  crown and his life by the usurper lh/ainfroy.  When havdoor for ever; and refusing to accept of consolation or food,  ing ascended the scaffold, the injured prince lamenting his
the amiable victim expired on the fourth day.           hard fate, asserted his right to the crown, and as a token
THE HISTORY OF GLOVES.                    of investiture, threw his glove among the crowd, entreatin, it might be conveyed to some of his relations, who
The present learned and curious dissertation is compil- would revenge his death. It was taken up by a knight,
ed from the papers of an ingenious antiquary, from the  and brought to Peter King of Arragon, who in virtue of'Present State of the Republic of Letters,' Vol. X, p.  this glove was afterwards crowned at Palermo.
289.                                                      As the delivery of gloves was once a part of the cereThe antiquity of this part of dress, will form our first  mony used in giving possession, so the depriving a person
inquiry; and we shall then show its various uses in the se-  of them was a mark of divesting him of his office, and of
veral ages of the world.                                degradation.  The Earl of Carlisle, in the reign of EdIt has been imagined that gloves are noticed in the 108th  ward the Second, impeached of holding a correspondence
Psalm, where the roval prophet declares, he will cast his  with the Scots, was condemned to die as a traitor. Walahoe over Edom; and still farther back, supposing them to  singham, relating other circumstances of his degradation,
be used it the times of the Judges, Ruth iv, 7, where the  says,'His spurs were cut off with a hatchet; and his
custom is noticed of a man taking off his shoe and giving it  gloves and shoes were taken ofl; &c.'
to his nelghboulr, as a pledge for redeeming or exchanging  Another usse of gloves was in a duel; he who threw one
any thing. The word in these two texts usually translat-  down, was by this act understood to give defiance, and he
ed shoe by the Chaldlee paraphrast in the latter, is render-  who took it up, to accept the challenge.
ed glove. Caaiilbon is of opinion that gloves were worn   The use of sinale combhat, at first designed only for a
by the Chaldeani, foem the word here mentioned being ex-  trial of innocence, like the ordeals of fire and water, was
pained in the Talmud Lexicon, the clothing of the hand.  in succeeding ages practised for deciding rights and pro



64                                   CURIOSITIES OF
perty. Challenging by the glove was continued down to   Medard de Soissons pretended to operate miracles. Ho
the reign of Elizabeth, as appears by an account given by  asserts that this pretension is as chimerical as that of se.
Spelman of' a duel appointed to be fought in Tothill Fields  veral persons, who believed they possessed the navel, aid
in the year 1571. The dispute was concerning some  other parts less decent of-the body of Christ!
lands in the county of Kent.  The plaintiffs appeared in    A monk of Bergsvinck has given a history of the trans.
court, and demanded single combat. One of them threw  lation of Saint Lewin, a virgin, and a martyr: her relics
down his glove, which the other immediately taking up,  were brought from England to Bergs. H-Ie collected with,carried it off on the point of his sword, and the day of  religious care the facts from his brethren, especially from
fighting was appointed; this affair was however adjusted  the conductor of these relics from England.  After the
by the queen's judicious interference.                  history of the translation, and a panegyric of the saint,
The ceremony is still practised of challenging by a glove  he relates the miracles performed in Flanders since the
at the coronation of the kings of England, by his majesty's  arrival of her relics. The prevailing passions of the times
champion entering W'estminister Hall completely armed  to possess fragments of saints is well marked, when the aunand mounted.                                            thor particularizes with a certain complacency all the
Challenging by the glove is still in use ill some parts of  knavish modes they used to carry off those in question.
the world. In Germany, on receiving an affront, to send  None then objected to this sort of robbery; because the
a glove to the offending party, is a challenge to a duel.  gratification of the reigning passion had made it worth
The last use of gloves was for carrying the hawk, which  while to supply the demand.
is very ancient. In former times, prince: and other great    A monk of Cluny has given a history of the translation
men Cook so much pleasure in carrying the hawk on their  of the body of St Indalece, one of the earliest Spanish.
hand, that some of them have chosen to be represented in  bishops; written by order of the abbot of St. Juan de la
this attitude.  There is a monument of Philip the First of  Penna. He protests he advances nothing but facts; havFrance still remaining; on which he is represented at  ing himselfseen, or learnt from other witnesses, all he relength, on his tomb, holding a glove in his hand.       lates. It was not difficult for him to be well informed. since
Chambers  says that, formerly, judges were forbid to  it was to the monastry of St Juan de la Penna thatthe
wear gloves on the bench. No reason is assigned for this  holy relics were transported, and those who brought them
prohibition. Our judges lie under no such restraint; for  were two monks of that house. He has authenticated his
both they and the rest of the court make no difficulty of  minute detail of circumstances by giving the names of per.
receiving gloves from the sheriffs, whenever the session or  sons and places. His account was written for the great
assize concludes without any one receiving sentence of  festival immediately instituted in honour of this translation.
death, which is called a maiden assize; a custom  of great  He informs us of the miraculous manner by which they
antiquity.                                              were so fortunate as to discover the body of this bishop
Oulr curious antiquary has preserved a singular anec-  and the different plans they concerted to carry it off.
dote concerning gloves.  Chambers informs us, that it is  He gives the itinerary of the two monks who accompanied
not safe at present to enter the stables of princes without  the holy remains.  They  were not a little cheered in
pulling off our gloves. IIe does not tell us in what the  their long journey by visions and miracles.
danger consists; but it is an ancient established custom in   Another has written a history of what he calls the translaGermany, that whoever enters the stables of a prince, or  tion of the relics of Saint Magean to the monastry of Villegreat man, with his gloves on his hands, is obliged to for-  magne.  Translation is in fact only a softened expression
feit them, or redeem  them by a fee to the servants.  The  for the robbery of the relics of the saint committed by two
same custom is observed in some places at the death of  monks, who carried them off secretly to enrich their monthe stag; in which case if the gloves are not taken off they  astery; and they did not hesitate at any artifice, or lie, to
are redeemed by money given to the huntsmen and keep-  complete their design. They thought every thing was
ers. The French king never failed of pulling off one of permitted to acquire these fragments of mortality, which
his gloves on that occasion.  The reason of this ceremony  had now become a branch of commerce.  They even reseems to be lost.                                       garded their possessors with a hostile eye. Such was the
We meet with the term glove-money in our old records;  religious opinion from the ninth to the twelfth century.
by which is meant, money given to servants to buy gloves.  Our Canute commissioned his agent at Rome to purchase
This probably is the origin of the phrase giving a pair of  Saint Augustine's arm  for one hundred talents of silver
gloves, to signify making a present for some favour or ser-  and one of gold! a much larger sum, observes Granger
vice.                                                   than the finest statue of antiquity would have then sold for.
Gough in his' Sepulchral Monuments' informs us that    Another monk describes a strange act of devotion atgloves formed no part of the female dress till after the Re-  tested by several contemporary writers. When the saints
formation; I have seen some so late as Anne's time rich-  did not readily comply with the prayers of their votaries,
ly worked and embroidered.                              they flogged their relics with rods, in a spirit of impaThere must exist in the Denny family some of the  tience which they conceived was proper to make them
oldest gloves extant, as appears by the following glove  bend into compliance.
anecdote.                                                 Theofroy, abbot of Epternae, to raise our admiration
At the sale of the Earl of Arran's goods, April 6th  relates the daily miracles performed by the relics of saints,
1759, the gloves given by Henry VIII to Sir Anthony  their ashes, their clothes, or other mortal spoils, and even
Denny were sold for 381, 17s; those given by James  by the instruments of their martyrdom.  He inveighs
I to his son Edward Denny for 221, 4s; the mittens given  against that luxury of ornaments whic.h was indulged unby Queen Elizabeth to Sir Edward Denny's Lady. 251,  der a religious pretext;' It is not to be supposed that the
4s; all which were bought for Sir Thomas Denny of Ire-  saints are desirous of such a profusion of gold and silver.
land who was descended in a direct line from the great Sir  They wish not that we should raise to them such magnifi.
Anthony Denny, one of the executors of the will of Henry.  cent churches, to exhibit that ingenious order of pillars
which shine with cold; nor those rich ceilings, nor those
altars sparkling with jewels.  They desire not the purple
When relics of saints were first introduced, the relique-  parchment of price for their writings, the liquid gold to
mania was universal: they bought and they sold, and  embellish the letters, nor the precious stones to decorate
like other collectors, made no scruple to steal them.  It is  their covers; while you have such little care for the minentertaining to observe the singular ardour and grasping  isters of the altar.' The pious writer has not forgotten
avidity of some, to enrich themselves with these religious  himself in this partnership-account with the sair'tms.
morsels, their little discerment, the curious impositions    The Roman church not being able to deny, says Bayle.
of the vender, and the good faith anti sincerity of the pur-  that there have been false relics, which have operated mirchaser.  The prelate of the place sometimes ordained a  acles, they reply, that the good intentions of those be.
fast to implore God that they might not be cheated with  lievers who have recourse to them obtained from God this
the relics of saints, which he sometimes purchased for the  reward for their good faith! In the same spirit, when it
holy benefit of the village or town.                    was shown that two or three bodies of the same saint are
Guilbert de Nogen wrote a treatise on the relics of  said to exist in different places, and, that therefore the)
saints; acknowledgina that there were many false ones  all could not be authentic; it was answered, that they
as well as false legends, he reprobates the inventors of  were all genuine! for God had multiplied and miraculously
these lying miracles. He wrote his treatise on the oc-  reproduced them for the comfort of the faithful! A cu-i.
casion of a tooth )f our Lord's by which the monks of St.  ous specimen of the intolerance of good sense.




LITERATURE.                                                       6A
When the Reformation was spread in Lithuania, Prince  lieved that none could see it who were in mortal sin; and
Radzivil was so affected by it, that he went in person to  after many trials usually repeated to the samine person, the
pay the pope all possible honours. His holiness on this  deluded pilgrims at length went away fully satisfied. This
occasion presented him with a precious box of relics. The   relic was the blood of a duck, renewed every week, and
prince having returned home, some monks entreated per-  put in a phial; one side was opaque, and the other trans.
mission to try the effect of these relics on the demoniac,  parent; the monk turned either side to the pilgrim as he
who had hitherto resisted every kind of exorcism.  They   thought proper.  The success of the pilgrim depended oa
were brought into the church with solemn pomp, and de-  the generous oblations he isade; those who were scanty
posited on the altar, accompanied by an innumerable  in their offerings were the longest to get a sight of the
crowd. After the utsual conjurations, which were unsuc-  blood: when a man was in despaii, he usually became
cessful, they applied the relics.  The demoniac instantly   more generous!
recovered. The people called out a miracle! and the
prince, lifting his hands and eyes to heaven, felt his faith    PERPETUAL LAPS  OF THE   NIETS.
confirmed.  In this transport of pious joy, he observed    No. 379 of the Spectator, relates an anecdote cf one
that a young gentleman who was keeper of this treasure   having opened the sepulchre of the famous Rosicruc:.:s.
of relics, smiled, and by his motions ridiculed the miracle.  There he discovered a lamp burning, which a statue of
The prince, indignantly, took our young keeper of the re-  clock-work struck into pieces.  Hence the disciples of this
lics to task; who, on promise ofpardon, gave the follow-  visionary said, that he made use of this method to sl.ow
ing secret intelligence concerning them.   In travelling'that he had re-invented the ever burning lamps of the
from Rome he had lost the box of relics; and not daring   ancients.
to mention it, he had procured a similar one, which he had  Many writers have made mention of these wonderful
filled with the small bones of dogs and cats, and other tri-  lamps; Marville appears to give a satisfactory account of
fles similar to what were lost. He hoped he might be for-  the nature of these flames.
given for smiling, when he found that such a collection of    It has happened frequently, that inquisitive men, exarubbish was idolized with such pomp, and had even the   mining with a flambeau ancient sepulchres which had been
virtue of expelling demons.  It was by the assistance of  just opened, the fat and gross vapours, engendered by the
this box that the prince discovered the gross impositions of  corruption of dead bodies, kindled as the flambeau apthe monks and the demoriacs, and Radzivil afterwards be-  proached them, to the great astonishment of the spectacame a zealous Lutheran.                                 tors, who frequently cried out a miracle!  This sudden inThe Elector Frederic, surnamed the wtse, was an inde-  flammation, although very natural, has given room  to befatigable collector of relics.  After his death, one of the  lieve that these flames proceeded fromperpetual lanps,
riinks employed by him, solicited payment for several  which some have thought were placed in the tombs of the
parcels he had purchased for our wise elector; but the   ancients, and which, they said, were extinguished at the
times had changed!  He was advised to give over this   moment these tombs opened, and were penetrated by the
business; the relics for which he desired payment they   exterior air.
were willing to return: that the price had fallen consider-  The accounts of the perpetual lamps, which ancient
ably since the reformation of Luther; and that they   writers give, has occasioned several ingenious men to
would be more esteemed, and find a better nmarket in Italy   search after their composition.  Licetus, who possessed
than in Germany!                                         more erudition than love of truth, has given two receipts
Stephens, in his Traitl  preparatif a l'Apologie pour  for making this eternal fire by a peparation of certain
Herodote, c. 39, says,'A  monk of St. Anthony having   minerals. An opinion in vogue amongst those who are
been at Jerusalem, saw there several relics, among which   pleased with the wonderful, or who only examine things
were a bit of the finger of the Holy Ghost, as sound and   superficially. More credible writers maintain, that it is
entire as it had ever been; the snout of the seraphim that  impossible to make lamps perpetually burning, and an oil
appeared to St. Francis; one of the nails of a cherubim;  at once istflammable and inconsumable; but Boyle, asone of the ribs of the verbumn care factum (the word nmade   sisted by several experiments made on the air-pump, found
flesh:) some rays of the star which appeared to the three  that those lights,which have been viewed in opening tombs,
kings in the east; a vial of St Michael's sweat when he  proceeded from the collision of fresh air. This reasonable
was fighting against the devil; a hem of Joseph's garment,  observation conciliates all, and does not compel us to deny
whichhe wore when lie cleaved wood, &c:' all of which  the accounts.
things, observes our treasurer of relics, I have brought   The story of the lamp of Rosicrucius, even if it ever
very devoutly with me home.  Our Henry III, who was  had the slightest foundation, only owes its origin to the
deeply tainted with the superstition of the age, summoned   spirit of party, which at the time would have persuaded
all the great in the kingdom to meet in London.   This  the world, that Rosicrucius had at last discovered somesummons excited the most general curiosity, and multi-  thing; but there is nothing certain in this amusing inventudes appeared. The king then acquainted them that the  tion.
great master of the Knights Templars had sent him  a       The reason adduced by Marville is satisfactory for his
phial containing a small portion of the precious blood of  day; and for the opening of sepulchres with flambeaux.
Christ which he had shed upon the cross! and attested to   But it was reserved for the modern discoveries made in
be genuine by the seals of the patriarch of Jerusalem  and   natural philosophy, as well as those in chemistry, to prove
others.   He commanded a procession the following day,  that air was not only necessary for a medium to the exisand the historian adds, that though the road between St.  tence of the flame, which indeed the air-pump had already
Paul's and Westminister abbey was very deep and miry,  shown; but also as a constituent part of the inflammation,'he king kept his eyes constantly fixed on the phial. Two   and without which a body otherwise very inflammable in
nonks received it, and deposited the phial in the abbey,  all its parts, cannot however burn but in its superfices,: which made all England shine with glory, dedicating it to   which alone is in contact with the ambient air..od, and St. Edward.'
Lord Herbert, in his Life of Henry VIII, notices the   NTURL PRODUTIOs REEMBI                RTIFICIAL,reatfall of the price of relics at the dissolution of the mon-                POSITION.
Lsteries.'The respect given to relics, and some pre-    Some stones are preserved by the curious, for repretent-:ended miracles, fell; insomuch, as I find by our records,  ing distinctly figures traced by nature alone, and without
hat a piece of St. Andrew'sJfinger, (covered only with an  the aid of art.
)unice of silver,) being laid to pledge by a monastery    Pliny mentions an agate, in which appeared, formd by
br forty pounds, was left unredeemed at the dissolution of  the hand of nature, Apollo amidst the nine Muses hi lding
he house; the king's commissioners, who upon surrender   a harp.  Majolus assures us, that at Venice another is
)f any fotundation undertook to pay the debts, refusing to  seen, in which is naturally formed the perfect figure of a
eturn the price again.' That is, they did not choose to   man. At Pisa, in the church of St John, there is a simiepav theforty pounds, to receive apiece of the.finger of  lar natural production, which represents an old hermit in
S't. Andrew.                                            a desert seated by the side of a stream, and who holds in
About this time the property of relics suddenly sunk to a   his hands a small bell, as St Anthony is commonly painted.
3outh-sea bubble; for shortly after the artifice of the   In the temple of St Sophia, at Constantinople, there was.ood of Grace, at Boxley in Kent, was fully opened to  formerly on a white marble the image of St John the Bap-,
he eyes of the populace; and a far-famed relic at Hales in  list covered with the skin of a camel, with this tonly imper-.loucestershire, of the blood of Christ, wa, at the same   fection, that nature had given but one leg.  At Ravenn%.
ime exhibited. It was showed in a phial, and it was be-  in the Church of St Vital, a cordelier is seen on a ausay
No. 3.




B6t                                   CURIOSITIES OF
stone. They found in Italy a marble, in which a crucifix  seldom equalled for its gallantry, ingenuity, and novelty
was so elaborately finished, that there appeared the nails,  It was called the Garland of Julia.  To understand th4
the drops of blood, and the wounds, as perfectly as the  nature of this gift, it will be necessary to give the historo
most excellent painter could have performed.  At Sneil-  of the parties.
berg, in Germany, they found in a mine a certain rough    The beautiful Julia d'Angennes was in the flower of
metal, on which was seen the figure of a man, who car-  her youth and fame, when the celebrated Gustavus, kin1
ried a child on his back. In Provence they found in a  of Sweden, was making war in Germany with the mos
mine, a quantity of natural figures of birds, trees, rats, and  splendid success. Julia expressed her warm admiratiol
serpents; and in some places of the western parts of Tar-  of this hero.  She had his portrait placed on her toilette
tary, are seen on divers rocks, the figures of camels, hor-  and took pleasure in declaring that she would have no
ses, and sheep.  Pancirollus, in his Lost Antiquities,  other lover than Gustavus.  The Duke de Montausi
attests, that in a church at Rome, a marble perfectly re-  was, however, her avowed and ardent admirer. A shc:
presented a priest celebrating mass, and raising the host.  time after the death of Gustavus, he sent her, as a new
Paul IIL conceiving that art had been used, scraped the  year's gift, the Poetical Garland, of which the following i
marble to discover whether any painting had been employ-  a description.
ed: but nothing of the kind was discovered.'I have      The most beautiful flowers were painted in miniature
seen,' writes a friend,'many of these curiosities.  They  by an eminent artist, one Robert, on pieces of vellum, a!
aie always helped out by art. In my father's house was  of an equal size. Under every flower a sufficient spac
a gray marble chimney-piece, which abounded in portraits,  was left open for a madrigal on the subject of that fowe
landscapes, &c, the greatest part of which was made by  there painted.  The duke solicited the wits of the time t
myself.' My learned friend, the Rev. Stephen Weston,  assist in the composition of these little poems, reserving:
possesses a very large collection, many certainly untouch-  considerable number for the effusions of' his own amorou
ed by art. One stone appears like a perfect cameo of a  muse. Under every flower he had its madrigal written b
Minerva's head; another shows an old man's head, beau-  a penman, N du Jarry, who was celebrated for beautift
tiful as if the hand of Raphael had designed it. Both  writing. It is decorated by a frontispiece, which repre
these stories are transparent.  Sonle exhibit portraits.  sents a splendid garland composed of these twenty-nin
There is preserved in the British Museum, a black  flowers; and on turning the page a Cupid is painted
stone, on which nature has sketched a resemblance of the  These were magnificently bound, and inclosed in a ba,
portrait of Chaucer.  Stones of this kind, possessing a  of rich Spanish leather.  This gift, when Julia awoke o;
sufficient degree of resemblance, are rare; but art appears  new-year's day, she found lying on her toilette; it wa
not to have been used. Even in plants, we find this sort  one quite to her taste, and successful to the donor's hopes
of resemblance.  There is a species of the orchis found in  Of this Poetical Garland, thus formed by the hands o
the mountainous parts of Lincolnshire, Kent, &c. Na-  Wit and Love, Huet says,'As I had long heard of it
ture has formed a bee, apparently feeding in the breast of  I frequently expressed a wish to see it: at length th
the flower, with so much exactness, that it is impossible  duchess of Uzez gratified me with the sight. She loch
at a very small distance to distinguish the imposition.  ed me in her cabinet one afternoon with this garland; sh
Hence the plant derives its name, and is called the Bee-  then went to the queen, and at the close of the evenin
teower. Latnghorne elegantly notices its appearance:    liberated me. I never passed a more agreeable afternoon
One of the prettiest inscriptions of these flowers is th
See on that flowret's velvet breast,           following, composed for
How close the busy vagrant lies                          o
His thin-wrou ght plume, his downy breast,                           THE VIOLET.
Th' ambrosial -old that swells his thighs.
Tb ambrosia  old that swells his thighs.  Modeste en ma couleur, modeste en mon sejour,'Perhaps his fragrant load may bind                 Franche d'ambition, je me cache sous l'herbe;
His limbs — we'll set the captive free-            Mais, si sur votre front je puis me voir un jour,
I sought the living bee to find,                     La plus humble des fleurs, sera la plus superbe.
And found the picture of a bee.,'            I     Modest my colour, modest is my place,
The late Mr Jackson of Exeter wrote to me on this         Pleased in the grass my lowly form to hide;
subject:' This orchis is common near our seacoasts; but    But mid your tresses might I wind with grace,
instead of being exactly like a BEE, it is not like it at all.  The humblest flower would feel the loftiest pride.
It has a general resemblance to afty, and by the hell) of    The following is some additional information respectin
imagination, may be supposed to be a fly pitched upon the   c the Poetical Garland of Julia.'
flower.  The mandrake very frequently has a forked root,    At the sale of the library of the Duke de la Vatliere, i
which may be fancied to resemble thighs and legs. I have   1784, among its numerous literary curiosities this garlan
seen it helped out with nails on the toes.'             appeared. It was actually sold for the extravagant stir
An ingenious botanist, a stranger to me, after reading   of 14,510 livres! though in 1770 at Gaignat's sale, it onl
this article, was so kind as to send me specimens of the  cost 780 livres. It is described,' a manuscript on vellulrr
fly orchis, ophrys muscifera, and of the bee orchis, ophrys  composed of twenty-nine flowers painted by one Rober,
caifera. Their resemblance to these insects when in full  under which are inserted madrigals by various authors
flower is the most perfect conceivable; they are distinct  But the Abbe Rive, the superintendant of the Vallier
plants. The poetical eye of Langhorne was equally cor-  library, published in 1779 an inflammatory notice of thi
rect and fanciful; and that too of Jackson, who differed so  garland; and as he and the duke had the art of apprecla
positively.  Many controversies have been carried oni,  ting, and it has been said making spurious literary curiosi
from a want of a little more knowledge; like that of the  ties, this notice was no doubt the occasion of the maniaca
BEE orchis and the FLY orchis; both parties prove to be  price.
right.                                                     In the revolution of France, this literary cutiriosity foun
Another curious specimen of the playful operations of  its passage into this country.  A  bookseller offered it fo
nature is the mandrake; a plant indeed, when it is bare of  sale at the enormous price of 5001. sterling! No curiou
leaves, perfectly resembling that of the human form. The   collector has been discovered to have purchased thi
ginseng tree is noticed for the same appearance.  This  unique; which is most remarkable for the extreme folly c
object the same poet has noticed:                        the purchaser who gave the 14,510 livres for poetry an,' Mark how that rooted mandrake wears            painting not always exquisite.  The history of the gar
MHar howman feet, his rtmand handss            land of Julia is a child's lesson for certain rash and inex
fik human feet, his human handsc;
Oft, as his shapely form he rears.               perienced collectors, who may here
Aghast the frighted ploughman stands?7
Aghast the frighted ploughman stands.''Learn to do well by other's harm.'
He closes this beautiful fable with the following stanza,                TRAGIC ACTORS.
nob unapposite to the curious subject of this article;ry, a French player, was one of the greate
Montfleury, a French player, was c, ne of the greates'Selvetical  rockas, Sabrina's waves, bactors of his time for characters highly tra,ic.  HIe died t
Still many a shining pebble bear:                                                     
Wrhere nature's studious hand engraves           the violent efforts he made in representinrr Orestes In th.
The perfect form, and leaves it there.'        Andromache of Racine.  The anthor of the' Parnass
reformd' makes him thus express himself in the shades
THE POETICAL GARLAND OF JULIA.                  There is something extremely droll in his lamentations
liuet has given a charming description of a present  with a severe raillery on the inconveniences to which tra
imaaot uv a lover to his mistress; a gift which romance has  gic actors are so Iible.




LITERATURE.                                                           67' Ah! how sincerely do I wish that tragedies had never  twelve thousand.''How! the devil!' exclaimed a rude
been invented!  I might then have been yet in a state   chevalier of the order of St Louis, who was present,:
capable of appearing on the stage; and if I should not' How the devil! a vile stroller is not content with twelve
have attained the glory of sustaining sublime characters, I   thousand livres annually, and I, who am in the king's seeshould at least have trifled agreeably, and have worked   vice, who sleep upon a cannon and lavish nmy blood for my
off my spleen in laughing! I have wasted my lungs in   country, I must consider myself as fortunate in having ob-.
the violent emotions of jealousy, love, and ambition.  A    tained a pension of one thousand livres.''And do vou
thousand times have I been obliged to force myself to re-   account as nothing, Sir, the liberty of addressing me thus?'
present more passions than Le Brun ever painted or con-  replied Le Kain, with all the sublimity and conciseness of
ceived. I saw myself frequently obliged to dart terrible   an irritated Orosmane.
glances; to roll my eyes furiously in my head, like a man     The memoirs of Madle Clairon display her exalted feelinsane; to frighten others by extravagant grimaces; to  ing of the character ofa sublime actress; she was of opi.
imprint on my countenance the redness of indignation and   nion, that in common life the truly sublime actor should be
hatred; to make the paleness of fear and surprise succeed   a hero, or heroine off the stage.'IfI am only a vulgar and
each other by turns; to express the transports of rage   ordinary woman during twenty hours of the day, whatever
and despair; to cry out like a demoniac; and consequent-  effort I may make, I shall only be an ordinary and vulgar
ly to strain all the parts of my body to render them  fitter   woman in Agrippina, or Semiraniis, during the remaining
to accompany these different impressions.  The man then   four.' In society she was nicknamed the QOueen of Car.
who would know of what I died, let him not ask if it were  thage, from her admirable personification of Dido in a traof the fever, the dropsy, or the gout; but let him know    gedy of that name.
that it was of the Andromache!'
The Jesuit Rapin informs us, that when Mondory acted                      JOCULAR  PREAHERS
Herod in ti:e Myriamne o'f Tristan, the spectators quitted    These preachers, whose works are excessively rare,
the theatre mournful and thoughtful; so tenderly were  form a race unknown to the general reader.  1 shall sketch
they penetrated with the sorrows of the unfortunate lie-  the characters of these pious buffoons, before I introduce
roine.  In this melancholy pleasure, he says, we have a   them to his acquaintance.  They, as it has been said of
rude picture of the strong impressions which were made'Sterne, seemed to have wished, every now  and then to
by the Grecian tragedians.  Mondory indeed felt so   have thrown their wigs into the faces of their auditors.
powerfuilly the character he assumed, that it cost him  his   These preachers flourished in the fourteenth, fifteenth,
life.                                                       and sixteenth centuries; we are therefore to attribute their
Some readers will recollect the death of Bond, who felt  extravagant mixture of grave admonition with facetious ilso exquisitely the character of Lusignan in Zara, which   lustration, comic tales which have been occasionally adopthe personated when an old man, that Zara, when she ad-   ed by the most licentious writers, and minute and lively
dressed him, found him dead in his chair!                   descriptions, to the great simplicity of the times, when the
The assumption of a variety of characters, by a person   grossest indecency was never concealed' under a gentle
of irritable and delicate nerves, has often a tragical effect  periphrasis, but every thing was called by its name.  All
on the mental faculties.  We might draw up a list of ac-  this was enforced by the most daring personalities, and
tors, vho have fallen martyrs to their tragic characters.  seasoned by those temporary allusions which neitherspar.
Several have died on the stage, and, like Palmer, usually  ed nor feared even the throne.  These ancieiit sermons
in the midst of some agitated appeal to the feelings,       therefore are singularly precious, to those whose inquisitive
Baron, who was the French Garrick, had a most eleva-  pleasures are gratified by tracing the sannsers of Ifrmer
ted notion of his profession; he used to say; that tragic   ages.  When Henry Stephens, in his apology for Hero.
actors should be nursed on the lap of Queens! Nor was   dotus, describes the irregularities of the age, and the mi.
his vanity inferior to his enthlusiasm for his profession; for,  nutiae of national manners, he effects this chiefly by exaccording to him, the world might see once in a century  tracts from these sermons.  Their wit is not always the
a Censar, but that it required a thousand years to produce   brightest, nor their satire the most poignant; but there is
aBaron!  A variety of anecdotes testify the admirable   always that prevailing naivetd of the age; running throughn
talents he displayed.  Whenever he meant to compliment  their rude eloquence, which interests the reflecting mine
the talents or merit of distinguished characters, he always   In a word, these sermons were addressed to the multitude;
delivered in a pointed manner the striking passages of the   arid therefore they show good sense and absurdity, fancy
play, fixing his eye on them.  An observation of his re-   and puerility; satire and insipidity; extravagance and
specting actors is nor less alpplicable to poets and to paint-  truth.
ers.'Rules,' said this sublime actor,' may teach us not   Oliver Maillard, a famous cordelier, died in 1502. This
to raise the arms above the head; but if passion carries   preacher having pointed somne keen traits in his sermons
them, it will be well done; passion knows more than art.'  at Louis XI, the irritated monarch had our cordelier inBetterton, a!though his countenance was ruddy and   formed that hlie would throw him into the river.  He resanguine, when he performed Hamlet, at the appearance   plied undaunted, and not forgetting his satire:'The king
of the ghost, through the violent and sudden emotion of  may do as he chooses; but tell him that I shall sooner get
anmazement and horror in the presence of his father's  to paradise by water, than he will arrive by all his post
spectre, instantly turned as white as his neckloth, while   horses.' He alluded to travelling by post, which this mohis whole body seemed to be affected with a strong tre-  narch had lately introduced into France.  This bold annor: had his father's apparition actually risen before him,  swer, it is said, intimidated Louis; it is certain that Mailhe could not have been seized with more real agonies.  lard continued as courageous and satirical as ever in his
This struck the spectators so forcibly, that they felt a shud-  pulpit.
dering in their veins, and participated in the astonishment   The following extracts are descriptive of the manners
and the horror so apparent in the actor. Davies in his  of the times.
Dramatic Miscellanies records this fact; and in the Ri-    In attacking rapine and robbery, under the first head he
chardsoniana, we find that the first time Booth attempted   describes a kind of usury, which was practised in the days
the ghost when Betterton acted Hamlet, that actor's look   of Ben Jonson, and I am told in the present, as well as in
at him struck him with such horror that he became dis-  the times of Maillard.' This,' says he,'is called a palconcerted to that degree, he could not speak his part.  liated usury.  It is thus.   When a person is in want of
Here seems no want of evidence of the force of the ideal  money, he goes to a treasurer (a kind of banker or merpresence in this marvellous acting: these facts might de-  chant,) on whom he has an order for 1000 crowns; the
serve a philosophical investigation.                       treasurer tells him that he will pay him in a fortnight's time,
Le Kain, the French actor, who retired from the Parn-   when he is to receive tte money.  The poor man cannot
sian stage, covered with glory and gold, was one day con.  wait.  Our good treasurer tells him, I will give you half in
gratulated by a company on the retirement which he was  money and half in goods.  So he passes his goods that are
preparing to enjoy.' As to glory,' modestly replied this  worth 100 crowns for 200.' He then touches on the bribes
actor,'I do not flatter myself to have acquired much,  which these treasurers and clerks in office took, excusing
Tihis ktind of reward is always disputed by many, and you   themselves by alleging'the little pay they otherwise reyourselves vo0ld not allow it, were I to assume    it.  As to  ceived.  All these practices be sent to the devils!' cries
the money, I have nriot so much reason to be satisfied; at  Mailiard, in tons addressing himself to the ladies.' It is
the Italian theatre their share is far more considerabie than   for you all this damnation ensues.  Yes! yes! you munst
mine: an actor there may get twenty to twenty-five thou-  have rich satin;, and girdles l' geold outi of this accursed
sand livres, and my share amounts at the most to ten or  money.  When any one has any thing to'eceive from the




68                                    CURIOSTIEES  OF
husband, he must first make a present to the wife of some  should imitate the lark; if she has a grain she does not
fine gowvn, or girdle, or ring. If you ladies and gentlemen  remain idle, but feels her pleasure in singing, and in sing.
who are battening on your pleasures, and wear scarlet  ing always is ascending towards heaven. So they should
clothes, I believe if you were closely put in a good press,  not a mass; but elevate the hearts of all to God; and riot
we should see the blood of the poor gush out, with which   do as the frogs who are crying out day and night,and think
your scarlet is dyed.'                                 they have a fine throat,buit always remain fixed in the mud.
Maillard notices the following curious particulars of the'I have told the men of the law that they should havo
mode of cheating in trade in his times.                 the qualities of the eagle. The first is, that this bird when
He is violent against the apothecaries for their cheats.  it flies fixes its eye on the sun; so all judges, counsellors,
They mix ginger with cinnamon, which they sell for real  and attorneys, in judging, writing, and signing, should alspices; they put their bags of ginger, pepper, saffron, cin-  ways have God before their eyes.  And secondly, this
namon, and other drugs in damp cellars, that they may  bird is never greedy; it willingly shares its prey with othweigh heavier; they mix oil with saffron to give it a co-  ers: so all lawyers, who are rich in crowns after having
lour, and to make it weightier. He does not forget those  had their bills paid, should distribute some to the poor,
tradesmen who pult water in their wool, and moisten their  particularly when they are conscious that their money
cloth that it may stretch; tavern-keepers, who sophisticate  arises from their prey.
and mingle wines: to the very butchers who blow up their' I have spoken of the marriage state, but all that I have
meat, and who mriix hog's lard with the fat of their meat.  said has been disregarded.  See those wretches who
He terribly declaims against those who buy with a great  break the hymeneal chains, and abandon their wives!
allowance of measure and weight, and then sell with a  they pass their holidays out of their parishes, because if
smnall measure and weight; and curses those who, when  they remained at home they must have joined their wives
they weigh, press the scales down with their finger.  But  at church; they like their prostitutes better; and it will be
it is time to conclude with master Oliver! His catalogue  so every day in the year!  I would as well dine with a
is, however, by no means exhausted; and it may not be  Jew or a heretic, as with them. What an infected place
amiss to observe, that the present age have retained every  is this! Mistress Lubricity has taken possession of the
one of the sins which are here alleged.                 whole city; look in every corner and you will be convinced.
The following extracts are from Menot's sermons, which'For you married women! If you have heard the
are written like Maillard's, in a barbarous Latin mixed  nightillgale's song, you must know that she sings during
with old French.                                        three months, and that she is silent when she has young
Michael Menot died in 1518. I think he has more wit  ones. So there is a time in which you may sing and take
than Maillard, and occasionally displays a brilliant imagi-  your pleasures in the marriage state, and another to
nation, with the same singular mixture of grave declama-  watch your children.  Don't damn yourselves for them;
tion and farcical absurdities. He is called in the title-page   and remember it would be better to see them drowned than
the golden-tongued.  It runs thus, Predicatoris qui lingua  damned.'
aurea, sua tempestate nuncupatus est, Sermones quadrage-' As to widows, I observe, that the turtle withdraws and
uimales, ab ipso olim Turonis declamati. Paris, 1525, 8vo.  sighs in the woods, whenever she has lost her companion;
When he compares the church with a vine, he says,  so must they retire into the wood of the cross, and havy-'There were once some Britons and Englishmen who  ing lost their temporal husband, take no other but Jesus
would have carried away all France into their country, be-  Christ.
cause they found our wine better than their beer; but as'And to close all, I have told girls that they must fly
they well knew that they could not always remain in France,  from the company of men, and not permit them  to emnor carry away France into their country, they would at  brace, nor even touch them.  Look on the rose, it has a
least carry with them several stocks of vines; they planted  delightful odour; it embalms the place in which it is placed;
some in England; but these stocks soon degenerated, be-  but if you grasp it underneath, it will prick you till the
cause the soil was not adapted to them.' Notwithstand-  blood issues. The beauty of the rose is the beauty of the
ing what Menot said in 1500, and that we have tried so  girl.  The beauty and perfume of the first invite to smell
often, we are still flattering ourselves that if we plant vine-  and to handle it, but when it is touched underneath it
yards we may have English wine.                        pricks sharply; the beauty of the girl likewise invites the
The following beautiful figure describes those who live  hand; but you, my young ladies! you must never suffer
neglectful of their aged parents, who had cherished them   this, for I tell you that every man whodoes this, designs to
into prosperity.' See the trees flourish and recover their  make you harlots.'
leaves; it is their root that has produced all; but when the  These ample extracts will, I hope, convey the same
branches are loaded with flowers and with fruits, they   pleasure to the reader, which I have received by collecting
yield nothing to the root. This is an image of those child-  them from their scarce originals, little known even to the
ren who prefer their own amusements, and to game away   curious.  Menot, it cannot be denied, displays a poetic
their fortunes, than to give to their old parents the cares  imagination, and a fertility of conception, which distinwhich they want.'                                       guishes him among his rivals. The same taste and popuHe acquaints us with the following circumstances of the  lar manner came into our country, and were suited to the
iinmorality of that age. Who has not got a mistress be-  simplicity of the age.  In 1527, our Bishop Latimer
sides his wife? The poor wife eats the fruit of bitterness,  preached a sermon, in which he expresses himself thus;and even makes the bed for the mistress.' Oaths were'Now ye have heard what I meant by this first card,
not unfashionable in his day.' Since the world has been   and how ye ought to play. I purpose again to deal unto
world, this crime was never greater. There were once  you another card of the same suit; for they be c so nigh
pillories for these s'rearers; but now this crime is so com-  affinity, that one cannot be well played without the other.'
uion, that the chiL.:f. five years can swear; and even the  It is curious to observe about a century afterwards, as
old dotard of eighty, who has only two teeth remaining can   Fuller informs us, that when a country clergyman imitafling out an oath!"                                   ted these familiar allusions, the taste of the congregation
On the power of the fair sex of his day, he observes,  had so changed, that he was interrupted by peals of'A father says my son studies: he must have a bishop-  laughter!
rick, or an abbey of 500 livres.  Then he will have dogs,    Even in more modern times have Menot and Maillard
horses, and mistresses, like others. Another says, I will  found an imitator in little Father Andre, as well as others.
have my son placed at court, and have many honourable   His character has been variously drawn. He is by some
dignities. To succeed well, both employ the mediation of  represented as a kindof buffoon in the pulpit: but others
women; unhappily the church and the law are entirely at  more judiciously observe, that he only indulged his natutheir disposal. We have artful Delilahs who shear us  ral genius, and uttered humorous and lively things, as the
close. For twelve crowns and an ell of velvet given to a   good father observes himself, to keep the attention of
woman, you gain the worst law-suit, and best living.'   his audience  awake.  He was not always laughing.
In his last sermon, Menot recapitulates the various to-' He told many a bold truth, says the author ofGuerre des
pics he had touched on during Lent.  This extract will  Auteurs anciens et modernes,' that sent bishops totheil
present a curious picture, and impress the mind with a just  diocesses, and made many a coquette blush. He possessed
notion of the versatile talents of these preachers.    the art of biting when he smiled; and more ably combatee
I have told ecclesiastics how they should conduct them-  vice by his ingenious satire than by those vague apostro.
selves; not that they are ignorant of their duties; but I  phes, which no one takes to himself.  While others were
must ever repeat to girls, not to suffer themselves to be  straining their minds to catch at sublime thoughts, which
duped by them.  1 have told these ecclesiastics that thevy  no one understood. he lowered his talents to the most hum.




LITERATURE.                                                        69
ble situations, and to the minutest things. From  them he    On the day of meeting, the picture was again more close.
drew his examples and his comparisons; and the one and   ly inspected.  Mignard hinted his doubts whether the
the other never failed of success.'  Marville says, that  piece was the workl of that great master; he insinuated'his expressions were full of shrewd simplicity.  He made  that it was possible to be deceived; and added, that if it
very free use of the most popular proverbs.  His compa-   was Guido's, he did not think it in his best manner.''It
risons and figures were always borrowed from  the most  is a Guido, sir, and in his very best manner,' replied Le
fa;ailiar and lowest things.  To ridicule effectually the   Brun with warmth; and all the critics were unanimous.
reigning vices, lie. willingly employed quirks or puns ra-  Mignard then spokein a firm tone of voice;' And I, genther than sublime thoughts, and he was little solicitous of  tlemen, will wager three hundred louis that it is not a
his choice of expression.  Gasparo Gozzi, in Italy had   Guido.  The dispute now became violent; Le Brun was
the same power in drawing unexpected inferences from   desirous of accepting the wager.  In a word, the affair bevulgar and familiar'occurrences.  It was by this art  came such that it could add nothing more to the glory
Whitfield obtained so many fillowers. In Piozzi's British   of Mignard.' N-o sir,' replied the latter,' I am too honest
Synonymies, Vol. II, p. 205, we have an instance of Goz-  to bet when I am certain to win. Monsieur Le Chevalier,
zi's manner. In the time of Charles II it became fashion-  this piece cost you 2000 crowns; the money nmust be reable to introduce hu.outr into sermons. Sterne seems to  turned,-the painiting is mine.' Le Brun would not believe
have revived it in his sermons: South's sparkle perpetu-  it.' The proof,' Miginad continued,'is easy.  On this
ally with wit and pun.                                     canvass, which is a Ronian one, w;as the portrait of a carFar different, however, are the characters of the sublime   dinal; I will show you his cap.'-The chevalier did not
preachers, of whom the French have preserved the follow-  know which of the rival artists to credit.  The proposition
ing descripti.ns.                                          alarmed him.'He who painted the picture shall repair
We have not any more, Bourdoloue, La Rue, and Mas-  it,' said Mignard.  He took a pencil dipped in oil, and
sillon; but the idea which still exists of their manner of ad-  rubbing thire hair of the Magdalen discovered the cap of
dressing their auditors, may serve instead of lessons.  the cardinal.-The honour of the ingenious painter could
Each had his own peculiar mode, always adapted to place,  no longer be disputed; Lebrun vexed, sarcastically extime, circumstance, to their auditors, their style, and their  claimed,' Always paint Guido, but never Mignard.'
subject.                                                     There is a collection of engravings by that ingenious artBourdaloue, with a collected air, had little action: with  ist Bernard Picart, which has been published under the
eyes generally half closed, he penetrated the hearts of -the   title of Tihe Innocent Impostors. Picart had long been vexpeople by the sound of a voice unifbrm and solemn.  The   ed at the taste of his day, which ran wholly in favour ot
tone wish which a sacred orator pronounced the wvords,  antiquity, and no one would look at, much less admire, a
Tu es i0e vir,' Thou art the tian,' in suddenly add Ie:ssiG   modern master.  He published a pretended collection or a
them to one of the kings of France, struck mere!bfcibri~   set of' prints, frotm the designs of the great painters, in
than theii application.  Madame De Sevign6 desrrii.-i   which he imitated the etchings and engravings of the vanour preacher,. by saying,' Father Bourdalotiue thunders at  ouis masters, and much were these prints admired as the
Notre Dame.'                                               works of Guido, Rembrandt, and others.  Having had his
LaRue app-ared with the air of a prophet. His man-  joke, they were published under the title of Impostures Inner was irresistible, fuill of fire, intelligence and force. LEe   nocens.  The connoisseurs however are strangely divided
had strokes perfictly original.  Several old men, his con-  in their olpinion of the merit of this collection.  Gilpin
temporaries, still shuddered at the recollection of the ex-  classes these'Innocent Impostors' among the nmost enterpression which hE employed in an apostrophe to the God of  taining of his works, and is delighted by the happiness with
vengeance,.nvag;hare gladium tuum.                       which he has outdone in their own excellencies the artists
The person of Massillon is still present to many. It  whom he copied: biut Strutt, too grave to admit of jrkes'
seems, say his adlmirers, that he is yet in the pulpit with  that twitch the connoisseurs, declares that they could
that air of simplicty, that modest demeanour, those eyes   never have deceived an experienced judge, and reprobates
humbly declining, those unstudied gestures, that passisnate  such kinds of ingenuity, played off at thre cost of the ventone, that mild countenance of a man penetrated with his  erable brolherhood of the cognoscenti!
subject, and conveying to the mind the most brilliant light,  The same thing was however done by Goltzius, who beand to the heart the most tender emotions.  Baron, the  ing disgusted at the preference given to the works of Altragedian, coming out from one of his sermons, truth forced   bert Duoer, Lucas of leyden, and others of that school,
firom  his lips a confession humiliating to his profession;   and having attempted to introduce a better taste, which
My friend,' said he to one of his companions,'this is an   was not irmmediately relished, he published what was afterarator! and we are only actors.'                          wards called his master-pieces.   These are six prints in
the style of these masters, merely to prove that Goltzius
MASTERLY ISMITATORS.                      could imitate their works, it'f ie thought proper.  One of
There have been found occasionally some artists who   these, the Circumcision, he had painted on soiled paper,
could so perfectly imitate the spirit, the taste, the charac-   and to give it the brown tint of antiquity, had careftully
ter, and the peculiarities of ereat masters, that they have   smolred it, ibyv which means it was sold as a curious pernot unfrequently deceived the most skilfil connoisseurs.  i;'mance. and deceived some of the most capital connoisMichael Angelo sculptured a sleeping Cupid, of which   seurs of the day, one of whom bought it as one of the finest
having broken off an arm, he buried the same in a place   engravin;s of Albert Durer.  Even Strutt acknowledges
where he knew it would soon be found. The critics were  the merit af Goltzius's master-pieces.
never tired of admiring it, as one of the most precious re-  To these instances of artists I will add others of cele.
lies of antiquity.  It was sold to the Cardinal of St George,  brated autnors. Muretus rendered Joseph Scaliger, a great'to whom Michael Angelo discovered the whole mystery,  stickler for the ancients, highly ridiculous by an artifice
by joining to the Cripid the arm which he had reserved.    which he fractised.  He sent some verses which Ire preAn anecdote of Peter Mignard is more singular. This  tended were copied from an old mantscript.   The verses
great artist painted a Magdalen on aconvass fabricated at  were excellent, and Scaiiger was credulous. After hasin'
Rome.  A broker, in concert with Mignard, went to the   read them, ie exclaimed they were admirable, and afrrneel
Chevalier de Clairville, and told him as a secret that he   that they we e written by an old comic poet, Trrqhe,,.  lie
was to receive from  Italy a Magdalen of Guido, and his  quoted them  in his commentary on Varo de Re Rustice.,
master-piece.  The chevalier caiught the bait, begoed   as one of the most precious fragments of antiquity.   It
thIe preference, and purchased the picture at a very high   was then, when he had fixed his foot firnmly in the trap, thut
price.                                                     Muretus informed the world of the little dlependence to be
He was informed he had been imposed upon, and that  placed on the critical sagacity of one so pre judiced in fat.he Magdalen was painted by Mignard.  Mignard him-  vour of the ancients, and who considered his judgment as
self caused ihe alarm to be given, but the amateur would  infallible.
not believe it; all the connoisseurs agreed it was a Guido,  The Abh6 Regneir Desmarais, having written an ode,
and the famous Le Brun corroborated this opinion.          or, as the Italians call it, Canzone, sent it to the Abb6
The chevalier canme to Mignard: —'  Some persons as-   Stroezi at Florence, who iised it to impose on three or four
sure me that my Magdalenr is your work!' —' Mine! they   academicians of Della Crtsca.  He gave out that Leo
do me great honour.  I am sure Le Brun  is not of this   Allarius, librarian of the Vatican, in examining carefully
opinion.'-' Le Brun swears it can hbe no other than a Gui-  the Mss of Petrarch preserved there, had found two pages
do.  You ehall dine with me, and meet several of the first  slightlv glued, which having separated, he had discovered
tonnoisseurs.'                                             this ode.  The fact was not at first easily credited: but




70-                                   CURIOSITIES OF
atterwards the similarity of style and manner rendered it  make him like to come too often, or stay too long. His
highly probable.. When Strozzi undeceived the public, it  predecessors have already been too much at Paris and in
procured the Abbe Regnier a place in the academy, as an  Normandy;" and that " his company was not agreeable
honourable testimony of his ingenuity.                 this side of the sea; but that, beyond the sea, he wished to
Pere Commire, when Louis XIV  resolved on the  be bon frere et amy."'
conquest of Holland, composed a Latin fable, entitled    I have called Philip de Comines honest.  The old wri.
The Sun and the Frogs,' in which he assumed with such  ters, from the simplicity ot their style, usually receive this
elicity the style and character of Phaedrus, that the  honourable epithet; but sometimes they deserve it as littie,earned German critic Wolfius was deceived, and inno-  as most modern memoir-writers. No enemy is indeed so
cently inserted it in his edition of that fabulist.    terrible as a man of genius. Comines' violent enmity to
Faminius Strada would have deceived most of the crl-  the Duke of Burgundy, which appears in these Memoirs,
tics of his age, if he had given as the remains of antiquity  has been traced by the minute researchers of anecdotes;
the different pieces of history and poetry which he cornm-  and the cause is not honourable to the memoir-writer,
posed on the model of the ancients, in his Prolusiones  whose resentment was implacable. De Coniines was
Academicce. To preserve probability he might have given  born a subject of the Duke of Burgundy, and for seven
out that he had drawn them from some old' and neglected  years had been a favorite; but one day returning from
library; lie had then only to have added a good comment-  hunting with the Duke, then Count de Charolois, in faary, tending to display the conformity of the style and   miliar jocularity he sat himself down before the prince, or..
manner of these fragments with the works of those authors  dering the prince to pull off his boots. The count laughed
to whom he ascribed them.                              and did this, but in return for Comines's princely amuseSigonius was a great master of the style of Cicero,  merit, dashed the boot in his face, and gave Comines a
and ventured to publish a treatise de consolatione, as a  bloody nose. From  that time he was mortified in the
composition of Cicero recently discovered; many were  court of Burgundy by the nickname of the booted head.
deceived by the counterfeit, which was performed with   Comines long felt a rankling wound in his mind; and after
great dexterity, and was long received as genuine; but he  this family quarrel, for it was nothing more, he wvent over
could not deceive Lipsius, who, after reading only ten  to the king of France, and wrote off his bile against the!ines, threw  it away, exclaiming,' Vah! non est Cice-  Duke of Burgundy in those' Memoirs,' which give possoeis!' The late Mr Burke succeeded more skilfully in  terity a caricature likeness of that prince, whom  he is
his' Vindication of Natural Society,' which for a long   ever censuring for presumption, obstinacy, pride, and
time passed as the composition of Lord Bolingbroke: so  cruelty. This Duke of Burgundy however, it is said, with
perfect is this ingenious imposture of the spirit, manner,  many virtues, had but one great vice, the vice of soveand course of thinking, of the noble author. I believe it  reigns, that of ambition!
was written for a wager, and fairly won.                 The impertinence of Comines had not been chastised
with great severity; but the nickname was never forgiven:
EDWARD THE FOURTH.                      unfortunately for the duke, Comines was a man of genius.
Our Edward the Fourth was a gay and voluptuous  When we are versed in the history of the times, we shall
prince; and probably owed his crown to his handsome-  often discover that memoir-writers have some secret poiness, his enormous debts, and passion for the fair sex.  son in their hearts. Many, like Comines, have had the
He had many Jane Shores. Honest Philip de Comines,  boot dashed on their nose. Personal rancour wonderfully
his contemporary, says,' That what greatly contributed   enlivens the style of Lord Oxford and Cardinal de Retz.
to his entering London as soon as he appeared at its  Memoirs are often dictated by its fiercest spirit; and then
gates, was the great debts this Prince had contracted,  histories are composed from memoirs. Where is truth?
which made his creditors gladly assist him; and the high   Not always in histories and memoirs!
favour in which he was held by the Bourgeoises, into whose
good graces he had frequently glided, and who gained                       ELIZABETH.
over to him their husbands, who, I suppose, for the tran-  This great queen, says Marville, passionately admired
quillity of their lives, were glad to depose, or to raise mon-  handsome persons, and he was already far advanced in her
archs.-Many ladies and rich citizens' wives, of whom   favour who approached her with beauty and grace.  She
formerly lie had great privacies and familiar acquaintance,  had so unconquerable an aversion for ugly and ill-made
gained over to him their husbands and relations.'      men, who had been treated unfortunately by nature, that
This is the description of his voluptuous life; we must  she could not endure their presence.
recollect, that the writer had been an eye witness, and was  When she issued from her palace, her guards were
an honest man; while modern historians only view objects  careful to disperse from before her eyes hideous and dethrough the colouring medium of their imagination,     formed people, the lame, the hunch. backed, &c, in a word,'He had been during the last twelve years more accus-  all those whose appearance might shock her fastidious.omed to his ease and pleasure than any other prince who   sensations.
lived in his time. He had nothing in his thoughts but lea  There is this singular and admirable in the conduct of
dames, and of them more than was reasonable; and hunt-  Elizabeth, that she made her pleasure subservient to her
ing-matches, good eating, and great care of his person.  politics, and she maintained her affairs by what in general
When he went in their seasons to these hunting-matches,  occasion the ruin of princes. So secret were her amours,
he always had carried with him great pavilions for les  that even to the present day their mysteries cannot be pedames, and at the same time gave splendid entertain-  netrated; but the utility she drew from them is public, and
ments; so that it is not surprising that his person was as  always operated for the good of her people. Her lovers
jolly as any bne I ever saw. He was then young, and as  were her ministers, and her ministers were her lovers.
handsome as any man of his age; but he has since become  Love commanded, love was obeyed; and the reign of this
enormously fat.'                                       princess was happy, because it was a reign of Love, in
Since I have g6t old Philip in my hand, the reader will  which its chains and its slavery are liked!'
not, perhaps, be dipleased, if he attends to a little more of    The origin of Raleigh's advancement in the queen's
his naivetd, which will appear in the form of a conversazione  graces, was by an act of gallantry. Raleigh spoiled a new
of the times. He relates what passed between Edward  plush cloak, while the queen stepping cautiously on it,
and the king of France:                                 shot forth a smile, in which he read promotion. Captain' VWrhen the ceremony of the oath was concluded, our  Raleigh soon became Sir Walter, and rapidly advanced
king, who was desirous of being friendly, began to say to  in the queen's favour,
the king of England, ina laughing way, that he must come  Hume has furnished us with ample proofs of the passnon
to Paris, and be jovial amongst our ladies; and that he  which her courtiers feigned for her, and which, with others
would give him the Cardinal de Bourbon for his confessor,  I shall give, confirm the opinion of Vigneul Marville, who
who would very willingly absolve him of any sin which   did not know probably the reason why her amours were
perchance he might commit.  The king of England   never discovered; which, indeed, never went further at the
seemed well pleased at the invitation, and laughed heart-  highest than boisterous or extreme gallantry. Hume has
ily; for he knew that the said cardinal was un fort boa   preserved in his notes a letter written bv Raleigh, It is a
compagnon. When the king was returning, he spoke on   perfect amorous composigdon. After having exerted nls
the road to me; and said, that he did not like to find the  poetic talents to exalt her charms, and his affection, he con.
king of England so much inclined to come to Paris. " He   eludes, by comparing her majesty, who was then sixty, to'is," said he, " a very handsome king: he liltes the women   Venus and Diana. Sir Walter was not her only courtier
bo much. He may probably find one at Paris that may   who wrote in this style. Even in her old age she affected




LITERATURE.                                                       71
strange fondnerr for music and dancing, and a kind of  and hath been all this daye reasonably quyctt. Mr Gre..:hildish drollery, by which however her court seemed a  veil is absent, and I am tyed so as I cannot styrr, but shall;ourt of love, ar.d she the sovereign. A curious anecdote  be at the wourse for yt, these two dayes!'
n a letter of the times has reached us. Secretary Cecil,    Puttenham, p. 249, has also recorded an honourable
he youngest son of Lord Burleigh, seems to have per-  anecdote of Elizabeth, and characteristic of that high mabctly entercd into her character.  Lady Derby wore  jesty which was in her thoughts, as well as in her actions.
Lbout her neck and in her bosom  a portrait; the queen  When she came to the crown, a knight of the realm who
spying it inrquired about it, but her ladyship was anxious   had insolently behaved to her when Lady Elizabeth, tell
o conceal it. The queen insisted on having it, and dis-  upon his knees to her, and besought her pardon, suspect-:overing it to be the portrait of young Cecil, she snatched  ing to be sent to the Tower; she replied mildly,'Do you
it away, andi tying it upon her shoe, walked long with it;  not know that we are descended of the lion, whose nature
afterwards she pinned it on her elbow, and wore it some  is not to harme or prey upon the mouse, or any other such
time there.  Secretary Cecil hearing of this composed  small vermin?'
some verses anl got them  set to music; this music the    Queen Elizabeth was taught to write by the celebrated
queen insisted on hearing. In his verses Cecil sung that  Roger Ascham. Her writing is extremely beautiful and.
he repined not, though her majesty was pleased to grace  correct, as miay be seen by examining a little manuscript
others; he contented himself with the favour she had giv-  book of prayers, preserved in the British Museum. I
en him, by wearing his portrait on her feet and her elbow!  have seen her first writing-book preserved at Oxford in the
The writer of the'.tter adds, "All these things are very   Bodleian Library; the gradual improvement of her masecret.' In this manner' she contrived to lay the fastest  jesty's hand-writing, is very honourable to her dilligence;
hold on her able servants, and her servants on her.     but the most curious thingis the paper on which she tried
Those who are intimately acquainted with the private  her pens; this she usually did by writing the name of her
anecdotes of theos:. times, know what encouragement this  beloved brother Edward; a proof the early and ardent
royal coquette ga.ve to most who were near her person.  attachment she formed to that amiable prince.
Dodd, in his Church History, says, that the Earls of Ar-   The education of Elizabeth had been severely classical;
ran and Arundol, and Sir William Pickering,' were not  she thought, and she wrote in all the spirit of the great
out of hopes of gaining Queen Elizabeth's affections in  characters of antiquity; and her speeches and her letters
a matrimonil. way.                                     are studded with apophthegms, and a terseness of ideas
S-he encouraged every person of eminence: she even   and language, that give an exalted idea of her mind. In
went so far an the anniversary of her coronation, as pub-  her evasive answers to the commons, in reply to their petilicly to take a ring from her finger, and put it on the  tion to her majesty to marry, she has employed an ener.
Duke of A.lenon's hand. She also ranked among her  getic word:' Were I to tell you that I do not mean to
suitors, H-Inry the Third of France, and Henry the   marry, I might say less than I intend; and were I to tell
Great.                                                  you that I do mean to marry, I might say more than it is
She never forgave Buzenval for ridiculing her bad pro-  proper for you to know; therefore I give you an unswer,
nunciation of the French language: and when Henry IV   answerless!'
sent him over on an embassy, she would not receive him.
So nice was the irritable pride of this great queen, that             THE CINESE LANUAE.
sne made her private injuries matters of state.            The Chinese language is like no other on the globe;'This queen,' writes Du Maurier, in the Memoirespour  it is said to contain not more than about 330 words, but
servir a l'Histoire de Hollande,' who displayed so many  it is by no means monotonous, for it has four accents, the
heroic accomplishments, had this foible, of wishing to be   even, the raised, the lessened, and the returning, which
thought beautiful by all the world. I heard from my fa-  multiply every word into four; as difficult, says Mr Astle,
ther, that having been sent to her, at every audience he  for an European to understand, as it is for a Chinese to
had with her majesty, she pulled off her gloves more than   comprehend the six pronunciations of the French E. In
a hundred times to display her hands, which indeed were  fact they can so diversify their monosyllabic words by the
very beautiful and very white.'                         different tones which they give them, that the same charAnother anecdote, not less curious, relates to the affair  acter differently accented, signifies sometimes ten or more:)f the Duke of Anjou and our Elizabeth, and one more  different things.
proof of her partiality for handsome men. The writer      From the twenty-ninth volume of the Lettres Edifiantes
was Lewis Guyon, a contemporary of the times he no-  et Curieuses I take the present critically humourous actices.                                                  count of this language.'Francis Duke of Anjou being desirous of marrying a     P. Bourgeois, one of the missionaries, attempted, after
crowned head, caused proposals of marriage to be made  ten months, residence at Pekin, to preach in the Chinese
to Elizabeth queen of England. Letters passed betwixt  language.  These are the words of the good father.'God
them, and their portraits were exchanged. At length her  knows how much this first Chinese sermon cost me! I
majesty informed him, that she would never contract a   can assure you, this language resembles no other. The
marriage with any one who sought her, if she did not first  same word has never but one termination; and then adieu
see his person. If he would not come, nothing more should  to all that in our declensions distinguishes the gender, and
be said on the subject. This prince, over-pressed by his  the number of things we would speak; adieu, in the
young friends, (who were as little able of judging as him-  verbs to all which might explain the active person, how
self,) paid no attention to the counsels of men of maturer  and in what time it acts, if it acts alone or with others: in
judgment. He passed over to England without a splen-  a word, with the Chinese the same word is the substandid train.  The said lady contemplated his person; she  tive, adjective, verb, singular, plural, masculine, feminine,
found him ugly, disfigured by deep scars of the small-pox,  &c. It is the person who hears who must arrange the
and that he had also an ill-shaped nose, with swellings in the  circumstances, and guess them. Add to all this, thlat all
neck! All these were so many reasons with her, that he  the words of this language are reduced to three hundred
could never be admitted into her good graces.'          and a few more; that they are pronounced in so many
Puttenham, in his very rare book of the' Art of Poe-  different ways, that they signify eighty thousand different
siy,' p. 248, notices the grace and majesty of Elizabeth's  things, which are expressed by as many diferent characdemeanour,'Her stately manner of walk, with a certaine  ters.  This is not all: the arrangement of all these monogranditie rather than gravitie, marching with leysure,  syllables appears to be under no general rule; so that to
which our sovereign ladye and mistresse is accustomed to  know the language after having learnt the words, we must
doe generally, unless it be when she walketh apace for  learn every particular phrase: the least inversion would
her pleasure, or to patch her a heate in the cold morn-  make you unintelligible to three parts of the Chinese.
ings.''I will give you an example of their words.  They told
By the following extract from a letter from one of her  me chou signifies a book: so that I thought whenever the
gentleman, we discover that her usual habits, though stu-  word chou was pronounced, a book was the subject. Not
dious, were not of the gentlest kind, and that the service   at all!  Chas, the next time 1 heard it, I found signified a
she exacted from her attendants was not borne without  tree. Now I was to recollect, chou was a book or a tree.
concealed murmniurs.  The writer groans in secrecy to his  But this amounted to nothing:.chou, I found, expressed
friend. Sir John Stanhope writes to Sir Robert Cecil in  also great heats; chou is to relate: chou is the Aurora;
1598,' I was all the afternowne with her majestie, at my   chou means to be accustomed; chou expresses the oss of a
hooke, and then thinking to rest me, went in agayne with   wager, &c. I should not finish, were I to attempt D give
u letter. She was pleased with the Filosofer's stone,  you all its significations.




72                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Notwithstanding these singular difficulties, could one  a part of the disease, perhaps rightly enough, arid tmunt.
btt find a help in the perusal of their books, I should not  was prescribed as a remedy to remove the symptomcomplain.  But this is impossible!  Their language is  when experience had not ascertained the probable C3eau-'.
quite different from that of simple conversation.  What  Homer, whose heroes exhibit high passions,'but not rc.
will ever be an insurmountable difficulty to every Eu-  fined manners, represents the Grecian Armny as employilng
ropean, is the pronounciation: every word may be pro-  music to stay the raging of the plagule.  Thl'le Jeish lla.
nounced in five different tones; yet every tone is not so  tion, in the time of King David, appear not to have been
distinct that an unpractised ear can easily distinguish it.    much further advanced in civilization; accordingly we
These monosyllables fly with amazing rapidity: then  find David employed in his youth to remove the mental
they are continually disguised by elisions, which some-  derangement of Saul by his harp.  The method of cure
times hardly leave any thing of two monosyllables. From   was suggested as a common one in those days, by Saul's
an aspirated tone, you must pass immediately to an  servants; and the success is not mentioned as a miracle.
even one; from a whistling note to an inward one; some-  Pindar, with poetic license, speaks of'.Esculapius healing
times your voice must proceed from the palate; sometimes  acute disorders with soothing sonis; but _Esculapius,
it must be guttural, and almost always nasal.  I recited   whether man or deity, or between both, is a physician ot
my sermon at. least fifty times to my servant, before I  the days of barbarism  and fable. Piiny scouts the idea
spoke it in public; and yet I am told, though he contin-  that music should affect real bodily injury, but. quotes Houally corrected rme, that, of the ten parts of the sermon,  meron the subject; mentions Theophrastus as suggesting
(as the Chinese express themselves,) they hardly under-  a tune for the cure of the hip gout, and Cato, as entertainstood three.  Fortunately the Chinese are wonderfilly  ing a fancy that it had a good effect when limbs were out
patient;  and they are astonished that any  ignorant  of joint, and, that Varro thought it good for the gout
stranger should be able to learn two words of their lan-  Aulus Gellius cites a work of Theophrastus, which re.
guage.'                                                  commends music as a specific for the bite of a viper.
It is not less curious to be informed, as Dr Hager tells  Boyle and Shakspeare mention the effects of music superus in his Elementary Characters of the Chinese, that  vesicam. Kircher's' Musurgia,' and Swinburne's Tra-' Satires are often composed in China, which, if you attend   vels, relate the effects of music on those who are bitten by
to the characters, their import is pure and sublime; but  the tarantula.  Sir W. Temple seems to have given credif you regard the tone only, they contain a meaning ludi-  it to the stories of the power of music over diseases.
crous or obscene.' He adds,' In the Chiniese one word     The ancients indeed record miracles; at least none in
sometimes corresponds to three or four thousand charac-' the golden legend' appear to be more so than the tales
ters; a property quite opposite to that of our language, in  they relate of the medicinal powers of music. A  fever is
which myriads of different woords are expressed by the same  removed by a song, and deafness is cured by a trumpet,
letters.'                                                and the pestilence is chased away by the sweetness of an
harmonious lyre.  That deaf people can hear best in a
MEDICAL MUSIC                         great noise, is a fact alleged by sorne;noderns, in favour
In the Philosophical Magazine for May 1806, we find   of'the ancient story of curintg deafiness by a trurmpet.  Dr
that several of the medical literati on the continent are   Willis tells us, says Dr Burney, of a lady who could hear
at present engaged in making inquiries and experiments  only while a drum was beating, insomnuch that her husband,
upon the influence of' music in the cure of diseases.  The   the account says, hired a drunimmer as her servan' itn order
learned Dusaux is said to lead the band of this new tribe  to enjoy the pleasure of her conversation.
of amateurs and cognoscenti.                               Music and lbe sounds of instruments. says the lively
The subject having excited my curiosity, though I since  Vigieui de Marville, contribute to the health of tict body
have found that it is no new discovery, the reader ought to  arid the milnd, they assist the circulation i the },;,od, they
receive indulgently the profit of my discoveries; all which  dissipate vapours, and open the vossels so that the action
I do not wish to pass on him for more than they are  of perspiration is freer. He tells a stony of a. persone of
worth.                                                   distinction, who assured him, that ones being suddenly
There is a curious article in Dr Burney's History of  seized by violent illness, instead of a comxsultation of phy.
Music,' 01n the Medicinal Powers attributed to Music by  sicians, he immediately called a band,t' inusicians, and
the Ancients,' which he derived from the learned labours  their violins played so well in his inside, that his bowels
of a modern physician, M. Burette, who doubtless could  became perfectly in tune, and in a.few hours were harlay a tune to, as well as prescribe one to his patient.  moniously becalmed. I once heard a story of Farinelli the
ie conceives that music can relieve the pains of the  famous singer, who was sent for to Madrid to try the efsciatica, and that independent of the greater or less skill  feect of his magical voice on tme King of Spain.  His ma.
of the musician; by flattering the ear and diverting the  jesty was buried in the profoundest melancholy, nothing
attention, and occasioning certain vibrations of the nerves,  could raise an emotion in him; he lived in a total oblivion
it can remove those obstructions which occasion this dis-  of lite; he sat in a darkened chamber, entirely given up
order. M. Burette, and many modern physicians and  to the most distressing kind of madness.  The physicians
philosophers, have believed that music has the power of  ordered Farinelli at first to sing in an outer room; and for
affecting the mind, and the whole nervous system, so as  the first day; or two this was done, without any effect on
to give a temporary relief in certain diseases, and even a  the royal patient.  At length it was observed, the king,
radical cure. Dr Mairarn, Bianchini, and other respecta-  awaking from  his stupor, seemed to listen; on the next
ble names, have pursued the same career. But the an-  day tears were seen starting in his eyes; the day after he
cients record miracles!                                 ordered the door of his chamber to be left open —and at
Some years ago, the Rev. Dr Mitchell of Brighthelm-  length the perturbed spirit entirely left our modern Saul,
stone wrote a dissertation.' IDe Arte Mledendi apud Pris-  and the medicinal voice of Farinelli effected what no other
cos Musices ope atque Carminum,' printed for J. Nichols,  medicine could
1783. He writes under the assumed name of Michael    I now prepare to give the reader some facts, which he
Gaspar; but whether this lcarned dissertator be grave or  nmay consider as a trial of credulity-their authorities are
jocular, more than one critic has not been able to resolve  however not contemptible.-Naturalists assert that ali.
me. I suspect it to be a satire on the parade of learning  mals and birds, as well as' knotted oaks,' as Congreve
of certain German eruditi, who prove any point by the  informs us, are sensible to the charms of music.  Tihls
weakest analogies and the most fancifiul conceits.  The   may serve as an instance:-An  officer was confined in
following summary will convey an idea of this dissertation.  the Bastile. He begged the gcuverntor to permit him the
Amongst barbarous or half-civilized nations, diseases have  use of his luta, to soften, by the hatrmonies of his instt ubeen generally attributed to the influence of evil spirits.  ment, the rigours of his prison. At the end of a few days,
The depression of mind which is generally attendant on  this modern Orpheus, playing on his lute, was greatly assicktuess, and the delirium accompanying certain stages of  tonished to see frisking out of their Ioles great numbers of
disease seem to have been considered as especially de-  mice;  and descending fromn their woven habitations,
noting the immediate influence of a demon.  The effect of  crowds of spiders, who formed a. circle about him, while
music in raising the energies of the mind, or wnat we com.  he continued playing his soul-subduing  instrunment.  His
monly call animal spirits, was obvious to early observa-  surprise was at first so great, that he was petrified with
tion. Its power of attracting strong attention, may in  astonishment; when having ceased to play, the assembly,
somne cases have appeared to effect even those who la-  who did not come to see his person, but to hear his instrubaured under a considerable degree of mental disorder.  ment, immediately broke upl.  As he had a great dislike
The accompanying depression of mind was considered as  to spiders, it was two days before he ventured again t




LITERATURE.                                                           73
touch his instrument.  At length, having conquered, for  was no music, shot one of them to display his archery. A
the novelty of his company, his dislike of them, he recorm-  learned native told me, that he had frequently seen the
menced his concert, when the assembly was by far more   most venomous and malignant snakes leave their holes
numierous than at first; and in the course of farther time,  upon hearing tunes on a flute, which, as he supposed,
he found himself' surrounded by a hundred musical ama-  gave theta peculiar delight. An intelligent Persian deteurs. Having thus succeeded in attracting this company,  clared he had more than once been present, -when a celehe treacherously contrived to get rid of them at his will.  brated lutenist, surnamed Bulbul, (i. e. the nightingale,)
For this purpose he begged the keeper to give him a cat,  was playing to a large company, in a grove near Schiraz,
which he pitt in a cage, and let loose at the very instant   where he distinctly saw the nightingales try to vie with
when the little hairy people were most entranced by the   the musician, sometimes warbling on the trees, sometimes
Orphean skill he displayed.                                fluttering from  branch to branch, as if they wished to
The Abbd Olivet has described an amusement of Pelis-  approach the instrument, and at length dropping on the
son during his confinement in the Bastile, which consisted   ground in a kind of ecstasy, from  which they wvere soon
in feeding a spider, which he discovered forming its web   raised, he assured me, by a change of the mode.'
in the corner of the small window. For some time he           Jackson of Exeter, in reply to the quest ion of I)ryden,
placed his flies at the edge, while his valet, who was with' What passion cannot music raise or quell?' sarcastically
him, played on a bag-pipe: little by little, the spider used   returns,' What passion can music raise or quell?' Would
itself to distinguish the sound of the instrument, and issued   not a savage, who had never listened to a musical ins:ru.
from its hole to run and catch its prey.  Thus calling it  mnent, feel certain emotions at listening to one for the first
always by the same sound, and placing the flies at a still  time?  But civilized man is, no doubt, particularly af.
greater distance, he succeeded, after several months, to  fected by association of ideas, as all pieces of national
drill the spider by regular exercise, so that it at length never   music evidently prove.
failed appearing at the first sound to seize on the fly pro-  The Rans des Vaches, mentioned by Rousseau, in his
vided for it, even on the knees of the prisoner.           Dictionary of Music, though without any thing striking in
Marville has given us the following curious anecdote on   the coml)osition, has such a powerful influtence over the
this subject.  He says, that doubting the truth of those   Swiss, and impresses then wiih so violent a desire to rewho say it is natural for us to love music, especially the   turn to their own country, that it is forbidden to be played
sound of instruments, and that beasts themselves are  in the Swiss regiments, in the French service, on pain of
touched with it, being one day in the country I inquired into   death.  There is also a Scolch tune, which has the same
the truth; and, while a man was playing on the trump   effect on some of our North Britons.  In one of our battles
marine, made my observations on a cat, a dog, a horse,  in Calabria, a bag-piper of the 78th Highland regiment,
an ass, a hind, cows, small birds, and a cock and hens,  when the light infantry charged the French, posted himwho were in a yard tinder a window on which I was lean-   self on their right, atnd remained in his solitary situation
itig.  I did not perceive that the cat was the least affected,  during the whole of tihe battle, encouraging the men with a
and I even judged, by her air, that she would have given   famous Highland charginrg-tune; and actually upon the
all the instruments in the world for a mouse, sleeping   retreat and complete rout of the French changed it to anin the sun all the time; the horse stopped short from    other, equally celebrated in Scotland upon the retreat of
time to title before the window, raising his head up now   and victory over an enemy. His next-hand neighbour
and then, as he was feeding on the grass; the dog contin-   guarded him  so well that he escaped unhulrt.  This was
ued for above an hour seated on his hind legs, looking   the spirit of the'Last llirnslrel,' who infused courage
steadfastly at the player; the ass did not discover the least   among his countrymen, by possessing it in so animated a
indication of his being touched, eating his thistles peace-   degree and in so venerable a character.
ably; the hind lifted up her large wide ears, and seemed
very attentive; the cows slept a little, and after gazing, as                 MINTE WRING.
though they had been acquainted with us, went forward;       The Iliad of Homer in a nutshell. which Pliny says that
some little birds that were in an aviary, and others on the   Cicero once saw, it is pretended mieht have been a fact,
trees and bushes, almost tore their little throats with sing-   however to some it may appear impossible. Elian noin:  but the cock, who minded ornly his hens, who were   tices an artist who wrote a distich iin letters of gold, which
solely employed in scraping a neighbouring dunghill, did   he enclosed in the rind of a grain of corn.
not show in any manner that they took the least pleasure      Antiquity and modern times record many such penmen,
in hearing the trurrmp marine.                              whose glory consisted in writing in so small a hand that
A modern traveller assures us, that he has repeatedly   the writing could not be legible to the naked eye. One
observed irn tihe island of Madeira, that the lizards are at-  wrote a verse of Homer or a. grain of millet, andl another,
tracted by the notes of music, and that he has assembled a   more indefatigably trifling, transcribed  the whole Iliad in
number of them  by the powers of his instrument. He   so confined a space, that it couild be et-closed in a nutshell.
tells us also, that when the negroes catch them, for fiood,  Menage mentions, he saw whole sentences which were
they accompany the chase by whistling some tune, which   not perceptible to the eye without the microscope; and
has alwavs the effect of drawing great numbers towards   pictures and portraits, which appeared at first to be lines
them.  Stedlman, in his expeditiont to Surinaml, describes   and scratches thrown down at random; one of them
certain sibyls among the negroes, who among several sin-  formed the face of the Daulphiness, with the most pleasing
gular practices, can charm or conjure down from the tree   delicacy and correct resemblance.  He read an Italian
certain serpents, who will wreath about the arms, neck,  poem in praise of this princess, containing some thousands
and breast of the pretended sorceress, listening to her voice.   of verses, written by an officer in the space of a foot and a
The sacred writers speak of the charming of adders and   half.  This species of curious idleness has not been lost
serpents; ald ilc'hing, says he, is more notorious than   in  our own country: where this minitite writing has
that the easterr  "dians will rid the houses of the most  equalled any on record.  Peter Bales, a celebrated callivenomous snakes, Dy charming them with the sound of a   graphist in the reign of Elizabeth, Astonished the eyes of
flute, which calls them  out of their holes.  These anec-  beholders by showing them what they coulld not see; for
dotes, which may startle some, seem lo be fully confirmed  in the Harleian Mss, 530, we have a narrative of'a rare
by Sir ~William Jones, in his curious dissertation on the   piece of work brought to pass by Peter Bales, an Enlishmusical modes of the IHindoos.                              man, and a clerk of the chancery;' it seems by the deAfter food, when the operations of digestion  and ab-  scription to have been the whole Bible' in an English walsorption give so much employrrment to the vessels, that a   nut not biger than a ben's egg.  ThIe nut holdeth the
temporary state of mental repose must be fountd, especially   book: there are as many leaves in his llttle book as the
in het clitnates, essential to health, it seems reasonable   great Bible, and he has written as mench in one of his
to believe that a few  agreeable airs, either heard or  little leaves as a great leaf of the Bible.' We are told
played without effort, must have all the good effects of  that this wondeitfil unreadable copy of the Bible was seen
sleep, and none of its disadvantages; putting the soul in  by many thousands' There is a drawing oif the head of
kuam, as Milton savs, foir any subsequent exertion;  an ex-   Charles I, in  he library of St John's College at Oxford,
per!i:ent, often sFtccessfiully made by myself.  I have been   wh!lly coniposed of minutte written  characters, which at
assured by a credlible eve-witness, that two wild ante lopes   a small distance resnible the lines of an engraving.  The
used often to come from their iwoods to the place where a   lines of the head. antl he ruff, are said to contain the book
more savage beast, SiraJ,:dala!ah, entuertained himr, lfi Kith  of Psalms, the Crfeet. and the Lord's prayer.  In the
concerts, arnd tha' lhey iiterted tc the strains with ar ao)- i British Mueolom   we find a draiving represen ing the porN
pearance uf pleasure, till the monster, in whose soul.e're  trait of Queen Anute, not mrl, h above the size of the hand,




74                                    CURIOSITIES OF
On this drawing appear a number of lines and scratches,  logists derive the words calculate, and caculation which
which the librarian assures the marvelling spectator, in-  calculus, which is the Latin terms for a pebble-stone, and
*ludes the entire contents of a thin folio, which on this oc-  by which they denominated their counters used for arithcasion is carried in the hand.                         metical computations.
On this subject it may be worth noticing, that the learned    Professor Ward, in a learned dissertation on this subHuet asserts that he, like the rest of the world, for a long  ject in the Philosophical Transactions, concludes, that it
ume considered as a fiction the story of that industrious  is easier to falsify the Arabic cyphers than the Roman alwriter who is said to have enclosed the Iliad in a nutshell.  phabetical numerals; when 1375 is dated in Arabic cyBut having examined the matter more closely, he thought  phers, if the 3 is only changed, three centuries are taken
it possible.                                           away; if the 3 is made into a 9 and take away the 1, four
One day in company at the Dauphin's, this learned man  hundred years are added. Such accidents have assuredly
trifled half an hour in proving it.  A piece of vellum,  produced much confusion dmong our ancient manuscripts,
about ten inches in length and eight in width, pliant and  and still do in our printed books; which is the reason that
firm, can be folded up and enclosed in the shell of a large  Dr Robertson in his histories has always preferred writ,
walnut. It can hold in its breadth one line which can con-  ing his dates in words, rather than confide them to the care
tain 30 verses, and in its lenath 250 lines. With a crow-  ofa negligent printer. Gibbon observes, that some requill the writing can be perfect. A page of this piece of  markable mistakes have happened by the word mil. in
vellum will then contain 7500 verses, and the reverse as  Mss, which is an abbreviation for soldiers or thousands;
much; the whole 15,000 verses of the Iliad. And this he  and to this blunder he attributes the incredible numbers of
proved in their presence, by using a piece of paper, and  martyrdoms, which  cannot orherwise be accounted for
with a common pen. The thing is possible to be effected;  by historical records.
and if on any occasion paper should be most excessively
rare, it may be useful to know, that a volume of matter               ENGLISH ASTROLOGERS.
may be contained in a single leaf.
A belief in judicial astrology can only exist in the peoNUMERAL FIGURES.                      pie, who may be said to have no belief at all; for mere tra.
The learned, after many contests, have at length  ditional sentiments can hardly be said to amount to a be.
agreed, that the numeral figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,  lief. But a faith in this ridiculous system in our country
usually called Arabic, are of Indian origin. The Arab-  is of late existence; it was a favourite superstition wit
ians do not pretend to have been the inventors of them,  the learned, and as the ingenious Tenhove observes, when.
but borrowed them from the Indian nations. The nume-  ever an idea germinates in a learned head, it shoots with
ral characters of the Brahmins, the Persians, and the  additional luxuriance.
Arabians, and other eastern nations, are similar. They    When Charles the First was confined, Lilly the as.
appear afterwards to have been introduced into several  trologer was consulted for the hour which would favour his
European nations, by their respective travellers, who  escape.
returned from the east. They were admitted into calen-    A story, which strongly proves how greatly Charles the
dars and chronicles, but they were not introduced into  Second was bigoted to judicial astrology, and whose li;i.d
charters, says Mr Astle, before the sixteenth century.  certainly not unenlightened, is recorded in Burnet's His.
The Spaniards, no doubt, derived their use from  the  tory of his Own Times.
Moors who invaded them. In 1240, the Alphonsean as-    The most respectable characters of the age, Sir Wiltronomical tables were made by the order of Alphonsus  liam Dugdale, Elias Ashmole, Dr Grew, and others, were
X, by a Jew, and an Arabian; they used these numerals,  members of an astrological club. Congreve's character
from whence the Spaniards contend that they were first  of Foresight, in Love for Love, was then no oncormnon
introduced by them,                                    person, though the humour now is scarcely intelligible.
They were not generally used in Germany until the    Dryden cast the nativities of his sons; and what is rebeginning of the fourteenth century; but in general the  markable, his prediction relating to his son Char!cs took
forms of the cyphers were not permanently fixed there till  place.  This incident is of so late a date, one might hope
after the year 1531. The Russians were strangers to  it would have been cleared up; but if it is a fact, we must
them, before Peter the Great had finished his travels in  allow  it affords a  rational exultation to its irrational
the beginning of the present century.                  adepts.
The origin of these useful characters with the Indians    In 1670, the passion for horoscopes and expounding the
and Arabians, is attributed to their great skill in the arts of stars prevailed in France among the first rank. The newastronomy and of arithmetic, which required more conveni-  born child was usually presented nakod to the astrologer,
ent characters than alphabetic letters, for the expressing of  who read the first lineaments in its forehead, and the transnumbers.                                               verse lines in its hand, and thence wrote down its future
Before the introduction into Europe of these Arabic  destiny. Catherine de Medicis brought Henry IV then a
numerals, they used alphabetical characters, or Roman   child, to old Nostradamus, whom anitiquaries esteem more
numerals. The learned authors of the Nouveau Trait6  for his chronicle of Provence, than his vaticinating powder.
Diplomatique, the most valuable work on every thing con-  The sight of the reverend seer, with a beard which' streamcerning the arts and progress of writing, have given some  ed like a meteor in the air,' terrified the future hero, who
curious notices on the origir of the Roman numerals.  dreaded a whipping firom so great a personage. Willit
They say, that originally men counted by their fingers;  be credited that one of these magicians having assured
thus to mark the first four numbers they used an I, which  Charles IX that he would live as many days as he should
naturally represents them. To mark the fifth, they chose a  turn about on his heels in an hour, standing on one leg,
V, which is made out by bending inwards the three mid-  that his majesty every morning performed that solemn exdie fingers, and stretching out only the thumb and the little  ercise for an hour.  The principal officers of the court,
finder; and for the tenth they used an X, which is a dou-  the judges, the chancellors, and generals, likewise, in com.
ble V, one placed topsy-turvy under the other. From this  pliment, standing on one leg and turning round!
the progression of these numbers is always from  one to    It has been reported of several famous for their astrofive, and from five to ten. The hundred was signified by  logical skill, that they have suffered a voluntary death
the capital letter of that word in Latin C- centum. The  merely to verify their own predictions; this has been said
other letter D  for 500, and M  for 1000, were afterwards  of Cardan, and Burton the author of the Anatomy of Mel.
added. They subsequently abreviated their characters,  ancholy.
by placing one of these figures before another: and the    It is curious to observe the shifts to which astrologers
figure of less value before a higher number, denotes that so  are put when their predictions are not verified. Great
much may be deducted from the greater number; for in-  ewinds were predicted, by a famous adept, about the year
stance, IV signifies five less one, that is four; IX ten less  1586. Nounusual storms however happened. Bodin, to
one, that is nine; but these abbreviations are not found  save the reputation of the art, applied it as a figure to
amongst the most ancient monuments. These numerical  some revolutions in the state; and of which there were inletters are still continued by us, in recording accounts in  stances enough at that moment. Among their lucky and
our exchequere.                                        unlucky days, they pretend to give those of various illustri.
That men counted originally by their fingers, is no im-  ous persons and of families. One is very strikin. —Thursprobable supposition; it is still naturally practised by the  day was the unlucky day of our Henry VIII. He, his
vulgar of the most enlightened nations.  In more uncivi-  son Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, all
lised states, small stones have been used, and the etymo-  died on a Thursday i This fact had, no doubt, great




LITERATURE.                                                      75
weight in tnis controversy of the astrologers with their ad-  1659.' The most curious part of this work is' a Cataversaries.                                             logue of most astrological authors.' There is also a porThe life of Lilly the astrologer, written by himself, is a   trait of this arch rogue, and astrologer! an admirable
curious work. He is the Sidrophel of Butler. It contains  illustration for Lavater!
so much artless narrative, and at the same time so much   Lilly's opinions, and his pretended science, were such
palpable imposture, that it is difficult to know when he is  favourites with the age, that the learned Gataker wrote
speaking what he really believes to be the truth. In a  professedly against this popular delusion. Lilly, at the
sketch of the state of astrology in his day,-those adepts,  head of his star-expounding friends, not only formally rewhose characters he has drawn, were the lowest mis-  plied to, but persecuted Gataker annually in his predic.
creants of the town. They all speak of each other as  tions, and even struck at his ghost, when beyond the grave.
rogues and impostors. Such were Booker, George Whar-  Gataker died in July, 1654, and Lilly having written in
ton, Gadbury, who gained a livelihood by practising on  his almanac of that year for the month of August this
the credulity of even men of learning so late as in 1650, to  barbarous Latin verse:the eighteenth century. In Ashmoles Life an account of
these artful impostures may be found. Most of them had           Hoc i tumbo, jacet presbyter et rebulo
taken the air in the pillory, and others had conjured them-   Here in this tomb lies a presbyter and knave 
selves up to the gallows. This seems a true statement of
facts. But Lilly informs us, that in his various confer-  he had the impudence to assert that he had predicted
ences wth agels, their voice reebled that of the Irish    Gataker's death! But the truth is, it was an epitaph like
onces with angels, their voice resembled that of the Irish!
The work is curious for the anecdotes of the times it  lodgings to let: it stood empty ready for the first passencontains. The amours of Lilly with his mistress are cha-  ger to inhabit. Had any other of that party of any eminence died in that month, it would have been as apporacteristic. He was a very artful man, by his own ac-    ence died in     that month,      t w ould have been as appocounts; and admirably managed matters which required  sitely applied to him.  But Lilly was an exquisite rogue,
~~deception and inventionand never at a fault. Having prophesied in his almanac
Astrology greatly flourished in the time of the civil wars.  for 1650, that the parliament stood upon a tottering founThe royalists and the rebels had their astrologers, as well  dation, whei taken up by a messenger, during the night.
he contrived to cancel the page, printed off another, and
as their soldiers! and the predictions                 showed his copies before the committee, assuring them
great influence over the latter.
On this subject, it may gratify curiosity to notice three  that the others were none of his own, but forged by his
or four works, which bear an excessive price. The price  enemies.
cannot entirely be occasioned by their rarity, and I am in-                 ALcHYMY.
duced to suppose that we have still adepts, whose faith
must be strong, or whose scepticism weak.                I have seen an advertisement in a newspaper, from a
These Chaldean sages were nearly put to the rout by a  pretender of the hermetic art. With the assistance of' a
quarto park of artillery, fired on them by Mr John Cham-  little money,' he could'positively' assure the lover of this
her in 1691.  Apollo did not use Marsyas more inhuman-  science, that he would repay him' a thousand-fold! This
ly than his scourging pen this mystical race, and his  science, if it merits to be distinguished by the name, has
Personalities made them  feel more sore. However, a  doubtless been an imposition, which, striking on the feeblest'
)Norwich knight, the very Quixote of astrology, arrayed in  part of the human mind, has so frequently been successthe enchanted armour of his occult authors, encountered  ful in carrying on its delusions.
this pagan in a most stately carousal. He came forth     Mrs Thomas, the Corinna of Dryden, in her life has
with' A Defence of Judiciall Astrologye, in answer to a  recorded one of these delusions of alchymy. From the
treatise lately published by Mr John Chamber. By Sir  circumstances it is very probable the sage was not less
Christopher IHeydon, Knight, printed at Cambridge 1603.'  deceived than his patroness.
This is a handsome quarto of about 500 pages. Sir    An infatuated lover of this delusive art met with one
Christopher is a learned and lively writer, and a knight  who pretended to have the power of transmuting lead to
worthy to defend a better cause. But his Dulcinea had   gold: that is, in their language, the imperfect metals to the
wrought most wonderfully on his imagination. This de-  perfect one. This hermetic philosopher required only the
fence of this fanciful science, if science it may be called,  materials, and time, to perform his golden operations. He
demonstrates nothing, while it defends every thing. It  was taken to the country residence of' his patroness. A
confutes, according to the knight's own ideas: it alleges a  long laboratory was built, and, that his labours might not
few scattered facts in favour of astrological predictions,  be impeded by any disturbance, no one was permitted to
which may be picked up in that immensity of fabling which  enter into it. His door was contrived to turn on a pivot;
disgraces history. He strenuously denies, or ridicules,  so that, unseen, and unseeing, his meals were conveyed
what the greatest writers have said against this fanciful  to him, without distracting the sublime contemplations of
art, while he lays great stress on some passages from ob-  the sage.
scure authors, or what is worse, from authors of no autho-    During a residence of two years, he never condescended
rity. The most pleasant part is at the close, where he  to speak but two or three times in the year to his infadefends the art from the objections of Mr Chamber by  tuated patroness. When she was admitted into the laborecrimination. Chamber had enriched himself by medical  ratory, she saw, with pleasing astonishment, stills, impractice, and when he charges the astrologers with merely  mense cauldrons, long flues, and three or four Vulcanian
aiming to gain a few beggarly pence, Sir Christopher  fires blazing at different corners of this magical mine; nor
catches fire, and shows by his quotations, that if we are  did she behold with less reverence the venerable figure of
to despise an art, by its professors attempting to subsist on  the dusty philosopher. Pale and emaciated with daily
it, or for the objections which may be raised against its  operations and nightly vigils, he revealed to her, in uninvital principles, we ought by this argument most heartily  telligible jargon, his progresses; and having sometimes
to despise the medical science and medical men! He  condescended to explain the mysteries of the arcana, she
gives here all he can collect against physic and physicians,  beheld, or seemed to behold, streams of fluid, and heaps
and from the confessions of Hippocrates and Galen, Avi-  of solid ore, scattered around the laboratory.  Sometimes
eenna, and Agrippa, medicine appears to be a vainer  he required a new still, and sometimes vast quantities of
science than even astrology! Sir Christopher is a shrewd   lead. Already this unfortunate lady had expended the
and ingenious adversary; but when he says he means  half of her fortune in supplying the demands of the philoonly to give Mr Chamber oil for his vinegar, he has totally  sopher. She began now to lower her imagination to the
mistaken its quality,                                  standard of reason. Two years had now elapsed, vast
This defence was answered by Thomas Vicars in his  quantities of lead had gone in, and nothing but lead had' Madnesse of Astrologers.'                            come out. She disclosed her sentiments to the philoso.
But the great work is by Lilly; and entirely devoted to  pher. He candidly confessed he was himself surprised at
the adepts. He defends nothing; for this oracle delivers  his tardy processes; but that now he would exert himself
sis dictum, and details every event as matters not ques-  to the utmost, and that he would venture to perform a lationable. He sits on the tripod; and every page is ema-  borious operation, which hitherto he had hoped not to
bellished by a horoscope, which he explains with tme ut-  have been necessitated to employ. His patroness retired,
most facility. This voluminous monument of the folly of  and the golden visions of expectation resumed all their
-the age, is a quarto valued at some guineas!  It is en-  lustre.
titled,' Christian Astrology, modestly treated of in three    One day as they sat at dinner, a terrible shriek, and one
hooks. by William Lilly, student in Astrology, 2d edition,  crack followed by another, loud as the report of cannabn




76 i                ~         CURIOSITIES OF
assailed their ears.  They hastened to the laboratory;  the clock, told me in syllables the true matter of the phitwo of the greatest stills had burst, and one part of the  losopher's stone, which he bequeathed to me as a legacy.'
laboratory and the house were in flames.  We are told   By this we learn that a miserable wretch knew the art of
that after another adventure of this kind, this victim  to   making gold, yet always lived a beggar; and that Ashalchymy, after ruining another patron, in despair swallow-  mole really imagined he was in possession  of the syllables
el poison.                                                 ofJ' a secret! he has however built a curious monument of
Even more recently we have a history of an alchymist  the learned follies of the last age, in his' Theatrum C(hein the life of Romney, the painter.  This alchymist, af-  micum  Britannicuin.' Though  Ashmole is rather the
ter bestowing much time and money on preparations for  historian of this vain science, than an adept, it nay amuse
the grand projection, and being near the decisive hour,  literary leisure to turn over this quarto volume, in which
was induced, by the too earnest request of his wife, to   he has collected the works of several English alchymists,
quit his furnace one evening, to attend some of her comrn-  subjoining his commentary. It affords a curious specimen
pany at the tea-table.  While the projector was attending   of Rosicrucian  mysteries; and Ashmole relates stories,
the ladies his furnace blew up! In consequence of this   which vie for the miraculous, with the wildest fancies of
event, he conceived such an antipathy against his wife,  Arabian invention.  Of the philosopher's stone he says,
that hlie could niot endure the idea of living with her  he knows enough to hold his tongue, but not enough to
again.                                                     speak.  This stone has not only the power of transmuting
Henry VI was so reduced by his extravagances, that  any imperfect earthy matter into its utmost degree of teerEvelyn observes in his Numismata, he endeavoured to re-  fection, and can convert the basest metals into gold, flints
cruit his empty coffers by alchymy.  The record of this  into stone, &c, but it has still more occult virtues, when
singular proposition  contains' The most solemn  and   the arcana have been entered into, by the choice fathers of
serious account of the feasibility and virtues of the phi-  hermetic mysteries. The vegetable stone has power over
losopher's stone, encouraging the search after it, and dis-  the natures of man, beast, fowls, fishes, and all kinds of
pensing with all statutes anrid prohibitions to the contrary.'  trees and plants, to make them  flourish and bear fruit at
This record was very probably communicated (says an in-  any time.  The magical stone discovers any person wherenious antiquary) by Mr Selden, to his beloved friend   ever he is concealed; while the angelical stone gives the
Ben Jonson, when he was writing his comedy of the Al-  apparitions of angels, and a power of conversing with
chymist.                                                   them. These great mysteries are supported by occasional
After this patent was published, many promised to an-  facts, and illustrated by prints of the most divine and inswer the king's expectations so effectualiy (the same writer  comprehensible designs, which we would hope were inadds) that the next year he published another patent;  telligible to the initiated.  It may be worth showing, howwherein he tells his siubjects, that the happy hour was   ever, how liable even the latter were to bltrnder on these
drawing nigh, and by means of the stone, which he should   mysterious hieroelyphics.  Ashmole, in one of his chesoon be master of, he would pay all the debtsof the nation,  mical works, prefixed a frontispiece, which, in several comin real gold and silver. The persons picked out for his  partments, exhibited Ph(ebhrs on a lion, and opposite to
new operators were as remarkable as the patent itself,  him a lady, who represented Diana, with the moon in
being a most'miscellaneous rabble' of friars, grocers,  one hand and an arrow in the other, sitting on a crab;
mercers, and fishmongers!                                  Mercury on a tripod, with the scheme of the heavens in
This patent was likewise granted authoritate parlia-   one hand, and his caduceus in the other.  These were inrenti.                                                    tended to extrress the materials of the stone, and the seaPrynne, who has given this patent in his Aurum Regi-  son for the process.  Upon the altar is the biist ofa man,
aw, p. 135, concludes with this sarcastic observation:-' A    his head covered by an astrological scheme dropped. from
project never so seasonable and  necessary as now!'  the clouds; and on the altar a-e these words, MereurioAnd this we repeat, and our successors will no doubt imni-  philus Anglicus, i. e. the En!lish lover of hermetic philotate us!'                                                  sophy. ThIere is a tree, and a little creature gnawing the
Alchymists were formerly called multipliers; as appears  root, a pillar adorned with musical and mathematical infirom a statute of Henry IV repealed in the preceding re-   struments, and  another with  military ensigns.   This
cord. The statute being extremely short, I give it for the   strange composition created great inquiry among the chereader's satisfaction.                                     mical sages.  Deep mysteries were conjectured to be
None from henceforth shall use to multiply gold or sil-  veiled by it. Verses were written in the highest strain
ver, or use the craft of multiplication: and if any the same   of the Rosicrucian language. Ashmole confessed he meant
do, he shall incur the pain of felony.'                    nothing more than a kind of pun on his own name, for the
Every philosophical mind must be convinced that alchy-   tree was the ash, and the creature was a mole. One pillar
my is not an art, which some have fancifully traced to the   tells his love of music and free-masonry, and the other his
remotest times; it may be rather regarded, when opposed   military preferment, and astrological studies! He afterto such a distance of time, as a modern imposture. Catesar'  wards regretted that no one added a second volume to his
commanded the treatises of alchymy to be burnt through-   work, from which he himself had been hindered, for the
out the Roman dominions: Caesar, who is not less to be   honour of the family of Hermes, and'to show the world
admired as a philosopher than as a monarch.                what excellent men we had once of our nation, famous for
Mr Gibbon has this succiiict passage relative to alehy-  this kind of philosophy, and masters of se transcendant a
my:'The ancient books of alchymy, so liberally ascribed   secret.
to Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious      Modern chemistry is not without a hope, not to say a
frauds of more recent adepts.  The Greeks were inat-  certainty, of verifying the golden visioms of the alchvmist.
tentive either to the use or the abuse of chemistry.  In   Dr Girianger, of Gottingen, has lately adventired the folthiat immense register, where Piny has deposited the dis-  lowing prophecy;'In the nineteenth century the transmucoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind, there is not  tation of metals will be generally known and practised.
the least mention of the transmutations of metals; and the   Every chemist and every artist will make gold: kitchen
ersecution of Dioclesian is the first authentic event in the   utensils will be of silver, and even of gold, which will
story of alchymy.  The conquest of Egypt by the   contribute more than anything else toprolong life, poisoned
Arabs, diffused that vain science over the globe.  Con-   at present by the oxides of copper, lead, and iron, which
genial to the avarice of the human heart, it was studied in   we daily swallow with our food.' Phil. Mag. Vol. V1,
China, as in Europe, with equal eagerness and equal  p. 383.  This sublime chemist, though he does not yensuccess.   The darkness of the middle ages ensured a   ture to predict that universal elixer, which is to prolons lire
favourable reception to every tale of wonder; arid the re-   at pleasure, yet approximates to it.  A chemical friend
vival of learning gave new vigour to hope, and suggested   writes to me, that'The metals seem  to be composite bemore specious arts to deception.  Philosophy, with the   dies, which nature is perpetually preparing: and it may
aid of experience, has at length banished the study of al-  be reserved for the future researches of science to trace,
ehymy; and the present age, however desirous of riches,  and perhaps, to imitate, some of these curious opera.
is content to seek them by the humbler means of commerce   tions.'
and inlustry.'
Elias Ashmnole writes in nis diary-' May 13, 1753. My                        TITLES       oo.
father Bachouse (an astrologer who had adopted him  for       If it were inqmmred of an ingeniorus writer what page of
his son-a common practice with these men) lying sick in  his work had occasioned him  mot perlety, he wonld
Fleet-street, over against Saint Dunstan's church, and   often point to the title page.  That crirmoitv  which we
Wt knowing whether he shotuld live or die, about eleven of  would excite, is most fastidious to gratify.  Yet such is




LITERATURE.                                                      77
the perversity ofman, that a modest simplicity will fail to  title;' Some fine Baskets baked in the Oven of Uharnf,
attract; we are only to be allured by paint and patches,  carefully conserved for the Chickens'of the Church, the
and yet we complain that we are duped!                 Sparrows of the Spirit, and the sweet Swallows of SalAmong those who appear to have felt this irksome situa-  vation.' Sometimes their quaintness has some humour.
tion, are most of our periodical writers. The' Tatler' and   One Sir Humphrey Lind, a zealous puritan, published a
the' Spectator' enjoying priority of conception, have adopt-  work which a Jesuit answered by another, entitled' A
ed titles with characteristic felicity; but perhaps the in-  pair of Spectacles for Sir Humphrev Lind.' Thedoughty
vention of the authors begins to fail in the'Reader,'the  knight retorted, by a'Case for Sir Humphrey Lind's'Lover,' and the' Theatre!' Succeeding writers were   Spectacles.'
as unfortunate in their titles, as their works; such are the  Some of these obscure titles have an entertaining ab-'Universal Spectator,' and the'Lay Monastery.' The   stirdity;. as'The three Daughters of Job,' which is a
copious mind of Johnson could not discover an appropri-  treatise on the three virtues of patience, fortitude, and
ate title, and indeed, in the first' Idler,' acknowledged his  pain.' The Innocent Love, or the holy Knight,' is a dedespair. The' Rambler' was so little understood, at the  scription of the ardours of a saint for the Virgin.'The
time of its appearance, that a French Journalist has trans-  Sound of the Trumpet,' is a work on the day of judgment;
lated it' Le Chevalier Errant,' and when it was corrected   and'A Fan to drive away Flies,' is a theological treatise
to L'Errarut, a foreigner drank Johnson's health one day,  on purgatory.
by innocently addressing him  by the appellation of Mr    We must not write to the utter neglect of our title; and
Vagabond! The' Adventurer' cannot be considered as  a fair author should have the literary piety of ever having
a fortunate title; it is not appropriate to those pleasing'the fear of his title-page before his eyes.' The following
miscellanies, for any writer is an adventurer. The'Loung-  are improper titles. Don Matthews, chief huntsman to
er,' the' Mirror,' and even the' Connoisseur,' If examined   Philip IV of Spain, entitled his book' The Origin and
accurately, present nothing in the titles descriptive of the  Dignity of the Royal House,' but the entire work relates
works. As for the' World,' it could only have been given   only to hunting. De Chanterene composed several moral
by the fashionable egotism of its authors, who considered   essays, which being at a loss how to entitle, he called
the world as merely a little circuit round Saint James's' The Education of a Prince.' He would persuade the
Street. When the celebrated father of all reviews, Les  reader in his preface, that though they were not composed
Journal des Seavans, was first published, the very title   with a view to this subject, they should not, however, be
repulsed the public.  The author was obliged in his suc-  censured for the title, as they partly related to the educaceeding volumes to soften it down, by explaining its gene-  tion of a prince.  The world were too sagacious to be
ral tendency.  He there assures the curious, that not only  duped; arid the author in his second edition acknowledges
men of learning and taste, but the humblest mechanic may  the absurdity, drops' the magnificent title,' and calls his
find a profitable amulsernent.  An English novel, publish-  work' Moral Essays.' Montaigrle's immortal history of
ed with the title of' The Champion of Virtue,' could find   his own mind, for such are his'Essays,' have assumed
no readers; it was quaint, formal, and sounded like' The   perhaps too modest a title, and not sufficiently discrimina.
Pilgrim's Progress.' It afterwards passed through several  tive. Sorlin equivocally entitled a collection of essays,
editions under the happier invitation of' The Old English' The Walks of Richelieu,' because they were composed
Baron.''The Concubine,' a poem  by Mickle, could  at that place;'the Attic Nights' of Aulus Gellius were so
never find purchasers, till it assumed the more delicate title  called, because they were written in Attica. Mr Tooke
of' Sir Martyn.'                                       in his grammatical'Diversions of Purley,' must have de.
As a subject of literary curiosity, some amusement may  ceivfed many.
boe athered from a glance at what has been doing in the   A rhodomontade title page was a great favourite in the
world, concerning this important portion of every book.    last century.  There was a time when the republic of letBaillet in his' Decisions of the Learned,' has made  ters was over-built with' Palaces of Pleasure,'' Palaces
very extensive researches. for the matter was important to  of Honour,' and'Palaces of Eloquence;' with' Temples
a student of Baillet's character.                       of Memory,' and' Theatres of Human Life,' and' AmphiThe Jewish and many oriental authors were fond of  theatres of Providence;'' Pharoses, Gardens, Pictures,
allegorical titles, which always indicate the most puerile   Treasures.' The epistles of Guevara dazzled the public
age of taste. The titles were usually adapted to their  eye with their splendid title, for they were called' Golden
obscure works. It might exercise an able enigmatist to  Epistles;' and the' Golden Legend' of Voraigne had
explain their allusions; for we must understand by' The  been more appropriately entitled leaden.
Heart of Aaron,' that it is a commentary on several of    They were once so fond of novelty, that every book rethe prophets.' The Bones of Joseph' is an introduction to  commended itself by such titles as' A new Method; new
the Talmud.'The Garden of Nuts,' and' The Golden   Elements of Geometry; the new Letter Writer, and the
Apples,' are theological questions, and' The Pomegran-  new Art of Cookery.' The title which George Gascoigne,
ate with its Flower,' is a treatise of ceremonies, not any   who had great merit in his day, has given to his collection,
more practised. Jortin gives a title, which he says of all  may be considered as a specimen of the titles of his times.
the fantastical titles he can recollect, is one of the pret-  They were printed in 1576. He calls his' A hundred
tiest. A rabbin published a catalogue of rabbinical wri-  sundrie flowres bounde vp in one small poesie; gathered
ters, and called it Labia Dormientium, from Cantic. vii, 9,  partly by translation in the fyne and outlandish gardens of' Like the best wine of my beloved that goeth down sweet-  Euripides, Ovid, Petrarke, Ariosto, and others; and partly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.' It  ly by invention out of our own fruitefull orch:la!s in Eno,
hath a double meaning, of which he was not aware, for  lande; yielding sundrie sweet savours of tragicall, comimost of his rabbinical brethren talk very much like men in  call, and morall discourses, both pleasaunt and profitable
their sleep.                                            to the well-smelling noses of learned readers.'
Almost all their works bear such titles as bread-gold   To excite the curiosity of the pious, some writers em.
-silver-roses-eyes —&c, in a word, any thing thlat sig.  ployed artifices of a very ludicrous nature.  Some made
nifies nothing.                                         their titles rhyming echoes; as this one of a father who
Affected title-pages were not peculiar to the oriental-  has given his works under the title of Scales Ale animi;
ists: the Greeks and the Romans have shown a finer  and Jesus e.susnovus Orbis, 4-c.  Some have distributed
taste.  They had their Cornucopias or horns of abund-  them according to the measure of time, as one Father
ance.-Limones or meadows-Pinakidions or tablets-   Nadasi, the greater part of whose works are years, months,
Pancarpes or all sorts of ruit; titles not unhappily adapt-  weeks, days, and hours. Some have borrowed their titles
ed for the miscellanists.  The nine books of Herodotus,  from the parts of the human body; and others have used
and the nine epistles of -cschines, were respectively hon-  quaint expressions, such as, Think before you leap — W
oured by the name of a Muse; and three orations ofthe  must all die-Compel them  to enter, &c. Some of our
latter, by those of the Graces.                        pious authors appear not to have been aware that they
The modern fanatics have had a most barbarous taste   were burlesquing religion. One Massiei having written
for titles. We could produce numbers from abroad and   a moral explanation of'the solemn anthems sung in Adat home.  Some works have been called,'Matches   vent, which begin with the letter 0, published this work
lighted by the divine Fire,'-and one' The Gun of Peni-  tnder the punnling title of La douce Moelle, elt la Sausse
tence; a collection of passages from the fathers, is called  friande des os Savoureux de L'Avent.'The Shop of the Spiritual Apothecary;' we have'Tho      The Marquis of Carraccioli, a religious writer, not
Bank of Faith,' and'The Sixpenywvorth of Divine  long ago published a book with the ambiguous title of La
Spirit:' one of these works bears the following elaborate  Jouissance de soi meme. Seduced by the epicurean title




78                                    CURIOSITIES OF
page, the sale of the work was continual with the liber-  Venales.  Canum cum cattis certamen; the words begin.
tines, who, however, found nothing but very tedious essays   ning with a C: a performance of the same kind in the
on religion and morality. In the sixth edition the marquis  same work. Gregorio Leti presented a discourse to the
greatly exults in his successful contrivance; by which   Academy of the Humorists at Rome, throughout which
means he had punished the vicious curiosity of certain  he had purposely omitted the letter R, and he entitled it
persons, and perhaps had persuaded some, whom other-  the exiled R. A friend having requested a copy, as a litwise his book might never have reached.                 erary curiosity, for so he considered this idle performance,
It is not an injudicious observation of Baillet, that if a   Letti, to show it was not so difficult a matter, replied by a
title be obscure, it raises a prejudice aginst the author; we  copious answer of seven pages, in which he had observed
are apt to suppose that an ambiguous title is the effect of  the same severe ostracism  against the letter R! Lord
an intricate or confused mind. He censures the following   North, one of the finest gentlemen in the court of James I,
one: the Ocean Macro-micro-cosmick of one Sachs.  To   has written a set of Sonnets, each of which begins with a
understand this title, a grammarian would send an inquirer  successive letter of the alphabet.  The Earl of Rivers in
to a geographler, and he to a natural philosopher; neither  the reign-of Edward IV, translated the Moral Proverbs of
would probably think of recurring to a physician, to inform   Christiana of Pisa, a poem of about two hundred lines, the
one that this ambiguous title signifies the connexion which   greatest part of which he contrived to conclude with the
exists between the motion of the waters, with that of the  letter E; an instance of his lordship's hard application,
olood. He also censures Leo Allatius for a title which   and the bad taste of an age which, Lord Orford observes,
appears to me not inelegantly conceived.  This writer has  had witticisms and whims to struggle with, as well as igentitled one of his books the Urban Bees; it is an account  norance.
of those illustrious writers who flourished during the pon-    It has been well observed of these minute triflers that
tificate of one of the Barberinis.  To connect the illusion,  extreme exactness is the sublime of fools, whose labours
we must recollect that the bees toere the arms of this family,  may be well called, in the language of Dryden,
and Urban VIII, the Pope designed.
The false idea wlhich a title conveys is alike prejudicial'Pangs withoutbirth, and fruitless industry.'
to the author and the reader. Titles are generally too   And Martial says,
prodigal of their promises, and their authors are contemn.      Turpe est dificiles habere nugas,
ed; but the works of modest authors, though they present        Et stultus labor est ineptlarum.
more than they promise, may fail of attracting notice byt  e
their extreme simplicity. In either case, a collector of         Tis a folly to sweat o'er a difficult trifle,
books is prejudiced; he is induced to collect what merits       And for silly devices invention to rifle.
no attention, or he passes over those valuable works whose  I shall not dwell on wits who composed verses in the
titles may nlot happen to be interesting. It is related of  forms of hearts, wings, altars, and true love-knots; or as
Pinelli, the celebrated collector of books, that the booksel-Ben Jonson describes their grotesque shapes,
lers permitted him to remain hours, and sometimes days,           A pair of scissors and a comb in verse.'
in their shops to examine books before he bought them. He
was desirous of not injuring his precious collection by use-    Tom Nash, who loved to push the ludicrous to its ex
less acquisitions; hut he confessed that he sometimes could  treme, in his amusing invective against the classical Ganst help suffering hinself to be dazzled by magnificent  briel Harvey, tells us that' he had writ verses in all kinds;
titles, nor to be deceived by the simplicity of others, vhich in form of a pair of gloves, a pair of spectacles, and a pair
the modesty of their authors had given to them. After all,  of pot-hooks, &c.' They are not less absurd, who expose
it is not improbable, that many authors are really neither  to public ridicule the name of their mistress by employing
so vain, nor so honest, as they appear; and that magnifi-  it to form their acrostics. I have seen some of the latter,
cent, or simple titles, have been given from the difficulty of  where both sides and cross-ways, the name of the mistress
forming any others.                                     or the patron has been sent down to posterity with eternal
It is too often with the Titles of Books, as with those  torture.  The great difficulty where one name is made out
painted representations exhibited by the keepers of wild  four times in the same acrostic, must have been to have
beasts; where, in general, the picture itself is more curi-  found words by which the letters forming the name should
ous and interesting than the inclosed animal.           be forced to stand in their particular places.  It might
be incredible that so great a genius as Boccaccio could
LITERARY FOLLIES.                      havelent himself to these literary fashions; yet one of the
The Greeks composed lypogrammatic works; works in   most gigantic of acrostics may be seen in his works; it is a
which one letter of the alphabet is ommitted.  A lypo-  poem of fifty cantos; of which Guinguerin has preserved a
grammatist is a letter-dropper. In this manner Tryphio-  specimen in his Literary History of Italy, vol. iii, p. 54.
dorus wrote his Odyssey: he had not a in his first book,  Puttenham, in that very scarce book,' The Art of Poesie,'
nor PB in his second; and so on with the subsequent letters  p. 75, gives several odd specimens of poems in the forms
one after another.  This Odyssey was an imitation of the   of lozenges, rhomboids, pillars, &c. Some of them from
lypogrammatic Iliad of Nestor. Among other works of  Oriental poems communicated by a traveller. Puttenham
this kind, Athenmeus mentions an ode by Pindar, in which  is a very lively writer, and has contrived to form a defence
he had purposely omitted the letter S; so that this inept  for describing and making such trifling devices. He has
ingenuity appears to have been one of those literary fash-  done more: he has erected two pillars himself to the hoions which are sometimes encouraged even by those who   nour of Queen Elizabeth; every pillar consists of a base
should first oppose such progresses into the realms of non-  of eight syllables, the shaft or middle, of four, and the casense.                                                  pital is equal with the base. The only difference between
There is in Latin a little prose work of Fulgentius,  the two pillars, consists in this; in the one' ye must read
which the author divides into twenty-three chapters, ac-  upwards,' and in the other the reverse.  These pillars,
cording, to the order of the twenty-three letters of the Latin   notwithstanding this fortunate device and variation, may
alphabet. From  A  to O are still remaining. The first  be fixed as two columns in the porch of the vast temple of
chapter is without A; the second without B; the third  literary folly.
without C,: and so with the rest. Du Chat, in the Duca-    It was at this period when words or verses were tortured
tiana, says, there are five novels in prose of Lopes de  into such fantastic forms, that the trees in gardens were
Vega; the first without A, the second without E, the third  twisted and sheared into obelisks and giants, peacocks or
withoult I, &c. Who will attempt to examine them?       flower-pots. In a copy of verses'To a hair of my misThe Orientalists are not without this literary folly. A   tress's eye-lash,' the merit next to the choice of the subPersian poet read to the celebrated Jami a gazel of his own  ject, must have been the arrangement or the disarrangecomposition, which Jami did not like; but the writer re-  ment of the whole poem into the form of a heart. With
plied it was notwithstaltnding a very curious sonnet, for the   a pair of wings many a sonnet fluttered, and a sar ed
letter Alif was not to be found in any one of the words!  hynm was expressed by the mystical triangle.  Acrostics
Jani sarcastically replied,' You can do a better thing  are formed from the initial letters of every verse; but a
yet; take away all the letters from every word you have  different conceit regulated chronograms, which were used
written.                                                to describe dates-the numeral letters in whatever part
To these works may be added the Ecloga de Calvis, by   of the word they stood were distinguished from  other
Hugbald the Monk. All the words of this silly work ue-  letters by being written in capitals. In the following chre.
gin with a C. It is lr;nled in Dornavius. Pugna Por-  nogram from Horace,
eorutm, all the words beginning with a P, in the Nuga                    - feriam sidera vertice,




LIT ERATURE.                                                       79
by a strange elevation of capitals tile chronogrammatist                      Comme des Princes,
compels even Horace to give the year of our Lord thus.                          Apres ktre venus
N uds
-feriaM siDera Vertlce. MDVI.                                     De leurs Provinces.
The Acrostic and the Chronogram are both ingenmously
Thdes Acrstibe  d in t he mock Epic of t are r iberiad.  Theousl  i   I must notice the poetical whim of Cretin, a great poet
described in the mock Epic of the Scribleriad.  The i -brought into fashio
tial letters of the acrostics are thusalluded tolnthe literary  in h'is day: he died in 1525.  He brought into fashiom
twars:                                                     punning or equivocal rhymes, such as the following which
Marot addressed to him, and which, indulging the same
Firm and compact,, in three fair columns wove        rhyming folly as his own, are superior for a glimpse af
O'er the smooth plain, the bold acrostics move       sense, though very unworthy of their author
High o'er the rest, the Towering Leaders rise
With limbs gigantic, and superior size.                        L'homme sotart, et non seavant
But the looser character of the chronogram, and the dis.           Comme on Rotisseur, qui lave eye,
La faute d'autrui, ltonce avant
order in which they are found, are ingeniously sung thus:            QuLil la cognoisse, ou qu'il la voye, &c.
Not thus the looser chronograms prepare,               In the following nonsensical lines of Du Bartas, this
Carel ss their troops, undisciplined to war; 
With rarnk irre gular, confusedl they stand,         poet imagined that he imitated the harmonious notes of
With rank irregular, conthsed they stand,
The chieftains mingling with the vulgar band.        the lark;
lie afterwards adds others of the illegitimate races of wit:     La gentille aloilette, avec son tirelire,
Tirelire h lire, et tiretiran tire,
To join these squadrons, o'er the champion came              Vers la voute du ciel, puis son vol vers ce lieu,
A numerous race of no ignoble name;                        Vire et desire dire adieu Dieu, adieu )ieu.
Riddle, and Rebus, Riddle's dearest son,enious kind of Nonsense
And false Conundrum and insidious Pun.                 The French  have  an inenious kind of Nonsense
Fustian, who scarcely deigns to tread the ground,    Verses called Amphigourie.  This word is composed of
And Rondeau, wheeling in repeated round,             a Greek adverb signifying about, and of a substantive sig.
On their fair standards by the wind display'd,       nifying a circle.  The following is a specimen: it is elegant
Eggs, altars, wings, pipes, axes were pourtray'd.    in the selection of words, and what the Freinch called richly
I find in the origin of Bouts-rimes, or'Rhiming Ends,'  rhymed-in fact it is fine poetry, but it has no meaning
in Goujet's Bib. fr. xvi, p. 181.  One Dulot a foolish poet,  whatever! Pope's Stanzas, said to be written by aperson
when sonnets were in demand, had a singular custom  of  of quality, to ridicule the tuneful nonsense of certain Bards,
preparing the rhymes of' these poems to be filled up at his  and which Gilbett Wakefield mistook for a-serious comleisre.  Having been robbed of his papers, he was re-  position, and wrote two pages of Commenlary to prove
gretting most the loss of' three hundred sonnets: his friends  this song was disjointed, obscure, and absurd, is an excelwere astonished that he had written so many which they  lent specimen of these Amphigouries.
had never heard. I'They were blank sonnets,' he replied;                        AMPHIGOURIE.
and explained the mystery by describing his Bouts-rimes,               ui'l st here   de se de
The idea appeared ridiculously amusing; and it soon be-              Quand le ccur ne s'est pas rendu!
came fashionable to collect the most difficult rhymes, and           Mais qu'il est facheux de se rendre
fill up the lines.                                                   Quand le bonheur est suspendu?
The Charade is of such recent birth, that it has not yet          Par un discours sans suite et tendre,
opened its mystical conceits; nor can I discover th.e oriin          Egarez  n cceur eperdu;
of this species of logogriphes: it was not known in Franice          Souvelt par uoe mal-entendu
so late as in 1771, in the last edition of the great Dictionnaire de Trevoux, where the term appears as the name of                          IMITATED.
an Indian sect of a military character, and has no con-              How happy to defend our heart
nexion with our charades.                                            When love has never thrown a dart I
Anagrams were.another whimsical invention; with the               But ah! unhappy when it bends,
letters of any name they contrived to make out some en-              ITpleasure her seft bliss stIspends!
tire word, descriptive of the character of the person who            Sweet in a wild disordered strain,
A lost and wandering heart to gain 
bore the name.  These anagrams, therefore, were either               Oft in mistaken language wooed
injurious or complimentary.  When in fashion, lovers                 The skilful lover's understood.
made use of them c.wireally: I have read of one, whose      These verses have sutch a resemblance to meaning, that
mistress's name was Magdalen, for whom he composed,
sistress's name was Megdalen, for whom he composed,  Fontenelle having listened to the song imagined he had a
not only an Epic tinder that name but as a proof of his
ot only an Eic   de that name, bt as a proof of his  glimpse of sense, and requested to have it repeated.' Don't
passion, one day he sent her three dozen of anagrams only.    
on her lovely name.  Sciopius imagined himself fortunate  you peceie, sa                     Iare N
neltus~ imagned   nsel  ortunate sense Verses?' The malicious wit, never without a retort,
that his adversary Scaliger was perfectly Sacrilege in all  replied VThey  are so muci   wike    the fine verses I have
replied   ~ They are SO much-like the fine verses d  have
the, oblique cases of the Latin langnage; on this principle   heard here, that it is not surprising I should be for once
Sir John Wiat was made out, to his own satisfaction,-      mistaken
wit.  They were not always correct when a great compli-    In the' Sctibleriad' re fird a good account ofthe Cento,
ment was required; the poet John Cleveland was strained   A cento primarily signifies a cloak made of patches.  I
hard to make Heliconian dew. This literary trifle has, how-ork wholly composed of verses, or
poetry it denotes a work wholly composed of verses, or
ever, in our own times, been brolght to singular perfection; and several, eqay  i i                 passages promiscuously  taken from  other authors, only
tion; and several, equally ingenLi.  and caustic, will
readily occur to the reader.                               disposed in a new form or order, so as to compose a new
reaTil occ.l 1o'he  1   *    swork and a new  meaning.  Alsoinjius has laid down the
Verses of' grotesque shapes have sometimes been con-  rules to be observed in composing  Centos.  The pieces
trived to convey ingenious thouights.  Pannard, a modern           taken either from the ame poet, or from  several
may be taken ellher from the same poet, or from several;
French poet, has tortured his agreeable vein of poetry inand the verses may be either taken entire or divided into
t: such forms. He has made some of his Bacchanalian
such forms. He has made some of his Bacchanalian   two: one half to be connected with anolher half taken elsesi,ngs take the figlres of ottles and others of glasses.  where; but two verses are never to be taken together.
These objects are perfectly drawn by the various mea-  Agreeable
snres Jof the verses which form the songs. He has also
Cento from'Virgil.
introduced an echo in his verses, which he contrives so       The Empress Eidoxia wrote the life of Jesus Christ in
as not to injure their sense.  This was practised by the   centos taken from  Homer Proba Falconia from Viriil.
old French bards in the age of Marot, and this poetical  Among these grave triflers may be mentioned Alexander
whim is ridiculed by Butler in his Hudibras, Part I, Canto   Ross, who published'Virilius Ecangelizans, sive historia, 8Verse 190.  1 goive an exarlple of thesec poetical echoes,  Domini et Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi Virgilianis verbis
1'ho following ones are ingenious, lively, and satirical.  et versibus descripta.' It was retllblilhed in 1769.
Pour nots plaire, un plumet                  A more difficult whim is that of' Reciprocal Verses,' which
Met                              give the same words whether read backwards or forwards.
Tout en ulsare:                       The following lines by Sidoneus Apollinaris were once
Maie on troruve souvent                   infinitely admired:
Ven t                                     C Siena te signa ternere me tangis et anagis.
Duans son language.
On y volt dtes Conimis' Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.'
Mis                                The reader has only to take the pains of reading tib




80                                     CURIOSITIES OF
lines backwards, and he will find himself just where hie  rivals even in the present day.  Covarruvias, after others
was after all his fatigue.                                 of his school, discovers that when male children are born
Capitaine Lasphrise, a French self-taught poet, whose  they cry out with an A, being the first vowel of the word
work preceded Maiherbe's, boasts of his inventions; among   Adam, while the female intants prefer the letter E, in
other singularities, one has at least the merit ofla d ilcultd  allusion to Eve; and we may add that, by the pinch of a
vaincue, anid might by ingenious hands be turned to some ac-  negligent nurse, they may probably learn all their vowels.
count. I-Ie asserts that this novelty is-entirely his own;  Of the pedantic trifings of commentators, a controversy
it consists in the last word of every verse forming the firsi  among the Portuguese on the works oftCamoens is,lot the
word of the following  verse:                              least. Sonime of these profound critics who affected great
Faoitiqe lelmrnimorudelicacy in the laws of Epic poetry, pretended to be doubt.
Falloit-il  joa le ciel mde renait am nureux,        ful whether the poet had fixed on the right time for a king's
Amnoureux, jouissant d'une beauty5 craintive,
Craintive   recevoir sla douceur excessive,          dream; whether, said they, a king should have a propiExcessive au plaisir qui rend lamant heureux?        tious dreanm on hisfirst going to bed or at the dawn of the
Heureux si nous avios   i   tequelques paisibles lieux  following morning?  No one seemed to he quite certain
Lieux ou plus surement'ami fidelle arrive,          they puzzled each other till the controversy closed in this
Arrive sanris soupcon de quelque arni attentive,     felicitous manner, and satisfied both the night and the
Attentive bL vouloir nous surprendre tons deux. —'.
Attentive  vouoir nous  pende  tos eux.-  dawn critics. Barreto discovered that an accent on one of
Francis Colonna, an Italian Monk, is the author of a   the words alluded to in the controversy would answer the
singular book entitled' The Dream of Poliphilus,' in which   purpose, and by making king Manuel's dream  to take
he relates his arnours with a lady of the name of Polia. It  place at the dawn would restore Camoens to their good
was considered improper to prefix his name to the work;  opinion, anid preserve the dignity of the poet.
but being desirous of marking it by some peculiarity, that   Chevreau begins his History of the World in these
he might claim it at any distant day, he contrived that the   words: I Several learned men have examined in what seainitial letters of every chapter should be formed of those  son God created the world, though there could hardly be
of his name and of the subjects hlie treats.  This odd in-  any season then, since there was no sun, no mnoon, nor
vention was not discovered till many years afterwards:  stars.  But as the world must have been created in one of
when the wits employed themselves in decyphering it, un-   the four seasons, this question has exercised the talents of
fortunately it became a source of literary altercation, be-  the most curious, and opinions are various.  Some say it
ing susceptible of various readings.  The most correct  was in the month of Nisan, that is, in the spring: others
appears thus: Poliam Frater Franciscis Columna pera-  maintain that it was in the month of Tisri, which begins
mavit. Brother Francis Colonna passionately loved Po-  the civil year of the Jews, and that it was on the sixth day
lia.' This gallant monk, like another Petrarch, made the   of this month, which answers to our September, that Adam
name of his mistress the subject of his amatorial medita-  and Eve were created, and that it was on a Friday, a littion; and as the first called his Laura, his Laurel, this  tie after four o'clock in the afternoon' This is according
called his Polia, his Polita.                              to the Rabbinical notion of the eve of the Sabbath.
A few years afterwards Marcellus Palingenius Gtellatus     The Irish antiquaries mention public libraries that were
employed a similar artifice in his Zodiacus Vitw, The   before the flood; and Paul Christian Ilsker, with pro.
Zodiac of Life;' the initial letters of the first twenty-  founder erudition, has given an exact catalogue of Adam's.
nine verses of the first books of this poem  forming his   Messieurs O'Flaherty, O'Connor, and O'Halloran, have
name, which curious particular is not noticed by Warton   most gravely recorded as authentic narrations the wildest
in his account of this work.  The performance is divided  legendary traditions; and more recently, to make confusion
into twelve books, but has no reference to astronomy, which   doubly confounded, others have built up what they call
we might naturally expect.  He distinguished his twelve   theoretical histories on these nursery tales.  By which
books by the twelve names of the celestial signs, and pro-  species of black art they contrive to prove that an Irish.
bably extended or confined them purposely to that number,  man is an Indian, and a Peruvian may be a Welshman,
to humour his fancy.  Warton however observes, I this  from certain emigrations which took place many centuries
strange pedantic title is not totally without a conceit, as the   before Christ, and some about two centuries after the
author was born at Stelladir or Stellata, a province ofFer-  flood! Keating, in his History of Ireland,' starts a favourrara, and from whence be called himself Marcellus Pa-  ito hero in the giant Partholanus, who was descended
lingenius Stellatus.' The work itself is a curious satire  from  Japhet, and landed on the coast of Munster, 14th
on the Pope and the Church of Rome.  It occasioned   May, in the year of the world 1978.  This giant succeeded
Bayle to commit a remarkable literary blunder, vhich I  in his enterprise, but a domestic misfortune attended him
shall record in its place. Of Italian conceit in those times,  among his Irish friends:-his wife exposed him to their
of which Petrarch was the father, with his perpetual play   laughter by her loose behaviour, and provoked him to such
on words and on his Laurel, or his mistress Laura, he has   a degree that he killed two favourite greyhounds; and this
himself afforded a remarkable example.  Our poet lost his  the learned historian assures us was thefirst instance of
mother, who died in her thirty-eighth year: he has comrn-  female infidelity ever known in Ireland!
memorated her death by a sonnet composed of thirty-          The learned, not contented with Homer's poetical preeight lines.  He seems to have conceived that the exact-  eminence, make him the most authentic historian and most
ness of the number was equally natural and tender.         accurate geographer of antiquity, besides endowing him
Are we not to class among literary follies the strange   with all the arts and sciences to be found In our Encycloresearches, which writers, even at the present day, have   pedia.  Even in surgery a treatise has been written to
made in Antediluvian times?   Forgeries of the grossest  show by the variety of the wounds of his heroes, that he
nature have been alluded to, or quoted as authorities.  A   was a most scientific anatomist; and a military scholar has
book of Enoch once attracted considerable attention; this  lately told us that from him  is derived all the science of
curious forgery has been recently translated: the Sabeans   the modern' adjutant and quarter-master-general; all the
pretend they possess a work written by -Adam!  and this  knowledge of tactics which we now possess; and that
work has been recently appealed to in favour of a visionary   Xenophon, Epaninondas, Philip, and Alexander, owed
theory! Astle gravely observes, that' with respect to  alltheir warlike reputation to Homer!
Writings attributed to the 1Antediluvians, it seems not only  To return to pleasanter follies.  Des Fontaines, the
decent but rational to say that we know nothing concern-  journalist, who had wit and malice, inserted the fragment
in  them.' Without alluding to living writers, Dr Par-  of a letter which the poet Rousseau wrote to the younger
sons, in his erudite'Remains of Japhet,' tracing the   Racine whilst he was at the Hague.  These were the
origin of the alphabetical character, supposes that letters  words:' I enjoy the conversation within these few days
were known to A4dam! Some too have noticed astronomi-  of my associates in Parnassus. Mr Piron is an excellent
cal libraries in the Ark of Noah! Such historical memo-  antidote against melancholy; but'-&c.  Des Fontaines
rials are the deliriums of learning, or are founded on for-  maliciously stoppedl at this but.  In the letter of Rousseau
genries.                                                   it was,' but unfortunately he departs soon.' Piron was
Hugh Broughton, a writer of controversy in the reign of  very sensibly affected at this equivocal but, and resolved
James the First, shows uis in a tedious discussion on  to revenge himself by composing one hundred epigrams
Scripture chronology, that Rahab was a harlot at ten years  against the malignant critic.  He had written sixty before
of age; and enters into many arave discussions concern-  Des Fontaines died: but of those only two attracted any
ing the colour of Aaron's Ephod, the language which Eve   notice.
tfrst sooke, and other classical erudition.   The writer is  Toward~ the conclusion of the fifteenth century, Anridiculed in Ben Jonson's Comedies:-he is not without  tonio Cornezano wrote a hundied different sonnets on one




LITERATURE.                                                           81
iubject;'the eyes of his mistress!' to which possibly       Several works have been produced from some odd coinlhakspeare may allude, when Jaques describes a lover  cidence with the name of their authors.  Thus De Saus.
with his                                                    say has written a folio volume, consisting of panegyrica
Wofl ballad,           of persons of eminence, whose christian names were
Maeohi s eybr'        Andrew; because Andrew was his own name.  Two JesMade to his mistress eyebrow.uits made a similar collection of illustrious men whose
Not inferior to this ingenious trifler is Nicholas Franco,  christian names were Theophilus and Philip, being their
well known in Italian literature, who employed himself in  own.  Anthony Sanderus has also composed a treatise of
writing two hundred and eighteen satiric sonnets, chiefly  illustrious Ahonies    And we have one Buchana, who
6      0                               ~~~~~~~~~~~illustrious.,4nthonies! And we have one.Buchanan, who
on the famous Peter Aretit.  This lampooner had the   has written  the lives of those persons who were so fortuhonour of being hanged at Rome for his defamatory publi-  nate as to have een his namesakes...  0    b                                ~~~~~~~~~~~nate as to have been his namesakes.
cations.  In the same class are to be placed two other        Several forgotten writers have frequently been intruded
writers.  Brebeuf, who wrote one hundred and fifty epi-  on the public eye, merely through such trifling coinciden-.
grams against a painted lady   Another wit, desirous of
grams agaist  a pined lady.  Another wit, desirous of  ces as being members of some particular society, or na-.
emulating himr, and for a literary bravado, costinued the   tives of some particular country.  Cordeliers have stoodl
same subject, and pointed at tisis unfortunate fair three   forward to revive the writings of Duns Scotus, because he,
hundred more, without once repeating the thoughts of
hundred more, without once repeating the thoughts of had been a Cordelier; and a Jesuit compiled a folio on the.
Brebeuf! There is a collection of poems called LIa PucE   antiquities of a country, merely from  the circumstance
des grandjousrs de Poitiers.'  The FLEA of the carnival of  that the founder of his order, Ignatis Loyola, had beeni
Poitiers. These poems were all written by the learned
Poitiers.  These  poems were  all written by i the  learned   born there.  Several of the classics are violently extolled,
bPasquier upo a FLEA  which he found one morning in the   above others, merely from the accidental circumstance o.
bosom of the  mous  Catherine des Roches     their.editors having collected a vast number of notes,,
1Not Iong aglo, a Mr and Mrs Bilderdik, in Flanders
ot long ao, a  r  and Mrs Bilderdik, in Flanders   which they resolved to discharge on the public.  County,
published poems under the singular title of'White and   histories have been frequently compiled, and provincial
Red.'-His own poems were called white, from the colour  writers have received a temporary existence, from  the
of his hair, and those of his lady red, in allusion to the col-  accident of some obscure individual being an inhabitant of
ouroftherose.   Thedeamustbe~lemish!accident of some obscure individual being an inhabitant of:"
our of the rose.  The idea must be Flemish!                 some obscure town.
Gildon, in his I Laws of Poetry,' commenting on this  sm    bcr  on
Gildn, in his'Laws  of Poety,' commentin  on this  On such literary follies Malebranche has made this re..
line of the Duke of Buckingham's' Essay on Poetry,'        fined observation. The critics, standing in sonie way con.
Nature's chiefmaster.piece is writing well:'        nected with the author, their self-love inspires them, and'
very profoundly informs his readers'That what is here   abundantly  furnishes eulogiums which the author never,
said has not the least regard to the penmanship, that is, to   merited, that they may thus obliquely reflect some praise,
the fairness or badness of the hand-writing, &c, and pro-  on themselves.  This is made so adroitly, so delicately,,
ceeds throughout a whole page, with a panegyric on adine   and so concealed, that it is not perceived.
hacndwriting!  Dull men seem  to have at times great        The following are strange inventions, originating in the
claims to originality!                                      wilful bad taste of the authors.  Otto Venius, the master
Littleton, the author of the Latin and English Diction-  of Rubens, is the designer of LE  Theatre moral de!ia V'ie
mry, seems to have indulged his favourite propensity to   Humaine.  In this emblematical history of human life, -h;
punning so far as even to introduce a pun in the grave and   has taken his subjects from Htorace; but certainly his con-.
elaborate work of a Lexicon.  A  story has been raised   ceptions are not Horatian.  He takes every image in a
to account for it, and it has been ascribed to the impatient  literal sense.!fHorace says,' Misce stultitianm consiliis:
interjection of the lexicographer to his scribe, who, taking   brevem,' behold Venius takes brevis personally, and re-.
no offence at the peevishness of his master, put it down in  presents folly as a little short child! of not above three orthe Dictionary.  The article alluded to is,' CONCURRO,  four years old! In the emblem which answers Horace's
to run with others; to run together; to come together; to' Raro antecedenter scelstum deseruit pede pcena claudo,'
fall foul on one another; to CoNcur, to CoNdog.             we find Punishment with a wooden leg.-And for' pulvis;
Mr Todd, in his Dictionary, has laboured to show'  the   et umbra sumus,' we have a dark burying vault, with dust'
inaccuracy of this pretended narrative.' Yet a similar  sprinkled about the fioor, and a shadow walking upright
blunder appears to have happened to Ash. Johnson, while  between two ranges of'urns. For'  Virtus est vitiumfugere,
composing his Dictionary, sent a note to the Gentleman's  et sapienstia prima stultitia caruisse,' most flatly he gives
M/agazine to inquire the etymology of the word curmuld-  seven or eight Vices pursuing Virtue, and Folly just at
geon. Having obtained the information, he records in his  the heels of Wisdom.  I saw in an English Bible printed'
work the obligation to an anonymous-letter-writer.' Cur-  in Holland; an instance of the same taste: the artist, to,
mudgeon, a vitious way of pronouncing ceur mechant. An   illustrate' Thou seest the mote in thy neighbour's eye, but'
unknown correspondent.' Ash copied the word into his  not the beam  in thine own,' has actually placed an im-.
Dictionary in this manner:' Curmudgeon: from  the   mense beam which projects from the eye of the caviller to.
French casur, unknown; and mechant, a correspondent.'  the ground'
This singular negligence ought to be placed in the class of    As a contrast to the too obvious taste of'Venius, mayour literary blunders; but these form a pair of lexicographi-  be placed!Cesare di Ripa, who is the author of an Italian,
cal anecdotes.                                              work, translated into most European languages, the Icono-.
Two singular literary follies have been practised on  logi.; the favourite book of the age, and the fertile parent'
Milton.  There is a prose version of his'Paradise Lost,'  of the most absurd offsp)ring which Taste has know n. RIipawhich was innocently translated from the French version of  is as d'arkly subtile as V'enius is obvious; and as farhis Epic! One Green published a specimen of a new ver-  fetched in his conceits as the other is literal.  Riparepre.
Von of the' Paradise Lost' into blank verse!  For this  sents Beauty by a nalked lady, with her head in a cloud
purpose he has utterly ruined the harmony of Milton's  because the true idea of beauty-is hard to be conceived'.
cadences, by what he conceived to be' bringing that ama-  Flattery, by a lady with a flite in her hand, and a stag azing work somewhat nearer the summit ofperfection.'         her feet, because stags are said' to love music so much,
A French author, when his book had been received by   that they suffer themselves to be taken, if you play to
the French Academy, had the portrait of Cardinal Riche-  them on a flute.  Fiaud, with two hearts in one hand, and
lieu engraved on his title page, encircled by a crown of  a, mask in the other:-his collection is too numerous to
forty rays, in each of which was written the name *f the   point out more instances.  Ripa also describes how the
celebratedforty academicians.                               allegorical figures. are to be coloured; Hope is to have a
The self-.exultations of authors, frequently employd by   sky-blue robe, because she always looks towards hearen,
injudicious writers, place themin ridiculous attitudes.  A   Enough of these Capriccios!
writer of a bad dictionary, which he intended for a CvcloL rTUr.A~rY coNTROVERtsY.
pedia, formed such an opinion of its extensive sale, that                  TEARY    ONo sy.
he put on the title-page the words'first edition,' a hint to  In the article Milton, in the preceding volume, I had
the gentle reader that it would not be the last. Desmarest  occasion to give some strictures on the asperity of literary
was so delighted with his'Clovis,' an Epic Poem, that  controversy: the specimens I brought forward were drawn
he solemnly concludes his preface with a thanksgiving to  from  his own and Salmasius's wrinings.  If to some the
God, to whom  he attributes all his glory!  This is like   subject has appeared exceptionable, to me, 1 confess, it
that conceited member of a French Parliament, who was  seems useftil, and I shall' therefore add some other parti.
overheard, after his tedious harangue, muttering most- de-  culars; for this topic has many branches.  Of the follow.
ioutly to himself,' IN'on nobis Do)sine.'                  ing specimens, the grossness ant malignity are extrema
3*                                                              It




82                                    CURIOSITIES OF
yet t.ey were employed by the first scholars in Europe.  Tilleman, a Lutheran minister, he bestows on him the
Martin Luther was not destitute of genius, of learning,  following titles of honour:'Polyphemus; an ape;a great
or of eloquence; but his violence disfigured his works with  ass who is distinguished from  other asses by wearing a
invetives and singularities of abuse. The great reformer  hat; an ass on two feet; a monster composed of part ot
of superstition had himself all the vulgar ones of his day;  an ape and wild ass; a villain who merits hanging on the
he believed that flies were devils; and that he had had a  first tree we find.' And Beza was, no doubt desirous ot
buffeting with Satan when his left ear felt the prodigious  the office of executioner!
beating.  Hear him  express himself on the  Catholic       The Catholic party is by no means inferior in the felici..
divines:'The papists are all asses, and will always re.  ties of their style. The Jesuit Raynaud calls Erasmus
main asses. Put them in whatever sauce you choose'the Batavian buffoon,' and accuses him of nourishing
boiled, roasted, baked, fried, skinned, beat, hashed, they  the egg which Luther hatched. These men were alike
are always the same asses?                               supposed by their friends to be the inspired regulators of
Gentle and moderate, compared with a salute ofhis Holi-  Religion!
ziess. —   The Pope was born out of the Devil's posteriors.    Bishop Bedell, a great and good man, respected even
He is full of devils, lies, blasphemies, and idolatries; he is  by his adversaries, in an address to his clergy, observes,
anti-Christ; the robber of churches; the ravisher of vir-'Our calling is to deal with errors, not to disgrace the man;gins; the greatest of pimps; the governor of Sodom, &c.  with scolding words. It is said of Alexander, I think,
If the Turks lay hold of us, then we shall be in the hands  when he overheard one of his soldiers railing lustily against
f the Devil; but if we remain with the Pope, we shall be  Darius his enemy, that he reproved him, and  added,
in hell. —What a pleasing sight would it be to see the   " Friend, I entertain thee to fight against Darius, not to
Pope and the Cardinals hanging on one gallows, in exact  revile him;" I and my sentiments of treating the Catholics,'
order, like the seals which dangle from the bulls of the  concludes Bedkell,' are not conformable to the practice of
Pope! What an excellent council would they hold under  Luther and Calvin: but they were but men, and perhaps
ihe gallows!'                                           we must confess they suffered themselves to yield to the
Sometimes desirous of catching the attention of the  violence of passion.
vulgar, Luther attempts to enliven his style by the grossest    The Fathers of the church were proficients in the art
buffooneries:' Take care, my little Popa! my little ass!  of abuse, and very ingeniously defended it. St Austin
go on slowly: the times are slippery: this year is dan-  affirms that the keenest personality nmay produce a won.,;gerous: if thou fallest, they will exclaim, See!  how   derful effect, in opening a man's eyes to his own follies,:our little Pope is spoilt.' It was fortunate for the cause   He illustrates his position with a story, given with great,of the Reformation that the violence of Luther was soft-  simplicity, of his mother Saint Monica with her maid.
ncued in a considerable degree at times by the meek   Saint Monica certainly would have been a confirmed
Melanethon: he often poured honey on the sting inflicted   drunkard, had not her maid timely and outrageously
by the angry bee. Luther was no respecter of kings; he  abused her. The story will amuse.-' My mother had by
was so fortunate, indeed, as to find among his antagonists  little and little accustomed herself to relish wine.  They
a crowned head.; a great good fortune for an obscure  used to send her to the cellar, as being one of the soberest
controversialist, and the verypunctumr saliens of contro-  in the family: she first sipped from the jug and tasted a
versy. Our Henry VIII wrote his book against the new   few drops, for she abhorred wine, and did not care to
doctrine: then warm from scholastic studies, Henry pre.  drink. However, she gradually accustomed herself, and
sented Leo X with a work highly creditable to his abili-  from sipping it on her lips she swallowed a draught. As
ties, and no inferior performance according to the genius of  people from  the smallest faults insensibly increase, she
~he age. Collier, in his Ecclesiastical History, has ana-  at length liked wine, and drank bumpers. But one day
lysed the book, and does not ill describe its spirit:'Henry   being alone with her maid who usually attended her to the
seems superior to his adversary in the vigour and propriety  cellar, they quarrelled, and the maid bitterly reproached
of his style, in the force of his reasoning, and the learning   her with being a drunkard! That single eord struck her
of his citations. It is true he leans too much upon his  so poignantly that it opened her understanding; and re..
character, argues in his garter-robes, and writes as it  flecting on the deformity of the vice, she desisted for ever
were with his sceptre.' But Luther in reply abandons his  from its use.':pen to all kinds of railing and abuse.  He addresses      To jeer and play droll, or, in his own words, de bou.
Henry VIII in the following style:  It is hard to say if  fenner, was a mode of controversy the great Arnauld defolly can be more foolish, or stupidity more stupid, than is  fended as permitted by the writings of the holy fathers. It
the head of Henry.  He has not attacked me with the  is still more singular, when he not only brings forward as
heart of a king, but with the impudence of a knave. This  an example of this ribaldry, Elijah mocking at the false
rotten worm of the earth having blasphemed the majesty  divinities, but God himself bantering the first man after.of my king, I have a just right to bespatter his English   his fall. He justifies the injurious epithets which he has
majesty with his own dirt and ordure. This Henry has  so liberally bestowed on his adversaries by the example of
tied.' Some of his original expressions to our Henry VIII  Jesus Christ and the apostles! It was on these grounds
are these:' Stulta, ridicula, et verissime Henriciasi, et  also that the celebrated Pascal apologized for the invec-'homistica sunt haec-Regem  Anglia  Henricum istum   tives with which he has occasionally disfigured his Pro.
plane mentiri, &c.-Hoc agit inquietus Satan, ut nos a  vincial Letters. A Jesuit, famous for twenty folios which
Scripturis avocet per sceleratos Henricos, &c.'-He was  contain his works, has collected'An Alphabetical Catarepaid with capital and interest by an anonymous reply,  logue of the Names of Beasts by which the Fathers char.
said to have been written by Sir Thomas More, who  acterized the Heretics.' It may be found in Eretemato
eoncludes his arguments by leaving Luther in language   de mlis ac benis Libris, p. 93, 4to, 1653, of Father Raynot necessary to translate;'cum  suis furiis et furoribus,  naud. This list of brutes and insects, among which are
cum  suis merdis et stercoribus cacantem  cacatumque.'  a vast variety of serpents, is accompanied by the names
fSich were the vigorous elegancies of a controversy on   of the heretics designated!
the Seven Sacraments! Long after, the court of Rome        Ware in his Irish Writers, informs us of one Henry
had not lost the taste of these'bitter herbs;" for in the  Fitzsermon, an Irish Jesuit, who was imprisoned for his
bull of the canonization of Ignatius Loyola in August,  papistical designs and seditious preaching. iDuring his
1623, Luther is called menstrum teterrimum, et detestabilis  confinement he proved himself to be a great amateur of
vestis.                                                  controversy.  He said' he felt like a bear tied to a stake,
Calvin was less tolerable, for he had no Melancthon!  and wanted somebod) to bait him.' A kind office, zealHis adversaries are never others than knaves, lunatics,  ously undertaken by the learned Usher then a young man.
drunkards, and assassins! Sometimes they are charac-  He engaged to dispute with him once a week on the sutbject
terized by the familiar appellatives of bulls, asses, cats  of antichrist!  They met several times. It appears that
and hogs!  By him  Catholic and Lutheran are alike  our bear was out-worried, and declined any firther dog.
hated. Yet, after having given vent to this virulent  baiting. ThisspIead an universal joy through the Protest.
hutmour, he frequently boasts of his mildness.  When he  ants in Dublin. Such was the spirit of those times, which
reads over his writings, he tells us, that he is astonished   appears to have been very different from our own. Dr
at his forbearance; but this, hlie adds, is the duty of every   Disney gives an anecdote of a modern bishop who was
Christian! at the same time, he generally finishes a period  just advanced to a mitre; his bookseller begged to repubwvith-' Do you hear, yout dogo? Do you hear, madman?'  lish a popular theological tract of his against another
Beza, the disciple of Calvin, sometimes imitates the  bishop, because he might now meet him on equal terms.
luxuriant abuse of his master. When he writes against  Mv lord answered —' Mr * * * no more conti oversy now'




LITERATURE.                                                          83
Our good bishop resembled Baldwin, who, from a simple  avenged himself ina very cowardly manner-he attacked
monk, arrived to the honourof the see ofCanterbury. The   Aristotle himself! fbr he set Aristotle with his heels  p-.
successive honours successively changed his manners.  wards on the school gates at Cambridge, and with assee
Urban the Second inscribed his brief to him in this concise  ears on his head
description-Baldwino  iVlonastico fJrventissimo, Abbate    But this controversy concerning Aristotle and the school
calido, Episcapo tepido, Archiepiscopa remisso!         divinity was even prolonged so late as in the last century.
On tihe subject of literary controversies we cannot pass   Father de Benedictis, a Jesuit, and professor in the college
over the various sects of the scholastics; a volume might  at Naples, published in 1668 four volumes of peripatetic
easily be compiled of their ferocious wars, which in more   philosophy, to establish the principles of Aristotle.  The
than one instance were accompanied by stones and dag-  work was exploded, and he wrote an abusive treatise under
gers.  The most memorable, on account of thle extent, the   the Nom  de guerre of Benedetto Aletino.  A  man cf,
violence, and duration of their contests, are those of the  letters, Constantino Grinmaldi, replied. Aletino rejoined;
Nominalists and the Realists.                            he wrote letters, an apology for the letters, and would have
It was a most subtile question assuredly, and the world   written more for Aristotle than Aristotle himself perlialps
thought for a long while that their happiness depended on   would have done. However, Grimaldi was no ordinary
deciding, whether universals, that is genera, have a real  antagonist, and not to be outwearied.  He had not only
essence, and exist independent of particuiars, that is spe-  the best of the argument but he was resolved to tell the
cies:-whether, for instance, we could form  an idea of  world so, aslong as the world would listen.  Whether he
asses, prior to individual asses? RIosseline, in the eleventh   killed off' Fitter Benedictis is not affirmed; but the latter
century, adopted the opinion that universals have no real  died during the controversy.  Grimaldi however afterexistences, either before or in individuals, but are mere   wards pursued his ghost, and buffeted the father in his
names and words by which the kind of individuals, is ex-  grave.  This enraged the University of Naples; and the
pressed. A tenet propagated by Abelard, which produced  jesuits, to a man, denounced Grimaldi to Pope Benedict
the sect of the Nnminalists. But the Realists asserted that  XIII and Cardinal D'Althan, the Viceroy of Naples.
universals existed independent of individuals,-though they   On this the Pope issued a bull prohibiting tlie reading of
were somewhat divided between the various opinions of  Grimaldi's works, or keeping them, under pain of excomPlato and Aristotle.  Of the Realists the most famous   munication; and the cardlinal, more active than the bull,
were Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus.  The cause of  caused all the copies which were found in the author's
the Nominalists was almost desperate, till Occam in the   house to be thrown into the sea!  The author with tears in'ourteernth century revived the dying embers. Louis XI   his eyes beheld them expatriated, and hardly hoped their
adopted the Nominalists, and the Nominalists flourished   voyage would have been successful. However, all the little
at large in France and Germany; but unfortunately Pope  family of the Grirnaldis were not drowned-for a storm
John XXIII patronized the Realists, arnd throughout Italy  arose, and happily drove ashore many of the floating
it was dangerous for a Nominalist to open his lips.  The   copies, and thlese falling into good arnd charitable hand.
French king wavered, and the Pope triumphed; his ma-  the heretical opinions of poor Grimaldi against Aristotle
jesty published an edict in 1474, in which he silenced for  and schocl diviniity were still read by those who were not
ever the Nominalists, and ordered their books to be fast-  out-terrified by the Pope's hulls. The salted passages
ened up in their libraries with iron chains, that they might  were still at hand, and quoted with a double zest against
not be read by young students! The leaders of that sect  the Jesuits!
fled into England and Germany, where they united their      We now turn to writers whose controversy was kindlea
forces with Luther and the first IReformers.             only by subjects of polite literature.  The particulars
Nothing could exceed the violence with which these  form a curious picture of the taste and character of the age.
disputes were conducted. Vives himself, who witnessed'There is,' says Joseph Scaliger, that great critic and
the contests, says that'when the contending parties had   reviler,' an art of abuse or slandering, of which those tha
exhausted their stock of verbal abuse, they often came to  are ignorant may be said to defame others much less thas
blows; and it was not uncommon in these quarrels about  they show a willingness to defame.'
universals, to see the combatants engaging not only with' Literary wars,' says Bayle,'are sometimes as lasting
their fists, but with clubs and swordls, so that many have   as they are terrible.'  A disputation between two great
been wounded and some killed.'                           scholars was so interminably violent, that it lasted thirty
I add a curious extract from John of Salisbury, on   years! He humorurously compares its duration to the Gerthis war of words, which Moshein has given in his Ec-  man war which lasted as long.
clesiastical History.  He observes on all this terrifying  Baillet, when he refuted the sentiments of a certain atnonsense,' that there had been more time consumed in it,  thor, always did it without naming him; but when he found
than the Cawsars had employed in making themselves mas-  any observation which he deemed commendable, he quoted
ters of the world; that the riches of Crcesus were inferior  his name. Bayle observes, that " this is an excess of poto the treasures that had been exhausted in this centre-  liteness, prejudicial to that freedom  which should ever
versy; and that the contending parties, after having spent  exist in the republic of letters; that it should be allowed
their whole lives on this single point, had neither been so   always to name those whom we refute; and that it is suffi.
happy as to determine it to their satisfaction, nor to make  cient for this purpose that we banish asperity, malice, and
in the labyrinths of science where they had been groping,  indecency.'
any discovery that was worth the pains they had taken.'    After these preliminary observations, I shall bring forIt may be added that Ramus having attacked Aristotle,  ward various examples where this excellent advice is by
for'teaching us chiineras,' all his scholars revolted; the  no means regarded.
parliament put a stop to his lectures, and'tt length having  Erasmus produced a dialogue, in which he ridiculed
brought the matter into a law-court, he was declared to  those scholars who were servile imitators of Cicero; so
be'insolent and daring'-the king proscribed his works,  servile that they would employ no expression but what was
he was ridiculed on the stage, and hissed at by his scho.-  found in the works of that, writer; every thing with them
lars. When at length, during the plague, he opened again   was Ciceronianized.  Thit dialogue is written with great
his schools, he drew on himselfa fresh storm by reforming   humour.  Julius Ceasar Scaliger, the father, who was
the pronunciation of the letter Q, which they then pro-  then unknown to the world, had been long looking for some
nounced like K-Kiskis for Quisquis, and Kanokam for  occasion to distinguish himself: he now wrote a defence
Quamquam. This innovation was once more laid to his  of Cicero, but which in fact was one continued invective
charge: a new rebellion! and a new ejection of the Anti-  against Erasmus: he there treats.the latter as illiterate, a
Aristotelian! The brother of that Gabriel Harvey who   drunkard, an imposter, an apostate, a hangman, a demon
was the friend of Spenser, and with Gabriel had been the   hot from hell!  The same Scaliger, acting on the same
whetstone of the town-wits of his time, distinguished him-  principle of distinguishing himself at the cost of others,
self by his wrath against the Staoyrite. After having   attacked Cardan's best work De S'ubtilitate: his criticism
with Gabriel'predicted an earthquake, and alarmed the   did not appear till seven years after the first edition of the
kingdom, which never took place, (that is the earthquake,  work, and then he obstinately stuck to that edition, though
not the alarm) the wits buffeted him. Nash says of him   Garden had corrected it in subsequent ones; but this Scali.
that' Tarlton at the theatre made jests of him, and Elder-  ger chose, that he might have a wider field for his attaclk.
ton consumed his ale-crammed nose to nothing, in bear-  After this, a rumour spread that Cardan had died of vexa.
oaiting him with whole bundles of ballads.' Marlow de-  tion from  our Julius Cwesars's invincible pen; then Scalidlared him to he'an ass fit only to preach of the iron age.'  ger pretended to feel all the regret possible for a man  mo
$tung to madness by this lively nests of hornets, he  had killed, and whom he now praised: however, his reget




-94                                    CURIOSITIES OF
had as little foundation as his triumph; for Cardan out-      A  similar rhodomontade is that of Claude Trellos, a
lived~~~~~~~~~~~~ simlilar  rhdmanytyaders, tando valauedehi critiissoo,
lived Scaliger many years, and valued his criticisms too   poetical Soldier, who begins his poems by challenging the
cheaply to have suffered them to have disturbed his quiet.  critics; assuring them that if any one attempts to censure
All this does not exceed the invectives of Poggius, who has   him, he will only condescend to answer sword in hand.
thus entitled several literary libels composed against some   Father Mlacedo, a Portuguese Jesuit, havinZ written
of his adversaries, Laurentius Valla, Philelphus, &c, who   against Cardinal Nornris, on the monkery of St Austin, it
returned the poisoned chalice to his own lips; declanmations   was deemed necessary to silence both parties. Macedo1
of scurrility, obscenity, and calumny, which are noticed in  compelled to relinquish the pen, sent his adversary a chal.
Mr. Shepherd's Life of Poggius.                            lenge, and according to the laws of chivalry, app ointed a
Scioppius was a worthy successor of the Scaligers; his  place for meeting in the woods of Boulogne.  Another
favourite expression was, that he had trodden down his  edict to forbid the duel! Macedo theni murmured at his
adversary.                                                 hard fate, which would not suffer him, for the sake of St
Scioppius was a critic, as skilful as Salmasius or Scali-  Austin, for whom he had a particular regard, to spill nei.
ger, but still nmore learned in the language of abuse.  He   tier his ink nor iis blood.
was regarded as the Atilla of authors.  He boasted            Anti, prefixed to the name of the person attacked, was
that he had occasioned  the deaths of Casaubon and   once a favourite title to books of literary controversy.
Scaliger; and such was the impudence of this cynic,  With a critical review of such books Bailiot has filled a
that he attacked with repeated satires our James the First,  quarto volurme; yet, such was the abundant harvest, that
who, as Arthur Wilson infornms us, condemned his writings   he left considerable gleaninas for posterior industry.
to be burnt in London.  Detested and dreaded as the           Anti-Gronovius was a book published against Grono.
public scourge, Scioppius,  at the close of his life, was   vius, by Kuster. Perizonius, another pugilist of literature,
fearful he should find no retreat in which he might be secure,  entered into this dispute on the subject of the JEs grave
The great Casaubon employs the dialect of St. Giles's  of the ancients, to which Kiister had just adverted at the
in his furious attacks on the learned Dalechamps, the La-   close of IIs volume.   What was the consequence 7
tin translator of Athentus.   To this great physician he   Dreadful! —Answers and rejoinders from  both, in which
stood more deeply indebted than he'L.' conftess; and   they bespattered each other with the foulest abuse.  A
to conceal the claims of this litei.....called out  journalist pleasantly blames this acriimionious controversy.
Vesanum! Insanum! Tiresiram! &c.  1I wL s the fashion   He says,' To read the pamphlets of a Perizonius, arnd a
of that day with the redoubtable and ferocious heroes of  Kuster on the /Es grave of the ancients, who would not
the literary republic, to overwhelm  each other with invec-  renounce all commerce with antiquity?,It seems as if an
tive; and to consider their own grandeur to consist in the   Agamemnon and an Achilles were railing at each other.
bulk of their books, and their triumphs in reducing their   Who can refrain from  laughter, when one of these com~ rother giants into puny dwarfs,  in science, Linnaus had   mentators even points his attacks at the very name of his
a dread of controversy; conqueror or conquered we cannot  adversary? According to Kuster, the name of Perizonius
escape without disgrace! Mathiolus would have been the   signifies a certain part of the human body.  How is it posgreat man of his day, had he not meddled with such mat-  sible, that with such a name he could be  right con.
ters.  Who is gratified by' the mad Cornarus,' or'the   cerning the aEs grave?  But does that of Kuster proflayed Fox?' titles which Fuchsius and Cornarus, two   misc a better thintg, since it signifies a beadle; a man who
eminent botanists, have bestowed on each other.  Some   drives dogs out of churches?-What madness is this!'
who were too fond of controversy, as they grew  wiser,        Corneille, like our Dryden, fel: the acrimony of literary
have refused to take up the gauntlet.                      irritation.  To the critical strictures of D'aubignac it is
The heat and acrimony of verbal critics have exceeded   acknowledged he paid the greatest attention, for, after this
description.  T:heirstigmas and anathemas have been long   critic's Pratique du Theatre appeared, his tragedies were
known to bear no proportion against the offences to which   more artfully conducted.  But instead of mentioning the
they have been directed.' God confound you,' cried one   critic with due praise, he preserved an ungrateful silence.
grammarian to another,'for your theory of impersonal  This occasioned a quarrel between the poet and the critic,
verbs!'  There was a long and terrible controversy for-  in which the former exhaled his bile in several abusive
merly, whether the Florentine dialect was to prevail over   epigrams, which have, fortunately for his credit, not been
the others.  The academy was put to great trouble, and   preserved in his works.
the Anticruscans were often on the point of annulling this    The lively Voltaire could not resist the charm of abus..
supremacy; una.mordace scritura was applied to one of  ing his adversaries. We may smile when he calls a block.
these literary canons; and in a letter of those times the   head, a blockhead; a dotard, a dotard; but when he atfollowing paragraph appears:'Pescetti is preparing to  tacks, for a difference of opinion, the morals of another
give a second answer to Beni, which will not please him;  man, our sensibility is alarmed.  A  higher tribunal than
I now believe the. prophecy of Cavalier Tedeschi will be   that of criticisms is to decide on the actions of men.
verified, and that this controversy, begun with pens, will    There is a certain disguised malice, which some writers
end with poniards!'                                         have most unfairly employed in characterising a contemFabretti, an Italian, wrote furiously against Gronovius,  porary.  Burnetcalled Prior, one Prior.  In Bishop Par..
whom he calls Grunmnovius: he compared him to all those   ker's History of his own Tioes, an innocent reader may
animals whose voice was expressed by the word Grunnire,  start at seeing the celebrated M arvell described as an
to grunt.  Gronovius was so malevolent a critic, that he   outcast of society; an infamous libeller; and one whose
was distinguished by the title of the'Gramnmatical Cur.'  talents were even more despicable than his person.  To
When critics venture to attack the person as well as the   such lengths did the hatred of party, united with persona.
performance of an author, 1 recommend the salutary pro-  rancour, carry this bishop, who was himself the worst ot
ceedins of Huberus, the writer of an esteemed Universal  time-servers.  He was, however, amply repaid by the
History.  He had been so roughly handled by Perizonius,  keen wit of IV~rvell in'T.he Rehearsal transposed,'
that he'obliged him  to make -the. amende honoursable in a,. which may still lie read with delight, as an admirable efcourt of justice.                                           fusion:of banter, wit, and, satire.  Le Clerc, a cool penCertain authors may be distinguished by the title of Lit-.  derous Greek critic,quarrelled with Boileau about a paserary Bobadils, or fighting authors.  It is said of one of  sage in Longinus,  and several years afterwards, in revisour own celebrated writers, that he drew his sword on a   ing Ioreri's Dictionary, gave a short sarcastic notice of
reviewer; and another, when his farce was condemned,  the poet's brother; in which he calls him the elder brother
offered to fight any one of the audience who. hissed,   of him hwho h   written the. bopk entitled,' Satires of lAr
Scudery, brother of the celebrated Mademoiselle Scudery,  Boileau D'Espreaux!' —.the works of the modern Horace,
was a true Parnassian bully.  The first publication which.  which were then delighting Eprope, he.calls, with simple
brought him into notice was his edition of the works of his  impudence, a book entitled Satires!
friend Theophile.  He concludes the preface with these        The works of Homer produced a controversy, both long
singular expressions;-' I do not hesitate to declare, that  and virulent, amongst the wits of France.  This literary
amongst all the dead, and all the living, there is no person   quarrel is of some note in the annals of literatu re, since it
who has any thing to show that approaches the force of  has produced two valuable books; La Motte's' Reflexions
this vigorous genius, but if, amongst the latter, any one   sur la Critique,' and Madame Dacier's'Des Causes de
were so extravagant as to consider that 1 detract from his  la Corruption de Gout.' Of the rival works it has been
imaginary!ory to show him, that I fet as little as I es-  said that La Motte wrote with feminine delicacy, and
tecemr him. this is to sfeorm him, that my name is         Madame Dacier like an University pedant.' At length,'
Dx SCUDERY.'    as the author of Querelles Litteraires informs us,' by the




LITERATURE.                                                     85
efforts of Valincour, the friend of art, of artists, and of  Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. But Virgil died before LivY
peace, the contest was terminated.' Both parties were  had written his history, or Tacitus was born.
formidable in number, and to each he made remonstrances,    An honest friar, who compiled a church history, has
and applied reproaches. La Motte and Madame Dacier,  placed in the class of ecclesiastical writers, Guarini, the
the opposite leaders, were convinced by his arguments,  Italian poet; this arose from a most risible blunder: on
ntade reciprocal concessions, and concluded a piece. The  the faith of the title of hid celebrated amorous pastoral, n1
treaty was formally ratified at a dinner, given on the oc-  Pastor fido,' The Faithful Shepherd,' our good father
easion by a Madame De Stael, who represented' Neu-  imagined that the character of a curate, vicar, or bishop,
tIality.' Libations were poured to the memory of old   was represented in this work.
Homer, and the parties were reconciled.                  A blunder has been recorded of the monks in the dark
ages, which was likely enough to happen when their ignoTITERARY BLUNDERS.                     rance was so dense. A rector of aparish going to law
with his parishioners about paving the church, quoted this
When Dante published his' Inferno,' the simplicity of  authority from St Peter —Paveant illi, non paveam ego
the age accepted it as A true narrative of his descent into  which he construed, They are to pave the church, not I,
hell.                                                  This was allowed to be good law by a judge, himself an
When the Utopia o! Sir Thomas More was first pub-  ecclesiastic too!
lished, it occasioned t. pleasant mistake. This political    One of the grossest literary blunders of modern times is
roniance represents a p rfect, but visionary republic, in an  that of the late Gilbert Wakefield, in his-edition of Pope.
island supposed to have been newly-discovered in America.  He there takes the well known'Song by a Person of' As this was the age of discovery, says Granger,'the  Quality,' which is a piece of ridicule on the glittering
learned Budaeus, and others, took it for a genuine history;  tuneful nonsense of certain poets, as a serious composition.
and considered it as highly expedient, that missionaries  In a most copious commentary, he fatigues himself to prove
should be sent thither, in order to convert so wise a nation  that every line seems unconnected with its brothers, and
to Christianity.'                                     that the whole reflects disgrace ton its author, &c. A cirr: was a long while after publication that many readers  cumstance which too evidently shows how necessary the
were.uonvinced that Gulliver's Travels were fictitious,  knowledge of modern literary history is to a modern comBut the most singular blunder was produced by the in-  mentator, and that those who are profound in verbal Greek
genious' Hermippus Redivivus' of Dr Campbell a curious  are not the best critics on English writers.
banter on the hermetic philosophy and the universal medi-    Prosper Marchand has recorded a pleasant mistake ot
cine; but the grave irony is so closely kept up throughout  Abb6 Bizot, the author of the medallic history of Holland.
this admirable treatise, that it deceived for a length of  Having met with a medal, struck when Phi'ip II set forth
time the most learned of that day. His notion of the art  his invincible Armada, on which was represented the King
of prolonging life, by inhaling the breath of young women,  of Spain, the Emperor, the Pope, Electors, Cardinals,
was eagerly credited. A  physician who himself had   &c, with their eyes covered with a bandage and bearing for
composed a treatise on health, was so influenced by it,  inscription this fine verse of Lucretius:
that he actually took lodgings at a female boarding-school,  O cacas hominum mentes  O pector ceca r
that lie might never be without a constant supply of the
breath of young ladies. The late Mr Thicknesse seriously  prepossessed  with the false prejudice, that a tlation perse
adopted the project. Dr Kippis acknowledges that after uted by the pope and his adherents could not represent
he read the work in his youth, the reasonings and the facts  them without some insult, he did not examine with sutf
left him several days in a kind of fairy land. I have a  ficient care  the ends of the  bandages which covered the
copy with manuscript notes by a learned physician, who  eyes and waved about the heads ofI the personages repre
seems to have had no doubts of its veracity. After al,  sented on this medal; he rashly took them for asses, ears,
the intention of the work was losmr doubtful; till Dr Camp-  and as such they are engraved!
bell informed a friend it was a mere jell d'esprit; that    Mabillon has preserved a curious literary blunder of
Bayle was considered as standing without a rival in the  some pious Spaniards, who applied to the Pope for conart of treating at large a difficult subject, without discover-  secrating a day in honour of Saint Viar. His holiness
ing  to which side his own sentiments leaned  ad Dr  in the voluminous catalogue of his saints, was ignorant of
ing to which side his own sentiments leaned; and Dr
Campbell had likewise read more uncommon books than  this one. The only proof brought forwards for his existmost men; he wished to rival Bayle, and at the same  ence was this inscription:
time to give to the world much unknown matter. He has                        s. VIAa.
admirably succeeded, and with this key the whole mystery   An antiquary, however, hindered one more festival in the
is uinlocked.                                          Catholic calendar, by convincing them that these letters
Palavicirni, in his History of the Council of Trent, to  were only the remains of an inscription  erected for an
confer an honour on M. Lansac, ambassador of Charles  ancient surveyor of the roads; and he read their saintship
IX to that council, bestows on him a collar of the order  thus;
of Saint Esprit; but which order was not instituted till
several years afterwards, by Henry III. A similar volun-             PRIEFECTUS VIARuM.
tary blunder is that of Surita, in his Annales de la Corona    Maffei, in his comparison between Medals and Inscrip.
de Aragon. This writer represents, in the battles he de-  tions, detects a literary blunder in Spon, who, meeting
scribes, many persons who were not present; and this,  with this inscription,
merely to confer honour on some partictllar families.                   Maxime VI. Consule.
A book was written in praise of Ciampini by Ferdinand
A book was written in praise of Ciamnpini by Ferdinand  takes the letters VI fbr numerals, which occasions a strange
Fabiani, who, quoting a French narrative of travels in  takes the etters VI for numerals, which occasions a stran
Italy, took for the name of the author the following words,         They are oly cotractios        iro 
found at the end of the title-page, Enrichi de det Listes;  As absurd a blunder was this of Dr Stukeley on th
that is,' Enriched with two Lists;' on this he observes,  s of Carausius; finding a battered one with a defac
that Mr Enriched with two lists has not failed to do that  inscription of
justice to Ciampini which he merited.' The abridgers of
Uesner's Bib'iotheca ascribe the romance of Amadis to                     FORTVnA Avg.
one Accerdo  Olvido; Remembrance, Oblivion.  Not  h read it
knowing that these two words placed on the title-page of                  ORIVA, AVg.
the French version of that book, formed the translator's  And sagaciously interpreting this to be the wife of CarSpanish mnotto!                                      ausius, makes a new personage start up in history: ha
D'Aquin, the French king's physician, in his Memoir  contrives even to give some theoretical Memoirs of tho
on the Preparation of Bark, takes Mantissa, which is the  Aug-ust Oriuna!
title of the Appendix to the History of Plants by Johnstone,    In the Valeriana we find, that it was the opinion of
for the name of an author, and who, he says, is so extremely  Father Sirmond, that St Ursula and her eleven thousand
rare, that he only knows him by name.                 Virgins were all created out of a blunder. In some an.
Lord Bolinsbroke imagi ned, that in those famous verses,  cient Ms thev found St Ursula et Undecimilla V. M,
beginnin g with Excudent alii, 4.c, Virail attributed to the  meanino  St Ursula and Undecimilla with'he F. and M
Romans the latory of having surpassed the Greeks in his-  which followed was an abreviatirn fe"  Undecem  Milia
torical comonFition: according to his idea. those Roman   Martyrum Virginum, made out of' Two  irgins the whole
historians whoni V;;'gil preferred to the Grecians, were  Eleven Thousand!




86                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Pope, in a note on Measure for Measure, informs us,  applicable to the king. And he was asked by his familiha
that its story was taken from Cinthio's Novels, Dec. 8,  courtiers, what must the nation think when they heard him
Nov. 5. That is, Decade 8, Novel 5. The critical War-  prayed for as their most religious king?-Literary blunburton, in his edition of Shakspeare (as the author of Can-  ders of this nature are frequently discovered in the versions
ons ot' citicism observes) puts the words in full'ength thus,  of good classical scholars, who would make the English
December 8, Novemere5.                                 servilely bend to the Latin and Greek; however its genius
Voltaire has given in his Philosophical Dictionary, arti-  will not bear the yoke their unskilful hands put on its neck.
cle Abus des Miots, a literary anecdote of' a singular na-  Milton has been justly censured for his free use of Latinture; a complete qui pro quo.  When the fragments of  isms and Grecisms.
Petronius made a great noise in the literary world, Mei-    The blunders of modern antiquaries on sepulchral monu.
bomius, an erudit of Lubeck, read in a letter from another  ments are numerous. One mistakes a lion at a knight's
learned scholar of Bologna,' We have here an entire  feet for a water curled dog; another could not distinguish
Petronius; I saw it with mine own eyes, and with admira-  censers in the hands of angels fromfishing-nets; two angels
tion.'  l1eibomius in post-haste travels to Italy, arrives  at a lady's feet were counted as her two cherub-like babes;
at Bologna, and immediately inquires for the librarian   and another has mistaken a leopard and a hedge-hog for a
Capponi. Hie asks him  if it was true that they had at  cat and a rat! In some of these cases are the antiquaries
Bologna ass entire Petroanius. Capponi assures him that  or the sculptors most to be blamed?
it was a thing which had long been public. Can I see this    A literary blunder of Thomas Warton is a specimen of
Petronius? I-lave the kindness to let me examine it. Cer-  the manner in which a man of genius may continue to
tainly, replies Capponi. He leads our erudit of Lubeck   blunder with infinite ingenuity. In an old romance he
to the church where reposes the body of Saint Petrarius.  finds these lines, describing the duel of Saladin with RichMeibomius bites his lip, calls for his chaise, and takes his  ard Cceur de Lion:
flight.
A French translator, when he came'               of            A Faucon brode in hande he bare,
Swift, in which it is said that the Duke    vla-.oorough          Have slayne R wo ichard.
broke an officer; not being acquainted with this Anglicism,       Have slayne R    chard.
he translated it roud, broke on a wheel!                 He imagines this Faucon brode means a falcon bird, or
Cibber's play of i Love's last Shift' was entitled' La   a hawk, and that Saladin is represented with this bird on
Derniere Chemise de 1' Amour.' A  French writer of  his fist to express his contempt of his adversary. He supCongreve's life has taken his 1Mourninfg for a Morning   ports his conjecture by noticing a Gothic picture, supposed
Bride, and translated it L' Espouse du X[atin.         to be the subject of this duel, and also some old tapestry
Sir John Pringle mentions his having cured a soldier by   of heroes on horseback with hawks on their fists; he
the use of two quarts of Dog and Duck water daily; a  plunges into feudal times where no gentleman appeared on
French translator specifies it as an excellent broth made of  horseback without his hawk. After all this curious erudia duck and a do! In a recent catalogue compiled by a  tion, the rough but skilful Ritson inhumainly triumphed by
French writer of'Vorks on Natural History, he has in-  dissolving the magical fancies of the more elegant Warton,
serted the well-known' Essay on Irish Bulls' by the  by explaining, a Faucon brode to be nothing more than a
Edgeworths. The proof; if it required any, that a French-  broad faulchion, which was certainly more useful than a
man cannot understand the idiomatic style of Shakspeare  bird, in a duel.
appears in a French translator, who prided himself on    Bayle supposes that Marcellus Palingenius, who wrote
giving a verbal translation of our great poet, not approving   a poem entiled the Zodiac; the twelve books bearing the
of Le Tourneur's paraphrastical version. He found in  names of the signs; assumed, from this circumstance, the
the celebrated speech of Northumberland in Henry IV.    title of Poeta Stellatus. But it appears, that this writer
was an Italian and a native of Stellada, a town in the Fer.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,       rarese. It is probable that his birth-place produced the
So dull, so dead in look, so wo-begone-         conceit of the title of his poem: it is a curious instance
which he renders'Ainsi, douleur! va-t'en!'           how a critical conjecture may be led astray by its own inA remarkable literary blunder has been recently com-  genuity, when ignorant of the real fact.
mitted by the Abb6 Gregoire; who affords another striking              A LITERARY WIFE.
proof of the errors to which foreigners are liable when they
decide on the language and customs of another country.                Marriage is such a rabble rout,
The abbe, in the excess of his philanthropy, to show to          That those that are out would fain get in;
what dishonourabie offices human nature is degraded,            And those that are in would fain get out.
acquaints us that at London he observed a sign-board
proclaiming the master as tuer despunaises de sa majestd!    Having examined some literary blunders, we will now
Bug-destroyer to his majesty! This is no doubt the  proceed to the subject of a literary wife, which may haphonest Mr Tiffin, in the Strand; and the idea which  pen to prove one. A learned lady is to the taste of few.
must have occurred to the good abbe was, that his majes-.  It is however matter of surprise, that several literary men
ty's bugs were hunted by the said destroyer, and taken by  should have felt such a want of taste in respect to' their
hand-and thus human nature was degraded!              soul's far dearer part,' as Hector calls his Andromache.
A French writer translates the Latin title of a treatise   The wives of many men of letters have been dissolute, ill.
of Philo-Judteus, Omnis bonus liber est, Every good man  humoured, slatternly, and have run into all the frivolities
is a free man, by Tout livre est bon. It was well for him,  of the age. The wife of the learned Budweus was of a
observes Jortin. that he did not live within the reach of  different character.
the Inquisition, which might have taken this as a reflec-    How delightful is itwhen the mind of the female is so
tion on the Index Expurgatorius.                       happily disposed, and so richly cultivated, as to participate
An English translator turned' Dieu defend 1' adultere,'  in the literary avocations of her husband! It is then truly
into' God defends adultery.' Guthrie, in his translation  that the intercourse of the sexes becomes the most refined
of Du Halde, has' the twenty-sixth day of the new moon.'  pleasure.  What delight, for instance, must the great Bui
The whole age of the moon is but twenty-eight days. The  deeus have tasted, even in those works which must have
blunder arose from his mistaking the word neuvieme (nine)  been for others a most dreadful labour! His wife left him
for nouvelle or neuve (new.)                           nothing to desire. The frequent companion of his studies,
The facetious Tom Browne committed a strange blun.  she brought him  the books he required to his desk; she
der in his translation of Gelli's Circe. When he came to  compared passages, and transcribed quotations; the same
the word Starne, not aware of its signification, he boldly  genius, the same inclinations, and the same ardour for literendered it stare;-, probably from the similitude of sound,;  rature, eminently appeared in those two fortunate persons.
the succeeding translator more correctly discovered Starne  Far from withdrawing her husband from his steadies, she
to be red-legoed partridges!                          was sedulous to animate him when he languished. Ever
In Charles II's reign a new collect was drawn, in which  at his side and ever assiduous; ever with some useful book
a new epithet was added to the king's title, that gave,  in her hand, she acknowledged herself to be a most happy
says Burnet, great offence, and occasioned great raillery.  woman. Yet she did not neglect the education of eleven
He was styled our most religious king. Whatever the  children. She and Budaeus shared in the mutual cares
signification of religious might be in the Latin word as im.  they owed their progeny. Budwaus was not insensible of
porting the sacredness of the king's person, yet in the  his singular felicity. In one of his letters, he represents
English language it bore a signification that was no way  himself as married to two ladiet; one of whom gave sha




LITERATURE..roys and girls, the other was Philosophy, who produced   observed by your own experience; for I being young when
books. He says, that in his twelve first years, Philosphy   your lordship married me could not have much knowledge
bad been less fruitful than Marriage; he had produced less  of the world; but it pleased God to command his servant
books than children; he had laboured more corporally than   Nature to endue me with a poetical and philosophical
intellectually; but he hoped to make more books than   genius, even from my birth; for I did write some books in
children.' The soul (says he) will be productive in its  that kind before I was twelve years ofage, which, for want
turn; it will rise on the ruins of the body; a prolific virtun  of good method and order I would never divulge. But:s not given at the same time to the bodily organs and the  though the world would not believe that those concetions
pen.'                                                   and fancies which I writ were my own, but transcnded
The lady of Evelyn designed herself the frontispiece to  my capacity, yet they found fault, that they were defctive
his translation of Lucretius. She felt the same passion in  for want of learning; and on the other side, they said I had
her own breast as animated her husband's, who has written   pluckt feathers out of the universities, which was a very
with such various ingenuity. Of Baron Haller it is re-  preposterous judgment. Truly, my lord, I confess that
corded that lie inspired his wife and family with a taste  for want of scholarship, I could not express myself so well
for his different pursuits. They were usually employed   as otherwise I might have done in those philosophical writ.
in assisting his literary occupations; they transcribed  ings I published first; but after I was returned with your
manuscripts, consulted authors, gathered plants and de-  lordship into my native country, and led a retired country
signed and coloured under his eye. What a delightful  life, I applied myself to the reading of phlilosophical authors,
family picture has the younger Pliny given posterity in his  on purpose to learn those names and words of art that
letters. —See Melmoth's translation, Book iv, xix. Of  are used in schools; which at first were so hard to me,
Calphurnia, his wife. he says,'Her affection to me has  that I could not understand them, but was fain to guess at
given her a turn to books; and my compositions, which  the sense of them by the whole context, and so writ them
she takes a pleasure in reading, and even getting by heart,  down as I found them in those authors; at which my read.
are continually in her hands. How full of tender solici-  ers did wonder, and thought it impossible that a womtan
tude is she when I am entering upon any cause! How   could have so much learning and understanding in ternis
kindly does she rejoice with me when it is over! While  of art and scholastical expressions; so that I and my books
[ am pleading, she places persons to inform her from time  are like the old apologue mentioned in ]Esop, of a father
to time how I am heard, what applauses I receive, and  and his son who rid on an ass.' Here follows a long narwhat success attends the cause. When at any time I  rative of this fable, which she applies to herself in these
recite my works, she conceals herself behind some curtain,  words-' The old man seeing lihe could not please mankind
and with secret rapture enjoys my praises.  She sings  in any manner, and having received so many blemishes
my verses to her lyre, with no other master but love, the  and aspersions for the sake of his ass, was at last resolved
best instructor, for her guide. Her passion will increase  to drown him when he came to the next bridge. But I am
with our days, for it is not my youth nor my person,  nriot so passionate to burn my writings for the various huwhich time gradually impairs, but my reputation and my   mours of mankind, and for their finding fault; since there
glory, of which she is enamoured.                       is nothing in this world, be it the noblest and most comOn the subject of a literary wife, I must introduce to the  mendable action whatsoever, that shall escape blameless.
acquaintance of the reader. Margaret duchess of New.  As for my being the true and only authoress of them your
castle. She is known at least byher name, as a volumin-  lordship knows best; and my attending servants are witous writer! for she extended her literary productions to  ness that I have had none but my own thoughts, fancies,
the number of twelve folio volumes.                     and speculations,, to assist me; and as soon as I set theta
Her labours have been ridiculed by some wits; but had  down I send them to those that are to transcribe them, and
her studies been regulated she would have displayed no  fit them for the press; whereof, since there have been sev.
ordinary genius. The Connoisseur has quoted her poems,  eral, and amongst them such as only could write a good
and the verses have been imitated by Milton.            hand, but neither understood orthography, nor had any
The duke, her husband, was also an author; his book  learning (I being then in banishment, with your lordship,,n horsemanship still preserves his name. He has like-  and not able to maintain learned secretaries) which hatlwise written comedies, of which Langbaine, in his ac-  been a great disadvantage to my poor works, and the cause
count of our poets, speaks well; anrid his contemporaries  that they have been printed so false and so full of errors;
have not been penurious in their eulogiums. It is true he  for besides that I want also skill in scholarship and true
was a duke. Shadwell says of him,' That he was the  writing, I did many times not peruse the copies that were
greatest master of wit, the most exact observer of man-  transcribed, lest they should disturb my following concepkind, and the most accurate judge of humour that ever he  tions; by which neglect, as I said, many errors are slipt
knew.' The life of the duke is written (to employ the  into my works, which yet I hope learned and impartial
language of Langbaine)' by the hand of his incomparable  readers will soon rectify, and look more upon the sense than
duchess.' It was published in his lifetime. This curious  carp on words. I have been a student even from  my
piece of biography is a folio of 197 pages, and is entitled   childhood; and since I have been your lordshio's wife I'The Life of the Thrice Noble, High, and PuissantPrince,  have lived for the most part a strict and retired life, as is
William Cavendish.' His titles then follow:-' Written   best known to your lordship; and therefore my censurers
by the Thrice Noble, Illustrious, and excellent Princess,  cannot know much of me, since they have little or no ac.
Margaret D)uchess of Newcastle, his Wife. London   quaintance with me.'Tis true I have been a traveller
1667.' This Life is dedicated to Charles the Second;  both before and after I was married to your lordship, and
and there is also prefixed a copious epistle to her husband   sometimes show myself at your lordship's comnmand in
the duke.                                               public places or assemblies, but yet I converse with few.
In this epistle the character of our Literary Wife is  Indeed, my lord, I matter not the censures of this age, but
described,with all its peculiarities; and no apology will be  am rather proud of them; for it shows that my actions are
required  for extracting what relates to our noble au-  more than ordinary, anrid, according to the old proverb, It
thoress. The reader will be amused while he forms a  is better to be envied than pitied; for I know well that it
more correct idea of a literary lady, with whose name he  is merely out of spite and malice, whereof this present age
must be acquainted.                                    is so full that none can escape them, and they'IIl make no
She writes:' Certainly, my lord, you have had as many   doubt to stain even your lordship's loyal, noble, and heroic
enemies and as many friends as ever any one particular per-  actions, as well as they do mine; though yours have been
son had; nor do I so much wonder at it, since I, a woman,  of war and fighting, mine of contemplating and writing;
cannot be exempt from the malice and aspersions of spite.  yours were performed publicly in the field, mine privately
ful tongties, which they cast upon my poor writings, some   in my closet; your's had many thousand eye-witnesses,
denying me to be the true authoress of them; for your  mine none but my waiting maids. But the great God,
grace remembers well, that those books I put out first to  that hitherto bless'd both your grace and me, will, I questhe judgment of this censorious age were accounted not to  tion not, preserve both our fames to after-ages.
be written by a woman, but that somebody else had written               Your grace's honest wife,
and published them in my name; by which your lordship                             and humble servant,
was moved to prefix an epistle before one of them  in my                                 M. NEWCASTLE?.
vindication, wherein you assure the world, upon your hon-    The last portion of this life, which consists of the obserour, that what was written and printed in my name was my   vatrions and good things which she had gathered from tho
own, and I have also made known that yo'ur lordship was  conversations of her husband, forms an excellent Arnna; and
my only tuwor in declaring to me what you had found and   shows that when Lord Orford, in his'Catalogue of Noli




88                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Authors,' says, that' this stately poetic couple was a pic-  acknowledged as- sovereign among the critics. She boast.
ture of foolish nobility,' he writes, as he does too often,  ed she had for her husband the most learned of all the no.
with extreme levity. But we must now attend to the re.  bles, and the most noble of all the learned.  Our good
verse of our medal.                                    lady always joined the learned conferences which he held
Many chagrins may corrode the nuptial state of literary  in his study.  She spoke loud, and decided with a tone of
men. Females who, prompted by vanity, but not by taste,  majesty. Salmasius was mild in conversation, but the re.
unite themselves to scholars, must ever complain of ne-  verse in his writings, for our proud Xantippe considered
glect. The inexhaustible occupations of a library will  him as acting beneath himself if he did not majesterially
only present to such a most dreary solitude.  Such a  call every one names!
lady declared of her learned husband, that she was more'The wife of Rohault, when her husband gave lectures
jealous of his books than his mistresses. It was probable  on the philosophy of Descartes, used to seat herself on
while Glover was composing his'Leonidas,' that his lady  these days at the door, and refused admittance to every
avenged herself for his Homeric inattention to her, and   one shabbily dressed, or who did not discover a gentee
took her flight with a lover. It was peculiar to the learned   air. So convinced was she that, to be worthy of hearing
Dacier to be united to a woman, his equal in erudition and  the lectures of her husband, it was proper to appear fashhis superior in taste.  VWhen she wrote in the album of  ionable.  In vain our good lecturer exhausted himself in
a German traveller a verse from Sophocles as an apology  telling her that fortune does not always give fine clothes to
for her unwillingness to place herself among his learned   philosophers.
friends, that' Silence is the female's ornament,' it was a  The ladies of Albert Durer and Berghem were both
remarkable trait of her modesty.  The learned Pasquier  shrews.  The wife of Durer compelled that great genius
was coupled to a female of a different character, since he  to do the hourly drudgery of his profession, merely tc
tells us in his Epigrams that to manage the vociferations of  gratify her own sordid passion: in despair, Albert rar
his lady,he was compelled himself to become a vociferator.  away from his Tisiphone; she wheedled him back, and
-' Unfortunate wretch that I am, I who am a lover of uni-  not long afterwards this great artist fell a victim to her fu.
versal peace! But to have peace I am obliged ever to be  rious disposition. Berghem's wife would never allow that
at war.                                                 excellent artist to quit his occupations: and she contrived
Sir Thomas More was united to a woman of the harsh-  an odd expedient to detect his indolence.  The artist
est temper and the most sordid manners.  To soften the  worked in a room above her; ever and anon she roused
moroseness of her disposition,' he persuaded her to play  him by thumping a long stick against the ceiling, while the
on the lute, viol, and other instruments, every day.' Whe-  obedient Berghem answered by stamping his foot, to satisfy
ther it was that she had no ear for music, she herself never  Mrs Berghem that he was not napping
became harmonious as the instrument she touched. All.Elian had an aversion to the marriage state. Sigonius,
these ladies may be considered as rather too alert in  a learned and well known scholar, would never marry, and
thought, and too spirited in action; but a tame cuckoo bird  alleged no inelegant reason; that' Minerva and Venus
who is always repeating the same tone, must be very fa-  could not live together.'
tiguing. The lady of Samuel Clarke, the great compiler    Matrimony has been considered by some writers as a
of books in 168!, whose name was anagrammatised to  condition not so well suited to the circumstances of phi-'suck all creamS alluding to his indefatigable labours in  losophers and men of learning.  There is a little tract
sucking all the cream of every other author without hav-  which professes to investigate the subject. It has for title,
ing any cream himself,is described by her husband as hav-  De Matrimonio Literati, an ccelibem esse, an vero nubere
ing the most sublime conceptions of his illustrious compila-  conveniat, i. e. of the Marriage of a Man of Letters, with
tions. This appears by her behaviour. He says,' that  an inquiry whether it is most proper for him to continue a
she never rose from table without making him a courtesy,  Bachelor, or to marry.
nor drank to him without bowing, and that his word was a' The author alleges the great merit of some women;
law to her.'                                            particularly that of Gonzaga the consort of Montefeltro,
I was much surprised in looking over a correspondence   duke of Urbino; a lady of such distinguished accomplish.
of the times, that in 1590 the Bishop of Lichfield and Co-  ments, that Peter Bembus said, none but a stupid man
ventry writing to the earl of Shrewsbury on the subject  would not prefer one of' her conversations to all the formal
of his living separate from his countess, uses as one of his  meetings and disputations of the philosophers.
arguments for their union the following curious one, which' The ladies perhaps will be surprised to find that it is a
surely shows the gross and cynicial feeling which the fair  question among the learned, Whether they ought to marry 
sex excited even among the higher classes of society.  and will think it an unaccountable property of learning that
The language of this good bishop is neither that of truth,  it should lay the professors of it under an obligation to
we hope, nor certainly that of religion.                disregard the sex. But whatever opinion these gentlemen'But some will say in your Lordship's behalfe that the  may have of that amiable part of the species, it is very
Coun'tesse is a sharp and bitter shrewe, and therefore  questionable whether, in return for this want of complailieke enough to shorten your lief, if shee should kepe yow   sance in them, the generality of ladies would not prefer
company. lndeede, my good Lord, I have heard some say  the beau and the man of fashion to the man of sense and
so: but ifshrewdnesse or sharpnesse may be a juste cause of  learning. However, if the latter be considered as valuable
separation between a man and wiefe, I thinck fewe men  in the eyes of any of them, let there be Gonzagas, and I
in Englande would keepe their wives longe; for it is a com-  dare pronounce that this question will be soon determined
mon jeste, yet trewe in some sense, that there is but one  in theirfavour, and they will find converts enough to their
shrewe  in all the worlde, and everee man hath her: and  charms.'
so everee man muli be ridd of his wiefe that wolde be ridd  The sentiments of Sir Thomas Browne, on the conseof a shrewe.' It is' wonderful this good bishop did not use    uences of marriage, are very curious, in the seond part ot
another argument as cogent, and which would in those  his  eligi Medic, Sect. 9. When he wrote that work, he
times be allowed as something; the name of his lordship  said' I was never yet once, and commend their resoluS'hrewsbury, would have afforded a consolatory pun!    tions, who never marry twice.' He calls woman' the rib,
The entertaining Marville says that the generality of  and crooked piece of man.' He adds,' I could be content
ladies married to literary men are so vain of the abilities  that we might procreate like trees, without conjunction, or
and merit of their husbands, that they are frequently un-  that there were any way to procreate the world withou
sufferable.                                             this trivial and vulgar way.' He means the union of sexes,
The wife of Barclay, author of' The Argenis,' consid-  which he declares' is the foolishest act a wise man comered herself as the wife of a demigod.  This appeared   mits in all his life, nor is there any thing that will more
glaringly after his death: for Cardinal Barberini having   deject his cooled imagination, when he shall consider what
erected a monument to the memory of his tutor, next to  an odd and unworthy piece of folly he hath committed.
the tomb of Barclay, Mrs. Barclay was so irritated at  He afterwards declares he is not averse to that sweet sex,
this that she demolished his monument, brought home his  but naturally amorous of all that is beautiful;'I could
bust, and declared that the ashes of so great a genius as  look a whole day with delight upon a handsome picture,
her husband should never be placed beside so villanous a  though it be but of a horse.' He afterwards disserts very
pedagogue.                                              profoundly on the music there is in beauty,' and the siSalmasius's wife was a termagant; and Christina said  lent note which Cupid strikes is far sweeter than the sound
she admired his patience more than his erudition, married   of an instrument.' Such were his sentiments when youthto such a shrew. Mrs. Salmasius indeed considered her-  ful, and residing at Leyden: Dutch philosophy had at first
self as the queen of science, because her husband was  chilled his passion; it is probable that passion afterwards




LITERATURE.                                                          89
tilareed his philosophy-for he married and had four  tion to a certain number of' printed copies, and addressed:aiuhters!                                                them to every great man he knew, who he thought relish.
Dr Cocchi, a modern Italian writer, but apparently a   ed a morsel of flattery, and would pay handsomely for a
cynic asold as Diogenes, has taken the pains of'coinposing   coarse luxury.  Sir Balthazar Gerbier, in this'Counsel
a treaiLtise on the present subject-enough to terrify the  to Builders,' has made up half the work with forty-two
boldest Bachelor of Arts! he has conjured up every chi-  Dedications, which he excuses by the example of Antonio
nhera against the marriage of a literary man.  He seems  Perez; yet in these dedications he scatters a heap of cut
hwever to have drawn his disgusting portrait from his own   rious things, for he was a very universal genius.  Perez,
country; and the'chaste beauty of Britain only looks the  once secretary of state to Philip II of Spain, dedicates
more lovely beside this Florentine wife.                   his' Obras,' first to'lNuestro sanctissimo Padre', and
I shall not retain the cynicism which has coloured such' Al Sacro Collegio,' then follows one to' Henry IV,
revolting feattres.  When at length the doctor finds a  and then one still more embracing,'A  Todos.'  Fuller,
woman as all women ought to be, he opens a new spring  in his'Church History,' has with admirable contrivance
of misbiortunes which must attend her husband. He dreads  introduced twelve title-pages, besides the general one, and
one of the probable consequences of matrimony,-prdge-  as many particular dedications, and no less than fifty or
ny, in which we must maintain the children we beget!  sixty of those by inscriptions and which are addressed to
He thinks the father gains nothing in his old age from the  his benefactors; a circumstance which Heylin in his sevetender offices administered by his own children: he as-  rity did not overlook: for' making  his work bigger by
serts these are much better performed by menials and  forty sheets at the least; and he was so ambitious of the
strangers! The more children he has, the less he can   number of his patrons that having but four leaves at the
afford to ha-e servants! The maintenance of his children   end of his History, he discovers a particular benefactress
will greatly diminish his property! Another alarming ob-  to inscribe them to!' This unlucky lady, the patroness of
ject in marriage is that, by affinity, you become connected  four leaves, Heylin compares to Roscius Regulus, who
with the relations of the wife.  The envious and ill-bred   accepted the consular dignity for that part of the day on
insinuations of the mother; the family quarrels, their po-  which Cecina by a decree of the senate was degraded
verty or their pride, all disturb the unhappy sage, who  from it, which occasioned Regulus to be ridiculed by the
falls into the trap of connubial felicity! But if a sage  people all his life after, as the consul of half a day.
has resolved to nmarry, he impresses on him the prudential    The price  for the dedication of a play was at length
principle of increasing his fortune by it,and to remember  fixed, from five to ten guineas from the Revolution to the
his' additional expenses!' Dr Cocchl seems to have thought  time of George I, when it rose to twenty, but sometimes
that a human being is only to live for himself; he had nei-  a bargain was to be struck when the author and the play
ther a heart to feel, a head to conceive, nor a pen that  were alike indifferent.  Sometimes the party  haggled
could have written one harmonious period, or one beautiful  about the price, or the statue while stepping into his niche
munage! Bayle, inr his article Raphelengius, note B, gives  could turn round on the author to assist hisinvention.  A
a singular specimen of logical subtilty, in'  a reflection on   patron of Peter Motteux dissatisfied with Peter's coldet
the consequences of marriage.'  This learned man was  temperament, actually composed the superlative dedica.
imagined to have died of grief for having lost his wife, and  tion to himself, and completed the misery of the apparent
passed three years in protracted despair. What therefore   author by subscribing it with his name. This circumstance
must we think of an unhappy marriage, since a happy one   was so notorious at the time, that it occasioned a satirical
is exposed to such evils?  He then shows that an unhappy   dialogue between Motteux and his patronr. Heveningham.
mar'iage is attended by beneficial consequences to the   The patron, in his zeal to omit no possible distinction that
survivor.  In this dilemma, in the one case, the husband   might attach to him, had given one circumstance which
lives afraid his wife will die, in the other that she will not! If  no one but himself could have known.
you love her, you will always be afraid of losing her; if                          PATRON.
ou do not love her, you will always be afraid of not losing            must confess I was to blame
her. Our satirical Celebataire is gored by the hornis of the         ThaI must onfess I wa s to nanme
That one particular to name;
dilemma he has con Jured up.                                         The rest could never have been known,
James Petiver, a famous botanist, then a bachelor, the             I made the style so like thy own.
triend of Sir Hans Sloane, in an album which I have seen,                           POET.
signs his name, with this designation:'From the Goat tavern in the Strand, London, Nov.              I beg your pardon sir for that
27.  In the  44th year of myJfreedom. A. D. 1697.                             PATRON.
DEDICATIONS.                                    Why d-e what would you be at?
tA specis. orliteary  rI writ below myself you sot!
Some authors excelled in this species of literary arti-            Avoiding figures, tropes, what not,
fice. The Italian Doni dedicated each of his letters, in a           For fsar I should my fancy raise
hook called La Librairia, to persons whose names began               Above the level of thy plays!
with the first letter of the epistle; and dedicated the whole  Warton notices the common practice, about the reign
collection in another epistle; so that the book, which only  of Elizabeth, of our authors dedicating a work at once to
consisted of forty-five pages, was dedicated to above   a number of'the nobility.  Chapman's Translation of
wenty persons.  This is carryin  literary mendicity   Homer has sixteen sonnets addressed to lords and ladies.
pretty  pros        high Po it  arin,o lther    medito f h./atyrooimR - Y..
prtty high.  Politi, the editor of the Martyrolgium Ro-  Henry Lock, in a collection of two hundred religious
manum, published at Rome in 1751, has improved on the   sonnets, mingles with such heavenly works the terrestrial
idea of Doni; for to the 365 days of the year of this Mar-  composition ofa number of sonnets to his noble patrons,
tyrology he has prexed to each an epistle dedicatory.  It  and not to multiply more instances, our great poet Spenser,
is fortunate to have a large circle of acquaintance, though   i    compliance with this disgraceful custom,  or rather in
not worthy of being saints.  Galland, the translator of the   obetience to the established  tyranny of patronage, ha
Arabian Nights, prefixed a dedication to each tale which   prefixed to the Fairy Queen fifteen of these adulatory
e gave; hd he finished the'one thousand and one, he   pieces, which, in every respect, are the meanest of his
would have surpassed even the Martyrologist.I
would have surpassed even the Martyroloitist.              compositions.  At this period all men, as wvell as writer:,
Mademoiselle Scudery tells a remarkable expedient of  looked up to peers, as on beings on whose smiles or frowns
an ingenious trader in this line —One Rangouze made a   all sublunary good and evil depended.  At a much later
colletion of Letters,  hich he printed without numbering   period, Elkanab Settle sent copies round to the chief
them. cy this means th.e book-binder put that letter which   party, for he wrote for both parties, accompanied by adthe author orde red him first; so that all the persons to   dresses, to extort pecuniary presents in return.  He.had
whom he presented this book, seeing their names at the  latterly one standard  Elegy, and one Epithalemium,
head, considered themselves under a particular obligation.  printed off with blanks, which by ingenuously filling up
There was likewise an Italian physician, who having   with the printed names of any great person who died or
wrote on HIippocrates' Aphorisms, dedicated each book   was married, no one who was going out of life or was enof his Commentaries to cue of his friends, and the index  tering into it, could pass scot free.
to another!                                                  One of the most singular anecdotes respecting Dedica.
More than one of our owr. authors have dedications in  tions in English bibliography, is that of the Polyglot bible:the same spirit. It was an expedin Pto                                                             p         rocueneica;the same spirit.  I was an expedient to procure dedica-  of Dr Castell.  Cromwell, much to his honour, p.ronised
tory fees; for publishing books by subscrioti.:i was an   that great labour, and allowed the paper to he imported
art then undiscovered.  One prefixed a different dedica-  free of all duties, both of excise and custom.  It was pub.
art then undiscovered. One prefixed a different dedi12




90                                  CURIOSITIES OF
lished under the protectorate, but many copies had not  a painter can make a picture.  A pictur sque vere was
been disposed of ere Charles II ascended the throne. Dr  with him a verse completely poetical. B.it the language
Castell had dedicated the work gratefully to Oliver, by  of the passions has no connexion with this principle; Jo
mentioning him with peculiar respect in the preface, but  truth, what he delineates as poetry itself, is but one of ra
he wavered with Richard Cromwell. At the restoration,  provinces. Deceived by his illusive standard, lie has comhe cancelled the two last leaves, and supplied their places  posed a poem which is perpetually fancy, and never paswith three others, which softened down the republican  sion. Hence his processional sp4endour fatigues, and his
strains, and blotted Oliver's name out of the book of life!  descriptive ingenuity comes at length to be deficient in
The differences in what are now called the republican and  novelty, and all the miracles of art cannot supply us with
the loyal copies have amused the curious collectors; and  one touch of nature.
the former being very scarce are most sought after. I have    Descriptive poetry should be relieved by a skilful initerseen the republican. In the loyal copies the patrons of  mixture of passages addressed to the heart as well as to
the work are mentioned, but their titles are essentially  the inmagination: uniform  description satiates; and has
changed; Serenissinius, Illustrissimus, and Honorattissi-  been considered as one of the inferior branches of poetry.
Pnus, were epithets that dared not show themselves under  Of this both Thomson and Goldsmith were sensible. In
the levelling influence of the great fanatic republican.  their beautiful descriptive poems they knew the art of ani.
It is a curious literary folly, not of an individual, but of  nating the pictures of Fancy with the glow of Sentiment.
the Spanish nation, who, when the laws of Castile were   Whatever may be thought of the originality of this
reduced into a code under the reign of Alfonso X, sur-  poem, it has been preceded by others of a congenial disnamed the Wise, divided the work into seven volumes; that  position. Brookes' poem on' Universal Beauty,' published
they might be dedicated to the seven letters which formed  about 1735, presents us with the very model of Darwin's
the name of his majesty!                               versification; and the Latin poem of De la Croix, in 1727,
Never was a gigantic baby of adulation so crammed  intitled' Connubia Florum,' with his subject.  There
with the soft pap of Dedications as Cardinal Richelieu.  also exists a race of poems which have hitherto been conFrench flattery even exceeded itself.-Among the vast  fined to one object, which the poet selected from the works
number of very extraordinary dedications to this man, in  of nature, to embellish with all the splendour of poetic
which the divinity itself is disrobed of its attributes to be-  imagination. I have collected some titles.
stow them on this miserable creature of vanity, I suspect    Perhaps it is Homer. in his Battle of the Frogs and,Mice,
that even the following one is not the most blasphemous he   and Virgil in the poem on a Gnat, attributed to him, who
received.' Who has seen your face without being seized   have given birth to these lusory poems. The Jesuits,
by those softened terrors which made the prophets shud-  partic.ilarly when they composed in Latin verse, were parder when God showed the beams of his glory?  But as he  tial to such subjects. There is a little poem on Gold, by
whom they dared not to approach in the burning bush, and   P. Le Fevre, distinguished for its elegance; and Brumoy
in the noise of thunders, appeared to them sometimes in.  has given the Art of making Glass; in which he has dethe freshness of the zephyrs, so the softness of your august  scribed its various productions with equal felicity and
countenance dissipates at the same time, and changes into  knowledge. P. Vaniere has written on Pigeons, Du
dew, the small vapours which cover its majesty.' One of  Cerceau on Butterflies.  The success which attended
these herd of dedicators, after the death of Richelieu, sup-  these productions produced numerous imitations, of which
pressed in a second edition his hyperbolical panegyric, and  several were favourably received. Vaniere composed
as a punishment he inflicted on himself, dedicated the work  three on the Grape, the Vintage, and the Iitchen Garden.
-to Jesus Christ!                                     Another poet selected Oranges for his theme; others have
The same taste characterises our own dedications in the   chosen for their subjects, Paper, Birds, and fresh-water
reigns of Charles II and Jamnes II. The great Dryden   Fish. Tarillon has inflanled his imagination with Gcun.
has carried it to an excessive height; and nothing is more  powder; a milder genius, delighted with the oaten pipe,
usual than to compare the patron with the Div nity-and   sang of Sheep; one who was more pleased with another
at times a fair inference may be drawn that the former was  kingd of pipe, has written on Tobacco; and a droll genius
more in the author's mind than God himself! A Welsh  wrote a poem on Asses. Two writers have formed didactic
bishop made an apology to James I, for preferring the  poems on the Art of Enigmas, and on Ships.
Deity-to his Majesty! Burke has admirably observed      Others have written on moral subjects. Brumoy has
on Dryden's extravagant dedications, that they were the  painted the Passions, with a variety of imagery and vivavices of the time more than of the man; they were loaded  city of description; P. Meyer has disserted on Anger;
with flattery, and no disgrace was annexed to such an ex-  Tarillon, like our Stillingfleet, on the Art of Conversation;
ercise of men's talents; the contest being who should go  and a lively writer has discussed the subjects of Humour
farthest in the most graceful way, and with the best turns  and Wit.
of expression.                                           Giannetazzi, an Italian Jesuit, celebrated for his Latin
An ingenious dedication was contrived by Sir Simon   poetry, has composed two volumes of poems on Fishing
Degge, who dedicated'the Parson's Counsellor' to  and Navigation.  Fracastor has written delicately on an
Woods, Bishop of Lichfield, with this intention. Degge  indelicate subject, his Syphilis.  Le Brun wrote a delect.
highly complimented the Bishop on having most nobly re-  able poem on Sweetmeats; another writer on Mineral
stored the church, which had been demolished in the civil  Waters, and a third on Printing.  Vida pleases with his
wars, and was rebuilt but left unfinished by Bishop Hacket.  Silk-worms and his Chess; Buchanan is ingenious with
At the time he wrote the dedication, Woods had not turn-  his Sphere. Malapert has aspired to catch the [Wintds;
ed a single stone, and it is said, that much against his will  the philosophic Huet amused himself with Salt, and again
he did something from having been so publicly reminded  with Tea. The Gardens of Rapin is a finer poem than
of it by this ironical dedication.                    critics generally can write; Quillet's Callipedia, or Art
of getting handsome Children, has been translated by
PHILOSOPHICAL DESCRIPTIVE POEMS.              Rowe; and Du Fresnoy at length gratifies the connoisseur
with his poem on Painting, by the embellishments which
The botanic garden once appeared to open a new route  his verses have received from the poetic diction of Mason,
through the trodden groves of Parnassus. The poet,  and the commentary of Reynolds.
with a prodigality of imagination, united all the minute ac-    This list might be augmented with a few of our own
curacy of Science. It is a highly repolished labour, and  poets, and there still remain some virgin themes which
was in the mind and in the hand of its author for twenty  only require to be touched by the hand of a true poet. In
years before its first publication.  The excessive polish of  the' Memoirs of Trevoux' they observe, ill their review of
the verse has appeared too high to be endured throughout  the poem on Gold,' That poems of this kind have the adalong composition; it is certain that, in poems of length,  vantage of instructing us very agreeably. All that has
aversification, which is not too florid for lyrical composi-  been most remarkably said on the subject is united, comtion, will weary by its brilliancy. Darwin, inasmuch as a  pressed in a luminous order and dressed in all the agreerich philosophical fancy constitutes a poet, possesses the  able graces of poetry. Such  writers have no little
entire art of poetry; no one has carried the curious me-  difficulties to encounter: the style and expression cost
chanism of verse and the artificial magic of poetical dic-  dear; and still more to give to an arid topic an agreeable
tion to higher perfection.  His volcanic head flamed with  form, and to elevate the subject without falling into another
imagination, but his torpid heart slept unawakened by pas-  extreme.-In the other kinds of poetry the matter assists
Sion. His standard of poetry is by much too limited; he  and prompts genius; here we must possess an abundance
supposes that the essence of poetry is something of which  to display it.'




LITERATURE.                                                          91
rAMPHLETS.                            reign.  In its first state wretched must have been its appearance, since the great linguist John Minshew, in his
Myles Davies'' Icon Libellorum, or a Critical History' Guide into Tongues,' printed in 1617, gives it the most
of PamphletS;,' affords some curious information; and as   miserable character of which any libel can be capable.
this is a pamphlet-reading age, I shall give a sketch of its   Mr Minshew says (and his words were quoted by Lord
contents.                                                  Chief Justice Holt,)'A  pamphlet, that is Opusculum
The author is at once serious and humourous in his pre-   Stolidoruns, the diminutive performance of fools; from 1 ra
face.  He there observes:'From  Pamphlets may be   all, and aLAi0Qw. Ifill, to wit, all places. According to the
learned the genius of the age, the debates of the learned,  vulgar saying, all things are full of fools, or foolish things;
the follies of the ignorant, the bdvues of government, and   for such multitudes of pamphlets, unworthy of the very
the mistakesof the coutiers. Pamphlets furnish beaus with   name of libels, being more vile than common shores and
their airs, coluets with their charms. Pamphlets are as mo-  the filth of beggars, and being flying papers daubed over
dish ornaments to gen!lewomen's toilets as to gentlemen's  and besmeared with the foam of drunkards, are tossed
pockets; they carry reputation of wit and learning to all  far and near into the mouths and hands of scoundrels'
that make them their companions; the poor find their ac-  neither will the sham  oracles of Apollo be esteemed sr
count in stall-keeping and in hawking them; the rich find   mercenary as a pamphlet.'
in them their shortest way to the secrets of church and       Those who will have the word to be derived from Pam,
state.  There is scarce any class of people but may   the famous knave of Loo, do not differ much from Minthink themselves interested enough to be concerned with   shew; for the derivation of the word Pam is in all proba.
what is published in pamphlets, either as to their private   bility from  ray, all; or the whole or the chief of the game.
instruction, curiosity, and reputation, or to the public ad-  Under thisfirst etymological notion of Pamphlets, may
vantage and credit; with all which both ancient and mo-  be comprehended the vulgar stories ofthe Nine Worthies of
dern pamphlets are too of.en over familiar and free.-In  the World, of the Seven Champions of Christendom, Tom
short, with pamphlets the booksellers and stationers adorn   Thumb, Valentine and Orson, &c, as also most of apothe gaiety of shop-gazing.  Hence accrues to grocers,  cryphal lucubrations.  The greatest collection of this first
apothecaries, and chandlers, good-furniture, and supplies   sort of Pamphlets are the Rabbinic traditics,- in the Talto necessary retreats and natural occasions.  In pam-   mud, consisting of fourteen volumes in folio, a.sd the Pophlets lawyers will meet with their chicanery, physicians   pish legends of the Lives of the Saints, which, though not
with their cant, divines with their Shiboleth. Pamphlets  finished, form  fifty folio volumes, all which tracts wesc
oscome more and more daily amusements to the curious,  originally in pamphlet forms.
-dle, and inquisitive; pastime to gallants and coquets;       The second idea of the radix of the word Pamphlet is,
zhat to the talkative; catch-words to informers; fuel lo  that it takes.it derivations from  rav, all, and 0ps eo, 1
the envious; poison to the unfortunate; balsam to the   love, signifying a thing beloved by all; for a pamphlet bewounded; employment to the lazy; and fabulous materials  ing of a small portable bulk, and of no great price, is adaptto romancers and novelists.'                               ed to every one's understanding and reading. In this class'This author sketches the origin and rise of pamphlets.  may be placed all stitched books on serious subjects, the
He deduces them from the short writings published by the   best of which fugitive pieces have been generally preserved,
Jewish Rabbins; various little pieces at the time of the   and even reprinted in collections of some tracts, miscellanfirst propagation of Christianity; and notices a certain  ies, sermons, poems, &c; and, on the contrary, bulky vo-,amphlet which was pretended to have been the composi-  lumes have been reduced, for the convenience of the public,:ion of Jesus Christ, thrown from heaven, and picked up   into the familiar shapes of stitched pamphlets. Both these
sy the archangel Michael at the entrance of Jerusalem.  methods have been thus censured by the majority of the
It was copied by the priest Leora, and sent about from   lower house of convocation 1711.  These abuses are thus
priest to priest, till Pope Zachary ventured to pronounce   represented:'They have re-published, and collected into
it aforgery! He notices several such extraordinary pub-  volumes, pieces written long ago on the side of inifidelity.
kcations, many of'which produced as extraordinary effects.  They have reprinted together in the most contracted manHe proceeds in noticing the first Arian and Popish   ner, many loose and licentious pieces, in order to their
eamphlets, or rather libels, i. e. little books, as he distin-  being purchased more cheaply, and dispersed more easily.'
gtishes them. He relates a curious anecdote respecting       The third original interpretation of the word Pamphlet
the forgeries of the monks.  Archbishop Usher detected   may be that of the learned Dr Skinner, in his Etymologi.
ma a manuscript of St Patrick's life, pretended to have   cont Lingurr Anglicanee, that it is derived from the Belgic
6een found at Louvain, as an original of a very remote   word Pampier, signifying a little paper, or libel.  To this
late, several passages taken, with little alteration, from his  third set of Pamphlets may be reduced all sorts of printed
swn writings.                                              single sheets, or half sheets, or any other quantity of single
The following notice of our immortal Pope I cannot  paper prints, such as Declarations, Remonstrances, Propass over:'Another class of pamphlets writ by Roman   clamations, Edicts, Orders, Injunctions, Memorials, AdCatholcs is that of Poems, written chiefly by a Pope him-  dresses, News-papers, &c.
self, a gentleman of that name. He passed always amongst     Thefourth radical signification of the word Pamphlet is
most of his acquaintance for what is commonly called a   that homogeneal acceptation of it, viz as it imports any
Whig; for it seems the Roman poetics are divided as well  little book, or small volume whatever, whether stitched or
ts Popish missionaries.  However one Esdras, an apo-  bound, whether good or bad, whether serious or ludicrous.
Ihecary, as he qualifies himself, has published a piping-hot  The only proper Latin term for a Pamphlet is Libellus, or
pamphlet against Mr Pope's'Rape of the Lock,' which  little book.  This word indeed signifies in English an
e entitles' A Key to the Lock,' wherewith he pretends   abusive paper or little book, and is generally taken in the
tounlock nothing less than a Plot carried on by Mr. Pope   worst sense.
in that poem against the last and this present ministry and  After all this display of curious literature, the reader
government.                                                may smile at the guesses of Etymologists; particularly
He observes on Sermons, —'"'Tis not much to be ques-  when he is reminded that the derivation of Pamphlet is
toned, but of all modern pamphlets what or wheresoever,  drawn from quite another meaning to any of the present,
the English stitched Sermons be the most edifying, useful,  by Johnson, which I shall give for his immediate gratificaaind instructive, yet they could not escape the critical Mr  tion.
Bayle's sarcasm.'  He says,'Republique des Lettres,'    Pamphlet [par un fillet, Fr. Whence this word is
March 1710. in his article London,' We see here sermons   written anciently, and by Caxton, paunfiet] a small book;
swarms daily from the press.  Our eyes only behold man-  properly a book sold unbound, and only stitched.
na: are you not lesirous of knowing the reason?  It is,     The French have borrowed the word Pamphletfrom us,
that the ministers being allowed to read their sermons in  and have the goodness of not disfiguring its orthography.
the pulpit, buy all they meet with, and take no other trouble   Roast Beef is also in the same predicament.  I conclude
than to read them, and thus pass for very able scholars at  that Pamphlets and RoastBeefhave therefore their origin
very cheap rate!'                                         in our country.
He now begins more directly the history of pamphlets,      I am favoured by Mr Pinkerton with the following curlwhich he branches  out from four different etvmologies.  ous notice concerning pamohlets:
He says,' however foreign the word Pamphlet may ap-         Of the etymon ofpamphlet I know nothing; but that the
pear, i is a tgeniine English word, rarely known  or adont-  word is far more ancient than is commonly helieved, take
ed in any other language: its pedigree cannot  well be  the following proof from  the celebrated Philobiblion, as.
traced higher than the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's  cribed to Richard de Buri, Bishop of Durham, but written




92                                    CUR IOSITIES OF
by Robert Holkot, at his desire, as Fabricius says, about' The Breviary of Idlers.' It is therefore the book for many
the year 1344, (Fabr Bibl Medii aevi, Vol I;) it is in the   men. Francis Osborne has a ludicrous irnmage in favour of
eighth chapter.                                         such opuscula.' Huge volumes, like the ox roasted whole'Sed revera libros non libras maluimus; codicesque   at Bartholomew fair, many proclaim  plenty of labour, but
plus dileximus quam florenos: ac panfletos exiguos pha-  afford less of what is delicate, savoury, and well-concocted,
leratis praetulimus palescedis.'                        than SMALLER FIECES.''But, indeed, we prefer books to pounds; and we love    In the list of titles of minor works, which Aulus Gellius
manuscripts better than florins; and we prefer small  has preserved, the lightness and beauty of such composi.
pamphlets to war-horses.'                               tions are charmingly expressed. Among these we find —a
This word is as old as Lydgate's time: among his works,  Basket of Flowers; an embroidered M antle; and a Varie.
quoted by Thomas Warton, is a poem' translated from a  gated Meadow.
psm~flete in Frensche.'                                           I A CATHOLIC S REFUTATION.
LITTLE BOOES.                          In a religious book published by a fellow of the society
Myles Davies has given an opinion of the advantages  of Jesus, entitled,' The Faith of a Catholic,' the author
of Little Books with some wit and humour.               examines what concerns the incredulous Jews and other
The smallness of the size of a book was always its  infidels. He would show that Jesus Christ, author of the
own commendation; as, on the contrary, the largeness of  religion which bears his name, did not impose on or dea book is its own disadvantage, as well as terror of learn-  ceive the Apostles whom he taught; that the Apostles
ing. In short, a big book is a scare-crow to the head and   who preached it did not deceive those who were converted;
pocket of the author, student, buyer, and seller, as well as  and that those who were converted did not deceive us.
a harbour of ignorance; hence the inaccessible masteries  In improving these three not difficult propositions he says,
of the inexpugnable ignorance and superstition of the an-  he confounds' the Atheist, who does not believe in God;
cient heathens, degenerate Jews, and of the popish schol-  the Pagan, who adores several; the Deist, who believes
asters and canonists entrenched under the frightful bulk of  in one God, but who rejects a particular Providence; the
huge, vast, and innumerable volumes; such as the great  Freethinker, who presumes to serve God according to his
folio that the Jewish rabbins fancied in a dream was given  fancy, without being attached to any religion; the Philosoby the angel Raziel to his pupil Adam, containing all the  pher, who takes reason and not revelation for the rule of
celestial sciences. And the volumes writ by Zoroaster,  his belief; the Gentile, who never having regarded the
entitled The Similitude, which is said to have taken up no  Jewish people as a chosen nation, does not believe God
more space than 1,260 hides of cattle: as also the 25,000,  promised them a Messiah; and finally, the Jew, who reor as some say, 36,000 volumes, besides 525 lesser  5ss of  fuses to adore the Messiah in the person of Christ.
his.  The grossness and multitude of Aristotle and Var-    I have given this sketch, as it serves for a singular Cataro's books were both a prejudice to the authors, and an  logue of Heretics.
hindrance to learning, and an occasion of the greatest part    It is rather singular that so late as in the year 1765, a
of them being lost. The largeness of Plutarch's treatises  work should have appeared in Paris, which bears the title
is a great cause of his being neglected, while Longinus and   I translate,' The Christain Religion proved by a single
Epictetus, in their pamphlet Remains, are every one's  fact; or a dissertation in which is shown that those Catho.
companions. Origen's 6,000 volumes (asEpiphaniuswill  lics of whom  Huneric, King of the Vandals, cut the
have it) were not only the occasion of his venting more  tongues, spoke miraculous all the remainder of their days;
numerous errors, but also for the most part of their perdi-  from whence is deducted the consequences of this miracle
tion. —— Were it not for Euclid's Elements, Hippocrates's  against the Arians, the Sociniauis, and the Deists, and parAphorisms, Justinian's Institutes, and Littleton's Tenures  ticularly against the author of Emilius, by solving their
in small pamphlet volumes, young mathematicians, fresh-  difficulties.' It bears this Epigraph; Ecce Ego admirawater physicians, civilian novices, and les apprentices en  tionem faciam  populo huic, miraculo grandi et stupendo.'
ley d'Angleterre, would be at a loss and stand, and total  There needs no farther account of this book than the title.
disencouragelnent.  One of the greatest advantages the    The cause of religion is hurt by stupid advocates.
<Dispensary has over King Arthur is its pamphlet size. So
Boileau's Lutrin, and his other pamphlet poems, in respect   THE GOOD ADVICE OF AN OLD
of Perrault's and Chapelain's St Paulin and la Pucelle.    Authors of moderate capacity have unceasingly harrasThese seem to pay a deference to the reader's quick and  sed the public; arid have at length been remeInbered only
great understanding; those to mistrust his capacity, and   by the number of wretched volumes their unhappy indus.
to confine his time as well as his intellect.'          try has produced.  Such as an author was the Abbd de
Notwithstanding so much may be alleged in favour of  Marolles, the subject of this article, otherwise a most
books of a small size, yet the scholars of a former age re-  estimable and ingenious man, and the father of print-collecgarded them with contempt. Scaliger, says Baillet, cavils  tors.
with Drusius for the smallness of his books; and one of    This Abbe was a most egregious scribbler; and so torthe great printers of the time, (Moret, the successor of  mented with violent fits of printing, that he even printed
Plantin) complaining to the learned Puteanus, who was  lists and catalogues of his friends.  I have even seen at
considered as the rival of Lipsius, that his books were too  the end of one of his works a list of names of those persmall for sale, and that purchasers turned away frightened  sons who had given him books. He printed his works at
at their diminutive size; Puteanus referred him to Plu-  his own expense, as the booksellers had unanimously detarch, whose works consist of small treatises; but the  creed this.  Menage used to say of his works,'The
printer took fire at the comparison, and turned him out of  reason why I esteem the productions of the Abbe is, for
his shop, for his vanity at pretending that he wrote in any  the singular neatness of their bindings; he embellishes
manner like Plutarch! a specimen this of the politeness  them so beautifully, that the eye finds pleasure in them.
and reverence of the early printers for their learned au-  On a book of his versions of the Epigrams of Martial, this
thors! Jurieu reproaches Colomies that he is a great  Critic wrote, Epigrams against Martial.  Latterly, for
author of little books!                                want of employment, our Abbe began a translation of the
At least, if a man is the author only of little books, he  Bible; but having inserted the notes of the visionary Isaac
will escape the sarcastic observation of Cicero on a volum-  de la Peyrere, the work was burnt by order of the ecclesi.
incus writer-that' his body might be burned with his  astical court.  He was also an abundant writer in verse,
writings,'-of which we have had several, eminent for the  and exultingly told a poet, that his verses cost him little:
worthlessness and magnitude of their labours.' They cost you what they are worth,' replied the sarcasIt was the literary humour of a certain Mtecenas, who  tic critic. De Marolles in his Memoirs bitterly complains
cheered the lustre of his patronage with the streams of a  of the injustice done to him by his contemporaries; and
good dinner, to place his guests according to the size and  says, that in spite of the little favours shown to him by the
thickness of the books they had printed. At the head of  public, he has nevertheless published, by an accurate calthe table sat those who had published in folio foliissimo;  culation, one hundred and thirty-three thousand one hunnext the authors in quarto; then those in octavo. At that  dred and twenty-four verses! Yet this was not the heav.
table Blackmore would have had the precedence of Gray.'iest of his literary sins.  He is a proof that a translator
Addison, who foiind this anecdote in one of the Anas, has  may perfectly understand the language of his orignal, ana
seized this idea. and apolied it with his felicity of humour  yet produce an execrable translation.
in No 529 of the Strectator.                              In the early part of his life this unlucky author had not
Montaigne's works have been called by a Cardinal,  been without ambition; it was only when disappointed in




LITERATURE.                                                         93
tis political projects that he resolved to devote himself to  struction of the people, that one of the Popes granted a
literature.  As he was incapable of attempting original  pardon of one thousand days to every person who resorted
composition, he became known by his detestable versions.  peaceably to the plays performed in the Whitsun-week at
He wrote above eighty volumes, which have never found   Chester, beginning with the' Creation,' and ending with
favour in the eyes of the critics; yet his translations are  the'General Judgment.'  These were performed at tile
not without their use, though they never retain by any   expense of the different corporations of that city, and the
chance a single passage of the spirit of their originals.  reader may smile at these ludicrous combinations.' The
The  most remarkable anecdoterespecting these transla-  Creation' was performed bythe Drapers: the' Deluge' b
The most remarkable anecdote  he e transla-                 med by'teDrt       s  h'eug'b
tions is,that whenever this honest translator came to a diffi-  the Dyers;' Abraham, Melchisedek, and Lot, by the
cult passage, he wrote in the margin'I have not translated   Barbers:' The Purification,' by the Blacksmiths:' The
this passage, because it is very difficult, and in truth I   Last Supper' by the Bakers: the' Resurrection' by the
could never understand it.'  He persisted to the last in   Skinners; and the'Ascension' by the Tailors.  In these
his uninterrupted amusement of printing books, and his  pieces the actors represented the person of the Almighty
readers having long ceased, he was compelled to present  without being sensible of the gross impiety.  So unskilful
thenm to his friends, who, probably, were not his readers,  were they in this infancy of the theatrical art, that very
After a literary existence of forty years, hlie gave the pub-  serious consequences were produced b  their ridiculous
lic a work not destitute of entertainment in his own Me-  blunders and ill managed machinery. In the'History of
moirs, which he dedicated to his relations and all his illus-  the French Theatre,' vol. ii, p. 285, the following singular
trious friends.  The singular postscript to his Epistle De-  anecdotes are preserved, concerning a Mystery which took
dicatory contains excellent advice for authors,            up several days in the performance.' I have omitted to tell you, that I do not advise any one' In the year 1437, when Conrad Bayer, bishop of Metz,
of my relatives or friends to apply himself as I have done   caused the Miystery of " The Passion[" to be represented
to study, and particularly to the composition of books, if he   on the plain of Veximel near that city, God was an old
thinklts that will add to his fame or fortune.  I am  persua-  gentleman, named Mr Nicholas Neutchatel of Tomnine,
ded that of all persons in the kingdom, none are more neg-  curate of Saint Victory of' Metz, and who was very near
lected than those who devote themselves entirely to lit-  expiring on the cross had lie not been timely assisted. He
erature.  The small number of successful persons in that  was so enfeebled that it was agreed another priest should
class (at present I do not recollect more than two or three)  be placed on the cross the next day, to finish the represen-.
should not impose on one's understanding, nor any conso-  tation of the person crucified, and which was done; at the
quence from them be drawn in favour of others   I know   same time the said Mr Nicholas undertook to perform
how  it is by my own experience, and by that of several  "The Resurrection," which being a less difficult task, ho
among st you, as well as by many who are now no more,  did it admirably well.'-Another priest, whose name was
and with whom I was acquainted.  Believe me, gentle-  Mr John de Nicey, curate of Metrange, personated Judas,:men! to pretend to the favours of fortune it is only neces-   and he had like to have been stifled while hlie hung on the
sary to render one's self useful, and to be supple and obse-  tree, for his neck slipped; this being at length luckily perquious to those who are in possession of credit and author-  ceived, he was quickly cut down and recovered.
ity; to be handsome in one's person; to adulate the          John Bouchet, in his'Annales d'Aquitaine,' a work
powerful; to smile, while you suffer from  them  every   which contains many curious circumstances of the times,
kind of ridicule and contempt whenever they shall do you   written with that agreeable simplicity which characterises
thile honour to amuse themselves with you; never to be   the old writers, informs us, that in 1486 he saw played and
frightened at a thousand obstacles which may be opposed   exhibited in Mysteries by persons of Poitiers,'The Nativto one; have a face of brass and a heart of stone; insult  it), Passion, and Resurrection of Christ,' in great triumph
worthy men who are persecuted; rarely venture to speak   and splendour; there were assembled on this occasion
the truth; appear devout, with every nice scruple of reli-  most of the ladies and gentlemen of the neighbouring
gion, while at the same time every duty must be abandoned   counties.
when it clashes with your interest.  After these any other   We will now examine the Mysteries themselves.  I
accomplishment is indeed superfluous.'                     prefer for this purpose to give a specimen from the French,
which are livehlier than our own.  It is necessary to preMYSTERIES, MORALITIES, FARCES, AND SOTTIES.             mise to the reader, that my versions being in prose will
The origin of the theatrical representations of the an-   probably lose much of that quaint expression and vulgar
cients has been traced back to a Grecian stroller in a cart  naivetd which prevail through the originals, written in ocsinging to the honour of Bacchus.  Our European exhibi-  tosyllabic verses.
lions, perhaps as rude in their commencement, were like-     One of these Mysteries has for its subject the election
wise for a long time devoted to pious purposes, under the   of an Apostle to supply the place of the traitor Judas. A
titles of MIysteries and Moralities, &c. Of these prime-  dignity so awful is conferred in the meanest manner it is
val compositions of the dramna of modern Europe, I have   poss.ole to conceive; it is done by drawing two straws, o!
collected some anecdotes and some specimens,               which he who gets the longest becomes the Apostle.
g that pilgrims introduced~t.pe
it appears that pilgrims introduced these devout spec-  Louis Chocquet was a favorite composer of these religious
tacles.  Those who returned from the Holy Land or other   performances; when he attempts the pathetic he has con.
consecrated places composed canticles of their travels, and   stantly recourse to devils; but, as these characters are
amused their religious fancies by interweaving scenes of  sustained with little propriety, his pathos succeeds in rais.
which Christ, the Apostles, and other objects of devotion,  ing a laugh.  In the following dialogue Anne and Caiaserved as the themes.  Menestrier informs us that these   phas are introduced conversing about Saint Peter and
pilgrims travelled in troops, and stood in the public streets,  Saint John:where they recited their poems, with their staff in hand:                            ANNE.
while their chaplets and cloaks, covered with shells and'I remember them once very honest people  They have
images of various colours, formed a picturesque exhibition   often brought their fish to my house to sell.
which at length excited the piety of the citizens to erect'CAIAPHASo
occasionally a stage on an extensive spot of ground. These' Is this true?
spectacles served as the amusement and instruction of the                           ANE.
people.  So attractive were these gross exhibiitons in the' By God it is true: my servants remember them very well.
dark ages, that they formed one of the principal ornaments   To live more at their ease they have left off business; or per.
of the reception which was given to princes when they en-  haps they were in want of customers. Since that time they
otered towns.                                              have followed Jesus, that wicked heretic, who has taught them
When the Mysteries were performed at a more im-  magic; the fellow understands necromancy, and is the great
proved period, the actors were distinguished characters,  eat magician alive, as far as tome itself.'
and frequently consisted of the ecclesiastics of the neigh-   Saint John  attacked  by the satellites of Domitian,
bouring villages, who incorporated themselves under the   amongst whom the author has placed Longinus and Patrotitle of Confreresde la Passion.  Their productions were   chus, gives regular answers to their insulting interrogato-.
divided, not into acts, but into different days of performance,  ries.  Some of these I shall transcribe, but leave to the
and they were performed in the open plain.  This wvas at  reader's conjectures the replies of the Saint, which are not
least conformable to the critical precept of that mad knght  difficult to anticipate.
whose opinion is noticed by Pope.  It appears b? a Ms in' PARTHEMIA.
the Harleian library quoted by WVarton, that they were' You tell us strange things, to say there is but one God in
ihought to contribute so much to the i;bormation and in-  three persons.




94                                   CURIOSITIES OF
LONGINUS.                         the theatre sullied with a thousand gross inventions, which!s it any where said that we must believe your old pro.  were expressed in the most vulgar manner and in a farcical
phets (with whom your memory seems overburdened) to be  style.  Warton, with his usual elegance, observes,-' To
more perfect than our Gods?                            those who are accustomed to contemplate the great picture' PATROCLUS.                        of human follies which the unpolished ages of Europe' You must be very cunning to maintain impossibilities. Now   hold up to our view, it will not appear surprising that the
listen to me: Is it possible that a virgin can bring forth a child  people who were forbidden to read the events of the sacred
without ceasing to be a virgin?                        history in the Bible, in which they are faithfully and beau.' DOMITIAN.                        tifully related, should at the same time be permitted to see' Will you not change these foolish sentiments? Would you  them represented on the stage disgraced with the grossest
pervert us? Will you not convert yourself? Lords! you per-  improprieties, corrupted with inventions and additions of
ceive now very clearly what an obstinate fellow this is! There-  the most ridiculous kind, sullied with impurities, and oxfore let him be stript and put into a great caldron of boiling oil.
fore let him die   at the Latin Gate. nto a great cadron ofboiing oi pressed in the language and gesticulations of the lowest
Let him die at the Latin Gate.   farce.' Elsewhere he philosophically observes, that, how.
ThPESART.c                        ever, they had their use,' not only in teaching the grea'The great eilof hell fetch mthe if I don't Latnisy  e him  truths of scripture to men who could not read the Bible
so well  as. Never shall they hear at the Latin Gate any one sing  but in abolishing the barbarous attachment to military
so well as he shall sing,          games and the bloody contentions of the tournament, which
I dare venture to sTORNEAU.'        had so long prevailed as the sole species of popular amuse-' I dare venture to say he won't complain of being frozen. ment. Rude, and even ridiculous as they were, they
ment. Rude, and even ridiculous as they were, they'PATROCLUS.                         softened the manners of the people by diverting the public' Frita, run quick; bring wood and coals, and make the cal-  attention to spectacles in which the mind was concerned,
dron ready.                                             and by creating a regard for other-arts than those of bodily
FRITA.                          strength and savage valour.''I promise him, if he has the gout or the itch, he will soon  lysteries are to be distinguished from  Mloralities, and
get rid of them.'                                       Farces, and Sotties. Xlbralities are dialogues where the
St John dies a perfect martyr, resigned to the boiling oil  interlocutors represented feigned or allegorical personages.
and gross jests of Patroclus and Longinus. One is aston-  Farces were more exactly what their title indicates; ohished in the present times at the excessive absurdity and  scene, gross, and dissolute representations, where both
indeed blasphemy which the writers of these moralities  the actions and words are alike reprehensible.
permitted themselves, and, what is more extraordinary,    The Sotties were more farcical than farce, a,' frequently
were permitted by an audience consisting of a whole town.  had the licentiousness of pasquinades. I shall give an inAn extract from the' Mystery of Saint Dennis' is in the  genious specimen of one of the moralities. This morality
Duke de la Valliere's' Bibliotheque du Theatre Francois  is entitled' The Condemnation of Feasts, to the Praise
depuis son origine. Dresde 1768.'                       of Diet and Sobriety for the Benefit of the Human Body.'
The emperor Domitian, irritated against the Christians,    Theperils of gorging form the present subject. Towards
persecutes them and thus addresses one of his courtiers:  the close is a trial between Feasting and Supper. They
are summoned before.Experience, the Lord Chief Justice!' Seigneurs Remains, j'ai en- Roman lords. I understand  Feasting and Supper are accused of having murdered
tendu                                                 four persons by force of gorging them. Experience conue d'un crucifix, d'un pendu, That ofa crucified hangedman  demns Feasting to the gallows; and his executioner is
pOn fait on lie par natre em- They make a God in our king-  Diet. Feasting asks for a father confessor, and makes a
pire                      dom,
Sans ce qon le nous daigne Without even deigning to ask  public confession of so many crimes, such numerous condire.'                     our permission.            vulsions, apoplexies, head-aches, stomach-qualms, &c,
which he.has occasioned, that his executioner Diet in a
He then orders an officer to seize on Dennis in France.  rage stops  mouth, puts the cord about his neck, and
When this officer arrives at Paris the inhabitants acquaint  strangles him.  Supper is only condemned to load his
him of the rapid and grotesque progress of this future  hands with a      certain quantity of lead, to hinder him from,saint:-                                                putting too many dishes on table:-he is also bound over'Sire, il preche unlDieu a Paris Sir, he preaches a God at Paris  not to approach Dinner too near, and to be placed at the
Qui fait tous les mouls et les Who has made mountain and  distance of six hours' walking under pain of death.  Sup.
vauls.                     valley.                   per felicitates himself on his escape, and swears to observe
II va i cheval sans chevauls. He goes a horseback without  with scrupulous exactness the mitigated sentence.
horses,                      The Moralities were allegorical dramas, whose tediousIl fait et defait tout ensemble.  He does and undoes at once.   ness seems to have delighted a barbarous people not yet
11 vit, it meurt, il sue, il trem- He lives, he dies, he sweats, he  accustomed to perceiethat what was obvious might be
bl accustomed to perceive that what was obvious might be
ble                       trembles.
I1 pleure, il vit, il veille, et He weeps, he laughs, he  omitted to great advantage: like children, every thing must
doer;.                    wakes and sleeps.           be told in such an age: their own unexercised imagination
II est jeune et vieux, foibleet He is young and old, weak  cannot supply any thing.
fort.                      and strong.                  Of the farces the licentiousness is extreme, but their
It fait d'un cdoq une poulette.  He turns a cock into a hen.  pleasantry and their humour are not contemptible.  The
Ii jeue des arts de roulette    He knows how to conjure with' Village Lawyer,' which is never exhibited on our stage
cup and ball,
je       ca  que ce peut Or    notknowwhothis can  without producing the broadest mirth, originates among
etre.'                     be.                       these ancient drolleries.  The humorous incident of the
shepherd, who, having stolen his master's sheep, is advised
Another of these admirers says, evidently alluding to the  by his lawyer only to reply to his judge by mimicking the
right of baptism,-                                      bleating of a sheep, and when the lawyer in return claims'Sire, oyez que fait cc fol Sir, hear what this mad priest  his fee pays him by no other coin, is discovered in these
prestre:                   does:                      ancient farces. Brueys got up the ancient farce of the'Pa.
II prend de lyaue en une He takes water out of a ladle,  teais' in 1702, and we borrowed it from him.
escuele,                                                They had another species of drama still broader than
Et gete aux gens sur la cer- And, throwing it at people's  Farce, and more strongly featured by the grossness, the
velt dit qua patint soot sa- Hesaysthatwhen theydepart  severity, and personality of satire L-these were camed
v6s!'                     they are saved!           Sotties, of which the following one I find in the Duke de
la Valliere's' Bibliotheque du Theatre Francois.'
This piece then proceeds to entertain the spectators    The actors come on the stage with their fools'-caps each
with the tortures of Saint Dennis, and at length, when  wanting the right ear, and begin with stringing satirical
more than dead, they mercifully behead him: —the Saint,  proverbs, till after drinking freely, they discover that their
after his decapitation, rises very quietly, takes his head  fools'-caps want the right ear.  They call on their old
under his arm, and walks off the stage in all the dignity of  grandmother Sottie (or Folly,) who advises them to take
martyrdom.                                              up some trade. She introduces this progeny of her fools
It is justly observed by Bayle on these wretched repre-  to  h  [Wreorld, who takes them  into his service.   The
sentations, that while they prohibited the people from medi-  World tliea their skill, and is much displeased with their
tating on the sacred history in the book which contains it  work.  The Ctnoler-fool pinches his feet by making the
n all its purity and truth, they permitted them to see it on  shoes too small; the Taylor-fool hangs his coats too




LITERATURE.                                                           95
loose or too tight about him; the Priest-fool says his mas-  the forbidden fruit, the perceiving of, and conversing about
Ees either too short or too tedious.  They all agree that  their nakedness, and to the supplying of fig-leaves to
the Jrorld does not know what he wants, and must be  cover it.' Warton observes they had the authority of
sick, and prevail on him to get some advice from a physi-  scripture for such a representation, and they gave matters
cian.  The IVorld obligingly sends what is required to an  just as they found them  in the third chapter of Genesis.
Urine-doctor,  who instantly pronounces that'the World  The following article will aflbrd the reader a specimen of
is as mad as a March hare!'  He comes to visit his pa-  an Elegant Mlorality.
tient, and puts a great many questions on his unhappy
state.  The World replies,' that what most troubles his        LOVE AND FOLLY, SN ANCIENT MOaALITY.
head is the idea of a new deluge by fire, which must one     One of the most elegant Moralities was composed by
day consume him to powder; on which the Physician   Louise L'Ab; the Aspasia of Lyons in 1550, adored by
gives this answer:-                                        her contemporaries.   With no extraordinary beauty, she
however displayed the fascination of classical learning,' Et te troubles-tu pour cela?  And you really trouble your-  and a vein of vernacular poetry refined and fanciful.self about this?           To accomplishments so various she added the singular one
MTonde, tu ne to troubles pas  Oh World! you do not trouble  of distinguishing herself by a military spirit, and was nickyourself about              named Captain Louise.  She was a fine rider and a fine
Devoir ce larrons attrapars   Seeing those impudent rascals   utanist. She presided in the assembies of pesons of literaVencre   t acete bee~t~es     Selin~an~ buing ivigs; lutanist. She presided in the assemblies of persons ofliteraVendre et acheter benefices; Selling and buying livings;
Les enfaos en bras des Nour. Children         b e s o      ture and distinction: married to a rope-manufacturer,she
ices                         nurses                      was called La belle Cordiere, and her name is still perpetices                ~~~~~nurses
Estre Abb6s, Eveques, Pri- Made Abbots, Bishops, and  uated by that of the street she lived in.  Her anagram
ours,                       Priors,                      was Belle a Soy,-But she was belle also for others.  Her
Chevaucher tres bien les deux Intriguing with girls,       Mlorals in one point were not correct, but hier taste was
scours,                                                  never gross: the ashes of her perishable graces maypreTuer ]es gens pou,curs plai. Killing people for their plea.      themselves severity; but the prosirs,                       sures,                       dctions of her genius may still deight.
Jouer le leur, l'autrui sat- Minding their own interests,  ductions of her genius may still deliht.
sir,                        and seizing on what belongs    Her Morality entitled'Debat de Folio et d'Amourto another,                 The contest of Love and Folly,' is divided into five parts,
Donner dux  flatteurs audi. Lending their ears to flatterers,  and contains six mythological c. allegoricai personages.once,                                                    This division resembles our five acts, which soon after
Faire la guerre  i toute ou- Making  war, exterminating  the publication of this Morality, became generally prac..
trance                      war,                         tised.
tiens:'           tians!
Pour un noen entre los chres- For a bubble among chris.    In the first part, Love and Folly arrive at the same mo~~tiens:-r~   tians ~! ~                 ment at the gate of Jupiter's palace, to a festival to which
The World takesleave of this physician, but retains his  he had invited the Gods.  Folly observing Iove just goinl
advice: and to cure his fits of melancholy gives himself  to step in at the hall of the festival, pushed him away and
up entirely to the direction of his fools.  In a word, the  entered in first.  Love Is enraged, but Folly insists on her
World dresses himself in the coat and cap of Folly, and  precedency.  Love, perceiving there was no reasoning
he becomes as gay and as ridiculous as the rest of the  with Folly, bends his bow  and shoots an arrow; but sho
fools.                                                     baffled his attempt by rendering herself invisible. She in
This Settle was represented in the year 1524.           her turn becomes furious, falls on the boy, tearing out
Such was the rage for mysteries, that Ren6 D'Anjou,  his eyes, and then covers them with a bandage which
King of Naples and Sicily, and Count of Provence, had  could not be taken off.
them represented with all possible magnificence, and made    In the second part, Love, in despair for having lost his
them a very serious occupation. Being in Provence, and  sight, implores the assistance of his mother; she tries in
having received letters from  his son the Prince of Cala-  vain to undo the magic fillet; the knots are never to be
bria, who asked him for an immediate aid of men, he re-  united!
plied, that he had a very different matter in hand, for he    In the third part, Venus presents herself at the foot of
was fully employed in settling the order of a mystery-in  the throne of Jupiter to complain of the outrage committed
hanour of GCd.                                             by Folly on her son.  tupiter commands Folly to appear.
Mr Strutt in his' Manners and Customs of the En-  She replies, that though she has reasons to justify herself,
glish,' las given a description of the stage in England   she will not venture to plead her cause, as she is apt to
when mysteries were the only theatrical performances.  speak too much, or omit what was material.  Folly asks
Vol. iii, p 130.                                           for a counsellor, and chooses Mercury; Apollo is selec-' in the early dawn of literature, and when the sacred  ted by Venus.  The fourth part consists of a long disser.
mysteries were the only theatrical performances, what is  tation between Jupiter and Love, on the manner of loving.
now  called the stage did then consist of three several  Love advises Jupiter, if lie wishes to taste of truest happiplatforms, or stages raised one above another.  On the  ness, to descend on earth, to lay down all his majesty and
uppermost sat the Pater Celestis, surrounded with his  pomp; and, in the figure of a mere mortal, to seek to give
Angels; on the second appeared the Holy Saints, and  pleasure to some beautiful maiden:' Then wilt thou feel
glorified men; and the last and lowest was occupied by  quite another contentment than that thou hast hitherto enmere men who had not yet passed from this transitory life  joyed: instead of a single pleasure it will be doubled': for
to the regions of eternity. On one side of this lowest  there is as much pleasure to be loved as to love.'  Jupiter
platforni was the resemblance of' a dark pitchy cavern  agrees that this may be true, but he thinks that to attain to
f'rom whence issued appearance of fire and flames: and  this requires too much time, too much trouble, too many
when it was necessary, the audience were treated with  attentions, —and that after all it is not worth then!
hideous yellings and noises as imitative of the howlings and  In the fifth part, Apollo, the advocate for Venus, in a
cries of the wretched souls tormented by the relentless de-  long pleading demands justice against Folly.  The Gods,
mons. From this yawning cave the devils themselves con-  seduced by his eloquence, show by their indignation that
stanltly ascended to delight and to instruct the spectators:  they would condemn Folly without hearing her advocate
-to delight, because they were usually the greate,;t jes-  Mercury.  But Jupiter commands silence, and Mercury
ters and bufioons that then appeared; and to instruct, for  replies.   His pleading is as long as the adverse party's,
that they treated the wretched mortals who were delivered  and his arguments in favour of Folly are so plausible, thlat
to them with the utmost cruelty, warning thereby all men  when he concludes his address, the gods are divided in
carefully to avoid the falling into the clutches of such har-  opinion; some espouse the cause of Love, and some that
dened and remorseless spirits.' An anecdote relating to  of Folly.  Jupiter, after trying in vainto make them agree
an English mystery presents a curious specimen of the  together, pronounces this award:manners of our country, which then could admit of such a'On account of the difficulty and importance of your disrepresentation; the simplicity, if not the libertinismn of the  putes and the diversity of your opinions, we have suspendage was great.' A play was acted in one of the principal  ed your contest from  this day to three times seven times
cities of England, utinder the direction of the trading comrn-  nine centuries.  In the mean time we command you to
parties of that city, before a numerous assembly of both  live amicably together, without injuring one another.
sexes, wherein Adast and Eve appeared on the stage en-    Folly shall lead Love, and take him whithersoever he
tirely natked, performed their whole part in the representa-  pleases; and when restored to his sight, after consulting
tion of Eden, to the serpent's temptation, to the eating of  the Fates, sentence shall be prornounced.'




96                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Many beautifill conceptions are scattered in this elegant  Rivulets of the fountain of Paradise! Strings of the bow
morality. It has given birth to subsequent imitations; it  of charity! Nets that caught Jesus, and shall be used in
was too original and playful an idea not to be appropriated  the hunting-day of souls!'
by the poets. To this morality we perhaps owe the pane-                 Stuation to the Eats.
gyric of Fol(y by Erasmus, and the Love and Folly of La
Fontaine.                                                    I salute ye, intellIgent ears of Maria! ye presidents
of the princes of the poor! Tribunal for their petitions 
RELIGIOUS NOUVELLETTES.                    salvation at the audience of the miserable! University of
I shall notice a class of very singular works, in which   alldivine wisdom! Receivers general of all wards!  Ye
the spirit of romance has been called in to render religion   are pierced with the rings of our chains; ye are impearled
more attractive to certain heated imaginations.         with our necessities!'
In the fifteenth century was published a little book of  The images, prints, and miniatures, with which the
prayer 5, accompanied by figures, both of a very uncom-  catholic religion has occasion to decorate its splendid ceremon nature for a religious publication. It offers too cu-  monies, have frequently been consecrated to the purposes
rious objects to pass over in silence. It is entitled Hortu-  of love: they have been so many votive offerings worthy
lus Aenimre curm OCatiunculis alhquibus superadditis quse in  to have been suspended in the temple of Idalia. Pope
prioribus Libris non habentur.                          Alexander VI had the images of the Virgin made to repreIt is a small octavo en letires Gothiques printed by John   sent some of his mistresses; the famous Vanozza, his faGrunninger, 1500.' A garden,' says the author,' which   vourite, was placed on the altar of Sanla Maria del Po.
abounds with flowers for the pleasure of the soul;' but  polo; and Julia Farnese furnished a subject for another
Marchand tells us they are full of poison.              Virgin.  The same genius of pious gallantry also visited
In spite of his fine promises, the chiefpart of these medita-  our country.  The statuaries made the queen of Henry
tions are as puerile as they are superstitious.  This we  III a model for the face of the Virgin Mary. Hearne
might excuse, because the ignorance and superstition of  elsewhere affirms, that the Virgin Mary was generally
the times allowedr such things; but thefigures which ac-  niade to bear a resemblan::e to the queens of the age,
company the work are to be condemned in all ages; one   which, no doubt produced  some real devotion in the
represents Saint Ursula and some of her eleven thousand   courtiers.
virgins, with all the licentious inventions of an Aretine.    The prayer-books of certain pious libertines were decorWhat strikes the ear does not so much irritate the senses,  ated with the portraits of their iavourite minions and ladies
observes the sage HIorace, as what is presented in all it-s  in the characters of saints, and even of lhe Virgin and
nudity to the eye. One of these designs is only ridicu-  Jesus.  This scandalous practice was particularly prevaious: David is represented as examining Bathsheba bath-  lent in that reign of debauchery in France, when Henry
ing, while Cupid hovering round him throws his dart, and   III held the reins of government with a loose hand. In a
with a malicious smile triumphs in his success: we have  missal once appertaining to the queen of Lewis XII may
had many gross and strange designs like this. There is  be seen a niitred ape, giving its benediction to a man proa laughable picture in a village in Holland, in which Abra-  strate before it; a keen reproach to the clergy of that day.
ham appears ready to sacrifice his son Isaac by a loaded   Charles V, however pious that emperor affected to be,
blunderbuss; but his pious intention is entirely frustrated   had a missal painted for his mistress by the great Albert
by an angel urining in the pan. Something similar is the   Durer, the borders of which are crowded with extravagant
design of another painting, in which the Virgin receives  grotesques, consisting of apes, who were sometimes ele.
the annunciation of the angel Gabriel with a huge chaplet  gantly sportive, giving clysters to one another, and in
of beads tied rotund her waist, reading her own offices, and   many much more offensive attitudes, not adapted  to
kneeling before a crucifix; or, like another happy inven-  heighten the piety of the Royal Mistress. This missal has
tion to be seen on an altar-piece at Wvorms, in which the  two French verses written by the Emperor himself, who
Virgin throws Jesus in the hopper of a mill, while from   does not seem to have been ashamed of his present. The
the other side he issues, changed into little morsels of  Italians carried this taste to excess.  The manners of oti
bread with which the priests feast the people. Matthison,  country were more rarely tainted with this deplorable
a modern traveller, describes a picture in a church at Con-  licentiousness, although I have observed an innocent ten.
stance, called the Conception of the holy Virgin. An old  dency towards it, by examining the illuminated manuman lies on a cloud, whence he darts out a vast beam,  scripts of our ancient metrical romances: while we admire
which passes through a dove hovering just below; at the  the vivid colouring of these splendid manuscripts, the curiend of a beam appears a large transparent egg, in which   ous observer will perceive that almost every heroine is
egg is seen a child in swaddling clothes with a glory round  represented in a state which appears incompatible with her
it. Mary sits leaning in an arm chair, and opens her  reputation for chastity.  Most of these works are, I be.
mouth to receive t.e egg.                               lieve, of French origin.
I must not pass unnoticed in this article a production as    A good supplement might be formed to religious inde.
extravagant in its design, in which the author prided him-  cencies from the Golden Legend, which abounds in them.
self on discussing three thousand questions concerning his  Henry Stephens's Apology for Herodotus might be fikcfavourite lady Mary.                                    wise consulted with effect for the same purpose.  There
The publication now adverted to was not presented to  is a story of St Mary the Egyptian, who was perhaps a
the world in a barbarous age and in a barbarous country,  looser liver than Marv Magdalen; for not being able to
but printed at Paris in 1668. It bears for title, Devote Sal-  pay for her passage to Jerusalem, whether she was going
utation des.1Iembres sacres du Corps de la Glorieuse  to adore the holy cross and sepulchre, in despair she
Vierge, Mere de Dieu. That is,' A Devout Salutation   thought of an expedient in lieu of payment to the ferryman,
of the Holy Members efthe Body of the Glorious Virgin   which required at least going twice, instead of once, to
of the Mother of God.' It was printed and published with  Jerusalem  as a penitential pilgrimage.  This anecdote
an approbation and privilege! which is more strange than   presents the genuine character of certain devotees, who
the work itself. Valois reprobates it in these just terms:  would have formed accomplished methodists.' What would Innocent XI have done, after having abol-    Melchior Inchoffer, a jesuit published a book to vindiished the shameful Office of the Conception, Indulgences,  cate the miracle of a Letter which the Virgin Mary had
&c, if he had seen a volume in which the impertinent de-  addressed  to  the citizens of Messina: when Nanld
votion of that visionary monk caused to be printed, with  brought him positive proofs of its evident forgery, Inchoffer
permission of his superiors, Meditations on all the Parts  ingenuously confessed that he knew it was an imposture,
of the Body of the Holy Virgin?  Religion, decency, and   but that. he had done it by the orders of hissuperiors.
good sense, are they not alikle wounded by such an extra-    This same letter of the Virgin Mary was like a dona..
vagance?' In the Journal des SSavans, for December  tion made to her by Louis the eleventh of the whole coent&
1703, 1 find a specimen of these salutations.  They have  of Boulogne, retaining, however, fc.r his eotnr use the revepreserved the most decent ones, in which this fanatic  nues! This solemn act bears the date of the year 1478,
salutes the hair and the ears of the holy Virgin.       and is entitled' Conveyance of Louis the eleventh to the
Virgin of Boulogne of the right and title of the fief and
Salutation to the Hair                 homage of the county of Boulogne, which is held by the
I salute you, charming hair of Maria! Rays of the  Count of Saint Pol, to render a faithful account before the
mystical sun! Lines of the centre and circumference of  image of the said lady.'
ail created perfection! Veins of gold of the mine of love!    Maria Agreda, a religious visionary, wrote the Life of
Chains of the prison of God! Roots of the tree of life!  the Virgin.  She informs us that she resisted the comrn.




LITERATURE.                                                            9"
ands of God and the holy Mary till the year 1637, when      One of the most extravagant works projected on the
e began to compose this curious rhapsody. When she   subject of the Virgin Mary appears to be the following one.
Ld finished this original production, her confessor advised   The prior of a convent in Paris had reiteratedly intreated,r to burn it: sihe obeyed. Her friends, however, who   Varillas the historian to examine a work composed by one
d n,)t think her less inspired than she. informed them she   of his monks; and of which-not being himself addicted
as, advised her to re-write the work.  When printed it  to letters-he wished to be governed by his opinion. Va)read rapidly from  country to country: new editions ap-  rillas at length yielded to the entreaties of the prior: and
cared at Lisbon, Madrid, Perpignan, and Antwerp.  It  to regale the critic, they ltd.cl on two tables for his inspecr
as the rose of Sharon for those climates.  There are sc  tion seven enormous volumes in folio!
atany pitis absurdities in this book which were found to give  This rather disheartened our reviewer: but greaterwas
ich pleasure to the devout, that it was solemnly honoured   his astonishment, when, having opened the first volume,
ith the censure of the Sorbonne; and it spread the more!  he found its title to be Summa 1Dei-parro; and as Saint.
The head of this lady was quite turned by her religion.  Thomas had made a Sum, or System  of Theology, so
the first six chapters she relates the visions of the Vir-  our monk had formed a System of the Vzrgin! He irromeIn, which induced her to write her own life. She begins   diately comprehended the design of our good father, who
te history ab ovo, as it may be expressed; for she has   had laboured on this work full thirty years, and who boast-,rmeed a narrative of vhat passed during the nine months   ed he had treated the Three Thousand Questions coni which the Virgin was confined in the womb of her mo-  cerniiig the Virgin; of which he flattered himself not a
ler St Anne.  After the birth of Mary she received an   single one had ever yet been imagined by any one but him.
sgmentation of angelic guards: we have several conver-  self!
ttions which God held with the Virgin during the first      Perhaps a more extraordinary design was never known..ghteen months after her birth.  And it is in this manner  Varillas, pressed to give his judgment on this work, adle formed a circulatingnovel, which delighted the female   vised the prior with great prudence and good nature to
evotees of the seventeenth century.                      amuse the honest old monk with the hope of printing these
The wvorship paid to the Virgin Mary in Spain and   seven folios, but always to start some new difficulties; for
aly exceeds that which is given to the Son or the Father.  it would be inhuman to give so deep a chagrin to a man
/'hen they pray to Mary, their imagination pictures a   who had reached his 74th year, as to inform  him of the
catiful woman, they really feel a passion; while Jesus is  nature of his favourite occupations; and that after his
ily regarded as a Barb!'-o, or infant at the breast, and   death, he should throw the seven folios into the fire.
te Father is hardly ever recollected; but the 1ladona, l              A AcTY,'  AND'HAPPY CONJECTURE' OR,
1                                          4 ~~~~~~~~~~~CRITICAL SAGACITY,' AND'~ HAPPY CONJECTURE [~ OR,'enhora, la Maria Santa, while she inspires their re-                      BENTLEY 5 MILTON.
_its Inclinations, is a mistress to those who have none.
Of similar works there exists an entire race, and the          - Bentley, long to wrangling schools confined,
)raries of the curious may yet preserve a shelf of these     And bet by boots acquainted wit mankind --
ligiouts nouvellettes.  The Jesuits were the usual authors   To Milton lending sense, to Horace wit,
He makes them write, what never poet writ.' these riapsodies. I find an account of a book which
etends to descrihe what passes in Paradise.o   A Spano     Dr Bentley's edition of our English Homer is sufficient.
~ etends to describe what passes in Paradise. A Span- 
h Jesuit published at Salamanca a volume in folio, 1652,  ly known by name.  As it stands a terryfying beacon to
itled  Empyrslo.  He dwells with great complai-  conjectural criticism, I shall just notice some of those vioiny   pohejoyof tHe  welestl aithreat alway   lations which the learned critic ventures to commit with,ney upon the joys of the celestial abode; there always                                    h  m   s  ep  vr
all the arrogance of a Scaliger. This man so deeply verill he music in heaven with material instruments as   all the  arrogance of a Scaliger.
ar ears are already accustomed to; otherwise he
cr ear  are  aready   ccustoed  to;otherwsehe sd in ancient learning it will appear was destitute of taste
inks the celestial music would not be music for us!    and genius in his native language.
ut another Jesuit is more particular in his accounts.      It was an unfortunate ingenuity in our critic, when, to
persuade the world of the necessity of his edition, he.e positively  assures us that we shall experience a   pesuade the world of the necessity of his edition, he!preme pleasure in kissing, and embracing the bodies  imagined a fictitious editor of Milton's Poems: for it. was
heblssd;thyil bathis ingenuity which produced all his absurdities. As it is
the blessed o they will bathe in the presence of each b
her, and  for this purpose there are most agreeabe   certain that the blind bard employed an amanuensis, it
~~~her, ~~~~~~~and for tismpurpobabe theeare man orsto siiagreeablebu
nths in which we shall swim like fish; that we shall all  was not inprobable that many worts of similar sound, but
rble as sweetly as larks and nightinales; that the an-  very different signification, might have disfigured the poem;
Is  ill dress themselves in female habits, their hair  but our Docter was bold enotiugh to conjecture that this
irled; wearing petticoats and fardingales, and with the amanuensis interpolated whole verses of his own compoamanuensis interpolated whole verses of his own compo.
sition in the:? Paradise Lost!' Having laid down this fitiest linen; that men and women will amuse themselves        sition t     P  e  ost           i   la    nth  fmasquerades, feasts and balls.-W;omen will sing more
masqluerades, feasts and balls.-WT~Tomen  will sing more  tal position, all the consequences of his folly naturally followed it. Yet if we must conjecture, the more probable
Freeably than men to exalt these entertainments, and   lowed it. Yet if we must conjecture, the more probable
the resurrection will have more luxurant tresses, orna    one will be, that Milton, who was never careless of his
ented with reibbons and head-dresses as in this life  -  future fame, had his poem read to him  after it had been
ente  wit ribonsand eaddesse asin tis lfe!   blished. The first edition appeared in 1667, and the
Such were the books once so devoutly studied, and which   pulished.  Thefirstedition appeared in  6,and   the
second in 1675 in which all the faults of the former edition
)artless were often literally understoodl.  How very bold   arie continued. By these fault the Doctor means what he
ust the minds of the Jesuits have been, and how  very   conine           B  thef         e    oo   e         hat h
imble those of their readers, that such extravagances        iders to he such: for we shall soon see that his'Ca..
~ mblo those of their readers, that such extravagances   nn   fCtcs~ aepcyhl
~ould ever be published!  And yet, even to the time in   none of Criticism' are apocryphal.
isich I am  now  writing- even at this day,-the same     Bentley says that he will supply the want ofmanuscripts
ctureqtie and   inpassinedpencl is e oy the  to collate (to use his own words) by his own I Sagacity,'
eturesque and impassioned pencil is employed by the
odern Apostles of Mysticism-the Swedenburghians,-   ad  happy Conjecture.'
o Moravians, the Mrethodists!                              Milton, after the conclusion of Satan's speech to the
I find an account of anolher book of this class, ridiculous   Fallen angels, proceeds thus:
ough to be noticed.  It has for title,' The Spiritual      1. He spake: and to confirm his words out flew
slendar, composed of as many Madrigals or sonnets and        2. Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
uigrams as there are days in the year; written for the       3. Of mighty cherubim: the sudden blaze
nsolation of the pious and the curious.  By father G.       4. Far round illumnin'd hell; highly they rae'd
irtade, Austin Preacher at Bayonne, 1665.' To give a         6. Against the Highest; and fierce with grasped arms
tion of this singular collection take an Epigram  addres-   6. Classbd on thoir sounding shields the din of war,
7. Hurling defiance tow'rd the vault of Heaven.
I to a Jesuit, who young as he was, used to put spurs       7. Hurling defiance towrd the vault of Heaven.
der his shirt to mortify the outer-man! The Kalendar-    In this passage, whichi is as perfect as human wit can
At thus gives a point to these spurs:                   make, the Doctor alters three words.  In the second line
I1 ne pourra done plus ni ruer ni hennir               he puts blades instead of swords; in the fifth, he puts swor/s
Sous le rude Eperon dent tu fais son supplice;       instead of arms; and in the last line he prefers stoals to
Qui vit jamais tel artifice,                           vault.  All these changes are so many defoedtations of the
De piquer un cheval pour le mieux retenir!  poem.  The word swords is far more poetical than blades,
IUMBLY IMITATED.                          which may as well be understood of knives as swords. The
Your body no more will neigh and vilt kick,            word arms, the generic for the specific term, is still stron-.
The point of the spur must eternally prick;          er and nobler than swcords; and the beautiful coneptiml
Whoever contrived a thing with such skill;             of vault, which is always indefinite to the eye, while the
To keep spurrinei a horse to make him stand still'   solidity of walls would but meanly describe the highest
No. 4                                                                             13




98                                     CURIOSITIES OF
Heaven, gives an idea of grandeur and majesty.           tion of words is frequently found not to be allied to the
AMilton writes, book i, v. 63,                         sensibility of taste, and far removed from  the ardour c
No light, but rather darkness visible             genius.
Served only to discover sights of wo                            A JANSENIST DICTIONARY.
Perhaps borrowed from Spenser:                           When L'Advocat published his concise Biographics
Dictionary, the Jansenists, the Methodists of' France
lttle gloomng  ht, much like a shade.  considered it as having been written with a view to depre
Faery Queen,, C., St 14.    ciate the merit of their friends.  It must be acknowlege:
This fine expression of' darkness visible' the Doctor's  there was little foundation for ~his complaint; but the spir:
critical sagacity has thus rendered clearer:-           of party is soon alarmed.  The Abb6 Barral undertook
dictionary devoted to their cause.  In this labour he in' No light, but rather a transpicuous gloom.'     dulged, assisted by his good friends the Jansenists, all th
Again our learned critic distinguishes the 74th line of  impetuosity and acerbity of a splenetic adversary.  Th.he first book-                                          abb6 was, however, an able writer; his anecdotes are ni
merous and well chosen; and his style is rapid and glow
As from the centre thrice to the utniost pole,    ing.  The work bears for title' Dictionnaire Historiqu
as I a vicious verse,' and therefore with' happy conject  Lttteraire, et Critique des Hommes Ceiebres,' 6 vols. 8 v(
ture,' and no taste, thrusts in an entire verse of his own   1759.  It is no unuseful speculation to observe in who
composition-                                             manner a faction represents those who have not been it
favourites; for this purpose I select the characters of Fer' Distance which to express all measure fails.'   elon, Cranner, and Luther.
~ ~lton writes,                                            In their article of Fenelon they write,-' ie compose
for the instruction of the Dukes of Burgundy, Anjou, ar
Our torments also may in length of time          Berry, several works, amongst others the Telemachus.
BcmB. our eleme274  singular book, which partakes at once of the character
B. if, ver 274.
a romance, and of a poem, and which substitutes a pro
Bentley CORRECTS,                                        saic cadence for versification.  But several luscious pit
Then, as was well observ'd, our torments may     tures would not lead us to sispect that this book issue
Become our elements.                               from the pen of a sacred minister for the education of
A curious instance how the insertion of a ingle prosaic  prince; and what we are told by a famous poet is not in
i prosaic  probable, that Fenelon did not compose it at court, hi
expression turns a fine verse into something worse than   probable, that:enelon did not compose It at court, b
the vilxpression turns a fine verse into something worse than  that it is the fruits of his retreat in his diocese.  And ii
the vilemore instane  of critical                     deed the amours of Calypso and Eucharis should not I
ion: Miltone says, with an agreeable turn of cexpression-  the first lessons that a minister sho old give his scholar:
lion: Milton  says, with an agreeable turn ofexpression.-  and besides, the fine soral maxims which the author 
n                             and besides, the fine moral maxims which the author a
So parted they; the angel up to heaven,          tributes to the Pagan divinities are not well placed in the
From the thick shade; and Adam to his bower.       mouth. Is riot this rendering homage to the demons of tl
Bentley' conjectures' these two verses to be inaccurate,  great truths which we receive from the Gospel, and to d,
and in lieu-of the last writes-                          spoil J. C. to render respectable the annihilated gods'Adam~ to rulminate on past discourse.'            paganisnl?-This prelate was a wretched divine, mo
familiar with the light of profane authors than with that
And then our erudite critic reasons! as thus:            the fathers of the church. Phelipeaux has given us in i
After the conversation between the angel and Adam in  narrative of' Quietism,' the portrait of' the friend of M
the bower, it may be well presumed that our first parent  dame Guyon.  This archbishop has a lively genitis, artfi
waited on his heavenly guest at his departure to some little  and supple, which can flatter and dissimulate if ever a;
distance from it, till he began to take his flight towards  could.  Seduced by a woman, he was solicitous to spre
heaven; and therefore' sagaciously' thinks'that the poet  his seduction. Hejoined to the politeness and elegance
could not with propriety say that the angel parted from the   conversation a modest air, which rendered him amiab
thick shade, that is, the bower, to go to heaven. But if  He spoke of spirituality with the expression and the e
Adam  attended the angel no farther than the door or en-  thusia:sm of a prophet; with such talents he flattered hi:
trance of the bower, then he shrewdly asks' How Adam   self that every thing would yield to him.'
could retlrin to his bower if he was never out of it?'     In this work the Protestants, particularly the first ]
Our editor has made above a thousand similar correc-  formers, find no quarter; and thus virulently their ral
tions in this edition of Milton! Some have suspected that  catholicism exults over the unhappy end of Thomas Crs
the same ikind intention which prompted Dryden to per-  mer, the first protestant archbishop.
suade Creech to undertake a translation of Horace influ-' Thomas Cranmer married the sister of Osiander.
enced those who encouraged our Doctor, in thus exercising   Henry VIII detested married priests, Craniner kept tl
his' sasacity' and' happy conjecture' on the epic of Mil-  second marriage in profound secrecy.  This action sert
ton.  He is one of those learned critics who have happily  to show  the character of this great reformer, who is t' elucidated their author into obscurity;' and comes nearest  hero of Burnet, whose history is so much esteemed in F
to that' trule conjectural critic' whose practice a Portu-  gland. What blindness to suppose him an Athanasius w
guese satirist so greatly admired; by which means if he  was at once a Lutheran secretly married, a consecrat
be only followed up by future editors, we might have that  archbishop under the Roman pontiff, whose power he
immaculate edition, in which little or nothing should be  tested, saying the mass in which he did not believe, a
found of the original!                                  granting a power to sav it! The divine vengeance bu
I have collected these few instances as not uninterest-  on this sycophantic courtier, who had always prostitut
ng to men of taste; they may convince us that a scholar  his conscience to his fortune.'
may be familiarisedl to Greek and Latin, though a stranger  Their character of Luther is quite Lutheran in c
to his vernacular literature; and that a verbal critic may   sense, for Luther was himself a stranger to modert
sometimes be successful in his attempts on a single word,  strictures.
though he may be incapable of tasting an entire sentence.' The furious Luther, perceiving himself assisted by t
Let it also remain as a gibbet on the high roads of litera-  credit of several princes, broke loose against the church w
ture; that' conjectural critics' as they pass may not for-  the most inveterate rage, and rung the most terrible ala
get the foolish fate of Bentley.                         against the pope.  According to him we should have
The fobllowing epigram appeared on this occasion:-     fire to every thing, and reduced to one heap of ashes t
ON MILTON'S EXECUTIONER.                    pope and the princes who supported him. Nothing equ
Did Milton's prose, 0 Charles! thy death defend?   the rage of this phrenetic man, who was not satisfied w
A furtous foe, unconscious, proves a friend;        exhaling his fury in horrid declamations, but who was
On Milton's verse does Bentley comment? know,        putting all in practice.  He raised his excesses to 1
A weak officioutis'iend becomes a foe.              height by inveighing against the vow of chastity, and
While te wouldl seem his author's fame to further,   marrying publicly Catherine de Bore, a iutn, whom he 4
The murderous critic has aveng'd thy murder.         ticed with eight others from their convents. He had p
It is acknowledged, that the classical learning of Dr  pared the minds of the people for this infamous proceedi
Bentlev was singular and acute.  But the profound erudi_  by a treatise which he entitled' Examples of the Papi




LITERATURE.                                                         99
cal Doctrine and Theology,' in which he condemns the  the translation of Rapin, after a very considerable part of
praises which all the saints had given to continence.  He  the work had been published, was not a little dubious of
died at length quietly enough, in 1546, at Isleben, his  its success, and was strongly inclined to drop the design.
country-place:-God  reserving the terrible effects of his  It proved at last to be a most profitable literary adventure.
vengeance to another life.'                              It is, perhaps, useful to record, that while the fine comrnC@ranmer, who perished at the stake, these fanatic reli-  positions of genius and the elaborate labours oC erudition
gionlsts proclaim  as an example of' divine vengeance;'  are doomed to encounter these obstacles to tame, and
but Luthier, the true parent of the Reformation,'died   never are but slightly remunerated, works of another de.
]oietly enough at Isleben:' this must have puzzled their  scription are rewarded in tle most princely manner; at
rode of reasoning; but they extricate themselves out of  the recent sale of a bookseller, the copyright of''Vyse's
tre dilemma by the usual way.  Their curses are never  Spelling-book' was sold at the enormous price of 1.2,2'00
what the lawyers call' lapsed legacies.'                with an annuity of 50 guineas to the author!
MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOKS.                                       THE TURKISH SPY.
It would be no uninteresting literary speculation to de-    Whatever may be the defects of the' Turkish Spy,' the
scribe the difficulties which some of our most favourite  author has shown one uncommon merit, by having opened
works encountered in their manuscript state, and even   a new species of composition, which has been pursued by
after they had passed through the press.  Sterne, when he  other writers with inferior success, if we except the charmhad finished his first and second volumes of Tristram   ing'Persian Letters' of Montesquieu.  The'Turkish
Shandy, offered them to a bookseller at York for fifty   Spy' is a book which has delighted us in our childhood, and
pounds; but was refused: he came to town with his Miss;  to which wae can still recur with pleasure. But its inarid he and Robert Dodsley agreed in a manner of which   genieus author is unknown to three parts of his admirers.
neither repented.                                          In Boswell's' Life of Johnson' is his dialogue concerning
The Rosciade, with all its merit, lay for a considerable  the writer of the' Turkish Spy.'' B. Pray, Sir, is the
time in a dormiant state, till Churchill and his publisher  "'Turkish Spy" a genuine book? J. No, Sir.  Mrs Manbecame impatient, and almost hopeless of success.-  Iy il her " Life" says, that her father wrote the two first
Burn's Justice was disposed of by its author, who was  volumes; and in another book-" Duriton's Life and Erweary of soliciting booksellers to pllrchase the Ms for a   roturs," we find that the rest was written by one Sault at
trifle, and which now yields an annual income. Collins  two guineas a sheet, under the dire(ti,,n of Dr Midgeley.'
burnt his odes b,!fore the door of his publisher.-The pub-  I do nit know on what authority Mrs Manley advances
lication of Dr Blair's Sermons was refused by Strabhan   that her father was the author; bhut this lady was never
and the' Essay on the Irmmutability of Truth,' by Dr  nice in detailiiag facts.  Dunton, indeed, gives some infirBeattie, could find no publisher, and was printed by twto  moatimn in a very loose manner. He tells us, p. 242, that
friends of the author, at their joint expense.           it is probable, by reasons which he insinuates, that one' The sermon in Tristam  Sandy' (says Sterne, in his  Bradslataw, a hackney author, was the writer of the' Turkpreface to his Sermons)' was printed by itself some years  ish Spy.' This man probably was engaged by Dr Midgeago, but could find neither purchasers nor readers.' When  ley to translate the volumes as they appeared at the
it was inserted in his eccentric work, it met with a most  rate of 40s per sheet.  On the whole, all this proves, at
favourable reception, and occasioned the others to be col-  least, how little the author was known while the volumes
lected.                                                  were publishing, and that he is as little known at prseent by
Joseph Warton writes,' When Gray published his ex-  the extract from Boswell.
quisite Ode on Eton Colleve, his first publication, little  The ingenious writer of the Turkish Spy is John Paul
notice was taken of it.' The Polyeucte of Corneille,  Marana, a,, Italian: so that the Turkish Spy is just as
which is now accounted to be his master-piece, when he  real a personage as Cid Hamet, from  whom Cervantes
read it to the literary assembly held at the Hotel de Ram-  says he had his' History of Don Q(uixote.' Marana had
bouillet, was not approved.  Voiture came the next day,  been imprisoned for a political conspiracy; after his reand in gentle terms acquainted him with the ulnfavourable  lease he retired to Monaco, where he wrote the' History
opinion of the critics. Such ill judges were then the most  of the Plot,' which is said to be valuable for many curiotfashionable wits of France.                              particulars. Marana was at once a man of letters and,,:
It was with great difficulty that Mrs Centlivre could get  the world. He had long wished to reside at Paris; in that
her' Busy Body' perfolrmed. Wilks threw down his part  assemblage of taste and luxury his talents procured hird
with an oath of detestation: our comic authoress fell on her  patrons. It was during his residence there that he proknees and wept.-Her tears, arid not her wit, prevailed.    duced his' Turkish Spy.' By this ingenious contrivance
A pamphlet published in the year 1738, entitled' A letter  he gave the history of the last age. He discovers a rich
to the Society of Booksellers, on the Method of forming a   memory, and a lively imagination; but critics have said
true Judgment of the Manuscripts of Authors,' contains  that he touches every thing, and penetrates nothing. His
some curious literary intelligence, and is as follows:-  first three volumes greatly pleased: the rest are inferior.'We have known books,' says our writer,' that in the   Plutarch, Seneca, and Pliny, were his favou.ite authors.
MS have been damned, as well as others which seemed to   He lived in a philosophical mediocrity; and in the last
be so, since, after their appearance in the world, they have   years of his life retired to his native country, where he died
often lain by neglected.  Witness the " Paradise Lost" of  in 1693.
the famous Milton, and the Optics of Sir Isaac Newton,    Charpentier gave the first particulars of this ingenious
which last,'tis said, had no character or credit here till  man. Even in his time the volumes were read as they
noticed in France.  " The Historical Connection of the   came out, while its author remained tunknown. Charpen.
Old and New Testament," by Shuckford, is also reported,  tier's proof of the author is indisputable; for he preserved
to have been seldom inquired after for about a twelve-  the following curious certificate, written in Marana's own
month's time; however it made a shift, though not with-  hand-writing.
out some difficulty, to creep up to a second edition, and'I, the under-written John Paul Marana, author of a
afterwards even to a third. And, which is another re-  manuscript Italian volume, intituled,'L'Esploratore Turco,
markable instance, the manuscript of Dr Prideaux's  tome terzo,' acknowledge that Mr Charpentier, appointed
" Connection" is well known to have been bandied about  by the Lord Chancellor to revise the said manuscript, has
from hand to hand, among several, at least five or six of  not granted me his certificate for printing the said nianuthe most eminent booksellers, during the space of at least  script, but on condition to rescind four passages. The first
two years, to no purpose, none of them  undertaking to  beginning, &c. By this I promise to suppress from the
print that excellent work. It lay in obscurity, till Archdeacon   said manuscript the places above marked, so that there
Echard, the atuthor's friend, strongly recommended it to  shall remain no vestige; since, without agreeing to this, the
Tonson.  It was,purchased, anl the publication was very  said certificate would not have been granted to rne by the
successful.  R obinsor  Crirtoe's manuscript also ran   said Mr Charpentier; and for surety of the above, which
through the whoie trade, nor tould any one print it, though   I acknowledge to be true, and which I promise punctuall)
the writer, De Foe, was in good  repute as an author.  to execute, I have signed the present writing. Paris,
One bookseller at last not remarlkable for his discernment.  28thl September, 1686.
bltt for his speculative turn, engased in this publication.                        JoHnr1 PAUL MARAA..
This bookseller got above a thousand guineas by it; and   This paper serves a' a curilus instance in what manner
the booksellers are accumulat lng mottey every hour by  the censors of books clipped the wings of genilus when it
editions of this work in all shapes.  The undertaker of Iwas found oo daring or excursive.




100                                  CURIOSITIES OF
These rescindings of the Censor appear to be marked   geries, and the danger which literary historiars incur by
by Marana in the printed work. We find more than once,  such dangerous practices.
chasms with these words:' the beginning of this letter is
wanting in the Italian translation; the original paper being  BEN JONSON, FELTHAM, AND RANDOPH.
torn.                                                     Ben Jonson, like most celebrated wits, was very unfor.
No one has yet taken the pains to observe the dates of  tunate in conciliating the affections of his brother writers.
the first editions of the French and the English Turkish   He certainly possessed a great share of arrogance, and
Spies, which would settle the disputed origin. Itappears  was desirous of ruling the realms of Parnassus with a
by the document before us, to have been originally written  despotic sceptre.  That he was not always successful in
in Italian, but probably was first putlished in French.  his theatrical compositions, is evident from his abusing, in
Does the English Turkish Spy differ from the French one?  their title-page, the actors and the public. In this he has
been imitated by Fielding. I have collected the following
SPENSER, JONSON, AND SHAKSPEARE.               three satiric odes, written when the reception of his'NewInn, or The Light Heart,' warmly exasperated the irritaThe characters of these three great masters of English   ble disposition of our poet.
poetry are sketched by Fuller, in his' Worthies of Eng-    He printed the title in the following manner:
land.' It is a literary morsel that must not be passed by.' New Inn, or The Light Heart, a Comedy never acted,
The criticisms of those who lived in or near the times when  but most negligently played by some, the King's servants;
authors flourished merit our observation. They sometimes  and more squeamishly beheld and censured by others, the
elicit a ray of intelligence, which later opinions do not al-  King's subjects, 1629. Now at last set at liberty to the
ways give.                                             readers, his Majesty's servants and subjects, to be judged,
He observes on Spenser-' the many Chaucerisms used  1631.'
(for I will not say affected by him) are thought by the igno-    At the end of the play he published the following Ode,
rant to be blemishes, known by the learned to be beauties,  in which he threatens to quit the stage for ever; and turn
to his book; which, notwithstanding, had been more sale-  at once a Horace, an Anacreon, and a Pindar.
able, if more conformed to our modern language.'          4 The just indignation the author took at the vulgar cenOn Jonson.-' His parts were not so ready to run of  sure of his play, begat this following Ode to himself:
themselves, as able to answer the spur; so that it may be
truly said of him, that he had an elaborate wit, wrought out' Come, leave the loathed stage,
by his own industry.-He would sit silent in learned com-            And the more loathsome age;
pany, and suck in (besides wine) their several humours      Where pride and impudence (in fashion knit)
into his observation.  What, was ore in others, he was able         Usurp the chair of wit!
to refine himself.                                          Inditing and arraigning every day'He was paramount in the dramatic part of poetry, and             Something they call a play.
taught the stage an exact conformity to the laws of co-           Let their fastidious, vaine
medians. His comredies were above the Volge (which                Commission of braine
are only tickled with downright obscenity), and took not so  Run on, and rage, sweat, censure, and condemn;
well at the first stroke as at the rebound, when beheld the  They were not made for thee,-less thou for them.
second time; yea, they will endure reading so long as
either ingenuity or learning are fashionable in our nation.'Say that thou pour'st them wheat,
If his latter be not so spriteful and vigorous as his first         And they will acorns eat:
pieces, all that are old will, and all who desire to be old'Twere simply fury, still, thyself to waste
should excuse him therein.                                          On such as have no taste!
On Shakspeare.-' He was an eminent instance of the        To offer them a surfeit of pure bread,
truth of that rule, poeta non fit, sed nascitur; one is not         Whose appetites are dead!
made, but born a poet. Indeed his learning was but very           No, give them graines their fill,
little; so that as Cornish diamonds are not polished by any       Husks, draff, to drink and swill.
lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed, even as they are    If they love lees, and leave the lusty wine,
taken out of the earth, so Nature itself was all the art    Envy them not their palate with the swine.
which was used upon him.'Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Jon-'No doubt some mouldy tale
son, which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon, and            Like Pericles,* and stale
an English man-of-war. Master Jonson (like the former)      As the shrieve's crusts, and nasty as his fishwas built far hiaher in learning; solid, but slow in his per-        Scraps, out of every dish
formances.  Shakspeare, with an English man-of-war,         Thrown forth, and rak't into the common-tub,
lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides,   May keep up the play-club;
and take advantage of all owinds, by the quickness of his         There sweepings do as well
wit and invention.'                                               As the best order'd meale.
Had these' Wit-combats,' between' Shakspeare and         Foy who the relish of these guests will fit,
Jonson, which Fuller notices, been chronicled by some       Needs set them but the almes-basket of wit.
faithful Boswell of the age, our literary history would have
received an interestin-r accession. A letter has been pub-' And much good do't you then,
lished by Dr Berkenhout relating to an evening's conver-             Brave plush and velvet men
sation between our great rival bards, and Alleyn the actor.  Can feed'on oats, and safe in your stage clothes,
Peele, a dramatic poet, writes to his friend Marlow, ano-            Dare quit, upon your oathes,
ther poet.  The Doctor unfortunately in giving this copy    The stagers, and the stage-wrights too (your peers)
did not recollect his authority.                                     Of larding your large ears'Friend Marlow,                                               With their foul comic socks,'I never longed for thy companye more than last night:          Wrought upon twenty blocks:
we were all very merrye at the Globe, where Ned Alleyn    Which, if they're torn, and turn'd, and patch'd enoughq
did not scruple to affirme pleasantly to thy friend Will,    The gamesters share your guilt, and you their stuff.
that he had stolen his speeche about the qualityes of an
actor's excellencye in Hamlet his Tragedye, from conver-'Leave things so prostitute,
sations manyfold which had passed between them, and                 And take the Alcaeick lute,
opinyons given by Alleyn touchinge this subject.  Shak-     Or thyne own Horace, or Anacreon's lyre;
speare did not take this talk in good sorte; but Jonson put          Warm thee by Pindar's fire;
an end to the strife, by wittylie remarking:-this affaire   And, tho' thy nerves be shrunk, and blood be cold
needeth no contention: you stole it from Ned no doubt;               Ere years have made thee old,
do not marvel; have you not seen him act times out of             Strike that disdainful heat
number?'                                                         Throughout, to their defeat;
This letter is not genuine, htit one of those ingenious   As curious fools, and envious of thy strain,
forgeries which the late George Steevens practised on the   May, blushing, swear no pah, y's in thy brain.t
literary antiquary; they were not always of this innocent
cast. It has been frequently quoted as an original docu-  * This play, Langbaine says, is written by Shakepearo.
ment. I have preserved it as an example of Literary For-            t He had the palsy at that time.




LITERATURE                                                       101'But when they hear thee sing                   No doubt, from all you may amazement draw,
The glories of thy King,                       Since braver theme no Phoebus ever saw.'
His zeal to God, and his just awe o'er men;
They may blood-shaken then,                   To console dejected Ben for this just reprimand, Ran.
Feel such a flesh-quake to possess their powers,    dolph, one of the adopted poetical sons of Jonson, address
As they shall cry like ours,               ed him with all that warmth of grateful affection which a
In sound of peace, or wars,                   man of genius should have felt on the occasion.
No harp ere hit the stars,
In tuning forth the acts ofhis sweet raign,' An Answer to Mr Ben Jonson's Ode, to persuade him ho
And raising Charles his chariot'bove his wain.'                       to leave the stage.
This Magisterial Ode, as Langbaine calls it, was an-                             I.
swered by Owen Feltham, author. of the admirable'Resolves,' who has written with great satiric acerbity the              CausBen, do not leave the age
retort courteous. His character of this poet should be       F          or pride and impudence will grow too bold,
attendedto: —                                                For pride and impudence will grow too bold,
tWhen they shall hear it told'An Answer to the Ode, Come leave the loathed Stage,4-c      They frighted thee; Stand high, as in thy cause;
Their hiss is thy applause:
nOf baiting those that pay                              More just were thy disdain,
To baiting those * at ry                     2Had they approved thy vein:
Dear for the sight of your declining wit:                So thou   ad the  approved thy vein'Tis known it is not fit                       So thou for them, and they for thee were born,'Tis known it is not fit
They to incense, and thou as much to scorn.
That a sale poet, just contempt once thrown,             T
Should cry up thus his own.
I wonder by what dower,
Or patent, you had power                                 Wilt thou engross thy store
From all to rape a judgment.  Let't suffice,                    Of wheat, and pour no more
Had you been modest, y' ad been granted wise.            Because their bacon-brain had such a taste
Because their bacon-brains had such a taste
As more delight in mast:
Tis knownd you can do well,                     No! set them forth a board of dainties, full
~~And that you do excell  ~As thy best muse can cull;
As a translator; but when things requirehilst they the while do pine
A genius, and fire,                                      Whilst they the while do pine
Not kindled heretofore by other.                       And thirst, midst all their wine.
~N ot kindled heretofore by other pains,
As oft y'ave wanted bWhat greater plague can hell itself devise,
As oft v'ave wanted brains                          t 
And art to strike the white,                      Than to be willing thus to tantalize'?
As you have levell'd right:                                          III.
Yet if men vouch not things apocryphal,
You bellow, rave, and spatter round your gall.                   Thou canst not find them stuff,
That will be bad enough
Jug, Pierce, Peek, Fly,* and all                          That will be bad enough
YJoug Pierce, Peekr Flv+ and all rTo please their palates: let'em them refiuse,
Your jests so nominal,                             For some pye-corner muse;
Are things so far beneath an able brain,                She is too fair an hostess,'twere a sin
As t                       vShe is too fair an hostess,'twere a sin
As they do throw a stain                                          to  e
Thro' all th' unlikely plot, and to displease'Twas made to entertain
As deep as Pericles.                                Guests of a nobler strain;
Where yet there is not laid                     Yet if they will ave any of te store
B>................ Yetf   af th ey will have any of the store,
Before a chamber-maid
Discourse so weigh'd,t as might have serv'd of old      Give them some scraps, and send them from thy dom
For schools, when they of love and valour told.'Why rage, then? when the show                            nd let those things in plush
Should judgment be, and know-;                          Till they be taught to blush,
ledge, there are plush who scorn to drudge               Like what they will, and more contented be
Xor stages, yetlcan judge                       Like what they will, and more contented be
For stages, yet can judge.With what Broom* swept from thee.
Not only poets' looser lines, but wits,                    ow  thy worth, and that thy lfty strains
nd all their perquisits;                           wrie  not to           lfty strains
A r gift as rich as highWrite not to cloaths, but brains:
A gift as riches high                                    But thy great spleen doth rise,
Ie  s *noble poesie;,'Cause moles will have no eyes:
Yet, the' in sport it be for King's a play,             This only in my Ben I faulty fid,
This onlv in my Ben I faulty fired,'Tis next mechanicks' when it works for pay.                                          that are blind
He's angry they'll not see him that are blind,
Alcaeus lute had none,                                              V
Nor loose Anacreon
E'er taught so bold assuming of the bays                           Why shou'd the scene be mute
When they deserv'd no praise.'Cause thou canst touch the lute
To rail men into approbation
To rail men into approbation                  And string thy Horace? Let each Muse of nine
Is new to your's alone:
IsAnew trospes yourr alon: *Claim thee, and say, th'art mine.
And prospers not: for know,'Twere fond, to let all other flames expire,
Fame is as coy, as you                                   To sit by Pindar's fire:
Can be disdainfll; and who dares to prove                        For by so strange neglect
For by so strange neglect
A rape on her shall gather scorn,-not love.                      I
I should myself suspect'Leave then, this humour vain,                 Thy palsyt were as well thy brain's disease,
And this more humourous strain,             If they could shake thy muse which way they please.
And this more humourous strain,
Where self-conceit, and choler of the blood                                   VI
Eclipse what else is good:
Then, f you please those raptures high to touch,'And tho' thou well canst sing,
Whereof you boast so mouch:                              The glories of thy King,
And but forl;sar jour crown
AndTill the worldar  our crown    *             His man, Richard Broome, wrote with success severs
comedies. He had been the amanuensis or attendant of Jon.
* The names of several cf Jonson's Dramatis Personae.  son. The epigram made against Pope for the assistance W,
t'New Inn,' Act iii, Sce.ne 2.-Act iv, Scene 4.       Broome gave him, appears to have been borrowed from this
This break was plrposely designed by the poet, to expose  pun. Jonson has inserted it in' Broome's Life.'
that awkward one in Ben's third stan7a.                              f He had the palsy at that time.




102                                  CURIOSITIES OF
And on the wings of verse his chariot bear          the Italian language, but by some expressions:n his fol.
To heaven, and fix it there;               lowing answer, we may be led to think that Boileau was
Yet let thy muse as well some raptures raise       not ignorant of Italian.
To please him, as to praise.                 I have so little changed my opinion, that on a "e-perusal
I would not have thee chuse               lately of Tasso, I was sorry that I had not more amply
Only a treble muse;                        explained myself on this subject in some of my reflections
uit have this envious, ignorant age to know,       on "Longinus."  I should have begun by acknowledging
Thou that canst sing so high, canst reach as low.'   that Tasso had a sublime genius, of great compass, with
nrARIOSTO ANDr TASSO.                  happy dispositions for the higher poetry. But when I
came to the use he made of his talents, I should have showr.
It surprises one to find among the literary Italians the  that judicious discernment rarely prevailed in his works
merits of Ariosto most keenly disputed: slaves to classi-  That in the greater part of his narrations he attached himcal authority they bend down to the majestic regularity of  self to the agreeable oftener than to the just. That his de.
Tasso.  Yet the father of Tasso, before his son had ri-  scriptions are almost always overcharged with superfluous
valled the romantic Ariosto, describes in a letter the effect  ornaments. That in painting the strongest passions, and in
of the'Orlando' on the people:-' There is no man of  the midst of the agitation they excite, frequently he delearning, no mechanic, no lad, no girl, no old man, who are  generates into witticisms, which abruptly destroy the pasatisfied to read the " Orlando Furioso" once. This poem   thetic. That he abounds with images of too florid a kind;
serves as the solace of the traveller, who fatigued on his  affected turns; conceits and frivolous thoughts; which,
journey deceives his lassitude by chaunting some octaves  far from being adapted to his Jerusalem, could hardly be
of this poem. You may hear them  sing these stanzas in  supportable in his' Aminta."  So that all this, opposed to
the streets and in the fields every day.' One would have  the gravity, the sobriety, the majesty of Virgil, what is it
expected that Ariosto would have been the favourite of the  but tinsel compared with gold?'
people, and Tasso of the critics.  But in Venice the gon-    It must be acknowledged that this passage, which is to
doliers and others, sing passages which are generally tak-  be found in the Histoire de l'Academie, t. ii, p. 276, may
en from Tasso, and rarely from  Ariosto. A  different  serve as an excellent commentary on our poet's well-known
fate, I imagined, would have attended the poet who has  censure. The merits of Tasso are exactly discriminated,
been distinguished by the epithet of'The Divine.'  I  and this particular criticism  must be valuable to the lovhave been told by an Italian man of letters, that this cir-  ers of poetry.  The errors of Tasso, were, however, nacumstance arose from the relation which Tasso's poem   tional.
bears to Turkish affairs; as many of the common peo-    An anonymous gentleman has greatly obliged me with
ple have passed into Turkey, either by chance or by war.  an account of the recitation of these two poets by the gonBesides that the long antipathy existing between the Ve-  doliers of Venice, extracted from  his travelling pocketnitians and the Turks, gave additional force to the patriot-  book.
ic poetry of Tasso. We cannot boast of any similar
poems.  Thus it was that the people of Greece and Ionia
sung the poems of Homer.
The Academia dells Crusca gave a public- preference    In Venice the gondoliers know by heart long passages
to Ariosto.  This irritated certain critics, and none more  from Ariosto and Tassol and often chant them with a pethan Chapelain, who could taste the regularity of Tasso,
buthan Chapelain, who could taste the regularity of  so,   culiar melely.  But this talent seems at present on the
but notafeel the'brave disorder' of Ariosto. He could  decline — at least, after taking some pains, I could find no
more than two persons who delivered to me in this way a'Who snatch a grace beyond the reach of art.,     passage from Tasso. Goldoni in his life, however, notices
the gondolier returning with him to the city:' he turned'I thank you,' he writes,' for the sonnet which your in-  the prow of the gondola towards the city, singing all the
dignation dictated, at the Academy's preference of Ariosto   way the twenty-sixth stanza of' the sixteenth canto of the
to'asso.  This judgmnent is overthrown by the confes-  Jerusalem Delivered.' The late Mr Barry once chanted to
sions of many of the Cruscanti, my associates. It would   me a passage of Tasso in the manner, as he assured me,
be tedious to enter into its discussion; but it was passion   of the Gondoliers. But Lord Byron has recently told us,
and not equity that prompted that decision. We confess,  that with the independence of Venice the song of the gon.
that as to what concerns invention and purity of language,  doliers has died away.
Ariosto has eminently the advantage over Tasso; but
majesty, pomp, numbers, and a style truly sublime, united' In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more.'
to a regularity of design, raise the latter so much above  There are always two concerned, who alternately sing
the other that no comparison can fairly exist.         the strophes. We know the melody eventually by RousWhat Chapelain says is perhaps just; though I did not  seau, to whose songs it is printed;it has properly no me.
know that Ariosto's language was purer than Tasso's.    lodious movement, and is a sort of medium between the
Dr Cocchi, the great Italian critic, compared' Ariosto's  canto fermo and the canto figurato; it approaches to the
poem to the richer kind of Harlequin's habit, made up of  former by recitativical declamation, and to the latter by
pieces of the very best silke and of the liveliest colours.  passages and course, by which one syllable is detained
The parts of it are many of them more beautiful than in  and embellished.
Tasso's poem, but the whole in Tasso is without compa-    I entered a gondola by moonlight: one singer placed
rison more of a piece and better made.' The critic was  himself forwards, and the other aft, and thus proceeded to
extricating himself as safely as he could out of this criti-  St Georgio. One began the son.a: when he had ended his
cal dilemma; for the disputes were then so violent, that I  strophe the other took up the lay, and so continued the
think one of the disputants took to his bed, and was said  song alternately.  Throughout the whole of it, the same
to have died of Ariosto and Tasso.                      notes invariably returned, but, according to the subjectIt is the conceit of an Italian to give the name of April  matter of the strophe, they laid a greater or a smaller
to Ariosto, because it is the season offlowers; and that of  stress, sometimes on one, and sometimes'on another note,
September to Tasso, which is that of fruits.  Tiraboschi  and indeed changed the enunciation of the whole strophe,
iudiciously observes, that no comparison ought to be made   as the object of the poem altered.
between these great rivals. It is comparing' Ovid's Me-    On the whole, however, their sounds were hoarse and
tamorphoses' with' Virgil's iEneid;' they are quite dif-  screaming: they seemed, in the manner of all rude and
ferent things. In his characters of the two poets, he dis-  uncivilized men, to make the excellency of their singing in
tinauishes between a romantic poem  and a regular epic.  the force of their voice: one seemed desirous of conquer.
Their designs required distinct perfections.  But an En-  ing the other by the strength of his lungs, and so far from
glish reader is not enabled by the wretched versions of  receiving delight from this scene (shut up as I was in the
Hoole, to echo the verse of La Fontaine,'Je cheris L'A-  box of the gondola,) I found myself in a. ery unpleasant
rposte et J'estime Le Tasse.                            situation.
Bolleau, some time before his death, was asked by a     My companion, to whom I communicated this cire im.
critic, if he had repented of his celebrated decision con-  stance, being very desirous to keep up the credit of his
cerning the merits of Tasso, whom some Italians had com-  countrymen, assured me that this singing wasvery de.
pared with those of Virgil; this had awakened the ven-  liehtful when heard at a distance. Accordingly we got
geance of Boileau, who hurled his bolts at the violators of  out upon the shore, leaving one of the singers in the gonclassical majesty. It is supposed that he was ignorant of  dola, while the other went to the distance of some hun.




LITERATURE.                                                      leb.red paces.  They now began to sing against one an-  tering eulogiums.  He is the hero of his'Republic of
)ther, and I kept walking up and down between them   Letters.' Enmity succeeded to friendship; Jurieuis Mioe,oth, so as always to leave him who has to begin his part.  continually quoted in his' Critical Dictionary,' whenever
frequently stood still and hearkened to the one and to the  an occasion offers to give instances of gross blunders, pal)ther.                                                  pable contradictions, and inconclusive arguments.  These
Here the scene was properly introduced.  The strong  inconsistent opinions may be sanctioned by the similar
ieclamrnatory, and, as it were, shrieking sound, met the ear  conduct of a Saint!  St Jerome praised RUfifaS as she
rom far, and called forth the attention; the quickly suc-  most learned minan of his age, while his friend; but when.eeding transitions, which necessarily required to be sung  the same Rufinus joined his adversary, Origen, he called.n a lower tone, seemed like plaintive strains succeeding  him one of the most ignorant!
the vociferations of emotion or of pain.  The other, who    As a logician Bayle had no superior: the best logician
listened attentively, immediately began where the former  will, ho, ever, frequently deceive himself.  Bayle minade
left off, answering him in milder or more vehement notes,  long and close arguments to show that La Motte le Vayer
according as the purport of the strophe required.  The  never could have been a preceptor to the king; but all his
sleepy canals, the lofty buildings, the splendour of the  reasonings are overturned by the fact being given in the
moon, the deep shadows of the few gondolas that moved  history of the Academy, by Pelisson.
like spirits hither and thither, increased the striking pecu-    Basrage said of Bayle, that he read much by his fingers.
liarity of' the scene, and amidst all these circumstances it  He meant that he ran over a book more than he read it;
was easy to confess the character of this wonderfuil har-  and that he had the art iof always falling upon that which
niony.                                                  was most essential and curious in the book he examined.
It suits perfectly well with an idle solitary mariner, lying  There are heavy hours in which the mind of a man of
at length in his vessel at rest on one of these canals, wait-  letters is unhinged; when the intellec:ual faculties lose all
ing for his company, or for a fare: the tiresormeness of  their elasticity, and when nothing but the simplest actions
which situation is somewhat alleviated by the songs and  are adapted to their enfeebled state. At such hours it is
poetical stories he has in memory.  He often raises his  recorded of the Jewish  Socrates, Moses  Mendelshon,
voice as loud as he can, which extends itself to a vast dis-  that he would stand at his window, and count the tiles of
tance over the tranquil mirror, and as all is still around,  his neighbour's house. An anonymous writer has told of
he is as it were in a solitude in the midst of a large and  Bayle, that he would frequently wrap himself in his cloak,
populous town. IHere is no rattling of carriages, no noise  and hasten to places where mountebanks resorted; and
of Ioot passengers: a silent gondola glides now and then  that this was one of his chief amusements.  He Is sur.
by him, of' which the splashing of the oars are scarcely to  prised that so great a philosopher should delight in so
be heard.                                                trifling an object.  This observation is not injurious to the
At a distance he hears another, perhaps utterly unknown  character of Bayle; it only proves that the writer himself
to him. Melody and verse immediately attach the two  was no philosopher.
strangers: he becomes the responsive echo to the former,    The Monthly Reviewer, in noticing this article, has
anid exerts himself to be heard as he had heard the other.  continued the speculation, by giving two interestiig anecBy a tacit convention they alternate verse'or verse;  dotes.'The observation concerning " heavy  hours,"
though the song should last the whole night through, they  and the want of elasticity in the intellectual faculties of
entertain themselves without fatigue; the hearers, who  men of letters, when the mind is fatigued, and the atteinare passing between the two, take part in the amusement.  tiont blunted by incessant labour, reminds us of what is reThis vocal performance sounds best at a great distance,  lated by persons who were acqtainted with the late sagaand is then inexpressibly charming, as it only fulfils its de-  cious magistrate Sir John Fielding; who, when fatigued
sign in the sentiment of remoteness. It is plaintive, but  with attending to complicated cases, and perplexed with
not dismal in its sound, and at times it is scarcely possible  discordant depositions, used to retire to a little closet in a
to refrain from tears. My companion, who otherwise was  remote anrid tranquil part of the house, to rest his mental
not a very delicately organised person, said quite unex-  powers, and sharpen perception.  He told a great physipectedly: i singolare come quel canto intenerisce, e mol-  cian, now living who complained of the distance of places,
topic quaido lo cantano meglio.                         as caused by the great extension of London, that " he (tho
I was told that the women of Libo, the long row of  physiciarn)would nothave been able to visitso many patients
islands that divides the Adriatic from the Lagouns, parti-  to any purpose, if they had resided nearer to each other;
cularly the women of the extreme districts of Malamocua  as he could have had no tin e either to think, or to rest Iis
and Palestrina, sing in like manner the works of Tasso to  mind."'
these and similar tunes.                                   Our excellent logician was little accustomed to a mixed
They have the custom, when their husbands are fishing  society; his life was passed in study. He had such an
out at sea, to sit along the shore in the evenings and voci-  infantine simplicity in his nature, that he would speak on
ferate these songs, and continue to do so with great yio-  anatomical stbjects before the ladies with as much free.
lence, till each of them can distinguish the responses ofher  dom as before surgeons.  When they inclined their eyes
own husband at a great distance.                        to the ground, and while some even blushed, he would
How much more delightfiul and more appropriate does  then inquire if what he spoke was indecent? and, when
this song show itself here, thant the call of a solitary per-  told so, he smiled and stopped.  His habits of life were,
son uttered far and wide, till another equally disposed  however, extremely pure; he probably left himself little
shall hear and answer him! It is the expression of a vehe-  leisure'tofall into temptation.'
ment and hearty longing, which is yet every moment near-    Bayle knew nothing of geometry, and as Le Clerc iner to the happiness of satisfaction.                    forms uits, acknowledged that he could never comprehend
the demonstration of' the first problem in Euclid.  Le
BAYLEa.                          Clerc, however,was a rival to Bayle; with greaterindustry
Few philosophers were more deserving of the title than  and more accurate learning, but with very inferior powers
Bayle. His last hour exhibits the Socratic intrepidity with  of reasoning and philosophy.   Both of these great scholwhich he encountered the formidable approach of death. I  ars, like our Locke, were destitute of fine taste, and poethave seen the original letter of the bookseller Leers, where  ical discernment.
he describes the death of our philosopher.' On the even-    W;'hen Fagon, an eminent physician, was consulted on
ing preceding his decease, having studied all day, he gave  the illness of our student, he only prescribed a particular
my corrector some copy of his' Answer to Jacquelot,"'  regimen, without the uise of medicine. He closed his con.
anrid told him that he was very bad. At nine in the morn-  sultation by a compliment remarkable for ts felicity.'I
ing his lautdress entered his chamber; he asked htier, wilh  ardently wish one could spare this great man all this cor.
a dying voice, if his fire was kindled? and a few moments  straint, and that it were possible to find a remedy as sin
after he died.' His disease was an hereditary consump-  gular. as the merit, of him for whom it is asked.'
tion, and his decline must have been gradual; speaking    Voltaire has said that Bavle confessed he would not
had become with him a great pain; bit hlie laboured with  have made his Dictionary exceed a folio volume, had he
the same tranquillity of mind to his last hiotr; and, with  written only for nimself antd not for the booksellers.  This
Bayle, it was death alone which could  interrupt the  Dictionary, with all its human faults, is a stupendous work,
printer.                                                which roust last with literature itself.
Ti'he irritability of eenis is foribly characterised by this    His other productions have claims on our attention:is it
circumstance in his literary life. When a close firiendship  possible to read his' Thoughts on Comets,' and complain
had united him to Jurieu, he lavished on him the most flat-  of lassitude'  His' Nouvelles de a Rcpublitue des Let.




1 04~                                  CI CURIOSITIES OF
9ras,) are a model of periodical criticism, liveiy, irat, and  full, so crowded, that two good beds in these chambers
full of that attic salt which gives a piquancy to the disqui-  were also crammed with books.
sitions of criticism.  The mind of Bayle is always acute   This apparent confusion did not, however, hinder Mag.
but, what is still more engaging, it communicates enter-  liabechi from  immediately finding the books he wanted.
truliment.  His sceptre of' criticism is embellished by fbl-  He knew them all so well, that even to the least of them
lowers.                                                  it was sufficient to see its outside, to say what it was;
and indeed he read thent day and night, and never lost sight
of any.  He eat on his books, he slept on his books, and
I find in the Segraisiana, tnios authentic anecdote con-  quitted them as rarel as possible. During his whole life
cerning the inimitable Cervantes.                        he only went twice from Florence; once to see Fiesoli,
Mr dii Boulay accompanied  the French ambassador to  which is not above two leagues distant, and once ten
Spain, when Cervantes was yet alive. He has told me,  miles further by order of the Grand Duke.  Nothingcould
tta.t the ambassador one day complimented Cervantes on   be more simple than his mode of' life; a few eggs, a little
the great reputation he had acquired by his Don Quixote:  bread, and some water, were his ordinary food. A drawer
and that Cervantes whispered in his ear,'Had it not been   of his desk being open, Mr Heyman saw there several
for the Inquisition, I should itave made my book much   eggs, and some money which M1iagliabechi had placed
more entertaining.'                                      there for his daily use. But as this drawer was generally
Cervantes, at the battle of Lepanto, was wounded and  open, it frequently happened that tho servants of his firiends,
enslaved.  He has given his own history in Don Quixote.  or strangers who came to see him, pilfered some of these
He was known at the court of Spain, but he did not re-  things; the money or the eggs.
ceive those favours which might have been expected; he     His dress was as cynical as his repasts. A black dou
was neglected.  His first volume is the finest; and his de-  blet, which descended to his knees; large and lontg breeches,
sign was to have finished there; but he could not resist  an oldh patched black cloak; an amorphous hat, very much
the importunities of his friends, who engaged him to make   worn, and the edges ragged; a large neckloth of coarse
a second, which has nriot the same force, although it has  cloth, begrimed with snufi'; a dirty shirt, which he a ays
many splendid passages.                                  wore as long as it lasted, and which the broken elbows of
We have lost many good things of Cervantes and other  his doublet did not conceal; and, to finish this inventory,
writers, because of the tribunal of religion and dulness.-  a pair of ruffles which did not belong to the shirt.  Such
One Aonius Palearius was sensible of this: and said,  was the brilliant dress of our learned Florentine; and ia
that the Inquisition was a poniard aimed atthe throat of  such did he appear in the public streets, as well as i~.is
literature.'  The image is striking, and the observation   own house. Let me not forget another circumstance, 
just; but the ingenious observer was in consequence im-  warm his hands, he generally had a srove with fire fastmediately led to the stake.                              ened to his arms, so that his clothes were generally singed
and burnt, and his hands scorched. He had nothitig otherMAGLIABECY-I.                        wise remarliqble about him.  To literary meni he was extremely affable, and a c)nic only to the. eye; anecdotes
Anthony Magliabechi, who died at the age of eighty,  almost incredible are related of his memory.  It is somewas celebrated for his great knowledge of books. He has  what uncommon that as he was so fond of literaryfood, he
been called the Heleuo, or the Glutton of Literature, as  did not occasionally dress sonie dishes of' his own inrvenPeter Comestor received this nick-name from his amazing  tion, or at least some sandwiches to his own relish. He
voracity for food he could never digest; which appeared   indeed should have written ChaIOSITIES OF IITERATURi.
when having fallen sick of so much false learning, he  He was a liviing Cyclopedia, though a dark laintern.
threw it all up in his'Sea of iivtaies,'   which proved to  Of such reading men, Hobbes entertained a very conbe the history of all things, and a bad history of every  temptible, if not a rash opinion.  His own reading was inthing. Magliabechi's character is singular; for though   considerable, and he used to say, that if hlie had spent 
his life was wholly passed in libraries, being librarian to   much time in reading as other mien of learning, he shou.,
the duke of Tuscany, he never wrote himself. There is a  have been as ignorant as they.  He pit little value on a
medal which represents him  sitting, with a book in one  large library, for he considered all books to be merely exhand, and with a great numnber of books scattered on the  tracts and copies, for that most authors were like sheep,
round. The candid inscription signifies, that'it is not  never deviating from the beaten path. History he'reated
sufficient to become learned to have read much, if we readl, ad thought there  ere  ore lies than truths in it.
wi~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ighot ely,,n'Ti s h   nyrmis  ehv ~ ~  anrd thricught there were miore lies than truths in it.
without reflection.' This is the only remains we have of  But let us recollect after all this, that Hobbes was a mere
his own composition that can be of service to posterity.-   metaphysician, idolisiing his own vain and empty hypo.
A simple truth, which may however be inscribed in the  theses.  It is true enough that weak heads carrying in
study of every man of letters.                          them too much reading may be staggered. Le Clere obHis habits of life were uniform. Ever among his books,  serves of two learned men, De Marcily and Barthius,
he troubled himself with no other concern whatever; and  that they would have composed more useful works had
the only interest he appeared to take for any living thing  they read less numerous authors, and digested the better
was his spiders; for whom, while sitting among his litet-  writers.
rry piles, he affected great sympathy; and perhaps contemptuously, to those whose curiosity appeared imperti-                       ABRInDaERs.
nent, he frequently cried out,' to take care not to hurt his  The present article presents the history of Abridgers, a
spiders.  Although he lost no time in writing himself, he   kind of literary men to whom the indolence of modern
gave considerable assistance to authors who consulted him.  readers, and indeed the multiplicity of authors, gives ample
He was himself an universal index to all authors.  He   employment.
had one book among many others, dedicated to him, and      It would be difficult, observe the learned Benedictines,
this dedication consisted of a collection of titles of works  the authors of the Literary History of France, to relate all
which he had had at different times dedicated to him, with  the unhappy consequences which ignorance introduced,
all the eulogiums addressed to him in prose and verse.-   and the causes which produced that ignorance. But we
When he died, he left his vast collection of hooks for the  must not forget to place in this number the mode of republic use; they now compose the public library of Flo-.  duicing, by way of abridgment, what the ancients had
rence.                                                   written in bulky volumes. Examples of this practice may
Heyman, a celebrated Dutch professor, visited this eru-  be observed in preceding centuries, but in the fifth century
dite librarian, who was considered as the ornament of  it began to be in general use. As the number of students
Florence.  He fo nd him  amongst his books, of which   and readers diminished, authors neglected literature, and
the number was prodigious.  Two or three rooms in the   were disgusted with composition; for to write is st!lom
first story were crowded with them, not only alone their  done, but when the writer entertains the hope of finding
sides, but piled in heaps on the floor; so that itwas difli.  readers.  Instead of original authors, there suddenly arose
cult to sit, and more so to walk.  A  narrow space was  numbers of Abridgers. These men, amidst the prevailing
contrived, indeed, so that by walking sideways, you might  disgust for literature, imagined they should gratify the
extricate yourself from  one room 1o another.  This was  public by introducing a mode of reading works in a few
not all; the passage below stairs was full of books, and   hours, which otherwise could not be done in many months;
the staircase from the tolp to the bottom  was lined with  and, observing that the builky volumes of the ancients lay
them.  When you reached the second story, you saw with   buried in dust, without any one condescending to examine
astonishment three rooms, similar to those below, equally  them, necessity inspired them, with an invention that




LITERATURE.                                                      105
might bring those works and themselves into public notice,  building; but he that undertaketh to set it out, and point
by the care they took of renovating them.  This they  it, must seek out fit things to the adorning thereof; even
imagined to effect by forming abridgments of these pon-  so I think it is with us.  To stand upon every point, and
derous volumes,                                          go over things at large, and to be curious in particulars,
All these Abridgers, however, did not follow  the same   belongeth to thefirst author of the story; but to use brevity
mode.  Some contented themselves with making amere  and avoid much labouring of the work, is to be granted to
abridgment of their authors, by employing their own ex-  him that will make an Abridgment.'
pressiorns, or by inconsiderable alterations. Others formed  tuintilian has not a passage more elegantly composed,
abridgments in drawing them from various authors, but  nor more judiciously conceived.
from whose works they only took what appeared to them
isost worthy of observation, and embellished them in their   PROFESSORS    PLAARISM AND O URIT.
own style. Others again, having before them several au-    Among the most singular characters in literature may
thors who wrote on the same subject, took passages from   be ranked those who do not blush to profess publicly its
each, united them, and thus formed a new work; they ex-   most dishonourable practices. The first vender of printed
ecuted their design by digesting in common-places, and sermons imitating manuscript waS, I think, Dr Trusler.
under various titles, the most valuable parts they could   He to whom the following anecdotes relate had superior
collect, from the best authors they read.  To these last in-  ingenuity.  Like the famous orator Henley, he formed a
genious scholars we owe the rescue of many valuable frag-  school of his own. The present lecturer openly taught
ments ofantiquity.  They fortunately preserved the best  not to imitate the best authors, but to steal from them
maxims, characters, descriptions, and curious matters    Richesource, a miserable declaimer, called  himself
which they had found interesting in their studies.'Moderator of the Academy of Philosophical Orators.
Some learned men have censured these Abridgers as   He taught in what manner a person destitute of literary
the cause of our having lost so many excellent entire  talents might become eminent for literature. He published
works of the ancients; for posterity becoming less studious  the principles of his art under the title of'The Mask of
was satisfied with these extracts, and neglected to preserve   Orators; or the manner of disguising with ease all kinds
the originals, whose voluminous size was less attractive.  of composition; briefs, sermons, panegyrics, funeral eraOthers, on the contrary, say that these Abridgers have not  tions, dedications, speeches, letters, passages, &c.' I will
been so prejudicial to literature; and that had it not been   give a notion of the work.for their care, which snatched many a perishable fragment  The author very truly observes, that all who apply
from that shipwreck of letters which the barbarians occa-  themselves to polite literature do not always find firom their
sioned, we should, perhaps, have had no works of the an-  own funds a sufficient supply to ensure success. For
cients remaining. Many voluminous works have been   such he labours; and teaches to gather, in the gardens of
greatly improved by their Abridgers.  The vast history of  others, those fruits of which their own sterile grounds are
T'rogus Pompeius was soon forgotten and finally perished,  destitute  but so artfully to gather, that the public shall
after the excellent epitome of it by Justin, who winnowed   not perceive their depredations.  He dignifies this fine art
the abundant chaff front the grain,                      by the title of Plagianism, and he thus explains it:Bayle gives very excellent advice to an Abridger, when' The Plagianism of orators is the art, or an ingenious
he shows that Xiphilin, in his' Abridgment of Dion,'  and easy mode, which some adroitly employ to change, or
takes no notice of a circumstance very material for enter-  disguise, all sorts of speeches of their own composition
ing into the character of Domitian:-the recalling the em-  or of that of other authors, for their ple;, sure, or their utilpress Dornitia after having turned her away for her intrigues  ity; in such a manner that it becomes impossible even for
with a player.  By omitting this fact in the abridgment,  the author himself to recognise his own work, his own
and which is discovered through Suetonius, Xiphilin has   genius, and his own style, so skilfully shall the whole be
evinced, he says, a deficient judgment; for Domitian's  disguised.'
ill qualities are much better exposed, when it is known    Our professor proceeds to inform us in what manner we
that he was mean-spirited enough to restore to the dignity  are to manage the whole economy of the piece which is to
of empress the prostitute of a player.                   be copied or disguised: and which consists in giving a
Abridgers, Compilers, and Translators, are now alike   new  order to the parts, changing the phrases, words &c,
regarded with contempt; yet to form  their works with   Anf orator, for instance, having said that a plenipotentiary
skill requires an exertion of jtdgment, and frequently of  should possess three qualities,-probity, capacity and cour.
taste, of which their contemners appear to have no due   age; the plagiarist, on the contrary, may employ courage,
conception. Such literary labours it is thought the learned   capacity, atid probity.  This is only for a general rule, for
will not be found to want; and the unlearned cannot dis-  it is too simple to practise frequently. To render the part
cern the value. But to such Abridgers as Monsieur Le   perfect we must make it more complex, by changing the
Grand, in his' Tales of the Minstrels,' and Mr Ellis, in   whole of the expressions.  The plagiarist in place of cour.
his' English Metrical Romances,' we owe much; and   age will put force, constancy, or vigour.  For probity he
such writers must bring to their task a congeniality of ge-  may say religion, virtue or sincerity.  Instead of capacity,
nius, and even more taste, than their originals possessed.  he may substitute erudition, ability or science.  Or he may
I must compare such to fine etchers after great masters: —   disguise the whole by saying, that the plenipotentia y should
very few give the feeling touches in the right place.    befirm, virtuous, and able.
It is an uncommon circumstance to quote the Scriptures   The rest of this uncommon work is composed of passon subjects of modern literature; but on the present topic  ages, extracted from celebrated writers, which are turned
the elegant writer of the books of the Maccabees has de-  into a new manner by the plagiarist; their beauties, how
livered in a kind of preface to that history, very pleasing   ever, are never improved by their dress.  Several cele.and useful instruction to an Abridger.  I shall transcribe  brated writers when young, particularly thefamous F!ethe passages, being concise, from  Book ii, Chap ii, v. 23,  chier, who addressed verses to him, frequented the lectures
that the reader may have it at hand.-                    of this professor!
All these things, I say, being declared by Jason, of    Richesource became so zealous in tne cause of litera.
Cyrene, infive books, we will assay to abridge in one vol-  ture, that he published a volume, entitled' The Art of
ume. We will be careful that they that will read may   Writing and Speaking; or a methodof composing all sorts
have delight, and that they that are desirous to commit to  of letters, and holding a polite conversation.' He conmemory might have ease, and that all into whose hands it  eludes his preface by advertising his readers, that authors
comes might have profit.' How concise and HIoratian!  who maybe in want of essays, sermons, letters of all kinds,
He then describes his literary labours with no insensibilh-  written pleadings arnd verses, may be accommodated on
ty:-' To uis that have taken uipon us this painful labour  application to him.
of abridging, it was not easy, but a matter of seat and    Our professor was extremely fond of copious title-pages;
twatching.'-And the writer employs an elegant illustration:  which I suppose to be very attractive to certain readers
Even as it is no ease unto him that prepareth a banquet,  for it is a custom  which the Richesomu  -s of the day fail
and seeketh the benefit of others; yet for the pleasuring   not to employ. Are there persons who value books by the
of many, we will undertake gladly this great pain; leaving  length of' their titles; as formerly the ability of a physic as
to the author the exact handling of every particular, and   was judged by the size of his wig?
labouring to follow the rules of an abridgment.' He now    To this article may be added an account of another
embellishes his critical account with a sublime metaphor  singular school, where the professor taught obscurity in
to distinguish the original from the copier: —' For as the  literary composition!
waster builder of a new house must care for the whole      I do not believe, says Charpentier, that those who are
14




106                                  CURIOSITIES OF
unintelligible are very intelligent.  Quintilian. has justly  chagrin than gl ory; for in Holland even a patriotic poet
observed that the obscurity of a writer is generally in pro-  if a bankrupt, would, no doubt, be accounted by his fellow.
portion to his incapacity. However, as there is hardly  citizens as a madman. Vondel had no other master but
a defect which does not find partisans, the same author  his genius, which, with his uncongenial situations occaintborms us of a Rhetorician, who was so great an admirer  sioned all his errors.
of obscurity, that he always exhorted his scholars to pre-    Another Dutch poet is even less tolerable. Having
serve it; and made them  correct, as blemishes, those  written a long rhapsody concerning Pyramlus and Thisbe.
passages of their works which appeared to him  too intel-  he concludes it by a ridiculous parallel between the death
ligible. Quintilian adds, that the greatest panegyric they   of these unfortunate victims of love, and the passion of Jocould give to a composition in that school was to declare,  sus Christ. He says,' I understand nothing of this piece.' Lycophron possess-        Om t'concluderem van onsen berypt,
ed this taste, and he protested that he would hang him-          Dees Historte tooraliserende, 
self if he found a person who should understand his poem,        Is in den verstande wel accoiderende,
called the'Prophesy of Cassandra.' He succeeded so              By der Passie van Christus gebenedyt.
well, that this piece has been the stumbling block of all the  And upon this
erallrnarians, sc, oliasts, and conlentators* and remainsA   upon this, after having turned Pyramus into the son
grammarians, scholiasts, and commentators; and remains  of God, and Thisbe into the Christian soul, he proceeds
Inexplicable to the present day. Such works Charpentier   God, andu ber of coparisonsinto   the  latter always e prore eds
admirably compares to those subterraneous places, where  ith   a nber of comparisonsthe former. latter always  ore i
the air is so thick and suffocating that it extinguishes all    I believe it is well known that the actors on the Dutch
torches. A  most soplhistical dil;mma, on the subject of'    I believe it i well known that the actors on the Dutch
obscurity, was mostade by Thomas Anglus, or White, an  theatre are generally tradesmen, who quit their aprons at
obscurity, was made by Thomas Anglus, or White, an  Che hour of public representation.  This was the t,.J when
English Catholic priest, the friend of Sir Kenelm Digby.
English Cathoic priest, thea fruen d of Sir Kenm Digby.  Ih was in Holland forty years ago. Their comedies are ofThis learned man frequently wandered in the mazes of  fensive bthe grosness o their looneries.  One of their
metaphysical subtilties; and became perfectly unintelligi-  i incidents was a miller appearing in distress for waof ther
ble to his readers. When acctlsed of this obscurity, he  comic incidents was a miller appearing in distress for want
ble to his readers.   hen accused of this oscurity, he   of wind to turn his mill; he had recourse to the novel
replied,'Either the learned understand me or they do not.  scheme of placing his back against it, arid, by certain imiIf they understand me, and find me in an error, it is easy  tative sounds behind the scenes, the inillis soon set a-gof  t  tative sounds behind the scenes, the imill is soon set a-gofor them to refute me; if they do not understand me, it is  ing. It is hard to rival such a depravity of taste.
very ultreasotnable for them to exclaim against my doctrines.'  It is hard two of their most celebrated tragedies.  The one
This is saying all that the wit of man can suggest in   wa Gysbert Van Amstel, by Vondel; that is Gybrech
favour of obscurity! Many, however, will agree with an  of Amsterdam, a warrior, who in the civil wars preserved
observation made by Gravina on the over-refinemtent of  this city by his heroism.  It is a patriotic historical play,
modern composition,' that we do not think we have attained   and never fails to crowd the theatre towards Christmas,
genius, till others must possess as much themselves to  when it is usuali performed successively.  One of the
understand us.' Fontenelle, in France, followed by Mari-  acts concludes with a scene of a convent; the sound of
aux, Thomas, and othels, first introduced that subtilisedacts concludes with a scene of a convent; the sound of
vaux, Thomas, and others, first introduced that subtilised   warlike instruments is heard; the abbey is stormed; the
manner of writing, which tastes more natural and simple  Dins and fathers are slaughtered; with the aid of'blun.
reject; the source of such bitter complaints of obscurity.   derbuss and thunder,' every Dutchman appears sensible of
LITERARY DUTCH.                       the pathos of the poet. But it does not here conclude.
Pere Bouhours seriously asks if a German can be a  After this terrible slaughter, the conquerors and the vanBEL ESPRIT?  This concise query was answered by  quished remain for ten minutes on the stage, silent and moKramer, in a ponderous volume, which bears for title, 1Tin-    tionless, in the attitudes in which they happened to all!
dicie nominis Germanici. This mode of refutation does  and this pantomimic pathos is received with loud bursts of
not prove that the question was then so ridiculous as it  applause from the audience.
The other was the Ahasuerus of Schubart, or the Fall
was considered.  The Germans of the present day, al-    The other was the Ahasuers of  chubart, or he Fll
though greatly superior to their ancestors, are still distant  cai was. In the triumphal entry the Batavian Mordefronm thatacmdoftaste which characterises the finished cm-    ai was mounted on a genuine Fiander's mare, that, fortupositions of the French and the English authors. Nations  rately, quietly received her applause with a litpish madisplay genius before they form taste; and in some of the  Jesty resenbling her rider. 1 have seen an English ass
productions of the modern Germans, it will be allowed that  once introdiced on our stage which did not act with this
their imaginations are fertile and fervid; but perhaps the  decorum. Our late actors have frequently bee beasts;
simple question of Bouhours still exists in its ftill force.  a Dutch taste!
It was once the mode with English and French writers    Some few specimens of the best Dutch poetry which
with  the epithets of heavy, dull, and   we have had yield no evidence in favour of the national
to dishonotir them with the epit~hets of heavy, drill, a poetical taste.  The Dutch poet Katz has a poem on the
phlegmatic compilers, without taste, spirit, or genius; ge-   Games oftaste. The Dutch poet Katz has art moralized;
nuine descendantsIof the ancient Boetians' Games of Children,' where all the games are moralized;
nuine descendants of the ancient Boetians,              I suspect the taste of the poet as well as his subject is puCrassoque suol aere natl.               erile. When a nation has produced no works above mediocrity, with them a certain mediocrity is excellence, and
Many ingenious performances have latey shown that this  their master-pieces, with a people who have made a
censure has now become unljust; and much more forcibly       r                          p
answer the sarcastic question of Bouhours than the thick   greater progress in refinement, are but the works of a
quarto of Kramer.                                       pupil.
Churchill finely says of genius, that it is independent of    THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE MIND NOT SEIZABLE
Situation,                                                                 BY' CREDITORS.' And may hereafter even in Holland rise.'        When Crebillon, the French tragic poet, published his
Vondel, whom, as Marchand observes, the Dutch re-  Catilina, it was attended with an honour to literature,
gard as their..Aschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, has a  which, though it is probably forgotten (for it was only
strange defective taste; the poet himself knew none of  registered, I think, as the news of the day,) it becomes a
these originals, but he wrote on some patriotic subject, the  collector zealous in the cause of literature to preserve. I
slre way to obtain popularity. The greater part of his  shall give the circumstance, the petition and the decree.
tragedies is drawn from the Scriptures; all badly chosen  At tihe time Catilina was given to the public, the crediand unhappily executed. In his Deliverance of the Chzl-  tors of the poet had the cruelty to attach the produce of
dren of Israel one of his principal characters is the Divi-  this piece, as well at the bookseller's, who had printed the
itry! In his Jerusalem destroyed we are disgusted with a   tragedy, as at the theatre where it was performed. The
tedious oration by the Angel Gabriel, who proves theolo-  poet, much irritated at these proceedings, addressed a pe.
gically, and his proofs extend through nine closely printed  tition to the king, in which he showed that it was a thing
pages in quarto, that this destruction had been predicted   yet unknown, that it should be allowed to class amongst
by the prophets. And in tne Lucifer of the same author,  seizable effects the productions of the human mind; that
the subject is grossly scandalized by this haughty spirit be-  if such a practice was permitted, those who had consecratcoming stupidly in love with Eve, and it is for her he causes  ed their vigils to the studies of literature, and who have
the rebellion of the evil angels, and the fall of our first pa-  made the greatest efforts to render themselves, by this
rents. Poor Vondel kept a hosier's shop, which he left to  means, useful to their country, would see themselves in
the care of his wife, while he indulged his poetical aenius.  the cruel predicament of not daring to publish works, often
His stocking shop failed, and his poems produced him more   I recious and interesting to the state; that the greater




LITERATURE.                                                      107
part of those who devote themselves to literature require  reason that young authors are not to contemn the precepts
For the necessaries of life those succours which they have   of such critics as even the Abbe d'Aubignac, and Chapea right to expect from their labours; and that it never has  lain.  It is to Walsh, a miserable versifier, that Popa
been suffered in France to seize the fees of lawyers, and   stands indebted for the hint of our poetry then being defiother persons of liberal professions.                   cient in correctness and polish; and it i, from this fortun.
In answer to this petition, a decree immediately issued   ate hint that Pope derived his poetical excellence. Diony.
from the King's council, commanding a replevy of the ar-  sius Halicarnassensis has composed a lifeless history; yet;
rests and seizures, of which the petitioner complained.  as Gibbon, observes, how a(imirably has he judged the
This honourable decree was dated 21st May, 1749, and   masters, and defined the rules of historical composition$
bore the following title:'Decree of the Council of his  Gravina, with great taste and spirit, has written on poetry
Majesty, in favour of Mr Crebillon, author of the tragedy   and poets, but he composed tragedies which gave himl no
of Catilina, which declares that the productions of the  title to be ranked among them.
mind are not amnongst seizable effects.'
Louis XV  exhibits the noble example of bestowing a           ANEC)OTES OF AUTHORS CENSURED.
mark of consideration to the remains of a man of letters.    It is an ingenious observation made by a journalist of
This king not only testified his esteem of Crebillon by hav-  Trevoux, on perusing a criticism  not ill written, which
ing his works printed at the Louvre, but also by consecrat-  pretended to detect several faults in the compositions of
ing to his glory a tomb of marble.                      Bruyere, that ill ancient Rome the great men who triumlphed amidst the applauses of those who celebrated their
CRITICS.                         virtues, were at the same time compelled to listen to those
Writers who have been unsuccessful in original compo-  who reproached them with their vices.  This custom  is
sition have their other productions immediately decried,  not less necessary to the republic of letters than it was
whatever merit they might once have been allowed to pos-  formerly to the republic of Romle. Without this it is prosess. Yet this is very unjust; an author who has given   bable that authors would be intoxicated with success, and
a wrong direction to his literary powers. may perceive at  would then relax in their accustomed vigour; and the
length where he can more securely point them. Experi-   multitude who took them for models would, for want of
ence is as excellent a mistress in the school of literature,  judgment, imitate their defects.
as in the school of human life. Blackmore's epics are in-    Sterne and Churchill were continually abusing the Resufferable; yet neither Addiso..or Johnson erred when   viewers, because they honestly told the one that obscenity
they considered his philosophical poenl as a valuable com-  was not wit, and obscurity was not sense; and the other,
position. An indifferent poet may exert the art of criti-  that dissonance in poetry did not excel harmony, and that
cism in a very high degree; and if he cannot himself pro-  his rhymes were frequently prose lines of ten syllables cut
duce an original work, he may yet be of great service in  into verse. They applauded their happier efforts. Notregulating the happier genius of another. This observa-  withstanding all this, it is certain that so little discernment
tion I shall illustrate by the characters of two French   exists amongst common writers, and conmmon readers, that
critics; the one is the Abb6 d'Aubignac, and the other  the obscenity and flippancy of Sterne, and the bald verse
Chapelain.                                              and prosaic poetry of Churchill, were precisely the porBoileau opens his Art of Poetry by a precept which  tions which fhey selected for imitation: the blemishes of
though it be common is always inmportant; this critical  great men are not the less blentishes, but they are unforpoet declares, that' It is in vain a daring author thinks of  tunately, the easiest parts for imitation.
attaining to the height of Parnassus if he does not feel the  Yet criticism may be too rigorous, anld genius too sensisecret influence of heaven, and if his natal star has not  ble to its fairest attacks. Racine acknowledged that one
formed him to be a poet.' This observation he founded   of the severe criticisms he received had occasioned hir.
on the character of our Abbe, who had excellently written   more vexation than the greatest applauses had afforded
on the economy of dramatic composition. His Pratitue  him pleasure. Sir John Marsham, having published the
du Theatre gained him an extensive reputation. When  first part of his' Chronology,' suffered so much chagrin at
he produced a tragedy, the world expected a finished  the endless controversies which it raised (and some of his
piece; it was acted, and reprobated. The author, how-. critics went so far as to affirmml it was designed to be detriever did not acutely feel its bad reception; he every where   mental to Revelation,) that he burned the second part,
boasted that hie, of all the dramatists, had most Ecrupu-  which was ready for the press. Pope was observed to
lously observed the rules of Aristotle.  The Prince de  writhe with anguish in his chair, on hearing mentioned the
Guemend, famous for his repartees, sarcastically observed,  letter of Cibber, with other temporary attacks; and it is
I do not quarrel with the Abb6 d'Aubignac for having so  said of Montesquieu. that he was so niuch affected by the
closely followed the precepts of Aristotle; but I cannot  criticisms, true and false, which he daily experienced, that
pardon the precepts of Aristotle, thatoccasioned the Abbd  they contributed tolhasten his death. Ritson's extreme
d'Aubignac to write so wretched a tragedy.'            irritability closed in lunacy, while his ignorant reviewers,
The, Pratique du Theatre is not, however, to be despis-  in the shapes of assassins, were haunting his death-bed.
ed, because the Tragedy of its author is despicable.   In the preface to his' Metrical Romances' he saysChapelain's unfortunate epic has rendered him  no-' brought to an end in ill health and low spirits —certain
torious. He had gained, and not undeservedly, great re-  to be insulted by a base and prostitute gang of lurking asputation for his critical powers.   After a retention of  sassins who stab in the dark, and whose poisoned daggers
above thirty years, his Pucelle appeared. He immedi-  he has already experienced.' Scott, of Amwell, never reately became the butt of every unfledged wit, and his for-  covered from a ludicrous criticism, which I discovered had
mer works were eternally condemned! Insomuch that  been written by a physician who never pretended to poetiwhen Camusat published, after the death of our author, a   cal taste.
little volume of extracts from his manuscript letters, it is    Pelisson has recorded, in his History of the French Acacurious to observe the awkward situation in which he finds  demy, a literary anecdote, which forcibly shows the danhimself. In his preface he seems afraid that the very  ger of caustic criticism. A  young man from a remote
name of Chape!ain will be sufficient to repel the reader.    province came to Paris with a play, which he considered
Camusat observes of Chapelain, that' He found flatter-  as a master-piece. M. L'Etoille was more than just in
ers who assiure(l him his Pucelle ranked above the.:neid;  his merciless criticism.  He showed the youthful Lard a
and this Chapelain but feebly denied. However this may  thousand glaring defects in his chief d'euvre.  The humhe, it would be difficult to make the bad taste which reigns  bled country author burnt his tragedy, returned home,
throughout this poem  agree with that sound and exact  took to his chamber, and died of vexation and grief. Of
criticism with which he decided on the works of others.  all unfortunate men, one of the unhappiest is a middling
So true is it, that genius is very superior to a justness of  author endowed with too lively a sensibility for criticism.
mind which is sufficient to judge and to advise others.'  Athenaus, in his tenth book, has given us a lively portrait
Chapelain was ordered to draw up a critical list of the  of this melancholy being. Anaxandrides appeared one
chief living authors and men of letters in France, for the  day on horseback in the public assembly at Athens, to re.
king. It is extremely impartial, and performed with an   cite a dithyrambic poem, of which he read a portion. He
analytical skill of their literary characters which could not  was a man of fine stature, and wore a purple robe edged
have been surpassed by an Aristotle or a Boileau.       with golden fringe. But his complexion was saturnine and
The talent of judging may exist separately front the  melancholy, which was the cause that lie never spared his
power of execution.  An amlateur may not be an artist, 1 own writings. Whenever he was vanquished by a rival,
though an artist should be an amateur. Amnd it is for this Ihe immediately gave his compositions to the druggists to




108                                 CURIOSITIES OF
be cut into pieces, to wrap their articles in, without over  dustry to allure other girls to join the holy profession of
caring to revise his writings.  It is owing to this that he  Virginity. He exhorts daughters, in spite of their parents,
destroyed a number of pleasing compositions; age in-  and even their lovers, to consecrate themselves.'I do
creased his sourness, and every day he became more and  not blame marriage,' he says;'I only show the advantages
more dissatisfied at the awards of his auditors. Hence  of Virginity.'
his' Tereus,' because it failed to obtain the prize,' has    He composed this book in so florid a style, that he connot reached us, which, with other of his productions, de-  siifered it required some apology.  A Religious of the
served preservation, though not to have been publicly   Benedictines published a translation in 1689.
crowned.                                                  So sensible was Saint Ambrose of the rarity of the pris
Batteux having been chosen by the French government  fession he would establish, that he thus comnbats his adverfor the compilation of elementary books for the Military  saries:'They complain that human nature will be exSchool, is said to have felt their unfavourable reception so  hausted; but I ask who has ever sought to marry without
acutely, that he became a prey to excessive grief. It is  finding women enough from  amongst whom  he might
believed that the lamentable death of Dr Hawkesworth  choose?  What murder, or what war, has ever been ocwas occasioned by a similar circumstance. Government  casioned for a virgin?  It is one of the consequences of
had consigned to his care the compilation of the voyages  marriage to kill the adulterer, and to war with the rathat -ass under his name:-how  he succeeded is well  visher.'
known.  He felt the public reception so sensibly, that    He wrote another treatise On the perpetual Virginity of
he preferred the oblivion of death to the mortifying recol-  the Mother of God.  He attacks 1onosius on this sublections of life.                                       ject, and defends her virginity, which was indeed greatly
On this interesting subject Fontenolle, in his' Eloge on  suspected by Bonosius, who, however, got nothing by this
Newton,' has made the following observation: —' Newton   bold suspicion, but the dreadful name of Heretic. A third
was more desirous of remaining unknown, than of having  treatise was entitled Exhortation to Virginity; a fourth,
the calm  of life disturbed by those literary storms which   Onthe Fate of a Virgin, is more curious. He relates the
genius and science attract about those who rise to emi-  misfortunes of one Susannah, who was by no means a
nence. In on, of his letters we learn that his Treatise on  companion for her namesake; for, having made a vow of
Optics being ready for the press, several premature objec-  virginity, and taken the veil, she afterwards endeavoured
tions which appeared, made him abandon its publication,  to conceal her shame, but the precaution only tended to
-' I should reproach myself (he said) for mvimprudence,  render her more culpable.  Her behaviour, indeed, had
if I were to lose a thing so real as my ease to run after a  long afforded ample food for the sarcasms of the Jews and
shadow.' But this shadow he did not miss: it did not  the Pagans.  Saint Ambrose compelled her to perform
cost him the ease he so much loved, and it had for him as  public penance, and after having declaimed on her double
much reality as ease itself.  I refer to Bayle, in his curo-  crime, gave her hopes of pardon, if, like' Sceur Jeanne,'
ous article i Hipponax,' note F. To these instances we  this early nun would sincerely repent; to complete her
may add the fate of the Abbe Cassagne, a man of learn-  chastisement, he ordered her every day to recite the fiftieth
ing, and not destitute of talents. He was intended for one  psalm.
of the preachers at court; but he had hardly made himself known in the pulpit, when he was struck by the light-     A GLANCE INTO THE FRENCH ACADEMY.
ning of Boileau's muse. He felt so acutely the caustic    In the republic of Letters the establishnlent of an acad.
verses, that they rendered him almost incapable of literary  emy has been a favourite project; yet perhaps it is little
labour; in the prime of life he became melancholy, and  more than an Utopian scheme. The united efforts of men
shortly afterwards died insane. A. modern painter, it is  of letters in Academies have produced little. It would
known, never recovered from the biting ridicule of a popu-  seem that no man likes to bestow his great labours on a
lar, but malignant wit. Curnmyns, a celebrated quaker,  small community, for whose members he himself does not
confessed he died of an anonymous letter in a public paper,  feel, probably, the most flattering partiality.  The French
which, said he,' fastened on my heart, and threw me into  Academy mrade a splendid appearance in Europe: yet
this slow fever.' Racine, who died of his extreme sensi-  when this society published their Dictionary, that of
bility to a rebuke, confessed that the pain which one severe  Furetiere's became a formidable rival; and Johnson did
criticism inflicted outweighed all the applause he could re-  as much as the forty themselves. Voltaire confesses that
ceive. The feathered arrow of an epigram has sometimes  the great characters of the literary republic were formed
been wet with the heart's blood of its victim. Fortune  without the aid of academies.-' For what then,' he asks,
has been lost, reputation destroyed, and every charity of' are they necessary?-To preserve and nourish the fire
life extinguished, by the inhumanity of inconsiderate wit.   which great geniuses have kindled.  By observing the
Literary history records the fate of several who may be  Junto at their meetings we may form some opinion of the
said to have died of Criticism. But.there is more sense  indolent manner in which they trifled away their time.
and infinite humour in the mode which Phaedrus adopted   We are fortunately enabled to do this, by a letter in which
to answer the cavillers of his age. WVhen he first publish-  Patru describes, in a very amusing manner the visit which
ed his fables, the taste for conciseness and simplicity was  Christina of Sweden took a sudden fancy to pay to the
so much on the decline, that they were both objected to  academy.
him as faults. He used his critics as they deserved. To   The Queen of Sweden having resolved to visit the
those who objected against the conciseness of his style, he  French Academy, gave so short a notice of her design,
tells a long tedious story (Lib. iii, Fab. 10, ver. 59,) and  that it was impossible to inform the majority of the memtreats those who condemn the simplicity of his style with a  bhers of her intention.  About four o'clock fifteen or sixrun of bombast verses, that have a great many noisy elevat-  teen academicians were assembled.  Mr Gombaut, one
ed words in them, without any sense at the bottom-this  of the members who did not know of the intended royal
in Lib. iv, Fab. 6.                                     visit, and who had never forgiven her majesty because she
did not relish his verses, thought proper to show his resentment by quitting the assembly.
The writings of the Fathers once formed the studies of    She was received in a spacious hall.  In the middle
the learned.  These labours abound with that subtilty of  was a table covered with rich blue velvet, ornamented with
argument which will repay the industry of the inquisitive,  a broad border of gold and silver. At its head was placed
and the antiquary may turn them over for pictures of the  an arm-chair of black velvet embroidered with gold, and
manners of the age. A favourite subject with Saint Am-  round the table were placed chairs with tapestry backs.
brose was that of Virginity, on which he has several  The Chancellor had forgotten to hang in the hall the porworks; and perhaps he wished to revive the order of the ves-  trait of the queen, which she had prf':: n ed to the Acadetals of ancient Rome, which afterwards produced the insti-  my, and which was considered as a t at omission. About
tution of Nuns.  His' Treatise on Virgins' is in three  five, a footman belonging to the Quren inquired if the comvolumes. We learn fro'm this work of the fourth century,  pany were assembled.  Soon after, a servant of the king
the lively impressions his exhortations had made on the  informed the chancellor that the queen was at the end of
minds and hearts of girls, not less in the most distant pro-  the street; and immediately her carriage drew tip in the
vinces, than in the neighb,)urhood of Milan where he re-  court-yard.  The chancellor, fbllowed by the rest of the
sided. The virgins of Bologna, amounting only, it appears,  members, went to receive her as she stepped out of her
to the nullmber of twenty, performed all kinds of needle-  chariot; but the crowd was so great, that few of them
work, not merely to gain their livelihood, but also to be  could reach her majesty. Accompanied by the chancellor,'
emabled to perform acts of liberality, and exerted their in-  she passed through the first hall, followed by one of her




LITERATURE.                                                     109
dies, the captain of her guards, and one or two of her  has most reason.  They all have the art of making long;ite.                                                 orations upon a trifle.  The second repeats like an echo
When she entered the Academy she approached the  what the first said; hut generally three or four speak to.
e, and spoke in a low voice to the chancellor. She then   gether.  When there is a bench of five or six members;ked why Mr Menage was not there? and when she was  one reads, another decides, two converse, one sleeps, ana
Id that he did not belong to the Academy, she asked why   another amuses  himself with reading some dictionary
did not?  She was answered, that however he might  which happens to lie before him.  When a second memerit the honour, he had rendered himself unworthy ot it  her is to deliver his opinion, they are obliged to read again
several disputes lie had had with its members. She  the article,which at the first perusal he had been too much,en inquired aside of' the chancellor whether the acade-  engaged to hear. This is a happy manner of finishing their
iciane were to sit or s:and before her?  On this the  work. They can hardly get over two lines without long
iancellor consulted with a member, who observed that in  digressions; without sonme one telling a pleasant story, or
ie time of Ronsard, there was held an assembly of men  the news of the day; or talking of afifirs of state and zeletters before Charles IX several times5 and that they  forming the government.'
ere always seated.  The queen conversed with M.          That the French Academy were generally frivolously
ourdelot; and suddenly turniing to Madame de Bregis,  employed appears also from an epistle to Baizac, by Boisld her that she believed she must not be present at the  robert, the amusing companion of Cardinal Richelieu.-;sembly; but it was agreed that this lady deserved the' Every one separately,' says he,' promises great things,
tetour.  As the queeni was talking with a meniber she   when they meet they do nothing.  They have been s/.
aruptly quitted hini, as was her custom, and in her  years employed on the letter F; and I should be happy if
Aick way sat down in the arm-chair; and at the same   I were certain of living till they got through G.'
me the members seated themselves.  The queen oh-    The following anecdote concerns the Jbrty arm-chairs
trving that they did not, out of respect to her, approach   of the academicians. Those cardinals who were academite table, desired them to come near; and they accord-  clans for a long time had not attended the meetings of the
igly approached it.                                    academy, because they thought that arm-chairs were inDuring these ceremonious preparations, several officers  dispensible to their dignity, and the academy had then
state had entered the hall, and stood behind the acade-  only ccmmon chairs.  These cardinals were desirous of
ilcians.  The chancellor sat at the queen's left hand by   being present at the election of Mr Monnoie, that they
i fire-side; and at the right was placed M. de a Chamibre,   might give him a distinguished mark of their esteem.le director; then Boisrobert, Patru, Pelisson, Cotin, the'The king,' says D'Alemnbert,'to satisfy at once the delicaLbb6 Tallernant, and others. M. de Mezeray sat at the  cy of their firiendship, and that of their cardinalship, and
ottomn of the table faciing the queen, with art intstand, pa-  to preserve at the same time that academical equality, of
er, and the portfolio of the company lyinig before him;  which this enlightened monarch,(Louis XIV,) well knew
e occupied the place of secretary.  When they were all  the advantage, sent to the academy forty arm-chairs for
sated the director rose, and the academicians followed  the forty academicians; the same chairs which we now
im, all but the chancellor, who remained in his seat. The   occupy: and the motive to which we owe them is sufifi.
irector made his coniplirnentary address in a low voice,  cient to render the memory of Louis XIV  precious to the
is body was quite bent, and no person but the queen and  republic of letters, to whom it owes so many more impor.
ce chancellor could hear him. She received his address  taut obligations i',ith great satisfaction.                                     POETICAL AND GRAMMATICAL DEATHS.
All compliments concluded, they returned to their
ats.   The director then tolde the queen  that he had com-    It will appear by the following anecdotes, that some
sots. The director then told the queen that he had corn-  mnmyb    adt   aede   otclyadee   rm
osed a treatise on Pain, to add to his character'of the    e may  e said to have died oeically and even gram'assions, and if it was agreeable to her majesty, he would   matically.
sad the first chapter. —Very  willingly, site answered. —  There may be some attraction existing in poetry which
laying read it, he said to her majesty, that he would read  is not merely fictitious, for often have its genuine votaries
felt all its power on the most trying occasion.Te
o imore lest he should fatigue her.   Not at all, she re-  felt all its power on the most trying occasions.  They
lied, for I suppose whoat f Iows  resembles what lI have r have displayed the energy of their mind by composing or
lied, for I suppose what follows resembles what I have
eard.                                                 repeating verses, even with death on their lips,
Afterwards Mr Mezeray mentioned that Mr Cotin  The Emperor Adrian, dying, made that celebrated adAfterardsMr Nezery  menione  tha  Mr  otin dress to his soul, which is so'happily translated by Pope.
ad some verses, which her majesty would doubtless find   dress to lil soul, which is so happily translated by Pope.
~~~~~~~~ad sm   ess  hc   e   as  wLucan, when he had his veins opened by order of Nero,
eautiful and if it was agreeable they should be read. Mr
eatifu and ifitwasag e they   shoud      expired reciting a passage from his Pharsalia, in which he
iotin read them: they were versions of two passagesM
of two passages  had described the wound of a dying soldier.  Petronius.om Lucretius;the one in which he attacks aProvidence,  did the same thing on the same occasion.
nd the other, where he gives the origin of the world ac-    Patris, a poet of Caen  perceiving himself expiring
ording to the Epicureansystem: to these he added twen- 
lines of his own, in which lie maintained the ex'istec    composed some verses which are justly admired.  In this
s loidne   Tis ofan ah  rose, antd ethtce  little poem he relates a dream, in which he appeared to
fa Providence.  This done,     without  be placed next to a beggar, when having addressed him in
eing desiredor or dered,read two sonniets,which by courtesy  the haught  strain he would probaby have employed on
the haughty strain he would probably have. employed on
cere allowed to be tolerable.  It is remarkable that both  this side of the grave, he receives the following repri
he poets read their verses standing, while the rest read   mand:
oeir compositions seated.
After these readings, the director informed the queen        I tous sent egaux je    te os plus ien;
Jo suis sur men fumier rumme toe sur tl tien
gat the ordinary exercises of the company was to labour
n the dictionary; and that if her majesty should not find     Here all are equal! now thy lot is mine!: disagreeable, they would read a cahier or stitched Ms.     I on my dunghill, as thot art on thine.
Tery willingly, she answered.  Mr de Mezeray then        Des Barreaux, it is said, wrote on his death-bed that
sad what related to the word Jeu; Game.  Amongst  well-known sonnet which is translated in the SSpectator.'
ther proverbial expressions was this: Game of Princes,    Margaret of Austria, when she was nearly perishing in
)hich only please the players; to express a malicious vio-  a storm at sea, composed her epitaph in verse.  Had she
race committed by one in power.  At this the queen   perished, what would have become of the epitaph?  And
tughed heartily; and they continued reading all that was  if she escaped, of what use was it?  She should rather
tirly written. This lasted about an hour, when the queen   have said her prayers.  The verses however have all the
bserving that nothing more remained, arose, made a bow   naivetl of the times.  They arejthe company, and returned in the manner she en-             Cy gist Margot, la genre demoiselle,
sred.                                                         Qu'eut deux maria, et si mourut puccile.
Furetiere, who was himself an academician, has de-         Beneath this tomb is high-born Margaret laid,
cribed the miserable manner in which time was consum-       Who had two husbands, and yet died a maid.
d at their assemblies.  I confess he was a satirist, and  She was betrothed to Charles VII of France, who forad quarrelled with the academy; there must have been   sook her; and being next intended for the Spanish infant,
otwithstanding, sufficient resemblance for the followin   in her voyge to Spain, she wrote thewe lires in a storm.
icture, however it may be overcharged.  He has been      Mademoiselle do Serment was sirnamed the philosolamed for thus exposing the Eleusinian mysteries ofliter-  pher. SIe was celebrated for her knowledge and taste
lure to the unitiated.                                 in polite literature.  She died of a cancer in her breast
He who is most clamorous, is he whom  they suppose   and suffered her misfortune with exemulary patience. She




110                                    CURIOSITIES OF
expired in finishing these verses, which she addressed to  turn to be dragged to the guillotine, when he commenced
Death.                                                     this poem:
Neetare clausa sue,
Dguta mNectare culausa soo,            Comme on dernier rayon, comme un dernier zeptnyre
Dignum tantorum  pretium tulit illa laborum.                        4.nime la fin d'( un beau jour:
It was after Cervantes had received extreme unction         Au pied de l'echafaudj'essaie encor ma lyre.
that he wrote the dedication to his Persiles.                            Peut-etre est ce bientot mon tour;
Roscommon, at the moment he expired, with an energy         Peut-etre avant que t'heure en cercle promen6e
of voice that expressed the most fervent devotion, uttered               Air pos6 sur'email brillant
two lines of his own version of' Dies Ire!' Waller, in      Dans les soixante pas ou sa route est born6e
his last moments, repeated some lines from Virgil; and                   Son pied sonort et vigilant.
Chaucer seems to have taken his farewell of all human         Le sommeil du tombeau pressera ma paupiere —vanities by a moral ode, entitled'A  Balade made by         Here at
Geffrey Chaucyer upon his dethe-bedde lying in his grete  ed to       this pathetic line, vas Andre Chenier summon.
angolysse.'                                                ed to the guillotine! Never was a more beautiful effusion
anguysse.'
Cornelius de Wit fell an innocent victim to popular pre-  of' grief interrupted by a more affecting incident
judice.  His death is thus noticed by Hume:'This man,    Several men of science have died in a scientific manner.
who had bravely served his country in war, and who had Haler, the poet, philosopher, and physician, beheld his
who had bravely served his country in war, and who had    n   prahwt  h   totcmoue                       ekp  el
end approach with the utmost composure. He kept feel.
been invested with the highest dignities, was delivered   end  ppa   t the  ttmot c            se    e kp
into the hands of the executioner, and torn in pieces by  log his pulse to the last moment, arid when ie found tti
the most inhuman torments.  Amidst the severe agonies  life was almost gone, he turned to his brother physician.
the most inhuman torments. Amidst the, severe agonies
which he endured he freqtuently repeated an ode of Hu-  observing,' My friend, the artery ceases to beat,'-and
wh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~lotichal he endred.  he frmequnl                                  reperatled an oe o H
race, which contained sentiments suited to his deplorable   almost instantly expired.  The sae remarkable circu.
condition.' It was the third ode of the third book which   stance had occurred to the great Harvey; he kept making
observations on the state of his pulse, when life was draw.
this illustrious philosopher and statesman then repeated.
I add another instance in the death of that deiightful  ing to its close;'as if,' says Dr Wilson in the oration
poet Metastasin.  After having received the d sacrament a   spoken a few days after the event,' that lie who had taught
poet Metastasio. After having received the sacrament, a
1-1                  ~~~~~~us the beginning of life might himself, at his departing from
very short time before his last moments, he broke out with us the beginning of life might himself, at his departing from
all the enthusiasm of poetry and religion into the following   it become acquainted with those of death.'
stanzas:                                                   oDe Lagny, who was intended by his friends for the study
of the law, having fallen on an Euclid, found it so congenial
Tloffro it too proprio figlio,             to his dispositions, that he devoted himself to mathematics,
Che giu damore in pegno,               In his last moments, when he retained no farther recollec.
Racchi voeo   picciol segnnar.         tion of the friends who surrounded his bed, one of them,
Si voile a nel donar.
A lui rivolgi it citlio.                   perhaps to make a philosophical experiment, thought propem
Guardto cli t'offro, e poi             to ask him the square of 12; our dying mathematician inLasci, Signor, se vuoi,                stantly, and perhaps without knowing that he answered,
Lascia di perdonar.                    replied,' 144.'
I offer to thee, O Lord, thy own son, who alreadyhas given  The following anecdotes are of a different complexion,
the pledge of love, inclosed in this thin emblem; turn on him   and may excite a smile.
thine eyes; ah! behold whom I offer to thee and then desist,    Pere Bouhours was i Fretch grammarian, who had
o Lord! if tsou canst desist fhem, mercy.'                been justly accused of paying too scrupulous an attention
The muse that has attended my course (says the dying  to the minutim of letters. He was more solicitous of his
Gleim in a letter to Klopstock) still hovers round my steps  words than his thoughts.  It is said, that when he was
to the very verge of the grave.' A collection of lyrical  dying, he called out to his friends (a correct grammarian
poems, entitled' Last Hours,' composed by old Gleim on  to the last,)' Je vAs, ou je VAIs mourir; l'un ou'autre
his death-bed, were intended to be published.  The death  se dit!
of Klopstock was one of the most poetical: in this poet's    When Malherbe was dying, he reprimanded his nurse
Messiah,' he had made the death of Mary, the sister of  for making use o a solecism in her language! And when
Martha and Lazarus, a picture of the death of the just;  his confessor represented to him the felicities of a fiture
and on his own death-bed he was heard repeating, with an   state in low and trite expressions, the dying critic interexpiring voice, his own verses on Mary; he was exhorting   rupted him:-' Hold your tongue,' he said, your wretched
himself to die by the accents of his own harp, the sublimi-  style only makes me out of conceit with them!'
ties of his own muse! The same song of Mary, says            The favourite studies and amusements of the learned
Madame de Stael, was read at the public funeral of Klop-  La Mothe le Vayer consisted in accounts of the most disstock.                                                     tant countries.  He gave a striking proof of' the influence
Chatellard, a French gentleman, beheaded in Scotland   of this master-passion, when death hung upon his lips.
bfor having loved the queen, and even for having attempted   Bernier, the celebrated traveller, entering and drawing the
her honour, Brantome says, would not have any other  curtains of his bed to take his eternal farewell, the dying
viaticum  than a poem of Ronsard.  When he ascended   man turning to him, with a faint voice inquired,' Well, my
the scaffold he took the hymns of this poet, and for his  friend, what news from the Great Mogul?'
consolation read that on death, which he says is well adapted to conquer its fear.                                                            SCARRON.
The Marquis of Montrose, when he was condemned by          Scarron, as a burlesque ptet (btt no other comparison
his judges to have his limbs nailed to the gates of four  exists,) had his merit, but is now little read; for the unicities, the brave soldier said, that' he was sorry he had
citis, he  rav soliersai, tat  he  as orr hehad formity of the burlesque style is as intolerable as the, uninot limbs sufficient to be nailed to all the gates of the cities formity of the burlesque style is as intolerable as the uniin Europe, as monuments of his loyalty.' As he pro-  formity of the serious.  From  various sources we may
d   trop, hs e uonents  his touty   As he pro- a collect some uncommon anecdotes, although he was a mere
ceeded to his execution, he put this thought into beautiful  author.
verse..        Few are born with more flattering hopes than was ScarPhilip Strozzi, when imprisoned by Cosmo the First,  ron.  His father, a counsellor, with an income of 25,001O
great Dukte of Tuscany, was apprehensive of the danger  livres married a second wife, and the lively Scarron soon
to which he might expose his friends who hadl joined in his  became the obect of her hatred.  He studied, and travlconspiracy against. the duke, from the confessions which
the rack miht extort from him   Having attempted every  led, and took the clerical tonsure; but discovered disposithe rack might extort from him. Having attempted every   toemr  utbet  h   l~rrso   i  e  hnt  h
exertion for the liertyofhscountryheconsidreditas tions more suitable to the pleasures of his age than to the
exertion for the liberty of his country, he considered it as   rravity of his profession. He formed an acquaintance with
no crime therefore. to die. He resolved on suicide. With 
the wits of the times; and in the carnival of' 1638 commit.
the point of the sword, with which he killed himself, e   ted a youthful extravagnced i thec         niv         ays
cut out on the mantle-piece of the chimney this verse of  ted a othul e           nce, f        i isei           as
Virgil:                                                    formed a continual punishment.  He disguised himself as
a savage; the singularity of a naked man attracted crowds.
Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.         After having been hunted by the mob, he was forced to
Rise, some avenger, fro  our blood    escape from  his pursuers, and concealed himself in a
marsh.  A freezing cold seized him, and threw him, at the
I can never repeat without a strong emotion the follow-   age of 27 years, into a kind of palsy; a cruel disorder
ing stanzas, begun by Ar drd Chenier, in the dreadful  which tormented him  all his life.'It was thus,' he says.
period of the Fi:ich revolution. He was waiting for his' that pleasure deprived me suddenly of legs which had




LITERATURE.                                                   111
danced with elegance, and of hands which could manage     This was flattering the minister adroitly in two points
the pencil and the lute.'                               very agreeably to him. The poet augured well of the disG(oujet, in his Bibliotheque Frangoise, vol. xvi, p. 307,  positions of the cardinal, and lost no time to return to the
without stating this anecdote describes his disorder as an   charge, by addressing an ode to him, to which he gave the
acrid humour, distilling itself on his nerves, and baffling  title of Thanks, as if he had already received the favourn
the skill of his physicians; the sciatica, rheumatism, in a  which he hoped he should receive! But all was lost by
word, a complication of maladies attacked him, sometimes  the death of the cardinal. In this ode I think he has
successively, sometimes together, and made of our poor  caught the leading idea from a hymn of Ronsard.  Cathe.
Abbe a sad spectacle. He thus describes himself in one  rine of Medicis was prodigal of her promises, and for this
of his letters; and who could be in better humour  reason Ronsard dedicated to her the hvmn to Promise.'I have lived to thirty: if I reach forty, I shall only add  When Scarron's father died he brought his mother-inmany miseries t those which I have endured these last  law into court; and, to complete his misfortunes, lost his
eight or nine years.  My person was well made, though   suit. *The cases which he drew up for the occasion were
short; my disorder has shortened it still more by a foot.  so extremely burlesque, that the world could not easily
My head is a little broad for my shape; my face is full  conceive how a man could amuse himself so pleasantly on
enough for my body to appear very meagre! I have hair  a subject on which his existence depended.
enough to render a wio, unnecessary; I have got many      The successor of Richelieu, the Cardinal Mazarin, was
white hairs, in spite of the proverb. My teeth, formerly  insensible to his applications. He did nothing for him, alsquare pearls, are now of the colour of wood, and will soon  though the poet dedicated to him his Typhon, a burlesque
be of slate. My legs and thighs first formed an obtuse  poem, in which the author describes the wars of the giants
angle, afterwards an equilateral anle, and, at length, an   with the gods. Our bard was so irritated at this neglect,
acute one. My thighs and my body form another: and  that he suppressed a sonnet he had written in his favour,
my head, always dropping on my breast, makes me not ill  and aimed at him several satirical bullets. Scarron, howrepresent a Z.  I have got my arms shortened as well as  ever, consoled himself for this kind of disgrace with those
legs, and my fingers as well as my arms. In a word, I am   select friends who were not inconstant in their visits to him.
an abridgment of human miseries.'                       The Bishop of Mans, also, solicited by a friend gave him
It is said in the Segraisiana, p. 87, that he had the free   a living in his diocese. When Scarron had takeri posses.
use of nothing but his tongue and his hands; and that he  sion of it, he began his Roman Comique, ill translated into
wrote on a portfolio, which was placed on his knees.    English by Comical Romance. He made friends by his
Balzac said of Scarron, that he had gone further in in-  dedications. Such resources were indeed necessary, for
sensibility than the Stoics, who were satisfied in appearing   he not only lived well, but had made his house an asylum
insensible to pain; but Scarron was gay, and amused all  for his two sisters, who there found refuge from an unfeelthe world with his sufferings.                         ing step-mother.
He portrays himself thus humorously in his address to    It was about this time that the beautiful and accom.
the queen:                                              plished MademoiselleD'Aubign6, afterwards so well known
Je ne regarde plus lqu'en bas,                by the name of Madame de Maintenon, she who was to
Je suis torticolis, j'ai ]a tete penchante:     be one day the mistress, if not the queen of France, formed
Ma mine devient si plaisante,                 with Scarron the most romantic connexion. She united
Qiue quand on en riroit, je ne m'en plaindrois pas.  herself in marriage with one whom she well knew might'I can only see under me; I am wry-necked; my head hangs  be a lover, but could not be a husband. It was indeed
down; my appearance is so droll, that if people laugh I shall  amidst that literary society she formed her taste, and emnot complain.'                                          bellished with her presence his little residence, where the
He says elsewhere,                                    most polished courtiers and some of the finest geniuses of
Parmi les torticolis                     Paris, the party formed against Mazarin, called La
Je passe pour des plus jolts.              Fronde, met.  Such was the influence this marriage'Among your wry-necked people I pass for one of the hand.  had over Scarron, that after this period his writings beoamest.'                                               came more correct and more agreeable than those which
he had previously composed.  Scarron, on his side, gave
After having  ffered this distortion ofshape, and these  a proof of his attachment to Madame de Maintenon; for
acute pains for four years, he quitted his usual residence,  by marrying her he lost his living of Mans. But though
the quarter du Marais, for the baths of the Fauxbourb,
the quarter do Marais, for the baths of the Fauxbourgs  without wealth, we are told in the Segraisiana, that he was
Saint Germain. He look leave of his friends, by address-  accustomed to say, that'his wife and he would not live
intg sonme verses to tlhem, endtitled, Ades?  an Mora~s; I   uncomfortab{ y by the produce of his estate and the Marthis piece he highly praises many celebrated persons.  quisate of Quinet.' Thus he called the revenue which his
When he was brought into the street in a chair, the plea-  compositions produced, and Qoinet was his bookseller.
sure of seeing himself there once more overcame the pains    Scarron addressetl one of his dedications to his dog, to
vnhich the motion occasioned, and he has celebrated the  ridicule those writers who dedicate their works indiscrim-.ransport by an ode, which has for title,'The Way from   inately, though no author has been more liberal of dedicaIs Marais to the Fauxbourg Saint Germain.'             tions than himself; but, as he confessed, he made dedicaThese and other baths which he tried had no effect on  tion a kind of business. When he was low in cash he
his miserable disorder. But a new affliction was added to  always dedicated tosome lord, whom he praised as warmly
the catalogue of his griefs.            t               as his dog, but whom probably he did not esteem so much.
His father, who had hitherto contributed to his necessi-    Segrais informs us, that when Scarron was visited,
ties, having joined a party against Cardial Richelieu, was  previous to  enera conversation his friends were taxed
exiled. This affair was rendered still more unfortunate   with a perusal of wlatever he had written since he saw
by his mother-in-law with her children at Paris, in the ab-  them  before. One day Segrais and a friend calling on
sence of her husband, appropriating the money of the   im,'  Take a chair,' said our author,' and let me try on
family to her own use.                                 you my Roman Comique.' Hle took his manuscript, read
Hitherto Scarron had had no connexion with Cardinal  several panes, and when he observed that they laughed,
Richelieu. The behaviour of his father had even rendered   he said,  Good, this goes well; my book can't fail of suc
his name disagreeable to the minister, who was by no   cess, since it obliges such able persons as yourselves to
means prone tt forgiveness.  Scarron, however, when he  laugh;' and then remained silent to receive their complithought his passion softened, ventured to present a peti-  ments. He used to call this trying on his romance, as a
tion; and which is considered by the critics as one of his  tailor tries his coat. He was agreeable and diverting in
happiest productions. Richelieu permitted it to he read   all things, even in his complaints and passions. Whatever
to him, and acknowledged that it afforded him much plea-  he conceived he immediately too freely expressed; but his
sure, and that it waspleasantly dated.  This plesnt date  amiable lady corrected him of this in three months after
is thus given by Scarron:                               marriage!
Fait a Paris dernier jour d'Octobre,                He petitioned the Queen, it his droll manner, to be perPar moi, Scarron, Itii malgrh mois suis sabre,    mitted the honour of being'ler patient' by right of oice
Ltan qua ton prit la fameux d erpiSnan,           These verses form a part of his aaaress to her majesty:Et, sans canon, la ville de Sedan.
At Paris done, the last day of October,             * A friend would translate,'malade de la reine, the queen's
By me, Scarron, who wanting wine, am sober,       sick man.' I think there is more homour in supposing her
rhe year they took fam'd Perpignan,               majesty to be his physician; in which light Scarron might
iAnd, without can..sn-ball, Sedan.                convider her for a pension of 500 crowns




D112                                  CURIOSITIES OF
Scarron, par la grace de Dieu,                   to reduce him  into powder if he comes not quickly  am
Malade indigne de la reine,concludes
Homme nuayant ni feu, ni lieu,                   c
Mais bien du mal et de la peine                                        Ma Repenourtant
Hopital allant et venant,                                             Repentant
Des jambes d'autrui cheminant,                                         Si tu viens
Des siennes Wayant plus S'usage,                                       Et te tiens
Souifrant beaucoup, dormant bien peu,                                 Seulement
Et pourtant thisant par courage                                        Un murent
Bonne mine et tort mauvais jeu.                                        Avec no.a
Mon courroux
cScarron. by the grace of God, an unworthy patient of the                   Finira,
Queen; a man without a house, though a moving hospital of                     Et Cteeera.
disorders; walking only with other people's legs, with great
sufferings, but little sleep; and yet, in spite of all, very coura-  The Roman Comique of our author is well known, and
geously showing a hearty countenance, though indeed he plays  abounds with pleasantry, with wit and character. His
aa losin   s e'' Virgile Travestie' it is impossible to read long: this we
She smiled, granted the title, and, what was better, add-  likewise feel in' Cotton's Virgil travestied,' which has
ed a small pension, which losing, by lampooning the minis-  notwithstanding considerable merit. Buffionerv after a
ter Mazarin, Fouquet generously granted him a more con-  certain time exhausts our patience. It is the chaste actor
sid-.rable one.                                          only who can keep the attention awake for a length of
The termination of the miseries of this facetious genius  time.  It is said that Scarron intended to write a tragedy;
was now approaching.  To one of his friends, who was  this perhaps would not have been the least facetious of his
taking leave of him for some time, Scarron said,'I shall  burlesques.
soon die; the only regret I have in dying is not to be enabled to leave some property to my wife, who is possessed                   PETER CORNEILLE.
of infinite merit, and whom I have every reason imaginable     Exact Racine anti Corneille's noble fire
to admire and to praise.'                                      Show'd us that France had somethingf to admire
One day he was seized with so violent a fit of the hic-                                             Pope
cough, that his friends now considered his prediction would
soon be verified. When it was over,' if ever I recover,'  himself to the bar t this was not the stage on which his
cried Scarron, I I will write a bitter satire against the hic-  abilities were to he displayed. He followed the occupation
cough.' T'he saire, however, was never writleni for he  abilities were to be displayed. He followed the occupation
died soon af er. A  little be      his death, wen he  -  ofa lawyer for some hime, without taste and without stcce-s.
served his re'ati )  and domestics dweeping and groaning,  A triflinr circumstance discovered to the world and to himserved his reti   an  domestics weeping an  groaning,  self a different genius. A young man who was in love with
he. was not much iffected, but humorously told them, i My   a girl of the same town, having solicited him to be his cornchildren, you will never weep for me so much as I have
made you laugh.' A few moments before he died, he said,  panion in one of those secret visits which he paid to the
that'he never thought it was so easy a matter to laugh at  lady, it happened that the stranger pleased infinitely more
~~the approach of death.'                  tthan his introducer.  The pleasure arising from this adThe    buapproach of death.' cornpositionsof~calronarenventure excited in Corneille a talent which hadi hitherto
Tbhe burlesie coThpositions of Scarron are now neglect-  been unknown to him, and he attempted, as if it were by
ed by the French.  This species of writing was much in      iration, dramatic poetry. On this little sbject, he
vogue till attacked by the critical Boileau, who annihilated
such puny writers as D'Assoucy and Dulot, with their stu-  wote his comedy of Melie, in 1625. At that moment
pid admnirers.  It is said he spared Scarron because his  the French Drama was at a low ebb; the most favourable
merit, thotugh it appeared but at intervals, was uncommon.  ideas were formed of our juvenile poet, and comedy, it
Yet so much were burlesque verses the fashion after Scar-  was expected, would now reach its perfection. After the
ron's works, that the booksellers would not publish poems,  tumult of approbation had ceased, the critics thought that
ron s works, that the booksellers woulA not publish poems,
but with te word' Burlesque' in the title page.  In 1689   Melite was too simple and barren of incident. Angered
appeared a poemb, which shocked the pious, entitled I The   by this criticism, our poet wrote his Clitandre, and in that
Passion of our Lord, in burlesue verses.'  piece has scattered incidents and adventures with such a
licentious profusion, that the critics say, he wrote it rather
Swift, in his dotage, appears to have been gratified by  to expose the pulic taste than to accommodate him f to
such puerilities as Scarron frequently wrote. An ode  to expose the public taste than to accommodate himself to
it. In this piece the persons combat on the theatre; there
which Swift calls' A Lilliputian Ode,' consisting of verses   are murders and assassinations; heroines fight; officers
of three syllables, probably originated in a long epistle in
verses of three syllables, which Scarron addressed to Sar-  appear in search of murderers, and women are disguised
razin. It is pleasant, and the following lines will serve as   as men.  There is matter sufficient for a romance of ten
~~~~~~~~a specimen.  ~volumes;' And yet (says a French critic) nothing can be
more cold and tiresome.  He afterwards indullged his naEpitre a Mr Sarrazin.                   tural genius in various other performances; but began to
Sarrazin                            display more forcibly his tragic powers in Medea. A co.
Mon voisin,                         medy which he afterwards wrote was a very indifferent cornmCher ami,                           position. He regained his full lustre in the famous Cid, a
Qu'a demi,                          tragedy, of which he preserved in his closet translations in
Je ne voi,                          all the European languages, except the Sclavonian and
Dont ma foi                         the Turkish. He pursued his poetical career with uncom.
J'ai mepit                         mon splendour in the Horaces, Cinna, and at length in
Un't petit.                         Polieuctes; which productions (the French critics say)
eBarrabast                         can never be surpassed.
Busiris,                              At length the tragedy of'Partharite' appeared, and
Phalaris,                           proved unsuccessful. This so much disgusted our veteran
Ganelon,                            bard, that, like Ben Jonson, he could not conceal his
Le Felon?                          chagrin in the preface.  There the poet tells us that he
He describes hinmso!f                                  renounces the theatre for ever! and indeed this eternity
Un pauvret,                        lasted for several years.
Tres maigret,                         Disgusted by the fate of his unfortunate tragedy, he
Au col tors,                        directed his poetical pursuits to a different species of com.
Dont le corps                       position.  He now finished his translation, in verse, of the
Tout tortu,'Imitation of Jesus Christ, by Thomas a Kempis.'  This
Tout bossu.                         work, perhaps from  the singularity of its dramatic author
Surann6,                            becoming a religiots writer, was attended with astonish.
Est reduit,                        ing success.  Yet Fontenelle did not find in this transla.
Jour et nuit,                       tion the prevailing charm ofthe original, which consists in
A souffrir                         that simplicity and naive td, which are lost in the pomp of
Sans guerir                         versification so natural to Corneille.' This book,' he
Des tourmen;                        continues,' the finest that ever proceeded from the hand
Vehemens.                           of man (since the gospel does not conme from man) would
He complains of Sarrazin's not visiting him; threatens   net go so direct to the heart, and would not seize on it wish




LITERATURE.                                                          11)
Et puis la mode en est, et ia cour l'autorie,
mich force, If it had not a natural and tender air, to which      Tous parlons de nous mreme avec tout franchise,
iven that negligence which prevails in the style greatl           La fausse hmiiti  ne met plus en credit.:ven     Je scais ce que je vaux, et crois ce qu'on m'en dit,:ontributes.'  Voltaire appears to confirm the opinion of
Pour me faire admirer je ne lais point de ligue;
str critic, in respect to the translation:'It is reported        Jai pen de voix pour mci, maisje les ai sans brigue;;hat Corneille's translation of the Imitation of Jesus Christ     Et mon ambition, pour faire plus de bruit
ias been printed thirty-two times; it is as difficult to be-      1e les va point queter de reduit eii reduit
ieve this as it is to read the book once!'                      Mon travail sans appui minonte sur le theatre,
Corneilie seems not to have been ignorant of the truth of       Chacun en libert Ily blame ou lidolatre;:his criticism. In his dedication of it to the pope, he says,     Li, sans que amis prechent ictr ceetimens,
UL, saris que amis prechent leur sentimens,
J'arrache quelquefois  leurs applaudissemens,
The translation which I have chosen, by the simplicity           La, content du succes que le  nerite domne
)f its tyle, peclorde  all th  rich onamentsLit, content du sticces qoe Ic merite donne,
)f its style, precludes all the rich ornaments of poetry, and    Par d'illustres avis je n'eblouis personne;
ar from  increasing my reputation, must be considered            Je satishiss ensemble et peuple et courtisans;'ather as a sacrifice made to the glory of the Sovereign         Et mes vers en tous ieux sont mes seuls partisans;.tuthor of all which I may have acquired by my poetical          Par leur seule beaut6 ma plume est estimbe,
iroductions.'  This is an excellent elucidation of the truth     Je ne dois qu't moi seul toute ma renomm6ei
f' that precept of Johnson which respects religious poetry;      Et pence toutefois navoir point de rival,
A qlui je Padsse tort, en le traitant d'eg~al.
)ut of which the author of' Calvary' seems not to have          A quije fasse tort, en   traitnt degal.
ieen sensible.  The merit of religious compositions ap-         I give his sentiments in English verse with more faiths,
tears, like this'Imitation of Jesus Christ,' to consist in a   fulness than elegance.  To write with his energetic eavs.;implicity inaimical to the higher poetical embellishments;   pression, one must feel oneself in a similar situation, whid;lu
hese are too human!                                          only one or two living writers can experience.
When  Racine, the  son, published a long poem  on               Self-love prevails too mnch in every state;
Grace' taken in its holy'sense, a most unhappy subject           Who, like ourselves, our secret worth can rate?
Lt least for poetry, it was said that he had written on Grace     Since'tis a fashion authorised at court,
vithout grace.                                                   Frankly our merits we ourselves report.
During the space of six years Corneille rigorously kept         A proud humility will not deceive;
Du ofotritng  fortheteatre.A length             I know my worth; what others say, believe.
tis promnilse  of not writing for the theatre.  At length,       To be admired I lbrm no petty league:
uverpowered by the persuasions of his friends, and probably      Few are my friiends, but gain'd withllout intrigue.
)y his owni inclinations, he once more directed his studies      My bold ambition, destitute of grace,
o the drama.  He recommenced in 1659, and finished in            Scorns still to beg their votes friom place to place.
675. During this time he wrote ten new pieces, and pub-          On the fair stage my scenic tolls I taise,
n                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~While each is free to censure or to praise!
ishedi a variety of little religious poems, which, although      While each is free to censure r to raise
hey do not attract the attention of posterity, were then         And there, trialed  by inferior arts,
*eydonotat t attention oI snatch the applause that rushes from their hearta.
ead with delight, and probably preferred to the finest           Content by Merit still to win the crown,
rageiesby he  oodCathlic oftheday                       Content by Merit still to win the crown,
ragedies by the good catholics of the day.                       With no illustrious names I cheat the town.
In 1675 he terminated his career.  In the last year of          The galleries thunder, and the pit commends;
is life his mind became so enfeebled as to be incapable of       My verses, every where, my only firiends!
hinking; and he died in extreme poverty.  It is true that'Tis from their charms alone my praise 1 claim'Tis tiom hi charms alone Ioe my praise   1ca
iis uncommon genius had been amply rewarded; but'Ti to myself alone, I owe  y fme
And  know no rival whom I fear to meet,.o st  his talents we cannot count that of preserving       Or  injure, when I grant an equal seat.
niotugat                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~Or injure, when I grant an equal seat.
hose favours of fortune which he had acquired.
Fontenelle, his nephew, presents a minute and interest-       Voltaire censures Corneille fr mking Is  eroes 
F description  of this great man.  I must first observe    continually they are great men.  But in drawing the chavhat Marville says, that when he saw  Corneille he had    acter  of an hero he dras   his own.  All his heroes a.
he appearance of a country tradesman, and that he could   oly so many Corneilles in different  situariois.
tot conceive how a man of so rustic an appearance could        Thomas  Corneille attempted the same careeras his br,ut into the mouths of his Romans such heroic sentiments.  ther: perhaps his name was unfortunate, for it naturally.:orneille was sufficiently large and full in his person; his    excited a comparison wich could rot he favourable to s..
ir simple and vulgar; always negligent; and very little   Gao, the Deis of his day, wrote te following smat
olicitous of pleasing by his exterior. His face had some-  impromptu under his portrait:
hing agreeable, his nose large, his mouth not unhandsome,                Voyant le portrait dle Corneille,
is eyes full of fire, his physiognomy lively, with strong                Gardez vous te crier merveille:atures, well adapted to be transmitted to posterity on a                Er dana vos transports nalse pas,
iedal or bust.  His pronunciation was not very distinct:                 Prendre ici Pierre pour Thomas.
nd he read his verses with force, but without grace.                                   POETS.
He was acquainted with polite literature, with history        In all ages there has existed an anti-poetical party. Thine:,
nd politics; but he generally knew them best as they re-   faction consists of those tiigid intellects incapable of that:
ited to the stage.  For other knowledge he had neither   glowing expansion so necessary to feel the charms of an:,
tisure, curiosity, nor much esteem.  He spoke little, even   art, which only addresses itself to the imagination: or of
n subjects which he perfectly understood.  He did not  writers who having proved unsuecessful in their court tonibellish what hlie said, and to discover the great Corneille   the muses, revenge themselves by reviling themn; and also -
became necessary to read him.                               of those religious minds who consider the ardent effusioins..
He was of a melancholy disposition, had something blunt   of poetry as dangerous to the morals and peace of so.
I his manner, and sometimes lihe appeared rude; but in   ciety.
ret he was no disagreeable companion, and made a good          Plato, amongst the ancients, is the model of those mc,ither and husband. He was tender, and his soul was very   derns who profess themselves to be anti-poetical.  Thisusceptible of friendship.  His constitution was very fa-  writer, in his ideal republic, characterises a man who oc-.
ourable to love, but never to debauchery, and rarely to   cupies himself with composing verses as a very dangero,.iolent attachments. His soul was fierce and independent:  member of society, from tihe inflammatory tendency of his
could never be managed, for it would never bend. This   writings.  It is by arguing from  its abuse, that he decries:
ideed rendered him  very capable of pourtraying Roman   this enchanoing talent. At the same time it is to be recolirtue, but incapable of improving his fortune. -Nothing   lected, that no head was more finely organized for the viqunalled his incapacity for business but his aversion: the   sions of the muse than Plato's: he was a. true poet, and
ightest troubles of this kind occasioned him  alarm and   had addicted himself in his prime of life to the cultivation..rroP.  He was never satiated with praise, although he   of the art, but perceiving that he could not siiipass his in.,.'as continually receiving it; but if he was sensible of fame,  imitable original, Homer-, }e employed  this insidious man.
e was far removed from vanity.                              ner of depreciating his works.  In the Phiredrus he deWhat Fontenelle observes of Corneille's love of fame is  scribes the feelings of a genuine Poet.  To become such,.
rongly proved by our great poet himself, in an epistle to   he says, it will never he suffilemnt to be guided by the rules
friend, in which we find the following rernarlkable descrip-   of art, unless we also feel the ecstasies of thatfuror, al-,s of himself; an instance that what the world calls va-   most divine, which in this kind of comporsition us the most,y, at least interests in a great genius.                   palpable and least ambiguous character of a true inspirsYous nous aimons un peu, c'est notre foible i tons;       lion.  Cold minds, ever tranquil and ever in possession of
Le prix que nous valons qui le sgait mieux que nous?     themselves, are incapable of' prodtlucing exalted poetry
4'                                                                        1.5




114                                   CURIOSITIES OF
their verses must always be feeble, diffusive, and leave no  the Parrhasiana he has written a treatise on poets In a
impression; the verses of those who are endowed with a  very unpoetical manner.  I shall notice his coarse rail.e.
strong and lively imagination, and who, like HIomer's per-  ries relating to what he calls' the personal defects ol
sollification of Discord, have their heads incessantly in  poets.' In vol. i, p. 33, he says,' In the Scaligerana we
the skies, and their feet on the earth, will agitate you,  have Joseph  Scaliger's  opinion concerning  poets.burn in your heart, and drag you along with them; break-  " There never was a man who was a poet, or addicted to
ing like an impetuous torrent, and swelling your breast  the study ofpoetry, but his heart was puffed up with his
with that enthusiasm, which they are themselves possessed.  greatness." —This is very true. The poetical enthusiasm
Such is the character of a poet in a poetical age!-The   persuades those gentlemen, that they have something in
tuneful race have many corporate bodies of mechanics;  them superior to others, because they employ a language
Pontipool nlanfacturers, inlayers, burnishers, gilders and   peculiar to themselves.  When the poetic furor seizes
filers!                                                 them its traces frequently remain on their faces, whict
Men of taste are sometimes disgusted in turning over  make connoisseurs say with Horace,
the works of the anti-poetical, by meeting with gross rail.
leries and false judgments concerning poetry and poets.-            hut insanit hono, ant versus falct.
*Locke has expressed a marked contempt of poets; but                There goes a madman, or a bard!
~we see what ideas he formed of poetry by his warm panweg ric of one of Blackmore's epics! and besides he was  Their thoughtful air and melancholy gait malke them appeal
chimself a most unhappy poet! Seldena scholar ofprofound  insane; for accustomed to versify while they walk, ane,erudition, has given us his opinion concerning poets.' It  to bite their nails in apparent agonies, their steps are
its ridiculous for a lord to print verses; he may make them   measured and slow, an  they look as if they were reflect
to please himself.  If a man in a private chamber twirls  tug on something of consequence, although they are onlj
Ihis band-strings, or plays with a rush to please himself, it  thinking, as the phrase runs, of nothing!'  He proceed
his well enough; but if he should go into Fleet-street, and    ame elegant strain to enumerate other defects.
sit upon a stall and twirl a band-string, or play with a rush,  have only transcribed the above description of our jocular
-then all the boys in the street would laugh at him.'-As If  scholar,with an intention of describing those exterior mark!,'the sublime and the beautiful are to be compared to the   of that fine enthusiasm, of which the poet is peculiarly sus
twirling of a band-string or playing with a rush i-A poet,  ceptible,and which have exposed many an elevated genius
trelated to an illustrious family, and who did not write un-to   the ridicule of the vulgar.
poetientertained a      dn I find this admirably defended  by Charpentier:'Mel
poetically, entertained a far different notion concerning   ma ridicule as much as they please those gesticulation..poets.  So persuaded was he that to be a true poet re-  and contortions which pulets are apt to pleaske in the act on
quired an elevated mind, that it was a maxim with him,
that io ewriter could be an excellent poet who was not de-  composing; it is certain however that they greatly assis
scenided from a noble family. This opinion is as absurd  in putting the imagination into motion. These kinds o
as that of Selden's:-but when one party will not grant  agitation do not always show  a     mind which labours witl
enough, the other always assumes too much.  The great  its sterility; they frequently proceed from a mind whicl'Pascal, whose extraordinary genius was discovered in the   excites and animates itself. Quintilian has nobly compar
sciences, knew little of the nature of poetical beauty. He  ed them to those lashings of histail which a liongive
said' poetry has no settled object.' This was the decision   himself when he is preparing to combat.  Percius, whet
of a geome.trician, not of a poet.'Why should he peak   he would give us an idea of a cold and languishing ora
tion, says that its author did not strike his desk nor bit,
of what he did not understand?' asked the lively Voltaire.   i
his nails.
iPoetry is not an object which comes under the cognizance
of philosophy or wit.
obf philosophy r wit.                                         Nec pluteum rcedit, nec demorsos sapit ungzee.''Longuerue  had profound erudition; but he decided on
poetry in the same manner as those learned men. Nothing   These exterior marks of enthusiasm  may be illustrate,
so strongly characterises such literary men as the following  by the following curious anecdote:-Domenichino, the
"observations in the Longuerana, p. 170.                 painter, was accustomed to act the characters of all thi'These are two books on Homer,whichl prefer to Homer  figures he would represent on his canvass, and to speal
htimself. The first is Atiquitates Homericre of Feithius,  aloud whatever the passion he meant to describe coult.where he has extracted every thing relative to the usages   prompt. Painting the mnartyrdom of St Andrew, Carrace
and customs of the Greeks; the other is Homer Gnomo-  one day caught him in a violent passion, speaking in
logici per Dueportum, printed at Cambridge.  In these two   terrible and menacing tone.  He was at that momen'books is found every thing valuable in Homer, without be-  employed on a soldier, who was threatening the saint.-,inol obliged to get through his Contes a dormir debout!'-   When this fit of enthusiastic abstraction had passed, Car
Thlus men of science decide on men of taste! There are  racci ran and embraced him, acknowledging that Domeni,who study Homer and Virgil as the blind travel through   chino had been that day his master; and that he had learn
*a fine country, merely to get to the end of their journey.-  from him the true manner to succeed in catching the ex
It was observed at the death of Longuerue that in his im-  pression; that great pride of the painter's art..mense library not a volume of poetry was to be found. He  Thus different are the sentiments of the intelligent ane'had formerly read poetry, for indeed he had read every  the unintelligent on the same subject. A Carracci em
thitn.'Racine tells us, that when young he paid him a   braced a kindred genius for what a Le Clerc or a Seldet,visit; the conversation turned on poets; our erudit review.  would have ridiculed.
eli them all with the most ineffable contempt of the poetical    Poets, I confess, frequently indulge reveries, which
talent, from which he said we learn nothing.  He seem-  though they offer no charms to their friends, are too deli
ed a little charitable towards Ariosto.-' As for that 3lad-  cious to forego. In the ideal world, peopled with all it
man, (said hlie) he has amused me sometimes.'  Dacier, a  fairy inhabitants, and ever open to their contemplation
poetical pedant after all, was asked who was the greater  they travel with an unwearied foot.  Crebillon, the cele
poet, Homer or Virgil'.? he honestly answered,'Homer by   brated tragic poet, was enamoured of solitude, that h,
a thousand years!'                                      might there indulge, without interruption, in those fin,
Bt it iis mortifving to find among the anti-poetical even  romances with which his imagination teemed. One da)
poets themselves!'Malheebe, the first poet in France in   when he was in a deep reverie, a friend entered hastily
his day, appears little to have esteemed the art.   He' Don't disturb me,' cried the poet,' I am enjoying a mo
lused to say, that' a good poet was not more useful to the  ment of happiness; I am going to hang a villain of a min
state than a skfilful player of nine.pins!  Malherbe wrote  ister and banish another who is an idiot.'
with costive lhotlr.'When a poem was shown to him       Amongst the anti-poetical may be placed the father ~
which had been highly commended, he sarcastically asked  the great monarch of Prussia. George the Second wa
if it would lower the price of bread?' In these instances  not more the avowed enemy of the muses. Frederic wotll
he maliciously confounded the useful with the agreeable  not suffer the prince to read verses; and when he wa
arts.  Be it remembered that Malherbe had a cynical  desirous of study, or of the conversation of literary men
heart, cold and unfeeling; his character may be traced in  he was obliged to do it secretly. Every poet was odioeu
hit poetry; labour and correctness, without one ray of en-  to his majesty. One day, having observed some line
thtisiasr,..                                           written on one of the doors of the palace, he aseltd a cot,Le Clere  wavs a scholar not entirely unworthy to be  tier their signification.  They were explained tohim; the
ranked amongst thei Lockes, the Seldens, and the Longue-  were latin verses composed bv Wachter, a man of letters
rues; and his opinions are as just concerning poets.  In  then resident at Berlin. The king immediately sent for the




LITERATURE.                                                        115
Dard, who came warm with the hope of receiving a reward  of her husband! Arnauld, though so intimately connected
for his ingenuity.  He was astonished however to hear the  with Racine for many years, had not read his composiking, in a violent passion, accost him,' I order you imme-  tions.  When, at length, he was persuaded to read Phaadiately to quit this city and my kingdom.'  Wachter took  dra, he declared himself to be delighted, but complained
refuge in Hanover. As little indeed was this anti-poetical  that the poet had set a dangerous example, in making
monarch a friend to philosophers. Two or three such kings  the manly Hypolitus dwindle to an effeminate lover. As
might perhaps renovate the ancient barbarism  of Europe.  a critic, Arnauld was right; but Racine had his nation to
Barratier, the celebrated child, was presented to his nIa-  please.  Such persons entertain notions of poetry similar
jest  of Prussia as a progedy of erudition: the king, to  to that of an ancient father, who calls poetry the wine of
mortifdyour ingenious youth, coldly asked him,  ifhe knew   Satan; or to that of the religious and austere Nicole, who
the law?' The learned boy was constrained to acknowl-  was so ably answered by Racine: he said, that dramatic
edge that he knew nothing of law.'' Go.' was the reply  poets were public poisoners, not of bodies, but of souls.
of this Augustus, ( Go, and study it before you give your-    Poets, itis acknowledged, have foibles peculiar to themself out as a scholar.' Poor Barratier renounces for this  selves.  They sometimes act in the daily commerce of
pursuit his other studies, and perserved with such ardour,  life, as if every one was concerned in the success of their
that he became an excellent lawyer at the end of fifteen  productions.  Poets are too frequently merely poets. Semonths; but his exertions cost him at the same time his  grais has recorded that the fi)llowing maxim  of' Rochefoulife!                                                    cault was occasioned by reflecting on the characters of
Every monarch, however, has not proved so destitute of  Boileau and Racine.   It displays,' he writes,' a great
poetic sensibility as this Prussian. Francis I gave repeat-  poverty of mind to have only one kind of genius.' On this
ed marks of his attachment to the favourites of the muses,  Segrais observes, and Segrais knew them intimately, that
by composing several occasional sonnets, which are dedi-  their conversation only turned on poetry; take them from
cated to their eulogy. Andrelin, a French poet, enjoyed  that, and they knew nothing.  It was thus with one Du
the happy fate of'Oppian, to whom the enmperor Caracalla  Perrier, a good poet, but very poor.  When hlie was introcounted as many pieces of gold as there were verses in  duced to Pelisson, who wished to be serviceable to him,
one of his poems; and with great propriety they have  the minister said, I In what can he be employed?  He is
been called I golden verses.'  Andrelin when he recited  only occupied by his verses.'
his poem on the conquest of Naples before Charles VIII,    All these complaints are not unfounded; yet, perhaps,
received a sack of silver coin, which with difficulty he car-  it is unjust to expect firom an excelling artist all the petty
ried home. Charles IX, says Brantome, loved verses,  accomplishments of frivolous persons, who have studied
and recompensed  poets, not indeed  immediately, but  no art but that of practising on the weaknesses of their
gradually, that they might always be stimulated to excel.  friends.  The enthusiastic votary, who devotes his days
He used to say that poets resembled race horses, that  and nights to meditations on his favourite art, will rarely
must be fed but not fattened, for then they were good for  be founid that despicable thing, a mere man of the world.
nothing. Marot was so much esteemed by kings, that  Du Bus has justly observed, that men of genius, born for
hlie was called the poet of princes, and the prince of  a particular profession, appear inferior to others wheii they
poets.                                                   apply themselves to other occupations.  That distraction
In the early state of poetry what honours were paid to  which arises from their continued attention to their ideas
its votaries! Ronsard, the French Chaucer, was the first  renders them  awkward in their manners. Such defects
who carried away the prize at the Floral games.  This  are a proof of the activityof genius.
meed of poetic honour was an eglantine composed of silver.    It is a common foible with poets to read their verses to
The reward did not appear equal to the merit of the work  firiends. Segrais has ingeniously observed, to use his own
and the reputation of the poet; and on this occasion the  words,' When young 1 used to please myself in reciting
city of Toulouse had a Minerva of solid silver struck, of  my verses indifferently to all persons; but I perceives
considerable value.  This image was sent to Ronsard, ac-  when Scarron, who was my ininiate friend, used to take
comlpanied by a decree, in which he was declared, by way   his portfolio and read his verses to me, although they were
of eminence,' The French poet.'                         good, I frequently became weary.  I then reflected, that
It is a curious anecdote to add, that when, at a later  those to whom 1 read mine, and who, for the greater part,
eriod, a similar Minerva was adjudged to Maynard for  had no taste for poetry, must experience the same disais verses, the Capitouls of Toulouse, who were the exe.  greeable sensation.  I resolved for thile future to read my
cutors of the Floral gifts, to their shame, out of covet-  verses only to those who entreated me, and to read but a
ousness, never obeyed the decision of the poetical judges.  few at a time.  We flatter ourselves too much; we conThis circumstance is noticed by Mlaynard in an epigram,  elude that what pleases us must please others.  We will
which bears this title: On a Minerva  of silver, promised   have persons indulgent to us, and frequently we willhave
but not given,                                           no indulgence for those who are in want of it.' An excelThe anecdote of Margaret of Scotland (wife of the  lent hint for young poets, and for those old ones who carry
Dauphin of France,) and Alain the poet, is, perhaps, gene-  odes and elegies in their pockets, to inflict the pains of the
rally known.  Who is not charmed with that fine expres-  torture on their friends.
sion of her poetical sensibility?  The person of A pain   The affection which a poet feels for his verses has been
*as repulsive, but his poetry had attracted her affections.  frequently extravagant.  Bayle, ridiculing that parental
Passing  through one of the halls of the palace, she saw him  tenderness which writers evince for their poetical composleeping on a bench: she approached and kissed him.  sitions, tells us, that nmany have written epitaphs on friends
Some of her attendants could not conceal their astonish-  whom they believed on report to have died, could not determent that she should press with her lips those of a man so   mine to keep them in their closet, but suffered them  to
fihtfully ruly.  The amiable princess answered, smiling,  appear in the lifetime of those very friends whose death'Idid not kiss the man, but the mouth which has uttered  they celebrated. In another place hie says, that such is
no many fine things.'                                    their infatuation for their productions, that they prefer
The great Colbert paid a pretty compliment to Boileau   giving to the public their panegyrics of persons whom afand Racine.  This minister, at his villa, was enjoying the  terwards they satirised, rather than suppress the verses
conversation of our two poets, when the arrival of a pre-  which contain those panegyrics.  We have many examlate was announced: turning quickly to the servant, he  ples of this in the poems, and even in the epistolary corressaid.' Let him be shown every thing except myself!'     pondence of modern writers.  It is customary with most
To such attentions from this great minister, Boileau al-  authors, when they quarrel with a person after the first
redes in these verses:                                   edition of their work, to cancel his eulogies in the next.
-Ptus du   and, m'aimajsqs   a endresse;  But poets and letter-writers frequently do not do this te-'tma vue ~u Cotlabert inspireit l'allerss de.        caise they are so charmed with the happy turn of their
expressions, and other elegancies of composition, that they
Several pious persons have considered it as highly merit-  prefer the praise which they may acquire for their style to
able to abstain from the reading of poetry! A good father,  the censure vhich may follow from their inconsistency.
in his account of the last hours of Madame Racine, the     After having given a hint to young poets, I shall offer
lady of the celebrated tragic poet, pays high compliments  one to veterans. It is a common defect with them  that
to bter religiious disposition. which, he says, was so aus-  they do not know when to quit the muses in their advanced
tere, that she would not allow  herself to read poetry, as  age.  Bayle says,' Poets and orators should be mindfiul
xho considered it to be a dangerous pleasure: and he  to retire from their occupations, which so peculiarly rehiohl' commends her for never having read the tragedies   quire the fire of imagination; yet it is but too commoq tc




116                                   CURIOSITIES OF
see them in their career, even in the decline of life. It  the first romance: for what originates in nature, who shall
Eeems as if they would condemn the public to drink even  hope to detect the shadowy outlines of its begimnings?
the lees of their nectar.' Afer and Daurat were both poets  The Theagenes and Chariclea of Heliodorus appeared in
who had acquired considerable reputation, but which they  the fourth century; and this elegant prelate was the Greoverturned when they persisted to write iml their old age  cian Fenelon.  It has been prettily said, that posterior
without vigour and without fancy.                       romances seem to be the children of the marriage of Theagenes and Chariclea. The Romance of' The Golden
-hat crowldsi of these ~ inlpenirently  bold,     Ass,' by Apuleius, which contains the beautiful tale
In sounds and Jingiing syllables grown old,
They run  on poets, in asrayllna  vein,           of' Cupid and Psyche,' remains unrivalled; while the
E'en to the dregs and squeeziugs of the brain:'Daphne and Chloe' of Longus, in the old version ot
Strain out the last dull droppings of their sense,  Amiot, is inexpressibly delicate, simple, and'inartificial,
And rhyme with all the rage of impotence.         but sometimes offends us, for nature there' plays her virPope.    gin fancies.'
It is probable he had Wycherley in his eve when he wrote  Beautiful as these compositions are, when the imaginathis. The veteran bard latterly scribbled much indifferent  tion of the writer is sufficiently stored with accurate obverse; and Pope had freely given his opinion, by which he  servations on human nature, in their birth, like many of
lost his friendship!                                    tile fine arts, the zealots of an ascetic religion opposed
It is still worse when aged poets devote their exhausted  their progress. However Heliodorus may have delighted
talents to divine poems, as did Waller; and Milton in his  those who were not insensible to the felicities of e fine
second epic. Such poems, observes Voltaire, are fre-  imagination, and to the enchanting elegancies of style, he
quently eintitled'sacred poems;' anrd sacred they are, for  raised himself, among his brother ecclesiastics, enemies,
no one touches them. Front a soil so arid what call be  who at length so far prevailed that, in a synod, it was deexpected but insipid fruits? Corneille told Chevreau   dlared that his performance was dangerous to young perseveral years before his death, that he had taken leave of  sons, and that if the author did not suppress it, he must
the theatre, for he had lost his poetical powers with his  resign his bishoprick.  We are told he preferred his ro~~~~~~~~teeth.~                                   ~ ~mance to his bishoprick. Even so late as in Racine's time
Poets have sometimes displayed an obliquity of taste  it was held a crime to peruse these unhallowed pages.
Poets have sometimes displayed an obliquity of taste
in. their female favourites. As if conscious of the power  He informs us that the first effusions of his muse were in
of ennobling others, some have selected them from the   consequence of studying that ancient ronance, which his
lowest classes, whom having elevated into divinities, they  tutor observing him to devour with the keenness of a famhave addressed in the langluage of poetical devotion.  The  ished man, snatched from his hands and flung it in the fire.
Chloe of Prior, after all his raptures, sas a plump bar-  A second copy experienced the same fate. What could
maid. Ronsard addressed many of his verses to Miss  Racine do?  Ie boughta third, and took the precaution of
Cassandra, who followed tihe same occupation: in one of  devouring it secretly till he got it by heart; after which he
his sonnets to her, he fills it with a crowd of personages  offered it to the pedagogue with a smile, to burn like the
taken from the Iliad, which to the honest girl must have   others.
all been extremely mysterious.  Colletet, a French bard,    The decision of these ascetic bigots was founded in
married three of his servants. His last lady was called   their opinion of the immorality of such works.  They ali
la belle Claudine. Ashamed of such menial alliances, he  leged that the writers paint too warmly to the imagination,
attempted to persuade the world that he had married the   address themselves too forcibly to the passions, and in
tenth muse; and for this purpose published verses in her  general, by the freedom of their representations, hover on
namne. When he died, the vein of Claudine became sud-  the borders of indecency. Let it be sufficient, however,
denly dry.  She iindeed tpublished   her'Adieux to the  to observe. that those who condemned the liberties which
Muses;' but it was soon discovered that all the verses of  these writers take with  the imagination, could indulge
this lady, including her'Adieux,' were the compositions  themselves with the Anacreontic voluptuousness of the
of her husband.                                         wise Solomon, when sanctioned by the authority of the
Sometimes, indeed, the ostensible mistresses ofpoets have  church.
no existence; and a slight occasion is sufficient to give  The marvellous powers of romance over the human
birth to one. Racan, and. Malherbe were one day con-  mind is exemplified in this curious anecdote of oriental
versing on their amours; that is, of selecting a lady who  literature.
should be the object of their verses. Racari named one,.Mahomet found they had such an influence'over the
antl Maltherbe  another. It happeninr g that both had the  imaginations of his followers, that he has expressly forsame  name, Cathariahe,      p      they passed   e  whole afternoon   bidden them in his Koran; and the reason is given in the
in forming it into an anagram. They found three: Arthe-  following anecdote. An Arabian merchant having long
nice, Eracinthe, and Charint6.  The first was preferred;  resided in Persia, returned to his wry country while the
and many a fine ode was written in praise of the beauti:  pIophet was publishing his Koran. The merchant, among
ful Arthenice!                                         his other riches, had a treasure of romances concerning
Poets change their opinions of their own productions  the Persian heroes.  These he related to his delighted
wonderfully at different periods of life. Baron Haller was  countrymen, who considered them to be so excellent, that
in his youth warmly attached to poetic comnposition.  His  the legends of the Koran were neglected, and they plainly
house was on fire, and to rescue his poems he rushed  told the prophet that the' Persian Tales' were superior to
through the flanmes.. He xwas so fortunate as to escape  his. Alarmed, he immediately had a visitation from the
with his beloved manuscripts in his hand.  Ten years  angel Gabriel, declaring them  impious and pernicious,
afterwards he condemned to the flames those very poems  hateful to God and Mahomet.  This checked their curwhich he had ventured his life to preserve.             rency; and all true believers yielded up the exquisite deSatirists, if th'ey escape the scourges of the law, have  light of poetic fictions for the insipidity of religious ones.
reason to drea,. the cane of the satirised. Of this kind  Yet these romances may be said to have outlived the Kowe have many anecdotes on record; but none more poi-  ran itself; for they have spread into regions which the
nant than the folorving.  Beriserade was caned for lam-  Koran could never penetrate. Even to this day Colonel
pooning the Dwuke d'Epernon.  Some days afterwards he  Capper, in'his travels across the Desert, saw' Arabians
appeared at court, but beiiig still lame from  the rough  sitting round a fire, listening to their tales with such attentreatment he had received, he was forced to support him-  tion and pleasure, as totally to forget the fatipue and hardself by a cane. A wit, who knewv what had passed, whis-  ship with which an instant before they were entirely overpered the affair to the queen.  She, dissembling, asked   come.' Aiud Wood, in his journey to Palinyra:-' At
him if hue had the gout'?' Yes, madam,' replied our lane  night the Arabs sat in a circle drinking coffee, while one
satirist,'and therefore I make use of a cane.''Not so,'- of the conmpany diverted the rest by relating a piece of
interrupted the malignant Bautri,' Benserade in this  history on the subject of Love or War, or with an extemimitates those holy martyrs who are always represented   Pore tale.'
with the instrument which occasioned their sufferings.'   Mr Ellis has given us' Specimens of the Early Eng.
lish Metrical Romances,' and Ritson and VWeber have
atOatANcES.                        printed two collections of them entire, valued by the poetiRomance has been e!egantly defined aq tne ofTspring of  cal antiquary.  Learned inquirers have traced the origin
Fiction and Love. Men of learning have amused them-  of romantic fiction to various sources.-From Scandinavia
selves with tracing the epocha of romances; but that  issaed forth the giants, dragons, witches, and enchanters.
erudition is desperat,- which would fix on the inventor of  The curious reader will be gratified by' Illustrations of




LITERATURE.                                                      117
Northern Antlqulities, a volume tn quarto; where he will  triflers pretended to an allegorical meaning concealed onfintd extracts from' the Book of Heroes' and' the Nibel-  der the texture of their fable. From the following advenungen  Lay,' with many other metrical tales f'rom the old  ture we learn the power of beauty in making ten days apGernman, Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic languages. In  pear as yesterday!  Alexander the great, in search of
the East, Arabian fancy bent her Iris of many-softened   Perceforest, parts with his knights in all enchanted wood,
hutes, over a delightful land of fiction; while the Welsh,  and each vows they will riot remain longer than one night
in their emigration to Britany, are believed to have brought  in one place.  Alexander, accompanied by a page, arrives
with them their national fables.  That subsequent race of  at Sebilla's castle, who is a sorceress.  He is taken byv
minstrels known by the name of Troubadours in the South  her witcheries and beauty, ard the page, by the ladytJW
of France, composed their erotic or sentimental poems;  maid, falls into the same mistak e as his master, who thinks
and these romancers called Trouveurs, or finders in the  he is there only one night.  They enter the castle wtrtn
North of' France, culled and compiled their domestic tales  deep wounds, and issue perfectly recovered.  I transcribe
or Fabliar., Dits, Conte, or Lai.  Millot, Sainte Palaye,  the latter part as a specimen of the manner. 1When they
and Le Grand, have preserved, in their' Histories of the  were once out of'the castle, the king said,' Truly, Floridas,
Trouhadours,' their literary compositions.  They were a  I know not how it has been with ime; but certainly Sebilla
romantic race of ambulatory poets; military and religious  is a very honourable lady, and very beautiful, and very
subjects their favourite thenles; yet bold and satirical on  charming in conversation.  Sire, (said Floridas,) it ii
princes, arnd even osi priests: severe moralisers, though  true; but one thing surprises me:-how  is it that our
libertines in their verse; so refined and chaste in their  wounds have healed in one night?  I thought at least ten
manners, that few husbands were alarmed at the etithusi-  or fifteen days were necessary. Truly, said the king, that
astic language they addressed to their wives. The most  is astonishing! Now king Alexander met Gadiff'er, king
romantic incidents are told of their loves. But love and its  of Scotland, and the valiant knight Le Tors.  Well, said
grosser passion were clearlydislinguished from each other  the king, have ye news of the king of England?  Ten
In their singular intercourse with their' Dames.' The   days we have hunted him, and cannot find hiti out. How,
object of their mind was separated from the object of their  said Alexander, did we not separate yesterday from each
senses; the virtuous lady to whom they vowed their hearts  other?  In God's name, said Gadiffer, what means your
was in their language styled' la dame de sespensees,' a  majesty?  It is ten days!  Have a care what you say,
very distinct being from their other mistress!  Such was  cried the king. Sire, replied Gadiffer, it is so; ask Le
the Platonic chimera that charmed in the age of chivalry;  Tors.  On my honour, said Le Tors, the king of Scotland
the Laura of Petrarch might have been no other than   speaks truth.  Then, said the king, some of us are en-' the lady of his thoughts.'                             chanted. Floridas, didst thou not think we separated yessFrom such productions in their improved state poets of  terday?  Truly, truly, your majesty, I thought so!  But
all nations have drawn their richest inventions. The agree-   when I saw our wounds healed in one night, I had some
able wildness of that fancy which characterised the East-  suspicion that we were enchanted.'
ern nations was often caught by the crusaders. 3When       In the old romance of Melusirna, this lovely fairy, though
they returned home, they mingled in their own the cus-  to the world unknown as such, enarnoured of Count Raytomns of each country.  The Saracens, being of another  mond, marries him, but first extorts a solenin promise that
religion, brave, desperate, and fighting for their father-  he will never disturb her on Saturdays.  On those days
lanrd, were enlarged to their fears, unter the tremendous  the inferior parts of her body is metamorphosed to that of
form of Paynim Giants, while the reader of that day fol-  a metmaid, as a punishment for a former error.  Agitated
lowed with trembling sympathy the Red-cross Knight.  by the malicious insinuations of' a friend, his curiosity and
Thus fiction embellished religion, and religion invigorated   his jealousy one day conduct him to the spot she retired to
fiction; and such incidents have enlivened the cantos of  at those tites.  It was a darkened passage in the dungeon
Ariosto, and adorned the epic of Tasso.  Spenser is the   of the fortress. His hand gropes its way till it feels an
child of their creation; and it is certain that we are in-  iron gate oppose it; tIor can he discover a single chink,
debted to them for some of the bold and strong touches of  but at length perceives by his touch a loose nail; he places
Milton. Our great poet marks his affection for' these   his sword in its head and screws it out.  Through this
lofty Fables and Romances, among which his young feet  hole he sees Melusina in the horrid form she is comnpeiled
wandered.' Collins was bewildered among their magical  to assume.  That tender mistress, transformed into a
seductions; and Dr Johnson was enthusiastically delighted   monster bathing in a fount, flashing the spraiy of the water
by the old Spanish folio romance of' Felixmarte of Hir-  from a scaly tail! He repents of his fatal curiosity: she
cania,' and similar works.  The most ancient romances  reproaches him, and their mutual happiness is for ever
were originally composed in verse before they were con-  lost!  The moral design of the tale evidently warns the
verted into prose: no wonder that the lacerated members  lover to revere a Wtomnn's Secret!
of the poet have been cherished by the sympathy of poeti-    Such are the works which were the favourite amuse.
cal souls.  Don Quixote's was a very agreeable insanity.  ments of our Euglish court, and which doubtless had a due
The most voluminous of these ancient Romances is Le   effect in refining the manners of the a'e, in diffusing tltat
Roman de Perceforest.  I have seen ant edition in six  splendid military genius, and that tender devotion to the
small folio volumes, and its author has been called the  fair sex which dazzle us in the reign of Edward III, and
French Homer by the writers of his age.  In the class of  through that enchanting labyrinth of History constructed
romances of chivalry we have several translations in the  by the gallant Froissart.  In one of the revenue rolls ot
black-letter.  These books are very rare, and their price  Henry 111I, there is an entry of' Silver clasps and studs
is as voluminouis.  It is extraordinary that these writers  for his majesty's great book of Romances.' Dr Moore
were so unconscious of their future fame, that riot one of  observes that the enthusiastic admiration of chiva ry which
their names has travelled down to us. There were eager  Edward III manifested during the whole course of his
readers in their days, but not a solitary bibliographer! All  reign was probably in some measure owing to his having
these romances now require some indulgence for their pro-  studied the clasped book in his great-grandfather s library.
lixity, and their Platonic amours,-but. they have not been  The Italian romances of the fourteenth century were
surpassed in the wildness of their inventions, the ingenuity  spread abroad in great numbers.  They formed the polbte
of their incidents. the simplicity of their style, and their  literature of the day. But if it is not permitted to authors
curious manners.  Many a Homer lies hid among them;  freely to express their ideas, and give full play to the imabut a celebrated Italian critic suggested to me that many   gination, these works must never be placed in the study
of the fables of Homer are only disguised and degraded in  of the rigid moralist.  They, indeed pushed their indelithe romances of chivalry.  Those who vilify them as only  cacy to the verge of grossness, and seemed rather to seek
barbarous imitations of classical fancy, condemn them as  than to avoid scenes, which a modern rwould blush to desome doGothic architecture, as mere corruptions of a purer  scribe.  They, to employ the expression of one of their
style: such critics form their decision by preconceived no-  authors, were not ashamed to name what God had created.
tions; they are but indifferent philosophers, and to us seem   Cinthio, Bandello, and others, bait chiefly Boccaccio, rento be deficient in magnitude.                            dered libertinism agreeable by the fascinating charm i of a
As a specimen [ select two romantic adventures:-      polished style and a luxuriant imagination.
The title of the extensive romance of Perceforest is,    This, however, muist not be admitted as an apology for
The most elegant, delicious, meliifleoous, and delightfill  immoral works; for poison is not the less poison even wvhen
history of Percef(-rest, King of Great Britain, &c.' The   delicious.  Such works were, and still continue to be, the
most ancient edition is that of 1528.  The writers of  fesvuurites of a nation stigmatised for being prone to nimpure
ease Gothic fablr.s, lest they should be considered as mere   amnours.  I]hey are still curious in their editions, and are




i18                                    CURIOSITIES OF
not parsimonious in their price for what they call an un-  were not new taken firom the th'one: they were soretimes
3astsrated copy.*  There are many Italians, not literary   even sought after amongst the lowest ranks of the people.
men, who are in possession of an ample library of' these   Scarron seems to allude sarcastically to this degradation
old novelists.                                           of the heroes of Fiction: for in hinting at a new conic
If we pass over the moral irregularities of these ro-  history he had projected, he tells us that he gave it up sud.
mances, we may discover a rich vein of invention, which   denly, because he had' heard that his hero had just been
only requires to be released from that rubbish which dis-  hanged at Mans.'
filgures it, to becomne of an invaluable price.  The Deca-  Novels, as they were long mnanufactured, form a library
mnorones, the Hecatommiti, and the Novellas of these wri-  of illiterate authors for illiterate readers; but as they ale
ters, tranlslatedintoEnglish, made no inconsiderable figure  created by genius, are precious to the philosopher.  They
ini the little library of our Shakspeare.  Chaucer had been   paint the character of an individual or the manners of the
a notorious imitator and lover of them. His'Knight's  age more perfectly than any other species of composition:
Tale' is little more than a paraphrase of' Boccaccio's Te-  it is ill novels we observe as it were passing under our own
seoide.' Fontaine has caught all their charms with all  eyes the refined frivolity of the French; the gloomy and
their licentiousness.  From such works, these great poets,  disordered sensibility of the German; and the petty in.
and many of their contemporaries, frequently borrowed  trigues of the modern Italian in some Venetian Novels.
their plots; not uncommonly kindled at their flame the ar-  We have shown tile world that we possess writers of the
dour of their genius; but bending too submissively to the  first order in this delightful province of Fiction and of
taste of their age, in extracting, the ore they have not puri-  Truth; for every Fiction invented naturally must be true.
fied it of the alloy.  The origin of these tales must be  After the abundant invective poured on this class of books,
traced to the inventions of' the Trouveurs, who doubtless  it is time to settle for ever the controversy, by asserting
often adopted them from various nations.  Of these tales,  that these works of fiction are among the most instruclive
Le Grand has printed a cirious collection; and of the   of every polished nation, and must contain all the useful
writers Mr Ellis observes, in his preface to' Way's Fab-  truths of human life, if composed with genius.  They are
liaux,' that the authors of the'Cento Novelle Antiche,'   pictures of the passions, useful to our youth to contemplate.
13occaccio, Bandello, Chaucer, Gower,-in short, the   That acute philosopher, Adam Smith, has given an opinion
writers of all Europe, have probably made use of the inven-  most favourable to Novels.' The poets and romance
tions of the elder fablers.  They have borrowed their  writers who best paint the refinements and delicacies of
general outlines, which they have filled up with colours  love and friendship, and of all other private and domestic
of their own, and have exercised their ingenuity in varying   affections, Racine and Voltaire, Richardson, Marivalx,
the drapery, in combining the groups, and in forming them    and Riccoboni, are in this case much better instructors
into more regular and animated pictures.                 than Zeno, Chrysippus, or Epictetus.'
WVe now turn to the French romances of the lastcentury,  The history of romances has been recently given by Mr
called heroic, from the circumstance of their authors adopt-  Dunlop, with many pleasing details; but athis work shouild
Ing the name of sonte hero.  The manners are the mo-  be accompanied by the learned Lenglet du Fresnoy's Bidern-antique; and the characters are of a sort of beings  liotheque des Romans, published under the name of M. le
made out of the ol,] epical, the Arcadian pastoral, and the   C. Gordon de Percel; which will be found useful for imParisian sentimentality and affectation of the days of Voi-  mediate reference for titles, dates, and a copious catalogue
ture.  The Astrea of D'Urf6 greatly contributed to their  of romances and novels to the year 1784.
perfection. As this work is founded on several curious
circumstances, it shall be the subject of the following arti-THE ASTREA.
cle; for it may be considered as a literary curiosity.  The  I bring the Astrea forwards to point out the ingenious
Astrea was followed by the illustrious Bassa, Artamene,   manner by which a fine imagination can veil the common
or the Great Cyrus, Clelia, &c, which, though not adapted   incidents of life, and turn whatever it touches into gold.
to the present age, once gave celebrity to their authors;  Honor6 D'Urfi was the descendant of art illustrious fa.
and the Great Cyrus, in ten volumes, passed through five   mily. His brother Anne married Diana of ChateaumnoOr six editions. Their style, as well as that of the Astrea, is  rand, the wealthy heiress of another great house. After a
diffuse and languid; yet Zaide, and the Princess of Cleves,  marriage of no less duration than twenty-two years, this
are master-pieces of the kind.  Such works formed the   union was broken by the desire of Anne himself, for a
first studies of Rousseau, who, with his father, would sit  cause which the delicacy of Diana had never revealed.
up all night, till warned by the chirping of the swallows   Anne then became an ecclesiastic. Some time afterwards,
how foolishly they had spent it! Sonie incidents in his  Honort, desirous of retaining the great wealth of Diana in
Nouvelle Heloise have been retraced to these sources; and  the family, addressed this lady, and married her.  This
they certainly entered greatly into the formation of his  union, however, did not prove fortunate. Diana, like the
characters.                                              goddess of that name, was a huntress, continually stir.
Such romances at length were regarded as pernicious to  rounded by her dogs.-They dined with her at table, and
good sense, taste, and literature. It was in this light they   slept with her in bed.-This insupportable nuisance could
were considered by Boileau, after he had indulged in them   not be patiently endured by the elegant Honoird.  He was
an his youth.                                            also disgusted with the barrenness of the huntress Diana,
A celebrated Jesuit pronounced an oration against these   who was only delivered every year of abortions. He seworks. The rhetorician exaggerates, and hurls his thun-  parated from her, and retired to Piedmont, where he passed
ders on flowers. He entreats the magistrates not to suffTr  his remaining days in peace, without feeling the thorns of
foreign romances to be scattered amongst the people, but  marriage and ambnhition rankling in his heart.  In this reto lay on them  heavy penalties as on prohibited goods;  treat he composed his Astrea; a pastoral romance, which
and represents this prevailing taste as being more pesti-  was the admiration of Europe during half a century.  It
lential than the plague itself. He has drawn a striking   forms a striking picture of human life, for the incidents
picture of a family devoted to romance reading; he there   are facts beautifully concealed.  They relate the amours
describes women occupied day and night with their pe-  and gallantries of the court of Henry IV.  The personrusal; children just escaped from the lap of their nurse   ages in the Astrea display a rich invention; and tine work
grasping in their little hands the fairy tales; and a country   might be still read, were it not for those wire-drawn and
quire seated in an old arm-chair. reading to his family the  languishing conversations, or rather disputations, which
monst wonderful passages of the ancient works of chivalry.  they then introduced into romances.  In a modern edition
These romances went out of fashion with our square-  of this work, by the Ahbb  Souchai, he has curtailed these
cocked hats; they had exhausted the patience of the public,  tiresome dialogues; the work still consists of ten duodecino
and fiorn them sprung Novels.  They attempted to allure  volumes.
attention by this inviting title, and reducing their works  Patru, when a youth, visited Honor6 in his retirement,
from ten to two volumes. The name of romance, includ-  and collected from him with some difficulty a few explana.
ing imaginary heroes and extravagant passions, disgusted;  tions of those circumstances which he had concealed uniand they substituted scenes of domestic life, and touched   der a veil of fiction.
our common feelings by pictures of real nature.  Heroes    In this romance, Celidte, to cure the unfortunate Celi.
* Cinthio's Novels, in two very thick volumes 12mo     don, and to deaprive Thamire at the same time of every
ommonly  o  at the pice of five or six   ieas. B   reason for jealousy, tears her face with a pointed diamond,
is equally higzh;   and even in Pope's time it appears by the
s equa   i; an  even in Ppes time it apears b  the   and disfigres it in so  cruel a manner, that she excites
correspondence of Lady Pomfret, that a copy sold at fifteen   horror in the breast of Thamire; who so ardently admires
guineas.                                                 this exertion of virtue, that he loves her, hideous as she is




LITERATURE.                                                     11t
gepresented, still more than when she was most beautiful.    Philander, ready to expire, will die with the glorious
Heaven, to be just, to these two lovers, restores the beauty  name of the husband of Astrea.  He entreats her to
ofC elid6e; which is effected by a sympathetic powder.  grant him this favour: she accords it to him, and swears
This romantic incident is thus explained: One of the  before the gods that she receives him in her heart for her
French princes (Celidon,) when he returned from Italy,  husband. The truth is, he enjoyed nothing but the name.
treated with coldness his admirable princess (Celidde);  Philander dies too, in combating with a hideous Moor,
this was the effect of his violent passion, which had now   which is the personification of his conscience, and which
become jealousy. The coolness subsisted till the prince  at length compelled him to quit so beautiful an object, and
was imprisoned, for state affairs, in the woods of Vincen-  one so worthy of being eternally beloved.
uies. The princess, with the permission of the court, fol-    The gratitude of Sylvander, on the point of being salowed him into his confinement.  This proof of her love  crificed, represents the consent of Honor-'s parents to
soon brought back the wandering heart and affections of  dissolve his vow of celibacy, and unite him to Diana;
the prince.  The small-pox seized her; which is the  and the druid Adamas represents the ecclesiastical power.
pointed diamond, and the dreadful disfigurement of her  The Fountain of the Truth of Love is that of marriage;
face. She was so fortunate as to escape being marked  the unicorns are the symbols of that purity which should
by this disease; which is meant by the sympathetic pow-  ever guard it; and the flaming eyes of the lions, which are
der.  This trivial incident is happily turned into the  also there, represent those inconveniences attending marmarvellous: that a wife should choose to be imprisoned  riage, but over which a faithful passion easily triumphs.
with her husband is not singular; to escape being marked    In this mariner has our author disguised his own private
by the small-pox happens every day; but to romance, as  history; and blended in his works a number of little
he has done, on such common circumstances, is beautiful  amours which passed at the court of Henry the Great. I
and ingenious.                                          might proceed in explaining these allegories; but what I
1)'Urfd, when a boy, is said to have been enamoured of  have noticed will be sufficient to give an idea of the ingeDiana; this indeed has been questioned. D'Urf6, how-  nuity of the author.
ever, was sent to the island of Malta to enter into that    Fonternelle, in his introduction to his Eclogues, has
order of knighthood; and in his absence Diana was mar-  made a pretty comparison of this species of pastoral roried to Anne.'What an affliction for Honore on his re-  mance with that of chivalry, which turned the brain of
turn, to see her married, ar, to his brother! His affection  Don Quixote.  When he reads the inimitable acts of
did not diminish, biut he concealed it in respectful silence.  Amadis, so many castles forced, giants hacked, magicians
He had some knowledge of his brother's unhappiness, and  confounded, lie does not regret that these are only fables;
on this probably founded his hopes. After several years,  but he adds, when I read the Astrea, where in a softened
during which the modest Diana had uttered no complaint,  repose love occupies the minds of amiable heroes, where
Anne declared himself; and shortly afterwards Honor6,  love decides on their fate, where wisdom itself preserves
as we have noticed, married Diana.      A              so little of its rigid air, that it becomes a zealous partisan
Our author has described the parties under this false  of love, even to Adamas, the sovereign druid, I then grieve
appearance of marriage. He assumes the names of Ce-  that it is only a romance!
ladon and Sylvander, and gives Diana those of Astrea and
D)iana.  He is Sylvander and she Astrea while she is
married to Anne; and he Celadon and she Diana when                       Pos   LASREAT.
the marriage is dissolved.  Sylvander is represented always as a lover who sighs secretly; nor does Diana de-    The present article is a sketch of the history of Poets
clare her passion till overcome by the long sufferings of Laureat, from a memoir of the French Academy, by the
her faithful shepherd. For this reason Astrea and Diana,  Abbe Resnel.
as well as Sylvander and Celadon, go together, prompted    The custom of crowning poets is as ancient as poetry
by the same despair, to the Fountain of the Truth of Love.  itself; it has indeed frequently varied; it existed, however,
Sylvander is called an unknown shepherd, who has no  as late as the reign of Theodosius, when it was abolished
other wealth than his flock: because our author was the  as a remain of paganism.
youngest of his family, or rather a knight of Malta, who    When the barbarians overspread Europe, few appeared
possessed nothing but honour.                          to merit this honour, and fewer who could have read their
Celadon in despair throws himself into a river; this  works. It was about the time of Petrarch, that Poetry
refers to his voyage to Malta. Under the name of Alexis  resumed its ancient lustre; he was publicly honoured with
he displays the friendship, of Astrea for him, and all those  the Laurel Crown. It was in this century (the thirteenth)
innc.cent freedoms which passed between them as rela-  that the establishment of Bachelor and Doctor, was fixed
tives from this circumstance he has contrived a difficulty  in the universities.  Those who were found worthy of the
inimlitasty delicate.                                  honour obtained the laurel of Bachelor, or the laurel of
Something of passion is to be discovered in these ex-  Doctor; Laurea  Baccalaureatus; Laurea Doctoratus. At
pressions of friendship.  When Alexis assumes the name  their reception they not only assumed this title, but they
of Celadon, he calls that love which Astrea had mistaken  also had a crown of laurel placed on their heads.
for fraternal affection. This was the trying moment. For    To this ceremony the ingenious writer attributes the
though she loved him, she is rigorous in her duty and hon-  revival of the custom. The poets were not slow in putnour.  She says,' what will they think of me if I unite  ting in their claims to what they had most right; and their
myself to him, after permitting, for so many years, those  patrons sought to encourage them by these honourable
familiarities which a brother may have taken with a sister,  distinctions.
with me, who knew that in fact I remained unmarried?'    The following formula is the exact style of those which
How she got over this nice scruple does not appear; it  are yet employed in the universities to confer the degree
was, however, for a long time a great obstacle to the feli-  of Bachelor arid Doctor, and serves to confirm the coni-c
city of our author. There is an incident which shows the  ture of Resnel.
purity of this married virgin, who was fearful the liberties' We, count and senator,' (Count d'Anguillara, whi
ale allowed Celadon might be ill construed.  Phillis tells  bestowed the laurel on Petrarch)' for us and our College
the druid Adamas, that Astrea was seen sleeping by the  declare Francis Petrarch, great poet and historian, and
Fountain of the Truth of Love, and that the unicorns which  for a special mark of his quality of poet, we have placed
guarded those waters were observed to approach her and  with our hands on his head a crown of laurel, granting lo
lay their heads on her lap.  According to fable, it is one  him, by the tenor of these presents, and by the authority
of the properties of these animals never to approach any  of King Robert, of the senate and the people of Rome, in
female but a maiden; at this strange difficulty our druid  the poetic, as well as in the historic art, and generally in
remains surprised; while A.strea has thus given an incon-  whatever relates to the said arts, as well in this holy city
trovertible proof of her purity.                        as elsewhere, the free and entire power of reading, disputThe history of Philander is that of the elder D'Urf6.  ing, and interpreting all ancient books, to make new ones,
None but boys disguised as girls, and girls as boys, appear  and compose poems, which, God assisting, shall endure
fn the history. It was in this manner he concealed, with-  from age to age.'
out offending modesty, the defect of his brother.  To     In Italy these honours did not long flourish; although
mark the truth of this history, when Philander is disguised  Tasso dignified the laurel crown by his acceptance of it.
as a woman, while he converses with Astrea of his love, he  Many got crowned who were unworthy of the distinction.:
frequently alludes to his misfortune, although in another  The laurel was evert bestowed on Querno, whose chara.e
jense,                                                 ter is given in the Dunciad:




120                                  CURIOSITIES OF' Not with more alce, by hands pontific crown'd,  disquisitions of the elegant Politian.  Critics of various
With scarlet hats wile-wavjrn circled round,     nations have acknowledged that his poetical versions have
omeod on isher capitol   Antichrist of wit.frequently excelled the originals.  This happy genius weas
Thron'd on seven hills, the Antichrist of wit.'
Canto II.   lodged in a most unhappy fbrmn; nor were his morals untainted: it is only in his literary compositions that he apThis man was made laureate, for the joke's sake; his po-  pears perfect.
etry was inspired by his cups, a kind of poet who came in    Monnoye, in his edition of the Menagiana, as a speciwith the dessert; and he recited twenty thousand verses.  men of his Epistles, gives a translation of the letter, which
Ele was rather the arch-buffbon than the arch-poet to Leo  serves as prefatory and dedicatory; and has accn lanied
X, though honoured with the latter title.  They invented  it by a commentary. The letter is replete with literature,
f~r him a new kind of laureated honour, and in the inter-  though void of pedantry; a barren subject is embellished
mixture of the foliage raised to Apollo, silly inserted the  by its happy turns.  It is addressed to his patron Monvine and the cabbage leaves, which he evidently deserved,  signor Pietro de Medicis; and was written about a Iontlh
from his extreme dexterity in clearing the pontiff's dishes  before the writer's death.  Perhaps no author has so ad.
anrd emptying his goblets.                              mirably defended himself from the incertitude of criticism
Urban VIII had a juster and more elevated idea of the  and the fastidiousness of critics.  His wit and his humour
children ofFancy.   It appears that he possessed much   are delicate; and few  compositions are sprinkled with
poetic sensibility. Of hini it is recorded, that he wrote a  such Attic salt.
letter to Chiabrera to felicitate him on the success of his  MY LORID!
poetry: letters written by a pope were then an honour    You have frequently urged me to collect my letters, to
o-nly paid to crowned heads. One is -leased also with an-  revise and to publish them in a volume. I have now gathtuher testimony of his elegant dispositions.  Charmed   ered them, that I might not omit any mark of that obediwith a poem which Bracciollini presented to him, he gave  ence which I owe to him, on whom I rest all my hopes,
him the surname of DELLE-APE, of the bees; which were  and all my prosperity.  I have inot, however, collected
the arms of this amiable pope.  He, however. never  them all, because that would have been a more lab(iioucrowned these favourite bards with the laurei, which, pro-  task, tnan io have gathered the scattered leaves ot th:a
bably, he deemed unworthy of them.                      Sibyl. It was never, indeed, with an intention of forming
In Germany the laureate honours flourished under the  my letters into one body that I wrote them, but merely al
reign of Maximilian the First. He founded in 1504 a po-  occasion prompted, and as the subjects presented them.
etical College at Vienna; reserving to himself and the  selves without seeking for them. I never retained copies
regent the power of bestowing the laurel.  But the insti-  except of a few, which less fortunate, I think, than the
tution, notwithstanding this well-concerted scheme, fell in-  others, were thus favoured for the sake of the verses they
to disrepute, owing to a crowd of claimants who were fired   contained. To form, however a tolerable volume, I have
with the rage of versifying, and who, though destitute of  also inserted some written by others, but only those with
poetic talents, had the laurel bestowed on them. Thus it  which several ingenious scholars favoured me, and which,
became a prostituted honour; and satires were incessantly  perhaps, may put the reader in good humour with my
levelled against the usurpers of the crown of Apollo: it  own.
seems, notwithstanding, always to have had charms in      There is one thing for which some will be inclined to
the eyes of the Germans,who did not reflect, as the Abb6  censure me; the style of my letters is very unequal; and,
elegantly expresses himself, that it faded when it passed  to confess the truth, I did not find myself always in the
over so many heads.                                     same humour, and the same modes of expression were
The Emperor of Germany retains the laureateship in  not adapted to every person and every topic.  They
all its splendour.  The select bard is called It Poeta Ces-  will not fail then to observe, when they read such a
areo. Apostolo Zeno, as celebrated for his erudition as  diversity of le'ters (I mean if they do read them) that
for his poetic powers,was succeeded by that most enchant.  I have composed not epistles, but (once more) misceling poet, Metastasio.                                   lanies.
The Frence never had a Poet Laureate, though they       I hope, my Lord, notwithstanding this, that amongst
had Regal Poets; for none were ever solemnly crown-  such a variety of opinions, of those who write letters, and
ed.  The Spanish nation, always desirous of titles of  of those who give precepts how letters should be written,
honour, seem  to have known the Laureate; but little  I shall find some apology.  Some, probably, will deny
information concerning it can be gathered from their au-  that they are Ciceronian. I can answer such, and not
thors.                                                  without good authority, that in epistolary composition wq
Representing our own country little can be said but  must not regard Cicero as a model. Another perhaps wilI
what is mentioned by Selden. John Kay, who dedicated   say, that I imitate Cicero. And him I will answer by ob.
a History of Rhodes to Edward IV, takes the title of his  serving, that I wish nothing better, than to be capable oL
humble Poet Laureate.  Gower and Chaucer were laure-  grasping something of this great man, were it but his
ates; so was likewise the rhyming Skelton of Henry VIII.  shadow!
In the Acts of Rymer, there is a character of Hetry VII   Another will wish that I had borrowed a little from  thie
with the title of pro Poeta Laureato.                   manner of Pliny the orator, because his profound sense
It does not appear that our poets were ever solemnly  and accuracy were greatly esteemed. I shall oppose him
crowned as in other countries.  Selden, after all his re-  by expressing my contempt of all the writers of the age of
condite researches, is satisfied with saying, that some  Pliny. Ifit should be observed, that I have imitated the
trace of this distinction is to be found in our nation. It is,  manner of Pliny, I shall then screen myself by what Sidohowever, certain that our kings from time immemorial  nius Apollinaris, an author who is by no means disre.
have placed a miserable dependant in their household ap-  putable, says in commendation of his epistolary style.pointment, who was sometimes called the King's poet,  Do I resemble Symmachus?  I shall not be sorry, tor
and the King's versiJicator.  It is probable that at length  they distinguish his openness and conciseness. Am  I
the selected hard assumed the title of Poet Laureat, with-  considered in no wise resembling him?  I shall confess
out receiving the honours of the ceremony; or at the  that I am not pleased with his dry manner.
most, the crown of laurel was a mere obscure custom       Will my letters be condemned for their length?  Plato,
practised at our universities, and not attended with great  Aristotle, Thucydides, and Cicero, have all written long
public distinction.  It was oftener placed on the skull  ones.  Will some of them be criticised for their brevity'
of a pedant than wreathed on the head of a man of  I allege in my favour the examples of Dion, Brutus A p.
genius.                                                 pollonius Philostratus, Marcus Antonius, Alciphron, Ju
lian, Symmachus, and also Lucian, who vulgarly, but
ANGELO POLITIAN.                      falsely, is believed to have been Phalaris.
Angelo Politian, an Italian, was one of the most pol-    I shall be censured for having treated of topics which
isled writers of the fifteenth century. Baillet has placed   are not generally considered as proper for epistolary comrn
him amongst his celebrated children; for he was a writer  position.  I admit this censure, provided while I am con.
at twelve years of age. The Muses indeed cherished him   demned,Seneca also shares in the condemnationt. Another
in his cradle, and the Graces hung round it their most  will not allow of a sententious manner in my letters; I wi.i
beautiful wreaths.'When he became professor of the  still justify myselfby Seneca.  Another, on the contrary,
Greek language, such were the charms of his lectures,  desires abrupt sententious periods; Dyonysius  shall anthat one Chalcondylas, a native of Greece, saw himself  swer him for me, who maintains, that pointed sentences
a-andoned by his pupils, who resorted to the delightful  should not be admitted into letters.
CP~~"~"'-~~-I  ----- I-r —-I  ~ —-- -------- -- -~~ — -~ —L




LITERATURE.                                                    121
Is my style too perspicuous?  It is precisely that which   day, so may I perchaunce haue time to declare it inl
Philostratus admires.  Is it obscure? Su ch is that of  dides wher now I do write them but in wordes. And furCicero to Atticus. Negligent? An agreeable negligence  ther I shall most humbly beseche your Maiestie that
in letters is more gracefulthan elaborate ornaments. La-  whan you shal loke on my pictur you wit witsafe to
boured? Nothing can be more proper, since we send  thinke that as you haue but the outwarde shadow of the
epistles to out friends as a kind of presents. If they dis-  body afore you, so my inward minde wischeth, that the
play too nice an arrangement, the Halicarnassian shall  body itselfe wer oftener in your presence; howbeitbicause
vindicate me.  If there is none; Artemon says there  bothe my so beinge I thinke coulde do your Maiestie litel
should be none.                                         pleasure thogth my selfe great good, and aaaine bicause I
NGW as a good and pure Latinity has its peculiar taste,  se as yet not the time agreing thereuto, i shal lerne to
i.s manners, and (to express myself thus) its Atticisms;  folow this sainge of Orace. Feras non culpes quod vitari
if ih, this sense a letter shall be found not sufficiently Attic,  non potest. And thus I wil (trobliiige your Maiestie I
so much the better; for what was Herod the sophist cen-  fere) ende with my most humble thankes, besechinge God
sured? but that having beetn born an Athenian, he affec-  longe to preserue you to his honour, to your cofort, to the
ted too much to appear one in his language.  Should a  realmes profit, and to my joy. From  Hatfilde this 1 day,etter seem too Attical; still better, since it was by discov-  of May.
ering Theophrastus, who was no Athenian, that a good                 Your Maiesties most humbly Sistar
old woman of ALhens laid hold of a word, and shamed him.                    and Seruante.
Shall one letter be found not sufficiently serious? 1 love                                  ELIZABETH,
to jest. Or is it too grave? I am pleased with gravity.
Is another full of figures?  Letters being the images of                  ANNE BULLEE.
discourse, figures have the effect of graceful action in con-    That minute detail of circumstances frequently found In
versation.  Are they deficient in figures? This is just  writers of the history of their own times is more intewhat characterises a letter, this want of figures!  Does  resting than the elegant and general narratives of later,
it discover the genius of the writer?   This frankness is  and probably of more philosophical historians. It is in
recommended.  Does it conceal it?  The writer did not  the artless recitals of memoir-writers, that the imagination
think proper to paint himself; and it is one requisite in a  is struck with a lively impression, and fastens on petty
letter, that it should be void of ostentation.  You express  circumstances which must be passed over by the classical
yourself, some one will observe, in common terms on  historian.  The writings ofBrantome, Comines, Froissart,
common topics, and in new terms on new topics. The   and others, are dictated by their natural feelings: while
style is thus adapted to the subject.  No, no, he will an-  the passions of modern writers are temperate with dispasswer; it is in common terms you express new ideas,and in  sionate philosophy, or inflamed by the virulence of faction.
new terms common ideas.  Very well! It is because I  History instructs, but Memoirs delight.  These prefatory
have not forgotten an ancient Greek precept which ex-  observations may serve as an apology for Anecdotes, which
pressly recommends this.                                are gathered from obscure corners, on which the dignity os
It is thus by attempting to be ambidexterous I try to  the historian nmust not dwell.
ward off attacks. My critics will however criticise me as    In Houssaie's Memoires, Vol. I, p. 435, a little circumthey please. It will be sufficient for me, my Lord, to be  stance is recorded concerning the decapitation of the unassured of having satisfied you, by my letters, if they are  fortunate Anne Bullen, which illustrates an observation of
good; or by my obedience, if they are not so.           Hume. Our historian notices that her executioner was a
Florence, 1494.                                  Frenchman of Calais, who was supposed to have uncommon skill; it is probable that the following incident might
ORIGINAL LETTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.               have been preserved by tradition in France, from the account of the executioner himself.-Anne Bullen being on
In the Cottonian Library, Vespasian, F. III, is pre-  the scaffold, would not consent to have her eyes covered
served a let-ter written by Queen Elizabeth(then Princess)  with a bandage, saying, that she had no fear of death. All
to her sister Queen Mary. It appears, by this epistle, that  that the divine who assisted at her execution could obtain
Mary had desired to have her picture; and in gratifying  from her was, that she would shut her eyes. But as she
the wishes of her majesty, Elizabeth accompanies the  was opening them at every moment, the executioner could
present with the fol.owing elaborate letter.  It bears no  not bear their tender and mild glances; fearful of missing
date of the year in which it was written; but her place of  his aim, he was obliged to invent an expedient to behead the
residence is marked to be at Hatfield.  There she had re-  queen.  He drew off his shoes, and approached her silenttired to enjoy the silent pleasures of a studious life, and to  ly: while he was at her left hand, another person advanced
be distant from the dangerous politics of the time. When   at her right, who made a great noise in walking, so that
Mary died Elizabeth was as Hatfield; the letter must  this circumstance drawing the attention of Anne, she
have been written shortly before this circumstance took  turned her face from the executioner, who was enabled by
place. She was at the time of its composition in habitual  this artifice to strike the fatal blow, without being disarmintercourse with the most excellent writers of antiquity;  ed by that spirit of affecting resignation which shone in the
her letter displays this in every part of it; it is polished   eyes of the lovely Anne Bullen.
and repolished. It has also the merit of now being first
published.' The common Executioner,
Whose heart th' accustom'd sight of death makes hard,
LETTER.                            Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck
But first begs pardon.'               Shakspeare.
c Like as the riche man that dayly gathereth riches to
riches, and to one bag of money layeth a greate sort til it                   JAMES 1.
come to infinit, so me thinkes, vour Maiestie not beinge    It was usual, in the reign of James the First, when they
siffised with many benefits and gentilnes shewed to me  compared it with the preceding glorious one, to distinguish
afore this time, dothe now increase them in askinge and  him by the title of Queen James, and his illustrious prededesiring wher you may bid and commnaunde, requiring a   cessor by that of King Elizabeth!  Sir Anthony Weldon
thinge not worthy the desiringe for it selfle, but made wor-  informs us,' that when James the First sent Sir Roger
thv for your highness request. My pictur I mene, in  Aston as his messenger to Elizabeth, Sir Roger was atwiche if the inward good mynde towarde your grace  ways placed in the lobby: the hangings being turned so
might as wel be declared as the outwarde face and  that he might see the queen dancing to a little fiddle, which
countenance  shal be seen, I wold not haue taried   was to no other end than that he should tell his master, by
the comandement but prevent it, nor haue bine the last to  her youthful disposition, how likely he was to come to the
graunt but the first to offer it. For the face, I graunt,  crown he so much thirsted after; — and indeed, when at
I mite wel blusche to offer, but the mynde I shal neur  her death this same knight, whose origin was low, and
be ashamed to present. For thogth from the grace of  whose language was suitable to that origin, appeared be
the picture the coulers may fade by time, may giue by  fore the English council, he could not conceal his Scottish
wether, may be spotted by chance, yet the other nor  rapture, for, asked how the king did? he replied,' even,
time with her swift winces shall ouertake, nor the mistie  my lords, like a poore man wandering about ftrty years in
clildes with their lowerinaes may darken, nor chance  a wildernesse and barren soyle, and now arrived at the
with her slipery feote may overthrow.   Of this althogth   Land of Promise.' A  curious anecdote, respecting the
ye thie profo could not be greate because the occasions  economy of the comurt in these reigns, is noticed in some
halhe bine but smal, notwithstandinge as a dog hathe a  manuscript memoirs written in James's reign, preserved
16




122                                  CURIOSITIES OF,n a family of'distinction.  The lady, who wrote these me-  there was a chance,' writes the author osf the Catalogue ol
moirs, tells us that a great change had taken place in   Noble Authors,'that the dyer's son, Vorstius, might be
cleanliness, since  the last reign; for having rose from her  divinity-professor at Leyden, instead of being burnt, as his
chair, she found, oil her departure, that she had the hun-  majesty hinted to the Christian prudence of the Dutch that
our of carrying upon her some companions who must have  he deserved to be, our ambassadors could not receive in.
been inhabiiants of the palace.  The court of Elizabeth  structions, and consequently could not treat, on any other
was celebrated occasionally for its magnificence, and al-  business. The king, who did not resent the massacre at
ways for its nicety. James was singularly effeminate; he   Amboyna, was on the point of breaking with the States
ceuld not behold a drawn sword without shuddering; was  for supporting a man who professed the heresies of Enjemuch too partial to handsome men; and appears to merit  dius, Ostodorus, &c, points of extrenie consequence to
the bitter satire of Churchill. If wanting other proofs, we  Great Britain! Sir Dudley Carleton was forced to threatshould only read the second volume of' Royal Letters,'  en the Dutch, not only with the hatred of King James, but
6987, in the IHarleian collections, which contains Stenie's  also with his pen.
correspondence with James.  The gross familiarity of      This royal pedant is forcibly characterised by the fol.
Buckingham's address is couched in such terms as these:  lowing observations of the same writer:
-he calls his majesty'Dere dad and Gossope!' and con-' Among his majesty's works is a small collection ofpoeludes his letters with'your humble slaue and dogge,  etry.  Like several of his subjects, our royal author has
Stenie.' He was a most weak, but not quite a vicious  condescended to apologize for its imperfections, as having
man; yet his expertness in the art of dissimnulation was  been written inl his youth, and his maturer age being other,
very great indeed.  He called this King-Craft.  Sir An-  wise occupied. So that (to employ his own language)
thony W;Veldon gives a lively anecdote of this dissimulation   when his ingyne and age could, his affaires and fascherie
in the king's behaviour to the Earl of Somerset at the   would not permit him to correct them, scarslie but at stolen
very moment he had prepared to disgrace him. Thile earl  moments, he having the leisure to blenk upon any paper.'
accompanied the king to Royston, and, to his apprehension,  When James sent a present o f his harangues, turned into
never parted from him with more seeming affection, though   Latin, to the protestant princes in Europe, it is not unenthe king well knew he should never see him more.' The  tertaining to observe in their answers of compliments and
earl when he kissed his hand, the king hung about his  thanks, how each endeavoured of insinuate that he had
neck, slabbering his cheeks, saying-for God's sake, when  read them, without positively asserting it! Buchanan,
shall I see thee again?  On my soul I shall neither eat  when askled how he came to make a pedant of his royal
nor sleep until you come again.  The earl told him on  pupil, answered, that it was the best he could make of him.
Monday (this being oni the Friday.)  For God's sake let  Sir George Mackenzie relates a story of his tutelage,
me, said the king":-Shall I, shall i? —then lolled about  which shows Buchanan's humour, arid the veneration of
his neck;-then for God's sake give thy lady this kisse for  others for royalty.' The young king being one day at play
me, in the same manner at the stayre's head, at the mid-  with his fellow pupil, the master of Erskine, Buchanan was
die of the stayres, and at the stayre's foot. The earlwas  reading, and desired them to make less noise.  As they
not in his coach when the king used these very words (in  disregarded his admonition, he told his majesty, if he did
the. hearing of four servants, one of whom reported it in-  not hold his tongue, he would certainly whip his breech.
stantly to the author of this history,) "I shall never see  The king replied, he would be glad to see who would
his face more."'                                        bell the cat, alluding to the fable. Buchanan lost his teemHe displayed great imbecility in his amusements, which   per, and throwing his book from  him, gave his majesty a
are characterised by the following one, related by Arthur  sound flogging.  The old Countess of Mar rushed into the
Wilson. —When  James became melancholy in conse-  room, and taking the king In her arms, asked how he dared
quence of various disappointments in state matters, Buck-  to lay his hands on the lord's annointed? Madam, replied
ingham  and his mother used several means of diverting  the elegant and immortal historian, I have whipped his
him. Amongst the most ludicrous was the present. —  a-,you may kiss itif you please!'
They had a young lady, who brought a pig in the dress of  Many years after this was published, I discovered a cu.
a new-born infant: the countess carried it to the king,  rious anecdote:-Even so late as when James I was seat.
wrapped in a rich mantle. One Turpin, on this occasion,  ed on the throne of England, once the appearance of his
was dressed like a bishop in all his pontifical ornaments.  frowning tutor in a dream greatly agitated the king, whoin
He began the rites of baptism  with the common prayer-  vain attempted to pacify his illustrious pedagogue in thi;
book in his hand; a silver ewvr with water was held by   portentous vision. Such was the terror which the rememr.
another. The marquis stood as godfather.  When James  brance of this inexorable republican tutor had left on the
turned to look at. the infant, the pig squeaked: an animal  imagination of his royal pupil.*
which he greatly abhorred.  At this, highly displeased,    James I, was suddenly a zealous votary of literature;
he exclaimed,-' Out! Away for shame! What bias-  his wish was sincere, when at viewing the Bodleian Liphemy is this!'                                         brary at Oxford, he exclaimed,'were I not a king I would
Tilis ridiculous joke did not accord with the feelings of  be an university man; and if it were so that I must
James at that momentt; he was not' i' the vein.' Yet we  be a prisoner, if I might have my wish, I would have no
may observe, that hal inot such artful politicians as Buck-  other prison than this library, and be chained together with
ingham  and his mother been strongly persuaded of the  these good authors.'
success of this puerile fancy, they would not have ventured  Hume has informed us, that'his death was decent.
on such'b!asphemies.' They certainly had witnessed   The following are the minute particulars; I have drawn
amusements heretofore not less trivial, which had gratified  them from  an imperfect manuscript collection, made by
I's majesty.  The account which Sir Anthony Weldon  the celebrated Sir Thomas Browne:
grtes, ia his Court of King James, exhibits a curious scene' The lord keeper, on March 22, received a letter from
of James's amusements.' After the king supped, he  the court, that it was feared his majesty's sickness was
would come forth to see pastimes and fboleries; in which   dangerous to death; which fear was more confirmed, for
Sir Ed Zoiuch,  Sir George Goring. and Sir John Finit,  he, meeting Dr Harvey in the road, was told by him that
were the chiefe and master fools, and surely this fooling  the king used to have a beneficial evacuation of nature, a
got them more than any others' wisdome; Zouch's part  sweating in his left arm, as helpful to him as any fontainel
was to sin. bawdy songs, and tell bawdy tales; Finit's to  could be, which of late failed.
compose these songs; there was a set of fiddlers brought'When the lord keeper presented himself before him,
to court on purpgose for this fooling, and Goring was master  he moved to cheerful discourse, but it would not do. He
of the game for fooleries, sometimes presenting David  staid by his bed-side until midnight. Upon the consultaDroman and Archee Armstrong, the kinge's foole, on the  tions of the physicians in the morning he was out of com.
back of the other fools, to tilt one at another, till they fell  fort, and by the prince's leave told him, knee!ing by his
together by the eares; sometimes they performed antick   pallet, that his days to come would be but few in this world,
dances. But Sir John Millicent (who was never known   -" I am sati.fied," said the king; but pray you assist me
before) was commended for notable fooling; and was in-  to make me ready for the next world, to go away hence for
deed the best extemporary foole of theim all.' Weldon's  Christ, whose mercies I call for and hope to find."
Court of James' is a scandalous chronicle of the times.'From  that time the keeper never left him, or put offbis
His dispsitions were, however, generally grave and  cloaths to go to bed. The king took the communion, anu
utudi:us. He seems to have possessed a real love of let-    See the manuscript letter wh e I drew this cur  
* See the manunscript letter who ~lce I drew thnis elcriots' h;
ters, but attended with that mediocrity of talent which in  formation in'An Inquiry into the Literary and Political CBa.
a private person had never raised him into notice.' While  racter of James I. p. 61.




LITERA T U R E.                                                123
professed he died in the bosom of the Church of England,   was as little happy for the one as for the other. The hus.
whose doctrine he had defended with his pen, being per-  band did not like his wife, although she doted on him; an4
suaded it Nwas according to the mind of Christ, as he should  the English hated Philip still more than he hated them,
shortly answer it before him.                           Silhon says, that the rigour which he exercised in England' He staid in the chamber to take notice of every thing   against heretics, partly hindered Prince Carlos from sue.
the king said, and to repulse those who crept much about  ceeding to that crown, and for which purpose Mary had
the chainber door, and into the chamber; they were for the  invited him in case she died childless! —But no historian
most addicted to the Church of Rome. Being rid of  speaks of this pretended inclination, and is it probable that
them, he continued in prayer, while the king lingered on,  Mary ever thought proper to call to the succession of the
and at last shut his eyes with his own hands.'          English throne the son of' the Spanish monarch?  This
Thus in the full powers of his faculties, a timorous  marriage had made her nation detest her, and in the last
prince encountered the horrors of dissolution. Religion   years of her life she could be little satisfied with him fiom
rendered cheerful the abrupt night of futurity; and what  his marked indifference for her. She well knew that the
can philosophy do more, or rather can philosophy do as   Parliament would never consent to exclude her sister
inuch?                                                 Elizabeth, whom the nobility loved for being more friendly
I proposed to have examined with some care the works  to the new  religion, and more hostile to the house of
of James 1,-but that uninviting task has been now post-  Austria.'
poned till it is too late. As a writer his works mlay not be  In the Cottonian Library, Vespasian, F. rII, is prevaluable, and are infected with the pedantry and the su-  served a note of instructions in the hand-writing of-Queen
perstition of the age; yet I suspect that James was not  Mary, of which the following is a copy. It was, probably,
that degraded and feeble character in which he ranks by   written when Philip was just seated on the English throne.
the contagious voice of criticism. He has had more critics than readers. After a great number of acute obser-     First  to tell te Kinge te wole state of this reame
vations and witty allusions, made extempore, which we      irste, t   ell th e Kinae  the  whole state of this reale
find continually recorded of him by contemporary writers,  wt all thyngs appartaynyng to the same, as myche as ye
and some not friendly to him, I conclude that he possessed   knoe to be to obey his commandment in al thyngs.'
a great promptness of wit, and much solid judgment and' Seconde, to obe his commandment in all thyngs.'
acute ingenuity.  It requires only a little labour to prove' Thyrdly, in all things he shall aske your adoyse to
this.                                                   declare your opinion as becometh a faythful conceyllour to
do.' Marye the iuene.'
That labour I have since zealously performed. This  do.                                Marye the
article, composed thirty years ago, displays the effects of    Houssaii proceeds:' After the death of }Mary, Philip
first impressions, and popular clamours. About ten years  sought Elizabeth in marriage; and she, who was yet un.
I suspected that his character was grossly injured, and  fixed at the beginning of her reign, amused him at first
lately I found how it has suffered from  a variety of  with hopes. But as soon as she unmasked herself to the
causes. That monarch preserved for us a peace of more   Pope, she laughed at Philip, telling the Duke of'Feria, his
than twenty years; and his talents were of a higher order  ambassador, that her conscience would not permit her to
than the calumnies of the party who degraded him have  marry the husband of her sister.'
allowed a common inquirer to discover. For the  rest I    This monarch, however, had no such scruples. Incest
must refer the reader to' An Inquiry into the Literary  appears to have had in his eyes peculiar charms; for ho
and Political Character of James I;' where, though I  offered himself three times to three different sisters-inhave there introduced a variety of irrelevant topics, the  law. He seems also to have known the secret of getting
~eader may find many correctives for this article.      quit of his wives when they became inconvenient. In
y GENERAL MONK AND H I tS WSFEstate matters he spared no one whom he feared; to them
he sacrificed his only son, his brother, and a great number
From the samne aIS collection of Sir Thomas Browne,  of princes and ministers.
I shall rescue another anecdote, which has a tendency to    It is said of Philip, that before he died he advised his son
show that it is not advisable to permit ladies to remain at  to make peace with England, and war with the other
home, when political plots are to be secretly discussed.  powers. Pacem cum Anglo, bellum cum reliquis. Queen
And while it displays the treachery of Monk's wife, it will  Elizabeth, and the ruin of his invihcible fleet, physicked
also appear that, like other great revolutionists, it was am-  his phrensy into health, and taught him to fear and respect
bilion that first induced him to become the reformer he  that country which he thought he could have made a pro.
pretended to be.                                        vince of Spain!' Monk cave fair promises to the Rump, but last agreed  On his death-bed he did every thing he could for sal.
with the French Ambassador to take the government on  vation.  The following protestation, a curious morsel of
himself; by whom he had a promise from Mazarin of as-  bigotry, he sent to his confessor a few days before he died:
sistance from France.  This bargain was struck late at' Father confessor! as you occupy the place of God, I
night: but not so secretly but that Monk's wife, who had   protest to you that I will do every thing you shall say to be
posted herself conveniently behind the hangings, finding  necessary for my being saved; so that what I omit doing
what was resolved upon, sent her brother Clarges away   will be placed to your account, as I am  ready to acquit
Immediately with notice of it to Sir A. A. She had pro-  myself of all that shall be ordered to me.'
nised to watch her husband, and inform Sir A. how mat-    Is there in the records of history a more glaring instance
ters went. Sir A. caused the Council of state, whereof  of the idea which a good catholic attaches to the power of
he was a member, to be summoned, and charged Monk   a confessor than the present authentic example?  The
that lie was playing false. The general insisted that he  most licentious philosophy seems not more dangerous than
was true to his principles, and firm to what he had promis-  a religion whose votary believes that the accumulation of
ed, and that he was ready to give them all satisfaction.  crimes can be dissipated by the breath of a few orisons,
Sir A. told him if he were sincere he might remove all  and which, considering a venal priest to' occupy the place
scruples, and should instantly take awake their commis-  of God,' can traffic with the divine power at a very modersions from such and such men in his army, and appoint  ate price.
others, and that before he left the room. MIonk consented;    After his death a Spanish grandee wrote with a coal on
a great part of the commissions of his officers were chang-  the chimney-piece of his chamber the following epitaph,
ed, and Sir Edward Harley, a member of the council, and   which ingeniously paints his character in four verses:
then present, was made governor of Dunkirk, in the room             Siendo moco luxurlso,
of Sir W':lliam  Lockhart; the army ceased to be at                 Siendo hombre, fuere;
Monk's devotion; the Ambassador was recalled, and broke            Siendo viejo, condicioso;
his heart.'                                                        Que se puede esperar del?
Sutch were the effects of the infidelity of the wife of
In youth he was luxurious;
terveral ~Monk!                                                   In manhood he was cruel;
PHILIP AND MARYIn old age he was avaricious;
What could be hoped from him?
Houssaie in his Memoires, vol. i, p. 261, has given the
foilowing curious particulars of this singular union:                             THE FtH5T.' The second wife of Philip was Mary bQueen of Ene-    Of his romantic excursiorn into Spain for the Lnfianta;and  a virtuous princess (Houissaie was a good catholic,)  many curious particulars are scattered amongst foreign
but who had neither youth nor beauty. This marriage   writers, which display the superstitious preiudices whicn




124                                   CURIOSITIES OF
prevailed on this occasion, and, perhaps, develope the mys-  He watched hours in the street to meet with her; and
teriorus politics of the courts of Spain and Rome.      Wilson says he gave such liberal presents to the court. as
Cardinal Gaetano, who had long been nuncio in Spain,  wall as Buckingham to the Spanish beauties, that the Lord
observes, that the people, accustomed to revere the inquisi-  Treasurer Middlesex complained repeatedly of their wastetion as the oracle of divinity, abhorred that proposal of mar-  ful prodigality.
riage of the Infanta with an heretical prince; but that the  Let us now observe by what mode this match was con.
king's council, and all wise politicians, were desirous of  sented to by the courts of Spain and Rome.  Wilson inits accomplishment. Gregory XV held a consultation of  forms us that Charles agreed' That any one should freely
cardinals, where it was agreed that the just apprehension   propose to him the arguments in favour of the catholic rewhich the English catholics entertained of being more  ligion, without giving any impediment; but that he would
cruelly persecuted, if this marriage failed, was a sufficient  never, directly or indirectly, permit any one to speak to the
reason to justify the pope.  The dispensation was there-  Infanta against the same.' They probably had tampered
fore immediately granted, and sent to the nuncio of Spain,  with Charles concerning his religion. A letter of Gregory
with orders to inform the Prince of Wales, in case of' rup-  XV to him is preserved in'Wilson's life. Olivares said
ture, that no impediment of the marriage proceeded from   to Buckingham, you gave me some assurance and hope of
the court of Roule, who, on the contrary, had expedited   the prince's turning catholic.  The duke roundly answerthe dispensation.                                       ed that it was false. The Spanish minister, confounded
The prince's excursion to Madrid was, however, uni-  at the bluntness of our English duke, broke from him in a
versally blamed, as being inimical to state interests. Nani,  violent rage, and lamented that state matters would not
author of a history of Venice, which, according to his dis-  suffer him to do himself justice.  This insult was never
gressive manner, is the universal history of his times, has  forgiven: and some time afterwards he attempted to re.
noticed this affair.' The people talked, and the English   venge himself on Buckingham, by endeavoring to permurmured more than any other nation to see the only son   suade James that he was at the head of a conspiracy
of the king, and heir of his realms, venture on so long a  against him.
voyage, and present himself rather as a hostage than a    We hasten to conclude these anecdotes not to be found
husband to a foreign court, which so widely differed in  in the pages of Hume and Smollett. Wilson says that
government and religion, to obtain by force of prayer and   both kingdoms rejoiced.' Preparations were made in
supplications a woman whom Philip and his ministers   England to entertain the Infanta; anew church was built
made a. point of honour and conscience to refuse.'      at St James's, the foundation-stone of which was laid by
Houssaie observes,' The English council were against  the Spanish ambassador, for the public exercise of her reit, but King James obstinately resolved on it; being over-  ligion; her portrait was multiplied in every corner of the
persuaded by Gondomar, the Spanish Ambassador, whose  town; such as hoped to flourish under her eye suddenly
facetious humour and lively repartees greatly delighted him.  began to be powerful. In Spain (as Wilson quaintly exGondomar persuaded him that the presence of the prince   presses himnself) the substance was as much courted as
would not fail of accomplishing this union, and also the res-  the shadow  here. Indeed the Infanta, Howel tells us,
titution of the electorate to his son-in-law  the palatine.  was applying hard to the English language, and was alAdd to this the Earl of'Bristol, the English ambassador  ready called the Princess of England.  To conclude,extraordinary at the court of Madrid, finding it his interest,  Charles complained of the repeated delays; and he, and
wrote repeatedly to his majesty that the success was cer-  the Spanish court, parted with a thousand civilities. The
lain if the prince came there, for that the Infanta would be  Infanta however observed, that had the prince loved her,
charmed with his personal appearance and polished man-  he would not have quitted her.'
rers. It was thus that James, seduced by these two am-    How shall we dispel those clouds of mystery with which
bassadors, and by his paternal affection for both his chil-  politics have covered this strange transaction? It appears
dren, permitted the Prince of Wiales to travel into Spain.'  that James had in view the restoration of the Palatinate
This account differs from Clarendon.                    to his daughter, whom he could not effectually assist; that
Wicquefort says, that James in all this was the dupe of  the court of Rome had speculations of the most dangerous
Gondomar, who well knew the impossibility of this mar-  tendency to the Protestant religion; that the marriage was
riage, which was alike inimical to the interests of politics  broken off by that personal hatred which existed between
and the inquisition.  For a long time he amused his ma-  Olivares and Buckingham; and that, if there was any Siilijsty with hopes, and even got money for the household  cerity existing between the parties concerned, it rested
expenses of the fiuture queen. He acted his part so well,  with the Prince and the Infanta, who were both youthful
that the King of Spain recompensed the knave, on his re-  and romantic, and were but two beautiful ivory balls in the
turn, with a seat in the council of state.' There is pre-  hands of great players.
served in the British Museum a considerable series of
letters which passed between James I, and the Duke of                  DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
Buckingham and Charles, during their residence in Spain.
I shall glean some further particulars concerning this  The Duke of Buckingham, in his bold and familiar manmysterious affair from two English contemporaries, Howel  ner, appears to have been eqtually a favourite with James
and Wilson who wrote from their own observations. Ho-  I, and Charles I. He behaved with singular indiscretion
wel had been employed in this projected match, and re-  both at the courts of France and Spain.
sided during its negotiation at Madrid.                   Various anecdotes might be collected from tht -memoir
Howel describes the first interview of Prince Charles  writers ofthose countries, to convince us that our court was
arid the Infanta. He says,' The Infanta wore a blue   always little respected by its ill choice of this ambassadcr.
riband about her arm, that!he prince might distinguish   His character is hit off by one master-stroke from the penher, and as soon as she saw the prince her colour rose very  cil of Hume;  He had,' says this penetrating observer of
high.''Wilson informs us that'two days after their in-  men,'English familiarity and French levity-:' so that he
terview the prince was invited to run at the ring, where  was in full possession of two of the most offensive qualities
his fair mistress was a spectator, and to the glory of his  an ambassador can possess.
fortune, and the great contentment both of himself and the  Sir Henry Wotton has written an interesting life of our
lookers on, he took the ring the very first course.' Howel,  duke. At school his character fully discovered itself, even
writing from Madrid, says'The people here do mightily  at that early period of life. He would not apply to any
magnify the gallantry of the journey, and cry out that he  serious studies, but excelled in those lighter qualifications
deserved to have the Infanta thrown into his arms the  adapteato please in the world. He was a gracefll horsefirst night he ame.' The people appear, however, some  man, musician, and dancer. His mother withdrew him
time after to doubt if the English had any religion at all.  from  school at the early age of thirteen, and he soon be.
Again,'I have seen the prince nave his eyes immovably  came a domestic favourite. Her fondness permitted himn
fixed upon the Infanta half an hour together in a thought-  to indulge in every caprice, and to cultivate those,.greeaful speculative posture.' Olivares, who was no friend to  ble talents which were natural to him. His person was
this match, coarsely observed that the prince watched her  beautiful, and his manners insinuatine. In a word, he was
as a cat does a mouse. Charles indeed acted every thing   adapted to become a courtier. The fortunate opportunity
that a lcver in one of the old romances could have done.  soon presented itself; for James saw him, and invited him
He once leapt over the walls of her garden, and only re-.o court, and showered on him, with a prodigal hand, tie
tired by the entreaties of the old marquis who then guarded   cornucopia of royal patronage.
her, and who, falling on his knees, solemnly protested that    Hotussaie, in his political memoirs, haos'itailed an anee.
if the princut stloke to her his head would answer for it.  dote of this duke, only known to the English reader in tot.




LITERATURE.                                                     125
general observation of the historian. When he was sent  ing passed some time without pronouncing a word, said, as
to France, to conduct the Princess Henrietta to the armns  he turned himself on one side, and as if he seemed to
of Charles I, he had the insolence to converse with the  awake," Call my brother!"  Thequeen mother was pre.Queen of France, not as an ambassador, but as a lover!  sent, who immediately sent for the Duke of Anlengon (who
The Marchioness of Senecey, her lady of honour, enrag-  was afterwards Henry III.)  The king perceiving him,
ed at seeing this conversation continue, seated herself in  turned his back and again said, " Let my brother come "
the arm-chair of the Queen, who that day was confined to  The queen his mother replied," Sir, I do not know whom
her bed; she did this to hinder the insolent duke from ap-  you mean; here is your brother."  The king was disproachi'ng the queen, and probably taking other liberties.  pleased, and said, "Let them bring my brother the King
As she observed that he still persisted in the lover,' Sir,  of Navarre; it is he who is my brother."  The queen
(she said, in a severe tone of voice,) you must learn to be  mother observing the dying monarch's resolute order, sent
silent; it is not thus we address the queen of France.'    for him; but, for reasons known only to herself, she comThis audacity of the duke is further confirmed by Nani,  manded the captain of the guards to conduct him utinder the
in his sixth book of the History of Venice; an historian  vaults. They went to the King of Navarre, and desired him
who is not apt to take things lightly.  For when Bucking-  to come and speak to the king; at that moment, this prince
ham was desirous of once more being ambassador at that  has since repeatedly said, he felt a shuddering and apprecourt, in 1626, it was signified by the French ambassador,  hension of death so much that he would not go. But King
mtat for reasons well known to himself, his person would not  Charles persisting on his coming, the queen mother assurbe agraeable to his most Christian majesty. In a roman-  ed him that he should receive no injury. In this promise,
tic threat, the duke exclaimed, he would go and see the  however, he put little trust. He went, accompanied by
queen in spite of the French court: and to this petty af-  the Viscount D'Auchy, on whose word he chiefly relied.
fair is to be ascribed the war between the two nations!  Having, however, observed under these vaults a great
The Marshal de Bossornpiere, in the journal of his em-  number of halberdiers and arquebusiers in ranks, he would
bassy, affords another instance of his'English familiarity.'  have returned, when the viscount and the captain re-asHo{ says,' The king of England gave me a lons audience,  sured him that no harm should happen to him. The soland a very disputatious one. He put himself in a pas-  diers bowed, and their behaviour was respectful. By a
sion, while I, without losing my respect, expressed myself  private staircase he entered the chamber of the king, who,
freely. The Duke of Buckingham,when he observed the  immediately on perceiving him, turned towards him, and
king and myself very warm, leapt suddenly betwixt his ma-  stretched out his arms.  The King of Navarre was affertjesty and me, exclaiming, I am come to set all to rights  ed; he sighed and wept, and fell on his knees at the side
betwixt you, which I think is high time.'               of the bed. Charles embraced, and having kissed him,
Cardinal Richelieu hated Buckingham as sincerely as  said, "' My brother, you lose a good master arid a good
did the Spaniards Olivares. This enmity was apparently  friend. I know it is not you who occasions me so much
owing to the cardinal writing to the duke without leaving  trouble; had I believed what they said, you would riot
any space open after the title of Monsieur; the duke, to  have been alive; but I have alwvays loved you. It is ta
slihow his equality, returned his answer in the same' paper-  you alone I trust my wife and daughter; earnestly dc I
sparing' manner. From such petty circumstances many  recommend them to your care. Do not trust the queen,
wars have taken their source.                           but God protect you!"
This ridiculous circumstance between Richelieu and' The queen mother here interrupted him, " Ah, sir! do
Buckingham reminds me of a similar one, which happen-  not say that!`"-" Yes, madam, I must say it; it is the
ed to two Spanish lords: —One signed at the end of his  truth.  Believe me, my brother; love me; assist my wife
letter, EL Alarques (THE Mfarquis) as if the title had been  and daughter, and implore God for mercy on me. Adieu,
peculiar to himself for its excellence. His national vanity   my brother, adieu."  The King of Navarre remained till
received a dreadful reproof fiomu his correspondent, who,  his mnajesty expired.'
jealous of his equality, signed OTrO Marques (ANOTHER     The following minute particulars are drawn from the
M arquis.)                                             journal of Pierre de L'Etoille.  In the simplicity of' iris
An anecdote given by Sir Henry Wotton offers a cha-  narration, so pleasing in the old writers, the nurse arid
racteristic trait of Charles and his favourite         the monarch; the religious remorse of the one, and tho
They were now entered into the deep time of Lent,  artless consolation of the other, become interesting objects.
and could get no flesh into their inns; whereupon fell out a' King Charles, two days before his death, having called
pleasant passage (if I may insert by the way among more  for Mazzille, his chief physician, arid complaining of the
serious:)-There was near Bayou a herd of goats with  pains he suffered, asked him if it was not possible that he,
their young ones; on which sight Sir Richard Graham   and so many other celebrated physicians that were in his
(master of the horse to the marquis) tells the marquis he  realms, could give some alleviation to his disorder; "ifor I
could snap one of the kids, and make some shift to carry  am," said he, "cruelly and horridly tormented."  To
him close to their lodgings; which the prince overhearing,  which Mazzille replied,that whatever had depended on them
Why, Richard," says he," do you think you may prac-  had been tried, but that in truth God only could be the
tise here your old tricks again upon the borders?"  Upon  sovereign physician in such complaints.  " I believe,"
which word they first gave the goat-herd good content-  said the king, that" what you say is true, and that you know
ment, and then while the marquis and his servants, being  nothing else. Draw from  me my custode (or large cap)
both on foot, were chasing the kid about the flock, the  that I may try to rest."  Mazziile withdrew, and left
prince from horseback killed him in the head with a Scot-  orders that all should leave the king except three, viz. La
tish pistol. Let this serve for a journal parenthesis which  Tour, St Pris, and his nirse, whom his majesty greatiy
yet may showv how his highness, even in such light and  loved. al though she was a Huguenot. As she had justseated
sportful damage, had a noble sense of just dealing,     herself on a coffer, and began to doze, she heard the king
groan bitterly, weeping aid sighing; she then approached
THE DEATIH OF CHARLES IX.                   the bed softly, and drawing. away his crustode, the king said
Dr Cayet is an old French controversial writer, but is  to her, giving vent to a heavy sigh, and shedding tears
better knowvn in French literature as an historian.  His  plentifully, insomuch that they interrupted his discourseI'hsonolo/;ie liovenaire is full of anecdotes unknown to other  "Ah! my dear nurse! my beloved woman, what blood
writers. He collected them from  his own observations,  what murders! Ah! I have followed wicked advice! 0
for he was under preceptor to Henry IV.  The dreadful  my God! pardon me, and be merciful. I know not where
n'assacre of St Bartholomew took place in the reign cf  I am, they have made me so perplexed and agitated. How
(Mstrles IX; on which occasion the English court went  will all this end — What shall I d? 1 am lost forever! I.nto mourning. The singular death of Charles has been  know it."-Then the nurse thus addressed him: —" Sire,
retgarded by the Htuuenots as an interposition of Divine  be the murders on those who forced you to order them;
jutti'cr:  he died bathed in his blood, which burst from his  your majesty could not help it, and since you never conveins, The horrors of this miserable prince on his dying  sented, and now regret them, believe God will never im.
bLd are forcibly depicted by the anecdotes I am now col-  pute them to you, and will cover them with the mantle of
Inetinh.  I: shall premise, however, that Charles was a  justice of his Son, to whom alone you should look for aid.
wmre instruiment in the hands of his mother, the political  Ah! for the honour ofGod, let your majesty cease from this
at crl;el Catherine of Medicis.                         weeping."  Having said this, she rose for a handkerchief,.Or CGayet,  with honest naivetd, thins relates what he  fbr his was drenched with tears; Charles having taken it
knew to hule nassed a fev hours betore his death.      from her, made a sign that she should retire and leave him
King Charles, feeling himself near his end, after hay-  to repose.'




126                                 CURIOSITIES OF
The dreadful narrative of the massacre of St Bartholo-  the third day they weie merely considered as so mad
mew is detailed in the history of De Thou; and the same  gentlemen, and were confounded among the crowd  of
scene is painted in glowing, though in faithful colours, by  courtiers.-It was supposed that this was done with a pol.
Voltaire in the Henriade.-Charles, whose last miserable  litical view of humbling the proud nobility; and for this
Moments we come from contemplating, when he observed  reason Henry IV frequently said aloud, in the presence of
several fugitive Huguenots about his palace, in the nor-  the princes of the blood, We are all gentlemen.
ning after the massacre of 30,000 of their friends, took a  It is recorded of Philip the Third of Spain, that while
fowling piece and repeatedly fired at them.             he exacted the most punctilious respect from the grandea.,
Such was the effect of religion operating, perhaps not  he saluted the peasants.  He would never be addressed
on a malignant, but on a feeble mind!                   but on the knees; for which he gave this artful excuse,
that as he was of low stature, every one would, have ap.
peared too high for him. He showed himself rarely even
If the golden gate of preferment is not usually opened to  to his grandees,that he might the better support his haughmen of real merit, persons of no worth have entered it in a  tiness and repress their pride. He also affected to speak
mbost extraordinary manner.                             to them hy half words; and reprimanded them if they did
Chevreau informs us that the Sultan Osman having   not guess at the rest.  In a word, he omitted nothing that
observed a gardener planting a cabbage with some pecu-  could mortify his nobility.
lEar dexterity, the manner so attracted his imperial eye
that he raised him to an office near his person, and short-  MODES OF SALUTATION, AND AMICABLE CEREMONIES,
ly afterwards he rewarded the planter of cabbages by cre-         OBSERYED IN VARIOUS NATIONS.
ating himn beglerbeg or viceroy of the Isle of Cyprus!'   When men writes the philosophical compiler of'L'Esprit
Marc Antony gave the house of a Roman citizen to a  des Usages et des Coutumes,' salute each other in an amicook, who had prepared for him a good supper.  Many   cable manner, it signifies little whether they move a parhave been raised to extraordinary preferment by capricious  ticular part of the body, or practise a particular ceremony.
monarchs for the sake of a jest.  Lewis XI promoted a  In these actions there must exist different customs. Every
poor ipriest whom lie found sleeping in the porch of a   nation imagines it employs the most reasonable ones; but
church, that the proverb might be verified, that to lucky   all are equally simple, and none are to be treated as ridimen good fortunes will come even when they are asleep!  culous.
Our Henrv VII made a viceroy of Ireland if not for the    This infinite number of ceremonies may be reduced to
sake of, at least with a clench.  When the kingl was told  two kinds; to reverences or salutations; and to the touch of
that afl Ireland could not ruile the Earl of Kildare, he said,  some part of the human body.  To bend and prostrate
then shall this earl rule all Ireland.                  one's self to express sentiments of respect, appears to be a
It is recorded of Henry VIII that he raised a servant  natural motion; for terrified persons throw themselves on
to a considerable dignity, because he had taken care to  the earth when they adore invisible beings: and the afhave a roasted boar prepared for him, when his majesty  fectionate touch of the person they salute is an expression
happened to be in the humour of'feasting on one; and the   of tenderness.
title of Ssugar- loaf-court, in Leadenhall-street, was proba-    As nations decline fromn their ancient simplicity, much
bly derived from another piece ofmagnificence of this mon-  farce and grimace are introduced.   Superstition, the
arch; the widow of a Mr Cornwallis was rewarded by the  manners of a people, and their situation, influence the
gift of a dissolved priory there situated, for somefinepud-  modes of salutation; as may be observed from the instances
dings with which she had presented his majesty!         we collect.
When Cardinal de Monte was elected pope, before he      Modes of salutation have sometimes very different charleft the conclave he bestowed a cardinal's hat upon a ser-  acters, and it is no uninteresting speculation to examine
vant whose chief merit consisted in the daily attentions he  their shades.  Many display a refinement of delicacy,
paid to his holiness's monkey!                          while others are remarkable for their simplicity or for
Louis Barbier owed all his good fortune to the familiar  their sensibility.  In general, however, they are frequently
knowledge he had of Rabelais.  He knew his Rabelais by  the same in the infancy of nations, and in more polheart.  This served to introduce him to the Duke of Or-  ished societies.   Respect, humility, fear, and esteem,.eans, who took great pleasure in reading that author.  It  are expressed much in a similar manner, for these are the
was fobr this he gave him an abbey, and he was gradually  natural'consequences of the organization of the body.
promoted till he became a cardinal.                        These demonstrations become in time only  empty
George Villiers was suddenly raised from a private  civilities which signify nothing; we shall notice what they
station, and loaded with wealth and honours by James  were originally, without reflecting on what they are.
the first merely for his personal beauty.  Almost all the  The first nations have no peculiar modes of salutation;
favourites of James became-so from their handsomeness.  they know no reverences or other compliments, or they
M. De Chamillart, minister ofFrance, owed his promo-  despise and disdain them. The Greenlanders laugh when
tion merely to his being the only man who could beat  they see an European uncover his head,and bend his body
Louis XIV at billiards. He retired with a pension after  before him whom he calls his superior.
ruining the finances of his country.                      The Islanders,near the Philippines,take the hand or foot
The Duke of Lulines was originally a country lad, who   of him they salute, and with it they gently rub their face.
insinuated himself into the favour of Louis XIII then   The Laplanders apply their nose' strongly against that of
young, by making bird-traps (pid grieches) to catch spar-  the person they salute.  Dampier says, that at New
rows.  It was little expected, (says Voltaire,) that these  Guinea they are satisfied to put on their heads the leaves
puerile amusements were to be terminated by a most san-  of trees, which have ever passed for symbols of friendshilp
guinary revolution.  De Luines, after causing his patron   and peace. This is at least a picturesque salute.
the Marshal of Ancre to be assassinated, and the queen    Other salutations are very incommodious and painfill; it
mother to be imprisoned, raised himselfto a title and the  requires great practice to enable a man to be polite in an
most tyrannical power.                                 island situated in the straits of the Sound. Houtman tells
Sir Walter Raleigh owed his promotion to an act ofgal-  us they saluted him  in this grotesque manner:'The.y
lantrv to Queen Elizabeth, and Sir Christopher Hatton   raised his left foot, which they passed gently over tie
owved his preferment to his dancing: Queen Elizabeth,  right leg. and from thence over his face.' The inhabitants
observes Granger, with all her sagacity could not see the   of the Philippines use a most complex attitude; they
fiture lord chancellor in the fine dancer.  The same   bend their body very low,place their hands on their cheeko,
writer says,' Nothing could form a more curious collec-  and raise at the same time one foot in the air with their
tion of memoirs than anecdotes of preferment.' Could the  knee bent.
secret history of great men be traced, it would appear that    An Ethiopian takes the robe of another, and ties it
merit is rarely the first step to advancement.  It would  about his own waist, so that-he leaves his friend half nat.
much oftener be found to be owing to superficial qualifica-  ed. This custom of undressing on these occasions takes
lions, and even vices.                                  other forms; sometimes men place themselves nlaked before the person whom they salute; it is to show tlhelr
NOBILITY.                         humility, and that they are unworthy of appearing in Ila,
Francis the First was accustomed to say, that when   presence. This was practised before Sir Joseph Ban-;,,
the nobles of the kingdom came to court, they were re-  when lie received the visit oftwo female Otaheitans.'Iiheir
teived by the world as so many little kings; that the day  innocent simplicity, no doubt, did not appear imnreodeLt.a
after they were only beheld as so manyprinces; but on  the eyes of the virtuoso.




LITERATURE.                                                         127
Sometimes tn;ey only undress partially.  The Japanese  their bodies with their genius; his presence must lay
only take off's slipper: the people of Arracan their san-  those who behold him prostrate on the earth: he desires
dais in the street, and their stockings in the house.      no eagerness, no attention, he would only inspire terror.
In the progress of time it appears servile to uncover
Zn                                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~SIGLAoR..ITIES oF WAR.
oneself. The erandees of Spain claim the right of appear-                    OULARTIE    OF W.
ing covered before the king, to show that they are not so    War kindles enthusiasm, and therefore occa sions strange
much subjected to him as the rest of the nation; and (this  laws and customs.  We may observe in it whatever is
writer truly  observes (we may remark that the English   most noble and heroic mixed with what is lnost strange
do not uncover their heads so much as the other nations of  and wild. We collect facts, and the reader must draw
Europe.  Mr Hobhouse  observes, that uncovering the   his own conclusions.
head, with the Turks, is a mark of indecent familiarity;     They frequently condemned at Carthage their generals
in their mosques the Franks must keep their hats on. The  to die after an unfortunate campaign, although they were
Jewish custom of wearing their hats in their synagogues is,  accused of no other fault.  We read in Du HIlde that
doibtless the same oriental custom.                        Captain Mancheou, a Chinese, was convicted of giving
in a word there is not a nation, observes the humorous   battle without obtaining a complete victory, and he was
Mlontaine, even to the people who when they salute turn   punished.-With such a perspective at the conclusion of
their backs on their friends, but that can be justified in   a battle generals will become intrepid, and exert them.
their customs.                                             selves as much as possible, and this is all that is wanted.
The negroes are lovers of ludicrous actions, and hence     When the savages of New France take fliht, they pile
all their ceremonies seem farcical.  The greater part pull  the wounded in baskets, where they are bounnl and cordedl
the finaers till they crack.  Snelgrave gives an odd repre-  down as we do children in swaddling clothes.-lfthey
sentation of the embassy which the king of Dahomy sent  should happen to fall into the hands of the conquerors,
to him. The ceremonies of salutation consisted in the  they would expire in the midst of torments.  It is better
most ridiculous contortions.  When two negro monarctis  therefore that the vanquished should carry them away in
visit, they embrace in snapping three times the middle  any  manner, though frequently even at the risk of their
finger.                                                    lives.
Barbarous nations frequently imprint on their saluta-      The Spartans were not allowed to combat often with
tions the dispositions of their character.  When the inha-  the same enemy.  They wished not to inure these to batbitants of Carmena (says Athenwus) would show a pecu-  tie; and if their enemies revolted frequently, they were
liar mark of esteem, they breathed a vein, and presented   accustomed to exterminate them.
for the beverage of their friend the blood as it issued. The  The governors of the Scythian provinces gave annually
Franks tore the hair from their head, and presented it to   a feast to those who had valiantly, with their own hands,
the person they saluted.  The slave cut his hair, and   despatched their enemies.  The skulls of the vanquished
offered it to his inaster.                                 served for their cups; and the quantity of wine they were
The Chinese are singularly affected in their personal  allowed to drink was proportioned to the number of skulls
civilities.  They even calculate the number of their reve-  they possessed.  The youth, who could not yet boast of
rences. These are the most remarkable postures. The   such martial exploits, contemplated distantly the solemn
men move their hands in an affectionate manner, while  feast, without being admitted to approach it.  This instithey are joined together on the breast, and bow their head   tution formed courageous warriors.
a little.  If they respect a person, they raise their hands   War has corrupted the morals of the people, and has
oined, and then lower them to the earth in bending the   occasioned them  to form horrible ideas of virtue.  When
body.  If two persons meet after a long separation, they   the Portuguese attacked Madrid, in the reign of Philip V,
both fall on their Anees and bend the face to the earth, and   the courtezans of that city were desirous of displaying
this ceremony they repeat two or three times.  Surely  their patriotic zeal: those who were most convinced of the
we may differ here with the sentiment of Montaigne, and   envenomed state of their body perfumed themselves, aind
confess this ceremony to be ridiculous.  It arises from    went by night to the camp of the enemy; the consequence
their national affectation.  They substitute artificial cere-  was that in less than three weeks there were more than
monies for natural actions,                                six thousand Portuguese disabled with venereal maladies,
Their expressions mean as little as their ceremonies,  and the greater part died.
If a Chinese is asked how he finds himself in health? He     Men have frequently fallen into unpardonable contraanswers, Very well; thanks to your abundant felicity.  If   dictions, in attempting to make principles and laws meet
thev would tell a man that he looleks well, they say, Pros-  which could never agree with each other.  The Jews sufperity is paznted on your face; or, Your air announcesyour  fered themselves to be attacked without defending them-.
happiness.                                                 selves on the Sabbath-day, and the Romans profited by
If you render them  any service, they say, M/y thanks  these pious scruples.  The council of Trent ordered the
shall be immortal.  If you praise them, they answer, tlow   body of the constakle of Bourbon, who had fought against
shall I dare to persuade myself of what you say of me?  If  the Pope, to be dug up, as if the head of the church was
you dine with them, they tell you at parting, lVe have not  not as much subjected to war as others, since he is a temtreated  you with suficient distinction.  The various titles   poral prince.
they invent for each other it would be impossible to trans-   Pope Nicholas, in his answer to the Bulgarians, fbrbids
late.                                                      them  to make war in Lent, unless, he prudently adds,
It is to be observed that all these answers are prescribed   there be an urgent necessity.
by  the Chinese rituial, or Academy  of Compliments.
There, are determined the number ofbows; the exnres-             FR,  ND  THE O          N OF FRE-WORS.
sions to be employed; the genuflexions, and the inclina-      In the Memoirs of the French Academy, a little essay
tions which are to be made to the right or left hand; the   on this subject is sufficiently curious; the following consalutations of the master before the chair where the stran-  tain the facts:ger is to be seated, for he salutes it most profoundly, and  Fire-works were not known to antiquity.  It is certainly
wipes the dust away with the skirts of his robe; all these   a modern invention.  If ever the ancients employed fires
and other things are noticed, even to the silent gestures   at their festivals, it was only for religious pur'poses.
by which you are entreated to enter the house.  The          Fire, in primeval ages, was a symbol of respect, or an
lower class of people are equally nice in these punctilios;  instrument of terror.  In both these ways God  manifisted
and ambassadors pass forty days in practisinL them before   himself to man.  In the holy writings he compares him.!hey are enabled to appear at court. A tribuinal of cere- self' sometimes to an ardent fire, to display his holiness
mrnnies has been ers.zted; and every day very odd de.  and his purity; sometimes he renders himself visible unrree.  are issued, to which the Chinese most religiously   der th4 form of a burning bush, to express himself to be as
submit.                                                    formidable as a devouring fire: ayain, he rains sulphur;'The marks of honotir are frequently arbitrary; to be   and often, before he speaks, hie attracts the attention of
seated, with us is a mark of repose and familiarity: to  the multitude by flashes ofrlightnin.
stand tip, that of respect.  There are countries, however,    Fire was worshipped as a divinity by several idolaters:
in wviHch pirinces wvill only be addre;ssd by persons who   the P!atonists confouinded it with the heavens, and conare seated, and it is considered as a favour to be permitted   sidered it as the divine intelli":-ce.  Sometimes it is a
to stand in their presence.  This custom prevails in des-  symbol of majestyv.-God walked (if we mnay so expressoa
nonle  crountries! a deopot cannot suffer wvithoult disgust  ourselves) with his people, preceded by a pillar of fire;
the elevated figure of his subjects; he is pleased to bend   and the monarchs of Asia, according to lierodotus, cow




128                                    CURIOSITIES OF
manded that such ensigns of their majesty should be car-  precautions having been taken, they admired the beauty
ried before them.  These fires, according to Quintus   of the fire, without fearing it.  These artificial fires are
Curtius, were considered as holy and eternal, and were  described as having been rapidly and splendidly executed.
carried at the head of their armies on little altars of silver,  The exhibition closed with a transparent triumphal arch)
in the midst of the magi who accompanied them and sang   and a curtain illtlminated by the same fire, admirably ex.
their hymns.                                             hibiting the palace of Pluto.-Around the columns, stan.
Fire was also a symbol of majesty amongst the Romans;  zas were inscribed, supported by Cupids, with other fanciand if it was used by them in their festivals, it was rather  ful embelishments.  Among these little pieces of poetry
employed for the ceremonies of religion than for a peculiar  appeared the following one, which ingenl:ously announced
mark of their rejoicings.  Fire was always held to be  a more perfect exhibition;
most proper and holy for sacrifices; in this the Pagans imi- 
tated the Hebrews.  The fire so carefully preserved by         Les vents,   es frimats, lesora es,
the Vestals was probably an inmitation of that which fell      Mais, ainsi qce le, pleours, avec plus davantage
froil heaven on the victim offered by Aaron, and long after-     Ils renaitront dans le printelrs.
wards religiously kept up by the priests.  Servius, one of
the seven kings of Rome, commanded a great fire of straw                       IMITATED.
to be kindled in the public place of every town in Italy to    The icy gale, the falling snow,
consecrate for repose a certain day in seed-time, or sowing.     Extinction to these fires shall bring;
The Greeks lighted lamps at a certain feast held in ho-      But, like the flowers, with brighter glow,
nour of Minerva, who gave them oil; of Vulcan, who was           They shall renew their charms in spring.
the inventor of lamps; and of Prometheus, who had ren-    The exhibition was greatly inproved, according to this
dered theni service by the fire which he had stolen from   promise of' the artist. His subject was chosen with much
heaven. Another feast to Bacchus was celebrated by a  felicity: it was a representation of the forges of Vulcan
grand nocturnal illumination, in which wvine was poured   under Mount Etna.  The interior of the mount discovforth profusely to all passengers.  A feast in memory of  ered Vulcan and his Cyclops.  Venus was seen to deCeres, who sought so long in the darkness of hell for her  scend, and demand of her consort armour for ZEneas.daughter, was kept by burning a number of torches.       Opposite to this was seen the palace of Vulcan, which
Great illuminations were made in various other meet.  presented a deep and brilliant perspective.  The labours
ings; particularly in the Secular Games, which laste-l  of the Cyclops produced numberless very happy combinathree whole nights; and so carefully were they kept up,  tions of artificial fires.  The public with pleasing astonthat these nights had no darkness.                       ishment beheld the effects of the volcano, so admirably
In all their rejoicings the ancients indeed used fires, but  adapted to the nature of these fires. At another entertainthey were intended merely to burn their sacrifices, and   ment he gratified the public with a representation of Orwhich, as the generality of them were performed at night,  pheus and Eurydice in hell; many striking circumstances
the illuminations served to give light to the ceremonies.  occasioned a marvellous illusion. What subjects indeed
Artificial fires were indeed frequermtly used by them, but  could be more analogous to this kind of fire?  And let
not in public rejoicings: like us, they employed them for  me ask, what is the reason we do not see these artificial
military purposes; but we use them likewise successfully  fires display more brilliant effects in London'! What man
for our decorations and amusement.                       of taste can be gratified with stats, wheels, and rockets?
From the latest times of paganism to the early ages of
Christianity, we can but rarely quote instances of fire         THE BIBLE PROHIBITED AND IMPROVED.
lighted tup for other purposes, in a public form, than for the  The following are the express words contained in the receremonies of religion; illuminations were made at the   gulation of the popes to prohibit the use of the Bible.
baptism of princes, as a symbol of that life of light in which'As it is manifest by experience, that if the use of the
they were going to enter by faith; or at the tombs of mar-  holy writers is permitted in the vulgar tongue more evil
tyrs, to light them during the watchinus of the night. All  than profit will arise, because of the temerity of man; it
these were abolished from the various abuses they intro-  is for this reason all bibles are prohibited (prohibentur Biduced.                                                   blia) with all theirparts, whether they hbe printed or written,
We only trace the rise of feux de joie, or fire works,  in whatever vulgar langtlage soever; as also are prohibited
given merely for amtusing spectacles to delight the eye, to  all summaries or abridgments of bibles, or any books of
the epocha of the invention of powder and cannon, at the  the holy writings, although they should only be historical,
close of the thirteenth centulry. It was these two inven-  and that in whatever vulgar tongue they be written.'
tions, doubtless, whose effects furnished the idea of all    It is there also said,' That the reading the bibles of cathothose machines and artifices which form the charms of  lie editors may t)e permitted to those by whose perusal or
these fires.                                             power the faith may be spread, and who will not criticise
To the Florentines and the Siennese are we indebted  it. But this permission is not to be granted without an ex.
not only for the preparation of powder with other ingredi-  press order of the bishop, or the inquisitor, with the advice
ents to amuse the eyes, but also for the invention of eleva-  of the curate and conjessor; and their permission must
ted machines and decorations adapted to augment the plea-  first be had in writing. And he who, without permission,
sure of the spectacle.  They began their attempts at the   presumes to read the holy writings, or to have them in his
feasts of Saint John the Baptist and the Assumption, on   possession., shall not be absolved of his sins before he first
wooden edifices, which they adorned with painted statues,  shall have returned the bible to his bishop.'
from whose mouth and eyes issued a beautitill fire. Cal-   A spanish author says, that if a person should come to
lot has engraven numerous specimens of the pageants,  his bishop to ask for leave to read the bible, with the best
triumphs, and processions, under a great variety of gro-  intention, the bishop should answer him  from  Matthew,
tesque forms;-dragons, swans, eagles, &c, which were  ch. xx, ver. 20,' You knowo not what you ask.' And indeed,
built up large enough to carry many persons, while they   he observes, the nature of this demand indicates an here.
vomitad forth the most amusing fire-work.                tical disposition.
This use passed fiom Florence to Rome, where, at the     The reading of the bible was prohibited by Henry VIII,
creation of the popes, they displayed illIlminations of hand-  except by those who occupied high offices in the state; a
grenadoes, thrown finom the height of a castle.  Pyrolech-  noble lady or gentlewoman might read it in'their garden
nics from that time have become an art, which, in the de-  or orchard,' or other retired places; but men and women
gree the inventors have displayed ability in combining the  in the lower ranks were positively forbidden to read it, or
powers of architercture, sculptutre, and painting, have pro-  to have it read to them.
duced a number of beautiful effects, which even give plea.    Dr Franklin, in his own Life, has preserved a singular
sure to those who read the descriptions without having be-  anecdote of the bible being prohibited in England in the
held them.                                               time of our true Catholic Mary.  His family had then
A pleasing account of decorated fire-works is given in  early embraced the reformation;'They had an English
the Secret Memoirs of France. In Auguast, 1764, Torre,  bible, and to conceal it the more securely, they conceived
an Italian artist, obtained permission to exhibit a pyrotech-  the project of fastening it open with pack-threaus across
nic operation.-The Parisians admired the variety of the  the leaves, on the inside of the lid of a close-stoor   When
colours, and the irgenrious forms of his fire.  But this first  my grandfather wished to read to his family, ile.eversed
exhibition was disturbed by the poputlace, as well as by the  the lid of the ciose-stool upon his knees, and passed the
napparent dangler of the fire, although it was displayed on  leaves firom one side to the other, which were held dow'
tan Boulevards. In October it was repeated: and proper  on each by the packthread. One of the children was sta.




LITERAT U RE.                                                       129
fioned at the door to give notice if he saw an officer of the   ones, it has often occurred to the fathers of families, as
Opirntual Court make his appearance; in that case the lid   well as the popes, to prohibit its general reading.  Arch.
was restored to its place, with the bible concealed under  bishop Tillotson formed a design of purifying the historiit as before.'                                             cal parts. Since some have given us afamily Shakspeare,
I shall leave the reader to make his own reflections on  it were desirable that the same spirit would present us
this extraordinary account. He may meditate on what the   with a Family Bible.
popes did, and what they probably would have done, had not
[,uther happily been in a humour to abuse the pope, and           ORGIN OF THE MATERIALS OF WRITING.
begin a Reformation.  It would be curious to sketch an       From the' Literary History of France,' by the learned
account of the probable situation of Europe at the present  Benedictines, I have collected the chief materials of the
moment, had the pontiffs preserved the singular power of  present article. It is curious to observe the various substi.
which they had possessed themselves.                       tutes for paper before its discovery.
It appears by an act dated in 1516, that in those days the  When men had not yet discovered the art of recording;
bible was called Bibliotheca, that isper emphasim, the Lib-   events by writing, they planted trees, erected rude altars,
rary.  The word library was limited in its signification   or heaps of stone, as remembrances of past events. Her.
then to the biblical writings; no other books, compared   cules probably could not write when he fixed his famoua
with the holy writings, appear to have been worthy to   pillars.
rank with them, or constitute what we call a library.        The most ancient mode of writing was on bricks, tiles,.
We have had several remarkable attempts to re-compose   and oyster-shells, and on tables of stone; afterwards on
the bible; Dr Geddes's version is aridly literal, and often   plates of various materials, on ivory, on barks of trees, on
ludicrous by its vulgarity; hut the following attempts are  leaves of trees.*
of a very different kind.  Sebastian Castillon, who after-   Engraving memorable events on hard substances, it has
wards changed his name to Castalion, with his accustomed   been prettily observed, was giving, as it were speech to
affectation referring to Castalia, the fountain of the Muses   rocks anrid metals.  In the book of Job mention is made of
-took a very extraordinary liberty with the sacred writings.  writing on stone, on rocks, and on sheets of leael.  It was
He fancied he could give the world a more classical version   on tables of stone that Moses received the law written by
of the bible, and for this purpose introduced phrases and   the finger of God himself. Hesiod's works were written
entire sentences from profane writers into the text of holy  on leaden tables: lead was used for writing, and rolled'Jp
writ.  His whole style is finically quaint, overloaded with  like a cylinder, as Pliny states. MNontfaucon notices a very
prettinesses, and all the ornanments of false taste.  Of the   ancient book of eight leaden leaves, which on the back,
noble sim,tlicity of the scriptures he seems not to have had   had rings fastened by a small leaden rod to keep them to-.
the remotest conception.                                   gether.  They afterwards engraved on bronze: the lawsi
But an attempt by Pere Burruyer is more extraordina-   of the Cretans were on bronze tables, the Romans etched
ry; in his liistoire du Peuple de Dieu, he has recomposed   their public records on brass.  The speech of Claudius,.
the Bible as he would have written a fashionable novel,  engraved on plates of bronze, is yet preserved in the town.,
With absurd refirnement hlie conceives that the great legis-  hall of Lyons, in France.  Several bronze tables, witht
lator of the Hebrews is too barreti in his descriptions, too   Etruscan characters, have been dug utip in Tuscany. The
concise in the events he records, nor is careful to enrich   Treaties between the Romans, Spartans, and the Jewsr
his history by pleasing reflections and interesting conversa-  were written on brass; and estates, for better security,
tion-pieces, and hurries on the catastrophes, by which   were mnade over on this enduring metal. In many cabinets,
means he omits much entertainine  matter: as for instance,  may be found the discharges ofsoldiers, written on copper..
in the loves of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar, Moses is  plates.  This custom has been discovered.in India; a billi
very dry and concise, which, however, our Pere Berruyer  of feoffment on copper has been dug utip near Bengal,.
is not. His histories of Joseph, and of King David, are   dated a century before the birth of Christ.
relishing morsels, and were devoured eagerly in all the      Among these early inventions many were singularly
boudoirs of Paris.  Take a specimen of the style.' Jo-  rude, and miserable substitutes for a better material.  In)
seph combined with a regularity of features, and a brilliant  the shepherd state they wrote their songs, with thorns andi
complexion, an air of the noblest dignity; all which contri-  awls on straps of leather, which they wound round their.
buted torender him one of the most amniable men in Egypt.'  crooks; The Icelanders appear to have scratched their
Ait length'she declares her paosion, and pressed hi  to   rnes, a kind of hieroglyphics on walls; and Olof, accord-.
answer her.  It never entered her mind that the advances  ing to one of the Sagas, built a large house, on the bulks
of a woman of her rank could ever be rejected.  Joseph   and spars of which he had engraved the history of his own,
at first only replied to all her wishes by his cold embarass-  and more ancient times; while another northern hero apments.  She would not yet give him up.  In vain he flies   pears to have had nothing better than his own chair and
from her: she was too passionate to waste even the mo-  bed to perpetuate his own heroic acts on. At the town..
ments of his astonishment.'  This good father, however,  hall, in Hanover, are kept twelve wooden boards, overlaid
does ample justice to the gallantry of the Patriarch Jacob.  with bees'-wax, on which are written the names of'ownersi
He offers to serve Laban seven years for Rachel.' No-   of houses, but not the names of streets.  These wooden.
thing is too much,' cries the venerable novelist,' when one   manuscripts must have existed before 1423, when Hanover.
really loves;' and this admirable observation he confirms   was first divided into streets.  Such manuscripts may b,3
by the facility with which the obliging Rachel allows Leah   found in public collections.  This exhibits a very curious,
for one night to her husband!  In this manner the patri-  and the rudest state of society.  The same event occurred
archs are made to speak in the tone of the tenderest  among the ancient Arabs, who, according to the history oi.
lovers; Judith is a Parisian coquette, Holofernes is rude as   Mahomet, seem  to have taken the  shoulder-bones of.
a German baron; and their dialogues are tedious with all  sheep, on which they carved remarkable events with a
the reciprocal politesse of metaphysical French lovers!  knife, and after tying them with a string they hung these
Moses in the desert, it was observed, is precisely as pe-   chronicles up in their cabinets.
dantic as Pere Berruyer addressing his class at the uni-     The laws of the twelve tables which the Romans chiefversity. One cannot but smile at the following expres-  ly copied from the Grecian code were, after they had been
sions:'By the easy manner in which God performed ni-   approved by the people, engraven on brass; t!iey were
racles, one might easily perceive they cost no effort.'  melted by lightning, which struck the capitol and con-.
When he has narrated an'Adventure of the Patriarchs,
he proceeds,' After such an extraordinary, or curious, or   * Specimens of most of these rrodes of writing ciJy be seen
interesting adventure, &c.' This good father had caught  in the British Museum. No 3478, in the Sloanian llrbrary, is.
the language of the beau monde, but with such perfect  a Nbob's letter, on a iece ofbrk  about to yars  g,  d
beau                       ~~~~~~~~richly ornamented with gold. No. 7,407. is a book of Mvexietto
simplicity that, in employing it on sacred history he was   hiely ornamented itn  bold.  no307 is a book of'Texicoar
hieroglyphics painted on bark. In the same c-ollection nare
not aware of the ludicrous he was writing.                 various species, marny from the Malabar coast and the East..
A Gothic bishop translated the scriptures into the Gothic   The latter writings are chiefly on leaves. There are several;
anguage, but omitted the Book of Kings! lest the wars,  copies of Bibles written on palm leaves, still preserved in var.
of which so much is there recorded, should increase their  rious collections in Europe. The ancients, doubtless, wrote
inclination to fighting, already too prevalent.  Jortin no-  on any leaves they found tadapted for the ptrlrose. Hence the
tices this castrated copy of the bible in his Remarks on   ef of a bncll         to hat of t   seem  to e lrive
Ecclesiastieal History.                                    At the British Museum we have recen'ly received Babylonnaln
tiles, or broken pots, which the people useti, aidt marie their
As the Bible, in many parts, consists merely oc historical  contracts of busZness wn. A custom mentioned in the scrip.-.
transactions, and as too many exhibit a detail of offensive  tures.
No. 5.                                                                          17




130                                    CURIOSITIES OF
sumed other laws; a loss highly regretted by Augustus.  with a black colour; and the expression of libris elephats.
Tnis manner of writing we still retain, for the inscrip-  tinis, which some authors imagine alludes to books that
tions, epitaphs, and other memorials designed to reach   for their size were called elephantine, were most probably
posterity,                                                 composed of ivory, tile tusk of the elephant; among tht
These early inventions led to the discovery of tables of  Romans they were undoubtedly scarce and dear.
awood; and as cedar has an anti-septic quality from its bit-  The pumice stone was a writing-material of the ancients
terness, they chose this wood for cases or chests to pre-  they used it to smooth the roughness of the parchment, ou
serve their most important writings.  The well-known   to sharpen their reeds.
expression of the ancients, when they meant to give the      In the progress of time the art of writing consisted in
highest eulogium of an excellent work, et cedro digna locuti,  painting with different kinds of ink.  This novel mode of
that it was worthy to be written on cedar, alludes to the   writing occasioned them to invent other materials proper
edl of cedar, with which, valuable Mss of parchment were  to receive their writing; the thin bark of certain trees thd
anointed, to preserve them from corruption and moths.  plants, or linen; and at length, when this was found apt
Persius illustrates this in the excellent version of Mr  to become mouldy, they prepared the skins of animals.,Gifftord:                                                  Those of asses are still in use; and on those of serpents,
&c, were once written the Iliad and Odyssey.  The first'W'ho would not leave posterity such rhymes,
s cedar oil might keep to laterst times r,          place where they began to dress these skins was Pergamus,
As cedar oil mig~,ht keep to latest times!'
in Asia; whence the Latin name is derived of Pergaments
They stained materials for writing upon with purple, and   or parchment.  These skins are, however, better known
rubbed them with exudattons from the cedar.  The laws  amongst the authors of the purest Latin under the name,of the emperors were published on wooden tables, painted   of membrana; so called from  the membranes of various,with ceruse; to which custom Horace alludes, Leges nci-  animals of which they were composed.  The ancients had
dere ligno.  Such tables, now softened into tablets, are still  parchments of three different colours, white, yellow, and
aised, but in general are made of other materials than wood,  purple.  At Rome white parchment was disliked, because
The same reason for which they preferred the cedar to  it was more subject to be soiled than the others, and daz..,other wood induced to write on wax, which, from its na-  zled the eye.  They generally wrote in letters of gold
ture, is incorruptible. Men generally used it to write their  and silver on purple or violet parchment.  This custom
testaments on, the better to preserve them; thus Juvenal  continued in the early ages of the church; and copies of
says, Ceras implere capaces.  This thin paste of wax was  the evangelists of this kind are preserved in the British
also used on tablets of wood, that it might more easily ad-  Museum.
mit of erasure.                                               When the Egyptians employed for writing the bark of
They wrote with an iron bodkin, as they did on the other  a plant or reed, called papyrus* or paper-rush, it super-:substances we have noticed. The stylus was made sharp  seded all former modes, from its convenience. Formerly
at one end to write with, and blunt and broad at the other,  it grew in great quantities oil the sides of the Nile.  This
to deface and correct easily: hence the phrase vertere sty-  plant has given its name to our paper, although the latter
lum, to turn the stylus, was used to express blotting out.  is now composed of linen or rags, and formerly had been
-But the Romans forbad the use of this sharp instrument,  of cotton-wool, which was but brittle and yellow; and imifrom the circumstance of many persons having used them   proved by using cotton-rags, which they glazed.  After
as daggers. A school-master was killed by the Pugillares  the eighth century the papyrus was superseded by parch*or table-books, and the styles of his own scholars.  They   ment.  The Chinese make their paper with silk.  The
substituted a stylus made of the bone of a bird, or other ant-  use of paper is of great antiquity.  It is what the ancient,mal; so that their writings resembled engravings. When   Latinists call charta or chartre.  Before the use ofparchthey wrote on softer materials, they employed reeds and   ment and paper passed to the Ronans, they used the thin
ca~nes split like our pens at the points, which the orien-  peel found between the wood and the bark of trees.  T'his
talists still use to lay their colour or ink neater on the   skinny substance they call liber, from whence the Latin
Npap         er                                            word liber, a book, and library and librarian in the EuroNaud6 observes, that when he was in Italy, about 1642,  pean languages, and the French livre for book; but we of,he saw some of those waxen tablets, called Pugillares, so   northern origin derive our book from the Danish bog, the
called because they were held in one hand; and others   beech-tree, because that being the most plentiful in Dencomposed of the barks of trees, which the ancients en-  mark was used to engrave on.  Anciently, instead of fold-.ployed in lieu of paper.                                   in  this bark, this parchment, or paper, as we fold ours,
On these tablets, or table-books, Mr Astle observes,  they rolled it according as they wrote on it; and the Latin
that the Greeks and Romans continued the use of waxed   name which they gave these rolls has passed into our lantable-books long after the use of the papyrus, leaves, and   guages as well as the others.  We say a volume or volskins became common; because they were so convenient  umes, although our books are composed of pages cut and
Sfir correcting extemporaneous compositions; from these   bound together.  The books of the ancients on the shelves
table-books they transcribed their performances correctly   of their libraries were rolled up on a pin, and placed erect,
into parchment books, if for their own private use; but if  titled on the outside in red letters, or rubrics, and appeared
-for sale, or for the library, the Librartii, or scribes, had the  like a number of small pillars on the shelves.
sfiice.  The writing on table-books is particularly recom-    The ancients were as curious as ourselves in having
mended by Qauintilian in the third chapter of the tenth  their books richly conditioned. Propertius describes tablets
book of his Institutions; because the wax is readily effaced   with gold borders5 and Ovid notices their red titles; but in
for any corrections: he confesses weak eyes do not see so  later times, besides the tint of purple with which they
well on paper, and observes that the frequent necessity of  tinged their vellum  and the liquid gld which they employ
paper,  ~   ~                       adistngdthi vlu, adthe liq uid gold which they employdipping tihe pen in the inkstand retards the hand, and is  ed for their ink, they enriched with precious stones the
but ill suited to the celerity of the mind.  Some of these   covers of their books.  In the early ages of the church
table-books are conjectured to have been large, and per-  they painted on the outside commonly a dying Christ. In
haps heavy, for in Plautus, a school-boy is represented   the curious library of Mr Douce is a Psalter, supposed
breaking his master's head with his table-book.  Accord-   once to have appertained to Charlemagne; the vellum is
mto to Cicero, it appears that the critics were accustomed   purple, and the letters gold.  The Eastern nations likein' reading their wax manuscripts to notice obscure or  wise tinged their Mss with different colours and decoravicious phrases by joining a piece of red wax, as we should  tions.  Astle possessed Arabian Mss, of which some
underscore such by red:ink.,                               leaves were of a deep yellow, and others of a lilac colour.
Table-books written upon with styles were not entirely   Sir William Jones describes an oriental Ms, in which tile
laid aside in Chaucer's time, who describes them  in his  name of Mohammed was fancifully adorned with a garland
Sompner's tale,                                            of tulips and carnations, painted in the brightest colours.
IHis fellow had a staffe tipp'd with hornes       The favourite works of the Persians are written on fine
A paire of tables all of iverie;                   silky paper, the ground of which is often powdered with
And a pointell polished fetousle,                 gold or silver dust; the leaves are frequently illuminated,
And wrote alwaies the names, as be stood,          and the whole book is sometimes perfiumed with essence
Of all fblke, that gave hem any good.'             of roses or sandal wood.  The Romans had several sorts
IR the word pen in the translation of the Bible, we must  of paper to which they had given different names; one
understand an iron style.  Table-books of ivory are still  was the Charto Augusta, in compliment to the emperor,
used for memoranda, writ.ten with black-lead pencils. The   another Liviana. named after the empress.  There was a
Runmans used ivory to write the edicts of t'ae senate on,    * Of which we have fine specimens at the British Museum.




LITERATURE.                                                   131
Charta blanca, which obtained its title from its beautiful  ters, of the enchanta-ents, and of the enchanted castlet dewhiteness, and which we appear to have retained by ap-  scribed in romances.
plying it to a blank sheet of paper which is only signed;    To these may be added what the author of' Northern
C/harte blanche.  They had also a Charta Nigra painted   Antiquities,' Vol. 1, p. 243, writes, that as the walls of
black, and the letters were in white or other colours.  the castles ran svinding round them, they often called them
Our present paper surpasses all other materials for ease  by a name which signified serpents or dragons; and in
and convenience of writing. The first paper-mill in Eng-  these were commonly secured tile women and young maids
land was erected at Dartford, by a German, in 1588, who   of distinction, who were seldom safe at a time when so
was knighted by Elizabeth; but it was not before 1713,  many bold warriors were rambling up and down in search
that one Thomas Watkins, a stationer, brought the art of  of adventures.  It was this custom which gave occasion
paper-making to any perfection, and to the industry of  to ancient romancers, who knew not how to describe any
this ii.dividual we owe the origin of' our numerous paper-  thing simple, to invent so many fables concerning princessnills. France had hitherto supplied England and Holland.  es of great beauty guarded by dragons.
The nianufacture of paper was not much encouraged at    A singular and barbarous'custom prevailed durina this
home, even so late as in 1662; and the following observa-  period; it consisted in punishments by mutilation. It betions by Fuller are curious, respecting the paper of his  camne so general that the abbots, instead of bestowing catimes.' Paper participates in some sort of the characters  nonical penalties on their imonks, obliged them  to cut off
of the country which makes it; the Venetian, being neat,  an ear, an arm, or a leg!
subtile, and court-like; the French, light, slight, and slen-  Velly, in his History of France, has described two fesder: and the Dutch, thick, corpulent, and gross, sucking  tivals, which gave a just idea of the manners and devotion
up the ink with the sponginess thereof.' He complains  of a later period, 1230, which like the ancient mysteries
that the paper manufacturers were not then sufficiently  consisted of a mixture of farce and piety; religion in fact
encouraged,' considering the vast sums expended in our  was their amusement! The following one existed even to
land for paper, out of Italy, France, and Germany, which  the reformation.
might be lessened were it made in our nation.  To such    In the church of Paris, and in several other cathedrals of
who object that we can never equal the perfection of Ve-  the kingdom, was held the Feast of Fools or madmen.' The
nice-paper, I return, neither canl we match the purity of  priests and clerks assembled, elected a pope, an archVenice-glasses; and yet many green ones are blown in  bishop, or a bishop, conducted them in great pomp to the
Sussex, profitable to the makers, and convenient for the   church, which they entered dancing, masked, and dressed
users. Our home-spun paper might be found beneficial.'  in the apparel of women, animals, and merry-andrews;
The present German printing-paper is made so disagreea-  sung infamous songs, and converted the altar into a beauble both to printers and readers from their paper-manufac-  fet, where they ate and drank during the celebration of the
turers making many more reams of paper from one cwt of  holy mysteries; played with dice; burned, instead of inrags than formerly. Rags are scarce, and Germnan wri-  cense, the leather of their old sandals; ran about, and
ters, as well as the language, are voluminous.          leaped from  seat to seat, with all the indecent postures
Mr Astle deeply complains of the inferiority of our inks  with which the merry-andrews know how to amuse the po..
to those of antiquity; an inferiority productive of the most  pulace.'
serious consequences, and which appears to originate      The other does not yield in extravagance.' This fesmerely in negligence. From the important benefits arising  tival was called the Feast of Asses, and was celebrated at
to society from the use of ink, and the injuries individuals  Beauvais.  They chose a young woman, the handsomest
may suffer from the frauds of designing men, he wishes the  in the town; they made her ride on an ass richly harnesslegislature would frame some new regulations respecting   ed, and placed in her arms a pretty infant. In this state
it. The composition of ink is simple, but we possess none  followed by the bishop and clergy, she marched in procesequal in beauty and colour to that used by the ancients;  sion from the cathedral to the church of St Stephens's;
the Saxon MSS written in England exceed in colour any   entered into the sanctuary; placed herself near the altar,
thing of the kind. The rolls and records from the fifteenth  and the mass began; whatever the choir sung was termircentury to the end of the seventeenth, compared with those  nated by this charming burthen, Hihan, hihan!  Their
of the fifth to the twelfth centuries, show the excellence of  prose, half Latin and half French, explained the fine quiathe earlier ones, which are all in the finest preservation,  lities of the animal. Every strophe finished by this dewhile the others are so much defaced, that they are  lightful invitation:
scarcely legible. It is a very serious consideration, in re-           Hez, sire Ane, ea chantez
spect to the security of property, that the Records of Par-            Belle bouche rechignez,
liament, the decisions and adjudications of the courts of              Vous aur6s du foin assez;ustice, conveyances, wills, testaments, &c, should be                 Et de l'avoine a plantez.
written on ink of such durable quality as may best resist  They at length exerted him in making a devout genuflexion,
the destructive power of time and the elements.        to forget his ancient food, for the purpose of repeating
The ink of the ancients had nothing in common with   without ceasing, Amen, Amen. The priest, instead of Ito
ours, but the colour and gum. Gall-nuts, copperas, and   missa est, sung three times, Hihast, hihan, hihan! and the
gum make up the composition of our ink, whereas soot or  people three times answered, Hihan, hihan,-hihan! to imiivory-black was the chief ingredient in that of the ancients.  tate the braying of that grave animal.
Ink has been made of various colours; we find gold and  What shall we think of this imbecile mixture of supersilver ink, and red, green, yellow, and blue inks; but the   stition and farce?  This ass was perhaps -typical of the
black is considered as the best adapted to its purpose.  ass which Jesus rode? The children of Israel worshipped
a golden ass, and Balaam made another speak. How unANECDOTES O1' EUROPEAN MANNERS,                fortunate then was James Naylor, who desirous of entering Bristol on an ass, Hume informs us-it is indeed but a
The following circumstances probably gave rise to the  piece of cold pleasantry-that all Bristol could not afford
tyranny of the feudal power, and are the facts on which   him one!
the fictions of romance are raised. Castles were erected  At the time when all these follies were practised, they
to repulse the vagrant attacks of the Normans, and in   would not suffer men to play at chess! Velly says,' A
France, from the year 768 to 987, these places disturbed  statute of Eudes de Sully prohibits clergymen not only
the public repose.  The petty despots who raised these  from playing at chess, but even from having a chess-board
castles pillaged whoever passed, and carried off the fe-  in their house.' Who could believe, that while half the
males who pleased them. Rapine, of every kind, were  ceremonies of religion consisted in the grossest buffoo.
the privileges of the feudal lords! Mezeray observes, that  nery, a prince preferred death rather than cure himself by
it is from these circumstances romancers have invented   a remedy which offended his chastity. Louis VIII being
their tales of knights errant, monsters, and giants.    dangerously ill, the physicians consulted and agreed to
De Saint Foix, in his' Historical Essays,' informs us  place near the monarch while he slept, a young and beauthat' YeWomen and girls were not in greater security when  tiful lady, who whenr he awoke, should inform him of the
they passed by abbeys. The monks sustained an assault  motive which had conducted her to him. Louis answered,
rather than relinquish their prey: if they saw themselves' No, my girl, I prefer dying rather than to save my life by
losing ground, they brought to their walls the relics of  a mortal sin!  And, in fact, the good king died! He would
some saint. Then it generally happened that the assail-  not be prescribed for, out of the whole Pharmacopeia of
ants, seized with awful veneration, retired, and dared not  Love!
pursue their vengeance.  This is the origin of the enchan-    An account of our taste in female beauty is given by MIr




~t32        ~CURIOSITIES OF
Ellis, who observes, in his notes to Wray's Fabliaux,' In   where this princess delineating the mode of life which tht
the times of chivalry the minstrels dwell with great corn-  lords and ladies (whom she assembles at the castle of
plaicency on the fair hair and delicate complexion of their  Madame Oysille, one of her characters) should follow to
damsels. This taste was continued for a long time, and  be agreeably occupied, and to banish languor, is expressed
to render the hair light was a great object of education.  in these terms.'As soon as the morning rose, they
Even when wigs first came into fashion they were all flax-  went to the chamber of Madame Oysille, whom they found
en. Such was the colour of the Gauls and of their German  already at her prayers; and when they had heard during
conquerors. It required some centuries to reconcile their  a good hour her lecture, and then the mass, they went to
eyes to the swarthy beauties of their Spanish and their  dine at ten o'clock; and afterwards each retired to his
Italian neighbours.                                     room to do what was wanted, and did not fail at noon to
The following is an amusing anecdote of the difficulty   meet in the meadow.' Speaking ofthe end of this first day
in which an honest Vicar of Bray found himself in those  (which was in September) the same lady Oysille says,
contentious times.                                       Say where is the sun? and hear the bell of the Abbey,
When the court of Rome, under the pontificates of Gre-  which has for some time called us to vespers; and in say.
gory IX and Innocent IV set no bounds to their ambitious  ing this they all rose and went to the religionists, who had
projects, they were opposed by the Emperor Frederic;  waited for them above at hour. Vespers heard, they went
who was of course anathematised.  A curate of Paris, a  to supper, and after having played at a thousand sports in
humorous fellow, got up in his pulpit with the bull of In.-  the meadow, they retired to bed.' All this exactly corres.
nocent in his hand. You know, my brethren, (said he)  ponds with the lines above quoted. Charles V of France,
tlhat I am ordered to proclaim an excommunication against  however, who lived near two centuries Lefore Francis, dined
Frederic. I am ignoraig of the motive. All that I know   at ten, supped at seven, and all the court was in bed
is, that there exis:s between this prince and the Roman   by nine o'clock.  They sounded the curfew, which bell
Pontiff great differences, and an irreconcilable hatred.  warned them to cover their fire, at six in the winter, and
God only knows which of the two is wrong. Therefore  between eight and nine in the summer. A custom which
with all my power I excommunicate him who injures the  exists in most religious societies: who did not then distinother; and I absolve him who suffers, to the great scandal  guish themselves frotn the ordinary practise.  (This was
of all Christianity.                                    written in 1767.)  Under the reign of Henry IV the houe
The following anecdotes relate to a period which is suf-  of dinner at court was eleven, or at noon the latest; a cusficiently remote to excite curiosity, yet not so distant as  tomrn which prevailed even in the early part of the reign of
to weaken the interest we feel in those minutie of the  Louis XIV. In the provinces distant from Paris, it is very
times.                                                  common to dine at nine; they make a second repast about
The present one may serve as a curious specimen of  two o'clock, and stup at five; and tleir last meal is made
the despotism and simplicity of an age not literary, in dis-  just before they retire to bed.  The labourer and peasants
covering the author of a libel. It took place in the reign  in France have preserved this custom, and make three
of Henry VIII. A great jealousy subsisted between the  meals; one at nine, another at three, and the last at the
Londoners and those foreigners who traded here.  The   setin, ofthe sun.
foreigners probably (observes Mr Lodge, in his Illustra-    The Marquis of Mirabeau, in I L'Ami des IHommes,
tions of English History) worked cheaper and were more  Vol. I, p. 261, gives a striking representation of the singu.
industrious.                                            lar industry of the Frenchcitizens of that age. He had
There was a libel affixed on St Paul's door, which refleclt-  learnt from several ancient citizens of Paris, that if in their
ed oni Henry VIII and these foreigners, who were accused of  youth a workman did not work two hours by candle-light,
buying up the wool with the king's money, to the undoing  either in the morning or evening (ithe even adds in the long.
of Englishmen. This tended to inflame the minds of the  est days) ihe would have been noted as an idler, and would
people. The method adopted to discover the writer of the  not have found persons to employ him. Mirabeau adds,
libel must excite a smile in the present day, while it shows  that it was the 12th of May, 1588, when Henry III ordered
the state in which knowledge must have been in this coun-  his troops to occupy various posts in Paris. Davila writes,
try. The plan adopted was this: In every ward one of  that the inhabitants, warned by the noise of the drums,
the king's council, with an alderman of the same, was  began to shut their doors and shops, which, according to
commanded to see every man write that could, and further  the custom of that town to work before daybreak, were altook every man's book and sealed them, and brought them   ready opened. This must have been, taking it at the latto Guildhall to confront them with the original. So that  est, about four in the morning.'In 1750,' adds the inge.
if of this number many wrote alike, the judges must have  nious writer,' I walked on that day through Paris at full
been much puzzled to fix on the criminal.               six in the morning; I passed through the most busy and
Our hours of refection are, singularly changed in little  populous part of the city, and I only saw open some stalls of
more than two centuries. In the reign of Francis I, (ob-  the venders of brandy'
serves the author of Recreations Historiques) they were   To the article,' Anecdotes of Fashions,' in a former
vet accustomed to say,                                  volume, we may add, that in England a taste for splendid
dress existed in the reign of Henry VII; as is observable
Lever a cinq, diner a  -euLf,               by the following description of Nicholas Lord Vaux.' In
Souper a cinq, coucher a neuf,             the 17th of that reign, at the marriage of Prince Arthur, the
Fait vivre d'ans nonanlt et neuf,'
brave young Vaux appeared in a gown of purple velvet,
Historians observe of Louis XII, that one of the causes   adorned with pieces of gold so thick and massive, that exwhich contributed to hasten his death was the entire change  elusive of the silk and fhirs, it was valued at a thousand
of his regimen. The good king, by the persuasion of his  pounds. About his neck he wore a collar, of S. S. weighwife, says the history of Bayard, changed his manner of  ing eight hundred pounds in nobles. In those days it not
living; when he was accustomed to dine at eight o'iclock,   only required great bodily strength to support the weight
he agreed to dine at twelve; and when he was used to.  of their cumbersome armour; their very luxury of apparetire to bed at six o'clock in the evening, lie frequently sat  rel for the drawing-room would oppress a system of moup as late as midnight.                                 dern muscles.'
Houssaie gives the following authentic notice drawn.    In the following reign, according to the monarch's and
from the registers of the court, which presents a curious  Wotsey's magnificent taste, their dress was, perhaps, more
account of domestic life in the fifteenth century. Of the  generally sumptuous. We then find the following rich or.
dauphin Louis, son of Charles VI, who died at the age of  naments in vogue. Shirts and shifts were embroidered
twenty, we are told:' That ihe knew the Latin and French   with gold, and bordered with lace.  Strutt notices also
languages; that he had many musicians in his chapel;  perfumed gloves lined with white velvet, and splendidly
passed the night in vigils; dined at three in the afternoon,  worked with embroidery and gold buttons. Not only gloves,
supped at midnight, went to bed at the break of day, and   but various other parts of their habits, were perfumed,
thus was acertend (that is threatened) with a short life.'  shoes were made of Spanish perfumed skins.
Froissart mentions waiting upon the Duke of Lancaster at    Carriages were not then used., so that lords would
five o'clock in the afternoon, when he had supped.      carry princesses on a pillion behind them, and in wet
The custom of dining at nine in the morning relaxed   weaiher the ladies covered their heads with hoods of oilgreatly under Francis I, his successor. However, persons  cloth.  A custom that has been generally continued to the
of quality dined then the latest at ten; and supper was at  middle of the seventeenth century.  The use of coaches
live or six in the evening.  We may observe this in the   was introduced into England by Fitzalan EarI of Arundel,
preface to the Heptaetoeron of the Queen of Navarre,  in 1580, and at first were only drawn by a pair of horses.




LITERATURE.                                                      133
The favourite Buckingham, about 1619, began to have them   never taught any body but the now Duke of ]Buckingham,
drawn by six horses, and Wilson, in his life of James I,  whose guardian he hath been, and his own two sons. The
tells us this' was wondered at as a novelty, and imputed to  rest of his time he spends in music, poetry, architecture,
hinl as a mastering pride.' The same arbiter elegantiarum   and the like.'
introduced sedan chairs. In France, Catherine of Me-    The value of money. and the increase of our opulence,
dicis was the first who used a coach, which had leather  might form, says Johnson, a curious subject of research.
doors, and curtains instead of glass windows. If the car-  In the reign of Edward the Sixth, Latimer mentions it as
riage of Henry IV had had glass windows, this circum-  a proof of her father's prosperity, that though but a yeostance might have saved his life. Carriages were so rare   man, he gave his daughters five pounds each for their porui the reign of this monarch, that in a letter to his minister  tion. At the latter end of Elizabeth's reign, seven liunSully, he notices that having taken medicine that dav,  dred pounds were such a temptation to courtship, as made
though he had intended to have called on him, he was  all other motives suspected.  Congreve makes twelve
prevented, because the queen had gone out with the car-  thousands more than a counterbalance to the affectation of
riage. Even as late as in the reign of Louis XIV, the   Belinda.  N'o poet will. now fly his favourite character at
courtiers rode a horseback to their dinner parties, and  less thtan fifty thousand. Clarissa Harlowe had but a
wore their light boots and spurs. Count Hamilton de-  moderate fortune.
scribes his boots of white Spanish leather with gold spurs.    In Sir John Vanbrugh's Confederacy, a woman of fash
Saint Foix observes, that in 1658 there were only 310  ion is presented with a bill of millinary as long as herself.
coaches in Paris, and in 1758 there were more than  Yet it only amounts to a poor fifty pounds! at present this
14,000.                                                 sounds oddly on the stage. I have heard of a lady of qual.
Strutt has judiciously observed, that though'luxury  ity and fashion, who had a bill of her fancy-dress maker,
and grandeur were so much affected, and appearandes of  for the expenditure of one year, to the tune or rather
state and splendour carried to such lengths, we may con-  which closed in the deep diapason of, six thousand pounds!
elude that their household furniture and domestic neces-                THE EARLY DRAMA.
saries were also carefully attended to; on passing through
their houses, we may expect to be surprised at the neat-    It is curious to trace the first rude attempts of the dranies-Q elegance, and buperb appearance of each room, and
ness, elegoance, and superb appearance of each room, and ma, in various nations; to observe at that moment, how
the suitableness of every ornament but herein we may be  crude is the imagination, and to trace the caprices it induldeceived.  The taste of elegance amongst our ancestors  ges; and that the resemblancein these attempts holds in
blenss f eeryornmen; ut eren w  ma beges; and that the resemblance in these attempts holds in
was very different from the present, and however we may   Eneland, and what appears extraordinary, even in China
find them extravagant in their apparel, excessive in their       ao,
andf Mexico.
banquets, and expensive in their trains of attendants; yet,  an   e
follow them home, and within their houses you shall The rude beginnings of the drama in Greece are suflifindo   their furniue is p itis andt homely; no great choice,  ciently known, and the old mysteries of Europe haye been
find their furniture rs plain and homely; no great choice,  exhibited in the preceding pages of this work.  The probut what was useful, rather than any for ornament or
show.'                                                  gress of the French theatre has been this:Erasmus, as quoted by Jortin, confirms this account,    Etienne Jodelle, in 1552, seems to have been the first
who had a tragedy represented of his own invention, en..
and makes it worse: he gives a curious account of En-  who had a tragedy represented  of his own invention, english dirtiness; he ascribes the plague from which England titled Cleopatra-it was a servile imitation of the form of
was hardly ever free, and the sweating-sickness, partly to  the Grecian tragedy; but if this did not require the high.
the incommodious form, and bad exposition of the houses,  est genius, it did the utniost intrepidity; for the people
to the filthiness of the streets, and to the sluttishness within   wee trough long habit, intoxicate  with the wild amusedoors. The floors, says he, are commonly of clay, strewed   ment they aply received from their farces and moralities.
with rushes; under which lies, unnmolested, an ancient    The following curious anecdote, which followed this
collection ofbeer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excre-  first attemPt at classical imitation, is very observable. Joments of dogs and cats, and every thing that is nasty.  delle's success was such, that his rival poets, touched by
I shall give  sktc  of the doestic life of a nobleman  the spirit of the Grecian muse, showed a singular proof of
in the reign of Charles the First,'from   thi l Life of the  their enthusiasm for this new poet, in a classical festivity
in the reign of Charles the First,' from the I Life of the
Duke of Newcastle,' writteii by his Duchess, whom  I  which gave room for no little scandal in that day; yet as
have already noticed. It might have been impertinent at  it was produced by a carnival, it was probably a kind of
the time of its publication; it will now please those who   drunken boot.  Fifty poets, during the carnival of 1552,
drunken bout. Fifty poets, duringo the carnival of 1552,
are curious of  Eng(lish manners, I iln   pa  ts        went to Arcueil. Chance, says the writer of the life of
are~~~~O huios ofEgiH a bitr.
~Of his Habit,~ ~         the old French bard Ronsard, who was one of the present
iHe accoutres his person according to the fashion, if it  profane party, threw across their road a goat-which havhe one that is not troublesome and uneasy for men of hero-  ing caught, they ornamented the goat with chaplets of
ic exercises and actions. He is neat and cleany; which  flowers, and carried it triumphantly to the hall of their festaexekies and ations He isomewat londi cleasnly, whic'h nts
makes him to be somewhat long in dressn, togh not     tival, to appear to sacrifice to Bacchus, and to present it
maks hm t besomwha log n dessngthoighnotsoto Jodelle; for the goat, among the ancients, was the
long as many effeminate persons are.  He shifts ordina-   o Jodelle; for the goat, amon  the ancients, was the
rily once a day, and every te when he uses exercise, o prize of the tragic bards; the victim of Bacchus, who prefily once a day, and every time when he uses exercise, or 
y                              ~~~~~~~~~~~sided over tragedy.
or his temper is more hot than ordinary, sided over tragedy.
Of his Diet.                           Carmine, qui tragico, vilem certavit ob hircum.
In his diet he is so sparing and temperate, that he                                               Horace.
never eats nor drinks beyond  is set proportion so as to  This goat thus adorned, and his beard painted, was
satisfy only his natural appetite; he makes but one meal  hunted about the long table, at which the fifty poets were
a day, at which he drinks two good glasses of small beer,  seated; and after having served them  for a subject of
one about the beginning, the other at the end thereof, and  laughter for some time, he was hunted out of the room,
a little glass of sack in the middle of his dinner; which   and'not sacrificed to Bacchus.  Each of the guests made
glass of sack he also uses in the morning for his breakfast,  verses on the occasion, in imitation of the Bachanalia of
with a morsel of bread. His supper consists of an egg  the ancients. Ronsard composed some dithyraimbics to
and a draught of small beer. And by this temperance he  celebrate the festival of the goat of Etienne Jodelle; and
finds himself very hea;thful, and may yet live nmany years,  another, entitled'Our travels to Arcueil.' However, this
he being now of the age of seventy-three.               Bacchanalian freak did not finish as it ought, where it had'His Recreation and Exercise.              begun, among the poets.  Several ecclesiastics sounded
His prime pastime and recreation hath always been the  the alarm, and one Chandieu accused Ronsard with havexercise of mannage and  veapons, which heroic arts he  ing performed an idolatrous sacrifice; and it was easy to
used to practice every day; but I observing that when he  accuse the moral habits offifty poets assembled together,
had overheated himself he wotld be apt to take cold, pre-  who were far, doubtless from being irreproachable. They
vailed so far, that at last he left the frequent use of the   repented for some time of their classical sacrifice of a goat
mannage, using nevertheless still the exercise of weapons;  to Tragedy.
and though he doth not ride himself so frequently as he   Hardi, the French Lope de Vega, wrote 830 dramatic
hath done, yet tie taketh delight in seeing his horses of  pieces from 1600 to 1637; his imagination was the most
mannage rid by his escuyers, whom  he instructs in that  fertile possible; but so wild anid unichecked, that though
art for his own pleasure.  But in the art of weapons (in  its extravagances are very amusing, they served as so mawhich he has a method beyond all that ever was famous   nv instructive lessons to his successors.  One may form a
ma it, found out by his own ingenuity and practise) he   notion ofhis violation of the unities by his piece,'La force




134                                   CURIOSITIES OF
du Sang.'  In the first act Leocadia is carried off and  to resemble the first scene among the Greeks, and dl Pes
ravished. In the second she is sent back with an evident  French frogs, but with more fancy and taste.  Acosta
sign of pregnancy.  In the third she lies in, and at the   writes,' The small theatre was curiously whitened, adornl
close of this act, her son is about ten years old.  In the   ed with boughs, and arches made of flowers and feathers,
fourth the father of the child acknowledges him; and in  from which were suspended many birds, rabbits and other
the fifth, lamenting his son's unhappy fate, he marries Le-  pleasing objects. The actors exhibited burlesque characters,
ocadia.  Such are the pieces in the infancy of the drama!  feigned themselves deaf, sick with  colds, lamne, blind,
Rotrou was the first who ventured to introduce several  crippled, and addressing an idol for the return of health.persons in the same scene; before his time they rarely   The deaf people answered at cross purposes; those who
exceeded two persons; if a third appeared, he was usu-  had colds by caughing; and the lame by halting, all really a mute actor, who never joined the other two.  The   cited their complaints and misfortunes, which produced
sltate of the theatre was even then very rude; freedoms  infinite mirth among the audience.  Others appeared unof the most lascivious embraces were publicly given and   der the names of different little animals; some disguised
taken; and Rotrou even ventured to introduce a naked   as beetles, some like toads, some like lizards, and upon
page in the scene, who in this situation holds a dialogue   encountering each other, reciprocally explained their emwith one of his heroines. In another piece,' Scedase, ou  ployments, which was highly satisfactory to the people, as
I'hospitalit4 violed,' Hardy makes two youn, Spartans  they performed their parts with infinite ingenuity. Sevecarry off Scedase's two daughters. ravish them on the  ral little boys also belonging to the temple,appeared in the
theatre, and violating them in the side scenes, the specta-  disguise of butterflies, and birds of various colours, and
tators heard their cries and their complaints.  Cardinal  mounting upon the trees which were fixed there on purRichelieu made the theatre one of his favourite pursuits,  pose, little balls of earth were thrown at them with slings,
and though not successful as a dramatic writer, he gave   occasioning many humourous incidents to the spectators.'
that encouragement to the drama, which gradually gave     Something very wild and original appears in this singular
birth to genius". Scudery was the first who introduced the   exhibition; where at times, the actors seem to have been
twenty-four hours from Aristotle; and Mairet studied the  spectators, and the spectators were actors.
construction of the fable, and the rules of the drama. They
yet groped in the dark, and their beauties were yet only
occasional; Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Crebillon, and    As a literary curiosity can we deny a niche to that' obli.
Voltaire, perfected the French drama.                   quiiy of distorted wit,' of Barton Holyday, who has corn.
In the infancy of the tragic art in our country, the bowl  posed a strange comedie, in five acts, performed at Christ
and dagger were considered as the great instruments of a   Church, Oxford, 1630, not for the entertainment, as an an.
sublime pathos; and the' Die ali' and' Die nobly' of the   ecdote records, of James the First.
exquisite and affecting tragedy of Fielding were frequently  The title of the comedy of this unclassical classic, for
realised in our popular dramas.   Thomas Goff, of the   Holyday is known as the translator of Juvenal with a
university of Oxford, in the reign of James I, was consid-   very learned commentary, is TEXNOTAMIA, or the
ered as no contemptible tragic poet; he concludes the   Marriage of the Arts, 1630, quarto extremely dull, exces.
first part of his courageous Turk, by promising a second,  sively rare, and extraordinarily high-priced among colleethus:                                                   tors.
if this first part, gentles! do like you well,    It may be exhibited as one of the most extravagant inThe second part shall greater murthers tell.    ventions of' a pedant. Who but a pedant could have con.
Specimens of extravagant bombast might be selected   ceived the dull fancy of forming a comedy, of five acts, on
from his tragedies. The following speech of Amurath  the subject of marrying the Arts!  They are the dramathe Turk, who coming on the stage, and seeing an appear-  tis personte of this piece, and the bachelor of arts preance  of the heavens being on fire, comets and biazins   scribes their intrigues and characters.  His actors are
stars, thu addresses a the heavens, which seemed to have   Polites, a magistrate;-Physica;-Astronoziiia, daughter
been in as mad a condition as the poet's own mind.      to Physica;-Ethicus, an old man;-Geographts,a travel
-been inHow now ye heaven as the poet's grow  you   ler and courtier, in love with Astronomia;-Arithmetica,
So proud, that you must needs put on curled locks,  in love with  Geometry;-Logicus;-Grammaticus. a
And clothe yourselves in perriwigs of fire t        schoolmaster:-Poeta;-Historia, in love with Poetica;
0~~ *..       — Rhetorica, in love with Logicus; —Melancho!ico, PoeIn the raging Turk, or Bajazet the Second, he is intro-  ta' man; —Phantastes, servant to Geographus; —Choler,
duced with this most raging speech:                     Grammaticus's mant
Grammaticus's man.
Am I not emperor? he that breathes a no              All these abstract and refined ladies and gentlemen
Damns in that negative syllable his soul;           have as bodily feelings, and employ as gross language, as
Durst any god gainsay it, he should feel
The strength of fiercest giants in my armies,       if they had been every-day characters.  A specimen of
Mine anger's at the highest, and I could shake      his grotesque  dullness may entertain;-' fruits of dull
The firm foundation of the earthly globe:           heat, and sooterkins of wit.'
Could I but grasp the poles in these two hands        Geographus opens the play with declaring his passion to
I'd pluck the world asunder.                        Astronomia, and that very rudely indeed! See the peHe would scale heaven, and would then when he had   dant wreathing the roses of Love!
-- ot beyond the utmost sphere,        ~ Geog. Come, now vou shall, Astronomia.
Besiege the concave of this universe,                 Ast. 5What shall I, Geographus?
And hunger-starve the gods till they confessed        Geog. Kisse 
What furies did oppress his sleeping soul.            Ast. What ill spite of my teeth!
These plays went through two editions; the last printed  Geog. No, not so   I hope you do not use too kisse
in 1656.                                                with your teeth.
The following passage from a similar bard is as pre-    Ast. Marry, and I hope I do not use to kisse without
cious. The king in the play exclaims,                  them.
By all the ancient gods of Rome and Greece,           Geog. Ay, but my fine wit-catcher, I mean you do not
I love my daughter!-better than my niece!         show your teeth when you kisse.'
If any one should ask the reason why,                 He then kisses her, as he says, in the different manners
I'd tell them —Nature makes the stronger tie!      of a French, Spanish, and Dutch kiss. He wants to take
One of these rude French plays, about 1600, is entitled  off the zone of Astronomia.  She begs he would not fon-' La Rebellion, ou mescontentement des Grenouilles contre  dle her like an elephant as he is; and Geographus says
Jupiter,' in five acts. The subject of this tragicomic piece  again,   Wotl't vou then?
is nothing more than the fable of the firogs who asked Ju-    Ast. Won't I what?
piter for a king. In this ridiculous efflsion ofa wild fan-    Geog. Bee kinde?
cy, it must have been pleasant enough to have seen the    Ast. Bee kinde! how?'
actors, croaking in their fens, and climbing up the steep   Fortunately Geographus is here interrupted by Astrono.
ascent of Olympus; they were dressed so as to appear  mia's mother Physica.  This dialogue is a specimen of
gigantic frogs; and in pleadinga their cause before Jupiter  the whole piece; very flat,and very gross. Yet the piece is
and his court, the dull humour was to croak sublimely,  still curious,-not only for its absurdity, but for that sort o
whenever they did not agree with their judge.          ingenuity, which so whimsically contrived to bring tcgeth.
Clavigero, in his curiolus history of Mexico, has given  er the different arts; this pedantic writer, however,
Acostra's account of the Mexican theatre which appears  owes more to the subject, than the subject derived fryo_




LITERATURE.                                                      13'
him; without wit or humour, he has at times an extrava-  in his preface from this imputation. It was particularly
gance of invention.  As for instance,-Geographus, and  laid to his charge that in the characters of Bartoline, an
his man Phantastes, describe to Poeta the lying wonders  old corrupt lawyer and his wife, Lucinda, a wanton counthey pretend to have witnessed; and this is one:      try girl, he intended to ridicule a certain serjeant M —-' Phca. Sir, we met with a traveller that could speak   and his young wife. It was even said that thle comedian
six languages at the same instant.                      mimicked the odd speech of the aforesaid serjeant, who
Poeta. How'? at the same instant, that's impossible?  having lost all his teeth, uttered his words in a very peculPhan. Nay, sir, the actuality of the performance puts  liar manner. On this, Crown tells us in his defence, that
it beyond all contradiction.  With his tongue he'd so  the comedian nust not be blamed for this peculiarity, as it
vowel you out as smooth Italian as any man breathing;  was an invention of the author himself, who had taught it
with his eye he would sparkle forth the proud Spanish;  to the player. He seems to have considered it as no ordi.
with his nose blow out most robustious Dutch; the creak-  nary invention, and was so pleased with it, that he has
ing of his high-heeled shoe would articulate exact Polonian;  most painfully printed the speeches of the lawyer in this
the knocking of his shin-bone feminine French; and his  singular gibberish; and his reasons, as well as his dis.
belly would grumble most pure and scholar-like Hungary.  covery, appear very remarkable.
This, though extravagant without fancy, is not the worst    He says, that' Not any one old man more than another
part ofthe absurd humour which runs through this pedan-  is mimicked, by Mr Lee's way of speaking, which all co.
tic comedy.                                             medians can witness, was my own invention, and Mr Lee
The classical reader may perhaps be amused by the fol.  was taught it by me. To prove this farther, I have printed
lowing strange conceits. Poeta, who was in love with   Bartoline's part in that manner of spelling, by which 1
Historia capriciously falls in love with A.stronomia, and  taught it Mr Lee. They who have no teeth cannot prothus compares his mistress:                             nounce many letters plain, but perpetually lisp, and break
Her brow is like a brave heroic line              their words; and some words they cannot bring out all.
That does a sacred majestie inshrine;             As for instance, th is pronounced by thrusting the tongue
Her nose, Phaleuciake-like, in comely sort        hard to the teeth, therefore that sound they cannot make,
Ends in a Trochie, or a long and short            but something like it. For that reason you will often find
Her mouth is like a prettie Diameter;             in Bartoline's part, instead of th, ay, as yat for that; yish,
Her eie-brows like a little-longer Trimeter.      for this; yosh, for those; sometimes a t is left out, as
Her chine is an Hyermeter, somewhat too longue   housand, for thousand; hirty, for thirty. S they pronounce
Her eies I may compare them unto two              like sh, sher, for sir; musht ior must; t they speak like ch;
Quick-turning Dactyles, for their nimble view     therefore you will find chrue, for true; chreason, for treason;
Her ribs like staues of Sapphicks doe descend     chto, for to; choo, for two; chen, for ten; chake, for take.
Thither, which but to name were to offend.        And this ch is not to be pronounced like k, as'tis in christian,
Her arms like two lambics raised on hie,          but as in child, church, chest. I desire the reader to obDoe with her brow bear equal m kjestie;           serve these things, because otherwise he will hardly uner leow as lie two sazons   t with spondees keep atately grace,  derstand much of the lawyer's part, which in the opinion
Slow asec  twonscazonst witha sptee y g.races.. st   of all is the most divertising in the comedy; but when this
The piece concludes with a speech by Polites, who set-  ridiculous way of speaking is familiar with him, it will rcnties all the disputes, and loves, of the Arts. Poeta pro-  dr the part more pleasant.'
mises for the future to attach himself to Historia. Rhemises for te future to attac   imself to Historia.  e-    One hardly expects so curious a piece of orthoepy in the
torica, though she loves Logicus, yet as they do not mutu-  preface to a coedy. It mayhave required  great obserally agree, she is united to grammaticus. Polites coun-   aton and ingenuity to have discovered the cause of old
sels Phlegmatico, who is Logicus's man, to leave off  toothless, men mumbling their words. But as a piece o
smoking, and to learn better manners; and Choler, Gram-  toothlessmeour, on mumbing the authords.  But as havpiecerided
maticus's man, to bridle himself,-that Ethicus  and  comic humour, on which the author appears to have prided
aticonouss manwould to bridle himself;-goodthat Ethdvicuse toPoetand himseltf the effect is far from fortunate; humour arising
and Historia;-and Physica to her children Geographus  from a personal defect, is but a miserable substitute for
and Histronoia;-and f or Grammaticus and Rhetoric, he sayphus  that of a more genuine kind. I shall give a specimen of
and Astronomia: tbr Grammaticus and Rhetoric, he says,  this strange gibberish, as it is so laboriously printed. It
their tongues will always agree and will not fall out; and  this strange gibberish, as it is so laboriosly printed. It
for Geometres and Arithmetica they will be very regular.  may amuse the reader to see his  other's language transMelancholico, who is Poeta's man, is left quite alone, and  formed into so odd a shape that t is with difficulty he ca
agrees to be married to Musica; and at length Phantastes,    Old Bartoine tus speaks:-' I wrong'd my 
by the entreaty of Poeta, becomes the servant of Melan-  etcher artoine thus speaks:-' I wrong'd my shelf, co
cholico and Musica.  Physiognomus and Cheiromantes,            ic/o bondsh of marriage, and could not perform
hoico are in t   he character of gnopsies and Cheifortune-tellers,  coveantsh, I might well hinke you would chake the forfeiwho are in the character of gypsies and fortune-tellers,
are finally exiled from the island of Fortunata, where lies    the bond; and I never found equichy in a bedg in
the lwhole scene ofthe action in the residence ofthe mar   my life; but i'll trounce you boh; 1 have paved jaylish
the whole scene of the action in the residence of the mar-  the bosesh of honester people pen you are, pat never
wi' the bonesh ofhonester people yen you are, vat never
The  pedant-comic-writer has even attended  to the  did me nor any man any wrong, but had law o' yeir shydsh
The pedant-comic-writer has even attended  to the  and right o' peir shpdsh, but because pep had not me o'
dresses of his characters, which are minutely  given.and right or shydsh,       but because lsh, and  ot rei,
Thus Melancholico wears a black suit, a black hat, a black
cloak, and black worked bands, black gloves, and black  eshchatsh for my clyentsh, yat had no more chytle to'em
shoes. Sanguis, the servant of Medicus, is in a red suit;  yen dogsh.'
on the breast is a man with his nose bleeding; on the back,         THE COMEDY OF A MADMAN.
one letting blood in his arm; with a red hat and band, red  Desmarets, the friend of Richelieu, mentioned in the
stockings, and red pumps.                               article Richelieu, page 38, was a very extraordinary charIt is recorded of this play, that the Oxford scholars,  acter, and produced many effusions of genius in early life,
resolving to give James I a relish of their genius, requested  till he became a mysticalfanatic.  It was said of him
leave to act this notable piece. Honest Anthony Wood  that'he was the greatest madman among poets, and the
tells us, that it being too grave for the king, and too scho-  best poet among madmen.' His comedy of'The Visionlastic for the auditory, or, as some have said, the actors  aries' is one of the most extraordinary of dramatic prohad taken too much wine, his majesty offered several  jects, and in respect to its genius and lunacy, may be con.
times, after two acts, to withdraw. He was prevailed to      d as a literary curiosity.
sit it out, in mere charity to the Oxford scholars. The   In this singular comedy all Bedlam seems to be let loose
following humourous epigram  was produced on the oc-  on the stage, and every character has a high claim to an
casion:                                                 apartment in it. It is indeed suspected that the cardinal
At Christ church marriage done before the king,   had a hand in this anomalous drama, and in spite of its
Least that those mates should want an offering,   extravagance it was favourably received by the public,
The king himself did offer,-What, I pray?
HTe ki w himself did ofteri -What, I pray!       who certainly had never seen any thine like it.
IHe offered twice or thrice —to go away! iEvery character in this piece acts under some hallucina.
A CONTRIVANCE IN DRAMATIC DIALOGUE.              l tion of the mind, or a fit of madness.  Artabaze, is a
Crown, in his' City Politiques,' 1688, a comedy written   cowardly hero, who believes he has conquered the world,
to satirise the Whigs of those days, was accused of having  Amidor, is a wild poet, who imagines he ranks above Hocopied his character too closely after life, and his enemies  mer. Filidan, is alover, who becomes infl'mmable as oun.
turned his comedy into a libel. He has defended himself  powder, for every mistress he reads of in romances. Phaia




136                                     CURIOSITIES OF;ante, is a beggarly bankrupt, who thinks himself as rich   zie was ingeniously answered by the elegant taste of John
as Crosus.  Melisse, in reading the' History of Alex-   Evelyn, in 1667; of this last tract, the editor of' Censura
andrer,' has become madly in love with this hero, and will  Literaria,' in his first volume, has given an analysis; but
have no other husband than'him of Macedon.' Hesperie  that ingenious and fervent compiler has not noticed the su.
imagines her fatal charms occasion a hundred disappoint-  perior composition of the Scotch writer.  Mackenzie,
ments in the world, but prides herself on her perfect insen-  though he wrote in favour of solitude, passed a very active
sibility.   Sestiane, who knows no other happiness than  life, first as a pleader, and afterwards as a judge; that he
coinmelies, and whatever she sees or hears, immediately   was an eloquent writer, and an excellent critic, and a wit,
plans a scene for dramatic effect, renounces any other oc-  we have the authority of Dryden, who says, that till he
cupation; and finally, Alcidon, the father of these three   was acquainted with that noble wit of Scotland, Sir George
mad girls, as imbecile as his daughters are wild. So much   Mackenzie, he had not known the beautiful turn of words
for the amiable characters!                                and thoughts in poetry, which Sir George had explained
The plot is in perfect harmony with the genius of the   and exemplified to him in conversation.  As a judge, and
author, and the characters he has invented —perfectly un-  king's advocate, will not the barbarous customs of the age
connected, and fancifully wild.  Alcidon resolves to marry   defend his name? he is most hideously painted forth by
his three daughters, who, however, have no such project  the dark pencil of a poetical Spagnoletti-Mr Grahame,
of their own.  He offers them  to the first who comes.  in his poem  on'The Birds of Scotland.'  Sir George
He accepts for his son-in-law the first who offers, and is  lived in the age of rebellion-and used torture: we must
clearly convinced that he is within a very short period of  entirely put aside his political, to attend to his literary
accomplishing his wishes.  As the four ridiculous person-  character.  Blair has quoted his pleadings as a model of
ages whom we have noticed frequently haunt his house, he   eloquence, and Mr Grahame is unjust to the fame of
becomes embarrassed in finding one lover too many, hay-  Mackenzie, when he alludes to his'half-forgotten name.'
ing only three daughters.  The catastrophe relieves the   In 1689, he retired to Oxford, to indulge the luxuries of
old gentleman from his embarrassments.  Melisse, faith-  study in the Bodleian Library, and to practice that soliful to her Macedonian hero, declares her resolution of dy-  tude which so delighted him in theory; but three years
ing, before she marries any meaner personage.  Hesperie   afterwards he fixed himself in London.  Evelyn, who
refuses to marry out of pity for mankind: for to make one   wrote in favour of public employment being preferable to
man happy, she thinks she must plunge a hundred into  solitude, passed his days in the tranquillity of his studies,
despair.  Sestiane, only passionate for comedy, cannot  and wrote against the habits which he himself most loved.
consent to any marriage, and tells her father, in very lively   By this it may appear, that, that of which we have the
verses,                                                    least experience ourselves, will ever be what appears
most delightful!  Alas! every thing in life seems to have
uisqJe ne veux point msouffr6s n pre, espouser la doun censeur  in it the nature of a bubble of air, and, when touched, we
Puisque  vous me souffrss recevoir la douceur          find nothing but emptiness in our hand.  It is certain that
Des plaisirs innocens que le theatre applorte
Prendrais-je le hazard de vivre d'autre  sorte?        the most eloquent writers in favour of solitude have left bePuis on a des enfans, qul vous sent sur les bras,      hind them too many memorials of their unhappy feelings,
Les mener au theatre, O Dieux! quel embarras!        when they indulged this passion to excess; and some anTantot couche ou grossesse, ou quelque maladie         cient hasjustly said, that none but a God, or a savage, can
Pourjamais vous fbnt dire, adieu la comedie            suffer this exile from human nature.!MITATED.                              The following extracts from Sir George Mackenzie's
No, no, my father, I will have no critic,         tract on Solitude are eloquent and impressive, and merit to
(Miscalled  a         husband) since you still permit  be rescued from that oblivion which surrounds many writT         ahe innocent sweet pleasures of the Stage;   ers, whose genius has not been effaced, but concealed,
And shall I venture to exchange my lot?                by the transient crowd of their posterity.'
Then we have children folded in our arms
To bring them to the play.house, heavens.! what troubles!' I have admired to see persons of virtue and humour long
Then we lie in, are big, or sick, or vex'd:            much to be in the city, where, when they come, they found nor
These make us bid farewell to Comedy!                  sought for no other divertisement than to visit one another;
Atlength these imagined sns-in-law appear; Filidan   and there to do nothing else than to make legs, view others
declares that in these three girls he cannot find the mis-  habit, talk of the weather, or some such pitiful subject, and it
may be, if they made a farther inroad upon any other affair,
tress he adores.  Amidor confesses he only asked for one  they did so pick one another, that it afforded them matter of
of his daughters out of pure gallantry, and that he is only  eternal quarrel, for what was at first but an indifferent subject,
a lover-in verse! When Phalante is questioned after the  is by interest adopted into the number of our quarrels.-What
great fortunes he hinted at, the father discovers that he has   pleasure can be received by talking of new fashions, buying
not a stiver, and out of credit to borrow; while Artabaze   and selling oflands, advancement or ruit offavourites, victo(leclares that he only allowed Alcidon, out of mere bone-  ries or defeats ofstrange princes, which is the ordinary subject
volnce, to flatter himself for a moment, with the hope o   of ordinary conversation?-Most desire to frequent their supe.
riors, and these men must either suffer their raillery, or must
an honour that even Jupiter would not dare to pretend to.  not be suffered to continue in their society; if we converse with
Thus it is, that the four lovers disperse, and leave the old  themn who speak with more address than ourselves, then we
gentleman more embarrassed than ever, and his daughters  repine equally at our own dulness, and envy the acuteness
perfectly enchanted to enjoy their whimsical reveries, and   that accomplishes the speaker; or, if we converse with duller
die old maids.                                           animals than ourselves, then we are weary to draw the yoke
alone, and fret at our being in ill company; but if chance
SOLITUDE.                           blows us in amongst our equals, then we are so at guard to
catch all advantages, and so interested in point d'honneur, that
We possess, among our own native treasures, two trea-  it rather cruciates than recreates us. How many make them.
tises on this subject, composed with no ordinary talent,  selves cheap by these occasions, whom we had valued highly
and not their least value consists in one being an apology   if they had frequented us less! And how many frequent per
for solitude, while the other combats that prevailing pas-  sonswho laugh  at that simplicity which the addresser admires
sion of the studious.  Zimmerman's popular work is over-  in himself as wit, asd yet both recreate themselves with double
loaded with common-place; the garrulity of eloquence,  laughters!
which has been  found veryagreeable to the great niass of    In solitude (lie addresses his friend)'My dear Celador enter
which has been found veryagre       ass of  into your own breast, and there survey the several operations
readers.  The two treatises now noticed may be corm-  of your own soul, the progress ofyourpassions, the strugglings
pared to the highly-finished gems, whose figure may be   of your appetite, the wanderings of your fancy, and ye will
more finely designed, and whose strokes may be more  find, I assure you, more variety in that one piece, than there
delicate in the smaller space they occupy, than the pon-  is to be learned in all thecourts of Christendom. Represent
derous block of nmarbe hewed out by the German chiseler'  to yourself the last age, all the actions and interests in it, how
Sir George Mackenzie, a polite writer and a most elo-  much this person was infatuate with zeal, that person with
lust; how much one pursued honour, and another riches;
quent pleader, published in 1665 a moral essay preferring   and in the next thought draw that scene, and represent them
solitude to public employment. The  eloquence of his style  all turned to dust and ash  V!'
was well suited to the dignity of his subject; the advocates
for solitude have always prevailed over those for active life,    I cannot close this subject without the addition of some
because there is something sublime in those feelings which   anecdotes, which may be useful.  A  man of letters finds
would retire fromthe circle of indolent triflers, or depraved   solitude necessary, and for him  solitude has its pleasures
geniuses; who, like a certain species of insects, are horn,  and its conveniences; but we shall find that it also hub
and cal only liva in corruption.  The tract of M[acken-  hundred things to be dreaded.




LITERATURE.                                                   187
Solitude is indispensible for literary pursuits. No con-  to his Muse,' he exquisitely paints tne situation of men dl
siderable work has yet been composed, but its author, like  genius.
an ancient magician, retired first to the grove or the closet,
to invocate his spirits. Every production of genius must         A       e les p ois, victimes du en i
be the production of enthusiasm.  When the youth sighs           Aivre isoles, sans jouri de la vier!'
and languishes, and feels himself among crowds in an irk-                 s, sans    i e a ie!
some solitude,-that is the moment to fly into seclusion and     afterwards he adds,
meditation. Where can he indulge but in solitude the fine' Vingt ans d'ennuis, pour quelque Jours de gloire!'
romances of his soul? where but in solitude can he occupy    I conclude with one more anecdote on solitude, which
himself in useful dreams by night, and, when the morning  may amuse. When Menage, attacked by some, and abanrises, fly without interruption to his unfinished labours?  doned by others, was seized by a fit of the spleen, he re.
Retirement to the frivolous is a vast desert, to the man of  treated into the country, and gave up his famous Mercuri.
genius it is the enchanted garden of Armida.           ales: those Wednesdays when the literati assembled at
Cicero was uneasy amidst applauding Rome, and he  his house, to praise up or cry down one another, as is usual
has designated his numerous works by the titles of his va-  with the literary populace. Menage expected to find that
rious villas, where they were composed. Voltaire had  tranquillity in the country which he had frequently describtalents, and a taste for society, yet he not only withdrew   ed in his verses: but as he was only a poetical plagiarist,
by intervals, but at one period of his life passed five years  it is not strange our pastoral writer was greatly disappointin the most secret seclusion and fervent studies. Montes-  ed. Some country rogues having killed his pigeons, theiy
quieu quitted the brilliant circles of Paris for his books, his  gave him more vexation than his critics. He hastened
meditations, and for his immortal work, and was ridiculed  his return to Paris.' It is better,' he observed'since we
by the gay triflers he relinquished. Harrington, to com-  are born to suffer, to feel only reasonable sorrows.'
pose his Oceana, severed himself from the society of his
friends, and was so wrapt in abstraction, that he was pitied          LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS.
as a lunatic.  Descartes, inflamed by genius, abruptly    The memorable friendship of Beaumount and Fletcher
breaks all his friendly connexions, hires an obscure house  so closely united their labours, that we cannot discover the
in an unfrequented corner at Paris, and applies himself to  productions of either; and biographers cannot, without
study during two years unknown to his acquaintance.  difficulty, compose the memoirs of the one, without running
Adam Smith, after the publication of his first work, throws  into the life of the other. They pourtrayed the same char
himself into a retirement that lasted ten years; even  racters, while they mingled sentiment with sentiment, and
Hume rallied him for separating himself from the world;  their days were as closely interwoven as their verses.
but the great political inquirer satisfied the world, and his  Metastasio and Farinelli were born about the same time,
friends, by his great work on the Wealth of Nations.   and early acquainted.   They called one another Gemello,
But this solitude, at first a necessity, and then a plea-  or twin! Both the delight of Europe, both lived to an ad.
sure, at length is not borne without repining. I will call  vanced age, and died nearly at the same time. Their for.
for a witness a great genius, and he shall speak himself.  tune bore, too, a resemblance; for they were both pensionGibbon says,' I feel, and shall continue to feel, that domes-  ed, but lived and died separated in the distant courts of
tic solitude, however it may be alleviated by the world, by  Vienna and Madrid. Montaigne and Charron were rivals,
study and even by friendship, is a comfortless state, which  but always friends; such was Montaigne's affection for
will grow more painful as I descend in the vale of years:'  Charron, that he permitted him by his will to bear the full
Memoirs, Vol. I, p 216. And afterwards he writes to a  arms of his family; and Charron evinced his gratitude to
friend,' Your visit has only served to remind me that  the manes of his departed friend, by leavin, his fortune to
man, however amused and occupied in his closet, was not  the sister of Montaigne, who had married. Forty years
made to live alone.'                                   of friendship, uninterrupted by rivalry or envy, crowned the
I must therefore now sketch a different picture of lite-  lives of Poggius and Leonard Aretin, two of the illustrious
rary solitude than some sanguine and youthful minds con-  revivers of letters. A singular custom  formerly prevailed
ceive.                                                 among our own writers, which was an affectionate tribute
Even the sublimest of men, Milton, who is not apt to  to our literary veterans by young writers.-The former
vent complaints, appears to have felt this irksome period  adopted the latter by the title of sons. Ben Jonson had
of life. In the preface to Smectymnus, he says,' It is  twelve of these poetical sons. Walton, the angler, adopt.
but justice, not to defraud of due esteem  the wearisome  ed Cotton, the translator of Montaigne.
labours and studious watchings, wherein I have spent and    Among the most fascinating effusions of genius are those
tired out almost a whole youth.'                       little pieces which it consecrates to the cause of friendship.
Solitude in a later period of life, or rather the neglect  In that poem of Cowley, composed on the death of his
which awaits the solitary man, is felt with acuter sensi-  friend Harvey, the following stanza presents a pleasing
bility. Cowley, that enthusiast for rural seclusion, in his  picture of the employments of two young students:retirement calls hinself' The melancholy Cowley.' Mason has truly transferred the same epithet to Gray. Read'Say, For you saw us, ye immortal lihts,
in his letters the history of solitude. We lament the loss   How oft unwearied have we spent the nights!
of Cowley's correspondence through the mistaken notion       Till the Ledean stars, so famed fr love,
of Sprat; he assuredly had painted the sorrows of his
heart. But Shenstone has filled his pages with the cries     We spent them not in toys, in lust, or wine;
of an amiable being whose soul bleeds in the dead oblivion       But search of deep philosophy,
of solitude. Listen to his melancholy expressions.' Now     Arts which eloquence, aford poetry,
J am come from a visit, every little uneasiness is sufficient,,
to introduce my whole train of melancholy considerations,    Milton has not only given the exquisite Lycidas to the
and to make me utterly dissatisfied with the life I now lead,  memory of a young friend, but in his Epitaphium Damrno.
and the life I foresee I shall lead.  1 am angry, and envi-  nis, to that of Deodatus, has poured forth some interesting
ous, and dejected and frantic, and disregard all present  sentiments. It has been versified by Langhorne. Now,
things, as becomes a madman to do. I am infinitely pleased  says the poet,
(though it is a gloomy joy) with the application of Dr'To whom shall I my hopes and fears impart,
Swift's complaint, that he is forced to die in a rage, like a  Or trust the cares and follies of my heart'
poisoned rat in a hole.' Let the lover of solitude muse on
its picture throughout the year, in the following stanza by    The elegy of Tickell, maliciously called by Steele
the same poet:'prose in rhyme,' is alike inspired by affection and fancy;
it has a melodious languor, and a melancholy gracu. The
Tedious again to eurse the drizzling day,           sonnet of Gray to the memory of West is a beautiful efAgain to trace the wintry tracks of snow!         fusion, and a model for Enalish sonnets. Helvetius was
Or, soothed by vernal airs, again survey                                     I
Or, selfsamothed by verna   a irs, again survey  blow!  the protector of men of genius, whom he assisted not only
with his criticism, but his fortune. At his death, Saurin
Swift's letters paint in terrifying colours a picture of  read in the French academy an epistle. to the manes of his
solitude, and at lenlth his despair closed with idiotism.  friend. Saurin, wrestling with obscurity and poverty, had
The amiable Gresset could not sport with the brilliant  been drawn into literary existence by the sulpporting hand
wings of his butterfly-muse, without dropping some queru-  of Helvetius.  Our poet thus addresses him in the warm
Lous expression on the solitude of genius. In his' Epistle  tones of gratitude:  18
1s




138                                 CC URIOSITIES OF' C'est toi qui me cherchant au sein de l'infortune  The most illustrious of the ancients prefixed the name
Relevas mon sort abbattu.                    of some friend to the head of their works.-We too often
Et scus sne rendre chere, une vio importune.      place that of some patron. They honourably inserted it
in their works. When a man of genius, however, shows
Qu,' importent ces pleurs-e                       that he is not less mindful of his social affection than his
douleur ipussa!  e vie et mon ami esuperflus!     fame, he is the more loved by his reader. Plato communi.
cated a ray of his glory to his brothers; for in his republic
IMITATED.                        he ascribes some parts to Adimantus and Glauchon; and
In Misery's haunts thy friend thy bounties seize,  Antiphon the youngest is made to deliver his sentiments in
And give an urgent life some days of ease;        the Parmenides. To perpetuate the fondness of friend-.
Ah! ye vain griefs~ superfluous tears It chide!  ship several authors have entitled their works by the name
I live, alas! I live-and thou hast died!          of some cherished associate. Cicero to his Treatise oi
The literary friendship of a father with his son is one  Orators gives the title of Brutus; to that of Friendship
of the rarest alliances in the republic of letters.  It was  Lelius, and to that of Old Age, Cato. They have been
gratifying to the feelings of young Gibbon, in the fervour of  imitated by the moderns. The poetical Tass), to his dia.
literary ambition, to dedicate his first fruits to his father.  logue on Friendship gave the name of Manson, who was
The too lively son of Crebillon, though his was a very  afterwards his affectionate biographer. Sepulvueda endifferent genius to the grandeur of his father's, yet dedi-  titles his treatise on Glory by the name of his friend Goncated his works, to him, and for a moment put aside his  salves. Lociel to his Dialogues on the Lawyers of Paris
wit and raillery for the pathetic expressions offilial venera-  prefixes the nanle of the learned Pasquier. Thus Plato
tion. We have had a remarkable instance in the two Rich-  distinguished his Dialogues by the names of certain per.
ardsons; and the father in his original manner, has, in the  sons; the one on Lying is entitled Hippius; on Rhetoric,
most glowing language, expressed his affectionate senti-  Gorgias; and oi Beauty, Phmdrus.
ments. He says,'My time of learning was employed in    Luther has perhaps carried this feeling to an extrava.
business; but, after all, I have the Greek and Latin  gant point. He was so delighted by his favourite' Comn
tongues, because a part of me possesses them, to whom I  mentary on the Epistle to the Galatians,' that he distiiican recur at pleasure, just as I have a hand when I  guished it by a title of doting fondness; he named it after
would write or paint, feet to walk, and eyes to see. My   his wife, and called it' His Catharine.'
son is my learning, as I am that to him which he has not.
-We make one man, and such a compouud man may                 ANECDOTES OF ABSTRACTION OF MIND.
probably produce what no single man can.' And further,    Some have exercised this power of abstraction to a de-' I always think it my peculiar happiness to be as it were  gree that appears marvellous to volatile spirits, and puny
enlarged, expanded, made another man by the acquisition  thinkers.
of my son; and he thinks in the same manner concerning   To this patient habit, Newton is indebted for many of
my union with him.'  This is as curious as it is uncom-.  his great discoveries; an apple falls upon him in his ormon; however the cynic may call it egotism!           chard,-and the system  of attraction succeeds in his
Some for their friend have died penetrated with incon-  mind! he observes boys blowing soap bubbles, and the
solable grief; some have sacrificed their character to pre-  properties of light display themselves!  Of Socrates, it
serve his own; some have shared their limited fortune;  is said, that he would frequently remain an entire day and
and some have remained attached to their friend in the  night in the same attitude, absorbed in meditation, and
cold season of adversity.                              why shall we doubt this, when we know that La Fontaine
Jurieu denounced Bayle as an impious writer, and drew   and Thomson, Descartes and Newton, experienced the
his conclusions from the' Avis aux Refugi6s.' This work  same absitaction? Mercator, the celebrated geographer,
is written aaainst the Calvinists, and therefore becomes  found such delight in the ceaseless progression of his studies,
impious in IHolland. Bayle might have exculpated himself  that he would never willingly quit his maps to take the ne.
with facility, by declaring the work was composed by La   cessary refreshments of life. In Cicero's Treatise on Old
Roque; but he preferred to be persecuted, rather than to  Age, Cato applauds Gallus, who, when he sat down to
ruin his friend; he therefore was silent, and was condemn-  write in the morning, was surprised by the evening: and
ed. When the minister Fouquet was abandoned by all, it  when he took up his pen in the evening. was surprised by
was the men of letters he had patronized who never for-  the appearance of the morning.  Buffont once described
sook his prison; and many have dedicated their works to  these delicious moments with his accustomed eloquence.great men in their adversity, whom they scorned to notice' Invention depends on patience; contemplate your subject
at the time when they were noticed by all. The learned  long; it will gradually unfold, till a sort of electulc spark
Goguet bequeathed his Mss and library to his friend Fu-  convulses for a moment the brain, and spreads down to the
gere, with whom he had united his affections and his stud-  very heart a glow of ir:,t.'on.  Then come the luxuries
ies. His work on the   Origin of the Arts and Sciences'  of genius! the true hours for production and composition:
had been much indebted to his aid. Fugere, who knew   hours so delightful that I have spent twelve and fourteen
his friend to be past recovery, preserved a mute despair,  successively at my writing.desk, and still been in a state
during the slow and painful disease, and on the death of  of pleasure.'  It is probable that the anecdote related of
Goguet, the victim of sensibility, perished amidst the manu-  Marini, the Italian poet, is true; that he was once so abscripts which his friend had, in vain, bequeathed to prepare  sorbed in revising his Adonis, that he suffered his legto be
for publication. The Abb6 de Saint Pierre gave an in-  burnt for some time, without any sensibility.
teresting proof of literary friendship. When he was at    Abstraction of this sublime kind is the first step to that
college, he formed a union with Varignon, the geometri-  noble enthusiasm which accompanies Genius: it produces
cian. They were of congenial dispositions. WVhen he  those raptures and that intense delight, which some curs
went to Paris, he invited Varignon to accompany him;  ous facts will explain to us.
but Varignon had nothing, and the Abbe was far from      Poggius relates of Dante, that he indulged his meditarich. A  certain income was necessary for the tranquil  tions more strongly than any man he knew; whenever he
pursuits of geometry. Our Abh6 had an income of 1800  read, he was only -alive to what was passing in his mind,
iuvres; from this he deducted 300, which he gave to the  to all human concerns, he was, as if they had not been!
geometrician, accompanied by a delicacy which few but a  Dante went one day to a great public procession; he en.
man of genius could conceive' I do ot give it to you,'  tered the shop of a bookseller to be a spectator of the
he said,' as a salary, but an annuity, that you may be in-  passiig show. He found a book which greatly interested
dependent, and quit me when you dislike me.' Something  him; he devoured it in silence, and plunged into an abyss
nearly similar embellishes our own literary history. When   of thought.-On his return he declared that he had neither
Akenside was in great danger of experiencing famine as  seen, nor heard, the slightest occurrence of the public
well as fame, Mr Dyson allowed him three hundred pounds  exhibition which passed before him.  This enthusiasm
a year. Of this gentleman, perhaps, nothing is known;  renders every thing surrounding us as distant as if an imyet whatever his life may be, it merits the tribute of the  mense interval separated us from the scene.  A modern
biographer. To close with these honourable testimonies  astronomer, one summer night, withdrew to his chamber;
of literary friendship, we must not omit that of Churchill  the brightness of the heaven showed a phenomenon. He
and Lloyd. It is known that when Lloyd heard of the  passed the whole night in observing it, and when they
death of our poet, he acted the part which Fugere did to  came to him early in the morning, and found him in the
Goguet. The page is crowded, but my facts are by no  same attitude, he said, like one who had been recollecting
moans exhausted.                                       his thoughts for a few moments' It must be thus; but I'11




LITE RATURE.                                                    13S
go to bed before'tis late!' He had gazed the entire night    Are fables all; deliriously I live,
in mesitation, and did not know it.                              Anil life's whole course is one protracted dream.
This Intense abstraction operates visibly: this pertur-    Eternal power! when shall I wake to rest
bation of the faculties, as might be supposed, affects per-      This wearied brain on Trlth's immortalbreast?
sons of genius physically.  What a forcible, description
the late Mladam Roland, who certainly was a woman of                         PICIRDS
the first genius, gives ot herself on her first reading of
Telemachus and Tasso.'My respiration rose: I felt a      The censure which the Shakspeare of novesls  has
rapid fire colouring my face, and my voice changing, had  incurred for the tedious procrastination and the minute de.
betrayed my agitation; I was Eucharis for Telemachus,  tails of his fable; his slow unfolding characters, and the
and Erminia for Tancred: however during this perfect  slightest gestures of his personages, is extremely urjust;
transformation, I did not yet think that I myself was any  for is it not evident that we could not have his peculiar
thing, for any one.  The whole had no connexion with  excellences without these attendant defects'?  Whenchamyself, I sought for nothing around me; I was them, I  racters are very fully delineated, the narrative must be
saw only the objects which existed for them; it was a   suspended.  Whenever the narrative is rapid, which so
dream, without being awakened.'-Metastasio describes a  much delights superficial readers, the characters cannot be
similar situation.' When I apply with a little attention,  very minutely feattired; and the writer who aims to inthe nerves of my sensorium  are put into a violent tumult.  struct (as Richardson avowedly did) by the glow and eloI grow as red in the face as a drunkard, and am obliged to  quence of his feelings, must often sacrifice to this his local
quit my work.'  When Malebranche first took up Des-  descriptions.  Richardson himself has given us the prin.
cartes on Man, the germ and origin of his philosophy, he  ciple that guided him in composing.  He tells us,' If I
was obliged frequently to interrupt his reading by a violent  give speeches and conversations, I ought to give them
palpitation of the heart.  When the first idea of the Es-  justly; for the humours and characters of persons cannot
say on the Arts and Sciences rushed on the mind of Rous-  be known unless I repeat what they say, and their manner
seau, it occasioned such a feverish agitation that it ap-  of saying.'
Droached to a delirium.                                    Foreign critics have been more just to Richardson than
Ttlis delicious inebriation of the imagination occasioned   many of his own countrymen.  I shall notice the opinions
the ancients, who sometimes perceived the effects, to be-  of three celebrated writers, D'Alembert, Rosseau, and
lieve it was not short of divine inspiration. Fielding says,  Diderot.' I do not doubt but that the most pathetic and affecting  D'Alembert was a great mathematician.  His literary
scenes have been writ with tears.  He perhaps would  taste was extremely cold; he was not worthy of reading
have been pleased to have confirmed his observation by the   Richardson.  The volumes, if he ever read them, must
following circumstances.  The tremors of Dryden, after  have fallen from his hands. The delicate and subtle turn.
having written an Ode, a circumstance tradition has acci.  ings, those folds of the human heart, which require so nice
dentally handed down, were not unusual with him; in the   a touch, was a problem  which the mathematician could
preface to his Tales he tells us, that, in translating Homer  never solve.  There is no other demonstration in the huhe found greater pleasure than in Virgil; but it was not a   man heart, but an appeal to its feelings; and what are the
pleasure without pain; the continual agitation of the spirits  calculating feelings of an arithmetician of lines and curves?
must needs be a weakener to any constitution, especially in   He therefore declared of Richardson that'La Nature
age, and many pauses are required for refreshment be-  est bonne a amiter, mais non pas jusqu'au l'ennui.'
twixt the heats.' In writing the ninth scene of the second  But thus it was not with the other two congenial geact of the Olympiad, Metastasio found himself in tears;  niuses!  The fervent opinion of Rosseau must be faun effect which afterwards, says Dr Burney, proved very   miliar to the reader; but Diderot, in his eulogy on
contagious. It was on this occasion that that tender poet  Richardson, exceeds even Rosseau in the enthusiasm of
commemorated the circumstance in the following interest-  his feelings.  I extract some of the most interesting
ing sonnet:                                              passages.
SONNET FROM  METTSlTSIO.                      Of Clarissa he says,'I yet remember with delight the
first time it came into my hands.  I was in the country.
Scrivendo'A utore in Vienna l'anno 1733 la Sna Ohmpi-  How deliciously was I affected! At every moment I saw
ade si senti comrnosa fino alle lagrime nell' esprimere la   my happiness abrided by a page. I then expeenced the
divisions di dite teneri amici; e meravigliandosi che un same sensations those feel w ho have lon  lived with one
~~falso, e da lui inv dsa p e  rli        aes ations those feel who have long lived with one
fals, e da li inventato disastro, potesse cagionargli una  they love, and are on the point of separation.  At the
si vera passione, si fece a riflettere quanto poco ragion-  close of the work I seemed to remain deserted.'
evole e so!ido f,)ndamento possano aver le altre che.vo.e s so.ido fis.damento possano aver le altre che  The impassioned Diderot then breaks forth;'O Richsoglion frequentamente agitarci, nel corso di nostra vita.    The impassioned Diderot then breaks ortho  O Richm
c0z~~~ ^,. ~~~~~ardson! thlou singular genius in my eyes! thou shalt form
Sogni, e favole io fingo, e pure in carte        my reading in all times. If forced by sharp necessity, my
Mentre favole, e sogni, orno e disegno,          friend falls into indigence: if the mediocrity of my forIn lor, [folle ch'io Son!] prendo tal parte     tune is not sufficient to bestow on my children the neces.
Che del mal che invettat piango, e mi sdegno
Ctna dlorme alt crite nvontmalianao e ml adegno  sary cares for their education, I will sell my books,-but
air ator b  non m'ianoa'e   thou shalt remain, yes thou shalt rest in the same class
Piu sagvio io sono e l'agitato ingegno
Forse alto piu tranquillo?  O forse parto       with Moses, Homer, Euripides, and Sophocles, to be read
Da piu salda cagion l'amor, lo sdegno?          alternately.,h che non sol quelle, ch'io canto, o sctivo' Oh Richardson, I dare pronounce that the most veriFavole Son; ma quanto temo, o spero,             table history is full of fictions, and thy romances are full of
Tutt' 6 menzogna, e detirando io vivo!           truths.  History paints some individuals; thou paintest
Sogno delta mia vita b it corsoa intern,         the human species. —History attributes to some individuals
Dets tu, Signor, quando a destarmi arrivo
Fa, chion trodi riposo in Sen desml VERO.       what they have neither said, nor done; all that thou attri.
wFa, chio trovi riposo in Sen d.l VERO.          butest to man he has said and done. History embraces
in 1733, the Author composing his Olympiad, felt himself  but a portion of duration, a point on the surface of the
suddenly moved, even to tears, in expressing the sepa-  globe; hou hast embraced allplaces atn all times.  The
ration ow n lr uglobe; thou hast embraced all p]aces and all times. The
ration of two tender lovers.  Surprised that a  ficti-  human heart, which has ever been and ever shall be the
tious grief, invented too by himself, could raise so true   same is the model thou copiest.  If we were severely to
a passion, he reflected how little reasonable aid solid a  criticise the best historian, would he maintain his ground as
foundation the others had, which so frequently agitated  thou?  In this point of view, I venture to say, that fro.
us iii this stars of our existence.                    quently history is a miserable romance; and romance, as
SONNET.-IMITATED.                         thou hast composed it, is a good history. Painter of na.
Fables and dreams I feign; yet though but verse     ture, thou never liest'!
The dreams and fables that adorn this scroll,' I have never yet met with a person who shared my enFondi fool, I rave, and,rieve as I rehearse;       thusiasm, that I was not tempted to embrace, and to press
Wk-ile genuine tears, for fancied sorrows roll.   him in my arms!
Perhaps the dear delusion of usy art
Perhhps the dear delusion of my art                                       ore I His loss touches me, as if
Is wisdom; and the agitated mind,'Richarson is no more!  Hs loss tohes  e, as if
As stil reponiirg to eah pinive       my brother was no more. I bore him in my heart without
With love and rage, a tranqulai hour nv  pa       having seen him, aan  knowing him but by his works. He
Ah! not alone the teniter rhymes I give            has not had all the reputation he merited.  Richardson!
Are fictiorns; but my fears and hopes I deem     if living, thy merit has been disputed; how great wilt thou




140                                 CURIOSITIES OF
appear to our children's children, when they shall view   other people's merits have nothing to do with our own; arn
thee at the distance we now view Homer. Then who  that'we should stand on our own legs!' But this was
will dare to steal a line from thy sublime works! Thou  not' proper words in proper places!'
hast had more admirers amongst us than in thine own country, and at this I rejoice!'                                          INFLUENCE OF NAMES.
It is probable that to a Frenchman the style of Richardson is not so objectionable when translated, as to ourselves.  What's in a o Name? That which we call a rose,
I think myself, that it is very idiomatic and energetic;    By any oher name would smell as sweet.
others have thought differently.  The misfortune of Rich-    NAMES, by an involuntary suggestion, produce an ex.
ardson was, that he was unskilful in the art of writing,  traordinary illusion. Favour or disappointment has bee-r
and that he could never lay the pen down while his inkhorn  often conceded as the name of the claimant has affected
supplied it.                                           us; and the accidental affinity or coincidence of a name,
He was delighted by his own works. No author enjoyed  connected with ridicule or hatred, with pleasure or disso much the bliss o! excessive fondness. I heard from the  gust, has operated like magic. But the facts connected
late Charlotte Lennox, the anecdote which so severely re-  with this subject will show how this prejudice has branchprimanded his innocent vanity, which Boswell has recorded.  ed out.
This lady was a regular visiter at Richardson's house, and  Sterne has touched on this unreasonable propensity of
she could scarcely recollect one visit which was not taxed  judging by names, in his humourous account of the elder
by our author reading one of his voluminous letters, or  Mr Shandy's system of christian names. And Wilkes
two or three, if his auditor was quiet and friendly.   has expressed, in Boswell's Life of Johnson, ail the infiul
The extreme delight which he felt on a review of his own  ence of Baptismal names, even in matters of poetry! He
works the works themselves witness. Each is an evidence  said,' The last city poet was Elkanah Settle. There is
of what some will deem a violent literary vanity. To  something in names, which one cannot help feeling. Now
Patne!a is prefixed a letter from the editor (whom we know   Elkanah Settle sounds so queer, who can expect much
to be tne author,) consisting of one of the most minrately  from that name?  We should have no hesitation to aive it
laboured panegyrics of the work itself, that ever the blindest  for John Dryden in preference to Elkanah Settle, from the
idolator of some ancient classic paid to the object of his  names only, without knowing their different merits.
phrenetic imagination. In several places there, he con-    A  lively critic. noticing some American poets says,
trives to repeat the striking parts of the narrative, which' There is or was a Mr Dwight who wrote a poem in'he
display the fertility of his imagination to great advantage.  shape of an epic; and his baptismal name was Timothy;
To the author's own edition of his Clarissa is appended  and involuntarily we infer the sort of epic that a Timothy
an alphabetical arrangement of the sentiments dispersed   must write. Sterne humorously exhorts all god-fathers
throughout the work; and such was the fondness that die-  not' to Nicodemus a man into nothing!'
tated this voluminous arrangement, that such trivial aphor-    There is more truth in this observation than some may
isms as,' habits are not easily changed;'  Men are known  be inclined to allow; and that it affects mankind strongly,
4y their companions,' &c, seem alike to be the object of  all ages and all climates may be called on to testify. Even
their author's admiration.  This collection of sentiments,  in the barbarous age of Louis XI, they felt a delicacy resaid indeed to have been sent to him anonymously, is curi-  specting names, which produced an ordinance from his
ous and useful, and shows the value of the work, by the  majesty. The king's barber was named Oliver le Diable.
extensive grasp of that mind which could think so justly  At first the king allowed him to get rid of the offensive
~on such numerous topics. And in his third and final la-  part by changing it to le Malin, but the improvement was
bour, to each volume of Sir Charles Grandison is not only  not happy, and for a third time he was called Le Mauvais.
prefixed a complete index, with as much exactness, as if it  Even this did not answer his purpose; and as he was a
were a History of England, but there is also appended a  great racer he finally had his majesty's ordinance to be
list of the similies and allusions in the volume; some of  called Le Dain, under penalty of law if any one should
which do not exceed three orfozur in nearly as many hun-  call him Le Diable, Le Malin, or Le Mauvais, Accorddred pages.                                           ing to Platina, Sergius the Second was the first pope who
Literary history does not record a more singular exam-  changed his name in ascending the papal throne; because
ple of that self-delight which an author has felt on a revi-  his proper name was Hog's mouth, very unsuitable with
sion of his works. It was this intense pleasure which pro-  the pomp of the tiara. The ancients felt the same fastididuced his voluminous labours. It must be confessed there  ousness; and among the Romans, those who were called
are readers deficient in that sort of genius which makes the  to the equestrian order, having low and vulgar names,
mind of Richardson so fertile and prodigal.            were new-named on the occasion, lest the former one
THEOLOGICAL STYLE,                     should disgrace the dignity.
When Barbier, a French wit, was chosen for the preIn the present volume some notice has been taken of the  ceptor of Colbert's son, he felt his name was so unconattempts to recompose the Bible, in a finical affected style;  genial to his new profession, that he assumed the mnore
but the broad vulgar colloquial diction, which has been  splendid one of D'Aucour, by which lie is now known.
used by our theological writers, is less tolerable than the  Madamne Gomez had married a person named Bonhomme,
quaintness of Castalion and the floridity of Pere Berruyer.  but she would never exchange her nobler Spanish name to
I omitted to preserve a specimen in its proper place.  prefix her married one to her romances, which indicated
The style now noticed was familiar to, and long dis-  too much of much of meek humility. Guez (abeggar) is a French
graced the writings of, our divines; and we see it some-  writer of great pomp of style, but he felt such extreme deli
times still employed by some of a certain stamp. Matthew   cacy at so low a name, that to give some authority to the
Henry, whos'e Commentaries are well known, writes in  splendour of his diction, he assumed the name of his estate:
this manner on Judges ix.-' We are here told by what  and is well known asBalzac. A French poet of the name
acts Abimelech got into the saddle.-None would have  of Theophile Viaut, finding that his surname pronounced
dreamed of making such afellow as he king.-See how he  like veau (calf) exposed him to the infinite jests of the
has wheedled them into the choice. He hired into his ser-  minor wits, silently dropped it, by retaining the more poeti.
vice the scum and scoundrels of the country. Jotham was  cal appellation of Theophile.  The learned Baillet has
really afine gentleman.-The Sechemites that set Abime-  collected various literary artifices employed by some w.ho,
lech up, were the first to kick him off. The Sechemites said  still preserving a natural attachment to the names of their
all the ill they could of him in their table-talk; they drank  fathers, yet b.ushing at the same time fobr their meanness,
healths to his confusion.-Well, Gaal's interest in Sechem   have in their Latin works attempted to obviate the ridicule
is soon at an end. Exit Gaal!'                         which they provoked. One Gaucher (left-handed) borLancelot Addison, by the vulgar coarseness of his style,  rowed the name of Scevola, because Scevola, having burnt
forms an admirable contrast with the amenity and grace of  his right arm, became consequently left. handed.  Thus
his son's Spectators. He tells us, in his voyage to Bar-  also one De la Borgne (one-evecd) called himself Strabe;
bary, that' A rabbin once told him, among other heinous  De Charpentier took that of Fabricius; De Valet translat.
stuff, that he did not expect the felicity of the next world on  ed his Servilius; and an unlucky gentleman, who bore the
the account of any merits but his own; whoever kept the  name of De bout d'homme, boldly assumed that of Virulus.
aw would arrive at the bliss, by coming upon his own legs.'  Dorat, a French poet, had for his real name Disnemandi,
It must be confessed that the rabbin, considering he  which, in the dialect of the Limousins, signifies one who
could not conscientiously have the same creed as Addison,  dines in the morninge: that is, who has no other dinner
~id not deliver any very' heinous stuff,' in believing that  than his breakfast. This degrading name he changed te




LITERATURE.                                                        141
Derat, or gilded, a nickname which one of his ancestors      This epic poet perceiving the town joined in the severe
had borne for his fail tresses.  But by changing his name,  raillery of the poet, published a long defence of his hero's
mis feelings were not entirely quieted, for unfortunately his  name; but the town was inexorable, and the epic poet
daughter cherished an invincible passion for a learned man,  afterwards changed Chuidebrand's name to Charles Marwho unluckily was named Goulu: that is, a shark, or glut-  tel, which probably was discovered to have something
tonous as a shark.  Miss Disnemandi felt naturally a   more humane. Corneille's Partharite was an unsuccessstrong attraction for a goulu; and in spite of her father's  ful tragedy, and Voltaire deduces its ill fortune partly from
remonstrances, she once more renewed his sorrows in this  its barbarous names, such as Garibald and Edvige.  Volalliance!                                                 taire, in giving the names of the founders of Helvetic freeThere are unfortunate names, which are very injurious   dom, says the difficulty of pronouncing these respectable
to the cause in which they are engaged; for instance, the   names is injurious to their celebrity; they are 1Ielchtad,
long parliament in Cromwell's time, caslled by derision the   Stauffacher and Valtherfvrst.
Rump, was headed by one Barebones, a leatherseller.  It      We almost hesitate to credit what we know to be true,
was afterwards called by his unlucky name, which served   that the length or the shortness of a name can seriously into heighten the ridicule cast over it by the nation.      fluence the mind. But history records many facts of this
Formerly a custom  prevailed with learned  men to   nature.  Some nations have long cherished a feeling that
change their names.  They showed at once their con-  there is a certain elevation or abasement in proper names.
tempt for vwlgar dcnominations and their ingenious erudi-   Montaigne on this subject says,' A gentleman, one of my
tion.  They christened themselves with Latin and Greek.   neighbours, in overvaluing the excellencies of old times,'This disguising of names came, at length, to be consider-  never omitted noticing the pride and magnificence of the
ed to have a political tendency, and so much alarmed Pope   names of tihe nobility of those days! Don Grumedan,
Paul the Second, that he imprisoned several persons for   Quadragan, Argesilan, when fully sounded, were evidenttheir usino certain affected names, and some, indeed,  ly men of another stamp than Peter, Giles, and.Michel.'
whtich they could not give a reason why they assumed.  What could be hoped for from  the names of Ebenezer,
Desiderius Erasmus was a name formed out of his family   Malachi, and Methusalem?  The Spaniards have long
natme  Gerard, which in Dutch signifies amiable; or GAPR  been known for cherishing a passion for dignified names.
all, AERD nature. He first changed it to a Latin word of  and are marvellously affected by long and voluminous'ouch the same signification, Desiderius, which afterwards   ones; to enlarge them  they often add the places of their
he refined into the Greek Erasmus, by which names he   residence.  We ourselves seem affected by triple names,
is nov'"own.  The celebrated Reuchlin, which in Ger-  and the authors of certain periodical publications always
alan signifies smoke, monsidered it more dignified to smoke   assume for their sion de guerre a triple name, which doubtin Greek, by the name of Capnio.  An I-talian physician  less raises them much higher in their readers' esteem than
of the name of Senza MIalizia prided himself as much on   a mere christian and surname.  Many Spaniards have
his translating it into the Greek Akakia, as on the works   given themselves names from some remarkable incident in
which he published under that name. One of the most  their lives. One took the name of the Royal Transport
amiable of the reformers was originally named Hertz  for having conducted the Infanta in Italy.  Orendayes
xSchwarts (black earth,) which he elegantly turned into  added de la Paz, for having signed the peace in 1725.
the Greek name of MIelancthon.  The vulgar name of a   Navarro, after a naval battle off Toulon, added la Vittoria,
great Italian poet was Trapasso, but when the learned  though he had remained in safety at Cadiz while the French
Gravina resolved to devote the youth to the muses, he   Admiral Le  Court had fought the battle, which was engave him a mellifluous name, which they have long known   titrely in favour of the English. A favourite of the King of
arid cherished-Melastasio.                                Spain, a great genius, and the friend of Farinelli, who had
Harsh names will have, in spite of all our philosophy, a   sprung from a very obscure origin, to express his contempt
painful and ludicrous effect on our ears and our associa-  of these empty and haughty names, assumed, when called
tions; it is vexatious that the softness of delicious vowels,  to the administration, that of the Marquis of La Ensenor the ruggedness of inexorable consonants, should at all  ada (nothing in himself.)
be connected with a man's happiness, or even have an in-    But the influence of long name; ]s of very ancient stand.
fluence on his fortune,                                   ing.  Lucian notices one Simon, who coming to a great
The actor Macklin was softened down by taking in the  fortune aggrandised his name to Simonides.  Dioclcsian
first and last syllables of the name of Macklaughlin, as   had once been plain Diocles before he was Emperor.
i1alloch was polished to Mallet, and even our sublime   When Bruna became Queen of France, it was thought
Milton, in a moment of' humour and hatred to the Scots,  proper to convey some of the regal pomp in her name by
condescends to insinuate that their barbarous names   calling her Brunehault.
are symbolical of their natures, —and from  a man of the    The Spaniards then must feel a most singular contempt
name of Mac Colleittok, he expects no mercy. Virgil,  for a very short name, and on this subject Fuller has rewhen young, formed a design of a national poem, but was   corded a pleasant fact. An opulent citizen of the name of
soon discouraged from  proceeding, merely by the rough-  John Cuts (what name can be more unluckily short?) was
ness and asperity of the old Roman names, such as Decias  ordered by Elizabeth to receive the Spanish Ambassador;
a~us; Lucumo; V'ohias Caudex.  The same thing has   but the latter complained grievously, and thought he was
happened to a friend who began an Epic on the subject of  disparaged by the shortness of his name. He imagined
Drake's discoveries: the name of the hero often will pro-  that a man bearing a monosyllabic name could never, in
dunce a ludicrous effect, bit one of the most unlucky of his  the great alphabet of civil life, have performed any thing
chief heroes must be Thomas Doughty!  One of Black-  great or honourable; but when he found that honest John
more's chief heroes in his Alfred is named Gunter, a   Cuts displayed a hospitality which had nothing monosyllaprinter's erratum  might have been fatal to all his hero-  bic in it, he groaned only at the utteranice of the name of
ism; as it is, he makes a sorry appearance. Metastasio   his host.
found himself in the same situation. In one of his letters  There are names indeed, which in the social circle will
he writes,' The title of my new opera is II Re Pastor.  in spite of all due gravity awaken a harmless smile, and
The chief incident is the restitution of the kinadom  of  Shenstone solemnly thanked God that his name was not
Sidon to the lawful heir; a prince with such a hypocon-  liable to a pun.  There are some names which excite hor.
dria~ name, that he would have disgraced the title page cf  ror, such as Mr Stab-back; others contempt, as Mr Twoany piece: who would have been able to bear an opera   penny: and others of vulgar or absurd signification, subentitled L'hdolonimo?  I have contrived to name him as  ject too often to the insolence of domestic withngs, which
seldom as possible.' So true is it, as the caustic Boileau   occasions irritation even in the minds of worthy, but sufexclaims of an epic poet of his days, who had shown some   fering, men.
dexterity in cacophony, when he choose his hero —           There is an association of pleasing ideas with certain
names; and in the literary world they produce a fine ef0 le plaisant projet d'un Poete ignorant            fect.  Bloomfield is a name apt and fortunate for that
Qui ite tant te heros va choisir Childebrand;       rustic bard; as Floi an seems to describe his sweet and
D'tto saul nesa quetquefois he son dur et bizarre
D'uR sendo  nom euenuefbis le son rtsur ete barzarre  flowery style.  Dr Parr derived his first acquaintance with
Rendun oeme  entier, ou brlesque ou barbarrc.  the late Mr IHomer from the aptness of his name, assoArt Poetique, CllI, v. 241.
eciating with his pursuits.  Our writers of Romances and
In such a crowdl the Poet were to blame            Novels are initiated into all the arcana of names, which
To choose King Chilperic for his hero's name.,      costs them many painful inventions.  It is recorded of one
Sir W  Soames.    of the old Spanish writers of romance, that he was for




142                                  CURIOSITIES OF
many days at a loss to coin a fit name for one of his giants;  amounting to a higher number than his rival's. They
he wished to hammer out one equal in magnitude to the   made many whimsical divisions and subdivisions ofnames,
"erson he conceived in imagination; and in the haughty  to prove them lucky or unlucky. But these follies are not.nd lofty name of Traquetantos, he thought he had suc-  those that I am now treating on. Some names have been
ceeded.  Richardson, the great father of our novelists,  considered as more auspicious than others. Cicero in.
appears to have considered the name of Sir Charles  forms us that when the Romans raised troops, they were
Grandison, as perfect as his character, for his Heroine  anxious that the name of the first soldier who enlisted
writes,' You know his noble name, myvLucy.'  He felt  should be one of good augury. When the censors numthe same for his Clementina, for Miss Byron writes,' Ah,  bered the citizens, they always begun by a fortunate name,
Lucy, what a pretty name is Clementina!' We experience  such as Salvius Valerius. A person of the name of Rea certain tenderness for names, and persons of refined im-  gillianus was chosen emperor, merely from the royal sound
aginations are fond to give affectionate or lively epithets to  of his name, and Jovian was elected because his nanme
things and persons they love.  Petrarch would call one  approached nearest to the beloved one of the philosophic
friend Lelius, and another Socrates, as descriptive of their  Julian. This fanciful superstition was even carried so far
character.  In more ancient times, in our own country,  that some were considered as auspicious, and others as
the ladies appear to have been equally sensible to poetical  unfortunate.  The superstitious belief in auspicious names
or elegant names, such as Alicia, Celecia, Diana, Helena,  was so strong, that Caesar, in his African expedition, gave.4c, a curious point amply proved by Mr Chalmers, in his  a command to an obscure and distant relative of the Scip.
Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare Papers, p.  ios, to please the popular prejudice that the Scipios were
178. Spenser, the poet, gave to his two sons two names  invincible in Africa. Suetonius observes that all those of
of this kind; he called one Silvanus, from the woody Kil-  the family of Caesar who bore the surname of Caius percolman, his estate; and the other Peregrine, from his havy-  ished by the sword.  The Emperor Severus consoled
ing been born in a strange place, and his mother then   himself for the licentious life of his Empress Ju~ia, from the
travelling.  The fair Eloisa gave the whimsical name of  fatality attending those of her name. This strange preju.
Astrolabus to her boy; it bore some reference to the stars,  dice of lucky and unlucky names prevailed in modern
as her own to the sun.                                 Europe: the successor of Adrian VI, (as Guicciardini
Whether this name of Astrolabus had any scientific in-  tells us) wished to preserve his own name on the paplal
fluence over the son, I know not; but I have no doubt that  throne; but he gave up the wish when the conclave of
whimsical names may have a great influence over our cha-  cardinals used the powerful argument that all the popes
racters.  The practice of romantic names among persons  who had preserved their own names had died in the first
even of the lowest orders of society, has become a very  year of their pontificates. Cardinal Marcel Cervin, who
general evil, and doubtless many unfortunate beauties, of  preserved his name when elected pope, died on the twen.
the names of Clarissa and Eloisa, might have escaped  tieth day of his pontificate, and thus confirmed this superunder the less dangerous appellatives of Elizabeth or Debo-  stitious opinion. La Motte le Vayer gravely asserts that
rah. I know a person who has not passed his life without  all the Queens of Naples of the name of Joan, and the
some inconvenience from his name, mean talents and vio-  Kings of Scotland of the name of James, have been unforlent passions not according with Antonius: and a certain  tunate, and we have formal treatises of the fatality of chriswriter of verses, seldom sober, might have been no versi-  tian names.
fier, and less a lover of the true Falernian, had it not been    It is a vulgar notion that every female of the name of
for his namesake of Horace.  The Americans by assu-  Agnes is fated to become mad.  Every nation has some
ming Roman names, produce some ludicrous associations.  names labouring with this popular prejudice.  Herrera,
Romulus Riggs, is the name of a performer, and Junius  the Spanish historian, records an anecdote in which the
Brutus Booth of a stroller! There was, however, more  choice of a queen entirely arose from her name.  When
sense when the Foundling Hospital was first instituted, in  two French ambassadors negotiated a marriage between
baptising the most robust boys, designed for the sea-service   one of the Spanish princesses and Louis VIII, the names
by the names of Drake, Norris, or Blake, after our fa-  of the royal females Urraca and Blanche. The former was
mous Admirals.                                         the elder and the more beautiful, and intended by the
It is no trifling misfortune in life to bear an illustrious   Spanish court for the French monarch; but they resolutename; and in an author it is peculiarly severe. A His.  ly preferred Blanche, observing that the name of Urraca
tory now by a Mr Hume, or a poem by a Mr Pope, would   would never do! and for the sake of a nmore mellifluous
be examined by different eyes than had they borne any   sound, they carried off, exulting in their own discerning
other name. The relative of a great author should en-  ears, the happier named, but less beautiful princess.
deavour not to be an author. Thomas Corneille had the    There are names indeed which are painful to the feel
unfortunate honour of being brother to a great poet, and  ings, from the associations of our passions. I have seen
his own merits have been considerably injured by the in-  the christian name of a gentleman,the victim to the caprice
voluntary comparison. The son of Racine has written   of his godfather, who is called Blast us Godly,-which,
with an amenity not unworthy of his celebrated father;  were he designed for a bishop, must irritate religious feelamiable and candid, he had his portrait painted, with the  ings. I am  not surprised that one of the Spanish monworks of his father -n his hand, and his eye fixed on this  archs refused to employ a sound Catholic for his secretary,
verse from Phledrc,                                    because his name (Martin Lutero) had an affinity to the' Et moi, fits inconnu! d'un si glorieux Pere!'  name of the reformer. Mr Rose has recently informed us
But even his modesty only served to whet the dart of  that an architect called lMalacarne, who I believe, had
Eut even his modesty only served to whet the son   of  nothing against him  but his name, was lately deprived of
Epigram. It was once bitterly said of the son of an eminent literary character:                               his place as principal architect by the Austrian govern.
ment.  Let us hope not for his unlucky name! though'He tries to write because his father writ,    that government, according to Mr Rose, acts on capri.
And shows himself a bastard by his wit.,       cious principles! The fondness which some have felt to
Amongst some of the disagreeable consequences attend-  perpetuate their names,when their race has fallen extinct,is
ing some names, is, when they are unfortunately adapted  well known; and a fortune has then been bestowed for a
to an uncommon rhyme; but, indeed, how can any man  change of name; but the affection for names has gone even
defend himself from this malicious ingenuity of wit? Fer-  further. A similitude of names, Camden observes,' doth
ret, one of these unfortunate victims to Boileau's verse, is  kindle sparks of love and liking among mere strangers.' I
said not to have been deficient in the decorum of his man-  have observed the great pleasure of persons with uncomners, and he complained that he was represented as a  mon names, meeting with another ofthe same name; an
drunkard, merely because his name rhymed to Cabaret.  instant relationship appears to take place, and frequently
Murphy, no doubt, studied hard, and felicitated himself in  fortunes have been bequeathed for namesake. An ornahis literary quarrel with Dr Franklin, the poet and critical  mental manufacturer who bears a name which he supposes
reviewer, by adopting the singular rhyme of' Envy rank-  to be very uncommon, having executed an order of a gen.
ling' to his rival's and critic's name.                tleman of the same name, refused to send his bill, never
Superstition has interfered even in the choice of names,  having met with the like, preferring the honour of serving
and this solemn folly has received the name of a science,  him for namesake.
called Onontantia; of which the superstitious ancients dis.    Among the Greeks and the Romans,beautiful and signifi.
covered a hundred foolish mysteries. They cast up- the  cant names were studied. The sublime Plato himself has
numeral letters of na res, and Achilles was therefore fated  noticed the present topic,-his visionary ear was sensible
to vanquish Hector, from the numeral letters in his name  to the delicacy of a name, and his exalted fancy was de.




LITERATURE.                                                     143
ligated with beautiful names, as well as every other spe-  and magnitude,contained his family and friends,who found
cies of beauty.  In his Cratyllus he is solicitous, that  their graves in its ruins. The alarmed Jews hastened to
persons should have happy, harmonious, and attractive   Jocenus, who conducted them to the governor of York
names.  According to Aulus Gellus, the Aihenians enac-  Castle, and prevailed on him to afiord them an asylum
tea by a public decree, that no slave should ever bear the  for their persons and effects.  In the meanwhile their
consecrated names of their two youthful patriots, Harmo-  habitations were levelled, and the owners murdered; ex.
dius and Aristogiton; names which had been devoted to  cept a few unresisting beings, who unmanly in sustaining
tne liberties of their country,they considered would be con-  honour, were adapted to receive baptism.
taminated by servitude.  The ancient Roinans, decreed     The castle had sufficient strength fi)r their defence; but
tnat the surname of infamous patricians should not be  a suspicion arising that the governor, who often went out,
borne by any other patrician of that family, that their very  intended to betray them, they one day refused him  ennames miaht be degraded and expire with them. Eutro-  trlance.  He complained to the sheriff of the counlty, and
p.us gives a pleasing proof of national friendships being ce-  the chiefs of the violent party, who stood deeply indebted
mented by a name; by a treaty of peace between the io-  to the Jews, uniting with him, orders were issued to attack
mans aiid the Sabines they agree to melt the two nations  the castle. The cruel multitude united with the soldiery
into one mass, that they should bear their names conjoint-  felt such a desire of slaughtering those they intended to
Iv; the Roman should add his to the Sabine, and the Sa-  despoil, that the sheriff, repenting of the order, revoked it,
bine take a Rorman name.                                but in vain; fanaticism and robbery once set loose will
The ancients named both persons and things from some  satiate their appentency for blood and plunder. They
event, or other circunistance, connected with the object  solicited the aid of the superior citizens, who perhaps not
they were to name.  Chance, fancy, superstition, fond-  owing quite so much money to the Jews, humanely refilsed
ness, and piety have invented names.  It was a common  it; but having addressed the clergy (the barbarous clergy
and whimsical custom among the ancients (observes Lar-  of those days) were by them  animated, conducted, and
cher) to give as nicknames, the letters of the alphabet.-  blest.
Thus a lame girl was called Lambda, on account of the     The leader of this rabble was a canon regular, whose
resemblance which her lameness madie her bear to the  zeal was so fervent, that he stood by them in his surplice,
letter A, or lambda!  lEsop was called Theta by his  which he considered as a coat of mail, and reiteratedly exmaster, from his superior acuteness. Another was called  claimed,' Destroy the enemies of Jesus.' This spiritual
Beta, from his love of beet. It was thus Scarron, with  laconism invigorated the arm of' men, who perhaps wanted
infinite good temper, alluded to his zig-zag body, by coin-  no other stimulative than the hope of obtaining the imparing himself to the letters s or z.                  mense property of the besieged.' is related of this canon,
The learned Calmet also notices among the Hebrew,  that every morning before he went.o assist in battering
nick-names, and names of raillery taken from defects of  the walls, he swallowed a consecrated wafer. One day
body, or mind, &c. One is called Nabal orfool; another  having approached too near, defended as he conceived by
Hamor the Ass; Hagab the Grasshopper, &c.  Women   his surplice, this church militant was crushed by a heavy
had frequentlv the names of animals; as Deborah the Bee;  fragment of the wall, rolled from the battlement.
Rachel the Sheep.  Others from their nature or other    But the avidity' of certain plunder prevailed over any requalifications; as Tamar the Palm-tree; Hadassa the  flection, which, on another occasion, the loss of so pious a
lMlyrtle; Sarah the Princess; Hannah the Gracious.-  leader might have raised. Their attacks continued; till
The Indians of North America employ sublime and pic-  at length the Jews perceived they could hold out no longer,
turesque names; such are the Great Eagle-the Partridge   and a council was called, to consider what remained to be
-Dawn of the Day!-Great swift arrow-Path-opener!  done in the extremity of danger.
-Sun-bright!                                             Among the Jews, their elder Rabbin wes most respected.
It has been customary with this people to invite for this
THE JEWS  OF YORK.                     place some foreigner, renowned among them for the depth
Among the most interesting passages of history are  of his learning, and the sanctity of his manners. At this
those in which we contemplate an oppressed, yet sublime  time the Haham, or elder Rabbin, was a foreigner who had
spirit, agitated by the conflict of two terrific passions: im-  been sent over to instruct them  in their laws, and was a
placable hatred attempting a resolute vengeance, while  person, as we shall observe of no ordilnary qualificatlons.
that vengeance, though impotent, with dignified and si-   When the Jewish council was assembled, the liaha?n
lent horror, sinks into the last expression of despair.  In  rose, and addressed them in this manner-' Nlen of Israel!
a degenerate nation, we may, on such rare occasions, dis-  the God of our ancestors is omnicient, and there is no one
cover among them a spirit superior to its companions and  who can say why doest thou this? This day he commands
its fortune.                                            us to die for his law; for that law which we have cherishIn the ancient and modern history of the Jews, we may  ed from the first hour it was given, which we have pre.
find two kindred examples.  I refer the reader for the  served pure throughout our captivity in all nations, and
more ancient narrative, to the second book of the Macca-  which for the many consolations it has given us, and the
bees, chap. xiv, v. 37. No feeble and unaffectin painting   eternal hope it communicates, can wedo  less than die?
is presented in the simplicity of the original: I proceed to  Posterity shall behold this book of truth, sealed with our
relate the narrative of the Jews of York.              blood; and our death, while it displays our sincerity,
When Richard I ascended the throne,the Jews, to con-  shall impart confidence to the wanderer of Israel. Death
ciliate the royal protection, brought their tributes. Many  is before our eyes; and we have only to choose an honoura.
had hastened from remote parts of England, and appearing   ble and easy one. If we fall into the hands of our enemies,
at Westminister, the court and the mob imagined that they  which you know we cannot escape, our death will be igno.
had leargued to bewitch his majesty. An edict was issued   minious and cruel; for these Christians, who picture the
to forbid their presence at the coronation; but several,  spirit of God in a dove, and confide in the meek Jesus, are
whose curiosity was greater than their prudence, conceiv-  athirst for our blood, and prowl around the castle like
ed that they might pass unobserved among the crowd, and  wolves. It is, therefore, my advice that we elude their
venture to insinuate themselves into the abbey. Probably  tortures; that we ourselves should be our own execu.
their voice and their visage alike betrayed them for they  tioners and that we voluntarily surrender our lives to our
were soon discovered; they flew diversely in great con-  Creator. We trace the invisible Jehovah in his acts; God
sternation,while many were dragged out with little remains  seems to call for us, but let us not be unworthy of that call.
of life.                                                Suicide, on occasions like the present, is both rational and
A rumour spread rapidly through the city,that in honour  lawful; many examples are not wanting among our foreof the festival, the Jews were to be massacred. The popu.  fathers; as I advise men of Israel! they have acted on
lace, at oiice eager of royalty and riot, pillaged and burnt  similar occasions.' Having said this, the old man sat
their houses, and murdered the devoted Jews. Benedict,  down and wept.
a Jew of York, to save his life, received baptism; and    The assembly was divided in their opinions. Men Df
returrning to that city, to his friend Jocenus, the most  fortitude applauded its wisdom, but the pussillanimous
opulent of the Jews, died of his wounds. Jocenus and   murmured that it was a dreadful council.
his servants narrated the late tragic circumstances to their    Again the Rabbin rose, and spoke these few words in a
neighbours,but Awhere they hoped to move sympathy, they  firm and decisive tone.'My children; since we are not
cxcited rage. The people at York soon gathered to in-  unanimous in our opinions, let those who do not approve
itate the peo)ple at London; and their first assault was on   of nmy advice depart from this assembly!'-Some departed,
the house of tha ate Benedict,which having some strength   but the greater number attached themselves to their vcne.




144                                  CURIOSITIES OF
rable priest. They now employed themselves in consum-  in the council-chest of the Exchequer, and in the court of
ing their valuables by fire; and every man,fearful of trust-  admiralty, as one of our most precious records.
ing to the timid and irresolute hand of the women, first    The historical anecdote is finally closed by the Dutcn
destroyed his wife and children, and then himself. Jocenus  themselves, who now agreed to acknowledge the Englisn
and the Rabbin alone remained.  Their life was protract-  sovereignty in the seas, and pay a tribute of thirty thoued to the last, that they might see every thing performed,  sand pounds to the King of England, for liberty to fish in
according to their orders.  Jocenus, being the chief Jew,  the seas, arid consented to annual tributes.
was distinguished by the last mark of human respect, in   That the Dutch yielded to Selden's arguments is a
receiving his death from the consecrated hand of the aged  triumph we cannot venture to boast.  The ultima ratio
Rabbin, who immediately after performed the melancholy  regum prevailed; and when we had destroyed their whole
duty on himself.                                       fishing fleet, the affair appeared much clearer than in the
All this was transacted in the depth of the night. In  ingenious volumes of Grotius or Selden. Another Dutchthe morning the walls of the castle were seen wrapt in  man presented the States-General with a ponderous reply
flames,and only a few miserable and pusillanimous beings,  to Selden's Mare Clausum, but the wise Sotnmelsdyke
unworthy of the sword, were viewed on the battlements,  advised the states to suppress the idle discussion; observpointing to their extinct brethren. When they opened the  ing that this affair must be decided by the sword, and not
gates of the castle, these men verified the prediction of  by the pen.
their late R.abbin; for the multitude, bursting through the    It may be curious to add,that as no prevailing or fashionasolitary courts, found themselves defrauded of their hopes,  ble subject can be agitated, but some idler must interfere
and in a moment avenged themselves on the feeble wretch-  to make it extra;vagant anrid very new, so this grave sub.,
es, who knew not to die with honour.                   ject did not want for something of this nature. A learned
Such is the narrative of the Jews of York, of whom the  Italian, I believe, agreed with our author Selden in genehistorian can only cursorily observe, that five hundred  ral, that the sea, as well as the earth, is subject to some
destroyed themselves; but it is the philosopher who in-  states; but lie maintained, that the dominion of the sea
quires into the causes, and the manner of these glorious  belonged to the Genoese!
suicides.  These are histories which meet only the eye
of few, yet they are of infinitely more advantage than          ON THE CUSTOM OF  tISSING HANDS.
those which are  read by every one.  We instruct our-    Mr Morin, a French academician, has amused himself
selves in meditating on these scenes of heroic exer-  with collecting several historical notices of this custom.tion; and if' by such histories we make but a slow pro.  I give a summary, for the benefit of those who have had
gress in chronology, our heart is however expanded with  the honour of kissing his majesty's hand. It is not those
sentinlent.                                            who kiss the royal hand who could write best on the
I admire not the stoicism of Cato more than the forti-  custom.
tude of the Rabbin; or rather we should applaud that of   This custom  is not only very ancient, and nearly
the Rabbin much more; for Cato was familiar with the  universal, but has been alike participated by religion and
animating visions of Plato,and was the associate of Cicero  society.
and of Caesar. The Rabbin had probably read only the      To begin with religion. From the remotest times men
Pentateuch, and mingled with companions of mean occu-  saluted the sun, moon, and stars, by kissing the hand.pations, and meaner minds. Cato was accustomed to the  Job assures us that he was never given to this superstition,
grandeur of the mistress of the universe, and the Rabbin  xxxi, 26. The same honour was rendered to Baal, Kings,
to the littleness of a provincial town. Men, like pictures,  i, 18. Other instances might be adduced.
may be placed in an obscure and unfavourable light; but    We now pass to Greece.  There all foreign superstithe finest picture, in the unilluminated corner, still retains  tions were received. Lucian, after having mentioned varithe design and colouring of the master. My Rabbln is a  ous sorts of sacrifices which the rich offered the gods, adds,
companion for Cato. His history is a tale,             that the poor adored them by the simpler compliment of' Which Ciatojs self had not diudain'd to hear.'  kissing their hands.  That author gives an anecdote of
Pope.    Demosthenes, which shows this custom.  When a prisoner to the soldiers of Antipater, he asked to enter a temTHE SOVERESGNTY OF THE SEAs.                  ple.-When he entered, he touched his mouth with his
The sovereignty of the seas, which foreigners dispute  hands, which the guards took for an act of religion.  He?with us, is as much a conquest as any one obtained on land;  did it, however, more securely to swallow  the poison he
it is gained and preserved by our cannon,and the French,  had prepared for such an occasion.  He mentions other
who, for ages past, exclaim against what they call our ty-  instances.
ranny, are only hindered from  becoming themselves uni-    From  the Greeks it passed to the Romans.  Pliny
versal tyrants over land and sea, by that sovereignty of  places it amongst those ancient customs of which they
the seas without which Great Britain would cease to exist.  were ignorant of the origin or the reason. Persons were
In the late memoir of the French Institute,I read a bitter  treated as atheists, who would not kiss their hands when
philppic against this sovereignty, and a notice adapted to  they entered a temple. When Apuleius mentions Psyche,
the writer's purpose of two great works: the one by Sel-  he says,she was so beautiful that they adored her as Venus,
den, and the other by Grotius, on this subject.  The fol-  in kissing the right hand.
lowing is the historical anecdote useful to revive.       This ceremonial action rendered respectable the earliest
In 1634 a dispute arose between the English and Dutch  institutions of Christianity. It was a custom with the
concerning the herring-fishery upon the British coast.-  primeval bishops to give their hands to be kissed by the
The French and Dutch had always persevered in declar-  ministers who served at the altar.
ing that the seas were perfectly free; and grounded their    This custom however, as a religiotas rite, declined wilt'
reasons on a work of Hugo Grotius.                     Paganism.
So early as in 1609 the great Grotits had published    In society our ingenious academician considers the cus.
his treatise of Mlare Liberum, in favour of the freedom of  tom of kissing hands as essential to its welfare. It is a
the seas.  And it is a curious fact, that in 1618, Selden   mute form, which expresses reconciliation, which entreats
had composed another treatise in defence of the king's do-  favours, or which thanks for those received. It is a unimimion over the seas; but which from accidents which are  versal language, intelligible without an interpreter; which
known, was not published till this dispute revived the con-  doubtless preceded writing, and perhaps speech itself.
troversy. Selden, in 1636, gave the world his Mare Claus-    Solomon says of the flatterers and suppliants of his time,
umn, in answer to the treatise of Grotius.             that they ceased not to kiss the hands of their patrons, till
Both these great men felt a mutual respect for each  they had obtained the favours which they solicited. In
other. They only knew the rivalry of genius.           Homer we see Priam  kissing the hands and embracing
As a matter of curious discussion, and legal investiga-  the knees of Achilles, while he supplicates for the body
tion, the philosopher must incline to the arguments of Sel-  of Hector.
den, who has proved by records the first occupancy of the  This custom prevailed in ancient Rome, but it varied.
English; and the Enelish dominrion over the four seas, to  In:he first ages of the republic, it seems to have been only
the utter exclusion of the French and Dutch fromt fishin!,  practised by inferiors to their superiors:-equals gave
without our license.  He proves that our kings have al.  their hands and embraced. In the progress of time even
ways levied great sums, without even the concurrence of  the soldiers refuised to show this mark of respect to their
their parliaments, for the express purpose of defending this  generals; and their kissing the hand of Cato when he
sovereignty at sea. A copy sf Selden's work was placed   was obliged to quit them was regarded as an extraordinary




LITERATURE.                                                      145
circumstance. at a period of such refinement. The great  unite himself to Agnes de Meranie, the Pope put his king.
respect paid to the tribunes, consuls, and dictators, obliged   dom under an interdict.  The churches were shut during
individuals to live with them in a more distant and res-  the space of eight months; they said neither mass nor
pectful manner; and instead of embracing them as they   vespers; they did not marry; and even the -offspring of
did formerly, they considered themselves as fortunate if  the married, born at this unhappy period, were considered
allowed to Piss their hands. Under the emperors, kissing   as illicit; and because the kind would not sleep with his
hands became an essential duty, even for the great them-  wife, it was not permitted to any of his subjects to sleep
selves; inferior courtiers were obliged to be content to   with theirs! In that year France was threatened with an
adore the purple, by kneeling, touching the robe of the   extinction of the ordinary generation. A man under this
emperor by the right hand, and carrying it to the mouth.  curse of public penance was divested of all his functions,
Even this was thought too free; and at length they saluted   civil, military and matrimonial; he was not allowed to
the emperor at a distance, by kissing their hands, in the  dress his hair, to shave, to bathe, nor even change his lisame manner as when they adored their gods.             sen, so that, says Saint Foix, upon the whole this made a
It is superfluous to trace this custom in every country.  filthy penitent.  The good king Robert incurred the cenwhere it exists. It is practised in every known country,  sures of the church for having married his cousin. He
in respect to sovereigns and superiors, even amongst the  was immediately abandoned. Two faithful domestics alone
negroes, and the inhabitants of the New World. Cortez  remained with him, and these always passed through the
found it established at Mexico, where more than a thou-  fire whatever he touched. In a word, the horror which an
sand lords saluted him, in touching the earth with their  excommunication occasioned was such that a woman of
hands, which they afterwards carried to their mouths.   pleasure, with whom Peletier had passed some moments,
Thus, whether the custom  of salutation is practised by   having learnt soon afterwards that he had been above six
kissing the hands of others from respect, or in bringing one s  months an excommunicated person, fell into a panic, and
own to the mouth, it is of all other customs the most uni-  with great difficulty recovered from her convulsions.
versal. Mr Morin concludes, that this practice is now
become too gross a familiarity, and it is considered as a              LITERARY COMPOSITION.
meanness to kiss the hand of those with whom we are in     To literary composition we may apply the saying of an
habits of intercourse: and he prettily observes that this  ancient philosopher:'a little thing gives perfection, alcustom would be entirely lost, if lovers were not solicitous  though perfection is not a little thing.'
to preserve it in all its full power.                     The great legislator of the Hebrews orders us to pull
off the fruit of the first three years, and not to taste them.
POPEs.                           Levit. xix, ver. 23.  He was not ignorant how it weakens
Valois observes that the Popes scrupulously followed,  a young tree to bring to maturity its first fruits.  Thus, on
in the early ages of the church, the custom of placing their  literary compositions, our green essays ought to be picked
names after that of the person whom  they addressed in  away. The word Zamar, by a beautiful metaphor from
their letters. This mark of their humility he proves by  pruning trees, means in Hebrew to compose verses. Blotting
letters written by various Popes.  Thus when the great  and correcting was so much Churchill's abhorrence, that
projects of politics were yet unknown to them, did they ad-  have heard from his publisher, he once energetically exhere to Christian meekness.  There came at length the   pressed himself, that it was like cutting taway one's own
day when one of the Popes, whose name does not occur to  flesh. This strong figure sufficiently shows his repugnance
me, said that'it was safer to quarrel with a prince than  to an author's duty. Churchill now  lies neglected, for
with a friar. Henry VI being at the feet of Pope Celes-  posterity only will respect those, who
tine, his holiness thought proper to kick the crown off his' _____File off the mortal part
head; which ludicrous and disgracefil action, Baronius             Of glowing thought with attic art.'
has highly praised. Jortin observes on this great cardinal,                                           Young.
and advocate of the Roman see, that he breathes nothing   1 have heard that this careless bard, after a successful
but fire and brimstone; and accounts kings and emperors   work, usually precipitated the publication of another, re.
to be mere catch-poles and constables, bound to execute  lying on its crudeness being passed over on the public cu.with implicit faith all the commands of insolent ecclesias-  riosity excited by its better brother. He called this gettics. Bellarmin was made a cardinal for his efforts and  ting double pay; for thus he secured the sale of a hurried
devotion to the papal cause, and maintaining this mons-  work. But Churchill was a spendthrift of fame, and en.
trous paradox,-that if the pope forbid the exercise ofvir-  joyed all his revenue while he lived; posterity owes him
rue, and command that of vice, the Roman church, under  little, and pays him nothing!
pa-n of a sin, was obliged to abandon virtue for vice, if it    Bayle, an experienced observer in literary matters, tells
would not sin against conscience!                       us, that correction is by no means practicable by some auIt was Nicholas I, a bold and enterprising Pope, who, in  thors; as in the case of Ovid. In exile, his compositions
858, forgetting the pious modesty of his predecessors, took   were nothing more than spiritless repetitions of what he
advantage of the divisions in the royal families of France,  had formerly written. He confesses both negligence and
and did not hesitate to place his name before that of the  idleness in the corrections of his works.  The vivacity
kings and emperors of the house of France, to whom he   which animated his first productions, failing when he r.
wrote. Since that time he has been imitated by all his  vised his poems, he found correction too laborious, and he
successors, and this encroachment on the honours of mo-  abandoned it.  This, however, was only an excuse.'It
narchy has passed into a custom from having been tolera-  is certain, that some authors cannot correct.  They comted in its commencement.                                pose with pleasure, and with ardour; but they exhaust all
Concerning the acknowledged infallibility of the Popes  their force: they fly but with one wing when they review
It appears that Gregory VII, in council decreed that the  their works; the first fire does not return, there isin their
church of Rome neither had erred and never should err. It  imagination a certain calm which hinders their pen from
was thus this prerogative of his holiness became received,  making any progress. Their mind is like a boat, which
till 1313, when John XXII abrogated decrees made by   only advances by the strength of oars.'
three popes his predecessors, and declared that what was  Dr More, the Platonist, had such an exuberance of
done amiss by one pope or council might be corrected by  fancy, that correction was a much greater labour than cornanother; and Gregory XI, 1370, in his will deprecates, si  position. He used to say, that in writing his works, he
quid in catholica fide errasset.  The university of Vienna   was forced to cut his way through a crowd of thoughts as
protested against it, calling it a contempt of God, and an  through a wood, and that he threw off in his compositions
idolatry, if any one in matters of faith should appeal from   as much as would make an ordinary philosopher. More
a council to the Pope: that is, from God who presides in   was a great enthusiast, and, of course, an egotist, so that
councils to man. But the infallibility was at length es-  criticism ruffled his temper, notwithstanding all his Platotablished by Leo X, especially after Luther's opposition,  nism.  When accused of obscurities and extravagances,
because they despaired of defending their indulgences,  he said that like the ostrich, he laid his eggs in the sands,
bulls, &c, by any other method.                         which would prove vital and prolific in time; howevee,
Imagination cannot form a scene more terrific that when  these ostrich eggs have proved to be addled.
these men were in the height of power, and to serve their    A habit of correctness in the lesser parts of composition
political purposes hurled the thunders of their excommuni-  will assist the higher. It is worth recording that the great
cations over a kingdom. It was a national distress not in-  Milton was anxious for correct punctuation, and that Addiferior to a plague or famine.                           son was solicitous after the minutiae of the press. Savage,
Philip Augustus, desirous of divorcing Ingelburg, to   Armstrong, and others, felt tortures on similar objects. It
5*                                                              19




146                                 CURIOSITIES OF
is said of Julius Scaliger, that he had this peculiarity in his  frigate which was carrying him to India, he projected the
manner of composition; he wrote with such accuracy that  following works, and noted them in this manner;
his Mss and the printed copy corresponded page for page,    1. Elements of the Laws of England.
and line for line.                                          Model-The Essay on Bailments. Aristotle.
Malherbe, the father of French poetry, tormented him-    2. The History of the American War.
self by a prodigious slowness; and was employed rather in   Model-Thucidides and Polybius.
perfecting, than in forming works. His muse Is compared  5. Britain Discovered, an Epic Poem. Machinery —.
to a fine woman in the pangs of delivery. He exulted in                  Hindoo Gods.         Model —IIomer.
this tardiness, and, after finishing a poem of one hundred    3. Speeches, Political and Forensic.
verses, or a discourse of ten pages, he used to say he ought                            Model-Demoethenes.
to repose for ten years. Balzac, the first writer in French  5. Dialogues, Philosophical and Historical.
prose who gave majesty and harmony to a period, it is said,                                   Model —Plate.
did not grudge to bestow a week on a page, and was never    And of favourite authors there are also favourite works,
satisfied with his first thoughts. Our'costive' Gray en-  which we love to be familiarized with. Bartholinus has a
tertained the same notion: and it is hard to say if it arose  dissertation on reading books, in which he points out the
from  the sterility of their genius, or their sensibility of  superior performances of different writers. Of St Augustaste,                                                 tine, his city of God; of Hippocrates, Coacce P:rcenotiones,
It is curious to observe, that the Mss of Tasso, which  of Cicero, de Officiis; of Aristotle, De Animalibus; of
are still preserved, are illegible from  the vast number of  Catullus, Coma Berenices; of Virgil, the sixth hook of the
their corrections. I have given a fac-simile, as correct as.Eneid, &c. Such judgments are indeed not to be our
it is possible to conceive, of one page of Pope's ws  guides; but such a mode of reading is useful to contract
Homer, as a specimen of his continual corrections and  our studies within due limits.
critical rasures.  The celebrated Madame Dacier never    Evelyn, who has written treatises cl several subjects,
could satisfy herself in translating Homer: continually   was occupied for years on them. His manner of arrangretouching the version, even in its happiest passages.  ing his materials and his mode of composition appear e:There were several parts which she translated in six or  cellent. Having chosen a subject, he analyzed it into its
seven manners; and she frequently noted in the margin-   various parts, under certain heads, or titles, to be filled up
r have not yet done it.                                at leisure.  Under these heads he set down his own
WVhen Paschal became warm in his celebrated contro-  thoughts as they occurred, occasionally inserting whatever
versy, he applied himself with incredible labour to the  was useful from his reading. When his collections wefe
composition of his' Provincial Letters.'  He was fre-  thus formed, he digested his own thoughts regulany, and
quently twenty days occupied on a single letter. He re-  strengthened them by authorities from ancient and modem
commenced some above seven and eight times, and bythis  authors, or alleged his reasons for dissenting from them.
means obtained that perfection which has made his work,  His collections in time became voluminous, but lie then exas Voltaire says,' one of the best books ever published in  ercised that judgment which the formers of such cc Ilections
France.                                                usually are deficient in. With Hesiod he knew that' Ha.f
The Quintus Curtius Vaugelas occupied him 30 years;  is better than the whole, and it was his aim to express the
generally every period was translated in the margin five or  quintessence of his reading; but not to give it in a crude
six several ways. Chapelain and Conrart, who took the  state to the world: and when his treatises were sent to the
pains to review this work critically, were many times per-  press they were not half the size of his collections.
lexed in their choice of passages; they generally liked  Thus also Winkelman, in his'History of art,' an exten.
best that which had been first composed. Hume was  sive work, was long lost in settling on a plan; like artists,
never done with corrections; every edition varies with  who make random  sketches of their first conceptions, he
the preceding ones. But there are more fortunate and flu-  threw on paper ideas, hints and observations which ocent niinds than these. Voltaire tells us of Fenelon's Te-  curred in his readings-many of them, indeed, were not
lemachus, that the amiable author composed it in his re-  connected with his history, but were afterwards ineerted in
tirement in the short period of three months. Fenelon   some of his other works.
had, before this, formed his style, and his mind overflowed  Even Gibbon tells us of his Roman History,' at the outwith all the spirit of the ancients. He opened a copious  set all was dark and doubtful; even the title of the work,
fountain, and there were not ten erasures in the original  the true era of the decline and fall of the empire, the limits
Ms. The same facility accompanied Gibbon after the  of the introduction, the division of the chapters, and the
experience of his first volume; and the same copious  order of the narration; and I was often tempted to cast
readiness attended Adam Smith, who dictated to his ama-  away the labour of seven years.' Akenside has exquisitely
nuevusis, while he walked about his study.             described the progress and the pains of genius in its deThe ancients were as pertinacious in their corrections.  lightful reveries, Pleasures of Imagination, B iii, v. 373.
Isocrates, it is said, was employed for ten years on one of  The pleasures of composition in an ardent genius were
his works, and to appear natural studied with the most re-  never so finely described as by Buffon. Speaking of the
fined art. After a labour of eleven years, Virgil pro-  hours of composition he said,'These are the most luxunounced  his.Eneid imperfect. Din Cassius devoted  rious and delightful moments of life: moments which have
twelve years to the composition of his history, and Diodo-  often enticed me to pass fourteen hours at my desk in s
rus Siculas, thirty.                                   state of transport; this gratification more than glory is m:
There is a middle between velocity and torpidity; the  reward!'
Italians say, it is not necessary to be a stag, but we ought    The publication of Gibbon's Memoirs conveyed to tV
not to be a tortoise.                                  world a faithful picture of the most fervid industry; it:
Many ingenious expedients are not to be contemned in  in youth, the foundations of such a sublime edifice as ht
literary labours. The critical advice                  history must be laid. The world can now trace how th;
To choose an author, as wen wouldl a friend,'  Colossus of erudition, day by day, and year by year, prepared himself for some vast work.
is very useful to young writers. The finest geniuses have    Gibbon has furnished a new idea in the art of reading!
always affectionately attached themselves to some parti-  We ought, says he, not to attend to the order of our boolks,
cular author of congenial disposition. Pope, in his version  so much as of our thoughts.'The perusal of a particular
of Homer, kept a constant eye on his master Dryden;  work gives birth perhaps to ideas unconnected with the
Corneille's favourite authors were the brilliant Tamctus,  subject it treats; I pursue these itdeas and quit my pro.
the heroic Livy, and the lofty Lucan: the influence of their  posed plan of reading.' Thus in the midst of Homer
characters may be traced in his best tragedies.  The great  he read Longinus; a chapter of Longinus, led to an epistle
Clarendon, when employed in writing his history, read   of Pliny; and having finished Longinus, he followed the
over very carefully Tacitus and Livy, to give dignity to his  train of his ideas of the sublime and beautiful in the inquiry
style, as he writes in a letter. Tacitus did not surpass him   of Burke, and concluded with comparing the ancient wlto
in his portraits, though Clarendon never equalled Livy in  the modern Longinus.  Of all our popular writers the most
his narrative.                                         experienced reader was Gibbon, and he offers an impor..
The mode of literary composition adopted by that ad-  taut advice to an author engaged on a particular subject.
mirable student Sir William Jones is well deserving our' I suspended my perusal of any new book on the subject
attention. After having fixed on his subjects, he always  till I had reviewed all that I knew, or believed, or had
added the model of the composition; and thus boldly wres-  thought on it, that I might be qualified to discern how
tied with the great authors of antiquity. On board the  much the authors added to my original stock.'




LITERATURE.                                                      147
These are valuable hints to students, and such have f feel itself incapable of the exertion, will not be regarded
been practised by others.  Ancillon was a very ingenious  without that reverence we feel for genius animating such
student; he seldom read a book throughout without read-  industry.  This scheme of study, though it mayv never be
ing in his progress many others; his library table was al-  rigidly pursued, will be found excellent. Tenl years labour
ways covered with a number of books f6r the most part  of happy diligence may render a student capable of conr
open; this variety of authors bred no confusion: they all  signing to posterity a history as universal in its topics, as
assisted to throw light on the same topic; he was not dis-  that of the historian who led to this investigation.
gusted by frequently seeing the same thing in different
writers; their opinions were so many new strokes, which        POETICAL IMITATIONS AND  tIMILARITIES.
completed the ideas which he had conceived.  The cele-        c Tantus amor forum, et generandi gloria mellis.
brated Father Paul studied in the same manner. He never                                   Georg. Lib. iv, v. 204
passed over an interesting subject till he had confronted a'Such rage of honey in our bosom beats,
variety of authors.  In historical researches he never        And such a zeal we have for flowery sweets!'
would advance, till he had fixed, once for all, the places,                                           Dryden.
times, and opinions —a mode of study which appears very    This article was commenced by me many years ago ir
dilatory, but in the end will make a great saving of time, and  the early volumes of the Monthly Magazine, and continlabour of mind; those who have not pursued this method   ued by various correspondents, with various success. 1
are all their lives at a loss to settle their opinions and their  have collected only those of my own contribution, because
belief, from the want of having once brought them to such   I do not feel authorised to make use of those of other pera test.                                                  sons, however some may be desirable.  One of the most
I shalt now offer a plan of Historical Study, and a cal-  elegant of literary recreations is that of tracing poetical
culation of the necessary time it will occupy without speci-  or prose imitations and similarities; for assuredly, similarfying the authors; as I only propose to animate a young  ity is not always imitation.  Bishop Hurd's pleasing essay
student, who feels he has not to number the days of a  on' The Marks of Imnitation' will assist the critic in decipatriarch, that he should not be alarmed at the vast la-  ding on what may only be an accidental similarity, rather
byrinth historical researches present to his eye. If we look  than a studied imitation.  Those critics have indulged an
into public libraries, more than thirty thousand volumes of  intemperate abuse in these entertaining researches, who
history may be found.                                    from a single word derive the imitation of ani entire passage.
Lenglet du Fresnoy, one of the greatest readers, calcu-  Wakefield, in his edition of Gray, is very liable to this
lated that he could not read, with satisfaction, more than   censure.
ten hours a day, and ten pages in folio an hour; which     This kind of literary amusement is not despicable;
makes 100 pages every day. Supposing each volume to  there are few men of letters who have not been in the habit
ccntain 500 pages, every month would amount to one vol.-  of marking parallel passages, or tracing imitation, in the
ume and a half, which makes 18 volumes in folio in the  thousand shapes it assumes; it forms, it cultivates, it deyear. In fifty years, a student could only read 900 volumes  lights taste to observe by what dexterity and variation ge.
in folio. All this, too, supposing uninterrupted health, and   nius conceals, or modifies, an original thought or image,
an intelligence as rapid as the eyes of the laborious re-  and to view the same sentiment, or expression, borrowed
searcher.  A man can hardly study to advantage till past  with art, or heightened by embellishment.  The ingenious
twenty, and at fifty his eyes will be dimmed, and his head   writer of' A Criticism on Grey's Elegy, in continuation of
stuffed with much reading that should never be read. His   Dr Johnson's,' has given some observations on this subject,
fifty years for the 900 volumes are reduced to thirty years,  which will please.' It is often entertaining to trace imand 500 volumes  And, after all, the universal historian  itation. To detect the adopted image; the copied design;
must resolutely face 30,000 volumes!                    the transferred sentiment; the appropriated phrase; and
But to cheer the historiographer, he shows, that a pub-  even the acquired manner and frame, under all the dislic library is only necessary to be consulted; it is in our  guises that imitation, combination, and accommodation may
private closet where should be found those few writers,  have thrown around them, must require both parts andi
who direct us to their rivals, without jealousy, and mark, in  diligence; but it will bring with it no ordinary gratification.
the vast career of time, those who are worthy to instruct  A book professedly on the' History and Progress of Imi
posterity. His calculation proceeds on this plan,-that  tation and Poetry,' written by a man of perspicuity, and
sio hours a day, and the term of tenyears, are sufficient to  an adept in the art of discerning likenesses, even when
pass over, with utility, the immense field of history.   minute, with examples properly selected, and gradations
He calculates this alarming extent of historical ground.   duly marked, would make an impartial accession to the
F'or a kno~wledge of Sacred History he gives    3 months.    store of human literature, and furnish rational curiosity
Ancient Ewlgypt, Babylon, and HiAssyria, yhegives 3with a high regale.'  Let me premise that these notices
modern Assyria or Persia,                 1  do.       (the wrecks of a large collection of passages I had once
Greek History,                             6  do.        formed merely as exercises to form my taste) are not given
Romran History by the moderns,              7  do.       with the petty malignant delight of detecting the unacRoman History by the original writers,     6  do.        knowledged imitations of our best writers, but merely to
Ecclesiastical History, general and particular,  30  do.  habituate the young student to an instructive amusement,
Modelrn History,dd d g    i        d      24  (do.       and to exhibit that beautiful variety which the same image
To this may be added for recurrences and
re-perusals,                             48  do.       is capable of exhibiting when re-touched with all the art
of genius.
The total will amount to 10 1-2 years.  Gray in his' Ode to Spring' has
Thus, in ten years and a half, a student in history has'The attic warbler pours her throat.'
obtained a universal knowledge, and this on a plan which   Wakefield in his' Commentary' has a copious passage on
permits as much leisure as every student would choose to  this poetical diction. He conceives it to be'an admirable
indulge.                                                improvement of the Greek and Roman classics;'
As a specimen of Du Fresnoy's calculations take that                   oKEEV aVty Vi Hes. Scut. Her. 396.
of Sacred History.                                                      -' Suaves ex ore loquelas
For reading Pere Calmet's learned dissertations in                Funde.'
tle order he noints out,                    12 days.                                          Lucret. 1, 40.
For Pere Calmet's History, in 2 vols. 4to now in 4,  L2  This learned editor was little conversant with modern lit
For Prideaux's History,                       10         erature, notwithstanding his memorable editions of Gray
For 5osephus,                                 12         and Pope. The expression is evidently borrowed not from
For E-asnage's History of the Jews,           20         Hesiod, nor from Lucretius, but from, a brother at home.
In all 66 days.' s it for thee, the Linnet pours, her throat?
He allows, however, 90 days, for obtaining a sufficient                          Essay' on Man, Ep. III, v. 33.
knowledge of Sacred History.                            Gray in the' Ode to Adversity' addresses the power thus,
In reading this sketch, we are scarcely surprised at the' Thou Tamer of the human breast,
erudition of a Gibbon; but having admired that erudition,       Whose iron scourge and tolrturing hour
we perceive the necessity of such a plan, if we would not       The bad affright, afflict the best.'
earn what we have afterwards to unlearn.                Wakefield censures the express on' torturing hour,' by
A Plan like the prssent, even in a mind which should  discovering ar impropriety and,ncongrtuity.  He says,




148                                   CURIOSITIES OF'consistency of figure rather required some material image,  separately.  One step above the sublime makes the rdi/
like iron scourge and adamantine chain.'  It is curious to  culous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sub.
observe a verbal critic lecture such a poet as Gray! The  lime again.'  May I venture to illustrate this opinion?
poet probably would never have replied, or, in a moment  Would it not appear the ridiculous or burlesque, to deof excessive urbanity, he might have condescended to  cribe the sublime revolution of the Earth on her axle, round
point out to this minutest of critics the following passage  the Sun, by comparing it with the action of a top flogged
in Milton,                                              by a boy?  And yet some of the most exquisite lines' When the scourge            in Milton do this; the poet only alluding in his mind, to
Inexorably, and the torturing hour           the top. The earth he describes, whether
Calls us to Penance.'
Pa.Calls us to Penance.'.           -' She from west her silent course advance
Par. Lost, B. II, v. 90.   With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps
(tray in his' Ode to Adversity' has,                      On her soft axle, while she paces even'-'Li ght they disperse, and with them go,      Be this as it may! it has never I believe been remarked
The summer friend.'                           (to return to Gray) that when he conceived the idea of
Fond of this image, he has it again in his' Bard,'    the beard of his Bard, he had in his mind the language oi'The  swarm, that in thy noontide beam are born,  Milton, who describes Azazel, sublimely unfurling
Goe!'                                                 The' imperial ensign, which full high advanced,
Perhaps the germ of this beautiful image may be found in    Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind.
Shakspeare,                                                                             Par. Lost, B. I, v. 535.
-' for men, like butterflies,            very similar to Gray's
Show not thei~r mealny Mwings beut to the slummer.''Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air!'
Troilus and Cressida, A. ill, a. 7.    Gray has been severely censure; ~. Johnson, for the es
and two similar passages in Tirnon of Athens.          pression,' The swallow follows not summer more willingly than we'Give ample room and verge enough
your lordship.                                                 The characters of hell to trace.'  The Bard.
Timon. Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer  On the authority of the most unpoetical of critics we must
birds are men.'   Act III.                             still hear that the poet has no line so bad -' ample room'
Again in the same,                                      is feeble, but would have passed unobserved in any other' one cloud of winter showers          poem but in the poetry of Gray, who has taught us to ad.
These flies are coulch'd.'   Act II.        mit nothing but what is exquisite.' Verge enough' is po.
Gray in his  Progress of Poetry' has,                   etical, since it conveys a material image to the imagination. No one appears to have detected the source from
In climes beyond the solar road.'          whence, probably, the whole line was derived.  I am in.
Wakefield has traced this imitation to Dryden; Gray him-  dined to think it was from the following passage in Dryden,
self refers to Virgil and Petrarch. Wakefield gives the'Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me,
line from Dryden, thus,                                      I have a soul that, like an ample shield,'Beyond the year, and out of heaven's high-way;'         Can take i all, and verge enough for more!
Dryden's Don Sebastian.
which he calls extremely bold and poetical.  I confess a
critic might be allowed to be somewhat fastidious on this
unpoetical diction on the highway, which I believe Dryden' Even in our ashes live their wonted fires.'
never used. I think his line was thus,                  This line is so obscure that it is difficult to apply it to what'Beyond the year out of the solar walk.'      precedes it. Mason in his edition in vain attempts to de.
Pope has expressed the image more elegantly, houh co-  rive it from a thought of Petrarch, and still more vainly
Popied from Dryden,                                     attempts to amend it; Wakefield expends an octavo page,
pied from Dry;den,                     to paraphrase this single verse! From the following lines' Far as the solar walk, or milky way.'       of Chaucer, one would imagine Gray caught the recolGray has in his' Bard'                                lected idea.  The old Reve, in his prologue, says of him-'Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes,    self, and of old men,
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.'' For whan we may not don, than wol we speken;
Gray himself points out the imitation in Shakspeare, of    Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken.'
the latter image; but it is curious to observe that Otway,             Tyrwhit's Chaucer, vol I, p. 153, v. 3879.
in his' Venice Preserved,' makes Priuli most pathetically   Gray has a very expressive word, highly poetical, but I
exclaim to his daughter, that she is                   think not common;'Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life,' For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey'-..
Dear as these eyes that weep in fondness o'er thee.'  and Daniel has, as quoted in Cooper's Muses Library
Gray tells us that the image of his' Bard'            preface,
Loose his beard and hoary hair,'And in himself with sorrow does complain
Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air,'             The misery of dark forgetfulness.
was taken from a picture of the Supreme Being by Raphael.  It is, however, remarkable, and somewhat ludi-A lie of Popes in his Dunciad,'           High-born Howard,
crous, that the beard of Hudibras is also compared to a   echoed in the ear of Gray, when he gave with all the art
meteor: and the accompanying observation in Butler al-  fice of illiteration,
most induces one to think that Gray derived from it the'High.born Hoel's Harp.
whole plan of that sublime Ode-since his Bard precisely  Johnson bitterly censures Gray for giving to adjectives the
performs what the beard of Hudibras denounced.  These  termination of participles, such as the cultured plain; the
are the verses:                                        daisied bank; but he solemnly adds, I was sorry to see in'This hairy meteor did denounce             the line of a scholar like Gray,' the honied spring.' I con.
The fall of sceptres and of crowns.'        fess I was not sorry; had Johnson received but the faint.
Hud. C. I.    est tincture of the rich Italian school of English poetry, he
I nave been asked if.-I am serious in my conjecture that  would never have formed so tasteless a criticism. IIoniel' the meteor beard' of Hudibras might have given birth to  is employed by Milton in more places than one, but one is'the Bard' of Gray.  I reply that the burlesque and the  sufficient for my purpose.
sublime are extrenles, and extremes meet.  How often' Hide me from day's garish eye
does it merely depend on our state of mind, and on our own     While the bee with honied thigh —taste, to consider the sublime as burlesque. A very vulgar,                                 Penscroso, v. 142
but acute gehmus, Thomas Paine, whom we may sup-  The celebrated stanza in Gray's Elegy seems partly to be
pose destitute of all delicacy and refinement, has con-  borrowed.
veyed to us a notion of the sublime, as it is probably ex-'Full many a gem of purest ray serene
perienced by ordinary and uncultivated minds, and'even          The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean tear:
by acute and judicious ones, who are destitute of imagina-     Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
tion.  He tells us that'the sublime and the ridiculous are      And waste its sweetness in the desert air
often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them   Pope had said;




LIT ERA TURE.                                                   149' There kept my charms conceal'd from mortal eye,     It is probable that Pope had noticed this thought, for the
Like roses tlla is desserts bloom and die.        following lines seem a beautiful heightening of the idea:
Rape of the Lock.'ape of the Lock.  Heaven first taught letters, for some wretch's aid,
Yoang says of nature;                                      Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.''In distant wilds by human eye unseen                 Then he adds, they
She rears her flowers and spreads her velvet greenSpeed the soft interco
Pure gurgling rills the lonely desert trace,'Speed the soft intercourse from sol to ou
And waste their music on the savage race.                 And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.'
And Shenst       one ha s     avage race.                                                            Eloi
There is another passage in' Howell's Letters,' which' And like the deserts' lily bloom to fade 1'  has a great affinity with a thought of Pope, who, in' the
Elegy IV.    Rape of the Lock,' says,
Gray was so fond of this pleasing imagery, that he re-'air tresses man's imperial race ensnare,
peats it in his Ode on the Installation; and Mason echoes      And beauty draws us with a single hair.'
it, in his Ode to Memory.                                 Howell writes, p. 290,' Tis a powerful sex: they were
~Milton thus paints the evening sun:                 too strong for the first, the strongest and wisest man that'If chance the evening sun with farewell sweet    was; they must needs be strong, when one Hair of a wo
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,       man can draw more than an hundred pair of oxen.'
The birds their notes renew, &c.
ParThe birds their notes renew, &c.    492 Pope's description of the death of the lamb, in his' Essay
on Man,' is finished with the nicest touches, and is one of
Can there be a doubt that he borrowed this beautiful  the finest pictures our poetry exhibits. lven familiar as
farewel from  an obscures   poet, quoted  by Poole, in his  it is to our ear, we never examine it but with undiminished'English Parnassus," 1657?  The date of Milton's great  admiration.
work, I find since, admits the conjecture; the first edition
being that of 1669. The homely lines in Poole are these,      Had he lamb, t   hy riot dooms to skip and toplay
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?'To Thetis' wat'ry bowers the sun doth hie,           Pleased to the last he crops the flowery food,
Bidding farewell unto the gloomy sky.'                And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.'
Young, in his' Love of Fame,' very adroitly improves   After pausing on the last two fine verses, will not the
on a witty conceit of Butler. It is curious to observe, that  reader smile that I should conjecture the irnage might
while Butler had made a remote allusion of a window to a   originally have been discovered in the following humble
pillory, a conceit is grafted on this conceit, with even more  verses in a poem once considered not as contemptible:
exquisite wit.' A gentle lamb has rhetoric to plead,' Each window, like the pillory appears,                And when she sees the butcher's knife decreed,
With heads thrust through; nailed by the ears!'       Her voice intreats him not to make her bleed.
Hudibras, part II, C. 3, v. 391.                       Dr King's Mully of Mountown.' An opera, like a pillory, may be said             This natural and affecting image might certainly have
To nail our ears down, and expose our head.'      been observed by Pope, without his having perceived it
Young's Satires.   through the less polished lens of the telescope of Dr King.
In the Duenna we find this thought differently illustrat-  It is, however, a similarity, though it may not be an imi.:d; by no means imitative, though the satire is congenial.  tation; and is given as an example of that art in compo.
Don Jerome, alluding to the serenaders, says,' These   sition, which can ornament the humblest conception, like
amorous orgies that steal the senses in the hearing; as  the graceful vest thrown over naked and sordid beggary.
they say Egyptian embalmers serve mummies, extracting     I consider the following lines as strictly copied by
the brain through the ears.' The wit is original, but the   Thomas Warton:
subject is the same in the three passages; the whole turn-   __' The daring artist
ing on the allusion to the head and ears.                    Explored the pangs that rend the royal breast,
When Pope composed the following lines on Fame,             Those wounds that lurk beneath the tissued vest.
How vain that second life in other's breath,                                 T. Warton, on Shakspeare
The estate which wits inherit after death;          Sir Philip Sidney, in his' Defence of Poesie,' has the
Ease, health, and life, for this they must resign  same image. He writes;' Tragedy openeth the greatest
[Unsure the tenure, but how vast the fine iJ      wounds, and showeth forth the ulcers that are covered tvith
Temple of Fame.    tissue.'
He seems to have had present in his mind a single idea of    The same appropriation of thought will attach the folButler, by which he has very richly amplified the entire  lowing lines of Tickell:
imagery. Butler says,' While the charm'd reader with thy thought complies' Honour's a lease for lives to come,          And views thy Rosamond with Henry's eyes.'
And cannot be extended from                                                     Tickell to Addison.
The legal tenant       part I C. 3, v. 1043.    Evidently from the French Horace:
Hurl. part I, C. 8, v. 1043.
The same thought may be found in Sir George Macken-'En vain contre le cid, n ministre se ligue,
zie's'Essay on preferring Solitude to Public Employ-       Tout Paris, pour Chimene, a les yeux de Rodrigue.'
ment,' first published in 1665. Hudibras preceded it by                                             Boileau.
two years. The thought is strongly expressed by the elo-    Oldham, the satirist, says in his satires upon the Jesuits
quent Mackenzie. He writes,' Fame is a revenue paya-  that had Cain been of this black fraternity, he had not been
bie only to our ghosts; and to deny ourselves all present  content with a quarter of mankind.
satisfaction, or to expose ourselves to so much hazard for'Had he been Jesuit, had he but put on
this, were as great madness as to starve ourselves, or fight   Their savage cruelty, the rest had gone!'
desperately for food, to be laid on our tombs after our                                             Satyr II.
death.                                                  Doubtless at that moment echoed in his poetical ear the
Dryden, in his' Absalom  and Achitophel,' says of the   energetic and caustic epigram of Andrew Marvell, against
Earl of Shaftesbury,                                    Blood stealing the crown dressed in a parson's cassock,'David for him his tuneful harp had strung,     and sparing the life of the keeper:
And Heaven had wanted one immortal song.'With the Priest's vestment had he but put on
This verse was ringing in the ear of Pope, when with equal   The Prelate's cruelty,-the Crown Flad gone!'
modesty and felicity he adopted it, in addressing his friend  The following passages seem echoes to each other, and
Dr Arbuthnot,                                          it seems a justice due to Oldham, the satirist, to acknow.' Friend of my life! which did not you prolong,  ledge him as the parent of this antithesis:The world had wanted many an idle song!' On Butler who can think without just rage,
How-ell has prefixed to his Letters a tedious poem, writ-   The glory and the scandal of the age?'
ton in the taste of the times, and he there says of letters,                              atire against Poetry.
that they are                                             It seems evidently borrowed by Pope, when he applies' The heralds and sweet harbingers that move     the thought to Erasmus
From Fast to West, on embassies of love;'At length Erasmus, that great injured name,
They cawt the troiic cut, and cross the line.           The glory of the priesthood and the shame!'




150                                   CURIOSITIES OF
Young remembered the antithesis when he said,' Fond fool, that deem'st the streaming glory nigh,
Iow vain the chase thine ardour has begun!'Of some for glory such the boundless rage,
some for glory such the boundless rage,'Tis fled afar, ere half thy purposed race be run;
That they're the blackest scandal of the age.'        Thus it fares with age,' &c
Voltaire, a great reader of Pope, seems to have borrow.    The same train of thought and Imagery applied to the
ed part of the expression:-                            same subject, though the image itself be somewhat differ.
Scandale d'Eglise, et des rois le modelle.'   ent, mav be found in the poems of the platonic John Nor,
De Caux, an old French poet, in one of his moral poems  ris; a writer who has great originality of thought, and a
on an hour-glass, inserted in modern collections, has many   highly poetical spirit. His stanza runs thus,
Ingenious thoughts. That this poem was read and admir-'So to the unthinking boy the distant sky
ed y Goldsmith, the following beautiful image seems to         Seems on some mountain's surface to relic;
indicate. De Caux, comparing the world to his hour-            He with ambitious haste climbs the ascent,
giass, says beautifully.                                         Curious to touch the firmament;
But when with an unwearied pace,
-'Clest un verre qui luit                    He is arrived at the long-wished for place,
Qu'un souffle peut detruire, et qu'un souffle a produit.'  With sighs the sad defeat he does deplore;
Goldsmith applies the thought very happily:-                His heaven is still as distant as before!'' Princes and lords may flourish or may fade                                 The Infidel, by John orris.
A breath can make them, as a breath has made.'      In the modern tragedy of' The Castle Spectre' is this
I do not know whether we night not read, for modern  fine description of the ghost of Evelina;-Suddenly a fecopios are sometimes incorrect,                         male form  glided along the vault. i I flew towards her'A breath unmakes them, as a breath has made.'  My arms were already unclosed to clasp her,-when suddenly herfigure changed! Her face grew pale, a stream
Thomson, in his pastoral story of Palemon and Lavinia,  of blood gushed from her bosom. While speaking, her
appears to have copied a passage from Otway. Palemon  form withered away; theflesh fell from her bones; a skelethus addresses Lavihia:-                               ton loathsome and meagre clasped me in her mouldering'Oh, let me now into a richer soil                  arms. Her infected breath was mingled with mine; her
Transplant thee safe, where vernal suns and showers  rottingfingers pressed my hand, and my face was covered
Diffuse their warmest, largest influence;           with her kisses.  Oh! then how I trembled with disgust!'
And of my garden be the guide and joy!'               There is undoubtedly singular merit in this description.
Chamont employs the same image when speaking of  I shall contrast it with one which the French Virgil has
Moninlia: he says,-                                     written in an age, whose faith was stronger in ghosts than'You took her up a little tender flower,          ours, yet which perhaps had less skill in describing them.
-   and with a careful loving hand          There are some circumstances which seem to indicate
Transplanted her into your own fair garden,       that the author of the' Castle Spectre' lighted his torchb
Where the sun always shines.'                     at the altar of the French muse. Athalia thus narrates
The origin of the following imagery is undoubtedly  her dream, in which the spectre of Jezabel her mother
Grecian; but it is still embellished and modified by our  appears:
best poets:                                                C'6toit pendant l'horreur dune profonde nuit,
-—' —----— <While universal Pan           Ma mbre Jezabel devant moi scest montr6e,
Knit with the graces and the hours in dance           Comme aln jour de sa mort pompeusement paree.Led on th' eternal spring.'                           -En achevant les mots epouvantables,
Paradise Lost.       Son ombre vers mon lit a parum se baisser,
Et moi, je lui tendois, les mains pour l'embrasser
Thompson probably caught this strain of imagery:         Mais je n'ai plus trouv6 qu'nn horrible melange
Sudden to heaven                         D'os et de chair meurtris, et train6e dans la fange,
-.ence.e~try vision turns,.here lea.ing soft     Des lambeaux pleins de sang et des membres aifreux.'
Thence weary vision turns, where leading softRacine's Athalie Act ii S. I.
The silent hours of love, with purest ray,   t 
Sweet Venus shines.'                                Goldsmith, when in his pedestrian tour, he sat amid
Summer, v. 1692.   the Alps, as he paints himself in his' Traveller,' and felt
Gray, in repeating this imagery, has borrowed a remarka-  himself the solitary neglected genius he was, desolate
ble epithet from Milton:                                amidst the surrounding scenery; probably at that moment
the following beautiful image of Thompson he applied to
Fair Venus' train appear!                    himself:
Ode to Spring.' As in the hollow breast of Apennine'Along the crisped shades and bowers                Beneath the centre of encircling hills,
Revels the spruce and jocund spring;               A myrtle rises, far from human eyes,
The graces and the rosy bosom'd hours               And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild.'
Thither all their bounties bring.                                                   Autumn, v. 202
Comus, v. 384.     Goldsmith very pathetically applies a similar image:
Collins, in his Ode to Fear, whom he associates with Dan-'E'en now where Alpine solitudes ascend,'er, there grandly personified, was I think considet-oly     I sit me down a pensive hour to spend,
indebted to the following stanza of Spenser:                 Like yon neglected shrub at random cast,' Next him was fear, all armed from top to toe,          That shades the steep, and sighs at every blast.'
Yet thought himself not safe enough thereby;                                                   Traveller.
But feared each sudden moving to and fro;             Akenside illustrates the native impulse of genius by a
And his own arms when glittering he did spy,        simile of Memnon's marble statue, sounding its lyre at the
Or clashine heard, he fast away did fly,            touch of the sun
As ashes pale of hue and wingy heel'd;
And evermore on Danger fixed his eye,' For as old Memnon's image, long renown'd'Gainst whom he always bent a brazen shield,             By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch
Which his right hand unarmed fearfully did wield.'        Of Titan's ray, with each repulsive string
Faery Queen, B. iii, c. 12, s. 12.   Consenting, sounded through the warbling air
Warm  from its perusal, he seems to have seized it a         Unbidden strains; even so did nature's hand,' &,,
hint to the Ode to Fear, and in his' Passions' to have   It is remarkable that the same image, which does not
very finely copied an idea here:                        appear obvious enough to have been the common inheritance ofpoets, is precisely used by old Regnier, the hbrst'First Fear, his hand, its skill to try,       French satirist, in the dedication of his satires to the
Amid the chords bewildered laid,              French king. Louis XIV supplies the place of nature to
And back recoiled, he knew not why,
E'en at the sound himself had made.'          the courtly satirist. These are his words:-' On lit qu'en
Ode to the Passions.    Ethiopie il y avoit une statue qui rendo.t un son harmon.
ieux, toutes les fois que le soleil levant la regardoit. Ce
The stanza in Beattie's' Minstrel,' first book, in which   meme miracle, Sire, avez vous fait en moy qui touch6 de
his' visionary boy,' after' the storm  of summer rain,'  l'astre de Votre Majest6 ay recu la voix et'la pt-ole.'
views' the rainbow brighten to the setting sun,' and runs    In that sublime passage in' Pope's Essay on Man,
to reach it:                                            Epist. I, v. 237, beginning,




LITERA-TURE.                                                   151' Vast chain of Being! which from God began,'    Catullus, Quercus trmos purpureos.  Horace purpueor
and proceeds to                                        bibet nectar, and somewhere mentions Olores purpureui,' From nature's chain whatever link you strike,   Virgil has purpuream vomit ille animam; and Homer calls
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.'  the sea purple, and gives it in some other book the same
epithet, when in a storm.
Pope seems to have caught the idea and image from   epithet, when in a storm.
Popler, whose last haverse is as finte idas an in thmage Essay  The general idea, however, has been fondly adopted by
Waller, whose last verse is as fine as any in the'  Essay  the finest writers in Europe. The PURPLE of the ancients
on Man:'                                            is not known to us. What idea, therefore, have the mod-' The chain that's fixed to the throne of Jove,   erns affixed to it?  Addison in his vision of the Temple of
On which the fabric of our world depends,         Fame describes the country as' being ccvered with a kind
One link dissolved, the whole creation ends.'     OfPURPLEIHT.' Gray'sbeautifullinewellknown
Of the Danger his Majesty escaped, &c, v. 168.    of PURPLE LIGHT.  Gray's beautiful line is vell known;
It has been observed by ThyThe bloom of young desire and purple light of love.
It has been observed by Thyer, that Milton borrowed
the expression Imbrowned, and Brown, which he applies  And Tasso, m describing his hero Godfrey, says, Heaven
to the evenind shade, from the Italian. See Thyer's ele-' Gli empie d'onor la faccia, e vi riduce
gant note in B. IV, v. 246:                                    Di Giovinezza, il belt purpureo lume.'
-' And where the unpierced shade              Both Gray and Tasso copied Virgil, where Venus gives
Imbrowned the noon-tide bowers.'               to her son G.neasAnd B. IX, v. 1086,                                                  --' Lumenque Juventma
-' Where highest woods impenetrable                          Purpureum.'
To sun or star-light, spread their umbrage broad    Dryden has omitted the purple light in his version, nor
And brown as evening.>                           is it given by Pitt; but Dryden expresses the general
Fa l'imbruno is an expression used by the Italians to  idea by
denote the approach of the evening.  Boiardo, Ariosto,   ---—' With hands divine,
and Tasso, have made a very picturesque use of this    Had formed his curling locks and made his temples shine,
term, noticed by Thyer.  I doubt if it be applicable to our    And given his rolling eyes a sparkling grace.'
colder climate; but Thompson appears to have been struck    It is probable that Milton has given us his iea of what
by the fine effect it produces in poetical landscape; for  was meant by this purple light, when applied to the human
he has                                                 countenance, in the felicitous expression of
-' With quickened step' Celestial rosy-red.'
Brown night retires.'                      Gray appears to me to be indebted to Milton for a lhint
Summer, v. 51.   for the opening of his elegy: as in the first line he has
If the epithet be true, it cannot be more appropriately  Dante and Milton in his mind, he perhaps might also in
applied than in the season he describes, which most re-  the following passage have recollected a congenial one in
sembles the genial clime with the deep serenity of an Ital-  Comus, which he altered. Milton, describing the evenian heaven. Milton in Italy had experienced the.reown  ing, marks it out by
evening, but it may be suspected that Thompson only re-           -' What time the laboured ox
collected the language of the poet.                           In his loose traces from the furrow came,
The same observation may be made on two other poeti-        And the swinkt hedger at his supper sat.'
cal epithets. I shall notice the epithet' laughing,' applied    Gray has,
to inanimate objects; and' purple' to beautiful objects.'The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The natives of Italy and the softer climates receive emo-  The plowman herd plods his weary way.'
The plowman homeward plods his weary way.'
tions from the view of their waters in the spring not equally experienced in the British roughness of our skies. The    Waron has made an observation on this passage in
fluency and softness of the water are thus described by  Comus; and observes further that it is a clossicol circum
flueretiucy and softness of the water are thus described by  stance, but not a natural one, in an English landscape, for.'Tibi suave. s Dedaa tellus            our plouahmen quit their work at noon. I think therefore
the imitation is still more evident; and as Warton observes,
Submittit flores; tibi rideut mquora ponti.    t.ti
Submittit ores; tibi ridet quora.  both Gray and Milton copied here from books, and not
Inelegantly rendered by Creech,                      from life.' The roughest sea puts on smooth looks, and smiles.'  There are three great poets who have given us a simiDryden more happily,                                 lar incident.'rTde ocean smhiles, and smooths her wavy breast.'  inDryden introduces the highly finished picture of the har.' The ocean smiles, and smooths her wavy breast.'  in his Annus Mirabilis:
But Metastasio has copied Lucretius:                   his Annus Mirabilis:'A te fioriscono
Gli erbosi prati:' So have I seen some fearful hare maintain
E i flutti ridono                          A course, till tired before the dog she lay ~
Nel mar placati.'                      Who stretched behind her, pants upon the plain,
It merits observation, that the Northern Poets could        Past power to kill, as she to get away.
not exalt their imagination higher than that the water smil-                   132.
ed, while the modern Italian, having before his eyes a      With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey,
different spring, found no difficulty in agreeing with the    His warm breath blows her fix up as she lies;
ancients, that the waves laughed. Of late modern poetry     She trembling creeps upon the ground away,
has made a very free use of the animating epithet laugh-      And looks back to him with beseeching eyes.'
ing. Gray has the laughirg flowers; and Langhorne in    Thompson paints the stag in a similar situation:
two beautiful lines exquisitely personifies Flora:-' Fainting breathless toil
Sick seizes on his heart —he stands at bay:' Where Tweed's soft banks in liberal beauty lie,      The bi round tears    on his heart-he stands at bay:
And Flora laughs beneath an azure sky.'                He groans in anguish.'
Sir Willianm Jones, with all the spirit of Oriental poetry,                               Autumn, v. 461
has' the laughing air.' It is but justice, however, to    Shakspeare exhibits the same object:
Dryden, to acknowledge that he has employed this epi-'The wretched animal heaved forth such groans,
thet very boldly in the following delightful lines, which are  That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
almost entirely borrowed from his original, Chaucer:         Almost to bursting; and the bigr round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose'The morning lark, the messenger of day,                 In piteous chase —
Saluted in her song the morning gray;
And soon the sun arose, with beams so bright,        Of these three pictures the beseeching eyes of Dryden
That all the horizon laughed to see the joyous sight.'  perhaps is more pathetic than the big round tears, certainly
Palamon and Arcite, B. ii   borrowed by Thompson from  Shakspeare, because the
It is extremely difficult to conceive what the ancients  former expression has more passion, and is therefore more
precisely meant by the word purpureus.  They seem to  poetical. The sixth line in Dryden is perhaps exquisite
have designed by it any thing bright and beautiful. A   for its imitative harmony, and with peculiar felicity paints
classical friend has furnished me with numerous significa-  the action itself. Thompson adroitly drops the innocent
tions of this word which are very contradictory.  Albino-  nose, of which one word seems to have lost its original,
vaeus, in his elegy on Livia, mentions Nivem parpurcum.  signification, and the other offends now by its familiarity;



152                                  CURIOSITIES OF
The dappled face is a term more picturesque, more ap-    And rise the Hector of the future age!
propriate, and more poetically expressed.                                          successful
EXPLANATION OF THE FAC-OSItILE.*                 So when triumphant from the glorious toils
Of hero's slain, the reeking spoils,
The manuscript of Pope's version of the Iliad and    Whole hosts main, the reeking spoils,
Odyssey are preserved in the British Museum in three    All Troy shall  il him, with deservd acclaim,
volumes, the gilt of David Mallet. They are written          own the son
chiefly on the backs of letters, amongst which are several
from Addison, Steele, Jervaise, Rowe, Young, Caryl,    W       hie pleas'd, amidst the general shouts of Troy,
Walsh, Sir Godfrey Kneeler, Centon, Craggs. Congreve,    His mother's conscious heart o'eral shouts with joy,
Hughes, his mother Editha, and Lintot and Tonson the       s mother's conscious heart oerflows with joy.
booksellers.                                                           fondly          on her
From these letters no intormation can be gathered, which  He said, and gazing o'er his consort's charms,
merits public communication; they relate generally to the    Restor'd his infant to her longing arms.
common civilities and common affairs of life. What little    oln
could be done has already been given in the additions to  Pest to her heart, ant breast th a smile surveyed;
Pope's works.                                            Prest to her heart, and with a smile surveyed;
Pope's works.
It has been observed, that Pope taught himself to write          to repose
by copying printed books: of this singularity we have in     usd  m            to rest, and with a smile surveyed.
this collection a remarkable instance; several parts are                       passion
written in Roman and Italic characters, which for some    But soon the troubled pleasure mixt with rising fears,
time I mistook for print; no imitation can be more correct.                              dash'd with fear,
What appears on this Fac-Simile I have printed, to as-    The tender pleasure soon, chastised by fear
sist its decyphering; and I have also subjoined the passage  She mingled with the smile a tender tear.
as it was given to the public, for immediate reference.
The manuscript from whence this page is taken consists    The passage appears thls in the printed work. I hail
marked in Italics the variations.
of the first rude sketches; an intermediate copy having
been employed for the press; so that the corrected verses  Thus having spoke, the illustrious chief of Troy
of this Fac-Simile occasionally vary from those published.  Stretch'd his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy.
This passage has been selected, because the parting of   The b      abe clung crying to clas nurse's breast,
Hector and Adromache is perhaps the most pleasing ep-      Scar'd at the lung crying helm  and nodding crest
sode in the Iliad, while it is confessedly one of the most  With secret* pleasure each fond parent sril'd,
With secret* pleasure each fond parent smild,
finished passages.                            And Hector hasted to relieve his child.
The lover of poetry will not be a little gratified, when
he contemplates the variety of epithets, the imperfect idea,  The glittering terrors from his brows unbound,
the gradual embellishment, and the critical rasures which  And placed the beatming helmet on the ground;
are here discovered.t  The action of Hector, in lifting his  Then kiss'd the child and lifting high in air,
infant in his arms, occasioned Pope much trouble; and at   Thus to the gods preferr'd a father's prayer:
lenath the printed copy has a different reading.             0 thou, whose glory fills th'ethereal throne,
Imust not omit noticing, that the whole is on the back 
And all ye deathless powers, protect my son!
of a letter franked by Addison; which cover I have given   Grant him like me to purchase just renown,
at one corner of theplate.,Grant him like me to purchase just renown,
at one corner of the plate.                                To guard the Trojans, to defend the crown;
The parts distinguished by Italics were rejected.        Against his coj ans, to defend the crowna
Thus having spoke, the illustrious chief of Troy       And rise the Hector of the future age!
Extends his eager arms to embrace his boy,               So when, triumphant from successful toils
lovely                 Of heroes slain, he bears the reeking spoils,
Stretched his fond arms to seize the beauteous boy;      Whole hosts mav hail him, with deserv'd acclaim,
babe                                                 A nd say, this chief transcends his father's fame:
The boy clung crying to his nurse's breast,              While pleas'd amidst the general shout of Troy,
Scar'd at the dazzling helm and nodding crest.           His mother's conscious heart o'erflows with joy.
each kind
With silent pleasure the fond parent smil'd,               He spoke; and fondly gazing on her charms
And Hector hasten'd to relieve his child.                Restor'd the pleasing burden to her arms:
The glittering terrors          unbound,                 Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid,
His radiant helmet from his brows unb-rac'd,             Hush'd to repose, and with a smile survey'd.
on the ground he                The troubled pleasure soon chastis'd by fear,
And on the ground the glittering terror plac'd,          She mingled with the smile a tender tear.
beamy                                                 LITERARY FASHIONS.
And plac'd the radiant helmet on the ground,           There is such a thing as Literary Fashion, and prose
Then seiz'd the boy and raising him in air,          and verse have been regulated by the same caprice that
lifting                                        cuts our coats, and cocks our hats. Dr Kippis, who had
Thenfondling in his arms his infant heir,            a taste for literary history, has observed that' "Dodsley's
dancing                                         Economy of human Life" long received the most extra.
Thus to the gods addrest a father's prayer.          gant applause, from the supposition that it was written by a
glory fills                         celebrated nobleman; an instance of the power of Litera0 thou, whose thunder shakes th'ethereal throne,  vr Fashion: the history of which, as it hath appeared in
deathless
And all ye other powers, protect my son!             various ages and countries, and as it hath operated with
respect to the different objects of science, learning, art,
Like mine, this war, blooming youth with every virtue bless   respect  taste, would form a work that might be highly ing, art,
and taste, would form a work that might be highly instrucgrace                                            tive and entertaining.'
The shield and glory of the Trojan racen;              The favourable reception of'Dodsley's Economy of
Like mine his valour, and hisejust renorn,          Human life' produced a whole family of economies; it
Like mine his laboeers to pdfend the cronwn,         was soon followed by a second part, the gratuitous ingeGrant him, like me, to purchase just renown,  nuity of one of those officious imitators, whom an original
T ythe Trojans.                author never cares to thank. Other economies trod on the
To guard my country, to defend the crown:            heels of each other.
In arms like me, his country's war to wage,            For some memorandum towards a history of literary
And rise the Hector of the future age!              fashions, the following may be arranged:
- Against his country's foes the war to wage,           At the restoration of letters in Europe, commentators
* The fac-simile will be given at the end of' Curiosities of  and compilers were at the head of the literati; translators
LIterature.'                                           followed, who enriched themselves with their spoils on the
f Dr Johnson, in noticing the Mss of Milton, preserved at  commentators. When in the progress of modern literaCambridge, has made, with his usual lorce of language, the  tu  
bllowing observation:' Such relics show how excellence  ture, writers aimed to rival the great authors of antiquity
is acquired; what we hope ever to do with ease we may learn    * Silent in the Ms. (observes a ct itical friend) is greatly iu
As to do with dilligence                               perior to secret, as it apears in the printed work.




LITERATURE.                                                          153
the different styles, in their servile imitations clashed to-  been the father of hundreds of graceless sons!-Travels
gether; and parties were formed, who fought desperately   and voyages have long been a class of literature so fashion.
for the style they chose to adopt.  The public were long   able, that we begin to dread the arrival of certain persons
harrassed by a fantastic race, who called themselves Cice-  from the Continent!
ronian, of whom are recorded many ridiculous practices,    Different times, then, are regulated by different tastes.
to-strain out the words of Cicero into their hollow verbosi-  What makes a strong impression on the public at one time,
ties.  They were routed by the facetious Erasmus. Then   ceases to interest it at another; an author who sacrifices
followed the brilliant era of epigrammatic points; and good  to the prevailing humours of his day has but little chance ot
sense, and good taste were nothing without the spurious  being esteemed by posterity; and every age of modern
ornaments of false wit.  Another age was deluged by a   literature might, perhaps, admit of a new classification, by
million of sonnets; and volumes were for a long time read,  dividing it into its periods offashionable literature.
without their readers being aware that their patience was            THE PANTOMIMICAL CHARACTERS.
exhausted.  There was an age of epics, which probably             t de gens de ui'espr  guind
It est des gens de qui l'esprit, guind6
can never return again; for after two or three, the rest can   Sous un front jamais derid6
be but repetitions with a few variations.                      Ne souffre, n'approuve, et n'estime,
In Italy, from 1530 to 1580, a vast multitude of books       Que le poinpeux. et le sublime;
were written on love; the fashion of writing on that sub-      Pour moi j'ose poser en fait
ject (for certainly it was not always a passion with the in-   Qu'en de certains momens lesprit le plus parfait.... Y. P. ~~~~~~~~~~~Pent aimer sans rougirjusqu'aux Marionettes;
defatigable writer,) was an epidemical distemper.  They        Pet aimer sans rouirjusquaux Marionettes;
wrote like pedants, and pagans; those who could not write          qui est de ts et des leux,
wrote like pedants,         Ou le grave, ct le serieuv,
their love in verse, diffused themselves in prose.  When       Ne valent pas d'agreables %orcettes.
the Poliphilus of Colonna appeared, which is given in                                                 Ittea6 An&
form of a dream, this dream made a great many dreamers,        People there are who nevet smile,
as it happens in company (says the sarcastic Zeno) when        Their foreheads still unsmooth'd, the while
one yawner makes many yawn.  When Bishop Hall first            Some lambent flame of mirth will play,
published his satires, he called them' Toothless Satires,'   That wins the easy heart away;
but his latter ones he distinguished as' Biting Satires;'     Such only choose in prose or rhyme
many good-natured men, who could only write good-natur-        A bristling pomp-they calt sublime!
ed verse, crowded in his footsteps, and the abundance of       I blush not to like Harlequin
t toothless'      Would he but talk,-and all his kin!
their labours only showed that even the "toothless' satires    Yes, there are times, and there are places,
of Hall could bite more sharply than those of servile imi-     When flams and old wives' tales are worth the Graces.
tators. After Spenser's Faery Queen was published, the       CERVANTES, in the person of his hero, has confessed the
press overflowed with many mistaken imitations, in which   delight he received from amusements which disturb the
fairies were the chiefactors,-this circumstance is humo.  gravity of some, who are apt, however, to be more entergravity of some, who are apt, however, to be more enter,
rously  animadverted on by Marston, in his satires, as  tained by them than they choose to acknowledge.  Don
quoted by Warton: Every scribe now falls asleep, and in his  Quixote thus dismisses a troop of merry strollers,'Anda
--   dreams, straight tenne pound to one             con dies buena gente, y hazad vuestra fiesta, porque desdo
Qutsteps some fairy —Outsteps some fairy-                                   muchache Jou aficionado a la Carfitula, y en mi r.ocedad s,
Awakes, straigt rubs his eyes, and prints his tale.
The J~~ geprogw ga afhottscsfne ivan los ojos tras la Farhndula.' In a literal version the
The great personage who gave a fashion to this class of  passage may run thus' —' Go, good people, God be with
literature was the courtly and romantic Elizabeth herself;   ye, and  keru your merry-Gaking! for  Gom   childhood I
her obsequious wits and courtiers would not fail to feed and   yo, an love with yhe Caratula, ang  in my youth my eyes
latter her taste    Whether they all felt the beauties, or  would lose themselves amidst the Forandula.'  Accord
lanuished over the tediousness of the Faerie Queen,'  ing to Pineda La Caratula is an actor masked, and La
and the' Arcadia' of Sidney, at least her majesty gave a   Farandula is a kind offarce.*
~ ogaue to such sentimental and refined rom~ance. The
vogu  to such sentimental iand refined romance.  The fsiEven the studious Bayle, wrapping himself in his cloak,
classical Elizabeth introdnced another literary fashion;  and hurrying to the market.place to Punchinello, would
having translated the Hercules GEtacus, she made it fahavig tansate  th   Heculs (-tausshemad itfa'laugh when the fellow had humour in him, as was usually
shionable to translate Greek tragedies. There was a time,  laugh when the fellow  had humour i him, as was usually
in the age of fanaticism, and the long parliament,'hat the case; and I believe the pleasure some still find in panin the age of fanaticism, and the long parliament, that  tomimes, to the annoyance of their gravity, is a very natu.
books were considered the more valuable for their length.  rtl oe,   othe nyann      ce of their gravity, is a very natu
The seventeenth century was the age of folios. One Caryl      one and only wants a little more understanding in th
wrote a' Commentary on Job' in two volumes folio, of above   actors and the spectators.
The truth is, that here our Harlequin and all his lifeless
one thousand two hundred sheets! as it was intended to
inculcate the virtue of patience, these volumes gave at once  family are condemned to perpetual silence.  They came
to us from the genial hilarity of the Italian theatre, and
the theory and the practice. One is astonished at the mul-  to us from the genial hilarity of the Italian theatre, and
titude of the divines of this age; whose works now lie bu   were all the grotesque children of wit, and whim, and satire.
Why afJ this burlesque race here privileged to cost so much,
ried under the brick and mortar tombs of four or five fo   Why me this burlesque race here privileged to cost so much,
to do so little, and to repeat that little so often I Our own
lies, which on a moderate calculation, might now be'wire
iwoven' into thirty or fo  luairty modern octavois.  npantomime may, indeed, boast of two inventions of its own
woven' into thi~~~~~~~rtyorfrymdnotas.wth: we have turned Harlequin into a magician, and
In Charles I's time, love and honour were heightened by growth: we have turned Harequin into a magician, and
the wits into florid romance; but Lord Goring turned all  this produces the surprise of sudden changes of scenery,
whose splendour and curious correctness have rarely been
into ridicule; and he was followed by the Duke of Buck-  whose splendour and curious correctness have rarely been
equalled; while in the metamorphosis of the scene, a ceringham, whose happy vein of ridicule was favoured by
Charles, who  gaveitthe vogue io ained,  y   tain sort of wit to the eye,'mechanic wit,' as it has been
Charles I[, who ~ave it the vogue it obtained.
Sir William  Temple justly observes, that changes in  termed, has originated, as when a surgeon's shop is turned
Sir William Temple justly observes, that changes in                  r,_ 
veins of wit are like those of habits, or other modes. On   into a laundry, with the inscription'Mangling done here:'
or counsellers at the bar changed into fish-wormen.
the return of Charles II, none were more out of fashion   or counsellors at the  ar changed into fishwomen.
Every one of this grotesque family were the creatures
among the new courtiers than the old Earl of Norwich,          Every one of this grotesque  family were the creature&
amon  th   newcoutier thn th  ol Ear ofNorwchof national genius, chosen by the people for themselves.
who was esteemed the greatest wit, in his father's time,      national genius, chosen by the people for themselves.
Italy, both ancient and modern, exhibits a gesticulating
among the old.  hvabuddwtwhtmyecle                        people of comedians, and the same comic genius characModern times have abounded with what may be called
fashionable literature.  Tragedies were some years ago
as fashionable as comedies are at this day; Thomson          * Motteux, whose translation Lord Woodhouselee distin.
unishes as the most curious, turns the passage thus: I I wish
Mallet, Francis, Hill, applied their genius to a department            eot crio         n tie  pa a t           is
in which they lost it all. Declamation and rant, and over-  you well, good people, drive onto act your play, for in my
very childhood I loved shows, and have been a great admirer
refined language, were preferred to the fable, the manners,  of dramatic representations.' Part II,c. xi. Theothertransand to Nature, and these now sleep on our shelves! Then   lators have nearly the same words. But in employing the
too we had a family of paupers in the parish of poetry, in  generic term they lose the species, that is, the thing itself;
Imitations of Spenser.' Not many years ago, Churchill  but what is less tolerable, in the flatness ofthe style, they lose
was the occasion of deluging the town with political poems   that delightfulness with wich Cervantes conveys to us the re.
in quatc-These   again were succeeded by native   collected pleasures then busying the warm brain of his hero.
in quarto. —These again were succeeded by narrative                                   I
em    in the ballad measure, from  allsizes of poets.    An English reader, who often grows weary over his Quixote,
appears not always sensible that one of the secret charms of
The Castle of Otranto was the father of that marvellous,  Cervantes, like all great national authors, lies concealed i
which overstocks the circulating library.-Lord Byron has   his idiom and style...,.




154                                    CURIOSITIES OF
terised the nation through all its revolutions, as well as the   prevailing foible of Vespasian, when he inquired the cost
individual through all iris fortunes.  The lower classes still  of all this funeral pomp?'Ten millions of sesterces.
betray their aptitude in that vivid humour, where the ac-  On this he observed, that if they would give him but a hun.
tion is suited to the word-silent gestures sometimes ex-  dredthousand, they might throw his body into the Tiber.
pressing whole sentences.  The  can tell a story, and        The Pantomisni were quite of a different class.  The,
even raise the passions, without opening their lips. No   were tragic actors, usually mute; they combined with the
nation in modern Europe possesses so keen a relish for the  arts of gesture, music and dances of the most impressive
burlesque, insomuch as to show a class of unrivalled poems,  character.  Their silent language often drew tears by the
which are distinguished by the very title: and perhaps  pathetic emotions which they excited:'Their very nod
there never was an Italian in a foreign country, however  speaks, their hands talk, and their fingers have a voice,'
deep in trouble, but would drop all remembrance of his  says one of their admirers.  Seneca, the father, grave as
sorrows, should one of his countrymen present himself  was his profession, confessed his taste for pantomines had
with the paraphernalia of Punch at the corner of a street.  become a passion;* and by the decree of the senate, that
I was acquainted with an Italian, a philosopher and a man'the Roman knights should not attend the pantomimic
of fortune, residing in this country, who found so lively a   players in the streets,' it is evident that the performers
leasure in performing Punchinello's little comedy, that,  were greatly honored. Lucian has composed a curious
for this purpose, with considerable expense and curiosity,  treatise on pantomimes.  We may have some notion o0
he had his wooden company, in all their costume. sent  their deep conceptior of character, and their invention,
over from his native place.  The shrill squeak of the tin  by an anecdote recordeA  by Macrobius, of' two rival panwhistle had the same comic effect on him as the notes of  tomimes.  When Hylas, dancing a hymn, which closed
the lRans des Vaches have in awakening the tenderness of  with the words,'The great Agamemnon,' to express that
domestic emotions in the wandering Swiss-the national  idea took it in its literal meaning, and stood erect, as ifmeagenius is dramatic. Lady Wortley Montagu, when she  suring his size-Pylades, his rival, exclaimed,' You make
resided at a villa near Brescia, was applied to by the vil-  him tall, but not great!' The audience obliged Pylades
lagers for leave to erect a theatre in her saloon: they had  to dance the same hymn; when he came to the words, he
been accustomed to turn the stables into a playhouse every   collected himself in a posture of deep meditation. This
carnival.  She complied, and as she tells us, was'sur-  silent pantomimic language we ourselves have witnessed
prised at the beauty of their scenes, though painted by a   carried to singular perfection, when the actor Palmer, after
country painter.  The performance was yet more surprl-  building a theatre, was prohibited the use of his voice by
sing, the actors being all peasants; but the Italians have  the magistrates. It was then he powerfully affected the
so natural a genius for comedy, they acted as well as if  audience by the eloquence of his action in the tragic pan.
they had been brought up to nothing else, particularly the  tomime of Don Juan!
Arlequino, who far surpassed any of our English, though      These pantomimi seem to have been held in great hoonly the tailor of our village, and I am assured never saw   nour; many were children of the Graces and the Virtues!
a play in any other place.' Italy is the mother, and the   The tragic and the comic masks were among the ornanurse, of the whole Harlequin race.                        ments of the sepulchral monuments of an Arch-mime and
Hence it is that no scholars in Europe, but the most  a Pantomime.  Montfautcon   conjectures that they formed
learned Italians, smit by the national genius, could have   a select fraternity.  They had such an influence over the
devoted their vigils to narrate the revolutions of panto-  Roman people, that when two of them quarrelled, Augus.
mime, to compile the annals of Harlequin, to unroll the   tus interfered to renew their friendship.  Pylades was one
genealogy of Punch, and to discover even the most secret  of them, and he observed to the emperor, that nothing
anecdotes of the obscurer branches of that grotesque fa-  could be more useful to him than that the people should be
mily amidst their changeful fortunes during a period of two   perpetually occupied with the squabbles, between him  and
thousand years!  Nor is this all; princes have ranked   Bathyllus! The advice was accepted and the emperor
them  among the Rosciuses; and Harlequins and Scara-  was silenced.
mouches have been ennobled.  Even Harlequins them-           The party-coloured hero, with every part of his dress,
selves have written  elaborate treatises on the almost  has been drawn out of the great wardrobe of antiquity; he
insurmountable difficulties of their art.  I despair to con-   was a Roman Mime. Harlequin is described with his
vey the sympathy they have inspired me with to my   shaven head, rasis capitibus; his sooty face, fuligine fa.
reader; but every Tramontane genius must be informed,  ciem  obducti; his flat, unshod feet, planipedes; and hia
that of what he has never seen, he must rest content to   patched coat of many colours, Mimi centunculo.$  Even
be told.                                                     * Tacitus, Annals, Lib. Ii Sect. 77, in Murphy's translation.
Of the ancient Italian troop we have retained three or    i L'Antiq. Exp. V. 63.
four of the characters, while their origin has nearly es-    t Louis Riccoboni, in his curious little treatise'Du Theatre
caped our recollection; but of the burlesque comedy, the   ltalien,' illustrated by seventeen prints of the Italian pantomi.
the humouros fable, and its peculiar   mic characters, has duly collected the authorities. I give them,
extempore dialogue, the humourous fable, and its peculiar                                                 C
exiempore doicalo ngue,  all has.in the order quoted above, for the satisfaction of more grave
species of comic acting, all has vanished.                 inquirers. Vossius Instit. Poet. Lib. II, cap. 32, ~ 4. The
Many of the popular pastimes of the Romans unques-  Mimi blackened their faces.  Diomedes de Orat. Lib  III
tionably survived their dominion, for the people will amuse   Apuleius in Apolog. And further, the patched dress was used
themselves, though their masters may be conquered; and   by the ancient peasants of Italy, as appears by a passage in
Celsus de Be Rust. Lib. I, c. 8; and Juvenal employs;he
tradition has never proved more faithful han in preserving   Celsus de Re Rust. Lib. I c. 8; and Juvenal employs the
popular sports. Many of the games of our children were  term centunculus as a diminutive of cento, for a coat made
played  by Roman boys; the mountebanks, with the   up of patches. This was afterwards applied metaphorically
to those well-known poems called centos, composed of shpda
dancers and tumblers on their moveable stages, still in  and patches of poetry, collected from all quarters. Goldoni
our fairs, are Roman; the disorders of the Bacchanalia  considered Harlequin as a poor devil and dolt, whose coat
Italy appears to imitate in her carnivals.  Among these  is made up of rags patched together; his hat shows mendici.
Roman diversions certain comic characters have been   ty; and the hare's tail is still the dress of the peasantry o!
transmitted to us, along with some of their characteris-  Bergamo.  Quadrio, in his learned Stuns dogni Poesia, has
tics, and their dresses.  The speaking paitomines and   diffused his erudition on the ancient Mimi and their succes.
sors. Dr Clarke lass discovered the light lathe sword of H~ar
extempore comedies, which have delighted the Italians for  lequ  Dr Clawke has discovered the light lathe sword ofar
lequin, which had hitherto baffled my most painful research
many centuries, are from this ancient source.              es, amidst the dark mysteries of the ancient mythology! We
Of the Mimi and the Pantomimi of the Romans, the  read with equal astonishment and novelty, that the protofollowing notices enter into our present researches:      types of the modern Pantomime are in the Pagan mysteries;
The Mimi were an impudent race of buffoons, who ex-  that Harlequin is Mercury, with his short sword called herpe,
celled in mimicry, and, like our domestic fools, admitted   or his rod the caduceus, to render himself invisible, and to
int   cnvvia  prtesto ntrtinthegust; rom them
into convivial parties to entertain the guests; from them   transport himself from one end of the earth to the other; that
we derive the term  mimetic art.  Their powers enabled  the covering on his head was his petasus, or winged cap; thai
Columbine is Psyche, or the Soul; the Old Man in our Pan
them to perform a more extraordinary office, for they ap-  tomimes is Charon; the Clown is Momus, the buffoon of
pear to have been introduced into funerals, to mimic the   heaven, whose large gaping mouth is an imitation of the an
person, and even the language of the deceased.  Sueto-  cient masks. The subject of an ancient vase engraven in the
uns describes an Archimimus, accompanying the funeral  volume represents Harlequin, Columbine, and the Clown, s,
of Vespasian.  This Archmime performed'his part ad-  we see them on the English stage. The dreams of the learn
ed are amusing when we are not put to sleep! Dr Clarke's
mirably, not only representing the person, but imitating,  Travels vn wewe e Italian antiquaries never enter
acodn  tocsou  s  omanr.n agaeo   Travels, vol. IV, p). 4E9. The Italian antiquaries never enter
cording to ustom, t eat ma, manners and language of   ained any doubt of thi. remote origin. See the fourth edition
tho living emperor.  He contrived a happy stroke at the  of this volume,Aapendix. Aletter from the MarnuisDi. Shineto.




LIT ERATURE.                                                   155
Pullicinella, whom we familiarly call Punch, may receive  the hint of introducing all the Italian dialects into one comrnlike other personages of not greater importance, all his  edy, by making each character use hisown; and even
dignity from antiquity; one of his Roman ancestors having   the modern Greek, which, it seems, afforded many an urn.
appeared to an antiquary's visionary eye in a bronze   expected play on works for the Italian.*  This new kind
statue: more than one erudite dissertation authenticates   of pleasure, like the language of Babel charmed the na.
the family likeness; the nose long, prominent, and hooked;  tional ear; every province would have its dialect intro.
the staring goggle eyes; the hump at his back and at his  duced  on the scene, which often served  the purpose
breast; in a word, all the character which so strongly  both of recreation and a little innocent malice.  Their
marks the Punch-race, as distinctly as whole dynasties   masks and dresses were furnished by the grotesque masquehave been featured by the Austrian lip and the Bourbon   raders of the carnival, which doubtless, often contributed
nose.*                                                   many scenes and humours to the quick and fanciful genius
The genealogy of the whole family is confirmed by the   of Ruzzante. I possess a little book of Scaramouches, &c,
general term, which includes them all; for our Zany, in  by Callot.  Their masks and their costume must have
Italian Zanni, conies direct from Sannio, a buffoon; and   been copied from these carnival scenes.  We see their
a passage in Cicero, de Oratore, paints Harlequin and   strongly-featured masks; their attitudes, pliant as those ol
his brother gesticulators after the life; the perpetual trem-  a posture-master; the drollery of their figures; while the
bling motion of their limbs, their ludicrous and flexible  grotesque creatures seem to leap, and dance, and gesticugestures, and all the nmimicry of their faces.'Quid enim  late, and move about so fantastically under his sharp,otest tamn ridiculum, quam SANNIo esse?  Qui ore, vultu,  graver, that they form as individualized a race as our fat.
imitandis motibus, voce, denique corpore ridetur ipso.' Lib.  ries and witches; mortals, yet like nothing mortal i
[I, Sect. 51.  For what has more of the ludicrous than     The first Italian actors wore masks-objections have
SArVEIO? who, with his mouth, his face, imitating every   been raised against their use.  Signorelli shows the infe.
motion, with his voice, and indeed, with all his body, pro.  riority of the modern in deviating from the moveable or
vokes laughter.t                                         rather double masks of antiquity, by which the actor could
These are the two ancient heroes of Pantomime.  The   vary the artificial face at pleasure.  The mask has had
other characters are the laughing children of mere modern  its advocates, for some advantages it possesses over the
humour. Each of these chimerical personages, like so   naked face; a mask aggravates the features, and gives a
many County-Members, come from  different provinces  more determined expression to the comic character; an
in the gesticulating land of Pantomime; in little principali-  important effect among this fantastical group.t
ties the rival inhabitants present a contrast in manners   The Harlequin ij the Italian theatre has passed through
and characters which opens a wider field for ridicule and   all the vicissitudes offortune. At first he was a true represatire, than in a kingdom  where a uniformity of govern-  sentative of the ancient Mime, but afterwards degenerated
ment will produce a uniformity of manners. An inventor  into a booby and a gourmand, the perpetual butt for a
appeared in Ruzzante, an author and actor who flourished   sharp-witted fellow, his companion, called Brighella; the
about 1530. Till his time they had servilely copied the duped   knife and the whetstone. Harlequin, under the reforming
fathers, the wild sons, and the tricking valets, of Plautus   hand of Goldoni, became a child of nature, the delight of
and Terence; and, perhaps, not being writers of suffi-  his country; and he has commemorated the historical charrient skill, but of some invention, were satisfied to sketch   acter of the great Harlequin Sacchi.  It may serve the
the plots of dramas, but boldly trusted to extempore act-  reader to correct his notions of one, from the absurd pre.
ing and dialogue.  Ruzzante peopled the Italian stage  tender with ius who has usurped the title.' Sacchi pos.
with a fresh enlivening crowd of pantomimic characters;  sessed a lively and brilliant imagination.   While other
the insipid dotards of the ancient comedy were transform-  Harlequins merely repeated themselves, Sacchi, who aled into the Venitian Pantaloon and the Bolognese Doc-  ways adhered to the essence of the play, contrived to give
tor: while the hair-brained fellow, the arch-knave, and   an air of freshness to the piece by his new sallies and unthe booby, were furnished from  Milan, Bergamo, and   expected repartees.  His comic traits and his jests were
Calabria. He gave his newly-created beings new language   neither taken from the language of the lower orders, nor
and a new dress. From Plautus he appears to have taken  that of the comedians.   He levied contributions  on
* This statue, which is imagined to have thrown so much   comic authors, on poets, orators, and philosophers; ano
light on the genealogy of Pulnch, was discovered in 1727, and  in his impromptus they often discovered the thoughts ot
is engraved in Ficorini's amusing work on Le Maschere see.  Seneca, Cicero, or Montaigne.   He possessed the art
niche e le figure comiche d'antichi Romani, p. 48. It is that  of appropriating the remains of these great men to himself,
of a Mime called Maccus by the Romans; the name indicates  and allying them  to the simplicity of the blockhead; so
a simpleton. But the origin of the more modern name has  that the same proposition which was admired in a serious
occasioned a little differtence, whether it be derived from the
nose or its squeak. The learned Quadrio would draw the name   author, became highly ridiculous in the mouth of this exPullicernello from Pulliceno, which Spartianus uses for it  cellent actor.'t  In France Harlequin was improved into
pullo gallinlaceo (1 suppose this to be the turkey-cock,) because   a wit, and even converted into a moralist; he is the grace.
Punch's hooked nose resembles its beak. But Baretti, in that  ful hero of Florian's charming compositions, which please
strange book the'Tolondron,' gives a derivation admirably  even in the closet.'This imaginary being, invented by
descriptive of the peculiar squeaking nasal sound. He says,  the Italians,and adopted by the French,' says the ingenious'Punchinello, or Puntch, as you well know, speaks with a  Goldoni,' has the exclusive right of uniting naivet  with
squeaking voice that seems to come out at his nose, because
the fellow who in a puppet-show manages the puppet called  finesse, and no one ever surpassed Florian in the delncaPunchinello, or Punch, as the English folks abbreviate it,  tion of this amphibious character.  He has even contrived
speaks with a tinl whistle in his mouth, which makes him emit  to impart sentiment, passion, and morality, to his pieces.'~
that comical kind of voice. But the English word Punchinello   Harlequin must be modelled as a national character, the
is in Italian Pulcinella, whichl means a hen-chicken. Chick.  creature of manners; and thus the history of such a Harens' voices are squeaking and nasal; and they are timid, and  lequin might be that of the age and of the people, whose
powerless, and for this reason my whimsical countryment have   genius he ought to represent.
given the name of Pulcinella, or hen-chicken, to that comic  The history ofa people is often detected in their popo.
character, to convey the idea of a man that speaks with    lar anusements; one of these Italian paiitomimic charac.
squeaking voice through his nose, to express a timid and
weak fellow, who is always threshed by the other actors, and  ters shows this.   They had a Capitan, who probably
always boasts of victory after they are gone.' Tolondron, p.  originated in the.Miles gloriosus of Plautus; a brother, at
324.                                                    least, of our ancient Pistol and Bobadil.  The ludicrous
t How the Latin Sannio became the Italian Zanni, was a  names of this military poltroon were, Spavento (Horrid
whirl in the round-about of etymology which put Ricciboni  fright), Spezza-fer (Shiver-spear), and a tremendous re,
very ill at his ease; for he, having discovered this classical  creant was Capitan Spavento de Val inferno.  When
origin of his tf,'ourite character, was alarmed at Menage giv- Charles V entered Italy, a Spanish Captain was intro.
iug it up with obsequious tameness to a Cruscan correspondent.   Charles V entered Italy, a Spanish Captain was intro
The learned Qualrio, however, gives his vote for the Greek   duced; a dreadful man he was too, if we are to be frightSannos, from whence the Latins borrowed their Sannio. Ric-  ened by names: Sangre e fuego! and Mlatoamoro! His
coboni's derivation, therefore, now stands secure from all ver-  business was to deal in Spanish rhodomontades, to kick
oal disturbers of human quiet.                           out the native Italian Capitan, in compliment to the Span.
Sauna is in Latin, as Ainsworth elaborately explains'a
mocking by grimaces, mnows, a flout, a frump, a gibe, a scoff,    * Riccoboni Histoire dui Theatre Italien, p. 53; Gimma Italia
a banter;' and Sannio is' a fool in a play.' The Italians  Letterata, 196.
change the S into Z, for they say Zmyrna and Zambuco, for     t Signorelli Storia Critica de Teatri, tom. III, 263.
Smyrna and Sambuco; and thus they turned Sanio into Zan. o               Mem. of Goldoni, I, 281.
no, and then into Zanni, and we caught the echo in our Zany,              Mem. of Goldoni, I1, 28$




156                                 CURIOSITIES OF
wrds, and then to take a quiet caning from Harlequin, in  What was the nature of that perft Etion to which the
compliment to themselves.  When the Spaniards lost their  Italian pantomime reached;, and that prodigality of genius,
influence in Italy, the Spanish Captain was turned into  which excited such enthusiasm, not only among the popu.
Scaramouch,who still wore the Spanish dress,and was per-  lace, but the studious, and the noble, and the men of ge.
petually in a panic.  The Italians could only avenge  nius?
themselves on the Spaniards in Pantomime! On the same    The Italian Pantomime had two peculiar features; a
principle the gown of Pantaloon over his red waistcoat  species of buffoonery technically termed Lazzi, and one
and breeches, commemorates a circumstance in Venitian   of a more extraordinary nature, the extempore dialogue c
history, expressive of the popular feeling; the dress is that  its comedy.
of a Venitian citizen, and his speech the dialect; but    These Lazzi were certain pleasantries of gesticulation,
when the V;scnitians lost Negropont, they changed their  quite national, yet so closely allied to our notions of bufuppes dress to black, which before had been red, as a na-  foonery, that a Northern critic will not readily detect the
tional demonstration of their grief.                   separating shade; yet Riccoboni asserts that they formed
The characters of the Italian Pantomime became so  a critical and not a trivial art. That these arts of gestinumerous, that every dramatic subject was easily furnish-  culation had something in them peculiar to Italian humour,
ed with the necessary personages of comedy. That loqua-  we infer from Gherardi, wvho could not explain the term
cious pedant the Dottore was taken from the Lawyers and  but by describing it as' Un Tour: JEU ITALIEN!' It
the Physicians, babbling false Latin in the dialect of learn-  was so peculiar to them, that he could only call it by their
ed Bologna.  Scapin was a livery servant who spoke the  own name. It is difficult to describe that of which the
dialect of Bergamno, a province proverbially abounding with   whole magic consists in being seen: and what is more
rank intriguing knaves, who, like the slaves in Plautus and   evanescent than the humour wvhich consists in gestures?
Terence, were always on the watch to further any wick-' Lazzi (says Riccoboni) is a term corrupted from the
edness; while Calabria firnished the booby Giangurgello  old Tuscan Lacci, which signifies a knot, or something
with his grotesque nose. Moliere, it has been ascertained,  which connects. These pleasantries called Lazzi are cerdiscovered in the Italian theatre at Paris his' Mddecin  tain actions by which the performer breaks into the scene,
malgr6 lui,' his' Etourdi;' his' L'Avare,' and his'Sca-  to paint to the eye his emotions of panic or jocularity;
pin.' Milan offered a pimp in the Brighella; Florence an   but as such gestures are foreign to the business going on,
ape offashion in Gelsomino. These and other pantomimic  the nicety of the art consists in not interrupting the scene,
characters, and some ludicrous ones, as the Tartaglia, a  and connecting the Lazzi with it; thus to tie the whole
spectacled dotard, and a stammerer, and usually in a pas-  together.' Lazzi, then, seems a kind of mimicry and
sion, had been gradually introduced by the inventive pow-  gesture, corresponding with the passing scene; and we
ers of an actor of genius, to call forth his own peculiar  may translate the term by one in our green-room dialect,
talents.                                               side-play.  Riccoboni has ventured to describe some
The Pantomimes, or, as they have been described, the  Lazzi.  When Harlequin and Scapin represent two facontinual Masquerades, of Ruzzante, with all these diver-  mished servants of a poor young mistress, among the arts
sified personages, talking and acting, formed, in truth, a  by which they express their state of starvation, Harlequin
burlesque comnedy. Some of the finest geniuses of Italy  having murmured, Scapin exhorts him to groan, a music
became the votaries of Hariequin; and the Italian Panto-  which brings out their young mistress. Scapin explains
mime may be said to form a school of its own.  The in-  Harlequin's impatience, and begins a proposal to her
vention of Ruzzante was one capable of perpetual novelty.  which might extricate them all from their misery. While
Many of these actors have been chronicled either for the  Scapin is talking, Harlequin performs-his Lazzi-imagininvention of some comic character, or for their true irnita-  ing he holds a hatfull of cherries, he seems eating them,
tion of nature in performing some favourite one. One, al-  and gaily flinging the stones at Scapin; or with a rueful
ready immortalized by having lost his real name in that  countenance he is trying to catch a fly, and with his hand,
of Captain l'atamoros, by whose inimitable humours he  in comical despair, would chop off the wings before he
became the most popular man in Italy, invented the Nea-  swallows the chamelion game. These, with similar Lazzi,
politan Pullicinello; while another, by deeper study, added   harmonize with the remonstrance of Scapin, and re-ani.
new graces to another burlesque rival.*  One Constantini  mate it; and thus these' Lazzi, although they seem to ininvented the character of Mezetin, as the Narcissus of  terrupt the. progress of the action, yet in cutting it they
Pantomime. He acted without a mask, to charm  by the  slide back into it, and connect or tie the whole.' These
beautiful play of his countenance, and display the graces  Lazzi are in great danger of degenerating into puerile
of his figure;  the floating drapery of his fanciful dress  mimicry or gross buffoonery, unless fancifully conceived
could be arranged by the changeable humour of the  and vividly gesticulated. But the Italians seem'to poswearer. Crowds followed him in the streets, and a King   sess the art of gesture before that of speech: and this
of Poland ennobled him. The Wit and Harlequin Domi-  national characteristic is also Roman.  Such, indeed,
nic sometimes dined at the table ofLouis XIV.  Tiberio  was the powerful expression of their mimetic art, that
Fiurilli, who invented the character of Scaramouch, had   when the select troop under Riccoboni, on their first inbeen the amusing companionofthe boyhood ofLouis XIV;  troduction into France, only spoke in Italian, the audience,
and from him Moliere learnt much, as appears by the ver-  who did not understand the words, were made completely
ses under his portrait:                                masters of the action by their pure and energetic imitations
Cet illustre Cormedien                  of nature. The Italian theatre, has, indeed, recorded some
De son art traca la carriers: *miracles of this sort. A celebrated Scaramouch, without
ID fut le maitre de Moliere,            uttering a syllable, kept the audience for a considerable
Et la Nature fut le sien.               time in a state of suspense by a scene of successive terrors; and exhibited a living picture of a panic-stricken
The last lines of an epitaph on one of these pantomi   man. Gherardi, in his:' Theatre Italien,' conveys some
mic actors may be applied to many of them during their  idea of the scene. Scaramouch, a character usually reflourishing  period:                                   presented in a fright, is waiting for his master Harlequin' Toute sa vie il a fait rire;          in his apartment; having put every thing in order, accordIt a fait pleur6 a sa mort.'            ing to his confused notions, he takes the guitar, seats himSeveral of these admirable actors were literary men,  sel in all arm-chair and plays. Pasquariel comes gently
who have written on their art, and shown that it was one,  behind him and taps him on the shoulders-this throws
The Harlequin Cechini composed the most ancient trea-  Scaramouch into a panic.   It was then that incomparatise on this subject, and was ennobled by the Emperor  ble model of our most eminent actors,' says Gherardi,
hMatthlas; and Nicholas Barbieri, for his excellent act-' displayed the miracles of his art: that art which paints
ing called_ the Beltrame, a Milanese simpleton, in his  the passions in the face, throws them into every gesture,
treatise on Comedy, tells us that he was honoured by  and throgh a whole scene of frights upon frights, conveys
the conversation ofLouis XIII, and rewarded with fortune   the most powerful expression of ludicrous terror. This.  man moved all hearts by the simplicity of nature, more
* I am here bhut the translator of a grave historian. The Itas.  than skilled orators can with all the charms of persuasive
lin writes with all the feeling of one aware of the important  rhetoric.' On this memorable scene a great prince o
narrative, and with a most curious accuracy in this genealogy  served that'caramucci non prl, e dica  gran coe
ot character: Silvio Fiorillo, che appellar si facea il Capitano
Matamoros, invento il Puleinella Napoletano, e collo studio e,    He speaks not, but he says many great things.'
grazia molto agguinse Andrea Calcese detto Ciuccio por so.    In gesticulation and humour our Ricb appears to have
prannom1. Girnina Italia LelteraLa, p. 196             been a complete Mime: his genius was entirely confined




LITERATURE.                                                     151
to It-,os.o'ime; and he had the glory of introducing Har-  vival, excercised a chaster taste, for they are noticed by Ci.
Iequiz, % the English stage, which he played under the   cero in a letter to his literary friend Papyrus Paetus, which
reigned naone of Lun.  He could describe to the au-  may be read in Melmoth's version.' But to turn from the
dience by hsa Migas and gestures as intelligibly as others  serious to the jocose part of your letter-the strain of pleacould express Ny words. There is a large caricature print  santry you break into, immediately after having distinctly
of the triumph w'hitch Rich had obtained over the severe  lquoted the tragedy ofCEnomalius, puts mre in mind ofthe moMuses of Trageao and Comedy, which lasted too long not  dern method of introducing at the end of these graver drama.
to excite jealousy arnd Cpcsition from the corps dramatique.  ticpieces the buffoon humour of our low mimes, instead of the
Garrick, who once introduced a speaking Harlequin,  more delicate burlesque of the old Atellan Farces.'*  This
has celebrated the silent ttut powerful language of Rich:  very curious passage, distinctly marks out the two classes,' When Lun appear'd, nvit?_ matchless art and whim  which so many centuries after Cicero were revived in the
He gave the power of speech to every limb,          Pantomime of Italy, and in its Extempore Comedy.t
The' mask'd and mute; convey'2 his quick intent,      The critics on our side of the Alps reproached the ItaAnd told in frolic gestures what he mt:ant:        lians for the Extempore Comedies; and Marmontel, in the
But now the motley coat and swourd cfwowl           Encyclopedie, rashly declared that the nation did not posRequire a torngue to make them un~derstoMd i'       sess a single Comedy which could endure a perusal. But
The Italian Extempore Comedy is a lhteeary curiosity  he drew his notions from the low Farces of the Italian
which claims our attention.                             theatre atParis, and he censured what he had never read.1
EXTEMPORE COMEDIES.                      The Comedies of Bibiena, Del Lasca, Del Secchi, and
It is a curiosity in the history of national genius to dis-  others, are models of classical Cotedy, but not the popu.
cover a people with such a native fund of come. humour,  lar favourites of Italy. Signorelli distinguishes two specombined with such passionate gesticulation, that they   cies of Italian Comedy, those which he calls Commedic
could deeply interest in acting a Comedy, carried oa by  Attiche ed Eruditi, ancient and learned Comedies, and
dialogue, intrigue, and character, all' improvista, or im-  those of Commedie dell' Arte, or a Soggetto, Comedies
promnptu: the actors undergoing no rehearsal, and, in fact,  suggested-The first were moulded on classical models
coniposing while they were acting.  The plot, called  recited in their academies to a select audience, and perScenario, consisting merely of the scenes enumerated,  formed by amateurs; but the Commedie a Soggetto, the
*with the characters indicated, was first written out; it  Extempore Comedies, were invented by professional aceuas then suspended at the back of the stage, and from   tors of genius. More delightful to the fancy of the Italians,
tne mere inspect-ion, the actors came forward to perform,  and more congenial to their talents, in spite of the gravel
the dialogue entirely depRfending on their own genius.*  critics, who even in their amusements cannot cast off the' These pieces must have been detestable, and the ac-manacles of precedence, the Italians resolved to be pleased
tors mere buffoons,' exclaim the Northern critics, whose  for themselves, with their own natural vein, and with one
imaginations have a coldness in them, like a frost in spring.  feeling preferred a freedom of original humour and inven.
But when the art of Extempore Comedy flourished among  tion incompatible with regular productions, but which in.
these children of fancy, the universal pleasure these repre-spired admirable actors, and secured full audiences.
sentations afforded  to a whole vivacious people, and the  Men of great genius had a passion for performing in these
recorded celebrity of their great actors, open a new field  Extempore Comedies.  Salvator Rosa was famous for
for tdle speculation of genius. It may seem more extraor   his character of a Calabrian Clown, whose original he had
for te speculation of genius. It may seem more extraordinary that some of its votaries have maintained that it pos-probably often studied amidst that mountainous scenery in
sessed some peculiar advantages over written compositions.    hich his pencil delighted.  Of their manner of acting I
When Goldoni reformed the Italian theatre by regular  find an interesting anecdote in Passeri's life of this great
Comedies, he found an invincible opposition from the en-  painter; he shall tell his own story.
thusiasts of their old Comedy; for two centuries it had'One summer SalvatorRosajoined acompanyofyoung
been the amusement of Italy, and was a species of comic  persons who were curiously addicted to the making of
entertainment which it had created. Inventive minds were   Commedie all' improviso. In the midst of a vineyard they
entertainment which it had created. Inventive minds were 
bEnd of sketching out these outlines of pieces, and other  raised a rustic stage, under the direction of one Mussi,
men of genius of representing them,                     who enjoyed some literary reputation, particularly for hi,
The inspiration of national genius alone could produce  sermons preached in Lent.
this phenomenons; aid these Extempore Comedies were,' Their second Comedy was numerously attended, and
indeed, indigenous to the soil. Italy, a land of Improvisa.  Iwent among the rest; I sat on the same bech, by good
tori, kept up from the time of their old masters, the m Ro-  fortune, with the Cavalier Bernini, Romanelli, and Guido,
mans, the same fervid fancy. The ancient Atellance Fa-all well known persons. Salvator Rosa, who had ale
bule, or Atellan Farces, originated at Atella, a town in  ready made himself a favourite with the Roman people
the neighbourhood of ancient Naples; and these, too, were  under the character r of Formica, opened with a prologue,
extempore Interludes, or, as Livy terms them, Esodia.  in company with other actors.  e proposed, for relieving
We find in that historian a little interesting narrative of  themselves ofthe extreme heats and ennui, that they should
the theatrical history of the Romans: when the dramatic   make a Comedy, and allagreed.  Formica then spoke
performances at Rome were becoming too sentimental and  these exact words:
declamatory, banishing the playfulness and the mirth of'Non boglio gia, che facimmo Commedie come cierti
Comedy, the Roman youth left these graver performances  che tagliano li panni aduosso a chisto, o a chillo; perche co
to the professed actors, and revived, perhaps in imitation of  lo tiempo sefa vedere, chiu veloce lo tagio de no rasuolo, che
the. licentious Satyra of the Greeks, the ancient custom of  lapenna de no poeta; ens manco bo lio, chefacimmo venire
versifying pleasantries, and throwing out jests and raillery  nella scena porta citazioni, acquavitari, e crupori, e ste schi
among themselves, for their own diversion.f  These Atel-  fenze she teno spropositi da aseno.'
Ian Farces were probably not so iow in humour as they have  One part of this humour lies in the dialect, which as
been represented;T or at least the Roman youth, on their re-  Venetian but there was a concealed stroke of satire, a
snake in the grass. The sense of the passage is,' I will
* Some of the ancient Scenarie were printed in 1661, by Fla.
minius Scala, one of their great actors. These, according to    * MelmotI's Letters of Cicero, B. viii, lett. 20 iin Grsvius's
Riceoboni, consist of nothing more than the skeletons of Come.  edition, Lib. ix, ep. 16.
lies; the Canevas, as the French technically term a plot and  t This passage also shows that our own custom of annex
its scenes. He says,' they are not so short as those we now  int a Farce, or petite piece, or Pantomime, to a tragic Drama,
use to fix at the back of the scenes, nor so full as to furnish  existed among the Romans: the intnodtction of the practice
any aid to the dialogue; they only explain what the actor did  here seems not to be ascertained; and it is conjectured not to
on the stare, and the action which forms the subject; nothing  have existed before the Restoration. Shakspeare ant his con
more.'                                                 temporaries probably were spectators of only a single drama
The passage in Livy is' Juventus, histrionibus tabellarum   at one performance.
actu relicto, ipsa inter se, more antiquo, ridicula intexta versi-  Storia Critica de Teatri de Signor-lln, tom. iii, 258. Bareal
bus jactitare ccepit.' Lib. vii, cap. 2.               mentions a collection of four thousanc dcPamas, made by AposAs these Atetlltana Fabtult were never written, they have  tolo Zeno, of which the greater part were Comedies. He allows
not descended to us in any shape. It has, indeed, been con.  that in tragedies his nation is inferior to the English and the
lectured that Horace, in the fifth Satire of his first Book, v.  French'but no nation,' he adds,' can be compared with us
51, has preserved a scene of this nature between two prac.  for pleasantry and humour in Comedy.' Some of the greatest
tiseti buffoons in the' Pugnam Sarmenti Scurrma,' who chal.  names in Italian Literature were writers of Comedy. Ita]. Lib.
lenges his brother Cicerrus; equally ludicrous and scurrilous.  119.
But surely these were rather the low humour of the Mimes  ~ Altieri explains Formica as a crabbed fellow who acts the
then of the Atellan Farcers                            butt in a Farce.




158                                   CURIOSITIES OF
not, however, that we should make a Comedy like certain  ous by their art, charmed the spectators by the beauty of
persons who cut clothes, and put them on this man's back,  their voice, their spontaneous gestures, the flexibility of
and on that man's back; for at last the time comes which  their passions, while a certain natural air never failed them
shows how much faster went the cut of the shears than  in their motions and their dialogue.'*
the pen of the poet; nor will we have entering on the scene,    Here, then is a species of the histrionic art unknown to
couriers, brandy-sellers and goat-herds, and their stare shy  us, and running counter to that critical canon which our
and blockish, which I think worthy the senseless invention  great poet, but not powerful actor, has delivered to the
of an ass.'                                            actors themselves,' to speak no more than is set down for
Passeri now proceeds;' At this time Bernini had made  them.' The present art consisted in happily performing
a Comedy in the Carnival, very pungent and biting; and  the reverse.
that summer he had one of Castelli's performed in the    Much of the merit of these actors unquestionably must
suburbs, where, to represent the dawn of day, appeared on  be attributed to the felicity of the national genius. But
the stage, water carriers, couriers, and goat-herds, going  there were probably some secret aids in this singular art
about-all which is contrary to rule, which allows of no  of Extempore Comedy, which the pride of the artist has
character who is not concerned in the dialogue to mix with  concealed. Some traits in the character,'and some wit in
the groups. At these words of the Formica, I, who well  the dialogue, might descend traditionally; and the most exknew his meaning, instantly glanced my eye at Bernini, to  perienced actor on that stage would make use of his me-.
observe his movements; but he, with an artificial careless-  mory more than he was willing to confess. Goldoni records
ness, showed that this "cut of the shears" did not touch  an unlucky adventure of his' Harlequin lost and found,'
him; and he made no apparent show of being hurt. But  which outline he had sketched for the Italian company; it
Castelli, who was also near, tossing his head and smiling  was well received at Paris, but utterly failed at Fontainein bitterness, showed, clearly that he was hit.'       bleau, for some of the actors had thought proper to incorThis Italian story told with all the poignant relish of  porate too many of the jokes of the' Cocu itmaginaire,'
these vivacious natives, to whom such a stinging incident  which displeased the court, and ruined the piece. When
was an important event, also shows the personal freedoms  a new piece was to be performed, the chief actor sumtaken on these oczcasions by a man of genius, entirely in  moned the troop in the morning, read the plot, and explain.
the spirit of the ancient Roman Atellana, or the Grecian  ed the story, to contrive scenes.  It was like playing the
Satvra.                                                whole performance before the actors.  These hints of
Riccoboni has discussed the curious subject of Extem-  scenes were all the rehearsal. When the actor entered
pore Comedy with equal modesty and feeling; and Ghe-  on the scene he did not know what was to come, nor had
rardi, with more exultation and egotism.'This kind of he any prompter to help him on; nmuch, too, depended on
spectacle,' says Riccoborni, is peculiar to Italy; one cannot  the talents of his companions; yet sometimes a scene
deny that it has graces perfectly its own, and which writ-  might be preconcerted. Invention, humour, bold concep.
ten Comedy can never exhibit.  This impromptu mode of  tion of character, and rapid strokes of genius, they habit.
acting furnishes opportunities for a perpetual change in the  uallv exercised-and the pantomimic arts of gesture, the
performances, so that the same scenario repeated still ap-  passionate or humourous expression of their feelings, would
pears a new one; thus one Comedy may become twenty  assist an actor when his genius for a moment had deserted
Comedies. An actor of this description, always suppos-  him. Such excellence was not long hereditary, and in
ing an actor of genius, is more vividly affected than one  the decline of this singular art its defects became more
who has coldly got his part by rote.' But Riccoboni could  apparent.  The race had degenerated; the inexperienced
not deny that there were inconveniences in this singular  actor became loquacious; long monologues were contrived
art. One difficulty not easily surmounted was the prevent-  by a barren genius to hide his incapacity for spirited diaing of all the actors speaking together; each one eager to  logue; and a wearisome repetition of trivial jests, coarse
reply before the other had finished. It was a nice point to  humour, and vulgar buffoonery, damned the Comedie a
know when to yield up the scene entirely to a predominant  soggetto, and sunk it to a Bartholemew-fair play. But the
character, when agitated, by violent passion; nor did it re-  miracle which genius produced, it may repeat, whenever
quire a less exercised tact to feel when to stop; the vanity  the same happy combination of circumstances and persons
of an actor often spoiled a fine scene.                shall occur together.
It evidently required that some of the actors at least    I shall give one anecdote to record the possible excelshould be blessed with genius, and what is scarcely less  lence of the art.  Louis Riccoboni known in the annals
difficult to find, with a certain equality of talents; for the  of this theatre by the adopted name of Lelio, his favourite
performance of the happiest actor of this school greatly de-  amoroso character, was not only an accomplished actor,
pends on the excitement he receives from his companion;  but a literary man; and with his wife Flaminia, afterwards
an actor beneath mediocrity would ruin a piece.' But  the celebrated novelist, displayed a rare union of talents
figure, memory, voice, and even sensibility, are not suffi-  and of minds.  It was suspected that they did not act all
cient for the actor all' improvista; he must be in the habit  improvista, from the facility and the elegance of their diaof cultivating the imagination, pouring forth the flow of logue; and a clamour was now raised in the literary cir.
expression, and prompt in those flashes which instantane-  cles, who had long been jealous of the fascination which atously vibrate in the plaudits of an audience.' And this ac-  tracted the public to the Italian theatre.  It was said that
complished extempore actor feelingly laments that those  the Riccobonis were imposing on the public credulity; and
destined to his profession, who require the most careful  that their pretended Extempore Comedies were preconeducation, are most likely to have received the most ne-  certed scenes. To terminate this civil war between the
glected one.  Lucian, in his curious treatise on Tragic  rival theatres, La Motte offered to sketch a plot in five
Pantomime, asserts, that the great actor should also be a  acts, and the Italians were challenged to perform it. This
man of letters.                                        defiance was instantly accepted.  On the morning of the
The lively Gherardi pushes his arguments with more bold-  representation Lelio detailed the story to his troop, hqlnu
ness, and throws out some curious information respecting  up the Scenario in its usual place, and the whole company
this singular art:' Any one may learn a partbyrote, and  was ready at the drawing of the curtain. The plot given
do something bad, or indifferent, on another theatre. ~With  in by La Motte was performed to admiration; and all Paris
us the affair is quite otherwise; and when an Italian actor  witnessed the triumph. La Motte afterwards composed
dies, it is with infinite difficulty we can supply his place.  this very comedy for the French theatre, L'Amante dif.
An Italian actor learns nothing by head; he looks on the  cile, yet still the extempore one at the Italian theatre re.
subject for a moment before he comes forward on the stage,  mained a more permanent favourite; and the public were
and entireiy depends on his imagination for the rest. The  delighted by seeing the same piece perpetually offering
actor who is accustomed merely to recite what he has been  novelties and changing its character at the fancy of the
taught' is so completely occupied by his memory, that he  actors. This fact conveys an idea of dramatic execution
appears t9 stand as it were unconnected either with the  which does not enter into our experience. Riccoboni caraudience or his companion; he is so impatient to deliver  ried the Comedie dell Arte to a new perfection, by the in.
himself of the burden he is carrying, that he trembles like  troduction of an elegant fable and serious characters; and
a school.boy, or is as senseless as an Echo, and could
never speak if others had not spoken before. Such a tutored    * See Gherardi's preface to his collection of Le Theatre
actor among us would be liske a paralytic arm  to a tutordy  Italien. These six volumes consist of Farces writen by French
actor among us would be like a paralytic arm to a body;
an unserviceable member, only fatiguing the healthy action  They are ludicrous, and the writers wantonly sport with uttes
of tho sound parts. Our performers, who became illustri-  absurdity




LITERATURE.                                                        159
he raised the dignity of the Italian stage when he inscribed   of one of our actors that' he had a quick, delicate, refined,
on its curtain,                                            extemporal wit.' And of another that' he had a wondrous,
CASTIGAT RIDENDO ktORES.*                     plentitful, pleasant, extemporal wit.  These actors then,
who were in the habit of exercising their impromptus, reMASSINGER,  MILTON, AND THE ITALIAN THEATRE.    semble those who performed in the unwritten comedies cf
The pantomimic characters and the extempore comedy   the Italians. Gabriel Harvey, the Aristarchus of the day,
of Italy may have had some influence even on our own   compliments Tarleton for having brought forward a new
dramatic poets; this source has indeed escaped all notice;  species of dramnatic exhibition.  If this compliment paid to
yet I incline to think it explains a difficult point in Mas-   Tarleton merely alludes to his dexterity at extemporaneous
singer, which has baffled even the keen spirit of MrGifford.  wit in the character of the clown, as my friend Mr Douce
A  passage iniIassinger bears a striking resemblance   thinks, this would be sufficient to show that he was at.
with one'n Moliere's'Malade Imaginaire.' It is in'The   tempting to introduce on our stage the extempore comedy
Emperor of' the East,' vol. III, 317.  The Q.udck or  of the Italians; which Gabriel Harvey distinguishes as'a'Empiric's humourous notion is so closely that of Mottere's  new species.' As fbr these'Platts,' which I shall now
that Mr Giflbrd, agreeing with Mr Gilchrist,' finds it dif-  venture to call' Scenarios,' they surprise by their bareficult to believe the coincidence accidental;' but the greater  ness, conveying no notion of the piece itself, though quite
difficulty is, to conceive that'Massinger ever fell into Mo-   sufficient for the actors.  They consist of mere exits and
liere's hands.'  At that period, in the infancy of our lite-  entrances of the actors, and often the real names of the
rature, our native authors and our own language were as   actors are familiarly mixed with those of the dramalisper.
insu!ated as their country.  It is more than probable that  sonte.  Stevens has justly observed however on these skeiassinger and Moliere had drawn from  the same source   letons, that although' the drift of these dramatic pieces
-the Italian comedy.  Massinger's'Empiric,' as well  cannot be collected from the mere outlines before us, yet
as the acknowledged copy of Moliere's'Medecin,' came   we must not charge them  with absurdity. - Even the
from the'Dottore,' of the Italian comedy.  The humour   scenes of Shakspeare would have worn as unpromisiring an
of these old Italian pantomimes was often as traditionally   aspect, had their skeletons only been discovered.' The
preserved as proverbs.  Massinger was a student of Ital-  painted scenarios of the Italian theatre were not more in.
ian authors; and some of the lucky hits of their theatre,  telligible; exhibiting only the hints for scenes.
which then consisted of nothing else but these burlesque     Thus, I think, we have sufficient evidence of an intercomedies, might have circuitously reached the English   course subsisting between thie English and Italian theatres,
Dard; and six and thirty years afterwards, the same tradi-  not hitherto suspected; and I find an allusion to these
tional jests might have been gleaned by the Gallic one   Italian pantomimes, by the great town wit Tom Nash, in
from the'Dottore,' who was still repeating what he knew   his'Pierce Pennilesse,' which shows that he was well
was sure of pleasing.                                      acquainted with their nature. He indeed exults over them,
Our theatres of the Elizabethan period seem to have had   observing that our plays are' honourable and full of galherethe extenmpore comedy after the manner of the Italians,  lant resolution, not consisting, like theirs, of pantaloon, a
we surely possess one of these Scenarios, in the remark.  zany, and a w-e, (alluding to the women actors of the
able'Platts,' which  were  accidentally  discovered at  Italian stage;)* but of emperors, kings, and princes.'
Dulwich College, bearing every feature of an Italian Seen-  But my conviction is still confirmed, when I find that
ario.  SteevetIs calls them' a mysterious fragment of an-  Stephen Gosson wrote'the comedie of captain Mario;'
cient stage-direction,' and adds, that'the paper describes  it has not been printed, but'Captain Mario is one of the
a species of dramatic entertainment of which no memorial  Italian characters.
is preserved in any annals of the English stage.f  The       Even at a later period, the influence ee these perforcommentators on Shakespeare appear not to have known   mances reached the greatest name in the English Parnasthe nature of these Scenarios.  The' Platt,' as it is call-  sus.  One of the great actors and authors of these pieces,
ed, is fairly written in a large hand, containing directions   who published eighteen of these irregular productions, was
appointed to be stuck up near the prompter's station; and   Andreini, whose name must have the honour of being asit has even an oblong hole in its centre to admit of being   sociated with Milton's, for it was his comedy or opera
suspended on a wooden peg. Particular scenes are barely   which threw  the first spark of the Paradise Lost into the
ordered, and the names, or rather nicknames, of several of  soul of the epic poet-a circumstance which will hardly
the players, appear in the most familiar manner, as they   be questioned by those who have examined the different
were known to their companions in the rude green-room of  schemes and allegorical personages of the first projected
that day; such as' Pigg, White and Black Dick and Sam,  drama of Paradise Lost: nor was Andreini, as well as
Little VTill Barne, Jack Gregory, and the Red-faced Fel-  many others of this race of Italian dramatists, inferior
low,' &c. Some of these' Platts' are on solemn subjects,  poets.  The Adomo of Andreini was a personage suffilike the tragic pantomime; and in some appear'Panta-   ciently original and poetical to serve as the model of the
loon, and his man Peascodwith spectacles.  Steevens   Adam of Milton.  The youthful English poet, at its reobserves, that he met with no earlier example of the ap-   presentation, carried it away in his mind.  Wit indeed is
pearance of Pantaloon, as a specific character on our  a great traveller: and thus also the' Empiric of Massinstage; and that this direction concerning'the spectacles,'  ger might have reached us, from the Belognese  Dottore.'
cannot fail to remind the reader of a celebrated passage in  The late Mr Hole, the ingenious writer on the Arabian.as you like it:''~~~~~As you like it:'                     Nights, observed to me that Moliere it must be presumed
never read Fletcher's plays, yet his'Bourgeois gentil— The lean and slipperd Pntalon,            homme' ad the other's'Noble Gentleman' bear in some
With spectacles on nose —
instances a great resemblance.  They possibly may have
erhans hle adds, Shakspeare alludes to this personage   drawn from the same Italian source of comedy which I
Es bahited in his own time.  Can we doubt that this Pan-   have here indicated.
taloon hadl come fromn the Italian theatre, after what we     soNGs OF TRADES, OR SONGS FOR THE PEOPLE.
have already said?  Does not this confirm the conjecture,    Men of genius have devoted some of their hours and
that there,sxisted an intercourse between the Italian theethat there existed an intercourse between the Italian thea-  even governments have occasionally assisted, to render
tre and our own?  Further, Tarleton the comedian, and   the people happier by song and dance.  The Grecians
others, celebrated for their'extemporal wit,' was the   had songs appropriated to the various trades.  Songs of
writer or inventor of one of these'Platts.'  Stowe records  this nature would shorten the manufacturer's tedious task* These researches en the Pantemimic Characters, and the   work, and solace the artisan at his solitary occupation. A
txtenpore Comedies, Vere made many years ago; and ex.  beam of gay fancy kindling his mind, a playful change of
cent a sliglt mention of the former in Mr. Pinkerton's Letters  measures delighting  his ear, even a moralising verse to
ofl.iteratire.' these subjects appeared untouched by our own   cherish his better  feelings —.these  ingeniously aapted   to
writers. Accident has lately thrown in my way'An Histori   eace profession, and  some to the display of patr;tuc chacal and Critical Essay on the Revival of the Drama inl Italy,'  racters  and  national events, would contribute something
by' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~the re J.Wle,19.Terae   ilteeln aters and national events, would contribute something
by the!~.,e J. C. Walker, 181)5. The reader will there findi
extensive researches W en these subjects; we cowld  not fain  to public happiness. Such themes are worthy of a patriotic
extensive  researches  on  these  subjects;  we  could  not fail  bro   h    otesfrterhatadteMoe                   o
occasionally of drawing from the same fountains; but as my'ad, of the Southes for their hearts, and the Moores for
broteSolesfrtheir vearts, a dhe.Moeo
object was more particular, his labours have not anticipated  their verse.,ty views.                                                   Fletcher of Saltoun said,'If a man were permitted to? I refer the reader to Steeven's edition, 1793, vol. II, p 495,    * Women werefirst introduced on the ttalian stage about
for -a eight of these literary curiosities.                1360-it was therefore an extraordinary novelty it Nashs time
for.a ight o tl~eseliteray curioities.1560 —it was therefore an extraordinary nnveltv in Nah,,~,;....




~160~                         CURIOSITIES OF
make all the ballads, he need not care who should make   abounded with songs of the people; not, however, ofthi
all the laws of a nation.' The character of a people is  particular species, but rather of narrative poems.  They
long preserved in their national songs.'God save the   are described by Puttenham, a critic in the reign of Elizaking' and'Rule Britannia' are, and I hope will long be,  beth, as'small and popular songs, suting by those Cants.our English national airs.                                 banqui, upon benches and barrels' heads, where they have' The story of Amphion building Thebes with his lyre   no other audience than boys, or country fellows that pass
was not a fable,' says Dr. Clarke.' At Thebes, in the   by them  in the streets; or else by blind harpers, or such
harmonious adjustrtent of those masses which remain be-  like tavern-minstrels, that give a fit of mirth for a groat.'
longing to the ancient walls, we saw enough to convince   Such were these'Relics of ancient English Poetry,'
us that this story was no fable; for it was a very ancient  which Selden collected, Pepys preserved, and Percy pubcustom to carry on immense labour by an accompaniment  lished.  Ritson, our great poetical antiquary in this sort
of music and singing.  The custom  still exists both in   of things, says, that few are older than the reign of James
Egypt and Greece.  It might, therefore, be said that the   I.  The more ancient songs of the people perished by
lYalls of Thebes were built at the sound of the only musi-  having been printed in single sheets, and their humble
cal instrument then in use; because, according to the   purchasers having no other library to preserve them  than
custom of the country, the lyre was necessary for the ac-  the walls on which they pasted them.   Those we have
complishment of the work.*                                 consist of a succeeding race of ballads, chietly revived or
Atheneust has preserved the Greek names of different  written by Richard Johnson, the author of the well-known
songs as sung by various tratdes, but unfortunately none of  romance of the Seven Champions, and Delony, the writer
the songs themselves.  There was a song for the corn-   of Jack of Newbury's Life, and the' Gentle Craft,' who
grinders; another for the workers in wool; another for the  lived in the time of James and Charles. One Martin Parweavers.  The reapers had their carol; the herdsmen   ker was a most notorious ballad-scribbler in the reign of
had a song which an ox-driver of Sicily had composed:  Charles I, and the Protector.
the kneaders, and the bathers, and the galley-rowers,        These writers, in their old age, collected their songs
were not without their chant.  We have ourselves a song   into little penny books, called'Garlands,' some of which
of the weavers, which Ritson has preserved in his'An-   have been re-published by Ritson; and a recent editor
cient Songs;' and it may be found in the popular chap-   has well described them  as' humble and amusing village
book of' The Life of' Jack of Newbury;' and the songs   strains, founded upon the squabbles of a wake, tales of
of anglers, of old Isaac Walton, and Charles Cotton, still  untrue love, superstitious rumours, or miraculous tradiretain their freshness.                                    tions of the hamlet.'  They enter into the picture of our
Mr Heber has beautifully observed, in his Bampton   manners, as well as folio chronicles.
Lectures, that among the Greeks the hymn which placed        These songs abounded in the good old times of ElizaHarmodius in the green and flowery island of the Blessed   beth and James; for Hall in his Satires notices them as
was chanted by the potter to his wheel, and enlivened the'Sung to the wheel, and sung unto the payle;'
labours of the Pirean mariner.
Dr Johnson is the only writer I recollect who has no-   That is, sung by maidens spinning, or milking; and inticed something of this nature which he observed in the   deed Shakspeare had described them  as'old and plain,'
Highlands.' The strokes of the sickle were timed by the   chanted by
modulation of the harvest song, in which all their voices' The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
I The spinsters and the~knitters in the sun,
were united.  They accompany every action which can            And the free maids that wveave their thread with bones.'
be done in equal time with an appropriate strain, which                                              Twelfth Night.
has, they say, not much meaning, but its effects are regu
has, they say, not mch meanit, but its effect are regu-   They were the favourites of the Poet of Nature, who takes
larity and cheerfulness. There is an oar-song used by
the Hebrideans.'                                           every opportunity to introduce them into the mouths of his
t'he Hebrideans.' YP   
But if these chants  have not much meaning,' they   clown, his fool, and his intinerant Autolycus.  When the
will not produce the desired effect of touching thehe     late Dr Brney, who had probably not the slightest conasiell  as giving vigor to te  armc of twuhe laou    heart,  cption of their nature, and perhaps as little taste for their
as well as giving vigor to the arm of the labourer.  The
gondoliers of Venice while away their long midnight hours rude and wild simplicity, ventured to call the songs of Aurude and wild simplicity, ventured to call the songs of.Auon the waterso  with  the  stanzas of Tasso.  Firagments of  tolycus,' two nonsensical songs,' the musician called down
on himself one of the bitterest notes from Steevens that
Homer are sung by the Greek sailors of the Archipelago;   ever commentator penned against a profane scoffer.t
the severe labour of the trackers, in China, is accompa-     Whatever these songs were, it is evident they formed
nied with a song which encourages their exertions, and        Wa teverte ons we   iti            d t heyrm
renders these simultaneous.  Mr Ellis mentions, that the
a source of recreation to the solitary task-worker.  But
as the more masculine trades had their own songs, whose
sight of the lofty pagoda of Tong-chow served as a great    te  or asu   tae   ad te  o   so                  se
topic  of incitement in tha song of the trackers toil    titles only appear to have reached us, such as' The Cartopic of incitement in the song of the trackers toiling  
man's Whistle,'' Watkin's Ale,'' Chopping Knives,' &c,
against the stream, to their place of rest.  The canoeco  they were probably appropriated to the respective trades
men, on the Gold Coast, in a very dangerous passage,  tey indicate.              tune of the' Carman's Whistle' was
on the back of a high-curling wave, paddling with all             d              a  te 
their might, singing or rather shouting their wild song, fol-  composed by Bird, and the favouritte tune of' Queen Elilow it u,' says  M'Leod, who was a lively witness of   zabeth, may be found in the collection called'.Queen
low it up,' says M-eod,  who was a lively witness of this  Elizabeth's Virginal Book.'  One who has lately heard it
happy combination of song, of labour, and of peril, which
heacknowledgeswa'a very trfic  process.'Ou s played says, that'it has more air than the other execrable
he acknowledges was' a very terrific process.' Our sailors at Newcastle, in heaving their anchors, have their  cmpositions in her Majestys book, somethin  resembling
a French quadrille.'' Heave, and ho! rum-below!' but the Sicilian manner   a French qtadrille.'
abt n era  The feeling our present researches would excite would
must be more deeply affected by their beautiful hymn to
mthe  Virgin!e deeply  institted bthin ldr    general ym   t naturally be most strongly felt in small communities, where
the, Virgin! A society instituted in Holland for general
good do not consider among their least useful projects  the interest of the governors is to contribute to the [ndiviagood do not consider among their least useful tgrojects
ual happiness of the laborious classes.  The Helvetic sothat of having printed at a low price a collection of songs
a:qvnfor.i sailers.  L                o              gI I  ciety requested Lavater to compose the Schweizerlieder,
It is extremely pleasing, as it is true, to notice the honest  or Swiss Songs, which are now sung by the youth of maexltation of an excellent  allad-writer, C. Dibdin wh    ny of the cantons; and various Swiss poets have successinxulthtisonofein  Let p, writes' I. h rnt  0o  fully composed on national subjects, associated with their
in his professional Life, p. 8, writes-' I have learnt my   best feelings. In such paternal governments as was that
songs have been considered as an object of national con-   of Florence under the Medici, we find that songs and dan
n                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~of Florence under the Medici, we find that songs and dansequence; that they have been the solace of sailors and
ont voyamgers, in storms, in battle; and that they have   ces for the people, engaged the muse of Lorenzo, who
long voysgers, it storms, in battle; and that they have   condescended to delight them with pleasant songs compos.been quoted in mutinies, to the restoration of order anduage; the example of such a caracdiscipline.'  Ited in a popular lanouagef the example ofsoch  a charac.
It is recorded of the Portuguese soldiery in  ter was followed by the men of genius ofthe age. These
Ceylon, at the siege of Colombo, when pressed with nisery and pangs of hunger, that they derived, during their      * Dr. Burneysubsequently observed, that'this rogue Auto
marches, not only consolation, but also encouragement,  lycus is the true ancient Minstrel in the old Fabliaux:' on
oy rehearsing the stanzas of the Lusiad.'which Steevens remarks,' Many will push the comparison a
W'e ourselves have been a great ballad nation, and once  little further, and concur with me in thinking that our modern
minstrels of the opera, like their predecessor Atoletycus, are'~ Dr. Clarke's Travels, VIV, p..56            pickpockets as well as singers ot'nonep-sicsl balladls.' Stee., Deio. Lib. XIV, cap. JII.                     vens' Shakspeare, vol. VII, p. 10., his mwe ediio.', 173.




I ITE R ATURE.                                                 161
ancient songs, often adapted to the different trades, opened  these songs into spiritual ones; and Shakspeare speaks
a vein of invention in the new  characters, and allusions,  of the Puritan of his day,' singing psalms to hornpipes.'
the humorous equivoques, and sometimes with the licen-  As Puritans are the same in all times, the Methodists in
tiousness of the popular fancy. They were collected in 1559,  our own repeated the foolery, and set their hymns to popnunder the title of' Canti Carnascialeschi,' and there is a   ular tunes and jigs, which one of them said were' too good
modern edition, in 1750, in two volumes quarto. Mr Ros-  for the devil.' They have so ng hymns to the air of' I he
coe,* and Mr Guinguend,t have given a pleasing account  beds of sweet roses, &c. And as there have been Puriof these songs. It is said they sing to this day a popular  tans among other people as well as our own, the same
one by Lorenzo, beginning                              occurrence took place both in Italy and France. In Italy,'Ben venga Maggio                     the Carnival songs were turned into pious hymns; the
E' gonfalon selvaggio,' t             hymn Jesu fammi morio-e, is sung to the nusic of Vega
bella e gentile-Cruci.fisso a capo chino to that of Una don.
which has all the florid brilliancy of an Italian spring.  na d' amor fino, one of the most indecent pieces. in the
The most delightful songs of this nature would naturally   Canzoni a ballo; and the hymn, beginning
be found among a people whose clinate and whose labours
alike inspire a general hilarity; and the vineyards of France'Ecco'l Messia
have produced a class of songs, of excessive gaiety and                 E la Madre Maria,
freedom, called Chansons de Vendange. A most interest-  was sung to the gay tune of Lorenzo de Medici,
ing account of these songs may be found in Le Grand'Ben venga Maggio,
D'Assoucy's Histoire de la Vie privee des Francais.' The               E' Gonfalon selvaggio.'
men and women, each with a basket on their arm, assemble at the foot of the hill; there stopping, they arrange  Atheneus notices what we call slang or flash songs.
themselves in a circle. The chief of this band tunes up   He tells iss, that there were poets who composed songs ice
a joyous song, whose burden is chorused: then they as-  the dialect of the mob; and who succeeded in this kind of
cend, and disperse in the vineyard, they work without  poetry, adapted to their various characters. The French.
interrupting their tasks, while new couplets often resound   call such songs Chansons a la Vade and have frequently.
from some of the vine-dressers; sometimes intermixed with  composed them with a ludicrous effect, when the style of
a sudden jest at a traveller. In the evening, their supper  the Poissardes is applied to the gravest matters of state,and
scarcely over, their joy recommences, they dance in a cir-  conveys the popular feelings in the language of the popu..
cle, and sing some of those songs if free gaiety, which the  lace.  This sort of satirical song is happily defined in a
moment excuses, known by the name of vineyard songs.-  playful didactic poem on La Vaudeville,
The gaiety becomes general; masters, guests, friends,'i1 est l'esprit de ceux quii n'en ont pas.'
servants, all dance together; and in this manner a day of
labour terminates, which one might mistake for a day     Atheneus has also preserved songs, sung by petiticnerst
of diversion. It is what I have witnessed in Champagne,  who went about on holidays to collect alms. A friend of
in a land of vines, far different from the country where   mine, with taste and learning, has discovered in his re-,
the labours of the harvest form so painful a contrast.~  searches,' The Crow Song,' and' The Swallow Song['
The extinction of those songs which formerly kept alive   and has transfused their spirit in a happy version. I; prem
the gaiety of the domestic circle, whose burdens were  serve a few striking ideas.
always sung in chorus, is lamented by the French antiqua-    The Collectors for' The Crow' song:
ry.' Our fathers had a custom to amuse themselves at'My good worthy masters, a pittance bestow,
the dessert of a feast by a joyous song of this nature.-  Some oatmeal, or barley, or wheat for the Crow.
Each in his turn sung, —all chorused.' This ancient gai-    A loaf, or a penny, or e'en what you will,ety was sometimes gross and noisy; but he prefers it to  From the poor nlan, a grain of his salt may suffice,
the tame decency of our times-these smiling, not laugh-    For your Crow swallows all, and is not over-nice.
ing days of Lord Chesterfield.                           And the man who can now give his grain, and no more1' On ne rit plus, on sourit aujourdhui;         May another day give from a plentiful store..-_
Et nos plaisirs sent voisins de l'ennui.'       Come my lad to the door, Plutus nods to our wish;
Few men of letters have not read the collections which   And our sweet little mistress comes out with a dis!l;
have been made of these charming Chansoenettes, to which  She gives us her figs, and she gives us a smileFrench poetry owes a great share of its fame among fo-    Heaven send her a husband!reigners.  These treasures of wit and gaiety, which for    And a boy to be danced on his grandfather's knee
such a length of time have been in the mouths of all    And a girl like herself all the joy of her mother,
Frenchmen, now forgotten, are buried inthe dust of libra-  Who may one day present her with just such another.,
nes.  These are the old French Vaudevilles, formerly       Thus we carry our Crow-song to door after door,
sung at meals by the company. The celebrated Count de    Alternately chanting, we ramble along,
Grammont is mentioned by Hamilton as being               And we treat all who give, or give not, with a song.'
Agreable et vif en propos;                     Swallow-singing, or Chelidonising, as the Greek terrn
Celbbre diseur de bon mots;                 is, was another method of collecting eleemosynary gifts,,
Recueil vivant d'antiques Vaudevilles.      which took place in the month Boedromion, orAugust.
These Vaudevtltes were originally invented by a fuller' The Swallow, the Swallow is here,
of Vau de Vire, or the valley by the river Vire, and were    XWith his back so black, and his belly so white,
sung by his men to amuse themselves as they spread their   He brings on the pride of the year,
cloths on the banks of the river. They were songs conm-    With the gay months of love, and the days of delight..
posed on some incident or adventure of the day. At first    Come bring out your good humming stuff;
these gay playful effusions were called the songs of Vait  Of the nice tit-bits let the Swallow partake;
de Vire, till they became known as Vaudevilles. Boileau  And a slice of the right Boedromion cake.
has well described them:                                 So give, and give quickly,Law liberte Frangoise en ses vers se deploie*        Or we'll pull dlown the door from its hinges,
Cet enfant de plaisir veut naitre dans la joie.      Or we'll steal young madam away!
But see! we're a merry boy's party,
It is well known how the attempt ended,of James I and  And the Swallow the Swallow is here t'
his unfortunate son, by the publication of their' Book of    These sogs resemble those of our 
Sports,' to preserve the national character from the gloom    ners, who to this day in honour of Bishop Blaize, the
of fanatical Puritanism; among its unhappy effects, there
was however one not a little ludicrous.  The Puritans   Saint of Wool-combers, go about chanting on the eves ot
was however one not a little ludicrous.  The Puritans,  their holidays. A custom long existing in this cotitry to
offended by the gtntlest forms of mirth, and every day   elect a Boy-Bishop in almost every parish;, the Montert
becoming more sullen, were so shocked at the  simple  at Eaton still prevails;- and there is a closer connexion
Lerriment o- f the people, that they contrived to parody   perhaps between the custom which produced the' Song of
* Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. 1, 304.            the Crow  and the Swallow,' and our Northern nmmme1-list. Litt do lltalie, vol. III, 506.'           ries, than may be at first suspected.,The Pagan SatueMr. Rosce ts printed this -very delightful song, in the  nalia, which the Swallow sona by its pleasant menaces
Life of Lorenzo, No. XLI, App.
i Le Grand, vol. III, p. 52                          resembles, were afterwards disguised in the forms adopteAd
No. 6,




162                                  CtRIOSITIES OF
by the early Christians; and such are the remains of the  berry-trees in the vicinity of Paris; but as they were n(A
Roman Catholic lelig-ion, in which the people were long  yet used to raise and manage the silk-worm, they reaped
indulged in their old taste for mockery and mummery.  1  nothing but their trouble for their pains. They tore up the
must add in connexion with our main inquiry, that our own  mulberry-trees they had planted, and, in spite of De Serancient beggarsahad their songs, some of which are as old  res, asserted that the northern climate was not adapted for
as the Elizabethan period, and many are fancifully charac-  the rearing of that tender insect. The great Sully, from
teristic of their habits and their feelings.           his hatred of all objects of luxury, countenanced the popu.
INT~RODUCMES OF E*XtOfIC FLOWEfRS, FJRYTS, ErTe.    lar clamour, and crushed the rising enterprise of De Serres.  The monarch was wiser than the minister. The
There has been a class of men whose patriotic affec-  book had made sufficient noise to reach the ear of Henry
tion, or whose general. benevolence, have been usually de-  IV; who desired the author to draw up a memoir on the
frauded of the gratitude their country owes them: these  subject, from  which the king was induced to plant mul.
have been the introducers of new flowers, new plants, and  berry-trees in all the royal gardens; and having imported
new roots into Europe; the greater part which we now en-  the eggs of silk-worms from Spain, this patriotic monarch
j0oy was drawn from the luxuriant climates of Asia, and   gave up his orangeries, which were but his private gratifiithe profusion which now covers our land originated in the  cations, for that leaf which, converted into silk, became a
imost anxious nursing, and were the gifts of individuals.  part of the national wealth. It is to De Serres, who introMonuments are reared, ard medals struck, to commemo-  duced the plantations of mulberry- trees, that the commerce
trate events and names, which are less deserving our re-  of France owes one of her staple commodities; and al-.gard than those who have transplanted into the colder  though the patriot encountered the hostility of the prime
gardens of the North the rich fruits, the beautiful flowers,  minister, and the hasty prejudices of the populace in his
*and the succulent pulse and roots of more favoured spots;  own day, yet his name at this moment is fresh in the hearts
and carrying into their own country, a;s it were, another  of his fellow-citizens; for I have just received a medal,
Nature, they have, as old Gerard well expresses it,' la-  the gift of a literary friend from Paris which bears his por.
Iboured with the soil to make it fit for the plants, and with  trait, with the reverse,' Societg d' Agriculture du Depart.;the plants to make them delight in the soil           meit de la Seine.  It was struck in 1807.  The same
There is no part of the characters of Peiresc' and Eve-  honour is the right of Evelyn from the British nation.
Jyn, accomplished as they are in so many, which seems    There was a period when the spirit of plantation was
miaore delightful to me, than their enthusiasm for the gar-  prevalent in this kingdom; it probably originated from the
den, the orchard, and the forest.                      ravages of the soldiery during the civil wars. A  man,
Peiresc, whose literary occupations admitted of no in-  whose retired modesty has perhaps obscured his claims
terruption, and whose universal correspondence throughout  on our regard, the intimate friend of the great spirits of
the habitable globe was more than sufficient to absorb, his  that age, by birth a Pole, but whose mother had probably
studious life, yet was he the first man, as Gassendus re-  been an English woman, Samuel Hartlib, to whom Milton
lates in his interesting manner, whose incessant inquiries  addressed his tract on education, published every manuo
procured the great variety of jessamines; those from   script he collected on the subjects of horticulture and agChina whose leaves, always green, bear a clay-coloured  riculture. The public good he effected attracted the notice
flower, and a delicate perfume; the American, with a  of Cromwell, who rewarded him with a pension, which
crimson-coloured, and the Persian, with a violet-coloured   after the restoration of Charles II was suffered to lapse,
flower; and the Arabian, whose tendrils he delighted to  and Hartlib died in utter neglect and poverty. One of his
train over' the banqueting-house in his garden;' and of  tracts is,' A design for plenty by an universal planting of
fruits, the orange trees wvith a red and parti-coloured  fruit-trees/  The project consisted in enclosing the waste
flower; the medlar; the rough cherry without stone; the  lands and commons, and appointing officers, whom he calls
rare and luxurious vines of Smyrna and Damascus; and  fruiterers, or wood-wards, to see the plantations were duly
the fig-tree called Adam's, whose fruit by its size was sup-  attended to. The writer of this project observes on fruits,
posed to be that with which the spies returned from the  that it is a sort of provisions so natural to the taste, that
land of Canaan.   Gassendus describes his transports  the poor man and even the child will prefer it before better
when Peires beheld the Indian ginger growing greenrn hs  food,' as the story goeth,' which he has preserved in, these.garden, and his delight in grafting the myrtle on the musk  ancient and simple lines-vine, that the experiment might show us the myrtle wine
I                                                        I the ancients.  L The poor man's child invited was to dine,
of the ancients. But transplanters, like other inventors,    With flesh of oxen, sheep, and fatted swine,
are sometimes baffled in their delightful enterprise; and    (Far better cheer than he at home could find,)
we are told of Peiresc's deep regret when he found that      And yet this child to stay had little minde.
the Indian cocoa nut would only bud, and then perish in      You have, quoth he, no apple, froise, nor pie,
the cold air of France, while the leaves of the Egyptian     Stew'd pears, with bread and milk, and walnuts by.'
papyrus refused to yield him their vegetable paper. But    The enthusiasm of these transplanters inspired their
it was his garden which propagated the exotic fruits and  labours. They have watched the tender infant of their
flowers, which he transplanted into the French king's, and  planting, till the leaf and the flowers and the fruit expanded
into cardinal Barberinie's, and the curious in Europe;  under their hand; often indeed they have even ameliorated
and these occasioned a work on the manuring of flowers  the quality, increased the size, and even created a new
by Ferrarius, a botanical Jesuit, who there described these  species. The apricot, drawn from America, was first known
novelties to Europe.                                   in Europe in the sixteenth century: an old French writer has
Had Evelyn only composed the great work of his' Sylva  remarked, that it was originally not larger than a damson;
or a discourse of Forest Trees,' &c, his name would have  our gardeners, he says, have improved it to the perfection
excited the gratitude of posterity. The voice of the pa-  of its present size and richness. One of these enthusiasts
triot exults in the dedication to Charles II, prefixed to one  is noticed by Evelyn, who for forty years had in vain tried
of the latter editions.' I need not acquaint your majesty,  by a graft to -bequeath his name to a new fruit; but per.
how many millions of timber-trees, besides infinite others,  sisting on wrong principles, this votary of Pomona has
have been propagated and planted throughout your vast  died without a name. We sympathise with Sir William
dominions, at the instigation and by the sole direction of  Temple when he exultingly acquaints us with the size of
this work, because your majesty has been pleased to own   his orange-trees, and with the flavour of his peaches and
it publicly for my encouragement.  And surely while  grapes, confessed by Frenchmen to have equalled those
Britain retains her awful situation among the nations of  of Fontainbleau and Gascony, while the Italians agreed
Europe, the' Sylva' of Evelyn will endure with her tri-  that his white figs were as good as any of that sort in Italy:
umphant oaks. It was a retired philosopher who aroused  and of his' having had the honour' to naturalize in this
the genius of the nation, and who casting a prophetic eye  country four kinds of grapes, with his liberal distribution of
towards the age in which we live, has contributed to secure  cuttings from them, because' he ever thought all things
our sovereicnty of the seas.  The present navy of Great  of this kind the commoner they are the better.'
Britain has been constructed with the oaks which the genius    The greater number of our exotic flowers and fruits
of Evelyn planted!                                     were carefully transported into this country by many of
Animated by a zeal truly patriotic, de Serres In Prance   our travelled nobility and gentry; some names have been
1599, composed a work on the art of raising silk-worms,  casually preserved.  The learned Linacre first brought, on.nd dedicated it to the municipal body of Paris, to excite  his return from Italy, the damask-rose; and Thomas Lord
the inhabitants to cultivate mulberry-trees.  The work at  Cromwell, in the reign of Henry VIII, enriched our fruit.
grst produced a strong sensation, and many planted muil.  gardens with three different plums. In the reign of Eli.




LITERATURE.                                                          163
tabeth, Edward Grindal, afterwards archbishop of Can-   William Temple has elegantly noticed the fact.'The
terbury, returning from exile, transported here the inedi-  great captains, and even consular men, who first brought
cinal plant of:the tamerisk: the first oranges appear to  them over, took pride in giving them  their own names, by
have been brought into England by one of the Carew   which they ran a great while in Rome, as in memory of
family; for a century after, they still flourished at the fa-  some great service or pleasure they had done their counmily seat at Beddington, in Surrey.  The cherry orchards   try; so that not only laws and battles, but several sorts ot
of Kent were first planted about Sittingbourne, by a gar-  apples and pears were called Manlian and Claudian,.Pomdener of Henry VIII: and the currant-bush was trans-  peyan and Tiberian, and by several other such noble
planted when our commerce with the island of Zante was   names.' Pliny has paid his tribute of applause to;,Luculfirst opened in the same reign.  The elder Tradescant in  lus, for bringing cherry and nut trees from Pontus into
1620, entered himself on board of a privateer, armed against  Italy.  And we have several modern instances, where the
Morocco, solely with a view of finding an opportunity of  name of the transplanter, or rearer, has been preserved
stealing apricots into Britain: and it appears that he suc-  in this sort of creation.  Peter Collinson, the botanist, to
ceeded in his design.  To Sir Walter Rawleigh we have' whom the English gardens are indebted for many new
not been indebted solely for the luxury of the tobacco-plant,  and curious species which he acquired by means of an
but for that infinitely useful root, which forms a part of our  extensive correspondence in America,' was highly gratified
daily meal, and often the entire meal of the poor man-   when Linnaeus baptised a plant with his name; and with
the potatoe, which deserved to have been called a Raw-   great spirit asserts his honourable claim:' Something, I
leigh.  Sir Anthony Ashley first planted cabbages in this  think, was due to me for the great number of plants and
country, and a cabbage at his feet appears on his monu-  seeds I have annually procured from abroad, and you have
ment.  Sir Richard Weston first brought clover grass into   been so good as to pay it, by giving me a species of eterEngland from Flanders, in 1645; and the figs planted by   nity, botanically speaking; that is, a name as long as men
Cardinal Pole at Lambeth, so far back as the reign of  and books endure.' Such is the true animating language
Henry VIIi, are said to be still remaining there: nor is  of these patriotic enthusiasts!
this surprising, for Spilman, who set up the first paper-mill    Some lines at the close of Peacham's Emblems give aa
in England, at Dartford, in 1590, is said to have brought  idea of an English fruit garden in 1612. He mentions
over in his portmanteau the two first linme trees, which he   that cherries were not long known, and gives anrt origin to
planted here, and which are still growing.  The Lombardy   the name of filbert.
poplar was introduced into England by the Earl of Roch-' The Persian Peach, and fruitful Quince;*
bford in 1758.  The first mulberry trees in this country are       And there the forward Almond grew,
now standing at Sion-house.*  By an Harleian Ms. it is               With cherries knowne no longtime since;
mentioned that the first general planting of mulberries            The Winter Warden, orchard's pride;
and making of silk in England was by William Stallenge,              The Philibertt that loves the vale,
And red queen-apple,:t so envide
comptroller of the custom  house, and Monsieur Verton,                   red  ueen-aple     so envide
in108. tiproablethaMonieu ron  trans-  Of school-boles, passing by the pale.'
in 1608. It is probable that Monsieur Verton, transplanted this novelty from his own country, where we have         USURERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
seen De Serres's great attempt.  Here the mulberries         A person whose history will serve as a canvass to exhibit
have succeeded better than the silk-worms,                 some scenes of the arts of the money-trader was one
The very names of many of our vegetable kingdom in-  AUDLEY, a lawyer, and a great practical philosopher,
dicate their locality: from the majestic cedar of Lebanon,   who concentrated his vigorous faculties in the science of
to the small Cos-lettuce, which came from the isle of Cos;  the relative value of Money.  He flourished through the
the cherries from Cerasuntis, a city of Pontus; the peach   reigns of James I, Charles I, and held a lucrative office in
or persicum, or mala Persica, Perscian apples, front Per-  the' court of wards,' till that singular court was abolished
sia; the pistachio, orpsittacia, is the Syrian word for that  at the time of the restoration.  In his own times he was
nut. The chestnut, or chataigne, in French, and castagna   called' The great Audley,'~ an epithet so often abused,
in Italian, from Castagna, a town of Magnesia. Our plums   and here applied to the creation of enormous wealth. But
coming chiefly from  Syria and Damascus, the damson,  there are minds of great capacity, concealed by thenature
or damascene plum, gives us a recollection of its distant  of their pursuits; and the wealth of Audleymaybe conorigin,                                                    sidered as the cloudy medium  through which a bright
It is somewhat curious to observe on this subject, that  genius shone, of which, had it been throw;vn into a nobler
there exists an unsuspected intercourse between nations,  sphere of action, the'greatness' would have been less
in the propagation of exotic plants, &c.  Lucullus, after  ambiguous.
the war with Mithridates, introduced cherries from Pontus    Audley lived at a time when divines were proclaiminto Italy; and the newly imported fruit was found so  ing' the detestable sin of Usury,' prohibited-by God and
pleasing that it was rapidly propagated, and six and twenty   man; but the Mosaic prohibition was the municipal law
years afterwards, as Pliny testifies, the cherry tree passel   of an agricultural commonwealth, which being without
over into Britain.t  Thus a victory obtained by a Roman   trade, the general poverty of its members could afford no
consul over a king of Pontus, with which it would seem   interest for loans; but it was not forbidden the Israelite to
that Britain could have no concern, was the real occasion   take usury from'the stranger.' Or they were quoting
of our countrymen possessing cherry orchards,  Yet to  from the fathers, who understood this point, as they had
our shame must it be told, that these cherries from  the   that of'oriinal sin,' and' the immacilate conception!;
king of Pontus's city of Cerasuntis are not the cherries   while the scholastics amused themselves with a quaint and
we are now eating; for the whole race ofcherrv-trees was   collegiate fancy which they had picked up in Aristotle,
lost in the Saxon period, and was only restored by the gar-  * The quince comes from Sydon, a town of Crete, we are
dener of Henry VIII, who brought them from Flanders-   told by Le Grand, in his Vie priv6e des Francois, vol. I, p.
without a word to enhance his own merits, concerning the   143; where may be found a list of the origin of most of our
bellum Mithridaticum                                       fruits.
A calculating political economist will little sympathize oft Peacham has here given a note.' The filbert, so named
wh tpalculatig pitiup ecoftomise l a ite a zer    of Philibert, a king of France, who caused by art sundry kinds
with the peaceful triumphs of those active  and generous  to be brought forth: as did a gardener of Otranto in Italie by
spirits, who have thus propagated the truest wealth, and   cloue-gilliflowers, and carnations of such colours as we now
the most innocent luxuries of the people.  The project of  see them.'
a new tax, or an additional consumption of ardent spirits,    f The queen.apple was probably thus distinguished in comor an act of parliament to put a convenient stop to popu-  pliment to Elizabeth. In Moffet's'Health's Improvement,' I
lation by forbidding the banns of some unhappy couple,  find an account of apples which are said to have been'grafted
would be more cgenial to their researches; and they   upon a mulberry-stock, and then wax thorough red as our
would bemre connial to their resehes;     toy   queen apples, called by Ruellius, tubelliena, and Claudiana
would leave without regret the  ames of tose, whom  we   by Pliny.' I am told the race is not extinct; an apple of this
have held out to the grateful recollections of their country,  description is yet to be foend.
The Romans, who with all their errors were at least pa-      ~ I find this Audley noticed in the curious obituary of the
triots, entertained very different notions of these introdu-  ereat book-collector Richard Smith.'1662, Nov. 15, died Mr
cers into their country of exotic fruits and flowers.  Sir  Hugh Audley, sometime of the court of wards, infinitely rich.f
Peck's Desid. Cur. II, p. 542. And some memoirs in a very
i  The r eader may fit d more dates amassed respecting the   rare quarto tract, entitled' The way to be rich, according to
introduction of fruits. &c., in Gough4 s British Topography,  the practice of the great Audley, who began with two hundred
vol. I, p. 133, Harl. MS. 96S4.                            pounds in the year 1605, and died worth four hundred tholu.
t Pliny, Nit. Hist. Lib. xv, c. 25.                     sand' 1662.




164                                   CURIOSITIES OF
that interest for money had been forbidden by nature, be-  often afterwards discovered to be very fallacious ones, encause coin in itself was barren and unpropagating, unlike   abled him to purchase annuities of easy landholders, with
corn, of which every grain will produce many. Bat Aud-   their treble amount secured on their estates. The improvi.
Icy considered no doubt that money was not incapable of  dent owners, or the careless heirs, were soon entangled
multiplying itself provided it was in h-ands who knew to  in the usurer's nets; and, after the receipt of a few years,
make it grow and I breed,' as Shylock affirmed.  The   the annuity, by some latent quibble, or some irregularity in
lawyers then however did not agree with the divines, nor  the payments, usually ended in Audley's obtaining the
the college-philosophers; they were straining at a more  treble forfeiture. He could at all times out-knave a knave.
liberal interpretation of this odious term' Usury.' Lord   One of these incidents has been preserved. A draper, of
Bacon declared, that the suppression of Usury is only fit  no honest reputation, being arrested by a merchant for a
for an Utopian government; and Audley must have agreed   debt of 2001, Audley bought the debt at 401, for which the
with the learned Cowell, who in his' Interpreter' derives   draper immediately offered him 501. But Audley would
the term  ab usus et re, quasi usu mra, which in our ver-  not consent, unless the draper indulged a sudden whim of
nacular style was corrupted into Usury. Whatever the   his own: this was a formal contract, that the draper should
am might be in the eyes of some, it had become at least a   pay within twenty years, upon twenty certain days, a penny
controversial sin, as Sir Symonds D'Ewes calls it, in his  doubled. A. knave. in haste to sign, is no calculator; and,
manuscript Diary, who however was afraid to commit it.*   as the contemporary dramatist describes one of the arts
Audley, no doubt, considered that interest was nothing   of those citizens, one part of whose business was
more than rent for money; as rent was no better than Usury     To swear and break: they all grow rich by breaking!'
for land. The legal interest was then' ten in the hundred;'
the drape eagerly compounde~d. He afterwards'grew
but the thirty, the fifty, and the hundred for the hundred    ich     Audle   silently  watching his victim, withi  two
the gripe of Usury, and the shameless contrivances of the   rich.'    dley, silently watching his victim, within two
money,.traders, these he would attribute to the follies of  years, claims his doubled pennies, every month during
others, or to his own genius.                              twenty months. The pennies had now grown up to pounds.
This sage on the wealth of nations, with his pithy wis-  The knave perceived the trick, and preferred paying the fordom, and  uat sagacity, began with two hundred pounds,  feiture of his bond for 5001, rather than to receive the visitadom, and quainit s agacity, began with two hundred pounds,tinoalteltlegerinofcpuditrstnth
and lived to view his mortgages, his statutes, and his judg- tion of all the little generation of conpound interest in the
ments so numerous, that it was observed, his papers would  last descendant of 20001, which would have closed with the
have made a good map of England. A  contemporary haeilsrtdttpourtacofiswnimsPchave made a good map of England. A  contemporary   draper's shop.  The inventive genius of Audley might
dramatist, who copied from life, has opened the chamber  have illustrated tat popular tract of his own times Pea
of such an Usurer,-perhaps of our Audley.   am's' Worth of a Penny;' a gentleman who, having
of such an Usurer, —perhaps of our Audley.                                                  M1
~Here lay  ~     scarcely one left, consoled himself by detailing the numerous
A manor bound fast in a skin of parchment,    comforts of life it might procure in the days of Charles II.
The wax continuing hard, the acres melting;          Such petty enterprizes at length assumed a deeper cast
Here a sure deed of gift for a market-town,        of interest.  He formed temporary partnerships with the
If not redeem'd this day, which isnot in           stewards of country gentlemen.  They underlet estates
The unthrift's power; there being scarce one shire  which they had to manage; and, anticipating the owner's
In Wales or England, where my monies are not       necessities, the estates in due time became cheap purchases
Lent out at usury, the certain hook
Lentout at usury, the certain hook    for Audley and the stewards.  He usually contrived to
To draw in more. —Massinger's City Madam.
To draw i~n more.'-lssiaer's  City Madam.    make the wood pay for the land, which he called' making
This genius of thirty per-cent first had proved the decid-  the feathers pay for the goose.' He had, however, such a
ed vigour of his mind, by his enthusiastic devotion to his  tenderness of conscience for his vidtimn, that, having plucklaw studies; deprived of the leisure for study through his  ed the live feathers before he sent the unfledged goose on
busy day, he stole the hours from his late nights and his  the common, he would bestow  a gratuitous lecture in
early mornings.; and without the means to procure a law-  his own science-teaching the art of making them grow
library, he invented a method to possess one without the   again, by showing how, to raise tise remaining rents.
cost; as fast as he learned, he taught, and by publishing   Audley thus made the tenant furnish at once the means to
some useful tracts on temporary occasions, he was enabled   satisfy hjs own rapacity, and his e~nployer's necessities.
to purchase a library.  He appears never to have read a   His avarice was not working by a blind, but on an enlightbook without its furnishing him some new practical design,  ened principle; for he was only enabling the landlord to
and he probably studied too much for his own particular  obtain what the tenant, with due industry, could afford to
advantage.  Such devoted studies was the way to become   give.  Adam  Smith might have delivered himself in the
a lord chancellor;  but the science of the law was here  language of old Audley, so just was his standard of the
subordinate to that of a money-trader.                     value of rents.' Under an easy landlord,' said Audley,
When yet but a clerk to the Clerk in the Counter, fre-' a tenant seldom thrives; contentintig himself to make the
quent opportunities occurred which Audley knew how to  just measure of his rents, and not labouring for any sur.
improve. He became a money-trader as he had become   plusage of estate.  Under a hard one, the tenant revenges
a law-writer, and the fears and follies cf mankind were to   himself upon the land, and runs away with the rent. I
furnish him with a trading capital.  The fertility of his   would raise my rents to the present price of all comnmodigenius appeared in expedients and in quick contrivances,  ties; for if we should let our lands, as other men have done
He was sure to be the friend of all men falling out. He   before us, now other wares daily ao on in price, we should
took a deep concern in the affairs of his master's clients,  fall backward in our estates.  These axioms of politics.
and often much more than they were aware of.  No man   economy were discoveries in his day.
so ready at procuring bail or compounding debts.  This       Audley knew mankind practically, and struck into thei:
was a considerable traffic then, as now.  They hired   humours with the versatility of genius: oracularly deem
themselves out for bail, swore what was required, and con-  with the grave, he only stung the lighter mind.  When'
trived to give false addresses.  It seems they dressed  lord borrowing money complained to Audley of his exac
themselves out for the occasion: a great seal-ring flamed  tions, his lordship exclaimed,''What, do you not intend t.
on the finger, which, however was pure copper gilt, and   use a conscience?''Yes, I intend hereafter to use it.
they often assumed the name of some person of good cred-  We monied people must balance accounts; if you do not
it.t  Savings, and small presents for gratuitous opinions,  pay me, you cheat me; but, if you do, then I cheat your
* D'Ewes's father lost a manor, which was recovered by the  lordship.  Audley's monied conscience balanced the risk
widow of the person who.had sold it to him. Old D'Ewes consi-  of his lordship's honour, against the probability of his own
dered this loss as a punishment forthe usurious loan of money;  rapacious profits.  When he resided in the Temple among
the ifact is, that he had purchased that manor with the interests  those' pullets without feathers,' as an old writer describes
accumulating from the money lent on it. His son intreated
the brood, the good man would pule out paternal homilies
him to give over' the practice of that controversial sin.' This
exresst   howthat even in tat aethee  were rational  -  on improvident youth, grieving that they, under pretence
litealecoomits.Mr. Bentham, in his little treatise on UsuLitilcal econonists. Mr. Bentham, in his little treatise on Usn.  of'learning the law, only learnt to be lawless;' and nevery, hastaken the just views, cleared from the indistinct and   knew by their own studies the process of an execution, till
partial ones so long prevalent. Collier has an admirable Es-  It was served on themselves.'  Nor could Ie fail in his
say on Usury, vol. III. It is a curious notion of Lord Bacon's  prophecy; for at the moment that the stoic was enduring
that he would have interest at a lower rate in the country than  their ridicule, his agents were supplying them  with the
in trading townus, because the merchant is best able to afford   certain means of verifying it; for, a it is quaintly said, he
the highest.
I e highest.                                         had his deceying as well as his decaiing gentlemen.
tSee a curions black.letter pamphlet,'The  iscoverie of      sem
the Knights of the Post. ByE. S. 197.1' The characters seem  The arts practised by the money-traders of that time
lesignated by tile initials of their names.                have been detailed by one of the town-satirists of the age.




LIT E RATURE.                                                  168
Decker, in his' English Villanies,' has told the story; we   chase, four disappear.  Then he grows fierce, and tears
may observe how an old story contains many incidents  open his own jaws to suck blood from him that is left.
which may be discovered in a modern one.  The artifice   Sergeants, marshalmen, and bailiffs, are sent forth, who
of' covering the usury by a pretended purchase and sale of  lie scenting at every corner, and with terrible paws haunt
certain wares, even now practised, was then at its height.  every walk. The bird is seized upon by these hawks, his
In'Measure for Measure' we find,                     estate looked into, his wings broken, his lands made over'H Iere's young Master Rash, he's in for a commodity of  to a stranger. He pays 5001, who never had but 601, or to
brown paper and old girger, nine score and seventeen pounds;  prison; or he seals any bond, mortgages any lordship, does
of which he made five marks ready money'                 any thine, yields any thing. A little way in, lie cares not
The eager'gull,' for his immediate wants, takes at an   how far te wades; the greater his possessions are, the
unmense price any goods on credit, which he immediately   apter he is to take up and to be trusted, —thus gentlemen
resells for less thian half the cost; and when despatch   are ferretted and undone"'  It is evident that the whole
presses, the vender and the purchaser have been the same   system turns on the single novice; those who join him in
person, and the'brown paper and old ginger' merely no-  his bonds are stalking horses; the whole was to begin and
minal.                                                   to end with the single individual, the great coney of the
The whole displays a complete system of dupery, and   warren.  Such was the nature of those' commodities,'
the agents were graduated.  The Manner of undoing  to which Massinger and Shakspeare allude, and which the
Gentlemen by taking up of Commodities, is the title of a   modern dramatiit may exhibit in his comedy, and be still
chapter in'English Villanies.' The'warren' is the cant  sketching after life.
term which describes the whole party; but this requires a  Another scene, closely connected with the present, will
word of explanation.                                    complete the picture.  The'Ordinaries' of those days
It is probable that rabbit-warrens were numerous about  were the lounging places of the men of the town, and the
the metropolis, a circumstarnce which must have multiplied    fantastic gallants,' who herded together.  Ordinaries
the poachers.  Moffet, who wrote on diet in the reign of  were the' exchange for news,' the echoing places for all
Elizabeth, notices their plentiful supply' for the poor's  sorts of town talk: there they might hear of the last new
maintenance.'-I cannot otherwise account for the appel-  play and poem, and the last fresh widow, who was sighing
latives given to sharpers, and the terms of cheatery being  for some knight to make her a lady; these resorts were
so familiarly drawn from a rabbit-warren; not that even   attended also' to save charges of house keeping.' The
in that day these cant terms travelled far out of their own   reign of James I is characterised by all the wantonness of
circle; for Robert Greene mentions a trial in which the   prodigality among one class, and all the penuriousness and
Judges, good simple men, imagined that the coney-catcher  rapacity in another, which met in the dissolute indolence
at the bar was a warrener, or one who had the care of a  of a peace of twenty years. But a more striking feature
warren.                                                 in these' Ordinaries' showed itself as soon as'the voyder
The cant term of  arren' included the young conies,  had cleared the table.' Then began'the shuffling and
or half ruined prodigals of that day, with the younger  cutting on one side, and the bones rattling on the other.'
brothers who had accomplished their ruin; these iaturally   The'Ordinarie,' in fact, was a gambling house, like
herded together, as the pigeon and the black-leg of the  those now expressively termed'Hells;' and I doubt if the
present day.  The coney-catchers were those who raised   present'Infernos' exceeded the whole diablerie of our ana trade on their necessities.  To be' conie-catched,' was  cestors.
to be cheated.  The warren forms a combination alto-    In the former scene of sharping they derived their cant
gether, to attract some novice, who in esse or in posse has  terms from a rabbit-wlrren, but in the present, their alluEis present means good, and those to come great; he is  sions partly relate to an aviary, and truly the proverb
very glad to learn how money can be raised.  The warren   suited them, of'birds of a feather.'  Those who first
seek afier a tu7mbler;* and the nature of a London tum-  propose to sit down to play are called the leaders; the
bier was'to hunt dry-foot,' in this manner: —' The turn-  ruined gamesters are the forlorn-hope; the great winner
bler is let loose, and riuns snuffing up and down in the shops  is the eagle; a stander-by, who encourages, but little venof mercers, goldsmiths, drapers, haberdashers, to meet  tures himself, the freshly-imported gallant, who is called
with a ferret, that is a citizen who is ready to sell a com-  the gull, is the woodpecker; and a monstrous bird ii prey,
modity.' The tumbler in his first course usually returned   who is always hovering round the table, is tie gull groin despair, pretending to have out-wearied himself by hunt-  per, who, at a pinch, is the benevolent Audley of the
ing, and swears that the city ferrets are so coaped (that is,  Ordinary.
have their lips stitched up close) that he can't get them to  There was, besides, one other character of an original
open to so great a suni as 5001, which the warren want,  cast, apparently the friend of none of the party, and yet,
This herb being chewed down by the rabbit suckers,  in fact,' the Atlas which supported the Ordinarie on his
almost kills their hearts.  It irritates their appetite, and   shoulders; he was sometimes significantly called  the
they keenly hid the tumbler, if he can't fasten on plate or  imp ostor.
cloth, or silcs, to lay hold of brown paper, Bartholomew T   he gull is a young man whose father, a citizen or
babies, lute strings, or hob nails.  It hath been verily re-  a squire, just dead, leaves him'ten or twelve thousand
ported,' says Decker,' that one gentleman of great hopes   pounds in ready money, besides some hundreds a year.'
took up 1001 in hobby horses, and sold them for 30Sl; and   Scouts are sent out, and lie in ambush for him; they dis161 in joints of mutton, and quarters of lamb, ready roasted   cover what' apothecaries' shop he resorts to every mornand sold them for three pounds.' Such commodities were  ing. or in what tobacco shop in Fleet street he takes a pipe
called purse-nets. —The tumbler, on his second hunt, trots  of smoke in the afternoon.'  Some sharp wit of the
up and down again; at last lights on a ferret that will  Ordinrarie, a pleasant fellow, whom Robert Greene calls
deal; the names are given in to a scrivener, who inquires'the taker up,' one of universal conversation, lures the
whether they are good men, and finds four out of the five  heir of seven hundred a year to' The Ordinarie.' A gdl
are wisd-shaken, but the fifth is an oak that can bear the   sets the whole aviary in spirits; and Decker well describes
hewing.  Bonds are sealed, commodities delivered, and  the flutter ofjoy and expectation:' The leaders maintained
the tumbler fetches his second career; and their credit  themselves brave; the forlorn hope, that drooped before,
having ohtained the purse-nets, the wares must now obtain   doth now gallantly come on; the eagle feathers his nest;
money.'  The tumbler now hunts for the rabbit suckers, the woodpecker  picks up the crms; the gull-grope,
those who buy these purse nets: but the rabbit suckers,  grows fat with good feeding; and the gull himself, at
seem greater devils than the ferrets, for they always bid   whom  every one has a pull, hath in the end scarce
under; and after many exclamations the warren is glad   leathers to keep his back warm.
that the seller should repurchase his own commodities for    During the gull's progress through Primero and Gleek,
ready money, at thirty or fifty per cent under the cost. The   he wants for no admirable advice and solemn warnings
story does not finish till we come to the manner; How the  from two excellent friends; the gull groper, and at length,
warren is spoiled.' I shall transcribe this part of the nar-  the impostor.  The gull groper, who knows'to half an
rative in thle lively style of this town-writer.  s'While   acre,' all his means, takes the gull, when out of luck, to a
there is any grass to nibble upon, the rabbits are there;  side-window, and in a whisper talks of' dice being made
but-on the cold day of repayment, they retire into their  of women's bones, which would cozen any man;'  but he
caves; so that when the ferret makes account of five in  pours his gold on the board; and a bond is rapturously
* rhe usual resorts of the loungers of that day. Wine was,  A tnmlbler was a sort of a hunting dog.' Kersey's New   then sold at the apothecaries; and tobacco smoked in tkh
World of Words.                                         shops.




166                                   CURIOSITIES OF
signed for the next quarter-day. But the gull-groper, by  reserved for' Duke Humphrey and his guests,' he woulk
avariety of expedients, avoids having the bond duly dis-  turn into that part called' The Usurer's Alley,' to talk
charged; he contrives to get a judgment, and a serjeant  with' Thirty in the hundred,' and at length was enabled
with his mace procures the forfeiture of the bond; the  to purchase his office at that remarkable institutions the
treble value. But the'impostor' has none of the milki-  court of wards. The entire fortunes of those whom we
ness of the' gull-groper,'-he looks for no favour under  now call wards in chancery were in the hands, and often
heaven from any man; he is bluff with all the Ordinary;  submitted to the arts or the tyranny of the officers of this
ne spits at random: gingles his spurs into any man's cloak;  court.
and his' humour is, to be a devil of a dare-all. All fear    When Audley was asked the value of this new office
him as the tyrant they must obey. The tender gull trem-  he replied, that' It might be worth some thousands o
bles, and acmires his valour. At length the devil he fear-  pounds to him who after his death would instantly go to
ed becomes his champion; and the poor gull, proud of his  heaven; twice as much to him who would go to purgatory
intimacy, hides himself under this eagle's wings.       and nobody knows what to him who would adventure to go
The impostor sits close by his elbow, takes a partner-  to hell.' Such was the pious casuistry of a witty Usurer.
ship in his game, furnishes the stakes when out of luck, and   Whether he undertook this last adventure, for his four hunin truth, does not care how fast the gull loses; for a twirl  dred thousand pounds, how can a sceptical biographer deof his mustachio, a tip of his nose, or a wink of his eye,  cide? Audley seems ever to have been weak, when tempdrives all the losses of the gull into the profits of the grand  tation was strong.
confederacy at the Ordinary. And when the impostor has    Some saving qualities, however, were mixed with the
fought the gull's quarrels many a time, at last he kicks up  vicious ones he liked the best. Another passion divided
the table; and the gull sinks himself into the class of the  dominion with the sovereign one: Audley's strongest imforlorn-hope, he lives at the mercy of his late friends the  pressions of character were cast in the old law-library of
gull-groper and the impostor, who send himout to lure some  his youth, and the pride of legal reputation was not inferior
tender bird in feather.                                 in strength to the rage for money. If in the' court of
Such were the hells of our ancestors, from  which our  wards' he pounced on incumbrances which lay on estates,
worthies might take a lesson; and the' warren' in which   and prowled about to discover the craving wants of thei'
the Audleys were the conie-catchers.                    owners, it appears that he also received liberal fees from
But to return to our Audley; this philosophical usurer  the relatives of young heirs, to protect them from the rapanever pressed hard for his debts; like the fowler, he never  city of some great persons, but who could not certainly
shook his nets lest he might startle, satisfied to have them,  exceed Audley in subtilty. He was an admirable lawyer,
without appearing to hold them.  With great fondness he  for he was not satisfied with hearing but examining his
compared his' bonds to infants, which battle best by sleep-  clients; which he called' pinching the cause where he
ing.' To battle is to be nourished, a term still retained at  perceived it was foundered.' He made two observations
the University of Oxford. His familiar companions were  on clients and lawyers, which have not lost their poignancy.
all subordinate actors in the great piece he was performing;' Many clients, in telling their case, rather plead than rehe too had his part in the scene. When not taken by sur-  late it, so that the advocate heareth not the true state of it,
prise, on Lis table usually lay open a great Bible, with  till opened by the adverse party. Some lawyers seem to
Bishop Andrews's folio Sermons, which often gave him an   keep an assurance-office in their charbers, and will war.
opportunity of railing at the covetousness of the clergy!  rant any cause brought unto them, knowing that if they
declaring their religion was' a mere preach,' and that' the  fai!, they lose nothing but what was lost long since, their
time would never be well till we had Queen Elizabeth's  credit.'
Protestants again in fashion.' He was aware of all the    The career of Audley's ambition closed with the extincevils arising out of a population beyond the means of sub-  tion of the' court of wards,' by which he incurred the loss
sistence, and dreaded an inundation of men, spreading like   of above 1.100,000. On that occasion he observed that
the spawn of a cod. Hence he considered marriage, with' His ordinary losses were as the shaving of his beard,
a modern political economist, as very dangerous; bitterly   which only grew the faster by them; but the loss of this
censuring the clergy, whose children, he said, never thrived,  place was like the cutting off of a member, which was irreand qh.ose widows were left destitute. An apostolical  coverable.' The hoary Usurer pined at the decline of his
life, according to Audley, required only books, meat, and  genius, discoursed on the vanity of the world, and hinted at
drink, to be had for fifty pounds a year! Celibacy, volun-  retreat. A facetious friend told him a story of an old rat,
tary poverty, and all the mortifications of a primitive  who having acquainted the young rats that he would at
Christian, were the virtues practised by this puritan among  length retire to his hole, desiring none to come near him,
his money bags.                                        their curiosity, after some days, led them to venture to look
Yet Audley's was that worldly wisdom which derives  into the hole; and there they discovered the old rat sitall its strength from the weaknesses of mankind. Every  ting in the midst of a rich parmesan cheese. It is probathing was to be obtained by stratagem, and it was his  ble that the loss of the last 1.100,000 disturbed his digesmaxim, that to grasp our object the faster, we must go a  tion, for he did not long survive his court of wards.
little round about it. His life is said to have been one of    Such was this man, converting wisdom into cunning,
intricacies and mysteries, using indirect means in all  invention into trickery, and wit into cynicism. Engaged
things; but if he walked in a labyrinth, it was to bewilder  in no honourable cause, he however showed a mind resolvothers; for the clue was still in his own hand: all he  ed, making plain the crooked and involved path he trod.
sought was that his designs should not he discovered by   Sustine et obstine, to bear and to forbear, was the great
his actions. His word, we are told, was his bond; his  principle of Epictetus, and our moneyed Stoic bore all the
hour was punctual; and his opinions were compressed and  contempt and hatred of the living smilingly, while he forbore
weighty: but if he was true to his bond-word, it was only  all the consolations of our common nature to obtain his end.
a part of the system to give facility to the carrying on of  He died in unblest celibacy. —And thus he received the
his trade, for he was not strict to his honour; the pride of  curses of the living for his rapine, while the stranger who
victory, as well as the passion for acquisition, combined in  grasped the million he had raked together owed him no
the character of Audley, as in more tremendous conque-  gratitude at his death.
rors. His partners dreaded the effects of his law-library,
and usually relinquished a claim rather than stand a suit             cHIDIOCK TITCHBOURNE.
against a latent quibble.  When one menaced him  by    In this volume I have drawn a picture of a Jewish hisshowing some money-bags, which he had resolved to empty  tory in our country; the present is a companion-piece, exin law against him, AndJley, then in office in the court of hihiting a Roman Catholic one.
wards, with a sarcastic grin, asked' Whether the bags    The domestic history of our country awakens our feelhad any bottom?'' Ay. replied the exulting possessor,  ings far more than the public. In the one, we recognize
striking them.' In that case I care not,' retorted the cy-  ourselves as men; in the other, we are nothing but politi.
nical officer of the court of wards;'for in this court I  cians. The domestic history is, indeed, entirely involved
have a constant spring; and I cannot spend in other  in the fate of the public; and our opinions are regulated ac.
courts more than I gain in this.' He had at once the mean-  cording to the different countries, and by the different ages
ness which would evade the law, and the spirit which could  we live in: yet systems of politics, and modes of faith are
resist it.                                             for the individual, but the chance occurrences of human life,
The genius of Audley had crept out of the purlieus of  usually found in the cradle, and laid in the grave: it is only
Guildhall, and entered the temple; and having often saun.  the herd of mankind, or their designing leaders, who fight
Vred at' Powles' down the great promenade which was  and curse one another with so much sincerity. Amiids




LITERATURE.                                                     167
these intestine struggles or, perhaps, when they have ceas-    This extraordinary collection of personages must have
ed, and our hearts are calm, we perceive the eternal force of  occasioned many alarms to Elizabeth, whenever any
nature acting on humanity: then the heroic virtues and  stranger approached her; till the conspiracy was suffered
private sufferings of persons engaged in an opposite cause,  to be silently matured sufficiently to be ended. Once she
and acting on different principles than our own, appeal to  perceived in her walks a conspirator, and on that occasion
our sympathy, and even excite our admiration. A phil-  erected her' lion port,' reprimanding her captain of the
osopher, born a Catholic, assuredly could commemorate  guards, loud enough to meet the conspirator's ear, that' he
many a pathetic history of some heroic Huguenot; while  had not a man in his company who wore a sword; —arm
we, with the same feeling in our heart, discover a roman-  not I fairly guarded;' exclaimed Elizabeth.
tic and chivalrous band of Catholics.                     It is in the progress of the trial that the history and the
CHIDIOCK TITCiHBSOURNE is a name which appears in  feelings of these wondrous youths appear. In those times,
the conspiracy of Anthony Babington against Elizabeth;  when the government of the country yet felt Itself unsettled,
and the history of this accomplished young man may enter  and mercy did not sit in the jud gmnent-seat, even one of
into the romance of real life. Having discovered two in-  the judges could not refrain from being affected at the preteresting domestic documents relative to him, I am desir-  sence of so gallant a band as the prisoners at the bar:
ous of preserving a name and a character, which have  c Oh Ballard, Ballard i' the judge exclaimed,' what hast
sutich claims on our sympathy.                          thou done? a sort* of brave youths, otherwise endued
There is an interesting historical novel, entitled' The  with good gifts, by thy inducement hast thou brought to
Jesuit,' whose story is founded on this conspiracy; remark-  their utter destruction and confusion.' The Jesuit himable for being the production of a lady, without, if I recol-  self commands our respect, although we refuse him our
lect rightly, a single adventure of love. Of the fourteen   esteem; for he felt some compunction at the tragical execharacters implicated in this conspiracy, few were of the  cutions which were to follow, and' wished all the blame
stamp of men ordinarily engaged in dark assassinations.  might rest on him, could the shedding of his blood be the
Hume has told the story with his usual grace; the fuller  saving of Babington's life'
narrative may be found in Camden; but the tale may yet    When this romantic band of friends were called on for
receive, from the character of CaHIDIOCK TITCHBOURNE,  their defence, the most pathetic instances of domestic affeca more interesting close.                              tion appeared: one had engaged in this plot solely to try
Some youths, worthy of ranking with the heroes, rather  to save his friend, for he had no hopes of it, nor any wish
than with the traitors of England, had been practised on  for its success; he had observed to his friend that I the
by the subtilty of Ballard, a disguised Jesuit of great  haughty and ambitious mind of Anthony Babington would
intrepidity and talents, whom Camden calls'a silken priest  be the destruction of himself and his friends;' neverthe.
in a soldier's habit:' for this versatile intriguer changed  less he was willing to die with them! Another, to withinto all shapes, and took up all names; yet with all the arts  draw, if possible, one of these noble youths from the con..
of a political Jesuit he found himself entrapped in the  spiracy, although he had broken off housekeeping, said, to
nets of that more crafty one, the great Walsingham. Bal-  employ his own language,'I called back my servants
lard had opened himself to Babington, a catholic; a youth  again together, and began to keep house again more
of large fortune, the graces of whose person were only in.  freshly than ever I did, only because I was weary to see
ferior to his mind. In his travels, his generous temper had   Tom Salisbury straggling, anti willing to keep him about
been touched by some confidential friends of the Scottish   home.' Having attempted to secrete his friend, this gen.
Mary; and the youth, susceptible of ambition, had been  tleman observed,'I am condemned, because   suffereo
recommcnded to that queen; and an intercourse of letters  Salisbury to escape, when I knew he was one of the contook place, which seemed as deeply tinctured with love as  spirators. My case is hard and lamentable; either to
with loyalty. The intimates of Babington were youths of  betray my friend who,, I love as myself, and to discover
conenal tempers and studies and in their exalted imag-   Tom  Salisbury, the best man in my country, of whom I
nations, they could only view in the imprisoned Mary of  only made choice; or else to break ny allegiance to my
Scotland a sovereign, a saint, and a woman. But friend-  sovereign, and to undo myself and my posterity for ever.
ship, the most tender, if not the most sublime ever record-   Whatever the political casuist may determine on this case
ed, prevailed among this band of self-devoted victims; and  the social being carries his own manual in the heart. The
the Damon and Pythias of antiquity were here out-num-  principle ofthe greatest of republics was to suffer nothing to
bered.                                                  exist in competition with its own ambition; but the Romac
But these conspirators were surely more adapted for  history is a history withott fathers and brothers -An.
lovers than for politicians. The most romantic incidents  other of the conspirators replied,'For flying away with
S~~~other of the lesprto r r eple,'orfynawyit
are interwoven in this dark conspiracy. Some of the let-I fulfilled the
my  friend, I fufilled  the part of a friend.' When thejudge
ters to Mary were conveyed by a secret messenger, one  observed that, to perform his friendship, he had broken his.
in the pay of Walsingham; others were lodged in a  allegiance to his sovereign; he bowed his head and conn
concealed place covered by a loosened stone, in the wall  fessed, Therein I have offended.'-Another, asked why
fessed,' Therein I have offended.' —-Another, asked why
of the queen's prison. All were transcribed by Walsing-  he had fled into the woods, where he was discovered among.ham  before they reached Mary.  Even the spies of that  some of the conspirators, proudly, or tenderly, replied, —
singular statesman were the companions, or the servants,'For compaiy'
of the archconspirator Ballard; for the minister seems    When the sentence of condemnation had passed, then
only to have humoured his taste in assisting him through   broke forth among this noble band that spirit of honour,
this extravagant plot. Yet, as if a plot of so loose a tex- which surely had never been witnessed at the bar among
o Z'.                                        which surely had never been witnessed at the bar among
ture was not quite perilous, the extraordinary incident of  so many criminals. Their great minds seemed to have
a picture representing the secret conspirators in person,  reconciled them to the most barbarous of deaths; bt as'as probably considered as the highest stroke of political  their estates as traitors might be forfeited to the queen,
intrigue!  The accomplished Babington had pourtrayed  their sole anxiety was now for their family and their credithe conspirators, himself standing in the midst of them,  tors  One in the nost pathetic terms recommends to her
that the imprisoned queen might thus have some kind of
that the imprisoned q mht th   hfmajesty's protection a beloved wife; another a destitute
personal acquaintance with them. There was, at least,  sister; but not among the least urgent of their supplicaas much of chivalry as of Machiavelism in this conspiracy.  tions was one that ther creditors might not be injured by
Thisverypicurebefoe i wasdeliere   to  arythetions, was one that their creditors might not be injured by,
This very picture, before it was delivered to Mary,     their untimely end. The atatement of their affairs is curi
their untimely end. The statement of their affairs is curl./
subtile W'alsingham  had copied, to exhibit to Elizabeth  ous and simple.   If mercy be not to be had,' exclaimed
the faces of her secret enemies. Houbraken in his por-' I beseeh you, my good lords, this; I owe some
trait of Valsincoham has introduced in the vi nette the in   oe,some
trat of Valsinghamr has in trodu ced in the vignette the in-  sums of money, but not very much, and I have more owing
cident of this picture being shown to Elizabeth; a circum-  t' —~~-~ - ~~ —-— 2 to me; I beseech that my debts may be paid with th~a
stance happily characteristic of the genius of this crafty  which is owint  to me.' AIs h d ayb    pai h
which is owing to me.' Another prayed for a pardon i
and vigilant statesman.  Camden tells us that Babington                       him  the   a   o     pon
the judge complimented     hithat' he was one who migh~
had first inscribed beneath the picture of this verse:  have done ood service to his country;I but declares ho
have dt:ne good service to his country;' but declares h~,'Hi mihi sunt comites, quos ipsa pericular ducunt.'  cannot obtain it. —' Then,' said the prisoner, I beseech
These are iy companions, whom the same dangers lead.  that six angels, which such an one hath of mine, may be
But as this verse was considered by some of less heated  delivered to my brother to pay my debts. —' How much
fancies as much too open and intelligible, they put one more
amrbiguous:                                             * This word has been explaine- by IVf.r Gifford in his Joame.a
Quorsum hmc alo properantibus?'                  vol. i, p. 33, as meaning a company  m.r.d the sense here tme
What are these things to men hastening to another purpose?   firms it.




168                                   CUR[OSITIES OF
are thy debts?'!' demanded the judge.  He answered,  me the whole matter, I cannot deny, as they had laid it
The same six angels will discharge it.'                  down to be done; but I always thought it impious, and
That nothing might be wanting to complete the catas-  denied to be a dealer in it; but the regard of my fiend
trophe of their sad story, our sympathy must accompany   caused me to be a man in whom the old proverb was
them to their tragical end, and to their last words. These   verified; I was silent, and so consented.  Before this
heroic yet affectionate youths had a trial there, intolerable  thing chanced, we lived together in most flourishing esto their social feelings.  The terrific process of executing   tate: Of whom  went report in the Strand, Fleet street,
traitors was the remains of feudal barbarism, and has only  and elsewhere, about London, but of Babington and
been abolished very recently.  I must not refrain from   Titchbourne?  No threshold was of force to brave our
painting this scene of blood; the duty of an historian must  entry.  Thus we lived, and wanted nothing we could wish
De severer than his taste, and I record in the note a scene   for; and God knows what less in my head than matters
of this nature.*  The present one was full of horrors.  of state.  Now give me leave to declare the miseries 1
Ballard was first executed, and snatched alive from the   sustained after I was acquainted with the action, wherein
gallows to be embowelled: Babington looked on with an   I may justly compare my estate to that of Adam's, who
undaunted countenance, steadily gazing on that variety of  could not abstain one thing forbidden, to enjoy all other
tortures which he himself was in a moment to pass through;  things the world could afford: the terror of conscience
the others averted their faces, fervently praying.  When   awaited me. After I considered the dangers whereinto I
the executioner began his tremendous office on Babington,  was fallen, I went to Sir John Peters in Essex, and apthe spirit of this haughty and heroic man cried out amidst  pointed my horses should meet me at London, intending
the a  Parce mih, Domine Jes! Spre me Lord  to go down into the country.  I came to London, and
Jesus. There were two days of execution; it was on the  then heard that all was bewrayed; whereupon, like Adam,
first that the noblest of these youths suffered; and the   we fled into the woods to hide ourselves.  My dear
pity which such criminals had excited among the spectators  countrymen, my sorrows may be your joy, yet mix your
evidently weakened the sense of their political crime; the   smiles with tears, and pity my case; I am descendedfrom
solemnity, not the barbarity of the punishment affects the   a house,from two hundred years before the Conquest, never
populace with right feelings.  Elizabeth, an enlightened   stained till this my misfortune.  I haee a wife and one
politician, commanded that on the second day the odious  child; my wife Agnes, my dear wife, and there's my grieJ;art of the sentence against traitors should not commence   -and six sisters left in my hand-my poor serunts, Iknow,
ill after their death.,                                   their master being taken, were dispersed; for all which I do
One of these generosi adolescentuli, youths of generous   most heartily grieve.  I expected some favour, tho' I deblood, was CHIDlOCic TITCHBOURNE, of Southampton,  served nothing less, that the remainder of my years might
the more intimate friend of Bahington.  He had refused  in some sort have recompensed my former guilt; which
to connect himself with the assassination of Elizabeth,  seeing I have missed, let me now meditate on the joys I
but his reluctant consent was inferred from his silence,  hope to enjoy.'
His address to the populace breathes all the carelessness    Titchbourne had addressed a letter to his' dear wife
of life, in one who knew all its value. Proud of his an-  Agnes,' the night before he suffered, which I discovered
cient descent from a family which had existed before the   among the Harlian MSS.*  It overflows with the most
Conquest, till now without a stain, he paints the thought-  natura feeling and contains some touches of expression,
natural feeling, and contains some touclies of expression,
less happiness of his days with his beloved friend, when   all sweetness and tenderness, which mark the Shaksany object rather than matters of state engaged their pur-  pearean  erea.  The same MS. has also preserved a
suits; the hours of misery were only first known the day   more precious gem, in a small poem, composed at the
ne entered into the conspiracy.  How feelingly he passes   same time, which indicates his genius, fertile in imagery
into the domestic scene, amidst his wife, his child, and   and fraught with the melancholy philosophy of a fine and
his sisters! and even his servants! Well might he cry,  wounded spirit.  The unhappy close of the life of such a
mlore in tenderness than in reproach, ~ Frien~dship hath
ore in tenderness than in reproach, Frienship hath   noble youth, with all the prodigality of his feelings and the
brought me to this!'                                       cultivation of his intellect, may still excite that sympathy
Countrymen, and my dear friends, you expect I should  in the generosis adolescentulis, which Chidiock Titchbourne
speak something; I am a bad orator, and my text is worse:  would have felt for them!
It were in vain to enter into the discourse of the whole'A  letter written  b  CIDIOCca  TITCHBOURNE the
matter for which I am brought hither, for that it hath been  night before he suffered death vnto his wife, dated of
revealed heretofore; let me be a warning to all young        anno 1586.
anne 1586.
egentlemen, especially generosis adolescentulis.  I had a       To the mostloving wife alive, I cmmend me vnto her,
friend, and a dear friend, of wnom I made no small ac-   and desire God to blesse her with all happiness, pray for
count, whose friendship hath brought me to this; he told   her dead husband, and be of good comforte, for I hope in
* Let not the delicate female start from the revolting scene,  Jesus Christ this morning to see the face of my maker and
nor censure the writer, since that writer is a woman-suppress-  redeemer in the most joyful throne of his glorious kinging her own agony, as she supported on her lap the head of the   dome.  Commend me to all my friends, and desire them
miserable sufferer.  This account was drawn up by Mrs.  to pray for me, and in all charitie to pardon me if I have
Elizabeth Willoughby, a Catholic lady, who, amidst the hoer-  nded them. Commend me to my six sisters poor
C,                             ~~~~~~~~offended them. Commend me to my six sisters poere
rid execution, could still her own feelings in the attempt to  desolate soules, aduise them to se God, for without him
desolate soules, aduise them to serue God, for without him
soften those of the victinm  she was a heroine, with a tender
heart.                                                     no goodness is to be expected: were it possible, my little
The subject was one of the executed Jesuits, Hugh Green,  sister Babb: the darlinge of my race might be bred by
who otien went by the name of Ferdinand Brooks, according   her, God would rewarde her; but I do her wronge, I con.
to the custom of these people, who disguised themselves by  fesse, that hath by my desolate negligence too little for herdouble names; he suffered in 1642 and this narrative is taken   selfe, to add a further charge vnto her.  Deere wife forfrom the curious and scarce folios of Dodd, a Catholic Church   give me, that have by these means so much impoverished
History of England.                                       her fortunes; patience and pardon good wife I crane-'The hangman, either through unskilfulness, or for want of  make of these our necessities a vertue, and lay no further
a sufficient presence of mind, had so ill-performed his first
duty of han.ing him, that when he was cut down he was per.  burthen on my neck than hath alreadie been.  There be
fectly sensible, and able to sit upright upon the ground, view.  certain debts that I owe, and because I know not the ordet
ing the crowd that stood about him. The person who under.  of the lawe, piteous it hath taken from me all, forfeited by
took to quarter him was one Barefoot, a barber, who, being   my course of offence to her majestie, I cannot aduise thee
very timorous when he found he was to attack a living man, it  to benefit me herein, hutif there fall out wherewithall, let
was near half an hour before the sufferer was rendered entirely  them  be discharged for God's sake.  I will not that you
insensible ofpain. The mob pulled atthe rope, and threw tho  trouble yourselfe with the performance of these matters,
Jesuit on his back. Then the barber immediately fell to work   trouble yourselfe with the performance of these matters,
ripped up his belly, and laid the flaps of skin on both sides;  my own heart, but make it known to my uncles, and desire
the poor gentlemen being so present to himself as to make the  them, for the honour of God and the ease of their soule,
sign of the cross with one hand. During this operation, Mrs.  to take care of them as they may, and especially care of
Elizabeth Willoughby (the writer of this) kneeled at the Je-  my sisters bringing up the burthen is now laide on them.
suits head, and held it fast beneath her hands. His face was  Now  sweet-cheek, what is left to bestow on thee, a small
covered with a thick sweat; the blood issued from his mouth,   onture a small rcompense for thy deservine, these lea
ears, and eyes, and his forehead burnt with so much heat, that    ynueasllrcmne frhdevnts 
she assures us she could scarce endure her hand upon it. The   cies following  to be thine owne. G     of his infinite
barber was still under a great consternatiur.e'-But I stop my   goodness give thee grace alwaies to remain his true and
Voea amidst these circumstantial horror.                                     * Harl. MSS 36, 50.




LITERATURE.                                                         169
faithfull servant, that through the merits of his bitter and   remarkable expression; urging her to marriage, she said,
blessed passion thou maist become in good time of his  was'asking nothing less than wishing her to dig her
kingdom with the blessed women in heaven. May the   grave before she was dead.'  Conscious of the danger o!
Holy Ghost comfort thee with all necessaries tfor the   her life by marriage she had early declared when she aswealth of thy soul in the world to come, where until it  cended the throne, that' she would live and die a maiden
shall please Almighty God I meete thee, farewell lovinge  queen:' but she afterwards discovered the political evil
wife, farewell the dearest to me on all the earth, farewell  resulting from  her unfortunate situation.  Iier conduct'By the hand from the heart of tihy most faithful louingo   was admirable; her great genius turned even her weakbushand.                  CsHIsDocK TITCsBOURNE.    ness into strength, and proved how well she deserved the
character which she had already obtained from an enlight.
4'~~VERSES   ~ened enemy-the great Sixtus V, who observed of her,
Yadle by CHIDlOCK TITCHBOURNE Of himself in the   Ch'era un gran cervello di Principessa! She had a prince.
Tcwer, the night before he suffered death, who was  ly head-piece!  Elizabeth allowed her ministers to pledge
execuw'ed in Lincoln's Inn Fields for treason.  1586.  her royal word to the commons, as often as they found
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,  necessary, for her resolution to marry; she kept all Europe
My feast of joyo is but a dish of pain,            at her feet, with the hopes and fears of her choice; she
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,             gave ready encouragements, perhaps allowed her agents
An  all my goodes isbut vain hope oto promote even invitations, to the offers of marriage she
nd all my  goodes is but vain hope of gain;        received from crowned heads; and all the coquetries, and
The day is fled, and yet I saw no sun,
And nw I lve, and n y ife is done       the cajolings, so often and so fully recorded with which
And now I live, and now my life is doneshe freely honoured individuals, made her empire an emMyspring is past, and yet it hath not sprung,        pire of love, where love, however, could never appear. 4l
he fruit is dead, and yet the leaves are green,   these were merely political artifices, to conceal her secret
My youth is past, and yet I an but young,            resolution, which was, not to marry.
I saw the world, and yet I was not seen;             At the birth of James I, as Camden says,' the sharp
My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun,            and hot spirits broke out, accusing the queen that she was
And now I live, and now my life is done!             neglecting her country and posterity.   All'these humours,' observes Hume,' broke out with great vehemence,
jsought for death, and found it in      a new session of parliament, held after six prorogations.'
i~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~r  sogh new death                                              roanfodit inh ombe
I lookt for life, and yet it was a shade,          The peers united with the commoners.  The queen had
I trade the grounde, and knew it was my tombe,       an empty exchequer,and was at their mercy. It was a me.
And now I dye, and now I am but made.              ment of high ferment. Some of the boldest, arnd some of the
The glass is full, and yet my glass is run;          most British spirits were at work; and they with the
And now I live, and now my life is done!'*          malice or wisdom of opposition, combined the supply with
ELIZABETH AND HER PARLIAMENT.                    the succession; one was not to be had without the other.
This was a moment of great hope and anxiety with the
The year 1566 was a remarkable period in the domestic     This was a moment of great hope and anxiety  ith the
annals of our great Elizabeth; then, for a moment broke    rench court; they were flattering themselves that her
forth a noble struggle between the freedom of the subject  reign was touching a crisis; and La Mothe Fenelon, then
and the dignityol  tag  bwe      f of the sovereign.      the French ambassador at the court of Elizabeth, appears
One of the popular grievances of her glorious reign was  to have been busied in collecting hourly information of the
the maidenstate inWhichthequeenersistedtowarm debates in the commons, and wihat passed in their
the maiden state in which the queen persisted to live, not- interviews with the queen. We may rather be astonished
withstanding such frequent remonstrances and exhorta-  where he procured so much secret intelligence-: he some
tions.  The nation in a moment might be thrown into the  times complains that he is not able to acquire it as fast as
danger of a disputed succession; and it became necessary   Catherine de Medicis and her son Charles IX  wished.to allay that ferment which existed among all parties,  There must have been Englishmen at our court, who were
while each was fixing on its own favourite, hereafter to as-  serving as French spies.  In a private collection,* which
cend the throne. The birth of James Ithis year animated 
cend the throne.  The birth of James I this year animated   consists of two or three hundred original letters of Charles
the partisans of Mary of cotland; ad men of the most  IX, Catherine de Medecis, Henry III, and Mary of
opposite parties of England unanimously joined in the Scotiand, &c., I find two despatches of this French ampopular cry for the marriage of Elizabeth, or a settlement  bassador entirely relating to the present occurrence.of the succession.  This was a subject most painful to the   What renders them more curious is, that the debates ou
thoughts of Elizabeth;she starte~d from it with horror,
thoughts of Elizabeth; she started from it with horror,  the question of the succession are imperfectly given in Sir
and she was practising every imaginable artifice to evadeit.  Symonds D'Ewes's journals; the only resource open to
The real cause of this repugnance has been passed   us.  Sir Symonds complains of the negligence of the clerk
over byour historians.  Camden, however, hints at it,  of the commons, who indeed seems to have exerted his
when he places among other popular rumours of the day,  negligence, whenever it was found most agreeable to the
that'men cursed Huic, the Queen's physician, for dis-  courtparty.
suading her fiom marriage, for I know not what female
suading her frhom  marage, for I know not what female oi    Previous to the warm debates in the commons, of which
infirmity.' The queen's physician thus incurred the odi- the present despatch furnishes a lively picture, on Satur.
the present despatch furnishes a lively picture, on Satur.
umrn of the nation for the integrity of his conduct: he well day, 12 Oct. 156, at a meeting of the lords of the council,
knew how precious was her life~fdey, 12 Oct. 15666, at a meeting of the lords of the council,
knew how precious was her life held in the queen's apartment, the Duke of Norfolk, in the
This fact, once known, throws a new light over her con-  name of the whole nohility, addressed Elizabeth, urging
duct: the ambiguous expressions which she constantly   her to settle the suspended points of the succession, and
employs, when she alludes to her marriage in her speeches, of her marriage, which had been promised in the last par
of her marriage, which had been promised in the last par.
and in private conversations, are no longer mysterious.-   liament. Thequeenwasgreatly angried ontheoccasion;
She was always declaring, that she knew her subjects did  she could not suffer to be urged on those poin.s; she spole
not love her so little, as to wish to bury her before her  with great animation.'Hitherto you have had no oppor.
time; even in the letter I shall now give, we find this  tunity to complain of me; I have well governed the coun.
* This pathetic poem has been printed ir one of the old edi.  try in peace, and if a late war of little consequence ha.
tions of Sir Walter Raleigh's Poems, but could never have   broken out, which might have occasioned my subjects to
been written by him. In those times the co],tectors of the works  complain of me, with me it has not originated, but with
of a celebrated writer would insert any fugitive pieces of merit,  yourselves, as truly I believe.  Lay your hands on your
and pass them under a name which was certain of securing the   hearts, and blame yourselves.  In respect to the choice
render's favour. The entire poem in every tine echoes the   of the succession, not one ofye shall have it; that choice
feelings of Chidiock Titchbourne, who perished with all the   I reserve to myself alone.  1 will not be buried while I
blossoms oflife and genius about him in the May-time of his    living, as my sister was.  Do I not well know, how
existence.
existence.                                ~~~~~~~~am living. as my sister was.  Do I not well know, how
t Foreign authors who had an intercourse with the English   duringthe life of my sister every one hastened to me at
court seem to have heen better informed, or at least found   Hatfield; I am at present inclined to see no such travel.
themselves under less restraint than our own home writers. In  lers, nor desire on this your advice in an way.f In regard
Bayle, note x, the reader wiii find this mysterious affair cleared
up; at length in one of our own writers, Whitaker, in his   * In the possession of my friend and publisher, Mr. Murray.
Mary Queen of Scots vindicated, Vol. II, p. 502. Elizabeth's    t A curious trait of the neglect Queen Mary experienced
Answer to the fi:st Address ofthe Commons, on her marriage,  whose life being considered very uncertain, sent all the in
n Hume, Vol V, p. 13, is now more intelligible; he has pre.  triguers of a court to Elizabeth, the next heir, although then
isrved her fanciful style.                                in a kind of state-imprisonment at Hatfield.
22




170                                  CURIOSITIES OF
to my marriage, you may see enough, that I am not dis-  that the queen having prayed* for the last subsidy, hac
tant from  it, and in what respects the welfare of the king-  promised, and pledged her face to her subjects, that af.
dom: go each of you, and do your own duty.'             ter that one, she never more would raise a single penny'SiREc ~~~~27 October, 1566.    on them: and promised even to free them  from the wine'~~SIREI         27 October, 1566     duty, of which promise they ought to press for the perfor.
By my last despatch of the 21st instant,* among other; addin  that it was far more necessary for this
maice; adding that it was far more necessary for this
matters, I informed your majesty of what was said on   kingdom to speak concerning an heir or successor to the
Saturday the 19th as well in parliament, as in the chami-  crown, and of her marriage, than ot' a subsidy.
her of the queen, respecting the circumstance ofthe suc-'The next day, which was Saturday the 19th, they all
cession to this crown: since which I have learnt other  began, with the exception of a single voice, a loud outcry,
particulars, which occurred a little before, and which I will  for the succession.  Amidst these confused voices and.'t now omit to relate, before I mention what afterwards  cries, one of the council prayed them to have a little pa.
happened.                                               tience, and with time they should he satisfied; but that,'On Wednesday the 16th of the present mor th, the   at this moment, other matters pressed,-it was necessacomptroller of the queen's householdi moved in the lower  ry to satisfy the queen about a subsidy.  "aNo! No!"
house of parliament, where the deputies of towns and   cried the deputies, "1we are expressly charged not to grant
counties meet, to obtain a subsidy;4 taking into considera-  anything, until the queen resolvedly answers that wich
tion, among other things, that the queen had emptied the   we now ask: and we require you to inform  her majesty
exchequer, as well in the late wars, as in the maintenance  of our intention, which is such as we are commanded to,
of her ships at sea, for the protection of her kingdom, and   by all the towns, and subjects of this kingdom, whose deher subjects; and which expenditure has been so excessive,  puties we are.   We further require an act, or acknowlthat it could no further be supported without the aid of her  edgement, of our having delivered this remonstrance, that
good subjects, whose duty it was to offer money to her we may satisfy our respective towns and counties that
majesty, even before she required it, in consideration that,  we have performed our charge."  They alleged for an
hitherto, she had been to them a benignant and courteous  excuse, that if they had omitted any part of this, their
mistress.                                               hands uwould answerfor it. We shall see what will como'The comptroller having finished, one of the deputies,  of thist
acountry gentleman, rose in reply. He said, that he saw' Tuesday the 22d, the principal lords, and the bishops
no occasion, nor any pressing necessity, which ought to  of London, York, Winchester, and Durham, went togethmove her majesty to ask for money ofher subjects. And,  er, after dinner, from the parliament to the queen whom
in regard to the wars, which it was said had exhausted her  they found in her private apartment.  There, after those
treasury, she had undertaken them from herself, as she had   who were present had retired, and they remained alone
thought proper; not for the defence of her kingdom, nor  with her, the great treasurer, having the precedence in age,
for the advantage of her subjects; but there was one thing  spoke first in the name of all. He opened, by saying,
which seemed to him more urgent, and far more necessa-  that the commons had required them to unite in one sentiry to examine concerning this campaign; which was, how   ment and agreement, to solicit her majesty to give her
the money raised by the late subsidy had been spent; and   answer as she had promised, to appoint a successor to the
that every one who had had the handling of it should pro-  crown; declaring it wasnecessity that conpelled them
duce their accounts, that it might be known if the monies  to urge his point, that they niight provide against the dan
had been well or ill spent.                             gers which might happen to the kingdom, if' they continued'On this, rises one named Mr Basche,~ purveyor of the  without the security they asked. This had been the cusmIarine, and also a member of the said parliament; who
marine, and also a member of the said parliament; who tom of her royal predecessors, to provide long beforehand
shows, that it was most necessary that the commons should  for the succession, to preserve the peace of the kingdom;
vote the said subsidies to her majesty, who had not only  that the commons were all of one opinion, and so resolved
been at vast charges, and was so daily to maintain a great  to settle the succession before they would speak about a
number of ships, but also in building new ones; repeating   subsidy, or any other matter whatever, that hitherto, no.
what the comptroller of the household had said, that they  thin  but the most trivial discussions had passed in arhia
ought not to wait till the queen asked for supplies, but  ment, and so great an assembly was only wasting their
should make a voluntary offer of their services.       time, and saw themselves entirely useless.  They, how.
"Another co~~~~~~~~~~~~~unty enlemnrses and eple, thatth'Another country gentleman rises and replies, that tie  ever, supplicated her majesty, that she would, be pleased
said Basche had certainly his reasons to speak for the  to declare her will on this point, or at once to put an end
queen in the present case, since a great deal of'her majes- to th parliament, so that every one might retire to his
ty's monies for the roviding of ships passed through his  hig.:Y       ~     ~    ~~P    I.1                    home.
hands; and the more he consumed, the greater was his      The Duse of Norfolk then spoke, and, after him, every
profit. According to his notion,there were but too many pur-  one of theother  ord, accordng to his rank holding th
M                             ~~~~~~~~~~one of the other lords, according to his rank holding the
veyors in this kingdom,whose noses had grown so long,that  same language in strict conformity with that of the great
they stretched from London to the west.it It was certainly  treasurer.
proper to know if all they levied by their commission for' The queen returned no softer answer than she had on
the present campaign was entirely employed to the queen'sing Saturday, to another party of the same
n                           ~~~~~~~~~the preceding Saturday, to another party of the same
profit. —Nothing further was debated tn that day.       company; saying that, " The commons were very rebel-'The Friday following, when the subject of the subsi.  lieus and that they had not dared to have attempted such
dies was renewed, one of the gentlemen-deputies showed,  things during the life of her father: that it was not for them
* This despatch is a meagre account,,written before the am   to impede her affairs, and that it did not become a subject
bassador obtained all the information the present letter dis.  to compel the sovereign. What they asked, was nothing
plays. The chief particulars I have preserved above.    less than wishing her to dig her grave before she was dead."
t By Sir Symonds D'Ewes's Journals it appears, that the   Addressing herself to the lords, she said, "My lords, do
French ambassador had mistaken the day, Wednesday the  what you will;as for myself, I shall do nothing utaccord.
16th, for Thursday the 17th of October. The ambassador is  ht   y  lasr       l meshlo    hi bu           a
ing to my pleasure. All the resolutions whic' o a
afterwards right in the other dates. The person who movedic  you may
the house, whom he calls'Le Scindicque de la Ruyne,' was  make can have no force without my consent and authority:
Sir Edward Rogers, comptroller of her majesty's household,  besides, what you desire is an affair of much too great irThe motion was seconded by Sir William Cecil, who entered   portance to be declared to a knot of hare-brains.$  I will
more largely into the particulars of the queen's charges, in-  take council with men who understand justice and the
curred in the defence of New.-Haven, in France, the repairs of  laws, as I am deliberating to do: I will choose halfa dozen
her navy, and the Irish war with O'Neil. In the present nar-  of the most able I can find in my kingdom for consultation,
rative we fully discover the spirit of the independent members;  and after having heard their advice, I will then discover
and, at its close, that part of the secret history of Elizabeth
which so powerfully developes her majestic character.     * This term is remarkable. In the origina!,'La Royne: The original says,' ung subside de quatre solz pour liure.'  ayant impetr6,' which in Cotgrave's Dictionary, a contempo.
This gentleman's name does not appear in Sir Symonds  rary work, is explained by,-' To get by praler, obtain by sure,
D'Ewes's Journals. Mons. La Mothe Fenelon has, however,  compass by entreaty, procure by request.' This significant
the uncommon merit contrary to the custom of his nation, of  expression conveys the real notion of this venerable Whig,
writing an English name somewhat recognizable; for Edward  before Whiggism had received a denomiration, and formed
Baseche was one of the general surveyors of the victualling of  a party
the queen's ships, 1573, as I find in the.Lansdowne.MSS, vol.    f The French ambassador, no doubt, flattered himself and
XVI, art. 69.                                           his master, that all this'parlance' could only close in insur.
11 In the original,'Ils auoient le nez si long qu'il s'estendoit  rection and civil war.
deepuis Londresjusques au pays d'West.'                    In the original,' A ung tas de cerveaulx si legieres.'




LITERATUR-E..                                                     171
to  va my will."  On this she dismissed them in great  had been the nurse of James I, and to her care the king
anger.                                                    entrusted the prince. She isdescribed in a manuscript of the'By this, sire, your majesty may perceive that this  times, as an' ancient, virtuous, and severe lady, who was
queen is every day trying new inventions to escape from   the prince's governess from his cradle.' At the age of five
this passage, (that is, on fixing her marriage, or the suec-  years the prince was consigned to his tutor, Mr (after.
cession.)  She thinks that tile Duke of Norfolk is prin-  wards Sir) Adam Newton, a man of learning and capacity,
cipally the cause of this insisting,* which one person and   whom the prince at length chose for his secretary.  The
the other stand to; and is so angried against him, that, if  severity of the old countess, and the strict discipline of his
she can find any decent pretext to arrest him, I think she  tutor, were not received without affection and reverence;
will not fail to do it; and he himself, as I understand, has   although not at times without a shrewd excuse, or a turn
already very little doubt of this.' The Di-ke told the Earl  of pleasantry, which latter faculty the princely boy seenms
of Northumberland, that the queen remained stedfast to  to have possessed in a very high degree.
her own opinion, and would take no other advice than her    The prince early attracted the attention, and excited
own, and would do every thing herself.'                   the hopes ofthose who were about his person. A manu.
The storms in our parliament do not necessarily end in  script narrative has been preserved, which was written by
political shipwrecks, when the head of the government is  one who tells us, that he was' an attendant upon the
an Elizabeth.  She, indeed, sent down a prohibition to   prince's person, since he was under the age of three years,
the house from all debate on the subjects.  But when she   having always diligently observed his disposition, bediscovered a spirit in the commons, and language as bold   haviour, and speeches.'*  It was at the earnest desire of
as her own royal style, she knew how to revoke the exas-  Lord and Lady Lumley, that thie writer of these anecdotes
perating prohibition.  She even, charmed them  by the   drew up this relation.  The manuscript is without date,
manner; for the commons returned her' prayers and   but as Lord Lumley died in April, 1609, and leaving no
thanks,' and accompanied them  with a subsidy. Her  heir, his library was then purchased for the prince, Henry
majesty found, by experience, that the present, like other  could niot have reached his fifteenth year; this manuscript
passions, was more easily calmed and quieted by following   was evidently composed earlier; so that the latest anecthan resisting, observes Sir Symonds D'Ewes.              dotes could not have occurred beyond his thirteenth or
The wisdom of Elizabeth however did not weaken her  fourteenth year-a time of life, when few children can fur.
intrepidity. The struggle was glorious for both parties; but  nish a curious miscellany about themselves.
how she escaped through the -torm which her mysterious      The writer set down every little circumstance he consid.
conduct had at once raised and quelled, the sweetness and   ered worth noticing, as it occurred. I shall attempt a sort
the sharpness, the commendation and the reprimand of  of arrangement of"the most interesting, to show, by an
her noble speech in closing the parliament, is told by Hume   unity of the facts, the characteristic touches of the mind
with the usual felicity of his narrative.t                and dispositions of the princely boy.
ANECDOTES OF PRINCE HENRY THE SON OF JAEs   Prince Henry in his childhood rarely wept, and endured
ANECDOTES OF PRINCE HENRY, THE SON OF J.IMtES 12We       o   rste   ihhmi
WHIEN A CHILD. ~~pain without a groan. When a boy wrestled with him in
earnest, and threw him, he was not'seen to whine or
Prince Henry, tile son of James I, whose premature   weep at the hurt.'  His sense of justice was early; for
death was lamented by the people, as well as by poets and   when his playmate the little Earl of Mar, ill treated one
historians, unquestionably would have proved an heroic  of his pages, Henry reproved his puerile friend:'I love
and military character.  Had he ascended the throne, thle   you because you are my lord's son and my cousin: but, if
whole face of our history might have been changed; the   you be not better conditioned, I will love such an one bet
da~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~~y  ou Agnor   n    rsyhdbe   eiead Y be not better conditioned, I wall love such an one bet-.
days of Agincourt and Cressy had been revived, and   ter, naming the child that had complained of him.
Henry IX had rivalled Henry V2. It is remarkable that  tr'nmn  h  hl  hthdcmlie   fhm
Henry IX   ad rivalled Henry V.  It is remarkable that  The first time he went to the town of Stirling to meel
Prince Henry resembled that monarch in his features, as  the king, observing without te gate of the town a stack of
Ben Jonson has truly recorded, though in a complimentary th               kn, obevnwtot  iegt fte onasako
Be  Jnson has truly recorded, though in a complimentry    corn, It fancifully struck him with the shape of the top he
verse, and as we may see by his picture, among the   used to  lay with; and the child exclaimed,'TThat's a
ancieit English ones at Dulwich college. Merlin, in a   good top.'Why do you not then play with it?' he
masque by Jonson, addresses Prince Henry,                 answered;'Set you it up for me, and I will play with it.''Yet rests that other thcnderbolt of war,         This is just the fancy which we might expect in a lively
Harry the Fifth; to whom in face you are          child, with a shrewdness in the retort, above its years.
So like, as fate would have you so in worth.'       His martial character was perpetually discovering itself.
A youth who perished in his eighteenth yeri' has fur-   When asked what instrument he liked best? he answered,
nished the subject ofa volume, which even the deficient ani-' a trumpet.'  We are told that none could dance with
mation of its writer has not deprived of attraction.~ If the   more grace, but that he never delighted in dancing; while
juvenile age of Prince Henry has proved such a theme for  he performed his heroical exercises with pride and delight,
our admiration, we may be curious to learn what this extra-  more particularly when before the king, the constable of
ordinary youth was, even at an earlier period. Authentic   Castile, and other ambassadors. He was instructed by his
anecdotes of children are rare; a child has seldom a bin-  master to handle and toss the pike, to march and hold him.
grapher by his side. We have indeed been recently treated   self in an affected style of stateliness, according to the
with' Anecdotes of Children,' in the' Practical Educa-   martinets of those days; but he soon rejected such petty
tion' of the literary family of the Edgeworths; but we   and artificial fashions; yet to show that his dislike arose
may presume, that as Mr Edgeworth delighted in pieces  from  no want of skill in a trifling accomplishment, he
of curious machinery in his house, these automatic infants,  would sometimes resume it only to laugh at it, and instantly
poets, and metaphysicians, of whom  afterwards we have   return to his own natural demeanor.  On one of these oc.
heard no more, seem to have resembled other automata,  casions one of these martinets observing that they could
moving without any native impulse.                        never be good soldiers unless they always kept true order
Prince Henry, at a very early age, not exceeding five   and measure in marching,'What then must they do,'
years, evinced a thoughtfulness of character, singular in a   cried Henry,'when they wade through a swift running
child: something in the formationof this early character   water?' In all things freedom of action from his own namay be attributed to the Countess of Mar.  This lady  tive impulse he preferred to the settled rules of his teach* The word in tie original is, insistance; an expressive  ers  and when his physician told him that he rode too fast,
~ T~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~he replid, in M thrie byrignlis, inphsisac?';Wan hexpesv
word as used by the French ambassador; but which Boyer,  he replied,'Mst I ride by rules of physic?' When he
in his Dictionary, doubts whether it be French, although he  was eating a cold capon in cold weather, the physician told
gives a modern authority; the present is much more an.  him that that was not meat for the weather.'You may
cliant.                                                   see, doctor,' said Henry,'that my cook is no astronomer.
And when the same physician observing him eat cold and
f The Duke of Norfolk was,'Iwithout comparison, the first  And when the same physician observing him eat old and
subject in Englartd; and the qualities of his mind correspond.  hot meat together, protested against it,'I cannot mind
ed with his high station,' says Hume. He closed his career, at  that now,' said the royal boy facetiously,'though they
length, the victim of love rand ambition, in his attempt to marry  should have run at tilt together inmy bell,.'
the Scottish Mary. So great and hionourable a man could only  His national affections were strong. When rone reported
be a criminal by halves; and, to such, the scaffold, and not  to Henry that the King of France had said that his bas.
the throne, is reserved, when they engage in enterprises,  tard, as well as the bastard of Normandy,  gt  conquer
~~, 11 ~~tard, as well as the bastard of Normandy, retgrat conquer
which, by their secrecy, in the eyes of a jealous sovereign, as.  England,-the  princely  oy exclaimed,'i to cuffs with
3ourne he far and -i It ofa consiracyEngland, —the princely boy exclaimed, 4  PII to cuffs wVith
sume the fuiro and guilt of a conspiracy' HumeI vol. V, ch. 39; at the close of 1566.         him, if he go about any such means.'-There was a dish
6 Dr. Birch's Life of this Prince.                             * Harleian MS. 6391.




172                                   CURIOSITIES OF
f jelly before the prince in the form of a crown, with three  ter than you.'' I can do more,' said the tutor,'for I caC
fillies: and a kind of buffoon, whom  the prince used to  govern foolish children.' On which the prince, who, in his
banter, said to the prince that that dish was worth a crown.  respect for his tutor, did not care to carry the Jest further,
~ Aye!' exclaimed the future English hero,'I would I had  rose from table, and in a low voice to those near him said,
that crown!'-' It would be a great dish,' rejoined the buf-'6 He had need be a wise man that could do that.'-Newton
foon.'How can that be,' replied the prince,'since you   was sometimes severe in his chastisements; for when the
value it but a crown?' —When James I asked him whether  prince was playing at goff, and having warned his tutor
he loved Englishmen or Frenchmen better, he replied,  who was standing by in conversation, that he was going to
Englishmen, because he was of kindred to more noble  strike the ball, and having lifted utip the goff-club, some one
persons of England than of France;' and when the king   observing,'Beware, Sir, that you hit not Mr Newton?'
Inquired whether he loved the English or Germans better   the prince drew  back the club, but smilingly observed,
he replied, the English; on which the king observing that'Had I done so, I had but paid my debts.'-At another
iis mother was a German, the prince replied,'Sir, you  time, when he was amusing himself with the sports of a
have the wit thereof.' A southern speech, adds the wri-  child, his tutor wishing to draw him to more manly exerter, which is as much as to say-you are the cause thereof.  cises, amongst other things, said to him in good humour,
Born in Scotland, and heir to the crown of England, at'God send you a wise wife!''That she may govern you
a time when the mutual jealousies of the two nations were  and me!' said the prince.  The tutor observed, that'he
running so high, the boy often had occasion to express the   had one of his own;' the prince replied,'But mine, if I
unity of affection, which was really in his heart.  Being   have one, would govern your wife, and by that means would
questioned by a nobleman, whether, after his father, he   govern both you and me.'-Henry, at this early age, ex.
had rather be a king of England or Scotland? he asked,  eelled in a quickness of reply, combined with reflection,'which of them was best?' being answered, that it was   which marks the precocity of his intellect.  His tutor hayEngland,' Then,' said the Scottish born prince,'would I  ing laid a wager with the prince that he could not refrain
have both!' And once in reading this verse in Virgil,   from standing with his back to the fire, and seeing h;m
Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine agetur,      forget himself once or twice, standing in that posture, the
tutor said,' Sir, the wager is won; you have failed twice;'
the boy said he would make use of that verse for himself,  tMastor s    re'liedHenry, w   Saint Peter's cock crewthrice.'
alteration, thus-               ~~~' Master,' replied Henry,' Saint Peter's cock crew thrice.'
with a slight alteration, thus-                         A musician having played a voluntary in his presence,' Anglus Scotusne mihi nullo discrimine agetur.'   was requested to play the same again.'I [could not for
He was careful to keep alive the same feeling for ano-  the kingdom of Spain,' said the musician,'for this were
ther part of the British dominions, and the young prince   harder than for a preacher to repeat word by word a serappears to have been regarded with great affection by the   mon that he had notlearned by rote.' A clergyman stand.
Welsh; for when once the prince asked a gentleman at  ing by, observed that he thought a preacher might do that;
y, obere ththyugtap  ahrmgtd  ht
what mark he should shoot? the courtier pointed with lev-'Perhaps,' rejoined the young prince,'for a bishoprick!':ty at a Welshman who was present.'Will you see then,'    The natural facetiousness of his temper appears fre.
said the princely boy,'how I will shoot at Welshmen?'  quently in the good humour with which the little prince
Turning his back from him, the Prince shot his arrow in   was accustomed to treat his domestics. He had two of
the air.-When a Welshman who had taken a large ca-  opposite characters, who were frequently set by the ears
rouse, in the fulness of his heart and his head, said in the  for the sake of the sport; the one, Murray, nick-named
presence of the king, that the prince should have 40,000'the tailor,' loved his liquor; and the other was a stout
Welshmen to wait upon him against any king in Christen-'trencherman.' The king desired the prince to put an
dom: the king, not a little jealous, hastily inquired,' To do   end to these brawls, and to make the men agree and that
what?' the little prince turned away the momentary alarm   the agreement should be written and subscribed by both,
by his facetiousness,' To cut off the heads of 40,000 leeks.''Then,' said the prince,' must the drunken tailor subscribe
His bold and martial character was discoverable in mi-  it with chalk, for he cannot write his name, and then I
nute circumstances like these.  Eating in the king's pre-  will make them agree upon this conditiop-that the trenchsence a dish of milk, the king asked him why he ate so   erman shall go into the cellar and drink with Will Murmuch child's meat?'Sir, it is also man's meat,' Henry  ray, and VWill Murray shall make a great wallet for the
replied;-and immediately after, having fed heartily on a   trencherman to carry his victuals in.'-One of his servants
partridge, the king observed, that that meat would make   having cut the prince's finger, and sucked out the blood
him a coward, according to the prevalent notions of the   with his mouth, that it might heal the more easily, the
age respecting diet; to which the young prince replied,  young prince, who expressed no displeasure at the acciThough it be but a cowardly fowl, it shall not make me a   dent, said to him pleasantly,' If, which God forbid! my
coward.' —Once taking strawberries with two spoons, when  father, myself, and the rest of his kindred should fail, you
one might have sufficed, our infant Mars gaily exclaimed,  might claim the crown, for you have now in you the blood
The one I use as a rapier, and the other as a dagger.'    royal.'-Our little prince once resolved on a hearty game of
Adam Newton appears to have filled his office as pre-  play, and for this purpose only admitted his young gentleceptor with no servility to the capricious fancies of the   men, and excluded the men; it happened that an old serprincely boy. Desirous, however, of cherishing the gen-  vant, not aware of the injunction, entered the apartment,
erous spirit and playful humour of Henry, his tutor encou-  on which the prince told him he might play too; and when
raged a freedom of jesting with him, which appears to have  the prince was asked why he admitted this old man rather
been carried at times to a degree of momentary irritability  than the other men, he rejoined,' Because he had a right
on the side of the tutor, by the keen humour of the boy.  to be of their number, for Senex bis puer.
While the royal pupil held his master in equal reverence   Nor was Henry susceptible of gross flattery, tor when
and affection, the gayety of his temper sometimes twitched   once he wore white shoes, and one said he longed to kiss
the equability or the gravity of the preceptor.  When   his foot, the prince said to the fawning courtier,'Sir I am
Newton, wishing to set an example to the prince in heroic  not the pope;' the other replied that he would not kiss the
exercises, one day practised the pike, and tossing it with   pope's foot, except it were to bite off his great toe. The
such little skill as to have failed in the attempt, the young   prince gravely rejoined;' At Rome you would be glad to
prince telling him of his failure, Newton obviously lost his  kiss his foot, and forget the rest.'
temper, observing, that'to find fault was an evil humour.'    It was then the mode, when the king or the prince travellMaster, I take the humour of you.'' It becomes not a   ed, to sleep with their suite at the house, of the nobility;
prince,' observed Newton.' Then,' retorted the young   and the loyalty and zeal of the host were usually displayed
prince,  doth it worse become a prince's master!'-Some   in the reception given to the royal guests.  It happened
of these harmless bickerings are amusing.  When his tu-  that in one of these excursions the prince's servants com.
eor, playing at shuffle board with the prince, blamed him   plained that they had been obliged to go to bed supperless,
for changing so often, and taking up a piece, threw it on the  through the pinching parsimony of the house, which
board, and missed Ihis aim, the prince smilingly exclaimed,  the little prince at the time of hearing seemed to take no
iWell thrown, master;' on which the tutor, a little vexed,  great notice of. The next morning the lady of the house
said  he would not strive with a prince at shuffle board.'  coming to pay her respects to him she found him turning
Henry observed,'Yet you gownsmen should be best at  over a volume that had many pictures in it; one of which
such exercises, which are not meet for men who are more   was a painting of a company sitting at a banqiuet: this he
stirring.'  The tutor, a little irrit ted, said.'I am, meet  showed her.'I invite you madam, to a feast.''To
for whipping of boys.''You vaunt then,' retorted the   what feast?' she asked.'To  this feast,' said  the
prince,''hat which a ploughman or cart driver can do bet-  boy.'What, would your highness give me but a paintec




LITERATURE.                                                         173
feast' Fixing his eye on her, he said,'No better, ma-  the sovereign who confines his campaigns to his drawing.
dam, is found in this house.' There was a delicacy and   loornm;whose field-marshal is a tripping master of the cere.
greatness of spirit in this ingenious reprimand, far excelling   monies; whose stratagems are only to save the itviolabl.
the wit of a child.                                        lity of court-etiquette; and whose battles of peace are on.
According to this anecdote-writer, it appears that James  ly for precedence?
I probably did not delight in the nmiartial dispositions of his  When the Earls of Holland and Carlisle, our ambassa.
son, whose habits and  pinions were, in all respects, form-  dors extraordinary to the court of France in 1624, were~a;
ing themselves opposite to his own tranquil and literary   Paris, to treat of the marriage of Charles with Henrietta,
character.  The writer says that,' his majesty, with the   and to join in a league against Spain, before they shlowed
tokens of love to him, would sometimes intrlace sharp  their propositions, they were desirous of ascertaining in
speeches, and other demonstrations of fatherly severity.'  what manner Cardinal Richelieu would receive them.
Henry, who however lived, though lie died early, to be-  The Marquis of Ville-aux-Clers was employed in this necome a patron of ingenious men  and a lover of genius,  gotiation, which appea-ed at least as important as the mar.
was himself at least as much enamoured of the pike as of  riage and the league. He brought for answer, that the
the pen.  The king, to rouse him to study, told him, that  cardinal would receive them as he did the ambassadors of
if he did not apply more diligently to his book, his brother  the Emperor and the King of Spain; that he could not
duke Charles, who seemed already attached to study,  give them  the right hand in his own house, because he
would prove more able for government and for the cabi-  never honoured in this way those ambassadors; but that,
net; and that himself would be only fit for field exer-  in reconducting them out of his room, he would go farther
cises and military affairs.  To his father, the little prince  than he was accustomed to do, provided that they would
made no reply: but when his tutor one day reminded him   permit him to cover this unusual proceeding with a pretext,
of what his fathei had said, to stimulate our young prirlce   that the others might not draw any consequences from it in
to literary diligence, Henry asked, whether he thought his  their favour. Our ambassadors did not disapprove of this exbrother would prove so good a scholar? His tutor replied,  pedient, but they begged time to receive the instructions of
that he was likely to prove so.' Then,' rejoined our lit-  his majesty.  As this would create aconsiderable delay,
tie prince will I make Charles archbishop of Canterbury.   they proposed another, which would set at rest, for the mt,.
Our Henry was devoutly pious and rigid in never per-  ment, the punctillio.  They observed, that if the cardinal
mirting before him any licentious language or manners. It  would feign himself sick, they would go to see him: on
is well known that James I had a habit ofswearing,-in-   which the cardinal immediately went to bed, and an internocent expletives in conversation, which, in truth, only   view, so important to both nations, took place, and articles
expressed the warmth of his feelings: but in that age,  of great difficulty were discussed, by the cardinal's bedwhen Puritam-,m  had already possessed half the nation,  side!  When the Nuncio Spada would have made the
an oath was considered as nothing short of blasphemy.  cardinaljealous of the pretensions of the English ambasHenry once made a keen allusion to this verbal frailty of  sadors, and reproached him with yielding his precedence
his father's; for when he was told that some hawks were  to them, the cartlinal denied this.'I never go before
to be sent to him, but it was thought that the king would  them, it is true, but likewise I never accompany them; I
intercept some of them, he replied' He may do as he   wait for them only in the chamber of audience, either seatpleases, for he shall not be put to the oath for the matter.'  ed in the most honourable place, or standing, till the table
The king once asking him  what were the best verses he  is ready: I am always the first to speak, and the first to be
had learned in the first book of Virgil, Henry answered,  seated; and besides I have never chosen to return their
These:                                                     visit, which has made the Earl of Carlisle so outrageous.'*
Rex erast Eneas nobis quo justior alter            Such was the ludicrous gravity of those court-etiquettes,
Nec pietate fuit, nec bello major et armis.      or punctillios, combined with political consequences, oi
Such are a fbw of the puerile anecdotes of a prince who   which I am now to exhibit a picture.
died in early youth, gleaned from a contemporary manu-       When James I ascended the throne of his united king.
script, by an eye and ear witness.  They are trifles, but  doms, and promised himself and the world long halcyon
trifles consecrated by his name. They are genuine! and   days of peace, foreign princes, and a long train of ambas.
the philosopher knows how  to value the indications of a   sadors from every European power, resorted to the English
great and heroic character.  There are among them some,  court.  The pacific monarch, in emulation of an office
which may occasion an inattentive reader to forget that  which already existed in the courts of Europe, created
they are all the speeches and the actions of a child!      that of Master of the Ceremonies, after the mode of
TIHE DIAIiY OF A MASTER OF THE CEREMONIES.             France, observes Roger Coke.f  This was now found
Of court-etiquette, few are acquainted with its myste-   necessary to preserve the state, and allay the perpetual
ries, and still fewer have lost themselves in its labyrinth of  jealousies of the representatives of their sovereigns. The
forms.  Whence its origin?  Perhaps from  those grave   first officer was Sir Lewis Lewkncr,T with an assistant,
and courtly Italians, who, in their petty pompous courts*   Sir John Finett, who, at length, succeeded him  under
made the whole business of their effeminate days consist  Charles I, and seems to have been more amply blest with
in punctilliwo; and, wanting realities to keep themselves  the genius of the place; his soul doated on the honour of
alive, affected the mere shadows of life and action, in a   the office; and in that age of peace and of ceremony, we
world of these mockeries of state.  It suited well the ge-  may be astonished at the subtilty of his inventive shifts and
nius of a people who boasted of elementary works, to teach   contrivances, in quieting  that school of angry and rigid
how affronts were to be given, and how to be taken; and   boys whom  he had under his care-the ambassadors of
who had some reason to pride themselves in producing the   Europ!
Cortegiano of Castiglione, and the Galateo of Della Casa.    Sir John Finett, like a man of genius, in office, and livThey carried this refining temper into the most trivial cir-  iig too in an age of diaries, has not resisted the pleasant
cumstances, when a court was to be the theatre and mo-  labour of perpetuating his own narrative.~  He has told
narchs and their representatives the actors.  Precedence    every circumstance with a chronological exactitude, which
and other honorary discriminations, establish the useful  passed in his province as master of the ceremonies; and
distinctions of ranks, and of individuals; but their minuter   when we consider that he was a busy actor amidst the
court forms, subtilised by Italian conceits, with an erudition  * La Vie de Card. Richelieu, anonymous, but written by J
of precedents, and a logic of nice distinctions, imparted a   Le Clerc, 1695, vol. I. p. 116-125.
mock dignity of science to the solemn fopperies of a mas-    A Detection of the Court and State of England, v)ol
ter of tlhe ceremonies, who exhausted all the faculties of    1, 3.
tStowe's Annals, p. 8-24.
his soul on the equiponderance of the first place of inferior       te  tls   r   v
~ Igive the title of this rare volume, "Finetti Plbiloxenr;js
degree with the last of a superior; who turned into a po-   Some choice observations of Sir John Finett, Knighlt, and mas
litical contest the placing of a chair and a stool; made a   ter of the ceremonies to the two last kings; touching the recep
reception at the stairs'-head, or at the door, raise a clash   tion and precedence, the treatment and audience, the punctil
between two rival nations; a visit out of time require a   lies and contests of foreign ambassadors in England. Legats
negotiation of three monh; or an awkward invitation pro-  ligant Mundum. 1656.' This very curious diary was published
after the author's death, by his friend James Howell, the wellduce a sudden fit of sickness; while many a rising ansa-   atrteaihrsdah  yhsfin  ae   oel h   et
duce a sudden fit of sickness; while many a rising anta-   known writer; and Oldys, whose literary curiosity scarcely
gonist, in the formidable shapes of ambassadors, were   anything in our domestic literature has escaped, has analysed
ready to despatch a courier to their courts, for the omission   the volume with his accustomed care. He mentions that there
or neglect, of a single punctillio.  The pride of nations, in   was a manuscript in being, more full than the one published:
pacific times, has only these means to maintain their jeal-  of which I have not been able to learn further.
ousy of power: yet should not the people be grateful to                                   British Librarian, p. 163.




174                                   CURIOSITIES OF
whole diplomatic corps, we shall not be surprised by dis-  as he returned to the lord chamberlain, he discovered, thad
covering, in this small volume of great curiosity, a vein of  he had been sought for up and down, to stop the invitation.
secret and authentic history; it throws a new light on many   The lord chamberlain said, Sir John had exceeded his
important events, in which the historians of the times are  commission, if he had invited the Dutchmen' to stand in
deficient, who had not the knowledge of this assiduous ob-. the closet of the queen's side; because the Spanish am.
server. But my present purpose is not to treat Sir John  bassador would never endure them so near him, where
with all the ceremonious punctillios, of which he was him-  there was but a thin wainscot board between, and a window
self the arbiter; nor to quote him on grave subjects, which  which might be opened!' Sir John said gently, he had
future historians may well do.                          done no otherwise than he had been desired; which, howThis volume contains the ruptures of a morning, and   ever, the lord chamberlain, in part, denied, (cautious and
the peace-makings of an evening; sometimes it tells of  civil!)' and I was not so unmannerly as to contend against,
a clash between the Savoy and Florence ambassadors  (supple, but uneasy!)  This affair ended miserably fbr
for precedence;'-now of'questions betwixt the Imperial  the poor Dutchmen. Those new republicans were then
and, Venetian ambassadors, concerning titles and visits,'  regarded with the most jealous contempt by all the ambashow they were to address one another, and who was to  sadors, and were just venturing on their first dancing
pay the first visit! —then' the Frenchman takes exceptions  steps, to move among crowned heads.  The Dutch now
about placing.' This historian of the levee now records,  resolved not to be present; declaring they had just received
that the French ambassador gets ground of the Spanish;'  an urgent invitation, from the Earl of Exeter, to dine at
but soon after, so eventful were these drawing room poli-  Wimbledon. A piece of supercherie to save appearances;
tics, that a day of festival has passed away in suspense,  probably the happy contrivance of the combined geniuses
while a privy council has been hastily summoned, to in-  of the lord chamberlain and the master of the ceremonies!
quire why the French ambassador had'a defuction of    I will now exhibit some curious details from these arrheum in his teeth, besides a fit of the ague,' although he  chives offantastical state, and paint a courtly world,
hoped to be present at the same festival next year! or  where politics and civility seem to have been at perpetual
being invited to a mask, declared'his stomach would not  variance.
agree with cold meats:''thereby pointing' (shrewdly oh-    When the Palatine arrived in England to marry Eliza.
serves Sir John)'at the invitation and presence of the  beth, the only daughter of James the First.'the feasting
Spanish ambassador, who, at the mask the Christmas be-  and jolity' of the court were interrupted by the discontent
fore, had appeared in the first place.'                of the archduke's ambassador, of which these were the
Sometimes we discover our master of the ceremonies  material points:
disentangling himself, and the lord chamberlain, from the  Sir John waited on him, to honour with his presence
most provoking perplexities, by a clever and civil lie. Thus  the solemnity on the second or third days, either to dinner
it happened, when the Muscovite ambassador would not  or supper, or both.
yield precedence to the French nor Spaniard. On this    The archduke's ambassador paused: with a troubled
occasion, Sir John, at his wits end, contrived an obscure  countenance inquiring whether the Spanish ambassador
situation, in which the Russ imagined he was highly ho-  was invited?'I answered, answerable to my instructions
noured, as there he enjoyed a full sight of the king's face,  in case of such demand, that he was sick, and could not
though he could see nothing of the entertainment itself;  be there. He was yesterday, quoth he, so well, as that
while the other ambassadors were so kind as'not to take  the offer might have very well been made him, and per.
exception,' not caring about the Russian, from the re-  haps accepted.'
moteness of his country, and the little interest that court    To this Sir John replied, that the French and Venetian
then had in Europe! But Sir John displayed even a  ambassadors holding between them one course of corresbolder invention when the Muscovite, at his reception at  pondence, and the Spanish and the archduke's another,
Whitehall, complained that only one lord was in waiting  their invitations had been usually joint.
at the stairs-head, while no one had met him in the      This the archduke's ambassador denied; and affirmed,
court-yard. Sir John assured him that in England it was  that they had been separately invited to Masks, &c,
considered a greater honour to be received by one lord  but he had never;-that France had always yielded prethan by two! t                                         cedence to the archduke's predecessors, when they were
Sir John discovered all his acumen in the solemn inves-  but Dukes of Burgundy, of which he was ready to protigation of' Which was the upper end of the table?'  duce'ancient proofs;' and that Venice was a mean reArguments and inferences were deduced from precedents  public, a sort of burghers, and a handful of territory,
quoted; but as precedents sometimes look contrary ways,  compared to his monarchical sovereign:-and to all this
this affair might still have remained sub judice, had not  he added, that the Venetian bragged of the frequent faSir John oracularly pronounced that'in spite of the   yours he had received.
chimneys in England, where the best man sits is that end  Sir John returns in great distress to the lord chamberof the table.' Sir John, indeed, would often take the  lain and his majesty. A solemn declaration is drawn up,
most enlarged view of things; as when the Spanish am-  in which James I most gravelylaments that the archduke's
bassador, after hunting with the king at Theobalds, dined  ambassador has taken this offence; but his majesty offers
with his majesty in the privy chamber, his son Don An-  these most cogent arguments in his own favour: that the
tonio dined in the council chamber with some of the king's  Venetian had announced to his majesty, that his republic
attendants. Don Antonio seated himself on a stool at the  had ordered his men new liveries on the occasion, an
end of the table.'One of the gentlemen ushers took  honour, he adds, not usual with princes-the Spanish
exception at this, being, he said, irregular and unusual,  ambassador, not finding himself well for the first day (bethat place being ever wont to be reserved emptyfor state!'  cause, by the way, he did not care to dispute precedence
In a word, no person in the world was ever to sit on that  with the Frenchman,) his majesty conceiving that the
stool; but Sir John, holding a conference before he chose  solemnity of the marriage being one continued act through
to disturb the Spanish grandee, finally determined that  divers days, it admitted neither prius nor posterius: and
this was the superstition of a gentleman-usher, and it was  then James proves too much, by boldly asserting, that the
therefore neglected. Thus Sir John could, at a critical  last day should be taken for the greatest day! As in other
moment, exert a more liberal spirit, and risk an empty  cases, for instance in that of Christmas, where Twelfthstool against a little ease and quiet; which were no com-  day, the last day, is held as the greatest!
mon occurrences with that martyr of state, a master of    But the French and Venetian ambassadors, so envied
ceremonies!                                            by the Spanish and the archduke's, were themselves not
But Sir John, to me he is so entertaining a personage  less chary, nod crustily fastidious.  The insolent French-.bat I do not care to get rid of him, had to overcome dif-  man first attempted to take precedence of the Prince ot
ficulties which stretched his fine genius on tenter hooks.  Wales; and the Venetian stood upon this point, that they
Once, rarely did the like unlucky accident happen to the  should sit on chairs, though the prince had but a stool;
wary master of the ceremonies, did Sir John exceed the civi-  and, particularly, that the carver should not stand before
lity of his instructions, or rather his half-instructicns. Being  him!'But,' adds Sir John,'neither of them prevailed
rent to invite the Dutch ambassador, and the States' com-  in their reasonless pretences.'
missioners, then a young and new government, to the    Nor was it peaceable even at the nuptial dinner,, which
ceremonies of St George's day, they inquired whether  closed with the following catastrophe of etiquette.
they should have the same respect paid to them as other    Sir John having ushered among the countesses the lady
ambassadors?  The bhand Sir John, out of the milkiness  of the French ambassador, he left her to the rangin  of the
oi his blood, said lie!oubted it not. As soon, however,  lord chamberlain, who ordered she should be placed at the




LITERATURE.                                                      175
table'next beneath the countesses and above the baronesses.  when behold the Venetian would not relinquish his hold,
But lo!'The viscountess of Effinogham  standing to her  but turned on him'with the reading of another scruple,
tosoman's:right, and possessed already of her proper place  et hinc illoe Ilchrime! asking whether the archduke's am.
(as she called it,) would not remove lower, so held the hand   bassador was also invited?' Poor Sir John, to keep him.
of the ambassatrice, till after dinner, when the French   self clear Ifrom categorical asseverations,' declared' he
ambassador, informed of the difference and opposition,  could not resolve him.' Then the Venetian observed,
called out for his wife's coach!' With great trouble, the' Sir John was dissembling! and he hoped and imagined
French lady was persuaded to stay, the Countess of Kil-  that Sir John had in his instructions, that he was first to
dare, and the Viscountess of Haddington, making no scru-  have gone to him (the Venetian,) and on his return to the
pie of yielding their places. Sir John, unbending his  archduke's ambassador.' Matters now threatened to be
gravity, facetiously adds,' The Lady of Effingham, in the   as irreconcilable as ever, for it seems the Venetian was
interim, forbearing (with rather too much than too little  standing on the point of precedency with the archduke's
stomach) both her supper and her company.' This spoilt  ambassador.  The political Sir John, wishing to gratify
child of quality, tugging at the French ambassadress to  the Venetian at no expense, adds,' he thought it ill mankeep her down, mortified to be seated at the side of the   ners to mar a belief of an ambassador's making,'-and so
French woman that day, frowning and frowned on, and   allowed him to think that he had been invited before the
oing supperless to bed, passed the wedding-day of the   archduke's ambassador!
Palatine and Princess Elizabeth, like a cross girl on a    This Venetian proved himself to be, to the great torform.                                                    ment of Sir John, a stupendous genius in his own way;
One of the most subtle of these men of punctillio, and   ever on the watch to be treated al pare di teste coronatethe most troublesome, was the Venetian ambassador; for  equal with crowned heads; and, when at a tilt, refused
it was his particular aptitude to find fault, and pick out  being placed among the ambassadors of Savoy and the
jealousies among all the others of his body.             States-general, &c, while the Spanish and French ambasOn the marriage of the Earl of Somerset, the Venetian   sadors were seated alone on theopposite side. The Venewas invited to the mask, but not the dinner, as last year  tian declared that this would be a diminution of his quality;
the reverse had occurred. The Frenchman, who drew   the first place of an inferior degree being ever held worse than
always with the Venetian, at this moment chose to act  the last of a superior.  This refined observation delighted
by himself on the watch of precedence, jealous of the   Sir John, who dignifies it as an axiom, yet afterwards camie
Spaniard newly arrived. When invited, he inquired if  to doubt It with a sed de hoc quere —query this! If it be
the Spanish ambassador was to be there? and humbly  true in politics, it is not so in common sense according to
beseeched his majesty to be excused from indisposition.  the proverbs of both nations; for the honest English deWe shall now see Sir John put into the most lively action,  dclares, that' Better be the head of the yeomanry than the
by the subtle Venetian.                                 tail of the gentry;' while tile subtile Italian nas it,' E'I was scarcely back at court with the French ambas-  meglie esser testa di Luccio, che coda di Storione;' better
sador's answer, when I was told, that a gentleman from   be the head of a pike than the tail of a sturgeon.' But
the Venetian ambassador had been to seek me; who,  before we quit Sir John, let us hear him in his own words,
having at last found me, said that his lord desired me, that  reasoning with that fine critical tact, which he undoubtedly
if ever I would do him favour, I would take the pains to  possessed, on right and left hands, but reasoning with infi.
come to him instantly.  I, winding the cause to be some   nite modesty as well as genius. Hear this sage of puno.
new buzz gotten into his brain, from some intelligence he  tillios, this philosopher of courtesies.
had from  the French of that morning's proceeding, ex-' The Axiom before delivered by the Venetian ambassa.
cused my present coming, that I might take further in-  dor was judged, upon discourse I had with some of under.
structions from the lord chamberlain; wherewith as soon  standing, to be of value in a distinct compang,  but might
as I was sufficiently armed, I went to the Venetian.'   be otherwise in a joint assembly!' And then Sir John, like
But the Venetian would not confer with Sir John,  a philosophical historian, explores some great public event
though he sent for him in such a hurry, except in presence   -' As at the conclusion of the peace at Vervins (the only
of his own secretary. Then the Venetian desired Sir  partof the peace he cared about,) the French and Span.
John to repeat the words of his invitation, and those also of  ish meeting, contended for precedence-who should sit
his own answer! which poor Sir John actually did! For  at the right hand of the pope's legate; an expedient was
he adds,' I yielded, but not without discovering my insat-  found, of sending into France for the pope's nunio resid.
isfaction to be so peremptorily pressed on, as if he bad  ing there, who, seated at the right hand of the said legate
meant to trip me.'                                       (the legate himself sitting at the table's end,) the French
The Venetian having thus compelled Sir John to con   ambassador being offered the choice of the next place, he
over both invitation and answer, gravely complimented  took that at the legate's left hand, leaving the second at
him on his correctness to a title! Yet still was the Vene-  the right hand to the Spanish, who, taking it, persuaded
tian not in less trouble: and now hie confessed that the   himself to have the better of it; sed de hoc qua-re.' How
king had given a formal invitation to the French ambassa-  modestly, yet how shrewdly insinuated!
dor,-and not to him!                                       So much, if not too much, of the Diary of a Master of
This was a new stage in this important negotiation: it  the Ceremonies; where the important personages strange.
tried all the diplomatic sagacity of Sir John, to extract a   ly contrast with the frivolity and foppery of their actions.
discovery; and which was, that the Frenchman had, in-      By this work it appears that all foreign ambassadors
deed, conveyed the intelligence secretly to the Venetian.   were entirely entertained, for their diet, lodgings, coaches,
Sir John now acknowledged that he had suspected as   with all their train, at the cost of the English monarch, and
much when he received the message, and not to be taken by   on their departure received customary presents of consid.
surprise, he had come prepared with a long apology, end-  erable value; from 1000 to 5000 ounces of gilt plate; and
ing for peace sake, wvith the same formal invitation for the  in more cases than one, the meanest complaints were
Venetian. Now the Venetian insisted again that Sir John   made by the ambassadors, abouit short allowances. That
should deliver the invitation in the same precise words as it  the foreign ambassadors in return made presents to the
had been given to the Frenchman.  Sir John, with his  masters of the ceremonies, froni thirty to fifty' pieces,' or
never-failing courtly docility, performed it to a syllable.  in plate or jewel; and some so grudgingly, that Sir John
Whether both parties during all those proceedings could   Finett often vents his indignation, and commemorates the
avoid moving a risible muscle at one another, our grave  indignity. As thus,-on one of the Spanish ambassadors.
authority records not.                                   extraordinary waiting at Deal for three days, Sir John,
The Venetian's final answer seemed now perfectly satis-' expecting the wind with the patience of an hungry enter.
factory, declaring he would not excuse his absence as the  tainment from a close-handed ambassador, as his present to
Frenchman had, on the most frivolous pretence; and fur-  me at his parting from Dover being but an old gilt livery
ther, he expressed his high satisfaction with last year's  pot, that had lost his fellow not worth above 12 pounds,
substantial testimony of the royal favour, in the public  accompanied with two pair of Spanish gloves to make it
honours con'erred on him, and regretted that the quiet of  almost 13, to my shame and his.' When he left this scurvy
his majesty should be so frequently disturbed by these   anibassador-extraordinary to his fate aboard the ship, lie.nctillios, about invitations, which so often' over-thronged   exults that' the cross-winds held him in the Dewns almot
his guests at the feast.'                                a seven-night before they would blow him over.'
Sir John now imagined that all was happily conc-eluded,    From  this mode of' receiving ambassadors, two incon.
and was retiring witb the sweetness of a dove, and the   veniences resulted; their perpetual jars ofpunctillios, and
quietness of a mouse, to fly to the lord chamberlain,-  their singular intrigues to obtain precedence, which so




176                                   CURIOSITIES OF
complete.y narrassed the patience of the most pacific sove-  it on himself and on all around him. Men then wrote
reign, that James was compelled to make great alterations  folios concerning themselves; and it sometimes happen.
min his domestic comforts, and was perpetually embroiled in  ed, as proved hy many that I have examined in manu.
the most ridiculous contests.  Atlength Charles I perceiv-  script, that often writing in retirement they would write
ed the great charge of these embassies, ordinary and   when they had nothing to write.
extraordinary, often on frivolous pretences; and with an     Diaries must be out of date in a lounging age; although
empty treasury, and an uncomplying parliament, he grew   I have myself known several who have continued the
less anxious for such ruinous hnnours.*  He gave notice   practise with pleasure and utility.  One of our old writers
to foreign ambassadors, that he should not any more' de-  quaintly observes, that'the ancients used to take their
fray their diet, nor provide coaches for them, &c.'' This  stomach-pill of selr-examination every night.  Some used
frugal purpose' cost Sir John many altercations, who seems  little books, or tablets, which they tied at their girdles, in
to view it, as the glory of the British monarch being on the   which they kept a memorial of what they did, against their
wane.  The unsettled state of Charles was appearing in  night-reckoning.'  We know  that Titus, the delight of
1636, by the querulous narrative of the master of the cere-  nmankind as he has been called, kept a diary of all his
monies; the etiquettes of the court were disturbed by the  actions, and when at night he found upon examination that
erratic course of its great star; and the master of the cere-  he had performed nothing memorable, he would exclaim,
monies was reduced to keep blank letters to superscribe,' Amici! diem  perdidimus!' Friends! we have lost a day!
and address to any nobleman who was to be found, from         Among our own countrymen, in times more favourable
the absence of the great officers of state. On this occasion  for a concentrated mind than in this age of scattered thoughts
the ambassador of the Duke of Mantova, who had long  and of the fragments of genius, the custom long prevailed;
desired his parting audience, when the king objected to the  and we their posterity are still reaping the benefit of their
unfitness of the place he was then in, replied, that' if it  lonely hours, and diurnal records.  It is always pleasing
were under a tree, it should be to him as a palace.'       to recollect the name of Alfred, and we have deeply to reYet although we smile at this soience of etiquette and   gret the loss of a manuel which this monarch, so strict a
these rigid forms of ceremony, when they were altogether  manager of his time, yet found leisure to pursue; it would
discarded, a great statesman lamented them, and found the   have interested us more even than his translations, which'nconvenience  and mischief in the political consequences   have come down to us.  Alfred carried in his bosom me.
which followed their neglect.  Charles II, who was no   morandum leaves, in which he made collections from his
admirer of these regulated formalities of court-etiquette,  studies, and took so much pleasure in the frequent examiseems to have broken up the pomp and pride of the former  nation of this journal, that he called it his hand-book, bemaster of the ceremonies; and the grave and the great  cause, says Spelman, day and night he ever had it in hand
chancellor ofhuman nature, as Warburton calls Clarendon,  with him. This manual, as my learned friend Mr Turner,
censured and felt all the inconveniences of this open inter-  in his elaborate and philosophical Life of Alfred, has shown
course of an ambassador with the king.  Thus he observ-  by some curious extracts from Malmsbury, was the reposi.
ed in the case of the Spanish ambassador, who, he writes,  tory of his own occasional literary reflections.  An asso-'took the advantage of the license of the court, where no   ciation of ideas connects two other of our illustrious princes
rules of formalities were yet established (and to which the   with Alfred.
king himself was not enough enclined) but all doors open     Prince Henry, the son of James I, our English Marcel.
to all persons; which the ambassador finding, he made   us, who was wept by all the Muses, and mourned by all
himself a domestic, came to the king at all hours, and   the brave in Britain, devoted a great portion of his time to
spake to him when, and as long as he would without any   literary intercourse; and the finest geniuses of the age
ceremony, or desiring an audience according to the old cus-   addressed their works to him, and wrote several at the
tom; but came into the bed-chamber while the king was   princes's suggestion: Dallington, in the preface of his
dressing himself, and mingled in all discourses with the   curious   Aphorisms, Civil and Militare,' has described
same freedom he would use in his own. And from  this  Prince Henry's domestic life:' Myself,' says he,  the unnever heard-of license, introduced by the French and the   ablest of many in that academy, for so was his fanily, had
Spaniard at this time without any dislike in the king, though   this especial employmentfor his proper use, which he pleas.
not permitted in any court in Christendom, many incon.   ed favourably to entertain, and often to read over.
veniences and mischiefs broke in, which could never after     The diary of Edward VI, written with his own hand,
be shut out.'*                                             conveys a notion of that precocity of intellect, in that early
educated prince, which would not suffer his infirm health
DtAacoSv-MOar L, wi habsenTo bcA, l  saND  CRwT huCAL.  to relax in his royal duties.  This prince was solemnly
We converse with the absent by letters, and with our-  struck with  the feeling that he was not seated on a
selves by diaries; but vanity is more gratified by dedica-  throne to be a trifler or a sensualist; and this simplicity
ting its time to the little labours which have a chance of  of mind is very remarkable in the entries of his diary;
immediate notice and may circulate from hand to hand,  where on one occasion, to remind himself of the causes
than by the honester pages of a volume reserved only for  of his secret proffer of friendship to aid the Emperor of
solitary contemplation; or to be a future relic of ourselves,  Germany with men against the Turk, and to keep it at
when w;e shall no more hear of ourselves.                  present secret from  the French court, the young mon.
Marcus Antoninus's celhbrated work entitled Tsov fsi- Iva-  arch inserts,' this was done on intent to get some friends.
f-r Of the things which concern himself, would be a good   The reasonings be in my desk.' So  zealous was he to
definition of the use and purpose of a diary.  Shaftes-  have before him a state of public affairs, that often in the
bury calls a diary,'A  Faultbook,' intended for self-cor-  middle of the month he recalls to mind passages which he
rection; and a Colonel Hardwood in the reign of Charles   had omitted in the beginning: what was done every day
I kept adiary, which, in the spirit of the times, he entitled   of moment, he retired into his study to set down. Even'Slips, Infirmities, and Passages of providence.' Such a   James II wrote with his own hand the daily occurrences
diary is a moral instrument, should the writer exercise   of his times,,,s reflections and conjectures; and be..
queathed us le.ser materials for history than'perhaps any
sovereign princs has left behind him.' Adversity had
* Charles I, had, however adopted them, and long preserved   schooled him minto reflection, and softened into humanity a
tMe stateliness of his court with foreign powers, as appears by   spirit of bigotry; ad it is something in his favour, that
spirit of bigotry; and it is something in his fayour, tha
these extracts from manuscript letters of the time:        after his abdication he collected his thouhts and mortified
Mr. Mead writes to Sir M. Stuteville, July 25, 1629.'His
majesty was wont to answer the French ambassador in his own   himself by the penance of a diary.  Could a Clive or a
language; now he speaks in English, and by an interpreter.  Cromwell have composed one? Neither of these men
And so doth Sir Thomas Edmondes to the French king, con-  could suffer solitude and darkness; they started at their
traryto the ancient custom: so that altho' of late we have not  casual recollections!-what would they have done, had
equalled them in arms, yet now we shall equal them in cere-  memory marshalled their crimes, and arranged them in the
monies.'
roni)     Oct. 31, 1628.                               terrors of chronology?'Thisdayortnight te S'            When the national character retained more originality' This day fortnight the States' ambassador going to visit my   and individuality than our monotonous habits now admit,
lord treasurer about some business, whereas his lordship was  our later ancestors displayed m love of application, whit
wont always to bring them but to the stair's head, he then, af-  was a source of happiness, quite lost to us. Till the midter a great deal cf courteous resistance on the ambassador's   was a  urce of hainess,  ite lot to     Till the md
part, attended him through the hall and court-yard, even to  dle of the last century, they were as great economists of
the very boot of his coach.' Sloane MSS. 4178.             their time, as of their estates; and life with them was not
Clarendon's Life. vol. II, p. 160.                     one hurried, yet tedious festival.  Living more within




LIT ERATURE.                                                         177
themselves, more separated, they were therefore more ori-  independent country gentleman, to whose zeal we owe the
ginal in their prejudices, their principles, and in the con-  valuable journals of' parliament in Elizabeth's reign, and
stitution of their minds.  They resided more on their es-  who has left in manuscript a voluminous diary, from
trates, and the metropolis was usually resigned to the men   which may be drawn some curious matters. In the preface
of trade in their royval Exchange, and the preferment  to his jou:nals, he has presented a noble picture of his
hunters amnong the back-stairs at Wthitehall.  Lord Cla-  literary reveries, and the intended productions of his pen.
rendon tells us in his' Life' that his grand-father in James  They will animate the youthful student, and show the
the First's time had never been in London after the death  active genius of the gentlemen of that day; the present
of' Elizabeth, though he lived thirty years afterwards; and   diarist observes,' Having now  finished these volumes,
his wife, to whole he had been married forty years, had   I have already entered upon other and greater laboulrs,
never once visited the metropolis. On this fact he makes  conceiving myself not to be born for myself alone,'
a curious observation;' The wisdom and frugality of that' Qui vivat sibi solus, homo nequit esse beatus,
time beirng such, that few  gentlemen made journeys to             Malo mori, nam sic vivere nolo mihi.'
London,  or ally other expensive journey, but upon impor-    He then gives a list of his intended historical works, and
taut business, and their wives never; by which providence   adds'These I have proposed to myself to labour in, bee
they enjoyed and improved their estates in the country,  sides diverse others, smoalier works: like him that shoots at
and  kept good hospitality in their house, brought up their  the sun, not in hopes to reach it, but to shoot as high as
children well, and were beloved  by their neighbours.'  possibly his strength, art, or skill, will permit.  So though
This will appear a very coarse homespun happiness, and   I know it impossible to finish all these during my short and
these must seerrt very gross virtues to our artificial feelings;  uncertain life, having already entered into the thirtieth
yet this assuredly created a national character; made anavoidable cares of an
patriot of every country gentleman; and, finally, produced  sytate and family, yet if I can finish a little in each kind
itm the civil wars some of the most sublime and original  it may hereafter stir up some able judges to add an end to
characters that ever acted a great part on the theatre of  the whole:
human life.
This was the age of Diaries! The head of almost every' Sic mihi contingat vivere, sicque mori.'
family formed one. Ridiculous people may have written       Richard Baxter, whose facility and diligence, it is said,
ridiculous diaries, as Elias Ashmole's; but many of our  produced one hundred and forty-five distinct works, wrote,
greatest characters in public life have left such monuments  he himself says,' in  the crowd of all my other employ.
of their diurnal labours.                                ments.'  Assuredly the one which may excite astonish.
These diaries were a substitute to every thinking man   ment is his voluminous auto-biography, forming a folio of
for our newspapers, itagazines, and annual registers; but  more than seven hundred closely-printed pages; a history
those who imagine that these are a substitute for the sceni-  which takes a considerable compass, from  1615 to 1648;
cal and dramatic life of the diary of a man of genius, like   whose writer pries into the very seed of events, and whose
Swift who wrote one, or even of a sensible observer, who   personal knowledge of the leading actors of his times throws
lived amidst the scenes he describes, only show that they   a perpetual interest over his lengthened pages.  Yet this
are better acquainted with the mere ephemeral and equi-  was not written with a view of publication by himself; he
vocal labours.                                           still continued this work, till time and strength wore out
There is a curious passage in a letter of Sir Thomas  the hand that could no longer hold the pen, and left it to the
Bodley, recommending to Sir Francis Bacon, then a young  judgment of others, whether it should be given to the
Aman on his travels, the mode by which he should make his  world.
life' profitable to his country and his friends.' His expres-  These were private persons.  It may excite our sur.
sions are remarkable.' Let all these riches be treasured   prise to discover that our statesmen, and others engaged
up, not only il your memory, where time may lessen your  in active public life, occupied themselves with the same
stock, but rather in good writings and books of account,  habitual attention to what was passing around them in the
which will keel), them safe for your use hereafter.' By   form of diaries, or their own memoirs, or in forming eelthese good wsritings and books of account, he describes the  lections for future times, with no possible view but for posdiaries of a student and an observer; these' good writings'  thumous utility. They seem to have been inspired by the
will preserve what wear out in the memory, and these   mogt. genuine passion of patriotism, and an awful love of'books of account' render to a man an account of himsef  posterity.   What motive less powerful could induce many
to himself.                                              noblemen and gentlemen to transcribe volumes; to trans.
It was this solitary reflection and industry which assur-  mit to posterity authentic narratives, which would not even
edly contributed so largely to fobrm the gigantic minds of  admit of contemporary notice; either because the facts
the Seldons, the Carrdens, the Cokes, and others of that  were then well knowut to all, or of so secret a nature as to
vigorous age of genius. When Coke fell into disgrace,  render them dangerous to be communicated to their own
and retired into private life, the discarded statesman did  times.  They sought neither fame nor interest.; for many
not pule himself into a lethargy, but on the contrary seem-  collections of this nature have come down to us without
ed almost to rejoice that an opportunity was at length   even the names of the scribes, which have been usually
afforded him of indulging in studies more congenial to his  discovered by accidental circumstances.  It may be said,
feelings.  Then he found leisure not only to revise his  that this toil was the pleasure of idle men:-the idlers then
former writings, which were thirty volumes written with   were of a distinct race from our own.  There is scarcely
his own hand,'but what most pleased him, he was enabled   a person of reputation among them, who has not left sucfh
to write a manual, which he called Vade Mecum, and which  laborious records of himself.  I intend drawing up a list
contained a retrospective view of his life, since he noted in  of such diaries and memoirs; which derive their importhat volume the mnost remarkable occurrences which had  tance from the diarists themselves.  Even the women of
happened to hin. It is rot probable that such a MS. could  this time partook of the same thoughtful dispositions.  It
have been destroyed but by accident; and it might, per-  appears that the Duchess of York, wife of James II, and
haps, yet be recovered.                                  the daughter of Clarendon drew up a narrative of his life:' The interest of the public was the business of Camden's  the celebrated Duchess of Newcastle has formed a digni.
life,' observes Bishop Gibson; and, indeed, this was the  fled biography of her husband: Lady Fanshaw's Memoirs
character of the men of that age. Camden kept a diary   are partially known by some curious extracts; and recentof all occurrences in the reign of James I; not that at his  ly Mrs Hutchinson's Memoirs of her Colonel delighted
advanced age, and with his infirm health, he could ever  every curious reader.
imnaoine that he should make use of these materials: but    Whitelocke's'Memorials' is a diary full of important
lie did this, inspired by the love of truth, and of that labour  public matters; and the noble editor, the Earl of Anglesea,
which delights in preparing its materials for posterity.   observes, that'our author not only served the state, in
Bishop Gibson has made an important observation on the   several stations, both at home and in foreign countries, but
nature of such a diary, which cannot be too often repeated   likewise conversed with books, and made himself a laree
to those who have the opportunities of forming one; and   provision from  his studies and contemplatien, like that
for them I transcribe it.' I Were this practised by persons   noble Roman Portius Cato, as described by Nepos. Ileof learning and curiosity, who have the opportunities of  was all along so much in business. one would not imagine
seeing into the public affairs of a kingdom, the short hints  he ever had leisure for books; yet, who considers his stuand strictures of this kind would ofien set thinlgs in a truer  dies mnight believe he had been alwavs shbut uu) with his
hight than reaglasr histories.'                         friend Selden, and the dust ef actio n ncever fallen on his
A  student of this class was Sir Symonds D'Ewes, an   gown.' When Whitelocke was sent on an emnlassy to Swe
23




178                                     CURIOSITIES OF
den, he journalized it; it amounts to two bulky quartos, ex-  But the most admirable example is Lord Clarendon's
tremely curious. lie has even left us a history of England.  History of his own'Life,' or rather of the court, and
Yet all is not told of Whitelocke; and we have deeply  every event and person passing before him. In this moving
Ao regret the loss, or at least the concealment, of a work  scene he copies nature with freedom, and has exquisitely
addressed to his family, which apparently would be still  touched the individual character. There that great statesmore interesting, as exhibiting his domestic habits and   man opens the most concealed transactions, and traces
feelings; and afifiding  a model for those in public life,  the views of the most opposite dispositions; and though
who had the spirit to imitate such greatness of mind, of  engaged, when in exile, in furthering the royal intercourse
which we have not many examples.  Whitelocke had   with the loyalists, and when, on the restoration, conduct.
drawn up a great work, whlich he entitled' Remembrances  ing the difficult affairs of a great nation, a careless mo.
of the Labours of Whitelocke in the.Annales of his Lie,  narch, and a dissipated court, yet besides his immortal
for the Instruction of his Children.'  To Dr Mlorton, the  history of the civil wars,' the chiancellor of human nature'
editor of' Whitelocke's' Journal of the Swedish Embassy,'  passed his life in habitual reflection, and his pen in daily
we owe the notice of this work, and I shall transcribe his  employment.  Such was the admirable industry of ou:
dignified feelings in regretting the want of these Mss.  later ancestors; their diaries and their memoirs are its
Such a work, and by such a father, is become the inheri-  monuments'!
rance of every child, whose ahilitius and station in life may  James II is an illustrious instance of the admirable inat any lime hereafter call upon him to deliberate for his  dustry of our ancestors.  With his own hand this prince
country —and for his family and person, as parts of the  wrote down the chief occurreinces of his times, and often
great  vhole; and I confess myself to be one of those  his instant reflections and conjectures. Perhaps no sove.
who lament the suppression of that branch of the Annales  reign prince, said Macpherson, has been known to have
which relates to the author himself in his private capacity;  left behind him better materials for history.,We at length
they would have afforded great pleasure, as well as in-  possess a considerable portion of his diary, which is that
struction, to the world in their entire form.  The first  of a man of business and of hoiiest intentions, containing
volume, containing the first twenty years of his life, may  many remarkable facts which had otherwise escaped from
one day see the light; but the greatest part has hitherto  our historians.
escaped my inquiries.' This is all we know of a work of    The literary man has formed diaries purely of his stuequal moral and philosophical curiosity.  The preface,  dies, and the practice may be called journalizing then mind,
however, to these' Rememhrances' has been fortunately  in a summary of studies, and a register of loose hints and
preservid, and it is an extraordinary production.  In this  sbozzos, that sometimes happily occur; and like Ringelit appears that Whitelocke himself owed the first idea of  bergins, that enthusiast for study, whose animated exhorhis own work to one left by his father, which existed in the  tations to young students have been aptly compared to the
famiiy, and to which he repeatedly refers his children. He   sound of a trumpet in the field of battle, marlied down
says,   The memory and worth of your deceased grand-  every night, before going to sleep, wttat had been done
father deserves all honour and imitation, both from you arnd  during the studious day.  Of this class of diaries, Gibbon
me; his LiEPr. FAMELIcus. his own story, written by   has given us an illustrious model; arid there is an unpubhimself; will be left to you, and was an encouragement anid  lished quarto of the late Bared Roberts, a young student
precedent to this larger work.' Here is a family picture  of genius, devoted to curious researches, which deserves
quite new to us; the heads of the house are its historians,  to meet the public eye.  I should like to see a little book
and these records ofthe heart were animated by examples  pmblished with this title,   Otiums delitiosum in quo objecta
snd preceptq, drawn from  their own bosoms; and as  vel in actione, vel in lectione, vel in visions ad singules diesi
WVhitelocke feelingly expresses it,I all is recommended to   Anni 1629 observata representuntur.'  This writer was a
the peitsai, and intended for the instruction of niy own  German, who boldly published for the course of one year,
house, and almost in every page you will find a dedication  whatever he read or had seen every day in that year. As
to you, my dear children.'                                 an experiment, if honestly performed, this might be cuThe habit of laborious studies, and a zealous attention  rious to the philosophical observer; but to write down
to the history of his own times, produced the Register and  every thing, may end in something like nothing.
Chroni le of Bishop Kennett,' containing matters of fact,    A great poetical contemporary of our own country does
delivered in the words of the most authentic papers and  not think that even DREAMS sluould pass away unnoted;
records, all daily entered and comimented on:' it includes  and he calls this registier, his Nocturnals.  His dreams are
an account of all pamphlets as they appeared.  This his-  assredly poetical; as Laud's, who journalized his, seemin
torr, more valuable to us than to his own contemporaries,  to have been made up of the affairs of state and religion;
occ(upi.n two large folios; of which only one has been  the personages are his patrons, his eneinies, and others,
printed, a zealous labour, which could only have been  his dreams are scen:cal and dramatic. Works of this
carried on from a motive of pure patriotism. It is, how-  nature are not designed for the public eye; they are doever, but a small part of the diligence of the bishop, since  mestic annals, to be guarded in the little archives of a fahis own manuscripts form a small library of themselves.    mily; they are offerings cast. before our Lares.
The malignant vengeance of Prynne in exposing the               Pleasing. when youth is long expired, to trace
diary of Laud to the public eye lost all its purpose, for         The forms our pencil or our pen designed
nothing appeared more favourable to Laud than this expo-           Such was our youthful air, and shape and face,
sition of his private diary.  We forget the harshness in           Such the soft image of our youthfi mind.
the personal manners of Laud himself, and sympathize                                                SHENSTO:E.
even with his errors, when we turn over the simple leaves                LICENSERS  OF THE PRESS.
of'this diary, which obviously was not intended for any pur-    In the history of literature, and perhaps in that of the
pose but for his own private eye and collected meditations,  human mind, the institution of the Licensers of the Press,
There his whole heart is laid open; his errors are not con-  and Censors of Books, was a old inventin, designed to
and Censors of Books, was a bold inventi,,n, designed to
cealed, and thlie purity of his intentions is established. Laud,  coun eract that of the Press itself; and even to convert this
who had too haughtily blended the prime minister with the  newly discovered instrument of hman freedom  into one
t,  I                          ~~~~~~~~newly discovered instrument of human freedom into one
archbishop, still, from conscientious motives, in the hurry  which might serve to peruetlate that system  of passive
of public duties, and in the pomp of public honours, ctild  obedience, which had so long enabled modern Rome to
steal aside into solitude, to account to God and himself for  dictate her laws to the universe.  It was thought possible
every day, and I the evil thereof.'
every day, and'the evil thereof.' in the subtilty of Italian Astuzia and Spanish mionachism,
The diary of' Henry Earl of Clarendon, who inherited to  lace a seninel on the very thouhts, as well as on the
to place a sentinel onl the very thoughts, as well as on the
the industry of his father, has partly escaped destruction;  persons of authors; and in extreme cases, that books
it presents us with a picture of the manners of the age;  ntiht he condemned to the flames, as well as heretics.
firom whezce, says Bishop Douglas, we may learn that at
from whce, sas Bishop Douglas, we may learn that at    Ofthis institution, the beginnings are obscure, for it or.
thle close of the last century, a man of the first quality
te close of the last centr, a man of the first qualiy   ginated in caution and fear; but as the work betrays the
made it his constant practice to pass his time without sha-  workman, and the national physiognomy the native, it is
king his arm at a ganting table, associating with jockies at  evident that so inqisitoria  an act could only ave oii?,                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~evident that so inquisitorial an' act couht only have origi-.
1Newmarket, or murdering time by a constant round of                                                             t
Ndemissarhpet, or mirderingo time  by a constant round of  nated in the inquisition itself'.*  Feeble or partial attempts
giddy dissipation, if not of criminal indulgence. Diariets
~ Dr. C. Symmons has denounced Sixtus TV, as I the:firs
were not uncommon in the last age: Lord Anglesey, whowhplcdteresnerteoto  f'att-nqliir.
I-~ ~~~~~~who placed the press~ under the centr~ot of' a state-inquisitor.,
made so great a figure in the reign of Charles II, left one. Life ofMilon,. 214.  m not acquantrol oath his authority -
Liteo iton, p.24    mntacquainted with his authority -
behind him; and one said to have been written by the  but as Sixtus IV, died as early as 1484, I suspect this writer
Duke of Shrewsbury still exists.                           meant Sixtus V, who was busy enough with this office. Mi



LITERATURE.                                                          179
might previously have. existed, for we learn that the monks   that they' tolerated the reading, after the book had been
had a part of tilvir libraries called the inferno, which was   corrected by themselves, till such time as the work should
not ttle part whith they ieast visited, fir it contained, (or   be considered worthy of some further correction.'  The
hid, all the prohihited books which they could sniuggle   expurgatory Indexes excited louder cornplaints than those
into it.  But this inquisitorial power assumed its most  which simply condemned books; because the purgers and
formidable shape in the council of Trent, when some   castrators, as they were termed, or, as Milori calls them,
gloomy spirits trom  Rome and Madrid, where they are'the executioners of books,' by omnitting, or interpolating
still governing, foresaw the revolution of this new age of  passages, made an author say, or tinsay, what the inquis.
books.  The triple-crowned pontiff had in vain rolled the   itors chose: arid their editions, after the death of the authunders of the Vacticein, to strike out of the hands of all  thors, were compared to the erasures or forgeries in records;
men the volumes of Wickliffe, of Huss, and of Luther,  for the books which an author leaves behind him, with his
and even nmenaced their eager readers with death.  At  last corrections, are like his last will and testament, and
this council Pius IV was presented with a catalogue of  the public are the legitimate heirs of an author's opinions.
books of which they denounced that the perusal ought to       The whole process of these expurgatory Indexes, that
be forbiddenl: his bull not only confirmed this list of the' rakes through the entrails of many anl old good author,
condemned, but added rules how books should be judged.*   with a violation worse than any could be offered to his
Subsequenrt popes enlarged these catalogues, and added   tomb,' as Milton says, must inevitably draw off the life.
to the rules, as the monstrous novelties started up.  In-   blood, and leave an author a mere spectre!  A  book in
quisitors of books were appointed; atRome they consisted   Spain and Portugal passes through six or seven courts beof certain cardinals and' the master of the holy palace;'  fore it can be published, and is supposed to recoimmend
and literary inquisitors were elected at Madrid, at Lisbon,  itself by the iniformation, that it is published with  all the
at Naples, arid for the Low Countries; they were watch-  necessary privileges.  They would sometimes keep works
img the tibiquity of the human mind.  These catalogues  fromr publication till they had' properly qualified them.
of prohibited books were called Indexes; and at Rorme a   inlerem ste calificam,' which in one case is said to have ocbody of these literary despots are still called' the Conare-   cutpitdi them  dlring forty years.  Authors of genius have,gation of the Index.'  Tiue simple Index is a tlst of clM-   akhen fright at the gripe of' the master of the holy palace,'
demned books never to be openedl; but the Erpurtatory   or the lacerating scratches of the'corrector genera' por
Index indicates those only prohibited till they have under-  si rmnatretad.'  At Madrid and Lisbon, and event at Romne,
gonue a purification.  No book was to be allowed on any  tlhis licetisirg of books has confined nmost of their authors
subject, or in any language, which contained a single posi-  to the body of the good fathers themselves.
tion, an ambiguous sentence, even a word, which in the       The Commentaries on the Ltciad, by Faria de Souza,
most distant sense, could be cons rued opposite to the doc-  had occupied his zealous labours for twenty-five years, and
Irines of the supreme authority of this council of Trent;  wvere favourably received by the learned.  But the comwhere it seems to have been eniacted, that all men, literate   menltator was brought before this tribunal of criticism  and
and illiterate, prince and peasant, the Italian, the Spa-  religion, as suspected of heretical opinions; when the acaiard, and the Netherlander should take the mint-stamp   cuser did not succeed before the inquisitors of Madrid, he
~f their thoughts from the council of Trent, and millions   carried the charge to that of Lisbon; an intjunction was
of souls be struck off at one blow, out of the same used   immediately issued to fourbid the sale of the Commenttares,
mould.                                                     and it cost the commentator an elaborate defence, to deThe sages who compiled these Indexes, indeed, long   monstrate the catholicism of the poet and himself.  The
sad reason to imagine that passive obedience was attached   Commentators finally were released from perpetual im.
lo the human character; and therefore they considered,  prisonment.
that the publications of their adversaries required no other  This system  has prospered to admiration, in keepin,
notice, than a convenient insertion in their Indexes.  But  them all down to a certain meanness of spirit, and happily
the heretics diligently reprinted them with ample prefaces   preserved stationary and childish stupidity through the
and useful annotations; Dr James, of Oxford, republished   nation, on which so much depended.
an Index with due animadversions.  The parties made an        Nani's History of Venice is allowed to be printed, beopposite use of them; while the catholic crossed himself  cause it contained nothing against princes.  Princes therm
at every title, the heretic would purchase no book which   were either immaculate, or historians false.  The Histo!:.,
had not been indexed.  One of their portions exposed a   of Guicciardini is still scarred with the merciless wound
list of those authors whose heads were condemned as well  of the papistic censor; and a curious account of the origin
as their books; it was a catalogue of men of genius.       and increase of papal power was long wanting mi the third
The results of these Indexes were somewhat curious.  and fourth book of his history.  Velly's History of France
As they were formed in different countries, the opinions   would have been an admirable work, had it not been print.
were often diametrically opposite to each other.  The   ed at Paris!
learned Arias Montanus, who was a chief inquisitor in         When the insertions in the Index were found of no other
the Netherlands, and concerned in the Antwerp Index,  use than to bring the peccant volumes under the eyes of
lived to see his own works placed in tha Roman Index;  the curious, they employed the secular arm in burning them
while the inquisitor of Naples was so displeased with the   in public places.  The history of these literary conflagraSpanish Index, that he persisted to assert, that it had never  tions has often been traced by writers of opposite parties;
been printed at Madrid!  Men who began by insisting   for the truth is, that both used them; zealots seem  all
that all the world should not differ from their opinions,  formed of one material, whatever be their party.' They
ended by not agreeing with themselves. A civil war raged   had yet to learn, that burning was not confuting, and that
among the Index-makers: and if one criminated, the other  these public fires were an advertisement by proclamation.
retaliated.  If one discovered ten places necessary to be   The publisher of Erasmus's Colloquies intrigued to procure
expurgated, another found thirty, and a third inclined to  the burning of his book, which raised the sale to twenty.
place the whole work in the condemned list. The inquis-  four thousand!
mtors at length became so doubtful of their own opinioris,    A curious literary anecdote has reached us of the times
that they sometimes expressed in their license for printing,   of Henry VIII.   Tonstall, Bishop of London, whose extreme moderation, of which he was accused at the time,
lot, in his history of France, mentions that Philip II, had a  preferred burning books to that of authors, which was then
catalogue printed of books prohibited by the Spanish inqulisi-  getting into practice; to testify his abhorrence of' Tindal's
tion; and Paul IV, the following year, 1559, ordered the.holy   principles, who had printed a translation of the New Tes.
office at Rome to publish a similar catalouge. Stich was the  tament, a sealed book ftr the mumltitude, thought of plrorigin of what was called the Intdex. IHowever, we have an   chasing all the copies of Tindal's translation, and annilhiIndex printed at Venice in 1543, Peignot's Livres condamn6s,   al   them in the common  lame.  Ts occurred to him
I, 256. The most ancient at the British Museum is one ofAntwerp, 1570. The learned Dr James, the first chief librarian   when irassine through Antwerp in 1529, then a place of reof the Bodlleian, derives this institution from the council of  fiuge for the Tindalists.  He emploved an Enalish mer.
Trent, held in 1542. See' The Mystery ofthe InTdices Expur.  chant there for this business, who happened to be a secret
gatorii,' p..972. These Indexes appear to have been very  follower of Tindal, and acquainted him with the bishopl's
hartl to be obtainedl, for Dr James says, that the Index of Ant  inerrnion.  Tindal was extrenelyv g.lad to hear of the pro.
wert was discovered accidentally by Junius, who reprinted it     fo
I rp ~R8 di~CO~e'ed accidentall by Ju~iuu, whoreprinterl  it;jeer, for he was desirous of printings a more correet edition
the Spalnish and Portiguese was never known till we took   oJ      r     as e         f buuitig a r ore correct edition
Catliz; andi tihe Roman Index was procured with great troub' f. his veriat: hiit the ifirst impressan;l still htrlh on his
p. s     b2.                                       o,   hands, and he was too  iloor to mtake a new oreu: lhe fu* This bull is dated March 24. 1564.                    I nishcd the English merchant with all lis tutisohul copies




ISO,                                     CURIOSITIES OF
which the bishop as eagerly bought, and had them all pub-  large compass.  She condemned one author (with hil
licly burnt in Cheapside: which the people not only de-  publisher) to have the hand cut off which wrote his book,
clared was'a burning of the word of God,' but it so inflam-  and she hanged another.*  It was Sir Francis Bacon, or
ed the desire of reading that volume, that the second   his father, who once pleasantly turned aside the keen edge
edition was sought after at any price; and when one of  of her regal vindictiveness; for when Elizabeth was inquithe Tindalists, who was sent here to s.ll them, was prom-  ring, whether an author, whose book she had given him to
ised by the lord chancellor in a private examination, that  examine, was not guilty of treason? he replied,'Not of
he should not suffer if he would reveal who encouraged   treason, madam; but of robbery, if you please; for he has
and supported his party at Antwerp, the Tindalist imme-  taken all that is worth noticing in him from Tacitus and
diately accepted the offer, and assured the lord chancellor  Sallust.' With the fear of Elizabeth before his eyes, 1o-.
that the greatest. encouragement was from  Tonstall, the  linshed castrated the volumes of his History.  When
Bishop of London, who had bought up half the impression,  Giles Fletcher, after his Russian embassy, congratulated
and enabled them to produce a second!                     himself with having escaped with his head, and on his re.
In the reign of Henry VIII, we seem  to have burnt  turn, wrote a book called' The Russian Commonwealth,'
books on both sides; it was an age of unsettled opinions;  describing its tyranny, Elizabeth forbad the publishing of
in Edward's, the Catholic works were burnt; and Mary  the work.  Our Russian merchants were frightened, for
had her Pyramids of Protestant volumes; in Elizabeth's,  they petitioned the queen to suppress the work; the origipolitical panphlets fed the flames; and libels in the reign   nal petition with the offensive passages exists among the
of James I, and his sons.                                  Lansdowne manuscripts.  It is curious to contrast this
Such was this black dwarf of literature, generated by   fact with another better known, under the reign of WilItalian craft and Spanish monkery, which, however, was  liam III; then the press had obtained its perfect freedom,
fondly adopted as it crept in among all the nations of Eu-   and even the shadow of the sovereign could inot pass be.
rope.  France cannot exactly fix on the era of her Ceon-  tween an author and his work.  When the Danish anbasseurs de Livres;* and we ourselves, who gave it its death.  sador complained to the king of the fieedom which Lord
blow, found the custom prevail without any authority from   Molesworth had exercised on his master's government, in
our statutes. The practice of licensing books was unques-  his account of Denmark; and hinted that, if a Dane had
tionably derived from the inquisition, and was applied here   done the same with the King of England, hlie would, on
first to books of'religion.  Britain long groaned under the   complaint, have taken the author's head off';-' That I canleaden  stamp of an Imprimatur,t and long witnessed   not do,' replied the sovereign of a free people,'but, if you
men ofgenius either suffering the vigorous limbs of their  please, I w ill tell him what you say, and he shall I;ut it into
productions to be shamefully mutilated in public, or volun-  the next edition of his book.''What an inmmense interval
tarily committing  a literary suicide in their own manu-   between the feelings of Elizabeth and  Vs:illiam! with
scripts.  Camden declared that he was not suffered to   hardly a century betwixt themn!
print all his Elizabeth, and sent those passages over to    James I proclaimed Buchanan's history, and a political
De Thou, the French historian, who printed his history  tract of his, at' the Mercat Cross;' and every one was to
faithfully two years after Camden's first edition, 1615.-   bring his copy'to be perusitr and ptrgit of'the offensive and
The same happened to Lord Herbert's History of Henry   extraordinare materis,' under a htavy penalty.  Knox,
VIII, which has never been given according to the originial.  whom Milton calls'the Reformer of a Kihtloin,' was also
In the Poemns of Lord Brooke, we find a lacuna of the first  curtailed; and' the sense of that great man shall, to all
twenty pages: it was a poem on religion, cancelled by the   posterity, be lost for the fearfulness, or the presumnptuous
order of Arahbishop Laud.  The Great Sir Matthew   rashness of a perfunctory licenser.'
Hale ordered that none of his works should be printed after   The regular establishment of licencers of the press aph   death; as he apprehended, that, in the licensing of  peared under Charles I.  It must be placed aniong the
them, some things might be struck out or altered, which lie  projects of Laud, and the king, I suspect, inclined to it;'tad observed, not without some indignation, had been done  for, by a passage in a manuscript letter of ithe times, I find
to those of a learned friend; and he preferred bequeath-  that when Charles prinited his speech on the dissolution of
ing his uncorrupted Mss  to the Society of Lincoln's Inn,  the parliament, which excited such general discontent,
as their only guardians; hoping that they were a treasure   some one printed Queen Elizabeth's last speech, as a cOniworth keepin&.T   Contemporary authors have frequent  panion-piece.  This was presented to the king by his own
allusions to such books, imperfect and mutilated at the ca-  printer John Bill, not from a political motive, but merely
price or the violence of a licenser.                        by way of complaint that another had printed without leave
The laws of England have never violated the freedom   or license, that which, as the king's printer, he asserted
and the dignity of its press.'There is no law to prevent  was his own copy-right.  Charles does not appear to have
the printing of any book in England, only a decree in the   been pleased with the gift, and observed,'You printers
star-chamber,5 said the learned Selden.~   Proclamations   print anything.'  Three gentlemen of the bed-chamber,
were occasionally issued against authors and books; and   continues the writer, standing by, commended Mr Bill
f eign works were, at times, prohibited.  The freedom of  very much, and prayed him to come oftener with such rathe press was rather circumvented, than openly attacked,  rities to the king, because they might do some good.*
in the reign of Elizabeth; who dreaded those Roman Ca-        One of the consequences of this persecution of the press
tholics who were at once disputing her right to the throne,  was the raising up of a new class of publishers, under the
and the religion of the state.  Foreign publications, or  government of Charles I, those who became noted for, what'books from  any parts beyond the seas,'" were therefore   was then called,' unlawful and unlicensed books.' Sparkes,
prohibited.ii The press, however, was not free under the      * The author, with his publisher, who had their right hands
ireign of a sovereign, whose high-toned feelings, and the   cut off, was John Stubbs of Lincoln's Inn, a hot-headed Puriexigencies of the times, rendered as despotic in deeds, as  tan, whose sister was married to Thomas Cartwright, the
the pacific James was in words.  Although the press had   head of that faction. This execution took place upon a scaf.
then no restrictions, an author was always at the mercy of  fold, in the market-place at Westminster.  After Stubb  had
the government.  Elizabeth too had a keen scent  his right hand cut off. with his left he pulled off his hat, and
the government..  Elizabeth too had a keen scent after
what she called treason which she allowed to take in a   cried, with a loud voice,' God save the queen!' the multitude
what she called treason, whih  she allowed to take in a   standing deeply silent, either out of horror at this new and unwonted kind of punishment, or else out of commiseration of
~ Peignot's Dict. des Livres condamri6s, vol. I, p. 266.  the man, whose character was unblemished.  Camden who
t Oxford and Cambridge still grasp a: this shadow ofdepart-   was a witness to this transaction, has related it. The author,
ed literary tyranny; they have their Licensers and their Im-  and the printer, and the publisher, were condemned to this
primaturs.                                                  barbarous punishment, on an act ot Philip and Mary, against
tBurnet's Life of Sir Matthew Hale.                      the authors and publishers of seditious writings.  Some law~ Sir Thomas Crew's Collection of the Proceedings of the   yers were honest enough to assert that the sentence was er.
Parliament, 1628, p. 71.                                    roneous, for that act was only a temporary one, and died with
{] The consequence of this prohibition was, that our own   Queen Mary; but, of these honest lawyers, one was sent to,ten of learning  were at a loss to know what arms the ene.  the Tower, and another was so sharply reprimanded, that ha
mies of England, and of her religion, were fabricating against  resigned his place as a judge in the cemmonr, pleas. Other
us. This wras absolutely necessary, which appealrs by a cu.  lawyers, as the lord chief justice, who fawned on the preroga.
rious fact in Strype's Life ofWhitgift. mere we find a license  tice far more then thain in the Stuart-reigns, asserted, that
for the importation of foreign books, granted to an Italian   Queen Mary was a king; and that an act nimade by any king,
merchant, who was to collect abroad this sort of libels; but he   unless repealed, must always exist, because the King of En.
was to deposit them with the archbishop and the privy coun-   gland never tlies!
~l, &c. A few, no doubt, were obtainted by the curious,    t A letter from J. Mead to Sir M. Stuteville, July 19, 1628
Catholic or Protestant. Strype's Life of Whitgift, p. 268.  Sloane IMISS. 4178.




LITERATURE.                                                         181
the publisher of Prynne's' Histriomastix,' was of this class   studious, learned and judicious; there may be else no
I have already entered more piarticularly into this subject.*   mean mistakes in his censure.  If he be of such worth as
The Presbyterian party in Parliament, who thus found the   behoves him, there cannot be a more tedious and unpleaspress closed on thern, vehemently cried outforits freedom;  ing journry-work, a greater loss of time levied upon his
and it was imagined, that when they had ascended into   head, than to he made the perpetual reader of unchosen
p.'wer, the odious office of a licenser of the press would   books and pamphlets.  There is no book acceptable, tinhave been abolished; but these pretended friends of free-  less at certain seasons; but to be enjoined the reading of
don, on the contrary, dtscovered themselves as tenderly  that at all times, whereof three pages would not down at
alivw  to the office as the old gocvernment, and maintained   any time, is an imposition which I cannot believe how he
it with the extremest rigour.  Such is the political history  that values time and his own studies, or is but of a sensiof mankind.                                                ble nostril, should be able to endure.-What advantages is
The literary fate ofl Milton was remarkable; his genius   it to be a man over it is to be a boy at school, if we have
was castrated alike by the monarchical and the republican   only scaped the ferula to come under the fescue of an
government. The royal licenser expunged several passages   Imprimatur?-if serious and elaborate writings, as if they
from Milton's history, in which Milton had painted the su-   were no more than the theme of a grammar lad under his
perstition, the pride, and the cunning of the Saxon Monks,  pedagogue, must not be uttered without the cursory eyes
which the sagacious licenser applied to Charles II and the   of a temporising licenser?  When a man writes to the
bishops; but Milton had be-fbre suffered as merciless a   world, he summons up all his reason and deliberation to
mutilation from  his old friiends the republicans; who sup-  assist him; he searches, meditates, is industrious, and
pressed a bold picture, taken from life, which he had in-  likely consults and confers with his judicious friends, as.reduced into his History of the Long Parliament and As-  well as any that writ before him; if in this, the most consembly of Divines.  Milton gave the unlicensed passages   summate act of his fidelity and ripeness, no years, no into the Earl of Anglesea, a literary nobleman, the editor of  dustry, no former proof of his abilities, can bring him to
Whitelocke's Memorials; and the castrated passages,  that state of maturity, as not to be still mistrusted and
which could not be licensed in 1670, was received with   suspected, unless he carry all his considerate diligence, all
peculiar interest when separately published in 1681.1' If  his midnight watchings, and expense of Palladian oil, to
there be fOriid in an author's btook one sentence of a yen-  the hasty view of an unleasured licenser, perhaps much
trous edge, uttered in the height of zeal, and who knows   his younger, perhaps far his inferior in judgment, perhaps
whether it might nriot be the dictate of a divine spirit, yet  one who never knew the labour of book-writing; and'if
not suiting every low decrepid humour of their own, they   he be not repulsed or slighted, must appear in print like
will not pardon him their dash.'                           a Punie with his guardian, and his censor's hand on the
This office seems to have lain dormant a short time un-  back of his title to be his bail and surety that he is no idiot
der Cromwervll, tforn the scruples of a conscientious licens-   or seducer; it cannot be but a dishonour and derogatiorn
er, who desired the council of state in 1649 for reasons  to the author, to the book, to the privilege and dignity of
given, to be discharged from  that employment.  This  learning.'
Mabot, the licenser, was evidently deeply touched by Mil-     The reader may now follow the stream in the great oriton's address for'The Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.'  ginal; I must, however, preserve one image of exquisite
The office was, however, revived on the restoration of  sarcasm.
Charles II; and through the reign of James II the abuses' Debtors and delinquents walk about without a keeper;
of licensers were unquestionably not discouraged; their  but inoffensive books must not stir forth without a visible
castrations of books reprinted aippear to have been very  jailor in their title; nor is it to the common people less
artful; for in reprinting Gage's' Survey of the West  than a reproach: for if we dare not trust them with an
Indies,' which orieinallv consisted of twenty.two chap-   English pamphlet, what do we but censure them  for a
ters, in 1648 and 1657, with a dedication to Sir Thomas   giddy, vitious, and  ungrounded people, in such a sick
F'airfax,-in 1677, after expunging the passages in honour  and weak state of faith and discretion, as to be able to
of Fairfax, the dedication is dexterously turned into a   take nothing but through the glister-pipe of a licenser!'
preface; and the twenty-second chapter being obnoxious        The ignorance  and stupidity of these censors were
for containing particulars of the artifices of' the papalins,';   often, indeed, as remarkable as their exterminating spirit.
in converting the author, was entirely chopped away by   The noble simile of Milton, of Satan with the rising-sun,
the licenser's hatchet.  The castrated chapter, as usual,  in the first book of the Paradise Lost, had nearly occawas preserved afterwards separately. Literary despotism   sioned the suppression of our national epic: it was supposat least is short-sighted in its views, for the expedients it  ed to contain a treasonable allusion. The tragedy of Aremploys are certain of overturning themselves.             minius, by one Paterson, who was an amanuensis of the
On this subject we must not omit noticing one of the   poet Thomson, was intended for representation, btt the dranoblest and most eloquent prose compositions of Milton;  matic censor refused a license; as Edward and Eleanora'the Areopagitica: a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicens-   was not permitted to be performed, being considered a
ed Printing.'  It is a work of love and inspiration, breath-   party work, our sagacious state-critic imagined that Petering the most enlarged spirit of literature; separating, at  son's own play was in the same predicament by being in
an awful distance from the multitude, that character' who   the same hand-writing! The French have retained many
was born to study and to love learning for itself, not for  curious facts of the singular ineptitude of these censors.
lucre, or any other end, but, perhaps, for that lasting fame   Malebranche said, that he could never obtain an approbaand perpetuity of praise, which God and good men have   tion for his research after truth, because it was unintelliglconsente' shall be the reward of those whose PUBLISHED   ble to his censors; and, at length Mezeray, the historian,
LABovUr.  ivance the good of mankind.                      approved of it as a book of geometry. Latterly in France,
One part of this unparallelled effusion turns on'the   it is said, that the greatest geniuses were obliged to subquality which ought to be in every licenser.' It will suit  mit their works to the critical understanding of persons
our new licensers of public opinion, a laborious corps well  who had formerly been low  dependents on some man of
known, who constitute themselves without an act of star-  quality, and who appear to have brought the same servilichamber.  I shall pick out but a few sentences, that I may   ty of mind to the examination of works of genius. There
add some little facts, casually preserved, of the ineptitude  is something, which, on the principle of incongruity and
of such an officer.                                        contrast, becomes exquisitely ludicrous, in observing the'He who is made judge to sit upon the birth or death of  works of men of genius allowed to be printed, anrid even
books, whether they may be wafted into this world or not,  commended by certain persons who have never printed
had need to be a man above the common measure, both  their names but to their licenses.  One of these  oentle* See'ICaamities of Authors,' vol. 11, p. 116.          men suppressed a work, because it contained principles of
It is a qutarto tract, entitled'Mr. John Milton's Character   government, which appeared to hint not conformable to
of the Lono Parliament and Assembly of Divines in 1641;  the laws of Moses.  Another said to a geometrician,'I
omitted in his other works, and never before printed, and very   cannot permit the publication of your book: you dare to
seasonable for these times. 1681.' It is inserted in the uncas-  say, that between to given points, the shortest line is the
trated edition of Milton's prose works in 1738. It is a retort on   straight line. Do you think me such an idiot as not to
the Presbyterian Ctement Watker's History of the lodelie.Dyothnk'esc   nido   sntt
the Presbyteian  Clement Walker's History of the Indepen.  perceive your allusion?  If your work appeared, I should
dents; and Warbirnton in his admirable characters of the his.  make enemies of all those who find, by crooked ways, aI
torianrs of th-is period, alluding to Clement Walker, says,-.
Milton wig ~~~~~~~~~~esevr  wdithtance intocut the ieandb  sevrthracgte hie.Cn
traws of the Presbyterifan administration.'                sider their number! At this moment the censors in Aus,! So Milton calls the Papists.                           tria appear singularly inept; for, not long ago, they con



182                                   CURIOSITIES OF,onmned as heretical, two books; of which one, entitled   similar to those, who, havingover-charged their arms with'Principes de la Trigonometric,' the censor would not allow   the fellest intentions, find that the death which they intern
to be printed, because the Trinity, which he imagined to   ded for others, in bursting, only annihilates themselves.
3e. included in trigonometry, was not permitted to be dis-          Or ANAGRAMS AND ECHO VERSES.
cussed: and the other, on the' Destruction of Insects,' he The'true' modern critics on our elder writers are apt
The I true' modern critics on our elder writers are apt
insisted had a covert allusion to the Jesuits, who, he con-  to thunder their anathemas on innocent heads: little vers
ceircrd were hUR maignantl desigated.*to thulnder their anathemas on innocenlt heads: little versceived, were thus malignantly designated.*
A curios  literary anecdote has been recorded of the   ed in the eras of our literature, and the fashions of our
learned R.ich~ard Turion, who was a contributor.  Corn- 
learned R~icisard Turion, who was a contributor.  Coin-   wit, popular criticism must submit to be guided by the lit,
pelled to insert in one o' his works the qualifying opinions   erary historian.
Kippis condemns Sir Symonds D'Ewes for his admitsof the censor of the Sorbonne, he inserted them within Kippis condemns Sir Symonds D'Ewes for his admiracrotchets.  But a strange misfortune attended this contri-  ration of two anagrams, expressive of the feelings of the
of te cesorof te Srbore, h   inerte   thm  wihin ration of two anagrams, expressive of the feelings of the
vcrhets.  Bth  printe w s nort  letn    the scnre   times. It required the valour of Falstaff to attack extinct
vance.  The printer,  who was not let into the secret,
printed the work without these essential marks; by which   anagrams; and our pretended English Bayle thougt himmeans the enraged author saw  his own peculiar opinions   slf secure, in pronouncin  all anagramaists to be wantig
in judgment and taszte: vet,         ithsmcacl criticdi
overturned in the very work written to maintain them       in judgment ad tae: yet, if this mechanical critic di
not know something of the state and nature of anagrams
These appear trifling minutias; and yet, like a hair in   not know sething  f te state and nature of anagrams
a watch, which utterly destroys its progress, these little  in Sir Symonds's day, he was more defcient in that curo
meptia3 obliged writers to have recourse toforei'gn presses;  osity of literature, which his work required, than plain
osity of literature, (,hich his work required, than plain
compelled a Montesquieu to write with concealed ambiguity, and many to sign a recaiitation of principles which   he is so contemptuously deprived.  The author who thus
decids  sonthemptaosteyo adteprivd ahe byuthose hof thisw
they could never change. The recantation of Selden, ex-  decides on the taste oanother age by those of his  wn
torted fo  his  and on his suppressed' Historie ofTithes,   day, and whose knowledge of the national literature does
humiliated a great mind; but it could not remove a part-.       h  rt  s htAarm   eethnthefsiohumiliated.   a great mind; but it could not remove a parti-  not extend beyond his own century, is neither historian  nor
ole from the masses of his learning, nor darken the lumi.  critic. The trut  is, that Anagran-is were then the fshion
nous conviction of his reasonings; nor d'id it diminish the   able amusements of the wittiest and the nost learnd.
number of those who assented to his principles.  IRecan-      Kippis says, and others have repeated,' That Sir Sytations usually prove the force of authority, rather than the   moods D'Ewes's judgment and taste, with regard to wit,
were as contemptiible,As can well be      i      anewill be
change of opinion.   When a Dr Pocklington was con-   were as contemltible ss can well be inagiied, will be
chang of  pinin.'hen   Dr  ocklngto   wascon-evident from the following passage taken from his account
demned to make a recantation, he hit the etymology of the     evident from the followig   passage taken from his accont
of Cart Earl,,f Somerset and his wilb:' This discontent
word, while he caught at the spirit-he began thus:'If
Z5                           ~~~~~~~~gave many satirical wits occasion to vent themselves
canto be to sing, recanto is to sing again.'  So that he re-   gave  many satirical  wits occasion  to vent themselves
chanted his offending opinions, by repeating them  in his  into stingie [stinging   lbels, in which they spared neither
recantation.                                               the persons nor families of that unfortunate pair.  There
At the revolution in Engd,  licenses for the pres    came also two anagrams to my hands, not unworthy to be
AL the revolution in England, licenses for the pressI 
owned by the rarist wits of this age.'  These. were, one
ceased; but its liberty did not commence till 1694, when   owned by he rarst  wis of this age.' there  were, one
every restraint was taken off by the firm and decisive tone   very descriptive of the lady; and the other, ofn incident
of the commons.  It was granted, says our philosophic
of tme commnons.  It was granted, says our philosophic  in which this infamous woman was so deeply criminated.
Home,' to the great displeasure of the king and his min-'FRANCES HOWARD,             THOMAS OVERBURIE,
isters, who, seeing nowhere, in any government during         Car finds a Whore,           0! 0! base Murther!'
present or past ages, any example of such unlimited free.     This sort of wit is not falser at least than the criticisn
loin, doubted nmuch of its salutary effects; and probably,  which infers that D'Ewes's'judgment and taste were as.nought that no books or writings would ever so much   contemptible as can well be;' for hie might have admired
improve the general understanding of men, as to render it  these anagrams, which, however, are not of the nicest consafe to entrust them with indulgence so easily abused.'    struction, and yet not have been so destitute of those qualiAnd the present moment verifies the prescient conjec-  ties of which he is so authoritatively divested.
ture of the philosopher.  Such is the licentiousness of our   Camden has a chapter in his' Remains' on Anagrams,
press, that some, not perhaps the most hostile to the cause   which he defines to be a dissolution ofa (person's) namo
of freedom, would not be averse to manacle authors once   into its letters, as its elements; and a new connexion into
more wb han Imprimatur. It will not be denied that Eras-   words is formed by their transposition, if possible without
anus was a friend to the freedom of the press; yet he was   addition, subtraction, or change of the letters: and the
so shocked at the licentiousness of Luther's pen, that there   words must make a sentence applicable to the person namwas a time when he considered it as necessary to restrain   ed.   The Aaram  is complimentary or satirical; it may
ed. The Anagram is complimentary or satirical; it may
its liberty. It was then as now.  Erasmus had, indeed,         n
itsliberty.  Itwas  thenasnow.  Erass had, inded,   contain some allusion to an event, or describe some perbeen miserably calumniated, and expected future libels. I   sonal characteristic.
am  glad, however, to observe, that he afterwards, on a       Such difficult trifles it may be convenient at all times to
more impartial investigation, confessed that such a remedy   discard; but, if ingenious minds can convert an Anagram
was much more dangerous than the disease.  To restrain   into a means of exercising their ingenuity, the things themthe liberty of the press can only be the interest of the indi-  selves will necessarily become ingenious.   No ingenuity
vidual, never that of the public; one must be a patriot here:  can make an Acrostic ingenios; for this is nothing but a
vt                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~can make an Acrostic ingenious; for this is nothing but a
we must stand in the field with an unshielded breast, since   mechanical arrangement of the letters of a name, and yet
the safety of the people is the supreme law. There were, this lierary folly long prevailed in Europe.
this literary folly long prevailed in Europe.
in Milton's days, some who said of this institution, that,    A  f  Angrams, if antiquity can cnsecrate some folalthough the inventors were bad, the thing, for all that,  lies, they are of very ancient date.  They were classed
mict, e god.- IThi ma b  so' rplis te vhemntlies, they are of very ancient date. They were classed
might be good.' This may be so,' replies the vehement
adv~ocate for' unlicensed printing.1 But as the common-   among the Hebrews, among the cabalistic sciences; they
ad~,ocate for' unlicensed printingo.' But as the commonweplths have existed through all ages, and have forone  retended to discover occult qualities in proper names; it
wealths have existed through all ages, and have forborne waanoitlprcceadwscagtbthGek.
was an oriental practice; and was caught by the Greeks.
to use it, he sees no necessity for the invention; and held it  Plats  had strange notions of the influence of Anagrams
Plato had strange notions of the influence of A,'nagrams
as a dangerous and suspicious fruit from the tree which   when drawn out of persons' names; and the later Platoborehet.drhenages of  therwsons' commonesandths, MlaePlton
bore it.  The ages of the wisest commonwealths, Milton   nists are full of the mysteries of the anagrammatic virtues
seems not to have recollected, were not diseased with the   of names.  The chimerical associations of the character
popular infection of publications issuing at all hours, and   and qualities of a man with his name anagrammatised
propagated with a celerity on which the ancients could not  may often have instigated to the choice of a vocation, or
calclate  Th  leanedDr Jmeswhohas enoncedthe may often have instigat~ed to the choice of' a vocation, or
calculate. The learned Dr James, who has denounced the   otherwise affected his imagination.
invention of the Indexes, confesses, however, that it was    Lyophon  has left some on record: two on Ptolomau
not. unuseful when it restrained the publications of atheis-  Philadelphus   l King of Egypt and his r dt een Prsinoe.
tic and immoral works.  But it is our lot to bear with all    hia     s  n       o Ep and ise
the consequent evils, that we may preserve the good invio-   The king's name was thus anagrammatised:
late; since as the profound Huinie has declared,' The                IITOAEMA1O
Liberty of Britain is gone foir ever, when such attempts'Amr, pivrgTS, MADE OF HONEY
aball succeed.'th
shall succeed.,                            ~~~~~~~~and the queen's'
A  constitutional sovereign will consider the freedom of  and  AhNuee       I
AE~INOII,
the press as the sole organ ofthe feelings of the peopl'e. Casimniators he will leave to the fitte of calumny; a fate              Hoot- tv.  JUNO' VIOLET.
* Peignot's Diet. les Livres condamnes, vol. I, 256.     Learning, which revived under Francis the First m




LITERATURE.                                                       18
France, did not disdain to cultivate this small flower of wit.  ally against the government, she was, at length, brought
3awcat had such a felicily in making these trifles, that  by them into the court of High Comnission.  The promany illustrious persons sent their names to himn to be   phetess was not a little mad, acnd fancied the spirit of
anagrammatised.  Le Laoureur, the historian, was ex-  Daniel was in her, from an anagram she had formed of heg
iremely pleased with the anagram made on the mistress of  name
1harles IX of France.  Her name was                                        Eleanor Davies.
Masie Toutchet,                                         Reveal O Daniel!
Je charme tout.                         The anagram had too much by an L, and too little by an
which is historically just.                             s; yet Daniel and reveal was in it, and that was sufficient
In the assassin of Henry III,                         to satisfy her inspirations.  The court attempted to dis.
Frere Jacques Clement,                  possess the spirit from the lady, while the bishops were in
they discovered                                         vain reasoning the point with her out of the scriptures, to
no purpose, she poising text against text:-one of the
Clest lPenfer qui m'a cree.             deans of the arches, says Heylin, shot her thorough and
I preserve a few specimens of some of our own ana-  thorough with an arrow borrowed from her own quiver:
grams.  The mildness of the government of Elizabeth,  he tool a pen, and at last hit upon this excellent ainacontrasted with her intrepidity against the Iberians, is thus  gram:
picked out of her title; she is made the English ewe-lamb,
and the lioness of Spain.                                                Dame Eleanor Davies.
Elizabetha Regina Anglim,                                 Never so mad a Ladie
Angliszabetha Regina Angi,                 The happy fancy put the solemn court into laughter,
The unhappy Angisor Afa  iea Luean of th and Cassandra into the utmost dejection of spirit. Foiled
The unhappy history of hMeary Qaeen of Scots, the de-  by her own weapons, her spirit suddenly forsook her; and
prdivation of hei kingdom, and her violent death, were x-   either she never afterwards ventured on prophesying, or
pressed in this Latin   ana~ram:  the anagram perpetually reminded her hearers of her state
Maria Stetuarda Scotorum Regina.             -and we hear no more of this prophetess!
Trusa vi Regnis, morte amara cado.             Thus much have I written in favour of Sir Symonds
and in                                                  D'Ewes's keen relish of' a stingie anagram;' and on the
Maria Stevarta.                      error of those literary historians, who do not enter into
Veritas Armata.                      the spirit of the age they are writing on.
Another fanciful one on our James I, whose rightful     We find in the Scribleriad, the Anagrams appearing in
claim to the British monarchy, as the descendant of the  the land of false wit:
visionary Arthur, could only have satisfied genealogists of'But with still more disorder'd march advance,
romance reading:                                              (Nor march it seem'd, but wild fantastic dance,
Charles James Steuart,                       The uncouth Anagrams, distorted train,
Claims Arthur's seat.                        Shifting, in double mazes, o'er the plain.'
Sylvester, the translator of Du Bartas, considered him-                                          C. 11,161
self fortunate when he found In the name of his sovereign,    The fine humour of Addison was never more playful
the strongest bond of affection to his service. In the de-  than in his account of that anagrammatist, who, after shutdication he rings loyal changes on the name of his liege,  ting himself up for half a year, and having taken certain
James Stuart; in which he finds a just master!         liberties with the name of his mistress, discovered, on preThe anagrami on Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle,  senting his anagram, that he had mis-spelt her surname;
on the restoration of Charles II, included an important  by which lie was so thunderstruck with his misfortune,
date in our history:                                   that in a little time after he lost his senses, which, indeed,
Geolrgius Monke, Dux de Aumarle,              had been very much impaired by that continual application
Ego Regem redluxi Ano. Sa MDCLVV.              he had Oiven to his anagram.
A slight reversing of the letters in a name produced a  One Frenzelius, a German, prided himself on perpetu.
happy comnpliment: as in Vernon was found Rerioun: and   ating the name of every person of eminence who died b.e
the celebrated Sir Thomas Iriat bole his own designation   an anagram; but by the description of the bodily pain he
in his name, a Wit.  Of the poet Waller the anagramma-  suffered on these occasions, when he shut himself up for
tist said,                                              those rash attempts, he seems to have shared in the dyint''IHis brows need not with I~awrel to be bound,    pangs of the mortals whonm he so painfully celebrated
Since in his name with Lawrel he is crown'd.      Others appear to have practiced this art with more facility
Randle Holmes, who has written a very extraordinary   A French poet, deeply in love, in one day sent his mis.
volume on heraldry, was complimented by an expressive  tress, whose name was Alagdelaine, three dozen of ana
anagram:                                                grams on her single name!
Even old Camden, who lived in the golden age of ana.
Lo, Men's Herald  grams, notices the dfficilia quce pulchra, the charming dif*Ti.se anagrams were often devoted to the personal at-  ficulty,'as a whetstone of patience to them that shall
tachments of love or friendship. A friend delighted to  practise it. For some have been seen to bite their pen,
twine his name with the name of i:is friend.  Crashawe,  scratch their heads, bend their brows, bite their lips, beat
the poet, had a literary intimate of the nanie of Car, who  the board, tear their paper, when the names were fair for
was his posthumous editor; and, in prefixing some elegiac   soniewhat, and caught nothing therein.' Such was the
lines, discovers that his late friend Crashawe was Car;  troubled happiness of an anagrammatist: yet, adds our
for so the anagram of Crashawe runs: He was Car. On   venerable author, notwithstanding' the sour sort of critics,
this quaint discovery, he has indulged all the tenderness of  good anagrams yield a delightful comfort, and pleasant muhis recollections:                                      tion in honest minds.''-Was Car then Crashawe, or was Crashawe Car         When the mania of making Anagrams prevailed, the
Since both within one name combined are.          little persons at court flattered the great ones by inventing
Yes, Car's Crashawe. he Car;'tis Love alone       anagrams for them; and when the wit of the maker proved
Which melts two hearts, of both composing one,     to be as barren as the letters of the name, they dropped or
So Crashawe's still the same, &c'                changed them, raving with the alphabet and racking their
A happy anagram  on a person's name might have a   wits.  Among the manuscripts of the grave Sir Julius
moral effect on the feelings: as there is reason to believe,  Caesar, one cannot but smile at a bundle emphatically enthat certain celebrated names have had some influence on   dorsed'Trash.' It is a collection of these court anathe personal character. When one Martha /Nicolson was  grams; a remarkable evidence of that ineptitude to which
fevund out to be Soon calm in heart, the anagram, in be-  mere fashionable wit can carry the frivolous.
coming ftamiliar to her, might afford an opportune admonl-    In consigning this intellectual exercise to oblivion, we
tion. But, perhaps, the happiest of anagrams was that pro-  must not confound the miserable and the happy together.
duced on a singular person and occasion.  Lady Eleanor  A man of genius would not consume an hour in extracting
Davies, the wife of the celebrated Sir John Davies, the   even a fortunate anagram  from a name, although on an
poet, was a very extraordinary character. She was the   extraordinary person or occasicon its appositeness might be
Cassandra of her ane; and several of her predictions war-  worth an epigram.  Muckh of s.F mnsrit will arise from the
ranted her to conceivt she was a prophet;ass.  As her  association of ideas; a trifler can only produce what is
Irophecies in the troubled times of Chao-es I were usu-  trifling, but an elegant mind timy delight by some elegant




184                                   CURIOSITIES OF
allusion, and a satirical one by its causticity.  We have  lost, and descents confounded, by such uncertain and dis..
some recent ones, which will not easily be forgotten.   greeing signatures of the same person.  In a late suit
A similar contrivance, that of Echo Verses, may here  respecting the Duchess of Norfolk's estate, one of the anbe noticed. I have given a specimen of these in a modern  cestors has his name printed Higden, while in the geneal.'rench writer, whose sportive pen has thrown out so much   ogy it appears Hickden. I think f have seen Ben Jonson's
wit and humour in his Echoes.*  Nothing ought to be  name written by himself with an  h; and Dryden made use
tontemned which, in the hands of a man of genius, is  of an i.  I have seen an injunction to printers with the
converted into a medium of his talents. No verses have  sign manual of Charles II, not to print Samuel Boteler e.
>en considered more contemptible than these, which, with  quire's book or poem called Hudibras witihout.is consent.
all their kindred, have been anathematized by Butler, in  but I do not know whether Butler thus wrote his name.
nis exquisite character of' a smrall poet,' in his' Remains,'  As late as in 1660 a Dr Crovne was at such a loss to have
whom he describes as' tumbling through the hoop of an   his name pronounced rightly, that he tried six different
anagram' and'all those gambols of wit.' The philosophi-  ways of writing, it, as appears by printed books; Cron.
cal critic will be more tolerant than was the orthodox   Croon, Crovn, Crone, Croone, and Crovne; all which apchurch of wit in that day, which was, indeed, alarmed at  pear under his own hand, as he wrote it differently at difthe fantastical heresies which were then prevailing.  I  ferent periods of his life. In the subscription book of the
say not aeword in favour of' unmeaning Acrostics; but  Royal Society he writes W. Croone, but in his will at the
Anagrams and Echo Verses may be shown capable of  Commons he signs W. Crovne. Ray the naturalist informs
reflecting  the ingenuity of their makers. I preserve a   us in his letters, p. 72, that he first wrote his name JVray,
copy of Echo Verses, which exhibit a curious picture of  but afterwards omitted the W.  Dr Whitby, in books
the state of our religious fanatics, the Roundheads of  published by himself, writes his name sometimes Wh/iteby.
Charles I, as an evidence, that in the hands of a wit,  And among the Harleian Manuscripts there is a large col.
even such things can be converted into the instruments of  lection of letters, to which I have often referred; written
wit.                                                    between 1620 and 1630 by Joseph Mead: and vet in all
At the end of a comedy presented at the entertainment  his printed letters, and his works, even within that period,
of the prince, by the scholars of Trinity College, Cam-  it is spelt Mede: by which signature we recognize the
bridge, in March 1641, printed for James Calvin, 1642,  name of a learned man better known to us: it was long
the author, Francis Cole, holds in a print a paper in one  before I discovered the letter writer to have been this
hand, and a round hat in another. A.t the end of all is this  scholar. Oldys, in some curious manuscript memoirs of
humorous little poem.                                   his family, has traced the family name through a great
THE ECCHO!                         variety of changes, and sometimes it is at such variance,
Now Eccho, on what's religion grolunded?         that the person indicated will not always appear to have
Round-head f      belonged to the family.  We saw recently an advertiseWhose its professor most considerable?            ment in the newspapers offe ring five thousand pounds to
Rabble!          prove a marriage in the family of the Knevetts, which ocHow do these prove themselves to be the godly?    curred about 1633. What Inrst disconcerts the inquirers
Oddly!       is their discovery that the family name was written in six
But they in life are known to be the holy.        or seven different ways; a circumstance which I have no
0 lie t        doubt will be found in most family names in England.
Who are these preahers, men or womenommon  Fuller mentions that the name of Villers was spelt four.
Come they from any universitie?                  teen different ways in the deeds of that farnily.
Citie!            I shall illustrate this subject by the history of the names
Do they not learning from their doctrine sever?    of two of our most illustrious countrymen, Shakspealre and
Ever!      Rawleigh.
Yet they pretend that they do edifie;                We all remember the day, when a violent literary con,
hat do you call it then, to fructify?  troversy was opened, nor is it yet closed, respecting t'
Ay                spelling of our poet's name. One great editor persisted in
What Church have they, and what pulpits?           his triumphant discovery, by printine Shakspere, while
Pitts!           another would only partially yield, Shakspeare; but all
But now in chambers the Conventicle;              parties seemed willing to drop the usual and natural deriTickle!          vation of his name, in which we are surely warranted from
The godly sisters shrewdly are belied.            a passage in a contemporary writer, who alludes by the
BelliedThe godly number then wi sooname to a conceit of his own, of the martial spirit of the
End!'    poet. The truth seems to be, then, that personal names
As    the temples they with zeal embrace them were written by the ear, since the persons themselves did
Rase them!       not attend to the accurate writing of their own names,
What do they make ofbishop's hierarchy?            which they changed sometimes capriciously and someArchie tf     times with anxious nicety. Our great poet's name apAre crosses, images, ornaments their scandall.    pears Shakspere in the register of Stratford church; it is
All!      Shackspeare in the body of his will, but that very instruNor will they leave us many ceremonies, Monies'   ment is indorsed Mr Shackspere's will. He himself has
Must even religion down for satisfaction.          written his name in two different ways, Shakspeare and
Faction.       Shakspere. Mr Colmon says, the poet's name in his own
How stand they affected to the government civil?  county is pronounced with the first a short, which accounts
Evil!         for this mode of writing the name, and proves that the orBut to the king they say they are most loyal.     thoepy rather than the orthography of a person's name
Lye all.       was most attended to; a very questionable and uncertain
Then God keep King and State from these same men.   standard.
Amen          standard.
Another remarkable instance of this sort is the name of
ORTHOGRAPHY OF PROPER NAMES.                  Sir Walter Rawley, which I am myself uncertain how to
We are often perplexed to decide how the names of some   write; although I have discovered a fact which proves how
of our eminent men ought to be written; and we find that  it should be pronounced.
thsey are even now written diversely. The truth is that our    Rawley's name was spelt by himself and by his eon.
orthography was so long unsettled among us, that it ap-tempoariesinallsorts of was.  We find it Ralegh, Ra
pears by various documents of the times which I have  leigh, Rawleigh, Raweley, and Rawly; the last of which
psea, that persons were at a loss how to write their own   at least preserves it pronunciation. This great man, when
names, and most certainly have written them variously.  young, appears to have subscribed his name' Walter
I have sometimes suspected that estates may have been   Raweley of the Middle Tenmple' to a copy ot verses, print.
ed among others prefixed to a satire called the Steel-glass,
9 See p. 79.                                          in George Gascoiane's Works, 1576. Sir Walter was
tAn allusion probably to Archibald Armstrong, the fool orin George Gascoine's Works, 1576. SirWalter was
ptvill jester' of Charles I, usually caletl Archy, who adfool or  then a young student, and these verses both by their spirit
pa.liqarrel with Archbishop Laud, and of whom many arch   and signature cannot fail to be his; however this matter is
a. quarrel  with Archbishop Laud,  and of whom  many arch
things are on record; there is a little jest-book very high-  doubtfful, for the critics have not met elsewhere with his
pric  and of little worth which bears the title of Arches's  name thus written. The orthoepy of the name of this
great man I can establish by the following fact. Whom




LI rERAT URE.                                                  185
Sir Walter was first introduced to James I on the king's   larybone was St Mary-on-the-Bourne, corrupted Le
arrival in England, with whom, being united with an oppo-  Mary-bone; as Holborn was Old Bourne, or the 014
rition party, he was no favourite; the Scottish monarch   River; Bourne being the ancient English for river; hence
gave him this broad reception:' Rawly! Rawly! true  the Scottish Burn.
enough, for I think of thee very Rawly, mon!' There is.Newington was New-town.
also an enigma contained in a distich written by a lady of    1laiden-lane was so called from an image of the virgins
the times, which preserves the real pronunciation of the   which, in catholic days, had stood there, as Bagford writes
name of this extraordinary man.                        to Hearne; and he says, that the fiequent sign of the'What's bad for the stoma h, and the word of dishonour,    Maiden-head was derived from' our Lady's-hedd.'
Is the name of the man, whom the king will not honour.'  Lad-lane was originally Lady's-lane, from the same per.
Thus our ancient personal names were written down by   sonage.
the ear, at a period when we had no settled orthography;    Rood-lane was so denominated from a RoLods or Jesus
and even at a later period, not distant from our own times,  on the cross, there placed, which was heid.Xa great resome persons, it might be shown, have been equally puz-  gard.
zled how to write their names; witness the Thomsons,    Piccadilly was named after a hall called Piccadilla-hall,
Thompsons; the Wartons, the Whartons, &c.               a place of sale for Piccadillies or Turn-overs; a part o!
the fashionable dress which appeared about 1614. It
NAMES OF OUR STREETS.                     has preserved its name uncorrupted: for Barnabe Rich,
Lord Ortbrd has, in one of his letters, projected a curi-  in his' Honestie of the Age,' has this passage on' the
ous work to be written in a walk through the streets of the   body-makers that do swarm  through all parts, both of
metropolis, similar to a French work entitled' Anecdotes  London and about London.  The body is still pampered
des Rues de Paris.' I know of no such work, and sus-  iup in the very dropsy of excess.  lie that some fortie
pect the vivacious writer alluded in his mind to Saint Foix's  v' ars sithens should have asked after a Pickadilly, I won.' Essais historiques sur Paris,' a very entertaining work,  ictr who would have understood him; or could have told
of which the plan is that projected by his lordship. We   what a Pickadilly had been, either fish or flesh.'
have had Pennant's' London,' a work of this description;    Strype notices that in the liberties of Saint Catharine
but, on the whole, this is a superficial performance, as it  is a place called Hangman's-gains; the traders of Hamregards manners, characters, and events. That antiquary   mes and Guynes, in France, anciently resorted there;
skimmed every thing, and grasped scarcely any thing: he  thence the strange corruption.
wanted the patience of research, and the keen spirit which  Smithfield is a corrup ion of Smoothfield: smith signirevivifies the past. Should Lord Orford's project be car-  fies smooth, from  the Saxon smeth.   An antiquarian
ried into execution, or rather, should Pennant be hereafter  friend had seen it described in a deed as campus planus,
improved, it would be first necessary to obtain the original  which confirms the original meaning.  It is described in
names, or their meanings, of our streets, free from the dis-  Fitz Stephen's account of London, written before the
guise in which time has concealed them. We shall other-  twelfth century, as a plain field, both in reality and name,
wise lose many characters of persons, and many remarka-  where every Friday there is a celebrated rendezvous ot
ble events, of which their original denominations would  fine horses, brought hither to be sold. Thither come to
remind the historian of our streets.                    look or buy, a great number of earls, barons, knights, and
I have noted down a few of these modern misnomers,  a swarm of citizens. It is a pleasing sight to behold the
that this future historian may be excited to discover more.  ambling nags and generous colts, proudly prancing. This
Mincing-lane was MlIincheon-lane; from tenements per-  ancient writer continues a minute description, and perhaps
taining to the Mincheons, or the nuns of St Helen's in  gives the earliest one of a horse-race in this country. It
Bishopsgate-street.                                     is remarkable that Smithfield should have continued as a
Gutter-lane, corrupted from  Guthurun's-lane; from its  market for cattle for more than six centuries with only
first owner, a citizen of great trade.                  the loss of its vowels.
Blackwall-hall was Bakewell's-hall, from  one Thomas    This is sufficient to show how the names of our streets
Bakewell; and originally called Basing's-hmaugh, from a  require either to be corrected or explained, by their histoconsiderable family of that name, whose arms were once  rian.  The French, among the numerous projects for the
seen on the ancient building, and whose name is still per.  moral improvement of civilized man, had one, which, had
petuated in Basing's-lane.                              it not been polluted by a horrid faction, might have been
Finch-lane was Finke's-lane, from a whole family of this  directed to a noble end. It was to name streets after eminame.                                                   nent men. This would at least preserve them  from the
Thread-needle-street, was originally Thrid-needle-street, as  corruption of the people, and exhibit a perpetual monu.
Samuel Clarke dates it from his study there.            ment of moral feeling, and of glory, to the rising genius of
Billiter-lane is a corruption of Belzetter's lane; from the   every age.  With what excitement and delight may the
first builder or owner.                                 young contemplatist, who first studies at Gray's Inn, be
Crutched-friars was Crowched or Crossed-friars.       reminded of Verulam-buildings!
I_[thbury was so named from the noise of founders at    The names of streets will often be found connected with
the'- work, and, as Howel pretends, this place was called   some singular event, or the character of some person.
Lothbu.y' disdainedly.'                                Not long ago. a Hebrew, who had a quarrel with his comlGarlick-hill was Garlick-hithe, or hive, where garlick   munity, built a neighbourhood at Bethnal-green, and rewas sold.                                               tained the subject of his anger in the name which the
Fetter-lane has been erroneously supposed to have some   houses bear, of Purim-place.  This may startle some
connexion with thefetters of criminals. It was in Charles  theological antiquary at a remote period, who may idly
the First's time written Fewtar-lane, and is so in Howel's  lose himself in abstruse conjectures on the sanctity of a
Londinopolis, who explains it as Fewtaors (or idle people)  name, derived from a well known Hebrew festival: and,
lying there as in a way leading to gardens. It was the   perhaps, colonize the spot with an ancient horde of Israel.
haunt of these Faitors, or' mighty beggars.' The Faitour,  ites.
that is, a defaytor, or defaulter, became Fewttor, and in the
rapid prononlrciation, or conception, ofnames, Fewtor has   SECRET HISTORY OF EDWARD VERE, EARL OF OXFORD.
ended in Fetter-lane.                                     Itis an odd circumstance in literary research, that I am
Gracechurch-street, sometimes called Gracious-street,  enabled to correct a story which was written about 1680.
was originally Grass-street, from a herb-market there.  The Aubrey papers, recently published with singular
Fenhnurch-street, from a fenny or moorish ground by a   faithfulfiess, retaining all their peculiarities, even to the
river-side.                                             grossest errors, were memoranda for the use of Anthony
Galley-key has preserved its name, but its origin may   Wood's great work. Biut besides these, the Oxford ant.
have been lost. Howel, in his' Londinopolis,' says,' here  quary had a very extensive literary correspondence, and
dwelt strangers called Galley-men, who brought wine, &c,  it is known, that when speechless and dying, he evinced
m Galleys.                                              the fortitude to call in two friends to destroy a vast multi.
1lreek-street, says Penant,'I am  sorry to degrade into  tude of papers: about two bushels fill were ordered for
Gr-..r-lreet;' whether it alludes to the little vivacious eel,  the fire, lighted for the occasion: arid,' as he was expiring
or to tme, merry character of its tenants, he does not re-  he expressed both his knowledgle and approbation of what
solve.                                                  was done, by throwing oul his hands.' These two bushe
Bridewell was St Bridget's well, from one dedicaten to  els full were not, however, all his papers; his more pri.
Saint Bride or Bridget.                                 vate ones he had ordered not to be opened for seven yearas
24




186                                   CURIOSITIES OF
I suspect also, that a great number of letters were not  at Florence, could throw into shade the court of Tuscany
burnt on this occasion; for I have discovered a manuscript  itself.
written about 1720 to 1730, and which, the writer tells us,
consists of' Excerpts out of Anthony Wood's papers.'               ANCIENT COOKERY AND COONS.
It is closely written, and contains many curious facts not    The memorable grand dinner given by the classical doc.
to be found elsewhere, as far as I have hitherto discovered.  tor in Peregrine Pickle has indisposed our tastes for the
These papers of Anthony Wood probably still exist in  cookery of the ancients; but, since it is often' the cooks
the Ashmolean Museum: should they have perished,in   who spoil the broth,' we cannot be sure but that even' the
that case this solitary manuscript will be the sole record  black Lacedaemonian,' stirred by the spear of a Spartan,
of many interesting particulars not known to the public.    might have had a poignancy for him, which did not happen
By these I correct a little story, which may be found in  on that occasion.
the Aubrey papers, Vol. IIt, 395. it is an account of one  Their cookery must have been superior to our humbler
Nicholas Hill, a man of great learning, and in the high   art, since they could find dainties in the tough memibraneconfidence of a remarkable and munificent Earl of Oxford,  ous parts of the matrices of a sow, arid the flesh of young
travelling with him abroad. I transcribe the printed Au-  hawks, and a young ass.  The elder Pliny tells, that one
brey account.                                           man had studied the art of fattening snails with paste so' In his travels with his lord (1I forget whether Italy or  successfully, that the shells of some of his snails would con.
Germany, but I think the former,) a poor man begged  tain many quarts.*  The same monstrous taste fed up
him to give him a penny.  "A  penny!" said Mr Hill.  those prodigious goose livers; a taste still prevailing in
4" What do'st say to ten pounds?"  "Ah! ten pounds,"  Italy. Swine were fattened with whey and figs, and even
said the beggar: " that would make a man happy."  N.  fish in their ponds were increased by such artificial means.
Hill gave hinm immediately ten pounds, and putt it downe   Our prize oxen might astonish a Roman, as much as one
upon account. Item, to a beggar ten poends to make him   of their crammed peacocks would ourselves. Gluttony
happy.'-The point of this story has been marred in  produces monsters, and turns away from nature to feed
the telling: it was drawn up from the following one, which   on unwholesome meats.  The flesh of young foxes about
must have been the original. This extract was made   autumn, when they fed on grapes, is praised by Galen;
from a letter by Aubrey to A. Wood, dated July 15, 1689.  and Hippocrates equals the flesh of puppies to that of birds.'A poor man asked Mr Hill, his lordship's steward, once   The humorousDr King, who has touched on this subject,
to give him sixpence, or a shilling, for an alms.  " What  suspects that many of the Greek dishes appear charming
dost say if' I give thee ten pounds?  " Ten pounds! that  from their mellifluous terminations, resounding with a/oios
would make a man of me!"  Hill gave it him, and put  and toios.t
down in his accouut, " Item, 101 for making a man,"       The numerous descriptions of ancient cookery which
which his lordship inquiring about for the oddness of the  Athenaeus has preserved indicate an unrivalled dexterity
expression, not only allowed, but was pleased with it.'  and refinement: and the ancients, indeed, appear to have
This philosophical humourist was the steward of Ed-  raised the culinary art into a science, and dignified cooks
ward Vere, Earl of Oxford, in the reign of Elizabeth.  into professors.  They had writers who exhausted their
The peer was a person of elegant accomplishments; and   erudition and ingenuity in verse and prose; while some
Lord Orford, in his' Noble Authors,' has given a higher  were proud to immortalise their names by the invention of
character of him than perhaps he may deserve.  He was  a poignant sauce, or a popular gateau. Apicius, a name
of the highest rank, in great favour with the queen, and,  immortalised. and now synonymous with a gorger, was the
to employ the style of the day, when all our fashions and  inventor of cakes called Apicians; and one Aristoxenes,
our poetry were moulding themselves on the Italian model,  after many unsuccessful combinations, at length hit on a
he was the' Mirrour of Tuscanismo;' and, in a word, this  peculiar manner of seasoning hams, thence called Ariscoxcombical peer, after a seven years' residence in Flo-  toxenians.  The name of a late nobleman among ourselves
sence, returned highly'Italiarated.' The ludicrous mo-  is thus invoked every day.
tave of this peregrination is given in the present manu-    Of these Eruditke gulS, Archestratus, a culinary philo.
script account. Haughty of his descent and his alliance,  soplier, composed an epic or didactic poem on good eating.
irritable with effeminate delicacy and personal vanity, a  His' Gastrology' became the creed of the epicures, and
little circumstance, almost too minute to be recorded, in-  its pathos appears to have made what is so expressively
flicted such an injury on his pride, that in his mind it re-  called' their mouths water.' The idea has been recently
quired years of absence from the court of England, ere it  successfully imitated by a French poet. Archestratus
could be forgotten. Once making a low obeisance to the  thus opens his subject:
queen before the whole court- this stately and inflated
peer suffered a mischance which has happened, it is said,      That round a table delicately spread,
on a like occasion-it was' light as air!' But this acci-      Or. three, or four, may sit in choice repast,
dent so sensibly hurt his mawkish delicacy, and so humbled      Or five at most. Who otherwise shall dine,
his aristocratic dignity, that he could not raise his eyes on  Are like a troop marauding for their prey.'
his royal mistress.  He resolved from  that day' to be a  The elegant Romans declared, that a repast should nor
banished man,' and resided for seven years in Italy, living  consist of less in number than the Graces, nor of mor.
in more grandeur at Florence than the Grand Duke of  than the Muses.  They had, however, a quaint proverb
Tuscany. He spent in those years forty thousand pounds.  which Alexander ab Alexandro has preserved, not faoua.On his  -.urn he presented the queen with embroidered   ble even to so large a dinner-party as nine; it turns on a
gloves ana perfulmes, then for the first time introduced into  play of words:
England, as Stowe has noticed. Part of the new presents seem to have some reference to the earl's former' Septem convivium, Novem convicium facere.'t
mischance.  The queen received them  graciously, and      A   elegnt Roman, meeting a friend, regretted 
was even painted wearing those gloves; but my authority  could  ot invite him  to dinvite him to dinner,'because  my regumber is
states, that the masculine sense of Elizabeth could not  complete.'
abstain from congratulating the noble coxcomb; perceiv-    When Archestratus acknowledges that some things are
ing, she said, that at length my lord forgot the mentioning  for the winter, and some for the summer, he consoles himthe little mischance of seven years ago!                self, that though we cannot have them at the same time,
The peer's munificence abroad was indeed the talk of    et, at least, we may talk about them at all times.
Euro.pe; but the secret motive of this was as wicked as    This great genius seems to have travelled over land and
hat of his travels had been ridiculous.  This earl of Ox-  seas that he might critically examine the thin  themselves,
ford had married the daughter of Lord Burleigh, and, when  s nd improve, with neveritically examines, the tabhin ris themselves
this geat statesmnwn  tf                                and improvea would not consent to sacoveries, the table-luxuries. Hoe
theis  eat soresma   woulde not consent tio sav, the lifre of  indicates the places for peculiar edibles, and exquisite pothe Dhlke of Norfolk, the friend of this earl, he swore to  tables; and promulgates his precepts with the zeal of a
revenge himself on the countess, out of hatred to his fatherin-law. He not only forso k her, but studied every means    * Nat. Hist. Lib. IX, 56.
to waste that great inheritance which had descended to     See his works, collectd by Mr Nicho'a, vol. T,139.  have
him from his ancestors. Secret history often startles us  no doubt, that Dr King's desriptbon of the Virtuoso Bentivoawith unexpected discoveries: the personal affectations of  lie, with his' bill of fare out ot'Atheneus,' suggested to Sniolthis earl induce him to quit a court, where he stood in the  let his celebrated scenle 
4 Genial. Dieruot, HI! 2d;, Lug 1,673. The writer has co!highest favour, to domesticate himselfabroad: and a falnily  lected in this chapter a vticty of curious particulars on this
woe was the motive of that splendid prodigality which,  subject.




LITERATURE.                                                         187
sublime legislator, who is dictating a code designed to           Which threats mankind, and shakes their changeftl
ameliorate the imperfect, state of society.                        frame.
A philosopher worthy to bear the title of cook, or a cook      This dost thou comprehend? Know, what we usa
worthy to be a philosopher, according to the numerous             In season, is most seasonably good!
curious passages scattered in Athenaes, was an extraor-                             FRIEND.
dinary genius, endowed not merely with a natural aptitude,        Most learned cook, who can observe these canonsa
but with all acquired accomplishments.  The philosophy,TER C
cr the metaphysics, of cookery appears in the following                         MASTER COOl.
passage:                                                          And therefore phlegm and colics make a man
passage:no~~~~~r~ ~  thA most indecent guest. The aliment' Know then, the Cook, a dinner that's bespoke            Dress'd in my kitchen is true aliment;
Aspiring to prepare, with prescient zeal                  Light of digestion easily it passes
Should know the tastes and humours of the guests;         The chye  soft-blending from the juicy food
For it' he drudges through the common work,Repairs the solids.
Thoughtless of manner, careless what the place
And seasons claim; and what the favouring hour                             FRIEND.
Auspicious to his genius may present,                                      Ah! the chyle! the solidl!
Why, star, ing midst the multitude of men,                Thou newDemocrtus   thou sage of'meicins
hCal}  e this plodding frisnasseer a Cook?               Versed in the mysteries of the latric art!
Oh differillng far! and one is not the other'
W're call indeed the general of an army                                 MASTER COOK.
1lirn who is charged to lead it to the war;               Now mark the blunders ofour vulgar cooks'
But the true general is the man whose mind,               See them prepare a dish of various fish,
Mastering events, anticipates, combines;                  Shoering profuse the pounded Indian grain1
Else is ho bitt a leader to his men!                     An overpowering vapour, gallimaufry!
With our profession thus: the first who comes             A multitude confused of pothering odours 
May with a humble toil, or slice, or chop,                But, know, the genius of the art consists
Prepare the ingredients, and around the fire              To make the nostrils feel each scent distinct;
Obseqluiousn him I call a fricasseer!                     And not in washing plates to free from smoke.
But al i the cook a brighter glory crowns  I never enter in my kitchen, I
We;; skill'd is he to know the place, the hour,           But sit apart, and in the cool directHim who invites, and him who is invited,                  Observant of what passes, scullions toil.
What fish in season makes the market rich,
A choice delicious rarity! I know'                                       FRIEND.
That all, wvq always find; but always all,                What dost thou there?
Charms not the palate, critically fine.                                MASTER COOK.
Archestratus, in culinary lore
Deep fbr his time, in this more learned age,                                    1 guide the mighty whole
Is wanting: and full oft he surely talks                  Explore the causes, prophesy the dish.
Of what he never ate. Suspect his page,'Tis thus I speak:' Leave, leave that ponderous bam.
Nor load thy genius with a barren precept.                Keel) up the fire, and lively play the flame
Look not in books for what some idle sage                 Beneath those lobster-patties; patient here,
So idly ravel; for cookery is an art                    Fix'd as a statue, slim, incessant skim.
Conmporting ill with rhetoric;'tis an art                Steep well this sniall Glociscus in its sauce,
Still changing, and of momentary triumph  And boil that sea-dog in a cullendser;
Know on thyself thy genius must depend.                   This eel requires more salt and majoram;
All books of cookery, all helps of art,                   Roast well that piece of kid on either side
All critic learning, all commenting notes,                Equal; that sweetbread troil not over much.'
Are vain, it void of genius, thou wouldst cook!'Tis thus, my friend, I make the concert play.
The culinary sage thus spoke; his friend                                  FRIEND.
Demands'Where is the ideal cook thou paint'st?'         O man of science!'tis thy babble kills!
Lo, I the man!' the savouring sage replied.'Now be thine eyes the witness of my art!                             MASTER COOR.
This tunny drest, so odorous shall steam,                 And then no useless dish my table crowds,
The spicy sweetness so shall steal thy sense,             Harmonious ranged, and consonantly just!
That thou in a delicious reverieF
Shalt sliumber heavenly o'er the attic dish                                 FR!'IEND.
In another passage a Master-Cook conceives himsclf
to be a pupil of Epicurus. whose favourite but ambiguous                        MASTER COOK.
axiorm, that' Voluptuousness is the sovereign good,' was                                 Divinest music all;
interpreted by the bon -vilvans of antiquity in the plain sense.  As iln a concert instruments resound,
My ordered dishes in their courses chime.
MASTER COOK.                                  So Epicurus dictated the art
Behold in me a pupil of the school                          Of sweet voluptuousness, and ate in order,
Of the sage Epicurus.                                       Musing delighted o'er the sovereign good!
FRIEND.                                   Let raving stoics in a labyrinth
Run after virtue; they shall find no end.
Thou a sage!                          Thou, what is foreign to mankind, abjure!
MASTER COOK.                                                    FRIEND.
Ay! Epiculrus too was sure a cook,                          Right honest Cook! thou wak'st me from their dresamB
And knew the sovereign good. Nature his study,          Another Cook informs us that he adapts his repasts W
While practice perfected his theory.                  his personages.
Divine philosophy alone can teach
The difference which the fish Glociscus* shows              I like to see the faces of my guests,
In winter and in sumlner; how to learn                      To feed them as their age and station claim.
Which fish to choose, when set the Pleiades,                My kitchen changes, as my guests inspire
Arid at the solstice.'Tis change of seasons                The various spectacle; for lovers now,
Philosophers, and now fo!br financiers.
* The commentators have not been able always to assign          If my yolng roystey be a mettled spark,
known names to the great variety of fish, particularly sea-fish,  Who melts an acre in a savouley dish
the ancients used, many of which we should revolt at. One        To charm his mistress, scuttle-fish and crabs,
of their dainties was a shell-fish, prickly like a hedge-hog,    And all the shelly-race, with mixture due
called Echiinus. They ate the dog-fish, the star-fish, porpoises  Of cordials filtered, exquisitely rich.
or sea-hogs, and even seals.'In Dr Moffet's regimen of diet,     Fol such a host, my friend! expends much m
an exceeding curious writer of the reign of Elizabeth, repub.    In oil than cotton; solely stuelyiig love
lished by Oldys, may be fbund an ample account of the' sea.
To a philosopher, that animal
fish' uised by the ancients. rWhatever the Glociscus was, it      Voracious, solid ham and btllcy feet;
seems to have been of great size, and a shell-fish, as we may     Bet to the financier, with costly niceness,
infer from the following curious passage in Athensus. A fa.       Glociscus rare, or rarity more rare.
ther, infornied that his son is leading a dissolute life, enraged,  Insensible the palate of old age,
remonstrates with his pedagogue;-' Knave! thou art the           More dificult than the soft lips of youth
fault! hast thou ever known a philosopher yield himself so       To move, I put much mustard in their dish;
entirely to the pleasulres thou tellest me of?'  The peda.        With quickenin  sauces make their stupor eon
gogue replies hy a Yes! and that the sages of the portico are    And lash the lazy blood that creeps within
great drunkarrls, and none know better than they how to attacka Glociscus.                                              Another genius, in tracing the art of Cookery, derivn
"'"~"'~' b-"~"-, — ~ ~`~~-"s




188                                    C1URIOSITIES OF
from it nothing less than the origin of society;.nd I think  those who braved all the dangers of the Plain of Marathon,
that some philosopher has defined Man to be'a cooking   and combated at sea at Salamis, that he will not reveal the
raninal.'                                               secret that year. But of an incident, so triumphant in the
~~COOKg~.  ~annals of the gastric art, our philosopher would not deprive
The~~COK                                      annal of thoeasric arewetl fort
The art of cookery drew us gently forth            posterity of the knowledge.  The animal had been bled to
From that ferocious light when void of faith       death by a wound under the shoulder, whence! after a coThe Anthropophaginian ate his brother!             pious effusion, the master-cook extracted!;e extrails,
To cookery we owe well-ordered states,             vashed them with wine, and hanging the animal by the feet,
Assembling men in dear society.                   he crammed down the throat the stuffings already prepared.
Wild was tihe earth, man feasting upon man,        Then covering the half' of the pig with a paste of barley
When cne of nobler sense and milder heart          thickened with wine and oil, he put it in a smali oven, or
First sacrificed an animal; the flesh,gnl  ose
First sacrlficed ar, animal; the flesh           on a heated table of brass, where it was gently roasted
Was sweet; and man then ceased to feed on man!     n                                 w
And something of the rudeness of those times       with all due care: when the skin was browned, hlie boiled
The priest commemorates; for to this day,         the other side; and then taking away the barley paste, thb
He roasts the victim's entrails without salt.      pig was served up, at once boiled and roasted.  These
In those dark times, beneath the earth lay hid     cooks with a vegetable could counterfeit the shape, and
The precious salt, ttat gold of cookery!          the taste of fish and flesh. The king of Bithynia, in some
But when its particles the palate thrilied,        expedition against the Scythians, in the winter and at a
The source of seasonings, charm of cookery:! came. 
The source of seasoninhs, charm of cookeryt  came,  great distance from the sea, had a violent longing for a
Tidey served a  paunch with rich iogredients stored;  small fish called aphy —a pilchard, a herring, or an anchovy.
And tender kid, within two covering plates,
Warm melted in the mouth. So art improved!         His cook cut a turnip to the perfect imitation of its shape
At length a miracle not yet perform'd,             then fried in oil, salted, and well powdered with the grains
They minced the meat which roll'd in herbage soft  of a dozen black poppies, his majesty's taste was so exNor meat nor herbage seem'd, but to the eye        quisitely deceived, that he praised the root to his guests
And to the taste, the counterfeited dish           as an excellent fish. This transmutation of vegetables into
Mrimick'd some curious fish; invention rare        meat or fish is a province of the culinary ast which we apThen every dish was season'd more and more,
Then every dish was sweasond more and more,        pear to have lost; yet these are cibi innocentes, compared
Salted, or sour, or sweet, and mingled oft
Oatmeal and honey. To enjoy the meal               with the things themselves.  No peotle are such gorgers
Men congregated in the populous towns,             of mere animal food as our own; the art of preparing vegeAnd cities flourish'd, which we cooks adorn'd,    tables, pulse, and roots, is scarcely known in this country,
With all the pleasures of domestic life.           This cheaper and healthful food should be introduced
An arch-cook insinuates, that there remain only two   among the common people, who neglect them firom not
s piliars of the state,' besides himself, of the school of Sinon,  knowing how to dress them.  The peasant, for want of
one of the great masters of the condimenting art. Sinon,  this skill, treads underfoot the best meat in the world; and
we are told, applied the elements of all the arts and   sometimes the best way of dressing it is least costly.
sciences to this favourite one. Natural philosophy could  The gastric art must have reached to its last perfection,
produce a secret seasoning for a dish; and architecture   when we find that it had its history; and that they knew
the art of conducting the smoke out of a chimney; which,  how to ascertain the era of a dish with a sort of chronolosays he, if ungovernable, makes a great difference in the   gical exactness. The philosophers of Athenweus at table
dressing. From the military science he derived a sublime   dissert on every dish, and tell us of one called maata, that
idea of order; drilling the under-cooks, marshalling the  there was a treatise composed on it; that it was first intro.
kitchen, hastening one, and making another a sentinel.  duticed at Athens, at the epocha of the Macedonian empire,
We find however, that a portion of this divine art, one   but that it was undoubtedly a Thessalian invention; the
of the professors acknowledges to be vapouring and brag-  most sumptuous people of all the Greeks.  The maati was
ging! —a seasoning in this art, as well as in others.  A   a term at length applied to any dainty, of excessive deli.
cook ought never to come unaccompanied by all the pomp   cacy, always served the last.
and parade of the kitchen: with a scurvy appearance, he   But, as no art has ever attained perfection without
will be turned away at sight; for all have eyes, but a few   numerous admirers, and as it is the public which only can
only understanding.                                     make such exquisite cooks, our curiosity may be excited ta
Another occult part of this profound mystery, besides  inquire, whether the patrons of the gastric art were as great
vapouring, consisted, it seems, in filching. Such is the   enthusiasts as its professors?
counsel of a patriarch to an apprentice! a precept which  We see they had writers who exhausted their genius on
contains a truth for all ages of cookery.               these professional topics; and books of cookery were much'Carion! time well thy ambidextrous part          read: for a comic poet, quoted by Athenteus, exhibits a
Nor always filch. It was but yesterday, 
Nor always filch, It was but yesterday,            character exulting in having procured'The new Kitchen
Blundering, they nearly caught thee in the fact;    of Philoxenus, which,' says he,'I keep for myself to read
None of thy balls had livers, and the guests,       in my solitude.' That these devotees to the culinary art
In horror, pierced their airy emptiness.            undertook journeys to remote parts of the world, in quest
Not even the brains were there, thou brainless hound!  oftlhese discoveries, sufficient facts authenticate. England
If thou art hired among the middling class,  had the honour to furnish them with oysters, which they
Who pay thee freely, be thou honourable!           fetched from about Sandwich.  Juvenal* records, that
~But for this day, where now we go to cook
But for this day, where now we go to cook          Montanus was so well skilled in the science of good eating,'en cut the master's throat for all I care;  that he could tell by the first bite, whether they were En" A word to th' wise," and show thyself my scholar   glish or not. The-well known Apicitis poured into his
There thou mayst filch and revel, all may hyield   stomach an immense fortune. He usually resided at MinSome secret profilt to thy sharking hand, mturns, a town in Campania, where he ate shrimps at a high'Tis an old miser gives a sordid dinner,            price: they were so large, that those of Smyrna, and the
And weeps o'er every sparing dish at table;         prawns of Alexandria, could not be compared with the
And weeps o'er every sparing dish at table;I 
Ten if I do not find thou dost devour  shrimps of Minturna. However, this luckless epicure was
All thou canstf touch, e'en to the very coals,      in(ormed, that the shrimps in Africa were more monstrous;
IAwll diown touheeLo le s l  comls;,  and he embarks without losing a day. He encounters a
I will disown thee! Lo! Old skin-flint comes;
In his dry eyes what parsimony stares!'             great storm, and through imminent danger arrives at the
shores of Africa.  The fishermen bring him the largest
These cooks of the ancients, who appears to have been  for size their nets could furnish. Apicius shakes his head:
Mired for a grand dinner, carried their art to the most whim-  I Have you never any larger 7' he inquires. The answer
uicalprofession.  They were so dexterous as to be able to  was not favourable to his hopes. Apicius rejects them,
serve up a whole pig boiled on one side, and roasted on the  ant, fondly remembers the shrimps of his own Minturna.
ether.  The cook who performed this feat defies his guests  He orders his pilot to return to Italy, and leaves Africa
to detect the place where the knife had separated the ani-  with a look of contempt.
mal, orhow it was contrived to stuff the belly with an olio,    A fraternal genius was Philoxenus: he whose higher
composed of thrushes and other birds, slices of the ma-  wish was to possess a crane's neck, that he might be the
trices of a sow, the yolk of eggs, the bellies of hens with  longer in savouring his dainties; and who appears to have
their soft eggs, flavoured with a rich juice, and minced  invented some expedients which might answex  n some
meats highly spiced. When this cook is entreated to exian this secret art, he solemnly swears by the manes of                     * Sat. IV, 140.




LITERATURE.                                                     189
degree, the purpose. This impudent epicure was so little  from Horace, who, from his love of quiet, retired froma the
attentive to the feelings of his brother-guests, that in the   city during this noisy season.
hot bath, he avowedly habituated himself to keep his hands  It was towards the close of December, that all the town
in the scalding water; and even used to gargle his throat  was in an unusual motion, and the children every where
with it, that he might have less impediment in swallowing  invoking Saturn; nothing now to be seen but tables spread
the hottest dishes.  He bribed the cooks to serve tip the   out for feasting, and nothing heard but shouts of merrirepast smoking hot, that he might gloriously devour what  ment; ail business was dismissed, and none at work but
he chose before any one else could venture to touch the   cooks and confectioners; no account of expenses was to
dish. It seemed as if he had used his finders to handle  be kept, and it appears that one-tenth part of a man's
fire.' He is an oven, not a man!' exclaimed a grumbling  income was to be appropriated to this jolity. All exerfellow-guest.  Once having embarked for Ephesus, for the  tion of mind and body was forbidden, except for the purpurpose of' eating fish, his favourite food, he arrived at the   pose of recreation; nothing to be read or recited which did
market, and found all the stalls empty.  There was a   not provoke mirth, adapted to the season and the place.
wedding in the town, and all the fish had been bespoken.  The slaves were allowed the utmost freedom  of raillery,
He hastens to embrace the new married couple, and sing-  and truth, with their masters:* sitting with them at table,
ing an epithalarnium, the dithyrambic epicure enchanted   dressed in their clothes, playing all sorts of tricks, telling
the company.  The bridegroom  was delighted by the  them of their faults to their faces, while they smutted them.
honour of the presence of such a poet, and earnestly re-  The slaves were imaginary kings, as indeed a lottery de.
quested he would comie on the morrow.'I will come.  termined their rank; and as their masters attended them,
young friend, if there is no fish at the market!'-It was   whenever it happened that. these performed their office
this Philoxenus who, at the table of Dionysius, the tyrant  clumsily, doubtless with some recollections of' their own
of Sicily, having near him a small barbel, and observing a   similar misdemeanors, the slave made the master leap into
large one near the prince, took the little one, and held it  the water head-foremost.  No one was allowed to be
to his ear.  Dionysius inquired the reason.'At present,'  angry, and he who was played on, if he loved his own
replied the ingenious epicure,' I am so occupied by my   comfort, would be the first to laugh. Glasses of all sizes
Galatea' (a poem in honour of the mistress of the tyrant,)   were to be ready, and all were to drink when and what
that I wished to inquire of this li tle fish, whether he could  they chose; none but the most skilful musicians and turgive me some information about Nereus; but lie is silent,  blers were allowed to perform, for those people are worth
and I imagine that they have taken him up too young: I  nothing unless exquisite,as the Saturnalian laws decreed.
have no doubt that old one, opposite to you, would per-  Dancing, singing, and shouting, and carrying a female
fectly satisfy me.' Dionysius rewarded the pleasant con-  musician thrice around (on their shoulders, accompanied
ceit with the large barbel.                              by every grotesque humour they imagined, were indulged
in that short week, which was to repay the many in which
ANCIENT AND 3IODERN SATURNALIA.                  the masters had their revenge for the reign of this pretended
equality.  Another custom prevailed at this season: the
The Stagirite discovered that our nature delights in imi-  priests performed their sacrifices to Saturn bare-headed,
tation, and perhaps in nothing more than in representing   which Pitiscus explains in the spirit of this extraordinary
personages, different from ourselves, in mockery of them;  institution, as designed to show that time discovers, or as
In fact, there is a passion for masquerade in human nature.  in the present case of the bare-headed priests, uncovers,
Children discover this propensity; and the populace, who   all things.
are the children of society, through all ages have been    Such was the Roman Saturnalia, the favourite popular
humoured by their governors with festivals and recrea-  recreation of Paganism; and as the sports and gam-es of
tions, which are made up of this malicious transformation   the people outlast the date of their empires, and are carried
of persons and things; and the humble orders of society   with them, oweverthey may change their name and their
have been privileged by the higher, to please themselves   place on tie globe, the grosser pleasures of the Saturnaby burlesquing and ridiculing the great, at short seasons,  lia were too well adapted to their tastes to be forgotten.
as some consolation for the rest of the year.            The Saturnalia, therefore, long generated the most extraThe Saturnalia of the Romans is a remarkable instance   ordinary institutions among the nations of modern Eu.
of this characteristic of mankind. Macrobius could inot  rope; arid, what seems more extraordinary than the un.
trace the origin of this instituition, and seems to derive it  known origin of the parent absurdity itself, the Saturnalia
from the Grecians; so that it might have arisen in some   crept into the services and offices of the christian church.
rude period of antiquity, and among another people. The   Strange it is to observe at the altar, the rites of religion
conjecture seems supported by a passage in Gibbon's Mis-  burlesqued, and all its offices performed with the utmost
cellanies,* who discovers traces of this institution among   buffoonery.  It is only by tracing them to the Roman Sa.
the more ancient nations; and Huet imagined that he saw   turnalia, that we can at all account for these grotesque sports
in the jubilee of the Hebrews some similar usages.  It is  -that extraordinary mixture of libertinism and profaneness,
to be regretted that Gibbon does not afford us any new   so long continued under christianity.
light on the cause in which originated the institution itself.    Such were the feasts of the ass, the feast of fools or
The jubilee of the Hebrews was the solemn festival of an   madmen, fetes desfous-the feast of the bull-of the inno.
agricultural people but bears none of the ludicrous cha-  cent-and that of the soudiacres, which perhaps, In its origi.
ract;stics of the Roman Saturnalia.                     nal term, meant only sub-deacons, but their conduct was
It would have been satisfactory to have discovered the   expressed by the conversion of a pun into soudiacres or
occasion of the inconceivable licentiousness which was  diocres saouls, drunken deacons. Institutions of this nathus sanctioned by the legislator,-this overturning of the   ture, even more numerous than the historian has usually
principles of society, and this public ridicule of its laws,  recorded, and varied in their mode, seem to surpass each
Its customs, and its feelings. We are told, these festivals,  otherin their utter extravagance.t
dedicated to Saturn, were designed to represent the natu-  These profane festivals were universally practised in the
ral equality which prevailed in his golden age; and for this  middle ages, and, as I shall show, comparatively even in
pur-pose the slaves were allowed to change places with   modern times.  The ignorant and the careless clergy then
the masters.  This was, however, giving the people a   imagined it was the securest means to retain the populace,
false notion of the equality of men: for, while the slave   who were always inclined to these pagan revelries.
was converted into the master, the pretended equality was    * Horace, in his dialogue with his slave Davus, exhibits a
as much violated as in the usual situation of the parties.  lively picture of this circumstance. Lib. II, Sat. 7.
The political misconception of this term  of natural equa-    i A large volume might be composed on these grotesque,
lity seems, however, to have been carried on through all  profane, and licentious feasts. Du Cange notices several un
es; and he poitical Saturnalia had lately nearly thrown   der different terms in his Glossary-Festum Asinorum, Ellen
ugres; an~d the political dfthatworse thad slatelyneary throw nde, Cervula. A curious collection has been made by the Ab
iEurope into a state of that worse than slavery, where   b6 Autigny, in the fourth and seventh volumes of his Memoires
slaves are masters.                                      d'Histoire, &c. Diu Radier, in his Recreations Hisroriques,
The Roman Saturnalia were latterly prolonged to a   vol I, p. 109, has noticed several writers on the sl bject, and
week's debauchery anti folly: and a diary of that week's  preserves one on the hunting of a man, called Adam, from
words and deeds would have furnished a copious chronicle   Ash-Wednesday to Holy-Thursday, and treating him with a
of Facetice   Some notions we acquire from  the laws of  good supper at night, peculiar to a town in Saxony. See
the Satirnalia of Lur.ian, an Epistle of Seneca'st and   Ancillon's Melapge Critique, &c. I, 39, where the passage from
Raphael de Volterra is found at length. In my learned friend,
t Miscellanesous Works, vol. V, 504                  Mr Tnrner's second volume of his History of England, p.
t Seneca. Enist. 18.                                   367, will be found a copious and a curious note on this subject.




190                                   CIURIOSITIES OF
These grotesque festivals have sometimes amused the  times, which the learned have also traced to the Roman,
pens of foreign arld domestic antiquaries; for our own  and even more ancient nations.
country has participated as keenly in these irreligious     Our present inquiry is, to illustrate that proneness in
fooleries. In the feast of asses, an ass covered with sacer-  man, of delighting to reverse the order of society, and rididotal robes was gravely conducted to the choir, where  culing its decencies.
service was performed befiire the ass, and a hymn chanted   Here we had our tay-bishop, a legitimate descendant ot
in as discordant a manner as they could contrive; the  this family of foolery.  On St Nicholas's day, a saint who
office was a medley of all that had been sung in the course   was the patron of children, the boy-bishop with his mitra
of the year; pails of water were flung at the head of the  parva and a long crosier, attended by his school-mates as
chanters; the ass was supplied with drink and provender at  his diminutive prebendaries, assumed the title and state ot
every division of the service; and the asinines were drink-  a bishop.  The child-bishop preached a sermon, and aftering, dancing, and braying for two days.  The hymn to the   wards, accompanied by his attendants, went about singing,
ass has been preserved; each stanza ends with the burden   and collecting his pence: to such theatrical pirocessions in
HI-ez! Sire Ane, hez!' I'Huzza! Seignior Ass, Huzza!'  collegiate bodies, Warton attributes the custom, still exOn other occasions, they put burnt old shoes to fume in the  isting at Eton, of going ad montem.  But this was a tame
censers; ran about the church leaping, singing, and danc-  mummery, compared with the grossness elsewhere allowed
ing obscenely; scattering ordure among the audience;  itt burlesquing religious ceremonies.  The English, more
plavinge at dice upon the altar! while a boy-bishop, or a   particularly atfer the Reformation, seem not to have pollupope of fools, burlesqued the divine service.  Sometimes  ted the churches with sruch abuses. IThe relish for the Sathey disguised themselves in the skins of animals, and pre-  turnalia, was not, however, less lively here than on the
tending to be transformed into the animal they represented,  Continent; but it took a more innocent direction, and was
it became dangerous, or worse, to meet these abandoned   allowed to turn itself into civil life; and since the people
fools.  There was a precentor of fools, who was shaved in   would be gratified by mock dignities, andt claimed the pripublic, during which he entertained the populace with all  vilege of ridiculing their masters, it was allowed them by
the balderdash his genius could invent.  We had in Lei-  our kings and nobles; and a troop of grotesque characters,
cester, in 1415, what was caliled a glutton mass; during the  frolicsome great men, delibhtirg in merry mischief, are
five days of the festival of the Virgin  /Iary. The people  recorded in our domestic annals.
rose early to mass, during which they practised eating and  The most learned Selden, with parsimonious phrase
drinking with the most zealous velocity, and, as in France,  and copious sense, has thus compressed the result of' an
drew from the corners of the altar the rich puddings placed   historical dissertation: he derives our ancient Christmas
there.                                                   sports at once from  the true, though remote, source.So late as in 1645, a pupil of Gassendi, writing to his'Christmas succeeds the Saturnalia; thme same time, the
master what he himself witnessed at Aix on the feast of  same number of holy-days; then the master waited upon
the Innocence, says,' I have seen, in some monasteries in  the servant like the lord of misrule.'*  Stich is the title of
this province, extravagances solemnized, which the pagans  a facetious potentate, who, in this notice of Selden's, is
would not have practised.  Neither the clergy, nor the   not further indicated, for this personage was familiar in
guardians, indeed, go to the choir on this day, but all is  his day, but of whom the accounts are so scattered, that
given tip to the lay-brethren, the cabbage-cutters, the   his offices and his glory are now equally obscure.  The
errand-boys, the cooks and sculions, the gardeners; in a   race of this nobility of drollery, and this legitiniate king of
word, all the menials fill their places in the church, and   all hoaxing and quizz, like  imightier  dynasties, has
insist that they perform the offices proper for the day.-   ceased to exist.
They dress themselves with all the sacerdotal ornaments,    In England our festivities at Christmas appear to have
but torn to rags, or wear them inside out; they hold in  been more entertaining than in other countries.  We
their hands the books reversed or sideways, which they   were once famed for merry Christmas and their pies:
pretend to read with large spectacles without glasses, and   witness the Italian proverb,' Hapiu difare che ifJrni di
to which they fix the shells of scooped oranges, which ren-  Natale in  Inghil-terra:'' He has more business than
der them  so hideous, that one must have seen these mad-  English ovens at Christmas.' Wherever the king resided,
men to form a notion of their appearance: particularly  there was created for that merry season a Christmas
while dangling the censers, they keep shaking them  in  prince, usually called' the Lord of Mlisrule:' and whom
derision, and letting the ashes fly about their heads and  the Scotch once knew under the signtficant title of' the
faces, one against the other.   In  this equipage they   Abbot of Unreason.' His office, according to Stowe, was
neither sing hymns, nor psalms, nor masses; but mumble' to make the rarest pastimes to delight the beholder.'a certain gibberish as shrill and squeaking as a herd of  Every nobleman, and every great family surrendered their
pigs whipped on to market.  The nonsense-verses they   houses, during this season, to the Christmas prince, who
chant are singularly barbarous:                          found rivals or usurpers in almost every parish; and more' Hec est clara dies, clararum clara dierunl,    particularly, as we shall see, among the grave students in
H.ec est festa dies, festarum fiesta dierum.'*  our inns of court
The Italian Polydore Vergil, who, residing here, had
There are scenes which equal any which the humour of  clearer notions of this facetious personage, considered the
the Italian burlesque poets have invented, and which might  Christmas Prince as peculiar to our country.  Without
have entered with effect into the' Malmantile racquistato'  venturing to ascend in his genealogy, we must admit his
of Lppi; but that they should have been endured amidst  relationship to that ancient family of foolery we have nothe solemn offices of religion, and have been performed in  ticed whether he be legitimate or not.  If his whimsical
cathedrals, while it excites our astonishment, can only be   personage at his creation, was desined to regulate'misaccounted for by perceiving that they were, in truth, the  rule, h as iords  t       was X
Saturnalia ofthe Romans.  Mr Turner observes, without  himself, at length, to delight too much in  his' merry disperhaps having a precise notion that they were copied   pots' 
from the Saturtialia, that' It could be only by rivalling the    eth, denominates him' grand captaine of mischiefe,' and
pagan revelries, that the christian ceremonies could gain    h  as preserved a minute dhim  a grand captaine of michief,' and
the ascendancy.'  Owlr historian further observes, that  has preserved a minute description of all his wild domes in
these' licentious festivities were called the December liber-   try   but as Sextrutt has anticipated me fern this
ties, and seem to have begun at one of the most solemn    f the People of Englandxtract,  254. I  Sp orts and Pastimes
seasons of the christian year, and to have lasted through   scene of unparalled Saturnaia,  among th  e grave judges
the chief part of January.' This very term as well as the   and serjeans of te law, where the Lord of Misrule Judges
time agrees with that ofthe ancient Saturnalia:
time, agrees with that ofthe ancient Saturnalia:  viewed amidst his frolicsome courtiers, with the humour
Age, libertate Decembri,            of' hunting the fox and the cat with ten couple of hounds
Quandlo ita majores voluerunt, utere: narra.'    round their great hall, among the other merry disports of
Heor. Lib. II, Sat.  those joyous days when sages could play like boys.
The Roman Saturnalia, thus transplanted into christian   For those who can throw themselves back amidst the
churches, had for its singular principle, that of inferiors,  grotesque humours and clumsy pastimes of our ancestors
whimsically and itl mockery, personifying their superiors   who, without what we think to be taste, had whim  and
with a licensed licentiousness.   This forms a distinct  merriment-therehasbeenforttnatelypreservedacuriou
bartacteristic from those other popular customs and pas-  history of the manner in which' A grand Christmas' was
kept at our Inns of Court, by the grave and learned Dug.
* Thiars, Traite des Jetix, p. 449.        1                  * Selden's Table-talk.




LIT E RAT UR E.                                                   191
dale, in his'Origines Juridiciales:' it is a complete festi-  bar was offended, and at Lincoln's-Inn were by decimimaL
val of foolery, acted by the students and law officers.-  tion put out of commons, for example sake; and if the
They held fbr that season every thing in mockery; they   same omission were repeated, they were to be fined or
had a mock parliament, a Prince of Sophie, or Wisdom,  disbarred; for these dancings were thought necessary,'as
an honourable order of Pegasus, a high constable, marshal,  much conducing to the making of grntlemen more fit for
a master of the game, a ranger of the forest, lieutenant of  their books at other times.' I cannot furnish a detailed
the tower, which was a temporary prison for Christmas  notice of these pastimes; for Dugdale, whenever he indidelinquents, all the paraphernalia of a court burlesqued by   cates them, spares his gravity from recording the evanesthese youthful sages before the boyish judges.          cent frolics, by a provoking 4-c, 4-c, 4-c.
The characters personified were in the costume of their    The dance' round about the coal-fire' is taken off in the
assumed offices.  On Christmas day, the constable mar-'Rehearsal.'  These revels have also been ridiculed by
shal, accoutred with a complete gilded' harness,' showed   Donne in his Satires, Prior in his Alma, and Pope in
that every thing was to be chivalrously ordered; while  his Dunciad.' The judge to dance, his brother serjeants
the lieutenant of the Tower, in' a fair white armour,' at-  calls.'*
tended with his troop of halberdiers: and the Tower was' The Lord of Misrule,' in the inns of court, latterly did
then placed beneath the fire. After this opening followed  not conduct himself with any recollection of' lifedio tutisthe costly feasting; and then nothing less than a hunt with  simus ibis,' being unreasonable; but the' sparks of the
a pack of hounds in their hall!                        Temple,' as a contemporary calls them, had gradually, in
The master of the game dressed in green velvet, and the  the early part of Charles I's reign, yielded themselves up
ranger of the forest in green satin, bearing a green bow   to excessive disorders. Sir Symonds D'Ewes, in his
and arrows, each with a huntinm  horn about their necks,  Ms. diary in 1620, has noticed their choice of a lieutenant,
blowing together three blasts of venery (or hunting), they   or lord of misrule, who seems to have practised all the
pace round about the fire three times.  The master of the   mischief he invented; arid the festival days, when'a
game kneels to be admitted into the service of the high-  standing table was kept,' were accompanied bv dicing, and
constable.  A huntsman comes into the hall, with nine or  much gaming, oaths, execrations, and quarrels: being of a
ten couple of hourds,bearing on the end of his staff a purse-  serious turn of mind. he regrets this, for he adds,' the
net, which holds, a fox and a cat: these were let loose and   sport, of itself, I conceive to'be lawful.'
hunted by the hounds, and killed beneath the fire.        I suspect that' he last memorable act of a Lord of MisThese extraordinary amusements took place after their  rule of the inns of court oecured in 1627, when the Christrepast; for these grotesque Saturnalia appeared after that  mas game became serious.  The Lord of Misrule then
graver part of their grand Christmas. Si pper ended, the  issued an edict to his officers to go out at Twelfth-night
constable marshal presented himself with drums playing,  to collect his rents, in the neighbourhood of the Temple,
mounted on a stage borne by four men, and carried round;  at the rate of five shillings a house; and on those whowere
at length he cries out' a lord! a lord!' &c, and then calls  in their beds, or would not pay, he levied a distress. An
his mock court every one by name.                       unexpected resistance at length occurred in a memorable
Sir Francis Flatterer, of Fowlshlrrt.                 battle with the Lord Mayor in person:-and how the Lord
Sir Randall Rackabite, of Rascal hall, in the county of  of Misrule for some time stood victor, with his gunner, and
Rake-hell.                                          his trumpeter, and his martial array: and how heavily and
Sir Morgan, Mumehance, of Much Monkery, in the  fearfully stood my Lord Mayor amidst his' watch and
county of Mad Mopery.                             ward;' and how their lordships agreed to meet half vway,
Sir Bartholowme Bald-breech of Buttock-bury, in the   each to preserve his independent dignity, till one knocked
county of Break-neck.*                            down the other: and how the lons halberds clashed with
They had also their mock arraignments.  The king's  the short swords: how the Lord Mayor valorously tork
serjeant, after dinner or supper,' oratour-like,' complained  the Lord Misrule prisoner with his own civic hand: and
that the constable-marshal had suffered great disorders to  how the Christmas. prince was immured in the Counter:
prevail; the complaint was answered by the common-ser-  and how the learned Tempiarn insisted on their privilege,
jeant, who was to show his talent at defending the cause.  and the unlearned of Ram's-alley and Fleet-street assertThe king's-serjeant replies; they rejoin, &c: till one at  ed their right of saving their crown-pieces: and finally
length is committed to the Tower, for being found most  how this combat of mockery and earnestness was settled,
deficient. If any offender contrives to escape from the  not without the introduction of' a God,' as Horace allows
lieutenant of the Tower into the buttery, and brought into  on great occasions, in the interposition of the king and the
the hall a manchet (or small loaf) upon the point of a   attorney-general-altogether the tale had been well told
knife, he was pardoned; for the buttery in this jovial sea-  in some comic epic; but the wits of that day let it pass
son was considered as a sanctuary. Then began the revels.  out of their hands.
Bloutt derives this term  from  the French reveiller, to  I find this event, which seems to record the last despeawake from sleep. These were sports of dancing, mask-  rate effort of a' Lord of Misrule,' in a manuscript letter of
ing, comedies, &c. (for some were called solemn revels,)  the learned Mede to Sir Martin Stuteville; and some par.
used in great houses, and wore so denominated because  ticulars are collected from Hammond L'Estrange's Life of
they were performed by night, and these various pastimes  Charles I.
were regulated by a master of the revels.
Amidst' the grand Christmass.' a personage of no'an. 12,16
amall importance was' the, Lord of Misrule.' His lord-'On Saturday the Templars chose one Mr Palmer their
ship was abroad early in the morning, and if he lacled   Lord of Misrule, who on Twelfth-eve, late in the night,
any of his officers, he entered their chamber, to drag forth  sent out to gather up his rents at five shillings a house, in
the loiterers; but after breakfast his lordship's power  Ram-alley and Fleet-street.  At every door they came
ended, and it was in suspense till night, when his personal  they winded the Temple horn, and if at the second blast
presence was paramount, or as Dugdale expresses it,'and   or summons they within opened not the door, then the Lord
then his power is most potent.    aee,'an    of Misrule cried out,' Give fire, gunner!' His gunner
Such once were the pastimes of the whole learned bench   was as a robustious Vulcan, and the gun or petard itself was
and when once it happened that the under-barristers did   a huge overgrown smith's hammer.  This being complains
not dance on Candlemas-day, according to the ancient or-  ed of to my Lord Mayor, he said he would be with them
der of the society, when the judges were present, the whole  about eleven o'clock on Sunday night last; willing that all
V   that ward should attend him with their halberds, and that
* A rare quarto trat                                  himself besides those that came out of his house should
mnsm of these grand Christmas-keepings, exhibiting all their  bring the Watches along with him. His lordship, thus atwhimsicality and bllrlesqlue humotur: it is entitled'Gesta  tended, advanced as high as Ram-alley in martial equiOrayorum; or the History of the high and mighty Prince  page; when forth came the Lord of Misrule, attended by
Henry, Prince of Purpoole, Archduke of Stapulia anil Ber.  his gallants out of the Temple-gate, with their swords, all
tardia (Staple's and Bernard's Inns,) Duke of High and Ne   armed in euerpo.  A halberdier had the Lord of Misrule
thet-Holborn, Marquess of St. Giles and Tottenham., Coun-t tlb       th the L   or of  diss
thet-olbori,,    Marquess  of Sm. Gites and Totmeoham, Cotns  come to my Lord Mayor. Ite  answered, No! let the
Palatine of' Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell,' Great Lord of the  come to my cord Mayor. IA e answered, Ngr! let the
Cantons of Islington, Kentish Town, &c, Knight and Sove-  Lord Mayor come to me! At length they agreed to meet
reign of the most heroical order of the Helmet, who reigned  halfway; and, as the interview  of rival princes is never
and died A. D. 1593.' It is frill of burlesque speeches and ad.  withouit danger of sonie ill accident, so it happened in this:
dresses.  As it was printed in 1688, I suppose it was from   for first, Mr Palmer being quarrelled with, fbr not pulling
tome manuscript of the times; the preface gives no informa* The last Revels held. See Gent. Mrag. 1774,.p. 273.




192                                  CURIOSITIES OF
of his hat to my Lord Mayor, and giving cross answers,  of the day, and the blockheads of all times.  This I rep
the halberds began to fly about his ears, and he and his   ment of the scull-caps' originated in an officer and a wit,
company to brandish their swords. At last being beaten   who, suffering from violent head aches, was recommended
to the ground, and the Lord of Misrule sore wounded, they  the use of a scull cap of lead: and his companions, as
were fain to yield to the longer and more numerous wea-  great wits, formed themselves into a regiment, to be cornpon. My Lord Mayor taking Mr Falmer by the shoul-  posed only of persons distinguished by their extravagances
der, led him  to the Competr, and thrust him in at the  in words or in deeds. They elected a general, they had
prison-gate with a kind of' indignalion; and so notwith-  their arms blazoned, and struck medals, and issued' brestanding his hurts, he was forced to lie among the common   vets,' and' lettres patentes,' and granted pensions to cerprisoners for two nights. On Tuesday the king's attorney  tain individuals, stating their claims to be enrolled in the
becamne a suitor to my Lord Mayor for their liberty; which  regiment for some egregious extravagance.  The wits
his lordship granted upon condition they should repay the  versified these army commissions; and the idlers, like
gathered rents, and do) reparations upon broken doors.  pioneers, were busied in clearing their way, by picking tp
T'hus the game ended. Mr Attorney-General, being of  the omissions and commissions oef the fmost noted charac.
the same house, fetched them in his own coach. and carri-  ters.  Those who were favoured with its'brevets' in.
ed them to the court, where the King himself reconciled  trigued against the regiment; but at length they found it
my Lord Mayor and them together with joining all hands;  easier to wear their'calotte,' and say nothing.  This
the gentlemen  of the Temple being this Shrove-tide to  society began in raillery and playfiulness, seasoned by a
present a Mask, to their Majesties, over and besides the  spice of malice. It produced a great number of ingenious
Iling's own great Mask, to be performed at the Banquet-  and satirical little things.  That the privileges of the' caing-house by an hundred actors.'                        lotte' were afterwards abused, and calumny too often took
Thus it appears, that although the grave citizens did  the place of poignant satire, is the history of human nature,
well and rightly protect themselves, yet, by the attorney-  as well as of' the calotins.'*
general taking the Lord of Misrule in his coach, and the  Another society in the same spirit has been discovered
king giving his royal interference between the parties, that  in one of the lordships of Poland.  It was called' The
they considered that this Lord of Foolery had certain an-  Republic of Baboonery.' The society was a burlesque
cie;"- privileges; arnd it was, perhaps, a doubt with them,  model of their own government: a king, chancellor, counwht.ter this interfererlce of the Lord Mayor might not  sellors, archbishops. judges, &c.  If a member would
be considered as severe and unseasonable. It is proba-  engross the conversation, he was immediately appointed
ble, however, that the arm of the civil power brought all  orator of the republic. If he spoke with impropriety, the
future Lorils of Misrule to their senses. Perhaps this  absurdity of his conversation usually led to some suitable
dynasty in the ermpire of' foolery closed with this Christ.-  office created to perpetuate his folly. A mall talking too
mas prince, who fell a victim to the arbitrary taxation he  much of dogs, would be made a master of the buck
levied. I find after this, orders made for the Inner Tem-  hounds: or vaunting his courage, perhaps a fietd marshal;
pie, for' preventing of that general scandal and obloquie,  and if bigoted on disputable matters and speculative opiwhich the House hath heretofore incurred in time of  nions in religion, he was considered to be nothing less than
Christmas:' and that' there be not any going abroad out  an inquisitor.  This was a pleasant and useful project to
of the gates of this House, by any lord or others, to break  reform the manners of the Polish youth; and one of the
open any house, or take ally thing in the name of rent or  Polish kings good-humouredly observed, that he considered
a distress.'                                            hinself' as much King of Baboonery, as King of Poland.'
These' Lords of Misrule,' and their mock court and   We have had in our own country some attempts at simiroyalty, appear to have been only extinguished with the  lar Saturnalia; but their success has been so equivocal
English soverciTnty itself, at the time of our republican  that they hardly afford materials for our domestic history.
government.  Edmund Gayton tells a story, to show the
strange impressions of strong fancies: as his work is of              REIIQUI)E GETHINIANX.
great rarity, I shall transcribe the story in his own words,    In the south aisle of Westminister Abbey stands a
both to give a conclusion to this inquiry, and a specimen   monument erected to the memory of Lady Grace Gethin.
of his style of narrating this sort of little things.'A gen-  A statue of her ladyship represents her kneeling, holding a
tleman importuned, at a fire-night in the public half, to  book in her right hand. This accomplished lady was con.
accept the high and mighty place of a mock-emperor,  sidered as a prodigy in her day, and appears to have crewhich was duly conferred upon him by seven mock-elec-  ated a feeling of enthusiasm  for her character.  She died
tors. At the same time, with much wit and ceremony, the   early, having scarcely attained to womanhood, although a
emperor accepted his chair of state, which was placed in   wife; for' all this goodness and all this excellence was
the highest table in the hall; and at his instalment all pomp,  bounded within the compass of twenty years.'
reverence, and signs of homage were used by the whole     But it is her book commemorated in marble, and not her
company; insomuch that our emperor, having a spice of  character, which may have merited the marble that chro.
self-conceit before, was soundly peppered now, for he was  nicles it, which has excited my curiosity and my suspicion.
instantly metamorphosed into the stateliest, gravest, and   After her death a number of loose papers were found in
commanding soul, that ever eye beheld. Taylor acting   her hand-writing, which could not fail to attract, and, perArbaces, or Swanston D'Amboise, were shadows to him:  haips, astonish their readers, with the maturity of thought
his pace, his look, his voice, and all his garb, was altered.  and the vast capacity which had composed them.  These
Alexander upon his elephant, nay, upon the castle upon  relicks of genius were collected together, methodized unthat elephant, was not so high; and so close did this ima-  der heads, and appeared with the title of' Reliqmae  Gethiginary honour stick to his fancy, that for many years he  nianae; or some remains of Grace Lady Gethin, lately
could not shake off this one night's assumed deportments,  deceased: being a collection of choice discourses, pleasant
until the times came that drove all monarchical imagina-  apothegms, and witty sentences; written by her for the
tions out, not only of his head, but every ones.'*  This  most part by way of Essay and at spare hours; published
nmock' emperor' was unquestionably one of these I Lords  by her nearest relations to preserve her memary. Second
of Misrule,' or' a Christmas Prince.' The' public hall'  Edition, 1700.'
was that of the Temple, or Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn.    Of this book, considering that comparatively it is modern,
And it was natural enough, when the levelling equality  and the copy before me is called a second edition, it is
of our theatrical and practical commonwealths were come  somewhat extraordinary that It seems always to have been
into vogue, that even the shadowy regality of mockery   a very scarce one.  Even Ballard, in his Memoirs of
startled them, by reviving the recollections of ceremonies  Learned Ladies, 1750, mentions that these remains are
and titles, which some might incline, as they afterwards'very difficult tobe procured;' and Sir William Musgrave
did, seriously to restore.  The' Prince of Christmas'  in a manuscript note observed, that' this book was very
did not, however, attend th.e Restoration of Charles II.    scarce.' It bears now a high price., A hint is given in
The Saturnalian spirit has rinot been extinct even in our  the preface that the work was chiefly printed for the use
days. The Mayor of Garrat, with the mock addresses and   of her firiends; yet, by a second edition, we must infer thiat
burlesque election,was an image of such satirical exhibitions  the public at large were so.  There is a poem prefixed
of their superiors, so delightful to the people. France, at the
lose of Louis XIV's reiar, first saw her imaginary' Regi-  * Their' brevets,' kc, are collected in a litte volume,  Re
lose of Louis XIV's reigni, first saw her imaginary' Regi-  cueil des pibces du Regiment de la Calotte; a Paris chez
ment de la Calotte,' which was the terror of the sinners  cueil des pices dlomba    Regiment de la Calotte  a Paris chan d
Jaques Colombat, hrnprimeur privilegie du Regiment. L'an da
*Pleasant notes upon Don Quixotte, by Edmund Gayton,  l'Ero Cslotine 7726.'  From the date we ilerl', that the tru*
E4,% folio, 1634, p. 24.                                calotile is as old as the creation.




LITERA'I UJRE.                                                     193
with the signature W. C. which no one will hesitate to   suspicious author. One of her subjects has attracted my
pronounce is by Congreve; he wrote indeed another poem    attention; for it shows the corrupt manners of peisons of
to celebrate this astonishing book, for; considered as the   fashion who lived between 1680 and 1700.  To find a
production of a young lady, it is a miraculous, rather than   mind so pure and elevated as Lady Gethin's unquestionaa human production.  The last lines in this poem  we   bly was discussing whether it were most advisable to have
might expect from  Congreve in hts happier vein, who   for a husband a general lover, or one attached to a miscontrives to preserve his panegyric amidst that caustic  tress, and deciding by the force of reasoning in favour of
wit, with which he keenly touched the age.                 the dissipated man (for a woman, it seems, had only the
A  POEM  IN PRAIsE OF THE AUTHOR,                   alternative,) evinces a public deprivation of morals. These
manners were the wretched remains of the Court of
B that hate books, such as come daily out                Charles II, when Wycherley, Dryden, and Congreve seem
By public licence to the reading rout,    to have written with much less invention, in their indecent
A dtie religioti yet observe to this;
A dire religion yet observe to this                      plots and language, than is imagined.
And here assert, if any thing's amiss,plsnlgatnsi ie
It can be only the compiler's fault,'I know not which is worse, to be wife to a man that is
Who has ill-drest the charming author's thought-         continually changing his loves, or to an husband tha'idath
That was all right: her beauteous looks were join'd      but one mistress whom he loves with a constant passion.
To a no less admired excelling mind.                     And if you keep some nieasure of civility to her, he will
But oh! this glory of frail Nature's dead,              at least esteem you; but he of the roving humour plays an
As I shall be that write, and you that read.*            hundred frolics that divert the town and perplex his wife.
Once, to be out of fashion, I'll conclude                She often meets with her husband's mistress, and is at a
With something that may tend to public good:            loss how to carry herself towards her.'Tis true the conI wish that piety, from which in heaven                  stant man is ready to sacrifice, every moment, his whole
The fair is placed-to the lawn sleeves were given;       family to his love; he hates any place where she is not,
Her justice-to the knot of men whose care                is prodigal in what concerns his love, covetous in other
From the raised millions is to take their share.         respects; expects you should be blind to all he,loth, and
WV. C.'    though vou can't but see, yet must not dare to complain.
The book claimed all the praise the finest genius could   And tho' both he who lends his heart to whosoever pleases
bestow on it. But let us hear the editor.-He tells us,  it, and he that gives it entirely to one, do both of them
that'It is a vast disadvantage to authors to publish their  require the exactest devoir from their wives, yet I know
private undigested thoughts, and first notions hastily set  not if it be not better to be wife to an unconstant husband
dowu, and designed only as naterias for a future structure.'  (provided he be something discreet) than to a constant
And he adds,'That tue work may not come short of that  fellow who is always perplexing her with his inconstant
great and just expectation  which the world had of her   humour. For the unconstant lovers are commonly the
while she was alive, and still has of every thing that is the   best humoured; but let them  be what they will, women
genuine product of her pen, they must be told that this was   ought not to be unfaithful for Virtue's sake and their own,
writtenfor the most part in haste, were herfirst conceptions   nor to offend by example.  It is one of the best bonds of
and overflowings of' her luxuriant fancy, noted with hert  charity and obedience in the wife if she think her husband
pencil at spore hours, or as she was dressing, as her Hlapysv  ie   hc   hewl  ee  o i h  idhmjaos
wise, which she will never do if she find him jealous.
p3encil at spare hours, or as she w~as dressing, as her 11apepyov   Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for
only; and set down just as they came into her mind.'              ie  a   o   men's   ses
All this will serve as a memorable example of the cant  middle age, and old men's  urses.'
and mendacity of an editor! and that total absence of         The last degrading sentence is found in some writer,
critical judgment that could assert such matured reflection,  whose name I cannot recollect.  Lady Gethin, with an
in so exquisite a style, could ever have been' first con-  intellect so superior to that of the women of that day, had
ceptions, just as they came into the mind of Lady Gethin,  no conception of the dignity of the female character, the
as she was dressing.'                                      claims of virtue, and the duties of honour.  A  wife was
The truth is, that Lady Gethin may have had little con-   only to know obedience and silence: however, she hints
cern in all these' Reliquimat  Gethinianae.' They indeed   that such a husband should not be jealous! There was a
might well have delighted their readers; but those who   sweetness in revenge reserved for some of these married
had read Lord Bacon's Essays, and other writers, such as   women.
Owen Feltham, and Osborne, from whom these relics are
3                                              R~~~~~~~~~~~~~~IOBINSONr CRUSOE:.
chiefly extracted, might have wondered that Bacon should                       ONON  CRUSOE.
have been so little known to the families of the Nortons      Robinson Crusoe, the favourite of the learned and the
and the Gethins, to whom  her ladyship was allied; to   unlearned, of the youth and the adult; the book that was
Congreve and to the editor; and still more particularly to  to constitute the library of Rousseau's Emelius, owes its
stbsequent compilers, as Ballard in his Memoirs, and   secret charm to its seing a new  representation of human
lately the Rev. Mark Noble in his Continuation of Granger,  nature, yet drawn from an existing state; this picture of
who both, with all the innocence of criticism, give speci-  self-education, self-inquiry, self-happiness, is scarcely a
mens of these' Relicks,' without a suspicion that they   fiction, although it includes all the magic of romance; an i
were transcribing literally from  Lord Bacon's Essays!  is not a mere narrative of truth, since it displays all the
Unquestionably Lady Gethin herself intended no impos-  forcible genius of one of the most original minds our liteture: her mind had all the delicacy of her sex; she noted   rature can boast. The history of the work is therefore
much from the book she seems most to have delighted in;  interesting.  It was treated in the author's time as a mere
and nothing less than the most undiscerning friends could  idle romance, for the philosophy was not discovered in th.
have imagined that every thing written by the hand of this  story; after his death it was considered to have been pilyoung lady was her' first conceptions;' and apologise for  laged from the papers of' Alexander Selkirk, confided to
some of the finest thoughts, in the most vigorous style  the author, and the honour, as well as the genius, of Do
which the English language can produce.  It seems, how-   Foe were alike questioned.
ever, to prove that Lord Bacon's essays were not much         The entire history of this work of genius may now be
read at the time this volume appeared.                     traced, from the first hints to the mature state, to which
The marble book in Westminster Abbey must, there-   only the genius of De Foe could have wrought it.
fore, lose most of its leaves; but it was necessary to dis-   The adventures of Selkirk are well known: he was
cover the origin of this miraculous production of a young   found on the desert island of Juan Fernandez, where he'ady.  What is Lady Gethin's, or what is not hers, in   had formerly been left, by Woodes Rogers and Edward
this miscellany of platairisms, it is not material to examine.   Coolke, who in 1712 published their voyages, and told the
Those passages in which her ladyship speaks in her own   extraordinary history of Crusoe's prototype, with all those
person probably are of original growth: of this kind many   curiouts and minute particulars which Selkirk had freely
evince great vivacity of thought, drawn from actual obser-  communicated to them.  This narrative of itself is exvation on what was passing around her; but even among   tremely interesting; and has been given entire by Cap.
lhese are intermixed the splendid passages of Bacon and  tain Bnrney; it may also be found in the Biographia
other writers.                                             Britannia.
I shall inot crowd my pages with specimens of a very       In this artless narrative we may discover more than the
Was this thought, that strikes with a sudden effect, in the   embryo of Robinson Crusoe.  The first appearance of
*tind of Hawkesworth, when he so pathetically concluded his  Selkirk,' a man clothed in goats skins, who loorked macy,,gst paper?                                                wild than the first owners of them.' The two huts he ha4
No. 7.                                                                         2.5




9n4       ~CURIOSITIES OF
built, the one to dress his victuals, the other to sleep in;  This is due to the injured honour and the genius of IL
his contrivance to get fire, by rubbing two pieces of pimento   Foe.
wood together; his distress for the want of bread and salt,      CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT DRAMAS.
till he came to relish his meat without either; his wearing  Literature, and the arts connected with it, in this free
zut his shoes, till he grew so accustomed to be without  country, have been involved with its political state, and
them, that hlie could not for a long time afterwards, on his  have sometimes flourished or declined with the fortunes1
return home, use them without inconvenience; his bed-  or been made instrumental to the purposes of the parties
stead of his own contriving, and his bed of goat skins;  which had espoused them.  Thus in our dramatic history,
when his gunpowder failed, his teaching himself by con-  in the early period of the Refolbrmation, the Catholics were
tinual exercise to run as swiftly as the goats; his falling   secretly working on the stage; and long afterwards the
from a precipice in catching hold of a goat, stunned and   royalist party, under Charles-i, possessed it till they probruised, till coming to his senses he found the goat dead   voked their own ruin.  The Catholics, in their expiring
under him; his taming kids to divert himself by dancing   cause, took refuge in the theatre, and disguised the invecwith theri anid his cats; his converting a nail into a needle;  tives they would have vented in sermons, under the more
his sewing his goat skins wifh little thongs of the same;  popular forms of the drama, where they freely ridiculed the
and when his knife was worn to the back, contriving to  chiefs of the new religion, as they termed the Reformation,
make blades out of' some iron hoops.  His solacing him-  and' the new Gospellers,' or those who quoted their Tes.
self in this solitude by singing psalms, and preserving a   tament as an authority for their proceedings.  Fuller
social feeling in his fervent prayers. And the habitation   notices this circumstance.' The popish priests, though
which Selkirk had raised, to reach which, they followed   unseen, stood behind the hangings, or lurked in the tyring
him' with difficulty, climbing up and creeping down many   house.'*   These found supporters among the elder part
rocks, till they camie at last to a pleasant spot of ground   of' their auditors, who were tenacious of their old habits
full of grass and of trees, where stood his two huts, and   and doctrines: and opposers in the younger, who eagerly
his numerous tame goats showed his solitary retreat;' and   adopted the term reformation in its lull sense.
finally, his indifference to return to a world, from which  This conduct of the Catholics called down a proclamahis feelings had been so perfectly weaned.  Such were the  tion from Edward VI, when we find that the government
first rude materials of a new situation in human nature:  was most anxious, that these pieces should not be performed
an European in a primeval state, with the habits or mind  inI'the English tongue;' so that we may infer that the goof a savage.                                             vernment was not alarmed at treason in Latin. This proclaThe year after this account was published, Selkirk and   mation states,' that a great number of iose that be common
his adventures attracted the notice of Steele; who was  players of interludes or plays, as well within the city of
not likely to pass unobserved a man and a story so strange   London as elsewhere, who for the most part play such inand so new.  In his paper of'The Englishman,' Dec.  terludes as contain matter tending to sedition, &c, &c,
1713, he communicates further particulars of Selkirk.  whereupon are grown, and daily are like to grow, much
Steele became acquainted with him; he says, that'he   division, tumult, and uproars in this realm.  The king
could discern that he had been much separated from com-  charges his subjects that they should not openly or secretly
pany from his aspect and gesture.  There was a strong   play in the English  tongue, any kind of Interlude, Play,
but cheerful seriousness in his looks, and a certain disre-  Dialogue, or other matter set forth inform of Play, on pain
gard to the ordinary things about him, as if he had been   of imprisonment, &c.'
sunk in thoughlit.  The m-an frequently bewailed his return  This was, however, but a teniporary prohibition; it
to the world, which could not, hlie said, with all its enjoy-  cleared the stage for a time of these Catholic dramatists;
ments, restore him  to the tranquillity of his solitude.'  but reformed Interludes, as they were termed, were afterSteele adds another very curious change in this wild man,  wards permitted.
which occurred some time after he had seen him.' Though   These Catholic dramas would afford some speculations
I frequently conversed with him, after a few months' ab-  to historical inquirers: we know they made very free stricsense, hlie met me in the street, anid though he spoke to me,  tures on the first heads of the Reformation, on Cromwell,
I could not recollect that I hadl seen hinm. Familiar con-  Cranmer, and their party; but they were probably oververse in this town had taken off the loneliness of his aspect,  come in their struggles with their prevailinrg rivals. Some
and quite altered the air of his face.' De Foe could not  may yet possibly lurk in their manuscript state. We have,
fail of being struck by these interesting particulars of the   printed, one of these Moralities, or moral plays, or allecharacter of Selkirk; but probably it was another obser-  gorical dramatic pieces, which succeeded the Mysteries
vation of Steele which threw the germ of Robinson Crusoe  in the reign of Henry VIII, entitled'Every Man:' in
into the mind of De Foe.'It was matter of great curl-  the character of that hero, the writer not unaptly desigosity to hear him, as he was a man of sense, give an   nates Human Nature herselft  This comes from  the
account of the dif'erent revolutions in his own mind in that  Catholic school, to recall the auditors back to the forsaken
long solitude.                                           ceremonies of that church; but it levels no strokes of
The work of De Foe, however, was no sudden ebullition;  personal satire on the Refbrmers. Percy observed that
long engaged in political warfare, condemned to suffer  from the solemnity of the subjects, the summoning of man
imprisonment, and at length struck by a fit of apoplexy,  out of the world by death, and by the gravity of its conthis unhappy and unprosperous man of genius on his  duct, not without some attempts, however rude, to excite:
recovery was seduclo' to a comparative state of solitude,  terror and pity, this morality may not improperly be reTo his injured feelings and lonely contemplations, Selkirk  ferred to the class of tragedy.  Such ancient simplicity i
in his desert Isle, and Steele's vivifying hint, often occurred;  not worthless to the poetical antiquary: although the mee
and to all these we perhaps owe the instructive and de-  modern reader would soon feel weary at such inartificit
lightful tale, which shows rian what he can do for himself,  productions,yet the invention which nmay be discovered i
and what the fortitude of piety does for man.  Even the  these rude pieces would be sublime, warm with the colou;,
personage of Friday is not a mere coinage of his brain;  ings of a Gray or a Collins.
a Mosquito Indian, described by Dampier, was the proto-    On the side of the reformed we have no deficiency of
type.  Robinson Crusoe was not given to the world till  attacks on the superstitions and idolatries of the Romish
1719; seven years after the publication of Selkirk's ad-  church; and Satan, and his old son Hypocrisy, are very
ventures. Selkirk could have no claims on De Foe; for he   busy at their intrigues with another hero called'Lusty
had only supplietd the man of genius with that which lies  Juventus,' and the seductive mistress they introduce him
open to all; and which no one had, or perhaps could have  to,'Abominable Living:' this was printed in the reign ol
converted into the wonderful story we possess but De Foe   Edward VI.  It is odd enough to see quoted in a dra.
himself. Had De Foe not written Robinson Crusoe, the   matic performance chapter and verse, as formally as if a
name and story of Selkirk had been passed over like   sermon were to be performed.  There we find such rude
others of the same sort; yet Selkirk has the merit of hay-  learing as thising detailed his own history, in a manner so interesting, as' Read the V, to the Galatians, and there you shall see
to have attracted the notice of Steele, and to have inspired  That the flesh rebelleth against the spirit'the genius of De Foe.                                    or in honiely rhynies like these,
After this, the otiginalitv of Robinson Crusoe will no't I will show you what St Paul doth declare
longer he suspected  and ihe idle tale which Dr Beattie      In his epistle to the Hebrews, anti the X chapter.
nas repeated of Selkirk having supplied the materials of his    Eccl. Hist. Book VII, 390.
story to De Foe, fromn which our author borrowed his work,    t It has been preserved by Hawkins in his'Origin d te
and published for his own profit, will be finally put to rest.  English IDrama,' Vol. I.




LITERAT U RE                                                         195
In point of historical information respecting the pen ding  chamber respecting a play being acted at Christmas 1614,)
struggle between the Catholics and the' new Gospellers'  at the house of Sir John Yorke; the consequences of
we do not glean moch secret history from  these pieces:  which were heavy fines and imprisonment.'The letter
vet they curiously exemplify that regular progress in the   writer describes it, as containing' many [.zl passages to
iistory of man, which has shown itself in the more recent  the vilifying of our religion and exacting of popery, fbr
revolutions of Europe: the old people still clinging, from   which he arnd his lady, as principal procure.rs, were fined
habit and affection, to what is obsolete, and the younger  one thousand pounds apiece, and imprisoned in the Tower
ardent in establishing what is new; while the balance of  for a year; two or three of his brothers at lfive hundred
human happiness trembles between both.                     pounds apiece, and others in other sums.'
Thus' Lusty Juventus' conveys to uts in his rude simplicity the feeling of that day.  Satan, in lamenting the    THE   STORY OF THETE          E     DURIN   T       Pdownfall of superstition. declares that                                             aE    s h'The old people would believe still in my laws,        A period in our dramatic annals has been passed ove
But the younger sort lead them the contrary way-     during the  progress of the civil wars, which indeed was
They will live as the Scripture teacheth them.'      one of silence, but not of repose in the theatre.  It lasted
Hypocrisy when informed by his old master, the Devil,  beyond the death of Charles I, when the fine arts seemed
of the change that'Lusty  Juventus   has  undergone   also to have suffered with the monarch.  The theatre, for
expresses his surprise  attaching that usual odiuim  of  the first time in any nation, was abolished by a public ordimeanness on the early reformers, in the spirit that the   iance, and the actors, and consequently all that family 4
Hollanders were nick-named at their first revolution by   genius who by their labours or their tastes are connected
their lords the Spaniards,' Les  Gueux,' or the Beggars.   with the drama, were reduced to silence.  The actors,
were forcibly dispersed and became even some of the'What, is Juventus become so tame
Wa  i        eTo be a new Gospeller            most pesecuted objects of the new government.
To be a new Gospellet?i'
It may excite our curiosity to trace the hidden footsteps
But in his address to the young reformer, who asserts
of this numerous fraternity of genius.   Hypocrisy and:
that he is not bound to obey his parents but'in all things  Fanaticism had, at lenth, triumped over   t and Stie.
honest and lawful,' Hypocrisy thus vents his feeling                        a  eah  rupe  vrWtadSt;r.
honest and awful,' Hypocrisy thus vents his feeling;  A single blow could not, however, annihilate those never
Lawful, quoth ha? Ah! fool! foe!             dying powers; nor is suppression always extinction.Wilt thou set t men to sch.ol                  Reduced to a state which did not allow of uniting in a
W'hen they be old?                            body, still their habits and their affections could not desert
I may say to you secretly,                     them: actors would attempt to resume their functions,
Since children were so bold;
Thnce worldn wasnever merry sand the genius of the authors, and the taste of the people
would occasionally break out, though scattered and conNow every boy will be a teacher,               cealed.
The father a fool, the child a preacher           Mr  ifford has noticed, in his introduction to MasinThis is pretty gear!                             Mr iffrd  has noticed, in his introduction to Massin
The foul presumption of youth                   get, the noble contrast between our actors at that time,
Will shortly turn to great ruth,                with those of revolutionary France, when, to use his own
I fear, I fear, I fear!'                       emphatic expression,'One wretched actot only de*erted
In these rude and simple lines there is something like  his sovereign; while of the vast multitude fostered by the
the artifice of composition: the repetition of words in the  nobility and the royal family of France, not one individual
first and the last lines, was doubtless intended as a grace  adhered to their cause: all rushed madly forward to plun.
min the poetry.  That the ear of the poet was not unmusi-  der and assassinate their benefactors.'
cal, amidst the inartificial construction of his verse, will    The contrast is striking, but the result must-be traced
appear in this curious catalogue of holy things, which Hy-  to a different principle; for the cases are not parallel as
pocrisy has drawn up, not without humour, in asserting  they appear. The French actors did not occupy the same
the services he had performed for the Devil.               ground as ours.  Here the fanatics shut up!he theatre,'And I brought up such superstition            and extirpated the art and the artists; there, the fanatics
Under the name of holiness and religion,       enthusiastically converted the theatre into an instrumero
That deceived almost all.                      of their own revolution, and the French actors therefor,.
As-holy cardinals, holy popes                  found an increased national patronage.   It wasnatural
Holy vestments, holy copes,                    enough that actors would not desert a flourishing profession.
Holy hermits, and firiars,'The plunder and assassinations,' indeed, were quite pecuHoly priests, holy bishops,                    liar to themselves as Frenchmen, not as actors.
Holy monks, holy abbots,
Holy monks, holy abbots, elThe destruction of the theatre here was the result of an
Yea, and all obstinate liars.
Y, arn a olyobsaeliards,           ancient quarrel between the puritanic party and the whole
Holy pardons, holy ibeads                      corps dramatique. In this little history of plays and players,
Holy ants, holy images,                        like more important history, we perceive how all hu.
With holy holy blood.
Holy stocks, holy stones                       man events form but a series of consequences, linked toHoly clouts, holy bones,                       gether; and we must go back to the reign of Elizabeth to
Yea, and holy holy wood.                       comprehend an event which occurred in that of Charles
Holy skins, holy bulls,                        the First.  It has been perhaps peculiar to this land of
Holy rochets, and cowls,                       contending opinions, and of happy and unhappy liberty,
Holy crutches and staves,                      that a gloomy sect was early formed, who, drawing, as
Holy hoods, holy caps,                         they fancied, the principles of their conduct from the literal
Holy mitres, holy hats,                        precepts of the Gospel, formed those views of human
And good holy holy knaves.                     nature which were more practicable in a desert than a city,
Holy days, holy fastings,                      and which were rather suited to a monastic order than a
H~oly twvitching, holy tastings~
Holy twitching, holy tastinght s,              polished people.  These were our Puritans, who at first,
Holy waxoly vsoly lead,                        perhaps from  utter simplicty, among other extravagant
Holy water, holy bread,                        reforms, imagined that of the extinction of the theatre. —
To drive away the spirits.                     Numerous works from  that time fatigued their own pens
Holy fire holy palme,                          and their readers' heads, founded on literal interpretations
Holy oil, holy cream,                          of the Scriptures, which were applied to our drama, though
And holy ashes also;                           written ere our drama existed; voluminous quotations from
Holy broaches, holy rings,                     the Fathers, who had only witnessed farcical interludes
Holy kneeling, holy censings,
Holy kneeling, holy censings,               and licentious pantomimes: they even quoted classical
And a hundred trim-trams mo.
And a hundred trmtrams m.          authority to prove that'a stage player' was considered
tholy crosses, holy  itls,  ~       
Holy reliues, holy Joubells,                   infamous among the Romnans; among whom, however,
Holy reliques, holy Jouels,                                                          n
Of mine own invention;                         Roscius, the admiration of Rome, received the princely
Holy candles, holy tapers,                     remuneration of a thousand denarii per diem; the tragediHtily parchments, holy papers; —               an Esopus hequeathed about 150,0001 to his son:* remu.
Had not you a holy son?                       nerations, which show the hieh retard1 in which the great
Some,mf these Catholic dramas were long afterwards  actors were held among the Roma.n Ipeople.
secretly performed among Catholic families.  In an no-       A series of writers might be collecte I of these antidra.
published letter of the times, I find a cause in the star-              * Macrobius, Saturn. lib. III, 1. 4.




196                                 CURIOSITIES OF
Matists. The licentiousness of our comedies had too often   culed by the age.'  This religious anti-dramatist must
indeed presented a fair occasion for their attacks; and   have been more deeply read in the drama than even its
they at length succeeded in purifying the stage: we owe  most fervent lovers.  His piety  pursued too deeply,hem  this good, but we owe little gratitude to that blind  the study of such impious productions; and such labours
zeal which was desirous of extinguishing the theatre,  were probably, not without more amusement than lie ought
which wanted the taste also to feel that the theatre was a   to have found in them.
popular school of morality; that the stage is a suppliment to  This stage persecution, which began in the reign of
the pulpit; where virtue, according to Plato's sublime idea,  Elizabeth, had been necessarily resented by the theatrical
msoves our love and affections when made visible to the   people, and the fanatics were really objects too tempting
eye.  Of this class among the earliest writers, was Ste-  for the traders in wit and satire to pass by.   They had
phen Gosson, who in 1579 published' the school of abuse,  made themselves very  marketable: and the puritans,
or a pleasant Invective against Poets, Players, Jesters,  changing their character with the times, from  Elizabeth
and such like Catterpillars.'  Yet this Gosson dedicated  to Charles I, were often the Tartuffes of the stage. But
his work to Sir Philip Sidney, a great lover of plays, and   when they became the government itself, in 1642, all the
one who has vindicated their morality in his'Defence of  theatres were suppressed, because' stage plaies do not
Poesy.' The same puritanic spirit soon reached our uni-  suit with seasons of humiliation; but fasting and praying
versities; for when a Dr Gager had a play performed   have been found very effectual.' This was but a mild cant,
at Christ's Church, Dr. Reynolds of Queen's College,  and the suppression, at first, was only to be temporary.
terrified at the Satanic novelty, published' The Ouerthrow   But as they gained strength, the hypocrite, who had at first
of Stage plays, 1593;' a tedious invective, foaming at the   only struck a gentle blow at the Theatre, with redoubled
mouth of its text with quotations and authorities; for that  vengeance buried it in its own ruins. Alexander Brome, in
was the age when authority was stronger than opinion,  his verses on Richard Brome's comedies, discloses the
and the slightest could awe the readers. Reynolds takes  secret motive.
great pains to prove that a stage play is infamous, by the
opinions of antiquity; that a theatre corrupts morals,by those' Tis worth our note,
of the F'athers; but the most reasonable point of attack is  Bishops and ployers, both suffer'd in one vote:'the sin of boys wearing the dress and affecting the airs  One did su essgood, for they had caisms, and to fear EE  THEM.
of women.'   This was too Iong, a flagrant evil in the   One did suppress their schisms, and t' other Jazn THEM.
theatrical economy.  To us there appears so ethig so   Bishops were guiltiest, for they swell'd with riches;
theatrical economy.  To us there appears something so   Tm other iad naught but verses, songs and speeches,
repulsive in the exhibition of boys, or men, personat        by their ruing, the state did no more
fermale characters, that one cannot conceive how  they   And by the, the state did no more
could ever have been tolerated as a substitute for the   But rob the spittle, and unrag the poor.'
spontaneous grace, the melting voice, and the soothing    They poured forth the long suppressed bitterness of their
looks of a female.  It was quite impossible to give the   souls six years afterwards, in their ordinance of 1648, for
tenderness of a woman to any perfection of feeling, in a' the suppression of all stage plaies, and for the taking down
personating male; and to this cause may we not attribute  all their boxes, stages, and seats whatsoever, that so there
that the female characters have been made a chief per-  might be no more plays acted.'' Those proud parroting
sonage among our elder poets, as they would assuredly  players' are described as'a sort of superbious ruffians;
have been had they not been conscious that the male actor  and, because sometimes the asses are clothed in lions
could not have sufficiently affected the audience? A poet  skins, the dolts imagine themselves somebody, and walke
who lived in Charles the Second's day, and who has writ.  in as great state as Caesar.' This ordinance against'boxes,
ten a prologue to Othello, to introduce the first actress on   stages, and seats,' was without a metaphor, a war of exour stage, has humorously touched on this gross absurdity.  termination.  They passed their ploughshare over the land
4 Our women are defective, and so sized,             of the drama, and sowed it with their salt; and the spirit
You'd think they were some of the guard disguised     which raged in the governing powers appeared in the
For    speak truth, men act, that are between  deed of one of their followers. When an actor had hoForty and fifty, wenches of fifteen-;                 nourably surrendered himself in battle to this spurious
With brows so large, and nerve so uncompliant,        saint,' he exclaimed,' Cursed be he who doth the work
When you call Desdemona-enter Gianrt.'                of the Lord negligently,' and shot his prisoner because he
was an actor.
Yet atthe time the absurd custom prevailed,Tom Nash,    We fiid some nccount of the dispersed actors in that
m his Pierce Pennilesse, commends our stage for not havcurious morsel of'Histeria Histrionica," preserved in the
ing, as they had abroad, women actors, or'courtezans,'  twelfth volume of' Dodsley's Old Plays; full of the tradi
as he calls them: and even so late as in 1650, when wo-  tionary history of the Theatre, which the wrter appears
men were first introduced on our stage, endless are the  to have gleaned from the reminiscences of the old cavalier
apologies for the indecorum of this novel usage!  Suchaned from the reminiscences of the old cavalier
are the difficulties which occur even in forcing bad cus-    The actors wer
toms to return to nature; and so long does it take to infuse  that'wretche  actor' Malignants to a  an  if we except
into the multitude a little common sense!  It is even  that  wretched actor,' as Mr Gifford  stinuishes him,
who was, however, only such for his politics: and he
probable that this happy revolution originated from mereason, that he really was a presbypleaded hard for his treason, that he really was a presbynecessity, rather than from choice; fbr the boys who had      al. Of these men, who had ived i
terdan, although an actor. Of these men, who had lived in
been trained to act female characters before the Rebellion,  the sunshine of a court, and amidst taste and criticism,
during the present suspension of the theatre, had grown too  many perished in the field, from their affection for their
masculine to resume their tender office at theRestoration;            Some sought humble occupations  andnot
and, as the same poet observes,                         a few, who, by habits long indulged, and their own turn of
Doubting we should never play agen,               mind, had hands too delicate to put to work, attempted
We have play'd all our women into men;'             often to entertain secret audiences, and were often dragged
so that the introduction of women was the mere result of  to prison.
necessity: —hence all these apologies for the most natural    These disturbed audiences were too unpleasant to afford
ornament of the stage.                                  much employment to the actors. Francis Kirkman, the
This volume of Reynolds seems to have been the sha-  author and bookseller, tells us they were often seized on
dow and precursor of one of the most substantial of literary  by the soldiers, and stripped and fined at their pleasure.
monsters, in the tremendous' Histriomastix, or the Play-  A curious circumstance occurred in the economy of these
er's Scourge,' of Prynne, in 1633.  In that volume, of  strolling theatricals: these seizures often deprived them of
more than a thousand closely printed quarto pages, all  their wardrobe; and among the stage directions of the
that was ever written against plays and players, perhaps,  time, may be found among the exits and the entrances,
may be found: what followed, could oily have been trans-  these; Enter the red coat —Exit hat and cloak, which were
cripts from a genius who could raise at once the Mountain  no doubt, considered not as the least precious parts of the
and the Moulse. Yet Collier, so late as in 1698, renewed  whole living company: they were at lenath obliged to sub.
the attack still more vigorously, and with final success;  stitute painted cloth for the splendid habits of the drama,
although he left room  for Arthur Bedford a few years,    At this epoch a great comic genius, Robert Cox, invent.
afterwards. in his' Evil and Danger of Stage plays:' in  ed a peculiar sort of dramatic exhibition, suited to the
which extraordinary work he produced'sefven thousand   necessities of the time, short pieces which he mixed with
instances, token out of plays of the present century;' and  other amusements, that these might disguise the acting.
catalogue )f' fourteen hundred texts of scripture, ridi.  It was under the pretence of rope dancing, that he filled




LITERATURE-                                                      197
the RLed Bull playhouse, which was a large one, with such   knew  not where to get bread; and we are tbld of a third
a confluence that as many went back for want of room as  from the tradesmen's wives, in London, headed by a brewer's
entered.  The dramatic contrivance consisted of a combi-  wife: all these were encouraged by their party, and were
nation of the richest comic scenes into one piece, from   alike'most thankfully accepted.'
Shakspeare, Marston, Shirley, &c. concealed under some    The satirists soon turned this new political trick of' petaking title; and these pieces of plays were called' Hu-  titions,' into an instrument for theirown purpose: we have
motrs' or  Drolleries.' These have been collected by' Petitions of the Poets,'-of the House of Commons to the
MARSH, and reprinted by KIRXMAlN, as put together  King, —Remonstrances to the  Porters' Petilion, &c:
by Cox, for the use of theatrical booths at the fairs.*  spirited political satires. One of these, the'Players Pe.
The argument prefixed tc each piece serves as its plot; and  tition to the Parliament,' after being so long silenced, that
drawn as most are from some of our dramas, these'Drol-  they might play again, is replete with sarcastic allusion,
leries' may still be read with great amusement, and offer,  It may be found in that rare collection entitled'Rump
seen altogether, an extraordinary specimen of our natural  Songs, 1662,' but with the usual incorrectness of the press
humour. The price this collection obtains among book-  in that day. The following extract I have corrected by a
collectors Is excessive. In' The bouncing Knight or the  manuscript copy:
Robbers robbed' we recognize our old friend Falstaff, and'Now while you reign, our low petition craves
his celebrated adventure:' The Equal Match' is made     That we, the king's true subjects and your slaves
out of'Rule a Wife and have a Wife;' and thus most.    That we, the kng's true subjects and your slaves
There are, however, some original pieces by Cox himself,    May in our comic mirth and tragic rage
which were the most popular favourites; being characters  Set tip the theatre, and show the stage;
created by himself, for himself, from ancient farces: such  This shop of truth and fancy, where we vow
were,'The Humours of John Swabber, Simpleton the         Not to act any thing you disallow:
Smith,' &c. These remind us of the extempore comedy       Or pers will ot dare ae King PYM* with his states to eer
and the pantomirnical characters of Italy, invented by ac-    Or persog Cataline shall be forgot,
tors of genius. This Cox was,tthe delight of the city, theg Catal      n shall b forganus, or whoe'er could plot
country, and the universities: assisted by the greatest actors    Confusion gaint a state; the war betwixt
of the time, expelled from the theatre, it was he who still
preserved alive:, as if it were by stealth, the suppressed  The parliament and just Harry the Sixth
spirit of the drama.  That he merited the distinctive epi-    Shal have no tougt or mention,'cause their power
thet of' the ilacomparable Robert Cox,as Kirkman calls him,    Nor will we placed, but lost h im in the Tower;
we can only judge by the memorial of our mimetic genius   Nor willsyod with the Spanish inquisition
which will be best given in Kirkman's words.' As meanly    All these, and such like maxims as may mar
as you may now think of these Drolls, they were then act-    Your soaring plots, or show you what you are,
ed by the best conledians; and I may say, by some that    We shall omit, lest our inventions shake them:
then exceeded all now living; the incomparable Robert
Cox, who was not only the principal actor, but also the   W hink there should     not such a direyou make them?
contriver and author of most of these farces. How have I'Twixt our profession and your quality;
heard hirl cried up for his John Swabber, and Simlleton the  You meet, plot, act, talk high with minds immense;
Smith; in which he being to appear with a large piece of    You meet, plot, ac, hut only  with minds immense;
bread and butter, I have frequently known several of the    Inferior unto yours; we can tell how
female spectators and auditors to lriig for it; and once that    To depose kings, there we know more than you,
well-known natural Jack Adams of Clerkenwell, seeing him  Althodh not iore than what w  would; then we
with bread and bitter ot the stage, and knowing him, cried  Althogh not  ore than what we would; then we
out' Cuz! Cuz! give me some!' to the great pleasure       kewise in our vast privilege agree;
of the audience. And so naturally did he act the Smith's  But that yours is the larger; and controls
part, that being at a fair in a country town, and that farce  laring by an enigmatic sense
being presented, the only master-smith of the town came   A privilege on each man's conscience,
to him, saying,' Well, although your father speaks so ill    As if rie trinity could not consent
of you, yet when the fair is done, if you will come and work  T  save a soul but by the parliament
with me, I will give you twelve pence a week more than I  To save a soul but by the parliament.
give any other journyman.' Thus was he taken for a smith  We nke the people laugh at some strange show
bred, that was indeed as much of any       And as they laugh at us, they do at you;
bred, that was, indeed, as much of any trade.'            Only;' the contrary we disagree,
To this low state the gloomy and exasperated fanatics,              the
For you can make them cry faster than we.
who had so often smarted under the satirical whips of the   o  tragedies more real are express'd,
dramatists, had reduced the drama itself; without, how-    You murde men in earnest we in est
ever, extinguishing thle talents of the players, or the finer  You murder men in eariest, we in jest;
ver,.....There we come short! but if you follow thus,
ones of those who once derived their fame from that noble  Some  wise men fear you will come short of us
arena of genius,the English stage. At the first suspen-         umbly as we did you win, we  shor t of us.
sion of the theatre by the Long Parliament in 1642, they  Dear schoolmas, you'll give us leave to play
gave vent to their feelings in an admirable satire. About    Quickly before the king comes; for we, would
this time,  petitions' to the parliament from various classes  Be glad to say you've done a little good
were put into vogue; multitudes were presented to the    Se  ye have sat; your play is almost done
House from all parts of the country and from the city of    AS wely as or s-would it had ne'er begn
London; and some of these were extraordinary.  The        But we shall find, ere the last act be spent,
porters, said to have been 15,000 in number, declaimed          the King, ernt the Parlias ent.
with great eloquence on the blood-sucking malignants for    Enter      then up  e go  who by the frown
insulting the priviliges of parlianment, and threatened to  Of guilty  menlbers have been voted down
come to extremities, and make good the saying' necessity  Until a legal trial show us how
has no law;' there was one from the beggars, who declar-  You used the king, and Heigh then up go you!
ed, that by means of' the bishops and popish lords they   Sn pray your humble slaves with all their powers,
* The title of this collection is' The Wits, or Sport upon  That when they have their due, you may have yours.
Sport, in select pieces of Drollery, digested into scenes by way
of Dialogue. Together with variety of Humnours of several    Such was the petition of the suppressed players in t64t;
nations, fitted for the pleasure and content of all persons, either  but, in 1653, their secret exultation appears although the
in Court, City, Country, or Camp. The like never before pub.  stage was nor yet restored to them  in some verses prelished, printed for H. Marsh, 1662,' again lrinted for F. Kirk.  fixed to  RICHARD BROME'S Plays, by ALEXANDER
man, 1t72. To Kirkmanl's edition is prefixed a curious print  BROME which may close our little history. Alluding to
represeltiang the ilsitle of a Bartholomew-fair theatre. Several  the theatric
characters are introduced. In the middle of the stage, a clown
with a fools cap peeps out ofthe curtain with a lable from his' See the strange twirl of times! when such poor things
mouth,' Tu quoque,' which perhaps was a cant expression  Outlive the dates of parliaments or kings.used by clowns or fools. Then a changeling, a simpleton, a  Tnis revolution makes exploded wit
F'rench dancing master, Clause the beggar, Sir John Falstaff
and hostess. Our notion of Falstaff by this print seems very  * Pym was then at the head of the commons, and was usual
different front that of our ancestors; thei r Falstaff is no extra-  ly deputed to address personally the in:otley petitioners. We
vaganza of obesity, and tie seems not to have required, to be  have a curious speech he made to the tradesmen's wives it
Palstaff, so much' stuffiug' as ours does              Echard's IIistory of England, vol. II, 290




~198         ~CURIOSITIES OF
Now see the fall of those that ruin'd it;                the history is curious: the variety of its modes and casAnd the condemned Stage hath now obtain'd                toms; its freaks and extravagances; the technical language
To see her executioners arraign'd.                       introduced to raise it into an art; and the inventions con.
There's nothing permanent: those high great men          trived to animate the progress of the thirsty souls of its
That rose fri-om dust, to dust may fall again;           votaries.
And fate so orders things, that the same hour               Nations, like individuals, in their intercourse are great
Sees the same man both in contempt and power;            imitators; and we have the authority of Camden,- who
For the multitude, in whom the power doth lie,           lived at the time, for asserting that' the English in their
Do in one breath cry Hail! and Crucify.'                long wars in the Netherlands first learnt to drown them.
At this period, though deprived of a Theatre, the taste   selves with immoderate drinking, and by drinking others'
r the dra     was, perhaps, the more lively among its   healths to impair their own. Of all the northern nations,
lorvtedras;was, perhaps, the perormnes aliveady amngotscd
Iovers; for, hesides the performances already noticed   they had been before this most commended for their solovetims c onreides the pefranc oeies alrednoticted 
sometimes  contrived at, and sometimes protected  by    riety.' And the historian adds,'that the vice had so
brberyiniers cotrived athey stometimes  protctied by
bbery, in Oiver's time they stole into a practice of   diffused itself over the nation, that in our days it was first
privately acting at noblemen's houses, particularly at Hol-  restrained y severe laws.'*
I Hr ew   aetesathraitey ofaerver lands.' *ou
land house, at Kensington; and'Alexander Goffe, the          He weave the authority of a grave and jdicios
historian for ascertaining the first period and even origyin
woman-actor, was the jackall, to give notice of time and   historian for ascertaining the first period and even origin
place to the lovers of the drama,' according to the writer   of this cstom; and that the iation  had not, heretofore,
of' Historia Histrionics.'   The players, urged hy their  disgraced itself by such prevalent ebriety is also confirmed
necessities, puhlished several excellent manuscript plays, hy one of those curious contemporary iramphiets of a
by one of' those curious contemporary pamphlets of' a
which they had hoarded in their dramatic exchequers, as
which they had hoarded in their dramatic exchequers, as   popular writer, so invaluable to the philosophical antiquary.
Tom Nash, a town wit of the reign of Elizabeth, long
the sole property of their respective companies.  In one      Tm Nash, a town wit o the reign of lizaeth, log
year apered fiby of these new plays.  Of these draas    efore Camden wrote her history, in his'Pierce Pennimany have, no doubt, perished; for numerous titles are             had detected the same origin- Superfluity in
drink,' says dtecsirted wrierI iso. seoiin..-'tSuperfut sinc
recorded, but the plays are not known: yet some may still  drink,' says this spirited writer,'s a sin that ever since
remain in their manuscript state, in hands not capable of  we have mixed ourselves with the Low Countries, is
woned honuale; u biedforelweg knew thei LowContriesi
valueing them. All our old plays were the property of the   cotd honourale;  ut  efore we  new  their ingering
actors, ho   ought them  fr their on companies.  The   wars, was held in that highest degree of hatred that might
iimortal works of Sthakpeare had not descended to us,h                             s
be. Then if we had seen a man go wallowing in the
imi-ortal workis of Shiakspeare had not de scended to us,stesolanlepgudrthbadwsoldav
nad not Herninge and Condell felt no sympathy for the fame   streets, or lain sleeping under the  oard, we sould have
CD        I                      ~~~~~~~~~strets oain heim, ande thwbarnd, all sourlredsotf hisco
of their friend.  They had been scattered and lost, and,   pet at him, and warned al our friends out of his comperhaps, had not been discriminated among the numerous    ay*
manuscript plays of that age.  One more effort, during       Such was the fit source of this vile custom, which is
this suspension of the drama, was made in 1655, to recall  futhe  confirmed  y the   rarous dialect  it introduced
furtoe oufrmdbth languageu diallc ith  iteroduced
the public attention to its productions. This was a very into our language; all the terms of drinking which once
curious collection hy John Cotgrave, entitled'The Eng-   abounded with us, are, without exception, of a base northlish Treasury of Wit and Language, collected out of the   ern origin't  But the best account I can find of all the remos8t, and best, of our English Dramatic Poems.'  It  finements of this new  science of potation, when it seems
appears hy Cotgrave's Preface, that'The Dramatic  to have reached its height, is in our Tomn Nash, who being
Poem,' as he calls our tragedies and comedies,'had been   himself one of these deep experimental philosophers, is
himself tondscoe all thee dee experimenta piofophecrsfts
of late too nmuch slighted.' He tells us how some, not  likely to disclose all the mystries of the craft.
wanting in wit themselves, but' through a stiff and obsti-  * Camden's History of Queen Elizabeth, Book III. Many:rate prejudice, have, in thisneglect, lost the benefit of many   statutes against drunkenness, by way of prevention, passed in
-rich and useful observations; not duly considering, or be-.r
rich and useful ohservations; iiot duly considering, or he-  the reign ofJames I.  Our law looks on this vice as an aggralievin, tat thefr ers of them were the most  ent and   vation of any offence committed, not as an excuse for criminal
misbehaviour. See Blackstone, Book I~, C. 2, Sect. III. In
redundant wits that th is age, orI thin  aother, eve   misbehaviour. See Blackstone, Book Isy, C. 2, Seot. It. In
redundant wits that this ae. or I think any other, eve Mr. Gifford's Massinger, vol. 11, 458, is a note, to show that
knew.' He enters further into this just panegyric of our   when we were young scholars, we soon equalled, if we did
old dramatic writers, whose acquired knowledge in ancient  not surpass, our masters. Mr Gilrhrist there fiurnishes an exand modern languages, and whose luxuriant fancies, which   tract trom  Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle, which traces the
they derived fiom  no other sources but their own native   origin of this exotic custom to the source mentioned; but the
growth, are viewed to great advantage in Cotgrave's com-  whole passage from  Baker is literally transcribed from
C                          ~~~~~~~Camden.
men places; and, perhaps, still more in Haywerd's'Bri-  Camden.
~mon places; arid   stll  ore n     I Bi-    t Nash's Pierce Penilesse, 1595, Sig. F 2.
tish Muse,' which collection was made under the super-          hese barbarous phrases are Dutch, anish, or German.
t These barbarous phrases are Dutch, Danish, or German.
visal, and by the valuable aid of Oldys, an experienced   The term skinker, a filler ofwine, a butler or cup.bearer, acOnterer of these relishing morsels.                        cording to Phillips; and in taverns, as appears by our dramatic poets, a drawer is Dutch; or according to Dr Nott, purely
DRINKING CUTOM ~SN ENGLAND.         Danish, from skenker.
The ancient Bacchus, as represented in genis and sta-    Half-seas over, or nearly drunk, is likely to have been a
tues, was a youthful and graceful divinity; he is so do-  proverbial phrase from the Dutch, applied to that state of
-crihee hy Ovid, and was so painted hy Barry.  He has  ebriety by an idea familiar with those water-rats. Thus, op.
zee, Dutch, means literally over-sea. Mr Gifford has recentthe epithet ofPsilas, or WVings, to express the light spirits  ly told us in his Jonson, that it was a name given to a stupefy.
which give wings to the soul. His voluptuousness was  ing beer introduced into England from the low-countries;hence
joyous and tender: and he was never viewed reeling with  op.zee or over.sea; and fileezen in German, signifies to swalintoxication. According to Virgil:                         low greedily: friom  this vile alliance they compounded a harsh
term, often used in our old plays. Thus Jonson:
Et quocunque deus circum caput egit honestum.        term, often used in our old plays. Thus Jonson:
Georg. II, 392.' I do not like the dutness of your eye,
c'               ~~~~~It hath a heavy cast,'tis upsee Dutch.'
which Dryden, contemplating on the red faced boorish                 It ath a heavy cast, i        upsee Dutch.'
Alchemist, A. 4, S. 2l.
boy astride on a barrel on our sign posts, tastelessly sinks
bint~~~~~~~~~~~oy gross vuAnd Fletcher has'upsee-freeze;' which Dr Nott explains in
~into gross vulgarity:~                             ~ ~his edition of Decker's Gull's Hornbook, as' a tipsy draught,'On whate'er side he turns his honest face.'       or swallowing liquor till drunk.' Mr Gifford says it was the
This latinism  of honestum, even the literal inelegance of  name of Friesiand beer; the meaning, however, was'!o drink'Davidson had spirit enough to translate,'Where'er the   swinishly like a Dutchman'
god hath moved around his graceful head.' The hideous        We are indebted to the Danes for many ofour terms ofjAttt
tigure of ebriety, in its most disgusting stage, the ancients  ty; such as a rouse and a carouse. Mr Gifford has given not
inhebetilinu  an ionly a new, but a very distinct explanation of these classical
exposed in the bestial Silenus and his crew; and with these  terms in his Massinger.' A rouse was a large glass, in which
rather than with tle Ovidian and Virgilian deity, our own   a health was given, the drinking of which by the rest of the
convivial customs have assimilated.                        company formed a carouse. Barnaby Rich noticee the ca.
We shall, prolbably, outlive that custom of hard drink-  rouse as an invention for which the first founder merited hang.
ing, which was so long one of our national vices.  T'he   ing. It is necessary to add, that there could be no rouse, or
Frenchman, the Italian, and the Spaniard, only taste the   crose. unless the glasses were emptied.' Althoug  we hav
luxury of the grape, but seem  never to have indulged in  lost the terms, we have not lost the practice, as those wh;,
have the honour of dining in public parties are still gratified
set convivial parties, or drinking matches, as some of the   by the snimeting cry of' gentlemen, charge your glasses.'
northern people.  Of this folly of ours, which was, how-     According to Blount's Glossographia, carouse is a corrup.
ve/r, a borrowed one, and which lasted for two centuries,  tion of two old German words, gar signifying all, aisl aura,




LIT ERATURE.                                                        199
lie says,' Now, he is nobody that cannot drink super-  the present, when we have heard of globular glasses and
naguurnm; carouse the hunter's hoope; quaff vpse freze  bottles, which by their shape cannot stand, but roll about
crosse; with healths, gloves, mumpes,frolickes, and a thou-  the table; thus compelling the unfortunate Bacchanalian
sail suck doinileering inventions'*                      to drain the last drop, or expose his recreant sobriety.
Drinking super-nagulmn, that is on the siail, is a device,    We must have recourse again to our old friend Tom
which Nash saVs is new come  out of France; but it had  Nash, who acquaints us with some of' the general rules
probably a northern origin, for far northward it still exists.  and inventions for drinking, as good as printed precepts or
This new device consisted in this, that after a man, says  statutes by act of parliament, that go from  drunkard to
Nash, hath turned tip the bottom of the cup to drop it on  drunkard; as, still to keep your first man; not to leave any
his nail, and make a pearl with what is left, which if it  flocks in the bottom of the cup; to knock the glass on your
shed, and caninot make it stand on, by reason.here is too  thumb when you have done; to have some shoeing-horn
much, he must drink again for his penance.                 to pull on your wine, as a rasher on the coals or a red
The custom  is also alluded to by Bishop Hall, in his  herring.'
satirical romance of' Mundus alter et ide=m,' A Discov-     Shoeing-horns, sometimes called gloves, are also describery of a New World;' a work which probably Swift read,  ed by Bishop Hall in his' Mundus alter et idem.''' hen,
and did not forget.  The Duke of Tenterbelly in his ora-  sir, comes me up a service of shoeing-horns of all sorts;
tion, when he drinks off his large goblet of twelve quarts on  salt cakes, red herrings, anchovies, and gammon of bacon,
his election, exclaims, should he be false to their laws,  and abundance of such pullers on' That famous surfeit' Let never this goodly-fbolmed goblet of wine go jovially  of Rhenish and pickled herrings, which banquet proved so
through me; and then he set it to his mouth, stole it off  fatal to Robert Green, a conigenial wit and associate of
every drop, save a little remainder, which he was by cus-  our Nash, was occasioned by these shoeing-horns.
tom to set upon his thlumb's nail, and lick it off as he did.'  Massinger has given a curious list of' a service of shoeThe phrase is in Fletcher:                              ing-horns:'
I am thine ad unguem                                                         -       I usher
that is, he would drink with his friend to the last.  In a     Such an unexpected dainty bit for breakfast
manuscript letter of the times, I find an account of Columbo   As yet I never cook'd;'tis not Botargo,
the Spanish ambassador being at Oxford, and drinking           Fried frogs, potatoes marrow'd, cavear,
healths to the Infanta.  The writer adds,' I shall not tell   Carps' tongues, the pith of an English chine of beef,
you hew our doctors pledged healths to the Infanta and         For our Italian delicate oil'd mushrooms,
the archduchess; and if any left too big a snuffR Columbo      And yet a drawer-onl too;* and if you show not
would cry, super naculum! suernaculum!'                       An appetite, and a strong one, I'll not say
This Bacchic fireak seems stills preserved; for a recent     To eat it, but devour it, without arace too,
traveller, Sir George Mackenzie, has noticed the custom        (For it will not stay a preface) I am ashamed,
in his travels through Iceland.' His host having filled a    And all my past provocatives will be jeer'd at.
silver cup Io the brim, and put on the cover, then held it                   Massinger, the Guardian A. 2, S.S.
towards the person who sat next to him, and desired him
to take off'he cover, and look into the cup; a ceremony      To knock the glass on the thumb, was to show they had
intended to secure fair play in filling it.  He drank our  performed their duty.  Barnaby Rich describes this cushealth, desiring to be excused from  emptying the cup, on  tom; after having drank, the president'turned the bottom
account of tIt indifferent state of his health; but we were  of the cup upwards, and in ostentation ofhis dexterity, gave
informed at the same time that if' any one of us should ne-  it a fillip, to nlake  t cry ting.'
glect any pat of the ceremony, or fail to invert the cup,   They had among these' domineering inventions' some
placing the edge on one of the thumbs as a proof that we  which we may imagine never took place, till they were told
had swallowel every drop, the defaulter would be obliged  by' the hollow cask,'
by the laws ofdrinking to fill the cup again, and drink it off'How the waning night grew old.'
a second time.  In spite of their utmost exertions, the      Such were flap-dragons, which were small combustible
penalty of a sicond draught was incurred by two of the  bodies fired at one end and floated in a glass of liquor,
company; we were dreading the consequences of having   which an experienced toper swallowed unharmed, while
swallowed so rouch wine, and in terror lest the cup should  yet blazing.  Such is Dr Johnson's accurate description,
be sent round again.'                                     who seems to have witnessed what he so well describes.*
Carouse the ounter's hoop-' Carouse' has been already  the distance of the pins was such as to contain a large draught
explained: the iunter's hoop alludes to the custom of hoops  of liquor, the company would be very liable by this method to
being marked ot a drinking-pot, by which every man was  get drunk, especially when, if they drank short of the pin or
to measure his craught.  Shakespeare makes the jacobin  beyond it, they were obliged to drink again. In archbishop
Jack Cade, amtng his fuirious reformations, promise his  Anselm's Canons, made in the council at London in 1102,
priests are enjoined not to go to drinking-bouts, nor to drink
friends that I thtreo shall be in Enrnand seven half-penny 
loaves sold for a lenny; the three hooped-pot shall have ten  to pegs. The words are'Ut Presbytei non cant ad potationes,
nec ad Phinas bibant.' (Wilkins, vol. I, p. 382.) This shows
hoops, and I wil make it felony to drink small beer.'     [ the antiquity of this invention, which at least was as old as the
have elsewhere ob;erved that our modern Bacchanalians,  Conqulest.
whose feats are re orded by the bottle, and who insist on    * And yet a drawer-on teoo; [i. e. an incitement to appetite:
an equality in thei- rival combats, may discover some in-  the phrase is yet in use. This drawer-on was also technically
genuity in that invention among our ancestors of their  termed a puller-on, and a shoeing-horn in drink.
peg-tankards, of which a few may yet occasionallv be found    On' the Italian delicate oil d mushrooms,' still a favourite
in Derbyshire t the invention of an age less refined than  dish with the Italians, I have to communicate some curious
knowledge. In an original manuscript letter dated Hereford,
out: so that to drink garauz is to drink all out: hence ca.  15 Nov. 1659, the name of the writer wanting, but evidentl?
rouse.                                                    the composition ofa physician who had travelled, I find thD
* Pierce Pennilesst, Sig. F 2, 1593.                    the dressing of Mushrooms was then a novelty. The learnef These inventions for keeping every thirsty soul within  writer laments his error that he disdained to learn the cookerbounds are alludetl  to by Tom Nash: I do not know that his  that occurred in my travels, by a sullen principle of mistaker
authority will be grea as an antiqiuary, but the things them-  devotion, and thus declined the great helps I had to enlarge
selves he describes he lad seen. He tells us that' King Edgar  and improve human diet., This was an age of medicine, when
because his subjects should not offend in swilling and bibbing  it was imagined that the health of mankind essentially de.
as they ditl, causes cetain iron cups to be chained to every  pended on diet; and Moffet had written his curious book on
futentain and well-side and at every vintner's door with iron  this principle. Our writer, in noticitng the passion of the Roe
pins in them, to stint every man how much he should drink,  mans for mushrooms, which was called' an imperial dish,'
and he who went lieyoid one of those pins forfeited a penny  says,' he hatl eaten it often at Sir Henry Wotton's table (our
for every draught.'                                       resident ambassador at Venice,) always dressed by the inspecPegge, in his Anon\miana, has minutely described these  tion of his Dutch-Venetian Johana, or of Nic. Oludart, and
peg-tankards, Mwhich coitirms this account ofNash, and nearly  truly it did deserve the old applause as I fbund it at his table;
the antiquity of the custm.' They have in tho inside a row  it was far beyond our English food  Neither did any of us find
of-eisht pins one above mnother, from top to bottom: the tank-  it ofr hard digestion, for we did not eat like Adamites, but as
ard' hold two qularts, so that there is a gill of ale, i. e. half a  modest men would eat of mlusk-melons. Ifit were now lawpint of Winchester metsure, between each pin. The first  ful to hold any kind of intelligence with Nic. Ontdart, I would
person that drank was t( empty the tankard to the first peg or  only ask him Sir Henrly Wotton's art of dressinD mutshrooms,
pin; the second was to mnlpty to the next pin, &c, by which   and I hope that is not high treason., Sloane MSS, 4292.
means the pins were sc many measures to the compotators,  i  See Mr Douce's curious'Illustrations of Shakspeare,'
baking them all drink slike, or the same quantity; and as  Vol. I, 457: a gentleman more intimately conversant with out




200                                  CURIOSITIES OF
When Falstaff says of Poins's acts of dexterity to ingra.  mingled their own blood with their wine.* After the Res,
tiate himself with the prince, that' he drinks off candleends  toration, Burnet complains of the excess of convivial loyal
for flap-dragons,' it seems that this was likewise one of  ty.' Drinking the king's health was set up by too man)
these' frolics,' for Nash notices that the liquor was' to be   as a distinguished mark of loyalty, and drew many int~
stirred about with a candle's end to imake it taste better,  great excess after his majesty's restoration.s
and not to hold your peace while the pot is stirring,' no               LITERARY ANECDOTES.
doubt. to mark the intrepidity of the miserable' skinker.'
The most illustrious feat of all is one, however, described  A writer of penetration sees connexiois in literary anei
by Bishop Hall. If the drinker' could put his finger into  dotes which are not immediately perceived by others; in
the flalne of the candle without playing hit-I-miss-I! he  is hands anecdotes, even should they be familiar to us, are
held a sober man, however otherwise drunk he might be.'of deductions and inferences, which become noThis was considered as a trial of victory among these  vel and important truths. Facts of themselves are barren;'canary birds,' or bibbers of canary wine.*            it is when these facts pass through our reflections, and beWe have a very common expression to describe a man   conme interwoven with our feelings, or our reasonings, that
in a state of ebriety, that' he is as drunk as a beast,' or  they are the finest illustrations; that they assume the digthat' he is beastly drunk.' This is a libel on the brutes,  nity of' philosophy teaching by example;' that, in the
for the vice of ebriety is perfectly human. I think the   moral world, they are what the wise system of Bacon in.
phrase is peculiar to ourselves; and I imagine I have dis-culcated in the nattral knowledge deduced from  experi
covered its origin.  When ebriety became first prevalent  ments; the study of Nature in her operation.'When
in our nation, during the reign of Elizabeth, it was a fa-  examples are pointed out to us,' says Lord Boiinbroke,
vourite notion among the writers of the time, and on which' There is a kind of appeal, with which we are flattered,
they have exhausted their fancy, that a man in the dif- made to our senses, as well as to our understandings. The
ferent stages of ebriety showed the most vicious quality of  instruction comes then from  our authority; we yield to.....t staues or ebr    showedthe most vicious quality fact, when we resist specnlation.'
different animals; or that a company of drunkards ex-fact, when we resist speclllation.'
hibited a collection of brutes, with their different charac- For this reason, writers and artists should, amonc  their
terstics.                                          recreations, be forming a constant acquaintance with the
teristAll cs.  nkard   arebeasts,' says George Gascoigne   history of their departed kindred. In literary biography a
I All dronkardes are beasts,' saysGeorge  Gascoigne   man of genius always finds something whi'ch relates to
mn a curious treatise on them,* and he proceeds in illus-man of genius always finds something which relates to
n a curious proposieatise on; but the,* and Nash haproceeds classified   himself. The studies of artists have a great uniformity,
trating his proposition; but the satiristNash has classified
"      and their habits of life are monotonous.  They heve all
eight kinds of' drunkards;' a fanciful sketch from the hand  their habits of life are  tonotonous.  They have all
of a master in hmour, and wich could only have been  the same difficulties to encounter, although they do not all
of a master in humour, and which could only have been   meet with the same, glory. How mary secrets ay the
composed by a close spectator of thier manners and ha-  m        an of genius learn from  literary anecdtes!  portant
bits.'                                                  man of genius learn from literary anecdotes! important' The first is ape-drunk, and he leaps and sings and   secrets, which his friends willl not convey to tim   He
hollows and danceth for the heavens; the second i      traces the effects fon-similar studies; walrned sometimes b
drunk, and he  flings the pots about the house, calls theyon-  failures, and often animated by watching the incipient and
hostess w —e, breaks the glass-windows with his dagger,  shadowy attempts which closed in a great woke'. Frta
and is apt to quarrel with any man that speaks to him  one he learns in what manner he planned and corrected;
the third is  in-drnk, heavy, lumpish, and sleepy, and  from another he may overcome those obstacles which, perthe third is swine-drunk, heavy, lumpish, and sleepy, and  fips- at that- very moment make him rise in Jespair from
cries for a little more drink and a few more clothes; the   haps; at that. very moment make hin rise in les)air from
fourth is sheepe-drunk, wise in his own conceit when he  his own unfinished labour.  What perhaps he had in vain
cannot bring forth a right word; the fifth is maudlen-.drunk,  desired to know for half his life is revealed to in by a litewhen a fellow will weep for kindness ill the midst of his  rary anecdote;  d thus the auseents of idolent hours
drink, ana kiss you, saying,' By God! captain, I love thee,  may impart the vigour of study; as we find sometimes in
the fruit we have-taken for pleasure the nedicine which
go thy ways, thou dost not think so often of me, as I do of  the fruit we have taken for pleasure the medicine which
go thyh ways, thou dost not think so often of me, as I d  of  restores our health.  How superficial is that cry of son
thee: I would (if it pleased God) I could not love thee so
well as I do,' and then he puts his finger in his eye and  impertinent pretended geniuses of these times, who affem
cries.  The sixth is martin-drunk, when a man is drunk,  to exclaim,' Give me no anecdotes of an aithor, but give
me his works!' I have often found the anerdotes more in.
and drinks himself sober ere he stir; the seventh is goat-  me his works' I have often fond the anedotes more rks.
drunk, when in his drunkenness he hath no minld but on  terestin  than the works.
ecnery. The eightis fou-drnk, when he iscraftiy-drunk      Dr Johnson devoted one of his periodical tapers to a defence of anecdotes, and expresses himself Dhus on certain
as many of the Dutchmen be, which will never bargai'  fence of anecdotes, and expresses himself bus on certain
asbut wheny  f they are Du tchm en be, which will never bargain  collectors of anecdotes:' They are not alvays so happy
but when they are drunk. All these species, and more, Ian                                     know Dd well what ad.
have seen practised in one company at one sitting: when Ias to select the most important.  I know ntt well what adhave been permitted to remain sober amongst them only to  vantae posterity can receive from  the ony circumstance
note their several humours.' These beast-drunkards are
characterised in a frontispiece to a curious tract on Drunk-  ofmankind,- the irregularity of lispulse; nor can I think
enness where the men are represented with heads of' apes,  mvself overpaid for the tie spent in reading the life of
~~~~~~~~swine, &c, &  a~Malherbe, by being enabled to relate, afte the learned bio.
A new er, in this history of our drinking-parties oc-  grapher, thate.alherbe had two predoninant opinions;
curred about the time of the Restoration, when politics  one, that            of a single womanmight destroy all
heated their wine, and drunkenness and loyalty became   her boast of ancient descent; the other. that the French
tmo   re losely connected.  Asthepuritamiiccoldness  wo l thbeggars made use, very improperly and Barbarously, of the
more closely connected. As the puritanie coldness wore
off, the people were perpetually, in 1650, warmed in drink-  phrase noble gentlemen, because eitherword included the
ing the king's health on their knees; and among various    These  just observations may, perhas be further illus
kinds of' ranting cavalierism,' the cavaliers during Crom-  trated by the following notices. Dr b. Warton has inwell's usurpation usually put a crumb of bread into their  formed the world, that mny  osr pets        been haand
glass, and before they drank it off, with cautious ambiguity  some  This, certainly, that many of our pets the world, nnr
exclaimed,' God send this crum well down!' which by the                                            world, nr
way preserves the orthoepy of that extraordinary man's  the class of poets. It is trifling to tellus that Dr Johnson
name, and may be added to the instances adduced in the   was accustomed' to cut h fs nails to te quMck.' I am not
present volume' On the orthography of proper names,   much gratified by being informed, that Menage wore a
re have a culriolus accont of a drunken bout by some   greater number of stockings than any ether person, except.
royalists, told by Whitelocke in his Memorials.  It bore  * I shall preserve the story in the wods of Whitelocke; i*.
some resemblance to the drinking-party of Catiline: they   was something tudicrous, as well as teruific.
From Berkshire (in May 1650) that fve drunkards agreed
to drink the king's health in their blood,and that each of them
ancient domestic manners than, perhaps, any single individual  should cut off a piece of his buttock an fr it upon the 
in the country.                                          should cut off a piece of his buttock aril fry it upon the grid.
n Thiste rm is used in I Banciron, which was done by four of them, f whom one did bleed
* This term is used in' Bancroft's two hooks of Epigrams   so exceedingly, that they were fate to end for a chtrurgeoii,
and Epitaphs,' 1639. I take it to have been an accepted one  and so were discovered. The wife of ne them fearing that
of that day. her husband was amongst them, came t the room. and taking
f A delicate diet for daintie mouthde dronkardes, wherein  up a pair of tongs laid at her, anme so saved tl  e cutting
the fowle abuse of common carowsing and quaffing with hartie  her husband's flesh.' Whitelocke's Manorials, p 453, Second
drauehtes is honest  admonished. By George Gascoigne,  edition.
ft Burnet's Life of Sir Matthew Hale.




LITERATURE.                                                        20'
tg one, whose name I have really forgotten. The biogra-  by the remarkable case of Percival Stockdale,* who, after
pher of' Cujas, a celebrated lawyer, says, that two things  a condemned silence of nearly half a century, like avivaci.
mwere remarkable of this scholar. Thefirst, that he studied   ous spectre throwing aside his shroud in gaiety, came foron the floor, lying prostrate on a carpet, with his books  ward a venerable man in his eightieth year, to assure us ot
about him; and secondly, that his perspiration exhaled an  the immortality of one of the worst poets of his age; and
agreeable smell, which he used to inform his friends he  for this, wrote his own memois, which only proved, that
had in common with Alexander the Great!  This admi.  when authors are troubled with a literary hallucination,
rable biographer should have told us whether he frequently  and possess the unhappy talents of reasoning in their mad.
turned front his very uneasy attitude.  Somebody informs  ness, a little raillery, if it cannot cure, may serve at least
us, that Guy Patin resembled Cicero, whose statue is  as a salutary reginmen.
preserved at Rome; on which he enters into a comparison    I shall illustrate the case of condemned authors who wil.
3f Patin with Cicero; but a man may resemble a statue   still be pleading after their trials, by a foreign dramatic
of Cicero, and yet not Cicero.  Baillet loads his life of  writer.  Among those incorrigible murmurers at public
Descartes with a thousand minitiae, which less disgrace  justice, not the least extraordinary was a Ir Peyraud de
the philosopher than the biographer. Was it worth in-  Beaussol, who, in 1775, had a tragedy,'Les Arsacides,'
forming the public, that Descartes was very particular  in six acts, printed, not as it was acted, as Fielding says,
about his wigs: that he had them  manufactured at Paris;  on the title-page of one of his comedies, but as it was
and that he always kept four?  That he wore green taf-  sirmned.
fety in France: hut that in Holland he quitted taffety for    In a preface, this I Sir Fretful,' more inimitable than
cloth; and that he was fond of omelets of eggs?'        that ~iginal, with all the gravity of a historical narrative,
It is an odd observation of Clarendon in. his own life,  details the public conspiracy; and with all the pathetic
that'Mr Chillingworth was of a stature little superior to  touches of a shipwrecked mariner —the agonies of his liteMr Hales; anrid it was an age in which there were many   rary egotism.
great and wonderful men of TIHA.T SizE.' Lord Falkland,    He declares, that it is absurd for the town to condemn a
formerly Sir Lucius Carey, was of low  stature  and   piece which they can only know by the title, for heard it
smaller than most men; and of Sidney Godolphin,' There   had never been! And yet lie observes, with infirnite naiwas never so great a minid and spirit contained in so little  vete,' My piece is as generally condemned as if the world
room; so that Lord Falkland used to say merrily, that he   had it all by heart.'
thought it was a great ingredient in his friendship for Mr    One of the great objections against this tragedy was its
Godolphin, that he was pleased to be found in his compan    monstrous plan of six acts; this innovation did not lean
where he was the properer minan.' This irrelevant obser-  towards improvement in the minds of those who had envation of Lord Clarendon is an instance where a great  dured the long sufferings of tragedies of the accepfed size.
mind will sometimes draw inferences from accidental co-  But the author offers some solemn reasons to induce us to
incidences, and establish them into a general principle; as  believe that six acts were so far from being too many, that
if the small size of the men had-even the remotest con.  the piece had been more perfect with a seventh! iMir de
nexion with their genius and their virtues. Perhaps, too,  Beaussol had perhaps, been happy to have known, that
tnere was in this a tincture of the superstitions of the  other draniatists have considered, that the usual restrictimes: whatever it was, the fact ought not to have degra-  tions are detrimental to a grand genius.  Nat. Lee, when
ced the truth and dignity of historical narrative. We have  too often drunk, and sometimes in Bedlam, wrote a play
writers who cannot discover the particulars which charac-  in twenty.five acts.
terise TX-IE MVAN,-their souls, like damp gun-powder,    Our philosophical dramatist, from the constituent prin.
cannot ignite with the spark when it fhlls on them.      ciples of the human mind, and the physical powers of man,
Yet of anecdotes which appear trifling, something may   and the French nation more particularly, deduces the
be alleged in their defence.  It is certainly safer for some  origin of the Sublime, and the faculty ofattention.  The
writers, to give us all they know, than to try their discern-  plan of his tragedy is agreeable to these principles: Monment for rejection. Let us sometimes recollect, that the   archs, Queens, and Rivals, and every class of men; —it
page over which we toil will probably furnish materials for  is therefore grand! and the acts can be listened to, and
authors of happier talents. I would rather have a Birch,  therefore it is not too long! It was the high opinion that he
or a Hawkins, appear heavy, cold, and prolix, than any   had formed of human nature and the French people, which
thing material which concerns a Tillotson or a Johnson   at once terrified and excited himto finish a tragedy, which,
should be lost. It must also be confessed, that an anec-  he modestly adds,' may not have the merit of any single
dote, or a circumstance, which may appear inconsequen-  one; but which one day will be discovered to include the
tial to a reader, mnay bear some remote or latent connexion;  labour bestowed on fifty!'
a biographer who has long contemplated the character he    No great work was ever produced without a grand plan.
records, sees many connections which escape an ordinary' Some critics,' says our author,' have ventured to "asert
reader. Kippis, in closing the life of the diligent Dr Birch,  that my six ac....y easily be reduced'-..al five,
has, from his own experience no doubt, formed an apology   without injury to the conduct....   fo reply to
for that minute research, which some have thought this  this reqrired a complete analysis of the tragedy, which,
writer carried to excess.'It may be alleged in our au-  having been found more voluminous than the tragedy
thor's favour, that a man who has a deep and extensive  itself, he considerately' published separately.' It would
acquaintance with a subject, often sees a connection and   be curious to ascertain whether a single copy of the analy.
Importance in some smaller circumstances, which may not  sis of a condemned tragedy was ever sold.  And yet this
immediately be discerned by others; and, on that account,  critical analysis was such an admirable and demonstrative
may have reasons for inserting them, that will escape the   criticism, that the author assures us that it proved the
notice of superficial minds.'                            absolute impossibility, I and the most absolute too,' that
CONDEMN'ID POETS.                       his piece could not suffer the slightest curtailment. It
demonstrated more —that' the gradation and the develop.
I flatter myself that those readers who have taken any   demonstrated more-that'the gradation and the develop.
interest in my works have tint conceived me to have been   ment of interest required necessarily seven Acts! but, from
interest in my works have! not conceived me to have been
deficient in the elevated feeling wic, from early life,    dread of carrying this innovation too far, the author omitted
deficient in the elevated feeling whichl, from early life, I   n   c   he    as   bid   e   ee!    u    ih
have preserved for the great Literary character: if time   one Act which passed behind the scenes!   but which
ouht to have come in between the fifth and sixth! A.nothweakens our enthusiasm, it is the coldness of age which   ought to have come in between the fift and sixth  Anoth
creeps on us, bt the principle is unalterable which in-  e point is proved, that the attention of an audience, the
spired the sympathy.  Who will not venerate those Mas-     yscal powers of ia  can be kept up with interest much
~~~~~~~~~~~~pyicalpowuers otha.an hsbee  kacuaept u wtha  i pieceOrlystakch
ter-spirits'whose published labours advance the good of  longer than has een clculated: that his piece ory takes
rnkind, and those books which are  the precious life-  up two hours and three quarters, or three hours at most,
inodof and Mhser,  wim c   anI treauredoup o    if some of the most impassioned parts were but declaimed
mibod of a Master-spirit, imbatmed and treasured up on
purpose to a life beyond lie?' But it has happened that I   apidly.
have more than once incurred the censure of the inconsider-    * It first appeared in a ieview of his' Memoirs.'
ate and the tasteless, for attempting to separate those wri-    f The words are'Un derriere la scene.' I am not sure of the
ters who exist in a slate of perpetual illusion; who live on   meaning, buit an act behind the scenes would be perfectly In
querulously, which is an evil for themselves, and to no   character with this dramatic bard.
purpose oflife, which is an evil to others. tI have been     The exact reasoning of Sir Fretful, in the Critic, when Mrs
purposeoflife, whcinvltoDangle thought his piece'rather too long,' while he proves
blamed for exemplifying' the illusions of writers in verse,'*   his play was'a remarkaoly short play.' —' The first evening
* Calardmities of. uthors, Vol 11, p. 313.     you can spare me three holtrs and a half, I'll undertake to real
26




202                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Now we come to the history of ail the disasters which   allowing fbor his particular conception of the cause, detail.
happewtd at the acting of this tragedy.'How can peo-  ing them with the most rigid veracity.  This author was
pie cortplain that my piece is tedious, when, after the first  unquestionably a man of the most honourable probity, and
act, they would never listen ten minutes to it?  Why did  not destitute of intellectual ability; but he must serve as
they attend to the first scenes, and even, applaud one'!  a useful example of that wrongheaded nature in some
Let me not be told, because these were sublime, and corn.-  men, which has produced so many'Abbots of Unreason'
roanded the respect of the cabal raised against it; because  in society, whom it is in vain to convince by a reciprocathere are other scenes far more sublime in the piece, which   tion of arguments; who, assuming false principles, act
they perpetually interrupted.   Will it be believed, that  rightly according to themselves; a sort of rational lunacy,
they pitched upon the scene of the sacrifice of' Volgesie,  which, when it discovers itself in politics and religion, and
as one of the most tedious? —the scene of Volgesie which   in the more common affairs of life, has produced the most
is the finest in my piece; not a verse, not a word in it,  unhappy effects; but this fanaticism, when confined to
can be omitted!*  Every thing tends towards the catas-  poetry, only amuses us with the ludicrous; and, in the
trophe; and it reads in the closet as well as it would affect  persons of Monsieur De Beaussol, and of Percival Stock.
us on the stage. I was not, however, astonished at this:  dale, may offer some very fortunate self-recollections in
what men hear, and do not understand, is always tedious;  that calamity of authors, which I have called' The Illuand it was recited in so shocking a tone by the actress,  sions of Writers in Verse.'
who, not having entirely recovered from a fit of illness,
was flurried by the tumult of the audience. She declaim-                   ACAJOU AND ZIRPHILE.
ed in a twanging tone, like psalm-singing; so that the
audience could not hear, among these fatiguing discord-       As a literary curiosity, and as a supplemental anecdate
ances (he means their own hissing,) nor separate the  to the article f PREFACE,*             I cannot pass over the sup
thoughts and words from the full chant which accompanied pressed preface to the'Acajon et Zirphile,' ofDu Cbs,.I pressed preface to the I Acajou et Zirphile,' of Du Clos.
thouhtsand  ord frm th ful chnt  hic  accmpaied which of itself is almost it cunyular instance of hardy in.'
them. They objected perpetually to the use of the word
_Madame, between two female rivals, as too comic; one   genuity, in an address to the p-shlic.
of the pit, when an actress said llladame, cried out,' Say   This single volume is one of the most whimsical of fairy
This single volume is one of the most whimsical of fairy
Princesse!'  This disconcerted the actress.  They also sitales, and an amusing satire, originating in an o(ld circurnobjected to the words apropos and real apropos. Yet, afterstce ConTsit hSwdsAmaaortte
stance.  Count Tessin, the Swedish Ambassador at the
objected to the  ords a propos and ml apropos. Yet, ater  Court of France, had a number of grotesque designs made
all, how are there too many MIiadames in the piece, since
they do not amount to forty-six in the course of forty-four  by Boucher, the king's painter, and engraved by the first
scenes?  Of these, however, I have erased half.'          artists.  The last plate had just been finished when the
This historian of his own wrongheadedness proceeds,  count was recalled, and appointed Prime Minister and
with all the simplicity of this narrative  to decribe the   Governor to the Crown Prince, a place he filled with great
with all the simplicity of this narrative, to decscribe thehbu.hnu;adi  mlt~   feeo,             cm~sdlteso
hubbub.'                   honour; and in emulation of Fenelon, composed letters on' Thus it was impossible to connect what they were  the Education of a Prince, which have been translated.
hearing with what they had heard. In the short intervals   He left behind him in France all the plates in the hands of
hearing with wvhat they had heard.  In the short intervals   Buhrwohvn   h
of silence, the actors, who during the tumult, forgot their  Boucher, who having shown them  to D  Clos for their
characters, tried with difficulty to recover their concep- singular invention, regretted that he had bestowed so much
singular invention, regretted that he had bestowed so much
hion.  The conspirie tors were prepadred  to a man; not onl   fancy on a fairy tale, which was not to be had; Du Clos,
their head, but soue weith written  notes had their  oly  to relieve his regrets, offered to invent a tale to correspond
in their head, but some with written notes had their watch wihteegosqesbcs.Tssemdntalte
in                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~watch    itsthese grotesque stibjects.  Thsis seemed not a little
words to set their party agoing. They seemed to act with
temteroia    concert;     difficult. In the first plate, the author appears in his mornthe most extraordinary concert; they'seemed to know the
exact moment wheneta r     they  were to give  the  word, and   ing gown, writing in his study, surrounded by apes, rats,
exact moment when they were to give the word, and            r
drown, in their hurly-burly, the voice of' the actor, who   butterflies, and smoke. In anotser, a Prince is drest in
French costume of 1740, strolling full of thouglht in'the
had a passionate part to declaim, and thus break the con-shd wak   of ies'Iathrple                          the
nection betweeis the speakers.  All this produced so com-  shady walks of ideas.' In a third plate, the Prince is
neetion between the speakers. All this produced so com     covrsng-ihafiyworssou  fagot~r   hc
plots an effect that it seemed as if tlse actors themselves conversing with a fairy who rises out of a gooseberry which
plete an effect that it seemed as if the actors themselves  h        a    lce      w     wrsdsoee    na    te
had been of the conspiracy, so wilful and so active was he had plucked: two dwarfs discovered in an other
the execution of the plot.  It was particularly during the   gooseherry, give a sharp fillip to the Prince, who seems
fifth and sixth acts that the cabal was most outrageous;  much embarrassed by their tiny maliciousness.  In an.
they knew thse were the most beautiful, and deserved   other walk  le eats an apricot, which opens with  the
they knew these were the most beautiful, and deserved
particular attention.  Such a humming arose, that tse   most beautifulof faces, a little melancholy, and leaning on
actors seemed to have had their heads turned; some, lost  one side. In another print, he finds the body of this lovely
acmtodrsea se med  he  haid at random, tuhe prompter in  face and the hands, and he adroitly joins them together.
their voice o, somedelime at hr ando  te promtern in   Such was the set of these incomprehensible and capricivain cried out., nothing was heard and every thing was   ous inventions, which the lighter fancy and ingenuity of
said; the actor who could not hear the catch-word, re   Du Clos converted into a fairy story, full of pleasantry and
mained disconcerted and silent; the whole was broken,  satir.
wrona and right; it was all Hebrew.  Nor was this all;  stiet
the actors behind the scene were terrified, and they either  Among the novelties of this small volume, not the least
comhe factorw nd tremlng, aeriin  they seig r  remarkable is the dedication of this fairy romance to the
come forwards trembling, and only watching the signs of
their bm-Yher actors, or would not venture to show them- public, which excited great attention, and charmed and
their br-oher actors, or would not venture to show them-  pooe   u  uhrsfcl  arn                     uCo   eeoel
selves.  The machinist only, with his scene shifters, who   provked our author's fickle patron. Do Chs sere openly
felt so deep an interest in the fate of my p   was tran-   ridicules, and dares his protector and his judge.  This
felt sodepniterstith   ypiece, whazardous attack was successful, and the author soon acuil and attentive to his duty, to produce a fine effect.  quired the reputation which he afterwards maintained, of
Afe   h   ul-ul   a   veh  etteatr                        quired tho reputation which he afterwards maintained, of
iter theihurlyaburly  was ov pr, he left the actors mute I being a writer who little respected the common prejudices of
with their arms  crossed. H e ~~  ~, apned  theseey n
nwith their arms crossedne   He  opened the scenere cam o-the world.  Freron replied by a long criticism, entitled
not an actor could enter on it! The pit, more clamorous than ever, would not suffer the denouement! Such Rhponse do Public B l'Auteur d'Acajou; but its severity
0ous8 thnevrwudosfetedeoemn           uh was not discovered in its length; so that the Public, who
was the conduct, and such the intrepidity, of the ar            m           yn
was the conduct, and such the intrepidity, of the army   had been so keenly ridiculed, and so hardily braved in the
employed to besiege the Arsacides! Such the cause of
~~~~~that  accusation oftediousness  made a  a d       light and sparkling page of the haughty Du Clos, preferred
thataccumost evidently the contrary  against   drama,  the caustic truths and the pleasant insult.
which has most evidently the contrary defect P
Such is the history of a damned dramatist, written b  In this'Epistle to the Public,' the author informs us
witha truthandsimlicity of a   happwier   that,  excited by example, and encouraged by the success
himself, with a truth and simplicity worthy of a happier  he had often witnessed, he designed to write a piece of
fate. It is admirable to see a man, who was himself so   nonsense
nonsense. He was only embarrassed by the choice of sub.
deeply involved in the event, preserve the observing calm-  ject. Politics, Morals, and Literature, were equally the
heswhich could discover the minutest occurrence; ansd,          PltcMrladLtrtrwr  qal  h
ness which could discover the minutest occurrence; and,  same to me; but I found, strange to say, all these matters
you the whole, from beginning to end, with the prologue and   pre-occupied by persons who seem to have aboured with
epilogue, and allow time fo. the music between the acts. The   the same view.  I found silly things in all kinds, and I
watch here, you know, is the critic.'                      saw myself under the necessity of adopting the reasonable
* Again Sir Fretful; when Dangle'ventures to suggest that
the interest rather falls off in the fifth act;'-' Rises, I believe  * Vol. I, p. 101.
you mean, sir;'-' No, I don't, upon my word.'-' Yes, yes,    f The plates of the original edition are in the quarto form
yae do, upon my soul; it certainly don't fall off; no, no, it  they have been poorly reduced in the common editions ta
deaa' fl1l off.'                                           twelves.




LIT E RATURE.                                                      203
ones to become singular; so that I do not yet despair' The Bedlam has a long staff, and a cow or ox horn by
Lhat we may one day discover truth, when we shall have   his side; his clothing fantastic and ridiculous; for being a
exhausted all our errors.                                  madman, he is madly decked and dressed all over witllh'I first proposed to write down all erudition, to show   rubins (ribands,) feathers, cuttings of cloth, and what not,
the freedom and independence of genius, whose fertility is  to make him seem a madman, or one distracted, when he
suLh as not to require borrowing any thing from  foreign   is no other than a wandering and dissembling knave.' This
sources; but I observed that this had sunk into a mere   writer here points out one of the grievances resulting from
commoni place, trite and trival, invented by indolence,  licensing even harmless lunatics to roam about the coun.
adopted by ignorance, and which adds nothing to genius.   try; for a set of pretended madmen, called' Abram men,'
Mathematics, which has succeeded to erudition, be-  a cant term for certain sturdy rogues, concealed themselves
gins to be unfashionable; we know at present indeed that  in their costume, covered the country, and pleaded ti~.
one may be as great a dizzard in resolving a problem as in  privileged denomination when detected in their depreda.
restoring a reading.  Every thing is compatible with ge-  tions.'*
nius, but nothing can give it!  Sir Walter Scott first obligingly suggested to me that'For the bel esprit, so much envied, so much sought  these roving lunatics were out door pensioners of Bedlam,
after, it is almost as ridiculous to pretend toit, as it is dif.  sent about to live as well as they could with the pittance
ficult to attain. Thus the scholar is contemned, the math-  granted by the hospital.
ematician tires, the man of wit and genius is hissed. What   The fillest account that I have obtained of these singu.
is to be done?'                                           lar persons is drawn from the manuscript note transcribed
Having told the whimsical origin of this tale, Du Clos  from  some of Aubrey's papers, which I have not seen
continues;'l do not know, my dear Public, if you will  printed.
approve of my design; however, it appears to me ridicu-' Till the breaking out of the civil wars, Tom  o' Bedlam.
bous enough to deserve your favour; for, to speak to you   did travel about the country; they had been poor distractlike a friend, you appear to unite all the stages of hu-  ed men, that had been put into Bedlam, where, recovering
man life, only to experience all their cross accidents. You   some soberness, they were licentiated to go a begging; i.
are a child to run after trifles; a youth when driven by  e. they had on their left arm an armilla, an iron ring for
your passions; and in mature age, you conclude you are  the arm, about four inches long as printed in some works.t
wise, because your follies are of a more solemn nature, for  They could not get it off; they wore about their necks a
you grow old only to dote; to talk at random, to act with-  great horn of an ox in a string or bawdry, which, when
out design, and to believe you judge, because you pro-  they came to a house, they did wind, and they put the
nounce sentence.                                           drink given to them into this horn, whereto they put a stop.'I respect you greatly; I esteem you but little; you are  pie.  Since the wars I do niot remember to have seen any
not worthy of being loved.  These are my sentiments
respecting you; if you insist on others from me in that  containing much curious knowledge on almost every subject
case                                                       but thie fL.k, more particularly exhibits the most copious vo
~~~~'I am,  ~cabulary of old English terns. It has been said that there at4
a!'                                               am
Your most humble and obedient servant.'    not more than twelve copies extant of this very rare work,
The caustic pleasantry of this Epistle dedicatory' was  which is probably not true.
*The caustic pleasantry of this' Epistle dedicatory' was    * In that curious source ofour domestic history, the'En'linA,
considered by some mawkish critics so offensive, that when   Villanies' ofDecker, we find a lively dtescription of the' Al5ram
the editor of the' Cabinet de Fees,' a vast collection of  Cove,' or Abram man, the impostor who personated a Tom o
fairy ta!es, republished this little playful satire and whimsical Bedlam. He was terribly disguised with his grotesque rags,
his~ ~ ~~~~Z_                     sgotsu  as
fancy piece, he thought proper to cancel the' Epistle;'  his staff, his knotted hair, and with the more disgusting contrivances to excite pity, still practised amnong, a -class ~ u
concluding that it was entirely wanting in that respect with   t es to excite  ity, stil practised among a class of our
which the public ought to be addressed'This editor, of  mendicants, who, in their cant language, are still said' to sham
which the public ought to be addressed! This editor,              o         f' 
cour    was a Frenchman: we view  imiAbraham.' This impostor was, therefore, as suited his pur.
ose was a Frenchman:  we view him in the ridicuous  pose and the place, capable of worlking  on the sympathy, by
attitude of making his profound bow, and expressing all  uttering a silly maunding, or demanding of charity, or territhis' high consideration' for this same' Public,' while, with  fying the easy fears of women, children, and domestics as he
his opera hat in his hand, he is sweeping away the most  wandered up and down the country: they refused nothing to
poignant and delectable page of Acajou and Zirphile.       a being who was as terrific to them  as'Robin Good-fellow,'
It) O' BEDLAMS           or' Raw-head and bloody-bones.' Thus, as Edgar expresses
~TOM 0O~ BEDLAMS.  ~          it,' sometimes with lunatic bans, sometimes with prayers,, the
The history of a race of singular mendicants, known   gestures of this impostor were' a counterfeit puppet-play: they
by the name of Tom  o' Bedlams, connects itself with that  came with a hollow noise, whoopin5, leaping, gambolling,
came with a hollow nioise, whooping, leaping, gambolling,
eof our poetry.  Not only will they live with our language,   wildly dancing, with a fierce or distracted look.' These sturdy
ofour poetry. Not only will they live with our languagrl   edcnswee aldITmo  edlmI ado ndp,~
menldicants were called'Tom of Bedlam's band of mad-caps,'
since Shakspeare, has perpetuated their existence, but  or'Poor Tom's flock of wild geese., Decker has preserved
they themselves appear to have been the occasion of cre-  their' Maund,' or begging-' Good worship master, bestow
ating a species of wild fantastic poetry, peculiar to our  your reward on a poor man that hath been in Bedlam without
nation.                                                    Bishopgate, three years, four months, and nine days, and bpBethlem  Hospital formed, in its original institution, a   stow one piece of small silver towards his fees, which he is in
contracted and penurious charity; its governors soon dis-  debted there, of 31, 13s, 7 1-2d,' (or to such effect.)
covered that the metropolis furnished them with more luna-   Or,  Now dame, well and wisely, what will you give poor
tics than they had calculated on;  they also required   Tom? One pound of your sheep's feathers to make poor Tom
a blanket? or one cutting of your sow's side, no bigger than
from  the friends ofthe patients a weekly stipend, besides   my arm; or one piece of your salt meat to make poor Tom a
clothing.   It is a melancholy fact to record in the history   sharing horn; or one cross of your small silver, towards a pair
of human nature, that when one of their original regula-  of shoes; well and wisely, give poor Tom an old sheet to keep
tions prescribed that persons who put in patients should   him from the cold; or an old doublet and jerkin of my mas.
provide their clothes, it was soon observed that the poor  tr's; well and wisely, God save the kine and his council.'
Such is a history drawn from the very at-chives of mendacity,
lunatics were frequently perishing by the omission of this   Sch is a history drawn  from the very archives of metdiciry
and imposture; and written perhaps as far back as the reign
slight duty from those former friends; so soon forgotten
~~~~~~~~~~~~slight duty frm  hsefrof James I; but which prevailed in thatofElizabeth, as Shak.
were they whom none found an interest to recollect.-   speare has so finely shown in his Edgar. This maund, and
They were obliged to open contributions to provide a   these assumed manners and costume, I should not have pre.
wardrobe.*                                                 served from their utter penury, but such was the rude material
In consequence of the limited resources of the Hospital,  which Shakspeare has worked up into that most fanciful and
they relieved the establishment by frequently disclarging   richest vein of native poetry, which pervades the character of
the wandering Edgar, tormented by'the foul fiend,, when
patients whose cure might be very equivocal.  Harmless   e
lunatics thrown thus into the world, often without a single                        -    ettoubht
friend, wandered about the country, chanting wild ditties,           To take the basest and most poorest shape
and wearing a fantastical dress to attract the notice of he          That ever penury, in contempt of man,
charitable, on whose alms they lived   They had a kind of            Brought near to beast.
costume, which I find described by Randle Holme in a cu-  And the poet proceeds with a minute picture of'Bedlam be&rious and extraordinary work.t                             gars.' See Lear, A. II, S. 3.
f Aubrey's information is perfectly correct; for those impos.
~ Stowe's Survey of London, Book I.                      tors who asstimed the character of Tom o' Bedlams for their
The Academy of Armory,' Book II, c. 8, p. 161. This is  own nefarious purposes used to have a mark burnt in their
singular work, where the writer has contrived to turn the  arms, which they showed as the mark ofBedlam.'The,
larren subjects of'Heraldy into an entertaining Encyclop-edia,  glish Villanies of Decker,' C. 17, 16418.




204                                 CURIOSITIES OF
one of them.'  The civil wars, probably, cleared the           That of your five sound senses
country of all sorts of vagabonds; but among the royalists       You never be forsaken;
or the parliamentarians, we did not know that in their             Nor travel from
rank and file they had so many Tom o' Bedlams.                     Yorirselves with Tom
I have now to explain something in the character of            Abroad, to beg your bacon.
Edgar in Lear, on which the commentators seem to have                       CHuRas.
ingeniously blundered, from an imperfect knowledge of the      Nor never sng any food and feeling,
character which Edgar personates.                                Money, drink, or alcathing 
Edgar, in wandering about the country for a safe dis-            Come dame or maid,
guise, assumes the character of these Tom o' Bedlams;              Come dame or maid
Be not aft-aid,
he thus closes one of his distracted speeches,' Poor Ton,or Tom will i e nothing.
Thy horn is dry!'  On this Johnson is content to inform         For Tom wi
us, that men that begged under pretence of lunacy used         Of thirty bare years have I
formerly to carry a horn and blow it through the streets.'        Twice twenty been enraged;
This is no explanation of Edgar's allusion to the dryness          And of forty been
of his horn.  Steevens adds a fanciful note, that Edgar             Three times fifteen
alludes to a proverbial expression Thy horn is dry, design-      In durance soundly caged.
ed to express that a man had said all he could say; and        In the lovely lofts of Bedlam,
further Steevens supposes that Edgar speaks these words          In stubble soft and dainty
aside; as if he had been quite weary of Tom o' Bedlam's             Brave bracelets strong
Brave bracelets strong,
part, and could not keep it up any longer. The reasons              Sweet whips ding, dong,
of all this conjectural criticism are a curious illustration of
perverse ingenuity. Aubrey's manuscript note has shown
us that the Bedlam's horn was also a drinking horn, and        With a thought I took for Maudlin,
Edgar closes his speech in the perfection of the assumed         And a cruise of cockle pottage,
character, and not as one who has grown weary of it, by             And a thing thall,
making the mendicant lunatic desirous of departing from a 
heath, to march, as he cries' to wakes, and fairs and           I fell into this dotage.
market towns-Poor Tom! thy horn is dry!' as more like-        I slept not till the Conquest;
ly places to solicit alms; and he is thinking of his drink        Till then I  never waked;
money, when he cries that' his horn is dry.'                       Tillthe roguish boy
An itinerant lunatic, chanting wild ditties, fancifully          Of love where I lay,
attired, gay with the simplicity of childhood, yet often         Me found, and stript me naked.
moaning with the sorrows of a troubled man, a mixture of       When short I have shorn my sow's face,
character at once grotesque and plaintive, became an in-         And swigg'd my horned barrel;
terestina object to poetical minds. It is probable that the         In an oaken Inn
character of Edgar. in the Lear of Shakspeare, first intro-         Do I pawn my skin,
duced the hazardous conception into the poetical world.          As a suit of gilt apparel:
Poems composed in the character of a Tom o' Bedlam             The morn's my constant rmistress,
appear to have fornled a fashionable class of poetry among        And the lovely owl my morrow;
the wits; they seem to have held together poetical con-            The flaming drake,
tests, and some of these writers became celebrated for              And the night-crow, make
their successful efforts, for old Isaac Walton mentions a         Me music, to my sorrow.' Mr. William Basse as one who has made the choice             The palsie plague these pounces,
songs of the " Hunter in his career," and of " Tom o'Bed-         When I prig your pigs or pullen;
lam," and many others of' note.' Bishop Percy, in his               Your culvers take
6 Reliques of ancient English Poetry,' has preserved six            Or mateless make
of what he calls' Mad Songs,' expressing his surprise            Your chanticlear and sullen;
that the Enalish should have' more songs and ballads on        When I want provant with Humphrey I sup,
the subject of madness than any of their neighbours,' for         And when benighted,
such are not found in the collections of songs of the               To repose in Paul's
French, Italian, &c, and nearly insinuates, for their cause,        With wakina souls
that we are perhaps more liable to the calamity of mad-           I never am affrighted.
ness than other nations. This superfluous criticism had         I know more than Apollo,
been spared had that elegant collector been aware of the          For, oft when he lies sleeping,
circumstance which had produced this class of poems,                I behold the stars
and recollected the more ancient original in the Egdar of           At mortal wars,
Shakspeare. Some of the' Mad Songs,' the Bishop has              And the rounded welkin weeping;
preserved, are of too modern a date to suit the title of his    The moon embraces her shepherd,
work; being written by Tom D'Urfey, for his comedies              And the Queen of Love her warrior;
of Don Quixote. I shall preserve one of more ancient                While the first does horn
date, fraught with all the wild spirit of this peculiar cha-        The stars of the morn,
racter.*                                                          And the next the heavenly farrier.
This poem must not be read without a perpetual refer-        With a heart of furious fancies,
enc to the personated character. Delirious and fantastic,         Whereof I ant commander:
strokes of sublime imagination are mixed with familiar
With a burning spear,
comic humour, and even degraded by the cant language;               And a horse of air,
for the gipsy habits of life of these' Tom o' Bedlams' had         And a horse oe air,
confounded them with' the progging Abram men.' These             To the wilderness   ander
luckless beings are described by Decker as sometimes ex-          I summoned a of ghosts and shadows,
ceeding merry, and could (lo nothing but sing songs fash-          summoned am to Toureyond
ioned out of their own brain; now they danced, now theyTe                     n leagues beyond
would do nothing but laugh and weep, or were dogged and             The wide world's end;
sullen both in look and speech. A ll they did, all they          Methink s no journey 
sung, was alike unconnected; indicative of the desultory  The last stanza of this Bedlam  song contains the 
and rambling wits of the chanter.                      of exquisite romance; a stanza worth many an admiredal
poem.
A TOM-A-BEDLAM SONG.
From the hag arid hungry goblin                INTRODUCTION OF TEA, COFFEE, AND CHOCOLATE.
That into raes would rend ye,                 It is said that the frozen Norwegians, on the first sight
All the spirits that stand                of roses dared not touch what they conceived were trees
By the naked man,                         budding with fire: and the natives of Virginia, the first
In the botok of moons defend ye!            time they seized on a quantity of gunpowder, which be* I discovered the present in a very scarce collection, enti-  lonsed to the English colony, sowed it for grain, expecting
tied  Wit and Drollery,' 1661; an edition, however, which is  to reap a plentiful crop of combustion by the next harvest,
ym the earliest of this once fashionable miscellany.   to blow away the whole colony.




LITERATURE.                                                        205
In our own recollection, strange imaginations impeded  lures that tea might have been known in England as "far
the first period of Vaccination; when some families, terri-  back as the reign of James I, for the first fleet set out in
fled by the warning of a physician, conceived their race   1600; but, had the use of this shrub been known, the no.
would end in a species of Minotaurs:                    velty had been chronicled among our dramatic writers,
Semibovemque virum, semivirumque bovem.         whose works are the annals of our prevalent tastes and
We smile at the simplicity of the men of nature, for  humours.  It is rather extraordinary that our East-India
their mistaken notions at the first introduction among them   Company should not have discovered the use of this shrub
of exotic novelties; and yet, even in civilized Europe, how   in their early adventures; yet it certainly was not known
long a time those whose profession, or whose reputation,  in England so late as in 1641, for in a scarce' Treatise of
regulate public opinion, are iluenced by vlgar preju-  Warm Beer,' where the title indicates the author's design
regulate public opinion, are influenced by vulgar prejudices, often disguised under the imposing form of science   to recommend hot il preference to cold drinks, he refers
to tea only by quoting the Jesuit. Maffei's account, that
and when their ludicrous absurdities and obstinate ureju-  t tea onl by quoting the Jest Mat ei's account, that
dices enter into the matters of history, it is then we dis-  they of China do for the most part drink the strained i
cover that they were only imposing on themselves and on   quor of an herb called Chsa, hot.' The word Ca is the
others.                                                 Portuguese term for tea retained to this day, which tlhe
borrowed from the Japanese; while our intercourse wit
It is hardly credible that on the first introduction of the  the Chinese made us no doubt adopt their term Theh, now
Chinese leaf, which now affords our daily refreshment; or  prevalent  throughout Europe, with the exception of the
the American leaf, whose sedative fumes made it so long   Portuguese.  The Chinese origin is still preserved in the
a universal favourite; or the Arabian berry, whose aroma   term Bohea, tea which comes from the country of Voehi,
exhilarates its European votaries; that the use of these   and that of Hyson was the name of the most considerable
harmless novelties should have spread consternation in the   Chinese tlen concerned in the trade.
nations of Europe, and have been anathematized by the     The best account of the early use, and the prices of tea
terrors and the fictions of some of the learned. Yet this  in England, appears in the hand-bill of one who may be
seems to have happened. Patin, who wrote so furiously  called our first Tea maker.  This curious hand-bill bears
against the introduction of antimony, spread the same   no date, but as Hanway ascertained that the price was
alarm at the tise of tea, which he calls  l'impertiiente  sixty shillings in 1660, this bill must havebeen dispersed
nouveaut6 du siecle.' In Germany, Hanneman consider-           that period.
ed tea-dealers as immoral members of society, lying i.   Thomnas Garway in Exchange-alley, tobacconist and
wait for men's purses and lives; and Dr Duncan, in his  coffee-man, was the  first who sold and  retailed tea retreatise on hot liquors, suspected that the virtues attributed   commending it for the cure of all disorders.  The followto lea were merely to encourage the importation.        ing shop-bill is more curious than any historical account
Many virulent pamphlets were published against the   we have.
use of this shrub, from various motives. In 1670 a Dutch' Tea in England hath been sold in the leaf for s x
writer says it was ridiculed in Holland under the name of   pounds, and sometimes for ten pounds the polnd weight,
hay-water.' Tuhe progress of this famous plant,' says   and in respect of its former scarceness and dearness it
an ingenious writer,'has been something like the pro-  hath been only used as a regalia in high treatments and
gress of truth; suspected at first, though very palatable to. entertainments, and presents made thereof to princes and
those who had courage to taste it; resisted as it encroach-  grandees till the year 1657.  T he said Garway did pure
ed; abused as its popularity seemed to spread; and es-  chase a quantity thereof, and first publicly sold the said
tablishing its triumph at last, in cheering the whole land   tea in leaf or drink, made according to the directions of
from the palace to the cottage, only by the slow and re-  the most knowing merchants into those Eastern countries.
sistless efforts of time and its own virtues.'*
sistless ehtorts of time and its own virtues.'* byDrL On the knowledge of the said Garway's continued care and
The history of the Tea-shrub, written by Dr Lettsom,  industry in obtaining the best tea, and maling drink thereis usually referred to on this subject; I consider it little  of, very many  noblemen, physctans, merchants, d c, have
more than a plagiarism on Dr Short's learned and curious  of, very many noblemen, physicians, merchants, &c, have
disse than a plagarsm ti on onDr Shrt's lea1730, 4rned and curious  ever since sent to him for the said leaf, and daily resort to
dissertation on ea, of his moral and medical  superadded   his house to drink the drink thereof. He sells tea from
the solemn trifling of hice.                            16s to 50s a pound.'
These now common beverages are all of recent origin     Probably, tea was not in general use domestically so
in Erope; neither the ancients nor those of the middle  late as in 1687; for in the diary of Henry, Earl of Clarenages tasted of this luxury. The first accounts we find of  don, he registers that'Pere Couplet supped with me, and
the use of this shrub are the casuai notices of travellers,  after supper we had tea, which he sai was really as good
who seem to have tasted it, and sometimes not to have           e      had drank in China.'  Had his loldship been
liked it: a Russian Ambassador, in 1639, wlio resided at  in the general habit of drinking tea, he had not, probably,
the Court of the Mogul, declined accepting a large present  made it a subject for his diary.
of tea for the Czar,'as it would only incumber him with a   made it a subject for  inroucing ta may be didiary.
commodity for which he had no use. The appearance of      While the honour of introducing tea may be disputed
cmodty  for which he had no use  The appearance of  between the English and the Dutch, that of coffee remains'a black water' and an acrid taste seems not to have re-e English and the                                 in
commended it to the German Olearius in 1633. Dr Short  betweentheEnglish andtheFrench. Yet an talia in
tended to have occupied the place of honour; that admirahas recorded an anecdote of a stratagem of the Dutch in  ble traveller Pietro della Valle writing from Constantino.
their second voyage to China, by which they at first ob-  pie, 1615, to a Roman, his fellow-countryman, informing
ta.ed their te without disbursing money;theycard ple, 1615, to a Roman, his fellow-countryman, informing
tained their tea/~ithout disbursing money; they carried   him, that he should teach Europe in what manner the
from home great store of dried sage, and bartered it with   Turks t hat he calls' Cahu      as the word is writTurks took what he calls' Cahue, or as the word is writthe Chinese for tea; and received three or four pounds of  ten in an Arabic and English pamphlet, printed at Oxford
tea for one of sage: but at length the Dutch could not ex-  1569, on'the nature of the drink Kauni or Coffee.' As
port sufficient quantity of sage to supply their demand.  this celebrated traveller lived in 1652, it may excite surThis fact, however, proves how deeply the imagination I  rise that the first cup of coffee was not drank at Rome
concerned with our palate, for the Chinese, affected by the  this remains for the discovery  of some member of the
exotic novelty, considered our sage to be more precious  ( Arcadian society.'  Our own  Purchas, at the time that
~~than their tea.~                               ~ ~Valle wrote, was also' a Pilgrim,' and well knew what
The first introduction of tea into Europe is not ascer-  was' Croa, which they drnk as hot as they can endure
tained; according to the common accounts, it came into  it; it is as black as soot, and tastes not mulch unlike it,
England from Holland, in 1666, when Lord Arlington and   good they say for di estlon and mirta.'
Lord Ossory brought over a small quantity; the custom     It appears by Le  Grand's Vie privee des Francois,'
of drinking tea became fashionable, and a pound weight  that the celebrated Thevenot, in 1658, gave coffee after
sold then for sixty shillings.  This account, however, is by   dinner; but it was considered as the whim of a traveller;
no means satisfactory. I have heard of Oliver Cromwell's, was inviting: it
tea-pot in the possession of a collector, and this will de-  was probably attributed  by the gay to the humour of a vain
range the chronology of those writers who are perpetually  philosophical traveller. But ten years afterwards a Turkish
copying the researches of others, without confirming or  ambassador at Paris made the beverage highly fashionable.
correcting them.                                        The elegance of the equipage recommended it to the eye
Amidst the rival contests of the Dutch and the English   ant charmed the women: the brilliatt porcelain cups, in
East-lrndia Companies, the honour of introducing its use
ito   E     reyecawhich it was poured; the napkins fringed widh gold, and
Into Europe mav be claimed by both. Dr Short conjec-  the Turkish slaves on their knees presenting it to the la.
* Edinburgh Review, 1816, P. 117            dies, seated on the ground on cushions turned the heads d




206                                    CURIOSITIES OF
the Parisian dames.  This elegant introduction made the       They drank pure nectar as the Gods drink too,
exotic beverage a subject of conversation, and in 1672, an    Sublim'd with rich Canary-say shall then
Armenian at Paris at the fair-time opened a coffee-house.     These less than coffee's self, these coffee-men,
But the custom still prevailed to sell beer and wine, and to  These sons of nothing, that can hardly make
smoke and mix with indifferent company in their first im-     Their broth, for laughing how the jest does take:
perfect coffee houses. A Florentine, one Procope, celebrat-  Yet grin, and give ye f'or the vines pure blood
in his day as the arbiter of taste in this department, in-    A loathsome potion, not yet tinderstood,
structed by the error of the Armenian, invented a superior    Syrup of soot, or essence of old shoes,
establishment, and introduced  ices: he embellished his    DIasht with itiurnals and the books of news.'
apartment, and those who had avoided the offensive cof-       Other complaints arose from the mixture of the company
fee-houses, repaired to Procope's; where literary men,  in the first coffee-houses. In'A broad-side against Coffee,
artists, and wits resorted, to inhale the fresh and fragrant  or the marriage of the Turk,' 1672, the writer indicates the
steam.  Le Grand says, that this establishment holds a   growth of the fashion:
distinguished place in the literary history of the times.  It' Confusion huddles all into one scene,
was at the coffee-house of Du Laurent that Saurin, La         Like Noah's ark, the clean anrid the unclean;
Motte, Danchet, Boindin, Rousseau, &c, met; but the           For now, alas! the drench has credit got,
mild steams of the aromatic berry could not mollify the       And he's no gentleman who drinks it not.
acerbity of so many rivals, and the witty malignity of    That such a dwarf should rise to such a stature!
Rousseau gave birth to those f.amous couplets on all the      But custom is but a remove from nature.'
coffee-drinkers, which occasioned his misfortune and his      IThe  Women's petition against Coffee,' 664, the
banishment.                                  ~~~~~~~~~~In'~ The Women's petition against Coffee,' 1064, they
Such is the history of the first use of coffee and its  complained that' it made men as unfruitful as the deserts
Such is the history of the first use of coffee and its   wec   htuhpybryi  adt   ebogt:ta
houses at Paris.  We, however, had the use before even   whence  that unhappy berry is said to be brought: that
the time of' Thevenot; for an English Turkish merchant  the offspring of our mighty ancestors would dwindle into
the time of' Thevenot; for an English Turkish merchant
brought a Greek servant in 1652, who, knowing, how to   a succession of apes and pigmies: and on a domestic
message, a husband would stop by the way to drink a
roast and make it, opened a house to sell it nublicly.
I have a lso discoverend his hand-bill, in which'he s     couple of cups of coffee.' It was now sold in convenient
I have also discovered his hiand-bill, in which'he sets
~~~~~~~~~~forth,  ~penny-worths; for in another poem in praise of a coffee-'The vertue oftte coffee-drink, first publiquely made and   house, for the variety of information obtained there, it is
The vertue of the coffee-drinky first publiquely made and
called I a penny university I
sold in England, by Pasqua Rosee, in St Michael's Alley,  called'a penny university!
Coruhill, at the sigon of his own head.'                     Amidst these contests of popular prejudices, between
Cornhill, at the sign of his own head.'
For  about twenty ears after the introduction ofcoffe   the lovers of forsaken Canary, and the terrors of our feFor about twenty years at-ter the introduction of coffee
kingom,  we find a continued series of invectives   males at the barrenness of an Arabian desert, which lasted
in this kingdom, we find a continued series of invectives
acainst itsnadoption, both l  ecitcnal aid doestic views.  for twenty years, at length the custom  was universally
against its adoption, both ii medicinal aid domestic views.  established; nor were there wanting some reflecting minds
The use of coffee, indeed seems to have excited more no-  desirous of introdcing the   u       se of this liquid among  the
tice, and to have had a greater influence on the manners ofdsou        s of i   cin thu         thilqudao
1~~~~~~ ~~labcuring classes of society, to wean them from  srong
the people, than that of tea. It seems at first to have beenro
liquors. Howel, in noticing that curious philosophical
more universally used, as it still is on the Continent; and   liors. Howel, in noicin   tt curious pilOp
)traveller, Sir Henry Blount's I Organon Salutis,' 1659,
its use is connected with a resort for the idle and the   traveller, Sir Henry Blo'ris'Organon   alutis, 1659,
curious: the history of coffee-houses is often that of the   observed that'this coffa-drink hath caused a great sobriety
amnong, all nations: formerly apprentices, clerks, &c,
manners, the morals, and the politics, of a people. Even   among all nations: formerly apprentices, clerks,  c,
manners,7~~~~~~ ~used to take their morning draughts in ale, beer, or wine,
in its native country, the government discovered that ex-  which often made them unfit for business. Now  they
traordinary fact, and the use of the Arabian berry was   play the good-fellows in this wakeful and civil drik. The
more than once forbidden where it grows; for Ellis, in his      th  g'History of Coffee,' 1774, refe  to an Arabian M  in te   ~worthy gentleman Sir James Muddiford,  who introduced
of Coffee,' 1774 refers  MS.         the practice hereof first in London, deserves much respect
Kini of France's library, which shows that c-iffee-houses    f the whole nation.' Here it appears, what is most probain Asia were sometimes suppressed. The same fate hap- 
in Asia were soinetimes suppressed. The same fate hap-   ble, that the use ofthis berry was introduced by other Turk.
pened on its introduction into England.                    ish merchants, besides Edwards and his servant Pasqua.
Among a number of poetical satires against the use of  B    ecut   odr             cfe an  heab              es.
But the custom of drinking coffee among the labcuring clas-~
coffee, I find a curious exhibition, according to the exag-   ses does not appear to have lasted; and when it was recentl
gerated notions of that day, in 4 A cup of Coffee, or Coffee
n ts colors,' 1663.  The writer, like others of his c  even the cheapest beverage, the popular prejudices prevail-In its colours,' 1663. The writer, like others of his con-                            aoro  e.Tecnrr
ed against it, and run irk fayour of tea. The contrary
temporaries, wonders at the odd taste which could mako   ed against it, ad run n
Coffee a substitute for Canary.                            practice prevails on the continent, where beggars are'For. m adhsa ttviewed making their coffee in the street.  I remember'For men and Christians to turn Turks, and think        seeing the large body of shipwrights at Helvoetsluys sumTo excuiise the crime, because'tins in their drink!     moned by a bell, to take their regular refreshment of colPure English apes! ye may, for ought I know,             fee; and the fleets of Holland were not then built by arms
Would it but mode-learn to eat spiders too.*             less robust than the fleets of Britain.
Should any of your grandsires' ghosts appear               The frequenting of coffee houses is a custom which has
In your wax-candle circles, and btt hear                 declined within our recollection, since institutions of a
The name of coffee so much called upon;                  higher character, and society itself, has so much improved
Then see it drank like scalding Phlegethon,              within late years.  These were, however, the common
Would they not startle, think ye, all agreed             assemblies of all classes of society. The mercantile man,'Twas conjuration both in word and deed;                 the man of letters, and the man of fashion, had their apOr Cataline's conspirators, as they stood                propriate coffee houses.  The Tatler dates firom either to
Sealing their oaths in draughts of blackest blood?      convey a character of his subject.  In the reign of Charles
The merriest ghost of all your sires would say,          II, 1675, a proclamation for some time shut them  all up,
Your wine's much worse since his last yesterday.         having become the rendezvous of the politicians of that
He'd wonder how the club had given a hop                 day.  Roger North has given, in his Examen, a full acO'er tavern-bars into a farrier's shop,                  count of this bold stroke; it was not done without some
W'here he'd suppose, both by the smoke and stench,       apparent respect to the British Constitution, the court afEach man a horse, and each horse at his drench.          fecting not to act against law, for the judges were sum.
Sure you're no poets, nor their friends, for now,      moned to a consultation, when, it seems, the five who met
Should Jonson's strenuous spirit, or the rare            did not agree in opinion. But a decision was contrived
Beaumont and Fletcher's in your rounds appear,           that'the retailing of coffee and tea might be an innocent
They,.'nuld not find the air perfumed with one          trade; but as it was said to nourish sedition, spread lies,
Castilian drop, nor dew ofHelicon;                       and scandalize great men, it might also be a common nui.
When they but men would speak as the Gods do,            sance.' A general discontent, in consequence, as North
* This witty poet was not without a degree of prescieice    acknowledges, took place, and emboldened the merchants
the luxury of eating spiders has never indleed beconme' mo-  and retailers of coffee and tea to petition; and permission
dish,' but Mons. Lalande. tlhe French astronomer, and one   was soon granted to open the houses to a certain period,
or two humble imitators of the mtolern philosoplher, have   under a severe admonition, that the masters should prevent
ihown this triumph over vulgar prejudices, and were Epicures   all scandalous papers, books, and libels from  being read
of this sutamp                                             in them; and hinder every person fronm spreading scan.




LITERATURE.                                                     207
lalous reports against the government. It must be con-  reading this, was the singularity of an impress cut on the
fessed, all this must have frequently puzzled the coffee  diamond, which Tavernier represents as a most extraordi.
house  iiaster to decide what was scandalous, what  nary rarity.  Charles I was a greatvirtuoso, and delighted
book was fit to be licensed to be read, and what political  particularly in sculpture and painting.'
intelligence might be allowed to be communicated.  The    This is an instance of conjectural evidence where a hisobject of the government was, probably, to intimidate,  torical fact seems established on no other authority than
tather than to persecute, at that moment,              the ingenuity of a student, exercised in his library on a
Chocolate the Spaniards  rouht from Mexico where,  private and secret event a century after it had occurred.
The diamond seal of' Charles I, may, probably, be ye%
it was denominated Choccollatti; it was a coarse mixture The diamond seal of Charles I, may, probably, be ye
of ground cacao and Indian corn with rocou; but the Spa-  discovered in the treasures of the Persian Sovereign.
niards, liking its nourishment, improved it into a richer    Warburton, who had ranged with keen delight through
compound, with sugar, vanilla, and other aromatics. The  the age of Charles I, the noblest and the most humiliating
immoderate use of chocolate, in the seventeenth century,  in our own history, and in that of the world perpetually
was considered as so violent an inflamer of the passions   instructive, has justly observed the king's passion for the
that Joan. ra.  auch published a treatise against i tine arts.  It was indeed such,that had the reign of Charles
that Joan. Fran. Rauch published a treatise against it,
and enforced the necessity of forbidding the monks to drink  I, proved prosperous. that sovereign about 1640 would
it; and adds, that if such an interdiction had existed, the   have anticipated those tastes, and even that enthusiasm,
scandal with which that holy order had been branded    hich are still almost foreign to the nation.
might have proved more groundless.  This Di.sputatio      The mind of Charles I was moulded by the Graces.
medico-dicetetica de aere et escslentis, nec-non de pott, Vi-  His favourite Buckinghani was probably a greater favourenna, 1624, is a rara avis among collectors.  This attack  ite, for those consgenial tastes, and the frequent exhibition
on the monks, as well as on chocolate, is said to be Ihe   of those splendid masks and entertainments, which comcause of its scarcity; for we are told that they were so  bined all the picture of ballet dances, with the voice of
inot  muscl the pcharms of' thlet danersefJ,  wihthe scico
diligent in suppressing this treatise, that it is supposed not  music; the carms of the verse of Jonso, the sceni
a dozen copies exist. We had chocolate houses in Lona dozen copies exist. We had chocolate houses in Lou-   machinery of Inigo Jones, and the variety of fancilul dedon long after coffee houses; they seemed to have associ-  vices of Gerbier, the duke's architect, the bosom friend
c'                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~f Rubens. There was a costly magnificence in the fetes
ated something more elegant and refined in their new term   of Rubens. There was a costly  agnificence in hefte
Z)                      ~~~~~~~at York House, the residence of Buckingham, of which
when the other had become common, Roger North tius  at Yok Huse, the residence of BuckIgham, of which
inveighs auainst them:'The use of coffee houses seems  few but curious researchers are aware: they eclipsed the
splendour of the French Court; for Bassompiere, in one
mucfh imptved by a new invention, called chocolate hoses   spldur of the French ourt; for Bassompire, in one
for the benefit of rooks and collies of quality, where gaming   of his despatches, declares he had never witnessed a simis added to all the rest, and the summons of w  ilar magnificence.  He describes the vaulted apartments,
seldom fails; as if the devil had erected a new University  the ballets at supper, which were proceedin  between the
and those were the colleges of its professors, as well as  services, with various representations, theatrical changes,
his school of discipline.' Roger North, a high tory, and   and those of the tables, and the music; the duke's own
hattorney general to James Ie, observ Nrhowee, that these a contrivance, to prevent the inconvenience of pressure, by
rendezvous were often not entirely composed of those' fac-  haing a  turning  door made like that of the  onastries,
tlous gentry he so much dreaded;' for he says,' This way  which admitted only one h)O5le  at a time. the  following
of passing time might have been stopped at first before  extract fom   a manuscilt letter of the times conveys a
people had possessed themselves of some convenience  liely account of one of these fetes.
from them of meeting for short despatches, and passing'Last  ianda  at night, the duke's grace entertained
evenings with small expenses.' And old Aubrey, the  theirmajestiesand theFrench  ambassador at York  House,
small Boswell of his day, attributes his general acquaint-  wih grea  feasting ad show, where all things came dow
ance to'the modern advantage of coffee houses in this  in clotds; amongst which, one rare device was a represengreat city, before which men knew not how to be acquainted  tation of the French king and the two queens with their
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~chiefest attendants, and so to the life, that the queens
but with their own relations, and societies:' a curious  chiefest attendants, and so to the life, that the queens
statement, which proves the moral connexion with soci-  majesty could name them. It was four o'clock in tne
ety of all sedentary recreations which induce the herding  moing before they arted, and then the king and queen,
spirit,                                                together with the French ambassador, lodged there. Some
estimate this entertainment at five or six thousand pounds.5
CHARLES THE FIRsT s LOVE OF THE FINE ARTS.    At another time,' The king and queen were entertained at
Herbert, the faithful attendant of Charles I, during the  supper, at Gerbier, the duke's painter's house, which could
two last years of the king's life, mentions,' a diamond seal  not stand him in less than a thousand pounds.' Sir Sywith the king's arms engraved on it. The history of this  monds D'Ewes mentions banquets at 5001. Tihe fullest'diamond seal' is remarkable; and seems to have been   account I have found of one of these entertainments,
recovered by the conjectural sagacity of Warburton, who  which at once show the curiosity of the scenical machine.
never exercised his favourite talent with greater felicity.  ry, and the fancy of the poet, the richness of the crimson
The curious passage I transcribe may be found in a manu-  habits of the gentlemen, and the white dresses with white
script letter to Dr Birch.                              heron's plumes and jewelled head'esses, and ropes oi'If you have read Herbert's account of the last days of  pearls of the ladies, was in a mannlzript letter of the
Charles the First's life, you must remember he tells a story  times, with which I supplied the editor of' Jonson, who has
of a diamond seal, with the arms of England cut into it.  preserved the narrative in his memoirs of that poet.4 —
This King Charles ordered to be given, I think, to the'Such were the magnificent entertainments,' says Mr.
prince. I suppose you don't know what became of this  Gifford, in his introduction to Massinger,'which, though
seal, but would be surprised to find it afterwards in the  modern refinement may affect to despise them, modern
Court of Persia. Yet there Tavernier certainly carried   splendour never reached, even in thought.' That the exit, and offered it to sale, as I certainly collect from these   penditure was costly, proves that the greater encourage.
words of vol. I, p. 541. "Me souvenant de ce qui etoit  ment was offered to artists; nor should Buckingham be
arrive au Chevalier de Reville," &c. He tells us he told  censured, as some will incline to, for this lavish expense;
the Prime Minister what was engraved on the diamond  it was not unusual with the great nobility then; for the
was the arms of a Prince of Europe, but, says he, I would  literary Duchess of Newcastle mentions that an enternot be more particular, remembering the case of Reville.  tainment of this sort, which the duke gave to Charles I,
Reville's case was this: he came to seek employment  cost herlord between four and five thousand pounds. The
under the Sophy, who asked him "where he had served?"  ascetic puritan would indeed abhor these scenes; but
He said, "in England under Charles I, and that he was  their magnificence was also designed to infuse into the
a captain in his guards."-" Why did you leave his ser-  national character gentler feelings and more elegant tastes.
vice'?"  "He was murdered by cruel rebels. —: And   They charmed even those fiercer republican spirits in
how had you the impudence," says the Sophy, "ito sur-  their tender youth: MILTONI owes his Arcades and his
vive him'"  Ald so disgraced him. Now Tavernier was  delightfiil Comus to a mask at Ludlow  Castle; and
afraid if he had said the arms of England had been on   WHITELOCKE, who was himself an actor and manager,
the seal. that they would have occasioned the inquiry into  in'a splendid royal mask of the four Inns of courts
the old story. You will ask how Tavernier got this seal?  joining together' to go to court about the time that
I suppose, that the prince, in his necessities, sold it to  Prynne published his Histriomnastix,'to manifest the differ.
Tavernier, who was at Paris when the English court was         * Sloans  MSS, 5176, letter 167.
there. What made me recollect Herbert's account on             tMr Giford's Memoirs ofJonson, p. 88.




208                                  CURIOSITIES OF
once of their opinions from Mr. Prynlne's new learning,'  nificent folio, of near a thousand pages, of an extraordinary
-seems, even at a later aay, when drawing up his' Me-  dimension, bound in crimson velvet, and richly gilt, writmorials of the English Affairs,' and occupied by graver  ten in a fair large hand, but with little knowledge of the
concerns, to have dwelt with all the fondness of remiiiis-  objects which the inventory writer describes. It is entitled
cence on the stately shows and masks of his more in-'An Inventory of the Goods, Jewels, Plate,&c, belonging to
nocent acge; and has devoted in a chronicle which contracts   King Charles I, sold by order of the Council of State, from
many an mpl-ortant event in a single paragraph, six folio  the year 1649 to 1652.  So that from the decapitation of
columns to a minute and very curious description of' these  the king, a year was allowed to draw  up the inventory;
dreams past, and these vanished pomps.'                  and the sale proceeded during three years.
Charles the First, indeed, not only possessed a critical    From this manuscript catalogue* to give long extracts
tact, but extensive knowledge in the fine arts and the relics  were useless; it has afforded, however some remarkable
of antiquity. In his flight in 1642, the king stopped at the   observations. Every article was appraised, nothing was sold
abode of the religious family of the Farrars at Gidding,  under the affixed price, but a slight competition sometimes'wbho had there raised a singular monastic institution among   seemed to have raised the suin; and when the council of
themselves. One of their favourite amusements had been   state could not get the sum appraised, the gold and silver
to rrm an illustrated Bible, the wonder and the talk of the   was semnt to the Mint; and assuredly manv fine works of art
country.  In turning it over, the king would tell his com-  were valued by the ounce.  The names of the purchasers
panion the Palsgrave, whose curiosity in prints exceeded   appear: they are usually English, but probably many were
his knowledge, the various masters, and the character of  the agents of foreign courts. The coins or medals were
their inventions.  When Panzani, a secret agent of the  thrown promiscuously into drawers: one drawer, having
Pope, was sent over to England to promote the Catholic  twenty-four medals, was valued at 21, 10s; another of
cause, the subtile and elegant Cardinal Barbermni, called  twenty at 11; another-of twenty-four at 11; and one drawthe protector of the English at Rome, introduced Panzani  er, containing forty-six silver coins with the box, was sold
to the king's favour by making him appear an agent rather  for 51. On the whole, medals seem not to have been valfor procuring him fine pictures, statues, and curiosities;  tied at much more than a shilling a piece.  The appraiser
anid the earnest inquiries and orders given by Charles I  was certainly no antiquary.
prove his perfect knowledge of the most beautiful existing  The king's curiosities in the Tower Jewel house generemains of ancient art.' The statues go on prosperously,'  rally fetched above the price fixed; the toys of art could
says Cardinal Barberini in a letter to Mazarine,' nor  please the unlettered minds that had no conception of its
shall I hesitate to rob Rome of her most valuable orna-  works.
ments, if in exchange we might be so happy as to have      The temple of Jerusalem, made of ebony and amber,
the King of Englanid's namne among those Princes who  fetched 251.
submit to the Apostolic See.' Charles I was particularly   A fountain of silver, for perfumed waters, artificially
urgent to procure a statue of Adonis in the Villa Ludovl-  made to play of itself, sold for 301.
sla; every effort was made by the queen's confessor, Fa-    A chess board, said to be Queen Elizabeth's, inlaid with
ther Philips, and the vigilant Cardinal at Rome; but the   gold, silver, and pearls, 231.
inexorable Duchess of Fiano would not suffer it to be sep.    A conjuring drum firom  Lapland, with an almanac cut
arated from her rich collection of statues and paintings,  on a piece of wood.
even for the chance conversion of a whole kingdom of    Several sections in silver of a Turkish gallery, a Veheretics.*                                               netian gondola, an Indian canoe, and a first rate man of
This monarch, who possessed I four and twenty palaces,  war.
all of them elegantly and completely furnished,' and form.    A Saxon king's mace used in war, with a ball full o
ed very considerable collections.' The value of pictures  spikes, and the handle covered with gold plates, and enamhad( doubled in Eurone, by the emulation between our  elled, sold for 371, 8s.
Charles and Philip IV of Spain, who was touched with       A gorget of massy gold, chased with the manner of a
the same elegant passion.' When the rulers of fanaticism   battle, weighing thirty-one ounces, at 3l, 10s, per ounce, was
began their reign,' all the king's furniture was put to sale;  sent to the Mint.
his pictures, disposed of at very low prices, enriched all    A Roman shield of buff leather, covered with a plate of
the collections in Europe: the cartoons when complete  gold, finely chased with a Gorgon's head, set round the
were only appraised at 3001, though the whole collection   rim with rubies, emeralds, turquoise stones, in number
of the king's curiosities were sold at above 50,000l.t Hume   137, 1321, 12s.
adds,' the very library and medals at St James's were      The pictures, taken from Whitehall, Windsor, Wimbleintended by the generals to be brought to auction, in order  don, Greenwich, Hampton Court, &c, exhibit, in number,
to pay the arrears of some regiments of cavalry; but Sel-  an tnparalleled collection.  By what standard they were
den, apprehensive of this loss, engaged his friend White.  valued, it would, perhaps, be difficult to conjecture; from
locke, then lord-keeper of the commonwealth, to apply for  501 to 1001, seems to have been the limits of the appraiser's
the office of librarian. This contrivance saved that valu.  taste and imagination.  Some whose price is whimsically
able collection.' This account is only partly correct: the  low may have been thus rated, from a political feeling relove of books, which formed the passion of the two learned   specting the portrait of the person; there are, however,
scholars whom  Hulme notices, fortunately intervened to  in this singular appraised calalogtue, two pictures, which
save the royal collection from the intended scattering;  were rated at, and sold for, the remarkable sums of one
but the pictures and medals were, perhaps, objects too   and of two thousand pounds.  The one was a sleeping
slight in the eyes of the book-learned; they were resigned   Venus by Corregio, and the other a Madonna by Raphael.
to the singular fate of appraisemnent.  After the Restora.  There was also a picture by Julio Romano, called' The
tion very many books were missing, but scarcely a third   great piece of the Nativity,' at 5001.'The little Mapart of the medals remained: of the strange manner in  donna and Christ,' by Raphael, at 8001.' The great Vewhich these precious  remains of ancient art and history   nus and Parde,' by Titian, at 6001. These seem to t.ve
were valued and disposed of, thle following account may   been the only pictures, in this immense collection, which
no, be read without interest.                            reached a picture's price.  The inventory writer had,
In March 1648, the parliament ordered commissioners  probably, been instructed by the public voice of their value;
to be appointed to inventory the goods and personal estate   which, however, would in the present day, be considered
of the late king, queen, and prince, and appraise them for  much under a fourth. Rubens''Woman taken in Adulthe use of the public.  And in April 1648, an act, adds  tery,' described as a large picture, sold for 201; and his
Whitelocke, was committed, for inventorying the late king's' Peace and Plenty, with many figures big as the life,' for
goods, &c.1                                              1001. Titian's pictures seem generally valued at 1001.This very inventory I have examined. It forms a mag   Venus dressed by the Graces, by Guido, reached to 2001.
The Cartoons of Raphael, here called' The Acts of the
* See Grezorio Panzani's Memoirs of his agency in Eng-  Apostles,' notwithstanding their subject was so congenial
land. This work long lay in manuscript, and was only known
ton. Tii, in the  long lay in manuscript,  and was only known   to the popular feelings, and only appraised at 3001, could
to us in the Catholic Dodd's Church History, by partial extracts. It was at length translated fiom the Italian MS.. and  find rio purchaser!
published by the Rev. Joseph Berington; a curious piece of  The f;ollowing full lengths of celebrated personages were
oair own secret history.                                 rated at these whimsical prices:
Il Humrics History of England, VIT, 342. His authority is    Queen Elizabeth, in her parliament robes, valued 11.
the Parl. Hlist. XIX, 83.
i Whitelocke's Mtlmiorials * Harl MS. 4898.




LITERATURE.                                                         209
The Queen mother in'mourning habit, valued 31,.            But for refusal they devour my thrones,
Buchanan's picture, valued 31, 10s.                        Distress my children, and destroy my bones;
The King, when a youth in coats, valued 21.                I fear they'11 fbrce me to make bread of'stones.'
The picture of the  Queen, when she was with child,  And implores, with a martyr's piety, the Saviour's forgive.
sold for five shillings.                                   ness for those who were more misled than criminal:
King Charles on horseback, by Sir Anthony Vandyke,          Such as thou know'st do not know what they do.'*
was purchased by Sir Baithazar Gerbier, at the appraised      As a poet and a painter, Charles is not popularly known,
price of 2001.                                               As a poet and a ainter, Charles is not popularly known
The greatest sums were produced by the tapestry and  but this article was due, to preserve the memory of the
arras hangings,  which were chiefly purchased for the ser-  royal votary's ardour and pure feelings for the love of the
vice of the Protector.  Their amount exceeds 30,0001. I  Fine Arts.t
note a few.                                                THE SECRET HISTORY OF CHARLES 1. AND HIS,IUEEN
At Hampton Court, ten pieces of arras hangings of                             HENRIETTA.
Abraham, containing 826 yards, at 101 a yard, 82601.          The secret history of Charles I, and his queen Henrietta
Ten piecls of Julius Caesar, 717, ells, at 71, 50191.    of France, opens a different scene from the one exhibited
One of the cloth of estates is thus described:           in the passionate drama of our history.'One rich cloth of estate of purple velvet, embroidered    The king is accused of the most spiritless uxoriousness;
with gold, having the arms of England within a garter,  and the chaste fondness of a husband is placed among his
with all the furniture suitable thereunto. The state contain-  political errors.  Even Hume conceives that his queen
ing these stones following: two cameos or agates, twelve' precipitated hinm into hasty and imprt.,iact counsels,' and
crysolites, twelve ballases or garnets, one sapphire seated  Bishop Kennet had alluded to'the influence of a stately
in chases of gold, one long pearl pendant, and many large  queen over an affectionate husband.' The uxoriousness
and small pearls, valued at 5001, sold for 6021, 10os, to Mr  of Charles is re-echoed by all the writers of a certain party.
Oliver, 4 February, 1649.                                  This is an odium which the king's enemies first threw out
Was plain Mr Oliver, in 1649, who we see was one of  to make him contemptible; while his apologists imagined
the earlier purchasers, shortly after' the Lord Protector?'  that, in perpetuating this accusation, they had discovered,
All the'cloth of estate' and' arras hangings' were after-  in a weakness which has at least something amiable, some
wards purchased for the service of the Protector: and one  palliation for his own political misconduct.  The factious,
may venture to conjecture that when Mr Oliver purchased  too, by this aspersion, promoted the alarm they spread in
this'rich cloth of estate,' it was not without a latent mo-  the nation, of the king's inclination to popery; yet, on the
tive of its service to the new owner.*                     contrary, Charles was then making a determined stand,
There is one circumstance remarkable in the feeling of  and at length triumphed over a Catholic faction, which
Charles I for the fine arts: it was a passion without osten-  was ruling his queen; and this at the risk and menace of
tation or egotism; for although this monarch was inclined   a war with France.  Yet this firmness too has been de.
himself to participate in the pleasures of a creating artist,  nied him, even by his apologist Hume; that historian on
the king having handled the pencil and composed a poem;  his preconceived system  imagined, that every action of
yet he never suffered his private dispositions to prevail  Charles I originated in the Duke of Buckingham, and that
over his more majestic duties.  WVe do not discover in  the duke pursued his personal quarrel with Richelieu,
history that Charles I was a painter and apoet. Accident  and taking advantage of these domestic quarrels, had per
and secret history only reveal this softening feature in his  suaded Charles to dismiss the French attendants of the
grave and king-like character.  Charles sought no glory  queen.1
from, but only indulged his love for art and the artists.    There are, fortunately, two letters from Charles I to
There are three manuscripts on his art, by Leonardo de  Buckingtham, preserved in the state-papers of Lord HardVinci, in the Ambrosian library, which bear an inscription   wicke, which set this oint to rest: these decisively prove,
that a King of England, in 1639, offered one thousand  that the whole matter originated with the king himself, and
guineas of gold for each.  Charles, too, suggested to the  that Buckingham had tried every effort to persuade him
two great painters of his age, the subjects he considered   to the contrary; for the king complains, that he had been
worthy of their pencils, and had for his'closet-compan-  too long overcome by his persuasions, but that he was
ions,' those native poets, for which he was censured in  now'resolved it must be done, and that shortly!'~'evil times,' and even by Milton!                           It is remarkable, that the character of a queen, who is
Charles I, therefore, if ever he practised the arts he  imagined to have performed so active a part in our history,
loved, it may be conjectured, was impelled by the force  scarcely ever appears in it; when abroad, and when she
of his feelings; his works or his touches, however unskil-  returned to England, in the midst of a winter-storm, bringful, were at least their effusions, expressing the full lan-  ing all the aid she could to her unfortunate consort, those
guage of his soul.  In his imprisonment at Carisbrook   who witnessed this appearance of energy imagined that
Castle, the author of the'Eikon Basilike,' solaced his  her character was equally  owerful in the cabinet.  Yet
roval woes by composing a poem, entitled in the very style  Henrietta, after all, was nothing more than a volatile
of this memorable volume,'Majesty in Misery, or an  woman; one who had never studied, never reflected, and
Imploration to the King of Kings; arid, like that volume,  whom nature had formed to be clharnming and haughty, but
it contains stanzas fraught witn the most tender and solemn  whose vivacity could not retain even a state-secret for an
feeling: such a subject, in the hands of such an author,  hour, and whose talents were quite opposite to those of
was sure to produce poetry, although in the unpractised   deep political intrigue.
poet we may want the versifier.  A few stanzas will illus-    Henrietta viewed even the characters of great men with
trate this conception of part of his character:            all the sensations of a woman.  Describing the Earl of
Strafford to a confidential friend, and having observed that'The fiercet furies that o daily tread    he was a great man, she dwelt with far more interest on
Upon my grief, my gray discrowned head,                  his person:' Though not handsome,' said she,'he was
Are those that owe my bounty for their bread.            agreeablh enough, and he had the finest hands of any man
With my own power my majesty they wound; 
nWith my oigwn power my  majesty they woundcrw;            * This poem is omitted in the great edition of the king'.
In the king's name, the king's himself uncrown'd;       works, published after the Restoration; and was given by
So doth the dust destroy the diamond.'                   Burnet from a manuscript in his' Memoirs of the Dukes of
After a pathetic description of his queen,'forced in pil-  Hamilton;' but it had heen published in lerrenchiefs'Life
grimage to seek a tomb,' and' Great Britain's heir forced   of Charles I.'
into J~~rance,' wheret This article was composed without any recollection that a
into France,' where,                                       part of the subject had been anticipated by Lord Orford. In
Poor child he weeps out his inheritance!'               the' Anecdotes of Painting in England,' many curious particulars are noticed: the story of the king's diamond seal had
reached his lordship, and Vertue had a mutilated transcript of
cohe romiuse to erect my royal stem;tcuasaentcd:tesoyfthkigsimndelhd
They promise to erect my royal stem;                   the inventory of the king's pictures, &c, discovered in Moor
To make me great, to advance my diadem;                  fields; for, among others, more than thirty pages at the be.
if I will first fall down, and worship them!            ginning, relating to the plate and jewels, were missing. The
manuscript in the Harleian collection is perfect. Lord Orlbrd
* Some may be curious to learn the price of gold and silver  has also given an interesting anecdote to show the king's dieabout 1630. It appears by this manuscript inventory that the  cernment in the knowledge of the hands of the painters, which
sliver sold at 4s, 11d, per o.: and gold at 31, 10s; so that the  confirms the little anecdote I have related from the Farrar.
value of these metals has little varied during the last century   It Hume, vol. Vt, p. 234.
ani a hlJf.                                                    Lord Hardwicke's state-papcrs, II, 2, 3.
7a                                                                    27




21:0                                  CURIOSITIES OF
an the world.' Lauding at Burlington bay in Yorkshire   andi hat, haughty as she was, this princess suffered tht
ahe lodged on the quay; the parliament's admiral barbar.  most insulting superstitions, inflicted as penrances by her
ously pointed his cannon at the house; and several shot  priests, for this very marriage with a Protestant prince,
reaching it, her favourite, Jermyn requested her to fly;  the following new  acts relating to her first arrival in Engshe safely reached a cavern in the fields, but, recollectin   land, curiously contrast with the mortified feelings she
that she had left a lap dog asleep in its bed, she flew back,  must have endured by the violent suppression of her real
and, amidst the cannon.shot, returned with this other fa.  ones.
vourite. The queen related this incident of the lap dog   We must bring forward a remarkable and unnoticed
to her friend Madame Motteville; these ladies considered   document in the Embassies of Marshal Bassompiere.*
it as a complete woman's victory. It is in these memoirs  It is nothing less than a most solemn obligation contracted
we find, that when Charles went down to the house, to   with the Pope and her brother, the King of France, to cdu.
seize on the five leading members of the opposition, the   cate her children as Catholics, and only to choose Catho.
queen could not retain her lively temper, and impatiently  lics to attend them. Had this been known either to Charles,
babbled the plot; so that one of the ladies in attendance   or to the English nation, Henrietta could never have been
despatched a hasty note to the parties, who, as the king   permitted to ascend the English throne.  The fate of both
entered the house, had just time to leave it. Some have   her sons shows how faithfully she performed this treason.
dated the ruin of his cause to the failure of that impolitic  able contract. This piece of secret history opens the
step, which alarmed every one zealous for that spirit of  concealed cause of those deep impressions of that faith,
olitical freedom which had now grown up in the commons.  which both monarchs sucked in with their milk; that triIncidents like these mark the feminine dispositions of  umph of the cradle over the grave which most men expe.
Henrietta. But when at sea, in danger of being taken by   rience: Charles II died a Catholic, James II lived as one.
a parliamentarian, the queen commanded the captain not    When Henrietta was on her way to England, a legate
to strike, but to prepare at the extremity to blow up the  from Rome arrested her at Amiens, requiring the princess
ship, resisting the shrieks of her females and domestics;  to undergo a penance, which was to last sixteen days, for
we perceive how, on every trying occasion, Henrietta   marrying Charles without the papal dispensation. The
never forgot that she was the daughter of Henry IV; that  queen stopped her journey, and wrote to inform the king
glorious affinity was inherited by her with all the sexual  of the occasion. Charles, who was then waiting for her at
pride; and hence, at times,. that energy in her actions  Canterbury, replied, that if Henrietta did not instantly pro.
which was so far above her intellectual capacity.       ceed,he would return aloneto London. Henriettadoubtless
And, indeed, when the awful events she had witnessed   sighed for the Pope and the penance, but she set off the
were one by one registered in her melancholy mind, the   day she received the king's letter.  The king, either by
sensibility of the woman subdued the natural haughtiness   his wisdom or his impatience, detected the aim of the Ro-.
of her character; but, true woman! the feeling creature   man pontiff, who, had he been permitted to arrest the
of circumstances, at the Restoration she resumed It, and   progress of a Queen of England for sixteen days in the
when the new court of Charles II would not endure her  face of all Europe, would thus have obtained a tacit suobsolete haughtiness, the dowager.queen left it in all the   premacy over a British Monarch.
full bitterness of her spirit. An habitual gloom, and the  When the king arrived at Canterbury, although not at
meagerness of grief, during the commonwealth had changed  the moment prepared to receive him, Henrietta flew to
a countenance once the most lively, and her eyes, whose   meet him, and with all her spontaneous grace and native
dark and dazzling lustre was even celebrated, then only  vivacity, kneeling at his feet, she kissed his hand, while
shone in tears. When she told her physician, Sir Then.  the king, bending over her, wrapt her in his arms, and
dore Mayerne, that she found her understanding was fail-  kissed her with many kisses. This royal and youthful
ng her, and seemed terrified lest it was approaching to  pair, unusual with those of their rank, met with the eagermadness, the court physician, hardly courtly to fallen ma-  ness of lovers, and the first words of Henrietta were those,esty, replied,' Madam, fear not that; for you are already   of devotion; Sire. Je suis venue en cepaie de votre Ma
mad.'  Henrietta had lived to contemplate the awful jesteS, pour lire usee et command&e de vous.*  It had been
changes of her reign, without comprehending them.       rumoured that she was ofa very short stature, but, reach.
Waller, in the profusion of poetical decoration, makes  ing to the king's shoulder, his eyes were cast down to her
H.enrietta so beautiful, that her beauty would affect every  feet, seemingly observing whether she used art to increase
lover'more than his private loves.'  She was  the  her height. Anticipatin his thoughts, and playfully showwhole world's mistress.' A portrait in crayons of Hen.  ing her feet, she declared, that' she stood upon her own
rietta at Hampton-court sadly reduces all his poetry, for  feet, for thus high I am, and neither higher or lower.' Afthe miraculous was only in the fancy of the court poet.  ter an hour's conversation in privacy, Henrietta took her
But there may be some truth in what he says of the eyes  dinner surrounded by the court; and the king, who had
of Henrietta.                                           already dined, performing the office of her carver, cut,a
Such eyes as yours, on Jove himself, had thrown    pheasant and some venison. By the side of the queen
As bright and fierce a lightning as his own.'       stood her ghostly confessor, solemnly reminding her that
this was the eve of John the Baptist, and was to be fasted,
And in another poem there is one characteristic line  exhorting her to be cautious that she set no scandalous.-   Such radiant eyes,                           example on her first arrival. But Charles and his court
Such lovely motion, and such sharp replies.'        were now to be gained over, as well as John the Baptist.
In a ws. letter of the times, the writer describes the  She affected to eat very heartily of the forbidden meat,
queen as' nimble and quick, black-eyed, brown-haired,  which gave great comfort, it seems, to several of her new
and a brave lady.'*  In the Ms. journal of Sir Symonds  heretical subjects then present; but we may conceive the
D'Ewes, who saw the queen on her first arrival in London,  pangs of so confirmed a devotee!: She carried her dissi.
cold and puritanic as was that antiquary, he notices with  mulation so far, that being asked about this time whether
some warmth'the features of her face, which were much  she could abide a Hugonot? she replied,' Why not?-.
enlivened by her radiant and sparkling black eye.'f  She  Was not my father one?' Her ready smiles, the graceful
appears to have possessed French vivacity both in her  wave of her hand, the many'c good signs of hope,' as a
manners and her conversation: in the history of a queen,  contemporary in a manuscript letter expresses it, induced
an accurate conception of her person enters for something.  many of the English to believe that Henrietta might even
Her talents were not of that order which could influence  become one of themselves! Sir Symonds DiEwes, as
the revolutions of a people.  Her natural dispositions  appears by his manuscript diary, was struck by' her deomight have allowed her to become a politician of the toil.  portment to her women, and her looks to her servants,
otte, and she might have practised those slighter artifices,  which were so sweet and humble!'r  However, this was
which may be considered as so many political coquetries.  in the first days of her arrival, and these'sweet and hum.
But MIachiavelian principles, and involved intrigues, of  ble looks' were not constant ones; for a courtier at White.
wh.Izh she has been so freely accused, could never have   * Ambassades du Marechal de Bassonmpiere, Vol. III, 49.
entered into her character. At first she tried all the fer-    f A letter from Dr Meddus to Mr Mead, 17Jan. 1625. 4177,
tile inventions of a woman to persuade the king that she was  Sloane MSS.
his humblest creature, and the good people of England, that    tSir S. D'Ewe's Jornal of his life. Harl. MS 646. We
she was quite in love with them. Now that we know that no  have seen our puritanic antiquary describing the person of the
femala. was ever more deeply tainted with Catholic bigotry;  queen with some warmth; bitt lie could net abstain from
* p~~~~ Slone    416.deep.fetched sighs, to consider that she wantei the knowledge
~ Sloane 5t$fS, 4176.                of truiie religion,' a circumstance that Henrietta wot;ld have as
H uarl. MSS, 646-                   zealously regretted for Sir Symonds himself!




LITERAT URE.                                                  211
hall, writing to a friend, observes, that'the queen, how-  found in the present volume, amply show; and those of La
ever little of stature, yet is of a pleasing countenance, if  Boderie in James the First's time, who raised a French
she be pleased, otherwise full of spirit and vigour, and  party ahout prince Henry; and the correspondence ot
seems of more than ordinary resolution; and he adds an  Barillon in Charles the second's reign is fully exposed in
incident of one of her' frowns.' The room in which the  his entire correspondence published by Fox. The French
queen was at dinner being somewhat overheated with the  domestics of the queen were engaged in lower intrigues;
fr and company,'she drove us all out of the chsmber.  they lent their names to hire houses in the suburbs of LonI suppose none but a queen could have cast such a  don, where, under their protection, the English Catholics
scowl.'*  We may already detect the fair waxen mask  found a secure retreat to hold their illegal assemblies,
melting away on the features it covered, even in one short and where the youth of both sexes were educated anti
~~~~~~~~~month!                          ~prepared to be sent abroad to Catholic seminaries. But
By the marriage contract, Henrietta was to be allowed  the queen's priests, by those well known means which the
a    thoeh    etabrisgentr, c eda  he to  peaoped  Catholic religion sanctions, were drawing from the queen
a houtsehold establishment, composed of her'own pIople;
and this had been contrived to be not less than a small  the minutest circumstances which passed in privacy be.
Fdrench colony, exceeding three hundred persons.  It  tween her and the king; indisposed her mind towards her
composed, in fact, a French faction, and looks like a covert  royal consort, impressed on her a contempt ofthe English
royal consort, impressed on her a contempt of the English
project of Richelieu's to further his intrigues here, by open- nation, and a disgust of our customs, and particularly, as
ing a perpetual correspondence with the discontented Cath-  ha  been usual with the French, made her neglect the
oites ofEngland. In the instructions ofBassompiere, one of  English language, as if the queen of England held no common interest with the nation. They had made her rethe alleged objects of the marriage is the general good of 
the Catholic religion, by affording some relief to those  sidence a place of security for the persons and papers o
English who professed it. If however, that great states-  the discontented. Yet all this was hardly more cklensive
man ever entertained this political design, the simplicity than the humiliating state to which they had reduced an
than the humiliating state to which they had reduced an
and pride of the Roman priests here completely overturned English queen by their monastic obedience; inflicting the
it; for in their blind zeal they dared to extend their donmies-  most degrading penances. One of the most flagrant is
tic tyranny over majesty itself alluded to in our history. This was a barefoot pilgrimage
tic tyranny over majesty itself.toTbrweeonmrigudrhealwsn
The French party had not long resided here, ere the to Tyburn, where, one morning, under the gallows on
mutual jealousies between the two nations broke out. All  which so many Jesuits had been executed as traitors to
the English who were not Catholics were soon dismissed  Elizabeth and James I, she knelt and prayed to them as
fron their attendance on the queen, by herself; while  martyrs and saints who had shed their blood in defence of
Charles was compelled, by the popular cry, to forbid any  the catholic cause.*  A manuscript letter of the times
the, catholic cause.* A manuscript letter of the times
English Catholics to serve the queet, or to be present at  mentions that' the priests had also made her dabble in the
dirt in a foul morning from  Somerset house to St
the celebration of her mass. The, king was even obliged  dr  nafu    onn   rmSmre   os   oS
to employpoursuivt osnge, tostand a James's, her Luciferian confessor riding along by her in
to employ poursuivants or king's messengers, to stand at  lhis coach! They have made her to go barefoot, to spin,
the door of her chapel to seize on any of the English who  and to eat her meat out of dishes, to wait at the tabe oi
entered there, while on these occasions the French would  ant   th ma  ot   diset a  a               etaeo
draw their swords to defend these concealed Catholics.  servants, with many other ridiculous and absurd penances.
draw their swords to defend these concealed Catholics.  Ai  fte   aetu   nut(dstewie)oe  h
The queen and hers' became an odious distinction in the  And if they dare thus insult (adds the writer) over the
nation. Such were the indecea t scenes exhibited in pub   daughter, sister, and wife of so great kings, what slavery
nation. Such were the indecent scenes exhibited in pub.-ol hyntiaeu, h  epe oudro"
woulld they not make us, the people, to undergo!'$
liec; they were not less reserved in private. The followOne of the articles in the contract of marriage was, that
ing anecdote of saying, a grace before the king, at his own                                        n
table, in a most indecorous race run between the catholic  the queen should have a chapel at St James's to be built
table, in a most indecorous race run between the catholic
priest and the king's chaplain, is given in a manuscript let-  ad consecrated by her Fren   bishop; te priests became
ter of the times.                                       very importuntate, declaring that without a chapel mass
ce    could not be performed with the state it ought, before the'The King and queen dining together in the presence'
Mr Hacket (chaplain to the Lord Keeper VWilliams)$ be-  queen.  The king's answer is not that of a man inclined
ing then to say grace, the confessor would have prevented  to popery.   It'the queen's closet, where they now say
him,  but that Hacket shoved him away; whereupon the  mass, is not large enough, let them  have it in the great
chamber; and, if the great chamber is not wide enough,
confessor went to the queen's side, and was about to say   her            and, if the grdenoug
aaain, but that the king pulling the dishes unto him,  they might use the garden  and, if the garden would not
grace                     g                             serve tleir turn, then was the park the fittest place.
and the carvers falling to their business, hindered. When  The French priests and the whole party feeling them
dinner was done, the confessor thought, standing by the    e     h
in            ~~~~selves slighted, and sometimes worse treated, were breedqueen, to have been before Mr Hacket, but Mr Hacket              hted, and omtmes worse treated, were breedagain got the start. The confessor, nevertheless, begins  ing continual quarrels among themselves, grew weary of
Theconessr, evetheess beinsEneland, and wished themselves away; but many having
his grace as loud as Mr Hacket, with such a confusion,England, and wished themselves away; but many having
that the kig i great passion insaqtly rose from the table,  purchased their places with all their fortune, would have
tatd thekingigrat  aso   ntql oefo the tableb
athatking the queen byY the hand, retired into the bed   been ruined by the breaking up of the establishment.ayth, retire ino the b.  Bassompiere alludes to the broils and clamours of these
chamber'   It is with difficulty we conceive how such a  French straingers, which exposed them to the laughter of
scene of priestly indiscretion should have been suffered at  the English court; and one cannot but smile in observthe table of an English sovereign.
uhe table tof an English sovereignut Ihvgl     m. ing in one of the despatches of this great mediator between
Such are the domestic accounts I have gleaned from wrs.  i
lettersof the timesbutparticulars ofadeepe two kings and a queen, addressed to the minister, that one
letters of the times; but particulars  of a deeper nature  of the greatest obstacles which he had found in this diffi.
may be discovered in the answer of the king's council to  cult negotiation arose from the bedchamber women! The
M~arshal Bassorepiee, p rsred in the history of his emMarshal Bassompiere, preserved in the history of his em    French king being desirous of having two additional wobassy; this marshal had been hastily despatched as an ex-    en to attend the English queen, his sister, the ambassa
men to attend the English queen, his sister, the ambassa.
traordinary ambassador when the French party were dis.  dor declares, that'it would be more expedient rather to
missed. This state document, rather a remonstrance than  diminish than to increase the number; for they all live so
a reply, states that the French household had formed  ill together, with such rancorous jealousies and enmities,
a little republic within themselves, combining with the  that I have more trouble to make them agree than I shall
French resident ambassador, arid inciting the oppsto
French resident ambassador, and inciting the opposition find to accommodate the differences between the two kings.
members in parliament; a practice usual with that intrigu-  Their continual bikeris
Their continual bickerings, and often their vituperative
ing court, even from the days of Elizabeth, as the original                      n     oten the vtu
letters of the French ambassador of the time, which will be  language, occasion the Enlish to entertain the most con
temptible and ridiculous opinions of our r.ation.  I shall
* A letter to Mr Mead, July 1, 1625, Sloane MSS, 4176.  not, therefore, insist on this point, unless it shall please his
f At itampton Court there is a curious picture of Charles  majestv to renew it.'
and Henrietta tdining in the presence. This regal honour, af-    The'French bishop was under the age ofthirty, and his
ter its interruptioo during the Civil Wars, was revived in 1667  authority was imagined to have been but irreverently treated
by Charles II, as appears by Evelyn's Diary' Now did his       autil vragos in that civil war of wors which
majesty again dine in the presence, in ancient style, with mu-  by two be
sic and all the court ceremonies.'                       * There is a very rare print which has commemorated thil
4The author of the I ife of this Archbishon and Lord Keep-  cirrumst.nce.
er: a voluminous folio, hut fu-l ofcurious matters. Ambrose    t Mr Pory to Mr Mead, July, 1626. Harl. MSS, No. 38
lhilips the poet abridged it.                          The answer ofthe kirg's council to the complaints of Bassos.
A letter from Mr Mead tc Sir Martin Stuteville, October,  piere is both copions and detailed in Vol. III, p. 166, of ~te
1      4177, Sloane MSS.'Anibassades' of this Marshal.




212                                   CURIOSITIES OF
was raging; one of whom, Madame St George, was in  the queen, his contort, and was so stern (rude) in speak.
high lavour, and most intolerably hated by tile English.-  ing to me, that it is impossible to have been more so.'
Yet such was English gallantry, that the king presented  In a word, the French marshal, with all his vaunts and
this lady on her dismission with several thousand pounds  his threats, discovered that Charles I was the true repreend jewels. There was something inconceivably ludicrous  sentative of his subjects, and that the king had the same
in the notions of the English, of a bishop hardly of age,  feelings with the people: this indeed was not always the
and the gravity of whose character was probably tarnished   case! this transaction took place in 1626, and when, four
by French gesture and vivacity.  This French establish-  years afterwards, it was attempted again to introduce cerment was daily growing in expense and number; a manu-  tain French persons, a bishop and a physician, about the
script letter of the times states that it cost the king 2401 a  queen, lhe king absolutely refused even a French physi.
day, and had increased from three score persons to four  clan who had conice over with the intention of being cho.
hundred and forty, besides children!                    sen the queen's, under tile sanction of the queen mother.
It was one evening that the king suddenly appeared,  This little circumstnnce appears in a manuscript letter
and, summoning the French household, commanded them   from Lord Dorchester to Mlr De Vic, one of the king's
to take their instant departure-the carriages were pre-  agents at Paris. After an account of the arrival of this
pared for their removal.  In doing this, Charles had to   French physician, his lordship proceeds to notice the forresist the warmest intreaties, and even- the vehement an-  mer determination:. of the king;'yet this man,' he adds,
ger of the queen, who is said in her rage to have broken' hath been addresst:' to the ambassador to introduce him
several panes of the window of the apartment, to which  into the court, and the queen persuaded in clears and
the king dragged her, and confined her from them.'*    plaine terms to speak to the king to admit him as domes.
The scene which toolk place among the French people,  tique.  His majesty expressed his dislike at this proceed.
at the sudden announcement of the king's determination,  ing, but contented himself to let the ambassador know that
was remarkably indecorous.  They instantly flew to take  this doctor may return as hee ts come, with intimation
possession of all the queen's wardrobe and jewels; they  that he should do it speedily; the French ambassador,
-did not leave her, it appears, a change of linen, since it  willing to help the matter, spake to the king that the said
was with difficulty she procured one as a favour, according   doctor might be admitted to kiss the queen's hand, and to:to some man iscript letters of the tinmes. One of their extra-  carrie the news into France of her safe delivery; which
ordinary expedients was that of inventing bills, for which  the king excused by a civil answer, and has since conm.
they pretended they had engaged themselves on account  manded me to let the ambassador understand, that he had
of the queen, to the amount of 10,0001, which the queen at  heard him as Monsieur de Fontenay in this particular, but,
first owned to, but afterwards acknowledged the debts were  if hlie should persist and press him as ambassador, he should
fictitious ones.  Among these items was one of 4001 for  be forced to say that which would displease him.' —necessaries for her majesty; an apothecary's bill for drugs  Lord Dorchester adds, that he informs Mr De Vic of these
of 8001; and another of 1501 for'the bishop's unholy  particulars, that he should not want for the information
water,' as the writer expresses it.  The young French   should the matter be revived by the French court, other.
bishop attempted by all sorts of delays to avoid this igno-  wise he need not notice it.*
minious expulsion; till the king was forced to send his    By this narrative of secret history Charles I does not
yeomen of the guards to turn them out from Somerset  appear so weak a slave to his queen, as our writers echo
house, where the juvenile French bishop at once protest.  from each other; and those who make Henrietta so iming against it, and mounting the steps of the coach, took  portant a personage in the cabinet, appear to have beea
his departure'head and shoulders.' It appears that to  imperfectly acquainted with their real talents.  Charles,
pay the debts and pensions, besides sending the French  indeed, was deeply enamoured of the queen, for he was
troops free home, cost 50,0001.                         inclined to strong personal attachments; and'the temperIn a long procession of. nearly forty coaches, after four  ance of his youth, by which he had lived so free from perdays tedious travelling they reached Dover; but the spec-  sonal vice,' as May the parliamentary historian expresses
tacle cfthese impatient foreigners so reluctantly quitting  it, even the gay levity of Buckingham seems never, in apEngland, gesticulating their sorrows or their quarrels, ex-  preaching the king, to have violated. Charles admired in
posed them to the derision and stirred up the prejudices  Henrietta all these personal graces which he himself wanof the common people.  As Madame George, whose vi-  ted; her vivacity in conversation enlivened his own senvacity is always described extravagantly French, was step-  ousness, and her gay volubility, the defective utterance of
ping into the boat, one of the mob could not resist the sat-  his own; while the versatility of her manners relieved his
isfaction of flinging a stone at her French cap; an Eng-  own formal habits.  Doubtless the queen exercised the
lish courtier, who was conducting her, instantly quitted his  same power over this monarch which vivacious fmales
charge, ran the fellow through the body, and quietly  are privileged by nature to possess over their husbands t
returned to the boat. The man died on the spot; but no she was often listened to, and her suggestions were some
further notice appears to have been taken of the inconsid-  times approved: but the fixed and systematic principles
times apprvd bttefxdadstmtic principe
erate gallantry of this English courtier.              of the character and the government of this monarch must
But Charles did not showv his kingly firmness only on  not be imputed to the intrigues of a mere lively and volathis occasion: it did not forsake him when the French  tile woman; we must trace them to a higher source; to
Marshal Bassompiere was instantly sent over to awe the  his own inherited conceptions of the regal rights, if we
king; Charles sternly offered the alternative of war,  would seek for truth, and read the history of human nature
rather than permit a French faction to trouble an English  in the history of Charles I.
couPt.  Bassompiere makes a curious observation in a
letter to the French Bishop of Mende, who had been   TE MINsTER-TE  CADIAL DUE O  RICHELE.
just sent away from England; and which serves as the      Richelieu was the greatest of statesmen, if he who
mrott positive evidence of the firm refusal of Charles I.-   maintains himself by ihe greatest power is necessarily'The French marshal, after stating the total failure of his  the greatest minister. He was called'the King of the
mnission, exclaims, See, sir, to what we are reduced! and  King.' After having long tormented himself and France,
tmgine my grief, that the Queen of Great Britain has the  he left a great name and a great empire-both alike the
pain of viewing, my departure without being of any service  victims of splendid ambition! Neither this great minis;.
to her; but if you consider that I was sent here to make a  ter, nor this great nation, tasted of happiness under his
rontract of marriage observed, and to maintain the Cathoiic  mighty administration. He had, indeed, a heartlessness
Religion in a countryfrom which they formerly banished it to  in his conduct which obstructed by no relentings those
6reak a contractof marriage, you wvill assist in excusing me  remorseless decisions which made him  terrible. But,
of this failure.' The French marshal has also preserved the  while he trode down the princes of the blood and the nobles,
same distinctive feature of the nation, as well as ofthe mon-   and drove his patroness the queen mother, into a miserable
arch, who, surely to his honour as King of England, felt  exile, and contrived that the king should fear and hate his
and acted ot~ this occasion as a true Briton.' I have found,'  brother, and all the cardinal-duke chose, Richelieu was
says the Gaul,' humility among Spaniards,civility and cour-  grinding the face of the poor by exorbitant taxation, ant
tesy abong the Swiss, in the embassies I had the honotr  converted every town in France into a garrison; it was
to perform for the king; hut the English would not in the  said of him, that he never liked to be in any place where he
least abate of their natural pride and arrooance. The  was not the strongest.' The commissioners of the ex.:ing is so resolute not to re-establish any French about  chequer and the commanders of the army believe themA A letter from Mr Pory to Mr Mead contains a full account    * A letter from the Earl ofDorc.hester, 27 May, O1630. Hare,.fthis transaction. Harl. MSS, 3.                      MSS. 7000 (160)




LITERATURE.                                                            21l
selves called to a golden harvest; and in the interim the   follow up to tihe utmost the views and notions cf the mini:.
cardinal is charged with the sins of all the world, and is  ter, rather than to draw the cardinal to his, or to induce
even afraid of his life.' Thus Grotius speaks, in one of  him to change a tittle of his designs. The truth is, that
his letters, of the miserable situation of this great minis-   Father Joseph preferred going about in his chariot on
ter, in his account cf the court of France in 1635, when   ministerial missions, rather than walking solitary to his
lie residled there as Swedish ambassador.  Yet such is  convent, after listening to the unmeaning confessions of Carthe delusion of these great politicians, who consider what  dinal Richelieu.  He made himiself so intimately acquaintthey term state interests as paramount to all other duties,  ed with the plans and will of' this great minister, that he
human or divine, that while their whole life is a series of  could venture, at a pinch, to act without orders; and
oppression, of troubles, of deceit, and of cruelty, their state  foreign affairs were particularly consigned to his manage..
conscience finds nothing to reproach itself with. Of any   ment. Grotius, when Swedish ambassador, knew them
other conscience, it seems absolutely necessary that they   both. Father Joseph, hlie tells us, was employed by Carshould be divested. Richelieu, on his death bed, made a   dinal Richelieu to open negociations, and put them in a
solemn protestation, appealing to the last judge of man,  way to succeed to his mind, arid then the cardinal would
who was about to pronounce his sentence, that he never  step in, and undertake the finishing himself. Joseph took
proposed any thing but for the good of religion and the   business in hand when they were, green, and, after ripening
state; that is, the Catholic religion and his own adminis-  them, he handed them over to the cardinal.  In a confertration.  When Louis XIII, who visited him  in his last  ence which Grotius, held with the parties, Joseph began
moments, took from the hand of an attendant a plate with  the treaty, and bore the brunt of the first contest. After a
two yolks of eggs, that the King of France might himself  warm  debate the cardinal interposed as arbitrator:'A
serve his expiring minister, Richelieu  died in all the self-  middle way will reconcile you,' said the miniister,' and as
delusion of a great minister,                              you and Joseph can never a,,ree, I now make you triends.'*
The sinister means he practised, and the political de-     That this was Richelieu's practice, appears from anoceptions he contrived, do not yield in subtility to the dark  ther similar personage mentioned by Grotius, but one more
grandeur of his ministerial character.  It appears that, at  careless and less cunning. When the French ambassaa critical moment, when he felt the king's favour was way-  dor, Leon Brulart, assisted by Joseph, concluded at Ratisering, he secretly ordered a battleto be lost by the French,   bon a treaty with the Emperor's anmbassador, on its arrival
to determine the king at once not to give up a minister  the cardinal unexpectedly disapproved of it,declaring that
who, he knew, was the only man who could extricate him   the ambassador had exceeded his instructions. But Bruout of this new difficulty. In our great civil war, this  lart, who was an old statesman, and Joseph, to whom the
minister pretended to Charles I that he was attempt-  cardinal confided his most secret views, it was not suping to win the parliament over to him while he was back-   posed could have comnmitted such a gross error; and it was
ing, their most secret projects against Charles.  When a   rather believed that the cardinal changed his opinions with
French aimbassador addressed the parliament as an inde-  the state of affairs, wishing for peace or war as they suited
pendent power, after the king had broken with it, Charles,  the French interests, or as he conceived they tended to
sensibly affected, remonstrated with the French court; the   render, his administration necessary to the crown.'  When
minister disavowed the whole proceeding, and instantly re-   Brulart, on his return front his enmbassy, found this ourcry
called the ambassador, while at the very mooment his  raised against him, and not a murmur against Joseph, he
secret agents were to their best embroiling the affairs of  explained the mystery; the cardinal had raised this claboth parties.*  The object of Richelieu was to weaken   mour against hini merely to cover the instructions which
the English monarchy, so as to busy itself at home, and   he had himself given, and which Brulart was convinced he
prevent its fleets and its armies thwarting his projects oni   had received, through his organ Father Joseph: a man,
the continent, lest England, jealous of the greatness of  said he, who has nothing of the Capuchin but the frock,
Prance, should declare itself for Spain the moment it had   aid nothing of the Christian but the name: a mind so
recovered its own tranquillity.  This is a stratagem  too   practised in artifices, that he could do nothing without de
ordinary with great ministers, those plagues on the earth,  ception; and during the whole of the Ratisbon negotia,
who, with their state reasons, are for cutting as many   tion, Brulart discovered that Joseph would never commuthroats as God pileases among every other nation.t          nicate to him  any business till the whole was finally arA fragment of the secret history of this great minister  ranged: the sole object of his pursuits was to find means
may be gathered from  that of some of his confidential  to gratify the cardinal.  Such free sentiments nearly cost
agents.  One exposes an invention of this minister's to   Brulart his head; for once in quitting the cardinal in
shorten lila cabinet labours, and to have at hand a screen,   warmth, the minister, following him to the door, and passwhen that useful contrivance was requisite; the other,  ing his hand over the other's neck, observed that,'Brulart
the terrific effects of an agent setting up to be a politician on   was a fine man, and it would be a pity to divide the head
his own account, against that of his master's.             from the body.'
Richelieu's confessor was one Father Joseph; but this       One more anecdote of this good Father Joseph, the faman was designed to be employed rather in state affairs,  votirite instrument of the most important and covert de.
than in those which concerned his conscience.  This  sisns of this minister, has been preserved in the.Memorie
minister, who was never a penitent, could have none. Fa-   Recondite of Vittorio Siri,$ an Italian AbbW, the Procother Joseph had a turn for political negociation, otherwise   plus of France, bitt afterwards pensioned by Mlazarne.
he had not been the cardinal's confessor; but this turn was   Richelieu had in vain tried to gain over Colonel Ornano,
of that sort, said the Nuncio Spada, which was adapted to   a man of talents, the governor of Monsieur, the only brother of Louis XIII; not accustomed to have his offers
* Clarendon details the political coquetries of Monsieur La'  refused, he resolved to ruin him. Joseph was now emFert6; his' notable familiarity with those who governed meost  ployed to contract a particular friendship with Ornano, and
in the two houses;' It, 93.                                to suggest to him, that it was full time that his pupil should'
r  Hume seems to have discovered in Estrades' MIemoirs, the   be admitted into the council, to acquire some political
real occasion of Richeieu's conduct. In 1639, the French and   knowledge.  The advancemeit of Ornano's royal pupil
Dutch proposed dividing the low-country provinces; England
was to stand neuter. Charle- replied to D'Estrades, that his   was his own; and as the king had no children, the crown
army andi fleet should instantly sail to prevent these projected   might descend to Monsieur.  Ornano therefore took the
conquests. From that moment the intolerant ambition ofRiche-  first opportunity to open himself to the king, on the propri%eo swelled the venomu of his heart, and he eagerly seized on   ety of initiating his brother into affairs, either in council,
the first opportunity or'supplying the Covenanters in Scotland   or by a comumand of the army.  This the king, as usual,
with sarns and money. lisnie observes, that Charles here  immediately communicated to the Cardinal, who was well
xplressed his otind withn an imprudent candour; bot it proves   prepared to give the request the most odious turn, and to
he ihadl acquired a just idea of national interest. VI, 337. See   alarm his    th th
on this a very curious passage in the Catholic Dodds Church   alam his maesty with the character of Ornano, who, he
History, IlI, 22. He apologizes for his cardinal by asserting   said was inspiring the young prince with ambitious thoughts,
that the same line ofpolicy was pursued here in England' by   that the next step would be an attempt to share the crown
Charles I himself, who sent fleets and armies to assist the IHu.  * Grotii Epistola, 375 and 180. fo. Anms. 1687. A volume
gonots, or French rebels, as he calls them; and that this was   which contains 2500 letters ofthis great man.
the constant practice of Queen Elizabeth's ministry, to foment    f La Vie du Cartinal Duc de Richelieu, anonymots, but
differences in several neighbsuring kingdoms, atnd support  written by Jean le Clerc, vol. I, 507. An impartial but heavy
their rebellious subjects, as the forces she employed for that  life of a great mninister, of whom, between the pane'yrics of
purpose both in France, Flanders, and Scotland, are an tnde.  his fatteners, and the satires of his enemies it was diffult to
niahle proof.' The recriminations of politicians are the con    discover a just medium
fessions of great sinners.  Men. Rec. vol. VI, 131.




214                                    CURIOSITIES OF
itself with his majesty.  The cardinal foresaw how much   whole affair was cleared up. An order from  court prolu.
Monsieur would be offended by the refusal, and would not  bited this voluble Jesuit either from speaking or writingo  t
fail to betray his impatience, and inflame the jealousy of  any person; and farther drove him away in an inclement
the king. Yet Richelieu bore still an open face and friend-  winter, sick in body and at heart, till he found himself an
ly voice for Ornano, whom he was every day undermining   exile on the barren rocks of Quimper in Britany, where
in the king's favour, till all terminated in a pretended con-  among the savage inhabitants, he was continually menaced,sDiracy, and Ornano perished in the Bastile, of a fever, at  by a prison or a gallows, which the terrific minister lost no
least caught there.  So much for the friendship of Father  opportunity to place before his imagination; and occasion.
Joseph! And by such men and such means, the astute  ally despatched a Paris Gazette, which distilled the venom::
minister secretly threw a seed of perpetual hatred between   of Richelieu's heart, and which, like the eagle of Prome.
the royal brothers, producing conspiracies, often closing   theus, could gnaw at the heart ofl' the insulated politician
in blood, which only his own haughty tyranny had pro-  chained to his rock.*
voked.                                                        Such were the contrasted fates of Father Joseph and
Father Joseph died regretted by Richelieu; he was an   Father Caussin! the one the ingenious creature, the other
ingenious sort of a creature, and kept his carriage to his  the simple oppositionist, of this great minister.
last day, but his name is only preserved in secret histories.
The fate of Father Caussin, the author of the ICours   T     MINISTER-DUKE  OF BUcG    R        HAM, LORD AD&
Sainte,' a popular book among the Catholics for its curious          RAL, LORD GENERAL  &. c.c.
religious stories, and whose name is better known than'Had the Duke of Buckingham  been blessed with a
Father Joseph's, shows how this minister could rid himself  faithful friend, qualified with wisdom  and integrity, the
of father-confessors who persisted, according to their own   duke would have committed as few faults, and done as
notions, to be honest men in spite of the minister.  This  transcendant worthy actions, as any man in that age in
piece of secret history is drawn from a manuscript narra-   Europe.' Such was the opinion of Lord Clarendon in
tive which Caussin left addressed to the general of the  the prime of life, when yet untouched by party feelinD'
Jesuits.*                                                  had no cause to plead, and no quarrel with truth.t
Richelieu chose Father Caussin for the king's confessor,   The portrait of Buckingham  by Hume seems to me a
and he had scarcely entered his office, when the cardinal  character dove-tailed into a system, adjusted to his plan of
informed him of the king's romantic friendship fbr Made-  lightening the errors of Charles I, by participating them
moiselle La Fayette, of whom the cardinal was extremely   among others.  This character conceals the more favour.jealous.  Desirous of getting rid altogether of this sort of  able parts of no ordinary man: the spirit which was fitted
tender connexion, he hinted to the new confessor that,  to lead others by its own invincibility, and some qualities
however innocent it might be. it was attended with perpe-   he possessed of a better nature. All the fascination of his
tual danger, which the lady herself acknowledged, anrid,  character is lost in the general shade cast over it by the
warm with all the motions of grace,' had declared her  niggardly commendation, that' he possessed some accomintention to turn' Religieuse;' and that Caussin ought to   plishments of a courtier.' Some, indeed, and the most
dispose the king's mind to see the wisdom  of the resolu-   pleasing; but not all truly, for dissimulation and hypocrisy
tion.  It happened, however, that Caussini considered that  were arts unpractised by this courtier.'His sweet an
this lady, whose zeal for the happiness of the people was   attractive manner, so favoured by the graces,' has been
well known, might prove more serviceable at court than in   described by Sir Henry Wotton, who knew him well;
a cloister, so that the good father was very inactive in   while Clarendon, another living witness, tells us, that
the business, and the minister began to suspect that he had'Ile was the most rarely accomplished the court had ever
in hand an instrument not at all fitted to it as Father Jo-  beheld; while some that found inconvenience in his near
seph.                                                      ness, intending by some affront to discountenance him,'The motions of grace' were however, more active than   perceived he had masked under this gentleness a terrible
the confessor, and mademoiselle retired to a monastery.  courage, as could safely protect all his sweetriesses.'
Richelieu learned that the king had paid her a visit of three  The very errors and infirmities of Buckingham seem to
hours, and he accused Caussin of encouraging these se-  have started from qualities of a generous nature; too de.cret interviews.  This was not denied, but it was adroitly   voted a friend, and too undisguised an enemy, carrying his
insinuated, that it was prudent not abruptly to oppose the   loves and his hatreds oni his open forehead;4 too careless
violence of the king's passion, which seemed reasonable   of calumny,~ and too fearless of danger; he was, in &
to the minister. The king continued these visits, and the
lady, in concert with Caussin, impressed on the king the        In the first volume of this work, page 193, is a different
most unfavourable sentimetits of the minister, the tyranny   view of the character ofthis extraordinary man  thosa anecI             LI      ~~~~~~view of Lhe character of this extraordinary man: tho..~, artec.
exercised overo the  exiled queen.moher, and the princes of  dotes are of a lighter and satirical nature; they touch on' the,exercised over the exiled queen-mother, and the, princes offoleoftews.
follies of the wise.'
the blood;t the grinding taxes he levied on the people, his  t In' The Disparity' to accompany' The Parallel,' of Sir
projects of alliance with the Turk against the Christian   Henry Wotton; two exquisite cabinet-pictures, preserved in
sovereigns, &c. His majesty sighed; he asked Caussin  the Reliquim Wottoniana; and at least equal to the finest
if he could name any one capable of occupying the minis-'Parallels' of Plutarch.
ter's place?  Our simple politician had not taken such a     t The singular openness of his character was not statesman.
consideration in his mind.  The king  asked Causin   like. He was one of those whose ungovernable sincerity'canwhether he would meet Richelie face to face? The Jesuit  not put all their passions in their pockets.' He told the Countwhether he would meet Richelieu face to face? The JesuitDkeOvazoqutigSinthtIlewldlayc.
Duke Olivarez, on quitting Spain, that' he would always cewas again embarrassed, but summoned up the resolution   ment the friendship between the two nations, but with regard
with equal courage and simplicity.                         to you, sir, in particular, you must not consider me as your
Caussin went for the purpose: he found the king closet-  friend, but must ever expect from me all possible enmity and
ed with the minister; the conference was long, from which   opposition.' The cardinal was willing enough, says Hume,
Caussin argued ill.  He himself tens us, that weary of'to accept what was proffered, and on these terms the fayourwaiting-in the ante-chamber, he contrived to be admitted  ites parted.'  Buckingham, desirous of accommodating the
into the presence of the king, when he performed his pro-  parties in the nation, once tried at the favour of the puritanit
into the presence of the kingo, when he performed his pro~ ise~.  Bu  hecs wsalee  iCiisparty, whose head was Dr Preston, master of Emanuel Col
mise. But the case was altered!  Caussin had lost his  lege. The duke was his generous patron, and Dr Preston,
cause before he pleaded it, and Richelieu had completely   his most servile adulator. The most zealous puritans were
justified himself to the king.  The good father was told  offended at this intimacy; and Dr Preston, in a letter to some
that the king would not perform his devotions that day, and   of his party, observed, that it was true that the duke was a
that he might return to Paris.  The next morning the   vile and profligate fellow, but that there was no other way to
come at him but by the lowest flattery; that it was necessary
* It is quoted in the'Remarques Critiques sur le Diction-  for the glory of God that such instruments should be made use
naire de Bayle,' Paris 1748. This anonymous folio volume   of; and more in this strain. Some officious hand conveyed
was written by Le Sieur Joly, a canon of Dijon, and is full of  this letter to the duke, who, when Dr Preston came one morncurious researches, and many authentic discoveries.  The  ing, as usual, asked him whether he had ever disobliged him,
writer is no philosopher, but he corrects and adds to the know.  that he should describe him to his party in such black ciarso.
ledge of Bayle. Here I found some originai anecdotes of Hobby,  ters. The doctor, amazed, denied the fact; on which the duke
from  MS. sources, during that philosopher's residence at  instantly produced the letter, then turned firom him, never to
Paris, which I have given in' Quarrels of Authors.'       see him more. It is saidl that from this moment he abandoned
t Montresor, attached to the Dtuke of Orleans, has left us  the puritan party, and attached himself to Laud. This story
some very curious memoirs, in two small volumes; the second   was told by Thomas Baker to W. Wotton, as coming from one
preserving many historical documents of that active period.  well versed in the satcret history of that time. Lansdowne
This spirited writer has not hesitated to detail his projects for  MSS, 872, fo. 88.
toe assasaination of the tyrannical minister.                  A well.known tract against I lie I uke of Buclknghamn, b'y




LITERATURE.                                                          213
word, a man of sensation, acting from impulse; scorning,  nent for their experience and knowledge; and Lord Bacons
indeed, prudential views, but capable at all times of em-  and the Lord Keeper Williams, as well as such as Ger.
bracing grand and original ones; compared by the jealousy   bier, were admitted- into this sort of intimacy.  W'e have
of friction to the Speinser of Edward II and even the Se-  a curious letter by Lord Bacon, of advice to our minister,
januas of Tiberius; he was no enemy to the people; often   written at his own request; and I have seen a large cor.
serious in the best designs, but volatile in the midst; his  respondence with that subtile politician, the Lord Keeper
gredt error sprung from a sanguine spirit.' He was ever,'  Williams, who afterwards attempted to supplant himn, to
savs Wotton,' greedy of honour and hot upon the public  the same purpose.  Gerbier was the painter and architect,
ends, but too confident in the prosperity of beginnings.'  and at the same time one of the confidential agents of'
It'f Buckingham  was a hero, and yet neither general nor  Buckingham; the friend of Reubens the painter. with whorni
adnliral; a minister, and vet no statesman; if often the   he was concerned in this country to open a Spanish nego..
creature of popular admiration, he was at length hated by   tiation, and became at length the master of the ceremonies,
the people; if long envied by his equals, and betrayed by   to Charles II, in his exile.  He was an actor in many
his own creatures,*' delighting too m uch in the press and   scenes.  Geerbier says of himself, that' he was a ministert
affluence of dependents and suitors, who are always burrs   who had the honour of public employment, and may,,nd sometimes the briars of favourites,' as Wotton well  therefore incur censure for declaring some passages of
describes themt; if one of his great crimes in the eyes of  state more overtly than becomes such an one, but secrets
the people was, that' his enterprises succeeded not ac-  are secrets but for a time; others may be wiser for them
cordilng to their impossible expectation;' and that it was  selves, but it is their silence which makes me write.'*
a still greater, that Buckingham  had been the permanent     A mystery has always hung over that piece of knightfavourite of two monarchs, who had spoilt their child of   errantry, the romantic journey to Madrid, where the primes
fortune; then may the future inquirer find something of his   minister and the heir-apparent, in disguise, confided their,
character which remains to be opened; to instruct alike   safety in the hands of our national enemies; which excitedi
the sovereign and the people, and' be worthy to be regis-  such popular clamour, and indeed anxiety for the prince.
tered among the great examples of time and fortune.'       and the protestant cause.  A new light is cast over thisContrast the fate of Buckingham with that of his great  extraordinary transaction, by a secret which the duke im..
rival, Richelieu.  The one winning popularity and losing   parted to Gerbier. The project was Buckinghani's; a.
it; once in the Commons saluted as' their redeemer,' till,  bright original view, but taken far out of the line of prece-.
at length, they resolved that' Buckingham was the cause   dence.  It was one of those bold inventions which no comof all the evils and dangers to the king and kingdom.'  mon mind could have conceived, and none but the spirit of'
Magnificent, open, and merciful; so forbearing, even in   Buckingham  could have carried on with a splendour andi
his acts of gentle oppression, that they were easily evaded;  mastery over the persons and events, which turned out,
and riots and libels were infecting the country, till, in the   however, as unfavourable as possible.
popular clamour, Buckingham  was made a political mon-        The restoration of the imprudent Palatine, the son-in.,
ster, and the dagger was planted in the heart of the incau-  law of James I, to the Palatinate which that prince had!
tioes minister.  The other statesman, unrelenting in his  lost by his own indiscretion, when he accepted the crown;
power, and grinding in his oppression, unblest with one   of Bohemia, although warned of his own incompetency,.
brother-feeling, had his dungeons filled and his scaffolds   as well as of the incapacity of those princes of the empire,,
raised, and died in safety and glory-a cautious tyrant!    who might have assisted him against the power of Austria,
There exists a manuscript memoir of Sir Balthazar  and Spain, seemed however to a great part of our nation
Gerbier, who was one of those ingenious men whom   necessary to the stability of the protestant interests.-.
Buckingham  delighted to assemble about him; for this  James I, was most bitterly run down at home for his civil!
was one of his characteristics, that although the duke him-  pacific measures, but the truth is, by Gerbier's account,
self was not learned, yet he never wanted for knowledge;  that James could not depend on one single ally, who had:
too early in life a practical man, he had not the leisure to  all taken fright, although some of the Germans were will.s
become a contemplative one; he supplied this deficiency  ing enough to be subsidized at 30,001 a month from Ena..
by perpetually' sifting and questioning well' the most emi-  land; which James had not to give, and which he had':
been a fool had he given; for though this war for the pro..
Dr George E!lisham, physician to James I, entitled'The   testant interests was popular in England, it was by no,
Forerunner of Revenge,' may be found in many of our collec-   means general among the German princes: the Prince,
tions. Gerbier, in his manuscript memoirs, gives a curious   Elector of Treves, and another prince, treated Gerbier
account of this political libellet, the model of that class ofdes-  coolly; and observed, thatGod in these days did n
perate scribblers.' The falseness of his libels,' says Gerbier   coolly; and observed, that'God in these  days did not' he hath since acknowledged, though too late. During my          prophets  more to the protestants  than to others, to.
residency at'Bruxelles, this Eglisham desiredl Sir William   fight against nations, and to second pretences which public,
Chaloner, who then was at Liege, to bear a letter to me, which  incendiaries propose to princes, to engage them into untis still extant: he proposed, if the king would pardon and re.  necessary wars with their neighbours.' France would,
ceive him into favour again, with some competent subsistence,  not so to war, and much less the Danes, the Swedes, and&
that he woulid recant all that be had said or written, to the dis-  the Hollanders.  James was calumniated for his timidity
ad.vantage of any in the coult of England, confessing that he   and cowardice; yt, says Grbier,       James me
had been urged thereunto by some combustious spirits, that  mich of his people, thouh ill requite, choosing rather
for their malicious designs had set him on work.' Buckingham would n ever notice these and similar libels. Eglisham flew   to suffer an eclipse of his personal reputation, tha n to bring'
to Holland after he had deposited his political venom in his na-  into such hazard the reputation and force of his kingdoms'
five country, and found a fate which every villanous factionist  in a war of no hopes.
who offers to recant for' a competent subsistence' does not al.  As a father and a king, from private and from public'
ways; he was found dead, assassinated in his walks by a   motives, the restoration of the Palatinate had a dehuble tie
companion. Yet this political libel, with many like it, are   on ames, and it was               et object of hi n
on James, and it was always the earnest object of his ne..
still authorities.'George, Duke of Buckingham,' says Oldys,' will not speedily outstrip Dr Eglisham's Fore.runner of Re.  gotiations.          nt him an amusing and literary
venee.'                                                     ambassador, who kept him in play year after year, with
* The misery of prime ministers and favourites is a portion   merry tales and bon mots.t  Those negociations had lanA)ftheir fate, which has not always been noticed by their hio-  guiished through all the tedium of diplomacy; the amusing
graphers; one must be conversant with secret history, to dis.  promises of the courtly Gondomar were sure, on return of
cover the thorn in their pillow. Who could have imagined   the courier, to bring sudden difficulties from  the subtile
that Buckingham, possessing the entire affections of his sove   Olivare    Bckingam   m
reign, during his absence had reason to fear being supplanted?
Wien his confidential secretary, Dr Mason, slept in the same                   * Sloane MSS, 4181.
chamber with the duke, he would give way at night to those    f Gerbier gives a curaious specimen of Gondornar's pledsant
suppressed passions xvhich his unaltered countenance con.  sort of impudence. When James expressed himnselFwith great
cealed by day. In the absence of all other ears and eyes he   warmth on the Spaniards under Spinola, taking the first town
would break out into the most querelous and impassioned lan.  in the Palatitlate, urnder the eyes of our anhbassaio   Gondoguage, declaring, that' never his despatches to divers princes,  mar, with Corvantic humour, attempted to give a new turn to
nor the great business of a fleet, of an army, of a siege, of a   the discussion; for he wished that Spinola had taken the whole
treaty, of war and peace both on foot together, and all of them   Palatinate at once, for' then the generosity of my master
In his head at a time, did not so much break his repose, as the   would be shown in all its lustre, by restoring it all a.ain to ths
idea that some at home under his majesty, of whom he had   English ambassador, who had witnessed the whole opera.
well-deserved, were now content to forget him.' So short.  titers.' James, however. at this moment was no longer plense,'
tived is the gratitude observed to an absent favourite, wl-io is  with the inexhaustible humour of his -id friend, an( set about
rost likely to fall by the creatures his own hands have made.'trying what could be done




210                                  CURIOSITIES OF
strike at the true secret, whether the Spanish court. could  the haughty Castilian, the favourite of Spain, and the more
be induced to hasten this important object, gained over by  than king-like cardinal, the favourite of France, with the ri.
the proffered alliance with the English crown, from the   val spirit of his Island, proud of her equality with the conlips of the prince himself. The whole scene dazzled with  tinent.
politics, c:hivalry, and magnificence; it was caught by the  There is a story that the war between England and
high spir-it of the youthful prince, whom Clarendon tells  France was occasioned by the personal disrespect shown
us'loved  adventures;' and it was indeed an incident  by the Cardinal Duke Richelieu to the English duke, in
which has adorned more than one Spanish romance. The  the affronting mode of addressing his letters. Gerbier says
panic which seized the English, fearful of the personal  the world are in a ridiculous mistake about this circumsafety of the prince, did not prevail with the duke, who  stance. The fact of the letters is true, since Getbier was
told Gerbier that the priince run no hazard from the Spa.  himself the secretary on this occasion. It terminated,
muard, who well knew that while his sister, the fugitive  however differently than is known, Richelieu, at least as
queen of Bohemia, with a numerous issue, was residing   haughty as Buckingham, addressed a letter, in a moment
in IHolland, the protestant succession to our crown was  of caprice, in which the word Monsieur was level with the
perfectly secured; and it was with this conviction, says  first line, avoiding the usual space of honour, to marl; his
(Gerbier, that when the Count Duke Olivarez had been   disrespect. Buckingham instantly turned on the cardinal,persuaded that the Prince of Wales was meditating a  his own invention. Gerbier, who had written the letter,,flight from Spain, that Buckingham with his accustonled   was also its bearer. The cardinal started at the firs, )ht,
spirit told him, that' if love had made the prince steal out  never having been addressed with such familiarity, and was,of his own country, yet fear would never make him run out  silent. On the following day, however, the cardinal re*of Spain, and that hie should depart with an equipage as  cieved Gerbier civilly, and, with many rhetorical expres.
fitted a Prince of Wales.' This was no empty vaunt,  sions respecting the duke,'I know,' said he,'the power
An English fleet was then waiting in a Spanish port, and   and greatness of a high admiral of England; the cannons
ithe Spanish court inviting our prince to the grand Escuri-  of his great ships make way, and prescribe law more forci-:al, attended the departure of Charles, as Hume expresses  bly than the canons of the church, of which I am a mem.
it with' elaborate pomp.'                              ber. I acknowledge the power ot the favourites of great
This at'empt of Buckingham, of which the origin has  kings, and I am content to be a minister of state, and the
been so often inquired into, and so oppositely viewed, en-  duke's humble servant.' This was an apology made with.tirely failed with the Spaniard.  The catholic league out-  all the politesse of a Gaul, and by a great statesman who'weighed the protestant. At first the Spanish court had   had recovered his senses.
been as much taken by surprise as the rest of the world;    If ever minister of state was threatened by the prognosall parties seemed at their first interview highly gratified.  tics of a fatal termination to his life, it was Buckingham;'We mav rule the world together,' said the Spanish to  but his own fearlessness disdained to interpret them. The
the English minister. They were, however, riot made by  following circumstances, collected from manuscript letters of
mtature, or state interests, to agree at a second interview.  the times, are of this nature. After the sudden and un-'The Lord Keeper Williams, a wily courtier and subtile  happy dissolution of the parliament, popular terror showed
politician, who, in the absence of his patron, Buckingham,.tself in all shapes; and those who did not join in the popuevidently supplanted him in the favour of his royal master,  liar terror showed itself in all shapes; and those who did
wlhen asked by James,' Whether he thought this knight-  not join in the popular cry were branded with the odious
errant pilgrimage would be likely to win the Spanish lady;  nickname of the ducklins.
answered with much political foresight, and saw the diffi-    A short time before the assassination of Blckingham,
eulty:'If my lord marquis will give honour to the Count  when the king, after an obstinate resistance, had conceded
Duke Olivarez, and remember he is the favourite of Spain;  his assent to the' Petition of Right,' the houses testified
ar, if Olivarez will show honourable civility to my lord  their satisfaction, perhaps their triumph, by their shouts of.marquis, remembering he is the favourite of England, the   acclamation.  They were propagated by the hearers on
wooing may be prosperous; but if my lord marquis should  the outside, from one to the other till they reached the city:;forget where he is, and not stoop to Olivarez; or ifOliva-  some confused account arrived before the occasion of these:rez, forgetting what guest he hath received with the prince,  rejoicings was generally known: suddenly the bells began
bear himself like a Castilian grandee to my lord marquis,  to ring, bonfires were kindled, and in an instant all was a
the provocation may cross your majesty's good intentions.'*  scene of public rejoicing. But ominous indeed were these
What Olivarez once let out,'though somewhat in hot  rejoicings, for the greater part was occasioned by a false
blood, that in the councils of the king the English match  rumour that the duke was to be sent to the'ower; no one
had never been taken into consideration, but from the time  inquired about a news which every one wished to hear;
of the Prince of Wales's arrival at Madrid,' might have   and so sudden was the joy, that a Ms. letter says,' the
*been true enough. The seven years which had passed in  old scaffold on tower-hill was pulled down and burned by:apparent negotiation resembled the scene of a fate mor-  certain unhappy boys, who said they would have a new
geana; an earth painted in the air-raised by the delusive   one built for the duke.' This mistake so rapidly prevailed
arts of Gondomar and Olivarez. As they never designed   as to reach even the country, which blazed with bonfires
-to realise it, it would of course never have been brought  to announce the fall of Buckingham.*  The shouts on the
into the councils of his Spanish majesty.  Buckingham   acquittal of the seven bishops, in 1688, did not speak in
discovered, as he told Gerbier, that the Infanta by the will  plainer language to the son's ear, when after the verdict
of her father, Philip III, was designed for the emperor's  was given, such prodigious acclamations of joy, seemed to
son; the catholic for the catholic, to cement the venerable  set the king's authority at defiance: it spread itself not
system. When Buckingham and Charles had now ascer-  only into the city, but even to Hounslowheath, where the
tained that the Spanish cabinet could not adopt English  soldiers upon the news of it gave up a great shout, though
and protestant interests, and Olivarez had convinced him-  the king was then  actually at dinner in the camp.'t
self that Charles would never be a catholic, all was broken   To the speculators of human nature, who find Its history
up; and thus a treaty of marriage, which had been slowly   written in their libraries, how many plain lessons seenl to
reared, durintg a period of seven years, when the flower  have been lost on the mere politician, who is only such in
seemed to take, only contained within itself the seeds of  the heat of action.
warft                                                     About a nionth before the duke was assassinated, occurrOlivarez and Richelieu were thorough-paced statesmen,  ed the murder by the populace of the man who was called
in every respect the opposites of the elegant, the spirited,' The duke's devil.' This was a Dr Lambe, a man of in.
and the open Buckingbam.  The Englsh favourite checked  famous character; a dealer in magical arts, who lived by
* Itacket's life of Lord Keeper Williams, p. 115, pt 1, fo.  showing apparitions or selling the favours of the devi;, and
i The narrative furnished by Buckingham, and vouched by  whose chambers were a convenient rendezvous for the cu.
the prince to the parliament, agrees in the main with what the  rious of both sexes.  This wretched man, who openly ex.
duke told Gerbier. It is curious to observe how the narrative
see~ms to have perplexedfl ume, who, from some preconceived ulted in the infamous traffic by which he lived, when he
system, condemns Buckinguham,'  for the' falsity of this long  was sober, prophesied that he should fa. one day by the
narrative, as calculated entirely to mislead the parliament.,  hands from which he received his death; and it was sai.
lie has, however, in the note [T] of this very volume, sutli-  he was as positive about his patron's. At the age of
ciently marked the difficulties which hung about the opinion    * Letter frtm J. Mead to Sir M. Stuteville June 5, 1,2
he has given in the text. The curious may find the narrativer  Har.  7000.
in Frankland's Annals, p. 89, and in Rtushworth's Hist. Coil.. MISS,         voo1.
1, 119. It has many entertaining oarticulars.             t Memoirs ot James lI, vol. II. p. 163.




LITERATURE.                                                        217
eighty, he was tortn to pieces in the city, and the city was  fore impregnable forts.  But something more than his
imprudently heavily fined 60001. for not delivering up those  own towering sp rit, or the temerity of vanity, must ha
who, in mturdering this hoary culprit, were heard to say   alleged for his assumption of those opposite military chathat they would handle his master worse, and would have  racters.*
minced his flesh, and have had every one a bit of him.    A  peace of twenty years appears to have rusted the
This is one more instance of the political cannibalism  of   arms of our soldiers, and their commanders were destitute
the mob. Tie fate of Dr Lambe served for a ballad, and  of military skill. The war with Spain was clamouired for;
the printer and singer were laid in Newgate.*  Bucking-  and an expedition to Cadiz, in which the duke was reham, it seems, for a moment contemplated his own fate in  preached by the people for not taking the command, as
his wretched creature's, more particularly as another omen  they supposed from deficient spirit, only ended in our unobtruded itself on his attention; for on the very day of Dr  disciplined soldiers under bad commanders getting dru_':
Lambe's murder, his own portrait in the council-chamber  in the Spanish cellars, insomuch that not all had the
was seen to have fallen out of its frame; a circumstance   power to run away.  On this expedition, some verses
as awful in that. age of omens, as the portrait that walked   were handed about, which probably are now first printed,
from  its frame in the' Castle of Otranto,' but perhaps  from a manuscript letter of the times; a political pasqui.
more easily accounted for.  On the eventful day of Dr  nade which shows the utter silliness of this,'Ridiculus
Lambe's bein. torn to pieces by the mob, a circumstance   Mus.'
occurred to Bucxingham, somewhat remarkable to show                 VERSES ON THE EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.
the spirit of the times.  The king and the duke were in               There was a crow sat on a stone,
the Spring-gardens looking on the bowlers; the duke put               He flew sray-and there was none 
on his hat. One lWilson a Scotchman, first kissing the                There was a man that run a race,
duke's hands, snatched it off, saying,' Off with your hat            When he ran thst-he ran apace
before the king.' Buckinoham, not apt to restrain his                 There was a maid that eat an apple
quick feelings, kicked the Scotchman, but the king inter.             When she eat two-she eat a couple
There was an ape sat on a tree,
fering, said' Let him  alone, George; he is either mad or            When he fell down-then down fell he
When he fell down —then down fell he
a fool.'' N'o, Sir,' replied the Scotchman, I' am a sober            There was a fleet that went to Spain,
man, and if your majesty would give me leave, I will tell             When it returned-it came again
you that of this man which many know, and none dare           Another expedition to Rochelle, under the Earl ofDenspeak.'  This was as a prognostic, an anticipation of the   bigh, was indeed of a more sober nature, for the earl
-agger of Felton.   declined to attack the enemy. The national honour, among
About this time a libel was taken down from a post in  the other grievances of te people, had beet long degraded
Coleman-street by a constable and carried to the lord-  not indeed by Buckingham  hitself, who personally had
mayor, who ordered it to be delivered to none but his ma-   ever maintained, by his high spirit, an equality, if not a
estv.  Of this libel the manuscript letter contains the fol-  superiority, with France and Spain.  It was tc win back
lowing particulars:                                       the public favour by a resolved  and public effort, that
And on the assassination of the duke, I find two lines in a   Buckingham a second time was willing to pledge his forMS. letter:                                                tune, his honour, and his life, into one daring cast, and on
The shepherd's struck, the sheep are fled!        the dyke of Rochelle to leave his body, or to vindicate his
For want of Lamb the wolf is dead                   aspersed name.  The garrulous Gerbier shall tell his own
There is a scarce tract of'A brief description of the notori-  story, which I transcribe from  his own hand-writing, of
ous life of John Lambe, otherwise called DoctorLambe,' &c,  the mighty preparations, and the duke's perfect devotion
with a curious wood print of the mob pelting him  in the  to the cause, for among other rumours, he was calumniated
street.                                                     as ever having been faithful to his engagements with the'Who rules the kingdom? The king              Protestants of Rochelle.
Who rules the king? The duke.'The duke caused me to make certain works, according
Who rules the duke? The devil,                 to the same model as those wherewith the Prince of Par.
Let the duke look to it; for they intend shortly to use him   ma blew up, before Antwerp, the main dyke and estacado
worse than they did the doctor; and if things be not shortly re-  they were so mighty strong, and of that quantity ofpowde;.
iermed, they will work a re~formation  themselves.'         n   ocoe.hloatwn      mlydteenopw
rmed, they  ill work a reformation themselves.  and so closely masoned in barks, that they might have
The only advice the offended king suggested was to set   blown up the half of a town.  I employed therein ofpow.
a      double watch every  night!  A  watch at a post to pro-  der, stone-quarries, bombs, fire-balls, chains and iron balls,
vent a libel being affixed to it was no prevention of libels   a double proportion to that used by the Duke of Parma,
being written, and the fact is, libels were now bundled and   according to the description left thereof."'
sent to fairs, to he read by those who would venture to       I The duke's intention to succour the Rochellers was
read, to those who would venture to listen; both parties   manifest, as was his care to assure them  of it.  He com.
were often sent to prison.  It was about this time, after   manded me to write and convey to them the secret adver.
the sudden dissolution of the parliament, that popular ter-  tisement thereof.  The last advice I gave them from himn
ror showed itself in various shapes, and the spirit which   contained these words,' Hold out but three weeks, and
then broke out in libels by night was assuredly  the same,  God willing I will be with you, either to overcome or to
which, if these political prognostics had been rightly con-  die there.' The bearer of his reeive  from my hands a
strued by Charles, might have saved the eventual scene   htndred Jacobuses to carry it with speed and safety. The
of blood.  But neither the king nor his favourite had yet  duke had disbursed three-score thousand pounds of his
been taught to respect popular feelings.  Buckingham,    money upon the fleet; and lost his life ere he could get
after all, was guilty of no heavy political crimes; but it was   aboard.  Nothing but death had hindered him or frustrat.
his misfitrtune to have been a prime minister, as Claren-  ed his desin,  of which I am confident by another ve
den says, in' a busy, querulous, froward time, when the   remarkable passage.' The duke, a little before his depeople were uneasy under pretences of reformation, with   parture from York-house, being alone with me in his garsome petulant discourses of liberty, which their great im-  den, and giving me his last commands for my journey
postors scattered among them like glasses to multiply their  to ds Italy and Spain, one Mr. Wigmore, a gentleman
ears.' It was an age, which was preparing for a great   of his, coming to us, presented to his lordship a paper, said
contest, where both parties committed great faults.  The   to come from  the prophesying Lady Daners,   foretelling,
favourite did niot appear odious in the eyes of the king,    * At the British Institution, some time back, was seen apic
who knew his better dispositions more intimately than the   ture of Buckingham, mounted on a charger by the sea-shore,
popular party, who were crying him down.  And Charles   crowded with tritens, &c. As it reflected none of the graces
attributed to individuals, and - the great impostors,' the   or beauty of the original, and seemed the work ol some wretch.
clam-mrs which had been raised.                            edl apprentice of Rubhens (perhaps Gerbier hiimself',) these conBit the plurality of offices showered on Buckingham   tricty   acopaniments ncreased the  icion   tat the
picture could not be the duke's; it was not recollected gener.
rendered him still more odious to the peorde: had he not  ally that the fivourite was both admiral and -eneral; and
been ereateul                       never  ~~~~~~ally that the thvonrite was both admiral anti general; sarm
been created lord high admiral and general, he had never  that the duke was at once Neptune and Mars, ruling both sea
risked his character amidst the opposing elements, or be-  and land.
* Ruahwortth has preserved a burden of one of these       t This machine seems noticed in Le Mercuire Francois 1627,
Gs~~~~~~~~~ongs.                             p.-~p 863.
$ Gerbier, a foreigner, scarcely ever writes an Enzlish
Le' Charles and George do what they cpn,            namne correctly, while his orthoeraphy is not always intellitiThe duke shall die like Doctor Lamb.               ble. He means here Lady Davies, an extraordinaray character
28




218                                  CURIOSITIES OF
that he should end his life that month; besides he had re-  Nor shall you ever prove by magic charms,
ceived a letter from a very considerable hand, persuading    I wrought the king's affection or his harms.
him  to let some other person be sent on that expedition      Nor fear I if ten Vitrys now were here,
te command in his place; on which occasion the duke           Since I have t   ten Ravilliacs as near.
ratde this expression to me: " Gerbier, If God please I          poonce I  use these words, I and my king.'
will go, and be the first man who shall set his foot upon the   Seem wise, and cease then to perturb the realm
dyke before Rochel to die, or do the work, whereby the        Or strive with him that sits and guides the helm.
world shall see the reality of our intentions for the relief of  I know your reading will inform you soon,
that place."  He had before told me the same in his closet,  What creatures they were that barkt against the mo&
after he had signed certain despatches of my letters of cre  I'll give you better counsel as a friend:
dence to the Duke of Lorraine and Savoy, to whom I was        Cobblers their latchets ought not to transcend,
Meddle with common matters, common wrongs',
sent to know what diversion they could make in favour of      To the house of commons cmntmon things belong,
the king, in case the peace with Spain should not take.       Leave him the oar that best knows how to row,
His majesty spoke to me, on my going towards my resi-         And state to him that best the state doth know.
dency at Bruxelles, " Gerbier, I do comlmand thee to have     If I by industry, deep reach, or grace,
a continual care, to press the Infanta and the Spanish        Am now arriv'd at this or that great place,
ministers there, for the restitution of the Palatinate; for I  Must I, to please your inconsiderate rage,
am obliged in conscience, in honour, and in maxim  of         Throw down mine honours? Will naught else asuap
state, to stir all the powers of the world, rather than to    There's no less wit required to keep, than get.
fail to try to the uttermost to compass this business."       Though Lamb be dead, I'11 stand, and you shall see
In the week of that expedition, the king took' George'    I'll smile at them that can but bark at me.
with him in his coach to view the ships at Deptford on their
departure for Rochelle, when he said to the duke' George,    After Buckingham's death, Charles I cherished his me.
there are some that wish that both these and thou might-  mory warmly as his life, advanced his friends, and designed
est perish together; but care not fobr them; we will both  to raise a magnificent monument to his memory; and if
perish together, if thou doest "                        any one accused the duke, the king always imputed the
A few days before the duke went on his last expedition,  fault to himself.  The king said,'Let not the duke's enehe gave a farewell mask and supper at Yorkhouse, to their  mies seek to catch at any of his offices, for they will find
majesties. In the mask the duke appeared followed by  themselves deceived.' Charles called Buckingham' his
Envy with many open mouthed dogs, which were to repre-  martyr!' and often said the world was much mistaken In
sent the barkings of the people, while next came Fame   dhe duke's character; for it was commonly thought the
and Truth; and the court allegory expressed the king's  duke ruled his majesty; but it was much the contrary,
sentimlent and the duke's sanguine hope.                having been his most faithful and obedient servant in all
Thus resolutely engaged in the very cause the people  things, as the king said he would make sensibly appear to
had so much at heart, the blood Buckingrham would have  the world. Indeed after the death of Buckingham, Charles
sealed it with was sihed by one of the people themselves;  showed himself extremely active in business. Lord )orthe enterprise, designed to retrieve the national honour,  chester wrote-' The death of Buckingharn  causes no
long tarnished, was prevented; and the Protestant cause  chanes  thn hs wn hands the ttal dresuffered, by one who imagined himself to be, and was  tion, leaving the executory part to every man within the
blest by nearly the whole nation, as a patriot! Such are  compass of his charge.*  This is one proof, nmong many,
the effects of the exaggerations of popular delusion.   that Charles I was not the puppet-king of Buckingham, as
I find the following epitaph on Buckingham, in a manu-  modern historians have imagined.
script letter of the times. Its condensed bitterness of spirit    FELTON THE POLITICAL ASSASSIN.
gives the popular idea of his unfortunate attempts,
T'HE DUJKE'S EPITAPH.                      Felton, the assassin of the Duke of Buckingham, by the
If idle trav'llers ask who lieth here,              growing republican party, was hailed as a Brutus, rising,
Let the duke's tomb this for inscription bear;      in the style of a patriotic bard,
Paint Cales and Rh6, make French and Spanish ltugh;' Refulgent from the stroke.'    AKES SIDE
Mix England's shame-and there's his epitaph 
Gibbon has thrown a shade of suspicion even over BruBefore his last fatal expedition, among the many libels    Gibbon has thrown a shade of suspicion even over Bru
which abounded, I have discovered a manuscript satire,  tus's'God.like stroke,' as Pope has exalted it. In Felentitled'Rhodomontados.' The thoughtless minister is  ton, a man acting from mixed and confused motives, the
made to exult in his power over the giddy-headed multi  political martyr is entirely lost in the contrite penitent; he
tude. Buckingham speaks in his own person; and we  was, however, considered in his own day as a being alhave here preserved those false rumours, and those aggra.  mostbeyond humanity.  Mrs Macaulay has called him
vated feelings, then floating among the people: a curious
rated feelings, then floating among the peopie:* a curious' a lunatic,' because the duke had not been assassinated
instance of those heaped up calumnies, which are often so  on the right principle. His motives appeared inconceiv
heavily laid on the head of a prime minister, no favourite  able to his contemporaries; for Sir Henry Wotton, who
with the people.                                        has written a life of the Duke of Buckingham'observes,
that' what may have been the immediate or greatest mo-'Tis not your threats shalt take me from tha king!  tive of that felonious conception (the duke's assassination,)
Nor wiuestioning my counsels and commands,        is even yet in the clouds.' After ascertaining that it was
How with the honour of the state it stands;
That I lost Rh6, andc with such loss of men,      not private revenge, he seems to conclude that it was Dr
As scarcely tine can e'er repair again;           Egglesheim's furious'libel,' and the I       remonstrance' of
Shall aught affri ght me; or else care to see     the parliament, which, having made the duke' one of the
The narrow seas from Dunkirk clear and fiee,      foulest monsters upon earth,' worked on the dark imagina.
Or that you can enforce the king to believe,      tion of Felton.'
I from the pirates a third share receive;            From Felton's memorable example, and some similar
Or that I correspond with foreign states)         ones, one observation occurs worth the notice of every
(Whether thein of the kin     C and states         minister of state who dares the popular odium he has
Ao erspt you throughtn of the Pandstatens;        raised.  Such a minister will always be in present danger
As erst you thought of the Palatinate;
Or that five hIundlred thousand pound doth lie    of a violent termination to his career; for however he may
n the Venice bank to help) Spain's majesty;       be convinced that there is not political virtue enough in a
Or that three hundred thousand more doth rest     whole people to afford'the God-like stroke,' he will al.
In Dunkirk, for the arch-duchess to contest        ways have to dread the arm of some melancholy enthut',ith England, whene'er occasion offers;          sast, whose mind, secretly agitated by the public indigna.
Or that ny rapine I  hilc fill amy coffersa;      tion, directs itself solely on him. It was sometime after
Nor that an office in church, state, and court,
Is freely fiven, hba t they must pay me fort.      having written this reflection, that I discovered the follow.
Nor shall you ever prove I Ih~ad a hand          gin notice of the Duke of Buckingham  in the unpublished
In poisoning of the monarch ofthis land:          life of Sir Symonds D'Ewes.' Some of his friends had
Or the like-hand by poiosming to intox            advised him how generally he was hated in England, and
Southampton, Oxford, Hamilton, Lennox.            how needful it would be for his greater safety to wear
and a supposed prophetess. This Cassandra hit the time in  some coat of mail, or some other secret defensive armour
her dark predictions, and was more persuaded than ever that          F Sloane MSS, 4178, letter 519
the was a urophetess'




LITERATURE.                                                    219
which the duke slighting said, "It needs not: there are  ing his whole body, provided it afforded him an opportunity
no Roman spirits left."'*                              of vengeance.* Yel with all this, such was his love of truth
An account of the contemporary feelings which sympa-  and rigid honour, that Felton obtained the nick-name of
thized with Felton, and almost sanctioned the assassin's'honest Jack,' one which, after the assassinaticn, became
deed, I gather from the Ms. letters of the times. The  extremely popular through the nation.  The religious
public mind, through a long state of discontent, had  enthusiasm of the times had also deeply possessed his
been prepared for, and not without an obscure expectation   mind, and that enthusiasm, as is well known, was of a
of the mortal end of Buckingham. It is certain the duke  nature that might easily occasion its votary to be mistaken
received many warnings which he despised. The assas-  for a republican.
sination kindled a tumult of joy throughout the nation, and  Clarendon mentions that in his hat he had sewed a pa.
a state-libel was written in strong characters in the faces  per, in which were written a few lines of that remon.
of the people. The passage of Felton to London, after  strance of the commons, which appeared to him to sanc.
the assassination, seemed a triumph.  Now pitied, and  tion the act. I have seen a letter from Lord Carlton to
now blessed, mothers held up their children to behold the  the queen, detailing the particulars; his lordship was one
saviour of the country; and an old woman exclaimed, as  of those who saved Felton from the swords of the military
Felton passed her, with a scriptural allusion to his short  around him, who in their vexation for the loss of their gene.
stature, and the miehtiness of Buckingham,'God bless  ral the duke, which they considered to be the end of the
thee little David!' Fenton was nearly sainted before he  war, and their ruin, would have avenged themselves. But
reached the metropolis. His health was the reigning toast  though Felton, in conversation with Lord Carlton, conamong the republicans. A character somewhat remarka-  fessed that by reading the remonstrance of the parliament
ble, Alexander Gill (usher under his father Dr Gill, mas-  it came into his head, that in committing the act of killing
ter of St Paul's scteool,) who was the tutor of Milton,  the duke, he should do his country a great good service,
and his dear firiend afterwards, and, perhaps, from whose  yet the paper sewed in his hat, thinking he might have
impressions in early life, Milton derived his vehement  fallen a victim in the attempt, was different from that de.
hatred of Charles, was committed by the star-chamber,  scribed by Clarendon, and is thus preserved in this letter
heavily fined, and sentenced to lose his ears, on three  to the queen by Lord Carlton.'If I be slain, let no man
charges, one of which arose from drinking a health to Fel.  condemn me, but rather condemn himself. Our hearts
ton. At Trinity College, Gill said that the king was fitter  are hardened, and become senseless, or else he had not
to stand in a Cheapside shop, with an apron before him,  gone so long unpunished. He is unworthy the name of a
and say, [tfhat lack ye? than to govern a kimdom; that  gentleman or soldier, in my opinion, that is afraid to sacrithe duke was gone down to hell to see king James; and  fice his life for the honour of God, his king, and country,
drinking a health to Felton, added he was sorry Felton   John Felton.'t
had deprived him of the honour of doing that brave act.t    Felton's mind had however previously passed th.rough a
In the taste of that day they contrived a political anagram   more evangelical process; four theological propositions
of his name, to express the immoveable self-devotion he  struck the knife into the heart of the minister. The con.
showed after the assassination, never attempting to es-  scientious assassin, however accompanied the fatal blow
cape; and John Felton, for the nonce, was made to  with a prayer to Heaven, to have mercy on the soul of the
read,                                                   victim; and never was a man murdered with more gospet
Noh!.fiie not!                    than the duke. The following curious document I have
But while Felton's name was echoing through the king-  discoered n the M. lettr.
dom, our new Brutus was at that moment ehibitin  a'Propositions found in Felton's trunk, at the time he
dom, our new Brutus was at that moment exhibiting a
piteous spectacle of remorse; so different often is the  slew the duke.
real person himself from the ideal personage of the public.    1. There is no alliance nearer to any one than his
The assassination with him was a sort of theoretical one,  country.
depending, as we shall show, on four  propositions; so    Except his God and his own soul, said the divines.
that when the king's attorney, as the attorney-general    2. The safety of the people is thes chiefest law.
was then called, had furnished the unhappy criminal with   Next to the law   o Go d, said  these divines.
an unexpected argument, which appeared to him to have    3. No law is more sacred than the safety and welfare of
overturned his, he declared that he had been in a mistake;  the commonwealth.
and lamenting that he had not been aware of it before,    Only God's law is more sacred, said the divines.
from that instant his conscientious spirit sunk into despair.    4. God himself hath enacted this law, that all things that
In the open court he stretched out his arm, offering it a are for the good profit and benefit of the commonwealth
In the Open court he stretched out his arm, offering it as   hu  b  afl
the offending instrument to be first cut off; he requested  should be lawful.
the king's leave to wear sackcloth about his loins, to sprin-    The divines said, We must not do evil that good may
kle ashes on his head, to carry a halter about his neck, in  come thereon.'
testimony of repentance; and that he might sink to the    The gradual rise in these extraordinary propositions,
lowest point of contrition, he insisted on asking pardon   with the last sweeping one, which includes every thing
not only of the duchess, the duke's mother, but even of  lawless as lawful for the common weal, was at least but
the duke's scullion-boy; and a man naturally brave was  feebly parried by the temperate divines, who, while the
seen always shedding tears, so that no one could have im-  were so reasonably referring every thing to God, wanted
agined that Felton had been  a stout soldier.' These par-  the vulgar curiosity to inquire, or the philosophical disticulars were given by one of the divines who attended him,  cment to discover, that Felton's imaination was drivin
to the writer of the MS. letter.'2                      every thing at the duke. Could they imagine that these
To he whracter of the lo must nottpeer,  e   oeev
The character of Felton must not, hpwever, be conceiv-  were but subtile cobwebs, spun by a closet-speculator on
ed from this agonizing scene of contrition.  Of melan-  human affairs?  In those troubled times did they not give
choly and retired habits, and one of those thousand officers,  a thought to the real object of these inquiries?  Or did
they not care what befell a minion of the statel
who had incurred disappointments, both in promotion and  they not care what befell a minion of the state?
There is one bright passage in the history of this unhapin arrears of pay, from the careless duke, he felt, perhaps,
py man, who, when broken down in spirits, firmly asserted
althoueh he denied it, a degree of personal animosity to-  py m     who, when broken down in spirit, firmly assertd
the rights of a Briton; and even the name of John Felton
wards him. A solitary man who conceives himself injured   he ihts of a Briton; and even the name of John Feltonm
broods over his revenge. Felton once cut off a piece of  ma fill a date in the annals of our constitutional freedon.
his own finger, inclosing it in a challenge, to convince the  Felton was menaced with torture. Iushworth has notiedlthe fact anmienacoed wimpreth nortues uhoft hisno
person whom he addressed, that he valued not endanger- ticed the fact, and given some imperfect notes of his
* ~Hartl~. MS S, 646.  ~speech, when threatened to be racked; but the following
The MS. letter givtng this account observes, thatte words  is not only more ample, but more important in its essential
The MS. letter gilving  this account observes, that the words ~ Y -pP.
concerning his majesty were not read in open court, but only  particulars.  When Lord Dorset told him (says the ass.
those relating to the duke and Felton.                  letter,) Mr Felton, it is the king's pleasure that you should
* Clarendon notices that Felton was'of a gentleman's family  be put to the torture, to make you confess your complices,
in Suffolk of good fortune and reputation.' Ifind that during  and therefore prepare yourself for the rack: Felton anhis confinement, the Earl and Countess of Arundel, and Lord  swered,' My lord, I do not believe that it is the king's plea.
Maltravers their son'he being of their blood.' says the letter-  sure, for he is a just and a gracious prince, ann will not
writer, continually visited him, gave many proofs of their  have his subject tortured against law. I do affirm upon
friendship, and brouht his'winding-sheet;' for to the last they
attempted to save him from being hung in chains: they did'  Rushworth, vol. 1, 638.
Mt succeed.                                               t Lansdowne MSS 209. Auctioneer's Catsalogue.




220                                    CURIOSITIES OF
my salvation that my purpose was not known to any man         The poem I transcribe from a Ms. copy of the times; ig
living; but if it be his majesty's pleasure, I am ready to   appears only to have circulated in that secret form, for the
suffer whatever his majesty will have inflicted upon me.  writer being summoned to the star chamber, and not wilt
Yet this I must tell you by the way, that if I be put upon   ling to have any such poem addressed to himself, escaped
the rack, I will accuse you, my Lord of Dorset, and none  to the Hague.
but yourself.'*  This firm and sensible speech silenced
them. A council was held, the judges were consulted;                 To his conDned friend, Mr Jo. FELV0N.
and on this occasion, they came to a very unexpected do-           Enjoy thy bondage, make thy prison knuw
cision, that'Felton ought not to be tortured by the rack,       Thou hast a liberty, thou can'st not owe'or no such punishment is known or allowed by our law.'          To those base punishments; keep entire, since
~qothing but guilt shackles the conscience.
Thus the judges condemned what the government had                Nothing but guilt shackles the conscience.
constantlyp.Blackstone yields a fraternal eulo-  I dare not tempt thy valiant blood to affray,
constantly practised. Blackstone yields a fraternal eulo          I lnfeebling it with pity; nor dare I pray.
glum to the honour of the judges on this occasion; but           Thine act may mercy finde, least thy greatstory
Hume more philosophically discovers the cause of this            Lose somewhat of its miracle and glory.
sudden tenderness.'So much more exact reasoners with           I wish thy merits, laboured cruelty;
regard to law, had they become from thejealous scruples           Stout vengeance best befriends thy memory.
of the House of Commons.' An argument which may bc               For I would have posterity to hear,
strengthened from cases which are unknown to the writers         He that can bravely do can bravely bear.
of our history.  Not two years before the present one, a  Tortures may seem great in a coward's eye;
of our history.  Not two years before the present one, a  It's no great thing to sutiffer, less to die.
Captain Brodeman, one who had distinguished himself               Should all the clouds fall down, and in that strilf
among the'bold speakers' concerning the king and the            Lightning and thunder serve to take my life,
duke, had been sent to the Tower, and was reported to            I would applaud the wisdom of my fate,
have expired on the rack; the death seems doubtful, but           Which knew to value me of'such a rate,
pir                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~As to my fall to trouble all the sky,
the fact of his having been racked is repeated in the mS. As to my fall to trouble all the sky,
0                                ~~~~~~~~~~Emptying upon me Joves full armoury.
etters of the times.  The rack has been more frequent-           Emptying upon me Jove's full armoury.
Serve in youir sharpest misthiets; use your rack,
iy used as a state.engine than has reached the know-             Enlarge each joint, and make each sinew crack,
ledge of our historians; secret have been the deadly             Thy soul before was straitened; thank thy doom,
emacaces of the Duke of Exeter's daughter.t  It was              To show her virtue, she hath larger room.
only by an original journal of the transactions in the           Yet sure if every artery were broke,
To'wer that Burner discovered the racking of Ann As-             Thou would'st find strength for such another stroke
kew, a narrative of horror! James the First incidentally          And now I leave thee unto Death and Fame,
Which lives to shake Ambition with thy name3
mentions in his account of the powder-plot that this rack        And   ie   t sh      e  bon    y 
And if it were not sin, the court by it
was shown to Guy Fawkes during his examination; and              Should hourly swear before the bavourite.
yet under this prince, mild as his temper was, it had been       Farewell! fbr thy brav e ake we shall not send
used m a terrific manner.t  Elizabeth but too frequently         Henceforth commanders, enemies to defend;
employed this engine of arbitrary power; once she had all        Nor will it our just monarchs henceforth please,
the servants of the Duke of Norfolk tortured. I have seen        To keep an admiral, to lose the seas.
in a MS. of the times heads of charges made against soe          Farewell! undaunted stand, and joy to be
member of the House of Commons in Elizabeth's                    Of public service the epitome.
Of public service the epitome.
reign  Let the duke's name solace and crown thy thrall;
among which is one for having written against torturing          Al we for him dd suffer, thou for all!
15                        ~~~~~~~~~All we for him did suffer, thou for all!
Yet Coke, the most eminent of our lawyers, extols the mer-       And I dare boldly write, as thou dar'st die,
cy of Elizabeth in the trials of Essex and Southampton,           Stout Felton, England's ransom, here doth lie'
because she had not used torture against their accomplices
orwtneses. astfotnehea  ofawtseThis it is to be a great poet. Felton, who was celebra.
or witnesses. Was it for the head of law itself, as Coke
ted in such elevated strains, was, at that moment, not the
was, to extol the mercy of' the sovereign for not violating
the laws, for not punishing the subject by an illegal act      patot but the penitent.     ial hs     feuet
The truth is, lawyers are rarely philosophers; the history   occu   that the  man who accidentally has effectuated the
of the heart, read only in statutes and law cases, presents   purpose of a party is immediately invested by them with
the worst side of human nature: they are apt to consider   all their favourite virtues; but in reality, having acted from
men as wild beasts; o an dt they have never spoken with   motives originally insignificant and obscure, his character
men as wild beasts; and theyv   have never spoken wuith                                     a   md   i    n  sc
any great abhorrence of what they so erroneously consi-  may be quite the reverse the  have made him; and such
dered a means of obtaining confession. Long after these   was that of our honest Jack.' Had Towley had a more
times, Sir George Mackenzie, a great lawyer in the  intimate acquaintance with his Brutus, we might have lost
reign of James II, used torture in Scotland.  We have   a noble poem ot a noble subject.
seen how the manly spirit of Felton, and the scruples of         JOHNSONa 5 HINTS FOR THE LIFE OF POPE.
the Commons, wrenched the hidden law from judges who         I shall preserve a literary  curiosity, which perhaps s
had hitherto been too silent; and produced that unexpect-  the only one of its kind.  It is an original memorandum of
ed avowal, which condemned all their former practices.  Dr Johnson's, of hints for the life of Pope written down as
But it was reserved for better times, when philosophy   they were suggested to his mind in the course of his re.
combining with law, enabled the genius of Blackstone to  searches..The lines in italics, Johnson had scratched with
ote with admiration the exquisite ridicule of torture, by   red ink,probably after having made use of them.  These
Meccara.                                                   notes should be compared with the life itself.  The youthOn a rumour that Felton was condemned to suffer torarOn  efusnof petr Flthe wardemnt eath of  pure   ful student will find some use, and the curious be gratified
ture, an effusion of poetry, the ardent breathings of a pure
ture,         in discovering the gradual labours of research and observaand youthful spirit, was addressed to the supposed political  tion;and hat art of seizing on those general conceptions
martyr, by Zouch Townley, of the ancient family of the   which afterwards are developed by meditation, and ilstrwhich afterwards are developed by meditation, and illustraTownleys in Lancashire, to whose last descendant the na-  ted by Genius.  I once thought of accompanying these
tton owes the first public collection of anciest art.~     hints by the amplified and finished passages derived from
* Harl. MSS, 7000. J. Mead to Sir Matt. Stuteville, Sept.  them; but this is an amusement which the reader can
27, 1628.                                                  contrive for himself.  I have extracted the most material
fThe rack, or brake, now in the Tower. was introduced   notes.
by the Duke of Exeter in the reign ofHenry VI, as an auxilia-  This fragment is a companmon piece to the engraved
ry to his project of estab!ishing the civil law in this country;  fac-simile of a page of Pope's Homer in the present voland in derision it was called his daughter. Cowel's Interp.  ume of this work, of which I shall now observe, that there
voc. Rack.
Yoe. Rack.                                                mnever was a morekinuelyperfct copy of a manuscript.
i  This remarkable document is preserved by Dalrymple; it  nv     asme     nt ge          to   o      ausrp
is an indorsement in the hand.writirig of secretary Winwood,  That fac-simile was not given to show the autograph of
respecting the examination of Peacham, a record whose gra.  Pope-a practice which has since so generally prevailed,
duated horrors might have charmed the speculative cruelty of but to exhibit to the eye of the student the fervour and the
a Domitian or a Nero.'Upon these interrogatories, Peacham    diligence required in every work of genius; this could only
this d(ay was examined before torture in torture, between tor-  be done by showing the state of the manuscript itself, with
tire, and after torture; notwithstanding, nothing could be   all its erasures, end even its half formed lines; nor could
drawn from him, he persisting still in his obstinate and insensible denials and former answer.'  Dalrymple's Mem. and   Camder, reprinted by Dr Thomas Smith at the end of Cam.
Letters of James I p. 58.                                  den's Life. Wood's Fasti. I find his name also among the
~ z T(Ownley in 1524 made the Latin oration in memory of  verses addressed to Ben Jonson, prefixed to his work.




LITERATURE.                                                       221
this effect be produced by giving only some of the correc-  much of his fortune.  Grotto. Importance.  Post-osfice:
tions, which Johnson had already in printed characters.-    letters open.
My notion has been approved of, because it was compre-   Cant of despising the world.
hended by writers of genius; yet this fac-simile has been   Akctation of despising poetry.
considered as nothing more than an autograph by those   His easiness about the critics.
literary blockheads, who, without taste and imagination,  Something ojfoppery.
intruding into the province of literature, find themnelves as  His letters to the ladies-pretty.
awkward as a once popular divine, in his' Christian   Abuse of Scripture-not all early.
lalfe,' assures us would certain sinners in paradise-like   Thoughts in his letters that are elsewhere.
pigs in a drawing room.'                                                     ESSAY ON MAAN.
POPE.                             Ramsay missed the fall of man.
Nothing occasional. No haste. No rivals. No com-  Otters the immortality of tl  soul. Address to our So
pulsion.                                                Excluded by Berkley.
Practised only one form of verse.  Facility from use.     BoElingbroke's notions not understood
Emulated former pieces. Cooper's-hill.  Dryden's ode.   Bcale of Being  turn it in prooe.
Affected to disdain flattery.  Not happy in his selection of  Scale and Benot the whole alays said
Patrons.  Cobham, Bollingbroke.*                        Conversion with  ol.  R. 220.*
Cibber's abuse will be better to him than a dose of hartshorn.  Bol meant ill. Pope well.
P'oems longr delayed.                                     Crouzas.   Resnel.  Wlarburton.
Satire and praise late, alluding to something past.       Grouzas.              Warburton.
i  r —--         Good sense. Luxurious —Jblicities of language.
He had always some poetical plan in his head.t            Loved labour-always poetry in his he
Echo to the sense.                                        Loved labour-always poetry in his head.
EVoultd not constrain hime elf too much.                  Extreme sensibility. Ill-health, head-aches.
He never laughed.
Felicities of language.  Watts.r No conversation.
Luxury  of language,                                  No writings against Swift.
Motives to study-want of health, want of money- helps   Parasitical epithets.  Six linesofIliad.
to study-some small patrimony.                          He used to set down what occurred of thoughts-a lin —Prudent andffrugal-pint of wine.                             couplet.
LETTERS.                           The humorous lines and sinner. Prunello.t
First line made for the sound, or v. versa.
Amiable disposition-but he gives his own character.       Foul lines in Jervas.
Elaborate.  Think what to say-say what one thinks.     Al[ore notice of books early than late.
Letter on sickness to Steele.
On solitude.  Ostentatious benevolence.  Professions of                          DUtNCIAD.
sincerity.                                              The line on Phillips borrowed from another poem.
Neglect of fame.  Jndifference about every thing.         Pope did not increase the difficulties of writing.
Sometimes gay and airy, sometimres sober and grave.       Poe pulorum.
Too proud of living among the great.  Probably forward      * Ruffhead's Life of Pope.
to make acquaintance.  No literary man ever talked so' In the Life Johnson says,' Expletives he very ear.y rejected from his verses; but now and then admits an epithet
* He has added in the Life, the name of Burlington.     rather commodious than important. Each of the six first lines
In the Life Johnson gives Swift's complaint that Pope was  of the Iliad might lose two syllables with very little dimunition
never at leisure for conversation, because he had always some   of the meaning; and sometimes after all his art and labour,
poetical scheme in his head.                              one verse seems to be made for the sake of another.'
$ Johnson in the Life has given Wats' ouinion of Poue's    H  has a few double rhymes; but always, I think, unsuc.
Pootical diction.                                         cessfully; except one in the Rape of the Lock. Life of Fope.
EJD  OF THE  FIRST SERIES








CONTENTS OF THE FIRST SERIES.
Page.                                                 pgo
Libraries..   S 3    Metempsychosis,... 
rhe Bibliomania,..,.   5    Spanish etiquette,. 
Literary journals,..   5    The Goths and Huns,..  53
Recovery of manuscripts,.   7    Of vicars of Bray,.                        53
Sketches of criticism,        *..    8    Douglas,           3. 
The persecuted learned,...   9    Critical history of poverty,                      53
Poverty of the learned,..  10    Solomon and Sheba,..  54
Imprisonment of the learned,...  11    Hell,.                    55
Amusements of the learned,..          12    The absent man,.55
Portraits of authors,....  13    Wax-work,                                         55
Destruction of books,...  14    Pasquin and Marforio,..  56
Some notices of lost works,..  17    Female beauty and ornaments,..  57
Quodlibets, or scholastic disquisitions,..  17    Modern Platonism,.  57
Fame contemnled,...          19    Anecdotes of fashion,..             58
The six follies of science,...  19    A senate of Jesuits,..  62
Imitators,.....  19    The lover's heart,.             62
Cicero's puns,.                 20    The history of gloves,...  63
Prefaces,...          20    Relics of saints,..  64
The ancients and moderns,                       21    Perpetual lamps of the ancients,..  65
Some ingenious thoughts,..          21    Natural productions resembling artificial com; psiEarly printing,                                 21       tiois,                                        66
Errata,..  22    The poetical garland of Julia,.. ~        66
Patrons,...                 23    The violet,..  66
Poets, philosophers, and artists made by accident,  24    Tragic actors,.                    67
Inequalities of genius,...          25    Jocular preachers,..          67
Conception and expression,...  25    Masterly imitators,..  69
Geographical diction..  25    Edward the Fourth,.                 70
Legends,....          26    Elizabeth,..  70
The port-royal society,.          27    The chinese language,....  71
The progress of old age in new studies,.       27    Medical music,....      72
Spanish poetry,..  27    Minute writing,...          73
St Evremond,....  28    Numeral figures,..      *  74
Men of genius deficient in conversation,    ~   29    English astrologers,.      *      *      74
Vida..So    Alchymy,....75
The Scuderies,..  50    Titles of books,...  76
De La Rochefoucault..                          31    Literary follies,..                        78
Prior's Hans Carvel,...          31    Literary controversy,.. 81
The student in the metropolis,...             Literary blunders,... 85
The Talmud,..              32    A Literary wife,...  86
Rabbinical stories,.3..                     Dedications,...                 89
On the custom of saluting after sneezing,        4    Philosophical descriptive poems,.          90
Bonaventure de Periers,      *...  Pamphlets,.                               91
Grotius,...  36    Little books,.                                92
Noblemen turned critics,                         6    A Catholic's refutation,..          92
Literary Impostures,..          The good advice of an old literary sinner,      92
Cardinal Richelieu,...  38    Mysteries, moralities, farces, and sotties,.  93
Aristotle and Plato,.                 39    Love and Folly, an ancient morality,.      95
Abelard and Eloisa,.                         40    Religious nouvellettes,.          ~ ~          96
Physiognomy,...            40'Critical sag.acity,' and happy conjecture; c,
Characters described by musical notes,.        41         Bentley's Milton,  -.                     97
Milton,...          41    A Jansenist dictionary,,.                       98
Origin of newspapers,...          42    Manuscripts and books,.                         99
Trials and proofs of guilt in superstitious ages.  44    The Turkish Spy,..             99
Inquisition,. ~. ~  45    Spenser, Jonson, and Shakspeare,. 100
Singularities observed by various nations in their     Ben Jonson, Feltham, and Randolph,.          100
repasts,.....46    Ariosto and Tasso,...         102
Monarchs.                     47    Venice,.... 102
Titles of illustrious, Highness, and Excellence,  47    Bayle,..                              103
Titles of sovereigns,....  48    Cervantes,. 104
Royal Divinities,... 48    Magliabechi,.. 104
Dethroned monarchs,...  49    Abridgers,..., 1(04
Feudal customs,....  49    Professors of plagiarism and obscurity,.        10J
Joan of Are,    *....  50    Literary Dutch,..      ~.         106
Gaming,....          50    The productions of the mind not seizable by cre.
The' Arabic chronicle,... 51                             ditors,....  106




CONTENTS OF THE FIRST SERIES.
Page.                                                  Page.
Critics,...... 107      Popes,.... 145
Anecdotes of authors censured,..      107     Literary composition,.... 145
Virginity,.                108     Poetical imitations and similarities,.. 141
A glance into the French Academy,. 108      Explanation of the fac-simile,... 152
Poetical and grammatical deaths,.. 109      Literary fashions,.... 12
Scarron,.... 110      The pantomimical characters,... 153
Peter Corneille,.                             112     Extempore comedies,..                157
Poets,...... 113      Massinger, Milton. and the Italian theatre,. 159
Romances,... 116      Songs of trades, or songs for the peofle,. 159
The Astrea,...                118    Introducers of exotic flowers, fruits, etc.,. 162
Poets laureate,.. 119      Usurers of the seventeenth century,.. 163
Angelo Politian,.             120     Chidiock Titchbourne,.  166
Original letter of Queen Elizabeth,.         121     Elizabeth and her parliament,. 167
Anne Bullen,... 121      Anecdotes of Prince Henry, the son of' James I,
James I,.. 121                                            when a child,..                171
General Monk and his wife,,. 123      The diary of a master of the ceremonies,. 173
Philip anrd Mary,.... 123    Diaries-moral, historical, and critical,. 176
Charles the First,             ~.. 123      Licensers of the press,.... 178
Duke of Buckingham,.. l              124     Of anagrams and echo verses,... 182
The death of Chtarles IX,.. 125    Orthography of proper names,. 184
Royal promotions,. 126    Names of our streets,..                185
Nobility,...                       126    Secret history of Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford,. 185
Modes of salutation, and amicable ceremonies, ob-      Ancient cookery and cooks,... 186
served in various nations,..     126    Ancient and modern Saturnaha,.. 189
Singularities of war,...         127     Reliqute Gethiniane,.... 192
Fire, and the origin of fire works,.. 127      Robinson Crusoe,... 193
The Bible prohibited and improved,             128     Catholic and protestant dramas,... 194
Origin of the materials of writing,. 129      The history of the theatre during its suppression,  195
Anecdotes of European manners,.. 131      Drinking-customs in England,... 198
The early drama,.... 133    Literary anecdotes,... 200
The marriage of the arts,.. 134      Condemned poets,.... 201
A contrivance in dramatic dialogue,. 135      Acajou and Zirphile,... 202
The comedy of a madman,... 135      Tom O'Bedlams,.... 203
Solitude,... 136    Introduction oftea, coffee, and chocolate,. 204
Literary friendships,.        137     Charles the First's love of the fine arts,.. 207
Anecdotes of abstraction of mind,. 138      The secret history of Charles I, and his queen
Richardson,...         139       Henrietta,..209
Theological style,...         140     The minister-the cardinal duke of Richelieu,. 212
Influence of names,.            140     The minister-duke of Buckingham, lord admiralj
The Jews of York,... 143       lord general, &c, &c, &c,... 214
The sovereignty of the seas,.         144    Felton, the political assassin,. 218
On tne custom of kissing hands,.      144    Johnson's hints for the life of Pope,.      - 




SECOND SERIES




PREFACE.
11 may be useful to state the design of the present volume, which
differs in its character from the preceding Series.
The form of essay-writing, were it now moulded even by the hand of
the Raphael of Essayists, would fail in the attraction of novelty; lMorality would now in vain repeat its counsels in a fugitive page, and
Manners now offer but little variety to supply one. The progress of
the human mind has been marked by the enlargement of our knowledge; and essay-writing seems to have closed with the century which
it charmed and enlightened.
I have often thought that an occasional recurrence to speculations on
human affairs, as they appear in private and in public history, and to
other curious inquiries in literature and philosophy, would form some
substitute for this mode of writing. These Researches, therefore, offer
authentic knowledge for evanescent topics; they attempt to demonstrate some general principle, by induction from a variety of particulars
-to develop those imperfect truths which float obscurely in the mindand to suggest subjects, which, by their singularity, ale new to inquiry,
and which may lead to new trains of ideas.  Such Researches will
often form supplements to our previous knowledge.
In accustoming ourselves to discoveries of this nature, every research
seems to yield the agreeable feeling of invention-it is a pleasure peculiar to itself-something which we ourselves have found out — and
which, whenever it imparts novelty or interest to another, communicates
t" him the delight of the first discoverer.




CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE.
IOfIERNY LITERATURE, BAYLE S CRITICAL DICTIONARY.  taln the substantial nourishment of European knowledge,
a library of ten thousand volumes will not satisfy our inl
A new edition of Bayle in France is now in a progres-  quiries, nor supply our reasearches even on a single topic!
sive state of publication; an event in literary history which  Let not, however, the votaries of ancient literature dread
could not have been easily predicted. Every work which  its neglect, nor be over jealous of their younger and Gothia
creates an epoch in literature is one of the great monu-  sister.  The existence of their favourite study is secured,
merits of the human mind; and Bayle may be considered   as well by its own imperishable clainis, as by the stationa.
as the father of literary curiosity, and of Modern Literature.  ry institwtions of Europe.  But one of those silent revo,
Much has been alleged against our author: yet let us be  lutions in the intellectual history of mankind, which are
careful to preserve what is precious.  Bayle is the invent-  not so obvious as those in their political state, seems now
or of a work which dignified a collection of facts constitut-  fully accomplished.  The very term' classical,' so long
iag his text, by the argumentative powers and the copious  limited to the ancient authors, is now equally applicable to
fi'ustrations which charm us in his diversified commentary.  the most elegant writers of every literary people; and alConducting the humble pursuits of an Aulus Gellius and an  though Latin and Greek were long characterized as' the
Atheneus, with a higher spirit he showed us the philoso-  learned languages,' vet we cannot in truth any longer con.
phy of Books, and communicated to such limited researches  cede that those are the most learned who are' inter Grie.
a value which they had otherwise not possessed.          cos Grmecissimi, inter Latinos Latinissimi,' any more thap
This was introducing a study perfectly distinct from   we can reject from the class of' the learned,' those great
what is pre-eminently distinguished as' classical learn.  writers, whose scholarship in the ancient classics may be
ing,' and the subjects which had usually entered into phi-  very indifferent.  The modern languages now have alsc
lological pursuits.  Ancient literature, from  century to  become learned ones, when he who writes in them is im.
century, had constituted the sole labours of the learned,  bued with their respective learning. He is a' learned'wriand' Varia  lectiones' were long their pride and  their  ter who has embraced most knowledge on the particular
reward.  Latin was the literary language of Europe.  subject of his investigation, as he is a' classical' one who
The vernacular idiom in Italy was held in such contempt,  composes with the greatest elegance.  Sir David Dalthat their youths were not suffered to read Italian books;  rymple dedicates his' Memorials relating to the History
their native productions; Varchi tells a curious anecdote  of Britain' to the Earl of Hardwicke, whom he styles
of his father sending him to prison, where he was kept on  with equal happiness and propriety,' Learned in British
bread and water, as a penance for his inveterate passion   History.'' Scholarship' has hitherto been a term reservfor reading Italian books! Dante was reproached by the  ed for the adept in ancient literiature, whatever may be the
erudite Italians for composimg in his mother tongue, still  mediocrity of his intellect; but the honourable distinction
expressed by the deerading designation of ii voltare, which   must be extended to all great writers in modern literature,
ihe'resolute' John Florio renders' to make common;' and  if we would not confound the natural sense and propriety
to translate was contemptuously called volgarizzare; while  of things.
Petrarch rested his fame on his Latin poetry, and called   Modern literature may, perhaps, still be discriminated
his Italian nugellas vulgares! WTith us, Roger Ascham   from the ancient, by a term it began to be called by at the
was the first who boldly avowed' To speak as the common  Reformation, that of' the New Learning.' Without suppeople, to think us wise men;' yet, so late as the time of  planting the ancient, the modern must grow up with it; the
Bacon, this great man did not consider his' Moral Essays  further we advance in society, it will more deeply occupy
ts likelv to last in the moveable sands of a modern lan-  our interests; and it has already proved what Bacon,
guage, for he as anxiously had them sculptured in the mar-  casting his philosophical views retrospectively and prosfle of ancient Rome. Yet what had the great ancients  pectively, has observed,'that Time was the greatest of
themselves done, but trusted to their own volgare?  The  innovators.'
Greeks, the finest and most original writers of the ancints,    When D3ayle projected his'Critical Dictionary,' he
observes Adam Ferguson,' were unacqusainted with every  probably had no idea that he was about effecting a revolanguage hut their own; and if they became learned, it  lution in our libraries, and founding a new province in the
was only by studying what they themselves had produced.'  dominion of human knowledge; creative genius often is
During foulrteen centuries, whatever lay out of the pale  itself the creature of its own age: it is but that reactimn
of classical learning was condemned as barbarism; in the  of public opinion, which is generally the fore-runner of
mean while, howvever, amidst this barbarism, another lite-  some critical change,or which calls borth some wants which
rature was insensibly creating itself in Europe.  Every  sooner or later will be supplied.  The predisposition for
people, in tlie gr.dual accessions of their vernacular genius,  the various, but neglected literature, and the curious, but
discovered a new sort of knowledge, one which more deep-  the scattered knowledge, of the moderns, which had long
lv interested their feelings and the times, reflecting the  been increasing, with the speculative turn of inquiry, preimnae, riot of the Greeks and the Latins, but of themselves!  vailed in Europe, when Bayle toolt his pen to give thle
A spirit of inquiry, originating in events which had never  thing itself a name and an existence.  But the great au.
reached the ancient world, and the same refined taste in  thors of modern Europe were not yet consecrated beings,
the arts of ctmposition caught from the models of antiquity,  like the ancients, and their volumes were not read from
at length raised tlp rivals, who competed with the great  the chairs of universities; yet the new interests which had
ancients themselves; and Modern Literature now occu-  arisen in society, the new modes of human life, the new
pies a space which looks to be imnmensity, compared with  spread of knowledge, the curiosity after even the little
the narrow and the imperfect limits of the ancient.  A   things which concern us, the revelations of secret history,'omnplete collection of classical works, all the bees of an-  and the state papers which have sometimes escaped fromm
tiquity, may be hived in a glass case; but those we  national archives, the philosophical spirit which was has.
should fnd only the milk and honey of our youth; to ohb-  tening its steps and raising up new systems of thinking



228                                    CURIOSITIES OF
all alike required research and criticism, inquiry and dis-  worthless book, are equally objects for his speculation with
cussion,   Bayle had first studied his own age, before he  the most eninent-they alike curiously instruct. Such
gave the public his great work.                         were the materials, and such the genius of the man, whose' If Bayle,' says Gibbon,' wrote his dictionary to empty  follios, which seemned destined for the retired few, lie open
the various collections he had made, without any particu-  on parlour tables. The men of genius of his age studied
lar design, he could not have chosen a better plan. It per-  them for instruction, the men of the world for their arnusemitted him every thing, and obliged him to nothing.  By  ment. Amidst the mass of facts which he has collected,
the double freedom of a dictionary and of notes, he could  and the enlarged views of human nature which his philopitch on what articles he pleased, and sa) what he pleas-  sopliical spirit has combined with his researcher, Bayie
ed in those articles.                                   may be called the Shakspeare of dictionary makers; a' Jacta est a.a i' exclaimed Bayle, on the publication of  sort of chimerical being, whose existence was not imagined
his dictionary, as yet dubious of the extraordinary enter-  to be possible before the time of Bayle.
prise: perhaps while going on with the work, he knew not    But his errors are voluminous as his genius! and what
at times, whither he was directing his course; but we  do apologies avail?  They only account for the evilwhich
must think, that in his own mind he counted on something,  they cannot alter!
which might have been difficult even for Bayle himself to  Bayle is reproached for carrying his speculations too
have developed. The author of the' Critical Dictionary'  far into the wilds of scepticismn-he wrote in a distempered
had produced a voluminous labour, which, to all appear-  time; he was witnessing the dragonsdes and the revocaance, could only rank him among compilers and reviewers,  tions of the Romish church; and he lived amidst the Refor his work is formed of such materials as they might use.  formed, or the French prophets, as we called them when
He had never studied any science; he confessed that he  they came over us, and in whom Sir Isaac Nesvton more
could never demonstrate the first problem in Euclid, and  than half believed; these testified that they heard angels
to his last day ridiculed that sort of evidence called mathe-  singiiig in the air, while our philosopher was convinced that
matical demonstration. He had but little taste for classi-  he was living among men for whom no angel would sing!
cal learning, fbr he quotes the Latin writers curiously, not  Bayle had left persecutors to fly to fanatics, both equally
elegantly; and there is reason to suspect that he had en-  appealing to the Gospel, but alike untouched by its blestirely neglected the Greek. Even the erudition of antiquity  sedness! His impurities were a taste inherited from his
usually reached him by the ready medium of some German   favourite old writers, whose naivetd seemed to sport with
Commentator. His multifarious reading was chiefly con-  the grossness which it touched, and neither in France, not
fined to the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-  at home, had the age then attained to our moral delicacy:
turies.  With such deficiencies in his literary character,  Bayle himself was a man without passions! His trivial
Bayle could not reasonably expect to obtain pre-eminence   matters were an author's compliance with the bookseller's
in any single pursuit.  Hitherto his writings had not extri-  taste, which is always that of the public. His scepticism
cated him from the secondary ranks of literature, where  is said to have thrown every thing into disorder. Is it
he found a rival at every step; and without his great work,  more positive evil to doubt, than to doginatise?  Even
the name of Bayle at this moment had been buried among  Aristotle often pauses with a qualifying perhaps, and the
his controversialists, the rabid Jurieu, the cloudy Jacque-  egotist Cicero with a modest it seems to me. His sceptilot, and the envious Le Clerc; to these, indeed, he sacri-  cism  has been useful in history, and has often shown how
ficed too many of his valuable days, and was still answer-  facts universally believed, are doubtful and sometimes mus'
ing them, at the hour of his death. Such was the cloudy   be false. Bayle, it is said, is perpetually contradicting
horizon of that bright fame which was to rise over Europe!  himself; but a sceptic must doubt his doubts; lie places
Bayle, intent on escaping from all beaten tracks, while  the antidote close to the poison, and lays the sheath by
the very materials he used promised no novelty, for all  the sword. Bayle has himself described one of those
his knowledge was drawn from old books, opened an eccen-  self-tormenting and many headed sceptics by a very noble
tric route, where at least he could encounter no parallel;  figure,'He was a Hydra who was perpetually tearing
Bayle felt that if he could not stand alone, he would only  himself.'
have been an equal by the side of another. Experience     The time has now come when Bayle may instruct with
had more than once taught this mortifying lesson; but he  out danger. We have passed the ordeals he had to go
was blest with the genius which could stamp an inimitable  through; we must now consider him as the historian of
originality on a folio.                                 our thoughts as well as of our actions; he dispenses the
This originality seems to have been obtained in this  literary stores of the moderns, in that vast repository of
manner.  The exhausted topics of classical literature he  their wisdom and their follies, which, by its originality of
resigned as a province not adapted to an ambitious genius;  design, has made him an author common to all Europe.
sciences he rarely touched on, and hardly ever with-  Nowhere shall we find a rival for Bayle! and hardly even
out betraying superficial knowledge, and involving him.  an imitator! He compared himself, for his power of raisself. in absurdity: but in the history of men, in penetrate  ing up, or dispelling objections and doubts, to'the cloud.
ing the motives of their conduct, in clearing up obscure  compelling Jove,' The great Leibnitz, who was himself
circumstances, in detecting the strong and the weak parts  a lover of his varia eruditio, applied a line of Virgil to
of him who he was trying, and in the cross-examination of  Bayle, characterising his luminous and elevated genius 
the numerous witnesses he summoned, he assumed at' Sub pedibusque videt nubes et sideras Daphnis.'
once the judge and the advocate!  Books for him were         Beneath his feet he views the clouds and stars.
pictures of men's inventions, and the histories of their
thoughts; for any book, whatever be its quality, must be            CHARACTERISTICS  OF BAYLE.
considered as an experiment of the human mind.            To know Bayle as a man, we must not study him in the
In controversies, in which he was so ambi-dexterous-   folio Life of Des Maiseaux; whose laborious pencil, within the progress of the human mind, in which he was so philo-  out colour, and without expression, loses in its indistinct.
sophical-furnished, too, by his hoarding curiosity with an   ness the individualising strokes of the portrait. Look for
immense accumulation of details, —skilful in the art of  Bayle in his' Letters,> those true chronicles of a literary
detecting falsehoods amidst truths, and weighing proba-  man, when they solely record his own pursuits.
bility against uncertainty-holding together the chain of    The personal character of Bayle was unblemished even
argument from its first principles, to its remotest conse-  by calumny-his executor, Basnage, never could mention
quence-Bayle stands among those masters of the human   him without tears! With simplicity which approached to
intellect who taught us to think, and also to unthink! All,  an infantine nature, but with the fortitude of a Stoic, our
indeed, is a collection of researches and reasonings: he  literary philosopher, from his earliest days, dedicated himhad the art of meltingf down his curious quotations with  self to literature; the great sacrifice consisted of those
his own subtile ideas. He collects every thing: if truths,  two main objects of human pursuits-fortune and a famithey enter into histoi v; if fictions, into discussions: he  ly. Many an ascetic, who has headed an order, has not
places the secret by the side of the public story: opinion   so religiously abstained from all worldly interests; yet let
is balanced against opinion: if his arguments grow te-  us not imagine that there was a sullenness in his stoicism:
dious, a lucky anecdoie or an eillivening tale relieve the   an icy misanthropy which shuts up the heart from its eht
folio page; and, knowing the infirmity of our nature, he  and flow. His domestic affections through life were ferpicks up trivial thines to amuse us, while he is grasping  vid. When his mother desired to receive his portrait, he
the most abstract and ponderous.  Hutman nature in her  sent her a picture of his heart! Early in life the mind of
shifting scenery, anti the human mind in its eccentric direc-  Bayle was strengthening itself by a philosophical resignsa
tons, open on his view; so that an unknlown person or a   tion to all human events!




LITERATURE.                                                        229
I am indeed of a disposition neither to fear bad fortune,  mestic cares; never soliciting for preferment, nor busied
nor to have very ardent desires for good. Yet I lose this  in any other way. I have been happily delivered from
steadiness and indifference when I reflect, that your love  many occupations which were not suitable to my huto me makes you feel for every thing that happens to me.  mour; and I have enjoyed the greatest and the most
It is, therefore, from the consideration that my misfortunes  charming leisure that a man of letters could desire. By
would be a torment to you, that I wish to be happy; and  such means an author makes a great progress in a few
when I think that my happiness would be all your joy, I  years.'
should lament that my bad fortune should continue to per-    Bayle, at Rotterdam, was appointed to a professorship
secute me; though, as to my own particular interest, I dare  of philosophy and history; the salary was a competence
promise to myself that I shall never be very much affected  to his frugal life, and enabled him to publish his celebrated
by it.'                                                 Review, which he dedicates' to the glory of the city,' for
An instance occurred of those social affections in which  illa nobis hvec otiafecit.
a stoic is sometimes supposed to be deficient, which might    After this grateful acknowledgment he was unexpecthave afforded a beautiful illustration to one of our most  edly deprived of' the professorship.  The secret history:s
elegant poets. The remembrance of the happy nloments  curious. After a tedious war, some one amuised the world
which Bayle spent when vo-lng on'the borders of the river  by a chimerical'Project of Peace,' which was much
Auriege, a short distance from his native town of Carlat,  against the wishes and the designs of our William III.where he had been sent to recover from a fever, occasion-  Jurieu, the head of the Reformed party in Holland, a man
ed by an excessive indulgence in reading, induced him   of heated fancies, persuaded WVilliam's party that this
many years afterwards to devote an article to it in his  book was a part of a secret cabal in Europe, raised by' Critical Dictionary,' for the sake of quoting the poet who  Louis XIV against William III; and accused Bayle as
had celebrated this obscure river; it was a' Pleasure of  the author and promoter of this political confederacy. The
Memory!' a tender association of domestic feeling!    magistrates, who were the creatures of VWilliaili, dismiss.
The first step which Bayle took in life is remarkable.-  ed Bayle without alleging any reason. To an ordinary
He changed his religion and became a Catholic; a year  philosopher it would have seemed hard to lose his salary
a.fterwards he returned to the creed of his fathers. Pos-.  because his antagonist was one
terity might not have known the story had it not been re-'Whose sword is sharper than his pen.'
corded in his Diary.  The circumstance is thus curiously  Bayle only rejoiced at this emancipation, and q.ietly
returned to his Dictionary. His feelings on this occasion
BAYLE'S DIARY                         he has himself perpetuated.
Years ofthe                Years'The sweetness and repose I find in the studies in
Christian                 of my                        which I have engaged myself, and which are my delight,
EMra.                    age.                        will induce me to remain in this city, if I am allowed to
t69.  Tuesdlay, March 19.   2d I changed my religon-   continue in it, at least till the printing of my Dictionary
next day I resumed the  is finished; for my presence is absolutely necessary to the
study of logic.  place where it is printed. I am no lover of money, nor'670.          August 20    23 I returned to the reform-  of honours, and would not accept of any invitation, should
ed religion, and made a  it be nimade to ale; nor am  I fond of the disputes and ca.
private abjuration of the  bals, and professorial snarlings, which reign in all our aca-.
Romish religion in the  demies: Canam mihi et Music.' He was indeed so charm.
hands of four ministers!  ed by quiet and independence, that he was continually re.
His brother was one of these ministers; while a Cath-  fusing the most magnificent offers of patronage: from
olic, Bayle had attempted to convert him by a letter, long   Count Guiscard, the French ambassador; but particularly
enough to evince his sincerity: but without his subscrip-  from our English nobility.  The Earls of Shaftesbury, of
tion, we should not have ascribed it to Bayle.          Albermarle, and of Huntingdon, tried every solicitation to
For this vacillation in his religion has Bayle endured   win him over to reside with them as their friend; and too
bitter censure. Gibbon, who kimself changed his, about  nice a sense of honour induced Bayle to refuse the Duke
the same' year of his age,' and for as short a period, sar-  of Shrewsbury's gift of two hundred guineas for the dedi.
castically observes of the first entry, that Bayle should  cation of his dictionary,' I have so often ridiculed dedications
have finished his logic before he changed his religion.' It  that I must not risk any,' was the reply of our philosopher.
nmay be retorted, that when he had learnt to reason, he   The only complaint which escaped from Bayle was the
renounced Catholicism! The true fact is, that when   want of books; an evil particularly felt during his writing
Bayle had only studied a few months at college, some  the' Critical Dictionary;' a work which should have been
books of controversial divinity by the Catholics, offered  composed not distant from the shelves of a public library.
maiy a specious argument against the reformed doctrines;  Men of classical attainments, who are studying about
a young student was easily entangled in the nets of the  twenty authors, and chiefly for theirstyle, can form no
Jesuits. But their passive obedience, and their transub-  conception of the state of famine to which an' helluo lib.
stantiation, and other stuff woven in their looms, soon  rorum' is too often reduced in the new sort of'study which
enabled such a man as Bayle to recover his senses. The   Bayle founded. Taste when once obtained may be said
promises and the caresses of the wily Jesuits were reject-  to be no acquiring faculty, and must remain stationary;
ed, and the gush of tears of the brothers, on his return to  but Knowledge is of perpetual growth, and has infinite dethe religion of his fathers, is one of the most pathetic in-  mands. Taste, like an artificial canal, winds through a
cidents of domestic life.                               beautiful country; but its borders are confined, and its
Bayle was willing to become an expatriated man; to  term is limited; Knowledge navigates the ocean. and is
study from the love of study, in poverty and honour! It  perpetually on voyages of discovery. Bayle often grieves
happens sometimes that great men are criminated for their  over the scarcity, or the want of books, by which he was
noblest deeds by both parties.                          compelled to leave many things uncertain, or to take them
When his great work appeared, the adversaries of  at second hand  but he lived to discover that trusting to
Bayle reproached him  with haste, while the author ex.  the reports of others, was too often suffering the blind to
pressed his astonishment at his slowness. At first' the  lead the blind. It was this circumstance which induced
Critical Dictionary,' consisting only of two folios, was fin-  Bayle to declare, that some works cannot be written in the
ished in little more than four years; but in the life of  country, and that the metropolis only can supply the wants
Bayle this was equivalent to a treble amount with men of  of the literary man. Plutarch has made a similar confesordinary application. Bayle even calculated the time of  sion; and the elder Pliny who had not so many volumes to
his head-aches;' My megrims would have left me had it  turn over as a modern, was sensible to the wants of books,
been in my power to have lived without study; by them I  for he acknowledges that there was no book so bad by
lose nianv days in every month'-the fact is, that Bayle   which we might not profit.
had entirely given up every sort of recreation except that    Bayle's peculiar vein of research and skill in discus.
delicious inebriation of his faculties, as we may term it  sion first appeared in his' Pensees sur la Comete.' In
for those who know what it is, which he drew from  his  December, 1680. a comet had appeared, and the public
books: we have his avowal.' Public amusements, games,  yet trembled at a portentous meteor, which they still imacountry jaunts, morning visits, and other recreations ne-  gined was connected with some forthcoming and terrible
cessary to many students, as they tell us, were none of  event! Persons as curious as they were terrified teased
my business. I wasted no time on them, nor in any do-  Bayle by their inquiries, but resisted all his arguments




230                                   CURIOSITIES OF
They found many things more than arguments in his amus-  thoughts, or that he ought to quote very seldom.  Those
ing volumes:' I am not one of the authors by profession,'  who say, that the work does not sufficiently interest the
says Bayle, in giving an account of the method he meant  public, are doubtless in the right; but an author cannot
to pursue,' who follow a series of views; who first project  interest the public except he discusses moral or political
their subject, then divide it into books and chapters, and   subjects. All others with which men of letters fill their
who only choose to work on the ideas they have planned.  books are useless to the public and we ouhSt to con1, for my part, give tip all claims to authorship, and shall  sider them  as only a kind of frothy nourishment in them
chain myself to no such servitude. I cannot meditate with  selves; but which, however, gratify the curiosity of many
much regularity on one subject; I am too fond of change.  readers, according to the diversities of their tastes. What
I often wander from  the subject, and jump into places of  is there for example, less interesting to the public than
which it might be difficult to guess the way out; so that I   the Bibliothqoue Choisie of Colomids (a small bibliographi
shall make a learned doctor who looks for method quite lm-  cal work;) yet is that work looked on as excellent in its
patient with me.' The work is indeed full of curiosities  kind. I could mention other works which are read, though
and anecdotes, with many critical ones concerning history.  containing nothing which interests the public.' Two years
At first it found an easy entrance into France, as a sitn-  after, when he resumed these letters, he changed his plan;
pie account of comets; but when it was discovered that  he became more argumentative, and more sparing of lite.
bayle's comet had a number of fiery tails concerning the   rary and historical articles.  We have now certainly obFrench and the Austrians, it soon became as terrific as  tained more decided notions of the nature of this species
the comet itself, and was prohibited!                   of composition, and treat such investigations with more
Bayle's' Critique generale de l'histoire du Calvinisme   skill; still they are' caviare to the multitude.' An accu.
par le Pere MVIaimbourg,' had more pleasantry than bitter.  mulation of dry facts, without any exertion of taste or disness, except to the palate of the vindictive Father, who   cussion, forms but the barren and obscure diligence of
was of too hot a constitution to relish the delicacy of our  title-hunters.  All things which come to the reader with.
author's wit. Maimbourg stirred up all the intrigues he   out having first passed through the mind, as well as the
could rouse to get the Critique burnt by the hangman at  pen of the writer, will be still open to the fatal (c'ection of
Paris.  The lieutenant of the police, De la Reynie, who  insane industry raging with a depraved appetite %er trash
was among the many who did not dislike to see the Father  and cinders; and this is the line of demarcation which will
corrected by Bayle, delayed this execution from  time to  for ever separate a Bayle from a Prosper Marchand, and
time, till there came a final order. This lieutenant of the   a Warton friom a Ritson: the one must be satisfied to be
police was a shrewd fellow, and wishing to put an odium   useful, but the other will not fail to delight.  Yet someon the bigoted Maimbourg, allowed the irrascible Father to  thing must be alleged in favour of those who may somnewrite the proclamation himself with all the violence of an  times indulge researches too minutely; perhaps there is a
enraged author. It is a curious specimen of one who evi-  point beyond which nothing remains but useless curiosity;
dently wished to burn his brother with his book.  In this  yet this too may be relative. The pleasure of these pur.
curious proclamation, which has been preserved as a litera-  suits is only tasted by those who are accustomed to them,
ry curiosity, Bayle's' Critique' is declared to be defamato-  and whose employments are thus converted into amuse.
ry and calumnious, abounding with seditious forgeries, per-  ments. A man of fine genius, Addison relates, trained up
nlcious to all good subjects, and therefore is condemned to  in all the polite studies of antiquity, upon being obliged to
be torn to pieces, and burnt at the Place de Greve. All  search into several rolls and records, at first found this a
printers and booksellers are forbidden to print, or to sell,  very dry and irksome employment; yet he assured me,
or disperse the said abominable book, under pain of death;  that at last he took an incredible pleasure in it, and preand all other persons, of what quality or condition soever,  ferred it even to the reading of Virgil and Cicero.
are to undergo the penalty of exemplary punishment.  De    As for our Bayle, he exhibits a perfect model of the real
le Reynie must have smiled on submissively receiving this  literary character. He, with the secret alchymrny of human
effusion from our enraged author; and to punish Maim-  happiness, extracted his tranquillity out of the baser metals,
bourg in the only way he could contrive, and to do at the   at the cost of his ambition and his fortune.  Throughout
same timie the greatest kindness to Bayle, whom he ad-  a voluminous work, he experienced the enjoyment of per.
mired, he dispersed three thousand copies of this proclama-   petual acquisition and delight; he obtained glory, and he
tion to be posted tip through Paris: the alarm and the cu-  endured persecution.  He died as he had lived, in the
riosity were simultaneous; but the latter prevailed. Every  same uninterrupted habits of composition; for with his
book collector hastened to procure a copy so terrifically de-  dying hand, and nearly speechless, he sent a fresh proof
nounced, and at the same time so amusing.  The author  to the printer!
of the' Livres condamne an feu' might have inserted this
anecdote in his collection. It may be worth adding, that           CICERO VIEWED AS A COLLECTOR.
Maitnbourg alwavs affected to say that he had never read   Mr Fuseli, in the introduction to the second part of his
Bayle's work; but he afterwards confessed to Menage,  Lectures, has touched on the character of Cicero, respectthat he could not help valuing a book of such curiosity.  ing his knowledge and feeling of Art, in a manner which
Jurieu was so jealous of its success, that Beauval attributes   excites our curiosity.' Though,' says that eloquent lechis personal hatred of Bayle to our young philosopher  turer,' Cicero seems to have had as little native taste for
overshadowing that veteran.                              painting and sculpture, and even less than he had taste for
The taste for literary history we owe to Bayle; and the   poetry, he had a conception of Nature, and with his usual
great interest he communicated to these researches spread   acumen frequently scattered  useful hints and pertinent
in the national tastes of Europe. France has been always   observations. For many of these he might probably be
the richest in these stores, bitut our acquisitions have been  indebted to Hortensius, with whom, though his rival in
rapid; and Johnson, who delighted in them, elevated their  eloquence, he lived on terms of familiarity, and who was a
means and their end, by the ethical philosophy and the   man of declared taste, and one of the first collectors of the
spirit of criticism which he awoke. With Bayle. indeed,  time.' The inquiry may amuse, to trace the progress of
his minor works were the seed-plots; but his great Dic-   Cicero's taste for the works of art; which was probably a
tionary opened the forest.                               late, but an ardent pursuit with this celebrated man; and
It is curious, however, to detect the difficulties of early  their actual enjoyment seems with him rather to have been
attempts, and the irndifferent success which sometimes at-  connected with some future plan of life.
tends them in their first state. Bayle, to lighten the fa-  Cicero, when about forty-three years of age. seems to
tigue of correcting the second edition of his Dictionary,  have projected the formation of a library and a collection
wrote the first volume of' Responses aux Questions d'un   of antiquities, with the remote intention of secession, and
Provincial,' a supposititious correspondence with a country   one day stealing away from the noisy honours of the regentleman.  It was a work of mere literary curiosity, and   public. Although that great man remained too long a
of a better description of miscellaneous writing than that  victim to his political ambition, yet at all times his natural
of the prevalent fashion of giving thoughts and maxims,  dispositions would break out, and amidst his public avocat,
and fanciful characters, and idle stories, which had satiated   tions he often anticipated a time when life would be unthe public taste: however the book was not well received.   valtued without uninterrupted repose: but repose, destitute
He attributes the public caprice to his prodigality of litera-   of the ample furniture, and even of the luxuries of a mind
rv anecdotes, a nd other minutiae literarice, and his frequent  occupying itself in literature and art, would only for him
quotations! buth he defends himself with skill.' It is against  have opened the repose of a desert!  It u-as rather his
the nature of thinas to pretend that in a work to prove and   provident wisdom than their actual enjoyment, which inclear up facts, an author should only make use of his own   duced him, at a busied period of his life, to accumulate




LIT E RATURE.                                                         231
from all parts, books, and statues, and curiosities, without   boy,' as MNiddleton expresses himself, were all literary and
inumber; in a word, to become, according to the term, too   skilful scribes, in copying the works of the best authors for
often misapplied and misconceived among us, tdr it is not  his own use; but the duplicates were sold, to the common
always understood in an honourable sense, a collector!      profit of the master and the slave.  The state of literature
Like other later collectors, Cicero often appears ardent  among the ancients may be paralleled with that of the age
to possess what he was not able to command; sometimes   of our first restorers of learning, when priting was not yet
he entreats, or circuitously negociates, or is planning the   established; then Boccaccio, and Petrarch, and such men,
future means to secure the acquisitions which he thirsted   were collectors, and zealously occupied in the manual laafter. He is repeatedly soliciting his literary friend Atticus   hour of transcription; immeasurable was the delight (f
to keep his books for him, and not to dispose of his collec-  that avariciousness of manuscript, by which, in a certain
tions on any terms, however earnestly the bidders may   given time, the possessor, with an unwearied pen, could
crowd; and, to keep his patience in good hope (for Atti-  enrich himself by his copy; and this copy an estate would
cus imagined his collection would exceed the price which   not always purchase! Besides that a manuscript selected
Cicero could afford,) he desires Atticus not to despair of   by Atticus, or copied by the hand of Boccaccio and Pehis being able to make them his, for that lie was saving all  trarch, must have risen in value, associating it with the
hisrents to purchase these books for the relief of his  known taste and judgment of the collector.
old age.
This projected library, and collection of antiquities, it            TE HISOR  OP THE   RA.
was the intention of Cicero to have placed in his favourite   The congenial histories of literature and of art are acvilla in the neighbourhood of Rome, whose name, conse-   companied by the same periodical revolutions; and none
crated by time, now proverbially describes the retirement  is more interesting than ihat one which occurs in the deof a man of elegant tastes.  To adorn his villa at Tusc-   dcline and corruption of arts, nihen a single mind returning
lum formed the day-dreams of this man of genius; and his  to right principles, amidst the degenerated race who had
passion broke out in all the enthusiasm  and imnatience   forsaken them, seems to create a new epoch, and teaches
which so frequently characterize the modern collector.  a servile race once nmore how to invent! These epochs are
Not only Atticus, on whose fine taste he could depend, but  few, but are easily distinguished. The human mind is rnoevery one likely to increase his acquisitions, was Cicero   ver stationary; it advances or it retrogrades; having
persecuting with entreaties, on entreaties, with the seduc-   reached its meridian point, when the holtr of perfection
lion of large prices, and with the expectation, that if the   has gone by, it must verge to its decline.  In all Art, perorator and consul would submit to accept any bribe, it  fection lapses into that weakened state too often digniwould hardly be refused in the shape of a manuscript or a   fled as classical imitation; but it sinks into mannerism, and
statue.'In the name of our friendship,' says Cicero, ad-  wantons into affectation, till it shoots out into fantastic
dressing Atticus,  suffer nothing to escape you of what-  novelties.  When all languishes in a state of mediocrity,
ever you find curious or rare.' When Atticus informed   or is deformed by false tastes, then is reserved for a forhim  that he should send him  a fine statue, in which the   tunate genius the glory of restoring another golden age of
heads of Mercury and Minerva were united together,  invention.  The history of the Caracci family serves as
Cicero, with the enthusiasm  rf a maniacal lover of the pre-   an admirable illustration of such an epoch, while the per.,
sent day, finds every object which is uncommon the very   sonal characters ofthe three Caraccis throw an additional
thing for which hlie has a proper place.'Your discovery  interest over this curious incident in the history of the
is admirable, and the statue you mention seems to have   works of genius.
been made purposely for my cabinet.'  Then follows an         The establishment of the famous accadermie, or school of
explanation of the mystery of this allegorical statue, which   painting, at Bologna, which restored the art in the last
expressed the happy union of exercise and study.'Con-  stage of degeneracy, originated in the profound meditations
finue,' he adds,' to collect for me, as you have promised,  of Lodovico.  There was a happy boldness in the idea;;n as great a quantity as possible, morsels of this kind.'  but its great singularity was that of discovering those men:-Jicero, like other collectors, may be suspected not to have   of genius, who alone could realize his ideal conception,
been very difficult in his choice, and fir him the curious   amidst his own family circle; and yet these were men
was not less valued than the beautiful.  The mind and   whose opposite dispositions and acquirements could hardly
temper of Cicero were of a robust anid philosophical cast,  have given any hope of mutual assistance; and much less
not too subject to the tortures of those whose morbid ima-   of melting together their minds and their work in such uniginaticn and delicacy of taste touch on infirmity.  It is,  ty of conception and execution, that even to our days they
however, amusing to observe this great man, actuated bhy  leave the critics undetermined which of the Caraccis to
all the fervour arid joy of collecting.' I have paid your  prefer; each excelling the other in some pictorial quality.
agent-as you ordered, for the Megaric statues-send me   Often combining together in the same picture, the mingled
as many of them as you can, and as soon as possible, witih  labour of three painters seenmed to proceed firom  one pallet,
anrty others which you think proper for the place, arnd to  as their works exhibit which adorn the churches of Boleigmy taste, and good enough to please yours. You cannot  na.  They still disputed about a picture, to ascertain
imagine how greatly my passion increases for this sort of   which of the Caraccis painted it; and still one prefers
things; it is such that it may appear ridiculous in the eyes   Lodevico for his grandiocita, another Agostino for his inof many; hut you are my friend, and will only think of  vention, and others Annibale for his viaour or his grace.'
satisfyin( my wishes.' Again —' Pirchase for me, with-        What has beon told of others, happened to Lodovice Ca.
out thinking further, all that you discover of rarity.  My   racci in his you,; he struggled with a mind tardy in its confriend, do not spare my purse.' And, indeed, in another  ceptions, so that he gave no indications of talent; and was
place he loves Atticus both for his promptitude and cheap   apparently so inept as to have been advised by two masIpurchases: Te multum amamtus, quod ea abs te diligenter,  ters to be satisfied to grind the colours he ought not othervarnoque curata sunt.                                      wise to meddle with.  Tintoretto, front friendship, exhort.
Our collectors may not be displeased to discover at their  ed him to change his trade.' This sluggishness of intel.
head so venerable a personage as Cicero; nor to sanction   lect did not proceed,' observes the sagacious Lanzi,' from
their own feverish thirst and panting impatience with all  any deficiency, but from the depth of his penetrating mind:
the raptures on the day of possession, and the'saving of   early in life he dreaded the ideal as a rock on which so
rents' to afford comnmanding prices-by the authority of   many of his contemporaries had been shipwrecked.'  His
the greatest philosopher of antiquity.                     hand was not blest with precocious facility, because his
A fact is noticed in this article which requires elucida-  mind was unsettled about truth itself; he was still seelking
tion.  In the lit of a true collector, the selling of his books  for nature, which he could not discover in those wretched
is a singular incidenit. The truth is, that the elegant firiend   mannerists, who boasting of their freedom and expedition
of Cicero, residing in the literary city of Athens, appears  in their bewildering tastes, which they called the ideal,
to have enjoyed but a moderate income, atud may be said  relied on the diplomas and honoturs obtained by intrigue or
to have traded riot only in books, but in gladiators, whom    purchase, which sanctioned their fo)lies in the eves of the
he let out, and also chareed interest for the use of his me.  multitude.' Lodovico,' says Lanzi,' would first satisfy his
cey; circumistances which Cornelius Nepos, who gives   own mind on every line  he would not paint  till painting
an account of his landed property, has omitted, as, perhaps,   well became a habit, and till habit producedl facility.'
not well adapted to heighten the interesting picture which    Lodovico then sought in other cities for what he could
le gives of /tticus, bitt swhich the Atbd Meongault has de-  not find at Bologna.  He travelled to inspect the works of
teoted in his curious notes on Cicero's letters to Atticus.  the elder masters  he meditated on all their details; he
Lt i certain that he employed his slaves, who,' to the foot-  * Lanzi, Storia Pittcrica, Y. 85.




232                                      CURIOSITIES OF
penetrated to the very thoughts of the great artists, and   tered into the higher circles; he ridiculed his refined man.
grew intimate with their modes of conception and execu-  ners, and even the neat elegance of his dress.  To more
hon.  The true principles of art were collected together  tify Agostino, one day, he sent him  a portrait of their
in his own mind,-the rich fruits of his own studies,-and   father threading a needle, and their mother cutting out the
these firat prom ted him to invent a new school of paint-  cloth, to remind him, as he once whispered in Agostino's
ing.*                                                       ear, when he met him walking  with a nobleman,' not to
Returning t,:-dlogna, he found his degraded brothers  forget that they were sons of a poor tailor!  The same
in art still quai.lling about the merits ofthe old and the   contrast existed in the habits of their mind.  Agostino was
new school, and still exulting in their vague conceptions   slow to resolve, difficult to satisfy himself; he was for po.
and expeditious methods, Lodovico, who had observed all,  lishing and maturing every thing: Annibale was too rapid
had summed up his principles in one grand maxim,-that  to suffer any delay, and often evading the difficulties of
of combining a close observation of nature with the imita-  the art, loved to do much in a short time.  Lodovico soon
tion of the great masters, modifying both, however, by the   perceived their equal and natural aptitude for art; and
disposition of the artist himself. Such was the simple idea   placing Agostino under a master, who was celebrated for
and the happy project of Lodovico! Every perfection   his facility of execution, he fixed Annibale in his own study,
seemed to have been obtained: the Raffaeleschi excelled in   where his cousin might be taught by observation the )'es.
the ideal; the Mlichelangioleschi in the anatomical: the Ve-  tina lenti; how the best works are formed by a leisurely
netian and the Lombard schools in brilliant vivacity or phi-  haste.  Lodovico seems to have adopted the artifice of
losophic gravity. All seemed pre-occupied; but the secret  Isocrates in his management of two pupils, of whom he
of breaking the bonds of servile imitation was a new art:  said, that the one was to be pricked on by the spur, and
of mingling into one school the charms of every school,  the other kept in by the rein.
adapting them with freedom; and having been taught by         But a new difficulty arose in the attempt to combine toall, to remain a model for all; or, as Lanzi expresses it,  gether such incongruous natures; the thoughtful Lodovico
dopo avere aoppresso da te tutte insigno a tutte.  To restore  intent on the great project of the reformation of the art,
Art in its decline, Lodovico pressed all the sweets from    by his prudence long balanced their unequal tempers, and
all the flowers; or, melting together all his rich materials,  with that penetration which so strongly characterizes his
formed one Corinthian brass. This school is described by   genius, directed their distinct talents to his one great purDu Fresnoy in the character of Annibale,                   pose.  From  the literary Agostino lie obtained the phi.
-  Quos sedulus Hatrnibal omnes      losophy of critical lectures and scientific principles; invenIn propriam mentem atque morem mira arte coegit.       tion and designing solely occupied Annibale; while the
softness of contours, lightness and grace, were his own
Parahrasd by o,  ~       acquisition.*  But though Annibale presumptuously conFrom all their charms combined, with happy toil,       temned the  rare and elevated talents of Agostino, and
Did Annibal compose his wondrous style;
O'er the fair fraud so close a veil is thrown,         scarcely submitted the works of Lodovico, whom he preThat every borrow'd grace becomes his own.*            ferred to rival, yet, according to a traditional rumour which
Lodovico perceived that he could not stand alone in the   Lanzi records, it was Annibale's decision ofcharacter which
enabled him, as it were, unperceived, to become the masbreach, and sinale-handed encounter an impetuous multi-  e.     t.         ue i         the
reach, and single-hnded encounter an impetuous multi-  ter over his cousin and his brother; Lodovico and Agostude. He thoughit of raising up a party abmiong those   tino long hesitated to oppose the predominant style, in their
youthful aspirants who had not yet been habitually de-  first Essays; Annihale hardly decided to persevere in
praved. He had a brother whose talent could never rise
Itraved.  He had a brother whose talent could never rise   opening their new career by opposing'works to voices;'
beyond a poor copyist's, and him  he had the judgment,              their new career by opposing I works to voices
ubeyonsd  ya poor copyist', and him  he had the judgment,  and to the enervate labours of their wretched rivals, their
unswayed by tndte partiality, to account as a cipher; but  own works, warm in vigor and freshness, conducted on the
he found two of his cousins, men capable of becoming as  principles of nature and art.
p principles of nature and art.
extraordinary as himself.
extraordinary as himself.                     Theile Caraccis not only resolved to paint justly, but to
These brothers, Agostino and Annibale, first by nature,
These brothers, Agostino and Annibale, first by nature,  persevere in the art itself, by perpetuating the perfect taste
and then by their manners and habits, were of the most   f the true style amon  their successor.  In their own
opposite dispositions.  Born amidst humble occupations,  house true style  among temir successors  In their ownmtheir father was a tailor, and Anniibale was still worki      nati,'the openin  a new way,' or'the beginners  The
on the paternal board, while Agostino was occupied by the   academy was furnished with castsh drawings, prts, a
elegant works of the goldnmith, whence he acquired the   school for anatomy, and for the living figure; receiving all
fine art of engraving, in which he became tho Marc An-                                                    nd, as it is
tonio of his tine.  Their manners, perhaps, resulted from   coers with kindness; teaching gratuitously, and, as it is
their trades.  Agostino was a man of science and litera-  said, without jealousy; but too many facts are recorded to
ture: a philosopher and poet, of' the most polished ele-          to the banishment of this infectious passion from
gance, the most enchanting conversation, far removed from   the academy of the Caraccis, who, like other congregated
the vulgar, he became the companion of the learned and   artists, could not live together, and escape their own enthe noble. Annihale could scarcely write and read; an   demt was here
inborn ruggedness made him  sullen, taciturn, or if he       It was here, however, thatAgostino found his eminence
nbspoke, sarcasti orn gednessnd ridicule were him sullen, tac bitteurn, or delif he as the director of their studies; delivering lectures on ar.
spoke, sarcastic; scorn end  ridicules were his hittler deliht.  chitecture and perspective, and pointing out from his store,
Nature had stranely mades these brothers little less than   of historv and fable subjects for the designs of their pupils,
enemies. AnnibaoIe despised his brother for having en- ~who, on certain days, exhibited their works to the mont
* D'Argenville, Vies des Peintres, 1I. 68.               skilful judges, adjusting the merits by their decisions.' To
t The curious reader of taste may refer to Mr Fuseli's Se-  the crovned suf.ficient is the prize of glory,9 says Lanzi;
cond Lecture for a diatribe against what he calls' the Eclectic  and while the poets chanted their praises, the lyre of Agos.
School; which, by selecting the beauties, correcting the faults,  tino himself gratefully celebrated the progress of his pusupplying the defects, and avoiding the extremes of the differ-  pils.  A curious sonnet has been transmitted to us, where
ent styles, attempted to form a perfect system.' He acknow.  Agostino, like the ancient legislators, compresses his new
ledges the greatness of the Caraccis; yet he laughs at the
mere copying the manners ofvarious painters into one picture.
But perhaps, I say it with all possible deference, our animated sonitet is now well known, since Mr. Fuseli and Barry
critic forgot for a moment that it was no mechanical imitation   have preserved it in their lectures.  This singultar prodo,the Caraccis inculcated; nature and artwereto beequally stu.  tion has, however, had the hard fate of being unjustly
died, and secondlo ii natio talento e la propria sua disposizione.  depreciated: Lanzi calls it pittoresco veramente pinu cbe
Barry distinguishes with praise and warmth.'Whether,'  poetico; Mr Fusel  sarcastically compares it to'a medisays he,' we may content ourselves with adopting the manly  cal prescription.' It delighted Barry, who calls it'a
plan of art pursued by the Caraccis and their school at Bolog.   eautifl pn.' 
na, in uniting the perfections of all the other schools; or whe.,    oe             eret      didactsve and descrpther, which I rather hope, we look further in the style of tie.  tive poem, no lover of art, who has ever read it, will cease
sign upon our owvn studies after nature; whichever of these  to repeat it till he has got it by heart.  In this academy
plans the nation might fix on,' &c. II. 518. Thus three great  every one was free to indulge his own taste, provided he
names,Du Fresnoy, Fuseli, andl Barry, restrtcted their notions  did not violate the essential principles of art; for, though
of the Caracci plan to a mere imitation of the great masters';  the critics have usually described the character of this
ount Lanzi, irn unfolding Lodovico's project, lays down as his  new school to have been an imitation of the preceding
filet princi.aie the observation of nature, and, secondly, the imi.  ones, it was their first principle to be guided by nature
fati mn of the great masters;t and all modified by the natural  ones, it was their first principle to be guided by nature
aositin of the reeat mster *s;  and all modified by the natural
disposition of the artist                                    * D'Argenville, Vies des Peintres, II. 47 —081




LITERATURE.                                                      2,U
and their own dispositions; and if their painter was defi.  the wise, nor the mediation of the great.  They separated
cient in originality, it was not the fault of this academy, so  for ever! a separation in which they both languished, till
much as of the academician. In difficult doubts they had   Agostino, broken hearted, sunk int  an, early  grave,
recourse to Lodovico, whom Lanzi describes in his school  and Annibale, now brotherless, lost half his genius; his
like Homer among the Greeks, fons ingeniorum  profound   great invention no longer accompanied him-for Asostino
in every painting.  Even the recreations of the pupils were   vas not by his side!* After suffering many vexations, and
contrived to keep their mind and hand in exercise; in their  preyed on by his evil temper, Annibale was deprived of
walks sketching landscapes from nature, or amusing them-  his senses.
selves with what the Italians call Caricatura, a term  of
large sianificaiion; for it includes many sorts of grotesque
inventions, whimsical incongruities, such as those ara-    We have Royal Societies for Philosophers, for Anti-.
besques found at He rculaneum, where Anchises, IEneas,  quaries, and for Artists-noine for Men of Letters! Tane
and Ascanius, are burlesqued by heads of apes and pigs,  lovers of philological studies have regretted the want of an,
or Arion, with a grotesque motion, is straddling a great  asylum  since the days of Anne, when the establishment;
trout; or like that ludicrous parody which came firom the   of an English Academy of' Literature was designed; but.
hand of Titian, in a playful hour, when he sketched the   political changes occurred which threw out a literary ad..
Laocoon whose three figures consist of apes. Annibale   ministration.  France and Italy have gloried in great:
had a peculiar facility in these incongruous inventions, and   national academies, and even in provincial ones.  WTith us;
even the severe Leonardo da Vinci *considered them as  the curious history and the fate of the societies at Spald..
useful exercises.                                        ing, Stamford, and Peterborough, whom  their zealous:
Sutch was the academy founded by the Caracci; and   founder lived to see sink into country clubs, is that of most;
Lodovico lived to realize his project in the reformation of  ofour rural attempts at literary academies! The Mant.
art, and witnessed the school of Bologna flourishing afresh   chester Society has but an ambiguous existence, and that
when all the others had fallen. The great masters of this  of Exeter expired in its birth.  Yet that a great purpose
last epoch of Italian painting were their pupils.  Such   may be obtained by an inconsiderable nutnber, the history,
were Domenichino, who according to the expression of  of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufac..
Bellori, delinea gli animi, colorisce la vita; he drew  the  tures,' &c, may prove; for that originally consisted only
soul and coloured life.*  Albano, whose grace distinguish-  of twelve persons broutlht together with great d..iculty,,
es Ihim as the Anacreon of' painting; Guido, whose touch   and neither dislinguished for their ability nor their:.sk.
was all beauty and delicacy, and, as Passeri delightfully  The opponents to the establishment of an academy in,
expresses it,' whose faces came from Paradise;'t a scholar  this country may urge, and find Bruyere on their side, that
of whom his master became jealous, while Annibale, to  no corporate body generates a single man of genius; no,
depress Guido, patronized Demenichino; and even the  Milton, no Hume, no Adam  Smith will spring out of arI
wise Lodovico could not dissimulate the fear of a new corm-  academical community, however they may partake of one.
petitor in a pupil, and to mortify Guido, preferred Guerci.  common labour.  Of the fame, too, shared among the
no, who trod in another path. Lanfranco closes this glo-  many, the individual feels his portion too contracted, be..rious list, whose freedom and grandeur for their full display   sides that he will often suffer by comparison.  Literature
required the ample field of some vast history.           with us, exists independent of patronage or association. —
The secret history of this Accademia forms an illustra-  We have done well without an academy; our dictionary
tion for that chapter on' Literary Jealousy' which I have   and our style have been polished by individuals, and not
written in' The Literary Character.' We have seen even   by a society.
the gentle Lodovico infected by it; but it raged in the   The advocates for such a literary institution may reply,
breast of Annibale.  Careless of fortune as they were  that in what has been advanced against it, we may perhaps
through life, and freed froin the bonds of matrimony, that  find more glory than profit.   Had an academy been,
they might wholly devote themselves to all the enthusiasm   established in this country, we should have possessed all
of their art, they lived together in the perpetual intercourse   our present advantages with the peculiar ones of such andf their thoughts; and even at their meals laid on their ta-  institution. A series of volumes composed by the learned'
ble their crayons and their papers, so that any motion or  of England, had rivalled the precious'Memoirs of the.
gesture which occurred, as worthy of picturing, was in-  French Academy;' probably more philosophical, and more,
stantly sketched. Annibale caught something of the criti-  congenial to our modes of thinking! The congregating
cal taste of Agostino, learned to work more slowly, and to  spirit creates by its sympathy; an intercourse exists be..
finish with more perfection, while his inventions were en-  tween its members, which had not otherwise occurred; irn.
riched by the elevated thoughts and erudition of Agostino.  this attrition ofm!inds the torpid awakens, the tinmid is embolYet a circumstance which happened in the academy be-  dened, and the secluded is called forth; to contradict, and?
trayed the mordacity and envy of Annibale at the superior  to be contradicted, is the privilege and the source of knpwaccomplishments of his more learned brother.  While  ledge.  Those originalideas, hints and suagestion a4ich. 
Agostirno was describing with great eloquence the beauties  some literary men sometimes throw out, once or twiceof the Laocoon, Annibale  approached  the wall, and   during their whole lives, might here be preserved; and ifsnatching tup his crayons, drew the marvellous figure with  endowed with sufficient funds. there are important labours,
such perfection, that the spectators gazed on it in aston-  which surpass the means and industry of the individual,
ishment.  Allulding to his brother's lecture, the proud artist  which would be more advantageously formed by such liter-.
disdainfully observed,' Poets paint with words, but paint-  arv unions.
ers only with their pencils.'*                             An academy of literature can only succeed by the same
The brothers could neither live together nor endure ab-  means in which originated all such academies-among in —
sence.  Many years their life was one continual struggle  dividuals themselves! It will not be'by the favour of:
and mortification; and Agostino often sacrificed his geni-  the MANY, but by the wisdom  and energy of the FEW.'
us to pacify the jealousy, of Annibale, by relinquishing his  It is not even in the power of Royalty to create at a word,
pallet to rssume those exquisite engravings, in which               he                 co-operationr of the work.corrected the faulty outlines of the masters whom he copi-  men themselves, and of the great taslkmaster, Tinme 
ed, so that his engravings are more perfect than their    Such institutions have sprung from the same- principle,
originals.  To this unhappy circumstance, observes Lan-  and have followed the same march.  It was from a prizi, we must attribute the loss of so many noble composi-  vate meeting that' The French Academy' derived its
tions which otherwise Agostino, equal in genius to the  origin; and the true beeinners of that celebrated institiother Caraccis, had left us. The jealousy of Annibale. at  tion assuredly had no foresight of the object to which their
length for ever tore them asunder. Lodovico happened not  conferences tended.  Several literary friends of' Paris,
to be with them when they were engaged in painting toaeth-  finding the extent of the city occasioned much loss of
er the Farnesian gallery at Rome. A rumour spread that    * Mr Fuseli describes the gallery of the Farnese palace as a
mi their present combined labour the engraver had excelled  work of uniform vigour of execution, which notling coa enqua
the painter.  This Annibale could not forgive; he raved  but its imbecility and iItconDr!-ity of conception. This (lefiat the bite of the serpent: words could not mollify, nor  ciency in Annibale was always realilv suppll ed by the taste
kindness any longer appease that purturbed spirit; neither  and learnin of Aostino; the vigour ofAnribale was deficient
he humiliating forbearance of Agostino, the counsels of  both in seetihility atid corlect iRnvetion.
t Long after this article wras comnposedl, a Royal Academy or.
* Bellori, Le Vite de Pittori, &c,          Literature has been projectedt;    with the state of'its existence, I
t Passeeri, Vite d Pittori.             am unacquainted. It has occasioned no alteration in these reI D' Argenville, II. 26.             searches.30
80




234                                    CURIOSITIES OF
L —— i` —~ —-" —"time in their visits, agreed to meet on a fixed day every   us may disguise itself for a moment, it cannot be entirely
week, and chose Conrat's residence as centrical.  They   got rid of, and they assumed a vannting device of a laurt.
met for the purposes of general conversation, or to walk   wreath, including their epigraph'a l'Immortalite.' The
together, or, what was not least social, to partake in some   academy o' Petersburgh has chosen a more enlightened
refreshing collaion.  All being literary men, those who  inscription Paulatim (' little by little,') so expressive of the
were authors submitted their new works to this friendly   great labours of man-even of the inventions of genius!
society, who, without jealousy or malice, freely communi-    Such was the origin of L'Academie Franvaise; it was
cated their strictures; the works were improved, the  long a private meeting before it became a public instituauthors were delighted, and the critics were honest! Such   tion. Yet, like the Royal Society, its origin has been atwas the happy life of the members of this private society  tributed to political motives, with a view to divert the atten.
during three or four years. Pelisson, the earliest historian   tion from popular discontents; but when we look into the
of the French Academy, has delightfully described it:  real origin of' the French Academy, and our Royal Soci.'It was such that now, when they speak of these first  ety, it must be granted, that if the government either in,days of the academy, they call it the golden age, during   France or England ever entertained this project, it came.which, with all the innocence and freedom of that fortunate  to them so accidentally that at least we cannot allow themt
iperiod, without pomp and noise, and without any other  the merit of profound invention.  Statesmen are often con-,laws than those of friendship  they enjoyed together all  sidered by speculative men in their closets to be mightier
which a society of minds, and a rational life, can yield of  wonder.workers than they often prove to be.,whatever softens and charms.'                                Were the origin of the Royal Society inquired into, it
They were happy, and they resolved to be silent; nor  might be justly dated a century before its existence: the,was this bond and compact of friendship violated, till one   real founder was Lord Bacon, who planned the ideal insti-,of them, Mlalleville, secretary of Mlarshal Bassompiere,  tution in his philosophical romance of the New Atlantis
-being anxious that his friend Faret, who had just printed   This notion is not fancifitl, and it was that of its first
his L'lonnete Homme, which he had drawn from the famn-  founders, as not only appears by the expression of old Aueous' II Cortigiano' of Castiglione, should profit by all their  brey, when alluding to the commencement of the society,.epinions, procured his admission to one of their confer-  he adds, secundum mentem Domini Baconi; but by a rare,ences; Faret presented them with his book, heard a great  print designed by Evelyn, probably for a frontispiece to
deal concerning the nature of his work, was charmed by   Bishop Sprat's history, although we seldom  find the print
their literary communications, and returnied home ready to  in the volume.  The design is precious to a Grangerite,,burst with the secret.  Could the society hope that others  exhibiting three fine portraits.  On one side is represented
would -be more faithful than they had been to themselves!   a library, and on the table lie the statutes, the journals, and
Faret happened to be one of Ihose lighthearted men who  the mace of the Royal Society; on its opposite side are
are commuuicative in the degree in which they are grate-  suspended numerous philosophical instruments; in the
ful, and he whispered the secret to Des Marets and to  centre of the print is a column, on which is placed a bust
Boisrobert.  The first, as soon as he heard of such a lite-  of Charles II, the patron; on each side whole lengths of
rary senate, used every effort to appear before them and   Lord Brouncker, the first president, and Lord Bacon, as
read the first volume of his' Ariaiie:' Boisrobert, a man   the founder, inscribed Artium Instaurator. The graver of
of distinction, and a conimon friend to them all, could not  Hollar has preserved this happy intention of Evelyn's,
*be refused an admission; he admired the frankness of their  which exemplifies what may be called the continuity and
mutual criticisms.  The society besides, was a new oh-  genealogy of genius, as its spirit is perpetuated by its suciect; and his daily business was to furnish an amusing   cessors.
story to his patron Richelieu.   The cardinal minister        When the fury of the civil wars had exhausted all parwas very literary, and apt to be so hipped in his hours of  ties, and a breathing time from  the passions and madness
retirement, that the physician declared, that'all his drugs   of the age allowed ingenious men to return once more to
were of no avail, unless his patient mixed with them  a   their forsaken studies, Bacon's vision of a philosophical
drachm  of Boisrobert.' li one of those fortunate mo-  society appears to have occupied their reveries. It charmments, when the cardinal was'iin the vein,' Boisrobert  ed the fancy of Cowley and Milton; but the politics and
painted, with the warmest hues, this region of literary fe-  religion of'the times were still possessed by the same frenzy,
licity, of a small, happy society formed of critics and au-  and divinity anrd politics were unanimously agreed to be
thors!  The minister, who was ever considering things   utterly proscribed from their inquiries.  On the subject of
in that particular aspect which might tend to his own glory,  religion they were more particularly alarmed, not only at
instantly asked Boisrobert, whether this private meeting   the time of the foundation of the society, but at a much
would not like to be constituted a public body, and esta-  later period, when under the direction of Newton himself.
iblish itself by letters patent, offering them his protection.  Even Bishop Sprat, their first historian, observed, that
The flatterer of the minister was overjoyed, and executed' they have freely admitted men of different religions, counthe important niission; but not one of the members shared   tries, and professions of life; not to lay the foundation of
in the rapture, while some regretted an honour which would   an English, Scotch, Irish, popish, or protestant philosophy.:cnly disturb the sweetness and familiarity of their inter-  but a PHILOSOPHY~OF:IANKIxtD.' A curious protest of
course.  IValleville, whose master was a prisoner in the   the most illustrious of philosophers may be fbiund: when
Bastile, and Serisay, the intendant of the Duke of Roche-' the -Society for promoting Christian KInowledge' were
foucault, who was it disgrace at court, loudly protested, in   desirous of holding their meetings at the house of the Royal
the style of an opposition party, against the protection of  Society, NTewton drew.up a number of arguments against
the minister; but Chapelain, who was known to have no   their admission. One of them is, that'It is a fundamental
party-interests, argued so clearly, that he left them to infer  rule of the society not to meddle with religion; and the
that Richelieu's ofer was a command; that the cardinal  reasonDis, that we may give no occasion to religious bodies
was a minister who willed not things by halves; and was  to meddle with us.''NTewton would not even comply with
one of those very great men who avenge any contempt  their wishes, lest by this compliance the Royal Society
shown to them, even on such little men as themselves! In   might'dissatisfy those of other religions.' The wisdom'
a word, the dogs bowed their necks to the golden collar,  of the protest by Newton is as admirable as it is remara-.
Hoowever, the appearance, if not the reality, of freedom   ble,-the preservation of the Royal'Society from the paswas left to them; and the minister allowed them to frame   sions of the age.
their own constitution, and elect their own magistrates and  It was in the lodgings of.Dr Wilkins in Wadham  Colcitizens in this infant and illustrious republic of literature.  lege, that a small philosophical club met together, which
The history of the further establishment of the French   proved to be, as Aubrey expresses it, the incuntula  of
academy is elegantly narrated by Pelisson.  The usual  the Royal Society.  When the;members were dispersed
difficulty occurred of fixing on a title; and they appear to   about London, they renewed their meetings first at a
have changed it so often, that the academy was at first  tavern, then at a private house; and when the society be,
addressed by more than une title; Academie des beaun   came too great to be called a club, they assembled in' the.Esprits; Academie de l'.loquence;  Academie Erminente,  parlour' of Gresham College; which itself had been raised
in allusion to the quality of the cardinal, its protector.-   by the munificence of a citizen who endowed it liberally,
Desirous of avoiding the extravagant and mystifying titles   and presented a noble example to the individuals now as.
of the Italian academies,* they fixed on the most unaffect-  sembled under its roof.  The society afterwards derived
ed,'.A cademie F3'anca'se;  but though the national geni-  its title from  a sort of accident.  The warm loyalty of
* See an artirle' On the ridiculous titles assumed by the Ita.  Evelyn in the first hopeful days of ftIe Restoration, in his
lian Academic%,' in this volume                            dedicatory epistle of Naudd's treatise on libraries, called




LITERATURE.                                                       235
that philosophical meeting the Royal Society.  These   matters of state nor religion.'But before our next meet.
learned men immediately voted their thanks to Evelvn for  ing,' says Slelman,' we had notice that his majesty took
the happy designation, which was so grateful to Charles   a little mislike of our society, not being informed that we
Il, who was himself a virtuoso of the day, that the charter  had resolved to decline all matters of state.  Yet hereupou
was soon granted: the king, declaring himself'their found-   we forebore to nmeet again, arid so all our labour's lost'
er,' sent them a mace of silver gilt, of the same fashion   Unquestionably much was lost, for much could have been
antd bigness as those carried before his majesty, to be borne   produced; and Speliran's work on lawv terms, where I fihod
before the president on meeting days.' To the zeal of  this inf)brmation, was one of the first projected.  James I
Evelyn the Ioyal Society owe no inferior acquisition to   has incurred the censure of those who have written niore
its title and its mace; the noble Arundelian library, the   boldly than Speltman on the suppression of this society;
rare literary accumulation of the noble Howards; the last  but whether James was misinfortmed by' taking a litie1
possessor of' which had so little inclination for books, that  mislike,' or whether the antiquaries failed in exerting themn.
the treasures which his ancestors had collected lay open at  selves to open their plan more clearly to that' timid pedant,'
the mercy of any purloiner.  This degenerate heir to the   as Gough and others designate this monarch, may yet ito
literature and the name of Howard seemed perfectly re-  doubtful; assuredly James was not a man to contemin itheir
lieved when Evelyn sent his marbles which were perish-   erudition!
ing in his gardens, to Oxford, and his books which were       The king at this time was busied by furthering a similar
diminishing daily, to the Royal Society!                    project, which was to found' King James's College at ChelTne Society of Antiquaries might create a deeper in-  sea;' a project origitnaling with Dean Sutcliff, and zea-.erest, could we penetrate to its secret history: it was in-  lously approved by Prince Helry, to raise a nursery for
terrupted, and suffered to expire, by some obscure cause   young polemics in scholasrical divinity, for the purpose of
of political jealousy. It long ceased to exist, and was only  defending the protestant cause fror, the attacks of cathoreinstated aimost in our own days.  The revival of learn.  lies and sectaries; a college which yas afterwards called
ing under Edward VI, suffered a severe check from the   by Laud' Controversy College.' In this society were
papistical government of Mary; but under Elizabeth a   appointed historians and antiquaries, for Camden and
happier era opened to our literary pursuits. At this period   Haywood filled these offices.
se'veral students of the inns of court, many of whose names   The society ofAntiquaries, however, though suppressed,
are illustrious for their rank or their genius, formned a   was perhaps never extinct: it survived in some shape unweekly society, which they called' the Antiquaries' Col-  der Charles II, for Ashmltole in his Diary notices'the
legse.'  From very opposite quarters we are furnished with   Antiquaries' Feast,' as well as' the Astrologers), and
many curious particulars of their literary intercourse: it is  another of the' Freitrrasons.'  The present society was
delightful to discover Rawleit h borrowing manuscripts  only incorporated in 1751.  There are two sets of their
from the library of Sir Robert Cotton, and Selden deriving  VlMemoirs; for besides the modern.rlrcheologia, we have
his studies from  the collections of PRawleigh.   Their irode   two volumes of' Curious  Discourses,' written by the Faof proceeding has even been preserved.  At every nmeet-  thers of the Antiquarian Pociety in the age of Elizabeth,
irig they proposed a quiestion or two respecting the history   collected firont their dispersed manuscripts, which Canlden
or the antiquities of the English nation, on which each   preserved with a parental hand.
member was expected, at the subsequent meeting, to de-        The lJhilosophical spirit of the age, it might have been
liver a dissertation or an opinion.  They also' stpped to-  expected, woiuld have reached our niudern antiquaries; buit
gether' From the days of Atheneus to those of Dr John-   neiiher profound views, nor eloquent disquisitions, have
son, the pleasures of the table have enlivened those of lite-  itparted that value to their confined researches and latirature. A copy of each question and a summons for the   guid efforts, which the character of the times, and the ex.
place of conference were sent to the absent members. The   cellence of our French rivals in their Academie,' so peopinions were carefully registered by the secretary, and   remptorily required. It is, however, hopeful to hear It
the dissertations deposited in their archives. One of these   Hallaun declare,' I think our last volumes improve a little,
summonses to Stowe, the antiquary, with his memoranda   and but a little! A  conilparison with the Academy ou
on the back, exists in the Ashmolean Museum.  1 shall  Inscriptions in its better days must still inspire us with
preserve it with all its verbal erugo:                     shame.'
Society of Antiquaries.                      Among the xsatues of the Society of Antiquaries, there'To Mr Stowe.                                          is one which expels any member' who shall by speaking,'The place appointed for a conference upon the ques-  writing, or priniting, publicly defame the society.  Somo
tion followinge ys att Mr Carter's house, on Fridaye the   things may be too antique and obsolete even fo)r the Society
11th of this November, 1598, being Al Soulles daye, at 11   of Antiquaries! and such is this vile restriction! Should
of the clocke in the afternoons, where your opipinioun in  there be a stray wit aniong them, or a critical observer,
wrytinge or otherwise is expected.                         are they to compromise the freedom of the republic of lets The question is,                      ters, by the monopolizing spirit of excellence this statute'Of the antiquitie, etimologie, and priviledges of parishes  necessarily attributes to their works-and their' gestes?'
in Englande.
Yt ys desyred that you give not notice hereof to aay,                         QUOTATION.:tt suchi as haue the like somons.'                           It is generally supposed that where there is no quotation,
Such is the summons; the memoranda in the hand.  there will be found most originality; and as people like to
writing of Stowve are these:                               lay out their money according to their notions, our writers
6o,0. Honorius Romantus, Archbyshope of Canterbury,   usually furnish their pages rapidly with the productions of
der ided his province into parishes; he ordeyned clerks and   their own soil: they run up a quickset hedge, or plant a
prechars, comatnding  them  that they should instruct the   poplar, and get trees and hedges of this fashion much faster
people, as well by good lyfe, as by doctryne.              than the former landlords procured from their timber. The
760. Cuthbert, Archbyshope of Canterbury, procured   great part of our writers, in consequence, have become so
of the Pope that in cities and townes there should be ap-  original, that no one cares to imitate them; and those who
povnted church yards for butriall of the dead. whose bodies  never quote, in return are never quoted!
were used to be buried abrode, & cet.]                       This is one of the results of that adventurous spirit
Their meetinas had hitherto been private; but to give   which is now stalking forth and raging for its own innova.
stability to them, they petitioned for a charter of incorpo-  tions.  We have not only rejected authority, but have also
ration, under the title of the Academy for the Study of  cast away experience; and often tne tunburdened vessel
Antiquity and Historyfounded by Queen Elizabeth.  And   is driving to all points of the compass, and the passenger,
to preserve all the memorials of history which the dissolu-  no longer know whither they are going.  The wisdom  of
tion of the monasteries had scattered about the kinradom,  the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by
they proposed to erect a library, to be called' The Library   quotation.
of O.ueen Elizabeth.'  The death of the qiueen overturned    It seerls, however, agreed, that no one would quote i.
this honourabhe project.  The society was somewhat in-  he could think; and it is not imagined that the well-read
terrupted by the usulal casualties of humnan life; the rnem.  may qeuote from the delicacy of their taste, and the fulness
bers were dispersed, or died, and it ceased for twenty   of their knowledge.  Whatever is felicrious.,  expressed
years.  Spelman, Camden, and others, desirous of reno-  risks being worse expressed: it is a wretched taste to bo
rating the society, met for this purpose at the Herald's  gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before
oihee; they settled their reutllations, amons which, one   us.  We quote, to save proving what has been demon.
was' for avoiding offence, they should neither mteddle with  strated, referring to where the proofs may be found. WV




236                                  CURIOSITIES OF
quote to screen ourselves from the odium of doubtful opin-  authorities, than to write it: and I am supposing the same
ions, which the world would not willingly accept from our-  number of pages in the tragedy and in the defence.  Heinselves; and we may quote from  the curiosity which only  sius perhaps bestowed more time in defending his Herodes
a quotation itself can give, when in our own words it  infanticidm against Balzac, than a Spanish (or a Scotch)
would be divested of that tint of ancient phrase, that de-  metaphysician bestows on a large volume of controversy;
tail of narrative, and that naivetd which we have for ever  where lie takes all from his own stock.' I am somewhat
lost, and which we like to recollect once had an existence.  concerned in the truth of thia principle.  There are artiThe ancients, who in these matters were not perhaps  cles in the present work occupying but a few pages, which
such blockheads as some may conceive, considered poetical  could never have been produced had not more time been
quotation as one of the requisite ornaments of oratory.  allotted to the researches which they contain than some
Cicero, even in his philosophical works, is as little sparing  would allow to a small volume, which might excel in geof quotations as Plutarch.  Old Montaigne is so stuffed  nius, and yet be liltely not to be long remenmbered I All
with them, that he owns if they were taken out of him,  this is labour which never meets the eye.  It is quicker
little of himself would remain; and yet this never injured   work, wvith special pleading and poignant periods, to fill
that original turn which the old Gascon has given to his  sheets with generalising principles: those bird's-eye views
thoughts.  I suspect that Addison hardly ever composed   of philosophy for the nonce seem  as if things were seen
a Spectator which was not founded on some quotation,  clearer when at a distance and en masse, and require little
noted in those three folio manuscript volumes which hie had  knowledge of the individual parts.  Such an art of writizg
previously collected; and Addison lasts, while Steele, who  may resemble the fatmous Lullian method, by which the
always wrote from first impressions and to the times, with  doctor Ilouminatus enabled any one to invent arguments by
perhaps no very inferior genius, has passed away, inso-  a machine i Two tables, one of attributes, and the other
much that Dr. Beattie once considered that he was obli-  of subjects, worked about circularly in a frame, and place,.
ging the world by collecting Addison's papers, and care-  correlatively to one another, produced certain combina.
futlly omitting Steele's.                                  tions; the number of questions multiplied as they were work
Quotation, like much better things, has its abuses. One   ed! So that here was a mechanical invention, by whick
tnay quote till one compiles.  The ancient lawyers used  they might dispute without end, and write on witliou; ur,
to quote at the bar till they had stagnated their own cause.  particular knowledge of their subject i
Retournons a nos moutons,' was the cry of the client.    But the pains-taking gentry, when heaven sends theri
But these vagrant prowlers must be consigned to the bea-  genius enough, are the more instructive sort, and they arm
dies ofcriticismin.  Such do not always understand the an-  those to whom we shall appeal while time and truth car
tihors whose names adorn their barren pages, and which are  meet together. A well-read writer, with good taste, is one
taken, too, from  the third or the thirtieth hand. Those   who has the command of the wit of other men; lte searches
who trust to such false quoters will often learn how  con-  where knowledge is to be found; and though he may not
tra', this transmission is to the sense and application of  himrnself excel in invention, his ingenuity mnty cormcpose one
the original.  Every transplantation has altered the firuit  of those agreeable books, the delice  of ikeraWure, that will
elthe tree; every new channel, the quality ofthe stream   out.last the fading meteors of his day.  Fpicurus is said to
in itt remove from the spring-head.  Bayle, when writ-  have borrowed from no writer in his three hundred inspired
ing on'Comets,' discovered this; for, having collected   volumes, while Plutarch, Seneca, and the elder Pliny,
many things applicable to his work, as they etood quoted  made such free use of their libraries; and it has happened
in some modern writors, when!:ho came to compare them   tiat Epicurus, with his unsubst.tgi.il nothingness, has
with their originals, he was surprised to find that they'melted into thin air,' while the sold treasures have buoyed
were nothing for his purpose! the originals conveyed a  themselves up amidst the wreck  Cf nations.
quite contrary sense to that of the pretenden quoters, who   On this subject of Quota'.on, literary politics, for the
often, from rinnocent blundering, and sometimes from pur-  commonwealth has its poliqy and its cabinet.secrets, are
posed deception, had falsified their quotations.  This is a  more concerned than the resAer suspects.  Authorities in
useful story for second-hand authorities!                  matters of fact are often callaed for; in matters of opinion,
Selden had formed some notions on this subject of quo-  indeed, which, perhaps, are of more importance, no one
tations in his' Table-talk,' art.' Books and authors;' but,  requires any authorit-.  But too open and generous a
as Le Clere justly observes proud of his immense reading,  revelation of the chapter and the page of the original
he has too often violated his own precept.' In quoting of  quoted, has often proved detrimental to the legitimate
books,' says Selden,' quote such authors as are usually  honours of the q,;o'er.  They are unfairly appropriated by
read; others read for your own satisfaction, but not name  the next comer; the quoter is never quoted, but the an.
them.' Now it happens that no writer names more authors,  thority he has afforded is produced by his successor with
except Prynne, than the learned Selden. La Motle le  the air of an erivgmal research.  I have seen MSS thus
Vayer's curious works consists of fifteen volumes; he is  confidently referred  to, which could never have met the
arnong the greatest quoters.  Whoever turns them  over  eye of the writer.  A learned historian declared to me of
will perceive that he is an original thinker, and a great wit;  a contesiiporary, that the latter had appropriated his re.
his style, indeed, is meagre, which, as much as his quota-  searchee; he might, indeed, and he had a right to itefer to
tiuns, may have proved fatal to him. But in both these  the earse originals; but if his predecessor had opened the
cases it is evident, that even qtioters who have abused  sourczs for him, gratitude is not a silent virtue.  Gilbert
the privilege of quotation, are not necessarily writers of a  Suart thus lived on Robertson: and as Professor Dugald
mean genius.                                              Stewart observes,  his curiosity has seldom  led him into
The Quoters who deserve the title, and it ought to bu  any path where the genius and industry of his predecessor
an honorary one, are those who trust to no one but them.  had not previously cleared the way.' It is for this reason
selves.  In borrowing a passage, they carefully obserte  some authors, who do not care to trust to the equity and
its connexion; they collect authorities, to reconcile tny   gratitude of their successors, will nriot furnish the means ot
disparity in them before they furnish the one which they   supplanting themselves; for, by not yielding up their anadopt; they advance no fact without a witness, and they  thorities, they themselves become one. Some authors,
are not loose and general in their referencee, as I have  who are pleased at seeing their names occur in the marbeen told is our historian Henry so frequently; that it is  gins of other books than their own, have practised this po-.
suspected he deals much in second-hanoi ware.  Bayle  litical management; such as Alexander ab Alexandro,
lets us into a mystery of author-craft' Suppose an  and other compilers of that stamp, to whose labours of
able man is to prove that an ancient author entertained   small value, we are often obliged to refer. from  the circertain  particular opinions, which t.re only insinuated   curestance that they themselves have not pointed out theiL
here and there through his works, I am sure it will take   authorities.
him up mare days to collect the passages which he will    One word more on this long chapter of cuotation.  Tc
have occasion for, than to argu cat random on those pas-  make a happy one is a thing not easily to be done.  Carsages.  Having  once found out his authorities and his  dinal du Perron used to say, that the happy application
quotations, which perhaps will not fill six pages, and may  of a verse firom Virgil was worth a talent; and Bayle,
have cost him a month's labour, he may finish in twvo morn-  perhaps too much prepossessed in their favour, has in.
ings' work, twenty pages of arguments, objections, and  sintiated, that there is no' less invention in a just and hap.
answers to objections; and. corisequently, wihat proceeds  py application of a thought found in a book, than in being
from our own. genius sosmetimes costs much less time ttan  the first author of that thought.  The art of quotation re-'ihat is requisite for collectiss.  Corneille would have re-  quires more delicacy in the practice than tliose conceive
quired more time to defbnd a tragedy by a collection of  who can see nothing more in a quotation than an extract.
~~' —~ -"'- — ~ —  " -`-~-   0 "5




LIT E RATURE.                                                          23)
Whenever the mind of a writer is saturated with the full  Rome, published, in 1814, this much talked of manuscript,
inspiration of a great author, a quotation gives complete-  and has now enabled us to see and to decide, and even
ness to the whole; it seals his feelings with undisputed  to add the present little article as a useful supplement.
authority.  Whenever we would prepare the mind by a         True it is, that Dante must have read with equal attenforcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony pre-  tion and delight, this authentic vision of Alberico; for it is
luding on the chords whose tones we are about to har-  given, so we are assured by the whole monastery, as it
monize.  Perhaps no writers of our times have discovered   happened to their ancient brother, when a boy; many a
more of this delicacy of quotation than the author of the  striking, and many a positive resemblance in tilt' Divina
Pursuits of Literature;' and Mr Southey, in some of  Commedia' has been pointed out; and Mlr Cary, in his
his beautiful periodical investigations, where we have often   English version of' Dante, so English, that te niakes
acknowledged  the solemn and striking effect of a quotation   Dante speak in blank verse very much like Dante in stanfrom our elder writers.                                  zas, has observed, that' The reader will, in these marked
resemblances, see enough to convince him that Dante
THE ORIGIN OF DANTE'S INFERNO.                 had read this singular work.'  The truth is, that the
Nearly six centuries have elapsed since the appearance' Vision of Alberico' must not be considered as a sinof the great work of Dante, and the literary historians of  gular workl-but on the contrary, as the prevalent niode
Italy are even now disputing respecting the origin of this  of composition in the montastic ages.  It has been ascerpoemrl, singular in its nature and in its excellence.  In as.  tained that Alberico was written in the twelfth century,
certaining a point so long inquired after, and so keenly dis-  judging of the age of a manuscript by the writing. I shall
puted, it wil rather increase our admiration than detract  now preserve a vision which a French antiquary had long
from the genius of this great poet; and it will illustrate the   ago given, merely with the design to show how the monks
useful principle, that every great genius is influenced by   abused the simplicity of our Gothc ancestors, and with an
the objects and the feelings which occupy his own times,  utter want of taste for such inventions, he deems the pres.
only differing from the race of his brothers by the magical  ent one to be' monstrous.' He has not told us the age in
fir-e of his developments; the light he sends forth over the   which it was written.  This vision, however, exhibits.such
world he often catches from the faint and unobserved   complete scenes of the Inferno of the great poet, that the
spark which would die away, and turn to nothing, in ano-  writer must have read Dante, or Dante must have read
ther hand.                                               this writer.  The manuscript, with another of the same
Tlhe Divina Comnmedia of' Dante is a visionary journey   kind, is in the King's library at Paris, and some future
through the three realms of the after-life existence; and   researcher may ascertain the aue of these Gothic compoths)ugh in the classical ardour of our political pilgrim, he al.  sitions; doubtless they will be bound to beloing to the age
lows his conductor to be a Pagan, the scenes are those of  of Alberico, for they are alike stamped by the same dark
monkish imagination. The invention of a vision was the usu-  arid awful imagination, the same depth of feeling, the
al vehicle for religious instruction in his age; it was adapted   solitary genius of the monastery!
to the genius of the sleeping Homer of a monastery, and to    It may, however, be necessary to observe, that these
the comprehension, and even to the faith, of the populace,' Visions' were merely a vehicle for popular instruction;
whose minds were then awake to these awful themes.       nor must we depend on the age of their composition by the
This mode of writing visions has been imperfectly de-  names of the suppositious visionaries affixed to them: they
tected by several modern inquiries. It got into the Fabliaux   were the satires of the times.  The following elaborate
of the Jongleurs, or Provencal bards, before the (lays of   views of some scenes in the Inferno were composed
Dante; they had these visions or pilgrimages to Heil; the   by an honest monk who was dissatisfied with the bishops,
adventures were no doubt solemn to thern-ebut it seemed   and took this covert nmeans of pointing out how the neglect
absurd to attribute the origin of a sublime poem to such in.  of their episcopal duties was punished in the after life; he
ferior, and to us even ludicrous inventions.  Every one,  had an equal quarrel with the feudal nobility for their optherefore, found out some other origin of Dante's Inferno-   pressiorns: and he even boldly ascended to the throne.
since they were resolved to have one-in other works' The Vision of Charles the Bald, of the places of punmore congenial to its nature; the description of a second  ishment, and the happiness of thie just.*
life, the melancholy or the glorified scenes of punishment' I, Charles, by the gratuitous gift of God, king of the
or bliss, with the animated shades of men who were no   Germans, Roman patrician, and likewise emperor of the
more, had been opened to the Italian bard by his fivourite   Franks;
TVirgil, and might have been suggested, according to War-' On the holy night of Sunday, having performed the diton, by the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero.                 vine offices of nmatins, returning to my bed to sleep, a voice
But the entire work of Dante is Gothic; it is a picture  most terrible came to my ear; " Charles! thy spirit shall
of his times, of his own ideas, of the people about him;  now issue from thy body; thou shalt go and behold the
Dothing of classical antiquity resembles it; and although  judgments of God; they shall serve thee only as presages,
the name of Virgil is introduced into a Christian Hades,  and thy spirit shall again return shortly afterwards."  Iiiit is assuredly not the Roman, for Dante's Virgil speaks  stantly was my spirit rapt, arid he who bore me away was
and acts as the Latin poet could never have done. It is  a being of the most splendid whiteness.  He put into my
one of the absurdities of Dante, who, like our Shakspeare,  hand a ball of thread, which shed about a blaze of light,
or like Gothic architecture itself, has many things which  such as the comet darts when it is apparent.  He divided
lead to nothing' amidst their massive greatness.       it, and said to me, " Take thou this thread, and bind it
Had the Italian and the French commentators,who have  strongly on the thumb of thy right hand, and by this I
troubled themselves on this occasion, known the art which   will lead thee through the infernal labyrinth of punish.
we have happily practised in this country, of illustrating  ments."
a great national bard, by endeavouring to recover the'Then going before with velocity, but always unwinding
contemporary writings and circumstances  which were  this luminous thread, he conducted me into deep valleys
connected with his studies and his times, they had long ere  filled with fires, and wells inflamed, blazing with all sorts
this discovered the real framework of the Inferno.       of unctuous matter. There I observed the prelates who had
Within the last twenty years it had been rumoured that  served my father and my ancestors. Although I trembled,
Dante had borrowed, or stolen his Inferno from' The Vis-  I still, however, inquired of them  to learn the cause ol
ions of Aloerico.' which was written two centuries before  their torments.  They answered "' We are the bishops
his time.  The literary antiquary Bottari had discovered   of your father and your ancestors; instead of uniting
a manuscript of this Vision of Alberico, and, in haste,  them  and their people in peace and concord, we sowed
made extracts of a startling nature. They were well  among them discord, and were the kindlers of evil; for
adapted to inflame the curiosity of those who are eaeer  this are we burning iin these Tartarean punishments; we,
after any thing new about something old; it throws an air  and other men-slayers and devourers of rapine.  Here alof erudition over the small talker, who otherwise would  so shall come your bishops, and that crowd of satellites
care little about the original! This was not the first time   who surround you, and who imitate the evil we have
that the whole edifice of genius had been threatened by the   done."
motion of a remote eatthquake; but in these cases it' And whilst I listened to them tremblingly, I beheld
usually happens that those early discoverers who can judge  the blackest demons flying with hooks of burning iron, who
of a little part, are in total blindness when they would de-  would have caught that ball of thread which I held in my
tide eor a whole.  A poisonous mnildew seemed to have   hand, and have drawn it towards them, but it darted such
settled on the laurels of Dante; nor were we relieved from   a reverberating light, that they could not lay hold of the
lur constant inquiries till i Sigr. Abaie Cancillieri at       * In MSS, Bib.. Reg. inter lat. No. 2447, p. 1384.




238                                    CURIOSITIES OF
thread.  These demons, when at my back, hustled to   whatever happen, that Louis the young possesses the
precipitate me into those sulphureous pits; but my con-  Roman empire destined by God. And so the Lord who
ductor, who carried the ball, wound about my shoulder a   reigneth over the living and the dead, and whose kingdomn
doubled thread, drawing me to him with such force, that we   endureth for ever and for aye, will perform when he shall
ascended high mountains of flame, from whence issued   call me away to another life.'
takes and burning streams, melting all kinds of metals.    Tile French literary antiquaries judged of these' aTisi'here I found the souls of lords who had served my father  ions, with the mere nationality of their taste. Every thinsg
and my brothers; some plunged in up to the hair of their  Gothic with them is barbarous, and they see nothing in the
heads, others to their chins, others with half their bodies im-  redeeming spirit of genius, nor the secret purpose oF these
mersed. These yelling, cried to me, " It is for inflaming dis-  curious documents of the age.
contents with your father, and your brothers, and yourself,    The Vision of Charles the Bald may be found in the
to make war and spread murder and rapine, eager for  ancient chronicles of St Denis, which were written under
earthly spoils, that we now stiffer these torments in these  the eye of Abb6 Suger, the learned and able minister of
rivers of boiling metal."  While I was timidly bending   Lotuis the Young, and which were certainly composed beover their suffering, I heard at my back the clamour of  fore the thirteenth century.  The learned writer of the
voices, potentes potenter tormenta patiuntur! " The pow-  fourth volume of the _lIelanges tirds  d'une grande Biblioerfiul suffer torments powerfully;" and I looked up, and  thdque, who had as little taste for these mysterious visions
beheld on the shores boiling streams and ardent furnaces,  as the other French critic, apologizes for the venerable
blazing with pitch and sulphur, full of great dragons, large   Abb6 Stuger's admission of such visions:'Assuredly,' ho
scorpions, and serpents of a strange species; where also  says,'the Abbe Surer was too wise and too ernlightened
I saw some of my ancestors, princes, and my brothers al-  to believe in similar visions; but if he s offered its insertion,
so, who said to me, " Alas, Charles! behold our heavy   or if he inserted iL himself in the chronick of St Denis, it
punishment for evil, and for proud malignant counsels,  is because he felt that such a fable offered an excellent
which in our realms and in thine we yielded to from the  lesson to kings, to ministers and bishops, and it had been
lust of dominion."  As I was grieving with their groans,  well if they had not had worse tales told them.' The latter
dragons hurried on, who sought to devour me with throats  part is as philosophical as the former is the reverse.
opened, belching  flame and sulphur.  But my leader        In these extraordinary productions of a Gothic age we
trebbled the thread over me, at whose resplendent light  may assuredly discover Dante; but what are they more
these were overcome. Leading me then securely, we   than the frame work of his unimitated picture! It is only this
descended into a great valley, which on one side was dark,  nlechanical part of his sublime conceptions that we can
except where lighted by ardent furnaces, while the ameni-  pretend to  have discovered; other poets might have
ty of the other was so pleasant and splendid that I cannot  adopted these' Visions,' but we should have had no' Didescribe it. I turned however, to the obscure and flaming   vina Cornmedia.' Mr Carey has finely observed of these
side; I beheld some kings of my race agonized in great  pretended origins of Dante's genius, although Mr Carey,and strange punishments, and I thought how in an instant  knew only The Vision of Alberico,'It is the scale of
the huge black giants who in turmoil were working to set  magnificence on which this conception was framed, anrid
this whole valley into flames, would have hurled imte into  the wonderftul development of it in all its parts, that may
these gulfs; I still trembled, when the luminous thread  justly entitle our poet to rank among the few minds to
cheered my eyes, and on the other side of the valley a   whom the power of a great creative faculty can be ascrib.
light for a little while whitened, gradually breaking: I ob-  ed.' Milton might originally have sought the seminalhint
served two fountains; one, whose waters had extreme   of his great work front a sort of Italian mystery. In the
heat, the other more temperate and clear; and two large   words of Dante himself,
vessels filled with these waters. The luminous thread'Poca favilla gran fiamma secondsa.'
rested on one of the fervid waters, where I saw my father                                    I1 Paradiso, Can. L
Louis covered to his thighs, and though labouring in the             — From a small spark
anguish of bodily pain, he spoke to me, "My son Charles,           Great flame hath risen.'
fear nothing! I know that thy spirit shall return unto thy                                   Carey.
body; and God has permitted thee to come here that thou   After all, Dante has said ill a letter,'I found the original of
mayst witness, because of the sins I have committed, the   my hell in the world which we inhabit;' and he said a
punishments I endure.  One day I am placed in the boil-  greater truth than some literary antiquaries can always
irgi bath of this large vessel, and on another changed into  comprehend!*
that of more temperate waters: this I owe to the prayers   OF A HISTORY OF EVENTS WHICH HAVE  NOT HAP.
of Saint Peter, Saint Denis, Saint Remy, who are the                             PENED.
patrons of our royal house; but if by prayers and masses,  Such a title might serve for a work of not incurious nor
offerings and alms, psalmody and vigils, my faithful bishopshical speculation, which might enlarge our  nr
and abbots, and even all the ecclesiastical order, assist me,  eral views of huian affairs, and assist our comprehension
it will not be long, before I am delivered from these boiling   of these events which are enrolled on the registers of his.
waters. Look on your left!"  I looked, and beheld two
tuns of boiling waters.  " These are prepared for thee,"  tory.  The scheme of Providence is carrying on sublunal
he said, " if thou wilt not be thine own corrector, and do  ry events, by means inscrutable to us,
penance for thy crimes!"  Then I began to sink with hor-        A mighty maze, but not without a plan!'
ror; but my guide perceiving the panic of my spirit, said   Some mortals have recently written history, and' Lectures
to me, " Follow me to the right of the valley bright in the  on History,' who presume to explain the great scene of
glorious light of Paradise."  I had not long proceeded,  human affairs, affecting the same familiarity with the de.
when, amidst the most illustrious kings, I beheld my uncle  signs of Providence, as with the events which they cornLotharius seated on a topaz, of marvellous magnitude,  pile from human authorities.  Every party discovers in
crowned with a most precious diadem; and beside him
was his so  Louis, like him crowned, and seeing m, he  In the recent edition of Dante, by Romanis, in four vo.
sakes ith a blandouis, likhment of air, and and seeing m, hvoice   lumes, quarto, the last preserves the Vision of Alberico, arid a
spake with a blandishment of air, and a sweetness of voice,  strane correspondence on its publication; the resemblances' Charles, my successor, now  the third in the Roman  in numerous passages are pointed out. It is curious to observe
Empire, approach! I know that thou hast come to view   that the good Catholic Abbate Canceltieri, at first maintained
these places of punishment, where thy father and my bro-  the authenticity of the Vision by alleging that similar revelather groans to his destined hour; but still to end by the  tion have not been unusual!-the Caveliere Gherardi Ross.
intercession of the three saints, the patrons of the kings  attacked the whoe as the crude legend of a boy who was only
and the people of France. Know that it will not be kinsmadle the instrument of the monks, and was either a liar, or a
re thou shalt be dethroned and shortly after  parrot I We may express our astonishment that at the present
ere thou shalt be dethroned, and shortly after thou shalt
die _" Then L s t ad  sh clay, a subject of mere literary inquiry shauld have been in.
die!"  Then Louis turning towards me: " Thy Roman   volved with'the faith of the Roman Church.'  Cancellieri
empire shall pass into the hands of Louis, the son of my   becomes at length submissive to the lively attacks of Rossi,daughter; give him the sovereign authority, and trust to  and the editor gravely adds his' conclusion' which had near
his hands that ball of thread thou hboldest."  Directly I  ly concluded nothing! He disetuvers pictures, sculptures, and
loosened it from the finger of my right hand to give the   a mystery acted, as well as Visions in the twelfth and thir.
empire to his son. This invested him with empire, and  teenth cenituries, from which he imagines the Inferno, the Purt.
he became brilliant with all light;  and at the same instant,  gateorio, and the Paradise, owe their first conception. Tha
he becaie brilliant   with al light;   and t the   e    oirglnality of Dante, however, is maintained on a right princiIldtilrable to see, my spirit, greatly wearied and broken,  ple; that the poet only employed the ideas and the materials
eturned and glided into my body. Hence let all know   which lie found in his own country and his own times.




LITERATURE.                                                        "s
the events which at first were adverse to their own cause,  success which had. probably attended Alexander in his 4s,
but finally lerminate in their favour, that Providence had   scent into Italy, brings forward the great commanders he
used a peculiar and particular interference: this is a source   would have had to encounter; he compares Alexander
of human error, and intolerant prejudice.  The Jesuit  with each, and at length terminates his fears, and claims
Mariana, exulting over the destruction of the kingdom and   his triumph, by discovering that the Macedonians had but
nation of the Goths in Spain, observes, that' It was by a  one Alexander, while the Romans had several.  This
particular providence, that out of their ashes might rise a  beautiful digression in Livy is a model for the narrative of
new and holy Spain, to be the bulwark of the Catholic re-  an event which never happened.
lgion;' and unquestionably he would have adduced as      The Saracens from Asia had spread into Africa, and
proofs of this' holy Spain,' the establishment of the inqui-  at length possessed themselves of Spain.  Eide, a dissition, and the dark idolatrous bigotry of that hoodwinked   contented Duke of Guienne, in France, had been van
people. But a protestant will not sympathize with the feel-  quished by Charles Martelj who derived that humble but
ings of the Jesuit; yet the protestants too,will discover par-  glorious surname from the event we are now to record.
ticular providences, and magnify human events into super-  Charles had left Eude the enjoyment of his dukedom, pro.
natural ones. This custom has long prevailed among fana-  vided that he held it as a fief of the crown; but blind with
tics: we have had books published by individuals of' par-  ambition arid avarice, Eude adopted a scheme which threw
ticuiar providences,' which, as they imagined, had fallen to   Christianrity itself, as well as Europe, into a crisis of peril
their lot; they are called passages of providence;' and   which has never since occurred. By marrying a daughter
one I recollect by a cracked brained puritan, whose expe-  with a Mahometan emir, he rashly began an intercourse
rience never went beyond his own neighbourhood, but who,  with the Ishrnaelites, one of whose favourite projects was,
having a very bad temper, and many whom he considered  to plant a formidable colony of their faith in France.  Al
-his enemies, wrote down all the misfortunes which hap.  army of four hundred thousand combatants, as the chronipened to them  as acts of particular providences,' and   clers of the time affirm, were seen descending into Guienne,
valued his blessedness on the efficacy of his curses!   possessing themselves in one day of';se domains; and
Without venturing to penetrate into the mysteries of the   Eude soon discovered what sort of workmein he had called,
present order of human affairs, and the great scheme of  to do that of which he himself was so incapable. Charles,
fatality or of accident, it may be sufficiently evident to us,  with equal courage and prudence, beheld this heavy temthat often on a sil.gle event' revolve the fortunes of men   pest bursting over the whole country; and to remove the
and of nations.                                         first cause of this national evil, he reconciled the disconr
An eminent writer has speculated on the defeat of  tented Eude, and detached the duke from his fatal alliance.
Charles I, at Worcester, as'one of those events which   But the Saracens were fast advancing through Touraine,
most strikingly exemplify how much better events are dis-  and had reached Tours by the river Loire: Abderam, the
posed of by Providence, than they would be if the direc-  chief of the Saracens, anticipated a triumph in the multition were left to the choice even of the best and the wisest!ude of his infantry, his cavalry, and his camels, exhibit.
men.'  He proceeds to show, that a royal victory must  ing a military warfare unknown in France; he spread out
have been succeeded by other severe struggles, and by   his mighty army to surround the French, and to take them,
different parties. A civil war would have contained within  as it were, in a net. The appearance terrified, and the
itself another civil war. One of the blessings of his defeat  magnificence astonished. Charles, collecting his far infeat Worcester was, that it left the commonwealth's men  rior forces, assured them that they had no other France
masters of the three kingdoms, and afforded them' full  than the spot they covered. He had ordered that tie city
leisure to complete and perfect their own structure of'gov-  of Tours should be closed on every Frenchman, unless he
ernment.  The experiment was fairly tried; there was  entered it victorious; and he took care that every fugitive
nothing from without to disturb the process; it went on duly  should be treated as an enemy by bodies of gens d'armes,
from change to change.'  The close of this history is well  whom he placed to watch at the wings of his army. The
known.  Had the royalists obtained the victory of Wor-  combat was furious.  The astonished Mahometan beheld
cester, the commonwealth party might have obstinately  his battalions defeated as he urged them on singly to the
persisted, that had their republic not been overthrown,  French, who on that day had resolved to offer their lives' their free and liberal government' would have diffused   as an immolation to their mother country. Eude on that
its universal happiness through the three kingdoms.  This  day, ardent to clear himself from the odium which he had
idea is inmenious; and might have been pursued in my  incurred, with desperate valour, taking a wide compass,
proposed'Historv ofEvents which have not happened,' un-  attacked his new allies in the rear.  The camp of the
der the title of' The Battle of Worcester won by Charles  Mahometan was forced: the shrieks of his women and
II.' The chapter, however, would have had a brighter  children reached him from amidst the massacre; terrified,
close. if the sovereign and the royalists had proved them-  he saw his multitude shaken. Charles, who beheld the
selves better men than the knaves and fanatics of the com-  light breaking through this dark cloud of men, exclaimed
monwealth. It is not for us to scrutinize into' the ways'  to his countrymen,' My friends, God has raised his banof Providence; but if Providence conducted Charles  ner, and the unbelievers perish!' The mass of the SaraII to the throne, it appears to have deserted him  when   cens, though broken, could not fly; their own multitude
there.                                                  pressed themselves together, and the Christian sword
Historians, for a particular purpose, have sometimes  mowed down the Mahometans.  Abderam  was found
amused themselves with a detail of an event which did not  dead in a vast heap, unwounded, stifled by his own mul.
happen. A history of this kind we find in the ninth book  titude. Historians record that three hundred and sixty
of Livy; and it forms a digression, where, with his delight.  thousand Saracens perished on la journee de Tours; but
ful copiousness, he reasons on the probable consequences  their fears and their joy probably magnified their enemies.
which would have ensued had Alexander the Great in-  Thus Charles saved his own country, and at that moment,
vaded Italy. Some Greek writers, to raise the Parthians   all the rest of Europe, from this deluge of people which
to an equality with the Romans, had insinuated that the  had poured down from Asia and Africa. Every Christian
great name of this military monarch, who is said never to  people returned a solemn thankgiving, and saluted their
have lost a battle, would have intimidated the Romans,  deliverer as'the Hammer' of France. But the Saraand would have checked their passion for universal do-  cens were not conquered; Charles did not even venture
minion.  The patriotic Livy, disdaining that the glory of  on their pursuit; and a second invasion proved almost as
his nation, which had never ceased from war for nearly  terrifying; army still poured down on army, and it was
eight hundred years, should be put in competition with the  long, and after many dubious results, that the Saracens
career of a youing conqueror, which had scarcely lasted   were rooted out of France. Suich is the history of one of
ten, enters into a parallel of' man with man, general with  the most important events which has passed; but that of
general, and victory with victory.' In the full charm of   an event which did not happen, would be the result of this
his imagination he brings Alexander down into Italy, he  famous conflict, had the Mahometan power triumphed'
invests him with all his virtues, and'dusks their lustre'  The Mahometan dominion had predominated through
with all his defects. He arranges the Macedonian army,  Europe! The imagination is startled when it discovers
awhile he exultingly shows five Roman armies at that mo-  how much depended on this invasion, at a time when
ment pursuing their conquests; and he cautiously counts  there existed no political state in Europe, no balance,,f
the numerous allies who would have combined their forces;  power in one common tie of confederation! A  single
he even descends to compare the weapons and the modes   battle, and a single treason had before made the Mahorn..,fwarfare of the Macedonians with those of the Romans.  etans sovereigns of Spain. We see that the sarsa events
Livy, as if he had caught a momentary panic at the first  had nearly been repeated in France; and had the crescent




240                                    CURIOSITIES OF
towered above the cross, as every appearance promised  stantine, Clovis, sullied by crimes of as dark a die, obto the Saracenic hosts, the least of our evils had now been  tained the title of' the Great.' Had not the most capri.
that we should have worn turbans, combed our beards in-  cious' Defender of the Faith' been influenced by the most
stead of shaving them, have beheld a more magnificent  violent of passions, the Reformation, so feebly arid so imarchitecture than the Grecian, while the public mind had  perfectly begun and continued, had possibly never freed
been bounded by the arts and literature of the Moorish   England from the papal thraldom;
university of Cordova.' For gospel-light first beam'd from Bullen's eyes.,
One of the great revolutions of modern Europe, perhaps,    The catholic Ward, in his singular Hudibrastic poem of
had not occurred, had the personal feelings of Luther been' England's Reformation,' in some odd rhymes, has cha.
respected, and had his personal interest been consulted.  racterised it by a naivetd, which we are much too delicate
Guicciardini, whose veracity we cannot suspect, has pre-  to repeat.  The catholic writers censure Philip for recallserved a fact which proves how very nearly some impor-  ing the Duke of Alva fro  th  Netherlands. According
tant events which have taken place, might not have hap-  to these humane politicians, the unsparing sword, and the
pened! I transcribe the passage from his thirteenth book.  penal fires of this essolute captain  had certainly accom-' Carsar (the Emperor Charles V,) after he  had given a  plished the fate of the heretics; for angry lions, however
numerous, would find their numerical force diminished by
caused his opinions to be examined by a number of divines,  gibbits, and pit-holes. We have lately been informed by a
who reported that his doctrine was erroneous and perni-  curious writer that Protestantism once existed in Spain, and
cious to the Christian religion, had, to gratify the pontiff,  was actually extirpated at the moment by the crushing arm
put him under the ban of the empire, which so terrified Mar-  of the inquisition.*  According to these catholic polititin, that, if the injurious and threatening words which were  cians, a great event in catholic history did not occur-the
given him by Cardinal San Sisto, the apostolical legate,  spirit of catholicism, predominant in a land of protestants
had not thrown him into the utmost despair, it is believed  -from  the Spanish monarch failing to support Alva in
it would have been easy, by giving him some preferment,  finishing what he had begun! Had the armada of Spain
or providing for him some honourable way of living, to  safely landed, with the benedictions of Rome, in England 
mnake him renounce his errors.' By this we may infer,  — at a moment when our own fleet was short of gunpow.
that one of the true authors of the Reformation was this  der, and at a time when the English catholics formed a
very apostolical legate; they had succeeded in terrifying  powerful party in the nation-we might now be going to
Luther, but they were not satisfied till they had insulted  Mass 
him; and with such a temper as Luther's, the sense of    After his immense conquests, had Gustavus Adolphus
personal insult would remove even that of terror; it would  not perished in the battle of Lutzen, where his genius cbunquestionably survive it.  A  similar proceeding with  tained a glorious victory, unquestionably a wonderful
Franklin, from our ministers, is said to have produced the  change had operated on the affairs of Europe; the protessame effect with that political sage. What Guicciardini  tant cause had balanced, if not preponderated, over the
has told of Luther preserves the sentiment of the times,  catholic interest; and Austria, which appeared a sort of
Charles V was so fully persuade d that he could have put         monarchy, had seen her eagle s wing clipped.
down the Reformation, had he rid himself at once of the  But' the Anti-Christ,' as Gustavus was called by the
chief, that having granted Luther a safe-guard to appear   riests of Spain and Italy, the saviour of protestantism as
at the Council at Worms, in his last moments he repent-  he is called by Engiand and ~Sweden, whose death oced, as of a sin, that having had Luther in his hands, he  casioned so many bonefires among the catholics, that the
suffered him to escape; for to have violated his faith with  Spanish court interfered lest fuel should become too scarce
a heretic he held to be no crime!                       at the approaching winter —Gustavus fell-the fit hero for
In the history of religion, human instruments have been  one of those great events which have never happened!
permitted to be the great movers of its chief revolutions;    On  the first publication of the  Icon Basilike' of Charles
and the most important events concerning national reli-  the First, the instantaneous effect produced on the nation
gions appear to have depended on the passions of individu-  was such, fifty editions it is said, appearing in one year,
als, and the circumstances of the time. Impure means  that Mr Malcolm Laing observes, that'had this book,' a
have often produced the most glorious results; and this,  sacred volume to those who considered that sovereign as a
perhaps, may be among the dispensations of Providence.  martyr, appeared a week sooner,' it might have preserved
A similar transaction occurred in Europe and in Asia.  the king,' and possibly, have produced a reaction of popuThe motives and conduct of Constantine the Great, in  lar feeling! The chivalrous Dundee made an offer to
the alliance of the Christian faith with his government,  James II, which, had it been acted on, Mr Laing acknoware far more obvious than any one of those qualities with  ledges might have produced another change! What then
which the panegyric of Eusebius so vainly cloaks over the  had become of our'glorious Revolution,' which from its
crimes and unchristian life of this polytheistical Christian.  earliest step, throughout the reign of William, was still
In adopting the new faith as a coup d'dtat, and by invest-  vacillating amidst the unstable opinions and contending
ing the church with temporal power, at which Dante so  interests of so many of its first movers?
indignantly exclaims, he founded the religion of Jesus, but    The great political error of Cromwell is acknowledged
corrupted its guardians.  The same occurrence took place  by all parties to have been the adoption of the French in.
in France under Clovis. The fabulous religion of Pagan-  terest in preference to the Spanish; a strict alliance with
ism was fast on its decline; Clovis had resolved to unite  Spain had preserved the balance of Europe, enriched the
the four different principalities, which divided Gaul into  commercial industry of England, and above all, had
one empire. In the midst of an important battle, as for-  checked the overgrowing power of the French government.
tune hung doubtful between the parties, the Pagan mo-  Before Cromwell had contributed to the predominance of
narch invoked the god of his fair Christian queen, and ob-  the French power, the French Huguenots were of consetained the victory!  St Remi found no difficulty in persua-  quence enough to secure an indulgent treatment.  The
ding Clovis, after the fortunate event, to adopt the Chris-  parliaamenrt, as Elizabeth herself had formnerly done, contian creed. Political reasons for some time suspended  sidered so powerful a party in France as useful allies; and
the king's open conversion, at length the Franks followed  anxious to extend the principles of the Reformation, and
their sovereign to the baptismal fonts. According to Pas.  to further the suppression of popery, the parliament had
quier, Naude, and other political writers, these recorded  once listened to, and had even commenced a treaty with
miracles,* like those of Constantine, were but inventions  deputies from Bourdeaux, the purport of which was the as.
to authorize the chance of religion. Clovis used the new   sistance of the French Huguenots in their scheme of formcreed as a lever by whose machinery he would be enabled  ing themselves into a republic, or independent state; but
to crush the petty princes his neighbors; and like Con.  Cromwell, on his usurpation, not only overthrew the de* The miracles of Clovis consisted of a shield, which was ien, but is believed to have betrayed it to Mazarine.
picked up after having fallen from the skies; the anointing oil,  What a change in the affairs of Europe had Cromwell
conveyed rem Heaven by a white dove in a phial, which, till  adopted the Spanish interests, and assisted the French
the reign of Louis XVI, consecrated the kings of France; and  Huguenots in becoming an independent state! The revothe oriflamme, or standard with eolden flames, long suspended  cation of the edict of Nantes and the increase of the
over the tomb of St Denis, which the French kings only raised  French dominion, which so long afterwards disturbed the
over the tomb when their crown was in imminent p~eril. No  peace of Europe, were the consequence of this fatal error
future king of France can be anointed with the saint ampoule,  of Cromwell's. The independent state of the French
or oil brought down to earth by a white dove; in 1794 it was
broken by some profane hand, and antiquaries have since    * This fact was probably quite unknown to us, till it was
agreed that it was only an ancient lachryn P:ory!      given in the Quarterly Review. Vol. XXIX




L I T E RAT UTR E.                                                 241
Huguenots, and the reduction of ambitious France, per-  disguised truth there is a difference known to writers skial.
haps, to a secondary European power, had saved Europe   ed in' the art of governing mankind by deceiving them;
from the scourge of the French revolution!                 as politics, ill understood, have been defined, and as are
The elegant pen of Mr Roscoe has lately afforded me   all party politics, these forgers prefer to use the truth dig.
another curious siketch of a history of events which have not  guised, to the gross fiction.  When the real truth can no
khappened.                                                 longer be concealed, then they confidently refer to it; for
M. De Sismondi imagines, against the opinion of every  they can still explain and obscure, while they secure on
historian, that the death of Lorenzo de'Medici was a mat-  their side the party whose cause they have advocated.
ter of indifference to the prosperity ofl Italy; as'he could   A curious reader of history may discover the temporary
not have prevented the different projects which had been   and sometimes the lasting advantages of spreading rtmatured in the French cabinet, for the invasion and con-  mours designed to disguise, or to counteract the reali
quest of Italy; and therefore he concludes that all histo-  state of things. Such reports, set a going, serve to break.
rians are mistaken who bestow on Lorenzo the honour of  down the sharp and fatal point of a panic, which might.
having preserved the peace of Italy, because the great  instantly occur; in this way the public is saved from the,
invasion that overthrew it did not take place till two years   horrors of consternation, and the stupefaction of despair..
after his death.' Mr. Roscoe has philosophically vindi-  These rumours give a breathing time to prepare fir the.
cated the honour which his hero has justly received, by   disaster, which is doled out cautiously; and, as might hb,
employing the principle which in this article has been de-  shown, in some cases these first reports have left an eventt
veloped.' Though Lorenzo de'Medici could not perhaps  in so ambiguous a state, that a doubt may still arise.
have prevented the important events that took place in   whether these reports were really so destitute of truth!'
other nations of Europe, it by no means follows that the   Such reports, once printed, enter into history, and sadly'
life or death of Lorenzo were equally indifferent to the   perplex the honest historian.  Of a battle fought in a re..
effairs of Italy, or tlhat circumstances would have been the   mote situation, both parties for a long time; at home, may
same in case he had lived, as in the event of his death.'  dispute the victory after the event, and the pen may pro...
Mr. Roscoe then proceeds to show how Lorenzo's' pru-   long what the sword had long decided.  This has been,
dent measures, and proper representations,' might proba-   no unusual circumstance: of several of the most impor...
bly have prevented the French expedition, which Charles   taut battles on which the fate of Europe has hung, were
VIII was frequently on the point of abandoning.  Loren-   we to rely on some reports of the time, we might stilli
zo would not certainly have taken the precipitate measures   doubt of the manner of the transaction.  A skirmish has.
of his son Piero, in surrendering the Florentine fbrtresses.  been often raised into an arranged battle, and a defeat:
His family would not in consequence have been eirpel~ed   concealed, in an account of the killed and wounded,.
the city; a powerful mind might have influenced the dis-   while victory has been claimed by both parties! Villeroy,.
cordant politics of the Italian princes in one common de-  in all his encounters with Marlborough, always sent honi,'
fence; a slight opposition to the fugitive army of France,  despatches by which no one could suspect that he was disat the pass of Faro, might have given the French sove-   comfited.  Pompey, after his fatal battle with Cesar,,
reigns a wholesome lesson, and prevented those bloody   sent letters to all the provinces and cities of the Romans,:
contests that were soon afterwards renewed in Italy.  As   describing with greater courage than he had fought, so that:
asitgleremove at Chess varies the whole game, so the death   a report generally prevailed that Caesar had lost the batof an individual of such importance in the affairs of Eu-  tie! Plutarch informs us, that three hundred writers had.
rope as Lorenzo de' Medici, could not fail of producing   described the battle of Mlarathon.  Many doubtless had
a change in its political relations, as must have varied   copied their predecessors: but it would perhaps have surthem in an incalculable degree.' Pignotti also describes'  prised us to have observed how materially some differed'
the stave of Italy at this time. HAD Lorenzo lived to  in their narratives.
have seen his son elevated to the papacy, this historian,    In looking over a collection of manuscript letters of the!
adopting ouir present principle, exclaims,'A  happy era  times of Janies the First, 1 was struck by the contradicfor Italy and Tuscany HAD THEN OCCULRPLD! On this  tory reports of the result of the famous battle of Lutzen,,
head we can, indeed, be only allowed to conjecture; hut  so glorious and so fatal to Gustavus Adolphus; the victo..
the fancy, guided by reason, may expatiate at will in this  ry was sometimes reported to have been obtained by the,
imaginary state, and contemplate Italy reunited by a   Swedes  but a general uncertainty, a sort of mystery,.
stronger bond, flourishing under its own institution and   agitated the majority of the nation, who were stanch to,
arts, and delivered from all those lamented struggles which   the protestant cause.  This state of anxious suspense
occurred within so short a period of time.'                lasted a considerable time.  The fatal truth gradually'
VWhitaker in his' Vindication of Mary Q.ueen of Scots,'  came out in reports changing in their progress; if the vic-..
has a speculation in the true spirit of this article. When   tory was allowed, the death of the Protestant Hero closed.
such dependance wvas made upon Elizabeth's dying without  all hope!  The historian of Gustavus Adolphus observes
issue, the Countess of Shrewsbury had her son purposely   on this occasion, that' Few couriers were better receivedi
residing in London, with two good and able horses coritinu-  than those who conveyed the accounts of the King's deathi
ally ready to give the earliest intelligence of the sick Eliza-  to declared enemies or concealed ill wishers; nor did the'
abeth's death to the imprisoned Mary. On this the histo-  report greatly displease the court of WnThitehall, where the.
rian observes,' And had this not improbable event actually   ministry, as it usually happens in cases of timidity, had'
taken place, what a diffeTent complexion would our history  its degree of apprehensions for fear the event should not
have assumed from what   oears at present!  lIary would  be true; and, as I have learned from good authority, in.
have been carrietd from  a prison to a throne.  Her wise   posed silence on the news writers, and intimated the same'
conduct in prison would have been applauded by all.-   to the pulpit in case anty funeral encomium might proceed;
From Tutbury, from  Sheffield, and from Chatsworth, she   from that quarter.'  Although the motive assigned by the
would have been said to have touched with a gentle and   writer, that of the secret indisposition of the cabinet of'
masterly hand the springs that actuated all the nation,  James the First towards the fortunes of Gustavus, is to
against the death of her tyrannical cousin, &c.  So duc.   me by no means certain; unquestionably the knowledeo
tile is history in the hands of man! and so peculiarly'oes   of this disastrous event was long kept back by'a timid
it bend to the force of success, and warp with the warnith   ministry,' and the fluctuating reports probably regulated'
of prosperity!                                             by their designs.
Thus important events have been nearly occurring,          The same circumstance occurred on another important
which however, did not take place; and others have hap-   event in modern history, where we may observe the artifice
pened which may be traced to accident and to the charac-   of party writers in diseuising or suppressing  the real fact.
ter of an individual. We shall enlarge our conception of  This was the famous battle'of the Boyne.  The French
the nature of human events, and gather some useful in-  catholic party long reported that Count Laueun had won.
struction in our historical reading, by pausing at intervals;  the battle, and that William [IF was killed.  Bussy Hacontemplating, for a moment, on certain events which hrve  butin in some memoirs, in which he appears to bave
not happened!                                              registered tublic events without scrutinizing their truth,
says,'I chronicled this account according as the first reOF fALSE POLITtCAL ieEPOR;TS.
ports gave out, when at length the real fact reached themr'A  false report, if believed during three days, may be   the party did not like to lose their pretended victory.' Pore
of great service to a government.' This political maxim   Londel, who published a register of the times, vwhich is
has been ascribed to Catherine of Medici, an adept in  favouiab!   noticed in the'Nwirvelles de la Republique des
woups d'etat, the arcana imperin I Between solid lying and   Lettres,' for 1699, has recorded the event in this decep.
8*




242.                               CURIOSITIES OF
tive manner:'The battle of the Boyne in Ireland; Schom-   by another which they are telling! and triple lying to
berg is killed there at the head of the English.' This is  overreach their opponents; royalists and parliamentari.'an equivocator!'  The writer resolved to conceal the   ans were alike; for to tell one great truth,'the father of
defeat of James's party, and cautiously suppresses any  lies' is of no party!
mention of a victory, but very carefully gives a real fact,    As' nothing is new under the sun,' so this art of de.
by which his readers would hardly doubt of the defeat of  ceiving the public was unquestionably practised among:he
the English!  We are so accustomed to this traffic of  ancients.  Syphax sent Scipio word that he could not
false reports, that we are scarcely aware that many im-  unite with the Romans, but, on the contrary, had declared
portant events recorded in history were  in their day  for the Carthaginians.  The Roman army were then
strangely disguised by such mystifying accounts.  This  anxiously waiting for his expected succors: Scipio was
we can only discover by reading private letters written at  careful to show the utmost civility to these ambassadors,
the mornent.  Bayle has collected several remarkable  and ostentatiously treated them with presents, that hts sol.
absurdities of this kind, which were spread abroad to an-  diers might believe they were only returning to hasten the:swer a temporary purpose, but which had never been   army of Syphax to join the Romanls. Livy censures the
tknown to us had these contemporary letters not been pub-  Roman consul, who, after the defeat at Cannae, told the
hished.  A report was prevalent in Holland in 1580, that  deputies of the allies the whole loss they had sustained:
(the kings of France and Spain and the Duke of Alva were' This consul,' says Livy,' by giving too faithful and open.dead; a felicity which for a time sustained the exhausted   an account of his defeat, made both himself and his army
-spirits of the revolutionists.  At the invasion of the Span-  appear still more contemptible.' The result of the simpli.
ish Armada, Burleigh spread reports ofthe thumb screws,  city of the consul was, that the allies, despairing that the;and other instruments of torture, which the Spaniards had   Romans would ever recover'their losses, deemed it prudent
tbrought with them, and thus inflamed the hatred of the  to make terms with Hannibal. Plutarch tells an amusin,nation.  The horrid story of the bloody Colonel Kirke is  story, in his way, of the natural progress of a report, which,considered as one of those political forgeries to serve the   was contrary to the wishes of the government; the unhap.,purpose of blackening a zealous partisan.               py reporter suffered punishment as long as the rumour pre.
False reports are sometimes stratagems of war. When   vailed, though at last it proved true. A stranger landing;the chiefs of the league had lost the battle at Ivry, with an  from Sicily, at a barber's shop delivered all the particulars
army broken and discomfited, they still kept possession of  of the defeat of the Athenians; of which, however, the
Paris merely by imposing on the inhabitants all sorts of  people were yet uninformed.  The barber leaves untrim.
false reports, such as the death of the king of Navarre, at  med the reporter's beard, and flies away to vent the news
the fortunate moment when victory, undetermined on  in the city, where he told the Archons what he had heard.
which side to incline,'turned for the leaguers; arid they   The whole city was thrown in a ferment.  The Archons
gave out false reports of a number of victories they had   called an assemlbly of the people, and produced the luckless
elsewhere obtained. Such tales,distributed in pamphlets and   barber, who in his confusion could not give any satisfactory
ballads among a people agitated by doubts, and fears, are  account of the first reporter.  He was condemned as a
gladly believed; flattering their wishes, or soothing their  spreader of false news, and a disturber of the public quiet;
alarms, they contribute to their ease, and are too agreeable  for the Athenians could not imagine but that they were into allow of time!for reflection.                        vincible! The barber was dragged to the wheel and torThe history of a report creating a panic may be traced  tured, till the disaster was more than confirmed. Bayle,
in the Irish insurrection, in the curious memoirs of James  referring to this story observes, that had the barber repor.
II.  A forged proclamation of the Prince of Orange was  ted a victory, though it had proved to befalse, he would not
set forth by one Speke, and a rumour spread that the Irish   have been punished; a shrewd observation, which occurred
troops were killing and burning in all parts of the kingdom!  to him from his recollection of the fate of Stratocles. This
A panic like magic instantly run through the people, so  person persuaded the Athenians to perform a public sacrithat in one quarter of the town of Drogheda they imagined  fice and thanksgiving for a victory obtained at sea, though
that the other was filled with blood and ruins. During this  he well knew at the time that the Athenian fleet had been
panic pregnant women miscarried, aged persons died with  totally defeated.  When the calamity could no longer
terror, while the truth was, that the'Irish themselves were  be concealed, the people charged him with being an impos.
disarmed and dispersed, in utter want of a meal or a lodE-  tor; but Stratocles saved his life and mollified their anger
by the pleasant turn he gave to the whole affair.' Have I
In the unhappy times of our civil wars under Charles  done you any injury?' said he.' Is it not owing to me'the First, the newspapers arrd the private letters afford  that you have spent three days in the pleasures of victory'':specimens of this political contrivance of false reports of  I think that this spreader of good, but fictitious news, should
every species.'No extravagance of invention to spread a  have occupied the wheel of the luckless barber, who had,terror against a party was too gross, and the city of London  spread bad but true news; for the barber had no intention,was one day alarmed that the royalists were occupied by  of deception, but Stratocles had; and the question here to
a plan of blowing up the river Thames, by an immense  be tried, was not the truth or the falsity of the reports, but
]Quantity of powder ware-housed at the river side; and  whether the reporters intended to deceive their fellow-citi-'that there existed an organized though invisible brother-  zens? The' Chronicle' and the' Post' must be challenged
ihood of many thousands with consecrated knives-; and those  on such a jury, and all the race of news-scribes, whom
who hesitated to give credit to such rumours were brand-  Patin characterises as hominum genus audacissimum men.
ed as malignants, who took not she danger of the parlia-  dacissimum avidissimum. Latin superlatives are too rich
ment to heart.  Forged conspiracies and reports of great  to suffer a translation. But what Patln says in his letter
bult distant victories were inventions to keep up the spirit  356 may be applied:' These writers insert in their papers
of a party, but oftener prognosticated some intended change  things they do not know, and ought not to write. It is the
in the government.   When they were desirous of aug-  same trick that is playing which was formerly played; it
mnenting the army, or introducing new garrisons, or using  is the very same farce, only it is exhibited by new actors.
an extreme measure with the city, or the royalists, there  The worst circumstance, I think, in this, is, that this trick
was always a new conspiracy set afloat; or when any  will continue playing a long course of years, and that the
great affair was to be carried in parliament, letters of great  public stiffer a great deal too much by it.'
victories were published to dishearten the opposition, and
infilse adlditional boldness in their own party. If the report  OF SUPPRESSORS AND DILAPIDATORS OF 05  rSCtIPT5.
lasted only a few days, it obtained its purpose, and verifi-    MANUSCRIPTS are suppressed or destroyed from motives
ed the observation of Catharine of Medicis.  Those po.  which require to be noticed. Plagiarists, at least, have the
lhticians who raise such false reports obtain their end:  merit of preservation: they may blush at their artifices,
like the architect, who, in building an arch, supports it  and deserve the pillory, but their practices do not incur the
with circuelar props and pieces of timber, or any tempora-  capital crime of felony. Serassi, the writer of the curiour
ry rubbish, till he closes the arch; and when it can sup-  life of Tasso, was guilty of an extraordinary suppression in
port itself, he throws away the props! There is no class  his zeal for the poet's memory.  The story remains to be
of political lying which can want for illustration if we con.  told, for it is little known.
uilt the records of our civil wars; there we may trace the    Galileo, in early life, was a'lecturer at the university of
whole art in all the nice management of its shades, its  Pisa: delighting in poetical studies, he was then ranrp. nf 
qualities, and its more complicate parts, from invective to  critic than a philosopher, and had Ariosto by heart.  This
puff and from innuendo to prevarication! we may ad.  ereat man caught the literary mania which broke out about
mire the scrupulous correction of a lie which they had told,  his time, when the Cruscans so absurdly began their' Coa.




LITERATURE.                                                        243
troversie Tassesche,' and raised up two poetical factions,  letters.  This MS. has four leaves entirely torn out, and
which infected the Italians with a national fever. Tasso  is accompanied by this extraordinary memorandum, sign.
and Ariosto were perpetually weighed and outweighed   ed by the principal librarian.
against each other; Galileo wrote annotations on Tasso,'Upon examination of this book, Nov. 12, 1764, these
stanza after stanza, arid without reserve, treating the ma-  four last leaves were torn out.
4estic bard with a severity which must have thrown the'C. Morton.
l'assoists into an agony.  Our critic lent his manuscript; Mem. Nov. 12, sent down to Mrs Macaulay.'
to Jacopo Mazzoni, who, probably being a disguised Tas-    As no memorandum of the name of any student to whom.oi t, by some unaccountable means contrived that the   a manuscript is delivered for his researches was ever
manuscript should be absolutely lost!-to the deep regret  made before or since, or in the nature of things will ever be,
of the author and all the Ariostoists.  The philosopher de-  this memorandum must involve our iemale historian in the
%cended to his grave-not without occasional groans-nor  obloquy of this dilapidation.*  Such dishonest practices
without exulting reminiscences of the blows he had in his  of party feeling, indeed are not peculiar to any party.
youth inflicted on the great rival ofAriosto-and the rumour  In Mr Roscoe's interesting'Illustrations' of his life of
of such a work long floated on tradition! Two centuries   Lorenzo de'Medici, we discover that Fabroni, whose chahad nearly elapsed, when Serassi, employed on his elabo-  racter scarcely admits of' suspicion, appears to have known
rate life of Tasso, among his uninterrupted researches in  of the existence of an unpublished letter of Sixtus IV,
the public libraries of Rome, discovered a miscellaneous   which involves that pontiff deeply in the assassination provolume, in which, on a cursory examination, he found de-  jected by the Pazzi; but he carefully suppressed its noposited the lost manuscript of Galileo! It was a shock  tice: yet, in his conscience, he could not avoid alluding to
from which, perhaps, the zealous biographer of Tasso   such documents, which he concealed by his silence. Mr
never fairly recovered; the awful name of Galileo sanc-  Roscoe has ably defended Fabroni, who may have overtioned the asperity of critical decision, and more particu-  looked this decisive evidence of the guilt of the hypocritilarly the severe remarks on the language; a subject on   cal pontiff in the mass of manuscripts; a circumstance not
which the Italians are so morbidly delicate, and so trivially  likely to have occurred, however to this laborious historical
grave. Serassi's conduct on this occasion was at once  inquirer.  All party feeling is the same active spirit with
political, timorous and cunning. Gladly would he have  an opposite direction. We have a remarkable case, where
annihilated the original, but this was impossible! It was  a most interesting historical, production has been silently
some consolation that the manuscript was totally unknown   annihilated by the consent of both parties.  There once
-for having got mixed with others, it had accidentally been   existed an imtortant diary ofa very extraordinary characpassed over, and not entered into the catalogue; his own  ter, Sir George  Saville, afterwards Illarquis ofr Halifax.
d-ilient eye only had detected its existence.'Less2 ne   This master-spirit, for such I am Inclined to consider the
fisn ora sa,Jfuori d me, se vi sia, ne dove sia, e cosi non petra  author of the little book of' Maxims and Reflections,' with
darsi alla luce,' &c. But in the true spirit of a collector,  a philosophical indifference, appears to have held in equal
avaricious of all things connected with his pursuits, Serassi  contempt all the factions of his times, arid, consequently,
cautiously but completely, transcribed the precious manu-  has often incurred their severe censures. Among other
script, with an intention, according to his memorandum,to  things, the Marquis of Halifax had noted down the conunravel all its sophistry.  However, although the Abbate  versations he had had with Charles the Second, and
never wanted leisure, he persevered in his silence; yet he  the great arid busy characters of the age. Of this curious
often trembled lest some future explorer of manuscripts  secret history there existed two copies, and the noble wrimight be found as sharpsighted as himself.  He was so  ter imagined that by this means he had carefully secured
cautious as not even to venture to note down the library  their existence; yet both copies were destroyed from o;pwhere the manuscript was to be found, and to this day no  posite motives; the one at the instigation of Pope, who
one appears to have fallen on the volume! On the death of  was alarmed at finding some of the catholic intrigues of
Serassi, his papers came to the hands of the Duke of Ceri,  the court developed.; and the other at the suggestion of a
a lover of literature; the transcript of the yet undiscovered   noble friend, who was equally shocked at discovering that
original was then revealed! and this secret history of the   his party, the Revolutionists, had sometimes practised
mlanuscript was drawn from a note on the title-page writ-  mean and dishonourable deceptions. It is in these legacies
ten by Serassi himself.  To satisfy the urgent curiosity of  of honourable Inen, of whatever party they may be, that
the literati, these annotations on Tasso by Galileo were   we expect to find truth and sincerity; but thus it happens
published in 1793. Here is a work, which, from its earliest  that the last hope of posterity is frustrated by the artifices,
stage, much pains had been taken to suppress; but Seras-  or the malignity, of these party-passions.  Pulteney, afsi's c(4Jecting passion inducing hirn to preserve what he  terwards tile Earl of Bath, had also prepared memoirs of
himself so much wished should never appear, finally occa-  his times, which he proposed to confide to Dr Douglas, bisioned its publication! It adds one evidence to the many,  shop of Salisbury, to be composed by the bishops; but his
which prove that such sinister practices have been frequent-  lordship's heir, the general, insisted on destroying these
iy used by the historians of a party, poetic or politic.  authentic documents, cf the value of which we have a noUnquestionably this entire suppression of manuscripts has  tion by one of those conversations which the earl was in
been too frequently practised.  It is suspected that our  the habit of indulging with Hooke, whom he at that time
historical antiquary Speed owed many obligations to the   appears to have intended for his historian.
learned Hugih Broughton. for he possessed a vast number    The same hostility to manuscripts, as may be easily
of his MSS. which he burnt.  Why did he burn?  If  imagined, has occurred, perhaps more frequently, on the
persons place themselves in suspicious situations, they-  continent.  I shall furnish  one considerable fact.  A
must not complain if they be suspected.  We have had   French canon, Claude Joly, a bold and learned writer, had
historians who, whenever they met with information which  finished an ample life of Erasmus, which included a hishas not suited their historical system, or their inveterate  tory of the restoration of literature, at the close of the
prejudices, have employed interpolations, castrations, and  fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. Coloforgeries, and in some cases have annihilated the entire   mies tells us, that the author had read over the works of
document.  Leland's invaluable manuscripts were left at  Erasmus seven times; we have positive evidence that the
his death in the confused state in which the mind of the
writer had slink, overcome by his incessant labours, when  *   It is now about twenty.seven years ago since I first pub.
this royal.nti.'uary was employed by Henry VII1 to  lished this anecdote; at the same time I received information
write our national antiquities. His scattered manuscripts  that our femrnale historian and dilapidator hadl acted in this manwere long a common prey to many who never acknow-  net more than once. At that distance of time this rulouro so
ledged their fountain head; among these suppressors and   notorions at the British Museum it was impossible to autherticate. The Rev. William Graham, the surviving tusband —(
dilapidators pre-eminently stands the crafty Italian Poly-    rse. Thcaulay, intempeattely called o  Dr vortong in a ver r
dore Vergil, who not only drew largely fromn this source,  advanced period of life, to declare that' it appeared to him that
blut, to cover the robbery, did not omit to depreciate the  the note does not contain any evidence that the leaves werae
father of our antiquities-an act of a piece with the cha-  torn out by Mrs Macauley.' It was more apparent to the itnracter of the man, who is said to have collected and burnt  prejudicedl, that the doctor must have singularly lost the use of
a greater number of historical MSS than would have  liis nlemory, when he could not explain his own oflcial note,
loaded a wagon, to prevent the detection of the numerouse was comelled  o ise. 
fabrications in his history of Eand       Morton was not unfriendly to Mrs Macauleys political party..,
fabrications in his history of Eng:land, which was composed   he was the d(litor of Whitelocke's Diary of his Embassy to tLh
to gratify Mlarv and the catholic cause.                 Queen of Sweden,,and has, I believe, largely castritet the
t'he Harleian manuscript, 7379, is a collection of state-  work. The original lies at the British Musesun




244                                  CURIOSITIES OF
t,1. was finished for the press; the Cardinal De Noailles   our royal writer frequently inserted additional paragrapbhs
would examine the work itself; this important history was   The work first appeared in an anonymous'Recueil d'Opu.
not only suppressed, but the hope entertained of finding it  sculth Litteraries, Amsterdam, 1767,' which  Barbier, in
among the cardinal's papers was never realized.            his' Anonymes,' tells us, was rddigd par Pelisson; le tout
These are instances of the annihilation ofhistory; but  publi6 par l'Abb6 Olivet.' When at length the printed
there is a partial suppression, or castration of passages,  work was collated with the manuscript original, sever&
equally fatal to the cause of truth; a practice too prevalent  suppressions of the royal sentiments appeared, and the
among. the first editors of memoirs.  By such deprivations  editors, too catholic, had, with more particular caution,
of the text we have lost important truths, while in some  thrown aside what clearly showed Louis XIV  was far
cases, by interpolations, we have been loaded with the  from  approving of the violences used against the protestfictions of a party.  Original memoirs, when published,  ants.  The following passage was entirely omitted.'I
should now he deposited at that great institution conse-  seems to me, my son, that those who employ extreme and
crated to our national history-the British Museum, to be  violent remedies do not know the nature of the evil, occa.
verified at all times.  In Lord Herbert's history of Henry  sioned in part, by heated minds, which, left to themselves,
tha Eighth,I find, bya manuscript note, that several things  would insensibly be extinguished, rather than rekindle
were not permitted to be printed, and that the original sus.  them afresh by the force of contradiction; above all, when
was supposed to be in Mr Sheldon's custody, in 1687.  the corruption is not confined to a small number, but dif.
Camden told Sir Robert Filmore that he was not suffered  fused through all parts of the state; besides, the Reform.
to print all his annals of Elizabeth; but he providently  ers said many true things! The best method to have resent these expurgated passages to De Thou, who printed  duced little by little the Huguenots of my kingdom, was no:
them  faithfully; and it is remarkable that De Thou him-  to have pursued them  by any direct severity pointed a;
self used the same precaution in the continuation of his own  them.'
history. We like distant truths, but truths too near us    Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is a remarkable instance
never fail to alarm ourselves, our connexions, and our par-  of an author nearly lost to the nation: she is only known
ty. Mllilton, in composing his history of England, intro-  to posterity by a chance publication, for such were her
duced, in the third book, a very remarkable digression, on  famous Turkish letters; the manuscript of which her fathe characters of the Long Parliament; a most animated   mily once purchased with an intention to suppress, but
description of a class of political adventurers, with whom   they were frustrated by a transcript.  The sore recent
modern history has presented many parallels.  From  ten-  letters were reluctantly extracted out of the family trunks
derness to a party then imagined to be subdued, it was  and surrendered in exchange for certain family documents
struck out by command, nor do I find it restituted in Ken-  which had fallen into the hands of a bookseller.  Had it
nett's Collection of English histories. This admirable and  depended on her relatives, the name of Lady Mary had
exquisite delineation has been preserved in a pamphlet  only reached us in the satires of Pope.  The greater part
printed in 1681, which has fortunately exhibited one of the  of her epistolary correspondeince was destroyed by her
warmest pictures in design and colouring by a master's  mother; and what that good and Gothic lad  spared, was
hand. One of our most important volumes of secret history,  suppressed by the hereditary austerity of rank, of which'Whitelocke's Memorials,' was published by Arlhur, Earl  her family was too susceptible.  Tile entire correspondof Anglesea, in 1682, who took considerable liberties with  ence of this admirable writer, and studious woman —fobr
the manuscript; another edition appeared in 1732, which   once, in perusing some unpublished letters of Lady Mary,
restored the many important passages through which thle  I discovered that'she had been in the habit of readiig
earl appears to have struck his castrating pen.  The res-  seven hours a day for manyyears'-would  undoubtedly
titution of the castrated passages has not much increased  have exhibited a fine statue, instead of the torso we now
the magnitude of this folio volume; for the omissions usually  possess; ard we might have lived with her ladyship, as
consisted of a characteristic stroke, or a short critical  we do with Madame de Sevigno.  This I have mentioned
opinion, which did not harmonize with the private feelings  elsewhere; but I have since discovered that a considerable
of the Earl of Anglesea.  In consequence of the volume  correspondence of Lady Mary's, for more than twenty
not being much enlarged to the eye, and being unaccom-  years, with the widow of Col. Forrester, who had retired
panied by a single line of preface to inform us of the value  to Rome, has been stifled in the birth. These letters, with
of this more complete edition, the booksellers imagine that  other MSS of Lady Mary's, were given by Mrs Forresthere can be no material difference between  the two  ter to Philip Thicknesse, with a discretionary power to
editions, and wonder at the bibliopolical mystery that the   publish.  They were held as a great acquisition by Thickcan afford to sell the edition of 1682 at ten shillings, and nesse and his bookseller; but when they had printed off
have five guineas for the editioni of 1732! Hume, who, I  the first thousand sheets, there were parts which they conhave been told, wrote his history usually on a sofa, with  sidered might give pain to some of the family.  Thickthe epicurean indolence of his fine genius, always refers to  nesse says,'Lady Mary had in many places been unthe old truncated and faithless edition of Whitelocke-so  commonly severe upon her husband, for all her letters were
little in his day did the critical history of books enter into  loaded with a scrap or two of poetry at hin'*  A negothe studies of our authors, or such was the carelesness of  tiation took place with an agent of Lord Bute's-after
our historian.  There is more philosophy in editions, than   some time Miss Forrester put in her claims for the MSS
some philosophers are aware of. Perhaps most' Memoirs'  -and the whole terminated, as Thicknesse tells us, in her
have been unfaithfully published,' Curtailed of their fair  obtaining a pension, and Lord Bute all the MSS.
proportions;' and not a few might be noticed which sub-    The late Duke of Bridgewater, I am  informed, burnt
sequent editors have restored to their original state, by  many of the numerous family papers, and bricked up a
uniting their dislocated limbs.  Unquestionably, passion   quantity, which, when opened after his death, were found
has sometimes annihilated manuscripts, and tamely re-  to have perished.  It is said he declared that he did not
venged itself on the papers of hated writers! Louis XIV,  choose that his ancestors should be traced back to a perwith his own hands, after the death of Fenelon, burnt all  son of a mean trade, which it seems might possibly have
the manuscripts which the Duke of Burgundy had preserv-  been the case.  The loss now cannot be appreciated; but
ed of his preceptor.                                       unquestionably, stores of history, and, perhaps, of litera.
As an exanmple of the suppressors and dilapidators of  ture, were sacrificed.  Milton's  manuscript of Comus
manuscripts, I shall give an extraordinary fact concerning  was published from the Bridgewater collection, for it had
Louis XIV more in his favour. His character appears,  escaped the bricking up! 
like some other historical personages, equally disguised by  Manuscripts of great interest are frequently suppressed
adulation and calumny.  That monarch was noti the Nero  from the shameful indifference of the possessors.
which his revocation of the edict of Nantes made him         Mr Mathias, in his Essay on Gray, tells us, that t in
seem to the French protestants.  He was far firom appro-  addition to the valuable manuscripts of Mr Gray, tire is
vine of the violent measures of his catholic clergy.  This  reason to think that there were some other papers, foen
opinion of that sovereign was, however, carefully suppress-  Sibylle, in the possession of Mr Mason; but though a
ed when his'Instructions to the Dauphin' were first pub-  very diligent and anxious inquiry has bern made after
lished. It is now ascertained that Louis XIV was for  the;n, they cannot be discovered since his death.' There
many years equally zealous and industrious; and. amon    was, however one fraen  by Mr Mason's own descri
other useful attempts, composed an elaborate'Discours'  tion of it, of very great value, namely,'The plan of an
for the Dauphin for his fitutre conduct.  The kitug gave    * Thlere was one passage he recollected —' Just left my bed
his manuscript to Pelisson to revise: but after thie revision,  a lifeless trunk, and scarce a dreanming head:'




LIT ERATURE.                                                   245
intended speech in Latin on his appointment as professor  lates have been too cautiously suppressed, or too completeof MIodern History in the tniversity of Cambridge.' Mr  ly destroyed; while those on the other side have been as
Masooi says,'Immediately on his lppointment M~r Gr1ay   carefiully preserved.  In otur national collection, the Brrtsketched  outY an admirable pian  ot his inauguration   ish Museum, we find a great deal against Mar-prelate,
speech; in which after enumerating the preparatory and  but not Mar-prelate himself.
auxiliary studies requisite, such as ancient history, geo-   I have written the history of this conspiracy in the third
graphy, chrer.slogy, &c, he descended to the authentic  volumeof'Quarrelsof Authors.'
sources of the science, such as public treaties, state-re                         PARODIES.
cords, private correspondence of ambassadors, &c. He
cords priate  orresondece o ambasados, &. He  A lady of bas bleu celebrity (the term is getting odious,
also wrote the exordium of this thesis, not, indeed, so cor-  A lady of  s b   celebrity (the term  s gettin  odious,
rect as to he given by way of fragment, but so spirited in  particularly to our scavantes) had two friends, whom  she
equally admired-an elegant poet and his parodist. She
point of sentiment, as leaves it nmuch to be regretted that  equally admired-an elegant poet and his parodist.  She
he tid not )rotceed to its conclusion.'  This fragment can-  had contrived to prevent their meeting as long as her stra-.tnageros lasted, till at length she apologized to the serious
notnow be found; and after so very interesting a descrip-  tages lasted, till at length she apologized to the serious
tion of its value, and of its importance, it is difficult to con-   ard for invitg  him wen his mock  mbra was to be
prese.nt. Astern'shed, she perceived that both men of
ceive how Mr Mason could prevail upon himself to with-  present.  Astonished, she perceived that both mcii of
hold it.   If there be a        subject on which more, perhaps,  genius felt a mutual esteem for each other's opposite
hold it. If there be a subject on which more, perhaps,tae;thricudhdprevdnomlgtyn   e
than on any other, it would have been peculiarly desirabie       n o thridiculed  had perceived  no malignity in tie
to know, and to follow the train of the ideas of Gray, t is playfulness of the parody, and even seemed to consider
that of modern history, in which no man was more toil- it as a compliment, aware that parodists do not waste
thnateyf moer accurately, or   more extsnt   their talent on obscure productions; while the ridiculer
mately, more accurately, or more extensively    conversant  himself was very sensible that le was the inferior poet.
than our poet. A  sketch or plan from his hand, on the
subjects of history,  and on those wphich beloned  to it   The lady-critic had imagined that a parody must necessasubjects of history, and on those which belonged to it,   iyb     aiiu    n    nsm   ae  ti  adtoeo
iiight have taught succeeding ages how to conduct thiese   rily be malicious; and in some cases it is said those on
might have taught succeeding ages how to conduct these   wo   h   aoyhsbe   efrehv   eno  h
important researches with national advantage, and, like whom the parody has been performed, have been of the
some wand of divination, it might have                     same opinion.
ointed to beds where sovereig  gold doth  row.  Parody strongly resembles mimicry, a principle in human nature not so artificial as it appears: Man may be
DRYDEN.        well defined a mimic animal.  The African boy, who
I suspect that I could point out the place in which these   amused the whole kafle he journeyed with, by umimicing
precious'folia Sibylle' of Gray's lie interred; it would no  the gestures and the voice of the auctioneer who had sold
doubt be found among other Sibylline leaves of Mason,  him at the slave market a few days before, could have had
of which there are two large boxes, which he left to the   no sense of scorn, of superiority, or of malignity; the boy
care of his executors. These gentlemen, as I am inform-  experienced merely the pleasure of repeating attitudes and
ed, are so extremely careful of them, as to have intrepidly  intonation which had so forcibly excited his interesi, The
resisted the importunity of some lovers of literature,  numerous parodies of Hamlet's soliloquy were never niado
whose curiosity has been aroused by the secreted trea-.  in derision of that solemn monologue, any more than the
sures.  It is a misfortune which has frequently attended   travesties of Virgil by Scarron and Cotton; their authors
this stort of bequests of literary men, that they have left  were never so, gaily mad as that.  We have parodies on
their manuscripts, like their household furniture; and in  the Psalms by  Luther; Dodsley parodied the book of
several cases we find that many legatees conceive that all  Chronicles, and  the  scripture style was parodied by
manuscripts are either to be burnt, like obsolete receipts,  Franklin in his beautiful story of Abraham; a story he
or to be nailed down in a box, that they may not stir a   found in Jeremy Taylor, and which Taylor borrowed from
law- suit!                                                the East, for it is preserved in the Persian Sadi. Not one
In a manuscript note of the times, I find that Sir Rich-   of these writers, however, proposed to ridicule their origiard Baker, the author of a chronicle, formerly the most  nals; some ingenuity in the application was all that tlhey
popular one, died in the Fleet; and that his son-in-law,   intended.  The lady critic alluded to had suffered by a
who had all his papers, burnt them  for waste paper;  panic, in imagining that a parody was necessarily a corand he said, that'he thought Sir Richard's lifb was  rosive satire.  Had she indeed proceeded one step further,
among them!' An auto-biography of those days which   and asserted that parodies might be classed among the
we should now highly prize.                                most malicious inventions of literature, when they are
Among these imutilators of manuscripts we cannot too   such as Coltnan and Lloyd made on Gray, in their odes to
strongly remonstrate with those who have the care of the'Oblivion and Obscurity,' her reading possibly might have
works of others, and convert them  into a vehicle for their  supplied the materials of the present research.
own particular purposes, even when they run directly,Parodies were frequently practised by the ancients, and
counter to the knowledge and opinions of the original  with them, like ourselves, consisted of a work grafted on
writer.  Hard was the fate of honest Anthony Wood,  another work, but which turned on a diflerent subject by
when Dr Fell undertook to have his history of Oxford   a slight change of the expressions.  It might be a sport
translated into Latin; the translator, a sullen dogged   of fancy, the innocent child of mirth; or a satirical arrow
fellow, when he observed that Wood was enraged at  drawn from the quiver of caustic criticism; or it was that
seeirig the perpetual alterations of his copy made to   malignant art which only studies to make the original of
please Dr Fell, delighted to alter it the more; while the  the parody, however beautiful, contemptible and ridiculots.
greater executioner supervising the orinted sheets, by' cor-  Human nature thus enters into the composition of parorecting, altering, or dashing out wrin   he pleased,' corn-  dies, and their variable character originates in the purpose
pelled the writer publicly to disavow his own work! Such   of their application.
I have heard was the case of Bryan Edwards, who corn-        There is in'the million' a natural taste for farce after
posed the first accounts of Mungo Park.  Bryan Ed-  tragedy, and they gladly relieve themselves by mitigating
wards, whose personal interests were opposed to the abol-  the solemn seriousness of the tragic drama; for they find,
ishment of the slave trade, would not suffer any passage to  that it is but' a step from the sublime to the ridiculous.'
stand in which the African traveller had expressed his  The taste for parody, will, I fear, always prevail; for
conviction of its inhumanity.  Park, among confidential  whatever tends to ridicule a work of genius, is usualiy
fi'riends, frequently complained that his work did not only  very agreeable to a great number of contemporaries.  It
not contain his opinions, but was even interpolated with  the history of parodies, some of the learned have noticed
many which he utterly disclaimed!                          a supposititious circumstance, which, however may have
Suppressed books become as rare as manuscripts.-   happened, for it is a very natural one.  When the rhap..
When I was employed in some researches respecting the  sodists, who strolled from town to town to chant different
history of the Mar-prelate faction, that ardent conspiracy  fragments of the poems of Homer, had recited, they -mere
against the established Hierarchy, and of which the very  immediately followed by another set ofstrollers-buffoonts,
name is but imperfectly to be traced in our history, I dis-  who made the same audience merry by the burlesque turn
covered that the books and manuscripts of the Mar-pre.  which they gave to the solemn strains which had just sc
deeply engaged their attention.  It is supposed that we
* I have seen a transcript, by the favotir of a gentleman who
sers it to me, of Gray's directions for readine History. It had   have one of these travesties of the Iliad in oe Sotade,
its merits at a time when our best histories hadr not been pub-  who succeeded by only changing the measure of tbe
hishetd, bit it is entirely superseded by the admirable' Methode   verses without altering the words, which entirely disguised
ef Lenglet du Fresnov.                                     the Homeric character; fiagments of which, scattered in




246                                    CURIOSIT1ES OF
Dionysius Halicarnassensis, I leave to the curosity of the  which the audience had just seen exhibited, into a farcicga.earned Grecian.* Homer's battle of the frogs and mice, a  comedy; the same actors who had appeared in magnificent
earned critic, the elder Heinsius, asserts, was not written   dresses, now returned on the stage In grotesque habils
by the poet, but is a parody on the poem.  It is evidently   ments, with odd postures and gestures, while the story,
as good humoured an one as any in the IRejected Ad-  though the same, was incongruous and ludicrous.  The
dresses.' And it was because Homer was the most pop-  Cyclops of Euripides is probably the only remaining
ular poet, that he was most susceptible of the playful on-  specimen; for this may be considered as a parody of
ours of the parodist; unless the prototype is familiar to  the ninth book of the Odyssey-the adventures of
us, a parody is nothing! Of these parodists of Homer we  Ulysses in the cave of Polyphemus, where Silenus and a
may regret the loss of one, Timon of Philius, whose par(m-   chorus of satyrs are farcically introduced, to contrast with
dies were termed Silli, from Silenus being their chief  the grave narrative of Homer, of the shifts and escape of
personage; he levelled them at the sophistical philosophers  the cunning man'from the one eyed ogre.' The jokes
of his age; his invocation is grafted on the opening of the  are too coarse for the French taste of Brumoy, who, in
Iliad, to recount the evil doings of those babblers, whom   his translation, goes on with a critical growl and foolish
he compares to the bags in which 1.olus deposited all his  apology for Euripides having written a farce; Brulnoy,
winds; balloons inflated with empty ideas!  We should  like Pistol, is forced to eat his onion, but with a worse
like to have appropriated some of these silli, or parodies  grace, swallowing and execrating to the end.
of Timon the Sillograph, which, however, seem to have    In dramatic composition, Aristophanes is perpetually
been at times calumisiois.t Shenstone's' School Mis-  hooking in parodies of Euripides, whom of all poets he hated,
~tress,' and some few other ludicrous poems, derive much  as well as of iEschylis, Sophocles, and other tragic hards.
of their merit from parody.                            Since that Grecian wit, at length, has found a translator
This taste for parodies was very prevalent with the  saturated with his genius, and an interpreter as philoso.
Grecians, and is a species of humour which perhaps has  phical, the subject of Grecian parody will probably be re.
been too rarely practised by the moderns: Cervantes has  flected in a clearer light from his researches.
some passages of this nature in his parodies of the old    Dramatic parodies in modern literature were ittroduced
chivalric romances; Fielding in some parts of his Tom   by our vivacious neighbours, and may be said to constitute
Jones and Joseph Andrews, in his burlesque poetical de.  a class of literary satires peculiar to the French nation.
scriptions; and Swift in his'Battle of Books,' and' Tale   What had occurred in Greece a similar gaiety of nationa.
of a Tub;' but few writers have equalled the delicacy and   genius inconsciotsly reproduced.  The dramatic paro.
felicity of Pope's parodies in the' Rape of the Lock.' Such   dies in our own literature, as in 4The Rehearsal,''Tom
parodies give refinement to burlesque.                 Thumb,' and' the Critic,' however exquisite, are confined
The ancients made a liberal use of it in their satirical  to particular passages, and are not grafted on a whole
comedy, and sometimes carried it on through an eitiro original; we have neither naturalized the dramatic poetre
work, as in the Menippean satire, Seneca's mock Eloge  111to a species, nor dedicated it to the honours of a separate
of Claudius, and Lucian in his Dialogues.  There are  theatre.
parodies even in Plato; and an anecdotical one recorded  This peculiar dramatic satire, a burlesque of an entire
of this philosopher shows them in their most simple state.  tragedy, the volatile genius of the Parisians accomplished
Dissatisfied with his own poetical essays, he threw themn   Whenever a new tragedy, which still continues the favourinto the flames; that is, the sage resolved to sacrifice his  ite species of drama with the French, attracted the notice
verses to the god of' fire; and in repeating that line in Ho-  of the towi, shortly after uprose its parody at the Italian
mer where Thetis addresses Vuican to implore his aid,  theatre, so that both pieces may have been performed in
the application became a parody, although it required no  immediate succession in the same evening.  A French
other change than the insertion of the philosopher's name  tragedy is most susceptible of this sort of ridicule, by apinstead of the goddess's:t                            plying its declamatory style, its exaggerated sentiments,
I'Vulcan, arise!'tis Plato claims thy aid!,   a nd its romantic out-of.the-way nature to the commonBoi Vulca n, affords e'tis Plto laims thy  aid!rody. place incidents and persons ot domestic life; out of the
Boileau affords a happy instance of this simple parody. —  stuff of which they made their emperors, their heroes, and
Corneille, in his Cid, makes one of his personages re-  their princesses, they cut out a pompous country justice, a
mark,                                                   hectoring tailor, or an impudent mantua-maker; but it was
Pour grands que soient les rois its soent ce que nous sommes,  not merely this travesty of great personages, nor the lofty
is peuvent se tromper comme les autres hommes.,        effusions of one in a lowly station, which terminated the
A  slight alteration became a fine parody in Boileau's  object of parody; it was designed for a higher object, that'Chapelain decoiffil,'                                  of more obviously exposing the original for any absurdity
Pour grands que soient les rois ils sont ce que nous sommers,  in its scenes, or in its catastrophe, and dissecting its faulty
Its se trompeat en vers oomme les autres hommes.'      characters; in a word, weighing in the critical scales, the
We find in the Athenmeus the name of the inventor of a  nonsense of the poet. It sometimes became a refined
species of parody which more immeditately engages our  instructor for the public, whose discernment is often blinded
notice-tDls MATIc c PARODIES.  It appears this inventor  by party or prejudice. But it was, too, a severe touch.
was a satirist, so that the lady critic, whose opinion we  stone for genius: Racle, some say, smiled others say he
bad the honour of noticing, would be warranted by ap-  did not, when he witnessed Harlequin, in the language of
pealing to its origin to determine the nature of the thing.  Titus to Berynice, declaimieg on some ludicrous affair to
A dramatic parody, which produced the greatest effect,  Columbine; La Motte was very sore, and Voltaire, and
was  the Gigantomachia,' as appears by the onlycircum-  w.. P                                           Y
wtance known of it.  a,'ever laugs edby the only circum    others, shrunk  away with a cry-from a parody  Voltaire
stance known of it. Never laughed the Athenians so  was angry when he witnessed his Mariamne parodied by
heartily as at its representation, for the fatal news of the  La mauvais Mensage; or' Bad Holrsekeepint,' the aged
deplorable state to which the affairs of the republic were  Jealous Herod was turned into an old cross country justice;
reduced in Sicily arrived at its first representation-and   Varus, bewitched by Mariamne, strutted a dragoon; and
the Athenians continued laughing to the end! as the mo.  the whole establishment showed it was tinder very bad
dern Athenians, the volatile Parisians, might in their  management.  Fuzelier collected some of these parodies,*
national concern of an opera comnique. It was the busi.  and not unskilfully defends their nature and their object
less of the dramatic parody to turn the solemn tragedy   against the protest of La Motte, whose tragedies had se
verely suffered from these burlesques. His celebrated do.
* Henrv Stephens appears first to have started this subject  mestic tragedy of Inez de Castro, the fable of which turns
of parodyl; his iesearches have been borrowed by the Abb6  on a concealed and clandestine marriage, produced one of
Sallier, to whom, in my turn, I am occasionally indebted. Ils  the happiest parodies in Agaes de Chaillet. in the parody,
little dissertation is in the French Academy's Memoires, Tome  the cause of the mysterious obstnacy of Pierrot the son, i
vii, 398.'        the cause of the mysterious obstinacy of Pierrot the son, in
S Bee a specimen in Aulus Gellius, where this parodist  persisting to refuse the hand of the daughter of his mother4
reproaches Plato fir having given a high price for  a book,  in-law Madame la Baillive, is thus discovered by her to
whence he drew his noble dialogue of' the. Timeus. Lib.  Monsieur le Baillif:
iii, ~. 17.
iii, C. 17.' I Mon mari, pour le coup sal decourert l'affaire,
$ See Spinheim Les Caesars de tlEmpereur Julien in his      Ne  on marinez plus qup joai desirs contraire.'Preuves,' iRemrrque 8. Sallier judiciously observes' I peus
noos donner tinejuste idee de cette sorte d'ouvrage, mais nout    * Les Parodies du Nouveau Theatre Italien 4 vol. 1738. Ob
ne savons pas precisement en quel tems it a 6et cempos6 1' no  servations sur la Comedie et sur le Genie de Moliere, par Loui
asore truly than the Iliad itself!                      ticcoboni. Liv. iv.




LITERATURE.                                                    247
Pour ma fi le, Pierrot, ne montre que mepris:     which pretend to describe the occult operations of Nature
Viol, l'uni.lue objet dent son caur est epris.'   -and at present we have no other!
[Pointing to Agnes de Cheaillot.    Our children pass through the same public education,
The Bailiff exclaims,                                   while they are receiving little or none for their individual' Ma servante.'                   dispositions, should they have sufficient strength of chafacThis single word was the most lively and fatal criticism   ter to indicate any. The great secret of education is to
develop the facullties of the individual; for it may happen
of the tragic action of Inez de Castro, which, according to
the conventional decorum and fastidious code of French  that  his real talents may lie hidden and buried under his
~~critic(~ism, gs viadhmeyfe          yeducation. A profession is usually adventitious, made by
criticism, grossly violated the majesty of Melpomene, by  chance views, or by family arranements.    Should
giving a motive and an object so totally undignified to the  chance views, or by family arrangements. h hotld a
choice be submitted to the youth himself, he will often mistragic tale. In the parody there was sonlething ludicrous
when the secret came out which explained poor Pierrot's  take slight and transient tastes for permanent dispositions.
when the secret came out which explained poor Pierrot'sve, s r
long-concealed perplexities, in the maid-servant bringing    A decided character, however, we may often oserve,    r
forwards a whole legitimate family of her own! La Motte pugnant, to a particular pursuit, delighting in anotier;
was also alled by  projected parody of his'Machabes'  talents, languid and vacillating in one profession, we
-where the hasty marriage of the young Machabeus, and  might find vigorous and settled in another; an indifferent
the sudden conversion of the amorous Antigoone, who, for  lawyer might be an admirable architect!  At present all
our human bullion is sent to be melted down in an univerher first penitent:al act, persuades a youth to marry her,  sity to come out, as if thrown into a burning mould, a
without first deiging to consult her respectable mother,, ain
would have produced an excellent scene for the parody.  briht physician a bright lawyer, a bright dvinein oter
words, to wadat themselves for a profession, preconcerted
But La Motte prefixed an angry preface to his Inez de         to adapt themelves for a profession, preconcerted
Castro; he inveighs against all parodies, which he asserts  by their paents. By this means we may secure a titular
to be merely a FlenchZ fashion,(we have seen, however,  profession for our son, but the true genius of the avocation
that it was onceGrecian) the offsprng of a dangerous  in the bentof the mind, as a man of great original powers
thai t o r  a                                 called it, is too often absent! Instead of finding fit offices
spirit of ridicule, Wd the malicious auserents of super   for fit men, we are perpetually discovering, on the stage of
ficial minds —' Were this true,' retorts Fuzelier,'we
ought to detest ptrodies; but we maintain, that far from   society, actors out of character! Our most popular writer
converting virtue into a paradox, and degrading truth by  has happiv described this error.
ridicule, PARODY will only strike at what is chimerical       laughing philosopher, the Democritus of our day,
and false; it is lot a piece of. buffoonery so much as a  once compared human life to a table pierced with a numcritical exposition. What do we parody but the absurdi-  ber of holes, each of which has a pin made exactly to fit it,
but which pins being stuck in hastily, and without selecties of dramatic vriters, who frequently  make their heroes
act against nature, common sense and truth? After all,'    chance leads inevitably
he ingeniously adds,' it is the public, not we, who are the  takes. For how often do we see  the orator pathetically
authors of these PARODIES; for they are usually but the  concluded,-' how often, I say, do we see the round man
echoes of the pit, and we parodists, have only to give a  stuck into the three-cornered hole!'
dramatic form to the opinions and observations we hear.    In looking over a manuscript life of Tobie Matthews,
Many tragedies,' Fuzelier, with admirable truth, observes,  archbishop of York in James the First's reign, I found a
curious anecdote of his grace's disappointment in the
We have had tragedes recently which very much required   dispositions of his sons.  The  cause,  indeed, is not
parodies to expose them, and to shame our inconsiderate  uncommon, as was confirmed by another great man, to
audiences, who patrorized these monsters offalse passions.
The rants and bomiast of some of these might have  ma's Fairfax one day found the archbishop, very meproduced, with little or no alteration of the inflated origi-  lancholy, and inquired the reason of his grace's pensive.
nals,'A  Modern Rehearsal,' or a new'Tragedy for  ness:'My lord,' said  the archbishop,'I have great
Wnarm IWeather.'                                       reason of sorrow with respect of my sons; one of whom
Of parodies, we mayafel approve of their egitimate    as wit and no grace, another grace but no wit, ad
the third neither grace nor wit.''Your case,' replied
use, and even indulge their agreeable maliciousness; Lord Fairfax,'is not singular. I am also sadly disappointwhile we must still drad that extraordinary facility to  Lord
which the public, or rather human nature, are so prone, as  ed in my sons: one I sent into the  Netherlands to train
sometimes to laugh at vhat at another time they would  him up a soldier, and he makes a tolerable country justice,
shed tears.                                            but a mere coward at fighting; my next I sent to CamTragedy is rendered (omic or burlesque by altering the  bridge, and he proves a good lawyer, but a mere dunce at.station and manners of tle persons;* and the. reverse Mmay  divinity; and my youngest I sent to the inns of court, and
occur, of raising what is tomic and burlesque into tragedy   he is good at divinity, but nobody at the law.' The reat
On so little depends thesublime or the ridiculous! Beat-  er of this anecdote adds,' This  have often heard from the
tie says,' In most human characters there are blemishes,  descendant of that honourable family, who yet seems to
moral, intellectual, or co'poreal; by exaggerating which, t   mince the matter because so immediately related.' The
a certain degree, you nay form a comic character; as by   eldest son was the Lord Ferdinando Fairfax-and the
raising the virtues, abilites, or external advantages of indi.  gnsmith to Thomas Lord Fairfax the son of this Lord
viduals, you form epic or tragic characters;'* a subject  Ferdinanido, heard the old Lord Thomas call aloud to his
humorously touched onby Lloyd, in the prologue to'the  grandson,'Tom! Tom! mind thou  the battle! Thy
~~~~~~Jealous Wife.  ~father's a good man, but mere coward! all the good I exJealous Wife.
pect is from thee!' It is evident that the old Lord Thomas' quarrels, upbraidibgs, jealousies, and spleen,   Fairfax was a military character, and in his earnest desire
Grow too familiar ir the comic sceneh;              of continuing a line of heroes, had preconcerted to make his
Tinge but the languege with heroic chime,'Tisqe passion, pathos, charactial er csublime.    eldest son a military man, who we discover turned out to
What big round words had swell'd the pompous scene,    be admirably fitted for a worshipful justice of the quorum.
A king the husbanc, and the wife a queen.'         This is a lesson for the parent who consults his own inclinations and not those of natural disposition. In the preANECDOTES (F THE FAIRFAX FAMILY,                sent case the same lord, though disappointed, appears still
Will a mind of great capacity be reduced to mediocrity  to have persisted in the same wish of having a great miliby the ill-choice of azrofession?                      tary character in his family: having missed one in his
Parents are interested in the metaphysical discussion,  elder son, and settled his other sons in different avocations,
whether there reallyoxists an inherentquality in the human  the grandfather persevered, and fixed his hopes, and be.
intellect which imparts to the individual an aptitude for  stowed his encouragements, on his grandson Sir Thomas
one pursuit more thin for another.  WVhat Lord Shaftes-  Fairfax, who makes so distinguished a figure in the civil
bury calls not innate, but connatural qualities of the hu-  wars.
man character, wee, during the latter partof the last cen-    The difficulty of discerning the aptitude of a youth for
tury, entirely rejeced; but of late there appears a tenden-  any particular destination in life wvill, perhaps, even for the
cy toreturn to the rotion which is consecrated by antiquity.  most skilful parent, be always hazardous. Many will be
Experience will often correct modern hypothesists.  The  inclined, in despair of any thing better, to throw dice with
arm'pre-disposition' may be objectionable, as are all terms  fortune; or adopt the determination of the father who set.
tled his sons by a whimsical analogy which he appears io
* Beatie on Poetry and Music, p. i.         have formed of their dispositions or aptness for different




248                                  CURIOSITIES OF
pursuits.  The boys were standing under a hedge in the  most important inquiries in the history of san: the laws
rain, and a neighbour reported to the father the conversa-  which regulate the invisible union of the soul with.he body:
tion he had overheard. John wished it would rain books,  in a word, the inscrutable mystery of our being!-a secret,
for he wished to be a preacher; Bezaleel, wool, to be a  but an undoubted intercourse, which probably must ever
clothier, like his father; Samuel, money, to be a merchant;  elude our perceptions.  The combination of metaphysics
and Edmund, plums, to be a grocer. The father took these  with physics has only been productive of the wildest fairy
wishes as a hint, and we are told in the life of John Angier  tales among philosophers: with one party the soul seems
the elder son, a puritan minister, that he chose for them   to pass away in its last puff of air, while man seems to pethese different callings, in which it hi-,ears that they settled  rish in' dust to dust;' the other as successfully gets rid of
successfully.'Whatever a your.t man at first applies  our bodies altogether, by denying the existence of mathimself to is commonly his delight afterwards.' This is  ter. We are not certain that mind and matter are dis.
an important principle discovered by Hartley, but it will  tinct existences, since the one may be only a modification
not supply the parent with any determined regulation how   of the other; however this great mystery be imagined,
to distinguish a transient from a permanent disposition;  we shall find with Dr Gregory, in his lectures'on the
or how to get at what we may call the connatural qualities  duties and qualifications of a physician,' that. it forms
of the mind. A particular opportunity afforded me some  an equally necessary inquiry in the sciences of morals and
close observation on the characters and habits of'twoyouths,  of medicine.
brothers in blood and affection, and partners in all things,    Whether we consider the vulgar distinction of mind and
who even to their very dress shared alike; who were never  body as an union, or as a modified existence, no philososeparated from each other; who were taught by the same  pher denies that a reciprocal action takes place between
masters, lived under the same roof, and were accustomed  our moral and physical condition. Of these sympathies,
to the same uninterrupted habits; yet had nature created  like many other mysteries of nature, the cause remains
them totally distinct in the qualities of their minds; and  occult, while the effects are obvious. This close yet insimilar as their lives had been, their abilities were adapt-  scrutable association, this concealed correspondence of
ed for very opposite pursuits; either of them  could not  parts seemingly unconnected, in a word, this reciprocal
have been the other. And I observed how the' predis-  influence of the mind and the body, has long fixed the at.
position' of the parties was distinctly marked from child-  tention of medical and metaphysical inquirers; the one
hood: the one slow, penetrating and correct; the other  having the care of our exterior organiztion, the other that
quick, irritable, and fancifiul: the one persevering in ex-  of the interior. Can we conceive the mysterious inhabiamination; the other rapid in results: the one unexhaust-  taut as forming a part of its own habitation?  The tenant
ed by labour; the other impatient of whatever did not relate  and the house are so inseparable, that in striking at any
to his own pursuit: the one logical, historical, and critical;  part of the building, you inevitably reath the dweller. If
the other having acquired nothing, decided on all things  the mind is disordered, we may often  ook for its seat in
by his own sensations. We would confidently consult in  some corporeal derangement. Often art our thoughts disthe one a great legal character, and in the other an artist  turbed by a strange irritability, which we do not even preof genius. If nature had not secretly placed a bias in  tend to account for. This state of the body, called the
their distinct minds, how could two similar beings have  fidgets, is a disorder to which the ladies are particularly
been so dissimilar?                                     liable. A physician of my acquaintance was earnestly
A story recorded of Cecco d'Ascoli and of Dante, on   entreated by a female patient to give a name to her un.
the subject of natural and acquired genius, may illustrate  known complaints; this he found nodifficulty to do, as he
the present topic. Cecco maintained that nature was  is a steady asserter of the materitlity of our nature; he
more potent than art, while Dante asserted the contrary.  declared that her disorder was atmispherical. It was the
To prove his principle, the great Italian bard referred to  disorder of her frame under damp Neather, which was rehis cat, which, by repeated practice, he had taught to hold  acting on her mind; and physical means, by operating on
a candle in its paw while he supped or read. Cecco de-  her body, might be applied to restore her to her halfsired to witness the experiment, and came not unprepared  lost senses. Our imagination is lighest when our stomach
for his purpose; when Dante's cat was performing its part,  is not overloaded;  in spring thin in winter; in solitude
Cecco, lifting up the lid of a pot which he had filled with  than amidst company; and in in obscured light than in
mice, the creature of art instantly showed the weakness of  the blaze and heat of the noon  In all these cases the
a talent merely acquired, and dropping the candle, flew on   body is evidently acted on, and r&acts on the mind. Somethe mice with all its instinctive propensity. Dante  vastimes our dreams present us witi images of our restlesshimself disconcerted; and it was adjudged that the advo-  ness, till we recollect that the seat of our brain may perhaps
cate for the occult principle of native faculties had gained  lie in our stomach, rather than ol the pineal gland of Deshis cause!                                             cartes; and that the most artifical logic to make us some.
To tell stories, however, is not to lay down principles,  what reasonable, may be swallowed with' the blue pill.'
yet principles may sometimes be concealed in stories.*  Our domestic happiness often depends on the state of our
biliary and digestive organs, ant the little disturbances of
MEDICINE AND MORALS.                     conjugal litie may be more efficatiously cured by the phyA stroke of personal ridicule is levelled at Dryden when  sician than by the moralist; for a sermon misapplied will
never act so directly as a sharp medicine. The learned
Bayes informs us of his preparations for a course of study   never ac t  so directly as a sharp medicine.  The learned
by a course of medicine!' Wlen I have a grand design,'  Gaubius, an eminent professor of thedicine at Leyden, who
says he,'I ever take physic and let blood; for when you   of a lady of  professor of the assionstitution, whom he
would have pure swiftness of thought, and fiery flights of  of a lady of too inflammable a constitution, whom her
fancy, you must have a care of the pensive part; in fine,  husband, unknown to herself, had gradually reduced to a
you must puree the belly!' Such was really the practice   model of decorum by phlebotom. Her complexion, inof the poet, as La Motte, who was a physician, informs  deed, lost the roses, which some, perhaps, had too wantanus, and in his medical character did not perceive that ridi-ly admired for the repose of her cinjugal physician.
culle in the subject which the wits and most readers unl-The art of curing moral disorders by coporeal means
questionably have enjoyed.  The wits here were as cruel  has not yet been brought into gene-al practice, although it
against truth as against Dryden; for we must still con-  is probable that some quiet sages if medicine nave made
ider this practice, to use their own words, as'an excel use of it on some occasions. The Leyden professor we
sider this practice, to use their own words, as' an excellent recipe for writing.' Among other philosophers, one  have just alluded to, delivered at theuniversity a discourse'on the management and cure of the disorders of the
of the most famous disputants of antiquity, Carneades,  mi     on the  management  and cure  of th e disorders of the
was accustomed to take copious doses of white hellebore,
a great aperient, as a preparation to refute the dogmas of  that as the mind seems so dependenton the disposition of
the stoics. Dryden's practice was neitherwhimsical nor  the bodily organs, if any means cai be found to render
peculiar to the poet; he was of a full habit, and, no doubt,  men wiser and more insenious than tley have been hitherhad often found by experience the beneficial effects without  to, such a method might be sought rom  the assistance
being aware of the cause, which is nothing less than the  of medcine.  The  sciene  of morats and of medicine
will therefore be found to have a moreintimate connection
reciprocal influence of mind and body.                  than has been suspected. Plato thoht that a man must
This simple fact is, indeed, connected with one of the  than has been suspected.
This simple fact is, indeed, connected with one of the  have natural dispositions towards virtue to become virtu.
* I have arranged many facts, connected with the present  ous; that it cannot be educated-you'annot make a bad
ubhect, in the fifth chapter of what I have written on' The   man a good man; which he ascribes to ihe evil dispositions
Literary Character' in the third edition, 1822.         of the body, as well as to a bad education.




LITERATURE.                                                      249
There are unquestionably, constitutional moral disor.  disordered; a happy conformation of organs, which wear
ders; some good tempered but passionate persons have   out; a combination and a certain nmotion of the spirits
acknowledged, that they cannot avoid those temporary   which exhaust themselves; it is the most lively and the
fits to which they are liable, and which, they say, they al-  most subtile part of the soul, which seems to grow old
ways suffered'from  a child.' If they arise front too   with the body.'
great a filness of blood, is it not cruel to ulpbraid rather    It is not wonderful that some have attributed such virthan to cure them, which might easily be done by taking  tues to their system of diet, if it has been found productive
away their redundant humours, and thus quieting the  of certain effects on the human body. Cornaro perhaps
most passionate man alive? A moral patient, who allows   imagined more than he experienced; but Apollonius Tyhis brain to be disordered by the fumes of liquor, instead   aneus, when he had the credit of holding an intercourse
of being  suffered to be a ridiculous being, might have   with the devil, by his presumed gift of prophecy, defended
cpiates prescribed, for in laying him asleep as soon as  himself from the accusation of attributing his clear and
possible, you remove the cause of his sudden madness.  prescient views of things to the light aliments he lived on,
There are crimes for which men are hanged, but of which  never indulging in a variety of food.' This mode of life
they might easily have been cured by physical means.  has produced such a perspicuity in my ideas, that I see as
Persons out of their senses with love, by throwing them-  in a glass things past and fiuture.' We may, therefore,
selves into a river, and being dragged out nearly lifeless,  agree with Bayes, that' for a sonnet to Amanda, and the
have recovered their senses, and lost their bewildering  like, stewed prunes only' might be sufficient; but for' a
passion. Submersion was discovered to be a cure for some  grand design, nothing less than a more formal and formida.
mental disorders, by altering the state of the body, as Van   ble dose.
Helmont notices,''was happily practised in England.'    Camnus, a French physician, who combined literature
With the circumstance this sages of chemistry alludes to  with science, the author of' Abdeker, or the Art of Cosam unacquainted; but this extraordinary practice was  metics which he discovered in exercise and temperance,
certainly known to the Italians; for in one of the tales of  produced another fanciful work, written in 1753,'La Mede.
Poegio we find a mad doctor of Milan, who was celebrat-  cine del'Esprit.' Hisconjectural cases are at least as numeed for curing lunatics anrid demoniacs in a certain time. His  rous as his more positive facts; for he is not wantingin ima
practice consisted in placing them in a great high walled   ginatlon. He assures us, that having reflected on the physicourt yard, in the midst of which there was a deep well  cal causes, which, by differently modifying the body, varied
full of water, cold as ice.  When a demoniac was brought  also, the dispositions of the mind, he was convinced that by
to this physician, he had the patient bound to a pillar in  employing these different causes, or by imitating their powthe well, till the water ascended to the knees, or higher,  ers by art, we might by means purely mechanical affect
and even to the neck, as he deemed their malady required.  the human mind, and correct the infirmities of the underIn their bodily pain they appear to have bforgot their me-  standing and the will. He considered this principle only
lancholy; thus by the terrors of the repetition of cold  as the aurora of a brighter day.  The great difficulty to
water, a man appears to have been frightened into his  overcome was to find out a method to root out the defects,
senses! A physician has informed me of a remarkable  or the diseases of the soul, in the same manner as phy.
case: a lady with a disordered mind, resolved on death,  sicians cure a fluxion from the lungs, a dysentery, a dropsy
and swallowed much more than half a pint of laudanum;  and all other infirmities, which seem only to attack the
she closed her curtains in the evening, took a farewell of  body. This indeed, he says, is enlarging the domain of
her attendants, and flattered herself she should never  medicine, by showing how the functions of the intellect and
awaken from her sleep. In the morning, however, not-  the springs of volition are mechanical.  The movements
withstanding this incredible dose, she awoke in the agonies  and passions of the soul, formerly restricted to abstract
of death. By the usual means she was enabled to get  reasonings, are by this system reduced to simple ideas.
rid of the poison she had so largely taken, and not only  Insisting that material causes force the soul and body to
recovered her life, but what is more extraordinary, her  act together, the defects of the intellectual operations deperfect senses!  Th. physician  conjectures  hat it was   pend on those of the organization, which may be altered
the influence of her dist dered mind over her body which   or destroyed by physical causes; and he properly adds,
prevented this vast qt. tity of laudanum from  its usual  that we are to consider that the soul is material, while exaction by terminating in leath.                          isting in matter, because it is operated on by matter. Such
Moral vices or infirmities, which originate in the state  is the theory of' La Medecine de l'Esprit,' which, though
of the body, may be cured by topical applications.  Pre-  physicians will never quote, may perhaps contain some
cepts and ethics in such cases, if they seem to produce a  facts worth their attention.
momentary cure, have only mowed the weeds, whose           Camus's two little volumes seem to have been preceded
roots lie in the soil. It is only by changing the soil itself  by a medical discourse delivered in the academy of Dijon
that we can eradicate these evils. The senses are five  in 1748, where the moralist compares the infirmities and
porches for the physician to enter into the mind, to keep   vices of the mind to parallel diseases of the body. We may
it in repair.  By altering the state of the body, we are  safely consider some infirmities and passions of the mind
changing that of the mind, whenever the defects of the  as diseases, and could they be treated as we do the bodimind depend on those of the organization.  The mind, or  ly ones, to which they bear an affinity. this would be the
soul, however distinct its being from the body, is disturbed   great triumph of' morals and medicine.' The passion of
or excited, independent of its volition, by the mechanical  avarice resembles the thirst of dropsical patients; that of
impulses of the body. A  man becomes stupified when   envy. is a slow-wasting fever; love is often frenzy, and
the circulation of the blood is impeded in the viscera; he  capricious and sudden restlessness, epileptic fits.  There
acts more from instinct than reflection; the nervous fibres  are moral disorders which at times spread like epider./are too relaxed or too tense, and he finds a difficulty in  cal maladies through towns and countries, and even nations,
moving them; if you heighten his sensations, you awaken   There are hereditary vices and infirmities transmitted from
new ideas in this stupid being; and as we cure the stupid  the parent's mind as there are unquestionably such dise.by increasing his sensibility, we may believe that a more  ses of the body: the son of a father of a hot and irritable
Vivacious fancy may be promised to those who possess  temperament inherits the same quickness and warmth; a
nme, when the mind and the body play together in one  daughter is often a counterpart of her mother. Morality,
harmonious accord. Prescribe the bath, frictions, and fo-  could it be treated medicinally, would require its prescrip.
mentations, and though it seems a round about way, you  tions, as all diseases have their specific remedies; the great
get at the brains by his feet. A literary man, from long  secret is perhaps discorered by Camus-that of operating
sedentary habits, could not ovorcome his fits of melan-  on the mind by means of the bddy.
clholy, till his physician doubled his daily quantity of wine;    A recent writer seems to have been struck by these cu.
and the learned Henry Stephens, after a severe ague, had  rious analogies.  Mr. Haslam, in his work on'Sound
such a disgust of books, the moit beloved objects of his  Mind,' says, p. 90,'TIThers seems to be a considerable
whole life, that the very thought of them  excited terror  similarity between the morbid state of the instruments of
for a considerable time. It is evident that the state of  voluntary motion (that is the kdy,) and certain affections
the body often indicates that of the mind.  Insanity itself  of the mental powers, that is. the mind.  Thus, paralysis
often results from some disorder in the human machine.  has its counterpart in tse defects of recollection, where the
iWhat is this mind, of which men appear so vain?' ex-  utmost endeavour to,ereember is ineffectually exerted.
claims Flechier.'If considered according to its nature,  Tremnor may be ccmphred with incapzbility offixing ths
it is a fire which sickness and an accident most sensibly  attent.bn, and thii invotintary state of muscles ordinarily
puts out; it is a delicate temperament, which soon grows  subjected to the will, also finds a parallel where the minu
32




250                                  CURIOSITIES D3F
loses its influence in the train of thought, and becomes  style; and many stanzas, already too naked and wea1k
subject to spontaneous intrusions; as may be exempli.  like a plain old Gothic edifice stripped of its few signatures
fled in reveries, dreaming, and some species of madness.'   of antiquity,have lost that little and almost only strength ani
Thus one philosopher discovers the analogies of the  support which they derived from ancient phrases.' Such
mind with the body, and another of the body with the mind.  alterations, even it' executed with prudence and judgment,
Can we now hesitate to believe that such analogies exist-  only corrupt what they endeavour to explain; and exhibit,
and advancing one step farther, trace in this reciprocal in-  a iotly perifornance, belonging to no character of writing,
fluence that a part of the soul is the body, as the body  and which contain more improprieties than those which
becomes a part of the sotil?  The most important truth  it professes to remove.  This torcible criticism is worthy
remains undivulged, and ever will in this mental pharma-  of our poetical antiquary; the sanme feeling was experi.
cy; but none is more clear than that which led to the view   enced by Pasquier, when Marot, in his Refaccimento of
of this subject, that in this mutual intercourse of body and  the Roman de la Rose, left some of the obsolete phrases,
mind the superior is often governed by the inferior; others  while he got rid of others; cette bigarrure de langage viead
think the mind is more wiltully outrageous than the body.  et moderne,was with him writing no language at all. The
Plutarch, in his essays, has a familiar illustration, which  sanle circumstance occurred abroad when they resolved to
he borrows from some philosopher more ancient than him-  retouch and modernise the old French metrical version of
self:' Should the Body sue the Mind before a court of  the Psalms, which we are about to notice. It produced the
judicature for damages, it would be found that the Mind   same controversy and the same dissatisfaction. The church
would prove to have been a ruinous tenant to its landlord.'  of Geneva adopted an improved version,but the charm of the
The sagey4~ Gheronaea did not foresee the hint of Des-  old one was wanting.
cartes and the discovery of Camus, that by medicine we    To trace the history of modern metrical Psalmody, we
may alleviate or remove the diseases of the mind; a prac-  must have recourse to Bayle, who, as a mere literary histice which indeed has not yet been pursued by physicians,  torian, has accidentally preserved it.  The inventor was
though the moralists have been often struck by the close   a celebrated French poet; and the invention, though leranalogies of the Mind with the Body! A work by the  haps in its very origin inclining towards the abuse to which
learned Dom Pernetty, La connoissance de l'homme moral. it was afterwards carried, was unexpectedly adopted by
par celle de l'homme physique, we are told is more fortunate  the austere Calvin, and introduced into the Geneva disci.
in its title than its execution; probably it is one of the  pline. It is indeed strange, that while he was stripping
many attempts to develop this imperfect and obscured truth,  religion not merely of its pageantry, but even of its decent
which hereafter may become more obvious and be univer-  ceremonies, that this levellilng reformer should have introsally comprehended.                                     duced this taste for singing Psalms in opposition to reading
Psalms.'On a parallel principle,' says Thomas WVarton,
Mand ift' any artificial aids to devotion were to be allowed,
The history of Psalm singing is a portion of the history  he might at least have retained the use of pictures in the
of the reformation; of that great religious revolution which   church.' But it was decreed that statues should be mutiseparated for ever, into two. unequal divisions, the great  lated of' their fair proportions,'and painted glass be dashed
establishment of Christianity. It has not, perhaps, been  into pieces while the congregation were to sing! Calvin
remarked, that Psalm  singing, or metrical Psalms, dege-  sought for proselytes among' the rabble of a republic, who
nerated into those scandalous compositions which, under  can have no relish for the more elegant externals.' But to
the abused title of hymns, are now used by some sects.*  have made men sing in concert, in the streets, or at their
These are evidently the last disorders of that system of  work, and merry or sad, on all occasions to tickle the ear
Psalm singing which made some religious persons early   with rhymes and touch the heart with emotion, was be.
oppose its practice. Even Sternhold and Hotkins, our  traying no deficient knowledge of human nature.
first Psalm enditors, says honest Fuller,' found their work    It seems, however that this project was adopted acci.
afterwards met with soume frowns in the faces of great  dentally, and was certainly promoted by the fine natural
clergymen.' To this day these opinions are not adjusted.  genius of Clement Marot, the favoured bard of Francis
Archbishop Secker observes,' that though the first chris-  the First, that' Prince of Poets, and that Poet of Princes,'
tians (from this passage in James v. 13, "Is any merry?  as he was quaintly but expressively dignified by his cons.
let him sing Psalms!") made singing a constant part of  temporaries. Marot is still an inimitable and true poet,
their worship, and the whole congregation joined in it; yet  for he has written in a manner of his own with such markafterwards the singers by profession, who had been pru-  ed felicity, that he has left his name to a style of poetry
dently appointed to lead and direct them by degrees usurped  called Maritoque.  The original La Fontaine is his imitathe whole performance. But at the Refobrmation the peo-  tor. Marot delighted in the very forms of poetry, as well
ple were restored to their RIGHTS!' This revolutionary  as its subjects and its manner. His life, indeed, took more
style is singular: one might infer by the expression of the  shapes, and indulged in more poetical licenses, than even
people being restored to their rights, that a mixed assembly  his poetry: licentious in morals; often in prison, or at
roarina out confused tunes, nasal, guttural, and sibilant,  court, or in the army, or a fugitive, he has left in his nu.
was a more orderly government of Psalmody than when   merous little poems many a curious record of his variegat.
the executive power was consigned to the voices of those  ed existence. He was indeed very far from being devout,
whom the archbishop had justly described as having been   when his friend the learned Vatable, the Hebrew profess.
first prudently appointed to lead and direct them; and who,  or, probably to reclaim a perpetual sinner from  profane
by their subsequent proceedings, evidently discovered, what  rhymes, as Marot was suspected of heresy, confession and
they might have safely conjectured, that such an universal  meagre days being his abhorence! suggested the new prosuffrage, where every man was to have a voice. must ne-  ject of translating the Psalms into'rench verse, and no
cessarily end in clatter arid chaos!I                  doubt assisted the bard; for they are said to,' traduitz en
Thomas Wartorn, however, regards the metrical Psalms  rithme FranSais selon la verit6 Hebraique.' The famous
of Sternhold as a puritanic invention, and asserts, that  Theodore Beza was also his friend and prompter, and
notwithstanding it is said inl their title page that, they are  afterwards his continuator.  Marot published fiftyv.two'set forth and allowed to be sunll in all churches,' they were   Psalms, written in a variety of measures, with the same
never admitted by lawful authority. They were first intro-  style he had done his ballads and rondeaux. He dedicat.
duced by the Puritans, and afterwards continued by con-  ed to the king of France, comparing him with the royal
nivance. As a true poetical antiquary, Thomas Warton   Hebrew, and with a French compliment i
condemns any modernisation of the venerable text of the
cid Sternhold and Hopkins. which, by chanaing obsolete          Dieu le donne aux peuples Hebraiques
for familiar words, destroys the texture of the originalieutedevoit, cepense-je, aux Galliiues.
He insinuates that in his version he had received assis,
* It would be pollutitig these pages with ribaldry, obscenity,  tance
and blasphemy, were I to give specimens of some hymns of the
Moravians and the Methodists, and some of the still lower                   -— par ]es divins esprits
w.cts.                                                           Qui ont sous toy Hebrieu langage apris,
t Mr Hamper, of Birmingham, has obligingly supplied me        Nous sont jettds les Pseaumes en lumiera
with a rare tract, entitled' Singing of Psalmes, vindicated from  Clairs, et au sens de la forme premiere.'
bhe charge of Novelty,' in answer to Dr Russell, Mr. Marlow,  This royal dedication is more solemn than usul; ye
ll, 1698. It furnishes numerous authorities to show that it was
practised by the primitive Christians on almost every occasion.  Marot, who was never grave but in prison, soon recovered
shall shortly quote a remarkable passage.              trom this dedication to the king for on turning the leaf we




LITERATURE.                                                       251
find another,' Aux Dames de France!' Warton says of  the object of her love, besides its double allusion to her
Marot, that' He seems anxious to deprecate the raillery   name.  Diane, however, in the first stage of their mutual
which the new tone of his versification was likely to incur,  attachment, took Du fond de ma pensde, or' From  the
and is embarrassed to find an apology for turning saint.'  depth of my heart.'  The Queen's favourite was,
His embarrassments however, terminate in a highly poeti-Ne vueilles pas, a sre
cal fancy.  When will the golden age be restored, ex.                     ie reprendre en ton ire
claims this lady's Psalmists,
that is,'Rebuke me not in thy indignation,' which she' Qnand n'aurons plus de cours ne lieu              slng to a fashionable jig.  Antony, king of Navarre, sung
Les chansonlls de ce petit Dieu                     Revenge moy prens la querelle, or, * Stand up, O Lord, to
A qui les peintres font des aisles?                revenge my quarrel,' to the air of a dance of Poitoll.*O vous (lames et demnoiselles
Qua Die anes epot estre son temple                  We may conceive the ardour with which this novelty wea,
Et faites, sous mauvais exemple                     received, for Francis sent to Charles the Fifth Marot'a
Rtctentir et chambres et sales,                     collection, who both by promises and presents encouraged
De chansons mondaines ou sales,' &c.               the French bard to proceed with his version, and entreatKnowing, continues the poet, that songs that are silent  ing Marot to send him as soon as possible Confitcmiri
about love can never please you, here are some composed   Domino quoniam  bonus, because it was his favourite
by love itself; all here is love, but more than mortal! Sing Psalm. And the Spanish as well as French composers
hastened to set the Psalms of Marot to music. The
theseat allties, conve    etfashion lasted, for Henry the Second set one to an air of
Et les convertir etmuer                             his own  composing.  Catharine  de. Medicis had her
E    nt vos (loltms lsIrJ les espinettes            Psalm, and it seems that every one at court adopted some
Et vos doigts sur les espinettes
Pour dire saintes chansonettes.                     particular Psalm  for themselves, which they often played
Marot then breaks forth with that enthusiasm, which per-  on lutes and guitars, &c.  Sining Psalms in verse was
haps at first conveyed to the sullen fancy of the austere  then one of the chief ingredients inl the happiness of social
haps at                                                     lfrst  conveyed to te.e sulen fancy of the austere
Calvin the project lhe so successfully adopted, and, whose  life.
~influence ee are still witnThe universal reception of Marot's Psalms induced
infuecewear sil wtnssn       Theodore Beza to conclude the collection, and ten thou.
0 bien heunreux qui voir pourra                     sand copies were immediately dispersed.  But these had
Fleurir le temps, qule P'on orra                   the advantage of being set to music, for we are told, they
Le laboureur S sa charrue
Le charretier parmy la rue,                         were' admirably fitted to the violin and other musical inEt l'artisan-en sa boutique                         struments.' And who was the man who had thus adroitly
Avecques un Pscaunle ou cantique,                   taken hold of the public feeling to give it this strong di.
En son labeur se soulager;                          rection?  It was the solitary Thaumaturgus, the ascetic
Heureux qui orra le berger                         Calvin, who, from the depth of his closet at Geneva, had
Et Ia bargeca en bois estans                        engaged the finest musical composers, who were no doubt
Faire que rochers et estangs
FApres eux rchantent lta hatteurwarmed by the zeal of propagating his faith, to form these
Apres eux chantent ]a hauteur
Du saint nonn de leurs Createur                     simple and beautiful airs to assist the Psalm singers.  At
Commencez, damnes, commencez                     first this was not discovered, and Catholics as well as HuLe siecle dor6! avancez!                         genots, were solacing themselves on all occasions with this
En chantant d'un cueur debonnaire.                 new music. But when Calvin appointed these Psalms,
Dedlans ce saint cancionnaire.                     as set to music, to be sung at his meetings, and Marot's
Thrice happy they, who may behold,               formed an appendix to the Catechism of Geneva, this put
And listen, in that age of gold!                  an end to all Psalm singing for the poor Catholics! MaAs by the plough the labourer strays,              rot himself was forced to fly to Geneva from the fulmina.
Anid carman mid the public ways,                   tions of the Sorbonne, and Psalm singing became an open
And tradesmen in his shop shall swell              declaration of what the French called' Lutheranism,' when
Their voice in Psalm or Canticle,                  it became with the reformed a regular hart of their religious
Singing to solace toil; again,
From woods shaltl come a sweeter stain!            discipline.  The Cardinal of Lorraine succeeded in perShepher d and sh epherdess shalt vie               suading the lovely patroness of the' holy sona book,' Di.
In many a tender Psalmody;                         ana de Poictiers, who at first was a Psalm singer and an
And the Creator's name prolong                     heretical reader of the Bible, to discountenance this new
As rock anti stream retrn their song!             fashion.  He began by finding fault with the Psalms of
Begin then, ladies fair! begin                  David, and revived the amatory elegancies of Horace: at
The atie renew'ad that knows no win g,that moment even the reading of the Bible was symptomSiAnd with liht  holeart, that wants no in g       atic of Lutheranism; Diana, who had given way to these
Sina! from this h     o        s                novelties, would have a French Bible, because the queen,
This' holy song-book' for the harpsichord or the voice   Catharine de Medicis, had one, and the Cardinal finding
was a gay novelty, and no book was ever more eagerly   a bible on her table, immediately crossed himself, beat his
received by all classes than Marot's' Psalms.' In the   breast, and otherwise so well acted his part, that,' having
fervour of that day, they sold faster than the printers could  thrown the Bible down and condemned it, he remonstrated
take them off their presses; but as they were understood   with the fair penitent, that it was a kind of reading not
to be songs, and yet were rinot accompanied by music, every   adapted for her sex, containing dangerous matters; if she
one set them to favourite tunes, commonly those of popular  was uneasy in her mind she should hear two masses inballads.  Each of the royal family, and every nobleman,  stead of one, and rest content with her Paternosters and
chose a psalm or a song, which expressed his own personal  her Primer, which were not only devotional but ornamenfeelings, adapted to his own tune.  The Dauphin, after-  ted with a variety of elegant forms from the most exquisite
wards Henrv II, a great hunter, when he went to the chase   pencils of France.' Such is the story drawn from a cu.
was singinfg Ainsi qu'on vit le cerf bruyre.' Like as the   rious letter, written by a Hugenot, arid a former friend of
hart desirf.th the water-brooks.' There is a curious por-  Catharine de Medicis, and by which we may infer that
trait of the mistress of Henry, the famous Diane de  the reformed religion was making considerable progress in
Poictiers, recentlv published, on which is inscribed this  the French court,-had the Cardinal of Lorraine not inverse ofthe Psalm.  On a portrait which exhibits Diane in  terfered by persuading the mistress, and she the kin,, and
an attitude rather unsuitable to so solemn an application,  the king his queen, at once to give up Psalm  singing and
no reason could be found to account for this discordance:  reading the Bible!
perhaps the painter. or the lady herself, chose to adopt the' This infectious frenzy of Psalm-sinaing,' as Warton
favourite Psalm of her royal lover, proudly to designate  describes it, under the Calvinistic preachers had rapidly
* In the curious tract already referred to, the following quo.  propagated itserf through Germany as well as France.
tation is remarkable; the scene the fancy of Marot pictured to  It was admirably calculated to kindle the flame of Fanal
him had anciently occurred. St Jerome in his seventeenth  ticism, and frequently served as the trumpet to rebellion.
Epistle to Marcellus thius describes it:' In christian villages  These energetic hymns of Geneva excited and supported
little else is-to ibe hsard but Psalms; for which way soever you
turn yourself, either yout have the Plonuhman at his ploueh   * AseWartorn has partly drawn from the same source, I ha ve
singing Hallelj; lhs, the weary Brewer refieshing himself with   adopted his own words whenever I could. It is not easy to
a psalm. or the Vine-dresser chanting forth somewhat of Da.  write after Thomas Warton whenever lie is pleased with his
V.l's.'                                                   subiect.




252                                     CURIOSITIES OF
a variety of popular instructions in the most flourishing   Who could have suspected that the most eminent scholars
cities of the Low Countries, and what our poetical anti-  and men of genius, were associates of the Oziosi, the.arFn
qtary could never forgive,''fomented the fury which de-  tastici, the Insensati?  Why should Genoa boast of her
faced many of the most beautiful and venerable churches' Sleepy,' Viterbo of her' Obstinates,' Sienna of her'Inof Flanders.'                                            sipids,' her' Blockheads,' and her' Thunderstruck;' and
At length it reached our island at that critical moment  Naples of her' Furioso; while Macerata exults in her
when it had fix st embraced the Reformation; and here its' MIadmen chained?' Both Quadrio and Tiraboschi can.
domestic histo y was parallel with its foreign, except,  not deny that these fantastical titles have occasioned these
perht.ps, in the splendour of its success.  Sternhold, an  Italian academies to appear very ridiculous to the oltramornenthusiast for the reformation, was much offended, says  tani; but these vluable historians are no philosophical,TWarton, at the lascivious ballads which prevailed among  thinkers. They apologize for this bad taste, by describing
the courtiers, and with a laudable design to check these  the ardour which swas kindled throughout Italy at the res.
indecencies, he undertook to be our Marot-without his  toration of letters and the fine arts, so that every one, and
genius'thinking thereby,' says our cynical literary his-  even every man of genius, were eager to enroll their names
torian, Antony Wood,' that the courtiers would sing them   in these academies, and prided themselves in hearing their
instead of their sonnets but did not, only some few ex-  emblems, that is, the distinctive arms each academy had
cepted.' They were practised by the puritans in the reign   chosen. But why did they mystify themselves?
of Elizabeth; for Shakespeare notices the puritan of his    Folly, once become national, is a vigorous plant, vs.licb
day'singing Psalms to hornpipes,'* and more particularly  sheds abundant seed.  The consequence of having adopt.
during the protectorate of Cromwell, on the same plan of  ed ridiculous titles for these academies, suggested to them
accommodating them to popular tunes and jigs, which one  many other characteristic fopperies. At Florercne every bro.
of them said' were too good for the devil.' Psalms were  ther of the'Umidi' assumed the name of sonlething aquatic,
now sting at Lord Mayors' dinners and city feasts; sol-  or any quality pertaining to humidity. One was called' the
diers sang them  on their march and at parade; a few   Frozen,' another'the Damp;' one was'the Pike,'
houses which had windows fronting the streets, but had   another'the Swan;' and Grazzini, the celebrated noveltheir evening psalms; for a story has come down to us, to  ist, is known better by the cognomen of La Lasca,' the
record that the hypocritical brotherhood did not always  Roach,' by which he whimsically designates himself among
care to sing unless they were heard!                    the'Humids.' I find among the Insensati, one man of learning taking the name of Stordito Insensato, another Tenebro.
CN THE RIDICULOUS TITLES ASSUMED BY THE ITALIAN   so Insensato. The famous Florentine academy ofLaCrusca
ACADEMIES.                          amidst theirgrave labours to sift and purify their language,
The Italians are a fanciful people, who have often mix-  threw themselves headlong into this vortex of folly. Their
ed a grain or two of pleasantry and even folly with their  title, the academy of' Bran,' was a conceit to indicate their
wisdom.  This fanciful character betrays itself' in their  art of sifting; but it required an Italian prodigality ofconceit
architecture, in their poetry, in their extemporary comedy,  to have induced these grave scholars to exhibit themselves
and their Improvisatori; but an instance not yet accounted  in the burlesque scenery of a pantomimical academy, for
for of this national levity, appears in those denominations  their furniture consists of a mill and a bake-house; a pulof exquisite absurdity given by themselves to their Acade-  pit for the orator is a hopper, while the learned director
mies! I have in vain inquired for any assignable reason   sits on a mill-stone; the other seats have the forms of a
why the most ingenious men, and grave and illustrious per-  miller's dossers, or great panniers, and the backs consist of
sonages, cardinals and princes, as well as poets, scholars,  the long shovels used in ovens.  The table is a baker's
and artists, in every literary city, should voluntarily choose  kneading-trough, and the academician who reads has half
to burlesque themselves and their serious occupations, by   his body thrust out of a great bolting sack, with I know
affecting mysterious or ludicrous titles, as if it were carni-  not what else for their inkstands and portfolios.  But the
val time, and they had to support masquerade characters,  most celebrated of these academies is that' degli Arcadia,
and accepting such titles as we find in the cant style of our  at Rome, who are still carrying on their pretensions much
own vulgar clubs, the Society of' Odd Fellows,' and of  higher. Whoever inspires to be aggregated to these Ar-'Eccentrics!' A  principle so whimsical but systematic,  cadian shepherds, receives a pastoral name and a title, but
must surely have originated in some circumstance not  not the deeds, of a farm, picked out of a map of the ancient
hitherto detected.                                       Arcadia or its environs; for Arcadia itselt' soon became
A literary friend, recently in an Italian city, exhausted by  too small a possession for these partitioners of rroorishine.
the sirocco, entered a house whose open door and circular  Their laws, modelled by the twelve tables of the ancient
seats appeared to offer to passengers a refreshing sorbetto;  Romans; their language in the venerable majesty of their
he discovered, however, that he had got into' the Acade-  renowned ancestors; and this erudite democracy dating
my of the Cameleons,' where they met to delight their  by the Grecian Olympiads which Crescembini, their first
brothers, and any' spirito gentil' they could nail to a reci-  custode, or guardtan, most painfully atjusted to the vulgar
tation. An invitation to join the academicians alarmed   era, were designed that the sacred erudition of antiquity
him, for with some impatient prejudices against these  might for ever be present among these shepherds.*  Gollittle creatures, vocal with prose e rime, and usually with  doni. in his Memoirs, has given an amusing account of
odes and sonnets begged for, or purloined for the occasion,  these honotrs. He says' he was presented with two di
he waived all further curiosity and courtesy, and has return-  plomas; the one was my charter of aoggregation to the
ed hame  without any information how these' Cameleons'  Arcadi of R.ome, under the name of Polissino, the other
looked, snurl changing their colours in an' accademia.   gave me the investiture of the Phlegean fields. I was
Such literary institutions, prevalent in Italy, are the   on this saluted by the whole assembly in chorus, under the
sputrous remains of those numerous academies which si-    me of Polisseno Phlegeio, and embraced by them  as a
multaneously started up in that country about the sixteenth  fellow  shepherd and brother.  The Arcadians are very
century.  They assumed the niost ridiculous denomina-  rich. as you may perceive, my dear reader: we possess
tions, and a great number is registered by Buadrio andTira-  estates in Greece; we water them with our laboutrs for the
boschi.  Whatever was their design, one cannot fairly  sake of reaping laurels, and the Turks sow them  with
reproach them, as Mencken, in his' Charlatanaria Erudi-  grain, plant them  with vines, and launh at both our
torum,' seents to have thought, for pompous quackery;  titles and oursongs.' When Fontenelle became an Arneither can we attribute to their modesty their choice of  cadian, they baptised him  II Pastor Ptgrasto, that is,
senseless titles, for to have degraded their own exalted' amiable Fountain!' allusive to his name arid his delight
pursuits was but folly!  Literary  history affords no   fil style; and magnificently presented dlinl with the entire
parale, to this national absurdity of the refined Italians.  Isleof Delos!  The late Joseph Walker, an enthusiast
for an Italian literature, dedicated his' Memoir on Italian
* My fiiend, Mr Douce, imagines, that this alludes to a   Tragedy' to the Countess Spencer: not    inscribin  it wit'l
common practice at that time aniong the Ptritans ofbtrlesquintg   his christian but his heathen name, and the title of hisArcathe plain chant of,hle Papists, by adapting vulgar and ludicrous  dian estates, Eubante Tirinzio!  Plain Joseph ~Walker, in
music to psalmsr  and pious compositions. Illust. of Shakspeare,  his masquerade dress, with his Arcadian signet of Pan'
I q55. Mr Doruce does not recollect his authority. My idea  reeds danlin  in his tile-pae, was prfrmin  a characdiffers. May we not conijecture that the intention was the samne r eeds d angling in his title-page, was performing a charac
which induced Sternhold to versify the Psalms, to be sung in-  ter to which however well adapted, not being  ntlerstood
stead of lascivious hallads; and the most popular tunes came   h: g~ot stared at for his affectation!  W5re ha.v  lately
afterwai]s to be adopted. that the sinrer might practise his    * Crescembini, at the close of'La bellazza della Yogar
tvourite one, as we find it occurred in France,         o sia.'  Roma, 1700.




LITERATURE.                                                       253
beard of some licentious revellings of these Arcadians, in  ed? These academies might, perhaps, form a chapter in the
receiving a man of genius from our own country, who, him-  history of secret societies, one not yet written, but of which
self composing Italian Rime, had' conceit' enough to  many curious materials lie scattered in history.  It is cer
become a shepherd!*  Yet let us inquire before we criti-  tain that such literary societies, in their first origins,
cise.                                                      have always excited the jealousy of governments, but mo:e
Evenr this ridiculous society of the Arcadians became a  particularly in ecclesiastical Rome, and the rival princimemorable literary institution; and Tiraboschi has shown  palities of Italy. If two great nations, like those of England
how it successfully arrested the bad taste which was then  and France, had their suspicions and fears roused by a seprevailing throughout Italy; recalling its muses to purer  lect assembly of philosophical men, and either put them
sources; while the lives of many of its shepherds have fur-  down by: force, or closely watched them, this will not
nished an interesting volume of literary history under the  seem extraordinary in little despotic states. We have actitle of' The illustrious Arcadians.' Croscembini, and its  counts of some philosophical associations at home, which
founders, had formed the most elevated conceptions of the  were joined by Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Walter Rawsociety at its origin; but poetical vaticinators are prophets leigh, but which soon got the odium of atheism attached to
only while we read their verses-we must not look for that  them; and the establishment of the French academy oc.,
dry matter of fact-the event predicted!                    casioned some umbrage, for a year elapsed befoibre the par.
It vostro semne eterno                         liament of Paris would register their patent, which was at
Occuperh ]a terra, ed i confini                length accorded by the political Richelieu observing to the
D'Arcadia oltrapassando,                       president, thatF' he should like the members according as
Di non pid visti gloriosi germi                the members liked him.' Thus we have ascertained one
L'aureo feconder'a lito del Ganae
La~urso feconderk tu del Gangs          principle, that governments in those times looked on a
iv de' Ciimmeri l'infeconde arene.
MrMata   hs renl  vitwarm fended   new society with a political glance; nor it is improbable
Mr  athias has reently with warmth defended the orl   that some of them  combined an ostensible with a latent
nal Arcadia; and the assumed character of its members,  motive.
which has been condemned as betraying their affectation, There is no want of evidence to prove that the modern
C               ~~~~~There is no want of evidence to prove that the modern
he attributes to their modesty.'Before the critics of the  Romans, from the thirteenth to the fiteenth  century,
Arcadia (tte pastori, as tthey modestly  styled  them.  were too feelingly alive to their obscure glory, and that
selves) with Crescembini for their conductor, and with the  they too frequently made invidious comparisons of their
Adorato Albano for their patron, (Clement XI,) all that  ancient republic with the pontifical government; to revive
was depraved in language, and in sentiment, fled and di.  Rome, with every tn Roman, inspired such enthusiasts
appeared.'                             is- ~~~~~~~Rome, with every thing, Roman, inspired such enthusiasts
appeared.'
appeareti.'                                ~~~~~~~~as Rienzi, and clharmed the visions  of Petrarch.    At a
The strange taste for giving fantastical denominations  as Rienzi, and cliarmed the visions of Petrarch.   At a
period when ancient literature, as if by a mirace, was
to literary institutions grew into a custom though, probably  raising itself from its grave, the learned were agitated by
*                                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~raising itself from  its grave, the learned wvere agitated by
no one knew how.  The founders were always persons of  a correspondent energy; not only was an estate sold to
rank or learning, yet still accident or caprice created the  purchase a manuscript, but the relic of genius was touched
mystifying title, and invented those appropriate emblems, with a religious emotion. The classical purity of Cicero
which still added to the folly.  The Arcadian society de.  was contrasted with the barbarous idiom of the Missal;
rived its title from a spontaneous conceit. This assembly  the glories of ancient Rome with the miserable subjugationl;
first held its meetings, on summer evenings, in a meadow   of  its modern pontiffs; and the  neisphysical reveries of
on the banks of the Tiber; for the fine climate of Italy  Plato, and what they termed  the'Entphsiasmls  Alexepromotes such assemblies in the open air.  In the recital   andrnus;   the  dreams of the Platonists seemed to the
of an eclo-gue, an enthusiast, amidst all he was hearingadiu  1tedem    ftePaoit  emdt  h
of an ecloue, an enthusiast, amidst all he was hearing  fanciful Italians more elevated than the humble and pure
and all he was seeing, exclaimed'I seem  at this mu.  ethics of the Gospels.  The vain and amorous Eloisa
ment to be in the Arcadia of ancient Greece, listening   could even censure the gross manners, as it seemed to
to the pure and simp le strains of its shepherds.' Enthusi.  her, of the apostles, for picking the ears of corn in their
asm is contagious amidst susceptible Italians, and this name,  wals, and at their meals eating with unwashed   ands.-..                                ) ~~~~~~~~~~wallks, and at their meals eating with unwashed hands. —
by inspiration and by acclamation, was conferred on the so-  Touched by this mania of antiquity, the learned affected
ciety!  Even more recently at Florence the aceademia  to change their vulgar christian name, by assuing the
called the Colombaria, or the'Pigeon-house,' proves with  more classicalones of a Junius Brutus, a Pomponius,
what levity the Italians name a literary society.  The   or a Julius; or any other rusty name unwashed by
founder was the Cavallero Pazzi, a gentleman, who, like  baptism.  This frenzy for the ancient republic not only
Morose, abhorring noise, chose for his study a garret in  menaced  the  pontificate; but their Platonic, ortei
his palazzo; it was, indeed, one of the old turrets which   pnad         ee e     b            t the        ou ti
had not yet fallen in: there hlie fixed his library, and there  pagan  ardours, seemed to  e  striking at the foundation
of Christianity itself.   Such were Mlarcilus    Ficinus,
he assembled the most ingenious Florentines to discuss ob.  and that learned  ociety who  assembled under the Medici
Z,                       ~~~~~~~and that learned society who assembled under the Medic).
scure points, and to reveal their own contributions in this  Pomponius Lets  who lived at the close of the fifteenth
Pomponius Letus, who lived at the close of the fifteenth
secret retreat of silence and philosophy. To get to this                                     an annual  stival the
century, not only celebrated by an annual festival the
cabinet it was necessary to climb a very steep and very  foundation of Rome, and raised altars to Romuls    ut
foundat~ion of Roein and raised altars to Rtomulus but
narrow staircase, which occasioned some facetious wit to   penly expressed his contempt for the hristian religion,
observe, that these literati were so many pigeons who flew   which this visionary declared was only fit for barbarians
which this visionary declared was only fit for barbarians;
every evening to their dove-cot.  The Cavallero Pazzi, to  but this extravagance and irreligion, observes Niceron,
indulge this hiumour, invited them to a dinner eniirely comwere common with many of the learned of those times.,
posed of their little brothers, in-all the varieties of cookery;  and this very Pomponius was at lenth formally accused
the members,, after a hearty laugh, assumed the title of the  an
Clmbr,   anted a  device cnsist    the to  of      of the crime of changing the baptismal names of the young
Colombarga, tn,,nted  a device consisting of the top of a tur.
ret, with several pigeons flying about it, bearing an epi.  persons whom he taught, for pagan ones!  This was to
g ho nte, Qiu ee b hihte    taste of the times,' says the author we have justquoted;
graph fi'om Dante, Quanto veder. si puoi by which the
expressed  theird n not to apply te lv  to any   but it was imagined that there was a mystery concealed in
expressed their design not to apply themselves to any   these changes ornames.
single object.  Such facts sufficiently prove. that some of
Z1-eoet        uhfat  ufcetypru~ta  oeo                     At this period these literary societies first appear: one
the absurd or facetious denominations of these literary so.    At this period these literary societies first appear: one
I   at Rome had thie title of I Academy,' and for its chief th~s
cieties originated in accidental circumstances, or in mere
very Pomponius; for he is distinguished as I Romnanaws
pleasantry; but this will not account for the origin of those  very Pomponius; for he is distiihed   as'Rma s
mystifyinn titles we have noticed; for when grave men   Princeps Academim,' by his friend Politian, in the' Mis.
cellanea,' of that elegant scholar.   This was under the
call themselves dolts or lunatics, unless they are really      na, of   th    e co. The r             wgular meutings of
so, the~y mulst yrave s~ome reason for laughing at them- pontificate of Paul the Second. The regular meetings of
selves.
selves.'the Academy' soon excited the jealousy and suspicions
To attempt to develop this curious hut obscure singulari.  of Paul, and gave rise to one of the most horrid persecutv in literary history, we must go farther back among the   sins and scenes of torture, even to  death, in which
tiens and scenes of torture, even to death, in which
frt  binnings of these instito   fw wr   they  these academicians were involved: This closed with a
first beginnings of these institutions. How were they        cree of Paul's, that for the future no one should pro.
looked on by the governments in which they first appear-  dce  o  p          t   f         the        e    u      o
nounce, either seriously mr in jest, the very name of
* History of the Middle Ages, ii. 5S4. See, also, Mr Rose's  academy, under the penalty  f heresy! The story is told
Letters from the North of Italy, vol. i, 204. Mr Hallam  has  by Platina, one of the sufferers, in his life of Paul the Se.
ebserved. that' such an institution as the society degli Arcadi  cond; and although this history may be said to bear the
could at no tnine have endtured public ridicule in England lor a  bruises of the wounded and dislocated body ofthe unhappy
formaight.,                                                 historian, the facts are unquestionable, and connected




254                                    CURIOSITIETS OF
with our subject. Platina, Pomrponius, and many oftheir my did not sufficiently embrace the views o1 the learned
friends, were suadenly dragged to prison; on the first and  brothers, and then they formed another under their own
second day torture w'as applied, and many expired under  roof, which they appropriately named di Secreti; the os.
the hands of their executioners.' You would have ima-  tensible motive was, that no one should he admitted into
gined,' says Platina,'that the castle of St Angelo was  this interior society who had not signalized himself by some
turned into the bull of Phalaris, so loud the hollow vault  experiment or discovery. It is clear, that, whatever they
resounded with the cries of those miserable young men,  intended by the project, the election of the members was
who were an honour to their age for genius and learning,  to pass through the most rigid scrutiny-and what was the
The torturers, not satisfied, though weary, having racked  consequence.   The court of Rome again started up with
twenty men in those two days, of whom some died, at  all its fears, and, secretly obtaining information of some
lengt.h sent for me to take my turn.  The instruments of  discussions which had passed in this academy degli Secre.
torture were ready; I was stripped, and the executioners  ti, prohibited the Portas from holding such assemblies, or
t themselves, to their work. Vianesius sat like another  applying themselves to those illicit sciences, whose amuse.
irinos on a seat of tapestry work, gay as at a wedding;  ments are criminal, and turn us aside from the study of the
and while I hung on the rack in torment, he played with a  Holy Scriptures.*  It seems that one of the Portas had
jewel which Sanga had, asking him who was the mistress  delivered him in the style of an ancient oracle; but what
which had given him this love token? Turning to me, he  was more alarming in this prophetical spirit, several of his
asked'why Pomponio in a letter should call me Holy Fa-  predictions had been actually verified.  The infallible
ther?' Did the conspirators agree to make you Pope?  court was in no want of anew school of prophecy. BapPomponio,' I replied,' can best tell why he gave me this  tista Ports went to Rome to justify himself, and, content
title, for I know not.' At length,having pleased,but not sat-  to wear his head, placed his tongue in the custody of his
i!fied himself with my tortures,he ordered me to he let down  Holiness, and no doubt preferred being a member of the
that I might undergo tortures much greater in the evening.  Accademia degli Oziosi, to that of gli Secreti.  To con.
I was carried, half dead, into nty chamber; but not long  firm this notion that these academies excited the jealousy
after, the inquisitor having dined, and being fresh in drink,  of those despotic states of Italy, I find that several 6f them
I was fetched again, and the archbishop of Spalatro was  at Florence, as well as at Sienna, were considered as
there. They inquired of my conversations with Malates-  dangerous meetings; and in 1568, the Medici suddenly
ta. I said, it only concerned ancient and modern learning,  suppressed those of the'Insipids,' the'Shy,' the'Disthe military arts, and the characters of illustrious men,  heartened,' and others, but more particularly the'Stunthe ordinary subects of conversation. I was bitterly  nied,' gli Intronati, which excited loud laments. We have
threatened by Vianesius, unless I confessed the truth on   also an account of an academy which called itself the
the following day, and was carried back to my chamber,  Lanternists, from  the circumstance that their first meet.
where I was seized with such extreme pain, that I had  ings were held at night, the academicians not carrying
rather have died than endured the agony of my battered  torches, but only Lanterns. This academy, indeed, was at
and dislocated limbs.  But now those who were accused   Toulouse, but evidently formed on a model of its neigbours.
of heresy were charged with plotting treason. Pornponius   In fine, it cannot be denied, that these literary societies
being examined why he changed the names of his friends,  or academies were frequently objects of alarm to the lithe answered boldly, that this was no concern of his judges  tie governments of Italy, and were often interrupted by
or the pope: it was perhaps out of respect fbr antiquity,  political persecution.
to stimulate to a virtuous -emulation.  After we had flow  From all these facts I am inclined to draw an inference.
lain ten months in prison, Paul comes hinself to the cas-  It is remarkable that the first Italian Academies were
tie, where he charged us, among other tlngs, that we had   only distinguished by the simple name of their founders;
disputed concerning the immortality of the soul, and that  one was called the Academy of Pomponits Ltetus, another
we held the opinion-of Plato; by disputing you call the be-  of Panormita, &c. It was after the melancholy fate of
ino of a God in question.  This, I said, might be objected  the Roman Academy of Lietus, which could not, howto all divines and philosophers, who to make the truth  ever, extinguish that growing desire of creating literary soappear, frequently question the existence of souls and of  cieties in the Italian cities, from  which the members
God, and of all separate intelligences. St Austin says, the   derived both honor and pleasure, that suddenly we dis.
opinion of Plato is like the faith of Christians.  I followed   cover these academies bearing the most fantastical titles.
none tf the numerous heretical factions. Paul then accus-  I have not found any writer who has attempted to solve this
ed us of being too great admirers of pagan antiquities;  extraordinary appearance in literary history, and the diffiyet none were more fond of them than himself, for he col-  culty seems great, because, however frivolous or fantaslected all the statues and sarcophagi of the ancients to  tical the titles they assumed, their members were illustrious
place in his palace, and even  affected to imitate, on  for rank and genius. Tiraboschi, aware of this difficulty,
more than  one occasion, the pomp  and  charm  of  can only express his astonishment at the absurdity, and his
their public ceremonies. While they were arguing, men-  vexation at the ridicule to which the Italians have been extion happened to be made of' the Academy,' when the   posed by the coarse jokes of Menkenius in his CharlataCardinal of San Marco cried out, that we were not  naria Eruditorum.'   I conjecture, that the invention of'Academics,' but a scandal to the name; and Paul now   these ridiculous titles, for literary societies, was an attempt
declared that he would not have that term evermore men-  to throw a sportive veil over meetings which had alarmed
tinned under pain of heresy.  He left us in a passion, and  the papal and the other petty courts of Italy; and to quiet
kept us two months longer in prison to complete the year,  their fears, and turn aside their political wrath, they imas it seems he had sworn.'                               plied the innocence of their pursuits by the jocularity with
Such is the interesting narrative of Platina, from which   which the members treated themselves, and were willing
we may surely infer, that if these learned men assembled  that others should treat them.  This otherwise inexplifor the communication of their studies; inquiries sugges-  cable national levity of so refined a people has not occurred
ted by the monuments of antiquity, the two learned lan-  in any other country, because the necessity did not exist
guages, ancient authors, and speculative points ofphiloso-  any where but in Italy. In France, in Spain, and in Engphy, these objects were associated with others, which ter-  land, the title of the ancieiit ACADEMUS was never pro.
rified the jealousy of modern Rome.                      faned by an adjunct which systematically degraded and
Sometime after, at Naples, appeared the two brothers,  ridiculed its venerable character, and its illustrious menu.
John Baptiste and John Vincent Ports, those twin spirits,  hers.
the Castor and Pollux of the natural philosophy of that    Long after this article was finished, I had an opportunity
age, and whose scenica. museum delighted and awed, by   of consulting an eminent Italian, whose name is already
its optical illusions, its treasure of curiosities, and its na.  celebrated in our cornntry, II Sigr. Uco FoscoLo; his
tural magic, all learned natives and foreigners. Their  decision ought necessarily to outweigh mine; but although
name is still famous, and their treatises De humana  it is incumbent on me to put the reader in possession of
physiognomia and Magia naturalis, are still opened by the  the opinion of a native of his high acquirements, it is not
curious, who discover these children of philosophy, wan-     Niceron. vo  xli. Art. Porta.
dering in the arcana of nature, to them a world of perpet.      Tirooc  vl. vica.
alr beginnin-s i These learned br.thers united with the    t See Tiraboschi, vol. vii, cap. iv. Arcaderole, and Qnad.
ul eginnis!  These learned brothers united with the   rio's Della storia e della ragione d'ogni poesia. In the irnMarquis of Manso, the friend of Tasso, in establishing   mense receptacle of these seven quarto volumes, printed with
an academy under the whimsicalname of degli Oziosi,(the   a small type, the curious may consult the volumincous indeax
liazy) which so ill described their intentions. This acade-  Art. Accademia.




I. IT ERATURE.                                                   255
as easy for me, on this obscure and curious suibject, to re.  the excellent design of ridiculing silly authors and stupid
l-iquish my own conjecture,                             critics.
II Sigr. FoscoLo is of opinion, that the ori.in of the  It is unquestionably proved, by the confession of several
fantastical. titles assumed by the Italian Academies en-  friends of Butler, that the prot,,type of Sir Hudibras was
tireIv arose from  a desire of getting rid of the air of pe-  a Devonshire man: and if' Sir irugh de Bras be the old
dantry, and to insinuate that their meetings and their  patron saint of Devonshire, (which however I cannot find
works were to be considered merely as sportive relax-  in Prince's or in Fuller's Worthies,*) this discovers the
ations, and an idle business.                           suggestion which led Butler to the name of his hero; bur.
This opinion may satisfy an Italian, and this he may  lesquing the new Saint by pairing him with the chival.
deem  a sufficient apology for such absurdity; but when  rous Saint of the county; hence, like the Knights of old,
scarlet robes and cowled heads, laureated bards and Mon-  did
signores, and Cavalleros, baptize themselves in a public'Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
assembly' Blockheads or' Madmen,' we ultramontanes,              And out he rode a Colonellini!
out of mere compliment to such great and learned men,    This origin of the name is more appropriate to the cna.
would suppose that they had their good reasons; and that  racter of the work than deriving it from the Sir Hudibras
in this there must have been' something more than meets  of Spenser, with whom there exists no similitude.
the ear.' After all, I would almost flatter myself that ourable as it is extraordinary, that such was
two opinions are not so wide of each other as they at first  the celebrity of Hudibras, that the workman's name was
seem to be.                                             often confounded with the work itself; the poet was once
ON THE HERO OF HUDIBRAS; BUTLER VINDICATED..   better known under the name of Hudibras than of Butler.
That great Original, the author of Hudibras, has been re-  OldSoutherncalls him:'Hudibras Butler;' and if any
one would read the most copious life we have of this great
cently censured'or exposing to ridicule the Sir SamueLuke,General Dictionary, he must look for a
unde whose roof he dwelt, in the grotesque characterof  poet In the greatG
under whose roof he dweli, in the grotesque character of  name -he is not accustomed to find among English authors
his hero. The knowledge of the critic in our literary his.  -that of Hudibras!  One fact is remarkable; that, like
tory is not curious; he appears to have advanced no fartory is not curious; he appears to have advanced no far-  Cervantes, and unlike Rabelais and Sterne, Butler, in his
ther, than to have taken up the first opinion he found; but
this served for an attempt to blacken the moral character  great work, has not sent down to posterity a single pas-'ai   lived,' says ouracritic,'in the family  sage of indecent ribaldry, though it was written amidst a
of Butler!  Having lived,' says our critic, I in the faml In
o fa n          T 1as Bte  cr4', J      court which would have got such by heart, and in an age
of Sir Samuel Luke, one of Cromwell's Captains, at the  in which such trash was certain of
very time he planned the Hudibras, of which he was        We know little more of  utler than we do of Shaklarty.
pleased to make his kind and hospitable Patron the Hero.
We defy the history of Whiggism  to match this anec-  peare and of Spenser!  Longu
dn mt   Whigs and. Tories of our poet, has unfortunately left no reminiscences of tne'
dote,'-as if it could not be matched! W higs and Tories  departed genius whom he so intimately knew, and who
are as like as two eggs when they are wits and satirists;   eqeated to Lonueville the only egac a neglected poet
their friends too often become their first victims! If Sir  ea
could leave —all his manuscripts; and to his care, though
Samuel resembled that renowned personification, the ridi-  not to his spirit, we are indebted for Butler's  Remains.
not to his spirit, we are indebted for Butler's' Remains.'
cuie was legitimate and unavoidable when the poet had
le was legitimate and unavoidable when the poet had   His friend attempted to bury him with the public honours
espoused his cause, and espoused it too from the purest  he deserved, among the tombs of his brother bards in
motive-a detestation of political and fanatical hypocrisy.  Westminster Abbey; but he was compelled to consign
Comic satirists, whatever they may allege to the contrary,  the bard to an obscure burial place in Paul's, Covent.Garwill always draw largely and most truly from their own
den. Many years after, when Alderman Barber raised
circle. After all, it does not appear that Sir Samuel sat  an inscription  to the memory of Butler in   estminst
for Sir Hudibras; although from the hiatus still in the
poem,  at the end of Part I, Canto I, his name would ac-  Abbey, others were desirous of placing one over the poet's
poem at  X, end of Part 1, Canto 1, his name would  humble gravestone. This probably excited some compe.
commodate both the metre and the rhyme! But who, said humble gravestone. This probably excited some compe
W.arburton,  teve  cmpared and personohimsef! Bt wotle a tition; and the following fine one, attributed to Dennis,
Warburton, ever compared a person to himself! Butler 
has perhaps never been published. If it be Dennis's,  it
might aim a sly stroke at Sir Samuel by hinting to him
hao  well he resembled Hudibras, but with a remarkable         have been composed at one of his nost lucid moforbearance he has left posterity to settle the affair, which   ments.
is certainly not worth their while. But Warburton tells,             Near this place lies interred
that a friend of Butler's had declared the person was a            The body of Mr Samuel Butler
Devonshire man; one Sir Henry Rosewell, of Ford Ab-                      Author of Hudibras.
bey, in that county. There is a curious life of our learned   He was a whole species of Poets in one!
wit, in the great General Dictionary; the writer, probably           Admirable in a Manner    -
Dr Birch, made the most authentic researches, from the         In which no one else has been tolerable;
contemporaries of Butler, or their descendants; and from      A Manner which began and ended in Him,
Charles Longueville, the son of Butler's great friend, he            In which he knew no Guide.
obtained much of the little we possess.  The writer of              And has found no Followers.
this life believes that Sir Samuel was the hero of Butler,and  To this too brief article I add a proof that that fanati.
rests his evidence on the hiatus we have noticed; but with  cism, which is branded by our immortal Butler, can sur.
the candour which becomes the literary historian, he has  vive the castigation.  Folly is sometimes immortal, as
added the following marginal note:' Whilst this sheet  nonsense is irrefutahle. Ancient follies revive, and men
was at press, 1 was assured by Mvr Longueville, that Sir  repeat the sanme unintelligible jargon; just as contagion
Samuel Luke is not the person ridiculed under the name of  keeps up the plague in Turkey by lying hid in some ob
I  wold be curious, afterall, should the.. rototyp f  scure corner, till it breaks out atresh. Recently we have
Itwould  be curious, aier all, should the prototype uriou  seen a notable instance where one of the school to which
Hudibras turn out to be one of the heroes of' the Rolb we are alluding, declares of Shakspeare, that'it would
d1ad;' a ci~rcumstance, which, had it been known to the  have been happy if he had never been born, for that thoucopartnership of that comic epic, would have furnished a  sands will look back with incessant anguish on the guilty
fine episode and a memorable hero to their line of descent.' Vhen Butler wrote his Hudibras, one Cell. Rolle, a De-  thor of the Dissertation on the Eneid of Virgii, and Dr Rus
vonshire manr, lodged with him, and was exactly like his  sel, another learned physician, as his publications attest.
description of the Knight; whence it is highly probable,  It does great credit to their taste, that they were the hebdothat it was this gentleman, and not Sir Samuel Ltuke  madal defenders of Pope from the attacks of the heroes of the
whose perseon he had in his eye. The reason that he gave  Dunciad.
for calling his poem Hudibras was, because the name of    * There is a great reason to doubt the authenticity of this
the old tutelar saint of Devonshire wasHugh de B      ras Xinformation concerning a Devonshire tutelar saint.  Mr
s  Charles Butler has kindly communicated the researches of a
I find this in the Grub street Journal, January, 1731, a  catholic Clergyman, residing at Exeter, who having examnined
periodical paper conducted by two eminent literary phv-  the voluminous registers of the See of Exeter, and numerotus
sicians, under the appropriate names of Bavius and Mma-  MSS and records, of the Diocese, cannot trace that any such
vinrs, and which for some time enlivened the towns with  saint was particularly honoured in the county. It is lamentable
that ingenious writers should invent fictions. for autthorities
* Edinburoh Review, No. 67-159, on J.acobite ReliEs.  but witlh the hope that the present authors have not done this.
t Davius and M eevius were Dr Martyn. the well-known au.  I have preserved this apocryphal tradition.




256                                  CURIOSITIES OF
delight which the plays of Shakspeare ministered to them.'*  it,' lest it should be mistaken,' he added a LUD)ICROUJ
Such is the anathema of Shakspeare! We have another  INDrx,' purely to show fools that I am  in jest.' But
of Butler, in' An historic defence of experimental reli-' the fool,' his subsequent editor, who, I regret to say,
gion;' in which the author contends, that the best men   was Robert Dodsley, thought proper to suppress this
have experienced the agency of the Holy Spirit in an irn-  amusing' ludicrous index,' and the consequence is, as the
mediate illumination from heaven.  He furnishes his his-  poet foresaw, that his aim has been' mistaken.'
toric proofs by a list from Abel to Lady Huntingdon! The   Th e whole history of this poem, and this edition, may
author of Hudibras is denounced,' One Sanmuel Butler,  be traced in the printed correspondence of SHENSTONE.
a celebrated buffoon in the abandoned reign of Charles   Our poet had pleased himself by ornamenting' A sixpenny
the Second, wrote a mock heroic poem, in which he   pamphlet' with certain' seemly'' designs of his', and for
undertook to burlesque the pious puritan. He ridicules   which he came to town to direct the engraver; he appears
all the gracious promises by comparing the divine il-  also to have intended accompanying it with' The deformed
lumination to an ignis fatuus, and dark lantern of the   portrait of my old school damle, Sarah Lloyd.'  The
spirlt.'t  Such are the writers whose ascetic spirit is  fiontisPiece to this first edition represents the' Thatched
still descending among us from the monkery of the deserts,  house of his old school-mistress, and before it is the
adding poignancy to the very ridicule they would annihi-'birch tree' with the' sun setting and gilding the scene.
late. The satire which we deemed obsolete, we find still  He writes on this,' I have the first sheet to correct upon
applicable to contemporaries!                            the table. I have laid aside the thoughts of fame a good
The FIRST part of Hudibras is the most perfect; that  deal in this unpromising scheme; and fix them upon the
was the rich fruit of matured meditation, of wit, of learn-  landskip which is engraving, the red letter which I proing, and of leisure. A mind of the most original powers  pose, and the fruit ptece which you see, being the rlost
had been perpetually acted on by some of the most extra-  seemly ornaments of the first sixpenny pamplet that was
ordinary events and persons of political and religious his-  ever so highly honoured. I shall incur the same reflection
tory. Butler had lived amidst scenes which might have   with Ogilby, of having nothing good but my decorations.
excited indignation and grief; but his strong contempt of  I expect that in your neighbourhood and in Warwickshire
the actors could only supply ludicrous images and caustic  there should be twenty of my poems sold.  I print it myraillery. Yet once, when villany was at its zenith, his  self. I am pleased with Mynde's engravings.'
solemn tontes were raised to reach it.;                   On the publication Shenstone has opened his idea on its
The second part was precipitated in the following year.  poetical characteristic.' I dare say it mist be very incor*
An interval of fourteen years was allowed to elapse before  rect; for I have added eight or ten stanzas within this
the third and last part was given to the world; but then   fortnight. But inaccuracy is more excusable in ludicrous
every thing had changed! the poet, the subject, and the  poetry than in any other. If it strikes any i      t st be
patron! the old theme of the sectarists had lost its fresh-  merely people of taste; for people of wit without taste,
ness, and the cavaliers, with their royal libertine, had be-  which comprehends the larger part of the critical tribe,
come as obnoxious to public decency as the Tartuffes.  will unavoidably despise it. I have been at sonme pains to
Butler appears to have turned aside, and to have given ai  recover myself from A Philips' misfortune of mere childish
adverse direction to his satirical arrows.  The slavery and   ness," Little charm of placid mien," 4-c. 1 have added a
dotage of Hudibras to the widow revealed the voluptuous  ludicrous index purely to show (fools) that I am in jest.;
epicurean, who slept on his throne, dissolved in the arms   and my motto, " 0, qua sol habitabiles illustrat oras, niaxiof his mistress.' The enchanted bower,' and' the amor-  ma principum!' is calculated for the same purpose.  You
ous suit,' of Hudibras reflected the new manners of this  cannot conceive how large the number is of those that niiswretched court; and that Butler had become the satirist of  take burlesque for the very foolishness it exposes; which
the party whose cause he had formerly so honestly espous-  observation I made once at the Rehearsal, at Tom Thumb,
ed, is confirmed by his' Remains,' where among other nerv-  at Chrononhotonthologos, all which are pieces of elegant
ous satires, is one,'On the licentious age of Charles the   humour. I have some mind to pursue this caution fur
Second, contrasted with the puritanical one that preceded  ther, and advertise it " The School- Mistress," &c, a very
it.' This then is the greater glory of Butler, that his high   childish performance every body knows (novorum more.)
and indignant spirit equally satirized the hypocrites of  But if a person seriously calls this, or rather burlesque, a
Cromwell, and the libertines of Charles.                 childish or low species of poetry, he says wrong. For the
SHENSTONE'S SCHOOL-MISTRESS.                  most regular and formal poetry may be called trifling, folly,
The inimitable' School-Mistress' of SHENSTONE is one  and weakness, in comparison of what is written with a
of the felicities of genius; but the purpose of this poem   more manly spirit in ridicule of it.
has been entirely misconceived. Johnson, acknowle dging    The first edition is now lying before me, with its splenthis charming effusion to be' the most pleasing of Shenstone's productions,' observes,' I know not what claim it  precious, itsIndex.'  Shenstone, who had  reatly pleashas to stand among the moral works.' The truth is, that  ed himself with his graphical inventions, at length found
has to stand amona the moral workcs.'  The truth is, that      i
it was intended for quite a different class by the author,  that his engraver, Mynde had sadly bungled wiih the poet's
and Dodle, the editor of his works,  ust have strangely  ideal.  Vexed and disappointed, he writes,'I have been.and Doriscy, the editor of his works, must have strangely
blundered in designating it'a moral poem.' It may be   plagued to death about the ill execution of my designs.
classed with a species of poetry till recently, rare in our  Nothing is certain in London hut expense, which I can ii
It    bear.' The truth is, that what is placed in the landskip
lians, in their rime piacevoli, or poesie burlesche, which do   over the thatched-house and the birch-tree, is like a falling
mensler rather than a setting sun; but the fruit-piece at the
not always consist of low humor in a facetious style with         rather than a setting sun; bu t the fr e at the
iingling rhymnes, to which form we attach our idea of a bur.end, the grapes, the plms the melon, ad t   he Catharne
lesque poem. There is a refined species of ludicrous  pears, Mr  lnde has made sufficiently tempting.  This
edition contains only twenty-eight stanzas, which were
poetry, which is comic yet tender, lusory yet elegant, and ditio n contains only twenty-eight       stanzas, w hich were
with such a blending of the serious and the facetious, that  aferwards enlarged to thirty-five.  Several stanzas have
the result of such a poem may often, among its other plea.  been omitted, ard they have also passed through many
sures, produce a sort of ambiguity; so that we do not orrections and some improvements, which show  that
always know wvhether the writer is laughing at his sab.   Shenstone had more judgment and felicity in severe cor.
ject, or whether he is to  e laughed at. Our admirable  rection, than perhaps is suspected.  Some of these I will
Whistlecraft met this fate!' The School-Mistress' of   poittt out.
SHENxSTOXE has been admired for its simplicity and ten-  In the  second stanza, th st edition has
derness, not for its exquisitely ludicrous turn  In every mart that stands on Britain' isle,
In every village less reveal'd to fame,
This discovery I owe to the good fortune of possessingy village less eeal to fame,
Iv ~ ~ ~ ~~po ssssng...-. Dwells there in cottage known about a mile,
the original edition of' The School-Mistress,' which the        A matron old, whom we school-mistress name.
author printed under his own directions, and to his own
fancy.  To this piece of LUDICROUS POETRY, as he calls               thus:
* See Quarterly Review, vol. viii, p. 111, where I found this  In every village mark'd with little spire,
quotation justly r-eprobated.                                   REmbower'd in trees, and hardly known to fame,
t This work, published in 17 95, is curious for the materials  * I have usually founsd the School-Mistress printed without
the writer's readinS has collected.                      numbering the stanzas; to enter into the present view it
The case of t(ir  Charles the First truly stated against  will be necessary for the reader to do this himself with a penIohn Cook, master of Gray's Inn, in Butler's' Remains.'    cil-mark.




LITERATURE.                                                     257
There dwells in lowly shed and mean attire,                         Stanza                      Stant
Amsatron old, whom we school.mistress name.       ture ol an EMBRYO           thor an opportunity of
The eighth stanza, in thefirst edition, runs,           FOX-HUNTER.                 of paying his capli..
The gown, which o'er her shoulders thrown she had,    [Another stanza omit-     ments to a particular
Was russet stuff (who knows not russet stuff.)     ted.]                       county, which he glad.
Great comfort to her mind that she was clad       A deviation to an heck-       ly seizes; concluding
In texture of her own, all strong and tough;        ster's shop,          32    his piece with respect.
Ne did she e'er complain, ne deem it rough, &c.   Which being continued         ful mention of the anMore elegantly descriptive is the dress as now do-    for the space of three        cient and loyal city of
ineated:                                                  stanzas, gives the au-      SHREWSBURY.
A russet stole was o'er her shoulders thrown,                 BEN JONSON ON TRANSLATION.
A russet kirtle fenced the nipping air;'Twas simple russet, but it was her own:            I have discovered a poem by this great poet, which has
",.'vas her own country bred the flock so fair,   even escaped the researches of his last unrivalled editor,'Twas her own lalour did the fleece prepare, &c   Mr. Gifford. Prefixed to a translation, translation is thos
The additions made to the first edition consists of the  theme; with us an unvalued art, because our translators,
11, 12, 13, 14, and 15th stanzas, in which are so beauti-  have usually been the jobbers of booksellers; but no ur,.
fully introduced the herbs and garden stores, and the psalm-  glorious one among our French and Italian rivals. In tams
ody of the school unistress; the 29th and 30th stanzas  poem, if the reader's ear be guided by the compressed.
were also subsequent insertions. But those lines which  sense of the massive lines, he may feel a rhythm which,
give so original a view of genius in its infancy,       should they be read like our modern metre, he will fin&d
wanting; here the fulness of the thoughts form their own,
A( littlte a.bench of lheedlillress bishops here,  cadences. The mind is musical as Zvell as the ear. One.
And there a chancellor in embryo, i&c.          verse running into another, and the sense often closing in,
were printed in 1742; and I cannot but think that the far.  the middle of a line, is the Club of Hercules; Divden,
famed stanzas in Gray's Elegy, where he discovers men  sometimes succeeded in it, Churchill abused it, and Uow..
of genius in peasants, as Shenstone has in children, was  per attempted to revive it. Great force of thought only:
suggested by this original conception:                  can wield this verse.
m.es mrute inglorious Milton here may rest,        On the AUTHOR, WOREE, and TRANSLATOR, preflppd
Some Cromrwell guiltless of his country's blood,  to the translation of Mateo Alemans's Spatnai Rogue, 1623,
is to me a congenial thought, with an echoed turn of ex-  Who tracks this author's or translator's pen
pression of the lines fi-om the School Mistress.        Shall finde, that either, hath read bookes, and men:
I shall now restore the ltdicrous INDEX, and adapt it  To say but one, were single. Then It chimes,
to the stanzas of the later edition.                    When the old words doe strike on the new tines,
Stanza                     Stanza  As in this Spanish Proteus; who, though writ
Introduction,          1      distributing BOUNTIES,    But in one tongue, was formn'd with the world's wit:
The subject proposed,  2      and dispersing PRO-       And hath the noblest marke of a good booke,
A circumstance in the si-     CLAMATIONS,          16  That an ill man dares not securely looke
tuation of the SIAN.     Her POLICIES,           17  Upon it, but will loath, or let it passe,
SION OF EARLY DIS-       The ACTION of the poem       As a deformed face doth a true glasse.
CIPLINE,  discovering      commences with a ge-       Such bookes, deserve translators of like coate
the surprising  infldu     neral summons, fol-        As was the genius wherewith they were wrote;
ence of the conrnexions    lows a particular de-      And this hath met that one, that may be stil'd
of ideas,            3     scription of the art-      More than the foster-father of this child;
A simile; introducing a      fil structure, decora-    For though Spaine, gave him his first ayre and vogue
deprecationof thejoy-      tion, and fortifications   He would be call'd, henceforth, the: Ersglish rogue,
less effects of BIGO-       of an HORN-BIBLE,   18   But that hee's too well suted, in a cloth,
TRY  and SUPERSTI-       A  surprising picture of     Finer than was his Spanish, if my oath
TION,                4     sisterly affection  by     Will be received in court; if not, would I
Some peculiarities indi-      way of episode,   20, 21   Had cloath'd him so! Here's all I can supply
cative of a COUNTRY      A  short list of the me-     To your desert who have done it, friendl! And this.
SCHOOL, with a short       thods now in use to        Faire aemulation, and no envy is;
sketch of the sovx-        avoid  a  whipping-        When you behold me wish my selfe, the man
REIGN presiding over       which nevertheless fol-    That would have done, that, which you only can!
it,                  5     lows,                 22                                        BEN JOHNSON.
0onie  account  of her     The force of example,  23
Some account of her      The force of example,  23      The translator of Gulzman, was James Mabbe, which he;
RNIHT-CAP, APRON,    A sketch of the particu-donym ofDiego Puedes
and a tremendous de-       lar symptoms of obsti-     disguised under theSptanish pseudonym of Diego Puede-sa;
scription of her BIRCH-    nacy as they discover      Diego for James, and Puede-ser for.Mabbe or Iffay-be!.1Ae,
EN SCEPTRE,          6     themselves in a child,     translated with the same spirit as his Guzman, Celestmsj.
Aparallel instance ofthe   with a simile iliustra-    or the Spanish bawd; a version still more remarkabie.
advantagesnce of LE AL      wto  a    eblubbered face,  He had resided a considerable time in Spain, and was a
IOVERNMENT   with                         24, 25, 26   perfect master of both languages; a rare talent in a.
regard to children and   A hint of great impor-       translator; and the consequence is, that he is a translateor
the wind,            7     tance,                27       Genius.
Her gown,              8   The piety of the poet in           THE LOVES OF'THE LADY ARABaLA.'* 
Her TITLES, and puncti-      relation to that school-         Where London's towre its trrets show
lious nicety in the ce.    dame's memory, who                 So stately by the Thames's sisle,
remonious assertion of     had the first formation          Faire Arabella, child of voe!
them,                9     of a CERTAIN patriot,              For many a day had sat and sighed.
A digression concerning    [This stanza has been 
her HiEN'S presumptu.      left' out in the later           And as shee heard the waves arise,
ous behaviour, with a      editions; it refers to             And as shee heard the bleake windcs roare,
circumstance tending       the Duke of Argyle.]             As fast did heave her heartfelte sighs,
to give the cautious     The secret connection                And still so fast her tears hid poure!
reader a more accu.        between  WHIPPING                       Arabella Stuart, in Evans's Old BDal/siu.
rate idea of the offi-     and rISING IN THE                            (probaly written by Mickle.)
cious diligence and e      WORLD, with a view           The name of Arabella Stuart, Mr Lodee observes, is
cosomy of an old wo-       as it were, through a      scarcely mentioned in history.' The whole life of ttr.ts
man,                 10    perspective, of  the
n view1 of theis RURAL     sae LITTL* FOLE in           * Long afterthis article was composed, Miss Aikin publlsle!
view of this RURAL  same LITTLE FO       her'Court of James the First.' That,sreeable writs'   hsa
POTENrTATE as seat-        the highest posts and      written her popllar volumes, without wasting the bloom (it
ed in her chair ofstate,   reputation,          28  life in the dust of libraries. and otr female historian has lot
conferring HONovURs,     An account of the na-        occasioned me to alter a single sentence in these rosearcihes.
N'o. 9.                                                                 33




258                                     CURIOSITIES OF
lady seems to consist of secret history, which, probably,  greatest infirmity of Elizabeth was her mysterious ceBrn
we cannot now recover.  The writers who have ventured  duct respecting the succession to the English throne; hle:
to weave together her loose and scattered story are am-  jealousy of power, her strange unhappiness in the dread 
biguous and contradictory.  How such slight domestic in.  personal neglect, inadd her averse to see a successor Xi
cidents as her life consisted of could produce results so  her court, or even to hear of a distant one; in a successor
greatly disproportioned to their apparent cause, may al-  she could only view a competitor. Camden tells us that ste
ways excite our curiosity. Her name scarcely ever occurs  frequently observed, that' most men neglected the setting
without raising that sort of interest which accompanies  sun,' and this melancholy presentiment of personal neg.mysterious events, and more parlicularly when we discover  lect this political coquette not only lived to experience, but
that this lady is so frequently alluded to by her foreign  even this circumstance of keeping the succession unsettled
contemporaries.                                           miserably disturbed the queen on her death-bed. Her
The historians of the Lady Arabella have all fallen  ministers, it appears, harassed her when she was lying
into the grossest errors. Her chief historian has com-  speechless; a remarkable circumstance, which has hither-.nlitted a violent injury on her very person, which, in the  to escaped the knowledge of her nunerous historians, and,history of a female, is not the least important. In hastily  which I shall take an opportunity of disclosing in this vo.,consulting two passages relative to her, he applied to the  lume,.Lady Arabella the defective understanding and head-    Elizabeth leaving a point so important always proble-:strong dispositions of her aunt, the Countess of Shrews-  matical, raised up the very evil she so greatly dreaded::t;:bury; and by another misconception of a term, as I think,  multiplied the aspirants, while every party humoured itsel:asserts that the Lady Arabella was distinguished neither  by selecting its own claimant, and none more busiIy,for beauty, nor intellectual qualities.*  This authoritative  than the continental powers.  One of the most curious i.decision perplexed the modern editor, Kippis, whose re-  the project of the Pope, who intending to put aside James,searches were always limited; Kippis had gleaned from   I, on account of his religion, formed a chimerical scheme;Oldys's precious manuscripts a single note, which shook  of uniting ARABELLA with a prince of the house of S&i
to; its foundations the whole structure before thim; and he  voy; the pretext, for without a pretext no politician moves,
ehad also found, in Ballard, to his utter confusion, some  was their descent from a bastard of our Edward IV; the
hints that the Lady Arabella was a learned woman, and  Duke of Parma was, however, married, but the Pope, it
of a poetical genius, though even the writer himself, who  his infallibility, turned his brother the Cardinal into the
had recorded this discovery, was at a loss to ascertain  Duke's substitute by secularising the churchman. In that
the fact! It is amusing to observe honest George Bal-  case the Cardinal would then become King of England in
lard in the same dilemma as honest Andrew  Kippis.  right of this lady!-provided he obtained the crown!*' This lady,' he says,' was not more distinguished for the'We might conjecture from this circumstance, that Ara
dignity of herhbirth, than celebrated for her fine parts and  bella was a catholic, and so Mr Butler has recently told
learning; and yet,' he adds, in all the simplicity of his  us; bit I know of no other authority than Dodd, the Caingenuousness,' I know so little in relation to the two last  tholic historian, who has inscribed her name among his
accomplishments, that I should not have given her a place  party. Parsons, the wily jesuit, was so doubtful how the
in these memoirs had not Mr Evelyn put her in his list of  lady, when young, stood disposed towards catholicism,
learned women, and. Mr:Philips (Milton's nephew) intro-  that he describes' her religion to be as tender, green, and
dticed her among his modern poetesses.'                  flexible, as is her age and sex, and to be wrought here-'The Lady Arabella`' for by that name she is usually  after and settled according to future events and times.' Yet
noticed by her contemporaries, rather than by her maiden  in 1611, when she was finally sent into confinenent, one
name of Stuart, or by her-married one of Seymour, as she  well informed of court affairs writes,' that the Lady Ara.
latterly subscribed herself, was, by her affinity with James ella hath not b een found inclinable to papery.'*
thetFirst, and our Elizabeth, placed near the throne; too    Even Henry IV of France was not unfriendly to this,near, it seems, for her happiness and quiet! In their common  papistical project of placing an Italian cardinal on the
descent from Margaret, the eldest daughter of Henry VII,  English throne. It had always been the state interest of'she was cousin to the Scottish monarch, but born an Eng-  the French cabinet to favour any scheme which might
lish woman, which gave her some advantage in a claim   preserve the realms of England and Scotland as separate
to the throne of England.' Her double relation to roy-  kingdonls.  The manuscript correspondence of Charles
yaltv,' says Mr. Lodge,' was equally obnoxious to the  IX with his ambassador at the court of London, which I
Jealousy of Elizabeth, and:the timidity of James, and they  have seen, tends solely to this great purpose, and perhaps
secretly dreaded the supposed danger of her having a le-  it was her French and Spanish allies, which finally hasgitimate offspring.''Yet James himself, then unmarried,  teed the political martyrdom of the Scottish Mary.
proposed for the husband of the lady Arabella, one of her    Thus we have discovered two chimerical husbands of,colsins, Lord Esme'tuart, whom  he had created Duke  the Lady Arabella.  The pretensions of this lady to the:of'Lenox, and designed for his heir.  The first thing we  throne had evidently become an object with speculating
hear of' the Lady Arabella, concerns a marriage: mar-  politicians; and perhaps it was to withdraw herself from'riages are the incidents of her life, and the fatal event  the embarrassments into which she was thrown, that, ac.
which terminated it was a marriage.  Such *was the se-  cording to De Thou, she intended to marry a son of the
cret spring on which her character and her misfortunes re-  Ear  of Northumberland; but to the jealous terror of'volved.                                                  Elizabeth, an English Earl was not an object of less' mai-'This proposed match was desirable to all parties; but  ritude than a Scotch Duke.  This is the third shadowy
there was one greater than them all, whoefoebad the bans.  husband 
Elizabeth interposed; she imprisoned the'Lady Arabella,    When James I ascended the English throne, there ex.
and would not deliver her up to the'king, of whom she  isted an Anti-Scottish party.  -Hardly had the northern
spoke with asperity, and even with contempt.t  The  monarch entered into the'Land of Promise,' when is
southern throne was shaken by a foolish plot,which one wri.
* Morant in the;Biographia Britannica.'This gross blunder  ter calls' a state riddle;' it involved Rawleigh, and une..
has'been detected by Mr'Lodge. The other I submit to the  pectedly the lady Arabella. The Scottish monarch was to
reader's judgment. A contemporary letter writter, alluding  be got *rid of, and Arabella was to be crowned.  Some o
to the flight of Arabella and Seymour, which alarmed the Scot.
tich so much more than the English party, tells us, among  when our James I was negotiating with the cabinet of Madrid.
other reasons of the little danger of the political influence of  He complains of Elizabeth's&treatment of him; that the queen
the partiesthemselves over the people, that not only their pre.  refused to yive hm his father's estate in England, nor would
tensions were far removed, but he adds,'They were ungrace-  deliver up his uncle's daughter, Arabella, to be niarried to'he
ful both in their persons and their houses.' Morant takes the  Duke of Lenox, at which time the queen uso palabras muy
term unoracefil in its modern acceptation; but in the style of  asperas y de mucho disprechia contra el dicho Rey de Escocia;
that day, I think, ungraceful;is opposed to graciousin the eyes  she used harsh words, expressing much contempt ofthe king
of the people, meaning that their persons and their houses  Win wood's Mem. i, 4
were not considerable to the mufltitude. Would it not be ab.    * See a very curious letter, the CCXCIX of Cardinal D'Os.
strd to apply ungracefill in its modern sense to a family or  sat, Vol. v. The catholic interest expected to facilitate the
house? Andl had any political danger been expected, assuredly  conquest of England by joining their armies with those of' Ar.
it would not have been diminished by the want of personal  belle,' and the commentator writes that this English lady bAd
erace in these lovers. I do not recollect any authority for the  a party, consisting of all those English who had been the jnTdgs
sense of ungraceful in opposition to gracious, but a critical and  or the avowed enemies of Mary of Scotland, the mother at
literary antiquary has sanctioned my opinion.             James the First.
t A circumstance which we discover by a Spanish memorial,  Winwood's Memorials, iii, 281.




LITERATURE.                                                       259
these silly conspirators having written to her requesting let-  solicited to the conjugal state, or seems to have been so
ters to be addresed to the King of Spain, she laughed at the  little averse to it.  Every noble youth, who sighed fbr dis..
letter she received, and sent it to the King.  Thus for a   tinction, ambitioned the notice of the Lady Arabella; and
eecond time was Arabella to have been Queen of England.   she was so frequently contriving a marriage for herself,
Ttis occurred in 1603, but was followed by no harsh   that a courtier of that day writing to another, observes,
measuresfrom  James the First.'these affectations of marriage in her, do give some advan.
In the following year, 1604, I have discovered that for  tage to the world of imparting the reputation of her con.
the third time, the lady was offered a crown!' A great  stant and virtuous disposition.'*
ambassador is coming from  the King of Poland, whose          The revels of Christmas had hardly closed, when the
chief errand is to denand my Lady Arabella in mar-  Lady Arabella forgot that she had been forgiven, anil
riage for his master.  So may your princess of the blood   again relapsed into her old infirmity.  She renewed a con.
grow a great queen, and then we shall be safe from  the   nexion, which had commenced in childhood, with Mr
danger of missuperscribing letters.'*  This last passage   William Seymour, the second son of Lord Beauchamp,
seems to allude to something.  What is meant of' the   and grandson of the earl of iertford.  His character has
danger of missuperscribing letters?'                       been finely described by Clarendon: He loved his studies
If this royal offer was ever made, it was certainly for-  and his repose; but when the civil wars broke out, he
bidden.  Can we imagine the refusal to have come from    closed his volumes and drew his sword, and was both an
the lady, who, we shall see, seven years afterwards, com-  active and a skitful general. Charles I created him Marplained that the king had neglected her, in not providing   quis of Hertford, and governor of the prince; he lived to
her with a suitable match?   It was this very time that  the Restoration, and Charles II restored him to the dukeone of those butterflies, who quiver on the fair flowers  domn of Somerset.
of a court, writes, that'My Ladye Arabella spends her        This treaty of marriage was detected in February 1609,
time in lecture, reiding, &c., and she will not hear of mar.  and the parties summoned before the privy council.  Seyriage.  Indirectly there were speaches used in the recom-   mour was particularly censured for daring to ally himself
mendation of Count Maurice. who pretendeth to be Duke   with the royal blood, although that blood was running in
of Guildres.  I dare not attempt her.'t   Here we find   his own veins. In a manuscript letter which I have disanother princely match proposed.  Thus far, to the Lady   covered, Seymour addressed the lords of the privy council.
Arabella, crowns and husbands were like a fairy banquet  The style is humble; the'plea to excuse his intended marseen at moonlight, opening on her sight, impalpable and   riage is, that being but'A young brother, and sensible of
vanishing at the moment of approach.                       mine own good, unknown to the world, of mean estate, not
Arabella, from certain circunistances, was adependant on   born to challenge any thing by my birthright, and therethe king's bounty, which flowed very unequally; often re-  fore my fortunes to be raised by my own endeavour, and
duced to great personal distress, we find by her letters, that  she a lady of great honour and virtue, and, as I thought,'she prayed for present money, though it should not be   of great means, I did plainly and honestly endeavour lawannually.'  I have discovered that James at length grant-  fully to gain her in marriage.'' There is nothing romantic
ed her a pension.  The royal favours, however were prob-  in this apology, in which Seymour describes himself as a
ably limited to her good behaviour.t                       fortune hunter! which, however, was probably done to
From 1604 to 1608, is a period which forms a blank leaf  cover his undoubted affection for Arabella, whom he had
in the story of Arabeila.  In this last year this unfortunate   early known. He says, that'he conceived that this noble
lady had again fallen out of favour, and, as usual, the cause  lady might, without offence, make the choice of any subject
was mysterious, and not known even to the writer. Chain-  within this kingdom; which conceit was begotten in me
berlain, in a letter to Sir Ralph Winwood, mentions' the   upon a general report, after her ladyship's last being called
Lady Arabella's business, whatsoever it was, is ended, and   before your lordships,t that it might be.' He tells the story
she restored to her former place and graces.  The king   of this ancient wooing-' I boldly intruded myself into
gave her a cupboard of plate, better than 2001. for a new   her ladyship's chamber in the court on Candlemass day
year's gift, and 1000 marks to pay her debts, besides  last, at what time I imparted my desire unto her, which
some yearly addition to her maintenance, want being   was entertained, but with this caution on either part, that
thought the chiefest cause of her discontentment, though   both of us resolved not to proceed to any final conclusion
she be not altogetherfreefromsuspicion of being collapsed.'~   without his majesty's most gracious favour first obtained.
Another mysterious expression which would seem to allude   And this was our first meeting!  Afier that we had a
either to politics or religion; but the fact appears by an-  second meeting at Brigg's house in Fleet-street, and thet,
other writer to have been a discovery of a new project of  a third at Mr Baynton's; at both which we had the like
marriage without the king's consent. This person of her  conference and resolution as before.' He assures their
choice is not named; and it was to divert her mind from   lordships that both of them  had never intended marriage
the too constatit object of her thoughts, that James, after a   without his majesty's approbation.I
severe reprimand, had invited her to partake of the festivi-  But Love laughs at privy councils, and the grave proties of the court, in that season of revelry and reconcilia-  mises made by two frightened lovers.  The parties were
ion.                                                       secretly married, which was discovered about July in the
WVe now approach that event of the Lady Arabella's  following year.  They were then separately confined, the
life, which reads like a romantic fiction: the catastrophe,  lady at the house of Sir Thomas Parry at Lambeth, and
too, is formed by the Aristotelian canon; for its misery,'-Seymour in the Tower, for'his contempt in marrying a
ds pathos, and its terror, even romantic fiction has not ex.  lady of the royal family without, the king's leave.'
ceeded!                                                       This, their first confinement, was not rigorous; the lady
It is probable that the king, from some political motive,  walked in her garden, and the lover was a prisoner at large
had decided that the Lady Arabella should lead a single  in the Tower.  The writer in the Biographia' Britannica,
life; but such wise purposes, frequently meet with cross  observes, that'Some inteicourse  they had by letters,
ones; and it happened that no woman was ever more   Which, after-a time, was discovered.''"In this history o.
love these might be precious documents, and in the library
* This manuscript letter firom William, Earl of Pembroke,  av~ong-le ea theselove-epistles, or perhaps this volume,
Earlof hreshuy, s dtedfro  Hapno.Corrat'Long-leat these love-epistles, or perhaps this volume,
to Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, is dated-rom Hampton-Court,   may -yet lie unread in a corner;~'Arabella's epistolary
Oct. 3, 1603. Sloane's MSS, 4161.
fLodge's Illustrations of British History, iii, 286. It is curi.  talent wasnot vIar, Dr Motfod, in a manuscript letter,
oes to observe, that this letter by W. Fowler, is dated on the   describes one of those effusions which Arabella atddressod
Fame day as the manuscript letter I have just quoted, and it is  to the'king.' This letter was penned by her in the best
directed to the same Earl of Shrewsbury; so that the Earl  tertis, as she can do right well.  It was often read with..
must have received, in one day, accounts of two different pro.  out ffence, nay, it was even commended by his highnepc,
jects of marriage for his neice! This shows how much Ara.  with the applause of prince and council.' One of these
hbella engaged the dlesigns or foreigners and natives. Will.
Fowler was a rhyming and fantastical secretary to the queen   * Winwood's Memorials, Vol. iii, 119.
of James the First. t This evidently alludes to the gentlemuan whose name sp.
tTwo lettero of Arabella, on distress ofmmoney. are preserved   pears not, which occasioned Arabella to incur the king's dis.
by Ballard. The discovery of a pension I made in Sir Julius  pleasure before Christmas; the Lady Arabella, it is quite clear,
Cesar's manuscripts.'  where one is mentioned of 16001 to the   was resolvedly bent on marrying herself!
Lady Arabelta  Stoanr's MS. 4160.                               Harl. MSS, 7003.
Air Lods5l has shown that the king once granted her the duty  0 It is on record that at Long.leat, the seat of the Marquis of
to oats.                                                   Bat'q, certain papers of Arabella are preserved,  I leave to
Winwvod's Memorials, iii, 117-119.                      the noble owner the pleasure of the research.




260                                CURIOSITIES OF
amatory letters 1 have recovered.  The circumstance is  ing with Uriah. But I assure myself, if it please Rout
domestic, being nothing more at first than a very pretty   majesty in your own wisdom to consider thoroughly of my
letter on Mr Seymour having taken cold, but as every  cause, there will no solid reason appear to debar me of
love-letter ought, it is not without a pathetic crescendo;  justice and your princely favour, which I will endeavour to
the tearing away of hearts so firmly joined, while, in her  deserve whilst I breathe.'
solitary imprisonment, the secret thought that he lived and  It is indorsed,' A copy of my petition to the King's
was her own, filled her spirit with that consciousness which  Majesty.' In another she implores that' If the necessity
triumphed even over that sickly frame so nearly subdued   of my state and fortune, together with my weakness, have
to death.  The familiar style of James the First's age may   caused me to do somewhat not pleasing to your majesty,
bear comparison with our own. I shall give it entire.   let it all be covered with the shadow of your royal benig-' Lady Arabella to Ar [William Seymour.         niity.' Again, inl another petition, she writes,
Sir,' Touching the offence for which I am now punished, I'I am exceeding sorry to hear that you have not been  most hunlbly beseech your majesty, in your most princely
well. I pray you let me know truly how you do, and what  wisdom and judgment, to consider in what a miserable
was the cause of it. I am not satisfied with the reason   state I had been, if I had taken any other course than I
Smith gives for it; but if it be a cold, I will impute it to  did; for my own conscience witnessing before God that I
some sympathy betwixt us, having myself gotten a swollen   was then the wife of him that now I am, I could never
cheek at the same time with a cold. For God's sake, let  have matched with any other man, but to have lived all
not your grief of mind work upon your body. You may  the days of my life as a harlot, which your majesty would
see by me what inconveniences it will bring one to; and  have abhorred in any, especially in one who ath the hon
no fortune, I assure you, daunts me so much as that weak-  our (how otherwise unfortunate soever) to have any drop
ness of body I find in myself; for sinows vivons I' age d'un r majesty's blood in them.''casz, as Marot says, we may, by G~od's grace, be happier    I find a letter of Lady Jane Drummond, in reply to this
than we look for, in being suffered to enjoy ourself with  or another petition, which Lady Drummond had given
his majesty's favour. But if we be not able to live to it,  the queen to present to his majesty.  It was to learn the
I, for my part, shall think myself a pattern of misfortune   cause of Arabella's confinement.  The pithy expression
of James the First is characteristic of the monarch; and
in enjoying so great a blessing as you, so little awhile.
No separation but that deprives me of the comfort of you.  the solemn forebodin  of Lady Drummond, who abypets
For wheresoever you be, or in what state so ever you are,  to have  belady  f excellent judgment, show they were truethe
it sufficeth me you are mine! Rachel wept and would
not be comforted, because her children were no more. And'LADY JANE DRUMMOND.LADY  JAN'E DRUMMORND TO LADY ARABELLA,
that indeed, is the remediless sorrow, and none else! And
therefore God bless us from that, and I will hope vell of' Answering her prayer to knowt the cause of her confinement.
the rest, though I see no apparent hope.  But I am sure.' This day her majesty hath seen your ladyship's letter.
Gods book mentioneth many of his children in as great  Her Majesty says, that when she gave your ladyship's
distress that have done well after, even in this world! I  petition to his nlajesty, he did take it well enough, but
do assure you nothing the state can do with me can trou.  gave no other answer than that ye had eaten of theforbid.
ble me so much as this news of your being ill doth; and   den tree. This was all her majesty commanded me te
you see whmo  I am troubled, I trouble you too with tedi-  say to your ladyship in this purpose; but withal did re.
ous kindness; for so I think you will account so long a  member her kindly to your ladyship, and sent you this lit..
letter, yourself not having written to me this good while so  tie token in witness of the continuance of her majesty's
much as how you do. But, sweet sir, I speak not this to  favour to your ladyship. Now, where your ladyship detrouble vou with writing but when you please. Be well,  sires me to deal openly and freely with you, I protest I can
and I shall account myself happy in being               say nothing on knowledge, for I never spoke to any of that'Your faithfull loving wife,          purpose but to the queen; but the wisdom of this state. with'ARB. S.'*    the example how some of your quality in the like case has
In examining the manuscripts of this lady, the defect of been used, snakes me fear that ye shall notfnd so easy
dates must be supplied by our sagacity.  The following  end to your troubles as ye expect or Iwish.'
petition,' as she calls it, addressed to the kina in defence    In return, Lady Arabella expresses her grateful thanks
of her secret Inarriage, must have been written at this  -presents her majesty with' this piece of my work, to
time. She remonstrates with the king for what she calls  accept in remembrance of the poor prisoner that wrought
his neglect of her; and while she fears to be violently se-  them, In hopes her royal hands will vouchsafe to wear
parated from her husband, she asserts her cause with a  them, which till I have the honour to kiss, I shall live in
firm and noble spirit, which was afterwards too severely   a great deal of sorrow. Her case,' she adds,' could be
tried!                                                  compared to no other she ever heard of, resembling no''e TTowthe King.                   other.' Arabella, like the queen of the Scots, beguiled'May it please your most excellent Majesty.            the hours of imprisonment by works of embroidery; for
I do most heartily lament my hard fortune that I should  in sending a present of this kind to Sir Andrew Sinclair
offend your majesty the least especially in that whereby I  to be presented to the queen, she thanks him for' vouchhave long desired to merit of your majesty, as appeared  safina to descend to these petty offices to take care even
before your majesty was my sovereign. And though your  of these womanish toys, for her whose serious mind must
majesty's neglect of me, my good liking of this gentleman  invent some relaxation.'
that is my husband, and my fortune, drew me to a contract    The secret correspondence of Arabella and Seymour
before I acquainted your majesty, I hunbly beseech your  was discovered, and was followed by a sad scene. It
majesty to consider how impossible it was for me to ima.  must have been now that the king resolved to consign
gine it could be offensive to your majesty, havingfemdays  this unhappy lady to the stricter care of the Bishop of
before given me your royal consent to'bestow myself mof any. Durham. Lady Aiabella was so subdued at this distant
subject ofyour majesty's (which likewise your majesty had  separation, that shetgave way to all the wildness of dedone long since.)  Besides, never having been either pro-  spair;:she fell suddenly ill, and could not travel but in a
nibited any, or spoken to for any, in this land, by your ma-  litter, and with a physician. In her way to Durham, sht
esty these seven years that I have lived in your majesty's  was so greatly disquieted in the first few miles of her tin
neuse, I could not conceive that your majesty regarded   easy and troublesome journey. that they would proceed n,,
my marriage at all; whereas if your majesty had vouch.  further than to Highgate.  The physician returned to
aafed to tell me your mind, and accept the free-will offering  town to report her state, and declared that she was assu.
of my obedience, I would not have offended your majesty,  redly very weak, her pulse dull and melancholy, and very
of whose gracious goodness I presume so much, that if it  irregular; her countenance very heavy, pale, and wan;
were now as convensent in a worldly respect as malice may  and though firee from fever, he declared her in no case fit
make it seem to separate us, whom God hath joined, your  for travel.  The king observed,' It is enough to make any
majesty would not do evil that good might come thereof,  sound man sick to be carried in a bed in that manner she
nor make me, that have the honour to be so near your  is; much more for her whose impatient and unquiet spirit
majesty in blood, the first precedent that ever was, though  heapeth atpon herself far greater indisposition of body than
our princes may have left some as little imitable, for so  otherwise she would have.' His resolution, however, was,
good and gracious a king as your majesty. as David's deal-  that' she should proceed to Durham, if he were king!'
* Harl. MSS, 7003'WYe answered,' replied the doctor,' that w, macie m




LITER PATURE.                                                       261
doubt of her obedience.''Obedience is that required,'  paralleled it with the gunpowder treason, and some politireplied the king,' which being performed, I will do more  cal danger must have iinpended, at least in their imaginafor her than she expected.'*                               tion, for Prince Henry partook of this cabinet panic.
The king, however, with his usual indulgence, appears      Confusion and alarm prevailed at court; couriers were
to have consented that Lady Arabella should remain for  despatched swifter than the winds wafted the unhappy
a month at Highgate, in confinement, till she had suffi-  Arabella, and all was hurry in the sea ports.  They sent
ciently recovered to proceed to Durham, where the bishop  to the Tower to warn the lieutenant to be doubly vigilant
posted, unaccompanied by his charge, to await her recep-  over Seymour, who, to  his surprise, discovered  that
tion, and to the great relief of the friends of the lady, who   his prisoner had ceased to be so for several hours.hoped she was still within the reach of their cares or of  James at first was for issuing a proclamation in a style so
the royal favour.                                          angry and vindictive, that it required the moderation of
A second month's delay was granted, in consequence   Cecil to preserve the dignity while he concealed the terror
of that letter which we have before noticed as so impres-  of his majesty.  By the admiral's detail of his impetuous
tive and so elegant, that it was commended by the king,  movements, he seemed in pursuit of an enemy's fleet; for
and applauded by prince Henry and the council,             the courier is urged, and the post-masters are roused by a
But the day of her departure hastened, and the Lady   superscription, which warned them  of the eventful desArabella betrayed no symptom of her first despair.  She  patch'Haste, haste, post haste! Haste for your life,
openly declared her resignation to her fate, and showed   your life!'*  The family of the Seymnours were in a state
her obedient willingness, by being even over-careful in  of distraction; and a letter from  Mr Francis Seymour to
little preparations to make easy so long a journey.  Such   his grandfather, the Earl of Hertford, residing then at his
tender grief had won over the heart of her keepers, who   seat. far remote from the capital, to acquaint him  of the
could not but sympathize with a princess, whose love, holy  escape of his brother and the lady, still bears to posterity
and wedded too, was crossed only by the tyranny of  a remarkable evidence of the trepidations and consternastatesnmen.  But Arabella had not within that tranquillity  tion of the old earl; it arrived in the middle of the night,
with which she had lulled her keepers.   She and Sey-  accompanied by a summons to attend the privy-council.
mour had concerted a flight, as bold in its plot, and as  In the perusal of a letter written in a small hand, and fillbeautifully wild, as any recorded in romantic story.  The   ing more than two folio pages, such was his agitation, that
day preceding her departure, Arabella found it not difficult  in holding the taper he must have burnt what he probably
to persuade a female attendant to consent that she would  had not read; the letter is scorched, and the flame has persuffer her to pay a last visit to her husband, and to wait  forated it in so critical a part, that the poor old earl jour.
for her return at an appointed hour.  More solicitous for  neyed to town in a state of uncertainty and confiusion.
the happiness of lovers than for the repose of kings, this  Nor was his terror so unreasonable as it seems.  Trea.
attendant, in utter simplicity, or with generous sympathy,  son had been a political calamity with the Seymours.
assisted the Lady Arabella in dressing her in one of the most  Their progenitor the Duke of Somerset the protector, had
elaborate disguisings.'She drew a pair.oflarge French.  found that'all his honours,' as Frankland strangely exfashioned hose or trowsers over her petticoats; put on a   presses it,'had helped him too forwards to hop headless.'
man's doublet or coat; a peruke, such as men wore,  Henry, Elizabeth, and Jamines, says the same writer, conwhose long locks covered her own ringlets; a black hat, a  sidered that it was needful, as indeed in all sovereignties,
black cloak, russet boots with red tops, and a rapier by  that those who were near the crown'should be narrowly
her side.'  Thus accoutred, the Lady Arabella stole out  looked into for marriage.'
with a gentleman about three o'clock in the afternoon.-      But we have left the lady Arabella alone and mournful
She had only proceeded a mile and a half, when they stop-  on the seas, not praying for favourable gales to convey her
ped at a poor inn, where one of her confederates was  away; but still imploring her attendants to linger for her
vaiting with horses, yet she was so sick anid faint, that the   Seymour; still straining her sight to the point of' the horilostler, who held her stirrup, observed, that'the gentleman   zon for some speck which might give a hope of the apcould hardly hold out to London.' She recruited her spirits  proach of the boat freighted with all her love. Alas!
by riding; the blood mantled in her face, and at six   Never more was Arabella tocast a single look onher lover
o'clock our sick lover reached Blackwall, where a boat  and her husband! She was overtaken by a pink in the
and servants were waiting.  The watermen were at first  king's service, in Calais roads; and now she declared that
ordered to Woolwich; there they were desired to push on to  she cared not to be brought back again to her imprison..
Gravesend, then to Tilbury, where, complaining of fatigue,  ment should Seymour escape, whose safety was dearest
they landed to refresh; but, tempted by their freight, they  to her!
reached Lee.  At the break of morn they discovered a         The life of the unhappy, the melancholy, and the dis.
French vessel riding there to receive the lady; but as  tracted Arabella Stuart is now *to close in an imprisonSeymour had not yet arrived, Arabella was desirous to   ment, which lasted only four years; for her constitutional
lie at anchor for her lord, conscious that he would not fail  delicacy, her rooted sorrows, and the violence of her feelto his appointment.  If he indeed had been prevented in  ings, sunk beneath the hopelessness of her situation, and a
his escape, she herself cared not to preserve the freedom   secret resolution in her.mind to refuse the aid of her physi.
she now possessed; but her attendants, aware of the dan-  cians, and to wear away the faster if she could, the feeble
ger of being overtaken by a king's ship, overruled her  remains of life. But who shall paint the emotions of a
wishes, and hoisted sail, which occasioned so fatal a ter-  mind which so much grief, and so much love, and distracmination to this romantic adventure. Seymour indeed had  tion itself, equally possessed?
escaped from  the Tower; he had left his servant watch-      What passed in that dreadful imprisonment cannot pering at his door to warn all Yisiters not to disturb his mas-  haps be recovered for authentic history; but enough is
ter, who lay ill with a raging tooth ache, while Seymour  known; that her mind grew impaired, that she finally lost
in disguise stole away alone, following a cart which had   her reason, and if the duration of her imprisonnient was
just brought wood to his apartment.  He passed the war-  short, it was only terminated by her death.  Some loose
ders; he reached the wharf, and found his confidential  effusions, often begun and never ended, written and erasman waiting with a boat, and he arrived at Lee.  The   ed, incoherent and rational, yet remain in the fragments of
time pressed  the waves were rising; Arabella was not  her papers.  In a letter she proposed addressing to Visthere; but in tna  listance he descried a vessel.  Hiring   count Fenton, to implore for her his majesty's favour again,
a fisherman to take him on board, to his grief, on hailing   she says,'Good, my lord, consider the fault cannot be unit, he disccwered that it was not the French vessel charg-  comnitted; neither can any more be required of any
ed with his Arabella; in despair and confusion he found   earthly creature but confession and most humble submi&s
another ship from Newcastle, which for a good sum alter-  sion.' In a paragraoh  she had written, and crossed out,
ed his course, and landed him in Flanders.  In the mean         This emphatic injunction  observes my friend Mr  a
while the escape of A~rabella  was first known to the go       (h   epai  juncinosre   y-fin rIa
while the esepe of Arabella was first known to the guov-  per,'would be effective when the messenger could read;' but
ement, and the hot alarm  which spiead may seem   di-  in a letter written by the Earl of Essex about the year 1597, to
crous to us.  The political consequences attached to the   the Lord High Admiral at Plymouth, I have seen added to the
union and the flight of these two doves from their cotes,  words' Hast, hast, hast for lyre!' the expressive symbol ofa
shook with consternation the grey owls of the cabinet,  gallows prepared with a halter, which could not be misutndsr'%ore particiuarly the Scotch party, who, in their terror,  stood by the most illiterate of Mercuries, thus
~ These particulars I derive from the manuscript letters                                                  I
anmong the papers of Aratella Stuart. Harl. MSS, 7003.




262                                     CURIOSI'rIES OF
it seems that a present of her work had been refused by       Coke was   the oracle of law,' but, 1ikc too many great
the king, and that she had no one about her whom  she   lawyers, he was so completely one, as t: have been no.
might trust.                                               thing else; armed with law, he committed acts of injustice,
Help will come too late. and be assured that neither  for in how many cases, passion mixing itself with law
physician nor other, but whom I think good, shall come about  Summum Jus becomes Summa Injuria.  Official violence
me while Ilive, till I have his majesty's favour, without  lo:utalized, and political ambition extinguished, every spark
which I desire not to live. And if you remember of old, I.7 nature in this great lawyer, when he struck at his vic.
dare die, so I be not guilty of my own death, and oppress  tins, public or domestic.  His solitary knowledge, perothers with my ruin too, if there be no other way, as God   haps, had deadened his judgment in other studies; and
forbid, to whom I commit you; and rest as assuredly as   yet his narrow spirit could shrink with jealousy at the ce.
heretofore, if you be the same to me,                      lebrity obtained by more liberal pursuits than his own.'Your lordship's faithful friend,       The errors of the great are instructive as their virtues,'A. S.'    and the secret history of the outrageous lawyer may have,
That she had frequently meditated on suicide appears   at least, the merit of novelty, although not of panegyric.
by another letter-' I could not. be so unchristian as to be   Coke, already enriched by his first marriage, combined
the cause of my own death.  Consider what the world   power with added wealth, in his union with the relict of
would conceive if I should be violently inforced to do it.'    Sir William Hatton, the sister of Thomas, Lord Burleigh.
One fragment we may save as an evidence of her utter   Family alliance was the policy of that prudent age of powretchedness.                                               litical interests.  Bacon and Cecil married two sisters;'In all humility, the most wretched and unfortunate   W~asingham  and Mildmay two others; Knowles Essex,
creature that ever lived, prostrates itselfe at the feet of  and Leicester, were linked by family alliances.  Eliza.the most mercitful king that ever was, desiring nothing but  beth, who never designed to marry herself, was anxious
mercy and favour, not being more afflicted for any thing   to intermarry her court dependants, and to dispose ot
than for the losse of that which hath binne this long time   them so as to secure their services by family interests.*
the only comfort it had in the world, and which, if it weare   Ambition and avarice, which had instigated Coke to form
to do again, I would not adventure the losse for any other  this alliance, punished their creature, by mating him with
worldly comfort; mercy it is I desire, and that for God's   a spirit haughty and intractable as his own.  It is a resake!'                                                     markable fact, connected with the character of Coke, that
Such is the history of the Lady Arabella, who from   this great lawyer suffered his second marriage to take
some circumstances not sufficiently opened to us, was an   place in an illegal manner, and condescended to plead
Important personage, designed by others, at least, to pla   ignorance of the laws! He had been married in a private
a high character in the political drama.  Thrice selected   house, without banns or license, at a moment when the
as a queen; but the consciousness of royalty was only felt  archbishop was vigilantly prosecuting informal and irregu.
in her veins while she lived in the poverty of dependance.  lar marriages.  Coke, with his habitual pride, imagined
Many gallant spirits aspired after her hand, but when her  that the rank of the parties concerned would have set him
heart secretly selected one beloved, it was for ever deprived   above such restrictions; the laws which he administered
of domestic happiness! Slheis said not to have been beauti-  he appears to have considered had their indulgent excepful, and to have been beautiful; and her very portrait, am-   tions for the great. But Whitgift was a primitive Chrisbiguous as her life, is neither the one nor the other. She is  tian; and the circumstance involved Coke, and the whole
said to have been a poetess, and not a single verse substan.  family, in a prosecution in the ecclesiastical court, and
tiates her claim to the laurel. She is said not to have been re.  nearly in the severest of its penalties. The archbishop
markable for her intellectual accomplishments, yet I have   appears to have been fully sensible of the overbearing
found a Latin letter of her composition in her manuscripts.  temper of this great lawyer; for when Coke became the
The materials of her life are so scanty that it cannot be writ-  attorney-general, we cannot but consider, as an ingenious
ten, and yet we have sufficient reason to believe that it would  reprimand, the archbishop's gift of a Greek Testament,
be as pathetic as it would be extraordinary, could we narrate   with this niessage, that'He had studied the common law
its involved incidents, and paint forth her delirious feelings.  long enough, and should henceforward study the law o!
Acquainted rather with her conduct than with her charac-  God!'
ter, for us the Lady Arabella has no historical existence;    The atmosphere of a court proved variable, with so
and we perceive rather her shadow than herself! A wri-  stirring a genius; and as a constitutional lawyer, Coke, at
ter of romance might render her one of those interesting   times, was the stern assertor of the kingly power, or its
personages whose griefs have been deepened by their roy-  intrepid impugner; but his personal dispositions led to
alty, and whose adventures, touched with the warm hues  predominance, and he too often usurped authority and
of love and distraction, closed at the bars of her prison-  power with the relish of one who loved them too keenly.
grate: a sad example of a female victim to the state!' You make the laws too much lean to your opinion,
Through one dim lattice, fring'd with ivy round,      whereby you show yourself to be a legal tyrant,' said Lord
Successive suns a languid radiance threw,            Bacon, in his admonitory letter to Coke.
To paint how fierce her angry guardian frown'd,          In 1616, Coke was out of favour for more causes than
To mark how fast her waning beauty flew!'           one, and his great rival Bacon was paramount at the counSeymour, who was afterwards permitted to return, dis.  cil table.t Perhaps Coke felt more humiliated by appeartinguished himself by his loyalty through three successive   ing before his judges, who were every one inferior to him
reigns, and retained his romantic passion for the lady of  as lawyers, than by the weak triumph of his enemies,
his first affections; for he called the daughter he had by   who received him with studied insult.  The queen inform.
his second lady by the ever-beloved name of Arabella  ed the king of the treatment the disgraced Lord chief-jnusStuart.                                                    tice had experienced, and, in an angry letter, James de.
dclared, that'he prosecuted Coke ad correctionem, not ad
DOMESTIC  HtTOtY OF ~st  EDWARD    E    destructionem;' and afterwards at the council, spoke oh
Sir Edward Coke-or Cook, as now pronounced, and   Colke' with so many good words, as if he meant to hang
occasionally so written in his own times-that lord chieften, I have heard that the papers of Sir Edward Coke are still
justice whose name the laws of England will preserve-  preserved at Holkham, the seat of Mr Coke; and 1 have also
has shared the fate of his great rival the Lord Chancellor  heard of others in the possession of a noble family. Mr Roscoe
Bacon-for no hand worthy of their genius has pursued   whose elegant genius it were desirable should be otherwise ditheir story.  Bacon, busied with nature, forgot himself;  rected, is preparing a beautiful embellished catalogue of the
Coke, who was only the greatest of lawyors, reflected   Holkham library, in which the taste of the owner willrival hin
with more complacency on himself; for' among those   munficence.
A list of those manuscripts to which I allude, may be disthirty books which he had written with his own hand, most    Also the  anttSS  o w               a d, mybedi
covered in the Lambeth MSS, No 943, Art. 369, described in
pleasing to himself, was a manual which he called Vade  the catalogue as'A note ofsuch things as were found in a trunk
1ecum, from whence, at one view, he took a prospect of  of Sir Edward Coke's by the king's command, 1634,' but more
his life past.' This mnanuscript, which Lloyd notices, was  particularly in Art. 371,' A  Catalogue of Sir Edward Coke's
among the fifty which, on his death, were seized on by an   papers then seized and brought to Whitehall.'
order ot council, but some years after were returned to         Lloyd's State Worthies, art. Sir Nicholas Bacon.
his heir, and this precious memorial -tay still be disinter-    f Miss Aikin's Court of James the First appeared two years
red.*                                                      afterthis article was written; it has occasioned no alteration
I refer the reader to her clear narrative, vol. ii, p. 30, andp.6S
* Tbs conjecture may not be vain; since this has'..,.    t,.  out secret history is rarely discovered in printed books.




LITERATURE.                                                           263
him with a silken halter;' even his rival Bacon made this  cal husband, so that the letter-writer adds,'divers said
memorable acknowledgment, in reminding the judges,  that Burbage could not have acted better.' Burbage'
that' such a man was not every day to be found, nor so  famous character was that of Richard the Third.  It is
soot made as marred.'  When his successor was chosen,  extraordinary that Coke, able to defend any cause, bore
the Lord Chancellor Egerton, in administering the oath,  himself so simply.  It is supposed that he had laid his
accused Coke'of many errors and vanities for his ambi-  domestic concerns too open to animadversion in the rneglect
tious popularity.'  Coke, however, lost no friends in this  of his daughter; or that he was aware that he was standdisgrace, nor relaxed his haughtiness; for when the new   ing before no friendly bar, at that moment being out of'fachief justice sent to purchase his Collar of S. S., Coke   your; whatever was the cause, our noble virago obtained
returned for answer, that' he would not part with it, but  a signal triumph, and'the oracle of law,' with all his
leave it to his posterity, that they might one day know they   gravity stood before the council.table hen-pecked. In June,
had a chiefjustice to their ancestor.'*                    1616, Sir Edward appears to have yielded at discretion to
In this temporary alienation of the royal smiles, Coke   his lady, for in an unpublished letter I find, that' his curst
attempted their renewal by a project which involved a do-  heart hath been forced to yield to more than he ever meant;
mestic sacrifice.  When the king was in Scotland, and   but upon this agreement he flatters himself that she will
Lord Bacon, as lord-keeper, sat at the head of affairs, his  prove a very good wife.'
lordship was on ill terms with Secretary Winwood, whom       In the following year, 1617, these domestic affairs toCoke easily persuaded to resume a former proposal for  tally changed.  The political marriage of his daughter
marrying his only daughter to the favourite's eldest broth-  with Villiers being now resolved on, the business was to
er, Sir John Villiers.  Coke had formally refused this  clip the wings of so fierce a bird as Coke had found in
match from the high demands of these parvenus.  Coke,  Lady Hatton, which led to an extraordinary contest. The
in prosperity,' sticking at ten thousand a year, and resolv-  mother and daughter hated the upstart Villiers, and Sir
ing to give only ten thousand marks, dropped some idle  John, indeed, promised to be but a sickly bridegroom.
words, that he would not buy the king's favour too dear;'  They had contrived to make up a written contract of marbut now in his adversity, his ambition proved stronger than   riage with Lord Oxford, which they opposed against the
his avarice, and by this stroke of deep policy the wily   proposal, or rather the order, of Coke.
lawyer was converting a mere domestic transaction into       The violence to which the towering spirits of the conflictan affair of'state,which it soon became.  As such it was  ing parties proceeded is a piece of secret history, of which
evidently perceived by Bacon; he was alarmed at this  accident has preserved an able memorial.  Coke, armed
projected alliance, in which lie foresaw that he should lose  with law, and, what was at least equally potent, with the
his hold of the favourite in the inevitable rise once more of  king's favour, entered by force the barricadoed houses of
his rival Coke. Bacon, the illustrious philosopher, whose   his lady, took possession of his daughter, on whom he apeye was only blest in observing nature, and whose mind   pears never to have cast a thought till she became an in-.
was only great in recording his own meditations, now sat  strument tfor his political purposes, confined her firom her
down to contrive the most subtile suggestions he could   mother, and at length got the haughty mother herself irnput together to prevent this match; but Lord Bacon not  prisoned, and brought tier to account for all her past misonly failed in persuading the king to refise what his ma-  doings.  Quick was the change of scene, and the contrast
jesty much wished, but finally produced the very mischief  was as wonderful. Coke, who, in the preceding year, to
he sought to avert-a rupture with Buckingham  himself,  the world's surprise, proved so simple an advocate in his
and a copious scolding letter from the king, but a very ad-  own cause in the presence of his wife, now, to employ his
mirable one;t and where the lord keeper trembled to find  own words,'got upon his wings again,' and went on as
himself called "' Mr Bacon.'                               Lady Hatton, when safely lodgedi in prison, describes, with
There were, however, other personages, than his ma-'his high-handed tyrannical courses, till the fiurious lawJesty and his favourite, more deeply concerned in this bu-  yer occasioned a fit of sickness to the proud crest-fallen
siness, and who had not hitherto been once consulted-the  lady.' Law! Law! Law!' thundered  irom  the lips of
mother and the daughter! Coke,who,in every day concerns  its' oracle;' and Lord Bacon, in his apologetical letter to
issued his commands as he would his law-writs,and at times  the king for having opposed his' riot or violence,' says,' I
boldly asserted the rights of the subject, had no other pa-  disliked it the more, because he justified it to be law, which
ternal notion of the duties of a wife and a child than their  was his old song.'
obedience!                                                    The memorial alluded to appears to have been confi.
Lady Hatton, haughty to insolence, had been often for-  dentially composed by the legal friend of Lady Hatton, to
bidden both the courts of theiir majesties, where Lady   furnish her ladyship with answers when brought before the
Compton, the mother of Buckingham, was the object of  council-table.  It opens several domestic scenes in the
her ladyship's persevering contempt.  She retained her  house of that great lord chief-justice; but the forcible sim.
personal influence by the numerous estates which she en-  plicity of the style in domestic details will show, what I
joyed in right of her former husband.  When Coke fell into  have often observed, that our language has not advanced
disgrace, his lady abandoned him! and, to avoid her hus-  in expression since the age of James the First.  I have
band, frequently moved her residences in town and cotn-  transcribed it from the original, and its interest must plead
try.  I trace her with malicious activity disfurnishing his  for its length.
house in Holborn, and at Stoke,t seizing on all the plate                      To Lady Hatton.
and moveables, and, in fact, leaving tfne fallen statesman'MADAM,                              10th July, 1617.
and the late lord chief-justice, enmpty houses and no coon-'Seeing these people speak no language but thunder
forter! The wars between Lady Hatton and her husband   and lightning, accounting this their cheapest and best way
were carried on before the council-board, where her lady-  to work upon you, I would with patience prepare myselt
ship appeared, accompanied oyan imposing train of noble  to their extremities, and study to defend the breaches by
friends.  With her accustomed haughty airs, and in an  which to their advantage they suppose to come in upon
imperial style, Lady Hatton declaimed against her tyranni-  me, and henceforth quit the ways of pacification and composition heretofore, and unseasonably endeavoured, which,
* These particulars I find in the manuscript letters of.  in my opinion, lie most open to trouble, scandal and dan.
Chamberlain. Sloane MSS, 4173, (1616.) In the quaint style  ger; wherefore I will briefly set down their objections, and
of the times, the common speech run, that Lord Coke had been  such answers to them as I conceive proper.
overthrown by fouit P's-Pride, Prohibitions, Prmemunire, and'The first is, you conveyed away your daughter from her
Prerogative. It is only with his moral quality, and not with  father  Answer, I had cause to provide for her quiet.
his legal controversies that his personal character is here concerned.                                                    Secretary Winwood threatening that she should be marf In the Lambeth manuscript, 936, is a letter of Lord Bacon  ried from me in spite of my teeth, and Sir Edward Cook
to the king, to prevent the match between SirJohn Villiers and  dayly tormenting the girl with discourses tending to bestow
Mrs Coke. Art. 68. Another, Art. 69. The spirited and copious  her against her liking, which he said she was to submit to
letter of James,'to the Lord Keeper,' is printed in Letters,  his; besides, my datghter daily complained, and sonurt
Speeches, Charges, &c., of Francis Bacon,' by Dr Birch, p..  to me for help; whereupon, as heretofore I had acc
133.                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~to me for help; whereupon, as heretofore I had accus.
1. Stoke-Pogies in Buckinbhamohire; the delightful seat of  tomed, I bestowed her apart at my cousin-german's hbuse
J. Penn, Esq. It was the scene of' Gray's Long Story,' and  for a few days, for her health and quiet, till my own bust.
the chimneys of the ancient house still remain, to mark the to-  ness for my estate were ended. Sir Edward Coke never
calitv; a column, on which is fixed a statue of Coke, erected  asking me where she was no more than at other times, when
by Mr Penn, consecrates the former abode of its illustrioua'n  t4 my placing she had been a quarter of a yearfrom himn,,,
habitant.                                                  the ljear bEJbre with my sister Burley.




264                                    CURIOSITIES OF'Second. That you endeavoured to bestow her, and to  quester the mother from her own child, she only endeavtour.
bind her to my Lord of Oxfo)rd without her knowledge and  ing the child's good, with the child's liking, aLd to her preconsent.                                               ferment; and he, his private end against the child's liking,'Upon this subject a lawyer, by way of invective, may  without care of her preferment; which dcl'ering respects, as
open his mouth wide, and anticipate every hearer's judg-  they justify the mother in all, so condemn they the Jather as
ment by the rights of a father; this, dangerous in the pre-  a transgressor of the rules of nature, and as a perverter oj
sident to others; to which, nevertheless, this answer may  his rights, as a father and a husband, to the hurt both of
be justly returned.                                    child and wife.' Answer. My daughter, as aforesaid, terrified with her'Lastly, if recrimination could lessen the fault, take this
father's threats and hard usage, and pressing me to find  in the worst sense, and naked of all the considerable cirsome remedy from this violence intended, I did compas-  cunistances it hath, what is this, nay, what had the execu-.
sionate her condition, and bethought myself of thicono-  ing of this intention been comparatively with Sir Edward
tract to my Lord of Oxford, if so she liked, and thereupon   Cook's most notorious riot, committed at my Lord of ArI gave it to her to peruse and consider by herself, which  guyl's house, when without constable or warTrant, associated
she did; she liked it, cheerfully writ it with her own hand,  with a dozen fellows uell weaponed, without cause being besubscribed it, and returned it to me; wherein I did nothing  forehand offered, to have what he would, he took down the
of my own will, but followed her's, after I saw she was so  doors of the gate.houese and of the house itself, and tore the
adverse lo Sir Thomas Villiers, that she voluntarily and  daughter in that barbarous manner from  the mother, and
deliberately protested that of all men living she would  would not stfer the mother to come near her; and when he
never have him, nor could ever fancy him for a husband.  was before the lords of the council to answer this outrage, he'Secondly. By this I put her in no new way, nor into  justified it to make it good by law, and that he Jeared theface
any other that her father had heretofore known and ap-  of no greatness; a dangerous word for the encouragement of
proved; for he saw such letters as my lady of Oxford had  all notorious and rebellious malefactors; especially from
writ to me thereabouts; he never forbad it; he never dis-  him that had been the chief justice of the law, and of the
liked it; only he sald they were then too young, and there  people reputed the oracle of the law; and a most danger.
was time enouah for the treaty.                         ous bravado cast in the teeth and face of the state in the'Thirdly. He always left his daughter to my disposing  king's absence; and therefore most considerable for the
and my bringing up; knowing that I purposed her my for-  maintenance of authority and the quiet of the land; for
tune and whole estate, and as upon these reasons he left  if it be lawful for him with a dozen to enter any man's
her to my cares, so he eased himself absolutely of her, never  house thus outrageously for any right to which he pretends,
meddling with her, neglecting her, and caring nothingfor  it is lawful for any man with one hundred, nay, with five
her.                                                    hundred, and consequently with as many as he can draw' The third. That you counterfeited a treaty from my  together, to do the same, which may endanger the safety
Lord of Oxford's to yourself,                           of the king's person, and the peace of the kingdom.'Answer. I know it not counterfeit; but be it so, to'The fifth, that you having certified the king you had
whose injury'!? If to my Lord of Oxford's (for no man else  received an engagement from my Lord of Oxford, and the
is therein interested,) it must be either in honour or in free-  king commanding you, upon your allegiance, to come and
hold. Read the treaty; it proves neither! for it is only a  bring it to him, or to send it him; or not having it, to sig.
complement: it is no engagement presently nor futurely;  nify his name to who brought it, and where he was; you
besides the law shows what forgery is; and to counterfeit  refused all, by which you doubled and trebled a high con.
a private man's hand, nay a magistrate's, makes not the  tempt to his majesty.
fault but the cause, wherefore:' Answer.  I was so sick on the week before, for the'Secondly, the end justifies, at the least, excuses, the  most part I kept my bed, and even that instant I was so
fact; for it was only to hold up my daughter's mind to her  weak as I was not able to rise from it without help, nor to
own choice and liking: for her eyes only, and for no other's,  endure the air; which indisposition and weakness my two
that she might see some retribution, and thereby with the  physicians, Sir William Paddy and Dr Atkins, can affirm
snore constancy endure her imprisonment, having this only  true; which so being, I hope his majesty will graciously
antidote to resist the poison of that p~ace, company, and   excuse the necessity, and not impose a fault, whereof I
conversation; myself and all her friends barred from her,  am not guilty; and for the sending it, I protest to God I
and no person nor speech admitted to her ear, but such as  had it not; and for telling the parties, and where he is, I
spoke Sir Thomas Villier's language.                    most humbly beseech his sacred majesty, in his great wis' The fourth. That you plotted to surprise your daugh.  dom and honour, to consider how unworthy a part it were
ter to take her away by force, to the breach of the king's  in me to bring any man into trouble, from which I am so
peace and particular commandment, and for that purpose  far from redeeming him as I can no way relieve myself,
had assembled a number of desperate fellows, whereof the   and therefore humbly crave his majesty, in his princely
consequence might have been dangerous; and the affront  consideration of my distressed condition, to forgive me
to the king was the greater that such a thing was offered,  this reservedness, proceeding from that just sense, and the
the king being forth of the kingdom, which, by example,  rather, for that the law of the land in civil causes, as I am
might h s,3 drawn on other assemblies to more dangerous  informed, no way tieth me thereunto.'
attempts. This field is large for a plentiful babbler.    Among other papers it appears that Coke accused his'Answer. I know no such matter, neither in any place  lady of having' embezzled all his gilt and silver plate and
was there such assembly; true it is I spoke to Turner  vessel, (he having little in any house of mine but that, his
to provide me some tall fellows for the taking a pos-  marriage with me brought him) and instead thereof foisted
session for me, in Lincolnshire, of some lands Sir William   In alkumy of the same sorte, fashion, and use, with the
Mason had lately dis-seized me; but be it they were  illusion to have cheated him of the other.' Coke insists on
assembled and convoked to such an end, what was done?  the inventory by the schedule!  Her ladyship says,'I
was any such thing attempted? were they upon the place?  made such plate for matter and form for my own use at
kept they the heath or the highways by ambuscades? or  Purbeck, that serving well enough in the country; and I was
was any place, any day, appointed for a rendezvous? No,  loth to trust such a substance in a place so remote, and in
no such matter, but something was intended; and I pray  the guard of few; but for the plate and vessel he saith is
yout what says the law of such a single intention, which is  wanting, they are every ounce within one of my three
not wit.hin the view or notice of the law?  Besides, who  houses.   She complains that Sir Edward Coke and his
intended this-the mother? and wherefore? because she  son Clement had threatened her servants so grievously, that
oass unnaturally end barbarously secluded from her daughter,  the poor men run away to hide themselves from his fury,
and her daughter forced against her will, contrary to her  and dare not appear abroad.'Sir Edward broke into
ttro and liking, to the will of him she disliked; nay, the  Hatton Houlse, seized upon my coach and coach horses,
laws (of God, of nature, of man, speak for me, and cry out  nay, my apparel, which he detains; thrust all my servants
upon them. But they had a warrant from the king's or-  out of doors without wages; sent down his men to Corfe
der from the commissioners to keep my daughter in their  to inventory, seize, ship, and carry away all the goods
custody  yvet neither this warrant nor the commissioners'  which being refused him by the castle keeper, he threats
aid prohibit the mother coming to her, but contrarily al-  to bring your lordsnip's warrant for the performance there.
aowed her; then by the same authority might she get to  of. But your lordship established that he should have the
her daughter, that Sir Edward Cook had used to keep her  use only of the goods during his life, in such houses as the
trom her daughter; the husband hlaving no power, war.  same appertained, without meaning, I hope, of depriving
taut, or permissio-n fron C-od, the king, or the law, to se.  me of suca ise, being goods bought at n)y marriage, or




LITERATURE.                                                    265
bought with the money I spared from  my allowances.    Rawleigh. It will go near to prove a measuring cast
Btop, then, his high tyrannical courses; for I have suffer-  between you and me, Mr Attorney.
ed beyond the measure of any wife, mother, nay, of any   Coke. Well, I will now make it appear to the world,
ordinary woman in this kingdom, without respect to my  that there never lived a viler viper upon the face of the
father, my birth, my fortunes, with which I have so highly  earth than thou. Thou art a monster; thou hast an Engraised him.'                                          lish face, but a Spanish heart. Thou viper! for.. thou thee,
What availed the vexation of this sick, mortified, and  thou traitor! Have I angered you?
proud woman, or the more tender feelings of the daughter,    Rawleigh replied, what his dauntless conduct provedm this forced marriage to satisfy the political ambition of' I am in no case to be angry.'*
the father? When Lord Bacon wrote to the king respect-    Coke had used the same style with the unhappy favouring the strange behaviour of Coke, the king vindicated it, ite of Elizabeth, the Earl of Essex. It was usual with
for the purpose of obtaining his daughter, blaming Lord  him; the bitterness was in his own heart, as much as in his
Bacon for some expressions he had used; and Bacon,  words; and Lord Bacon has left among his memorandunms
with the servility of the courtier, when he found the wind in  one entitled,'Of the abuse I received of Mr Attorneyhis teeth, tacked round, and promised Buckingham to  General publicly in the Exchequer.' A  specimen will
promote the match he so much abhorred.*  Villiers was  complete our model of his forensic oratory. Coke exmarried to the daughter of Coke at Hampton-Court, on  claimed,' Mr Bacon, if you have any tooth against me,
Michaelmas Day, 1617-Coke was re-admitted to the  pluck it out; for it will do you more hurt than all the teeth
council table-Lady Hatton was reconciled to Lady  in your head will do you good.' Bacon replied,' The less
Compton and the queen, and gave a grand entertainment  you speak of your own greatness, the nlore I will think of
on the occasion, to which, however,' the good mall of the  it. ~ Coke replied,' I think scorn to stand upon terms of
house was neither invited nor spoken of: he dined that day  greatness towards you, who are less than little, less than
at the Temple; she is still bent to pull down her husband,'  the least.' Coke was exhibited on the stage, for his ill
adds my informant.  The moral close remains to be told.  usage of Rawleigh, as was suggested by Theobald in a note
Lady Villiers looked on her husband as the hateful object  on Twelfth Night.. This style of railing was long the prin
of a forced union, and nearly drove him mad; while she  vilege of the lawyers; it was revived by Judge Jeffreys;
disgraced herself by such loose conduct as to be condemn.  but the bench of judges in the reign of William and Anne
ed to stand in a white sheet, and I believe at length ob-  taught a due respect even to criminals, who were not sup.
tained a divorce.  Thus a marriage projected by ambi-  posed to be guilty till they were convicted.
tion, and prosecuted by violent means, closed with that    When Coke once was himself in disgrace, his high
utter misery to the parties with which it had com-  spirit sunk without a particle of magnanimity to dignify the
menced; and for our present purpose has served to show,  fall; his big words, and his' tyrannical courses,' when he
that when a lawyer, like Coke, holds his high handed tyran-  could no longer exult that' he was upon his wings again,'
nical courses,' the law of nature, as well as the law of  sunk with him as he presented himself on his knees to the
which he is'the oracle,' will be alike violated under his  council-table. Among other assumptions, he had styled
roof. Wife and daughter were plaintiffs or defendants on  himself' Lord chief-justice of England,' when it was dewhom this lord chief-justice closed his ear: he had block-  clared that this title was his own invention, since he was
ed up the avenues to his heart with' Law! Law! Law!' no more than of the King's Bench. His disgrace was a
his' old song!'                                      thunderbolt, which overthrew the haughty lawyer to the
Beyond his eightieth year, in the last parliament of roots. When the supersedeas was carried to [tim by Sir
Charles IT, the extraordinary vigour of Coke's intellect  George Coppin, that gentleman was surprised on presentflamed clear under the snows of age. No reconciliation  ing it, to see that lofty'spirit shrunk into a very narrow
ever took place between the parties. On a strong report  room, for Coke received it with dejection and tears.' The
of his death, her ladyship accompanied by her brother  writer from whose letter I have copied these words adds,
Lord Wimbledon, posted down to Stoke-Pogies to take   0 tremor et suspiria non cadunt in fortem et constantem.
possession of his mansion; but beyond Colebrook, they  The same writer encloses a punning distich: the name of
niet with one of his physicians coming from him with the  our lord chief.justice was in his day very provocative of
mortifying intelligence of Sir Edward's amendment, on  the pun both in Latin and English; Cicero indeed had
which they returned at their leisure. This happened in  pre-occupied the miserable trifle.
June 1634, and on the following September the venerable
sage was no more!                                           Jus condire Cocus potuit; sed condere jra
age'was no more!                            Noon potuit; potuit condere jura Cocus.
OF COK:E'S STYLE, APD HIS CONDUCT.
OF COKE S STYLE, AND HIS CONDUCT.  Six years afterwards Coke was sent to the Tower, and then
This great lawyer perhaps set the example of that style  they punned against him in English. An unpublished let.
of railing and invective at bur bar, which the egotism and  ter of the day has this curious anecdote: The room in
craven insolence of some of our lawyers include in their  which he was lodged in the Tower had formerly been a
practice at the bar. It may be useful to bring to recolec-  kitchen; on his entrance the lord chief-justice read upon
tion COKE's vituperative style in the following dialogue, so  the door,' This room wants a Cook!' They twitched the
beautiful in its contrast, with that of the great victim before  lion in the toils which held him. Shenstone had some
him! The attorney-general had not sufficient evidence to  reason in thanking Heaven that his name was not susceptibring the obscure conspiracy home to Rawleigh, with  ble of a pun. This time, however, Coke was'on his
which, I believe, however, he had cautiously tampered.  wings;' for when Lord Arundel was sent by the king to
But COKE well knew that James the First had reason to  the prisoner to inform  him that he would be allowed
dislike the hero of his age, who was early engaged against' Eight of the best learned in the law to advise him for
the Scottish interests, and betrayed by the ambidextrous  his cause,' our great lawyer thanked the king,' but he
policy of Cecil. CORE struck at Rawleigh as a sacrifice  knew himself to be accounted to have as much skill in the
to his own political ambition, as we have seen he after-  law as any man in England, and therefore needed no such
wards immolated his daughter; but his personal hatred  help, nor feared to be judged by the law.'
was now sharpened by the fine genius and elegant literature of the man; faculties and acquiisitions the lawyer  SECRET HISTORY OF AUTHORS WHO HAVE RUINED
so heartily contemned! CoKe had observed,' I know with               THEIR BOOESELLERS.
whom I deal  for we have to deal to-day with a man of    Aulus Gellius desired to live no longer than he was able
wit.,                                                  to exercise the faculty of writing; he might have decently
Coke. Thou art the most vile and execrable traytor  added,-and find readers! This would be a fatal wish for
that ever lived.                                       that writer who should spread the infection of weariness,
Rawleigh. You speak indiscreetly, barbarously, and  without himself partaking of the epidemia.  The mere
uncivilly.                                             act and habit of writing, without probably even a remote
Coke. I want words sufficient to express thy viperous  view of publication, has produced an agreeable delirium;
treason.                                               and perhaps some have escaped from a gentle confinement
Rawleigh. I think you want words indeed, for you have  by having cautiously concealed those voluminous reveries
spoken one thing half a dozen times.                   which remained to startle their heirs; while others again
Coke. Thou art an odiosis fellow; thy name is hateful  have left a whole library of manuscripts, out of the mere
to all the realm of England for thy pride.             ardour of transcription, collecting and copying with pecu.
+ Lambeth MSS. 936, art. 69, and 73.                            * State Trials.
34




266                                 CURIOSITIES OF
liar rapture.' I discovered that one of these inscribed this    We have also a catalogue of printed books, written bj
distich on his manuscript collection:                   Wm. Prynne, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, in these classes,
Plura voluminibus jungenda volumina nostris,                      BEFORE
Nec mihi scribendi terminus ullus erit:                           DUERING
which, not to compose better verses than our original, may                and      his imprisonment,
be translated,                                                           SINCE
More volumes, with our volumes still shall blend;  with this motto' Jucundi acti labores,' 1643.  The secret
And to our writing there shall be no end!         history of this voluminous author concludes with a cha.
But even great authors have sometimes so much indulged  racteristic event: a contemporary who saw Prynne in the
in the seduction of the pen, that they appear to have found  pillory at Cheapside, informs us that while he stood there,
no substitute for tile flow of their ink, and the delight of  they'burnt his huge volumes under his nose, which had
stamping blank paper with their hints, sketches, ideas, the  almost suffocated him.' Yet such was the spirit of party,
shadows of their mind! Petrarch exhibits no solitary in.  that a puritanic sister bequeathed a legacy to purchase all
stance of this passion of the pen.' I read and I write  the works of Prynne for Sion College, where many stil'
night and day; it is my only consolation. My eyes are  repose; for by an odd fatality, in the fire which burnt that
heavy with watching, my hand is weary with writing. On  library these volumes were saved, from the idea that folios
the table where I dine, and by the side of my bed, I have  were the most valuable!
all the materials for writing; and when I awake in the    The pleasure which authors of this stamp experience is
dark, I write, although I am unable to read the next morn-  of a nature which, whenever certain unlucky circum
ing what I have written.' Petrarch was not always in his  stances combine, positively debarring them from publics.
perfect senses.                                         tion, will not abate their tardour one jot; and their pen will
The copiousness and the multiplicity of the writings of  still luxuriate inll the forbidden page which even booksellers
many authors, have shown that too many find a pleasure  refuse to publish. Many instances might be recorded,
in the act of composition, which they do not communicate  but a very striking one is the case of Gaspar Barthius,
to others. Great erudition and every.day application is  whose' Adversaria,' in two volumes folio, are in the colthe calamity of that voluminous author, who, without good  lections of the curious.
sense, and what is more rare, without that exquisite judg.    Barthius was born to literature, for Baillet has placed
ment which we call good taste, is always prepared to write  him among his' Enfans celebre.' At nine years of age,
on any subject, but at the same time on no one reasonably.  he recited by heart all the comedies of Terence, without
We are astonished at the fertility and the size of our own  missing a line. The learned admired the puerile prodigy,
writers of the seventeenth century, when the theological  while the prodigy was writing books before he had a beard.
war of words raged, spoiling so many pages and brains.  He became, unquestionably, a student of very extensive
They produced folio after folio, like almanacks; and Dr  literature, modern as well as ancient. Such was his deOwen and Baxter wrote more than sixty to seventy vo-  votion to a literary life, that he retreated from the busy
lumes, most of them  of the most formidable size. The  world. It appears that his early productions were conl.
truth is, however, that it was then easier to write up to a  posed more carefully and judiciously than his later ones,
folio, thanI in our days to write down to an octavo; for cor-  when the passion for voluminous writing broke out, which
rection, selection, and rejection, were arts as yet unprac-  showed itself by the usual prognostic of this dangerous
tised. They went on with their work, sharply or bluntly,  disease-extreme facility of composition, and a pride and
like witless mowers, without stopping to whet their scythes.  exultation in this unhappy faculty. He studied without
They were inspired by the scribbling demon of that Rab-  using collections or references, trusting to his memory,
bin, who, in his oriental style and mania of volume, ex-  which was probably an extraordinary one, though it necesclaimed, that were' the heavens formed of paper, and  sarily led him into many errors in that delicate task of aniwere the trees of the earth pens, and if the entire sea run  madverting on other authors. Writing a very neat hand,
ink, these only could suffice' for the monstrous genius he  his first copy required no transcript; and he boasts that
was about to discharge on the world.  The Spanish Tos-  he rarely made a correction; every thing was sent to the
tatus wrote three times as many leaves as the number of  press in its first state. He laughed at Statius, who con.
days. he had lived; and of Lope de Vega it is said this cal-  gratulated himself that he employed only two days in comculation came rather short. We hear of another who  posing the epithalamium upon Stella, containing two hunwas unhappy that his lady had produced twins, from the  dred and seventy-eight hexameters.' This,' says Barthius,
circumstance that hitherto he had contrived to pair his ia.' did not quite lay him open to Horace's censure of the
hours with her own, but that now he was a book behind-  man who made two hundred verses in an hour, " Stalls
hand.                                                   pede in uno."'Not,' adds Barthius,' but that I think
I fix on four celebrated Scribleri to give their secret his-  the censure of Horace too hyperbolical, for I am not igno.
tory; our Prynne, Gaspar Barthius, the Abbe' de Marolles   rant what it is to make a great number of verses in a short
and the Jesuit Theophiliis Raynaiid, who will all show   time, and in three days I translated into Latin the three
that a book might be written on'authors whose works have first books of the Iliad, which amount to above two thou-.
ruined their booksellers.'                              sand verses.' Thus rapidity and volume were the great
Prynne seldom  dined: every three or four hotirs he  enjoyments of this learned man's pen, and now we must
look to the fruits.
munched a manchet, and refreshed his exhausted spirits    Barthius, on the system he had adopted, seems to have
with ale brought to him by his servant; and when' he was  written a whole library; a circumstance which we dish
put into this road of writing,' as crabbed Anthony telleth,  written a whole library; a circumstance which we dis.
he fixed on'a long quilted c            cover by the continual references he makes in his printed
cap, which came an inch over    orks to his manuscript productions. In the Index authohis eyes, serving as an umbrella to defend them from too  rum to his  tatius, he inserts his own name, to which is
ruch ligh   and hen huger or hirs      h expriecerum to his Statius, he inserts his own name, to which is
much light;' and then, hunger nor thirst did he experience,  appended a long list of unprinted works, which Bavle thinks
save that of his voluminous paves. Prynn4 ">as written  appended along list ofunprinted works, whichBavle thinks
save that of        Ithis voluminouks pages. Prynn   as written   by their titles and extracts, conveys a very advantageous
a library, amounting, I think, to nearly two hundred  notion of them. All these and many such as these, e
books. Our unlucky author whose life was involved in                           t
authorship, and his happiness, no doubt, in the habitual  generously offered the world, would any bookseller be in
exuberance of his pen, seems to have considered the be   trepid or courteous enough to usher them from his press
but their cowardice or incivility were intractable. The
ing debarred from pen, ink, and books, during his impri-  but their cowardice or incivility were intractable. The
ing debarred from pen, inkt, and books, during his impri- truth is now to be revealed, and seems not to have been
sonment, as an act more barbarous than the loss of his ears,  truth is now to be revealed, and seems not to have been
Ther  perseverance  Prynne intisfeaerofknown to Bayle; the booksellers had been formerly so caThe extraordinary perseverance of Prynne in this fever of
the pen appears in the following title of one of his extra-  heaed and  complimented by  otr learned author, and had
ordinary  volumes.' Comfortable Cordials against dis-h           so much of the celebrated Barthius, that they had
ordinary volumes.'Comfortable Fears of Imprisonment  co ntaining some La-  caught at the bait, and the two folio volumes of the much.
comfortable Fears of Imprisonment; containing some La-  referred-to'Adversaria' of Barthius had thus been
tin Verses, Sentences, and Texts of Scripture, written by  lished-to'Adversaria' of Barthius had thus been pub.
by  lished —but from that day no bookseller ever offered himM1r Wim. Prynne on his Chamber'Valls, in the Tower of..ondon, during his imprisonment there; translated by him self to publish again
I      The I Adversaria' is a collection of critical notes and
into English Verse, 1641.' Prynne literally verified Pope's    s  from ancient authors, with illustration of theit
quotations from  ancient authors, with illustrations of their
manners, customs, laws, and ceremonies; all these were'Is there, who, locked from ink and paper scrawls   to be classed into ore hundred and eighty books; sixty of
With desperate charcoal round his darkened walls.'  which we possess in two volumes folio, with eleven in.




LITERATURE.                                                        267
dexes.  The plan is vast, as the rapidity with which it  desirous of appeasing the angried translator.  One day ta
was pursued: Bayle finely characterizes it hy a single   Easter, finding the abbd in church at prayers, the critic fell
stroke-' Its immensity tires even the imagination.' But  on his knees by the side of the translator: it was an extra?-1~~~o his Ine ythsi                      d          eo hrnltr it was an extra..
the truth is, this mighty labour turned out to be a complete   ordinary moment, and a singular situation to terminate a
failure: there was neither order nor judgment in these  literary quarrel.'You are angry with me,' said L'Etang,
masses of learning; crude, obscure, and contradictory;' and I think you have reason; but this is a season of mer.
such as we might expect from a man who trusted to his  cy, and I now ask your pardon.'-' In the manner,' replied
memory, and would not throw away his time on any cor-  the abbr,'which you have chosen, I can no longer defend
rection.  His contradictions are flagrant; but one of his  myself.  Go, sir! I pardon you.'  Some days after the
friends would apologize for these by telling us that' He   abb6 again meeting L'Etang, reproached him with duping
wrote every thing which offered itself to his imagination;  him out of a pardon whichhe had no desire to have beto-day one thing, to-morrow another, in order thlat when   stowed on him.  The last reply of the critic was caustic:
hr should revise it again, this contrariety of opinion might'Do not be so difficult; when one stands in need of a gen.
induce him to examine the subject more accurately.' The   eral pardon, one ought surely to grant a particular one.
notions of the friends of authors are as extravagant as  De Marolles was subject to encounter critics who were
those of their enemies. Barthius evidently wrote so much,  never so kind as to kneel by him on Easter Sunday. Be.
that often he forgot what he had written, as happened to  sides these fifty translatioes, oC which the notes are often
another great book-man, one Didymus, of whom  Quinti-  curious, and even the sense may be useful to consult, his
lian records, that on hearing a certain history, he treated   love of writing produced many odd works.  His volumes
it as utterly unworthy of credit; on which the teller called   were richly bound, and freely distributed, for they found no
for one of Didvmus's own books, and showed where he   readers   i  a'Discours pour servir d Preface stir les
might read it at fill length! That the work failed, we   Poetes traduits par Michel de Marolles,' he has given an
have the evidence of Clernent in his' Bibliotheque curieuse  imposing list of' illustrious persons and contemporary aude Livres difficiles a trouver,' under the article Barthius,  thors who were his friends,' and has preserved many sin.
where we discover the winding up of the history of  is   glar facts concerning them.  He was, indeed, for so long
book.  Clement mentions more than one edition of the   a time convinced that he had struck off the true spirit of
Adversaria; but on a more careful inspection he detected   his fine originals, that I find hlie at several times printed
that the old title pages had been removed for others of a.  some critical treatise to back his last, or usher in hisa new
fresher date the booksellers nriot being able to sell the book   version; giving the world reasons why the versions which
practised this deception.  It availed little; they remained   had been given of that particular author,'Soil en prose,
with their unsold edition of the two first volumes of the Ad-  soit en vera out et6 si peu approuvees jusqu' ici.' Among
versaria, and the author with three thousand folio sheets in  these numerous translations he was tie first who ventured
manuscript-while both parties conmplained together, and   on the Deiponsoppists of Atheneus, which still bears an
their heirs could acquire inothing from the works of an au-  excessive price.  He entitles his work,'Les quinze Livthor of whom Bayle says that' his writings rise to such a   res do Deiponosophistes 6' Athende, Ouvrage delicieux,
prodigious bulk, that one can scarce conceive a single man   agreablemernt diversifil et rempli de Narrations sgavantes
couldbe capable of executing so great a variety; perhaps  sur toutes Sortes de Mati6res et de Stijets.'  He has
no copying clerk, who lived to grow old amidst the dust of  prefixed various preliminary dissertations: yet not satisfied
an office, ever transcribed as much as this author has writ-  with having performed this great labour, it was followed by
ten.' This was the memorable fate of one of that race of  a small quarto of f6rty pages, which might now be consiwriters who imagine that their capacity extends with their  dered curious;' Analyse, en Description succincte des
volume.  Their land seemrs covered fertility, but in shak-  Choses contenues dans les quinzes Livres de Deiponoso.
ing their wheat no ears fall.                              phistes.'  He wrote,'  Quatrains sur lea Personnes de la
Another memorable brother of this family of the Scrib-  Cour et les Gens de Lettres,' which the curious would
leri is the Abbh  De Marolies, who with great ardour as a   now be glad to find. After having plundered the classical
man of letters, anrid in the enjoyment of the leisure anrid opu-  geniuses of antiquity by his barbarous style, when he had
lence so nec.essary to carry on his purirsuits, from an entire   nothing more left to do, he committed sacrilege in transla.
absence of judgment, closed his life with the bitter regrets  ting the Bible; but, in the midst of printing, he was sud
ofa voluminous author; and yet it cannot be denied that  deily stopped by authority,for having inserted in his notes
he has contributed one precious volume to the public stock   the reveries of the Pre-Adamite Isaac Peyrere.  He had
ofliterature; a compliment which cannot be paid to some   already revelled on the New Testament, to his version ot
who have enjoyed a higher reputation than our author.  which he had prefixed so sensible an introduction, that it
He has left us his very curious' Memoirs.' A poor writer  was afterwards translated into Latin.  Translation was
indeed, but the frankness and intrepidity of his character  the mania of the Abbd de Marolles.  I doubt whether he
enable him, while he is painting himself, to paint man.  ever fairly awoke out of the heavy dream of the felicity of
Gibbon was struck by the honesty of his pen, for he says   his translations; for late in life I find him  observing,'I
in his life,'The dilness of Michael de Marolles and An-  have employed much time in study, and I have translated
thony Wood* acquire some value from  the faithful re-  many books; considering this rather as  an  innocent
presentation of men and manners.'                          amusement which I have chosen for my private life, than
I have elsewhere shortly noticed the Ahbb  De Marol-  as things very necessary, although they are not entirely
les in the character of a' literary sinner;' but the extent  useless.  Some have valued them, and others have cared
of his sins never struck me so forcibly as when I observed  little about them; but however it may be, I see nohis delinqurencies counted uip in chronological order in  thing which obliges me to believe that they contain not at
Niceron's'Hlommes illustres.' It is extremely amusing   least as much good as bad, both for their own matter and
to detect the swarming fecundity of his pen; from year to  the form which I have given to then.' The notion he entethie for which  hrsae ivens to them.' Thoenotion he enyear, with author after author, was this translator weary-  tetrained of his translations was their closeness; he was
ing others, but remained himself unwearied.  Sometimes   not aware of his own spiritless style; anrid he Imagined
two or three classical victims in a season were dragged  that poetry only consisted in the thoughts, not in the grace
into his slauthtezr-house.  Of about seventy works, fifty  and harmony of verse.  He insisted that by giving the
were versiono of the classical writers of antiquity, accom-  pub!ic his numerous translations, he was not vainly multiparied ivith no'es,  But some odd circmstatnces happen.,  plying books, because he neither diminished nor increased
ed to our extraordinary translator in the course of his life.  their ideas in his faithful versions.  He had a curious no.
Ds L'Etans,  a critic of that day, in his' R615les de bien  tion that some were more scrupulous than they ought to'aduire,' drew all his examples of bad translation from our  be respecting translations of authors who, living so many
aone, who was more angry than usual, and among his cir-  ages past, are rarely read from the difficultyof under
de the cries of our Marsyas resounded. De L'Etang, who  standing them; and why should they inragine that a
had done this not out of malice, but from urgent necessity  translation is injurious to them, or would occasion the utto illustrate his principles, seemed very sorry. and was  ter neglect of the originals?'We do not think so highly
of our own works,' says the indefatg;able and modest
a   cannot tschbe to the opinion that Anthony Wood was  Abn o;'but neither do I despair that they may be useful
madn maton adlthousle hord noa particular liking for works of  even to these scrupulous persons.  I will not suppress the
imamnation; anrct used ordinary poets scurvily: An autho rs
personal character is often confounded with the nature of his  truth, while I am noticing these unrael  aors; if they
work. Anthony has sallies at times to which a dull man could  have given me much pain by my assiduity, they have re.
Dot be sutct r; wtthrout tie a~rdour of this hermit of literature,  paid me by the fine things they have taught me, and by
where would be our hite tary history?       ta            the opinion which I have conceived that rosterity, more




268                                 CURIOSITIES OF
- i
just than the present times, will award a more favourable  whenever he was refuted, he was always refuting; he did
judgment.'  Thus a miserable translator terminates his  not spare his best friends. The title of a work against
long labours, by drawing his bill of fame on posterity   Arnauld will show how he treated his adversaries.'Arwhich his contemporaries will not pay; but.1 these cases,  nauldus redivivus natus Brixite seculo xii. renatus in Gal.
as the bill is certainly lost before it reaches acceptance,  liwe aetate nostra.' He dexterously applies the name of Arwhy should we deprive the drawers of pleasing themselves  nauld, by comparing him with one of the same name in
with the ideal capital?                                the twelfth century, a scholar of Abelard's and a turbulent
Let us not, however, imagine, that the Abb6 De Moral-  enthusiast, say the Ronmish writers, who was burnt alive
les was nothing but the man he appears in the character of  for having written against the luxury and the power of the
a volumrinous translator; though occupied all his life on  priesthood, and  for having  raised a rebellion against
these miserable labours, he was evidently an ingenious  the pope. When the learned De Launoi had success.
and nobly-minded man, whose days were consecrated to  fully attacked the legends of saints, and was called the
literary pursuits, and who was among the primitive col-  Denicheur de Saints,-the' Unnicher of Saints,' every
lectors in Europe of fine and curious prints. One of his  parish priest trembled for his favourite. Raynaud entitled
works is a'Catalogue des Livres d'Estampes et de Fi-  a libel on this new Iconoclast,'Hercules Commodianus
gures en Taille-douce.' Paris, 1666, in 8vo. In the pre-  Joannes Launoius repulsus,' &c: he compares Launoi to
face our author declares, that he had collected one hun-  the Emperor Commodus, who, though the most cowardly
dred and twenty-three thousand four hundred prints of six  of men, conceived himself formidable when lie dressed
thousand masters, in four hundred large volumes, and one  himself as Hercules. Another of these maledictions is a
hundred and twenty small ones. This magnificent collec-  tract against Calvinism, described as' Religio bestiarnm,'
lion, formed by so much care and skill, he presented to the  a religion of beasts, because the Calvinists deny free-will;
king; whether gratuitously given, or otherwise, it was an ac-  but as he always fired with a double-barrelled gun, under
quisition which a monarch might have thankfully accepted.  the cloak of attacking Calvinism, he aimed a deadly shot
ISuch was the habitual ardour of our author, that after-  at the Thomists, and particularly at a Domincian friar,
wards he set about forming another collection, of which lie  whom lie considered as bad as Calvin. Raynaud exults that
has also given a catalogue, in 1672, in 12mo. Both these  he had driven one of his adversaries to take flight into
catalogues of prints are of extreme rarity, and are yet so  Scotland, adpultes Scoticas transgresssa; to a Scotch pothighly valued by the connoisseurs, that when in France I  tage; an expression which Saint Jerome used in speaking
eould never obtain a copy. A  long life may be passed   of Pelagius. He always rendered an adversary odious by
without a even sight of the' Catalogue des Livres d'Estam-  coupling him with some odious name. On one of these
pes of the Abbd de Marolles.*                           controversial books where Casalas  refitted Raynaud,
Such are the lessons drawn from this secret history of  Monnoye wrote,' Raynaudus et Casalas inepti; Raynauvoluminous writers. We see one ventinghis maa izin scrawl.  do tamen Casalas ineptior.' The usual termination ot
ing on his prison-walls; another persisting in writing folios,  what then passed for sense, and now is the reverse i
while the booksellers, who were once caught like Reynard  I will not quit Raynaud without pointing out some of
who had lost his tail, and whom no arts could any longer  his more remarkable treatises, as so many curiosities of
practise on, turn away from the new trap; and a third,  literature.
who can acquire no readers but by giving his books away,    In a treatise on the attributes of Christ, he entitles a
growing gray in scourging the sacred genius of antiquity  chapter, Christus bonus, bona, bonum: in another on the
by his meagre versions, and dying without having made  seven-branched candlestick in the Jewish temple, by an
up his mind, whether he were as woful a translator as some  allegorical interpretation, he explains the eucharist; and
of his contemporaries had assured him.                  adds an alphabetical list of names and epithets which have
Among these worthies of the Scribleri we may rank the  been given to this mystery.
Jesuit Theophilus Raynaud, once a celebrated name,    The seventh volume bears the general title of Mariolia:
eulogised by Bayle and Patin. His collected works fill  all the treatises have for their theme the perfections and
twenty folios; an edition, indeed, which finally sent the  the worship of the Virgin. Many extraordinary things are
bookseller to the poor-house. This enterprising bibliopo-  here. One is a dictionary of names given to the Virgin,
list had heard much of the prodigious erudition of the  with observations on these names. Another on the devo.
writer; but he had not the sagacity to discover that other  tion of the scapulary, and its wonderful effects, written
literary qualities were also required to make twenty folios  against De Launoi, and for which the order of the Carmes
at all saleable. Of these' Opera omnia' perhaps not a   when he died bestowed a solemn service and obsequies
single copy can be found in England; but they may be a  on him.  Another of these'Mariolia' is mentioned by
pennyworth on  the continent.  Raynaud's works are  Gallois in the Journal des Sqavans, 1667, as a proof of his
theological; hut a system of grace maintained by one work,  fertility: having to preach on the seven solemn anthems
and pulled down by another, has ceased to interest man,  which the church sings before Christmas, and which bekind: the literature of the divine is of a less perishable na-  gi by an O! he made this letter only the subject of his
tire. Reading and writing through a life of eighty years,  sermons, and barren as the letter appears, lie has struck
and giving only a quarter of an hour to his dinner, with a  out' a multitude of beautiful particulars.' This literary
vigorous memory, and a whimsical taste for some singular  folly invites our curiosity.
subjects, he could not fail to accumulate a mass of know-    In the eighth volume is a table of saints, classed by their
ledge which may still be useful for the curious; and, be-  station, condition, employment, and trades; a list of titles
sides, Raynaud had the Ritsonian characteristic. He   and prerogatives, which the councils and the fathers have
was one of those who, exemplary in their own conduct,  attributed to the sovereign pontiff.
with a bitter zeal condemn whatever does not agree with   The thirteenth volume has a subject which seems much
their notions; and however gentle in their nature, yet will  in the taste of the sermons on the letter O! it is entitled
set no limits to the ferocity of their pen. Raynaud was  Laus Brevitatis! in praise of brevity. The maxims are
often in trouble with the censors of his books, and much   brief, buit the commentary long. One of the natural slbmore with his adversaries; so that he frequently had re-  jects treated on is that of Noses: he reviews a great
course to publishing under a fictitious name. A remarka-  number of noses, and, as usual, does not forget the Holy
ble evidence of this is the entire twentieth volume of his  Virgin's. According to Raynaud, the nose of the Virgin
works. It consists of the numerous writings published   Mary was long and aquiline, the mark of goodnlless and
anonynlously, or to which were perfixed noms de guerre.  dignity; and as Jesus perfectly resembled his mother, he
This volume is described by the whimsical title of Apo-  infers that he must have had such a nose.
pompceus; explained to us as the name given by the Jews   A  treatise entitled Heteroclita spiritualia et anomala
to the scape-goat, which, when loaded with all their male-  Pietatis Cnelestium, Terrestrium, et Infernorum, contains
dictions on its head, was driven away into the desert.  many singular practices introduced into devotion, which
These contain all Raynaud's numerous diatribes; for  superstition, ignorance, and remissness have made a part
* These two catalogues have always been of extreme rarity  of religion.
and price. Dr Lister, when at Pa- is, 1668, notices this circustom  of hiring
stance. I have since met with thben in the very curious collec.-  chairs in churches, and being seated during the sacrifice
tiors of my friend Mr Douce, who has uniques, as well as raf-i  of the mass. A nother on the Ctesarean operation, which
ties. The monograms of our old masters in one of these cata.  he stigmatises as an act against nature.  Another on
logines are more correct than in some latter publications: and   eunuchs.  Another entitled Hipparchus de Reioso te
the whole plan atndl arrangement of these catalogues of prints   is an attack on those of his own
r as teciar antd interesting                            gotiatore, is an attack on those of his own company; the
~ro ueculhiar andi interes-ting




LITERATURE.                                                      269
monk turned merchant; the jesuits were then accused of  Niceron has given the titles of 118 of his things, which h,
commercial traffic with the revenues of their establish-  had looked over.
ment. The rector of a college at Avignon, who thought
he was portrayed in this honest work, confined Raynaud
in prison for five months.                                Nothing is more idle, and what is less to be forgiven in
The mast curious work of Raynaud, connected with   a writer, more tedious, than minute and lengthened  deliterature, I possess; it-is entitled Erotemrata  de Mallis  ac  scriptions of localities; where it is very doubtful whether
benis Libris, cdeque justca aut intjusta  eorusndem onexioene.  the writers themselves had formed any tolerable notion of
l.ugdunmi, 1653, 4to. with necessary indexes. One of his  the place they describe,-it is certain their readers never
works having been condemned at Rome, he drew up these can! These descriptive passages, in which writers of
inqluiries concertninog good and bad books, addressed to the imagination so frequently indulge, are usually a glittering
grand inquisitor. He divides his treatise into'bad and  confusion of unconnected things; circumstances recollected
nocent books; bad books, but not nocent; books not bad,  from others, or observed by themselves at different times;
but nocent; books neither bad nor nocent.' His immense  the finest are thrust in together. If a scene from nature,
readiniig appears here to advantage, and his Ritsonian  it is possible that all the seasons of the year may be jumfeature is prominent; for he asserts, that when writing  tude or its minuteness may equally bewilder. Yet we
feature is prominirent; for he asserts, that when writingl bled together; or if a castle or an apartment, its magniagainst heretics, all mordacityis innoxious: and an alpha- tude or its minuteness may equally bewilder. Yet we
find, even il works of celebrity, whole pages of these Bebetical list of abusive names, which the fathers have given         works of celebrity, whole pages of these eto the heterodox, is entitled Alphabetum bestialitatis he-  neral or these particular descriptive sketches, which leave
etici, ex patrum sysmbolis.                             nothing behind, but noun substantives propped up by ranAfter all, Ravnaud was a man of vast acquirement,  dom epithets.  The old writers were quite delighted to fill
with a great flow of ideas, but tasteless, and void of all  op their voluminous pages with what was a great saving
judent.  An anecdote may be recorded      of senlse and thinking. In the Alaric of Scudery sixteen
puts in a clear liclit the     ofthese literary men. Ray-  pages, containing nearly five hundred verses, describe a
puts in a clear ligiht the state of these literary men. Raynaud was one day pressing hard a reluctant bookseller to  palace, commencing at the facade, and at length finishin
with the garden; but his description, we may say, was
publish one of his works, who replied,'Write a book like  with the garden; but his description, we may say, was
Father Bar's, and I shall e glad to print it.' It hap   much better described by Boileau, whose good taste felt
Father Barri's, and [ shall be glad to print it.' It hap-                     y                I in overloading
pend that the  ork of Bar  was pillaged from Raynaud,  the absurdity of this' abondance sterile,' in overloading
pened that the work of Barri was pillaged from Raynaud,
and was much liked, while the original lay on the shelf.  a  work with useless details,
However, this only served to provoke a fresh attack from     Un Auteur quelpuefois trop plein de son objet
our redoubtable hero, who vindicated his rights, and emp-    Jamais sans luepuiser n'abandonne en sujet.
tied his quiver on him who had been ploughing with his        Sit recontre    paais 1 men depeint a face, *, I 11 me promene apris de terrasse en terrasse.
heifer.                                                      Ici s'offre un perron, 1a regne un corridor;
Such are the writers who, enjoying all the pleasures       LB ce halcon s'enferme en un balustre d'or;
without the pains of composition, have often apologized      II compte les plafonds, les ronds, et les ovalesfor their repeated productions, by declaring that they       Je saute vingt feuillets pour en trouver la fin
write only for their own amusement; but such private         Et je me sauve Seine an travers de jar(in 
theatricals should not be brought on the public stage.    And then he adds so excellent a canon of criticismn, that
One Catherinot, all his life was printing a countless num-   we must not neglect it:
ber offeuilles volantes in history and on antiquities; each  Tout ce qu'on dit de trop est fade et rebutantconsisling of about three or four leaves in quarto: Lenglet  L'Esprit rassasi6 le rejette i l'instant,
dii Fresnoy calls him' Grand auteur des petits livres.'     Qui ne salt se borner, lie sut jamais ecrire.
This gentleman liked to live among antiquaries and histo-    We have a memorable instance of the inefficiency of
rians; but with a crooked head-piece, stuck with whims,  local descriptions, in a very remarkable one by a writer ot
and hard with knotty combinations, all overloaded with  fine genius, composing with an extreme fondness of his
prodigious erudition, he could not ease it at a less rate  subject, and curiously anxious to send down to posterity
than by an occasional dissertation of three or four quarto  the most elaborate display of his own villa-this was the
pages. He appears to have published about two hundred   Laurentinum of PLINY. We cannot read his letter to Gal.
pieces of this sort, much sought after by the curious for  lus,which the English reader may in Melmoth's elegant vertheir rarity: Brunet complains he could never discover a   sion,* without participating somewhat in the delight of the
complete collection. But Catherinot may escape' the   writer in many of its details; but we cannot with the writer
pains and penalties' of our voluminous writers, for De   form the slightest conception of his villa, while he is lead.
Bure thinks he generously printed them  to distribute  in us over from apartment to apartment, and pointing to
among his friends.  Such endless writers, provided they   us the opposite wing, with a'beyond this,' and a' not far
do not print themselves into an alms-house, may be al-  from thence,' and'to this apar`vment another of the same
lowed to print themselves out; and we would accept the   sort,' &c. Yet, still, as we were in great want of a cor.
apology which Monsieur Catherinot has framed for him-  rect knowledge of a Roman villa, and as this must be the
self, which I find preserved in Beyeri Mkmoriae Librorum   most so possible, architects have frequently studied, and
Rariorum;'I must be allowed my freedom in my stu-   the learned translated with extraordinary care, PLINY'S
dies, for I substitute my writings for a game at the tennis-  description of his Laurentinum.  It became so favourite an
court, or a club at the tavern; I never counted among   object, that eminent architects have attempted to raise up
my honours these opuscule of mine, but merelv as harm-  this edifice once more, by giving its plan and elevation;
less amusements.  It is my partridge, as with St John   and this extraordinary fact is the result-that not one of
the Evangelist; my cat, as with Pope St Gregory; my   them but has given a representation different from the
little dog, as with St Dominick; mny lamb, as with St  other! Montfaucon, a more faithful antiquary, in his close
Francis; my great black mastiff, as with Cornelius Agrip-  translation of the description of this villa, in comparing it
pa; and my tame hare, as with Justus Lipsius.' I have   with Felibien's plan of the villa itself, observes,' that the
since discovered in Niceron that this Catherinot could  architect accommodated his edifice to his translation, but
never get a printer, and was rather compelled to study  that their notions are not the same; unquestionably,' he
economy in his two hundred quartos of four or eight pages;  adds,'if ten skilful translators were to perform their task
his paper was of inferior q!lality;-and when he could not  separately, there would not be-one who agreed with ano.
get his dissertations into his prescribed number of pages,  ther!'
he used to promise the end at another time, which did not    If, then, on this subject of local (lescriptions, we find that
always hantpen.  Biut his greatest anxiety was to publish  it is impossible to convey exact notions of a real existing
and spread his worl(ks; in despair he adopted an odd expe-.  scee, what must we think of those which, in truth, dedient.  Whenever Monsieur Catherinot came to Paris, he  scribe scenes which have no other existence than the conused to haunt the quaies w:lere books are sold, and while  fused makings-up of an author's invention; where the
he apneared to be looking over them, he adroitly slided   more he details the more he confuses; and where the more
one of his ouvn dissertations among these old books. He   particular he wishes to be, the more indistinct the whole
began this mode of publication early, and continued it to  appears?
his last days. He died with a perfect conviction that he  Local descriptions, after a few striking circumstances
had secured his immortality; and in this'anner had dis-  have been selected, admit of no further detail. It is not
posed of more than one edition of his msal... e w r,                       * Book ii, lett. 17.




270                                      CURIOSITIES OF
their length, but their happiness, which enter into our  tracted state, without scenes, without dresses, without an
comprehension: the imagination can only take in and keep   orchestra, the court displayed scenical and dramatic extogether a very few parts of a picture.  The pen must not  hibitious, with such costly magnificence, such inventive
intrude on the province of the pencil, any more than the  fancy, and such mfraculous art, that we may doubt if the
encil must attempt to perform what cannot in any shape  combined genius of Ben Jonsen, Inigo Jones, and Lawes
be submitted to the eye, though fully to the mind,         or Ferobosco, at an era most favourable to the arts of imThe great art, perhaps, of local description, is rather a  agination, has been equalled by the modern spectacle of the
general than a particular view; the details must be left to  Opera.*
the imagination; it is suggestion rather than description.    But this circumstance had entirely escaped the know.
There is an old Italian sonnet of this kind which I have  ledge of our critics.   The critic of a Masque must not
often read with delight; and though I may not communi-  only have read it, but he must also have heard, and have
cate the same pleasure to the reader, yet the story of the  viewed it.  The only witnesses in this case are those letwriter is most interesting, and the lady (for such she was)  ter-writers of the day, who were then accustomed to cornhas the highest claim to be ranked, like the lady of Eve-  municate such domestic intelligence to their absent fiiends:
lyn, among literary wives,                                 from such ample correspondence I have often drawn some
Francesca Turina Bufalini di Citta di Castello, of noble  curious and sometimes important information. It is amusextraction, and devoted to literature, had a collection of  ing to notice the opinions of some great critics, how from
her poems published in 1628: she frequently interspersed   an original mis-statement they have drawn an illegiti.
little domestic incidents of her female friend-her husband   mate opinion, and how one inherits from the other, the er.
-her son-her grand-children; and in one of these son-  ror which he propagates.  Warburton said on Masques,
nets she has delineated her palace of San Guistino, whose  that' Shakespeare was an enemy to thesefooleries, as ap.
localities she appears to have enjoyed with intense delight  pears by his writing none.'  This opinion was among the
in the company of'her lord,' whom  she tenderly asso-  many which that singular critic threw  out as they arose
ciates with the scene.  There is a freshness and simplicity  at the moment; for Warburton forgot that Shakespeare
in the description, which will perhaps convey a clearer  characteristically introduces one in the Tempest's most
notion of the spot than ever Pliny could do in the volumin-  fanciful scene. Granger, who had not much time to study
ous description of his villa.  She tells us what she found  the manners of the age whose personages he was so well
when brought to the house of her husband.                  acquainted with, in a note on Milton's Masque, said that
Ample salle, ample loggie, ample cortile' These compositions were trifling and perplexed allegoE stanze ornate con gentil pitture,              ries; the persons of which are fantastical to the last de.
Troiai giungendo, e nobili sculture              gree.  Ben Jonson, in his " Masque of Christmas," has
Di Marmino fatte, dM scalpel non vile.           introduced "Minced Pye" and " Babie Cake," who act
Nobil giardin con un perpetuo Aprile               their parts in the drama.  But the most wretched perforDi varij flor, di frutti, a di verdure,          mances of this kind could please by the help of music, ma.
Ombra soavi, acqte a temprar larsure            chinery, and dancing.'  Granger blunders, describing by
E strade di belti non dissimile;
E non men forte ostel, che per fortezza            two farcical characters, a species of composition of which
Ha il ponte, e i fianchi, e lo circonda intorno  farce was not the characteristic; such personages as he
Fosso profundo e di real larghezza               notices would enter into the Anti-Masque, which was a
Qui fei cul mio Signore dolce soggiorno            humorous parody of the more solemn Masque, and someCon santo amor, con somma contentezza            times relieved it.   Malone, whose fancy was not vivid,
Onde ne benedico it mesa e ii giorno!           condemns Masques and the age of Masques, in which he
Wide halls, wide galleries, and an ample court,        says, echoing Granger's epithet,'the wretched taste of the
Chambers adorn'd by picture's soothing charm,          times found amusement.'  And lastly comes Mr Todd,
I found together blenided; noble sculpture
I found together blended; noble sculpture            whom the splendid fragment of the'Arcades,' and the
In marble, polished by no chisel vile;
Anoblegaenwher a lastingAprile          entire Masque which we have by heart, could not warm;
A noble garden, where a lasting April
All various flowers, and fruits, and verdure showers;
Alt various flowers, and fruits, and verdure showers;  while his neutralising, criticism  fixes him at the freezing
Soft shades. and waters tempering the hot air;         point of the thermometer.' This dramatic entertainment,
And undulating paths, in equal beauty  performed not without prodigious expense in machinery and
Nor less, the castled glory stands in force,           decoration, to which humour we certainly owe the enter.
And bridged and flanked. And round its circuit winds   tainment of' Arcades,' and the inimitable'Mask of Co.
The deepened moat showing a regal size.
The  deepened moat showing a regal size.         mus.'  Comus, however, is only a fine dramatic poem,
Here with my lord I cast my sweet sojourn,             retainin  scarcely any features ofthe Masue. The only
With holy love, and with supreme content;
And hene  bles e month, andless thedayt       modern critic who had written with some research on this
And hence I bless the month, and bless the day t
AdenebesteM. anddeparted elegance of the English drama was Warton,
MASQUZS.                                        L
whose fancy responded to the fascination of the fairy-like
It sometimes happens in the history of national amuse-  magnificence and lyrical spirit of the Masque. Warton had
ments, that a name survives, while the thing itself is  the taste to give a specimen from'the Inner Temple Mask,
forgotten.   This has been remarkably the case with our  by William Browne,' the pastoral poet, whose address to
Court Masques, respecting which our most eminent wri-  Sleep, he observed,'reminds us of some favourite touches
ters long ventured on so many false opinions, with a per-  in Milton's Comus, to which it perhaps gave birth.' Yet
fect ignorance of the nature of these compositions, which   even  WVarton was deficient in that sort of research,
combined all that was exquisite in the imitative arts ofpo-  which only can discover the true nature of these singular
etry, painting, music, song, dancing, and machinery, at a  dramas.
period when our public theatre was in its rude infancy.    Such was the state in which some years ago I found all
Convinced of the miserable state of our represented dra-  our knowledge of this once favourite amusement of our
ma, and not then possessing that more curious knowledge  court, our nobility, and our learned bodies of the four inns
of their domestic history, which we delight to explore, they  of court. Some extensive researches, pursued among con.
were led into erroneous notions of one of the most gorgeous,  temporary manuscripts, cast a new light over the obscure
the most fascinating, and the most poetical of dramatic  child of fancy and magnificence.  I could not think lightly
amusements.   Our present theatrical exhibitions are in-  of what Ben  Jonson  has called'The  eloquence of
deed on a scale to which the two-penny audiences of the  masques;'-entertainments on which three to five thousand
barn-playhouses of Shakespeare could never have strained pounds were expended, and on more public occasions ten
their sight;. and our picturesque and learned costume, with  and twenty thousand.  To the aid of the poetry, compoa.
the brilliant changes of our scenery, would have maddened   ed by the finest poets, came the most skilful musicians, and
the'property-meni'  and the' tire-women' of the Globe or  the most elaborate mechanists; Ben Jonson and Inigo
the Red Bull.  Shakespeare himself never beheld the  Jones and Lawes, blended into one piece their respective
true magical illusions of his own dramas, with' Enter the  genius; and Lord Bacon and Whitelocke and Selden, who
Red  Coat,' and'Exit Hat and Cloak,' helped out with  sat in committees for the last great Masque presented to'painted cloths;' or, as a bard of Charles the Second's   Charles the First. invented the devices; composed the
time chants, —                                             procession ofthe Masquers and the Anti-Masquers; while
But while the public theatre continued long in this con-  one took the care of the dancing or the brawlers, and WhiteLook back and see
The strange vicissitudes of poetrie:                     * Since this a-t'..e was written, our theatres have attempted
Your aged fathers came to plays for wit,               several ecu:e ii tno sty;., of these Court.Masques, with adAlni
And sat knee-deep in nut-shells in the pit.            rable success in.,- machinery.




LITERATURE.                                                     271
locke the nmusic;-the sage Whitelocke; who has chroni-  and it ill becomes us to arraign the taste of a period which
eled his self-complacency on this occasion, by claiming the   possessed a cluster of writers of whom the meanest woui
invention of a Coranto, which for thirty years afterwards   now be esteemed a prodigy.' I have been carried farther
was the delight of the nation, and was blessed by the name   in this extract thlan I intended, by the force of tile current,
of' Whitelocke's Coranto,' and which was always called   which hurries Malone down from our sight, who, fortuna.e.
for, two or three times over, whenever that great states.  ly for his ease, did not live to read this denouncement for
man'came to see a play!'*  So much personal honour  his objection against masques, as' bungling shows;' and
was considered to be involved in the conduct of a Masque,  which  Warburton  treats as' fooleries;' Granger as
that even this cnmmnit'ee of illustrious men was on the  wretched performances;' while Mr Todd regards them
point of being broken up by too serious a discussion con-  merely as' the humour of the times!'
cerning precedence; and the Masque had nearly not taken   Masques were often the private theatricals of the fami
place, till they hit on the expedient of throwing dice to de-  lies of our nobility, performed by the ladies and gentlemen
cide on their rank in the procession! On this jealousy of  at their seats; and were splendidly got up on certain occahonour in the composition of a Mask, I discovered, what  sions; such as the celebration of a nuptial, or in compliment
hitherto had escaped the knowledge, although not the cu.  to some great visiter. The Mask of Coenus was composed
riosity, of literary inquirers;-the occasion of the memora-  by Milton to celebrate the creation of Charles the First as
ble enmity between Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones, who had   Prince of Wales; a scene in this Maskl presented both the
hitherto acted together with brotherly affection;'a cir-  castle and the town of Ludlow, which proves, that al.
cuenstance,' says Mr Gifford, to whom I communicated it,  though our small public theatres had not yet displayed any'not a little important in the history of our calumniated   of the scenical illusions which long afterwards Davenant
poet.' The trivial cause, but not so in its consequences,  introduced, these scenical effects existed in great perfec.
was the poet prefixing his own name before that of the  tion in the Masques.  The minute description introduced
architect, on the title-page of a Masque, which hitherto  by Thomas Campion in his' Memorable Mask,' as it is
had only been annexed; so jealous was the great architect  called, will convince us that the scenery must have been
of hispart of the Masque, and so predominant his power  exquisite and fanciful, and that the poet was always a
and name at court, that he considered his rights invaded   watchful and anxious partner with the machinist; with'by the' iiferior claims of the poet! Jonson has poured out  whom sometimes, however, he had a quarrel.
the whole bitterness of his soul, in two short satires; stll    The subject of this very rare mask was' The Night and
more unfortunately for the subject of these satires, they  the Hours. It would be tedious to describe the first scene,provoked,Inigo to sharpen his pen on rhyme; but it is  with the fondness with which the poet has dwelt on it. It
edgeless, and the blunt composition still lies in its manu.  was a double valley; one side, with dark clouds hanging
script-state.                                           before it; on the other, a green vale, with trees, and nine
While these researches had engaged my attention, ap-  golden ones of fifteen feet high; from which grove, towards
peared Mr':Gifford's Memoirs of Ben Jonlson. The cha.'the State,' or the seat of the king, was a broad descent
racteristics of masques are there, for the first time, elabo-  to the dancing place: the bower of Flora was on the
rately opened with the clear and penetrating spirit of that  right, the house of Night on the left; between them  a
ablest of our dramatic critics. I feel it like presumption to  hill hanging like a cliff over the grove. The bower of
add to what has received the finishing hand of a master;  Flora was spacious, garnished with flowers, and flowery
but his jewel is locked up in a chest, which I fear is too   branches, with lights among them; the house of Night
rarely opened, and he will allow me to borrow something   ample and stately, with black columns studded with golden
from its splendour.'The'Masque, as it attained its highest  stars; within, nothing but clouds and twinkling stars;
degree of excellence, admitted of dialogue, singing, and'while about it were placed, on wire, artificial bats and
dancing; these were not independent of one another, but  owls, continually movina. As soon as the king entered
-ombined, by the introduction of some ingenious fable, into  the great hall, the hautboys, out of the wood on the top
an harmonious whole. When the plan was formed, the  of the hill, entertained the time, till Flora and Zephyr
aid of the sister arts was called in;'for the essence of the  were seen busily gathering flowers from the bower, throw.
masque was pomp and glory. Moveable scenery of the  ing them into baskets which two silvans held, attired in
most costly and splendid kind was lavished on the masque;  changeable taffety. The song is light as their fingers, but
the most celebrated masters were employed on the songs  the burden is charming:,and dances; and all that the kingdom afforded of vocal and       Now hath Flora robb'd her bowers
instrumental excellence was employed to embellish the ex.        To befriend this place with flowers;
hibition. Thus magnificently constructed, the masque               Strow about! strow about!
was not committed to ordinary performers. It was com-            Divers, divers flowers affect
lposed.as- Lord Bacon says, for princes and by iprinces it        For some private dear respect;,was played. Of these masques, the skill with which their           Strow about! strow about!
But he's none of Flora's firiend
ornaments were designed, and the inexpressible grace             That will not the rose commend
with which they were executed, appear to have left a vivid         Strow about! strow about!,impression on the mind of Jonson. His genius awakes at,once, and all his faculties attune to sprightliness and plea-    I cannot quit this masque, of which collectors know the
sure. -Ie makes his appearance, like his own'Delight,  tile rarity, without preserving one o.' those Doric delica-'accompanied with Grace, Love,-IRarmony, Revel, Sport,  cies, of which, perhaps, we have outlived the taste! It is
and Laughter.'                                          a playful dialogue between a Silvan and an Hour, while'In curiouslknot and mazes sc                 TNight appears in her house, with her long black hair
The spring at first was taught; to go;         spangled with gold, amidst her Hours; their faces black,
And Zephyr, when he came to woo                rnd each bearing a lighted black torch.
His Flora had his motions. too;                   SILVAN. Tell me, gentle Hotlr of Night,
And thus did Venus learn to. lead                           Wherein dost thou most deliht
The Idalian brawls, and so to tread                         Where. Not in   dos t thou most de ght
As if the wind, not she,:did walk,                HOUR.  Not in sleep 
Nor press'd a flower, nor bow'd a stalk.'SIT.vAN.                Wherein then?
HoUa. In the frolic view of men!
And in what was the taste of the times wretched?' con-'SHOUR. In  the frolic vie  of men
tinues Mr Gifford, in reply to Messieurs Malone, and the    SLAN. Lov'st thou music?
rest, who had never cast even an imperfect glance on what   SLV. What's d'tis swet
one of the completest gentlemen of that age has called,     HOUR.                     E'en the mirth    a'The courtly recreations of gallant gentlemen and ladies    HOUR.  Joy you in faies and i elves 
of honour, striking to exceed one the other in their mea-   Hourt.  We are of that sort ourselves 
sures and changes, and in their repast of wit, which have            But, Silvan! say, why do you love
been beyond the power of Enrvy to disgrace.' But in                   Only to frequent the groveu
what was'the taste of the times oretched?  In poetry,              On Life is fullest ofconten
tainting, architecture, they have not since been equalled:  SLVA   Life is fullest is innoent
* The music ofWbitelocke's Coranto is preserved in'Hawk.  HOUR. Pletsure must vary, not be long;
tn's History of Music;, might it be restored for the ladles as a     Come then, let's close, and end the song
waltz?
f The figures and act' ens of dancers in masques were called  That the moveable scenery of' these masques formed as
motions.                                                perfect a scenial illusion as any that our own age, with all




272                                    CURIOSITIES OF
ts perfection of decoration, has attained to, will not be de-  tions crossing the fancies of the poet: they did not essen.
nied by those who have read the few masques which have   tially injure the magnificence, the pomp, and toe fairy
been printed.  They usually contrived a double division of  world opened to the spectators.  So little was the characthe scene; one part was forsome time concealed from the   ter of these masques known, that all our critics seem to
spectator, which produced surprise and variety.  Thus, in   have fallen into repeated blunders, and used the masque
the Lord's Mask at the marriage of the Palatine, the   as Campion suspected his painters to have done,'eithev
scene was divided into two parts from the roof to the floor;  by simplicity, negligence, or conspiracy.' Hurd, a cold
the lower part being first discovered, there appeared a   systematic critic, thought he might safely prefer the masque
wood in perspective, the innerm.ost part being of'releave   in the Tempest, as'putting to shame all the masques of
or whole round,' the rest painted.  On the left a cave, and   Jonson, not only in its construction, but in the splendour of
on the right a thicket, from  which issued Orpheus.  At  its show;'-' which,' adds Mr Gifford,'was danced and
the back part of the scene, at the sudden fall of a curtain,  sun, by the ordinary performers to a couple of fiddles,
the upper part broke on the spectators, a heaven of clouds   perhlaps in the balcony of the stage.'  Such is the fate of
of all hues; the stars suddenly vanished, the clouds dis.  criticism  without knowledge!  And now, to close our
persed; an element of artificial fire played about the house   masques, let me apply the forcible style of Ben Jonson
of Prometheus-a bright and transparent cloud, reaching   himself:' The glory of all these solemnities had perished
from the heavens to the earth, whence the eight maskers  like a blaze, and gone out in the beholder's eyes; so short.
descending with the music of a full song; and at the end  lived are the bodies of all things in comparison of their
of their descent the cloud broke in twain, and one part of  souls!'
it, as with a wind, was blown athwart the scene.           OF DES MAIZEAUX, AND  THE  SECRET  HISTORY O0
While this cloud was vanishing, the wood, being the                ANTHONY COLLINS'S MANUSCRIPTS.
under part of the scene, was insensibly changing:  a          Des Maizeaux was an active literary mn of his da,
persectve vew  pene, wth prtioes  n ech sdel  Des Maizeaux was an active literary man of his day,
perspective view  opened, with  porticoes on each side,  whose conne
and female statues of silver, accompanied with orna-xios with Bayle, St Evremond, Locke, and
Toad ihhis name set off by an F. Hl. S. have occa-.
ments of architecture, filling the end of the house of Pro-   Toland, with his name setoff by an F. l. S. have occam
metheus, and seeined all of g~oldsmiths'  work.  The wo-  sioned the dictionary-biographers to place him prominently
metheus, and seemed all of goldsmiths' work.  The wo-   aogter'omsilsrs'O   i  rvt   itr
men of Prometheus descended from their niches, till the   among their hommes illustres.'  Of' his private history
nothing seems known. Having something important to
anger of Jupiter turned them agian into statues.  It is evi-  nothing  seems known.  Having something important to
communicate respecting one of his friends, a far greater
dent, too, that the size of the prosceniurn, or stage, accorded
dent, too, that the size of the proscenium, I  Z, n       character, with whose fate he stands connected, even Des
with the magnificence of the scene; for I find choruses  Maizeaux becomes an object of our inqiry.
Maizemix becomes an object of our inquiry.
described,'and changeable conveyances of the song,' in       He was one of those French refugees, whom  political
manner of an echo, performed by more than forty different  madness, or despair of itolerance,  ad driven to our
voices and instruments in various parts of the scene.  The
shores. The proscription of Louis XIV, which supplied
architectural decorations were the pride of Inigo Jones,  shores.  The proscription of Louis XIV, which supplied
a htctrldeoainswr tepie  fIi~oJn             us with our skilful workers in silk, also produced a race of
such could not be trivial.                                  the unemployed, who proved not to be as exquisite in the
I suppose, says the writer of this mask, C few have ever  handicraft of book-making; such were  otte e, La Coe,
handicraft of book-making; such were Mfotteux, La Coste,
seen more neat artifice than Master Inigo Jones showed   Ozell, Drnd, ad others.  Our author had come over in
in contriving their motion; who, as all the rest of the   ta         nd   a  oth     usitm            bcome   l  n
workmanship which belonged to the wvhole inventionthat tender state of youth, just in time to become h-alf an.
invention,  Englishman; and he was so ambidextrous in the lan..
showed extraordinary industry and skill, which if it be not  guagesofte two great litery nations of Europe, that
guaues of the two great literary nations of Europe, that
as lively expressed in writing as i.t appeared in view, rob   whenever he took up his en, t i evident, by his manu
not him of his due, but lay the blame on my want of right   cripts, which I have examined, that it was mere accideti
apprehending his instructions, for the adoring of his art.'  which determined him   to write in French or in Enr lish.
0          ~~~which determined him  to write in French or in English.
Whether this strong expression should be only adorning   Composin  without genius, or even taste, withot viacit,,n                                    Composing without gentius, or even taste, without vivacity
does not appear in any errata; but the feeling of admira-  or force, the simplicity and fluency of his style were s-ffi
tion was fervent among the spectators of that day, who   cient for the purposes of a ready dealer in all the minutics
were at least as much astonished as they were delighted.  literaris; literary anecdotes, curious quotations, notices of
Ben Jonson's prose descriptions of scenes in his own exBen Jonson's prose descriptions of sceres in his own ex-  obscure books, and all that supellex which must enter into
quisite masques, as Mr. Gifford observes, are singularly  the history of literature, without forming a history. Theso
old and beautifiul,' In a letter, which I discovered,  little things, which did so well of themselves, without any
the writer of which had been present at one of these   connexion with any thing else, became trivialwhen they
masques, and which Mr. Gifford had preserved,* the rea-  assumed the form  of voluminous mintteness; and Des
der may see the great poet anxiously united with Inigo   Maizeaux at length imagined that nothing but anecdotes
Maizeaux at length imagined that nothing but anecdotes
Jones in working, the machinery.  Jonson, before'a sacri-  were necessary to compose the lives of men of genius!
fice could be performed, turned  the globe of the earth,  With this sort of talent he produced a copious life of Bayle,
tandin   behind the altar.' In this globe,'the sea  as  in which he told every thing he possibly could; and noexpressed heightened with silver waves, which stood, or  thin  can be more tedious, and more curios: for thog
rather hung, (for no axle was seen to supoort it), and turn-  it    a grievous fault to omit nothing, and mar.the writer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ingsfldsoeethfismsqet.ThsItrig t be a grievous fault to omit nothing, and marks,the writer
ing softly, discovered the first masque,"' &c. This'turning   to be deficient in the development of character, and that
softly' producing a very magical effect, the great poet  sympathy which throws inspiation  over the vivin    page
would trtist to n                                          sympathy which throws inspiration over the vivifying page
tsemsld   t hoerst  to t no other hand but his own  i      of biography, yet, to admnit every thing has this meritIt seems, however, that as no masque-writer equalled   that we are sure to find what we want!  Warhurton poiJonson, so no machinist rivalled Inigo Jones. I have some.  gnantly describes our Des Maizeax, in one of those letgnantly describes our Des Maizeaux, in one of those lettimes caught a groan from some unfortunate poet, whose  ters to Dr Birch, which he wrote in the fervid age of study,
beautiful fancies were spoilt by the bungling machinist.
beautiful fancies were sit by the bunin   machinist   and with the impatient vivacity of his genius.'Almost all
One says,' The order of this scene was carefully and in.  the life-writers we have had bfore Toland and Des Mi
geniously ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~                   ~h liewitesposed hdave hadpl befor inan  and Dftes Maigeniously disposed, and as happily put in act (f6r the ma-  zeaux are indeed strange, insipid creatures; and yet I had
twos) by the king's master carpenter;' bitt he adds,'tlte   rather read the worst of them, than be obliged to go through
vainters, I must needs say (not to belie them.) lent small  with this of Milton's, or the other's life of Boileau; where
)lour to any, to attribute much of the spirit of these things there is such a dull, heavy succession of long quotations of. their pencil.' Poor Campion, in one of his masques,  uninteresting passages, that it makes their method quite
describiog where the trees were gently to sink, &c, by nauseous. But the verbose, tasteless Frenchman, seems
nauseous. But the verbose, tasteless Frenchman, seems
an engine placed uinder the stage, and in sinking were to  to lay it down as a principle, that every life must be a book,
open, and the masquers appear out at their tops, &c, adds   -and, what is worse, it seems a book without a life; for
this vindictive marginal note:   Either by the simplicity,  what do we know of Boileat, after all his tedious stuff?'
{negligence, or c.nspiracy of the painter, the passing away   Ds Maizeaux was much in the emplo  of the Dutch
Des Maizeaux was much in the employ of the Dutch
of the trees wao sornewhat hazarded, though the same dav   booksellers, then the great monopolizers in the literary
they had been shown with much admiration, and were left  mart of Europe.  He supplied their'nouvelles litteraires'
oether to the same night;' that is, they were worked  from England; but the work-sheet price was very mean'ight at the rehearsal, and failed in the representation,  in those days. I have seen annual accounts of Des Maizewhich must have perplexed the nine masquers on the tops   aux settled to a line, for four or five pounds; and yet he
of torse nine trees.  But stu:h accidents were only vexa-  sent the'  ovelties' as fresh as the post could carry them!
* Memoirs of Jonson, p. 88.                       He held a confidential correspondence with these great. See Giffords Jonson, vol. vii, p. 78.           Dutch booksellers, who consulted him in their distresses;




LITERATURE.                                                       273
and he seems rather to have relieved them  than himself.  forward that work, nor digest the materials he had col.
But if he got only a few florins at Rotterdam, the same  lected.' nouvelles litteraires' sometimes secured him  valuable'A work of that nature requires a steady application,
friends at London; for in those days, which perhaps are  free from the cares and avocations incident to all persons
returning on us, an English author would often appeal to a obliged to seek for their maintenance. I have had the
fireign journal for the commendation he might fail in ob.   misfortune to be in the case of those persons, and am now
taming at ho-e; and I have discovered, in more cases  reduced to a pension on the Irish establishment, which,
than olle, that, like other smuggled commodities, the for- deducting the tax of four shillings in the pound, and other
eign artic~e was often of home nsanufactory 1              deducting the tax of four shillings in the pound, and other
nig   i artic.e was often of home manutLactory   icharges, brings me in about 401. a year of our English
I give one of these curious bibliopolical distresses.       y*    his pension was granted to me in 1710, and
Sauzet, a bookseller at Rotterdam, who judged too criti.
cally  r the reposer of his authorsd, hseems  to have been  I owe it chiefly to the friendship of Mr Addison, who was
calaly for thd repose of his a'Juthors, seems to have been  then secretary to the Earl of Wharton, lord lieutenant of
always fond of projecting a new'Journal;' tormented by   Ireland.  In 1711, 12, aid 14,1 was appoiited one of the
the ideal excellence which he had conceived of such a  commissioners of the lottery by the interest f Lord Haliwork, it vexed him that he could never find the workmen!  fax.
Once disappointed of the assistance he expected from  a       And this is all I ever received from  the government,
writer ot talents, he was fain to put up with one he was  though I had some claim to the royal favour; for in 1710,
though I had some claim to the roval favour; for in 1710,
ashamed of; but warily stipulated on very singular terms.  when the enemies to our constitution were contriving its
He confided this precious literary secret to Des Maizeaux.  ruin, I wrote a pamphlet entitled ILethe,' which was
ruin, I wrote a pamphlet entitled'Lethe,'  which was
I translate from his manuscript letter.        cniu-published in Holland, and afterwards translated into Elng-'I send you, my dear Sir, four sheets of the continualish, and twice printed in London; and being reprinted at
o      ut better t han the former.  Thope authis  thinks himself a  Dublin, proved  so offensive to the ministry in Ireland,
that it was burnt by the hands of the hangman.  But so
very able person; but I must tell you franlklv, that he is a  that it was burnt by the hands of the haa in. Bmt so
it is, that after having showed on all occasions   ny zeat
mlan without erudition, and without any critical discrimi-                                            ions my ze
for the royal family, and endeavoured to nmake myselfsernation; he writes pretty well, and turns passably what he   viceable to the public by several hooks publishld;   after
savs: but that is all! Moresieur Van Efen having failed   viceable to the public by several books published; after
~i~vs:.ut that is all! Monsietlr Van F,~f~n   having fail forty years' stay in England, and in an advanced age, I
ii his promises to realize my hopes on this occasion, ne-        years' stay in England, and in an advanced ae, I
cessity compelled  me  to have recourse to him; but for sio   find myself and family destitute of a sufficient livelihood,
months orly, and on condition that he should not, on anyaints in the head and impaired
accnount whatever. allos any one to know that he is the au-   sight by constant appylicaoion  to my studies.
thnr ofthejournc;  for his name alone would be sufficient  I am confident, my lord,' he adds,'that if the queen,
to whom  I was made known on occasion of Thuanus's
to mnake even a passable book discreditable.  As you are
tanon m y frieenas, 1 p al  confide to yoi d  in sec. yu are   French translation, were achquainted with my present dis.
among my friends, 1 will confide to you in secrecy the
name of this author; it is Monsieur De Limiers.*  You   tress, she would he pleased to afford me some relief.'t
see how much my interest is concerned that the author        Among the confidential literary friends of Des Maishotuld inot be known!' This anecdote is gratuitously pre-  zeaux he had the honor of ranking Anthony Collins, a
sented to the editors of certain reviews, as a serviceable   great lover of literature, and a man of fine genius; and
hint to enter into the same enigagement with some of their  who in a continued correspondence with our Des Mai.
own writers; ftor it is usually the De Limiers who expend   zeaux treated him as his friend, and employed him as his
their last puff in blowing their own name about the town.  agent in his literary concerns.  These in the formation of
In England, Des Maozeaux, as a literary man, made   an extensive library, were in a state of perpetual activity,
himself very useful to other men of letters, and particu-  and Collins was such a true lover of his books, that he
larly to persons of rank; and he found patronage and a   drew up the catalogue with his owvn pen.1  Anthony Col..
pension,-like his talents, very moderate! A  friend to  lins wrote several well-known works without prefixing his
literary men, he lived amongst them, from' Orator' Hen-  name; but having pushed too far his curious inouiries
lev, tip to Addison, Lord Halifax, and Anthony Collins.  onl some obscure and polemical points, he incurred the
I find a curious character of our Des Maizeaux in the   odium  of a free-thinker, a term which then began to be
hand-writing of Edward, Earl of Oxford, to whose father  in vogue, anti which the French adopted by transiating
(Pope's Earl of Oxford) and himself, the nation owes the  it in their way, a strong thinker, or esprit fort. W'latHarleian treasures.  His lordship is a critic with high   ever tendency to'liberalise' the mind from  dogmas and
Tory principles, and high-church notions.'This Des  creeds prevails in these works, the talents and learning
Maizeaux is a great man with those who are pleased to be  of Collins were of the first class. His morals were im.
called Free-thinkers, particularly with Mr Anthony Col-  maculate, and his personal character indepenrdent; but
lins, collects passages out of books for their writings. His  the odium  theologicum  of those days contrived  every
life of Chillingworth is wrote to please that set of men.'  means to stab in the dark, till the taste became herediThe secret history I am to unfold relates to Anthony Col-  trary with some.  I shall mention a fact of this cruel bilirs and Des Maizeaux.  Some curious book-lovers will  gotry which occulrred within my own observation on one
be interested in the personal history of an author they are  of the most polished ten of the age.  The late Mr. Curmwell acquainted with, yet which has hitherto remained un-  berland, in the romance entitled his' Life,' tave this exknown.  He tells his own story in a sort of epistolary pe-  traordinary fact, that Dr Bentley, who so ably replied by
tition he addressed to a noble friend characteristic of an   his' Renarks,' under the name of Phileleutthertis Lipsien.
author, who cannot be deemed unpatronized, yet whose  sis, to Collins's' Discourse on Free-thinking,' when many
name, after all his painful labours, might be inserted in  years after he discovered him  fallen into great distress,
mv'Calamities of Authors.'                                conceiving that by having ruined Collins's character as a
In this letter he announces his intention of publishing a   writer for ever, he had been the occasion of his personal
dictionary like Bayie; having written the life of Bayle,  misery, he liberally contributed to his maintenance.  In
the next step was t'o beconme himself a Bayle; so short is  vain I mentioned to that elegant writer, who was not curi.
the passage of literary delusion!  He had published, as a  ous about facts, that this person could never have been
specimen, the lives of' Hales and Chillingworth.  He  Anthony Collins, who had always a plentifiil fortune;
complains that his circumstances have not allowed him to'and when it was suggested to him that this'A. Collins,'
as he printed it, must have been Arthur Collins the histori.
iVan Een             h writer of someeo   merit, and one ofSt Hya  cal compiler, who was often in pecuniary difficulties, still
rltnhe, Prlnosper  aretnti, &,,who carried aon a smart review   he persisted in sending the lie down to posterity, totidew
cinthe, Prosper Marchand,  &c, who carried on a smart review
fir those days, puiblished at the Hague under the title of' Jour. I find that the nominal pension was 
}a:l Litteraire.'  They all composed in French; and Van Effen  fi  that the nominal pension was 3s, 6d, per diem on th
itve thte first translations  of our Guariahn, Ronbinson Crusoe,  Irish civil list, which amountts to above 631. per annum. Ifr
anldl the Tile oft a Tub, &c. HIe dlid something more, but not  pension be granted for reward, it seems a mockery that the in
better: he attempted to imitate the Spectator, in his'Le Mi.  rums shotul l be so grievously rodued,  which cruel cuton.
saubthrope,' 1721f, which exhibits a picture of the uninteresting  still pevais
maniutpets of a notion, whtum hex   roumidsure makhe volerylively. t This letter, or petition, was written in 1732. In 1743 he
mannlers ora nation, whom he could not make very lively.
)e  iuniers tunes ha1  hi~s same slipped into our bioeraphical proculred his pension to be placed on his wife's life, and he died
in 1745.
dictionaries. An author cannjot escape the fatality of the alphaas gentleman of his majesty's privy 
bet; his nuimerous misdeeds are registered. It is said,that if   He  was sworn in 1722.-Sloane's MS of his majety's privy c428
he had riot been so hung1ry, he would have given proots of     Thereis a printed caalue of his library.
possessing some talent.
posesin sone talent.  There is a printed catalue     of his library.
35




274                                  CURIOSITIES OF
verhis, without alteration in his second edition, observing   should be frustrated, and that she should be the instrument
to a friend of mine, that'the story, while it told well,  of violating what is most sacred.  If our late friend had
might serve as a striking instance of his great relative's  designed that his MSS should remain in her hands, he
generosity; and that it should stand, because it could do   would certainly have left them  to her by his last will and
no harm to any but AAnthony Collins, whom he considered  testament; his acting otherwise is an evident proof that it
as little short of an atheist.' So much for this pious fraud!  was not his intention.
btit be it recollected that this Anthony Collins was the     All this I proposed to represent to her in the most re.
coifidential friend of' Locke, of whom Locke said, on his  spectful manner; but you will do it infinitely better than I
dying bed, that' Collins was a man whom he valued in the   can in this present distraction of mind; and I flatter niyfirst rank of those that he left behind him.' And the last  self that the mutual esteem and friendship which has conwords of Collins on his own death-bed were, that' he was  tinned so many years between Mr Collins and you, will
persuaded he was going to that place which God bad de-  make you readily enmbrace whatever tends to honour his
signed for them that love him.' The cause of true reli-  memory.
gion will never be assisted by using such leaky vessels as    I send you the fifty guineas I received, which I do now
Cumberland's wilful calumnies, which in the end must run  look upon as the wages of iniquity; and I deire you to reout, and be found, like the present, mere emnipty fictions!    turn them to Mrs Collins, who, as I hope it of her justice,
An extraordinary circumstance occurred on the death of  equity and regard to Mr Collins's intentions, willbe pleased
Anthony Collins.  He left behind him  a considerable  to cancel my paper.
number of his own manuscripts, and there was one collec-                             I am, &c,
tion forned into eight octavo volumes; but that they might                                      P. DES MAIZEAUX.
be secured from  the common fate of manuscripts, he be-       The manuscripts were never returned to Des Maizeaix;
queathed them  all, and coinfided them to the care of our   for seven years afterwards  Mrs Collins, who  appears  to
D        es Mazex.    The choice of ollins reflects honour on   have been a very spirited lady, addressed to him  the
the character of Des Maizeaux, yet he proved unworthy of  following letter on the subject of a report, that she had
it! He suffered himself to betray his trust, practised on by   permitted transcripts of these very manus-ripts to get
the earnest desire of the widow, and perhaps by the arts of  abroad.  This occasioned an animated correspoidence
a Mr Tomlinson, who appears to have been introduced   from both sides.
into the family by the recommendation of Dean Sykes,          Sir,                              March 10,1736-7.
whom  at length he supplanted, and whom  the widow to                 Iave thus long waited in xpectation   that you'n.                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~I have thus long waited in expectation that you
save iher reputation, was afterwards obliged to discard.*   would era this have called on Dean Sykes, as Sir B. Lucy
In an unguarde d moment he relinquished this precious le-  said you intended, that I might have had some satisfaction
gacy of the manuscripts, and accepted fifty guineasas apre-  in relation to a very unjust  reproach, viz., that I, or someient.  But if'Des Maizeaux lost his hoinour in this transac-  body that I had trusted, had betraqed some of the transcri[is
tion, he was at heart an honest man, who had swerved for  or MSS, of Mr Collins into the Bishop of London's hands.
single ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~                   ~o m Sofet Mis collnsientote Bisho sofodoawkned, hands
a single roment; his coniscience  vas soon awakened, and   I cannot therefbre, since you have not been with the dean
hlie experienced the most violent compunctions. It was in a   as was desired, but call on you in this manner, to know
paroxvsm of this nature that lie addressed the following let-  what authority you had  r such a rection;  or on what
what,authorit'o   had tbr such a reflectio;oonwa
ter to a mutual friend of the late Anthony Collins and him-  groUds yo  went on for saying that these transcrits are
grounds your went on fbr saying that these transcripts are
self.                                                       in the Bishop of London's hands.  I am  determined to
Sir,                               January 6, 1730.    trace out the grounds of such a report; and you can be no
I am very glad to hear you are conme to town, and  friend of mine, no friend of Mr Collins, no friend to comas yau are my best friend, now I have lost Mr Collins, give   mon justice, if you refuse to acquaint me what foundation
me leave to open my Iheart to you, and to beg your assist-  you had for such a charge.  I desire a very speedy answer
ance in an affair which highly concerns both Mr Collins's  to this, who am, Sir,
(your friend) and my own honour and reputation.  The                            Your servant,
case, in few words, stands thus: Mr Collins by his last                                          ELZZ. COLLINS.
will and testament left me his nmanuscripts.  Mr Tomlin-   To Mr Des Maizeatx, at his lodgson, who first acquainted me with it, told me that Mrs Col-    ings next door to the Quaker's bulins should be glad to have them, and I made them over to    rying-ground, Hanover-street, out
her; whereupon she was pleased to present me with fifty       of Long Acre.
guineas.  I desired her at the same time to take care they                       To Mrs Collins.
should be kept safe and unhurt, which she promised to do.                                         1larch 14, 1736.
This was done the 25th of last month.  Mr Tomlinson,                 I had the honour of your letter of the 10th, inst,
who managed all this affair, was present.                   and as I find that something has been misapprehended,   I
Now, having further considered that matter, I find that  beg leave to set this matter riaht.
I have done a most wicked thing.  I am persuaded that I       Being lately with some honourable persons, I told them
have betrayed the trust of a person who for 26 years has  it had been reported that some of Mr C's MSS were fallen
given me continual instances of his friendship and confi-  into the hands of strangers, and that I should be glad to
deunce.  I am convinced that I have acted contrary to the   receive from  you such information as might enable me to
willt aid intention of my dear deceased friend; showed a   disprove that report.  WVhat occasioned this suirmise, or
disrenard to the particular mark of esteem he gave me on   what particular MSS were meant, I was not able to disthat occasion; in short, that I have forfeited what is dearer  cover; so I was left to my own conjectures, which, upon a
to me than my own life-honour and reputation.              serious consideration, induced me to believe that it might
These melancholy thoughts have made so great an impres-  relate to the MSS in eight volumes in 8vo, of which there
sion upon me, that I protest to you I can enjoy no rest;  is a transcript.  But as the original and the transcript are
tbey haunt me every where, day and night. I earnestly be-  in your possession, if you please, madam, to compare them
seech you, Sir, to represent my unhappy case to Mrs Col-  together, you may easily see whether they be both entire
lins.  I acited with all the simplicity and uprightness of my   and perfect,or whether there be any thing wanting in either
heart; I considered that the MSS would be as safe in Mrs   of them.  By this meanis yonu will assure yourself, and
Collins's hands as in mine; that she was no less obliged to  satisfy your friends, that several important pieces are safe
preserve  them than myself; and that, as the library was  in your hands, and that the report is false and groundless.
left to her, they might naturally go along with it. Besides,  All this I take the liberty to offer out of the singu!ar respect
I thought I could not too much comply with the desire of a   I always professed for you, and for the memory cf Mr Col.
ladly to whom I have so many obligations.  But I see now   lins, to whom I have endeavoured to do justice on all occaclearly that this is not fulfilling Mr Collins's will, and that  sions, and particularly in the memoirs that have been made
the duties of our conscience are superior to all other re-  use of in the General Dictionary; and I hope my tender
gards.  Biut it is in her power to forgive and mend what I  concern for his reputation will further appear when I pub.
have done imprudently, but with a good intention. Her  lish his life.
high seinse of' virtue and generosity will not, I am sure, let  Sir,                                April 6, 1737.
her take any advantage of my weakness; and the tender                My ill state of health has hindered me from ac..regard she has for the memory of the best ofmen, and the   knowledging sooner the receipt of yours, from  which I
tenderest of husbands, will not suffer that his intentions   hoped for some satisfaction in relation to your charge, in,
* This information  is fom a note found among Des Mali.  which I cannot but think myself very deeply concerned.
saux's papers; but its t ilth I have no means to ascortaiu.  You tell me now, that you was left to your own conjecturef




LIT E RATURE.                                                   275
what particular MSS were reported to have fallen into the   novation, which, with the opulence of our present language,
hands of strangers, and that upon a serious consideration  the English philologer is most jealous to a-low; but we
you was induced to believe that it might relate to the MSS   have puritans or precisarns of English, superstitiously nice.
In eight vols. 8vo, of' which there was a transcript.    The fantastic coinage of affectation or caprice will cease
I must beg of you to satisfy me very explicitly who were  to circulate from its own alloy; but shall we reject the ore
the persons that reported this to you, and from whom did  of fine workmanship and solid weight?  There is no goou receive this information?  You know that Mr Collins  vernmtent mint of words, and it is no statutable offence to
ieft several MSS behind him; what grounds had you for  invent a felicitous or daring  expression unauthorized by
yoiur conjecture that it related to the MSS in eight vols.  Mr Todd! When a man of genius, in the heat of his
rather than to any other MSS of which there was a tran-  pursuits or his feelings, has thrown out a peculiar word, it
script?   I beg that you will be very plain, and tell me  probably conveyed more precision or energy than any
what strangers were named to you? and why you said the  other established word, otherwise he is but an ignoiant
Bishop of London, if your informer, said stranger to you?  pretender!
I am so much concerned in this, that I must repeat it, if    Julius Caesar, who, unlike other great captains, is authoyou have the singular respect for Mr Collins which you  rity in words as well as about blows, wrote a large treatise
profess, that you would help me to trace out this reproach,  on' Analogy,' in which that fine genius corunselled to
which is so abusive to,                                    avoid every unusual word as a rock!'*  The cautious
Sir,                            Q;uintilian, as might be expected, opposes all innovation.
Your Servant,              in language.   If the new  word is well received, small
ELIZ. COLLINS.    is the glory; if rejected, it raises latghter.'t  This only
To I3Mrs Collins.                     marks the penury of his feelings in this species of advenI flattered myself that my last letter would have, tare! The great legislator of words, who lived when his
satisfied you, but I have the mortification to see that my   own language was at its acm6, seems undecided, yet
hopes were vain.  Therefore I beg leave once more to  pleaded for this liberty.' Shall that which the Romans
set this matter right.  When I told you what had been   allowed to Cecilius and to Plautus be refused toVirgil and
reported, I acted, as I thought, the part of a true frienrd, by  Varius?'  The answer to the question might not be fa.
acquainting you that some of your MSS had been pur-  vourable to the inquirer. While a language is fornting,
loined, in order that you might examine a fact, which to  writers are applauded for extending its limits; when estame appeared of the last consequence; and I verily believe  blished, for restricting themselves to them.  But this is
that every body in my case would have expected thanks for  to ilnainer that a perfect language can exist! The good
such a friendly information.  But instead of that, I find  sense anti observation of Horace perceived that there may
myself represented as ar enemy, and challenged to pro-  be occasions where necessity must become the mother of
duce proofs and witnesses of a thing dropt ini conversation,  invented words:
a hear-say, as if in those cases people kept a register of              — Si forte necesse est
what they hear, and entered the names of the persons           Indeiis monstrare recentribus abdita rerum.
who spoke, the time, place, &c, and had with them  per-        If yell write ofthings abstruse or new,
sons ready to witness the whole, &c.  I did own I never        Stome of your own inventing may be used,
thought of such a thing, and whenever I happened to hear       So it be seldom and discreetly done.
that some of my friends had some loss, I thought it niy                                       RscoaMmoN.
duty to acquaint them with such report, that they might in-  But Horace's canon for deciding on the legality of the
quire into the matter, and see wahether there was any   new invention, or the standard by which it is to be tried,
ground for it. But I never troubled myself with the namesrv  to assist th invntor of words
Will not serve to assist the inventor of words:
of the persons who spoke, as being a thing entirely needless and tinprofitable.                                       — l  ---- licuit, semperque licebit,
Give me leave farther to observe, that you are in no        Signatum praesente noua procudere nummum4
way concerned in the matter, as you seem  to be apprehen-                   an undisputed power
sive you are.  Suppose some MSS have been taken out           Of coining money from the rugged ore,
of your library, who will say you ought to bear the guilt of   Nor less of coining  ords is still coisest,
of your s......If with a legal public stamp imprest.
it? What man in his senses, who has the honour to know                                            FRANCIS.
you, will say you gave your consent to such thing-that 
you was privy to it?  cnyouhentaThis proesens nota, or public stamp, can never be affixed
you was privy to it? How can you then take upon yourself an actin to which you was neither privy ad con-  to any new coinage of words; for many received at a seasentingc7 Do not such things happen every day, and do  son have perished with it.  The privilege of stamping
the losers think t selves injured or   sed when they   words is reserved for their greatest enemy-Time itself!
the lsers think the lves injured or abused when they  and the inventor of a new word must never flatter himself
are talked of? Is it impossible to be betrayed by a person  that he has secured the public adoption, for he must lie i
we conficted ill t                                       that he has secured the public adoption, for he must lie in
his grave before he can enter the dictionary.
You call what I told you was a report, a surmise; you   h is grave beforess to the reader, prefixed to the cictionary.
call it, I say, an information, and speak of informers as  tion of voyages publis to the reader, prefinds fault  with
if there was a plot laid, wherein I received the informa-  Edens ranslaion of voyag es published in 1577, he f in words th
tion: I thought I had the lhonour to be better known to  Eden's translationfrom Peter Martyrfor using  ords that
you. Mr Collins loved me and esteemed me for my in-  smelt too miuch of the Latine.' We should scarcely have
tegrity and sincerity, of which he had several proofs; how   expected to find among them ponderouse, portentouse, despiI have been urawn in to injure hirm, to forfeit the good  cable, obsequious, homicide, imbibed, destructive, prodigious.
opinion he had of me, and which, were he now  alive,  The only words hequotes, not thoroughly  naturalized, are
would deservedly expose me to his utmost contempt, is a  dominators, ditionaries, (subjects,) solicitute, (careful.)
grief which I shall carry to the grave.  It would be a sort    The Tatler, No, 230, introduces several
if comfort to me, if those who have consented I should be  introduced by military narrations,'which, (he says,) if
dratvn in were in some measure sensible of the aguilt to-  they attack us too frequently, we shall certainly put them
wards so good, kind, and generous a man.                 to flight, and cut off the rear;' every one of them  still
wards,. ~~~~keep their ground.
Thus we find that seven years after Des Maizeaux had     Half the French words used affectedly by Melailtha, n
inconsiderately betrayed his sacred trust, his remorse was  Dryden's Marriage  -la-mode as innovations in our taustill awake; arnd the sincerity of his grief is attested by   guage, are  now in common use, naivete, foible, chagrin
the affecting style which describes it: the spirit of his de-  grimace, embarras, double entendre, equivoque, eclairci se.
parted friend seemed to be hovering  about him, and, in his  ment, ridicule, all these words which she learns by heart
imagination,  would haunt him to the grave,           to use occasionally, are now in common utse.  A Dr Rus.
The nature of tlhese manllscripts;  the cause of the  sel called Psalm-singers Ballad-singers. having frund the
earnest desire of retaining them by the widow; the evident  song of Solomon in ai old tratslatior, the Ballad of RaE
infriendliness of herconduct to Des Maizeaux;and whether  lads, for which he is reproached by his antagonist ftir not
these manuscripts, consisting of eight octavo volumes  knolvitg that the signification of words alters with limeos
with their transcripts, were destroyed, or are still existing,  should I call him ktave,  e ought not to be concerned at
are all circnumstances, which my researches have hitherto                             LI
not ascertained.                                             * Ailus Gellius, lib, i. c. 10.    ITrstir. lib. i, c. 5.
TORY  OF  EW    ORDThis vertse w;as corrected by Bentley proctuderle ntinmum,
instead of prrllcere noisienr, which tihe critics,frce it' one of
Neology, or the novelty of words and phrases, is an in-  his happy cotnjiecttures.




276"                                       CURIOSITIES OF
it, for the Apostle Paul is also called a knave of Jesus  by Heylin, in 1656, as an unusual word; it has been ap,
Christ.                                                       propriately adopted by our best writers; although we still
Unquestionably, NEOLOGY opens a wide door to inno-  want incuriosity.  Charron invented etrangete unsuccessvation; scarcely has a century passed since our langiage   fully, but which, says a French critic, would be the true
was patched up with gallic idioms, as in the preceditig cen-  substantive of the word etrange; our Locke is the sltar
substanie podthed fordI oetrnnge;  four Iok isresoitary
tury it was piebald with Spanish, and with Italian, and   instance prodced for' foreiness' for'remoteness or  ant
even with Dutch.  The political intercourse of islanders   of relation to somthing.   Malherbe borrowed from  the
with their neighbours has ever influenced their languaoe.  Latin insidieux. securitd, which have been received; but a
In alizabet l's reign Italian phrases and Netherland words   bolder word devoulior, by which he proposed to express
were imported; in James aindCharles.the Spanish framed   cesser de vouloir, has not.  A  term, however, exprssive
w ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~serde         vo                                                         lihsnterm h oevr exrssiv
tie style  of courtesy; in Charles the Second the nation   and precise.  Corneille happily intoduced  invaincu in a
and the language were equally  Frenchified.  Yet such   verse in the Cid,
are the sources whence we have often derived some of the             Vous etes invaincu, mais non pas invincible.
wealth of our language!. e Yet this created word by their great poet has not sancThere are three foul corrupters of a language; caprice,  tined this fine description among the French, fr we are
affectation, anid ignorance!  Such fashionable cant terms                                                      o       are
told that i is alniost a solitarv istance.  Balzac was a
as' theatricals,' and'musicals,' invented by the flippant  t at i             isa         ry    itan        lc  wa
Topham, still survive among his confraternity of frivolity.  great iveror of neoloisms.   Urnil and fliciter were
n       struck in his mint.'Si le motfeliciter n'est pas Franoais
A lady eminent for the elegance of her taste, and of whom
A lady eient for the eleanc  of her taste,    ii le sera t'anride qui vient;' so confidently pronud was the
one of the best judges, the celebrated Miss Edgeworth,
observed to me that she spoke the purest and most idio-   ielogist, anti it prospered as well as urbanitd, of which he
says,' Q.Uand I' usage aura, muri parni nous tin tmot de si
matic English she had ever heard, threw out. an observa-    ay'Qtia gtnd 1' usage aura nmuri parni nous in mut d  si
mnauvais gout, e~t corrig~5 l'amertume de la noul2veautd qui
tion which might be extended to a great deal of our present   na i  ou, e           oi          tueo          s        qi
t,                                 ~~~~~~~~~~s'y peut trouver, nous nons y accoutumerons cornroe aux
fashionable vocabulary.  She is now old enough, she said,  s         eno         nns    nt    ac       ero     un     ai
tohave lived to hear the vulgarisms of her youth adopted   autres quo  oe avons em prsnt  do sa meme langue.' Balin drawing-room   circles.  To lunch, now so familiar from   Zac was however, too sanuine  in some other words; for
the fist  lis i  her youth was only known in the  his delecter, his seriositd, &c, still retain their' bitterness
the fairest lips, in her youth was only known in the ser-o   oety.
vants' hall.  An expression very rife of late among our   f ovelty.'
yun  ladies,  nice man, whatever it nay mean, whether  Menage invented a term of which an equivalent is want.
young ladies, a nice man, whatever        i      mamen, w hether
ing in our Ianguage:'J'ai fait prosateur i l'imitation de
the man resemble a puddina, or something more nice, con.  ing in our lanuae'Ja    fai
n   ~         ~~~~ Irfahen presetore, pouir dire un hommqmrftepos.
vevs the offensive notion that they are ready to eat hirn'Itaen  protore, po   dire  n hmme qi  nt n  rose.
tip'! When I was a boy, it was an ago of Bon tent; this  To distinguish a prose from a verse writer we once had a
good tone mysteriously conveyed a subiime idea offashion;  I prusor.'  Drayton uses it; btt this usefil distiiction tas. I                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~unluckily degenerated, and the current sense is so daily
the term imported late in the eighteenth century, closed   ulckily deenerated, and the   rreit sense is so daily
Z__                 ~~~~~urgent, that the purer sense is irrecoverable.~
with it.  Twaddle for awhile succeeded bore; but bore has   u ent, that the purer setse t s irrecoverable.
recove'ed the supremacy.  We want another Swift to              When DAblancourt was transltin  Lucian, he invent
give a new edition of his'Polite Conversation.' A die-  ed in French the words   olec  and itdolest; to describe
a momentary lan~.uor, rather than that habitual indolence,
tionary of barbarisms too might he collected from  some     mom tary languor, raher  an that habitial indolence,
in which sense they are now accepted; aindi in translating
wretched neologisms, whose pens are [ow at work! Lord
Chesterfield, in his exhortations to conform to Johnson's   Tacitus, he created the word turbtlemment, buit it did not
D  tionary, was desirous, however, that the great lexi-  proper, any more than that of temporisement.  Segrais
invented the word impoardonable, whic'h, after having, been
cographer should add as an appendix'A  neological Dic-  inente  the word i roahle, whih, aftr  aving been
n                                     ctly ~~~~~~~~~~~rejected, was revived, and is eqnivalent to our expesv
tionary, containing those polite, though perhaps not strictly    etd,  as revived, and is equivalent to  ir expressive
grammatical, words and phrases commonly used, and   unpardonable.  Moliere ridiculed some neologisms of she
sonetines understood  by the beau    This last  Precieuses of his day; but we are too apt to ridicule that
phrase  was udotbtless a toodb e         uch ba a dictionary   which is new and which we often adopt. when it. becomes
phrse  as oubles acontribution!  Suc  adcinr
had already appeared in the French language, drawn up    ld. Molere lauhed at the ter   enanir, t describe
old. Mholr laughed atthe tanerm  f   bs'en  annaier,   te descib
by two caustic critics, who in the Dictionnaire neologique   one who assumed the manners of a blackguard; the  x
a l'usage des beauxEsprits du Siecle, collected together the   pressive word has remained in the language.
numerous unlucky  inventions of affectation, with their         There are two remarkable French words created by the
modern authorities! A collection of the fine words and   Abhd de Saint Pierre, who passed his meritorious life in
phrases culled from some very modern poetry, might show   the contemplation of political morality and universal bene.
the real amount of the favours bestowed  on us.               volence-bienfaisance and gloriole.  He invented gloriole
The attempts of neologists are, however, not n. cessa-   as a contemptuous diminutive of gloire; to describe that
Tey to be condemned; and we may join r with she common-   vanity of some egotists, so j)roud of the small talents which
tators of' Aulus  e.'ius, who have lamented the loss of a   the  may have received from  natre   r from  accident.
chapter, of which the title only has descended to us. That  Bienfaisance first appeared in this sentence:'L'Esprit de
la vraie religion et la principal but d 1'evangiecstain
chapter would have demonstrated what happens to all   a  rie reliion et a principal bit d evangie cst labienlangages, that some neologism, which at first are con-  faisance, c'est-a-dire la pratique de ]a charit6 envers le
sidered  forced or inelegant, become  sanctioned  by usen   prochain.  This word was so new, that in the moment of
and in time are quoted as authority in the very languag    its ceaion this od man explined its necessity and on
"is   creatin  Chsrodmaneplainin  htItewod   its ncharity"i abusedlwhich, in their early stage, they were imagined to have   gin.  Complaining that'the word "charity" is abused by
debased.                                                      all sorts of Christians in the persecution of their enemies,
The trute history of men's minds is found in their ac-  and even heretics affirm that they are practising Christian
tions;  their wants are indicated by their contrivances;  charity in persecuting other heretics, I have sought for a
an: t,.tain it is that in highly cultivated ages we discover  term which might convey to is a precise idea of doing
the most refined intellects attempting neologisms. It would   good to our neighbours, and I can form  none more proper
be a subject of great curiosity to trace the origin of many   to make myself understood than the term  of bienfaisance,
happy expressions, when, and bvy    whom  created.  Plato m   good-doing.  Let those who like, use it; I would only be
happy expressions,  weadb             hmcetd  lt
substituted the term Providence for fate; and a new sys-   understood, and it is not equivocal.'  The happy word was
tom of human affairs arose from a single word.  Cicero   at first critised, but at length every kind heart found it
invented several; to this philosopher we owe the term  of  responded to its own feeling.  Some verses from Voltaire,
moral philosophy, which before his time was called the   alludine to the political reveries of the good aibhb, notuce
hilsohy  f  annrs Bu  o  Ots ub ect we are per-poion
Ehhlosophy of manners.  But on ttis subje  warpe- the critical opposition; yet the new word answered to the
aps more interested by the modern than by the ancient   great rule of Horace.
languages.  Richardson, the painter of the human heart' Certain legislateur, dont la plume feconde
has coined some expressions to indicate its little secret         Fit tant de valins projects pour le bien du monde,
movements which are admirable: that great genius me-              Et qui depuis trente ans 6crit pour des ingrats,
rited a higher education and more literary leisure than the       Viens de creer un mtt qui manque a Vaugelas:
life of a printei:ould afford.  MIontaigne created some          Ce met est Bienfaisanee, il me plait, il rassemble
Si le cceur en est crl, bien des vertus ensemble.
bold expressions, maty of which have not survived him;            Petits  rammiairiens,  grands precepteurs de sote,
ineuriositie so opposite to curiosity, well describes that        Pui prsez am parole et rnreez pes notso
Qtti peses Ia partol estitesutrez tes incus,
state of negligence where we will not learn that of which         Pareille expression voues semble harzard6e,
We a e ignorant. With us the word incurious was described         Mais'uni,'ero entier dolt en cherirent l'ide!,




LIT ERATUR E.                                                         277
The French revolutionists, in their rage for innovation,  may sometimes produce the beautiful, the revival of the
almost barbarized the pure French of the Augustean age   dead is the more authentic miracle; for a new word must
of their literature, as they did many things which never  long remain doubtfil, but an ancient word happily recover.
before occurred; and sometimes experienced feelings as   ed, rests on a basis of permanent strength-it has both
transitory as they were strange.  Their nomenclature was  novelty and authority!  A collection ofpicturesque swords,
copious; but the revolutionary jargon often shows the   found among our ancient writers, would consritute a predanger and the necessity of neologisms.  They form an   dions supplement to the history of our language. Far more
appendix to the Acadenmy Dictionary.  Our plain English   expressive than our term of executioner is their solemn one
has served to enrich this odd mixture of philology and   of the deathsman; than our vagabond their scatterling;
politics; Club, clubists, comitd, jurd, juge de paix, blend   than our idiot or lunatic their moonling; a word which Mr
witi their terrorisnme, lanterner, a verb active, levde en   Gifford observes should not have been suffered to grow
masse, noyades, and the other verb active Septembriser,  obsolete.  Herrick finely describes by the term pittering
&c.  The barbarous term  demoralisation is said to have  the peculiar shrill and short cry of the grasshopper.* Envy
been the invention of the' horridl capuchin Chabot; and'dusking the lustre' of genius, is a verb lost for us, but
the remarkab'e expression of arriere.pensde belonged ex-  which gives a more precise expression to the feeling than
clusively in its birth to the jesuitic astuteness of the Abb6   any other words which we could use.
Sieyes, that political actor who, in changing sides, never    The late Dr Boucher, of whose prejected Theasurus
required prompting in his new part!                        of our ancient English language we only possess the first
A new word, the result of much consideration with its  letter of the alphabet, while the great and precious portion
author, or a term which, though unknown to the language,  is suffered to moulder away among his family, in the prosconveys a collective assemblage of ideas by a fortunate   pectus of that work, did me the honour, then a young wridesigination,  is a pre.cious contribution of genius; new   ter, to quote an opinion I had formed early in life of the
words should convey new ideas.  Swift, living amidst a   purest source of neology-which is in the revival of old
civil war of pamphlets, when certain writers were regular-  words,
ly employed by one party to draw up replies to the other,'Words, that wise Bacon or brave Rawleigh spake P
created a term not to be found in our dictionaries, but
which, by a single stroke, characterizes these hirelings;     Ve have lost tay exquisite and picturesque expressions
he called them  answerjobbers.  We have not dropped the   through the dulness of our lexicographers, or by that defihe called them answer-jobbers. We have not dropped the?
fortunate expression firot any want of its use, but of per-  ciency in that profounder study of our writers which their
ception in our lexicographers,   The celebrated Marquis  labours require far more than theythemselves know. Th
Z,                          ~~~~~~~~~natural graces of our language }lave been i.mpoverished!
of Lansdowne introduced a useful word, which has been    atu   races of our language have been  mpoverished
of late warmly adopted in France as well as in Englaid-    The genius that throws its prophetic eye over the language,
and the taste that must come from Heaven, no lexicograto libfralise; the norm has been drawn out of the verb-z
for i the marquis's tie, that was only an ahstract      pher imagines are required to accompany him  amidst a
ception which is now a sect; and to liberalise was the-  library of old books!
oretically introduced before the liberals arose.*  It is cu-           THE PHILOSOPHY O' PROvERBs.
rious to observe that as an adjective it had fbrmerly in our  In antique furniture we sometimes discover a cnve
I                                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In antique furniture we sometimes discover a econvenilangiuage a very opposite meaning to its recent one.  It.  ence which long disuse had made us unacquainted with,
ff as svnonvmous with I libertine o`r' licentious,' we have I a
s  yomous  with'libertine or liceios' we hve  and are surprised by the aptness which we did not suspect
liberal villain' arid'a most profane anrid liberal counsellr,   was concealed in its solid forms.'e have found the 
was concealed in its solid forms. Wfe have found the lawe findt one declaring' I have spiken too liberally.' This  bour of the workman to have been as aduirable as the ma.
is unlucky for the liberals, who will not-                 terial itself, which is still resisting the mouldering touch of'Give allowance to our liberal jests               Time among those modern inventions, elegant and unsub.
Upon their ptrsons-'                              stantial, which, often put together with unseasoned wood,
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.    are apt to warp and fly into pieces when brought into use.
My learned friend Archdeacon Nares in his valuable   We have found how strength consists in the selection of
Glossary has supplied a variety of instances.              materials, and that, whenever the substitute is not better
Dr Priestley employed a forcible, but not an elegant  than the original, we are losing something in that test of
term, to mark the general information which had begun in  experience, which all things derive from duration.
his day; this he frequently calls' the spreadof knowledge.'    Be this as it may! I shall not unreasonably await for the
Burke attempted to brand with a new nanme that set of artists of our novelties to retrograde into massve greatness,
ert, petulent, sophistical sciolists, whose philosophy, the   although I cannrot avoid reminding them  how often they
French, since their revolutionary period, have distinguish-  revive the forgotten things of past times! It is well known
ed as philosophism, and the philosophers themselves as  that many of our novelties were in use by our ancestors!
philosemhistes.   He would have designated themn as lite-  In the history of the human mind there is, indeed, a sort
raters, bhut few exotic words will circulate; new  words   of antique furniture which I collect, not merely from their
must be the coinage of' our own language to blend with   antiquity, but for the sound condition in which I still find
the vernacular idiom.  Many new words are still wanted.  them, and the compactness which they still show. CenWe have no word by which we could translate the otium   turies have not worm-eaten their solidity, and the utility
of the Latins, the dilettante of the Italians, the alembiqud   and delightfulness which they still afford make them  look
of the French, as an epithet to describe that sublimated   as fresh and as ingenious as any of our patient inventions.
ingenuity which exhausts the mind, till, like tile fusion of  By the title of the present article the reader has anticithe diamond, the intellect itselfdisappears. A philosopher,  pated the nature of the old fiirniture to which I allude.  I
in an extensive view of a subject in all its bearings, may   propose to give what, in the style of our times. may be calconvey to us the result of his last considerations, by the  led the philosophy of PRovERaBs-a topic which seems vircoinage of a novel and significant expression as this of  gin.  The art of reading proverbs has not, indeed, always
Professor Dugald Stewart-political religionism. Let me   been  acquired even by some of their admirers; bit y obclaim the honour of one pure neologism.  I ventured to  servations, like their subject, must be versatile and unconintroduce the term  of father-land to describe our natale  nected; and I must bespeak indulgence for an aitemrpt to
solum; I have lived to see it adopted by Lord Byron and   illustrate a very curious branch ofliteratc, e, rather not unby Mr Southey.  This energetic expression may there-  derstood than quite forgotten.
fore be.considered -as authenticated; and patriotism may    PROVERBS have lone been in disuse.'A man of fashstamp it with its glory and its affection.  Father-land is  ion,' observes Lord Chesterfield,'never has recourse to
congenial with the language in which we find that other  proverbs ard vrlgar aphorisms;' and since the time his
fine expression of mother-tongue. The patriotic neologism   lordship so solemnly interdicted their use, they appear to
originated with me in Holland, when, in early life, it was  have withered away under the ban of his anathema.  His
my daily pursuit to turn over the glorious history of its  lordship was little conversant with the history of proverbs,
independence utinder the title of Vaderlandsche Historie-the   and would unquestionably have smiled on those'men ti
history of fatherland!                                     fashion' if another stamp, who, in the days of Elizabeth,
If we acknowledge that the creation of some neologisms   James, and Charles, were great collectors oftithem; would
The quarterly Reiw recently marked the word  appeal to them in their conversations, and enforce them in
fee Itlicsas a straige word, undotbtetly not taibere.fit  their learned or their statesman-like correspondence. Few,
Ise in Italics as a strange word, undoubtedly not aware ei its
oriin. It has been lately used by Mr iDugald Stewart,'to     * The cry of the grasshopper is pit! pit! pit! quickly roiberalise the views.' Dissert. 2d part, p. 138.            peated.




278                                  CURIOSITIES OF
perhaps, even now suspect, that these neglected fragments  dark sayings of the wise' accords with the bold conjecture
of wisdom, which exist among all nations, still offer many   of their origin, which the Stagirite has thrown out, who
interesting objects for the studies of the philosopher and   considered them as the wrecks of an ancient philosophy
the historian; and for men of the world still open an ex-  which had been lost to mankind by the fatal revolution of
tensive schocl of human life and manners.               all human things, and that those had been saved from the
The home-spun adages, and the rusty'sayed saws'  general ruin by their pithy elegance, and their diminutive
which remain in the mouths of the people, are adapted to  form; like those marine shells found on the tops of mountheir capacities and their humours; easily remembered,  tains, the relics of the Deluge! Even at a later period,
and readily applied; these are the philosophy of the vul-  the sage of Cheronea prized them among the most solemn
gar, and often more sound than that of their masters!  mysteries; and Plutarch has described them in a manner
Whoever would learn what the people think, and how they   which proverbs may even still merit;' Under the veil of
feel, must not reject even these as insignificant. The pro-  these curious sentences are hid those germs of morals,
verbs of the street and of the market, true to nature, and   which the masters of philosophy have afterwards developed
lasting only because they are true, are records how the  into so many volumes.'
populace at Athens and at Rome were the same people as    At the highest period of Grecian genius, the tragic and
at Paris and at London, and as they had before been in  the comic poets introduced into their dramas the proverbial
the city of Jerusalem!                                 style. St Paul quotes a line which still remains among
Proverbs existed before books. The Spaniards date the  the first exercises of our school-pens:
origin of their refranes que dicen las viejas tras el fuego,   Evil communications corrupt good ianners.''sayings of old wives by their firesides,' before the existence of any writings in their language, from the circumstance  It is a verse tound in a fragment of Menander, the comic
that these are in the old romance or rudest vulgar idiom.  poet:
The most ancient poem in the Edda,' the sublime speech             0O6spuev n,7t XpnaO' bliXat KaKam.
Of Odin,' abounds with ancient proverbs, strikingly descrip
of Odin,'h abnds with Sancient proverbs, strikingly descrip-  As this verse is a proverb, and the apostle, and indeed the
tive of the ancient Scandinavians. Undoubtedly proverbs  highest authority, Jesus himself, consecrates the use of
in the earliest ages lona served as the unwritten language
n                 E                  1 rrl  r 1 1 1 1  8 proverbs by their occasional application, it is uncertain
of morality, and even of the useful arts; like the oral tradi-  whether St Paul quotes the Grecian poet, or only repeats
tions of the Jews, they floated down from age to age on the  some popular adage. Proverbs were bright shafts in the
lips of successive generations. The name of the first sage  Greck and Latin quivers; and when Bentley, by a league
who sanctioned the saying would in time be forgotten, while  of superficial wits, was accused of pedantry for his use o
the opinion, the metaphor, or the expression, remained coi-  some ancient proverbs, the sturdy critic vindicated his
secrated into a proverb! Such was the origin of those memo-  taste, by showing that Cicero constantly introduced Greek
Table sentences by which men learnt to think and to speak  proverbs into his writings-that Scaliger and Erasmus
appositely; they were precepts which no man could contra-loved them, and had frmed collections drawn from the
diet at a time when authority was valued more than opinion,  stores of antiquity.
and experience preferred to novelty.  The proverbs of a    Some difficulty has occurred in the definition. Proverbs
father became the inheritance of a son; the mistress of a  must be distinguished from proverbial phrases, and from
fatnily perpetuated hers through her household; the work-  sententious naxims; but as proverbs have many faces,
man condensed some traditional secret of his craft into a  from their miscellaneous nature the class itself scarcely
proverbial expression. When countries are not yet popu-  admits of any definition. When Johnson defined a proverb
ious, and property has not yet produced great inequa-  to be' a short sentence frequently repeated by the people,'
hitles in its ranks, every day will show  them how'the   this definition would not include the most curious ones,
drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and drowsiness  which have not always circulated among the populace,
clothes a man with rags.' At such a period he who gave  nor even belong to them: nor does it designate the vital
counsel Lave wealth.                                    qualities of a proverb. The pithy quaintness of old Howel
It might therefore have been decided, a priori, that the  has admirably described the ingredients of an exquisite promost homely proverbs would abound in the most ancient  verb to be sense, shortness, and salt. A proverb is distin.
writers-and such we find in Hesiod; a poet whose learn-  guished fron a maxim or an apophthegm, by that brevity
inug was not drawn from books. It could only have been in  which condenses a thought or a metaphor, where one thing
the agricultural state that this venerable bard could have  is said and another is to be applied; this often produces
indicated a state of repose by this rustic proverb.     wit; and that quick pungency which excites surprise, but
7rlauaXtov ptev VreEP Ka7rvs KaraJTisl.     strikes with conviction; this gives it an epigrammatic turn.' Hang yourplough-beam o'er the hearth!'    George Herbert entitled the small collection which he formThe envy of rival workmen is as justly described by a  ed'Jacula Prudentum,' Darts or Javelins! somethin
reference to the humble manufacturers of earthen-ware as  hurled and striking deeply; a characteristic of a proverb
by the elevated jealousies of the literati and the artists of a  which possibly Herbert may have borrowed from  a remore polished age. The famous proverbial verse of He-  markable passage in Plato's dialogue of' Protagoras, or the
siod's Works and Days,                                  Sophists.'
The influence of proverbs over the minds and conversaKat Kspapyevs Kspasl m6relt,              tions of a whole people is strikingly illustrated by this phiis literally,' The potter is hostile to the potter  losopher's explanation.of the term to laconise; the mode
The admonition of the poet to his brother, to prefer a   of speech peculiar to the Lacednemonians.  This people
friendly accommodation to a litigious law-suit, has fixed a  affected to appear unlearned, and seemed only emulous to
paradoxical proverb often applied,                      excel the rest of the Greeks in fortitude and in military
parado Xeial prov irb ofte ranapplid,       skill. According to Plato's notion, this was really a poli-'The lafisbetterothanthe                    tical artifice, with a view to conceal their pre-eminent
wisdom. With the jealousy of a petty state they attempted
In the progress of time, the stock of popular proverbs  to confine their renowned sagacity within themselves, and
received accessions from the highest sources of human in-  under their military to hide their contemplative character!
telligence; as the philosophers of antiquity formed their  The philosopher assures those who in other cities imagined
collections, they increased in weight and number.' Eras-  they laconised, merely by imitating the severe exercises,
mus has pointed out some of these sources, in the responses  and the other warlike manners of the Laced&emonians,
of oracles; the allegorical symbols of Pythagoras; the  that they were grossly deceived: and thus curiously de.
verses of the poets; allusions to historical incident; my-  scribes the sort of wisdom which this singular people practhology and apologtiue; and other recondite origins: such  tised.
dissimilar matters coming front all quarters, were melted'If any one wishes lo converse with the meanest of
down into this vast body of aphoristic knowledge. Those  the Lacednemonians, he willi at first find him  for the most'stords of the uwise, and their dark sayings,' as they are  part, apparently, despicable in conversation; but afterdistinguished in that large collection which bears the name  wards, when a proper opportunity presents itself, this
ofthe great Hebrew monarch, at length seem to have requir-  same mean person, like a skilful jaculator. will hurl a sens
ed commentaries;for what else can we infer of the enigma-  tence worthy of attention short and contorted; so that he
tic wisdom of the sages, when the royal paraemiographer  who converses with him will appear to be in no respect
classes among their studies, that of' understanding a pro-  superior to a boy! That to laconise. therefore, consists
wrb and the interpretation?' This elevated notion of'the   much more in philosophising than in the love of exercise




LITERATURE.                                                        279
is understood by some of the present age, and was known   presentative of the fanled governor of Baritaria, deliverto the ancients, they being persuaded that the ability of  ing himself thus-' It is now my chance to speak someuttering tuch sentences as these is the province of a man   thing, and that without humming or hawing.  I think this
perfectly learned.  The seven sages were emulators, lo-  law is a good law.  Even reckoning makes long friends.
vers, and disciples of the Lacedemonian  erudition. Their  As far goes the penny as the penny's master. Vigilantibus
wisdom was a Ihing of this kind; viz., short sentences ut-  non dormientibusjura subveniunt. Pay the reckoning overtered by each, and worthy to be remembered.  These men,  night, and you shall not be troubled in the morning.  If
assembling t(get.her, consecrated to Apollo the first fruits  ready money be mensura publica, let every  nile cut his
of their wisdom; writing in the temple of Apollo, at Del-  coat according to his cloth.  When his old suit is in the
phi, those sentences which are celebrated by all men, viz.,  wane, let him stay till that his money bring a new suit in
rKnow T'hyself! and Nothing too much!  But on what ac-  the increase.'*
count do I tller ion these things?-to show that the mode    Another instance of the use of proverbs among ow
of philosophy among the ancients was a certain laconic dic-  statesmen occurs in a manuscript letter of Sir Dudley
tion.*'                                                    Carlton, written in 1632 on the impeachment of Lord Mid.
The' laconisms' of the Lacedaenonians evidently par-  dlesex, who, he says, is' this day to plead his own cause
took of the piroverbial style: they were, no doubt, often  in the exchequer-chamber, about an account of' fourscore
proverbs themselves.  The very instances which Plato  thousand pounds laid to his charge.  How  his lordships
supplies of this' laconising' are two most venerable pro-  sped 1 know not, but do remember well the French proveros.                                                     verb, Qui mange de l'oye du Roy chiera une plumne quarAll this elevates the science of proverbs, and indicates   ante ans apres.' Who eats of the kinlg's goose, will void
that these abridglnents of knowledge convey great results   a feather forty years after!'
with a parsimony of words prodigal of sense. They have,      This was the era of proverbs with us; for then they
therefore, preserved many' a short sentence, not repeated   were spoken by all ranks of society.  The free use of triby the people.'                                            vial proverbs got them into disrepute; and as the abuse of
it is evident, however, that the earliest writings of every   a thing raises a just opposition to its practice, a slender wit
people are marked by their most homely, or domestic pro-  affecting' a cross humour,' published a little volume of
verbs; for these were more directly addressed to their' Crossing of Proverbs, Cross-answers, and Cross.huwants.  Franklin, who may be considered as the founder   mours.'   He  pretends to contradict the most popular
of a people, who were suddenly placed in a stage of civil  ones; but he has not always the genius to strike at amussociety which as yet could afford no literature, discovered   ing paradoxes.t
the philosophical cast of his genius, when he filled his al-    Proverbs were long the favourites of our neighbours: in
manacks with proverbs, by the ingenious contrivance of  the splendid and refined court of Louis XIV,they gave rise
framina them  into a connected discourse, delivered by an   to an odd invention. They plotted comedies and even
oldl man attending an auction.' These proverbs,' he tells  fantastical ballets, from their subjects.  In these Curiosius,' which contained the wisdom of many ages and na-  ties of Literature 1 cannot pass by such eccentric inventions
tions, when their scattered counsels were brought together,  unnoticed.
nlade a great impression.  They were reprinted in Bri-       A Comedy of proverbs is described by the Duke de la
tain, in a large sheet of paper, and stuck up in houses;  Valliere, which was performed in 1634, with prodigious
and were twice translated in France, and distributed   success.   He considers that this comedy ought to be
amonig their poor parishioners.' The same occurrence   ranked among farces; but it is gay, well-written, and cuhad happened with us ere we became a reading people.  rious for containing the best proverbs, which are happily
Mitch later feven than the reign of Elizabeth our ancestors  introduced in the dialogue.
had proverbs always before them, on every thing which        A more extraordinary attempt was A Ballet of proverbs.
had room for a piece of advice on it; they had them   Before the opera was established in France, the ancient
painted in their tapestries, stamped on the most ordinary   ballets formed the chief amusement of the court, and
utensils, on the blades of their knives, the borders of their  Louis XIV  himself joined with the performers.  The
plates,t and' conned them out of Goldsmith's rings.' The   singular attempt of forming a pantomimical dance out of
usurer, in Robert Green's' Groat's worth of Wit,' corn-  proverbs is quite French; we have a'ballet des proverpressed all his philosophy into the circle of his ring, hav-  bes, dance  par le Roi, in 1654.'  At every proverb the
mgi learnt sufficient Latin to understand the proverbial  serie changed, and adapted itself to the subject.  I shall
niotto of' Tu tibi cura!'  The husband was reminded of'  give two or three of the entrdes that we mav form some nohis lordly authority when he only looked into his trencher,  t:ori of these capriccios.
one of its learned aphorisms having descended to us,-         The proverb was'The calmest husbands make the stormyest wives.'                    Tel menace qui a grand peur.
The English proverbs of the populace, most of which' He threatens who is afraid 1'
are still in circulation, were collected by old John Hey-   The scene was composed of swaggering scaramouches and
w.ood.T  They are arranaed by Tusser for' the parlour-   some honest cits, who at length beat theni off;
the guest's chamber-the hall-the table-lessons,' &c. Not     At another entree the proverb was
a small portion of our ancient proverbs were adapted to                  L'occasionfait le larron.
rural life, when our ancestors lived more than ourselves'Opportunity makes the thief.'
amidst the works of God, and less among those of men.
At this time, one of our old statesmen, in commending the    Opportunity was acted by le Sieur Beaubrun, but it is difiart of compressing a tedious discourse into a few significant  cult to conceive hov the  real could personify the abstract
phrases, suggested the use of proverbs in diplomatic inter-  personage.  The thieves were the Duke d'Amvillo and
course, convinced of the great benefit which would result  Monsieur de Ir Chesnaye.
to the negotiators themselves, as well as to others! I give
a iterary curiosity of this kind.  A member of the House          Ce qui vient de laflute s'en va au tambeur.
of Commons, in the reign of Elizabeth, made a speech' What comes by the pipe goes by the tabor.'
entirely composed of the most homely proverbs.  The   A  loose dissipated officer was performed 
rlln; n s  af s   A  loose dissipated officer  was performed iov le Sieur
subject was a bill against double-payments of book-debts.'Anglois  the pipe by St Aignan and the toby le Sieur
t, —J-~ —   ~~ -~~ - -~-~~ -            I'Anglois ~ the pipe by St Aignan, and the tabor'by le Sieur
Knavish tradesmen were then in the habit of swellin' out
navish trade en  were then in the habit of seling out  le Comte!  In this manner every proverb was spoken in
their book-debts with those who took credit, particularly
to their youner customers.  One of the members who          * Townshend's Historical Collections, p. 283.
began to speak'for very fear shook,' and stood silent.      t It was published in 1616: the writer only catches at some
bean to speak   for very fear shook,' and stood silent.  verbal expressions-as, for instance,
The nervous orator was followed by a blunt and true re-  The vulgar proverb runs,' The more the merrier.,
* Taylor's Ttranslation of Plato's Works, Vol. V, p. 36.  The cross,-' Not so! one hand is enough in a purse!'
CiOne of the tiuit tenchers for such these roundels are called   The proverb,' It is a great way to the bottom of the sea.'
in the Gent. Mag., for 1793, p. 398, is engraved there, and the  The cross,-' Not so! it is but a storie's cast.'
inscriptions of tan entire set given.-See also the supplement to  The proverb,' The pride of the rich makes the labours of tlh
that volume, p. 1187.                                              poor.'
$ Heywood's' Dialogue, contevninge the Number in Effecte  The cross,-' Not so! the labours of the poor make the pride
of all the Proverbs inl the English Tunue, 1561.' There are         ofthe rich.'
more editions' of this little volume than Wharton  has noticed.  The proverb,' He runs far who never turns.'
There is some hulmotr in his narrative, but his ometre and his  The cross,-' Not so; he may break his neck in a show
ribaldry are heavy taxes on our curiosity.                          course.'




280                                 CURIOSITIES OF
action, the whole connected by dialogue: more must have  and aspired to its sovereignty, lived long enough to repent
depended on the acts than the poet.*                    the wild romantic ambition which provoked all Italy to
The French long retained this fondness for proverbs;  confederate against him; the mysterious motto he asfor they still have dramatic compositions entitled proverbes,  sumed entered into the proverbs of his country! The
on a moi e refined plan. Their invention is so recent, that  Border proverb of the Douglases,' It were better to hear
the term  is not in their great dictionary of Trevoux.  the lark sing than the mouse cheep, was adopted by
These proverbes are dramas of a sinale act, invented by  every border chief, to express, as Sir Walter Scott ob 
Marmontel, who possessed a peculiar vein of humour, but  serves, what the great Bruce had pointed out, that the
who designed them only for private theatricals.  Each  woods and hills of their country were their safest bulproverb furnished a subject for a few scenes, and created   warks, instead of the fortified places, which the English
a situation powerfully comic: it is a dramatic amusement  surpassed their neighbours in the arts of assaulting or
which does not appear to have reached us, but one which  defending. These illustrations indicate one of the sources
the celebrated Catharine of Russia delighted to compose  of proverbs; they have often resulted fiom the spontafor her own society.                                   neous emotions or the profound reflections of somle extraAmong the middle classes of society to this day, we  ordinary individual, whose energetic expression was caught
may observe that certain family proverbs are traditionally  by a faithful ear, never to perish!
preserved: the favourite saying of a father is repeated by  The poets have been very busy with proverbs in all the
the sons; and frequently the conduct of a whole genera-  languages of Europe: some appear to have been the fation has been influenced by such domestic proverbs. This  vourite lines of some ancient poem: even in more refined
may be perceived in many of the mottos of our old nobility,  times, many of the pointed verses of Boileau and Pope
which seem to have originated in some habitual proverb of  have become proverbial. Many trivial and laconic pro'
the fotrlder of the family. In ages when proverbs were  verbs bear the jingle of alliteration or rhyme, which asmost prevalent,such pithy sentences would admirably serve  sisted their circulation, and were probably struck off ex.
in the ordinary business of life, and lead on to decision,  tempore; a manner which Swift practised, who was a
even in its greater exigencies.  Orators, by some lucky  ready coiner of such rhyming and ludicrous proverbs; deproverb, without wearying their auditors, would bring con-  lighting to startle a collector by his facetious or sarcastic
viction home to their bosoms; and great characters would  humour, in the shape of an' old saying and true.' Some
appeal to a proverb, or deliver that, which, in time, by its  of these rhyming proverbs are, however, terse and elec
aptitude, became one. When Nero was reproached for  gant: we have
the ardour with which he gave himself up to the study of'Little strokes
music, he replied to his censurers by the Greek proverb,                 Fell great oaks.''An artist lives every where.' The emperor answered
in the spirit of Rousseau's system, that every child should  The Italianbe taught some trade. When Caesar, after anxious de-                Chi duo lepri caccia,
liberation, decided on the passage of the Rubicon (which             Uno perde, e 1' altro lascia.
very event has given rise to a proverb,) rousing himself' Who hunts two hares, loses one and leaves the other.
with a start of courage, he committed himself to Fortune,
with that proverbial expression on his lips, used by game-  The haughty Spaniardsters in desperate play: having passed the Rubicon, he                   El dar es honor,
exclaimed' The die is cast!' The answer of Paulus                       Y el pedir dolor.
XEmilius to the relations of his wife, who had remonstrated' To give is honour, to ask is grief.'
with him on his determination to separate himself from
her against whom no fault could be alleged, has become        the French
one of our most familiar proverbs.  This hero acknow-                    Ami de table
ledged the excellencies of his lady; but, requesting them                Est variable.
to look on his shoe, which appeared to be well made, he' The friend of the table
observed,'None of you know where the shoe pinches!'               Is very variable.'
He either used a proverbial phrase, or by its aptness it    The composers of thes short proverbs were a nume
has become one of the most popular.
has become one of the most popular.                 rous race of poets, who, prohably, among the dreams of. There are, indeed, proverbs connected with the charac-  their immortality never suspected that they were to de
ters of eminent men; they were either their favouritetheir immortality never suspected that they were to deters of eminent men; they were  ither their fort    scend to posterity, themselves and their works unknown,
Ones, or have originated with themselves: such a colleeones, or have originated with themselves: such a  o.e. -   while their extempore thoughts would be repeated by their
tion would form an historical curiosity. To the celebrated   own nation.
Bayard are the French indebted for a military proverb,    Proverbs were at length consigned to the people, when
which some of them  still repeat. Ce que ne gantelet gagene    books were addressed to scholars; buit the people did not
le gorgerin le mange,' What the gauntlet gets, the gorget  find themselves so destitute of practical wisdom, by preconsumes.' That reflecting, soldier well calculated the.,
conrume5.' Tb t refecting soldier well calculated the  serving their national proverbs, as some of those closet
profits of a military life, which consumes, in the pomp and  students who had ceased to repeat them.  The various
waste which are necessary for its maintenance, the slen-  humours of mankind, in the mutaility of human affairs
der pay it receives, and even what its rapacity sometimes  had given birth to every speties; and  men were wise, or
acquires.  The favourite proverb of Erasmus was Festiacqires.  The Havourite proverbsof!Erasmush wae   Festi-  merry, or satirical, and mourned or rejoiced in proverbs.?a lente!   Hasten slowly!'- He wished it to be inscribed   Nations held an universal intercourse of proverbs, from
wherever it could meet oulr eyes; on public buildings, and  eastern to the western world  for e discover among
the eastern to the western world; for we discover among
on our rings and seals. One of our own statesmen used a   those which appear strictly national many which are comfavourite sentence, which has enlarged our stock of na-  mon tothem  ll. Of our own familiar ones several may
tional proverbs. Sir Amias Pawlet, when he perceived   be tracked among the snows of the Latins and the
too much hurry in any business, was accustomed to say,  Greeks, and have sometimes been drawn from'The'Stay awhile, to make an end the sooner.' Oliver Crom-  Mines of the East:' like decayed families which remain
well's coarse, but descriptive proverb, conveys the con-  in obscurity, they may boas
tempt he felt for some of his mean and troublesome coad-  henever they recover their lost title-eeds. The v
jutors:  Nits will be lice!' The Italians have a proverb   ver                t         tl
proverb, I' o carry coals to Neweastle,' local and idio.
which has been occasionally applied to certain political  mati as it appears, however, has been borrowed and ap.
matte as it appears, however, has been borrowed and ap.
personages:-                                           plied by ourselves; it may be found among the Persians;
Egli e quello che Dio vuole;               in the'Bustan' of Sadi we have Infers piper in Iindos.
E sara quello che Dio vorra!              tan;' To carry pepper to Hindostan;' among the He-' He is what God pleases;                  brews,' To carry oil to a city of Olives;' a similar proHe shall be what God wills!'              verb occurs in Greek; and in Galland's' Maxims of the
Ere this was a proverb, it had served as an embroidered   East' we mav discover how many of the most common
motto on the mystical mantle of Castruccio Castracani.  proverbs among us, as well as some of Joe Miller's jests,
That military genius, who sought to revolutionize Italy,  are of oriental origin.
* It has been sleuggested that this whimsical amusement has  The resemblance of certain proverbs in different nations
beet, lately revived, to a certain degree, in the acting of Cha.  must, however, be often ascribed to the identity of human,ades among juvenile parties.           nature; similar situations and similar objects have unques.
ade Now the punninge parties.  family.
J Nr~ow thfe punning motto of a noble family.         tionably made men think and act. and express themselves




LITERATUR E                                                             281
alike.  All nations are parallels of each other! Hence          The interest we may derive from the study of proverbs
all parerniographers, or collectors of proverbs, complain  is not confined to their universal truths, nor to their poignof tne difficulty of separating their own national proverbs  ant pleasantry; a philosophical mind will discover in pro.
Cram those which had crept into the language from others,  verbs a great variety of the most curious knowledge.  The?articularlv when nations have held much intercourse to-  manners of a people are painted after life in their domestic
gether.  We have a copious collection of Scottish pro-  proverbs; and it would not be advancing too much to asverbs by Kelly, but this learned man was mortified at dis-  sert, that the genius of the age might be often detected in
covering that many which he had long believed to have   its prevalent ones.  The learned Selden tells us, that the
been genuine Scottish were not only English, but French,  proverbs of several nations were much studied by Bishop
Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Greek ones; many of his   Andrews; the reason assigned was, because' by them he
Scottish proverbs are almost literally expressed among   knew the minds of several nations, which,' said he,'is a
the fragments of remote antiquity.  It would have sur-  brave thing, as we count him  wise who knows the minds
prised him  further had he been aware that his Greek ori-  and the insides of men, which is done by knowing what is
ginals were themselves but copies, and might have been   habitual to them.' Lord Bacon condensed a wide circuit
found in D'HIerbelot, Erpenius, and Golius, and in many   of philosophical thought, when he observed that'the ge.
Asiatic works, which have been more recently introduced   nius, wit, anid spirit of a nation are discovered by their
to the enlarged knowledge of the European student, who proverbs.'
formerly found his most extended researches limited by          Proverbs peculiarly national, while they convey to us
Hellenistic lore,                                             the modes of thinking, w'll consequently indicate the modes
Perhaps it was owing to an accidental circumstance that  of acting among a people.  The Romans had a proverbial
the proverbs of the European nations have been preserved   expression for their last stake in play, Rem  ad trierios vein the permanent form  of volumes.  Erasmus is usually   nisse,'the reserve are engaged!' a proverbial expression,
considered as the first modern collector, but he appears to  from which the military habits of the people miebht be infer.
have been preceded by Polydore Vergil, who bitterly re-  red; the triarii being their reserve.  A proverb has preproaches Erasmus with envy and plagiarism, for passing   served a curious custom of ancient coxcombry  which oriby his collection without even a poor compliment for the   ginally came from  the Greeks.  To men of effeminate
inventor!  Polydore was a vain, superficial writer, who   manners in their dress, they applied the proverb of Unico
prided himself in leading the way on more topics than the   digitulo scalpit caput.  Scratching the head with a single
present.  Erasmus, with his usual pleasantry, provoking-   finger was, it seems, d'one by the critically nice youths in
ly excuses himself, by acknowledging that he had forgotten   Rome, that they might not discompose the economv of
his friend's book! Few  sympathize with the quarrels of  their hair.  The Arab, whose unsettled existence makes
authors; and since E.rasmus has written a far better book   him miserable and interested, says,' Vinegar given is betthan Polydore Vergil's, the original'IAdagia' is left only   ter than honey bought.'  Every thing of high esteem  with
to be commemorated in literary history as one of its cur-   him who is so often parched in the desert is described as
osities.*                                                     milk —' How large his flow of milk!' is a proverbial expres.
The' Adagta' of Erasmus contains a collection of about   sion with the Arab, to distinguish the most copious elo.
ive thousand proverbs, gradually gathered from a constant   quence.  To express a state of perfect repose, the Ara.
study of the ancients.  Erasmus, blest with the genius   bian proverb is,' I throw the rein over my back:' an alliiwhich could enliven a folio, delighted himself and all Eu.   sion to the loosening of the cords of the camels which are
rope by the continued accessions he made to a volume   thrown over their backs when they are sent to pasture.
which even now may be the companion of literary men for   We discover the rustic manners of our ancient Britons in
a winter day's fire-side.  The successful example of Eras-   the Cambrian proverbs; many relate to the hedge.' The
isus commanded the imitation of the learned in Europe-  cleanly Briton is seen in the hedge: the horse loolks not on
and drew  their attention to their own national proverbs.  the hedge but the corn: the bad husband's hedge is full of
Some of the most learned men, and some not sufficiently   gaps.'  The state of an agricultural people aprpears in such
so, were now occupied in this new study.t                      proverbs as,  You muist not count your yearlings till May.
* At the Royal Institution there is a fine copy of Polydore   day:' and their proverbial sentence for old age is,' An old
Verail's'Adlsla,' with his other work, curious in its day, De   man's end is to keep sheep!'  Turn from the vagrant Aral
Inve~t(wribus VPerum, printed by Frohenius, in 1521.  The   and the agricultural Briton to a nation existing in a high
wood.cuts of th.~ -dition seem to be executed with inimitable   state of artificial civilization; the Chinese proverbs fredelicacy, resembling a penciling which Raphael might have   quently allude to magnificent buildings.  Affecting a mtia
envied.
envied.                                                      qsolen exterior than all other nations, a favoirite proverb
t In Spain. Fernandez Nunes, a Greek professor, and the   solemn ex
Marquis of Santellana.  a -5rardee, published collections of  with them is,'A  grave and majestic outside is, as it were,
their Refirans, or Proverbs, a term derived a refereado  because   the palace of the soul.' Their notion of government is bnite
it is often repecated. The'Refranes o Proverbios Castellanos,'  architectural.  They say,'A  sovereign may be compared
par Cesar Oudin.  1624. translated into French, is a valuable  to a hall; his officers to the steps that lead to it: the peo.
compilation. In Cervantes and Quevedo, the best practical   pie to the ground on which they stand.' What stiauld we
illustrators, they are sown with no sparing hand. There is an   think  of a people who had a proverb, that'He who gives
ample collection of Italian proverbs, by Florio, who was an   blows is a master, he who gives none is adog?' We
Enolishman, of Italian origin, and who published' 11 Giardino   sold  istantl  decide on the mean and servile spirt o
should instantlv decide on the mean and servile spirit of
di Ricreatione' at London. so early as in 1591, exceeding six
thousand proverbs; but they are unexplained, and are often   those who could repeat it; and such we find to have been
obscure. Another Italian in England, Torriano, in 1649, pub.  that of the Bengalese, to whom the degrading proverb be.
lished an interesting collection in the diminutive form of a   longs, derived from the treatment they were used to receive
twenty.fours.  It was subsequent to these publications in Eu.  from their Mogul rulers, who answered the claims of their
gland, that in Italy Anselus Monosini, in 1604, published his   creditors by a vigorous application of the whip!  In some
collection; and Julius Varini, in 1642, produced his Scuola de]
collection  Fancd Jlu Varini, in 1642, produeped  his Scmot del   of the Hebrew proverbs we are struck by the frequent a!loVuleo.  In France,  Oudin,  after others had preceded.him,r own history.  The
published a collection of French proverbs, under the title of
Curiosits Frnneoises.   Fteury de Bellingen's Explication de   cruel oppression  exercised by the ruling power, and the
Proverbes Francois, on comparing it with Lea Iltustres Pro-  confidence in their hope of change in the da, of retribttion,
verbs Historicues, a subsequent piublication, I discovered to be   was delivered in this Hebrew  proverb-''When the tale of
the same work. It is the first attempt to render the study of  bricks is doubled, Moses comes'  The fond idolatry of
proverbs somewhat amusing. The plan consists ofa dialogue   their devotion to their ceremonial law, and to every thing
beween a philosopher and( a Sancho Paniza, who blurts 0out
between  a phinsopher sn( a Sancho Parza, who blurts o t  connected with their sublime Theocracy, in their magnitfihis proverbs with more delight than understanding.  The
cent Temple, is finely exrnressed by this proverb-'~ lhono
philosopher takes that opportunity of explaining them by the   cent Temple, is finely exresed   y this pverb-'   on
events in which they originated, which, however, are not al.   ever took a stone out of the Temptle, bit the dtst did fly
ways to be depended on. A work of high merit on French   into his eyes.'  The Hebrew  proverb that' A  fast for a
provehbs is the unfinished one of the Abbh  Tuet, sensible and   dream, is as fire for stutbble,' which it kintdles, could only
learned. A,nllection of Danish proverbs, accompanied by a   have been invented by a people whose superstitions at.
French translation. ivas printed at Copenhagen, in a quarto
v'olume, 1761. Egla.d( mav boast ofno inferior piaremingra-   common, in various ianeuages, 1707; the collector and, ins
phers. The crave and iudiicious Camden, the religious Hier-  later was Dr J. Mapletot. It must be ackrowled ea that al
bert, the entertaininz Hlwel, the racetions iFuller. and the aIs-  thouah no nation exceeds our own in sterlin  senste, w.e rarely
borions Ray. with others. have preserved our national sayings.  rival the delicacyv, the wit. and the felicity ofexprerFion of ths
The Scottish han'e been larrely collectedt and explained by   Spanish and Italian, and the poignancy of some of the Froenel
the learned k Rlly. An excellei It anonymous collectior, not un-   yroverbs.
2~




2S2                                      CURIOSITIES OF
tached a holy mystery to fasts and dreams.  They ima-  door of their mistress.  If we turn to the French, we dis
gmined that a religious fast was propitious to a religious  cover that the military 2enius of France dictated the pro.
dream; or to obtain the interpretation of one which had  verb,  iaille a maille sc, faitle haubergeon'Link by link
troubled their inagination.  Peyssonel, who long resided  is made the coat of mail;' and Tel coup de langue estpire
among the Turks, observes, that their proverbs are full of  qu'un coup de lance:' Thie tongue slrikes deeper than
sense, ingenuity, and elegance, the surest test of the intel-  the lance;' arid Ce qui vient du tambour s'en retourne a la
lectual abilities of any nation.  He said this to correct the  flute: What comes by the tabor goes back with the pipe.'
volatile opinion of De Tott, who, to convey an idea of their  Point d'argent point de Suisse has become proverbial, ob.
stupid pride, quotes one of their favourite adages, of which  serves an Edinburgh Reviewer; a striking  expression,
the truth and candour are admirable;'Riches in the In-  which, while  French  or Austrian  gold predominated,
dies, wit in Europe, and pomp among the Ottomans.'          was justly used to characterize the illiberal and selfish
The Spaniards may appeal to their proverbs to show   policy of the cantonal and federal governments of Switzerthat they were a high-minded and independent race. A   land, when it began to degenerate from its moral patriotWhiggish jealousy of the monarchical power stamped it-  ism.  The ancient, perhaps the extinct, spirit of English.
self on this ancient one, Va el rey hastt do puede, y no hasta   men, was once expressed by our proverb,' Better be the
do quiere:' The king goes as far as he is able, not as far as  head of a dog than the tail of a lion;' i. e. the first of the
he desires.' It must have been at a later period, when   yeomanry rather than the last of the gentry.  A  foreign
the national genius became more subdued, and every Spa-  philosopher might have discovered our own ancient skill
niard dreaded to find under his own roof a spy or an in-  in archery among our proverbs; for none but true toxophifirmer, that another proverb arose, Con el rey y la inqui-  lites could have such a proverb as,'I will either make a
iteion, chiton!' With the king and the inquisition, hush!'  shaft or a bolt of it!' signifying, says the author of Ivanhoe,
The gravity and taciturnity of the nation have been ascribed  a determination to make one use or other of the thing spoto the effects of this proverb.  Their popular but sup-  ken of: the bolt was the arrow  peculiarly fitted to the
pressed feelings on taxation, and on a variety of dues ex-  cross-bow, as that of the long-bow was called a shaft.
acted by their clergy, were murmured in proverbs-Lo   Those instances sufficiently demonstrate that the charac.
que  no Ileva Christo leva el fisco!'What Christ takes  teristic circumstances and feelings of a people are discoverriot, the exchequer carries away!' They have a number  ed in their popular notions, and stamped on their familiar
of sarcastic proverbs on the tenacious gripe of the'abad   proverbs.
avariento,' the avaricious priest, who,'having eaten the     It is also evident that the peculiar, and often idiomatic,
olio offered, claims the dish!' A striking mixture of chi-  humour of a people is best preserved in their proverbs.
valric habits, domestic decency, and epicurean comfort, ap-  There is a shrewdness, although deficient in delicacy, in
pears in the Spanish proverb, La mugery la salsa a la  the Scottish proverbs; they are idiomatic, facetious, and
mono de la lanca:' The wife and the sauce by the hand  strike home. Kelly, who has collected three thousand,
of the lance;' to honour the dame, and to have the sauce  informs us, that, in 1725, the Scotch were a great provernear.                                                      bial nation; for that few among the better sort will conThe Italian proverbs have taken a tinge from their deep  verse any considerable time, but will confirm every asserand politic genius, and their wisdom seems wholly conicen-  tion and observation with a Scottish proverb.  The specu.
trated in their personal interests.  I think every tenth pro-  lative Scotch of our own times have probably degenerated
verb, in an Iralian collection, is some cynical or some self-  in prudential lore, and deem themselves much wiser than
ish maxim: a'book of the world for worldlings'  The  their proverbs.  They may reply by a Scotch proverb on
Venetian proverb Pria Veneziani, poi Christiane:'First  proverbs, made by a great man in Scotland,who, having
Venetian, and then Christian!' condenses the whole spirit  given a splendid entertainment, was harshly told, that
of their ancient Republic into the smallest space possible.' Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them;' but he
Their political proverbs, no doubt, arose from  the extra-  readily answered,'  ise men make proverbs, and fools
ortlinary state of a people, sometimes distracted among   repeat them!'
republics, and sometimes servile in petty courts.  The   National humour, frequently local and idiomnatical,depends
Italian says, I popoli s'ammazzano, ed i prencipi s'abbrac-  on the artificial habits of mankind, so opposite to each
eiano:' The people murder one another, and princes em-  other; but there is a natural vein, which the populace, albrace one another.'  Chi prattica co' grandi, l'ultimo i4 ta-  ways true to nature, preserve even among the gravest peevola, e'l primo a' strappazzi:' Who  dangles after the   pie.  The Arabian proverb,'The barber learns his art on
great is the last at table, and the first at blows.'  Chi non  the orphan's face;' the Chinese,' In a field of melons do
sa adulare, non sa regnare:'Who knows not to flatter,  not pull up your shoe; under a plum-tree do inot adjust your
knows not to reign.' Chi serue in corte muore sul' pagliato:  cap;'-to impress caution in our conduct under circum-'Who serves at court dies on straw.' Wary cunning in  stances of suspicion;-and the Hebrew one,'He that hath
domestic life is perpetuaily impressed. An Italian proverb,  had one of his family hanged may not say to his neighbor,
which is immortalized in our language, for it enters into the  hang up this fish!' are all instances of this sort of humour.
history of MPilton, was that by which the elegant Wotton   The Spaniards are a grave people, but no nation has
counselled the young poetic traveller to have-I/ vise sci-  equalled themin in their peculiar humour.  The genius of
olto, ed i pensieri stretti,'An open countenance, but close  Cervantes partook largely of that of his country; that man.
thouoghts.'  In the same spirit, Chi parla semina, chi tace  tie of gravity, which almost conceals under it a latent faceraccouglie:' The talker sows, the silent reaps;' as well as,  tiousness, and with which he has imbued his style and mariFatti di miele, e ti nmangieran le mosche;'Make yourself  ner with such untranslateable idiomatic raciness, may be
all honey, and the flies will devour you.'  There are some   traced to the proverbial erudition of his nation.'To steal
which display a deep knowledge of human nature:  A   a sheep, and give away the trotters for God's sake i' is CerLucca ti vidi, at Pisa ti connobbi! I'I saw  you at Lucca, 1  vantic nature!  To one who is seeking an opportunity to
knew  you at Pisa!' Guardati d'aceto, di vin dolce:'Be-  quarrel with another, their proverb runs, Si quieres dar
ware of vinegar made of sweet wine,' provoke niot the rage  pales a su mugerpidele al sol a beser,'Hast thou a mind
of a patient man!                                           to quarrel with thy wife, bid her bring water to thee in the
Among a people who had often witnessed their fine  sun-shine!'-a very fair quarrel may be picked up about
country devastated by petty warfare, their notion of the  the motes in the clearest water! On the judges in Gallicia,
militarv  character was not usually heroic.  II soldato per  who, like our former justices of peace,'for half a dozen
far male d hen pagato:' The soldier is well paid for do-  chickens wouild dispense with a dozen of penal statutes,$
ing mischief.' Soldato, acqua, efuoco, presto st fan luoco:'A  juezes Gallicianos, con los pies en los mnanos;'To
A soldier, fire, and water, soon make room for them-  the judges of Gallicia go with feet in hand;' a droll allusion
selves.' But in a poetical people, endowed with great  to a present of poultry, usually held by the legs.  To desensibility, their proverbs would sometimes be tender and   scribe persons who live high without visible means, Los
fanciful.  They paint the activity of firiendship, Chiha   que cabritos venden, y cabras no tienen, dedonde los
1'amor nel petto, halo sprotnea i fianchi:'Who feels love   vienen?'They that sell kids and have no goats, how
in the breast, feels a spur in his limbs;' or its generous  came they by them?'  El vine no trae bragas,'Wine
passion, Gli amici legono la horsa con un file di ragnatelo:  wears no breeches;' for men in wine expose their most se.
Friends tie their purse with a cobweb's thread.' They   cret thoughts. Vine di un orejo,'Wine of one ear!' is
characterized the universal lover by an elegant proverb-   good wine; for at bad, shaking our heads, both our ears
Appicare ii Maio ad ogn'uscio:' To hang every door with   are visible; but at good, the Spaniard, by a natural gesti.
May;' alluding to the bough whiich in the nights of May   culation lowering one side, shows a single ear.
~he country-people are accustormed to plant before the        Proverbs abounding in sarcastic humour,  and found




LIT ERATURE.                                                         283
among every people, are those which are pointed at rival    I was amused lately by a curious financial revelation
countries.  They expose some prevalett fuliy, or allude to   which I found in an opposition paper, whe,', it appears that
some disgrace which the natives have incurred. In France,  I Ministers pretend to make their load of taxes more por
tihe Burgundians have a proverb Mieux vaut bon repas que  table, by shifting the burden, or altering the pressure, withbeld habit;'Better a good dinner than a fine coat.'  These   out however, diminishing the weight; according to the
good people are great gormandizers, but shabby dressers;  Italian proverb, Accommodare le bisaccie nella strada,' To
they are commonly said to have'bowels of silk and velvet;'  fit the load on the journey;-it is taken from a custori of
that is, all their silk and velvet goes for their bowels! Thus  the mule-drivers, who placing their packages at first but
iPicardy is fanious for'hot heads,' and the Norman for  awkwardly on the backs of their poor beasts, and seeing
son dit et son dedit,'his saying and his unsaying!' In Italy  them  ready to sink, cry out,'Never mind! we must ff1
the numerous rival cities pelt one another with proverbs:  them better on the road!' I was gratified to discover, by
Chi ha a fare con I'osco non convien easer losco,' He who  the present and some other modern instances, that the
deals with a Tuscan must not have his eyes shut.' A    taste for proverbs was reviving, and that we were returnVenetia chi vi unasce, malvi ri prssce,' Whom Venice breeds,  ing to those sober times, when the aptitude of a simple
she poorly feeds.'-Among ourselves, hardly has a county   proverb would be preferred to the verbosity of politicians,
escaped from  some  popular quip; even  neighbouring   Tories, Whigs, or Radicals!
towns have their sarcasms, usually pickled in some unlucky    There are domestic proverbs which originate in incirhyme.  The egotism of man eagerly seizes on whatever  dents known only to the natives of their province.  Italian
serves to depreciate or to ridicule his neighbour: nations  literature is particularly rich in these stores.  The lively
proverb each  other; counties  flout counties; obscure   proverbial taste of that vivacious people was transferred
towns sharpen their wits on towns as obscure as them-  to their own authors; and when these allusions were obselves-the samne evil principle lurking in poor hutian na-  scured by time, learned Italians, in their zeal for their na.
ture, if it cannot always assume predominance, will mean-  tional literature, and in their national love of story-teliing,
ly gratify itself by insult or contempt.                   have written grave commentaries even on ludicrous, but
There is another source of national characteristics, fre-  popular tales, in which the proverbs are said to have oriquently producing strange or whimsical combinations; a   ginated.  They resemble the old facetious contes, whose
people, from  a very natural circumstance, have drawn I simplicity and humour still live in the pages of Boc.their proverbs firom  local objects, or from allusions to pe-  caccio, and are not forgotten in those of the Queen of
culiar customs.  The influence of manners and customs  Navarre.
over the ideas anid language of a people would form a sub-    The Italians apply a proverb to a person who while he
ject of extensive and curious research.  There is a Japa-  is beaten, takes the blows quietly:nese proverb, that'A  fog cannot be dispelled with a fan!'         Per beato ch' elle non furon pesche!
Had we not known the origin of this proverb, it would be'Luckily they were not peaches!'
evident that it could only have occurred to a people who   And to threaten to give a niuanhad constantly before them  fogs and fans; and the fact                    Una pesca in on erchio,
appears that fogs are frequent on the coast of Japan; and'A peach in the eye'
that from the aae of five years both sexes of the Japanese   means to give him a thrashing.  This proverb, it is said,
carry fans.  The Spaniards have an odd proverb to de-  originated in the close of a certain droll adventure.  The.icribe those who teaze and vex a person before they do   community of the Castle Poggibonsi, probably from some
him the very benefit which they are about to confer-act-  jocular tenure observed on St Bernard's day, pay a triing kindly, bit  speaking roughly; Mostrar primero la her-  bute of peaches to the court of Tuscany, which are usuca que el lugar,' To show the gallows before they show   ally shared among the ladies in waiting, and the pages of
the town;' a circumstance alluding to their small towns,  the court. It happened one season, in a great scarcity of
which have a gallows placed on an eminence so that the   peaches, that the good people at Poggibonsi, finding them
gallows breaks on the eye of the traveller before he gets a   rather dear, sent, instead of the customary tribute, a quanview of the town itself.                                   tity of' fine juicy figs, which was so much disapproved of
The Cheshire proverb on marriage,'Better wed over  by the pages, that as soon as they got hold of them, they
the mixon  than over the moor,' that is, at home or in its  began in rage to empty the baskets on the heads of the
vicinity; mixon alludes to the dung, &c, in the farm-yard,  ambassadors of the Poggihonsi, who, in attempting to ly
while the road from Chester to London is over the moor-  as well as they could from the pulpy shower, half-blinded,
lanrd in Staffordshire; this local proverb is a curious in-  and recollecting that peaches would have had stones in
stance of provincial pride, perhaps of wisdom, to induce  them, cried outthe gentry of that county to form intermarriages; to pro-             Per beato ch' elle non furon pesche!
long their own anciett families, and perpetuate ancient               Luckily they were not peaches
friendships between them.                                    Fare le scalee di Sant' Ambrogio;' To mount the stairs
In the Isle of Man a proverbial expression forcibly in-  of Saint Ambrose,' a proverb allusive to the business of
1icates the object consiantly occupying the minds of the  the school of scandal.  Varchi explains it by a circumninhabitants.  The two Deemsters or judges, when ap-  stance so common in provincial cities.  On summer evepointed to the chair of judgment, declare they will render  nings, for fresh air and gossip, the loungers met on the
justice between man and nman'as equally as the herring   steps and landing places of the church of St Ambrose;
bone lies between the two sides: an image which could  whoever left the party,'they read in his book,' as our
not have occurred to any people unaccustomed to herring-  commentator expresses it; and not a leaf was passed over!
fishery.  There is a Cornish proverb,' Those who will  All liked to join a party so well informed of one another's
not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the rock' —  concerns, and every one tried to be the very last to quit it,
the strands of Cornwall, so often covered with wrecks,  -not to leave his character behind!' It became a pro.
couid not fail to impress on the imaginations of its inhabi-  verbial phrase with those who left a company, and were
tants the two objects from whence they drew this salutary  too tender of their backs, to request they would not'mount
prov:rb, against obstinate wrong-heads.                    the stairs of St Ambrose.' Jonson iHas well described
When Scotland, in the last century, felt its allegiance   s'sch a company:
to England doubtfil, and when the French sent an expe-'You are so truly fear'd, but not beloved
dition to the land of cakes, a local proverb was revived,        One of another, as no one dares break
to show the identity of interests which affected both na-        Comparny from the rest, lest they should fall
tione.                                                           Upon him absent.'
t If Ski!law hath a cap                          There are legends and histories which belong to pro.
Scruffel wets full well of that.'              verbs; and some of the most ancient refer to incidents
These are twto high hills, one in Scotland and one in   which have not always been commemorated.   Two
Thes ar tw hixh  ill. on inScolan an  on inGreek proverbs have accidentally been explained by Pa}-.
England; so near, that what happens to the one will not  Greet proverbs have accidentally been explained by Paer
be longeciechteole.Ifafglde       h         sanias:'He is a man of Tenedos' to describe a person
be long ere it reacin   the other.  Ife fou lodges on the one,  of unquestionable veracity; and' To cut with the Tenet is sure  to rain on the then; tde mutual sympathies of  dian axe;' to express an absolute and irrevocalle refusal.
We two cobntris wa ere hence deduced in a copiohs dissern   The first originated in a king of Tenedos, who decreed
tation, by Oswald Dyke. on what was called I The Union-                  7
that there should always stand behind the judge a man
proverb,' which local puroverbs of our country,  Fuller  has  holdinj! an axe, ready to execute justice on any one con"
P                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~holdiun an axe, ready to execute justice on any one con-.
interspersed in his I Wfrthies,' and Ray and Grose have  vieted of falsehood. The other arosc from the tamie king,
collected sepsa'sly.                                       wose fater having reached his island, to supicte 
wiose father having reached his island.. to supelicate tha




284                                   CURIOSITIES OF
son s forgiveness fo)r the injury inflicted on him by the arts  trical situation, was considered as the best adapted for the
of a step-mother, was preparing to land; already the ship  seat of government, or from  some other cause which I
was fastened by its cable to a rock; when the son came   have not discovered, this notion must have betn preva.
down andi sternly cutting the cable with an axe, sent the  lent to have entered into a proverb. The ciief magistrate
ship adrift to the mercy of the waves: hence,' to cut  of York is the only provincial one who is allowed the title
with the Tenedian ax:,' became proverbial to express an   of Lord Mayor; a circumstance which seems connected
absolute refusal.' Business to-morrow!' is another Greek   with this proverb.
proveib, applied to a person ruined by his own neglect.   The Italian history of its own small principalities, whose
The fate of an eminent person perpetuated the expression   well-being so much depended on their prudence and sawhich he casually employed on the occasion. One of the  gacity, affords many instances of the timely use of a proTheban polemarchs, in the midst of a convivial party, re-  verb. Many an intricate negotiation has been contracted
ceived despatches relating a conspiracy: flushed with  through a good-humoured proverb,-many a sarcastic one
wine, although pressed by the courier to open them imme-  has silenced ar adversary; and sometimes they have been
diately, he smiled, and in gaiety laying the letter under  applied on more solemn, and even tragical occasions.
the pillow of his cotch, observed,'Business to-morrow!'  When Rinaldo degli Albizzi was banished by the vigoPlutarch records that he fell a victim to the twenty-four  rous conduct of Cosmo de' Medici, Machiavel, tells us,
hours he had lost, and became the author of a proverb  the expelled man sent Cosmo a menace, in a proverb, La
which was still circulated among the Greeks.            gallina covava!' The hen is brooding!' said of one meThe philosophical antiquary may often discover how   ditating vengeance.  The undaunted Cosmo replied by
many a proverb commemorates an event which has es-  another, that,' There was no brooding out of the nest!'
caped from the more solemn monuments of history, and      I give an example of peculiar interest; for it is perpeis often the solitary authority of its existence. A national  tuated by Dante, and is connected with the character of
event in Spanish history is preserved by a proverb.  Milton.
Yvenigar quiniento sueldos;' And revenge five hundred    When the families of the Amadei and the Uberti felt
pounds!' An odd expression to denote a person being a  their honour wounded in the affront the yotunger Buondelgentleman!  But the proverb is historical.  The Spa-  monte had put upon them, in breaking off his match with
niards of Old Castile were compelled to pay an annual  a young lady of their family, by marrying another, a
tribute of five hundred maidens to their masters, the  council was held, and the death of the youngl cavalier was
Moors; after several battles, the Spaniards succeeded   proposed as the sole atonement for their iniured honour.
in compromising the shameful tribute, by as many pieces  But the consequences which they anticipated, and which
of coin; at length the day arrived when thev entirely  afterwards proved so fatal to the Florentines, long suisemancipated themselves from this odious imposition. The   pended their decision. At length Moscha Lamberti sudhe.voic action was performed by men of distinction, and   denly rising, exclaimed, in two proverbs.' That those who
the event perpetuated in the recollections of the Spa-  considered every thing would never conclude on any thling!'
niards, by this singular expression, which alludes to the  closing with an ancient proverbial saving —cosafatta cape
dishonourable tribute, was applied to characterize all men   ha!' a deed done has an end!' This proverb sealed the
of high honour, and devoted lovers of their country.    fatal determination, and was long held in mournful rePaqlquier, in his Recherches sur la France, reviewing the   membrance by the Tuscans; for, accordi;ng to Villani, it
periodical changes of ancient families in feudal times,  was the cause and beginning of the accursed factions of
observes, that a proverb among the common people con-  the Guelphs and the Ghibellins.  Dante has thus immorveys the result of all his inquiries; for those noble houses,  talized the energetic expression in a scene of the'In.
which in a single age declined from nobility and wealth to  ferno.'
poverty and meanness, gave rise to the proverb, Cent ans        Ed un ch'avea l'unna e l'altra mall mozza
bannieres et cent ans civieres!' One hundred years a           IJevanedo i nloneherin per Slaura; fosca;
banner, and one hundred years a barrow!' The Italian           Si che'I sangue facea la faccia sozza
proverb, Con 1 Evangilio si diventa heretico,' With the        Grido-' Ricordelati ancor del Mosca
gospel we become heretics.'-reflects the policy of the          Che disse, lasso capo a, cosa fatle;
court of Rome; and must be dated at the time of the            Che fu'l mat seme, delta gente Tosca.'
Reformation, when a translation of the Scriptures into                               Th — Ten one
the vulgar tonngte encountered such an invincible oppo-     Maim'd of each hand, uplifter.In the gloom
sition.  The Scotch proverb, He that invented the maiden    The bleeding' stumps, that they with gory spots
first hanselled it; that is, got the first of it! The maiden  Sullied his face, and cried-' Remember thee
is that well-known beheading engine, revived by the         Of  dosca too-I who, alas! excnaimed,
"The deed once done, there is an end" —that proved
French surgeon Guillotine.  This proverb may be applied     A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race.'
to one who falls a victim to his own ingenuity; the arti-                                      Cary's Dante.
ficer of his own destruction! The inventor was James,  This Italian proverb was adopted by Milton; for when
Earl of Morton, who for some years governed Scotland,  deeply engaged in writin'the Defence of the
and afterwards, it is said, very unjustly suffered by his  and warned that it might terminate in his blindness, he reown invention.  It is a striking coincidence, that the same   solvedly concluded his work, excaaloing with great magfate was shared by the French reviver; both alike sad ex-  nanimity aond h the fatal prognosticaiion had been acamples of disturbed times! Among our own proverbs a   companied, cosa fatta capo ha! Did this proverb also inremarkable incident has been commemorated' Hand over
remarkable incident has been co eoant! This preserves the  fluence his awful decision on that great national event,
head, cc~ mene task the Cov~enatnt! This preserves the when the most honest-minded fiucltnated between doubts
manner in which the Scotch covenant, so famous in our  when the most honest-m
history, was violently taken by above sixty thousand per-    Of a person treacherously used, 
sons about Edinbtir&,'h, in 1638; a circumstance at that    Of a person treacherously used, the Italian proverb says
sons about Edinburgh, in 1638; a circumstance at that that he has eaten of
time novel in our own revolutionary history, and afterwards paralleled by the French in voting by' acclama-               Lefrntte difratre Allbengo.
tion.' An ancient English proverb preserves a curious                The fruit of brother Alberigo.
fact concerningr our coinage.  Testers are gone to Oxfor,  Lanino, on the  lowing passage of Dante, reserve the
to study at Brazen-nose.  When Henry the Eighth de-    a
based the silver coin, called testers, from their having a  tragic story:
head stamped on each side; the brass, breaking out in                — Io son fratre Alberigo,
red pimples on their silver faces, provoked the ill hurnour      To son quel dalle frutta del ma orto
Che qul reprendo, &c.
of the people to vent itself in this punning proverb, which       Che qui reprendo &c.
has preserved for the historical antiquary, the popular                                 Canto xxiir.
feeling which lasted about fifty years, till Elizabeth re-        I The friar Alberigo,l answered hen
formed the state of the coinage. A  northern proverb'Its fruitage, and am here repaid the date
among us has preserved the remarkable idea which seems' More luscious for my fig.'
to have once been preva!ent; that the metropolis ot                                        Cary's Dante.
England was to be the city of York: Lincoln waR, Lon-  This was Manfred, of Fuenza, who, arter many crueodon is, York shall be:! Whe~ther at the time of the union  ties, turned friar.   Reconciling himself to those whom
of the cmowrts, tinder rtamis the First, when England and   he had so often opposed, to celebrate  the renewal of their
Se'otland bo:ame Great Britain, th.s city, from its cen-  friendship, he invited them to a magnificent entertainment,




LITERATURE.                                                         285
At the end of the dinner the horn blew to announce the   deed has often been written to demonstrate what a lover
dessert —but it was the signal of this dissimulating con-   of proverbs could show  had long been ascertained by a
spirator! —and the fruits which that day wereserved to   single one in his favourite collections.
his guests were armed men, who, rushing in, immolated         An insurmountable difficulty which every paremiogratheir victims.                                              pher has encountered, is that of forming an apt, a ready,
Among these historical proverbs none are more inter-   and a systematic classification: the moral Linnaeus of
esting than those which perpetuate national evernts, con-   such a' systema naturw,' has not yet appeared. Each disntiected with those of another people.  When a French-  covered his predecessor's mode imperfect, but each was
man would let us understand that i he has settled with his  doomed to meet the same fate.  The arrangement of procreditors, the proverb is, J' ai payd tous mes Anglois:'I   verbs has baffled the ingenuity of every one of their colhave paid al rny English.' Ta    Irover originated when   lectors.  Our Ray, after long premeditation, has chosen
John, the French king, was taken prisoner by our Black   a system  with the appearance of an alphabetical order;
Prince.  Levies of money were made for the king's ran-  but, as it turns out, his system is no system, and his alphasom, and for many French lords; and the French people    bet is no alphabet.  After ten years' labour, the good
have thus perpetuated the military glory of our nation,  man could only arrange his proverbs by common-places
and their own idea of it, by making the English and their  -by complete sentences-by phrases or forms of speechcreditors synonymous terms.  Another relates to the same   by proverbial similes-and so on.  All these are pursued
even —Ore le Pape est devenu Frungois, et Jesu Christ  in alphabetical order,'by the first letter 6fthe most "maAnglais:' Now the Pope is become French and Jesus   terial word," or, if there be more words " equally material,"
Christ English;' a proverb which arose when the Pope,   by that which usually stands foremost.'  The most patient
exiled from  Rome, held his court at Avignon in France;  examiner will usually find that he wants the sagacity of
and the English prosptoed so well, that they  possessed   the collector to discover that word which is' the niost mamore than half the kingdom.  The Spanish proverb con-  terial,' or' the words equally material.'  We have to
cerning England is well known-                              search through all that multiplicity ofdivisions, or conjurCon todo el mondo guerra,                     ing-boxes, in which this juggler of proverbs pretends to
ypaz con Inglaterra!                         hide the ball.
~'War with the world,  ~A still more formidable objection against a collection of
(W pace with tEngolad,'
And peace with England!'                      proverbs, for the impatient reader, is their unreadable-' h~~~~ess.  Taking in succession a multitude  of insulated
Whether this proverb was one of the results of their me-  ness.  Taking in succession a multitude of insulated
araaandb was onycoinedafter   their conviction proverbs, their slippery nature resists all hope of retaining
morable armada, and was only coined after their conviction   one n a hundred; the study of proverbs must be a frequent
one in a hundred; the study of'proverbs must be a frequent
of the splendidJ folly which  they had committed, I cannot   recurrence to a gradual collection of favourite ones, which
ascertain.  England must always have been a desirable   we ourselves must form.   The experience of life will
ally to Spain against her potent rival and neighbour. The   throw a perpetuial freshness over these short and simple
Italians have a proverb, which  formerly, at least, was  texts;every day  tay furnish a new commentary; and we
strongly indicative of the travelled Englishman in their
cutrongly udicatgvee If the travelled Engulishman  in their  may grow old, and fiid novelty in proverbs by their percountry, Iiglese Italianato d un diavolo incarnato;' The   petuat application.
Italianized Englishnman is a devil incarnate.' Formerly There are, perhaps, about twenty thousand proverbs
there existed a closer intercourse between our country and   among the nations of Euroe: many of these have spread
Italy than with  France.  Before  and  during the reigns of  in their common intercourse; many are borrowed from the
Elizabeth and James the Frirst, that land of the teleant   ancients, chiefly the Greeks, who themselves largely took
arts  modelled our taste anrd manners; and more Italians   from the Eastern nations.  Our own proverbs are too
travelled into Englandl, and were more constant residents,  often deficient in that eleance  and ingnuity   which
r,                             ~~~~~~~~~often deficient in that elegance and  inDgenuity which
fromnl commercial conicerns, than afterwards when France
som  conaigmerial concerns, than aftEerwards  when France   are often found in the Spanish and the Italian.  Proverbs
assumed a higher rank in Europe by her political superi.  frequently enliven conversation, or enter into lhe business
oritv.  This cause will sufficiently account for the num-   of life in those countries, without any feeling of vulgarity
bet'of Italian proverbs relating to England, which show an
beo  Italian provers reati  to  ngland, which sow an   being associated with them; they are too numerous, too
intimacy with our manners which could not else have ocwitt, and too wise, to cease to ple~ase by their poisnancy
curred.  It was probably some sarcastic Italian, and,   and  their aptitude.  I have heard  them fall from  the lips
perhaps, horologer, who, to describe the disagreement of  of men of letters and of statesmen.  When  recently the
of men of letters and of statesmen.'"'hen recently the
persons, proverbed our nation-' They agree like the   disorderly  state of the manufacturers of Manchester
clocks of London!' We were once better famed for mer-  menaced an insurrection, a profound Italian politician obry Christmasses and their pies; and it must have been   served to me, that it was not of a nature to alarm a great
Italians who had been domicilated with us who gave cur-  nation; for that the remedy was at hand, in the proverb of
rency to the proverb Ha piu du fare che i forni di natale  the Lazzaroni of Naples, Meta consiglio, meta esetmoio,
in Inghilterra;'He  has more business than English   metadenaro!'Halfadvice, halfexample, half money!' The
ovens at Christmas.' Our pie-loving gentry were notoft'ovens at Christmas.'   Our  aiesloving gentry wet e notot   result confirmed the truth of the proverb, which, had it
Ois, and Shakespeares  folio was usually laid open in the   been known at the time, might have quieted the honest
great halls of our nobility to entertain their attendants,  fears of a great part of the nation.
who devoured at once Shakespeare and their pastry. Some       Proverbs have ceased to be studied, or ouplayed in conof those volumes have come down to us, not only with the   versation, since the time we have derived our knowledge
stains, but enclosing even the identical pie-crusts of the  from books; but in a philosophical age they appear to offer
Elizabethan age.           dvlpteatorainpo-infinite subjects for speculative curiosity: originating in
I have thus attempted to develop the  art of reading pro-,ous eras, these memorials of manners, of events, and
verbs;  ut have done little more than indicate the theory,  of modes of thinking, for historical as well as for moral
and must leave the skilfiul student to the delicacy of the                                                      The
practi   I am anxiosis tri r scite from prevailing   - s  purposes, still retain a strong hold on ousr attention.  The
practiceIamnxosi  prejudices  collected knowledge of successive ages, and of different
these neglected stores of curious amusement, and of deep   people, must. always enter into some part of our own!
insight into the ways of man, and to point out the bold and   Truth and nature can never be obsolete.
concealed truths which are scattered in these collections.    Proverbs embrace the wide sphere of human existence,
There seems to be no occurrence in human affairs to which  they take all the colours of life, they are often exquisite
some proverb may not be applied.  All knowledge was
ome proverb ma  not be applied.  All knowlede  was  strokes of genius, they delight by their airy sarcasm or
long aphoristical and traditional, pithily contracting the  their caustic satire, the luxuriance of their humour, the
discoveries which were to he instantly comprehended, and   playfulness of their turn, and even by the elegance of their
easily retained.   Whatever be the revolutionary state of  imagery, and the tendrmens of their sentiment.  The
man, similar principles and like occurrences are returning   ive a eep insiht into domestic life, and open for us the
on us; and antiquity, wvhenever it is justly applicable to our  heart of man, in all the various states  nhich he maf  occutime, loes ts dnomiatin, ad beome  thetrut ofheart. of man, in all the various states which he ma~; occutimes, loses its denomination, and becomes she truth of
our  ownage.  A proverbwil oen  rtp the nthi  vy-a frequent review of proverbs should enter into our
our own age.   A proverb will often cut the knot which
others in vain are attempting to untie.  Johnson, palled  readiof conversation, alth ey h av e not c eased to be the  trea sures
with the redundant eleancies of modern composition, once,  ey have not ceased to be the treasures
said,' I fancy mankind may come in time to write all         Thought!
aphoristicallv,  except in narrative; grow weary of pre-                    CONFUSON OF WORDS.
paration, and connection, and illustration, and all those'There is nothing more common,' says the lively Vol.
arts by which a big book is made.'  Many a volume in- I taire,  thIan to read and to converse to no purpose.  Jg




266                                      CURIOSITIES OF
history, in morals, in law, in physic, and in divinity, be  ploved by Reid.  The removal of a solitary word may
careful of equivocal terms.  One of the ancients wrote a  cast a luminous ray over a whole body of philosophy: II
book to prove that there was no word which did not con-  we had called the infinite the indefinite,' says Condillac, in
vey an ambiguous and uncertain meaning.  If we pos-  his Traite des Sensations,'by this small change of a
sessed tlis lost book, our ingenious dictionaries of'sy-  word we should have avoided the error of imagining that
nonyms' would nriot probably prove its uselessness. When-  we have a positive idea of infinity, from  whence so many
ever the same ward is associated by the parties with dif-  false reasonings have been carried on, not only by meteferent nzmes, they may converse, or controverse, till'the   physicians, but even by geometricians.'  The word reacrack of'doom!' This, with a little obstinacy and some  son has been used with different meanings by different
agility in shifting his ground, makes the fortune of an op-  writers; reasoning and reason have been often confoundponent.  While one party is worried in disentangling a  ed; a man may have an endless capacity for reasoning,
meaning, and the other is winding and unwinding about  without being much influienced by reason, and to be reahim with another, a word of the kind we have mentionea   sonable, perhaps differs from both! So Moliere tells us,
carelessly or perversely slipped into an argument, may             Raisonner est'emploi de touite maison;
prolong it for a century or two-as it has happened!                Et le raisonnement en bannit la raison!
Vaugelas, who passed his whole life in the study of words,    In this research on'confusion of words,' might enter the
would not allow that the sense was to determine the mcan-  voluminous history of the founders of sects, who have usuing of words, for, says he, it is the business of words to  ally employed terms which had no meaning attached to
explain the sense.  Kant for a long while discovered in  al   mlydtrswihhdn    enn   tahdt
explain the semqe. Kant for a long while dliscovered in  them, or were so ambiguous that their real notions have
this way a facility of arguing without end, as at this mu-  tnever been comehended;  hence the most  chimerical
never beecopeeddhecthmotcirca
ment do our political economists.  II beseech you,' ex-                   mprhn
I      opinions have been imputed to founders of sects.  We
claims a poetical critic, in the agony of a' confUsion of
wordsnot toask wheterI mean thisorthmay instance that of the Antinomians, whose remarkable, no d toas  he    mde  thimser underoo    denomination explains their doctrine, expressing that they
critic, convinced that he has made himself understood,  were'amaitst law!' Their founder was John Agricola, a
were' against law!' Their founder was John Agricola, a
grows immortal by obscurity! for he shows how a fewv
simple words, not intelligible, may admit of volumes of  follower of Luther, who, while he lived, had kept Agricola's follies from  exploding, which they did when he asvindication.  Throw out a word, capable of fifty senses,  serted that there was no sd ch thines sin, our  salvation
and you raise fifty parties! Should some friend of peace  depending  on faith, and not on works and when he des
enale  he  ift  torepse  n oe snse  tht inocntdepending on faith, and not on works; and when he de.
enable the fifty to repose on one sense, that innocent  claimed against the Law of God. To what lengths some
word, no longer ringing the tocsin of a party, would lie in   ci    ais   the        o    do    w     n      t    e
forgetfulness inte  itinry  tilmoeprvkigwhn of his sect pushed this verbal doctrine is known; but the
forgetfulness in the Dictionary. Still more provoking when  realnotionsofthisAgricolaprobabivneverwillbe!  Bayle
real notionoftiAgioapoalneewilbIBye
ati identity of meaning is only disguised by different modes        nfhis Aril   ra             er i    e        a
ofexpressionan  whenteerm asbetsloseysi considered him as a harmless dreamier in theology, who had
of expression, and when the term has been closely sifted,  confilsed  his head by Paul's controversies with the Jews;
to their mutual astonishment, both parties discover the  but Mosheim, who bestows on this early reformer the episame thing, lyingb under the bran and ceaff after this heated                                                    episame  thing lyin  under the r    an an   d  chaff after this heated  thets of ventosus and versipellis, windy and crafty! or, as
operation.  Plato and Aristotle probably agreed  mulch  his translator has it, charges him with'vanity, presumpbetter than the opposite parties they raised up imagined;  h
tion, and artifice,' tells us by the term I law,' Agricola only
their difference was in the manner of expression, rather            t           te    tete  l,   Aic             on
than in the points discussed.  The Nominalists and the  meant the ten commandents of Moses, which he con
side~red were abrogated by (.he Gospel, being designed for
Realists, who once filled the world with their brawls, and  sidered were abrogated by the Gospel, being designed for
who front irregular words came to regular blows, could  the Jews and not for the Christians.  Agnicola then, by
In                      n om  Iregula word  cameto reular  lowscould the words the I Law of God,' and'I hat there was no such
never comprehend their alternate nonsense; though the  th         s   e'L       o Gd ad   tha          ea  nost
Nw  would-thing as sin,' must have said one thing and meant another!
Nominalists only denied what no one in his senses wouldi
This appears to have been the case with most of the ajll
affirm; and the Realists only contended for what no one
vines of the sixteenth century; {'or even ~Mosheim cornin his senses would deny; a hair's breadth  might have
jo~ined~ whats the spiritof'              plains of'their want of precision and consistency in exjoined what the spirit of party had sundered!'
Do we flatter ourselves that the Logomachies of the   pressing their sentiments, hence their real sentiments have
been misunderstood.' There evidently prevailed a great
N'ominalists and the Realists terminated with these scold-                                e      t   re       age'confusion of words' among them! The grace su
ing schoolmen? Modern nonsense, weighed against the  and the  ace eace  ffsante,
and the grace ecace of the Jansenists and the Jesitsi,
obsolete, may make the scales tremble for awhile, but it  show the shifts and stratagems by which noi send e may be
will lose its agreeable quality of freshness, and subside   dignified.  If  hether all men received from God s my  le
into an equipoise. We find their spirit still lurking among   gfe'heter a m          n  ivdromG    tPa
oro mepsin'oteoiasnd       grace for their conversion!' was an inquiry some unhappy
our own metaphysicians.' Lo! the Nonfinalists and the'
Realists aain!' exclaiedmyearnmetaphysical theologist set afloat: the Jesuits according
Realists aain!' exclaimed my learned friend, Sharon  to their worldly system of making men's consciences easy,
Turner, alluding to our modern doctrines on abstract ideas
ces,  affirmed it; but the Jansenists insisted, that this suficieri
on which there is still a doubt, whether they are any thing
more than generalising terms.*  Leibnitz confused his  grace would never be ffcacious, unless accompanied by
philosophy by the term sufficient reason: for every exist   pecial grace.'Then the sufficient grace, which is nt
philonce, for every the term suviient, and for every truth, there muxist be- efficacious, is a contradiction in terms, and worse, a heresy!'
ence, for every event, and for every truth, there must be a  timhnl   re  h    euteutn    vrteravr
sufficient reason.  This vagueness of language produced  triumphantly cried the Jesuits, exulting over their adverThis vagueness of language produced  saries.  This'confusion of words' thickened, till the Jea perpetual misconception, arnd Leibnitz was proud of his
equivocal triumphs in always affording a new interpreta-  suits introduced in this logomachy with the Jasenists. papal bulls, royal edicts, and a regiment of dragoons! The
tion! It is conjectured that he only employed his term of
Janschists, i~n despair, appealed to miracles and prodtales,
sufficient reason, for the plain simple word of cause. Even   Jansenists, in despair, appealed to miracles and prodigies,
Locke, who has himself so admirably noticed the' abuse   which they got up for pubic representation; but, above
of words,' has been charged with using vague and indefi-  all, to their Pascal, whose immortal satire the Jesuits reof words,' has been charged wit~h using vague and indefi-   l  ft  a      oc'uiie    n   fiaiis,    hlh
ally felt was at once' sufficient and efficacious,' thogh
nite ones; he has sometimes employed the words reflec-  the fews   n  suficint n ef os,' th
the dragoons, in settling a  confimsion of words,' did not
tion, mind, and spirit, in so indefinite a way, that they  boast of inferior success to Pascal's. Former aes had,
philsopy; tmmsby sme  mbigousboast of inferior success to Pascal's.  Former ages bad,
have confilsed his. philosophy; thus by some ambiguous 
~~~~~~have confu~i~sed his pindeed, witnessed even a more melancholy logomachy, in
expressions, outir great naetaphysician has been made to  the Homoousio  and the  lmoiousi!  An event which
I                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~the Hornoousion and the Homoiousiont Atn event w~hich
establish doctrines fatal to the immutability-of moral dis-  Boileau has immortalized by some fine verses, which, in
tinctions.  Even the eagle-eve of the intellectual Newton   his famo    satire on   Equivoque, for reasons best known
grew dim in the obscurity of the language of Locke.  We
n_               ~~~~~to the, Sorbonne, were struck out of the text.
are astonished to discover that two such intellects should  to the orbonne, were struck out of the text.
not comprehend the same ideas; for Newton wrote to             D'une syllabe impie un saint mot augment8
Locke,'I beg your pardon for representing that you            Remplit tous les espirits daigreures, si menirtieres —
struck at the root of morality in a principle laid down in     Tufis dans one guerre en si triste et si longue
your hook of Ideas-and that I took you for a Hobbist!'t      Perir tant de Clretiens, Martyro dune dipthongue
TIhe difference of opinion between Locke and Reid is in      Whether the Son was similar to the substance of:he
consequence of an ambigui!y in the word principle, as em-  Father, or of the same substance, lepeided on the diph-: Turner's Hist of England, i, 514.:thong oi, which was alternately rejected and received
We owe this curious unpublished letter to the zeal and   Had they earlier discovered what at length they agreed on,
care of Professor Dugatd Stewart, in his excellent Disserta-   that the words denoted what was incomprehensible,  it
~~~~iu~~~~nse~~.  ~would have saved thousands, as a witne-s describes,'from




LITERATURE.                                                           287
earing one another to pieces.' The great controversy be-  who cannot affix any definite notions to them; they are
tween Abelard and Saint Bernard, when the saint accused   like those chimerical fictions in law, which declare'the
the scholastic of maintaining heretical notions of the Trini-  sovereign  immortal; proclaim  his ubiquity in various
ty, long agitated the world-yet, now that these confusers   places;' and irritate the feelings of the populace, by asof words can no longer inflame our passions,  we wonder   suming that' the king can never do wrong!' In the time
now these parties could themselves differ about words to   of James II.,'it is curious,' says Lord Russel,'to reau
which we can attach no meaning whatever.  There have   the conference between the Houses on the meaning of
been few councils, or synods, where the omission or addi-  the words "deserted" and " abdicated," and the debates
tion of a word or a phrase might not have terminated an   in the Lords, whether or no there is an original contract
interminable logomachy! at the council of Basle, for the   between king and people.'
convenience of the disputants, John de Secubia drew up a      The people would necessarily decide that'kings de-.
treatise of undeclined words, chiefly to determine the signi-  rived their power from them; but kings were once mainfication of the particles from, by, but, and extcept, which it  tained by a' right divine,'-a'couflrisn of words,' deseems were perpetually occasioning fresh disputes among   rived from two opposite theories! and both only relatively
the Hussites and the Bohemians.  Had Jerome of Prague   true.  When we listen so frequently to such abstract
known, like  our Shakspeare, the virtue of an In, or  terms as'the majesty of the people'-the sovereignty of
agreed with Hobbes, that he should not have been so posi-  the people'-whence the inference that'all power is defive in the use of the verb is-he might have been spared   rived from the people,' we can form no definite notions:
from the flames.  The philosopher of Malmsbiiry has de-  it is'a confusion of words,' contradicting all the political
clared, that'Perhaps Judgment was nothing else but the   experience which our studies or our observations furnish;
composition or joining of two names of things, or modes, by   for sovereignty is established to rule, to conduct, and to
the verb is.' In modern tinmes the popes have more skil-  settle tbe vacillations and quick passions of the multitude.
fully freed the church from this'confusion of words.' His   Public opinion expresses too often the ideas of one party
holiness, on one occasion, standing in equal terror of the   in place, and public interest those of another party out!
court of France, who protected the Jesuits, and of the   Political axioms, from  the circumstsnce of having the
court of Spain, who maintained the cause of the Domini-  notions attached to them unsettled, are applied to the most
cans, contrived a phrase, where a csmma or a full stop   opposite ends'In  the time of the French Directory,'
placed at the beguinning or the end pulrported that his hellplaced at the begiiining or the end purported that his holi-  observes an Italian philosopher of profound views, in the
ness tolerated the opinions which he condemned; and   revolition of Naples, the democratic faction pronounced
when the rival parties despatched deputations to the court   that "Every act of a tyrannical government is ii its on in
that "1Every act of a tyrannical government is in its origin
whenthe iva pariesdesptchd deutaionsto he curt illegal;"a proposition which at first sight seems sc-lf-eviof Riome to plead for the period, or advocate the comma    illegal;" a proposition  hic   t  rst sht sees  lf-evihis holiness, in this' confusion ofwords,' flung an unpunc-   dent, but which went to render all existing laws impractii.
tuated copy to the parties; nor was it his fault, but that of  cale.  The dctrine of the illegaity of the act of a tythe spirit of party, if the rage of the one could not subside   rant was proclaimed by Bretus   and  Cicero, in the name
into a comma, nor that of the other close by a fill period  of the Senate, aainst the ppulac,  who  ad favoured
In jurisprudence nmuch confulsion has occurred in the   Cwsar's perpetual dictatorship; ard the  populace of
uses of the terni Rigts; yet the social union and humn   Paris availed themselves of it, agaiiist the National Ashappiness are involved in the precision of the expression    sembly
hen  Montesqui   laid down as the active principe ofa  This'confusion of words,' in time-serving politics, has
republic virtue, it seemed to infer that a republic was the   too often coifounded right and wrong; and artfs l men,
best of governments.  In the defence of this great work   driven into a coner, and  intent only on its possession,
he was oblied to define the term, ard it seems that by vir-   have found no difficulty in solving doubts, and reconciling
he  as bli'_(ed o efie te trmanditsees tat y vr-contradictions. Our own history, in revolutionary times,
tue, he only meant political virtue, the love of the country.    contradictions.   Our own history, in revolutionary times,
In politics, what evils have resulted  from abstract terms   abouds with dangeror s  examples from all parties;ofspeto which no ideas are affixed! Such as'The Equality of         s hypotheses for compliance with te government of the
Man-the Sovereinty or the Majsty  of the Peope-   day, or the piassions of parliament.  Here is an instance
in which the subtile conloser of words, pretended to subLoyalty-Reform —even Liberty herself!-Public opinion
stitute two consciences, by utterly depriving a man of any'
-Public interest'-and other abstract notions, which have    tiue two conciences, by ttelydeprving    man of any
excited the hatred or the ridicule of the vulgar.  Abstract   When the unhappy Charles the First pleaded, that to pass
ideas, as souns,  ve  een used as watchwords; the com the bill of attainder against the  Earl of Strafford was
batants will be  useall found awillin to ficht for words; to   against his conscience, that remarkable character of' boldhalants will be ustorlly found willing to fight for words to
which, perhaps. not one of them have attached any settled   ness and impiety, as Clarendon  characterizes Williams,
hess and impiety, as Claren~don characterizes Williams,
sinifichation.   This is admirably touched on by Locke, in   Archbishop of York, on this argument of conscience (a simhis  chapter of'Abhise of Words.'al   to WisdombLok, G     pie word enough,) demonstrated'that there were two sorts
his chapter of I Abuse of Words.'' Wisdom, Glory,
Gc& a wgi  ey m'   ofcosncience, public and private; that his public conscience
Grace, &c., are! words frequent e~nougoh in every man's
Grac, &., ae,  ordsfreuentenogh i  evry mn s as a king might dispense with his private conscience as a
mouth; but if a great many of those who use them should    s a kin  might dispense wit  his private onscence as a
be asked what they mean by them, they would be at a   man!' Such was the ignominious argument which decided
b~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~e fasked ofwhat gry eatnici  of stthem he                  y          wasaomuldbenat
stand, and know not what to answer-a plain proof that  the fate of that great victim of state!  It was an impudent
though they have learned llc:sse sounds, and have them    Iconfusion of words' when Prynne (in order to quiet the
consciences of those who were  uneasy at warring with
ready at their tongue's end, yet there are no determined   conscieces of those who were neasy at warring with
I                     ~~~~~~~the king) observed, that the statute of 2hth Edward III1,
ideas laid utip in their minds which are to be expressed to  the kin) observed, that the statue of 2anh Edward  III,
others by them.'                                            ran in the singular number —' If a man shall levy war
othen  the American exclaimed that he was not repre-   against the king,' and, therefore, could not be extended to
sented in the Houserof  Commons, becaustheh  was not  the houses, who were niany and public persons.  Later,
sentd inthe   ou~e-ofCommns, ecase h  wasnotwe find Sherlock blest with the spirit'of Williams, the
an elector, he was told that a very small part of the people   we find Serlock blest with the pirit of  lliams, the
PP0 Archbishop  of York, whom  we have just left.  When
of Eneland were electors.  As they could not call this an sii d    o    o    ho              e an   rsce    ne
actual representation, they invented a new name for it. and   some  did not know  how to charge Snd discarge tieml
selves of the oaths to James the Second and to William
called it a virtual one. It imposed on the Enelisb nation,
called it a cirtisrl one. It imposed on the English nation, the Third, this confounder of words discovered that there
who could not object that others should be taxed rather
than themselves; bitt with the Americans it was a sophism!  were two rights, as the other had that there were two conAn  this  irual  repres ation instead of an artul one,  sciences; one was a providential right, and the other a
And this virtual representation instead a~ an actual one,learih;oepsnmgtvryihtirycamad
legal right; one person might very rightcorycli   n
terminated in our separation;'which,' says Mr Flood,    ea  ig    n   ao h  a    rigteoouly  claim and
take a thing, and another as righteously   hold and keep'at the time appeared tV have swept away most of tour  it; but that whoever got the better had the providential
glory and our territory; forty thousand lives, and one hun- 
dredl millions of treasrlre!'                              right by possession; and since all authority comes from
dred millions of treastire!'
That fatal expression which Rousseau had introduced,  God, the people were obliged to transfer their allegiance
L'Eghituai des horemes, which finally involved the hapi   to him  as a king of God's making; so that he who had the
L'Ega`146 Oes hommes, which finally involved the happi                                      z                  a'   providential right necessarily had the legal one! a very
hess  of a whole pe~olle; bad he lived,  e had probaly simple discovery, which must, however, have.cost him
shown howr ill his cntrtrv had understood.  He ouold ony   some pains; for this confounder of words was himself.
have referred in hi - mind to political equtalitv. but not an   confounded by twelve answers by non-jurors!
confounded by twelve answers by non-jurors!
equality of possessions. of propertv. of authority, destrue-      French olitician ofti stai   cently was suspen.
tive of social order and of moral duties, which must exist        ro h  ltip f   s
ded from his lectureship, for asserting that the ressession
~tone every people.'Liberty.''Equiality.' and' Re-       fh.1        rgtb
rm' innoent word   sadlferment the bans      of the soil was a right; by which principle, any king
form.' innocent words! sadly ferment the brains of those                        I




288                                      CURIOSITIES OF
reigning over a country, whether by treachery, crime, and   which has frequently revived terms sanctioned by antiquiasurpation, was a legitimate sovereign. For this conve-  ty. Bishop Watson entitled his vindication of the Bible
nient principle the lecturer was tried, and declared not' an Apology:' this word, in its primitive sense, had long
guilty-by persons who have lately found their advantage  been lost for the multitude, whom he particularly address.
in a confusion of words.  In treaties between nations, a  ed in this work, and who could,nly undersland it in the
confusion of words' has been more particularly studied;  sense they are accustomed to. Unquestionably, many
and that. negotiator has conceived himself most dexterous  of -its readers have imagined that the bishop was offering
who, by this abuse o(f words, has retained an arriere-  an excuse for a belief' n the Bibie, instead of a vindicapens6e which may fasten or loosen the ambiguous expres-  tion of its truth.  The word impertinent by the ancient
sion he haLi so cautiously and so finely inlaid in his mosaic  jurisconsults, or law-counsellors, who gave their opinions
of treachery.  A scene of this nature I draw out of'Mes-  on cases, was used merely in opposition to pertinent-ra.
nuager's Netootiationr with the Court of England.' When  tio pertinens is a pertinent reason, that is, a reason perthat secret agent of Louis XIV was negotiating a peace,  taining to the cause in question; anti a ratio impertinens
an insuperable difficulty arose respecting the acknowledg-  an impertinent reason, is an argument not pertaining to
ment of the Hanoverian succession.  It was absolutely  the subject.*  Impertinent then originally meant neither
necessary on this delicate point, to quiet the anxiety of the   absurdity, nor rude intrusion, as it does in our present po.
English public, and our allies; but though the French   pular sense.  The learned Arnauld having characterized
king was willing, to recognize Anne's title to the throne,  a reply of one of his adversaries by the epithet imperliyet the settlement in the house of Hanover was incompat   nent, when blamed for the freedom of his language, exible with French interests and French honour.            plained his meaning by giving this history of the word
Mesnager told Iiord Bolingbroke that' the king, his mas-  which applies to our own langtLuae.  Tlhuts also with us,
ter, would  consent to any stlch article, looking the other  the word indiffkrent has eritirely changed: an historian,
way, as might disengage him. from the obligation of that  whose work was indifferently written, would formerly
agreement, as the occasion should iresent.'  This ambigu-  have claimed our attention.  In the Liturgy it is ptrayed
ous language was probably understood by Lord Boling-  that' magistrates may indiffserently mirtistet justice.' Inb:okee: at the next conference his Lor(lship informed the   differeitly original;y meant impartially. The word extrasecret. agent,' that the queen could nrot admit of any ex-   vagant, in its primitive significationi, only signified to diplan!ations, whatever her intentions might he; that the suc-  gress from  the subject.  The Decretals, or those letters
essiouT was settled by act of parliament; that as to the  from the popes deciding oii points of ecclesiastical disciprivate sentimnits of the queer, or of any about her, he   pline, were at length incorporated with the canon law,
could say nothain,,.' All this was said with such an air, as   and were called extravagant by wandering out of the body
to let me uJderslaud that he gave a secret assent to what I  of the canon law, being confusedly disp3ersed through
had propoedt, ~'c; but he desired me to drop the dis-  that collection.
course.'I'lIS two great negotiators, both equally urgent  When Luther had the Decretals publicly burnt at Wit.
to courlu le the treaty, found an insuperable obstacle oc-  temburgh, the insult was designed for the pope, rather
cur, will.' neither could control. Two honest men would  than as a condemnation of the canon law itself. Suppose
have parted; but the skilful confouirder of words,' the  in the present case, two persons of opposite opinions. The
French diplomatist, hit on an expedient; he wrote the   catholic, who had said that the decretals were extravagant,
words wiuch afterwards appeared in the prelintinaries,  might not have intended to depreciate them, or make any
that Loui s XIV will acknowledge the queen of Great Bri-  concession to the Lutheran.  What confusion oft words
taiml in that quality, as also the succession of the crown ac-  has the common sense of the Scotch metaphysicians in.
cording to the present settlement.'' The English agent,'  troduced into philosophy! There are no words, perhaps
adls the F'renchman, would have had me add-on the house  in the language, which may be so differently interpreted
of Hanover, but this I entreated him  not to desire of me.'  and Professor Dugald Stewart has collected, in a curious
The term present settlement, then was that article which   note,in the secoid volume of his' Philosophy of the Humam
was laoking the other way, to disengage his master from   Mind,' a singular variety of its opposite significations
the obligation of that agreement as ocdasion should present!  The Latin phrase,' sensus connunis,' may, in various
that is, that Louis XIV chose to understand by the pre-  passages of Cicero, be translated by our phrase' comlmon
sent settlement, the old one by which the British crown   sense;' but, on other occasions, it means something dif.
was to be restored to the Pretender! Anne anid the Eng-  ferent; the'sensus communis of the schoolmen is quite
lhsh nation were to understand it in their own sense-as   another thing, and is synonymous with conception, and
the new one, which transferred it. to the house of Hanover!  referred to the seat of intellect; with Sir John Davies, in
When politicians cannot rely upon each other's inter-  his curious metaphysical,oec1,'common sense is used
pretation of one of the commonest words in our language,  as imagination.  It cre:,ted a. controver;y with Beattie
how  can they possibly act together?  The Bishop of  and Reid; and Reid, whet introduced this vague ambigiu.
Winchester has proved this observation, by the remarka-  ous phrase in philodo:hical language, often understood
ble anecdote of the Duke of Portland arid Mr Pitt, who,  the term in its ord.ia:y acceptation.  This change of the
with the view to unite parties, were to hold a conference  meaning of the ew.,rds, which is constantly recurring in
on fair and equal terms.  His grace did not object to the  metaphysical disrastes, has made that curious but obscure
word fair, but the word equal was more specific and limi-  science liable to this, objection of Hobbes,'with rmamny
ted; and, fbr a necessary preliminary, he requested Mr  words making nothing understood!
Pitt to inform  himu what he understood by the word equal'    Controverties have been keenly agitated about the prin.
Whether Pitt was puzzled by the question, or would  ciples of morals, which resolve entirely into verbal disputes,
not deliver up an arriere-pensee, he put off the explana-  or at most into q;:estions of arrangement and classifica.
tion to the conference. But the Duke would not meet  tion of little comparative moment to the points at issue,
Mr Pitt till the weord was explained; and that important  This observation of Mr Dugald Stewart's night be illus,
negotiation was broken off, by not explaining a simple  trated by the fate of the numerous inventors of systems
word which appeared to require none!                    of thinking or morals, who have only employed very difTnrere is nothing more fatal in language than to wander  ferent and even opposite terms in ahupearance, to express
from the popular acceptation of words; and yet this popu-  the sarre thing. Some, by their mode of philosophisinog
lar sense} cannot always accord with precision of ideas,  have strangely unsettled the words self-interest and self
for it is itself subject to great changes.               lovc; and their misconceptions have sadly misled the voe
Another source, therefore, of the abuse of words, is  taries of these systems of morals; as others also, by suck
that mutability to which, in the course of time, the verbal  vague terms as' utility, fitness,' &c.
edifice, as well as more substantial ones, is doomed.  A   * It ih still a Chancery word.  An answer in Chanrery, &r.
familiar instance presents itself in the titles of tyrant. pa-  is referred for impertinence, reported impertinent-and the im
ra.ite, and sophist, originally honourable diatmnctions. The   pertinence ordered to be struck out, nmeanitrg only vuhat is
abuses of dominion made the appropriated title of kiigs;  imrmaterial or superfluous tendling  to unnecessary c.xrnrise
odious; the title of a magistrate, who hlad the care of the   I am indelbted for this explanation, to my friendl, Mr. Meri.
public granaries of corn, at length was applied to a   vale; and  o another learned fnietid, fortlelry in that ourt
wretched flatterer for a dinner; and absuird philosophers oc-  whs lescribes its meaning as' a excess of wcrrds or  atter
in the pleadlings,' and -iwho has received many an otlicia lfee
casioned a mere denomi.natior. to become a by-name. To   for' expunging imn)ertinencc,' leaving, holwever, he actknrw.
employ such terms in their primitive sense would now   ledges, a sulficienrt quantity to make the lawyers ashsmned of
confuse al' ideas; yet there is an affectation of erudition  their verbosity.




LITERATURE.                                                       289
When Epicurus asserted that the sovereign good con-  use a term, as a term, but for an explanation, and which
si6ted in pleasure, opposing the unfeeling austerity of the  employed by them  all, signifies opposite things, hut never
stoics by the softness of pleasurable emotions, his prin-  the plainest  Is it not, therefore, strange, that they can.
ciple was soon disregarded; while his word, perhaps chosen   not yet tell us what are riches? what is rent? what is
in the spirit of'paradox, was warmly adopted by the sensu-  value?  Monsieur Say, the most sparkling of them all,
alist.  Epicurus, of whom Seneca has drawn so beautiful  assures us that the English writers are obscure, by their
a domestic scene, in whose garden a loaf, a Cytheridean   confoundingo, like  Smith, the denomination  of labour.
cheese, and a draught which did not inflame thirst,* was the  The vivacious Gaul cries out to the grave Briton, Mr
sole banquet, would have started indignantly at            Malthus, I If I consent to employ your word labour, you'e th''    must understand me,' so and so! Mr Malthus says,' The fattest hog in I.picurus' sty!'' Commodities are: not exchanged for commodities only;
Such are the facts which illustrate that principle in'the    Commodities are  ot exchanged for commodities only
an affected obscurity  they are also exchanged for labour; and when the hypoabuse of words,' which Locke calls          chondriac Englishman with dismay, foresees' the glut of
arising fr'om applying old words to new, or unusual signi-  markets,' and concludes that we may produce more than
fications.'                                                we can consume, the paradoxical Monsieur Say discovers,
it was the same'confusion of words' which gave rise  that' commodities' is a wrong word, for it gives a wrong
*o the famous sect of the Sadducees.  The master of its  idea; it should be productions' for his axiom  is, that
Isidea; it should be productions!' for his axiom  is, that
tnder Sadoc, in his moral purity was desirous of a dis-' productions can only be purchased with productions.'
inter, sted worship of the Deity; he would not have men   Money, it seems, according to dictionary ideas, has no
like slia -s, obedient from the hope of reward, or the fear  exitence in his vocabulary;fr Monsieur Say has formed
of pnisn.-~nt.Sadc dew aquie cntray ifernceexistence in his vocabulary; for Monsieur Say has formed
of punishrernt.  Sadoc drew  a quites congtrary inaferencer   a sort of Berkleian conception of wealth, being immaterial,
from  the intention of his master, concluding that there were   while we confine our views to its materiity.   Hence enwhile we confine our views to its materiality.  Hence enneither rewards nor punishments in a future state.  The   sues from  this confusion of words,' this most brilliant
result is a parallel to the fate of Epicurus.  The mo-  paradox; that a glutted market is not a proof that we
z.ality of the master of Sadoc was of the most pure and   produce too much, but that we produce too little! for in
e'lvated kind, but in the'confusion of words,' the liber-  that case there is not enough produced to exchange with
tines adopted them  for their own purposes-and having   what is produced!'  As Frenchmen excel in politeness
once assumed that neither rewards nor punishments ex-  and impidence, Monsieur Say adds,'I revere Adam
isted in the after-state, they proceeded to the erroneous   Smith; he is my master; but this first of political econoconseqtuence that man perished with his own dust!         mists did not understand all the phenomena of production
The plainest worls by accidental associations, may sug-   and consumption;' this I leave to the ablest judge, Mr
gest the most erroneous conceptions, and have been pro-  Ricardo, to decide in a commentary on Adam Smith, if he
ductive of the greatest errors.  In the famous Barngorian   will devote his patriotism  and his genius to so excellent a
controversy, one of the writers excites a smile by a com-   labour.*   We, who remain uniinitiated in this mystery of
plaint, ar:sing from his views of the signification of a plain   explaining the operations of trade by metaphysical ideas,
word, whose meaning, he thinks had been changed by the   and raising up theories to conduct those who never theecontending parties. HI-e says,' the word country, like a   rise, can only start at the'confusion of words,' and leave
g'eat many others, stuch as church and kingdom, is, by the   this blessed inheritance to our sons,if ever the science
Bishop of Bangor's leave, become to signify a collection   survives the logomachy.
of ideas very different firom  its original meaning;  with    Caramiel, a famous Spanish bishop, was a grand archi-.
some it mplies party, with others private opinion, and   tect of words.  Ingenious in theory, his errors were conwih most intterest. and, perhaps, in time, may signify some   fined to his practice: he said a great deal and meant no.
other country.  When this good innocent word has been   thing; and by an exact dimensionll of his intellect, taken at
tossed backwards and forwards a little longer, some new   the time, it appeared that' he had genius in the eighth de.
reformer of language may arise to reduce it to its prinmitive   gree, eloquence in the fifth, but jdgment oly in the se
gree, eloquence in the fifth, but judgment only in- the sesianification-the real interest of Great Britain!'  The   cond!' This great man would not read the ancients; for
antagonist of this controversialist probably retorted on   he had a notion that the moderns must have acquired all
him his own term  of the real interest, which might be a   they possessed, with a good deal of their own'into the
very opposite one, according to their notions! It has been   bargin.   Two hundred and sixty-two wors, diffring in
1.                     ~~~~~~~bargain.' Two hundred and sixty-two works, differing in
said, with what truth I know not, that it was by a mere   breadth and length, besides his manuscripts, attest, that if
confusion of words that Burke was enabled to alarm the   the world would read his writings,they could need no other;
great Whig families, by showing them  their fate in that  for which purpose his last work always referred to the
of the French noblesse; they were minisled by the similitude   preceding ones, and could never be comprehended till his
of names.  The French  noblesse  had  as little reserm-   readers possessed those which were to follow.  As he had
blance with ouir nobility, as they have to the Mandarins of   the good sense to perceive that metaphysicians abound in
China.  However it may be in this case, certain it is, that  obscure and equivocal terms, to avoid this'confusion of
the same terms misapplied, have often raised those delu-   words,' he invented a jargon of his own; and to nake
sive notions termed false analogies.  It was long imagined   Iconfusion worse confounded,' projected grammars and
in this country, that the parliaments of France were some-   vocabularies by which we were to learn it; but it is qupwhat akin to our own; but these assemblies were very   posed that he was the only man who understood himsp
differently constituted, consisting only of lawyers in courts   He put every author in despair by the works which he an
of law.  A misnomer confuses all argument.  There is a   rourced.  This famous architect ofwords, however, built
trick which consists in, bestowirg good names on bad   more labyrinths than he could always get out of, notwiththings. Vices, thus veiled, are introduced to us as virtues,  standing his'caalistical grammar,' and his' audacious
according to an old poet,                                   grammar.'t  Yet this great Caramuel, the critics have
As drunkenness, good-fellowship we call!'         agreed. was nothing but a puffy giant, with legs too weak
SIR THoM.s WtAT.           for his bulk, anrid only to be accounted as a hero amidst a
Or the reverse, when loyalty may be ridiculed as' confusion of words.'
The right divine of kings-to govern wrong  Let us dread the fate of Caramuel! and before we enter
into disoussion with the metaphysician, first settle what he
The most innocent recreations, such as the drama, dan.  means by the nature ofideas; with the politician, his nocing, dress, have been anatheriatised by puritans, while  tion of libhe ty and equality; with the divine, what he
philosophers have written elaborate treatises in their de.  dees orthodo       e l; with  the  political ecoomist, what he
fenc-th  enarn issoledwhe  wedisove tht tese deems orthodox; with the political economist, what he
fence —the enigma is solved, when we discover that these   considers to be value and rent!  By this means we may
words suggested  a set of opposit.e notions to each.       avoid what is perpetually recurring; that extreme laxity or
But the nominalists and the realists, and the doctores   vagueness of words, which makes every writer or speaker,
fundatissimi, resolutissimi, refulterites, profttndi, and ex.  complain of his predecessor, and attempt, sometimes not
tatici, have left this heir-loom of logomachy to a race as
subtile: and irrefragable!i Ar extraordinary scene has re-    ~* Since the first edition of this work, the lamented death of
subtile and irrefragable! An extraordinary scene has reMr Ricardo has occurred-and we have lost the labours of a
cently been performed by a new company of actors, in the   mind ofgrest simplicity and native power, at, perhaps, the hour
modern comedy of Political Economy; anrid the whole di-  of its maturity. [Eneglish  Editor.]
ai'oue has been carried ott in an inimitable' confiusion of  f Baillet gives the dates and plans of these grammars. The
words' This reasoning, and unreasoning fraternity never  cabalistic was published in Bruxelles, 1642, in 12mne. TI e audacious was in folio, printed at Frankfort, 1654. — Jtigc.me e
* Sen. Epist. 21.                      des Savans. Tome II. i3me partie.
No. 10.                                                                   37




;290                                CURIOSITIES OF
in the best temper, to define and to settle the signification  reign, they were told that Jacque bon homme must pay for
of what the witty South calls' those  rabble-charming   all.  But Jack good-man came forward in person-a leader
words, which carry so much wild-fire wrapt up in them.'   appeared under this fatal name, and the peasants revolting
in madness, and being joined by all the cut-throats and
POLITICAL NICK-NAMES.                    thieves of Paris, at once pronounced condemnation on
Political calumny is said to have been reduced into an   every gentleman in France! Froissart has the horrid narart, like that of logic, by the Jesuits. This itself may be a  lative; twelve thousand of these Jacques bon hommes ex.
political calumny! A powerful body, who themselves had   piated their crimes; but the Jacquerie, who had received
practised the practices of calumniators, may in their turn,  their first appellation in derision, assumed it as their nom
often have been calumniated.  The passage in question   de guerre.
was drawn out of one of the classical authors used in their    In the spirited Memoirs of the Duke of Guise, writter
colleges.  BuPembaum, a German Jesuit, had composed,   by himself, of his enterprise against the kingdom of Na.
in duodecimo, a' Medulla Theologiae moralis,' where,  pies, we find a curious account of this political art of mark.
anmong other casuistical propositions, there was found lurk-  ing people by odious nick-names.' Genaro and Vicenzo,'
ing in this old jesuit's' marrow' one which favoured regi-  says the duke,' cherished under-hand, that aversion the
cide and assassination!  Fifty editions of the book had  rascality had for the better sort of citizens and civiler peo.
passed unnoticed; till a new one appearing at the critical  pie, who, by the insolences they suffered from these, not
moment of Damien's attempt, the duodecimo of the old  unjustly hated them.  The better class inhabiting the
Scholastic Jesuit which had now been amplified by its com-  suburbs of the Virgin were called black cloaks, and the
mentators into two folios, was considered not merely ridi-  ordinary sort of people took the name of lazars,' both in
culous, but as dangerous.' It was burnt at Toulouse, in  French and English an old word for a leprous beggar, and
1757, by order of the parliarnent,and condemned at Paris.  hence the lazaroni of Naples.  We can easily conceive
An Italian Jesuit published an' apology' for this theory of  the evil eye of a lazar when he encountered a black cloak!
assassination, and' the same flames devoured it! Whether  The Duke adds-' Just as at the begintJing of the revoluBusembaum deserved the honour bestowed on his ingenu-  tion, the revolters in Flanders fbrmerly took that of begity, the reader may judge by the passage itself.         gars; those of Guienne, that of eaters; those of Nor-' Whoever would ruin a person, or a government, must  mandy, that of bare-feet; and of Beausse and Soulogne, of
begin this operation by spreading calumnies, to defame the  woollen-pattens.' In the late French revolution, we obperson or the government; for unquestionably the calum-  served the extremes indulged by both parties chiefly conniator will always find a great nlilmber of persons inclined   cerned in revolution-the wealthy and the poor! The rich,
to believe hirm, or to side with hinm; it therefore follows,  who, in derision, called their humble fellow-citizens by the
that whenever the object of such calunlnies is once lower-  contemptuous term  of sans-culottes, provoked a reacting
ed In credit by such means, he will soon lose the reputation  injustice from the populace, who, as a dreadfitl return for
and power founded on that credit, and sink under the per-  only a slight, rendered the innocent term of a.istocrate, a
manent and vindictive attacks of the calumniator.'  This  signal for plunder or slaughter!
is the politics of Satan-the evil principle which regulates  It is a curious fact that the French verb fronder, as
so many things in this world.  The enemies of the Jesuits  well as the noun frondeur, are used to describe those who
have formed a list of great names who had become the vic-  condemn the measures of government; and more extentims of such atrocious Machiavelism.*                    sively, designates any hyperbolical and malignant critiThis has been one of tle arts practised by all political  cism, or any sort of condemnation.  These words have
parties.  Their first weak invention is to attach to a new   been only introduced into the language since the intrigues
faction a contemptible or an opprobrious nick-name.  In  of Cardinal de Retz succeeded in raising a faction against
the history ofthe revolutions of Europe, whenever a new   Cardinal Mazarine, known in French history by the nickparty has at lerngth established its independence, the origi-  name of the Frondeurs, or the Slingers.  It originated in
nal denomination which had been fixed on them, marked   pleasantry, although it became the pass-word for insurrecby the passions of the party which bestowed it, strangely  tion in France, and the odious name of a faction.  A wit
contrasts with the name finally established!            observed, that the parliament were like those school-boys.
The first revolutionists of Holland incurred the contemp-  who fling their stones in the its of Paris, and as soon as
tuous name of' Les Gueux,' or the Beggars.  The Duch-  they see the Lieutenant Civil, run away; but are sure tc
ess of Parma inquiring about them, the Count of Barla-  collect again directly lihe disappears.  The comparisor
mont scornfully described them to be of this class; and it  was lively, and formed the burthen of songs; an4l after.
was flattery of the Great which gave the name currency.  wards, when affairs were settled between the king and the
The Hollanders accepted the name as much in defiance  parliament, it was more particularly applied to the faction
as with indignation, and acted up to it. Instead of broaches  of Cardinial de Retz, who still held out.' We encouraged
in their hats, they wore little wooden platters, such as  the application,' says De Retz; for we observed that the
beggars used, and foxes' tails instead of feathers.  On the  distinction of a name heated the minds of people; and one
targets of some of these Gueux they inscribed,'Rather  evening we resolved to wear hat-strings in the fobrm of
Turkish than Popish!' and had the print of a cock crow-  slings. A  hatter, who might be trusted with the secret,
Ing, out of whose mouth was a label Vive les Gueux par  made a great number as a new fashion, and which were
tout le monde! which was every where set up, and was the  worn by many who did not understand the joke; we ourfavourite sign ofthe;- hnis.  The Protestants in France,  selves were the last to adopt them, that the invention
after a variety of nick-names to render them contemptible,  might not appear to have come from us.  The effect of
such as Christodins, because they would only talk about  this trifle was immense; every fashionable article was
Christ, similar to our Puritans; and Parpaillots, or Par-  now to assume the shape of a sling; bread, hats, gloves,
pirelles, a small base coin, which was odiously applied to  handkerchiefs, fans, 4-c., and we ourselves became more
them; at length settled in the well-known term  of Hu-  in fashion by this folly, than by what was essential.' This
guenots, which probably was derived, as the Dictionnaire  revolutionaby term was never forgotten by the French, a.
de Trevoux suggests, from their hiding themselves in se-  circumstance which might have been considered as progcret places, and appearing at night, like king Hugon, the   nostic of that after-revolution, wh'ich De Retz had thile imgreat hobgoblin of France.  It appears that the term has   agination to project, but not the daring to establish.  We
been preserved by an earthen vessel without feet, used in  see, however, this great politician, confessing the advancookery, which served the Huguenots on meagre days to  tages his party derived by encouraging the application of
dress their meat, and to avoid observation; a curious in-  a by-name, which served' to heat the minds of people.'
stance, where a thing still in use proves the obscure cir-    It is a curious circumstance that I should have to re.
cumstance of its origin.                                 count in this chapter on  Political Nick-names' a familiar
The atrocious insurrection, called La Jacqu ie, was a   term with all lovers of art, that of Silhouette! This is well
term which originated in cruel derision. When John of  understood as a black profile, but it is more extraordinary
France was a prisoner in England, his kingdom appears to  that a term so universally adopted should not be found in
nave been desolated by its wretched nobles, who, in the   any dictionary, either in that of L'Academie, or in Todd's,
indulgence of their passions, set no limits to their luxury  and has not even been preserved, where it is quite indisand their extortion.  They despoiled their peasantry with-  pensable, in Millin's Dictionnaire des Beaux-Arts!  It is
out mercy, and when these complained, and even reproach-  little suspected that this innocent term originated in a poed this tyranlli al nobility with having forsaken their sove-  litical nick-name! Silhouette was minister of state ir.
* See Recueil, Chronologique et Analytique detout ce qui a   France in 1759; that period was a critical one; the trea.
fait en Portusal la Societ6 de Jesus. Vol. ii, sect. 406.  sury was in an exhausted condition, and Silhouette, a very




LITERATURE.                                                          291
honest man, who would hold no intercourse with financiers,  changed its ordinary meaning was early; Charles, in 1642,
or loanw-mongers, could contrive no other expedient to pre-  retorts on the parliamentarians the opprobrious disttinction,
vent a national bankruptcy, than excessive economy, and   as' The true malignant party which has contrived and
interminable reform!  Paris was not the metropolis, any   countenanced those barbarous tumults.' And the royalists
more than London, where a Plato or a Zeno could 0long   pleaded for themselves, that the hateful designation was ill
be minister of' state, without incurring all the ridicule of  applied to them: for by malignity you denote, said they,
the wretched wits! At first they pretended to take his ad-  activity in doing evil, whereas we have always been on the
vice, merely to laugh at him!-they cut their coats shorter,  suffering side in our persons, credits, and estates; but the
and wore them  without sleeves; they turned their gold   parliamentarians,'grinning a ghastly smile,' would reply,
snuff-boxes into rough wooden ones; and the new-fash-  that'the royalists would have been malignant had they
ioned portraits were now only profiles of a face, traced by   proved successful.' The truth is, that malignancy meant
a black pencil on the shadow  cast by a candle on white   with both parties any opposition of opinion.  At the same
fpeer!  All the fashions assumed an air of niggardly   period the offensive distinctions of round-heads and cavaeconomy, till poor Silhouette was driven into retirement,  hiers supplied the people with party-names, who were alwith all his projects of savings and reforms; but he left  ready provided with so many religious as well as civil causes
his name to describe the most economical sort of portrait,  of quarrel; the crept heads of the sullen sectaries and the
and one as melancholy as his own fate!                      people, were the origin of the derisory nick-name; the
This political artifice of appropriating cant terms, or odi-  splendid elegance and the romantic spirit of the royalists
ous nick-names, could not fail to flourish among a people  long awed the rabble, who in their mocltery could'brand
so perpetually divided by contending interests as ourselves;  them by no other appellation than one in which their bearevery party with us have had their watch-word, which has  ears gloried.  In these distracted times of early revolution,
served either to congregate themselves, or to set on the   any nick-name, however vague, will fully answer a purban-dogs of one faction to worry and tear those of another.  pose, although neither those who are blackened by the
We practised it early, and we find it still prospering! The   odiPum  nor those who cast it, can define the hateful appellaPuritan of Elizabeth's reign survives to this hoor; the   tive.  When the term of delinquents came into vogue, it
tryinig difficulties which that wise sovereign had to over-  expressed a degree and species of guilt, says Hume, not
come in settling the national religion, found no sympathy   exactly known or ascertained.  It served however the end
in either of the great divisions of her people; she retained   of those rovolutionists, who had coined it, by involving any
as much of the catholic rites as might be decorous in the   person in, or colouring any action by, delinquency; and
new religion, and sotight to unite, and not. to separate, her  mariy of the nobility and gentry were, without any quieschildren.  John Knox, in the spirit of charity, declared,  titns being asked, suddlenly discovered to have committed
that' she was neither gude protestant, nor yet resolute pa-  the crime of delinquency!  Whether honest Fuller be fa.
pist; let the world judge quilk is the third.'              cetious  or grave on this period of nick-naming parties [
A jealous party arose, who were for reftrming the refor-   will not decide; but, when he tells us that there was anomaion.  In their attempt at. more than human purity, the    ther word which was introduced into our nation at this
obtained the niclk-name of Puritans; and from  their fasti-  time, I think at least that thile whole passage is an admiradiousness about very small matters, Precisians; these Dray-   ble commentary on this party vocabulary.' Contetmpoton characterizes as persons that for a painted glass win-  rary with malignants is the word plunder, whish some
dow  would pull down the whole church.  At that early   make of Latin original, from planum dare, to level, to plane
period these nick-names were soon used in an odious sense;  all to nothing! Others of Dutch extraction, as if it were
for Warner, a poet in the reign of Elizabeth, says,-        to plume, or pluck the feathers of a bird to the bare skin.*'If hypocrites, why puritaines we term be asked, in breefe,  Sure I am we first heard of it in the Swedish wars; and'Tis but an ironised-terme; good-fellow so spels theefe!,    if the name and thing be sent back from  whence it came,
few English eves would weep thereat.' All England had
HIonest Fuller, who knev that marty good men were   wept at the iniroduction of the word.  The rump was the'among these Puritans, wished to decline the term  alto-  filthy nick-name of an odious faction-the history of this
gether, under the less offensive one of' Non-conformists.  famous appellation, which was at first one of horror, till i:
But the fierce and the fiery of this party, in Charles the   afterwards became one of derision anrid contempt, must i.
First's time, had been too obtrusive not to fully merit the   referred to another place.  The rump becate a perpetuai
ironical appellative; and the peaceful expedient of our  whetstone for the loyal wits, till at length its former adModerator dropped away with the page in which it was   mirers, the rabble themselves, in town and country vied
written.  The people have frequently exlpressed their own   with each other in'I burning rumps' of beef which were
notions of different parliaments by some apt nick-name.   hung by chains on a gallows with a bonfire underneath,
In Richard the Second's time, to express their dislike of  and proved how the people, like children, come at length
the extraordinary and irregular proceedings of the lords  to make a play-thing of that which was once their burgbear.
ainst the soverei,  as well as their sanguinary mea-  Charles II during the short holiday of the restorationsures, they called it  The wonder-working and the unmer-  all holidays seem  short!-and when he and the people
eiful parliament.' In Edward the Third's reign, when the   were in good humour, granted any thing to every one,Black Prince was yet living, the parliament, for having   the mode of'Petitions' got at length very inconvenient.
pursued with severity the party of the duke of Lancaster,  and the king in council declared, that this petitioning was
was so popular, that the people distinguished it as the good' A method set on foot by ill men to promote discontents
parliament.  In Henry the Third's time, the parliament  among the people,' and enjoined his loving subjects not to
opposing the king, was called'Parliamentum  insanum,'  subscribe them.  The  petitioners however persistedthe mad parliament, because the lords came armed to in-   when a new party rose to express their abhorrence of pesist on the confirmation of the great charter.  A Scottish   tilioning; both parties nick-named each other the petiParliament, from its perpetual shiftings lrom place to place,  tioners and the abhorrers!  Their day  was short, but
was ludicrously nick-named the running parliament; in the   fierce; the petitioners, however weak in their cognomen,
same spirit we had our long parlianient.  The nick-name   were far the bolder of the two, for the comnmons were with
of Pensioner parliament stuck to the House of Commons   them, and the abhorrers had expressed by their term rather
which sate forty years without dissolution, under Charles   the strength of their inclinations, than of their numbers.
the Second; and others have borne satirical or laudatory   Charles II said to a petitioner from Taunton,   How dare
epithets.  So true it is, as old Holingeshead observed,'  The   you deliver me such a paper?' Sir,' replied the peticonmmon people will manie times give such bie names as  tioner from  Taunton,  My name is DARE!' A  saucy
seemeth best liking to themselves.' It would be a curious   reply, for which he was tried,fined, and imprisoned: when
ipeculation to discover the sources of the popular feeling;   o! the commons petitioned again to release the petitioner!
influenced by delusion, or impelled by good sense.'The very name,' says Hume,' by which each pariy deThe exterminating political nick-name of malignant  nominated its antagonists discover the virulence and randarkened the nation through the civil wars: it was a pro-  cour which prevailed; for besides petitioner and abhorrer,
scription-and a list of good arnd bad lords was read by the  this year is remarkable for leing the epoch of the well..
leaders of the first tumults.  Of all these inventions, this  known epithets of Whig and Tory.'  These silly terms of
diabolical one was most adapted to exasperate the animosi-  reproach are still preserved among us, as if the palladium
ties of the people, so often duped by names.  I have never
detected the active man of faction who first hit on this odi-    * Plunder, observes my r'iend, Mr Doute, is pr'e Dutch or
otis brand for persons, but the period when the world   Flemish-Plueleren, fiorn Plunder, which means property of
any kind.




292                                   CURIOSITIES OF
of British liberty was guarded by these exotic names; for  Gray, the critic who passed his days amidst'the ui.~
they are not English which the parties so invidiously  hum of men,' and the poet who mused in cloistered sol.
bestow  on each other.  They are ludicrous enough in  tude, have latally injured a fine natural genius in Shien.
their origin; the friends of the court and the advocates of  stone.  Mr Campbell, with a brother's feeling, has (since
lineal succession, were by the republican party branded  the present article was composed) sympathized with the
with the title of Tories, which was the name of certain  endowments and the pursuits of this poet; but the facts I
Irish robbers: while the court party in return could find no  had collected seem to me to open a more important view.
other revenge than by appropriating to the covenanters and   I am aware how lightly the poetical character of Shen.
the republicans of that class, hhe name of the Scotch be-  stone is held by some great contemporaries-although this
verage  of sour milk, whose virtue they considered so ex-  very poet has left us at least one poem of unrivalled ori.
pressive of their dispositions, and which is called whigg.  giiality.  Mr Campbell has regretted that Shenstone not
So ridiculous in their origin were these pernicious nick-  only'affected that arcadianism,' which' gives a certain
natnes, which long excited feuds and quarrels in domestic  air of nmasquerade in his pastoral character' adopted by
life, arnd may still be said to divide inito two great parties  our earlier poets, but also  has'rather incongruously
this land of political freedom.  But nothing becomes oh-  blended together the rural swain with the disciple of-Vertu.'
solete in political factions, and the  meaner and more   Allthis requires someexplanation.  Itis not only as  poet,
scandalous the name affixed by one party to another, the   possessing the characteristics of poetry, but as a creator in
more it becomes not only their rallying cry or their pass  another way, for which I claim the attention of the reader.
word, but even constitutes their glory.  Thus the Hol-  I have formed a picture of the domestic life of a poet, and
landers long prided themselves on the humiliating nick-  the pursuits of a votary of taste, both equally contracted in
name of'les gueux:' the Protestants of France on the  their endeavours, from the habits, the emotions, and the
scornful one of the Hug.uenots; tlhe non-conformists in  events which occurred to Shenstone.
England on the mockery of the puritan; and all parties     Four material circumstances influenced his character,
have perpetuated their anger by their inglorious names,  and were productive of all his unhappiness.  The neglect
Swift was well aware of this truth in political history:  he incurred in those poetical studies to which he had deeach part y,' says that sagacious observer,' rows proud   voted his hopes; his secret sorrows in not having formed
of that appellation which their adversaries at first intended  a domestic union, from prudential motives, with one whom
as a reproach; of this sort were the Guelphs and the  he loved; the ruinous state of his domestic affoirs, arising
Ghibellines, Huguenots and Cavaliers.'                   from a seducing passion for creating a new taste in landNor has it been only by nick-naming each other by de-  scape-gardening and art ornamented farm; and finally, his
risory or opprobi ious terms that parties have been marked,  disappointment of that promised patronage, which might
but they have also worn a livery, and practised distinctive  have induced him to have become a political writer; for
nianners.  What sufferings did not Italy endure for a long  which his inclinations, and, it is said, his talents in early
series of years, under those fatal party-namies of the  life, were alike adapted: with these points in view, we
Guelphs and the Ghibellines; alternaiely the victors and  may trace the different states of his mind, show what he
the vanquished, the beautifiul land of Italy drank the blood   did, and what he was earnestly intent to have done.
of her chiliren.  Italy, like Greece, opens a moving       Why have the' Elegies' of SHEnSTONE, which forty
picture of the hatreds and jealousies of small republics:  years ago formed for many of us the favourite poems oh
her Bianca and her Nera, her Guelphis and her Ghibellines!  our youth, ceased to delight us in mature life?  It is perIn Bologna, two great families once shook that city with  haps that these Elegies, planned with peculiar felicity,
their divisions; the Pepoli adopted the French interests;  have little in their execution.  They form a series of pothe Maluezzi the Spanish.  It was incurring some danger  etical truths, but without poetical expression; truths,-for
to walk the streets of Bologna, for the Pepoli wore their  notwithstanding the pastoral romance in which the poet
feathers on the right side of their caps, aiid the Maluezzi  has enveloped himself, the subjects are real, and the fbelon the left. Such was the party-hatred of the two great  ings could not, therefore, be fictitious.
Italian factions, that they carried their rancour even into    In a Preface, remarkable for its graceful simplicity, our
their domestic habits; at table the Guelphs placed their  poet tells us, that' He entered on his subjects occasionialknives and spoons longwise, and the Ghibellines across;  vly, particular incidents in life suggested, or dispositions oJ
the one cut their bread across, the other longwise.  Even  mind recommended them to his choice.' Hle shows that
in cutting an orange they could not agree; for the Guelph'He drew his pictures from the spot, and he felt very sen.
cut his orange horizontally, and the Ghibelline downwards.  sibly the affections he communicates.' He avers that all
Children were taught these artifices of faction-their  those attendants on rural scenery, and all those allusions
hatreds became traditional, and thus the Italians perpetu-  to rural life, were not the counterfeited scenes of a townated the full benefits of their party-spirit, from generation   poet, any more than the sentiments, which were inspired by
to generation.*                                          N-mature.  -henstone's friend, Graves, who knew hint early
Men in private life go down to their graves with somine   in life, and to his last days, informs us, that these Elegies
unlucky name, not received in baptism, but more descrip-  were written when he had taken the Leasowes into his
tive and picturesque; and even ministers of state have   own hands; and though his fermne orn&e engaged his
winced at a political christening.  Malagrida the Jesuit  thoughts, he occasionally wrote them,' partly,' said Shenrand Jermmy Twitcher were nick.names, which made one  tone,'to divert my present impatience, and partly, as it
of our ministers odious, and another contemptible.  The   will be a picture of most that passes in my own mind;
Earl of Godolphin catight such fire at that of Volpone,  a portrait which friends may value.' This, then, is the
that it drove him into the opposite parry for the vindictive   secret charm which acts so forcibly on the first emotions
purpose of obtaiting the impolitical prosecution of Sache-  of our youth, at a moment when not too difficult to be
vrell, who in his fanmous sermon had first applied it to the  pleased, the reflected delineations of the habits and the
earl, and unluckily it had stuck to him.                 affections, the hopes and the delights, with all the domes-'Faction,' says Lord Orford,'is as capricious as for-  tic associations of this poet, always true to Nature, reflect
tune; wrongs, oppression, the zeal of real patriots, or the   back that picture of ourselves we instantly recognize. It
genius offalse ones, may sometimes be employed for years  is only as we advance in life that we lose the relish of our
in kindling substantial opposition to authority; in other  early simplicity, and that we discover that Shenstone was
seasons the impulse of a moment, a ballad, a nick-name, a   not endowed with high imagination.
fashion, can throw a city into a tumult, and shake the fiound-  These Elegies, with some other poems, may be read
arions of a state.'                                      with a new interest, when we discover them to form the
Such is a slight history of the human passions in poli-  true Memoirs of Shenstone. Records of querulous, but
tics!  We might despair in thus discovering that wisdom   delightful feelings; whose subjects spontaneously offered
and patrotism so frequently originate in this turbid source of  themselves from  passing incidents; they still perpetuate
party; but we are consoled when we reflect that the most  emotions, which will interest the young poet, and the
important political principles are immutable; and that they   young lover of taste.
are those, which even the spirit of party'earn to     Elegy IV, the first which Shenstone composed, is
reverence.                                               entitled'Ophelia's TTrn,' and it was no uinreal one! It
THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF A POET.-SHENSTONE                was erected by Graves in Mickleton Church, to the ime.
VINDICATED.                         mory of an extraordinary young woman, Utrecia Smiththe literary daughter of a learned, but poor, clergyman.
THE, dogmatism  of Johnson, and the fastidiousness of  Utrecia had formed so fine a taste for literature, and corn..
t Thast curious particulars I found in a Manuscript  posed with such elegance in verse and urose, that an ex.




LITERATURE.                                                         293
cellent judge ieclared, that' he. did not like to form his  nor that some' dull dotard with boundless wealth,' finds
opinion  of any author till he previously  knew  hers.'  his grating reed' preferred  to the bard's, but that tlk
Graves had been long at".ched to her, but from  motives    tawdry shepherdess' of this dull dotard, by her' prite,'
of prudence broke off an intercourse with this interesting   makes' the rural thane,' despise the poet's De.ia.
worman, who ssank under this severe disappointment. —              Must Deli's softness, elegance, and ease,
When her prudent lover, Graves, inscribed the urn, her              Submit to Marian's dress  to larians gold?
friend Shenst(uie, perhaps more feelingly commemorated            Must Marian's robe from distant todia please
The simple fleece my Deia's limbs inbld!
her virtues and her tastes. Such, indeed, was the friendly        AT what is native worth esteemed of lowna?
intercourse between Shenstone and Utrecia, that in Elegy'Tis thy false glare, 0 Fortune  hine they see;
XVIII, written long after her death, she still lingered in'Tis fbr my Delia's sake I dread thy fLowns,
his reminiscences.  Composing this Elegy on the calami-             And my last gasp shall curses breathe on thee!'
lois close of Somerville s life, a brother bard, and victim  The  Delia of our poet was not an' Iris en air.' SHa
to narrow circumstances, and which he probably contem-    Tohe was early in life captivated  by  a young lady, whoN
plated as an imag!e of his own, Shenstone tenderly recol-   TXwseryilfecpvadbyaougayhm
plated as an image of his own, Shenstone tenderly recol- Graves describes with all those mild and serene graces of
lects that he used to read Somerville's poems to Utre-  pensive melancholy, touched by plaintive love-songs and
cia:-                                                     elegies of wo, adapted not only to be the muse, but the
h, lost Ophelia! smoouthly flow'd the day           mistress of a poet.  The sensibility of.this passion took
To tbel his music with my flames agree;
To taste the beauties of his melting lay,
To taste the bea~uties of htis melting lay,          entire possession of his heart for some years, and it was
To taste, and fancy it was dear to Thee!       in parting from  her that he first sketched his exquisite
How true is the feeling! how mean the poetical expres-' Pastoral Ballad.'  As he retreated more and more into
Hcsion!              r5  stefeino   o  ente  otclcpe       solitude, his passion felt no diminution.  Dr Nash informs
The Seventh Elegy describes a vision, where the sha-  us, that Shenstone acknowledged  that it was his own
dow of   olsey breaks upon the author:      fault that he did not accept the hand of the lady whom  he
dow of Wolsey breaks upon the author:
so tenderly loved; but his spirit could not endure to be a
~graceful form app~ear'~d,             perpetual witness of her degradation in the rank of society,
White were his locks, with awful scarlet crown'd.'     by an inconsiderate union with poetry and poverty.  That
Even this fanciful subject was not chosen capriciously,  such was his motive, we may infer from a passage in one
but sprung firom an incident.  Once, on his way to Chel-  of his letters.' Love' as it regularly tends to matrimony,
tenham, Shenstone missed his road, and wandered till late  requires certain favours from fortune and circumstances to
at night among the Cotswold Hills; on this occasion he  render it proper to be indulged in.' There are perpetual
appears to have made a moral reflection, which we find in  allusions to these' secret woes' in his correspondence;
his'Essays.''How melancholy is it to travel late upon  for, although he had the fortitude to refuse marriage, he
any ambitious project on a winter's night, and observe the  had not the stoicism to contract his own heart, in cold and
light of cottages, where all the unambitious people are  sullen celibacy.  He thus alludes to this subject, which
warm and happy, or at rest in their beds.' While the be-  so often excited far other emotions than those of humournighted poet, lost amnon.g the lonely hills, was meditating'It is long since I have considered  myself as undone.
on' ambitious projects,' the character of Wolsey arose   The world will not, perhaps, consider me in that light enbefore him; the visionary cardinal crossed his path, and  tirely till I have married my maid'
busied his imagination.   Thou,' exclaims the poet,          It is probable that our poet had an intention of marrying
Likte a meteor's fire,            his maid.  I discovered a pleasing anecdote among the
Shot'st blazing forth, disdaining dull degrees.'      late Mr Bindley's collections, which I transcribed from the
ELEGY VII.    original.  On the back of a picture of Shenstone himself,
And the bard, after discovering all the miseries ofunhap-  of which Dodsley published a print in 1780, the following
py grandcur, and murniuring at this delay to the house of  enereetic inscription was written by the poet on his new
his friend, exclaims,                                      year's gift.
On if these ills the price of power advance,    This picture belongs to Mary Cutler, given her by her
Check not my speed where social joys invite!'
Check not my speed where social joys invite!i      master, William  Shenstone, January 1st, 1754, in acof the poetical septre is fine  knowledgment of her native genius, her magnanimity, her
the silent departure                                       tenderness, and her fidelity.                     W. S.'
tenderness, and her fidelity.                     W. S.,
The troubled vision cast a mournful glance,' The Progress of Taste; or the fate of Delicacy,' is a
And sighing, vaisished in the shades of night.'     poem  on the temper and studies of the author; and
And to prove that the subject of this Elegy thus arose to'Economy; a Rhapsody, addressed to young Poets,'
the poet'sfancy, he has himselfcommemorated the incident  abounds with self-touches.  If Shenstone created little
that gave occasion to it, in the opening:                  from the imagination, he was at least perpetually under
On distant heaths, beneath autumnal skies,          the influence of real emotions.  This is the reason why
Pensive I saw tie circling shades descend;         his truths so strongly operate on the juvenile mind, not yet
Weary and ftint, I heard the storm arise,            matured: and thus we have sufficiently ascertained the
While the sun vanish'd like a faithless friend.'   fact, as the poet himself has expressed it,' that he drew
iELEGY VII.    his pictures from the spot, and he felt very sensibly tihe
The Fifteenth  Elegy, composed'in memory of a pri-  affections he communicates.'
vate family in Worcestershire,' is on the extinction of the  All the anxieties of a poetical life were early experiancient faimi - of the Penns in the male line.*  Shen-  enced by Shenstone.  He first published some juverfile
stone's mothe- was a Penn; and the poet was now the in-  productions, under a very odd title, indicative of modesty,
habitant of their ancient mansion, an old timber-built  perhaps too of pride.*  And his motto of Contentus paucts
house of the age of Elizabeth. The local description was!ectoribus, even Horace himself might have smiled at, for
a real scene — the shaded pool,'-' the group of ancient  it only conceals the desire of every poet, who pants to deelms,'-the flocking tooks,' and the picture'of the simple  serve many! But when he tried at a more elaborate po.
manners of his own ancestors, were realities, the emo-  etical labour,'The judgment of Hercules', it failed to
tions they excited were therefore genuine, and not one of  attract notice.  He hastened to town, and he beat about
those mockeries' of amplification from the crowd of verse-  literary coffee-houses; and returned to the country,from
writers,                                                   the chase of Fame, wearied without having started it.
The tenth Elegy,' To Fortune, suggesting his Motive       * While at college he printed, without his name, a small
for repining at her Dispensations,' with his celebrated   volume of verses, with this title,'Poems upon various OrcaPastoral Ballad, in four parts,' were alike produced by  sions, written for the Entertainment of the Author, and printed
what one of the great minstrels of our own times has so  for the Amusement of a few Friends, prejudiced in his Fao
finely indicated wvhen he sung                             your.' Oxford, 1737. 12 mo.-Nash's History of Worcester,
6nely    ~~~~~shire, Vol. i, p. 528.'The secret wo-es the world has never known;
The secret wes the worl has never known;  I find this notice of it in W. Lowndes's Catalogue; 441
While on the weary night dawn'd wearier day,
Whie on the weary iht  awr'd weaer day,  Shenstone (W.) Poems, 31, 13s, 6d.-(Shenstone took un
And bitterer was the griefdevour'd alone.'          common pains to suppress this book, by collecting and destroy.
In this Elegy, SHENsToNE repines at the dispensations  ing copies wherever he met with them.) —In Longman's Bi.
of fortune, not for having denied him her higher gifts, nior  bliotheca Anglo-Poetics. it is valued at 15/. Ox f 1737! My
that she compels him to                                    Harris informs me, that about the year 1770, Fletcher, the
Chec  the fon love of Art that fird  y veins,'  bookseller, at Oxford, had many copies of this first editiorn,
which he sold at Eigteen pence each. The prices are amusing
This wq leartni from Dr Nash's History of Worcestershire.   The prices of books are connected with their history




294                                  CURIOSITIES OF' A breath revived him-but a breath o'erthrew.'   which conceals itself amidst the beautiful appt arances d1
Even the'judgment of Hercules' between Indolence  taste:
and Industry, or Pleasure and Virtue, was a picture                          * Some graceless mark,
of his own feelings; an argument drawn from his own rea-      Some symptom ill-conceal'd, shall soon or late
sonings; indicating the uncertainty of the poet's dubious     Burst like a pimple from the vitious tide
disposition: who finally, by siding with Indolence, lost that  Of acid blood, proclaiming want's disease
triumph by which his hero obtained a directly opposite        Amidstthebloom of show.'            EON
course.
In the following year begins that melancholy strain in his  H-l paints himself:
correspondence, which marks the disappointment of the'Observe Florelio's mien;
man who had staked too great a quantity of his happiness    Why treads my friend with melancholy step
on the poetical die. This was the critical moment of life   That beauteous lawn? Why pensive strays his eye
when our character is formed by habit, and our fate is de-  O'er statues, grottoes, urns, by critic art
cided by choice. Was Shenstone to become an active, or      Proportion'd fair 7 or from his lofty lone.Returns his eye unpleased dlisconsolate?'
contemplative being?  He yielded to Nature!*
It was now that he entered into another species of po-    The cause is  criminal expense,' and he exclaims,
etry, working with too costly materials, in the magical'Sweet interchange
composition of plants, water, and earth; with these he       Of river, valley, mountain, woods, and plains,
created those emotions, which his more strictly poetical      How gladisone once he ranged your native turf;
ones failed to excite.  He planned a paradise amidst his      Your simple scenes how raptur'd! ere expense
es failed to excite. He planned a paradise amidst his  Had lavish'd thousand ornaments, and taught
solitude.                                                     Convenience to perplex him, Art to pall,
When we consider that Shenstone, in developing his fine     Pomp to deject, and Beauty to displease.
pastoral ideas in the Leasowes, educated the nation into                                         EcoNoMY.
that taste for landscape-gardening, which has become the  While Shenstone was rearing hazels and hawthrns,
model of all Europe, this itself constitutes a claim on the
gratitude of posterity. Thus the private pleasures of a man,                  er
of genius may become at length those of a whole people.'And having shown them where to stray,
i | x a rThrew little pebbles in their way;'
The creator of this new taste appears to have received far
less notice than he merited.  The name of Shenstone   while he was pulling down hovels and cow-houses, to com.
does not appear in the Essay on Gardening, by Lord Or-  pose mottoes and inscriptions for garden-seats and urns
ford: even the supercilious Gray only bestowed a ludi..  while he had so finely obscured with a tender gloom the
crous inmage on these pastoral scenes, which, however,  grove of Virgil, and thrown over,' in the midst of a plan.
his friend Mason has celebrated; and the genius of John-  tation of yew, a bridge of one arch, built of a dusty-co.
son, incapacitated by nature to touch on objects of rural  lored stone, and simple even to rudeiess,'* and invoked
fancy, after describing some of the offices of the landscape   Oberon in some Arcadian scene;
designer, adds, that' he will not inquire whether they de-' Where in cool grot and mossy cell
mand any great powers of mind.'  Johnson, however,               The tripping fawns and fairies dwell;'
conveys to us his own feelings, when he immediately ex-  the solitary magician, who had raised all these wonders,
presses them  under the character of'a sullen and surly   was, in reality, an unfortunate poet, the tenant of a dilapispeculator.' The anxious life of Shenstone would indeed   dated farm-house, where the winds passed through, and
have been remunerated, could he have read the enchant-  the rains lodged, often taking refuge in his own kitchening eulogillm of Wheatley on the Leasowes; which, said             Far from all resort of mirth,
he,' is a perfect picture of his mind-simple, elegant and         Save the cricket on the hearth!
aminable; arid will always suggest a doubt whether the    In a lettert of the disconsolate founder of landscape.
spot inspiredi his verse, or whether in the scenes which ihe   gardening, our author paints his situation with all its mise.
formed, he otly realized the pastoral images which abound y-lamentina that his house is not fit to receive' plito
friends, were they so disposed;' and resolved to banish all
lie have heard that Montesquieu, on his return home,  others, he proceeds:
adorned his' Chateau Gothique, mais ornos de bois char-'But I make it a certain rtle, " arcere profanum vul.
mans, doent j'ai pris l'idoe en Angleterre;' and Shenstone,  gus"  Persons who will despise you for the want of a
even with his modest and timid nature had been proud to   g
even with his od    and timid nature, had  een proud to  good set of chairs, or an uncouth fire-shovel, at the same
have witnessed a noble foreigner, amidst memorials dedltimo that they can't taste any excellence in a mind that
cated to Theocritus~ and Virgil, to Thomson and Gesner,  overlooks those things; with whom it is in vain that your
raising itt his grounds an inscription, in bad English, but  mind is furnished, if the walls are naked; indeed one loses
in pure taste, to Shenstone himself; for having displayed   much o one's acquisitions in virtue by an hours converse
In his writings' a mind natural,' and in his Leasowes' laid   ith such
Arcadian greens rurali; and  recently Pindemonte has  then impelled by the social passion to sit half an hour in
traced the taste of English gardening to Shenstone. A   my kitchen.'
man of genius sometimes receives from foreigners, who     But the solicitude of friends and the fate of Somerville,
are placed out of the prejudices of' his compatriots, the   a neighbotr and a poet, often compelled Shenstone to start
tribute of posterity!                                   amidst his reveries; and thus he has preserved his feel.
Amidst theserural elegancies which Shenstone wasrais-  irngs and his irresolutions. Reflecting on the death of
ing about him, his muse has pathetically sung his melant-  Somerville, he writes
choly feelings-6'To be forced to drink himself into pains of the body,
But did the Muses haunt his cell,               in order to get rid of the pains of the mind, is a misery
Or in his dome did Venus dwell?                which I can well conceive, because I may, without vani.
When all the structures shone complete          ty, esteem myself his equal in point of economy, and conAh me!'twas Damon's own confession,ht to have an eye on his misfortu
Game Poverty and took possession.
Came Poverty and took possession.                sequently ought to have an eye on his misfortunes-(as
THE PROGRESS OF TASTE.    you kindly hinted to me about twelve o'clock, at the Fea.
thers.)-I should retrench-I will-but you shall not see
The poet observes that the wants of philosophy are con-  me-I will not let you know that I took it in good part-I
tracted, satisfied with'cheap contentment,' but        will do it at solitary times as I may.'' Taste alone requires              Such were the calamities of' great taste' with' little
Entire profusion! days and nights, and hours   fortune;' but in the case of Shenstone, these were com.
Thy voice, hydropic Fancy! calls aloud          bined with the other calamity of' mediocrity of genius.'
For costly draugh~ts'         E CNOMY.          Here, then, at the Leasowes, with occasional trips tt
town in pursuit of fame, which perpetually eluded his
An original image illustrates that fatal want of economy   grasp; in the correspondence of a few delicate minds,
* On this subject Graves makes a very useful observation.  whose admiration was substituted for more genuine cele.'In this decision the happiness of Mr Shenstone was materially  brity; composing diatribes against econony and taste,
concerned. Whether he determined wisely or not, people of  while his income was diminishing every year; our neg.
taste and people of worldly prudence will probably be of rer   lected autior grew daily more indolent and sedentary, aiim
different opinions. I somewhat suspect, that " people of worldly prudence" are not half the fools that " people of taste" in-  * Wheatley on Modern Gardening, p. 172. Edition -sh.
st they are.'                                              + In Hull's Collect on, Vol. ii, Ltter ii.




LITERATURE.                                                           295
withdrawing  himself entirely into his own hermitage,  ficial in my sphere.-Perhaps some few other circumstannoaned and despaired in an Arcadian solitude.* The cries   ces would want also to be adjusted.'
and the'secret sorrows' of Shenstone have come down          W hat were these'hopes and expectations.' from which
to us-those of his brothers have not always! And shall  sometimes he weans himself, and which are perpetually
dul men, because they have minds cold and obscure, like   revived, and are attributed to'an ambition he cannot exa Lapland year which has no summer, be permitted to  tinguishT'   This article has been written in vain, if the
exult over this class of men of sensibility and taste, but of  reader has not already perceived, that they had haunted
moderate genius anl without fortune?  The passions and   him in early life; sickening his spirit after the possession
emotions of the heart. are facts and dates, only to those   of a poetical celebrity, unattainable by his genius; some
who possess them.                                          expectations too he might have cherished from  the talent
To what a melancholy state was our author reduced,  he possessed for political studies, in which Graves confiwhen he thus addressed his friend:                         dently says, that'he would have made no inconsiderable' I suppose you have been infbrmed that my fever was  figure, if he had had a sufficient niotive for applying his
in a great measure hypochondriacal, and left my nerves   mind to them.'  Shenstone has left several proofs of this
so extremnely sensible, that even on no very interesting   talenit.*  But his master-passion for literary fame had
rubject, I could readily think myself into a vertigo; I   produced little more than anxieties and disappointments;
had almost said an epilepsy: for surely I was oftentimes   and when he indulged his pastoral fancy in a beautiful
near it.'                                                  creation on his grounds, it consumed the estate which it
The features of this sad portrait are more particularly   adorned.  Johnson forcibly expressed his situation:'His
made out in another place.                                 death was probably hastened by his anxieties.  He was a'Now I am come home from a visit, very little uneasi-  lamp that spent its oil in blazing.  It is said, that if he
ness is sufficient to introduce my whole train of melancholy   had lived a little longer, hlie would have been assisted by a
considerations, and to make me utterly dissatisfied with   pension.'
the life I now lead, and the life which I foresee I shall
lead.  I ant angry and envious, and dejected and frantic,     SECET HISTORY OF THE BUILDING OF BLENHEIM.
and disregard all present things, just as becomes a madand disregard all present thig,  just as becomes a niad  The secret history of this national edifice derives imporman to do.  I am infiuiitely pleased (though it isHa gloony   tance from its nature,and the remarkable characters involvoy) with the application of Dr Swift's complaint'that h    ed in the unparalleled transaction. The great architect when
is forced to die in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.'  obstructed in the progress of his work, by the irregular
My soul is no Inore fitted to the figure I make, than a ca-   payments of the workmen appears to have practised one
hble rope to a cambric needle; I cannot bear to see the ad-   of  is own comic plots to put the debts on the hero him.
vantages alienated, which I think I could deserve and   self; vhile the duke wh  had it much at heart to inhabit
re~~~~~~~~~li~~~~sh omc   oeta  hs  hthv  hm'self; while the duke who had it much at heart to inhabit
~'edish so much more than those that have them.'
r hrelh s c  moter tnthmones tt haventhre  the palace of his fame, but tutored into wariness under the
There  are otheer tesftimonies in his entirhe correspon    vigilant and fierce eye of Atossa would neither approve nor
denc.  Wenevr frsaken by his company he describes   disapprove, silently looked on in hope and in grief, firom
the horrors around him, delivered up'to winter, silence,  year to year, as the work proceeded, or as it was left at a
and reflection;' ever forseeing himself' returning to the   stand    At lenth we find this comeie larmoyante wound
same series of melancholy hours.'  His frame shattered
by the whole train of hypochondriacal symptoms, there   up by the duchess herself, in an attempt utterly to ruin the
-y  the whole train of hypochondriacal symptoms, there   erje   n  rsl~dacieti
enraged and insulted architect!f'
twas nothing to cheer the hquerulous aalhor, who with  half    Perhaps this was the first time that it had ever been rethe conscioiusness of genius, lived neglected and un-  solvet in parliament to raise a public monument of glory
patronised,-IHis elegant mind had not the force, by his  and gratitude-to an individual!   The novelty ofthe at.
productions, to draw the celebrity he sighed after, to his  tempt may serve as he only excue for thelooe arrane
tempt may serve as the only excuse for the loose arrar'gehermitage.I
hermitage.                                               ments which followed after parliament had approved of the
Shenstone was so anxious for his literary character,  design. without voting, any specific supply for the purpose 
that he, contemplated on the posthumous fam~e which he'             "  
that hentemlated  on the posthumous fame which  The queen always issued the orders at her own expense,
might dlerive from the publication of his Letters: see Let-  and commanded expedition; and while Annelived, the!er LXXIX, on hearing his letters to Mlr TV'histler were
tr LXXIX,  on heating  is letters to Ai    histler  were   expenses of the building were included in her majesty's
deltroyed. Thi act of a merchant, his brother, who bein-1g   debts, as belonging to the civil list sanctioned by parliaa very sensible man, as Graves describes, yet with the   ment
stupidity of a Goth, destroyed the whole correspondence of    When George the First came to the throne, the parliaShenstone, for'its sentimental intercourse.'-Shenstone   ment declared the debt to be the debt of the queen, and the
bitterly regrets the loss, anid says, I I would hays- given
bitterly regrets the loss, and says,'I would have given   king granted a privy seal as for other debts.  The crown
more money for the letters than it is allowable for me to    d    parliament had hitherto proceedd i prfect union
and the. parliament had hitherto proceeded in perfect union
riention with decency.  I look upon my letters as some   respecting this national edifice.  However, 1 find that the
of my chef d'wuvres-they are the history of my mind for  workmenwre  reatly in arrears; for when George the
workmen were areatly in arrears; for when George the
these twenty y'ears past.'  This, with the loss of Cowthese twoenty years past.'  This, with the loss of Cov-   First ascended the throne, they gladly accepted a third
ley's correspondence, should have been preserved in the   part of their several debts!
article' of suppressors and dilapidators of manuscripts.'   Te  reat  rchitect found himself aidst iextricabe
The great,architect found himself amnidst inextricable
Towards the close of life, when his spirits were ex-  difficulties.  With the fertile invention which amuses in
hausted, and'the silly clue of hopes and expectations,'      his comedies, he contrived an extraordinary scheme, y
his comedies, he contrived an extraordinary  shmb
he termed them, was undone, the notice of some persois of  which he proposed to make the duke himself responsirank began to reach him.  Shenstone, however, deeply  ble for the building ofBlenheim!
colours the variable state of his own mind-' Recovering      Howev    much the duke longed to see the manificent
from a nervous fever, as I have since discovered by many     Hwvrmc  h   uelne  osetemj~fcn
from a nervous fever, as I have since discovered by many edifice concluded, he showed the same calm intrepidity in
concurrent symptoms, I seem to anticipate a little ofthat 
the building of Blenheim  as lie had in its field of action.
"vernal delight" which Milton mentions and thinks
Aware that if he himself gave any order, or suggested any'~ —- able to chase
Al sadess h to chase                       alteration, he might be involved in the expense of the
All sadness, butespair'-           buildting, he was never to be circumvented,-never to be
at least I begin to resume my silly clue of hopes and ex-  surprised into a spontaneous emotion of pleasure or dispectations.'                                               approbation; on no occasion, he declares, had he even
In a former letter he had, however, given them up;'I   entered into conversation with the architect (though his
begin to wean myself from  all hopes and expectations   friend) or with any one acting under his orders,-about
whatever.   I feed my wild-ducks, and I water my carna-   Bleinheim  House!  Such impenetrable prudence on all
tions.  Happy enough if I could extinguish my ambition   sides had often blunted the subdolous ingenuity of' the arquite, to indulge the desire ofbeing something more bene-  chitect and plotter of comedies!
In the absence of the duke, when abroad in 1105, Sir
~ Graves was supposed to have glanced at his friend Shen.    In the absence of the duke, when abroad in 1705, Sir
stone in his novel of I Counella or the Distressed Atihoret.  John contrived to obtain from Lord Godolphin the friend
stonte in his novel of' Goiumela; or the Distressed Anchoret.
The aim of' this work is to convey all the moral instruction I    * See his Letters XL, and XLI, and more particularly'XLH,
could wish to offer here to youthful genius. It is written to  and XLIII. with a new theory of political principles.
show the consequence of a person of education anti talents    tI tdr;aw the materials of this secret history firom an unpub.
retiring to solitutle andt indolence in the vigouir of youth. Nich-  lished' Case of the Duke of Marlborough and Sir John Vaiu,
ols's Literary anecdotes, vol. iii, p. 134. Nash's History of  brtteh, as also from some confidential corespontlence ofVa.
Worcestershire, vol. i, p. 527.                            brugh with Jacob Tonson, his fi lend and publisher,




296                                   CURIOSITIES OF
and relutive of the duke of Marlborough, and probably his  that if such an instrument for a moment wad to be held
agent in some of his concerns, a warrant, constituting  valid, no man would be safe, but might be ruined by the
Vanbrugh surveyor, with power of contracting on the behalf  act of another!
of the Duke of Marlborough.  How he prevailed on Lord     Vanbruugh seems to have involved the intricacy of his
Godolphin to get this appointment does not appear-his  plot, till it fell into some contradictions.  The queen he had
lordship probably conceived it was useful, and might as-  not found difficult fo manage; but after her death, when
sist in expediting the great work, the favourite object of  the Treasury failed in its golden source, he seems to have
the hero. This warrant, however, Vanbrugh kept en-  sat down to contrive how to make the duke the great
tirely to himself; he never mentioned to the duke that he  debtor. Vanbrugh swears that' He himself looked upon
was in the possession of any such power; nor on his re-  the crown, as engaged to the Duke of Marlborough for tae
turn, did he claim to have it renewed.                  expense;  but that he believes the workmen always looked
The building proceeded with the same delays, and the  upon the duke as their paymaster.' He advances so far, as to
payments with the same irregularity; the veteran now   swear that he made a contract with particular workmen,
foresaw what happened, that he should never be the illn-  which contract was not unknown to the duke. This was not
habitant of his own house! The public money issued  denied; but the duke in his reply observes, that' he knew
from the Treasury was never to be depended on; and af-  not that the workmen were employed for his account, or by
ter 1712, the duke took the building upon himself, for the  his own agent:'-never having heard till Sir Johnt propurpose of accommodating  the workmen.  They had  duced the warrant from  Lord Godolphin, that. Sir John
hitherto received what was called' crown pay,' which  was' his surveyor!' which he disclaims.
was high wages and uncertain payment-ariand they now      Our architect, however opposite his depositions appear
gladly abated a third of their prices. But though the duke  contrived to become a witness to such facts as tended to
had undertaken to pay the workmen, this could make no  conclude the duke to be the debtor for the building; and
alteration in the claims on the Treasury. Blenheim was' in his depositions has taken as much care to have the
to be built for Marlborough, not by him; it was a monu-  guilt of perjury without the punishment of it, as any man
ment raised by the nation to their hero, not a palace to be  could do.' He so managed, though he has not sworn to
built by their mutual contributions.                   contradictions, that the natural tendency of one part of his
Whether Marlborough found that his own million might  evidence presses one way, and the natural tendency of
be slowly injured while the Treasury remained still obdu-  another part presses the direct contrary way. In his forrate, or that the architect was still more and more in-  mer memorial, the main design was to disengage the duke
volved, I cannot tell; but in 1715, the woirkmen  appear to  from the debt; in his depositions, the main design was to
have struck, and the old delays and stand-still again re-  charge the duke with the debt.  Vanbrugh, it must be
newed.  It was then Sir John, for the first time, produced  confessed, exerted not less of his dramatic than his archithe warrant he had extracted from Lrord Godolphin, to lay  tectural genius in the buildina,f Blenheim!
before the Treasury; adding, however, a memorandum,    T'The Case' concludes with an eloquent reflection,
to prevent any misconception, that the duke was to be  where Vanbrugh is distingulished as the man of genius,
considered as the paymaster, the debts incurred devolving  though not, in this predicament, the man of honour.' It
on the crown.  This part of our secret history requires  at last the charge run into by order of the crown must be
more development than I am enabled to afford: as my  upon the duke, yet tho infaiiily of it riiist go upon another,
information is drawn from'the Case' of' the duke of  who was perhaps the only Architec t in the world Capable
Marlborough in reply to Sir John's depositions, it is pos-  of building such a house: and the only friend in the world
sible Vanbrugh may suffer more than he ought in this  capable of conitriving to lay the debt upon one to whom he
narration; which, however, incidentally notices his own  was so highly obliged.,
statements.                                              There is a curious fact in the depositions of Vanbrugh,
A  new  scene opens!  Vanbrugh not obtaining his  by which we might infer that the idea of Blenheim House
claims from the Treasury, anti the workmen becoming  might have originated with the duke himself; he swear
more clamorous, the architect suddenly turns round on the  that in 1704, the duke met him, and told him he designed
duke, at once to charge him with the whole debt.       to build a house, and must consult him about a model, A'c;
The pitiable history of this magnificent monument of  but it was the queen who ordered the present house to be
public gratitude, from its beginnings, is given by Van-  built with all expedition.'
brugh in his deposition.  The great architect represents    The whole conduct of this national edifice was unworthy
himself as being comptroller of her majesty's works; and  of the nation, if in truth the nation ever entered heartily
as such was appointed to prepare a model, which niodel  into it. No specific sum had been voted in parliament for
of Blenheim House her majesty kept in her palace, and  so great an undertaking; which afterwards was the occagave her conlmands to issue money according to the li-  sion(s of involving all the parties concerned in trouble and
rection of Mr Travers, the queen's surveyor-general;  litigation, threatened the ruin of the architect; and I think
that the lord treasurer appointed her majesty's own offi-  we shall see, by Vanbrugh's letters, was finished at the
cers to supervise these works; that it was upon defect of  sole charge, and even under the superintendence, of the
money from the Treasury that the workmen grew uneasy;  duchess herself! It may be a question, whether this magthat the work was stopped, till fuirther orders of money  nificent monument of glory did not rather originate in the
from the Treasury; that the queen then ordered enough  spirit of party, in the urgent desire of the queen to allay the
to secure it firom winter weather; that afterwards she or-  pride and jealousies of the Marlboroughs. From the cir
dered more for payment of the workmen; that they were  cumstance to which Vanbrugh has sworn, that the duke
paid in part; and upon Sir John's telling them the queen's  had designed to have a house built by Vanbrugh, before
resolution to grant them a further supply, (qfter a stoa put  Blenheim had been resolved on, we may suppose that this
to it by the dustchess's order) they went on anld incurred the  intention of the duke's afforded the queen a suggestion of
present debt; that this was afterwards brought into the  a national edifice.
house of commons as the debt of the crown, not owing     Archdeacon Coxe, in his life of Marlborough, has obhfrom the queen to the Duke of Marlborough, but to the  scuerely alluded to the circumstances attending the build.
workmen, and this by the queen's officers.             ing of Blenheim. iThe illness of the duke, and the tedious
During the uncertain progress of the building, and while  litigation which ensued, caused such delays, that little prothe workmen were often in deep arrears, it wotuld seem   cress was made in the work at the time of his decease.
that the architect often designed to involve the Marlbo-  In the interim, a serious misunderstanding arose between
roughs in its fate and his own; he probably thought that  the duchess and the architect, which forms the subject of
some of their round million might bear to be chipped, to   a voluminous correspondence. Vanbrugh was in consefinish his great work, with which, too, their glory was so  quence removed, and the direction of the building confided
intimately connected. The famous dutchess had evi-  to other hands, under her own immediate superintenddently put the duke on the defensive; but once, perhaps,  ence.
was the duke on the point of indulging some generous ar-    This' voluminous correspondence' would probably afchitectural fancy, when lo! Atossa stepped forwards and  ford' words that burn' of the lofty insolence of Atossa, and
out a stop to the building.''thoughts that breathe' of the comic wit; it might too reWhen Vanlbrugh at length produced the warrant of  late, in many curious points, to the stupendous fabric it.
Lord Godolphin, empowering him to contract for the duke,  self. If her grace condescended to criticise its parts with
this instrument was utterly disclaimed by Marlborough;  the frank roughness she is known to have done to the ar
the duke declares it existed without his knowledge; and   chitect himself, his own defence and explanations might




LITE RATURE.                                                       297
serve to let us into the bewildering fancies of his magical  by the duke, and therefore had no denland upon his estate
architecture. Of that self-creation for which he was so  for my services at Blenheim.  Since my hands were thus
much abused in his own day as to have lost his real avo-  tied tp from trying by law to recover my arrear, I have
cation as an architect, and stand condemned for posterity   prevailed with Sir Robert Walpole to help me in a scheme
in the volatile bitterness of Lord Orford, nothing is left for  which I proposed to him, by which I got my money in spits
us but our own convictions-to behold, and to be for ever  of the hussy's teeth.    y carrying this point enrages hei
astonished! But' this voluminous correspondence?' Alas!  much, and the more because it is of considerable weight
the historian of war and politics overlooks with contempt  in my small fortune, which she has heartily endeavoured
the little secret histories of art, and of human nature!-   so to destroy as to throw me into an English bastile, there
and'a voluminous correspondence' which indicates so  to finish my days, as I began them, in a French one.'
much, and on which not a solitary idea is bestowed, has    Plot for plot! and the superior claimis of one of praconly served to petrily our curiosity!                      tised invention are vindicated!  The writer, lone accusOf this quarrel between the famous duchess and Van-  tomed to comedy-writing, has excelled the self-taught
b:ugh I have only recovered several vivacious extracts  genius of Atossa.  The'scheme' by which Vanbrugh's
fertile invention, aided by Sir Robert Walpole, finally
from confidential lfetters of Vanbruh's to Jacob Tonson.  fertile  nvention, aided by Sir Robert   alpole, fially
There was an equality of the genius of invention, as well  circumvented the avaricious, the haughty, and the caprias rancurr, in her grace and the wit: whether Atossa,  cious Atossa, remains untold, unless it is alluded to by the
like Vanbrugh, could have had the patience to have corn-  passage in Lord Orford's'Anecdotes of Painting,' where
posed a comedy of live acts I will not determine; but un-  he informs us that the'duchess quarrelled with Sir John
questionably she could have dictated many scenes with  and went to lawwith him; but though he   seoed to be in
equal spirit. We have seen Vanbrugh attempting to turn  the right, or rather because he proved to be in the right, she
the debts incurred by the building of Blenheim  on the  employed Sir Christopher Wren to build the house in St.
duke; we now learn, for the first time, that the duchess,  James's Park.'
with equal aptitude, contrived a counter-plot to turn the    I have to add a curious discovery respecting Vanbrugh
debts on Vanbruozh!                                        himself, which explains a circumstance in his life not'I have the misfortune of losing, for I now see little hitheto understood.
In all the biographies of Vanbrugh, from the time of
hopes of ever getting, it, nearly 20001. due to me for  any  In all the bioraphies of Vanbrugh, from  the time of
years' service, plague, and trouble, at Blenheim, which   Gibber's Lives of the Poets, the early part of the life of
that wicked woman of'Marlborough' is so far from pay-  this mar of genius remains unknown.  It is said he de.
ing, me, that the duke being sued by some of the workmen  scended from an ancient family in Cheshire, which came
for work dn  thre, she has tried to turn the debt due to  origially from France. though by the name, which properly
theni upon me, for which I think she ought to be hanged.'  written would be Van Brugh, he would appear to be of
In 1722, on occasion of the duke's death, Vanbrugh gives  Dutch extraction.  A tale is universally repeated that Sir
an account to Tonson of the great wealth of the Marlbo-  John once visiting France in the prosecution of his achiroughs, with a caustic touch at his illustrious victims.   tectural studies, while taking a survey of some fortificaThe Duke of Marlborough's treasure exceeds the most  tions, excited alarm, and was carried to the Bastile;
extravagant guess.  The grand settlement, which it was  where, to deepen the interests of the story, he sketched a
suspected her grace had broken to pieces, stands good,  variety of comedies, which he must have communicated
and hands an immense wealth to Lord Godolphin and his  to the governor, who, whispering it doubtless as an affair
successors.  A round million has been moving about in  of state to several of the noblesse, these admirers of'5      sketches of comedies'-Erioghsh ones Do doubt —proloans on the land-tax, 4c.  This the Treasury knew   e-'sktch   of comeds            Sh     ones no doubt-profore he died, and this was exclusive of his'land;' his  cured the release of this English Moliere.  This tale is
60001. a year uton the post-office; his mortgages upoi a   farther confirmed by a very odd circumstance.  Sir John
distres1sed estate; lis South Sea stock; his anntities, and   built at Greenwich, on the spot still called' Vanbrugh's
which were not subscribed  in, and besides what is in   Fields,' two whimsical houses; one on the side of Greenforeign banks; and yet this man could neither pay his  wich Park is still called'the Bastile-House,' built on its
workmen their bills, nor his architect his salary.         model, to commemorate this imprisunment.'e thaseire bils, wiow hmas arScoitethish esignaret'He has  ive   is widow (a   aScottis   ensign get    Not a word of this detailed story is probably true! that
her!) 10,0001. a year to spoil Blenheim  her ousn  way;  the Bastile was an object which sometimes occupied the
12,0001. a year to  keep  herself clean  and go to law; 2,000.   imagination of our architect, is probable; for, by the letter
a     year to Lord  wiaton for present  maintenance; and   we have just quoted, we discover from himself the singuo.
Lord Godolphin only 5,0001. a year jointure, if tie outlives  lar incident of Vanbrush's having been bo  in the Bastile.
my lady; this last is a wretched article.  The rest of the   Desirous probably of concealing his alien origin, this cir.
heap, for these are but snippings, goes to Lord Godolphin,  cunstance cast his early days into obscurity. He felt that
and so on. She will have 40,000l. a year in present.'      he was a Briton in all respects but that of his singular
Atossa, as the quarrel heated and the plot thickened,  birth. The ancestors of Vaubrugh, who was of Cheshire,
bidth. bhe ofFrnchextorsf acinrh thoug  wihasf    uChesie
with the maliciousness of Puck, and the haughtiness of an   said to be of Fenc   etractio, thouh  with a  utc
naesaried Sir Ddeyo Carlnhextratons thoughtr wet arIueh
]mpress of Blenheim, invented the most cruel insult that  name, married Sir Dudley Carleton's daughter. We are
ever architect endured!-one perfectly  characteristic of  told he had'poitical connexions;' and one of his'politioftold he had I political connexions;' and one of his I politithat extraordinary woman. Vanbrugh went to Blenheim cal' tours had probably occasioned his confinement in that
with his lady, in a company from Castle Howard, another  state-dungeon, where his lady was delivered of her burden
st-on, where. This oddy fancylvee of hrburldi aIBslenHue
maenificent monument of his singular genius.               of love.  The  odd fancy of building a' BastileHouse''We staid two nights in Woodstock; but there was an   at Greenwich, a fortified prison! suggested to his first
order to the servants, under her grace's own hand, not to life-writer the fine romance; which must now he thrown
let me enter Benheim  and lest that should not mortify me  aside among those literary fictions the French distinguish
&t me enter Blenheim! ~~~~asdles tat hudntmortfygeb  thoe softenigandye fimpudens ther   Fr enchdistinguish
renough, she having somehow learned that my wife was of  by the softening and yet impudent term of" necdotes i azthe company, sent anr express the night before we came there,  ardnes' with which formerly'Varillas and his imitators
with orders that if she came with the Castle Howard la- furnished their pages; lies which looked like facts!
dies, the servants should not suffer her to see either house,  SECRET HISTORY OF SIR WALTER RAWLEIGH.*
gardens, or even to enter the park: so she was forced to     Rawleigh exercised in perfection incompatible talents,
sit a-ll day long and keep me company at the inni!'        and his character connects the opposite extremnes of our
This was a coup de theatre in this joint comedy of Atos-  nature!  His' book of life,' with its incidents of pros.
sa and Vanbruglji  The architect of Blenheim, lifting his  perity and adversity, of glory and humiliation, was as
eetoadhis own ma.ssive erandeur, exiled to a duill
eyes towards his own nissive grandeur, exiled to a dull  chequered as the novelist would desire for a tale of fiction.
inn, and imprisoned with one who required rather to be   Yet in this mighty genius there lies an unsuspected disconsoled, than capable of consoling the enraged architect!  position, which requires to be demonstrated, before it is
I~~~~~~~~~~~~~oiition whch rqiestt  b                                                         demntayebfoeis
In 1725, Atossa still pursuing her hunted prey, had   possible to conceive its reality.  From  his earliestdays
driven it to a spot which she flattered herself would en-  he betrayed the genius of an adventurer, which prevailed
close it with the security of a preservatory.  This pro-  in his character to the latest; and it often involved him
duced the following explosion!'I have fbeen lo red into chancery by that B. B. B. the    * Rawleigh, as was practised to a much later period, wrote'I have been fiorced into chancery by that B. B. B. th e
chess of Marlbor   where she has got an  lion   his name various ways. In the former series of this work 
Duchess of Marlborough, where she has got an injunction  ~have discovered at least how it was pronounced in his time
upon me by her firiend the late good chancellor (Earl of   -thus, Rawly. See in First Series, art.'Orthography of]Pro
Mlacclesfield,) who declared that I was never employed   per NJamnes.'




~298                        @ CURIOSITIES OF
in the practice of mean artifices and petty deceptions;  alludes to his letters of' the guilty blow he gave himself
which appear like folly in the wisdom of a sage; like in-  in the Tower;' a passage which had long excited my ateptitude in the profound views of a politician; like cow-  tention, till I discovered the curious incident in some maardice in the magnanimity of a hero; and degrade by  nuscript letters of Lord Cecil.  Rawleigh was then con.
their littlenets  the grandeur of a character which was  fined in the Tower for the Cobham conspiracy; a plot so
closed by a splendid death, worthy the life of the wisest  absurd and ohscure, that one historian has called it a
and the greatest of mankind!' state-riddle,' but for which, so many years after, Rtaw,
The sunshine of his days was in the reign of Eliza-  leigh so cruelly lost his life.
beth.  From  a boy, always dreaming of romantic con-    Lord Cecil gives an account of the examination of the
qu sts, for he was born in an age of heroism; and formed  prisoners involved in this conspiracy.' One afternoon,
by nature for the chivalric gallantry  of the court of  whilst diverse of us were in the Tower examining some ot
a maiden queen, from the moment he with such infinite art  these prisoners, Sir Walter attempted to murder himself;
cast his rich mantle over the miry spot, his life was a pro-  whereof when we were advertised, we came to him and
gress of glory. All about Rawleigh was splendid as the  found him in some agony to be unable to endure his misdress he wore: his female sovereign, whose eyes loved to  fortunes, and protesting innocency, with carlessness of
dwell on men who might have been fit subjects for' the  life; and in that humour he had wounded himself under the
Faerie Queen' of Spenser, penuricus of reward, only re-  right pap, but no way mortally, being in truth rather a cut
compensed her favourites by suffering them to make their  than a stab, and now very well cured both in body and
own fortunes on sea and land; and Elizabeth listened to  mind.'*  This feeble attempt at suicide, this'cut rather
the glowing projects of her hero, indulging that spirit  than stab,' I must place among those scenes in the life of
which could have conquered the world, to have laid the toy  Rawleigh, so mean and incomprehensible with the genius
at the feet of the sovereign!                          of the man. If it were nothing but one of those
This man, this extraordinary being, who was prodigal'Fears of the Brave!'
of his life and fortune on the Spanish main, in the idleness  we must now open another ofthe
of peace could equally direct his invention to supply the'Follies of the Wise!'
domestic wants of every-day life, in his project of' an
office for address.' Nothing was too high for his ambition, Rawleigh returned from the wild and desperate voyage
maish etry need rom sh idaddeperabote voyageH
nor too humble for his genius. Pre-eminent as a military of Guiana, with misery in every shape about him.* His
and a naval commanr,  as a statesman and a  son had perished; his devoted Keynmis would not survive
Rawleigh was as intent on forming the character of Prince  his reproach; and Raweigh, without frne and withot
his reproach; and Rawleigh, wilhout tortune and without
Henry, as that prince was studious of moulding his own  hope, in sickness and in  orrow, brooded over the sad
aspiring qualities by the genius of the friend whom he con-  thouhtthat in the hatred of the Saiard, and in the po
templated. Yet the active life of Rawleigh is not more re-  litical pusillanimity of James, he was arriving only to meet
markable than his contemplative one,  He may well rank  inevitable death.  With this presentiment, he iiad even
among the founders of our literature: for composing on a
amon  th fouides ofourliteatue: fr cmposng  n awished to give imp his ship to the crew, had they consented
n                             Z15     ~~~~~~~~~~~to land him in France; but he was probably irresolute in
subject exciting little interest, his fine genius has sealed his  to  dehimin ane  br he was  proably   luteri
uinfinished volume with immortality. For magnificence
unfinished volume with immortality. For magnificence this decision at sea, as he was afterwards at land, where
of eloquence, and massiveness of thought, we must still  he wished to escape, and refsed to fly: the  earest inte
hec washedatokescap, and maganiisdtfy: itsel bclares intel.
dwell on his pages.*  Such was the man, who was the  ect was darkened, and magnanimity itself became humilaored patron o Spener; whom Ben Joson, prud of  iated, floating between the sense of honour and of life.
Rawleigh landed in his native county of Devon: his
calling other favourites I his sons,' honoured by the title of    Racvleigh landed in his native county of Devon: his
his' father;' and who left political instructions which  arrival was the common topic of conversation, and he was
~Milton deigne~d to edit,~ the object of censure or of commiseration: but his person
But how has it happened, that of so elevated a char-  was not molested, till the fears of Jms became more
acter, Gibbon has pronounced that it was' ambiguous,'  urgent than his pity.
actor, iI i   si    bHna'gab   lru             The Cervantic Gondomar, whose'quips and quiditesi
while it is described by Hute as I a great but ill-regu-  had concealed the cares of state, one day rushed into the
lated mind?'
There was a peculiarkity in the character of this emi-  peence of James, breathlessly calling out for' audience'
neat man: he practised the cunning of an adventurer;   ad cmpresing  his'ear-piercing' message  into the
a cunnin   most hmiliatng in th narrative   The    laconic abruptness of' piratas! piratas! pirates!' There
a cunning, most humiliatina in the narrative! The great
n                      ~~~~~~~was agcony. as well as politics in this cry of Gondomar,
difficulty to overcome in this discovery is, how to account  Was aOy   as well as polisgoenrhabe   mas
for a sage and a hero actigfollyandcowardiceaccout                               ticn. Thsy o Gnd omarch,
for asage  and a hero acting folly and cowardice, and at   whose brother, the Spanish governor, had been massatempting to obtain by circuitous deception, what it may b   ced in this predatory expedition.  Te iid monarch,
supposed so magnanimous a spirit would not only deign to  terrified at this tragical appearance of his facetious friend,
possess himself of by direct and open methods.
posses hiselfof b diret an  ope  metodssaw at once the demands of the whole Spanish cabinet,
Since the present article was written,'a letter, hitherto  and vented his palliative in a gentle proclanation. Rawunpublished, appears in the recent edition of Shakespeare,   e    avn   ete      the       Ws e   of fen
which curiously and minutely records one of those arti-  do to appear before the king, in conseqece ofthe proclafices of the kind which I am about to narrate'at length.  mation   A few miles from Plymouth, he was metby Sir
When under Elizabeth, Rawleigh was once i cofine   Lewis Stucley, vice-admiral of Devon, a kinsman and a
mS~eet ande %i appears, thatseingh th oe q u en passingy ement, and it alpears, that seeing the queen passing by, he  friend, who, in communication with government, had acwas suddenly seized with a strange resolution of coi5  cepted a sort of surveillance over Sir Walter. It is said,
bating with the governor and his people; declaring  m    (and will be credited, when we hear the story of Stuciey)
bating with the governor and his people; declaring that thth  a e i er nth sia  rbbego
the mere sight of tit  ueen had made him desperate as  that he had set his heart on the ship, as a probable good
themer s/ht f tt ueen  had made him desperate, as
a confined lover wouc i' eel at the sight of his mistress.  purchase; and on the person, against whom, to colour his
The letter gives a minute  narrative of Sir Walter's  natural treachery, he professed an old hatred.  He first
astonishine conduct, and  carefully repeats the warm   seized on Rawleigh more like the kinsman than the vice.
romantic style in which he talked otf his royal mistress,  amrl  n   rpsdtaeln  oehrt  odn  n
admiral, and proposed travelling together to London, and
romantic style in which he talked of his roval mistress,  baiting at t he houses of the friends of Rawleigh.  The
and his formal resolution to die rather than exist out of  baiting at the houses of the friends of Rawleigh.  The
warrant which Stucley in the meanwhile had desired wan
her presence.  This extravagant scene, with all its co-  wa t which Stucley in the meanwhile had desired wa
urin, has been most elabortely penned by the inge instantly despatched, and the bearer was one Manoury,
letter-writer with a hint to the person whom he addresses, French empiric, who was evidently sent to act the part he
tournghasbee most eaboatey pnnedby he ngeiusFrench empiric, who was evidently sent to act the part he
did,-a part played at all times, and the last title in French
to suffer it to meet the eye of their royal mistresess, who  - 
couldnot fail of admiring our new   Orlando Furioso   politics, that so often had recourse to this instrument of
and soon after released this tender prisoner!  To me it is  state, is a M   eouton!
evident that the whole scene was got utip and concerted for Rawleigh still, however was not placed under any harsh
the occasion, andi was the invention of Rawleigh himself;    * These letters were written by Lord Cecil to Sir Thomal
the romantic incident he well knew was perfectly adapted   Parry, our ambassador in France, and were transcribed from
to the queen's taste.  Another similar incident, in which I  the copy.book of Sir Thomas Parry's correspondence, which
have been anticipated in the disclosure of the fact, though  is preserved in the Pepysian library at Cambridge.
not of its nature, was what Sir Toby Matthews obscurely    t My friend, Mr Hamper, of Deritend House, Birmir gham,
Literary Uions,' a curious ac.  amons other curious collections which he possesses, iiforms
~ I shall give in the arimle'Literary   Unions,' a curious  ac.  me that he has'a man~mscript  of dlepositions taken in Spain
gount how'Il awleii h's History orthe World, was composed,  m.ta  ehsIamnsrp  fdpstostkni  pi
ount how'lwlehih   History ofte World' was composed,  relative to the losses of some merchants who had been plunwhich has lhithermo escaped discovery                   dered by Sir Walter in this voyage.'




LITERAT UR E.                                                    299:
restraint: his confidential associate, Captain King, ac-  fidant, how they should one day laugh for having thus co.
conipanled him; and it is probable, that if Rawleigh had   zened-the king, council physicians, Spaniards and all.
effectuated his escape, he would have conferred a great  The excuse Rawleigh offered for this course of poor strafavour on the government.                               tagems, so unworthy of his genius, was to obtain time and
They could not save him at London; It is certain that  seclusion for writing his apology, or vindication of his
be might have escaped; for Captain King had hired a  voyage, which has come down to us in his'Remains.'
vessel, and Rawlelgh had stolen out by night, and might'The prophet David did make himself a fool, and suffered
have reached it, but irresolutely returned home; an-  spittle to fall upon his beard, to escape from the hands of
other night, the same vessel was ready, but Rawleigh   his enemies,' said Rawleigh in his last speech. Brutus,
never came! The loss of his honour appeared the greater  too, was another example. But his discernment often
calamity.                                               prevailed over this mockery of his spirit.  The king liAs he advanced in this eventful journey, every thing as-  censed him to reside at his own house on his arrival in
sumed a more formidable aspect.  His friends communi-  London; on which Manoury observed, that the king
cated fearful advices; a pursuivant, or king's messenger,  showed by this indulgence, that his majesty was favouragave a more mlenacing appearance; and suggestions arose  bly inclined towards him; but Rawleigh replied,' They
in his own mind, that he was reserved to become a victim   used all these kinds of flatteries to the Duke of Biron, to
of state.  When letters of commission front the Privy   draw him fairly into prison, and then they cutl off his head.
council were brought to Sir Lewis Stucley, Rawleigh was  I know they have concluded among them, that it is expeobserved to change countenance, exc!.iminig with an oath,  dient that a man should die, to re-assure the traffic which'Is it possible my fortune should return upon me thus  I have broke with Spain.' And Manoury adds, from
again?'  He lamented before Captain King, that he had   whose narrative we have all these particulars, that Sir
neglected the opportunity of escape; and which, every day   Walter broke out in this rant:' If he could but save hinthe advanced inland, removed him  the more from any   self for this time, he would plot such plots, as should nlake
chance.                                                 the king think himself happy to send for him again, and
Rawleigh at first suspected that Manoury was one of  restore him to his estate, and would force the king of
those instruments of state, who are sometimes employed   Spain to write into England in his favour.'
when open measures are not to be pursued, or when the     Rawleigh at length proposed a flight to France with
cabinet have not yet determined on the fate of a person   Manoury, who declares that it was then he revealed to
implicated in  a state  crime; in a word, Rawleigh   Stuclev what he had hitherto concealed, that Stucley
thought that Manoury was a spy over him, and probably   migllt double his vigilance. Rawleigh now perceived that
over Stucley too.  The first impression in these matters  he had two rogues to bribe instead of one, and that they
is usually the right one; but when Rawleigh found him-  were playing into one another's hands. Proposals are
self caught in the toils, he imagined that such corrupt  now made to Stncley through Manoury, who is as comagents were to be corrupted.  The French empiric was   pliant as his brother-knave. Rawleigh presented Stucley
sounded, and found very compliant; Rawleigh was desi-  with' a jewel made in the fashion of hail powdered with
rous by his aid to counterfeit sickness, and for this purpose   diamonds, with a ruby in the midst.' But Stucley ob.
invented a series of the most humiliating stratagems. He   serving to his kinsman and friend, that he must lose his
imagined that a constant appearance of sickness might pro-  office of Vice-admiral, which had cost him six hundred
duce delay, and procrastination, in the chapter of accidents,  pounds, in case he suffered Rawleigh to escape; Rawmight end in pardon.  He procured vomits from  the  leigh solemnly assured him  that lie should be no loser,
Frenchman, and whenever he chose, produced every ap-  and that his lady should give him one thousand pounds
pearance of sickness; with dimness of sight, dizziness in   when they got into France or Holland. About this tine
his head, he reeled about, and once struck himself with  the French quack took his leave; the part he had to act
such violence against a pillar in the gallery, that there was  was performed; the juggle was complete:  and two
no doubt of his malady. Rawleigh's servant one morning   wretches had triumphed over the sagacity and magnanientered Stucley's chamber, declared that his master was  umity of a sage and a hero, whom  ntisfortune had levelled
out. of his senses, for that he had just left him in his shirt  to folly; and who, in violating the dignity of his own chaupon all fours, gnawing the rushes upon the floor.  On   racier, had only equalled himself with vulgar knaves;
Stucley's entrance, Rawleigh was raving, and reeling in   men who exulted that the circumventer was circumvented;
strong convulsions.  Stucley ordered hin to be chafed and   or, as they expressed it,' the great cozener was cozened.'
fomented, and Rawleigh afterwards laughed at this scene   But our story does not here conclude, for the treacheries
with Manoury, observing that he had made Stucley a per-  of Stucley were more intricate.  This perfect villain had
fect physician.                                         obtained a warrant of indemnity, to authorize his compliBut Rawleigh found it required somne more visible and   ance with any offer to assist Rawleigh in his escape; this
alarming disease than such ridiculous scenes had exhibit-  wretch was the confidant and the executioner of Rawed. The vomits worked so slowly, that Manoury was  leigh; he carried about him a license to betray him, and
fearful to repeat the doses. Rawleigh inquired, whether  was making his profit of the victim before he delivered him
the empiric knew of any preparations which could make  to the sacrifice. Rawleigh was still plotting his escape:
him look ghastly, without injuring his health. The French-  at Salisbury he had despatched his confidential friend
man offered a harmless ointment to act on the surface of  Captain King to Londoti, to secure a boat at Tilbury; he
the skin, which would give him the appearance of a leper.  had also a secret interview with the French agent. Raw-'That will do!' said Rawleigh,'for the lords will be  leigh's servant mentioned to Captain King, that his boatafraid to approach me, and besides it will move their pity.'  swain had a ketch of his own, and was ready at his ser.
Applying the ointment to his brows, his arms, and his  vice for' thirty pieces of silver;' the boatswain and Rawbreast, the blisters rose, the skin inflamed, and was co-  leigh's servant acted Judas, and betrayed the plot toMr
vered with purple spots. Stucley concluded that Raw-  William Herbert, cousin to Stucley, and thus the treachleigh had the plague. Physicians were now to be called   erywas kept among themselves as a family concern. The
in; Rawleigh took the black silk ribbon from his poniard,  night for flight was now fixed, but he could not part witho
and Manoury tightened it strongly abont his arm, to dis-  out his friend Stucley, who had promised never to quit
order his pulse; but his pulse beat too strong and regular.  him; and who, indeed, informed by his cousin Herbert,
He appeared to take no food, while Manoury secretly pro-  had suddenly surprised Rawleigh putting on a false beard.
vided him. To perplex the learned doctors still more,  The party met at the appointed place; Sir Lewis Stuc.
Rawleiah had the urinal coloured by a drug of a strong  ley with his son, and Rawleigh disguised. Stucley in sascent.  The physicians pronounced the disease mortal,  luting King, asked whether he had not shown himself an
and that the patient could not be removed into the air  honest man?! King hoped he would continue so. They
without immrediate danger.'Awhile after, being in his  had not rowed twenty strokes, before the watermen ob.
bed-chamber undressed, and no one present but Manoury,  served, that Mr. Herbert had lately taken boat, and made
Sir Walter held a looking-glass in his hand, to admire his  towards the bridge, but had returned down the river after.potted face,* and observed in merriment to his new con-  them   Rawleigh instantly expressed his apprehensions,
* A friend informs me, that he saw recently at a print-deal.  and wished to return home; he consulted Kilng-the wa.
er's a painted portrait of Sir Walter Rawleigh, with the face  termen took fright.-Stucley  acted his part well; damning
thus spotted. It is extranorlinary that any artist should have  his illfortune to have a friend whom he would save, so
chosen such at subject for his pencil; but should this be a por.  full of doubts and fears, aid threatening to pistol the wa.
trait of the times. it shvws that this strange stratagem had ex.  termen if they did not proceed. Even King was over.
citad public attentioni




300                                 CURIOSITIES OF
corne by the earnest conduct of Stucley, and a new spirit  published an apology for his conduct; a performance
was infased into the rowers.  As they drew near Green-  which, at least, for its ability, might raise him  in our con.
wich, a wherry crossed them. Rawleigh declared it came  sideration; but I have since discovered, in one of the ma.
to discover them. King tried to allay his fears, and as-  nuscript letter-writers, that it was written by Dr Sharpe,
sured him that if once they reached Gravesend, he would  who had been a chaplain to Henry Prince of Wales. The
hazard his life to get to Tilbury. But in these delays and  writer pleads in Stucley's justification, that he was a state
discussions, the tide was failing; the watermen declared  agent; that it was lawful to lie for the discovery of trea.
they could not reach Gravesend before morning; Raw-  son; that he had a personal hatred towards Rawleigh.
leigh would have landed at Purfleet, and the boatswain  for having abridged his father of his share of some prizeencouraged him; for there it was thought he could pro-  money; and then enters more into Rawleigh's character,
cure horses for Tilbury. Sir Lewis Stucley too was zea-  who' being desperate of any fortune here, agreeable to
ious; and declared he was content to carry the cloak-bag  the height of his mind, would have made up lias fortune
on his own shoulders, for halfa mile, but King declared  elsewhere, upon any terms against his sovereign and his
that it was useless, they could not at that hour get horses,  country. Is it not marvel, continutes the personifier of
to go by land.                                          Stucley,'that he was angry with me at his death for
They  owed a mile beyond Woolwich, approaching  bringing him back?  Besides, being a man of so great a
two or three ketches, when  the boatswain  doubted  wit, it was no small grief, that a man of mean wit as I1
whether any of these were the one he had provided to fur-  should be thought to go beyond him.  No?  Sic ars delunish them.' We are betrayed!' cried Rawleigh, and or-  diter arte. Neque enim lexjustior ulla est quam necis ariidered the watermen to row back: he strictly examined  fices arteperiresua. (This apt latinity betrays Dr Sharpe.)
the boatswain, alas! his ingenuity was baffled by a shuf-  But why did you not execute your commission bravely
fling villain, whose real answer appeared when a wherry  (openly?)-Why?  My commission was to the contrary,
hailed the boat; Rawleigh observed that it contained Her-  to discover his pretensions, and to seize his secret pabert's crew. He saw that all was now discovered.  He  pers,' &c.*
took Stucley aside; his ingenious mind still suggesting    But the doctor, though no unskilful writer, here wrote
projects for himself to return home in safety, or how Stuc-  in vain; for what ingenuity can veil the turpitude of long
ley might plead that he had only pretended to go with  and practised treachery?  To keep up appearances, Sir
Rawleigh, to seize on his private papers.  They whis-  Judas resorted more than usually to court; where, howpered together, and Rawleigh took some things from his  ever, he was perpetually enduring rebuffs, or avoided, as
pocket, and handed them to Stucley; probably more' ru-  one infected with the plague of treachery. He offered the
bies powdered with diamonds.'-Some effect was instan-  king, in his own justification, to take the sacrament, that
taneously produced: for the tender heart of his friend  whatever he had laid to Rawleigh's charge was true, and
Stucley relented, and he not only repeatedly embraced  would produce two unexceptionable witnesses to do the
him with extraordinary warmth of affection, but was volu-  like.' Why, then,' replied his majesty,' the more malible in effusions,f friendship and fidelity. Stucley persuad-  cious was Sir Walter to utter these speeches at his death.'
ed Rawleigh to land at Gravesend, the strange wherry  Sir Thomt:s Badger, who stood by, observed,' Let the king
which had dogged them landing at the same time; these  take off Stucley's head, as Stucley has done Sir Walter's,
were people belonging to Mr Herbert and Sir William St  and let him at his death take the sacrament and his oath
John, who, it seems, had formerly shared in the spoils of  upon it, and I'll believe him; but till Stucley loses his
this unhappy hero. On Greenwich bridge, Stucley ad-  head, I shall credit Sir Walter Rawle]i1h's bare affirmative
vised Captain King that it would be advantageous to Sir  before a thousand of Stuckley's oaths. When Stucley,
Walter, that Kirng should confess that he had joined with  on pretence of giving an account of his office, placed himStucley to betray his master; and Rawleigh lent himself  self in the audience chamber of the lord admiral, and
to the suggestion of Stucley, of whose treachery he might  his lordship passed him without any notice, Sir Judas atstill be uncertain; but King, a rough and honest seamen,  tempted to address the earl; but with a bitter look his
declared that he would not share in the odium. At the  lordship exclaimed,' Base fellow! darest thou, who art
moment he refused, Stucley arrested the captain in the  the scorn and contempt of men, offer thyself in my pres.
king's name, committing him  to the charge of Herbert's  ence? Were it not in my own house, I would cudgel thee
men. They then proceeded to a tavern, but Rawleigh,  with mystafffor presumingonthis sauciness.' Thisannihiwho now viewed the monster in his true shape, observed,  lating affront Stucley hastened to convey to the king; his'Sir Lewis, these actions will not turn out to your credit;'  majesty answered him,' What wouldst thou have me do?
and on the following day, when they passed through the  Wouildst thou have me hang him? Of my soul, if I should
Tower-gate, Rawleigh turning to King, observed,' Stuc-  hang all that speak ill of thee, all the trees of the country:ey and my servant Cotterell have betrayed me. You need  would not suffice, so great is the number!'
be in no fear of danger, but as for me, it is I who am the    One of the frequent crimes of that age, ere the forgery
mark that is shot at.' Thus concludes the narrative of  of bank-notes existed, was the clipping of gold; and this
Captain IKing.  The fate of Rawleigh soon verified the  was one of the private amusements suitable to the charac.
prediction.                                             ter of our Sir Judas. Treachery and forgery are the same
This long narrative of treachery will not, however, be  crime in a different form. Stucley received out of the exComplete, unless we wind it tip with the fate of the infa-  chequer five hundred pounds, as the reward of his esptinmous Stucley.  Fiction gives perfection to its narratives,  age and perfidy. It was the price of blood, and was
by the privilege it enjoys of disposing of its criminals in  hardly in his hands ere it was turned into the fraudulent
the most exemplary manner; but the labours of the histo.  coin of' the Cheater!' He was seized in the palace ot
rian are:not always refreshed by this moral pleasure. Re-  Whitehall, for diminishing the gold coin.' The manner
tribution is not always discovered in the present stage of  of the discovery,' says the manuscript-writer,' was strange
human existence, yet history is perhaps equally delightful  if my occasions would suffer me to relate the particulars.'
as fiction, whenever its perfect catastrophes resemble  On his examination he attempted to shift the crime to his
those of romantic invention.  The present is a splendid  own son, who had fled, and on his man, who being taken,
example.                                                in the words of the letter-writer, was' willing to- set the
I have discovered the secret history of Sir Lewis Stuc-  saddle upon the right horse, and accused his master.'
ley, in several manuscript letters of the times.         Manoury too, the French empiric, vas arrested at PlyRawleigh, in his admirable address from the scaffold,  mouth for the same crime, and accused his worthy friend.
where he seemed to be rather one of the spectators than   But such was the interest of Stucley with government,
the sufferer, declared he forgave Sir Lewis, for he had for-  bought probably with his last shilling, and, as one says,
given all men; but he was bound in charity to caution all  with his last shirt, that he obtained his own, and his son's
men against him, and such as he is! Rawleigh's last and  pardon, for a crime that ought to have finally concluded
solemn notice of the treachery of his'kinsman and friend   the history of this blessed family.' A more solemn and
was irrevocably fatal to this wretch. The hearts of the:  Stucley's humble petition, touching the bringing up Sit
people were open to the deepest impressions of sympathy,  W. Rawleigh, 4to, 1618; republished in Somer's Tracts, vol.
maelting into tears at the pathetic address of the magnani-  iii, 751.
mous spirit who had touched them: in one moment Sir    fThe anecdotes respecting Sitcley I have derived from
Lewis Stsucley became an object of execration through-  manuscript letters, and they were considered to be of so dan"    gerous a nature, that the writer recommends secrecy, and reout the nation; he soon obtained a new title, that of'Sir  qutests after reading that'they may be burnrt.' With such
Judas,' and was shunned by everl man.  To remove the  injunctions I have generally found that the letters were the
Cain-like mark, which God and men had fixed on him, he  more carefully preserved.




L  I  EA T              UR E.                                    301
tragical catastrophe was reserved for the perfidious Stuc-  you have been valiant and wise, and I doubt not but you
ley. He was deprived of his place of vice-admiral, and   retain both these virtues, for now you shall have occasion
left destitute in the world. Abandoned by all human be-  to use them. Your book is an admirable work; I would
sngS, and most probably, by the son whom he had tutored   give you counsel, but I know you canl apply unto yourself
in tne arts of villany, he appears to have wandered about  far better than I am  able to give you.' But the judge
an infamous and distracted beggar. It is possible that even   ended with saying,' execution is granted.' It was stifling
so seared a conscience may have retained some remaining   Rawleigh with roses! the heroic sage felt as if listening to
touch of sensibility.                                   fame from the voice of death.
-.. —-All are men,                   He declared, that now being old, sickly, and in disgrace,
Condemned alike to groan;                  and' certain were he allowed to live, to go to it again,
The tender Ior another's pain,               life was wearisome to him, and all he entreated was to
The unleeling for his own.                 have leave to speak freely at his farewell, to satisfy the
And Camden has recorded, among his historical notes on  world that he was ever loyal to the king, and a true lover
lames I, that in August, 1620,'Lewis Stucley, who be-  of the commonwealth; for this he would seal with his
trayed Sir Waiter Rawleigh, died in a manner mad.'  blood.'
Such is the catastrophe of one of the most perfect domes-    Rawleigh, on his return to his prison, while some were
tic tales; an historical example not easily paralleled of  deploring his fate, observed, that'the world itself is but a
moral retribution.                                      larger prison, out of which some are daily selected for exThe secret practices of the' Sir Judas' of the court of  ecution.
James I, which I have discovered, throw light on an old   That last night of his existence was occupied by writina
That the letter-writer calls Ia remembrancer to be wit
tradition which still exists in the neighbourhood of Affe-  what the letter-writer calls' a remembrancer to be let
ton, once the residence of this wretched man. The coun-  with his lady,' to acuaint the world with his sentiments,
try people have lone entertained a notion that a hidden  should he be denied their delivery from the scaffold as he
treasure lies at the bottom of a well in his grounds, guard-  had bee at the bar of the King's Bench.  His lady visited
ed by some siupernatural power; a tradition no doubt  him that night, and amidst her tears acquainted him, that
originating in this man's history, and an obscure allusion   she had obtained the favour of disposing of his body; to
to tlie gold which Stucley received for his bribe, or the  which he answered smiling,'It is well Bess, that thou
other gold which he clipped, and might have there con-  mayest dispose of that, dead, thou hadst not always the
cealed. This is a striking instance of the many historical  disposing of when it was alive.' At midnight he entreated
her to leave him. It must have been then, thatwith unshaken
facts which, though entirely unknown or forgotten, may   hertoleavehim. Itmusthavebeenthenthatwith shaken
be often discovered to lie hid, or disguised in popular tra-     Rawleigh sat down to compose those verses on
~el~,ditionsfl s.  to'ic hid, or dis~orlised, in popular t his death, which being short, the most appropriate may be
repeated.
AIR AUTHENTIC INARRATIVE OFF TIHE LAST sHOURS OS'F'Even such is Time, that takes on trust,
SIR WALTER RAWLEIGH.                               Oitr youth, our joys, or all we have,
The close of the life of Sir Walter Rawleigh was as           And pays us hlt with age and dlust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
extraordinary as man.y parts of his varied history: the          Whn  the dark andered all our ways,
When we have wandered all our ways,
promptitude and sprightliness of his genius, his careless-      Shuts up tile story of our days!'
ness of life, and the equanimity of that great spirit in  He has added two other lines expressive of his trust in his
quitting the world, can only be paralleled by a few other  resurrection. Their authenticity is contirned by the writer
heroes and sages:-Rawleigh was both! But it is not
simply his dignified yet active conduct on the scaffold, nor  of the present letter, as well as another writer, enclosing
his admirable speech on that occasion, circumstances by'half a dozen verses, which Sir Walter made the night
which many great men are judged, wheyn their energies  before his death, to take his farewell of poetry, wherein he
had been a scribbler even from his youth.' The enclosure
are excited for a moment to act so great a part, before  is not now with the letter. Chamberlain, the writer, was
the eyes of the world assembled at their feet; it is not  is not no   with the  letter.   Chamberlain  the witer, was
these only which clainl our notice.                     an intelligent man of the world, but not imbued with any
We may pause with admiration on the real grandeur of  deep tincture of literature.  On the same night Rawleigh
Rawleigh's character; not from a single circumstance,  wrote this distich on the candle burning dimly
however great, but from a tissue of continued little inci-' Cowards fear to die; bilt courage stout,
dents, which occurred from the moment of his condemna-         Rathel than live in snuff, will be put outtion till he lay his head on the block. Rawleigh was a    At this solemn moment, before he lay down to rest, and
man of such mark, that he deeply engaged the attention   at the instant of parting from his lady, with all his domesof his contemporaries; and to this we owe the preserva-  tic affections still warm, to express his feelings in verse
tion of several interesting particulars of what he did and  was with him a natural effusion, and one to which he had
what he said, which have entered, into his life; but all has  long been used. It is peculiar in the fate of Rawleigh,
not been told in the published narratives.  Contemporary  that having before suffered a long imprisonment with an
writers in their letters have set down every fresh incident,  expectation of a public death, his mind had been accusand eagerly caught up his sense, his wit, and what is more  tomed to its contemplation, and had often dwelt on the
delightful, those marks of the natural cheerfulness of his  event which was now passing.  The soul, in its sudden
invariable presence of mind: nor could these have arisen  departure, and its future state, k: often the subject of his
from any affectation or parade, for we shall see that they  few poems; that most original one of' the Farewell,
served him even in his last tender farewell to his lady, and           Go, soul, the body's guest,
on many unpremeditated occasions.                                      Upon a thankless errand, &c.
I have drawn together in a short compass all the facts  is attributed to Rawleigh, thouh on uncertain evidence.
which my researches have furnished, not omitting those  But another e Rawleigh, though on uncertai evidence.
which are known, concerning the feelings and conduct of, etitled'the Pilgrimage, has this beautiful
Rawleigh at these solemn moments of his life; to have  passage:
preserved only the new would have been to mutilate the'Give me my scallop-shell of quiet.
statue, and to injure the whole by an imperfect view.              My staff of trth to walk upon,
Rawleigh one morning was taken out of his bed in a fit
My bottle of salvation.,'f fever, and unexpectedly hurried, not to his trial, but to    My gown of glory, Hope's true gage,
a sentence of death. The story is well known.-Yet                  And thus I'll take my pilgrimage —
pleading with'a voice grown weak by sickness and an             Whilst my soul, like a quiet Palmer,
ague he had at that instant on him,' he used every means           Travelleth towards the land of Heaven-'
to avert his fate: he did, therefore value the life he could    Rawlelgh's cheerfulness was so remarkable, and his
so easily part with. His judges there at least, respected  fearlessness of death so marked, that the Dean of West.
their state criminal. and they addressed him in a tone far dif-  minster, who attended him, at first wondering at the hero,
ferent from that which he had fifteen years before listened  reprehended the lightness of his manner; but Rawieigh
to from Coke. Yelverton, the attorney-general, said,' Sir  gave God thanks that he had never feared death, for it was
Walter Rawleigh hath been as a star at,which the world  nbt an opinion and an imagination; and as for the manner
have gazed; but stars may fall, nay, they must fall, when  of death, he would rather die so than of a burning fever;
they trouble the sphere where they abide.' And the lord  and that some might have made shows outwardly, but he
ehief-justice noticed Rawleigh's great work; —' I know that  felt the jo) s within. The Dean says, that he made no




302                                    CURIOSITIES OF
mole of his death than if he had been to take a journey;  hension as if hlie had been come thither rather to be a
Not,' said he, but that I am a great sinner, for I have   spectator than a sufferer; nay, the beholders seemed
been a soldier, a seaman and a courtier.'  The writer of  much more sensible than did he, so that he hath piurchased
a manuscript letter tells us, that the Dean  declared   here in the opinion of men such honour and reputation, as
he died not only religiously, but he found him to be a man  it is thought his greatest enemies are they that are most
as ready and as able to gtve, as to take instruction.       sorrowful for his death, which they see is like to turn so
On the morning of his death he smoked, as usual, his  much to his advantage.'
favourite tobacco, and when they brought him a cup of    The people were deeply affected at the sight, and so
excellent sack, being asked how he liked it, Rawleigh an-  much, that one said, that' we had not such another head
swered,' As the fellow, that, drinking of St Giles's bowl,  to cut off;' and another' wished the nead and brains to be
as he went to Tybuirnm, said, "that was good drink if a man   upon Secretary Naunton's shoulders.'  The observer suf.
might tarry by it.l"  The day before, in passing from   fered for this; he was a wealthy citizen, and great newsWestminster-hall to the Gate-house, his eye had caught  monger, and one who haunted Paul's Walk.  Complaint
Sir Hugh Beeston in the throng, and calling on him, Raw-  was made, and the citizen summoned to the privy-courcil.
leigh requested that he would see him die to-morrow.  Sir  He pleaded that he intended no disrespect to Mr SecreHugh, to secure himself a seat on the scaffold, had provided   tary; but only spoke in reference to the old proverb, that
himself withl a letter to the sheriff, which was not read at'two heads were better than one!' His excuse was althe time, and Sir Waiter found his friend thrust by, Ia-  lowedat the moment; but when afterwards called on for a
menting that he could not get there.'Farewell!' ex-  contribution to St Paul's cathedral, and having subscribed
claimed Rawleigh,'I know not what shift you will make,  a hundred pounds, the Secretary observed to him, that
but I am sure to have a place.' In going from the prison'two were better than one, Mr Wiemark!' either from
to the scaffold, among others who were pressing hard to  fear, or charity, the witty citizen doubled his subscription.
see him, one old man, whose head was bald, came very          Thus died this glorious and gallant cavalier, of whom
forward, insomuch that Rawleigh noticed him, and asked,  Osborne says,'His death was managed by him with so'whether he would have ought of him T  The old man   high and religious a resolution, as if a Roman had acted a
answered,'Nothing but to see him, and to pray God for  Christian, or rather a Christian a Romnan.*
him.' Rawleigh replied,'I thank thee, good firiend, and I   After having read the preceding article, we are astoam sorry I have no better thing to return thee for thy good   nished at the greatness, and the variable nature of this
will.' Observing his bald head, he continued,' but take   extraordinary man,and thishappy genius.   With Gibbon,
this night-cap, (which was a very rich wrought one that he   who once meditated to write his life, we may pause, and
wore) for thou hast more need of it now than I.'           pronounce'his character is ambiguous;' but we shall not
His dress, as was usual with him, was elegant, if not  hesitate to decide, that Rawleigh knew better how to die
rich.  Oldys describes it, but mentions, that'he had   than to live.'His glorious hours,' says a contemporary,
a wrought night-cap under his hat,' this we have otherwise' were his arraignment and execution;'-bht never will be
fowrgten this arigntemedite yars extof hisbu lettere wiprison
disposed of; ne wore a rtuff-band, a black wrought velvet  forgotten the intermediate years of his lettered imprisonnight-gown over a hair-coloured satin doublet, and a black   ment!
vrought waistcoat; black cut taffety breeches, and ash-                   LITERARY  UNIONS.
coloured silk stockings.
colure  slk tolrigI                                   SECRET HISTORY OF RAWLEIGH S  HISITORY  OF THN
IHe ascended the scaffold with the same cheerfulness as   SECRET STORY  OF RAWLEHS ITORV  O.   TH
WOULD, AND ~ASARI'S LIVES.
he had passed to it; and observing the lords seated at a                 ol,  df ri       Se
distance, some at windows, he requested they would ap-        An union of talents, differing in their qualities, might
proach him, as hie wished that they should all witness  carry some important works to a more extended perfec.
what he had to say.  The request was complied with by  tion.  In a work of great enterprise, the aid of a friendly
several.  His speech is well known; buit some copies con-  hand may be absolutely necessary to complete the labours
tain matters not in others.  When he finished, he re-  of the projector, who may have neither the courage, the
quested Lord Arundel that the king would not suffer any   leisure, nor all acquisitions necessary for performing the
libels to defame him after death-' And now I have a long  favourite task which he has otherwise. matured.  Many
journey to go, and must take my leave.''He embraced   great works, commenced by a master genius have reall the lords and other friends with sutich courtly compli-  mained unfinished, or have been deficieit for want of this
ments, as if he had met them at some feast,' says a letter-  friendly succour.  The public had been grateful to Johnwriter. I-laving taken off his gown, lie called to the heads-  son, had he united in his dictionary the labours of some
man to show him the axe, which not being instantly done,  learned etymologist.  Speed's Chronicle owes most ofits
learned etymologist. Speed's Chronicle owes most of its
he repeated,'I pithee let me see it.  Dost thou think   value, as it does its ornaments, to the hand of Sir Rob, rt
that I am aftaid ofit?"  He passed the edge lightly over  Cotton, and other curious researchers, who contributed
his finger, and smiling, observed to the sheriff,'' This is  entire portions.  Gouet's esteemed work of the  Origin
a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases,' and   of the Arts and Sciences' was greatly indebted to the frakissing it, laid it down. Another writer has,' This is  ternal zeal of a devoted friend.  The still valued books oi
I                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~the Port-royal Society were all formed by this happy
that, that will core all sorros.' After this he went to  te Port-royal Society were all formed  y this hap
three several corners of the scaffold, and kneeling down,  union.  The secret history of many eminent works would
show the advantages which may be derived from this corndesired all the people to pray for him, and recited a long  bination of talents, differing in their nature. Cumberland's
prayer to himself.  When he began to fit himself for the           of tens dffrigmin   thein        re    erand's
block, he first laid himself down to try how the block  masterly versions of the fragments of the Greek dramatic
fitted him; after rising up, the executioner kneeled down  pot had never been given to the poetical world, had he
to ask his forgiveness, which Rawleigh with an embrace  not accidentally possessed the manuscript notes of his relotacidentlyposse the learnuscip Bnotley, This treasr.spledta
gave, but entreated him  not to strike till he gave a token  lative, the learned Bentle    This trasure  spplied  that
by lifting up his hand,' and then, fear not, but strike home!'  research in the most obscure works, which the volatile'9studies of Cumberland could never have expwored; a cirWhen he laid his head down to receive the stroke, the ex-  studies of Cumberland could never have expored; a cir
ecutioner desired him to lay his face towards the east.  cumrstance which he concealed from  the world, proud of'It was no great matter whlich way a man's head stood,  the Greek erudition which he thus cheaply possessed.
so the heart lay right,' said Rawleigh; but these were not  Yet by this literary union, Bentley's vast erudition made
his last words.  He was once more to speak in this world  those researches which Cumberland could not; and Cunwith the same intrepidity he had lived in it-for, having,  berlandave the nation a copy of the domestic drama o
lain somie minutes on the block in prayer. he gave  e sig`-  Greece, of which Bentley was incapable.
Greece, of which Bentley was incapable.
nal; butthe  executioner eitherunmi  in   f ea t  sg There is a large work, which is still celebrated, of which
nal; but the executioner, eithe~r unmindful, or in fear,   tecmoiinhsectdteatnsmn  vno  h
the composition has excited the astonishment even of tho
failed to strike, and Rawleigh, after once or twice putting
forth his  ands, w    compelled to ask him,'W y dost   plsophic Hume, but whose secret history remains yet
thou not strike?  Strike! man!' In two blows he was  to be disclosed.  This extraordinary volume is'The Hisbeheaded; buit firom  the first, his body never shrunk from   tory of the World, by Rawleigh.   I shall transcribe
the spot, by any discomposure of his posture, which, like   Home's observation that the reader may observe the lite~his mind, was immoveable. rary phenomenon.' They were struck with the extensive'In all ts e  tim e he was upon  the scaffold, and before,' In allo the tnme hie was upon the scaffold, and before,    * The chief particulars in this narrative are drawn from two
s one of the manuscript letter-writers, there appeared   manuscriipt letters of the day, in the Sloane collection, undel
not the least alteration in him, either in his voice or coun-  their respective dates, Nov. 3, 1618, Larkin to Sir Tho. Pick
tenance; but he seemed as free from all manner of appre-  ering; Oct. 31, 1618, Chamberlain's letters.




LIT ERATURE.                                                         303
genius of the man, who being educated amidst naval and        Without the aid of a friendly hand, we should [ robably
military enterprises, hall surpassed in the pursuits oJ litera-  have been deprived of the delightful history of Astists bh
tare, even those of the most recluse and sedentary lives; and   Vasari. although a mere painter and goldsmith, and no.
they admired his unbroken magnanimity, which at his age,  a literary man, Vasari was blessed with the nice discern..
and under his circumstances, could engage him to under-  ment of one deeply conversant with art, and saw  rightly
take and execute so great a work, as his History of the   what was to be done, when the idea of the work was sugWorld.' Now when the truth is known, the wonderful in  gested by the celebrated Paulus Jovius as a suppliment to
this literary mystery will disappear, except in the eloquent,  his own work of the' Eulogiums, of illustrious men.' Ve.
the grand, and the pathetic passages interspersed in that  sari approved of the project; but on that occasion judi-.
venerable volume.'We may, indeed, pardon the astonish-  ciously observed, not blinded by the celebrity of the iterament of our calm philosopher, when we consider the recon-  ry man who projected it, that' it would requre the assisi
dite matter contained in this work, and recollect the little  tance of an artist to collect the materals, and arrange them
time which this adventurous spirit, whose life was passed   in their proper order; for although Jovius displayed great
in fabricating his own fortune, and in perpetual enterprise,  knowledge in his observations, yet lhe had not been equacould allow to such erudite pursuits.  Where could Raw-  Iy accurate in the arrangement of his facts in his book o!
leigh obtain that familiar acquaintance with the rabbins, of  Eulogiums.'  Afterwards, when Vasari began to collect
whose languaae he was probably entirely ignorant'   His  his information, and consulted Pilus Jovitis on the plan,
numerous publications, the effusions of the most active   although that author highly approved of what he saw, he
mind, though excellent in their kind, were evidently com-  alleged his own want of leisure and ability to complete such
posed by one who was not abstracted in curious and re-  an enterprise; and this was fortlnate: we should othermote inquiries, but full of the daily business and the wis-  wise have had, instead of the rambling spirit which charms
dom of human life.   His confinement in the tower, which   us in the volumes of Vasari, the verbose babble of a delasted several years, was indeed sufficient for the compo-  claimer. Vasari, however, looked round for the assistance
sition of this folio volume, and of a second which appears  he wanted; a circumstance which Tiraboschi has not noto have occupied him.  But in that imprisonment it singu-  ticed; like Hogarth, he required a literary manl for his
iarly happened that he lived among literary characters,  scribe.  I have discovered the name of the chief writer of
with the most intimate friendship.  There he joined the   the Lives of the Painters, who wrote tinder the direction of
Earl of Northulmberland, the patron of the philosophers   Vasari, and probably often used his own natural style, and
of his age, and with whom  Rawleigh pursued his chemi-  conveyed to us those reflections which surely come from
cal studies  and Serjeant Hoskins, a -poet and a wit, and   their source.   I shall give the passage, a's a curious inthe poetical'father' of Ben Johnson, who acknowledged   stance where the secret history of books is often detected
that'it was Hoskins who had polished him;' and that  in the most oscure corners of research.  Who could
Rawleigh often consulted Hoskins on his literary works, I   have imagined that in a collection of the lives de' Santi 
learn from a manluscript.  But however literary the at-   Beati dell' ordine de' Predicatori, we are to lock for the
mosphere of the Tower proved to Rawleigh, no particle   writer of Vasari's lives? Don Serafini Razzi, the author
of Hebrew, and perhaps little of Grecian lore, floated   of this ecclesiastical biograpihy, has this reference:'Who
from a chemist and a poet.  The truth is, that the collec-   would see more of this may turn to the lives of the paintion of the materials of this history was the labour of seve-  ters, sculptors and architects, written for the greater part
ral persons, who have not all been discovered.  It has   by Don Silvano Razzi, my brother, for the Signor CavaDeen ascertained. that Ben Jonson was a considerable  liere M. Giorgio Vasari, his great fiiend.'*
contributor; and there was an F~nglish philosopher from       The discovery that Vasari's volumes were not entirely
whom Descartes, it is said. even by his own countrymen,  written by himself, though probably under his dictation,
orroedargel it is said eve           n by his own countrhonymen,  and, unquestionably, with his communications; as we
charges with infising into Rawleigh's volume philosophical notions, while Rawleijh was composing his History of  Hogarth, will perhaps serve to clear tip some unaccountathe World.  But if Rawleigh's pursuits surpassed even   ble mistakes or omissions which appear in that series of
those of the most recluse and sedentary lives, as Hum  o-  volumes, written at long intervals, and by different hands.
served, we must attribute this to a' Dr Robert Burrel,  Mr Fuseli has alluded to them in utter astonishment; and
Rector ofNorthwald, in the county of Norfolk, who was a   cannot account for Vasari's'incredible dereliction of regreat favourite of Sir Walter Rawleigh, and had been his   miniscence, which prompted him to transfer what he had
chaplain.  All, or the greatest part of the drudgery of Sir  rightly ascribed to Giorgione in one edition to the elder
Walter's history for Criticisms, Chronology, anid reading   Parma in the subsequent ones.' Again: Vasari's meGreek and Helbrew authors were performed by him, for  niory  as either so treacherous, or his rapidity in writing
Sir Walter.'*  Thus a simple fact, when discovered,  so inconsiderate, that his account of the Capella Sistina,
clears tip the whole mystery; and we learn how that  and the stanze of Raffaello, is a mere heap of errors and
knowledge was acquired, which as Hume sagaciously de-   unpardonable confusion.' Even Bittari, his learned editected, required' a recluse and sedentary life,' such as the   tor, is at a loss to account for his mistakes.  Mr Fusell
studies and the habits would be of a country clergyman in  finely observes,' He has been called the Herodotus of our
a learned age.                                             art; and if the main simplicity of his narrative, and the
The secret history of another work, still more celebrated      desi ree to theaping   anecdote on a necdote,  entitle him  in
than the History of the World, by Sir Walter Rawleigh,   some degree to that appellation, we ought iot to forget
will doubtless surprise its numerous admirers.          X  that the information of every day adds something to the
authenticity of the  Greek historian, whilst every day
* I draw my information from a very singular manuscript in  furnishes matter to question the credibility of the Tuscan.'
the Lansdowne collection, which I think has been mistaken   All this strongly confirms the suspicion that Vasari em-.or a boy's ciphering book, of which it has much the appear-  ployed different hands at different times to write out his
ance, No. 741, fo. 57, as it stands in the auctioneer's catalogue   work. Such mistakes would occur to a new writer, not
It appears to be a collection closely written, extracted out of  work.  Such  itakes would occur to a sew writer, not
Anthony Wood's papers; and as I have discovered in the ma-   always conversant with the subject he was composing on,
nuscript, numerous notices not elsewhere preserved, I am in-  and the disjointed materials of which were often found in a
dined to think, that the transcriber copied them from that  disordered state.  It is, however, strange that neither
mass of Anthony Wood's papers, of which more than one   Bottari nor Tiraboschi appear to have been aware that
sack full was burnt at his desire before him, when dying. If  Vasari employed others to write for him; we see that
It he so, this.SS. is the only register of many curious facts.    from the first suggestion oh'the work he had originally prow
Ben Jonson has been too freely censured for his own free
censures, and particularly for ortn he made on Sir Walter   p     that Paulus ovius should hold the pen for him.
Rawleigh. who, he told Drummond,' esteemed more fame         The principle illustrated in this article might be pur.
than conscience. The best wits in England were employed in  sued; but the secret history of two great works so well
making his history: Ben himself had written a piece to him   known are as sufficient as'twenty others of writings less
of the Punic war. which le altered and set in his book.' Jon-  celebrated.  The literary phenomenon which had puzzled
Pon's powerful advocate Mr Gifford has not alleged a word in  te calm   iring Hume  to cry out a   rale   has been
the defence of our great Bard's free conversational strictures;
the secret history of Rawleigh's great work had never been    * I find this quotation in a sort of polemical work of natural
discovered  on this occasion, however, Jonson only spoke  philosophy, entitled'Saggio  di Storia Litteraria Fiorentina'
what he kniew to be true-anid there may have been other  del Secolo XVII. da Giovanne Clemente Nelli, Lvu.a, 1759,'
truths, in those conversations which were set down at random   p. 58. Nelli also refers to what he had said on this sblject in
by Drummond, who may have chiefly recollected the satirical  his Piante adl a!zcti (i S. M. del Fiore, p. vi. vii;' a work on
ouches.                                                    architecture. See Brunet; and Haym, Bib. Ital. de libri rart




304                                     CURIOSITIES OF
solved by the discovery of a little fact on literary unions,  conducted me to a safe asylum, in the year of grace 1571.'
which derives importance from this circumstance.            The portrait of his son, aged seven years, finished with
OF A BIOGRAPIY PAINTED,                       the greatest beauty, and supposed to have conime for  the
There are objects connected with literary curiosity,  hand of Paul Veronese; it bears this inscription:   Overwhich, though they may never gratify our sight, yet whose   come by violence and artifice, almost dead bef(Ae his birth,
fy or siht, ~t wosehis mother was at length delivered of him, fiull of life, with
Very history is literary; and the originality of their inven-  his moher was at length delivered of him  ful of life, with
tion, should they excite imitation, may serve to constitute  all the loveliness of infancy  utder the divine protectoni
all the loveliness of infancy; uinder the divine protectleto,
ap class. I notice a book-curiosity of' this nature.
a class,  I notice a book-curiosity of this nature,       his birth was happy, and his life with greater happiness
This extraordinary volume may be said to have con-  shall be closed with good fortute.'
tamned the travels and adventures of Charles Magius, a        A plan of the isle of Cyprus, where Magios commanded,
A pflan  of the isle o~f Cyprus, wher~e Mtagnius  commanded,
in d t o     and his first misfortune happened, his slavery by the
noble Venetian; and this volume, so precious, consisted   a           rt    i    n hapeed  his sa  rb    t
only of' eighteen paes, composed of a series of highily-  Turks-The painter has expressed ths by an embilem of
only of eighte n pages, composed        a tree shaken by the winds and scathed by the lightning;
finished  miniature  paintings on vellum, some executed by
fiihd iituep i    o ey   but from the trunk issues a beautifuil ereen branich shining
the hand of Paul Veronese. Each page, however, way                                                               i
the hand of Paul  ernese.  Each page, however, may  in a brilliant sun, with this device-' From this fallen trunk
be said to contain many chapters; for, generally, it is
springs a branch full of vigour.'
composed of a large  centre-piece, surrounded by ten    pigs a brach full of viour.'
The missions of Mlarius to raise troops in the province
small ones, with many apt inscriptions, allegories, and al-   The missions of Magius to raise troops in the province
of la Puglia —In one of" these M~agius is seen returning to
lusions; the whole exhibiting romantic incidents in the
n                     ~~~~~~~Venice,;1 his final departure, — th~underbolt is viewed f'all.
life of this Venetian nobleman. Butit is not merely as a   Venice; his final departure-a lunderbolt is viewed fal
beautifitl production of art that we are to consider it; it      on his vessel-his passage by Corfu and Zant, and
his arrival at Candle.
becomes associated with a more elevated feeling in the
His travels to Egypt-The centre figure represents this
occasion which produced it.  The author, who is himself
the hero, after having been long calumniated, resolved to  provnce raisin  its iht hand extended towards a palm
M                   ~~~~~~tree, and the le'ft leaning on a pyramid, inscribed I Celeset before the eyes of his accusers the sufferings and ad-  tree, and the lgft beating on a pyraid, inscribed sCeleventures lie could perhaps have but indifferently described:  brated  throughout the world for her woni ers.' Tt e smaller
and instead of composing a tedious volume for his justifi-   pictures are the entrance ofMagius   into the port ofAlexcation, invented this new species of pictorial biography.   andria; Rosetta, wit a caravan of Tuks and different
nations; the city ofl Grand Cairo, exterior and in'terior,
The author minutelv described the remarkable situations   nations; the city of Grand Cairo, exterior and iterior,
in which fortune had  laced him; and he artists, in e-   with views of other places; and finally, his return to Vein whfich fortune had ))laced trim; and the artists, in era-    i.
bellishing the facts he fiurnished them with to record, emu-   ic
intoactou bfor  spetatr, icidnts  hic  thepen His journey to Rome —the centre figiure an armed Pallated each other in giving life to their truth, and putting a s s    on  tot        the  ere           hrea    r m a
Z5las seated on trophies, the Tvber be-nea-th her feet, a
into action, before the spectator, incidents which the pen   laobe in hr hands, iseribed Qu!d re lum vctrix ah domina
had less impressively exhibited.  This unique production au be it n her he
may be consiered  s a mdel,'Because she is the Conqueress and Mistress of the
mayt e wconsiyersd as a morel,  to represent the, actions of  World.' The ten small pictures are views of the cities in
those who may succeed more fortunately by this new
mode of perpetuatins their history; discovering, by the   the Pope's dominion. His first audience at the conclave,
aid of the pencil, rather than by their pen, the forms and   forms a pleasing anti fine composition.
colours of an extraordinary life.                             His travels into. Syria —the principal figure is a female
It was when the Ottonans (about 1571) attacked the   emblematical of that fine country; she is seated in the
midst of a gay orchard, and embraces a bundle of roses,
Isle of Cyprus, that this Venetian nobleman was charged   midst of a ay  orcard, and embraces  bundle of roses,
by his republic to review and repair the fortifications.  He   inscribed Mundi delicie-' The delight of the universe.'
The small compartments are views of towns and ports,
was afterwards sent to the Pope to negotiate an alliance:   The small comparments  are views of towns and ports,
he returned to the senate, to give an account of his com-   and the spot where Magi-s collected his fleet.
chiefcommand,           His pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where lie was made a
mission. invested with the chief command, at the headI
of his troops, Magius threw  himself into the island of  knight of the holy sepulchre —the principal figure repreandafter aslldeewi cosents Devotion, inscribed Ducit.'It is she who conducts
vent its fall, at Famagusta, he was taken prisoner by the               omarn    hib a           rie o   bei
Turks, and made a st[ave. His age and infirmities in-totecasndprkigf'hehrmftepnilf
Turks, and mnade a slave.  His age and infirmities in-   a correctness of drawing, which are described as belonging
duced his master, at length, to sell hima to some Christian   Cad   orie          i  esli is   iwdi  h   od
duceul his master, at length, to sell him to some Christian to the class and partaking of the charms, of the pencil of
Claude Lorraine.  His vessel is first viewed in the roadmerchants;  and after an absence of' several years from
his beloved Verice, he suddenly appeared, to the astonish-  stead at Venice beat by a stirm; arrives at aite to rement and mortification of a party who had never ceased   fresh; enters the port  fSimiso; there having landed, he
to calumniate him; whilst his own noble family were corn-  and his companions are proceeding to the town on asses,
pelled to preserve an indignant silence, having had no  for Christians were not permitted to travel in Turkey on
communications with their lost and enslaved relative   horses-In the church at Jerusalem the bishop, in his ponmmagius  now returned to vindicate his honour, to reinstate  tifical habit, receives him  as a knight of the holy sepulMlagiu-s now returned to vindicate his honour, to reinstatechearyigimnteamorofGdeyfBulo,
himself in the favour of the senate, and to be restored to a  che, arraying  him  in the armor of Godfre   of Bouillon,
and placing his sword in the handts of Magfuis. His arrivenerable parent amidst his family: to whom  he intro-                  
duced a fresh branch, in a youth of seven years old, the  val at Bethlem, to see the cradle of the Lord-and his reduedafrshbanhi   ayut  o  evn ersolth               turn by Jaffa with his companions, in the dress of pilgrims;
child of his misfortunes, who, born in trouble, and a stran-   u   by affa with hisompanion,    the dress of pilrs
the groups are finely contrasted with the Turks mingling
ger to domestic endearments, was at one moment united  th  rons  are fiely contrasted with the Turks  mingling
to a beloved circle of relations amongst them.
The taking of the city of Famagusta, and his slavery —
I shall give a rapid view of some of the pictures of this   Th  aking of the city of Famausta, and his slaveryVen etiani  nobleman's life.  The whole series has been   The middle figure, wifh a dog at its feet, represents Fielaborately drawn up by te  Duke d  a Valliere, the e    delity, the character of Magius who ever preferred it to
elaborately drawn up by the Duke de la Vailiere, the ce-  hslf   rhsfedm  ne ie   atvt1Se'a  e
lehrated book-collector, who dwells on the detail with the   his life or his freedom, inscribed Caivat-' She has re
dateed me to slavery.' Six smaller pictures exhibit the
curiosity of an amateur.*df
In a rich frontispiece, a Christ is expiring on the cross   different points of the island of Cyprus, where the Turks
H oli u c n l   effected their descents.  Magius retreating to Famagusta,
Religeion, leaning on a column, contemplates the Divinity,
and  Hope is not distant from her.  The genealoical  tr  which he long defended, and where his cousin, a skilful
and Hope is not distant from her. The genealogical tree
Z5    engineer, was killed. The Turks compelled to raise the
of the house of Magius, with an allegorical representation   engineer, was  killed.  The Turks cf mpelled to raise the
of Venice, its nobility, power, and riches: the arms of  siege, but return with greater forces-the sacing of the
town and the palace, where Megres  was taken. —,ne
Mlagius, in which is inserted a view of the holy sepulchre
of Jerusalem, of which he was made a knight; his per-   picture exhibits him  brought before a bashaw, who has
trait, with a Latin inscription;:I have passed through   him  stripped, to judge of his strength and fix his price,
arms and the enemy, amidst fire and water, and the Lord   when after examination he is sent among other slaves.He is seen bound and tied up among his companions in' The duke's description is not to be found, as might be ex.  misfortune-again he is forced to labour, arnd carries a
psected, in his own valued catalogue, but was a contribution to  cask of water-on his shoulders.-In another picture, his
Gaignat's II, 16, where it occupies fourteen pages. This sinM t I1w r  r  oe  e T   master, finding him weak of body, conducts  him to a slave
iular work sold at Gai gnat's sale fir 902 livres. It was then  er     tsi  him     aofbo          s  him  ta sa
the golden age of literary curiosity, when the rarest things
were not ruinous; and that price was even then considered   ass loaded with packages; his new master, finding him
extraordinary though the work was an unique. It must con-  loitering on his way, showers his blows on him, while a
gisat of about 160 subjects, by Italian artists            soldier is seen purloining one of the packages from ths




LITERAT URE.                                                       305
ass. Another exhibits Magius sinking with fatigue on  Amilcar, for instance, was the first author and contriver of
the sands, while his master would raise him up by an un-  the second Punic war, though he died ten years before the
sparing Jse of the bastinado.  The varied detials of these  commencement of it.' A statesman,' says the wise and
little paintings are pleasingly executed.               grave historian,' who knows not how to trace the origin of
The close of his slavery-The middle figure kneeling to  events, and discern the different sources from whence they
Heaven, and a light breaking from it, inscribed' He breaks  tale their rise, may be compared to a physician, wvho neginy chains,' to express the confidence of Magius.  The  lects to inform himself of the causes of those distemperls
Turks are seen landing with their pillage and their slaves.  which he is called in to cure. Our pains can never be
In one of the pictures are seen two ships on fire; a  better employed than in searching out the causes of events;.
young lady of Cyprus preferring death to the loss of her  for the most trifling incidents eive birth to matters of ishonoutr and the miseries of slavery, determined to set fire  greatest moment and importance.' The latter part of his.
to the vessel in which she was carried; she succeeded,  remark of Polybius points out another principle which has.
and the flames communicated to another.                 been often verified by history, and which furnished the.
His return to Venice-The painter for his principal  materials of the little book of' Grands Evenetnens par lkos
figure has chosen a Pallas, with a helmet on her head, the  petites Causes.'
egtis on one arm, and her lance in the other, to describe  Our present inquiry concerns' cause and pretext.'
the courage with which Maglus had supported his misfor-    Leo X projected an alliance of the sovereigns of Christunes, inscribed Reducit —  She brines me back.' In the  tendom against the Turks.  The avowed object was to
last of the compartments he is seen at the custom-house  oppose the progress of the Ottomans against the Mame
at Venice; he enterm the house of his father; the old man  lukes of Egypt, who were more friendly to the Christians;
hastens to meet him, and embraces him.                  but the concealed motive with his holiness was to enrich
One page is filled by a single picturle, which represents  himself and his family with the spoils of Christendom, and
the senate of Venice, with the Doge on his throne; Ma-  to aggrandise the papal throne by war; and such indeed
gius presents an account of his different employments, and  the policy of these pontiffs had always been in those nad.
holds in his hand a scroll, on which is written, Qus  corn.-  crusades which they excited against the East.
misisti perfeci; quad restat agendum, pare fide complectar-  The Reformation, excellent as its results have proved'I have done what you committed to my care; and I will  in the cause of genuine freedom, originated in no purer
perform with the same fidelity what. remains to be done.'  source than human passion and selfish motives: it was the.
He is received by the settate with the most distinguished   progeny of avarice in Germany, of novelty in France, and:
honours, and is not only justified, but praised and honoured.of love in England.  The latter is elegantly alluded to by
The most magnificent of these paintings is the one at-  Gray,
tributed to Paul Veronese. It is described by the Duke' And gospel-light first beam'd from Bullen's eyes.'
de la Valliere as almost unparalleled for its richness, its  The Reformation is considered by the Duke of Nevers in
elega.nce, and its brilliancy. It is inscribed Pater mneus et  a work printed in 1590, as it had been by Francis I in his
fratres mei dereliquerznt me; Dommznus autem assumnpsit  apology in 1537, as a coup d'etat of Charles V, towards.
me!-' My father and my brothers abandoned me; but  universal monarchy.  The duke says, that the Emperor
the Lord took me under his protection.' This is an allu-  silently permitted Luther to establish his principles in Ger —
sion to the accusation raised against him in the open   many, that they might split the confederacy of the elective
senate, when the Turks took the isle of Cyprus, and his  princes, and by this division facilitate their more easy confamily wanted either the confidence or the courage to de.  quest, and play them off one against another, and by these
fend Magius.  In the front of this larce picture, Magius  means to secure the imperial crown, hereditary in the
leading his son by the hand, conducts him to be reconciled   house of Austria. Had Charles V not been the mere creawith his brothers and sisters-in-law, who are on the op-  ture of his politics, and had he felt any zeal for the Catho..
posite side; his hand holds this scroll, Vos cogitastis de  lic cause, which he pretended to fight for, never would he
me mralum; soed Deus convertit -illud in bonuLm-:You   have allowed the new doctrines to spread for more than,
thought ill of me; bui the Lord has turned it to good.' In  twenty years without the least opposition.
this he alludes to the satisfaction he had given the senate,    The famous league in France was raised for' religion
and to the honours they had decreed him. Another scene   and the relief of public grievances;' such was the pre-.
is introduced, where Magius appears in a  imagnificent  text! After the princes and the people had alike become
hall at table in the midst of All his family, with whom a   its victims, this'league' was discovered to have been
general reconciliation has taken place: on his left hand  formed by the pride and the ambition of the Guises, aided
are gardens opening with an enchanting effect, and mag-  by the machinations of the Jesuits against the attempts of
nificently ornamented, with the villa of his father, on which  the Prince of Condd to dislodge them  firom their'seat of'
flowers and wreaths seem dropping on the roof, as if from   power.' While the HIuguenots pillaged, burnt, and massaheaven. In the perspective the landscape probably repre-  cred, declaring in their manifestoes, that they were only
sents the rural neighbourhood of Magius's early days.    fighting to release the king, whom they asserted was a priStlch are the most interesting incidents which I have   soner of the Guises; the catholics repaid them with the
selected from the copious description of the Duke de la  same persecution and the same manifestoes. declaring that
Valliere.  The idea is new of this production, an auto-  they only wish d to liberate the Pritce of Condd, who was,
biography in a series of remarkable scenes, painted under  the prisoner of the Huguenlots.  The people were led on
the eye of the describer of them, in which too he has pre-  by the cry of' religion;' but this civil war was not in reserved all the fulness of his feelings and his minutest re-  ality so much Catholic against Huguenot, as Guise against
collections; but the novelty becomes interesting from the   CondO.  A parallel event occurred between our Charles
character of the noble Magius, and the romantic fancy   T and the Scotch Covenanters; and the king expressly
which inspired this elaborate and costly curiosity.  It was  declared, in' a large declaration, concerning the late tu.g
not indeen without some trouble that I have drawn up this  mults in Scotland,' that religion is onlypretended, and used
little account; but while thus employed, I seemed to be  by them as a cloak to palliate their intended rebellion',"
composing a very uncommon romance.                       which he demonstrated by the facts he alleged.  There was
a revolutionary party in France, which, taking the name
oUE  AD PRETEXTf Frondeurs, shook that kingdom  tinder the administraIt is an important principle in morals and in politics, not  tion of Cardinal Mazarine, and held out f6ortheir pretext
to mistake the cause for the pretext, nor the pretext for the  the public freedom.  But that faction, composed of somid
cause, and by this means to distinguish between the con-  of the discontented French princes and the mob, was ercealed and the ostensible, motive. On this principle his-  tirely organized by Cardinal De Retz, who held them  ar
tory might be recomposed in a new manner; it would not  hand, to check or to spur them  as the occasion requirhedl
often describe circumstances and characters as they usually  from a mere personal pique against Mazarine, who liad
appear.  When we mistake the characters of men, we  not treated that vivacious genius with all the deference hb,
mistake the nature of their actions, and we shall find in the  exacted.  This appears crom his own memoira.
study of secret history, that some of the most important    WVe have smiled at James I threatening the s.ate,
events in modern history were produced from very differ-  general by the English anmbassador, about Vorstils, a,
ent motives than their ostensible ones. Polybius, the  Dutch professor, who had espoused the doctrines (,f Armost philosophical writer of the ancients, has marked out  mninirts against those of the crltIra-remonstrants, or (Calthis useful distinction of cause and pretest, and aptly illus-  vinists; the ostensible slubject was religJious, or raLher me-,
trates the observation by the facts which he explains.  taphysica!-religious doctrines, but the concealed one nas a
39




5O~6                          CICURIOSITIES OF
struggle for predominance between the Pensionary Barne-  that of converting forgeries and fictions into historical au.
velt, assisted by the French interest, and the Prince of  thorities.
Orange, supported by the English.' These were the real    When one nation is at war with another, there is no
sources,' says Lord Hardwicke, a statesman and a man of  doubt that the two governments connive at, and often enletters, deeply conversant with secret and public history,  courage the most atrocious libels on each other, to mad.
and a far more able judge than Diodati the Swiss Divine,  den the people to preserve their independence, and con.
arnd Brandt the ecclesiastical historian, who in the synod   tribute cheerfullly to the expenses of the war.   France
of Dort could see nothing but what appeared in it; and   and England formerly complained of Holland-the Athegravely narrate the idle squabbles on phrases concerning   nians employed the same policy against the Macedonians
predestination or grace.  Hales, of Eaton, who was se-  and Persians.  Such is the origin of a vast number ofsup.
cretary to the English ambassador at this synod, perfectly   posititious papers and volumes, which sometimes, at a re.
accords with the account of Lord Hardwicke.' Our sy-  mote date, confound the labours of the honest historian,
nod,' writes that judicious observer,' goes on like a watch;  and too often serve the purposes of the dishonest, with
the main wheels upon which the whole business turns are   whom  they become authorities.  The crude and suspi-.least in sight; for all things of moment are acted in private  cious libels which were drawn out of their obscurity in
sessions; what is done in public is only for show and enter-  Cromwell's time against James the First have over-loaded,tainment.'                                                 the character of that monarch, yet are now eagerly referred
The cause of the persecution of the Jansenists was the   to by party writers, though in their own days they were
jealousy of the Jesuits; the pretext was la grace suffisante.  obsolete and doubtful.  During the civil wars of Charles
The learned La Croze observes, that the same circum-  the First: such spurious documents exist in the forms of:stance occurred in the affair of Nestorius and the church of  speeches which were never spoken; of letters never writAlexandria; the pretext was orthodoxy, the cause was the   ten by the names subscribed; printed declarations never
jealousy of the church of Alexandria; or rather the fiery   declared; battles never fought, anrid victories never obtainiand turbulent Cyril, who personally hated Nestorius.  ed! Such is the language of Rushworth, who complains
The opinions of Nestorius, and the council which con-  of this evil spirit of party-forgeries, while he is himself susrdemned them, were the same in effect.  I only produce   pected of having rescinded or suppressed whatever was
fthis remote fact to prove that ancient times do not alter the   not agreeable to his patron Cromwell.  A  curious, anrid,
the truth of our principle.                                 perhaps, a necessary list might be drawn up of political
When James II was so strenuous an advocate for tole-  forgeries of our own, which have been sometimrnes referred
tation and liberty of conscience in removing the test act,  to as genuine, but which are the inventions of wits and Sathis enlightened principle of government was only a pre-  tirists!  Bayle ingeniously observes, that at the close of
text with that monk-ridden monarch; it is well known that   every century such productions should be branded by a
the cause was to introiduce and make the catholics predom-   skilful discriminator, to save the future inquirer from eririant in his councils and government.  The result, which   rors he can hardly avoid.' How many are still kept in
that eager and blind politician hurried on too fast, anid   error by the satires of the sixteenth century!  Those
-which therefore did not take place, would have been, that   of the present age will be no less active in future ages, for'liberty of conscience' would soon have become an' overt  they will still be preserved in public libraries.'
act of treason,' before an inquisition of his Jesuits!       The art and skill with which sonime have fabricated a
In all political affairs drop the pretexts and strike at the   forged narrative, render its detection almost hopeless.,causes; we may thus understand what the heads of parties   When young Maitland, the brother to the secretary, in or-may choose to conceal.                                     der to palliate the crime of the assassination of the Regent
Murray, was employwd to draw up a pretended conference.POIITICAL FOROERIES AND FICTIONS.                between him, Knox, and others, to stigmatize then by the
A writer whose learning gives value to his eloquence,  odium of advising to dethrone the young monarch, and to;m his BamptonLectures has censured, with that liberal  substitute the regent for their sovereign,.Maitland prospirit so friendly to the cause of truth, the calumnies and   duced so dramatic a performance, by giving to oach per-.rumours of parties, which are still industriously retailed,  son his peculiar mode of expression, that this Cr$tlstanco
though they have been often confuted.  Forged docu-  long baffled the incredulity of those who couf, not in
ments are still referred to, or tales unsupported by evi-  consequence deny the truth of a narrative apparently so
dence are confidently quoted.  Mr Heber's subject con-  correct in its particulars!' The fiction of the warming-;fined his inquiries to theological history;  he has told  pan, enclosing the young Pretender, brought more adheus that'Augustine is anot ashamed, in his dispute with  rents to the cause of the Whigs than the Bill of Rights,'
Faustus, to take advantage of the popular slanders against  observes Lord John Russell.
the followers of Manes, though his own experience, for    Among such party narratives, the horrid tale of the
he had himself been of that sect, was sufficient to de-  bloody Colonel Kirk, has been worked up by Hume with
tect this falsehood.'  The Romanists, in spite of satis-  all his eloquence and pathos; and, from its interest no susfactory  answers, have continued  to urge against the   picion has arisen of its truth.  Yet, so far as it concerns
English protestant the romance of Parker's consecration;  Kirk, or the reign of James the Second, or even English
while the protestant persists in falsely imputing to the   history, it is, as Ritson too honestly expresses it,: an im.,catholic public formularies, the -systematic omission of the   pudent and a barefaced lie:'  The simple fact is told by
second commandment.' The calumnies of Rimius and   Kennet in a few words: he probably was aware ofthe naStinstra against theMoravian brethren  arecases in point,'  ture of this political fiction.  Hume was not, indeed, him.
continues Mr Heber.'No one now believes them, yet  self the fabricator of the tale; but he had not any historithey once could deceive even Warburton!'  We may   cal authortiy.  The origin of this fable was probably a
also add the obsolete calumny of Jews crucifying boys-of  pious fraud of the W5hig party, to whom Kirk had rendered'vhich a monument raised to Hugh of Lincoln perpetuates   himself odious; at that moment stories still more terrify-,the memory, and which a modern historian records with-  ing were greedily swallowed, and which, Ritson insinu,so)t any scruple of doubt.; several authorities, which are   ates, have become a part of the history of England. The.cited on this occasion, amount only to the single one of  original story, related more circumstantially, though noi
/Matthew Paris, who gives it as a popular rumour. Such   more affectingly, nor perhaps more truly,,may be found in,accusations usually happened when the Jews were too rich   Waanley's' Wonders of the Little World,'* which I give,,and the king was too poior!                               relieving it'from the tediousness of old Wanlev.
The falsehoods and forgeries raised by parties are over-   A governor of Zealand, under the bold Dutke of Bur..whelming!  It startles a philosopher, in the calm  of his   gundv, had in vain sought to seduce the affections of the
study, when he discovers how writers, who, we may pre-   beautiful wife of a citizen.  The governor imprisons the
sume, are searchers after truth, should, in fact, turn out to   husband on an accusation of treason; and when the
be searchers after the grossest fictions.  This alters the   wife appeared as the suppliant, the governor; after no
habits of the literary man: it is an unnatural depravity of  brief eloquence, succeeded as a lover, on the plea that
his pursuits-and it proves that tlhe personal is too apt to   her husband's life could only be spared by her compli.
predominate over the literary character.                   ance.  The woman, in tears and in aversion, and not
I have already touched on the main point of the pre-   without a hope of vengeance only delayed, lost her honsent article in the one on' Political Nick-namnes.' I hae   our! Pointing to the prison, the governor told her' If you
Lnere shown how  political calumny appears to  have   seek your husband, enter there, and lake him along with
i'en reduced into an art; one of its branches would  e                     * Book III, ch. 29, sec. 18




LITERATURE.                                                       307
you?' The wife, in the bitterness of her thoughts, yet   grave Plutarch, Mendax ille Plutarchus qui vitas oratorunm,
not without the consolation that she had snatched her  dolis et erroribus consutas, olim  conscribillavit.*, That
husband from the grave, passed into the prison; there in  lying Plutarch, who formerly scribbled the lives of the
a cell, to her astonishment and horror, she beheld the   orators, made up of falsities and blunders! I There is in
corpse of her husband laid out in a coffin, ready for burial!  Italian a scarce book, of' a better design than execution,
Mourning over it, she at length returned to th(e governor,  of' the Abbate Lancellotti, FaTfalloni deali antichi hisfiercely exclaiming,' You have kept your word! you have   torici. —' Filim-flarms of the ancients.' Modern historians
restored to me my husband! and be assured the favour   have to dispute their passage to immortality step by step;
shall be repaid!'  The inhuman villain, terrified in the   and however fervid be their eloquence, their real test as to
presence of his intrepid victim, attempted to appease her   value, must be brought to the humble references in their
vengeatce, and more, to win her to his wishes.  Return-   marein.  Yet these must not terminate our inquiries; for
ing home, she assenbled her friends, revealed her whole  in tracing a story to its original source, we shall find that
story, and under their protection, she appealed to Charles   fictions have been sometimes grafted on truiths or hearthe Bold, a strict lover of justice, and who now awarded   says, and to separate them  as they appeared in their first
a sinaular but an exemplary catastrophe. The duke first  stage, is the pride and glory of learned criticism.
commanded that the criminal governor should instantly               EXPRESSION OF SUPPRESSED OFINION.
marry the woman whom he had made a widow, and at
the same time sign his will, with a clause importing, that    A people denied the freedom  of speech or of writinrg,
should lie die before his lady he constituted her his heiress.  have usually lefi some memorials of their feelings in that
All this was concealed from  both sides, rather to satisfy   silent language which addresses itself to the eye.  Many
the duke than the parties themselves.  This done, the   ingenious inventions have been contrived, to give vent to
unhappy woman was dismissed alone!  The governor   their suppressed indignation.  The voluminous grievanco
was conducted to the prison to suffer the same death he   which they could not trust to thie voice or the pen, they
had inflicted on the husband of his wife; and when this   have carved in wood, or sculptured on stone; and have
lady was desired once more to enter the prison, she be-   sometimes even facetiously concealed their satire among
held her second husband headless in his coffin as she had  the playful ornaments, designed to amuse those of whom
her first! Such extraordinary incidents in so short a pa-  they so fruitlessly complained!  Such monuments of the
riod overpowered the feeble frame of the sufferer; she   suppressed feelings of the multitude are not often inspected
died-leaving a son, who inherited the rich accession of  by the historian-their minuteness escapes all eyes but
fbrtune so fatally obtained by his injured and suffering  those of the philosophical antiquary; nor are these satiri.mother.,                                                   cal appearances always considered as grave authorities,
Such is the tale of which the party story of Kirk ap-  which unquestionably they will be found to be by a close
peared to Ritson to have been a refaccimento; but it is  observer of human nature.  An entertaining history of the
rather the foundation  than  the superstructure.  This   modes of thinking, or the discontents of a people, drawn
critic was right in the main, but not by the by; in the  from sutich dispersed efforts in every era, would cast a new
general, not in the particular.  It was not necessary to  light of secret history over many dark intervals.
point out the present source, when so many others of a        Did we possess a secret history of the Saturnalia, it
parallel nature exist.  This  tale, universally told, Mr  would doubtless have afforded some materials for the pre.
Douce considers as the origin of I Measure for Measure,'  sent article.  In those revels of venerable radicalism,when
and was probably sonicme traditional event; for it appears the senate was closed, and the Pileus, or cap of liberty, was
sometimes with a change of names and places, without any   triumphantly worn, all things assumed an appearance con.of incident.  It always turns on a soldier, a brother, or a   trary to what they were; and human nature, as well as
husband executed; and a wife, or sister, a deceived victim,  human laws, might be said to have been parodied. Among
to save them from death.  It was, therefore, easily trans-  so many whimsical regulations in favour of the licentious
ferred to Kirk, and Pomfret's poem of' Cruelty and Lust'  rabble, there was one which forbad the circulation of mnelong made the story popular.  It could only have been in  iey; if any one offered the coin of the state, it was to be
codemned as an act of madness, and the man was brought
this form that it reached the historian, who, it must be oh-  condemned as an act of madness, and the mai was brought
served, introduces it as a'story commonly told of him")  to his senses by a penitential fast for that day.  An inge.
nio sFec   niquary seem   ohv   icvrdacass
but popular tragic romances should not enter into the dusty   nious French antiquary seems to have discovered a class
documents of a history of England, and much less be par-  of wretched medals, cast in lead or copper, which formed
ticularly specified in the index!  Belleforest, in his old ver-  the circulating medium of these mob Lords, who, to ridision of the tale, has given the circumstance of'' the Cap-  cule the idea of money, used the basest metals, stamping
tain, who having seduced the wife under the promise to  them with grotesque  figures or odd devices,-such   as a
save her husband's life, exhibited him  soon afterwards   sow; a chimerical bird; an imperator in his car, with a
through the window of her apartment suspended on a gib-  monkey behind him; or an old woman's head, Acca Lau~~~~~~~~~monke biehind them tradiina old  wmnurshead, Rouu,coa Laun
bet.' This forms the horrid incident in the history of'  the  rentia, either the traditional old nurse of Romulus, or an
bloody Colonel,' and served the purpose of a party, who   old courtesan of the same name, who bequeathed the frutits
w'ished to bury him in odium.  Kirk was a soldier of for-  of her labours to the Roman people!  As all things were
v~shd t buy hi  inodim. Krk  as   solierof or-done in mockery, this base metal is stamped with s",C., to
tune, and a loose liver, and a great blusterer, who would  doe in mockery, tis base metls  stamped with s.., to
sometimes threaten to decimate his own regiment,: but is  ridicule the senatus consulto, which our antiquary happily
sid to have forotten the menace the next ay.  Hatefl   explainsf in the true spirit of this government of mockery,
as such military men will always be, in the present instace   Saturnalium consulto, agreeing with the legend of the reColonel Kirlc has been shamtefully calumniated by poets  verse, inscribed in the midst of four tali, or bones, which
atnd historians, who suffer themselves to be duped by the  they  used as dice, Qui ludit rram dt, quod ats si'Let
fore!eries of political parties!
forereries of political parties! ithe'm  who play give a pledge, which will be sufficient.'
While we are detecting a source of error into which the   This mock money served not only as an expression of the
party feelings of modern historians may lead them, let us  native irony of the radical gentry of Rome during their
ZD                                  fes~~~~~~~~~ntival brot had they radialkentherymn of t Rmeadrntg their
confess that they are far more valuable than the ancient;  festival bt had they spoken their mind out, meant a rifor to us, at least, the ancients have written history with- dicule of money itself; for these citizens of equality have
out producing authorities!  ILModern historians must fur-  alws imaged that society mght proceed without this
nish their readers with the truest means to become their  contrivance of' a medium  which served to represent procritics, by providing them with their authorities; and it is  partv, in which they themselves must so little participate.
only by judiciously appreciating these that we may con-       A period so glorious for exhibiting the suppressed scfidently accept their discoveries.  Unquestionably the an-   *Taylor, Annot. ad Lysiam
cients have often introduced into their histories many tales  t Baudelot de Dairval de 1' Utilit6 des Voyages, II, 645.
There is a work, by Ficoroni on these lead coins or Tickets
similar to the story of Kirk-popular or party forgeries t  Thei'e is a work, by Ficoroni on these toad coins or Tickets
in  They are found in the cabinets of the  cuT ions me'lallist
The mellifluous copiousness of Livy conceals many a tale   They are fond  in the cbinets of the c        s  elalit
Pinkerton, referring to this entertaining work, regrets thrA
of wonder; the graver of Tacitus e!ches  many a fatal        Such curious remains have almost escaped   the notice of
IStich curious remains have almost escaped the notice of
stroke; and tt:e secret history of Suetonius too often   medallists, and have not yet been ranged in one class, or
raises a suspicion of those whispers, Quid rex in aurem    named. A special work on them  would be hizhly accepts.
reginace dixerit, quid Junofabulata sit cum Jove.  It is cer-  ble.' The time has perhaps arrivedt when antiquaries may
tain that Plutarch has often told, aiid varied too in the tel-  bein to be hilosophrs,  and phiosophers atiquaries! The
ng, the same story, which he has applied to different   unhappy separation of erudition  from philosophy, and of phipersons. A critic in the Ritsonian  style has said of the   losophy firom erudition, has hitherto thrown impediments in
persons. A critic in the   itsonian style has said of the   the progress of the human mind. and the history of man.




308                                    CURIOSITIES OF
timents of the populace, as were these Saturnalia, had  men were the usual ohjects of the suppressed indignation
been nearly lost for us, had not some notions been pre-  of the people in those days; but the knights and feudal
served byLucian; for we glean but sparingly from  the  lords have not always escaped from the'curses not loud
solemn pages of the historian, except in the remarkable  but deep,' of their satirical pencils.
instance which Suetonius has preserved of the arch-mime    As the Refbrmation, or ratherthe Revolution, was has
who followed the body of the Emperor Vespasian at his  tening, this custom become so general, that in one of the
funeral.  This officer, as well as a similar one, who ac-  dialogues of Erasmus, where two Franciscans are entercompanied the general to whom they granted a triumph,  tained by their host, t appears that such satirical exhibiand who was allowed the unrestrained licentiousness of  tions were hung up as common furniture in the apartments
his tongue, were both the organs of popular feeling, and   of inns.  The facetious genius of Erasmus either invents
studied to gratify the rabble, who were their real masters.  or describes one which he had seen of an ape in the habit
On this occasion the arch-mime, representing both the ex-  of a Franciscan sitting by a sick man's bed, dispensing
terior persbnage and the character of Vespasian, accord-  ghostly counsel, holding up a crucifix in one hand, while
ing to custom, inquired the expense of the funeral?  He  with the other hie is filching a purse out of the sick man's
was answered' ten millions of sesterces!' In allusion to  pocket. Such are' the straws' by which we may always
the love of money which characterized the emperor, his  observe from what corner the wind rises! Mr Dibdin has
mock representative exclaimed,' Give me the money, and,  recently informed us, that Geyler, whom he calls' the
if you will, throw my body into the Tiber?'             herald of the Reformation,' preceding Luther by twelve
All these mock offices and festivals among the ancients,  years, had a stone chair or pulpit in the cathedral at Stras..
I consider as organs of the suppressed opinions and feel-  burg, from which he delivered his lectures, or rather rolled
ings of the populace, who were allowed no other, and had  the thunders of his anathemas against the monks.  This
not the means of the printing ages to leave any permanent  stone pulpit was constructed under his own superintenrecords.  At a later period, before the discovery of the  dence, and is covered with very indecent figures of monks
art, which multiplies, with such facility, libels or panegy-  and nuns, expressly designed by him to expose their prof.
rics; when the people could not speak freely against those  ligate manners. We see Geyler doing what for centuries
rapacious clergy, who sheared the fleeceand cared not for  had been done!
the sheep, many a secret of popular indignation was con-    In the curious folios of Sauval, the Stowe of France,
fided not to books (for they could not read) but to pic-  there is a copious chapter entitled' Heretiques, leurs attes.
tures and sculptures, which are books which the people can  tats.'  In this enumeration of their attempts to give vent
always read. The sculptors and illuminators of those times,  to their suppressed indignation,  it is very remarkable, that
no doubt shared in common the popular feelings, anrid bold-  preceding the time of Luther, the minds of many were per.
iy trusted to the paintings or the carvings which met the  fcctly Lutheras respecting the idolatrous worship of the
eyes of their luxurious and indolent masters their satirical  Roman church; and what I now notice would have rightly
inventions. As far back as in 1300, we find in Wolfius*   entered into that significant Historia Reformationis ante Rethe description of a picture of this kind, in a MS. of formationesm, which was formerly projected by continental.Esop's Fables, found in the Abbey of Fulda, among other  writers.
emblems of the corrupt lives of the churchmen.  The        Luther did not consign the pope's decretals to the flames
present was a wolf, large as life, wearing a monkish cowl,  till 1520-this was the first open act of reformation and
with a shaven crown, preaching to a flock of sheep,/with  insurrection, for hitherto hie had submitted to the court of
these words of the apostle in a label from his mouth,-   Rome.  Yet in 1490, thirty years preceding this great
God is my witness how I long for you all in my bowels!'  event, I find a priest burnt for having snatched the host in
And underneath was inscribed, —' This hooded wolf is the  derision from  the hands of another celebrating mass.
hypocrite of whom it is said in the Gospel, " Beware of  Twelve years afterwards, 1502, a student repeatea the
false prophets!"' Such exhibitions were often introduced   same deed, trampling on it; and in 1523 the resolute death
into articles of furniture.  A cushion was found in an old  of Anne de Bourg, a counsellor in the parliament of Paris,
abbey, in which was worked a fox preaching to geese,  to use the expression of Sauval,'corrupted the world.' It
each goose holding in his bill his praying beads! In the  is evident that the Huguenots were fast on the increase.
stone wall, and on the columns of the great church at  From that period I find continued accounts which prove.Strasburg was once viewed a number of wolves, bears,  that the Huguenots of France, like the Puritans of' Eng.
foxes, arid other mischievous animals carrying holy-water,  land, were most resolute iconoclasts. They struck off the
cru ifixes, and tapers; and others more indelicate. These,  heads of Virgins and little Jesuses, or blunted their dagprobably as old as the year 1300, were engraven in 1617,  gers by chipping the wooden saints, which were then fixed
by a protestant; and were not destroyed till 1685, by the  at the corners of streets.   Every morning discovered the
pious rage of the catholics, who seemed at length to have  scandalous treatment they had undergone in the night.
rightly construed these silent lampoons; and in their turn   Then their images were painted on the walls, but these
broke to pieces the protestant images as the others had  were heretically scratched and disfigured; and, since the
done the papistical dolls.  The carved seats and stalls in  saints could not defend themselves, a royal edict was pubour own cathedrals exhibit subjects, not only strange and  lished in their favour, commanding that all holy paintings
sat-,ecal, but even indecent. At the time they built church-  in the streets should not be allowed short of ten feet from
es they satirized the ministers; a curious instance how   the ground! They entered churches at night, tearing up
the feelings of the people _truggle to find a vent. It is  or breaking down the prians, the benitoires, the crucifixes,
conjectured that rival orders satirized each other, and that  the colossal ecceriomes, which they did not always succeed
some of the carvings are caricatures of certain monks,  in dislodging for want of time or tools. Amidst these batThe margins of illuminated nmanuscripts frequently contain  ties with wooden adversaries, we may snmile at the freingenious caricatures, or satirical allegories.  In a mag-  quent solemn processions instituted to ward off the vennificent chronicle of Froissart I observed several. A wolf,  geance of the parish saint; the wooden was expiated by a
as usual, in a monk's frock and cowl, stretching his paw to  silver image, secured by iron bars, and attended by the
bless a cock, bending its head submissively to the wolf; or  king and the nobility, carrying the new saint, with prayers
a fox with a crosier, dropping heads, which a cock is pick..  that i he would protect himself from the heretics!
ing iup; to satirize the blind devotion of the bigots; per-    in the early period of the Reformation, an instance oc.
haps the figure of the cock alluded to our Gallic neigh-  curs of the art of concealing what we wish only the few
hours.  A cat in the habit of a nun, holding a platter in  should comprehend, at the same time that we are addres.
its paws to a mouse approaching tolick it; alluding to the  sing the public.  Curious collectors are acquainted, with
allurements of the abbesses to draw young women into'The Olivetan Bible:' this was the first translation pubtheir convents; while sometimes I have seen a sow in an  lished by the protestants, and there seems no ooubt that
abbess's veil, mounted on stilts; the sex marked by the  Calvin was the chief, if not the only translator; but at that
sows dugs. A. pope sometimes appears to be thrust by  moment not choosing to become responsible for this new
devils into a caldron; and cardinals are seen roasting on  version, he made use of the name of an obscure relative,
spits! These ornaments must have been generally execu-  Robert Pierre Olivetan.   Calvin, however, prefixed a
ted by m-onks themselves; but these more ingenious memr.  Latin preface, remarkable for delivering positions very op..
bers of the ecclesiastical order appear to have synupa-  posite to those tremendous doctrines of absolute predestithized with the people, like the curates in our church, and  nation, which in his theological despotism  he afterwards
envied the pampered abbot and the purple bishop. Church-  assumed.  De Bure describes this first protestant Bible
lest Sem. Iad.~an. 130.       not only as rare, but when found as usually imperfect,




LITERATURE.                                                           309
muel soiled, and dog-eared, as the well-read first edition    The age of Elizabeth, when the Roman pontiffand all
f Silakspeare, by the perpetual use of the multitude.  his adherents were odious to the people, prodluced a reBut a curious fact has escaped the detection both of De  markable caricature, an ingenious invention-a gorgon's
Bure and Beloe; at the end of the volume are found ten  head! A church bell forms the helmet; the ornaments, inavrses. which, in a concealed manner, authenticate the  stead of the feathers, are a wolf's head in a mitre detranslation; and which no one, unless initiated into the se-  vouring a lamb, an ass's head with spectacles reading,
cret, could possibly suspect. The verses are not poetical,  a goose holding a rosary; the face is made out with a fish
but I give the first sentence:                             for the nose, a chalice and water for the eye, and other
Lecture entends si verit6 adresse                priestly ornaments for the shoulder and breast, on which
Vicns done ouyr instament sa promesso            rolls o'fparchment pardons hang.*
Et vif parler --------— &c.                        A famous Bishop of Munster, Bernard de Galen, who,
7e first letter of every uword of these ten verses form a per-  in his charitable violence for converting protestants, got
fect distich, containing information important to those to  himself into such celebrity that he appears to have served
whom the Olivetan Bible was addressed.                     as an excellent sign-post to the inns in Germany, was the
Lee Vaudois, peple evanelique        true church militant: and his figure was exhibited accordOnt mis ce thresor en publique.                  ing to the popular fancy.  His head was half mitre ant
An anagram had been too inartificial a contrivance to  halt helmet; a crosier in one hand and a sabre in the
have answered the purpose of concealing from the world  other; half a rochet and half a cuirass: he was made per
forming mass as a dragoon on horseback, and giving out
at large this secret. There is an adroitness in the inven- forming mass as a dragoon on horseback, and giving out
the charge when he ought the Ite, missa est! He was
tion of the initial letters of all the words through these ten the char e when he ought the Ite, missa est! He was
verses.  They contained a    necessary to  called the converter! and the'Bishop of Munster' became
verses. They.contained a communication necessary to
communic~ation         popular as a sign-post in German towns; for the people like
authenticate the version, but which at the same time,could
ot be suspected by any person not instructed w fighting   men, though they should even fight against themsecret.
When the art of medal-engraving was revived in Europe,    It is rather curious to observe of this new  species o
M                 ~~~~~~satire, so easily distributed amnong the people, and so dithe spirit, we are now noticing, took possession of those  satire, so easily ditributed among the people, and so diless perishable and more circulating vehicles.  Satiric me-  rectly addressed to their inderstatdings, that it was made
dais were almost unknown to the ancient mint, notwith-  the vehicle of national feeling.  Ministers of state condethenvehil toivnatio thedevices. Minstrd Orord saythatecno
stasnding those of'the Saturnalia, and a few which bear  scnded to invent the devices.  Lord Orford sas, that
miserable puns on the unlucky names of some consuls.  caricatures on cards were the invention of George TownsMedals illustrate history, and history reflects light on me-   end in the affair of Byg, which was soon followed by a
hend in the affair of Byn~g, which was soon followed by a
dals; but we should not place such unreserved confidence   pack.  I am informed of an ancient pack of cards which
on medals, as their advocates who are warm  in their fa-  has caricatures of all the Parliamentarian Generals, which
vourute study.  It has been asserted, that medals are more  might be nriot unusefully shuffled by a writer of secret history. We may be surprised to find the grave Sutlly pracauthentic memorials than history itself; but a medal is not  tory.  We may be surprised to fin  the grave  lly prac-.ess susceptible of the bad passions than a pamphlet or an  tising this artifice on several occasions.  In the civil wars
epigram.  Ambition has its vanity, and engraves adubious  of France the Duke of Savoy had taken by surprise Sa.
lutes, and struck a medal; on the reverse a centaur apvictory; and Flattery will practise its art, and deceive us    ees, and struck a medal; on the reverse a centaur ap.
in gold!  A  calumny or a fiction on metal may be more  pas  shootin   with a bow  nd arrow, with th  leen
11                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~Opportune!But when Henry the Fourth had  tetondurable than on a fugitive page; and a libel has a better  Oppotne!         t when Hnry  the Fourth had reconchance of being preserved, when the artist is skilful, than   quered the town, he published another, on which   rcules
appears killina the centaur, with the word Opportunius.
simple truths when miserably executed.  Medals of this  appears killing the centaur, with the word Opportunies.
The grest minister was &he atithor of this retort! A medal
class are numerous, and were the precursors of those poli-  Theeatministerwas         authorofthisretort   Amedal
tical satires exhibited in caricature prints. There is a large  of the Dutch ambassador at the court of France, Van
collection of wooden cuts about the time of Calvin, where  Beuninehen, whom  the French represent as a haughty
the Romish religion is represented by the most grotesque  burgomaster, but who had the vivacity of a Freichman,
and the hauehtiness of a Spaniard, as Voltaire characterforms which the ridicule of the early Reformers could event.  and the hahtiness of a Spaniard, as oltaire characterMore than a thousand figures attest the exuberant satire
wa~r ine 167~2; buat wars will he hardly made fo~r an idle
of the designers.  This work is equally rare and costly.*    war i  1672; bit wars  ill  e harly  made fr an idle
medal.  Medals may, however, indicate a preparatory
Satires of this species commenced in the freedom of the  ma.   Mds   m             how         cte      reptoe
Reformation; for we find a medal of Luther in a monk's  war.  Louis  the  Fourteenth was so often compared to the
habit, satirically bearing for its reverse Catharine de Bora,  s    t its meridian, that some of his creatures my have
the ntin whom this monk married; the first step of his per   imagined that, like the sun, he could dart into any part of
onal reforation! Nor ca  we e certain that Catharin Europe as he willed, and be as cheerfully received.  The
onlreformation! Nor can we be certain that CatharineDtcmiserwhecrstnDaeasJhubw
was not more concerned in that great revolution than ap-  Dutch minister, whose christian name was Jou, howpears in the voluminous lives we have of the great refor   ever, had a medal srticic of Joshua stopping the sun in his
ever, had a medal struk of Joshua stopping the sun in his
or. However', the reformers were as great sticklers, for
or.  However:,  the reformers were as great. sticklers for  course, iriferring that this miracle was operated by his litmedals as the  p-ipelinus.'  Of Pope John VIII, an offen-  tle republic.  The medal itself is engraven in Van Loon's
Of opeJoh  VII, n eferli-volumilnous  Histotto 1Medallique ~lu  Pays Bas, and in
hate voluptuary, we have a medal with his portrait, in-  voluminous Iistoire Medallique du Pays Bas, and in
~~~~~~~~~nate vorporw    aeamdaI            Marchand's Dictionnaire Historique, who labours to prove
scribed Pope Joan! and another of Innocent X, dressedor was
as a woman holding a spindle; the reverse, his famous  aaost twenty authors that the Dutch ambassador was
mistress, Donna Olympia, dressed as a Pope, with the   not the inventor; it was not, however, unworthy of him,
tiara on her head, and the keys of St Peter in her hands    ad it conveyed to the wrld the high feeling of her power
which Holland had then assumed.  Two years after the
When, in the reign of Mary, England was groaning
under Spanish influence, and  no  remonstrance  could   vice;          this medal, the republic paid dear fot the deY                   ~~~~~~noise about this medal, the republic paid dear for the de-.
unde   Spaishinflence   an    no   emontrace culdvice; but thirty years afterwards this very burgomaster
reach the throne, the queen's person and government were         bit thirty years afterwards  this very ba rgomaster
made ridiculous to the people's eyes, by prints or pictures,            glorious peace, and France ad Spin were
representing her majesty naked, meare, withered, an    compelled to receive the mediation of the Dutch Joshua
I representing her majesty naked, meagre, withered, and
with the French sun.*  In these vehicles of national
wrinkled, with every aggravated circumstance of deformity  satire it is odd that the phlematic Dutch more than an
that could disgrace a female figure, seated in a regal chair;  other  o d t    the  eai t              o   th   
aIcrownothoherhi                    nation, and from the earliest period of their republic,
a crown on her head, surrounded with M. Rt. and A. in
capitals, acconmpanied  by  small letters; M.aria Reg.ina   should have indulged freely, if not licentiously. It was a
capitals, aeccompanied by small letters; Maria Reg-ina  rpbia   unu.Tertsewsuulyfrs.W
Ag lice! ia nuimber of Spaniards were sticking her to skin republican humour. Their taste was usually gross. We.Angliam! a number of Sp~aniards were sucking her to skin owtohevni  hergnfElzbhases
owe to them, even in the reig~n of Elizabeth, a severe
and bone, and a specification was added of the money,  oe   o  emeve                h    ig     n osevre
medal on Leicester, who having retired in disgust from
rings, jewels,  and other presents with which she had s'egre pratified  her husband Philip.'t  It is said that the eovernment of their provinces, struck a medal wit}:
cretly gratified her husband Philip.,t It is said that the,
queen suspected some of her own council of this invetion,  his bust reverse, a dog and sheep,
who alone were privy to these transac ions. It is, however,          Non gregem, sed intgratos invitus deserto
in this manner that the voice, which is suppressed by an-  on which the angry juvenile states struck another, repr&
thority, c mes at length in another shape to the eye.        * This ancientcarricature,  so descriptive of the popular
* Mr Deuce possesses a portion ot this vry curious col.  feelings, is tolerably given in Malcom's History of I Carica.
lection: for a complete one, De Bure asked about twenty  turing,' nlate ii, fi. I.
poun(ds.         ofSrToa-oe.5.t The history of this tmedal iq useful in more thar, one resWa'tWeon's Life of Sir Thomas Pope, p. 58.              pect; antd may be four in Prosper Marchand.




810                                    CURIOSITIES OF
sentrng an ape and young ones, reverse, Leicester near  for he has introduced a caricature print in the soleme
a8~~~~~~~~~ fire,         ~folio of the trial of' Charles the First.  Of the happiest
_fuire n su,   incdti ge.
Fugiensfutum, incidit in ignem.'                of these political prints is one by Taylor the water.poet,
not included in his folio, but prfixed to his' Mad fashions,
Another medal, with an excellent portrait of Cromwell,                   Is o I hut pref    thisMad    ions,
odd fashions or the emblems of these distracted times.'
was struck by the Dutch.  The protector, crowned wlth   It is the figure of a man whose eyes have left their sockets,
iaurels, is on his knees, laying his head in the lap of the   and whose legs have usurped the place of his artr; a
commonwealth, but loosely exhibiting  himself to  the   horse on his hind legs is drawing a cart; a church is inFrench and Spanish ambassadors with gross indecency:  verted; fish fly in the air; a candle burns with the flane
the Frenchman, covered with a flours de lis, is pushing   downwards; and the mouse and rabbit are pursuing to
aside the grave Don, and disputes with him the prece-  cat and the fox!
dence-Retire toy; l'honneur appartient au roy mon mat-        The animosities of national hatreds have been a fertile
tre, Louis le Grand. Van Loon is very right in denouncing   source of these vehicles of popular feeling-which disthis same medal, so grossly flattering to the English, as   cover themselves in severe or grotesque caricatures. The
most detestable and indelicate! But why does Van Loon   French and the Spaniards mutually exhibited one another
envy us this lumpish invention? why does the Dutchman   under the most extravagant figures.  The political carlquarrel with his own cheese?  The honour of the medal  catures of the French, in the seventeenth century, are
we claim, but the invention belongs to his country.  The   numerous.  The badauds of Paris amused themselves for
Dutch went on, commenting in this manner on English   their losses, by giving an emetic to a Spaniard, to make
affairs, from reign to reign.  Charles the Second declared   him   render up all the towns his victories had obtained
war against them  in 1672 for a malicious medal, though   seven or eight Spaniards are seen seated around a large
the States-General offered to break the die by purchasing   tturnip, with their frizzled mustachios, their hats en pot a
it of the workman for one thousand dutcats; but it served   buerre; their long rapiers, with their pummels down to
for a pretext for a Dutch war, which Charles cared more  their feet, and their points up to their shoulders; their
about than the mala bestia of his exergue.  Charles also   ruffs stiffened by many rows, and pieces of garlic stuck
complained of a scandalous picture which the brothers De   in their girdles.  The Dutch were exhibited in as great
Witt had in their house, representing a naval battle with  variety as the uniformity of frogs would allow. We have
the English.  Charles the Second seems to have been  largely participated in the vindictive spirit, which these
more sensible to this sort of national satire than we might  grotesque emblems keep up among the people; they mark
have expected in a professed wit; a race, however, who  the secret feelings of national pride.  The Greeks despised
are not the most patient in having their own sauce re-  foreigners, and considered them only as fit to be slaves;*
turned to their lips.  The king employed Evelyn to write  the ancient Jews, inflated with a false idea of their small
a history of the Dutch war, and'enjoined him to make it  territory, would be masters of the world: the Italians
a little keen, for the Hollanders had very unhandsomely   placed a line of demarcation for genius and taste, and
abused him in their pictures, books, and libels.'  The   marked it by their mountains.  The Spaniards once imDutch continued their career of conveying their national  agined that the conferences of God with Moses on Mount
feeling on English affairs more triumphantly when their  Sinai were in the Spanish language.  If a Japanese bestadtholder ascended an English  throne.  The birth of  comes the friend of a foreigner, he is considered as cornmthe Pretender is represented by the chest which Minerva   mitting treason to his emperor; and rejected as a false
gave to the daughters of Cecrops to keep, and which,  brother in a country which we are told is figuratively
opened, discovered an infant with a serpent's tail: lnfan.   called Tenka, or the kingdom under the Heavens.  John
temque vident apporectumque draconem; the chest perhaps   Bullism is not peculiar to Englishmen; and patriotism  is
alluding to the removes of the warming-pan: and in ano-  a noble virtue, when it secures our independence witliout
fthier, James and a Jesuit flying in terror, the king throwing   depriving us of our humanity.
away a crown and sceptre, and the Jesuit carrying a child,   The civil wars of the league in France, and those in
Ite, missa est, the words applied from the mass.  But in   England under Charles the First, bear the inost striking
these contests of national feeling, while the grandeur of  resemblance; and in examining the revolutionary scenes
Louis the Fourteenth did not allow of these ludicrous and   exhibited by the graver in the famous satire lvenippes, we
satirical exhibitions; and while the political idolatry which   discover the foreign artist revelling in the caricature of his
his forty academicians paid to him, exhausted itself in the   ludicrous and severe exhibition; and in that other revolusplendid fictions of a series of famous medals, amounting   tionary period of La Fronde, there was a mania for politi.
to nearly four hundred; it appears that we were not with-  cal songs; the curious have formed them into collections;
out our reprisals: for I find Prosper Marchand, who   and we, not only have'the Rump songs' of Charles the
writes as a Hollander, censuring his own country for  First's times, but have repeated this kind of evidence of
having at length adulated the grand monarch by a cornm-   the public feeling at many subsequent periods.  Caricapimentary medal.  He says,' The English cannot be re-  tures and political songs might with us furnish a new sort
preached with a similar debonairetL.' After the famous   of history; and perhaps would preserve some truths, and
victories of Marlborough, they indeed inserted in a medal  describe some particular events, not to be found in more
the head of the French monarch and the English queen,  grave authorities.
with this inscription, Ludovicus Magnme, Anna Major.
AUTOG1RAPIIS.t
Long ere this, one of our queens had been exhibited by                                 cracso
ourselves with considerable energy.  On the defeat of the     The art ofjudging of the  characters of persons by their
Armada, Elizabeth, Pinkerton tells us, struck a medal  wt   can only have any realty,  hen the pen, actng
representing tie English and Spanish fleets, IHesperidum    without constraint, may become an instrument guided by,
regem deviczit virgo. Philip had medals dispersed in Eng-  and indicative of the natural dispositions.  But regulated
land of the same impression, with this addition, Nega-  as the pen is now too often by a mechanical process,
whic  the                 wrtngmsers iseem  too otnbamehaviapoess
tur.  Est meretrixe vulgi.  These the queen suppressed,  which the present race of writing-masters seem  to have
but published another msedal, with this legend:            contrived for their own convenience, a whole school exhibits a similar hand-writing; the pupils are forced in their
Ilesperidum  regem devicit virgo  negattr,        aautomatic motions, as if acted on by the pressure of a
Eat meretrix vulgi: res eo deterior.              steam-engine; a bevy of beauties will now write such facAn age fertile in satirical prints was the eventful era of  similes of each other, that in a heap of letters presented to
Charles the First; they were showered from  all parties,  the most sharp-sighted lover, to select that of his mistress
and a large collection of them  would admit of a critical   -though like Bassanio among the caskets, his happiness
historical commentary, which might become a vehicle of  should be risked on the choice-he would despair of fixing
the most curious secret history.  Most of them are in a   on the right one, all appearing to have come from the
bad style, for they are all allegorical; yet that these sa-  * A passaee may be found in Aristotle's politics, vol. i, c. 3
tirical exbibitions influenced the eyes and minds of the   -7; where Aristotle advises Alexander to govern the Greeks
people is evident, from  an extraordinary circumstance.  like his subjects, and the barbarians like slaves; for that tihe
Two grave collections of historical documents adopted   one he was to consider as companions, and the othei as ciea
them.  We are surprised to find prefixed to Rushworth's  tures of an inferior race.
and Nalson's  historical collections, two  such political  d  A small volume which I met with at Paris. entitt.I L'Arl
de juger du Caractere des Hommes sur leursEcritures,, is cu
prints! 1Nalson's  was an act of retributive  ju~stice; but  rious for its illustrations, consisting of twenty-four plates, ex
he seems to have been aware, that satire in the shape of  hibiting fac-similes of the writing of eminent and other par
sictures is a language very attractive to the multitude;  sons, correctly taken from the original autographs.




LIT E RAT UR E.                                                   311
same rolling-press.  Even brothers of different tempers  whom Roger Ascham had taught all the elegancies of the
have been taught by the same master to give the same  pen. The French editor of the little autographical work I
form to their letters, the same regularity to their line, and  have noticed has given the autograph of her name, which
have made our hand-writings as monotonous as are our  she usually wrote in a very large tall character, and pain.
characters in the present habits of society. The true phy-  fully elaborate. He accompapies it with one of the Scotsiognomy of writing will be lost among our rising genera-  tish Mary, who at times wrote elegantly, though usually
tion: it is no longer a face that we are looking on, but a  in uneven lines; when in haste and distress of mind, in
beautiful mask of a single pattern; and the fashionable  several letters during her imprisonment which I have read,
hand-writing of our young ladies is like the former tight-  much the contrary.  The French editor mlakes this obserlacing of their mother's youthful days, when every one  vation:' Who could believe that these writings are of the
alike had what was supposed to be a fine shape!        same epoch? The first denotes asperity and ostentation;
Assuredly Nature would prompt every individual to have  the second indicates simplicity, softness, and nobleness.
a distinct sort of writing, as she has given a peculiar  The one is that of Elizabeth, queen of England; the other
countenance-a voice-and a manner.  The flexibility of  that of her cousin, Mary Stuart.  The difference of these
the muscles differs with every individual, and the hand  two hand-writings answers most evidently -o that of their
will followi the direction of the thoughts, and the emotions  characters.'
and the habits of the writers. The phlegmatic will por-'James the First writ a poor ungainly character, all
tray his words, while the playful haste of the volatile will  awry, and not in a straight line.'  James certainly wrote
scarcely sketch them; the slovenly will blot and efface  a slovenly scrawl, strongly indicative of that personal neg.
and scrawl, while the neat and orderly minded will view   ligence which he carried into all the little things of life;
themselves in the paper before their eyes. The merchant's  and Buchanan, who had made him an excellent scholar,
clerk will not write like the lawyer or the poet. Even   may receive the disgrace of his pupil's ugly scribble, Nwhich
nations are distinguished by their writing; the vivacity and  sprawls about his careless and inelegant letters.
variableness of the Frenchman, and the delicacy and sup-' Charles the First wrote a fair open Italian hand, anr'
pleness of the Italian, are perceptibly distinct from  the  more correctly perhaps, than any prince we ever had.
slowness and strength of Den discoverable in the phlegm-  Charles was the first of' our monarchs who intended to.
atic German, Dane, and Swede. When we are in grief, have domiciliated taste in the kinadom, and it might have
we do not write as we should in joy. The elegant and  been conjectured from  this unfortunate prince, who s
torrect mind, which has acquired the fortunate habit of a  finely discriminated the manners of the different painter..
fixity of attention, will write with scarcely an erasure on  which are in fact their hand-writings, that he would haw-.
the page, as Fenelon and Gray and Gibbon; while we  not been insensible to the elegancies of the pen.
find in Pope's manuscripts the perpetual struggles of cor-'Charles the Second wrote a little fair running hand, as
rection, and the eager and rapid interlineations struck off  if wrote in haste, or uneasy till he had done.'  Such was
in heat. Lavater's notion of hand-writing is by no means  the writing to have been expected from this illustrious
chimerical; nor was General Paoli fanciful, when he told  vagabond, who had much to write, often in odd situations,
DIr Northcote, that he had decided on the character and  and could never get rid of his natural restlessness, and
dispositions of a man from his letters, and the hand-writ-  vivacity.
ing.' James the Second writ a large fair hand.' It is charLong before the days of Lavater, Shenstone in one of acterised by his phlegmatic temper, as an exact detailer
his letters said,'I want to see Mrs Jago's hand-writing,  of occurrences, and the matter-of-business genius of the
that 1 may judge of her temper.' One great truth must  writer.
however be conceded to the opponents of thephysiognomy' Queen Ann wrote a fair round hand:' that is the wriof writing; general rules only can be laid down. Yet  ting she had been taught by her master, probably without
the vital principle must be true, that the hand-writing  any alteration of manner naturally suggested by herself;
bears art analogy to the character of the writer, as all vo-  the copving hand of a common character.!untary actions are characteristic of the individual. But    This subject of autographs associates itself with what
many causes operate to counteract or obstruct this result.  has been dignified by its professors as caligraphy, or the
I ant intimately acquainted with the hand-writings of five  art of beautiful writing. As I have something curious to
of *,i!r great poets. The first in early life acquired among  communicate on that subject considered professionally, it
Scottish advocates a hand-writing which cannot be dis-  shall form our following article.
tinguished from that of his ordinary brothers; the second,
educated in public schools, where writing is shamefully         THE HISTORY OF WRITITNG-.MASTERS.
neglected, composes his sublime or sportive verses in a    There is a very apt letter from James the First to prince
school-boy's ragged scrawl, as if he had never finished  Henry when very young, on the neatness and fairness of
his tasks with the writing master; the third writes his  his hand-writing; the royal father suspecting that the
highly-wrought poetry in the common hand of a merchant's  prince's tutor, Mr, afterwards Sir Adam Newton, had
clerk, from  early  commercial avocations; the fourth  helped out the young prince in the composition; and that
has all that finished neatness, which polished his verses;  in this specimen of caligraphy he had relied also on the
vnaile the fifth is a specimen of a full mind, not in the habit pains of Mr Peter Bales, the great writing-master, for
of correction or alteration; so that he appears to be print-  touching up his letters; his majesty shows a laudable
ing down his thoughts, without a solitary erasure.  The  anxiety that the prince should be impressed with the highhand-writing of the first and third poets, not indicative of er importance of the one over the other.  James shal:
their character, we have acounted for; the others are ad-  himself speak.' I confess I long to receive a letter from
mirable specimens of characteristic autographs.        you that may be wholly yours, as well matter as form; as
Oldys, in one of his curious notes, was struck by the  well formed by your mind as drawn by your fingers; for
distinctness of character in the hand-writings of several  ye may remember, that in my book to you I warn you to
of our kings. He observed nothing farther than the mere  beware with (of) that kind of wit that may fly out at the
fact, and did not extend his idea to the art of judging of  end of your fingers; not that I cammend not a fair handthe natural character by the writing. Oidys has described  writing; sed hoc facito, illud non omittito; and the other
these hand-writings with the utmost correctness, as I have  is multo magis prrecipuum.' Prince Henry, indeed, wrote
often verified. I shall add a few comments,            with that elegance which he borrowed from his own mind,' Henry the Eighth wrote a strong hand, but as if he  and in an age when such minute elegance was not univerhad seldom a good pen.'-The vehemence of his charac-  sal among the crowned heads of Europe. Henry IV, on
ter con reyed itself into his writing; bold, hasty, and com-  receiving a letter from prince Henry, immediately opened
manding, I have no doubt the assertor of the Pope's su-  it, a custom not usual with him, and comparing the writing
premacy and its triumphant destroyer, split many a good  with the signature, to decide whether it were of one hand,
quill.                                                  Sir George Carew, observing the French king's hesita,'Edward the Sixth wrote a fair legible hand.'  We  tion, called Mr Douglas to testify to the fact; on whicl
have this promising young prince's diary, written by his  Henry the Great, admiring an art in which he had little
own hand; in all respects he was an assiduous pupil,  skill, and looking on the neat elegance of the writing beand he had scarcely learned to write, and to reign when we  fore him, politely.hserved,'  I see that in writing, fair, as in
lost him.                                              other things, the eider must yield to the younger.'' Queen Elizabeth writ an upright hand, like the bas-    Had this anecdote of neat writing reached the profestard Italian.' She was indeed a most elegant caligrauher,  sors of caiigraphy. who in this country have put forth such,




$12                                C URIOSITIES OF
painful panegyrics on the art, these royal names had un' I of the barren labours of those, who, in the degree they
questionably blazoned  their pages.  Not, indeed, that  become eminent, to use their own style, in their art oi
these penmen require any fresh inflation; for never has' dish, dash, long-tail fly,' the less they become interestir'
there been a race of professors in any art, who have ex-  to the public; for what can the most skilful writing-mas.
ceeded in solemnity aiid pretensions the practitioners in  ter do but wear away his life in leaning over his pupil's
this simple and mechanical craft. I must leave to more  copy, or sometimes snatch a pen to decorate the margin,
ingenious investigators of human nature, to reveal the oc-  though he cannot compose the page?  Montaigne has a
cult cause which has operated such powerful delusions on   very original notion on writing-masters: he says that
these' Vive la Plume!' men, who have been generally  some of those caligraphers, who had obtained promotion
observed to possess least intellectual ability, in proportion   by their excellence in the art, afterwards Sffected to write
to the excellence they have obtained in their own art. I  carelessly, lest their promotion should be suspected to hare
suspect this maniacal vanity is peculiar to the writing-  been owing to such an ordinary acquisition!.masters of England; and I can only attribute the immense  Massey is an enthusiast, fortunately for his subject.
importance which they have conceived of their art, to the  He considers that there are schools of writing, as well as
perfection to which they have carried the art of short-hand   of painting or sculpture; and expatiates with the eye of
writing; an art which was always better understood, and  fraternal feeling on' a natural genius, a tender stroke, a
more skilfully practised, in England, than in any other  grand performance, a bold striking freedom, and a livelicountry. It will surprise some when they learn that the  ness in the sprigged letters, and penciled knots and flour.
artists'Ti verse and colours, poets and painters, have not  ishes;' while this Vasari of writing-masters relates the
raised lftier pretensions to the admiration of mankind.  controversies and the libels of many a rival pen-nibber.
W'ritli- masters, or caligraphars, have had  their en-'George Shelley, one of the most celebrated worthies
graved  ffigies,' with a Fame in flourishes, a pen in one  who have made a shining figure in the commonwealth of
hand, and a trumpet in the other; and fine verses in-  English caligraphy, born I suppose of obscure parents,
scribed, and their very lives written! They have com-  because brought up in Christ's hospital, yet under the
pared                                                   humble blue-coat he laid the foundation of his caligraphic'The nimbly-turning of their silver quill,'     excellence and lasting fame, for he was elected writingmaster to the hospital.' Shelley published his' Natural
to the beautiful in art, and the sublime in invention; nor  writing;' but, alas! Snell, another blue-coat, transcended
is this wonderful, since they discover the art of writing,  the other. He was a genius who would' bear no brother
like the invention of language, in a divine original; and   near the throne.'-' I have been informed that there were
from the tablets of stone which the Deity himself delivered,  jealous heart-burnings, if not bickerings, between him
they trace their German broad-text, or their fine running-  and Col. Ayres, another of our great lreformers in the writhand.                                                   ing commonweal, both eminent men, yet, like our most
One, for' the bold striking of those words, Vive la  celebrated poets, Pope and Addison, or, to carry the comPlume,' was so sensible of the reputation that this last  parison still higher, like Caesar and Pompey, one could
piece of command of hand would give the book which he   bear no superior, and the other no equal.' Indeed, the
thus adorned, and which his biographer acknowledges was  great Snell practised a little stratagem against Mr Shelthe product of about a minute-(but then how many years  ley, which, if writing-masters held courts-martial, this
of flourishing had that single minute cost him!)-that he   hero ought to have appeared before his brothers. In one
claims the glory of an artist, observing,-              of his works he procured a number of friends to write'We seldom find                 letters, in which Massey confesses'are some satirical
The man of business with the artist join'd.'     strokes upon Shelley,' as if he had arrogated too much
Another was flattered that his writing could impart im-  to himself in his book of' Natural Writing.'  They find
mortality to the most wretched conpositions!-          great fault with penciled knots and sprigged letters. Shelley, who was an advocate for ornaments in fine penman-' And any lines prove pleasing, when you write.'   ship, which Snell utterly rejected, had parodied a wellSometimes the caligrapher is a sort of hero:-           known line of Herbert's in favour of his favourite decora-'To you, you rare commander of the quill,             tions:
Whose wit and worth, deep learning, and high skill,'A Knot may take him who from letters flies,
Speak you the honour of great Tower Hill'                  And turn delight into an exercise.'
The last line became traditionally adopted by those who  These reflectious created ill-blood, and even an open difwere so lucky as to live in the neighbourhood of this Par-  ference amongst several of the superior artists in writing.
nassus.  But the reader must form some notion of that  The commanding genius of Snell, had a more terrific
charm of caligraphy which has so bewitched its professors,  contest when he published his'Standard Rules,' prewhen,                                                  tending to have demonstrated them  as Euclid would.'Soft, bold, and free, your manuscripts still please'' This proved a bone of contention, and occasioned a terHow justly bold in Snell's improving band          rific quarrel between Mr Snell and Mr Clark. This quarThe Pen at once joins freedom with command  rel about "Standard Rules" ran so high between them,
cVith softness strong, with ornaments not vain,    that they could scarce forbear scurrilous language therein,
Loose ith   proportion,    and with neatness plain;  and a treatment of each other unbecoming gentlemen!
Not swell'd, not full, complete in every part,     Both sides in this dispute had their abettors; and to say
And artful most, when not affectinge art'         which had the most truth and reason, non nostrum  est
knotsrfulmotwenotf.etantas componere lites; perhaps both parties might be too
And these describe those penciled knots and flourishes, fond of their own schemes.  They should have left them to' the angels, the men, the birds, and the beasts, which as  people to choose which they liked best.' A candid politione of them observed, he could                          cian is our-Massey, and a philosophical historian too; for' Command                     he winds up the whole story of this civil war by describing
Even by the gentle motion of his hand,'            its result, which happened as all such great controversies.Ia the speciosa miracula of caligraphy!                have ever closed.' Who now-a-days takes those Stand,'Trhy tedsider strokes iniimitably fine,          ard Rules, either one or the other, for their guide in writCrown with perfection evervflowing line;         ing?' This is the finest lesson ever offered to the'iurious
And to each gratnd performance add a gr ace,     heads of parties, and to all their men; let them meditate
Adcurling  hair adorns a beauteous faace:     on the nothingness of their'standard rules'-by the fate
As curling hair adorns a beauteous face:         of Mr Snell
In every page inete mfancies give delight,         It was to be expected when once these writing-masters.A~nd sporting roundthe margin charm the sight.    imagined that they were artists, that they would be in.
One Massey, a writing-master, published, in 1763,  fected with those plague-spots of genius, envy, detraction
The Origin and Progress of Letters.' The great singu-  and all the jalousie du metier. And such to this hour we
warity of this volume is' A  new species of bioeraphy ne-  find them! An extraordinary scene of this nature has long
ver attempted before in English.' This consists of the  been exhibited in my neighbourhood, where two doughty
lives of' English Penmen,' otherwise writing-masters!  champions of the quill have been posting up libels in their
If some have foolishly enough imagined that the seden-  windows respecting the inventor of a  new art of writing,
tary lives of authors are void of interest from deficient in-  the Carstairian or the Lewisian? WVhen the great Ger.
cidest and interstsing catastrophe, what must they think   man philosopher asserted that he had discovered the me.




LITERATURE.                                                      313
hod of fluxiot s before Sir Isaac, and when the dispute  tween artists, away be compared to a turn-stile, which
grew so violent that even the calm Newton sent a formal  stands in every tman's way, yet hinders nobody; and he
aefiance in set terms, and got even George the Second to  is the slanderer who gives ear to the slander.'*
try to arbitrate, (who would rather have undertaken a    Among  f these knights of the'Plume volant,' whose
campaign) the method of fluxions was no more cleared up,  chivalric exploits astounded the beholders, must be dis.
than the present affair between our two heroes of the  tinguished Peter Bales in his joust with David Johnson.
quill.                                                  In this tilting match the guerdon of caligraphy was won
A recent instance of one of these egregious caligraphers  by the greatest of caligraphers; its arms were assumed
may be told of the late Tomkins. This vainest of writing-  by the victor, azure, a pen or; while'the golden pen,'
masters dreamed through life that penmanship was one of  carried away in triumph, was painted with a hand over the
the fine arts, and that a writing-master should be seated  door of the caligrapher.  The history of this renowned
with his peers in the Academy! He bequeathed to the  encounter was only traditionally known, till with my own
British Museum his opus magnum; a copy of Macklin's  eyes I pondered on this whole trial of skill in the precious
Bible, profuseiy embellished with the most beautiful and  manuscript of the champion himself; who, like Casar,
varied decorations of his pen; and as he conceived that  not only knew how to win victories, but also'to record
both the workman and the work would alike be darling  them.  Peter Bales was a hero of such transcendent emiobjects with p)osterity, he left something immortal with the  nence, that his name has entered into our history. Ho.
legacy, his fine bust by Chantry! unaccompanied by  lingshed chronicles one of his curiosities of microscopic
which they were not to receive the unparalleled gift.  writing, at a time when the taste prevailed for admiring
When Tomkins applied to have his bust, our great sculp-  writing which no eye could read! In the compass of a
tor abated the usual price, and courteously kind to the  silver penny this caligrapher put more things than would
feelings of the man, said that he considered Tomkins as  fill several of these pages. He presented Queen Eliza..
an artist! It was the proudest day of the life of our writ-  beth with the manuscript set in a ring of gold covered with
ing-master!                                            a crystal; he had also contrived a magnifying glass of such
But an eminent artist and wit now living, once looking  power, that, to her delight and wonder, her majesty read
on this fine bust of Tormkins, declared, that'this man had  the whole volume, which she held on her thumb nail, and
died for want of a dinner!'-a fate, however, not so la-' commended the same to the lords of the council, and the
mentable as it appeared! Our penman had long felt that  ambassadors;' and frequently, as Peter often heard, did
he stood degraded in the scale of genius by not being re-  her majesty vouchsafe to wear this caligraphic ring.
ceived at the Academy, at -least among the class of en-    6 Some will think I labour on a cobweb'-modestly ex.
gravers; the next approach to academic honour he con-  claimed Bales in his narrative, and his present historian
ceived would be that of appearing as a guest at their an-  much fears for himself!  The reader's gratitude will not
nual dinner.  These invitations are as limited as they are  be proportioned to my pains, in condensing such copious
select, and all the Academy persisted in considering Tom-  pages into the size of a' silver penny,' but without its
kins as a writing-master! Many a year passed, every in-  worth!
trigue was practised, every remonstrance was urged,every  For a whole year had David Johnson affixed a challenge
stratagem of courtesy was tried; but never ceasing to de-' To  ally one who should take exceptions to this my
plore the failure of his hopes, it preyed on his spirits, and  writing and teaching.' He was a young friend of Bales,
the luckless caliarapher went down to his grave-without  daring and longing for an encounter; yet Bales was mag.
dining at the Academy! This authentic anecdote has  nanimously silent, till he discovered that he was' doing
been considered as' satire improperly directed'-by some  much less in writing and teaching' since this public chal.
fiiend of Mr Tomkins-but the criticism  is much too  lenge was proclaimed!  He then set up his counter chal.
grave! The foible of Mr Tomkins as a writing-master,  lenge, and in one hour afterwards Johnson arrogantly acpresents a striking illustration of the class of men here de-  cepted it,' in a most despiteful and arrogant manner'
~lineated. I am a mere historian-and am only responsi-  Bales's challenge was delivered'in good terms.'' To all
ble for the veracity of this fact. That'Mr Tomkins lived  Englishmen and strangers.' It was to write for a gold
in familiar intercourse with the Royal Academicians of his  pen of twenty pound's value in all kinds of hands,' best,
day, and was a frequent guest at their private tables,' and  straightest and fastest,' and most kind of ways; a full, a
moreover was a most worthy man, I believe-but is it less  mean, a small, with line and without line; in a slow set
true that he was ridiculously mortified by being never in-  hand, a mean facile hand, and a fast running hand;' and
vited to the Academic dinner, on account of his caligra-  farther,' to write truest and speediest, most secretary and
phy? He had some reas(.. to consider that his art was of  clerk-like, from a man's mouth, reading or pronouncing,
the exalted class, to whic~ ne aspired to raise it, when his  either English or Latin.'
friend concludes his eulogy of this writing-master thus-  Young Johnson had the hardihood now of turning the'Mr Tomkins, as an artist, stood foremost in his own pro-  tables on his great antagonist, accusing the veteran Bales
fession, and his name will be handed down to posterity  of arrogance. Such an absolute challenge says he, was
with the Heroes and Statesmen, whose excellences his  never witnessed by man,' without exception of any in the
penmanship has contributed to illustrate and to commemo-  world!' And a few days after meeting Bales,'of set
rate.' I always give the Pour and the Contre!          purpose to affront and disgrace him what he could, showed
Such men about such things have produced public con-  Bales a piece of writing of secretary's hand, which he
tests, combats a l'outrance, where much ink was spilt by  had very much laboured in fine abortivef parchment,'
the knights in a joust of goose.quills; these solemn trials  uttering to the challenger these words:' Mr Bales, give
have often occurred in the history of writing-masters,  me one shilling out of your purse, and if within six months
which is enlivened by public defiances, proclamations,  you better, or equal this piece of writing, I will give you
and judicial trials by umpires! The prize was usually a  forty pounds for it.' This legal deposit of the shilling was
golden pen of some value. One as late as the reign of  made, and the challenger, or appellant, was thereby bound
Anne took place between Mr German and Mr More.  by law to the performance.
German having courteously insisted that Mr More should    The day before the trial a printed declaration was
set the copy, he thus set it, ingeniously quaint!     - affixed throughout the city, taunting Bales's' proud po.
As more, and More, our understanding clears,      verty,' and his pecuniary motives, as'a thing ungentle,
So nore and more our ignorance appears.           base, and mercenary, and not answerable to the dignity of
the golden pen!' Johnson declares he would maintain his
The result of this pen-combat was really lamentable;  challenge for a thousand pounds more, but fcr the re.
they displayed such an equality of excellence that the um-  spondent's inability to perform a thousand groats. Bales
piresrefused to decide, till one of them espied that Mr  retorts on the libel; declares it as a sign of' his rival's
German had omitted the tittle of an i! But Mr More was  weakness,' yet who so bold as blind Bayard, that bath not
evidently a man of genius, not only by his couplet, but in  a word of Latin to cast at a dog, or say Bo! to a goose!'
his'Essay on the Invention of Writing,' where occurs    On Michaelmas day, 1595, the trial opened before five
this noble passage:'Art with me is of no party. A noble emulation I would cherish, while it proceeded neither    * T have not met with More's Book, and am obliged to tran
from, nor to malevolence.  Bales had his Johnson, Nor-Biog Brit.
man his Mason, Ayres his Matlock and his Shelley; yet     This was written in the reign of Elizabeth. Holyoke no
tices'virgin-perchment made of an abortive skin; rmee.
Art the while was no sufferer   The busy-b(ody who offi-  brana virgo.' Peacham on Drawlng, calls parchment simply
piously employs himself in creating nmisunderstandings be-  an abortive.
40




314                                   CURIOSITIES OF
judges: the appellant and the resp indent appeared at the  however, has a very human origin. Among those learned
appointed place, and an ancient gentleman was intrusted  Greeks who emigrated to -Italy, and afterwards  Into
with' the golden pen.' In the first trial, for the manner  France, in the reign of Francis I, was one Angelo Verof titching scholars, after Jonsen had taught his pupil a  gecio, whose beautifil caligraphy excited the admiration ot
fortnight, he would not bring him  forward! This was  the learned.  The French monarch had a Greek fount
awarded in favour of Bales.                              cast, modelled by his writing.  The learned Henry Ste.
The second, for secretary and clerk-like writing, dic-  phens. who, like our Porson for correctness and delicacy,'lting to them both in English and in Latin, Bales per-  was one of the most elegant writers of Greek, had learnt:'rmed best, being first done; written straightest without  the practise from our Angelo. His name became synonyine, with true orthogaphy; the challenger himself con-  mous for beautiful writing, and gave birth to the vulgar
fessing that he wanted the Latin tongue, and was no clerk!  proverb or familiar phrase, to write like an angel i
The third and last trial for fair writing in sundry kindsN  HISTORI
of hands, the challenger prevailed fbr the beauty and
most' authentic proportion,' and for the superior variety    It is remarkable that the country, which has long lost its
of the Roman hand. In the court hand the respondent  political independence, may be considered as the true paexceeded the appellant, and likewise in the set text; and  rent of modern history.  The greater part of their hisin bastard secretary was also somewhat perfecter.       torians have abstained from the applause of their contemAt length Bales perhaps perceiving an equilibrium in  poraries, while they have not the less elaborately comthe judicial decisions, to overwhelm  his antagonist, pre-  posed bheir posthumous folios, consecrated solely to truth
sented what he distinguishes as his' master-piece,' com-  and posterity! The true principles of national glory are
posed of secretary and Roman hand four ways varied,  opened by the grandeur of the minds of these asserters of
and offerina the defendant to let pass all his previous ad-  political freedom. It was their indignant spirit, seeking
vantages if he could better this specimen of caligraphy  to console its iniuries by confiding them to their secret
The challenger was silent! At this moment some of the  manuscrilts, which raised up this singular phenomenon
judges perceiving that the decision must go in favour of  in the literary world.
Bales, in consideration of the youth of the challenger,    Of the various causes which produced such a lofty race
lest he might be disgraced to the world, requested the other  of patriots, one is prominent.  The proud recollections of
judges not to pass judgment in public.  Bales assures us   their Roman fathers often troubled the dreams of the sons.
that he in vain remonstrated; for by these means the   The petty rival republics, and the petty despotic princiwinning of the golden pen might not be so famously spread   palities, which had started up from some great families,
as otherwise it would have been. To Bales the prize was  who, at first came forward as the protectors of the people
awarded.  3uit our history has a more interesting close;  from their exterior enemies or their interior factions, at
the subtile i4achiavelism of the first challenger!      length settled into a corruption of power; a power which
When the great trial had closed, and Bales, carrying   had been conferred on them  to preserve liberty itself!
off the golden pen, exultingly had it painted and set up for  These factions often shook by their jealousies, their fears,
his sign, the baffled challenger went about reporting that  and their hatreds, that divided land, which groaned whenhe had won the golden pen, but that the defendant had ob-  ever they witnessed the'Ultramontanes' descending from
tained the same by' plots and shifts, and other base and  their Alps and their Apennines. Petrarch, in a noble incunning  practices.' Bales  vindicated his claim, and   vective, warmed by Livy and ancient Rome, impatiently
offered to show the world his' master-piece' which had   beheld the French and the Germans passing the mounts.
acquired it. Jonson issued an' Appeal to all impartial'Enemies,' he cries,'so often conquered, prepared to
I'en-mnen,' which he spread in great numbers through the  strike with swords, which formerly served nIs to raise our
city for ten days, a libel against the judges and the victo-  trophies: shall the mistress of the world bear chains
rios defendant i He declared that there had been a sub-  forged by hands which she has so often bound to their
tif combinatioti with one of the judges concerning the  backs?' Machiavel, in his' Exhortations to free Italy from
rfac   of trial; which he expected to have been before  the barbarians,' rouses his country against their change-' pen-men,' but not before a multitude like a stage-play,  able masters, the Germans, the French, and the Spa
and shouts and tumults, with which the challenger had   iards; closingwiththeverseofPetrarch,thatshorthall
Hitherto been unacquainted.  The judges were intended   be the battle for which patriot virtue arms to show the,;o be twelve; but of the five, four were the challenger's   worldfriends, honest gentlemen, but unskilled in judging of'che i' antico valore
most hands; and he offered again forty pounds to be al-            Nege'Italicicuornonancormorto.
lowed in six months to equal Bate's master piece. And      Nor has this sublime patriotism declined even in more
he closes his' appeal' by declaring that Bales had lost in  recent times; I cannot resist from preserving in this place
several parts of the trial, neither did the judges deny that a sonnet by Filicaja, which I could never read without
Bales possessed himself of the golden pen by a trick!  participating in the agitation of the writer, for the ancient
Before judgment was awarded, alleging the sickness of his  glory of his degenerated country! The energetic person"
wife to be extreme, he desired she might have a sight of  ificationi of the close, perhaps, surpasses even his more
tiea golden pen to comfort her!  The ancient gentleman   celebrated sonnet, preserved in Lord Byron's notes to the
who was the holder, taking, the defendant's word, allowed  fourth canto of'Childe Harold.'
the golden pen to be carried to the sick wife; and Bales
immediately pawned it, arn:. afterwards, to make sure            Dov'  Italia, il tuo bracchio? e a che ti servi
work, sold it at a great loss so that when the judges met         Tu deli' altrui? non. s'io scorgo il vero,
for their definitive sentence, nor pen nor penny-worth was        Dmbei  i t offende il defensor men fero.
to be had! The judges being ashamed of their own con-           Cosi dunque 1' onor, cosi conservi
duct, were compelled to give such a verdict as suited the          Gli avanzi tu del glorioso Impero?
occasion:                                                          Cosi al valor, cosi al valor primiero
Bales rejoins: he publishes to the universe the day and         Che a te fede giulo, la fede osselvi?
the- hour wlhen the judges brought the golden pen to his         Or va; repudia it valor prisco, e sposa
house, and while he checks the insolence of this Bobadil,          L' ozio, e fra it earige, i gemiti, e i' strida
to show  himself no recreant, assumes the golden pen for           Nel perigilo magior dormi e riposa!
Dormi, Adultera vil! fin che omicida
his sign.                                                          Spada ultrice ti svegli. e solnnacchiosa,
Such is the shortest history I could contrive ofthis chi-        E nuda inl braccio al tuo fedel t' uccida!
valry of the pen; something mysteriously clouds over the
fate of the defendant; Bales's history, like Casar's, is but  Oh, Ialy! where is thine arm? Whatpurpose ser.t
an ex-parte evidence.  Who can tell whether he has not       So to ie  helped by others?  Deem I right
slurred over his defeats, and only dwelt on his victories  Among offenders thy defender stands?
There is a strae phrase connected with the art of  Poth are thy enemies-both were thy servants!
There is a strange phrase connected with the art of the    Thus dost thou honour-thus dostithou preserve
caligrapher, which I think may be fiund in most, if not in   The mighty boundaries of the glorious empire?
all modern languages. to write like an angel! Ladies have   And tih,:s to Valoutr, to thy pristine Valour
been frequently compared to angels; they are heautiful as   That swore its faith to thee, thy faith thou keep'st
angels,and sing and dance lilke angels; but however intelligi-  Go! and divorce thyself from thy old Valiance,
ble thes ae, we do not s esi!  connect penmanship  ith  And marrv Idleness! and midst the blood,
The heavy groans and cries of agony,
~he other celestial accomplishmsents. This fanciful,hrase,   "    e thy tst danger sleep, and seek repo I,?
-.1  thy ] ast danger sleep, atod seek re~poof?,




LITERATUR E.                                                     315
Sleep, vile Adulteress! the homicidal sword         during their protracted labour they sustained their spirite
Vengeful, shall waken thee; and lull'd to slumber,   by anticipating their glorified after-state.
While naked in thy mInion's arms, shall strike  Atmoon these Italian historians must be placed the illusAmong the domestic contests of Italy the true principles  trious Guicciardini, the friend of Machiavel.  No perfect:~[ political freedom were developed; and in that country
Pf political freedom wvere developed; and in that country  edition of this historian existed till recent times.  The his.
we may find the origin of Philosophical History, which in-  tory itself was posthumous; nor did his nephew  venture
eludes so many important views and so many new results,  to publish it, till twenty years after the historian's death.
unklnown to the ancients.                                He only gave the first sixteen books, and these castrated.
Machiavel seems to have been the first writer who dis-  The obnoxious passages consisted of some statements recovered the secret of what may be called comparative his-  lating to the papal court, then so important in the affairs
tory. He it was who first sought in ancient history for the  of Europe; some account of the origin anid progress of the
materials which were to illustrate the events of his own  papal power; some eloquent pictures of the abuses and
times; by fixing on anxlogous facts, similar personages,  disorders of that corrupt court; and some filee caricatures
and parallel periods. This was enlarging the field of his-  on the government of Florence.  The precious fragments
tory, and opening a new combination for philosophical  were fortunately preserved in manuscript, and the Protesspeculation.   His profound genius advanced still further;  tants procured transcripts which they published separately.
he not only explained modern by ancient history, but he  but which were long very rare.*  All the Italian editions
deduced those results or principles founded on this new   continued to be reprinted in the same truncated condition,
sort of evidence, which guided him in forming his opinions.  and appear only to have been reinstated in the immortal
His,ory had hitherto been, if we except Tacitus, but a  history, so late as in 1775. Thus it required two centuries,
storry well told, and in writers of limited capacity, the de-  before an editor could venture to give the world the pure
tail and number of facts had too often been considered as  and complete text of the manuscript of the lieutenant.
the only valuable portion ofhistory.  An erudition of facts  general of the papal army, who had been so close and sa
is not the philosophy of history; an historian unskilful in  indignant an observer of the Roman cabinet.
the art of applying his facts amasses impure ore, which he    Idriani, whom his son entitles geatiluom  Fiorentino: the
cannot strike into coin.  The chancellor D'Aguesseau, in  writer of the pleasing dissertation' on the ancient painters
his instructions to his son on the study of history, has ad-  noticed by Pliny, prefixed to his friend Vasari's bio.
mirably touched on this distinction.'Minds which are  graphies; wrote, as a continuation of Guicciardini, a his.
purely historical mistake a fact for an argument; they are  tory of his own times in twenty-two books, of which Deni.
so accustomed to satisfy themselves by repeatins a ereat  na gives the highest character for its moderate spirit, and
number of facts and enriching their memory, that they be-  fi'om which De Thou has largely drawn and commends for
come incapable of reasoning on principles.  It often hap-  its authenticity. Our author, however, did not venture to
pens that the result of their knowledge breeds confusion  publish his history during his lifetime: it was after his
and universal indecision; for their facts, often contradic-  death that his son became the editor.
tory, only raise up doubts.  The superfluous and the fri-    Nardi, of a noble family and high in office, famed for a
volotis occupy the place of what is essential and solid, or  translation of Livy which rivals its original in the pleasure
at least so overload and darken it, that we must sail with  it affords, in his retirement from public affairs wrote a histhem in a sea of trifles to get to firm land. Those who only  tory of Florence, which closes with the loss of the liberty
value the philosophical part of history, fall into an oppo-  of his country, in 1531. It was not published till fifty
site extreme; they judge of what ha., been done by that  years after his death; even then the editors suppressed
which should be done; while the others always decide on  many passages which are found in manuscript in the liwhat should be done by that which has been; the first are  braries of Florence and Venice, with other historical docathe dupes of their reasoning, the second of the facts which  ments of this noble and patriotic historian.
they mistake for reasoning.  W'e should not separate two   About the same time the senator Philip Nerli was
things which ought alwavs to go in concert, and mutually  writing his' Commentarj de' fatti civili,' which had oclend an aid, reason and example.  Avoid equally the con-  curred in Florence. He gave them  with his dying hand
tempt of some philosophers for the science of facts, and  to his nephew, who presented the MSS to the Grand
the distaste or the incapacity which those who confine  Duke; yet although this work is rather an apology than a
themseives  to facts often contract for whatever depends on   crinmination of the Medici family for their ambitious views
pure reasoning.  True and solid philosophy should direct  and their over-grown power, probably some state-reason
us in the study of history, and the study of history should  interfered to prevent the publication, which did not take
give perfection to philosophy.  Such was the enlightened   place till 150 years after the death of the historian!
opinion, as far baclk as at the beginning ofthe last century,    Bernardo Segni composed a history of Florence still
of the studious chancellor of France, before the more re-  more valuable, which shared the same fate as that of Nerli.
cent designation of Philosophical History was so generally  It was only after his death that his relatives accidentally
received, and so familiar on our title-pages.             discovered this history of Florence, which the author had
From the moment that the Florentine secretary conceiv-  carefully concealed during his lifetime. He had abstained
ed the idea that the history of the Roman people, opening  from  communicating to any one the existence of such a
such varied spectacles of human nature, served as a point  work whilehe lived, that he might not be induced to check
of comparison to which he might perpetually recur to try  the freedom of his pen, nor compromise the cause and the
the analogous facts of other nations, and the events pass-  interests of truth. His heirs presented it toone of the
ing under his own eye; a new light broke out and ran   Medici family, who threw it aside.  Another copy had
through the vast extents of history.  The maturity of ex-  been more carefully preserved, from which it was printed,
perience seemed to have been obtained by the historian, in  in 1713, about 150 years after it had been written. It aphis solitary meditations.  Livy in the grandeur of Rome,  pears to have excited great curiosity, for Lenglet do Freeand Tacitus in its fated decline, exhibited for Machiavel a   noy observes, that the scarcity of this history is owing to
moving picture of his own republics-the march of destiny   the circumstance   of the Grand Duke having boughtup
min all human governments! The text of Livy and Tacitus  the copies.' Du Fresnoy, indeed, has noticed more than
revealed to him many an imperfect secret-the fuller truths  once this sort of address of the Grand Duke; for he ohhe drew from  the depth of his own observations on his  serves on the Florentine history of Bruto, that the work
own times.  In Machiavel's'Discourses on Livv.' we   was not common; the Grand Duke having bought up tihe
may discover the foundations ofour Philosophical History.   copies, to suppress them.  The author was even obliged
The example of Machiavel, like that of all creative ge-  to fly from  Italy, for having delivered his opinions too
nius, influenced the character of his age, and his history of  freely on the house of the Medici.  This honest historian
Florence produced an emulative spiritamong a new dynas-  thus expresses himself at the close of his work.' My dety of historians.                                         sign has but one end; that our posterity may learn by
These Italian historians have proved themselves to be  these notices the root and the causes of so many troubles
an extraordinary race, for they devoted their days to the  which we have suffered, while they expose ti.e malignity
composition of historical works, which they were certain  of those men who have raised them ip, or prolonged them;
rouald not see the light during their lives! They nobly de-  as well as the goodness of those who did all which they
ermined that their works should he p)sthtmmous, rather  could to turn them away.'
than bie compelled to mutilate them for the press.  These     The were printed at Bale in    at  London in 159
nistorians were rather the saints than the martyrs of his-  in          p-st rne   t a  n 1    -t   ono  i 
Amsterdam, 1663. Htow marny attempts to echo the voict
tory; they did not always personally suffer for truth, but  of smuppressed truth! —Hayvm's Bib. Ital i1-M.




316                                       CURIOSITIES OF
It was the same motive, the fear of offending the great  forth among the most illustri{us and ill-fated examples of
personages or their families, of whom these historians had   historical martyrdom!
so freely written, which deterred Benedetto Varchi from         This great historian is Giannone, whose civil history ot
publishing his well-known'Storie Fiorentine,' which was   the kingdom  of Naples is remarkable for its profound
nriot given to the world till 1721, a period which appears to  inquiries concerning the civil and ecclesia:tical constituhave roused the slumbers of the literary men of Italy to  tion, the laws and customs of that kingdom.  WVitth some
recur to their native historians.  Varchi, who wrote with  interruptions from  his professional avocations at the liar,
so much zeal the history of his father-land, is noticed by   twenty years were consumed in writing this history.  ReNardi as one who never took an active part in the events   searches on ecclesiastical usurpations, and severe striche records; never having combined with any party, and   tures on the clergy, are the chief subjects of his bold ard
living merely as a spectator.  This historian closes the   unreserved pen.  These passages, curious, grave and innarrative of a horrid crime of Peter Lewis Farnese with   dignant, were afterwards extracted from  the history by
this admirable reflection'I know well this story, with   Vernet, and published in a small volume, under the title
many others which I have freely exposed, may hereafter   of' Anecdotes Ecclesiastiqies,' 1738.  When Giannone
prevent the reading of my history; but also I know, that  consulted with a friend on the propriety of publishing his
besides what Tacitus has said on this subject, the great  history, his critic, in admiring the work, predicted the fate
duty of an historian is not to be more careful of the repu-   of the author.' You have,' said he,' placed on your
tation of persons than is suitable with truth, which is to be   head a crown of thorns, and of very sharp ones;' the hispreferred to all things, however detrimental it may be to  torian set at naught his own personal repose; and in 1723
the writer.'*                                                 this elaborate history saw the light.  From  that moment
Such was that free manner of thinking and of writing   the historian never enjoyed a day of quiet! Rome atwhich prevailed in these Italian historians, who, often   tempted at first to extinguish the author with his work; all
livinc, in the midst of the ruins of popular freedomin, poured   the books were seized on; and copies of the first edition
fortl' their injured feelings in their secret pages; without   are of extreme rarity.  To escape the fangs of inquisito..
the hope, and perhaps without the wish, of seeing them    rial power, the historian of Naples flew from  Naples or,
published in their life-time: a glorious example of self-  the publication of his immortal work.  The fugitive aind
denial and lofty patriotism!                                  excommunicated  author sought an asylum  at Vienna,
Had it been inquired of these writers why they did not  where, though he found no friend in the emperor. prince
publish their histories, they might have  answered, in   Eugene and other nobles became his patrons.  Forced
nearly the words of an ancient sage, I Because I am  not  to quit Vienna, he retired to Venice, when a new perse.
permitted to write as I would; and I would not write as I   cution arose from the jealousy of the state inquisitors, whc
am permitted.'  We cannot imagine that these great men   one night landed him  on the borders of the pope's dtominwere in the least insensible to the applause they denied   ions.  Escaping unexpectedly with his life to Geneva, he
themselves; they were not of tempers to be turned aside;   was preparing a supplemental volume to his celebrated
and it was the highest motive which can inspire an histo-   history, when, enticed by a treacherous friend to a cathorian, a stern devotion to truth; which reduced them to si-  lic village, Giannone was arrested by an order of the king
hence, but not to inactivity! These Florentine and Vene-   of Sardinia; his manuscripts were sent to Rome, and tre
tian historians, ardent with truth, and profound in political   historian imprisoned in a fort.  It is curious that the im.
sagacity, were solely writing these legacies of history for   prisoned Giannone wrote a vindication of the rights of the
their countrymen, hopeless of their gratitude! If a French-   king of Sardinia, against the claims of the court of Rome.
man wrote the English history, that labour was the ali-   This powerful appeal to the feelings of this sovereign was
ment of his own glory; if Hume and Robertson devoted   at first favourably received; but, under the secret influtheir pens to history, the motive of the task was less glo-   ence of Rome, the Sardinian monarch, on the extraordirious than their work; but here we discover a race of his-   nary plea that he kept Giannone as a prisoner of state
torians, whose patriotism alone instigated their secret la-   that he might preserve him from  the papal power, ordered
bour, and who  substituted for fame and  fortune that  that the vindicator of his rights should be more closely
mightier spirit, which, amidst their conflicting passions,   confined than before! and, for this purpose, transferred
has developed the truest principles, and even the errors,   his state-prisoner to the Citadel of Turin, where, after
of Political Freedom!                                         twelve years of persecution and of agitation, our great
None of these historians, we have seen, published their  historian closed his life!
works in their life-time.  I have called them  the saints of    Such was the fate of this historical martyr, whose work
history, rather than the martyrs.  One, however, had the   the catholic Haym   describes as opera scritta con molto
intrepidity to risk this awfiul responsibility, and he stands  fuoco e troppa liberta.  He hints that this Hin:o'v is only
* My friend Merivale, whose critical research is only equal,  paralleled by De Thou's great work. This Italian history
led by the elegance of his taste, has supplied me with a note   will ever be ranked among the most philosophical.  But.
whichproves, but too well, that even writers who compose   profound as was the masculine genius of Giannone, such
uninflu'icedt by party feelings, may not, however, be suff-    was his love of fame, that he wanted the intrepidity requi.
eiently scrupulous in weigihing the evidence of the facts which   site to deny iimselE the delight of giving his history to iie
they collect. Mr Merivale observes,'The strange  and im- 
probable nanrrative with which Varchi has the misfortune of  world, though some of his great predecessors had set him
closing his history, should not have been even hinted at with.  a noble and dignified example.
out addin-, that it is denounced by other writers as a most in-  One more observation on these Italian historians.  All
pudent forgery, inve-;ted years after the occurrence is suppo-   of them represent man in his darkest colours; their drama
sead to have happened, by the "Apostate"  bis!hop Petrus Pan-  is terrific; the actors are monsters of perfidy, of inhuIris Vergerius.  See its refutation in Amianl, Hist. di Fano II,  inanity, and inventors of crimes which seem  to want a
149 et seq 160.                                               name'! They were all' princes ofdarkness;' arid the age
Varchi's character, as an historian, cannotbut suffer great-           afford a triumph to Manicheism    Te wrs
seemed to afford a triumph to Manicheism T The worst
ly from his having given it insertion on such authority. The   s        t
responsibility of an author for the truth of what he relates   passions were called into play by all parties. But ifsomeshoutl render its vet"y cautious  of giving  credit to the writers  thing is to be ascribed to the manners of the times, muich
of memoirs not intended to see the light till a distantt period.   more may be traced to that science of poitics, which
The credibility of Vergerirs, as sn acknowledged libeller of  sought for mastery in an undefinable struggle ofungovern-'Pope Paul 11, and his family, appears still more conclusively   able political power; in the remorseless  anbition of the
fro'his article in Boyle. note K., It must be added, that the abepltclowr;ithrmrslsabtonf  e
from his itsirI in Bye. note K.' it mate be added, that she   despots, and the hatreds and jealousies of the republics.
calumny of VeriLerine  may be found in Wolfins's Let. Mem.   These Italian historians have formed a perpetual satire
II, 691, in a tract de hiloo Lauretano, published 1556. Varchi
is more particular in his details of this monstrous tale. Ver.    n the contemptible simlation  and dissimulatin, and te
gerinsss libels, uriversally read at the time, though they were   inexpiable crimes of that system  of politics, which has decollected afterowirds. are now not to be met with, even in piub-   rived a name from one of themselves-the great, may we
lie libraries  Whethir there was any truth in the story of  add, the calumniated, Machiavel?
Peter Lewis Farnese I know not; but crimes of as monstrous
die occur in the authe, tic Guicciardini.  The story is not            OF PALACES BUILT BY MIIaSTERS.
et for-otter't, since in the last edition of Ruin's Biblioteca
forostt            in the last eiio  of  ay's Biltca            Our ministers and court favourites, as well as thost on
eaiana, tie best editon is marked as that which at p. 639   the cntinent, practised a very impolitic cu. ad one
Contain    s  eteivieza di Per LewisFamine.'Icamtofent, practised a very impolitic cisetom. anrd one
contains'lawqelerntezza di Pier Lewis Farnese.'  I am of
opinion that Vnrchi believed the story, by the solemnity ofhis  likly to  e reeated, altouh it h  never filed to  ast 
proposition.   Xliatever be its truth, the historian's feelingr    popular odium  on their name, exciting even the envv of
was elevated anrid iitrepid.                                  their equals-in  the erection of palaces for theiselves,




LITERATURE.                                                       h17
which outvied those if the sovereign; and which, to the   Bassompierre, and unquestionably excited the indignation
eyes of the populace, appeared as a perpetual and inso-  of those who lived in a poor court, while our gay and
lent exhibition of what they deemed the ill-earned wages  thoughtless minister alone could indulge in the fanton pro.
of peculation, oppression, and court-favour.  We discover  fusion.
the seduction of' this passion for ostentation, this haughty  But Wolsey and Buckingham were ambitious and al.
sense of their power, and this self-idolatry, even among   venturous; they rose and shone the comets of the politica4
the most prudent and the wisest of our ministers; and not  horizon of Europe.  The Roman tiara still haunted the
one but lived to lament over this vain act of imprudence.  imagination of the Cardinal: and  the egotistic pride of
To these ministers the noble simplicity of Pitt will ever  having out-rivalled Richelieu and Olivarez, the nominal
form an admirable contrast; while his personal character,  ministers but the real sovereigns of Europe, kindled the
as a statesman, descends to posterity, unstained by ca-  buoyant spirits of the gay, the gallant, and the splendid
lumny.                                                   Villiers. But what' folly of the wise' must account for
The houses ofCardinal Wolsey appear to have exceed-  the conduct of the profound Ciarendon, and the sensible
ed the palaces of the sovereign in magnificence; and po-  Sir Robert Walpole, who, like the other two ministers,
tent as he was in all the pride of pomp, the'great Car-  equally became the victims of this imprudent passion for
dinal' found rabid envy pursuing him so close at his heels,  the ostentatious pomp of a palace. This magnificence look.
that he relinquished one palace after the other, and gave   ed like the vaunt of insolence in the eyes of the people,
up as gifts to the monarch, what, in all his overgrown   and covered the ministers with a popular odium.
greatness, hlie trembled to retain for himself.  The state  Clarendon House is now only to be viewed in a print;
satire of that day was often pointed at this very circum-  but its story remains to be told.  It was built on the site
stance, as appears in Skilton's'Why come ye not to  of Grafton-street; and when afterwards purchased by
Court?' and Roy's' Rede me, and be not wrothe.' Skel-  Monk, the Duke of Albemarle, he left his title to that
ton's railing rhymes leave their bitter teeth in his purple   well known-street.  It was an edifice of considereble expride; and the style of both these satirists, if we use our  tent and grandeur.  Clarendon reproaches himself in his
wn orthography, shows how little the language of the  life for' his weaktness and vanity,' in the vast expense inimmon people has varied during three centuries.         curred in this building, which he acknowledges had t moro
Sephwec onhighcontributed to that gust of envy that had so violently shaSat up the wretch on high
let~ au thoe triumhanty hoken him, than any misdemeanor that he was thought to
In a  throne triumphantly;                have been guilty of.' It ruined his estate; but he had
Make him a great state
And he will play check-mate               been encouraged to it by the royal grant of the land, by
With royal majesty-                       that passion for building to which he owns' he was natuThe King's Court                          rally too much inclined,' and perhaps by other circumShould have the excelence,                stances, among which was the opportunity of purchasing
But Hampton Court                         the stones which had been designed for the rebuilding of
I-ath the pre-eminence;tdani
Hath the pre-eminence;                    St Paul's: but the envy it drew on him, and the excess
WAnd Ytokr's Place                        of the architect's proposed expense, had made his life
W~ith my Lord's graco.
To whose magnificenc' very uneasy, and near insupportable.' The truth is,
To waes e condcence.a          that wheni this palace was finished, it was imputed to him
is all the confleence,
Suits, and supplications;                 as a state-crime; all the evils in the nation, which were
Embassies of all nations.                 then numerous, pestilence, conflagration, war, and defeats,
oy, in contemplating the palace, is maliciouly re-  were discovered to be in some way connected with Claren.
R7inded of the butcher's lad, and only gives plain sense in  do-house; or, as It was poplarly called, eiter  unkirkdon-house; or, as it was popularly called, either Dunkirk.,laind words. tebcesla onyiepasnen House, or Tangier-Hall, from a notion that it had been
erected with the golden bribery which the chancellor had
Hath the Cardinal any gay mansion?                                           I
Great palace s withottt comparison,             received for the sale of Dunkirk and Tangiers. He was re.
Most glorious or outward sight,               preached with having, profaned the sacred stones dedicated
And within decked point-device,*                to the use of the church.  The great but unfortunate mas.
More like unto a paradise                       ter of this palace, who, from a private lawyer, had raised
Than an earthly habitation.                   himself by alliance even to royalty, the father-in-law of
He cometh ilthen of some noble stock?          the Duke of York, it was maliciously suggested, had perIis father could match a bullock,               suaded Charles the Second to marry the Infanta of Portu.
A butcher by his occupation,      gal, knowing (but how Clarendon obtained the knowledge,
Whatever we may now think of the structure, and the   his enemies have not revealed) that the Portuguese Prinlow  apartments of Wolsey's palace, it is described not  cess was not likely to raise any obstacle to the inheritance
only in his own times, but much later, as of unparalleled   of his own daughter to the throne. At the Restoration,
magnificence; and indeed Cavendish's narrative of the   among other enemies, Clarendon found that the royalists
Cardinal's entertainment of the French ambassadors,  were none the least active; he was reproached by them
gives an idea of the ministerial-prelate's imperial esta-  for preferring those w'lo had been the cause of their late
blishment, very puzzling to the comprehension of a mo-  troubles. The same reproach has been incurred in th
dern inspector.  Six hundred nersons, I think, were ban-  late restoration of the Bourbons.  It is perhaps difficul.
queted and slept in an abode which appears to us so mean,  and more political to maintain active men, who have obbut which' Stowe calls' so stately a palace.' To avoid  tained power, than to reinstate inferior talents, who at
the odium of livins  in this splendid edifice, Wolsey pre-  least have not their popularity.  This is one of the paralsented it to the king, who, in recompense, suffered the  lel cases which so frequently strike us in exploring political
Cardinal occasionally to inhabit this wonder of England,  history; and the ultras of Louis the Eighteenth are only
in the character of keeper of the king's palace;t so that  the royalists of Charles the Second.  There was a strong
W'olsey only dared to live in his own palace by a subter-  popular delusion carried on by the wits and the Misses,
fuie!  This perhaps  was a tribute which  minsterial  who formed the court of Charles the Second, that the go.
haughtiness paid to popular feeling, or to the jealousy of a  vernment was as much shared by the Hydes as the Stu.
roval master.                                            arts. We have in the state-poems, an unsparing lampoon
I have elsewhere shown the extraordinary eleance and   entitled, Clarendon's House-warming;' but a satire yield
prodigality of expenditure of Buckingham's residences:  ing nothing in severity I have discovered in manuscript;
they were such as to have extorted the wonder, even of  and it is also remarkable for turnino  chiefly on a pun o
* Point-device, a term ingaeniously explained by my learned  the family name of the Earl of Clarendon.  The witty
friend Mr Douce. He thinks that it is borrowed from the la,and malicious rhymer, after making Charles the Second
bon-rs of the neetdle, as we have point-lace, so point-device, i.  demand the great seal, and resolve to be his own chan,
e. point. a S   it:th, and devise, devised or invented; applied to  cellor, proceeds, reflecting on the great political victim.
dtscribe any thing mtcomnonly exact, or worked with the
niety anti precisitn of stitches made or devised by the needle.    Lo! his whole ambition already divides
-lluetratione   iai e,  1, 9. lnt Mr Gifford has since  The sceptre between the Stuarts and the Hydes.
observed that the oriit, of the expression is, perhaps, yet to  Behold, in the depth of our plagte and wars,
be sought for; he. derives it from a mathematical phrase, a  He built him a palace ot-braves the stars
Point devise. or a given point, and hence exact, correct, &c.
en Jooisn, Vol. IV, 1i7. See for various examples-Mr       Which house (we Dunkirk, he Clarendon, names
Nares's Glossary, Ait. Piint.devise.                       Looks down with shame upon St James;
tLyson's E nvirons v. s8                                 But'tie not his golden globe that will save him,




318                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Being less than the custom-house farmers gave him;       and as if master of some invisible whispering-place, all the
His chapel for consecration calls,                       secrets of christian princes met at his closet. Wonder not
Whose sacrilege plundered the stones from Paul's.        then if he bequeathed no great wealth to his daughter, beWhen Queen Dido landed she bought as much ground         ing privately interred in the quire of Paul's as much indebt.
As the Hyde of a lusty fat bull would surround;          ed to his creditors, though not so much as our nation is inBut when the said Hyde was cut into thongs,              debted to his memory.'
A city and kingdom to Hyde belongs;                        Some curious inquirer may afford us a catalogue of
So here in court, church, and country, far and wide,     great ministers of state who have voluntarily declined the
Here's naught to be seen but Hyde. Iyde! Hyde           augmentation of their private fortune, while they devoted
Of old, and where law the kingdom divides,               their days to the noble pursuits of patriotic glory! The'Twas our hides of land,'tis now land of Hydes!         labour of this research will be great, and the volume
Clarendon-House was a palace, which had been raised   small!
p~~~~~~~~~~'TAXATION -NO TYRANNY!'.
with at least as much fondness as pride; and Evelyn tells'TSXATION    NO T       iRANNltr
us, that the garden was planned by himself and his lord-    Such was the title of a  famous political tract, sent forth
ship; but the cost, as usual, trebled the calculation, and   at a moment when a people, in a state of insurrection, ptt
the noble master grieved in silence amidst this splendid   aanta    ninfcn   a   hypoetd    u    gis
the noble master grieved in silence amidst this splendid  forth a declaration that taxation was tyranny!  It was not
pile of architecture.*  Even when in his exile the sale  against an insignificant tax teyproested, but against
was proposed to pay his debts, and secure some provision   taxation itself! and in the temper of the moment this abfor his younger children, he honestly tells us, that' he re-  stract proposition appeared an insolent paradox.  It was
mained still so infatuated with the delight he had enjoyed   instantly run down by that everlasting party which, so far
that though he was deprived of it, he hearkened very un-  back as in the laws of our Henry the First, are designated
willinglyto the advice.'  In 1683 Clarendon-House  met  by the odd descriptive term of acephali, a people without
willnglyto te adice.   In  683  laredon-ousemetheads!* the strange equality of levellers!
its fate, and was abandoned to the brokers, who had pur-  hes!  the trane equalityof levellers
chased it for its materials.  An affecting circumstatce is    These political monsters in all times have had an assorecorded by Evelyn on this occasiot.  In returning to  ciation of ideas of taxation and tyranny, and with thet
town with the Earl of Clarendon, the son of the great  one name instantly suggests the other!  This happened
earl,'in passing by the glorious palace his father built but  to one Gigli of Sienna, who published the first part of a
few years before, which they were now demolishing, being   dictionary of the Tuscan language4 of which only 312
sold to certain undertakers, I turned my head the contrary  leaves amused the Florentines; these having had the
way till the coach was gone past by, least I might minis-  honour of being consigned to the flames by the hands of
ter occasion of speaking of it, which must needs have  the hangman for certain popular errors; such as, for ingrieved him, that in so short a time this pomp was fallen.'  stance, under the word Gram  Duca we find Vedi GaA feeling of-infinite delicacy, so perfectly characteristic  belli! (see Taxes!) and the word Gabella was explained
rofEvelyn!                                               by a reference to Gran Duca. Grand-Duke and taxes
of Evelyn!                                 ~~~~~~~~~were synonymes, accordinc to this mordacious lexicograAnd now to bring down this subject to times still near-    ere synonymes, accordin  to this mordacious lexicograer.  We find that Sir Robert Walpole had placed himself  pher   Such grievances and the mode of expressing them,
exactly in the situation of the great minister we have no-  are equally ancient.  A  Roman consul, by levying a tax
ticed; we have his confession to his brother Lord Walpole,  on salt during the Punic war, was nick-named saliaator,
and to his friend Sir John Hynde Cotton.  The historian   and codmned  by the  majesty' of the people! He had
of this minister observes, that his magnificent buildings at  formerly done his duty to the country, but the salter was
Houghton drew on him great obloquy. On seeing his bro-  now his reward!  He retired from Rome, let his beard
therls house at Wolterton, Sir Robert exprerssed his wish-  grow, and by his sordid dress, and melancholy air, evinced
es that he had contented himself with a similar structure   his acute sensibility. The Romans at length wanted the
In the reign of Anne, Sir Robert sitting by Sir John Hynde   salter to command the army-as an injured man, he re
Cotton, alding  to a sumptuous house which was then   fused-but he was told that hlie should bear the caprice of
building b  Harey, observed, that to constructeat   the Roman people with the tenderness of a son for the hubuilding bv Harley, observed, that to construct a great           o     aet!H     a  othsrptto   yapo
house was a high act of imprudence in any minister! It   mos of a parent   He had lost his reputation by a prowas a long time after, when he had become prime minis-   ductive tax on salt, though this tax had provided an army
ter, that he forgot the whole result of the present article;  and obtained a victory!
Certain it is that Gigli and his numerous adherents are
and pulled down his family mansion at Houghton to build 
wrongr; for were they freed from all restraints as much as
its magnificent edifice; it was then Sir John Hynde Cotton   wrong; for were theyfeed from all restraints as much as
remided  him of the reflection which he had made some   if they slept in forests and not in houses: were they in
habitants of wilds and not of cities, so that every man
years ago: the reply of Sir Robert is remarkable-' Your 
recollection is too late; I wish you had reminded me of it  should be his own law-giver, with a perpetual immunity
before I began building, for then it might have been of ser-  from all taxation, we could not necessarily infer their povice to me!'                                               litical happiness.  There are nations where taxation is
hardly known, foi the people exist in such utter wretched.
The statesman and politician then are susceptible of  hardly known, fo the people eist in such utter wretced
all the seduction of ostentation and the pride of pomp!  ness, that they are too poor to be taxed  of which the
Chinese, among  others, exhibit remarkable instances.
W'ho could have credited it? But bewildered with power, in
When Nero would have abolished all taxes, in his excesthe magnificence and magnitude of the edifices whch their     e       o  ouldhv          he   a  tae    hi    -
colossal ereatness inhabits, they seem  to contemplate on   sive passion for popularity, the senate thanked hi'r his
good will to the people, but assured him that this was a
its image!                                                 certain  means not of repairing, but of ruininog the cornSir Francis Walsingham died and left nothing to pay his   cnea           n  n   reari u   or ithe    co
monwealth.  Bodin, in his curious work' the Republic,'
debts, as appears by a curious fact noticed in the anony-   has noticed a class of politicians who are in too great
mous life of Sir Philip Sidney prefixed to the Arcadia, and    a    te           p   o     iti   o     e   n      e
favour with the people.' Many seditious citizens, and deevidently written by one acquainted with the family histo-   fou  w   tepop'a    ed s  cis    nd
sirous of innovations. did of late years promise immunity
ry of his friend and hero.  The chivalric Sidney, thoueh    res        at          id    o    eye    oie i      u
sought after bv court beauties, solicited the hand of the   o taxes aid subsidies to our people; but neither could
daughter of Walsingham, although, as it appears, she   they do it, or if they could have done it, they would not
daugohter of W~alsin~ham, although, as it appears, she
could have had no other portion than her own virtues and     *Cowelts Interpretor, art. Acephali. This by-name we un
her father's name. (And herein,' observes our anonymous   expectedly find in a grave antiquarian law.dictionary! pro
biographer'he was exemplary to all gentlemen not to   bably derived from Pliny's description of a people whom some
travellers had reported to have found in this predicament, in
carry their love in their purses.' On this he notices this  their fright and haste in attempting to land on a hostile share
secret history ofWalsingham.                              among the savages. How it came to be introduced into the
This is that Sir Francis who impoverished himself to  laws of Henry the First remains to be told by some profound
enrich the state. and indeed made England his heir; and   antiquary; but it was common in the middle ages. Cowel
was so far frornm building up of fortune by the benefit of his  says,'Those are called acephali who were the levellers of
place, that he demolished that fine estate left by his an-  that age, and ackrowledged no heed or superior.
euvtors to purehfan dear inlelligence from  all parts of    tVocabulario di Santa Caterina e della Lingua Sanese,
1717. This pungent lexicon was prohibited at Rome by desire
Christendom. He had a key to unlock the pope's cabinet; I of the Court of Florence.  The history or this supprewsed
* A: the gatloway of the Three King's Inn, near Dover-   work may be found in II Giornale de' Letterati d' Italian, Tomo
street, in Pircadlilly. are two pilasters with Corinthian capitals,  xxix —1410. In the last edition of Haym's'Biblileca  taliwhich helonged to Clarendon-House, and are perhap.' the only7  ara' 1803, it is said to be reprinted at Manillk, nell' Isloe Fil
wema ins of that edifice.                                   lippine! —For the book-licensers it is a great way to go for it




LITERATURE.                                                          319
or if it we,:e done, should we have any commonweale, be-  wealths turned primarily on the right of election of magising the ground and foundation of one.'*                     trates, or on the balance among the several'orders of the
Tlihe undisg tised and naked term of' taxation' is, how-  state.  The question of money was not with them  so imever, so odiou: to the people, that it may be curious to ob-  mediate.  But in England it was otherwise.  On this
serve tile arts practised by governments, and even by the   point of taxes the ablest pens and most eloquent tongues
people themselves, to veil it under some mitigating term.  have been exercised; the greatest spirits have acted and
In the first breaking out of the American troubles, they   suffered.'*
probably would have yielded to the mother-country the         One party clamorously asserts that taxation is their
~ight of taxation, modified by the term  regulation (of their  grievance, while another demonstrates that tile annihilatrade; this I infer from a letter of Dr. Robertson, who   tion of taxes would be their ruin! The interests of a great
observes, that' the distinction between taxation and regu-  nation, among themselves, are often contrary to each
leation is mere folly!' Even despotic governments have   other, and each seems alternately to predominate and to
condescended to disguise the contributions forcibly levied,  decline.'The sting of taxation,' observs Mr Hallam,'is
by somne appellative which should partly conceal its real  wastefulness; but it is difficult to name a limit beyond
nature.  Terms have often influenced circumstances, as   which taxes will not be borne without impatience when
names do things; and conquest or oppression, which we  faithfully applied.' In plainer words, this only signifies,
may allow to be svnonymes, apes benevolence whenever   we presume, that Mr Hallem's party would tax us without
It claims as as a what it exacts as a tribute.'wastefulness!' Minsterial or opposition, whatever be
A sort of philosophical history of taxation appears in  the administration, it follows that'taxation is no tyranny;'
the narrative of Wood, in his in quiry on Homer.  He tells   Dr Johnson then was terribly abused in his day for a vox
us that'lthe presents (a term of extensive signification in  etpretera nihila.
the East) which are distributed annually by the bashaw of     Still shall the innocent word be hateful, and the people
Damascus to the several Arab princes through whose ter-   will turn even on their best friend, who in administration
ritory he conducts the caravan of pilgrims to Mecca, are,  inflicts a new impost; as we have shown by the fate of the
at Constantinople, called afree gift, and considered as an   Roman Salisator!  Among ourselves, our government,
act of the sultan's generosity towards his indigent subjects;  in its constitution, if not always in its practice, long had
while, on the other hand, the Arab sheikhs *deny even a  a consideration towards the feelings of the people, and
right of passage through the districts of their command, and   often contrived to hide the nature of its exactions, by a
exact those sums as atax due for the permission of going  name of blandishment.  An  enormous grievance was
througoh their country.  In the frequent bloody contests  long the office of purveyance.  A  purveyor was'tan offiwhich the adjustment of these fees produce, the Turks   cer who was to fiurnish every sort of provision for the
complain of robbery, and the Arabs of invasion.'*          royal house, and sometimes for great lords, during their
Here we trace taxoation through allits shifiing forms ac-  progresses or journeys.  His oppressive office, by arbicommodating itself to the feelings of the different people;  trarily fixing the market-prices, and compelling the country.
the same principle reulated the alternate terms proposed   men to bring their articles to market, would enter into the
by the buccaneers, when they asked what the weaker par-  history of the arts of grinding the labouring class of so.
ty was sure to gyve, or when they levied what the others  ciety; a remnant of feudal tyranny! The very title ot
paid only as a common tell.                                this officer became odious; and by a statute of Edward
When Louis the Eleveinth of France beheld his coun-  III, the hateful name of pnrveyor was ordered to be
try exhausted by the predatory wars of England, he bought  changed into acheteur or buyer! A  change of name, it
a peace of our Edward the Fotrth by an annual sum of fifty   was imagined, would conceal its nature! The term often
thousand crowns, to be paid at London, and likewise grant-  devised strangely contrasted with the thing itself. Levies
ed pensions to the English ministers. Holingshead and all  of money were long raised under the pathetic appeal of
our historians call this a yearly tribute; but Comines, the  benevolences.  When Edward IV  was passing over to
French memoir writer, with a national spirit, denies that  France, he obtine, under this  ente demand, mone
I   France, he obtained, under this gentle demand, money
these gifts were either pensions or tributes.'Yet,' says  towards' the great journey,' and afiterwards having'rode
Bodin, a Frenchmai also, but affecting a more philosophi-  about the more part of the lands, and used the people in
cal intlifference,' it must be either the one or the other;  such fair manner, that they were liberal in their gifts; Old
thotgh I confess, that those who receive a pension to oh-  Fabian adds,' the which way of the levying of this money
lain peace, commonly boast of it as if it were a tribute!'t    was after-named a benevolence.' Edward IV was courtSuch are the shades of our feelings in this history of taxa-  eous in this newly-invented  style, and was besides the
tion and tribute.  But there is another artifice of applying   handsomest tax-gatherer in  his kingdom!  His royal
soft names to hard things, by veiling a tyrannical act by a   presence was very dangerous to the ptrses of his loyal
term which ~~~~~~~~~presentews veoy diangerous de  to the pus s o islevel
term which presents no disagreeable idea to the imagina-  subljects, particularly to those of the females.  In his
lio~n.'vThen it was formerly thougoht desirable, in the retin.  Whe  it was forerl thouht desirable, in the re-  progress, having kissed a widow for having contributed a,
laxation of norals which prevailed in Venice to institute  larger sum than was expected from her estate, she was so
the office of censor, three magistrates were elected bearing   overoed at the singular honour an  deliht that she
noverjoyed at the singular honiour and delight that she
this title;sbut it seemed so harsh arnd austere in that dissi-  douled her benevolence, and a second iss had ruined her
werecomplled doubled her benevolence, and a second kiss had ruined her!
pated city, that these reformers of manners were copelled   but in the succeedin  reign of Richard III, the term had
to change their title; when they were no longer called cen- already lost the freshness of its innocence. n the speech
already lost the freshness of its innocence. In the speecha
sors, but I.gnori sopra il bon vivere della citta, all agreed   which the Duke of Buckingham delivered from the Hust.
on the propriety of the office under the softened term. Fa-  inos in Guildhall, he explained the term  to the satisfaction
thier Joseph the secret agent of Cardinal Riclielieu, was   of his auditrs, who even then were as cross-hmoured as
of his auditors, who even then were as cross-humioured as
the inventor of letters de catchet, disguising that instrument  the livery of this day, in their notions of what now  we
of despotism  by the amusing term of a sealed letter.  Ex-   gently call' supplies.'Under the plausible name of bepatriation wotild have been merciful compared with the re-  nevolence, as it was held in the time of Edward IV, your
suit of that billet-doux, a sealed letter from his majesty  goods were taken from you much against your will, as if
Burke reflects with profound truth —' Abstract liberty,  by that name was umderstood that every man smoud pay
like other nmere abstractions, is not to be found.  Liberty   not what he pleased, hut what the king woti have him;'
h~!heres in some sensible object; and every nation has
iiit heres in some sensible object; and every nation has  or, as a marginal note in Buck's Life of Richard III, more
formed to itself some favourite point which, by way of emi-   o e   ha     iat te nam   of            sce siife
pointedly has it, that I the name of benevolence signified
nence, becomes the criterion of their happiness. It hap- that every man should pay, not what he of his own good
that every man should pay, not, what he, of his own good
pened that the great contests for freedom in this country   will list, but what the king of his good will list to take.'*
were from thie earliest times chiefly upon the question of  Richard III, whose business, like that of all usurpers,
taxing. Most of the contests in the ancient commontng.   Most  f the contests in the ancient common-  was to he popular, in  a statute even condemns this
benevolence' as' a new imposition,' and enacts that
* Bodin'ssixbooksof a Commonwealth, translated by Rich        none shall he charged  with it in  ftture; many faari Knolles, 1606. A work replete with the practical know.  milies having been ruined  nder  tese  pretended gifts.
edge of politics; and of which Mr Dutgld Steward has deli.
-ei'ed a high opinion. Yet this great politician wrote a volume    *Burke's Works, vol. i. 288.
4 anathematize those who doubted the existence of sorcerers,    t Daines Barrington, in' ubservations on the Statttes,'
and witches, &c, whom he condemns to the flames' I See his  gives the marginal note of Bnck as the words of the Duke;
Dem0onomaine des Sorciers.' 1593.                         they certainly served his ptrpose to amuse, better than the
~[Wood's I.-qtliry on Ho-mer, p, 133.                     veracious ones; but we expect from a grave antiqutary invio.
Bodin's Conii ion-weale, translated by R. Knolle s, p. 148.  lable authenticity. The Duke is malde by Barrington: sort of
ld6t.                                                       wit, but the pithy quaintness is Btck's.




320                                   CURIOSITIES OF
His successor, however, found means to levy' a be-  companion-piece to the little volume on'Les grands honmnevoience;' but when Henry VIII demanded one, the   mes qui soent morts en plaisantant.' This work, I fear,
citizens of London appealed to the act of Richard III.  must be monotonous; the deaths of the righteous must
Cardinal Wolsey insisted that the law of a murderous  resemble each other; the learned and the eloquent can
usurper should not be enforced. One of the common-  only receive in silence that hope which awaits' the covecouncil courageously replied, that'King Richard, con-  nant of the grave.' But this volume will not establish any
jointly with parliament, had enacted many good statutes.'  decisive principle; since the just and the religious have
Even then the citizen seems to have comprehended the  not always encountered death with indiiference, nor even
spirit of our constitution —that taxes should not be raised  in a fit composure of mind.
without consent of parliament!                           The functions of the mind are connected with those oi
Charles the First, amidst his urgent wants, at first had  the body. On a death-bed a fortnight's disease may rehoped, by the pathetic appeal to benevolence, that he should  duce the firmest to a most wretched state; while, on the
have touched the hearts of his unfriendly commoners; but  contrary, the soul struggles, as it were in torture, in a rothe term of benevolence proved unlucky. The resisters of  bust fiame. Nani, the Venetian historian, has curiously
taxation took full advantage of a significant meaning, which   described the death of Innocent X, who was a character
had long been lost in the custom; asserting by this very  unblemished by vices, and who died at an advanced age,
termn that all levies of money were not compulsory, but the   with too robust a constitution. Dopo lunsa e terribile
voluntary gits of the people. In that political crisis, when   agonia, con dolore e con pensa, seperandosi l'anima da quel
in the fullness of time all the national grievances, which   corpo robusto, egli spiro ai sette di Genuaro, nel ottantesimo
had hitherto been kept down, started up with one voice,  primo de suoi anne.'After a long and terrible agony,
the courteous term strangely contrasted with the rough   with great bodily pain and difficulty, his soul separated itdemand. Lord Digby said' the granting of subsidies, un-  self from that robust frame, and expired in his eighty-first
der so preposterous a name as of a benevolence, was-a   year.'
malevolence.' And Mr Grimstone observed, that'They        Some have composed sermons on death, while they
have granted a benevolence, but the nature of the thing   passed many years of anxiety, approaching to madness, in
agrees not with the name.' The nature indeed had so  contemplating their own. The certainty of an immediate
entirely changed fiom the name, that when James I had  separation from all our human sympathies may, even on a
tried to warm the hearts of his' benevolent' people, he got  death-bed, suddenly disorder the imagination.  The great' little money, and lost a great deal of love.'' Subsidies,'  physician of our times told me of a general, who had often
that is, grants made by parliament, observes Arthur Wil-  faced the cannon's mouth, dropping down in terror, when
son, a dispassionate historian,'get more of the people's  informed by him  that his disease was rapid and fatal.
money, but exactions enslave the mind.'                 Some have died of the strong imagination of death. There
When benevolences had become a grievance, to diminish  is a print of a knight brought on the scaffold to suffer; he
the odium they invented more inviting phrases. The sub-  viewed the headsman; he was blinded, and knelt down to
ject was cautiously informed that the sums demanded  receive the stroke. Having passed through the whole cewere only loans; or he was honoured by a letter under the  remnony of a criminal execution, accompanied by all its
privy seal; a bond which the king engaged to repay at a  disgrace, it was ordered that his life should be spared,definite period; but privy seals at length got to be hawked  instead of the stroke from the sword, they poured cold waabout to persons comning out of church.'Privy seals,'  ter over his neck. After this operation the knight remainsays a manuscript letter,' are flying thick and threefold in  ed motionless; they discovered that he had expired in the
sight of all the world, which might surely have been better  very imagination of death! Such are among the many
performed in delivering them to every man privately at  causes which may affect the mind in the hour of its last
home.' The general loan, which in fact was a forced loan,  trial.  The habitual associations of the natural character
was one of the most crying grievances under Charles I.  are most likely to prevail-though not always! The in.
Ingenious in the destruction of his own popularity, the  trepid Marshal Biron disgraced his exit by womanish tears,
king contrived a new mode, of' secret instructions to com-  and raging imbecility; the virtuous Erasmus, with miseramimssoners.'*  They were to find out persons who could  ble groans was heard crying out Domine! Domine! fac
bear the largest rates.  Howv the commissioners were to  finers! fac fJinem! Bayle having prepared his proof for
acquire this secret and inquisitorial knowledge appears in  the printer, pointed to where it lay when dying. The last
the bungling contrivance. It is one of their orders that  words which Lord Chesterfield was heard to speak were,
after a number of inquiries have been put to a person, con-  when the valet opening the curtains of the bed, announced
cerning others who had spoken against loan-monev., and  Mr Dayroles-' Give Dayroles a chair!'' This goodwhat arguments they had used, this person was to be  breeding,' observed the late Dr Warren his physician,
charged in his majestv's name, and upon his allegiance,' only quits him with his life.' The last words of Nelson
not to disclose to aniy other the answer he had given. A   were,' Tell Collingwood to bring the fleet to an anchor.
striking instance of that fatuity of the human mind, when   The tranquil grandeur which cast a new majesty over
a weak government is trying to do what it knows not how   Charles the First on the scaffold, appeared when he deto perform: it was seeking to obtain a secret purpose by  clared-' I fear not death! Death is not terrible to me!
the most open and general means; a self-destroying prin-  And the characteristic pleasantry of Sir Thomas Morte
ciple!                                                  exhilarated his last moments, when observing the weakOur ancestors were children in finance; their simplicity  ness of the seaffold, he said, in mounting it,' I pray you
has been too often described as tyranny! but from my soul  see me up safe, and for my coming down, let me shift for
do I believe, on this obscure subject of taxation, that old  myself!' Sir Walter Raleigh passed a similar jest when
Burleigh's advice to Elizabeth includes more than all the  going to the scaffold.
squabbling pamphlets of our political economists-' win    My ingenious friend Dr Sherwen has furnished me
hearts, and you have their hands and purses!'          with the following anecdotes ofdeath. In one of the bloo.
THE BOOK OF DEATH.                      dy battles fought by the Duke of Enghien, two French
noblemen were left wounded amno  the dead on the field
MIontaigne was fond of reading minute accounts of the   oblemen were left wounded amo   the field
deaths of remarkable persons; and, in the simplicity of  of battle. One complained loudly of his pains, the other
his heart, old Montaigne wished to be learned enough to      long silence thus offered him  consolation.'My
form a collection of these deaths, to observe' their words,  friend, whoever you are, remember that our God died on
their actions, and what sort of countenance they put upon  the cross, our king on the scaffold; and if you have strength
it.' He seems to have been a little over curious about  to look at hm who     speaks to you, you will see that
deaths, in reference, no doubt, to his own, in which he    At the murder of the ke  D'Enhien the royal victim
At the murder of the Duke D'Enghien, the royal victim
was certainly deceived; for',ne are told that lie did not  looking at the soldiers who had pointed tir fusees, said,
die as he had promised himrneb>-expiring in the adoration'Grenadiers! lower your arms, otherwise you will miss,
of the mass; or, as his preceptor Buchanan would have' To two ofthem  who proposid  to
or only wound me!' To two of them who proposed to
called it, in'the act of rank idolatry.'              tie a handkerchief over his eyes, he said,' A loyal soldier
I have beenl told of a privately printed volume, nnder  who has been so often exposed to fire and sword, can see
the singular title of'The Book of Death,' where an am-  the approach of death with naked eyes, and without fear.'
cateur has compiled the pious memorials of many of our    After a similar caution on the part of Sir George Lisle,
eminent men in their last moments: and it may form  a  or Sir Ciar      cas, when mtrdered in nearly the sme
or Sir Charles Liucas, when murdered in nearly the same
* These'Private tnstrlctions  to the Commissioners for the  marner at Colchester, by the soldiers of Fairfax, the loyal
deneral Loan' may be found in Rushtvorth, i, 418




LITE RATURE.                                                         321
hero in answer to their assertions and assurances that it is that which makes it so terrible to me; for were it unthey would take care not to miss him, nobly replied'You   certain, hope might diminish some part of the fear; but
have often missed me when I have been nearer to you in  when I think I must die, and that I may die every mo..
the field of battle.'                                      ment, and that too a thousand several ways, I am in such
When the governor of Cadiz, the Marquis de Solano,  a fright as you cannot imagine.  I see dangers where,
was murdered by the enraged and mistaken citizens, to  perhaps, there never were any.  I am persuaded'tis hap.
one of his murderers who had run a pike through his back,  py to be somewhat dull of apprehension in this case; and
he calmly turned round and said,'Coward to strike there!  yet the best way to cure the pensiveness of the thoughts
Come round, if you dare-face, and destroy me!'            of death is to thinlk of it as little as possible.'  She proMr Abernethy in his Physiological Lectures has inge-  ceeds by enumerating the terrors of the fearful, who' canniously observed, that' Shakspeare has represented Mer-  not enjoy themselves in the pleasantest places, and alcutio continuini to jest, though conscious that he was mor-  though they are neither on sea, river, or creek, but in good
tally wounded  the expiring Hotspur thinking of nothing  health in their chamber, yet are they so well instructed
but honour; and the dying Falstaff still cracking his jests  with thefear of dying, that they do not measure it only
upon Bardolph's nose. If such facts were duly attended   by the present dangers that wait on us.  Then is it net
to, they would prompt us to make a more liberal allowance  best to submit to God!  But some people cannot do it as
or eacih other's conduct under certain circumstances than  they would; and though they are not destitute of reason
we are accustomed to do.'  The truth seems to be, that  but perceive they are to blame, yet at the same time that
whenever the tfunctions of the mind are not disturbed by  their reason condemns them, their imagination makes their
the nervous functions of the digestive organs,' the per-  hearts feel what it pleases.'
sonal character predominates even in death, and its ha-    Such is the picture of an ingenuous and a religious mind,
b;Wual associations exist to its last moments.  Many reli-  drawn by an amiable woman, who, it is evident, lived algious persons may have died without showing in their last  ways in the fear ofdeath.  The Gothic skeleton was ever
moments any of those exterior acts, or employing those  haunting her imagination.  In Dr Johnson the same horfervent expressiors, which the collector of' The Book of  ror was suggested by the thoughts of death.  When Bos.
Death' would only deign to chronicle; their hope is not  well once in conversation persecuted Johnson on this subgathered in their last hour.                               ject, whether we might not fortify our minds for the apYet many with us have delighted to taste of death long   proach of death; he answered in a passion,' No, Sir!
before they have died, and have placed before their eyes  let it alone!  It matters not Ihow a man dies, but how he
all the furniture of mortality.  The horrors of a charnel-  lives!  The art of dying is not of importance, it lasts so
house is the scene of their pleasure.  The'Midnight  short a time!' But when Boswell persisted in the conMieditasions' of Q.uarles  preceded  Young's' Night  versation, Johnson was thrown into such a state of agitaThoughts' by a century, and both these poets loved pre-  tion, that he thundered out,'Give us no more of this!'
ternatural terror.                                         and, further, sternly told the trembling and too curious
If I must die, I'llsnatchatevphilosopher,' Don't let us meet to-morrow!'
lt, I'll snatch at every thing bIt may be a question whether those who by their pre".hat may but mind me of my latest breath;
Thath e may but mind me of my  platest, breath;   lparatory conduct have appeared to show  the greatest
iDeath's-heads, Graves, Knells, Blacs,* Tombs, all  indifference for death, have not rather betrayed the most
these shall bring,
these shall bring                           curious art to disguise its terrors.  Some have invented a
Into my soul such useful thoughts of death,           mode of escaping from life in the midst of convivial enThat this sable king of fears                    joyment.  A mortuary preparation of this kind has been
Shall nol catch me unawares.   Q~UARLES.
Shall no catch me unawares.  U LES   recorded of an amiable man, Moncriff, the author of'HisBut it mayhe doubtful whether the thoughts of death are  toire des Charts' and'L'Art de Plaire,' by his literary
useful, whenever they put a man out of the possession of  friend La Place, who was an actor in, as well as the highis faculties. Young pursued the scheme of Quarles: he   torian of the singular narrative.  One morning  La Place
raised about him an artificial emotion of death; he dark-  received a note from Moncriff, requesting that' he would
ened his sepulchral study, placing a skull on his table by   immediately select for him a dozen volimes  most likely to
lamp-light; as Dr Donne had his portrait taken, first wind-  amuse, and of a nature to withdraw the reader from being
in0, a sheet over his head and closing his eyes; keeping   occupied by melancholy thoughts.' La Place was startled
this melancholy picture by his bed-side as long as he lived,  at the unusual request, and fle w to his old friend, whom
to remind him of his mortality.  Young even in his garden   he found deeply engaged in being measured ior a new pe.
had his conceits of death: at the end of an avenue was   ruke, and a taffety robe de chambre, earnestly enjoining
viewed a seat of an admirable chiaro oscuro, which, when   the utmost expedition.'Shut the door!'-said Moncriff,
approached, presented only a painted surface, with an in-  observing the surprise of his friend.'And now that we
scription, alluding to the deception of the things of this  are alone, I confide my secret: on rising this morning,
world.  To be looking at'The mirror which flatters not;'  my valet in dressing me showed me on this leg this dark
to discover ourselves only as a skeleton with the horrid   spot-from  that moment I knew  I "1was condemned to
life of corruption about us, has been among those peniten-  death;" but I had presence of mind enough not to betray
tial inventions, which have often ended in shaking the in-  myself.''Can a head so well organised as yours imagine
nocent by the pangs which are only natural to the damned.  that such a trifle is a sentence of death?'-' Don't speak
Without adverting to those numerous testimonies, the dia-  so loud, my fiiend — or rather deign to listen a moment.
ries of fanatics, I shall offer a picture of an accomplished   At my age it. is fatal! The system  from which I have de.
and innocent lady, in a curious and unaffected transcript  rived the felicity of a long life has been, that whenever'
she has left of a nmind of great sensibility, where the pre-  any evil, moral or physical, happens to us, if there is a
ternatural terror of death might perhaps have hastened the   remedy, all must be sacrificed to deliver us from it-but
premature one she suffered.                                in a contrary case, I do not choose to wrestle with destiny
From  the'Reliquisa  Gethinianae,t I quote some of  and to begin complaints, endless as useless!  All that I
Lady Gethin's ideas on'Death.' —' The very thoughts of  request ofyou, my friend, is to assist me to pass away the
death disturb one's reason; and though a man may have   few days which remain for me, free from  all cares, of
many excellent qualities, yet he may have the weakness   which otherwise they might be too susceptible.  But do
of not commanding his sentiments. Nothing is worse for   not think,' he added with warmth,'that I mean to elude
one's health, than to be in fear ofdeath. There are some   the religious duties of a citizen, which so many of late af.
so wise, as neither to hate nor fear it; but for my part I   feet to contemn.'  The good and virtuous curate of my
have an aversion for it, and with reason; for it is a rash   parish is coming here under a pretext of an annual contriinconsiderate thing, that always conics before it is looked   bution, and I have even ordered my physician, on whose
for; always comes unseasonably, parts friends, ruins   confidence I can rely.  Here is a list of ten or twelve
beauty, laughs at youth, and draws a dark veil over all  persons, friends beloved! who are mostly known to you.
the pleasures of life.  This dreadful evil is but the evil of  I shall write to them  this evening, to tell them ofmy cona moment, and what we cannot by any means avoid; and   detnnation; but if they wish me to live, they will do me
the favour to assemble here at five in the evening, where
*Blacks was the term for mourning in James the First and   they may be certain of finding all those objects ofamuse.
Charles the First's time.                                  ment, which I shall study to discover suitable to their
tMyiv discovery of the nature of this rare volume, of what  tastes.  And you, my old friend, with my doctor, are two
is original and what collected, will be found in the latter part  on whom I mo   depd.
c.                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~on whom I me'st de'pend?'
o:he First Series of these Curiosities of Literature.       La Place  as stronly affcted by this appeal-neither
Noa Place was strongly affcted  by this appeal —neith
2qo 11.




322                                   CURIOSITIES OF
Socrates, nor Cato, nor Seneca looked more serenely on       The artists of antiquity have so rarely attempted to pethe approach of death.                                     sonify Death, that we have not discovered a single revolt-'Familiarize yourself early with death!' said the good  ing image of this nature in all the works of antiquity* —-to
old man with a smile —' It is only dreadful for those who  conceal its deformity to the eye, as well as to elude its
dread it!'                                                 suggestion to the mind, seems to have been an universal
During ten days after this singular conversation, the  feeling, and it accorded with a fundamental principle of
whole of Moncriff's remaining life, his apartment was open   ancient art; that of never offering to the eye a distortion
to his friends, of whom  several were ladies; all kinds of  of form in the violence of passion, which destroyed the
games were played till nine o'clock, and that the sorrows  beauty of its representation; such is shown in the Laoof the host might not disturb his guests, he played the   coon, where the mouth only opens sufficiently to indicate
chouette at his favourite game of picquet: a supper, sea-  the suppressed agony of superior humanity, without exsoned by the wit of the master, concluded at eleven.  On   pressing the loud cry of vulgar suffering.  Pausanias conthe tenth night, in taking leave of his friend, Moncriff  sidered as a personification of death a female figure, whose
whispered to him,'Adieu, my friend! to-morrow morning  teeth and nails, long and crooked, were engraven on a cofI shall return your books!' He died, as he foresaw, the  fin of cedar, which enclosed the body of Cypselus; this
following day.                                             female was unquestionably only one of the Parcce, or the
I have sometimes thought that we might form a history   Fates,' watchful to cut the thread of life;' Hesiod deof this fear of death, by tracing the first appearances of  scribes Atropos indeed as having sharp teeth, and long
the skeleton which haunts oiur funeral imagination.  In   nails, waiting to tear and devour the dead; but this image
the modern history of mankind we might discover some  was in a barbarous era.  Catullus ventured to personify
very strong contrasts in the notion of death entertained by  the Sister-Destinies as three Crones;  but in general,
men at various epochs. The following article will supply  Winkelman observes,'they are portrayed as beautiful
a sketch of this kind.                                     virgins, with winged heads, one of whom is always in the
attitude of writing on a scroll.' Death was a nonentity to
HISTORY OF THE SKELETON OF DEATH.                   the ancient artist.  Could he exhibit what represents noEnthanasia! Enthanasia! an easy death! was the ex-  thing?  Could he animate into action what lies in a state
clamation of Augustus; it was what Antonius Pins en-  of eternal tranquillity?  Elegant images of repose and
joyed; and it is that for which every wise man will pray,  tender sorrow were all he could invent to indicate the state
said Lord Orrery, when perhaps he was contemplating on   of death.  Even the terms which different nations have
the close of Swift's life,                                 bestowed on a burial-place are not associated with emoThe ancients contemplated death without terror, and  tions of horror.  The Greeks called a buryingrond b
met it with indifference.  It was the only divinity to which  the soothing term  of Coemetrion, or,  the sleeping-place
they never sacrificed, convinced that no human being could  the Jews, who had no horrors of the grave, by Bethhaim.
turn aside its stroke.  They raised altars to fever, to mis-  or' the house of the living;' the Germans, with religiout
fortune, to all the evils of life; for these might change!  simplicity,' God's field.'
But though they did not court the presence of death in       Whence, then, originated that stalking skeleton, sug.
any shape, they acknowledged its'tranquillitv; and in the   gesting so many false and sepulchral ideas, and which fot
beautiful fables of their allegorical religion, Death was the  us has so long served as the image of death?
daughter of Night, and the sister of Sleep; and ever the     When the christian religion spread over Europe, the
friend of the unhappy! To the eternal sleep of death they world changed! the certainty of a future state of exist.
dedicated their sepulchral monuments —ZEternaliSomno!4*  ence, by the artifices of wicked worldly men, terrified in.
If the fill light of revelation had not yet broken on them, it  stead of consoling human nature; and in the resurrectir,
can'hardly be denied that they had some glimpses and a  the ignorant multitude seemed rather to have dreaded re.
dawn of the life to come, from the many allegorical inven-  tribution, than  to have hoped for remuneration.  The
tions which describe the transmigration of the soul. A   Founder of christianity every where breathes the blessed.
butterfly on the extremity of an extinguished lamp, held  ness of social feelings.  It is' our Father!' whom he ad.
up by the messenger of the Gods intently gazing above,  dresses.  The horrors with which christianity was after.
implied a dedication of that soul; Love, with a melancholy   wards disguised arose in the corruptions of christianity
air, his legs crossed, leaning on an inverted torch, the flame  among those insane ascetics, who, misinterpreting' the
thus naturally extinguishing itself, elegantly denoted the  word of life,' trampled on nature; and imagined that to
cessation of human life; a rose sculptured on a sarcopha-  secure an existence in the other world it was necessary
gus, or the emblems of epicurean life traced on it, in a skull  not to exist in the one in which God had placed them.
wreathed by a chaplet of flowers, such as they wore at  The dominion of mankind fell into the usurping hands o~
their convivial meetings, a flask of wine, a patera, and the  those imperious monks whose artifices trafficked with the
small bones used as dice; all these symbols were indirect  terrors of ignorant and hypochondriac' Keisers and kings.'
allusions to death, veiling its painful recollections.  They   The scene was darkened by penances and by pilgrimnges,
did not pollute their imagination with the contents of a  by midnight vigils, by miraculous shrines, and bloody flycharnel-house.  The sarcophagi of the ancients rather re-  gellations; spectres started up amidst their tenebres; mil.
call to us the remembrance of the activity of life; for they  lions of masses increased their supernatural influence.
are sculptured with battles or games, in basso relieve; a  Amidst this general gloom of Europe, their troubled amasort of tender homage paid to the dead, observes Mad.  ginations were frequently predicting the end of the world.
De Stael, with her peculiar refinement of thinking.        It was at this period that they first beheld the grave yawn,
It would seem that the Romans had even an aversion  and Death in the Gothic form of a gaunt anatomy parading
to mention death in express terms, for they disguised its  through the universe! The people were frightened, as
very name by some periphrasis, such as discessit e vita,  they viewed every where hung before their eyes, in the'he has departed from  life;' and they did not say that  twilight of their cathedrals, and their pale cloisters,' tho
their friend had died, but that he had lived; vixit'In the  most revolting emblems of death.  They startled the tra.
old Latin chronicles, and even the Fadera and other do-  veller on the bridge; they stared on the sinner in the
cuments of the middle ages, we find the same delicacy   carvings of his table and chair; the spectre moved in the
about using the fatal word Death, especially when applied  hangings of the apartment; it stood in the niche, and was
to kings and great people.'Transire a Sceculo-Vitane   the picture of their sitting-room; it,as worn in their rings,
suam  mutare-Si quid de co humanitus contigerit,.-c.' I  while the illuminator shaded the bony ph-antomn in the maram  indebted to Mr Merivale for this remark.  Even   gins of their' hore,' their primers, and their breviaries.
among a peoplh less refined, the obtrusive idea of death   Their barbarous taste perceived no absurdity in giving
has been studiously avoided: we are told that when the   action to a heap of dry bones, which could only keep toEmperor of Mlorocco inquires after any one who has re-  gether in a state of immovability and repose; nor that it
cently died, it is against etiquette to mention the word  was burlesquing the awful idea of the resurrection, by exdeath;' the answer is' his destiny is closed!' But this
tenderness is only reserved for' the elect' of the Mussel-  * A representation of Death by a skeleton appears among
men.  A Jew's death is at once plainly expressed,' He is  the Egyptians; a custom more sinemlar than barbarous pfedead, sir! asking your pardon for mentioning such a con-  vated, of enctosing a skeleton of beautiful workmanship in a
emptible wretch' i. e. a Jew    A  Christians is e-  small coffin, which the bearer carried rmind at their entertainibed byethe iniel i dead!' or'Thec   is dea'  ments; observing,' after death you will resemble this figure:
mribed by' The infidel is dead?' or' The cuckold is dead!'  drink then! and be happy!, a symbol of Death in a convivial
* Montfaucon, L'Antiquit& Expliquhe, I, 362.       party was not designed to excite terrific or gloomy ideas.




LITERATURE.                                                        323
hibiting the incorruptible spirit under the unnatural and  which was held there during many years, to comme norate
ludicrous figure of mortality drawn out of the corruption of  the mortality occasioned by a plague in 1439. The prethe grave.                                              vailing  character of all these works is unquestionably
An anecdote of these monkish times has been preserved   grotesque  and ludicrous;  not, however, that genius,
by old Gerard Leigh; and as old stories are best set off  however barbarous, could refrain in this large subject of
by old words, Gerard speaketh!'The great Maximilian   human life from inventing scenes often imagined with great
the emperor came to a monastery in high Almaine (Ger-  delicacy of conception, and even great pathos! Such is the
many,) the monks whereof had caused to be curiously  new-married couple, whom Death is leading, beating a
painted the charnel of a man, which they termed-death!  drum, and in the rapture of the hour, the bride seems with
W'hen that well-learned emperor had beholden it awhile,  a melancholy look, now insensible of his presence; or
he called unto him  his painter, commanding to blot the  Death is seen issuing from the cottage of the poor widdow
skeleton out, and to paint therein the image of-a fool.  with her youngest child, who waves his hand sorrowfully,
Wherewith the abbot, humbly beseeching him to the con-  while the mother and the sister vainly answer; or the old
trary, said, "It was a good remembrance!" —" Nay,"  man, to whom death is playing on a psaltery, seems anxiqiuoth the emperor, " as vermin that annoyeth man's body  ous; that his withered fingers should once more touch the
cometh unlooked for, so doth death, which here is but a  strings, while he is carried off in calm tranquillity.  The
fained image, and life is a certain thing, if we know to  greater part of these subjects of death are, however, ludideserve it.*"'  The oriainal mind of Maximilian the  crous and it may be a question, whether the spectators of
Great is characterised by this curious story of converting  these dances of death did not find their mirth more excited
our emblem of death into a party-coloured fool; and such  than their religious emotions. Ignorant and terrified as the
satirical allusions to the folly of those who persisted in  people were at the view of the skeleton, even the grossest
their notion of the skeleton were not unusual with the ar-  simplicity could not fail to laugh at some of those domestic
tists of those times; we find the figure of a fool sitting with  scenes and familiar persons drawn front among themselves.
some drollery between the legs of one of these. skeletons.t   The skelet'.n, skeleton as it is in the creation of genius, gesThis story is associated with an important fact. After  ticulates and rmimics, which even its hideous skull is made
they had successtilly terrified the people with their char-  to express every diversified character, and the result is
nel-house figure, a reaction in the public feelings occurred,  hard to describe; for we are at once amused and disgustfor the skeleton was now employed as a medium to convey  ed with so, much genitis founded on so much barbarism.
the most facetious, satirical, and burlesque notions ofhu-  When the artist succeeded in conveying to the eye the
man life. Death, which had so long harassed their imn-  most ludicrous notions of death, the poets also discovered
aginations, suddenly changed into a theme fertile in coarse  in it a fertile source of the burlesque. The curious collec.
humour.  The Italians were too long accustomed to the  tor is acquainted with many volumes where the most exstudy of the beautiful to allow their pencil to sport with de-  traordinarv topics have been combined with this subject.
formity; but the Gothic taste of the German artists, who  They mnade the body at-d the soul debate tpoether, and
could only copy their own homely nature, delighted to give  ridicule the complaints of a damned soul!  The greater
human passions to the hideous physiognomy of a noseless  part of the poets of the time were always colmposing on the
skull; to put an eye of mockery or malignity into its hol-  subject of Death in their humourous pieces.*  Such hislow sock et, and to stretch out the gaunt anatomy into the  torical records of the pulblic mind, historians, intent on popostures of a Hogarth; and that the ludicrous might be  litical events, have rarely noticed.
carried to its extreme, this imaginary being, taken from   Of a work of this nature, a popular favourite was long
the bone-house,,vas viewed in the action of dancing!  the one entitled' Le ftutmourir et les excuses inutiles qu'on
This blending of the grotesque with the most disgusting  apporte a cette necessitd; Le tout en vers burlesques, 1658:
image of mortality, Is the more singular part of this history  Jacques Jacques, a canon of Ambrun, was the writer, who
of the skeleton, and indeed of human nature itself!      humorously says of himself, that he gives his thoughts just'The Dance of Death' erroneously considered as Hol.  as they lie on his heart, without dissimulation;' for I have
bein's with other similar dances, however differently treat-  nothing double about me except my name! I tell thee
ed, have one common subject which was painted in the  some of the most important truths in laughing; it is for
arcades of burying-agrounds, or on town-halls and in mar-  thee d'y penser tout a bon.' This little volume was pm-r
ket-places.  The subject is usually The Skeleton in the  cured for me with some difficulty in France; and it is coract of leading all ranks and conditions to the grave, person-  sidered as one of the happiest of this class of death-poems
ated after nature, and in the strict costume of the times.  of which I know not of any in our literature.
This invention opened a new field for genius; and when    Our canon of Ambrun, in facetious rhymes, and with
we can for a moment forget their luckless choice of their  the naivete of expression which belongs to his age, and an
bony and bloodless hero, who to abuse us by a variety of  idiomatic turn fatal to a translator, excels in pleasantry;
action becomes a sort of horrid harlequin in these pantomi-  his haughty hero condescends to hold very amusing diamical scenes, we may be delighted by the numerous hu-  logues with all classes of society, and delights to confound
man characters, which are so vividly presented to us. The  their' excuses inutiles,' The most miserable of men, the
origin of this extraordinary invention is supposed to be a  galley-slave, the medicant, alike would escape when he
favourite pageant, or religious mummery, invented by the  appears to them.' Were I not absolute over them,' Deathl
clergy, who in these ages of barbarous christianity always  exclaims,' they would confound me with their long speech.
found it necessary to amuse, as well as to frighlen the po-  es; but I have business, and must gallop on!' His gesm.
pulace; a circumstance well known to have occurred in so  graphical rhymes are droll,
many other grotesque and licentious festivals they allowed
the people.  This pageant was performed in churches,'Ce que j'ai fait dan l'Affrique
m which the chief characters in society were supported in        Je le fais bien dans'Amerique;
a sort of masquerade, mixing together in a general dance,        On l'appelle monde nouveau
in the course of which every one in his turn vanish-             Mais ce snt des brides 6 veau;
ed from the scene, to show how one after the other died          Nulle terre B moy n'est nouvelle
off.T  The subject was at once poetical and ethical; and         Je vay partout sans qu'on m'appelle,
the poets and painters of Germany adopting the skeleton,         Mon bras de tout tems commanda
sent forth this chimerical Ulysses of another world to roam      Dans le pays de Canada;
among the men and manners of their own. One Macaber              J'ai tenu de tout temps en bride
composed a popular poem, and the old Gaulish version re-         La Virginie et la Floride,
formed is still printed at Troyes, in France, with the an-       Et j'ai bien donn6 sur le bec
cient blocks of wood-cuts under the title of' La grande         Aux Frangais du fort de Kebec.
Danse Macabre des hommes et des fenimes.' Merian's               Lorsque je veux je fais la nique'Tod!ten Tans,' or the' Dance of the Dead,' is a curious        Aux Incas, aijx Rois de Mexique.
set of prints of a dance of death from an ancient painting,       Et montre aux nouveaux Grenadins
I think not entirely defaced, in a cemetery at Basle, in          Qu'ils sont des foux et des badins.
Switzerland. It was ordered to be painted by a council            Chacun sait bien comme je matte
r The a cidence of Arinorie, p. 199.                            Ceux du Bresil et de la Paiie,
t A wood-cut preserved in Mr Dibdin's Bib. Dec. 1, 35.          Ainsi que ies Taupinemboust My well-read friend Mr Douce has poured forth his cu-         En un mot, je fais voir B tout
tious knowledge on this subject in a dissertation prefixed to a
valuable edition of Hollar's' Dance of Death.'        i              Gouijet Bib. Franhoise, vol. x. 185




324                                  CURIOSITIES OF
Q.ue ce que nait dans la nature,                prefixed to a posthumous folio, of which Heylin's son was
Doit prendre de moy tablature!*               the editor.  This life was given by the son, but anonymously, which may not have gratified the author, the sonThe perpetual employments of Death display copious  in-law.
invention with a facility of humour.n-aw
Twenty years had elapsed when, in 1682, appeared'Egalement je vay rengeant,' The Life of Dr Peter Heylin, by George Vernon.' The
Le counseiller et le sergeant,                 writer, alluding to the prior life prefixed to the posthumous
Le gentilhomme et le berger,                   folio, asserts, that in borrowing something from Barnard,
Le bourgeois at le boulanger,                   Barnard had also' Excerpted passages out of my papers,
Et la maistresse et la servante                the very words as well as matter, when he had them in
Et la niepce corrmme la tante;                  his custody, as any reader may discern who will be at the
Monsieur l'abb6, monsieur son moino,           pains of comparing the life now published with what is
Le petit clerc et le chanoine;                  extant before the Keimalea Ecclesiastica;' the quaint,
Sans choix je mets dans mon butin               pedantic title, after the fashion of the day, of the posthuMaistre Claude, maistre Martin,                 mous folio.
Dame Luce, dame Perrette, &c.                     This strong accusation seemed countenanced by a dedi.
J'en prends un dans le temps qu'it pleure       cation to the son and the nephew of Heylin. Roused now
A quelque autre, au contraire i l'heure        into action, the indignant Barnard soon produced a more
OQue demisurement il rit                        complete Life, to which he prefixed' A necessary VindiJe donne le coup qui le frit.                   cation.' This is an unsparing castigation of Vernon, the
J'en prends un, pendant qu'il se love;         literary pet whom the Heylins had fondled in preference to
En se couchant l'autre i'enleve.               their learned relative. The long smothered family grudge,
Je prends la malade et le sain                 the suppressed mortifications of literary pride, after the
L'un aujourd'hui, l'autre le demain.            subterraneous grumblings of twenty years, now burst out,
J'en surprends un dedans son lict               and the volcanic particles flew about in caustic pleasantL'autre a l'estude quand il lit.                ries and sharp invectives; all the lava of an author's venJ'en surprends un le ventre plein               geance, mortified by the choice of an inferior rival.
Je mend l'autre par le faim.                      It appears that Vernon had been selected by the son of
J'attrape l'un pendant qu'il prie,              Heylin, in preference to his brother-in-law Dr Barnard,
Et l'autre pendant qu'il renie,                from some family disagreement. Barnard tells us, in deJ'en saisis un au cabaret                       scribing Vernon, that' No man, except himself, who was
Entre le blanc et le clairet,                  totally ignorant of the Doctor, and all the circumstances
L'autre qui dans son oratoire                   of his life, would have engaged in such a work, which
A son D~eu rend honneur et gloire:              was never primarily laid out for him, but by reason of
J'en surprends un lors qu'il se pasme           some unhappy differences, as usually fall out in families;
Le jour qu'il epouse sa femme,                  and he who loves to put his oar in troubled waters, instead
L'autre le jour que plein du deuil              of closing them up hath made them wider.'
La sienne il voit dans le cercuil;                Barnard tells his story plainly. Heylin, the son, inUn A pied et l'autre B cheval                  tending to have a more elaborate life of his father prefixed
Dans le jeu l'un, et l'autre au bal;            to his works, Dr Barnard, from the high reverence in
IUn qui mange et l'autre qui boit,             which he held the memory of his father-in-law, offered
Un qui paye et l'autre qui doit.               to contribute it. Many conferences were held, and the
L'un en ite lorsqu'il moissonne                 son intrusted him with several papers. But suddenly his
L'autre en vendanges dans l'autre               caprice, more than his judgment, fancied that George
L'un criant almanachs nouveaux-                 Vernon was worth John Barnlard.  The doctor affects to
Un qui demande son aumosne                      describe his rejection with the most stoical indifference.
L'autre dans le temps qu'il la donne.           He tells us,'I was satisfied, and did patiently expect the
Je prends le bon maistre Clement,               coming forth of the work, not only term after term, but
Au temps qu'il rend un lauement,                year after year, a very considerable time for such a tract.
Et prends la dame Catherine                     But at last, instead of the life, came a letter to me from a
Le jour qUl'elle prend medicine.'              bookseller in London, who lived at the sign of the Black
This veil of gaiety in the old canon of Ambrun covers  Boy, in Fleet Street.'
deeper and more philosophical thoughts than the singular    Now it seems that he who lived at the Black Boy had
mode of treating so solemn a theme. He has introduced   combined with another who lived at the Fleur de Luce,
many scenes of human life, which still interest, and he  and that the Fleur de Luce had assured the Black Boy
addresses the' Teste t triple couronne,' as well as the  that Dr Barnard was concerned in writing the Life of' forsat de galere,' who exclaims,' Laissez moi vivre dans  Heylin,-this was a strong recommendation.  But lo!
mes fers,''le gueu,' the' bourgeois,' the' chanoine,' the  it appeared that' one Mr Vernon, of Gloucester,' was to' pauvre soldat,' the' medicin,' in a word, all ranks in life  be the man! a gentle thin-skinned authorling, who bleated
are exhibltsd, as in the' dances of death.' But our ob-  like a lamb, and who was so fearful to trip out of its shelject of noticing those burlesque paintings and poems is to  ter, that it allows the Black Boy and the Fleur de Luce to
show, that after the monkish Goths had opened one gene-  communicate its papers to any one they choose, and erase,
ral scene of melancholy and tribulation over Europe, and  or add, at their pleasure.
given birth to that dismal skeleton of death, which still ter-    It occurred to the Black Boy, on this proposed arithrifles the imagination of many, a reaction of feeling was  metical criticism, that the work required addition, subexperienced by the populace, who at length came to laugh  traction, and division: that the fittest critic, on whoso
at the gloonly spectre which had so long terrified them!    name, indeed, he had originally engaged in the work, was
THE RIVAL tBIOGRAPHERS OF HEYLIN.                our Dr Barnard; and he sent the package to the doctor,
who resided near Lincoln.
Peter Heylin was one ofthe popular writers of his times,    The doctor, it appears, had no appetite for a dish dress.
like Fuller and Howell, who, devoting their amusing pens  ed by another, while he himself was in the very act of the
to subjects which deeply interested their own busy age,  cookery; and it was suffered to lie cold for three weeks
will not be slighted by the curious. We have nearly out-  at the carrier's.
lived their divinity, but not their politics.  Metaphysical    But entreated and overcome, the good' doctor at length
absurdities are luxuriant weeds which must be cut down  sent to the carrier's for the life of his father-in-law.'I
by the scythe of Time; but the great passions branching  found it, according to the bookseller's description most
from the tree of life are still' growing with our growth.'   lame and imperfect; ill begun, worse carried on, and abThere are two biographies of our Heylin, which led to aruptly concluded.' The learned doctor exercised that
literary quarrel of an extraordinary nature; and, in the  plenitude of power with which the Black Boy had investprogress of its secret history, all the feelings of rival au-  ed him; —he very obligingly showed the author in what a
thorship were called out.                               confused state his materials lay together, and how to put
Heylin died in 166.  Dr Barnard, his son-in-law, and  them in order;
a scholar, communicated a sketch of the author's life to bea desere hu
* Tablature d'up'uth, Cotgrave says, is the belly of a lute,,meaning' all in nature must dance to my music!'      If his rejections were copious, to show his good will as




LITE RATURE.                                                      321
wsea as his severity, his additions were generous, though   which his book was in much danger, he hath set down the
he used the precaution of carefully distinguishing by'dis-  story of Westminster, as long as the ploughman's tale
nct paragraphs' his own insertion amidst Vernon's mass,  in Chaucer, which to the reader would have been more
with a gentle hint, that'He knew more of Heylin than  pertinent and pleasant.  I wonder he did not transcribe
any man now living, and ought therefotbre to have been the  bills of chancery, especially about a tedious suit my father
biographer.' He returned the MS. to the gentleman with  had for several years about a lease at Norton.'
great civility, but none he received back! When Vernon       In his raillery of Vernon's affected metaphors and compretended to ask for improvements, he did not imagine  parisons,' his similitudes and dissirnilitudes strangely hook.
that the work was to be iniproved by being nearly destroy-  ed in, and fetched as far as the Antipodes,' Barnard  oled; and when he asked for correction, he probably ex-  serves,'The man hail also a strange opinion of himsel!
pected all miht end in a compliment.                     that he is Doctor Heylin; and because he writes his life,
The narrative may now proceed in Vernon's details of  that he hath his natural parts, if not acquired.  The soul
his doleful mortifications, in being' altered and mangled'   of St Augustine (say the schools) was Pythagorically
by Dr Barnard.                                            tranfused into the corpse of Aquinas; so the soul of Dr'Instead of thanks from  him (Dr Barnard,) and the  Heylin into a narrow soul. I know there is a question in
return of common civility, he disfigured my papers, that  philosophy, an animoe sint aequales?  Whether souls be
no sooner came into his hands, but he fell upon them as a  alike?  But there's a difference between the spirits of
lion rampant, or the cat upon the poor cock in the fable,  Elijah and Elisha: so small a prophet with so great a
saying, Tu hodie mihi discerperis-so my papers came  one!'
home miserably clawed, blotted, and blurred; whole sen-    Dr Barnard concludes by regretting that good counsel
tences dismembered, and pages scratched out; several  came now unseasonable, else he would have advised the
leaves omitted which ought to be printed,-shanmefully he  writer to have transmitted his task to one who had been
used my copy; so that before it was carried to the press,  an ancienit friend of Dr Heylin, rather than ambitiously
he swooped away the second part of the life wholly from   have assumed it, who was a professed stranger to him, by
it-in the room of which he shuffled in a preposterous con-  reason of which no betler account could be expected from
elusion at the last page, which he printed in a different  him than what he has given.  He hits off the character o4
character, yet could not keep himself honest, as the poet  this piece of biography —  A  life to the half; an impersaith,                                                     fect creature, that is not only lame (as the honest bookDicitque tuapagina,fur es.                seller said,) but wanteth legs, and all other integral parts
MARTIAL.            of a man; nay the very soul that should animate a body
like Dr Heylin. So that I must say of him as Plutarch
for he took out of my copy Doctor Heylin's dream, his  doth of Tib. Gracchus, " that he is a bold undertaker
sickness, his last words before his death, sand left out the  and rash talker of those matters he does inot understand."
burning of his surplice.  He so mangled and metanmor-  And so I have done with him, unless he creates to himself
phosed the whole life I composed, that I may say as Socia   and me a future trouble.'
did, Egomet mihi non credo ille alter, Sosia, me malls mul-  Vernon appears to have slunk away from  the duel.
cavit modis-Plaut.'                                       The son of Heylin stood corrected by the superior life
Doctor Barnard would have' patiently endured these   produced by their relative; the learned and vivacious Barwrongs;' but the accusation Vernon ventured on, that  nard probably never again ventured to alter and improve
Bartnard was the plagiary, required the doctor' to return  the works of an author kneeling and praying for correcthe poisoned chalice t, his own lips,' that' himself was the  tions.  These bleating lambs, it seems, often turn out
plagiary both of words and matter.' The fact is, that this  roaring lions!
reciprocal accusation was owing to Barnard having had
a prior perusal of Heylini's papers, which afterwards came              OF LENGLET DU FRESNOY.
into the hands of Vernon: they both drew their waters        The I Methode pour etudier I'Histoire,' by the Abb6
from the same source.  These papers Heylin himself had   Lenglet du Fresnoy, is a master-key to all the locked-up
left for' a rule to guide the writer of his life.'       treasures of ancient and modern history, and to the moro
Barnard keenly retorts on Vernon for his surreptitious  secret stores of the obscurer memnorialists of every nation.
use of whole pages from  Heylin's works, which he has  The history of this work and its author are equally reappropriated to himself without any marks of' quotation.  markable.  The man was a sort of curiosity in human'I am no such excerptor (as he calls mie;) he is of the   nature, as his works are in literature.  Lenglet do Freshumour of the man who took all the ships in the Attic  noy is not a writer merely laborious; without genius, he
haven for his own, and yet was himself not master of any   still has a hardy originality in his manner of writing and of
one vessel.'                                              thinking; and his vast and restless curiosity fermenting
Again:-                                                 his immense book-knowledge, with a freedom verging on'But all this while I misunderstand him, for possibly he   cynical causticity, led to the pursuit of uncommon topics.
meaneth his own dear words I have excerpted.  Why   Even the prefaces to the works which he edited are
doth he not speak in plain downright English, that the   singularly curious, and he has usually added bibliotheques.
word may see my faults?  For every one does not know   or critical catalogues of authors, which we may still conwhat is excerpting.  If I have been so bold to pick or snap   suit for notices on the writers of romances-of those on
a word from him, I hope I may have the benefit of the  literary subjects-on alchymy, or the hermetic philosophy;
clergy.  What words have I robbed him  of? and how   of those who have written on apparitions, visions, 4-c.have Isecorr, -he richer for them?  I was never so taken   an historical treatise on the secret of confession, 4-c.;
with him  as to oe once tempted to break the command-  besides tlhose' Pieces  Justificatives,' which constitute
ments, because I love plain speaking, plain writing, and   some of the most extraordinary documents in the philosoplain dealing, which he does not: I hate the word ex-  phy of History.  His manner of writing secured him
cerpted, and the action imported in it.  However, he Is a   readers even among the unlearned; his mordacity, his
fanciful man, anti thinks there is no elegancy nor wit but  sarcasm, his derision, his pregnant interjections, his unin his own way of talking. I must say as Tully did, Matim   guarded frankness, and often his strange opinions, conequidem indisertoam prudentiam quam stultam loquacitatem.'  tribute to his reader's amusement more than comports with
In his turn he accuses Vernon of being a perpetual  his graver tasks; but his peculiarities cannot alter the
transcriber, and for the Malone minuteness of his his-  value of his knowledge, whatever they may sometimes
tory.                                                     detract from his opinions; and we may safely admire
But how have I excerpted his matter?  Then I am   the ingenuity, without quarrellin' with thile  sincerity
sure to rob the spittle-house; for he is so poor and put to  of the writer, who having composed a work on L'Usage
hard shifts, that has much ado to compose a tolerable  des Romans, in which he gayly impugned the authenstory, which he hatlh been hammering and conceiving in his  ticity of all history, to  prove  himself not to  have
mind for four years together, before he could bring forth his  been the author, ansbi-dexterously published another of
foetus of intolerable transcriptions to molest the reader's   L'Histoirejustlefi  contre les Romans; and perhaps it was
paiience and memory. How doth he run himself out of  not his fault that the attack was spirited, and the justifica.
breath, sometimes for twenty pages and more, at other  tion dull.
times fifteen, ordinarily nine and ten, collected out of Dr    This' Methode' and his'Tablettes Chronologiques,
H-eylin's old books, before he can take his wind again to  of nearly forty other publications are the only ones which
return to his story.  I never met with sui:h e transcriber in  outlived their writer; volumes, merely curious, are exiled
all my days; for want of matter to fill up a vacuum, of  to the shelf of the collector, the very name of ani author




l&26                                   CURIOSITIES OF
merely curious-that shadow ot a shade-is not always  his old work was always undergoing the magic prscess o.
even preserred by a dictionary-compiler in the universal  rejuvenescence.*
charity of his alphabetical mortuary.                        The personal character of our author was as singular
The history of this work Is a striking instance of those  as many of the uncommon topics which engaged h;s inqui.
imperfect beginnings, which have often closed in the most  ries; these we might conclude had originated in mere ecimportant labours.  This admirable' Methode' made its  centricity, or were chosen at random.  But Lenglet has
first meagre appearance in two volumes in 1713. It was  shown no deficiency of judgment in several works of
soon reprinted at home and abroad, and translated into va-  acknowledged utility; and his critical opinions, his last
rious languages. In 1729 it assumed the dignity of four  editor has shown, have, for the greater part, been sanc.
quartos; but at this stage it encountered the vigilance of  tioned by the public voice.  It is curious to observe how
government, and the lacerating hand of a celebrated cen.  the first direction which the mind of a hardy inquirer may
eur Gros de Boze. It is said, that from a personal dislike  take, will often account for that variety of uncommon to.
of the author, he cancelled one hundred and fifty pages  pics he delights in, and which, on a closer examination,
from the printed copy submitted to his censorship.  He  may be found to bear an invisible connexion with some
had formerly approved of the work, and had quietly passed   preceding inquiry.  As there is an association of ideas, so
over some of these obnoxious passages: it is certain  in literary history there is an association of research; and
that Gros de Boze, in a dissertation on the Janus of the  a very judicious writer may thus be impelled to compose
ancients in this work, actually erased a high commenda-  on subjects which may be deemed strange or injudicious.
tion of himself,* which Lenglet had, with unusual court-    This observation may be illustrated by the literary hisesy, bestowed on Gros de Boze; for as a critic he is most  tory of Lenglet du Fresnoy.  He opened his career by
penurious of panegyric, and there is always a caustic fla-  addressing a letter and a tract to the Sorbonne, on the exyour even in his drops of honey.  This censeur either  traordiiiary affair of Maria d'Agreda, abbess of the nunaffected to disdain the oommendation, or availed himself  nery of the Immaculate Conception in Spain, whose mysof it as a trick of policy.  This was a trying situation for  tical life of the Virgin, published on the decease of the
an author, now proud of a great work, and who himself  abbess, and which was received with such rapture in
partook more of the bull than of the lamb.  He who  Spain, had just appeared at Paris, where it excited the
winced at the scratch of an epithet, beheld his perfect  murmurs of the pious, and the inquiries of the curious.
limbs bruised by erasures and mutilated by cancels. This  This mystical life was declared to be founded on apparisort of troubles indeed was not unusual with Lenglet. He  tions and revelations experienced by the abbess.  Lenglet
had occupied his old apartment in the Bastile so often, that  proved, or asserted, that the abbess was not the writer of
at the sight of the officer who was in the habit of conduct-  this pretended life, though the manuscript existed in her
ing him there, Lenglet would call for his night-cap and  hand-writing; and secondly, that the apparitions and revesnuff; and finish the work he had then in hand at the  lations recorded were against all the rules of apparitions
Bastile, where he told Jordan, that he made his edition of  and revelations which he had painfully discovered.  The
Marot.  He often silently restituted an epithet or a sen-  affair was of a delicate nature.  The writer was young
tence which had been condemned by the censeur, at the  and incredulous; a grey-beard, more deeply versed in
risk of returning once more; but in the present desperate  theology, replied, and the Sorbonists silenced our philosoaffair he took his revenge by collecting the castrations into  pher in embryo.
a quarto volume, which was sold clandestinely.  I find, by   Lenglet confined these researches to his pcrtfolio; and
Jordan, in his voyage lifteraire, who visited him, that it was  so long a period as fifty-five years had elapsed before they
his pride to read these cancels to his friends, who gene-  saw the light.  It was when Calmet published his Disserrally, but secretly, were of opinion that the decision of the  tations on Apparition, that the subject provoked Lenglet
censeur was not so wrong as the hardihood of Lenglet in-  to return to his forsaken researches.  He now  rublished
sisted on. All this increased thile  public rumour, and   all lie had formerly composed on the affair  if Maria
raised the price of the cancels.  The craft and mystery of  d'Agreda, and two other works; the one'Traiti histoaitlhorship was practised by Lenglet to perfection, and he  rique et dogmatique sur les Apparitions, les Visions, et lea
often exulted, not only in the subterfuges by which he par-  Revielations particulieres,' in two volumes; and' Recueil
ted hi;s eonsufrs,  but in his bargains with his booksellers,  de Dissertations anciennes et nouvelles, sur les Apparitions,
who  wecre  equally desirous to possess, while they half-  4.c.' with a catalogue of authors on this subject, in four
feared to enjoy, his uncertain or his perilous copyrights.  volunmes.  When he edited the Roman de la Rose; in
When the unique copy of the Melhode, in its pristine state,  compiling the glossary of this ancient poem, it led him to
before it had suffered any dilapidations, made its appear-  reprint many of the earliest French poets; to give an ciance at the sale of the curious library of the conscur Gros  larged edition of the Arrets d'Amour, that work of love
de Boze, it provoked a Roxburgh competition, where the  and chivalry, in which his fancy was now so deeply imcollectors, eagerly out-bidding each other, the price of this  bedded; while the subject of Romance itself naturally led
uncastrated copy reached to 1500 livres; an event more  to the taste of romantic productions which appeared in
extraordinary in the history of French bibliography, than'L'Usage des Romans,' and its accompanying copious
in our own.  The curious may now find all these cance   nomenclature of all romances and romance-writers, ansheets, or ceastrations, preserved in one of those works of  cient and modern. Our vivacious Abbh  had been beliterary history, to which the Germans have contributed   wildered by his delight in the works of a chemical philomore largely than other European nations; and I have   sopher; and though he did not believe in the existence of
discovered that even the erasures, or bruises, are amply  apparitions, and certainly was more than a sceptic in hisfurnished in another bibliographical record.f             tory, yet it is certain that the'grand ceuvre' was an artiThis  lIethode, after several later editions, was still  cle in his creed; it would have ruined him in experiments,
enlarging itself by fresh supplements; and having been  if he had been rich enough to have been ruined.  It altranslated by men of letters in Europe, by Coleti in Italy,  tered his health; and the most important result of his
by Mencken in Germany, and by Dr Rawlinson in Eng-  chemical studies appears to have been the invention of a
land, these translators have enriched their own editions by   syrup, in which he had great confidence; but its trial blew
more copious articles, designed for their respective na-  him up into a tympany, from which he was only relieved
tions. The sagacity of the original writer now renovated   by having recourse to a drug, also of his own discovery,
his work by the infusions of his translators; like old  which, in counteracting the syrup, reduced him  to an.Eson, it had its veins filled with green juices; and thus  alarming state of atrophy.  But the mischances of the
historian do not eiiter into his history; and our curiosity
* This fact appears in the account of the minuter erasures.  must be still eager to open Lenglet's' Histcire de la PhiThe castrations are in Beyeri Memorice historico-criticas  losophie Hermetique, accompanied by a catalogue of the
librorum rariorum, p. 166. The bruises are carefully noted in  writers in this mysterious science, in two volumes; as
the Catalogue of the Duke de la Valliere, 4467. Those who  well as his enlarged edition of the works of a great Paraare curious in such singularities will be gratified by the extra.
ordinary opinions and results in Beyer; and which after all  sian, Nicholas    Fevre.  This philosopher was ap
were purloined from a manuscript'Abridgment of Universal  pointed by Charles the Second superin!endent over the
History,' which was drawn up by Count de Boulainvilliers,  royal laboratory at St James's: he was also a member of
and more adroitly, than delicately, inserted by Lenglet in his  the Royal Society, and the friend of Boyle, to whom he
own work. The original manuscript exists in various copies,
which were afterwards discovered. The miruter corrections,    * The last edition, enlarged by Drouet, is in 15 volumes, but
In the Duke de la Valliere's catalogue, furnish a most enliven.  Is not later than 1772. It is still an inestimable manual for the
ig article in the dryness of bibliography.                historical student, as well as his Tab!ettes Chronologiques




LI1 ERATURE.                                                       32t
communicated the secret of infusing young blood into old  at eleven. As soon as our historian had discovered that
veins, with a notion that he could renovate that which ad-  the poet was a brother spy and newsmonger on the side of
mits of no second creation.*  Such was the origin of Du   Prince Eugene, their reciprocal civilities cooled. Lenglet
Fresnov s active curiosity on a variety of singular topics,  now imagined that he owed his six months retirement in
the germs of which may be traced to three or four of'our  the citadel of Strasburgh to the secret officiousness of
author's principal works.                               Rousseau: each grew suspicious of the other's fidelity;
Our Abbe promised to write his own life, and his pug-  and spies are like lovers, for their mutual jealousies settled
nacious vivacity, and hardy frankness, would have sea-  into the most inveterate hatred. One of the most defamasoned a piece of auto-biography; an amateur has, how-  tory libels is Lenglet's intended dedication of his edition of
ever, written it in the style which amateurs like, with all  Marot to Rousseau, which being forced to suppress in
the truth he could discover, enlivened by some secret his-  Holland, by order of the States-general; at Brussels, by
tory, writing the life of Lenglet with the very spirit of  the intervention of the Duke of Aremberg; and by every
Lenolet; it is a mask taken from the very features of the  means the friends of the unfortunate Rousseau could con..
man, not the insipid wax-work of an hyperbolical eloge-  trive; was however many years afterwards at length subinaker.t                                                joined by Lenglet to the first volume of his work on RoAlthough Lenglet du Fresnoy commenced in early life his  manlces; where an ordinary reader may wonder at its apcareer as a man of letters, he was at first engaged in the  pearance unconnected with any part of the wcrk. In this
great chase of tpolitical adventure; and some striking facts  dedication or' eloge historique' he often addresses' Mon
are recorded, which show his successful activity. Michault  cher Rousseau,' but, the irony is not delicate, and the cadescribes his occupations by a paraphrastical delicacy of  lumny is heavy. Rousseau lay too open to the unlicensed
langouace, which an Englishman might not have so hap-  causticity of his accuser. The poet was then expatriated
pily composed. The minister for foreign affairs, the Mar-  from France for a false accusation against Saurin, in atqluis de Torcy, sent Lenglet to Lisle, where the court of  tempting to fix on him those criminal couplets, which so
the Elector of Cologne was then held;'He had particular  long disturbed the peace of the literary world in France,
orders to watch that the two ministers of the elector should  and of which Rousseau was generally supposed to be the
do nothing prejudicial to the king's affairs.' He seems,  writer; but of which on his death-bed he solemnly prohowever, to have watched many other persons, and de-  tested that he was guiltless.  The coup de grace is given
tected many other things.  He discovered a captain, who  to the poet, stretched on this rack of invective, by just ac.
agreed to open the gates of Mons to Marlborough, for  cusations on account of those infamous epigrams, which
100,000 plastres; the captain was arrested on the parade,  appear in some editions of that poet's works; a lesson for
the letter of Marlborough was found in his pocket, and the   a poet, if poets would be lessoned, who indulge their imtraitor was broken on the wheel. Lenglet denounced a  agination at the cost of their happiness, and seem to invent
foreign general in the French service, and the event war-  crimes, as if they themselves were criminals.
ranted the prediction. His most important discovery was    But to return to our Lengitt.  Had he composed his
that of the famous conspiracy of Prince Cellamar, one of  own life, it would have offered a sketch of political servithe chimerical plots of Alberoni; to the honour of Lenalet,  tude and political adventure, in a man too intractable for
he would not enaage in its detection, unless the minister  the one, and too literary for the other. Yet to the honour
promised that no blood should be shed.  These successful  of his capacity, we must observe that he might have chosen
incidents in the life of an honourable spy were rewarded  his patrons, would he have submitted to patronage. Prince
with a moderate pension. Lenglet must have been no  Eugene at Vienna; Cardinal Passionei at Rome; or
vuolgar intriguer; he was not only perpetually confined by  Morns. Le Blanc, the French minister, would have held
his very patrons when he resided at home for the freedom   him  on his own terms. But' Liberty and my books!'
of his pen, hut I find him early imprisoned in the citadel  was the secret ejaculation of Lenglet; andl from that mao
of Strasburgh for six months: it is said for purloining some  mnent all things in life were sacrificed to a jealous spirit of
curious books from  the library of the Abb6 Bignon, of  independence, which broke out in his actions as well as in
which he had the care.  It is certain that he knew the   his writings; and a passion for study for ever crushed the
value of' the scarcest works, and was one of those lovers  worm of ambition.
of bibliography who trade at times in costly rarities.  At    He was as singular in his conversation, which, says
Vienna he betamne intimately acquainted with the poet  Jordan, was extremely agreeable to a foreigner, for he deRousseaiu and Prince Eugene.  The prince, however,  livered himself without reserve cn all things, and on all
who suspected the character of our author, long avoided   persons, seasoned with secret and literary anecdotes. He
him.  Lenalet insinuated himself into the favour of the  refused all the conveniences offered by an opulent sister,
prince's librarian; and such was his biblionraphical skill,  that he might not endure the restraint of a settled dinner
that this acquaintance ended in Prince Eugene laying   hour. He lived to his eightieth year, still busied, and then
aside his political dread, and preferring the advice of  died by one of those grievous chances, to which aged men
Lenglet to his librarian's, to enrich his magnificent libra-  of letters are liable  our caustic critic slunbered over
rv. When the motive of Lenglet's residence at Vienna   some modern work, and, falling into the fire, was burnt to
became more and more suspected, Rousseau was em-  death. Many characteristic anecdotes of the Abb6e Lengployed to watch him; and not vet having quarrelled with  let have been preserved in the Dictionnaire Historique, but
his brother spy, he could only report that the Abb6 Len-  I shall not repeat what is of easy recurrence.
glet was every morning occupied in working on his' Tablettes Chronologiques,' a work not worthy of alarming              THE DICTIONAtY OF TREVOUX.
the government; that he spent his evenings at a violin     A learned friend, in his very agreeable'Trimester, or
player's married to a French woman, and returned'home  a three months' journey in France and Swisserland,' could
not pass through the small town of Trevoux without a
* The Dictionnaire Historique, 1789, in their article Nich 
Lr Fevre, notices the third edition of his' Course of Chemis  literacy association of ideas which should accompany evetry,' that of 1664, in two volumes; but the present one of Len-  rv man of letters in his tours, abroad or at home. A mind
glet du Fresnoy's is more recent, 1751, enlar,ged into five vo.  well informed cannot travel without discovering that there
lumes, two of which contain his own additions. I have never  are objects constantly presenting themselves, which sugmet with this edition, and it is wanting at the British Museum.   gest literary, historical, and moral facts. My friend writes,
Le Fevre published a tract on the great cordial of Sir Walter'As you proceed nearer to Lyons you stop todine at TreRawleigh, which may be curious.                          voux, on the left bank of the Soane. On a sloping hill,
LeThst anonymous, althorkg  the dedication is sined G. PAbb    down to the water-side, rises an amphitheatre, crowned
Lenl1t do Fresnoy,' although the dedication is signed G. P    with an ancient Gothic castle, in venerable ruin; under
is s;-'itten by Michault, of Dijon, as a presentation copy to  ith an ancient Goth ic castle, in venerable ruin;  under
Count de Vienne in my possession proves. Michault is the  it is the small town of Trevoux, well known for its Journal
writer of two volumes of agreeable' Melanges Historiques,  and Dictionary, which latter is almost an encyclopaedia, as
et P'ilologiques;' and the present is a very curious piece of  here are few things of which something is not said in the'
literary history. The  Dictionnaire Historique has compiled?ost valuable compilation, and the whole was printed at
the article of Len-let entirely friom this work; but the Journal  Trevoux.  The knowledge of this circumstance greatly
des Scavans was too ascetic in this opinion.' Etoit-ce la peine  enhancesthe delieht of any visitor who has cinsulted the
de faire oin livre pour apprendre au public qui' n homme deo    a
lettres, fut Espion, Escroc, bizarre, fougueux, cynique incapa.   book and is accliainted with its merits: and must add
ble d'amiti. de decence, de soumission aux loix?' &c. Yet    to his local pleasures.'
they do not detny that the bibliography of Lenglet du Fresnoy  A work from which every man of letters may be oon.
e at-all dleficiert in curiosity.                        tinually deriving such varied knowledge, and which is little




328                                     CURIOSITIES OF
known but to the most curious readers, claims a place in   knowledges, as soon as the great work appeared, aston.
these volumes; nor is the history of the work itself with-  ished, like Dennis, that' they were rattling his own thun.,
out interest.  Eight large folios, each consisting of a   der,' without saying a word, quits his country town, and
thousand closely printed pages, stand like a vast mountain,  ventures, half dead with sickness and indignation, on an
of which, before we climb, we may be anxious to learn   expedition to Paris, to make his complaint to the chancel.
the security of the passage.  The history of dictionaries  lor; and the work was deemed of that importance in the
is the most mutable of all histories; it is a picture of the   eye of government, and so zealous a contributor was coninconstancy of the knowledge of' man; the learning of one   sidered to have such an honourable claim, that the ch.ngeneration passes away with another; and a dictionary of  cellor ordered, first, that a copy on large paper, should be
this kind is always to be repaired, to be rescinded, and to  immediately delivered to Monsieur Lautour, richly bound
be enlarged.                                               and free of carriage; and secondly, as are paration of the
The small town of Trevoux gave its name to an excel-  unperformed promise, and an aclknowledgment of grati.
lent literary journal, long conducted by the Jesuits, and to  rude, the omission of thanks should be inserted and exthis dictionary-as Edinburgh has to its critical Review   plained in the three great literary journals of France; a
and Annual Register, &c. It first came to he distinguished   curious instance among others of the French government
as a literary town from the Duc du Maen,, as prince sove-  often mediating, when difficulties occurred in great literar
reign of Dombes, transferring to thii, l'ttle town of Trevoux   undertakings, and considering not lightly the claims and
nriot only his parliament and cnher   public institutions, but  the honour of men of letters.
also establishing a magnificent p inting house, in the be-   Another proof, indeed, of the same kind, concerning the
ginning of the last century.  The duke, probably to keep   present work, occurred after the edition sf 1752.  One
his printers ini constant cmploy, instituted the' Journal de  Jamet l'ain6, who had with others been usefuiily employed
Treveux;' and this, perrpi-', greatly tended to bring the   on this edition, addressed a proposal to the government for
printing house into notice, t o that it became a favourite  an improved one, dated from the Bastile.  He proposed
with many good writers, w'hc appear to have had no other  that the government should choose a learned person, acconnexion with the pWat:;; and this dictionary borrowed   customed to the labour of the researches such a work re.
its first title, which it always preserved, merely from  the   quires; and he calculated, that if supplied with three
place where it wat ptmited.  Both the journal and the dic-  amanuenses, such an editor would accomplish his task in
tioeary were, howv.ver, consigned to the cares of some   about ten or twelve years; the produce of the edition would
learned Jesuits, anl perhaps the place always indicated   soon repay all the expenses and capital advanced.  This
the principles of the writers, of whom  none were more  literary projector did not wish to remain idle in the Baseminent for ehegant literature than the Jesuits.           tile.  Fifteen years afterwards the last improved edition
The first edltion of this dictionary sprung from  the   appeared, published by the associated booksellers of Paris.
spite of rivalry, occasioned by a French dictionary pub-     As for the work itself, it partakes of the character of,ished. in I_:,ltsad, by the protestant Basnage de Beauval.  our Encyclopwdias; but in this respect it cannot be safely
Prhe duke set his Jesuits hastily to work; who, after a   consulted, for widely has science enlarged its domains and
-iompous announcement that this dictionary was formed   corrected its errors since 1771.  But It is precious as a
n a plan. suggested by their patron, did little more than pil-  vast collection of ancient and modern learning, particularly.age Furetrere, and rummage Basnage, anid produced three  in that sort of knowledge which we nsually term antiquasew folios without any novelties; they pleased the Duc du   rian and philological.  It is not merely a grammatical,
Maaine and no one else.  This was in 1704.  Twenty   scientific and technical dictionary, but it is replete with dijetrs after it was republished and improved; and editions   vinity, law, moral philosophy, critical and historical learn-..creasing, the volumes succeeded each other, till it reach-   rig, and abounds with innumerable miscellaneous curiosisd to its present magnitude and value in eight large folios,  ties.  It would be difficult, whatever may be the subject
n 1771, the only edition now esteemed.  Manry of the   of inquiry, to open it, without the gratification of some
names of the contributors to this excellent collection of  knowledge neither obvious nor trivial.  I heard a man 
*ords and things, the industry of Monsieur Barbier has   great learning declare, that whenever he could not recol.
revealed in his' Dictionnaire des Anonymes,' art. 10782.  lect his knowledge he opened Hoffman's Lexicon UniverThe work, in the progress of a century, evidently became   sale Historicum, where he was sure to find what he had
a favourite receptacle with men of letters in France, who  lost.  The works are similar; and valuable as are the
eagerly contributed the smallest or the largest articles   German's four folios, the eight of the Frenchman may
with a zeal honourable to literature and most useful to the  safely be recomnmended as their substitute, or their suppublic.  They made this dictionary their common-place   plemnent.  As a Dictionary of the French Language it
bookt for all their curious acquisitions; every one compe-  bears a peculiar feature, which has been presumptuously
tent to write a short article preserving an important fact,  dropped in the Dictionnaire de I'Academie;  the last indid not aspire to compile the dictionary, or even an entire  vents phrases to explain words, which therefore have no
articre in it; but it was a treasury in which such mites  other authority than thile writer himself! this of Trevoux
collectvl. together formed its wealth; and all the literati  is furnished, not only with mere authorities, but also with
may be said to have been engaged in perfecting these   quotations from the classical French writers-an improvevolumes during a century.  In this manner, from the hum-   ment which was probably suggested by the English Dic.
ble beginnings of three volumes, in which the plagiary  tionary of Johnson.  One nation improves by another.
much more than the contributor was visible, eight were at        qUADRIO's ACCOIUNT OF eENGLI$S    POEys','.
length built up with more durable materials, and which                                                   lr
claim the attention and the gratitude of the student.        It is, perhaps, somewhat mortifying in our literary re
The work, it appears interested the goverment itse    searches to discover that our own literature has been only
lf)  known to the other nations of Europe comparatively with.
as a national concern, from the tenor of the following an-  k
~ecdotes.                                                 in recent times.  We have at length triumphed over our
Most of the minor contributors to this great collection   continental rivals in the noble struggles of genius, and oum
Most of the minor contributors to this great collection  atosnwseterwrspitdee   tfrinpes
were satisfied to remain anonymous; but as might be ex-  authors now see their works printed even at foreign press
pected among such a number, sometimes a contributor was  es, while we are furnishing with our gratuitous laours
anxious to be known to his'        i s  nearly the whole literature of a new empire; yet so late
anxious to be known to his circle; and did not like this
penitential abstinence of fame.  An anecdote recorded of  as in the reign of.Anne, our poets were only known by the
penitential abstinence of fame. An anecdote recorded of
one of this class will amuse: a Monsieur Lautour du Latin versifiers of the'Musre Anglicanr;' and when
Boileau was told of the public funeral of Dryden, he was
Chatel, avocat au parlement de Normandie, voluntarily  pleased with the national honours bestowed on genius, but
devoted his studious hours to improve this work, and fur-     laedth
he declared that he never heard of his name before. This
the edition of 1752.  This ardent scholar had had a lively  great legislator of Parnassus has never alluded to one of
the edition of 1752. This ardent scholar bad had a lively
quarrel thirty years before with the first authors of th    our own poets, so insular then was our literary ebory!
our own poets, so insular then was our literary glory!
uarelthity  ear   beorewih  te  frstautorsof he The most remarkable fact, or perhaps assertion, I have
dictionary. He had sent them one thousand three hundred   The most remarable fct, or perhaps asserto, I have
articles,   conditin that the donor should be handsomely   met with, of the little knowledge which the continent had
articles, on conditicn that the donor should be handsomely   of our writers, is a French translation of' Bishop Hall's
thanked in the preface of the new edition, and further re-  o Characters of Virtues and Vices.'  It is a     Hduldecil
ceive a copy en grandpapier. They were accepted. The           rtes of V           a       es    t is aueci
condutor  of ewditonn121forgot all the pro-  printed at Paris of 109 pages, 1610, with this title. Ceriso
conductor  than sew  dition, nor copy! Our learned avcat1721,   who   teres de Vertus et de Vices; tires de l'Anielois de 1M. Josej
ises-nor thanksnorcopy!  Our  arnedavocaw Hall.  Tn a dedication to the Earl of Salisbury, the trans.
Was a little itritable, as h;s nephew who wrote his life ac-  latr informs his lordshi  hat     t.
lator informs his lordship  that ce Ivure est la,.remiere,2 a.




LITERATURE.                                                     329
duction de l'A4nglosjamais imprim6e aucun vulgatre. The  turous criticism,'le sue poesie assai buone.' He theP
first translation from the English ever printed in any mu-  was lucky enough to pick up the title-not the volume
dern language!  Vi lerler tile translator is a bold liar, or  surely-which is one of the rarest;' Fiori poetici de A.
an ignorant blunderer, remains to be ascertained; at all  Cowley,' which he calls' poesie amorose:' this must mean
events it is a hu-niiiating demonstration of the small pro-  that early volume of Cowley's, published in his thirteenth
gress which our home literature had made abroad in 1610!  year, under the title of' Poetical Blossoms.' Futrther he
I come now to notice a contemporary writer. professed-  laid hold of' John Donne' by the skirt, and' Thomas
y writing the history of our Poetry, of which his knowl-  Creech,' at whom he made a full pause; informing his
sdge will open to ius as we proceed with our enlightened  Italians, that his poems are reputed by tis nation as' Iand amateur historian.                                  sai buone.' He has also' Le opere di Guglielmo;' but to
Father Quladrio's Della Storia e della ragione d'ogni  this christian name, as it would appear, he had not ven.
Poesia,.-is a gigantic work, which could only have been  tured to add the surname. At length in his progress of
projected and persevered in by some hypochondriac monk,  inquiry, in this fourth volume (for they were published a,
who, to get rid of the eninui of life, could discover no plea-  different periods) he suddenly discovers a host of English
santer way than to bury himself alive in seven monstrous  poets-in Waller, Duke of BuckinEham, Lord Roscomclosely-printed qu;rtos, and every day be compiling some-  mon, and others, among whom is  Dr Swifi; but he acthing on a subject which he did not understand. Fortu-  knowledges their works have not reached him. Shakespeare
natelv for Father Quadrio, without taste to feel, and dis-  at length appears on the scene  but OQuadrio's notions are
cernment to decide, nothing occurred in this progress of  derived firom Voltaire, whorn, perhaps, he boldiy translates.
literary history atnd criticism  to abridge his volumes and  Instead of improving our drarna, he conducted it. a totale
his anmusements; and with diligence and erudition unpa-  rovina nelle sue farse monstruose, che si chiaman trsgesdie;
ralleled, he has here built up a receptable for his immense,  alcune scene vi abbia luminose e belle e alcuni tratti si trovono
curious, and trifling knowlege on the poetry of every na-  terribili e grandi. Otway is said to have composed a tration.  Q.uadrio is among that class of authors whom  we  gic drama on the subject of' Venezia Salvata;' he adds
receive with more gratitude than pleasure, fly to sometimes  with surprise,'ma affatto regolare.' Regularity is the
to quote, but never linger to read; and fix on our shelves,  essence of genius with such critics as Quadrio.  Dryden
but seldom have in our hands.                           is also mentioned; but the only drama specified is' Kins
I have been much mortified, in looking over this volu-  Arthur.' Addison is the first Englishlmlan who produced
minous coml)iler, to discover, although he wrote so late as  a classical trajedy; but though Quadrio writes much
about 1750, how little the history of English Poetry was  about the life of Addison, he never alludes to the Spectator.
known to foreigners.  It is assuredly our own fault.  We    We come now to a more curious point.   Whether
have too long neglected the bibliography and the literary  Quadrio had read our comedies may be doubtful; but he
history of our ovrn comuntry.  Italy, Spain and France,  distinguishes them  by very high commendation.   Our
have enjoyed eminent bibliographers-we have none to  comedy, he says, represents human life, the manners of
rival thern. Italy may justly glory in her Tiraboschi and  citizens and the people, much better thanr the French and
her Mazzuchelli; Spain in the Bibliothecas of Nicholas  Spanish comedies, in which all the business of life is mixAntonio; and France, so rich in bibliographical treasures,  ed up with love affairs.  The Spaniards had their gallanaffords models to every literary nation of every species of  try from the Moors, and their manners from chivalry; to
literary history.  With us, the partial labour of the hermit  which they added their tumid African taste, differing from
Anthony for the Oxford writers, compiled before philoso-  that of other nations.  I shall translate what he now adds
phical criticisem existed in the nation; and Warton's His-  of English comedy.
tory of Poetry, which was left unfinished at its most criti.       The Engl:sh more skilfully even than the French, have
cal period, when that delightful antiquary of taste had  approximated to the true idea of comic subjects, choosing
just touched the threshold of his Paradise-these are the  for the argument of their invention the customary and nasole great labours to which foreigners might resort, but  tural objects of the citizens and the populace.  And when
these will not be found of much use to them. The neglect  religion and decorum were more respected in their thea.
of our own literary history has, therefore, occasioned the  tres, they were more advanced in this species of poetry,
errors, sometimes very ridiculous ones, of foreign writers  and merited not a little praise, above their neighbourrespecting our authors. Even the lively Chaudon, in his  ing nations.    But more than  the English  and  the'Dictionnaire HistorqFte,h gives the most extraordinary   French, (to speak according to pure and bare trtth,)
accounts of most of the English writers. Without an Endi-  have the Italians signalized themselves.'  A sly, insinualish guide to attendl such weary travellers, they have too  ting criticism!  But, as on the whole, for reasons which
often been deceived by the Mirages of our literature.  I cannot account for, Father Quadrio seems to have relThey have given blundering accounts of works which do  ished our English comedy, we must value his candour.
exist, and chronicled others which never did exist; and  He praises our comedy;' per il bello ed ilbuono;' but, as
have often made tip the personal history of our authors,  he is a methodical Aristotelian, he will not allow us that
by confounditig two or three into one. Chaudon, mention-  liberty in the theatre, which we are supposed to possess
ing Dryden's tragedies, observes that Atterbury translat-  in parliament-by delivering whatever we conceive to the
ed two into Latin verse, entitled Achitophel and Absalom!*  purpose. His criticism is a specimen of the irrefragable.
Of all these foreign authors none has more egregiously'We must not abandon legitimate rules to give merepleas.
failed than this good Father Quadrio.  In this universal  ure thereby; because pleasure is produced by, and flows
history of poetry, I was curious to observe what sort of  from, the beautiful; and the beautiful is chiefly drawnfrom
figure we made; and whether the fertile genius of our ori-  the good order and unity in which it consists!'
ginal poets had struck the foreign critic with admiration,    Quadrio succeeded In discovering the name of one of
or with critical censure.  But little was our English poetry  our greatest comic geniuses; for, alluding to our diversity
known to its universal historian.  In the chapter on those  of action in comedy, he mentions in his fifth volume, page
who have cultivated' la melica poersia in propria lingua tra  148,-' I1 celebre Benjanson rnella sua comrnmedia inrtitolato
Tedeschi, Fiamminghi e Inglesi't we find the following list  Bartolommeo Foicere, e in quella altra conmmedia intitolato
of English poets.                                        Ipsum Veetz.' The reader may decipher the poet's name
Of John Cowper; whose rhymes and verses are pre-  and his Fair: but it required the critical sagacity of'Mt
served in mlnuscript in the college of the most holy Trini-  Douce to discover that by Ipsum  Veetz we are to underty, in Cambridge.                                        stand Shadwell's comedy of Epsom Wells.  The Italian'Arthur Kelton flourished in 1548, a skilful English  critic had transcribed what he and his Italian printer
poet; he composed various poems in English; also he  could not spell; we have further discovered the source ofhis
lauds the Cambrains and their genealogy.                 intelligence in St Evremend, who had classed Shadwel's'The works of W. Wycherlev in Enylish prose and verse.'  comedy with Ben Jonson's.  To such shifts is the writer
These were the on!y English poets whom  Quadrio at  of an universal history d'ognipoesia, miserably reduced'
first could must.,s together! In his subsequent additions    Towards the close ofthe fifth volume we at last find the
he caught the name of Sir Philip Sidney with an adven-      ed muse of Milton, —bt, tinliekily, he was a man  di
* Even re~etly it Cavaliers Onofilo Boni, in his Elope ofpochissima relivione,' and spoke of Christ like an Arian.
o uadrio quotes Ramsay for Milton's vomiting forth abuse
Lanzi, in narming the three Augustan periods of modern lite. uadrio qotes Ramsay for Mltons vomit  forth abuse
on the Roman church.   His figures are said to be often
rature, fixes them, fotr the Italians, under Leo the Tenth; for  on    unworthy o f the majesty of his re sid to be ot in a
the French, unte Lewis the Fourteenth, or the Greact; andt in a
for th English, undier Charles the Second!             later place, excepting his religion, our poet, it is deciedti
*Quadris, Vol. II, p. 416.                             on, is worthy; di molti laudci.'
42




330                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Thus much for the information the curious may obtain  churches next to the Bible, while John Fox himself is es.
on English poetry, from its universal history.  Quadrio  teemed little less than an evangelist.' Dodd's narratives
unquestionably writes with more ignorance than prejudice  are not less pathetic; for the situation of the catholic, who
against us: he has not only highly distinguished the comic  had to secrete himself, as well as to suffer, was more
genius of our writers, and raised it above that of our neigh-  adapted for romantic adventures than even the melan.
bc.rs. but lie has also advanced another discovery, which  choly but monotonous story of the protestants tortured in
ranks us.tlll hiaher for original invention, and which I am  the cell, or bound to the stake., These catholics, how.
confnient, will be as new as it is extraordinary to the Eng-  aver, were attemapting all sorts of intrigues; aiid the saints
lish reader.                                           and martyrs of Dodd to the, parliament of England were
Quadrio, who, among other erudite accessories to his  only traitors and conspirators!
work, has exhausted the most copious researches on the    Heylin, in his history of the Puritans and the Presbyteorigin of Punch and Harlequin, has also written, with  rians, blackens them foir political devils. He is the Spagequal curiosity and value, the history of Puppet-shows.  nolet of history, delighting himself with horrors at which
But whom has he lauded? whom  has he placed para-  the painter himself must have started. He tells of their
mount, above all other people, for their genius of inven-' oppositions' to monarchical and episcopal government,
tion in improving this art?-The English! and the glory  their'innovations' in the church; and their' embroilments
which has hitherto been universally conceded to the Italian  of the kingdoms.  The sword rages in their hands; treanation themselves, appears to belong to us! For we, it  son, sacrilege, plunder; while' more of the blood of Engappears, while others were dandling and pulling their little  lishmen had poured like water within the space of four
representatives of human nature into such awkward and  years, than had been shed in the civil wars of York and
unnatural motions, first invented pulleys, or wires, and  Lancaster in four centuries!'
gave a fine and natural action to the artificial life of these    Neale opposes a more elaborate history; where these
gesticulating machines!' great and good men,' the puritans and the presbyterians,
We seem to know little of ourselves as connected with'are placed among the reformers;' while their fame is
the history of puppet-shows; but in an article in the curi-  blanched into angelic purity. Neale and his party opined
ous Dictionary of Trevoux, I find that John Brioche, to  that the protestant had not sufficiently protested, and that
whom had been attributed the invention of Marionettes, is  the reformation itself needed to he reformedl.  They weaonly to be considered as an improver; in his time (but the  ried the impatient Elizabeth, and her ardent churchmen;
learned writers supply no date,) an Englishman disco-  and disputed with the learned James, and his courtly
vered the secret of moving them by springs, and without  bishops, about such ceremonial trifles, that the historian
strings; but the Marionettes of Brioch6 were preferred for  may blush or smile who has to record them. And when
the pleasantries which he made them deliver. The erudite  the puritan was thrown out of preferment, and seceded
Quadrio appears to have more successfully substantiated  into separation, he turned into a presbyter.  Nonconour claims to the pulleys or wires, or springs of the puppets,  formity was their darling sin, and their sullen triumph.
than any of our own antiquaries; and perhaps the uncom-    Calamy, in four painful volumes, chronicles the blood.
memorated name of this Englishman was that Powell, whose  less martyrology of the two thousand silenced and ejected
Solomon and Sheba were celebrated in the days of Addi-  ministers.  Their history is not glorious, and their heroes
son and Steele; the former of whom has composed a clas-  are obscure; but it is a domestic tale! When the second
sical and sportive Latin poem on this very subject. But  Charles was restored, the presbyterians, like every other
Quadrio might well rest satisfied, that the nation, which  faction, were to be amused, if not courted. Some of the
could boast of its Fantoccini, surpassed, and must ever  king's chaplains were selected from  among, them, and
surpass the puny efforts of all doll-loving people!   preached once.  Their hopes were raised that they should,
by some agreement, be enabled to share in that ecclesir'POriTIC~A~L. RELIOSrONXS5M.'           astical establishment which they had so often opposed;
In Professor Dugald Stewart's first Dissertation on the  and the bishops met the presbyters in a convocation at the
)rogress of'Philosophy, I find this singular and significant  Savoy. A conference was held between the high church,.ermn. It has occasioned me to reflect on those contests for  resuming the seat of power, and the low church, now prosreligion, in which a particular faith has been made the osten-  trate; that is, between the old clergy who had recently
sible pretext., while the secret motive was usually political.  been mercilessly ejected by the new, who in their turn
The historians, who view in these religious wars only re-  were awaiting their fate. The conference was closed
ligion itself, have written large volumes, in which we may  with arguments by the weaker, and votes by the stronger.
never discover that they have either been a struggle to  Many curious anecdotes of this conference have come
obtain predominance, or an expedient to secure it.  The  down to us. The presbyterians, in their last struggle,
hatreds of anmbitious men have disguised their own pur-  petitioned for indulgence; but oppressors who had become
poses, while Christianity has borne the odium of loosen-  petitioners, only showed that they possessed no longer the
ing a destroying spirit among mankind; which, had Chris-  means of resistance. This conference was followed up
tianity never existed, would have equally prevailed in  by the Act of Uniformity, which took place on Bartholohuman affairs. Of a mortal malady, it is not only necessary  mew day, August 24, 1662: an act which ejected Calato know the nature, but to designate it by a right name  my's two thousand ministers from the bosom of the estabthat we may not err in our mode of treatment. If we call  lished church.  Bartholomew day with this party was
that rMi gion which we shall find for the greater part ispoliti-  long paralleled, and perhaps is still with the dreadful
cal,we are likely to be mistaken in the regimen and the cure.  French massacre of that fatal saint's day.  The calamity
Fox, in his' Acts and Monuments,' writes the mar-  was rather, however, of a private than of a public nature.
tyrology of the protestants in three mighty folios; where,  The two thousand ejected ministers were indeed deprived
in the third,' the tender mercies' of the catholics are' cut  of their livings; but this was, however, a happier fate than
in wood' for those who might not otherwise be enabled to  what has often occurred in these contests for the security
read or spell them. Such pictures are abridgments of  of political power. This ejection was not like the expullong narratives, but they leave in the mind a fulness of  sion of the Moriscoes, the best and most usefill subjects ot
horror. Fox made more than one generation shudder;  Spain, which was a human sacrifice of half a million ot
and his volume, particularly this third, chained to a read-  men, and the proscription of many Jews from that land ot
ing-desk in the halls of the great, and in the aisles of  catholicism; or the massacre of thousands of Huguenots,
churches, often detained the loiterer, as it furnished some  and the expulsion of more than a hundred thousand by
new scene of papistical horrors to paint forth on returning  Louis the Fourteenth from France. The presbyterian
to his fire-side.  The protestants were then the martyrs,  divines were not driven from their father-land, and combecause, under Mary, the protestants had been thrown  pelled to learn another language than their mother-tongue.
out of power.                                          Destitute as divines, they were sufferea to remain as cit.
Dodd has opposed to Fox three curious folios, which he  zens; and the result was remarkable. These divines
ealls' the Church History of England,' exhibiting a most  could not disrobe themselves of their learning and their
abundant martyrology of the catholics, inflicted by the  piety, while several of them were compelled to become
hands of the protestants; who in the succeeding reign of  tradesmen; among these the learned Samuel Chandler,
Elizabeth, after long trepidations and balancings, were  whose literary productions are numerous, kept a book.
confirmed into power.  He grieves over the delusion and  seller's shop in the Poultry.
seduction of the black-letter romance of honest John Fox,    Hard as this event proved in its result, it was however,
which, he says,'has obtained a place in protestant  pleaded, that' It was but like for like.' And that the his.




LITERATURE.                                                      331;ory of' the like' might not be curtailed in the telling, op-  which he could easily have done in 1526?  But he conposed to Calamy's chronicle of the two thousand ejected   sidcred that this novelty would serve to divide the Ger.
ministers stands another, in folio magnitude, of the same  man princes; and he patiently waited till the effect was
tolt of chronicle of the clergy of the church of England,  realized.*
with a title by no means less pathetic.                    Good men of both parties, mistaking the nature of these
This is Walker's' Attempt towards recovering an ac-  religious wars, have drawn horrid inferences!   The
count of the Clergy of the Church of England who were'dragonades of Louis XIV, excited the admiration ox
sequestered, harassed, &c., in the late Times.'  Walker  Bruyere; and Anquetil, in his' Esprit de la Ligue,' comIs himself astonished at the size of his volume, the number  pares the revocation of the edict of Nantes to a salutary
of his sufferers, and the variety of the sufferings.' Shall  amputation.  The massacre of St Bartholomew in its
the church,' says he,' not have the liberty to preserve  own day, and oven recently, has found advocates; a Greek
the history of her sufferings, as well as the separation   professor at the time asserted that there were tswo classes
to set forth an account of theirs?   Can Dr Calamyn  of protestants in France, political and religious; and that
be acquitted for publishing the history of the Bartholo-' the late ebullition of public vengeance was solely directed
mew seffrers, if I am condemned for writing that of the  against the former.'  Dr M'Crie cursing the catholic
sequestered loyalists?' He allows that'the number of  with a catholic's curse, execrates'the stale sophistry of
the ejected amounts to two thousand,' and there were no  this calumniator.' But should we allow that the Greek
less than' seven or eight thousand of the episcopal clergy   professor who advocated their national crime was the
imprisoned, banished, and sent a starving,' &c. &c.     wretch the calvinistic doctor describes, yet the nature of
Whether the reformed were martyred by the catholics,  things cannot be altered by the equal violence of' Peter
or the catholics executed by the reformed; whether the  Charpentier and Dr M'Crie.
puritans expelled those of the established church, or the  This subject of' Political Religionism' is indeed as nice
established church ejected the puritans, all seems reduci-  as it curious; politics have been so cunningly worked into
ble to two classes, conformists and non-conformists, or, in  the cause of religion, that the parties themselves will never
the political style, the administration and the opposition.  be able to separate them; and to this moment, the most
When we discover that the heads of all parties are of the  opposite opinions are formed concerning the same events,
same hot temperament, and observe the same evil conduct  and the same persons. When public disturbances recentin similar situations; when we view honest old Latimer  ly broke out at Nismes on the first restoration of the Bourwith his own hands hanging a mendicant friar on a tree,  bons, the protestants, who there are numerous, declared
and the government chanaing, the friars binding Latimer  that they were persecuted for religion, and their cry echoed
to the stake: when we see the French catholics cutting  by their brethren the dissenters, resounded in this country.
out the tongues of the protestants, that they might no lon-  We have not forgotten the ferment it raised here; much
ger protest; the haughty Luther writing submissive apolo-  was said, and something was done. Our minister howevgies to Leo the Tenth and Henry the Eighth for the scur-  er persisted in declaring that it was a mere political affair.
rility with which he had treated them in his writings, and  It is clear that our government was right on the cause, and
finding that his apologies were received with contempt,  those zealous complainants wrong, who only observed the
then retracting his retractions; when we find that haighti-  eflect; for as soon as the Bourbonists had triumphed over
est of the haughty, John Inox, when Elizabeth first as-  the Bonapartists, we heard no more of those sanguinary
cended the throne, crouching and repenting of having  persecutions of the protestants of Nismes, of which a diswritten his famous excommunication against all female  senter has just published a large history.  It is a curious
sovereignty; or pulling down the monasteries, from the  fact, that when two writers at the same time were occupied
axiom that when the rookery was destroyed, the rooks  in a life of Cardinal Ximenes, Flechier converted the car.
would never return; when we find his recent apologist ad-  dinal into a saint, and every incident in his admnnistratieat
miring, while he apologizes for, some extraordinary proofs  was made to connect itself with his religious character:
of Machiavelian politics-an impenetrable mystery seems  Marsollier, a writer very inferior to Flechier, shows th,
to hang over the conduct of men who profess to be guided  cardinal merely as a politician.  The elegancies of Fle
by the bloodless code of Jesus-but try them by a human  chier were soon neglected by the public, and the deep inr
standard, and treat them as politicians; and the motives  terests of truth soon acquired, and still retain, for the less
once discovered, the actions are understood!           elegant writer, the attention of the statesman.
Two edicts of Charles the Fifth, in 1555, condemned to  A modern historian has observed, that' the affairs of
death the Reformed of the Low Countries, even should  religion were the grand fomenters and promoters of the
they return to the catholic faith, with this exception, how-  thirty years' war, which first brought down the powers of
ever, n favour of the latter, that they shall not be burnt  the North to mix in the politics of the Solthern states.'
alive, out that the men shall be beheaded, and the women   The fact is indisputable, but the cause is not so apparent.
buried alive! Religion could not then be the real motive  Gustavus Adolphus, the vast military genius of his age,
of the Spanish cabinet, for in returning to the ancient  had designed, and was successfully attempting, to oppose
faith that point was obtained; but the truth is, that the  the overgrown power of the imperial house of Austria,
Spanish government considered the reformed as rebels,  which had long aimed at an universal monarchy in Europe;
whom it was not safe to re-admit to the rights of citizen-  a circumstance which Philip IV  weakly hinted at to the
ship. The undisguised fact appears in the codicil to the   world when he placed this mrotto under his arms-' Sins
will of the emperor, when he solemnly declares that he  ipsofactum est nihil;' an expression applied to Jesus Christ
had written to the inquisition' to burn and extirpate the   by St John.
heretics,' after trying to mnake Christians of them, because                 TOLZRATION.
he is convinced that they never can become sincere catholies; and he acknowledges that he had committed a great     A  enlightened toleration s a blessing of the last ag
fault in permitting Luther to return free on the faith of      would seem to have been practised by the Romans,
when they did not mistake the primitive Christians for
his safe contluct, as the emperor was not bound to keep  seditious members of society; and was inculcated even
a promise with a heretic.' It is because that I destroyed
him not, that heresy has now become strong, which T am   by  Mahomet, in a pasaf e In the Kora, bt scarcelo
convinced might have been stifled with him in its birth.'*  practised by his followers. In modern history, it was conT      h e whole conduct of Charles the Fifth  in this mighty   demned, when religion was turned into a political contest,
The whole conduct of Charles the Fifth in this mighty
revolution, was, from its beginning, censured by contem-  under the aspiring house of Austria- and in Spain-and
in France. It required a long time before its nature was
poraries as purely political.  Francis the First observed,
that the emperor, under the colour of religion, was placing   clear, either to the toleratorhis moment, or the tolerated.
himself at the head of a league to make his way to a pre-  It does not appear, that the precepts or the practice
cominant monarchy.  The pretext of religiorn is no new   of Jesus and the apostles inclcte   e  r lin  of any
of Jesus and the apostles inculcate mne compelling of any
thing, writes the Duke of Nevers.  Charles the Fifth had
to be Christians;' vet an expression employed in the
never undertaken a war against the protestant princes,
but with the design of rendering the imperial crown heredti-  nuptial parable of the great supper, when the hospitable
tarv in the house of Austria; and he has only attackd      * Naud6 Considerations Potitqtles, p. 115. See a curious
the electoral princes to ruin them, and to abolish their  note in Hlarte's Life of Oustavls Adolphus, ii, 129.
right of election.  Had it been zeal for the catholic rll- f Bishop Barlow's' Several miscellaneous and weighty
glon, would he have delayed from 1519 to 1549 to arm,  Cases of Conscience resolvedl  1592.' His'C se of a Toloe
r:etion is Matters of' Religion.' addi(essed to Robert Boyle, p
that he might have extintished the Lutheran  heres.,.39. This volume was not ittndel to hive been siven to the
* Llorente's Critical Hi story of the Inquisition.  world, a circumstance which dc es not make it the less curious




332                                    CURIOSITIES OF
lord commanded the servantr, finding that he had still room  The catholic in this country pleads for toleration; in hi.
to accomrmodate more guests,' to go out. in the highways  own,'he refuses to grant it. Here, the presbyterian, who
and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may  had complained of persecution, ohce fixed in the seat of
be filled,' was alieged as an authority by those catholics,  power, abrogated every kind  of independence  among
who called themselves' the convertors,' for using religious   others.  When the flames consumed Servetus at Geneva,
force, which, still alluding to the hospitable lord, they  the controversy began, whether the civil magistrate might
called' a charitable and salutary violence.' It was this  punish heretics, which  Beza, the associate of Calvin,
tircuinstance  which  produced  Bayle's  Commentaire   maintained: he triumphed in the  small predestinating
philosophiqte sur ces Paroles de Jesus Christ,' published   city of Geneva; but the book he wrote was fatal to the
under the supposititious name of an Englishman, as  protestants a few leagues distant, among a majority of
printed at Canterbury in 1686, but really at Amsterdam.  catholics. TWhenever the protestants complained of the
it is curious that Locke published his first letter on' To-  persecutions they suffered, the catholics for authority and
lcration' in Latin at Gouda, in 1689-the second in 1690-   sanction, never failed to appeal to the volume of their own
and the third in 1692. Bayle opened the mind of Locke,  Beza.
and sometime after quotes Locke's Latin letter with high   M. Necker de Saussure has recently observed on' what
commendation.*  The caution of both writers in pub-  trivial circumstances the change or the preservation of the
lishing in tbreign places, however, indicates the prudence   established religion in different districts of Europe has dewhich it was dteemed necessary to observe in writing in  pended!' When the Reformation penetrated into Switzerfavour of Toleration.                                    land, the government of the principality of Neufchatel,
These were the first philosophical attempts; but the   wishing to allow liberty of conscience to all their subjects,
earliest advocates for Toleration may be found among the  invited each parish to vote' for or against the adoption of
religious controversialists of a preceding period; it was  the new worship; and in all the parishes, except two, the
probably started among the fugitive sects who had found   majority of suffrages declared in favour of the protestant
an asylum in Holland.  It was a blessing which they had   communion.' The inhabitants of the small village of
gone far to find, and the miserable, reduced to human feel-  Creissier had also assembled; and forming an even numings, are compassionate to one another.  With us the   ber, there happened to be an equality of vbtes for and
sect called' the Independents' had, early in our revolution   against the change of religion.  A  shepherd  being
under Charles the First, pleaded for the doctrine of re-  absent, tending the flocks on the hills, they summoned
ligious liberty, and lona maintained it against the presby-  hint to appear and decide this important question: when,
terians. Both proved persecutors when they possessed   having no likina to innovation, he gave his voice in favour
power. The first of our respectable divines who advo-  of the existing form of worship; and this parish remainec
rated this cause was Jeremv Taylor, in his' Discourse on  catholic, and is so at this day, in the heart of the protestant
the liberty of Prophesying,' 1647, and Bishop Hall, who  cantons.
had pleaded the cause of moderation in a discourse about    I proceed to some facts, which I have arranged for the
the same period.s  Locke had no doubt examined all  history of Toleration.  In the memoirs of James the
these writers.  The history of opinions is among the   Second, when that monarch published' The Declaration
most curious of histories; and I suspect that Bayle was  for Liberty of Conscience,' the catholic reasons and libewell acquainted with the pamphlets of our sectarists. who,  ralises like a modern philosopher: he accuses' the jealin their flight to Hollarnd, conveved those curiosities of  ousv of our clergy, who had degraded themselves into intheology, which had cost them  their happiness and their  triguers; and like mechanics in a trade, who are afraid of
estates: I think he indicates this hidden source of his  nothing so much as interlopers-thev had therefore inideas, bv the extraordinary ascrihption of his book to an   duced indifferent persons to imagine that their earnest conEtnglishman, and fixing the place of its publication at  test was not about their faith, but about their temporal
Canterhury!                                              possessions.  It was incongruous that a church, which
Toleration has been a vast engine in the hands of mo-  does not pretend to be infallible, should constrain persons,
dern politicians.  It was established in the United Pro-  under heavy penalties and punishments, to believe as she
vinces of Holland, and our numerous non-conformists  does: they delighted, he asserted, to hold an Iron rod
took refuge in that asylum for disturbed consciences; it at-  over dissenters and catholics; so sweet was dominion,
tracted a valuable community of French refugees; it  that the very thought of others participating in their freeconducted a colony of Hebrew fugitives from Portugal:  dom made them deny the very doctrine they preached.'
conventicles of Browvnists, quakers' meetings, French   The chief argument the catholic urged on this occasion
churches, and Jewish synagogues, and (had it been re-  was the reasonableness of repealing laws which made
qtuired) Mahometan mosques, in Amsterdam, were the   men liable to the greatest punishments for that it was not
precursors of its mart and its exchange; the moment  in their power to remedy, for that no man could force himthey could preserve their consciences sacred to themselves,  self to believe what he really did not believe.*
they lived without mutual persecution, and mixed together  Such was the rational language of the most bigoted of
as good Dultchmen.                                       zealots!-The fox can bleat like the lamb. At the very
The excommunicated part of Europe seemed to be the   moment James the Second was uttering this mild expostumost enlightened, and it was then considered as a proof  lation, in his own heart he had anathematized the nation;
of the admirable progress of the human mind, that Locke  for I have seen some of the king's private papers, which
and Clarke and Newton corresponded with Leibnitz, and   still exist; they consist of communications chiefly by the
others of the learned in France and Italy.  Some were   most bigoted priests, with the wildest projects, and most
astonished that philosophers, who differed in their re-  infatuated prophecies and dreams of restoring the true
ligious opinions, should communicate among themselves  catholic faith in England!' Had the Jesuit-led monarch
with so much toleration.T                                retained the English throne, the language he now addressIt is not, however, clear, that had any one ofthese sects  ed to the nation would have been no longer used; and in
at Amsterdam  obtained predominance, which was some-  that case it would have served his protestant subjects. He
times attempted, they would have granted to others the   asked for toleration,to become intolerant! He devoted himtoleration they participated in common. The infancy of  self, not to the hundredth part of the English nation; and
a party is accompanied by a political weakness, which   yet he was surprised that he was left one morning without
disables it from weakening others.                       an army! When the catholic monarch issued this decla* In the article Sancterius. Note F                    ration for' liberty of conscience,' the Jekyll of his day obR Recent writers aimona our sectaristo assert that Dr Owen  served, that c It was but scaffolding: they intend to build
was the first who wrote in favour of toleration, in 16f48! Ann.  another noose; and when that house (Popery) is built,
ther nlaims the honour for John Goodwin, the chaplain of  they w,. tare down the scaffold.'t
Oliver Cromwell, who published one of his obscure polemi-  When the Presbytery was our lord. they who had enr
cal tracts ii] 1644, among a number of other persons, who at  dured the tortures of persecution, and raised such sharp
that crisis did not venture to prefix their names to Dleas  ten fa.  outcries for freedom, of all men, were the most intolerant:
your of Tole'ation, so delicate and so obscure did this ubject  hardly  ad they  asted of the Cireean cup of dominion,
then appear! In 1651, they translated the liberal treatise of
Grotius de imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra; under  ere they were transformed into the most hideous or the
the title of' The authority of the highest powers about sacred  most grotesque monsters of political power.  To their
things,' London, Svo. 1651. To the honour of Grotinls, the  eves toleration was an hydra, and the dethroned bishops
first of philozoobhical reformers, be it recorded, that he dis.    * Life of James the Sec.ond, from his own papers, ii, 114.
-eased both parties!                                      t This was a. Baron Wallon. From Dr 1I. Sampson's Mla
tJ. P. Rabaut, sur la Revolution Francais, p. 27      nuscript Diary.




LITER AT URE.                                                       333
sad never so vehemently declaimed aoainst what, in ludi-  the Roman church; but the synod, af:er holding about two
crous rage, one of the high-flying presbyterians called'a   hundred sessions, closed, dividing men into universalists
cursed intolerable toleration!' They advocated the rights  and semi-universalists, supralapsarians and sublapsarians!
of persecution, and'Shallow Edwards,' as IM[ilton calls   The reformed themselves produced the remonstrants; and
the author of'The Grangrmna,' published  a treatise   Laud's ceremonies ended in placing the altar eastward,
against toleration.  They who had so long complained of  and in raising the scaffold for the monarchy anl the hierthe licensers,' now sent all the books they condemned to  archy. Error is circuitous when it will do what it has not
penal fires.  Prynne now  vindicated the very doctrines   yet learnt.  They were pressing for conformity to do that
under which he himself had so severely suffered; assum-   which a century afterwards they found could only be done
umg the highest possible power of civil government, even   by toleration.
to the infliction of death, on its opponents.  Prynne lost   The secret history of toleration among certain parties
all feeling for the ears of others!                        has been disclosed to us by a curious document, from that
The idea of toleration was not intelligible for too long a   religious Machiavel, the fierce ascetic republican John
period in the annals of Europe: no parties probably could   Knox, a calvinistical Pope.'While the posterity of Abraconceive the idea of toleration in the struggle for pre-  ham,' says that mighty and artful reformer,' were few in
dominance.  Treaties are not proffered when conquest  number, and while they sojourned in diferent countries,
Is the concealed object.  Men were immolated! a mas-  they were merely required to avoid all participation in lhe
sacre was a sacrifice! medals were struck to commemo-  idolatrous rites of the heathen; but as soon as they prosratethese holy persecutions!*  The destroying angel,  pered into a kingdom, and had obtained possesdon ofj' Coholding in one hand a cross, and in other a sword, with   naan, they were strictly charged to suppress idolatry, and
these words —Vgonottorum  Strages, 1572. —' The mas-  to destroy all the monuments and incentives.  The same
sacre of the Huguenots' —proves that toleration will not  duty was now incumbent on the professors of the true reagree with that date.  Castelneau, a statesman and a hu-  ligion in Scotland: formerly, when not more than ten permane man, was at a loss how to decide on a point of the   sons in a county were enlightened, it would have been
utmost importance to France. In 1532 they first began to  foolishness to have demanded of the nobility the suppresburn the Lutherans or Calvinists, anrid to cut ouit the   sion of idolatry.  But now, when knowledge had been intongues of all protestants,' that they might no longer pro-   creased,' &c.*  Such are the men who cry out ftr toletest.' According to Father Paul, fifty thousand persons   ration during their state of political weakness, but who
hadl perished in the Netherlands, by different tortures, for  cancel the bond by which they hold their tenure whenever
religion.  But a change in the religion of the state, Cas-  they' obtain possession of Canaan.'  The only commontelneau considered, would occasion one in the government:  tary on this piece of the secret history of toleration is the
he wondered how it happened, that the miore they punish-   acute remark of Swift:'We are frully convinced that we
ed with death, it only increased the number of the vic-  shall always tolerate them,but not that ihey will tolerate us.
tirms: martyrs produced proselytes.  As a statesman, he      The truth is, that toleration was allowed by none of the
looked round the great field of human actions in the his-   parties! and I will now show  the dilemmas into which
tory of the past; there he discovered that the Romans   each party thrust itself.
were more enlightened  in their actions than ourselves;      When the kings of'England would forcibly have esta.
that Trajan commanded Pliny the younger not to molest  blished episcopacy in Scotland, the presbyters passed an
the Christians for their religion; but shoulid their conduct  act against the toleration qf dissenters frompresbyterian doc-..
endanger the state, to put down illegal assemblies; that  trines and discipline! and thus, as Guthrie observes, they
Julian the Apostate expressly forbid the execution of the   were committing the same violence on the conscience of
Christians, who then imagined that they were securing   their brethren, which they opposed in the Iking. The presbytheir salvation by martyrdom; but he ordered all their  rians contrived their famous covenant to dispossess the
goods to be confiscated-a severe punishment-by which   royalists of their livings; and the independents, who assunJulian prevented more than he could have done by perse-  ed the principle of toleration in their very name, shortly af..
cutions.'All this,' he adds,'we read in ecclesiastical  ter enforced what they called the engagement, to eject the
history.'f  Such were the sentiments of Castelneau, in  presbyterians!  In England, where the dissenters were
1560.  Amidst perplexities of state necessity, and of our  ejected, their great advocate Calamy complains that the
common humanity, the notion of toleration had not entered   dissenters were only making use of the same arguments
into the views of the statesman.  It was also at this time   which the most eminent reformers had done in their noble
that De Sainctes, a great controversial writer, declared,   defence of the reformation against the papists, while the
that had the fires lighted for the destruction of Calvinism    arguments of the established church against the dissenters
not been extinguished, the sect had not spread! About  were the same which were urged by the papists against
half a century subsequent to this period Thuanus was  the protestant reformation!t  When the   -,-byterians
perhaps the first great mind who appears to have insinu-     * Dr M'Crie's Life of John Knox, ii, 122.
ated to the French monarch and his nation, that they         f I quote from an unpublish, d letter, written so ate as in
night live at peace with heretics; by which avowal he   1749, addressed to the author of' The Free and Candid Discalled down on himself the haughty indignation of Rome,  quisition,' by the Reverend Thomas Allen, Rector of Kettering,
and a declaration, that the man who spoke in favour of  Northamptooshire.  However extravaant his doctrine apheretics must necessari.v be one of the first class.  Hear  pears to us, I suspect that it exhibits the concealed sentiments
the afflicted historian Have men no compassion, after  of even somne protestant churchmen! This rector of Ketterthe afflicted historian:   Haememing attributes the growth of schisms to the negligence of the
forty years passed fill of continual miseries? Have they no   clergy, and seems to have persecuted both the archbishops,
fear, after the loss of the Netherlands, occasioned by'to his detriment,' as he tells us, with singular plans of re
that frantic obstinacy which marked the times?  I grieve   form borrowed from monastic institutions.  He wished to re
that such sentiments should have occasioned my book to  vive the practice inculcated by a canon of the council of Laohave been examined with a rigour that. amounts to calum-  dicea, of having prayers ad boram  nonam  et ad vesperamny.' Siuch was  the language of Thuanus, in a letter  prayers twice a day in the churches.  But his grand project
"Z%~  ~~~,            take in his own worqs:
written in 1606;T  which indicates an approximation to' I let the archbishop know that I had composed an irenicon,
toleration, but which term was not probably yet found in   wherein I prove the necessity of an ecclesiastical power over
any dictionary.  We may consider, as so many attempts  consciences in matters of religion, which utterly silences their
at toleration, the great national synod of Dort, whose his-  arguments who plead so hard for toleration.  I took my
tory is amply written by Brandt; and the mitigatins pro-  scheme from' a Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity,' wherein
tesantism  of Laud, to approximate to the ceremonies of  the authority of the civil magistrate over the consciences of
subjects in manners of external relielon is asserted; the mis
* It is curious to observe that the catholics were afterwards  chiefs and inconveniences of toleration are represented, and
ashamed of these indiscretions; they were unwilling to own   all pretences pleaded in behalf of liberty of conscience are
that there were any medals which commemorate massacres.  fulily answered. If this book were reprinted and considered,
Thuanus, in his 53d book, has minutely described them. The  the king would know his power and the people their diuty.'
medals, however, have become excessively scarce; but co-    The rector of Kettering seems not to have known that the
pies inferior to the originals have been sold. They had also   author of this'Discourse on Ecclesiastical Polity,' was the
pictures on similar subjects, accompaniedl by insulting inscrip-  notorious Parker, Immortalized by the satire of Marvell
tioens, which latter they have effaced, sometimes very inper.  This political apostate, filom a republican anti presbyterian,
fectly  See Hollis's Memoirs, p. 312-14. This enthusiast  biecame a furious adlvocate for arbitrary govenimeoot in church
advertisel i'i the papers to request travellers to procure them.  anl state! He easily won the favoutf of James the Second,
t Memoires le Michel tie Castelneau, Liv. I, c.        nwio madels in Bishop of Oxtortd! His principles were so: Life:f Thuanus, by Rev..'. Collirnson, p. 11         violenut, that Father Petre, the ce,;fessor of James the Second




$34                                    CURIOSITIES OF
were our masters, and preached up the doctrine of pas-  three persons of the Trinity were to be considered as three
sive obedience in spiritual matters to the civil power, it  different acceptions of the same being, Saint Ambrose and
was unquestionably passing a self-condemnation on their  Saint Martin asserted the cause of offended humanity,
own recent opposition and detraction of the former episco- and refused to communicate with the bishops who had
and refused to communicate with the bishops who had
pacy.  Whenever men act from a secret motive entirely  called out for the blood of the Priscillianists;but Cardi.
contrary to their ostensible one, such monstrous results  nal Baronius, the annalist of the church, was greatly em
will happen; anid as extremes will join, however opposite  fo     pluigteadn   elo  h   escto:h
will happen; and as extremes will join, however opposite  barrassed  to explain how men of real purity could abstain
thev appear in their beginnings, John Knox and Father  fom  applauding the ardent zeal of he perecutio    he
Pere, in office, would have equally served James th preferred to give up the saints rather than to allow of toleond, as confessor and prime uminisyterv!  J ehS           eration-for he acknowledges that the toleration which
A fact relating to the famous Justus Lipsius proves the these saints would have allowed was not exempt from
difficulty of forming a clear notion of Toleration.  This
learned man, after having been rined by the religious   In the preceding article,'Political Religionism,' we
warns of me Netherlands, found an honourabnle rerelat in      have shown how to provide against the possible evil of the
professor's chair at Leyden, and without difficulty abjured   olerate becoming the tolerat!  oleration has, indeed,
been suspected of indifference to Religion itself; but with
papacy.  He published some political works; and adopted   been suspected of indifferenee  to Religion itselfo; bit with
as his great principle, that only one religion should be al-  soud minds, it is only an indifference to the logmachies
sofn mhooytinds, int of Godv but indfferen,' tha heoavhes
lowed to a people, and that no clemenicy should be granted    f teology-thigs'not of God, but of man'hat ave
of t per l -tinsheod o         fGo, b t   omarid that ar  eihigarondu
to non-conformists, who, he declares, should be pursued   peished, and that are perishing around us
by sword and fire; in this manner a single member would          APOLCGY FOR THE PARIsIAN MASSACRE.
be cut off to preserve the body sound.  Ure, seca-are his
be cut ff to peserve he bodysound.An original document now lying before me, the auto.
words.  Strange notions these in a protestant republic;    An origial document now lying before me, te aut
and, in fact, inHolland  it was approving of all the horrors  graph letter of Charles the Ninth, will prove, that that unand, in fact, in Holland it was approving of all the horrorspaleedmscraldbytewldeigowsn
paralleled massacre, called by the world religious, was, in
of their oppressors, the Duke D'Alva and Philip II, from   phe French mse  cal onsidered merely as  olstiasl;  in
which they had hardly recovered. It was a principle by 
of those revolting state expedients w hich a pretended inwhich we must inevitably infer, says Bayle, that in Hol-                          exedient   hich a pretended instant necessity has too often irfl;,', on that part of a ha.
land no other mode of religious belief but one sect should  stnt necessity has too often inf   I on that part of a na
n                                tion which, like the under-curre,  ~ubterraneously works
be permitted;  and that those Pagans who had hanped the            ch, like the under-ctrre   Ihterraneously works
its way, and runs counter to the ~r.~at stream, till the critimissionaries of the Gospel had done what they ought.
Lipsius fo   him self y e rasse when refuted by  cal moment arrives when one, or the other, must cease.
Lipsins found himself sadly embarrassed when refuted~ by
Wheodore Cornhert,* the firm advocate of political and re-   The massacre began on  St Bartholomew day, in Aut
Igious freedom, and at length Lipsius, that protestant with  st, 152, lasted in France durin  seven days: that
awu vent interruptedthcorsndcefoucut
a catholic heart, was forced to eat his words, like Pistol  awful event interrupted the correspondence of our cort
with that of France.  A long silence ensued; the one did
his onion, declaring that the tvo objectionable words, ure,  not dare to tell the tale which the other could not listen
seca, were borrowed from maedicine, meaning not literally
to. But sovereigns know how to convert a mere domesfire and sword, btlt a strong efficacious remedy, one of  tie t itapotclee                   tChrste Nt
those powe     medicines to expel poison. Jean de S tic event into a political expedient.  Charles the Ninth,
those powerful medicinesie to xe poison. Jean le Serres,  on the birth of a daughter, sent over an ambassador exa warnm Hutguenot, carried the principle of Toleration so
fEar in il'Inventaire  enerale e prHistoip e dToe rationsotraordinary to request Elizabeth to stand as sponsor: by
f;ar in his I'Inventaire!venerale de M'istoire de France,'
to blame  harles Martel for compelling the Fran,  this the French monarch obtained a double purpose; it
as to blame Charle s Martel for compelling  the Frisans,
whom he had conquered, to adopt Christianity!' A par-  served to renew his interrupted intercourse with the silent
donable zeal,' he observes,' in a warrior; but in fact the   Queen, and alarmed the French protestants by abating
their ho pea, which long rested on the aid of the English
minds of men cannot be gained over by arms, nor that re-  their hopes, which long rested on he aid of the English
ligion forced upon them, which must be introduced into  queen.
the hearts of men by reason.' It is curious to see a         The following letter, dated 8th February, 1573, is addressed by the king to La Motte Fenelon, his resident
p;otestant, in his zeal for toleration, blaming a king for dressed by the king to La Motte Fenelon, his resident
obnd "havefon ambassador at London.  The king in this letter minutely
forcing idolators to become Christians; and tohave found
an opportnity to express his opinions in the dark hito  details a confidential intercourse with his mother, Cathaan  opportunity to express his opinions in thrine of Medicis, who perhaps, may have dictated this letof the eighth century, is an instance how historians incor-  tine of Medicis, who p   erhaps, may have dictated this let
ter to the secretary, although signed by the king with his
porate their passions in their works, and view ancient facts
withr modern eyes.                                        own hand.t  Such minute particulars could only have
qith~~~~~~~~~~~be mnoden t eysesf. h a 
The orotestant cannot grant toleration to the catholic,  been know  to herself.  The Earl of Wolchester (Worcester) was now taking his departure, having come to Paunless the catholic ceases to be a papist; and the Armi-  ceste) was now taking his departur, having come to Panian church, which opened its wide bosom to receive every  ris on the baptism  of the princess; and accompanied by
Walsingham, our resident ambassador after taking leave
denomination of Christians, nevertheless were forced to, fter takin  leae
exclude the papists, for their passive obedience to the su-  of Charles, had the following interview with Catharine de
Medicis. An interview With the young monarch was
premacv of the Roman Pontiff.  The catholic has cu-  Medicis.  An iterview  with the young monarch was
riousl told us, on this word Toleration, that, Ce met de-  usually concluded by a separate audience with his mother,
itrt en uage a mesure que  e nomre dw tolerans a-  ho probably was still the directress of his councils.
vient fort en usage a ragsure que le hombre des tolerans aug —
The French court now renewed their favourite prqoect
mente.t  It was a word which seemed of recent introduc- 
tion, though the hook is modern! The protestants have  of marrying the Duke D'Alengon with Elizabeth.  They
disputed mch how far they might tolerate, or whether  had long wished to settle this turbulent spirit, and the nedisputed much how far they might tolerate, or whether
they shou'd tolerate at all;'a difficulty,' triumphantly  gotiation with Elizabeth had been broken off in coiseexclaims the catholic,' which they are not likely ever to  quence of the massacre at Paris.  They were somewhat
settle, while they maintain their principles of pretended   uneasy lest he should share the fate of his brother, the Dulke
reformation: the consequences which naturally follow,  of Anjo, who had not long before been expedited on the
excite horror to the Christian. It is the weak who raise  same fruitless errand; and Elizabeth had already objected
to the disparity of their ages, the Duke of.Aleneon being
such outcries for toleration; the strong find authority le-  to the disparity of their ages, the Duke of Alenon  e
~~gi~~~~tl~mate.'  ~only seventeen, and the maiden queen six and thirty; but
giftmate.'e
A  religion which admits not of toleration cannot be   Catharine observed, that D'Alengon was only one year
safely tolerated, if there is any chance of their obtaining a  *Sismondi, Hist. des Frangais, I, 41. The character of the
political ascendency.                                      first person who introduced civil persecution into the Christian
When Priscillian and six of his followers were con-  Church has been described by Sulpicius Severus. See Dr
demned to torture and execution for asserting that the   Maclaine's note in his translation of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical
History, Vol. 1.-428.
made sure of him! This letter of the rector of Kettering, in  t All the numerous letters which I have seen of Charles the
adopting the system of such a catholic bishop, confirms my   Ninth, now in the possession of Mr Murray, are carefully
suspicion, that toleration is condemned as an evil among some   signed by himself, and I have also observed postscripts writprotestants                                                ten with his own hand: they are always countersigned by his
* Cornhert was one of the fithers of Dutch literature, and   secretary. I mention this circumstance, because in the Diceven of their arts. He was the composer of the great national  tionnaire Historique, it is said that Charles, who died young'
air of William of Orange, re was too a famous engraver, the   was so given up to the amusements of his age, that he would
master of Golzius. On his death.bed, he was still writing  not even sign his despatches, and introduced the custom of
against the persecution of heretics.                       secretaries subscribing for the king. This voluminous corres.
fDictionnaire de Trevoux, ad vocem Tolerance. Printed   pondence shows the falsity of this statement. History is too
In 1771.                                                   often composed of popular tales of this stamp.




LITERATURE.                                                            335
younger than his brother, against whom  this objection   they continued to preach in this kingdom. Also should
had not occurred to Elizabeth, for he had been sent back   these once more fix on any chiefs, which I will prevent as
upon another vretext —,ome difficulty which the queen had   soon as possible, giving him clearly and pointedly to undercontrived about his performing mass in his own house.      stand, that what is done here is mnuch the same as what
After Catharine de Medicis had assured the Earl of  has been done, and is now practised by the que m his nisWorcester of her great affection for the Queen of Eng-  tress in her kingdom.  For she permits the exeicise but of
land, and her and the king's strict intention to preserve it,  one religion, although there are many of her people who
and that they were therefore desirous of this proposed   are of another; and having also, during her reign, pun-.
marriage taking place, she took this opportunity of in-  ished those of her subjects whom she found seditious and
quiring of the Earl of Worcester the cause of the queen   rebellious.  It is true this has been done by the laws, but
his mistress's marked coolness towards them.  The narra-  I indeed could not act in the same manner; for finding
tivea becomes now dramatic.                                myself in such imminent peril, and the conspiracy raised'On this Walshingham, who kept always close by   against me and mine, and my kingdom, ready to be ex.
the side of the count, here took on himself to answer,  cuted; I had no time to arraign and try in open justice as
acknowledging thatthe said count had indeed been charged   much as I wished, but was constrained, to my very great
to speak on this he-ad; and he then addressed some words   regret, to strike the blow (lascher la main) in what has
in English to Worcester.  And afterwards the count gave   been done in this city.'
to my lady and mother to understand, that the queen his      This letter of Charles the Ninth, however, does not
mistress had been waiting for an answer on two articles;  here conclude.'My lady and mother' plainly acquaints
the one concerning religion, and the other for an interview.  the Earl of Worcester and Sir Francis Walsingham that
My lady and mother instantly replied, that she had never' her son had never interfered between their mistress and
heard any articles mentioned, on which she would not  her subjects, and in return expects the same favour; al.
have immediately satisfied the Sieur Walsingham, who   though, by accounts they had received from  England,
then took utip the word; first observing that the count was   many ships were arming to assist their rebels at Rochelle.9
not accustomed to business of this nature, but that he      My lady and mother' advances another step, and declares
himself knew for certain that the cause of this negotiation   that Elizabeth by treaty is bound to assist her son against
for marriage not being more advanced, was really these   his rebellious subjects; and they expect, at least, that
two unsettled points: that his mistress still wished that  Elizabeth will not only stop these armaments in all her
the point of religion should be cleared up; for that they   ports, but exemplarily punish the offenders.  I resume
concluded in England that this business was designed only  the letter.
to amuse and never to be completed, (as happened in that'And on hearing tHis, the said Walsingham  changed
of my brother the Duke of Anjou;) and the other point  colour, and appeared somewhat astonished, as my lady
concerned the interview between my brother the Duke of  and mother well perceived by his face; and on this, he
Alenqon; because some letters, which may have been   requested the Count of Worcester to mention the order
written between the parties* in such sort of matters, could   which he knew the queen his mistress had issued to prenot have the same force which the sight and presence of  vent these people from assisting those of La Rochelle; but
both the persons would undoubtedly have.  But he added,  that in England, so numerous were the seamen and others
another thing, whioh had also greatly retarded this husiness,  who gained th-ir livelihood by maritime affairs, and who
was what had happened lately in this kingdom; and during   would starve without the entire frieedom of the seas, that
such troubles, proceeding, from religion, it could not have  it was impossible to interdict them.'
been well timed to have spoken with them concerning the      Charles the Ninth encloses the copy of a letter he had
said marriage; and that himself arnd those of his nation   received from London, in part agreeing with an account
had been in great fear in this kingdom, thinking that we  the ambassador had sent to the king, of an English expe.
intended to extirpate all those of the said religion. On this,  dition nearly ready to sail for La Rochelle, to assist his
my lady and mother answered him instantly, and in order;  rebellious subjects.  He is still further alarmed, that EliThat she was certain that the queen his mistress could  zabeth foments the wartegeux, and assists underhand the
never like nor value a prince who had not his religion at  discontented.  He urges the ambassador to hasten to the
heart; and whoever would desire to have this otherwise,  queen, to impart these complaints in the most friendly
would be depriving him of what we hold dearest in this  way, as he knows the ambassador can well do, and as, no
world; That he might recollect that my brother had al-  dolbt, Walsirnham will have already prepared her to re.
ways insisted on the freedom of reliion, and that it was  ceive. Charles entreats Elizabeth to prove her good faith
from the difficulty of its public exercise, which he always  by deeds and not by words; to act openly on a point which
insisted on, which had broken off this negotiation: the  admits of rio dissimulation.  The best proof of her friendDuke d'Aleneon will be satisfied when this point is agreed ship will be the marriage; and the ambassador, after
on, and vwill hasten  over to the queen, persuaded  that she  opening this business to her chief ministers, who the.king
will not occasion him  the pain and the shame of passing  thinks are desirous of this projected marriage, is then'to
over the seas without happily terminating this affair. In  acqtaint the queen with what has passed between her amregard to what has occurred these latter days, that he must  bassadors and myself.'
have seen how it happened by the fault of the chiefs of    Such is the first letter on English affairs which Charles
those who remained here; for when the late admiral was  the Ninth despatched to his ambassador, after an awful
treacherously wounded at Notre Dame, he knew the af-  silence of six months, during which time La Motte Fenefliction it threw us unto, (fearful that it might have occa-  Ion was not admitted into the presence of Elizabeth. The
aioned great troubles in this kingdom,) and the diligence  apology for the massacre of St Bartholomew comes from
we used to verify judicially whence it proceeded; and the  the king himself; and contains several remarkable expres.
verification was nearly finished, when they were so forgetful  sins which are at least divested of that style of bigotry
as to raise a conspiracy, to attempt the lives of myself,  and exultation we miat have expected: on the contrary,
and exultation we mi.ght have expected: on the contrary,
my lady and mother, and my brothers, and endanger the  this sanguinary and inconsiderate young monarch, as he is
whole state; which was the cause, that to avoid this, I  represented, writes in a sbdued  and srrowng tone, a
was compelled, to my very great regret, to permit what  rpeetd   rtsi    ude    n    orwn   oe  a
as compelled, to m   very great regret, to permit what  menting his hard necessity, regretting he could not have
had happened in this city; but as he had witnessed, f gave   recourse to the laws, and appealing to others for his efforts
orders to stop, as soon as possible, this fury of the people,  to check the fury of the pope, vhich he himself had let
to check the fury of' the people, which he himself had let
and place every one in repose.  On this, the Sieur Wal-  loose.  Catharine de Medicis, who had governed him
singham replied to my lady and mother, that the exercise  from the tender age of eleven years, when he ascended the
of the said religion had been interdicted in this kingdom.  throne, might unqtesrionably have persuaded him that a
thrnemigt uqustinaby hvepersuaded him that a
To which she also answered, that this had not been done                                                Charles the
but for a good and holy purpose; namely, that the fury      conspiracy was of the poit o explosion.
lqmth died young, an  d his character is nnfavourably
the catholic people might the sooner be allayed, who else 0 iewed hy the histoin s  In the volura inoe s  corresponlv
eleviewed by the historians In the voluminotis correspond[.,
had been reminded of the past calamities, and would again         hich I hve examined could we jude by state let
have been let loose against those of the said religion, had   trs of thechI  hvean       olwjdebse lt
ters of the character of him who subscribes them, we must
* These love-lctters of Alenoon to our Elizaheth are noticed  form a very differvnt notion:  they are so prolix and so
by Camde~~~~n, w~~~io obfrm avery tibat          ntin theyqe  beare soeproixead bo
by Com:ien,  who observes tnhat the qoser hecarne vweorted by   earnest, that one mirht conceive thy:,v were dictated by
receivino' so mnnn, and to pit an end to this trouble. she con.  the votng monarch himselr! 
rented that the yotio  dtke shomlld rome over. cotlition:alv, I
th;at he should not be offended it her suitor should return home                 PnnvnICTION.:itlezss'                           In a curinus re tise on; D Divinatinri,' or the knowledge




336                                 CURIOSITIES OF
of future events, Cicero has preserved a complete account  from a more intimate knowledge of the king's character, or
of the state-contrivances which were practised by the Ro.  from some private circumstances which may not have been
man government, to instil among the people those hopes  recorded for our information, of which I have an obscure
and fears by which they regulated public opinion. The  suspicion, remains to be ascertained.  The minds of men
pagan creed, now become obsolete and ridiculous, has  of great political sagacity were unquestionably at that mooccasioned this treatise to be rarely consulted; it remains,  ment full of obscure indications of the approaching change:
however, as 2 chapter in the history of man!           Erasmus, when at Canterbury before the tomb of B3ecket,
To these,two books of Cicero oil  Divination' perhaps  observing it loaded with a vast profusion of jewels, wished
a third might be added, on political and moral prediction.  that those- had been distributed among the poor, and that'rhe principles which may even raise it into a science are  the shrine had been only adorned with boughs and flowers;
self-evident; they are drawn front the heart of man, and' For,' said he,' those who have heaped up all this mass of
they depend on the nature and connexion of human  treasure will one day be plundered, and fall a prey to
events! We presume we shall demonstrate the positive  those who are in.power;'-a prediction literally fulfilled
existence of such a faculty; a faculty which Lord Bacon  about twenty years after it was made. The unknown
describes of'making things future and remote as pre-  author of the Visions of Piers Ploughman, who wrote in
sent.' The aruspex, the augur, and the astrologer, have  the reign of Edward the Third, surprised the world by a
vanished with their own superstitions; but the moral and  famous prediction of the fall of the religious houses from'the
the political predictor, proceeding on principles authorized  hand of a king. The event was realized two hundred
by nature and experience, has become more skilful in his  years afterwards, by our Henry the Eighth. The protestobservations on the phenomena of human history; and it  ant writers have not scrupled to declare, that in this inhas often happened that a tolerable philosopher has not  stance he was divino numine aftlatus.  But moral and po'imnade an indifferent prophet.                         tical prediction is not inspiration; the one may be wrought
No great political or moral revolution has occurred which  out by man; the other descends from  God. The same
nas not been accompanied by its prognostic; and men of  principle which led Erasmus to predict that those who were
a philosophic cast of mind, in their retirement, freed from'in power' would destroy the rich shrines, because no
the delusions of parties and of sects, at once intelligent in  other class of men in society could mate with so mighty a
the quicquid aguent homines, while they are withdrawn from   body as the monks, conducted the author of Piers Pkoughtheir conflicting interests, have rarely been confounded by  man to the same conclusion; and since power only could
the astonishment which overwhelms those who, absorbed  accomplish that great purpose, he fixed on the highest as
in active life, are the mere creatures of sensation, agitated  the most likely; and thus the wise prediction was, so long
by the shaolows of truth, the unsubstantial appearances of  after, literally accomplished'
things!  In ellectual nations are advancing in an eternal    Sir'Walter Rawleigh foresaw the future consequences
circle of events and passions which succeed each other,  of the separatists and the sectaries in the national church,
and the last is necessarily connected with its antecedent;  and the very scene his imagination raised in 1530 has been
the solitary force of some fortuitous incident only can in-  exhibited, to the letter of his description, two centuries af.
terrupt this concatenated progress of human affairs.   ter the prediction! His memorable words are,' Time will
That every great event has been accompanied by a pre-  even bring it to pass, if it were not resisted, that God would
sage or prognostic, has been observed by Lord Bacon.  be turned out of churches into barns, and from thence again' The shepherds of the people should understand the prog-  into the fields and mountains, and under hedges-all order
nostics of state-tempests; hollow blasts of wind seemingly  of discipline and chulrch-government left to newness of optat a distance, and secret swellings of the sea, often pre-  nion and men's fancies, and as many kinds of religion
cede a storm.' Such were the prognostics discerned by  spring up as there are parish-churches within England.'
the politic Bishop Williams in Charles the First's time,  We are struck by the profound genius of Tacitus, who
who clearly foresaw and predicted the final success of the  clearly foresaw the calamities which so long ravaged FuPuritanic party in our country; attentive to his own se-  rope on the fall of the Roman empire, in a work written
cllrity, he abandoned the government and sided with the  five hundred years before the event! In that sublime anrising opposition, at a moment when such a change in  ticipation of the future, he observed,' When the Romans
pub!ic affairs was boy no means apparent.*             shall be hunted out from those countries which they have
In this spirit of foresight our contemplative antiquary  conquered, what will then happen? The revolted people,
Dugdale must have antic ipated the scene which was ap-  freed from their master-oppressor, will not be able to subproaching in 1641, in the destruction of our ancient monu-  sist without destroying their neighbours, and the most cruel
ments in cathedral churches. He hurried on his itinerant  wars will exist among all these nations.'
labours of taking draughts and transcribing inscriptions,    We are told that Solon at Athens, contemplating on the
as he says,' to preserve them for future and better times.'  port and citadel of Munychia, suddenly exclaimed,' How
Posterity owes to the prescient spirit of Dugdale the an-  blind is man to futurity!  Could the Athenians foresee
cient Monuments of England, which bear the marks of  what mischief this will do their city, they would even eat
the haste, as well as the zeal, which have perpetuated  it with their own teeth, to get rid of it!'-a prediction
them.                                                  verified more than two hundred years afterwards! Thales
Continental writers formerly employed a fortunate ex-  desired to be buried in an obscure quarter of Milesia, obpression, when they wished to have an  listoria Reforma-  serving that that very spot would in time be the forum.
tionis ante Reformationem: this history of the Reformation  Charlemagne, in his old age, observing from the window
would have commenced at least a century before the Re-  of a castle a Norman descent on his coast, tears started in
formation itself! A letter from Cardinal Julian to Pope  the eyes of the aged monarch. He predicted, that since
Eugenius IV, written a century before Luther appeared,  they dared to threaten his dominions while he was yet livclearly predicts the Reformation and its consequences.  ing, what would they do when he should be no more! A
He observed that the minds of men were ripe for some-  melancholy prediction, says De Foix, of their subsequent
thing tragical; he felt the axe striking at the root, and the  incursions, and of the protracted calamities of the French
tree beginning to bend, and that his party, instead of prop-  nation during a whole century!
ping it, were hastening its fall.t  In England, Sir Tho-    There seems to be something in minds, which take in
mas More was not less prescient in his views; for when  extensive views of human nature, which serves them as
his son Roper was observing to him, that the Catholic re-  a kind of divination, and the consciousness of this faculty
ligion, under' the Defender of the Faith,' was in a most  has been asserted by some. Cicero appeals to Atticus how
flourishing state, the answer of More was an evidence  he had always judged of the affairs of the Republic as a
of political foresight,-'Truth it is, son Roper! and  good diviner; and that its overthrow had happened, as he
yet I pray God that we may not live to see the day that  had foreseen, fourteen years before.*  Cicero had not
we would gladly be at league and composition with here-  only predicted what happened in his own times, but also
ties, to let them have their churches quietly to themselves,  what occurred long after, according to the testimony of
sothat they would be contented to let us have ours quietly  Cornelius Nepos.  The philosopher indeed, affects no
to ourselves.' Whether our great chancellor predicted  secret revelation, nor visionary second-sight; he honestly
S ee Rushworth, vol. i. p. 420. His languare was deci-  tells us that this art had been acquired mere y by study,
an hore  lanausasand the administration of public affairs, while he reminds
Rive.
IThis letter is in the works of 7neas Sylvius; a copious  his friend of several remarkable instances of his successfu
extract is given by Bossltet. in his' Variations.' See also Moshein, cerlt. XIIT, part ii. chap. note 2, m.                       * ED. ad Att. Lib. 10. Ep. 4.




LITERATURE.                                                         337
predictions.'I do not divine human events by the arts  of man beats on the same eternal springs; and whether he
practised by the augurs; but I use other signs.' Cicero  advances or retrogrades, he cannot escape out of the
then expresses himself with the guarded obscurity of a phi-  march of human thought. Hence, in the most extraordilosopher who could not openly ridicule the prevailing su-  nary revolutions, we discover that the time and the place
perstitions; but we perfectly comprehend the nature of  only have changed; for even when events are not strictly
his' signs,' when, in the great pending event of the rival  parallel, we detect tile same conducting principles.  Sci.
conflicts of Pompey and of Caesar, he shows the means  pio Ammirato, one of the great Italian historians, in his
lie used for his purpose.'On one side I consider the hu-  curious discourses on Tacitus, intermingles ancient exrmour and genius of Caesar, and on the other the condition   amples with the modern; that, he says, all may see how
and the manner of civil wars.'*  In a word, the political  the truth of things is not altered by the changes and didiviner foretold events by their dependence on general  versities of time.  Machiavel drew  his illustrations of
causes, while the mural diviner, by his experience of the  modern history from the ancient.
personal character, anticipated the actions of the individual.    When the French revolution recalled our attention to a
Others. too, have asserted the possession of this faculty.  similar eventful period in our own history, the neglected
Du Vair, a famous chancellor of France, imagined the  volumes which preserved the public and private history
faculty was intuitive with him: by his own experience he  of our Charles the First and Cromwell were collected
had observed the results of this curious and obscure  with eager curiosity. Often the scene existing before us,
fawllty, and at a time when the history of the human   even the very personages themselves, opened on us in
mind was so imperfectly  comprehended, it is easy to  these forgotten pages. But as the annals of human nature
account ibr the apparent egotism  of this grave and dig-  did not commence with those of Charles the First, we
nified character.' Born,' says he,' with constitutional  took a still more retrograde step, and it was discovered in
infirmity, a mind and body but ill adapted to be laborious,  this wider range, that in the various governments of Greece
with a most treacherous memory, enjoying no gift of nature,  and Rome, the events of those times had been only reproyet able at all times to exercise a sagacity so great, that I  duced.  Among them  the same principles had terminated
do not know, since I have reached manhood, that any thing  in the same results, and the same personages had figured
of importance has happened to the state, to the public, or  in the same drama.  This strikingly appeared in a little
to myself in particular, which I had not foreseen.'t This  curious volume, entitled,' Essai sur I'Histoire de la Revofaculty seems to be described by a remarkable expres-  lution Francoise% par une Societ6 d'Auteurs Latins,' pub.
sion employed by Thucydides, in his character of The-  lished at Paris in 1801.  The' Society of Latin Authors,'
niistocles, of which the following is given as a close trans-  who so inimitably have written the history of the French
lation.'By a species of sagacity peculiarly his own, for  revolution, consists of the Roman historians themselves!
which he was in ino degree indebted either to early educa-  By extracts ingeniously applied, the events of that me.
tion or after study, he was supereminently happy in form-  lancholy period are so appositely described, indeed so mi.
ing a promptjudgmentin matters that admitted but little time  nutely narrated, that they will not fail to surprise those
for deliberation; at the same time that he far surpassed all  who are not accustomed to detect the perpetual parallels
in his deductions of the future from the past; or was the  which we meet with in philosophical history.
best guesser of'the future from the past.'T  Should this fac-    Many of these crisises in history are close resemblances
ulty of moral and political prediction be ever considered   of each other.  Compare the history of' The League'
as a science, we can even filrnish it with a denomination;  i F c  wit that of our on civil wars.   e are struck
~~~~~~~~~in, oFrac Sith Thoas ofBrownc v l    w r.'' prefixeduto
for the writer of the lifeof Sir Thomas Brown, prefixed to  by the simnilar occurrences performed by the same politi.
his works, in claiming the honour of it for that philosopher,  cal characters who played their part oni both those great
calls it' the Stochastic,' a term  derived from  the Greek   theatres of human action.  A  satirical royalist of those
theatres of human action. A satirical royalist of those
and from archery, meaning,' to shoot at a mark.'  This  times has commemorated the motives, the incidents, and
eminent genius, it seems, often'hit the white.' Our bie-  the personages in the I Satire Menipp.e de la Vertu du
grapher declares, that' though he were no prophet, yet in   Catholicon dEspagne;' and this famoos'Satire Menippde,
C toico Thspge writerthis famous'atiellip6e
that faculty which comes nearest to it he excelled, i. e.  is a perfect  udibras in prose! The writer  discovers all
the Stochastic, wvherein he was seldom mistaken as to fu-  the bitter ridicule of Butler in his ludicrous and severe ex"
tt4re evesits, as well public as private.                  hibition of the'Etats de Paris,' while the artist who de.
We are nt, indeed, inculcating the fanciful elements of  signed the satirical prints becomes no contemptible Hoan occult art: we ko   whence its principles may be  garth.  So much are these public events alike in their
drawn, ard we may observe how it was practised by the   general spirit and termination, that they have afforded the
wisest among the ancients.  Aristotle, who collected all  subject of a printed but unpublished volume, entitled
~ Essai sur les'Revolutions"*~t The whole work was mo..
the curious knowledge of his times, has preserved some    Essai sur les   voutions'*  The whole work was 
remarkable opinions on the art of divination. In detailing delled on this principle.'It would be possible,' says the
delled on this principle. I It would be possible,' says the
the various subterfuges practised by the pretended diviners  eloquent writer, to frame a table or chart in which all th
of his day, he reveals the secret principle by which one of  given imaginable events of the history of a people  ould
given ieue   oam emginable evtents~ ofhe hsoryofa   eoplewo
them regulated his predictions.  He frankly declared that  be reduced to a mathematical exactness'  The conceptioei fedncifl bto it mathematica leatess deep ionep-th
the future beintg aiways very obscure, while the past was  tio  is fanciful, but its fundation ies deep i truth.
easy  to know, his predictions had nv  the future i view;    A  remarkable illustration of the secret principle dieasy to know, his predictions had never thefutur in view;  vulged by Aristotl  and described by Thucydides, ap ears
for lie decided from the past as it appeared in human af-    ge  by Aristotle, and described by Thucydides, appears
fairs, which, however, lie concealed from the multitude.~   in the recent confession of a man of genius among ourselves. Wihen Mr Coleridge was a political writer in the
Such is the true principle by which a philosophical historian   selves.  When Mr Coleridg was a political writer in the
may become a skilful diviner.                              Morning Post and the Courier, at a period of darkness
Human affairs make themselves; they grov out of one  and utter confusion, that writer was then conducted by a
Hum ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~tact offlight note rhevsealved; toe ordiar  jouraits, on te
another, with slight variations; and thus it is that they   tact of light not revaled to ordinary journalists, on 
usually appen a they have happened. The necessary               II i   aqea
usually happen as they have happened.  Tencsay Napoleonic empire.'Of that despotism in masquerade'
dependence of effects on causes, and the similarity of hu-  he decided by' the state of Rome under the first Caesars;'
depe~~~~~~~~~~~~~ndec   of efethe                      Spaniesh Aeiand Rvtion b tiiaking o the
man interests and human passions, are confirmed by com-  and of the Spanish American Revolution, by taking the
parative parallels with the past.  The philosophic sae    war of the united provinces with Philip II, as the ground
paretive parallels with the past. The philosophic sage   wr  ftecmaio.IO     vr  ra    curne
of holy writ truly dedurced the important principle, that  wok of the comparison.'On every great occurrence,''the thing that hath been is that which shall be.' The   he says,'I endeavoured  to discover, in past history, the
vital facts of history, deadened by the touch of chronolo-  evet that most nearly resembled it.  I procured the congical antiquarianism, are restored to animation when we   tempary historians, memorialists, and   ampheters.
comprehend the principles  ich necessarily terminate in    hen fairly subtracting the points of difference firom those
certain results, and discover the characters among man-  of likeness, as the balance favoured the former or the latkind who are the usual actors in these scenes.  The heart  ter, I conjectured that the result would be the same er different. In the essays "; On the probable final Restoration
~Epad Att. Lib. 6, Ep. 4.                                of the Bourbons," I feel myself authorized to affirm, lv
t This remarkable confession I find in Menage's Observa.  the effect produced on many intelligent men, that wore t',e
tiens sur la Lanw.ue Francoise, Part II. p. 110.
ion  sO1cIa  Lanvvu v, F ratteol 7Ese,   PatotoP.l ItO.v  * This  work  was  printed   in  Londo n, as  a  first volume,'mt
Otcia yap soveeei, ciit ovre srpt1aOtov CC arTfy  oV3.i'  remained unpublished. This singularly curious production
OeT' e'tiaov,', TCOV rE rur, a.yprtsuIa it ehaYisree 80seg K0, oewas suppreesed, but reprinted at'Paris. It has suffered tOtA
Wros yvtOrsoA, nat rsvesN)[oV7 ()V stoor t EI  V0r YEVrs ro y 7rao-  most cruel mutilations. I read, with surprise and instructi,n,
*  ap7rot tmiooaars.          TIIUCYDIDES, it-B..         the single copy which I was atsuredl was the ionly one saved
A~~~i~TtUCDIERhLtB. 1i. ii.5firont the havoc of the entire edition.
ist Rh.  ib. vii,. 5.
1t,~~~~~~~~~~~~e




~338                                   CURIOSITIES OF
dates wanting, it might have been suspected that the es-  principles, conducted by a political sect, who tried' to be
says hadbeen written within the last twelve morths.'*      worse than they could be,' as old Montaigne expresses it;
In moral predictions on individuals, many have disco-  a sort of men who have been audaciously congratulatb
vered the future character.  The revolutionary character  as'having a taste for evil;' exhibited to tile astonished
of Cardinal de Retz, even in his youth, was detected by   world the dismal catastrophe the philosopher had predict.
the sagacity of Mazarine. He then wrote the history of  ed.  I shall give this remarkable passage.' I find that
the conspiracy of Fiesco with such vehement admiration   certain opinions approaching those of Epicurus and Spiof his hero, that the Italian politician, after its perusal,  nosa, are, little by little, insinuating themselves into the
predicted that the young author would be one of the most  minds of the great rulers of public affairs, who serve as
turbulent spirits of the age! The father of Marshal Biron,  the guides of others, and on whom all matters depend; be.
even amid the glory of his son, discovered the cloud which,  sides, these opinions are also sliding into fashionable books,
invisible to others, was to obscure it.  The father, in-  and thus they are preparing all things to that general re.
deed, well knew the fiery'passions of his son.' Biron,'  volution which menaces Europe; destroying those generous
said the domestic seer,' I advise thee, when peace takes  sentiments of the ancients, Greek and Romran, which preplace, to go and plant cabbages in thy garden, otherwise  ferred the love of country and public good, and the cares
I warn thee, thou wilt lose thy head on a scaffold!' Lo-  of posterity, to fortune and even to life. Our public spirits,*
renzo de Medici had studied the temper of his son Piero;  as the English call them, excessively diminish, and are no
for Guicciardini informs us, that he had often complained to  more in fashion, and will be still less while the least vicious
his most intimate friends, that' he foresaw the imprudence  of these men preserve only one principle, which they call
and arrogance of his son would occasion the ruin of his  honour; a principle which only keeps them from not doing
family.' There is a remarkable prediction of James the   what they deein a low action, while they openly laugh at
F irst, of the evils likely to ensue finom Laud's violence, in  the love of country-ridicule those who are zealous for
a conversation given by Hacket, which the king held with  public ends-and when a well-intentioned man asks what
Archbishop Williams.  When the king was hard pressed   will become of their posterity' they reply, " Then, as
to promote Laud, he gave his reasons why ho intended to  now!"  But it may happen to these persons themselves to' keep Laud back from all place of rule and authority, be-  have to endure those evils which they believe are reserved for
cause I find he hath a restless spirit, and cannot see when   others.  If this epidemical and intellectual disorder could
matters are well, but loves to toss and change, and to  be corrected, whose bad effects    e already visible, those
bring things to a pitch of reformation floating an his own   evils might still be prevented;  but if i proceeds in its
brain, which endangers the steadfastness of that which is  growth, Providence will correct man by the very revolution
in a good pass.  I speak not at random; lie hath made  uhich must spring from  it.  Whatever may happen inhimself known to me to be such an one.' James then   deed, all must turn out as usual.for the best in general at tile
gives the circumstances to which he alludes; and at  end of the account, although this cannot happen without th6
length, when, still pursued by the archbishop, then the  punishment of those wtho contribute even to the general good
organ of Buckingham, as usual, this king's good-nature  by their evil actions.'  The most superficial reader will
too easily yielded; he did not, however, without closing   hardly require a commentary on this very remarkable paswith this prediction:' Then take him to vou-but, on my   sage, he must instantly perceive how Leibnirz, in the
soul, you will repent it!' The future character of Crom-  seventeenth century, foresaw what has occurred in the
well was apparent to two of our great politicians.' This  eighteeiith; and the prediction has been verified in the
coarse unpromising man,' said Lord Falkland, pointing to  history of the actors in the late revolution, while the reCromwell,' will be the first person in the kingdorn, if the   suit,;vhich we have not perhaps yet had, according to
nation coines to blows!' And Archbishop VWilliams told   Leibnitz's own exhilarating system of optimism, is an educ.
Charles the First confidentially, that' There was that in  tion of good from evil.
Cromwell which foreboded somethintg dangerous, and          A great genius, who was oppressed by malignant rivals
wished his majesty would either win him over to him, or  in his own times, has been noticed by Madame de Stael,
get him taken off.'  The Marquis of Wellesley's incom-  as having left behind hirti an actual prophecy of the French
parable character of Buonaparte predicted his fall when   revolution; this was Guibert, who, in his commentary on
highest in his glory; that great statesman then poured   Folard's Polybits, published in 1727, declared, that'a
forth the sublime language of philosophical prophecy.  conspiracy is actually forming in Europe, by means at' His eagerness of power is so inordinate; his jealousy of  once so subtile and efficacious, that I am sorry not to have
independence so fierce; his keenness of appetite so fever-  come into the world thirty years later to witness its result.
ish in all that touches his ambition, even in the most  It must be confessed that. the sovereigns of Europe wear
trifling things, that he must plunge into dreadful difficul-  very bad spectacles.  The proofs of it are mathematical,
ties. He is one of an order of minds that by nature make  if such proofs ever were, of a conspiracy.' Guibert unSor themselves great reverses.'                           questionably foresaw the anti-monarchical splirit gathering
Lord Mansfield was once asked, after the commence-  up its mighty wings, and rising over the universe! but.aent of the French revolution, when it would end? His  could not judge of the nature of the impulse which he prelordship replied,' It is an event without precedent, and   dicted; prophesying from the ideas in his luminous inteltherefore without prognostic.'  The truth, however, is,  lect, he seems to have been far more cttriouls about, than
that it had both.  Our own history had furnished a prece-  certain of the consequences. Rousseau even circumstandent in the times of Charles the First. And the prognos-  tially predicted the convulsions of modern Europe.  He
tics were so redundant, that a volunte might be collected   stood on the crisis of the French revolution, which he viof passages from  various writers who had predicted it.  vidly foresaw, for he seriously advised the higher classes of
However ingenious might be a history of the Reformation   society to have their children taught somne useful trade; a
before it occurred, the evidence could not be more au-  notion highly ridiculed on the first appearance of the Emile;
thentic and positive than that of the great moral and po-  but at its hour the awful truth struck! He, too, foresaw
litical revolution which we have witnessed in our own days.  the horrors of that revolution; for he announced that
A prediction, which Bishop Butler threw out in a ser-   Emile designed to emigrate, because, from the moral state
mton before the House of Lords, in 1741, does honour to  of the people, a virtuous revolution had become impossihis political sagacity, as well as to his knowledge of hu-  ble.t  The eloquence of Burke was often oracular; and
man nature; he calculated that the irreligious spirit would  * Public spirit, and public spirits, were about the year 1700
produce, some time or other, political disorders, similar to  household words with us. Leibnitz was struck by their signi..
those which, in the seventeenth century, had arisen from   ficance, but it might now puzzle us to find synonyms, or even
religious fanaticism.'Is there no danger,' he observed,  lo explain the very terms themselves,
IIsthere nodanarr,' heobserqp- tThis extraordi'nary passage is at the close of tlie third book'that all this may raise somewhat like that levellin      of Em, to which I mpassae is at the closear. It is curious,
upon atheistical principles, which in the last age prevailed  Emile, to which I must refer tite read r. It is curious,
however, to observe, that in 1760 Rousseau poured forth the
upon enthusiastic ones? Not to speak of the possibility  following awful predictions, which were conridered quite abhthat different sorts of people may unite in it upon these con-  surd.' Vous vous fiez ii lordre actuel de la socie6t sans
traryp;rinciples:' All this literally has been accomplish-  songer que cet ordre est sujet h des revolultions inevitables —
ed! Leibtniz, indeed, foresaw the results of those selfish,  le grand devient petit, le riche devient pauvre. le monarque
and at length demoralizing, opinions, which began to pre-  dovint  et-ous approhons lI'tt de crise et du sibele den
ail through Europe in his  ay.          se disrevolutions  Que fera done dans la bassesse ce satrape qua
~ail through Europe in his day. These disorganizing   vo
-  vous n'aur'z elevh que pour la grandeur? Quoe fera dans la
* Biographia Literaria, or Biographical sketches of my Lite-  pauvret6 e publicaic qui ne scait vivreqlue d'or? Que fera do.ary Life and Opinions. By S T. Coleridge, Esq. 1807.-  pourvu de tout, ce fastueux imbecille qui ne sail point mue!
ol..;, jr 214.                                            de luimeme?' &c. &c.




LITERATURE.                                                       33C
a speech of Pitt, in 1800, painted the state of Europe as  this was written at the time, s,' the author assorts, it is a
it was only realized fifteen years afterwards.            very remarkable passage, obset,es the noble editor of his
But many remarkable predictions have turned out to be  memoirs. The prognostics or presages of this revolution, it
false. Wheneyer the facts on which the prediction is raised   may now be difficult to recover; but I is evident that Child
are altered in their situation, what was relatively true  before the time when Lord Orford wrote this passage preceases to operate as a general principle.  For instance, to  dicted the separation on true and philosophical principles.
that striking anticipation which Rousseau formed of the      Even when the event does not always justify the prediFrench revolution, he added, by way of note, as rtemarka-  tion, the predictor may not have been the less correct in
lble a prediction oi MONARCHY.  Je tiens pour impossible  his principles of divination.  The catastrophe of human
que les grandes monarchies de l'Egrope aient encore long  life, anid the turn of great events, often prove accidental.
tems a durcr; toutes on brilfr, et tout dtat qui brille est sur  Marshal Biron, whom  we have noticed, might have asson declin. The predonminant anti-monarchical spirit among  cended the throne instead of the scaffold; Cromwell and
our rising generation seems to hasten on the accomplish-  De Retz might have become only the favourite general, or
mient of the prophecy; but if an important alteration has  the minister of their sovereigns. Fortuitous events are
occurred in the uature of things, we may question the re-  not comprehended in the reach of human prescience; such
stilt.  If' by looking into the past, Rousseau found facts  must be consigned to those vulgar superstitions which orewhich sufficiently proved that nations in the height of their  sumie to discover the issue of human events, without pre.
splendour and coruption had closed their career by falling  tending to any human knowledge.   There is nothing suan easy conquest to barbarous invaders, who anniihilated   pernatural in the prescience of the philosopher.
the most polistied people at a single blow; we now find that    Sometimes predictions have been condemned as false
no such p~wer any loniger exists in the great family of  ones, which, when scrutinized, we can scarcely deem  to
Europe: the;tate of the question is therefore changed.  have failed: they may have been accomplished, and they
It i- now how corrupt nations will act against corrupt na-  may again revolve on us.  In 1749, Dr Hartley published
tions equally enlightened?  But if the citizen of Gene-  his' O1bservations on Man;' and predicted the fall of'the
va drew  his prediction of the extinction of  mionarchy in  existing governments anid hierarchies in two simple proEurope from  that predilection for demtocracy which as-  posuititns; among otherssumies that a republic must necessarily produce more hap-    PaoP. 81.  It is probable that all the civil governments
piness to the people than a monarchy, then we say that  wvill be overturned.
the fatal experiment was again repeated since the predic-    Pano. 82. It is probable that the present forms of
tion. anid the fact proved not true! The very excess of  church-government will be dissolved.
democracy inevitably terminates in a monarchical state;      Many were alarmed at these'predicted falls of church
and were all the monarchies in Europe republics, a philo-  anid state.  Lady Charlotte Wentworth asked Hartley
sopher might satiflv predict the restoration of monarchy!  whlien these terrible things would happen?   The answer
If a prediction be raised on facts which our own preju-  (f the predictor was not less awful;  I am an old man, and
dices induce us to infer will exist, it must be chimerical,  shall niot live to see them: but you are a young woman,
We have an universal Chronicle of the Monk Canion,  and probably will see them.' In the subsequent revolutions
printed in 1832, in which he announces that the world was  of Americd and of France, and perhaps now of Spain, we
about ending, as well as his chronicle of it; that the  cant hardly deny that these predictions had failed. A furTurlish empire would not last many years; that after the  tuitous event has once more thrown back Europe into its
death of Charles the Fifth the empire of Germany would  old corners; but we still revolve in a circle, and what is
be torn to pieces by the Germans themselves. This monk  now dark and remote may again conime round, when time
will no longer pass f(,r a prophet; he belongs to that class  has performed its great cycle.  There was a prophetical
of historians who write to humour their own prejudices,  passage in Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, regarding the
like a certain lady-prophetess, who, in 1811, predicted   church, which long occupied the speculations of its exthat grass was to grow  in Cheapside about this time!  pounders.  Hooker indeed seemed to have done what no
The monk Carion, like others of greater name, had mis-  predictor of human events should do! he fixed on the period
calculated the weeks of Daniel, and wished more ill to  of its accomplishment.  In 1597, he declared that it would
the Mahometans than suit the Christian cabinets of Eu-' peradventure fall out to be three-sco-e and ten years,
rope to inflict on thenm; and, lastly, the monastic histo-  or if strength do awe, into four score!'  Those who
rian had no notion that it would please Providence to pros-  had outlived the revolution in 1641, when the long parliaper the heresy of Luther!  Sir James Macintosh once  ment pulled down the ecclesiastical establishment, and
observed, I am sensible, that in the field of political pre-  sold the church-lands,-a circumstance which Hooker
diction, veteran sagacity has often been deceived.' Sir  had contemplated-and were afterwards returned to their
James alluded to the memorable example of Harrington,  places on the Restoration, imagined that the prediction
who published a demonstration of the impossibility of re-  had not yet been completed and were looking with great
establishing monarchy in England six months before the  anxiety towards the year 1677, for the close of this extrarestoration of Charles the Second. But the author of the  ordinary prediction!  When Bishop Barlow, in 1675, was
Oceana was a political fanatic, who ventured to predict  consulted on it, he endeavoured to dissipate the panic, by
an event, not by other similar events, but by a theoretical  referring to an old historian, who had reproached our naprinciple which  he had formed, that' the balance of  tion for their proneness to prophecies! The prediction of
power depends on that of property.' Harrington, in his  the venerable Hooker in truth had been fully accomplished,
contracted view of human nature, had dropped out of his  and the event had occurred without Bishop Barlow haycalculation all the stirring passions of ambition and party,  hog recurred to it; so easy it seems to fborget what we disand the vacillations of the multitude.  A similar error of a  like to remember i  The period of time was too literally
great genius occurs in De Foe.' Child,' says Mr Georgs  taken and seems to have been only the figurative expresChalmers,' foreseeing from experience that men's con-  sion of nman's age in scriptural language, which Hooker
duct must finally be decided by their principles, foretold  had employed; but no one will now deny that this prethe colonial revolt.  De Foe, allowing his prejudices to oh-  scient sage had profoundly foreseen the results of that rising
scure his sagacity, reprobated that suggestion, because he  party, whose designs on church and state were clearly dedeemed interest a more strenuous prompter than enthusi-  picted in his own luminous view.
asm.' The predictions of Harrington and De Foe are          The philosophical predictor in foretelling a crisis, from
precisely such as we might expect from a petty calculator-   the appearances of things, will not rashly assign the period
a political economist, who can see nothing farther than in-  of time; for the crisis which he anticipates is calculated
mediate results; but the true philosophical predictor was  on by that inevitable march of events which generate each
Child, who had read the pasl.  It is probable that the  other in human affairs; but the period is always dubious,
American emancipation from the mother-country of En.,-  being either retarded or accelerated by circumstances of a
land was foreseen, twenty or thirty years before it occurred,  nature incapable of entering into this moral arithmetic. It
though not perhaps by the administration. ILord Orford,  is probable,that revolution, similar to that of France, would
writing in 1754 under'the ministry of the Duke of New-  have occurred in this country, had it not been counteract..
castle, blames' The instructions to the governor of New   ed by the genius of Pitt.  In 1618, it was easy to foretell,
York, which seemed better calculated for the latitude of  by the political progiuostics, that a mighty war throughout
Mexieo, and foir a Spanish tribunal, than for a free British   Europe must ntecessarily  occur.  At that moment, ob
settleuent, and in suoh opulence and such hautghtiness,  serves Bayle. the house of Austria aimed at an universal
that.tspoicions had lon, been crnceived of their meditating   monarchy; the consequent domineerina spirit of the mio
to throw off the dependence on. tlheir mother country.' If  nisters of the Emperor and the kinig of Spain, combined




340                                    CURIOSlFIES OF
with their determination to exterminate the new religions,  minds have unquestionably exercised.  We have discov.
excited a re-action to this imperial despotism; public opi-  ered its principles in the necessary dependence of effects
nion had been suppressed, till every people grew impa-  on general causes, and we have shown that, impelled by
tlent: while their sovereigns, influenced by national feel-  the same motives, and circumscribed by the same pasinag, were combining against Austria.  But Austria was a   sions, all human affairs revolve in a circle; and we have
vast military power, and hier generals were the first of  opened the true source of this yet imperfect science of
their class. The efforts of Europe would then be often   moral and political prediction, in an intimate, but a discrirepulsed!  This state of affairs prognosticated a long war  minative, knowledge of the past.
-and when at length it broke out, it lasted thirty years!    Authority is sacred, when experience affords paralle!s
The approach and the duration of the war might have been   and analogies.  If much which may overwhelm  when
predicted: but the period of its termination could not have   shall happen, can be foreseen, the prescient statesman nd
been foreseen,                                             moralist may provide defensive measures to break.s
There is, however, a spirit of political vaticination which   waters, whose streams they cannot always direct; and v:
presumes to pass beyond the boundaries of hutnan pre-  nerable Hooker has profoundly observed, that'the best
scio.rce; it has been often ascribed to the highest source  things have been overthrown, not so much by puissance
of inspiration by enthusiasts; but since' the language of  and might of adversaries, as through  defect of council ir
prophecy' has ceased, such pretensions are not less irm-  those that should have upheld and defended the same.pious than they are unphilosophical.  Knox the reformer      The philosophy of history blends the past with the fre.
possessed au extraordinary portion of this awfiul prophetic  sent, and combines the present with the fiiture; each is U..t
confidence: he appears to have predicted several remark-  a portion of the other! The actual state of a thino is r.able events, and the fates of some persons.  VWe are told,  cessarily determined by its antecedent, and thus progrec
that, condemned to a galley at Rochelle, he predicted that  sively through the chain of human exis.-. ce; while' th.'within two or three years, he should preach the gospel at  present is always full of the future,' as Leibnitz has ha.Saint Giles's in Edinburgh;' an improbable event, which   pily expressed the idea.
happened.  Of Mary and Darnley, he pronounced, that    A new and beautiful light is thus thrown over the an-'as the king, for the queen's pleasure, had gone to mass,  nals of mankind, by the analogies and the parallels of difthe Lord, in his justice, would nmake her the instrument of  ferent ages in succession.  How the seventeenth century
his overthrow.' Other striking predictions of the deaths   has influenced the eighteenth; and the results of the nineof Thomas Maitland, and of Kirkaldy of Grange, and the  teenth as they shall appear in the twentieth, might open a
warning he solemnly gave to the Regent Murray not to 90go   source of predictions, to which, however difficult it might
to Linlithgow, where he was assassinated, occasioned a   be to affix their dates, there would be none in exploring
barbarous people to imagine that th, prophet Knox bad  into causes, and tracing their inevitable effects.
received  an  immediate communication  from  Heaven.         The multitude live only among the shadows of things
A  Spanish friar and almanac-maker, predicted in clear  in the appearances of the present; the learned, busied
and precise words, the death of Henry the Fourth of  with the past, can only trace whence, and how, all comes;
France: and Pieresc, though he had no faith in the vain   but he, who is one of the people and one of the learned,
science of astrology, yet, alarmed at whatever menaced   the true philosopher, views the natural tendency and terthe life of a beloved monarch, consulted with some of the   minations which are preparing for the future!
king's friends, and had the Spanish almanac laid before
his majesty.  That high-spirited monarch thanked them            DREAMS AT THE DAWN OF P-ILOSOPHY.
for their solicitude, but utterly slighted the prediction; the Modern philosophy, theoretical or eperimental, only
Modern philosophy, theoretical or experimental, only
event occurred, and in the following year the Spanish friar  amuses while the action of discovery is suspended or adspread his own fame in a new  almanac.  I have been
vanees: the interest ceases with the inquirer when the
occasionally struck at the Jeremiads of honest George
catastrophe is ascertained, as in the romance whose deWithers, the vaticinating poet of our civil wars: some of
his works aifford    many solemn predictions.  We my nouement turns on a mysterious incident, which, once unmay  folded, all future aaitation ceases. But in the true in.
account for many predictions of this class, without the 
fancy of Science, philosophers were as an imaginative a
intervention of any supernatural agency.  Among the  fancy of Science, philosophers were as an imaginative a
race as poets: marvels and portents, undernonstrable and
busy spirits of a revolutionary age, the heads of a party, race as poets: marvels and portents, undemonstrable and
undefinable, with occult fancies, perpetually beginning
s~uch as Knox, have frequently secret communications
with spies or with friends. Io a constant source of con-  and never ending, were delightful as the shifting cantos of
with spies or with friends. In a constant source of concaled  information, a shred, confident and  enthus-  Ariosto. Then science entranced the eye by its thaumaceaied information, a shrewd, confident and enthusiastic temper will find ample matter for mysterious pre-  turgy: when they looked through a  optic tube, they bes e e ss y wlieved they were looking into futurity; or, starting at some
science. Knox exercised that deep sagacity which took
in the most enlarged views of the future, as appears by   shadow darkening the glassy globe, beheld the absent permn the most enlarged views of the future, as appears by          wietemcaia  netoso   r   eety
his Machiavelian foresight ont the barbarous destruction of  son; while the mechanical inventions of art were toys
themonsteiesan   th aand tricks, with sometimes an automaton, which frightened
the monasteries and the cathedrals.-' The best way to
keep the rooks from  returning, is to pull down their n    them with life.
In~ the aseofthepred of thel dea   th ofH nests.h    The earlier votaries of modern philosophy only witnessed,
In the case of the prediction of the death of Henry the   as Gaffarel calls his collection,' Unheard-of Ourioskties.'
Fourth, by the Spanish friar, it resulted either from his
This state of the marvellous, of which we are now for
being acquainted with the plot, or from his being made an   This state of the marvellous, of which we are now for
fteppe to   wereever deprived, prevailed among the philosophers and the
instrument for their purpose by those who were. It ap.  virtuosi in Europe, and with ourselves, long after the estabpears that rumours of Henry's assassination were rife in  lishment of the Royal Society.  Philoscphy then doSpain and Italy, before the event occurred.  Such vati-  pende  mainly on authority-a single one however was
cinatos a Gorg  Wihes iillalaysris i thse  is pendecf mainly on authority-a single one however was
cinators as George Withers will always rise in those dis-  sufficient: so that when this had been repeated by fifty
turbed times which his own prosaic metre has forcibly
depicted. t    h                 s               orctby   others, they had the authority of fifty honest men-whoever the first man might have been! They were then a
It may be on that darkness, which they find          blissfill race of children, rambling here and there in a
Within their hearts, a sudden light hath shin'd,     golden age of innocence and ignorance, where at every
Making reflections of some things to come,           step each gifted discoverer whispered to the few, some
Which leave within them musings troublesome
Which leave within them muins troublesome     half-concealed secret of nature, or played with some toy
To their veak spirits; or too intricate             of art; some invention which with great difficulty per.
For them to put in order, and relate.
They act as men in ecstasies have done-              formed what, without it, might have been done with great
Striving their cloudy visions to declareAnd I, perhaps, among these may be one t                 hooker wrote this about 1560, and he wrote before the
That was let loose for service to be done:           Sibcle des Rivolutions had begun, even among ourselves.
I blunder out what worldly-prudent men               He penetrated into this important principle merely by the force
Count madnesse.'-P. 7.*                              of his own meditation. At this moment, after more practical
experience in political revolutions, a very intelligent French
Separating human prediction from  inspired prophecy,  writer in a pamphlet, entitled'M. de Villele,' says'Expe
we only ascribe to the faculties of man that acquired pr-   eneprcai  a great trh-naely.  that re tions tm
xiience which we have demonstrated that some great  selves cannot succeed, except when they are favoured by a
portion of the Government.' He illustrates the axionm by the
different revolutions which have occurred in his nation within
A'  dark lantherne, offering a dim discovery, intermixed   these thirty years. It is the same truth traced to its source by
with remembrances, predictions, &c, 1652.'                 another ro Id.




LITERATURE.                                                     341
ease. The cabinets of the lovers of mechanical arts I such great character should write so absurdly on his van.
formed enchanted apartments, where the admirers feared  ishing at his death, nobody knows how!' But as it is
to stir or look about them; while the philosophers them-  probable that Monsieur and Mademoiselle must have
selves half imagined they were the very thaumaturgi, for  generated some puppy demons, Wierui ought to have
which the world gave them too much credit, at least for  been more circumstantial.
their quiet!  Would we run after the shadows in this    Albertus Magnus, for thirty years, had never ceased
gteaming g iand of moonshine, or sport with these children  working at a man of brass, and had cast together the qualm the fresh morning of science, ere Aurora had scarcely  ities of his materials under certain consteilations, which
peeped on the hills, we must enter into their feelings, view  threw such a spirit into his man of brass, that it was rewith their eyes, and believe all they confide to us; and  ported his growth was visible; his feet, legs, thighs, shoulout of these bundles of dreams sometimes pick out one or  ders, neck, and head, expanded, and made the city of Cotwo for our own drearning.  They are the fairy tales and  logne uneasy at possessing one citizen too miohtv for them
the Arabian nights' entertainments of Science.  But if  all.  This man of brass, when he reached his maturity,
the reader is stubbornly mathematical and logical, he will  was so loquacious, that Albert's master, the great scholas/
only be holding up a great torch against the muslin cur-  tic Thomas Aquinas, one day, tired of his babble, and detain, upon which the fantastic shadows playing upon it  claring it was a devil, or devilish, with his staff knocked
must vanish at the instant.  It is an amusement which  the head off; and, what was extraordinary, this brazen
can only take place by carefully keeping himself in the  man, like any human being thus effectually silenced,'word
dark.                                                   never spake more.'  This incident is equally historical
VWThat a subject, were I to enter on it, would be the  and authentic; though whether heads of brass can speak,
narratives of magical writers! These precious volumes  and even prophecy, was indeed a subject of profound inhave been so constantly wasted by the profane, that now a  quiry, even at a later period.  Naude, who never quesbook of real magic require s some to filed it, as well as a  tioned their vocal powers, and yet was puzzled concerninagician to use it. A Ibertus Magnus, or Albert the Great,  ing the nature of this new species of animal, has no doubt
as he is erroneously styled-for this sage only derived this  most judiciously stated the question, whether these speakenviable epithet foiom his siurnarue De Groot, as did Hugo  ing brazen heads had a sensitive and reasoning nature, or
Grotius-this sae, in his'Admnirable Secrets' delivers  whether demons spoke in them?  But brass has not the
his opinion ttha these  ooks of' magic should be most pre-  faculty of providing its own naurishment, as we see in
ciously preserved; for, he prtophetically aded, the time is  plants, and therefore they wer  s not sensitive; and as
arrivinrg when they would be understood! It seems they  for the act of reasoning, these brazen heads presumed to
were not intelli ihle itn the thirteenth centitry; but, if Al-  know nothing but the future: with the past and the pres.
bertu. has not miscalculated, in the present day they may  et they seemed totally unacquainted, so that their memnbe! Magical terms with lalismanic figures may yet con-  ory and their observation were very limited; aiid as for the
ceal many (a secret; gtritpowder cane downll to s in a sort  future, that is always doubtful and obscure-even to heads
of anagram and the kaleidoscope, with all its    inable    brass  This learned man then infers, that' These bra
tultipllcations of fu-t-. A at aid, nfdo two centuries, in  zen beads could have no reasoning faculties, for nothing al-.
Baptista Porta's' air ui MaeTic.t   The abhbot Trithe-  tered their nature; they said what they bhad to say,which no
mits, in a confdtniial  lecttr, halppened to call himself a  one could contradict; and having said their say, you might
magician, perhaps at the imomentl he thoutght himself one,  have broken the head for any thing more that you could
and sent three or four leaves stuffed with the names of  have got out of it. Had they had any litfe in them, would
devils, anrd with their envocations.  At the death of his  they not. have moved, as well as spoken?  Life itself is
friend these leaves fell into the unwary hands of the  but inotion, but they had no lurrgs, no spleenl; and, in fact.
Prior, who was so frightened on the firlst glance at the dia-  though they spoke, they had no tongue.  VWas a devil in
holical nomenclature, that he raised the country aainst  them?  I think not. Yet why should men have taken all
the abbot, and Trithemius was nearly a lost man! Yet,
the abbot, and Trithemius wvas nearly a lost man!  Yet.,  this trouble to make, not a man, but a trumpet?'
atter all, this evocation of devils has reached us in his    Our profound philosopher was right not to agitate the:'Steganographia,' and proves to be only one of this inge-  question whether these brazen heads had ever spoken?
nious abbot's polygraphic attempts at secret writing; for  Why should not a man of brass speak, since a doll can
he had flattered himself that he had invented a mode of  whisper, a statue play chess, and brass ducks have per.
concealing his thoughts from all the world, while he com-  formed the whole process of digestion  Anothel magical
municated them to a friend. Roger Bacon promised to  invention has been ridiculed with equal reason.  A maraeise thunder and lightnine, and disperse clouds, by dis-  gician was annoyed, as philosophers still are, by passengers
solving them  into rain.  The first magical process has  in the street; and he, particularlyso, by having horses led
been obtained by Franklin; and the other, of far more use  to drink under his window. He made a magical horse of
to our agriculturists, may perchance be found lurking in  wood, according    one of the boks of Hermes, hich
some corner which has been overlooked in the' Opus ma-  perfectly answered its purpose, frightening away the hor.
jus' of our' Doctor mirabilis.' Do we laugh at their ma-  ses, or rather the grooms! the wooden horse, no doubt,
gical works of art?  Are we ourselves such indifferent  gave some palpable kick. The same magical story might
artists?  Cornelius Agrippa, before he wrote his Vanity  have been told of Dr Franklin, who finding that under his
of the Arts and Sciences,' intended to reduce into a sys-  window the passengers had discovered a spot which they
tern and method the secret of communicating with spirits
tern and method the secret of communicating with sirits  made too convenient for themselves, he charged it with his
and demons. On good authority, that of Porphyrius, Psel-  newlydiscovered electrical fire. After a few remarkable ici.
lus, Plotinus, Jariblicuns-and on better, were it necessary  dents had occurred, which at a former period had lodged the'
to allege it-he was well assured that the upper reions  great discoverer of electricity in the Inquisition, the modern
of the air swarm with what the Greeks called d mones, magician succeeded just as well as the ancient, who had
just as our lower atmosphere is filll of birds, our water of theadvantage of conning over the books of Hermes. Instead
fish, and our earth of insects.  Yet this occult philosopher,  of ridiculing these works of magic, let us rather become
who knew  perfectly eight languages, and married two  magicians ourselves!
wives, with whom  he had never exchanged a harsh word     The works of the ancient alchemists have afforded
in arny of them, was every where avoideras having by his  numberless discoveries to modern chemists: nor is even
side, for his corrpanion, a personage no less than a demon i   their grand operation despaired of. If they have of late
This was a great black dog whom he suffered to stretch  not been so renowned, this has arisen from a want of what
himself out among his magical manuscripts, or lie on his  Ashmole calls' apertness;' a qualification early inculcated
bed, often kissing and pat~ting him, and feeding hinm otn  among these illuminated sages.  We find authentic acchoice morsels. Yet for this woul Paubus Jovius and all  counts of some who have lived three centuries, with tohe6
the world have had him put to the ordeal of fire anid fa-  rable complexions, possessed of nothing but a crucible
got! The truth was afterwards boldly asserted by Wierus,  and a bellows! but they were so unnecessarily mysterious,
his learned domestic, who believed that his master's do   that whenever such a person was discovered, he was sure
was really n)thing more than what he appeared!'I be-  in an instant to disappear, and was never afterwards
lieve,' says he,' that he was a real natural do ~ he was  heard of.
indeed black, butt of a moderate size, and  In the' Liber Patris Sapientite' this selfish caitiousnessd
him  by a;rin,, and called him by the French name
him  by a strin, a   called him  b  the Frenh name  is all alon  impressed on the student, for the accomplish.
Agrippa had given him, Monsieur!'and he had a female  ment of the great mystery.  In the commentary on this
who wvas called Mndemcoiselle!  I wonder how authors of  precious work of the alchemist Norton who counsels,




342                                    CURIOSITIES OF
( Be thou in a place secret, y thyself alone,            size of a mouse:' but he adds  they are only pretty Jttle
That no man see or hear what thou shalt say or done.     dogs to play with.' Were these akin to the fanries e.
Trust not thy friend too much wheresoeer thou go,       Paracelsus
For he thou trustest best, sometyme may be thy foe.'       They were well convinced of the eistence of such el
They were well convinced of the existence of such el~.Ashmole observes, that']Norton gives exceeding good   mental beings; frequent accidents in mines showed the
advice to the student in this science where he bids him be   potency of the metallic spit ts; which so tormented the
secret in the carrying on of his studies and operations, and   workmen in some of the German mines, by blindness,
not to let any one know of his undertakings but his good   giddiness, and sudden sickness, that they have been
angel and himself; and such a close and retired breast had   obliged to abandon mines well known to be rich in silver.
Norton's master, who,                                      A metallic spirit at one sweep annihilated twelve miners,
When men disputed of colours of the rose,              who were all found dead together.  The fact was unquesHe would not speak, but kept himself full close!'     tionable; and the safety-lamp was undiscovered!
We regret that by each leaving all his knowledge to' his    Never was a philosophical imagination more beautiful
good angel and himself,' it has happened that  the good   than that exquisite Palingenesis, as it has been termed
angels,' have kept it all to themselves!                   from the Greek, or a regeneration; or rather, the appaIt cannot, however, be denied, that if they could not  ritions of animals and plants.  Schott, Kircher, Gaffarel,
always extract gold out of lead, they sometimes succeeded   Borelli, Digby, and the whole of that admirable school,
in washing away the pimples on ladies' faces, notwith.  discovered in the ashes of plants their primitive forms,
standing that Sir Kenelm Digby poisoned his most beau-  which were again raised up by the force of heat. Nothing,
tiful lady, because, as Sancho would have said, he was  they say, perishes in nature; all is but a continuation, or
one of those who would' have his bread whiter than the   a revival.  The semina of resurrection are concealed in
finest wheaten.' Van Helmont, who could not succeed in  extinct bodies, as in the blood of man; the ashes of
discoverin- the true elixir of life, however hit on the spirit  roses will again revive into roses, though smaller and paler
of hartshorn, which for a good while he considered was the   than if they had been planted: unsubstantial and unodowonderful elixir itself, restoring to life persons who seem-  riferous, they are not roses which grew on rose-trees, but
ed to have lost it. And though this delightful enthusiast  their delicate apparitions; and, like apparitions, they are
could not raise a ghost, yet he thought he had; for he   seen but for a moment! The process of the Palingenesis,
raised something aerial from spa-water, which mistaking   this picture of immortality, is described.  These philosofor a ghost, he gave it that very name; a name which we   phers having burst a flower, by calcination disengaged the
still retain in gas, from the German geist, or ghost! Par-  salts from its ashes, and deposited them in a glass phial
acelsus carried the tiny spirits about him in the hilt of his  a chemical mixture acted on it; till in the fermentation
great sword!  Having first discovered the qualities of  they assumed a bluish and spectral hue.  This dust, thus
laudanum, this illustrious quack made use of it as an uni-  excited by heat, shoots upwards into its primitive forms;
versal remedy; and distributed, in the form ofpills, which   by sympathy the parts unite, and while each is returning
he carried in the basket-hilt of his sword; the operations   to its destined place, we see distinctly the stalk, the leaves,
he performed were as rapid as they seemed magical.  and the flower, arise: it is the pale spectre of aflower
Doubtless we have lost some inconceivable secrets by some   coming slowly forth from its ashes.  The heat passes
unexpected occurrences, which the secret itself, it would   awav, the magical scene declines, till the whole matter
seem, ought to have prevented taking place.  When a   again precipitates itself into the chaos at the bottom. This
philosopher had discovered the art of prolonging life to-an   vegetable pbhenix lies thus concealed in its cold ashes, till
indefinite period, it is most provoking to find that he  the presence of heat produces this resutirrection-in its
should have allowed himself to die at an early age!  We   absence it returns to its death.  Thus the dead naturally
have a very authentic history from  Sir Kenelm  Digby   revive; and a corpse may give out its shadowy reanima.
himself, that when he went in disguise to visit Descartes  tion, when not too deeply buried in the earth.  Bodies
at his retirement at E.mond, lamenting the brevity of life,  corrupted  in their graves have risen, particularly the
which hindered philosophers getting on in their studies, the   murdered; for murderers are apt to bury their victims in a
French philosopher assured him that' he had considered   slight and hasty manner.  Their salts, exhaled in vapour
thatmiatter; to render a man Imnmortal was what he could  by means of their fermentation, have arranged themselves
nriot promiise, but that he was very sure it was possible to  on the surface of the earth, and formed those phantoms,
lengthen out his life to the period of the patriarchs.' And   which at night have often terrified the passing, spectator,
when his death was announced to the world, the ahbb Pi-  as authentic history witnesses.  They have opened the
cot, an ardent disciple, for a long time would not believe it  graves of the phantom, andi discovered the bleeding corpse
possible; and at length insisted, that if it had occurred,  beneath; hence it is astonishing how many ghosts may be
it must have been owing to some mistake of the philoso-  seen at night after a recent battle, standing over their
phers.                                                     corpses!  On the  same principle, my old philosopher
The late Holcroft, Loutherbourgh, and Cosway, im-  Gaffarel conjectures on the raining of frogs; but these
agined that they should escape the vulgar era of scriptu-  frogs, we must conceive, can only be the ghosts of frogs;
ral life by reorganizing their old bones, and moistening   and Gaffarel himself has modestly opened this fact by a
their dry marrow; their new  principles of vitality were' peradventure.  A  more satisfactory origin of ghosts
supposed by them to be found in the powers of the mind;  modern philosophy has not afforded.
this seemed more reasonable, but proved to be as little      And who does not believe in the existence of ghosts?
efficacious as those other philosophers who imagine they  for, as Dr More forcibly says,' That there should be so
have detected the hidden principle of life in the eels  universal afame andfear of that which never was, nor is,
frisking in vinegar, and allude to' the book-binder who   nor can be ever in the world, is to me the greatest miracle
creates the book-worm!'                                    of all.  If there had not been, at some time or other, true
Paracelsus has revealed to us one of the grandest se-  miracles, it had not been so easy to impose on the people
crets of nature.  When the world began to dispute on the  by false.  The alchemist would never go about to sophisti.
very existence of the elementary folk, it was then that he   cate metals to pass them  off for true gold and silver,
boldly offered to give birth to a fairy, and has sent down to   unless that such a thing was acknowledged as true gold
posterity the recipe.  He describes the impurity which is  and silver in the world.'
to be transmuted into such purity, the gross elements of a   The Pharmacopceia of those times combined more of
delicate fairy, which, fixed in a phial, placed in fuming   morals with medicine than our own.  They discovered
dtng, will in due time'settle into a full-grown fairy, burst-  that the agate rendered a man eloquent and even witty;
ing through its vitreous prison-on the vivifying principle   a laurel leaf placed on the centre of the skull, fortified the
by which the ancient Egyptians hatched their eggs in   memory; the brains of fowls, and birds of swift wing,
ovens.  I recollect at Dr Farmer's sale the leaf which   wonderfully helped the imagination.  All such specifics
preserved this recipe for making a fairy, forcibly folded   have not disappeared, and  have greatly reduced the
down by the learned commentator; from which we must  chances of an invalid recovering, that which perhaps he
infer the credit he gave to the experiment.  There was a   never possessed.  Lentils and rape-seed were a certain
greatness of mind in Paracelsus, who, having furnished   cire for the small pox, and very obviously, their grains
a recipe to make a fairy, had the delicacy to refrain fron   resembling the spots of this disease.  Thev  discovered
it.  Even Baptists Prta, one of the most enlightened   that those who lived on I fair plants became fair, those on
philosophers, does niot deny the possibility of engendering   fruitfiul ones were never barren; on the principle that
creatures, which'at their full growth shall not exceed the   Hercules acquired his mighty strength by feeding on the




LITERATURE.                                                         343
marrow of lions.  But their talismans, provided they were  tus Magnus entertained the Earl of Holland, as that earl
genuine, seem  to have been wonderfully operative; and   passed through Cologne, in a severe winter, with a warm
had we the same confidence, and melted down the guineas   summer scene, luxuriant in fruits and flowers.  The fact
we give physicians, engraving on them talismanic figures,  is related by Trithemius-and this magical scene connect.
I would answer for the good effects of the experiment.  ed with his vocalhead, and his books de Secretis Iullierum,
Naudi, indeed, has utterly ridiculed the occult virtues of  and De Mirabilibus, confirmed the accusations they raised
talismans, in his defence of Virgil, accused of being a   against the great Albert, for being a magician.  His apolo.
magician: the poet, it seems, cast into a well a talisman   gist, Theophilus Raynaud, is driven so hard to defend Alof a horse-leech, graven on a plate of gold, to drive away   bertus, that he at once asserts, the winter changed to sumthe great number of horse-leeches which infested Naples.   mer, and the speaking head, to be two infamous flams!
Naud6 positively denies that talismans ever possessed any   He will not believe these authenticated facts, although he
such occult virtues: Gaffarel regrets that so judicious a   credits a miracle which proves the sancity of Albe'tus,man as Naudd should have gone this length, giving the lie  after three centuries, the'body of Albert the great remained
to so many authentic authors; and Naudds  paradox is  as sweet as ever!
indeed, as strange as his denial; he suspects the thing is'Whether such enchauntments,' as old Mandeville
not true because it is so generally told'It leads one to  cautiously observeth, two centuries preceding the days of
suspect,' says hie,' as animals are said to have been   Porta, were' by craft or by nygromancye, I wot nere.'
driven away from  so many places by these talismans,   But that they were not unknown to Chlaucer, appears in
whether they were ever driven from  any one place.'  his' Frankelein's Tale,' where, minutely describing them,
Gaffarel, suppressing by his good temper his indignant  he communicates the same pleasure he must himself have,feelings at such  reasoning, turns the paradox on its  received from the ocular illusions of' the Tregetoure,' or
nmaker:-' As if, because of the great number of battles'Joeglour.'  Chaucer ascribes the miracle to a'naturall
that Hannibal is reported to have fought with the Romans,   magique;' in which, however, it was as unsettled, whether
we might not, by the same reason, doubt whether he   the'Prince of Darkness' was a party concerned.
fimght any one with them.'  The reader must be aware'For I am siker that there be sciences
that the strength of the argument lies entirely with the firm   By which men maken divers apparenoes
believer in talismans. Gaffarel, indeed, who passed his days    Swiche as thise subtil tregetoures play.
in. collecting'Curiosites inrouie,' is a most authentic       For oft at festes have I wel herd say
historian of unparalleled events, even in his own times!       That tregetoures, within an halle large,
Such as that heavy rain in Poitou, which showered down          Have made come in a water and a barge,
petites bestioles,' little creatures like bishops with their  And in the halle rowen up and doun.
niitres, and monks with their capuchins over their heads;       Sometime hath serned come a grim leoun,
it is true, afterwards they all turned into butterflies!       And sometime floures spring as in a mede,
The museums, the cabinets, and the inventions of our          Sometime a vine and grapes white and rede;
early virtuosi were the baby-house of pliilosophers. Baptis-    Sometime a castel at of lime and ston,
ta Porta, Bishop Wilkins, and old Ashmole, were they now        And whlan hem liketh voideth it anon:
living, had been enrolled among the quiet members of' The       Thus semetl it to every mannes sight.'
Society of Arts,' instead of firing in the air, collecting' A  Bishop vlkins's  museum was visited by Evelyn, who
wing of the phmnix, as tradition goes;' or catchinty the dis-   describes the sort of curiosities which occupied and amused
jointed syllables of an old doting astrologer.  But these  the childret of science.'Here, too, there was a hollow
early dilettanti had not derived tihe same pleasure from the   statue, which gave a voice, and uttered words by a long
useful inventions of the aforesaid'Society of Arts,' as   concealed pipe tlhat went to its mouth, whilst one speaks
they received from  what Cornelius Agrippa, in a fit of  through it at a good distance:' a circumstance, which,
spleen, calls'things vain and superfluous, invented to nio   terhaps, they were not then aware revealed the whole
other etd bttt flor pomnp atd idle pleasure.' Baptista Porta   mystery of the ancient oracles, which they attributed to
was more skiliful in the mysteries of art and nature than   demons, rather than to tubes, pulleys, and wheels.  The
any man in his day.  Having founded the Academia de-  learned Charles Patin, in his scientific travels, records,
gli Oziosi, he held an infterior association in his own hoose,  amote other valuable productions of art, a cherry-stone,
called di Secreti, where none was admitted but those elect  on whlich were engraven about a dozen and a half of porwhto had communicated some secret; for, in the early period   traits! Even the greatest of human geniuses, Leonar.
of modern art and science, the slightest novelty became a   do da Vinci, to attract the royal patronage, created a lion
secret, not to be confided to the uninitiated.  Poria was   which ran before the French monarch, dropping fleura de
unquestionably a fine genius, as his works still show; but  lis from its shaggv breast.  And another philosopher who
it was his misfoi:rtiune that he attributed his own penetrat-  had a spirtet which played and stopped at command,
ing sagacity to his skill in the art of divination.  He con-  might have made a revolution in the arts and sciences,
sidered himself a prognosticator; and, what was more un-  had the half-stifled child that was concealed in it not been
fortunate, some eminent plersons really thought he was.  forced, unluckily, to crawl into day-light, and thus it was
Predictions and secrets are harmless, provided they are   proved that a plhilosoplher might be an impostor!
not believed; but his Hoiiness finding Porta's were, warn-   The arts, as well as the sciences, at, the first institution
ed him  that magical sciences were great hinderances to  of the Royal Society, were of the most amusing class.
the study of the Bible, and paid him the compliment to   The famous Sir Samuel Moreland had turned his house
forbid his prophesying, Porta's genius was now limited, to  into an enchantedl palace. Every thing was fitil of devices,
astonish, and sometimes to terrify, the more ingenious   which showed art and mechanism in perfection: his coach
part oflISecreti.    On entering his cabinet some phantom    carried a travelling kitchen; fir it had a fire-place and
of an attendant was sure to be hovering in the air, moving   grate, with which he could make a soup, broil cutlets, and
as he who entered moved; or he observed in some mirror  roast an egg; and he dressed his meat by clock-work.
that his face was twisted on the wrong side of his shoulders,  Another of these virtuosi, who is described as' a gentleand did not quite thinkr that all was right when he clapped   man of superior order, and whose house was a knickhis hand on it; or passing through a darkened apartment  knackatorv,' valued himself on his multifarious inventions,
a magical landscape burst on him, with human beings in   but most in' sowing salads in the morning, to be cut for
motion, the boughs of trees bending, and the very clouds   dinner.' The house of Winstanley, who afterwards raised
passing over the sun; or sometimes banquets, battles, and   the first Eddystone light-house, must bave been the wonhunting-parties, were in the same apartment.'All these   der of the age.  If you kicked aside an old slipper, purspectacles my firiends have witnessed! exclaims the self-  posely lying in your way, up started a ghost before you;
deligehted Baptista Porta.  When his friends drank wine   oir if you sat down in a certain chair, a couple of gigantic
out of the same cup which hlie had used they were mortifi-  arms would immediately clasp you in.  There was an aredl with wonder: fir he drank wvine, and they only water!  hour in the garden, by the side of a canal; you had scarceor on a su5tmer's day, when all complained of the sirocco,  ly seated vourself, when you were sent out afloat to the
he would freeze his guests with cold air in the room; or  middle of the canal-from whence you could not escape
on a sudden, let off a flying dragon to sail along with a   till this man of art and science wound you up to the ar.
cracker in its tail, and a cat tied on its back; shrill was   hour.  What was passing at the'Royal Society' wav
the sound, and awful was the concussion; s:, that itrequired   also occurring at the'Academie des Sciences' at Paris
strong nerves, in an age of apparitions andI rlevils, to meet  A great and gouty menmbher of that philosophical body, on
thi great philosopher when in his best humour.  Alber-  the departure of a stranger, would point to his legs, to




344                                     CURIOSITIES O F
show the impossibility of conducting him to the door; yet  bury who hath a nursery of them, which he sells Lr a
the astonished visiter never failed finding the virtuoso  crown a piece,' but they are supposed not to be' of ths
waiting for him on the outside, to make his final bow!  right kind.'
While the visiter was going down stairs, this inventive      The main object of this letter is the writer's' suspicion
genius was descending with great velocity in a machine  of gold in this country;' for which he offers three reasons.
from  the window: so that he proved, that if a man of  Tacitus says there was gold in England, and that Agrippa
science cannot force nature to walk down stairs, he may  came to a spot where he had a prospect of Ireland-from
drive her out at the window!                              which place he writes; secondly, that'an honest man'
If they travelled at home, they set off to note down  had in this spot found stones from which he had extracted
prodigies.  Dr Plott, in a magnificent project of journey-  good gold, and that he himself'had seen in the broken
mg through England, for the advantage of' Learning and  stones a clear appearance of gold;' and thirdly,'there is
rrade,' and thediscovery of' Antiquities and other Curi-  a story which goes by tradition in that part of the coun.
osities,' for which he solicited the royal aid which Leland  try, that in the hill alluded to there was a door into a hole,
enjoyed, among other notable designs, discriminates a  tihat when any wanted money, they used to go and knock
class thus:'Next I shall inquire of animals; and first of  there, that a woman used to appear, and give to such as
strange people.' —' Strange accidents that attend corpora-  came. At a time one by greediness or otherwise gave
tions of families, as that the deans of' Rochester ever  her offence, she flung to the door, and delivered this old
since the foundation by turns have died deans and bishops;  saying, still remembered in the country:
the bird with a white breast thtat haunts the fanmily of Ox-    "When all THE DAws be gone and dead,
enham  near Exeter just before the death of any of that           Then... Hill shall shine gold red"
family; the bodies of trees that are seen to swim in a pool      Then        Hill shall shine gold red."
near Brereton in Cheshire, a certain warning to the heir  My fancy is, that this relates to an ancient family of this
of that honourable family to prepare for the next world.'  name, of which there is now but one man left, and he not
And such remarkables as'Number of children, such as  likely to have any issue.' These are his three reasons;
the Lady Temple, who before she died saw  seven bun-  and some mines have perhaps been opened with no better
dred descended from her.' This fellow of the Royal So-  ones! But let us not itnagine that tis great naturalist
eiety, who lived nearly to 1700, was requested to give an   was credulous; for he tells Aubrey that  he thought it was
edition of Pliny: we have lost the benefit of a most copi-  but a motnkish tale, forged in the abbey, so famous in forous commentary! Bishop Hall went to'the Spa.' The   mer time; but as I have learned not to despise our fore.
wood about that place was haunted not only byI fireeboot-  fathers, I question whether this may not refer to some
ers, but by wolves and witches; although these last are  rich mine in the hill, formerly in use and now lost. I shall
ofttimes but one.' They were called loups garouz: and   shortly request you to discourse with my lord about it, to
the Greeks, it seems, knew them  by the name of XvKav-  have advice, &c.  In the mean time it will be best to keep
Opwoiro, men wolves; witches that have put on the shapes  all private for his majesty's service, his lordship's, and perof those cruel beasts.'We saw a boy there, whose halfface   haps some private person's benefit.' But he has also positivn
was devoured by one of them near the village; yet so, as  evidence:' A mason not long ago comting to the renter of
that the eare was rather cut than bitten off.' Rutnour  the abbey f;)r a fireestone, and sawing it, out came divers
had spread that the boy had had half his face devwured;  pieces of gold of 31 10s value a piece, of ancient coins.
when it was examined, it turned out that his ear had only   The stone belonged to some chimney-worl k; the gold was
been scratched! However, there can be no doubt of the   hidden in it, perhaps, when the Dissolution was near.
existence of witch wolves;' for Hall saw at Limburgh   This last incident of finding coins in a chimney-piece,
one of those miscreants executed, who confessed on the   which he had accounted for very rationally, serves only to
wheel to have devoured two and forty children in that  confirnihis dream  that they were coined out of the gold
form.' They would probably have found it difficult to have  of the mine in the hill; and hlie becomes more urgent for
summoned the mothers who had lost the children.  But'a private search rito these mines, which I have, I think, a
observe our philosopher's reasoning:' It would aske a  way to.' In the postscript he adds an account of a well,
large volume to scan his problem of lycanthropy.'  He   which by washing wrought a cure on a person deep in the
had laboriously collected all the evidence, and had added   king's evil.' i hope you don't fbrget your promise to comhis arguments: the result offers a curious instance of  municate whatever thing you have, relating to your Idea.'
acute reasoning on a wrong principle.*                       This promised Idea of Aubrey may be found in his MSS'
Men of science and art then, passed their days in a  utinder the title of' The idea of Universal Education.'
bustle of the marvellous.  I'will furnish a specimen of  However whimsical, one would like to see it.  Aubrey's
philosophical correspondence in a letter to old John Au-  life might furnish a volume of these Philosophical dreams;
brey.  The writer betrays the versatility of his curiosity  hlie was a person who from his incessant bustle and insaby very opposite discoveries.'My hands are so filll of  tiable curiosity, was called' The Carrier of Conceptions
work that I have no time to transcribe for Dr Henry More  of the Royal Society.' Mrttv pleasant nights were' prian account of the Barnstable apparition-Lord Keeper  vately' enjoyed by Aubrey ard his correspondent about
North would take it Itindly from you —give a sight of this  the' Mine in the Hill;' Ashmole's manuscripts at Oxford,
letter from Barnstable, to Dr Whitchcot.' He had lately  contain a collection of many secrets of the Rosicrucians;
neard ot a Scotchman who had been carried by fairies  one of the completest inventions is' a Recipe how to walk
into France; but the purpose of his present letter is to  invisible.' Such were the fancies which rocked the childcommunicate other sort of apparitions than the ghost of  ren of science in their cradles! and so feeble were the
Barnstable.  He had gone to Glastonbury,' to pick up a   steps of our curious infancy! But I start in my dreams!
few berries from  the holy thorn which flowered every   dreading the reader may also have fallen asleep!
Christmas day.' The original thorn had been ciut down'Measure is most excellent,' says one of the oracles;
by a military saint in the civil wars; but the trade of the' to which also we being in like manner persuaded, 0 most
place was not damaged, for they had contrived not to have  friendly and pious Asclepiades, here finish'-the dreams
a single holy thorn, but several.' by grafting and inociiai at the dawn of philosophy!
tion.' He promises to send these' berries:' but requests                     c  THE COMMENTATOR.
oXv PUCK THE COMMENTATOR.
Aubrey to inform'that person of quality who' had rather
have a bah, that it was impossible to get one for him. I    Literary forgeries recently have been frequently indulged
am  told,' he adds,' that there is a person about Glaston-  in, and it is urged that they are of an inhocent nature; but
* Hall's postulate is that  ods   ork cod not admit     impostures more easily practised than detected leave their
any substantial change, which is nbove the reach of all infer-   mischief behind, to take effect at a distant period; and as
nal powers; but' Herein the divell plays the double sophist-   I shall show, may entrap even the judicious! It may re.
er; the sorcerer with sorcerers. Hee both deludes the witch's  quire no high exertion of genius, to draw up a grave ac.
conceit and the beholder's eyes.' In a word, Hall believes, in  count of an ancient play-wright whose name has never
what he cannot understand! Yet Hall will riot believe one of  reached us, or to give an extract from a volume inaccessithe Catholic miracles of' the Virgin of Louvain,' though ip.  ble to our inquiries  and as dtlness is no proof of sp-.
sius had written a book to commemorate  the goddess,' as
Piousness. forgeries, in time, mix with authentic documents.
Hall sarcastically calls her; Hall was told, with great indi-.
nation, in the shop of the bookseller of Lipsius, that when   We have ourselves witnessed versiors of Spanish and
James the First had just looked over this work, he fling it  Portuguese poets, which are passed on their unsuspicious
down, vociferating' Damnation to him that made it and to him   readers without difficulty, hbut in which no parts of the pro.
thr  believes it!'                                        tended originals can be traced; and to the present hour,




LITER ATURE.                                                     345
whatever antiquaries may affirm, the poems of Chatter-  embellish the poetical life of Milton; and unquestionably
ton and Ossian are veiled in mystery!                    must have sadly perplexed his last matter-of-fact editor,
If we possessed the secret history of the literary life of  who is not a man to comprehend a flim-flam!-for he has
George Steevens, it would display an unparalleled series  sanctioned the whole fiction, by preserving it in his bioof arch deception, and malicious ingenuity. He has been  graphical narrative! The first impulse ot' Milton to travel
happily characterized by Mr Gifford, as' the Puck of  in Italy is ascribed to the circumstance of his having been
Commentators!' Steevens is a creature so spotted c er  found asleep at the foot of a tree in the vicinity of Camwith literary forgeries and adulterations, that any rerr irk-  bridge, when two foreign ladies, attracted by the loveliness
able one about the time he flourished may be attributed to  of the youthful poet, alighted from  their carriage, and
him. They were the habits of a depraved mind, and   having admired him for some time as they imagined unthere was a darkness in his character many shades deeper  perceived, the youngest, who was very beautiful, drew a
than belonged to Puck; even in the playfulness of his in-  pencil from her pocket, and having written some lines, put
vention, there was usually a turn of personal malignity,  the paper with her trembling hand into his own! But it
and the real object was not so much to raise a laugh, as to  seems, for something was to account how the sleeping'grin horribly a ghastly smile,' on the individual.  It is  youth could have been aware of these minute particulars,
more than rumoured, that he carried his ingenious malig-  unless he had been dreaming them,-that the ladies had
nity into the privacies of domestic life; and it is to be re-  been observed at a distance by some friends of Milton,
gretted, that Mr Nichols, who might have furnished much  and they explained to him the whole silent adventure.
secret history of this extraordinary literary forgerer, has,  MIilton, on openig the paper, read four verses fiom Guafrom delicacy, mutilated his collective vigour.         rini, addressed to hose' human stars' his own eyes! On
George Steevens usually commenced his operations by  this romantic adventure, Milton set off for Italy, to disopening some pretended discovery in the evening papers,  cover the fair'incognita,' to which undiscovered lady we
which were then of a more literary cast; the St James's  are told we stand indebted for the most impassioned
Chronicle, the General Evening Post, or the Whitehall,  touches in the Paradise Lost!  We know how Milton
were they not dead in body and in spirit, would now bear  passed his time in Italy, with Dati, and Gaddi, and Freswitness to his successful efforts. The late Mr Boswell told  cobaldi, and other literary friends amidst its academies,
me, that Steevens frequently wrote notes on Shakspeare,  and often busied in book-collecting. Had Milton's tour in
purposely to mislead or entrap Malone, and obtain for  Italy been an adventure of knight-erranitry, to discover a
himself an easy triumph in the next edition! Steevens  lady whom he had never seen, at least he had not the
loved to assist the credulous in getting up for them some  merit of going out of the direct road to Florence and
strange new thing, dancing them about with a Will o' the  Rome, nor of having once alluded to this Dame de sea
wisp-now  alarming them  by a shriek of laughter; and  pensdes, in his letters or inquiries among his friends, who
now like a grinning Pigwiggin sinking them chin-deep into  would have thought themselves fortunate to have introduced
a quagmire!  Once he presented them  with a fictitious  so poetical an adventure in the numerous canzoni they
portrait of Shakspeare, and when the brotherhood were  showered on our youthful poet.
sufficiently divided in their opinions, he pounced upon    This historiette, scarcely fitted for a novel, first appeared
them with a demonstration, that every portrait of Shak-  where generally Steever's literary amusements were carspeare partook of the same doubtful authority! Steevens  ried on, in the General Evening Post, or the St James's
usually assumed the nom de guerre of Collins, a pseudo-  Chronicle: and Mr Todd, in the improved edition of Milcommentator, and sometimes of Amner, who was dis-  ton's Life, obtained this spurious original, where the
covered to be an obscure puritanic minister who never  reader may find it; but the more curious part ol' the story
read text or notes of a play-wright, whenever he explored  remains to be told. Mr Todd proceeds,' The preceding
into' a thousand notable secrets' with which he has pol-  highly-coloured relation, however, is not singular; my
luted the pages of Shakspeare! The marvellous narra-  friend, Mr Walker, points out to me a coltnler-part in the
tive of the upas-tree of Java, which Darwin adopted in his  extract from the preface to Poesies de MiIarguerite-Eleanore
plan of' enlisting imagination under the banner of science,'  Clotilde, depuis Madame de Surtille, Poete Francois du
appears to have been another forgery which amused our  XV Siecle.  Paris, 1803.'
Puck.' It was first given in the London Magazine, as    And true enough we find among' the family traditions'
an extract from a Dutch traveller, but the extract was  of this same Clotilde, that Justine (de Levis. great-grandnever discovered in the original author, and'the effluvia  mother of this unknown poetess of the fifteenth century,
of this noxious tree, which through a district of twelve or  walking in a forest, witnessed the same beautiful spectacle
fourteen miles had killed all vegetation, and had spread the   which the Italian Unknown had at. Cambridge; never was
skeletons of mern and animals, affording a scene of melan.  such an impression to be effaced, and she could inot avoid
choly beyond what poets have described, or painters de-  leaving her tablets by the side of the beautiful sleeper, delineated,' is perfectly chimerical.  A splendid flim-flam!  claring her passion in her tablets to four Italian verses!
When Dr Berkenhout was busied in writing, without  The very number our Milton had melted to him! Oh!
much knowledge or skill, a history of our English authors,  thesefour verses! they are as fatal in their tnzmer as the
Steevens allowed the good man to insert a choice letter by   date of Peel's letter proved to George Steevens! SomeGeorgte Peele, giving an account of' a merry meeting at  thing still escapes in the most ingenious fabrication which
the Globe,' wherein Shakspeare and Ben Jonson and   serves to decompose the materials.  It is well our veraciNed Alleyne are admirably made to perform their respec-  ous historian dropped all mention of Guarini-else that
tive parts.  As the nature of the' Biographia ILiteraria'  would have given that coup de grace-a fatal anachronism!
required authorities, Steevens ingeniously added,' Whence   However his invention supplied him with more originality
I copied this letter I do not recollect.' However he well  than the adoption of this story and the four verses would
knew it came from' the Theatrical Mirror,' where he had  lead us to infer. He tells us how Petrarch was jealous of
first deposited the precious original, to which he had un-  the genius of his Clotilde's grandmother, anld has even
guardedly ventured to affix the date of 1600; unluckily,  pointed out a sonnet which,'among the traditions of the
Peele was discovered to have died two years before he  family,' was addressed to her! He narrates, that the genwrote his own letter!  The date is adroitly dropped in  tleman, when he fairly awoke, and had read the' four
Berkenhout! Steevens did not wish to refer to his ori-  verses,' set off for Italy, which he run over till he found
ginal, which T have often seen quoted as authority. One   Justine, and Justine found him at a tournament at Modenas 
of these numerous forgeries of our Puck, appears in an   This parallel adventure disconcerted our two grave English
article in Isaac Reed's catalogue, art. 8708.' The Boke   critics-they find a tale which they wisely judge improbaof the Soldan, contevninge strange matters touchynge his  ble, and because they discover the tale copied, they conlyfe and deathe, and the ways of his course, in two partes,  clude that' it is not singular!' This knot of perplexity is,
12mo,' with this marginal note by Reed.' The foregoing   however, easily cut through, if we substitute, which we
was written by George Steevens, Esq, from whom I re-  are fully justified in, for' Poete du XV Siecle'-' du XIX
ceived it.  It was composed merely to impose on " a lite-  Siecle!' The' Poesies' of Clotilde are as genuine a fa.
rary friend," and had its effect; for he was so far deceived   brication as Chatterton's; subiect to the same objections,
as to its authenticity that he gave implicit credit lo it, and   having many ideas and expressions which were unknown
put down the person's name in whose possession the ori-  in the language at the lime they are pretended to have
ginal books were supposed to be.'                       been composed, and exhibiting many imitations of Voltaire
One of the sort of iventions which I attribute to; Stee-  and other poets. The present story of the four Italian
vens has been got up with a deal of romantic eft'e:, to  verses, and the beautiful Sleeper, yould be quite, sufficient
A4




146                                      CURIOSITIES OF
evidence of the authenticitv of'the family traditions' of                 L1TERARY FORGERIES.
Clotilde, depuis Madame de Surville, and also Monsieur       The preceding article has reminded me ofa subject by
De Surville himself; a pretended editor, who is said to  no means incurioss  to the lovers of literature.  A  large
have found by mthere accident the precious manuscript, and   volume might be compost A an literary impostors; their
while he was copying for the press, in 1793, these pretty   modes of deception, however, were frequently repetitions,
poems, for such they are, of his grande tante, was shot in  particularly those at the restoration of letters, when there
tile reign of terror, and so completely expired, that no one   prevailed a mnia for burying spurious antiquities, that
could ever trace his existence! The real editor, who we  they might afterwards be brought to light to confound their
must presume  to be the poet, published them in 1803.      contemporaries.  They even perplex us at the present
Such then, is the history of a literary forgery! A Puck   day. More sinister forgeries have been performed by
composes a short romantic adventure, which is quietly   Scotchmen, of whom  Archibauld Bower, Lauder, and
thrown out to the world in a newspaper or a magazine;  Macpherson, are well known.
some collector, such as the late Mr Bindley, who procured    Even harmless impostures by same unexpected accifor Mr Todd his original, as idle, at least, as he is curious,  dent have driven an unwary inquirer out of the course.
houses the fbrlorn fiction-and it enters into literary his-  George Steevens must again make his appearance for a
tory! A  French Chatterton picks up the obscure tale,  memorable trickplayed on the antiquary Gough.  This
and behold, astonishes the literary inquirers of the very   was the famous tombstone on which was engraved the
country whence the imposture sprung!  But the four  drinking-horn of Hardyknute to indicate his last fatal caItalian verses, and the Sleeping Youth! Oh! Monsieur  rouse  for this royal Daie died drunk!  To prevent any
Vanderbourg! for that gentleman is the ostensible editor  doubt the name in Saxon characters was sufficientlyle
of Clotilde's poesies of the fifteenth century, some inge-  gible.  Steeped in pickle to hasten a precocious antiquity,
nious persons are unlucky in this world! Perhaps one  it was then consigned to the corner of a broker's shop,
day we may yet discover that this' romantic adventure'  where the antiquarian eye of Gough often pored on the
of Milton and Justine de Levis is not so original as it  venerable odds and eds; it perfectly succeeded on the
venerable odds and ends; it perfectly 7succeeded on th
seems-it niay lie hid in the Astrde of D'UrfU, or some of  i Director of the Antiquarian Society.'  He purchased
the long romances of the Sctderies, whence the English  the relic for a trifle, and dissertations of a due size were
and the French Chattertons may have drawn it. To such   preparing for the Archaelogia!*  Gough never forgave
literary inveutors we say with Swift:                      himself nor Steevens, for this flagrant act of ineptitude.
Such are your tricks;                 On every occasion in the Gentleman's Magazine when
But since you hatch, pray your own chicks!           compelled to notice' this illustrious imposition, he always
Will it be credited that for the enjoyment of a tempora-  struck out his own name, and muffled himself up under
ry piece of malice, Steevens would even risk his own re-  his titular office of The Director!' Gogh never knew
ttthis titudrna            wsolyar pfiece of  TeDretaitir!  ouhn.vrke
putation as a poetical critic? Yet this he ventured, by that this'modern antique' was only a piece of retaliation.
throwing out of his edition the poems of Shakspeare, with   Ieviewin  Master  Life of Baker he found two heads,
a remarkable hyper-criticism, that' the strongest act of  one scratched down from painted glass by George Steevens
who would  haepse toff for a portrait of one of' our
parliament that could be fiamed would fail to compel  who would have passed it off for a portrait of' one of our
readers into their service.' Not only he denounced the  kis. Gougonthe wachto ave ainatGeore  Steesonnets of Shakspeare, but the soenet itself, with an ab- vens, attacked his graphic performance, and reprobated a
yns, attacked his graphic performance, and reprobated a
surd question,' What has truth or nature to do with Son-   otait which  ad nthin  human in it  Steever  vowed,
that wretched as Gough deemed his pencil to be, it should
nets?' The secret history of this unwarrantable mutilation   thtwece   sGuhdee  hspninobi.sol
of a great author by his editor was, as I was informed by   make  The              ashamed of his own eyes, and be
te late Mr Bowell, merely    to spite his rival com    fairly taken in by something scratched much worse. Such
tmenlate( Mraloswel, merel hdonaen etrordinaryepais riva n"
mentator Malone, who had taken extraordinary pains in   was the origin of his adoption of this fragment of a chimtheir elucidation. Steevens himself had formerly reprinted ney-slab, whirl I have seen, and with a better judge wonney-slab, which I have seen, and with a better judge won-.
them, but when Malone from  these sonnets claimed for  dpdb  h    lgtadilere    caceadee
them, but wheit Maalone fron  these sonnets claimed for  dered at the injudicious antiqiuary, who could have been
himself one ivy leaf of a commentator's pride, behold,  dued by the sligt and ill-formed  scratches, and even
Steevens in a rage would anrnihilate even Shakapeare   with a false spelling of the name, which however succeediself, that he miht ain a triunh over Malone  In te   ed in being passed off as a genuine Saxon inscription: but
hiamself sprthabt wihe might causin  plasatriup  over Maone!nte d   I
sanie spirit, but with more caustic pleasantry, he opeiied a   he had counted on his man!t The trick is not so original
controversy with Malone respecting Shakspeare's wifet  as it seems.  One De Grassis had engraved on marble
It seems that the poet had forgotten to mention his wife in  the epitaph of a mule, which ho buried it his vineyard:
the epitaph of a mule, which he, buried in his vineyard:
his copious will; and his recollection of Mrs Shakspeare    oetie after, havin  ordere   a new plantation o  the
seems to mark the slightness of his regard, for he only in-  spot, the digers  could not fail of disinterrin  what lay
troduced by an interlineation, a legacy to her of his' second ready for them. The inscription imported that one Puready for them. The inscription imported that one Pubest bed with the fiurniture'-and nothina more! Malone   blius Grassus ad raised this monunt to his mule   De
naturally inferred that' the poet had forgot her, and so  Grassis gave it out as an odd coincidence of names, and
recollected her as more strongly to mark how little he  a prophecy about his own mule! It was a simple joke!
recoleced  er  s moe sronly o mak hw lttl heThe marble was thrown by, and no more thou ght of. Seesteemed her. He had already, as it is vulgarly expressed   The marle was thrown by, and no  ore thogt of  ecut her off, ot indeed  vith a shillin, but with an old bed    veral years after it rose into celebrity, for with the erudite
All this seems judicious, till Steevens asserts the conjugaal   it then passed for an ancient inscription, and the antiqur
ithn    passed  onancien inserite o      ~ad the eiaphihswr  ntIBuiques.'
affection of the bard, tells us, that the poet having, when   Porcacchi inserted the epitaph in his work on'Burals'
in health, provided for her by settlement, or knowing that  Thus DeGrassis and his mp le, eqally respectable, would
her father had already done so (circumstances entirel                                                 story by some
conjectural.) he beqeathed to her at his death, not   ely  means got wind! An incident of this nature is recorded
an old pnece oftfurrstere, eat toeraps, ats da matk of perel  in Portuguese history, contrived with the intention to keep
liar tenderness,                                             * I have since been informed that this famous invention was'The very bed that on his bridal night             originally a flimn-flaam of a Mr Thomas White, a noted collectReceived tIm to the arms of Belvidera'    or and dealer in antiquities. But it was Steevens, who placed
Received him to the arms of Belvider  t in the broker's shop, where he was certain of catching the
Steevens's severity of satire marked the deep malevolence   antiquary. When the late Mr Pegge, a profound brother,
of his heart; and Murphy has strongly portrayed him in  was preparing to write a dissertation on it, the first inventor of
his address to the Malevoli.                               the flam stepped forward to save any further tragical termina
Such another Puck was Horace Walpole! The Kin,  zion: the wicked wit had already succeeded too well!
of Prussia's  Letter' to Rousseau. and' The MemoriaP          The stone may be found in the British Museum, HAR
DENVT is the reading on the Harthacnut stone; but the trus
pretended to have been signed by noblemen and gentle-othgraphy of the name is HARhAENVT.
fabrcatons ashe onfsse, oly o mke  is-orthography of the name is HARD AENYqT.
men, were fabrications, as he confesses, only to make mis-    Sylvanus Urban, my excellent and old friend, seems a trifli
chief.  It well became him, whose happier invention, the  uncourteous on this grave occasion-He tells us, however,
Castle of Otranto, was brought forward in the guise of  that'The history of this wanton trick, with a fac-simile of
forgery, so unfeelingly to have reprobated the innocent in-   Schnebbelie's drawing may be seen in his volume LX, p. 217.
v  e      n      0Ytonhae rpofbaCater thinocnt.n
ventions of a Ciatterton.                                  He says that this wicked contrivance of George Steevens waa
We have Pucks busied among our contemporaries:  to entrap this famous draftsman! Does Sylvanus then deny
whoever shall discover their history will find it copious  that'the Director' was not also'entrapped?'  And that he
always struck out his own name in the proof-sheets of the
though intricate; the malignity at least will exceed, ten-  Magazine substitutinE his official designation, by which the
ald, the merriment.                                        whole society itself seenmed to screen' the Director!'




LITE RATURE                                                          347
up the national spirit, and diffuse hopes of the new enter-  by digging in their grounds that they discovered a number
prise of Vasco de Gama, who had just sailed on a voyage  of Etruscan antiquities, consisting of inscriptions, and also
of discovery to the Indies.  Three stones were discovered  fragments of a chronicle, pretended to have been composed
near Cintra, bearing in ancient characters, a Latin in-  sixty years before the vulgar era.  The characters on the
scription; a sibylline oracle addressed prophetically'To   niarbles were the ancient Etruscan, and the historical work
the inhabitants of the West!' stating that when these three  tended to confirm  the pretended discoveries of Annius.
stones sthall be found, the Ganges, the Indus, and the Ta-  They were collected and enshrined in a magnificent folio
gus should exchange their commodities!  This was the  by Curtius Inghirami, who, a few years after, published a
pious fraud of a Portuguese poet, sanctioned by the ap-  quarto volume exceeding one thousand pages to support
probation of the king.  When the stones had lain a suffi-  their authenticity.  Notwithstanding the erudition of tbahe
cient time in the damp earth, so as to become apparently  forger, these monuments of antiquity betrayed their niouern
antique, our poet invited a numerons party to dinner at his  condiment. There were uncial letters which no one knew;
country-house; in the midst of the entertainment a pea-  but these were said to be undiscovered ancient Etruscan
sant rushed in, announcing the sudden discovery of this  characters; it was more difficult to defend the small italic
treasure! The inscription was placed among the royal  letters, for they were not used in the age assigned to thein;
collections as a sacred curiosity! The prophecy was ac-  besides that there were dots on the letter i, a custom not
complishied, and the oracle was long considered genuine!  practised till the eleventh century.  The style was copied
In such cases no mischief resulted; the annals of man-  from the Latin of the Psalms and the Breviary; but Ing.
kind were not confused by spurious dynasties and fabulous  hirami discovered that there had, been an intercourse bechronologies; but when literary forgeries are published by  tween the Etruscans and the Hebrews, and that David
those whose character hardly admits of a suspicion that  had imitated the writings of' Noah and his descendants!
they are themselves the impostors, the difficulty of assign-  Of Noah the chronicle details speeches and anecdotes!
ing a motive only increases that of forming a decision; to   The Romans, who have preserved so much of the Etrusadopt or to reject them may be equally dangerous.          cans, had not, however, noticed a single fact recorded in
In this class we must place Annius of Viterbo, who pub-  these Etruscan  antiquities.  Inghirami replied, that the
ished a pretended collection of historians of the remotest  manuscript was the work of the secretary of the college of
antiquity, some of whose names had descended to us in  the Etrurian augurs, who alone was prenmitted to draw his
the works of anicient writers, while their works themselves  materials firom the archives, ard who, it would seem, was
had bee.n lost. Afterwards he subjoined commentaries to  the only scribe who has favoured posterity with so much
confirm  their authority, by passages from  unknown au-  secret history.  It was urged in favour of the authenticity
thors.  These at first were eagerly accepted by the learn-  of these Etruscan  monuments, that Inghirami was so
ed; the bluitders  if the presumed editor, one of which   young an antiquary at the time of the discovery, that he
was his mistaking the right name of the historian he forged,  could not even explain them; and that when fresh rewere gradually detected till at length the imposture was ap-  searches were made on the spot, other similar monuments
parent!  The pretended originals were more remarkable   were also disinterred, where evidently they had long lain
for their nunmber than their volume; for the whole collec-  the whole affair, however contrived, was confined to the
tion does not exceed 171 pages, which lessened the diffi-  Inghirami family.  One of theni, half' a century before,
culty of the forgery; while the commentaries, which were   had been the librarian of the Vatican, and to him is ascribed
afterwards published, must have been manufactured at the  the ionour of the forgeries which he buried where he was
same time as the text. In favour of Annius, the high rank   sure they would be found.  This, however, is a mniere conhe occupied at the Roman court, his irreproachable con-  jecture! Inghirami, who published and defended their au-.
duct, and his declaration that hlie had recovered some of  thenticity, was not concerned in their fabrication; the dethese fragments at Mantua, and that others had come  sign was probably merely to raise the antiquity of Volafrom Armenia, induced many to credit these pseudo-his.  terra, the family estate of the lnghirami; and for this purtorians.  A literary war soon kindled; Niceron has dis-  pose one of its learned branches had bequeathedhis poscriminated between four parties engaged in this conflict.  terity a collection of spurious historical monuments, which
One party decried the whole of the collection as gross for-  tended to overturn all received ideas on the first ages of
geries; another obstinately supported their authenticity;  history.*
a third decided that, they were forgeries before Annius      It was probably such imposttres, and those of thefalse
possessed them, who was only credulous; while a fourth  decretals of Isidore, which were forged for the maintenance
party considered them as partly authentic, and described   of the papal supremacy, and for eight hundred years formtheir blunders to the interpolations of the editor, to increase  ed the fundamnental basis, of the canon law, the discipline
their importance. Such as they were, they scattered con-  of the church, and even the faith of Christianity; which led
fusion over the whole face of historv.  The false Berosius  to the monstrous pyrrhonism  of father Hatdouin, who,
opens his history before the deluve, when, according to  with immense erudition, had persuaded hinself, that, exhim, the Chaldeans through preceding ages had faithfully  cepting the Bible and Homer, Herodotus, Plautus, Pliny
preserved their historical evidences! Annius hints, in his  the elder, with fragments of Cicero, Virgil, and Horace,
commentary, at the archives and public libraries of the Ba-  all with remains of classical literature were forgeries ot
bylonians: the days of Noah comparatively seemed mo-  the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries! In two dissertadern history with this dreaming editor.  Some of the fan-  tions he imagined that he had proved that the kEneid was
ciful writers of Italy were duped: Sansovino, to delight  not written by Virgil, nor the Odes of Horace by that
the Florentine nobility, accommodated them with a now   poet. Hordouin was one of those wrong-headed men, who
title of antiquity in their ancestor Noah, Imperatoure e  once having fallen into a delusion, whatever afterwards
monarcha della genti, visse e mort in quelle parti.  The  occurs to them  on their favourite subject only tends to
Spaniards complained that in forging these fabulous ori-  strengthen it. He died in his own faith! He seems not
gins of different nations, a new series of kings from the  to have been aware, that by ascribing such prodigal invenark of Noah had been introduced by some of their rhodo-  tions as Plutarch, Thucydides, Livy, Tacitus, and other
montade historians to pollute the sources of their history.  historians, to the men he did, he was raising up an unparBodin's otherwise valuable works are considerably injured   alleled age  f learning and genius when monks could only
byAnnius's supposititious discoveries.  One historian died   write meagre chronicles, while learning and genius themof grief, for having raised his elaborate speculations on  selves lay in an enchanted slumber with a suspension ofall
these fabulous originals; and their credit was at length so  their vital powers.
much reduced, that Pignoria and Maffei both announced        There are numerous instances of the forgeries of smallto their readers that they had not referred in their works to  er documents.  The Prayer-Book of Columbus presented
the pretended writers of Annius! Yet, to the present  to him by the Pope, which the great discoverer of' a new
hour, these presumed forgeries are not always given up.  world bequeathed to the Genoese republic, has a codicil in
The problem remains unsolved-and the silence of the re-  his own writing as one of the leaves testifies,but as volumes
spectable Annius, in regard to the forgery, as well as  composed against its authenticity deny.  The famous de.
what he affirmed when alive, leave us in doubt whether he  scription in Petrarch's Virgil, so often quoted, of his first
really intended to laugh at the world by these fairy tales of  rencontre with Laura in the church of St Clair on a Good
the giants ofantiquity.  Sanchoniathon, as preserved by
Vusebhus, may be classed amcong these ancient wrimingi,       * The volume of these pretended Antiquities is entitled
s     ha ben equal   rejected and defended.    Etruscarum   Antiquitatem fragmenta. fo. Franc. lt37. That
or forgeries, and has been equally rejected and defended.
rwhich Irnghirami published to defend their authenticity is in
Another literary forgery siupposed to have been pralfied  Italian, Disce'so sopra opposizioni fatte all' Antichita Toscana
an those oftAnnius, involved the Inghirami family. It was  4to. Firenze, 1643.




348                                   (,,/ LCURTIOSIT'IES  OF
Friday, 6 April, 1327, it has been recently attempted to  if we except Lauder, who, detected by the Ithariel pen oi
be shown is a forgery. By calculation, it appears that the  Bishop Douglas, lived to make his public recantation of his
6 April, 1327, fell on a Monday! The Good Friday seems  audacious forgeries, and Chatterton, who has buried his
to have been a blunder of the manufacturer of the note.  inexplicable story in his own grave; a tale, which seems
He was entrapped by reading the second sonnet, as it ap-  but half told; we must place a man well known in the
pears in the printed editions!                         literary world under the assumed name of George Psal.
Era it giorno ch' al sol si scolorano          manaazaar. He  composed his autobiography as the
Per la pietA der l suo fattore i rai.           penance of contrition, not to be published till he was no
Per    pet del suo fattore  ra.  more, when all human motives had ceased which might
It was on the day when the rays of the sun were obscur-  cause his veracity to be suspected.  The life is tedious;
ed by compassion for his Maker.'  The forger imagined  but I have curiously traced the progress of the mind in an.his description alluded to Good Friday and the eclipse at  ingenious imposture, which is worth preservation.  The
the Crucifixion.  But how stands the passage in the MS.  present literary forgery consisted of personating a conin the imperial library of Vienna, which Abb6 Costaing  verted islander of Formosa; a place then little known,
has found?                                             but by the reports of the Jesuits, and  constructing a
Era il giorno ch' al sol di color raro          language and history of a new people, and a new religion,
Parve la piet/ da suo fattore, ai rai           entirely of his own invention! This man was evidently
Quand lo fil preso; e nion mi guardai           a native of the south of France; educated in some proChe ben vostri occhi dentro mi legaro.          vincial college of the Jesuits, where he had heard much
It was on the day that I was captivated, devotion for its  of their discoveries of Japan; he had looked over their
Maker appeared in the rays of a brilliant sun, and I  maps, and listened to their comments. Bs  forgot the
Maker appeaired  in the rays of a brilliant sun, and I  manner in which the Japanese wrote; but supposed, like
did not well consider that it was your eves that enchain- ainer in which the Japanese wrote; but supposed, like
eid mnot well consier  that it was your eyes that enchain-  orientalists, they wrote from the right to the left, which he
The first meeting according to the Abbe Costaing was  found difficult to manage. He set about excogitating an
The first meeing, according to the A     Costain, was  alphabet; but actually forgot to give names to his letters,
not in a chuzrch, but in a meadow-as appears by the 91st  which afterwards baffled him before literary men.
sonnet. T he Laura of Sade, was not the Laura of Pesonnet.  The Laura ofXSade, was snt the Laura of Pe-    He fell into gross blunders; having inadvertently aftrarch; but Laura de Baux, unmarried, and who died  firmed that the Formosans sacrificed eighteen thousand
young, residing in the vicinity of Vaucluse. Petrarch had  male infants annually, he persisted in not lessening
male infants annually, he persisted in not lessening x 
often viewed her from his own window, and often enjoyed.        a
number.  It was proved to be an impossibility in so small
her society amidst her family.*  If the Abb6 Costaing's  an iland. wi
8     r    1 s      1       an      t * > n  an island. without occasionlng a depopulation.  He had
discovery be confirmed, the good name of Petrarch is freed                c   t         
fr am id w.  It  made it a principle in this imposture never to vary when
from the idle romantic passion for a married woman. It  he had once said a thing.  All this was projected in haste,
would be curious if the famous story of the first meeting  fearful of detection by t. fearful of detection by those about him.
with Laura in the church of St Clare originated in the
with Laura in the church of St Glare originated in the    He was himself surprised at his facility of invention,
blunder of the forgerer's misconception of a passage  and the progress of his forgery. He had formed an alpha.
which was incorrectly printed, as appears by existing  bet, a considerable portion of a new language, a grammar,
manuscripts    *                                        a new division of the year into twenty months, and a new
Literary forgeries have been introduced into bibliogra-e had accustomed h                     to write his la
phy; dates have been altered; fictitious titles affixed; and  gagebut being an inexpert writer with the unusual way of
books have been reprinted, either to leave out, or to inter-gtageinutbeingninexperrtd this so difficult, th at he was
writing backwards, he found this so difficult, that he was
polate whole passages! I forbear entering minutely Into  compelled to change the complicated forms of somre of his
this part of the history of literary forgery, for this article  letters.  He nos finally qiittrd his home, assuming the
has already grown voluminous.  When we discover, how-  character of a Formosan convert, who had been educated
ever, that one of the most magnificent of amateurs, and  by the Jesuits.  He was then in his fifteenth or sixteenth
one of the most critical of bibliographers, were concerned  year.  To support his new character, he practised some
in a forgery of this nature, it may be useful to spread an  religious mummeries; he was seen worshipping the rising
larmaong coltors.The dukfe de la Valliere, and the,                       In,
alarm among collectors.  The duke de laValliere, and the  and setting sun. He made a prayer-book, with rude draw.
Abb6 de St Lever, once concerted together to supply the  ings of the sun, moon, and stars, to which he added some
eager purchaser of literary rarities with a copy of De  gibberish prose and verse, written in his invented characTribus Impostoribus, a book, by the date, pretended to  ter, muttering or chanting it, as the humlotr toolk him. His
have been printed in 1598, though, probably, a modern  custom of eating raw flesh seemed to assist his deception
forzery of 1698.  The title of such a work had long  more than the sun and moon.
existed by runmour, btit never was a copy seen by man!    In a garrison at Sluvs he found a Scotch regiment in the
Works printed with this title have all been proved to be  Dutch pay; the commander had the curiosity to invite our
modern fabrications.  A copy, however, of the introuvable  Formosan to confer with Innes, the chlalplain of the regioriginal was sold at the Duke de la Valliere's sale! The  ment.  This Innes was probably the chief cause of the im5iistory of this volume is curious.  The Duke and the  posture being carried to the extent it afterwards reached.
abb6 having manufactured a text, had it printed in the old  Innes was a clergyman, but a disgrace to his cloth. As
Gothic character, under the title De Tribus Impostoribus.  soon as he fixed his eye on our Formosan, he hit on a proThey proposed to put the great bibliopolist, De Bure, in  ject; it was nothing less than to make Psalmanaazaar the
good humour, whose agency would sanction the imposture.  ladder of his own ambition, and.the stepping-place for him
They were afterwards to dole out copies at twenty-five  to climb up to a good living!  Innes was a worthless charlouis each, which would have been a reasonable price for  acter; as afterwards appeared, when by an audacious ima book which no one ever saw!  They invited De Bure  position, Innes practised on the Bishop of London, he
to dinner, flattered and cajoled him, and, as they imagined,  avowed himself to be the author of an anonymous work,
at a moment they had wound him up to their pitch, they  entitled I A modest Inquiry after Moral Virtue;' for this
exhibited their manufacture; the keen eyed-glance of the  he obtained a good living in Essex; the real author, a
renowned cataloguer of the' Bibliographic Instructive'  poor Scotch clergyman, obliged him afterwards to disclaim
instantly shot like lightning over it, and, like lightning  the work in print, and to pay him the profit of the edition
destroyed the whole edition. He not only discovered  which Innes had madeI He lost his character, and rethe forgery, but reprobated it! He refused his sanction;  tired to the solitude of his living; if not penitent, at least
and the forging duke and abb6, in confusion, suppressed  mortified.
the liure introuvable; but they owed a grudge to the honest    Such a character was exactly adapted to become the
bibliographer, and  attempted to write down the work  foster-father of imposture.  Innes courted the Formosan,
whence the de Bures derive their fame.                  and easily won on the adventurer, who had hitherto in vain
Among the extraordinary literary impostors of our age,  sought for a patron. Meanwhile no time was lost by
* I draw this information from a little' new year's gift,'  Tnnes to inform the unsuspicious and generous Bishop ot
which my lealned friend, the Rev. S. Weston, presented to  London of the prize he possessed-to convert the Formos.
his friends in 1822, entitled,' A visit to Vaucluse,' accompa.  an was his ostensible pretext; to procure preferment his
nied by a Supplement.' He derives his account apparently  concealed motive.  It is turiots enough to observe, that
fromn a curious publication of L'Abb& Costailg de Pusigner
om a curious publiction of LAbb    staing  de  usinr  the ardour of conversion died away in Innes, and the most
d'Avienon, which I with other inquirers  have not been able
to prltre, hut which  it is abesolutely necessary to examine,  marked neglect of his convert prevailed, while the answer
before we can decide on the very curious but unsatisfactory ac.  of the bishop was ptrotracted or doubtful. He had at firsi
Counts we have hitherto possessed of the Laura of Petrarch. Iproposed to our Formosan impostor to procure his dif.




LI TE RPATURE.                                                     349
charge, and convey him to England; this was eagerly con-  gaged in a minor imposture; one man had persuaded him
gfahedri a whitercompositir;one calle thad Formsuane
selt ed to by our pliant adventurer. A few Dutch schellings,  to fher a white composition called the ormosa jpan
and fair words, kept him  in good humour; but no letter  which was to he sold at a high price!  It was curious for
coming from the bshop   there were fewer words and not  its whiteness, but it had its faults. The project failed, and
aostiver fmthe isthrew ahr n  eew    over the s carate  of  Psalmanaazaar considered the miscarriage of the white
a stiver[!  This threw a new light over the character of
I nnes to the inexperienced youth.  Psalmanaazaar saga-  Formosanjapan as a providential warning to repent of all
ciously now turned all his attention to some Dutch minis-  his impostures of Formosa!
Among these literary fbrgeries may be classed several
ters; Inries grew  jealous lest they should pluck the bird   Among these literary freries may  e classed several
which he hal already in his net.  He resolved to baptize  ingenious ones fabricated for apolitical purpose.  We had'      ~       ~        ~      ~~~~~~certainly numerous ones during our civil wars in the reign,he impcstor-which only the more convinced Psalmanaa-  cerainly numerous ones during our civil wars in the rein
of Charles I.  This is not the place to continue the conzaar that Innes was one himself; for before this time
Innes had practised a stratagem on him, which had clearly  troversy respecting the mysterios Eik      Silk,  which
-shown what sort of a man his Formosan was          has been ranked among them, from the ambiguous claim
-shown what sort of a man his Formosan was.
The stratagem  was this: he made him translate a pas-  of Gauden. A recent writer who would probably incline
The stratagem was this: hie made him translate a passage in Cicero, of some length, into his pretended lan-  not to leave the monarch were he living, not only his head
t5                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~but the little fame he might obtain by the I Verses' said to
guage, and give it him in writing; this was easily done, y  but the little fame he might otain  y th   Verses' said to
Psalmanaazaar's facility of inventing characters. After be written by him at Carisbrooke Castle, would deprive
him also of these.  Henderson's death-bed recantation is
Innes had mnade him construe it, he desired to have ano-  also reckoned among them; and we have a large collection
ther version of it on another paper.  The proposal, and    o  ete   of     en         an   his  ad           Delit
of' Lette~rs of Sir Henry Martin to his I, ady of Delight,'
the arch manner of makinc it, threw our impostor into the
m ost v       isible confusion.    it hre oa ur impstor ineto tewhich were certainly the satirical effusions of a wit of that
motvshecnuin   He had had but a short time to!nos visbleconfsion    Hehad  ad bt ashor tim  today, but by the price they have obtained, are probably con-.
invent the first paper, less to recollect it; so that in the  day, but by the price they have obtained, are probably con
second transcript not above half the words were to be,  sidered as genuine ones, and exhibit an amusing picture of
his loose rambling life. There is a ludicrous speech of
found which existed in the first. Innes assumed a solemn  his loose ramblin  life.  There is a ludicrous  peech of
air, and Psalmanaazaar was on the point of throwing him-  the strange Earl of Pembroke, which was forged by the
self on his mercy, but Innes did not wish to unmask the  inimitable Butler, and Sir John Firkenbead, a great huimpostor; he was rather desirous of fitting the mask closer  morist and wit, had a busy pen in these spurious letters
and speeches.
to his face. Psalmanaazaar, in this hard trial, had given
evidence of uncommon facility, combined with a singular                  OF LITERARY FILCHERS,
memory.  Innes cleared his brow, smiled with a friendly      An honest historian at times will have to inflict severe
look, and only hinted in a distant manner, that he ought to  strokes on his favourites.  This has fallen to my lot, for
be careful to be beutter provided For the future! An advice  in the course of my researches, I have to record that we
which Psalmnanaazaar afterwards bore in mind, and at  have both forgers and purloiners, as well as other more
length produced the forgery of an entire new language;  obvious impostors, in the republic of letters! The pre.
and( which, he remarkably observes,' by what I have tried  sent article descends to relate anecdotes of some consince I came into England, I cannot say but I could have  trivances to possess our literary curiosities by other means
cotpassed it with less difficulty than can be conceived had  than by purchase; and the only apology which can be alI applied closely to it.' When a version of the catechism   leged for the splendida peccata, as St Austin calls the vir.
was made into the pretended Formosan language, which  tues of the heathens, of the present innocent criminals, is
was submitted to the judgment of the first scholars, it ap-  their excessive passion for literature, and otherwise the
peared to them grammatical, and was pronounced to be a  respectability of their names.  According to Grose's
real language, firom the circumstance that it resembled no' Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,' we have had
other! and they could not conceive that a stripling could  celebrated collectors, both in the learned and vulgar idioms.
be the inventor of a langutage.  If the reader is curious to  But one of them, who had some reasons too to be tenider
examine this extraordinary imposture, I refer him  to that  on this point, distinguishes this mode of completing his
literary curiosity,'An historical and geographical Des-  collections, not by book-stealing, but by book-coveting. On
cription of Formosa, with accounts of the Religion, Cus-  some occasions, in mercy, we must allow of softening
toms, and Manners of the Inhabitants, by George Psal-  names.  Were not the Spartans allowed to steal from one
manaazaar, a Native of the said Isle,' 1704; with nume-  another, and the bunglers only punished?
rous plates, wretched inventions! of their dress! religious  It is said that Pinelli made occasional additions to his
ceremonies! their tabernacle and altars to the sun, the  literary treasures sometimes by his skill in an art which
moon, and the ten stars! their architecture! the viceroy's  lay much more in the hand than in the head: however, as
castle! a temple! a city house! a countryman's house!  Pinelli never stirred out of his native city but once in his
and the Formosan albihabet!  In his conferences before  lifetime, when the plague drove him from  home, his field
the Royal Society with a Jesuit just returned from China,  of action was so restricted, that we can hardly conclude
the Jesuit had certain strong suspicions that our hero was  that he could have been so great an enterpriser in this
an impostor.  The good father remained obstinate in his  way.  No one can have lost their character by this sort
own conviction, but could not satisfactorily communicate it  of exercise in a confined circle, and be allowed to prosper!
to others; and Psalmanaazaar, after politely aslking par-  A  light-fingered Mercury would hardly haunt the same
ion for the expression, complains of the Jesuit that' HE   spot: however, this is, as it may be! It is probable that
lied most impudently,' mentilur impudentissime! Dr Mead   we owe to this species of accumulation many precious
absurdly insisted Psalmanaazaar was a Dutchman or a  manuscripts in the Cottonian collection.  It appears by
German; some thought him a Jesuit in disguise, a tool of  the manuscript note-book of Sir Nicholas Hyde, chief-juc..
the non-jurors; the catholics thought him  bribed by the  tice of the king's bench from  the second to the seventh
protestants to expose their church; the presbyterians that  year of Charles the First, that Sir Robert Cotton had in
he was paid to explode their doctrine, and cry up episco-  his library, records, evidences, ledger-books, original letpacy!  This fabulous history of Formosa seems to have  ters, and other state-papers, belonging to the king; far
een projected by his artful prompter Innes, who put Va-  the attorney-general of that time, to prove this, showed a
renius into Psalrnanaazaar's hands to assist him; trum-  copy of the pardon which Sir Robert had obtained from
peted forth in the domestic and foreign papers on account  King James for embezzling records, &c.*
of this converted Formosan; maddened the booksellers to      Gough has more than insinuated that Rawlinson and
hurry the author, who was scarcely allowed two months  his friend Umfreville' lie under very strong suspicions;'
to prioduce this extraordinary voluime: and as the former  and he asserts that the collector of the Witon treasures
accnunts which the public possessed of this island were   made as free as Dr Willis with his friend's coins. But he
full of monstrous absurdities and contradictions, these as-  has also put forth a declarat;on relating to Bishop More,
sisted the present imposture.  Our fbrger resolved not to  the famous collector, that'the bishop collected his library
describe new and surprising things as they had done, but  by plundering those of the clergy in his diocese; some he
rather studied to clash with them, probably that he might  paid with sermons or more modern books; others, less
have an opportunity of pretending to correct them. The   civilly, only with a quid illiterati cum libris?' This pluir.
first edition was immediately sold; the world was more  dering then consisted rather of cajoling others out of what
divided than ever in 0,nin;ott: in a second edition he pre-  they knew not how to valise; and this is anii advantags
fixed a vindication — the unhappy forger got abotit twentv   which every skilfil lover of books must enjoy over those
guineas for an imnosture. whose dieltusionn  spread far and 
~ide!  So  e years afueruards  PsalLanldowne MSS. 888 in the former printead Cetalogue.'&,ide! Some years afterwards Psalmanaazaar wvas en-  Art. 79.




350                                    CURIOSITIES OF
whose apprenticeship has not expired. I have myself  diminished both them and his labour, by sequestrating
been pluntdered by a very dear friend of some such literary   some of the most rare, which was not discovered till this
curisoettis, in the days ot my innocence and of his preco-  plunderer of antiquity was far out of their reach.
tity of knowledge.  However, it does appear that Bishop      When Gough touched on this odd subject in the firs't
More did actually lay violent hands in a snug corner on   edition of his' British Topography,''An Academic' in the
some irresistible little charmer; which we gather from  a   Gentleman's Magazine for August 1772, insinuated that
precaution adopted by a friend of the bishop, who one day   this charge of literary pilfering was only a jocular one; on
was found busy in hiding his rarest books, and locking up   which Gough, in his second edition, observed that this was
as many as he could.  On being asked the reason of this  not the case, and that' one might point out enough lightodd occupation, the bibliopolist ingenuously replied,'the  fingered antiquaries in the present age, to render such a
Bishop of Ely dines with me to-day.'  This fact is quite  charge extremely probable  against earlier ones.'  The
clear, and here is another as indisputable.  Sir Robert  most extraordinary part of this slight history is, that our
Saville writing to Sir Robert Cotton, appointing an inter-  public denouncer sometime after proved himself to he one
view with the founder of the Bodleian Library, cautions   of' these'light-fingered  antiquaries;' the deed itself, howSir Robert, that'If he held any book so dear as that he   ever, was more singular than disgraceful.  At the disinwould be loath to lose it, he should not let Sir Thomas out  terment of the remains of Edward the First, around which,
of his sight, but set "the boke" aside before hand.' A   thirty years ago, assembled our most erudite antiquaries,
surprise and detection of this nature has been revealed in   Gongh  was observed, as Steevens used to relate, in a
a piece of secret history by Amelot de la Houssaie, which   wrapping great coat of unusual dimensions; that witty and
terminated in very important political consequences.  He   malicios Puck, so capable himself of iventing mischief,
assues s tht te prsonl dslik  whch  ope nnoentmalicious ~Puck,' so capable himself of inventing mischief,
assures us that the personal dislike which Pope Innocent easily suspected others, and divided his glance as mLc on
X, bre o th, Fenc   hadoriinatd i hi youh,  hen easily suspected others, and divided his glance as mr,,.-) on
X, bore to the French had originated in his youth, when   the living piece ofantiquity, as on the elder.  In the act of
cardinal, from  having been detected in the library of n   cosing      the relis ofroyalty, there was found wanting
I    closing up the relies ofroyalty, there was found wanting
eminent French collector, of having purloined a most rare   an entire fore-figer of Edard the first; and as the body
volune.Thedelriumof   colecor' rag ovrcane ven an entire fore-finger of Edward the first; and as the body
volume. The delirium of a collector's rage overcame even was perfect when opened, a murmur of dissatisfaction was
Frenh plitese   theFrechmn no  Ony opnlyac-was perfect when opened, a murmur of dissatisfaction was
French politesse; the Frenchman not onily openly a c-  spreading, when'Puck' directed their attention to the great
cused his illustrious culprit, but was resolved that he should  antiquar   in the watchman's great coat-from  whence
antiquary in the watchman's great coat —from whence
not quit the library without replacing the precious volume   toosurely was extracted Eward  the First's great fore
n                ~~~~~toossurely was extracted Edward the First's great fore-from  accusation and denial both resolved to try their  finser!-so that'the light-fiigered antiquary was recogstrength; but in this literary wrestling-match th'e book                               1
renth;  but in this literary wrestling-match  the bo     nized ten years after he had denounced the race, when he
dropped out of the cardinal's robes — and from  that day   came to'try his hand.'*
he hated the French-at least their more curious collectors!  OF LORD BACON AT HOME.
Even an author on his dying-bed, at those awful mo-        The history of Lord Bacon would be that of the intelments, should a collector be by his side, may not be con-  lectual faculties, and a theme so worthy of the philosophisidered secure firom his too curious hands.  Sir William   cal biographer remains yet to be written.  The personal
Dugdale possessed the minutes of King James's life, writ-  narrative of this master-genius or inventor must for ever be
ten by Camden, till within a fortnight of his death; as also  separated from the scala intellectus he was perpetually asCamden's own life, which he had firom Hacket, the author  cending: and the domestic history of this creative mind
of the folio life of Bishop Williams; who, adds Aubrey,  must be consigned to the most humiliating chapter in the
did filch it from  Mr Camden, as he lay a dying!' He   volume of human life: a chapter already sufficiently enafterwards corrects his information, by the Iname of Dr  larged, and which has irrefutably proved how the greatest
Thorndyke, which, however, equally answers our purpose,  minds are not freed from the infirmities of the most vulgar.
to prove that even dying authors may dread such collec-      The parent of our philosophy is now to be considered in
tors!                                                     a new light one which others do not appear to have obThe medallists have, I suspect, been more predatory   served.  My researches into contemporary notices of
than these subtracters of our literary treasures; not only   Bacon have often conviiiced  me that his philosophical
from the facility of their conveyance, but from  a peculiar  works, in his own days and among his own countrymen,
contrivance which of all those things which admit of being   were not only not comprehended,-but often ridiculed, and
secretly purloined, can only be practised in this depart-  sometimes reprobated; that they were the occasion of
ment-for they can steal and no human hand can search   many slights and mortifications which this depreciated man
them  with any possibility of detection-they can pick a   endured; but that from a very early period in his life, to
cabinet and swallow the curious things, and transport them.  that last record of his feelings which appears in his will,
with perfbect safety, to be digested at their leisure.  An   this  servant of posterity,' as he prophetically called himadventure of this kind happened to Baron Stosch, the fa-  self, sustained his mighty spirit with the confidence of his
mous antiquary.  It was in looking over the gems of the   own posthumous greatness. Bacon cast his views through
royal cabinet of medals, that the keeper perceived the loss  the maturity of ages, and perhaps amidst the sceptics and
of one; his place, his pension, and his reputation were at  the rejectors of his plans, may have felt at times all that
stake; and he insisted that Baron Stosch should be most  idolatry of fame, which has now consecrated his philominutely examined: in this dilemma, forced to confession,  sophical works.
this erudite collector assured the keeper of the royal cabi-  At college. Bacon discovered how'that scrap of Gretint, that the strictest search would not avail:'Alas, sir!  cian knowledge, the peripatetic philosophy,' and the schoI have it here within,' he said, pointing to his breast —an   lastic babble, coit'l not serve the ends and purposes of
emetic was suggested by the learned practitioner himself,  knowledge; that syogisms were not things, and that a
probably firom some former experiment.  This was not  new logic might teach us to invent and judge by induction.
the first time that such a natural cabinet had been invent-   He found that theories were to be built upon experiments.
ed   the antiquary Vaillant, when attacked at sea by anng man, abroad, he began to make those oAlgerine, zealously swallowed a whole series of' Syrian    ervations on Nature, which afterwards led on to the foun
kin-'s;  hen  e laded  t Lons    r Wth hs y on-servatlons on Nature, which afterwards led on to the founkings; when he landed at Lyons, groaning with his concealed treasure, he hastened to his friend, his physician,    * It is probable that this story of Gough's pocketing the
and his brother antiquary Dufour,-who at first was only  fore-finger of Edward the First, was one of the malicious in.
anxious to inquire of his patient, whether the medals were   ventions of George Steevens, after he discovered that the an.
of the higher empire? Vaillant showed two or three, of  tiquary' was among the few admitted to the untombing of the
which nature had kindly relieved him. A  collection of  royal corpse; Steevens himself was notthere! Sylvanus
wUrban who must know much more than he cares to record of
medals was left to the city of Exeter, and the donor ac-'Puck, —has, however, given the following' secret history'
companied the bequest by a clause in his will, that should   of what he calls'ungentlemanly and unwarrantable attacks'
a certain antiquary, his old friend and rival, be desirous of  on Gough, by Steevens. It seems that Steevens was a colexamining the coins, he should be watched by two per-  lector of the works of Hogarth, and while engaged in forming
sons, one on each side.  La Croze informs us in his life,  his collection, wrote an abrupt letter to Gough, to obtain from
that the learned Charles Patin, who has written a work on   him some early impressions, by purchase or exchange. Gough
medals, was one of the present race of collectors; Patin   esetet the manner of his adress by a rogh efusa, for t
is admitted to have been;I a peremptory one., Thus arose the
offered the curators of' the public library at Basle to draw   is dmitte  to have been a  erempory one.' Tus arose the
implacable vengeance of Steevens, whl;o used to boast that all
up a catal,,oue ofthe c.binet of Amerback there preserv-  the mischievous trick- he played on the grave antiquary, -who
eci, containing a good numberof medals.; but thee would   was rarely over.kin' to aity one, was but a pleasant kind of
have been niore numerous, had the cataiogue-writer not   revenge!




LITERATURE.                                                        351
dations of the new philosophy.  At sixteen, he philoso-  as a hundred years time; for he adds,'I am persuaded
phised; at twenty-six, he had framed his system into some   the work will gain upon men's minds in AGES.'
form; and afier forty years of continued labours, unfinished  In his last will appears his remarkable legacy of fame.
to his last hour, he left behind him sufficient to found the'My name and memory I leave to foreign nations, and to
great philosophical reformation.                           mine own countrymen after some time  be passed over.
On his entrance into active life, study was not however  Time seemed always personated in the imagination of our
his prime object.  With his fortune to make, his court  philosopher, and with time he wrestled with a consciousconnexions and his father's example opened a path for  ness of triumph.
ambition.  He chose the practice of common law as his        I shall now bring forward sufficient evidence to prove
means, while his inclinations were looking upwards to   how little Bacon was understood, and how much he was
politicalaffairs a. his end. A  passion for study however  even despised, in his philosophical! character.
had strongly marked him; he had read much more than          In those prescient views by which the genius of Veruwas required in his professional character, and this cir-  lam has often anticipated the institutions and the discoveeumstance excited the mean jealousies of the minister  ries of succeeding times, there was one important object
Cecil, and the attorney-general Coke.  Both were mere   which even his foresight does not appear to have contempractical men of business, whose narrow conceptions and   plated.  Lord Bacon did not foresee that the English lanwhose stubborn habits assume, that whenever a man   guage would one day be capable of embalming all that
acquires much knowledge foreign to his profession, he will  philosophy can discover, or poetry can invent; that his
know  less of professional knowledge  than he ought.  country should at length possess a national literature of its
These men of strong minds, yet limited capacities, hold in  own, and that it should exult in classical compositions
contempt all studies alien to their habits.                which might be appreciated with the finest models of anBacon early aspired to the sitiation of solicitor-general;  tiquity.  His taste was far unequal to his invention.  So
the court of Elizabeth was divided into factions; Bacon  little he esteemed the language of his country, that his faadopted the interests of the generous Essex, which were   vourite works are composed in Latin; and he was anxious
inimicalto the party of Cecil.  The queen, from his boy-  to have what he had written in English preserved in that
hood, was delighted by conversing with her' young lord-'universal language which may last as iong as books last.'
keeper,' as she early distinguished the precocious gravity  It would have surprised Bacon to have been told, that the
and the ingenious turn of mind of the fiuture philosopher.  most learned men in Europe have studied English authors
It was unquestionably to attract her favour, that Bacon   to learn to think and to write. Our philosopher was surely
presented to the queen his' Maxims and Elements of the   somewhat mortified, when in his dedication of the Essays
Common Law,' not published till after his death.  Eliza-  he observed, that'of all my other works my Essays have
beth suffered her minister to form  her opinions on the   been most current; for that as it seems, they come home
legal character of' Bacon. It was alleged that Bacon was  to men's business and bosoms.' It is too much to hope to
addicted to more  general pursuits than law, and the  find in a vast and profound inventor a writer also who bemiscellaneous books which hlie was known to have read   stows immortality on his language.  The English lanconfirmed the accusation.  This was urged as a reason   guage is the only object in his great survey of art and of
why the post of solicitor-general should not be conferred   nature, which owes nothing of its excellence to the genius
on a mani of speculation, more likely to distract than to  of Bacon.
direct her affairs.  Elizabeth, in the height of that political  He had reason indeed to be mortified at the reception
prudence which marked her character, was swayed by the   of his philosophical worlks; and Dr Rawley, even some
vulgar notion of Cecil, and believed that Bacon, who   years after the death of his illustrious master, had cccaafLerwards filled the situation both of solicitor-general and   sion to observe, that' His fame is greater and sounds
lord chancellor, was' A  man  rather of show than of  louder in foreign parts abroad than at home in his own
depth.' Wte have been recently told by a great lawyer,  nation; thereby verifying that divine sentence, a prophet
that  Bacon was a master.'                                 is not without honour, save in his own couintry and in his
On the accession of James the First, when Bacon still  own house.'" Even the nien of genius, who ought to have
found the same party obstructing his political advance-  comprehended this newsource of knowledge thus opened
menrt, he appears, in some momentary fit of disgust, to  to them, reluctantly entered into it; so repugnant are we
have meditated on a retreat into a foreign country; a cir-  suddenly to give up ancient errors which time and habit
curnstance which has happened to several of our men of  have made apart of ourselves. Harvey, who himselfcxpe.
genius, during a fever of solitary indignation.  He was for  rienced the sluggish obstinacy of the learned,which repel.
some time thrown out of the sunshine of life, but he  led a great but a novel discovery, could however in his turn
round its shade more fitted for contemplation; and, unques-  deride the amazing novelty of Bacon's INovum Organumn.
tionably, philosophy was benefited by his solitude at Gray's   Harvey said to Aubrey, that' Bacon was no great philoInn.  His hand was always on his work, and better  sopher; he writes philosophy like a lord chancellor.' It
thoughts will find an easy entrance into the mind of those   has been suggested to me that Bacon's philosophical wriwho feed on their thoughts, and live amidst their reveries.  tings have been much over-rated. His experimental phiIn a letter on this occasion, he writes,' My ambition now   losophy from  the era in which they were produced must
I shall only put upon my pen, whereby I shall be able to  be necessarily defective; the time he gave to them could
maintain memory and merit, of the  times succeeding,'  only have been had at spare hours; but like the great proAnd many years after when he had finally quitted public  phet on the mount, Bacon was doomed to view the land
life, he told the king,' I would live to study, and not study   afar, which he himself could never enter.
to live: yet I am  prepared for date obolum Bellisario;      Bacon found but small encouragement for hisnew learnand I that have borne a bag, can bear a wallet.'           ing among the most eminent scholars, to whom he subEver were the TtMES SUCCEEDINGc in his mind. In that  mitted his early discoveries.  A very copious letter by Sir
delightful Latin letter to Father Fulgentio, where, with the   Thomas Bodlev on Bacon's desiring him  to return the
simplicity of true grandeur, he takes a view of all his  manuscript of Cogitata et Visa, some portion of the NVoworks, and in which he describes himself as'one who  vum  Organum has come down to us; it is replete with
served posterity,' in communicating his past and his future  objections to the new  philosophy.  II am  one of that
designs, he adds, that'they require some ages for the ri-  crew,' says Sir Thomas,'that say we possess a far
pening of them.' There, while he despairs of finishing   greater holdfast of certainty in the sciences than you will
what was intended for the sixth part of his Instauration,  seem to acknowledge. He gives a hint too that Solomon
how nobly he despairs!'Of the perfecting this I have  complained' of the infinite making of books in his time;'
cast away all hopes; but in future ages, perhaps, the de-  that all Bacon delivers is only'by averment without other
sign may bud again.' And he concludes by avowing, that  force of argument, to disclaim  all our axioms, maxims,
the zeal and constancy of his mind in the great design,  &c, left by tradition from our elders unto us, which have
after so many years, had never become cold and indiffer-  passed all probations of the sharpest wits that ever were;'
ent. He remembers how, forty years ago, he had com-  and he concludes, that the end of all Bacon's philosophy,
posed a juvenile work about those things, which, with con-  by' a fresh creating new principles of sciences, would be
fidence, buit with too pompous a title, he had called Tem-  to be dispossessed of the learning we have;' and he fears
peris Partus llcaimus; the great birth of time! Besides  that it would require as mane ages as have marched bethe oublic dedication of his Ntovum Organum to James the   fore us that knowledge shoutld he perfectly achieved. BudFirst, he accompanied it with a orivate letter. He wishes  ]ey truly compares himself to'the carrier's horse which
the king's tavour to the work, which hue accounts as much I cnnnot'planch the beaten way in which I wets trainad.'




352                                      ("IU'RIOSITIES  OF
Bacon did not lose heart by the timidity of' the car-  his philosophy lay in the statutes.  In the library at Ilolk..
rier's horse:' a smart vivacious note in return shows his  ham there must be found a presentation copy of ILord Baquick apprehension.                                        con's Novum Organurn, the lnstauratio _'va,na, 1620.  It'As I am going to my house in the country, I shall want  was given to Coke, for it bears the following note. on the
my papers, which I beg you therefore to return.  You are  title-page in the writing of Coke:
slothful, and you help me nothing, so that I am half in con-        Edw. Coke, Ex dons authoris
ceit you afftet not the argument; for myself I know well                         Auctori consilium
you love and affect.  I can say no more, but non canirmus           Instaurare paras veterum documenta sophorum
surdis, respondent omnia sylvwe.  If you be not of the lsdg-         Instaura leges, justiuiavique prius.
ings chalked up, whereof I speak in my preface, I am but  The verses not only reprove Bacon for going out of his
to pass by your door. But if I had you a fortnight at Gor-  profession, but must have alluded to his character as a prehambury, I would make you tell another tale; or else 1  rogative lawyer, and his corrupt administration of te
would add a cogitation against libraries, and be revenged   chancery.  The hook was ptblished in October, 1620, a
in chancery. The book was published in October, 1620, a
on you that way.'                                          few  months before the impeachment.  And so far one
A keen hut playful retort of a great author too concious   may easily excuse the causticity of Coke; but how  he
of his own views to be angry with his critic! The lodgings  really valued the philosophy of Bacon appears by this: in
chalked up is some sarcasm  which we must supply from   this first edition there is a device of a ship passing between
our own conception; but the threatened cogitation agaisst  Hercules's pillars; the plus ultra, the proud exultation of
libraries must have caused Bodley's cheek to tingle.       our philosopher.  Over this device Coke has written a
Let us now ttrn from  the scholastic to the men of the
miserable distich in English, which marks his utter conworld, and we shall see what sort of notion these critics  tempt of the philosophicol pursuits of his illustrious rival
entertained  of the philosophy of Bacon.  Chamberlain   This ship passing beyond the columns of IHercules he sat
writes, I This week the lord chancellor hath set forth his  castically conceits as  The Ship of Fools,' the famou
castically conceits as I The Ship of Fools,' the famous,'ewv work called Instauratio Magna, or a kind of N'ovum   satire of the German Sebastian Brandt. translated bv
Organum ofall philosophy.  In sending it to the king, he   Alexander Barclay.
wrote that lie wished his majesty.v might be so long in read-       It deserveth not to be read in schools,
ing it as he hath been in composing and polishing it, which.s well near thirty years.  I have read no more than the            But o be freighted in the S     ofo.
bare title, and am not greatly encouraged by Mr Cuffe's      Such then was the fate of Lord Bacon; a history not
judgment,* who having long since persued it, gave this   written by his biographers, but which may serve as a com.
censure, that a fool could not have written such a work,  ment on that obscure passage dropped from the pen of his
and a wise man would not.' A  month or two afterwards   chaplain, and already quoted, that he was more valued
we find that'The king cannot forbear sometimes in read-  abroad than at home.
ing the lord chancellor's last book to say, that it is like the
SECRET HISTORY' OF THE DEATH OZF qUJEEK
peace of God, that surpasseth all understanding.'                                E IZABETH.
Two years afterwards the same letter-writer proceeds
with another literary paragraph about Bacon.'This lord      It is an extraordinary cirsumstance in our history, that
busies himself altogether about soks, and hath set out two   the succession to the English dominion, in two remarkalately, Histories Ventorum, ar de Vita et 3lorte, with pro-  ble cases, was never settled by the possessors of the
aise of niore.  I have yet sen neither of them, because  throne themselves during their lifetime; and that there is
I have not leisure; but if th.s life of Henry the Eighth (the   every reason to believe this mighty transfer of three kingSeventh), which they say he is about, might come out af-  doms became the sole act of their ministers, who con.
ter his own manner (meaning his Moral Essays), I should   sidered the succession merely as a state expedient.  Two
find time and means enough to read it.' When this his-   of our most able sovereigns found themselves in this pretory made its appearance, the same writer observes,'My   dicament; Queen Elizabeth, and the Protector CromLord Verulam s history of Henry the Seventh is come   well!  Cromwell probably had his reasons not to name
forth; I have not read much of it, but they say it is a very   his successor; his positive election would have dissatispretty book.'t                                             fled the opposite parties of his government, whom  he
Bacon, in his vast survey of human knowledge, included   only ruled while he was able to cajole them.  He must
even its humbler provinces, and condescended to form a   have been aware that latterly he had need of conciliat:ing
collection of apophthegms: his lordship regretted the loss   all parties to his usurpation, and was probably as doubt.
of a collection made by Julius Caesar, while Plutarch in-  ful on his death-bed whom to appoint his successor, as at
discriminately drew much of the dregs.  The wits, who   any other period of his reign.  Ludlow suspects that
could not always comprehend his plans, ridiculed the sage.  Cromwell was' so discomposed in body or mind, that he
I shall now quote a contemporary poet, whose works, for  could not attend to that matter; and whether he named
by their size they may assume that distinction, were never   any one is to me uncertain.' All that we know is the republished.  A Dr Andrews wasted a sportive pen onfugi-  port of the Secretary Thurlow  and his chaplains, who,
tive events; but though not always deficient in humour and   when the protector lay in his last agonies, suggested to him
wit, such is the freedomn of his writings, that they will not  the propriety of choosing his eldest son, and they tell us
often admit a quotation.   The following is indeed but a   that he agreed to this choice.  Had Cromwell been in his
strange pun on Bacon's title, derived from the town of St  senses, he would have probably fixed on Henry, the lord
Alban's and his collection of apophthegms;                 lieutenant of Ireland, rather than on Richard, or possibly
had not chosen either of his sons!
O  LORD fBACON PUBHN   APOPHTHEGMS.       Elizabeth, from  womanish  infirmity, or from  stateWhen learned Bacon wrote essays,                    reasons, could not endure the thoughts of her successor;
He did deserve and hath the praise;                 and long threw  into jeopardy the politics of all the cabinets
But now he writes his apophthegms                   of Europe, each of which had its favourite candidate to
Surely he doses or he dreams;                       support.  The legitimate heir to the throne of England
One said, St Albans now is grown unable,            was to be the creature of her breath, yet Elizabeth would
And is in the hith-road-way-to  Dunstable. [i. e   not speak him into existence! This had, however, often
Dunce-table.]                                  raised the discontents of the nation, and we shall see how
To the close of his days were Lord Bacon's philosophical  it harrassed the queen in her dying hours. It is even suspuirsuits still disregarded and depreciated by ignorance and   pected that the queen still retained so much of the woman,
envy, in the forms of friendship or rivality.  I shall now   that she could never overcome her perverse dislike to
give a remarkable example.  Sir Edward Coke was a   name a successor, so that according to this opinion, she
mere ereat lawyer, and like all such, had a mind so walled   died and left the crown to the mercy of a party!. This
in by law-knowledge, that in its bounded views it shut out  would have been acting unworthy of the magnanimity of
he horizon of the intellectual faculties, and the whole of  her great character-and as it is ascertained that the queen
was very sensible that she lay in a dying state several
~ Henry Cuffe, secretary to Robert, Earl of Essex, and ex.  days before the natural catastrophe occurred, it is difficult
isuted, being conecerned in his treason. A man noted for his   t believe that she totall  disrearded so im
to'believe that. she totally disregarded so impoortant a cirr;assical acquirements and his genius, who perished early in   cimtance.,                   pr       t a
b                      eh~~~~~urstance.  It is therefore, reasoning a priori, most haChamberlain adds the price of this moderate sized folio,  tural to conclude, that the choice of a successor must have
which was six shillings                                    occupied her thoughts as well as the anxieties of her min.




LIT ERA TUR E.                                                   353
sters; and that she would not have left the throne in the  her head was a declaration qf James the Sixth as her succeS
same unsettled state at her death as she had persevered  sor.  What was this but the unanimous interpretations of
im during her whole life. How did she express herself  persons who were adoring thie rising sun?'
when bequeathtng the crown to James the First, or did she  This is lively and plausible; but the noble editor did
becqucath it at all?                                    not recollect that' the speeches made by Elizabeth on her
In the popular pages of her female historian, Miss  death-bed,' which he deems' forgeries,' in consequence of
Aikin has observed, that' the closing scene of the long  the circumstance he had found in Cary's Memoirs, originatnd eventfill life of Queen Elizabeth was marked by that  ate with Camden, and were only repeated by Rapin and
pectliarity of character and destiny which attended her  Echard, &c. I am now to confirm the narrative of the
from the cradle, and pursued her to the grave.' The last  elder historian, as well as the circumstance related by
days of Elizabeth were, indeed, most melancholy-she   Cary, describing the sign of the queen a little differently,
died a victirnm of the higher passions, and perhaps as much  which happened on Wednesday 23d. A hitherto unnoof grief as of age, refusing all remedies and even nour-  ticed document pretends to give a fuller and more circumishment. But in all the published accounts, I can nowhere  stantial account of this affair, which commenced on the
d scover how she conducted herself respecting the circum-  preceding day, when the queen retained the power of
stance of our present inquiry.  The most detailed narra-  speech; and it will be confessed that the language here:wve, or as Gray the poet calls it,' the Earl of Monmouth's  used has all that loftiness and brevity which was the natuodld account of Queen Elizabeth's death,' is the one most  ral style of this queen. I have discovered a curious doc.
deserving notice; and there we find the circumstance of  ument in a manuscript volume formerly in the possession
this inlquiry introduced.  The queen, at that moment, was  of Petyt, and seemingly in his own hand-writing.  I do
reducedi to so sad a state, that it is doubtful whether her  not doubt its authenticity, and it could only have come
majesty was at all sensible of the inquiries put to her  from some of the illustrious personages who were the actby her rninisters respecting the ssuccession.  The Earl of  ors in that solemn scene, probably from  Cecil.  This
Monmomuth says,' on Wednesday, the 23d of March, she  memorandum is entitled,
grew speechless. That afternoon, by signs, she called' Account of the last words of Queen Elizabeth about
for her council, and by putting her hand to her head when   her Successor.
the king of Scots was named to succeed her, they all knew  I On the Tuesday before her death, being the twentyhe was the man she desired should reign after her.' Such  third of March, the admiral being on the right side of her
a sign as that of a dying woman putting her hand to her  bed, the lord keeper on the left, and Mr Secretary Cecil
head was, to say the least, a very ambiguous acknowledg-  (afterwards Earl of Salisbury) at the bed's feet, all stand.
ment of the right of the Scottish monarch to the English  ing, the lord admiral put her in mind of her speech conthrone.  The' odd' but verv natve account of Robert  cerning the succession had at Whitehall, and that they,
Ca.r, afterwards Earl of Monmouth, is not furnished  in the name of all the rest of her council. came unto her to
with dates, nor with the exactness of a diary. Something   know her pleasure who should succeed; whereunto she
might have occurred on a preceding day which had not  thus replied:
reached him. Camnden describes the death-bed scene of
reached him. Camd*bytsen descritbes the deasth-bed scene of' I told you my seat had been the seat of kings, and I will
Elizabeth; by this authentic writer it appears that she had  have no rascal to succeed me. And whs should succeed me
confided her state-secret of the succession to the lord ad-  bu
miral (the Earl of Nottingham:) and when the earl found  a ing?
the lqueen anliost at her extrenmity, he communicated her' The lords not understanding this dark speech and lookmnojcsty's secret to the council, who commissioned the lord  ing one on the other; at length Mr Secretary boldly asked
admrliral, the lord keeper, and the secretary to wait on her  her what she meant by those words, that no rascal should
na jesty, and acquaint lier that they came in the nante of  succeed her. Whereto she replied, that her meaning was,
the' rest to learn her pleasure in reference to the succession.  that a king should succeed: and who, quoth she, should thas
The queen was then very weak, and answered them with  be but our cousin ef Scotland?
a faint voice, that she had already declared, that as she' Tney asked her whether that were her absolute resoheld a regal sceptre, so she desiredl no other than a royal  lution? whereto she answered, I pray you trouble me no
successor.  W~hen the secretary requested her to explain   more: for I will have none but him. With which answer
herself, the queen said,' I would have a king succeed me;  they departed.
and who should that be but my nearest kinsman, the king' Notwithstanding, after again, about four o'clock in the
of Scots?' Here this state-conversation was put an end  afternoon the next day, being Wednesday, after the Arch.,to by the interference of the archbishop advising her ma-  bishop of Canterbury, and other divines, had been with
jesty to turn her thoughts to God.' Never,' she replied,  her, and left her in a manner speechless, the three lords
has my mind wandered from him.'                        aforesaid repaired unto her again, asking her if she reAn historian of Camdeni's high integrity would hardly  mained in tier former resolution, and who should succeed
have forgced a fiction to please the new monarch; yet Cam-  her? but not being able to speak, was asked by Mr Secreden has not been referred to on this occasion by the exact  tary in this sort,' We beseech your majesty, if you reBirch, who draws his information from the letters of the  main in your former resolution. and that you would have
Frenrch ambassador, Villeroy; information which it ap-  the king of Scots to succeed vou in your kingdom, show
pears the English ministers had confined to this ambassa-  some sign unto us: whereat, suddenly heaving herself up.
dor; nor do we get any distinct ideas from Elizabeth's  wards in her bed, and putting her arms out of bed, she held
more recent popular historian, who could only transcribe  her hands jointly over her head in manner of a crown;
the account of Cary. He had told us a fact which he  whence, as they guessed, she signified that she did not
could not be mistaken in, that the queen fell speechless on  only wish him the kingdom, but desire continuance of his
Wednesday, 23d of March, on which day, however, she  estate: after which they departed, and the next morning
called hei- council, and made that sign with her hand,  she died. Immediately after her death, all the lords, as
which, as the lords chose to understand, for ever united the  well of the council as other noblemen that were at the
two kingdoms. Bult the noble editor of Cary's Memoirs  court, came from Richmnond to Whitehall by six o'clock in
(the Earl of Cork and Orrery,) has observed, that' the  the morning, where other noblemen that were in London
speeches made for Elizabeth on her death bed are all  met them. Touching the succession, after some speeches
forged.' Echard, Rapin, and a long string of historians,  of divers competitors and matters of State, at length the
make her say faintly (so faintly indeed that it could not  admiral rehearsed all the aforesaid premises which the
possibly be heard,)'I will that a king succeed me, and  late queen had spoken to him, and to the lord keeper, and
who should that be but my nearest kinsman the king of  Mr Secretary (Cecil,) with the manner thereof; which
Scots?' A different account of this matter will be found  they being asked, did affirm to be true upon their honour.'
in the following memoirs.' She was speechless, and al-    Such is this singular document of secret history. I
most explrinrg, when the chief counsellors of state were  cannot but value it as authentic, because the one part is
called into her bed-chamber. As soon as they were per-  evidently alluded to by Camden, and the other is fully con.
fectlv convinced that she could not utter an articulate  firmed by Cary; and besides this, the remnarkable expres.
word, and scarce could hear or understand one, they named  sion of' rascal' is faiund in the letter of the French ambasthe king of Scots to her, a libe-ty they dared not to have  sador.  There were two interviews with the queen, and
taken if she had been able to speak; she put her hand to her  Cary appears only to have noticed the last on Wedneshead, which was probablv at that titie in agonizing pain.  day, when the queen lay speechless.  Elizabeth all her
The lords,'..ho interpreted her signs just as they pleased,  life had persevered in an obstinate mvsteriousness re.nect-,re immediately conviuce(d that the motion of her hand to  inlg the succession, and it harassed her latest moments
No. 12.                                                                45




354                                   CURIOSITIES OF
The second interview of her ministers may seem  to us  mark was driven by a storm back to Norway, the king re.
quite supernumerary; but Cary's' putting her hand to  solved to hasten to her, and consummate his marriage in
her head,' too  meanly describes the'joining her hands in  Denmark, was itself as romantic an expedition as after
manner of a crown.'                                      wards was that of his son's into Spain, and betrays nt
mark of that tame pusillanimity with which he stands over.
TAMES THE FIRST, AS A FATHER  AND A HUSBAND.  charged.
Calumnies and sarcasms have reduced the character of    The character of the queen of James the First is some.
James the First to contempt among general readers;  what obscure in our public history, for in it she makes no
while the narrative of historians, who have related facts  prominent figure; while in secret history she is more ap.
in spite of themselves, is in perpetual contradiction with  parent. Anne of Denmark was a spirited arid enterprising
their own opinions. Perhaps no sovereign has suffered  woman; and it appears from a passage in Sully, whose
more by that art, which is described by an old Irish pro-  authority should weigh with us, although we ought to re.
verb, of' killing a man by lies.' The surmises and the in-  collect that it is the French minister who writes, that she
sinuations of one party, dissatisfied with the established  seems to have raised a court faction against James, and
governlment in church and state; the misconceptions of  inclined to favour the Spanish and catholic interests; yet
more modern writers, who have not possessed the requi-  it may be alleged as a strong proof of James's political
site knowledge; and the anonymous libels, sent forth at a  wisdom, that the queen was never suffered to head a for.
particular period to vilify the Stuarts; all these cannot be  midable party, though she latterly might have engaged
treasured up by the philosopher as the authorities of his-  Prince Henry in that court-opposition.  The bon-hommie
tory. It is at least more honourable to resist popular pre-  of the king, on this subject expressed with a simplicity of
judice than to yield to it a passive obedience; and what  style, which, though it may rot be royal, is something betwe can ascertain, it would be a dereliction oftruth to con-  ter, appears in a letter to the queen, which has been preceal.  Mlluch can be substantiated in favour of the do-  served in the appendix to Sir David Dalrymple's collecmestic affections and habits of this pacific monarch; and  tions. It is without date, but written when i! Scotland to
those who are more intimately acquainted with the secret  quiet the queen's suspicions, that the Earl of.lar, who
history of the times will perceive how erroneously the per-  had the care of Prince Henry, and whom she wished to
sonal character of this sovereign is exhibited in our popu-  take out of his hands, had insinuated to the king that her
lar historians, and often even among the few, who with  majesty was strongly disposed to any'popish or Spanish
better information, have re-echoed their preconceived  course.' This letter confirms the representation of Sully
opinions.                                                but the extract is remarkable for the manly simnplicity of
Confining myself here to his domestic character, I shall  style which the king used.
not touch on the many admirable public projects of this'I say over again, leave these froward womanly appremonarch, which have extorted the praise, and even the ad-  hensions, for I thank God, I carry that love and respect
nmirations of some who have not spared their pens in his  unto you, which, by the law of God and nature, I ought to
disparagement.  James the First has been taxed with pu-  do to my wife, and mother of my children; but not for that
millanimltv and foolishness; this monarch cannot, however,  ye are a king's daughter; for whether ye were a king's
be reproached with having engendered them! All his chil-  daughter, or a cook's daughter, ye must be ail alike to nec,
dren, in whose education their father was so deeply con-  since my wife.  For the respect of your honourable birth
cerne l, sustained through life a dignified character, and a  and descent I married you; but the love and respect I
high spirit. The short life of Henry was passed in a school  now bear you is because that ye are my macried wife,
of prowess, and amidst an academy of literature.  Of the  and so partaker of my honour, as of mv other fortunes  I
king's paternal solicitude, even to the hand and the letter-  beseech you excuse my plainness in this, for casting n[, of
writing of Prince Henry when yoting, I have preserved a  your birth is a needless impertinent argument to me (tl at
proof in the article of i The History of WVriting-masters.'  is, not pertinent.)  God is my witness, I ever preferre:
Charles the First, in his youth more particularly designed  you to (for) my bairns, much more than to a subject.'
for a studious life, with a serious character, was, however,    In an ingenious historical dissertation, but one perft'-.tly
never deficient in active bravery, and magnanimous forti-  theoretical, respecting that mysterious transaction the
tude. Of Elizabeth, the Queen of Bolhemia. tried as she  Gowrie conspiracy, Mr Pinkertort has attempted to show
was by such vicissitudes of fortune, it is much to be re-  that Anne of Denmark was a lady somewhat inclined to
gretted that the interesting story remains untold; her  intrigue, and that'the king had eat:se to be jealous.' He
buoyant spirits rose always above the perpetual changes,  confesses that' he cannot discover any positive charge of
of a princely to a private state-a queen to an exile! The  adultery against Anne of Denmark. but inerele of coquetfather of stuch children derives some distinction for capaci-  ry.'*  To what these accusations amount it would be dif.
ty, in having reared such a noble offspring; and the king's  ficult to say.  The progeny of James the First sufficiently
marked attention to the formation of his children's minds  bespeak their family resemblance. If it be true, that' the
was such as to have been potinted out by Ben Jonson, who,  king had ever reason to be jealous,' and vet that no sinin his'Gipsies Metamorphosed,' rightly said of James,  gle criminal act of the queen's has been recorded, it mniust
using his native term,                                  be confessed that one or both of the parties were sinaularYouare anhonest, goodmanandhavecare of yourBearns'  ly discreet and decent; for the king never complained,
(bains.'You are n h~~a~er~~i~$d  ma~an  hav cae  and the queen was never accused, if we except this bur.
~~~~~(balmr~s.)  ~den of an old Scottish ballad,
Among the flouts and gibes so freely bespattering the
personal character of James the First, is one of his cold-           the w   as the queen's love.
ness and neglect of his queen.  It would, however, be difficult to prove by any known fact, that James was niot as  Whatever may have happened in Scotland, in Engand
indulgent a husband, as he was a father. Yet even a  the queen appears to have lived, occupied chiefly by the
writer so well informed as Daines Barrington, who, as a  amusements of the court, and not to have interfered with
lawyer, could not refrain from lauding the royal sage dur-  the arcana of state.  She appears to have indulged a pasing his visit to Denmark, on his marriage, for having bor-  sion for the elegancies and splendours of the age, as they
rowdrl three statutes from the Danish code, found the  were shown in those gorgeous court masques with which
kins name so provocative of sarcasm, that he could not  the taste of James harmonised, either from has gallaiitry
forbear observing, that James' spent niore time in those  for the queen, or his own poetic synmpathv. But this tastrs
courts of judicature than in attending upon his destined  for court masques could not escape the slur and scandal cf
onsRort.''Men of all sorts have taken a pride to gird at  the puritanic, and these' high-flying fancies' are thus reme,' might this monarch have exclaimed. But every  corded by honest Arthur Wilson, whom  we summon into
thing has twvo handles, saith the ancient adage. Had an   court as an indubitable witness of the mnitual cordiality of
austere puritan chosen to observe that Jameus the First,  this royal couple.  In the spirit of his party, and like Milwhen abroad, had lived jovially; and had this historian  ton, he censures the taste, but likes it. He says,'The
then dropped silently the interesting circumstance of the  court being a continued maskarado, where she (the queen)
king's' spending his time in the Danish courts of judica-  and her ladies, like so many sea-nymphs or Nereides, ap.
ture,' the fact would have borne him out in his reproof;  peared often in various dresses to the ravishment of thie
and  Francis Osborne, indeed, has censured James for
ivind Francis Osborne, ideed, has cnsureas no deficient or    * This historical dissertation is appended to the first voluma
marks of his  oriousness! Thu e was o deficient  of Mr Malcolm Laing's'History of Scotland,' who thinkl
gallantry in the condut t of James the First to his queen;  that'ii has placed that obscure transaction in its genuine
Ahe very circumstance, that when the Princess of Den-  light.'




L I T E Rt.. T UR E.                                            355
beholders; the king himself not being a little delighted  It is remarkable that every great writer appears to have
wih  suchl fluent elegancies as made the night more  lo-  a  redilection for some favourite author; and with Alexrious than thie day.' This is a direct proof that James  ander. had they possessed a golden casket, would have
was by no means cold or negligent in his attentions to his  enshrined the works they so constantly turned over. Dequeen; and the letter which has been given is the picture  mosthenes felt such delight in the history of Thucydides,
of his mind.  That James the First was fondly indulgent  that to obtain a familiar and perfect mastery of his style,
to his queen, and could perform an act of chivalric gallant-  he re-copied hts history eight times; while Brutus not only
ry with all the generosity of passion, and the ingenuity of  was constantly perusing Polybius even amidst the most
an elegant mind, a pleasing anecdote which I have dis-  busy periods of his life, but was abridging a copy of that
covered in an unpublished letter of the day will show. I  author on the last awful night of his existence, when on
give it in the words of the writer.                     the following day he was to try his fate against Antony and
Augt, 1613.    Octavius.  Selim  the Second had the Commentaries of.August, 1613. 
Coesar translated for his use; and it is recorded that his
At their last, being at Theobald's, about a fortnight  military ardour was heightened by the perusal. We are
ago, the queen, shooting at a deer, mistook her mark, and  told that Scipio Africanus was made a hero by the writings
killed Jewel, the king's most principal and special hound;  of Xenophon.  When Clarendon was employed in writat which he stormed exceedingly awhile; but after he  ing his history, he was in a constant study of' Livy ana
knew who did it, hlie was soon pacified, and with much  Tacitus, to acquire the full and flowing style of the one,
kindness wished her not to be troubled with it, for he  and the portrait-painting of the other: he records this cirshould love her never the worse: and the next day sent  cumstance in a letter. Voltaire had usually on his table the
nor a diamond worth two thousand pounds, as a legacy  Alhalieof Racine, and the Petit Cnreme of Masillon; the trafrom his dead dog. Love and kindness increase daily be-  gedies of the one were the finest model of French verse, the
tween them.'                                            sermons of the other of French prose.'' Were T obliged to
Such is the history of a contemporary living at court,  sell my library,' exclaimed Diderot,''I would keep back
very opposite to that representation of coldness and ne-  Moses, Homer, and Richardson;' and by the eloge which
glect with which thle king's temper has been so freely as-  this enthusiast writer composed on our English rovelist,
persed; and such too is the true portrait of James the First  it is doubtful, had the Frenchman been obliged to have
in domestic life. His first sensations were thoughtless  lost two of them, whether Richardson had not been the
and impetuous; and he would ungracefully thunder out an  elected favourite. Monsieur Thomas, a French writer,
oath, which a puritan would set down in his' tables,'  who at limes displays high eloquence and profound think.
while he omitted to note that this king's forgiveness and  ing, Ilerauit de Sechelles tells us, studied chiefly one atiforgetfulness of personal injuries was sure to follow the  thor, but that author was Cicero; and never went into the
feeling they had excited.                               country unaccompanied by some of his works. Fenelon
THE MAN Of ONE BOOK.                     was constanitly employed on his Homer; he left a translation of the greater part of the Odyssey, without any deMr Maurice, in his animated memoirs, has recently ac-  sign of publication, but merely as an exercise for style.
quainted us with a fact which may be deemed important  Montesquieu was a constant student of Tacitus, of whlom
in the life of a literary man. He tells its,' We have been  he must be considered a forcible imitator. He has, in the
just informed that Sir Win. Jones invariably read through   manner of Tacitus, characterized Tacitus:' That histo..
every year the works of Cicero, whose life indeed was the  rian,' he says,'who abridged every thing, because he
great exemplar of his own.' The same passion for the  saw  every thing.' The famous Bourdaloue re-perused
works of Cicero has been participated by others. When   every year Saint Paul, Saint Chrysostom, and Cicero.
the best means of forming a good style were inquired of' These,' says a French critic,' were the sources of his
the learned Arnauld, he advised the daily study of Cicero;  masculine and solid eloquence.' Grotius had suchma taste
but it was observed that the object was not to form a  for Lucan, that he always carried a pocket edition about
Latin, but a French style:'In that case,' replied Ar-  him, and has been seen to kiss his hand-book with the rapnauld,'you must still read Cicero.'                   ture of a true votary. If this anecdote be true, the eleA predilection for some great author, among the vast  vated sentiments of the stern Roman were probably the
number whi'h must transiently occupy our attention, seems  attraction with the Batavian republican. The diversified
to be the happiest preservative for our taste: accustomed to  reading of Leibnitz is well known; but he still attached
that excellent author whom we have chosen for our favour-  himself to one or two favourites: Virgil was always in
ite, we may in this intimacy possibly resemble him. It is  his hand when at leisure, and Leibnitz had read Virgil so
to be feared, that if we do not form such a permanent at-  often, that even in his old age he could repeat whole books
tachment, we may be acquiring knowledge, while our en-  by heart; Barclay's Argenis was his model for prose;
ervated taste becomes less and Less lively. Taste em-  when he was found dead in his chair, the Argenis had
balms the knowledge which otherwise cannot preserve  fallen from his hands.  Rabelais and Marot were the
itself. He who has lon, been intimate with one great  perpetual favourites of La Fontaine; from one he borrowauthor,will always he found to be a formidable antagonist;  ed his humour, and from  the other his style. Quevedo
he has saturated his mind with the excellencies of genius;  was so passionately fond of the Don Quixote of Cerhe has shaped his faculties insensibly to himself by his  vantes, that often in reading that unrivalled work he felt
model, and he is like a man who even sleeps in armour,  an impulse to burn his own inferior compositions: to be a
ready at a moment! The old Latin proverb reminds us  sincere admirer and a hopeless rival is a case of authorof this fact, Cave abhomine units libri: be cautious of the  ship the hardest imaginable.  Few writers can venture
man of one book!                                       to anticipate the award of posterity; yet perhaps QuePliny and Seneca give very safe advice on reading,; that  vedo had not even been what he was, without the perpetwe should read much, but not many books-but they had  uat excitement he received from his great master. Hono'monthly lists of new publications!' Since their days  race was the friend of his heart to Malherbe; he laid the
others have favoured us with' Methods of Study,' and  Roman poet on his pillow, took him in the fields, and callCatalogues of Books to be read.' Vain attempts to  ed his Horace his breviary. Plutarch, Montaigne, and
circumscribe that invisible circle of human knowledge  Locke, were the three authors constantly in the hands of
which is perpetually enlarging itself! The multiplicity of  Rousseau, and he has drawn from them  the groundwork
books is an evil fbr the many; for we now find an helluo  of his ideas in his Emilie. The favourite author of the
librorum, not only among the learned, but, with their par-  great Earl of Chatham was Barrow; on his style he had
don, among the unlearned; for those who, even to the  formed his eloquence, and had read his great master so
prejudice of their health, persist only in reading the in-  constantly, as to be able to repeat his elaborate sermons
cessant book-novelties of our own time, will after many  from memory. The great Lord Burleigh always carried
years acquire a sort of learned ignorance.  We are now   Tully's Offices in his pocket; Charles V. and Buonaparto
in want of an art to teach how books are to be read, rather  had Machiavel frequently in their hands; and DTvi.la was
than not to read themn; such an art is practicable. But  the perpetual study of Hampden: he seemed to have dis.
amidst this vast multitude still let us be' the man of one  covered in that historian of civil wars those which he an.
book,' and preserve an uninterrupted intercourse with that  ticipated in the land of his fathers.
great author wvith whose mode ofthinking we sympathize,    These facts sufficiently illustrate the recorded circumand whuse charms of composition we can habitually re-  stance of Sir William Jones's invariable habit of reading
tat&                                                   his Cicero  throtgh every year, and exemplify the happy




356                                     CURIOSITIES OF
result for him, who, amidst the multiplicity of his authors,  All Europe was to receive from him new ideas concerning
still continues in this way to be'the man of one book.'    books and  manuscripts.  Yet all his mighty promises
fumed away in projects; and though he appeared for ever
A BIBLIOGNOSTE.                         correcting the blunders of others, this French Ritson left
A startling literary prophecy, recently sent forth from   enough of his own to afford them  a choice of revenge.
oir oracular literature, threatens the annihilation of Pub-  His style of criticism  was perfectly Ritsonias.  He de.
lic Librarieswhich are one day to moulder away!   scribes one of his rivals, as l'insolest et tres-insensd auteur
o~Libraries, wheichaore one day to           de I'almanach de Gotha, on the simple subject of the origin
Listen to the vaticinator!'As conservatories of mental treasures, their value in times of darkness and barbarity   of playing cards!
was incalculable; and even in these hapoier days, when
whom there are not a few, who pass all their lives in
men are incited to explore new regions of thought, they   who    there are not a few, who pass all their lives in
prep r       a      ios MDib dn   ic   h  bv     written~
command respect as depots of methodical and well-ordered   preparations.  Mr Dibdin, since the above was written,
refbrences for the researches of the curious.  But what   as witnessed the confusion of the mind, ad the ginic
in one state of society is invaluable, may at another be  industry, of our bibliognoste, which consisted of many
which the world has made  trunks full of memoranda.  The description will show the
worthless; and the progress which the world has made
reader to what hard hunting these book-hunters voluntarily
within a very few centuries has considerably reduced the
estimation which is due to such establishments.  We will  doom themselves, with little hope of obtaining fame! I'In
one trunk were about six thousand notices of 5/ISS of all
say more'* —but enough! This idea of striking into dust    e    In another were wedged about twelve thousand'the god of his idolatry,' the Dagon of his devotion, is  ages.
s  11 descriptions of books in till languages, except those of
sufficient to terrify the bibliographer, who views ol a   descriptions of ooks in all languages, ecept those of
bi  Srof his temple!  French and Italian; sometimes with critica. -otes.  In a
blind Samson pulling down the pillars of his temple!
third trunk was a bundle of papers relating to.;e History
T'iis future universal inundation of books, this supera      I~~~~~~o the Troubadours. In a fourth was a collection of nmefluity of knowledge, in billions and trillions, overwhelms    f the Toubadours.
the imagination   It is now about four htndred years since   moranda and literary sketches connected with the inventhe imagination,                     since  ~~~~tion of arts and sciences, with pieces exclusively bibliethe art of multiplying books has been discovered; and an  tio  of arts and sciences, with pieces exclusively bi
arithmetician has attempted to calculate the incalculable  graphical.  A fifth trunk contained between two and three
thousand cards, written upon each side, respecting a
of'these four ages of typography, which he discovers have  thousand  cards, written  upon  each side, respecting a
actually produced 3,641,960 works!i  Taking  each work  collection of prints.  In a sixth trunk were contained his
actually produced 3,641l,960 works! Taking each work
npapers respecting earthquakes, volcanoes, and Paeograat three volumes, and reckoning only each impression to  pps respectin  earthquaes, vocanos,  and  eora-'n                  ~~~~~~phical subjects.'  This A1jax, flagellifer of the, bibliouraconsist of three hundred copies, which is too little, the   hical subjects.' This Aj   fagelifer of the biliora
acttal amount from  the presses of Europe will give to  phical tribe, who was, as Mr Dibdin observes,' the terror
1816-32,776,400 vomes  each of which being an inch   of his acquaintance, and the pride of his patron,' is said
1816 —32,776,400 volumes! each of which being a'n inch         1i
thick, if laced on a lie, would cover 6069 leaues   to have been in private a very different man frrsm  his
thick) if placed on a line, would cover 6069 leagues!
n   public character: all which may be true, without altertiro
Leibnitz facetiously maintained that such would be the       public character:  all which may be true, without arir
increase of literature, that future generations would find   a sad  of that public character.  The French revoltion
showed how men, mild and even kind in domestic life,
whole cities insufficient to contain theirlibraries. We are,  showed how  men, mild and even kind in domestic life,
were sanguinary and ferocious' in their public.
however, indebted to the patriotic endeavours of our gro-      e  ani    an  feoi   in t erp ic
The rabid Abb(5 Hive gloried in terrifying, without
-ers and trunkmakers, alchemists of literature! they annienlightening his rivals; he exulted that he was devoting to
hilate the gross bodies without injuring the finer spirits.  enlightening his rivals; he exulted that he was devoting t' the rods of criticism  and the laughter of Europe'he
We are still more indebted to that neglected race, the't er             o  r      n  t       h    o      oe  h
bihliopoles,' or dealers in books, who would not get by
Theliographers  o  bosfosobbigahisomte                    heart his' Cathechism' of a thousand and one questions
The science of books, for so bibliography is sometimes
dignified, may deserve the gratitude of a public, who are   and answers: it broke the slumbers of honest De Bore,
insensible of the useful zeal of those book-practitioners   who had found that life was already too short for his own
yet insensible of the useful zeal of those book-practitioners,
yet' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~' Bibliogr aphie Instructive.'
the nature of whose labours is yet so imperfectly compre-'Biblioeraphie Instructive.'
The Abb6 Rive had contrived to catch the shades of the
bended. Who is this vaticinator of the uselessness of
public libraries? Is he a bibliognoste, or a bibliographe, or    appellatives necessary to discriminate book-amateurs; and
of the first term he is acknowledged to be the inventor.
bibliomane, or a bibliophile, or a bibliotaphe? A bibliothecaire,
or a bihliopole, the prophet cannot be; for the bibliothecaire  A bibliognoste, from the Greek, is one knowing in title
is too delightfully busied among his shelves, and the hiblio-  pages and colophons, and in editions; the place and year
pole is too profitably concerned in furnishing perpetual addi-  when printed; the presses whence issued; and all the
tions, to admit of this hyperbolical terror of annihilation!   minuti  of a book.
Unawares, we have dropped into that professional jar-    A bibliographe is a describer of books and other literary
gon which was chiefly forged by one who, though seated in  arrangements.
the' scorner's chair,' was the Thaumaturgus of books    A  bibliomane is an indiscriminate accumulator, who
and manuscripts.  The Ab   Rive had acquired    blunders faster than he buys, cock-brained, and purseand manuscripts. The Abb6 Rive had acquired a singu-  ha
ingo-  heavy!
lar taste and curiosity, not without a fermenting dash of 
singular charlatanerie, in bibliography: the little volumes    A bibliophile, the lover of books, is the only one in the
singular charlatanerie, in bibliography: the little volumes  caswoapast  edte   o  i  w   laue
he occasionally put forth are things which but few hands  class, who appears to read them for his own pleasure.
rn                 ~~~~~A bibliotaphe buries his books by keeping them tinder
have touched. He knew well, that for some books to be        A biblioahe buries his ooks by keeping them  nder
noised about they should not be read: this was one of those  lock, or framing them in glass-cases.
I shall catch our bibliognoste in the hour of book-rapture!
recondite mysteries of his, which we may have occasion
further to reveal.  This bibliographical hero was librarian  It will produce a collection of bibliographical writers, and
further to reveal. This bibliographical. hero was librarian hotohescn-itdEibugrwathmno.
to the most magnificent of book-collectors, the Duke de la  show to the second-sighted Ediurher what human con
Valliere. The Abb6 Rive was a strong but ungovernable  trivances have been raised by the art of more painful wribrute, rabid, surly, but tres mordant.  His master, whom   ters than himself-either to postpone the day of universal
I have discovered to have been the partner of the cur's  annihilation, or to preserve for our posterity three centuries
tricks, would often pat him: and when the bibliognostes  hence, the knowledge which now so busily occupies us,
and to transmit to them something more than what Bacon
and the bibliomanes were in the heat of contest, let his  calls I nventories  of our literarm  treasures.'bull-dog' loose among them, as the duke affectionately  calls                of our literary treasures.
calledhislibrarian. The'bull-dog' of bibliography appears,'Histories  and literary bibloiheques (or bibliothecas,)
caledhslbraia. Te Ibul-dg'of iblogaph apeaswill always present to us,' says La Rive, Ian immense
too, to have had the taste and appetite of the tiger of
politics, ut he hardly lived to join the festival of the harvest of errors, till the authors of such catalogues shall
politics, but he hardly lived to join the festival of the  b  ul  mrse   yteiprac   fterat;ada
guillotine.  I judge of this by an expression he used to  be fully impressed by the importance of their art; and as
one complaining of his parish priest, whom  he advised  it were, reading in the most distant ages of the future the
one complaining of his parish priest, whom he advised
to give' une  messd dans sa v       i  He had tried to neliterary good and evil which they may produce, force a
to gve   un  meses anssa vntr!'He had tried to,exhaust his genius  in La Chasse aux Bibliographes et nct   triumph from the pure devotion to truth, in spite of all the
exhaust his genius in La Chasse aux, Bibliographes et auxdigsswchterposinatskivle  silp.
Antiquaires mal avises, and acted Cain with his brothers.  disgsts which their professional tasks involve; still pa
tiently enduring the heavy chains which bind down those
* Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxiv —384.                     who Rive themselves up to this pursuit, with a passion
t Will this writer pardon me for ranking him, for a moment,  which resembles heroism.
among those' generalisers' of the age who excel in what a'The catalogues of bibliotheques fines (or critical, hiscritical fr'iend has happily discriminated as ambitious writig
ritica fiend has happily dicriminated asmitious  riting;  torical. and classified accounts of writers) have engen.
that is, writint on any topic, and not least strikingly, on that
of which thy know least;  en otherwise of fine taste, and  dered that enormous swarm of hibliogrnphical errors, which
ho  erst i   ever  charm of compition                      ha   spread their roots, in greater or less iuantities, in a,the aeyeAl ha every charm of composition.                 havy' spread their roots, in greater or less quantities, in all




LITERATURE.                                                      357
sur bibliographers.  He has here filrnished a long list,  presses of Italy have not been inactive. But the literature
which I shall preserve in the note.*                     of Germany, of France, and of England, has exceeded the
The list, though curious, is by no means complete. Such  multiplicity of the productions of Italy, and an appalling
are the men of whom the Abbh  Rive speaks with more  population of authors swarm before the imagination. Hail
respect than his accustomed courtesy.' If such,' says  then the peaceful spirit of the literary historian, which sithe,' cannot escape from errors, who shall?  I have only  ting amidst the night of time, by the monuments of genius
marked them out to prove the importance of bibliographi-  trinis the sepulchral lamps of the human mind!  Hall to
cal history. A writer of this sort must occupy himself  the literary Reaumur, who by the clearness of his glasses
with more regard for his reputation than his own profit,  makes even the minute interesting, and reveals to us the
and yield himself up entirely to the study of books.'    world of insects!  These are guardian spirits, who at the
The mere knowledge of books, which has been called  close of every century standing on its ascent, trace out the
an erudition of title pages, may be sufficient to occupy the  old roads we have pursued, and with a lighter line indicate
life of some; and while the wits and'the million' are  the new ones which are opening, from the ilmperfect. at.
ridiculing these hunters of editions, who force their pas-  tempts, and even the errors of our predecessors!
sage through secluded spots, as well as course in the open   SECRET HISTORY OF AN ELECTIVE MONARCHY.
fields, it will be found that this art of book-knowledge may                A Political Sketch.
turn out to be a very philosophical pursuit, and that men    Poland, once a potent and magnificent kingdom, when
of gteat name have devoted themselves to labours, more  it sunk into an elective morarchy, became'venal thrice
frequently contemned than comprehended.  Apostolo Ze-  an age.' That country must tz.,e exhibited many a diplono, a poet, a critic, and a true man of letters, considered  matic scene of intricate intrigue, which although they could
it as no small portion of his glory, to have annotated Fon-  not appear in its public, have no doubt been often consigntanini, who, himself an eminent prelate, had passed his  ed to its secret history.   With  us the corruption of
life in forming his Bibliotheca Italiana.  Zeno did not con-  a rotten borough has sometimes exposed the guarded
sider that to correct errors and to enrich by information  proffer of one party, and the dexterous chaffering of the
this catalogue of Italian writers was a mean task.  The  other: but a master-piece of diplomatic finesse and politienthusiasm of the Ahbb Rive considered bibliography as a  cal invention, electioneering viewed on the most magnifisublime pursuit, exclaiming orn Zeno's Commentary on Fon-  cent scale, with a kingdom to be canvassed, and a crown
tanlini-' He chained together the knowledge of whole ge-  to be won and lost, or lost and won in the course of a sinnerations for posterity, and he read in future ages.'    gle day, exhibits a political drama, which, for the hdnoour
There are few thinks by which we can so well trace   and happiness of mankind, is of rare and strange occurthe history of the human mind as by a classed catalogue,  rence.  There was one scene in this drama, which might
with dates of the first publication of books; even the rela-  appear somewhat too large for an ordinary theatre; the
tive prices of books at different periods, their decline and  actors apparently were not less than fifty to a hundred
then their rise, and again their fall, form a chapter in this  thousand; twelve vast tents were raised otr an extensive
history of the human mind; we become critics even by  plain, a hundred thousand horses were in the environsthis literary  chronology, and this appraisement of auc-  and palatines and castellans, the ecclesiastical orders,
tioneers.  The favoiirite book of every age is a certain   with the ambassadors of the roval competitors, all agitated
picture of the people. The gradual depreciation of a great  by the ceaseless motion of different factions during the six
author marks a change in knowledge or in taste.          weeks of the election, and of many preceding months of
But it is imagined that we are not interested in the his-  preconcerted measures and vacillating opinions, now were
torv of indifferent writers, and scarcely in that of the sec-  all solemnly  assembled  at the diet. —Once  the poet,
ondary ones.  Ifnone but great originals should claim our  amidst his gigantic conception of a scene, resolved to leave
attention, in the course of two thousand years we should  it out;
not count twenty authors!  Every book whatever be its' So vast a thing the stage can ne'er containcharacter, may be considered as a new experiment made           Then build a new, or act it in a plain!'
by the human understanding; and as a book is a sort of in-ht,' kindling at a scene so
dividual respresentation, not a solitary volume exists but  novel and so vast!
may be personified, and described as a human being.-       Such an electioneering negotiation, the only one I amr
Hints start discoveries: they are usually found in very      acquainted with, is opened in th e iscours'   o'loisn
different authors who could go no further; and the histo-acquainted with, is opened in the           of Choisnin,
rian of obscure books is often preserving for men of geni-  the secretary of Montluc, bishop of' Valence, the confitian of obscure books is often preserving for men of geni dential agent of Catharine de Medicis, and who was sent
us indications of knowledge, which without his interven- entia   ent of Catharne de   edici ad who  as sent
to intrigue at the Polish diet, to obtain the crown of Potion, we should not possess!  Many secrets we discover  land for her son the Polish diet, to obtain the   Henry  III.
in bibliography.  Great writers, unskilled in this science of  land for her son the Duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry III.
ooks, have freqently  used defective editions, as Hume  This bold enterprise at the first seemed hopeless, and in
its progress encountuered growing obstructions; butMont-.
did the castrated Whitelocke; or like Robertson, they are  its progress one of the most finished diplobstrtists that the 
ignorant of even the sources of the knowledge they would      f the 
give the public; or they compose on a subject, which too  nus of the Gall the cou rt s of Europe, fom the irurustanc
late they discover had been anticipated.  Bibliography     med in all thecourts of Europe, from the circumstance
ate they discover ha  been anticipated.  Biblioraphy   of his limping,'le Boiteux;, our political bishop was in cawill show what has been done, and suggest to our inven-  binet intrigues the Talleyrand of his ane, and
tion what is wanted.  Many have often protracted their  bassies to Italy. Germany, England, Scotland, and Turjourney in a road which had already been worn out by the  key, tad made this'Connoisseur en homlmes' an extraurwheels which had traversed it: bibliography unrolls the  dinary politician!
whole map of the country we propose travelling over-the    Caiharine de Medicis was infatuated with the dreams of
post-roads, and the by-paths.                            judicial astrology: her pensioned oracles had declared that
Every half century, indeed, the obstructions multiply:   h should live to see each of her son crownd, Iy which
Yrd the Edinburgh predictio  should it aPproximate Y'  she should live to see each of her sons crowned, by which
ard the Edinbrt h phrediction, should it approximatery to  prediction probably they had only purposed to flatter her
the event it has foreseen, may more reasonably terrify a  pride and her love ofminion. They, hoever, eded  in
far distant posterity.  Mazzuchelli declared after his la-  pride and her love of dominion. The,    eer eded in
borious researches in Italian literature, that one of his  terrifying the credulous queen  and she dreading to wits
more recent predecessors, who had commenced a similar  ness a throht e in France, dispute crown for  each of her
work, had collected notices of forty thousand writers-and   anxiously sotught for a separate crown for each of her
yet, he adds, my work must increase that number to ten  tiations with our Ebeen trifled wice had sher earnest nelf
thousand more! Mazzuchelli said this in 1753; and the  tiations with our Elizabeth; twice had she seen herself
amousant  of  half a centr   mst now be addedaid  this in 1753; andfor the  baffled in her views in the Dukes of Alenqon and of Anmount of haf a centry  must now  be added, for the  ju. Catharine then projected a new empire for Anjou,
* Gesner, Siraler, Betllrmin, L'Abbe, Mabillon, Montfau.  by incorporating into one kingdom  Algiers, Corsica, and
con, Morri, Bayle, Baillet. Niceron, Dupin, Cave, Warton,  Sriia; but he other dept, he ofonstantnople   SeCasimir Oudin, Le Lonzfl Gotijet. Wolflus, John Albert Fa Srdinia; but the other despot, he of Constantinople. SeCasimir Oudtin, Le Long, Gonujet, Wolfius, John Altert Fabricius Argelati, Tivaboschi, Nicholas AntonioWalchius, Stru  lim II, dissipated the brilliant speculation of our female
vius, Brtucker, Schieuchzer, Linncus, Seguier, Haller, Adam.  Machiavel. Charles IX  was sickly, jealous and desirous
son, Manget, Kestoier, Eloy, Douglas. Weidler, Hailtbronner,  of removing from the. court the Duke of Anjou, whom two
Montucla, Lalande, Bailly, Quadrio, Morkoff. Stollius, Func-  victories had made popular, though he afterwards suink
ctis, Schlelhorn, Enluels, Bever, Gerdesius, Vogts, Frey:ag,  into a Sardanapalus.  Montluc penetrated into the secret
DIeaid Clement, Chevillier, Maittaire, Orlandi, Prosper Mar-  wishes of Catharine and Charles, and sugested to them
gknd, Schoeplin, De Boze Abb,  Sallier, and De Sailtu Leger. t the possibility of encircling the brows of Anjou, with the




358                                     CURIOSITIES OF
diadem  to Poland, the Polish monarch then being in a   many were incorrupt, that their choice of a sovereign
state of visible decline.  The project was approved; and   should be regulated solely by the public interest; and it
like a profound politician, the bishop prepared for an event  was hardly to be expected that the emperor, the czar, and
which might be remote, and always problematical, by send-  the king of Sweden, would prove unsuczessful rivals to the
ing into Poland a natural son of his, Balagny, as a disguised   cruel, and voluptuous, and bigoted duke of Anjou, whose
agent; his youth, his humble rank, and his love of pleas-   political interests were too remote and novel to have raised
ure, would not create any alarm among the neighbouring   any faction among these independent Po.es.
powers, who were alike on the watch to snatch the ex-         The crafty politician had the art of dressing himself up
pected spoil; but as it was necessary to have a more dex-  in all the winning charms of candour and loyalty; a sweet
terous politician behind the curtain, he recommended his  flow of honeyed words melted on his lips, while his heart,
secretary Cloisnin as a travelling tutor to a youth who   cold and immovable as a rock, stood unchanged amidst the
appeared to want one.                                      most unforeseen difficulties.
Balagny proceeded to Poland, where, under the veil of dis-  The emperor had set to work the AbbW  Cvre in a sort
sipation, and in the midst of splendid festivities, with his trus-  of anibiguous character, an envoy for the nonce, to be
ty adjutant, this hare-brained boy of revelry began to weave  acknowledged or disavowed as was convenient, and by his
those intrigues which were afterwards to be knotted, or un-  activity he obtained considerable influence among the
tied, by Montluc himself. He had contrived to be so little  Lithuanians, the Wallachians, and nearly all Prussia, in
suspected, that the agent of the emperor had often disclos-  favour of the Arch-duke Ernest.  Two Bohemians, who
ed important secrets to his young and amiable friend.  On   had the advantage of speaking the Polish language, had
the death ofSigismond Augustus, Balagny, leaving Chois-  arrived with a state and magnificence becoming kings ra.
nin behind to trumpet forth the virtues of Anjou, hasten-  ther than ambassadors.  The Moscovite had written let.
ed to Paris to give an account of all which he had seen or  ters full of golden promises to the nobility, and was supheard.  But poor Choisnin found himself in a dilemma   ported by a palatine of high character; a perpetual peace
among those who had so long listened to his panegyrics on   between two such great neighbours was too inviting a prothe humanity and meek character of the Duke of Anjou;  ject not to find advocates; and this party, Choi.nin ob.
for the news of St Bartholomew's massacre had travelled   serves, appeared at first the most to be feared.  The King
faster than the post; and Choisnin complains that he was   of Sweden was a close neighbour who had married the
now treated as an impudent liar, and the French prince as   sister of their late sovereign, and his son urged his family
a monster.  In vain he assured them that the whole was  claims as superior to those of foreigners.  Among thess
an exaggerated account, a mere insurrection of the people,  parties was a patriotic one, who were desirous of a Pole
or the effects of a few private enmities, praying the indig-  for their monarch; a king of their father-land, speaking
nant Poles to suspend their decision till the Bishop came:  their mother-tongue, one who would not strike at the inAttendez le Boiteux!' cried he in agony.                   dependence of his country, but preserve its integrity from
Meanwhile, at Paris, the choice of a proper person for  the stranger.  This popular party was even agreeable to
this embassy had been difficult to settle.  It was a busi-  several of the foreign powers themselves, who d(lid not like
ness o? intrigue, more than of form, and required an ora-  to see a rival power strengthening itself by so strict a
tor to make speeches and addresses in a sort of popular as-  union with Poland; but in this choice of a sovereign from
semblv; fo)r though the people, indeed, had no concern in  among themselves,, there were at least thirty lords who
the Diet, yet the greater and t.e lesser nobles and gentle-   equally thought that they were the proper wood of which
men, all electors, were reckored at one hundred thousand.   kings should be carved out.  The Poles therefore could
It. was supposed that a lawyer who could negotiate in good   not agree on the Pole who deserved to be a Piaste; an
Latin, and one, as the French proverb runs, who could al-  endearing title for a native monarch, which originated in
ler et parlen, would more effectually puzzle their heads, and   the name of the family of the Piastis, who had reigned
satisfy their consciences to vote for his client. Catharine   happily over the Polish people for the space of five centuat last fixed on Montluc himself, from  the superstitious   ries!  The remembrance of their virtues existed in the
prejudice, which however, in this case accorded with philo-  minds of the honest Poles in this affectionate title, and
sophical experience,' that Montluc had ever been lucky   their party), were called the Piastis.
int his negotiations.'                                        Montluc had been deprived of the assistance he had deMontluc hastened his departure from  Paris; and it ap-   pended on from many able persons, whom the massacre of
pears that our political bishop had, by his skilful penetra-   St Bartholomew had frightened away from every French
tion into the French cabinet, foreseen the horrible catas-  political connexion.  He found that he had himself only to
trophe which occurred very shortly after he had left it;  depend on.  We are told that he was not provided with
for he lnd warned the Count of Rochefoucault to absent  the usual means which are considered most efficient in
himself; but this lord, like so many others, had no sus-   elections, nor possessed the interest nor the splendour of
picions of the perfidious projects of Catharine and her cabi-  his powerful competitors: he was to derive all his renet.  Montinc, however, had not long been on his jour-  sources from  diplomatic finesse.  The various ambassaney, ere the news reached him, anrid it occasioned innuimera-   dors had fixed and distant residences, that they might not
ble obstacles in his progress, which even his sagacity had   hold too close an intercourse with the Polish nobles. Of
not calculated on.  At Strasbureh he had appointed to   all things, he was desirous to obtain an easy access to
meet some able coadjutors, among whom was the famous   these chiefs, that he might observe, and that they might
Joseph Scaliger; but they were so terrified by les ]l'ati-  listen.  He who would seduce by his own ingenuity must
nts Parisiennes, that Scaliger flew to Geneva, and would  come in contact with the object he would corrupt.  Yet
not budge out of that safe corner; and the others ran home,  Montluc persisted in not approaching them without beino
not imagining that Montluc would venture to pass through   sought after, which answered his purpose in the end. One
Germany, where the protestant indignation had made the   favourite argument which our Talleyrand had set afloat,
roads too hot for a catholic bishop.  But Montluc had set  was to show that all the benefits which the different comhis cast on the die. He had already passed through seve-  petitors had promised to the Poles were accompanied by
ral hair-breadth escapes from the stratagems of the Guise   other circumstances which could not fail to be ruinous to
faction, who more than once attempted to hang or drown   the country; while the offer of his master, whose intereste
the bishop, whom they cried out was a Calvinist; the fears   were remote, could not be adverse to those of the Polish
and jealousies of the Guises had been roused by this politi-  nation: so that much good might be expected from him,
cal mission.  Among all these troubles and delays, Mont-  without any fear of accompanying evil. MIontluc proluc was most affected by the rumour that the election was   cured a clever Frenchman to be the bearer of his first
on the point of being made, and that the plague was uni-  despatch, in Latin, to the Diet; which had hardly assemversal throughout Poland; so that he must have felt that  bled, ere suspicions and jealousies were already breaking
he might be too late for the one, and too early for the other.  out.  The emperor's ambassadors had offended the pride
At last Montlutic arrived, and found that the whole weight  of the Polish nobles by travelling about the country withof this negotiation was to fall on his single shoulders; and   out leave, and resorting to the infanta; and besides, in
further, that he was to sleep evey night on a pillow of  some intercepted letters the Polish nation was designated
thorns. Our bishop had not only to allay the ferment of  as gens burbara et gens inapta.' I do not. think that the
the popular soirit of the evangelists, as the protestants were  said letter was really written by the said ambassadors
dhen called, but even of the more rational catholics of Po-   who were statesmen too politic to emtuloy such unauardeA
land.  He had also to face those hau_!hty and feudal lords,  lanouage,' very ineenuoousy writes the secretary of Mont.
ofwhom each considered himself the equal of the sovereign   oI.  However, it was a blow levelled at the imperial a:aa.
whom ho created, and whose avowed principle was, and   bassadors; while the letter of the f; rench bishol:, coin




LITE RATURE.                                                         359
posed'in a humble and modest style,' began to melt their  while he skilfully introduced the most elaborate paneg),.
proud spirits, and two thousand copies of the French   rics on the. Duke of Anjou; and in return for the caricabishop's letter were eagerly spread.                       tures, he dislributed two portraits of the king and the'But this good fortune did not last more than four-and-  duke, to show the ladies, if not the diet, that neither of
twenty hours,' mournfiully writes our honest secretary';  these princes had such ferocious and inhuman faces. Such' for suddenly the news of the fatal day of St Bartholomew   are the small means by which the politician condescends
arrived, and every Frenchman was detested.'                to work his great designs; and the very means by which
olntlchi. in this distress, published an apology for les  his enemies thought they should ruin his cause, Montluc
l.fatings Parisiennes, which he reduced to some excesses  adroitly turned to his own advantage.  Any thing of inof the people, the result of a conspiracy plotted by the   stant occurrence serves electioneering purposes,and Montprotestant-; and he adroitly introduced as a personage his  luc eagerly seized this favourable occasion to exhaust his
master Anjn,1 declaring that' he scorned to oppress a   imagination on an ideal sovereign, and to hazard, with
party whomrn he had so often conquered with sword in hand.'  address, anecdotes, whose authenticity he could never'This pamphlet, which still exists, must have cost the good   have proved, till he perplexed even unwilling minds to
bishop some invention; but in elections the lie of the mo-  be uncertain whether that intolerant and inhuman duke
inent serves a purpose; and although Montluc was in due   was not the most heroic and most merciful of princes.  It
time bitterly recriminated on, still the apology served to  is probable that the Frenchman abused even the license of
divide public opinion.                                     the French eloge, for a noble Pole told Montluc that he
Montluc was a whole cabinet to himself: he dispersed ano-  was amplifying his duke with such ideal greatness, and
ther tract in the character of a Polish gentleman, in which   attributing to him such immaculate purity of sentiment,
the French interests were urged by such arguments, that  that it was inferred there was no man in Poland who could
the leading chiefs never met without disputine; and Mont-  possibly equal him; and that his declara bn, that the duke
luc now found that he had succeeded in creating a French   was not desirous of reigning over Poland to possess the
party.  The Aiistrian then employed a real Polish gen-  wealth and the grandeur of the kingdom, and that he was
tlenian to write for his party; but this was too genuine a  solely ambitious of the honour to be the head of such a
production, fr the writer wrote too much in earnest; and   great and virtuous nobility, had offended many lords, who
in politics we must not be in a'passion.                   did inot believe that the duke sought the Polish crown
The mutual jealousies of each party assisted the views  merely to be the sovereign of a virtuous people.
of our negotiator: they wouild side with him against each     These Polish statesmen appear, indeed, to have been
other.  The archduke  and the czar opposed the Turk;  more enlightened than the subtile politician perhaps calthe Mtiscovite could not endure that Sweden should be   culated oin; for when Moitluc was over anxious to excul.
aggrandized by thi: new crown; and Denmark was still  pate the Duke of Anjou firom having been an actor in the
more uneasy.  MontlItc had discovered how every party   Parisian massacre, a noble Pole observed,' That he need
had its vtlnerable point, by which it could be managed.   not lose his time at framing any apologies; for if he could
-The cards had now got fairly shuffled, and he depended   prove that it was the interest of the country that the duke
on his usual oond play.                                    ought to be elected their king, it was all that was required.
Ouir bishop got hold of a palatine to write for the French   His cruelty, were it true, would be no reason to prevent
cause in the vernacular tongue; and appears to have held   his election, for we have nothing to dread from it: once in
a more mvsterius intercourse with another palatine, Al-  in ouir kingdom, he will have more reason to fear us than
bert Laskv.  Mutual accusations were made in the open   we him, should he ever attempt our lives, our property, or
diet; the Poles accutsed some Lithuanian lords of having   our liberty.'
contracted certain engagements with the czar: these in       Another Polish lord, whose scruples were as pious as
return accused the Poles, and particularly this Laskv, with   his patriotism was suspicious, however observed that, in
being corrupted by the gold of France.  Another circum.  his conferences with the French bishop, the bishop had
stance afterwards arose; the Spanish ambassador had   never once mentioned God, whom all parties ought to imfortv thousand thalers sent to him, but which never passed   pltre to touch the hearts of the electors in their choice of
the frontiers, as this fresh supply arrived too late for the   God's' anointed.' Montluc might have felt himself inelectim,.'I believe,' writes our secretary with great  expectedly embarrassed at the religious scruples of this
simtlicitr,' that this money was only designed to distri-  lord, but the politician was never at a fault.'Speaking
bute among the truimpeters and the tabourines.'  The   to a man of letters, as his lordship was,' replied the French
usual expedient in contested elections was now evidently   bishop,'it was not for him to remind his lordship what he
introduced; our secretary acknowledging that Montluc   so well knew; but since he had touched on the subject, lihe
daily acquired new supporters, because he did not attempt  would, however, say that were a sick man desirous of
to gain them  over merely by promises-resting his whole  having a physician, the friend who undertook to procure
cause on this argtment, that the interest of the nation was  one would not do his dttty should he say it was necessary
concerned in tie French election.                          to call in one whom God had chosen to restore his health
Still would ill fortune cross our crafty politician when   buit another who should say that the most learned and
every thing was proceeding smoothly. The massacre was  skilful is him whom God has chosen, would be doing the
refreshed with more damning particulars; some letters  best for the patient, and evince most judgment.  By a
were forged, and others were hbut too true: all parties,  parity of reason we must believe that God will not send
with rival intrepidity, were carrying on a complete scene   an angel to point out the man whom  he would have his
of decetion.  A rumntir soread that the French king dis-  anointed; sufficient for us that God has yiven us a know.
avowed his accredited agent, and apologized to the empe-  ledge of the requisites of a good king; and if the Polish
ror for having vielled to the importunities of a political  gentlemen choose such a sovereign, it will he him whore
speculator,  whom  he was now resolved to recall.  This  God has chosen.' This shrewd argument delighted the
somrPwhat paralysed the exertions of those palatines who   Polish lord, who repeated the story in different compahad involved themselves in the intrigues of Montluc, who   nies, to the honour of the bishop.'And in this manner,
was now forced patiently to wait for the arrival of a courier  adds the secretary with great naivet4,' did  the  i"eu.
with renewed testimonials of his diplomatic character from   strengthened by good arguments, divulge his opinions,
the French court. A great odium was cast on the French   which were received by many, and run from  hand to
in the course of this negotiation by a distribution of prints,  hand.'
which exposed the most inventive cruelties practised by      Montluc had his inferior manmuvres.  He had to equithe catholics on the reformed; such as women cleaved in   poise the opposite interests of the Catholics and the Evanhalf. in the act ofattemotin, to snatch their children from   gelists, or the Reformed: it was mingling fire and water
their butchers; while Charles the Ninth and the Duke of  without suffering them to hiss, or to extinguish one another,
Anjon, were hideously represented in their persons. and   When the imperial ambassadors gave fPtes to the hiahet
as spectators of such horrid tragedies. with words written   nobility only, they consequently offended the lesser.  The
in labels, comolaining that the execuiitioners were not zeal-  Frenchman gave no banquets, but his house was open to
nun enougoh in this holy work.  These prints. accompa-  all at all times who were equally welcome.' You will
nied by libels and by horrid narratives, inflamed the popiit-  see that the fates of the imperialists will do them more.ar indignation, avtd more narticularlv the women, who   harm than good.' observed Monthuc to his secretary.
were affected to tears, as if these horrid scet;es had been  Having gained over by every tossible contrivance a num.
passing beftre their eves.                                 her of the Polish nobles. and showered his rourtosies  on
Montluc replied to the libels as fast as they appeared,  those of the inferior orders, at length the critical momen




360                                       CURIOSITIES OF
approacned, and the finishing hand was to be put to the work.  it was a public acclamation; and had thile election beet,
Poland, with the appearance of a popular government, was  fixed for that moment, when all hearts were warm, surely
a singular aristocracy of a hundred thousand electors, con-  the duke had been chosen without a dissenting voice'
misting of the higher and the lower nobility, and the gentry;  Thus writes, in rapture, the ingenuous secretary; and in
the people had no concern with the government. Yet still  the spirit of the times communicates a delightfhl augury
it was to be treated by the politician as a popular govern-  attending this speech, by which evidently was foreseen its
mew, where those who possessed the greatest influence   happy termination.'Those who disdain all things will
over such large assemblies were orators, and he who de-  take this to be a mere invention of mine,' says honest
livered himself with the utmost fluency, and the most per-  Choisnin;'but true it is, that while the said sier.r delivtinent argumnents, would infallibly bend every heart to the   ered his harangue, a lark was seen all the while upon the
point he wished.  The French bishop depended greatly   mast of the pavilion, singing and warbling, which was reon the effect which his oration was to produce when the   marked by a great number oflords, because the lark is acambassadors were respectively to be heard before the as-  customed only to rest itself on the earth: the most impar.
sembled Diet; the great and concluding act of so many  tial confessed this to be a good augury.*  Also it was
tedious and difficult negotiations-' which had cost my   observed, that when the other ambassadors were speaking,
master,' writes the ingenuous secretary,'six  months'  a hare, and at another time a hog, ran through the tent;
daily and nightly labours; he had never been assisted or  and when the Swedish ambassador spoke, the great tent
comfforted by any but his poor servants; and in the course  fell half way down.  This lark singing all the while, did
of these six months had written ten reams of paper, a thing   no little good to our cause; for many of the nobles and
which for forty years he had not used himself to.'         gentry noted this curious particularity, because when a
Every ambassador was now to deliver an oration before  thing which does n6t commonly happen occurs in a public
the assembled electors, and thirty-two copies were to be   affair, such appearances give rise to hopes either of good
printed to present one to each palatine, who, in his turn,  or of evil.'
was to communicate it to his lords.  But a fresh difficulty  The singing of this lark in favour of the Duke of Anjou
occurred to the French negotiator; as he trusted greatly  is not so evident, as the cunning trick of the other French
to his address influencing the multitude, and creating a   agent, the political bishop of Valence, who now  reaped
poisilar opinion in his favour, he regretted to find that the  the full advantage of his 1500 copies over the thirty-two
imperial ambassador would deliver his speech in the Bo-  of his rivals.  Every one had the French one in hand, or
hemian language, so that he would be understood by the  read it to his friends; while the others, in manuscript,
greater part of the assembly; a considerable advantage  were confined to a very narrow circle.
over Montluc, who could only address them in Latin. The      The period from the 10th of April to the 6th of May,
inventive genius of the French bishop resolved on two   when they proceeded to the election, proved to be an inthings which htd never before been practised; first, to  terval of infinite perplexities, troub!les, and activity: it is
have his Latin translated into the vernacular idiom; and   probable that the secret history of this period of the niegotiasecondly, to print an edition of fifteen hundred copies in  tirns was never written.  The other ambassadors were for
ooth languages, and thus to obtain a vast advantage over  protracting the election, perceiving the French interest
the other ambassadors with their thirty-two manuscript  prevalent: but delay would not serve the purpose of Montcopies, of which each copy was used to be read 1200  luc, he not being so well provided with friends and means
persons.  The great difficulty was to get it secretly trans-  on the spot as the others were.  The puhblic opinion which!ated and printed.  This fell to the management of Chois-  he had succeeded in creating, by some unforeseen circumnin. the secretary. He set off to the castle of the palatine,  stance might change.
Solikotski. who was deep in the French interest; Solikot-    During this interval, the bishop had to put several agents
ski despatched the version in six days.  Hastening with  of the other parties hors du combat.  He got rid of a forthe precious MS, to Cracow, Choisnin flew  to a trusty   midable adversary in the cardinal Commendon, an agent
printer, with whom  he was connected: the sheets were   of the pope's, whom  he proved ought not to be present at
deposited every night at Choisnin's lodgings, and at the  the election, and the cardinal was ordered to take his de.
end of the fortnight, the diligent secretary conducted the  parture.  A bullving colonel was set upon the French ne.
1500 copies in secret triumph to Warsaw.                   gotiator, and went about from  tent to tent with a list of the
Yet this glorious labour was not ented  Montltc was  debts of the Duke of Anjon, to show that the nation could
in no haste to deliver his wonder-working oration, on which   exuect nothiin  profitable from  a ruined spendthrift.  Tho
the fate of a crown seemed to depend.  When his turn  page of a Polish count flew to Montluc for protection, en.
came to be heard he suddenly fell sick; for the fact was,  trenting permission to accompany the bishop on his return
that he wished to speak last, which would  ive him  the  to Paris.  The servants of the count pursued the page;
advantage of replving to any objection raised by his rivals,  but this voung gentleman had so insinuated himself into the
and admit also of an attack on their weak points. He con-  favour of the bishop, that he was suffered to remain. The
trived to obtain copies of their harangues, and discovered  next day the page desired Montluc would grant him the
five points which struck at the French interest. Our poor  full liberty of his religion, being an evangelist, that he might
bishop had now to sit utip through the night to re-write five   communicate this to his friends, and thus fix them to the
leaves of his printed oration, and cancel five which had  French party.  Montluc was too penetrating for this young
heren printed; and worse! he had to get them  by heart,  political agent, whom  he discovered to be a spy, and the
and to have them  translated and inserted, by emplovying  pursuit of his feluows to have been a farce: he sent the
twenty scribes day and night.'It is scarcely credible  page back to his master, the evangelical count, observing,
what my master went through about this time,' saith the  that such tricks were too gross to be played on one who
hIistorian of his'gestes.'                                had managed affairs in all the courts of Europe before he
The council or diet was held in a vast plain.  Twelve  came into Poland.
pavilions were raised to receive the Polish nobility and     Another alarm  was raised by a letter from  the grand
the ambassadors.  One of a circular form was suipiorted  vizier of Selim  II, addressed to the diet, in which he reby a single mast, and was large enough to contain 6000  quested that they would either choose a king from among
persons, without any one approaching the mast nearor  themselves, or elect the brother of the king of France.
than by twenty steps, leaving this space void to preserve   Some zealous Frenchman at the Sublime Porte had officisilence; the different irders were placed around; the  nuslv procured this recommendation from  the enemy of
archbishops and the bishops, the palatines, the castellans,  Christianity  but an alliance with Mahometism did no sereach according to their r nk.  During the six weeks of the  vice to Montluc, either with the catholics or the evangelists
sittings of the diet, 100,000 horses were in the environs,  The bishop was in despair, and thought that his handyvet forage and every sort of provisions aboundedl.  There   work of six months' toil and trouble waz to be shook into
were no disturbances, not a single quarrel occurred, al-  pieces in an hour.  Montluc being shown the letter, in.
though there wanted not in that meeting for enmities of  stantlv insisted that it was a forgery, designed to injure
Ilon standint.  It was strange, and even awfil, to view   his master the duke.  The letter was attended by some
suh a mighty assembly preserving the greatest order, and  suspicious circumstances; and the French bishop, quick
every one seriously intent on this solemn occasion.
At length the elaborate oration was delivered: it lasted     O   honest ecretary remids me ofa psee  in Geoffr
ofMonmoitih. who soy?,'at tthis ptace aut eaffie spoke whit'e
three hours, and Cho'snin acsureqs us not a singule auditor    of    nmoth, who sw  hIt tis pand in eaeth.  spoke  tilot
the wall of the town was building:  and, indeed. I should not
felt weary.' A cry of joy broke out from  the tent, and   have failed transmitting the sonetch to posterity, had I thought
was re-echoed tlhrough the plain, when Montluc ceased:  it true as the rest of the histort.'




LITERATURE.                                                        361
at expedients, snatche  at an advantage which the politi-  punishment of its authors, and  toleration in religion.
cian Iknows how to lay hold of in the chapter of accidents.  Montluc refused to sign, and cross-examined his Polish
The letter was not sealed with the golden seal nor enclos-  friends about the original proposals; one party agreed that
ed in a silken purse or cloth of gold; and farther, if they   some things had been changed, but that they were too
examined the translation,' he said,  thev would find that  trivial to lose a crown for; others declared that the alte-:t was not written on Tuirkish paper.' This was a piece   rations were necessary to allay the fears, or secure the;f the sieur's good fortune, for the letter was not forged;  safety of the people.  Our Gallic diploniatist was outwit.
but owing to the circumstance that the boyar of Wallachia  ted, and after all his intrigues and cunning, he found that
had taken out the letter, to send a translation with it which   the crown of Poland was only to be delivered on condithe vizier had omitted, it arrived without its usual accompani.  tional terms.
ments; and the courier, when inquired after, was kept out    In this dilemma, with a crown depending on a stroke of
of the way: so that, in a few  days, nothing more was  his pen,-remonstrating, entreating, arguing, and still deheard of the great vizier's letter.' Such was our fortunate  laying, like Pistol swallowing his leek, he witnessed with
escape,' says the secretary,'from  the friendly but fatal  alarm some preparations for a new election, and his rivals
interference of the Sultan, than which the sieur dreaded   on the watch with their protests.  Montluc, in despair,
nothing so muich;                                           signed the conditions —' assured, however,' says the secrcMany secret agents of the different powers were spin-  tary, who groans over thisfinale,  that when the elected
ning their dark intrigues; and often, when discovered or  monarch should arrive, the states would easily be induced
disconcerted, the creatures were again at their'dirty  to correct them, and place things in statu quo, as befbre the
work.' These agents were conveniently disavowed or  proclamation. I was not a witness, being then despatched
acknowledged by their employers.  The abb6 Cyre was  to Paris with the joyful news, but I heard that the siesr
an active agent of the emperor's, and though not publicly  evesque it was thought would have died in this agony, of
accredited, was still hovering about. In Lithuania he had   being reduced to the hard necessity either to sign, or to
contrived matlters so well as to have gained overthat import-  losethe fruits of his labours.  The conditions were afterant province for the archduke; and was passing through   wards for a long while disputed in France.' De Thou
Prussia to hasten to communicate with the emperor, but  informs us in lib. Ivii. of his history, that Montluc  aftet:
some honest men,' quelques bons personages, says the   signing these conditions wrote to his master, that he was
French secretary, and, no doubt, some good friends of his  not bound by them, because they did not concern Poland
master,' took himn by surprise, and laid him utip safely in  in general, and that they had compelled him to sign, what
the castle of Mariemburgh, where truly he was a little  at the same time he had infbrmed them his instriuctions d(lid
uncivilly used by the soldiers, who rifled his portmanteau   not authorize.  Such was the true Jesuistic conduct of a
ano  sent ius his papers, when we discovered all his foul  gray-haired politician,  who at len!gth found, that honest
practices.'  The emperor, it seems, was angry at the   plain sense could embarrass and finally entrar the creature
arrest of his secret agent;  but as no one had the power  of the cabinet, the artificial genius of diplomatic finesse.
of releasing the abb6 Cyre at. that moment, what with re-     The secretary, however, views nothing but his inaster's
ceiving remonstrances and fuirnishing replies, the time   glory in the issue of this most difficult negotiation; and the
passed away, and a very troublesome adversary was in  triumph of Anjou over the youthful archduke, whom the
safe custody during the election. The dissentions between   Poles might have moulded to their will, arid over the King
thh catholics and the evangelists were always on the point  of Sweden. who claimed the crown by his queen's side;
of breaking out; but MonritIc succeeded in quieting these   and had offered to uinite his part of Livonia with that
inveterate parties by terrifying their imaginations with   which the Poles possessed.  He labours hard to prove
sanguinary civil wars, and invasions of the Turks and the   that the palatines and the castellans were not praticques,
Tartars.  He satisfied the catholics with the hope that  i. e. had their votes bought up by Montluc, as was retime would pitt an end to heresy, and the evangelists were   ported; from their number and their opposite interests, he
k..d to obtain a triuce front persecution.  The day before  confesses that the sieur evessue slept little, while in Poland,
the election Moniltic found himself so confident, that he and that he only gained over the hearts of men by that
despatched a courier to the French court, and expressed   natural gift of God, which acquired him  the title of the
himself in the true style of a speculative politician. that  happy ambassador. He rather seems to regret that France
des dotze tables du Damier nons en avions les Neu.js   was not prodigal of her purchase-mony, than to affirm that
assures.                                                   all palatines were alike scrupulous of their honour.
There were preluides to the election; and the first was    One more fact mav close this political sketch; a lesson
probably in acquiescence with a saturnalian humour pre-  of the natuiire  of court gratituide!  The French court
valent in some countries, where the lower orders are only  affected to receive Choisnin with favour, buit their supallowed to;.ndulae their taste for the mockery of the great  pressed discontent was reserved for' the happy ambasat stated times and on fixed occasions.  A droll scene of  sador!' Affairs had chanced; Charles IX was dying, and
a mock election, as well as combat, took place between   Catharine de Medicis in despair for a son. to whom  she
the numerous Polish pages, who, saith the grave secre-  had sacrificed all: while Anjou. already immersed in the
tary. are still more mischievousq than our own; these   wantonness ofyouth and pleasure, considered his elevation
elected among themselves four competitors, made a senate  to the throne of Poland as an exile which separated him
to burlesque the diet, and went to loggerheads.  Those  from h.is depraved enjoyments.  Montltuec was rewarded
who represented the archduke were well beaten; the   only by incurring disgrace; Catharine de Medicis and
Swede was hunted down, and for the Piastis, they seized  the Duke of Anjoiiou now  looked coldly on him, and exon a cart belonging to a gentleman, laden with provisions,  pressed their dislike of his successfuil mission.' The
broke it to pieces, arnd burnt the axle-tree, which in that  mother of kings,' as Choisnin  designatles Catharine of
country is called a piasti, and cried out The piasti is burnt!  Medicis, to whom  he addresses his Memoirs,   with the
nor could the senators at the diet that day command any  hope of awakening  her recollections of the zeal, the
order or silence'.  The French party wore white hand-  genius, and the success of his old master, had no longer
kerchiefs in their hats, and they were so numerous, as to  any use for her favourite; and Montlutic found, as the comdefeat the others.                                         mentator of Choisnin expresses in few words, an importThe next day however opened a different scene;'the   ant truth in political morality, that' at court the interest
nobles prepared to deliberate, and each palatine in his  of the moment is the measure of its affections and its
quarters was with his companions on their knees, and   hatreds.'*
many with tears in their eves chanting a hymn to the Holy
Ghost: it must be confessed, that this looked like a work  sUTLDINcG  IN TIE MTRTPH L, AND CEOETCY 
of God,' savs our secretary, who probably understood the                              coUNTR.
manmuivring of the mock combat, or the mock prayers,    Recently more than one of our learned judges from the
much better than we may. Every thing tells at an election,  bench have perhaps astonished their auditors by impresburlesque or solemnity.                                    sing them with an old-fashioned noti on of residing more
The election toolk place, and the Duke of Anion was  on their estates than the fashionable modes of life, and the
proclaimed Ikintt of Poland-biutt the t roubles of Montluc
podid not ternuiniate.    When they nresentet   certain articles * I have drawn un this a'tuce, for the eurlosity of its subject
did not terminate.. W/hen they,resented cet'ain articles
and its derails. 5'ore the  V i4.Cnmrg aii vray de tout ce qui s'est'or his signature, the bishop discovered'hat these had   aitet           o   he        scii   rs   tuc     u   es
fait et paqsse pomr l'entibre r-euceintion de 1telection du Re: dis
underg.one rmaterial alterations from the Pron )osals submit-  Polosne. divis6s en troit livres nrr Jehan Cholsnin de Cha
ted to him before the proclamation:  th. e alterations   tellerau:, nagueres secreta.irs de 5' Ile Evesque do Valenc%
referred to a disavowal of the Parisian massacre; the   1754'
46




362                                   CURIOSITIES OF
rsprit de societe, now overpowering all other esprit, will    The government not only frequently forbade new buil.
ever admit.  These opinions excited my attention to a  dings within ten miles of London, but sometimes orderee
curious circumstance in the history of our manners-the  them to be pulled down-after they had been erected for
great anxietv of our government, from the days of Eliza-  several years.  Every six or seven years proclamations
beth till much later than those of Charles II, to preserve  were issued.  In Charles the First's reign, offenders
the kingdom  from the evils of an overgrown metropolis,  were sharply prosecuted by a combined operation, not
The people them-elves indeed participated in the same  only against houses, but against persorns.*  Many of the
alarm  at the growth of thie city; while, however, they  nobility and gentry, in 1632, were informed against lot
themselves were perpetuating the grievance which they  having resided in the city, contrary to the late oroclama.
complained of.                                           tion.  And the attorney-general was then fully occupied
It is amusing to observe, that although the government  in filing bills of indictment against them, as well as ladies,
was frequently employing even their most forcible acts to  for staying in town.  The following curious'information'
restrict the limits of the metropolis, the suburbs were  in the Star-chamber will serve our purpose.
gradually incorporating with the city, and Westminister    The attorney-general informs his majesty, that both
at length united itself with London.  Since that happy   Elizabeth and James, by several proclamations, had commarriage, their fertile progenies have so blended together,  manded that' persons of livelihood and means should reside
that little Londons are no longer distinguishable from  the  in their counties, and not abide or sojourn in the city ot
ancient parent; we have succeeded in spreading the cap-  London, so that countries remain unserved.' These proital into a county, and have verified the prediction of James  clamnations were renewed by Charles.' e First, who had
the First, that' England will shortly be London, and Lon-  observed' a greater number of nobility antd gentry, and
don England.'                                            abler sort of people, with their families, had resorted to the'I think it a great object,' said Justice Best,.n deliver-  cities of London and Westminister, residing there, coning his sentiments in favotur of the Game Laws,' that sen-  trary to the ancient usage of the English nation'-' by
tlemen should have a temptation to reside in the country,  their abiding in their several counties where their means
amongst their neighbours and tenantry, whose interests must  arise, they would not only have served his majesty acbe materially advanced by such a circumstance.  The links  cording to their ranks, but by their housekeeping in those
of society are thereby better preserved, and the mutual  parts the meaner sort of people formerly were guided, diadvantages and dependence of the higher and lower classes  rected, and relieved.' He accused them  of wasting their
on one another are better maintained.  The banefuil ef.  estates in the metropolis, which would employ and relieve
fects of our present system we have lately seen in a neigh-  the common people in their several counties,  The loose
bouring country, and an ingenious French writer has late-  and disorderly people that follow them, living in and about
ly shown the ill consequences of it on the Continent.'*  the cities, are so numerous, that they are inot easily govThese sentiments of a living luminary of the Law af-  erned by the ordinary magistrates: mendicants increase in
ford some reason of policy for the dread which our govern-  great number-the prices of all commodities are highly raisment long entertained on account of the perpetual growth   ed, &c.  The king had formerly proclaimed that all ranks
of the metropolis; the nation, like an hypocondriac, was  who were not connected with public officers, at the close
ludicrously terrified that their head was too monstrous for  of forty days' notice, should resort to their several counties,
their body, and that it drew all the moisture of life from   and with their families continue their residence there. And
the middle and the extremities.  Proclamations warned   his majesty further warned them' Not to pnit themselves
and exhorted; but the very interference of a roval pro-  to unnecessary charge in providing themselves to return in
hibition seemed to render the crowded city more charm-  winter to the said cities, as it was the king's firm resoluinz;: in vain the statute against new tbrildinzs was passed   tion to withstand such great arid growing evil.' The inby Elizabeth; in vain during the reigns of James the First,  fermation concludes with a most copious list of offenders,
and both the Charleses, we find proclamations continually  among whom are a great number of nobility, and ladies.ssuing to forbid new erections.                         and gentlemen, who were accused of having lived in LonJames was apt to throw out his opinions in these fre-  don for several months after the given warning of forty days.:uent addresses to the people, who never attended to  It appears that most of them, to elude the grasp of the law,
them: his majesty notices' those swarms of gentry, who  had contrived to make a show of quitting the metropolis,.hrough the instigation of their wives, or to new  model  and, after a short absence had again returned;'and thus
and fashion their daughters, (who if they were unmarried,  the service of your majesty and your people in the several
marred their reputations, and if married lost them), did  counties have been neglected and undone.'
neglect their country hospitality, and cumber the city, a  Stich is the substance of this curious information, which
teneral nuisance to the kingdom.'-He addressed the  enables us, at least, to collect the ostensible motives of
Star-chamber to regulate'the exorbitancy of the new   this singular prohibition. Proclamations had hitherto beer
buildings about the city, which were but a shelter for those  considered little more than the news of the morning, and
who, when they had spent their estates in coaches, lac-  three days afterwards were as much read as the last
qiieys and fine clothes like Frenchmen, lived miserably in  week's newspapers.  They were now, however, resolved
their houses like Italians; but the honour of the English  to stretch forth the strong arm of law, and to terrify by an
nobility and gentry is to be hospitable among their tenants.'  example. The constables were commanded to bring in a
Once conversing on this subject, the monarch threw  out  list of the names of strangers, and the time they proposed
that happy illustration, which has been more than once  to fix their residence in their parishes.  A  remarkable
noticed, that' Gentlemen resident on their estates were like  victim on this occasion was a Mr Palmer, a Sussex genships in port; their value and magnitude were felt and ac-  tleman, who was brought ore tenus into the Star-chamber
knowledged; but when at a distance, as their size seemed  for disobeying the proclamation for living in the country.
insignificant, so their worth and importance were not duly  Palmer was a squire of a 10001 per annurn, then a ceonestimated.'                                              siderable income. He appears to have been some rich
a manuscript writer of the times complains of the  bachelor; for in his defence he alleged that he had never
breaking up of old family establishments, all crowding  been married, never was a housekeeper, and had no house
to' upstart London.' Every one strives to be a Dioge-  fitting for a man of his birth to reside in, as his mansion
nes in his house, and an emperor in the streets; not car-  in the country had been burnt down within two years.
ing if they sleep in a tub, so they may be hurried in a  These reasons appeared to his judges to aggravate rather
coach: giving that allowance to horses and mares, that  than extenuate his offence; and after a long reprimand
formerly maintained houses fuill of men; pinching many a  for having deserted his tenants and neighbours, they heavibelly to paint a few backs, and burying all the treasures of  ly fined him in one thousand pounds.t
the kingdom into a few citizens coffers; their woods into  The condemnation of this Sussex gentleman struck a
wardrobes, their leases into laces, and their goods and  terror through a wide circle of sojourners in the metropochattels into guarded coats and gaudy tovys.' Such is the  lis. I find accounts, pathetic enough, of their' packing
representation of an eloquent contemporarv; and however  away on all sides for fear of the worst;' and gentlemen
contracted might have been his knowledge of the princi-'grumbling that thev should he confined to their houses;'
ples of political economy, and of that prosperity which a  and this was sometimes backed too by a second proclama.
wealthy nation is said to derive from  its consumption of  tion, respecting'their wives and families, and also wid.
articles of iuxury, the moral effects have not altered, nor  ows,' which was' durus sermo to the women.  It is rio.
as the scene in reality greatly changed.                   * Rushworth, vol. ii, p. 288.
t From a mranuscriot letter from Sir George Gresley to Si
~* Aornin- Chronicle, January 23, 1820.        Thomas Plluckrin, Nov 1632.




LITERATU RE.                                                    363
Lting pleasing to all,' says the letter writer,' but least of  And France that was not long compos'd,
all to the women.'' To encourage gentlemen to live          With civil drums again resounds,
more willingly in the country,' says another letter writer,   And ere the old are filly clos'd,'all game-fowl, as pheasants, partridges, ducks, as also                          Receives new wounds.
hares, are this day by proclamation forbidden to he dressed   The great Gustavus in the west
or eaten in any inn.' Here we find realized the argument      Plucks the imperial eagle's wing,
of Mr Justice Best, in favour of the game-laws.               Than whom the earth did ne'er invest
It is evident that this severe restriction must have pro-                       A fiercer king.
duced great inconvenience to certain persons who found a      Only the island whih we sow,
residence in London necessary for their pursuits. This        A world without the world so far
atopears from the manuscript diary of an honest antiquary,    From present wounds it cannot show
Sir Symond D'Ewes: he has preserved an opinion, which,t s
no doubt, was spreading fast, that such prosecutions of the
attorney-general were a violation of the liberty of the       White peace, the beautifull'st of things,
subject.' Most men wondered at Mr Noy, the attorney-        Seems here her everlasting rest
general being accounted a great lawyer, that so strictly      To fix, and spread the downy wings
took away men's liberties at one blow, confining them to re-                      Over the nest.
side at their own houses and not permitting them  freedom     As when great Jove, usurping reign,
to live where they pleased within the king's dominions.       From the plagued world did her exile,
I was myvself a little startled upon the first coming out of  And tied her with a golden chain
the proclamation; but having first spoken with the Lord                           To one blest isle,
Coventry, lord keeper of the great seal, at Islington, when
nWhich in a sea of plenty swam,
I visited him; and afterwards with Sir William Jones, one     And turtles sang on every bough,
of the king's justices of the bench, about my condition       A safe retreatto ll that came
and resid(en:e at the said town of Islington, and they                            As ours is now
both aureein, that I was not within the letter of the proclamation, nor the intention of it neither, I rested satisfied,  Yet we, as f some foe were here,
and thought mvself secure, laving in all my provisions for    Leave the despised fields to clowns,
housekeeping for the year ensuing, and never imagined         And cole to save ourselves, as'twere,
myself to be in danger, till this unexpected censure of Mr                        In walled towns.
Palmer passed in the Star-chamber: so, having advised         Hither we bring wives, babes, rich clothes,
with my friends, I resolved for a remove, being much trou-    And gems-till now my sovereign
bled not only with my separation from Recordes, but with      The growing evil doth compose:
my wife, being great with child, fearing a winter journey                         Counting in vain,
might be dangerous for her.'*   He left Islington and the     His care preserves us from annoy
records in the Tower to return to his country-seat, to the    Of enemies his realms to invade,
great disturbance of his studies.                             Unless he force us to enjoy
It is, perhaps, difficult to assign the cause of this marked                    The peace he madeo
anxiety of the government for the severe restriction of the   To roll themselves in envied leisure
limits of the metropolis, and the prosecution of the nobili-  He therefore sends the landed heirs,
tv and gentry to compel a residence on their estates.-        Whilst he proclaims not his own pleasure
Whatever were the motives, they wvere not peculiar to                             So much as their's.
the existing sovereign, but remained transmitted from cabinet to cabinet, and were even renewed under Charles         The sap and blood of the land, which fled
the Second.  At a time when the plague often broke out,       Into the root, and chok'd the heart,
a close and growing metropolis might have been consider-      Are bid their quick'ning power to spread
ed to be a great evil; a terror expressed by the manuscript                       Through every part.
writer before quoted, complaining of' this deluge of build-  O'twas an act, not for my muse
tng, that we shall be all poisoned with breathing in one      To celebrate, nor the dull ace,
another's faces.' The police of the metropolis was long       Until the country air infuse
imbecile, notwithstanding  their'strong  watches and                             A purer rage.
guards' set at times; and bodies of the idle and the refrac-  And if the fields as thankful prove
tory often assumed some mysterious title, and were with       For benefits receiv'd, as seed,
difficulty governed.  We may conceive the state of the po-    They will be'quite so great a love
lice, when' London apprentices,' growing in number and                           A Virgil breed
insolence, freqtuently made  attempts on Bridewell, or
pulled down houses. One day the citizens, in proving          Norlthe  entrygrudgetogo
some ordnance, terrified the whole court of James the
First with a panic, that there was a' rising in the city.'   But think them blest they may do so.
It is possible that the government might have been induced                        Who would pursue
to pursue this singular conduct for I do not know that it     The smoky glory of the town,
can be paralleled, of pulling down new-built houses by        That may go till his native earth,
some principle of political economy which remains to be       And by the shining fire sit down
explained, or ridiculed, by our modern adepts.                                    Of his own hearth,
It would hardly be supposed that the present subject        Free from the griping scriveners' bands,
may be enlivened by a poem, the elegance and freedom          And the more biting mercers' books;
of which may even now be admired.  It is a great lite-        Free from the bait of oiled hands,
rary curiosity, and its length may be excused for several                         And painted looks?
remarkable points.                                            The country too even chops for rain
AN  ODE,                                 You that exhale it by your power,
AN X ODE)ICHARD                Let the fat drops fall down again
BY SIR RICHARD FANSHAW,                                              In a full shower.
In a full shower.
(Tpon Occason of his Mqjesty's Proclamation in the year
1630, commiandingr the Gentry, to reside upon their Es-     T      ha t waste yourselves  the in a blaze,
tutqs vn Xhe Country.                       That waste yourselves here in a blaze,
Fix to your orb and proper clime
Now war is all the world about,                                             Your wandering rovi
Arid every where Evrnnis reigns;
Arid every where Eyrnnis reigns;                        Let no dark corner of the land
Or of the torch so late put out
Be urtimbellish'd with one oem,
The stench remains. 
And those which here too thick do stand
Holland for nsany years hath been                                           Sprinkle on them
Of christian tragedies tihe stage,
Yet seldorn hath she rptav'd a scene                    Believe me, ladies you will find
Of bloodier race                     In that sweet life more solid joys,
f  e:                   More true contentment to the mind
* Harl. MvSS, 6, fo. 152.                                        Than all town-tovs.




S64i                                CURIOSITIES OF
Nor Culpid there less blood doth spill,           noticed in our history. Many indications of the situation
But heads his shafts with chaster love:           of affairs, the feelings of the people, and the donietic hisNot feather'd with a sparrow's quill,            tory of our nation, may be drawn from these singular reBut of a dove.                cords. I have never found them to exist in any collected
There you shall hear the nightingale,             form, and they have been probably only accidentally preThe harmless syren of the wood,                   served.
How prettily she tells a tale                       The proclamations of every sovereign would character.
Of rape and blood.            ize his reign, and open to us some of the interior operaThy lyric lark with ail beside                    tions of the cabinet. The despotic will, yet vacillating
Of nature's feather'ld tquire, and all            conduct of Henry the Eighth, towards the close of his
The commonwealth of flowers in'tspride,         reign, may be traced in a proclamation to abolish the
Behold you shall.             translation of the scriptures, and even the reading of BiThe lily queen, the royal rose,              bles by the people; commanding all printers of English
The gilly qoweren, prine royal rose,              books and pamphlets to affix their names to them, and
The uglllriower, prince of the blood,            forbidding the sale of any English hooks printed abroad.
The courtr  ulip, gy in cloths,  hen the people were not suffered to publish their opinThe regal bud;     -        ions at home, all the opposition flew to foreign presses,
The violet purple senator,                        and their writings were then smuggled into the country in
How they tido mock the pomp of state,             which they ought to have been printed. Hence many voAnd all that at the surly door                    lumes printed in a foreign type at this period are found in
Of great ones wait.           our collections. The king shrunk in dismay from that
Plant trees you may, and see them shoot           spirit of reformation which had only been a party-business
Up with your children, to be served               with him, and making himself a pope, decided that noTo your clean boards, and the fairest fruit      thing should be learnt but what he himself designed to
To be preserved:              teach!
n nd learn to use their several "urns;            The antipathies and jealousies, which our populace too
iTis innocence in the sweet blood                long indulged by their incivilities to all foreigners, are chaOf cherry, apricocks, and plums,
()f cherry, apricocks, and plume                  racterized by a proclamation issued by Mary, comrrland.
To be imbrued,                ing her subjects to behave themselves peaceably towards
the strangers coming with King Philip; that noblemen
ROYAL PROCLAMATIONS.                      and gentletmen should warn their servants to refrain from
The satires and the comedies of the age have been con-' strife and contention. either by outward deeds, taunting
stilted by the historian of our manners, and the features  words, unseemly countenance, by tnimicking them, &c.
af the times have been traced from those amusing records  The punishment not only' her grace's displeasure, but to
of folly. Dairnes Barrington enlarged this field of domes-  be committed to prison without bail or mainprise.'
tic history, in his very entertaining' Observations on the  The proclamations of Edward the Sixth curiously exhi.
Statutes.' Another source, which to me seems not to  bit the unsettled state of the reformation, where thie lights
have been explored, is the Proclamations which have fre-  and ceremonies of catholicism were still practised by the'quently issued from our sovereigns, and were produced by   new religionists, while an opposite party, resolutely bent
the exigences of the times.                             on eternal separation from Ronme, were avowing doctrines
These proclamations, or royal edicts, in our country   which afterwards consolidated themselves into puritanism
were never armed with the force of laws-only as they   anid while others were hatching tip that demoralizing fana.
enrorce the execution of laws already established; arid the  ticism, which subsequently shocked the nation with those
proclamation of a British monarch may become even an   monstrous sects, the indelible disgrace of our country! In
illegal act, if it be in opposition to the law of the land.  one proclamation the king denounces to the people' those
Once, indeed, it iwas enacted, under the arbitrary govern-  who despise the sacrament by calling it idol, or such other
ment. of Henry the Eighth, by the sanction of a pusillani-  vile name.' Another is against such' as innovate any
mous parliament, that the force of acts of parliament  ceremony,' and who are described as'certain private
should be given to the king's proclamations; and at a much   preachers and other laietnen who rashly attempt of their
later period, the chancellor Lord Elsemere was willing to  outn and singular wit and mind, not only to persuade the
have advanced the king's proclamations into laws, on the   people from the old and accustomed rites and ceremonies,
sophistical maxim, that' all precedents had a time when  bult also themselves bring in new and strange orders acthey began;' but this chancellor argued ill, as he was told  cording to their phantasies.  The which, as it is an evident
with spirit by Lord Coke, in the presence of James the  token of pride and arrogancy, so it terndeth both to confuFirst,* who probtbly did not think so ill of the chancellor's  sion and disorder.' Another proclamation, to press' a
logic. Blackstone, to whom on this occasion I could not  godly conformity throughout his realm,' where we learn
fail to turn, observes, on the statute under Henry the  the following curious fact, of' divers unlearned arid indisEighth, that it would have introduced the most despotic  creet priests of a devilish mind and intent, teaching that
tyranny, and must have proved fatal to the liberties of this  a man may forsake his wife and marry another, his first
kingdom had it not been luckily repealed in the minority of  wife yet living; likewise that the wife may do the same to
his successor, whomn he elsewhere calls an amiable prince  the husband. Others that a man may have two wives or more
-all our young princes, we discover, were amiable!  at once, for that these things are not prohibited by God's
Blackstone has not recorded the subsequent attempt of  law, but by the Bishop of Rome's law; so that by such
the Lord Chancellor, under James the First, which tended   evil and phantastical opinions some have not been afraid
to raise proclamatiuns to the nature of an ukase of the  indeed to marry and keep two wives.' Here, as in the blud
autocrat of both the Russias.  It seems that our national  we may unfold those subsequent scenes of our story, which
freedom, notwithstanding our ancient constitution, has had  spread out in the followin  century; the branching out of
several narrow escapes.                                 the non-conformists into their various sects; and the indeRoyal proclamations, however, in their own nature are  cent haste of our reformed priesthood, who, in their zeal
innocent enough; for since the nianner, time, and circum-  to cast off the yoke of Rome, desperately submitted to the
stances of ptilnag laws into execution must frequently be  liberty of having c two wives or more!f There is a proleft to the discretion of the executive magistrate, a procla-  clamation to abstain from flesh on Fridays and Saturdays;
mation that is.Aut adverse to existing laws need not create  exhorted on the principle, not only that'men should abany alarm; the only danger they incur is that they seem   stain on those days, and forbear their pleasures and the
never to have been attended to, and rather testified the  meats wherein they have more delight, to the intent to subwishes of the governmeat than the compliance of the sub-  due their bodies to the soul and spirit, but also for worldly
mects. They were not laws, and were therefore considered   policy.  To usefish for the benefit of the commonwealth,
as sermons or pamphlets, or any thing forgotten in a week's  and profit of many who be fishers and men using that
time.                                                   trade, unto the which this realmn, in every part environed
These proclamations are frequently alluded to by the  with the seas, and so plentiful of fresh waters, be increased
etter-writers of the times, atnong the news of the day,  the nourishmenit of the land by saving flesh.' It did nIot
but usually their royal virtue hardly kept theni alive be-  seem  to occur to the king in council that the butchers
yond the week.  Soine on important subjects are indeed   might have had cause to petition against this Ionopol!
~ The whf)le story is in 12 Co. 74t. I owe this curious fact  of two days in the week granted t o the fishmongers; atna
ft thu author of Eunomus, ii, lt6                      tmtuchi less, that it was better to let the people eat flesh or




L I T E  A T URE. U6b
fish as suited their conveniencyv.  In respect to the reli-    It seems that'the bold speakers,' as certain persons
gious rite itself, it was evidently not considered as an es-  were then denominated, practised an old artifice of laudsential point of' faith, since the king enforces it on the  ins his majesty, while they severely arraigned the counsels
principle'for the profit and commodity of his realm.'  oftthe cabinet; on this James observes,'Neither  let aly
Burnet has made a just observation on religious fasts.*    man mistake us so much as to think that by giving fair and
A proclamation against excess of apparel, in the reign   specious attributes to our person, they cover the scandals
of Elizabeth, and renewed many years after, shows the  which they otherwise lay upon our government, but conluxury of dress, which was indeed excessive: I shall short-  ceive that we make no other construction of them but as
ly notice it in another article.  There is a curious one  fine and artificial glosses, the better to give passage to the
against the iconoclasts, or image-breakers and picture-de-  rest of their imputations and scandals.'
stroye-s,,or which the antiquary wvill hold her in high re-  This was a proclamation in the eighteenth yearof his
verence. 11er majesty informs us, that' several persons,  reign; he repeated it in the nineteenth, and he might have
ignorant, malicious, or covetous, of late years, have spoiled   proceeded to'the crack of'doom' with the same effectI
and broken ancient monuments, erected only to show a         Rushworth, in his second volume of Historical Collecmemory to posterity, and not to nourish any kind of super-  tions, has preserved a considerable number of the proclastition.' The queen laments, that what is broken and   mations of Charles the First, of which many are remarkspoiled would be now hard to recover, but advises her good   able; but latterly they mark the feverish state of his reign.
people to repair them; and commands them  in future to  One regulates access for cure of the king's evil-by which
desist from committing such injuries' A  more extraordi-  his majesty, it appears,' hath had good success therein;'
narv  circumstance than the proclamation itself was the   but though ready arid willing as any king or queen of this
manifestation of her majesty's zeal, in subscribing her  realm ever was to relieve the distresses of his good subjects,
name with her own hand to every proclamation dispersed'his majesty commands to change the seasons for his" sathroughout England! These image-breakers first appeared   cred touch' from Easter and Whitsuntide to Easter and
in Elizabeth's reign; it was afterwards that they flourished  Michaelmas, as times more convenient for the temperature
in all the perfection of their handicraft, and have contrived   of the season,' &c. Another against' departure out of the
that these monuments (if' art shall carry down to posterity  realm  without licence.'  One to erect an office Ifor the
the memory of their shame and of their age. These image-  suppression of cursing and swearinjg," to receive the forbreakers, so famous in our history, had already appeared   feitures; against'libellous and seditious pamphlets and
utinder Henry the Eighth, and continued their practical  discourses from  Scotland,' framed by factious spirits, and
zeal, in spite of proclamations and remonstrances, till they   re-published in London-this was in 1640; and Charles,
had accomplished their work. In 1641, an order was pub-  at the crisis of that great insurrection in which he was to
lished by the corimois, that they should'take away all  be at once the actor and the spectator, fbndly imagined
scandalous pictures out of churches:' but more was in-  that the possessors of these'scandalous' pamphlets would
tended than was expressed: and we are told that the peo-  bring them, as he proclaimed,' to one of his majesty's juspie did not at first carry their barbarous practice against  tices of peace, to he by him  sent to one of his principal
all Art, to the lengths which they afterwards did, till they   secretaries of state'
were instructed by private information! Dowsing's Jour-     On the Restoration, Charles the Second had to cotrt
nal has been published, anid shows what the order meant.  his people by his domestic regulations.  He early issued a
He was their giant-destroyer! Such are the Machiavelian   remarkable proclamation, which one would think reflected
secrets of revolutionary governments; they give a public  on his favourite companions, and which strongly marks
order in moderate words, but the secret one, for the deeds,  the moral disorders of'those depraved and wretched times.
is that of extermination! It was this sort of men who dis-  It is against' vicious, debauched, and profane persons!'
charged their prisoners by giving a secret sign to lead them   who are thus described:
to their execution!'A  sort of men of whom we have heard much, and are
The proclamations of James the First, by their number,  sufficiently ashamed; who spend their time in taverns,
are said to have sunk their value with the people.  He   tipling-houses and debauches; giving no other evidence o!
was fond of giving them  gentle advice, and it is said by  their qff'ection to us but in drinking our health, and inveighWilson that there was an intention to have this king's  ing against all others who are not of their own dissolute
printed proclamations bound up in a volume, that bet-  temper; and who, in truth, have more discredited our cause,
ter notice might be taken of the matters contained in them.  by the licence of their manners and lives, than they could
There is more than one to warn the people againsto speak-  ever advance it by their affection or courage.  We hope
tng too freely of'matters above their reach,' prohibiting all  all persons of honour, or in place and authority, will so far'undutiful speeches.' I suspect that many of these pro-  assist uis in discountenancing such men, that their discreclaniations are the composition of the king's own hand; he  tion and shame will persuade them  to reform  what their
was often his own secretary.  There is an admirable one  conscience would not; and that the displeasure of good
against private duels and challenges.  The curious one   men towards them  may suipply what the laws have not,
respecting Cowell's'Interpreter' is a sort of royal review   and, it may be, cannot well provide against; there being
of some of the arcana of state: I refer to the quotation.j  by the licence a'nd corruption of the times, and the deI will preserve a passage of a proclamation'against ex-  prayed nature of man, many enormities, scandals, and imcess of lavish and licentious speech.' James was a king   pieties in practice and manners, which laws cannot well
of words!                                                  describe, and consequently not enough provide against, which
Although lhe commixture ofnations, confluence of am-  may, by the example and severity of virtuous men, be rabassadors, and lhe relation which the affairs of our king-  sily discountenanced, and by degrees suppressed.'
doms have had towards the business and interests of' foreign  Surely the gravity and moral severity of Clarendon diestates, have caused, during our regiment (government,) a   tated this proclamation! which must have afforded some
greater oipenness and liberiy of discourse, even concerning   mirth to the gay, debauched circle, the loose cronies oi
matters of state (which are no themes or subjectsfit for vul-  royalty!
gar persor. or common meetings) than hath been in former    It is curious that in 1660 Charles the Second issued a
timhnes used or permitted; and although in our owi nature  long proclamation for the strict observance of Lent, and
and judgment we do well allow of convenient fi-eedom of  alleges for it the same reason as we found in Edward tho
speech, esteeming any over-curious or restrained hands  Sixth's proclamation,'for the good it produces in the cmcarried in that kind rather as a weakness, or else over-  ployment of fishermen.' No ordinaries, taverns, &c, to
much severity of government than otherwise; yet lbr as  make any supper on Friday nights, either in Lent or out of
much as it is come to our ears, by common report, that  Lent.
there is at this tinme a more licentious passage of lavish   Charles the Second issued proclamations'to repress
discourse and bold censure in matters of state than is fit to be  the excess of gilding of coaches and chariots,' to restrain
sutffered: We give this warning, 4-c., to take heed how   the waste of gold, which, as they supposed, by the exces.
they intermteddle by pen or speech with causes of state and   sive use of gilding, had grown scarce. Against' the exsecrets of empire, either at home or abroad, but contain   portation and the buying and selling of gold and silver at
themselves within that modest and reverent regard of mat-  higher rates than in our mint.' alluiling to a statute niade
ters above their reach and calling; nor to give any man-  in the ninth year of Edward the Third, called the Statute
ncrt of applause to such discourse, without acquainting one   of Money.  Against building in and about l'ondon and
of our privy council within the space of twenty-four hours.'  Westminister in 1661:' The inconveniences ihaily crow.
History of the Reformation, vol. ii, p. 96, sblio.  ino hbv increase of new lbiiilirl,:s are. that the people ini! have noticed it in Calanmities of Authors, ii. 246.  creasing in such great numbers, are not well to be governtee




366                                   fCURIOSITIES OF
bv the wonted officers; the prices of victuals are en-  two statesmen in office.  Lord Raby, our ambassador,
hanced; the health of the subject inhabiting the cities  apologized to Lord Bolingbroke, then secretary of state,
much endangered, and many good towns and boroughs  for troubling him with the minuter circumstances which ocunpeopled, and in their trades,nuch decayed-frequent  curred in his conferences; in reply, the minister requests'fires occasioned by timber-buildings.  It orders to build  the ambassador to continue the same manner of writing,
with brick aod stone, which would beautify, arid make an  and alleges an excellent reason.'Those minute circumuniformity in the buildings; and which are not only more  stances give very great light to the general scope and dedurable and safet against fire, but by experience are fotund  sign of the persons negotiated with.  And I own that noto be of little more if not less charge than the buildineg with  thing pleases me more in that valuable collection of the
timber.' We nrmust infer that by the general use of'timber,  Cardinal D'Ossat's letters, than the naive descriptions
it had considerably risen in price, while brick and stone  which he gives of the looks, gestures, and even tones of
not then being generally used, became as cheapr as wood!   voice, of the persons he conferred with.' I regret to have
The most remarkable proclamations of Charles the  to record to the opinions of another noble author who reSecond are those which concern the regulations of coffee-  cently has thrown out some degrading notions of the sehouses, and one for putting them  down; to restrain the  cret history, and particularly of the historians.  I would
spreading offalse news, and licentious talking of state and  have silently passed by a vulgar writer, superficial, prejugovernment, the speakers and the hearers were made  diced, and uninformed; but as so many are yet deficient';like punishable.  This was highly resented as an illegal  in correct notions of secret history, itis but justice that their
act by the friends of civil freedom; who, however, suc-  representative should  be heard before  they are conceeded in obtaining the freedom of the coffee.houses, tun-  demned.
der the promise of not sanctioning treasonable speeches.    His lordship says, that'Of late the appetite for Ren~~~~~~~i orsipsastht'fltehepeiefoRft was urged by the court lawyers, as the high Tory,  mains of all kinds has surprisingly increase-'  A story
Roger North tells us, that the retailing coffee might be an  repeated by the Duchess of Portsmouth's wai4.4-.woman
innocent trade, when not used in the nature of a common  to Lord Rochester's valet forms a subject of investigation
assembly to discourse of matters of state news and great  for a philosophical historian: and you may hear of an
persons, as a meaos'to discontent the people;' on the  assembly of scholars and authors discussiIng the validity
other side Kennet asserted that ihe discontents existed  of a piece of scandal invented by a maid of honour more
before they met at the coffee-houses, and that the procla-  than two centuries ago, and repeated to an obscure writer
mation was only intended to suppress an evil which was  by Queen Elizabeth's house-keeper. It is a matter of the
not to be prevented.  At this day we know which of those  greatest interest to see the letters of every busy trifler.
two historians exercised:he truest judgment.  It was not  Yet who does not laugh at such men?'  This is the atthe coffee-houses which pi oduced political feeling, but the  tack! but as if some half-truths, like light through the
reverse.  Whenever government ascribes effects to a  cranny in a dark room, had just darted in a stream of
cause quite inadequate to produce them, they are only  atoms over this scoffer of secret history, he suddenly
seeking means to hide the evil which they are too weak to  views his object with a very different appearance-for he
suppress.                                                 justly concludes that'It must be confessed, however, that
TRr t sottacx  OF 5ERETISTOknowledge of this kind is very entertaining; and here and
TRU'E SOURCES OF SECRET HISTORY.....         g
there among the rubbish we find hints that may give the
This is a subject which has been hitherto but imper-  philosopher a clue to important facts, and afford to the
fectly comprehended even by some historians themselves;  moralist a better analysis of the human mind than a whole
and has too often incurred the satire, and even the con-  library of metaphysics!' The philosopher may well abhor
tempt, of those volatile spirits who play about the super-  all intercourse with wits! because the faculty of judgficies of truth, wanting the industry to view it on more  ment is usually quiescent with them; and in their orgasm
than one side; and those superficial readers who imagine  they furiously decry what in their sober senses they as
that every tale is told when it is written.                eagerly laud! Let me inform his lordship, that' the waitSecret history is the supplement of History itself, and  ing-woman and the valet' of eminent persons, are someis its greatest corrector; and the combination of secret  times no uninportant personages in history.  By the Mlewith public history has in itself a perfection, which each  moirsdeMons.DelaePorte, premier valet de chambre de Loutaken separately has not. The popular historian com-  is XIV, we learn what before' the valet' wrote had not
poses a plausible rather than an accurate tale; resear:hes  been known-the shameful arts which Mazarine allowed
too fully detailed would injure the just proportions, or  to be pratised, to give a bad education to the prince, and
crowd the bold design of the elegant narrative; and facts,  to manage him  by depraving his tastes.  Madame de
presented as they occurred, would not adapt themselves to  Motteville in her Memoirs,' the waiting'lady of our Henthose theoretical writers of history who arrange events  rietta, has preserved for our own English history some
not in a natural, but in a systematic, order.  But in secret  facts which have been found so essential to the narrative,
history we are more busied in observing what passes than  that they are referred to by our historians. In Gui Joly,
in being told of it.  We are transformed into the contem-  the humble dependent of Cardinal De Retz, we discover
poraries of the writers, while we are standing on' the'van-  an unconscious, but a useful commentator on the Memoirs
rage ground' of their posterity; and thus what to them   of his master; and the most affecting personal anecdotes
appeared ambiguous, to us has become unquestionable;  of Charles the First have been preserved by Thomas Herwhat was secret to them has been confided to us.  They  bert, his gentleman in waiting; Clery, the valet of Louis
mark the beginnings, and we the ends. From the fullness  XIV, with pathetic faithfulness has shown us the man, in
of their accounts we recover much which had been lost to  the monarch whom he served 
us in the general views of history, and it is by this more   Of secret history there are obviously two species; it is
intimate acquaintance with persons and circumstances  positive, or it is relative. It is positive, when the facts are
that we are enabled to correct the less distinct, and some-  first given to the world; a sort of knowledge which can only
times the fallacious appearances in the page of the popular  be drawn from our own personal experience, or from those
historian. He who only views things in masses will have  contemporary documents preserved in their manuscript
no distinct notion of any one particular; he may be a fan-  state in public or in private collections; or it is relative, in
ciful or a passionate historian, but he is not the historian  proportion to the knowledge of those to whom itis commnuwho will enlighten while he charms.                       nicated, and will be more or less valued, according to the
But as secret history appears to deal in minute things,  acquisitions of the reader; and this inferior species of seits connexion with great results is not usually suspected.  cret history is drawn from  rare and obscure books and
The circumstantiality of its story, the changeable shadows  other published authorities, often as scarce as manuscripts.
of its character, the redundance of its conversations, and   Some experience [ have had in those literary researches,
the many careless superfluities which egotism  or vanity   where curiosity, ever-wakeful and  vigilant, discovers
may throw out, seem  usually confounded with that small-  among contemporary manuscripts new facts; illustrations
talk familiarly termed gossiping.  But the gossiping of a  of old ones; and sometimes detects, not merely by conprofound politician, or a vivacious observer, in one of their  jecure, the concealed causes of many events; often opens
letters, or in their memoirs, often, by a spontaneous stroke,  a scenre in which some well-known personage is exhibited
reveals the individual, or by a simple incident unriddles a  in a new character; and thus penetrates beyond those
mysterious eoent.  We mae discover the value of these  generalising representations which satisfy the superficial
pictures of himan  natuire, with which  secret history  and often cover the page of history with delusion and fio
abounds, by an observation which  occurred  between  tion.




LITERATURE.                                                        367
It is only since the later institutions of national libraries,  flying to anotner.  The historian, who had felt no wearn.
that these immense collections of manuscripts have been  ness during thirteen years among printed books, discovered
formed; with us they are an undescribable variety, usually  that he was now en2aged in a task, apparenitly always beclassed under the vague title of' State-papers." The in-  ginning, and never` ending! The'Esprit de la Ligue
structions of ambassadors, but more particularly their own  was however enriched by labours, which at the moment
despatches; charters and chronicles brown with antiquity,  appeared so barren.
which preserve a world which had been else lost for us,    The study of these paperasses is not perhaps so dislike the one before the deluge; series upon series of pri-  gusting as the impatient Pere Daniel imagined; there is
vate correspondence, among which we discover the most  a literary fascination in looking over the same papers
confidential communications, designed by the writers to  which the great characters of history once hleld and wrote
have been destroyed by the hand which received them;  on; catching from  themseives their secret sentiments;
memoirs of individuals by themselves or by their friends,  and often detecting so many of their unrecorded actions.
such as are nov published by the pomp of vanity, or the  By habit the toil becomes light; and with a keen inquisi.
faithlessiess of their possessors; and the miscellaneous  tive spirit, even delightful!  For what is more delightful
collections formed by all kinds of persons, characteristic of  to the curious, than to make fresh discoveries every day?
all countries and of all eras, materials for the history of  Addison has a true and pleasing observation on such pur.
man!-records of the force, or of the feebleness of the hu-  suits.' Our employments are converted into amusements,
raan understanding, and still the monuments of their pas-  so that even in those objects which were indifferent, or
sions!                                                    even displeasing to us, the mind not only gradually loses
The original collectors of these dispersed manuscripts  its aversion, but conceives a certain fondness and affection
were a race of ingenious men; silent benefactors of man-  for them.' Addison illustrates this case by one of the
kind, to whom justice has not  et been fully awarded;  greatest genuises of the age, who by habit took incredible
but in their fervour of accumulation, every thing in a manu-  pleasure in searching into rolls, and records, till he prescript state bore its spell; acquisition was the sole point  ferred them to Virgil and Cicero! The faculty of curiostimed at by our early colleetors, and to this these search-  ity is as fervid, and even as refined in its search after
ing spirits sacrificed their fortunes, their ease, and their  Truth, as that of' Taste in the objects of Imagination, and
days; but life would have been too short to have decided  the more it is indulged, the more exquisitely it is enjoyed!
on the intrinsic value of the manuscripts flowing in a stream  The popular historians of England and of France have,
to the collectors; and suppression, even of the disjointed  in truth, made little use of manuscript researches.  Life is
reveries of madmen, or the sensible madness of projectors  very short for long histories; and those who rage with an
might have been indulging a capricious taste, or what has  avidity of fame or profit will gladly taste the fruit which
proved more injurious to historical pursuits, that party-feel-  they cannot mature.  R.esearches too remotely sought afing which has frequently annihilated the memorials of their  ter, or too slowly acquired, or too fully detailed, would be
adversaries.*                                              so many obstructions in the smooth texture of a narrative.
These manuscript collections now assume a formidable  Our theoretical historians write from  some particular and
appearance.  A toilsome march over these'Alps rising   pre-conceived result; unlike Livy, and De Thou, and
over Alps!' a voyage in'a sea without a shore!' has  Machiavel, who describe events in their natural order,
turned away most historians from their severer duties;  these cluster them together by the fanciful threads of some
those who have grasped at early celebrity have been satis-  political or moral theory, by which facts are distorted, disfled to have given a new form to, rather than contributed   placed, and sometimes altogether omitted!  One single
to the new matter of history.  The very sight of these   original docurtent has sometimes shaken into dust their
masses of history has terrified some modern historians.  palladian edifice of history.  At the moment Hume was
When Pere Daniel undertook a history of France, the  sending  some sheets of his History to press, Murdin's
learned Boivin, the king's librarian, opened for his inspec-  State Papers appeared.  And we are highly amused and
tion arn immense treasure of charters, and another of roy-  instructed by a letter of our historian to his rival, Robertal autograph letters, another of private correspondence;  son, who probably found himself often in the same forlorn
treasures, reposing in fourteen hundred folios! The mo-  situation.  Our historian discovered  in that collection
dern historian passed two hours impatiently looking over  what compeled him to retract his pre-conceived system —
them, but frightened at another plunge into the gulf, this  he hurries to stop the press, and paints his confusion and
Curtius of history  would not imnmolate himself for his  his anxiety with all the ingenuous simplicity of his nature.
country!  He wrote a civil letter to the librarian for his' We are all in the wrong!' he exclaims.  Of Hume I'supernumerary kindness,' but insinuated that he could  have heard, that certain manuscripts at the state paper
write a very readable history without any further aid of  office had been prepared for his inspection during a fortsuch paperasses or'paper-rubbish.'  Pere Daniel, there-  night, but he never could muster courage to pay his pro.
fore,'quietly sat down to his history,' copying others-a  mised visit.  Satisfied with the common accounts, arnd the
compliment which was never returnetd by any one: but  most obvious sources of history, when librarian at the Adthere was this strikitg novelty in his'readable history,'  vocates' Library, where yet may be examined the books
that according to the accurate computation of Count Bou-  he used, marked by his hand; he spread the volumes about
lainvilliers, Pere Daniel's history of France contains ten  the sofa, from which he rarely rose to pursue obscure inquithousand blunders!  The same circumstance has been  ries, or delay by fresh difficulties the page which every
told me by a living historian of the late Gilbert Stuart;  day was growing under his charming pen.  A  striking
who, on some manuscript volumes of letters being pointed   proof of his careless happiness I discovered in his never
out to him  when composing his history of Scotland, con-  referring to the perfect edition of Whitelock's Memorifessed that'what was already printed was more than he  als of 1732, but to the old truncated and faithless one of
was able to read! and thus much for his theoretical histo-  1682.
ry, written to run counter to another theoretical history,    Dr Birch was a writer with no genius for composition)
being Stuart versus Robertson! They equally depend on  but to whom British history stands more indebted than to
the simplicity of their readers, and the charms of style!  any superior author; his'incredible love of labour, in
Another historian, Anqutil, the author of L'Esprit de la  transcribing with his own hand a large library of manuLigue, has described his embarrassment at an inspection   scripts from originals dispersed in public and in private reof the contemporary manuscripts of that period.  After  positories, has enriched the British Museum by thousands
thirteen years of researches to glean whatever secret his-  of the most authentic docmments of genuine secret history printed books afforded, the author, residing in the  tory.  He once projected a collection of original historical
country, resolved to visit the royal library at Paris, Mon.  letters, fir which he had prepared a preface, where  I
sieur Melot receiving him with that kindness, which is  find the following passage.'It Is a more important serone of the official duties of the public librarian towards the  vice to the public to contribute something not before knotn
studious, opened the cabinets in which were deposited the  to the general fund of history, than to give new form and
treasures of French history.-' This is what you require!  colour to what we are already possessed of, by superad.,
come here at all times, and you shall be attended!' said  ding refinement and ornament, which too often tend lo chs.
the librarian to the young historian, who stood by with a  guise the real sltate of the Jacts; a fault not to be atoned
sort of shudder, while he opened cabinet after cabinet.  for by the pomp of style, or even the fine eloquence of the
The intrepid investigator repeated his visits, looking over  historian.'  This was an oblique stroke aimed at Robertthe mass as chance directed, attacking one side, and then  son, to whom Birch had generously opened the stores of
* See what I have said of' Suppressors and Dilapidators of  history, for the Scotch historian had needed all his chariatruscripts, p. 242                                       tv: but Robertlr'On's attractive  inventions, and highly



368                                    CURIOSITIES OF
finished composition, Seduce the public; and we may for-  fess that the king was not yet the master of the kingdom,
give the latent spark of envy in the honest feelings of the   nor his authority and security such as the general noise anm
mlan, who was profoundly skilled in delving in the native   acclamation, the bells and the bonfires, proclaimed it to be.'-.
beds of ore, but not in fashioning it; and whose own neg-'The first mortification the king met with was as soon a.
lected historical works, constructed on the true principle   he.arrived at Canterbury, within three hours after he land.
of secret history, we may often turn over to correct the er-  ed at Dover.'  Clarendon then relates how many the king
roneous, the prejudiced, and the artful accounts of those  found there, who while they waited with joy to kiss his
who have covered their faults by'the pomp of style, and   hand, also came with importunate solicitations for them.
the eloquence of the historian.'                           selves; forced him to give them present audience. in whic1
The large manuscript collections of original documents,  they reckoned up the insupportable losses undergone by
from whence may be drawn what I have called positive  themselves or their fathers; demand some grant, or pro.
secret history, are, as I have observed, comparatively of  mise of such offices; some even for more!'pressing for
mocdern existence.  Formerly they were widely dispersed  two or three with such confidence and importunity, and
in private hands; and the nature of such sources of his-  with such tedious discourses, that the king was extremely
toric discovery but rarely occurred to our writers.  Even   nauseated with their suits, though lhis modesty knew not
had they sought them, their access must have been partial  how to break from them; that he no sooner got into his
anti accidental.  Lord Hardwicke has observed, that  chamber, which for some hours he was not able to do, than
there are still many untouched manuscript collections   he lamented the condition to which hefound he must be sub.
within these kingdoms, which, through the ignorance or  ject; and did, in truth, from that mi:ute, contract such a
nattention of their owners, are condemned to dust and   prejudice against some of those persons.' But a greater
obscutrity; but how valuable and essential they may be to   mortification was to follow, and one which had nearly
the interests of authentic history and of sacred truth, can-  thrown the king into despair.
not be more strikingly demonstrated than in the recent pub-  General Monk had from  the beginning to this instant
lications of the Marlborough and the Shrewsbury papers  acted very mysteriously, never corresponding with nor anby Archdeacon Coxe.*   The editor was fully authorized   swering a letter of the king's, so that his majesty was freto observe:'It is singular that those transactions should   quently doubtful whether the general designed to act for
either have been passed over in silence, or imperfectly re-   himself or for the king: an ambiguous conduct which I
presented by most of our national historians.' Our modern   attribute to the power his wife had over him, who was in
history would have been a mere political romance, without  the opposite interest.  The general in his rough way, prethe astonishing picture of William and his ministers, exhi-  sented him a large paper, with about seventy names for his
hii ed in those unquestionable documents. Burnetwas among   privy council, of which not more than two were acceptathie first of our modern historians who showed the world  ble.' The king,' says Clarendon,' was in nmore than orthe preciousness of such materials, in his History of the   dinary confusion, for he knew not well what to think of thi
Reformation, which he largely drew from  the Cottonian   general, in whose absolute power he was-so that. at this
Collection.  Our earlier historians only repeated a tale   moment his majesty was almost alarmed at the demand and
ten times told.  Milton, who wanted not for literary dili-  appearance of things.'  The general afterwards undid
gence, had no fresh stories to open for his History ofEng-  this unfavourable appearance, by acknowledging that the
land; while Hume despatches, comparatively in a few pa-  list was drawn up by his wife, who had made him promise
gees, a subject which has afforded to the fervent diligence  to present it; but he permitted his majesty to act as he
of mry learned friend Sharon Turner, volumes precitus to  thought proper.  At that moment General Monk was
the antiquary, the lawyer, and the philosopher.            more King than Charles.
T'o illuistrate my idea of the usefuliness, and of the abso-  We have not yet concluded.  When Charles met the
lite necessity of secret history, I fix first on a public event,  army at Blackheath, 50,000 strong,' he knew well the ill
and secondly on a public character; both remarkable in  constitution of the army, the distemper and murmuring
our own modern history, and both serving to expose the   that was in it, and how many diseases and convulsions
fallacious appearances of popular history by authorities   their infant loyalty was subject to; that how united soever
indis/;utablv genuine.  The event is the res~toration of  their inclinations and acclamations seemed to be at BlackCharles the Second: and the character is that of Mary the   heath, their affections were not the same —anrid the very
queen of William the Third.                                countenances there of many oslcers, as well as soldiers, 4ud
In history, the Restoration of Charles appears in all its  sufficiently manifest that they were drawn thither to a
srlendouir —the king is joyfully received at Dover, and the   service they were not delighted in.  The old soldiers had
shi,re is covered by his subjects on their knees-crowds of  little regard for their new oficers; and it quickly appeared,
the Great hurry to Canterbury-the army is drawn up. in  by the select and affected mixtures of sullen and menuimber and with a splendour that had never been equalled  lancholic parties of officers and soldiers'.And then
— his enthusiastic reception is on his birth-day, for that  the chancellor of human nature adds,' And in this melas.
was the lucky day fixed on for his entrance into the me-  cholic and perplexed condition the king and all his hopes
tropolis-in a word, all that is told in history describes a   stood, when he appeared most gay and exalted, and wore a
monarch the most powerful and the most happy.  One of  pleasantness in hisface that became him, and looked like aa
the tracts of the day, entitled'England's Triumph,' in  full an assurance of his security as was possible to put on.'
the mean quaintness of the style of the time tells us, that  It. is imagined that Louis the Eighteenth would be the
Tile soldiery, who had hitherto made clubs trump, resolved   ablest commentator on this piece of secret history, and add
non. to enthrone the king  o hearts.' Turn to the faithful  another twin to Pierre de Saint Julier's' Gemelles ou
memorialist, who so well knew the secrets of the kinis  Paretiles,' an old French treatise of histories which reheart, and who was himself an actor behind the curtai.;  semble one another; a volume so scarce, that I have never
turn to Clarendon, in his own life; and we shall find thti   met with it.
the power of the king was then as dubious as when he was     Burnet informs us, that when Queen Mary held the ad.
in exile; and his feelings were so much racked, that he  ministration of government during the absence of Wilhad nearlv resolved on a last flight.                      liam, it was imagined by some, that. as' every woman of
Clarenilon, in noticing the temper and spirits of that  sense loved to be meddling, they concluded  that she had
time., observes,'Whoever reflects upon all this composi-  but a small portion of it, because she lived so abstracted
lion of contradictory wishes and expectations, must con-  from  all affairs.  He praises her exemplary behaviour;
Whenever that vast collection which from their former'regular in her devotions, much in her closet, read a great
~ Whenever that vast collection, which from their former  dawsotnbs   twradsee   oepp   e
deal, was often busy at work, and seemed to employ her
possessor, may be called the I Conway  papers,' shallbe give th
to the public, from what I have already been favoured with the  time and thouhts in any thin  rather than matters of state.
sielt of, I may venture to predict that our history will receive   Her conversatiori was lively and obliging; every thing in
a new form, and our literature an important accession   They   her was easy and natural.  The King told the Earl of
are now in the possession of John Wilson Croker, Esq, M. P.  Shrewsbury, that though he could not hit on the'ight way
and Secretary of the Admiralty, and placed at his disposal by   of pleasing England, he was confident she wou!  and that
the Marquis of Herford, with a view of making a selection for  we should all be very happy utinder her.' Such is the oithe use of the public. The reatler may find a lively summary   niature of the queen which Burnet offers; we see nothing
of the contents of these papers, in Horace Walpole's account'
of his visit to Razley, in his letter to George Montague, 20th   ut er tranquillity, her simplicity, and her carelessness
budt ther imotaniity heransacionsps-ity, unde her aeve:ses
August, 1758. Mr Croker is also so fortunate as to be the po-  amidst he important transactions passing under her eve:
sessor of the Throckmorton papers of which the reader may   but I lift the curtain from a longer picture.  The distrnctlikewise observe a particular notice in Sir Henry Wooton's  ed state amidst which the qiueen lived, the vexations, the
will, in Isaac Walton's Lives.                             secret sorrows, the agonies and the despair of Mary in




LIT ERA TURE.                                                           369
the absence of Williani, nowhere appears in history! and,  he stood so deeply engaged, coupled to his warm sanguine
as we see, escaped the ken of the Scotch bishop!  They   temper, may have sometimes dimmed his sagacity, so as
were reserved for the curiosity and the instruction of pos-  to have caused him  to have mistaken, as in the present
terity; and were found by Dairymple, in the letters of  case, a mask for a face, particularly at a time when almost
Mary to her husband, in King William's cabinet.  It will  every individual appears to have worn one!
ne well to place under the eye of the reader the suppressed     Both these causes of Charles the Second and Queen
cries of this afflicted queen, at the time when' everything   Mary show  the  absolute  necessity of researches into
in her was so easy and natural, employing her time an    secret history, to correct the appearances and the fallacies
hell,,ghts in any thing rather. than matters of state-often   which so often deceive us in public history.
busv  at work 2' The appetite for Remains,' as the noble author whom
1 shall not dwell on the pangs of the queen for the fate   I have already alluded to calls it, may then be a very
(if William-or her deadly suspicions that many were un-   wholesome one, if it provides the only materials by which
fLiithiil about her: a battle lost might have been fatal; a   our popular histories can be corrected, and since it often
conspiracy might have undone what even a victory had   infuses a freshness into a story which, after havint, been
obtained  the continual terrors she endured were such,  copied fronm book to book, inspires another to tell it for the
that we miglht be at a loss to determine who suffered most,  tenth time!  Thus are the sources of secret history unexthse who had been expelled from, or those who had as-  pected by the idler and the superficial, among those masses
ctnded the throne.                                           of untouched nmanuscripts —!hat siubterraneous history!So far was the queen from not' employing her thoughts'  which indeed may terrify the indolent, bewilder the inexon   matters of state,' that every letter, usually written   perienced, and confound the injudicious, if they have not
towards evening, chronicles the conflicts of the day; she   acquired  the knowledge which not only decides on facts
records not only events, but even dialogues and personal  and opinions, but on the authorities which have furnished
characteristics; hints her suspicions, and multiplies her  them.  Popular historians have written to their readers;
fears: her attention was incessant. —' I never write but  each withl different views, but all alike form the open docuwhat. I think others dio not;' and her terrors were as cease-   ments of history; like feed advocates, they declaim, or
less. —' I pray God, send you back quickly, for I see all  like special pleaders,. they keep only on one side of their
breaking out inrito all flames.' Thequeen's difficulties were   case: they are seldom  zealous to push  on their cross.
not eased by a single confidential intercourse.  On one oc-  examinations; for they come to gain their cause, arnd not
casion she observes,'As I do not know what I ought to  to hazard it!
speal;, and when not, I am as silent as can he.'-' I ever       Time will make the present age as obsolete as the last,
f;.ar nut doing well, and trust to what nobody says but  for our son- will cast a new light over the amhiguous
vI. —It, seemsi to me that every one is aifraid of them-  scenes which distract their fathers; they will know how
selves.-I ami very iuneasy in one thing, which is want of  some things happened, for which we cannot account; they
s.rnebsdy to speak my mind freely to, for it's a great con-  will bear witness to how many characters we have  tisstraint to think and he silent; and there is so much matter,  taken; they will be told many of those secrets which our
that I am one of Solomon's fools, who am ready to hurst.'  contemporaries hide firom us; they will pause at the ends
TI moust tell you again how Lord Monmouth endeavours   of our beginning; they will read the perfect story of man,
to firighten mrie. andt indeed thingshave but a melancholy   which can never be told while it is proceeding.  All this is
prospiect.  She had indeed reason to fear Lord Mon-  the possession of posterity, because they will judge with.
muth, who, it appears, divulged all the secrets of the   out our passions; and all this we ourselves have been
rival counrcils to Major Wildman, who was one of our  enabled  to possess, by the secret history of the last tvao
i.ld republicans; anrid, to spread alarm in the privy council,  ages!*
conrvcyed i, lemon-juice all their secrets to France, often                   LITERARY  RESIDENCES.
in tie very day they had passed in council! They disc~n iiie very davtliy hd psse  incoucili  Tey    Men of genius have usually been condemned to corn
covered the fact, and every one suspected the other as the      Mno   eishv   sal   encnendt  o
tii(ired  the f ict. and every one suspected the other as the   pose their finest works, which are usually their earlies'
frailor! Lord Lincoln even once assured her, that.' theI
i  trut,  we    ones, under the roof of a garret; and few literary charac.
Lord President and all in general, who are in trust, were      rs have lived, like Pliny and Voltaire, in a villa o
ro!ues'   Hr ctinil  as -coposd o  fatios, nd  he ters have lived, like Pliny and Voltaire, in a villa ol
roones'   11cr cou~ncil wvas composed of factions, and the   chateau of their own.  It has not therefore often  hapl
qu.een's suspiciop.s were rather general than particular:caeuo   hi   w.I   asntteeoeotnhp
t~ttei n's stiopiciocs were rather general than particular: pened, that a nian of genius could raise local emotions h3
for she observes on them,' Till now I thought you had   his ov  intellectual sugestions.  Ariosto, who huilt
his own intellectual suggestions. Ariosto, who built 
given me wrono, characters of men; but now I see they
ven  me ron  characters of men;  ut now I see they   palace in his verse, lodged himself in a small house, ananiswer my expectation of being as little of a mind as of a  found  that stanzas and stones were not pit together at th,
},1v.' —For a final extract, take this frill picture of royal  same rate: old Montaine has left a descrition   f 
I  same rate: old Montaigne has left a description of Ir
11.;i4ery —'I must see company on my set days; I must
sitsery-[   I mite seek company  on  my set days; I must h hlibrary;'over the entrance of my house, where I -'"'
twice a   eek; nay, I   ist  laugh and talk, though   my court-yards, and garden, and at once survey a    n:'
nover so much against my will; I believe I dissemble very   oerations of  famil'
operations of mv family!
ill to those who kriowv me; at least, it is a great constraint                 
There is~ howvrafelnamnliea-,,,e'
to myself; yet I must endure it.  All my motions are so         Teei, hwever, a feeling among liters, 
watched, and all I do so observed, that if I eat less, or  building up their own elegant Fancies, and es'vi -axpr
maneney to their own tastes: we dwell on  rb.,~,oo't,,rite
speak less, or look more grave, all is lost in the opinion of  scenes as a sort of portraits, and we eaon  v,1ct thoset
the world; so that I have this misery added to that of your    e      a        ts,          nd     eg       ci eto
absence, that I must grin when my heart is ready to break    few  prints, which are their only vestipe, A  collection
"I                           ~~~~~~~~might be formed of suich literary residky,'en chosen for
and talk when my heart is so oppressed that I can scarce         he     frd ohiteraye'd                       chse  fo
their amenity and their retirement, arid ad-orned bv the
breathe.  I go to Kensington as often as I can for air; but  te  a          their       etrm    t      d   one  ht
objects of their studies; from  that et' tue voung.er Pliny,
then I never can be, quite alone, neither can I complain-       
tihati I never can   ease; but I have nobodcan    whose hu-  who called his villa of literary leisure by the endearing
that onld   e some ease;  ut I have nobody whose   -   term of villula, to that of' Cassiodorus, the prime minister
rnour and circumstances agree with mine enough to speak   of Theodoric, who has left so m nificent a d?Iof Theodoric, who has left so magnificent a description o~
uyv mind freely to.  Besides, I must hear of business,,
wiich beitigl a thing T         I an s  nw  n    han  o  unit odesI ihis literary retreat, where all the elegances of life were at
Thus T hfrehn   aron  so new in, and so unfit for, does   hand; where the gardeners and the agricultiurists labotired
b;wt break my brains the more, and not ease mv heart.
st realimrainst the moreandnoteasemyheart. on scientific principles; and where, amidst gardens and
Thus,lift~rent fi'om the representation of Burnet was
thi actual state of Queen Marv; and I suspect that our            ince this article has been sent to press, I rise, firom readwarri and vehement bishop had but little personal know-  ing one in the Edinburg Review on Lord Oxford's and Lord
ibdie of her majesty, notwithstanding the elaborate cha-  Waldegrave's Memoirs. This is one of the very rare  articles
rater of the queen' which he has given in her fuwteral    which could only come fiom the hand of a master, long exereofim-he  rustnwhh hve  hat sven didr Funo alw     cised in the studies he criticises.  The critic, or rather the hisloim. —He    ust have known that she did not always  torian, observes, that'of a period remarkable for the esta.
Fvmpathize with his party-feelings: for the queen writes,  blishment of our present system  of government, no authentic
The bishop of Salisbury has made a long thundering   materials had yet appeared. Events of public notoriety are
sermon this morning, which he has been with me to desire  to be found, though often inaccurately told. in our common
to print; which I could not refese, though I should not  histories; but the secret springs of action, the private views
have ordered it, for reasons which I told him.' Burnet  andi motives of individuals, &c, are as little known to us, as
(whom  I am  very far from  calling what an inveterate  if the events to which they relate had taken place in China or'1'1-1 o, w El      Oo      ds o ohm                -  Japan.' The clear, connected, dispassionate, and circumstan
Tory, Edward Earl of Ox qord, does in one of  his manu-  tial narrative, with which he has enriched the stores of Eng
script notes,; that lying Scot,') unquestionably has told  lish history, is drawn from the sources of secret history; from
many turuths in his garruonous page; but the cause in which   published memoirs and contemporary correspondence
1'2'/~                                                                         47




370                                     CURIOSITIES OF
arks, stood his extensive library, with scribes to multiply   had formerly been those of Erasmus; a circumstance
his manuscripts;-From   Tvcho Brahe's, who built a   which con:ributed to excite his emulation, and to hastel
magnificent astronomical house on an island, which he   his. studies.  He who smiles at the fierce of such emotions.
named after the sole objects of his musings, Uranien-  only proves that he has not experienced what are real and
burgh, or the castle of the Heavens;-to that of Evelyn,  substantitial as the scene itself-for those who are concerned
who first began to adorn Wotton, by building' a little  in them. Pope, who had far more enthusiasm in his poetstudy,' till many years after he dedicated the ancient  ical disposition than is geherally understood, was extremely
house to contemplation, aniong the'delicious streams and   susceptible of the literary associations with localities: one
venerable woods, the gardens, the fountains, and  the   of the volumes of his Homer was began and finished in ar.
groves most tempting for a great person and a wanton   old tower over the chapel at Stanton Harcourt; and he
purse; and indeed gave one of the first examp!es to that  has perpetuated the event, ifnot consecrated the place, by
elegancy since so much in vogue.'  From  Pope, whose   scratching with a diamond on a pane of stained glass this
littke garden seemed to multiply its scenes by a glorious  inscription:
union of nobility and literary men conversing in groupes;                    In the year 1718,
-down to lonely Shenstone, whose'rural elegance,' as                        Ateander Pope
he entiiles one of his odes, compelled him to mourn over                     Finished tERE
his hard fate, when                                                    The fifth volume of Homer.*
- --   Expense                   It was the same feeling which induced him one day, when
Had lavish'd thousand ornaments, and taught           taking his usual walk with:-Iarte in the Havmarket, to deConvenennce to perplex him, Art to pall.               sire Harte to enter a little shop, where going up three pair
Pomp to deject, and Beauty to displease.               of stairs into a small room, Pope said, J In this garret AdWe have all by heart the true and delightful reflection   dison wrote his Campaign!' Nothing less than a strong
of Johnson on local associations, when the scene we tread   feeling impelled the poet to ascend this garret-it was a
suggests to uis the men or the deeds, which have left their  consecrated spot to his eve; and certainly a curious incelebrity to the spot.  We are in the presence of their  stance of'the power of genius contrasted with its miserable
fame, and feel its influence!                              locality! Addison, whose mind had fotisih through'a
Aliterary friund, whom  a hint of mine had induced to  campaign' in a garret, could he have cal ed about him
visit the old tower in the garden of Buffon, where the sage'the pleasures of imagination,' had probably planned a
retired every morning to compose, passed so long a time   a house of literary repose, where all parts would have been
in that lonely apartment, as to have raised some solicitude  in harmony with his mind.
among the honest folks of Montbar, who having seen'the      Such residence of men of genius have been enjoyed by
Englishman' enter, but not return, during a heavy thun-  some; and the vivid descriptions which they have left Uit
der-storm which had occurred in the interval, informed the   convey something of the delightfulness which charmed thei.
good mayor, who came in due formti, to notify the ambi-  studious repose.
tuous state of the stranger.  My friend is, as is well    The Italian Paul Jovius has composed more than three
known. a genius of that cast, who could pass two hours in  hundred concise eulogies of statesmen, warriors, and liter.
the Tower of B.ffl'on, without being aware that he had been   ary men of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth cintu.
all that. timne occupied by suggestions of ideas and reve-  ries; but the occasion which iduced him to compose them
ries, which in somrne minds such a locality may excite. He   is perhaps more interesting than the compositions.
was also busied with his pencil; for he has favoured ime     Jovius had a country-house, situated on a peninsula,
with two drawings of the interior and the exterior of this  bordered by the lake of Cono.   It was built on the ruins
old tower in the garden: the nakedness within can only be   of the villa of Pliny, and in his time the foundations were
compared to the solitude without. Such was the studying   still visible.  When the surrounding icke was calm, the
room of Buffon, where his eve resting on no object, never  sculptured marbles, the trunks of columns, and the fraoginterrupted the unity of his meditations on Nature.        ments of those pyramids which had once adorned the resi.
In return for my friend's kindness, it has cost me, I  dence of the friend of Trajan, were still viewed in its lucid
think, two hours, in attempting to translate the beautiful  bosom.  Jovius was the enthusiast ofliterature, and the
picture of this literary retreat, which Vic(q D'Azvr has  leisure which it loves.  He was an historian, with the
finished with all the warmth of a votary.'At Montbar,  imagination of a poet, and though a christian  prelate,
in the midst of an ornamented garden, is seen an antique   almost a worshipper of the sweet fictions of pagan mytower; it was there that Buffon wrote the History of Na-  thology; and when his pen was kept pure from  satire or
ture, and from that spot his fanme spread through the uni-  adulation, to which it was too much accustomed, it becomes
verse.  There he came at sunrise, and no one, however  a pencil.  He paints with rapture his gardens bathed by
importunate, was suffered to trouble himn.  The calm of  the waters of the lake; the shade and freshness of his
the m,orning hour, the first warbling of the birds, the varied   woods; his green slopes, his sparkling fountains, the deep
aspect of' the country, all at that moment which touched   silence and calm of his solitude!  A statue was raised in
the senses, recalled him to his model. Free, independent,  his gardens to Nature! In his hall stood a fine statue of
he wandered in his walks; there was he seen with quick-  Apollo, and the Muses around, with their attributes. His
ened or with slow steps, or standing rapt in thought, some-  library was guarded by a Mercury, and there was an
times with his eyes fixed on the heavens in the moment of  apartment adorned with Doriccolumns, and with pictures
inspiration, as if satisfied with the thought that so pro-  of the most pleasing subjects, dedicated to the Graces!
fonnd!v occupied his soul; sometimes, collected within   Such was the interior!  Without, the transparent lake
himself, he sought what would not always be found; or at  here spread its broad mirror, and there was seen luminousthe moments of producing, he wrote, he effaced, and re-  lv winding by banks covered with olives and laurels; in the
wrote, to efface once more; thus he harmonized, in si-  distance, towns, promontories, hills rising in an amphithelence, all the parts of his composition, which he frequently   atre, blushing with vines, and the first elevation of the
repeated to himself, till, satisfied with his corrections, he  Alps, covered with woods and pasture, and sprinkled with
seemed to repay himself for the pains of his beautiful  herds and flocks.
prose, by the pleasure he found in declaiming it aloud.      It was in a central spot of this enchanting habitation
Thus he engraved it in his memory, and would recite it to  that a cabinet or gallery was erectedl, where' Jovius had
his friends, or induce some to read it to him.  At those   collected,with prodigal costthe portraits of celebrated men;'roments he was himself a severe judge, and would again   and it was to explain and describe the characteristics of
econmpose it, desirous of attaining to that perfection which   those illustrious names that he had composed his eulcgies.
s denied to the impatient writer.'                         This collection became so remarkable, that the great men,
A curious circumstance, connected with local associa-   his contemporaries, presented our literary collector with
tions, occurred to that extraordinary oriental student Four-  their own portraits. among whom the renowned Fernanmont.  Originally he belongedl to a religions community,  dez Cortes sent. Joviutis his before he died, and probably
and never failed in performing his offices; biut he was ex-  others who were less entitled to enlarge the collection;
pelled by the superior for an irregularity of conduct, not  but it is equally probable that our caustic Jovius would,ikelv to have become contagious through the brotherhood   throw them aside.  Our historian had often to describe
-he frequently prolongedl his studies far into the night,  men more famous than virtuous; sovereigns, politicians,
and it was possibne that the hourse might be burnt by such     On a lote inquiry it appears that this consecrated pane
sup~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~O  aerinquiry                         it apearsnthat thismons ecreated toane.e
superfuity oflearning  F1;oirmont retreated to the college   has been removed-and the relic is said to he preserved at
of Montamgn, where he occupied the very chambers which   Nunaham.




L I T'  RAT U R E.                                                  371
floets, and philosophers, men of all ranks, countries, and   Luxury is the cure of that unavoidable evil in society —
ages, formed a crowded scene of men of genius or of ce-   great inequality of tbrtune!  Political economists therelebritv: sometimes a few lines compress their character,  fore tell us, that any regulations would be ridiculous which,
and sometimes a few  pages excite his fondness.  If he   as Lord Bacon expresses it, should serve for the repressing
sometimes adulates the living, we may pardon the illu-   of waste and excess by sumptuary laws.' Adam Smith is
sions of a contemporary; but he has the honour of satiri-  not only indignant at' sumptuary laws,' but asserts, with a
zing some by the honest freedom of a pen which occasion-  democratic insolence of style, that' it is the highest imperally broke out into prermature truths.                     tinence and presumption in kings and ministers to pretend to
Such was the inspiration of literature and  leisure   watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain
which had embellished the abode of Jovius, and had rais-  their expense by sumptuiary laws. They are themselves aled in the midst of the lake of Como a cabinet of por-   ways the greatest spendthrifts in the society: let. then look
traits;- a noble tribute to those who are'the salt of the   well after their own expense, and they may safely trIst priearth.'                                                    vate people with theirs. If their own extravagance does not
We possess prints of Rubens's house at Antwerp. That  ruin the state, that of their subjects never will.' We mus'
princely artist perhaps first contrived for his studio the   therefore infer, that governments, by extravagance, may
circular apartment with a dome, like the rotunda of the   ruin a state, but that individuals enjoy the remarkable
Pantheon, where the light descending from  an aperture   privilege of ruining themselves, without injuring society!
or window at the top, sent down a single equal light-that   Adam Smith afterwards distinguishes two sorts of luxury;
perfection of light which distributes its magical effects on   the one, exhausting itself in' durable commodities, as in
the objects beneath.  Bellori describes it, una stanza ro-   buildings, furniture, books, statues, pictures,' will increase
tu.nda con un solo occhio in cima; the solo occio is what the' the opulence of a nation;' but of the other, wasting itselt
French term ceil de bseuf; we ourselves want this single  in dress arid equipages, in frivolous ornament-. -j i-eis,
eye in our technical language of art.   This was his pre-   baubles, trinkets, &c, he acknowledges' no tra — (!r \escills mutseumn, where he had collected a vast nunmber of  tige would remain; and the effects of ten or tweeta v e;Lrs'
books, which were intermixed with his marbles, statues,  profilsiorn would be as completely annihilated:s if r1ecv
cameos, intaglios, and all that variety of the riches of art  had never existed.' There is, therefore a greater o,r lesser
which he had drawn from Rome: but the walls did not  evil in this important subject of the opulent, une-strice(u
yield in value; for they were covered by pictures of his  by any law, rtuining his whole generation.
own composition,or copies by his own hand, made at Ve-       Where' the wealth of nations' is made the solitary
nice and Madrid, of Titian and Patil Veronese.   No fo-  statdard of its prosperity, it becomes a fertile source i,t
reigners, men of letters, or lovers of the arts, or even prin-  errors in the science of nmorals; and the happiness ofl Ile
ces, would pass through Antwerp without visiting the  individulal is then too frequently sacrificed to what is c:l'houtse of Rtibens, to witness the animated residence of  ed the prosperity of the  state.  If an individual. ill he
genius, and the great man who had conceived the idea.  pride of luxury and selfism, annihilates the fortunes of i-i
Yet, great as was his mind, and splendid as were the hab-  whole generation, untouched by the laws as a criminal.
its of his life, he could not resist the entreaties. of the hun-  he leaves behind him a race of the discontented and the
dred thousand florins of our Duke of Buckingham, to dis-  seditious, who having stink in the scale of society, have
pose of this studio.  The great artist could not, however,  to reascend from their degradation by industry and by huabandon for ever the delightful contemplations he was de..  miliation; but for the work of industry their habits have
privina himself of; and as substitutes for the miracles of  made them  inexpert; and to humiliation, their very rank
art he had lost, he solicited and obtained leave to replace   presents a perpetual obstacle.
them bv casts, which were scrupulously deposited in the      Sumptuary laws, so often enacted, and so often repealplaces where the originals had stood.                      ed, and always eluded, were the perpetual, bttt ineffectual,
Of this feeling of the local residences of genius, the Ital-  attempts of all governments to restrain what, perhaps,
mans appear to have been, not perhaps more susceptible  cannot be restrained-criminal folly! And to punish a
than other people, but more energetic in their enthusiasm.  man for having ruined himself would usually be to punish
Florence exhibits many monuments of this sort.  In the   a most contrite penitent!
neithbotirhood of Santa Mauria Novella, Zimmerman has        It is not surprising that before'private vices were connoticed a house of the celebrated Viviani, which is a sin-  sidered as public benefits,' the governors of nations insti.
gtular monument of gratitude to his illustrious master ~(a-  tuted sumptuary laws-for the passion for pageantry, and
lileo.  The front is adorned with the bust of this father of  an incredible prodigality in dress, were continually imposcience, and between the windows are engraven accounts  verishing great families-more equality of wealth has now
of the discoveries of Galileo; it is the most beautifiil bi-  rather subdued the form of private ruin than laid this evil
ographv of genius! Yet another still more eloquently ex-  domestic spirit.  The incalculable expenditure, and the
cites our emotions-the house of Michael Angelo: his  blaze of splendour, of our ancestors, may startle the inpupils, in perpetual testimony of their admiration and gra-  credulity of our dlegantes.  We find men of rank exhatisttitude, have ornamented it. with all the leading features of  ing their wealth and pawning their castles, and then deslpehis life; the very soul of this vast genius put in action:  rately issuing from them, heroes for a crusade, or brigands
this is more than biography -it is living as with a con-  for their neighbourhood!-and this frequently from the
temporary!                                                simple circumstance of having for a short time maintained
some gorgeous chivalric festival on their own estates,.or
from having melted thousands of acres into a cloth of gold;
The political economist replies that it is  their sons were left to beg their bread on the estates which
One of our old dramatic writers, who witnessed the sin-  they were to have inherited.
pglar extravagance of dress among the modellers of fash-     It was when chivalry still charmed the world by the reion, our nobility, condemns their' superfluous bravery,'  mains of its seductive splendours, towards the close of the
echoing the popular cry,                                   fifteenth century, that I find an instance of this kind occurs There are a sort of men, whose coining heads         ring in the Paus de Sandricourt, which was held in the neighAre mints of all neaw fashions, that have done          bourhood of the sieur of that name. It is a menmorable affa;r,
More hurt to the. kingdom, by superfluous bravery        not only for us curious inquirers after manners and morals,
Which the foolish gentry imitate, than a war            but for the whole family of the Sandricourts; for though
Or a leonsg famine. All the treasure iy the said sieur is now receiving the immortality we hestoas
Thits ful excess is got into the bmercha                 on him, and la dame, who presided in that magnificent
Embroiders', siik-mens', jewellers', taylors' hands,     piece of chivalry, was infinitely gratified, vet for ever after
And the third part of the land too * the nobility        was the lord of Sandricourt ruined-and all for a short,
Enrigrossing titles only'                                romantic three months!
This story of the chivalric period mav timuse.  Apas
Otri poet might have been startled at the reply of our  d'armes, thoulgh consisting of military exercises and deeds
)olitical economist. If the nobilitv, in follies stich as these,  of gallantry, was a sort of festival distinct from a tournaonly preserved thir' titles.' while their' lands' wer  dis-  ment. It signified a pa-s or passage to be contested by one
persed among the indtistrious classes, the peonle were not   or more knights against all colmiers.  It was necessary
sufferers.  The silly victims riiining themselves by their  that the road should be such that it cotilld not be passed
ex.t-ssvee lilxurv. or their costly dress, as it arsears some   wihouut enncriiterinq some guardian keittht.  The chevalid!, wta. an evil which, left to its own course, miust check  liers who dispuited the pas huinr thieir cllazoiled shields o(t
-tseItf; if the rich did nit spend, the poor would starve.-   trees, pales, or posts raised for this puiripose.  The as.




372                                       CURIOSITIES OF
pirauts after chivalric honours would strike with their lance  selles.  In the halls, and outside of the chasteau, were othe
one of these shields, and when it rung it instantly sum-  tables.  At that festival more than two thousand persona
moned the owner to the challenge.  A bridge or a road   were magnificen.tly entertained free of every expense; their
would sometimes serve for this military sport, for such it  attendants, their armourers, their plumassiers, and others,
was intended to be, whenever the heat of the rivals proved   were also present.  La Dame de Sandricourt,' fut moult
not too earnest.  The sieur of Sandricourt was a fine-  aise d'avoir donne  dans son chasteau si belle, si magni.
dreamer of feasts of chivalry, and in the neighbourhood  fique, et gorgiasse fete.' Historians are apt to describe
of his castle he fancied that he saw the very spot adapted  their personages as they appear, not as they are: if the
for every game: there was oneadmirably fitted for the barrier  lady of the Sieur Sandricourt really was'moult aise'
of a tilting-match; another embellished by a solitary pine-  during these gorgeous days, one cannot but sympathize
tree; another which was called the meadow of the thorn;  with the lady, when her loyal knight and spouse con tissed
there was a carrefour, where, in four roads, four knights  to tier, after the departure of the mob of two thousand
miht meet; and, above all, there was a forest called de-  visiters, neighbours, soldiers, and courtiers,-the!;niehs
voyable, having no path, so favourable for errant knights,  challengers, and  the knights  assailants, and the fine
who might there enter for strange adventurers, and, as  scenes at the pine-tree; the barrier in the meadow of' the
chance directed, encounter others as bewildered as them-  thorn; and the horse-combat at the carrefour; and the
selves. Our chivalric Sandricourt found nine yourng ssign-  jouists in the foret devoyable; the carousals in the castleeurs of the court of Charles the Eighth of France, who   halls; the jollity of the banquet-tables, the morescoes
answered all his wishes.  To sanction this glorious feat it  danced till they were reminded' How the waning nieht
was necessary to obtain leave from the king, and a herald  grew old!'-in a word, when the costly dream  had va-.
of the Duke of Orleans to distribute the cartel or chal-  nished,-that he was a ruined man forever, by immortallenge all over France, announcing that from  such a day,  izing his name in one grand chivalric festival! The Sieur
ten young lords would stand ready to combat, tn those dif-  de Sandricourt, like a great torch, had consumed himself'rent places, in the neighbourhood of Sandricourt's cha-  in his own brightness;  and the very land on wt. cb the
eCau.  The names of this flower of chivalry have been  famous Pas de Sandricourt was held-had passed away
aithfully registered, and they were such as instantly to  with it! Thus one man sinks generations by that waste-;hrow a spark into the heart of every lover of arms! The   fulness, which a political economist would a4sore us was,vworld of fashion, that is, the chivalric world, were set in  committing no injury to society!-The moral evil goes fOur:notion. Four bothes of'assailants soon collected, each con-  nothing in financial statements!
~isting of ten combatants. The herald of Orleans having ex-    Similar instances of ruinous luxury we may find in the'nined the arms of these gentlemen, and satisfied himself of  prodigal costliness of dress through the reign of Elizabeth,
heir ancient lineage, and their military renown, admitted   James the First, and Charles the First. Not only in tlheir
their claims to the proffered honouir. Sandricourt now saw   massy grandeur they outweighed us, butt the accumullion
with rapture, the numerous shields of the assailants placed   and variety of their wardrobe displayed such a gaiety of
on the sides of his portals and corresponding with those  fancy in their colouirs and their ornaments, that the drawof the challengers which hung above them.  Ancient lords  ing-room in those days must have blazed at their presence,
were elected judges of the feats of the knights, accom-  and changed colour as the crowd moved. But if we may
panied by the ladies, for whose honour only the combatants  trust to royal proclamations, the ruin'was general among
declared they engaged.                                     some classes.  Elizabeth issued more than one proclamaThe herald of Orleans tells the history in no very intel-  tion against'the excess of apparel!' and among other
ligible verse; but the burden of his stanza is still       evils which the government imagined this,passion fr dress;
Di pas d'armes du chasteau Sandricourt.            occasioned, it notices' the wasting and undoing of a great
number of young gentlemen, otherwise serviceable; and
He sings, or says,'
He sings, or says,                                       that others, seeking by show  of apparel to be esteemed'Oncques, depuis le temps du roi Artus,             as gentlemen, and allured by the vain show of these thin,,s,
Ne furent tant les armes exaiulcdes-                not only consume their goods and lands, biut also run into
Maint chevaliers et preux entrepenans-              such debts and shifts, as they cannot live out of danger
Princes p dnsieurs out terre d ~pla6es             of laws, without attempting of unlawful acts.' The queen
Pour y venir donner coups, et poussees              bids her own household'to look unto it for good example
Qui ont 6ti lb tenus si de court,                   to the realm; and all noblemen, archbishops and bishops,
CQue par force n'ont prises et passees              all mayors, justices of peace, &c, should see them exeLes barrieres, enir6es. et passdes                  cuted in their private households.' The greatest difficulty
Du pas des armes du chasteau Sandricourt.'          which occurred to regulate the wear of apparel was ascerDoubtless, there, many a Roland met with his Oliver,  taining the incomes of persons, or, in the words of the pr-,
and could not pass the barriers. Cased as they were in  clamation,' finding that it is very hard for any man's sta!e
steel, de pied en cap, we presume that thev could not ma-  of living and value to be truly understood by other personrs.'
lerially injure themselves; yet, when on foot, the ancient  They were to be regulated, as they appear' sessed in the
judges discovered such symptoms of peril, that on the  subsidy books.' But if persons chose to be more ma:following day they advised our knights to satisfy them-  nificent in their dress, they were allowed to justify their
selves by fighting on horseback.  Against this prudential  -means: in that case, if allowed, her majesty would not he
counsel for some time they protested, as an inferior sort  the loser; for they were to be rated in the subsidy books
of glory. However, on the next day, the horse combat  according to such valies as they themselves offered as a
was appointed in the carrefour, by the pine-tree.  On the  qualification for the splendour of their dress!
following day they tried their lances in the meadow of the    In my researches among manuscript letters of the times,
thorn; but, though on horseback, the judges deemed their  I have had frequent occasion to discover how persons of
attacks were so fierce, that this assault was likewise not  considerable rank appear to have carried their acres on
without peril; for some horses were killed, and some  their backs, and with their ruinous arnd fantastical luxuries
knights were thrown, and lay bruised by their own mail;  sadly pinched their hospitality.  It was this which so fre.
but the barbed horses, wearing only des champfriens, head-  quently cast them  into the nets of'the gold-smiths,' and
pieces magnificently caparisoned, found no protection in  other trading usurers. At the coronation of James the
their ornaments.  The last days were passed in combats  First, I find a simple knight whose cloak cost him five
oftwo to two, or in a single encounter, a-foot, in the foret  hundred pountds; but this was not uncommon.  At the
devoyable. These jousts passed without any accident, and  marriage of Elizabeth, the daughter of James the First,
the iprizes were awarded in a manner equally gratifying to.' Lady Wotton had a gown of which the embroidery cost
the claimants.  The last day of the f-stival was concluded  fifty pounds a yard. The Lady Arabella made four gowns,
with a most sumptuous banquet.  Two noble knights had   one of which cost 15001.  The Lord Montacute (Mon.
undertaken the humble office of maitres d'hotel; and while  tague) bestowed 15001 in apparel for his two daughters.
the knights were parading in the foret devoyable, seeking  One lady, ender the rank of baronness, was furnished with
adventures, a hundred servants were seen at all points,  jewels exceeding one hundred thouisand pounds; and the
carrying white and red hvpocras, and juleps, and sirop   Lady Arabella goes beyond her,' says the letter-writer.
demuiolars, sweetmeats, and other spiceries, to comfort these' All this extreme cost and riches maltes us all poor,' as
wanderers, who on returning to the clasteau, found a  he imagined!  I have been amused in observing -rave
grand and plenteous banquet.  The tables were crowded   writers  if state.despatches  jocular on any mischance
in the court-apartment. where some held one hun:lred and   or mortification to which persons are liable, whose happi-'wslve gentlemen, n't including the dames an I the damoi- I nes enrirely depends on their dress. Sir Dudley Carle.




LITERATURE.                                                        373
ton, our minister at Venice, communicates, as an article   which leaves an eternal taint in' the wealth of nations
worth transmitting, the great disappointment incurred by  It is the principle that' private vices are public benefits,
Sir Thomas Glover,' who was just come hither, and had   and that men may be allowed to ruin their generation.
appeared one day like a comet, all in crimson velvet anrid   without committing any injury to society.
beaten gold, but had all his expectations niarred on a sud-           DISCOVERIES OF SECLUDED IMEN.
den, by'the news of Prince Henry's death.'
dn hy theI nes of Prince Her' d eath.'n cue   a  h  o     Those who are unaccustomed to the labours of the closet
A similar mischance, from a different cause, was the lot
of Lord Hay, who made great preparations for his em-  are unacquainted  with the  secret and silent triumhphs obbassv to France, which, however, were chiefly confined to  tamed in the pursuits of stdios tled.   That aptitude,
which in poetry is sometimes called inspiration, in knowhis dress.   He was to remain there twenty days; and the  ledge we may call sagacity; an        probable, that the
letter-writer maliciously observes, that'He goes with   ed       e w  m    c    ac     n    it      ple   tha
vehemence of the one does not excite more pleasure than
twenty special suits of apparel for so many days' abode,
the still tranquillity of' the other: they are both, according
besides his travelling robes; but news is very lately come       th    tr niito    oti            te      ro    wc
to the strict signification of tiw, Latin term from whence
that the French have lately altered their fashion, whereby   we have horrowed ours of invention, a finding ott, the rehe must needs be out of countenance, if he be not set out  sut of a combination which no other has formed bu  our
after the last edition!' To find himself out of fashion, with    ve
twenty suits for twenty days, was a ntischance his lordshiyp had no right to coiurt on!                             I will produce several remarkable instances of the felicity
of this aptitude of the learned in making discoveries which'The glass of fashion' was unquestionably held up by
Theglas o fahio' ws uquetioabl hed u   by could only have been effectuated by an uninterrupted intwo very eminent characters, Rawleigh and Buckingham;    cory have  een effectuated by an uninterrupted nand the authentic facts recorded of their dress, will sut-  teroswith the ohjects of their studies, making things
ciently account for the frequent  Proclamatios' to control  remote and dispersed familiar and present.
One of ancient date is better known to the reader than
that servile herd of imitators-the smaller                  those I ag    him.  When the tagistrates of
gen~~~trys          Im preparing for   hm   hntemgsrlso
There is a remarkable picture of Sir Walter, which willSyas   wresingtCie     the                      ies of
at least serve to coinvey an idea of the gaiety and splendour  Syacuse   ere shoin  to Cicero the curiosiies of the
of his dress.  It is a white satin pinked vest, close sleeved    lac, he desired to visit the tomb of Archimedes; but, to
to the wrist; over the body a brown doublet, finely flowered   hs surprise, they acknowledged that they knew nothing of
ant embriidered with pearl.  In the feather of his hat a   any such tomb, and denied that it ever existed.  The
lare ru   and peal drp at the bottom  ofhe  spri,     learned Cicero, convinced by the authorities of ancient
larg~e ruby and pearl drop at the botlorn of the sprig, in
I writers, by the verses of lhe         which he rememplace of a burt on; his trunk or breeches, with his stock-           y the verses of he inscription which he remembered, and the circumstance of a sphere with a cylinder
tngs anid ribbon garters, fringed at the end, all white, and   beed, and the circmstance of a sphere with a cylindr
iff shoes wi  white ribbon. Oldys, who saw this picture,  being engraven on it, requested them to assist him in the
search.   They conducted thew illustrious but obstinate
ihas thus described the dress of Rawleigh. But I have some   search.   They conducted the illustrious bt obstinate
iotant adition; fr I find that Raweigh's shoes on   stranger to their most ancient burying ground: amidst the
i.grtant adiinc  ourtI fiday s   a  Rwlere    sh oreosl onee  ihpe
gl'reat court days  vere so gorgeously covered with pre-  number of sepulchres, they observed a small column overtneS, as to ave xceeded the value of six thousand   hung with brambles-Cicero, looking on while they were
cl,,us storoes, as to have exceeded the value. ofsix thousand   cern    wyterbih  udnyecamd    feei
six hunedred pounds; and that he had a, suit of armour of   tetiI-gw  aelolafr'Hseehdcuh   h
six Liuirtulreul pouiids; aiid that he had a suit of armour of clearing away the rubbish, suddenly exclainmed,' Here is
solid silver, with sword and belt blazinig with diamonds,  the thi  we are looking for!' His eye had caut  the
rubies, and pearls; whose value was not so easily calcu-   eometrica  fires on the tomb, and the inscription  oon
ad    Rawleh  ad   o patrinionial inheritance; at this  confirmed his conjecture.  Cicero long after exulted ini the
mnioment hlie had on his back a good portion ofa Spanish  trimh of this discovery.-' Thus i' he says,'one  f the
galleon, and the profits of a monopoly of trade he was car-  noblest cities of Greece, and once the nost learned, had
knobwes cithies of' Geee, mdonumento itse most leearned, had
yrving on with the newly-discovered Virginia. Probably he    ow  nothin  of the monument of its most deservi   and
I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~nw ntingenious monumen, had its nost bendiscoeredvingeb  ad
placed all his hopes in his dress! The virgin queen, when ingenious citizen, had it not been discovered to them by a
she issued proclamations against' the excess of apparel,'   ative of Arpinum!'
pardioned, by her looks, that promise of a mine which blazed  Th  great French antiqary Peires  exhibited a sing
in Raleih's; ad, parsimonious as she waslar combination of learning, patient thought, and luminous
three thousand changes of dresses, which she herself left  sgci,  which could restore an airy nothin  to'a local
in the royal wardrobe,                                 habitation anid a name.'  There was found an amethyst,
ir, the royal wardrobe.. 
Buckingham could afford to have his diamonds tacked so   and the same afterwards occurred on the front of an an.
loosely on, that when he chose to shake a few off on the   cien  temple, a number of marks, or indents, which had
ciona perplexed inumber f mars, moreprtiual inens, similar mark
ground, he obtained all the fame he desired from the pick-       eplexed inr, more particularly as similar marks
lonprped i ndents w.ra,  obsrved  prinual ancen  similarmarks
ers-up, who were generally les dames de la coeur! for our  or indents werent          observed in ancient   numents.
It waens wer ed on,'eqenol observeud undesandcient mondmns
duke never condescended to accept what he himself had   It ws a d on, as no one could understand them, and
dropped.  His cloaks were trimmed with great diamond   all would be satisfied, that they were secret hieroglyphics.
buttons, and diamond hat-bands, cockades, and ear-rings   t  ccued to Peiesc, that these marks were  ohng
oked with  ropes  and knots of pear        more than holes for small nails, which had formerly fasgkdwt    reat rpsadkosopel.Thswstened lite, laminuee, whichreesndsomnGeklt
however, but for ordinary dances.' He had twenty-seven         lit                  represented so many Gek
suits of clothes made, the richest that embroidery, lace,  ters.  This hint ofhis own sugested to tim to draw lines
silk, velvet, silver, gold, and gems, could contribute; one  from one hole to another; and he beheld the amethyst reof whih was a white uncut velvet, set all over, both suit  veal the name of the sculptor, and the frieze of the temple
and cloak, with diamonds valued at fourscore thousand   the name of the God!  This curious discovery has been
ounds,  besides a great feather, stuck all over with dia   stnce frequently applied; hut it appears to have originated
pounds, besides a great feather, stuck all over with dia-wt  hs-getatqay   h                     i  erigai  aa
monds, as were also his sword girdle, hat, and spurs.*  In   wih this great antiquary, who by his learnin  a    aa
the masques and banquets with which Buckingham enter-  city explained a supposed hieroglyphic, which had been
it e   xlocked uppose thiergyhc whilece  had seventecnurs.
tained the court, hD usually expended, fur the evening, locked up in the silence of seventeen centuries
from one to five t         huadpounds. To others I legve to                                                 oeIhe
front one to five:aousand  pounds.  To others I leave to     Learned men, confined to their study, have often recticalculate the ral e of money; the sums of this gorgeous  fled the errors of travellers; they have done more, they
wastefulness, it must be recollected, occurred before this  have fitnd out paths for them to explore, or openel seas
million age ofours.                                        for them to navigate.  The situation of the vale of Tempe
had been mistaken by modern travellers; and it, is sin~u
If, to provide the means for such enormous expenditore   had  been mistaken by modern iravellers; and it is singua-r
Buckingham multiplied the grievances of monopilies; if he    r, observes the Quarterly Reviewer, yet not so silar
P,,                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~asri appearvs lothe. arterlyn  cReiewer, that ntheol  sod dina
pillaged the treasury for his eighty thousand pounds' coat;   s it appas to that elant critic, that the onl  od dii awleih  was       nth driven to his last desperate enter   rections foi finding it had been  niven by a person who was
if.Rawleigh was at length driven to his last desperate enterprise, to relieve himself of his creditors, for a pair of six  never in Greece.  Arthur Browne, a man of letters of
the thousand pounds' shoes-in both these cases, as in that of  Trinity College, Dublin-it is gratifying to quote an Irish
chivalric Sandricourt, the political economist may perhaps  philosopher and man of letters, from the extreme rarity of
acknowledge, thtat there is a sort of luxury highly criminal.  the character-was the first to detect the inconsistencies
All the argitments he may urge, all the statistical accounts  of Pococke atd Buaching, and to send ftittre  travelvrs to
of Pococke and Buschins, and to send fiturie travelle~rs to
he  may calculate, atid the healthful   state of  his circulat-  look fr Tempo in its real situation, the defiles between
ing medium  among'the merchants, embroiderers, silk-  Oa and Olympi:  a discovery subsequently realized.
men, and jewellers-will not alter such a moral evil,    * The curious reader may view the marks, and the manner
in which the Greek characters were made out, in the prefitce
* The Jesuit Drexelius, in one of his religious dialogues.  to llearse's I Curious Discourses.'  The amethyst proved
notices the iact; but t am referring to an Harleian matiuscript,  more lifficultt then the firieze, firom the circumstance, that'in
which confirms the information of the Jesuit.               engraving on the stone the letters must bo reversedt.




374                                     CURIOSITIES OF
When Dr Clarke discovered an inscription purporting that  natural and obvious, that some have been disposed to questhe pass of Tempe had been fortified by Cassius Longi-  tion his claim to the high rank commonly assigned to him
ens, Mr Walpole, with equal felicity, detected, in Casar's  among the improvers of science!  Dr William  Hunter
History of the Civil War, the name and the mission of this  has said, that after the discovery of the valves in the veins
ver person.                                               which Harvey learned while in Italy from his master, Faliving geographer, to whom the world stands deen.y  bricius ab Aquapendente, the remaining step might easily
indebted, does not read Herodotus in the original; yet,'y  have been made by any person of common abilities.' This
the exercise of his extraordinary aptitude, it is well known  discovery,' he observes,'set Harvey to work upon the
that he has often corrected the Greek historian, explained   use of the heart and vascular system  in animals: and in
obscurities in a text which he never read, by his own happy  the course of somne years, he was so happy as to discover,
conjectures, and confirmed his own discoveries by the sub-  and to prove beyond all possibility of doubt, the circulatiot
sequent knowledge which modern travellers have afforded.  of the blood.' He afterwards expresses his astonishniment
Gray's perseverance in studying the geography of India  that this discovery should have been left for Harvey, though
and of Persia, at a time whezi our country had no imme-  he acknowledges it occupied'a course of years;' adding,
diate interests with those ancient empires, would have  that'Providence meant to reserve it for him, and would
been placed by a cynical observer among the curious idle-  not let men see what was before them, nor understand what
ness of a mere man of letters.  These studies were indeed  they read.  It is remarkable that when great discoveries
prosecuted, as Mr Mathias observes, I on the disinterested   are effected, their simplicity always seems to detract firom
principles of liberal investigation, not on those of policy,  their originality; on these occasions we are reminded of
nor of the regulation of trade, nor of the extension of em-  the egg of Columbus!
lire, nor of permanent establishments, but simply and         It is said that a recent discovery, which ascertains that
solely on the grand view of what is, and of what is past.  the Niger empties itself into the Atlantic Ocean, was
They were the researches of a solitary scholar in acade-  really anticipated by the geographical acumen of a student
mical retirement.' Since the time of Gray, these very  at Glasgow, who arrived at the same conclusion by a most
rpursuits have been carried on by two consummate geo-  persevering investigation of the works of travellers and
graphers, Major Rennel and Dr Vincent, who have opened   geographers, ancient and modern, and by an examination
to the classical and the political reader all he wished to  of African captives; and had actually constructedl. for
learn, at a time when India and Persia had become objects  the inspection of government, a map of Africa, on which
interesting and important to us.  The fruits of Gray's  he had traced the entire course of the Niger fiom  the inlearning, longafter their author was no more, became valu-  terior.
able!                                                         Franklin conjectured the identity of lightning and (,of
The studies of the'solitary scholar' are always useful  electricity. before he had realized it by decisive experimnent.
to the world, although they may not always be timed to its   The kite being raised, a considerable time elapsed before
present wants; with him, indeed, they are not merely de-  there was any appearance of its being electrified.  One
signed for this purpose.  Gray discovered India for him-  very promising cloud had passed over it without any effect.
self; but the solitary pursuits of a great student, shaped to  Just as hie was beginning to despair of his contrivance, lihe
a particular end, will never fail being useful to the world;  observed some loose threads of the hempen string to stand
tho!gh it may happen, that a century may elapse between   erect, and to avoid one another, just as if they had been
the periods ofthe discovery and its practical utility.     suspended ort a comnimon conductor.  Struck with this proHalley's version of an Arabic MS on a mathematical  mising appearance, he immediately presented his klnuckle
subject, offers an instance of the extraordinary sagacity I  to the key!  And let the reader judge of the exquisite
am  alluding to; it may also serve as a demonstration of  pleasure he must have felt at that momentl when the dis.
the peculiar and supereminent advantages possessed by   covery was complete!  We owe to Priestly this admirable
inathematicians, observes Mr Dugald Stewart, In their  narrative-the strong sensation of delight which Franklin'
ficed relations, which form the objects of their science, and   experienced as his knuckle touched the key, and at the
the correspendent precision in their language and reason-  moment when he felt that a new world was opening, might
iun: —as  mnatter of literary history, it is highbly curious.  have been equalled,but it was probably not surpassed, when
Dr Bernard accidentally discovered in the Bodleian library  the same hand signed the long-disputed independence of
ani Arabic version of Apollonitis de Sectione Rationis,  his country!
which he determined to translate in Iatin, but only finished  When Leibnitz was occupied in his philosophical reahbout a tenth part.  Halley, extremely interested by the   sonings on his Law of Continuity, his singular fsagacity
stubject, but with an entire ignorance of the Arabic Ian-  enabled him to predict a discovery which afterw.trds was
guage, resolved to complete the imperfect version! As-  realized-he imagined the necessary existence i,f the pe.sisted only by the manuscript which Bernard had left, it  lypius!
served him as a key for investigating the sense of the ori-    It has been remarked of Newton, that several of his
ginal: he first made a list of those words wherever they   slight hints, some in the modest form of queries, have been
occurred, with the train of reasoning in which they were   ascertained to be predictions, and among others that of the
involved, to decipher, by these very slow degrees, the im-  inflammability of the diamond; and many have been
port of the context; till at last Halley succeeded in mas-  eagerlv seized upon as indisputable axioms.  A hint at
tering the whole work, and in bringing the translation,  the close of his optics, that'If natural philosophy should
without the aid of any one, to the form  in which he gave  be continued to be improved in its various branches, the
it to the public; so that we have here a difficult work  bounds of moral philosophy would be enlarged also,' is,
translated from the Arabic, by one who was in no manner  perhaps, among the most important of human discoveries
zonversant with the language, merely by the exertion of  -it gave rise to Hartley's Phytsiological Theory of the
his sagacitv!                                              2Mind.  The queries, the hints, the conjectures of Newton,
I give the memorable account, as Boyle has delivered it,  display the most creative sagacity; and demonstrate in
of the circumstances which led Harvey to the discovery of  what manner the discoveries of retired men, while they
the circulation of the blood.                              bequeath their legacies to the world, afford to themselves' I remember that when I asked our famous Harvey, in   a frequent source of secret and silent triumphs.
the only discourse I had with him, which was but a little                 SENTIMENTAL BIOGRAPY,.
while before he died, what were the things which induced     A  periodical critic, probably one of the juniors, has
him.0 hin  ofa crcuatin ofthebloidhe  nswred A  periodical critic, probably otto of' the juniors, has
him to think of a circulation  of the blood? he answered
thrown out a startling, observation.' There is,' says this
me, that when he took notice that the valves in the veins   tro        satn'        oean he is  sy t
literary senator, I somethino, melancholy in the study of
of so many parts of the body were so placed that they gave  litrary senat soethingm                  in te 
biography7. because it is-a history of the dead!' A trufree passage to the blood towards the heart, but opposed
he passage of thev l blood  the orarya,   h ws   ism and a falsity mixed up together, is the temptation with
the passage of' the venal blood the contrary way, he wasI
invited to thn  that so providet a ca snattre had    some modern critics to commit that darling sin of theirsinvited to think that so provident a cause as nature had not
nove!,v and o~risinalitv! Buit we really cannot condole
placed so many valves without design; and no design
~~~~~~~~~placed                             avmnyvlvswihn with the readers of Plutarch for their deep melancholy;
seemed more probable than that, since the blood could not
well, because of the interposing valves, be sent by the  we who feel our spirits refreshed  amidst the mediocrity of
well, because of the interposin- valves, be sent by the
Ien he s, l  be sent by the asociety, when we are recalled back to the men and women
weins ftt the,;;mbs, it should be sent bv the arteries and
who wriRtE! illustriders in every ~]lory! Biogr'aphy with:eturn- througei the veins, whose valves did not oppose its' 
tem4rse that way.'
Ze'nrse th~at way'                                         ties is a re-unio)n urih hitmant existence in its most excellent
The reason here ascribed toHarveseems now so very  state: and we find nothing dead in the past, while we reThe reason here ascribed to Harve  seems now so ver   tain the sympathies which only require to be awakened.




LITERATURE'.                                                        375
It wou.d have been more reasonable had the critic dis-  Love, in  a  age of childhood!  Boc accio  appeals to
-overed that our country has not yet had her Plutarch;  Dante's own account of his long passion, anId his constant
and that our biography remains still little more than a mass  sighs, in the Vita Nuovo.  No look, no word, no sign,
of compilation.                                            sullied the purity of his passion; but in her twenty-fourth
In this study of biography there is a species which has  year died'sla bellissima Beatrice.' Dante is then de.
not yet been distingutished-biographies composed by some   scribed as more than inconsolable; his eyes were long
domestic fi-iend, or by some enthusiast who works with  two abtundant fountains of tears; careless of life, he let his
love.  A term  is unquestionably wanted for this distinct  beard grow wildly, and to others appeared a savage mineaclass,  The Germans seem  to have invented a platonic   gre man, whose aspect was so changed, that while this
onte, drawn from the Greek, psyche, or the soul; for they   weeping iifBe lasted, he was hardly recognised  by his
call this the psychological life.  Another attempt has been   friends; all looked on a man so entirely transformed, with
made, by giving it the scientific term of idiosyncrccy, to  deep compassion.  Dante, won over by those who could
denote a peculiarity of disposition.  I would call it senti-  console the inconsolable, was at length solicited by his re.
mental biography!                                         lations to marry a lady of his own condition in life; and
It is distinct from  a chronological biography, for it  it was suggested that as the departed lady had occasioned
searches for thie individual's feelings amidst the ascertained  him such heavy griefs, the new one mi}ght. open a source
facts of his life; so that facts, which occurred remotely  of delight.  The relations and friends of Dante gave him
front each.other, are here brought at once together.  The  a wife that his tears for Beatrice might cease.
detail of events which completes the chronological biogra-    It is supposed that this marriage [proved unhappy. Bocphy contains many which are not connected with the pe-  caccio, like a pathetic lover rather than biographer. excuiarity of' the character itself.  The sentimental is also   claims,   Ohmenti cieche! Oh tenebrosi intelletti!  Oh ardistinct from  the auto-biography, however it may seem  a  gomenti vani di molti mortali quante sono le ruiscite in assai
partof'it.  Whether a man be entitled to lavish his pane-  cose contrarie a' nostri avvisi! &c.  Oh blind men! Oh
gyric on himself, I will not decide; but it is certain that he  dark minds! Oh vain arguments of nmiost mortals, how
riskls every thins by alppealin, to a solitary and suspected   often are the results contrary to our advice! Frequently it
witness.                                                   is like leading one who breathes the soft air of Italy to reWe have two lives of Dante, one by Boccaccio, and the  fresh himself in the eternal shades of the Rhodopean
other by Leonardo Aretino, both interesting; but Boccac-  mountains.  What physician wouldexpe' a burning fever
cio's is the sentimental lifte'                            with fire, or put in the shivering marrow  of the bones
Aretino, indeed, finds fault, but with all the tenderness  snow and ice? So certainly shall it fare with him, who,
possible,  with  Bccccio's affectionate sketch, Origine,   with a new love, thinks to nmitigate the old.  Those who
Vita. Studi e Costuvumi del clarissimo Dante, 4-c.' Origin,  believe this know not the nature of love, nor how much a
Lift, Stuldies, and Manners, of the illustrious Dante,' 4-c.  second passion adds to the first.  In vain would we assist't seema ts tme,' he says,'that our Boccaccio, dolcissi-  or advise this forceful passioni, if it has struck its root neart
mo e suavissitlo nomo, sweet and delightful man! has  the heart of him who long has loved.'
written the life and minners of this sublime poet, as if he   Boccaccio has beguiled my pen for half an hour with
had been composing the Filocolo, the Filostrato,' or the   all the loves and fancies which sprung out of his own a;.
Fiamnetta' the romances of Boccaccio-' for all breathes of  fectionate and romantic heart. VWhat airy stuff has he
lve and sighs, and is covered with warm  tears, as if a   woven into the'Vita' of Dante! this sentimental biograman were h-.rn in this world only to live among the enas-  phy!  WVhethcr he knew but little of the personal history
nioured ladres and the gallant youths of the ten amorous   of the great man whom he idolized, or whether the dream
davs of tis hundred novels.'                               of the mother-the May-day interview  with the little
Aretinro, who wanted not all the feeling requisite for the   Bricd, and the rest of the children-and the effusions on
lelighitfrii  costunli e studi' of Boccaccio's Dante, modest.  Dante's marriage, were grounded on tradition, one would
ly requires that his own life of Dante should be considered   not harshly reject such tender incidents.*  But let it nriot
as a supllement to, not as a substitute for, Boccaccio's.  be imagined that the heart of Boccaccio was only suscepPathetic with all the sorrows, and eloquent with all the  tible to amorous impressions —bursts of enthusiasm  and
remonstrances of a fellow-citizen, Boccaccio while he   eloquence, which only a man of genius is worthy of rewept, hunb   with anger over his country's shame in its  ceivinr, and only a man of genius is capable o bestowing
apathy for the honour of its long-injured exile.  Catching   -kindle the masculine patriotism of this bold, indignant
inspiration from  the breathing pages of Boccaccio, it in-  spirit!
dlines one to wish that we possessed two biographies of an   Half a century had elapsed since the death of Dante,
lilustrious fatvourite character; the one strictly and fully  and still the Florentines showed no sign of repentance for
historical, the other fraught with those very feelings of the  their ancient hatred of their persecuted patriot, nor any
departed, which we may have to seek in vain fror, in the   sense of the memory of the creator of their language,
circumstantial and chronologoical biographer.  Boccaccio,  whose immortality had become a portion of their own
indeed, was overcome by his feelings.  He either knew   glory.  Boccaccio, impassioned by all his generous nature,
not, or he omits the substantial incidents of Dante's life;  though hie regrets he could not raise a statue to Dante
while his imagination throws a romantic tinge on occur-  has sent down to posterity more than marble, in the'life.
rences raised on slight, perhaps on no foundation.  Boc-  I venture to give the lofty and bold apostrophe to his felcaccid narrates a dream  of the mother of Dante so fanci-  low.citizens;  but I feel t.hat event the genius of our Ianfiully poetical, that probably Boccaccio forgot that none but  guage is tanie by the side of the harmonized eloquence of
a dreamer could have told it. Seated under a high laurel-  the great votary of Dante!
tree, by the side of a vast fountain, the mother dreamed'Ungraleful country! what madness urged thee, when
that she gave birth to her son; she saw him nourished by  thy dearest citizen, thy chief benefactor, thy only poet,
its fruit, and refreshed by the clear waters; she soon be-  with unaccustomed cruelty was driven to flight.  If this
held him a shepherd; approaching to pluck the boughs,  had happened in the general terror of that time, coming
she saw him fall! When he rose he had ceased to be a  from evil counsels, thoui mightest stand excused; but when
man, and was transformed into a peacock! Disturbed by  the passions ceased, didst thou repent? didst thou recall
her admiration, she suddenly awoke; but when the father  him?  Bear with me, nor deem it irksome from me, who
fourrnd that he really had a son, in allusion to the dream he   am  thy son, that thus I collect what just indignation
called him Dante-or given! e meritamente; perocchd ot-  prompts me to speak, as a man more desirous of witness-!imsamente, siccotue si vedra procedende, segui al nome l'ef-  ing your amendnient, than of beholding you punished!
cto;' and deservedly! for greatly, as we shall see, the   Seems it to you glorious, proud of so many titles and o.
effect followed the name!' At nine years of age, on a  such men, that the one whose like no neighhouring city
May-day, whosejovouis festival Boccaccio heautifiully de-  can show, you have chosen to chase from  among you?
scribes, when the softness of the heavens re-adornin- the    *'A Comment on the Divine Comedy of Dante,' it Engearth with its mingled flowers, waved the green bumghs,  li'h, printed in Italy, has just reached me. I am delighted to
and made all things smile, Dante muixed with the boys and  find that this biogrnaphy or' Love, however romantic, is true:irls in the house sf the good citizen who on that day gave  In his ninth year, Dante was a lover and a poet!'he tender.he feast, beheld little Brir6, as she was familiarly called,  sonnet, free from all obscurity. which he composed on Beat.
but nanied Beatrice.  The little Dante might have seen  rice, is preserved in the above singutar vlume. There can
aner before, brt he loved her then, and'rom rirrt day never  b  so l'er any dobt rf the story of Beatrice; but the son.
net and the passion must be' classed among curious natu.
3easedf to love: and rhrrs Dante  nella parolettgot eta ['sito   ral phenomena,r or how far apocryphal, remains for futur
famore ferventissimno sercidore; so fervent a servant to  inquiry.




376                                  CURIOSITIES OF
EWith what triumphs, with what valorous citizens are you i   n this class of sentimental biography 1 would place a
nplendid?  Your wealth is a removable and uncertain  species which the historian Carte noticed in his literary
thing; your fragile beauty will grow old; your delicacy  travels on the continent. in pursuit of his historical design.
is shameful and feminine; but these make you noticed by  He found, preserved among several ancient families o.
the false judgtnents of the populace! Do you glory in your  France, their domestic annals.' With a warnm, patriotic
mnerchants and your artists?  I speak imprudently; but  spirit, worthy of imitation, they have often carefully prethe one are tenaciously avaricious in tneir servile trades:  served in their families the acts of their ancestors.' This
and Art, which once was so noble, and became a second  delight and pride of the modern Gauls in the great and
nature struck by the same avarice, is now as corrupted,  good deeds of their ancestors, preserved in domestic arand nothing worth! Do you glory in the baseness and the  chives, will be ascribed to their folly or their vanity; yet in.istlessness of those idlers, who, becauise their ancestors  that folly there may be so much wisdom, and in that vanity
are remembered, attempt to raise up among you a nobility  there may be so much greatness, that the one will aniply
to govern yoi, ever by robbery, by treachery, by falsehood! redeem the other.
Ah! miserable mother!,open thine eyes; cast them with    This custom has been rarely adopted amnong ourselves;
some remorse on what thou hast done, and blush, at least,  we have, however, a few separate histories of soine ancient
reputed wise as thou art, to have had in your errors so  families, as those of Mordaunt, and of Warren.  One of
fatal a choice! Why not rather imitate the acts of those  the most remarkable is' a genealogical history of the
cities who so keenly disputed merely for the honour of the  House of Yvery, in its different branches of Yvery, Luvel,
birth-place of the divine Homer?  Mantua, our neighbour,  Perceval, and Gournay.'  Two large volumes, closely
counts as the greatest fame which remains for her, that  printed,* expatiating on the characters and events of a
Virgil was a Mantuati! and holds his very name in such  single family with the grave ponmp of a herald, but more
reverence, that not only in public places, but in the most  particularly the idolatry of the writer for ancient nobility,
private, we see his sculptured image! You only, while  and his contempt for that growing rank in society whom
you were made famous by illustrious men, you only have  he designates as' New Men,' provoked the ridicule at
sholvn no care for your great poet. Your Dante Alighieri  least of the aspersed.t  This extraordinary work, notdied in exile, to which you tinJustly, envious of his great-  withstanding its absurdities in its general result, has left
ness, destined him!  A crime not to be remembered, that  behind a deep impression.  Dcawn from  the authentic
the mother should bear an envious malignity to the virtues  family records, it is not without interest that we toil
of a son! Now cease to be unjust! He cannot do you  through its copious pages; we trice with a romantic sym.
that, now dead, which living, he never did do to vou! He  pathy the fortunes of the descendants of the House of
lies tinder another sky than yours, and you never can see  Yverv, from that not-forgotten hero le vaillant Perceval
him  ag;int, but on that day, when all your citizens shall  chevalier de la Table Ronde, to the Norrmtan Baron Asseview him, and the great Remunerator shall examine, and  lin, surnamed the Wolf, fir his bravery or'his ferocity
shall punish! If anger, hatred, and enmity, are buried  thence to the Cavalier of Charles the First, Sir Philip
with a man, as it is believed, begin then to return to your-  Percival, who having gloriouslv defended his castle, was
self; begin to be ashamed to have acted against your an-  at lentgth deprived of his lordly possessions, but never iof
cient humanity; begin, then, to wish to appear a mother,  his loyalty, arid died obscurely in the mnetropoltis, of a broand not a cold negligent step-dame.  Yield your tears to  ken heart, till we reach the Polish Nobleman, the Lord
your son; yield your maternal piety to him  whom  once  Egmont of the Georges.
yotu repulsed, and, living, cast away from you! At least    The nation has lost many a noble example of men and
think of possessing him dead, and restore your citizenship,  women acting a great part on great occasions, and then
your award, and your grace, to his memory.  He was a  retreating to the shade of privacy; and we may be confison who held you in reverence, and though long an exile,  dent that many a nanme has not been inscribed on the roll
he always called himself, and would be called, a Fl,)ren-  of national glory only from wanting a few drops of ink!
title! He held you ever above all others; ever he loved  Such domestic annals may vet be viewed in the family reyol!  What, will you then do?  Will you remain obsti-  cords at Appleby Castle! Anne,Countess of Peimbroke,was
nate in iniquity?  Will eou practise less humanity than   a glorious woman the descendant of two potent northern
the barbarians?  You wish that the world should believe  families, the Vetetiponts and the Cliffords.-She lived
that you are the sister of famou; Troy, and the daughter  in a state of regal magnificence antlr independence, inhabof Rorne; eassuredlv the children should resemble their  itine five or seven castles; yet though her magnificent
fathers and their ancestors.  Priam, in his misery, bought  spirit poured itself out in her extended charities, anid though
the corpse of Hector with gold; and Rome would possess  her independence mated that of monarchs, yet she herself,
the bones of the first Scipio, and removed them from Lir-  in her domestic habits, lived as a hermit in her own casternum, those bones, which, dying, so justly he had de-  ties; and though only acquainted with her native language,
nied her.  Seek then to be the true guardian of your  she had cultivated her mind in many parts of learnlng;
Dante, claim  him! show  this humane feeling, claim   atid as Donne, in his wav, observes,' she knew how  to
him! you may secirely  do this: I am certain he will  converse of every thing; from predestination to slea-silk.'
inot be returned to you; but thus at once you may  Her favorite design was to have materials collected for the
betray some mark of compassion, and, not having him   history of those two potent northern families to whom she
aglain, still enjoy your ancient cruelty!  Alas! what  was allied; and at a considerable expense she employed
comfort am I bringing you! I almost believe, that if the  learned persons to make collections for this purpose,
-dead could feel, the body of Dante would not rise to re-  from the records in the Tower, the Rolls, and other depoturn to you, for he is Ivin. in' Ravenna, whose hallowed'sitories of manuscripts; Gilpin had seen three large vosoil is every where covered with the ashes of saints.  lumes fairly transcribed. Anecdotes of a great variety
Would Dante quit this blessed company to mingle with the  of characters, who had exerted themselves on very imremains of those hatreds and iniquities which gave him no  portant occasions, compose these family records —and inrest in life'  The relies of Dante, even among the bodies  duce one to wish that the public were in possession of
of emperors and of martyrs, and of their illustrious ancestors, is prized as a treasure, for there his works are looked  This work was published in 1742, and the scarcity of
on with admiration; those works of which you have not  these volumes was felt in Grange's day, for they obtained then
yet known to male yourselves worthy.  His birth-place,  the considerable price of four guineas; some time ago a fine
his origin, remains for you, spite of your ingratitude! and   copy was sold for thirty at a sale, andt a cheap copy was ofthis, Ravenna envies you, while she glories in your honotrs  fered to me at twelve guineas. These volumes should con.
which she has stiatched from vyou through ages yet to cotmie!'  main seventeen portraits. The first was written by Mr AnderSuch was the deep emotion which opened Boccaccio'   son. who, dyirn  before the second appeared, Lord Egmont,
from the materials Anderson had left, concluded his family,eart in this sentimental biography,  and which awoke   history-con steer
even shame and confusion in the minds of the Florentines;    f Mr Andlerson, the writer of the first velume, was a feudal
they blushed for their old hatreds, and, with awakened   enthusiast' he has thrown out an odd notion that the comn.
sympathies, they hastened to honour the memory of their  mealcial, or the wealthy class, had intruded on the dignity of
gieat bard.  By order of the city, the Divina Comnmedia  the ancient nobilityt bWit as wealth has raised such high prices
was publicly read and explained to the people. Boccac-  for lahour. commodities, &c, it had reached its ne plus ultra,
cio, then sinking tinder the infirmities of ave. roused his    d commerce cOid be carried on no lorltger  He has vel.
departing  genius: still wvas tihere mrrnow in the bones of  tiuretl on this amusing prediction.' As it is, therefore, evi.
eparting genius: still was there marrow in the bones    dent that new men wil never i  again in ay a  with such..                                                                                    at) dent that new men will never rise agin a n aly age with slck
nhe aged lin, and he engaged in the task of composing his  advartares of wealth, at least in considerable numbers, thei.
erlebrated Commentaries on the Divina Cornmedia.         party will gradually decrease.'




LITERATURE.                                                         377
such annals of the domestic lifb of heroes and of sages,  cided that the education, &c, was the right of the father,
who have only failed in obtaining an historian!*          although the marriages was that of his majesty as king o'
A  biographical monument of this nature, which has  this realm, yet not exclusive of the prince, their father. IIt
passed through the press, will sufficiently prove the utility   assured the king, that the ten obsequious judges had no
of this class of sentimental biography.  It is the life of  authority to support their precipitate opinion; all the
Robert Price, a Welsh lawyer, and an ancestor of the  books and precedents cannot fornt a prerogative for the
gentleman whose ingenuity, in our days, has refined the   king of this realm to hItve the care and education of his
principles of the Picturesque in Art. This life is announc-  grandchildren during the life and without the consent of
ed as'printed by the appointment of the family;' but it  their father-a prerogative unknown to the laws of Engmust not he considered merely as a tribute of private af-  land! He pleads for the rights of a father, with the spirit
fection; and how we are at this day interested in the ac-  of one who feels them, as well as with legal science, and
t;ons of a Welsh lawyer in the reign of William the Third,  historical knowledge.
whose name has probably never been consigned to the page      Such were the two great incidents in the life of thki
of history, remains to be told.                            Welsh judge! Yet had the family not found one to comRobert Price, after having served Charles the Second,  memorate these memorable events in the life of their anlived latterly in the eventful timnes of William the Third-he   cestor, we had lost the noble ptcture of a constitutional inwas probably of Tory principles, for on the arrival of the  terpreter of the laws, an independent country gentleman,')utch prince, lie was removed from the attorney-general-  and an Englishman jealous ofthe excessive predominance
t ip of Glamorgan.  The new monarch has been accus-  of ministerial or royal influence.
ed of favouriteism, and of an eagerness in showering exorbi-    Cicero, and others, have informed us that the ancient
tant grants on some of his foreigners, which soon raised a  history of Rome itself was composed out of such accounis
formidable opposition in the jealous spirit of Englishmen.  of private families, to which, indeed, we must add those
The grand favourite, William Bentinck, after being raised   annals or registers of public events which unquestionably
to the Earldom of Portland, had a grant bestowed on him   were preserved in the archives of the Temples by the
of three lordships, in thie county of Denhigh. The patriot  Priests.   But the history of the individual may involve
of his native country-a title which the Welsh had already   public interest, whenever the skill of the writer combines
conferred on Robert Price-then rose to assert the rights  with the importance of the event.  Messala, the orator,
of his father-tand, and his speeches are as admirable for  gloried in having composed many volumes of the genealotheir knowledge as their spirit.  I The submitting of 1500   gies of the Nobility of Rome; and Atticus wrote the gefreeholders to the will of a Dutch lord was,' as he sarcas-  nealogy ot' Brutus, to prove him descended from  Jtniug
tically declared,'putting them  in a worse posture than   Brutus the expulsor of the Tarquins, and founder of the
their former estate, when under William the Conquerer  Republic, near five huodred years before.
and his Norman lords. England must not be tributary to       Another class of this sentimental biography was projectstrangers-we must, like patriots, stand by our country-    ed by the late Elizabeth Hamilton.   This was to have
otherwise, when God shall send us a Prince of Wales, he  consisted of a series of what she called comparative biomay have such a present of a crown made him, as a Pope   graphy, and an ancient character was to have been pardid to King John. who was surnamed sans terre, and was  alleled by a modern one.  Occupied by her historical robv his father made Lord of Ireland, which grant was con-  mance with the character of Agrippina, she soiught in mofirmedl by the Pope, who sent him a crown of peacock's  dern history for a partner of her own sex, and I one who,
feathers, in derogation of his power, and the poverty of his  like her, had experienced vicissitudes of fortune;' and she
country.'  Robert Price asserted that the king could not,  found no one better qualified than the princess palatine,
by the Bill of Rights, alien or give away the inheritance of  Elizabeth the daughter qf James the First.  Her next li!e
a Prince of Wales, wittout the consent of parliament. He   was to have been that of Seneca, with the scenes and perconcluded a copious and patriotic speech, by proposing   sons of which Iher life of Agrippina had familiarized her;'
that an address be presented to the king to put an immedi-  and the contrast or the parallel was to have been Lccke;
ate stop to thle grant now passing to the Earl of Portland   which, well managed, she thought, would have been suffifor the lordships, &c.                                     ciently striking.   It seems to nme, that it would rather
This speech produced such an effect, that the address   have afforded an evidence of her invention!  Stch a binwas carried untanimouslv;  and the king, though he highly  graphical project reminds one of Plutarch's Parallels, and
resented the speech of Robert Price, sent a civil message   might incur the danger of displaying more ingenuity than
to the commons, declaring that he should not have given  trunh.  The sage of Cheronea must often have racked his
Lord Portland those lands, had he imagined the House of  invention to help out his parallels, bending together to
CPommons could have been concerned; II will therefore   make them  simnilar, the most unconnected events and the
recall the grant!'  On receiving the royal message, Rn-  most distinct feelines; and, to keep his parallels in two
hert Price drew up a resolution to which the house assen-  straight lines, he probably made a free use of augmentated, that' to procure or pass exorbitant grants by any   tives and diminutives to help out his pair, who might have
member of the privy council, &c, was a high crime and  been equal, and yet not alike!
misdemeanor.'  The speech of Robert Price contained          Our Father-land is prodigal of immortal names, or
truths too numerous and too bold to suffer the light during   names which might be made immortal; Gibbon once conthat reign; but his speech against foreigners was printed  templated with complacency, the very ideal of Sentimental
the year after King William's death, with this title I Glo-  Biography, and, we may regret that he has only left the
ria Cambr;ee, or the speech of a bold Briton in parliament,  project!    I have long revolved in my mind a volume of
aegainst the Dutch prince of Wales,' with this motto, Op-  biographical writing; the lives or rather the characters of
posuit et Vicit.  Such was the great character of Robert  the most eminent persons in arts and arms, in church
P rice, that he was made a Welsh judge by the very  and state, who have flourished in Britain, from  the reign
sovereign whose favourite plans he had so patriotically  of Henry the Eighth to the present age. The subject would
thwarted.                                                  afford a rich display of human nature and domestic hisAnother marked event in the life of this English patriot  tory, and powerfully address itself to the feelings of every
was a second noble stand he made against the royal au-  Englishman.'
thority, when in opposition to the public good. The secret                 LITERARY PARALLELS.
LITERARY IPARALLELS.
history of a quarrel between George the First and the
Prince of Wales, afterwards George the Second, on thele   etafuhrinsigio.Imybeihtoac
Prince of Wales, af'erwards George the Second, on the        A.n opintion on this subject in the preceding article has
birth of a son, appears in this life; and when the prince  led me to a further  investiation.  t may be right to ac
in disgrace left the palace, his royal highness proposed   knowledge that so attractive is this critia  and moral
nowsemeenht sof coprnrattchractieris thiscihca one moan
taking his children and the princess with him; but the king  amusement of comparin    eat  chracters with  ne an~~~~~~~~~~~~~~aueet                         othcmprin theat,  c     h     a      rscoters BishopHr o nce proose.t
detained the children, claiming the care of the royal off-  other, that, amon  others, Bshop   rd once proposed to
spritg as a royal prerogative.  It now became a legal  write a book of Parallels, and has furnished a specimen in
point to ascertain'whether the education of his majesty's  that of Petrareb and Rousseau, and intended for another
grandchildren, and the care of their marriages, s-c, be-  that of Erasmus with Cicero.  It is amusing to observe
longed of rigoht to his majesty as king of this realm, or  how a lively and subtile mind can strike out resemblances,
not?' Ten of the ajdtes obsequiously allowed of the pre-  and make contraries accord, and at the same time it may
not    Tenof hejuzes bseuiouly alowd ofthe re-show the Painching difficulties throuah which a paraliel is
rogative to the full.  Robert Price and another judge de-  sho  the pinching diiculties  through which a paralel i,ushed, till it ends in a paradox.
* Much curiots   matter abosut the old Countess  of Vest-  musbed  till it   a.
Muebstaion  rptte abut te od Cuntss  f Wst- Hurd says of Petrarch and Rousseau —~ Both were, im,*
moreland and her seven castles may be found in Whitaker's    Hurd as of Petrarch and Rousseau' Bth or im
history of Craven, and in Pennant.                         pelled by an equal enthusiasm, though directed towards
48




378                                    CURIOSITIES OF
different objects: Petrarch's towards the glory of the Ro-  never be depreciated by the misapplied ingenuity of a
man name, Rousseau's towards his idol of a state of na-  parallel; on such occasions we ought to conclude, that
ture; the one religious, the other un espritJbrt; but may not  they are magis pares quam similes.
Petrarch's spite to Babylon be considered, in his time, as
a species of free-thinkina'-and  concludes, that'both    THE PEARL BIBLE, AD SIX THOsAND ERATA
were mad, but of a different nature.'  Unquestionably        As a literary curiosity, I notice a subject which might
there were featuireso much alike, and almost peculiar to  rather enter into the history of religion.  It relates to the
these two literary characters; hut I doubt if Hurd has  extraordinary state of our English Bibles, which were for
comprehended them in the parallel.                         some time suffered to be so corrupted that, no books ever
I now give a specimen of those parallels which have  yet swarmed with such innumerable errata!
done so nouch mischief in the literary world, when drawn     These errata unquestionably were in great part volun.
by a hand which covertly leans on one side.  An elabo-  tary commissions, passages interpolated, and meanings
rate one of this sort was composed by Longolius or Lon-  forsed for certain purposes; sometimes to sanction the
gueil, between Budaeus and  Erasmus.*    This man,  new creed of a half-hatched sect, and sometimes with an
though of Dutch origin, affected to pass for a Frenchman,  intention to destroy all scriptural authority by a confusion,
arid, to pay his court to his chosen people, gives the pre-  or an omission of' texts-the whole was left open to the
ference obliqurely to the French Budmus; though, to make  option or the malignity of the editors, who, probably, like
a show of impartiality, he acknowledges that Francis the  certain ingenious wine-merchants, contrived to accomoFirst had awarded it to Erasmus; but probably he did  date'the waters of life' to their customers' pecoliar taste.
not infer that kings were the most able reviewers! This  They had also a project of printing Bibles as cheaply arind
parallel was sent forth during the lifetime of both these  in a form as contracted as they possibly could for the corngreat scholars, who had long been correspondents, but the  mon people; and they proceeded till it nearly ended with
publication of the parallel interrupted their friendly inter-  having no bible at all: and, as Fuller, in his' Mixt Concourse. Erasmus returned his compliments and thanks  templations on better Times,' alluding to this circumstance,
to Longolius, but at the same time insinuates a gentle  with not one of his lucky quibbles, observes)' The small
hint that he was not over-pleased.'What pleases me  price of the Bible hath caused the small prizing of the
most,' Erasmus writes,'is the Just preference you have  Bible.'
given Budaeus over me; I confess you are even too eco-    This extraordinary attempt on the English Bible began
nomical in your praise of him, as you are too prodigal in  even befbre Charles the First's dethronerment, and probamine. I thank you for informing me what it is the learned   bly arose from an unusual demand for Bibles. as the secaesire to find in me; my self-love suggests many little ex-  tarian fanaticism was increasing.  Printing of Entlish Bicuses, with which, you observe, I am apt tofavour my de-  boles, was an article of open trade; every one printed at
elcts.  If I am  careless, it arises partly from  my igno-  the lowest price, and as fast as their presses would allow.
rance, and more from my indolence; I am so constituted,  Even those who were dignified as'his Majesty's Printers'
that I cannot conquer my nature; I precipitate rather  were among these manufacturers; for we have an account
than compose, and it is far more irksome for me to revise   of a scandalous omissioin by theni of the important negathan to write.'                                           tive in the seventh commandment! the printers were srumiThis parallel between Erasmus and Budaeus, though   moned before the court of High Commission, and this not
the parallel itself was not of a malignant nature, yet dis-  served to bind them in a fine of three thousand pounds.
turbed the quiet, and interrupted the friendship of both.  A prior circumstance, indeed, had occurred, which inducWhen Longolius discovered that the Parisian surpassed   ed the government to be more vigilant on the Biblical
the Hlollander in Greek literature and the knowledge of  press.  The learned Usher, one dav hastening to preach
the civil law, and wrote more learnedly and laboriously,  at Paul's Cross, entered the shop rf one ofrhe stationers
how did this detract from  the finer genius and the varied   as booksellers were then called, and inquiring for a Bible
erudition of the more delightfull writer?   The parallist  of the London edition, when he came to look for his text,
compares Erasmus to' a river swelling its waters and often  to his astonishment and his horror, he discovered that the
overflowing its banks: Budeus rolled on like a majestic  verse was omitted in the Bible!  This gave the first occa..
stream, ever restraining its waves within its bed.  The  sion of complaint to the king of the insufferable negligence
Frenchman has more nerve and blood, and life, and the  and incapacity of the London press;  and, says ths mantuHollandler more fruiness, freshness, and colour.'          script writer of this anecdote, first bred that great contest
This taste for biozraphical parallels must have reached   which followed, between tile University of Cambridee andl
Ls from Plutarch; anrid there is something malicious in our  t.he London stationers, about the richt of printing Bibles.*
nature which inclines us to form  comparative estimates,    The secret bibliographical history of these tinies wmnld
usually with a view to elevate one great man at the cost of  show the extraordinary state of the press in this new trade
another, whom we would secretly depreciate.  Our politi-  of Bibles.  The writer of a curious pamphlet exposes the
cal parties at home have often indulged in these fallacious  combination of those called the kino's printers, with their
parallels, and Pitt and Fox once balanced the scales, not  contrivances to keep up the prices of Bibles; their corres..
by the standard weights and measures which ought to  pondences with the book-seliers of Scotland and Dublin,
have been used, but by the adroitness of the hand that  by which means they retained the privilege in their own
pressed down the scale. In literature these comparative   hands; the king's JLondon urinters got B:bles printed
estimates have proved most prejudicial.  A finer model  cheaper at Edinburgh.  In 1629, when folio Bibles were
exists nriot than the parallel of Dryden and Pope, by John-  wanted, the Cambridge printers sold them at ten shillings
son; for without designing any undue preference, his vigor-  in quires; on this the Londocnrs set six printing hiuses at
ouis judgment has analyzed them by his contrasts, and has   work, and, to annihilate the Cambridgians printed a simirather shown their distinctness than their similarity. But  larfolio Bible, but sold with it five hundli ed quarto Roman
literary parallels usually end in producing parties; and, as  Bibles, and five hundred quarto English, at five shiilings a
I have elsewhere observed, often originate in undervalu-  book; which proved the ruin of the olio Bibbes, by keep.
ing one man of genius, for his deficiency in some eminent  ing them  down under the cost price.  Another competiquality possessed by the other man of genius; they not  tion arose among those who printed English  Bibles in
unfrequently proceed from adverse tastes, and are formed   Holland, in duodecimo, with an English colophon, for half
with the concealed design of establishing some favourite  the price even of the lowest in London.  Twelve thousone.  The world of literature has been deeply infected   and of these duodecimo Bibles, with notes, fabricated in
with this folly.  Virgil prtbabaly was often vexed in his  Holland, usually by our fiugitive sectarians, were seized by
days by a parallel with Hrmi r, and the Homerians corn-  the king's printers, as contrary to the statute.t  Such was
bated with the Virgilinns. Modern Italy was long divided  this shamefiul war of Bibles-folios, quartos, and deaodeciinto such literary sects: a perpetual skirmishing is carried   mos, even in the days of Charles the First.  The public
on between the Ariostoists and the Tassoiste; and feuds  spirit of the rising sects was the real occasion of these inas dire as those between two Highland clans were raised   creased demands for Bibles.
concerning the Petrarchists ancid the Chiabrerists.  Old     *Harl. MS, 6395.
Corneille lived to b:,w his venerable genius before a paral-    t Scintilla, or a Light broken into darke Warehouses; of
lel with Racine; and no one has sinffered more unjustly by   some Printers, sleeping Stationers, and combining Booksell.
such arbitrary criticisms than Pope, for a strange iinnatu-  ters; in which is only a touch oftheir forestalling and ingrosa
garbcitril wary~~ ha~ofen enein, of Books in Pattents, andl raysing them to excessive prises
l civil war has ften been renewed beteen the Dryden-  Left to the consideration of the high and honourable House of
s.te and the Popists.   Two men of great  genius should    Parliament. now assembled. London: No where to be sola,
* Ih is noticed by Jortin. in his Life of Erasmus, vol. I, p. 160.  but some where to be given. 1641.'




LITERATURE.                                                      879
During the civil wars they carried on the same open      Not only had the Bible to suffer these indignities of size
Lrade and competition, besides the private ventures of the  and price, but the Prayer-book was once printed in an illegi.
smuggled Bibles.  A  large impression of these Dutch  hle and worn out type: on which the printer being cornEnglish Bibies were burnt by order of the Assembly of  plained of, he stoutly replied, that'it was as good as the
Divines, fbr these three errors:-                       price afforded; and being a book which all persons ought
Gen. xxxvi, 24.-This is that ass that found rulers in the  to have by heart, it was no matter whether it was read or
wilderness-for mule.                                     not, so that it was worn out in their hands.' The puritans
Ruth iv, 13.-The Lord gave her corruption-for con-  seem not to have been so nice about the source of purity
ieption.                                                itself.
Luke xxi, 28.-Look up and lift up your hands, for your    These hand-bibles of the sectarists, with their'six thou.
condemnation draweth nigh-for redemption.                sand errata, like the false Duessa, covered their crafty deThese errata were none of the printers; but, as a wri-  formitv with a fair raiment; for when the great Selden, in
ter of the times expresses it,' egregious blasphemies, and  the assembly of divines, delighted to confilte them in their
damnable errata' of some sectarian, or some Bellamy edi-  own learning, he would say, as Whitelock reports, when
tor of that day!                                        they had cited a text to prove their assertion,' Perhaps in
The printing of Bibles at length was a privilege con-  your little pocket-bible with gilt leaves,' which they would
ceded to one William  Bentley; but he was opposed by  often pull out and read,'the translation may be so, but
Hills and Field; and a paper war arose, in which they  the Greek or the Hebrew signifies this.'
mutually recriminated on each other, with equal truth.     While these transactions were occurring, it appears that
Field printed in 1653 what was called the Pearl Bible;  the authentic translation of the Bible, such as we now have
alluding, I suppose, to that diminutive type in printing, for  it, by the learned translators in James the First's time, was
it could not derive its name from its worth. It is a twenty-  suffered to lie neglected.  The copies of the original mafours; but to contract the mighty book into this dwarfish-  nuscript wvere in the possession of two of the king's printness, all the original Hebrew texts prefixed to the Psalms,  ers, who, from cowardice, consent, and connivance, supexplaining the occasion and the subject of their composi.  pressed. the publication; considering that a Bible full of
sp  is wholly expunged.  This Pearl Bible, which may  errata, and often, probably, accommodated to the notions
be inspected among the great collection of' our English  of certain sectarists, was more valuable than one authenBibles at the British Museum, is set off by many notable  ticated by the hierarchy! Such was the state of the Erngerrata, of which these are noticed:-                   lish Bible till 1660.*
Romans vi, 13.-Neither yield ye your members as in-    The proverbial expression of chapter and verse seemrrc
struments of righteousness unto sin-for unrighteousness,  peculiar to ourselves, and, I suspect, originated in the
First Corinthians vi, 9.-Know ye not the uuriehteous  puritanic period, probably just before the civil wars under
shall inherit the kingdom of God'?-for shall not inherit.  Charles the First, from the frequent use of appealing to
This erratumn served as the foundation of a dangerous  the Bible on the most frivolous occasions, practised by
doctrine; for many libertines urged the text from this cor-  those whom South calls' those mighty men at chapter and
rupt Bible, against the reproofs of a divinverse.' With a sort of religious coquetry, they were vain
This Field was a great forger; and it is said that he re-  perpetually opening their gilt  pocket Bibles; they
ceived a present of 15001 from the independents to corrupt  perked  them   up with stch  self-sufficiency and perfect
a text in Acts vi, 3, to satiction the right of the people to  ignorance of the original, that the learned Selden found
appointtheir own pastors.  Thecorruption wastheeasiest  considerable amusement in going to their'assembly of
possible; it wvas only to put a ye instead of a we; so that  divi   and puzzling or confutin  the   as we have
the right in Field's Bible eninated frotm the peopls, not  noticed. A ludicrous anecdote on one of these occasions
the ri.ht in Field's Bible emanated from the people, not  i  given by a contemporary, which shows how admirably
from the apostles. The onlyv account I recollect of this is given by a contemporary, which shows how admirabl
extraordinary state of our Bibles is a happy allusion in a  that learned man amused himself with this' assembly of
line of Butler:-                             s'       divines!' They were discussing  the distance between
Jerusalem and Jericho, with a perfect ignorance of sacred
Of peui spawnt,d a  varicious secrout        or of ancient geography; one said it was twenty miles,
The maggots of corrupted texts.              another ten, and at last it was concluded to be only seven,
The maggotherBibles of corruptndFie ld texfor this strange reason, that fish was brought front Jericho
rn other Bibles by Hills and Field we may find such  to Jerisalem  market!  Seldon observed, that'possibly
abundant errata, reducing, the text to nonsense or to blasabundant errata, reducing the text to nonsenstb e or to bias-  the fish in question was salted,' and silenced these acute
phemy, making the Scriptires contemptible to the multi- disputants.
tude, who came to pray, and not to scorn.                  It would probably have ereatlv discomposed these' chapIt is affirmed, in the manuscript account already reIt is affirmed,  in the  manscript account alread*y re-  ter and verse' men, to have informed them that the Scripferred to, that one Bible swarmned with siz thousand faults!  tures had neither chapter nor verse  It is by no means
Irldeed, from another source we discover that'Sterne, a  clear how the holy writings were anciently divided, and
solid scholar, who was the first who summed up the three  still less howquoted or referred to.  The honour ofthe inthousand and siX hundred faults, that were in our printed  vention of the present arrangement of the Scriptures is
Bibles of London.*  If one book can be made to contain  ascribed to Robert Stephens, by his son, in the preface to
near four thousand errors, little ingenuity was required to  his Concordance, a task which he performed during a
reach to six thousand: bhlt perhaps this is the first time so  journey on horseback from Paris to London, in 1551; and
remarkable an incident in the history of literature has ever  whether it was done as Yorick would in his Shandeau
been chronicled.  And that famous edition of the Vulgate  manner lounging on his mule or at his intermediate baits,
by Pope Sixtus the Fifth, a memorable bo-ok of blunders,  he has received all possible thanks for this employment of
which comnmriands sach high prices, oight now to fall in  his time.  Two years afterwards he concluded with the
value, before the Pearl Bible, in twenty-fours, of Messrs  Bible.  But that the honour of every invention may be disHills and Field!                                        puted, Sanctus Pagninus's Bible, printed at Lyons in
Mr Field, and his worthy coadjutor, seem to have car-  1527, seems to have-led the way to these convenient diviried the favour of the reigning, powers over their oppo-  sions; Stephens however improved on Pagninus's mode
nents; for I find a piece of their secret history.  They en-  of paragraphical marks and  marginal verses; and our
gaged to pay 5001 per annum to some,' whose names I  present' chapter and verse,' more numerous and more
forbear to mpntion,' warily observes the manuscript writer;  commodiously numbered, were the project of this learned
and above 1001 per annum to Mr Marchmont Needham   printer, to recommend his edition of the Bible; trade and
and his wife, out of the profits of the sales of their Bibles;  learning were once combined!  Whether in this arrange.
deriding, insulting, and triumphing over others, out of their  ment any disturbance of the continuity of the text has fol.
confidence in their great friends and purse, as if they  lowed, is a subject not fitted for my inquiry..were lawless and free, both from offence and punishment.s
This Marchmont Needham  is sufficiently notorious, and  VIEW  OF A PARTICULAR PERIOD OF THE STATE O]P
his secret history is probablyv trule; for in a Mercurius Po-       RELIGION IN OUR CIVIL WARS.
liticus of this unprincipled Cobbett of his day, I found an    Looking over the manuscript diary of Sir S.vmonlds
dlaborate puff of an edition, published by the alinuity-  D'Ewes, I was struck by a picture of' the domestic religrantor to this Worthy and his Wife!                    g.iolus life which at that period was -,r,valent arnong faminl
* G  Garrard's Letter'o the Earl of Strafford, Vol. I, p.  lies. Sir Svmonds was a soubr antiquary h,.ated with na
206.                                                      * See the Lonidon Printers' I.amentation  on the Press c0#
t Harl. MS. 7580.                                     pressed, Harl. Coll. III.'095




~380                        CURIOSITIES OF
fanaticism, yet I discovered in his Diary that he was a   unlawful.  Till I had finished my assurance first in Eng
visionary in his constitution, macerating his body by pri-  lish and afterwards in Latin, with a large and elaborate
vate fasts, and spiritualizing in search of secret signs.   preface in Latin also to it; I spent a great part of the day
These ascetic penances were afterwards succeeded in the   at that work, &c.
nation, by an era of hypocritical sanctity; and we may'Saturday, Decembtr 1, 1627, I devoted my usual
trace this last stage  of insanity and  of immorality,  course of secret feasting, and drew divers signs of my as.
closing with impiety.  This would be a dreadful picture  surance of a better life, from  the grace of repentance, hay
of religion, if for a minoment we supposed that it were  ing before gone through the graces of knowledge, faith
religion; that consolatory power which has its source in   hope, love, zeal, patience, humility, anid joy; and drawing
our feelings, and according to the derivation of its expres-  several miarks from them on like days of humiliation fitr
sive term, binds men together.  With us it was sectarism,   the greater part.  My dear wife beginning also to draw
whose origin and causes we shall not now touch on, which   most certain signs of her own future happiness after death
broke out into so many monstrous shapes, when every pre-  from several graces.
tended reformer was guided by his own peculiar fancies'January 19, 1628. —Saturday I spent in secret humiliawe have lived to prove that folly and wickedness are rarely  tion and fastings, and finished my whole assurance to a
obsolete.                                                  better life, consisting of three score and four signs, or marks
The age of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, who lived through   drawn from several graces. I made somesnmall alterations
the times of Charles the First, was religious; for the cha-  in those signs afterwards; and when I turned them  into
racter of this monarch had all the seriousness and piety  the Latin tongue, I enriched the margent with further
not found in the bonhommie, and careless indecorums of  proofs and authorities.  I found much comfort and reposhis father, whose manners of the Scottish court were   edness of spirit from  them, which shows the devilish
moulded on the gaities of the French, from the ancient in,   sophisms of the papists, anabaptists, and pseudo-Luther.
tercourse of the French and Scottish governments.  But  ans, and profane atheistical men, who say that assurance
this religious age of Charles the First presents a strange   brings forth presumption, and a careless wicked life. True
contrast with the licentiousness which subsequently pre-   when men pretend to the end, and not use the means.
vailed among the people; there seems to be a secret con.' My wife joined with me in a private day of fasting and
nexion between a religious and an irreligious period; the   drew several signs and marks by my help and assistan ce,for
levity of popular feeling is driven to aiid fro by its reaction;  her assurance to a better life.'
when niai has been once taught to contemnn his mere hu-      This was an era of religious diaries, particularly among
mianity, his abstract fancies open a secret by-path to his  the non-conformists; but they were, as we see, used by
nresumed salvation; he wanders till he is lost-he trembles   others.  Of the Countess of Warwick, who died iri 1678,
till he dotes in melancholy-he raves till Truth itself is no   we are told, that' She kept a diary, and took counsels with
longer immutable. The transition to a very opposite state  two persons, whom she called her soul's friends.'  She
iLs equally rapid and vehement. Such is the history of man   called prayers heart's ease, for, such she found them.
when his Religion is founded on misdirected feelings, and      Her own lord, knowing her hours of prayers, once consuch too is the reaction so constantly operating in all hu-  veyed a goodly minister into a secret place within hearing,
man affairs.                                               who, beinig a man very able to judge, much admired her
The writer of this diary did not belong to those non-  humble fervency; for in praying  she prayed; but whea
conformists who arranged themseles in hostility to the es-  she did not with an audible voice, her sighs anrd groans
tablished religion and political government of our country.  might be heard at a good distance fi-om the closet.  We
A  private gentleman and a phlegmatic antiquary, Sir  are not suprised to discover this practice of religious diavymonds withal was a zealous Church-of England pro-  ries among the more puritanic sort; what they were we
testant.  Yet amidst the mystical allusions of an age of  may gather from this description of one.  Mr John Janereligious controversies, we see these close in the scenes   way' kept a diary, in which he wrote down every evening
we are about to open, and find this quiet gentleman tor-  what thefiranme qf his spirit had been all that day; he took
menting himself and his lady, by watching for  certain   notice what incomes he had, what profit he received in his
evident marks and signs of an assurance for a better life;'  spiritual traffic; what returns came from that far country;
with I know not how many distinct sorts of'Graces.'       what answers of prayer, what deadness and flatness of
I give an extract from the manuscript diary.             spirit,' 4-c.  And so we find ofMr. John Carter, that' He
I spent this day chiefly in private fasting, prayer, and   kept a day-book and cast up his accounts with God every
other religious exercises.  This was the first time that I  day.'*  To such wordly notions had they humniliated the
ever practised this duty, having always before declined it,  spirit ofreligion; and this style, and this mode of religion,
by reason of the papists' superstitious abuses of it.  I had   has long been continued among us. even amono men of
partaken formerly of public fastk, but never knew the use  superior acquisitions; as witness the' Spiritual Diary and
and benefit of the same diuty performed alone in secret, or  Soliloques' of a learned physician within our own times,
with others of mine own family in private.  In these par-  Dr. Rutty, which is a great curiosity of the kind.
ticulars, I had my knowledge much enlarged by the reli-      Such was the domestic state of many well meaning
gious converse I enjoyed at Albury-Lodge, for there also  families they were rejecting with the utmost abhorrence
I shortly after entered uiponframing an evidence of marks  every resemblance to what they called the idolatry of Rome,
and signs for my assurance of a better life.               while, in fact, the gloom of the monastic cell was settling
I found much benefit of mysecretfasting, from a learned   over the houses of these melancholy puritans. Private
discourse on fasting by Mr Henry Mason, and observed   fasts were more than ever practised; and a lady said to
his rule, that Christians ought to sit sometimes apart for  be eminent for her genius and learning, who outlived this
their ordinary humiliation and fasting, and so intend to  era, declared that she had nearly lost her life through a
continue the same course as long as my health will permit  prevalent notion that no fatperson could get to Heaven
me.  Yet did I vary the times and duration of my fasting.  and thus spoiled and wasted her body through excessive
At first, before I had finished the marks and signs of my   fastings. A quaker, to prove the text that'IMan shall not
asurance of a better life, which scrutiny aud search cost me  live by bread alone, but by the word of God.' persisted in
somie three-score days qffasting, I performed it some times  refusing his meals.  The literal text proved for him a dead
twice in the space of five weeks, then once each month, or  letter, and this practical commentator died by a metaphor.
o itle sooner or later, and then also I sometimes ended'his quaker, however was not the only victim to the lette'
the duties of the day, and took some little food about three   of the text; for the famous Origen, by interpreting in too
of the clock in the afternoon.  But for divers years last  literal a way the 12th verse of the 19th of St Matthew,
ast, I constantly abstained fromn all food the whole day.  which alludes to those persons who become eunuchs for
fasted till supper-time, about six in the evening, and spent  the kingdom of heaven with his own hands armed himself,
ordinarlY about eight or nine hours in the performance of  against himself, as is sufficiently known.'Retournons a
religious duties; one part of which was prayer and con-  nos moutons!P  The parliament afterwards had both peri.
fession  of sins, to which end I wrote down a catalogue of  odical and occasional fasts; and Charles the First oppos.
all my known sins, orderly.  These were all sins of in-   ed' the hypocritical fast of every Wednesday in the month
#rmity; for, through God's grace, I was so far from  al-  by appointing one for the second Friday:' the two unhap.
lowing myself in the practice and commission of any actual
sin, as I durst not take upon me any controiersial sins, as  * The Lives of sundry eminent Persons in this later Age ~
uriry, carding, diceing, mixt dancing, anid the like, be-  by Samuel Clarke. Fo 1683. A rare volume, with curious
u'se I wtvas in mitie own judgMient nersuaded they were   oortraits.




LITERATURE.                                                       381
py parties, who were  hungeringf and thirsting for each  to be cut out of the sacred Scriptures, as having been
other's blo~, were fasting In spite one against the other!  composed by men.*
Without inquiring into the caulses, even if we thought    More terrible it was when the insanity, which had nith.
that we could ascertain them, of that frightful dissolution of  erto been more confined to the better classes, burst forth
religion which so long prevailed in our country, and of  among the conunon people.  Were we to dwell minutely
which the very corruption it has left behind still breeds in  on this period, we should start from the picture with hor.
monstrous shapes, it will be sufficient to observe, that the  ror: we might, perhaps, console ourselves with a disbedestruction of the monarchy and the ecclesiastical order  lief ofits truth; but the drug though bitter in the mouth
was a moral earthquake, overturning all minds, and open-  we must sometimes diaest.  To observe the extent to
inlg all changes. A theological logomachy was substituted   which the populace can proceed, disfranchised of law and
by the sutllen and proud ascetics who ascended into power.  religion, vwill always leave a memorable recollection.
These, without wearving themselves, wearied all others,    What occurred in the French revolution had happened
and triumphed over each other by their mutual obscurity.  here-an age ofiimpiety!  Society itself seemed dissolved,
The two great giants in this theological war were the fa-  br every tie of Drivate affection and of' public duty was un.
mools Richard Baxter and Dr Owen.  They both wrote a   oosened.  Even natttre was strangely violated!  From
library of books; but the endless controversy between  the first opposition to the decorous ceremonies of the nsathem was the extraordinary and incomprehensible subject,  tional church, by the simple puritans, the next stage was
whether the death of Christ was solutio ejusdem, or only  that of ridicule, and the last of obloquy.  They began by
tantundem; that is, whether it was a payment of the very  calling the surplice a linen rag on the back; baptisfm  a
thing, which by law we ought to have paid, or of some-  Christ-cross on a baby's face; and the organ was likened
thing held by God to be equivalent.  Such was the point  to the bellow, the grunt, and the barking of the respective
on which this debate between Owen and Baxter, lasted   animals.  They actually baptized horses in churches at
without end.                                            the fonts; and the jest of that day was, that the Refornta.
Yet these metaphysical absurdities were harmless, cornm-  tion was now a thorough one in England, since our norses
pared to what was passing among the more hot fanatics,  went to church.t  St Paul's cathedral was turned into a
who were for acting the wild fancies which their melan-  market, and the aisles, the commtnion table, and the altar,
choly brains engendered; men, who fiorn the places into  served for the foulest purposes.  The liberty which every
which they had thrust themselves, might now be called  one now assumed of delivering his own opinions led to acis
the higher orders of society!' These two parties alike  so execrable, that I c(an find tlo parallel for them except iin the
sent forth an evil spirit towalk among the multitude.-  mad times of the French Revolution.  Some maintained
Every one would become his own law-maker, and even  that there existed no distinction between moral good and
his owvn prophet; the cleanest aspired to give his name to  mera. evil; and that every man's actions were prompted
his sect.  All things were to be put into motion according  by the Creator. Prostitution was professed as a religious
to the St. Vitus's dance of the last new saint.'Away   act; a,lazier was declared to be a prophet, and the wowith the Law! which cuts off a man's legs and then bids  man he cohabited with was said to be ready to lie in of the
him walk!' cried one from his pulpit.'Let believers sin  Messiah.  A man married his father's wife. Murders of
as fast as they will, they have a fountain open to wash  the most extraordinary nature were occurring; tone woman
them-,' declaretd another teacher. We had the Brownists,  crucified her mother, another in imitation of Abraham sa.
frorn Robert Brown, the Vaneests, from Sir Harry Vane,  crificed her child; we hear, too, of parricidos.  Amidst
then we sink down to Mr Traske, Mr tVilkinson, Mr  the slaughters of civil wars, spoil and blood had accus-!Robinson, ant 1 H. N., or Henry Nicholas, of the Family  tomed the people to contemplate the most horrible scenes.
of Love, besides Mrs Hutchinson, and the Grindletonian  One mad-man of the many, we find drinking a health no)
fanilv, who preferred'motions to motives,' and conve-  his knees, in the midst of a town,  to the devil! that it
niently assumed, that' their spirit is not to be tried by the  might be said that his family should not be extinct withult
Scripture, but the Scripture by their spirit.' Edwards,  doing some infamous act.' A Scotchman, one Alexander
the author of' Gangramna,' the adversary of Milton, whose  Agnew, commonly called' Jock of broad Scotland,' whorm
N:ork may still be preserved for its curiosity, though im-  one cannot call an atheist, for he does not seem to deny
mmortalized by the scourge of genius, has furnished a list of  the existence of the Creator, nor a fiuture state, had a
about two htindred of such sects in these times. A divine  shrewdness of local humour in his strange notions. Onmitofthe Church of England observed to a great secretary,  ting sonle offensive things, others as strange may exhibit'You talk of the idolatry of Rome; but each of you,when-  the state to which the reaction of a hypocritical system of
ever you have made and set up a calf, will dance about  religion had driven the comnon people.  Socl of broad
it.'                                                    Scotland said he was nothing in God's common, for God
This conftlsion of religions, if, indeed, these pretended  had given him nothing; he was no more obliged to God
modes of faith could be classed among religions, disturbed  than to the devil, for God was very greedy.  Neither God
the consciences of gobd men, who read themselves in and  nor the devil gave the fruits of the ground; the wives of
out of their vacillating creed. It made, at last, even one  the country gave him his meat. When asked wherein he
of the puritans themselves, who had formerly complained  believed, he answered,' He believed in white meal, water,
that they had not enjoyed sufficient freedom under the  and salt.  Christ was not God, for lie came into the world
bishops, cry out against'this cursed intolerable intolera-  after it was made, and died as other men.' He declared
tion.' And the fact is, that when the presbyterians had  that' he did not know whether God or the devil had the
fixed themselves into the government, they published seve-  greatest power, but he thought the devil was the greatest.
ral treatises against toleration! The parallel between  When I die, let God and the devil strive for my soul, and
these wild notions of reform, and those of another charac-  let him that is strongest take it.' He no doubt had been
ter, run closely together.  About this time well-meaning  taught by the presbytery to mock religious rites; and when
persons, who were neither enthusiasts from the ambition  desired to give God thanks for his meat, he said,' Take a
offounding sects, nor of covering their immorality by their  sackfil of prayers to the mill and grind them, and take
Impiety, were infected with the religiosa insania.  One  your breakfast of them.' To others he said,' I will give
case may stand for many. A Mr Greswold, a gentleman  you a two-pence, to pray until a boll of meal, and o;.e
of Warwickshire, whom a Brownist had by degrees en-  stone of butter, fall from heaven through the house rigging
ticed from his parish church, was afterwards persuaded to  to you.' When bread and cheese were laid on the ground
return to it-but he returned with a troubled mind, and
lost in the prevalent theological contests. A horror of his    $ The Hypocrite discovered and cured. by Sam. Torshall,
4to, 1644.
future existence shut him out, as it were, from his present    t There is a pamphlet which records a strange fact.' News
one: retiring into his own house, with his children, he  from Powles: or the new Reformation of the Army, with a
ceased to communicate with the living world. He had  true Relation of a Colt that was foaled in the Cathedral Church
his food put in at the window; and when his children lay  of St Paul, in London, and how it was publkiquely baptized,
sick, he admitted no one for their relief. His house, at  and the name (because a bald Colt) was called Baal-Rex a
length, was forced open; and they found two children   1649   The water they sprinkled from the soldier'e helmet on
dead, and the father confined to his bed. He had mangld   this occasion is described. The same occurred elsewhere.
hisee Foulis's History of the Plots, &c, of ourpretended Saints
his bible, and cut out the titles, contents, and every thinf  These mes who baptized horses and pigs in the name of the
but the very text itself;. foir it seems that he thollrg  that  Trinitv. sane Psalms wher they marched. One cannot easily
every thing hiuman swas sinful, arid he. conceived that the  csllplehend the nature of fanaticism, except when we learn
titles of the books and the contents of the chaiters, were  that tthey refiused to pay rents:




382                                    CURiOSITIES OF
by him, he said,' If I leave this, I will long cry to God be-    Such is the picture of the folly and of the wickedness
fore he give it me again.' To others he said,' Take a   which after having been preceded by:he piety of a rehl
btannock, and break it in two, anti lay down one half thereof,  gious age, were succeeded by a domninion of hypocritical
and you will long pray t.o God before he put the other half  sanctity, and then closed in all the horrors of immorality
to it againl!   He seems to have been an anti-trinitarian.  and impiety.  The parliament at length issued one of
He said lie received every thing front nature, which had  their ordinances for' punishing blasphemous and execrable
ever reigned and ever would. He would not conform to  opinions,' and this was enforced with  greater power
any religious system, nor name the three Persons-' At all  than the slighted proclamations of James and Charles;
these things I have long shaken my cap,' he said. Jock  but the curious wording is a comment on our present
of broad Scotland seetms to have been one of those who  subject.   The preamble notices that' men and wvo
imagine that God should have furnished them with ban-  men had lately discovered monstrous opinions, even such
qsocks rea-dy baked.                                    as tended to the dissolution of human society, and have
The extravagant fervour then working in the minds of  abused, and turned into licentiousness. the liberty given tn
toe people is marked by the story told by Clement Walker  matters of religion.' It. punishes any person not distemper-:f the soldier who entered a church with a lantern and a  ed in his brains,who shall maintain any mere creature to be
candle burning in it, and in the other hand four candles  God; or that all acts of tnrighteousness are not forbidden.
not lighted. He said he came to deliver his message from  in the Scriptures; or that God approves of them; or that
god, and show it by these types of candles.  Driven into  there is no real difference betweed moral good and
the churchtyard, and the wind blowing strong, he could not  evil,' &c.
kindle his candles, and the new prophet was awkwardly      To this disordered state was the public mind reduced,
compelled to conclude his five documents, abolishing the  for this proclamation was only describing what was pasSabbath, tithes, ministers, magistrates, and, at last, the  sing among the people!  The view of this subject emnbraBible itself, without putting out each candle, as he could  ces more than one point, which I leave for the meditation.mot kindle them; observing, however, each time-' And  of the politician, as well as of tie religionist.
nere I shoulid put out the first light,'out the wind is so high
that I cannot kindle it.'                                BUCKINGRHAM's POLITICAL COQUETRY WITH THE PUA perfect scene of the effects which this state of irreligious society produced among the lower orders, I am en-                        RITANS.
abled to give froln the manuscript life of John Shaw, vicar uckincham  observes
of Rotheram, with a little tedioisness, but with infinite    Buckingham, observes Hume,' in order to fortify humof PRtheram, w ith a little tedtiousness, but with infinite  self against the resentment of James'-on the conduct of
natvret6 what happened to.'iimself.  This honest divine  the duke in the Spanish match, when James was latterly
was puritanically inclined, but there can be no exaggera-  hari   vry d   Bkiham    int Bistl, and Bistionr in these unvarnished facts.  He tells a remarkable  to ast every day Buckiha  against popularistol, and enstory of the state of religious knowledge in Lancashire, at  tered into the cabals of the puritans; but afterwuards, bea place called Cartmel: sonle of the people appeared desi-     re of the confiden
rous of religious instruction, declaring that they were awith-dsned this   parles, he had sincaccount  e abandoned this party; and on that. account was the more ex
out: any minister, and had entirely neglected every religious rite, and therefore pressed him to quit his situation     political coquetry of a  inister coalescin g with an
The political coquetry of a minister coalescing with an
at Lymrit for a short period. He may tnow tell his own  opposition party, when he was on the point of being disstory.                                                  graced, would doubtless open an involved scene of intrigue;'I found a very large spacious church, scarce any seats  and what one exacted, and the other Ias content to vield,
in it; a people very ignorant, and yet willing to learn;  towards the mutual acconomodation, might aid one rnore
so as I had frequently some thousands of hearers. I cat-  example to the large chapter of political infirmity.  Both
echised in season and out of season.  The churches were  workmen attempting to convert each other into tools,
so thronged at rpite in the morning, that I had much ado   by first trying their respective malleability on the anto get toi.le pulpit.   One- day anold nian about sixty, sen-  vil, are liable to be disconcerted by even a slight accisible enough in other things, and living in the parish of
sible enough in other things, and  n the  parish  of dent, whenever that proves to perfect conviction, how lithearhmelon, dnig  to me on some business, I toll him  that  tle they can depend on each other, and that each party
he belonged to my care and charge, and I desired to be  comes   cheat, and not to be cheated    t
inforned in his knowlvedge of religion.   I asked him hiov  This piece of secret history is in part recoverable from
many Gods there were?  He said he knew not. I infbrm-  good authority.  The two great actors were the Duke of
ed him, asked again how he thought to be saved?  He  Buckinghatm and Dr Preston, the Inaster of Emmanuel
answered he could not tell. Yet thought that was a harder  College, and the head of the puritan party
question than the other.  I told him that the way to sal-    Dr Preston was an eminent character, who from his
vation was by Jesus Christ, God-iarn, who as lie was  youth was not without ambition.  His scholastic learning
man shed his blood for us on the cross, &c. Oh, sir, said  the subtllty of his genius, and his more elegant acconmplish
he, I think I heard of that man you speak of once in a play  ments, had attracted the notice of James, at whose table
at Kendall, called Corpus-Ghrist's play, where there was a  he was perhaps more than once honoured as a guest; a
man on a tree and blood run down, &c. And afterwards he  suspicion of his puritanic principles was peirhaps the onprofessed he could not remember that he ever heard of sal-  ly obstacle to his court preferment; yet Preston unquesvation by Jesus, but in that play.'                    tionably designed to play a political part. He retained the
The scenes passing in the metropolis, as well as in the  favour of James by the king's hope of withdrawing the doccountry, are orened to us in one of the chronicaling poems  tor from the opposition party; and commanded the favour
of George Withers.   Our sensible Rhirner wrote in  of Buckingham by the fears of that minister; when to emNovember 1652,' a Dark Laithormle' on the present  ploy the quaint style of Hacket, the duke foresaw that' he
After ntsu ia thJatGodec, to. morif u, ad en peah-might come to be.tried in the furnace of the next sessions
After noticing that God, to mortify us, had sent preach-    f parliament, and he had need to nLake the refners his
ers from' the shop-board and the plough,'             friends:' most of these'refiners' were the puritanlic or op-..Such as we seem justly to contemn,               position party. Appointed one of the chaplains of Prince
As making truths abhorred, which come from them:      Charles, Dr Preston had the advantage of being ini frequent
attendance; and as Hacket tells us,' this politic man felt
he seems, however, inclined to think, that these self-taught  the pulse of the court, and wanted not the intelligence of
I Teachers antI Prophets' in their darkness might hold a  all dark mysteries through the Scotch in his highness's
certain light within them.                              bed-chamber.' A close communication took place between
--— Children, fools,                the duke and Preston, who, as Hacket describes, was' a
Wosmen and madmen, we do often meet                good crow to smell carrion.' He obtained an easy admis.
Preaching, and threatening judgment in the street,    sion to the duke's closet at least thrice a week, and in their
Yea by stran!ge actions, postures, tones, and cries  notable conferences Buckinaham appears to have conmuThemselves they offer to our ears and eyes          nicated to his confidential fiiends. Preston, intent on carAs sigins unto this nation.-                        rying all his points, skilfully conmmenced with the smaller
They act as men ini ecstasies have done-            ones.  He winded the duke circuitously,-he worked at
Striving their cloudv visions to declare,           him subterraneously.  This wary politician was too saga.
T:.!l they have lost the notions which they had,    cious to propose what he had at heart-the extirpation oA
And want but few degrees of being mad.             the hierarchy! The thunder of James's voice,' no bish




LITERA TURE.                                                       383
op! no king!' in the conference at Hampton-Court, still  death.  Wotton adds,' This story I heard from one who
echoed in the ear of the puritan. He assured the duke   was extremely well versed in the secret history of the
daiat the love of the people was his only anchor, which  time.'*
could only be secured by the most popular measures. A
new sort of reformation was easy to execute. Cathedrals  sIr EDWARD COKE S EXCErTIONS AGAIWST THE tlIGH
and collegiate churches maintained by vast wealth, and the                     SHERIFF'S OATH.
lands of the chapter, only fed'fat, lazy, and unprofitable   A curious fact will show the revolutionary natre of hu
A curious fact will show the revolutionary nature of. hut
drone.'  T  h disolution of the foundations of deans and
drones.' The dissolution of the foundations of deans and   man events, and the necessity of correcting our ancien
chapters would open an ample source to pay the king's  statutes, which so frequently   hold out pnishments ad
debts, and scatter the streams of patronage.'You would   penalties for ojects which have long cased to he crimthen become the darling of the commonwealth;' I give the   n;    well as for persons  against whom it would he barhal; as well as for persons against whom it. would be barwords as I find them tn Hacket.  I If a crum stick in the   barons to allow some unrepealed statute to operate.
throat of any considerable man that attempts an opposition,   When a political stratagem was practised by Charles
it will be easy to wash it down with manors, woods, roy-  the First to keep certain members out of th-e house of comalties, tythes, &c.' It would be furnishing the wants of a  mons, by pricking them down as sheriffs in their different
number of gentlemen, and he quoted a Greek proverb,'that  counties, among them was the celebrated Sir Edward Coke
when a great oak falls, every neighbour may scuffle for a   whom the government had made High Sheriff for Bucks.
faggot.'
Dr Preston was willing to perform the part which Knox  It was necessary, perhaps, to he a learned and practised
Dr Preston was willing to perform the part which Knox  lwe  odsoe  h   en   etoi  h   egto   i
had acted in Scotland!  He might have been'Certain of a  lawyer to discover the means he took, in the height of his
had acted in Scotland! He might have been Certain of a                                     Ti  ra  ayr   h
resentment to elude the insult.  This great lawyer, who,arty to maintain this national violation of property; for himself, perhaps, had often administered the oath to the
he, who calls out I Plunder!' will ever find a gang.'These  hmef  ehphdotnamnsee   h   aht  h
he who calls out'Plunder!i' will ever find a gang. These  sheriffs, which had, century after century, been usual for
acts of national injustice, so much desired by revolution-  them to take, to the srpris  of all ersons, drew up Ex-.sts, are never beneficial to the people; they never par-  ceptions against the Shriff's oath, declairng  that no one,akeof te soliaionandthe  holeterinats intheceptions against the Sheriff's oath, declaring that no one
ake of the spoliation, and the whole terminates in the   could take it. Coke sent his Exceptions to the attorneygratification of private rapacity,                         general, who by an immediate order in council, submitted
It was not, however, easy to obtain such perpetual ac-  them to  all the jdes of Enand.'  Our g   lumnary
them to I all the judges of England.' Our legal lumlnary'ess to the minister, and at the same time escape from the  had condescended only to soe        e   cavi
watchful.  Archbishop Williams, the lord keeper, got suf-   adc ecenonl t e   ignosca  lg in three
of his exceptions; but the fourth was of a natu/re which
ficient hints from the king; and in a tedious conference   o h        e        rie   lt    as of antr  w
wished   covicehm  ha Peto  hd could not be overcome.  All the judges of England as-.
livtlth ue  e wished to convince him that Preston had.
with the duke, le wseto cnie  m  h  Pst   a    sented, and declared. that there was one part of this anonly offered him'flittten milk, out of which lie should   ct oath which was perfcty ireliios,  and must ever
churn nothing!' The duke was, however, smitten by the   hereafter be left out!   This article was,' That you shall
hereafter be left out! This article was,' That you shall
new project and made a remarkable answer:'You lose  do all your pain and diligence to destroy and make to cease
yourself in ceneralities:  make it out to me in particular,  all manner of heresies, co only called  olie, within
11  el                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~all manner of heresies, commonly called Lollaries, wilhin
if you can, that tl;e motion you pick at will find repulse,  your, bailiwick, &c.'t  The Lolards were the most anand be baffled in the house Of commons.  I know not how    cient of protestants, and had practised Luther's sentiments
y-ou bishops may struggle, but. I am much deluded ifsa -real
you bishops may struggle, bt. am much deluded ifa great  -it was, in fact condemning the established religion of the
part of the knights and burgesses would not be glad to see   country   An order was issued from HamptonCourt, for
n  r,                            ~~~~~~~country. An order was ise  rmHmtnCut o
this alteration.' We are told on this, that Archbishop Wil-  th  aogatin of this part of the oath; and at present all
liams took out a list of the members of the house of com-   h     ri  o  this   ato    the             resenten  
high sheriffs owe this obligation to the resentment of Sir
Mons, and convinced the minister that an overwhelming    t
mos, and cninced  the   inister that an oerwhelming   Edward Coke, for having beeni pricked down as Sheriff of
majority would oppose this projected revolution, and that  Bucks, to be kept out of parliament!  The merit of aBucks, to be kept out of parliament! The merit of hay.
in consequence the dtlke gave it up.                       ing the oath changed, in:tanter, he was allowed; but he
But this anterior decision of the duke may be doubtful,  was not excused takin, after it was accommodated to
since Preston still retained the' high favour of the minister,wanoexud an   iftrtwsacmoaedo
since Preston still reaned  the' high favour of the minister,  the conscientious and lynx-eyedl detection of our enraged
after the death of James.  When James died at Theobalds, where Dr Preston happened to be in attendance, he  lawyer.
had the honour of returning to town in the new king's    SECRET HISTORY OF CHARLES I, AND HiS FIRST
coach with the Duke of Buckingham.  The doctor's ser-                           PRIMENTS.
PARLIAMENTS.
vile adulation of the minister gave even great offence to
to the over-zealous puritans.  That he was at length dis-     The reign of Charles the First, succeeded by the com.
carded is certain; but this was owing not to any deficient  monwealth of England, forms a period unparalleled by any
subserviency on the side of our politician, but to one of  preceding one in the annals of mankind.  It was for the
those unlucky circumstances which have often put an end   English nation the great result of all former attempts to
to temporary political connexions, by enabling one party to  ascertain and to secure the just freedom of the subject.
discover what the other thinks of him.                     The prerogative of the sovereign, and the rights of the
I draw this curious fact from a manuscript narrative in  people, were  often imagined  to be mutual encroachthe hand-writing of the learned William Wotton.  When   ments; and were long invqolved in contradiction, in an age
the puritanic party foolishly became jealous of the man  of unsettled opinions and disputed principles.  At length
who seemed to be working at root and branch for their  the conflicting parties of monarchy and democracy, in the
purposes, they addressed a letter to Preston, remonstrat-  weakness of their passions, discovered how  much each
Ing with him for his servile attachment to the minister; on  required the other for its protector.  This age offers the
which he confidentially returned an answer, assuring them   finest speculations in human nature, it opens a protracted
that he was as fully convinced of the vileness and profliga-  scene of glory and of infamy; all that elevates, and all
cy of the Duke of Buckingham's character as any man  that humiliates our kind, wrestling together, and expiring
could be, hut that there was no way to come at him but by  in a career of glorious deeds, of revolting  crimes, and
the lowest flattery, and that it was necessary for the glory  even of ludicrous infirmities!
of God, that such instruments should be made use of as        The French Revolution is the commentary of the Engcould be had: and for that reason, and that alone, he  lish; and a commentary at times more important than the
showed that respect to the reigniing favourite, and not for  text which it elucidates.  It has thrown a freshness over
any real hobin' that he had for him.  This letter proved  the antiquity of our own history; and, on returning to it,
fatal; some officious hand conveyed it to the duke! When   we seem to possess the feelings, and to be agitated by the
Preston came as usual, the duke took his opportunity of  interests, of contemporaries.  The circumstances and
asking him what he had ever done to disoblige him, that  the persons which so many imafine had passed away,
he should describe him in such black characters to his own   have been reproduced tinder our own eyes.  In other hisparty? Preston, in amazement denied the fact, and poured  tories we except the knowledge of the characters and the
forth professions of honour and eratitude.  The duke  incidents on the evidence of the historian; but here we
showed him his own letter.  Dr Preston instantaneously   may take them  from our own conviction, since to extinct
felt a polit.ical apoplexy: the labours of some years were.ost in a single mrrning. The baffled politician was turned  * Wotton delivered this memorandum   to the literary anti
t of Wallinford Huse, never more to see the enraed   quary, Thomas Baker; and Kennet transcribed it in his Ma.
l  nuscript Collections. Landsowne MSS, No. 932-88. The
Tainister.  And from  that moment Buckingham wholly   i
minister.  And from  that moment Bucinham  wholly  life of Dr Preston, in Chalmers Biographical Dictionary, may
abandoned the Puritans, and cultivated the friendship of  be consulted with advantage
Laud.  This happened  soon after James the First's            Rushworth's Historical Collections Vol. 1, 199.




384                                    CURIOSITIES OF
names and to past events, we can apply the reality which   The first parliament abandoned the king!
we ourselves have witnessed.                               Charles now had no other means to despatch the army
Charles the First had scarcely ascended the throne, ere  and fleet, in a bad season, but by borrowing money on pri.
he discovered, that in his new parliament he was married  vy seals: these were letters, where the loan exacted was
to a sullen bride; the youthful monarch, with the impa-  as small as the style was humble.  They specified, that
tience of a lover, warm with hope and glory, was ungra-' this loan, without inconvenience to any, is only intended
ciouslv retpuilsed even in the first favours!  The predic-  for the service of the public. Such private helps for pubtion o  his father remained, like the hand-writing on the  lie services, which caniiot be deferred, the king's premisee
wall; but, seated on the throne, Hope was more conge-  had been often resorted to; but this'being the first time
nial to youth than Prophecy.                             that we have required any thing in this kind, we require
As soon as Charies the First could assemble a parlia-  but that sum which fenu men would deny afriend.' As fat
mtent, he addressed them  with an earnestness, in which   as I can discover, the highest sum  assessed from  great
the sitnpllciy of words and thoughts strongly contrasted   personages was twenty pounds! The king was willing to
with the oratorical harangues of the late monarch.  It  suffer any mortification, even that of a charitable solicitacannot be alleged aaainst Charles the First, that he pre-  tion, rather than endure the obdurate insults of parliaceded the parliament in the war of words.  He courted   ment! All donations were received, from ten pounds to
their affections; and even in his manner of reception,  five shillings: this was the mockery of an alms-basket!
amidst the dignity  of the regal office, studiously showed   Yet, with contributions and savings so trivial, and exacthis exterior respect by the marked solemnity of their first  ed with such a warm  appeal to their feelings, was the
nieeting. As vet. urncrowned, on the day on which he  king to send out a fleet with ten thousand men-to take
first addressed the Lords and Commons, he wore his crown,  Cadiz!
ail veiled it at the opening, and on the close of his speech;  This expedition, like so many similar attempts from the
a circumstance to which the parliament had not been ac-   days of Charles the First to those of the great Lord Chat.
customed. Another ceremony gave still greater solemnity  ham, arid to our own-concluded by a nullity! Charles,
to the meeting; the king -would not enter into business  disappointed in this predatory attempt, in despair, called
till they had united in prayer.  He commanded the doors  his second parliament-as he says,' In the midst of his neto be closed, and a bishop to merform the office. The sud-  cessity-and to learn from them how he was to fratne his
denness of this unexpected command disconcerted the  course and councils?'
catholic lords, of whom  the less rigid knelt, and the     The Cbmmons, as duteously as ever, profess that' No
trioderate stood: there was one startled papist who did  king was ever dearer to his people; and that they really
nnthlin, but cro s himself!*                            intend to assist his majesty in such a way, as may make
The sneecrh rmay be f,und in Rushworth; the friendly  him safe at homne, and feared abroad' —but it was to be on
tonle nimust be shown here.                             condition, that he would be graciously pleased to accept
I hope that you do remember that you were pleased to' the information and advice of parliament in discovering
employ nme to advise my father to break off the treaties  the causes of the great evils, and redress their grievances.'
(with Spain.) I caine into this business willingly and fiee-  The king accepted this'as a satisfactory answer;' but
ly, like a young mair, and consequentlv rashly, but it was  Charles comprehended their drift-' You specially aim at
by your interest-your engagemrnett.  I pray you remem-  the Duke of Buckingham; what he hath done to change
tber, that this being mnvfirst action, and begun by your ad-  your minds I wot not.' The style of the ki ng now first
vice and entreaty, what a great dishonour it were to you   betrays angered feelings; the secret cause of tile uncomatnd me that, it should fail for that assistance you are able  plying conduct of the Commons was hatred of the favourto ive me!'                                            ite, but the king saw that they designed to control the execiuThis effusion excited no sympathy in the house. They  tive government, and he could ascribe their antipathy to
voted not a seventh part of the expenditure necessary to   Buckingham but to the capriciousness  of popular favour;
pirocced with a war, into which, as a popular measure,  for not long ago he had heard Buckingham hailed as' their
they themselves had forced the king.                     saviour.'  In the zeal and firmness of his affections,
At Oxford the king again reminded them  that he was  Charles always considered that he hinself was aimed at,
engaged in a war' from  their desires and advice.' He   in the person of his confident, his companion, and his minexpresses his disappointment at their insufficient grant,  ister!'far short to set forth the navy now preparing.' The       Some of' the bold speakers,' as the heads of the opposispeech preserves the same simplicity.                    tion are frequently designated in the manuscript letters,
Still no echo of kindness responded in the house.  It  had now risen into notice.  Sir John Elliot, Dr Turner,
was, however, asserted, in a vague and quibbling manner,  Sir Dudley Dirges, Mr Clement Coke, poured themselves
that' though a former parliament did engage the king in a  forth in a vehemnent, not to say seditious style, with invecwar. yet (if things were managed by a contrary design,  tives more daring than had ever before thundered in the
anid the treasure misemnployed) this parliament is not bound  House of Commons! The king now told them,' I come
by another parliament:' and they added a cruel mockery,  to show your errors, and, as I may call it, unparliamentathat' the king should help the cause of the Palatinale with  ryproceedings of parliament.''the lord keeper then ashis own money! this foolish war, which James and Charles  suired them that' when the irregular humours of some parhad so lona bore their reproaches for having avoided as  ticular persons were settled, the king would hear and anhopeless. btit which the puritanic party as well as others,  swer all just grievances: but the king would have them also
had continually urged as necessary for the maintenance  to know, that. he was equally jealous to the contempt of his
of the protestant cause in Euirope.                      royal rights, which his majesty would not suffer to be vioStill no supplies! butt protestations of duty, and petitions  lated by any pretended course of parliamentary liberty.
about grievances, which it latd been difficult to specify.  The kitng considered the parliament as his council; but
In their' Declaration' they style his Majesty' Our dear  there was a difference between councilling and controlling,
and dread sovereign,' and thlemselves' his poor Com-  and between liberty and the abuse of liberty.' He finishrinlons:' but they concede no point —they offer no aid!  ed, by noticing their extraordinary proceedings ill their
The king was not yet disposed to quarrel, though he had  impeachment of Buckingham.  The king, resuming his
in vain pressed for despatch of business, lest the season   speech, remarkably reproached the parliament.
should be lost for the navy; again reminding them that'it'Now that you have all things according to your wishes,
was the first request that lie ever made unto them!  On   and that I am so far engaged that you think there is no rethe pretence of the plague at Oxford, Charles prorogued  treat, now you begin to set the dice, and make your own
parliamemnt, with a promise to reassemble in the winter.  game.  But I pray you be not deceived; it is not a parThere were a few whose hearts had still a pulse to vi-  liamentary way, nor is it a way to deal with a king. Mr
brate with the distresses of a youthful monarch, perplexed   Clement Coke told you, "It was better to be eaten up by
by a war which they themselves had raised.  But others of  a foreign enemy tnan to be destroyed at home!'  Indeed,
a more republican complexion, rejected' Necessity, as a   I think it more honour for a king to be invaded and almost
dangerous counsellor, which would be always furnishing   destroyed by a foreign enemy than to be despised by his own
arguments for supplies. If the king was in danger and   subjects.'
necessity, those ought to answer for it who have put both  The king concluded by asserting his privilege, to call or
king and kinadom into this peril: and if the state of things  to forbid parliaments.
would not admit a redress of grievances, there cannot be   The style of' tle bold speakers' appeared at least as
so much necessity for money.'                            early as in April; I trace their spirit in letters of the times,
which fturnish facts and expressions that do not appear in
* From a nasnuecript letter of the times.       our printed documents.




LITE RATURE.                                                            385
Among the earliest of our patriots, and finally the great t   On this memorable day a philosophical politician might
victim of his exertions, was Sir John Elliot, vice-admiral,  have presciently mnarked the seed-plots of' events, which
of Devonshire.  He, in a tone which' rolled back to Jove  not many years afterwards were apparent to all men. The
his own bolts,' and startled even the writer, who was him-  passions of kings are often expatiated, but, int the present
self biassed to the popular party,'made a resolute, I  anti-monarchical period, the passions of parliaments are
doubt. whether a timely, speech.'  He adds, Elliot assert-  not imaginable!  The democratic party in our constimied that' They came not thither either to do what the king  tion, from the meanest of motives, fromn their egotism, their
should command them, nor to abstain when he forbade   vanity, and their audacity, hate kings; they would have
them; they camee to continue constant, and to maintain   an abstract being, a chimerical sovereign on the thronetheir privileges.  They would not give their posterity a  like a statue, the mere ornament of the place it fills,-and
castse to curse them for losing their privileges by restraint,  insensible, like a statue, to the invectives they would heap
which their tbire iihers had left them.'*                    on its pedestal!
Ott the eighth of May, the impeachment of the duke           The commons, with a fierce spirit of reaction for the
was opened by Sir Dudley Digges, who compared the   king's punishing some insolent speeches,' at once sent up
dulke to a mrnteor exhaled out of putrid matter.  He was  to the lords for the commitment of the duke!'  But when
milowed by Gianville, Selden, and others.  On this day  they learnt the fate of the patriots, they instantaneously
the dulke sat out.facing tlls accusers and out-braving their  broke up! In the afternoon they assembled in Westrmitracclisations, wvhich the more highly e.xasperated the house.  ster-hall, to interchange their Inivate sentiments on the
On the followving day the duke was absent, when the epi-  fate of the two imprisoned members, in sadness and indiglogue to this nmi:-ity piece was elaborately delivered by  nation.
Sir John Eliiot, with a force of declamation, and a boldness   The following day the commons met in their own house.
of personal allusion, which  have not been surpassed in   When the speaker reminded them of the usual business,
the invectives of modern Junius.                             they all cried out.' Sit down! sit down!'  They would
Elliot, after expatiasiing on the favourite's ambition in  touch on no business till they were' righted in their liberprocuring and getting into his hands the greatest offices of  ties!'*  An  open  committee of the whole house was
strength andi power in the kingdom, and the means by  formed, and no member suffered to quit the house; but
which he had obtained them, drew a picture of' the in-  either they were at a loss how:o commence this solemn
ward character of the duke's mind.' The duke's plurality   conference, or expressed their indignation by a sullen siof offices reminded him b     of a chimerical beast called by  lence. To sooth and subdue' the bold speakers' was the
the ancients Stellionutus, so blurred, so spotted, so full of  unfortunate attempt of the vice-charnberlain, Sir Dudley
foiul lin.ts, that thev knew not what to make of it! In set-  Carleton, who hal long been one of our foreign ambastinsg tip himself Ii he hath set ipon the kingadorn's revenues,  sadors; and wiho, having witnessed the despotic governtile ftuntarin of' sypply, and the nerves of the land —He   ments on the continent, imagined that there was no defiirntercepts, contsumes, and exhausts the revenues of the  ciency of liberty at home.' I find,' said the vice-charucrown; and, by emptying the veins the blood should run   berlain,' by the great silence in this house, that it is a fit
in, he hath cast the kingdom  into a high consumption.'-  time to be heart, if vou will grant me the patience.' Allie descends to criminate the duke's magnificent tastes;  luding to one of the king's messages, where it was hinted
he who had sotnethineg of a congenial nature for Elliot was  that, if there was' no correspondency between  him  and
a man of finte literature.' Infinite sums of money, and  the parliament, he should be forced to use new  counsels,'
mass of lan d exceeding the value of money, and contri-'1 pray you consider what these now counsels are anti
blrtions, in parliamnent have been heaped upon him; and   may be: I fear to declare those I conceive!'  However,
no,v  have they been employed?  Upon costly furniture,  Sir Dudley plainly hinted at them, when he went on ob.
sltmpttous fealstin, and magrnificent building, the visible  serving, that' when monarchs began to know their own
vsidence of the express exhausting of the state'           strength, and saw the turbulent spirlit of their parliaments,
Elliiot eloqlently closes —                               they had overthrown them in all Europle, except here only'Youir lord.t hips have an idea of the man, what he is in   with us.'  Our old ambassador drew ar  atlusirns picture
himself; what in his affections! You have seen his power,  of' the effects of despotic governments in that of France —
and some, I fear have felt it.  You have known his prac-' If you knew the subjects in foreign countries as well as
tice and have heard the effects. Being such, what is he in   myself, to see them look, not like our nation, with store
reference to kina and state; how compatible or incompa-  of flesh on their backs, but like so many ghosts and not
tible with either?  In reference to the king, he must be  men, being nothing but skin and bolies, witi somne thin costyled the canker in his treasure; in reference to the state,  ver to their nakedness, and wearing only wooden shoes on
the moth of all goodness.  I can hardly finid him a paral-  their feet, so that they cannot eat meal, or wear good
lel; but none were so like him as Sejanus, who is described   clothes, but. they must pay the king for it; this is a rriseby Tacitus, 4Auda., sui obtegens, in alios criminator, juxta  ry beyond expression. and that which we are yet free from!
adulator et stuperbus.  Sejanus's pride was so excessive,  A long residence abroad had deprived Sir Dudley Carleas'acitus sasIh, that, he neglected all councils, mixed his  ton of' any sympathy with the high tone of freelom, and
business and service with the prince, seeming to confound  the proud jealousy of their privileges, which, though yet
their actions, and was often styled Imperatoris laborum   unascertained, undefined, and still often contested, was
cius. Dstih notthis man the like?  Ask England, Scot-  breaking forth arnong the commons of England.  It was
land and Ireland-and they will tell you! How lately and   fated that the celestial spirit of our national freedom should
how often hath this manrm commixed his actions in discourses  not descend among us in the form of the mystical dove!
with actions of the king's!  My Lords! I have done-            Hume observes on this speech, that' these imprsudent
you see the man!'                                            suggestions rather gave warning than struck terror.' It
The parallel of the dulke with Sejanus electrified the  was evident that the event which Implied' new counsels,'
use; and, as we shall see, touched Charles on a convul-  meant what subsequently was practised-the king governsive nerve.                                                  ing without a parliament! As for' the ghosts who wore
The king's conduct on this speech was the beginning of  wooden shoes,' to which the house was congratulated that
iis'troubies, and the first of his more open attempts to  they had not yet been reduced, they would infer that it was
crush the popular party.  In the House of Lords the king  the more necessary to provide against the possibility of so
defended the duke, and informed them,'I have thought fit  strange an occurrence! Hume truly observes,' The king
to take order for the punishing some insolent.speeches,  reaped no further benefit from this attempt than to exaslately spoken.' I find a piece of' secret history enclosed   perate the house still further.'  Some words, which the
in a letter, with a solemn injunction that it might be burnt.  duke persisted in asserting had dropped from Digges, were'The kine this mornintg complained of Sir John Eiliot for  explained away, Digges, declaring that they had slot been
simparin.! the duke to Sejanus, in which he said, implicitly he rnl t intend me for Tiberius!'  On that day the   ofdates.  They all equally copy Ruslhworth, the only solrcoe
prologue an i the epiloatse orators, Sir Dtidlev Digges, who   of our history of this period. Even Hume is involved in the
had opensed the impeachmnent against the dtuke, and Sir  obscurity. The king's speech was on the eleventh of May.
John Elliot, whoh had closed  it, were called  out of the   As Rushworth has not fsirnished dates, it would seem that the
l)se tbv to-v  mIes-senr ers, vwho showned their warrants for  two orators had been sent to the Tower before the kinlg'a
itolnrnittine b reen toIy)  the rune erat                    speech to the lordls.
minrnittina oem to the I tver.f:" Franklanl, an inveterate roy alist, in copyitnt Ruishworth,
* Sloane MSS, 4177  Letter 317.                            inserts' their pretended liberties;, ex ct!y the stvle of catholic
t Our printed histsrir.ai dloctiments, Kennett, Frankland, &c,  writers when they me:tion protestaritistrm, I)y' la reliaiol pro.
am conftisetl in their details. rand!act-s seeon misplacedl for want  tendue reform6e.'  All party wrviters Lue the saule ats ylu.s.   13.                                                                     49




386                                     CURIOSITIES OF
used by him; and it seems probable that he was suffered'the funereal supper at Whitehall, whereat twenty-thre
to eat hisv words.  Elliot was made of'sterner stuff;' he  tables were buried, being from  henceforth converted te
abated not a jot of whatever he had spoken of Ithat man,'  board-wages;' and there I learn, that' since this dissolv.
as he affected to call Buckingham.                          Ig of house-keeping, his majesty is but slenderly attend.
The commons whatever might be their patriotism, seem   ed.' Another writer who describes himselfto be oni  a
ed'Another writer who describes himseli'to, be onlya
at first to have been chiefly moved by a personal hatred of  looker-on, regrets, that while the men of the law spent ten
the favourite; and their real charges against him amounted  thousand pounds on a single masque, they did not rather
to little more than pretences and aggravations. The king,  makethe king rich; and adds,' I see a rich commorn.
whose personal affections were alwavs strong, considrred   wealth, a rich people, and the crown poor!' This stranee
his friend innocent; and there was a warm, romantic fea-  poverty of the court of Charles seems to have escaped the
ture in the character of the youthful monarch, which  notice of our general historians.  Charles was now to vie.c
scorned to sacrifice his faithful companion to his own in-  tual his fleet with the savings of the board wages! for this
terests, and to immolate the minister to the clamours of' surplusage' was taken into account!
the commons.  Subsequently, when the king did this in        The fatal descent on the Isle of' Rh6 sent home Buck.
the rtemarable case of the guiltless Strafford, it was the  ingham discomfited, and spread dismay through the nation.
only circumsintance which weighed on his mind at the hour  The best blood had been shed from the wanton bravery of
of his own sacrifice! Sir Robert Cotton told a friend, on  ant unskilful and romantic commander, who, forced to rethe day on which the king went down to the House of  treat, would march, but not fly, and was thte verylast man
Lords, and committed the two patriots, that'he had of  to quit the ground which  e could not occupy.   In the
late been often sent for to the king and duke, and that the  eagerness of his hopes, Bukingham  had once dropped,
kinf's affection towards him was very admirable and  no  as I learn, that' before Midsummer he shouild be n.,'re
whit lessened.  Certainly, he added,' the king will never  honoured and beloved of the commons than ever was th..
yield to the duke's fall, being a young man, resolute, mag.   Earl of Essex:' and thus he rocked his own and his
nanimous, and tenderly and firmly affectionate where he  master's imagination in cradling fancies.  This volatile
takes.'*  This authentic character of Charles the First  hero, who had felt the capriciousness of popularity, thought
by that intelligent and learned  man, to whore the nation   that it was as easily regained as it was easily lost; and
owes the treastres of its antiquities, is remarkable.  Sir  that a chivalric adventure would return to him that favour
Robert Cotton, though holding no rank at court, and in no  wlich at this moment might have neen oenteo to all the
respect of the duke's party, was often consulted by the  wisdom, the  policy,  and  the arts of an experienced
king, and much in his secrets.  How the king valued the  statesman.
juld.ment of this acute and able adviser, acting on it in    The king was now involved in more intricate and desdirect contradiction and to the mortification of the favourite,  perate measures; and the nation was thrown into a state
I shall probably have occasion to show.                    of agitation, of which the page of popular history yields
The commons did not decline in the subtile spirit with  butt a faint impression.
which they had begun; they covertly aimed at once to        The spirit of insurrection was stalking forth in the mesubjugate the sovereign, and to expel the minister!  A   tropolis and in the country.  The scenes which I am about
remonstrance was prepared against the levying of tonnage  to describe occurred at the close of 1626: an inattentive
and pontidage, which constituted  half of the crown reve-  reader might easily mistake them  for thle revolutionary
nues; and a petition,' equivalent to a command,' for re-  scenes of 1640.  It was an unarnied rebellion.
mnoving Bockingham   from his majesty's person and coun-    An army and a navy had returned unpaid, anid sore with
cijs.t   Th-e remonstrance is wrotght rip with a high spirit  defeat.  The town was scoured by mutinouis seamen and
of invective against'the unbridled ambition of the duke,'  soldiers, roving even into the palace of the sovereign.,vhoet they class,' among those vipers and pests to their  Soldiers without pay form  a society without, laws.  A
king and commonwealth, as so expressly styled by your  band of captains rushed into the duke's apartment as lie
roost royal father.' They request that' he would be pleas-  sat at dinner; and when reminded by the duke of a late
ed to remove this person frtomn access to his sacred presence,  proclamation, forbidding all soldiers comring to court in
and that he would not balance this one man with all  troops, on pain of hanging, they replied, that' Whole cointhese things, and with the affairs of the Christian world.'   panies were ready to be hanged with them! that the king
The king hastily dissolved this second parliament; and  might do as he pleased with their lives; for that their rewhen thet lords petitioned for its continuance, he warmly  putation was lost, and their honour forfeited, for want of
and angrily  exclaimed,'Not a moment longer!' It was  their salary to pay their debts.' When a petition was
dissolved in June, 1626.                                   once presented, and it was inquired who was the composer
The patriots abandoned their sovereign to his fate, and  of it? a vast body tremendously shouted,' All! all!' A
retreated home sullen, indignant, and ready to conspire  multitude, composed of seamen, met at Tower-hill, and
amono  themselves for the assumption of their disputed or  set a lad on a scaffold, who, with an' O yes!' proclaimed
their defrauded liberties.  They industriously dispersed  that King Charles had promised their pay, or the duke had
iheir renionstrance, and the king replied by a declaration;  been on the scaffold  himself!'  These, at least were
bi;t an attack is always more vigorous than a defence. The  the grievances more apparent to the sovereign than those
declaration  is spiritless, and evidently composed under  vague ones so perpetually repeated by his unfaithful cornm.
suippressed  feelings, which, perhaps, knew  not how to  mons.  But what remained to be done?  It was only a
shape themselves.  The' Remonstrance  was command-  choice of difficulties between the disorder and the remedy.
ed every where to be burnt; and the effect which it pro-  At the moment, the duke got up what he called' T'he
duced on the people we shall shortly witness,              council of the sea;' was punctual at the first meeting, and
The king was left amidst the most pressing exigencies.  appointed three days in a week to sit-but broke his ap,
At the dissolution of the first parliament, he had been com-  pointment the second day-they fiound him  always otherelled to practise a humiliaiting economy. Hume htas al-  wise engaged; and'the council of the sea' turned out to
fuded to the numerous wants of the young monarch; but  be one of those shadowy expedients which only lasts while
he certainly was not acquainted with the king's extreme  it acts on the imagination.  It is said that thirty thousand
necessities.  His coronation seemed rather private than a  pounds would have quieted these disorganized troops; but
public ceremony.  To  save the expenses of the proces-  the exchequer could not supply so mean a sum.  Buck-,ton from the Tower through the city to Whitehall, that  ingham, in despair, and profuse of life, was planning a
customary ponmp was omitted; and the reason alleged  fresh expedition for the siege of Rochelle; a new arniy
was'to save the charges for more noble undertakings;'   was required.  He swore,' if there was money in the
that is, for means to carry on the Spanish war without  kingdom it should be had
auppli-s! But now  the most extraordinary changes ap-    Now began that series of contrivances and artifices
peared at court.  The king mortgaged his lands in Corn-  and persecutions to levy money.  Forced loans, or prewall to the aldermen and companies of London. A rumotur  tended free-gifts, kindled a resisting spirit.  It was urged
spread that the snmall pension list must be revoked; and  by the couirt party, that the sums required were, in fact,
the royal distress was carried so far, that all the tables at  much less in amount than the usual grants of subsidies,
court were laid down, and the courtiers put on board  but the cry, in return for'  a subsidy,' was always'A Par'
wages!  I have seen a letter which gives an account of  liament!' Many were heavily fined for declaring, that
*, Manscrptte0tiuneVI,22, wo               They knew no law, besides that of Parliament, to coin.
* M~anuscriptp letter 
t Ruslhworth, I. 400. Hurne V, 221,whoenters widely into  pel men to give away their own goods.' Tthe king ordered,
the views ano feelings of Charles                          that those who would not subscribe to the loans should no




LITERATURE.                                                         337
be forced; but it seems there were orders in council to  tlemen flocked to their prisons; and when they petitioned
specity incise householders' names who would not sub-  for more liberty and air during the summer, it was police to
scribe; andt it further appears, that those who would iot!  grant their request.  But it was also policy that they
pay in purse should in person.  Those who were pressed   should not reside in their own counties; this relaxation was
were sent to the depot; but either the soldiers would not  only granted to those who, living in the south, consented
receive these good citizens, or they found easy means to re-  to sojurn in the north; while the dwellers in the north
turrn. Every mode which the government invented seems to  were to be lodged in the south 
have been easily frustrated, either by the intrepidity of the  In the country the disturbed scenes assumed even a
parties themselves, or by that general understanding which   more alarming appearance than  ii London.  They not
enabled the people to play into one another's hands. When  only would not provide mioney, but when money was offerthe common council had consented that an imposition         d by government,  the men refused to serve  a conscritishould be laid, the citizens called the Guild-hall the Yield-  tion was not then knowll: and it became a question, long
all! Arnd wvhenever they levied a distress, itn consequence   debated in the privy council, whether those Ad lo o'tild not
of refusals to pay it, nothing was to be found but' Old ends,  accept press-money should inot be tried by martial law.  I
such as nobody cared for.' Or if a severer officer seized   preserve in the note a curious piece of secret infornlitation.*
on commodities, it was in vain to offer penny-worths where   The great novelty and symptom of the  tites was the seatno customer was to be had. A  wealthy merchant, who  teringofletters.  Sealed letters, addressed to the leading
had formerly been a cheesemonger, was sunlmoned to ap-  Ler of the country, were found hanging ion bushes  anopear before the privy council, and required to lend the  nymous letters were dropt in shops and streets, which
king two hundred pounds, or else to go himself to the army,  gave notice, that the day  was fast apprcaching, wl-ler
and serve it with cheese.  It was not supposed that a    Such a work was to be wrought in England, as never
merchant, so aged and wealthy, would submit to resume   was the like, which will be for our good.' Addresses nilhis former mean trade; but the old man, in the spirit of  tiplied I Ti all true-hearted Englishmen!' A  groom dethe times, preferred the hard alternative, and balked the  tecled  in spreadina such seditious papers, atd brought
new project of finance. by shipping himself with his cheese.  into the inexomable star-chamber, was fined three thousand
At Hicks's Hall the duke and the Earl of Dorset sat to  ponds  Tue leniency of the pinishmeont       as rather rereceive the loans; but the duke threatened, and the earl  gretted by two bishops; if it was ever caried into exectaffected to treat with levity, men who came before them,  tion, the nrihappy ran must have remained a giornt who
with all the suppressed feelings of popular inidignation. The  nev-r after crossed a horse 
Earl of Dorset asking a fellow, who pleaded inability to     There is one liffictlt duty of an historian, which is too
lend money, of what trade he was, and being answered' a  often passed over by the party writer; it is to latuse when.
tailor,' said:'Pitt down your naPte for such  a stum;  (toeever he fFeels himself warmin with the tassions of the mulsnip will make amends fir all!' The tailor quoted scrip-  iude, or becoiins the blind apotosist of a- bittamy power.
ture abundantly, and shook the bench wth laughter or with  Ar historian must transform  himself inti tie characters
rage by his anathemas, till he was put fast into a messen-        e is represeni    and throw himlf back into the
ger's hands.  This was one Ball, renowned through the  tines which he is opening, possessing himself of their
parish of St Clements; and not only a tailor, but a pro- eelina s and tracing their actions, he  la.y then at least
phet.  Twenty years after tailors and prophets erlmlployed  hope io discover truths which may equally interest the
messengers themselves!*                                   honourable men of all parties.
These are instances drawn from  the inferior classes of    This reflection has occurred from the very difficulty insociety; but the same spirit actuated the country gentle-    which I am  now brought.  Shall we at ince cordemir
men: one instance represents many. George Catesby,  the king for at ese arbitrary reasures?  It. is, hoeverat
of Northampronshire, being committed to prison as a loan-  very possible that they were never in his contemplatio t
recusant, alleged am   other reasons for his nn-corn-  Involved in inextricable difficulties, according to lis feelpliance, that' he considered that this loan might become  ings, he was betrayed by parliament; ard he scred to
aprecedent; and that every precedent, he was told by the  iater their favof r by that victim  who had loit  ttaci.ed his
lord president, was a flower of the prerogative.'  The              n of the single victim who had lo
lord president, told him that' he lied!' Catesby shook his  personal affections; a man at least as much envied as
head, observing,' I come not here to contend with your  hated! That hard lesson had not yet been inculcated on
lordship, but to suffer!' Lord Suffolk then interposing,  a British sovereign, that his bosom  must Lie a blank for
entreated the lord president would not too far tirge his  all private affection; and had that lesson been taught, the
kitnsman, Mr Catesby.  This country gentleman waived  character of Charles was destitute of all alptitude for it;
any kindness he might owe to kindred, declaring, that' he  To reign without a refractory parliament, and to find
would remain master of his own purse.' The prisons  among the people themselves subjects more lal   ar
were crowded with these loan-recusants, as well as with  their representatives, was all experiment-arid a fatal one 
those who had sinned in the freedom  of their opinions.  Under Charles, the liberty of the subject, when the necesThe country gentlemen insured their popularity by their  sities of the state pressed on the sovereign, was matter of
committals; and many stout resisters of the loans were re-  discussion, disptted as often as assumed; the divines were
tirnied in the fiollouving  parliament against their own   proclaiming as rebellious those who refused their contriwishes.t   The friends of these knights and country gen-   utions to avoid the government;* and the law-sages  at* The Radicals ofthat day differed from ours in the means,  pudding! a pudding!' and others-' A lie! a lie! a lie!'though not in the end. They at least referred to their Bible,  This Westminster election of nearly two hundred years agn.
and rather more than was required; but superstition is as mad  endedl as we have seen some others; they rejected all who had
as atheism! Many of the puritans confused their brains with  urged the payment of the loans; anti passing by such men
the study of the Revelations; believing Prince Henry to be  as Sir Robert Cotton, and their last representative they fixedl
prefigured in the Apocalypse; some prophesied that he should  on a brewer and a grocer for the two members for Westmin
overthrow'the beast.' Ball our tailor, was this very prophet;  ster.'
and was so honest as to believe in his own prophecy. Osborn    * Extract from a manuscript letter.-' On Friday last I hear
tells, that Ball put out money on adventure; i. e. to receive it  but as a secret, that it was debated at the couuncil table,
back, double or treble, when Kine James should be elected  whether our Essex-men, who refused to take press.money,
pope! So that though he had no money for a loan, he had to  should not be punished by martial-law, and hanged up on the
spare for a prophecy.                                      next tree to their dwellings, for an example of terror to others.
This Ball has been confounded with a more ancient radical,  My lord keeper, who had been long silent, when in conclt.
Ball a priest., and a principal mover in Wat Tyler's insurrec-  sion, it came to his course to speak, told the lords, that as far
tion. Our Ball must have been very notoriious, for Jonson   as he understood the law, none were liable to martial law,
hims noticed his' admired discourses.' Mr Gifford, without  but martiarl men. If these had taken press-money, and afterany knowledge of my account of this tailor-prophet, by his  wards run from their colours, they might then be pursishedl in
active sagacity has rightly indicated him. —See Jonson's  that manner; but yet they were no soldiers. and refused to be
Works, vol. V, p. 241.                                     Secondly, he thought a subsidy, new by law, c{mtld nltt be
t It is curiiOlus to observe, that the Westminster elections, in  pressed against his will for a foreign service: it being supposed
the fourth year of Charles's reign, were exactly of the same  in law. the service of his purse excused that. of his person,
tturbiulent character as those which we witness in our days.  unrless his own country were int dallger; anti he appealedl to
Thb duke hal coutte(l by his irterest to bring in Sir Robert  my leordl treasurer, and my lorth presilellt. wlelher it was nom
Pye. The Contest was severe, but accomparmiedl hy some of  so, whs both asseetetl it w;,s so. though some of tllent f; irtly:,
those ludlicrous electioneering scenes, which still amuse the  as unwiiliLg to have been urgedl tio srf!cb i alnsever. So it us
mnob. Whenever Sir RItoert Pye's party criel-' A Pye! a  th(ouight that proposliti onl is d(ashedtl:  anti it ill hbe triedt lhat
Pyo  a Pve!' the adverse party would cry-' A pudiinlg! a  mawy be doiie iI tile Stalr-Chlanlrber againlt these refractrtiecr




38f8                                    C U R I O S I T I E S t F
leged precedents for raising supplies in the manner which  ministers are supposed sometimes to have conspirators for
Charles had adopted.  Selden, whose learned industry'the nonce;' Sir Dudley Digges, in the opposition, as
was as vast as the amplitude of his mind, had to seek for  usual, would not believe in any such political necronlarcthe freedom of the subject in the dust of the records of the  ers; but such a party were discovered; Cooke would
Tower-and the omnipotence of parliaments, if' any hu-  have insinuated that the French  ambassador had perman assembly may be invested with such supernatural  suaded Louis, that the divisions between Charles arsd his
greatness, had not yet awakened the hoar antiquity of  people had been raised by his ingenuity, and was rewardpopular liberty.                                           ed for the intelligence; this is not unlikely.  After all the
A general spirit of insurrection, rather than insurrection   parliament of Jesuits might have been a secret college of
Itself, had  sudderky raised some strange appearances  the order; for, among other things seized on, was a conthrough the kingdotn.  c The remonstrance' of parliament  siderable library.
hlad unquestionably quickened the feelings of the people:    When the parliament was sitting, a sealed letter was
but vet the lovers of peace and the reverencers of royalty  thrown under the door, with this superscripl ion, Cwsed be
were net a fewv: money and men were procured to send  the man that finds this letter, and-delivers it not to the House
out the annrmy and the fleet.  More concealed causes may  of Commons.  The serjeant at arms delivered it to the
be suspected to have been at work.  Many of the heads  speaker, who would not open it till the House had chosen
ofthe opposition were pursuing some secret machinations:  a committee oftwelve members to inform them whether it
about this time I find many mysterious stories-indications  was fit. to be read.  Sir Edward Cooke, after having read
of secret societies-and other evidences of the intrigues of  two or three lines, stopped, and, according to my authority,
the popular party.' durst read no further, but immediately sealing it, the cornLittle matters, sometimes more important than they ap-   mittee thought fit to send it to the king, who they say, on
pear, are suitable to our minute sort, of history. In Novem-  reading it thlrouhb, cast it into the fire and sent the House
ber, 1626, a rumour spread that the king was to be visited   of Commons thanks for their wisdom in not publishing it,
by an ambassador from' the President of the Society of the  and for the discretion of the committee in so far tendering
Ross-cross.' He was indeed an heteroclite ambassador,  his honiour, as not to read it out, when they once perceived
for he is described' as a youth with never a hair on his  that it touched his majesty.*
face;' in fact, a child who was to conceal the mysterious   Others besides the freedom of speechb, introduced anotler
personage which he was for a moment to represent.  He  form,' A speech without doors,' which we.s distribut.d tLo
appointed  Sunday afternoon to come to court, attended  to the members of the House.  It is in sAl respects a reby thirteen coaches.  He was to proffer to his majesty,  markable one, occupying ten folio pages in the first volunr v
provided the king accepted his advice, three millions to  of Rishworth.
put into his coffers; and bh  his secret councils he was to  Some in office appear to have employed -xtRaordinar'
unfold tnatters of moment and secrecy.  A Latin letter  proceedings of a similar nature.  Arn inte:'cepte  lelite
was delivered to' David Ramsay of the clock' to hand   written from the Arch-duchess to the King of SpAain wa.
over to the king; a copy of it has been preserved in a let.  delivered by Sir H. Martyn at the council-board orn YTew
ter ofthe times; but it is so unmeaning, that it could have  year's day, who found it in some papers relating t.o the
had no effect oni the king, who, however, declared that he  navv.  The duke immediately said he would show it ti
would not admit him to an audience, and that if he could  the king; and, accompanied by several lords, went ilit:
tell where' the President of the Rosy-cross,' was to be  his majesty's closet.  The letter was written in French,
found, unless he made good his offer, he would hang him  it advised the Spanish court to make a sudden war with
at the contrt-ates.  This served the town and country for  England, for several reasons; his Majesty's want (of skil
talk till the appointed Sunday had passed over, and no  to govern of himself; the weakness of his council in iln
atmbassadlir was visible! Some considered this as the  daring to acquaint him with the truth; want of moneyv
Vlotting of crazy brains, but others imagined it to be an  disunion of the subjects' hearts from  their prince. &c.
attemut to speak with the king in private, on matters re-  The kin  only observed, that the writer forgot that the
specting the duke.  There was also discovered, by letters  Arch-duchess writes to the King of Spain in Spanlish, and
received from Rome,' a whole parliament of Jesuits sit-  sends her letters overland.
ting, inn'a  fair-hanged vault' in Clerkenwell: Sir John    I have to add an important fact.  I find ertain eviletrace
Cooke would have alarmed the parliament, that on St  that  the  heads of the opposition were busily active in
Joseph's day these were to have occupied their places   thwarting  the  measures  of government.;r Samllel
Turner, the member for Shrewsbury, called on Sir John
* A member of the House, in James the First's time called   Cage, and desired to speak to hin privately; his errtuitl
this race of divines' Spaniels to the court andl wolves to the   was to entreat him to resist the loan, and to nse his power
people.'-Dr Miainwarinz, Dr Sibthorpe, and Dean Bargrave   with others to obtain this purpose.  The following infoirwere seeking for ancient precedents to maintain absolute mon.  mation comes from Sir John Cage himself.  Dr Tiurner
archy, and to inculcate passive obedience. Bargrave had this' being desired to stay, he would not a minute, btit inpassage in his sermon:' It was the speech of a man renown-  stantly took horse, saying he had more places to go to, a nlA
ed for wisdom in our age, that if he were commanded to put  time pressed; that there was a company qf them had divided
forth to sea in a ship that had neither mast nor tackling, he  themselves into all parts, every one having had a quarter
woull do it:' andt being asked what wisdom  that were, re-     ned to him, to p
plied, I             Theassigned to him, to perform  this service for the commonplied,'The wisdom must be in him that hath power to com    wealth'  Tis was written in  ovember, 1626.   his
mand, not in him that conscience binds to obey.' Sibthorpe,
after he published his sermon, immediately had his house   unquestionably amounts to a secret confederacy watching
burnt dovn. Dr Mainwaring, says a manuscript letter-writer,  out of parliament as well as in; and those strange appear-'sent the other day to a fr;end of mine, to help him to all the   ances of poptular defection exhibited in the cointry, which
ancient precedents he coulrl find, to strenethen his opinion (for  I have described, were in great part the consequlences of
absolute monarchy,) who answered him he could help him in  the machinations and active intrigues of the popular party.t
nothing but only to hanr him, and that if he lived till a parlia-  The king was not disposed to try a third  narliament.
rnent, or &c, he sho~lk~be stare of a halter.'Mainwarinffl   afThe  kin, was not disposed to try a third parliament.
meat, or &c, h  hollbe suare ofnt bt after the dissolution got  The favourite, perhaps to regain that popular favour which
terwuerds submitted to parliament; but after the dissolution got
to a free pardon. The panic of popery was a grent evil. The   his greatness had lost him, is said in private letters to have
divines, under Laud, appearedl to approach to catholicism; but  been twice on his knees to intercede for a new one.  The
it was probatbly only a  roiject of lreconciliation between the   elections however foreboded no good; arid a letter-writer
two churches, which Elizabeth, James, and Charles equally
wished. Mr Cosins, a lette. -writer. cerinsres for' superstition'    * I deliver this fact as I find it in a private letter, but it is
in this bitter style:' Mr Cosines has impudently  made three   noticed in the Journal of the IIouse of Commons, 23 Jutnii, 40.
editions of his praver book, and one which he gives away in   Caroli Regis.' Sir Edward Coke reporteth that they find that,
private, different from the published ones. An audacious fel-  enclosed in the letter, to be unfit fbr any subjects' ear to hear.
low, whom my Lord of Dulrhiam greatly admireth. I doubt if  Read but one line and a half of it, and could nomt endulre to
he be a sound protestant: he was so blind at even-song on  read more of it. It was ordered to be sealed and delivered
Candlemas-day, that he coeuld not see to read prayers in the  into the kings hanuds by eight members, atud to acquiailtt his
minster with less than three hundred and fnnrty candles, where.  majesty with the place and time of finding it; particularly
of sixty he caused to be placed about the high-altar; besides  that upon the reading of one line and a half' at most, they
he caused the picture of ouir Savioulr, supported by two angels,   would read no more, but sealed it up, sand brought it to the,o be set in the choir. The comnmittee is very hot against him,  House.
and no matter if they trounce him' This was Cosins who      t I have since discovered, by a maniscrimt letter, that thit
survived the revolution, and, returning with Charles the See-  Dr Turner was held in contempt by the King; that he was
ond was raised to the see of Duirhn.m; the charitable institu-  ridiculed at court. which he haunted. for his want of veracity,
ions he has left are most munificent.                      in a word, that he was a disappointed courtier I




LITERATURE.                                                           3S9
cennected with the court, in giving an account of them,  was content to give up the master of the horse to Mar.
p.ophetically declared,' we are without question undone!'  quless Hamilton, and the warden of the Cinque Ports to
The king's speech opens with the spirit which he him-  the Earl of Carlisle; and was willing that the parliament
self felt, but which he could not communicate.                should appoint another admiral for all services at sea.'Tho times are for action; wherefore, for example's    It is as certain as human evidence can auihenticate,sake, I mean not to spend much time in words!-If you,  that on the king's side all was grateftil aflection; and that
which God forbid, shou!d not do vour duties in contribut-  on Buckingham's there was a most earnest desire to wvin
ing what the state at this time needs, I must, in discharge   the favours of parliament; and what are stronger than ral';
onfmg  conscience, usfa those other meaows which God hath   human evidence, those unerring principles in hlumtan na.
of my cotnscience, use those other means which God hath
put into my hands, to save that, which the follies of some   ture itself, which are the secret springs of the heart, wefr
particu ar men may otherwise hazard to lose.'  He added,  working in the breasts of the king alid his minister; f1r
with the loftiness of ideal majesty-' Take not this as a   neither were tyrannical,  The king undollbtedly sighed to
threatening, for I scorn to threaten any but my equals;   meet parliament with the love which he had at first p)ro-.
but as an admonition from  him, that both out of nature   fessed; he declared, that'he should now rejoice to meet
and duty, hath most care of your preservations and pros-  with his people often.' Charles had no innate tyranny in
perities:' and in a more friendly tone he requested them,  his constitutional character; and Buckingham  at tines' To remember a thing to the end that we may forget it.  was susceptible of misery amidst his greatness, as I have
You may imagine that I come here with a doubt nf suc-  elsewhere shown.*  It could not have been imagtlied that
You may imagine that I come here with a doubt of sue-  the luckless favourite,   on the pressent occasion, should have
cess. remeimbering the distractions of the last meeting;favourite, on the presentoccaion, st d  ave
but I assure you that I shall very easily forget and forgive   served as a pretext to set again in motion the chaos of
what is past.' —                                              evil! Can any candid mind suppose, that the kinug or the
duke meditated the slightest insult on the patt..tic party,
A  most crowded house now  met, composed  of the                uld  in the least have disturbed te appare          nor would in the least have disturbed the apparent reconwealthiest men; for a lord, who probably considered that  ciliation! Yet it so happened! Secretary Cooke. at the
property was the triue balance of power, estimated  that  close of his report of the king's acceptance of the subsidies,
they were able to boy the lpper house, his majestv only   mentioned that the dtlke had fervently beseeched the king
excepted!  The aristocracy of wealth had already began   to grant the house all their desires  Perhats tie  nento be felt.  So me ill otrenrs of the parliament appeared.  tion of the duke's name was designed to ingratiate him into
Sir Robert Philips moved for a zeneerai fast:' we had one   their toleration.
for the Iplaqule which it pleased Goul to deliver its from,     Sir John Elliot caught fire at the very name of the dluke,
and we have now 1 so many Itlanues of the commonwealth   and vehemently checked the secretary for having dared to
ahott hitis maj.1estys person, that we Itave need of such an   introduce it; declaring. that' they knew of no other disact of humiliation.'  Sir Edward Coke held it most ne-                                              By
cessarv.' because there are. I fear, some devils that will  tinction   ht ofh king and subjects.  Bointerngling a
not be ca *t ot but    fasting and praver.'                   sbject's speech with                             seeme  t
Man y  ofthe sp s in   hi  greatn. c   derogate from  the honour and majesty of a Iking.  Nor
Manv of the speeches in' this  -reat council of t              _..ay   fth;sp~h~   n'hi   retcol~i  f -  woulsd it become any subject to bear himnself in strch a
kingdom' are as admirable pieces of composition as exist  would it become
kintedol'anure    as a    hlm eorabl tt lees opt composwton morate,  fashion, as if no grace ought. to descend fiom the king to
in the language.  Even the court-party were moderate,                        I
ra  the,   the people, nor any lovalty ascend from the people to the
extenlatirne  rather than.pleadinq for the late necessities.  kinr, but throlurh him onlv.'
Biut the evil spirit of party, hoNpever veiled, was walking     This    ech was received bh  many with acelarnations;
amidst them  all.  A letter-writer represents the natulral   some cried  o        ell  spoken  Si  John  Elli   t 
state of feelings: "Some of the parliament talk desperately;  marks the heated state of the pulitical atmosphere, where
while others, of as high a course to enforce money, if they   even te lihtest cruscation of a 
even the tiahtest ccruscation of a hated name made it
yield not'  Such is the perpetual action and re-action of      rst into flames!
public opinrion; when one side will give too little, the other  I have often suspected that Sir John Elliot, by his seis sine tso desire itoo mich               _                  hement personality. must have borne a personal antipathy
The parliament granted subsidies-Sir John Cooke hav-   to Bnckingham.    I have never been enablet to aecertato
ine  brought tup the report to the kingy, Charles expressed   the fact; btt I find that he has left in manltscript  a col
gres; satisfaction, and declared that he felt. nowv more han-  lection of satires, or'Verses, being ch.i fly inectuves
py than any of his predecessors.  Inquilrinn  of Sir John   aainst the D         f Bucinam, to whom   e bor a bi
byv how many voices he had carried it?  Cooke replied,  t stu  most invterate enm.' Co                    e    n      es
ter and most inveterate enmitv.'  Could we sone~.imes
Bnut tny one! i-at which his majesty seemed appalled, and   discover the motives of those who first head political revor,
a.ked' how  many wvere anainst him?  Coofke answered
lutions, we shonuld find how greatly personal hatreds Iave'None! the unanimity of the House made all but one'None! the tnanimityof the House made all but one  actuated them in deeds which have come downlv to us in
voice!' at which his nmajesty wept!*   If Charles shed             rm  of patrioti    a   how ofteliona
the frm of patriotism, and how often the revoltuotary
tears, or as Cooke himselfexpresses it, in his report to the spirit diguises its rivate passions by its plic cdct
house,' was much affected,' tite emotion was profound:         Bnt the sllpplies. which hasi raised tears from  the fer_
for on all sudden emergencies Charles displayed an almost  vent  atitud  of Charles, tlsugh voted, were yet rithe
urnnaralleled command over the exterior violence of his  ven,    r
feelings.                                                       * Curiosities of Literature, First Series.
The favonurite himself sympathized with the tender joy       tI finrd this speech. arnd art ccourlnt of its receptiotn, in) maof his royal master; and, before the king, volnuntarily   nuscript letters; the fragment in Rusllworth coatains no part
offered himself as a peace-sacrifice.  In his speech at the   of it, I, 526.  Sloane MSS, 4177. Ietter 490, &c
Modlern history wouuld afford more instances than perhaps
council table, he entreats the kina that he who had the   some of tus suspect. I cannot pass over an illulstration of my
honour to be his majesty's favourite. might now give sip  principle. which I shall take from two very notorious politician!
that title to them.-A  warm  genuine feeling probably   -Wat Tyler, and Sir William Walworth!
promoted these wordls.                                          Wat. when in servitude, had been beaten hy his master,'To open my heart, please to pardon me a word more;  Richard Lions, a great merchant of winles, andr   a sheriff of
I must confess I have long lived in pain, sleep hath given   London. This chastisement, workinr onr an evil tinjspsition,
me no rest, favours and fortunes no content; such have   arpears neverto havebeerl furtiver    nl n  hetl lsis Rauliejl
been my secret sorrows, to be thought the man of seara assumed his short-lived dominion, he hadl hie oltl master h-e.
been my secret sorrows, to be thought the man of serara-  headed, and his head crarried behind him on the point of a
tion, and that divided the king from his people, and them   shea       nd his hd crried hehin  himu s to  the e te r   of this
from him; but I hope it shall appear they were some mis-  arch.jacobin  who' was a craft   y felow.  anto the eternal n excellef this
taken minds that would have made me the evil spirit that  wit, hbut wanting grace.' I would not sully the glory of the
walketh between a good mastPr and a loyal people.'*           patriotic blow which erded the rebellion with the rebel yet
Buckinuaham added, that for the good of his country he   there are secrets in hietlrv! Sir Willilun Waltvwrth,'the
was willing to sacrifice his honours  and since his pluralitv   ever.famous man ir of Loludon,' as Stowe ie signates him, has;and    plralitv lent the immortalt v of his name to one of ur  suburhbs;  but
of offices had been so stronelv excepted against, that he   when Idisoveref  in Stowe's. survey that tRV;lworth was the
* This circuimstance is mentioned in a manllscript letter;  lanilor(d of the stews on the Bark-side. whtch he thrmed otut
what Cooke declared to the House is in Rushworth, vol. I, p.  to the Dutch vrows. and which NVntt bed thl  llel leo n. I e;m
625.                                                         inclined( to sluspect that private feeling fiest knocked dowp the
tI refer the critical stuldent of our history to the dnke's  saucy ribald, anrl then thrinst him throleh arld 0te!nlesh with
reech at the culinril-thlbe Ps it.qppenrs in Ruth worth, 1, 525:  his d azoer ~ and thatthere was as much of personal vengeans e
ut whbat I 1ndt resl'r-rtin  bio,,ersonal sanci'ecez is fiom ma.:!l rntriti-n-. which crmt.hed tise (leln1usisther ofu s') us WiX  valin
nuscript letters  Sloane MSS, 1177. Letter 490, &c.           able pruo:eryv




390                                     CURIOSITIES OF
held.  They resolved that grievances and supplies go  thing.  On the first of May, Secretary Cooke delivered
hand in hand.  The commons entered deeply into consti-  a message, asking, whether they would rely upon the
utional points of the highest magnitude.  The curious  king's word?  This  question was followed by a long
erudition of Selden arnd Coke was comb;ned with the ar-  silence. Several speeches are reported in the letters of
dour of patriots who merit no inferior celebrity, though,  the times, which are not in Rushworth.  Sir Nathariel
not having consecrated their names by their laborious lite-  Rich observed, that I confident as he was of the royal
rature, we only discover them  In the obscure annals of  word, what did any indefinite word ascertain?' Pyrn said,
parliament.  To our history, composed by writers of dif-' We have his Majesty's caronation oath to maintain the
ferent principles, I refer the reader for the arguments of  laws of England; what need we then take his word?'
lawyers, and the spirit of the commons.  My secret his-  He proposed to mrve' Whether we should take the king's
tory is only its supplement.                               word or no.' This was resisted by Secretary Cooke;
The king's prerogative, and the subject's liberty, were' What would they say in foreign parts, if the people ot
points hard to distinguish, and were established but by  England would not trust their king?'  le desired the
contest.  Sometimes the king imagined that'the house  house to call Pym  to order; on which Pym  replied,
pressed not upon the abuses of power, but only upon power' Truly, Mr Speaker, I am  just of the same opinion I
itself.'  Sometimes the commons doubted whether they  was; viz, that, the king's oath was as powerful as his
had any thing of their own to give; while their property   word.' Sir John Elliot moved that it be put to the quesand their persons seemed equally insecure.  Despotismi  tion,'because they that would have it, do urge us to that
seemed to stand on one side, and Faction on the other-   point.' Sir Edward Coke on this occasion made a meLiberty trembled!                                          morable speech, of which the following passage is not
T'he conference of thle commons before the lords, on the  given in Rushworth.
freedom and person of the subject, was admirably con-' We sit now in parliament, and therefore must take his
ducted by Selden and by Coke.  When the king's attor-  majesty's word no otherwise than in a parliamnentary ways;
nev affected to slight the learned arguments and prece-  that is, of a miattcr agreed on by bothl houses-his majesty
dents, pretending to consider them as mutilated out of the  sitting on his throne in his robes, with his crown on his
records, and as proving rather against the commons than   head, and sceptre in his hand, and in full parliament; and
for themb; Sir Edward Coke rose, affirming to the house,  his royal assent being entered upon record, in perpetuam
upon his sill! in the law, that' it lay not tinder Mr Attor-  rei memoriam.  This was the royal word of a king in parney's cal, to answer any one of their arguments.' Selden  lianment, and not a word delivered in a chamber, and out of
declared that he had written out all the records from the  the mouwh of a secretary at the second hand; tiherefore I
Tower, the Exchequer, and the King's Bench, with his  motion, that the House of Commons, more majorum, should
own hand; and'would engage his head, Mr Attorney   draw a petition, de droict, to his majesty; which, being
6hould not find in all these archives a single precedent  confirmed by both houses, antd assented unto by his maomitted.' Mr Littleton said, that he had examined every  Jesty, will be as firm  an act as any.  Not that I distrust
one syllabatim,   and whoever said they were mutilated   the king, but that I cannot take his trust but in a parliaspoke fadse! Of so ambiguous and delicate a nature was  mentary way.'*
then the liberty of the subject, that it seems they con-    In this speech of Sir Edward Coke we find the first
sidered it to depend on precedents!                        mention, in the legal style, of the ever-memorable' PetiA startling message, on the 12th of April, was sent by  tion of Right,' which two days after was finished.  The
the kini, for despatch of business.  The house, struck   reader must pursue its history among the writers of opvith astonishment, desired to have it repeated.  They   posite parties.
remained sad and silent.  No one cared to open the de-    On Tuesday, June 5, a royal message announced, that
bate.  A whimsical politician, Sir Francis Nethersole.*   on the 11th the present sessions would close. This utterly
triddenlv started tip, entreating leave to tell his last niAhl's  disconcerted the commons.  Religious men considered it
dream.  Some laughing at him, he observed, that'king-  as a judicial visitation for the sins of' the people; others
doms had been saved by dreams!' Allowed to proceed,  raged with suppressed  feelings; they counted tlp all the
he said,' he saw two good pastures; a flock of sheep was  disasters which. had of late occurred, all which, were
in the one, and a bell-wether alone in the other; a great  charged to one man: they knew  not, at a moment so
ditch was between  them, and  a narrow  bridge over  urgent, when all their liberties seemed at stake, whether
the ditch.'                                                the commons should fly to the lords, or to the king.  Sir
He was interrupted by the Speaker, who told him that  John Elliot said, that as they intended to furnish his mait stood not with the gravity of the house to listen to  jesty with money, it was proper that he should give them
dreams; but the house was inclined to hear him out.       time to supply him with counsel: he was renewing his old
The sheep would sometimes go over to the bell-wether,  attacks on the duke, when he was suddenly interrupted by
or the bell-wether to the sheep. Once both met on the  the speaker, who, starting from the chair, declared, that he
narrow bridge, and the question was who should go back,  was commanded not to suffer him  to proceed; Elliot sat
since both could not go on without danger.  One sheep  down in sullen silence. On Wednesday Sir Edward Coke
gave counsel that the sheep on the bridge should lie on  broke the ice of debate.'That man,' said he of the
their bellies, and let the bell-wether go over their backs.  duke,'is the grievance of grievances! As for going to the
The application of this dilemma he left to the house.'t It  lords,' he added'that is not via regia; our liberties are
must be confessed that the bearing of the point was more  intpeached-it is our concern!'
ambiguous than some of the important ones that formed the    On Thursday the vehement cry of Coke against Bucksuibjects of fierce contention.  Datus sum, non CEdiptus!  ingham  was followed up; as, says a letter-writer, whent
It is probable that this fantastical politician did not vote  one good hound recovers the scent, the rest come in with
with the opposition; for Elliott, Wentworth, and Coke,  a full cry.  A  sudden message from  the king absolutely
protested against the interpretation of dreams in the house!  forbade them  to asperse any of his majesty's ministers,
When the attorney-general moved that the liberties of  otherwise his majesty would instantly dissolve them.
the subject might be moderated, to reconcile the differ-    This fell like a thunderbolt; it struck terror and alarm,
ences between themselves and the sovereign, Sir Edward  and at the instant, the House of Commons was changed
Coke observed, that'the true mother would never consent  into a scene of tragical melancholy! All the opposite
to the dividing of her child.' On this, Buckingham swore  passions of human nature-all the national evils which
that Coke intimated that the king, his master, was the  were one day to burst on the country, seemed, on a sudprostitute of the state.  Coke protested against the mis-  den, concentrated in this single spot; Some were seen
Irteroretation.  The dream of Nethersole, and the meta-  weeping, some were expostulating, and some, in awful
phor of Coke, were alike dangerous in parliamentary dis-  prophecy, were contemplating the future ruin of the king.
cussion.  In a manuscript letter it is said that the House   dom; while others, of more ardent daring, were reproachof Commons sat four days without speaking or doing any  ing tihe timid, quieting the terrified, and infusing resolution
into the despairing  Many attemlpted to speak. but were
~ I have formed my idea of Sir Francis Nethersole front    o the despairing.  Many attempted to speak bt were
some strange incidtents in his political conduct, which I have   so stroncly affected that their very utterrance failed them,
read in some contemporary letters. He was, however, a man   The venerable Coke, overcome by his feelings when he
of some eminence, had been Orator for the University of  rose to speak, found his learned eloquence falter on his
Cambridge, Agent for James I, with the Princess of the Union  tongue; he sat down, and tears were seen on his aged
in Germany, and also Secretary to the Queen of Bohemia.
i ue founded and enr,ed aFree-school at Polesworth in War.    * These speeches are entirely drawn from manIscript letwickshire.                                                 ters. Coke's may be substantially found in Rushworth, but
f Manuscript letter.                                     without a single expression as here given.




JITERATIT RE.                                                       391
&h-,eks.  The name of the public enemy of the kingdom  one of the chief' maintenances of my crown,' in tonnage
was repeated, till the speaker, with tears covering his face,  and poundage, the levying of which, they now declared,
declared he could no longer witness such a spectacle of wo   was a violation of the liberties of the people. This subject?n the commons of England, and requested leave of ab-  again involved legal discussions, and another' Remonsence obr half an hour.  The speaker hastened to the   strance.' They were in the act of reading it, when the
king, to inform hinm of the state of the house.  They were   king suddenly came down to the house, sent for the speakpreparing a vote against the duke, for being an arch-traitor  er, and prorogued the parliament.' I am forced to end
and arch-inelmy to king and kingdom, and were busied on  this session,' said Charles,' some few  hours before X
their' Remonstrance,' when the speaker, on his return, de-  meant, being not willing to receive any more Remcnlivered his majesty's message, that they should adjourn till  strances, to which I must give a harsh answer.' There
the next day.                                              was at least, as much of sorrow as of anger, in this closing
This was an awful interval of time; many trembled for  speech.
the issue of the next morning: one letter-writer calls it,    Buckingham once more was to offer his life for the hon.
I'hat black and doleful Thursday!' and another, writing   our of his master-and to co)urt popularity! It is well
before the house mett, observes,' VW'hat we shall expect this  known with what exterior fortitude Charles received the
morning, God of heaven knows; we shall meet timely.'*    news of the duke's assassination  this imperturbable maCharles probably had been greatly affected by the report  jesty of his mind-insensibility it was not-never deserted
of the speaker, on the extraordinary state into which the   him on many similar occasions.  There was no indecision
whole house had been thrown; for on Friday the royal mes-  -no feebleness in his conduct.; and that l.etraordinary
sage imported, that the king had never any intention of  event was not suffered to delay the expedition. Phe kine's'barring therm from their right, but only to avoid scandal,  personal industry astonished all the men in trfice. One
that his ministers should not be accused for their counsel to   writes, that the.king had done more in six weeks than in
him; and still he hoped that all christendom might notice  the duke's time had been done in six months.  The death
a sweet parting between him and his people.' This mes-  of Buckingham caused no change; the king left every man
sage quieted the house, but did not suspend their prepara-  to his own charge, but took the general direction into his
tions for a' Rt monstrance,' which they had begun on the  own hands.*  in private, Charles deeply mourned the loss
day they were threatened with a dissolution.               of Buckingham; he gave no encouragement to his enem0n Saturrdav, while they were still occupied on the' Re-  mies: the king called him' his martyr,' and declared,  the
monstrance,' unexpectedly, at four o'clock, the king came to  world was greatly mistaken in him; for it was thought
parliament. and the commons were called up.  Charles  that the favourite had ruled his majesty, but it was far
spontaneously came to reconcile himself to parliament.  otherwise; for that the duke had been to himr a faithiful
Tile kiel, noov gave hiis second answer to the' Petition of  and an obedient servant.'t  Such were the feelings and
Right.' He said,' My maxim is, that thle people's liberties  ideas of the unfortunate Charles the First, which it is ne.
strengthen the king's prerogative; and the king's preroga-  cessary to become acquainted with to juige of; few have
tive is to defend the people's liberties.  Read your petition,  possessed the leisure or the disposition to perform this hisand you shall have an answer that I am  sure will please  storical duty, involved, as it is, in the history of our passions.
you.'t  They desired to have the ancient forin of their an-  If evcr the man shall be viewed, as well as the monarch, the
cestors,' Soit droit fait come il est desyr6,' and not as the  private history of Charles the First will form one of the
ling had before given it, with any observation on it. Charles  most pathetic of biographies.T
now granted this; declaring that his second answer to the     All the Foreign expeditions of Charles the First, were
petition in nowise differed from his first;'but you now see  alike disastrous; the vast genius of Richelieu, at its merihow ready I have shown myself to satisfy your demands;  dian, had paled our inefft(tual star! The dreadful stir.
I have dlone my part; wherefore, if this parliament have  render of Rochelle had sent back our army and navy bafnot a happy conclusion, the sin is yours,-I am free from   fled and disgraced; and Btuckingham had timely perished,
~t!'                                                      to be saved from  having one more reproach, one more
Popular gratitude is, at least, as vociferous as it is sud-  political crime, attached to his name.  Such failures dlid
den.  Both houses returned the king acclamations of joy;  not improve the temper of the times; but the most brievery one seemed to exult at the happy change which a few  liant victory would not have changed the fate of Charles,
days had effected in the fate of the kingdom.  Every   nor allayed the fiery spirits in the conimmons, who, as
where the bells rung, bonfires were kindled, an universal  Charles said,'not satisfied in hearing coplainers, had
holiday was kept through the town, and spread to the coun-  erected themselves into inquisitors after complaints.'
try: but an ominous circumstance has been registered by      Parliament met.  The king's speech was conciliatory.
a letter-writer; the common people, who had caught the   He acknowledged that the exaction of the duties of the cuscontagious happiness, imagined that all this public joy was  toms was not. a right which he derive:] from his hereditary
occasioned by the king's consentiang to commit the duke to  prerogative, but one which he enjoyed as the gift of his
the Tower'!                                                people.  These dirties as yet had not indeed been formal.
Charles has been censured, even by Hume, for his  lv confirmed by parliarent, but they had never been rte.'evasions anld delays,' in granting his assent to the'Pe-  fused to the sovereign.  The king closed with a fervent
titian of Right;' but now, either the parliament had con-  ejaculation, that the session, begun with confidence, might
quered the royal unwiilitigness, or the king was zealously  end with a mutual good understanding.
Inclined on reconciliation.   Yet the joy of the commons     The shade of Buclkingham was no longer cast between
did not outlast the boiifires in the streets; they resumed   Charles the First and the commons. Anid vet we find that
their debates as if they had never before touched on the'their dread and dear sovereign' was not allowed ally repose
subjects; they did not account for the feelings of the man   on the throne.
whom they addressed as the sovereign.  They sent up a        A new demon of national discord, Religion, in a meta-'Remonstrance' against the duke,t and introduced his  phvsical garb, reared its distracted head.  This evil spirit
mother into it, as a Xpfatroness of Popery.  Charles de-  had been raised by the conduct of the court divines, whose
clared, that after havin  granted the iamrnols'I Petition,' he   political sermons, with their attempts to return to the mort
had not expected such a return as this' Remonstrance.   solemn ceremonies of the Romish church, alarmed some'How acceptable it is,' he afterwards said,' every man  tender consciences; it served as a masked batterv for the
may jdigle; no wise man can justify it.' After the read-  patriotic party to change their ground at will, without
ing of the Remonstrance, the dtuke fell on his knees, de-  slackeninc their fire.  When the ling urged for the duties
siring to answer for hirnself; but Charles no way relaxed
siring to aisuer for himself; but Charles no way relaxed   of his customs, he found that he was addressing a committee
in showing his personal f'avtiur.~                         sitting for religion.  Sir John Elliot threw out a singular
The duke was often charged with actions and with ex-   expression.  Alluding to. some of the biships. whom he
pressions of which, unquestin nablv, he wvas not always   called'masters of cereminies,' he confessed that some
guilty; and we can more fairly, decide on some points, re* Maniuscript Letters; Lord Dorset to the Earl of Carlisle
latina to Charles anti the favourite, for we have a clearer  *  M      ipttt    Lord Dorse to the Earl of Carlisl
Sloare MiSS, 4178. Letter 519.
notion of them than his contml:nporaries.  The active spi-    MIlnulscript Letter.
rits in the commons wvere resolved to hunt down  the  amrne   I have given the' Secret History of Charles the First, and
to the death; for they now struck at, as tie king  calls it,  his Queen,  where I have traced the firmness and indepen.
dence of his character, in the fifth volume of the seventh edi.
* This last letter is printed in Rushworth, Vol. i, p. 609.  tiO;t, tl'e first sseries of this workl, or in the third of the eighth,
tThe king's answer is in Rulshworth. Vol I, p. 6i13.    T- th- sarn.v(llumes wvill be fiuindl as much of the Secret
This eloqiient state pap;r is in Rlishlwiorth. Vol. I, p. 619.  Tistl-ov of thme Duke of Bull-kingham' as I have been enable4,
This interview is takenr from manuscript letters.       to acsquire.




392                                 CURIOSITIES OF
ceremonies were commendable, such as' that we should  fusion and riot. Many of the members were struck by
stand up at the repetition of the creed, to testify the re-  horror amid-t this conflict, it was a sad imnage oif the fiu>
solution ofour hearts to deftnd the religion we profess, and  ture! Several of the patriots were committed to the
in some church'.s theny iidi not only stand upright, but with  tower.  The king on dissolving this parliament which was
their swords draws.' EIis speech was a spark that fell into  the last, till the memorable' Long Parliament,' gives us,
a well-laid train; scarcely c(an we conceive the enthusias-  at least, his idea of it.' It is far from  me to judge all the
tic temper of the House of Commons, at that moment,  house alike guilty, for there are there as dutiful subjec:ts
when, after some debate, they entered into a vow to pre.  as any in the world; it being but some few vipers among
serve' the articles of religion established by parliament, in  them that did cast this mist of undutifulness over most of
the thirteenth year of our late Queen Elizabeth!' and this  their eyes.'*
vow was immediately followed up by a petition to the king  Thus have I traced, step by step, the secret history of
foir a fast for the increasing miseries of the reformed   Charles the First and his early parliaments. I have entered
chorches abroad.  Parliaments are liable to have their  into their feelings, while I have supplied new facts, to make
passions! Si)me of these enthusiasts were struck by a   every thing as present and as true as my faithful diligence
panic, not perhaps warranted by the danger of'Jesuits and   could repeat the tale. It was necessary that I should
Arminians.' The king answered them in good humour;  sometimes judge of the first race of our patriots as some of
observing, however, on the state of the reformed abroad,  their contemporaries did; but it was impossible to avoid'that fighting would do them  more good than fasting.'  correcting these notions by the more enlarged views of
He granted them their fast, buit they would now grant no  their posterity.  This is the privilege of an historian and
return; for now  they presented' a Declaration' to the  the philosophy of his art.  There is no apology for the
king, that tonnage and poundage must give precedency   king, nor no declamation for the subject. Were we only
to religion! The king's answer still betrays no ill tem-.  to decide by the final results of this great conflict, of which
per. He confessed that he did not think that' religion   what we have here narrated is but the faint beginning, wt,
was in so much danger as they affirmed.' He reminds   should confess that Sir John Elliot and his party were the
them of tonnage and poundage' I do not so much desire  first fathers of our political existence; and we should not
it out of greediness of the thing, as out of a desire to put an   withhold from them the inexpressible gratitude of a nation's
end to those questions that arise between me and some of  freedom! But human infirmity mortifies us in the noblest
my subjects.                                             pursuits of man; and we must be taught this penitentia.
Never had the king been more moderate in his claims,  and chastising wisdom.  The story of our patriots is inor more tender in his style; and never had the commons  volved: Charles appears to have been lowering those high
been more fierce, and never, in truth, so utterly inexorable!  notions of his prerogative, whiclh were not peculiar to him,
Often kings are tyrannical, and sometimes are parliaments,  and was throwing himself on the bosom of his people.
a body corporate, with the infection of passion, may per-  The severe and unrelenting conduct of Sir John Elliot, his
foirm acts of injustice equally with the individual who abu-  prompt eloquence and bold invective, well litted him for
ses the power with whichl he is invested. It was insisted  the leader of a party. He was the loadstone, drawing tothat Charles should give tip the receivers of the customs  gether the looser particles of iron. Never sparing in the
who were denounced as capital enemies to the king and   Monarch, the errors of the Man. never relinquishkingdom, while those who submitted to the duties were  ing his royal prey, which he had fastened on, Elliot, with
declared guilty as accessories.  When Sir John Elliot  Dr Turner and some others, contributed to make Charles
was pauring forth invectives against some courtiers-how-   disgusted with all parliaments.  Without any dangerous
ever thev may have merited the blast of his eloquence-he   concessions, there was more than one moment when they
was sornetimes interrupted and sometimes cheered, for the   might have reconciled the sovereign to themselves, and
stinging personalities.  The timid speaker refusirin to put  riot have driven hint to the fatal resourse of attempting to
the question, suffered a severe reprimand from Selden;  reign without a parliament!'If you will not put it, we must sit still, and thus we shall
never be able to do anty thing!' The house adjourned in                      THE RUMP.
great heat; the dark prognostic of their next. meeting,    Text and commentary! The French revolution abounds
which Sir Symonds D'Ewes has marked in his diary as   with wonderful'explanatory notes' on the Enalish.  It' the most gloomy, sad, and dismal day for England ihat  has cleared tip many obscure passages-and in the politihappened four five hundred years!'                      cal history of Man, both pages must be read together.
On this fatal day,* the speaker still refusing to put the  The opprobrious and ludicrous nickname of The Rump,
qutestiot, and announcing the king's command for an ad-  stigmatized a faction which played the same part in the
joirnment, Sir John Elliot stood 1up!  The speaker at-   Enulish Revolution as the'M  ntagne' of the Jacobins did
tempted to leave the chair, but two members, who had  in the French.  It has been imagined that our English
place l themselves on each side forcibly kept him down-   Jacobins were impelled by a principle different from that
Eliliot. who had prepared' a short Declaration,' filng, down   of their modern rivals; but the madness of avowed athea paper on the floor, crying out that it might be read!  ism, and the frenzy of hypocritical sanctity, in the circle of
His party vociferated for the reading-others that it should   crimes meet at the same point.  Their history forms one
not. A sudden tumult broke out; Coriton. a fervent pa-   of those useful parallels where, with truth unerring as
triot, struck another member, and many laid their hands on   mathematical demonstration, we discover the identity of
their swords.f' Shall we,' said one,' be sent home as we   human nature.  Similarity of situation, and certain prinwere last sessions, turned off like scattered sheep?' The   ciples, producing similar personages and similar events,
weeping, trembling speaker, still persisting in what he held  finally settle in the same results.  The Rump, as long as
to be his duty, was dragged to and fro by opposite parties;  human nature exists, can be nothing but the Rump, howbut neither he nor the clerk would read the paper, though   ever it may be thrown uppermost.
the speaker was bitterly reproached by his kinsman, Sir    The origin of this political by-name has often been inPeter Hayman,'as the disgrace of his country, and a   quired into; and it is somewhat curious, that though all
blot to a noble family.  Elliot. finding the house sr strong-   parties consent to reprobate it, each assigns for it a dlifferly divided, undauntedly snatching up the paper, said,'I   ent allusion. In the history of political factions there is
shall then express that br my tongue which this paper   always a mixture of the ludicrous with the tragic; but,
should have done.' Denzil Holles assumed the character   except their modern brothers, no faction, like the present,
of speaker, putting the question: it was returned by the   ever excited such a combination of extreme contempt and
acclamations of the party.  The doors were locited, and   extreme horror.
the keys laid on the table.  The king sent for the sergeant    Among the rival parties in 1659, the loyalists and the
and mace, but the messenger could obtain no admittance   presbyterians acted, as we may suppose the Tories and
-the usher of the blacl-rod met no more regard.  The
-the usher of the black-rod met no mre reard.  The  *At the time many undoubtedly considered that it was a
cing then ordered out his guard-in the meanwhile the   mere faction in the house  Sir Symonds D'Ewes was certain.
vrotest was completed-the door was flung open, the rush  ly no politician-but, unquestionably, his ideas were not pec -
of the members was so impetuous that the crowd carried   liar to himnself. Of the last third parliament he deli'ers this
awvv  among them the sergeant and the usher, in the con-  opinion in his Diary.' I cannot deem but the greater part of
the house were morally horiest men; biit these were the least, Monday, 2d of March, 1629.                           guilty of thile fatal breach, being only misled by some othet
It was imagined out of doors that swords hadl been drawn;  Machiavellian politics, who seemed zealous for the liberty of
for a Welsh page running in ereat haste, when he heard the  the commonwealth. and by that means, in the movine of their
noise. to the do-,r, crie l out, I I pranv voy let hr I;n i let huir in   outward freedom, drew the votes of those goo'd men to the::
so give hur master his swvord!-Manuscript let:el.      i ide.'




LIT ERATURE.                                                      393
the Whigs would in the same predicament; a secret re-  know one! And his' Purge' might have operated a quits
conciliation had taken place, to bury in oblivion their for-  opposite effect, administered by his own unskilful hand, had
mer jealousies, that they might unite to rid themselves  not Lord Grey of' Groley, and the doorkeeper, —worthy
from  that tyranny of tyrannies, a hydra-headed govern-  dispersers of a British senate!-pointed out the obnoxious
ment; or, as Hume observes, that' all efforts should be  members, on whom our colonel laid his hand, and sent off
used for the overthrow of the Rump; so they called the  by his men to be detained, if a bold member, or to be deter.
parliament, in allusion to that part of the animal body.'  red from sitting in the house, if a frighteed one.  This coThe sarcasm of the allusion seemed obvious to our polished  lonel had been a dray-man; and the contemptible knot of
historian; yet, looking more narrowly for its origin, we  the Commons, reduced to fifty or sixty conrfederates, which
shall find how indistinct were the notions of this nick-name  assembled after his' Purge,' were called' Col. Pride's Drayamong those who lived nearer the times.  Evelyn says,  horses!'
that' the Rump Parliament was so called, as retaining       It was this Rump which voted the death of the sovereign,
some few rotten memnbers of the other.' Roger Coke de-  and abolished the regal office, and the house of peers-' as
scribes it thus:' You must now be content with a piece  unrinecessary, burdensome, and dangrerous!'' Every office
of the Comrrons called " The Rump."' Arid Carte calls  in parliament seemed' dangerous' but that of the' Cuslodes
the Rump' the carcass of a House,' and seems not pre-  libertatis Anglige,' the keepers of the liberties of England!
clselv aware of the' contemptuous allusion.  But how do  or rather' the gaolers!'' The legislative half-quarter of' rotten members,' and' a carcass,' agree with the notion  the House of Commons!' indignantly exclaims Clement
of' a Rump?' Recently the editor of the Lifb of' Colonel  Walker-the'Montagne' of the French revoluti-nists!
IHutchinson has conveyed a novel origin.' The number'The Red-coats,' as the military were nick-named, soon
of the menmbers of the L.ong Parliament having been by se-  taught their masters,'the Rumpers,' silence annd obedience:
clusion, death, &c, very much reduced,' —a remarkable,  the latter having raised one colossal man for their owv n pur&c, this! by which our editor seems adroitly to throw a  pose, were annihilated by him  at a single blocw.  Cromveil over the forcible transportation by the Rumpers of two  well, five years after, turned them out of their house, and
hundred members at one swoop,-' the remainder was  put the keys into his pocket. Their last public appearance
compared to the rump o'aJbowl which was left. all the rest  was in the fleeting days of Richard Cromwell. when the
being eaten.' Our editor even considers this to be'a   comi-tragedy of' the Rump' concludtled by a catastrophe
coarse emblem;' yet' the runip of a fowl' could hardly of-  as ludicrous as that of Toni Thumb's tragedy 
fend even a lady's delicacy! Our editor, probably, was    How  such a faction used their insrutments to gather in
somewhat anxious not to degrade too lowly the anti-monar-  the common spoil, and how their instruments at length conchical party, designated by this opprobrious term.  Per-  verted the hands which held therm, into ilistruiments hetmhaps it is pardonable in Mrs Macaulay, an historical lady,  selves, appears in their history.  When' the Long Parliaand a' Rumper,' for she calls' the Levellers''a brave  ment' opposed the designs of Cromwell and treton, these
and virtuous party,' to have passed over in her history any   chiefs cried tip' the liberty of the people,' and denied' the.'nention of the offensive term  at all, as well as the ridicu-  authority of parliament:' but when they had effectuated.ous catastrotphe which they underwent in the political  their famous' purge, and formed a house of commons of
revolution, which however we must beg leave not to pass by.  themselves, they abolished the Hotuse of Lords, crving sup
This party-coinage has been ascribed to Clement Walker,  the supreme authority of the House:fCtCmmoDns. arid crytheir bitter antagonist; who, having sacrificed no incon-  ing down the liberty of the people.  Sttch is the hisrory of
siderable fortune to the cause of what he considered con-  political factions, as well as of statesmen!  Charles the
stitutional liberty, was one of the violently ejected menr-  Fifth alternately made use ofthe pope's auithoritv to sulbbers of the Long Parliamlent, and perished in prison, a  due the rising s)tirit ofthe protestanis of Germany, or raivictim  to honest unbending principles.  His' History of  sed an army ofprotestants to imprison the the pope! who
Independency' is a rich legacy bequeathed to posterity, of  branded his German allies by the novel and odious name of
all their great misdoilngs, and their petty villanies, and,  Lutherans.  A  chain of similar facts may be framed out of
above all, of their secret history: one likes to know of  modern historv
what blocks the idols orthe p ople are somelimes carved out.    The'Rump,' as they were called by every one but
Clement Wtalker notices' the votes and acts of this fag  their own party, became a whetstone for the wits to sharpen.d; this Rlmp of a Parliament, with corrupt mageots in  en themselves ron; and we have two large collections of
it.'*  This hideous, but descriptive image of' The Rump,''Rump Songs,' curious chronicles of popular feeling!
had, however. got forward before; for the collector if Ithe  Without this evidence wIe should not have been so well inRump Songs' tells us,' If you ask who named it Rump,  formed respecting the phases of this portertious phenomeknow'twas so styled in at honest sheet of prayer, called   non.' The Rump' was celebrated in verse, till at length
" The Bloody Rtump," written before the trial of our late  it became' the Rump of a Rump of a Rump!' as Foulis
sovereign; biut the word obtained not universal notice, till  traces them to their dwirdled and grotesque appearance.
it flew from the mouth of Ma or-General  Brown, at a pib-   It is pourtrayed by a wit of the timeslie assemnbly in the days of Richard Cromwell.'  Thus it' The Runip's an old story, if well understootl,
happens that a stinying nick-name has been frequently ap-'Tis a thing dressed up in a parliament's hood,
plied to render a faction eternally odious; and the chance  And like it-but the tail stands where the bleaul shou'd 
expression of a wit. when adopted on sonme public occasion,'Twould make a can scratch where he itoes not itch 
circulates among a whole people.  The present nick-name      They say utis good luck  when a body rises
originated in derision on the expulsion of the majority of   With the Rump  pwarts hut be that advises
originated in derision on the expulsion of the majority of    To live in that posture is none of the wisest.
the Lona Parliament, by the usurping minority.  It probably slept; for who would have stirred it through the Pro-    Cromwell's hunting them out of the house by military
tectorate? and finally awakened at'Richard's restored, but  force is alluded tofleeting, Rump,' to witness its own ridiculous extinction.' Our politic doctors do us teach,
Our JrUMP tpassed through three stages in its political pro-    To relieve the head, if applied to the bd as a leh.
gress. Preparatory to the trial of the sovereing, the antimonarchical party constituted the minority in' the Long Parli-        opening scene of the Restoration, Mrs Hutchin
son, an honest republican, paints wiih  disnmay a sceno
ament:' the very by name by which this parliament is recog-  son, an honest replblican,    e with disnay a scene
nized seemed a grievance to an impatient people, vacillating
with chimerical projects of government,  and now  accus-          as almost all the rest of the isiasd. begal to grow
tomed from a wild indefinite notion of political equalitv, to  mad, and declared themselves in their desires of the king;*
pulldown allexistinO institutions. Such was temperofthe   or, as another of the opposite party writes,'Wheti the
times, that an act ofthe most violent injustice, openly perfor-  soldiery,  who had hitherto made clubs trumps, resolved
med. served only as the iest of the dav, a jest which has pas-  now to turn up the king of hearts in their affections,' the
sed into history.  The forcible expulsion of two hundred of  rabble in town and cotr  ie with each oer in burin
their brother members, by those who afterwards were salu-  the'Rump;' a  nd the  literal  emblem  tas  hung by chains
ted as' The Rump,' was called'Pride's Purge,' from the  on  allowse  with a bonfire underneath while the cries
activity of a colonel i)f that name, a military adventurer,'Let us burn the Runlp!  Let Is roast the Rump!'
who was only the blind and brutal instrument of his party  were echoed every where.  The suddenness of this uni
versal change, which was said to have maddened the wise,
paper withhe naes of the  members, he did not personally   and to have sobered the mad, must be ascribed to the joy
at seapuing from the yoke of a military despotism; per.
H* Iistory of Independency, Part II, p. 32.       halps, too,.t marked the rapid transition of hope to a re..50




394                                  CURIOSITIES OF
toration which might be supposed to have implanted grati- added that he had contracted with two merchants to ship
tude even in a roval breast  The feelings of the people  them off.*  There was a most bloody-minded' maker ol
expected to find an echo from the throne.                  washing-balls,' as one John Durant is described, appoint.'The Rump,' besides their general resemblance to the  ed a lecturer by the House of Comnmons, who always left
French anarchists, had also some minuter features of rg-  out of the Lord's prayer,'As we forgive them that tresliness, which Englishmen have often exulted have not  pass against us,' and substituted,'Lord, since thou hast
marked an English revolution-sanguinary proscriptions!  now drawn out thy sword, let it not be sheathed again till
We had thought that we had no revolutionary tribunals!  it be glutted in the blood of the malignlants.' I find tno
no Septernbrisers! no Noyades! no moveable guillotines  many enormities of this kind.'Cursed be he that dceth
awaiting for carts loaded with human victims! no infuriated  the work of the Lord negligently, and keepeth back his
republican urging, in a committee of public safety, the ne-  sword from blood!' was the cry of the wretch, who, when
cessity of a salutary massacre!                           a celebrated actor and royalist sued for quarter, gave no
But if it be true that the same motives and the same  other reply than that of'fitting the action to the word.'
principles were at work in both nations, and that the like  Their treatment of the Irish may possibly be admired by a
characters were performing in England the parts which  true Machiavelist:' they permitted forty thousand of the
they did afterwards in France, by an argument a priori we  Irish to enlist in the service of the kings of Spain and
might be sure that the same revolting crimes and chimeri-  France-in other words, they expelled them  at once,
cal projects were alike suggested at London as at Paris.  which, considering that our Rumpers affected such an abHuman nature even in transactions which appear unpa-  horrence of tyranny, may be considered as an act of merralleled, will be fbund to preserve a regularity of resem-  cy! satisfying themselves only with dividing the forfeited
blance not always suspected.                               lands of the aforesaid forty thorstand among their own
The first great tragic act was closely copied by the  party by lot and other means.  An miversal confiscation,
French; and if the popular page of our history appears  after all, is a bloodless massacre.  They used the Scotch
unstained by their revolutionary axe, this depended only  soldiers, after the battles of Dunbar and'Worcester, a little
on a slight accident; for it became a question of'yea'  differently-but equally efficaciously-for they scold their
and' nay!' and was only carried in the negative by two  Scotch prisoners for slaves to the American planters.t
voices in the coulncil! It was debated among' the bloody    The Rohespierres and the Marats were as extraordiELtump,' as it was hideously designated,'  whether to mas-  nary beings, and in some respects the Frenchmen were
sacre and put to the sword all the king's party!'*  Cromn-  working on a more enlarged scheme.  These discoverwell himself listened to the suggestion; and it was only  ed, that' the generation which had witnessed the preput down by the coolness of political calculation-the   ceding one would always regret it; arid for the security of
dread that the massacre would be too general!   omne of  the Revolution, it was necessary that every person who
the Rump not obtaining the blessedness of a massacre,  was thirty years old in 1788 shoutld perish on the scaffold!'
still citing to the happiness of an immolation; and many   The anarchists were intent on reducing the French peopetitions were presented, that' two or three principal gentle-  pIe to eioht millions, and on destroying the great cities of
men of the royal party in EACH cOUNTY might be sacri-  France.1
ficed to jitstice, whereby the land  night be saved from  - Such monstrous persons and events are not credibleblood-guiltiness!' Sir Author Haslerigg, whose' passion-  but this is no. proof that they have not occurred.-Many
ate fondness of liberty' has been commended,t was one of  incredible things will happen!
the committee of safety in 1647-I too, would commend' a     Another disorganizing feature in the English Rumpers
passionate lover of libt rty,' whenever I do not discover  was also observed inl the Sans-culottes-their hatred of
that this lover is much more intent on the dower than on  literature and the arts.  Hebert was one day directing his
the bride. Hasleriag,' an absurd bold man,' as Claren-  satellites towards the bibliotheque nationale, to put an end
don at. a single stroke, reveals his character, was resolved  to all that human knowledae collected feor centttries on cennot to be troubled with king or bishop, or with any power  turies-in one day! alleging of course some good reason.
in the state superior to' the Rump's.' W'e may safely   This hero was only diverted from the enterprise by being
suspect the patriot who can cool his vehemence in spolia-  persuaded to postpone it for a day or two, when luckily the
tian.  Haslerigg would have no bishops, but this was not  guillotine intervened: the same circumstance occurred here.
from any want of reverence for church-lands, for he heap-  The burning of the records in the Tower was certainly
ed for himself such wealth as to have been nick-named   proposed; a speech of Selden's, which I cannot immedi-'the bishop of lrucram!' He is here noticed for a politi-  ately turn to, put a stop to these incendiaries. It was decal crime different from that of plunder.  When, in 1647,  bated in the Rump parliament, when Cromwell was genthis venerable radical found the parliament resisting his  eral, whether they should dissolve the universities?  They
views, he declared, that'Some heads must fly off!' add-  concluded that no university was necessary; that there
ing,' the parliamnent cannot save England; we must look   were no ancient examples of suich eductatilon, and that
another way;'-threatening, what afterwards was done,  scholars in other countries did study at their oun cost and
to bring in the army! It was this'passionate lover of  charges, and therefore they looked on them  as urnnecessaliberty' who, when Dorislaus, the parliamentary agent,  ry, and thought them fitting to be taken away for the public
was assassinated by some Scotchmen in Holland, moved   use/!-How these venerable asylums escaped from being
in the house, that' Six royalists of the best quality'  sold with the king's pictures, as stone and timber, and why
should be immediately executed! When some northern  their rich endowments were not shared among such incounties petitioned the Comnmons for relief against a famine  veterate ignorance and remorseless spoliation, might claim
in the land, our Maratist observed, that' this want offood   some inqrirv.
would best defend those counties from Scottish invasion!'4  The Abbd Morellet, a great political economist, im.
The slaughter of Drogheda by Cromwell, and his fright-  aoined that the source of all the crimes of the French
ening all London by what Walker calls' a butchery of ap-  Revolution was their violation of the sacred rights of proprentices,' when he cried out to his soldiers, to kill man,  perty.  The pIerpetua, invectives of the Sa'ns-culottes of
woman, and child, and fire the city!'~ may be placed   France against proprietors and against property proceeded
among those crimes which are committed to open a reign   from demoralized beings, who formed panregyrics on all
of terror —but Hulgh  Peter's solemn  thanksgiving  to  crimes;crimes, to explain whose revolutionary terms, a
Heaven that' none were spared!' was the true expres-  new dictionary was required.  But even these anarchists,
sion of the true feeling of these  political demoniacs.  in their mad expressions against property, and in their
Cromwell was cruel from  politics. others from  constitution.  Some were willing to ne cruel without'blood-    * Mercurius Rusticus, XIT, 115. Barwick's Life, p. 42.
guiltiness.' One Alexanner Rigby, a radical lawyer,    f I am indebted to my friend Mr Hamper of Deritend House,
twice moved in the Long Parliament, that those lords and   Birmingham, for the following account drawn from Sir Wilgentlemen who overe * malignants,' should be sold as slaves  liam Dugdale's interleaved Pocket-book for 1648.-' Aug. 17.
o the lD)ey of Algiers. or sent ofl to the new plantations in   The Scotch army, under the command of Duke Hamilton,
the West Indlies. He had all things prepared; for it is  defeated at Preston in Lancashire. 24th. The Moorlanders
rose upon the Scots and stript some of them. The Scotch
* Clement Walker's Hist. of Independency, Part II, p._130.  prisoners miserably used; exposed to eat cabbage-leaves in
Confirmed by Barwick in his Life, p. 163                   Ridaley (Staffordshire) and carrot-tops in Coleshill, (War.
f The Rev. \lark Noble's Memoirs of the Protectoral House   wickshire.)  The soldiers who e.tarded them so.ld the victuals
of Cromwell, 1, 405.                                       which were brortlht in for them firom the countryv.'
Clement Walker's gist, of Independency, Part 1I, 173.    + Desorltartl's Histoire Philosophione de la Revolution do
v Walkar, Part I, 160.                                   France, IV, 5.




LITE RATURE.                                                         395
wildest notions of their I egalit6,' have not gone beywod   bid race of obscure lawyers, and discontented men of fin
the daring of our own' Rumpers!'                           mily, of blasted reputations; adventurers, who were to
Of those revolutionary journals of the parliament of  command the militia and ntavy of England,-governors
1649, which in spirit so strongly resemble the diurnal or  of the three kingdoms! whose votes and ordinances re.
hebdoniadal effusions of the redoubtable French Hebert,  sounded with nothing else but new impositions, now taxes,
Marat, and others of that stamrp, one of the most remark-  excises, yearly, monthly, weekly sequestrations, composi.
able is  Trhc Moderate, impartially communicating mar-  tions, and universal robbery!
tial affairs to the kingdom of England;' the monarchical    Baxter vents one deep groan of indigndtion, and pretitle our comlmonwealhb-moen had not yet had time enough  sciently announces one future consequence of Reform!
to obliterate from their colloquial style. This writer called' In all this appeared the severity of God, the mutability
himself in his barbarous English, The IModerate! It  of worldly things, and the fruits of error, pride, and selwould be hard to conceive the. meanness and illiteracy to  fishness, to be charged hereafter upon reformation and rewhich the English language was reduced under the pens  ligion.' As a statesman, the sagacity of this honest proof the rabble-writers of these days, had we not witnessed  phet was narrowed by the horizon of his religious views;
in the present time a parallel to their compositions.; The  for he ascribes the whole as' prepared by Satan to the
Moderate!' was a litt:e assumed  on the principle on  injury of the protestant cause, and the advantage of the
which Marat denonminated himself' l'ami du peuple.' It  papists"' But dropping his particular application to the
is curious, that the most ferocious politicians usually  devil and the papists, honest Richard Baxter is perfectly
assert their moderation.  Robespierre, in his justification,  right in his general principle concerning' Runlpers,' —
declares' m'a souvent accuse de  rfoderantisme.'  The' Saris-culottes,'-and'Radicals.'
same actors, tplaying the same parts, may be always paralleled in their lattguage and their deeds. This' Moderate'  LsFE AND HABITS OF A LITERARY ANTIQUARY-OLDEN
steadily pursued one great principle-the overthrow of all                   AND HIS MAVNUSCRPTS.
Property.  Assuming that property was the original cause
(.f sin! an exhortation to the people for this purpose is the  Such a picture may be furnished by some unexpected
subject of the present paper:* the illustration of his prin-  materials which my inquiries have obtained of Oldys.
ciple is as strikitng as the principle itself.      prin-  This is a sort of personage little known to the wits, who
It is an aprolocgy for, or rather a defence of rolbberIs   write more/ than they read, and to their volatile votaries,
Some moss-trool)ers  had been cocndenmned to be harved,   who only read what the wits write.  It is time to vind'.
for practising their venerable custom of gratuitously sup-  cat  the honours of the few whose laorious  days enrich
plying thetmselves from the flocks and herds of their weaker  the st res of national literature, not by the duplicates but
neighbours: our'Moderate' ingeniously discovers, that  the stpplements of knowledge.  A  literary antiquary is
that idler whose life is passed in a perpetual voyage
the loss of these men's lives is to be attributed to nothing     idler whose life is passed in a perpetal voyag
but property.  They are necessitated to offend the laws,autur de ma chambre; fervent in sagacious diisgence, inin order to obtain a livelihood!                           stinct with the enthusiasm of curious inquiry, critical as
On this tie descants; and the extract is a political cur-     as erudite; he has to arbitrate  etwee  contending
osity, in the French style!' Property is the original cause   opitions, to resolve the dorbtful, to clear up the obscure,
of any sin between party and party as to civil transactions.  ard to grasp at the remote; so busied with other times,
Arid since the tyratnt is taken of, atnd the  o~veriltrnnt e and so interested for other persons than those about him,
sltered in lorrnne. so ought it realy to redound to the good  that lie becomes the inhabitant of the visionary world of
books.  He counts only his days by his acquisitions, and
of the people in specie; which though they cannot expect
it in a few years, by reason ofthe multiplicity of the gentry  may be said by his original discoveries to be the creator of
in authority, command, &c, who drive' on all desigrns for  facts; often exciting the gratitude of the literary world,
support of the old government, and consequently their own  while the very name of the benefactor has not always doe
interest and the people's slavery, yet they doubt not, but in  scened wth the inestimable labours
time the people will herein discern their own blindness      Stch is the man whom we often find, leaving, when he
and folly.'                                                dies, his favourite volumes only art incomplete project!
In September, he advanced with more depth of thoright.  and few of this class of literarv men have escaped the fate
S"ars have even been clothed with the most gracious               for most of their brothers.   ol
pretertces-hviz., refornation of religion, the laws of the   have been usruallv left. unfinished by the death of the auland, the liberty of the subject, &c; though the effects  thors; and it is with them as with the planting oftrees, of
thereof have prover1 roost  lestrttctive to every nation;  which Johnson has forcibly observed,' There is a frightful
making the sword, and not the people, the. original of all  interval between the seed and timber.' And he admirably
authorities for manv  hundred years together, taking away   remarks, what I cannot forbear applying to the labours
~each man's birthright, and settling upon a few             am  now to describe;'He that caletllates the growth of
priety; the ground of all civil offences. and the greatest  trees has the remembrance of the shortness of life driven
cause of most sins against the heavenly Deity. This tyran-  hard upon him.   He  knows that he is doing t'hat will
ny and oppression running throtrgh the veins of many of our  never benefit himself; and when he rejoices to see the
predecessors, anti beingi too long maintained by the sword'stem  rise, is disposed to -repine that another shall cut it
* upon a royal fottndatiort, at last became so customare, as  down.' The days of the patriotic Count Jlazzuchelli were
to the vulgar it seemed ~most naturalzl -the  only reason whay  freely given to his national literature; and six invaluable
the people of this time are so ignorant of their birth-right,  folios attest the gigantic force of his immense ertdition;
their ortly freedon,' &c.                                  yet these only carry us throgllh the letters A and B: and'The birth-riht' of citoven Egalitd to a cursed propri-   htugh  Mazzucheili had finished for the  press other
ety settled on a few,' was not. even among the French jaco-  volumes, the torpor of his descendants has defrauded Eubins, urged with more amazing force.  Had things pro-  ropeofher claims. The Abb Gortjet, who had designed a
ceeded according to otlr' Moderate's' plan,' the people's  classified history of his national literature, in the eighteen
slavery' had been somethingr worse.  In a slrort time the   violumes we possess, could only conclude that of the trens.
nation would have had more proprietors than property.  lators and commence that of the poets; two other volumes
Mle have a curious list of the spoliations of those mem-  in manuscript have perished.  That great enterprise of
bhrs of' the House o*f Commons, who, after their famous  the Benedictines, the' Histoire Litteraire de la France,'
self-denyino ordinances, apprropriated among themselves  now consists of twelve large qurartos, and the industry of
slims of money, offices, and lands, for services' done or  its successive writers have only been able to carry it to
to be done.'                                              the twelfth century.  David Clement desigined the most
The rost innocent of this new  government of' the   extensive bibliography which had ever appeared; but the
Majesty of the People,' vere those whose talents had   diligent life of the writer could only proceed as far as H.
been limited by Natuote to peddle and purloin; punv me-  The alphabetical order, which so manv writers of this class
chanics, who had suddenly dropped their needles, their  have adopted, has proved a mortifying memento of human
hamrnners. and their lasts, and sluntk out from behind their  life!  Tiraboschi was so fortunate as to complete his
shop-cotinters; those who had never aspired beyond the   great national history of Italian literature.  Brt, rnhapconstable of their parish, were now seated in they counctil  pily for us, Thomas Wartorl, after feeling his way through
of state; where. as Milton describes them,'they fell u  the darker ages of our poetry, in planning the map of the
nuckster the conmmonwealth:' there they met a niore ra-  beautiful land, of which he had only a Pisgah-sight, expired amidst his volumes. The most p-t:ciolls portion ao
* The Moderate, from Tutesday, July 31, to August 7,1649. 1 Warton's history is but the fragment of a fragment.




2SS 9 6CURIOSITIES OF
Oldvs, among this brotherhood, has met perhaps with a   and as he was a rigid lover of truth, I doubt not that he
harder fate; hiis published works, and the numerous ones  wrote it.' My own researches confirm it; I have traced
tio which he contributed, are now highly appreciated by the  this popular song through a dozen of collections since the
lovers of books; but the larger portion of his literary la-  year 1740, the first in which I find it.  In the later colbours have met with the sad fortune of dispersed, and pro-  lections an original inscription has been dropped, which the
bably of' wasted manuscripts.  Oldys's manuscripts, or  accurate Ritson has restored, without, however, being
o. M. as they are sometimes designated, are constantly  able to discover the writer.  In 1740 it is said to have
referred to iby every distinguished writer on our literary   been' Made extempore by a gentleman, occasioned by e
history.  I believe that not one of them could have given  fly drinking out. of his cup of ale;'-the accustomed potion
us any positive account of the manuscripts themselves!  of poor Oldys!*
Thev have indleed long served as the solitary sources of    Grose, however, though a great joker on the pecularities
infortnation-but like the well at the way-side, too many   of Oldys, was far from insensible to the extraordinary achave drawnt their waters in silence.                       quisitions of the man.' His knowledge of English books
O!dys is chiefly known by the caricature of the facetious  has hardly been exceeded.' Grose too was struck by the
Grose, a great humorist, both with pencil and with pen:  delicacy of honour, and the unswerving veracity which so
it is in a posthumous scrap-book, where Grose deposited   strongly characterised Oldys, of which he gives a remarkhis odds and ends, and where there is perhaps not asingle  able instance.  W~e are concerned in ascertaining the
story which is not satirical.  Our lively antiquary, who  moral integrity of the writer, whose main business is with
cared more for rusty armour than for rusty volumes,  history.
would turn over these flams and quips to some confiden-    At a time when our literary history, excepting in the
fial friend, to enjoy together a secret laugh at their literary  solitary labour of Anthony Wood, was a forest, with neiintimates.  His eager executor, who happened to be his  ther road nor pathway, Oldys fortunately placed in the lihook-seller, served up the poignant hash to the public as  brary of the Earl of Oxford, yielded up his entire days to
I Grose's Olio!'  The delineation of' Oldys is sufficiently  researches concerning the books and the men of the preovercharged for'the nonce.' One prevalent infirmity of  ceding age.  His labours were then valueless, their very
honest Oldys, his love of companionship over too social a  nature not yet ascertained, and when he opened the treaglass, sends him down to posterity in a grotesque attitude;  sures of our ancient lore, in' The British Librarian.' it was
and Mr Alexander Chalmers, who has given us the fullest  closed for want of public encouragemient.  Our writers
account of Oldys, has inflicted on him something like a ser-  then struggling to create an age of genius of their own, formon, on' a state of intoxication.'                        got that they had had any progenitors; or while they were
Alas! —Odvs was an outcast of fortune, and the titter  acquiring new modes of excellence, that they were losing
simplicity of his heart was guileless as a child's-ever  others, to which their posterity or the national genius might
open to the designing. Thenoble spirit ofthe DukeofNor-  return.  To  know, and to admire only, lhe literalure
folk once rescued the loni-lost historian of Rawleigh from   and the tastes of our own age, is a species of elegant
the confinement of the Fleet, where he had existed proba-  barbarism.t   Spenser was considered nearly as ob-olee
blv forgotten by the world for six years.  It was by an act  as Chaucer; Milton was veiled by oblivion and Shakeof grace that the duke safely placed Oldvs in the Herald's  speare's dramas were so imperfectly known, that in lookColleae as Norroy King of Arms.*  But Oldus, like all  ing over the play-bills of 1711, and much later, I find that
shy and retired men, had contracted peculiar habits and   whenever it chanced that they were acted, they were alclose attachnments for a few; both these he could indulge   ways  announced to have been written by Shakspeare.'
at no distance.  He liked his old associates in the puirlieun    Massinger was unknown; and Jonson, though called' imof the Fleet, whom he facetiotlslv dignified as' his Rullers,'  mortal' in the old play-bills, lay entombed in his two folios.
and there, as I have heard, with the eroteeque whim of a   The poetical era of Elizabeth, the eloquent age of Janles
herald, established' The Dragon Club.' Companionship  the First, and the age of wit of Charles the Setcond, were
yields the poor man unnuirchased  pleasures.   Oldvs, bh.t-  blanks in oulr literary history.  Byssh -compiling, an art of
sied every morning among the departed wits and the  Poetry, in 1718, passed by in his collections' Spenser and
learned of oir cotntrv. reflected some image from theni of  the poets of his age, because their languae is now becme
their wit and learningo to his companions: a secret history  so obsolete, that most readers of our age have no ear for
as vet untold, and ancient wit, which, cleared of the rust,  them, and therefore Shakespeare himself is so rarely cited
seemed to him brilliant as the modern!                    in ny collection.'  The best English  poets were considerIt is hard. however, for aliterary antiquary to be carica-ed to be the modern; a taste which is always obstinate 
tlred, and for a herald to be ridiculed about an' unseemly   All this was nothing to Oldys; his literary curiosity anreeling, with the coronet of the Princess Caroline, which  ticilated by half a century the fervour of the present day.
looked ulnstea~dy on the cushion, to the great scandal of  This energetic direction of all his thoughts was sustained
ias brethren.'  A  circmrnstancf which could never have  by that life of discovery, which in literarv researches is
occulrred at the burial of a prince or a princess, as the cor-  starting novelties amonr  old and unremembered things
onet is carried by Clarencieux, and not by Norrey. Oldys's  contemplating some ancient tract as precious as a manudeep potations of ale, however, give me an opportunity of  script, or revellimg in the volume of a poet, whose passbestowing on him the honour of being the author of a pop-  port of fame was yet delayed in its way; or disinterring
ular Anacreontic song. Mr Taylor informs me that' Oldys       * The beautiful simplicity of this Anacreontic has mnet the
always asserted that hie was the author of the wel! known   unusual fate of entirely losing its character, by an additional
song-                                                      and incongruous stanza in the modern editions, by a gentleman
c Busy, curious, thirsty fly!'              who has put into practice the unallowable liberty of altering
the poetical and dramatic compositions of acknowledged ge.
* Mr John Taylor. the son of Oldys's intimate firiend, has  nius to his own notion of what he deems'morality;' but in
furnished me with this interesting anecdote.' Oldvs, as my  works of genius whatever is dull ceases to be moral.' The
father informed me, was many years in quiet obscurity in the  Fly' of Oldys may stand by'The Fly' of Gray for melan.
Fleet-prison. but at last was spirited olp to make his situation   choly tenderness of thought; it consisted only of these two
known to the Diike of Norfolk of that time, who received  stanzas:
Oldys's letter while he was at dinner with some friends. The                           1
duke imnmediately conmmunicated the contents to the company,           Busy, curious, thirsty fly!
observing. that he had long been anxiouls to know what had             Drink with me, and drink as 
become of an old, though an humble firiend, and was happy
by that letter to find that he was alive. He then called for his       Freely tou sip and sip it up
gentleman (a kind of humble friend whom noblemen used to               Couldst the mos    t of life you may;
retain under that name in those days,) and desired him to go           Make the most of life you may
immediately to the Fleet. to take money for the immediatewears away
need of Oldys, to nrocuire an account of his debts and dis-.           Both alike are mine and!harze them. Oldvs was, soon after, either by the duke's               Hastening qtick to their dec
gift or interest, appointed Norroy King at Arms; and I re.Hasteneng uick                to their m ecline m
member that his official regalia came into my father's hands           Thine's ar supmer, tine no more,
~~at his rtt~~~~~~~atf~~~~.Though repeated to threescore 
at his death.'
In the  of   ys  b Mr A. Chalers the date of this  Threescore summers when they're gonse,
In the Life of Oldys, by Mr A. Chalmers, the dateWill appear as short as one
promotion as not tound. My accomplished friend the Rev J.
Dallawav hans obligingly evamined the records of the college,    t We have been taught to enjoy the two ages of Genrius and
by which it appears that Oldys had been Norfolk herald en:-  of Taste. The literary public are deeply indebted to the edi.
traordinarv. bhit not belnorinr to the college. was apuoJrted  terial care, the taste antid the enthusiasm oft Mr Singer, for ex
jer saltum Norroy King of Arms by patent, May 5th, 1755.    quisite reprints of some valuabte writers.




LIT ERA T UR E.                                                 397
the treasureof some secluded manuscript, whence he drew   ical and critical Observations on them.'But will our curious
a virgin extract; or raising up a sort of domestic intimacy   or our whimsical collectors of the present day endure,
with the eminent in arms, in politics, and in literature, in  without impatience, the loss of a quarto manuscript, which
this visionary life, life itself with Oldys was insensibly gli-  bears this rich cuondiment for its title-' Of London Libradin,_ away-its cares almost unfelt!                        ries; with Anecdotes of Collectors of Books; Remarks
The life of a literary antiquary partakes of the nature  on Booksellers; and on the first Puhlishers of Catalogues?'
of those who, having no concerns'of their own, busy them.  Oldys left ample annotations on: Fuller's Worthies,' and
selves with those of others.  Oldys lived in the back-ages' Winstanley's Lives of the Poets,' and on i Langbaine's
of England; he had crept among the dark passages of  Dramatic Poets.'  The late Mr Boswell showed me a
Tinme, till, like an old gentleman.usher, he seemed to be  Fuller in the Malone collection, with Steevens's transcripreporting the secret history of the courts which he had  tion of Oldy's notes, which Malone purchased for 431 at
ived in.  He had been charmed among their masques and   Steevens's sale; but where is the original copy of Oldys?
revels, had eyed with astonishment their cumbrous mag-  The' Winstanley,' I think, also  reposes in the same
nificence, when knights and ladies carried on their mantles  collection.  The' Langbaine' is far famed, and is preserve
and their cloth of gold ten thousand pounds' worth of ropes  ed in the British Museum, the gift of Dr Birch; it has been
of pearls, and buttons of diamonds; or, descending tio the  considered so precious, that several of our eminent writers
gay court of the second Charles, he tattled merry tales, as  have cheerfully passed through the labour of a minute tranin that of the first he had painfully watched, like a patriot  scription of its numberless notes.  In the history of the fate
or a loyalist, a distempered era.  He had lived so con-  and fortune of books, that of Oldys' Langbaine is too cuistantly with these people of another age, and had so deep-  rious to omit.  Oldys may tell his own story, which I find
ly interested himself in their affairs, and so loved the wit  in the Museum copy, p. 339, and which copy appears to
and the learning which are often briaht under the rust of  be a second attempt; for of the first Langbaine we have
antiquity, that his own uncourtly style is embrowned with  this account:
the tint of a century old.  But it was this taste and cu-'When I left London, in 1724, to reside in Yorkshire, I
riosity which alone could have produced the extraordinary  left in the care of the Rev. Mr Blrlridge's famtily, with
volume of Sir Walter Rawleigh's life; a work richly in-  whom I had several years lodged, among many other books,
laid with the most curious facts and the juxta-position of  goods, 4-c, a copy of this Langbaine, in which I had wrote
the most remote knowledge; to judge by its fulness of nar-  several notes and references to further knowledge of these
rative, it would seem  rather to have been the work of a  poets.  When I returned to London, 1730, I understood
contemporary.*                                              my books had been dispersed; and afterwards becominu
It was an advantage in this primeval era of literary cu-  acquainted with Mr. T. Coxeter, I found that he had
riosity, that tlose volumes which are now not even to be   bought my Lanobaine of a bookseller who was a great
found in our national library, where certainly they are per-  collector of plays and poetical books this must have been
petitally wanted, and which are now so excessively appre-  of service to him, and he has kept it so carefully from my
ciated, were exposed on stalls, through tile reigns of Anne   sight, that I never could have the opportunity of transand the two Georges.t Oldys encountered no competitor,  cribing into this I am now writing in, the Notes I had co!cased in the invulnerable mail of his purse, to dispute his  lected in that.'*
possession of the rarest volume.  On the other hand, our      This first Langbaine, with additions by Coxeter, was
early collector did not possess our advantages; he could  boiught, at the sale of his books, by Theophilus Cibber:
not fly for instant aid to a' Biographia Britannica,' he   on the strength of these notes, he prefixed his name to the
had no history of our poetry, nor even of our drama.  first collection of the' Lives of our Poets,' which appeared
Oldys could tread in no man's path, for every soil about  in weekly numbers, and now  form  five volumes, written
him was unbroken ground.    He- had to create every thing   chiefly by Shiels, an  amanuensis of Dr Johnson.  Shiels
for uis purposes.  We gather fruit from our trees which   has been recently castigated by Mr Gifford.
others have planted, and too often we but' pluck and eat.'    Tlese literary jobbers nowhere distinguish Coxeter's and
Ntlla dies sine linea was his sole hope while he was ac-  Oldys's curious matter from their own. Such was the fate cf
cumulating masses of notes; and as Oldys never used his  thefirst copy of Langbaine, with Oldys's notes; bult the sopen from the weak passion of scribbling, but from  the ur-  cond is more important. At an auction of some of Oldys's
gency of preserving some substantial knowledge, or plan-  books and manuscripts, of which I have seen a printed cataning sone futture inquiry, he amassed nothing but what he  logue, Dr. Birch purchased this invaluable copy for three
wished to remember.  Even the minuter pleasures of set-  shillings and sixpence.t Such was the value attached to
tling a date, or classifying a title-page, were enjoyments to  these original researches concerning our poets, and ofwhich,
his incessant pen.  Every thing was acquisition.  This
never-ending business of research appears to have ab-  am favotred by the Rev Dr Bliss, that there is as interleaved
sorbed his powers, and sometimes to have dulled his con-' Gildon's Lives and Characters of the Dramatic Poets.' with
ceptions.  No one more aptly exercised the tact of dis-  corrections, which once belonged to Coxeter. who appears to
covery; he knew where to feel in the dark: but he was  have intended a new edition. Whether Coxeter transcribed
not of the race-that race indeed had not yet appeared  into his Gildon the notes of Oldys's first Langbaine, is worth in.
among us —who could melt into their Corinthian brass, the   quiry.  Coxeters conduct, though he had purchased Oltlys's
mingled treasures of Research, Imagination arid Philo-  frst Laine, was that of an unfenerots miser, who will
quarrel withl a brother, rather than share in any acquisition he
sophy                          ~                           can get into his own hands. To Coxeter we also owe much;
We may be curious to inquire where our literary anti-  he suggested Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, and the first
quary deposited the discoveries and curiosities which he  tolerable edition of Massinger.
was so incessantly acquiring.  They were dispersed on        There is a remarkable word in Oldys's rote above. He
many a flv-leaf in occasional memorandum-books; in am-  could not have been employed in Lord Oxford's library, as
ple marginal notes on his authors-they were sometimes  Mr Chalmers con ectures, abott 1726; frro here he mentions
thrown into what he calls his' parchment budgets' or' Bags  that he was in Yorkshire from 1724 to 1730. This period is a
of Biography-of Botany-of Obituary -of  Books rela-remarkable blank in Olklys's life.  tf he really went to Yorko~ Bmrap —of Botany —of Obtuary, —of'  Books rela-  shire, he departed in sudden haste, for he left all his books at
tive to London' and other titles and bags, which he was   his lodgings; and six years of rustication must have been an
every dav filling.  Sometimes his collections seem to have  intolerable state for a lover of old books. It has sometimes
been intended f~r a series of volumes, for he refers to' My   occurred to me, that for Yorkshire we must understand the
first Volume of Tables of thie eminent Persons celebrated   Fleet. There we know he was; but the circumstance per.
by English Poets,-to another of' Poetical Characteris-   haps was so hateful to record, that he preferred tc: eil it, while
tics.' Amongr those manuscripts which I have seen, I  writing, forthe secont tine, his Notes on Langbalue;  hecon.
fesses on his return to his lodgings, that he found that he had
find one mentioned, apparently of a wide circuit, under the   lost every thing which he had left there.
reference of; My bIiograplical Institutions.  Part third; i   t This copy was lent by Dr Birch to the late bishop of Dro.
containing a Catalogue of all the English Lives, with histor-  more, who with his own hand carefillly transcribed the mnotes
into an interleaved copy of Lan'bnine, divided into fuir vo.
* Gibbon once meditated a life of Rawleigh, and for that  lumes, which as  am  fifoimed, narrowly escaped the flames.
purpose began some researches in that' memorable era of  ant was injured by the water, at a fire at North tmberland
our En-lish annals   After reading Oldysis, he relinstuished u House. His lor!dship, when he wet:t to Ireland left this copy
his design, iomnt a conviction that' he could add nothing new   with Mr Nics,-for the Lie of the puojected editions  of the
to the subject., except the uncertain merit of style and senti.  Tatter, the Spectatotr. an;d the Guardian, with notes and I
nent.'                                                      lustrations; of which I thinlk the Tatler nuly has appeared
t It is greatly to be lamented that the BritishMuseum is ex-  and to which his lordshin contributed some valuable commi.
tremely deficient in our National Literature.               nications.




398                                       CUIRIOSITIES OF
to obtain only a transcript, very large sums have since been  to Mr. John Robinson, the representative of his late fa.
cheerfully given.  The Museum copy of Langbaine, is in  ther, and with whom all the papers of the former partner.
Oltlys's hand-writing, not interleaved, but overflowing with  ship were deposited.  But Mr. John Robinson has termi.
nntes, written in a very small hand about the margins, and   nated my inquiries, by his civility in promising to comply
inserted between the lines: nor may the transcriber pass  with them, and his pertinacity in riot doing so.  He may
negligently even its corners, otherwise he is here assured   have injured his own interest in not trading with my cathat he will lose some useful date, or the hint of some cu-  riosity.*  It was forturate fbr the nation, that Geor.e
rmous reference. The enthusiasm and diligence of Oldys, in   Vertue's mass of manuscripts escaped the fate of Oldvs's,
undertaking a repetition of his first lost labour, proved to be  had the possessor proved asindolent,Horace Walpole would
infinitely greater than the sense of his unrequited labours.  not have been the writer of his most valuable work, and
Such is the history of the escapes, the changes, and the   we should have lost the' Anecdotes of Painting,' of which
fate of a volume, which borms the groundwork of the most  Vertue had collected the materials.
culrious information concerning our elder poets, and to which  Of a life consumed in such literary activity we should
we must still frequently refer.                             have known more had the Diaries of Oldys escaped de.
In this variety of literary arrangements, which we must  struction.' One habit of my father's old friend, William
consider as single works in a progressive state, or as por-  Oldys,' says Mr Taylor,' was that of keeping a diary, and
tions of one great work on our modern literary history, it  recording in it every day all the events that occurred, and
may, perhaps, be justly suspected that Oldvs in the delight  all his engagements, and the employment of his time.  1
of perpetual acquisition, impeded the happier labour of unity  have seen piles of these books, but know n,)t Tehat became
of design, and completeness of purpose.  He was not a  of them.' The existence of such diaries is confirmed by a
Tiraboschi-nor even a Niceron!  He was sometimes  sale catalogue of Thomas Davies, the literary bookseller,
chilled by neelect, and by' vanity and vexation of spirit,'  who sold many of the books and some manuscripts of Oldys,
else we should not now have to count over a barren list of  which appears to have been dispersed in various libraries.
manuscript works; masses of literary history, of which the  I find Lot' 3627, Mr Oldys's Diary, containing several
existence is even doubtful.                                observations relating to boolks, characters &c;' a single
In Kippis's Biographia Britannica, we find frequent re-  volume, which appears to have separated from the' piles'
ferences to 0. M. Oldys's manuscripts.  Mr. John Tay-  which Mr Taylor once witnessed.  The literary diary of
lor, the son of the friend and executor of Oldys, has greatlv   Oldys would have exhibited the mode of his pursuits. and
obliged me with all his recollections of this man of letters';  the results of his discoveries. One of these volumes I have
whose pursuits, however, were in no manner analogous to  fottunately discovered, and a singularity in this writer's
his, and whom he could only have known in youth. By  feelings throws a new interest over such diurnal records.
him I learn, that on the death of Oldys, Dr Kippis, editor  Oldys was apt to give utterance with his pen to his most
r3ioraphia Britannica, looked over these manuscripts at  secret emotions.  Querulous or indinant, his honest simMr. Taylor's house.  He had been directed to this dis-  plicity confided to the paper before him such extemporanecovery by the late Bishop of Dromore, whose active zeal  ous soliloquies, and I have found him hiding in the very
was.very remarkable in every enterprise to enlarge our lite-  corners of his manuscripts his' secret solrrows.'
rary history.  Kippis was one who, in some degree, might    A few of these slight. memorials of his feelings will exhave estimated their literary value; but, employed by cornm-  hibit a sort of' Silhouette likeness traced by his own hand
mercial men, andnegotiating with persons who neither com-  when at times the pensive man seems to have contem.
prehended their nature, or affixed any value to them, the  plated his own shadow.  Oldvs would throw  down in
editor of the Biographia found Oldys's maniiscripts an easy   verses. whose humility or quaintness indicates their ori.
purchase for his employer, the late Mr. Cadell; and the  gin, or by some pithy adage, or apt quotation, or recordtwenty guineas, perhaps, served to bury their writer! Mr.  ing anecdote, his self-advice, or his self-regrets!
Taylor says,' The manuscripts of Oldys were not so many     Oppressed by a sense of tasks so unprofitable to himself,
as might be expected from so indefatigable a writer. They   while his days were often passed in trouble and in prison;
consisted chiefly of short extracts from books, and minutes  he breathes a self-reproach in one of these profound reof dates, and were thought woorth purchasingr by the doctor.  flections of melancholy which so often startle the man of
I remenmber the manuscripts well; though Oldys was not  study, who truly discovers that life is too limited to acquire
the auth r, but rather recorder.' Such is the statement  real knowledge, with the ambition of dispensing it to the
and the opinion of a writer, whose effusions are of a gayer  world.
sort.  But the researches of Oldys must not be estimated'T say, who too tong in these cobwebs lurks,
by this standard: with him a single line was the result of         Is always whetting tools, but never works.'
many a day of research, and a leaf of scattered hints
would supply more original knowledge than some octavos,    In one of the corners of his note-books I find this curi.
fashioned out by the hasty gilders and varnishers of mo-  ous but sad reflection:dern literature. These discoveries occupy small space to
thdern literature.  T lahese   scove   occpy small spaeof them.'Alas! this is but the apron of a fig-leaf-but the curtain of a
the eye; but large works as'e composed out of them, cobweb.'
This very lot of Oldys's manuscripts was, indeed, so considerable to the jutdgment of IKippis, that he has described  Sometimes he seems to have anticipated the fate of that
them as'a large and useful body of biographical materials,  obscure diligence, which was pursuing discoveries reservleft hy Mr. Oledys.' Were these the' Biographical Insti-  ed for others to use.
tutes' Oldys refers to among his manuscripts' The late
Mr. Malone,' continues Mr. Taylor,' told me that he had           them.  riches, and kno
seen all Old0ys's manuscripts; so I presume they are in'Fond treasurer of these stores, behld thy fate
the hands of Cadell and Davies; Have they met, with the           In Psalm the thirty-ninth, 6, 7, and 8.'
fate of sucked oranges? —and how much of Malone may   Sometimes he checks the eager ardour of his pen an      d rewe owe to Oldvs?                                          Sometimes he checks the eager ardour of his pen, and reE
This information enabled me to trace the manuscripts  minds himself of its repose, in Latin, Italian, and English
of Oldys to Dr. Kippis; buit it cast me among the book-              -Non vi, sed sepe cadendo.
sellers, who do not value manuscripts which no one can               Assai presto si fa quel che si fa bene.
print.  I discovered, by the late Mr. Davies, that the di-' Some respite best recovers what we need,
rection of that hapless work in our literary history, with its      Discreetly baiting gives the journey speed.'
whole treasure of manuscripts, had been consigned, by        There was a thoughtless kindness in honest Oldys; and
Mr. Cadell, to the late George Robinson: and that the  his simplicity of character, as I have observed, was pracsuccessor of Dr. Kippis had been the late Dr. George  tised on by the artful or the ungenerous.  We regret to
Gregory.  Again I repeat, the history of voliminos    * I know that 
works is a melancholv office; every one concerned with      * I know that not,nly this lot of Ohlys's manuscript,  but a
them  no loni er can he found!  The esteemed relic of  great quantity oforiginal contributions of whole lives, intend.
ed for the Bmwgraphia Britannica, must lie together, unless
Doctor Gregory, with a friendlv prompittde, eratified my  they hare been destroyed as waste-paper.  These biographianxiouis inquiries, and informed me, that' She perfectiv  cal anti literary curiosities were often supplied by the families
recoilects a nmass of paers., such as I de,scribed, being  or friends of eminent persons.  Some may, perhaps have
returned, on the death of Dr. Gregorv, to the house of  bees reclaimed by their owners. I am inforrnmed there was
Wilkiie anti Robincson, in the earlv  part of the year 1~09.'  amon.- them an interesting collection of the corresplondence of
[ applied to this house, who, after some time, referred me  pLrcke; ard I coild mention several lives which werred.
^    X,              ~~~~~~~pared.




LITERATURE.                                                        399
find the following entry concerning the famous collector,  tory of the Stage and Actors in his own Time, for these
James West.                                                forty or fifty years past, as he told me he had composed, is' I gave above threescore letters of Dr Davenant to his  likely to prove, whenever it shall appear, a more perfect
son, who was envoy at Frankfort in 1703 to 1708, to Mr  work.' I might proceed with many similar gratuitous con.
James West,* with one hundred and fifty more, about  tributions with which  he assis ed his contenporaries.
Christmas, 1746: bhtt the same fate they found as grain   Oldys should have been constituted the reader for the
that -is sowed in barren ground.'                          nation.  His comptes rendus of boaks ana manuscripts are
still held preciolus; but his useful and curious talent had
Such is the plaintive record by which Oldys relieved   sought the public patronag.e in vain! From  one of his
himself of a groan! We may smile at the simplicity of'            Diaries, which had escaped destruction, I transcribe some
the following narrative, where poor Oldys received manu-  interesting passages ad verbum.
scripts in lieu of money!                                     The reader is here presented with a minute picture of' Old Counsellor Fane, of Colchester, who, in forma   those invisible occupations which pass in the study of a
pauperis, deceived me of a good sum of money which he   man of letters.  There are those who may be surprised;
owed me, and not long after set up his chariot, gave me a   as well as amused, in discovering how  all the business,
parcel of manuscripts, and promised me others, which he   even to the very disappointments and pleasures of active'eover gave me, nor any thing else, besides a barrel of  life, can be transferred to the silent chamber of a recluse
oysters, and a manuscript copy of Randolph's poems, an   student; but there are others who will not read without
original, as he said, with many additions, being devolved   emotion to the secret thoughts of him, who, loving literas
to him as the author's relation.'                          ture with its purest passion, scarcely repines at being deThe-re was no enl to his aids and contributitons to every  frauded of his just fame, and leaves his stores for the af.
author or bookseller who applied to hint; yet he had rea-terae of his more gifted heirs.  Thus  e open one o
sonr to complain of both while they were using his invalu-  Olds's literary days:
able, bit not valued, knowledge.  Here is one of these
diurnal entries:                                   that her father, who was dteputy-inspector and licenser of
the plays, died 24 May, 1749, at his house in ChappelI lent the tragical lives and deaths of the famous pi-  street, Westminster, aged 58 years.  He was writine a
rates, Ward and Dansiker, 4to, London, 1612, by Robt.  history of the characters he had observed, and conferences
Daborn, alias Dabourne, to Mr T. Lediard, when he was  he had had with many eminent persons he knew  in his
writing his naval History, and he never returned it.  See  time.  He was a great observator of every thing curious
Howel's Letters of them.'                                  in the conversations of his acqulaintance, arid his own
In another, when his friend T. Hayward was collecting,  conversation was a living chronicle of the remarkable infor his' British Muse,' the most exquisite common-places  trig!ues, adventures, savinas, stories, writings, &c, of many
of our old EniAsh dramatists, a compilation which must  of the quality, poets and other authors, players, bookselnot be confoundel with ordinary ones, Oldys not only  lers, &c, who flourished especially in the present century.
assisted in the labour, hilt drew up a curious introduction,  Had been a popular man at elections, and scmetime maswith a knowledge and iove of the subject which none blt  ter of the playhouse in Goodman's Fields, but latterly
himself possessed.  Btut so little were these researches   was forced to live reserved and retired by reason of his
then understood, that we find Oldys, in a moment of vex-  debts.  He published two or three dramatic pieces, one
attous recollection, and in a corner of one of the martins   was the Patron, on the story of Lord Romnev.
of his Langbaine, accidentally preserving an extraordinary'IQ. of his da. to restore me Enlstace Budgell's pacirciimstance attending this curious dissertation.  Oldys   pers, and to get a sight of her father's.
having completed this elaborate introduction,' the pentu' Have got the one, and seen the other.
riots publisher insisted on leaving out one third part,'July 31.-Was at Mrs Odell's; she returned me Mr
wh:ch happened to be the best matter in it, because he   Budgeil's papers.  Saw some of her husband's papers,
would have it contracted  into one sheet!' Poor Oldys  mostlv poems in the favour of the ministry, and against
never could forget the fate of this elaborate Dissertation on   Mr. Pope.  One of them, printed by the late Sir Robert
all the Collections of English poetry; I am confident that  Walpole's encouragemunet, who gave him ten guineas for
I have seen some volume which was formerly Oldys's, and   writing, and as mulch for the expense of printing it; but
afterwards Thomas Warton's, in the possession of my in-  through his advice it was never published, because it
telligent friend Mr Dmice. in the flv-leaf of which Oldvs  night hurt his interest with Lord Chesterfield, and some
has expressed himself in these words:-' In my historical  other noblemen, who favoured Mr Pope for his fine geniand critical review of all the collections of this kind, it  us.  The tract I liked best of his writings was the history
would have made a sheet and a half or two sheets; but  of his play-house in Goodman's Fields.'(Remember that
thev for surdid gain. and to save a little expense in print  which was published against that play-house, which I have
and panser, aot Mr John Campbell to cross it and cramp it,  entered  in my London Catalogqe.  Letter to Sir Ricand play the devil with it, till they squeezed it into less cornm-  Brocas, lord mayor, &c, 8vo. 1730.)
pass thaut a sheet.  This is a loss which we may never re-    Saw nothing of the history of his conversations with incover.  The cutrious book-knowledge of this singular man   genious men; his characters, tales, jests, and intrigues of
of letters, those stores of which he was the fond treasurer,  them, of which no man was better firnished with them.
as he savs with such tenderness for his pursuits, were   She thinks she has somne papers of these, and promises to
always ready to be cast into the forms of a dissertation or  look them  out, and also to inquire after Mr Griffin of the
an introduction; and when Morgan published his Collcc-  lord chamberlain's office, that I may get a search made
tion of rare Tracts, the friendly hand of Oldys filrnished   about Spencer.'
A Dissertation upon Pamphlets, in a Letter to a Noble-       So intent was Oldvs on these literary researches, that
marly)  probahlv  Ithe Earl of Oxford, a great literary curi-   we see, bv the last words of this entry, how in hunting after
ositv; and in the Harleian Collection he has aiven a Cata-  one sort ofgame, his undivided zeal kept its eye on another.
logue Raisonnee of six hundred.  When Mrs Cooper  One of his favourite stubjects was realizing oforiginal disco.
attempted' The MNlse's Library,' the first essay which   veries respecting Spenser and Shakespeare; of whom, periufluenced the national taste to return to our deserted   haps, to our shame, as it is to our vexation, it may be said
poets in our mo-t poetical age, it was Oldys who only  that two of our master-poets are those of whom we know
could have enabledl this lady to perform that task so well.  the least!  Oldys once flattered himself that he shouln be
When Curl. the rmublisher. to hel- ouit one of his hasty comr   able to have given the world a life of Shakespeare.  Mr
pilations. a' History of the Stage.' repaired, like all the   John Taylor informs me, that' Ollvys had contracted to
world, to Oldvs, whose kindness could not resist the imortu-  stipplv ten years of the life of Shakespeare unknown to the
Pitv of this busv rb!isher. hlie gave him a life of Nell Gwvn;   biographers, with one Walker, a bookseller in the Strand;
while at the sause moment Oldvs could not avoid noticin',  ad a s Oldvs did not live to fuilfil the engagement, my father
in one of his tsonl entries, an intended work on the stae,  was oblivged to return to Walker twenty guineas which he,
which we seem never to have had, Dick Leveridge's His-  had advanced on the work.'  That interesting narrative is
now hopeless for us. Yet, by the solemn contract into which
* Thist collertion. anld probably the other letters, have Ccome   Oldvs had entered, and frown his strict integrity, i might indown to ts, no dolnht. weilh the manuscripts of this collector,
plurchaseod for t~h British Mloosetlm. The correspondence of  duie one to suspect that he had madut positive discoveries
irchased for the Bridsl -ue.the correspondence of  which are now irrecodencble.
Dr Davenant, the ypolitical writer, with his son, the envoy,       are now irrecoverable
turns on sose perpetnal topic, his sons and his own advance.  Wee may observe the manner of lis anxious inquiriys
merit in the state.                                        about Spenser,




400                                       CURIOSITIES OF' Ask Sir Peter Thompson if it were improper to try if       There remains to be told an anecdote, which shows tha:
ILord Effingham  Howard would procure the pedigrees in   Pope greatly regarded our literary antiquary.'Oldys,'
the Heralds' office, to be seen for Edward Spenser's pa-   says my friend,'was one of the librarians of the Earl of
rentage or family? or how he was related to Sir John Spen-  Oxford, and he used to tell a story of the credit which he
ser of Althorpe, in Northamptonshire? to three of whose   obtained as a scholar, by setting Pope right in a Latin
daughters, who all married nobility, Spenser dedicates three   quotation, which he made at the earl's fable.  He did not,
of his poems.                                                 however, as I remember, boast of having been admitted'Of Mr Vertue, to examine Stowe's memorandum-book.  as a guest at the table, but as happening to be in the room.'
Look more carefiully fr the year when Spenser's monu-  Why might not Oldys, however, have been seated, at
ment was raised, or between which years the entry stands   least, below  the salt!  It would do no honour to either
-1623 and 1626.                                               party to suppose that Oldys stood arriong the menials.'Sir Clement Cottrell's book about Spenser.                The truth is, there appears to have existed a confidential'Cap,' Power, to know if' he has heard from Capt. Spen-  intercourse between Pope and Oldys; and of this I shall
ser about my letter ofinquiiries relating to Edward Spenser.  give a remarkable proof.  In those fragments of Oldys'Of Whis.on, to examine if my remarks on Spenser are   preserved as'additional anecdotes of Shakespeare,' in
complete as to the press.-Yes.                                Steevens' and Malone's editions, Oldys mentions a story'Remember when I see Mr W. Thomson, to inquire   of Davenant, which he adds,'Mr. Pope told me at the
whether he hIas printed in any of'his works any character of  Earl of Oxford's table!'  And further relates a conversaour old poets than,hose of Spenser  and Shakespeare;*  tion which passed between them.  Nor is this all; for in
sete tan  thoe of Spnser ad Shakspeae                                                DI tionm inich
and to oct thie liberty of'a visit at Kentish Town, to see his   Oldys's Lanebaine he put down this memorandum  in the
Collection ofRosbert Green's IVorks, in about four large vo-  article of Shakespeare-' Remember what I observed to
lumes in quarto. I-Ie comrmonly published a pamphlet every   my Lord Oxford fbr Mr. Pope's use out of Cowley's preterm, as bi. acquaintance Trm  Nash informs us.'             face.' Malone appears to have discovered this fbservaTwo or three otfler inernoranda may excite a smile at his  tion of Cowley's, which is curious enough and very nopeculiar habits of study, and unceasing vigilance to draw    gratelul to that commentator's ideas; it is'to prune and'.rm origina! sources of information.                         lop away the old withered branches' in the new editions of
Dryden's dream at Lord Exeter's, at Burleigh, while he   Shakespeare and other ancient poets!'Pope adopted,'
was translation  Virgil, as Signior Verrio, then  painting   says Malone,'this very unwarrantable idea; Oldys was
there, related it to the Yorkshire painter, of whom I had it,  the person who suggested to Pope the singuilar course he
lies in the parclhmcnt book in quarto, designed for his life.'    pursued in his edition of Shakespeare.'  Without touchA  a s qt   period Oldys inserts,'Now  entered   ing on the felicity or the danger of this new system of reAt a su,:bequent period Oldys inserts, I'Now entered
therein.'   aln  qiotes  is very memoradum, hic  publishing Shakespeare, one may say thiat if many pasthedsoered n O     d].s' Maga i ne; tioesho that verydmemrnduv-lh
he discovered in Oldys Langbaine, to show that Drvcen   sages were struck out, Shalkespeare would not be injured,
had some confidence in Oneirocriticism, and supposed that  for many of them were never composed by that great ard
future events were, sometimes prognosticated by dreams.
futie evtut wer  soetims prenoticaed   y drams There not only existed a literary intimacy betnween Ohdys
and Pope, but our poet adopting his -suggestions on so iraMalone adds,' Where either the loose prophetic leaf, or the   and Pope, but our poet adoptin  his sgstins   on so i
parchment hook now is, I know  nor..t                         portant an occasion, evinces how highly he esteemed his
Unquestionably we have incurred a great loss of Oldys's  jidgment; and unquestionably Pope had often been defiahted by Oldys with the history of his predecessors, and
collection for Dryden's life, which were very extensive    lihed by Oldys ith  the history of his predecessors, and
Itie curiosities of English  poetry.
such a mass of literary history cannot have perished un-           i    o     i          hery
less by accident.; arif  I suspect that many of 01dyss         I have now  introduced the reader to  Oldys sitting
less bv accident; andi I suspect   that many of Oldyds's          s   i  peia        a~   h,'prhethorpi a
amidst his' poetical bags,' his' parchment biographical
mtsanuscripts are                                  whn toh! obetsion of individuwals who ae   budets,' his catalogues' and his'diaries, often ventnot acquainted  with }lis }hand-writing, which may be easily
verifedacuin!ngs  a solitary groan, or active in some fresh inquiry. Such
is tile Silhouette of this prodigy of literary curiosity!
To search the old papers in one of my large deal boxes       The very existence of Oldys's manuscripts continues to
fir Drydern's letter of thanks to my father, for some com-   be of an ambiguous nature, referred to, quoted, and trannnt.ication relating to Plutarch, while they and others   scribed, we catf but seldom turn to the originals.  These
were publishintr a translation of Pluitarch's Lives, in five   masses of curious knowledge, dispersed or lost, have envolumes, 8vo, 1683.  It is copied in the yellow book for   riched an after-race, who have often picked up the spoil
Dryden's Life, in which there are about 150 transcriptions   and claimed the victory, but it was Oldys who had fought
in prose andi verse, relating to the life, character, and   the battle!
writings of Mr. Dryden.'-Is England's Remembrancer              Oldys affords one more example how life is often closed
extracted ouit of my obit. (obituary) into my remarks on   amidst discoveries and acquisitions.  The literary antihim in the poetical bag?'                                     quary, when he has attempted to embody his multiplied'My extracts in the parchment budget about Denham's  inquiries, and to finish his scattered designs, has fbund
seat and family in Surrey.'                                   that the labor absqae lahore,'the labour void of labour,' as: lIy white vellumn pocket-book, bordered with gold, for  the inscription on the library of Florence finely describes
the extracts froim " Groans ofGreat Britain" about Butler.'  the researches of literature, has dissolved his days in the
See my accoint of the great yews in Tankersley's  voluptuousness of his curiosity   and that too olien, like
park. while Sir H. Fanshaw  was prisoner in the luoYe   the hinter in the heat of the chase, while he disdained
there; especially Talbot's yew, which a man on horse-  the prey which lay before him, he was still stretching onback might turn about in, in my botanical budget.'            wards to catch the fugitive!'This Donald Lupton I have mentioned in my catalogue             Transvolat in medic posita, et fugientia captat.
of all the books and pamphlets relative to London in folio,
begutn anno 1740, and which I have now, 1746, entered           At the close of every century, in this growing world or
between 300 and 400 articles, besides remarks, 4:.  1Now,   books, may an Oldys be the reader for the nation! Should
in June, 1748, between 400 and 500 articles.  Now, in  he be endowed with a philosophical spirit, and combine the
October, 1750, six hnde   and thirtysix.'*    genius of his own times with that of the preceding, ho
will hold in his hand the chain of human thoughts, and,
*William  Ttompson, the poet of'Sickness,' and other  like another Bayle, become the historian of the human
ponms; a warm lover of elder bards, and no vulgar imitator  mind
of Spenser.  He was the reviver of Bishop Hall's Satires, in  useful work of ten years of attention given to it! The anti1753, by an edition which had been more fortunate if conduct-  quary Gough a!ludes to it with his usual discernment.'Among
ed by his friend Oldys, for the text is unfaithful, though the   these titles of books and pamphlets about Londlon are many
edition followetd was one borrowed firom Lord Oxfcrd's library,  purely historical, and many of too low a kind to rank under
probably by the aid of Oldtlys.                               the heatd of topography and history.' Thus the design of
Malone's Life of Drydten, p. 420.                         Oldys in forning this elaborate collection, is condemned by
Th;s is one of Oldys's manuscripts; a thick folio of titles,  trying it by the limited object of the topographer's view  This
which has been made to do its duty, with small thanks from   catalogue remains a disideraturm. were it printed entire as col
those who did not care to praise the service which they de.  lected by Oldys, not merely for the topoeraphy of the metro.
rived from it. It passed from Dr Bertkenhont to George Stee.   polls, but for its relation to its mainners, domestic annalb,
vens. who lent it to Gough. It wvas sold for five guineas. The   events, and persons ( rnnected with its history.
MUe  OF  THE  SECOln   aERIEat




CONTENTS OF THE SECOND SERIES
Page                                                  Page
Modern Literature-Bayle's Critical Dictionary,. 227  The Italian Historians,                          3.  14
characteristics of Bayle,.                    228  Of Palaces built by Ministers,.     316
Cicero viewed as a Collector,                   230' Taxation no Tyranny,'..                318
The History of the Caraccis,                    231  The Book of Death,..               320
An English Academy of Literature,.. 233  The History of the Skeleton of Death,.         322
Quotation,...235  The Rival Biographers of Heylin,.      324
The Origin of Dante's Inferno,.        237  Of Lenglet du Fresnoy,...        325
Of a History of Events which have not happened,   238  The Dictionary of Trevoux,..      327
Of False Political Reports,.               241  Quadrio's Account of English Poetry,.         328
Of Suppressors and Dilapidators of Manuscripts,   242' Political Religionism,'.. 330
Parodies,..                 245  Toleration,..                      331
Anecdotes of the Fairfax Family,.. 247  Apology for the Parisian Massacre,.. 334
Medicine and Morals,. 248  Prediction,...               335
Psalm-Singing,. 250  Dreams at the Dawn of Philosophy,.        340
On the Ridiculous Titles assumed by the Italian       On Puck the Commentator,... 344
Academies,....       252  Literary Forgeries,... 346
On the Hero of Hudibras; Butler Vindicated,. 255  On Literary Filchers,              3. 349
Shenstone's School Mistress,.. 256  Of Lord Bacon at Home,..          350
Ben Jonson on Translation,... 257  Secret History of the Death of Queen Elizabeth,. 352
The Loves of' The Lady Arabella,'.. 257  James the First, as a Father and Husband,       354
Domestic History of Sir Edward Coke,.. 262  The Man of One Book,.                          355
Of Coke's Style and his Conduct,..     265  A Bibliognoste,                                   56
Secret History of Authors who have ruined their      Secret History of an Elcctive Monarchy —A  PoliBooksellers,..... 265    tical Sketch,.. 357
Local Descriptions,. 269  Buildings in the Metropolis, and Residence in the
Masques,.  270    Country,..61
Of Des Maizeaux, and the Secret History of Antho-    Royal Proclamations,. *                          64
ny Collin's Manuscripts,. 272  True Sources of Secret History,.. 366
History of New Words,...         275  Literary Residences,.            369
The Philosophy of Proverbs,        ~ ~. 277  Whether allowable to Ruin Oneself,.     371
Confusion of Words,.... 285  Discoveries of Secluded Men,.        373
Political Nick-Names,... 290  Sentimental Biography,..             374
The Domestic Life of a Poet-Shenstone vindica-       Literary Parallels,... 377
ted,                                          292  The Pearl Bibles and Six Thousand Errata,. 378
Secret History of the Building of Blenheim,. 295  View of a Particular Period of the State of ReliSecret History of Sir Walter Rawleigh,. 297,ion in our Civil Wars,.                       379
An Authentic Narrative of the last hours of Sir. Of Buckingham's Political Coquetry with the PuriWalter Rawleigh,.       ~ ~    ~       301    tans,..                   382
Literary Unions,-Secret History of Rawleigh's         Sir Edward Coke'N exceptions against the High
History of the World and Vasari's Lives,. S02    Sheriff's Oath,..              383
Of a Biography Painted,...         304  Secret History of Charles the First, and his First
Cause and Pretext,..   305    Parliaments,.... 385
Political Forgeries and Fictions,... 306  The Rump,                                         S92
Expression of Suppressed Opinion,. 307  Life and Habits of a Literary Antiquary-Oldys
Autographs,...            310    and his MSS,..                           5 395
The History of Writing-Masters, *.. 311
13~                      -                                           51








THUt
LITERARY CHARACTER.
ILLUSTRATED
BIY THE
HISTORY OF' MEN OF GENIUS.
DRAWN FROM THIEIR OWN FEELINGS AND CONFESSIONS.








PREFACaf.
I Published, in 1795, "an Essay on the Literary Character;" to my
own habitual and inherent defects, were superadded those of my youth;
the crude production was, however, not ill received, for the edition disappeared; and the subject was found to be more interesting than the writer.
During the long interval which has elapsed since the first publication,
the little volume was often recalled to my recollection, by several, and by
some who have since obtained celebrity; they imagined that their attachment to literary pursuits had been strengthened even by so weak an effort.  An extraordinary circumstance has occurred with these opinions;a copy which has accidentally fallen into my hands, formerly belonged to
the great poetical genius of our times; and the singular fact that it was
twice read by him in two subsequent years, at Athens, in 1810 and 1811,
instantly convinced me that the volume deserted my attention. I tell this
fact assuredly, not from any little vanity which it may appear to betray
for the truth is, were I not as liberal and as candid in respect to my own
productions, as I hope I am to others, I could not have been gratified by
the present circumstance; for the marginal notes of the noble writer convey no flattery-but amidst their pungency and sometimes their truth, the
circumstance that a man of genius could, and did read, this slight effusion
at two different periods of his life, was a sufficient authority, at least for an
author, to return it once more to the anvil; more knowledge, and more
maturity of thought, I may hope, will now fill up the rude sketch of my
youth; its radical defects, those which are inherent in every author, it
were unwise for me to hope to remove by suspending the work to a more
remote period.
It may be thought that men of genius only should write on men of
genius; as if it were necessary that the physician should be infected with
the disease of his patient. He is only an observer, like Sydenham who
confined himself to vigilant observation, and the continued experience of
tracing the progress of actual cases (and in his department, but not in mine)
In the operation of actual remedies. He beautifully says-" Whoever
describes a violet exactly as to its colour, taste, smell, form, and other
properties, will find the description agree in most particulars with all the
violets in the universe."
Nor do I presume to be any thing more than the historian of genius;
zrhose humble office is only to tell the virtues and the infirmities of his




PREFACE
neroes. It is the fashion of the present day to raise up dazzling theories
of genius; to re ason a priori; to promulgate abstract paradoxes; to treat
with levity the man of genius, because he is only a man of genius. I
have sought for facts, and have often drawn results unsuspected by myself,
I have looked into literary history for the literary character. I have always had in my mind an observation of Lord Bolingbroke: "Abstract,
or general propositions, though never so true, appear obscure or doubtful to us very often till they are explained by examples; when examples are pointed out to us, there is a kind of appeal, with which we are
flattered, made to our senses, as well as to our understandings. The instruction comes then from our authority; we yield to fact when we resist
speculation."  This will be truth long after the encyclopedic geniuses of
the present age, who write on all subjects, and with most spirit on those
they know least about, shall have passed away; and time shall extricate
truth from the deadly embrace of sophistry.




THE LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
CHAPTER I.                          riously traced to the president of the Roslcrucians, and noA
only the society became celebrated, but abused. DescarON LITERARY CHbARACTEtRS.                 tes, when in Germany, gave himself much trouble to track
SINcE the discovery of that art which multiplies at will  out the society, that he might consult the great searcher
the productions of the human intellect, and spreads them   after Truth, but in vain! It did not occur to the young reover the universe in the consequent formation of libraries,  former of science in this visionary pursuit, that every phia class or order of men has arisen, who appear throughout  losophical inquirer was a brother, and that the extraordiEurope to have derived a generic title in that of literary  nary and mysterious personage, was indeed himself! for a
characters; a denomination which, however vague. defines  genius of the first order is always the founder of a society,
the pursuits of the individual, and serves, at times, to se-  and, wherever he may be, the brotherhood will delight to
parate him from other professions.                     acknowledge their master.
Formed by the same habits, and influenced by the same    These Literary Characters are partially described by
motives, notwithstanding the difference of talents and ternm-  Johnson, not without a melancholy colouring.' To talk
pers, the opposition of times and places, they have always  in private, to think in solitude, to inquire or to answer in.
preserved among themselves the most striking family re-  quiries, is the business of a scholar. He wanders about
semblance. The literary character, from the objects in  the world without pomp or terror, and is neither known nor
which it concerns itself, is of a more independent and per-  valued but by men like himself.'  But eminent Genius acnlanent nature than those which are perpetually modified  complishes a more ample design. He belongs to the world
by the change of manners, and are more distinctly nation.  as much as to a nation; even the great writer himself, at
al. Could we describe the medical, the commercial, or  that moment, was not conscious that he was devoting his
the legal character of other ages, this portrait of antiquity  days to cast the minds o  his own contemporaries, and of
would be like a perished picture; the subject itself would  the next age, in the mighty mould of his own, for he was
have altered its position in the revolutions of society. It is  of that order of men whose individual genius often becomes
notso with the literary character. The passion for study;  that of a people. A prouder conception rose in the mathe delight in books; the desire of solitude and celebrity;  jestic mind of Milton, of' that lasting fame and perpetuity
the obstructions of life; the nature of their habits and pur.  of praise, which God and good men have consented shall
suits; the triumphs and the disappointments of literary  be the reward of those whose published labours advance the
glory; all these are as truly described by Cicero and the  good of mankind.'
younger Pliny, as by Petrarch and Erasmus, and as they    Literature has in all ages, encountered adversaries from
have been by Hume and Gibbon. The passion for collect-  causes sufficiently obvious; but other pursuits have been
ing together the treasures of literature and the miracles of rarely liable to discover enemies among their own votaries.
art, was as insatiable a thirst in Atticus as in the French  Yet many literary men openly, or insidiously, would low.
Peiresc, and in our Cracherodes and Townleys. We  er the Literary character, are eager to confuse the ranks
trace the feelings of our literary contemporaries in all ages,  in the republic of letters, wanting the virtue which knows to
and every people who have deserved to rank among polish-  pay its tribute to Ctesar: while they maliciously confer the
ed nations. Such were those literary characters who  character of author on that " Ten Thousand," whose rehave stamped the images of their minds on their works,  cent list is not so much a muster roll of heroes, as a table
and that other race, who preserve the circulation of this  of population.*
intellectual coinage;                                   We may allow the political economist to suppose that
an author is the manufacturer of a certain ware for " a very
--------------— Gold of the Dead,      paltry recompense," as their s-eer Adam Smith has caleuWhich Time does still disperse, but not devour       ryeompense," as their seer Adam Smith has calcu.
hich Time does still ndisperse, but not devour.  lated. It is useless to talk to people who have nothing but
Avean  Gondiber, c. v. s..  millions in their imagination, and whose choicest works
These literary characters now!constitute an important  of art are spinning jennies; whose principle of' labour'
body, diffused over enlightened Europe, connected by  would have all men alike die in harness; or, in their carthe secret links of congenial pursuits, and combining often  pentry of human nature, would convert them  into wheels
insensibly to themselves in the same common labours.  and screws, to work the perplexed movements of that ideal
At London, at Paris, and even at Madrid, these men  machinery called' capital'-these may reasonably doubt
feel the same thirst, which is allayed at the same foun.  of'the utility' of this' unproductive' race. Their heat.
tams; the same authors are read, and the same opinions  ed heads and temperate hearts may satisfy themselves that
are formed.'that unprosperous race of men, called men of letters,'
Contemporains de tous les hommes,               in a system of political economy, must necessarily occupy
Et citoyens de tous les lieux.                  their present state in society, much as formerly when' a
De la Mothe.           scholar and a beggar seem to have been terms very nearly
synonimous.'ft  But whenever the political economists
Thus an invisible brotherhood is existing among us. and  shall feel,-a calculation of time which who would dare to
those who stand connected with it are not always sensible  furnish them with?-that the happiness and prosperity ot
of this kindred alliance. Once the world was made uneasy  a people include something more permanent and more
by rumours of the existence of a society, founded by that  evident than' the wealth of a nation,' they may form
extraordinary German, Rosicrucius, designed for the search  another notion of the literary character.
of truth and the reformation of the sciences. Its statutes    A more formidable class of ingenious men who derived
were yet but partially promulgated but many a great princi-  their reputation and even their fortune in life from their
ple in morals, many a result of science in the concentrated  literary character, yet are cold and heartless to the inter.
form of an axiom; and every excellent work which suited the.k See a recent biographical account of ten thousand authors
liews of the author to preserve anonymous, were mys-te-   t Wealth of Nations, v. I, p. 182




408                       LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
ests of literature-men who have reached their summit  all the great characters, ancient and modern, for your
and reject the ladder: for those who have once placed   conmpanions and counsellors.'
themselves high, feel a sudden abhorrence of climbing.    Every life of a man of genius, composed by himself,
These have risen through the gradations of politics into  presents us with the experimental philosophy of the mind.
office, and in that busy world view every thing in a cloud  By living with their brothers, and contemplating on their
of passions and politics;-they who once commanded us  masters, they will judge from consciousness less erro.
by their eloquence would now drive us by the single force  neously than from discussion; and in forming comparative
of despotism; like Adrian VI, who obtaining the Pontifi-  views and parallel situations, they will discover certain
cate as the reward of his studies, yet possessed of the  habits and feelings, and find these reflected in themselves,
Tiara, persecuted students; he dreaded, say the Italians,.est his brothers might shake the Pontificate itself. It
fares worse with authors when minds of this cast become
the arbiters of the public opinion; when the literary cha-                YOUTH OF GENIUS.
racter is first systematically degraded and then sported    Gentlls, that creative part of art which individualises
with, as elephants are made to dance on hot iron; or the  the artist, belonging to him and to no other,-is it an Inbird plucked of its living feathers is exhibited as a new   herent faculty in the constitutional dispositions of the indisort of creature to invite the passengers! Whatever such   vidual, or can it be formed by the patient acquisitions of
critics may plead to mortify the vanity of authors, at least  art?
it requires as much to give effect to their own polished   Many sources of genius have indeed been laid open to
effrontery.  Lower the high self.reverence, the lofty con-  us, but if these may sometimes call it forth, have they
ception of Genius, and you deprive it of the consciousness  ever supplied its wants? Could Spenser have struck out
of its powers with the delightfulness of its character; in  a poet in Cowley, Richardson a painter in Reynolds, and
the blow you give the musical instrument, the invisible  Descartes a metaphysician in Mallebranche, had they not
soul of its tone is fbr ever lost.                       borne that vital germ of nature, which, when endowed with
A lighter class reduce literature to a mere curious  its force, is always developing itself to a particular chaamusement; a great work is likened to a skilful game of  racter of genius? The accidents related of these men have
billiards, or a piece of music finely executed-and curious  occurred to a thousand, who have run the same career;
researches, to charade makina and Chinese puzzles.  An  but. how does it happen, that the multitude remain a multiauthor with them is an idler who will not be idle, amusing,  tude, and the man of genius arrives alone at the goal?
or fatiguing others, who are completely so. We have        The equality of minds in their native state is as monbeen told that a great genius should not therefore'ever  strous a paiadox, or a term as equivocal in metaphysics,
allow himself to be sensible to his own celebrity, nor deem   as the equality of men in the political state.  Both come
his pursuits of much consequence however important or  from the French school in evil times; and ought, therefore,
successfill.'  Catholic doctrine to mortify an author into a  as Job said,'to be eschewed   Nor can we trust to Johnsaint; Lent all the year, and self-flagellation every day!  son's definition of genius,' as a mind of general powers
This new principle, which no man in his senses would  accidentally determined by some particular direction,' as
contend with, had been useful to Buffon and Gibbon, to  this rejects any native aptitude, while we must infer on
Voltaire and Pope, —who assuredly were too' sensible to  this principle that the reasoning Locke, without an ear or
their celebrity, and deemed their pursuits of much conse-  an eye, could have been the musical and fairy Spenser.
quence,' particularly when'important and successful.'    The automatic theory of Reynolds stirs the puppet arBut this point may be adjusted when we come to examine  tist by the wires of pertinacious labour. But industry
the importance of an author, and the privilege he may pos-  without genius is tethered; it has stimulated many drudges
sess of a little anticipating the public, in his self-praise.    in art, while it has left us without a Corregio or a Raphael.
Such are the domestic treasons of the literary character    Akenside in that fine poem which is itself a history of
against literature-' et tu, Brute!'-but a hero of litera-  genius, in tracing its source, first sang,
ture falls not though struck at; he outlives his assassins —
and might address them in that language of poetry and       From heaven my strainsbegin, from heaven descends
tenderness with which a Mlexican king reproached his        Theflameofgeniustothehumanbreast.
traitorous counsellors: " You were the feathers of my  but in the final revision of that poem he left many years afwings, and the eyelids of my eyes."                      ter, the bard has vindicated the solitary and independent
Every class of men in society have their peculiar sor-  origin of genius by the mysterious epithet the chosen breast.
rows and enjoyments, as they have their habits and their  The veteran poet was perhaps lessened by the viccissicharacteristics.  In the history of men of genius, we may  tudes of his own poetical life, and those of some of his
often open the secret story of their minds; they have,  brothers.
above others, the privilege of communicating their own     But while genius remains still wrapt uip in its mvsterlfeelings, and it is their talent to interest us, whether with  Otus bud, may we not trace its history in its votaries? Let
their pen they talk of themselves, or paint others.     us compare although we may not always decide.  If naIn the history of men of genius let us.not neglect those  ture in some of her great operations has kept her last se.
who have devoted themselves to the cultivation of the fine  crets, and even Newton, in the result of his reasonings,
arts; with them genius is alike insulated in their studies;  has religiously abstained from  penetrating into her occult
they pass through the same permanent discipline.  The  connections, is it nothing to be her historian although we
histories of literature and art have parallel epochs; and  cannot be her legislator?
certain artists resemble certain authors. Hence Milton,    Can we trace in the faint lines ofchildhood, an unsteady
Michael Angelo, and Handel! One principle unites the  outline of the man? in the temperament of genius may we
intellectual arts, for in one principle they originate, and  not reasonably look for certain indications. or prognostics
thus it has happened that the same habits and feelings,        cin  the permanent character?  Will not great
and the same fortunes have accompanied men who have  sensibility be borne with its susceptible organization; the
sometimes, unhappily, imagined that their pursuits were  deep retired character cling to its musings; and' the unalnot analogous.  In the' world of ear and eye,' the poet,  terable being of intrepidity and fortitude, full of confidence,
the painter, and the musician are kindled by the same in-  be commanding even in his sports, a daring leader among
spiration.  Thus all is Art and all are artists! This ap-  his equals.
proximation of men apparently of opposite pursuits is so    The virtuous and contemplative Boyle imagined that he
natural, that when Gesner, in his inspiring letter on land-  had discovered in childhood that disposition of mind which
scape-painting, recommends to the young painter a con-  indicated an instinctive ingenuousness; an incident which
stant study of poetry and literature, the impatient artist is  he relates, evinced as he thought, that even then he premrade to exclaim,' Must we combine with so many other  ferred aggravating his fault, rather than consent to supstudies those which belong to literary men? Must we  press any part of the truth, an effort which had been unread as well as paint?''It is useless to reply to this  natural to his mind. His fanciful, vet striking illustration
question,' says Gesner,'for some important truths must  may open our inquiry.'This trivial passage'-the little
be instinctively felt, perhaps the fundamental ones in the  story alluded to-' I have mentioned now, not that I thirm
arts.'  A truly imaginative artist, whose enthusiasm was  that in itself it deserves a relation, but because as the sun
never absent when he meditated on the art he loved,  is seen best at his rising and his setting, so men's native
1arry, thus vehemently broke forth-' Go home from the  dispositions are clearliest perceived whilst they are chilAcademy; light iup your' lamps, and exercise yourselves in  dren, and when they are dying. These little sudden acthe creative part of your art, with Homer, with Livy; and  tions are the greatest discoverers of men's true humours.'




LITERARY CHARACTER &c.                                                                409
That the dispositions of genius in early life presage its fu'  it, he finds all places in it; he converses silently with al.
rlre character, was long the feeling of anitiqaity. Isocrates,   about him-he Is a hernmit, a lover, a hero. Tie fragrance.fter much previous observatie.i I those who atteided his  anid blush of the morning; the still hush of the evening;
lectures, would advise one to engage in political studies,  the mountain, the valley, and the stream; all nature open
exhorted another to compose history, elected some to be  ing to him, he sits brooding over his first dim images,  in
poets, anti some to adopt his own profession.  He thought  that trait of tliought we call reverie, with a restissnesw
that nature had some concern in fonming a man of genius;  of delight, for he is only the being of sensation, and has
and fie tried to guess at her secret by detecting the first  not yet learnt to think; then comes that tendrrness of
energetic inclination of the mind.  This principle guided   spirit, that first shade of thought colouring every scene,
the Jesuits.                                                 and deepening every feeling; this temperament has beeti
In the old romance of King Arthur, when a cowherd   often mistaken for melancholy.  One truly inspired, un-.
comes to the king to request he would make his son a   folds the secret storyknight-' It is a great thing thou askest,' said Arthur, who        Indowed with all that nature can bestow,
inquired whether this entreaty proceeded from him  or his         The child of fancy oft in silence bends
son?  The old man's answer is remarkable —' Of my son,          O'er the mixt treasures of his pregnant breast
not of tne; for I have thirteen sons, and all these will fall    With conscious pride. Front them he oft resolves
To frame he knows not what excelling thingsl
to that labour I put them; but this child will not labour for    To rme he knos not hat excelling things,
And win he knows not what sublime reward
me, for kny thing that I and my wife will do; but always         Of praise and wontder'he wvill be shooting and castin,, darts, and glad for to see
he will be shooting and casting darts, and glad for to see   This delight in reverie has been finely described by Boylea
battles, and to behold knights,'and always day and night
he desiret of me to  e made a knight.'  Te ing com-'When the intermission of' ty studies allowed me leisure,
lie desireth of me, to be made a knight.' Tihe king commnded the cwherd   to fetch all his sons; they were all  for recreation,' says Boyle,'I would very often steal away'
maxided the cowherd to ~~~fecalhis'onsmte   ee  l   rn  all company and spend four or five hours alone inshapen  much like the poor man; but Tor was not like   flou  all company and spend four or five hours alone in
none o   tlt ine sthae  andr imn counte, for  the fields and think at random, making my delighted imanone of them in shape and in countenance, for he was
much more than any of them.  And so Arthur knighted  gination the busy scene where some romance or other was
daily acted.' This circumstances alarmed his fi'iends, who~
himn.' This simple tale is the history of genius-the cow-  daily acted.'  This circmstance ilarthed his fieis, w
imagined that he was overcome with melanchoiy.*
rd's twelve sons were like himself, but the unhappy  It. is remarkable that this love of repose and musing is:
genius in the family who perplexed and plagued tihe cow-       t
retained throtughout life. A   mno iegnu srrl
herd and his wife and his twelve brothers, was the youth.    man of fine genius is rarely
enamoured of common amusements or~ of robust exercises;.
averse to labour, hut active enough in performing knightly    namouredo como  amusements or of robust exercises;.
exercises; and draming on chivalry amidst a herd of  and he is usually unadroit where dexterity of hand oreye,
~~cows,~~                                              or trivial elegancies, are required.  This characteristic of
O   man of genius a thus dropt among the people, and   genius was discovered by Horace in that Ode which school
A man of' genius is thus dropt among the people, and             
as first to enotutet the  iicuies   ofi       boys often versify.  Beattie has expressly told us of hit:
has irs toencuntr te dfficltis o"'odinry  en  e- /instrel —
prived of that feeble ductility which adapts itself to the
common destination. Parents are too often the victims of             The exploit, of strength,.dexterity, or speed
the decined propensity of a son to a Virgil or an Euclid;          To tim nor vanity, nor joy could bring.
and the first step into lie of a man of genius is disobedi-   Alfieri said lie could never be tauglht by a French danicing.
ence anrid trief.  Lilly  ourfamous astrologer, has described   master, whose Art made him at once shudlder and laugi,.
the freqmucnt situation of sech a youth, likte the cowherd's  If we reflect that as it is now practised it seenms the art of
son who would be a knight, ILilly proposed to his father   giving affectation to a puppet, and that this puppet is a
that he should cry his forture in the metropolis, where he   man, we can enter into this mixed sensation of degradation.
expected that biis leartning ant his talents would prove ser-   and ridicule.  Horace, by his own confession. was a very
viceable to }him; the father, qilte incapable of discovering   awkward rider; and the poetical rider could not alwausthe latent genius of his son n his studious dispositions,  secure a seat on his mule; Metastasio humorously cut;very willingly consented to get-id of him, for, as Lilly pro-   plains of his gun; the poetical sportsman could only tright.
ceeds, II could not work, drivethe plough, or endure any   en the hares and partridges; the truth was, as an elder'
country labour; my father oft vould say I was good for   poet sings,
nothing,'-words which the fatders of so many men of'Instead of hounds that make the wooded hills
genius have repeated.                                            Talk in a hundred voices to the rills;
In reading the memoirs of a nan of genius we often             I like the pleasing cadence of a line
reprobate the domestic persecution of those who opposed          Struck by the concert of the sacred Nine.'
his inclinations.  No poet but is mved with indignation                         Brne's Brit. Past. B. ii, Song 4.
at the recollection of the Port Royali Society thrice burn-  And we discover the true  humour' of the indolent coning the romance which Racine at length got by heart; no   tempiative race in their great representatives Virgil and:
geometrician but bitterly inveighs apainst the father of  Horace.  When they accompanied Mecmnas inito the
Pascal for not suffering him to study Ruclid, which he at  country, while the minister amused himself' at tennis, the
length understood without studying. The father of Pe-  two bards reposed on a vernal bank amidst the freshness
trarch in a barbarous rage burnt the pocical library of his  of the shade.  The younger Pliny, who was so perfect a
son amidst the shrieks, the groans, ant the tears of the   literary character, was charmed by the Roman mode of.
youth.  Yet this neither converted Petrrch into a sober  hunting, or rather fowling by nets, which admitted him to.
rawyer, nor deprived him of the Roman lauel.  The uncle  sit a whole day with his tablets and styluse, that, says  he,
of Alfieri for more than twenty years suppuessed the peet-'should I return with empty nets my tablets may at least
ical character of this noble bard; he was, poet without   be full.'  Thomson was the hero of his own Castle of Inknowing to write a verse, and Nature, like Ciard creditor,  dolence.
exacted with redoubled interest, all the genis which the      The youth of genius will he apt to retire from the acuncle had so long kept from her.  Such are th men whose  tive sports of his mates.  Beattie paints himself in his
inherent impulse no human opposition, and yen no ad-  own Minstrel,
verse education, can deter filom being great mqu.                 An unhappy young man who recently forfeited his lire to
Let us, however, be just to the parents of a ran of ge-  the laws for forgery appears to have given promises ofRgenis,
nius; they have another association of ideas cncerning   -He hald thrown himself for two years into the studious re.
him  than we; we see a great man, they a diebedient  tirement of a foreign  university.  Before his execution lihe
child; we track him  through his glory, the  revearied    sketched an imperfect auto-bio-raphy and the following pee.
ry, ~~~~kthed aniprfvectauriogaead               thto l w igps
sage is descriptive of young gehius:
by the sullen resistance of his character.  The ce-cer of  se is descptive of young geus
thi srreytato  orue  rhppns;  dte'About this time I became uncommonly resetveil, withdraw.
genius is rarely that of fortune or happiness; ad the   log by doreen from  the pastimes  of my aosoctotes, and was
ing by degrees fi'om the pastimes of my associates, and)( was
ather, who mtay himself be not insensible to glory,'eads   frequently observed to retire to some solitarSy place alone.lest his son be found among that obscure multitudethat  Ruined castles, bearing the vestiges of ancient broils, antd the
populace of mean artists, who must expire at the bariers  impai'ingl hand of time,-casades thundlering through the
of mediocrity.                                              echoing groves,-rocks and preillices, —the be(autifilt as well
The contemplative race, even in their first steps o-   as the sublime traits of nature-formel a spacioss field for
wards nature, are receiving that secret instruction whih  contemplation many a  appy hour. From tleie inspiring oh.'no~~ ms    aia    T      ejects, contemplation woulI lead me to the ireat Autilm,r of ma.
no master can impart.  The boy of genius   e to    tre. Often have I dropped on my knees,-andi poured out tho
favourite haunt to which his fancy has often given           statcies of my soul to tihe God who inspired them.'
fame; he populates his solitude; he takes all shapes ir,   tHor. Gd. Lib. iv 0. 3.
52




410                          LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.'Concourse and noise, and toil he ever fled,           attract the companions of a school-boy may not b: those
Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray            which are essential to fine genius. The captain or leader
Of squabbling imps; but to the forest sped.            of his school-mates has a claim on our attention, but it is
Bossuet would not join his young companions, and flew   the sequestered boy who may chance to be the artist, or
to his solitary task, while the classical boys avenged his  the literary character.
flight by applying to him from Virgil the bos suetus aratro.    Is there then a period in youth which yields decisive
flihe ox dai!y toiling in the plough.  The young painters, to   marks of the character of genius?  The natures of men
ridicule the persevering labours of Domenichino in his  are as various as their fortunes.  Some, like diamonds,
youth, honoured him by the same title of' the great ox;'  must wait to receive their splendour from the slow touches
and Passeri, in his delightful biography of' his own con-  of the polisher, while others, resembling pearls, appear at
temporary artists, has happily expressed the still labours  once born with their beautiful lustre.
of his concealed genius, sue taciturna lentezza, his silent    Among the inauspicious circumstances is the feebleness
slowness.  The learned Huet has given an amusing de-  of the first attempts; and we must not decide on the
tail of the inventive persecutions of his school-mates, to  talents of a young man by his first works.  Dryden and
divert him from his obstinate love of study.' At length,'  Swift might have been deterred fromn authorship, had their,says he,'in order to indulge my own taste, I would rise  earliest pieces decided their fate. Racine's earliest corn-,with the sun, while they were buried in sleep, and hide  position, which we know of by some fragments his son had,myself in the woods that I might read and study in quiet,'  preserved, to show  their remarkable contrast with lis'but they beat the bushes and started in his burrow, te,  writings, abound with those points and conceits which af-,future man of erudition.  Sir William Jones was rarely a  terwards he abhorred; the tender author of Andromache
partaker in the active sports of Harrow; it was said of  could not have been discovered while exhausting himself
fGray that he was never a boy, and the unhappy Chatter-  in his wanderings from nature, in running after conceits as;ton and Bimrns were remarkably serious boys. Milton has  absurd and surprising as the worst parts of Cowley. Gib-:preserved for us, in solemn numbers, his school-life-     bon betrayed none of the force and magnitude of his
powers in his " Essay on Literature," or his attempted
When I was yet a child, no childish play            History of Switzerland.  Johnson's cadenced prose is not
To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do          recognizable in the humble simplicity of his earliest years.
What might be public good, myself I thought          Many authors have begun unsuccessfully the walk they'Born to thiat end, born to promote all truth,       afterwards excelled in. Raphael, when he first drew his
Alt righteous things-                                meagre forms under Perugino, had nriot yet conceived one
Par. Reg.    line of that ideal beauty, which one day he of all men
If the youth of genius is apt to retire from the ordinary  could alone execute.
sports of his mates, he often substitutes others, the reflec-  Even the manhood of genius maypass by unobserved
tions of those favourite studies which are haunting his  by his companions, and may, like 2Eaeas, be hidden in a
young'imagination; the amusements of such an idler have  cloud amidst his associates.  Thr  celebrated  Fabius
often been fanciful. Ariosto, while yet a school-boy, com-  Maximus in his boyhood was called in derision" the little
posed a sort of tragedy from  the story of Pyramus and  sheep," from the meekness and grevity of his disposition.
Ihisbe, and had-it represented by his brothers and sisters.  His sedateness and taciturnity, hbis indifference to juvenile
Pope seems to have indicated his passion for Homer in  amusements, his slowness and Jifficulty  in e   arning, and
those rough scenes which he drew up from Ogilby's ver-  his ready submission to his eqtals, induced them to consion; and when Sir'William  Jones at Harrow  divided  sider him as one irrecoverably tupid.  That greatness of
the fields according to a map of Greece, and portioned out  mind, unalterable courage, andinvincible character Fabius
to each school-fellow a dominion, and further, when want-  afterwards displayed, they cen imagined had lain coning a copy of the Tempest to act from, he supplied it from   cealed in the apparent corerary qualities.  The boy of
his memory, we must confess that the boy Jones was re-  genius may indeed seem slov and dull even to the phlegflecting in his amusements the cast of mind he displayed   matic, for thoughtful and observing dispositions conceal
in his after life, and that felicity of memory and taste so  themselves in timorous silent characters, who have not yet
prevalent in his literary character.  Florian's earliest  learnt their strength; no can that assiduous love, which
years were passed in shooting birds all day and reading  cannot tear itself awayriom  the secret instruction it is
every evening an old translation of the Iliad; whenever  perpetually imbibing, bh easily distinguished from  that
he got a bird remarkable for its size or its plumage, he  pertinacity which goes ml with the mere plodder.  We
ipersonified it by one of the names of his heroes, and   often hear from the ealy companions of a man of genius,raising a funeral pyre consumed the body; collecting the  that at school, he har appeared heavy and unpromising.:ashes in an urn, he presented them  to his grandfather,  Rousseau imagined tOat the childhood of some men is acwith a narrative of his Patroclus or Sarpedon. We seem   companied by that serming and deceitfil dulness, which is'here to detect, reflected in his boyish sports, the pleasing  the sign of a profoind genius; and Roger Ascham  has
genius of the author of Numa Pompilius, Gonsalvo of  placed among "th; best natures for learning, the sadCordova and William Tell.                                  natured and hard-vitted child," that is, the thoughtful or
It is perhaps a criterion of talent when a youth is dis-  the melancholic, td the slow. Domenichino was at first
tinguished by his equals; at that moment of life with no  heavy and unprorising, and Passeri expresses his surprize
flattery on the one side, and no artifice on the other, all  at the accounts le received of the early life of this great
emotion anrid no reflection, the boy who has obtained a pre.  artist.  "It is dfficult to believe," he says," what many
dominance has acquired this merely by native powers.  assert, that frcn the beginning this great painter had a
The boyhood of Nelson was characterized by events con-  ruggedness abut him, which entirely incapacitated him
genial to those of his after-days; and his father understood  from  learninshis profession, and they have heard from
his character when he declared that " in whatever station   himself thathe quite despaired of success. Yet I canhe might be placed, he would climb, if possible, to the top   not comprehend how such vivacious talents, with a mind
of the tree."'  Some puerile anecdotes which Franklin  *so finely ornized, and accompanied with such favourable
remembered of himself, in association with his after-life,  disposition'for the art, would show such signs of utter inbetray the invention, and the firm intrepidity, of his cha-  capacity;I rather think that is a mistake in the proper
racter; and even perhaps the carelessness of the means to  knowledg of genius, which some imagine indicates itself
obtain his purpose.  In boyhood he was a sort of adven-  most de'sively by its sudden vehemence, showing itself
Iurer; and since his frather would not consent to a sea-  like lighning, and like lightning passing away."  A parallife, ihe made the river near him represent the ocean; he  lel cas-we find in Goldsmith, who passed through an unlived on the water, and was the daring Columbus of a  promiFnl youth; he declared that he was never attached
school-boy's boat.  A  part where he and his mates stood  to thebelles-lettres till he was thirty, that poetry had no
to angle, it time became a quagmire.  In the course of  pecubr charms for him  till that age, and indeed to his
one day the infant projector thought of a wharf for them   later hour he was surprizing his friends by productions
to stand on, and raised wiih a heap of stones deposited   whih  they had imagined he was incapable of composing.
there for the Uuliding of a house.  But he preferred his  Hmne was considered, for his sobriety and assiduity, as
wharf to another's house; his contrivances to aid his puny   coupetent to become a steady merchant; of Johnson it
labourers.  with his resolution not to quit the great work till  wvS said that he would never offend in conversation, as of;t was effected, seem to strike ouit to us the decision and   joileau that he had no great understanding, but would
invention ofhis future character.  But the qualities which   peak ill of no one. Farquhar at college was a heavy




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                        411
companion, and afterwards, combined, with great know-  the title of the philosopher, always questioning, and setledge of the world, a light airy talent.  Even a discerning  tling cause and effect.  It happened that he was twentyparent or master has entirely failed to develope the genius  five years of age before he left the army, but the propenof the youth, who has afterwards ranked among eminent  sity for meditation had been early formed, and the nobln
men; and we ought as little to infer from early unfavour-  enterprize of reforming philosophy never ceased to inspire
able appearances as from inequality of talent. The great  his solitary thoughts. Descartes was a man born only for
Isaac Barrow's father used to say, that if it pleased God  meditation-and he has himself given a very interesting
to take from him  any of his children he hoped it might be  account of the pursuits which occupied his youth, and oi
Isaac, as the least promising; and during the three years  the progress of his genius; of that secret struggle he sc
Barrow  passed at the Charter-house, he was remarkable  long held with himself, wandering in concealment over the
only for the utter negligence of his studies and his person.  world, for more than twenty years, and, as he says of himThe mother of Sheridan, herself a literary female, pro-  self, like the statuary, labouring to draw out a Minerva
nounced early, that he was the dullest and most hopeless  from the marble block. Michael Angelo, as yet a child
of her sons. Bodmer, at the head of the literery class in  wherever he went, busied himself in drawing; and when
Switzerland, who had so frequently discovered and ani-  his noble parents, hurt that a man of enius was disturbing
mated the literary youths of his country, could never de-  the line of their ancestry, forced him to relinquish the pen.
tect the latent genius of Gesner; after a repeated exami-  cil, the infant artist flew to the chissel: art was in his
nation of the young man, he put his parents in despair with  soul and in his hands. Velasquez, the Spanish painter
the hopeless award that a mind of so ordinary a cast must  at his school tasks, filled them with sketches and drawconfine itself to mere writing and accompts.             ings, and as some write their names on their books his
Thus it happens that the first years of life do not always  were known by the specimens of his genius. The pIainter
include those of genius, and the education of the youth  Lanfranco was originally the page of a marquis, who obmay not be the education of his genius. In all these  serving that he was perpetually scrawling figures on cards,
cases nature had dropt the seeds in the soil, but even a  or with charcoal on the walls, asked the boy whether he
happy disposition must be concealed amidst adverse cir-  would apply to the art he seemed to love? The boy tremcumstances.  It has happened to some men of genius  bled, fearing to have incurred his masters- anger; but
during a long period of their lives, that an unsettled im-  when encouraged to decide, he did not hesitate: placed unpulse, without having discovered the objects of its apti-  der one ofthe Carraccios, his rapid progress in the art testifitude, a thirst and fever in the temperament of too sentient  ed how much Lanfranco had suffered by suppressing his naa being which cannot find the cccupation to which it can  tural aptitude. When we find the boy Nanteuil, his parents
only attach itself, has sunk into a melancholy and queru-  being averse to their son's practising drawing, hiding himious spirit, weary with the burden of existence; but the  self in a tree to pursue the delightful exercise of his pen.
instant the latent talent had declared itself, his first work,  cil; that Handel, intended for a doctor of the civil laws,
the eager offspring of desire and love, has astonished the  and whom no parental discouragement could deprive of his
world at once with the birth and the maturity of genius.    enithusiasm for the musical science, for ever touching harpAbundant facts exhibit genius unequivocally discover-  sichords, and having secretly conveyed a musical iinstru.
ing itself in the juvenile age connecting these facts with  ment to a retired apartment, sitting through the night
the subsequent life-and in general, perhaps a master-  awakening his harmonious spirit; and when we view Fermind exhibits precocity.'Whatever a young man at first  guson the child of a peasant, acquiring the art of reading
applies himself to, is commonly his delight afterwards.'  without any one suspecting it, by listening to his father
r'his remark was made by Hartley, who has related an  teaching his brother; making a wooden watch without the
anecdote of the infancy of his genius, which indicated the  sightest knowledge of mechanism, and while a shepherd,
man.  He declared to his daughter that the intention of  like an ancient Chaldean, studying the phenomena of the
writing a book upon the nature of man was conceived in  heavens and making a celestial globe, as he had made a
his mind when he was a very little boy-when swinging  wooden watch, can we hesitate to believe that in such
backwards and forwards upon a gate, not more than nine  minds, there was a resistless and mysterious propensity,
or ten years old; he was then meditating upon the nature  growing up with the temperaments of these artists? Ferof his own mind, how man was made, and for what future  guson was a shepherd-lad on a plain, placed entirely out
end-such was the true origin, in a boy of ten years old,  of the chance of imitation; or of the influence of casual
of his celebrated book on the' frame, the duty, and the ex-  excitement; or any other of those sources of genius so
pectation of man.' The constitutional propensity  has  frequently assigned for its production.  The case of Opie
declared itself in painters and poets, who were such before  is similar.
they understood the nature of colours and the arts of    Yet these cases are not more striking than one related
verse.  The vehement passion of Peirese for knowledge,  of the Abbe La Caille, who ranked among the first astro.
according to accounts Gassendi had received from old men  nomers of the age. La Caille was the son of the parish
who had known him a child, broke out as soon as he had  clerk of a village; at the age of ten years his father sent
been taught his alphabet; his delight was to be handling  him every evening to ring the church bell, but the boy albooks and papers, and his perpetual inquiries after their  ways returned home late. His father was angry and beat
contents obliged them  to invent something to quiet the  him, and still the boy returned an hour after he had rung
child's insatiable curiosity, who was offended if told be  the bell. The father, suspecting something mysterious
had not the capacity to understand them. He did not  in his conduct, one evening watched him.  Ie saw his
study like ordinary scholars, and would read neither Jus-  son ascend the steeple, ring the bell as usual, and remain
tin nor Ovid without a perpetual consultation of other au-  there during an hour. When the unlucky boy descended,
thors, such was his early love of research! At ten years  he trembled like one caught in the fact, and on his knees
of age his taste for the studies of antiquity was kindled at  confessed that the pleasure he took in watching the stars
the sight of some ancient coin dug up in his neighbour-  from the steeple was the real cause of detaining hinm from
hood; and then that passion' began to burn like fire in a  home. As the father was not born to be an astronomer,
forest,' as Gassendi most happily describes the fervour  like the son, he flogged the boy severely. The youth was
and the amplitude of his mind.  "'e have Boccaccio's  found weeping in the streets, by a man of science, who,
own words for a proof of his early natural tendency to  when he discovered in a boy of ten years of age, a passion
tale-writing, in a passage of his genealogy of the Gods:  for contemplating the stars at night, and who had discoBefore seven years of aae, when as yet I had met with  vered an observatory in a steeple, in spite of such ill-treatno stories, was without a master and hardly knew my let-  ment, he decided that the seal of nature had impressed
ters, I had a natural talent for fiction, and produced some  itself on the genius of that boy.-Relieving the parent from
little tales.' Thus the Decamerone was appearing much  the son and the son from the parent, he assisted the young
earlier than we suppose.  So Ariosto, as soon as lie oh-  La Caille in his passionate pursuit, and the event perfec:-.
tained some knowledge of languages, delighted.himself in  ly justified the prediction. Let others tell us why child.
translating French and Spanish romances; was he not  ren feel a predisposition for the studies of astronomy, or
sowing plentifully the seeds of his Orlando Furioso? Lope  natural history, or any similar pursuit.  We know that
de Vega declares that he was a poet from the cradle, be.  youths have found themselves in parallel situations with
ginning to make verses before he could write them, for he  Ferguson and La Caille, without experiencing their e.,.
bribed his school-mates with a morsel of his breakfast to  ergies.
write down the lines he composed in the early morning.    The case ofClairon, the great French tragic actress, deDescartes, while yet a boy, was so marked out by habits  serves attention: she seems to have been an actress before
of deep meditation, that he went among his companions by  she saw a theatre.  This female, destined to be a sublime




412                       LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
actress, was of the lowest extraction; the daughter of a  the native graces of the language. The first studies of
violent and illiterate woman, who with blows and menaces  Rembrandt affected his after-labours; that peculiarity of
was driving about the child all day to manual labour.'I  shadow which marks all his pictures originated in the cir.
know not,' says Clairon,' whence I derived my disgust,  cumstance of his father's mill receiving light from an aper.
but I could not bear the idea to be a mere workman, or to  ture at the top, which habituated that artist afterwards to
remain inactive in a corner.' In her eleventh year, being  view all objects as if seen in that magical light.  When
locked up in a room, as a punishment, with the windows  Pope was a child, he found in his mother's closet a small
fastened, she climbed upon a chair to look about her. A   library of mystical devotion; but it was not suspected till
new object instantly absorbed her attention; in the house  the fact was discovered, that the effusions of love and re.
opposite she observed a celebrated actress amidst her  ligion poured forth in his Eloisa were derived from the
family. her daughter was performing her dancing lesson;  seraphic raptures of those erotic mystics, who to the last
the girl Clairon, the future Melpomene, was struck by the  retained a place in his library among the classical bards of
influence of this graceful and affectionate scene.'All my  antiquity.  The accidental perusal of Quintus Curtius
little being collected itself into my eyes; I lost not a single  first made Boyle " in love with other than pedantic books,
motion; as soon as the lesson ended all the family applaud-  and conjured up in him," as he expresses it, " an unsatised and the mother embraced the daughter.  That differ-  fied appetite of knowledge; so that he thought he owed
ence of her fate and mine filled me with profound grief, my  more to Quintus Curtius than did Alexander." From the
tears hindered me from  seeing any longer, and when the  perusal of Rycaut's folio of Turkish history in childhood,
palpitations of my heart allowed me to reascend the chair,  the noble and impassioned bard of our times retained those
all had disappeared.' This was a discovery; from  that  indelible impressions, which gave life and motion to the
mcment she knew no rest; she rejoiced when she could  " Giaour," the "Corsair," and L' Alp."  A voyage to
get ner mother to confine her in that room, the happy girl  the country proa'.ced the scenery. Rycaut only commuwas a divinity to the unhappy one, whose susceptible genius  nicated the impulse to a mind susceptible of the poetical
imltated her in every gesture and motion; and Clairon  character; and without this Turkish history we should
soon showed the effect of her ardent studies, far she betray-  still have had our poet.
ed all the graces she had taught herself, in the common   The influence of first studies, in the formation of the
intercourse of life; she charmed her friends and even sof-  character of genius, is a moral phenomenon, which has not
totled her barbarous mother; in a word, she was an actress  sufficiently attracted our notice. Dr. Franklin acquaints
without knowing what an actress was.                    us that when young and wanting books, he accidentally
In this case ofthe use of genius, are we to conclude that  found De Foe's;' Essay on Projects," from which work
the accidental view of a young actress practising her  impressions were derived which afterwards influenced
studies, imparted the character of the great tragic actress  some of the principal events of his life. Rousseau, in
Clairon?  Could a mere chance occurrence have given  early youth, fill of his Plutarch, while he was also devourbirth to those faculties which produced a sublime tragedian?  ing the trash of romances, could only conceive human naIn all arts there are talents which may be acquired by  ture in the colossal forms, or be affected by the infirm
imitation and reflection; and thus far may genius be edu-  sensibility of an imagination mastering all his faculties;
cated, but there are others which are entirely the result of  thinking like a Roman and feeling like a Sybarite.  The
native sensibility, which often secretly torment the posses-  same circumstance happened to Catharine Macauley,
sor, and which may even be lost for the want of develop-  who herself has told us how she owed the bent of her
ment; a state of languor from which many have not re-  character to the early reading of the Roman historians s;
covered. Clairon, before she saw the young actress, and  but combining Roman admiration with English faction,
having yet no conception of a theatre, never having enter-  she violated truth in her English characters, and exaggeed one, had in her soul that latent faculty which creates a  rated romance in the Roman. But the permanent effect
genius of her cast.'Had I not felt I._e Dido,' she once  of a solitary bias in the youth of genius, impelling the
exclaimed,' I could not have thus personified her!'   whole current of his after-life, is strikingly displayed in
Some of these facts, we conceive, afford decisive evi-  the remarkable character of Archdeacon Blackburne, the
dence of that instinct in genius, that constitutional pro-  author of the famous "Confessional," and the curious
pensity in the mind, sometimes called organization, which  "Memoirs of Hollis," written with such a republican
has inflamed such a war of words by its equivocal term  fierceness.
gnd the ambiguity of its nature; it exists independent of    I had long considered the character of our archdeacon
education, and where it is wanting, education can never  as a lusus politico et theologico. Having subscribed to the
confer it. Of its mysterious influence we may be igno-  Articles and enjoying the archdeaconry, he was writing
rant; the effect is more apparent than the cause. It is,  against subscription and the whole hierarchy, with a spirit
however, always working in the character of the chosen  so irascible and caustic, as if, like Prynne and Bastwick,
mind. In the history of genius, there are unquestionably  the archdeacon had already lost both his ears; while his
many secondary causes of considerable influence in de-  antipathy to monarchy might have done honour to aRoundveloping or even crushing the germ-these have been of  head of the Rota Club. The secret of these volcanic exlate often detected, and sometimes carried even to a ridi-  plosions was only revealed in a letter accidentally preculous extreme; but among them  none seem  more re-  served.  In the youth of our spirited archdeacon, when
markable than the first studies and the first habits,  fox-hunting was his deepest study, it happened at the
house of a relation, that on some rainy day, among other
garret lumber, he fell on some worm eaten volumes which
CHAPTER  III.                        had once been the careful collections of his great grandfather, an Oliverian justice.' These,' says he,'I conveyed to my lodging-room, and there became acquainted
The first studies form an epoch in the history of genius,  with the manners and principles of many excellent old
and unquestionably have sensibly influenced its produc-  puritans, and then laid the foundation of my own.' Thus
tions. Often have the first impressions stamped a cha-  is the enigma solved! Archdeacon Blackburne. in his seracter on the mind adapted to receive one, as often the  elusion in Yorkshire amidst the C]iverian justice's library,
first step into life has determined its walk. To ourselves,  shows that we are in want of a Cervantes, but not of a
this is a distant period lost in the horizon of our own recol-  Quixote, and Yorkshire might yet be as renowned a counlection, and so unobserved by others, that it passes away  ty as La Mancha; for political romances, it is presumed,
in neglect.                                            may be as fertile of ridicule as any of the folios of chi.
Many of those peculiarities of men of genius which are  valry.
not fortunate, and some which have hardened the charac-    Such is the influence through life of those first unobservter in its mould, may be traced to this period. Physi-  ed impressions on the charac'er of genius, which every
cians tell us that there is a certain point in youth at which  author has not recorded.
the constitution is formed, and on which the sanity of life    Education, however indispensable in a cultivated age,
revolves; the character of genius experiences a similar  produces nothing on the side of genius, and where educadangerous period.  Early bad tastes, early particular  tion ends often genius begins. Gray was asked if he rehabits, early defective instructions, all the egotistical pride  collected when he first felt the strong predilection to poetof an untamed intellect, are those evil spirits which will  ry; lhe replied, that " he believed it was when he began
dog CGenius, to its grave. An early attachment to the  to read Virgil for his own amusement, and not in schook
works of Sir Thomas Browne produced in Johnson an ex-  hours as a task."  Such is the force of self-elducation in
cessire Agomiration of that latinised English, which violated  genius, that the celebrated physiologist, John Hunter, wio




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                        413
was entirely self-educated, evinced such penetration in his  while their hands returned to him  the proud feelings he
anatomical discoveries, that his sensible biographer ob-  adored.  The self-educated and gifted man, once listening
serves, —" he has brought into notice passages from writ-  to the children of genius, whom he had created about him,
ers he was unable to read, and which had been overlooked  exclaimed,' Go it, go it, my boys! they did so at Athens.'
by profound scholars."*                                  Thus high could he throw utip his native mud into the very
That the education of genius must be its own work, we  heaven of his invention!
may appeal to every cne of the family; it is not always    But even the pages of Barry are the aliment of young
fortunate, for many die amidst a waste of talents and the  genius: before we can discern the beautiful, must we not
wrecks of their mind.                                    be endowed with the susceptibility of love?  Must not
~Many a soul sublime           the disposition be formed betfore even the object appears?
Has felt the influence of malignant star.         The uneducated Barry is the higher priest of enthusiasm
Bttie.  ~   than the educated Reynolds.  I have witnessed the young.Beattie.                                                             1
artist of genius glow and start over the reveries of Barry,
An unfavourable position in society is an usual obstruc-  but pause and meditate, and inquire over the mature eletion in the course of this self-education; and a man of  gance of Reynolds; in the one, he caught the passion for
genius, through half his life, has held a contest with a bad,  beauty, and in the other, he discovered the beautiful: with
or with no education.  There is a race of the late-taught,  the one he was warm and restless, and with the othercalm
who, with a capacity of leading in the first rank, are morti-  and satisfied.
fled to discover themselves only on a level with their    Of the difficulties overcome in the self-education of gecontemporaries. Winklemrnan, who passed his youth in  nius, we have a remarkable instance in the character of
obscure misery as a village schoolmaster, paints feelings  Moses Mendelsohn, on whom literary Germany has bewhich strikingly contrast with his avocations.  " I form-  stowed the honourable title of the Jewish Socrates.*
erly filled the office of a schoolmaster with the greatest  Such were the apparent invincible obstructions which
p)unctuality, and I taught the A, B, C, to children with  barred out Mendelsohn  from the world of literature and
filthy heads; at the moment, I was aspiring after the  philosophy, that, in the history of men of genius, it is
knowledge of the beautiful, and meditating, low to myself,  something like taking in the history of man, the savage of
on the similes of Homer; then I said to myself, as I still  Aveyron from his woods,-who, destitute of a human
say,'Peace, my soul, thy strength shall surmount thy  language, should at length create a model of eloquence;
cares."'  The obstructions of so unhappy a self-education  without a faculty of conceiving a figure, should be capaessentially injured his ardent genius; and his secret sor-  ble to add to the demonstrations of Euclid; and without a
row was long, at this want of early patronage and these  complex idea and with few sensations, should at length, in
discordant habits of life.' I am unfortunatley one of those  the sublimest strain of metaphysics, open to the world a
whom the Greeks named orpaeOct;; sere sapientes, the late-  new view of the immortality of the soul!
learned, for I have appeared too late in the world and in    Mendelsohn, the son of a poor rabbin, in a village in
Italy.  To have done something, it was necessary that I  Germany, received an education completely rabbinical,
should have had an education analogous to my pursuits, and  and its nature must be comprehended, or the term of eduthis at your age.' This class of the late learned, which  cation would be misunderstood.  The Israelites in Poland
Winkleman notices, is a useful distinction; it is so with a  and Germany live, with all the restrictions of their ceresister-art: one of the greatest musicians of our country  nionial law, in an insulated state, and are not always inassures me, that the ear is as latent with many; there  structedin the language of the country of their birth. They
are the late-learned even in the musical world. Budpuus  employ for their common intercourse a barbarous or patoils
declared he was both' self-taught and late-taught.'     Hebrew, while the sole studies of the  oung rabbins are
The self-educated are marked by strong peculiarities.  strictly confined to the Talmud, of which the fundamental
If their minds are rich in acquisition, they often want taste  principle, like the Sonna of the Turks, is. a pious rejection
and the art of communication; their knowledge, like corn  of every species of uninspired learning.  This ancient
heaped in a granary, for want of ventilation and stirring,  iealous spirit, which walls in the understanding and the
perishes in its own masses.  They may abound with tal-  faith of man, was shutting out what the imitative Catholics
ent in all shapes, but rarely in its place, and they have to  afterwards called heresy. It is, then, these numerous
dread a plethora of genius, and a delirium of wit.  They  folios of the Talmud which the true Hebraic student consometimes improve amazingly; their source turbid and  templates through all the seasons of life, as the Patuecos
obscure, works itselfclear at last, and the stream runs and  in their low valley imagine their surrounding mountains to
even sparkles.  These men at first were pushed on by  be the confines of the universe.
their native energy; at length, they obtain the secret to    Of such a nature was the plan of Mendelsohn's first
conduct their genius, which before had conducted them.  studies; but even in his boyhood this conflict of study ocSometimes the greater portion of their lives is passed be-  casioned an agitation of his spirits, which affected his life
fore they can throw themselves out of that world of medi-  ever after; rejecting the Talmudical dreamers he caueht
ocrlty to which they had been confined; their first work  a nobler spirit from the celebrated Maimonides; and his
has not announced genius, and their last is stamped with  native sagacity was already clearing up the darkness
it. Men are long judged by their first work: it takes a  around.  An enemy not less hostile to the enlargement of
long while after they have surpassed themselves before it  mind than voluminous legends, presented itself in the indiis discovered.  This race of the self-educated are apt to  gence of his father, who was now compelled to send away
consider some of their own insulated feelings those of all;  the youth on foot to Berlin to find labour and bread.
their prejudices are often invincible, and their tastes un-    At Berlin he becomes an amanuensis to another poor
sure and capricious: glorying in their strength, while they  rabbin, who could only still initiate him into the theology,
are betraying their weaknesses. yet mighty even in that en-  the jurisprudence and scholastic philosophy of his people.
~husiasm which is only disciplined by its own fierce habits.  Thus he was no farther advanced in that philosophy of the
Buinyan is the Spenser of the people. The fire burned   mind in which he was one day to he the rival of Plato and
towards heaven, although the altar was rude and rustic.    Locke, nor in that knowledge of literature of which he
Barry, the painter, has left behind him works not to be  was toube among the first polished critics of Germany.
turned over by the connoissec.' by rote, nor the artist who    Some uinexpected event occurs which gives the first
dares not be just and will not suffer e.en the infirmities of  great impulse to the mind of genius. Mendelsohn receivgenius to be buried in its grave.  That enthusiast, with a  ed this from  the first companion of his misery and his
temper of mind resembling Rousseau's, the same creature  studies, a man of congenial, but maturer powers. He was
of imagination, consumed by the same passions, with the  a Polish Jew, expelled from  the communion of the Orthosame fins intellect disordered, and the same fortitude of  dox, and the calumniated student was now a vagrant, with
soul, tound his self-taught pen, like his pencil, betray his
*I composed the life of Mendelsohn so far back as in 1778,
genius.  A vehement enthusiasm  breaks through his ill-~ cmoe  h  ieo   edtons  a  aka n17
enius.   A vehement enthusiasm  breaks through his b ill-  for a periodical publication, whence our late biographers have
composed works, throwinV the sparke of his bold ard rich  drawn their notices; a juvenile production, which happened
conceptions, so philosophical and magnificent, into the  to excite the attention of the late Barry, then not personally
soul of the youth of genius.  When in his character of  known to me. and he has given all the immortality his poet.
professor, he delivered his lectures at the academy, he  cal pencil could bestow on this man of genius, by immediately
never ceased speaking but his auditors rose in a tumult,  placing in his elysium of genius, Moses Mendelsohn shaking
* ieofJh   r  hr  i  aehbands with Addison, who wrote on the truth of the Christian
~ Lite of John iunter, by Dr.dams, p. 59, where the case  religion, and near Loccke, the English master of Mendelsohn's
s curiously il!ustrated.                                mind.




~414                  LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
more sensibility than fortitude.  But this vagrant was a  cultivated by knowledge, so tried by experience, and se
philosopher, a poet, a naturalist and a mathematician.  practised by converse with the literary world that its pro.
Mendelsohn, at a distant day, never alluded to him without  phetic feeling anticipates the public opinion. When a
tears. Thrown together into the same situation, they ap-  young writer's first essay is shown, some, through mere
proached each other by the same sympathies, and coiumu-  inability of censure, see nothing but beauties; others, with
nicating in the only language which Mendelsohn knew,  equal imbecility, can see none; and others, out of pure
the Polander voluntarily undertook his literary education.  malice, see nothing but faults.' I was soon disgusted,'
Then was seen one of the most extraordinary spectacles  says Gibbon,' with the modest practice of reading the
in the history of modern literature. Two houseless He-  manuscript to my friends. Of'such friends some will praise
brew youths might be discovered, in the moonlight streets  for politeness, and some will criticise for vanity.' Had
of Berlin, sitting, in retired corners, or on the steps of some  several of our first writers set their fortunes on the cast ot
porch, the one instructing the other, with an Euclid in his  their friends' opinions, we might have lost some precious
hand; but what is more extraordinary, it was a Hebrew   compositions.  The friends of Thomson discovered noversion, composed by himself, for one who knew no other  thing but faults in his early productions, one of which haplanguage. Who could then have imagined that the future  pened to be his noblest, the' Winter;' they just could
Plato of Germany was sitting on those steps!             discern that these abounded with luxuriances, without be.
The Polander, whose deep melancholy had settled on  ing aware that they were the luxuriances of a poet. He
his heart, died-yet he had not lived in vain, since the  had created a new school in art-and appealed from his
electric spark that lighted up the soul of Mendelsohn had  circle to the public.  From  a manuscript letter of our
fallen from his own.                                     poet's, written when employed on his'Summer,' I tran.
Mendelsohn was now left alone; his mind teeming with  scribe his sentiments on his former literary friends in Scotits chaos, and still master of no other language than that  land-he is writing to Mallet:*'Far from defending these
barren idiom which was incapable of expressing the ideas  two lines, I damn them to the lowest depth of the poeti..
he was meditating on. He had scarcely made a step into  cal Tophet, prepared of old, for Mitchell, Morrice, Rook,
the philosophy of his age, and the genius of Mendelsohn  Cook, Beckingham, and a Iong &c. Wherever I have
had probably been lost to Germany, had not the singularity  evidence, or think I have evidence, which is the same
of his studies and the cast of his mind been detected by  thing, I'll be as obstinate as all the mules in Persia.' This
the sagacity of Dr Kisch.  The aid of this physician was  poet, of warm affections, so irritably felt the perverse cri-.
momentous; for he devoted several hours every day to  ticisms of his learned friends, that they were to share alike,
the instruction of a poor youth, whose strong capacity he  nothing less than a damnation to a poetical hell. One of
had the discernment to perceive, and the generous temper  these'blasts' broke out in a vindictive epigram on Mitchto aid. Mendelsohn was soon enabled to read Locke in a  ell, whom he describes with a'blasted eye;' but this critic
Latin version, but with such extreme pain, that, compelled  having one literally, the poet, to avoid a personal reflecto search for every word, and to arrange their Latin order,  tion, could only consent to make the blemish more active:
and at the same time to combine metaphysical ideas, it'Why all not faults, injurious Mitchell i! why
was observed that he did not so much translate, as guess       Appears one beauty to thy blasting eye?'
by the force of meditation.                                He again calls him'the planet-blasted Mitchell.' Of
This prodigious effort of his intellect retarded his pro-  another of these criticalriends he speaks with more se-. 7                               ~~~~~~~~~~~another of these critical friends he speaks with more segress, but invigorated his habit, as the racer, by running   dateness, but with a strong conviction that the critic, a
against the hill, at length courses with facility.,ainst             Mvery sensible man, had no sympathy with his poet.' AikIk succeeding effort was to master the living languages,   eysnil   a  h    o  mpt  wh  s  e. Ak
A succeeding effort  as to master the livin lan es,  man's reflections on my writings are very good, but he does
and chiefly the English, that he might read his favourite  not in them regard the turn of my genius enough; should
Locke in his own idiom. Thus a great genius for meta-  I alter m  wayI would write poorly. I must choose what
physics and languages was forming itself by itself.
n   0 is andlan~ruageswas frmin~itselby iteifappears to me the most significant epithet, or I cannot,
It is curious to detect, in the character of genius, the  with any heart, proceed.' Thems in   when published
with any hieart, proceed.' The' Mirror,' when published
effects of local and moral influences.  There resulted  in Edinburgh, was'fastidiously' received, as all'homefrom Mendelsohn's early situation, certain defects in his   roductions'are; but London avenged the cause of the anintellectual character, derived from his poverty, his Jewish  thor. When Swift introduced Parnel to Lord Bollinbroke,
education, and his numerous impediments in literature.  and to the world, he observes, in his Journal,'it is pleas.
I~nheritin,, but one language, too obsolete and naked to
Inheriting but  one language, too obsolete and naked to  ant to see one who hardly passed for any thing in Ireland,
serve the purposes of modern philosophy, he perhaps over-  make his way here with a little friendly forwarding.'
valued his new acquisitions, and in his delight of knowing   Ther  is       more try   to the jdgment of the?I.. Z5There is nothing, more trying to the judgment of the
many languages, he with difficulty escaped from remaining friends of a young man of genius, than the invention of a
nfriends of a young man of genius, than the invention of a
a mere philologist; while in his philosophy, having adopt-.new manner; without a standard to appeal to, without
ed the prevailing principles of Wolf and Baumgarten, his  bladders to swim, the ordinary critic sinks into irretrievagenius was long without the courage or the skill to eman- bl distress; but usually pronounces against novelty.
n      M                     - ~~~~~~~~ble distress; but usually pronounces against novelty.
cipate itself from their rusty chains.  It was more than a  When Reynolds returned from Italy, warm with all the
step which had brought him into their circle, but a step   excellence of his art, says Mr Northeote, and painted a
was yet wanted to escape from it.                        portrait, his old master, Hudson, viewing it, and perceivAt length the mind of Mendelsohn enlarged in literary  ing no trace of his own manner, exclaimed that he did not
intercourse; he became a great and original thinker in
paint so well as when he left England; while another, who
many beautiful speculations in moral and critical philoso-  conceived no higher excellence than Kneller, treated with
conceived no higher excellence than Kneller, treated with
phy; while he had gradually been creating a style which   sinal contempt the future Raphael of England.
the critics of Germany have declared was their first lini-    C    ted  e  fr  ay         e  o esnh
cIf it be dangerous for a young writer to resign himself
nous model of precision and elegance. Thus a Hebrew
to the opinions of his friends, he also incurs some peril in
vagrant, first perplexed in the voluminous labyrinth of Ju-ps   them with mattento.Waanebrsmn
dicial learning, in his middle age oppressed by indigence   passing             ntion  What an embarrassment'
n ~ld,. i  i   ar  i wetn c-.He wants a Quintilian.  One great means to obtain such
and malady, and in his mature life wrestling with that cornan invaluable critic, is the cultivation of his own judgment,
mercial station whence he dlerived his humble independ-  i, a round of meditation and reading; let him at once
ence, became one of the masterwriters in the literature of        he marble and be himself the sculptor: let the
9                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~supply the marble and be himself thescltrltth
his country.  The history of the mind of Mendelsohn is
hisco y no.lest pictures of the self-education  of genius.  great authors of the world be his gospels, and the best crione of the noilest pictures of the self-education of genius.  tc  hi  xones;fo   h   n   ewl  rwisia
tocs their expounders; from the one he will draw inspiraFriends who are so valuable in our youth, are usually  tion and from the others he will supply those tardy disco.
prejudicial in th6 youth of genius. Peculiar and unfortt{,
prejudicial in th youth of genius.  Pecliar and unortu    veries in art, which he who solely depends on his own ex.
nate in this state, which is put in danger from what in  perience may obtain too late in life.  Those who do not
every other it derives security. The greater part of the read criticism will not even merit to e criticised. The
read criticism will not even merit to be criticised. The
multitude of authors and artists originate in the ignorant    tensive  an author's knowledge of what has bee
L.              ~~~~more extensive an author's knowledge of what has been
admiration of their early friends: while the real gen"us  done, the greater will be his powers in knowing what to
has often been disconcerted and thrown into despair, by   do. Let him preserve his juvenile compositions,-whatthe ill-judgments of his domestic circle. The productions  ever these may be, they are the spontaneous growth, and,
of taste are more unfortunate than those which depend on  like the plants of the Alps, not always found in othr
a chain oi'reasoning, or the detail of facts; these are more  soils  they are his virgin fancies: by contemplating them,
palpable to the common'udgments of men; but taste is of  he may dtect some ofhis predominant habit-resume an
such rarity, that a long life may be passed by some witlh
out once obtaining a familiar acquaintance with a mind so  * In Mr Murray's collection of autographical ietters.




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                          415
Old manner more happily,-invent novelty from  an old  lar task; but quite impossible to get through it.  The pa.
subject he had so rudely designed,-and often may steal  per-book that he conceived would have recorded all these
from himself something so fine that, when thrown into his  things, therefore turns out but a very imperfect document.
most finished compositions, it may seem a happiness ra-  Even that little it was not thought proper to give entire.
thor than art.  A young writer in the progress of his stu-  Yet there we view a warm  original mind, when he first
dies, should often recollect a fanciful simile of Dryden.-    stept into the polished circles of society, discovering that'As these who unripe veins in mines explore,       he could no longer' pour out his bosom, his every tholught
On the rich bed again the warm turflay;          and floating fancy, his very inmost soul, with unreserved
Till time digests the yet imperfect ore,           confidence to another, without hazard of losing part of
And know it will be Gold another day.'           that respect which man deserves from man; or, from the
Ingenious youth! if, in a constant perusal of the master-  unavoidale imperfections attending human nature, of one
writers, you see your own sentiments anticipated, and in day repenting hts confidence.' This was the first lesson. el                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~day repenting his confidence.' This was the firs~t lesson,wriers youseeyourownsentmens aniciated an inhe leanit at Edinburah, and it was as a substitute for such
the tumult of your mind as it comes in contact with theirs,  he leart at Edinburgh, and it was as a substitute for such
new ones arise; if in meditating on the Confessions ofn, that he bought a paper-book to keep
Rousseau, or on those of every man of genius, for they   under lock and key; a security at least equal, says he,
have all their confessions, you recollect that you have ex-'to the bosom of any friend whatever.' Let the man
perienced the same sensations from  the same circum-  of genius pause over the fragments of this'p aper-book;'
stances, and that you have encountered the same dircul-  it will instruct as mich as any open confession of a crimistances, and that you have encountered the same difficul.  I
ties and overcome them  by the same means, then let not  nal at the moment he is to suffer. No man was more
your courage be lost in your admiration,-but listen to that  afflicted with that miserable pride, the infirmity of men' still small voice' in your heart, which cries with Correg-  of imaaination, which exacts from  its  best friends a
of imagination, which exacts from its best friends a
i sillsmal vice inyou hertwhih cieswit,,re,   perpetrual reverence and acknowledgment of its powers.
gio and with Montesquieu,'Ed io anche son Pittore!'*.
Our Poet, with all his gratitude and veneration for' the
noble Glencairn,' was'wounded to the soul' because his
CHAPTER  IV.                           Lordship showed'so much attention, engrossing attenOF THE IRRITABILITY OF GENIUS.                tion, to the only blockhead at table; the whole company
consisted of his Lordship, Dunderpate, and myself.' This
The modes of.life of a man of genius, often tinctured by   Dunderpate, who dined with Lord Glencairn, might have
eccentricity and enthusiasm, are in an eternal conflict with  been of more importance to the world than even a poet;
the monotonous and imitative habits of society, as society  one of the best and most usefutl men in it. Burns was
is carried on in a great metropolis,-where men are ne-  equally offended with another of his patrons, and a literacessarily alike, and in perpetual intercourse, shaping them-  ry brother, Dr. Blair. At the moment, he too appeared to
selves to one another.                                   be neglecting the irritable Poet-' for the mere carcass of
The occupations, the amusements, agreatness-or when his eye measured the difference of
the man of genius, are discordant with the artificial habits  their point of elevation; I say to myself, with scarcely?~~~~~~~~~~~~~hi    on   feeain    a omsl, bits                                  cro
of life; in the vortexes of business or the world of plea-  ay emotion,' (he might have added, excepta good deal
sate, crowds of human beings are only treading in one   of contempt,)' what do I care for him or his pomp either'?
another's steps; the pleasures and the sorrows of this  -' Dr. Blair's vanity is proverbially known among his
active multitude are not his, while his are not obvious to  acquaintance,  adds Burns, at the moment that the oiacquaintance, adds Burns, at the moment that the solithem: Genius in society is therefore often in a state of  tary haughtiness of his own genius had entirely escaped
suffering. Professional characters, who are themselves so   his self-observation.  Such are the chimeras of passion
often literary, yielding to their predominant interests, con-  infesting the distempered imagination of irritable genius
form to that assumed urbanity which levels them with or-    Such therefore are censure  for great irritability of diedinary minds; btt the man of genius cannot leave himself  position; and that happy equality of temper so prevalent
behind in the cabinet he quits; the train of his thoughts is  among mere men of letters,* and which is conveniently
not stopt at will, and in the range of conversation the ha-  acquired by men of the world, has been usually refused to
bits of his mind will prevail; an excited imagination, a high   great mental powers, or to vivacious dispositions; authors
toned feeling, a wandering reverie, a restlessness of tem-  or artists.  The man of wit becomes petulant, and te
Z,                                ~~~~~~~~~~or artists. The man of wit becomes petulant, and rthe
per, are perpetulzly carrying him out of the processional  profound thinker, morose.
line of the mere conversationists. He is, like all solitary  When Rousseau once retired to a village, be had to
beings, much too sentient, and prepares for defence even   endure its conversation; for this purpose he was compellel
at a random touch. His emotions are rapid, his general-  to invent an expedient to get rid of his uneas sensations.
izing views take things only in masses, while he treats    Alone,' says Rousseau,'I have neverknown ennui, even
with levity some useful prejudices; he interrogates, he   when perfectly unoccupied; my imagination, filling the
doubts, he is caustic; in a word, he thinks he converses,  void, was sufficient to busy me. It is only the inactive
while he is at his studies.  Sometimes, apparently a com-  chit-chat of the room, when every one is seated face to
placent listener, we are mortified by detecting the absent  face, and only moving their tongues, which I never could
man; now he appears humbled and spiritless, ruminating   support.  There to be a fixture, nailed with one hand on
over some failure which probably may be only known to  the other, to settle the state of thie weather, or watch the
himself, and now haughty and hardy for a triumph he has  flies about one, or what is worse, to be bandying compliobtained, which vet remains as secret to the world. He is  ments, this to me is not bearable.' He hit on the expedisometimes insolent, and sometimes querulous.  He i   ent of making lace-strings, carrying his working cushion in
stung by jealousy; or he writhes in aversion; his eyes his visits, to keep the peace with the country gossips.
hi iis oke the peace with the country gossips.
kindle, and his teeth gnash; a fever shakes his spirit; a  Is the occupation of making a groat name loss anxious
fever which has sometimes generated a disease, and has  and precarious than that of making a grat fortune? the
even produced a slight perturbation of the faculties.t   progress of a man's capital is unequivocal to him, but that
Once we were nearly receiving from the hand of genius  of the fame of an author, or an artist, is for the greater
itself, the most curious sketches of the temper, the irascible  part of their lives of an ambiguous nature. They find it in
humours, the delicacy of soul even to its shadowiness,  one place, and they loseit in another. We may often
from the warm sbozzos of Burns when he began a diary of  smile at the local gradations of genius; the esteem  in
the heart,-a narrative of characters and events, and a   which an author is held here, andl the contempt he enchronology o!' his emotions.  It was natural for such a   counters there; here the learned man is condemned as a
creature of sensation and passion to project such a regu-  heavy drone, and there the man of wit annoys the unwitty
listener.
* This noble consciousness with which the Italian painter    And are not the anxieties, of even the most successfuti,
gave utterance to his strong feelings on viewing a celebrated  renewed at every work  often quitted in despair, often repicture by one of his rivals, is applied by Montesquieu to him,  turned to with rapture  the same agitation of the spirits,
self at the close of the preface to his great work.
serfat l~e!-oe ofthepre~~e  o hi ~rnt wrk.the same Poignant delight, the same weariness, the same
f I have given a history of Literary Quarrels from person. the sae poignant delight, the same weariness, the same
at motives, in Quarrels of Aruthors. vol. iii, p. 285. There we   dissatisfaction, the same querulous languishment after ex.
find how many controversies, in which the public get involv-  cellence.  Is the man of genius a discoverer? the dis.
ed, htave sprung fromn some sudden squabble, some neglect  covery is contested, or it is not comprehended for ten years
of petty civility, some unlucky epithet, or some casualobser.  after, or during his whole life; even men ofscience are as
vation dropped without much consideration, which mortified 
or enraged an author. See further symptoms ofthis disease,    * The class of Literary Characters whom I irould distin.
at the close oft thu ch:pter Ott' Self-praise,' in the present  guish as Men o Letzers, are described under tha. title in this
xork.                                                    volume.




416                      LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
children before him.  There is a curious letter in Sir    The reputation of a writer of taste is subjected to more
Thomas Bodley's Remains to Lord Bacon, then Sir Fran-  difficulties than any other. Every day we observe, of a
cis, where he remonstrates with Bacon on his new mode of  work of genius, that those parts which have all the raciphilosophizing. It seems the fate of all originality of think-  ness of the soil, and as such are most liked by its admirers,
ing to be immediately opposed; no contemporary seems  are the most criticised. Modest critics shelter themselves
equal to its comprehension. Bacon was not at all under-  u0ter that general amnesty too freely granted, that tastes
stood at home in his own day; his celebrity was confined  are allowed to differ; but we should approximate much
to his History of IIenry VII, and to his Essays. In some  nearer to the truth if we say that but few of mankind are
unpublished letters I find Sir Edward Coke writing very  capable of relishing the beautiful, with that enlarged taste,
miserable, but very bitter verses, on a copy of the Instau-  which comprehends all the forms of feeling which genius
ratio presented to him by Bacon, and even James I, de-  may assume; forms which may even at times be assoclaring that, like God's power,' it passeth beyond all un-  ciated with defects. Would our author delight with the
derstanding.' When Kepler published his work on Comets,  style of taste, of imagination, of passion? a path opens
the first rational one, it was condemned even by the learned  strewed with roses, but his feet bleed on their invisible
themselves as extravagant. We see the learned Selden  thorns. A man of genius composes in a state of intellec.
signing his recantation; and long afterwards the propriety  tual emotion, and the magic of his style consists of the
of his argument on Tithes fully allowed; the aged Galileo  movements of the soul, j4ut the art of conducting these
on his knees, with his hand on the Gospels, abjuring, as  movements is separate from the feeling which inspires
absurdities, errors, and heresies, the philosophical truths  them. The idea in the mind is not always to be found
ne had ascertained. Harvey, in his eightieth year, did  under the pen.  The artist's conception often breathes
not live to witness his great discovery established. Adam   not in his pencil. He toils, and repeatedly toils, to throw
Smith was reproached by the economists for having bore into our minds that sympathy with which we hang over
rowed his system from them, as if the mind of genius does  the illusion of his pages, and become himself. A great
not borrow little parts to create its own vast views. The  author is a great artist; if the hand cannot leave the picgreat Sydenham, by the independence and force of his  ture, how much beauty will he undo! yet still he is lingergenius, so highly provoked the malignant emu'at'on of his  ing, still strengthening the weak, still subduing the daring,
rivals, that they conspired to have him banished out of the  still searching for that single idea which awakens so many
College as' guilty of medicinal heresy.' Such is the fate  in others, while often, as it once happened, the dash of
of men of geniius, who advance a century beyond their con-  despair hangs the foam on the horse's nostrils. The art
temporaries!                                          of composition is of such slow attainment, tha. a man of
Is our man of genius a learned author?  Erudition is    ius, late in life, may discover how its secret conceals
thirst which its fountains have never satiated.  What  itself in the habit. When Fox meditated on a history
volumes remain to open! What manuscript but makes  which should last with the language, he met his evil genis heart palpitate! There is no measure, no term in re., nius in this new province: the rapidity and the fire of his
searches, which every new fact may alter, and a date may  elocution were extinguished by a pen unconsecrated by
dissolve.  Truth! thou fascinating, but severe mistress!  long and previous study; he saw that he could not class
thy adorers are often broken down in thy servitude, per.. with the great historians of every great people; he comforming a thousand unregarded  task-works;* or now   plained, while he mourned over the fragment of genius,,vinding thee through thy labyrinth, with a single thread  which, after such zealous preparation, he dared not comciten unravellina, and now feeling their way in darkness,  plete! Rousseau has glowingly described the ceaseless
doubtful if it be thyself they are touching.  The man of  inquietude by which he obtained the seductive eloquence
erudition, after his elaborate work, is exposed to the fatal  of his style, and has said that with whatever talent a man
nmi'ssions of wearied vigilance, or the accidental know-  maybe born, the art of writing is not easily obtained. His
ledge of some inferior mind, and always to the taste, what.  existing manuscripts display more erasures than Pope's,
overit chance to be, of the public.                     and show his eagerness to set down his first thoughts,
T'he ffavourite work of Newton nwas his Chronology,  and his art to raise them to the impassioned style of his
which;he wrote over fifteen times; but desisted from its  imagination. The memoir of Gibbon was composed seven
ptblicatcion during his life-time, from the ill usage he had  or nine times, and after all, was left unfinished. Burns's
seceived,'f which he gave several instances to Peareean xiety in finishing his poems was great;' all my poetry,''tie Bishop of Rochester.  The same occurred to Sir  says he,'is the effect of easy composition, but of laborious
j.ohn'Mafsham, who' found himself accused as not being  correctio.'
fiendly -to:Revela tion. When the learned Pocock pub..   Pope, when employed on the Iliad, found it not only oc.
li' hed'a spediw.en of I uis translation of Abulpharagius, an  cupy his thoughts by day, but haunting his dreams by
ALvrabian bistowian, in 1649, it excited great interest, but  night, and once wished himself hanged, to get rid of Ho.
when'he 8puhlis ed his complete version, irn 1663, it met  mer.: and that he experienced; often such literary agonies,
withl ~So IgRcotr  ementn; in the course of those thirteen  witness his description of the depressions and elevations
years,. e goniussf the t mes had changed; oriental studies  of genius,
were nolorngir intrequest.  Thevenot then could not find   Who pants for glory, finds but short repose,
a book-seller in ITendon  or at Amsterdam  to print his      A breath revives him, or a breath o'erthrows!'
Abulfeda, nor,g-tnO}r, leaonned in Arabian lore, his history
Abulfeda, noaladine.                                      Thus must the days of a great author be passed in inf Saladine.  ours as unremitting and exhausting as those of the arti.
* Look on a gt'rtipl  icture of these thousand taskl;worlks,  zan.  The world are not always aware, that to some,
cotlotred by hi'literatypange, of Le Grand D'Aussy, the li.  meditation, composition,. and even conversation, may interary antiquary, vwho.onuld n ever finish his very curious  flict pains undetected by the eye and the tenderness of
averk, on'The History' tthe   p:ivate life of the French.'  friendship..  Whenever Rousseau passed a morning in
I tndowed with ascorage at a 11 proofs, with health, which  company, he tells us it was observed that in the evening
till then was'unaltered, arn with excess of labclir has greatly  he was dissatisfied and distressed; and John Huntor, in
changed, I devoted nmyself to writ'e the lives of the learned,
of~ the sixteerh.century. ~Renouyr cintg all kinds of pleastre,  a mixed company,.found conversation fatigued, instead of
working ten to twelve hoeumrs a d;ty, extracting, ceaselessly  amusing him. EawkswolS, in the second paper of the
cvpxing; after this sad lite, I nor, wished to draw breath,  Adventurer, has composed, from his own feelings, an elo.
$un; over wheatI had amassedl, and a.rrange it. I found myself quett comparative estimate of intellectual and corporeal,-~Pssessed c,:f manythousandsofbullcetins, of which the longest  labour; it may console the humble mechanic.
did not exceed many lines. At the sight of this fiightful    The anxious uncertainty of an author for his composichaos, from'bilhobI wastoo f1lrmr  a regular history, I must  tions resembles that of a lover when he has written to a
cor.fess that I shudderedl; felt myself for some time in a
tupor and lepesaion of s pditie; and now actsally that I have i mistress, not yet decided on his claims: he repents his
finished this vworkt, I,cannqt edure the recollection of that  labour, for he thinks he has written too nmiich, while he is
moment of ala:rm, without a seeling of involuntary terror.  mortified at recollecting that he had omitted some things
What a businessiisthisggoodv  d, of a compiler! in truth it  which he imagines-would have secured the object of isi
s too much condemned; it merits some regard. At length I  wishes. Madame de Stael, who has often entered into
regained couiage, Ireturned to Gmy researches: I have com.  feelings familiar to a literary and' political family', in a
pleted my plan, thoughm ever-y day  I was  forced ts add, to cor.  parellel between ambition with genius, has distinguished
feet. to change my facts as weli ~as my ideas: six times has
my hand re opied my worir, and however fatiguing this may  them in this, that while'ambition persveres in the desire
be, it c~ertaindyiis!i5tlrbhqt   iq9. ot lay arkt which has cost  of acquiring power,.genius flEcgs of'itse'fi  Genius in the
me most.'                                               midst of sociesty isa pain, an internal i,%Yer which would




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                           417
require to be treated as a real' disease, if the records of  face to his collected works comes by no means short of
glory did not soften the sufferings it produces.'          Smollet's avowal. Hume's philosophical indifference could
These moments of anxiety often darken the brightest  often suppress that irritability which Pope and Smollet
hours of genius.  Racine hIad extreme sensibility; the  fully indulged.  But were the feelings of fume more ohpain inflicted by a severe criticism outweighed all the ap-  tuse, or did his temper, gentle as it was constitutionally,
plause he received.  He seems to have felt, what he was  bear, with a saintly patience, the mortifications his literary
often reproached with, that his Greeks, his Jews, and his  life so long endured?  After recomposing two of his works,
Turks were all inmates of Versailles.  He had two cri-  which incurred the same neglect in their altered form, he
tics, who, like our Dennis with Pope and Addison, regular-  raised the most sanguine hopes of his history-hut he tells
ly dogged his pieces as they appeared. Corneille's objec-  us, miserable was my disappointment!'  The reasonin
tions he would attrihute to jealousy-at his burlesqued  Hume once proposed changing his name and his country
ieces at the Italian theatre, he would smile outwardly,  and although he never deigned to reply to his opponents,
though sick at heart, —but his son informs us, that a strok   yet they haunted him; and an eye-witness has thus de.
of raillery from  his witty friend Chapelle, whose pleasant-  scribed the irritated author discovering in conversation his
ry scarcely concealed its bitterness, sunk more deeply  suppressed resentment-' His forcible mode of expression,
into his heart than the burlesques at the Italian theatre, the  the brilliant quick movements of his eyes, and the gestures
protest of Corneille, and the iteration of the two Dennises.  of his body,'-these betrayed the pangs of ctntempt, or'The life of Tasso abounds with pictures of a complete ex-  of aversion! Erasmus once resolved to abandon ftr ever
haustion of this kind; his contradictory critics had per-  his favourite literary pursuits;'if this,' he exclaimed, ali~exed him with the most intricate literary discussions, and  luding to his adversaries,' if this be the fruits of all my
probably occasioned a mental alienation.  We find in one  youthful labours!'
rf his letters that he repents the composition of his great    Parties confederate against a man of genius, as hap} oem, for although his own taste approved of that marvel-  pened to Corneille, to D'Avenant* and Milton, and a Pra.
ous, which still forms the nobler part of its creation, yet he  don and a Settle carry away the meed of a Racine and a
c nifesses that his critics have decided that the history of Dryden. It was to supplort the drooping spirit of his friend
hi., hero Godfrey required another species of conduct.  Racine on the opposition raised against Phwedra, that'.ence,' cries the unhappy bard,'doubts vex me; but  Boileau addressed to him  an epistle on the utility to be
for the past and what is done, I know of no remedy'; and  drawn from the jealousy of the envious. It was more to
he iongs to precipitate the publication that' he may be (e-  the world than to his country, that Lord Bacon appealetd,
live:ed from  misery and agony.' He solemnly swears  by a frank and noble conception in his will,-' For my
that' did not the circumstances of my situation compel me,  name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches,
I wetild riot prinr. it, even perhaps during my life, I so  and to foreign nations, and the next age.' The calm digmuch dotht of its success.' Such was that painfiul state  nity of the historian De Thou, amidst the passions of his
of fear and doubt, experienced by the author of the'Jeru-  times, confidently expected that justice from  posterity
salem Delivered' when he gave it to the world; a state of  which his own age refused to his early and his late labour:
suspense, among the children of imagination, of which  that great man was, however, compelled, by his injured
none are more liable to participate in, than the too sensi-  feelings, to compose a poem, under the name of another,
tive artist.  At. Florence may still be viewed the many  to serve as his apology against the intolerant Court of
works begun a, d abandoned by the genius of Michael An-  Rome, and the factious politicians of France; it was a
gelo; they are.)reserved inviolate;'so sacred is the ler-  noble subterfuge to which a great genius was forced. The
ror of Michael kngelo's genius!' exclaims Forsyth.  Yet  acquaintances of the poet Collins probably complained of
these works art iot always to be considered as failures of  his wayward humours and irritability; but how could they
the chisel; they appear rather to have been rejected by  sympathize with the secret mortification of the poet for
coming short of the artist's first conceptions. An interest-  having failed in his Pastorals, imagining that they were
ins domestic story has been preserved ofGesner, who so  composed on wrong principles; or with a secret agony of
zealously devoted his graver and his pencil to the arts, but  soul, burning with his own hands his unsold, but immortal
nis sensibility was ever struggling after that ideal excel-  Odes?  Nor must we forget here the dignified complaint
lence he couIld not attain; often he sunk into fits of mel-  of the Rambler, with which he awfully closes his work, in
ancholv, and gentle as he was, the tenderness of his wife  appealing to posterity.
and friends could not sooth his distempered feelings; it    In its solitary occupations, genius contracts its peculiwas necessary to abandon him  to his own thoughts, till  arities, and in that sensibility which accompanies it, that
after a long abstinence from his neglected works, in a lucid  loftiness of spirit, those quick jealousies, those excessive
moment, some accident occasioned him to return to them.  affections and aversions, which view every thing, as it
In one of these hypochondria of genius, after a long inter-  passes in its own ideal world, and rarely as it exists in the
val of despair, one morning at breakfast with his wife, his  mediocrity of reality. This irritability of genius is a maeve fixed on one of his pictures; it was a group of fauns  lady which has raged even among philosophers: we must
with young shepherds dancing at the entrance of a cavern  not, therefore, be surprised at the poetical temperament.
shaded with vines; his eye appeared at length to glisten;  They have abandoned their country, they have changed
and a sudden return to good humour broke out in this live-  their name, they have punished themselves with exile in
ly apostrophe,' Ah! see those playful children, they always  the rage of their disorder.  Descartes sought in vain,
dance!' This was the moment of gaiety and inspiration,  even in his secreted life, a refuge for his genius; he thought
and he flew to his forsaken easel.                         himself persecuted in France, he thought himself calumniLa Harpe, an author by profession, observes, that as it  ated among strangers, and he went and died in Sweden;
has been shown, that there are some maladies peculiar to  and little did that man of genius think, that his countryartists,-there are also sorrows which are peculiar to  men, would beg to have his ashes restored to them. Hume
them, and which the world can neither pity nor soften, be-  once proposed to change his name and country, and I because they do not enter into their experience.  The que-  lieve did.  The great poetical genius of our times has
rulous language of so many men of genius has been some-  openly alienated himself from the land of his brothers; he
times attributed to causes very different from  the real  becomes immortal in the language of a people whom  he
ones,-the most fortunate live to see their talents con-  would contemn; he accepts with ingratitude the fame he
tested and their best works decried. An author with  loves more than life, and he is only truly great who on that
certain critics seems much in the situation of Benedict,  spot of earth, whose genius, when heis no more, will conwhen he exclaimed —' Hang me in a bottle, like a cat, and  template on his shade in anger and in sorrow.
shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on      Thus, the state of authorship is not friendly to equalit*
the shoulder, and called Adam!' Assuredly many an  of temper; sand in those various hurmours incidental to it,
author has sunk into his grave without the consciousness  when authors are often affected deeply, while the cause
of having obtained that fame for which he had in vain  escapes all perception of sympathy, at those moments the
sacrificed an arduous life. The too feeling Smollet has  lightest injury to the feelings, which at another time would
left this testimony to posterity.' Had some ofthose, who  make no impression, may produrce even fury in the warm
are pleased to call themselves my friends. been at any  temper, or the corroding chagrin of a self wounded stirkt.
pains to deserve the character, arid told me ingeniously  These are moments which claim the tenderness of friendwhat I had to expect in the capacitv of an author, T should  ship, animated by a high esteem for the intellrciral excelin all troba,:litv, have spared myself the in-redible labour  lence of this man of genius,-not the ge:eral intercotrrse
and cha-rin I have since undergone.'  And Smollet was    * See' Qutarrels of Authors,' Vol. ii, on the confederacy of
a popuar writr! Pope's solemn declaration in the pro-  several wits against D'Avetatnt, a great geniius.
No. 14.                                                             53




418 tLITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
of society,-not the insensibility of the dull, nor the levity   ---       - che seggendo in piuma
of the volatile.                                               In Fama non si vien, ne sotto coltre;
Men of genius are often reverenced only where they           Sanza la qual chi sua vita consuma
are known by their writings; intellectual beings in the ro-    Cotel vestigio in terra di se lascia
mance of life,-in its history, they are men! Erasmus          Qual fummo in aere, ed in acqula la schiuma.
compared them  to the great figures in tapestry-work,                                 Dante, Inferno, c. xxiv.*
which lose their effect when not seen at a distance. Their    Another, who had great experience of the world and of
foibles and their infirmities are obvious to their associates,  literature,t observes, that literary men (and artists) seek
often only capable of discerning these qualities.  The de-  an intercourse with tte great from a refinement of selffects of great men are tile coosolation of the cdunces.  love; they are perpetually wanting a confirmation of their
own talents in the opinions of others, (for their rivals are.
CHAPTER  V.                          at all times, very cruelly and very adroitly diminishing their
THE SPIRIT OF LITERATURE AND THE SPIRIT OF            reputation;) for this purpose, they require judges suffiSOCIETY.                          ciently enlightened to appreciate their talents, but who do
W hen a general intercourse in society prevails, the age  not exercise too penetrating a judgment.  Now this is exof great genius has passed; and equality of talents rages  acty the  state of the generality of the great, (or persons of
among a multitude ef authors and artists; they have ex-  ashion,) who cultivate taste  and literature; these have
tended the superfices of genius, but have lost the intensi-  only time to acquire that degree of light which is just suffi.
ty; the contest is more furious, but victory is more rare.  cient to set at ease the fears of these claimants of genius.
The founders of National Literature and Art pursued  Their eager vanity is more voracious than delicate, and is
their insulated studies in the full independence of their  willing to accept an incense less durable than ambrosia.
mind and the developement of their inventive faculty.    The habitudes of genius, before it lost its freshness in
The master-spirits who create an epoch, the inventors,  this society, are the mould in which the character is cast;
lived at periods when they inherited nothing from their  and these, in spite of all the disise of the man, hereafter
predecessors; in seclusion they stood apart, the solitary  make himadistinct being rot theman of society.  There
lights of titeir age.                                   is something solitary in deep feelings; and the amusers
At  length, when a people have emerged to glory, and a  who can only dazzle and sulrprise, will never spread that
silent revolution has obtained, by a more uniform  light of  contagious energy only springing from the fullness of the
knowledn e coming from  all sides, the geniuu of society   heart:  Let the man of genius then dread to level himknowledge coming from  all sides, the genits of society
becomes greater than the genius of the individual: hence,  self to that mediocrity of feeling and talent required in
the character of genius itself becomes subordinate. A   every-day society, lest he become one of thenselves.
conversanion age succeeds a sttidious one, and the family   Ridicule is the shadowy scourge  of society, and the terror
of genitis are ito longer recluses.                      of the man of genius; Ridicule surrounds him with her
The man of genius is now trammelled with the artifi-  chimeras, like the shadowy monsters which opposed
cial and mechantcal forms of life; and in too close an in-  IEneas, too impalpable to be grasped, while the airy nt
tercourse with society, the loneliness and raciness of  things  triumph, unwounded by a  wneapon. icneas was
thinking is modified away in its seductive conventions   told to pass the grinning monsters unnoticed, and they
An excessive indulgence in the pleasures of social life con-  wold then be as harmless, as they were rnreal.
stitutes the great interests of a luxurious and opulent age.    Study, Meditation, and Enthusiasm,- -this is the pro
It may be a qtestion swhethler the literary roan and the  gress of genius, and these cannot be the  abits of him who
artist are not immolating their genius to society, when,  lingers till he can only live among polish d crowls.  If he
with the mockery of Proteus, they lose their own bv all  bears about him the consciousness of enius, he will be
forms, in the shadowiness of assumed talent.  But a path  still acting under their influences.  And perhaps there
of roses, where all the senses are flattered, is now opened   never was one of this class of men who had not either first
to win an Eplictetus from  his hlut.  The morning lounge   etirely formed himself in solitde, or anidst society is
the luxurious dinner, and the evening party are the regu-  p  tually breaking out to seek for himself.  Wilkes,
lated dissipations of hours which true genius knows are  who, when no longer touched by the fervotrs of literarv
alwavs too short for Art, and too rare for its inspirations:  and patriotic glory, grovelled into a domestic voluptuary,
and hence so many of our contemporaries, whose card-  observed with some surprise of the great. Earl of Cha-tracks are ( crowded, have produced only flashy fragments,  ham, that he sacrificed every pleasure of social life, even
-efforts, and not works.  It is seduction, and not reward,  in youth, to his great pursuit of eloquence; and the Earl
which me - fashionable society offers the man of true e.:  himself acknowledged an artifice he practised in his inter.
nius., for ht must be distinguished from those men of the  course with society, for he said, when lie was yonng he
world, who have assumed the literary character, for pur-  always came late into company, and left it early.  Vittoposes very distinct from literary ones. Ill this society, the  rio Alfieri, and a brother-spirit n ollr ovn noble poet, were
nlan of genius shall cease to interest, whatever be his tal-  arel  seen amidst the brilliant circle it which they were
ert; he will be sought for with enthusiasm, blut he cannot  born; the workings of their imagination were perpetually
escape from his certain fate,-that of becoming tiresome  emancipating them, and one deep loneliness of feeling
to his pretended admirers. The confidential confession ot  proudly insulated them among the unimpassioned triflers
Racine to his son is remarkable.'Do not think that I  of their rank.  They preserved unbroken the unity of their
am  sought after by the great for my dramas; Corneille  character, in constantly escaping from the processional
composes nobler verses than mine, but no one notices  spectacle of society, by frequent intervals of retirement. it
him, and he only pleases by the mouth of the actors.  I  is no trivial observation of another noble writer, Lord
never allude to my works when with men of the world,  Shaftesbury, that' it may happen that a person may be se
but I amuse them about matters they like to hear.  My   much the worse author, for being the finer gentleman.'
talent with them  consists not in making them  feel that I    An extraordinary instance of this disagreement between
have any, btrt in showing them that thev have'-Racine   the man of the world and the literary character, we find in
treated the Great, like the children of society; Corneille  a philosopher seated on a throne.  The celebrated Julian
would not compromise for the tribute he exacted; and con-  stained the imperial purple with an author's ink; and when
soled himself when, at his entrance into the theatre, the  that Emperor resided among the Antiochians, his unalter
audience usually rose to salute him.                     able character shocked that volatile and luxurious race:
Has not the fate of our reigning literary favourites been  he slighted the plaudits of their theatre, he abhorred their
uniform!  Their mayoralty hardly exceeds the year.  dancers and their horse-racers, he was abstinrnt even at
They are pushed aside to put in their place another, who  a festival, and perpetually incorrupt, admonished this dis.
in his turn mus-t descend.  Such is the history of the lite-  sipated people of their impious abandonment of the laws
rary character encoluntering the perpetual difficulty of ap-  of their country.  They libelled the Emperor and peturearing what he really is not, while he sacrifices to a few,  lantly lamptoned his beard, which the philosopher caren a certain corner of the metropolis, who have long fan-  lessly wore, neither perfumed nor curled. Jllian, scorning
tasticallv called themselves' The WVord,' that more digni-  to inflict a sharper punishment, pointed at them his satire
fled celebrity which makes an author's name more familiar than his person.  To one who appeared astonished' Not by reposing on pillows or under  canopies, is Fame
t te extensive celebrit of Bffon, the modern Pliny re cquired, without which he, who consumes his life, leaves
at tine extensive celebrity of Buffon, the modern Pliny re-  such an unregarded vestige on the earth of his being, as the
plied,' I have passed fifty years at my desk.' And has  smoke in the air or the foam on the wave.'
mot one, the roest sublime of the race, sung-              t D'A.lemberer la Soci6t6 des Gens we Lettres et des Grands.




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                           419
of' the Misopogon, or the Antiochian; the Enemy of the  of truth on the sudden, bursts with an irruptive heat on
Beard,' where amidst the irony and invective, the literary  the subdued tune of conversation; should he hesitate, that
monarch bestows on himself many exquisite and individual  he may correct an equivocal expression, or grasp at a
touches.  All that those persons of fashion alleged against  remote idea, he is in danger of sinking into pedantry or
the literary character, Julian unreservedly confesses —his  rising to genius.  Even the tediousness he bestows on us,
undressed beard and his awkwardnesses, his obstinacy,  may swell out from the fulness of knowledge, or be hamhis unsociable habits, his defitient tastes, &c, while he  mered into a hard chain of reasoning; and how often is
represents his good qualities as so many extravagancies.  the cold tardiness of decision, the strict balancings of scepBut, in this pleasantry of self-reprehension, he has not  ticism  and candocr! even obscurity may arise from  the
failed to show this light and corrupt people that he could  want of previous knowledge in the listener. But above
not possibly resemble them.  The unhappiness of too  all, what offends is that freedom of opinion, which a man
strict an education under a family tutor, who never suffered   of genius can no more divest himself of than of the fea.
him to swerve from the one right way, with the unlucky  tures of his face; that intractable obstinacy which may be
circumstance of his master having inspired Julian with  called resistance of character —a rock which checks the
such a reverence for Plato and Socrates, Aristotle and  flowing stream of popular opinions, and divides them by
Theophrastus, as to have made them his models:' What-  the collision. Poor Burns could never account to himself
ever manners,' says the Emperor,' I may have previously  why'though when he had a mind he was pretty generally
contracted, whether gentle or boorish, it is impossible fbr  beloved, he  could never get the  art of commanding
me now to alter or unlearn.  Habit is said to be a second  respect.' He imagined it was owing to his being deficient
nature; to oppose it is irksome, but to counteract the study  in what Sterne calls' that understrapping virtue of descreof more than thirty years is extremely difficult, especially  tion.''I am so apt,' he says,' to a lapsus litnguw.'
when it has been imbibed with so much attention.'            It is remarkable that the conversationists have rarely
Anrid what if men of genius, relinquishing their habits,  proved themselves to be the abler writers.  lIe whose fancould do this violence to their nature, should we not lose  cy is susceptible of excitement, in the presence of his anthe original for a factitious genius, and spoil one race with-  ditors, making the minds of men run with his own, seizing
out improving the other?  If nature, and habit, that se-  on the first impressions, and touching, as if he really felt
cond nature which prevails even over the first, have cre-  them, the shadows and outlines of things-with a miemory
ated two beings distinctly different, what mode of existence  where all lies ready at hand, quickenedby habitual associshall ever assimilate them?  Antipathies and sympathies,  ations, and varying with all those extemporary changes and
those still occult causes, however concealed, will break  fugitive colours, which melt away in the rainbow of conforth at an unguarded moment.  The man of genius will  versation; that jargon, or vocabulary of fashion, those
be restive even in his trammelled paces. Clip the wings  terms and phrases of the week perpetually to be learnt;
of an eagle and place hin to roost among the domestic  that wit, which is only wit in one place, and for a certain
poultry; will he peck with them? will he chuck like them?  tinme; such vivacity of animal spirits, which often exists
At some unforeseen moment his pinions will overshadow   separately from the more retired intellectual powers; all
and terrify his tiny associates, for' the feathered king' will  these can strike out wit by habit, and pour forth a stream
be still musing on the rock and the cloud.                of phrase that has sometimes been imagined to require
Thus is it, as our literary Emperor discovered, that' we   only to he written down, to be read with the sanie delight
cannot counteract the study of more than thirty years,  it was heard; we have not all the while been sensible of
when it has been imbibed with so much attention.' Men  the flutter of their ideas, the violence of their transitions,
of genius are usually not practised in the minuter atten-  their vague notions, their doubtful assertions, anrid their
tions; in those heartless courtesies, poor substitutes for  meagre knowledge-a pen is the extinguisher of these lugenerous feelings; they have rarely sacrificed to the in-  minaries.  A curious contrast occurred between Buffon
laughing graces of Lord Chesterfield.  Plato ingeniously  and his friend Montbelliard, who was associated in his
compares Socrates to the gallipots of the Athenian apoth-  great work; the one possessed the reverse qualities of lite
ecaries, which were painted on the exterior with the gro-  other.  Montbelliard threw  every  charm  of animation
tesque figures of apes and owls, but contained within a  over his delightful conversation, but when he came to take
precious balm.  The man of genius may exclaim amidst  his seat at the rival desk of Buffon, an immense interval
many a circle, as did Themistocles, when asked to play  separated them; his tongue distilled the music and tb&
on a lute-' I cannot fiddle, but I can make a little village  honey of the bee, but his pen seemed to be iron, as cold
a great city;' and with Corneille he may be allowed to  and as hard, whihle Bruffon's was the soft pencil of the phismile at his own deficiencies, and even disdain to please in  losophical painter of nature.  The characters of Cowly
trivials, asserting that,'wanting all these things, he was  and Killegrew are an instance. Cowly was embarrassed
not the less Corneille.'  With the great thinkers and stu-  in conversation, and had not quickness in argument or redents, their character is still more hopeless.  Adam Smith  partee; pensive elegance and refined combinations could
could never free himself from the embarrassed manners of  not be struck at to catch fire; while with Killegrew the
a recluse; he was often absent; and his grave and formal  sparkling bubbles of his fancy rose and dropped; yet when
conversation made him seem distant and reserved, when,  this delightful conversationist wrote, the deception ceased.
in fact, no man had warmer feelings for his intimates.  Denham, who knew them both, hit off the difference beBuffon's conversatin was very indifferent-and the most  tween them;eloquent writet was then coarse and careless; after each' Had Cowly r.e'er spoke; Killegrew ne'er writ,
laborious day of study, he pleaded that conversation was      Combin'd in one, they had made a matchless wit.'
to him only a relaxation.  Rousseau gave no indication of
his energetic style in conversation.  A princess, desirous     Thought and expression are only found easily when the
of seeing the great moralist Nicolle. experienced incon-  lie so  the surface;  the operations of the intellect wi
ceivable disappointment, when the moral instructor, en-  sos m, are   slow  and   deep.  Hence  it is that slowa
termg with the most perplexing bow imaginable, sank down  mited  men are not, as men of the world imagine, always
silently on hiis chair; the interview promoted no conversation; snd'the retired student, whose elevated spirit    ers me in the drawinroom, but he surrenders to me at
might have endured martyrdom, sank with timidity in the  discretion  on  the staircase.'  Many a  great wit has
unaccustomed honour of conversing with a princess, and thought the wit which he never spoke, and many a great
having nothing to say.  Alivlreasoner has perplexed his listeners.  The conversation.
hkvina nothing to say. A lively Frenchman, in a very ingenious description uf the distinct sorts of conversations of  p er   s     smbete s -ls  o  te f i
h~is numerous literary friends, among whom was Dr Frank- Iable trader; all his moderate capital is there spread out in
is nmeros lteray fiend, amng  hom  as  r Frnk-the last novelties; the magasin within is neither rich nor
lin, energetically hits off that close observer and,hinker,  the last novelties; the masin within is neither rich nor
rare. Chaucer was more facetious in his Tales, than in
wary even in society; among   these varieties of conversa-  his conversation, for the cuntess of Pembroh e used to
tion he has noted down'the silence of the celebrated         hion erin     th   C       nes   mre  ued
Franklin.'  When Lord Oxford desired to be introduced  rally him, observing that his silence was more agreeable
totesuious ThunLorn  Baer, hesver e un edly  to her than his conversation. Tasso's conversation which
to the studious Thomas Baker, he very unaffectedly declined, in a letter I have seen, that honour,'as a rash ad-  his friend Manso has attempted to preserve to us, was neiventure he could not think of engaging in, not having fitted  their gay nor brilliant.;and Goldoni, in his drama of Tor.,imselffor any conversation, but with the dead.'          quato Tasso, has contrasted the posets writings and his
Tjimself foranv conversaion. but wit thft dead.
Btut this deficient aoreeableness in a man of genius may  conversation
be often connected with those qualities which conduce to         Ammiro ii suo talento, gradliseo i carmi snot:
the greatness of his public character.  A vidid perception       Ma pisces non trove a ronverstr con tur.




420                        LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
The sublime Dante was taciturn or satirical; Butler  ness of the Founder, it gave Barry an opportunity of
was sullen or biting; Descartes, whose habits had formed  opening on the character of Jesus, with that copiousness
him for solitude and meditation, was silent. Addison and  of heart and mind, which once heard could never be for..
Moliere were only observers in society; and Dryden has  gotten.  That artist had indeed long in his meditations
very honestly told us,'my conversation is slow and dull;  an ideal head of Christ, which he was always talking to
my humniour saturnine and reserved; in short I am none of  execute;'It is here!' he would cry, striking his head.
those who endeavour to break jests in company or make  What baffled the invention, as we are told, of Leonardo
repartees.' It was ingeniously said of Vancanson, that  da Vinci, who left his Christ headless, having exhausted
he was as much a machine as any he made. Hogarth  his creative faculty among the apostles, Barry was still
and Swift, who looked on the circles of society with eyes  dreaming on; but this mysterious mixture of a human ana
of inspiration, were absent in company; but their gross-  celestial nature could only be conceived by his mind, and
ness ana asperity did not prevent the one from being the  even the catholic enthusiasm of Barry was compelled to
greatest of comic painters, nor the other as much a crea-  refrain from  unveiling it to the eye,-but this unpainted
tor of manners in his way. Genius even in society is  picture was perpetually exciting this artist's emotions in
pursuing its own operations; but it would cease to be  conversation.
itself, in becoming another.                                 Few authors and artists but are eloquently instructive
One peculiar trait in the conversations of men of genius,  on that sort of knowledge or that department of art which
which has often injured them when the listeners were not  has absorbed all their affections; their conversations affect
intimately accjuainted with the mnan, are certain sports of  the mind to a distant period of life.  Who has forgotten
a vacant lnod; a sudden impulse to throw out opinions,  what a man of genius has said at such moments? the
and take views of things in some humour of the moment.  man of genius becomes an exquisite instrument, when the
Extravagant paradoxes and false opinions are caught up  hand of the performer knows to call forth the rich confluby the humbler prosers; and the Philistines are thus ena-  ence of the sounds; andbled to triumph over the strong and gifted man, because in'The  yin  fingers touch into a voice.'
n                            I~~~~~~~~~~ The flying fingers touch rato a voice.'
the hour of confidence and the abandonment of the mind,                                              D'vena
he laid his head in their lap and taught them how  he
might be shorn of his strength.  Dr. Johnson appears
often to have indulged this amusement in good and in ill                     CHAPTER  VI.
humour.  Even such a calm philosopher asAdam Smith,                        LITERARY SOLITUDE.
as well as such a child of imagination as Burns, were re-    The literary character is reproached with an extreme
marked for this ordinary habit of men of genius, which  passion for retirement, cultivating those insulating tI;oai
perhaps as often originates in a gentle feeling of contempt  which are great interruptions. and even weakeners o:
for their auditors, as from any other cause.              mestic happiness, while in public life these often induc*.
Not however that a man of genius does not utter many  a succession from its cares, thus eluding its active dutie.
startling things in conversation which have been found ad-  Yet the vacancies of retired men are eagerly filled by so
mirable, when the public perused them. How widely the  many unemployed men of the world more happily firamed
public often differ from the individual! a century's opinion  for its business. We do not hear these accusations raised
may intervene between them.  The fate of genius resem-  against the painter who wears away his days at his easel,
bles that of the Athenian sculptor, who submitted his co-  and the musician by the side of his instrument: and much
lossal Minerva to a private party; before the artist they  less should we against the legal and the commercial chatrembled for~his daring chisel, and behind him they calum-  racter; yet all these are as much withdrawn from  pubiia,niated.  The man of genits smiled at the one, and forgave  and private life as the literary character; their desk is as
the other.  The statue once fixed in a public place, and  insulating as the library. Yet is the man who is working
seen by the whole city, was the divinity.  There is acer-  for his individual interest more highly estimated than the
tain distance at which opinions, as well as statues, must be retired student, whose disinterested pursuits are at least
viewed.                                                   more profitable to the world than to himself.  La Bruyere
But enough of those defects of men of genius, which  discovered the world's erroneous estimate of literary laoften attend their conversations. Must we then bow to  bour:' There requires a better name to be bestowed on
authorial dignity, and kiss hands, because they are inked;  the leisure (the idleness he calls it) of the literary cha.and to the artist, who thinks us as nothing unless we are  racter, and that to meditate, to compose, to read and to be
canvass under his hands? are there not men of genius,  tranquil, should be called working.' But so invisible is the
the grace of society? fortunate men! more blest than their  progress of intellectual pursuits, and so rarely are the obbrothers; but for this, they are not the more men of genius  jects palnable to the observers, that the literary character
nor the others less.  To how many of the ordinary inti-                                      t cannot be refused to
appears denied for his pursuits, what cannot b e refused to
mates of a superior genius, who complain of his defects,  every other. That unremitting application, that unbroken
might one say,' Do his productions not delight and some-  series of their thoughts  admired in every profession, is
times surprise you?-You are silent-I beg youear pardon;  only complainec of in that one whose professors with so
the public has informed you of a great name; you would  much sincerity mourn over the shortness of life, which has
not otherwise have perceived the precious talent of your  often closed on them while sketching their works.
neighbour.  You know little of your friend but his name.'    It is, however, only in solitude that the genius of emi.
The personal familiarity of ordinary minds with a man of  nent men has been formed; there their first thoughts
genius has often produced  a ludicrous prejudice.  A   sprang, and there it will become them to find their last:
scotchman, to whom the name of Dr Robertson had tra-  for the solitude of old age-and old age must be often ia
veIled down, was curious so know who he was?'Your  solitude-will be found the happiest with the literary chaneighbour!' but he could not persuade himself that the  racter.  Solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and enthuman whom  he conversed with was the great historian of  siasm is the true parent of genius; in all ages it has been
his country.  Even a good man could not believe in the  called for-it has been flown to.  No considerable work
announcement of she Messiah, from the same sort of pro-  was ever composed, but its author, like an ancien' magiindite, I Can there any thing good come out of Nazareth.q'
jsdiced'Can there any thing good come out of Nazareth?'  cian, first retired to the grove, or to the closet, tp invocate.
~~~~said Nathaniel.                        ~When genius languishes in an irksome solitude among
Suffer a man of genius to be such as nature and habit  crowdsd 
crowds, that is the moment to fly into seclusion and medi.
have formed him, and he will then be the most interesting           b is       oet  to          t   solitude; in all
mn   tation. There is a society in the deepest solitude; in all
companion; then will you see nothing but his mighty mind  the men of genius of he pasY the men of genius of the past —
when it opens itself on you. Barry was the most repulsive of men in his exterior, in the roughness of his Ian-          First of your kind, ociety divine'
Thomzson.
guage and the wildness of his looks; intermingling vulgar                                                       t
oaths, which, by some unlucky association of habit, he  and in themselves; for there only they can indulge in the
seemed to use as strong expletives and notes of admiration.  romances oftheir soul, and only in solitude can they occupy
His conversation  has communicated even a horror to  themselves in their dreams and their vigils, and, with the
some: on one of these occasions, a pious lady, who had   morning, fly without interruption to the labour they had
felt such intolerable uneasiness in his presence, did not  reluctantly quitted.  This desert of solitude, so vast and
however leave this man of genius that evening, without an  so dreary to the man of the world, to the man of genius
impression that she had never heard so divine a man in her  opens the magical garden oh Armida whose enchantments
life.  The conversation happening to turn on that principle  arose amidst solitude, while solitude was every where
of Benevolence which perades Christianity and the meek-  among those enchantments.




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                             421
Whenever Michael Angelo was meditating on some   vid wildness of youth to the strict regularities of study is a
great design, he closed himself up from the world.' Why   sacrifice performed by the votary; but even Milton appears
do you lead so solitary a life?' asked a friend.'Art,' re-  to have felt this rrksome period of life; for in the preface
plied the sublime artist,'Art is a jealous god; it requires  to Sniectymnuus he says,' It is but justice not to defraud
the whole and entire man.'                                 of due esteem the wearisome labours and studious watchings
We observe men of genius, in public situations, sighing   wherein I have spent and tired out almost a whole youth.'
for this solitude; amidst the impediments of the world, and   Cowley, that enthusiast for seclusion, ill his retirement calls
their situation in it, they are doomed to view their intellec-  himself' the melancholy Cowley.' I have seen an original
tual banquet often rising before them, like some fairy delu-  letter of this poet to Evelyn, where he expresses his eagersion, never to taste it. They feel that finer exiitence in soli-  ness to see Evelyn's Essay on Solitude; for a copy of which
tude.  Lord Clarendon, whose life so happily combined the   he had sent over the town, without obtaining one, being
contemplative with the active powers of man, dwells on three' either all bought tup, or burnt in the fire of London.' 1 am
periods of retirement which he enjoyed; he always took  the more desirous, he says, because it is a subject in which
pleasure in relating the great tranquillity of spirit ex-  I am most deeply interested. Thus Cowley was requiring
perienced during his solitude at Jersey, where for more than   a book to confirm his predilection, and we know he made
two years, employed on his History, he daily wrote' one  the experiment, which did not prove a happy one.  We
sheet of large paper with his own hand.'  At the close of  find even Gibbon, with all his fame about him, anticipating
his life, his literary labours in his other retirements are de-  tle dread he entertained of solitude in advanced life.' 
tailed with a proud satisfaction.  Each of his solitudes  feel, and shall continue to feel, that domestic solitude, howoccasioned a new acquisition; this the Spanish, that the   ever it may be alleviated by the world, by study, and even
French, and a third the Italian literature.  The public are  by friendship, is a comfortless state, which will grow more
not yet acquainted with the fertility of Lord Clarendlon's  painful as I descend in the vale of years.' And again —
literary labours.  It was not vanity that intduced Scipio to'Your visit has only served to remind me that man, however
declare of solitude, that it had no loneliness to hini, since   amused or occupied in his closet was not made to live
he voluntarily retired amidst a alorious life to his Linter-  alone.'
num.  Cicero was uneasy amidst applauding Rome, and          Had the mistaken notions of Sprat not deprived us of
has distinguished his nurmerouls works by the titles of his  Cowley's correspondence, we doubtless had viewed the
various villas.  Allus Gellius marked his solitude by his  sorrows oflonely genius touched by a tender pencil.  But'Attic Niahts.'  The' Golden Grove' of Jeremy Taylor  we have Shenstone, and Gray, and Swift.  The heart of
is the produce of his retreat at the Earl of Carberry's  Shenstone bleeds in the dead oblivion of solitude.' Now I
seat in Wales; and the' Diversions of' Purley' preserved   am come from a visit, every little uneasiness is sufficient to
a man of genlus for posterity.  Voltaire had talents, and  introduce my whole train of melancholy considerations, and
perhaps a tastt for society; butt at one period of his life he  to make me utterly dissatisfied with the life I now lead,
passed five years in the most secret seclusion.  Mon-  and the life I foresee I shall lead, I am angry arid envious,
tesquieu quitted the brilliant circles of Paris for his books,  and dejected, and frantic, and disregard all prescnt things,
his ineditati-mns and his immortal work, and was ridiculed   as becomes a madman to do.  I am  infinitely pleased,
by the gray trifers hie deserted.  Harrington, to compose  though it is a gloomy joy, with t he application of Dr. Swift's
his Oceana, severed himselffrorn the societv of his friends.  complaint, that he is forced to die in a rage, like a rat in a
Descartes, inflamed be genitls, hires an obscure house in  poisoned hole." Let the lover of solitude muse on its pican unfrequlented quarter at Paris, and there he passes two   ture throughout the year, in this stanza by the same amiayearsj unknown to his acquaintance.  Adarn Smith, after  ble, but suffering poetthe publication of his first work, throws himself into a re-   Tedious again to curse the drizzling (lay,
tirement that lasts ten years: even Hume rallies him for         Again to trace the wintry tracks orsnow,
separating himself from the world; but by this.means the     Or, soothed by vernal airs, again survey
great political inquirer satisfied the world by his great work.  The self-same hawthorns bud, and cowslips blow.
An.d thus it was with men of genius, long ere Petrarch       Swif.'s letters paint with terrifying colours a picture If
withdrew to his Val chiusa.                                solitude; and at length his despair closed with idiotism,
The interruption of visiters by profession has been feel-  Even the playful muse of G resset throws a sonibre quertiingly lamented by men of letters.-The mind, nmatutring its  lousness over the solitude of sren of geniusspeculation, feels the unexpected conversation of cold cere-       Je ]es vois, Victitnes du G6nie,
mony, chilling as the blasts of March winds over the blos-     Au foible prix d'un eclat passager
soms of the Spring.  Those unhappy beings who wander           Vivre isol6s, sans jouir de la vie!
from house to house, privileged by the charter of society to   Vinyt ans d'Ennuis pour quelques jours de Gloire.
obstruct  the knowledge  they cannot impart, to  tire        Such are the necessity, the pleasures, and the inconvebecause they are tired, or to seek amusement at the   niences of solitude! Were it a question, whether men of
cost of others, belong to that class of society which have   genius should blend with the masses of society, one might
affixed no other value to time than that of getting rid of it;  answer, in a style rather oracular, but intelligible to the
these are judges not the best qualified to comprehend the   initiated-Men of genius! live in solitude, and do not live
nature and evil of their depredations in the silent apartment  in solitude!
of the studious.' We are afraid,' said some of those visiters to Baxter,' that we break in upon your time.'-' To                       CHAPTER  VII.
be sure you do,' replied the distu-red and blunt scholar.
Ursinus, to hint as gently as he could to his friends that he          THE MEDITATlONS OF BENEiS.
was avaricious of time contrived to place an inscription     A  continuity of attention, a patient quietness of mind,
over the door of his study, which could not fail to fix their  forms one of the characteristics of genius.
eye, intimating that whoever remained there must join in     A work on the Art of Meditation has not yet been pro.
his labours. The amiable Melancthon incapable of a harsh   duced; it might prove of immense advantage to him who
expression, when he received these idle visits, only noted   never happened to have more than one solitary idea. The
down the time he had expended, that he might reanimate  pursuit of a single principle h-as produced a great work,
his industry, and not lose a day.  The literary character  and a loose hint has conducted to a new discovery.  But
has been driven to the most inventive shifts to escape the  while in every manual art, every great workman improves
irruption of a formidable party at a single rush, who enter  on his predecessor, of the art of the mind, notwithstanding
without' besieging or beseeching,' as Milton has it. The   the facility of practice and our incessant experience, mill.;ate elegant, poetical Mr Ellis, on one of these occasions,  ions are yet ignorant of the first rudiments; and men of
at his country-house, showed a literary friend, that when   genius themselves are rarely acquainted with the materials
driven to the last. he usually made his escape by a leap  they are working on.  Johnson has a curious observation
out ofthe window.  Brand Hollis endeavoured to hold out  on the mind itself,-he thinks it obtains a stationary point,
the idea of sinenlarity as a shield: and the great Robert  from whence it can never advance, occurring before the
Boyle was compelled to advertise in a newspaper that he   middle of life.  He says,' when the powers of nature
must decline visits on certain days, that he might have lei-  have attained their intended energy, they can be ono more
sure to finish some of his works.*                         advanced. The shrub can never become a tree. Nr.hing
But this solitu le, at first a necessity, and then a pleasuIre,  then remains bult practice and experience; and perhaps
at length is not borne without repining.  To tame the fer-  why they do so little, may be worth inquiriy.'*  The result
* This curious advertisementis preserved in Dr Birch's Life    * I recommend the reader to turn to the whole passage, ia
sfBoyle, p. 272.                                           Johnson's Letters to Mrs Thrale, Vol. I. p. 096.




422                        LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.'.f this inquiry would probably lay a broader foundation for  mind,' in the spacious circuits of her musing.' Th,
this art of the mind than we have hitherto possessed.  study of an author or an artist would be ill placed in the
Ferguson has expressed himself with sublimity-' The  midst of a beautiful landscape; the Penseroso of Milton,
lustre which man' casts around him, like the flame of a' hid from day's garish eye,' is the man of genius. A  se.
meteor, shines only while his motion continues; the mo-  cluded and naked apartment, with nothing but a desk, a
ments of rest and of obscurity are the same.' What is  chair, and a single sheet of paper, was for fifty years the
this art of meditation, but the power of withdrawing our-  study of Buffon; the single ornament was a print of' Newselves from the world, to view that world moving within  ton placed before his eyes-nothing broke into the unity of
ourselves, while we are in repose; as the artist by an  his reveries.
optical instrument concentrates the boundless landscape      The arts of memory have at all times excited the at-.
around him, and patiently traces all nature in that small  tention of the studious; they open a world of undivulged
space.                                                     mysteries; every one seems to form some discovery of his
Certain constituent principles of the mind itself, which  own, but which rather excites his astonishment than enthe study of metaphysics has curic;usly discovered, offer  larges his comprehension.  When the late William  Hutmany important regulations in this desirable art.  We  ton, a man of an original cast of mind, as an experiment
nmay even suspect, since men of genius in the present age  in memory, opened a book which he had divided into 365
Ihave confided to us the secrets of their studies, that this  columns, according to the days of the year, he resolved to
art may be carried on by more obvious means, and even  try to recollect an anecdote, as insignificant and remote
by mechanical contrivances, and practical habits.  There  as he was able, rejecting all under ten years of age; and
isa government of our thoughts; and many secrets yet  to his surprise, he filled those spaces for small reminiscenremain to be revealed in the art of the mind; but as yet  ces, within ten columns; but till this experiment had been
they consist of insulated  facts, from  which, however,  made, he never conceived the  extent of this faculty.
may hereafter be formed an experimental history.  Many   When we reflect, that whatever we know, and whatever
littlet habits may be contracted by genus, and may be oh-  we feel, are the very smallest portions of all the knowserved in ourselves. A mind well organized may be regu-  ledge and all the feelings we have been acquiring through
lated by a single contrivance: it is by a bit of lead that  life, how desirable would be that art, which should open
we are enabled to track the flight of time.  The mind of  again the scenes which have vanished, revive the enmotions
genius can be made to take a particular disposition, or  which other impressions have effaced, and enrich oar
train of ideas. It is a remarkable circumstance in the  thoughts, with thoughts not less precious; the man of gestudies of men of genius, that previous to composition they  nius who shall possess this art, will not salisfy hirmself with
have often awakened their imagination by the imagina-  the knowledge of a few  mornings anid its transient emotioi of their favourite masters.  By touching a magnet  tions, writing on the moveable sand of present sensations,
they became a matnet.  A  circumstance has been re-  present feelines, which alter with the first breezes of pub.
corded of Gray, by Mr Mathias,' as worthy of all accep-  lic opinion. Memory is the foundation of genius; for this
tation amotig the higher votaries of the divine art, when  faculty, with men of genius, is associated witti imag ination
th[ev are assured that Mr Gray never sate down to compose  and passion, it is a chronoloey not merely of events, but of
any poetry without previously, and for a considerable time,  emotions; hence they remember nothing that is not interreading the works of Spenser.'  But the circumstance  eating to their feelings, while the ordinary mind, accurate
was not unusual with Malherbe, Corneille, and Racine;  on all eve:-ts alike, is not impassioned on any.  The inand the most fervid verses of Homer, and the most tender  cidents of the novelist, are often foundted on the common
of Euripides, were often repeated by Milton.  Even an-  ones of life; and the personaees so admirably alive in
tiquity exhibits the same exciting intercourse of the mind   his fictions, he only discovered among the crowd.  The
of genilts.  Cicero infirms us how his eloquence caught  arts of' memory will preserve all we wish; they form a
inspiration from a constant study of the Latin and Grecian  saving bank of genius, to which it may have recourse, as
poetry; and it has been recorded of Pompey, who was  a wealth which it can accumuilate unperceivably amidst
great even in his youth, that he never undertook any con-  the ordinary expenditure.  Locke taeght us the first rudisiderable enterprise, without animating his genius by  menrits of this art, when he showed us how he stored his
having read to him  the character of Agamemnon in the  thoughts and his facts, by an artificial arrangement; and
first Iliad; although he acknowledged that the enthusiasm   Addison, before he commenced his Spectators, had amashe caught came rather from the poet than the hero. When   sed three folios of materials; but the higher step will be
Bossuet had to compose a funeral oration, he was accus-  the volume which shall give an account ol a man to him.
tomed to retire for several days to his study, to ruminate  self, where a single observation, a chronicled emotion, a
over the pages of Homer; and when asked the reason of  hope or a project, on which the soul may still hang, like a
this habit, he exclaimed, in these lines,                  clew of past knowledge in his hand, will restore to him all
Magnam mihi mentem, animunque                  his lost studies; his evanescent existence again enters into
Delius inspiret Vates-                              his life, and he will contemplate on himself as an entire
It is on the same principle of pre-disposing the mind,  man: to preserve the past, is half of immortality.
that many have first generated their feelings in the sym-    The memorials of Gibbon and Priestly present us with
phonies of music. Alfieri, often before he wrote, prepared  the experience and the habits of the literary Character.
his mind by listening to music-a circumstance which has' What I have known,' says Dr Priestly,' wi!h respect to
been recorded of others.                                   myself, has tended much to lessen both my admiration and
We are scarcely aware how we may govern our tlhoughts  my contempt of others.  Could we have entered into the
by means of our sensations.  De Luc was subject to vio-  mind of Isaac Newton, and have traced all the steps by
lent bursts of passion, but he calmed the interior tumult by  which he produced his great works, we might see nothing
the artifice of filling his mouth with sweets and comfits.  very extraordinary in the process.  Our student, with an
When Goldoni found his sleep disturbed by the obtrusive  ingenious simplicity, opens to us that'variety of mechan.
ideas still floating from the studies of the day, he contrived  ical expedients by which he secured and arranged his
to lull himself to rest by conning in his mind a vocabulary  thoughts,' and that discipline of the mind, by a peculiar arof theVenetian dialect, translating some word into Tuscan   rangement of his studies, for the day and for the year, in
and French; which being a very uninteresting occupation,  which he rivalled the calm and unalterable system pursued
at the third or fourth version this recipe never failed.  by Gibbon. Buffon and Voltaire employed the same ma~This was an act of withdrawing attention from the greater  noeuvres, anid often only combined the knowledge they obto the less emotion; where, as the interest weakened, the  rained, by humble methods.  They knew  what to ask for,
excitement ceased.  Mendelsohn, whose feeble and too  and'made use of an intelligent secretary: aware, as Lord
sensitive frame was often reduced to the last stage of sif-  Bacon has expressed it, that some Books' may be read
fering by intellectual exertion, when engaged in any point  by deputy.' Buffon laid down an excellent rule to obtain
of difliculty, would in an instant contrive a perfect ces-  originality, when he advised the writer, first to exhaust his
sation from thinkin, by mechanically going to the window,  own thoughts before he attempted to consult other writers.
and counting the tiles upon the roof of his neighbour's  The advice of Lord Bacon, that we should pursue our
b'tuse.  Facts like these show how much art may be con-  studies, whether the mind is disposed or indiposed, is excerned in the management of the mind.                      cellent; in the one case, we shall gain a great step, and in
Some profounid thinkers could not pursue the operations  the other, we'shall work out the knots arid stands of the
of their mind in the distraction of light and noise.  Mal-  mind, and make the middle times the more pleasant.'
febranche, Hobbes, Thomas, and others closed their cur-  John Hunter very happily illustrated the advantages, which
tains to concentrate their thoughts, as Milton says of the  every one derives from  putting his thoughts in writing,




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                        423
I it resemhles,' said he' a tradesman taking stock; without  sumniter landscape, at the break of day, wrapt in mist,
which, he never knows either what he possesses, or in  where the sun strikes on a single object, till the light
what he is deficient.' Industry is the feature by which the  and warmth increasing, all starts up in the noon-day of Lmancients so frequently describe an eminent character;  agination. How beautifully this state of the mind, in the
such phrases as' ircredihili industria; diligentia singulari,'  progress of composition, is described by Dryden, alluding
are usual. ~When we reflect on the nmagnitude of the Ia-  to his work,' when it was only a confused mass of
bours of Cicero, Erasmus, Gesner, Baronius, Lord Bacon,  thoughts, tumbling over one anotler in the dark; when
Usher, acd Bayle, we seem  asleep at the base of these  the fancy was yet in its first work, moving the sleeping
monumen s of study, and scarcely awaken to admire.  images of things, towards the light, there to be distinSuch are the lakLorious instructions of mankind!        guished, and then either to be chosen or rejected, by the
Nor let those other artists oCthe mind, who work in the  judgment.' At that moment, he adds,'I was in that
airy looms'. fancy and wit, imagine that they are weaving   eagerness of imagination, which, by over.,pleasing fantheir wel;, without the direction of a principle, and with-  cifiul men, flatters them  into the danger of wiiting.'out a secret habit which they have acquired; there may be  Gibbon tells us of his history,' at the onset, all was
even an art, unperceived by themselves, in opening and   dark and doubtful; even the title -f the work, the true era
pursuing a scene of pure invention, and even in the hap-  of the decline and fall of the empire, &c. I was often
piest turns of wit. One who had all the experience of  tempted to cast away the labour of seven years.' Winck.
such an artist, has employed the very terms we have used,  elman was long lost in composing his' History of Art;' a
of' mechanical' and' habitual.'' Be assured,' says  hundred fruitless attempts were made, before fie could dis.
Goldsmilh,'that wit is in some measure mechanical; and   cover a plan amidst the labyrinth.  Siight conceptions
that a tnaan lont  habituated to catch at even its resem-  kindle finished works: a lady asking for a few verses on
blance, will at last be happy enough to possess the sub-  rural topics, of the Abbe De Lille, his speciniens pleased,
stance.  By a long habit of writing, he acquires a just-  and sketches heaped on sketches, produced'Les Jardins.'
ness of thinking, and a mastery of manner, which holi-  In writing the'Pleasures of Memory,' the poet at first
day writers, even with ten tinies his genius, may vainly   proposed a simple description in a few lines, till conducted
attempt to equal.' Even in the sublime efforts of imagi-  by meditation, the perfect composition of several years
nation, this art of meditation may be practised; and Al-  closed in that fine poem. And thus it happened with the
fieri has shown us, that in those energetic tragic dramas   Rape of the Lock, and many celebrated productions.
which were often produced in a state of enthusiasm, he     Were it possible to collect some thoughts of great thinkpursued a regulated process.' All my tragedies have been   ers, which were never written, we should discover vivid
composed three tirnes,' and he describes the three stages  conceptions, and an originality they never dared to pursue
of conception, developmaent, and versifying.' After these  in their works! Artists have this advantage over authors,
three operations,  I proceed like other authors, to polish,  that their virgin fancies, their chance felicities,  which laoperations,                                        that t                                        whr vicrginh
correct or amend.'                                       hour cannot afterwards produce, are constantly perpetuat-' All is habit in mankind, even virtue itself!' exclaimed   ed;  and these' studies' as they are called, are as precious
Metastasi!,; and we may add, even the meditations of  to posterity, as their more complete designs.  We posgenius.  Some of its boldest conceptions are indeed for-  sess one remarkable evidence of these fortuitous thoughts
tuitous, starting tip and vanishing almost in the percep-  of enius. Pope and Swift, being in the country together,
tion; like that giant form, sometimes seen amidst the gla-  observed, that if contemplative men were to notice'the
ciers, opposite the traveller, afar from  him, moving as  thoughts which  suddenly  present themselves to their
he mnoves, stopping as he stops, yet, in a moment lost  minds, when wa!kin, in the fields &c. they might find many
and perhaps never more seen,-although but his own   as well worth preserving, as some of their more deliberate
reflection!   Ofterl in the still obscurity of the night,  reflections.' They made a trial, and agreed to write
the ideas, the studies, the whole history of the day is  down such involuntary thoughts as occurred during their
acted over again, and in these vivid reveries, we are con-  stay there; these furnished out the' Thoughts' in Pipe's
verted into spectators. A great poetical contemporary of  and Swift's miscellanies.*  Among Lord  Bacol's Reour country does not think that even his dreams should   mains, we find a paper entitled' sudien thoughts, set down
pass away unnoticed, and keeps, what he calls, a register  for profit.' At all hours, by the side of Voltaire's bed, or
of nocturnals.  The historian De Thou was one of those   on his table, stood his pen and imk, with slips of paper
great literary characters, who, all his lif'e, was prepariig   The margins of his books were covered with his' sudden
to write the history which he wrote; omitting nothing, in  thoughts.  Cicero, in reading, constantly took notes and
his travels and his embassies, which went to the formation   made comments; but we must recollect there is an art of
of a great man, De Thou has given a very curious ac-  reading, as well as an art of thinking.
count of his dreamtls.  Such was his passion for study,    This art ofmeditation may be exercised at all horsand in
and his ardent admiration of the great men whom  he   all places; anid men of genius in their walks, at table, and
conversed with, that lie often imagined in his sleep, that  amidst assemblies, turnmir the eye of the mlind inwards, can
he was travelling in Italy, in Germany, and iil England,  form an artificial solitude;. retired amidst a crowd, and
where he sats and consulted the learned, and examined   wise amidst distraction and folly.  Some of the great actheir curious libraries; he had all his life time these litera-  tios of men of this habit of mind, were first meditated on,
ry dreams, but more particularly when in his travels, he   amidst the noise of a convivial party, or the music of a
thus repeated the images of the day. If memory does   conct.  The victory of Waterloo might have been ornot chain down these hL ying, fading children of the   ganed in the ball room at Bruossels, as Rodney at the
imagination, aind                                        table of Lord Sandwich, while the bottle was briskly cir.'Snatch the faithless fugitives to light,'      culating, was observed arranging bits of ceork; his solitary
Pleasures of Memory.    amusement having excited an inquiry, he said that he was
with the beams of the morning, the mind suddenly finds   practising a plan how  to annihilate an enemy's flee.t;
itself forsaken and solitary.  Rousseau has uttered a   this afitervards proved to be that discovery ofbreaking te
complaint on this occasion: full of enthusiasm, he devo..  line., which the happy audacity of the hero executmed.
ted to the subject of his thoughts, as was his custom., the   Thus Hogarth, with an eye always awake to the ridficulong sleepless intervals of his nights, meditating in bed,  lons, would catch a character tin his thumb-nail; Leonwith his eyes closed, he turned over his periods, in a tu,  ardo da Vinci cohtld detect int the stains of an old weather.
mult of ideas; but when he rose and had dressed, all was  beaten wall, the landscapes of nature, and Haydn carevanished, and when he sat down to his papers, he had  fully noted down inr a pocket book. the passages anrd ideas
nothing to write.  Thus genils has its vespers, and its  which came to him in his walks, or amidst company.
vigils, as well as its matins, which we have been so often  To this habit of continuity of attention, tracing the first,
told are tihe true hours of its inspiration-but every hour  simple idea through its remoter consequences, Galiieo and
may be ftlll of inspiration for hirem who knows to meclitate.  Newton owed many of' their discoveries.  It s.as ona
No man was more practised in this art of the unind, than.  evening in the cathedral of Pisa, that Galileo observed
Pope, and even the night was not an unregarded portion   the vibrations of a brass lustre pendent from the vaulted
of his poetical existence.                               roof, which had been. left swineging by one of the vergers;
Few works of magnitude presented themselves at once,  the habitual meditationm of genius combined with an ordi.,
in their extent and their associations to. their authors; the  * This anecdote  is foutd in RTff he ds life of ~ope, ev!
man of genius perceives not moire than two or three strik-  dently Oiven by Warbuilton, as NaS esery thing- of personaL
ng circumstances, unobserved:  b:v tnther;  in re,,lvin  knowletlge in that tasteless: 5oru.tm.     a mere lwy.er writing
tbA subject, the whole mind is: ghr;duatlly agitatedl, it is: a  1fe. oh a.oe




424                        LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
nary accident a new idea of science, and hence, conceiv-   nearly said, care or thinking of the very subject, can hi],
ed the invention of measuring time by the medium of a   me back from being hurried on to the destined point, an<2
pendulum.  Who but a genius of this order, sitting in his  from ccq)leting  the great circuit as it were, of the study
orchard, and being struck by the fall of an apple, could  in which I am engaged.'*
have discovered a new quality in matter by the system of    Such is the picture of genius, viewed in the stillness of
gravitation; or have imagined, while viewing boys blowing  meditation, but there is yet a more excited state,-when,
soap-bladders, the properties of light, and then anatomised  as if consciousness were mixing with its reveries, in the
a ray! It was the same principle which led Franklin  allusion of a scene, a person, a passion, the emotions of the
when on board a ship, observing a partial stillness in the  soul affect even the organs of sense.  It is experienced it.
waves, when they threw down water which hadbeen used  the moments the man of genius is producing; these are
for culinary purposes, to the discovery of the wonderful  the hours of inspiration, and this is the gentle enthusiastr
property in oil of calming the agitated ocean, and many a  of genius!
ship has been preserved in tempestuous weather, or a landing facilitated on a dangerous surf, by this simple medita-               CHAPTER  VIII.
tion of genius.
til~n of genilis.                                                    THE ENTHUSIASM. OF GENIUS.
In the stillness of meditation the mind of genius must be
frequently thrown; it is a kind of darkness which hides    A state of mind occurs in the most active operations c.
from us all surrounding objects, even in the light of day.  genius, which the term reverie inadequately indicates; meThis is the first state of existence in genius.-In Cicero,  taphysical distinctions but ill describe it, and popular lais,.
on Old Age, we find Cato admiring that Caius Sulpitius  guage affords no terms for those faculties and feelings wheir
Gallus, who when he sat down to write in the morning  escape the observation of the multitude who are not a;
was surprised by the evening, and when he took up his  fected by the phenomenon.
pen in the evening was surprised by the appearance of the  The illusion of a drama, over persons of great sensi'ilimorning. Socrates has remained a whole day in imrmove-  ty, where all the senses are excited by a mixture of reality
able meditation, his eyes and countenance directed to one  with imagination, is experienced by men of genius in their
spot as if' in the stillness of death. La Fontaine, when  own vivified ideal world; real emotions are raised by ficwriting his comic tales, has been observed early in the  tion. In a scene, apparently passing in their presence,
morning and late in the evening, in the same recumbent  where the whole train of circumstarnces succeeds in all the?tosture under the samne tree.  This quiescent state is a  continuity of nature, and a sort of real existences appear
sort of enthusiasm, and renders every thing that surrounds  to rise up before them, they perceive themselves spectaus as distant as if an immense interval separated us from   tors or acfors, feel their sympathies excited, arid involunthe scene. Poggius has told us of Dante, that he indulged  tarily use language and gestures, while the exterior organs
his meditations more strongly than any man he knew;  of sense are visibly affected; not that they are spectators
and whtn once deeply engaged in reading he seemed to  and actors, nor that the scene exists.  In this equivocal
live only in his ideas.  The poet went to view a public  state, the enthusiast of genius produces his master-pieces.
procession, and having entered a bookseller's shop, taking  This waking dream  is distinct from reverie, where our
up a book he sunk into a reverie; on his return he declared  thoughts wanderin  without conlectin, the faint inipresthat he had neither seen nor heard a single occurrence in  sions are so evanescent as to occur without even being re.
public exhibition which had passed before him.  It has  collected. Not so when one closely pursued act of' medi.
been told of a modern astronomer, that one summer night  tation carries the enthusiast of gtnius beyond the precinct
when he was withdrawing to his chamber, the brightness  of actual existence, while this act ofcontemplation makes the
of the heavens showed a phenomenon. He passed the  thing contemplated.  He is now  the busy painter of a
whole night in observing it; and when they came to him   world which he himself only views; alone he hears, he
early in the morning, and found him in the same attitude,  sees, he touches, he laughs and weeps; his brows and lips,
he said, like one who had been recollecting his thoughts  and his very limbs move.  Poets and even painters, who
for a few moments,' It must be thus; but I'll go to bed  as Lord Bacon describes witches,' are imaginative,' have
before it is late.' He had gazed the entire night in medi-   often involuntarily betrayed in the act of composition those
tation, and was not aware of it.                        gestures which acconspany this ienthusiasm.  Quiintlllian
There is nothing incredible in the stories related of  has nobly compared them  to the lashings of the lion's tail
some who have experienced this entranced state, in a very  preparing to combat. Even actors of genius have aceusextraordinary degt:ee; that ecstacy in study, where the  tomed themselves to walk on the stage for an hour before
mind deliciously inebriated with the object it contemplates,  the curtain was drawn, to fill their minds with all the phanfeels nothing, from  the excess of feeling, as a philosopher  toms of the drama, to personify, to catch the passion, to
well describes it:-Archimedes, involved in the invtsti-  speak to others, to do all that a man of genius would have
gation of mathematical truth, and the painters Protogenes  viewed in the subject.
and Parmeggiano, found their senses locked tip as it were    Aware of this peculiar faculty so prevalent in the more
in meditation, so as to be incapable of withdrawing them-  vivid exercise of genius, ILord Kaimes seems to have been
selves from their work even in the midst of the terrors and  the first who, in a work on criticism, attempted to name it
storming of the place by the enemy. Marino was so ab-  the ideal presence, to distinguish it from the real presence of
sorbed in the composition of his' Adonis,' that he suffered  things; it has been called the representative faculty, the
his leg to be burnt for some time before the pain grew  imaginative state, &c. Call it what we will, no term opens
stronger than the intellectual pleasure of his imagination.  to ts the invisible mode of its operations, or expresses its
Thomas, an intense thinker, would sit for hours against a  variable nature.  Conscious of the existence of such a
hedge, composing with a low voice, taking the same pinch  faculty, our critic perceived that the conception of it is by
of snuff for half an hour together, without being aware  no means clear when described in words.  Has not the
that it had long disappeared; when he quitted his apart-  difference of any actual thing and its image in a glass perment, after prolonging his studies there, a visible altera-  plexed some philosophers'?  And it is well known how far
tion was observed in his person, and the agitation of his  the ideal philosophy has been carried.' All are pictures,
recent thoughts was still traced in his air and manner.  alike painted on the retina, or optical sensorium!' exWith what eloquent truth has Buffon described those re-  claimed the enthusiast Barry, who only saw pictures in
veries of the student, which compress his day, and miark  nattre and nature in pictures.
the hours by the sensations of minutes.'Invention,' he    Cold and barren tempers without imagination, whose
says,' depends on patience; contemplate your subject  impressions of objects never rise beyond those of memnory
long, it will gradually unfold till a sort of electric spark con-  and reflection, which know only to compare, and not to
vulses for a moment the brain, and spreads down to the  excite, will smile at this equivocal state of the ideal prevery heart a glow of irritation.  Then come the luxuries  sence; yet it is a real one to the enthusiast of genius, and
pf genius, the true hours for production and composition;  it is his happiest and peculiar conditioiwvithout this pouwer
hours so delightful that I have spent twelve or fourteen  no metaphysical aid, no art to be taught him, no mastery
successively at my writing-desk, and still been in a state  of talent shall avail him; unblest with it the votary shall
of pleasure.'                                           finld each sacrifice lying cold on the altar, for no accepting
This eager delight of pursuing his study, and this impa-  flame from heaven shall kindle it.
tuence of interruption in the pursulit, are finely described    * Meum sic est ingenium, rllut morn, nulla quies, nulls
by Milton in a letter to his friend Deodati.            ferme illius rei cura aut cogitatio distincat, quoad pervadam
Such is the character of rmy mlind, that no delay, none  quo feror, et grandem aliquem studiorum meorum quasi pert.
#the ordinary cessations (for rest or otherwise) no, I had  odum conficiam.




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                            425
This enthusiasm:ndeed can only be discovered by men  betrayed my agitation.  I was Eucharis for Telemacus
of genius themselves, yet when most under its influence,  and Erminia for Tancred.  However, during this perfect
they can least perceive it, as the eye which sees all things  transformation, I did not yet think that I myself was any
cannot view itself; and to trace this invisible operation,  thing, for any one: the whole had no connection with my.
this warmth ot the nerve, were to search for the principle  self. I sought for nothing around me; I was them; I
of li!Be which found would cease to be life.  There is,  saw only the objects which existed for them; it was a
however, something of reality in this state of the ideal pre-  dream, without being awakened.' The effect which the
sence; for the most familiar instances show that the nerves  study of Plutarch's illustrious men produced on the mighty
of each external sense are put in motion by the idea of the  mind of Alfieri, during a whole winter, while he lived as it
object, as if the real object had been presented to it; the  were among the heroes of antiquity, he has himself told.
difference is only in the degree. Thus the exterior senses  Alfieri wept and raved with grief and indignation that he
are more concerned in the ideal world than at first ap-  was born under a government which favoured no Roman
pears; we thrill a:: even the idea of any thing that makes  heroes nor sages; as often as he was struck with the great
us shudder, and on',. imagining it often produces a real  actions of these great men, in his extreme agitation he
pain.  A curious consuquence flows from this principle:  rose from his seat like one possessed.  The feeling of ge.
Milton, lingering amidst the freshness of nature in Eden,  nius in Alfieri was suppressed for more than twenty years,
felt all the delights of those elements with which he was  by the discouragement of his uncle; but as the natural
creating; his nerves moved with the images which excited  temperament cannot be crushed out of the soul of genius,
them.  The fierce and wild Dante amidst the abysses of  he was a poet without writing a single verse; and as a
nis Inferno, must have often been startled by its horrors,  great poet, the ideal presence at times became unagovernand( often left his bitter and gloomy spirit in the stings he  able and verging to madness.  In traversing the wilds of
itnflicted on the great criminal.  The moving nerves then  Arragon, his emotions, he says, would certainly have given
of the man of genius are a reality; he sees, he hears, he  birth to poetry, could he have expressed himself in verse.
feels by each.  How mysterious to us is the operation of  It was a complete state of the imaginative existence, or
this faculty: a HUmer and a Richardson,* like Nature,  this ideal presence; fbr he proceeded along the wilds of
onen a volume large as life itself-embracing a circuit of  Arragon in a reverie, weeping and laughing by turns. He
human existence!                                           considered this as a folly, because it ended in nothing but
Can we doubt of the reality of this faculty, when the  in laughter and tears.  He was not aware that he was
visible and outward frame of the man of genius bears wit-  then yielding to a demonstration, could hlie have judged of
ness to its presence? When Fielding said,' I do not doubt  himself, that he possessed those dispositions of mind and
but the most pathetic and affecting scenes have been writ  energy of passion which form the poetical character.
with tears,' he probably drew that dliscovery from an inverse  Genius creates by a single conception; the statuary
feeling to his own. Fielding would have been eratified to  conceives the statue at once,which he afterwards executes
have confirmed the observation by facts which never reach-  by the slow process of art; and the architect contrives a
ed him. Metastasio, in writing lie ninth scene of the second whole palace in an instant. In a single principle, opening
act of his Olvmpiad, found himself suddenly moved, shed-  as it were on a sudden to genius, a  reat and new system
ding tears. The imnained sorrows inspired real tears; and   of things is discovered. It has happened, sometimes, that
thee afterwards proved contagious. Had our poet not per-  this single conception rushing over the whole concentr'ated
petuated his surprise by ant interesting sonnet, the circum-  soul of genius, has agitated the frame convulsively; it comes
stance had passed away with the emotion, as many such  like a whispered secret from Nature. When Mallebranche
have.  A!fieri, the most energetic poet of modern times,  first took up Descartes's Treatise on Man, the germ  of
having composed, without a pause, the whole of an act,  his own subsequent philosophic system, such was his innoted in the mnarein-' Written under a paroxysm of en-  tense feeling, that a violent palpitation of the heart, more
thusiasm, and while shedding a flood of tears.'  The im-  than once, obliged himn to lay down the volume.  When
pressions which the frame experiences in this state, leave  the first idea of the Essay on the Arts and Sciences rushed
deeper traces behind them  than those of reverie.  The   on the mind of Rousseau, a feverish symptom  in his nertremors of Drvden. after having written an ode, a circum-  vous system  approached to a slight delirium:  stopping
stance accidentally preserved, were not unusual with him  tinder an oak, he wrote with a pencil the Prosopopeiae of
-for in the preface to his Tales, he tells us, that'in   Fabricius. —' [ still remember my solitary transport at the
translating Homer, he found greater pleasure than in  discovery of a philosophical argument against the doctrine
Virgil; bitt it was~ not a pleasure without pain; the con-  of transubstantiation,' exclaimed Gibbon in his Memoirs.
tinual agitatiou of the spirits must needs be a weakener to  This quick sensibility ofgenius has suppressed the voices
any constitution, especially in age, and many pauses are  of poets in reciting their most pathetic passages.-Thomrequiredt for refreshment betwixt the heats.' We find  son was so oppressed by a passage in Virgil or Milton,
Metastasia, like others of the brotherhood, susceptible of  when he attempted to read, that' his voice sunk in ill-arIi.
this state, complaining of his sufferings during the poetical  culated sounds from the bottom of his breast.' The tretestas.'When I apply with attention, the nerves of my   mulous figure of the ancient Sybil appears to have been
sensorituim are puit int.., a violent tumult; I grow as red as viewed in that land of the Muses, by the energetic descripa drunkard, and am  obliged to qi.iit my work.'  When  tion of Paulus Jovius of the impetus and afflatus of one of
Biffon was absorbedl on a subject which presented great  the Italian improvisatori, some of whomn, I have heard froLkobjections to his opinions, he felt his head burn, and saw   one present at a similar exhibition, have not degenerateo
his countenan,:e flushed; and this was a warning for him  in poetic inspiration, nor in its corporeal excitement.'His
to sue s.-nd his attention.  Gray could never compose vol-  eyes fixed downwards, kindle, as he gives utterance to his
untarily,  his genius resembled the armed apparition in  effusions, the moist drops flow down his cheeks, the veins
Shakspeare's master tragedy. "' He would not be com-  ofhis forehead swell, and wonderfully his learned ears as
manded,' as we are told by Mr Mathias.  When he  it were, abstracted and intent, moderate each impulse o
wvishedl to compose the Installation Ode, for a considerable  his flowing numbers.'*
time he felt himself without the power to begin it: a friend  This enthusiasm  throws the man of genius into those
calling on him, Gray flung open his door hastily, and in a  reveries where, amidst Nature, while others are terrified
hurried voice and tone exclaimning, in the first verse of  at destruction, he can only view Nature herself. The mind
that ode,                                                  of Pliny, to add one more chapter to his mighty scroll,
Hence, avaunt!'tis holy ground' —            sought her amidst the volcano in which he perished. Ver-' ~~~net was on board a ship in the midst of' a ragin~u tempest,
his friend started at the disordered appearance of the bard,  net was on board a ship in the midst o a raging tempest,
and all hope was ~iven up: the astonished captain behela
whose orgasm had disturbed his very air and countenance,  a  al  o          given up:  heatih    cap     be
till he recovered himself. Listen to one labouring, with all  the artist of genius, his pencil in his hand, in calm enththe magic ofthe spell.  Madam Roland has thus poweru   siasm, sketching the terrible world of waters-studying
the magic of the spell. Madam Roland has th s power-  h   aeta   a  iiet  eorhm
fuiv described thin ideal presence in her first readings of  the wave that was rising to devoui' him.
fully described the ideal presence  in her first readinas of    There is a tender'enthusiasm in the elevated studies o
Telemachus and Tasso:-' My respiration rose, I felt a
antiquity, in which the ideal presence or the imaginative
rapid fire colouring my face and my voice changing had
existence is seen prevailing over the mind. It is filnely
* Richardson assembles a family about him, writing down  said by Livy, that  in contemplating antiquity, the mine
what they said, seeing their very manner of saying, living with
them as often andrl as lonr   as he wills-with such a personal    * The passage is curious. —' Caneati defixi exardent ocull
unity, that an ingnious lawyer once told me that he required  sudores manant, fir.ontis ven. contumescunt, et qued mirurn,io stronger evidence of a fact in any court of law than a cir.  est eruditie atires tanqiiutam aliena et intentre onern impetum
cumstantial scene irt Richardson.                          profluentium  numerorum exactissima rations moterantur.




426                         LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
itself becomes antique.'  Amidst the monuments of great  the horrors that I have sometimes felt after passing a long.
and departed nations, our imagination is touched by the   evening in those severe studies.' Go!doni, after a rash
grandeur of l:cal impressions, and the vivid associations   exertion of writing sixteen plays in a year, confessess hIt
of the manners, the arts, and the individuals of a great  paid the penalty of the fully; he flew to Genoa, leading a
people.  M{en of genius have roved amidst the awful  life of delicious vacuity; to pass the day without doing'
ruins till the ideal presence has fondly built up the city  any thing, was all the enjoyment he was now capable of
anew, and have become Ronians in the Rome of two   feeling.  But long after he said,'I felt at that time, and
thousand years past.  Pomrnponius Letus, who devoted his  have ever since continued to feel, the consequence of that
life to this study, was constantly seen wandering amidst  exhaustion of spirits I sustained in composing my sixteen
the vestiges of this' throne of the world:' there, in many   comedies.' Boerhaave has related of himself, that having
a reverie, as his eye rested on the mutilated arch and the  imprudently indulged in intense thought on a particular
broken column, he stopped to muse, and dropt tears in the   subject, he did not close his eves for six weeks after: and
ideal. presence of Rome and of the Romans.  Another  Tissot, in his work on the health of men of letters, abomnds
enthusiast of this class was Bosius, who sought beneath  in similar cases, where a complete stupor has affected the
Rome for another Pome, in those catacombs built by the  unhappy student for a period of six months.
early Christians, for their asylum  and their sepulchres.    Assuredly the finest geniuses could not always withdraw
His work of' Roma Sotteranea' is the production of a  themselves from  that intensely interesting train of ideas,
subterraneous life, passed in fervent and perilous labours.  which we have shown has not been removed from  about
Taking with him a hermit's meal for the week, this new   them by even the violent stimuli of exterior objects; the
Pliny often descended into the bowels of the earth, by lamp-  scenical illusion,-the being of their passion,-the invisilight, clearing away the sand and ruins, till some tomb   ble existences repeatedly endowed by them with a vital
broke forth, or some inscription became legible: accom-  force, have still hung before their eyes.  It was in this
panied by sonie friend whom his enthusiasm  had inspired   state that Petrarch found himself in that minute narrative
with his own sympathy, here he dictated his notes, tracing   of a vision in which Laura appeared to him; and Tasso in
the mouldering sculpture, and catching the fading picture.  the lofty conversations he held with a spirit that glided to.
Thrown back into the primitive ages of Christianity,  wards him on the beams of the sun: and thus, Malle..
amidst the local impressions, the historian orf the Christian   branche  listening to the voice of God within him: or
catacombs collected the memorials of an age and of a  Lord Herbert on his knees, in the stillness of the sky; or
race, which were hidden beneath the earth.                 Paschal starting at times at an abyss opening by his side.
Werner, the mineralogist, celebrated for his lectures, by   Descartes, when young, and in a country seclusion, his
some accounts transmitted by his auditors, appears to have  brain exhausted  with meditation, and his imatination
exercised this faculty. Werner often said that' he always  heated to excess, heard a voice in the air which called him
depended on the muse for inspiration.' His unwritten  to pursue the search of truth; he never doubted the vision;
lecture was a reverie-till kindling in his progress, blend-  and this dream in the delirium of genius charmed him even
ing science arid imagination in the grandeur of his con-  in his after-studies. Our Collins and Cowper were often
ceptions, at times, as if he had gathered about him  the  thrown into that extraordinary state of mind, when the
very elements of Nature, his spirit seemed to be hovering  ideal presence converted them  into visionaries; and their
over the waters and the strata.                            illusions were as strong as Swedenburgh's, who saw heaven
It is this enthusiasm which inconceivably fills the mind  on earth in the giittering streets of his New Jerusalem, and
of genius in all great and solemn operations: it is an agi-  Cardan's, when he so carefully observed a numnber of little
tation in calmness, and is required not only in the fine arts,  armed men at his feet; and Benvenuto Cellini, whose
but wherever a great and continued exertion of the soul  vivid imagination and glorious egotism so frequently conmust be employed. It was experienced by De Thou, the  templated'a resplendent light hovering over his shadow.'
historian, when after his morning prayers he always added    Yet what less than enthusiasm is the purchase price of
another to implore the Divinity to purifv his heart from   high passion and invention?  Perhaps never has there
partiality and hatred, and to open his spirit in developing  been a man of genius of this rare cast, who has not bethe truth, amidst the contending factions of his times; and  trayed early in youth the ebullitions of the imagination in
by Haydn, when employed in his' Creation,' earnestly  some outward action at that period, when the illusions of
addressing the Creator ere he struck his instrument.  In  life are more real to them  than its realities.  A slieht demoments like these, man becomes a perfect unity-one  rangement of our accustomed habits, a little perturbation
thought and one act. abstracted from all other thoughts and  of the faculties, and a romantic tinge on the feelings, give
a! other acts.  It was felt by Gray in his loftiest excur-  no indifferent promise of genius; of that generous temper
sions, and is perhaps the same power which impels the  which knows nothing of the baseness of mankind. unsatisvillager, when, to overcome his rivals in a contest for leap-  fled, and raging with a devouring eagerness for the aliment
ing, he retires back some steps, collects all exertion into  it has not yet found; to perfect some gloriotus design, to
his mind, and clears the eventful bound. One of our Ad-  charm  the world, or make it happier.  Often we hear
mirals in the reign of Elizabeth, held as a maxim, that a  from  the confessions of men of genius, of their having inheight of passion, amountinig to phrenzy, was necessary   dulged in the puerile state the most noble, the most
to qualify a mani for that place; and N`lson, decorated by  delightful, the  most impossible  projects; and  if age
all his honouirs about him, on the day of oa tle, at the sight  ridicules the imaginative existence of its youth, be asof those emblems of glory emulated himself.  Thus enthu-  sured that it is the decline of its genius.  That virtuous
siasm was necessary anid effective for his genius..       and tender enthusiast, Fenelon, in his early youth, mrouThis enthusiasm, prolonged as it often has been by the  bled his friends with a classical and religious reverie. He
operation of the imaginative existence becomes a state of  was on the point of quitting them to restore the independ.
perturbed feelinz, and can only be distinguished from a dis-  ence of Greece. in the character of a missionary, and to
ordered intellect by the power of volition, in a sound mind,  collect the relies of antiquity with the taste of a classical
of withdrawing from  the ideal world into the world of  antiquary.  The Peloponnesus opened to him the Church
sense.  It is but a step which carries us from the wander-  of Corinth, where St Paul preached, the Pirmus where
-inas of fancy into the aberrations of delirium.           Socrates conversed; while the latent poet was to pluck
With curious art the brain too finely wrought          laurels from Delphos, and rove amidst the amenities o:
Preys on herself, and is destroyed by thought;        Tempe.  Such was the influence of the ideal presence!
Constant attention wears the active mind,             and barren will be his imagination, and luckless his forBlots out her powers, and leaves a blank behind-      tune, who, claiming the honours of genius, has never been
The greatest genius to this fate may bow.'            touched by such a temporary delirium.
Churchill.      To this enthusiasm, and to this alone, can we attribute
There may be an agony in thought which only deep  the self-immolation of men of genius.  Mighty and labothinkers experience.  The terrible effects of metaphysical  rious works have been pursued, as a forlorn hole, at the
studies on Beattie, has been told by hiusself. —' Since the  certain destruiction of the fortune of the individual.  The
Essay on Truth was printed in quarto, I have never dared  fate of Castell's Lexicon,* of Bloch's magnificent work on
to read it over. I durst not even read the sheets to see
whether there were any (errors in the print, and was         r Castel lost 120001. by this greatwork; and gave away
obliged to get a friend to do that office for me.  These  copies, while the rest rotted at home. He exhibits a murions
tudies caine in time to have dreadfrol effects upon my ncr-  picture of literary labour in his preface-' As for    roself, 1
st,,~~~~~udies                             ~~~~huvp been unceasingly oceupiet  for steb a number  f years
yoes sys em; and I cannot read what I then wrote with-  in this mass-Molendino he calls theme-that (sy seemed as
out some degree of horor, because it recalls to my mind  it were a Loliday in which I have not laboured so much as




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                        427
Fishes, and o'her great and similar labours, attest the en-  new rapture.  These are tht marks of him who labours
thusiasm which accompanied their progress.  They have  for true glory and posterity; buhl if he seek only to please
sealed their works with their blood: they have silently  the taste of his age, his works will not kindle the desires
borne the panes of disease; they have barred themselves  nor touch the hearts of those who love the arts and the
from the pursuits of fortune; they have torn themselves  artists.'
away from all they loved in life, patiently suffering these    Unaccompanied by enthusiasm, genius will produce
self-denials, to escape from those interruptions and impedi-  nothing but uninteresting works of art; not a work of art,
ments to their studies. Martyrs of literature and art, they  reseml~ling the dove of Archidas, which other artists bebehold in their solitude that halo of immortality over their  held flying, but could not make another dove to meet it in
studious heads, which is a reality to the visionary of glory.  the air.  Enthusiasm is the secret spirit which hovers over
Milton would not desist from proceeding with one of his  the production of genius throwing the reader of a book, or
works, although warned by the physician of the certain loss  the spectator of a statue, into the very ideal presence
of his sight; he declared he preferred his duty to his eyes,  whence these works have really originated. A great work
and doubtless his fame to his comfort. Anthony Wood,  always leaves us in a state of musing.
to preserve the lives of others, voluntarily resigned his own
to cloistered studies; nor did the literary passion desert                 CHAPTER  IX.
him in his last moments, when with his dying hands he
still grasped his beloved papers, and his last mortal thoughts           LITERARY JEALOUSY.
dwelt on his Athencs  Oxonienses.*  Moreri, the founder    Jealousy, long declared to be the offspring of little
of our great biographical collections, conceived the design  minds, is not, however. restricted to them; it fiercely rages
with such enthusiasm, and found such voluptuousness in  in the literary republic, among the Senate and the Order
the laboulr, that. he willingly withdrew from the popular ce-  of Knights, as well as the people. In that curious selflebrity he had acquired as a preacher, and the preferment  description which Linnmaus comprised in a single page,
which a minister of state, in whose house he resided, would  written with the precision of a naturalist, that great man
have opened to his views. After the first edition of his  discovered that his constitution was liable to be afflicted
Historical Dictionarv, he had nothing so much at heart as  with jealousy. Literary jealousy seems often proportionits improvement.  His unyielding application was convert-  ed to the degree of genius; the shadowy and equivocal
ing labour into death; butt collecting his last renovated vi.  claims of literary honour is the real cause of this terrible
gour, with his dying hands he gave the volume to the world,  fear; in cases where the object is more palpable arid dethough he did not live to witness even its publication.  All  finite, and the pre-eminence is more universal, than intelobjects in life appeared mean to him compared with that  lectual excellence can be, jealousy will not so strongly afexalted delight of addressing to the literary men of his age,  fect the claimant for our admiration.  The most beautiful,he history of their brothers.  The same enthusiasm con-  woman, in the age of beauty, will be rarely jealous: selsumes the oilpils of art devoured by their own ardour. The  dom she encounters a rival; and while her claims exist,
young and classical sculptor, who raised the statue of  who can contend with a fine feature or a dissolving glance?
Charles IT placed in the centre of the Roval Exchange,  But a man of genius has no other existence than in the
was in the midst of his work, advised by his medical friends  opinion of the world; a divided empire would obscure him,
to desist from  marble; for the energy of his labour, with  a contested one might annihilate him.
the strong excitement of his feelings, already had made    The lives of authors and artists exhibit a most painful
fatal inroads in his constitution.  Btit he was willing, he  disease in that jealousy which is the perpetual fever of
said to die at the foot of his statue. The statue was raised,  their existence.  Why does Plato never mention Zeno.
and the voutin  scuJlotor, with the shining eves and hec-  phon, and why does Zenophon inveigh  against Plato, stutic blush of consumption, beheld it there-returned home-  diously collecting every little report which may detract
and shortlyv was no rore.  Drouais, a pupil of David, the  from his fame?  They wrote on the same subject! Why
French painter, swas a youth of fortune, but the solitary  did Corneille, tottering on the grave, when Racine conpleasure of his youth was his devotion to Raphael; he was at  stilted him on his first tragedy, advise the author never to
his studies at four in the morning till night;' Painting or  write another?  Why does Voltaire contintally detract
Nothing!' was the cry of this enthusiast of elegance; from the sublimity of Corneille, the sweetness of Racine,'First fame, then amstement,' was another.  His sensi-  and the fire of Crebillon?  Wchy, when Boccaccio sent
bility was as great as his enthulsiasm: and he cut in pieces  to Petrarch a copy of Dante, declaring that the work was
the nictttre for which David declared he wotild inevitably  like a first light which had illuminated his mind, did Peobtain the prize.' I have had my reward in votir anpro-  trarch coldly observe that he had not been anxious to inbation; btit next year I shall feel more certain of deserving  quire after it, having intended to compose in the vernacuit. was the reply ofthe vnrn enthusiast.  Afterwards he  lar idiom arnd not wishing to be considered as a plagiary;
astonished Paris with his Marius-bilt while enaged on a  while he only allows Dante's superiority from having writ.
subject which he could never quit, the principle of lifib it-  ten in the vulgar idiom, which he did not think was an enself was drying up in his veins.  Henry Headly and Kirke  viable, but an inferior merit.  Thus frigidly Petrarch took
White were the early victims of the enthusiasm of study   the altitude of the solitary 2Etna before him, in the' Inand are mourned for ever by the few  who are organised  ferno,' while he shrunk into himself with the painful conlike themselves.                                         sciousness of the existence of another poet, who obscured
l4 Ti as thins own genitus ave the fatal blow,      his own solitary majesty. Why is Waller silent on the
And helped to plant the sotind that laid thee low  merits of Cowley, and why does he not give one verse to
dSo the strttck eagle, stretched upon the plain te l return the praise with which Dryden honoured him, while
So rthe. striik eagle, stretched upon tsre plain    he is warm  in panegyric on Beaumont and Fletcher, on
No more thisrotto  rollinhclor ds to soar again,    Sandy~, Ware, and D'Avenant?  Because of some of
Viewved his own feathaer ni the fatal dart,         these their species of composition was different from his
And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart     own, and the rest he could not fear
Keen tvere his tangos, bitt keener far to feel      own, and the rest he could not fear.
eenursed theis nans, hit kener farl to feelt           The moral feeling has often been found too weak to
Ho nmiro.ed the nini<)n wtvic(h impelled the cteel,
temper the malignancy of literary jealousy, and has led
While the samte plmage tli at had warmed his nest,   some men of genius to an incredible excess. A memoraDrank the last lir-edrot, of his bleeding breast.'
DEnnlish  Banrds and Scotch Revieaters b.le and recent example offers in the history of the two
Thus comes the Shadoiv of dBeath among those Rvio are  brothers, Dr William, and John Hunter both great chaeisthlust wibh moree th an life ahott them. Yet s there is    racters, fitted to be rivals, but Nature, it was imagined,
cler'tv f)rith artist,' said Gesner I if them love of his on  in the tenderness of blood had placed a bar to rivalry.
heart does not beearomt,'e a vehement passion  if the his own  John without any determined pursuit in his youth, was
he emlos to itetivaleit air ave not lfor him the nusost delicio    received by his brother at the height of his celebrity; the
he emnlos to crtitivato it are not for him the most deli'imus
nes of  mes not his troctor initiated him into his school; they performed their
andes ohis ftso ho; ifnstv   hcomety not his true existence  experiments together; and William  Hunter was the first
is   t haf even in the ni to announce to the world the great g enius of his brother;
tis not hit as of hiq oet leaes him;not   his vigils or his  Atter this close connection in all their studies and disco.
dreams; if in the ta ofnirht   he fl ou    his i oh    v ies  Dr William  Hunter publishedo his ork wagnificent
work-the proud favourite of his heart, the assertor of his
ixtceen or eighteen hetirs is these enlarging Lexicons and  fame. Was it credible that the genius of the celebrated
Polvgot Bibles.' B!orh ex-pended all his fortune iii his splen   anatomist, which had been nursed under the wing of his
* See Calamities ef Authors, Vol. I, p. 24.              other should turn on that wing to clip it  John Hu




428                          LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
ter put in his claim to the chief discovery; it was answer-  of their pursuits, and the little klnowledge the men of wit
ed by his brother.,The Royal Society, to whom they ap-  anti imagination have of these persons, who live in a socipealed, conceale4 the documents of this unnatural feud.  etv of their own.  On this subject a very curious circumThe blow was tlIt, and the jealousy of literary honour  stance has been revealed of Peiresc, whose enthusiasm for
for ever separated the brothers, and tihe brothers of ge-  science was long felt throughout Europe; Ihis name was
nius.*                                                     known in every country, and his death was lamented in
In the jealousy of genius, however, there is a peculiar  forty languages; yet was this great mnian unknown to secase, where he fever rages not in its malignancy, yet sr-  veral men of genius in his own country; Rochefoucault
lerrly consumes.  Even the man of genius of the gen-  declared he had never heard of his name, and.. Malherbe
tlest temper dies under its slow wastings; and this infection   wondered why his death  created so universal a senmay happen among dear friends, when a man of genius  sation.  Thus we see the classes of literature, like
loses that self-opinion which aninmated his soitarv labours  the planets of Heaven, revolving like distinct worlds; and
and constituted his happiness-when he views himself at  it would not be less absurd for the inhabitants of Venus to
the height of his class, suddenly eclipsed by another great  treat with contempt the powers and faculties of those ol
genius.  It is then the morbid sensibility, acrin  on so  Jupiter, than it is for the meni of wit and imagination,
delicate a frame, feels as if under the old witchcraft of  those of the men of knowledge and curiosity.  They are
tying the knot on the nuptial day, —the faculties are sud-  incapable of exerting the peculiar qualities which give a
denly extinct by the very imagination.  This is the jea-  real value to these pursuits, and therefore they must relousy not of hatred, but of despair.  A curious case of  main ignorant of their nature and their result.
this kind appears in thIe anecdote of the Spanish artist    It is not then always envy or jealousy which induce
Castillo, a man distinguished by every amiable disposi-  men of genius to undervalue each other; the want of
tion; he was the great painter of Seville. When some  sympathy will sufficiently account for their false judgments.
of Morillo's paintings were shown to him, who seems to  Suppose Newton, Quinault, and Machiavel, accidentally
have been his nephew, he stood in meek astonishment be-  meeting together, unknown to each other, would they not
fore them, and when he recovered his voice, turning away,  soon have desisted from  the vain attempt. of communihe exclaimed with a sigh, Ya murio Castillo!  Castillo is  eating their ideas?  The philosopher had condemned the
no more! Returning home the stricken genius relinquish-  poet of the Graces as an intolerable trifler, and the author
ad his pencil, and pined away in hopelessness.             of the' The Prince' as a dark political spy.  Machiavel
had conceived Newton to be a dreamer aniong the stars,
CHAPTER  X.                            and a mere almanack-maker among men; and the other
WANT OF MUTUAL ESTEEM             a rhimer, nauseously doucereuz.  Quinault might have
WVANT OF MUTU_4  ESTEE3/Iovin
imagined he was seated between two madmen. Having
Among men of genius that want of mutual esteem, usu-  annoyed each other for some time, they would have relievally attributed to envy or jealousy, often originates in a  ed their ennui by reciprocal contempt, and each have partdeficiency of analogous ideas, or sympathy, in the parties.  ed with adetermination to avoid hereafter two disagreeOn this principle several curious phenomena in the history  able companions.*
of genius may be explained.
Every man of genius has a manner of his own; a mode
of thinking and a habit of style; and usually decides on a                    CHAPTER  XI.
work as it approximates or varies from his own. When                            SELF-PRAISE.
one great author depreciates another it has often no worse   Vanity, egotism, a strong sense of their own sufliciecy,
source than his own taste.  The witty Cowey despised                  eo 
the natu'l Chaucer; the cold classical Boileau the rough  form  another accusation against men of genius; but the
the nalt-val Chaucer; the cold classical Boileau the ro~ugh
sublimity of Crebillon; the refining  arivaux  the familiar  complexion of self-praise must alter with the occasion; for
sublimity of Crebillon; the refining Marivaux the familiarthsipctyotrhmaapervnyndheothe simplicity  of truth may appear vanity, and the conMoliere.  Fielding ridiculed Richardson, whose mannersed
sciousness of superiority seem  envy —to Mediocrity.  It
so strongly contrasted with his own; and Richardson con-   s  e who do nohn, who canot even imagine any ting
*remned,?ielding and declared he would not last. Cum-    i....
temneFielding a dcr hwuto be done, who are so mrich displeased with self-lauding,
berland escaped a fit of rinforgiveness, not living to read
his ond echaater  by Bh    Watoeson, wos  logicral  self-love, self-independence, self-admiration, which with
his own  character by Bishol, Watson, whose louical  the men of genius are nothing but a modification of the
head tried the lighter elegancies of that polished man by
passion of glory.
his own nervous genius, destitute of whatever was beau- passion of glory.
He who exults in himself is at least in earnest; but he
tiful in taste. There was no envy in the breast of Johnwho refuses to receive that praise in public for which he
son when he advised Mrs Thrale not to purchase Gray's  has devoted so much  labour in his privacy, is not: he is
Letters as trifling and dull, no more than in Gray himself
when he sunk the poetical character of Shenstone, his  compelled to suppress the very instinct of his nature; for
while we censure no man for loving fame, but only for
simplicity and purity of feeling, by an image of ludicrous  showing us how much he is possessed by the passion, we
in hes me  luicrus showing us how much be is possessed by the passion, we
ca;,c:e-mpt. The deficient sympathy in these men of genius,
cear:etunpt.  The deficient sympathy in these m   of genius,   allow him to create the appetite, but we deny him the alifor modes of feeling opposite to their own, was the real   ment.  Our effeminate  minds are the willine   dupes of
ment. Our effeminate minds are the willing dupes of
cause of their opinions; and thus it happens that even su-  what is called the modesty of eniu, or, as it has been
perior genius is so often liable to be unjust and false in its  t e   te    hedese  of   en    tms i  an
decisions.                                                 termed,'the polished  reserve of modern times;' and this
from the selfish principle that it serves at least to keep out
The same principle operates still more strikingly in the  of the company its painful pre-eninence.  But this' poremarkable contempt of men of genius for those pursuits  lished reserve, like somethin   as fshionable, the ladies
itshed reserve"' like something as fashionable, the ladies'
and the pursuers, which require talents quite distinct from                                  I
their own, with a cast of mind thrown by nature into  rouge, at first appearing with rather too much colour, will in
the heat of an evenin% be dyin  away till the true complexanother mould. Hence we must not be surprised at the  ion comes oute  We know  w            ati the numerous subterfuges
antipathies of Selden and Locke, of Longerue and Buffon,  of these modest men of enius, to  extort that praise fom
and this class of genius, against poetry and poets: while
their private circle which is thus openly denied them.
on the other side, these undervalue the pursuits of the an-   their private circle which is thus  penly denied them.
tiquary, the natuiralist, and the metaphysician, by their  Have they not been taken by  rprise,  enlarin  their
wn  favorite corse of imaginatin.    e can onlyun-  own panegyric, which might rival Pliny's on Trajan, for
own faycurite course of imagination. We can only un-                                1
care and copiousness'! or impudently veiling tieir naked
derstand in the degree we comprehend; and in both these    ean   iose             r iu tl  ein t r ne
cases the parties will be found quite deficient in those  beauty with the transparency of a third person? or never
qualities of genis whichb constitute the excellence of the  prefixing their name to the volume, which they would not
qualities or' getnius which constitute the excellence of the
t,                                ~~~~~~~~~~~easily forgive a friend to pass unnoticed.
other. A professor of polite literature condemned the easily forgive a friend to pass unnoticed.
The love of praise is instinctive in the nature of men of
study of botany, as adapted to mediocrity of talent and      The love of praise is instinctive in the nature of men of
genius.  Their praise is the foot on which the past rests,
only demanding patrince; but Linnmus  showed how a  9
and the wheel on which'the ftlture rolls. The generous
man of genius beconmes a creator even in a science which
seems to depetid only on order and method. It will not be  qualities and the virtues of a man of genius are really proa qrestion wth some  hehe  a man must be endowed  duced by the applause conferred on him.  To him whom
a question with some whether a man must be endowed                I
wit the energy and aptitude of genius, to excel in  the world admires, the happiness of the world must be
uaianism, in.'natrahitory, &c. ands th  texe pro  d't.   dear, said Madame De Stael.  Like the North American
quarianism, in natural historv, &c.; and that the prejudihonors Indian, (obr the savage and the man of genius preserve
tes  aise  a~ain-t th  clims if sch o th    honursthe genuine feelings of Nature,) he would listen to his owv
of genius have probably arisen from the secluded nature  the genuine feelings of Nature,) he would listen to his o
r e Dr Adam's interesting life of Mr Johb  Hunter.                   * See Helvetus, De l'Esprit.




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                           429
name, when amidst his circle they chaunt their gods and i    To be admired, is the nible simplicity of the Anciento
their heroes.  The honest savages laud the worthies  in expressing with ardour the consciousness of genius, and
among themselves, as well as their departed; and when   openly claiming that praise by which it was nourished.
an auditor hears his own name, he answers by a cry of  The ancients were not infected by our spurious effeminate
pleasure and of pride.  But pleasure and pride must raise   modesty.  Socrates, on the day of his trial, firmily come
no emotion in the breast of genius, amidst a polished cir-  mended himself: he told the various benefits he had con.
cle: to bring himself down to them, he must start at a  ferred on his country.'Instead of condemning me for
compliment, and turn away even from one of his own vo-  imaginary crimes, you would do better, considering my
taries.                                                    poverty, to order me to he maintained out of the public
But this, it seems, is not always the case with men of  treasury.' Epicurus, writing to a minister of state, degenius, since the accusation we are noticing has been so  clares —' If you desire glory, nothing can bestow it nors
often reiterated.  Take from  some that supreme opinion  than the letters I write to you:' and Seneca, in quoting
of themselves, that pride of exultation, and you crush the  these words, adds-' What Epicurus promised to his
germ  of their excellence.  Many vast designs must have  friend, that, my Lucilius, I promise you.  Orna me! was
perished in the conception, had not their authors breathed  the constant cry of Cicero; and lie desires the historian
this vital air of self-delight, this energy of vanity, so ope-  Lucceius to write separately the conspiracy of Cataline,
rative in great undertakings.  We have recently seen this  and publish quickly, that while he yet lived, he might taste
principle in the literary character unfold itself in the life  of the sweetness of his glory.  Horace and Ovid were
of the late Bishop of Landaff: whatever he did, he felt it  equally sensible to their immortality: but what modern
was done as a master; whatever he wrote, it was as he  poet would be tolerated with such alt avowal? Yet Dryonce declared, the best work on the subject yet written.  den honestly declares that it was better for him to own this
It was this feeling with which he emulated Cicero in re-  failing of vanity, than the world to do it for him; and adds,
tirement or in action.' When I am dead, you will not'For what other reason have I slpent my life in so unprosoon meet with another John Hunter,' said the great  fitable a study? Why am I grown old in seeking so barren
anatomist, to one of his garrulous friends.. An apology is  a reward as fame? The same parts and application which
formed for relating the fact, but the weakness is only in the  have niade me a poet, might have raised me to any honoura
apology.  Corneille has given a very noble full-length of  of the gown.' Was not Cervantes very sensible to his
the sublime egotism which accompanied him through life:*   own merits, when a rival started up; and did he not asand I doubt if we had any such author in the present day,  sert them too, when passing sentence on the bad books of
whether he would dare to be so just to himself, and so  the times, he distinguishes his own work by a handsome
hardy to the public.  The self-praise of Buffon at least  compliment?  Nor was Butler less proud of his ow,
equalled his genius; and the  inscription beneath his  merits; for he has done ample justice to his Hudibras,
statue in the library of the Jardin des Plantes, which I  and traced out, with great self:-delieht, its variety otf ex-.
was told was raised to him  in his life time, exceeds all pa-  cellences.  Richardson, the novelist, exhibits one of the
negyrics;-it places him alone in Nature, as the first and  most striking instances of what is called literary vanitythe last interpreter of her works. He said of the great ge-  the delight of an author in his works; he has pointed out
nuises of modern  inies, that there were not more than   all the beauties of his three great works, in various manfive,-' Newton, Bacon, Lelbnitz, Montesquieu, and My-  iners.*  He always taxed a visiter by one of his long letself.' It was in this spirit that he conceived and termi-  ters.  It was this intense self-delight, which produced his
nated his great works, that he sat in patient meditation at  voluminous labours.
his desk for half a century, and that all Europe, even in a  There are certain authors whose very existence seems
state of war, bowed to the modern Pliny.                   to require a high conception of their own talents; ann who
Nor is the vanity of Buffon, and Voltaire, and Rosseau   must, as some animals appear to do, furnish the means of
so purely national as some will suppose; for men of ge-  life out of their own substance.  These men of genius
nius in all ages have expressed a consciousness of the in-  open their career with peculiar tastes, or with a predilecternal force of tenius.  No one felt this self-exultation  tion for some great work; in a word, with many unpopui.
more potent than our Hobbes, who has indeed, in his con-  lar dispositions.  Yet we see them  magnanimots, though
tfoversy with Wallis, asserted that there may be nothing  defeated, proceeding with the public feeli ng against them.
more just than self-commendation;* and De Thou, one of  At length we view them ranking with their'rivals.  Withthe most noble-minded, the most thinking, the most impar-  out having yielded up their peculiar tastes or their incorritil of historians, in the Memoirs of his own life, composed  gible viciousness, they have, however, heightened their
in the third person, has surprised and somewhat puzzled  individual excellences.  No human opinion can change
the critics, by that frequent distribution of self-commends-  their self opinion; alive to the consciousness of their
tion which they knew not how to accord with the modesty  powers, their pursuits are placed above impediment, and
and gravity with which he was so amply endowed. Afte'  their great views can suffer no contraction.  These men
his great and solemn la);-usr, amidst the injustice of his per-  of genius bear a charmed mail on their b.east;'hopeless,
secutors, that great man had sufficient experience of his  not heartless,' may be often the motto of their ensign;
own merits to assert them. Kepler, amidst his great dis-  and if they do not always possess reputation, they still
coveries, looks down like a superior being on other men.  look for fame; for these do not necessarily accompany
Thus he breaks forth in glory and egotism' I dare insult  each other.
mankind by confessing that I am  he who has turned           Acknowledge, too, that an author must be more sensiscience to advantage.  If I am pardoned, 1 shall rejoice;  ble to his real merits, while he is unquestionably much less
if blamed, I shall endure it. The die is cast; I have  to his defects, than most of his readers; the author not
written this book, and whether it be read by posterity or  only comprehends his merits better, because they have
by my contemporaries, is of no consequence; it may well  passed through a long process in his mind, but he is fawait for a reader during one century, when God himself  miliar with every part, while the reader has had but a
during six thousand years has waited for an observer like  vague notion of the whole. Why does the excellent work,
myself.' He predicts that'his discoveries would be veri-  by repetition, rise in interest? because in obtaining this
fled in succeeding ages,' yet were Kepler now among us  gradual intimacy with an author, we appear to recover
in familiar society, we should be invited to inspect a mon-  half the genius we bad lost on a first perusal.  The work
ster of inordinate vanity.  But it was this solitary majes-  of genius too is associated, in the mird of the author, with
ty; this lofty conception of their genius, which hovered  much more than it contains.  Why are great men often
over the sleepless pillow, and charmied the solitude, of Ba-  found greater than the books they write? Ask the man of
con, of Newton, and of Montesquieu; of Ben Jonson, of  genius, if he has written all he wished he could have writMilton, and Corneille; and of Michael Angelo.  Such  ten? Has he satisfied himself, in this work for which you.
men of genius anticipate their contemporaries, and know   accuse his pride? The true supplement has not always
they are creators, long before the tardy consent ofthe public;  accompanied the work itself.  The mind of the reader has'They see the laurel which entwines their bust,  the limits of a mere recipient, while that of the author,
They mark the romp which conwecrates  their dust,      even after his work, is teeming with creation.'On many
They mark the pomp which consecrates their dust,
Shake off the dimness which obscures them now,         occasions, my soul seems to know more than it can say,
And feel the future glory bind their brow.'  and to be endowed with a mind by itself, far superior to
And feel the fu~ture glory bind their brow?'
Smedley's Prescience.  the mind I really have,' said Marivaux, with equal truth
and happiness.
"See it vetsified in Curiosities of Literature.     * I have observed them  in Curiosities of Literature, First
t See Quarrels of Authors, Vol. III, p. 113.      Series




4-30                        LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
With these explanations of what are called the vanity  breeds its own disease. How are we to describe sim,.
and egotism of' genlus, be it remembered, that the sense  toms which come from one source, but show themselves m
of their own sufficiency is assumed at their own risk; the  all forms?  It is now an intermittent fever, now a silent
grea' man who thinks greatly of himself, is not diminishing  delirium, all hysterical affection, and now a horrid hypothat greatness, in heaping fuel on his fire. With his tin-  chondriasm.  Have we no other opiate to still the agorly,
lucky brethren, such a feeling may end in the aberrations  no other cordial to send its warmth to the 5eart, than Plaof harmless mradness:  as it happened with Percival Stock-  to's reason?  Must men of genius, who so rarely pass
dale. He, who after a parallel between himself' and  through this slow curative method, remain with all their
Charles XII, of Sweden, concludes that' some parts will  tortured and torturing passions about them, often self-disbe to his advantage,- and some to mine,' but in regard to  gusted, self-humiliated?  The enmities of'genius are ofter.
fame, —the main object between Stockdale and Charles  connected with their morbid imagination; these originate
XII.-Percival imagined that' his own will not probably  in casual slights, or in unguarded expressions, or in hasty
take its fixed and immoveable station, and shine with its  opinions, or in a witty derision, or even in the obtruding
expanded and permanent splendour till it consecrates his  goodness of tender admonition-The manr of aenius broods
ashes, till it illumines his tomb.' After this, the reader,  over the phantom that darkens his feelings, and sharpens
who may never have heard of the name of Percival Stock-  his vindictive fangs, in a libel, called his memoirs, or in
dale, must be told, that there exist his own' Memoirs of  another public way, called a criticism.  We are told that
his Life and Writings.'*  The Memoirs of a scribbler are  Comines the historian, when residing at the court of the
instructive to literary men; to correct, and to be corrected,  Count; de Charolois afterwards Duke of' Burgundy, one day
should be their daily practice, that they may be taught not  returninig from hunting, with inconsiderate jocularity sat
only to exult in themselves, but to fear themselves.    down before the Count, ordering tihe Prince to pull off his
It is hard to refuse these men of genius that aura vitalis,  boots; the Count would not affect greatness, and having
of which they are so apt to be liberal to others. Are they  executed his commission, in return for the princely amusenot accused of the meanest adulations?  When a young  ment, the Count dashed the boot on Conmines's nose, which
writer finds the notice of a person of some eminence, he  bled; and from that time, he was mortified at the Count of
has expressed himself in language which transcended that  Burgundy, by tetaining the nick-name of' the booted head.
of mortality; a finer reason than reason itself, inspired it;  The' blow rankled in the heart of the man of genius, and
the sensation has been expressed with all its fullness, by  the Duke of Burgundy has come down to tis in his meMilton,                                                 moirs, biackened by his vengeance.  Many, unknown to
The debt immense of endless gratitude.'       their readers, like Comines, have had a booted head, but
the secret poison is distilled on their lasting page. I have
Who ever pays an' immense debt,' in small sums? Every  e                                      h
man of genius has left such honourable traces of his pri-   se      fully written a tale of literary hatred, where is
vate affections,-froml Locke, whose dedication of his great  seen   mn or the genius evoting w hich h e  l  in harrassin
work is more adulative than could be imagined, from a  the in         the gerius which he himself could not attemperate philosopher to Churchill, whose warm  eulogiums on his friends so beautifully contrast with the dark  Revolution, among   its illustrations of the worst human
an  eilpason  o hssai       nadvanced age,  passions  exhibits one, in Collot d'Herbois;  when this
awretch was tossed up in the storm, to the summit of power,
the man of genius dwells on the nutritious praise he caught
il his south from veteran genius  that seed sinks deep  a monstrous imagination seized him; he projected raising
into a genial sail, roots there, and, like the aloe, will flower  the city of Lyocns, and massa trino its inhabitants. He had
at the end of life.  WhnViglweven the heart to commence, and to continue this consplWhen Virgil was yet a youth, Cicero  racy against human nature;  the ostensible motive was
heard one of his eclogues, and exclaimed with his accusroyalism, but the secret one was literary vengeance! as
rtomed warmthMana spes altera Romae!   wretched a poet and actor as a man, he had been hissed
Magna apes altersi Romte              off the theatre in Lyons, anrd his dark remorseless genius'The second great hope of Rome;' intending by the first  resolved to repay that ignominy, by the blood of its citleither himself or Lucretius.  The words of Cicero were  zens and the very walls of the city. Is there but one Colthe secret honey onr which the imagination of Virgil fed  lot d'Herbois in the universe?  When the imagination of
for many a year, for in one of his latest productions, the  genius becomes its madness, even the worst of human betwelfth book of' the.iEneid, lie applies these very words  ings is only a genus.
to Ascanius; the voice of Cicero had hung forever in his
ear.
CHAPTER XII.
Such then, is the extreme susceptibility of praise in men
of genius, and not less their exuberant sensibility to cen-        THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF GENIUS.
sure; I have elsewhere shown how some have died of    When the temper and the leisure of the literary characcriticism. The AbbdCassagne felt so acutely the severity  ter are alike broken, even his best works, the too faithfll
of Boileau, that in the prime of life he fell melancholy, and  mirrors of his state of mind, will participate of its inequalidied Irastle. I am informed that the poet, Scott of Am-  ties; and surely the incubations of genius in its delicate
well, could never recover from a ludicrous criticism, writ-  and shadowy combinations, are not less sensible in their
ten by a physician, who never pretended to poetical taste.  operation than the composition of sonorous bodies, where,
Some, like Racine, have died of a simple rebuke, and  while the warm metal is settling in the mould, even an unusome have found an epigram, as one who fell a victim to  sual vibration of the air, during the moment of fusion, will
one, said,'fasten on their hearts, and have been thrown  injure the tone.
into a slow fever.' Pope has been seen writhing in an-    Some of the conspicuous blemishes of several great
guish on his chair; and it is told of Montesquieu, that  compositions may be attributed to the domestic infelicities
notwithstanding the greatness of his character, he was. so  of their authors.  The desultory life of Camoens is imar
much affected by the perpetual criticisms on his work on  gined to be perceptible in the deficient connection of his
Laws, that they hastened his death. The morbid feelings  epic; and Milton's peculiar situation and divided family
of Hawkesworth closed in suicide. The self-love in genius  prevented those passages from being erased, which otheris, perhaps, much more delicate than gross.             wise had not escaped from his revis;:-g hand-he felt himBut alas, their vengeance as quickly kindled lasts as  self In the situation of his Sampsor Agonistes, whom he
lona! Genius is a dangerous gift of nature; with a keener  so pathetically describes, as
relish for enjoyment, and with passions more effervescent,'His fees' derision, captive, poor and blind.'
the same material forms a Cataline, and a Cromwell, or a
Cicero and a Bacon. Plato, in his visionary man of ge     Cervantes, through precipitate publication, fell into those
nius, lays great stress on his possessing the most vehe-  slips of memoryobservable in hissatirical romance.  The
ment passions, while he adds reason to restrain them. But  careless rapid lines of Dryden are justly attributed to hil
It is imagination which torments even their inflafmmable  distress, and he indeed pleads for his inequalities from hii
senses; give to the same vehement passion a different di-  domestic circumstances.  Johnson silently, but eagerly
ectin, and it is glory or infamy          often corrected the Ramblers in their successive editions
reftion, and it is glory or infamy.
of which so many had been despatched in haste.  The
uVoltaire.s  learned Greaves offered some excuses for his errors in
his edition of Abulfeda, from' his being five years encum.
The imagination of genius is the breath of its life, which  berediti law-suits and diverto d from his studies' Whenc
i  * I have sketched a character of Percival Stockdale, in Ca.
ilmities of Authors, II, 313, it was taken ad vivum.* See Calamities of Authors, II. 49




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                             431
at,enth he returned to them, he expresses his surprise  me of folly, but I have always found most pleasure in oh-'at the pains he had formerly undergone,' but of which he  serving the nature of animals, studying their character,
now felt himself'unwilling, he knew not how, of again  and writing their history.' Even with those who have
andergoing.  Goldoni, when at the bar, abandoned his  acquired their celebrity, the love of literary labour is not
comic talent for several years: and having resumed it, his  diminished, a circumstance recorded by the younger Plinv
fisrst comedy totally failed:' My head,' says he,'was oc-  of Livy; in a preface to one of his lost books, that histo.
cupied with my professional employment, I was uneasy in  rian had said that he had got suffix'ent glory by his former
mind and in bad humour.'                                   writings on the Roman history, and might now repose in
The best years of Mengs's life were embittered by the  silence; but his mind was so restless and so abhorrent of
misery and the harshness of his father, who himself a poor  indolence, that it only felt its existence in literary exertion.
artist, and with poorer feelings, converted his home into a  Such are the minds who are without hope, if they are
prison-house, forced his son into the slavery of stipulated  without occupation.
task-work, while his bread and water were the only fruits    Amidst the repose and silence of study, delightful to
of the fine arts; in this domestic persecution, from which  the literary character, are the soothing interruptions of
he was at length obliged to fly, he contracted those morose  the voices of those whom he loves; these shall re-animate
and saturnine habits which for ever after shut up the un-  his languor, and moments of inspiration shall be caught
genial Mengs in the dark solitude of his soul.  It has been  in the emotions of affection, when a father or a friend, a
said of Alonso Cano, a celebrated Spanish painter, that  wife, a  daughter, or a sister, become the participators of
he would have cerried his art much higher had not the un-  his own tastes, the companions of his studies, and identify
ceasing persecution of the inquisitors entirely deprived him  their happiness with his fame.  If Horace was dear to
of that tranquillity so necessary to the very existence of  his friends, he declares they owed him to his father,
art.  The poet Rousseau passed half his life in trouble,                        purus et insons
in anger, and in despair, from the severe persecution, or        (Ut me coilaudem) si vivo et carus amicis,
She justice, of his enemies, respecting an anonymous libel       Caus huit Peter his.
attributed to him; his temper was poisoned, and he poi-                                        Lib. i. Sat. vi. v. 69.
soned.  Ovid, in exile on the barren shoes of Tomos, de-         If pore and innocent, if dear (forgive
These little praises) to my kiiends I live,
serted by his genius, even in his copious Tristia, loses the     These little praises) to my friends I live,
My father was the cause.
luxuriance of his fancy.  The reason which Rousseau al-         FManca              a
leges for the cynical spleen which so frequently breathes    This nteligent father, an obscure           red
This intelligent father, an obscure tax-.gatherer, discoforth in his works, shows how th, domestic character of
the man of genius leaves itself behind in his productions.  vered the propensity of Horace's mind; for he removed
the boy of genius from a rural seclusion to the metropoAfter describing the infelicity of his domestic affairs occa-  the bo  of genius from a rural seclusion to the metropo.
sioned byds the motherl of Theresa, and Theresa herself  lis, anxiously attending on him  to his various masters.
stoned by thle mother of Theresa, and Theresa herself,
both women of the lowest order, he adds on this wretched   Vitruvius pours forth a grateful prayer to the memory of
his parents, who had instilled into his soul a love for litemarriage,'these unexpected disagreeable  events, in a's
state of my own choice, ptinged roe into literature, to give  rary and philosophical subjects.  The father of Gibbon
directio  diversion my  mind  and in  I m urged him to literary distinction, and the dedication of the
a new direction and diversion to my mind; and in all my' Essay on literature,' to that father, connected with his
first works, I scattered that bilious humour which had oc-  subsequent labour, shows the force of the excitement.
casone  ths vry  ccnatin.' Ori auhors caratersubsequent labour, shows the force of the excitement.
casioned this very occupation.' Our author's character  The son of Buffon one day surprised his father by the
in his works was the very opposite one in which he ap-  sight of a column, which he had raised to the memory of
peared to these low people; they treated his simplicity as  his fther's eoqenteniu.'It will do you honour,' ohis father's eloquent genius. I It will do you honour,' ob..
utter silliness; feeling his degradation among them, his  sv   th  
served the GalLic sage. And when that son i the revopersonal timidity assumed a tone of boldness and originali" ilution was led to the guillotine, he ascended in silence, so
ty in his writings, while a strong sense of shame heighten- impressed with his father's fame, that he only told the peoimpessd wth  is athr'sfam, tat e olytold the peoed his causticity, contemning that urbanity he knew not to  pI        the      f Bffo       It 
Z,                     ~~~~~~pie,'II am  the son of Buffon!' It was the mother of
practise. His miserable subservience to these people was  Burns who kindled his genius by delighting his childhood
the real cause of his oppressed spirit calling out for some with the recitations of the old Scottish ballads, while to
undeinedfreeom i socety    Thu therealRouseau with the recitations of the. old Scottish ballads, while to
undefitied freedom in soci~ty.  Thus the real Rousseau,   his father he attributed his cast of character; as Bishop
with all his disordered feelings, only appeared in his writ-  Watson has recently traced to the affectionate influence of
Watson has recently traced to the affectionate influence of
tags; the secrets of his heart were in his pen.
Inps; the secrets of                                     n  heart were in his pen,   his mother, the religious feelings which he declares he had
The home of the literary character should be the abode  inherited  ther           eeis wh        e cae     a
inherited from her. There is, what may be called, family
of repose and of silence.  There must he look for the
ane  alt e laoo or  ae  genius; in the home of a man of genius he diffuses an
feasts of study, in progressive and alternate labours; a
~~~~~"feasts of study, in progressive  aelectrical atmosphere; his own pre-eminence strikes out
taste'which,' savs Gibbon,'I would not exchange for the  talents in all. Evelyn, in his beautiful retreat at Sayes
treasures of India.' Rousseau had alwa ys a work going  Court, had inspired his family with that variety of tastes
on for rainy days and spare hiurs, such as his dictionary   which he himself was spreading throughout tie nation.
of music; a variety of wokrs never tired; the single one  His son translated Rapin's'Gadens' which poem the
3nly exhausted.  Metastasio talks with delight of his va-  father proudly preserved in his' Sylva;' his lady, ever
riety, which resembled the fruits in the garden of Armidsa.,  busied in his study, excelled in the arts her busband loved,
F, mentre apunta P'un, l'altro mature.               and designed the frontispiece to his Lucretius; she was
While one matures, the other buds and blows.         the cultivator of their celebrated garden, which served as
Nor is it always fame, nor any lower motive, which'an example,' of his great work on'forest trees.' Cowmay induce him to hold an indefatigable pen; another ley, who has commemorated Evelyn's love of books and
ley, who has commemorated Evelyn's love of books and
equally powertiff exists, which must remain inexplicable a 
qally powerfl  exists,  hich must remain inexplicable   grdens, has delightfllly applied them to his lady, in whom,
to him who knows not to escape from the listlessness of says the bard, Evelyn meets both pleasures;
life-the passion for literary occupation.  He whose eye' The fairest garden in her looks,
can only measure the space occupied by the voluminous             And in her mind the wisest books.'
labours of the elder Pliny, of a Mazzuchelli, a Muratori,  The house of Hailer resembled a temple consecrated to
a Montfaucon, and a Gough; all men who laboured from   science and the arts, for the votaries were his own family.
the love of labouir, and can see nothing in that space but  The universal acquirements of Hailer, were possessed in
the industry which filled it, is like him who only views a  some degree by every one under his roof; and their stucity at a distance-the streets and the squares, and all  dious delight in transcribing manuscripts, in consulting authe life and popuilation within, he can never know. These  thors, in botanising, drawing and colouring the plants unliterary characters projected these works as so many  der his eye, formed occupations which made the daughters
schemes to escape from  uninteresting pursuits; and, in  happy and the sons eminent.  The painter Stella inspired
these fblios, how many evils of life did they bury, while  his family to copy his fancifil inventions, and the playful
their happiness expanded with their volume,  Aulus Gel-,raver of Claudine Stella, his niece, animated his'Soorts
lius desired to live no longer, than he was able to retain  of Children.' The poems of the late Hurdis were printed
the facul~y of writing and observing.  The literary cha-  by the hands of his sisters.
racter must grow as impassioned with his subject as ]Eli-    No event in literary history is more impressive than the
an with his History of Animals;'wealth and honour I  fate of Quintillian; it was in the midst of his elaborate
might have obtained at the courts of princes; but I pre-  work, composed to form  the literary character of a son.,
ferred the delight of multiplying my knowledge. I am   his great hope, that he experienced the most terrible afaware that the avaricious and the ambitious will accuse  fiction in the domestic life of genius-the deaths of his




432                        LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
wife, and one child after the other.  It was a moral earth-  diculed his philosophic relative, and turned to advantage
quake with a single survivor amidst the ruins.  An awful  his philosophic dispositions.  They have been deemed
burst of parental and literary affliction breaks forth in  disagreeable companions, because they felt the weariness
Quintillian's lamentation,-' my wealth, and my writings,  of dullness, or the impertinence of intrusion; as bad hus.
the fruits of a long and painfill life, must now be reserved   bands, when united to women, who without a kindred
only for strangers; all I possess is for aliens and no longer  feeling had the mean sense, or the unnatural cruelty, to
mine!' The husband, the father, and the man of genius,  prey upon their infirmities.  But is the magnet less a
utter one cry of agony.                                    magnet, though the particles scattered about it, incapable
Deprived of these social consolations, we see Johnson   of attraction, are unagitated by its occult quality?
call aboiut him  those whose calamities exiled them  from    Poverty is the endemial distemper of the commonwealth;
society, arid his roof lodges the blind, the lame and the  but poverty is no term for' ears polite.'  Few can conloor; for the heart of genius must possess something hu-  ceive a great character in a state of humble existence!
mnan it can call its own to be kind to.  Its elevated emo-  That passion for wealth through all ranks, leaving the
tiores, even in domestic life, would enlarge the moral vo-  Hollanders aside, seems  peculiar to the country where
cabulary, like the Abbh6 de Saint Pierre, who has fixed in  the' Wealth of Nations' is made the first principlie of its
his langulage two significant words; one which served to  existence; and where the cui bono? is ever referred to a
explain the virtue most famiilarto him —bienfaisance; and  commercial result.  This is not the chief object of life
the irritable vanity magnifying its ephemeral fame the sage  among the continental nations, where it seetms properly
reduced to a mortifying diminutive-la gloriole.            restricted to the commercial class.  Montesquieu, who
It has often excited surprise that men of genius eminent  was in England, observed that' if he had been born here
in the world, are not more reverenced than other men in  nothing could have consoled him on failing to accumulate
their domestic circle.  The disparity between the public  a large fortune, but I do not lament the mediocrity of my
and the private esteem of the same man is often striking;  circumstances in France.'  This evil, for such it mav be
in privacy the comic genius is not always cheerful, the sage  considered, has much increased here since Montesquieti's
is sometimes ridiculous, and the poet not delightful.  The   visit.  It is useless to persuade stome that there is a povgolden hour of invention must terminate like other hours,  erty, neither vulgar, nor terrifying, asking no favours, and
and when the man of genius returns to the cares, the du-  on no terms receiving any-a poverty which annihilates its
ties, the vexations, and the amusements of life, his com-  ideal evils, and becomes even a source of pride-a state
panions behold him as one of themselves-the creature of  which will confer independence, that first step to genius.
habits and infirmities.  Men of genius, like the deities of    There have been men of genius who have even learnt
Homer, are deities only in their' Heaven of Invention:'  to want.  We see Rousseau rushing out of the hotel of
mixin rv with mortals, they shed their blood like Venus, or  the financier, selling his watch, copying music by the
bellow like Mars.  Yet in the business of life the culti-  sheet, and by the mechanical industry  of two hours, pur.
vators of science and the arts, with all their simplicity of  chasing ten for genius.  We may smile at the enthusiasm
feeling and generous openness about them, do not meet on  of young Barry, who finding himself too (onstatnt a haunter
equal termns with other men; their frequent abstractions  oftavern-company, imagined that his expenditure of time
calling off the mind to whatever enters into its favourite  was occasioned by having money; to put an end to the
pursuits, render them greatly inferior to others in practical  conflict, he threw  the little he possessed at once into the
and immediate observation. A man of genius may know   Liffey; btut let us not forget that Barry, in the maturity
the whole map of the world of human nature; but, like the  of life, confidently began a labour of years, and one of the
great geographer, may be apt to be lost in the wood, which   noblest inventions in his art, a great poem in a picture,
any one in the neighbourhood knows better than him.  with no other resource than what he found in secret la-'The conversation of a poet,' says Goldsmith,' is that of a  bours through the night, by which he fuirnished the shops
man of sense, while his actions are those of a fool.' Ge-  with those slight and saleable sketches which secured tin
nius, careless of the future, and absent in the present,  interrupted morninas for his genius.  Spirnosa, a name as
avoids to mnix too deeply in common life as its business;  celebrated and calumniated as Ehpicurus, lived in ail sorts
hence it becomes an easy victim to common fools and vul.  of abstinence, even of honours, of pensions, and of pregar villains.' I love my family's welfare, but I cannot be  sents, which, however disguised by kindness, he would
so foolish as to make myself the slave to the minute affairs  not accept, so fearful was this philosopher of a chain;
of a house,' said Montesqttieu.  The story told of a man  lodging in a cottage, and,obtaining a livelihood by polishing
of learning is probably true, however ridiculous; deeply  optical glasses, and at his death his small accounts showed
occupied in his library, one, rushing in, informed him that  how he had subsisted on a few pence aday.
the house was on fire!;Go to my wife-these matters                            a radish and an egg.-Cow
belong to her!' pettishly replied the interrupted student.'
Bacon sat at one end of his table wrapt in many a reverie,    Spinosa said he never had spent more than he earned,
while at the other the creatures about him were trafficking   and certainly thought there was such a thing as superfluwith his honour, and ruining his good name;' I am better  ous earnings.  Such are the men who have often smiled
fitted for this,' said that great man once, holdingf out a  at the light regard of their neighbours in contrast with their
book,' than fobr the life I have of late led.' Buffon, who   crowing celebrity; and who feel that eternal truth, which
consumned his mornings in his old tower of Montbar, at the  the wisest and the poorest of the Athenians has sent down
end of his garden, with all nature opening to him, formed  to us, that' not to want any thing is an attribute of the
all his ideas of what was passing before him by the arts of  Divinity; but man approximates to this perfection by
an active and pliant capuchin, and the comments of a per-  wanting little.'
ruquier on the scandalous chronicles; these he treated as    There may be sufficient motives to induce the literary
children; but the children commanded the great man.  character to make a state of mediocrity his choice.  If he
Dr Young, whose satires give the very anatomy of human  loses his happiness, he mutilates his genius.  Goldini,
foibles, was entirely governed by his house-keeper; she  with the simplicity of his feelings and habits, in reviewing
thought and acted for him, which probably greatly assisted   his life, tells us how he was always relapsina into his old
the'Night Thoughts,' but his curate exposed the domes-  propensity of comic writing;' but the thought of this does
tic economy of a man of genits by a satirical novel.  Was  not disturb me; for though in any other situation I might
not the hero Marlborough, at the moment he was the ter-  have been in easier circumstances, I should never have
ror of France and the glory of Germany, held under the  been so happy.' Bayle is a parent of the modern literary
finger of his wife by the meanest passion of avarice?     character; he pursued the same course, and early in life
But men ofgenius have too often been accused of ima-  adopted the principle'Neither to fear bad fortune, nor
gnarv crimes; their very eminence attracts the lie of  have any ardent desires for good.' He was acquai ted
calumny, a lie which tradition conveys beyond the possi-  with the passions only as their historian, arid living only
bility of refutation.  Sometimes reproached for being un-  for literature, he sacrificed to it the two great acquisitions
dutiful sons, because they displeased their fathers in ma-  of hiuman pursoits —fortune and a family; but in England,
king an obscure name celebrated.  The family of Des-  in France, in Germany, in Italy, in Holland, in Flandes,
cartes were insensible to the ltustre his studies reflected or.  at Geneva, he fouid a family of friends, and an accumuthe.m; they lamented, as a blot in their escutcheon, that  lation of celebritv. A life of hard deprivations was lona the
Descartes, who was born a gentleman, should become a  life of' Linnrleus.  Without a fortune, pt never seemed to
philosopher.  This elevated genius was even denied the  him necessary to acquire.  Peregrinatinr on foot with a
satisfaction of embracing an unforgiving parent, while his  stylus, a magnifying glass, anid a basket for plants, he
dwarfish brother, with a mind diminutive as his person, ri-  sh.red with the peasant his rustic meal.  Never was




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                           433:
lory acquired at a cheaper rate, says one of his eulogists.  ors, the principle seems changed; even the wealthy author
Satisfied  with the least of the little, he only felt the neces-  becomes proud of the largest tribute paid to his genius,
sity of completing his Floras; and the want of fortune did  because this tribute is the evidence of the numbers who
not deprive him of his glory, nor of that statue raised to  pay it; so that the property of a book represents to the
him after death in the gardens of tie University of' Upsal;  literary candidate so many thousand voters in his favour.
nor of that solemn eulogy delivered by a crowned head;    The man of genius wrestling with heavy and oppressive
nor of those medals which the king of Sweden, and the  fortune, who follows the avocations of an autithor as a preSwedes, struck, to commenmorate the genius of the three  carious source of existence, should take as the model of the
kingdomrns of Nature.                                      authorial life that of Dr Johntson; the dignity of the literIn substituting fortune for the object of his designs, the   ary character was ever associated with his feelings; and
matri of genius deprives himself of the inspirations of him   the' reverence thyself' was present to his mind even when
who lives for hiimself; that is, for his Art.  If he bends to  doomed to be one of the Heloto of literature, by Osborn,
the public taste, not daring to raise it tohis own, he has not  by Cave, or by Millar.  Destitute of this ennobling printhe choice of his subjects, which itself' is a sort of inven-  ciple, the author sinks into the tribe of those rabid advention. A  task-worker ceases to think his own thoughts;  turers of the pen who have masked the degraded form of
the stipulated price and time are weighing on his pen or  the literary character under the title of' authors by profes-.is pencil, while the hour-glass is dropping its hasty sands.  sion-the  Guthries, the Ralphs, and the Amhursts. *
If the man of genius would become something more than' There are worse evils, for the literary man,' says a mohimself-if he would be wealthy and even luxurious, ano-  dern author, who is himself the true model of the literary
ther fever torments him, besides the thirst of glory; such  character.-' than  neglect, poverty, imprisonment, and
ardent desires create many fears, and a mind in ftear is a  death.  There are even more pitable objects than Chattermind in slavery.  So inadequate, too, are the remunera-  ton himself with the poison of hts lips.'' I should die with
tions of literary works, that the one of the greatest skill  hunger, were I at peace with the world,' exclaimed a corand difficulty, and the longest labour, is not valued with  sair of literatuire,-and dashed his pen into that black flood
that hasty spurious novelty for which the taste of the pub-  before him of soot and gall.
lic is craving, from the strength of its disease, rather than
its appetite.  Rousseau observed that his musical opera,                     CHAPTE     XIII.
the work of five or six weeks, brought him as much money
as he had received for his Emilius, which had cost him                   THE MATRIMONIAL STATE.
twenty years of meditation, and three years of composi-       Matrimony has often been considered as a condition not
tion.  This single fact represents a hundred.  In one of  well suited to the domestic life of genius; it is accompa.
Shakespeare's sonnets he pathetically lamrents this corn-  nied by too many embarrassments for the head and the heart
pulsion of ihis necessities which forced him on the trade of  It was an axiom with Fuessli, the Swiss artist, that the
pleasing the putblic; and he illustrates this degradation by   marriage state is incompatible with a high cultivation of
a novel image.'Chide Fortune,' cries the bard,-          the fine arts.  Peirese the great French collector, refused
The guilty goddess of my harmless deeds,              marriage, convinced that the cares of a family were too ab.
That did not better for my life provide                sorbing for the freedom necessary to literary pursuits, and
Than public means which public manners breeds;         a sacrifice of fortune incompatible with his great designs.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand;         Boyle, who would not suffer his studies to be interrupted
And almost thence my nature is subdued                 by' household affairs,' lived as a boarder with his sister
To what it works in, LIKE  THE DYER's HAND.'          Lady Ranelagh.  Bayle, and Hobbes, and Hume, and
Gibbon, and Adam Smith, decided for celibacy. Such
Such is the fate of that author, who, in his variety of  hasbeen the state of the  great author whose sole oc
task-works, blue, yellow, and red, lives without ever having  tion is combined with passion, and whose happiness o cp
his wn  aturl cmpleion   We  earthe  lo-tion is combined with passion, and whose happiness is his
shown his own natural complexion. We hear the eln
~~~~shown hisow  nturl omlexeelo-  fame-fame, which balances that of the heroes of the age,
quent truth from  another who has shared in the bliss of  who hae sometimes honoured themselves by acnowledg
mpostio   an   themisry  f it I ail bred.'4 A who have sometimes honoured themselves by acknowledg.,
composition,  and the misery of its'daily bread.'  A    ing it.
single hour of composition won from the business of the       This debate, for our present topic has sometimes warmed
day, is worth more than the whole day's toil of him who  into one, in truth is ill adapted for controversy; the heart
works at the trade of literature; in the one case the spirit  is more concerned in its sse than any espoused doctrine
is more concerned in its issue than any espoused doctrine
comes joyfully to refresh itself, like a hart to the water- terminating in partial views. Look into the domestic anbrooks; in the other it pursues its miserable way, panting   nals of genius-observe the varety of positions into which
and jaded wit~~~~~~~~~h tedg  fhne  n   eest  eid'  als of genius —observe the variety of positions into which
and jaded with the dos of hunger and necessity behind.'*  the literary character is thrown in the nuptial state.  Will
Genius undegraded and unexhausted, may, indeed, even
Geius underaded and unexhausted, may, indeed, even   cynicism always obtain his sullen triumph, and prudence
in a garret, glow in its career; but it must be on the prin- be allowed to calculate away some of the richer feelins of
~ipl whih iduce Rousea solmnlyto  enouce wit-be allowed to calculate away some of the richer feelings of
ciple which indced Rousseau solemnly to renounce writ- our nature? Is it an axiom that literary characters must
ing' par metier.' This in the Journal des Scavans he
necessarily institute a new order of celibacy? One posionce attempted, but found himself quite inadequate to' the   necessarily institute a new order of celibacy?  One posiprofessiot.'t  In a garret, the author of the'I Studies of  tion we may assume, that the studies, and even the happiprofession.'t  In a g~arret,  the author of the L Studies of   e  o  h   usi   f tra  crces  r pwfly
Nature' exultingly tells us that he arranged his work.'It   ness of the pursuits of literary characters, are powerfully
ratue' cuitngly feal USthathe rra  ed hs wrk,.'Ztinfluenced by the domestic associate of their lives.
was in a little garret, in the new  street of St Etienne du  Men of genius rarely pass through the age of lve withMont, where I resided four years, in the midst of physical  out its passion:  even their Delias and A das are ofien
and domestic afflictions.  But there I enjoyed the most  the shadows of some realobject. According to Shaksexquisite pleasures of my life, amid profound solitude and   pesads oxperienc re
an enchanrint  horizon.  There I put the finishing hand
to my' Studies oV Nature,' and there I published them.'Never durst poet touch apen to writs,
It has been a question with some, more indeed abroad           Until his i  were tepee   with love's sighs.'
Love's Labour Losb, Act IV. Scene a. 
than at home, whether the art of instructing mankind by                        Loe's Labour Lost, Act. Scene 
the press would not be less suspicious in its character,   Their imagination is perpetually colouring those pictures
were it less interested in one of its motives?  We have   of domestic happiness they delight to dwell on.  He who
had some noble self-denials of this kind, and are not with-  is no husband may sigh for that devoted tenderness which
out them even in our country.  Boileau almost censures  is at once bestowed and received; and tears may start in
Racine for having accepted money for one ofhis dramas,  the eyes of him who can become a child among children,
while he who was not rich, gave away his elaborate works   and is no father. These deprivations have usually been the
to the public; and he seems desirous of raising the art of  concealed cause of the querulous and settled melancholy
writing to a more disinterested profession than any other   of the literary character.  The real occasiom  of Shenrequiring no fees.  Milton did not compose his immortal   stone's unhappiness was, that early in life he had been.abour with any view ofcopvright; and Linnaeus sold his  captivated by a young lady adapted to be boMh  the muse
works for a single ducat.  The Abb6 Mably, the author   and the wife of the poet. Her mild graces were soon
of many political and moral works, preserved  the dignity  touched by his plaintive love-songs and elegies.  Their
e' the literary character, for while he lived on little, he
would acce;pt only a few presentation copies from the bookwvould accept only a few presentation copies from the hook-  * The reader will find an original letter by Guthrie to a
Minister of State, in which this modern phrase was prohabty
sellers.  Since we have become a nation of book collect-  miister of State, in which  this modern phrase was prohad.
his own invention, with the principle unblus hingty avowed.
Qiuarterly Review, N'o. XVI, p. 538.                   See' Calamities of' Authors,' vol. 1, p. 5. Ralph farther opens
Twice he repeated this resolution.-See his works, Vol.  mysteries, in an anonymous pamphlet of' The Case of.urzxvi, p. 283. Vel xxxii, p 90.                            thors by profession.' They were both pensioned
55




434                         LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
aensibility was too mutual, and lasted for some years, till  service, and being no longer able to sustain, in body a
#,he died. It was in partina from her that he first sketched  mind, the labours that I have chosen to go through withhis' Pastoral Ballad.' Shenstone had the fortitude to re-  out falling speedily into the grecatest disordtes and it might
fuse marriage; his spirit could not endure that she should  be imbecility itself. This is not colourijng, bh:t the exact
participate in that life of deprivations to which he was  plain truth,' and Gray's,
doomed, by an inconsiderate union with poetry and pover-'Poor moralist, and what art thou?
ty. But he loved, and his heart was not locked up in the         A solitary fly!
ice of celibacy. lie says in a moment of humour,' It is         Thy joys no glittering female meets,
long since I have considered myself as undone.  The              No hive hast thou of hoarded swee:s.'
world will not perhaps consider me in that light entirely    Assuredly it would not be a question whether these lite.
till I have married my maid.' Thomson met a reciprocal  rary characters should have married, had not oIuntaigne,
passion in his Amanda, while the full tenderness of his  when a widower, declared that'he would not matryv a
heart was ever wasting itself like waters in a desert. As  second time, though it were wisdom itself;'-but the airy
we have been made little acquainted with this part of the  Gascon has not disclosed how far 3iadame was concerned
history of the poet of the Seasons, I give his own descrip-  in this anathema.
tion of these deep feelings from a manuscript letter written    If the literary man unites himself to a woman whose
to Mallet.' To turn my eyes a softer way, to you know  taste and whose temper, are adverse to his pursuits, he must
who-absence sighs it to me. What is my heart made of?  courageously prepare for a martyrdom. Should a female
a soft system of low nerves, too sensible for my quiet-ca-  mathematician be united to a poet, it is probable that she
pable of being very happy or very unhappy, I am afraid  would be left to her abstractions; to demonstrate to herthe last will prevail. Lay your hand upon a kindred heart,  self how many a specious diagram fails when brought into
and despise me not. I know not what it is, but she dwells  its mechanical operation; or while discovering the infinite
upon nmy thought in a mingled sentiment, which is the  varieties of a curve, may deduce her husband's. If she
sweetest, the most intimately pleasing the soul can receive,  becomes as jealous of his books as other wives are of the
and which I would wish never to want towards some dear  mistresses of their husbands, she may act the virago even
object or another. To have always some secret darling  over his innocent papers. The wife of Bishop Cooper,
idea to which one can still have recourse amidst the noise  while her husband was employed on his Lexicon, one day
and nonsense of the world, arid which never fails to touch  consigned the volume of many years to the flames; and
us in the most exquisite manner, is an art of happiness  obliged that scholar to begin a second siege of Troy in a
that fortune cannot deprive us of. This may be called  second Lexicon. The wife of Whitelocke often destroyed
romantic; but whatever the cause is, the effect is really  his Mss and the marks of her nails have come down to
felt. Pray, when you write, tell me when you saw her,  posterity in the numerous lacerations still gaping in his
and with the pure eye of a friend, when you see her again,    Memorials.' The learned Sir Henry Saville, who devot.
whisper that I am her most humble servant.' Even Pope  ed more than half his life, and near ten thousand pounds,
was enanmoured of' a scornful lady; and as Johnson obh-  to his magnificent edition of St Chrysostom, led a very
served,' polluted his will with female resentment.' John-  uneasy life between that Saint and Lady Savillq; what
son himself, we are told by Miss Seward, who knew him,  with her tenderness for him and her own want of amuse.'had always a metaphysical passion for one princess or  ment, Saint Chrysostom  incurred more than one danger.
other, —the rustic Lucy Porter, or the haughty Molly As-  One of those learned scholars who translated the Scripton, or the sublimated methodistic Hill Boothby; and lastly,  tlures, kept a diary of his studies and his domestic calamithe more charming Mrs Thrale.' Even in his advanced  ties, for they both went on together; busied only among
age, at the height of his celebrity, we hear his cries of  his hooks, his wife, from  many causes, plunged him  into
lonely wretchedness.' I want every comfort; my life is  debt; he was compelled to niake the last sacrifice of a litevery solitary anid very cheerless. Let me know that I  rary man, by disposing of his library. But now, he without
have yet a friend-let us be kind to one another.' But the  books, and she worse and worse in tenmper, discontents'kindness' of distant friends is like the polar sun, too far  were of fast growth between them.  Our nman of study,
removed to warm. A female is the only friend the solitary  found his wife, like the remora, a little fish, sticking at the
can nave, because her friendship is never absent.  Even  bottom of his ship impeding its progress. He desperately
tnose who have eluded individual tenderness, are tortured  resolved to fly from the country and his wife. There is a
by an aching void in their feelings. The stoic Akenside,  cool entry ini the diary, on a warm proceeding, one mornin his books of' Odes,' has preserved the history of a life  ing; wherein he expresses some curiosity to know the cause
of genius in a series of his own feelings. One entitled,  of his wife being out of temper! Simplicity of a patient'At Study,' closes with these memorable lines;         scholar!*  The present matrimonial case, however, ter.' Me though ino peculiar fair                 minated in unexpected happiness; the wife, after having
Touches with a lover's care;                  forced her husband to be deprived of his library, to be daily
Though the pride of my desire               chronicling her caprices, and finally, to take the serious reAsks immortal friendship's name,              solution of abandoning his country, yet, living in good old
Asks the palm of honest fame                  times, religion and conscience united them  again; and, as
And the old heroic lyre;                    the connubial diarist ingeniously describes this second
Though the day have smoothly gone,            marriage of himself and his wife, —' made it be with them,
Or to lettered leisure known,                 as surgeons say it is with a fractured bone, if once well set,
YetOr in social duty lonely brspent;        the stronger for a fracture.' A new consolation for doYet at eve my lonely breast
Seeks in vain for perfect rest,               mestic ruptures!
Languishes for true content.'                 Observe the errors and infirmities of the greatest men of
genius in their matrimonial connections. Milton carried
If ever a man of letters lived in a state of energy and  nothing of the greatness of nis mind, in the choice of his
excitement which might raise him above the atmosphere  wives; his first wife was the object of sudden fancy. He
of social love, it was assuredly the enthusiast, Thomas  left the metropolis, and unexpectedly returned a married
Hollis, who, solely devoted to literature and to republican-  man; united to a woman of such uncongenial dispositions,
Ism, was occupied in furnishing Europe and America with  that the romp was frightened at the literary habits of the
editions of his favourite authors. He would not marry,  great poet, found his house solitary, beat his nephews, and
lest marriage should interrupt the labours of his platonic  ran away after a single month's residence! to this circuni
politics. But his extraordinary memoirs, while they show   stance, we owe his famous treatise on Divorce, and a
an intrepid minid in a robust frame, bear witness to the  party, (by no means extinct,) who, having made as ill
self-tormentor who had trodden down the natural bonds of  choices in their wives, were for divorcing, as fast as they
domestic life. Hence the deep'dejection of his spirits;'  had been for marrying, calling themselves Miltonist.
those incessant cries, that he has no' one to advise, as-  When we find that Moliere, so skilfui in human life, mar.
sist, or cherish those magnanimous pursuits in him.' At  ried a girl from his own troop, who made him experience
ength he retreated into the country, in utter hopelessness.
I go not into the country for attentions to agriculture as    *The entry may amuse. Hodie, nescio qtla intemperma
such, nor attentions of interest of any kind, which I have  uxorenl meam agitavit, nam pecuniam usudatam projecit huenor d tteiseas sc   b st as  any kind, t h ps the r mi, ac sic irate discessit. —' This day, I know not the cause of
ever despised as such; but as a used man, to pass the re"  the ill temper of my wife; when I gave her money for daily
mainder of a life in tolerable sanity and quiet, after hav-  expences, she flu ng it upon the ground ant departed it
nog given tup the flower of it, voluntarily, day, week,  passion.' For some, this Flemish picture must be toofami
month,.ytm after year successive to each other, to public  liar to please, too minute a copy of vulgar life




LITERARY CIHARACTER, &c.                                                           435
all those bitter disgusts and ridiculous embarrassments  crease with our days, for it is not my youth or my persop
which he himself played off at the Theatre; that Addison's  which time gradually impairs, but my reputation and m
fine taste in morals and in life, could suffer the amhition of  glory, of which she is enamoured.' Could Mrs Hutchina courtier to prevail with himself to seek a Countess, whom   son have written the life of her husband, had she not rehe describes under the stormy character of Oceana, who  flected from the patriot himself, all his devotedness to %le
drove him contemptuously into solitude, and shortened his  country, had she not lent her whole soul to every esent
days; anrid, that Steele, warm and thoughtless, was united  which concerned him?  This female susceptibility was
to a cold precise' Miss Prue,' as he calls her, and from   strong in the wife of Klopstock; our novelist Richardson,
whom  he never parted without bickerings; in all these   who could not read the Messiah in the original, was decases we censure the great men, not their wives.*  Rous-  sirous of some account of the poem, and its progress. She
seau has honestly confessed his error: he had united him-  writes to him that no one can inform  him better than herself to a low illiterate woman-and when he retreated into  self, for she knows the most of that which is not published,
solitude,  he felt the weight which he carried with him.' being always present at the birth of the young verses,
He laments that he had not educated his wife;'In a docile  which begin by fragments here and there, of a subject of
age, I could have adlorned her mind with talents and know-  which his soul is just then filled.  Persons who live as
ledge which would have more close.y united us in retire-  we do have no need of two chambers; we are always in
ment. We should not then have felt the intolerable tiedium   the same; I with my little work, still, still, —only regarding
of a tete. tete; it is in solitude one feels the advantage of  sometimes my husband's sweet face, which is so venerable
living with another who can think.' Thus Rousseau con-  at that time, with tears of devotion and all the sublimity of
fosses the fatal error, and indicates the right principle.  the subject-my husband reading me his young verses and
But it seems not absolutely necessary for the domestic  suffering my criticisms.'  Meta Mollers writes with enhappiness of the literary character, that his wife should be  thusiasm, anid in German English; but he is a pitiful critic
a literary woman.  The lady of Wieland was a very  who has only discovered the oddness of her language.
leasing domestic person, who without reading her hus-    Gesner declared that whatever were his talents, the
band's works, knew he was a great poet.  Wieland was  person who had most contributed to develope them  was
apt to exercise his imagination in a sort of angry declama-  his wife.  She is unknown to the public; but the history
tion and bitter amplifications; and the writer of this ac-  of the mind of such a woman can only be truly discovered
count in perfect German taste, assures us,' that many of  in the' Letters ofGesner and his Family.' While Gesner
his felicities of diction were thus struck out at a heat:' dur-  gave himself up entirely to his favourite arts, drawin.,
ing this frequent operation of his genius, the placable tem-  painting, etching, and composing poems, his wife would
per of Mrs Wieland overcame the orgasm of the Ger-  often reanimate a genius that was apt to despond in its atman bard, merely by her admiration and her patience.  tempts, and often exciting him  to new  productions, her
When the burst was over, Wieland himself was so charm-  certain and delicate taste was attentively consulted by the
ed by her docility, that he usually closed with giving up  poet-painter-but she combined the most practical good
al. his opinions.  There is another sort of homely happi-  sense with the mostfeeling imagination; this forms the
ness, aptly described in the plain words of Bishop New-  rareness of the character-for this same woman, who unitton: He found' the study of sacred and classic authors ill  ed with her husband in the education of their children, to
agreed with butchers' and bakers' bills;' and when the  relieve him from  the interruptions of common business,
prospect of a bishopric opened on him,' more servants,  carried on alone the concerns of his house in la hbrairie.
more entertainments, a better table, &c.' it became ne-  Her correspondence with her son, a young artist travelling
cessary to look out for'some clever sensible woman to be  for his studies, opens what an old poet comprehensively
his wife, who would  lay out his money to the best ad-  terms' a gathered mind.' Imagine a woman attending
vantage, and be careful and tender of his health; a friend  the domestic economy, and the commercial details yet withand companion at all hours, and who would be happier in  drawing out of this business of life into that of the more
staying at home than be perpetually gadding abroad.'  elevated pursuits of her husband, and the cares and counSuch are the wives, not adapted to be the votaries, but  sels she bestowed on her son to form the artist and the
who may be the faithful companions through life, even of  man.  To know this incomparable woman we must hear
a man of genius.                                           her.' Consider your father's  precepts as oracles of
That susceptibility, which is love in its most compliant  wisdom; they are the result of the experience he has codforms, is a constitutional faculty in the female character,  lected, not only of life, but of that art which he has acquirand hence its docility and enthusiasm  has varied with the  ed simoly by his own industry.' She would not have her
genius of different ages.  When universities were opened   son suffer his strong affection to herself to absorb all other
to the sex, have they not acquired academic glory? Have  sentiments.' Had you reniained at home, and been habinot the wives of military men shared in the perils of the  tuated under your mother's auspices to employments merefield, and as Anna Comnena, and our Mrs Hutchinson,  ly domestic, what advantace would you haveacquired? I
become even their historians?  In the age of love and  own we should have passed  some delightful winter evensympathy the female receives an indelible character from   ings together; but your love for the arts, and my ambition
her literary associate; his pursuits are even the objects of  to see my sons as much distinguished for their talents as
her thoughts; he sees his tastes reflected in his family,  their virtues, would have been a constant source of regret
much less by himself, whose solitary labf)urs often pre-  at your passing your time in a manner so little worthy of
elude him from  forming them, than by that image of his  you.' How profound is her observation on the strong but
own genius in his house —the mother ofhis children.  An-  confined attachments of a youth uf genius.' I have fre.
tiquity abounds with many inspiring examples of this ca-  quently remarked, with some regret, the excessive attachmeleon reflection of the female character. Aspasia, from   ment you indulge towards those who see and feel as you
the arms of Pericles, borrowing his genius. could instruct  do yourself, and the total neglect with which you seem  to
the archons how to gov'rn the republic; Portia, the wife  treat every one else.  I should reproach a man with such
of the republican Brutus, devouring the burning coals,  a fault who was dlestined to pass his life in a small and unshowed a glorioumis suicide which Brutus had approved;  varying circle; but in an artist, who has a great object in
while Paulina, the wife of Seneca, when the veins of that  view, and whose country is the whole world, this disposiphilosopher were commanded to be opened, voluntarily  tion seems to me likely to produce a great number of incon.
chose the same death; the philosopher commanded that  veniences-alas! my son, the life you have hitherto led in
her flowing o\ood should he stopped, but her pallid features  your father's house has been in fact a pastoral life, and not
ever after showed her still the wife of Seneca! The wife  such a one as was necessary for the education of a man
of Lucan is said to have transcribed and corrected the  whose destiny summons him to the world.'-And when
Pharsalia after the death of her husband; the tender mind  her son, after meditating on some ofthe most glorious proof the wife had caught the energy of the bard by its in-  ductions ofart, felt himself as he says,'disheartened and
tercourse; and when lie was no more, she placed his bust  cast down at the unattainable superiority of the artist, and
on her bed, that she might never close her eyes without  that it was only by reflecting on the immense labour and
being soothed by his image.  The picture of a literary  continued efforts which such master pieces must have rewife of antituity has descended to us, touched by the do-  quired, that I regained my courage and my ardour, she
mestic pencil of a man of genius.  It is the susceptible  observes.'this passage, my dearson, is to me as precious
Calphurnia, the lady of the younger Pliny;'her affection  as gold, and I send it to you again, because I wish you to
to me has given her a turn to books-her passion wi' in-  impress it strongly on your mind.  The remembrance o,
this may also be a useful preservative from too great con.
* Ree Curiosities of Literature, for various anecdotes of'Li-  fidence in your abilities, to which a warm imagination may
ratyr W:Ves.'                                              sometimes be liable, or from  the despondence you mighi




438                       LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
occasionally feel from the contemplation of grand originals  The Sonnet of Gray on West, is another beautiful inContinue, therefore, my dear son, to form a sound judg-  stance of that literary friendship of which we have several
ment and a pure taste from your own observations; your  instances in our own days, from the school or the college;
mind, while yet young and flexible, may receive whatever  and which have rivalled in devoted affections any which
impressions you wish. Be careful that your abilities do  these pages can record.
not inspire in you too much confidence, lest it should hap-    Such a friendship can never be the lot of men:f:he
pen to you as it has to many others, that they have never  world, for it takes its source in the most elevated feelings;
uossessed any greater merit than that of having good abili-  it springs utip only in the freshness of nature, and is gathered
ties.' One more extract to preserve an incident which  in the golden age of human life. It is intellectual, and it
may touch the heart of genius. This extraordinary woman  loves solitude; for literary friendship has no convivial
whose characteristic is that of strong sense with delicacy  gaities and factious assemblies.  The friendships of the
offeeling, would check her Gernian sentimentality at the  men of society move on the principle of personal interest,
moment she was betraying those emotions in which the  or to relieve themselves from the listlessness of existence;
imagination is so powerfully mixed up with the associated  but interest can easily separate the interested, and as
feelings.  Arriving at their cottage at Sihlwald, she pro-  weariness is contagious, the contact of the propagator is
ceeds-.'On entering the parlour three small pictures,  watched.  Men of the world may look on each other with
painted by you, met my eyes.  I passed some time in  the same countenances, but not with the same hearts.
contemplating them.  It is now a year, thought I since I  Literary friendship is a sympathy, not of manners, but of
saw him trace these pleasing forms; he whistled and sang,  feelings. In the common mart of life may be found intiand I saw them grow under his pencil; now he is far, far  macies  which terminate in complaint and contempt; the.rom us.-In short, I had the weakness to press my lips on  more they know one another, the less is their mutual es..
one of these pictures. You well know, my dear son, that  teem; the feeble mind quarrels with one still more imbecile
I am not much addicted to scenes of a sentimental turn;  than himself; the dissolute riot with the dissolute, and
but to-day, while I considered your works, I could not re-  while they despise their companions, they too have become
strain from this little impulse of'maternal feelings. Do not,  despicable.
however, be apprehensive that the tender affection of a    That perfect unity of feeling, that making of' two mindimother will ever lead me too far, or that I shall suffer my  viduals but one being is displayed in such memorable
mind to be too powerfully impressed with the painful sen-  friendships as those of Beaumont and Fletcher; whose
sations to which your absence gives birth.  My reason  labours were so combined that no critic can detect the
convinces me that it is for your welfare that you are now   mingled production of either; and whose lives were so
in a place where your abilities will have opportunities  closely united, that no biographer can compose the me-'of unfolding, and where you can become great in your  moirs of the one without running into the life of the other.
art.'                                                   Their days were as closely interwoven as their verses.
Such was the incomparable wife and mother of the Ges-  Montaigne and Charron, in the eyes of posterity, are riters! —Will it now be a question whether matrimony is  vals, but such literary firiendship knows no rivalry; such
incompatible with the cultivation of the arts?  A wife who  was Montaigne's affection for Charron, that he requested
reanimates the drooping genius of her husband, and a  him by his will to bear the arms of the Montaignes; and
mother who is inspired by the ambition of seeing her sons  Charron evinced his gratitude to the manes of his departed
eminent, is she not the real being which the ancients only  fiiend, by leaving his fortune to the sister of Montaigne.
personfled in their Muse?                              How pathetically Erasmus mourns over the death of his
beloved Sir Thomas More-' In 31oro mihi videor extinctd
us,' —' I seem to see myself extinct in More.'-It was a
~~CHAPTER XIV.    ~          melancholy presage of his own death, which shortly after
LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS.                    followed.  The Doric sweetness anti simplicity of old
Among  the virtues which literature inspires, is that of  Isaac Walton, the angler, were reflected in a mind as
the most romantic friendship.  The deliriumof love, and  clear and generous, when Charles Cotton continued the
even its lighter caprices, are incompatible with the pursuits  feelings, rather than the little work of Walton. Metasof the student; but to feel friendship like a passion, is ne-  tasio and Farinelli called each other ii Gemello, the Twin;
cessary to the mind of genius, alternately elated and  and both delighted to trace the resemblance of their lives
depressed, ever prodigal of feeling, and excursive in  and fates. and the perpetual alliance of the verse antd the
knowledge.                                              voice. Goguet, the author of' The Origin of thie Arts
The qualities which constitute literary friendship, com-  and Sciences,' bequeathed his MSS. and his books to his
pared with those of men of the world, tmust render it as  friend Fugere, with whom  he had long united his affecrare as true love itself, which it resembles in that intellec-  tions and his studies, that his surviving friend might pro.
tual tenderness of which both so deeply participate. Two  ceed with them; but the author had died of a slow and
atoms must meet out of the mass of nature, of such purity,  painful disorder, while Fugere had watched by the side
that when they once adhere, they shall be as one, resisting,  of his dying fiend, in silent despair; the sight of those
the utmost force of separation.  This literary friendship  MSS. and books was his death-stroke; half his soul which
begins' in the dews of their youth,' and may be said not  had once given them animation was parted from him, and
to expire on their tomb. Engaged in similar studies, if a few  weeks terminated his own das. When Loyd
one is found to excel, he shall find in the other the pro-  heard of the death of Churchill, he neither wished to surtector of his fame. In their familiar conversations, the  vive him nor did. The Abb6 de St Pierre gave ai inter.
vieshim  prof ofd lh    b~ e iterary friensifo Vari n itheoer.
memory of the one associates with the fancy of the other;  esting proof of literary friendship for Varigion the geomeand to such an intercourse, the world owes some of the  trician; they were of congenial dispositions, and St Pierre
finer effusiuns of genius, and some ot those monuments of whet he went to Paris, could not endure to part witi Va.
labour which required more than one giant hand.         rignon, who was too poor to accompany him; and St
In the poem Cowley composed on the death of his friend  Pierre was not rich. A certain income, however modeIHarvey, this stanza opens a pleasing scene of two young  rate, was necessary for the tranquil pursuits of geometry.
iterary friends engaged in their midnight studies.     St Pierre presented Varignon with a portion of his small
income, accompanied by that delicacy of feeling which'Say, for you saw us, ve immortal lights            men of genius who know each other can best conceive:
How oft unwearied have we spent the nights'I do not give it you,' said St Pierre,'as a salary, but an
Till the Ladtean stars, so famed for love,         annuity, that thus you may be independent and quit mo
Wondered at us from above,                         when you dislike me.' The same circumstance occurred
We spent them not in toys, in lust, or wine;       between Akenside and Dyson, who, when the poet was
Bitt search of deep philosophy,             in great danger of adding one more illstrious name to the
Wit, eloquence, and poetry;                  Calamities of Authors, interposed between him  and illArts which I loved, for they, my friend, were thine.'  fortune, by allowing  tim an annuity of three hundred a
Milton has not only given the exquisite Lvcidas to the  year, and when he found the fame of his literary friend
mremory of one young friend, but his Epitaphium Damonis  attacked, although not ii the hab:' f compositiin, Dyson
so another.                                             published an able and a curious defence of Akenside's
Nowv, mournfully cries the youthful genius, as versified   poetical atd philosophical character.  The name and
ty Larghorne,                                           character of Dyson have been suffered to die away, without a single tribute of even biographical sympathy; but in'To whom sha.l I my hopes and fears impart,         the record of literary glory, the patron's name should be
Or trust the cares and follies of my heart?'       inscribed by the side of the literary character; for the




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                         437
public incurs an oRigatlon whenever a man of genius is  bigotry of an ascetic'! Rochefouecauld, says the eloquent
prootected.Dugald Stewart, in private life was a conspicuous examThe statesman Fouquet, deserted by all others, wit-  pie of all those moral qualities of which he seemed.to deny
nessed La Fontaine hastening every literary man to the  the existence, and exhibited in this respect a striking cons
prison-gate; many have inscribed their works to their dis-  trast to the Cardinal De Retz, who has presumed to cengraced patron, in the hour                               sure him for his want offiaith in the reality of virtue; and
When Intrest calls off all her sneaking train,      to which we must add, that De Retz was one of those preAnd all the obliged desert, and all the vain,       tended patriots without a single of those virtues for which
They wait, or to the scaffold, or the cell,         he was the clamorous advocate of faction. When ValinWN'hen the last lincg'rings friend has bid farewell.  cour attributed the excessive tenderness in the tragedies oi
Such are the fiiendships of the great literary character!  Racire to the poet's own iipassioned character, the
Their elevated minds have raised them into domestic he-  younger Racine amply showed that his father was by no
roes, whose deeds have been often only recorded on that  means this slave of love; that his intercourse with a cerfatling register, the human heart.                      tain actress was occasioned by his pains to form her, who
with a fine voice, and memory, and beauty, was incapable
-  of comprehending the verses she recited, or accompanying
CHAPTER  XV.                           them with any natural gesture.  The tender Racine never
THIE LITERARY AND PERSONAL CHARACTER,               wrote a single love poem, noYr had a mistress; and his
the personal dispositio.s of anv  c               ARACTE wife had never read his tragedies, fitr poetry was not her
Are the personal dspositions of an author discoverable  delight.  Racine's motive for making love the constant
in his writings as those of an artist are imagined to ap-  source of action in his tragedies, was on the principle
pear in his works, where Michael Angelo is always great  which has influenced so many poets, who usually conform
and Rhaphael ever gracefslm?                           to the prevalent taste of the times.  In the court of a young
Is the moralist a moral man?  Is he malignant who  monarch, it was necessary that heroes should be lovers;
publishes caustic satires? Is he a libertine who composes  and since Corneille had so nobly run in one career, Raloose poems?  And is he whose  imagination delights in  cine could not have existed as a great poet, had he not
terr or and in blood, the very monster he paints?       rivalled him in all opposite one.  The tender Racine was
Many licentious writers have led chaste lives. Ia   no lover; but he was a subtle and epigrammatic observer,
M1othse le Vayer wrote two works of a free nature; yet  beffore whom  his convivial friends never cared to open
his was the unblemished life of a retired sage.  Bayle is  their minds.  It is not therefore surprising if' we are often
the too faithful compilier of impurities, but he resisted the  erroneous in the conceptioni we fhrm of the personal characcorruption of the senses as much as Newton. La Fon-  ter of a distant author. Klopstock, the votary of Zion's
taine wrote tales fertile in intrigues, yet the' bon homme'  muse, so astonished and warmed the sage Bodiner, that
has not left on record a single ingenious amour.  Smollet's  he invited the inspired bard to his house, but his visiter
character is immaculate; yet he has described two scenes  shocked the grave professor, when, instead of a poet rapt
which offend even in the freedom of imagination. Cowley,  in silent meditation, a volatile youth leapt out of the chaise,
who boasts with such gaiety of the versatilitv of his pas-  who was an enthusiast for retirement only when writing
sion aerong so many mistresses, wanted even the confi-  verses. An artist whose pictures exhibit a series of scenes
dence to address one.  Thus, licentious writers may be  of domestic tenderness, awakening all the charities of privery chaste men; for the imagination may be a volcano,  vate life, participated in them in no other way than on his
while the heart is an Alp of ice.                        canvass.  Evelyn, who has written in favour of active
Turn to the moralist-there we find Seneca, the disin-  life, loved and lived in retirement; while Sir George
terested usurer of seven millions, writing on moderate de-  Mackenzie framed an eulogium on solitude, who had been
sites, on a table of gold.  Sallust, who so eloquently de-  continually in the bustle of business..
claims against the licentiousness of the age, was repeatedly  Thus an author and an artist may yield no certain Indi.
accused in the Senate of public arid habitual debaucheries;  cation of their personal character in their works.  Inconand when this inveigher against the spoilers of provinces  stant men will write on constancy, and licentious minds
attained to a remote governmetnt, SaIltlst pillaged like  may elevate themselves into poetry and piety. Arid were
Verres.  Lucian, when young, declaimed against the  this not so, we should be tunjust to some of the greatest
friendship of the great, as another namne for servitude; but.  geniuses, when the extraordinary sentiments they put into
when his talents procured him a situation under the Em-  the mouths of their dramatic personages are maliciously
peror, he facetiously coripared himself' to those quacks,  applied to themselves. Euripides was accused of athe.
who themselves plagued with a iperpetual cough, offer to  ism, when he made a denier of the gods appear on the state.
well an infallible remedy for one. Sir Thomnas More, in  Milton has been censured by Clarke for the impiety of Sahis Utopia, declares that no man ought to he punished for  tan; anrd it was possible that' an enemy of Shakspeare
his religion; yet he becanme a fierce persecutor, rackina   might have retroached him for his perfect delineation of
anrid burt!ing mien when his own true faith here was at the  the accomplished villain Iago; as it was said that Dr
ebb. At the moment the poet Rousseau was givinig ver-  Moore was sometimes hturt in the opinions of some, by his
sions of the Psalms, fuill of unction, as our neighhours say,  horrid  Zeluco.  Crebillon  complains of this.- They
he was profaning the same pen with the most infamous of  charge me with all the iniquities of Atreus, and they conepigrams.  We have heard of an erotic poet of our times  sider me in some places as a wretch with whom it is unfit to
romposing sacred poetry, or night-hymns in church-yards.  associate; as if all which the mind invents must be deThe pathetic genius of Sterne played about his head, but  rived from the heart.' This poet offers a striking instance
never reached his heart.                                of the little alliance existing between the literary and perAnd thus with the personal dispositions of an author,  sonal dispositions of an author.  Crebillon, who exulted on
which may be quite the reverse from those which appear  his entrance into the French academy, that he had never
in his writings.  T')hnson wou'd not believe that Horace  tinged his pen with the gall of satire, delighted to strike on
was a happy man, oecause his verses were cheerful, no  the most harrowing_ string of the tragiclyre. In his Atreis,
nore than he could thmink Pope so, because he is continu-  the father drinks the blood of his son; in Rhadamistus, the
ally informing us of it.  Young, who is constantly con-  son expires under the hand of the father; in Electra. the
temning preferment in his writings, was all his life pining  son assassinates the mother.  A poet is a painter of the
after it: and while the sombrous author of the' Night  soul; but a great artist is not therefore a bad man.
Thoughts' was composing them, he was as cheerful as    Montaigne appears to have been sensible of this fact in
any other man; he was as lively in conversation as he  the literary character.  Of authors, he says, he likes to
was gloomy in his writings: and  v when a ladtv expressed  read their little anecdotes and private passions; and addls,
her surprise at his social converse. hie replied-' There is'Car j'ai tine sinuliire curiositd de connoitre I'ame et ]es
much di.Cerence between writing, and talkinr.' Molibre,  naifs julemens de mes autteiurs. II faut bien juger levim
on the contrary, whose humour "vas so perfectly comic,  suffisance,  riais non pas leurs roeurs, ni eux, par cetue
and even ludicrous, was a very thoua htfil and serious man,  montre de leurs ecrits quails Ntalent an theatre dou monde.'
and perhaps even of a melancholy ternper: his strongly.  Which mat be thus translated-' For I have a sinrular
featured physiognomy exhibits the face of a great tragic,  curisitv to know the soul ant( simple opinions of my anrather than of a great eomic, poet. Could one have ima-  thors. M'e must judge: of their ability, but not of their
gined that the brilliant wit. the luxutriant raillery, arid the  manters nor of thenselves, by that show of their writincs
5ne and deep sense of Paschal could have combined with  which they display on the theatre of the world.' This is
mhe most opposite qualities-the hypctrhondriasm  and  very just, and are we yet convinced, that the sirmplicity of




148                                      - LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
this old favxurite of Europe, might not have been as much I over the wisdom or the virtue they contemplated, mortified. theatrica. gesture, as the sentimentality of Sterne?    at their own infirmities.  Thus, though there may be no
~We must not therefore consider that he who paints vice  identity, between the book and the man, still for us, an
with energy is therefore vicious, lest we injure an honour-  author is ever an abstract being, and, as one of the Fa.
able man; nor must we imagine that he who celebrates  thers said,' a dead man may sin dead, leaving books that
virtue is therefore virtuous, for we may then repose on a  make others sin.' An author's wisdom or his folly does not
heart which knowing the right pursues the wrong.           die with him.  The volume, not the author, is our com.
These paradoxical appearances in the history of genius  panion, and is for us a real personage, performing before
present a curious moral phenomenon.  Much must be at-  us whatever it inspires;'he being dead, yet speaketh.'
tributed to the plastic nature of the versatile faculty itself.  Such is the vitality of a book!
Men of genius have often resisted the indulgence of one
talent to exercise another with equal power; some, who                       CHAPTER  XIV.
have solely composed sermons, could have touched on the
foibles of society with the spirit of Horace or Juvenal;                    THE MAN OF LETTERS.
Blackstone and Sir William Jones directed that genius to
the austere studies of law and philology, which might have  is a class to whom  may be  appropriately assigned the
excelled in the poetical and historical character.  So ver-  title of Men of Letters.
satile is this faculty of genius, that its possessors are some-    The man of letters, whose habits and whose whole life
times tncertain of the manner in which they shall treat  soclosely resem blettershose of an aut hor, can only be dis
their subject; whether to be grave or ludicrous?  When   soclosely resemble those of an author, can onlt be diBreboeuf, the French translator of the Pharsalia of Lucan,  letters ished by the simple circumstance, that th    an of
had completed the first book as it now appears, he at the    Yet  he whose sole occupation thror.gh life is literature,
same time composed a burlesque version, and sent both to  who is always acquiring and never producing appears as
the great arbiter of taste in that day, to decide which the  ridiculous as the architect who never raised an edifice, or
poet should continue?  The decision proved to be diffi-  the statuary who refrains from  sculpture.  His pursuits
cult.  Are there not writers who can brew a tempest or  are reproached with terminating in an e         pic urean  selfish
fling a sunshine with all the vehemence of genius at their  ae    and acidst his in           avocations he himselfis
l? They adopt one principle, and all things shrink into ness, and amidst his incessant avocations he himself is
wi It   They adopt one principle, and all thing s shrink intodler.
the pigmy forms of ridicule; they change it, and all rise to  This race of literary characters, as they now exist,
startle us, with anitated Colossusses.  On this principle  could not have appeared till the press had poured its affiuof the versatility of the faculty, a production of genius is a  ence  in the degree that the nations of Europe became
piece of art which wrought up to its full effect is merely the,        t   ilosophical curiosity ki
result of certain combinations of the mind, with a felicity  induced some to devote their fortunes and their days, and
of manner obtained by taste and habit.I
Are we  thentoreduce the works;uf a manofigens to  to experience some of the purest of human enjoyments, in
Are we then to reduce the workls of a man of genius to.    
of his talent; a ge i            preserving and familiarising themselves with' the monua mere sport of his talents; a game in which he is only     v                        r.*
a mere sport of h   ans    x        hc ei              ments of vanished minds,' that indestructible history of the
the best player?  Can he whose secret power raises so            of every pe
genius of every people, through all its eras-and whatever
many emotions in our breasts. be without any in his own?     n have thought and   hatever mn  ave done, were at
men have thought and whatever men have done) were at
A mere actor performing a part?  Is he unfeeling when
*  indifferent  he is..             lenath discovered to be found in Books.
he is pathetic, indifferent when te is indigtant.  An        AMen of letters occupy an intermediate station between
alien to all the wisdom and virtue he inspires? No  wers  atthors atd readers; with more curiosity of knowledge
men of genius themselves to assert this, and it is said   ad more nltipied tastes, and by those precious ollec
some incline to it, there is a more certain conviction, than   tio   vhich they are forming during their lives, more comtions which thev are forming during their lives, more oomtheir mistakes, in our own consciousness, which for evernished  with t                 eans than are possessed 
assures us, that deep feelings and elevated thoughts must  the multitude who read, and  the  few  aho write.
spring from their source. ZD                    the multitude who read, and the few who write.
spring frotm their source.                                   The studies of an author are usually restricted to par.
In proving that the character of the man may be very
In poi  that the character of the man may be very  ticular subjects; his tastes are tinctured by their colouropposite to that of his writing, we must recollect that the
n              *                ma s~r~s | s  rin.!, and his mind is always shaping itself to them. An
labits of life may be contrary to the habits of the mind.is mind is always shapin..
r  r,  author's works form  his solitary pride, and often mark the
The influence of their studies over men of genius, is limi-  boundaries of his empire;  hile half his  e wears away
"    boundaries of his empire; while half his 6l"e wears away
ted; out of the ideal world, man is reduced to be the ac.  in the sloa  maturity of composition; and still the ambtlive creature of sensation.  An author, has in truth, two  tion of authorship torments its victim alike in disappoint-!istinct characters; the literary, formed by the habits ofment or in possession.
his study; the personal, by the habits of situation. Gray,    But the solitule of the man of letters is soothed by the
rold, effeminate and timid in his personal, was lofty and   surrounding objects of his passion; he possesses them, and
awful in his literary character; vwe see men of polished  they posess.   is volumes in triple rows on their
they possess him. His volumes in triple rows on their
manners and bland affection, in grasping a pen, are thrust-  shelves; his portfolios those moveable galleries of picnig a poignard; while others in domestic life, with the          nd sketches; his rich     iier of coins and gems,
simplicity of children and the feebleness of nervous affec-..;  s
siplicity of children and the feebleness of  rvos  ffec-  that library without books; some favourite sculptures and
tions, can shake the senate or the bar with the vehemence  patings  on which his eye lingers as they catch a magipaintings on which his eve lingers as they catch a magi.
of their eloquence and the intrepidity of their spirit.    cal li.ht  and some antiquities of all nations, here and
And, however the personal character may contrast with  there, about his house; these are his furoure    Every
that of their genius, still are the works themselves genu-  thine  about hims so endeared to him by habit, and many
thing about him is so endeared to him by habit, and many
ne, and exist In realities for us-and were so doubtless to.
s, and exist in realities for us-.and were so doubtless to  higher associations, that even to quit his collections for a
themselves, in the act of composition.  In the calm study,  short time becomes a real suffering; he is one of the lief-ieba beautiful imagination may convert him whose morals  bers of the Hollanders-a lover or fancier.* He lives where
are corrupt, into an admirable moralist, awakening feelings  he will die; often his library and his chamber are contiguwhich yet may be cold in the business of life; since we  ous, and this'Parva, sed apla,' this contracted space, has
have shown that the phlegmatic can excite himself into
wvit, and the cheerful man delight in Night-thougthts. Sal-  this act of treachely; she lost her senses and vas confined in
lust, the corrupt Sallust, might retain the most sublime  a private mad-house, where Sterne twice visited her. He has
conceptions of the virtues which were to save the Repub-  drawn and coloured the picture of her madness, which be
linc aepd Sterneo  whose heart                             hvas not so susce  t  ble i   himself had occasionei! This fact only adds to some which
lie; and Sterne, whose heart was not so susceptible in  have so deeply injured the sentimental character of this au.
ordinary occurrences, while he was gradually creating  thor, and the whole spurious race of his wretched apes. His
incident after incident, touching the emotions one after  life was loose, and shantdean. his principles unsettled, and it
another, in the stories of Le Fevre and Maria, might have  does not seem that our wit bore a single attraction of personal
thrilled —like some of his readers.*  Many have mourned   affection about him; for his death was characteristic of his
life. Sterne died at his lodgings, with neither friend nor rela.
* Long after this was written, and while this volume was  tive by his side; a hired niurse was the sole companion o' the
assing through the press, I discovered a new incident in the  Iman wshose wit found admirers in every street, but whose
life of Sterne, which verifies my conjecture. By some un-  heart could not draw one by his death.bed
published letters of Sterne's in Mr lMurray's Collection of Au.    * The Dutch call every thing for which they have a passion
tographical Letters, it appears that early in life, he deeply  lief-hebberge-things having their love; and as their feeling
fixed the affections of a young lady, during a period of five  is much stronger than their delicacy, they apply the term to.
ears, arid for some cause I know not, he suddenly deserted   every thing, firom  poesy and picture to tuinps and tobacco
qer and married another. The young lady was too sensible of  Lief.hebbers are lovers or fanciers




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                           439
often marked the boundary of the existence of the opulent  whom the centuries behind have conveved no results, and
owner.                                                     who cannot see how the present tine is always full of the
His invisible days flow on in this visionary world of  future; as Leibnitz has expressed a profound reflection.
literature and art; all the knowledge, and all the tastes,' Every thing,' says the lively Burnet,' must be brought to
Which genius has ever created are transplanted into his  the nature of tinder or gunpowder, ready for a spark to set
cabinet; there they flourish together in an atmosphere of  it on fire,' before they discover it.  The man of letters is
their own.  But traniquillity is essential to his existence;  accused of a cold indifference to the interests which divide
for though his occupations are interrupted without incon-  society.  In truth, he knows theirmiserable beginnings and
venience, and resumed without effort, yet if the realities of  their certain terminations; he is therefore rarely observed
life, with all their unquiet thoughts, are suffered to enter  as the head, or the rump, of a party.
into his ideal world, they will be felt as if something were  Antiquity presents such a man of letters in Atticuss who,
flung with violence among the trees where the birds are  retreated from a political to a literarylife; had hit letters.
singing, —all would instantly disperse.                    accompanied those of Cicero they would have illustrated
Such is that life of self-oblivion of the man of letters, for  the ideal character of a man of letters.  But the sage Atwhich so many have voluntarily relinquished a public sta-  ticus rejected a popular celebrity for a passion not less;
tion; or their rank in society; neglecting even fortune arid  powerful yielding up his whole soul to study.  Cicero, with,
health.  Of the pleasures of the man of letters it may be  all his devotion to literature, was still agitated by anothersaid, they combine those opposite sources of enjoyment  kind of glory and the most pertect author in Rome imaginobserved in the hunter and the angler.  Of a great hunter  ed that he was enlarging his honours by the intrigues of
it was said, that he (lid not live but hunted; arid the man  the consulship.  He has distinctly marked the character.
of letters, in his perpetual researches, feels the like heat,  of the man ofletters in the person of his friend Atticus, and.
and the joy of discovery, in his own chase; while in the  has expressed his respect, although he could not contentr
deep calm of his spirits, such is the sweetness of his unin-  himself with its imitation.' I know,' says this man of
terrupted hours, like those of the angler that one may say of  genius and ambition,' I know the greatness and ingenuous-.
him what Colonel Venables, an enthusiastic angler, de-  ness of your soul, nor have I found anry difference between
dared of his favourite pursuit,'many have cast off other  us, but in a different choice of life; a certain sort of amrecreations and embraced this; but I never knew any an-  bition has led me earnestly to seek after honours, while
gler wholly cast oil; though occasions might interrupt, their  other motives. by no means blameable, induced yvu to,
affections to their beloved recreation.'                   adopt an honourable leisure; honestum otium.'*  These
But' men of the world,' as they are so emphatically   motives appear in the interesting memoirs of this man of:
distingutished, imagine that a man so lifeless in' the world'  letters-a contempt of political intrigues with a desire to,
must be one of tire dead in it, and, with mistaken wit,  escape from the bustle and splendour ofRome to the learn-.
would inscribe over the sepulchre ofhis library,' Here lies  ed leisure of Athens; to dismiss a pompous train of slaves'
the body of our fiiend.' If the man of letters has volun.  for the delight of assembling itneder his roof a literary
tarily quitted their' world,' at least he has past into another  society of readers and transcribers; arnd there having col-.
where he enjoys a sense of existence through a long suc-  lected the portraits or busts of the illustrious muen of his
cession ofages, and where Time, who destroys all things for  country, he caught their spirit and was influenced by their
others, for him only preserves and discovers.  This world  virtues or their genius, as he inscribed tinder them, in conas best described by one who has lingered among its inspi-  cise verses, the characters oftheir mind.  ~ aluing wealih.
rations.' We are wafted into other times and strange  only for its use, a dignified economy enabled hin to be
lands, connecting us by a sad but exalting relationship with  profuse, and a moderate expenditure allowed him to be
the great events and great minds which have passed away.  generous.
Our studies at once cherish and controul the imagination,    The result of this literary life was the strong affections.
by leading it over an unbounded range of the noblest scenes  of the Athenians; at the first opportunity, the absence ofi
in  the overawing  company  of departed wisdom  and  the man of letters offered, they raised a statue to hinm,
gerius'*                                                   conferring on our Pomponius the fond surname of Atticus..
If the man of letters is less dependent on others for the  To have received a name from the voice of the city they
very perception of his own existence, his solitude is not  inhabited, has happened to more than one man of letters..
that of a desert, but ofthe most cultivated humanity; for all  Pinelli, born a Neapolitan, but residing at Venice, among:,
there tends to keep alive those concentrated feelings which   other peculiar honours received from the senate, was there
cannot be indulged with security, or even without ridicule,  distinguished by the affectionate title of' the Venetian.'
in general society.  Like the Lucullus of Plutarch, he       Yet such a character as Atticus coiild not escape cen-.
would not only live among the votaries of literature, but  sure from' men of the world;' they want the heart and the.
would live for them; he throws open his library, his gal-  imagination to conceive something better than themselves.
iery, and his cabinet, to all the Grecians.  Such are the  The happy indifference, perhaps the contempt, of our At-.
men who father neglected genius, or awaken its infancy by  ticus for rival factions, they have stigmatised as a cold neu..
the perpetual legacy of the'Prizes' of Literature and  trality, and a timid cowardly hypocrisy.  Yet Atticus,
science; who project those benevolent institutions where  could not have been a mutual friend, had both not alike
they have poured out the philanthrophy of their hearts in  held the man of letters as a sacred being amidst their dis-.
t hat world which they appear to have forsaken. If Europe  guised ambition; and the urbanity of Atticus, wvhile it
is literary, to whom does she owe this, more than to these  balanced the fierceness of two heroes, Pompey and Cisar,
men of letters? To theirnoble passion ofamassing through   could even temper the rivalry of genius in the orators:
life those magnificent collections, which often bear the  Hortensius and Cicero.  A great man of our own country
names of their founders from  the gratitude of a following  widely differed from  the accusers of Atticuls; Sir Mat..
age? Venice, Florence, anc Copenhagen, Oxford and  thew Hale lived in times distracted, and took the characLondon, attest the existence of their labours.  Our Bod.  ter ofour man of letters for his model, adopting two prinleys and our Harleys, our Cottons aa, our Sloanes, our  ciples in the conduct of Atticus; engaging with no party
Cracherodes and our Townleys, were of this race! In the  or public business, and affording a constant relief to the
perpetuity of their own studies, they felt as if they were  unfortunate of whatever partv. he was thus preserved
extendina human longevity, by throwing an unbroken light  amidst the contests of times.  Even Cicero himself, in his
of knowledge into the next age. Each of the public works,  happier moments, in addressing his friend, exclaims-' I
for such they become, was the project and the execution   had much rather be silting on your little bench under Aris
of a solitary man of letters during halfa century; the gene-  totle's picture, than in the curlle chairs of our great ones.
rous enthusiasm  which inspired their intrepid labours;  This wish was probably sincere, and reminds us of another
the difficulties overcome; the voluntary privations of what  great politician in his secession from public affairs, retreatthe world calls its pleasures and its honours would form   ing to a literary life, when he appears suddenly to have
an interesting history not yet written; their due, yet un-  discovered a new-found world. Fox's favourite line, which
discharged.                                                he often repeated, was,
Living more with books than with men, the man of let-         ow various his employments whom the world
ters is more tolerant ofopinions than they are among them-     Calls idle.'                               Coop-hr.
selves, nor are his views of humnn  affairs contracted to
the day, as those who in the heat and hurry of life can act    If the personal interests of the man of letters are not
only on expedients, and not on principles; who deem then-  too deeply involved in society, his individual prosperity
selves politicians because they  are not moralists; to  however is never contrary to public happiness.  Othes
* quarterly Review, No. XXXIII, p  45.                           * Ed Attictlm, Lib. i. Ep. 17.




440                        LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
professions necessarily exist by the conflict and the cala-  sustained the general cause of science.-The corres.
nities of the community; the politician is great by hatch-  pondence of Peiresc branched out to the farthest bounds
ing an intrigue; the lawyer is counting his briefs; the  of Ethiopia, connected both Americas, and had touched
physician his sick-list; the soldier is clamorous for war,  the newly discovered extremities of the universe, whei
and the merchant riots on the public calamity of high  this intrepid mindt closed in a premature death.
prices.  But the man of' letters only calls for peace and    I have drawn this imperfect view of'Peiresc's character,
books, to unite himself with his brothers scattered over  that men of letters may be reminded of the capacities they
Europe; and his usefulness can only be felt, when, after  possess.  There still remains another peculiar feature.
along interchange of destruction, men during short inter-  With all these vast views the fortune of Peiresc was not
vals, recovering their senses, discover that' knowledge  great; and when he sometimes endured the reproach of
is power.'                                                 those whose sordidness was startled at this prodigality of
Of those eminent men of letters, who were not authors,  mind, and the great objects which were the result, Peirese
the history of Peirese opens the most enlarged view of  replied that' a small matter suffices for the natural wants
txheir activity.  This moving picture of a literary life had  of a literary man, whose true wealth consists in the moe-'been lost for us, had not Peiresc found in Gassendi a twin-  numents of arts, the treasures of his library, and the bro-:spirit; so intimate was that biographer with the very  therly affections of the ingenious.' He was a French.
ithoughts; so closely united in the same pursuits, and so  judge, but he supported the dignity more by his own chaperpetual an observer of the remarkable man whom  ie has  racter than by luxury or parade. He would not wear slk,,immortalized, that when employed on this elaborate resem-  and no tapestry hangings ornamented his apartments; but!blance of his friend, he was only painting himself with all  the walls were covered with the portraits of his literary
)the identifying strokes of self-love.                      friends: and in the unadorned simplicity of his study, his
It was in the vast library of Pinelli, the founder of the  books, his papers, and his letters were scattered about him
qmost magnificent one in Europe, that Peiresc, then a  on the tables, the seats, and the floor. There, stealing
youth, fek the remote hope of emulating the man of letters  from the world, he would sometimes admit to his spare
before his eyes.  His life was not without preparation, not  suipper his friend Gassendi,' content,' says that amiable.Without fortunate coincidences, but there was a grandeur  philosopher,' to have me for his guest..of design in the execution, which originated in the genius   Peirese, like Pinelli, never published any work.  Few
of the man himself.                                        days, indeed, passed without Peirese writing a letter orn
The curious genius of Peiresa  was marked by its pre-' the most curious inquiries; epistles which might be concosity, as usually are strong passions in strong minds; this  sidered as so many little books, observes Gassendi.*
was the germ of all those studies which seemed mature in  These men of letters derived their pleasure, and perhaps:his youth. He resolved on a personal intercourse with the  their pride, from  those vast strata of knowledge which
g-reat literary characters of Europe; and his friend has  their curiosity had heaped together in their mighty colecthrown over these literary travels, that charm  of detail by  tions.  They either were not endowed with that faculty of,which  we accompany Peirese into the libraries of the  genius which strikes out aggregate views, or with the'talearned; there with the historian opening new sources of  lent of composition which embellishes minute ones. This
history, or with the critic correcting manuiscripts, and set-  deficiency in the minds of such may be attributed to a
tlim,, points of erudition; or by the opened cabinet of the  thirst of learning, which the very means to allay can oniv;antiquary, decyphering obscure inscriptions, and explain-  inflame.  From all sides they are gathering information;
Ieg medals; in the galleries of the curious in art, among   and that knowledge seems never perfect to which every
their marbles, their pictures and their prints, he has often  day brings new acquisitions.  With these men, to comrevealed to the artist some secret in his own art.  In the  pose is to hesitate: and to revise is to be mortified by
museum  of the naturalist, or among the plants of the  fresh doubts and unsupplied omissions.  Peiresc was enibotanist, there was no rarity of nature, and no work of art  ployed all his life in a history of Provence; and day after
on which he had not to communicate; his mind toiled with  day he was adding to the splendid mass.  But' Peiresc,'
that impatience of knowledte, that becomes a pain only in  observes Gassendi,' could not mature the birth of his litethe cessation of' rest.  In England Peirese was the asso-  rary offspring, or lick it into any shape of elegant form; he
eciate of Camden and Selden, and had more than one inter-  was therefore content to take the midwife's part, by helpview with that friend to literary men, our calumniated  ing the happier labours of others.''a-nmes I; one may jude by these who were the men            Such are the silent cultivators of knowledge, who are
whom he first sought, and by whom he himself ever after  rarely authors, but who are often, however, contributing
was sought.  Such indeed were immortal friendships! im-  to the works of authors: without their secret lahours, the.mortal they may be justly called, from the objects in which  public would not have possessed many valued works.
they concerned themselves, and from the permanent re-  That curious knowledge of books which, since Europe has
sults of their combined studies.                           become literary, is both the beginning and the result of
Another peculiar greatness in this literary character  knowledge; and literary history itself, which is the hiswas his enlarged devotion to literature for itself; he made  tory of the age, of the nation and of the individual, one of'his own universal curiosity the source of knowledge to  the important consequences of these vast collections of,other men; considering the studious as forming but one  books, has almost been created in our own times.  These
great family wherever they were, the national repositories  sources, which offer so much delightful instruction to the
of knowledge in Europe, for Peiresc, formed but one col-  author and the artist, are separate studies from the cultiiect~on for the world.  This man of letters had possessed  vation of literature and the arts, and constitute more parhimself of their contents, that he might have manuscripts  ticularly the province of these men of letters.
csllected, unedited  pieces explored, extracts supplied, and  The philosophical writer, who can adorn the page or
even draughtsmen employed in remote parts of the world,  history, is not always equal to form it.  Robertson, after
to furiish views and plans, and to copy antiquities for the  his successful history of Scotland, was long irresolute in
stsnent, who in some distant retirement discovered that the  his design, and so unpractised in researches of the sort
literary treasures of the world were unfailingly opened to  he was desirous of attempting, that his admirers had
him by the secret devotion of this man of letters.         nearly lost his popular productions, had not a fortunate
Carrying on the same grandeur in his views, Europe   introduction to Dr Birch enabled him to open the clasped
could not limit his inextinguishable curiosity; his univer-  books, and to drink of the sealed fountains. Robertson
sal mind busied itself in every part of the habitable globe.  has confessed his inadequate knowledge and his overflow[te kept up a noble traffic with all travellers, supplying  ing gratitude, in letters which I have elsewhere printed.
them with philosophical instrurnments and recent inventions,  A suggestion by a man of letters has opened the career of
by which he facilitated their discoveries, and secured their 
reception even in barbarous realms; in return he claimed,     The history of the letters of Peires is rerarksble. He
at his own cost, for he was'born rather to give than to re-  preserved copies of his entire correspondence; but it has beer
ceive,' Says Gassendi, fresh  Importations of oriental  recorded that many of these epistles were consumed. to save
literature, curious antiquities, or botanic rarities, and it  fuel, by the obstinate avarice of a niece. This would not nave
was the curiosity of' Peiresc which first embellished his  been a solitary instance of eminent men leaving their colleeown garden, and thence the gardens of Europe, with a  tinn to unworthy descendtnts. However, alter the silence of
rich vriety of exotic flowers and fruits.    he  more than a century, some of these letters have been recovered
rich variety of exotic flowers and fruits. Whenever heanmybefudisoeFncjurlsl'AMlin
was presented with a medal, a vase, or a manuscript, he  and may be found in some French journals of A. Millins
They descended firom  the gentleman whho married this very
siever slept over the gift till he had discovered what the  niece, probably the remains of the collection. The letters a,.
donor deliehted in; and a book, a picture, or a plant, when  swer to thie description of Gassendi, full ofriurious knowledge
monley could rot be offered, fed their mutual passion and  and observation.




LITERARY CIIARACTER, &c.                                                            441
iman- an aspirant; a hint from Walsh conveyed a new   vigour, and envy leaves you in peace.'  The opening of
con. upoion of English poetry to one of its masters.  The   one of La Mothe le Vayer's Treatises is striking:'I
celebrated treatise of Grotius, on' Peace anrid War,' was  should but ill return the favours God has granted me in tile
projected by Peiresc. It was said of Ma21iabechi, who  eightieth year of my age, should I allow  myself to give
knew all books and never wrote one, that by his diffusive  way to that shameless want of occopation which I have
comminunications he was in some respects concerned in all  condemned all my life;' and the old man proceeds with
the great works of his times.  Sir Robert Cotton greatly  his' observations, on the composition and reading of
assisted Canimdent and Speed; and that hermit of litera-  books.' The literary character has been folly occupied
ture, Baker of Cambridge, was still supplying with his in-  in the eightieth and ninetieth year of life.  Isaac W'alton
valuable researches, Burnet, Kennet, Hearne, of Middle-  still glowed while writing some of the most interestina
ton. Such is the concealed aid which these men of letters  biographies in his eighty-fifth year, and in his ninetielt
afford our auithors, and which we may compare to those  enriched the poetical world with the first publication of a
subterraneous streams, which flowing into spacious lakes,  romantic tale by Chalkhill,' the friend of Spenser.'  Bodare still, unobserved, enlarging the waters which attract  mer, beyond eighty, was occupied on Homer, and Wiel.
the public eye.                                            land on Cicero's Ietters.*  But the delight of opening a
Such are these men of letters! but the last touches of  new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vitheir picture, given with all the delicacy and warmth of a  vacity and novelty of youth even to old age; the revoluself-painter, may come from the Count de Caylus, cele-  tions of modern chemistry kindled the curiosity of Dr
brated for his collections and for his generous patronage   Reid to his latest days; and a deservedly popular author,
of artists.                                                now advanced in life, at this moment, has discovered, in'His glory is confined to the mere power which he has  a class of reading to which he had never been accustomed,
of being one day useful to letters and to the arts; for his  what will probably supply him with fresh furniture for his
whole life is employed in collecting materials,of which   mind during life.  Even the steps of time are retraceo,
learned men and artists make no use till after the death of  and what has passed away again becomes ours; for in
him who amnassed them.  It affords himn  a very sensible  advanced life a return to oiir early studies refreshes and
pleasure to labour in hopes of heing useful to those who  renovates the spirits; we open the poets who made us
pursue the same course of studies, while there are so  enthusiasts, and the philosolphers who tauglht us to think
great a number who die withotut discharging the debt  with a new source of feeling in our own experience. Adam
which they incur to society.'                              Smith confessed his satisfaction at this pleasure to pro.
fessor Dugald Stewart, while'he was reperuising, with
CHAPTER  XVII.                           the enthusiasm of a studemt, the tragic Itoets of ancient
LIT:ERASRY  OLD ACE.                     Greece, and Sophocles and Euripides lay open on his
table.'
The old age of the literary character retains its enjoy-     Dans ses vetoes toujours unyjeun  sang houillone,
ments, and utsually its powers, a happiness which accom-        t Sophocle         s peint encore  ntign.
FEt Sophocle/A cenc arns peinE encore Antigone.
panies no other. The old age of coquetry with extinct
beauty; that of the used idler left without a sensation;  The calm philosophic Hume found death only could interthat of a grasping Crssus, who envies his heir; or that  rupt the keen pleasure lie was again receiving from Luof the Machiavel who has no longer a voice in the cabinet,  clan, and which could inspire him at the moment with a
makes all these persons resemble unliappy spirits who  humourous self-dialogue with Charon.
cannot find their graves.  But for the aged nian of letters    Not without a sense of exultation has the literary chamiemory returns to her stories, arid imagination is still on  racter felt his happiness, in the unbroken chain  of his
the wing, amidst fresh discoveries and new designs.  The  habits and his feelings.  Hobbes exulted that he had outothers fall like dry leaves, but he like ripe fruit, and is  lived his enemies, and was still the same -Hobbes; and to
valued when no longer on the tree.                         demonstrate the reality of this existence, published, in the
The intellectual faculties, the latest to decline, are often  eighty-seventh year of his age, his version of the Odyssey,
vigorous in the decrepitude of age.  The curious mind is  and the following year, his Iliad.  Of the happy results of
still striking out into new puirsuits; and the mind of genius  literary habits in advanced life, the Count de Tressan, the
Is still creating.  ANcoRA t3tPaaO!-'Yet I am  learn-  elegant abridger of the old French romances, in his' liteing!' Such was the concise inscription of an ingenious  rary advice to his children,' has drawn a most pleasing
device of an old man placed in a chtild's go-cart, with an  picture.  With a taste for study, Ihich he found rather
hour-glass upon it, which Michael Angelo applied to his  inconvenient in the moveable existence of a man of the
own vast genius in his ninetieth year.*                    world, and a military wanderer, lie had however contrived
Time, the great destroyer of other men's happiness,  to reserve an hour or two every day for literary pursuits;
only enlarges the patrimony of literature to its possessor.  the men of science, with whom  he had chiefly associated,
A learned and highly intellectual firiend once said to me,  appear to have turned his passion to observation and
If I have acquired more knowledge these last four years  knowledge, rather than towards imagination and feeling;
than I had hitherto, I shall add materially to my stores  the combination formed a wreath fbr his grey hairs. When;n the next four years; arid so at every subsequent period   Count de Tressan retired from a brilliant to an affectionof my life, should I acquire only in the same proportion,  ate circle, amidst his family, he pursued his literary tastes,
the general mass of my knowledge will greatly accunmu-  with the vivacity of a young author inspired by the illusion
late.  If we are not deprived by nature or misfortune, of  of fame.  At the age of seventy-five, with the imagination
the meanis to pursue this perpetual augmentation of ktiow-  cfa poet, he abridged, he translated, he recomposed his
ledge, I do not see but we may be still fully occupied and   old Chivalric Romances, and his reanimated fancy struck
deep!y interested even to the last day of our earthly ter.'  fire in the veins of Ithe old man.  Among the first designs
In such pursuits, where life is rather wearing out, than  of his retirement was a singular philosophical legacy fobr
riusting out, as Bishop Cumberland expressed it, death  his children; it was a view if the history and progress of
scarcely can take uts by surprise: and much less by those  the human mind-of its principles, its errr's, and its adcontinued menaces which shake the old age of men, of no  vantages, as these were reflected in himself; in the dawnintellectual pursuits, who are dying so many years.       ings of his taste, the secret inclinations of his mind, which
Active enjoyments in the decline of life, then, consti-  the men of genius of'the age with whom he associated had
tote the happiness of literary men: the study of the arts  developed; in expatiatinuag on their memory, he calls on his
and literature spread a sunshine in the winter of their  children to witness the happiness of studly, in those pleadayvs: and their own works may be as delightful to them-  sures which were soothing and adorning his old age.
selves, as roses plucked by the Norwegian amidst his'Without knowledge, without literautre,' exclaims the
snows; and they will discover that unrearded kindness  venerable enthusiast,' in whatever rank we are bo'n, we
of nature, who has given flowers that only open it the  can only resemble the vulgar.'  To the Centenary Fortevening, and flower through the night-time. Necker ofifrs  tenelle the Count de Tressan was chiefly indebted for the
a beautiful instance even of the influence of late studies  happy life he derived from  the cultivation of literature
in life; for he tells us, that' the era of three-scoreand ten  and when this man of a hundred years died, Tressun,
is an agreeable age for writing; your mind has not lost its  himself on the borders of the grave, would offer the last
* This characteristic form closes the tecttres of Mr Fuseit  fruits of his mind in an eloge to his ancient master; it was
who thus indtirectly reminds us of the last words of Reynolds;  the voice of the dying to the dead, a last moment of the
aid the graver of Blake, vital as the pencil of Fuseli, has
raised the pers-so' of Michael Angelo witsi its admirable pir.    * See Curiosities of Literature on'The progress of old a!,
trait, breathing inspiration                              in new studies.'
56




442                        LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
love and sensibility of genius, which feeble life could not  derived from  birth, nor creation, but from public opi.ion,
extinguish.                                                and as inseparable from his name, as an essential qtality
If ihe genius of Cicero, inspired by the love of literature,  is from  its object; for the diamond will sparkle and the
has thrown something delightful over this latest season of  rose will be fragrant, otherwise, it is no diamond nor rose.
life, in his de Senectute; and if to have written on old age,  The great may well condescend to be humble to Genius,
in old age, is to have obtained a triumph over time,* the  since genius pays its homage in becoming proud of that
literary character, when he shall discover himself like a  humility.  Cardinal Richelieu was mortified at the cele.
stranger in a new world, when all that he loved has not  brity of the unbending Corneille; several noblemen were
life, and all that lives has no love for old age; when he  at Pope's indifference to their rank; and Magliabechi, the
shall find himself grown obsolete, when his ear shall cease  book-prodigy of his age, whom  every literary stranger
to listen, and natur' has locked up the man entirely within  visited at Florence, assured Lord Raley, that the Duke o:
himself, even then the votary of literature shall not feel the  Tuscany had become jealous of the attention he was re.,
decline of life, —preserving the flame alive on the altar,  ceiving from  foreigners, as they usually went first to see
and even at his last moments, in the act of sacrifice. Such   Magliabeclhi before the Grand Duke.  A  confession by
was the fate, perhaps now told for the first time, of the  Montesquieu states, with open candour, a fact tn his life,
great Lord Clarendon; it was in the midst of composition   which confirms this jealousy of the Great with the Lite.
that his pen suddenly fell from his hand on the paper, he   rary Character.'On my entering into life, I was spoken
took it up again, and again it fell; deprived of the sense of  of as a man of talents, and people of condition gave me a
touch, he found his hand without motion; the earl per-  favourable reception; hut when the success of my Persian
ceived himself struck by palsy-and thus was the life of  Letters proved perhaps that I was not unwortlhy of my
the noble exile closed amidst the warmth of a literary  reputation, and the public began to esteem me, my recepwork, unfinished.                                          tion with the great was discouraging, and I experienced in.
numerable mortifications.' Montesquieu subjoins a reflection sufficiently humiliating for the mere nobleman:'The
CHAPTER XVII.I
Great, inwardly wounded with the glory of a celebrated
LITERARY HONOURS.                         name, seek to humble it. In general he only can patiently
endure the fame of others, who deserves fame himself.'
Literature is an avenue to glory, ever open for those inLte raous   men who are deprived of honours or of wealth.  This sort of jealousy unquestionably prevailed in the late
kenth ious man who a dofe nous   to of weal    Lord Orford; a wit, a man of the world, and a man of
Like that illustrious Roman who owed nothing to his an- rank, but while he considered literature as a tare amuseLIrank, but while he considered lilerature as a mere amusecestors, videtur vx se natus, they seem  self-born; and in  ment, he was mortified at not obtaining literary celebrity;
the baptism  of fame, they have given themselves their  he felt his atthorial, always heneath his personal characname.  The sons rf a sword-maker, a potter, and a tax-   er; he roke with every literary man who looked up to
gatere~wee te. reaestofOraors  th mot mjesicter; he b)roke with every literary man who looked up to
gatherer, were the greatest of Orators, the most majestic  him as their friend; and how he has delivered his feelings
of poets, and the most graceful of the satirists of antiquity.        Johnson, Goldsmithand Gray, whom unfortunately for
uy'on Johnson, Goldsmith and Gray, whom unfortunately for
The eloquent Massillon, the brilliant Flechier, Rousseau   him  he personally knew, it fell to my lot to discover; I
and Diderot; Johnson, Akenside, and Franklin, arose  could add, but not diminish, what has been called the soamidst the most humble avocations.
It is the prerogative of genius to elevate obscure men  verity of that delineation.*
Who was the dignified character, Lord Chesterfield or
to the higher class of society; if the influence of wealth in  Who was the dinified character, Lord Chesterfield or
Samuel Johnson, when the great author, proud of his lathe present day has been justly said to have created a new   S                      n
w   bout, rejected his lordship's sneaking patronage?'I value
aristocracy of its own, and where they already begin to be   u, r       s  lrspnakin   trng? I e. I   myself,' says Swift.,' upon makinLI the ministry desire to
jealous of their ranks, we may assert that genius creates  msl, asSit uo    aigtemnsr   eiet
jealous of their ranks, we may assert that genius creates  be acquainted with Parnell, and not Parnell with the minisa sort of intellectual nobility, which is conferred on some  b   tn  wi           d not         ar     hte mi
try.' Piron would not suffer the Literary Character to he
Literary Characters by the involuntary feelings of the
I                         ~~~~~~~lowered in his presence. Entering the apartment of a
public; and were men of genius to bear arms, they might  lowed     hs enc ting   the  prt                        a
consist not of imaginary things, of griffins and chimeras,  nobleman, who was conducting another peer to the stair's
~2onsist not of imaginary things,  of griffins and chimeras,  hatelte  tpe   onaewyfrPfn    Ps
Z,                  J ~~~~~head, the latter stopped to make way for Piron. I'Pass
but of deeds performed and of public works in existence.  h           lt std t  n ae   ayr               ion'a
When Dondi raised the great astronomical clock at the  on my lord,' said the noble master,'pass, he is otly a
UnierstyfPdua  w h spoet.' Piron replied,'since our qualities are declared, I
University of Padua, which was long the admiration of
Europe, it gave a name and nobility to its maker and all  shall take my rank,' and placed himself before the lord.
his descendants; there still ltves a Marquis Dotdi dal'  Nor is this pride, the true source of elevated character,
Horologio.  Sir Hugh Middleton, in memory of his vast  refused to the great artist as well as the great author.
~orologio.  Sir Hugh Middleton, in memory of his vast  Michael Angelo,  invited by Julius  II, to the Court ot
enterprise, changed his former arms to hear three piles, by    Me    ngl           in      it    o   h    or   t
which instruments he had strengthened the works he had  Rome, found that intrigue had indisposed his Holiness to.
which instruments he had sitrengthened  the works he had'
wards him, and more than once, the great artist was suf.
invented, when his genius poured forth the waters through   wards him, and more than once, the great artist was suf
our metropolis, distinguishing it from  all others in th   fered to iner in attendance in the ant-chamber.  One
world.  Should not Evelyn have inserted an oak-tree in  day the indignant man of genius exclaimed,' tell his hll.
his bearings   For or author's'Sylva' occasioned the  ness, if he wants me, he must look fir me elsewhere.' Ilo
plsantation   Fo many millos o  timbe and the  flew back to his beloved Florence, to proceed with that
plantation of  Gmany  millions of timber-trees,' and th   celebrated cartoon, which afterwards became a favourite
present navy of Great Britain has been constructed with                           Thrice the Pope wrote for his re.
the oaks which  the genius of Evelyn planted.  If the pttb-  study with all artists.  Thrice the Pope wrote for his relic have borrowed thenius of Evelyn planted.  If the pub-  turn, and at lenth menaced the little state of Tuscany
lie have borrowed the names of some Lords to grace a
lr o L    a  with war, if Michael Angelo prolonged his absence.  He
Sandwich and a Spenser, we may be allowed to raise into    th            ar, a           lone    hi  e     e   He
returned. The sublime artist knelt at the feet of the Father
titles ofliterary nobility those distinctions which the public  of  the Church, trnin  asit is tronbled countenatce  in
voice has atrached to some authors;.zschylus Potter,  silence: Cn intermeing   Bishop offered himself as a  in
Athenian  t~tart, nd Anesvy~ Moore.silence: an intermeddling, Bishop offered himself as a ose-.Atthenian Stuart, and Ana~r,-rv~ Moore."
diator, apologizing for our artist by observing, that' of this
This intellectual nobility is not chimerical; does it not  r,    o      nour ar     tist     beri     tha       th
separate a man from the crowd?  Whenever the rightful  protd hitmour are these paitters made!' Julius ttrned to
possessor appearsWillnot the     eyesofallspect this pitiable mediator, and as Vasari tells used a switch on
possessor appears, will not the eyes of all spectators be  this occasion, observing,'yos  speak injuiously  of him,
5                            ~~~~~~~~~this. occasion, observing, I you speak injuriously of him,
fixed on him?  I allude to scenes which I have witnessed   while I am silent. It is you who are inorant.' Raising
while I am silent. It is you who are, i_,norant.'Rasn
Will not even literary honours add a nobility to nobility?  Michael Angelo, Julius I, emed    he man of gt.......' ~~~~~~Michael Angelo, Julius i[, embraced the man of genius.
and teach the nation to esteem a name which might other-' I can make lords of you every day, but I cannot create a
wise be hidden under its rank, and remnain unknown? Our  Titian,' said the Emperor Charles V to his courtiers, who
illustrious list of literary noblemen is far more glorious than  had become jealots of the hours, and the half-hours
the satirical'1 Catalolue of Noble Authors," drawn up
the satirical "Cataloue  of Noble Authors," drawn up   which that monarch managed, that he might converse with
by a polished and heartless cynic, who has pointed his  t  man of genius    his wor.   There is an elevated i
brilliant shafts at all who were chivalrous in spirit, or ap-  tercorse between Power and Genius; and if they are de
pertained to the family of genius. One may presume ontecusbtwnPoradGni;adifhyaed.
pertained o the fmil of enius.  One may presume  ficient in reciprocal esteem, neither are great.  The intelthe existence of this intellectual nobility, from the extra-  lctal nobiiiy seems to have been asserted by De Hrlay,
lecmtal nobility seems to have been asserted by De Harla~v,'dinary circumstance that the Great have actually felt a
jeaoutsy of the literary rank. But no rivality can exist in  a great French statesman, fhr when the academy was
once not received with royal henours, he complained to
the solitary honour conferred on an author: an honour not  the French  monarch, observino, that when ca man of let
she French monarch, observing, that when' a man of let* Spurinna, or tihe Comforts of Old Age, by Six Thomas  ters was presented to Francis I, for the first ime, the ktng
Bernard.                                                                 * Calamities of Authors Va' i




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                            443
always advanced three steps from  the throne to receive  privileged the family of La Fontaine to be for ever exempt,
nim.'                                                      from  taxes, and decreed that the productions of the mind,
If ever the voice of individuals can recompense a life of  were not seizable, when the creditors of Crebillon would
literary labour it is in speaking a foreign accent-it sounds  have attached the produce of his tragedies.  These dis.
like the distant plaudit of posterity. The distance of  tinctive honours accorded to genius were in unison with
space between the literary character and the inquirer in  their decree respecting the will of Bayle.  It was tiLe  sub.
some respects represents the distance of time which sepa-  ject of a law-suit between the heir of the will, and the inrates the author firom the next age.  Fontenelle was never  heritor by blood.  The latter contested that this great litemore gratified than when a Swede, arriving at the gates of  rary character, being a fugitive for religion and dying in a
Paris, inquired of the custom-house officers where Fonte-  prohibited country, was without the power of disposing of
nelle resided, and expressed his indignation that not one of  his property, and that our author, when he resided in
them had ever heard of his name.  Hobbes expresses his  Holland, was civilly dead.  In the parliament of Toulouse
proud delight that his portrait was sought after by foreign-  the judge decided that learned men are free in all couners and that the Great Duke of Tuscany made the philo-  tries; that he who had sought in a foreign land an asylum
sopher the object of his first inquiries.  Camden was not  from his love of letters, was no fugitive; that it was uninsensible to the visits of German noblemen, who were  worthy of France to treat as a stranger a son in whom
desirous of seeing  the British Pliny; and Pocock, while  she gloried; and he protested against the notion of a civil
he received no aid from patronage at home for his Oriental  death to such a man as Bayle, whose name was living
studies, never relaxed in those unrequited labours, from   throughout Europe.
the warm personal testimonies of learned foreigners, who     Even the most common objects are consecrates when
hastened to see and converse with this prodigy of eastern   associated with the memory of the man of genius.'We
learning.                                                  still seek for his tomb on the spot where it has vanished;
Yes! to the very presence of the man of genius will the  the enthusiasts of genius still wander on the hills of Paiworld spontaneously pay their tribute of respect, of admi-  silippe, and muse on Virgil to retrace his landscapes or
ration, or.of love; many a pilgrimage has he lived to re-  as Sir William Jones ascended Forest-hill, with the A lIeceive, and many a crowd has followed his footsteps. There   gro in his hand, and step by step, seemed in his fancy to
are days in the life of genius which repay its sufferings.  have trodden in the foot-path of Milton; there is a grove
Demosthenes confessed he was pleased when even a fish-  at Magdalen College which retains the name of Addison's
woman of Athens pointed him out.  Corneilie had his par-  walk, where still the student will linger; and there is a
ticular seat in the theatre, and the audience would rise to  cave at Macao, which is still visited by the Portuguese
salute hint when hie entered.  At the presence of Raynal  from a national feeling, where Carnoens is said to have
in the House of Commons, the speaker was requested to  composed his Lusiad.  When Petrarch was passing by
suspend the debate till that illustrious foreigner, who had   his native town he was received with the honors of his
written on the English parliament, was there placed and  fame; but when the heads of the tovwn, unawares to Pedistinguished, to his honour.  Spinosa, when he gained a  trarch, conducted him to the house where the poet was
humble livelihood by grinding optical glasses, at an obscure  born, and informed him that the proprietor had often wished
village in Holland, was visited by the first General in Eu-  to make alterations, but that the towns-people had risen to
rope, who, for the sake of this philosophical conference,  insist that the house which was consecrated by the birth of
suspended his march.                                       Petrarch should be preserved unchanged; this was a triIn all ages, and in all countries, has this feeling been   umph more affecting to Petrarch than his coronation at
created: nor is it a temporary ebullition, nor an individual  Rome.  In the village of Certaldo is still shown the house
nonour: it comes out of the heart of man.  In Spain,  of'Boccaccio; and on a turret are seen the arms ofrthe Me.
whatever was most beautiful in its kind was described by  dici, which they had sculptured there, with an inscription
the name of the great Spanish bard; every thing excellent  alluding to a small house and a name which filled the
was called a Lope.  Italy would furnish a volume of the   world.'Foreigners,' says Anthony Wood of Milton,
public honours decreed to literary men, nor is that spirit' have, out of pure devotion, gone to Bread-street to see
extinct, though the national character has fallen by the  the house and chamber where he was born;' and at Paris
chance of fortune; and Metastasio and Tiraboschi re-  the house which Voltaire inhabited, and at Ferney his stu.
ceived what had been accorded to Petrarch and to Pogaio.  dy, are both preserved inviolate.  Thus is the very apart.:ermany, patriotic to its literary characters, is the land of  ment of a man of genius, the chair he studied in, the table
the enthusiasm of genius.  On the borders of the Linnet,  he wrote on, contemplated with curiosity; the spot is full
in the public walk of Zurich, the monument of Gesner,  of local impressions. And all this happens from an un.
erected by the votes of his fellow-citizens, attests their sen-  satisfied desire to see and hear him whom  we never can
sibility; and a solemn ifuneral honoured the remains of  see nor hear; yet in a moment or illusion, if we listen to a
KIopstock, led by the senate of Hamburgh, with fifty thou-  traditional conversation, if we can revive one of his feelsand votaries, so penetrated by one universal sentiment,  ings, if we can catch but a dim  image of his person, we
that this multitude preserved a mournful silence, and the  reproduce this man of genius before us, on whose features
interference of the police ceased to be necessary througth   we so often dwell.  Even the rage of the military spirit
the city at the solemn burial of the man of genius.  Has  has taught itself to respect the abode of genius; and Caoeven Holland proved insensible?  The statue of Eras-  sar and Sylla, who never spared their own Roman blood,
nius, in Rotterdamn, still animates her young students, and  alike felt their spirit rebuked, and saved the literary city o!
offers a noble example to her neighbours of the influence  Athens.  The house of the man of genius has been spared
evei of the sight of the statue of a man of genius; nor  amidst contending empires, from the days of Pindar to
must it be forgotten that the senate ofRotterdam declared  those of Buffon; and the recent letter of Prince Schwartzof the enfigrant Bayle, that' such a man should not be  enberg to the Countess, for the preservation of the philo.
considered as a fireigner.' In France, since Francis I  sopher's chateau, is a memorial of this elevated feeling.*
created genius, and Louis XIV knew to be liberal to it,    And the meanest things, the very household stuff assothe impulse was comnmunicated  to the French people.  ciated with the memory of the man of genius, become the
There the statues of their illustrious men spread inspira-  objects of our affections. At a festival in honour of Thom-.
tion on the spots which living they would have hauntedin their theatres the great dramatists;  in their Institute  ~ to the grandeur of Milton's verse we perceive the feeling
* In the grandeur of Milton's verse we perceive the feeling
in t~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~heirtete  h    ra   rmtss;i   hi  nttt    associated with this literary honour.
their illustrious authors; in their ptublic edifices their other  he associated  ith this literary honour.
men of genius.*  This is worthy of the country which              The great Emathian conqeror  id spare
The house of Pindarus when temple and tower
* We cannot bury the Fame of our English worthies-that         Went to the ground —-     —.'       Sonnet VIII.
exists beb~re uts, indlependent of ourselves; but we bury theTo the Countess of Buffon, in Montard.
inltuence of their inspirile  presence in those immortal memorials of genius easylo be read by all men, their statues and'The Emperor, my Sovereign, having ordered me to pro.
their busts, consignirls them to spots seldom visited, and often  ride for the security of all places dedicated to the sciences,
too obsce,'o be viewed. Count Algarotti has ingeniously  and of such as recall the remembrance of men who have done
said'L'argtfet que nous empl-:yons en tabatihres et en pom.  honour to the age in which they lived, I have the honour to
pons servoit aux anciens h c6lbrer la m6moire des erands  send to your ladyship a safeguard for your cnateaui of Mont.
hommes par des monnumens dignes de passer a la postdrit6;  bard.
~t lb ou IPon brule des feux de joie pour une victoire rempor.-'The residence of the Historian of Nature must be sacred
tee, ils 6ievdrent des arcs de triomphe de porphyre et de mar.  in the eyes of all the friends of science. It is a idomain whieh
bre.' May we not, for otr honour, and fur the advantage of  belongs to all mankind  -I have the honour, &c.
gur artist; predict better times for ourselves?'SCHaWAxTZENBERG.




444                         LITERARY CH ARACTER, &c.
son the poet, the chair in which he composed part of his  singular revolution in the human mind, and, by ts re Rc'
Seasons was produced, and appears to have communicated  tion, in human affairs, was not effected b merchants urosome of the raptures to which he was liable who had sat  fiting over them by superior capital;or by admirals and gein that chair; Rabelais among his drollest inventions,  nerals humiliating them by victories; but by our au-hors,
could not have imagined that his old cloak would have  whose works are now printed at foreign presses, a circumbeen preserved in the University of Montpellier for future  stance  which proves, as much as the commerce and
doctors to wear on the day they took their degree; nor  prowess ofEngland, the ascendency of her genius.  Even
could Shakspeare, that the mulberry tree which he plant-  had our nation displayed more limited resources than its
ed would have been multiplied into relics., But in such   awful powers have opened; had the sphere of its dominion
instances the feeling is right with a wrong direction; and   been only its island boundaries, could the same literary
while the populace are exhausting their emotions on an   character have predominated, we might have attained to
old tree, and an old cloak, they are paying that involuntary  the same eminence and admiration in the hearts of our contribute to genius which forms its pride, and will generate  tinental neighbours.  The small cities of Athens and of
the race.                                                  Florence will perpetually attest the influence of the literary character over other nations; the one received the tri.
CHAPTER XIX.                             butes of the mistress of the universe, when the Romans
THE INFLUENCE OF AUTHORS.                      sent their youth to be educated at Athens; while the
Wherefore should not the literary citaracter be associat-  other, at the revival of letters, beheld every polished European crowding, to its little court.
ed in utility or glory with the other professional classes of  op     crowdin to its little court.
society? These indeed press more immediately on the at-    There is a small portion of men, who appear marked out
tention of men; they are stimulated by persona! interests,  by nature and habit, for the purpose of cultivating their
and    o    n they  are remunerated  by honours; while the literary  thoughts in peace, and giving activity to their sentiments,
and they are remunerated by honours; while the literary                                n 
character, from its habits, is secluded; prodcing its use-  by disclosing them to the people. Those who govern a na.
fulness in concealment, and often at a late period in life; not  tion cannot at the same time enlighten them;-author.
always too of immediate application, and often even unva- stand between the governors and the governed.
lued by the passing generation.                              Important discoveries are often obtained by accident,
It is curious to observe of the characters of the other  by the single thought of a man of genius, which has some,
classes in society, how each rises or falls in public esteem, times changed the dispositions of a people, and even of an
according to the exigencies of the timnes.  Ere we had  age, is slowly matured in meditation. Even the mechanV                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~aesloymaue invmedittions ofvenu  mthfrt  eoe perecthanits
swept from the seas all the fleets of our rivals, the naval cal inventions of genius must first become perfect in its
hero was the popular character; while military, from the  own solitary abode, ere the world can possess them.  The
political panic occasioned by standing armies, was in-  people are a vast body, of which men of genius are the
variably lowered in public regard; the extraordinary   eyes and the hands; and the public mind is the creation of
change  of circumstances, and the genius of one man,  the philosophical writer; these are axioms as demorstrachave ofntircumstancesrsed the genubli ofeeling.*
have entirely reversed the public feeling.*                ble as any in Euclid, and as sure in their operation, as any
The commercial character was long, even in this coun-  principle in mechanics.  When Epicurus  published his
try, placed very low in the scale of honour; the merchant  doctrines, men imimediately began to express themselves
was considered merely as a money-trader, profiting by the  with freedom  on the established religion; the dark and
individual distress of the nobleman, and afterwards was  fearful superstitions of paganism  fell into neglect, ant
viewed with jealots eyes by the country gentleman.  A   mouldered away, the inevitable fate of established false.
Dutch monarch, who initiated us into the mysteries of  hood.  When Machiavel, living amidst the principalities
banks and loans, by conibining commercial influence with  of Italy, where stratagem and assassination were the pall..
political power, raised the mercantile character.         tics of those wretched rivals, by lifting the veil firom these
But the commercial prosperity of a nation inspires no  cabinets ofbanditti, that calumniated man of genius, alarm.
veneration in mankind; nor will its military power win  ed the world by exposing a system subversive of all human
their affection.  There is ami interchange of opinions, as  virtue and happiness, and led the way to political freedom.
well as of spices and specie, which induces nations to  When ILocke and Montesquieu appeared, the old systems
esteem each other; and there is a glorious succession of  of government were reviewed; the principles of legislation
authors, as well as of seamen and soldiers, for ever  were developed: and niany changes have succeeded, and
standing before the eyes of the universe.                  are still to succeed.  Politicians affect to disbelieve that
It is by our authors that foreigners have been taught to  abstract principles possess any considerable influence on
subdue their own prejudices.  About the year 1700, the  the conduct of the subject.'In times of tranquillity,' they
Italian Gemelli told all Europe that he could find nothing  say,'they are not wanted, and in times of confusion they
among us but our writings  to distinguish us from  the  are never heard.' But this has been their error; it is in
worst of barbarians. Out' civil wars, and our great revolu-  leisure, when they are not wanted, that they are studied
tion, had probably disturbed the Italian's imagination. Too  by the speculative hart of mankind; and when they are
long we appeared a people whose genius partook of the  wanted they are already prepared for the active multitude,
density and  variableness of our climate, incapacitated   who come like a phalanx, pressing each other with an
even by situationi, from the enjoyment of arts which had   unity of ftbeling and an integrity of force.  Paley would not
not yet travelled to us; and as if Nature herself' had de-  close his eyes on what was passing before him; and he
signed to disjoin us from  more polished neighbours and  has observed, that durine the convulsive troubles atGeneva
brighter skies.  Wve now arbitrate among the nations of  the political theory of Rousseau was prevalent in the.
the world; we possess their involuntary esteem, nor is  contests; while in the political disputes of our country
there a man of genius among them who stands unconnect-  those ideas of civil authority displayed in the works oe
ed with our intellectual soveregnty.                       Locke, recurred in every form.  How, therefore, can the'e conquered France, but felt our captive's charms, echaracter of an author be considered as subordinate in so-'~econquered   France, but felt our captive s charms,
Her arts victorious triumphed o'er our arms.'           ciety? Politicians do not secretly think so, at the moment
At the moment Pope was writing these lines, that si  they are proclaiming it to the world: nor do they fancy,
At the moment Pope was writing these lines, that st-a  hywnd            hv   siaie  htppr3dgen  r
lnoeaoogei bacm ne  whichc as they would have us imagine, that paper and pens are
lent operation of genius had commenced, which changes
th  fteofntions.  The  irstwritrs o  Frace   s only rags and feathers; whatever they affect, the truth
the fatte of nations. The first writers of France were
were   and Buffon began his Natural History, our own naturalist
passing over into England to learn to think and write, or  Ray had openel their road to Natre.  Bacon,  ewton, and
r,                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~Ray had opened their road to Nature. Bacon, Newton, and
thought and wrote like Englishmen in France.f  This   Boyle, reduccd the fanciful philosophy of France into experi.
*Mr Gifford, in his notes to his recent Translation of Per-  ment and demonstration. Helvetius, Didterot, and their bro.
sius, with his accustomed keenness of spirit, has detected this  thers, gleaned their pretended discoveries friom our Shaties.
fa/ct in our papular nianners.'Persius, whenever he has occa.  bury, Mandlevillte, anti Toland, whom sometimes they only
sion tor a more worthless character than ordinary, commonly  translated.  Even our novelists were closely imitated.-Our
repairs to the camp for him. Fielding and Smollet in cornpli.  great compilations of voyages and travels, Hacklnyt, Chur.
anue with the cat-it of their times, manifested a patriotic abhor-  chill, &c, tfurnished Montesquieu with the moral facts he re.
rence ofthe military; and seldom went farther fbr a blockhead,  quired for his large picture of his'Esprit ties Lolt.' The
a parasite, tr an adept in low villany, than the Armylist. We  Cyclopmdia of Chambers was the parent of the French work.
have outlived this stiupid piece ofinjustice, and a' led-captain'  Even historical compilers existed in our country bebfore the
is no longoer considered as the indispensable vice of every  rade appeared in France. Our Universal Hiistory, and Stan.
novel.'                                                    ley, Echard, and Hooke, preceded Rollin andi otlier French
t Voltaire borrowei all the genius of our country; our poetry  abridilers of history; while Hume andi our philosophical his
and our philos)phy  Buffon began by translating Hales's  torians set them a nobler example, which remains for theou
fVegetablo  Static's  and before Linnmeus classed his plants,  yet to rival.




LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.                                                            445
is that they conide  thile worst actions of men, as of far  nius of our own country; and our authors are defrauded
less consequence than the propagation of their opinions.  even in the debt we are daily incurring of their posthuT'hey well know, as Sophocles declared, that' oipinion is  mous fame.
ever stronger than truth.' Have politicians not often ex-    When an  author writes on a national subject, he
posed their disguised terrors? Books, and sometimes their  awakens all the knowledge which lies buried in the sleep
authors, have been burnt; but burning books is no part of  of nations; he calls around him, as it were, every man of
their refutation.  Cromwell was alarmed when he saw the  talents; and though his own fame should be eclipsed by
Oceana of -larrington, and dreaded the effects of that  his successors, yet the emanation, the morning light, broke
volume miore than the plots of the royalists; while Charles  from his source.  Our naturalist Ray, though no man was
It. trembled at an author, only in his manuscript state;  more modest in his claims, delighted to tell a friend that
and in the height of terror, and to the honour of genius, it' since the publication of his catalogue of Cambridge
was decreed, that' Scribere est agere.'*                  Plants, many were prompted to botanical studies, and to
Observe the influence of authors in forming the charac-  hierbalise in their walks in the fields.' A work in France,
ter of men, where the solitary man of genius stamps his  under the title of' L'Ami des IHommes,' first spread there
own on a people.  The parsimonious, habits, the money-  a general passion for agricultural pursuits; and although
getting  precepts, the  vary cunning, and not the most  the national ardour carried all to excess, yet marshes were
scruoulous means to obtain the end, of Dr Frankhln, im-  drained and waste lands enclosed.  The Emilius of Roust
printed themselves ott his Americans; loftier feelings could  seau, whatever errors and extravagancies a system  whict:h
aot elevate a man of genius, who became the founder of a  would bring us back to nature may contain, operated a
irading peolple, retaining the habits of a journeyman print-  complete revolution in modern Europe, by changing the
er  while the elegant tastes of Sir William  Jones could  education of men; and the boldness and novelty of some
rispire the servants of a commercial corporation to open  of its principles communicated a new spring to the human
new and vast sources of knowledge; a mere company of  intellect.  The commercial world owes to two retired phi.
traders, irnfluenced by the literary character, enlarge the  losophers, in the solitude of their study, Locke and Srn.th,
stores of thie imagination and collect fresh materials for the  those principles which dignify Trade into a liberal pur.
history of human nature.                                   suit, and connect it with the happiness of a people.
I have said that authors produce their usefulness in pri-    Beccaria, who dared to raise his voice in faivour of havacy, and that their good is not of immediate application,  manity, against the prejudices of many centuries, by:'in
and often unvalued by their own generation.  On this oc-  work on' Crimes and Punishments,' at length abolishsd
casion the name of Evelyn always occurs to me.  This  torture; and Locke and Voltaire, on' Tleralion,' hare
author supplied the public with nearly thirty works, at a  long made us tolerant.  But the principles of many works
tinme when taste and curiosity were not yet domiciliated in  of this stamp have become so incorporated in our minds
our country; his patriotism warmed beyond the eightieth  and feelings, that we can scarcely at this day conceive the
year of his age; and in his dying hand he held another le-  fervour they excited at the time, or the magnaninity of
gacy for his nation. Whether his enthusiasm was intro- their authors in the decision of their opinions.
ducing to us a taste for medals and prints; or intent on      And to whom  does the wortd owe more than to the
purif.ing the city of smoke and smells, and to sweeten it  founders of miscellaneous writing, or the creators of new
by plantations of native plants; or having enriched our  and elegant tastes in Eurooeat nations'? We possess one
orchards and our gardens; placed summer-ices on our  peculiar to ourselves.  To (raniee   our natior is indebted
tables, and varied even the sallads of our country; fir-  for that visionary delight of recalling from their graves the
nishing' a Gardener's Kalendar,' which, as Cowley said,  illustrious dead' and. at it were, of living with them, as
was to last as long' as months and years,' arnd the horti-  far as a familiarity with their features and their very looks
culturist w:ll not forget Father Evelyn in the heir of his  forms a part of life. This pleasing taste for portraits seeins
fame, Millar  whether the philosopher of the Royal So-  peculiar to our nation, and was created by the ingenfity
ctety, or the lighter satirist of the toilette, or the fine mo-  of a solitary author, who had very nearly abandoned those
ralist for active as well as contemplative life;-yet in all  many delightful associations which a collection of fine porthese changes of a studious life, the better part of his  traits affords, by the want of a due comprehension of their
history has not been told. —Wvhile Britain retains her  nature among his friends, and even at first in the public.
awful situation among the nations of Europe, the' Sylva'  Before the miscellanists rose, learning was the solitary
of Evelyn will endure with her tritumphant oaks.  In the  enjoy, ent of the insulated learned; they spoke a language
third edition of that work the heart of the patriot exults at  of their own; and they lived in a desert, separated from
its restlt: he tells Charles, I' how many millions of tim-  the world; but the miscellanists became their interpreters,
her trees, besides itfinite others, have been propagated   opening a communication between two spots, close to each
and planted at the instigation, and by the sole direction of  other, yet which were so long separated, the closet and
this worn   It was an author in his studious retreat, who  the world.  These authors were not Bacons, Newtons,
casting a prophetic eye on the age we live in, secured the  and Leibnitzes; but they were Addison, Fontenelle, and
late victories of our naval sovereignty.  Inquire at the  Feyjoo, the first popular authors in their nations who
Admiralty how  the fleets of Nelson have  been con-  taught England, France, and Spain to become a reading
structed? and they can tell you that it was with the oaks  people; while their fugitive page imbues with intellectual
which the genius of Evelyn planted.'                       sweetness, an uncultivated mind, like the perfitmed mould
The same character existed in France, where De Ser-  which the swimmer in the Persian Sadi took up; it was a
res in 1599 composed a work on the cultivation of mul-  piece of common earth, but astonished at its fragrance, he
berry trees in reference to the art of raising silk-worms,  asked whether it were musk or amber?'I am nothing but
He taught his fellow citizens to convert a leaf into silk.  earth; but roses were olanted  or my soil, and their
and silk to become the representative of gold.  Our author  odorous virtues have deliciously penetrated through ail
encountered the hostility of the prejudices of his times in  my pores; I have retained the infusion of sweetness;
giving his country one of her staple commodities; but I  otherwise i had been but a lump of earth.'
lately received a medal recently struck in honour of De       There is a singleness and unity in the pursuits of
Serres, by the Agricultural Society of the department of  genius, through ail ages, which produces a sort of con.
thie Seine.  We are too slow in commemorating the ge-  sanguinity in the characters of authors.  Men of genius,
*Algernon Sydney was condemned to death for certain  in their different classes, living at distinct periods, or in
manuscripts,nfoud in his library; anl the reason alleged was,  remote countries, seem  to be the same persons with
that scribere est agere-that to write is to act. The papers  another name: and thus the literary character who has
which served to condemn Sydney, it appears, were only an.  long departed, seems only to have transmigrated.  In the
swers to Fi Imer's obsolete Defence oC~lonarchical Tyranny --
swers mto FIyners obsolete Defence of Monarchical Tyranny-r  great march of the human intellect he is still occupying the
The metapltysical inference drawn by the crown lawyers is
nt a ecessay   cnseqence.  Authos  may write that vhic   same place, and he is still carrying on with the same pownott a necessary consequence. Authors may write that which
they may rnot afterwards approve;  their manuscript opinionrs  ers, his great work, through a line of' centuries.
are very liable to be citanged, and authors even change those    In the history of genius there is no chronology, for to us
opinions they havre publishetl. A man ought only to lose his  every thing it has done is present; anid the earliest athead for his opinions, in the metaphysical sense; opinions  tempt is connected with the most' recenit.  Many men of
against opinions; but not an axe acgainst a pen.           nenius must arise before a particuilar man of genius can
f Since this has been written, the Diary of Evelyn is pub.  pear  Befre Homer there were other bards —we have
lished: it canrot adtl to his general character, whatever it may  apear.
a catalogue of their names and works. Corneille could
bed; but we may articipate much curios amusemnt from te  a cataloe  of their names and works. Corneille  could
diary of a literar character whose studies formed the bttsiness  not have been the chief dramatist of France. had not the
of life                                                    founders of the French dranta preceded him; and Pope




446                        LITERARY CHARACTER, &c.
could not have appeared before Dryden. Whether the  as his writings made John Huss the reformer of Bohemia,
works of genius are those of pure imagination, or searches  so the writins of John Huss led Martin Luther to be the
after truth, they are alike tinctured by the feelings and the  reformer of Germany; so extensive and so incalculable
events of' their times; but the man of genius must be  are the consequences which sometimes follow from huma.
placed in the line of his descent.                    actions.'*  Our historian has accompanied this by giving
Aristotle, Hobbes, and Locke, Descartes and Newton,  the very feelings of Luther in early life on his first perusal
approximate more than we imagine. The same chain of  of the works of John Htuss: we see the spark of creation
intellect Aristotle holds, through the intervals of time, is  caught at the moment; a striking influence of the generaheld by them; and links will only be added by their suc-  tion ofcharacter! Thus a father spirit has many sonst; and
cessors. The naturalists, Pliny, Gesner, Aldrovandus,  several of the great revolutions in the history of man have
and Buffon, derive differences in their characters from the  been opened by such, and carried on by that secret creaspirit of the times; but each only made an accession to  tion of minds visibly operating on human affairs.  In the
the family estate, while each was the legitimate repre-  history of the human mind, he takes an imperfect view,
sentative of the family of the naturalists. Aristophanes,  who is confined to contemporary knowledge, as well as he
Moliere, and Foote, are brothers of the family of national  who stops short with the Ancients, and has not advanced
wits: the wit of Aristophanes was a part of the common  with their descendants. Those who do not carry their re.
property, and Moliere and Foote were Aristophanic.  searches through the genealogical lines of genius, will
Plutarch, La Mothe le Vayer, and Bayle, alike busied in  mutilate their nminds, and want the perfect strength of an
amassing the materials of human thought and human ac-  entire man.
tion, with the same vigorous and vagrant curiosity, must    Such are' the great lights of the world,' ov whom the
have had the same habits of life. If Plutarch was credu-  torch of knowledge has been successively seized and
lous, La Mothe le Vayer sceptical, and Bayle philosophi-  transmitted from one to the other. This is that noble
cal, the heirs of the family may differ in thetr dispositions,  image borrowed from a Grecian game, which Plato has
but no one will arraign thle integrity of' the lineal descent.  applied to the rapid generations of man to mark how the
My learned and reflecting firiend, whose original researches  continuity of hnman affairs is maintained from age to age;
have enriched our national history, has thus observed on  The torch of genius is perpetually transferred from hand to
the character of Wickliffe:-' To complete our idea of the  hand amidst this fleeting scene.
importance of Wickliffe, it is only necessary to add, that  * Turner's History of England, vol. ii. p. 432.
END OF THE LITERARY CHARACTER.
CONTENTS OF THE LITERARY CHARACTER &c.
iUhapter.                                                                                   Page.
1. On Literary Characters,.                        o.             407
II. Youth of Genius,.                                  408
III.  The First Studies,......      412
IV. The Irritability of Genius,....          415
V. The Spirit of Literature, and the Spirit of Society,...             418
VI. Literary Solitude,.....      420
VII. Meditations of Genius,...      a..                   421
VI[II.  The Enthusiasm of Genius,  ~.,.,      424
IX.  Literary Jealousy,.......      427
X. Want of Mutual Esteem,....      a.      a             428
XI. Self-praise,....,...             428
XII.  The Domestic Life of Genius,....,             v      430
XIII.  The Matrimonial State,....                   433
XIV. Literary Friendships,.....                                                     436
XV. The Literary and the Personal Character,..            437
XVI. The Man of Letters,....                                  438
XVII. Literary Old Age,...                                              441
XVII1. Literary Honours,....,                                 442
XIX.  The Influence of Authors,.4.,.                  446




CURIOSITIES OF
AMERICAN LITERATURE
BY
RUFUS W. GRISWOLD,
AUTHOR OF "THE POETS AND POETRY OF AMERICA, At" 




TO THE READER,
THE. Publishers of this edition oft I'ISRAELI, anxious to enlargie the work by a&dtng
to it some of the " Curiosities of American Literature," applied to the Editor of the fol.
lowing pages for such an amount of matter, of the description herewith given, as might
be printed within certain specified limits; and he has gleaned from many rare and
curious old books relating to our country or written by our countrymen, and from other
sGor.rcea inaccessible to the general reader, what he trusts will be received as a suitabb!
apendix for an American impression of D'IsRAELI's interesting miscellany.
Doubtless the " Curiosities of Literature" and " The Literary Character Illustrated,"
constitute together the most valuable as well as the most amusing book of literary his.
tory and biography which has ever been written. Its popularity is great and universal.
In this country the materials for such a work are not abundant, and the reader will jlot
expect to find in the following pages articles intrinsically as interesting as those given
by an author unequaled in his department, whose field was the world. A rule which
the Editor has observed, to exclude every thing relating to contemporaries, induces the
omission of many things which might have been as attractive as what he has pre.
sented; but the propriety of such omissions will probably not be questioned.
PHILADELPHIA, November, 1843.




CURIOSITIES OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.
RARE AND CURIOUS BOOKS BY THE EARLY             of whom he says, that "she espoused her husband's
TRAVELERS IN AMERICA.                  obligations" as well as his person, " and whenever, by
iTnHE custom of defaming America by " false and scan- ties of nature, or squeezing of wax, he owed either moaalous reports, from the sulphureous breath of every  ney or love, she esteemed herself no less a debtor;"
hallad-monger," is one that has the warrant of anti-  and of a Mrs. Wilkins he says, "She is a tender wife,
amuty in its favour. " Such are the lying propensities  a kind mother, and is a woman well pois'd in all hunt the English nation who stay at home," says one of  mours; or, in other words, Mrs. Wilkins is a person
tile Puritans, " that it requires the devotion of much of  of an even temper, which render'd her conversation
our time and substance to refute their wicked calum-  more agreeable than those who laugh more, but smile
nles."  It was not only those who remained at home  less: Some there are, who spend more spirits, in strainwho were suspected of falsehood, for more than two  ing, for an hour's mirth, than they can recover in a
centuries ago the amiable Mr. William Wood, in his  month, which renders them  so unequal company
" New England's Prospect," complains of this dispo-  whilst she is always equal, and the same.'Tis virsltion of his countrymen; and a hundred years after-  tue to know her, wisdom, to converse with her, and
ward-in 1746-a prototype of the present generation  joy to behold her; or (to do her justice in fewer words)
or' scribblers upon America and the Americans, one  she is the counterpart of her pious husband, who withMr. Cross, who had been "convicted of forgery, and  out her, is but half himself."
sentenced to be hanged, after some time obtained the    Virgo Triumphans, or Virginia in generall; but the
favour of transportation," and did us the honour to  south part thereof in particular: including the fertile
take up his residence in Pennsylvania, against the in-  Carolana, and the no lesse excellent Island of Roanok;
habitants of which province he wrote a book which  richly and experimentally valued. Humbly presented ci
" contayned far more lyes than veritys."  But the early  the auspice of a beginning yeare to the Parliament of
travelers were not all of this description. With few  England and Councell of State. Bly Edward Williams,
exceptions they were fond of the marvellous, and some-  Gent.-This was published in London in 1650, and is dewhat more credulous than their successors, but many  dicated to " the supreme authority of this nation, the
of them were as earnest to defend as others to assail  Parliament of England," in language even more serthe sew found world." Among others, the respecta- vile and mean than was usual in that age. "This dedible Yr. Josselyn, who published his "Account of two  cation," says Mr. Williams, "in itselfe unworthy the
V'oya les to America," in 1764, was a very liberal and  honour of an addresse to your Grandeurs, and of a foile
enter aining writer. He was the first one to chronicle  too dead in shaddow to approach neere your most vigothe appearance of the remarkable visiter who still as  rous luster, reposes itselfe yet upon a confidence that
often as once a year exhibits himself for the behoof of  in imitation of that God of whom you are in power the
keenrers of hotels about Nahant and the adjacent bays  proper representatives, who vouchsafed graciously to
and promontories,-" the sea-serpent that lay quoiled up  accept a poore paire of Turtles from those whose abilike a cable on a rock at Cape Ann,"-and he tells us of  lities could not ascend to a more rich oblation, you will
a " triton, or mereman, which one Mr. Mitten, a great be pleased to cast a favourable aspect upon this humble
fowler, saw in Casco Bay; which triton, laying his  offering, as proceeding from a gratefull, cleere and
hands upon the side of the canoe, had one of them   sincere intention, whose desire being strongly pas.
chopped off by the said Mitten, which was in all re-  sionate to present your Honours with something
spec's like the hand of a man," with many similar tales, more worthy the auspice of a beginning yeare, is
on which he makes this sensible reflection: "These, circumscribed by a narrownesse of abilities and forwita many other stories, they told me, the credit where- tunes."
of I shall neither impeach nor enforce, but shall satisfy    We quote a portion of his description of Virginia,
myself, and I hope the reader, with the saying of a  which, with some of the early writers, comprehended
wise, learned, and honourable knight, that'there be  all the country from Cape Cod to Florida. "Yet to
man, strang'er things in the world than are to be seen be- shew," he says, "that nature regards this ornament
tween London and Stanes."' Another traveler, much  of the new world with a more indulgent eye than she
mere willing to commend than to censure, was Mr. hath cast upon many other countreys, whatever China;
Michael Dunton, who came to Boston in 1686, and after-  Persia, Japan, Cyprus, Candy, Sicily, Greece, the South
ward published his "Life and Errors."  He visited  of Italy, Spaine, and the opposite parts of Africa, to
the authorities and the clergy in that part of New   all which she is parallel, may boast of, will be produced
Eneiish America," and gave liberally of praise to all. in this happy countrey. The same bounty of summer.
nme of his especial favourites was a Mrs. Green, wife  the same milde remission of winter, with a more virgin:t one of the first printers who came to this country,  and unexhausted soyle being materiall arguments to
3




4                                   CURIOSITIES OF
uhew that modesty and truth receive no diminution by  very glad to see him; and in signe of lone and obedi
the comparison. Nor is the present wildnesse of it  ence to bring something with him  of that which
without a particular beauty, being all over a naturall  in his countrie was most esteemed. That Cacique
grove of Oakes, Pines, Cedars, Cipresse, Mulberry,  answered by the same Indian:'That whereas he
Chestnut, Laurell, Sassafras, Cherry, Plum trees, and  said he was the Child of the Sunne, if he would
Vines, all of so delectable an aspect, that the melan-  drie vp the Riuer he would beleene him: and touchchollyest eye in the world cannot looke upon it with.  ing the rest, that hee was wont to vis.t none, but
out contentment, nor content himselfe without admira-  rather that all those of whom he had notice did visit
tion. No shrubs or underwoods choake up your pas-  him, serued, obeyed and paid him tributes willingly
sage, and in its season your foot can hardly direct  or perforce: therefore if hee desired to see him, it
itselfe where it will not be died in the bloud of large  were best he should come thither: that if bee came
and delicious strawberries: The rivers which every  in peace, he would receiue him with speciallgood wvAl;
way glide in deepe and navigable channels, betwixt the  and if in warre, in like manner hee would attend h;n
brests of this uberous Countrey, and contribute to its  in the towne where he was, and that for him  or any
conveniency beauty and fertility, labour with the multi-  other bee would not shrinke one foote backe.'"
rude of their fishy inhabitants in greater variety of spe-    The works relating to Virginia are nearly as numecies, and of a more incomparable delicacy in tast and  rous as those descriptive of New England. The last
sweetnesse than whatever the European sea can boast  which we shall notice is the "l istory and Present
of: Sturgeon of ten feet, Drummes of sixe in length;  State of Virginia," printed in London, in 1705. It is
Conger Eeles, Trout, Salmon, Bret, Mullet, Cod, Her-  valuable for its account of the civil history of the coloings, Perch, Lampreyes, and whatever else can be  ny down to that time.  After mentioning that the
desired to the satisfaction of the most voluptuous  Church of England was established by law, the author
wishes."                                             remarks-." They have no more than five conventiclea' The Sunne, which in other countreys makes his  among them, namely, three small meetings of Quakers.
visit in flames and droughts, heere casts his auspicious  and two of Presbyterians.'T is observed, that those
Beames, and by an innocent and complementalf  counties where the Presbyterian meetings are, produce
warmth, courts the bosome of this his particular favo-  very mean tobacco; and for that reason cant get an orrite, hastening and disposing its wombe for ripe pro. thodox minister to stay among them; but, whenever they
ductions, which salute him in an absolute perfection.  could, the people went very orderly to church. As for
Winter snowes, frosts, and other excesses, are heere  the Quakers,'t is observed that by letting them alone
only remembred, never known. The purling Springs  they decrease daily:-The maintenance of a minister
and wanton Rivers every where kissing the happy soyle  was appointed by law to be 16,000 pounds of tobacco
into a perpetuall verdure, into an unwearied fertility:  annually.  The fee for a funeral sermon was 400
no obstructions in your expectations, attempt and hope  pounds of tobacco; for a marriage license 200, &c.
them, prosecute and enjoy them."                     &c."
Another very rare and curious work, of a yet earlier    In 1706 was published " A Journal of Travels from
date, is entitled " Virginia richly valued by the descrip-  New Hampshire to Caratuck, on the Continent of North
Lion of the maine land of Florida, her next neighbour,  America. By George Keith."  Keith was a man of
out of the fore yeeres continuall trauel and discouerie,  learning, who came to this country the second time, in
for aboue one thousand miles East and W47est of Don  the same ship with Governor Dudley, in 1702. He.Ferdinando de Soto, and sixe hundred able men in his  was in the first place a schoolmaster and preacher
companie.  14Wherein are truly obserued the riches and  among the Quakers, but abandoned them and joined
fertilitie of those parts, abounding with things necessa-  the Church of England, by whose authorities he was
rie, pleasant, and profitable for the life of man: with the  selected, on the ground that a seceder is always the
natures and dispositions of the Inhabitants: Written  most industrious and vindictive of enemies, to annoy
by a Portulgall Gentleman of Eluas, emploied in all the  his former friends. He ultimately become the founder
action, and translated out of Portugese. This was print-  of a sect called Keithian Baptists. While in Massaed in London in 1609, though the Portuguese original  chusetts he had a quarrel with Increase Mather, and
appeared in 1557. Hackluyt was the translator, but it  one of his pamphlets was printed in New York, " the
is not in his collection of voyages. It is chiefly valua-  printer in Boston not daring to print it, lest he should
ble for the information it imparts of the adventures of  give offence to the Independent preachers there!"  In
the never to be sufficiently execrated De Soto. One in-  his travels he gives a characteristic anecdote. He was
cident is worth preserving. Most of the speeches of the  exposed to some danger in crossing a ferry to Rhode
caciques, given by the author, are doubtless fictitious;  I-sland, during a storm, when the boat he was in was
but there are a few exceptions, with intrinsic evidences  relieved by the exertions of John Burden, a Quaker.
of genuineness.  One of them is said to have been  After being brought safe on shore, he offered money
made but a short time before De Soto's death. "The  to the Quaker's men, which he would not allow them
Gouernour," says the narrator, "fell into great dumps  to accept; he then "thanked him very kindly for his
to see how hard it was to get to the Sea. and worse,  help in our great danger, and said to him, John, ye have
because his men and horses euery day diminished, be-  been the means under God to save our natural life, sufing without succour to sustaine themselues in the coun-  fer me to be the means under God to save your soul, by
try: and with that thought he fell sick. But before he  good information to bring you out of your dangerous
ooke his bed hee sent an Indian to the Cacique of  errours. He replied, George, save thy own soul, I havo
Quigalta to tell him, that bee was the Childe of the  no need of thy help; then, said 1, I will pray for your
Sunne, and that all the way that bee came all men obey-  conversion; he replied, the prayers of the wicked are
ed and serued him, that he requested him to accept of  an abomination; so uncharitable was he in his opinion
his friendship, and come vnto him: for he would be  concerning me, (as they generally are concerning al.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                    5
those who differ from them) though charitable in this  which shall be my full reward, as it was my whole am
action."                                           bition, and so I rest,
New-Englands Prospect.  A true, lively, and ex-          Thine bound in what I may,      W. W."
perimentall description of that part of America, cornm-    A discourse concerning the currencies of the BritishA
monly called  New-England: discovering  the state  plantations in America. Especially with regard to their
of that country, both as it stands to our new-come  paper money: more particularly in relation to the pro.
English Planters; and to the old Native Inhabitants.  vince of the Massachusett's Bay, in New-England
Laying down that which may both enrich the knowledge  -A  very well wlsmen pamphlet, published in 1739.
of the mind-travelling Reader, or benefit the future  The following observations from  this work, would
Voyager.-Written by William Wood, and printed in  apply to a later period.  "The goodly appearance
London by John Dawson, in 1639. It is the best topo-  which Boston, and the country in general, at pregraphical account of New England then published,  sent make in fine houses, equipage, and dress, is owand was valuable chiefly for its statistics.  The au-  ing to paper money. Never were greater complaints
thor's address to the reader, is, however, amusing, and  of want of money, while, at the same time, never more
we quote it entire. It is a favourable specimen of his  extravagance in equipages and dress. Boston, like a
style:                                             psivate man of small fortune, does not become richer,
" Though I will promise thee no such voluptuous dis-  but poorer, by a rich, goodly appearance."
course, as many have made upon a scanter subject,    A concise account of North America: containing a
(though they have travailed no further than the smoke  description of the several British Colonies on that con.
of their owne native chimnies) yet dare I presume to  tinent, including the islands of Newfoundland, Cape
present thee with the very true, and faithfull relation  Breton, &4c. as to their situation, extent, climate, soile,
of some few yeares travels and experience, wherein I  produce, rise, governments, religion, present boundawould bee loath to broach any thing which may puzzle  ries, andu the number of inhabitants supposed to be in
thy beleefe. and so justly draw upon my selfe, that un-  each. Also of the interior or westerly parts of the
just aspersion commonly laid on travellers; of whom   country, upon the rivers St. Laurence, the Mississipi,
many say, they may lye by authority, because none can  Christino and the great lakes.  To which is subjoined,
controule them, which Proverbe had surely his original  an account of the several nations and tribes of Indians
from the sleepy beleefe of many a homebred Dormouse,  residing in those parts, as to their customs, manners,
who comprehends not either the raritie or possibility  government, numbers, 4'c. containing many useful and
of those things he sees not: to whom the most clas-  entertaining facts never before treated of. —This was
sick relations seem riddles and paradoxes: of whom   written by Major Robert Rogers, and was published
it may bee sayd as once of Diogenes, that because hee  in 1765. Among the "entertaining facts never becircled himselfe in the circumference of a tubbe, bee  fore treated of," are perhaps the author's conjec.
therefore contemned the Port and Pallace of Alexander,  tures respecting the fogs of Newfoundland. " These
which hee knew not. So there are many a tub-brain'd  coasts," he says, " are observed to be extremely subCynicke, who because any thing stranger than ordinary, ject to fogs, occasioned by the vapours, which are ex
is too large for the straite hoopes of his apprehension,  haled from the lakes, swamps and bogs, with which the
he peremptorilye concludes it is a lye: But I decline  island abounds, as is generally supposed: but perhaps
this sort of thicke witted readers, and dedicate the mite  is more owing to the vast shoals of fish and sea animals
of my endeavours to my more credulous, ingenious, and  which frequent these coasts, whose breath, warmth,
lesse censorious Countrymen, for whose sakes I under-  and motion, occasion vapours to arise from the sea:
tooke this worke: and I did it the rather, because there  hence I imagine it is, that, notwithstanding the almost
have some relations heretofore past the Presse, which  perpetual fogs here, the air is wholesome and agreea
have beene very imperfect, as also because there have  ble to most constitutions, which would hardly be the
beene many scandalous and false reports past upon the  case if they sprung from bogs, swamps, and fresh water
Country, even from the sulphurious breath of every  lakes."
base ballad-monger: wherefore to perfect the one, and    At Berlin, in 1772, appeared a work entitled "Ameri
take off the other, I have layed downe the nature of  ca and the Americans," written by a German officer to
the Country, without any partiall respect unto it, as  defend the aborigines against the statements of De Pan.
being my dwelling place where I have lived these foure  He sums up the character of the Indians, at the conclu,
yeares, and intend God willing to returne shortly  sion of his book, in the following manner: "The sa.
againe; But my conscience is to me a thousand wit-  vages think as they please; they eat when they are
nesses, that what I speake is the very truth, and this  hungry; they sleep when they are sleepy; they walk
will informe thee almost as fully concerning it, as if  about when they choose; they do not torment themthou wentest over to see it. Now whereas I have writ-  selves about the future, and their labours are their
ten the latter part of this relation concerning the In-  amusements. It is true that they have the villanous
dians in a more light and facetious stile, than the form-  custom of sometimes eating their prisoners. This is
er: because their carriage and behaviour hath afforded  the life of a hog, it will be said; this mode, of living
more matter of mirth and laughter, than gravity and  cannot however be so bad as it may be supposed to be,
wisedome: and therefore I have inserted many pas-  since three-fourths of our noblemen live in the same
sages of mirth concerning them, to spice the rest of my  manner; the difference between them and the savages
more serious discourse, and to make it more pleasant.  is, that instead, like the latter, of eating their prisoners
Thus thou tanyest in two or three houres travaile over a  they often consume their creditors."
few leaves, see and know that, which cost him that writ    A General History of Connecticut, from its first Setit, yeares and travaile over sea and land, before he  tlement under George Fenwick, Esq., to i's latest period
knew it; and therefore I hope thou wilt accept it:  of Amity with Great Britian, including % Descrivtso
1




8                                  CURIOSITIES OF
of the Country and many curious and interesting  Some there be that doe annoynt them with the Oyle
Anecdotes.-This work was written by the Rev. Dr.  of Orenges, and so they performe a very good woorke.
Samuel A. Peters, and was declared by even the Bri-    "In any manner of griefe that is in the body or any
tish reviewers to contain " so many marks of party  other part therof it helpeth, proceeding of a cold cause
spleen and idle credulity as to be altogether unworthy  & applyed thereunto, it taketh it away, not without
9f public attention."  The author says that " treachery  greate admiration.
i the staple commodity of the four New England pro-    "In griefes of the brest it worketh a maruellous effect,
vinces," and gives a wonderful account of the Cahoos  & inespecially in those that doe cast out mater and rotfalls, near Albany, " where," he observes, "water is  tennesse at the mouth, and in them that are short breathcoilsolidated without frost, by pressure, by swiftness,  ed, and in any other olde euilles making of the hearbe a
between the pinching, sturdy rocks, to such a degree of  decoction, or with Sugar and Syrope, and being taken ininduration, that no iron crow can be forced into it."    little quantitie, it doth expell the Matters, and rottennes
" Ioyfll Newes out of the newfound world, wherein are  of the brest maruellously, and the smoke being taken in at
declared the rare and singular vertues of diuers and sun-  the mouth, doeth cause that the matter be expelled out
drie Herbs, Trees, Oyles, Plants, 4 Stones, with their ap-  of the brest of them that do featch their breath shorte.
plications, aswell to the vse of Phisicke, as Chirurgery:    "In the Toothache when the griefe commeth of a
which being wel applied, bring such present remedy for  colde cause, or of colde Rumes, putting to it a little
&2 diseases, as may seeme altogether incredible: notwith-  ball made of the leafe of the Tabaco, washing first the
standing by practize found out, to be true. Also the  tooth with a small cloth wet' the Juyce, it taketh
portrature of the sayde Herbes, very aptly described:  away the payne, and stayeth it, tha, he jptrifaction gee
Englished by Iohn Frampton, Merchant. Imprinted at  not forwarde: in hot causes it doth not profite, and this
London, in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the  remedy is so common that it healeth euery one.
Quenes Armes, by William Norton, 1580."-This is    "One of the meruelles of this hearbe, and that which
one of the most rare and curious of the books re-  bringeth most admiration, is, the maner howe the
lating to America printed in the sixteenth century.  Priestes of the Indians did vse it, which was in this
It was originally written in Spanish, by Doctor Mo-  manner: when there was enlongest the Indians any
nardes, of Seville. Although Frampton declares that  manner of businesse, of greate importaunce, in the
being no longer "pressed with the toiles of his old  which the chiefe Gentlemen called Casiques, or any
trade, to pass the tyme to some benefite of his  of the principall people of the countrie, had necessitie
court.rve, and to avoyde idlenes, he took in hand to  to consult with their Priestes, in any businesse of imtranslate the booke," he was probably in some way  portance: then they went and propounded their matter
interested in the sale of the trees, herbs, &c., "the  to their chiefe Priest, foorthwith in their presence, he
singular and rare vertues" of which are described by  tooke certayne leaues of the Tabaco, and cast them inits author in a style that would have been deemed cre-  to the fire, and did receiue the smoke of them at his
ditable to a modern Perkins, Brandreth, or Williams.  mouth, and at his nose with a-Cane, and in taking of it,
From that part of the work relating to " Tobacco and of  bee fell downe vppon the ground, as a Dead man, and,is great vertues," we copy a few paragraphs.      remayning so, according to the quantitie of the smoke
"This hearbe which commonly is called Tabaco, is an  that he had taken, when the hearbe had done his woorke
Hearbe of muche antiquitie, and knowen amongst the  he did reuiue and awake, and gaue them  their an.
Indians, and in especially among them  of the new  sweares, according to the visions, and illusions which
Spayne, and after that those Countries were gotten by  hee sawe, whiles hee was rapte in the same manner,
our Spaniardes, beyng taught of the Indians, they did  and he did interprete to them, as to him seemed best,
profite themselues with those things, in the wounds  or as the Diuell had counselled him, geuing them conwhich they receiued in their Warres, healing them-  tinually doubtfull answeares, in such sorte, that howselues therewith to their great benefite.          soeuer it fell out, they might say that it was the same,
"Within these few yeeres there hath beene brought  which was declared, and the answeare that he made.
into Spayne of it, more to adornate Gardens with the    "In like sort the rest of the Indians for their pas.
fairenesse thereof, and too geue a pleasaunt sight, than  time, doe take the smoke of the Tabaco, too make them.
that it was thought to haue the meruellous medicinable  selues drunke withall, and to see the visions, and thinges
vertues, which it hath, but nowe wee doe vse it more  that represent vnto them that wherein they doe delight.
for his vertues, than for his fairenesse. For surely  and other times they take it to knowe their businesse,
they are such which doe bring admiration.          and successe, because conformable to that, which they
" It is growing in many partes of the Indias, but ordi-  haue seene beyng drunke therewith, euen so they
nadrily in moyst and shadowie places, and it is needfull  iudge of their businesse. And as the Deuil is a dethat the grounde where it is sowen, bee well tilled, and  ceauer, & hath the knowledge of the vertue of hearbes,
that it be a fruitefull grounde, and at all times it is  so he did shew the vertue of this Hearb, that by the
sowen, in the hot Countries. But in the colde Coun-  meanes thereof, they might see their imaginations, and
tries it must bee sowen in the Moneth of Marche, for  visions, that he hath represented to them, and by that
that it may defende it selfe from the frost."      meanes deceiue them."' The proper name of it amongest the Indians is    Otherchapters treat of "Snowe, and the Vertues
Pieielt, for the name of Tabaco is geuen to it by our  thereof," " the unspeakable Vertue of iron and steele
Spaniardes, by reason of an Island that is named Ta-  in physicke," etc.
baco.  This hearbe Tabaco hath particular vertue to    Books of travel in America were hardly less frequent
heale griefes of the head, and in especially comming of  in the sixteenth and seventeenth than in the nineteenth
colde causes, and so it cureth the headake when it com-  century; and the passages we have given from some
meth of a cold humor, or of a windy cause. The Leaues  of the most rare of those which have been preserved
tmust be layde hotte to the griefe, and multiplying them  show that the early tourists were about as philosophical
the tyme that is needful, uatil the griefe be taken away.  and eccentric as their successors.




AMERICAN LITERATURE..7
COTTON MATHER.                       over his mind on one occasion; for he says,' I, conTHE most celebrated person of his age in America  sidering there might be a snare in it, put a stop to this
was Cotton Mather. He was once revered as a saint,  fanciful business. Only I could not but be amazed at
and he is still regarded as a man of great natural abili-  one thing; a certain prayer-book, [the Episcopal doubtties, and profound and universal learning. It is true  less,] being brought her, she not only could read it very
that he had much scholarship; he could read many  well, but also did read a large part of it over, calling it
languages, and his memory was so retentive that he  her Bible, and putting more than ordinary respect upon
rarely forgot the most trivial circumstance; but he had  it. If she were going into her tortures, at the tender
too little genius to comprehend great truths, and his  of this book, she would recover herself to read it
attainments were for the most part rather curious than  Only when she came to the Lord's prayer, now and
valuable. In all his long life he was a model of in-  then occurring in that book, she would have her eyes
lustry; and, beside his three hundred and eighty-two  put out; so that she must turn over a new leaf, and then
printed works, he left many manuscripts, of which the  she could read again. Whereas also there are scriplargest is called "Illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures,"  tures in that book, she could read them there; but
on which he laboured daily for more than thirty years.  if any showed her the same scriptures in the Bible
It is a mere compilation of facts and opinions, from   itself; she should sooner die tha: -ead them. And she
multitudinous sources, and embraces nothing that would  was likewise made unable to ifad the Psalms in anbe valuable to the modern scholar. His minor works  ancient metre, which this prayer-book had in the same.
are nearly all forgotten, even by the antiquaries. The  volume with it.' It was not very surprising, that she
"Magnalia Christi Americana" is preserved rather as  should after a time lose her veneration for him. Aca curiosity than as an authority; for recent investiga-  cordingly he remarks, that, though her carriage had
tions have shown that his statements are not to be re.  been dutiful,'it was afterwards with a sauciness,
lied on where he had any interest in misrepresenting   which I was not used to be treated withal.' She would
acts or characters. His style abounds, more than that  knock at his study door, telling him that some one beof any of his contemporaries, with puerilities, puns, and  low would be glad to see him; when he had taken the
grotesque conceits. But it is questionable whether his  trouble to go down, and scolded her for the falsehood,'
intellectual was not better than his moral character; for  she would say,' Mrs. Mather is always glad to see you.'
though of all men he was the most observant of forms,' She would call out to him with numberless imperand "deemed himself starved unless he fasted once a  tinencies.' Having determined to give a public account
month," and "found astonishing entertainment" in  of her case, in a sermon to his congregation, she was
"' spending three days together, without food, in knock-  troubled at it, thinking it not unlikely that sharper eyes
ing at the door of Heaven," he was still without hu-  than his might be turned upon her. She made many
mility or charity-ambitious, intriguing and unscri-  attempts to prevent it by threatening him with the venpulous. He believed in witchcraft, a circumstance for  geance of the spirits, till he was almost out of patience,
which he is not perhaps to be blamed, since no amount  and exorcized them in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. All
of learning or integrity could exempt one from creduli-  these were perfectly intelligible to them; but'the Inty; but after fanning into a flame the terrible supersti-  dian language they did not seem so well to understand.'
tion on this subject, when the frenzy was over he  One part of the system  of this artful young creature
hypocritically endeavoured to persuade the people that  was to persuade him, that he was under the special proinstead of encouraging the proceedings, his influence  tection of Heaven, so that spells could have no power
and exertions had been on the side of caution and for-  over him.  When he went to prayer,'the demone
bearance.  Failing of this, he attempted to justify his  would throw her on the floor, where she would whistle,
conduct by inventing various personal histories, to show   and sing, and yell, to drown the voice of prayer; and
that there had been good cause for the atrocious perse-  she would fetch blows with her fist and kicks with her
cutions. The devil certainly had much more power  foot at the man that prayed.  But still her fist and foot
over Mather and the civil judges than over any of the  would recoil, when within an inch or two of him, as
unhappy convicts, the bodies of some of whom were  if rebounding against a wall.' This powerful appeal to
treated even after death with a brutality that might have  his vanity was not lost upon him. It made him more
appalled the'savages' who were spectators of these  solicitous than ever to patronize the delusion."*'civilized' and "'Christian' tragedies. Mather at one    Mather entered college when twelve years old. At
time kept one of the supposed witches in his house, to  eighteen he began to preach. We have already alludobserve closely her actions. She was a young girl, who  ed to the Magnalia. Grahame, the historian, calls it the
in sport or wantonness attempted to practise upon his  most interesting work which the literature of this coun
credulity.  "The manner in which she played with his  try has produced, and says that some of the biographi.
religious prejudices shows considerable art. A Quaker's  cal parts of it are superior to Plutarch; but this, as Mr.
book, which was then one of the greatest of abomina-  Peabody well remarks in his Life of Matner, is absurd
tions, was brought to her, and she read whole pages in  and extravagant praise; the highest pretension of the
it, with the exception of the names of the Deity and  work being, that it is curious and entertaining.
the Saviour, which she was not able to speak. Such    Toward the close of his career, Mather's reputation
books as she might have read with profit, she was not  declined; and his mind, at this period of his life, ap
permitted to open; or, if she was urged to read in her  pears to have been diseased, almost to insanity.
Bible or Catechism; she was immediately taken with    * In the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society,
contortions. On the contrary, she could read in a jest-  among the manuscripts of Cotton Mather, there is a paper,
on which is endorsed the following curious record in his
book without the least difficulty, and actually seemed   hand-writing. "'sov:ember29th, 1692. While I was preach
to enjoy it. Popish books she was permitted to read at  ing at a private fast, (kept for a possessed young wo.
tl~easure, but a work against the Catholics, she might  tran,) on Mark ix. 28, 29, the Devil in the damsel flew
easure, but a work against the Catholics, she might  upo  me, and tore the leaf, as it is now torn, over against
not ouch. One gleam of suspicion seemed to shoot  the text."




8                                   CUR:IOSITIES OF
THE BAY PSALM BOOK.                     needed overmuch their' polishings," their own poetry
THE first book published in British America was  was sadly deficient in elegance and melody, and required
"The Psalmes in Metre, faithfully Translated, for the  all the improvement which the bards of Harvard could
Use, Edification, and Comfort of the Saints, in Public  make in it, we should think, to be either said or sung. To
and Private, especially in New Englande," printed at  show the difference between the original and the sub.
Cambridge, in 1640. The version was made by Tho-  sequent impressions, we copy the first Psalm from each
mas Welde of Roxbury, Richard Mather of Dor-  version.
chester, and John Eliot the apostle of the Indians.                        PSALME I.
The translators seem to have been aware that it pos-                  By Welde and others.
sessed but little poetical merit. " If," say they, in their
preface, " the verses are not always so smooth and ele-        O blessed man, that in thadvice
of wicked doeth not walk:
gant as some may desire and expect, let them consider
nor stand in sinner's way, nor sit
that God's altar needs not our polishings; for we have          in chayre of scornfill folk.
respected rather a plain translation, than to smooth our       But in the law of Iehovah,
verses with the sweetness of any paraphrase, and so              is his longing delight:
have attended to conscience rather than elegance, and          and in his law doth meditate,
fidelity rather than poetry, in translating Hebrew words         by day aid eke by night.
into English language, and David's poetry into English         And he shall be like to a tree
metre."  Cotton Mather laments the inelegance of                 planted by water-rivers:
that in his season yeilds his fruit,
the version, but declares that the Hebrew was most
and his leafe never withers.
exactly rendered. After a second edition had been              And all he doth, shall prosper well,
printed, President Dunster,* of Harvard College, as-            the wicked are not so;
sisted by Mr. Richard Lyon, a tutor at Cambridge, at-          but they are like vnto the chaffe,
tempted to improve it, and in their advertisement to             which winde drives to and fro.
the godly reader they state that they " had special eye        Therefore shall not ungodly men,
both to the gravity of the phrase of sacred writ and to          rise to stand in the doome,
the sweetness of the verse."  Dunster's edition was re-        nor shall the sinners with the just,
printed twenty-three times in America, and several               in their assemblie come.
times in Scotland and England, where it was long used          For of the righteous men, the way:
in the dissenting congregations. The following speci-          but the way of vngodly men
mlen is from the second edition:                                 shall vtterly decay.
PSALM CXXXVII.                                            PSAL. I.
The rivers on of Babilon,
There when wee did sit downe,                            Corrected by Dunster and Lyon.
Yea, even then, wee mourned when                       O blessed man that walks not in
Wee remembered Sion.                                   th'advlce of wicked men
Our harp wee did hang it amid,                         Nor standeth in the sinners way
Upon the willow tree,                                  nor scorners seat sits in.
Because theie they that us away                        But he upon Jehovah's law
Led in captivitee                                      doth set his whole delight:
Requir'd of us a song, and thus                        And in his law doth meditate
Askt mirth us waste who laid,                           both in the day and night.
Sing us among a Sion's song,                          Hle shall be like a planted tree
Unto us then they said,                                by water brooks; which shall
In his due season yield his fruit.
The Lord's song sing can wee, being                      whose seaf shall never frll:
whose leaf shall never fall:
In stranger's land? then let
And all he doth shall prosper well.
Lose her skill my right hand if I
The wicked are not so:
Jerusalem forget.
But they are like unto the chaff,
Let cleave my tongue my pallate on                       which wind drived to and fro
If mind thee doe not I,                               Therefore shall no ungodly men
If chiefe joyes o're I prize not more,                   in judgement stand upright
Jerusalem mny joy.                                   - Nor in th'assembly of the just
Remember, Lord, Edom's sons' word,                       shall stand the sinfull wight.
Unto the ground, said they,                           For of ye righteous men, ye Lord
It rase, it rase, when as it was                         acknowledgeth the way;
Jerusalem her day.                                    Whereas the way of wicked mf a
Blest shall he be that payeth the                        shall utterly decay.
Daughter of Babilon,
Who must be waste, that which thou hast       lege, and was inaugurated on the twenty-seventh..August
Rewarded us upon.                            1640. In 1654 he became unpopular on account of t'is pub.
0 happie bee shall surely bee                 lie advocacy of anti-paedobaptism, and was compelled to
That taketh up, that eke                     resign. When he died, in 1659, he bequeathed legacies to
Thy little ones against the stones            the persons who were m-st active in causing his separation
Doth into pieces breake.                     from the College. In the life of Dunster, in the JMagnalis,
is the following admonition by a Mr. Shepherd, to tie
Mather and Eliot were men of sound learning, and  authors of the New Psalm B(ok:
Welde was the author of some respectable elegies and    "You Rozb'ry poets, keep clear of the crime
other verses. But although God's altar may not have    Of missing to give to us very good rhyme.
And you of Dorchester, your verses lengthen,
* Thomas Dunster was the first president of Harvard Col.   But with the texts' own words you will them strengthen.*




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                  9
ELIOT AND HIS INDIAN TRANSLATIONS.            Colonies dedicated the Translation, in an address writ"SINCE the death of Paul," says Edward Everett in  ten in a tone adapted to win his favourable regard
his address at Bloody Brook, " a nobler, truer, and This dedication has the following preface:
warmer spirit than John Eliot, never lived; and taking    "Vpon the enformation of the Desolution of the Cor.
the state of the country, the narrowness of the means,  poration, and intimation of hopes that his Majestic
the rudeness of the age, into consideration, the history  would [renew and] confeirme the same, &c. The Co
of the Christian church does not contain an example  missioners thought meet to present his Majestie with
of resolute, untiring, successful labour, superior to that  the New Testament printed in the Indian language
of translating the entire Scriptures into the language  with these presents following, &c."
of the native tribes of Massachusetts; a labour per-    The document itself, as printed in the few copies
formed, not in the flush of youth, nor within the luxu-  of the Testament sent to England, is in these words:
rious abodes of academic lore, but under the constant  " To the High and Mighty Prince, Charles the Second,
burden of his duties as a minister and a preacher, and    by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland,
at a time of life when the spirit begins to flag." Such    France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, 4fc.
is the judgment of one of the first scholars and most  "The Commissioners of the United Colonies in Newdiscerning men of our own age of the Apostle of the    Englae:1, wish increase of all happiness, &c.
Indians-the noblest of dM11 the noble men who planted  "MOST DRSAD SOVERA1GN,
civilization and religion in the new world.         "If our weak apprehensions have not misled us, this
Eliot was born at Nasing-not Nasin, as it is erro-  Work will be no unacceptable Present to Your Majesty,
neously given by Allen and others-in Essex, England,  as having a greater Interest therein, than we believe is
in 1604. He was educated at Cambridge, and being  generally understood: which (upon this Occasion) we
subsequently persecuted for non-conformity, so far as  conceive it our Duty to declare.
"not to be allowed even to teach a school in his   "The People of these four Colonies (Confederated
native country," according to Neal, he at the age of  for Mutual Defence, in the time of the late Distractions
twenty-seven came to America, landing at Boston on  of our dear Native Country) Your Majesties natural
the third of November, 1631. In the following year he  born Subjects, by the Favour and Grant of Your Royal
became pastor of a Congregational church in Roxbury,  Father and Grandfather of Famous Memory, put themand in the autumn of 1646, he preached his first ser-  selves upon this great and hazardous Undertaking, of
mon in the language of the Indians at Nonantum,  Planting themselves at their own Charge in these renow Newtown. From that year until he died, in the  mote ends of the Earth, that without offence or provoeighty-sixth year of his age, he laboured with an ear-  cation to our dear Brethren and Countrymen, we might
nestness and ability rarely equalled and never surpass-  enjoy that liberty to Worship God, which our own Coned, to educate and convert the Indians; and of all the  sciences informed us, was not anely our Right, but
Christian missionaries in America from its discovery to  Duty: As also that we might (if -t so pleased God) be
the present time, he was the most successful.     instrumental to spread the light of the Gospel, the
Eliot wrote several narratives of the advancement  knowledg of the Son of God our Saviour, to the poor
and condition of religion among the Indians, which  barbarous Heathen, which by His late Majesty, in some
were published in England; a tract entitled " Commu-  of our Patents, is declared to be His principal aim,
nion of the Churches;" a " History of the Gospels;"    " These honest and Pious Intentions, have, through
and "The Christian Commonwealth," a book which was  the grace and goodness of God and our Kings, been
pronounced seditious by the colonial government, pub-  seconded with proportionable success: for, omitting
licly recanted, and suppressed. He was also at an ear-  the Immunities indulged us by Your Highness Royal
lier day one of the committee by whom  The Bay  Predecessors, we have been greatly encouraged by
Psalm Book was prepared. His reputation, however,  Your Majesties gracious expressions of Favour and
rests upon his Indian Grammar, and various translations  Approbation signified, unto the Address made by the
into the Indian language, the chief of which was that principal of our Colonies, to whic h the rest do most
of the Bible, completed in 1663. From the commence-  cordially Subscribe, though wanting the like seasonament of his ministry among the natives, the project of  ble opportunity, they have been (till now) deprived of
this translation appears to have been floating in his mind, the means to Congratulate Your Majesties happy Resbut the magnitude of the work, and the difficulties with  titution, after Your long suffering, which we implore
which it was likely to be attended, sometimes discou- may yet be graciously accepted, that we may be equal
raged him; and in his " Further Progresse of the Gospel,"  partakers of Your Royal Favour and Moderation; which
published in 1655, he says despondingly, "I have ro  hath been so Illustrious that (to admiration) the animohope to see the Bible translated, much less printed, in  sities and different Perswasions of men have been so
my own day." Yet he laboured at the task from time  soon Composed, and so much cause of hope, that (unless
to time, trusting that the providence of God would at the sins of the Nation prevent) a blessed Cahn will suelength send the aid necessary to print such portions of  ceed the late horrid Confusions of Church and State.
it as should be prepared for the press. Nor was his  And shall not we (Dread Soveraign) your Subjects of
trust in vain: through the aid of "The Corporation  these Colonies, of the same Faith and Belief in all
for Promoting the Gospel among the Heathen in New-  Points of Doctrine with our Countrymen, and the other
England," the New Testament was published at Cam-  Reformed Churches, (though perhaps not alike per.
bridge in September, 1661, soon after the restoration  swaded in some matters of Order, which in outward
of Charles the Second to the throne. The printing was  respects hath been unhappy for us) promise and assure
completed while the question of the confirmation of  our selves of all just favour and indulgence from a
the Society's charter was pending, and it was deemed  Prince so happily and graciously endowed?
an excellent opportunity to conciliate the good will of    "The other part of our Errand hither, hath been at
the King, to -hoin the Commissioners of the United  tended with Endevours and Blessing; many of the
2*




10                                CURIOSITIES OF
wilde Indians being taught, and understanding the  "To the High and Mlighty Prince. Charles the Second
Doctrine of the Christian Religion, and with much    by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland,
affection attending such Preachers as are sent to teach    France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, {4c.
them, many of their Children are instructed to Write  "The Commissioners of the United Colonies in New.
and Reade, and some of them have proceeded further,         England, wish all happiness, &c.
to attain the knowledge of the Latine and Greek  "MOST DREAD SOVERAIGN,
Tongues, and are brought up with our English youth    " As our former Presentation of the New Testamens
in University-learning: There are divers of them that was Graciously Accepted by Your Majesty; so with
can and do reade some parts of the Scripture, and some  all Humble Thankfulness for that Royal Favour, and
Catechisms, which formerly have been Translated into  with the like hope, We are bold now to Present the
their own Language, which hath occasioned the  WHOLE BIBLE, Translated into the Language of
under taking of a greater Work, viz: The Frint-  the Natives of this Country, by A Painful Labourer in
ing of the whole Bible, which (being Translated by a  that Work, and now Printed and Finished, by means of
painful Labourer amongst them, who was desirous to  the Pious Beneficence of Your Majesties Subjects in
see the Work accomplished in his dayes) hath already  England: which also by Your Special Favour hath
proceeded to the finishing of the New Testament, which  been Continued and Confirmed to the intended Use and
we here humbly present to Your Majesty, as the first Advancement of so Great and Good a Work, as is the
fruits and accomplishment of the Pious Design of your  Propagation of the Gospel to these poor Barbarians in
Royal Ancestors. The Old Testament is now under  this (Ere-while) Unknown World.
the Press, wanting and craving your Royal Favour and    "Translations of Holy Scripture, The Wora of the
Assistance for the perfecting thereof.           lKing of Kings, have ever been deemed not unworthy
4 We may not conceal, that though this Work bath  of the most Princely Dedications: Examples whereof
been begun and prosecuted by such Instruments as God  are extant in divers Languages. But Your Majesty is
hath raised up here, yet the chief Charge and Cost,  the First that hath Received one in this Language, or
which hath supported and carried it thus far, hath been  from this American World, or from any Parts so Re
from the Charity and Piety of our well-affected Coun-  mote from Europe as these are, for ought that ever we
trymen in England; who being sensible of our inability  heard of.
in -that respect, and studious to promote so good a    " Publications also of these Sacred Writings to the
Work, contributed large Sums of Money, which were  Sons of Men (who here, and here onely, have the Mysto be improved according to the Direction and Order  teries of their Eternal Salvation revealed to them by
of the then-prevailing Powers, which hath been faith- the God of Heaven) is a Work that the Greatest Princes
fully and religiously attended both there and here, ac-  have Honoured themselves by. But to Publish and
cording to the pious iitentions ofthe Benefactors. And  Communicate the same to a Lost People, as remote
we do most humbly beseech your Majesty, that a mat-  from Knowledge and Civility, much more from Christter of so much Devotion and Piety, tending so much ianity, as they were from all Knowing, Civil, and
to the Honour of God, may suffer no disappointment  Christian Nations; a People without Law, without
through any Legal defect (without the fault of the Do-  Letters, without Riches, or Means to procure any such
nors, or the poor Indians, who onely receive the bene-  thing; a People that sate as dee in Darkness, and in
fit) but that your Majesty be graciously pleased to Es-  the shadow' of Death, as (we think) any since the Cre
tablish and Confirm the same, being contrived and  ation  This puts a Lustre upon it that is Superlative;
done (as we conceive) in the first year of your Majes-  and to have given Royal Patronage and Countenance to
ties Reign, as this Book was begun and now finished  such a Publication, or to the Means thereof, will stand
in the first year of your Establishment; which doth not among the Marks of Lasting Honour in the eyes of all
onely presage the happy success of your Highness Gov-Generations.
that are Considerate, even unto After-Generations.
ernminent, but will be a perpetual monument, that by "And though there be in this Western World many
your Majesties Favour the Gospel of our Lord and Sa. Coonies  of other European  Nations, yet we humbly
viour Jesus Christ, was first made known to the In. conceive, no Prince bath had a Return of such a Work
dians: An Honour whereof (we are assured) your  as this; whichmaybesomeTokenoftheSuccess of
M4ajesty will not a little esteem.
Majesty wheill not a little esteem.f Your Royal upon your Majesties Plantation of New-England, Undertaken
" SIR, The shines of Your Royal Favour upon these  and Settled under the Encouragement and Security of
Vndertakings, will make these tender Plants toflourish,  Grants from Your Royal Father and Grandfather, of
notwithstanding any malevolent Aspec from  those that  Famous Memory, and Cherished with late Gracious
bear evil will to this Sion, and render Your Majesty  Aspects from Your Majesty. Though indeed the premore Illustrious and Glorious to after Generations.  sent Poverty of these Plantations could not have AcThe God of Heaven long preserve and bless Your  complished this Work, had not the forementioned
Majesty with many happy Dayes, to his Glory,  Bounty of England lent Relief; Nor could that have
the good and comfort of his Church and People.  Continued to stand us in stead, without the Influence
Amen."                                        of Your Royal Favour and Authority, whereby the
In 1663, the Old and New Testaments, and a version  Corporation there, For Propagating the Gospel among
of the Psalter in a separate volume, were completed,  these Natives, hath been Established and Encouraged
and a copy of each forwarded to the King. Richard  (whose Labour of Love, Care, and Faithfulness in that
Baxter who was a friend and correspondent of Eliot, Trust, must ever be remembered with Honour.) Yea,
speaks of the gift as " such a work and fruit of a plant-  when private persons, for their private Ends, have of
ation, as was never before presented to a king." The per-  late sought Advantages to deprive the said Corporation
fect Bible was accompanied by the following dedicatory  of Half the Possessions that had been, by Liberal Conaddress, which Thomas states was omitted in nearly all  tributions, obtained for so Religious Ends; We under
he copies circulated in America,                  stand, That, by an Honourable and Righteous Decisiou




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                11
in Your Majesties Court of Chancery, their Hopes    We append, as a specimen of the Translation, the
have been defeated, and the Thing Settled where it Lord's Prayer, from the first edition of the New Testa
was and is. For which great Favour, and Illustrious  ment, printed at Cambridge in 1661
Fruit of Your Majesties Government, we cannot but         The LORD'S PRAYER, Matt. vi. 9, 4-c.
return our most Humble Thanks in this Publick man-    Nooshun kesukqut, qut-   Our Father which art in
ner; And, as the Result of the joynt Endeavours of  tianatalnunach  koowesu- heaven, hallowed be thy
Your Majesties Subjects there and here, acting under  onk. Peyaumooutch kuk- name. Thy kingdom come
Your Royal Influence, We Present You with this  ketassootamoonk, kukke- Thy will be done in earth
Work, which upon sundry accounts is to be called  nantoomoonk ne n nach  as it is in heaven. Give
Yours.                                            ohkeit neane  kesukqut. us this day our daily bread.
"The Southern Colonies of the Spanish Nation have  Nummeetsuongash aseke- And forgive us our debts,
sent home from this American Continent, much Gold  sukokish assamaiinean ye- as we forgive our debtors.
and Silver, as the Fruit and End of their Discoveries  dyeu kesukod.  Kah ah- And lead us not into tempt.
and Transplantations: That (we confess) is a scarce  quontamaiinnean numma- ation, but deliver us from
Commodity in this Colder Climate. But (sutable to  tcheongash, neane matche- evil: For thine is the kingthe Ends of our Undertaking,) we Present this, and  nehukqueagig nutahquon- dom, the power, and the
other Concomitant Fruits of our poor Endeavours to  tammounonog.    Ahque glory for ever. Amen
Plant and Propagate the Gospel here; which, upon a sagkompagunaiinnean en
true account, is as much better than Gold, as the Souls  qutchhuaoonganit,  webe
of men are more worth than the whole World. This  pohquohwussinean wutch
is a nobler Fruit (and indeed, in the Counsels of All-  matchitut. Newutche kuDisposing Providence, was an higher intended End) of  tahtaun  ketassootamonk,
Columbus his Adventure. And though by his Brother's  kah menullkesuonk, kah
being hindred from a seasonable Application, your Fa-  sohsumoonkmicheme. Amous Predecessour and Ancestor, King Henry the  men.
Seventh, missed of being sole Owner of that first Dis-    The first impression of the Indian Bible, says Con
covery, and of the Riches thereof; yet, if the Honour  vers Francis, in his excellent Life of Eliot, sufficed
of first Discovering the True and Saving Knowledge of
for about twenty years. In 1680 another edition of the
the Gospel unto the poor Americans, and of Erecting  New Testament was published. Mr. Eliot, in a letter
the Kingdome of JESUS CHRIST among them, be  written during that period to the Honourable Mr.
Reserved for, and do Redound unto your Majesty, and
Reserved for, and do Redound unto your Majesty, and Boyle, alludes to it when he says, " We are at the ninethe English Nation, After-ages will not reckon this  teenth chapter of the Acts; and when we have imInferiour to the other. Religion is the End and Glory  pressed the   ew Testament, our Commissioners apof Mankinde  and as it was the Professed End of this
Plantation; so we desire ever to keep it in our Eye as  addition to the Psalms, a Catechism  was annexed, as it
our main design (both as to ourselves, and the Natives  the first impression. This New Testament has the im
about us) alnd that our Products may be answerable  print of Cambridge, but no printer's name. In 1685,
thereunto. Give us therefore leave (Dread Soveroign)  a second edition of the Old Testament appeared, printed
yet again humbly to Beg the Continuance of your Royal at Cambridge by Samuel Green This was bound with
Favour, and of the Influences thereof, upon this poor the last impression of the Nev Testament; and the
Plantation, STle United Colonies of NEW-ENGLANDi,  two parts, thus taken together, constitute the second
for the Securing and Establishment of our Civil Privi-  edition of the whole Bible, though there was an inter
ledges, and Religious Liberties hitherto Enjoyed; and,
ledgesnd Regios Liberties hitheto Enjoyed; and,  val of five years between the times at which the two
upon thi Good Workl of Propagating Religion to these  Testaments respectively appeared. Each part has but
Natives, that the Supports and Encouragements thereof  one title page, which is in Indian, and the same as be-:
from England may be still countenanced and Confirmed.  fore. We learn some facts respecting this second ediMay this Nursling still suck the.Breast of Kings, and tion of the Indian version from Eliot's correspondence
be fostered by your Majesty, as it hath been by your with Mr. Boyle. The whole impression was two thou.
Royal Predecessors, unto the Preservation of its main  sand copies. It was superintended by Mr. Eliot who
Concernments; It shall thrive and prosper to the Glory  gave a part of his salary towards defraying the expense,
of God, and the Honour of your Majesty: Neither will and received for the same purpose from the corporation
it be any loss or grief unto our Lord the King, to have  in England, through Mr. Boyle, nine hundred pounds at
the Blessing of t'ne Poor to come upon Him, and that different times, namely, forty pounds at one time, four
from these Ends of the Earth.                     hundred and sixty at another, and four hundred at a
" The God by whom Kings Reign, and Princes De-  third. If some collateral expenses be included, the
cree Justice, Bless Your.Majesty, and Establish
cree Justice, Bless Your Majesty, and Establish  whole cost of the impression must have been little, if
your Throne in Righteousness, in Mercy, and in  any, short of a thousand pounds. Mr. Eliot's remarks
Truth, to thle Glory of His Name, the Good of His  lead us to suppose, that the first edition was nearly or
People, and to Your own Comfort and Rejoycing,  quite exhausted. If so, and if the number of its copies
not in this onely, but in another World."     was what I have supposed, this fact will furnish us
The tlti  page is in English and Indian. The Indian  with a measure by which we may estimate the demand
title is as follows: "Mammusse Wunneetupanatamwe  for the Scriptures among the Indians for twenty years
Up-Bi'n.umrr  God naneeswe Nukkone-Testament kah  after the translation was first printed. We may prewonk Wu m.u Testament. Nequoshinnumuk nashpe  sume that the number of copies, which curiosity might
Wuttinneumak Christ noh asoowesit John Eliot. Na-  lead people in the colony to purchase, or which
hohteou ontehetoe Printewoornuk. Cambridge- Prin-  courtesy might send to England, could not be large,
teuoop nashpe Samuel Green"                       Eliot apologised to Mr. Boyle for the slow progress




Mit                                CURIOSITIES OP
of the printing, by alleging the want of an adequate  the study of which, it is believed, will furnish new
number of workmen, and the interruption of labour  facts to modify the hitherto received principles of uni
among those whom they had, by sickness, which pre-  versal grammar. On this account scholars of the high.
vailed fatally in the winter of 1683 and the spring of  est name in modern times have had reason to thank
1684. His heart was saddened by these and other  Eliot for labours, which the Indians are not left to thank
events, which seemed to throw discouragement on the  him for. While the cause of religion missed, in a great
work; for he was then bending beneath the weight of  degree, the benefit designed for it, the science of lan.
years, and with the feelings of an old and faithful ser-  guage acknowledges a contribution to its stores. Mr
vant, his soul yearned to witness, as his last labour, Eliot translated the Bible into a dialect of what is called
the completion of the new edition of his translation.  the Mohegan tongue, a language spoken by all the New
The affectionate earnestness with which he dwells  England Indians, essentially the same, but varied by
on the subject in his correspondence with the En-  different dialects among the several tribes. By Eliot
glish philosopher, has a touching interest. "My age,"  and others it was called the Massachusetts language.
says he, "makes me importunate.  I shall depart  There is, besides, a moral aspect, in which this trans.
joyfully, may I but leave the Bible among them;  lation of the Scriptures should be viewed. It must
for it is the word of life." Again he writes, "I desire  be regarded as a monument of laborious piety, of
to see it done before I die, and I am so deep in years,  painstaking love to the soul of man. Would the transthat I cannot expect to live long; and sundry say, if I  lator have had the spirit to undertake, still more the
do not procure it printed while I live, it is not within  perseverance to carry through, a work so wearisome
the prospect of human reason, whether ever, or when,  and discouraging, had he not been animated by the deep,
or how, it may be accomplished."  He bore it on his  steady, strong principle of devotedness to God and to
heart to God in his devotions, and the anxious earnest-  the highest good of his fellow-men? The theological
ness of his soul seemed to be fixed on this point. The  scholar, who translates the Bible, or even one of the
prayer of the good old man was answered. He lived  Testaments, from the origina,;.rto his vernacular tongue,
to see a new impression of his Bible; and when he  is considered as having achieved a great task, and as
took the precious volume in his hands, we can easily  giving ample proof of his diligence. Yet such a work
imagine that with uplifted eyes he may have uttered  is easy compared with the labour which Eliot underthe Nunc dimittis of the aged Simeon. In preparing  took and finished amidst a press of other employthis second edition Mr. Eliot received valuable assist- ments, which alone might have been deemed suffiance from the Reverend John Cotton of Plymouth,  cient to satisfy the demands of Christian industry.
wno had spent much of his time for several years  Among the many remarkable doings of the Apostle
in forming a thorough acquaintance with the Indian  to the Indians, this bears the most striking testimony to
language. This obligation Eliot acknowledged in a  his capacity of resolute endurance in the cause of man's
letter to Boyle in 1688. Several years before that  spiritual welfare. Wejustly admire the moralcourage,
time, Boyle had intrusted to Eliot thirty pounds for the  the spirit of self-sacrifice, which sustained him in the
promotion of religion among the Indians. The money  tasks of preaching, visiting, and instruction, never de
had not been expended, perhaps because no opportu-  terred by the dark squalidness of barbarity, never daunt
nity had occurred for the particular mode of using it  ed by the fierce threats of men who knew no law ba
which Boyle designed. Of this sum, Eliot requested  their passions, never moved by exposure to storms
that ten pounds might be given to Major Gookin's  cold, and the various forms of physical suffering. But
widow, who was poor; ten pounds to Gookin's son,  when we represent him to our minds, as labouring at hi.
who lectured among the Indians; and ten pounds to  translation of the Scriptures in the silence of his study,
Mr. John Cotton, " nwho," says he, " helped me much  year after year, in the freshness of the morning hour
in the second edition of the Bible." Probably Mr. Cot-  and by the taper of midnight, wearied but not disheart.
ton revised the whole version with him, that by their  ened; continually perplexed with the almost unmanjoint labours a more exact and faithful translation might  ageable phraseology of the dialect of the barbarians,
be exhibited in the new impression.                 yet always patient to discover how it might be made
Mr. Francls elsewhere remarks, that the Indian  to represent truly the meaning of the sacred books;
Bible has become one of those rare books which the  doing this chapter by chapter, verse by verse, without
antiquarian deems it a treasure to possess. The copies  a wish to give over the toil; cherishing for a long time
in public or private libraries are very few. It has ac-  only a faint hope of publication, yet still willing to bequired the venerable appearance of an ancient and  lieve, that God in his good providence would finally
sealed book; and when we turn over its pages, those  send the means of giving the printed word of life to
long and harsh words seem like the mysterious hiero-  those for whom he toiled and prayed,-we cannot but
glyphics in some time-hallowed temple of old Egypt.  feel that we witness a more trying task, a more surIt failed to answer the pious purpose for which the  prising labour, than any presented by the stirrirg and
translator laboured in preparing it. But it has answer-  active duties of his ministry among the Indians. It was
ed another purpose, which was perhaps never in his  a long, heavy, hard work, wrought out by the silent but
mind, or, if it were, was doubtless regarded as an infe-  wasting efforts of mental toil, and relieved by no immerior consideration. In connexion with his Indian Gram-  diately animating excitement. It was truly a labour of
mar, it has afforded important aid as a valuable docu-  love. When we take that old dark volume into our
ment, in the study of comparative philology. Though  hands, we understand not the words in which it is
the language in which it is printed is no longer read,  written; but it has anothe? and beautiful meaning which
yet this book is prized as one of the means of gaining  we do understand. It is a symbol of the affection which
an insight into the structure and character of " unwritten  a devoted man cherished for the soul of his fellow-man;.ialects of barbarous nations," a subject which, of late  it is the expression of a benevolence, which fainted m
years, has attracted the attention at learned men, and  no effort to give light to those whio sat in darkness and




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     13
in the shallow of death; and so it remains, and will    Or Pineus' banks,'t were too mean offering;
ever remain, a venerable manifestation of the power of    Your muse a fairer garland doth bequeath
spiritual truth and spiritual sympathy.                To guard your fairer front; here't is your name
It is indeed strange that the language of a version of    Shall stand immarbled; this your little frame
Shall great Colossus be, to your eternal fame.
the Bible, made less than two hundred years ago, should    Shall great Colossus be, to your eternal fame.
now be utterly extinct. But the second edition of the    She died in September, 1672, and'was great,
Translation was the last, and the printer will never mourned." The following stanzas are from one of her
again be called to set types for those words so strange, minor pieces, entitled "Contemplations."
nor will there in all after time, probably, be a person  Under the cooling shadow of a stately elm
in the world. who can read the book                  Close sate I by a goodly river's side;   *
Cotton Mather tells us that the anagram of Eliot's  Where gliding streams the rocks did overwhelm;
name was Toile, and the conceit has the merit of ex-  A lonely place, with pleasures dignified.
pressing truly one of the chief traits in the apostle's  I once that loved the shady woods so well,
Now thought the rivers did the trees excell,
character. Beside the l~abours which we have men-  And if the sun would ever shine, there would I dwell.
tioned, he translated Baxter's "Call to the Unconvert-  While on the stealing stream I flxt mine eye,
ed," Baylt y's " Practice of Piety," and " several of the  Which to the long'd-for ocean held its course,
composures" of Shepard, and others of his contempo- I markt nor crooks, nor rubs that there did lye
raries, into the Indian language.                     Could hinder aught, but still augment its force:
"His youth was innocent; his riper age            O happy flood, quoth I, that holdst thy race
Mark'd with some act of goodness, every day;    Till thou arrive at thy beloved place,
And watch'd by eyes that loved him, calm and sage,    Nor is it rocks or shoals that can obstruct thy pace.
Faded his late declining years away.            Nor is't enough, that thou alone may'st slide,
Cheerful he gave his being up, and went           But hundred brooks in thy deer waves do meet,
To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent."    So hand in hand along with thee they glide
To Thetis' house, where all embrace and greet:
MRS. BRADSTREET.                      Thou emblem true, of what I count the best,
MRS. ANNE BRADSTREET, "the mirror of her age,  O could I lead my rivulets to rest,
and glory of her sex," as she is styled by John Norton,  So may we press to that vast mansion, ever blest.
of excellent memory, came to America with her hus-  Ye fish, which in this liquid region'bide,
Sand, Simon Bradstreet, governor of the colony, in  That for each season, have your habitation,
1630, when she was but eighteen years of age. She  Now salt, now fresh, where you think best to glide,
To unknown coasts to give a visitation,
was a daughter of Governor Dudley, a miserly, though  In lakes and ponds, you leave your numerous fry,
a  virtuous and discreet gentleman," for whom Gover-  So nature taught, and yet you know not why,
nor Belcher wrote the following epitaph:              You watry folk that know not your felicity.
" Here lies Thomas Dudley, that trusty old stud-  Look how the wantons frisk to taste the air,
A bargain's a bargain, and mast be made good."    Then to the colder bottome straight they dive,
Eftsoon to Neptune's glassie hall repair
Mrs. Bradstreet's verses were printed at Cambridge,  To see what trade the great ones there do drive,
in 1640. The volume was entitled, "Several Poems,  Who forrage o'er the spacious sea-green field,
compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of  And take the trembling prey before it yield,
delight; wherein especially is contained a compleat  Whose armour is their scales, their spreading fins their
discourse and description of the four Elements, Con-       shield.
stitutions, Ages of Man, and Seasons of the Year, to-  While musing thus with contemplation fed,
gether with an exact Epitome of the Three First Mo-And thousand fancies buzzing in my brain,
narchies, viz: the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian; and  The sweettongued Philomel percht o'er uy head.
And chanted forth a most melodious strain
Roman Commonwealth, from the beginning, to the end  Which rapt me so with wonder and delight
of the last King; with divers other Pleasant and Se.  I judg'd my, hearing better than my sight,
rious Poems." N1orton declares her poetry so fine that,  And wisht me wings with her a while to take my flight.
were Maro to hear it, he would condemn his own   O merry bird (said I) that fears no snares,
works to the fire; and in a poetical description of her  That neither toyles nor hoards up in thy barn,
character says-                                       Feels no sad thoughts, nor cruciating cares
To gain more good, or shun what might thee harm,
Her breast was a brave pallace, a broad street,
Where all heroic, ample thoughts did meet,  Thy cloaths neer wear, thy meat is every where,
Where all heroic, ample thoughts did meet,
Where. naue uhad,  ~    Thy bed a bough, thy drink the water cleer,
Where nature such a tenement had tane,
That other souls to hers dwelt in a lane I        Reminds not what is past, nor what's to come dost fear,
That other souls to hers dwelt in a lane!
The dawning morn with songs thou dost prevent,*
The author of the Magnalia speaks of her poetry as  Setts hundred notes unto thy feather'd crew,
a " monument for her memory beyond the stateliest  So each one tunes his pretty instrument,
marble;" and John Rogers, one of the Presidents of  And warbling out the old, begins anew,
Harvard College, in some verses addressed to her,  And thus they pass their youtn In summer season,
says-                                                 Then follow thee into a better region,
Where winter's never felt by that sweet airy legionl
Your only hand these poesies did compose:
Your head the source, whence all those springs did flow:  Man s at the best a creature frail a ain,
In knowledge ignorant, in strength but weak;
Your voice, whence change's sweetest notes arose:
Subject to sorrows, losses, sickness, pain,
our    bepts petaster al,  Each storm his state, his mind, his body break
Then veil your bonnets, poetasters all,
Stre, lotver ambnaies, and at these humbly fall,  From some of these he never finds cessation,
AndStrike,  Boweramain andvance these humbly pdall.  But day or night, within, without, vexation,  [lation.
And deem yourselves advanced to be her pedestal.
Troubles from foes, from friends, from dearest, ncear'st reShould all with lowly congees laurels bring,
Waste Flora's magazine to find a wreath,                                * Anticipate,
2




14                                 CURIOSITIES OF
And ye', this sinfull creature, frail and vain,    pretence of wrong therein done unto the Indians.'
1'his lump of wretchedness, of sin and sorrow,     To his fervent zeal for liberty of opinion, this singular
This weather-beaten vessel wrackt wvith pain,      man united an equal degree of tenacity to every article
Joyes not in sope of an eternal morrow:            of his own narrow creed. He objected to the custom
Nor all his losses, crosses, and vexation,
In we ight, in frequency, and long duration,       of returning thanks after meat, as, in some manner or
Ctn t iake him deeply groan for that divine translation.    other, involving a corruption of primitive and pure
worship; he refused to join any of the churches in
The mlariner that on smooth waves doth glide,
Sings merrily, and steers his barque with ease,    Boston, unless they would first make a public and soAs if he had command of wind and tide,             lemn declaration of their repentance for having formAnd had become great master of the seas;           erly communed with the church of England; and when
But suddenly a storm spoils all the sport,         his doctrines of religious liberty were condemned by
And makes him long for a more quiet port,          the clergy, he wrote to his own church at Salem, " that
Which'gainst all adverse winds may serve for fort.  if they would not separate as,.well from the churches
So he that saileth in this world of pleasure,      of New England as of Old, he would separate from
Feeding on sweets, that never bit of th' sowre,    them."
That's full of friends, of honour, and of treasure,   All his peculiar opinions, whether true or erroneous,
Fond fool, he takes this earth ev'n for heaven's bowe  were alike offensive to his puritan brethren, and conBut sad affliction comes and makes him see
Here's neither honcour wealth nornd k     saety    troversy soon waxed warm. Some logicians, more
Only above is found all with security.              tolerant or politic than the rest, attempted to reconcile
the disputants by a whimsical, and not very intelligible
O Time, the fatal wrack of mortal things,          sophism. They approved not, said they, of persecuLihat draws oblivion's curtains over kings,
Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not,      ting men for conscience' sake, but solely for correcting
Their names without a record are forgot,           them for sinning against conscience; and so not perTheir parts, their ports, their pomp's all laid in th' dust;   secuting, but punishing heretics. Williams was not a
Nor wit nor gold, nor buildings scape time's rust;  man who could be imposed upon by words, or intimiBut he whose name is grav'd in the white stone     dated by threats; and he accordingly persevered in in
Shall last and shine when all of these are gone.   culcating his doctrines publicly and vehemently. The
clergy, after having in vain endeavoured to shake him
ROGER ~WILLIAMS AND HIS CONTROVERSIE~S.   by argument and remonstrance, at last determined to
ROGER WILLIAMS was on many accounts the most  call in the aid of the civil authority; and the General
remarkable man among the Puritans. He was the first  Court, after due consideration of the case, passed sen.
legislator who fully recognized the rights of conscience,  tence of banishment upon him, or, as they phrased it,
and this.of itself should make his name immortal. He  " ordered his removal out of the jurisdiction of the
was eccentric, in conduct as well as in opinion, but  court."  Some of the men in power had determined
nevertheless a man of genius and virtue, of firmness,  that he should be sent to England; but, when they sent
courage, disinterestedness and benevolence. The no-  to take him, they found that, with his usual spirit of retice of Williams and his writings by Dr. Verplanck is  solute independence, he had already departed, no one
so just and comprehensive that we quote it, without  knew whither, accompanied by a few of his people,
abridgment.  He emigrated to New England from   who, to use their own language, had gone with their
Wales in 1630.  He was then, says Verplanck, a  beloved pastor "to seek their providences."  After
man of austere life and popular manners, full of read-  some wanderings, he pitched his tent at a place to
ing, skilled in controversy, and gifted with a rapid,  which he gave the name of Providence, and there becopious, and vehement eloquence. The writers of  came the founder and legislator of the colony of
those days represent hirh as being full of turbulent and  Rhode Island. There he continued to rule, sometimes
singular opinions, " and the whole country," saith the  as the governor, and always as the guide and father of
quaint Cotton Mather, " was soon like to be set on fire  the settlement, for forty-eight years, employing himself
by the rapid motion of a windmill in the head of this  in acts of kindness to his former enemies, affording reone man."*  The heresy which appeared most grie-  lief to the distressed, and offering an asylum to the pervous to his brethren, was his zeal for unqualified reli-  secuted. The government of his colony was formed
gious liberty. In the warmth of his charity, he con-  on his favourite principle, that in matters of faith and
tended for "freedom of conscience, even to Papists  worship, every citizen should walk according to the
and Arminians, with security of civil peace to all,-' a  light of his own conscience, without restraint or interdoctrine that filled the Massachusetts clergy with hor-  ference from  the civil magistrate.  During a visit
ror and alarm. "He violently urged," says Cotton  which Williams made to England, in 1643, for the purMather, "that the civil magistrate might not punish  pose of procuring a colonial charter, he published a
breaches of the first table of the commandments, which  formal and laboured vindication of this doctrine, undes
utterly took away from the authority all capacity to  the title of "The Bloody Tenet, Or, a Dialogue bedrevent the land which they had purchased on purpose  tween Truth and Peace."  In this work, written with
for a recess from such things, from becoming such a  his usual boldness and decision, he anticipated most
mink of abominations as would have been the reproach  of the arguments which, fifty years after, attracted so
and ruin of Christianity in these parts of the world."    much attention, when they were brought forward by
In addition to these "most disturbant and offensive  Locke. His own conduct in power, was in perfect a*
doctrines," Mather charges him with preaching against  cordance with his speculative opinions; and when, in
the Royal charter of the colony, " on an insignificant  his old age, the order of his little community was dis.
turbed by an irruption of Quaker preachers, he comrn.
*: Cotton Mather —JMagnalia, book vii., in the chapter  bated them only in pamphlets and public disputatious,
entitled "Little Foxes. or the spirit of Rigid Separation in
oae remsarkable zealot," &c.                       and-contented himself with overwhelming their doe.




AMERICAN LITERATURE                                                      16
trines with a torrent of learning, sarcasms, syllogisms,  tion, Penn was unexpectedly gratified by the grateful
and puns.*                                           remembrance of Locke, who now, in his turn, inter
It should also be remembered, to the honour of  ceded to procure apardon from the new sovereign. In
Roger Williams, that no one of the early colonists,  the pride of slandered innocence, Penn answered, as
without excepting William  Penn himself, equaled him   Locke had formerly done, "that he had never been
in justice and benevolence towards the Indians. He  guilty of any crime, and could not, therefore, rest
laboured incessantly, and with much success, to en-  satisfied with  a mode of liberation  which would
lighten and conciliate them, and by this means acquired  ever appear as a standing monument of his guilt."
a personal influence among them, which he had fre-  The genius of Locke has been described by Dr. Watts,
quently the enviable satisfaction of exerting in behalf  with equal elegance and truth, as being " wide as the
of those who had banished him. It is not the least re-  sea, calm  as the night, bright as the day:" still his
mnarkable or characteristic incident of his varied life,  mind appears to have been deficient in that practical
that within one year after his exile, and while he was  sagacity which so happily tempered the enthusiasm of
yet hot with controversy, and indignant at his wrongs,  William  Penn. The code of government and laws
his first interference with the affairs of his former colo-  which Locke formed for the Carolinas, contained many
ny was to protect its frontier settlements from  an  excellent provisions; but it was embarrassed by nurse,
Indian massacre. From that time forward, though he  rous and discordant subdivisions of power, was perwas never permitted to return to Massachusetts, he  plexed by some impracticable refinements in the adwas frequently employed by the government of that  m-inistration of justice, and was, in all respects, unneprovince in negotiations with the Indians, and on other  cessarily artificial and complicated. Nevertheless, it
business of the highest importance. Even Cotton Ma-  is, remarks Verplanck, a legitimate subject of national
ther, in spite of his steadfast abhorrence of Williams's  pride that we can thus number this virtuous and pro
heresy, seems to have been touched with the magnani-  found philosopher among those original legislators of
mity and kindness of the man; and after having stig-  this country, who gave to our political character its first
matized him  as "the infamous Korah of New Eng-  impulse and direction.*
land," he confesses, a little reluctantly, that "for the
THE POETRY OF GOVERNOR WOLCOTT.
forty years after his exile, he acquitted himself so
laudably, that many judicious people judged him  to    ROGER WOLCOTT, a major-general at the capture of
have had the root of the matter in him, during the long  Louisburg, and afterward governor of Connecticut,
winter of his retirement."                           published a volume of "Poetical Meditations" at New
London, in 1725. His principal work is "A Brief
WILLIAM  PENN AND JOHN LOCKE.                 Account of the Agency of the Honourable John Win
WiTH all his goodness and gentleness, the founder of  throp, Esquire, in the Court of King Charles the Se.
Pennsylvania was not free from that spirit of bitter cond, Anno Domini, 1662, when he obtained a Charter
controversy which prevailed before his arrival in this  for the Colony of Connecticut."   In this he describes
country, in New England; and the titles of some of his a miracle by one of Winthrop's company, on the retracts are as quaint and intemperate as those of Ma.-  turn voyage.
The winds awhile
ther and Williams, as for example, "A Brief Reply to    Are courteous, and conduct them on their way,
a Mere Rhapsody of Lies, Folly, and Slander," and    To near the midst of the Atlantic sea,
" An Answer to a False and Foolish Libel," etc. The    When suddenly their pleasant gales they change
great name of Locke, says Verplanck, is associated    For dismal storms that o'er the ocean range.
with that of William Penn, by a double tie; by his ce-    For faithless IEolus, meditating harms,
lebrated constitution for the Carolinas, which enrols    Breaks up the peace, and priding much in arms,
him among the earliest legislators of America, and by    Unbars the great artillery of heaven,
And at the fatal signal by him given,
one of those anecdotes of private friendship and mag-                   t
The cloudy chariots threatening take the plaint'
nanimity, upon which the mind gladly reposes, after    Drawn by wing'd steeds hard pressing on their reins.
wandering among the cold and dreary generalities of    These vast battalions, in dire aspect raised,
history. During the short period of Penn's influence    Start from the barriers-night with lightning blazed,
at the court of James II., he obtained from the king    Whilst clashing wheels, resounding thunders crack,
the promise of a pardon for Locke, who had fled to    Strike mortals deaf, and heavens astonish'd shake.
Holland from the persecution of the dominant party.      Here the ship captain, in the midnight watch,
Locke, though grateful to Penn for this unsolicited    Stamps on the deck, and thunders up the hatch;
And to the mariners aloud he cries,
kindness, replied with a firmness worthy of the man    "Now all from safe recumbency arise
who was destined to become the most formidable ad-    All hands aloft, and stand well to your tack,
All hands aloft, and stand well to your tack,
versary of tyranny in all its shapes, " that he could not    Engendering storms have clothed the sky with black
accept a pardon, when he had not been guilty of any    Big tempests threaten to undo the world:
crime."  Three years after this occurrence, the Stuarts    Down topsail, let the mainsail soon be furl'd:
were driven from the throne of England; Locke then    Haste to the foresail, there take up a reef;
returned in triumph. At the same time, the champions'Tis time, boys, now if ever, to he brief;
of English liberty, to serve some party object, pro-    Aloof for life; let's try    t he tide,
claimed Penn a traitor, without the slightest ground;    Stand roomer then, let's run before the sea,
Stand roomer then, let's run before the sea,
and all his rights as an Englishman, and his chartered    That so the ship may feel her steerage way;
privileges, were shamelessly violated by the very states-    Steady at helm!" Swiftly along she scuds
men who had drafted the Act of Toleration and the    Before the wind, and cuts the foaming suds.
Bill of Rights. In this season of distress and deser-    Sometimes aloft she lifts her prow so high,
As if she'd run her bowsprit through the sky;
* The title of one of his books against George Fox, and    As if she'd run her bowsprit through the sky;
his follower, Burrowes, is " The Fox digged out of his Bur-    * The leading and nearly all the practicable principles of
rows."                                               Locke had been sometime familiaw in New England.




16                                  CURIOSITIES OF
Then from the summit ebbs and hurries down,        Observations relating thereto, together with some very
As if her way were to the centre shown.            pertinent Extracts from  an Ingenious Composition
Mealwhile our founders in the cabin sat,         never published."  It was "printed by E. Russell, a
Reflecting ottl their true andsd sd estate;        his office near Doctor Gardiner's, in Marlborough street
Whilst                                                            author, whose name was James Alien,
About God's promises and mercies great.
Still more gigantic births spring from the clouds,  appears to have been a Royalist, but on terms of intiWhich tore the tatter'd canvass from the shrouds,  macy with the leading Whigs of the city, whom he
And dreadful balls of lightning fill the air,      contrived to keep in ignorance of his real sentiments
Shot from the hand of the great Thunderer.         The poem was written at Dr. Warren's particular re
Alld now a nighty sea the ship o'ertakes,        quest, and when "old Sam  Adams," as chairman of
Which failing on the deck, the bulk-head breaks;   the publishing committee, carried to the printer the
The sailors cling to ropes, and frightened cry,
The sailors cling to ropes, and frightened cry,  oration of the Fifth of March, he was instructed to
"The ship is foundered, we die! we die!"
Those in the cabin heard the sailors screech;    have appear as an appendix to that performance this
All rise, and reverend Warham do beseech,          satire, which it is said was received in committee with
That he would now lift up to Heaven a cry          great applause. When the proof-sheets were examined
For preservation in extremity.                     however, one of the members perceived that they had
He with a faith sure hottom'd on the word          been duped, that the poem " was all a bite"-that if
Of Him that is of sea and winds the Lord,          the author was actuated by any principles, they were
His eyes lifts up to Heaven, his hands extends,    mischievous-in fine, that he was a strenuous Tory, and
And fervent prayers for deliverance sends.
influenced alone by a desire to serve the royal cause,
And a street calln sits regent on the seas.        as a more close examination of the "ingenious and
They bless the name of their deliverer,            elegant composition" before them  would show. Of
Who now they found a God that heareth prayer.      course, the committee rescinded the vote to print it,
Still further westward on they keep their way,   and it was issued by Mr. Russell on his own account.
Ploughing the pavement of the briny sea,           It is in the heroic measure, and rather smoothly versiTill the vast ocean they had overpast,            flied, but its irony is so apparent that it seems almost
And in Connecticut their anchors cast.
incredible that such men as Samuel Adams and Joseph
In a speech to the king, descriptive of the valley of  Warren should not have perceived its object at a
the Connecticut, Winthrop says-                      glance. We quote an apostrophe to the king, from the
ninth page:
The grassy banks are like a verdant bed,
With choicest flowers all enameled,                  Stay. Pharaoh, stay, that impious hand forbear,
O'er which the winged choristers do fly,             Nor tempt the genius of our souls too far;
And wound the air writh wondrous melody.             Ifow oft, Ungracious! in thy thankless stead
Here Philomel, high perch'd upon a thorn,            Mid scenes of death our generous youth have bled!
Sings cheerful hymns to the approaching morn.        When the proud Gaul thy mightiest powers repell'd,
The song once set, each bird tunes up his lyre,      And drove thy legions trembling from the field,
Responding heavenly music through the quire....     We rent the laurel from the victor's brow,
Each plain is bounded at its utmost edge           And round thy temples taught the wreath to grow.
With a long chain of mountains in a ridge,           Say, when thy slaughter'd bands the desert dy'd,
Whose azure tops advance themselves so high,         Where the lone Ohiot rolls her gloomy tide,
They seem like pendants hanging in the sky.          Whose dreary banks their wasting bones inshrine,
What arm avenged them? Thankless! was it thinae?
In an account of King Philip's wars, he tells how the,soldier-But generous Valour scorns a boasting word,
met his amorous dame,                And conscious Virtue reaps her own reward I
Whose eye had often set his heart in flame.          Yet conscious Virtue bids thee now to speak,
Urged with the motives of her love and fear,         Though guilty blushes kindle o'er thy cheek.
She runs and clasps her arms about her dear,         If wasting wars, and painful toils, at length,
Where, weeping on his bosom as she lies,             Had drain'd our veins, and wither'd all our strength,
And languishing, on him she sets her eyes,           How couldst thou, cruel, form the base design,
Till those bright lamps do with her life expire,     And round our necks the wreath of bondage twine 
And leave him weltering in a double fire.            And if some lingering spirit roused to strife
Bid ruffian Murder drink the dregs of life,
tn the next page he describes the rising of the sun-   Shall future ages e'er forget the deed?
By this Aurora doth with gold adorn                  And not for this imperious B...   n bleed?
The ever beauteous eyelids of the morn;              When comes that period Heaven predestines must,
And burninmg Titan his exhaustless rays,             When Europe's glories shall be whelm'd in dust,
Bright in the eastern horizon displays;              When our proud fleets the naval wreath shall wear,
Then soon appearing in majestic awve,                And o'er her empires hurl the bolts of war,
Makes all the starry deities withdraw;               Unnerved by Fate, the boldest heart shall fail,
Veiling their faces in deep reverence,               And mid their guards auxiliar kings grow pale.
Before the throne of his magnificence.               In vain shall B..... n lift her suppliant eye,
An alien'd offspring feels no filial tie;
Wolcott retired from pubiic life, after having held    Her tears in vain shall bathe the soldiers' feet —
many honourable offices, in 1755, and died in May,   Remember, INGRATE! B-st-n's crimson'd street 
1767, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.            Whole hecatolnbs of lives the deed shall pay,
And purge the murders of that guilty day.
ALLEN'S POEM ON THE BOSTON MASSACRE.  I  * Alluding to the taking of Louisburg, in 1745, by Gen.
WE have a thin quarto entitled " The Poem whicn  Pepperell, uith the aid of a British squadron.
$he Cc mmittee of the town of Boston had voted unani-    t From various metrical compositions written before the
Revolution, it appears that the name OAio was originally
mousle to be published with the late Oration: with pronounced O-yo, as in the text.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     17
NATHANIEL WARD-HIS "SIMPLE COBLER OF    pered well, for ought I know; I presume their case is
AGGAWAM."                         generally knowne ere this.
NATHANIEL WARD was one of the most learned    "If the devill might have his free option, I believe
and able, yet eccentric of the nonconformists who  he would ask nothing else, but liberty to enfranchize
came to America. He was the son of a clergyman of  all false Religions, and to embondage the true; nor
the established church, and was graduated at Cam-  should he need: It is much to bee feared, that laxe
bridge, in 1595. After studying the civil law, he tra-  Tolerations upon State pretences and planting necessiveled on the continent, and studied divinity at Heidel-  ties, will be the next subtle Stratagem  he will spread,
berg, under Pareus, a celebrated Calvinist, whose prin-  to distate the Truth of God and supplant the peace of
ciples he adopted. He was forbidden to preach on his  the Churches. Tolerations in things tolerable, exquireturn to England, and in June, 1634, he came to Ame-  sitely drawn out by the lines of the Scripture, and
rica, and in the same year was settled as pastor of the  pensill of the Spirit, are the sacred favours of Truth,
church in Ipswich, or Aggawam, near Boston. His  the due latitudes of Love, the faire Compartiments of
health did not long permit him to continue in the pas-  Christian fraternity: but irregular dispensations, dealt
toral office, and he was employed by the colonial go-  forth by the facilities of men, are the frontiers of ervernment in various ways for several years. In 1645,  rour, the redoubts of Schisme, the perillous irritaments
he wrote the "Simple Cobler," of which the full title  of carnall and spirituall enmity.
is as follows:                                         "My heart hath naturally detested foure things: The
The Simple Cobler of Aggavvam in America. Willing  standing of the Apocrypha in the Bible; Forrainers
to help'mend his Native Country, lamentably tattered,  dwelling in my Countrey, to crowd our native Subjects
both in the upper- Leather and sole, with all the honest  into the corners of the Earth; Alchymized coines;
stitches he can take. And as willing never to bee paid for  Tolerations of divers Religions, or of one Religion in
his work, by Old English wonted pay. It is his Trade to  segregant shapes: He that willingly assents to the last,
patch all the year long, gratis. Therefore I pray Gentle-  if he examines his heart by day-light, his conscience
men keep your purses. By Theodore de la Guard. In rebus  will tell him, he is either an Atheist, or an Heretique,
arduis ac tenui spe, fortissima quteque consilia tutissima sunt.  or an Hypocrite, or at best a captive to some lush
-Cic. In English,                      Poly-piety is the greatest impiety in the world. True
" When bootes and shoes are tore up to the lefts,  Religion is Ignis probutionis, which doth congregate
Coblers must thrust their awles up to the hefts.  homogenea' segregare heterogenea.
" This no time to feare J.pelles gramm:       " Not to tolerate things meerly indifferent to weak
Jre Sutor quider ultra crepidam."
consciences, argues a conscience too strong: pressed
This is one of the most curious works written about  uniformity in these, causes much disunity: To tolerate
America; the most quaint and pedantic at a period  more than indifferents, is not to deale indifferently with
when quaintness and pedantry were the fashion; and  God; He that doth it, takes his Scepter out of his hand,
the most violent and enthusiastic of an age when vio-  and bids him stand by. Who hath to doe to institute
lence and enthusiasm in religious affairs were almost  Religion but God. The power of all Religion and
universal. The author's religious opinions, says the  Ordinances, lies in their purity: their purity in their
North American Review, are on the side of the Com-  simplicity: then are mixtures pernicious. J lived in a
monwealth party, though he professes great loyalty to  City, where a Papist preached in one Church, a Lu.
the King; he shows himself to be a zealous puritan;  theran in another, a Calvinist in a third; a Lutheran
and with willingness to concede whatever is " indiffer-  one part of the day, a Calvinist the other, in the same
ent;" he is the stubborn advocate of the most violent  pulpit: the Religion of that place was but motly and
intolerance and relentless persecution.              meagre, their affections Leopardlike.
The extracts which we select will give an idea of his    "If the whole Creature should conspire to doe the
principles and style. We quote, in the first place,  Creator a mischiefe, or offer him an insolency, itwould
from that portion of the " Simple Cobler" which treats  be in nothing more, that in erecting untruths against his
of religious toleration:                             Truth, or by sophisticaling his Truths with humane
"Here is lately brought us an extract of a Magna  medleyes; the removing of some one iota in Scripture,
Charta, so called, compiled between the Sub-planters  may draw out all the life, and traverse all the Truth of
of a West-Indian Island; whereof the first Article of  the whole Bible; but to authorise an untruth, by a Toconstipulation, firmly provides free stable-room and  leration of State, is to build a Sconce against the walls
litter for all kinde of consciences, be they never so  of heaven, to batter God out of his Chaire: To tell a
dirty or jadish; making it actionable, yea, treasonable,  practicall lye, is a great sin, but yet transient; but to
to dist:rbe any man in his Religion, or to discommend  set up a Theoricall untruth, is to warrant every lye
it, whatever it be. Wee are very sorry to see such  that lies from its root to the top of every branch it
professed profanenesse in English Professors, as in-  hath, which are not a few."
dustriously to lay their Religious Foundations on the    Concerning tolerations, he fuit-ner assertsruine of true Religion; which strictly binds every con-    "He that is willing to tolerate any Religion, or discre.
science to contend earnestly for the Truth: to preserve  pant way of Religion, besides his own, unlesse it be in
unity of spirit, faith and Ordinances, to be all like-  matters meerly indifferent, either doubts of his own,
minded, of one accord; every man to take his brother  or is not sincere in it.
into his Christian care: to stand fast with one spirit,    "He that is willing to tolerate any unsound Opinion,
with one mind, striving together for the faith of the  that his own may also be tolerated, though never so
Gospel: and by no meanes to permit Heresies or  sound, will for a need hang Gods Bible at the Devils
erroneous opinions: But God abhorring such loath-  girdle."
some beverages, hath in his righteous judgement blast-    Again he saysed that enterprize, which might otherwise have pros-    "If the State of England shall either willingly To3*




18                                 CURIOSITIES OF......  -_
krate, or weakly connive at such Courses, the Church Ibe held to the Grindstone, till it was almost ground to
of that Kingdom will sooner become the Devills Dan-  the gristles; and yet grew never the sharper lor ought
cing-Schoole, then Gods-Temple; The Civill State a  I could discerne; What was, before the world was
Beare-garden, then an Exchange: The whole Realme  made, I leave to better Antiquaries than myself; but I
a Pais base, then an England. And what pity it is, thinke, since the world began, it was never storyed
that that Country which hath been the Staple of Truth  that Salus Populi began with Majestas Imperii, unlesse
to all Christendome, should now become the Aviary  Majestas Imperii first unharbour'd it, and hunted it to
of Errors to the whole World, let every fearing heart  a stand, and then it must either turn head and live, or
judge.                                             turn taile and dye: but more have benne storyed on the
" It is said Opiqionists are many, and strong, that de  other hand than Majestas Imperii is willing to hear: I
sunt Vires, that it is turbata respublica, I am very sorry  doubt not but Majestas Imperii knows, that Commonfor it, but more sorry, if despondency of minde shall  wealths cost as much the making as Crownes; and if
cause the least tergiversation in Gods Worthies, who  they bee well made, would yet outsell an illfashioned
have recoiv'd such pledges of his presence in their  Crown, in any Market overt, even in Smithfield, if they
late Counsels and Conflicts. It is not thousands of  could be well vouched. But Preces 4f Lachrymce, are
Opinionists that can pinion his Everlasting armes, I  the peoples weapons: so are Swords and Pistols, when
can hardly beleeve there is a greater unbeleever then  God and Parliaments bid them Arme. Prayers and
my Selfe, yet I can verily beleeve that the God of  Teares are good weapons for them that have nothing
Truth will in a short time scatter them all like smoake  but knees and eyes; but most men are made with teeth
before the wind. I confesse I am troubled to see Men  and nailes; onely they must neither scratch for Liberso over-troubled about them; I am rather glad to heare  ties, nor bite Prerogatives, they have wept and prayed
the Devill is breaking up house in England, and remo- as God would have them. If Subjects must fight for
ving somewhither else, give him leave to sell all his  their Kings against other Kingdomes, when their Kings
rags, and odde-ends by the out-cry; and let his petty  will; I know no reason, but they may fight against
Chapmen make their Market while they may, upon  their Kings for their own Kingdomes, when Parlia.
my poore credit it will not last long.             ments say they may and must: but Parliaments must
"An easie head may soon demonstrate, that the pre-  not say they must, till God sayes they may."
mentioned Planters, by Tolerating all Religions, had    His address to the King, towards whom he was very
immazed themselves in the most intolerable confusions  bitter, is bold and insulting, though he professes great
and inextricable thraldomes the world ever heard of. I  loyalty and reverence.  The following is one of the
am perswaded the Devill himselfe was never willing  concluding paragraphs of the address.
with their proceedings, for feare it would breake his    "Sir you may now please to discover your Selfo
wind and wits to attend such a Province. I speak it  where you please; I trust I have not indangered you
seriously according to my meaning. How all Religions  I presume your Eare-guard will keep farre enough from
should enjoy their Liberty, Justice its due regularity,  you what ever I have said: be it so, I have discharged
Civill cohabitation morall honesty, in one and the same  my duty, let them look to theirs. If my tongue should
Jurisdiction, is beyond the Artique of my comprehen-  reach your eares, which I little hope for; Let it be
sion. If the whole conclave of Hell can so compro-  once said; the great King of great Britaine, tooke admise exadverse and diametricall contradictions, as to  vise of a simple Cobler, yet iuch a Cobler, as will not
compolitize such a multimonstrous maufrey of hetero-  exchange either his blood or his pride, with any Shooclytes and quicquidlibets quietly; I trust I may say  maker or Tanner in your Realme, nor with any of your
with all humble reverence, they can doe more then the  late Bishops which have flattered you thus in peeces:
Senate of Heaven. My modus loquendi pardoned; I  J would not speake thus in the ears of the world,
mntirely wish much welfare and more wisdom to that  through the mouth of the Presse for all the plunder
Plantation."                                       your plunderers have pillaged; were it not somewhat
How strange to reason, how natural to human na-  to abate your Royall indignation toward a loyall Subture, that men who had been driven by persecution  ject; a Subject whose heart hath beene long carbona
trom their native country, should have in their turn be-  doed, des veniam verbo, in flames of affection towards
come persecutors, and doom the bodies of those who  ydu. Your Majesty knows or may know, time was,
differ from them to the rack, as well as their souls to  when I did, or would have done you a better peece of
eternal perdition.                                 service, then all your Troopes and Regiments are now
Cotton Mather says of the "Simple Cobler," that  doing. Should J hear any Gentleman that follows you
"it demonstrated its author to be a subtile statesman."  of my yeares, say hee loves you better than I, if it
We give a few paragraphs, in which his political prin-  were lawfull, I would sweare by my Sword, he said
ciples are exhibited-                              more than his sword would make good."
" Wee heare that Majestas Imperii hath challenged    The Simple Cobler had a pious horror of bedecked
Salus Populi into the field; the one fighting for Prero-  ladies, and discourses of them in the following quaint
gatives, the other defending Liberties: Were I a Con-  manner:
stable bigge enough, I would set one of them by the    "Should I not keepe promise in speaking a little to
heeles to keep both their hands quiet; I meane onely  Womens fashions, they would take it unkindly; I was
in a paire of Stocks, made of sound Reason, hand-  loath tb) pester better matter with such stuffe; I rather
somely fitted for the legges of their Understanding.    thought it meet to let them stand by themselves, like
"If Salus Populi began, surely it was not that Salus  the Que Genus in the Grammar, being Deficients, or
Populi which I left in England: that Salus Populi was  Redundants, not to be brought under any Rule: I shall
as mannerly a Salus POpuli as need bee: if I bee not  therefore make bold for this once, to borrow a little of
much deceived, that Salus Populi suffer'd its nose to  their loose tongued Liberty, and mispend a word or




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                   19
two upon their long-wasted, but short-skirted patience:  ing out of their hood-holes for some men of mercy to
a little use of my stirrup will doe no harme.      help them  with a little wit, and no body relieves
"Ridentem dicere verum, quid prohibet?        them.
"Gray Gravity it selfe can  It is a more common then convenient saying, that
rThat Langtuage be adapted to the Theme.'     nine Taylors make a man: it were well if nineteene
That Language be adapted to the Theme.
Hie that to Parrots speaks, must parrotize:   could make a woman to her minde: if Taylors were
fle that instructs a foole, may act th' unwise.  men indeed, well furnished but with meer morall prin.
ciples, they would disdain to be led about like Apes, by
* It is known more then enough, that I am neither
such mymick Marmosets. It is a most unworthy thing,
Nigard, nor Cinick, to the due bravery of the true Gen-ones in them, to spend their lives
for men that have bones in them, to spend their lives
try: if any man mislikes a bully mong drossock more  in making fidle-cases for futilous womens phansies
then I, let him take her for his labour: I honour the  which are the very pettitoes of infirmity, the gyblets
woman that can honour her selfe with her attire: a                         I am so charitable to think,
of perquisquilian toyes. I am so charitable to think,
good Text alwayes deserves a fair Margent: I am not          of t       ery would workee cheerfulle
that most of that mystery would worke the cheerfuller
uch offended if I see a trimme, far trimmer than she  while they live, if they might bee well discharged of
that wears it: in a word, whatever Christianity or Ci  the tyring slavery of mis-tyring women: it is no littl
the tyring slavery of mis-tyring women: it is no little
vility will allow, I can afford with London measure:  labour to be continually putting up English-women into,
but when I heare a nugiperous Gentledame inquire  Out-landish caskes: who if they be not shifted anew,,
what dress the Queen is in this week: what the nudius-  once in a few moneths, grow too sowre for their HuE,.
tertian fashion of the Court: I meane the very new-  hands. What this Trade will answer for themselves:
est: with egge to be in it in all haste, what ever it be;  when God shall take measure of Taylors conscienceI look at her as the very gizzard of a trifle, the product  is beyond my skill to imagine. There was a time:
of a quarter of a cypher, the epitome of nothing, fitter  whento be kickt, if shee were of a kickable substance, than
" The joyning of the Red.Rose with the White,
either honour'd or humour'd.
Did set our State into a Damask plight.
" To speak moderately, I truly confesse, it is beyond
the ken of my understanding to conceive, how those    "But now our Roses are turned to Flo1e  de lice:,
women should have any true grace, or valuable vertue,  our Carnations to Tulips, our Gilliflowers to Dayzes,
that have so little wit, as to disfigure themselves with  our City-Dames, to an indenominable Qu malry of
such exotick garbes, as not only dismantles their na-  overturcas'd things. Ilee that makes Coates for the
tive lovely lustre, but transclouts them into gant bar-  Moone, had need take measure every noone; and ho
geese, ill-shapen-shotten-shell-fish, Egyptian Hyerogly-  that makes for women, as often, to keepe them from.
phicks, or at the best into French flurts of the pastery,  Lunacy.
which a proper English woman should scorne with her    "I have often heard divers Ladies vent loud femihLcels: it is no marvell they weare drailes on the hinder  nine complaints of the wearisome varieties and chargDart of their heads, having nothing as it seems in the  able changes of fashions: I marvell themselves pre.
fore-part, but a few Squirrils brains to help them frisk  ferre not a Bill of redresie. I would Essex Ladiesi
from ill-favor'd fashion to another.                would lead the Chore, for the honour of their County
and persons; or rather the thrice honourable Ladies.
"These whimm' Crown'd shees, these fashion-fansying  of the Court, whom it best beseemes: who may we
wits,
Are empty thin brain'd shells, and fiddling its,   presume of a Le Roy le veult from our sober King, a.
Les Seigneurs out Assentus from our prudent Peers,
"The very troublers and impoverishers of mankind,  Ld the like Assen us fom  our considerate, I dare no
and the like Assentus from our considerate, I dare not:
I can hardly forbear to commend to the world a saying of a Lady living sometime with the Queen  of Bo-  rather passe one such Bill, than pay so many Taylor&
hemrnia, I know not where shee found it, but it is pitty it  Bills as they are forced to doe.
should be lost.                                       "Most deare and unparallel'd Ladies, be pleased to,
"The World is fitl of care, much like unto a bubble;  attempt it: as you have the precellency of the women
Women and care, and care and wonmen, and women and  of the world for beauty and feature; so assume the.
care and trouble.                            honour to give, and not take Law from any, in matter
"The Verses are even enough for such odde pegma's.  of attire: if ye can transact so faire a motion among
I can make my selfe sicke at any time, with comparing  yourselves unanimously, I dare say, they that mnost rethe dazling splender wherewith our Gentlewomen  nite, will least repent. What greater honour can your
were embellished in some former habits, with the gut-  Honors desire, then to build a Promontory presideat to,
foundred goosdom, wherewith they are now surcingled  all foraigne Ladies, to deserve so eminently at the hands
and debauched. Wee have about five or six of them   of all the English Gentry present and to come. ans to
in our Colony: if I see any of them accidentally, I  confute the opinion of all the wise men in the world,
cannot cleanse my phansie of them for a moneth after.  who never thought it possible for women to doe go
I have been a solitary widdower almost twelve yeares,  good a work?
purposed lately to make a step over to my Native    "If any man think I have spoken rather merrily than
Country for a yoke-fellow: but when I consider how   seriously he is much mistaken, I have written what I
women there have tripe-wifed themselves with their  write with all the indignation I can, and no more then
cladments, I have no heart to the voyage, least their  I ought.  I confesse I veer'd my tongue to this kinde
nauseous shapes and the Sea, should work too sorely  of Language de isldustria though unwillingly, suppo.
upon my stomach. I speak sadly; me thinkes it should
breake the heartes of Englishmen to see so many good-  in them All the Counties and shires of England have had warse
ly Englisthem since the Conquest, but Essex, which is ofrly ee,
ly English-women imprisoned in French Cages, peer-  and should be thailkfemll.




CURIOSITIES OF
sing those I speak to are uncapable of grave and ratio-  injustice in God, not to distinguish them by the Sword.
nall arguments.                                    I had rather God should know me by my sobriety, than
" I desire all Ladies and Gentlewomen to understand  mine enemy not know me by my vanity. He is ill
that all this while I intend not such as through neces- kept, that is kept by his owne sin. A short promise is
sary modesty to avoyd morose singularity, follow fash-  a farre safer guard than a long lock: it is an ill distinc.
ions slowly, a flight shot or two off, shewing by their  tion which God is loth to looke at, and his Angels canmoderation, that they rather draw countermont with  not know his Saints by. Though it be not the mark of
their hearts, then put on by their examples.       the Beast, yet it may be the mark of a beast prepared
" I point my pen only against the light-heel'd beagles  to slaughter. I am sure men use not to weare such
that lead the chase so fast, that they run all civility out  manes; I am also sure Souldiers use to weare other
of breath, against these Ape-headed pullets, which in-  marklets or notadoes in time of battell.",vent Antique foole-fangles, meerly for fashion and    The following is a remarkable proof of the purity,novelty sake.                                      of manners in the early state of the Colony.
~' In a word, if I begin once to declaime against fash-    "I would my skill would serve also, as well as my
ions, let men and women look well about them, there  heart, to translate Prince Rupert, for his Queen-mods somewhat in the businesse; I confesse to the world,  thers sake, Eliz: a second.  Mismeane me not. I
J never had grace enough to be strict in that kinde; and  have had him in mine armes when he was younger, I,of late years, I have found eyrrope of pride very whole-  wish I had him there now: if I mistake not, bee pro-,some in a due Dos, which makes mee keep such store  mised then to be a good Prince, but I doubt he hath,of that drugge by me, that if any body comes to me  forgot it: if I thought he would not be angry with me,
foer a question-full or two about fashions, they never  I would pray hard to his Maker, to make hiln a right,complain of me for giving them hard measure, or un-  Roundhead, a wise-hearted Palatine, a thankfull man to
edr-.weight.                                        the English; to forgive all his sinnes, mnd at length to
~ "But I addresse my self to those who can both hear  save his soule, nothwithstanding all his God-damne:and mend all if they please: I seriously feare, if the  mee's: yet I may doe him wrong, I am not certaine hee
pious Parliament doe not finde a time to state fashions,  useth that oath; I wish no man else would. I dare say:as ancient Parliaments have done in some part, God  the Devills dare not. I thank God I have lived in a
will hardly finde a time to state Religion or Peace.  Colony of many thousand English almost these twelve
They are the surquedryes of pride, the wantonnesse  yeares, am held a very sociable man; yet I may con-.of idlenesse, provoking sins, the certain prodromies of  siderately say, I never heard but one Oath sworne, nor
assuredjudgement, Zeph. 1. 7, 8.                    never saw one man drunke, nor ever heard of three
" It is beyond all account,how many Gentlemens and  women Adulteresses, in all this time, that I can call to
Citizens estates are deplumed by their feather-headed  minde: If these sinnes bee amongst us privily, the
wives, what usefull supplies the pannage of England  Lord heale us, I would not bee understood to boast of
would afford other Countries, what rich returnes to it  our innocency; there is no cause I should, our hearts
selfe, if it were not slic'd out into male and female  may be bad enough, and our lives much better."
fripperies;: and what a multitude of misimploy'd hands,    One extract from the conclusion of the book, is semight be better improv'd in some more manly Manu-  lected as a favourable specimen of his style, and:factures for the publique weale; it is not easily credi-  another to show to what horrible cruelty religious iin-:ble, what may be said of the preterpluralities of Tay-  tolerance impels those, who have the power to perso-!lors in London: I have heard an honest man say, that  cute.
not long since there were numbered between Temple-    "Goe on brave Englishmen, in the name of God, go
Ibaerre and:Charing-Crosse, eight thousand of that Trade:  on prosperously, because of Truth and Righteousness.
jet it be conjectured by that proportion how many there  Yee that have the Cause of Religion, the life of your.are in and about London, and in all England, they will  Kingdome and of all the good that is in it in your.appeare to be very numerous.  If the Parliament  hands: Goe on undauntedly: As you are Called and,would please to mend women, which their Husbands  Chosen, so be faithfull: Yee fight the battells of the
dare not doe, there need not so many men to make and  Lord, bee neither desidious nor perfidious: You serve
mend as there are. I hope the present dolefull estate  the King of Kings, who stiles you his heavenly Regiof the Realme, will perswade more strongly to some  ments: Consider well, what impregnable fighting it is
considerate course herein, than I now can.          in heaven, where the Lord of Hosts is your Generall,'" Knew I how to bring it in, I would speak a word to  his Angells, your Colonells, the Stars, your fellowlong haire, whereof I will say no more but this: if God  souldiers, his Saints, your Oratours, his Promises, your
proves not such a Barbor to it as he threatens, unlesse  victuallers, his Truth, your Trenches; where Drums
it be amended, Esa. 7. 20. before the Peace of the  are Harps, Trumpets joyful sounds; your Ensignes,
State and Church be well setled, then let my prophesie  Christs Banners; where your weapons and armour are
be scorned, as a sound minde scorns the ryot of that  spirituall, therefore irresistable, therefore impiercable;
sin, and more it needs not. If those who are tearmed  where Sunne and wind cannot disadvantage you, you
Rattle-heads and Impuritans, would take up a Resolu-  are above them, where hell it selfe cannot hurt you,
tion to begin in moderation of haire, to the just reproach  where your swords are furbushed and sharpened, by
of those that are called Puritans and Round-heads, I  him that made their metall, where your wounds, are
would honour their manlinesse, as much as the others  bound up with the oyle of a good Cause, where your
godlinesse, so long as I knew what man or honour  blood runnes into the veynes of Christ, where sudden
meant: if neither can find a Barbours shop, let them   death is present martyrdome and life; your funeralls
turne in, to Psal. 68. 21. Jer. 7. 29. 1 Cor. 11. 14. if it  resurrections; your honour, glory; where your widows
be thought no wisdome in men to distinguish them-  and babes are received into perpetuall pensions, yo,ur
selves in the field by the Scissers, let it bee thought no  names listed among Davids Worthies; where youw




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                   21
greatest losses are greatest gaines; and where you  as they have served us, and Cursed be he that shall do
leave the troubles of warre, to lye downe in downy  that work of the Lord negligently, Cursed be he that
beds of eternall rest.                              holdeth back his Sword from blood; yea, Cursed be he
" What good will it doe you, deare Countrymen, to  that maketh not his Sword starke drunk with Iris.h
live without lives, to enjoy England without the God  blood, that doth not recompence them double for their
of England, your Kingdome without a Parliament,  hellish treachery to the English, that maketh them not
your Parliament without power, your Liberties with-  heaps upon heaps, and their Country a dwelling place
out stability, your Lawes without Justice, your honours  for Dragons, an Astonishment to Nations: Let not that
without vertue, your beings without tranquility, your  eye look for pity, nor that hand to be spared, that piwives without honesty, your children without morality,  ties or spares them, and let him be accursed, that
your servants without civility, your lands without pro- curseth not them bitterly."
priety, your goods without immunity, the Gospel with-    The conclusion of the Cobler is in verseout salvation, your Churches without Ministery, your' I pray let me drive in half a dozen plaine honest
Ministers without piety, and all you have or can have,  Country Hobnailes, such as the Martyrs were wont to
with more teares and bitternesse of heart, than all you  weare; to make my work hold the surer; and I have
have and shall have will sweeten or wipe away?     done.
" Goe on therefore Renowned Gentlemen, fall on          1 There, lives cannot be good,
resolvedly, till your hands cleave to your swords, your       There, Faith cannot be sure,
swords to your enemies hearts, your hearts to victory,      Where Truth cannot be quiet,
your victories to triumph, your triumphs to the ever-         Nor Ordinances pure.
lasting praise of him that hath given you Spirits to      2. No King can King it right,
offer your selves willingly, and to jeopard your lives        Nor rightly sway his Rod:
in high perills, for his Name and service sake.             Who truely loves not Christ,' And Wee your Brethren, though we necessarily              And truely fears not God.
abide beyond Jordan, and remaine on the American          3. He cannot rule a Land,
Sea-coasts, will send up Armies of prayers to the             As Lands should ruled been,
Throne of Grace, that the God of power and good-            That lets himself be rul'd
nesse, would incourage your hearts, cover your heads,         By a ruling Romane Queen.
strengthen your arms, pardon your sinnes, save your       4. No earthly man can be
soules, and blesse your families, in the day of lattell.      True Subject to this State;
Wee will also pray, that the same Lord of Hosts,            Who makes the Pope his Christ,
would discover the Counsells, defeat the Enterprizes,         An Heretique his Mate.
deride the hopes, disdaine the insolencies, and wound     5. There Peace will goe to War,
the hairy scalpes of your obstinate Enemies, and yet          And Silence make a noise:
pardon all that are unwillingly misled. Wee will like-      Where upper things will not
With nether equipoyse.
wise helpe you to beleeve that God will be seene on
the Mount, that it is all one with him, to save by many   6. The upper world shall Rule,
or few, and that he doth but humble and try you for           While Stars will run their race,
the present, that he may doe you good at the latter         The nether world obey,
While People keep their place.
end. All which hee bring to passe who is able to doe
exceeding abundantly, above all we can aske or thinke,                THE CLENCH.
for his Truth and mercy sake in Jesus Christ, Amen.         If any of these come out
Amen."                                                  So long's the world doe last:
Then credit not a word
" A Word of Ireland: eNot of the,Nation universally, nor of any  Of what is said and past.
man in it, that hath so much as one haire of Christianity or
Humanity growing on his head or beard, but onely of the    So farewell England old
truculent Cut-throats, and such as shall take up A.rmes in  If evill times ensue,
their Defetnce.                                            Let good men come to us,
" These Irish anciently called Anthropophagi, man-          Wee'1 welcome them to New.
eaters: Have a Tradition among them, That when the
And farewell Honor'd Friends,
Devill shewed our Saviour all the kingdomes of the            If happy dayes ensue,
Earth and their glory, that he would not shew him Ire-      You'] have some Guests from hence,
land, but reserved it for himself: it is probably true,       Pray welcome us to you.
for he hath kept it ever since for his own peculiar; the    And farewell simple world,
old Fox foresaw it would eclipse the glory of all the         If thou'It thy Cranium mend,
rest: he thought it wisdome to keep it for a Boggards       There is my Last and All,
for himself, and all his unclean spirits imployed in this     And a Shoem-Akers
Hemisphere, and the people, to doe his Son and Heire,                           E ND.
I mean the Pope, that service for which Lewis the eletenth kept his Barber Oliver, which makes them so                      POSTSCRIPT.
blood-thirsty.  They are the very Offall of men,   This honest Cobler has done what he might:
Dregges of Mankind, Reproach of Christendome, the    That Statesmen in their Shoes might walk uprigst.
Bets that crawle on the Beasts taile, J wonder Rome it   But rotten Shoes of Spannish running-leather:
self is slot ashamed of them. >No Coblers skill, can stitch them strong together.
self is not ashamed of them.
It were best to cast such rotten stuff away:
"X begge upon my hands and knees, that the Expedi-    And look for that, that never will decay.
tion against them may be undertaken while the hearts   If all were shd with Gospel's lasting Peace
and hands of our Souldiery are hot, to whom J w:t be   IEtred abroad, and Wars at home would cease.
bold to say briefly; Happy is he that shall rewts,':.tat,                   JEROME IELLAMS.R."




22                                   CURIOSITIES OF
FRENEAU-RIVING-TON, ETC.                   was written by Freneau on observing that the title oi
PHILP FRENEAU was the most distinguished poet of  the Gazette had become nearly illegible.
our revolutionary time. He was a voluminous writer,  Says Satan to Jemmy, " I hold you a bet
and many of his compositions are intrinsically worth-  That you mean to abandon our Royal Gazette,
less, or, relating to persons and events now forgotten,  Or, between you and me, you would manage things bettet
are no longer interesting; but enough remain to show   Than the title to print on so sneaking a letter.
that he had more genius and more enthusiasm than any  " Now being connected so long in the art,
other bard whose powers were called into action during  It would not be prudent at present to part;
the great struggle for liberty.                       And people, perhaps, would be frighten'd, and fret
If the devil alone carried on the Gazette.,'
He was of French extraction. His father, an ardent
and intelligent Huguenot, came to America immediately  Says Jemmy to Satan (by way of a wipe,)
after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, in company  " Who gives me the matter should furnish the type;
with a number of Protestant gentlemen, who on their  And why you find fault, I can scarcely divine,
arrival founded the old church of Saint Esprit, in New   For the types, like the printer, are certainly thine.
arrival founded the old church of Saint Esprit, in New
York, and afterward, I believe, the pleasant.village of  i"'T is thine to deceive with the semblance of truth,
New Rochelle, near that city. The poet was born on  Thou friend of my age, and thou guide of my youth!
But, to prosper, pray send me some further supplies,
the fifteenth of January, in the year 1752. His father  But, to prosper, pray send me so
A set of new types, and a set of new lies."
died while he was yet a child, but his mother attended
carefully to his education, and he entered Nassau Hall    Soon afterward he wrote the followingat Princeton, in 1767, so far advanced in classical stu- N MR RIVINGTON 5 NEWLY ENGRAVED KING'S ARMS
dies, that the president of the college made'his proficiency the subject of a congratulatory letter to one of
his relatives. His room-mate and most devoted friend    From the regions of night, with his head in a sack,
here was James Madison, and among his classmates    Ascended a person accoutred in black,,were many others who in after time became eminent    And upward directing his circular eye-whites;
(Like the jure~divino political Levites)
as legislators or scholars. He was graduated when    (Like the jars-divin political Levites)
And leaning his elbow oil Rivington's shelf,
nineteen years of age, and soon after removed to Phi-    While the printer wlas busy, thus mused with himsei,
ladelphia, where he was for several years on terms of    "My mandates are fully complied with at last,
familiar intimacy with the well known Francis Hop-    New ARMS are engraved, and new letters are cast;
kinson, with whom he was associated as a political   I therefore determine and freely accord,
writer.                                                This servant of mine shall receive his reward."
He began to compose verses at an early period, and,   Then turning about, to the printer he said,
before leaving Princeton, had formed the plan of an      Who late was my servant shall now be mi sidt
Since under my banners so bravely yom fight,
epic poem on the life and discoveries of Columbus, of   Kneel down-for your merits I dub yorll   se.ioer,
which his "Address to Ferdinand" is probably a frag-    From a passive subaltern I bid you to r':
ment. After his removal to Philadelphia his attention    The INVENTOR, as well as the PRE..ers: JIF LIES."
was devoted to politics, and his poetical writings related
principally to public characters and events. His satiles    At the close of the war, fivisgton discardsd too
on Hugh Gaine, James Rivington, and other prominent  signs of royalty, and nlodiiee the title of his paper so
Tories, were remarkably popular in their time, though  that it appeared as " Rivingtoa's Gazette and Universal
Advertiser."  From the'W/higs, however, it receivettno
deserving of little praise for their chasteness or ele-Advertiser."  From  thetigs, however, it recei no
gance of diction; and his patriotic songs and ballads   support, and in 1s68 its puulication was abandoned.
which are superior to any metrical compositions then  With all its faultse wat the most ably edited and most
written in this country, were everywhere sung with en-  neatly printed nevvspapek in America, and if the Whigs
thusiasm.                                             would have so-.epte& hs service, Rivington would have
Rivington was editor and proprietor of" Rivington's  argued ants hLed as snlutriously for them as he had pre.
vionsl fiorch, fibfies.  Among Freneau's satires is the
New York Gazetteer, or The Connecticut Enquirer,
and Quebec Weekly Advertiser." This paper was estab-  fosiowidi, wrntteh a few weeks before the publication
i;shed in the early part of 1773, and excelled all others  of      s  bes of the Gazette.
in America in its devotion to the royal government,                RIVINGTON'S CONFESSIONS.
until the autumn of 1775, when a company of armeu              "I/dressed to the Wligs of.Newo York.
men from Connecticut entered the city, broke into tnt      lift md low spirits were never my choice,
printing house, threw the types into heaps, an& de-   Ar lone &d I live I intend to rejoice;
stroyed the press. Soon after this Rivington went  toW Vtes, ie is worn out, and no wine's to be had,
England, where he was supplied with new printing  "'i- t;me enough then to be serious and sad.
materials, and received a commission ad King s rPrinter
materials,.and received a commission s King s rinte'T is time enough then to reflect and repent,
for the colony. When the British gaipned possessioh  Vhen our liquor is gone, and our money is spent,
of the city, he returned and recomnrr.nced the publica-  But I cannot endure what is practised by some
tion of his paper, under the ti;le utf' Rivington's New   This anticipating of mischiefs to come:
York Loyal Gazette."  No editors of the present age
A debt must be paid, I am sorry to say,
are comparable with. tislingtoh for servility or men. Alike in their turns by the grave and the gay,
dacity. Even the cefles were wont to call his paper  And due to a despot that none can deceive,
"The Lying GCazete," and he several times publicly  Who grants us no respite and signs no reprieve.,Apologized fo- the " mistakes" which "his zeal for the
tn.         Thrice happy is he that front care can retreat,
success of his Majesty's arms, his sanguine wishes for  And its plagues and vexations put under his feet;
the goosa,j lhis countiy, and his friendship for indivi-  Blow the storm as it may, he is always in trim,
ual,'," caused him to commit:. The following epigram   And the sun's in the zenith for ever to him.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                      23
Sinlce the world, the~n, in earnest, is nothing but care,  His prudence and caution has saved your d(tminions,
(And the world will allow I have also my share)       This chief of all chiefs, and the pride of Virginians I
Yet, toss'd as I am in the stormy expanse,            And when he is gone-I pronounce it with painThe best way, I find, is to leave it to chance.       We scarcely shall meet with his equal again.
Look round, if you please, and survey the wide ball,  T'he gods for that hero did trouble prepare,
And CHIANCE, you will find, has direction of all:     But gave him a mind that could feed upon care,'T was owing to chance that I first saw the light,    They gave him a spirit, serene but severe,
And chance may destroy me before it is night!        Above all disorder, confusion, and fear;
In him it was fortune where others would fail.'T was a chance, a mere chance, that your arms gain'd the
day,                                             lHe was born for the tempest, and weather'd the gale.
I was a chance that the Britons so soon went away,    Old Plato asserted that life is a dream,
To chanc. by their leaders the nation is cast,        And man but a shadow, a cloud or a stream;
And chance to perdition will send them at last.       By which it is plain he intended to say
That nan, like a shadow, must vanish away:
Now because I remain when the puppies are gone,an like a shadow must vanish away:
You would willingly see me hang'd, quarter'd, and drawn,  If this be the fact, in relation to man,
Though I think I have logic sufficient to prove       And if each one is striving to get what he can,
That the chance of my stay-is a proof of my love.     I hope while I live, you will all think it bes',
To allow me to bustle along with the rest.
For deeds of destruction some hundreds are ripe,
But the worst of my foes are your lads of the type:   A view of my life, though some parts might be solemn,
Because they have nothing to put on their shelves     Would make, on the whole, a ridiculous volume:
They are striving to make me as poor as themselves.   In the life that's hereafter (to speak with submission)
There's LOUDoN, and KOLLOCK, those strong bulls of Bashan,  I hope I shall publish a better edition:
Are striving to hook me away from my station,         Even swine you permit to subsist -a the street;And HOLT, all at once, is as wonderful great          You pity a dog that lies down to be beatAs if none but himself was to print for the STATE.    Then forget what is past, for the year's at a closeYe all are convinced I'd a right to expect           And men of my age have some need of repose.
That a sinner returning you would not rejectaluite sick of the scarlet and slaves of the throne,  But as to the Tories that yet may remain,'T is now at your option to make me your own.         They scarcely need give you a moment of pain;
What dare they attempt when their masters have fled,
TSupposte rI had gone with the Torieas.ofand rabble,  -When the soul is departed who wars with the dead?
To starve or be drown'd on the shoals of cape Sable,
I had suffer'd,'tis true-but I'll have you to know,  On the waves of the Styx had they rode quarantine,
You nothing had gain'd by my trouble and wo.          They could not have look'd more infernally lean
Than the day, when repenting, dismay'd and distress'd,
You say that with grief and dejection of heart
Like the doves to their windows, they flew to their nest.
I pack'd up my awls, with a view to depart,
That my shelves were dismantled, my cellars unstored,  Poor souls! for the love of the king and his nation
My boxes afloat, and my hampers on board:             They have had their full quantum of mortification;
Wherever they fought, or whatever they won,
And hence you infer (I am sure without reason)        Wherever they fought, or whatever they won,
The dream's at an end-the delusion is done.
That a right you possess to entangle my weason —
Yet your barns I ne'er burnt, nor your blood have I spilt,   The TEMPLE you raised was so wonderful large
And my terror alone was no proof of my guilt.         Not one of them thought you could answer the charge,
It seem'd a mere castle constructed of vapour,
The charge may be true-for I found it in vain         It seem'd a mere castle constructed of vapour,
Surrounded with gibbets, and founded on PAPER.
To lean on a staff that was broken in twain,
And ere I had gone at Port Roseway to fix,            On the basis of freedom you built it too strong!
I had chose to sell drams on the south side of Styx.  And CARLETON confess'd, when you held it so long,
I confess, that with shame and contrition oppress'd,  That if any thing human the fabric could shatter,.
I sign'd an agreement to go with the rest,    The ROYAL GAZETTE must accomplish the matter.
I sign'd an agreement to go with the rest,
But ere they weigh'd anchor to sail her last trip,    An engine like that, in such hands as my own
I saw they were vermin, and gave them the slip:       Had shaken king CUDJoEs himself from his throne,
Now why you should call me the worst man alive,       In another rebellion ad ruin'd the Scot,
O. the word of a convert, I cannot contrive,          While the Pope and Pretender had both gone to pot.
Though turn'd a plain, honest republican, still       If you stood my attacks, I have nothing to sayYou own me no proselyte, do what I will.              I fought, like the Swiss, for the sake of my pay;
Mly paper is alter'd-good people, don't fret;         But while I was proving your fabric unsound
I call it no longer the ROYAL GAZETTE,                Our vessel miss'd stay, and we all went aground.
To me a great monarch has lost all his charms,        Thus ended in ruin what madness begun,
I have pull'd down his LION, and trampled his ARMs.   And thus was our nation disgraced and undone,
While fate was propitious, I thought they might stand,  Renown'd as we were, and the lords of the deep,
(You know I was zealous for George's command)         If our outset was folly, our exit was sleep.
But since he disgraced it, and left us behind,        A dominion like THIS, that some millions had cost!If I thought him an angel —I've alter'd my mind.      The king might have wept when he saw it was lost;On the very same day that his army went hence         This jewel-whose value I cannot describe:
I ceased to tell lies for the sake of his pence:      This pearl-that was richer than all his Dutch tribe.
And what was the reason?-the true one is best-       When the war came upon us, you very well knew
I worship no suns when they hang to the west          My income was small and my riches were fewIf your money was scarce, and your prospects were bad,
In this I resemble a Turk or a Moor,
Bright Phmehus ascending, I prostrate adore:          Why hinder me printing for people that had?
And, therefore, excuse me for plinting some lays,       * The negro king in Jamaica; whom the English declared
An ode or a sonnet it Wash ngton's praise.            Independent in 1739.




24                                     CURIOSITIES OF'T would have pleased you, no doubt, had I gone with a  " Other luck we had once at the battle of Boyne!
few sets                                             But here they have ruin'd earl Charles and Burgoyne,
Of books, to exist in your cold Massachusetts;           Here brave colonel JMonckton was thrown on his back,
Or to wander at.Newark with ill-fated HUGH,             And here lies poor Andre! the best of the pack."
Not a shirt to my back, nor a sole to my shoe:
So saying, he flitted away in a trice,
Now, if we mistook (as we did, it is plain)             Just adding, "he hoped I would take his advice"Our error was owing to wicked HUGH GAINE,                Which I surely shall do, if you push me too hardFor he gave such accounts of your starving and strife    And so I remain, with eternal regard,
As proved that his pictures were drawn from the life.   JAMES RIVINGTON, Printer, of late to the king,
The part that I acted by some men of sense               But now a republican-under your wingWVas wrongfully held to be malice prepense,              Let hins stand where he is-don't push him down hill,
When to all the world else it was perfectly plain,       And he'll turn a true Blie.-Skin, or just what you will.One principle ruled me-a passion for gain.                 Another of his pasquinades is entitled:
You pretend I have suffer'd no loss in the cause,
RIVINGTON'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.
And have, therefore, no right to partake of your laws:Some people love talking-I find to my cost,              Since life is uncertain, and no one can say
I too am a loser-my PENSION is lost!                     flHow soon we may go, or how long we shall stay,
Methinks he is wisest who soonest prepares,
Nay, did not your printers repeatedly stoop              And settles, in season, his wordly affairs:
To descant and reflect on nly PORTABLE SOUP?
ATo descant and reflect on iy PORTABLE SOur?             Some folks are so weak they can scarce avoid crying,
At oume have your porcupines darter'd he quill,          And think when they're making their wills they are dying)
You have plunder'd my Office and published my Will.'T is surely a serious employment-but still,'T is surely a serious employment —but still,
Resolved upon mischief, you held it no crime             Who e'er died the sooner for making his will?
To steal my Refleections, and print them in rhyme,       Let others be sad, when their lives they review,
When all the town knew (and a number confess'd)          But I know wohom I've served- and him faithfully too;'That papers, like these, were no cause of arrest.       And though it may seen a fanatical story,
You never consider'd my struggles and strife;            He often has show'd me a glimpse of his glory.
That my lot is to toil and to worry through life;        ItgPRIMIS, my carcase I give and devise
My windows you broke-not a pane did you spare-           To be made into cakes of a moderate size,
And my house you have made a mere old man of war.        To nourish those Tories whose spirits may droop,
And still you insist I've no right to complain!-        And serve the king's army with portable soup.
Indeed if I do, I'm afraid it's in vain-                 Unless I mistake, in the scriptures we read
Yet am willing to hope you're too learnedly read         That " worms on the dead shall deliciously feed,"
To hang up a printer for being misled.                   The scripture stands true-and that I am firm in,
If this be your aim, I must think of a flight-           For what are our Tories and soldiers but vermin?In less than a month I must bid you good night,          This soup of all soups can't be call'd that of beef,
And hurry away to that whelp-ridden shore                (And this may to some be a matter of grief:)
Where CLINTON and CARLETON retreated before.             But I am certain the BULL would occasion a laugh,
From signs in the sky, and from tokens. on land,         That beef portable soup should be made of a CALF.
I'm inclined to suspect my departure's at hand:         To the king, my dear master, I give a full set
Old Argo* the ship,-in a peep at her star,               (In volumes bound up) of the ROYAL GAZETTE,
I found they were scraping her bottom for TAR:           In which he will find the vast records contain'd
Of provinces conquer'd, and victories gain'd.
For many nights past, as the house can attest,
A boy with a feather-bed troubled my rest:               As to ARNOLD, the traitor, and Satan his brother,
My shop, the last evening, seem'd all in a blaze,        I beg they will also accept of another;
And a HEN crow'd at midnight, my waiting-man says;       And this shall be bound in Morocco red leather,
Provided they'll read it, like brothers together.
Even then, as I lay with strange whims in my head,
A ghost hove in sight, not a yard from my bed,           But if Arnold should die,'t is another affair,
It seem'd General ROBERTSON, brawly array'd,             Then Satan, surviving, shall be the sole heir;
But I grasp'd at the substance, and found him a shade    He often has told me he thought it quite clever
So to him and his heirs I bequeath it for ever.
lie appear'd as of old, when head of the throng,
And loaded with laurels, he waddled along-                      there are some (tat  ould fain be thought 
He seem'd at the foot of my bedstead to stand,           Who  say my Gazette is a record of lies;
And cried-" Jamie Rivington, reach me your hand;         In answer to this, Ishall only replyAll the choice that I had was, to starve or to lie.
"And Jamie, (said he) I am sorry to find.ome  demon advised you to loiter behind;                My fiddles, my flutes, French horns and guitars,*
Some demon advised you to loiter behind;
The country is hostile-you had better get off it,        I leave to our HEROES, now weary of warsTo the wars of the stage they more boldly advance,
Here's nothing but squabbles, all plague, and no profit!
The captains shall play, and the soldiers shall dance.'Since the day that Sir William came herewith his throng
To Sir Henry Clinton, his use and behoof,
Ie managed things so, that they always went wrong;
I leave my French brandy, of very good proof;
And though for his knighthood,  he kept MESCHIANZA,
And though for    knighthood, he kept MESCANZA  It will give him fresh spirits for battle and slaughter,
I think he was nothing but mere Sancho Panza:
And make him feel bolder by land and by wilter:
" That famous conductor of moonlight retreats,
"That famous c nductor of moomnlight retreats,             % The articles of bequest in this poem were incessant y
Sir HARRY came next with his armies and fleets,         advertised in the Royal Gazette, and puffed off with a den.
But finding,' the Rebels were dying and dead,'          terity peculiar to the editor of that paper.
lie grounded his arms and retreated-to bed.               t It became fashionable at this period witl the BritisB
officers to assume the business of the Draytoa: to the no
* A southern constellation consisting of twenty-four  small mortification of those who had been holding thens up
stars.                                                   as the undoubted conquerors of North America.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     2.9
Yet l caution the knight, for fear he do wrong,      in 1786; a second edition appeared in a closely printed'T is avant la viande, et apres le poisson*-         octavo volume at Monmouth, in New Jersey, in 17905,
It will strengthen his stomach, prevent it from turning,  and a third, in two duodecimo volumes, in Philadelhia,
And digest the affront of his effigy-burning.        in 1809. The last is entitled "Poems written and pubTo Baron IINYPHAUISEN, his heirs and assigns,        lished during the American Revolutionary War, and
I bequeath my old Hock, and my Burgundy wines,
bequeatmy d Hck, and my Burgundy ines,  now republished from the original Manuscripts, inter1o a true Hessian drunkard, no liquors are sweeter,
Pna I know the old man isr no ufoe to the creatuee.  spersed with Translations from the Ancients, and other
And I know the old man is no foe to the creature.
Pieces not heretofore in Print."  In 1788 he published
To a GENERAL, my namesake,t I give and dispose       in Philadelphia his " Miscellaneous Works, containing
Of a purse fdll of clipp'd, light, sweated half.joes;
OfI heaeby desire him to take back his trash, halfoesEssays and additional Poems," and, in 1814, "A Col.
I hereby desire him to take back his trash,
Anld return me my HaNNaY's infallible wAsH.          lection of Poems on American Affairs, and a Variety
of other Subjects, chiefly Moral and Political, written
My chessmen and tables, and other such chattels,
Iy hessmen and tables, and other such chattels,      between 1797 and 1815." His house at Mount Pleasant
1 give to CORNWA.LLIS, tremendous in battles:
By m10ovin1g of these (not tracing the map)          was destroyed by fire, in 1815 or 1816, and in some of
tie'll explain to the king how he got in the TRAP.  his letters he laments the loss, by that misfortune, of
some of his best poems, which had never been printed.
To good DAviD MaTTHEWS (among other slops)
I five my whole cargo of Maredant's drops,
If thety cannot do all, they may cure him in part,   SATIRICA!,. DRAMATIC, AND OTHER POEMS ON
And scatter the poison that cankers his heart:         PUBLIC AFFAIRS WRITTEN DURING THE REVO.
LUTION.
Provided, however, and nevertheless,
That what other estate I enjoy and possess             DOUBTLESS the cleverest satire written during the
At the tinle of my death (if it be not then sold)    Revolution was Trumbull's McFingal. The first part
Shall remain to the Tories, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD.     of it was written in the spring of 1774, immediately
As I thus have, bequeathed them both carcass and fleece,  printed in Philadelphia, where the Congress was then
The least they can do is to wait my decease;         in session, and soon after republished in numerous ediBut to give them what substance I have, ere I die,   tions in different parts of this country and in England.
And be eat up with vermin, while living-not I-       It was not finished until 1782, when it was issued comIn WITNESS whereof (though no ailment I feel)       plete in three cantos at Hartford, to which place TrumHereunto I set both my hand and my seal;             bull had removed in the preceding year.  "MicFingal"
(As the law says) in presence of witnesses twain,    is in the Hudibrastic vein, and much the best imitation'3Sqlire John1 Coghill Knap, and brother Hugh Gain&
ire Jo  Cghill Kap and brother        Gaof the great satire of Butler that has been written.
Freneau enjoyed the friendship of Adams, Franklin,  The. hero is a Scottish justice of the peace residing in
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, and the last three  the vicinity of Boston at the beginning of the Revo
were his constant correspondents while they lived. I  lution, and the first two cantos are principally occupied
have before me two letters, one written by Jefferson  with a discussion between him and one Honorius on
and the other by Madison, in which he is commended  the course of the British government, in which McFinto certain citizens of New York, for his extensive in-  gal, an unyielding loyalist, endeavours to make prose.
formation, sound discretion, and general high charac-  lytes, while all his arguments are directed against himter, as a candidate for the editorship of a journal which  self. His zeal and his logic are together irresistibly
it was intended to establish in that city. His applica-  ludicrous, but there is nothing in the character unnatution appears to have been unsuccessful: probably be-  ral, as it is common for men who read more than they
cause the project was abandoned.                     think, or attempt to discuss questions they do not underAs a reward for the ability and patriotism he had  stand, to use arguments which refute the positions they
displayed during the war, Mr. Jefferson gave him  a  wish to defend. The meeting ends with a riot, in which
place in the Department of. State; but his public em-  MeFingal is seized, tried by the mob, convicted of vioployment being of too sedentary a description for a  lent toryism, and tarred and feathered. On being set
man of his ardent temperament, he soon relinquished  at liberty, he assembles his friends around him in his
it to conduct in Philadelphia a paper entitled "The  cellar, and harangues them until they are dispersed by
Freeman's Journal."  He was the only editor who re-  the Whigs, when he escapes to Boston, and the poem
mained at his post, during the prevalence of the yellow   closes. These are all the important incidents of the
fever in that city, in the summer of 1791. The " Jour-  story, yet it is never tedious, and few commence readnal" was unprofitable, and he gave it up, in 1793, to  ing it who do not follow it to the end and regret its
take the command of a merchant-ship, in which he  termination. Throughout the three cantos the wit is
made several voyages to Madeira, the West Indies,  never separated from the character of the hero.
and other places. His naval ballads and other poems    "The Battle of Bunker Hill, a Dramatic Piece in
relating to the sea, written in this period, are among  Five Acts," was published by Robert Bell, in Philadelthe most spirited and carefully finished of his produc-  phia, in 1776. The author was a native of Maryland,
tions.                                               educated at Nassau Hall College, Princeton, and for
Of the remainder of his history I have been able to  civilities received during hlo student-life from the Hor..
learn but little. In 1810 he resided in Philadelphia,  Richard Stockton, dedicated his play to that gentleman,
and he subsequently removed to Mount Pleasant, in  The "Lieutenant Colonel of the Continental Army'
New Jersey. He died, very suddenly, near Freehold,  who wrote the prologue was probably Humphries, of
in that state, on the eighteenth day of December, 1832,  Connecticut. The piece, though much praised whea
in the eightieth year of his age.                    first published, possesses little merit. Some of the chaThe first collection of Freneau's poems was published  racters-especially Gage and Burgoyne-are, however,
* Before flesh and after fish. See R. Gaz.   well enough drawn, and the style, for the time, is
t Gen Jame, Robertsoun                        ahaste and harxronio;us..  The fourth act opens with
4*




26                                   CURIOSITIES OF
the following soliloquy by the British Commander in    To share dominion onthe distant wave,
Chief-                                                 And visit every clime and foreign shore.
Yet this, brave soldiers, is the proud return
GAGE, soles.-Oh sweet tranquillity and peace of soul,    For the best blood of England shed for them.
For the best blood of England, shed for them.
That in the bosom of the cottager
Tak'st utp thy residence, cannot the beams            In the last scene but one, endeavouring to rally hli
Of royal sunshine call thee to my breast?           forces after a recond repulse from  the Hill, he e*
Fair honour waits on thee, renown abroad,           claimsAnd high dominion o'er this continent,
Soon as the spirit of rebellious war
Soon as the spirit of rebellious w~ar                  But that so many mouths can witness It,
Is scourged into obedience. Why, then, ye gods        I would deny myself an Englishman,
Tnis inwargd gnaing  and remorse of tho ught          And swear this day that with such cowardice
For perfidy and breach of promises?                  No kindred or alliance has mly birth.
For perfidy adbreachofproiOh base, degenerate souls, whose ancestors
Why should the spouse or weeping infant babe,         Oh base, degenerate souls, whose ancestors
Or meek-eyed virgin with her sallow cheek-            At Cressy, Poictiers, and at Agincourt,
The rose, by famine, wither'd out of it-              With tenfold numbers combated, and pluck'd
Or why the father or his youthful son         The budding laurels from the brows of FranceOr why the father or his youthful son
Back to the charge once more! and rather die
By me detaili'd from all their relatives,
By.e. from' al   Burn'd up or wither'd on this bloody hill,
And in low dungeons and in jails chain'd down
Than live the blemish of your country's fame,
Affect my spirit when the mighty cause
With everlasting infamy oppress'd.
Of George and Britain is endanger'd?
For nobly struggling in the cause of kings,           The part acted by General Putnam in this battle has'We claim the high, the just prerogative            recently been a subject of some controversy, and Mr.
To rule mankind, and with an iron rod               Bancroft, among others, has endeavoured to deprive the
Exact submission, due, though absolute.
What though they style me villain, murderer,        veteran of the laurels he had worn so worthily for seWhat though they style me villain, murderer,
And imaprecate from heaven dire thunderbolts        venty years. Our author, writing but a few months
To crush my purposes?.....Was that a gun           after the battle, and, doubtless, familiar with all the
Which thunders o'er the wave? Or is it guilt       published accounts of it, would not have been likely to
That plays the coward with my trembling heart,      make him one of the most prominent actors in the
And cools the blood with frightful images?          American camp, if he had not been present, as is now
Oh, guilt! thy blackness hovers on the mind,        contended. While leading a last assault upon the BriNor can the morning dissipate thy shades —          tish, Putnam says to his followersYon ruddy morn which over Bunker Hill
Advancing slowly, blushes to the bay,                 Swift rising fame on early wing mounts up
And tips with gold the spires of Charles's-town.      To the convexity of bending Heaven,
And writes their names who fought with us this day
Burgoyne and Howe then enter with intelligence of    In fairest characters amidst the stars.
the operations of Gardiner and his companions on
Bunker Hill. " Sir Jack," as he is styled in some of the    And Clinton, giving an account of the day to a bro.
ther officer, says —
ballads of the time, uses the ambitious phrase of the so r officer, saysphomore, garnishing all his speeches with classical allu-        Their left wing gave way,
sions and high sounding words. " You hear," he says-    And with their shatter'd infantry the whole,
Drawn off by Putnam, to the causeway fled.
You hear the sound
Of spades and pickaxes upon the Hill-               We have room but for the titles of the principal
Incessant pounding, like old Vulcan's forge,      works of this description. In 1774 were published in
Urged by the Cyclops.                             Philadelphia, besides " McFingal," " The Association,
Gage, left once more alone, exclaims-               &c. of the Delegates of the Grand Congress, versified
and adapted to music, calculated for grave and gay
May heaven protect us from their rage, I say.  dispositions," etc; "A Dialogue between a Southern
When but a boy, I dream'd of death, in bed,
WeAnd ever since that time I hdated things          Delegate and his Spouse, on. his return from the Grand
Which put him, like a pair of spectacles,           Continential Congress: Inscribed to the Married Ladies
Before my eyes. The thought lies deep in fate,      of America;"." Dominion lost in America by the BriNor can a mortal see the bottom of it.              tish: an Humble Imitation of the History of Happiness'Tis here —'tis there-I could philosophize-         lost in Heaven by the Devils, as recorded by Milton;"
Eternity is like a winding-sheet-                   "The Fall of British Tyranny, or American Liberty
The seven commandments like-I think there's seven-    Triumphant" and several others
ITriumphant, a tragi-comedy;" and several others. In
I scratch my head-but yet in vain I scratch —               
Oh Bute and Dartmnouth, knew ye what I fee?         Boston appeared "A Poem on the Enemy's Coming to
You sure would pity an old drinking man,            Boston;" " Nebuchadnezzar's Dream;" " The Group, a
That has more heartache than philosophy.            Farce, as lately acted and reacted to the Wonder of all
Superior Intelligences," &c. At Danvers, near BosIn the next scene Howe, addressing the soldiers,
ton,was published "America Invincible, a poem  in
urges them by an exhibition of their ancient bravery to  Ten Books, by an Officer of Rank in the Continental
put down the "foul rebellion"Army," and in various places many other small vo
Which spurns that love —             lumes in the elegiac or satirical vein, few of which
That fond maternal tenderness of soul               are remarkable for any other quality than their "pa.
Which on this dreary coast first planted them;      triotism."  But the best of all, as we have else.
Restrain'd the rage of murdering savages
testraceinroad cthe rage of murdering savages,      where remarked, were the satires of Freneau. His
Who, with fierce inroad on their settlements,
Made frequent war; struck down the arm of France,   " Life of Hugh Gaine," " British Prison Ship," " Gage s
Just raised to crush them in their infancy;         Soliloquy," " The Midnight Consultations," and other
And since that time has bade their cities grow      pieces, were read every where and approved by peeTo marts of trade; call'd fair-eyed commerce forth  vle of all classes




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     27
MINSTRELSY OF THE INDIAN WARS AND THE                         Our men resolved to have him,
REVOLUTION.                                   And travel'd two miles round,
Permettez que je fasse les chansons d'un peuple-, et il     Until they met the Indian,
fera les lois qui le veut, remarked, in substance, some         Who boldly stood his ground;
shrewd Frenchman; and that he rated not too high the           Then speaks up Captain Lhvezoel,
" Take you good heed," says be:
powver of song is shown by numerous instances in both            " This rogue is to decoy usa
ancient and modern history. It has been lamented
that we have in America no martial lyrics comparable
to those of the older nations. Holmes exclaims in one           The Indians lie in ambush,
In some place nigh at hand,
of his admirable poems —                                      In order to surround us
W"hen Gallia's flag its triple fold displays,                  Upon this neck of land;
Her marshaled legions peal the Marsellaise;                  Therefore we'll march in order,
When round the German close the war-clouds dim,                And each man leave his pack,
Far through their shadows floats his battle hymn;            That we may briskly fight them
When, crown'd with joy the camps of England ring,              When they shall us attack."
A thousand voices shout " God save the King I"
When victory follows with our eagle's glance,                They came unto this Indian,
Our nation's anthem is a country dance.*                      Who did them thus defy;
As soon as they were nigh him,
But the martial song belongs to more warlike coun-              Two guns I e did let fly,
tries. France, Germany and England are vast fortified          Which wounded Captain Lovewel',
districts, echoing forever the din of conflict or the           And likewiss one man more;
notes of military preparation; while America is the            But while this rlgue was running,
resting-place of peace, whence her influence is to ir-          They laid him in his gore.
radiate the world. Or, if a different destiny awaits          Then having scalped the Indian,
her, there is little danger but that-                           They went back to the spot,
When the roused nation bids her armies form,                 Where they had laid their packs down,
And screams her eagle through the gathering storm,             But there they found them not;
When from our ports the bannered frigate rides,              For the Indians having spied them,
Her black bows scowling to the crested tides,                  When they them down did lay,
Some proud muse       Did seize them for their plunder,
And carry them away.
Will rend the silence' of our tented plains,
And bid the nations tremble at her strains.                  These rebels lay in ambush,
This very place hard by,
The puritan settlers of New England, while carrying          So that an English soldier
on war against the Indian tribes, deemed it right to spend      Did one of them espy,
the hours their enemies devoted to profane dances              And cried out, "Here's an Indian,"
and incantations, in singing verses, half military and          With which they started out,
nail religious; and their actions in the field were            As fiercely as old lions,
celebrated in ballads which lacked none of the spirit            And hideously did sbost.
and fidelity of the songs of the old bards, however            With that our valiant Enlish
deficient they may have been in metrical array and               All gave a loud huzza,
sentiment. "Lovewell's Fight," "The Gallant Church,"           To shew the rebel Indians'Smith's Affair at Sidelong Hill," and "The Godless             They feared them not a straw;
French soldier," are among the best lyrical composi-           And now the fight beginning,
As fiercely as could be,
tions of the early period in which they were written,          The Indians ran up to them,
and are not without value as historical records. Love-          But soon were forced to flee.
well's Fight took place near the present town of FryeThus out spake Captain Loveoell,
burg, in Maine, on the margin of a small lake since             When first the fight began,
called Lovewell's Pond, in 1725. The following ballad           Fight on, my valiant heroes I
is said to have been written in the same year, and was           You see they fall like rain."
for a long time well known throughout the country:             For, as we are informid,
LOVEWELL S FIGHT.                               The Indians were so thick,
A man could scarcely fire a gun,
Of worthy Captain LoveweZl,
And some of them not hit.
I purpose now to sing,
How valiantly he served                               Then they all their best did try
His country and his king;                             Our soldiers to surround,
He and his valiant soldiers                           But they could not accomplish it,
Did range the woods full wide,                        Because there was a pond,
And hardships they endured                           To which our men retreated,
To quell the Indian's pride.                          And, cover'd all the rear,-'T was nigh unto Pigw-vacket,                         The rogues were forced to flee them,
Upon the eighth of May,                              Although they skulk'd for fear.
They spied a rebel Indian                             Two logs there were behind them,
Soon after break of day;
That close together lay,
He on a bank was  alking,                             Without being discoverd,
~~Upon a neck of land,  ~They could not get away;
Which leads into a pond, as                          Therefore our valiant English
We're made to understand.                            Theytravel'd in a row,
They travel'd in a row,
* The popular air of " Yankee Doodle," like the dagger       And at a handsome distance,
ef Wudibras, serves a pacific as well as a martial purpose.     As they were wont to go




CURIOSITIES OF'Twas ten o'clock in the morning            He was a keen satirist, and wrote with remarkable fa
When first the fight begun,               cility; but his lyrics were often profane and vulgar
And fiercely it continued                   while those written in New England, on account of
Until the set of the sun;                  their style and cast of thought, were stigmatized by
Excepting that the Indians,
mExcepting that thbef Indians,           the celebrated Parson Peters as "psalms and hymns
Drew  off into the bushes                   adapted to the tastes of Yankee rebels."  The foll'ow
And ceased awhile to fight:               ing is a characteristic specimen:But soon again returned,                               WAR SONG.-Written in 1776.
In fierce and furious mood,                     Hark, hark, the sound of war is heard,
Shouting as in the morning,                         And we must all attend;
But yet not half so loud;                       Take up our arms and go with speed
For, as we are informed,                            Our country to defend.
So thick and fast they fell,
Our parent state has turn'd our foe,
Scarce twenty of their number                       Which fills our land with pain;
At night did get home wvell.                    Her gallant ships manned out for war
Also our valiant English                            Come thundering o'er Ale main.
Till midnight there did stay,                   There's Carleton, Howe, and Clinton too,
To see whether the Indians                          And man thousands more
Would have another fray;
BWould have another fray;                       May cross the sea, but all in vain;
~But they no more returning,           Our rights we'll ne'er give o'er.
They made off towards their home.
And brought away their wounded                    Our pleasant land they do invade,
As far as they could come.                        Our property devour;
And all because we won't submit
Of all our valiant English
There were but thirty-four,
And of the rebel Indians                          Then let us go against our foes,
There were about fourscore;                       We'd better die than yield;
And sixteen of our English                        We and our sons are all undone
Did safely home return;                           If Britain win the field.
The rest were killed and wounded,                 Tories may dream of future joys,
For which we all must mourn.                      But I am bold to say,
Our worthy Captain Lovewell                       They'll find themselves bound fast in chair
Among them there did die;                         If Britain wins the day.
They kill'd Lieutenant Robbins,                   Husbands must leave their loving wives
And wounded good young Frye,And sprightly youths attend,
Who was our English chaplain;                     Leave their sweethearts and risk their lives
He mlany Indians slew,                            Their country to defend.
And some of them he scalped
When bullets round him flew.                    May they be heroes in the field,
Have heroes' fame in store;
eYoung Fllam too I'll mention, wWe pray the Lord to be their shield
Because he fought sao well;                       Where thundering cannons roar.
Endeavouring to save a man,
A sacrifice he fell,                         The oldest of the revolutionary lyrics we shall presen
And yet our valiant Englishmen              is the " Patriot's Appeal," printed in the Pennsylvania
Ill fight were ne'er dismay'd,             Chronicle, at Philadelphia, on the 4th of July, just
But still they kept their mnotion,           eight years before the Declaration of Independence.
And Wyman captain made;                    We copy it from a ballad sheet, dated in 1775.
Who shot the old chief Pauegus,                                PATRIOTS APPEAL.
Which did the foe defeat,
Then set his men in order,
And brought off the retreat-                 Awake through the land at fair Liberty's call;
And braving many dangers                       No tyrannous acts shall suppress your just claim,
And hardships in the way,                   Or stain with dishonour America's name!
They safe arrived, at Dunstable,                In freedom we're born, in freedom we'II live;
The thirteenth day of Mlay.                           Our purses are readySteady, friends, steady!At the commencement of the Revolution, Barlow,    Not as slaves, but as freemen, our money we 11 give I
Trumbull, Dwight, Humphreys, and other "Connecti-    Our worthy forefathers (let's give them a cheer i)
cut wits," employed their leisure in writing patriotic    To climates unknown did courageously steer;
songs for the soldiers and the people, "which," says    Through oceans to deserts for freedom they came,
a life of Putnam, "had great effect through the coun-   And, dying, bequeathed us their freedom and fame I
try."  "I do not know," wrote Barlow on entering                In freedom, etc.
the army, " whether I shall do more for the cause in    Their generous bosoms all dangers despised,
the capacity of chaplain, than I could in that of poet;    So highly, so wisely, their birthrights they prized;
I have great faith in the influence of songs; and I shall    What they gave let us cherish and piously keep,
continue, while fulfilling the duties of my appointment,    Nor frustrate their toils on the land or the deep.
In freedom, etc.
to write one now and then, and to encourage the taste      t       e
fbr them which I find in the camp. One good song is    They lived to behold growing strong and revered
worth a dozen addresses or proclamations." The great    With transport they cried, " Now our wishes we gain
song-writer of the Revolution, however, was Freneau,    For our children shall gather the fruits of our pain."
whose pieces were everywhere sung with enthusiasm.              In freedom, etc.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                        Ad
How sweet are the labours that freemen endure,         Nor shall the blood of heroes, on the plain,
Of which thev enjoy all the profits secure!             Who nobly fell that day in Freedom's cause,
No longer such toils shall Americans know,             Lie unrevenged, though with thy thousands slain,
If Britons may reap what Americans sow!                 Whilst there's a king who fears nor minds thy laws.
In freedom, etc.                              Shall Cain, who madly spilt his brother's blood,
Swarms of placemen and pensioners e'en now appear         Receive such curses from the God of all?
Like locusts deformning the charms of the year!         Is not that Sovereign still as just and good
Suns vainly will rise and showers vainly descend,        To hear the cries of children when they call?
If we are to drudge for what others may spend.          Yes, there's a God whose laws are still the same,
In freedom, etc.                                Whose years are endless, and whose power is great:
Then join hand and hand, brave Americans all,           He is our G(od: Jehovah is his name;
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall;                 With him we trust our sore oppressed state.
In so righteous a cause we may hope to succeed,         When he shall rise, (oh, Britain, dread the day,
For Heaven approves every generous deed.                  Nor can I stretch the period of thy fate;)
In freedom, etc.                              What heart of steel, what tyrant then shall sway
All ages and nations shall speak with applause            A throne that's sinking by oppression's weight?
Of the courage we show in support of our cause,         Thy crimes, oh.Jorth, shall then like spectres stand,
To die we can bear, but to serve we disdain,              Nor Charlestown hindmost in the ghastly roll,
For shame is to freemen more dreadful than pain.        And faithless Gage, who gave the dread command,
In freedom, etc.                                SShalt find dire torments gnaw upon his soul.
A bumper to Freedom I and as for the king,*             Yea, in this world, we trust those ills so dread,
When he does deserve it his praises we'll sing!           Which fill the nation with such matchless woes,
We wish Britain's glory immortal may be,                Shall fall with double vengeance on thy head,
If she is but just and we are but free!.N.or'scape those minions which thy court compose.
In freedom we're born, in freedom we'll live,
Our purses are ready-                         General Warren was a song writer as well as an oraSteady, boys, steady!-                     tor, but his verses, though very popular at the commence.
Our money as freemen, not slaves, we will give!    ment of the Revolution, have less merit than his repu.
tation as a man of cultivated taste would lead us to anFlhe following  specimen of the much ridiculed                  
ticipate. The following song was probably written
" Yankee Psalms" is said to have been written by Joel  near the close of his life:
Barlow. It was published first in 1775, and afterward
frequently reprinted:                                                      FREE AMERICA.
That seat of science, Athens,
THE IBURNI5NG OF CHARLESTOWN.                          And earth's proud mistress, Rome;
Palhnira's prospect, with her tumbling walls,                Where now are all their glories?
Huge piles of ruin heap'd on every side,                     We scarce can find their tomb.
From each beholder, tears of pity calls,                     Then guard your rights, Americans,
Sad monuments, extending far and wide.                       Nor stoop to lawless sway;
Yet far more dismal to the patriot's eye,                    Oppose, oppose, oppose, oppose,
The drear remains of Charlestown's former show,              For North America.
Behind whose walls did hundred warriors die,                 We led fair Freedom hither,
And Britain's centre felt the fatal blow.                    And lo, the desert smiled!
To see a town so elegantly form'd,                           A paradise of pleasure
Such buildings, graced with every curious art,               Was open'd in the wild!
Spoil'd in a moment, on a sudden storm'd,                    Your harvest, bold Americans,
Must fill with indignation every heart.                      No power shall snatch away!
Huzza, huzza, huzza, huzza,
But when we find the reasons of her fate                       For free America.
For free America.
To be but trifling-trifling did I say?
For being noble! daring to be great,                        Torn from a world of tyrants,
Nor calmly yielding to tyrannic sway!                       Beneath this western sky,
We form'd a new dominion,
To see the relics of that once famed place,                    A land of liberty;
Pointing to Heaven as'twere in ardent cry,                The world shall own we're masters here;
By lawless power robb'd of every grace,                        Then hasten on the day:
Yet calling bolts of vengeance frons on high;-             Huzza, huzza, huzza, huzza,
To find, I say, such dealings with mankind,                    For free America.
To see those royal robbers planted near                    Lift up your hands, ye heroes,
Those glorjous buildings, turning into wind,                   And swear with proud disdain,
And loath to mingle with the common air:-                   The wretch that would ensnare you,
And such chastisement chvning from a state                     Shall lay his snares in vain;
Who calls herself our Parent, Nurse and Friend-            Should Europe empty all her force,
Must rouse each soul that's noble, frank and great,            We'l meet her in array,
And urge us on our lives and all to spend!                And fight and shout, and shout and fight
Oh! spot once graceful; but, alas  no more;                   For North America.
Till sigfns shall end, and time itself shall cease,        Some future day shall crown us
Thy name shall live, and on famne's pinion soar                The masters of the main;
7o mark grim blackness on Great Britain's face.            Our fleet shall speak in thunder
* In the copies of this song printed during the Revolu.        To England, France, and Spain;
tion the last stanza is altered. In the Pennsylvania Chro-     And the nations over the ocean spr'
aicle, which we have examined, it is printed-                    Shall tremble and obey
This bumper I crown for our sovereign's health,           The sons, the sons, the sons, the
And this for Britannia's glory and wealth, etc.            Of brave America.
3*




30                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Soon after the passage of the stamp act many patri-          Yet our conduct shall show,
otic lyrics appeared in various parts of the country, one      And our enemies know,
of the best of which is the following, by Doctor Prime,  That Americans scorn to be slaves, brave oons etc
of New York, the author of "Muscipula sive Cambro-             With the beasts of the wood,
myomachia," a satire, and of several other poems of            We will ramble for food,
considerable nerit.                                    We will lodge in wild deserts and caves;
And live poor as Job,
A SONG FOR THE SONS OF LIBERTY                         On the skirts of the globe,
In story we're told,                            Before we'll submit to be slaves, brave boys I etc
How our fathers of old                                  The birth-right we hold
Braved the rage of the wind and the waves;                     Shall never be sold
And cross'd the deep o'er,                      But sacred maintain'd to our graves,
To this desolate shore,                                 And before we'11 comply,
All because they were loath to be slaves, bravWe will gallantly die,
All because they nwnere loath to be slaves.             For we must not, we will not be slaves, brave boys!
Yet a strange scheme of late,                   For we must not, we will not be slaves!
Has been form'd in the state,
Has been form'd in the state,  We have copies of four metrical accounts of the
By a knot of political knaves;
Who in secret rejoice,                          destruction of the tea i Boston Harbour, two of which
That the Parliament's voice                     appear to have been written since the close of the war
Has resolved that we all shall be slaves, brave boys! etc.   We give one of the oldest, which was sung to the tune
But if we should obey,                          of "The Hosier's Ghost."
This vile statute the way                                   BALLAD OF THE TEA PARTY.
To more base future slavery paves;                           As iear beauteous Boston lying
Nor in spite of our pain,                              On the gently swelling flood,
Must we ever complain,                                Without jack or pennant flying,
If we tamely submit to be slaves, brave boys! etc.             Three ill-fated tea-ships rode;
Counteract, then, we must                             Just as glorious Sol was setting,
A decree so unjust,                                    On the wharf a numerous crew,
Which our wise constitution depraves;                        Sons of Freedom, fear forgetting,
And all nature conspires,                              Suddenly appear'd in view.
To approve our desires,
To approve our desires,          Arm'd with hammers, axes, chisels,
For she cautions us not to be slaves, brave boys! etc.
Weapons new for warlike deed,
As the sun's lucid ray                                Toward the tax'd-tea-freighted vessels
To all nations gives day,                              They came boldly and with speed.
And a world from obsutlrity saves;                          O'er their heads in lofty mid-sky,
So all happy and free,                                 Three bright angel forms were seen,
George's subjects should be,                          This was Hampden, that was Sidney,
The Americans must not be slaves, brave boys I etc.            With fair Liberty between.
Heaven only controls                                  "Soon," they cried, "your foes you'll banish,
The great deep as it rolls,                             Soon the triumph will be won,
And the tide which our country laves                         Scarce the setting sun shall vanish
Emphatical roars                                        Ere the glorious deed is done!"
This advice to our shores,                            Quick as thought the ships were boarded,
0, Americans I never be slaves, brave boys I! etc.             Hatches burst and chests display'd;
Hark! the wind, as it flies,                          Axes, hammers, help afforded,
Though o'erruled by the skies,                          What a crash that eve was made!
While it each meaner obstacle braves,                        Deep into the sea descended
Seems to say, " Be like me,                             Cursed weed of China's coast;
Always loyally free,                                  Thus at once our fears were ended!But ah! never consent to be slaves," brave boys! etc.        British rights shall ne'er be lost!
To our monarch, we know,                              Captains, once more hoist your streamers,
Due allegiance we owe,                                 Spread your sails and plough the wave,
Who the sceptre so rightfully waves;                         Tell your masters they were dreamers
But no sovereign we own,                                When they thought to cheat the brave!
But I' me king on his throne,
And we caot, to subjects, be slaves, brave boys et  One of the most ingenious poets of our revolutionary
era was Dr. J. M. Sewall, of New Hampshire.  He
Though fools stupidly tell,                     translated the works of Ossian, which were then
That we mean to rebel,
That we mean to rebel,                          attracting much attention, into English verse, and
Yet all each American craves,
Is but to be free,                              wrote numerous songs, odes,: elegies, and dramatic
Am we surely must be,                           pieces. His epilogue to Addison's Cato, beginning,
For we never were born to be slaves, brave boys I etc.          We see mankind the same in every age,
But whoever, in spite                           is still familiar, from  having been incorporated into
At American right,                              two or three books of reading lessons for the schools,
Like insolent Haman behaves;
Or would wish to grow great                in a time when it was thought to be of some conseOn the spoils of the state,                     quence that works of that description should inculcate
May he and his children be slaves, brave boys! etc.    patriotic sentiments.  The most famous of his proThough against the repeal,                      ductions, however, was "War and  Washington,"
With intemperate zeal,                          written soon after the battle of Lexington, and sung
rroud Granville so brutishly raves;                     with enthusiasm, in all parts of the country, until the




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     31
ulose of the Revolution. It has been too often printed      Blow high, blow low, come weal, come weo,
to be regarded now as a curiosity, and we therefore           Strike for America!
quote from it but a few verses                               Strike for America, my boys.
Strike for America!
Vain Britons boast no longer, with proud indignity,          Come weal, come wvo, blow high, blow low,
Of all your conquering legions, or of your strength at sea,    Strike for America I
As we, your braver sons, incensed, our arms have girded on,
Buzza, huzzra, huzza, huzza, for War uand Washington!  We have discovered but one ballad relating to the
Still deaf to mild entreaties, still blind to England's good,   Battle of Trenton, and that was probably writte  a
They have, for thirty pieces, betray'd their country's blood.  year or two after the event.
Like Esop's greedy cur they'll gain a shadow for their bone,         BATTLE OF TRENTON.
Yet find us fearful shades indeed, inspired by Washington!  On Christmas day in 
On Christmas day in'76,
h;ysterions! unexamnpled! incomprehensible!            Our ragged troops with bayonets fix'd,
The blundering schemes of Britain, her folly, pride and zeal.  For Trenton marched away.
Like lions how they growl and threat, like asses blunder on  The Delaware see! the boats below!
Yet vain are all their efforts still, against our Washington I  The light obscured by hail and snow i
Great God! is this the nation, whose arms so oft were      But no signs of dismay.
hurl'd                                              Our object was the Hessian band,
Through Europe, Afric, India? whose Navy ruled a world!  That dared invade fair Freedom's land,
The lustre of her former deeds, whole ages of renown,          quarter in that place.
Lost in a moment, or transferr'd, to us and Washington      Great Washington he led us on,
Should George, too choice of Britons, to foreign realms      Whose streaming flag, in storm or sun
apply,                                               Had never known disgrace.
And madly arm half Europe, yet still we would defy       In silent march we pass'd the night,
Turk, Hessian, Jew or Infidel, or all those powers in one,  Each soldier panting for the fight.
While Adams guides our senate, our army Washington!        Though quite benumb'd with frost.
We have not room  to copy, in extenso, mere of             Greene, on the left, at six began,
those songs which served no less than the most elo-          The right was led by Sullivan,
quent orations of the time to kindle the patriotic enthu-  Who neer a moment lost.
siasm of our fathers, in the first years of the struggle  Their pickets storm'd, the alarm was spread,
That rebels risen from the dead
for independence; and after giving specimen verses of      Were marching into town.
one or two others, will pass to the more strictly his-       Some scamper'd here, some scamperd there
torical ballads. We may as well here remark that the         And some for action did prepare,
orthography and rhythmical construction of many of         But soon their arms laid down.
the old songs and ballads varies in the different editions  Twelve hundred servile miscreants,
-the earliest usually being most correct —and that we    With all their colours, guns and tents,
have copied from the least inharmonious and corrupt,       Were trophies of the day.
sometimes giving one verse from  one and another             The frolic o'er, the bright canteen,
verse from another impression of the same production.        IIi centre, front, and rear was seen
The following stanzas are frond "The Rallying Song,"       Driving fatigue away.
written soon after the friendly disposition of the       Now, brothers of the patriot bands,
government of the unfortunate Louis XIV., was made       Let's sing deliverance from the hands
Of arbitrary sway.
knonwn in this country.                                     And as our life is but a span,
Freedom's sons who wish to shine                       Let's touch the tankard while we can,
Bright in filture story,                           In memory of that day.
Haste to armns and join the line                  Burgoyne, more frequently than any other British
Marching on to glory.
Marching on to glory,                  officer, was the butt of the continental wits. His
Leave the scythe and seize the sword,
LeBrave the  worscythe  and seize the sword, gersverses were parodied, his amours celebrated in songs
Freedom is the only word —               of the mess-table, and his boasts and the weaker points
We to fear are strangers.             in his nature caricatured in ballads and petite comedies.
From your mountains quick advance               We obtained a manuscript copy of the song from
HIearts of oak and iron arms-                 which the following verses are quoted, from an octoLo I the cheering sounds from France            genarian Vermonter who, with the feeble frame, shrill
Spread amid the foe alarms!                  voice and silvered locks of eighty-seven, would give
Leave the scythe and seize the sword,    the echoing chorus with as much enthusiasm as when
Brave the worst of dangers!            he joined in it with his camp-companions more than
Freedom is the only word- 
Conte and join the Rangers             half a century 
THE PROGRESS OF SIR JACK BRAG.
From "The Green Mountain Boys' Song," cornpFrom "ppa The Green n the e pMountain Boys' Stong," corn   Said Burgoyne to his men, as they pass'd in review,
posed, apparently, in the early part of the contest, we  Tulialo, tullalo, tullalo, boys!
have space for the chorus only. Though less poetical  These rebels their course very quickly will rue,
than some others, the entire production is animated in  And fly as the leaves'fore the autumn tempest flew,
sentiment and smoothly versified. We have no clue to     When him who is your leader they know, boys!
its authorship, though, like " The Rallying Song, "The      They with men have now to deal,
Amnerican Rifleman," and many other lyrics of the           And we soon will make them feelsame description, it appears to have been written in       Tullalo, tullalo, tullalo. boys!
Vermont.                                             That a loyal Briton's arm and, a loyal Briton's steel
Can put to flight a rebel as quick as other foe, boys
Then draw the trusty blade, my boys,               Tullalo, tullalo, tullaloAnd fling the sheath away-                        Tullalo, tullalo, tullalo-o-o-o, boysr




CURIOSITIES OF
As to Sa-ra-tog' he came, thinking how to jo the game,  riod sung throughout New England; but we believe it
Tullalo, tullalo, tullalo, boys I                 has never until now been printed.
He began to see the grubs, in the branches of his fame,
He began to have the trembles lest a flash should be the flame,     THE NORTH CAMPAIGN.
For which he had agreed his perfume to forego, boys I    Come unto me ye heroes,
No lack of skill, but fates,                           Whose hearts are true and bold,
Shall make us yield to Gates,                         Who value more your honour
Tullalo, tullalo, tullalo, boys!                        Than others do their gold;
The devils may have leagued, as you know, with the States,.Jive ear unto my story,
But we never will be beat by any mortal foe, boys I   I    And I the truth will tell
Tullalo, tullalo, tullalo —                            3Concerning many a soldier.
Tullalo, tullalo, tullalo-o-o-o, boys!                  Who for his country fell.
We believe the "Progress of Sir Jack Brag" has             Burgoyne, the king's commander,
never been printed. The only clue to its authorship           From Canada set sail
with which we are acquainted is the signature, "G. of            eth  eight thousd reglars,
H."  It was probably written soon after the defeat of        With I       ndians and Canadianso
With Indians and Canadians,
its hero at Saratoga. Another ballad on the same sub-          And his cursed Tory crew,
ject is entitled-                                            On board his fleet of shipping
THE FATE OF JOHN BURGOYNE.                          He up the Champlain lew.
When Jack the king's commander                         Before Ticonderoga,
Was going to his duty,                                 The first day of July,
Phrough all the crowd he smiled and bow'd              Appear'd his ships and army,
To every blooming beauty.                              And we did them espy.
Their motions we observed
The city rung with feats he'd done                       Full well both nightand day,
In Portugal and Flanders,                             And our brave boys prepared
And all the town thought he'd be crown'd                  To have a bloody fray
The first of Alexanders.
Our garrison they viewed them,
To Hampton Court he first repairs                        As straight their troops did land,
To kiss great George's hand, sirs;                    And when St. Clair, our chieftain,
Then to harangue on state affairs                        The fact did understand
Before he left the land, sirs.                        That they the Mount Defiance
The " Lower House" sat nute as mouse                     Were bent to fortify,?.o hear his grand oration;                           He found we must surrender,
And " all the peers," with loudest cheers,               Or else prepare to die.
Proclaimed him to the nation.                        The fifth day of July, then,
Then off he went to Canada,                              He order'd a retreat,
Next to Ticonderoga,                                 And when next morn we started,
And quitting those away he goes                          Burgoyne thought we were beat.
Straightway to Saratoga.                             And closely he pursued us,
Till when near Hubbardton,
With great parade his march he made                    Our rear guards were defeated,
To gain his wished-for station,                        He thought the country won.
While far and wide his minions hied
To spread his  Proclamation."           And when't was told in Congress,
To spread his " Proclamation."
That we our forts had left,
To such as staid he offers made                        To Albany retreated,
Of "pardon on submission;                              Of all the North bereft,
But savage bands should waste the lands                Brave General Gates they sent us,
Of all in opposition."                                 Our fortunes to retrieve,
But ah, the cruel fates of war!                       And him with shouts of gladness
This boasted son of Britain,                           The army did receive.
When mounting his triumphal car                        Where first the Mohawk's waters
With sudden fear was smitten.                          Do in the sunshine play,
The sons of Freedom gathered round,                    For Herkimer's brave soldiers
His hostile bands confounded,                          Sellinger ambush'd lay;
And when they'd fain have turn'd their back            And them he there defeated,
They found themselves surrounded I                     But soon he had his due,
And scaredt by Brooks and Arnold
In vain they fought, in vain they fled,                  He to the North withdrew.
Their chief, humane and tender,
To save the rest soon thought it best
~His forces to surrender.  ~That we had gather'd then,
Burgoyne sent a detachment
Brave St. Clair when he first retired                    Of fifteen hundred men;
Knew what the fates portended;                        By Baum they were commanded,
And Arnold and heroic Gates                              To Bennington they went;
His conduct have defended.                           To plunder and to murder
Thus may America's brave sons                            Was fully their intent.
With honour be rewarded,                           t. Leger
And be the fate of all her foes                   t A man employed by the British as a spy, was taken
The same as here recorded.                    by Arnold, and at the suggestion of Colonel Brooks sent
back to St. Leger with such deceptive accounts of the
7T1he "North Campaign" was written by a private  strength of the Americans as induced hini to retreat toward
af Colonel Brooks's regiment. It was for a long pe-  Montreal.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                      33
But little did they know then,                        Then, burning all their luggage,
With whom they had to deal;                           They fled with haste and fear,
It wis not quite so easy                              Burgoyne with all his forces
Our stores and stock to steal;                        To Saratogue did steer;
Bold Starke would give them only                      And Gates our brave commander,
A portion of his lead;                                Soon after him did hie,
With half his crew ere sunset                         Resolving he would take them
Baum lay among the dead.                              Or in the effort die.
The nineteenth of September,                          As we came nigh the village,
The morning cool and clear,                           We overtook the foe;
Brave Gates rode through our army                     They'd burn'd each house to ashes,
Each soldier's heart to cheer;                        Like all where'er they go.
"Burgoyne," he cried, " advances,                     The seventeenth of October,
But we will never fly;                                They did capitulateNo-rather than surrender,                             Burgoyne and his proud army
We'll fight him till we die."                         Did we our pris'ners make.
The news was quickly brought us,                      Now here's a health to Arnold,
The enemy was near,                                   And our commander Gates;
And all along our lines then,                         To Lincoln and to Washington,
There was no sign of fear;                            Whom ev'ry Tory hates;
it was above Stillwater                               Likewise unto our Congress,
We met at noon that day,                              God grant it long to reign,
And every one expected                                Our Country, Right and Justice
To see a bloody fray.                                 For ever to maintain.
Six hours the battle lasted,                          Now finish'd is my story,
Each heart was true as gold,                          My song is at an end;
The British fought like lions,                        The freedom we're enjoying
And we like Yankees bold;                             We're ready to defend;
The leaves with blood were crimson                    For while our cause is righteous,
And then brave Gates did cry-                         Heaven nerves the soldier's arm,
"T is diamond now cut diamond!                       And vain is their endeavour
Ve'll beat them, boys, or die."                      Who strive to do us harm.
The darkness soon approaching,                   The last specimen of revolutionary verse relating to
It forced us to retreat                      the battle of Saratoga for which we have room, is the
Into our lines till morning,                  following curious account of that event, published in
Which made them think us beat;               the newspapers of the day-'ut er tesu wsrthe newspapers of the dayBut ere the sun was risen,
They saw before their eyes                          IIere followeth the direful fate,
Us ready to engage them,                              Of Burgoyne and his army great
Which did them much surprise.                       Who so proudly did display
The terrors of despotic sway.
Of fighting they seem'd weary,                        His power and pride and many threats
Therefore to work they go                           Have been brought low by fort'nate Gates
Their thousand dead to usand ry,                      To bend to the United States.
And breastworks up to throw:
Andh brastwnors uptothr:   British prisoners by Convention,.           2442
With grape and bombs intending.219
Foreigners-by Contra-verition,..        2198
Our army to destroy,                          Tories sent across the Lake,  -.... 1100
Or from our works our forces
By stratagem decoy.             worksourfBurgoyne and his suite, in state, - - - -           12
Sick and wounded, bruised and pounded, I       8
The seventh day of October,                      Ne'er so much before confounded,
The British tried again,-                      Prisoners of war before Convention,. -  -   400
Shells from their cannons throwing              Deserters come with kind intention,. - - -  300
Which fell on us like rain,-                   They lost at Bennington's great battle,     1
To drive us from our stations                   Where Starke's glorious arms did rattle,     1220
That they might thus retreat;                  Kill'd in September and October,   -.  - -   600
For now Burgoyne saw plainly                    Ta'en by brave Brown,* some drunk, some sober, 413
lie never us could beat.                       Slain by high-famed Herkerman,t              300
But vain was his endeavour                      On both flanks, on rear and van,
Indians, suttlers, butchers, drovers,,Though death was all around us,  Enough to crowd large plains all over,
Though death was all around us, l.
Not one of us would fly.                       And those whom grim Death did prevent
But when an hour we'd fought them,             From fighting against our continent;. 4413
And they began to yield,  And also those who stole away,
Lest they down their arms should lay,
Along our lines the cry ran
"o The nezt blow wins the field!"             Abhorring that obnoxious day;
The whole make fourteen thousand men,      14,0
Great God, who guides their battles             Who may not with us fight again.
Whose cause is just and true,                       This is a pretty just account
Ilaspired our bold commander                          Of Burgoyne's legion's whole amount,
The course he should pursue.                        Who came across the Northern Lakes
lie order'd Arnold forward,                           To desolate our happy States.
And Brooks to follow on;
The enemy were routed!                          * Col. John Brown, of Mass.
Our liberty was won!                          tGen. Herkimer, of New York, (probably.),I *




34                                  CURIOSITIES OF
Their brass cannons we have got all-                  Then up stept this young h 3ro,
Fifty-six-both great and small;                        John Pawling was his name,
And ten thousand stand of arms,                      "Sir, tell us where you're going
To prevent all future harms;                           And also whence you came?"
Stores and implements complete,                       "I bear the British flag, sir;
Of workmanship exceeding neat;                         I've a pass to go this way,
Cover'd wagons in great plenty,                       I'm on an expedition,
And proper harness, no way scanty.                     And have no time to stay."
Among our prisoners there are
Then round him came this compano',
Six generals, of fame most rare;And bid him to dismount;
Six members of their Parliament-                      "Come tell us where you-'re goin
Reluctantly they seem content;
Three British lords, and Lord Belcarras,              For e are no  resolved
Who came, our country free to harass.                  That you shall neer pass by."
Two baronets, of high extraction,
Upon examination
Were sorely wounded in the action.                     They found he was a spy.
They found he was a spy.
The Massacre of Wyoming was minutely described             He begged for his liberty,
in several ballads written before the year 1785, which,        He plead for his discharge,
we were surprised to find, are unnoticed by Mr. Stone        And oftentimes he told them,
If they'd set him at large,
and the other historians of that celebrated valley. We       " Here's all the gold and silver
quote a few stanzas from the longest one in our pos.           Ihave laid up in store,
session.                                                     But when I reach the city,
I'11 give you ten times more."
Now as they fly, they quarters cry,
Oh hear, indulgent leaven!                           " I want not the gold and silver
How hard to state their dreadful fate                    You have laid up in store,
No quarters must be given   f                        And when you get to New York
You need not send us more;
Some men were found, a-flying round,                   But you may take your sword in hanm
Sagacious to get clear;                                To gain your liberty,
In vain they fly, the foe is nigh,                     And if that you do conquer me,
On flank, in front, and rear!                           0, then you shall be free."
The enemy did win the day,                             "The time it is improper
Methinks their words were these:                        Our valour for to try,
"You cursed rebel Yankee race,                         For if we take our swords in hand,
Will this your Congress please?"                      Then one of us must die;
I am a man of honour
The death of Andre-just and necessary as it un-              Withcourage true andbol
questionably was-has been lamented in a hundred              AndIfearnotthe manofclay,
songs; while the chivalrous and accomplished Hale,             Although he's clothed in gold."
murdered with a brutality that would have shocked the        He saw that his conspiracy
sensibilities of the most depraved and desperate brig-         Would soon be brought to light;
ands, is alluded to in but a single ballad among those       He begg'd for pen and paper,
which have been preserved until our own time. We               And asked leave to write
transcribe, from the oldest copy in our possession, the      A line to General Jrnold,
once popular lyric called                                      To let him know his fate,
And beg for his assistance;
BRAVE PAWLING AND THE SPY.                          But now it was too late.
Come, all you brave Americans,                        When the news it came to Arnold,
And unto me give ear,                                It put him in a fret;
And I'll sing you a ditty                            Hle walk'd the room in trouble,
That will your spirits cheer,                         Till tears his cheek did wet;
Concerning a young gentleman                         The story soon went through the camj,
Whose age was twenty-two;                             And also through the fort;
He fought for North America;                          And he called for the Vulture,
His heart was just and true.                          And sailed for New York.
They took him from his dwelling,                      Now Arnold to New York is gone,
And they did him confine;                            A-fighting for his king,
They cast him into, prison,                          And left poor Major Andre
And kept him there a time;                            On the gallows for to swing;
But he with resolution                               When he was executed,
Resolved not long to stay;                           He look'd both meek and mild;
He set himself at liberty,                            He look'd upon the people,
And soon he ran away.                                And pleasantly he smiled.
He with a scouting-party                             It moved each eye with pity,
Went down to Tarrytown,                               Caused every heart to bleed;
Where he met a British officer,                       And every one wish'd him releasO
A man of high renown;                                 And Artnold in his stead.
Who says unto these gentlemen,                        He was a man of honour,
"You're of the British cheer,                         In Britain he was born;
I trust that you can tell me                         To die upon the gallows
If there's any danger near?"                         Most highly he did scorn.




AMERICAN LITERATURE. 
A bumper to John Pawling!                        "For well you know the latter is
Now let your voices sound,                        The serious operation,
Fill up your flowing glasses,                     And fighting with the refugees
And drink his health around;                      Is only demonstration."
Also to those young gentlemen                     His daring words from all the crowd
SuccsWhso borte him comp;                        Such great applause did gain,
Success to North America,                       That every man declared aloud
For serious work with Wayne.
In connection with this we give a specimen of the      Then from the cask of rum once more
mrnstrelsy of the other party. The British and Tories      They took a heady gill,*
were not often in a singing mood, and their ballads,     When one and all they loudly swore,
with few exceptions, are inferior in spirit and temper     They'd fight upon the hill.
to those of the Whigs. There is some wit, however,       But here the muse hath not a strain
in the following, which is said to have been written by    Befitting such great deeds,
Major Andre-                                             Huzza! they cried, huzza for Wayne,
THE COW CHASE.                           And shouting-...
PART I.
To drive the kine one summer's morn,                                    PART II.
The tanner5 took his way;
Thbe tanner*lfshl took his u nway;                  Near his meridian pomp, the sun
The calf shall rue that is unborn                    Had journey'd from the horizon,
The jumbling of that day.
When fierce the dusky tribe moved on,
And Wayne descending steers shall know                 Of heroes drunk as pison.
And tauntingly deride,
And call to mind in everiy o,                       The sounds confused of boasting oaths,
And call to mind in every lowfe-echo'd through the wood,
The tanning of his hide.                             Re.echo'd through the wood,
The tanning of his hide.
Some vow'd to sleep in dead men's clothes,
Yet Bergen cows still ruminate                         And some to swim in blood.
Unconscious in the stall
What mighty means were used to get
W'hat migylty means *vere used to get                At Irving's nod't was fine to see
~~And loose them after all.  ~          The left prepare to fight,
The while the drovers, A~ayne and Lee,
For many heroes bold and brave                         Drew off upen the right.
From New-bridge and Tappan,
And those that drink Passaic's wave,                 Which trving't was, fime don't relate,
And those that eat supaun;                           Nor can the muse assist her,
Whether't was he that cocks a hat,
And sons of distant Delaware,                        Whether t was he that cocks a hat,
~And still remoter Shannon,  ~Or he that gives a clyster.
And still remoter Shannon,
And Major Lee with horses rare,                      For greatly one was signalized,
And Proctor with his cannon.                         That fought at Chestnut Hill,
All wond'rous proud in arms they came,               And Canada immortalized
VWhat hero could refuse                              The vender of the pill.
To tread the rugged path to fame,                     Yet the attendance upon Proctor,
Who had a pair of shoes!                            They both might have to boast of;
At six, the host with sweating buff                  For there was business for the doctor,
Arrived at Freedom's pole,                           And hats to be disposed of.
When Wayne, who thought he'd time enough,            Let none uncandidly infer,
Thus speechified the whole-                          That Stirling wanted spunk,
" O ye whom glory doth unite,                        The self-made peer had sure been thero,
Who Freedom's cause espouse,                         But that the peer was drunk.
Whether the wing that's doom'd to fight              But turn we to the Hudson's hanks,
Or that to drive the cows,                           Where stood the modest train,
"Ere yet you tempt your further way                  With purpose firm, though slender ranks,
Or into action come,                                 Nor cared a pin for Wayne.
HIear, Soldiers, what I have to say,                 For them the unrelenting hand
And take a pint of rum.                              Of rebel fury drove,
" Intemp'rate valour then will string                And tore from every genial band
Each nervous arm the better,                         Of friendship and of love.
So all the land shall IO sing,                       And some within a dungeon's gloom,
And read the General's letter.                       By mock tribunals laid,
" Know that some paltry refugees,                    Had waited long a cruel doom
Whom I've a mind to fight,                           Impending o'er each head.
Are playing h-l amongst the trees,                   Here one bewails a brother's fate,
That grow on yonder height.                          There one a sire demands,
"Their fort and block-houses we'11 level,           Cut off, alas! before their date,
And deal a horrid slaughter,                         By ignominious hands.
We'll drive the scoundrels to the devil,             And silver d grandsires here appeard
And ravish wife and daughter.                        In deep distress serene,
"I under cover of the attack,                        Of reverent manners that declared
Whilst you are all at blows,                         The better days they'd seen,
Prom English Neighb'rhood and Nyack
Will drive away the cows;                         * It was a favourite idea with lhe Tories that the Wb1;1
y  party) "embraced none of the temperate and respectable
* Alluding to Wayne's early occupation.      portion of the community."




CURIOSITIES OF
Oh, cursed rebellion, these are thine,                A nymph, the refugees had drove
Thine are these tales of wo,                          Far from her native tree,
Shall at thy dire insatiate shrine                    Just happen'd to be on the move,
Blood never cease to flow?                           When up came Wayne and Lee.
And now the foe began to lead                         She in mad Anthony's fierce eye
His forces to the attack;                             The hero saw portray'd,
Balls whistling unto balls succeed,                   And all in tears she took him by
And make the Block-House crack.                       — The bridle of his jade.
No shot could pass, if you will take                  "Hear," said the nymph, " O great commande I
The General's word for true;                          No human lamentations;
But't is a d-ble mistake,                            The trees you see them cutting yonder,
For every shot went through.                          Are all my near relations.'The firmer as the rebels press'd,                    "And I, forlorn! implore thine aid,
The loyal heroes stand;                               To free the sacred grove;
Virtue had nerved each honest breast,                 So shall thy prowess be repaid
And industry each hand.                               With an immortal's love."
A' In* valour's phrenzy, Hamilton,                    Now some, to prove she was a goddess,
Rode like a soldier big,                              Said this enchanting fair,And secretary Harrison,                              Had late retired from the bodies,*
With pen stuck in his wig."                           In all the pomp of war;," But least their chieftain Washington,              That drums and merry fifes had play'd
Should mourn them in the mumps,t                      To honour her retreat,
The fate of Withrington to shun,                      Anid Cunningham himself convey'd
They fought behind the stumps."                       The lady through the street.
But ah, Tladaeus Posset, why                          Great Wayne, by soft compassion sway'd
Should thy poor soul elope?                          To no inquiry stoops,
And why should Titus Hooper die,                      But takes the fair afflicted maid
Ay, die-without a rope?                               iight into Yan Van Poop's.
Apostate Murphy, thou tC whom                         So Roman Anthony, they say,
Fair Shela ne'er was cruel,                           Disgraced the imperial banner,
In death shalt hear her mourn thy doom,               And for a gypsy lost a day,
" Och! would you die, my jewel?"                    Like Anthony the tanner.
Thee, Nathan Pumpkin, I lament,                       The hamadryad had but half
Of melancholy fate,                                   Received address from Wayne,
The grey goose stolen as he went,                     When drums and colours, cow and calf,
In his heart's blood was wet.                         Came down the road amain.
Now as the fight was further fought,                  All in a cloud of dust were seen,
And balls began to thicken,                           The sheep, the horse, the goat,
The fray assum'd, the generals thought,               The gentle heifer, ass obscene,
The colour of a lickin'.                              The yearling and the shoat.
Yet undismay'd the chiefs command,                    And pack-horses with fowls came by,
And to redeem the day,                                Befeather'd on each side,
Cry, Soldiers, charge! they hear, they stand,        Like Pegasus, the horse that I
They turn and run away.                               And other poets ride.
Sublime upon his stirrups rose
1PART III.                            The mighty Lee behind,
And drove the terror-smitten cows
Not all delights the bloody spear,
~Or horrid diiin of battle,             Like chaff before the wind.
There are, I'm sure, who'd like to hear               But sudden see the woods above
A word about the cattle.                              Pour down another corps,
All helter-skelter in a drove,
The chief whom we beheld of late,                       Like that I sung before.
Near Schralenberg haranguing,
At Yan Van Poop's unconscious sat                     Irving and terror in the van,
Of Irving's hearty banging;                           Came flying all abroad,
And cannon, colours, horse, and man
Whilst valiant Lee, with courage wild,                  Ran tumbling to the road.
Most bravely did oppose
MoTh e t   ears of woman and of child,              Still as he fled,'t was Irving's cry,
The tears of woman and of child,                        Arid his example too
Who begg'd he'd leave the cows.Run on, y merry men-For  hy
"Run on, my merry men —For why?
But,Wayne of sympathizing heart,                      tThe shot will not go through."
Required a relief                                   As when two kennels in the street,
Not all the blessings could impart                     Swell'd with a recent rain,
Of' battle or of beef.                              In gushing streams together meet,
For now a prey to female charms,                        And seek the neighbouring drain,
hIis soul took more delight in                    * A cant appellation given amongst the sol(bhr
A lovely hamadryad's arms,                        corps that had the honour to guard his Majesty's I
Than cow driving or fighting.                         t Five refugees ('tis true) were found
Stiff on the block-house floor,
vA Vide Lee's Trial.                                     But then,'t is thought, the shot went round,
fA disorder prevalent in the rebel lines.                  And in at the back door.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.
So met these dung-born tribes ill one,                 Since, taught by numerous instances,
As swift in their career,                              Americans can fight,
iAnd so to Nevwbridge they ran on-                     With valour can equip their stand,
But all the cows got clear.                            Your armies put to flight.
Poor parson Caldwell, all in wonder,                   Now farewell fair America,
Saw the returning train,                               Farewell our friends and wives,
And mourn'd to Wayne the lack of plunder               We trust in Hehven's peculiar care,
For them to steal again.                               For to protect their lives,
To prosper our intended cruise
For't was his right to steal the spoil, and           To p rosper our intended cruise
To share with each commander,
As he had done at Staten-island                        And to preserve our dearest friends,
With frost-bit Alexander.                              Till we return again.
In his dismay the frantic priest                       The  in it being leaing,
Began to grow prophetic,                               It bore us on ourway,
You'd swore, to see his labouring breast,               As far unto the  loutwrd
lIe'd taken an emetic.                                As the Gulf of Florida,
Where we observed a British ship,
"I view a future day," said he,Returning  from the main;
" Brighter than this day dark is,                    We gave her two owCha
We gave her two bow chasers,
And you shall see what you shall see,                    And she return'd the sate.
Ha! ha! my pretty Marquis!
We haul!d up our courses,
And he shall come tt, Paules-Hook,                       And so prepared for fight:
And so prepared for fight:
And great achievements think on,                      The contest held four glasses,
And make a bow and take a look,                          Until the dusk of night;
Like Satan over Lincoln.                             Then having sprung our mainmast,
And every one around shall glory                         And had so large a sea,
To see the Frenchman caper,                          We dropp'd astern and left our chase
And pretty Susan tell the story                          Till the returning day.
In the next Chatham paper."                          Next morn we fish'd our mainmast,
This solemn prophecy, of course,                         The ship still being nigh,
Gave all much consolation,                            All hands made for engaging,
Except to Wayne, who lost his horse                      Our luck once more to try;
Upon that great occasion.                            But wind and sea being boisterous,
IIis horse that carried all his prog,                    Our cannon would not bear,
His military speeches,                               We thought it quite imprudent,
His corn-stock whiskey for his grog,                     And so we left her there.
Blue stockings and brown breeches.                   We cruised to the eastward
And now I've closed my epic strain,                      Near the coast of Portingale;
I tremble as I show it,                              In longitude of twenty-seven
Lest this same warrior-drover, Wayne,                    We saw a lofty sail;
Should ever catch the poet.                          We gave her chase, and soon we caw
She was a British scow,
From a large collection of naval ballads, we select      Standing for fair America,
the following, as one of the most curious of its class,      With troops for General Howe.
and because, like several others in this collection, it
Our captain did inspect her
has never before been printed. It was written by the         W i       n did inspect he 
y the n cT;      rn  )With glasses, and he said —
surgeon of the " Fair American," and was familiar to       "My boys, she mea
" My boys, she means to fight us,
the Massachusetts privateersmen during the last years        But be you not afraid;
of the Revolution. The " noble captain" was an an-         All hands now beat to quarters,
cestor of the inimitable author, Nathaniel Hawthorne,        See everything is clear,
of Salem.                                                  We'11 give her a broadside, my boys,
BOLD HAWTHORNE.                              As soon as she comes near."
The twenty-second of August,                          She was prepared with nettings,
Before the close of day,                             And had her men secured,
All hands on board our privateer,                     She bore directly for us,
We got her under weigh;                               And put us close on board;
We kept the Eastern Shore along,                      When cannon roar'd like thunder,
For forty leagues or more,                            And muskets fired amain,
Then our departure took for sea,                     But soon we were alongside,
From the Isle Mauhegan shore.                         And grappled to her chain.
Bold Hawthorne was commander,                        And now the scene it alter'd,
A man of real worth,                                 The cannon ceased to roar,
Old England's cruel tyranny                          We fought with swords and boarding-pikes,
Induced him to go forth;                             One glass or something more,
She, with relentless fury,                           Till British pride and glory
Was plundering all our coast,                        No longer dared to stay,
And thought, because her strength was great,         But cut the Yankee grapplings,
Our glorious cause was lost.                         And quickly bore away.
Yet boast not, haughty Britons,                      Our case was not so desperate
Of power and dignity,                                As plainly might appear;
Of all your conquering armies,                       Yet sudden death did enter
Your matchless strength at sea l                     On board our orivateer.
4




CURIOSITIES OF
Mahoney, Crew, and Clemmons,                          At his bed-side he t-en espy'd,
The valiant and the brave,                            Sir Erskine at command, sir,
Fell glorious in the contest,                         Upon one foot, he had one boot,
And met a watery grave.                               And th' other in his hand, sir.
Ten other men were wounded                            "Arise, arise, Sir Erskine cries,
Among our warlike crew,                               The rebels-more's the pity,
With them our noble captain,*                         Without a boat, are all afloat
To whom all praise is due;                            And rang'd before the city.
To him and all our officers,                          "The motley crew, in vessels new,
Let's give a hearty cheer:                            With Satan for their guide, sir;
Success to fair America,                              Pack'd up in bags, or wooden kegs,
And oar good privateer I                              Come driving down the tide, sir.
" Therefore prepare for bloody war,
FRANCIS HOPKINSON was one of the greatest wits             Therefore prepare for be   routed,
of his time, and his satires, epigrams, songs, and other    Or surely we despised shall be,
compositions, in verse and prose, were among the              And British courage doubted."
happiest productions of their kind written during the       The royal band, now ready stand
Revolution.  The "Battle of the Kegs," is the most            All ranged in dread array, sir;
celebrated of his songs. It was occasioned by a real        With stomach stout to see it out,
incident. Certain machines, in the form of kegs, charged      And make a bloody day, sir.
with gunpowder, were sent down the river to annoy           The cannons roar from shore to shore,
the British shipping then at Philadelphia. The danger         The small arms make a rattle;
of these machines being discovered, the British man-        Since war's began I'm sure no man
ned the wharves and shipping, and discharged their            E'er saw so strange a battle.
small arms and cannons at every thing they saw float-       The rebel dales, the rebel vales,
mg in the river during the ebb tide.                          With rebel trees surrounded;
The distant wood, the hills and floods,
TILE BATTLE OF THE KEGS.                         With rebel echoes sounded.
Gallants attend and hear a friend,                      The fish below swam to and fro,
Trill forth harmonious ditty,                           Attack'd from every quarter;
Strange things I'll tell which late befel               Why sure, thought they, the devil's to pay
In Philadelphia city.'Mongst folks above the water.'T was early day, as poets say                          The kegs,'t is said, though strongly made.
Just when the sun was rising,                           Of rebel staves and hoops, sir;
A soldier stood on a log of wood,                       Could not oppose their powerful foes,
And saw a thing surprising.                            The conquering British troops, sir.
As in amaze he stood to gaze,                           From morn to night these men of migh
The truth can't be denied, sir,                         Display'd amazing courage;
He spied a score of kegs or more                        And when the sun was fairly down
Come floating down the tide, sir.                       Retired to sup their porrage.
A sailor too in jerkin blue,                            An hundred men with each a pen,
This strange appearance viewing,                        Or more upon my word sir,
First damn'd his eyes, in great surprise,               It is most true would be too few,
Then said some mischief's brewing.                      Their valour to record, sir.
These kegs, I'm told, the rebels bold,                  Such feats did they perform that dup
Pack'd up like pickling herring;                       Against these wicked kegs, sir,
And they're come down t'attack the town,               That years to come, if they get home,
In this new way of ferrying.                            They'll make their bo&et-.nd brais, 4e
The soldier flew, the sailor too,                     We give but one other specimen of the mr.intrelsy
And scared almost to death, sir,
And  ared almost to death, ir,  of the revolution: Ameriean Taxation, written by a
Wore out their shoes, to spread the news,
And ran till out of breath, sir.                  schoolmaster of Connc;lictut, named St. John. We
A and down thuout o athe.   tknow of nothing proauccd in this country at so earls
]wow up and down throughout the town,,o~v up         a period that is eqnieI t& it:
Most frantic scenes were acted;
And some ran here, and others there,                                AMERICAN TAXATION.
Like men almost distracted.                               While I relate my story,
Some fire cry'd, which some denied,                          Americans give ear;
But said the earth had quaked;                            Of Britiir.'s fading glory,
And girls and boys, with hideous noise,                      You presently shall hear;
Ran through the streets half naked.'11 give a true relation,
Attend to what I say,
Sir William he, snug as a flea,oncerning the taxation
Concerning the taxation
Lay all this time a snoring,                               Of North America.
Nor dreamed of harm as he lay warm,
In bed with Mrs. L-g.'he crtel lords of Britain
Who glory in their shamer,
Now in a fright, he starts upright,                        The project they hae hit on
The project they have hit on
Awaked by such a clatter;                                  They joyfully proclaim;
He rubs both eyes, and boldly cries,'Tis what they're striving after
For God's sake, what's the matter?                         Our right to take away,
* Captainr Hawthorne was wounded in the head by a            And rob us of our charter.
susket ball. His shiq was called " The Fair American."           In North America.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.
There are two mighty speakers,                       With gold and silver laces
Who rule in Parliament,                              They do themselves adorn,
Who ever have been seeking                           The rubies deck their faces,
Some mischief to invent;                             Refulgent as the morn I'Twas North, and Bute his father,                    Wine sparkles in their glasses,
The horrid plan did lay,                             They spend each happy day
& mighty tax to gather                               In merriment and dances,
In North America.                                    In North America.
They search'd the gloomy regions                     Let not our suit affront you,
Of the infernal pit,                                  When we address your throne,
to find among their legions                          0 king, this wealthy country
One who excell'd in wit;                             And subjects are your own,
ro ask of him. assistance,                           And you, their rightful sovereign.
Or tell them how they may                            They truly must obey,
Subdue without resistance                             You have a right to govern
This North America.                                   This North America.
Old Satan, the arch traitor,                          0 king, you've heard the sequel
Who rules the burning lake,                          Of what we now subscribe,
Where he's chief navigator,                          Is it not just and equal
Resolved a voyage to take.                           To tax this wealthy tribe? 
For the Britannic ocean                              The question being asked,
He launches far away,                                His majesty did say,
To land he had no notion                              My subjects shall be taxed
In North America.                                     In North America.
He takes his seat in Britain,                         Invested with a warrant,
It was his soul's intent,                            My publicans shall go,
Great George's throne to sit on,                      The tenth of all their current
And rule the Parliament;                             They surely shall bestow;
His comrades were pursuing                            If they indulge rebellion,
A diabolic way,                                       Or from my precepts stray,
For to complete the ruin                              I'1 send my war battalion
Of North America.                                    To North America.
lie tried the art of magic                           I'll rally all my forces
To bring his schemes about,                           By water and by land,
At length the gloomy project                         My light dragoons and horses
lie artfully found out:                              Shall go at my command,
The plan was long indulged                           I'11 burn both town and city,
In a clandestine way,                                With smoke becloud the day,
But lately was divulged                              I'1l show no human pity
In North America.                                    For North America.
These subtle arch-combiners                          Go on, my hearty soldiers,
Address'd the British court,                          You need not fear of illAll three were undersigners                          There's Hutchinson and Rogers,
Of this obscure report-                               Their functions will fulfilThere is a pleasant landscape                         They tell such ample stories,
That lieth far away,                                 Believe them sure we may,
Beyond the wide Atlantic,                            One half of them are tories
In North America.                                     In North America.
there is a wealthy people,                           My gallant ships are ready
Who sojourn in that land,                            To hoist you o'er the flood,
Their churches all with steeples                     And in my cause be steady,
Most delicately stand,                               Which is supremely good;
Their houses, like the gilly,                        Go ravage, steal, and plunder,
Are painted red and gay:                             And you shall have the prey
They flourish like the lily,                         They quickly will knock under
In North America.                                     In North America.
Their land with milk and honey                        The laws I have enacted,
Continually doth flow,                                I never will revoke,
The want of food or money                             Although they are neglected,
They seldom ever know;                                My fury to provoke,
They heap up golden treasure,                         [ will forbear to flatter,
They have no debts to pay,                           I'll rule the mighty sway,
Tnev spend their time in pleasure,                    I'll take away the charter
In'orth America.                                    From North America.
On turcevs, fowls, and fishes,                       O George! you are distracted,
Most treeuently they dine,                           You'll by experience find
With gold and silver dishes                          The laws you have enacted
Their tables always shine,                           Are of the blackest kind.
They crown their feasts with butter,                 I'1l make a short digression,
They eat and lie to play,                           And tell you by the way,
]J silks their ladies flutter,                       We fear not your oppression,
ZnL Murth America.                                   In NsTth America.




40                                  CURIOSITIES OF
Our fathers wvere distressed,                        I'11 tell you, George, in metre,
While in their native land;                          If you'll attend awhile:
By tyrants were oppressed,                           We forced your bold Sir Peter
As I do understand;                                  From Sullivan's fair isle,
From freedom and religion                            At Monmouth too we gained
They were resolved to stray,                         The honours of the dayAnd try the desert regions                           The victory we obtained
Of North America.                                    For North America.
Kind Heaven was their protector                      Surely we were your betters
While on the roaring tide,                            Hard by the Brandywine;
Kind fortune their director,                         We laid him fast in fetters
And Providence their guide;                          Whose name was John Burgo ne s
If I am not mistaken,                                We made your Howe to tremble
About-the first of May,                              With terror and dismay;
This voyage was undertaken                            True heroes we resemble,
For North America.                                   In North America.
To sail they were commanded                          Confusion to the tories,
About the hour of noon,                              That black infernal name,
At Plymouth shore they landed,                       In which Great Britain glories,
The twenty-first of June;                            For ever to her shame;
The savages were nettled,                            We'11 send each foul revolter
With fear they fled away,                             To smutty Africa,
So peaceably they settled                             Or noose him in a halter,
On North America.                                    In North America.
We are their bold descendants,                        A health to our brave footmen,
For liberty we'tI fight,                            Who handle sword and gun,
The'claim to independence                            To Greene and Gates and Putnam
We challenge as our right;                            And conquering Washington;'Tis what kind Heaven gave us,                       Their names be wrote in letters
Who can it take away?                                Which never will decay,
0, Heaven, sure, will save us,                       While sun and moon do glitter
In North America.                                    On North America.
We never will knock under,                            Success unto our allies
O, George, we do not fear                            In Holland, France and Spain,
The rattling of your thunder,                         Who man their ships and galleys,
Nor lightning of your spear:                         Our freedom to maintain;
Though rebels you declare us,                        May they suldu: the rangers
We're strangers to dismay;                           Of proud Britannia,
Therefore you cannot scare us,                       And drive them from their anchors
In North America.                                    In North America.
We have a bold commander,                             Success unto the Congress
Who fears not sword nor gun,                         Of these United States.
The second Alexander,                                Who glory in the conquests
His name is Washington;                               Of Washington and Gates;
His men are all collected,                           To all, both land and seamen,
And ready for the fray,                              Who usher in the day,
To fight they are directed                           When we shall all be freemen
For North America.                                   In North America.
We've Greene and Gates and Putnam                     Success to legislation,
To manage in the field,                              That rules with gentle hand,
A gallant train of footmen,                          To trade and navigation,
Who'd rather die than yield;               I          By water and by land;
A stately troop of horsemen,                         May all with one opinion
Train d in a martial way,                            Our wholesome laws obey,
For to augment our forces                    i       Throughout this vast dominion
In North America.                          i         Of North America.
Proud George, you are engaged                   The "old and antique songs" we have quoted axe
All in a dirty cause,                       not eminently poetical, and the fastidious reader lay
A cruel war have waged
R   fancy there are in some of them qualities that sir elri
Repugnant to all laws.
o tell the savage nations  have prevented their publication. We appeal to the
G~o tell the savage nations.
You're crueler than they,                    antiquaries.  The "Cow Chase" will live long a "ter
To  fight your awn relations                                the light airs and recollected terms
In North America.                          |        Of these most brisk and giddy paced times
Ten millions you've expended,  are forgotten, and, with other songs and ballads of our
And twice ten millions more;                Revolution, will in the next century be prized n are
Our riches, you intended m                    highly than the richest gems of Percy or Motherv ell.
Should pay the mighty score.
Who now will stand your sponsor   They are the very mirrors of the times in which t tey
Who now will stand your sponsor         
Your charges to defray?                     were sung. As may have been observed, we have gi'er
For sure you cannot conquer                   none of the lyrics of Freneau. Free, daring, hon ast,
T'as North America.                         and with sarcastic powers which made his pen as




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     41
terrible to the Tories and the British officers as that of  HIer pencil paints a thousand beauteous scenes
Coleridge was to Napoleon, he did as good service to     Where blossoms bud amid immortal greens;'he great cause from  his obscure printing office, as    Each stream, in mazes, murmurs as it flows,
And floating forests gently bend their boughs.
Maany a more celebrated patriot did in camp or legisla-  And T oating forests gently bend their a oughs,
Thou, autumn, too, sitt'st in the fragrant shade,
ture. The energy and exultation with which he re-        While the ripe fruits blush all aroun  thy head
While the ripe fruits blush all around thy head:
counted, in rapidly written songs, the successes of the  Ald lavish nature, with luxuriant hands,
Whigs, were equaled only by the keenness of his wit,     All the soft months in gay confusion blends.
and the appositeness of his humour.  Nor was it in    Byles was earnestly opposed to the Revolution, and
satire and song alone that he excelled.  Though we  in the spring of 1777, was denounced in the public
claim not for him, superior as he was to his American  assemblies as a tory, and compelled to give bonds foe
contemporaries, the praise due to a true poet, some of  his appearance before a court for trial. In tirc ollowhis pieces are distinguished for a directness of expres-s
sion, a manliness, fervour, and fine poetical feeling,            
sion, a manliness, fervour, and fine poetical feeling,  tion, and hostility to the country, and sentenced to be
that will secure for them a permanent place in our lite-  imprisoned forty days on  oard a guard-ship, and at
imprisoned forty days on board a guard-ship, and at
rature. Yet Freneau-th  patriot, poet, soldier-died  the end of that period to be sent with his family to
miserably poor, within the last ten years, while the
miserably  O, wr, wEngland. The board of war, however, took his case
national legislature was anxiously debating what should  into consideration, and commuted the punshment  to a
be done with the *' surplus money in the treasury."
be done with the surpl   money in the treasur."  short confinement under a guard in his own house;
but, though he continued to reside in Boston during
MIATHER BYLES AND JOSEPH GREEN.
the remainder of his life, he never again entered a
THE facetious MATHER BYLES was in his time equally  pulpit, nor regained his ante-revolutionary popularity.
famous as a poet and a wit. A contemporary bard ex-  He died in 1788, in the eighty-second year of his age.
claims —                                               He was a favourite in every social or convivial circle,
Would but Apollo's genial touch inspire             and no one was more fond of his society than the coSuch sounds as breathe from Byles's warbling lyre,  lonial governor, Belcher, on the death of whose wife
Then might my notes in melting measures flow,       he wrote an elegy ending withAnd make all nature wear the signs of wo.
Meantime my name to thine allied shall stand,
And his humour is celebrated in a poetical account of    Still our warm friendship, mutual flames extend;
the clergy of Boston, quoted by Mr. Samuel Kettell,      The muse shall so survive from age to age,
in his'"Specimens of American Poetry,"-                 And Belcher's name protect his Byles's page.
The doctor had declined an invitation to visit with
There's punning Byles, provokes our smiles,
AThere's punning Bytes, provokes our smiles,  the governor the province of Maine, and Belcher reA man of stately parts.
He visits folks to crack his jokes,             sorted to a stratagem  to secure his company. Having
Which never mend their hearts.                persuaded him  to drink tea with him  on board the
Scarborough ship of war, one Sunday afternoon, as
With strutting gait, and wig so great,
He walks along the streets,                   soon as they were seated at the table the anchor was
And throws out wit, or what's like it,          weighed, the sails set, and before the punning parson
To every one he meets.                        had called for his last cup, the ship was too far at sea
for him  to think of returning to the shore. As every
Ilyles was graduated at Cambridge in 1725, and was  thing necessary for his comfort had been thoughtfully
ordained the first minister of the church in Hollisprovided   he w           as easily reconciled to the voyage.
street, in 1732. He soon became eminent asa preacher,.'...
street, in 1732. He soon became eminent as a preacher,  While making preparations for religious services, the
and the King's College at Aberdeen conferred on him next Sunday, it was discovered that there was no hymn
the degree of Doctor of' Divinity. He was one of the  book on board, and he wrote the following lines, which
authors of" L Collec. on1 of Poems by several Hands,"  were sung instead of a selection from Sternhold and
which appeared in 1744, and of numerous essays and  Hopkinsmetrical compositions in " The New England Weekly            Great God, thy works our wonder raise;
Journal," the merit of which was such as to intro-                thee ourswellingnotes belong;
duce him  to the notice of Pope and other English            While skies and winds, and rocks and seas,
scholars. One of his poems is entitled "The Confla-            Around shall echo to our song.
gration;" and is " applied to that grand catastrophe of     Thy power produced thismighty frame,
our world when the face of nature is to be changed             Aloud to thee the tempests roar,
by a deluge of fire."  The following lines show its          Or softer breezes tune thy name
style-                                                         Gently along the shelly shore.
Yet shall ye, flames, the wasting globe refine,          Round thee the scaly nation roves,
And bid the skies with purer splendour shine.              Thy opening hands their joys bestow,
The earth, which the prolific fires consume,             Through all the blushing coral groves,
To beauty burns, and withers into bloom;                   These silent gay retreats below.
Improving in the fertile flame it lies,                  See the broad sun forsake the skies,
Fades into form, and into vigour dies:                     Glow on the waves, and downward glide;
Fresh-dawning glories blush amidst the blaze,            Anon heaven opens all its eyes,
And nature all renews her flowery face.                    And star-beanis tremble o'er the tide.
With endless charms the everlasting year
Each various scene, or day or night,
Rolls round the seasons in a full career;                  Lord! points to thee our nourish
Lord! points to thee our nourish'd soul;
Spring, ever bloomning, bids the fields rejoice,. 1.                                The glories fix our whole delight'
And warbling birds try their melodious voice;
So the touch'd needle courts the pole.
Where'er she treads, lilies unbidden blow,
Quick tulips rise and sudden roses glow:            JOSEPII GREEN, a merchant of Boston, who nad bees




42                                 CURIOSITIES OF
i class nate of Byles at Cainblidge. was little less cele-  and several shorter pieces, all of which I believe were
orated than the doctor for humour; and some of his  satirical.  His epigrams are the best written Jo this
poetical compositions were as popular ninety years ago  country before the Revolution; and many anecdotes
as in our own time have been those of "Croaker &   are told to show the readiness of his wit and his skill
Co.," which they resemble in spirit and playful ease  as an improvisator. On one occasion, a country genof versification.  The abduction of the Hollis street  tleman, knowing his reputation as a poet, procured an
minister was the cause of not a little merriment in  introduction to him, and solicited a "first rate [.,p -.ph"
Boston; and Green, between whom and Byles there  for a favourite servant who had lately died. ~.-eer.
was some rivalry, as the leaders of opposing social  asked what were the man's chief qualities, Iia was
factions, soon after wrote a burlesque account of it-.   told that "Cole excelled in all things. but was partlcuIn Da-vid's Psalms an oversilghlt           larly good at raking hay, which he could do faster than
Byles found one morning at his tea,        anybody, the present company, of course, excepted."
Alas! that he should never write            Green wrote immediatelyA proper psalm to sing at sea.                    Here lies the body of John Cole,
Thus ruminating on his seat,                        His master loved him like his soul;
Ambitious thoughts at length prevail'd;           He could rake hay, none could rake faster
The bard determined to complete                     Except that raking dog, his master.
The part wherein the prophet fail'd.
In his old age Green left Boston for England, rather
lie sat awhile and stroked his muse,*        from the infirmities of age, than from indifference to
Then taking up his tuneful pen,            the cause of liberty.
Wrote a few stanzas for the use
Of his seafaring bretheren.                              EDWARD RANDOLPH.
The task perforn'd, the bard content,          EDWARD RANDOLPH, says Moore, was called the
Well chosen was each flowing word;         " evil genius" of New England, and was the most inOn a short voyage himself he went,
To hear it read and sung on boardt         veterate and indefatigable of those intriguing men who
found access to the royal ear of Charles II., with comMos(T h ei    r credit sure we may rely on,)  plaints against the colonies. On this mischievous busihIn former times that after prayer,        ness, he made no less than eight voyages in nine years
They used to sing a song of Zion.          across the Atlantic. In 1676, he was sent over by royal
Our modern parson having pray'd,            authority to inquire into the state of the colonies. He
Unless loud fame our faith beguiles,       brought with him copies of the petitions of Mason and
Sat down, took out his book and said,        Gorges relative to their patent of New Hampshire, the
"Let's sing a psalm of Mather Byles."     limits of which interfered with the grants to MassachuAt first, when he began to read,             setts.
Their heads the assembly downward hung,      While he was in Boston, he represented that the
But he with boldness did proceed,            province was refractory, and disobedient to the requiAnd thus he read, and thus they sung.      sitions of the crown. He was zealous to promote the
cause of episcopacy, and to destroy the New England
THE: PSALM.                     churches; and he was the principal instrument of
With vast amaze nent we survey               depriving the inhabitants of Massachusetts of their
The wondmaers of the deep, andpopoiseplacharter privileges, the people against whom he had
Where mackerel swim, and porpoise play,When the charconceived a most violent antipathy. When the charAnd crabs and lobsters creep.
ter was taken away, and James II. succeeded to the
Fish of all kinds inhabit here,            crown, the king appointed a council to govern the proAnd throng the dark abode.
Here haddock, hake, and flounders are,       vince, of which Dudley was president, and Randolph
And eels, anad perch, and cod.            rwas one named in the commission  The next year,
Sir Edmund Andros arrived with a commission to be
From raging winds and tempests free,
From raging winds wand teipests free,      governor of New England. Randolph was a conspiSo smoothly as we pass,
The shining surface seems to be             cuous character during his short administration, ai.d
A piece of Bristol glass.                  involved in his fate. How much the people were exBut when the winds and tempest rise,        asperated against him, appears by their refusing him
And foaming billows swell,                 bail when he applied, and when it was granted' to
The vessel mounts above the skies            ctners. The house of representatives, June 25, 1689,
And lower sinks than hell.                 voted "that Mr. E. Randolph is not bailable, he having
Our heads the tottering motion feel,         broken a capital law  of the colony, in endeavouring
And quickly we become                      and accomplishing the subversion of our government,
Glmay as new-dropp'd calves, and reel       and having been an evil counsellor." Randolph died in
Like Indians drunk with rum.               the West Indies. It was said, that he always retained
What praises then are due that we            his prejudices against the churches and people of Maws
Thus far have safely got,                  sachusetts. On the other hand, the inhabitants of that
Amarescoggin tribe to see,                   province, who once held him in abhorrence, regarded
And tribe of Penobscot.                    him and his reproaches with the utmost contempt.
1750 Green published "An Entertainment for a    From a letter of Randolph to Governor Winslow,
sr Evening," in which he ridicules the freema-  written January 29, 1679,* published in the Collectins
and afterward, "The Sand Bank," -"*A  True  of the Mass. Hist. Soc. vol. vi, p. 92, it appears that
ant of the Celebration of St. John the Baptist,"  he had just returned from New Hampshire, where he
* _),s's farv.urite cat, so named by his friends.     * The date ought undoubtedly to be 1680




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     43
remained from the 27th December to the 22d of Jan-  A courtier's garbe too costly you will see
nary. In this letter; he gives some account of the  To be maintain'd where is noe gift nor ffee.
establishment of the royal government in this province  Pull downs the mill, rente the ground, you'l finde
under President Cutts, and also alludes to his reception  That very ffew will come to you to grinde.
BotonIesay, IarcieMerchants their corne will alwayes carry there,
at Boston. lie says, "I am received at Boston more    here the toles easy, and the usage ffaire.
like a spy, than one of his majesty's servants. They  Wee'11 kneele to the mill owner, as our cheife;
kept a day of thanks for the return of their agents; but  But doe not like the miller; he's a theife
have prepared a welcome for me, by a paper of scan-  And entertains him not wth joy, but greife.
dalous verses, all persons taking liberty to abuse me in    When Heauen would Job's signall patience try,
their discourses, of which I take the more notice, be-  He gave Hell leave to plott his misery,
cause it so much reflects upon my master, who will not  And act it too according to it's will,
forget it."                                           With this exco- tion, don't his body kill.
Soe RoyallCharles is now about to pronue
"RANDOLPH'S WELCOME BACK AGAIN."               Our Loyalty, A llegiance, and Loue,
In giving Licence to a Publican,
Welcome, Sr. welcome fr-om ye easterne shore          To pinch the purse, but not to hurt the man.
With a commission stronger than before                Patience raised Job unto the height of frame,
To play the horse-leach: robb us of our ffleeces,     Lett our obedience doe ffor us the same.
To rend our land, and teare it all to pieces.
Welcome now back againe; as is the whip                               PETER FOULGER.
To a ffoole's back; as water in a ship.
Boston make roome, Randolph's return'd, that hector,    PETER FOULCER was a schoolmaster of Nantucket,
Confirm'd at home to be ye sharp Collector;           and the maternal grandfather of Doctor Franklin. In
Whoe shortly will present unto yr viewes   )          1676 he published a poem entitled "A Looking-glass
The greate broad seale, that will you all amuse,      for the Times," addressed to men in authority, in
Urinwelcome tidings, and unhappy newes.               which he advocates religious liberty, and implores the
New England is a very loyall shrubb
That loues her Soveraigne, hates a Belzebub,          government to repeal the uncharitable laws againstthe
That's willing (let it to her praise be spoake)       Quakers and other sects. He saysTo doe obedience to the Royall Oake,                           The rulers in the country
To pay the Tribute that to it belongs,                           I do owne them in the Lord;
For shielding her, from injuries and wrongs:                   And such as are for government,
But you the Agent, Sr. she cannot brook,                         With them I do accord.
She likes the meate, but can't abide the cook.                 But that which I intend hereby,
Alas, shee would haue Caesar haue his due,                      Is that they would keep bound;
But not by such a wicked hand as you:                          And meddle not with God's worship,
For an acknowledgement of Right, wee scorne                      For which they have no ground.
(To pay to our greate Lord a pepper-corne)                     And I am not alone herein,
To baulke the tearmes of our most gratious deed                  There s many hundreds more,
But would ten thousand times the same exceed.                  That have for many years ago
Some call you Randall-Rend-all I you name,                     Spoke much more upon that score.
Soe you'l appear before you've played yr game.                 Indeed, I really believe,
He that keeps a Plantacon, Custome-house,                        It's not your business,
One year, may bee a man, the next a mouse.                     To meddle with the church of God
Yr brother Dyer hath the Divell play'd,                          In matters more or less.
Iadle the New-Yorkers at the ffirst affraide,           In another part of his "Looking-Olass" he SaysHe vapour'd, swager'd, hector'd, (whoe but he?)
But soon destroy'd himself by villianie.                       Now  loving friends and countryme
Well might his cursed name wth D begin,                         I wish we may be wise;
Whoe was a Divell in his hart flor sin,'Tis now a time for every man
And currantly did pass, by common vogue,                         To see with his own eyes.
Ffor the deceitfull'st wretch and greatest rogue.'T is easy to provoke the Lord
By him you'r ffurnish't wth a sad example-                       To send among us war;
Take heed that those you crush don't on you trample.'Tis easy to do violence,
We verryly believe we are not bound                              To envy and to jar;
To pay one mite to you, much less a pound.                     To show a spirit that is high;
If there were need New-England you must know,                    To scorn and domineer;
Ffiftey p. cent we'ld on our King bestow,                      To pride it out as if there were
And not begrutch the offring, shee's soe ffranck,                No God to make us fear;
But hates to pay where she will have no thanke.                To covet what is.aot our own;
To cheat and to oppress;
We doe presume Secundus Carrolus Rex                         To live a life that might free us
Sent you not here a countrye's heart to vex.                    From acts of righteousness;
Bee gives an inch of power; you take an ell.                   To swear, and lie, and to be drunk
Should it be knowne, he would not like it well.                  To backbite one another;
If you do understand yr occupation,                            To carry tales that may do hurt
1' is to keep acts of trade ffrom violation.                    And mischief to our brother;
If merchants in their traffque will be ffaire,                 To live in such hypocrisy,
You must, Camelion-like, live on the aire.                       As men may think us good,
Should they not trade to Holland, Spain, and Ffrance,          Although our hearts within are full
Directly you must seeke flor maintenance.                       Of evil and of blood.
The customs and the ffees will scarce supply                   All these, and many evils more,
Belly and back. What's left ffor's Majesty?                    Are easy for to do;
What you collect won't make you to look bigg                  But to repent and to reform
With modish nick-nacks, dagger, perriwigg;                      We have no strength theret.




44                                 CURIOSITIES OF
The following are the concluding lines:           of this is worthy of being particularly noted. Sixty.
I am for peace, and not for war,           four years after the first settlement of Virginia, Sit
And that's the reason why                William  Berkely, then governor of that province, in
I write more plain than some men do,       an official communication to the lords of the colonies,
That use to daub and lie.                observed, "I thank God, that there are no free-schools
But I shall cease, and set my name         nor printing-presses here; and I hope that we shall
To what I here insert:                   not have them here these hundred years; for learning
Because, to be a libeller, 
B ecate it with nay heart.               has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into
I hate it with my heart.
From Sherlon town, where now I dwell,      the world, and printing hath divulged them in libels
My nalne 1 do put here,..               against the best governments.  God keep us from
Without offence, your real friend,         both."
It is         PETER FOuJLGER.              Within a few years past, a man of a similar spirit,
who represented a portion of Virginia in Congress,
gave God thanks that in his district there were pub.
THE Reverend MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH was born  lished no newspapers. Such a suspicion had been in
iii 1631, and graduated at Harvard College soon after  the public mind from the time of the member's elei
entering upon his twentieth year. When rendered un-  tion.
able to preach, by an affection of the lungs,
THE FIRST AMERICAN DRAMATIC WRITER.
In costly verse and most laborious rhymes,
ie dish'td up truths right worthy our regard.     THOMAS GODFREY of Philadelphia has been called
"the first American dramatic poet," but I believe a
His principal work, " TheDay of Doom, or a Poeti-  play superior to "The Prince of Parthia" had been
cal Description of the Great and Last Judgment, with
composed by some students at Cambridge before his
a Short Discourse about Eternity," passed through si  time. Godfrey was a son of the inventor of the quadeditions in this country, and was reprinted in London.  rant claimed in England by Hadley. He was a lieuA few verses will show its style —                  tenant in the expedition against Fort Du Quesne in
Still was the night, serene and bright,      1759, and on the disbanding of the colonial forces went
When all men sleeping lay;                 to New Providence, and afterward to North Carolina,
Calm was the season, and carnal reason       where he died, on the third of August, 1763, in the
Thought so't would last for aye.
Souhl, take thin ease, let sorrow cease,   twenty-seventh year of his age. His poems were pubSMuch good thou hast in store:             lished in Philadelphia in 1765, in a quarto volume of
This was their song their cups among,        two hundred and thirty pages. " The Prince of Parthia,
The evening before.                        a Tragedy," contains a few vigorous passages, but not
After the " sheep" have received their reward, the  enough to save it from condemnation as the most worth.
several classes of "goats" are arraigned before the  less composition in the dramatic form that has been
judgment-seat, and, in turn, begin to excuse themselves   printed in America. The following lines from the
When the infants object to damnation on the ground fifth act, might pass for respectable prosethat                                                   0 may he never know a father's fondness,
Adam is set free                    Or know it to his sorrow; may his hopes
And saved from his trespass,                   Of joy be cut like mine, and his short life
Whose sinful fall hath spilt them all,           Be one continued tempest. If he lives,
And brought them to this pass,-                Let him be cursed with jealousy and fear:
the puritan theologist does not sustain his doctrine very  May torturing Hope present the flowing cup,
Then, hasty, snatch it from his eager thirst,
well, nor quite to his own satisfaction even; and the  And, h       asty, snatch it from his eager  the means.
judge, admitting the palliating circumstances, decides
that although                                         The " Court of Fancy," a poem in the heroic mea
in bliss                 sure, is superior to his tragedy in its diction, but has
They may not hope to dwell,                little originality of thougnt or illustration.
Still unto them He will allow
The easiest room in hell.                                   JAMES RALPH.
At length the general sentence is pronounced, and    THE only American immortalized in "The Dunciata
the condemned begin to                              was JAMES RALPH, who went to England with Frankwring their hands, their caitiff hands,  lin. Pope exclaimsAnd gnash their teeth for terror;              Silence, ye wolves I while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
They cry, they roar for anguish sore,           And makes night hideous; answer him, ye owls!
And gnaw their tongues for horror.           Ralph wrote a long "poem" entitled "Zeuma, or
But get away without delay,                  the Love of Liberty," which appeared in London in
Christ pities h not your cry:              1729; " Night," and " Sawney," a satire, in which I
Depart to hell, there may ye yell,
Anderoar eternally.                        suppose he attempted to repay the debt he owed to
Pope, as it is but an abusive tirade against that poet
Wigglesworth died in 1705.                        and his friends. I quote a few lines from "Zeuma.'
AN AMERICAN GOVERNOR OPPOSED TO EDU.                 Tlascala's vaunt, great Zagnar's martial son,
CATION.                           Extended on the rack, no more complains
IT has been the general policy of the American States  That realms are wanting to employ his sword
to encourage the education of their children by all    Butcircled withinnumerable ghosts,
Who print their keenest vengeance on his soul,
practicable means, but among their rulers there have   For all the wrongs, and slaughters of his reign,
been some who saw in the ignorance of the people the   Howls out repentance to the deafen'd skies,
rmest foundation of power. One remarkable instance    And shakes hell's concave with continual groans.




AMERICA N L lTERATURE.                                                   45
AUTIJORISlIP OF THE DECLARATION OF INDE.   tural state-pride, made a thorough investigation of all
PENDENCE.                        the facts connected with the Mecklenburg Declaration,
THOMAS JEFFERSON desired it to be recorded on his  the result of which was the establishment of the aumonument that he was the "author of the Declaration  thenticity of that document by the most conclusive
of American Independence."  Since his death, much  testimony. Professor Tucker, in his Life of Jefferson,
discussion has been produced by the fact that many  is forced to admit that there is a plagiarism in the
expressions in this celebrated document have been  case, but decides that Mr. Jefferson could not be the
found to be identical with the language used in the  plagiary. He does not deny that on the 20th of May,
"Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," a pa-  1775, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, North Caro.
per of earlier date, and it is conceded that the resem-  lina, made some sort of a Declaration of Indepen
blances between the two instruments are not accident-  dence, but he contends that it was not in the words of
al. In 1819, John Adams found a copy of the Meck-  the instrument now published; and that the second
lenburg Declaration in the " Essex Register;" into  and third paragraphs or resolves which this contains
which gazette it had been copied from the " Raleigh  are interpolations, copied from Mr. Jefferson's DeclaRegister;" and perceiving its similarity to the Con-  ration after the 4th of July, 1776. This position of
gressional Declaration, and that it purported to be an  Professor Tucker has been overthrown, and the perfect
older document, he inclosed it to Mr. Jefferson, with  authenticity of the Mecklenburg document so conclu
whom he was then in frequent correspondence. The  sively and satisfactorily established, that it is unne" Sage of Monticello" replied to Mr. Adams, inform-  cessary at this time to enter into any discussion of that
ing him that he did not believe the paper to be authen-  point. We now give the Declaration of Independence
tic.   I believe tt to be spurtous," he says: "I deem it  as written by Mr. Jefferson, with passages from  the
a very unjustifiable quiz."  " Nor do I affirm positively  other documents to which it bears any resemblance
that this paper is a fabrication, because the proof of a  from an article in the New York Review, written soon
negative can only be presumptive; but I shall believe  after the appearance of Professor Tucker's Memoir.
it such until positive and solemn proof of its authen-  by the Rev. Dr. Hawkesticity shall be produced." The document is as follows:  Thle Declaration of Independ- Documents resembling the De.
ence, as drawn by JMr. Jef.  claration of Independence.?SE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
ferson.
(20th of Mray, 1775.)    When in the course of hu"'That whosoever directly or indirectly abets, or in any  man events, it becomes ne.
way, form, or manner, countenances the unchartered and  cessary for one people to disdangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Bri.  solve  the  political bands
tain, is an enemy to this country, to America, and to the  which have connected them
inherent and undeniable rights of man.                with another, and to assume
"That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby  among the powers of the
dissolve the political bands which have connected us with  earth the separate and equal
the mother country, and hereby absolve eurselves from all  station to which the laws of
allegiance to the British crown, and abjure all political con-  nature and of nature's God
aiection, contract, or association with that nation, who  entitle them, a decent respect
have wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, and  to the opinions of mankind
inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at Lexing-  requires that they should deton.                                                  dare the causes which impel
"'That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and inde-  them to that separation.
pendent people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign    We hold these truths selfand self-governing association, under the control of no pow-  evident; that all men are'that all men are by nature
er, other than that of our God, and the general government  created equal; that they are equally free and independent,
of Congress; to the maintenance of which indepeldence,  endowed by their Creator and have certain inherent
we solemnly pledge to each other, our mutual co-operation,  with inherent and inalien- rights" —" namely, the enjoy,
our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honour.  able rights; that among these ment of life and liberty,"" That as we acknowledge the existence and control of  are life, liberty, and the pur- " and pursuing and obtaining
no law nor legal officer, civil or military, within this coun-  suit of happiness; that to happiness and safety." —Vir.
ty, we do hereby ordain and adopt as a rule of life, all, secure these rights, govern- ginia declaration of Rirghts.
each, and every of our former laws; wherein, neverthe-  ments are instituted among -" that government is insti.
less, the crown of Great Britain never can be considered  men, deriving their just pow- tuted for the common bene.
as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority  ers fiom the consent of the fit" &c.-" that all power is
therein.                                              governed; that whenever aly vested in the people"-" that
" That it is further decreed, that all, each, and every mi-  form of government becomes whenever any government
litary officer in this county, is hereby reinstated in his for-  destructive of these ends, it shall be found inadequate"
mer command and autho.:ty, he acting conformably to the  is the right of the people to &c.-" a majority of the comregulat:ons. And that every niember present of this dele-  alter or abolish it, and to in- munity hath an indubitable
gation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz., a justice of  stitute new government, lay- unalienable and indefeasible
the peace, In the character of a committee man, to issue  ing its foundation on such right to reform, alter, cr a.
process, hear, and determine all matters of controversy, ac. principles, and organizing its bolish it, in such manner as
cording to said adopted laws; and to preserve peace, union,  powers in such form, as to shall be judged most condu.and harmony in said county, and to use every exertion to  them shall seem most likely cie e to the public weal."
spread the love of country and fire of freedom throughout  to effect their safety and kap- - Virginia  declaration  4f
America, until a more general and organized government  piness.  Prudence, indeed, Rights.
he established in this province.                      willdictate that governments
"iABRAHAM ALEXANDER, Chairman.   long established, should not
"JOImN M'KNITT ALEXANDER, Secretary."               be changed for light and transient causes andt accordingThe letter of Mr. Jefferson having been published,  ly all experience hath shown
the Legislature of North Carolina, influenced by a na-  that mIankind are more dis



46                                      CURIOSITIES OF
posed to suffer while evils                               ers, incapable of annihila. legislative head". —COastit
are sufferable, than to right                             tion have returned to the tion of Ya.
themselves by abolishing the                              people at large for their exforms to which they are ac-                               ercise, the state remaining
customed. But when a long                                 in the meantime, exposed to
train of abuses and usurpa-.                              all the dangers of invasion
tions, begun at a distinguish-                            from  without, and convuled period, and pursuing inva-                             sions within.
riably the same object, evin-                               He has endeavoured to pre- "by endeavouring to prevent
(,es a design to reduce them                              vent the population of these the population of our coun.
unler absolute despotism: it                              states: for that purpose ob- try, and, for that purpose, obis their right, it is their duty,                         structing the laws for natu- structing the laws for the
to throw  off such govern-                                ralization of foreigners, re- naturalization of foreigner.
ment, and to provide new                                  fusing to pass others to en — Constitution Qf Va
guards for their future secu-                             courage their migrations hirity. Such has been the pa-                               ther, and raising the conditient sufferance of these co-                             tions of new appropriations
lonies; and such is now the                               of lands.
necessity which constrains                                  He has suffered the adminthem to expunge their former                              istration of justice totally to
systems of government. The                                cease in some of these states,
history of the- present king                              refusing his assent to laws fnr
of Great Britain is a history                             establishing judiciary powof unremitting injuries and                               ers.
usurpations, among  which                                   He has made our judges
appears no solitary fact to                               dependent on his will alone
contradict the uniform tenor                              for the tenure of their offices,
of the rest, but all have in                              and the amount and payment
direct object, the establish-                             of their salaries.
ment of an absolute tyran-                                  He has erected a multitude
ny over these states.  To                                 of new  offices by a self-as.
prove this, let facts be sub-                             sumed power, and senthither
mitted to a candid world, for                             swarms of new  officers to
the truth of which we pledge                              harass our people and eat out
a faith yet unsullied by false-                           their substance.
hood.                                                       He has kept among us, in "by keeping among us, in
le has refused his assent "by putting his negative on  times of peace, standing ar. times of peace, standing ar.
to laws the mnost wholesome laws the most wholesome   mies and ships of war with. mies and ships of war."and necessary for the public and necessary for the public  out the consent of our legis- Constitution of Va.
good.                       good." - Constitution of Vir.  latures.
ginia.                          He has affected to render "by affecting to render the
He has forbidden his gov- "by denying his governors  the military independent of, military independent of and
ernors to pass laws of imme- permission to pass laws of  and superior to, the civil superior to the civil power."
diate and pressing impor- immediate and pressing im-  power.                          -Constitution of Va.
tance, unless suspended in portance, unless suspended       He has combined with oth- "by combining with others to
their operation till his assent in their operation for his as-  ers to subject us to a juris- subject us to a foreign jurisshould be obtained; and when sent, and when so suspended,  diction foreign to our consti- dictionso suspended, he has utterly neglecting to attend to them   tutions and unacknowledged
neglected to attend to them. for many years." — Constitu-   by our laws, giving his assent -giving his assent to the'
He has refused  to pass tion of Va. "by refusing to  to their acts of pretended le- pretended acts of legislation"
other laws for the accommo. pass certain other laws, un-  gislation;
dation of large districts of less the persons to be benefit-    For quartering large bo. "for quartering large bodies
people, unless those people ed by them would relinquish   dies of armed troops among of armed troops among us."
would relinquish the right of the inestimable right of re.  us:                       -Constitution of Va.
representation in the legisla- presentation in the legisla-    For protecting them by a "to protect from punishment.
ture, a right inestimable to ture."-Constitution of Va.   mock trial from punishment, such as might be guilty even
them, and formidable to ty-                               for any murders which they of murder ill endeavouring
rants only.                                               should commit on the inha- to  carry  their oppressive
He has called together le-                              bitants of these states:    edicts  into  execution." -
gislative bodies at places un-                                                        Jay's Address to Eng. peo.
usual, uncomfortable, and                                                             pie.
distant front the depository                                For cutting off our trade -" for cutting off our trade
of their public records, for                              with all parts of the world: with all parts of the world"
the sole purpose of fatiguing                               For imposing taxes on us -" for imposing taxes on us
them  into compliance with                                without our consent:        without our consent"
his nmeasures.                                              For depriving us of the be- -" for depriving us of the
IIe has dissolved represent. " by dissolving legislative as.  nefits of trial by jury:  benefits of trial by jury"
alive houses repeatedly and semblies repeatedly and con-    For transporting us beyond — " for transporting us bcontinually,  for  opposing tinually, for opposing with  seas to be tried for pretended yond seas to be tried for pre
with manly firmness his in- manly firmness his invasion   offences:                   tended offences."- Constitu
vasions on the rights of the of the rights of the people."-                           tion of Va.
people.                     Constitution of Va.             For abolishing the free sys- " the dominion of Canada it
He has refused for a long "when dissolved, by refusing  tem  of English laws in a to be so governed as that b3
time after such dissolutions to call others for a long space  neighbouring province, esta- being disunited from us"
to cause others to be elected, of time, thereby leaving the   blishing therein an arbitrary -" they might become for.,
whereby the legislative pow- political system without any   government, and enlarging midable to us, and on occal




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                          47
its boundaries, so as to ren- sion be fit instruments in the  which may define a tyrant, is
der it at once an example and hands of power to reduce the  unfit to be the ruler of a peofit instrument for introdu. ancient free Protestant Colo-  ple who mean to be free.
cing the same absolute rule nies to the same state of  [The residue of this parainto these states;         slavery with themselves."-   graph was not adopted by the
Jay's.address.              Committee.]
For taking away our char- " by rendering the American    Nor have we been wanting
ters, abolishing our most va. charters of no validity, hav-  in attentions to our British
liable laws, and  altering ing annulled the most ma-  brethren. We have warned;
fundamentally the forms of terial parts of the charter of  them from time to time of atour governments;           the Massachusetts Bay."-  tempts by their legislature to
Drayton's Charge.            extend jurisdiction over these
For suspending our own "for suspending our own le.  our States.  We have relegislatures, and  declaring gislatures,  and  declaring   minded thesn of the circumthemselves  invested  with themselves  invested  with  stances of our emigration
power to legislate for us in power to legislate for us in  and settlement here; we aptll cases whatsoever.      all cases whatsoever."-Con-  pealed to their native justice
stitution of Va.             and magnanimity, [as well
He has abdicated govern- " Geo. the 3d has abdicated  as to] the ties of our common
ment here, withdrawing his the government."-Drayton's  kindred, to disavow  these
governors, and declaring us Charge.                      usurpations which  [ were
out of his allegiance and " by abandoning the helm of  likely to] interrupt our conprotection.                government, and declaring us  nection and correspondence.
out of his allegiance and pro-  They too have been deaf to
tection."-Constitution of Va.  the voice of justice and conHe has plundered our seas, " by plundering our seas, ra-  sanguinity. We must thereravaged our coast, burnt our vaging our coasts, burning  fore acquiesce in the necessi.
towns, and  destroyed the our towns, and destroying the  ty which denounces our [e.
lives of our people.       lives of our people."-Con.  ternal] separation, and hold
stitution of Va.             them as we hold the rest of
He is at this time trans- "by transporting at this time  mankind, enemies in war, in
porting large armies of fo- a large army of foreign mer-  peace, friends.
reign mercenaries to corn- cenaries to  complete  the    We therefore, the Repre- "We the citizens of Merkplete the works of death, de- works of death, desolation   sentatives of the United lenburg  County do hereby
solation and tyranny, alrea- and tyranny, already begun,  States of America, in Gener- dissolve the political bands
dy begun, with circumstan- with circumstances of cru-  al Congress assembled, do in which have connected us to
ces of cruelty and perfidyun- elty and perfidy unworthy  the name, and by the autho- the  mother country; and
worthy the head of a civil- the head of a civilized na-  rity of the good people of hereby  absolve  ourselves
ised nation.               tion." —Constitution of Va.   these states, reject and re- from  all allegiance to tha
He has constrained our fel-                            nounce all allegiance and British crown, and abjure a!'
low citizens taken captive on                            subjection to the kings of political connection,contract,
the high seas to bear arms a-                            Great Britain, and all others or association with that nagainst their country, to be-                             who may hereafter claim by, tion."-MJIecklenburg  Declscome the executioners of                                 through, or under them: we ration.
their friends and brethren,                              utterly dissolve all political "to declare the United Colo.
or to fall themselves by their                           connection which may here- nies free and independent
bands.                                                   tofore  have  subsisted  be- states absolved from all alle.
He has endeavoured  tO "by endeavouring to bring  tween us and the people or giance to, or dependence upon
bring,on the inhabitants of on the inhabitants of our  parliament of Great Britain; the crown or parliament of
our frontiers the merciless frontiers the merciless Indian   and finally we do assert and Great Britain."-Instructions
Indian savages,whoseknown savages, whose known rule  declare these colonies to be of Va. Convention to her deruleofwarfare is an undistin. of warfare is an undistin-  free and independent states; legates.
guished  destruction of all guished destruction  of all  and that as free and inde- -' We do hereby declare our.
ages, sexes, and conditions of ages, sexes and conditions of  pendent states, they have full selves a free and independeni
existence.                 existence."- Constitution  of  power to levy war, conclude people; are, and  of right
Va.                          peace, contract alliances, es- ought to be, a sovereign and
[Then follow two clauses                               tablish commerce, and to do self-governing   association"
not adopted by the Committee,                            all other acts and  things — " to the maintenance of
relative to exciting s"trea-                             which  independent states which independencesonable insurrections of our                             may of right do.
fellow  citizens,"  and the                                And for the support of this -we solemnly pledge to each
slave trade.]  The first of                              declaration   we  mutually other our mutual co-opera.
these is in these words: He                              pledge  to  each other our tion, our lives, our fortunes,
has incited treasonable in- "by inciting insurrections of  lives, our fortunes, and our and our most sacred honour"
surrections of our fellow citi- our fellow subjects, with the  sacred honour.       —.Mecklenburg Declaration.
zens, with the allurements of allurements of forfeiture and  Every instrument from which a quotation is made in
forfeiture and confiscation of confiscation." - Constitution  the column of resemblances it should be remarked,
the column of resemblances it should be remarked,
our property,              of Va.
In every stage of these op-                            purports to be of earlier date than the declaration of
pressions, we have petitioned                           independence.  Thus the Virginia declaration of rights
for redress in the most humrn "by answering our repeated  was adopted June 12th, 1776.*  The Constitution of
ble terms; our repeated peti- petitions for redress with a  Virginia was adopted June 29, 1776.t Governor Jay's
tions have been answered repetition of injuries." —Cononly by repeatedinjasries.   stitution of ian              * Journal of the Virginia Convention of June, 1776, p. 42,
reprinted by a resolution of the House of Delegates, of tile
A prince whose character                               24th February, 1816. Richmond 1816.
rs thus marked by every act                                t Same Journal, p. 78.




eB                                   CURIOSITIES OF
address to the people of England was written and pub.    On the 10th of June, Congress appointed the corn
lished in September, 1774.*  Judge Drayton's charge  mittee to draw the Declaration of Independence; only
was delivered on the 23d of April, 1776, and published  one day before the declaration of rights was adopted
in May of the same year.t And the declaration by the  in Virginia; and, that this last named paper, which it
citizens of Mecklenburg county in North Carolina, was  is not pretended he wrote, was used by Mr. Jefferson
made on the 20th of May, 1775.t                     in preparing the first part of the congressional declaAn attempt has been made to show that the Consti-  ration, is obvious, upon a comparison of the two intution of Virginia, or more properly, the List of Grie-  struments. If this were sent to him in Philadelphia
vances prefixed to that Document, was written by Mr.  by his Virginia friends, as it must have been, why may
Jefferson, but there is no proof of this.  Mr. Tucker  not the copy of the proposed constitution, with this
says it was written by Mr. Jefferson, in Philadelphia,  very list of grievances, have also been sent? We find,
and forwarded to Mr. Wythe in Virginia. But on the  from the journals of the Convention, that it was before
11th of August, 1775, Mr. Jefferson was elected a  that body as early as the 26th of June, for on that day
delegate to Congress for one year, by the convention of  it was discussed, and the committee had been employed
Virginia,Q and on the 20th of June, 1776, was re-elect-  on it from the 15th of the previous May; so that we
ed for another year.ll The Journals, show  us that  cannot tell how long before the 26th of June it had
George Wythe, also, was elected with Mr. Jefferson,  been in existence in Virginia, if it originated there; but
on both the occasions referred to; and as the list of  it is certainly within the range of possibility, that it
members in the Virginia convention presents us with  was prepared before the 10th of June, when the comthe name, at one time, of Mr. Edmund Randolph, and  mittee on the national document was appointed by
at another, of Mr. Prentiss, sitting for Mr. Wythe, we  Congress; and within the range of probability, that, if
infer that in 1776, when the Virginia constitution was  prepared, it was sent with the declaration of rights,
under consideration, Mr. Wythe was in Philadelphia  which we have seen was used by Mr. Jefferson. These
with Mr. Jefferson, attending to his duties in Congress:  facts render it important, to establish most satisfactoif this be so, we do not perceive how this list of grie-  rily the point, that Mr. Jefferson did prepare this list
vances could have been transmitted to him in Virginia.  of grievances in Philadelphia, and did send them to
It may, indeed, have been sent to some other friend  Virginia some time between the 15th of May and the
named Wythe; or the professor may have mistaken the  29th of June; and if this point be not sustained, the
person to whom it was sent; in which case it is plain  presumption is against his claim to the authorship.
that the original letter of Mr. Jefferson containing    It is not questionable that Mr. Jefferson did borrow
these grievances was not before his biographer. It  from the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence,
may be a received opinion, in Virginia. that Mr. Jeffer-  whatever may be the truth in regard to the Virginia
eon furnished the list of grievances prefixed to the con-  constitution, and if he did, Dr. Hawkes well asks, was
stitution; nor would we be understood as denying that  not his letter to Mr. Adams something more " unjushe did so. If he did, he only borrowed very largely  tifiable" than a " quiz?" There are not many so dull as
from himself; and it is to be lamented that he has left  to be able to read the evidence in the case without beno explanation of the resemblance between the decla-  lieving Mr. Jefferson a plagiarist, and few will doubt
ration and the charter of Virginia; while in another  that he knew he had used the Mecklenburg instrument
case, of much less moment, he has been at the pains  when he wrote his extraordinary answer to the letter
to account for the likeness of a Virginia document, of Mr. Adams
which was penned by himself, to a public paper which                 LORD DEXTER.
he prepared as a member of Congress.~  If a letter to    "LORD  TimoT   DEXTER" was horn in Maiden,
any one in Virginia, can be produced, from Mr. Jeffer-  Massachusetts, in 1743. He is said to have been as
son's pen, which contains this list of grievances, and if
i ndustrious and ingenious when a youth, as he was
they were thus communicated before the 29th of June,, foolish and fortunate in mature age. He was appren1776, Mr. Jefferson's friends owe it to his memory,
1776, Mr. Jefferson's friends owe it to his memory ticed by his father to a leather-dresser, and, on attainand, as Americans, they owe it also to their countryand, as Americans, they owe st also  to their country-  ing the age of twenty-one years, embarked in the busimen, to let the testimony be forthcoming. If there be
ness on his own account, and for a considerable period
no such letter in being, let inferior evidence be procarried it on successfully. He also amassed a large
duced, if it exists to establish the fact that Mr. Jeffersum of money by buying depreciated notes, and selling
son wrote both papers. The respective dates of the
them for their full nominal value, and by marrying a
papers render it important; for, unexplained by satis  rich widow.  Having secured a liberal fortune, he
factory proof, posterity may accuse Mr. Jefferson of a  "set up for a lord  and for many years lived in vulplagiarism more extensive than that from the Meckgar magnificence at Newburyport, where he had a:enbarg document.  On the 15th of May, 1776, the
conventionofVirgin. ia appi'the ee    splendid mansion and a fine estate. Everything about
convention of Virginia appointed the committee to                              Fifteen thousand dollars'
him was unique and absurd. Fifteen thousand dollars'
prepare a declaration of rights, and a constitution; on
worth of wooden statues adorned his grounds; his
the 27th of May, the declaration of rights was report-  dress was a mixture of the militia captain's and the
cd, and oni the 11th of June, was adopted; on the 29th  Roman senator's; his coach was like the car of a heaR~ June, the constitution was adopted.
of June, the constitution was adopted.       then deity; and his "literary composures" were as
* Jay's Lite, vol. i. p. 30.                      odd and as stupid as he was himself. IIis " Pickle fos
t Niles' Principles and Acts of the Revolution, p. 72.    the Knowing Ones, Or, Plain Truth in a Homespuk
t The Declaration of Independence by the citizens of  Dress," is a collection of proverbs, aphorisms, and ob
Mecklenburg county, &c., &c.. published by the Governor  servations, new and old, so wretchedly written that i
under the authority and direction of the General Assembly
of the State of North Carolina, p. 11. Raleigh, 1831.  is diiticult to discover their meaning  It has, within,
~ Journal of that date.         I Ibid.           fbw years, however, been reprinted, and a life of the
ST See Autobiography, p. 10.                      authot was written by the late Samuel L. Knapp. We




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                          49
copy the following note from the last page of the se-        And, for their patron, will yourself engage,
coind-edition of it:-                                        They may, perhaps, adventure on the stage:
[Note to Dexter's Second Edition.]                But if deny'd they, blushing, back retire
Fourder mister printer the Nowing ones complane           To burn themselves on their own funeral pyre.
of my book the fust edition had no stops I put in A nuf    From  the "copy of verses" prefixed to Wiggles.
here and thay may pepper and solt it as they plese       worth's " Day of Doom," we have room  for the fAol,..,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,..,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,    lowing specimen only:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 9,.,,,,,,,,,)    )    9,,,9,,,, ),,,,,,,,,,,, David's Affliction bred us many a Psalm,.;.;:::;:::;::::::::::;;;:;;::::;:;;;;;;;;;:;;;;;;;;i;;:;;.;  From Caves, from mouth of Graves that Singer sweet.::::::::::::::::::::::::!!!!!!!!!:::::::::::::::::::::    Oft tuned his Soul-feel-notes: For not in Caln..........................................................  But storm, to write most Psalms God made hin meet.
it!                               Affliction turn'd this Pen to Poetry,
Whose serious strains do here before thee ly......................??????????????????????????.....................    This Man with many griefs Afflicted sore,
Shut up from speaking much in sickly Cave:
DEDICATIONS AND INTRODUCTORY POEMS.                     Thence painful seizure hath to write the more,
MANY of the works of the early New Englanders    And send thee Counsels from mouth of the Grave.
are dedicated in "laborious rhymes" to the friends or        One foot i' th' other world long time hath beenpatrons of their authors, and more are commended to          Read, and thou'It say, His heart is all therein.
the reader's favourable regard in "introductory verses"    Oh, happy Cave, that's to mount,N'ebo turn'd!
by the writer's associates or admirers. We have before    Oh, happy Prisoner that's at liberty
mentioned the 1" Poetical Meditations" of Roger Wol-    To Walk through thl' other World! the Bonds are burn'd
cott, Governor of Connecticut, and Major General in    (But nothing else) in Furnace fiery.
Such Fires unfetter Saints, and set more free
the Expedition against Louisburg, in 1745. They were         Their unscorch'd Souls for Christ's sweet company.
dedicated to the Rev. Timothy Edwards, in the following very modest address:                          Chear on, sweet Soul, although il briny tears
Steep is thy seed, though dying every day;
TO TIHE REVEREND MR. TIMOTHY EDWARDS.                 Thy sheaves shall joyful be, when Christ appears
s:gR,.                                                     To change our death and pain to life for aye.
At sight of this, you scarcely will excuse               The weepers now shall laugh; the joyful laughter
My froken numbers should affront your muse,              Of vain ones here, shall turn to tears hereafter.
Whose single elegance outdoes the Nine,
AnWhose single elegance outdoeir   ings at Apollo's shre Nine.  Judge right, and his restraint is our Reproof;
The Sins of Hearers, Preachers Lips do close,
But, sir, they come not to AFFRONT, but stand          And make their Tongue to cleave unto its roof,
Trembling before your awful seat, to hear              Which else would check and chear ful freely those
Fromn you their sentence that's definitive,              That need. But from this Eater comes some Meat,
Whether they shall be kill'd, or saved alive.            And sweetness good from this Affiction Great.
Yet, where you censure, sir, don't nmake the verse     In those vast Woods a Christian Poet Sings
You pinn'd to Glover's venerable hearse,               (Where whilome Heathen wild are only found)
The standard for their trial;- nor enact              Of things to come, the last and greatest things,
You never will acquit what's less exact.              Which in our Ears aloud should ever sound.
Sir, that will never do; rules so severe                 Of Judgement dread, Hell, Heaven, Eternity;'Would ever leave Apollo's altars bare,                  Reader, think oft, and help thy thoughts thereby.
His priests no service: all must starve together,
And fair Parnassus' verdant tops must wither.ather's Mapnalia was accompanied b y comma
Sure that was not the purpose or design  datory poems, in English and Latin, by nearly all ih,
Sure theat f as note the purpose or design           verse makers of the time. Nicholas Noyes writes' tt
-Of the fair sisters when they did combine
Themselves in your assistance; no, their mind         the candid reader"In that great work, was otherwise design'd.              Heads of our tribes, whose corps are under ground,
They, having often to their trouble seen               Their names and fames in chronicles renown'd,
Many bold poets launch on Hippocrene,                  Begemm'd on golden ouches he hath set,
Men too that might a handsome voyage have made,        Past envy's teeth and time's corroding fret:
Had they but kept them to the coasting trade;          Of Death and malice, he brush'd off the dust,
And made a resurrection of thze just:
But ranging far upon those swelling seas,              And made a resurrection of the jest:
Come oe with broken lines and voyages;   And clear'd the land's religion of the glosa,
Come home with broken lines and voyages;
And copper-cuts of.lexanzderRoss.
Grieved at their losses and miscarriages,
A  ouncil met atHippcenides  He hath related academic things,
And paid their first fruits to the King of kings;
They vote a remedy; which to effect,                   And done his a.lma.Mater that just favour,
That their Herculean pillar to erect,                  To shew sal gentium hath not lost its savour
And, to advise adventurers once for all,               He writes like an historian, and divine,
Wrote:ne plus ultra on its pedestal.                  Of Churches, Synods, Faith, and Discipline.
Since which, there's none that dare presume t, go      Illustrious Providences are display'd,
Beyond that wonder then set up by you;                 Mercies and judgments are in colours laid;
No, nor attain it in their navigation:-                Salvations wonderful by sea and land,
That sacred work is not for IMITATION I                Themselves are saved by his pious hand.
Conscious of tlis, you see my muse ne'er soars         The Churches  ars, and various enemies
To Hibla's top, nor the.onian shsres;                 Wild salvages, and wilder sectaries, e
Nor doth pretend to raptures that might suit
Pindaous' muse or great R.pollo's lute.                The modesty of the authors of that age, we presume,
Then weigh themi candidly, and if tliat you          rarely prevented the publication of such ingenious
1hatl once pronounce a longer life their due;        praises.
7.




!5O                                CURIOSITIES OF
THE AMERICAN CADMUS.                    signs, images of birds and beasts, to convey these
THE invention of the Cherokee alphabet is one of  sounds to others, or to mark them in his own mind.
tile most remarkable events in the history of the Abo-  He soon dropped this method, as difficult or impossible,
rig.nes. The best account we have seen of it is by  and tried arbitrary signs, without any regard to appearS..amuel L. Knapp, who became acquainted with See-  ances, except such as might assist him in recollecting
quallhyah, its author, in 1828.  The English name  them, and distinguishing them from  each other. At
of this celebrated Indian was George Guess. He is  first, these signs were very numerous; and when he
said to have been a half-breed, but whether he was so  got so far as to think his invention was neatly accomor not, he never associated with the whites, or spoke  plished, he had about two hundred characters in his
any language but that of the Cherokees. Prompted  alphabet. By the aid of his daughter, who seemed to
by his own curiosity, and urged by several literary  enter in the genius of his labours, he reduced them, at
friends, Mr. Knapp applied to See-quah-yah, through  last, to eighty-six, the number he now used. He then
the medium of two interpreters, one a half-blood, Capt.  undertook to make these characters more comely to
Rodgers, and the other a full-blood chief, whose as-  the eye, and succeeded. As yet he had not the knowsumed English name was John Maw, to relate to him,  ledge of the pen as an instrument, but made his letas minutely as possible, the mental operations, and all  ters on a piece of bark, with a knife or nail. At this
the facts, in his discovery. He cheerfully complied  time he sent to the Indian agent, or some trader in the
with the request, and gave very deliberate and satis-  nation, for paper and pen. His ink was easily made
factory answers to every question; and was at the same  from  some of the bark of the forest trees, whose
time careful to know  from  the interpreters if Mr.  colouring properties he had previously known; and
Knapp distinctly understood his answers. No stoic  after seeing the construction of the pen, he soon learned
could have been more grave in his demeanour than was  to make one; but at first he made it without a slit; this
See-quah-yah; he pondered, according to the Indian  inconvenience was, however, quickly removed by his
custom, for a considerable time after each question,  sagacity. His next difficulty was to make his invention
before he made his reply, and often took a whiff of his  known to his countrymen; for by this time he had
calumet, while reflecting on an answer. The substance  become so abstracted from his tribe and their usual
of his communications to Mr. Knapp was as follows:  pursuits, that he was viewed with an eye of suspicion.
That he, See-quah-yah, was now about sixty-five years  His former companions passed his wigwam without
old; that in early life he was gay and talkative; and  entering it, and mentioned his name as one who was
although he never attempted to speak in Council but  practising improper spells, for notoriety or mischieonce, yet was often, from the strength of his memory,  vous purposes; and he seemed to think that he should
nls easy colloquial powers, and ready command of his  have been hardly dealt with, if his docile and unambivernacular, story-teller of the convivial party. His  tious disposition had not been so generally acknow-'
reputation for talents of every kind gave him some  ledged by his tribe. At length he summoned some of
distinction when he tras quite young, so long ago as  the most distinguished of his nation, in order to make his
St. Clair's defeat. In this campaign, or some one that  communication to them; and after giving them the best
soon followed it, a letter was found on the person of a  explanation of his principle that he could, stripping it
prisoner, which was wrongly read by him  to the  of all supernatural influence, he proceeded to demonIndians. In some of their deliberations on this sub-  strate to them, in good earnest, that he had made a
ject, the question arose among them, whether this  discovery. His daughter, who was now his only pupil,
mysterious power of the talking leaf, was the gift of  was ordered to go out of hearing, while he requested
the Great Spirit to the white man, or a discovery of the  his friends to name a word or sentiment, which he
white man himself? Most of his companions were  put down, and then she was called in and read it to
of the former opinion, while he as strenuously main-  them; then the father retired, and the daughter wrote
tained the latter. This frequently became a subject of  The Indians were wonder-struck, but not entirely satiscontemplation with him afterwards, as well as many  fled. See-quah-yah then proposed, that the tribe should
other things which he knew, or had heard, that the  select several youths from among their cleverest young
white man could do; but he never sat down seriously  men, that he might communicate the mystery to them.
to reflect on the subject, until a swelling on his knee  This was at length agreed to, although there was some
confined him to his cabin, and which at length made  lurking suspicion of necromancy in the whole business.
him a cripple for life, by shortening the diseased leg.  John Maw, with several others, was selected for this
Deprived of the excitements of war, and the pleasures  purpose. The tribes watched them for several months
of the chase, in the long nights of his confinement, his  with anxiety; and when they offered themselves for
mind was again directed to the mystery of the power  examination, the feelings of all were wrought up to the
of speaking by letters,-the very name of which, of  highest pitch. The youths were separated from their
course, was not to be found in his language. From the  master, and from each other, and watched with the
cries of wild beasts, from the talents of the mocking-  greatest care.  The uninitiated directed what the
bird, from the voices of his children and his com- master and pupil should write to each other, and these
panions, he knew  that feelings and passions were  tests were varied in such a manner, as not only to
conveyed by different sounds, from  one intelligent  destroy their infidelity, but most firmly to fix their faith
being to another. The thought struck him to try to  The Indians, on this, ordered a great feast, and made
ascertain all the sounds in the Cherokee language.  See-quah-yah conspicuous at it. How nearly is man
His own ear was not remarkably discriminating, and  alike in every age! Pythagoras did the same on the
he called to his aid the more acute ears of his wife} and  discovery of an important principle in geometry. Seechildren. He found great assistance from them. When  quah-yah became at once schootnaster, professor
he thought that he had distinguished all the different  philosopher, and a chief. His countrymen were proud
sounds in their language, he attempted tc use pictorial  of his talents, and held him  in reverence as one




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                  51
"avoured by the Great Spirit. The inventions of early  by decency and good sense; and that thus many of the
times were shrouded in mystery., See-quah-yah dis-  Cherokees are able to read both languages. Mr. Knapp,
dained all deception. He did not stop here, but carried  in his account of this remarkable person, mentions
his discoveries to numbers. He, of course, knew  seeing the head chief of the Cherokees, who connothing of Arabic digits, nor of the power of Roman j firmed the statement of See-quah-yah, and added, that
letters in the science. The Cherokees had mental  he was an Indian of the strictest veracity and sobriety.
numerals to one hundred, and had words for all num-  The western wilderness is not only to blossom like the
bers up to that; but they had rio signs or characters to  rose; but there, man has started up, and proved that
assist them in enumerating, adding, subtracting, mul-  he has not degenerated since the primitive days of
tiplying, or dividing. He reflected upon this until he  Cecrops, and the romantic ages of wonderful effort
had created their elementary principle in his mind;  and god-like renown.
but he was at first obliged to make words to express
his meaning, and then signs to explain it. By this process he soon had a clear conception of numbers up to    DENNIF. was once esteemed the finest prose writer
a million. HIis great difficulty was, at the threshhold,  of the United States; but were they now to make
to fix the powers of his signs according to their places.  their first appearance, his essays would be thought to
When this was overcome, his next step was in adding  be but little above mediocrity.  We could readily
up his different numbers in order to put down the frac-  name a dozen magazinists who are superior. him in
tion of the decimal, and give the whole number to his  style and thought. He was admired, howe;er, and,
next place. But when Mr. Knapp saw him in Wash-  among others, by Dr. Dwight, of whose first encounter
ington, he had overcome all these difficulties, and was  with him the following story is related. While traa ready arithmetician in the fundamental rules. IIe  velling in New Jersey, the learned President chanced
adhered to all the customs of his country; and when  to stop for a night at a stage hotel, in one of its popuhis associate chiefs on the mission assumed our cos-  lous towns. Late in the evening arrived also at the
tume, he was dressed in all respects like an Indian.  inn Mr. Dennie, who had the misfortune to learn from
lie was a man of varied abilities, and he passed from  the landlord that his beds were all paired with lodgers
metaphysical and philosophical investigation to me-  except one occupied by the celebrated Dr. Dwight.
chanical occupations with the greatest ease. The only  "Show me to his apartment," exclaimed Dennie; "alpractical mechanics he was acquainted with, were a  though I am a stranger to the reverend Doctor, perhaps
few blacksmiths, who could make a rough tomahawk,  I can bargain with him for my lodgings." The landlord
or repair the lock of a rifle; yet he became a white  accordingly waited on Mr. Dennie to his guest's
and silver smith, without any instruction, and made  room, and there left him to introduce himself. The
spurs and silver spoons with neatness and skill, to the  Doctor, although in his night-gown, cap and slippers,
great admiration of the people of the Cherokee na-  and just ready to resign himself to the refreshing arms
tion  See-quah-yah had also a great taste for painting.  of somnus, politely requested the strange intruder to
He mixed his colours with skill; acquainting himself  be seated.  He was struck with the peculiar physiwith all the art and science of his tribe upon the sub-  ognomy of his companion, unbent his austere brow,
ject, he added many chemical experiments of his own,  and commenced an animated colloquy. The names
some of which were very successful. For his draw-  of Washington, Franklin, Rittenhouse, and a host of
ings he had no models but such as nature furnished, and  literary and political characters for some time gave
he often copied nature with astonishing faithfulness,  a zest and  interest to  their conversation, until
His portraits are coarse, but often spirited and correct,  Dwight chanced to mention the writings of Dennie
and he gave action, and sometimes grace, to his repre-  " Dennie, the editor of the Port Folio, said the Doctor
sentations of animals. He had never seen an artists'  in a rhapsody, "is the Addison of the United States —
pencil, but he made use of the hair of wild animals  the father of American Belles Lettres. But, sir," confor his brushes.  Some of his productions evinced  tinued he, "is it not astonishing, that a man of such
a considerable knowledge of perspective; but he could  genius, fancy and feeling, should abandon himself to
not have formed rules for this. The painters in the  the inebriating bowl, and to bacchanalian revels?"
early ages were many years in coming to a knowledge  " Sir," said Dennie, "you are mistaken: I have been
of this part of their art; and their successors even now  intimately acquainted with Dennie for several years,
are more successful in the art than perfect in its prin-  and I never knew or saw him intoxicated."'" Sir,"
clples. The manners of the American Cadmus were  says the Doctor; "you err; I have my information
most easy, and his habits those of the most assiduous  from a particular friend. I am confident that I am
scholar. He understood and felt the advantages the  right, and that you are wrong."  Dennie now ingeniwhite man had long enjoyed, of having the accumula- ously changed the conversation to the clergy, remarktlons of every branch of knowledge, by means of a  ing, "that Doctors Abercrombie and Mason were
written language, while the red man could only commit  amongst our most distinguished divines, yet that he
his thoughts to uncertain tradition. He reasoned cor-  considered Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College,
rectly, when he urged this to his friends as the cause  the most learned theologian, the first logician, and
why the red man had made so few advances in know-  the greatest poet that America had ever produced.:edge in comparison with us. To remedy this was his  But, sir," continued Dennie, "there are traits in his
great aim.                                          character unworthy so great and wise a man-of the
It may not, perhaps, be known that the government  most detestable description-he is the greatest bigot
at the United States had a font of types cast for his  and dogmatist of the age!"  "Sir," said the Doctor,
tiphabet; and that a newspaper, printed partly in the  "you are grossly mistaken. I am intimately acouaintCherokee language, and partly in the English, has  ed with Dr. Dwight, and I know to the contrary."oeen established at New Echota, which is characterized  " Sir," says Dennie, "you are mistaken, I have it




6 2                                CURIOSITIES OF
from an intimate acquaintance of his, who I am con-  that any advantage will be taken of my absence, t
fident would not tell an untruth." "' No more slander,"  prejudice me in your esteem. flo- ever, if any atsays the Doctor, "I am Dr. Dwight, of whom you  tempts of this nature should be made I flatter myscf
speak!"  "And I too," exclaimed Dennie, Iam Mr.  they will be in vain. I am persuaded, from the expe.
Dennie, of whom you spoke!" The astonishment of  rience I have had of your constancy and fidelity, that
Dr. Dwight maybe better conceived than told. Suffice  I am concerned with a person of the greatest honour
it to say, they mutually shook hands, and were ex-  and generosity; and accordingly place the most unzetremely happy in each other's acquaintance.         served confidence in you.  Believe me, charming
creature. I most ardently long to see you; but, in the
PRIVATE  CORRESPONDENCE OF DOCTOR               mean time, must content myself with giving you this
epistolary testimony of my regards; the best, indeed
THE celebrated JONATHAN MAYHEW, D.D., was mar-  it is in my power to give at present:
ried at thirty-five to Miss Elizabeth Clarke, then but' Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid,
twenty-two. Bradford, in his life of the Doctor, gives  eaven first taught letters for some  retch's aid,
Some banish'd lover, or some captive staid;
several characteristic letters from him to Miss Clark,   They live, they speak, te breathe what love inspires
They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires
and to her brother, written during his co,l' ship. They    Warmn from the soul, and faithful to its fires:
show  that a studious and literary man may be sus-   Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,
ceptible of the tender passion, yet do not make this    And waft a sigh from India to the pole.'
author appear quite as ridiculous as the excellent Dr.    "I used to admire these lines, before I was a lover,
Doddridoe was made to seem by the publication of  now I feel their force and propriety. I need not mlsome of his letters of the same kind.  The first of  tiply words; or rather, it would be to no purpose to de
the following is addressed to Dr. William Clark:   it; because words, however multiplied, cannot express
March 10, 1756.*    how much, and how sincerely, I am yours,
"DEAR Six,-One Mr. Jo. Bill, has promised, by his                                   "J. MAYHEW.
curious art of cookery, to turn a calf's-head and pluck    "P. S.-The hurry I am in, must be my apology for
into a good sea-turtle for us to-day. I did not suppose  sending you a letter with so many blots, and so incorthat you have any particular love of such sort of food, rectly written in other respects. It has only truth and
and hope I have not myself. However, this meta.  sincerity to recommend it; which,' though of little
inorphosed calf's-head may possibly be a curiosity to  consideration with many of your sex, will not, I hope,
you; and if you will come and partake of it with me,  be wholly disregarded by you.  My duty to your
you will have the pleasure of Mr. Quincy'st company,  mamma, f you think proper to present it.
who may at present, perhaps, find no inconvenience                                         "J. M."
from such a diet.                                     The following letter was written at an earlier period,
"Yours most affectionately,      to the Rev. Samuel Cooper, D. D., afterward pastor of
"J. MAYHEW.       the Brattle-Square church, in Boston:' P. S. I was going to request you to present my                        " CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 5, 1743.,0ompliments to Miss Betsey; but I do not like the    " SR,-I received yours some days since, and must
formality of that word. I desire you would, in plain  beg your pardon for not acknowledging the favour
old English, give my hearty love to her; but do not,  sooner; though I must, like other half-penitents, en.
for the world, let her know a syllable of what I have  deavour to extenuate my fault, by saying it was unwritten about turtle food. For you know ministers  avoidable. For the omission proceeded partly from
ought, in all propriety and prudence, to be very grave,  my having a great deal of business on my hands, of
not to say stupid; and for them  to jest, in any way,  late-and partly from  laziness-the college disease.
about such things, is almost as bad as heresy."f    Now, sir, you will readily acknowledge the first to be
a good excuse, so far as it goes; and as to the latter,
laziness that is so deep-rooted as mine, as effectually
"BoSTON, June 10, 1756.    hinders the person from doing any thing, as if he was
"DEAR BETSEY,-This is one of the most unne-  bound down head and foot, with all the new hempcessary, impertinent letters that ever you received; the  cords, green withs, and braided hair, that the wicked
chief design of it being to tell you, only what you know   Jezebel (Delilah, I would have said) tied her lusty
so well already, that I never can forget you: and that  spouse with. Now you know that a physical inability
no distance of place can lessen my love and regards to  is (by some divines) alleged as a good apology for a
you. I intend, with submission to Providence, to see  man's not doing what would otherwise have been his
you at Waltham, on Saturday next, or at the farthest  duty; and, on this account, I hope you will not be
on Monday. I would not willingly indulge a suspicion  very severe, but show that you are not implacable in
your resentments, by giving me a speedy answer: for
* This familiar note may be thought hardly proper to be  your resentments, by giving me a speedy answer: for
given; as not being sufficiently grave for such a man as Dr. to tell the truth, your delaying to write me, would be
Mayhew. But it is indicative of a trait of characteristic  the greatest punishment of my indolence that I can
pleasantry, which his intimate friends often mentioned.
Dr. Clark, to wlVm it is addressed, was a brother of the imagine.
lady whom Dr. Mayhew married soon after.              " I have now, before I was aware of it, by telling
t Edmund Quincy, his intimate friend and one of his  you what would be the most severe way to revenge
parish, who wrote a character of Dr. Mayhew, soon after  yourself on me, put it into your power to play the ty
his death.
f Afterwards Mrs. Mayhew.                         rant. But since you are a man, and not a woman, 1. Dr. Mayhew was a Unitarian, and an attempt had just am in some hopes you will not catch at every favour
before been made, by certain meddlesome people, to prevent  able opportunity to torment me.
&connection between him and Miss Clark, on a charge of
heresy, which had sompe effect on the mind of Mrs. Clark,    "There is our good friend, Brandom, has laid under
and served to delay the connection.                the Lady Clio's wrath and discipline ever since..ast




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     53
spring, till the poor thing is quite emaciated, he not  said to have been sent to him by some anl.) -'ous wn
being more bulky at present than two ordinary men.  ter, in 1645.
Brt, I expect to see him swell to his former dimensions   THOMAS DUDLEY, enagr. Ah, old nwst aye!
in a short time: for I must tell you that he has appeased
A death's head on your hand you need no: rearethe anger of the little tyranness at last, got out of pur-  A dying head you on your shoulders bearitatory, and is to be blest above the lot of mortals, in  You need not one to mynd you you must dyewaiting on the lady to *  *  *  *, to-morrow, with       You in your name may spell liortalitye.
soLre other company going to attend Mr. P * * * "        Young men may dye, but old men, they lye must,
and his new-married wife out of town. I hope, in pity'Twill not be long before you turn co dust.
to the wedded couple, that the severity of the weather   Before you turn to dust!.h! must old dye?will abate; for it will be hard indeed to have winter    What shall young doe, when old in dust doe lye?
When old in dust lye, what New Englande doe?
both without and within doors. I say winter within,      When old in dust  ly   t           e 
When old in dust doe lye, it's best dye too.
because it is said that a cold season comes about a
month after marriage, when all the springs of affection    The following was found in his pocket, after hie
are commonly exhausted or frozen up, even in those death:
who just before were sweltering in the sultry dog-days         ON HIMSEIF-BY THOMAS DUDLEY.
of love.                                                   Farewell, dear wife, children and friends!
"Well, I have been rambling, I know not where. It        Hate heresy, make blessed ends,
Bear povertye, live with good men,
is time to return home, and conclude, lest   should        Bear povertye, live with good men,
So shall we live with joy agen.
have occasion to make a long apology for being tedious.    Let nen of God in courts and churches watch
I hope your next will be in doggrel; not but I like your   O'er such as oe as doe a Toleration hatch,
prose as well as any man's living-but yet, methinks a      Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice
little jingle of yours would make my soul all ear and      To poison all with heresy and,,ce.
all harmony.            Your honest friend,                If men be left and otherwise combine,
" J MAYvsEW."             My epitaph's-I dyed no Libertyne!
EPITAPHS, ANAGRAMS, ELEGIES, &c., OF THE              This is characteristic of the Puritans. The reader
PURITANS.                        should, however, understand that the old meaning of
the word libertine was tolerant or liberal, so that the
NOTHING more admirably illustrates the character
of the founders of New England than their epitaphs, governor merely designed to enjoin conformity to his
doctrines. Dudley was a narrow-minded man, as much
elegies, anagrams, and other portraitures of each other.
Grave doctors of divinity-men more learned in clas   distinguished for his miserly propensities -  for his
bigotry. Among the epitaphs proposed for his menusical literature and scholastic theology than any since  bigotry   Among the epitaphs proposed for his mo
their time-prided themselves upon the excellence of  ment was one by Governor Belchertheir puns and epigrams, and the cleverness shown by     Here lies Thomas Dudley, that trusty old studa few celebrated persons in this species of fashionable  A bargain's a bargain, and must be made good!
trifling constituted their principal claim to immortality.    Donne nor Cowley ever produced any thing more
In the Magnalia Cliristi Americana, Thomas Shepard,  full of quaint conceits, antithesis, and puns, than the
a minister of Charlestown, is described as' the great-  elegy written by Benjamin Woodbridge, in 1654, OD
est anagrammatizer since the days of Lycophron," and  John Cottonthe pastoral care of the renowned Cotton Mather himHere lies magnanimous humility,
self is characteristically described as distinguished for  Majes meekness, Christian apathy,
Majesty, meekness, Christian apathy,
-Care to guide his flock and feed his lambs                On soft affections: liberty, in thrallBy words, works, prayers, psalms, alms and-anagrams!      A simple serpent, or serpentine dove.One of the anagrams upon the name of Mather makes          Neatness enbroider'd with itself alone,
And devils canonized in a gown, —
out of Cottonus Matherus, Tu tantum  Conors es,            And devils canond in a gown,anout    uof     m            (,orstietc.; and onus J ther deanth Cofs eA living, breathing Bible; table where
another Tuos tecumn ornasti, etc.; and on the death of     Both covenants at large engraven are;
the Rev. Thomas Wilson, Shepard wrote,                    Gospel and law, in's heart, had each its col'lmn;
JOHN WILSON, anagr. JOHN WILSON.                   His head an index to the sacred volume;
His very name's a title-page, and next
O chainge it nlot! no sweeter name or thing            His life a commentary on the text.
Throughout the world within our ears shall ring I      Oh, what a monument of glorious worth,
We have collected a few specimens of the epitaphs of     When in a new edition he comes forth,
our first century, which, ftom their ingenuity or quaint-  Without errata, may we think he'll be
ness, cannot fail to amuse the reader. The first is on     In leaves and covers of eternity.
Samuel Danforth, a minister of Roxbury, who died in    The celebrated epitaph of Dr. Franklin is supposed
1674, a few days after the completion of a new meet-  to have been suggested by this; but the lines of Joseph
zag-house, and was written by Thomas Welde, a poet  Capen, a minister of Topsfield, on Mr. John Foster,:f considerable reputation in his day-               an ingenious mathematician and printer, bear to it a
Our new-built church now suffers by this-         still closer resemblanceLarger its Windows, but its Lights one less.           Thy body which no activeness did lack,
Thomas Dudley, who came to Massachusetts in 1630         Now's laid aside, like an old almanack;
as deputy-governor, was subsequently chief magistate       But for the present only's out of date;'T will have at length a far more active state;
of the colony for several years. He died on the last       Yea, though with dust thy bodysoivedbe
dati of July, 1653, in the seventy-thirl year of his age,  Yet at the resurrection we shall see
and was buried in Roxbury, where, in the records of        A fair edition, and of matchless worth,
thte Congregational church, is preserved an anagram        Free from errata, new in heaven set forth;




54                                  CURIOSITIES OF'Tis but a word front God, the great Creator,       M ather the first did by him help receive,
It shall be done when He saith Imprimatur.          F lint he did next his burden much relieve.
One of the most poetical of the epitaphs of this  R enowned Danforth did he assist with skill;
E steemed high by all, bearing fruit until
period is that by Cotton Mather on the Rev. Thomas       Y ielding to death, his glorious seat did fill.
Shepard, before mentioned, who died in 1649.
The most ingenious of the Puritan poets was t.ke
fHeare lies intomb'd a heavenly orator,         Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, whose " Day of Doom"
From the great King of kings Ambassador —
F.rom thgeKno kingAmbas -  is the most remarkable curiosity in American literaMirrour of virtues magazine of artos,
Crown to our heads, and loadstone to our heartes.    ture. "He was as skilled," says one of his biogra.
phers, "in physic and surgery as in diviner. things,"
The following lines are from the monument of the and when he could neither preach nor prescribe fis
Rev. Richard Mather, who died in Dorchester, in  the physical sufferings of his neighbours,
1669, aged 73:
" In costly verse, and most laborious rhymes,
Richardus hic dormit Miatherus,                     He dish'd up truths right worthy our regard."
Sed nec totus nec mora diu tuma,
Laetatus genuisse pares.                        He was buried in Malden. near Boston, and his epi.
In certum est utrum doctior an melior           taph was written by MatherAnima et gloria non queunt humani.THE EXCELLENT MICHAEL WIGOLESwORTH,
Divinely rich and learned Richard Mather,                     Remembered by some'ood tokens.
Sons like him, prophets great, rejoiced his father.    His pen did once meat from the eater fetch;
Short time his sleeping dust here's cover'd down;      And now he's gone beyond the eater's reach.
His body, once so thin, was next to none;
The Rev. Edward Thompson, a preacher of consi-           From hence he's to unbodied spirits flown.
derable reputation in his day, died at Marshfield, Mas-    Once his rare skill did all diseases heal;
sachusetts, in 1705. His epitaph is preserved by Al-       And he does nothing now uneasy feel.
den-                                            lHe to his Paradise is joyful come,
And waits with joy to see his Day of Doom.
Here, in a tyrant's hand, doth captive lye
A rare synopsis of divinetye.                     The last epitaph we shall give is from the monument
Old patriarchs, prophets, gospel bishops meet   of Dr. Clark, a grandson of the celebrated Dr. John
Under deep silence in their winding sheet.      Clark, who came to New England in 1630.
All rest awhile, in hopes and full intent,           He who among physicians shone so late
When their King calls, to sit in Parliament.
And by his wise prescriptions conquer'd Fate,
Governor Theophilus Eaton, of New Haven, died            Now lies extended in the silent grave,
*t an advanced age, on the 7th of January, 1657. His       Nor him alive would his vast merit save.
son-in-law, Deputy-Governor William Jones, and his         But still his fame shall last, his virtues live,
And all sepulchral monuments survive.
daughter, are buried near him, and are alluded to in       Still fourish shallhis name: nor shall this stone
the lines upon the monument erected to his memory.         Long as his piety and love be known.
Eaton, so famed, so wise, so meek, so just-       Many of the elegies preserved in the Magnalia,
The phenix of our world-here lies in dust.
Morton's New England Memorial, and other works
His name forget New England never must.
T'r attend you, syr, undr these framed stones   of the time, are not less curious than the briefer tri.
Are come yr honrd son and daughter Jones,       butes engraven upon the tomb-stones of the Pilgrims
On each hand to repose yr weary bones.          The following lines on the death of the Rev. Thomas
The next is from an old monument in Dorchester.    Hooker, of Hartford, were written by John Cotton,
the first minister of Boston, and one of the most dis.
fHeare lyes our captaine who major            tinguished men of the colonies, whose elegy by Wood
Of Suffolk was withall,
A goodly magistrate was he,                     bridge we have already quoted —
And major generall!                            To see three things was holy.ustin's wish,
Two troops of horse with him here come,           Rome in her Flower, Christ Jesus in the Flesh,
Such worth his love did crave,                  And Paul in Pulpit; lately, men might see,
Ten companyes of foot, also,                      Two first and more in Hooker's ministry.
Mourning marcht to his grave,                   Zion, in Beauty, is a fairer sight,
Let all who read be sure to keep                  Than Rome in Flower, with all her glory dight,
The faith as he hath don;                       Yet Zion's Beauty did most clearly shine
With Christ he now lives crown'd; his name        In -ooker's Rule and Doctrine; both divine.
Was Humphrey Atherton.
He died the 16th of November, 1661.               Christ i' the Spirit's more than Christ in Flesh,
Our souls to quicken, and our states to bles I
In the same cemetery " lies the body of James    Yet Christ in spirit, broke forth mightily.
Humfrey, one of the ruling elders of Dorchester, who    In faithful Hooker's searching ministry.
departed this life the 12 May, 1686, in the 78 year of    Paul, in the pulpit, Hooker could not reach;
his age."  His epitaph, like many of that period is in    Yet did he Christ in spirit, so lively preach,
the form of an acrostic —                              That living hearers thought he did inherit
I nclosed within this shrine is precious dust,     A double portion of Paul's lively spirit
A nd only waits the rising of the just;            Prudent in rule, in argument quick,
Most useful while he lived, adorn'd his station,   Fervent in prayer, in preaching powerful,
E ven to old age he served his generation;         That well did learned.limes record bear,
8 ince his decease, thought of with veneration.    The like to him he never wont to hear.
H ow great a blessing this ruling elder, he'Twas of Geneva's worthies said, with wonder,
U nto this church and town, and pastors three;     (Those worthies three1 Ferell was wont to thundle




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                         At
Viret, like rain, on tender grass to shower:              Accused him of imaginary faults,
But Calvin, lively oracles to pour.                       And push'd him down so into dismal yaults:
All these in Hookers spirit did remain,  Vaults, where he kept long ember-weeks of grief,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TiAll tHeaven  alarmed sent him a                           relief.,
A son of thunder, and a shower of rain;                   Till Heaven alarmd sent him a relief
A pourer forthflivlyorThen was a Daniel in the lion's den,
A pourer forth of lively oracles.
In saving forthofvelu  ofiracles  A iman, oh, how beloved of God and men I
By his bedside an Hebrew sword there lay,
Now blessed Hooker, thou'rt set on high,                  With which at last he drove the devil away.
Above the thankless world, and cloudy sky;                Quakers, too, durst not bear his keen replies,
Do thou of all thy labour reap the crown,                 But fearing it half-drawn the trembler flies.
Whilst we, here, reap the seed which thou hast sown I      Like Lazarus, new-raised from death, appears
The saint that had been dead for many years.
The following lines are by Peter Bulkeley, of Con-        Our Nehemiah said, " Shall such as I
cord, who was thought to be a fine Latin and English        Desert my flock, and like a coward fly?"
poet, by the critics of his time:                           Long had the churches begg'd the saint's release;
Released at last, he dies in glorious peace.
A lamentation for the death of that precious and worthy         night is not so long, but Phosphor's ray
minister of Jesus Christ, JMr. John Hooker, Anno Domini,    Approaching glories doth on high display.
1347.                                                       Faith's eye in him discern'd the morning star,
Come sighs, come sorrows, let's lament this rod,          His heart leap'd; sure the sun cannot be far.
Which hath bereaved us of this man of God;                In ecstasies of joy, he ravish'd cries,
A man of God, which camle from God to men,                " Love, love the Lamb, the Lamb!" in whom he dies.
And now from them, is gone to God agen.
Bid joy depart: bid merriment begone;                    The excellent President, Urian Oakes, styled by Ma.
Bid friends stand by; sit mournfiul and alone.         ther the " Lactantius of New England," was one of
But oh! what sorrow can be to suffice,                 the most distinguished poets of his time, and contri.
Though heaven and earth were filled with our cries.    buted very largely to its churchyard literature.'rhe
Let Hartford sigh, and say, " I' ve lost a treasure;"  following verses are from  his Elegy on the death of
Let all New England mourn at God's displeasure,       Thomas Shepard, minister of Charlestown:
In taking from us one more gracious
In taking from  05s one mlore gracious           Art, nature, grace, in him were all combined
Than is the gold of Ophir precious.                     To show the world a matchless paragon;
To show the world a matchless paragon;
Sweet was the savour whllich his grace did give,        In whom of radiant virtues no less shined,
It seasoned all the place where he did live.            Than a whole constellation;  but hee's gone!
His name did, as an ointment, give it's smell,            Hee's gone, alas  down in the dust must ly
And all bare witness that it savour'd well.               As much of this rare person, as could die.
A few years after writing the eulogy of his friend,    To be descended well, doth that commend?
Mr. Cotton also died, and. was thus praised by John       Can sons their fathers' glory call their own?
Norton, who wrote his history:                            Our Shepard justly might to this pretend,
And after Winthrop's, Hooker's, Sheppard's hearse,      (His blessed father was of high renown,
Doth Cotton's death call for a mourning verse!  Both Englands speak him great, admire his name,)
Doth  Cotton's death call for a mourning verse l
But his own personal worth's a better claim.
Thy will be done! yet, Lord, who deal'st thus,
Make this great death expedient for us.                  His look commanded reverence and awe,
Luther pulled down the pope, Calvin, the prelate slew:   Though mild and amiable, not austere;
Of Calvin's lapse, chief cures to Cotton due.           Well humour'd was he, as I ever saw,
Cotton, whose learning, temper, godliness,               And ruled by love and wisdom more than fear.
The German Phenix, lively did express.                    The muses and the graces too, conspired
JMelancthon's all-may Luther's word but pass —             To set forth this rare piece to be admired.
Melancthon's all in our great Cotton was;                He breathed love, and pursued peace in his day,
Than him in flesh, scarce dwelt a better one,            As if his soul were made of harmony;
So great's our loss, when such a spirit's gone.          Scarce ever more of goodness crowded lay
Whilst he was here, life was nmore life to me;           In such a piece of frail mortality.
Now he is not, death hence, less death shall be.          Sure Father Wilson's genuine son was he,
That comets great men's death do oft forego,               New-England's Paul had such a Timothy.
This present comet doth too sadly shew;
This prophet dead, yet must in's doctrine speak,        My dearest, inmost, bosome friend is gone 
This comet saith, else must New England break.           Gone is my sweet companion, soul's delight!
Whate'er it be, may heaven avert it far,                 Now in a huddling crowd, I'm all alone,
That meteors should succeed our greatest star.           And almost could bid all the world good night.
In Boston's orb, Winthrop and Cotton were;                 Blest be my rock  God lives: O! let him be
These lights extinct, dark is our hemisphere.             As he is all, so all in all to me.
In Boston, once, how much shined of our glory,
We now lament, posterity will story.                             CONTROVERSIAL MENDACITY.
Let Boston, live, who had and saw their worth,           ONE of the most common failings of religious writer,
Arid did them honour, both in life and death,         of the hunters up of incident, illustrative or confirma.
To him New England trust in this distress,
To him New England trtist in this distrtess,          tive of peculiar principles, is an utter recklessness of
veracity in  the narration of circumstances.  The
Phe following lines are from Cotton Mather's "Rei  excellent tendencies of fabricated histories, and the
marks on the Bright and the Dark Side of that Ame-  truth of the ideas they inculcate, are the pleas most
rican Pillar, the Reverend Mr. William Thomson:"    frequently offered in extenuation of their manufacture;
Apollyon owing him a cursed spleen                  but the ruin of the sacred reputations of the dead can
Who an Apollos in the church had been,              not thus be justified, if even the presentation of false
Dreading his traffic here would be undone           testimony, where it is so little needed, deserves'no
By num'rous proselytes he daily won,                reproach.  Every body has read the history of the




CURIOSITIES OF
fearful agonies pretended to have been witnessed by    Truth is the best policy, especially with polemics
those who saw the last hours of Voltaire; and but few,  and among politicians even it has been found tha
owing to the general disinclination to expose errors  " corruption wins not more than honesty."  The pious
that may be productive of a benefit, while they can  frauds of monkish times arswered a: very good purscarcely have an injurious tendency, have seen the  pose, until they were detected; but when the people
evidences of the perfect falsity of that popular tale.  found that the assenting nods of marble statues were
We should like it well if there were any proof that the  caused by well devised machinery, they laughed at the
philosopher had been convinced of the errors of his  imposture, or sacrificed its authors to their passions.
life; but no such proof exists, and the story industri-  The witless falsehoods echoed in more modern pulously reported, in tracts and in religious journals, that  pits frequently send the less simple of the congregain his last moments a recollection of his efforts to  tion away, breathing contempt for every holy senti.
overthrow Christianity, "with terror froze his cower-  ment, while an honest presentation of the unanswering blood," is known to its intelligent propagators to be  able evidences of inspiration, would have made them
without foundation. Voltaire's death-scene, for aught  stout defenders of the faith. At Tanmmany Hall the
that was ever shown to the contrary, was as quiet and  mountebank's attacks on the life and intellect of Tho.
as peaceful as were those of Jonathan Edwards or  mas Paine are read with a mock gravity, and then by
John Eliot. The well-known statement that Volney,  incontestible evidence proved false, and the degraded
when in imminent peril of shipwreck, besought the  creatures who congregate at that polluting fountain,
mercy of the power he had all his life derided, is  with some show of reason call in question the truth of
equally false. The commentator on the ruin of empires  a religion that is supposed to need such juggling to
was never in any such peril. Similar stories about  maintain it.
Thomas Paine, though so frequently repeated that their    The dawn of the day of death is not always welinventors may now possibly credit them, have been  come to the pure in heart, nor is it invariably cheerless
proved time after time to be untrue. The whole life  to the infidel. There is no reason to doubt that Hume
and character of the man have been misrepresented, in  was as happy in his last hours as his friend Robertson;
opposition to the clearest testimony. Gibbon, whose  and if Adam Smith is to be credited, none ever bade
manner of life was as commendable as his religious  adieu to life with more serenity than that free-thinking
belief was false, has been the hero of many a pathetic  philosopher exhibited. La Place, Gibbon, and Cooper,
history; but the purity of his morality and the quiet of  strong in their disbelief of truth, had no fears of danhis last hours have been so demonstrated that the  ger in the after life. Nor had the worshipper of Isis!lianders of unscrupulous religionists have sunk into  in old time, nor has the Moslem, now, more frequently
oblivion.  We have been led to these remarks by  than the Christian; albeit the hope of the last is
seeing ill the journals an old story revived, of which  better and his light more clear. These things are as
Ethan Allen is made the hero. Allen was a man of  much dependent on national or individual character
dauntless bravery, and of the most rare intelligence;  and temperament as upon religious teaching; and the
but unfortunately he was a sceptic in religion, and  last hour of a man's mortality furnishes no better inhe vaunted of the discernment which he imagined  dex of his future life than the last day of a month does
had enabled him to detect the falsity of the Bible. A   of its succeeding period of time. Forgetful of this,
preat proportion of the anecdotes told to illustrate his  and anxious to make a strong array in behalf of the
character and belief are probably inventions; but it is  right, well enough disposed persons have coined counbeyond controversy that he was an infidel, and vain of  terfeit histories, which, having been almost invariably
his opposition to Christianity. In the story to which  proved false, have done much more injury than good
we have alluded, it is stated that-                "Honesty" in politics, morals, religion, and law, is a
" His wife was a pious woman, and taught her chil-  ways "the best policy."
dren in the way of piety, while he told them it was a
delusion; and that there was an hour coming when                ROBERT TREAT PAINE.
Colonel Allen's confidence in his own sentiments    ALTHOUGH this writer is now rarely mentioned by
would be closely tried. A beloved daughter was taken  the organs of public opinion In New England, he was
sick; he received a message that she was dying; he  once ranked among the great masters of English verse;
hastened to her bedside, anxious to hear her last  and it was believed that his reputation would endure as
words.' Father,' said she,'I am about to die; shall long as the language in which he wrote. The absurd
I believe in the principles which you have taught me,  estimate of his abilities shows the wretched condition
or shall I believe what my mother has directed?" This  of taste and criticism in his time, and perhaps caused
was an affecting scene. The intrepid Colonel became  the faults in his later works which have won for them
extremely agitated, his lips quivered, his whole frame  their early oblivion.
shook; and, after waiting a few moments, he replied,    Robert Treat Paine, junior, was born at Taunton'Believe as your mother has learned you.' "        Massachusetts, on the ninth of December, 1773  His
This is a very pretty anecdote, but not a single sen-  father, an eminent lawyer, held many honourable
tence of it relates to any actual occurrence. The hero  offices under the state and national governments, and
of Ticonderoga never lost a daughter during his own  was one of the signers of the Declaration of Indepen
lifetime, and his wife was not a pious woman; at least,  dence. The family having removed to Boston, when
she pretended to have experienced no religious influ-  he was about seven years old, the subject of this me.
ences. The falsity of the story, which has found its  moir received his early education in that city, and
way into histories, and into hundreds of printed col-  entered Harvard University in 1788. His career here
lections of memorabilia, was asserted to us by the ex-  was brilliant and honourable; no member of his class
cellent daughter of the hardy chief, who yet survives,  was so familiar with the ancient languages, or with
and who, perhaps, was herself the heroine of the tale. elegant English literature; and his biographer assures




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                      57
us that he was personally popular among his classmates  gave promise of a bright career. In his last years,
indl the officers of the university. When he was gradu-  says his biographer, "without a library, wandering
ated, "he was as much distinguished for the opening  from place to place, frequently uncertain whence ot
virtues of his heart, as for the vivacity of his wit, the  whether he could procure a meal, his thirst for knowvigour of his imagination, and the variety of his know-  ledge astonishingly increased; neither sickness nor
ledge. A liberality of sentiment and a contempt of  penury abated his love of books and instructive conselfishness are usual concomitants, -and in him were  versation."  He died in "an attic chamber of his
striking characteristics.  Urbanity of manners and a  father's house," on the eleventh of November, 1811, in
delicacy of feeling imparted a charm to his benignant  the thirty-eighth year of his age.
temper and social disposition."                         Dr. Johnson said of Dryden, of whom Paine was a
While in college he had won many praises by his  servile but unsuccessful imitator, that "' his delight was
poetical "exercises," and on the completion of his  in wild and daring sallies of sentiment, in the irregular
education he was anxious to devote himself to litera-  and eccentric violence of wit;" that he "delighted to
ture as a profession. His father, a man of singular  tread upon the brink of meaning, where light and
austerity, had marked out for him a different career,  darkness begin to mingle; to approach the precipice
and obtained for him a clerkship in a mercantile house  of absurdity, and hover over the abyss of unideal vain Boston. But he was in no way. fitted for the suc-  cancy."  The censure is more applicable to the copy
cessful prosecution of commerce; and after endeavour-  than the original. There was no freshness'm, Paine's,ng for a few months to apply himself to business, he  writings; his subjects, his characters, his tt. ughts,
Abandoned the counting-room, and determined to rely  were all commonplace and familiar.  His mind was
mn his pen for the means of living. In 1794, he estab-  fashioned by books, and not by converse   ilth the
lished the " Federal Orrery," a political and literary  world. He had a brilliant fancy, and a singula.r comgazette, and conducted it two years, but without indus-  mand of language; but he was never content to be
try or discretion, and therefore without profit. Soon  simple and natural. Heendeavoured to be magnificent
after leaving the university, he had become a constant  and striking; he was perpetually searching for conceits
visiter of the theatre, then  recently established in  and extravagances; and in the multiplicity of his illusBoston.  His intimacy with persons connected with  trations and ornaments, he was unintelligible and tawthe stage led to his marriage with an actress, and this  dry. From no other writer could so many instances of
to his exclusion from fashionable society, and a dis-  the false sublime be selected. He never spoke to the
agreement with his father, which  lasted until his  heart in its own language.
death.                                                  Paine wrote with remarkable facility.  It is related
Hle was destitute of true courage, and of that kind of  of him by his biographers, that he had finished " Adams
pride which arises from  a consciousness of integrity  and Liberty," and exhibited it to some gentlemen at the
and worth.  When, therefore, he found himself un-  house of a friend. His host pronounced it imperfect,
popular with the town, he no longer endeavoured to  as the name of Washington was omitted, and declared
deserve regard; but neglected his personal appearance,  that he should not approach the sideboard, on which
became intemperate, and abandoned himself to indo-  bottles of wine had just been placed, until he had writlence. The office of " master of ceremonies" in the  ten an additional stanza. The poet mused a moment,
theatre, an anomalous station, created for his benefit,  called for a pen, and wrote the following lines, which
still yielded him a moderate income, and notwithstand-  are, perhaps, the best in the song:
ing the irregularity of his habits, he never exerted his  Should the tempest of war overshadow our land,
poetical abilities without success. For his poems and    Its bolts could ne'er rend Freedom's temple asunder:
other productions he obtained prices unparalleled in  For, unmoved, at its portal would Washington stand;
this country, and rarely equaled by the rewards of the    And repulse, with his breast, the assaults of the thunder I
most popular European authors. For the "Invention            His sword, from the sleep
Of its scabbard would leap,
of Letters," written at the request of the President of  And cond    its   point, every flash to the deep 
Harvard University, he received fifteen hundred dollars,     For neer shalt the sons, etc.
or more than Jive dollars a line. " The Ruling Pasion," a poem  recited before the Phi Beta  appa He had agreed to write the "opening address," on
sion," a poem recited before the Phi Beta Kappa
Society, was little less profitable; and he was paid  the rebuilding of the Boston Theatre, in 1798. Hodgseven hundred and fifty dollars for a song of half-a-  kinson, the manager, called on him in the evening,
dozen stanzas, entitled " Adams and Liberty."         before it was to be delivered, and upbraided him for
His habits, in the sunshine, gradually improved, and  his negligence; the first line of it being yet unwritten.
his friends who adhered to him endeavoured to wean  " Pray, do not be angry," said Paine, who was lining
with some literary friends; " sit down and take a glass
him from the wine-cup, and to persuade him to study  with some literary friends;  sit down and t
of wine."  "No, sir," replied the manager; "when
the law, and establish himself in an honourable posi-      ine."  "No, sir," replied the manager; "when
tion in society. They were for a time successful; e  you begin to write, I will begin to drink."  Paine took
tion in society. They were for a time successful; he
entered the office of the  onourable Theopilus Par-  his pen, at a side-table, and in two or three hours finishentered the office of the HJonourable Theophilus Pared the address, which is one of the best he ever
sons, of Newburyport; applied himself diligently to
his studies; was admitted to the bar, and became a  wrote.
popular advocate. No lawyer ever commenced busi-           SANDS-FABRICATION OF AUTHORITIES.
ness with more brilliant prospects; but his indolence    RoBERT C. SANDS was one of the cleverest literasand recklessness returned; his business was neglect-  men of the country. Of all authors he was the m.st
ed; his reputation decayed; and, broken down and  industrious, and wrote most from  a ive  f writing
disheartened by poverty, disease, and the neglect of  Thougn the editor of one of the leanirg, gazettes. oil
his old associates, the evening of his ifte psesentec a  New York his daily task of politicel or literary dismelancholy contrast ta its morning, wh-a wvety slgt  cusai.G  wa& tar from  giving  him  sufficient literary
8 *




158                                CURIOSITIES OF
employment. His mind overflowed in all directions    And must they fall? the young, the proud, the brave.
into other journals, even some of different political   To swell one bloated chief's unwholesome reign?
opinions from those which he supported. He had a    No step between submission and a grave?
prop nsity for innocent and playful literary mischief.   The rise of rapine and the fall of Spain?
And doth the Power that man adores ordain
It was his sport to excite public curiosity by giving ex- And dot h the Pow  that mal adores ordain
Their doom, nor heed the suppliant's appeal?
tracs, highly spiced with fashionable allusions and    Is all that desperate valour acts in vain?
satire..from.heforthcoming novel;" which novel, in   Is all that desperate valour acts in vain? 
satire. "'from theforthcoming novel;" which novel, in    Ard counsel sage, and patriotic zeal,
trith was, and is yet to be written; or else to entice  The veteran's skill, youth's fire, and manhood's heart a4
so-'1' inhappy wight into a literary or historical news-  steel 
paper liscussion, then to combat him anonymously, or,    The following stanza was composed by Bogart with
under the mask of a brother editor, to overwhelm him  in the succeeding ten minutes-the period fi
wit'h history, facts, quotations, and authorities, all, if  wager-finished before his companions had reached a
nee.ssary, manufactured for the occasion; in short,  fourth line, and read to them as we print itlike T.hakspeare's " merry wanderer of the night," to
Icad I..is unsuspecting victim  around "through bog,  L ovely and loved, o'er the unconquer'd  brave
Y our charms resistless, matchless girl, shall    reign!
thrclgnrs bush. through brier."  One instance of this
D ear as the mother holds her infant's    grave
sportive propensity occurred in relation to a controversy  I n Love's own region, warm, romantic  Spain!
al out the material of the Grecian crown of victory,  A nd should your Fate to courts your steps  ordain,
which arose during the excitement in favour of Gre-  K ings would in vain. to regal pomp      appeal,
cian liberty some years ago. Several ingenious young  A nd lordly bishops kneel to you in     vain,
men, fresh from their college studies, had exhausted  N or Valour's fire, Law's power, nor Churchman's zeal
all the learning they could procure on this grave ques-    ndure'gainst Love's (time s up ) untarnish'd  steel i
tion, either from their own acquaintance with antiquity,    We need not inform the reader that few of the most
or at second hand from the writers upon Grecian anti-  facile versifiers could have accomplished the task in
quities, Lempriere, Potter, Barthelemi, or the more  hours. Bogart nearly always composed with the same
erudite Paschalis de Corona; till Sands grew tired of  rapidity, and his pieces were marked by the liveliest
seeing so much scholarship wasted, and ended the  wit and most apposite illustration.
controversy by an essay filled with excellent learning,    The rapidity with which Robert Treat Paine comchiefly fabricated by himself for the occasion, and  posed his verses we have mentioned elsewhere. His
resting mainly on a passage of Pausanias, quoted in  best pieces were "struck off at a heat."  The poet
the original Greek, for which it is in vain to look in  Brainard wrote his "Lines on Niagara" to fill out a
any edition of that author, ancient or modern.      column of a newspaper of which he was editor, in a
few moments, while the printer's boy was waiting for
RAPID COMPOSITION-A. H. BOGART AND              copy. E. D. Griffin, Sands, and others, wrote with
OTHEfRS3.                      nearly equal rapidity.
MR. BOGART was a native of the city of Albany,
where, at the early age of twenty-one years, he died,         LITERARY CONFEDERACIES.
in 1826. He was engaged in the study of the law at    LITERARY associations-for joint authorship-have
the time of his decease, and, as we have learned from   been common in this country. The first one of which
an eminent member of the bar in that city, gave the  we read was established by "the Connecticut wits"
highest promise of professional reputation, when his  at Hartford, and Joel Barlow, Doctor Hopkins, Colonel
studies were interrupted by the illness which termi-  Humphries, and Trumbull, the author of "McFingal,"
nated in his death. He wrote with singular rapidity,  were members of it. They produced numerous essays
and would frequently astonish his companions by an  on literary, moral, and political subjects, none of which
improvisation equal to the elaborate performances of  attracted more applause than a series of papers in imisome poets of distinguished reputation. It was good-  tation of the " Rolliad," (a popular English work, asnaturedly hinted on one occasion that his impromptus  cribed to Fox, Sheridan, and their associates,) entitled
were prepared beforehand, and he was asked if he  " American Antiquities" and " Extracts from the Anar.
would submit to the application of a test of his poeti-  chiad," originally printed in the New Haven Gazette
cal abilities. He promptly acceded, and a most diffi-  fur 1786 and 1787. These papers have never been
cult one was immediately proposed. Among his inti-  collected, but they were republished from one end of
mate friends were the late Colonel John B. Van  the country to the other in the periodicals of the time,
Schaick and Charles Fenno Hoffman, both of whom   and were supposed to have had considerable influence
were present. Said Van Schaick, taking up a copy of  on public taste and opinions, and by the boldness of
Byron, "The name of Lydia KIane"-a lady distin-  their satire to have kept in abeyance the leaders of poliguished for her beauty and cleverness, who died a  tical disorganization and infidel philosophy.
year or two since, but who was then just blushing into    The only other association of the kind which we
womanhood —" the name, of Lydia Kane has in it the  shall mention was formed by Robert C. Sands and three
same number of letters as a stanza of' Childe Harold;' of his friends, under the name of the Literary Confedewrite them down in a column."  They were so writ-  racy. The number was limited to four; and they bound
ten by Bogart, Hoffman and himself.' Now," he con-  themselves to preserve a friendly communication in all
tinue.l, " I will open the poem at random; and for the  the vicissitudes of life, and to endeavour, by all proper
ends of the lines in Miss Lydia's acrostic shall be used  means, to advance their mutual and individual interest,
the words ending those of the verse on -which ny  to advise each other on every subject, and to receive
finger may rest."  T'he stanza thus selected was  with good temper the rebuke or admonition which
this:-                                             might thus be given. They proposcd to finite. from




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                   69
time to time, in literary publications, covenanting  was reprinted in London and Paris, and was generally
solemnly that no matter hostile to the great principles  noticed favourably in the reviews.  After its publicaof religion or morals should.e published by any mem-  tion the author relinquished his newspaper and estabber.  This compact was most faithfully kept to the  lished a bookstore, principally to sell the poem and his
time of Sands' death, though the primary objects of it  edition of the Psalms, and as soon as this end was
were gradually given up, as other duties engrossed the  attained, resumed the practice of the law. In this he
attention of its members. In the first year of its ex-  was, however, unfortunate, for his forensic abilities
istence, the confederacy contributed largely to several  were not of the most popular description, and his mind
literary and critical gazettes, besides publishing in one  was too much devoted to political and literary subjects
of the daily papers of the city a series of essays, under  to admit of the application to study and attention to
the title of the " Amphilogist," and a second under that  business necessary to secure success. He was engaged
of the " Neologist," which attracted much attention, and  with Colonel Humphreys, John Trumbull, and Dr.
were very widely circulated and republished in the  Lemuel Hopkins, a man of some wit, of the coarser
newspapers of the day. Sands wrote a large portion  kind, in the "Anarchiad," a satirical poem published
of these, both in prose and verse.                  at Hartford, which had considerable political influence,
and in some other works of a similar description; but
BARLOW-HIS LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS.  obtaining slight pecuniary advantage from his literary
THE author of the "Columbiad" was born in the  labours, he was induced to accept a foreign agency
village of Reading, in Connecticut, in 1755. He was  from  the " Sciota Land Company," and sailed for
the youngest in a family of ten, and his father died  Europe, with his family, in 1788. In France he sold
while he was yet a child, leaving to him property suf-  some of the lands held by this association, but deriving
ficient only to defray the costs of his education. On  little or no personal benefit from  the transactions,
the completion of his preparatory studies, he was  and becoming aware of the fraudulent character of the
placed by his guardians at Dartmouth College, but was  company, he relinquished his agency and determined
soon induced to remove to New Haven, where he was  to rely on his pen for suppo"'.
graduated, in 1778. Among    his friends here were    In 1791, Barlow published in London "Advice to
Dwight, then a college tutor, Colonel Humphreys, a  the Privileged Orders," a work directed against the
revolutionary bard of some reputation, and Trumbull,  distinguishing features of kingly and aristocratic governthe author of " McFingal."  Barlow recited an origi- ments; and in the early part of the succeeding year,
nal poem, on.taking his bachelor's degree, which is  " The Conspiracy of Kings," a poem  of about four
preserved in the " American Poems," printed at Litch-  hundred lines, educed by the first coalition of the confield, in 1793. It was his first attempt of so ambitious  tinental sovereigns against republican France. In the
a character, and possesses little merit. During the va- autumn of 1792, he wrote a letter to the French Nacations of the college he had on several occasions  tional Convention, recommending the abolition of the
joined the army, in which four of his brothers were  union between the church and the state, and other reserving; and he participated in the conflict at White  forms; and was soon after chosen by the "London
Plains, and a number of minor engagements, in which  Constitutional Society," of which he was a member, to
he is said to have displayed much intrepidity.      present in person an address to that body. On his
For a short time after completing his academic  arrival in Paris he was complimented with the rights
course, Barlow devoted his attention chiefly to the  of citizenship, an "honour" which had been previ/aw; but being urged by his friends to qualify himself  ously conferred on Washington and Hamilton. From
for the office of chaplain, he undertook the study of  this time he made France his home. In the summer
theology, and in six weeks became a licensed minister.  of 1793, a deputation, of which his friend Gregorie,
He joined the army immediately, and remained with it  who before the Revolution had been Bishop of Blois,
until the establishment of peace, cultivating the while  was a member, was sent into Savoy, to organize it as a
his taste for poetry, by writing patriotic songs and bal-  department of the republic.  Ile accompanied it to
lads, and composing, in part, his " Vision of Colum-  Chamberry, the capital, where, at the request of its
bus," afterward expanded  into the "Columbiad."  president, he wrote an address to the inhabitants of
When the army was disbanded, in 1783, he removed to  Piedmont, inciting them to throw off allegiance to " the
Hartford, to resume his legal studies; and, to add to  man of Turin who called himself their king."  Here
his revenue, established "'The Mercury," a weekly  too he wrote "'Hasty Pudding," the most popular of
gazette, to which his writings gave reputation and an  his poems.
immediate circulation. In 1785, he was admitted to    On his return to Paris, Barlow's time was principally
the bar, and in the same year, in compliance with the  devoted to commercial pursuits, by which, in a few
request of an association of Congregational ministers,  years, he obtained a considerable fortune. The atrocihe prepared and published an enlarged and improved  ties which marked the progress of the Revolution pre.
edition of Watts's version of the Psalms, to which  vented his active participation in political controver
were appended a collection of hymns, several of which  sies, though he continued, under all circumstances, aa
were written by himself.                            ardent republican. Toward the close of 1795, he vi.
"The Vision of Columbus" was published in 1787.  sited the North of Europe, on some private business,
it was dedicated to Louis XVI., with strong expres-  and on his return to Paris was appointed by Washing
eions of admiration and gratitude, and in the poem  ton consul to Algiers, with power to negociate a comwere corresponding passages of applause; but Barlow's  mercial treaty w th the dey, and to ransom  all the
feelings toward the amiable and unfortunate monarch  Americans held in slavery on the coast of Barbary.
appear to have changed in after time, for in the'Co-  He accepted and fulfilled the mission to the satisfaclumbiad" he is coldly alluded to, and the adulatory  tion of the American government, concluding treaties
lises are suppressed.  The "Vision of C,_umbus"  with Algiers. Tunis. and Tripoli. and liberating more




60                                   CURIOSITIES OF
than one hundred Americans, who were in prisons or  of personal character are frequently condensed ant
in slavery to the Mohammedans. He then returned to  forceful; and passages of invective, indignant and ful
Paris, where he purchased the splendid hotel of the  of energy. In his narrative of the expedition against
Count Clermont de Tonnere, and lived several years  Quebec, under Arnold, the poet exclaims:
in a fashionable and costly manner, pursuing still his
Ah, gallant troop! deprived of half the praise
fortunate mercantile speculations, revising his " great    That deeds like yours in other times repays,
pic," and writing occasionally for the political ga-    Since your prime chief (the favourite erst of Fame,)
zettes.                                                Hath sunk so deep his hateful, hideous name,
Finally, after an absence of nearly seventeen years,    That every honest muse with horror flings
the poet, statesman, and philosopher returned to his   It forth unsounded from her sacred strings;
native country. He was received with kindness by    Else what high tones of rapture must have told
many old friends, who had corresponded with him        The first great actions of a chief so bold 
while abroad, or been remembered in all his wander-    These lines are characteristic of his manner.
ings; and, after spending a few  months in travel,    The " Columbiad" was reprinted in Paris and Lonmarking, with patriotic pride, the rapid progress which  don, and noticed in the leading critical gazettes, but
the nation had made in greatness, he fixed his home on  generally with little praise. The London "Monthly
the banks of the Potomac, near the city of Washing-  Magazine" attempted, in zn elaborate article, to prove
ton, where he built the splendid mansion, known after-  its title to a place in the first -lass of epics, and ex.
ward as "Kalorama," and expressed an intention to  pressed a belief that it was surpassed only by the
spend there the remainder of his life. In 1806, he  "Iliad," the "iEneid," and "Paradise Lost." In Amepublished a prospectus of a National Institution, at  rica, however, it was regarded by the judicious as a
Washington, to combine a university with a naval and  failure, and reviewed with even more wit and severity
military school, academy of fine arts, and learned so-  than in England. Indeed, the poet did not in his own
ciety. A bill to carry his plan into effect was intro-  country receive the praise which he really merited;
duced into Congress, but never became a law.          and faults were imputed to his work which it did not
In the summer of 1808, appeared the " Columbiad,"  possess.  Its sentiments were said to be hostile to
in a splendid quarto volume, surpassing in the beauty  Christianity,* ahd the author was declared an infidel;
of its typography and embellishments any work before  but there is no line in the " Columbiad" unfavourable
that time printed in America. From his earliest years  to the religion of New  England, the Puritan faith
Barlow had been ambitious to raise the epic song of  which is the basis of the national greatness; and there
his nation. The " Vision of Columbus," in which the  is no good reason for believing that Barlow at the time
most brilliant events in American history had been  of his death doubted the creed of which in his early
described, occupied his leisure hours when in college,  manhood he had been a minister.
and afterward, when, as a chaplain, he followed the    The orthography of the " Columbiad" was in sowe
standard of the liberating army.  That work was  instances peculiar, but many of Barlow's innovations
executed too hastily and imperfectly, and for twenty  have since been generally adopted, and itn his notes he
years after its appearance, through every variety of  defends them with force and ingenuity. It has been
fortune, its enlargement and improvement engaged his  said that he was wildly visionary in his pldns Und exattention,                                            pectations, and his predictions in regard to sort-hand
The events of the Revolution were so recent and so  writing have been quoted in proof of the correctness
universally known, as to be inflexible to the hand of  of this opinion. But a man who had seer the revolufiction; and the poem could not therefore be modelled  tion produced in navigation by the application of steam,
after the regular epic form, which would otherwise  ought hardly to be censured for be'ieving that the time
have been chosen. It is a series of visions, presented  might come when the whole triin of impressions now
by Hesper, the genius of the western continent, to  made upon the mind by reading a long and well written
Columbus, while in the prison at Valladolid, where he  treatise would be conveyed by a few strokes of the
is introduced to the reader uttering a monologue on his  pen, and be received at a glance of the eye.
ill-requited services to Spain. These visions embrace
a vast variety of scenes, circumstances, and characters:    * It is now generally believed that Barlow, while in
France, abjured the Christian Religion. The Reverend
Europe in the middle ages, with her political and reli-  Thomas Robbins, a venerable clergyman of Rochester,
gious reformers; Mexico and the South American  Massachusetts, in a letter written in 1840, remarks that
"Barlow's deistical opinions were not suspected previous
nations, and their imagined history; the progress of  to the publication of his'Vision of Columbus,' in 1]77;"
discovery; the settlement of the states now composing  and further, that " when at a later period he lost his cha-'the federation; the war of the Revolution, and estab-  racter, and became an open and bitter reviler of Christianity, his psalm-book was laid aside; but for that cause orly,
lishment of republicanism; and the chief actors in the  as competent judges still maintained that no revision of
great dramas which he attempts to present.            Watts possesses as much poetic merit as Barlow's." I h ve
seen two letters written by Barlow during the last year of
The poem, having no unity of fable, no regular suc-  his life, in which he declares himself " a sincere believer of
eessmon of incidents, no strong exhibition of varied  Chrstianity, divested of its corruptions." In a letter to M.
Gregorie, published in the second volume of Dennie's " Port
character, lacks the most powerful charms of a narra-  Folio," pages 471 to 479, he says, "the sect of Puritans, in
tive; and has, besides, many dull and spiritless passages,  which I was born and educated, and to which I still adhere,
that would make unpopular a work of much more  for the same reason that you adhere to the Catholics, a conviction that they are right," etc. The idea that Barlow disfaultless general design. The versification is generally  believed in his later years the religion of his youth, was
narnonious, but mechanical and passionless, the lan-  probably first derived from an engraving in the "Vision of
Columbus," in which the cross, by which he intended to reguage sometimes incorrect, and the similes often inap-  present monkish superstition, is placed among the "sympropriate and inelegant. Yet there are in it many  bols of prejudice." He never "lost his character" as a man
bursts of eloquence and patriotism, which should pre-  of honourable sentiments and blameless life; and I could
bursts of eoquenc  and patriotism, which should pre-  present numerous other evidences that he did not abandon
terve it from oblivion. The descriptions of nature and l his religion, were not the above apparently conclusive.




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                     61
After the publication of the " Columbiad," Barlow   whether of Cole, of Young, or of Ainsworth, are hurled
made a collection of documents, with an intention to  without remorse at the head of the astonished prevwrite a history of the United States; but, in 1811, he  ceptor, who, on his side, groping and crawling under
was unexpectedly appointed minister plenipotentiary  cover of the forms, makes the best of his way to the
to the French government, and immediately sailed for  door. When attained, and light restored, a death-like
Europe. His attempts to negotiate a treaty of com-  silence ensues. Every boy is at his lesson: no one has
merce and indemnification for spoliations were unsuc-  had a hand or a voice in the recent atrocity: what then
cessful at Paris; and in the autumn of 1812 he was in-  is to be done, and who shall be chastised.
vited by the Duke of Bassano to a conference with    Swvit atrox VoIscens, nec teli conspicit usquam
Napoleon at Wilna, in Poland. He started from Paris,
and traveled without intermission until he reached
Zarnowitch, an obscure village near Cracow, where he    Fierce Volscens foams with rage, and gazing round
Descries not him who aim'd the fatal tvwund;
died, from an inflammation of the lungs, induced by    Descrs ot hi who ad the fatal 
Nor knows to fix revenge.- 
fatigue and exposure in an inhospitable country, in an
inclement season, on the twenty-second day of Decem-    "This most intolerable outrage, from as succeeding
ber, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. In Paris, ho-  beyond expectation, and being entirely to the taste of
nours were paid to his memory as an important pub-  the school, had a run of several days; and was only
lic functionary and a man of letters; his eulogy was  then put a stop to by the interference of the faculty,
written by Dupont de Nemours, and an account of his  who decreed the most exemplary punishment on those
life and writings was drawn up and published, accom-  who should be found offending in the premises, and by
panied by a canto of the " Columbiad," translated into  taking measures to prevent a further repetition of the
French heroic verse. In America, too, his death was  enormity. I have said, and with truth, that I was no
generally lamented, though without any public exhibi-  promoter of mischief; but I will not take upon me to
tion of mourning.                                     assert, that I was proof against the irresistible contaBarlow was much respected in private life for his  gion of such a scene, or that I did not raise my voice
many excellent social qualities. His manners were  in the discordant concert of the screamers: though I
usually grave and dignified, though when with his inti-  can safely declare, that I never threw at the master,
mate friends he was easy and familiar. He was an  and that I was wholly ignorant of the contrivers and
honest and patient investigator, and would doubtless  ringleaders of this shameful proceeding.
have been much more successful as -a metaphysical or    "Inl the year 1765, Mr. Beveridge published by sub.
historical writer than as a poet. As an author he be-  scription a small collection of Latin poems. Of their
longed to the first class of his time in America; and  general merit I presume not to judge, but I think I have
for his ardent patriotism, his public services, and the  heard they were not nluch commended by the British
purity of his life, he deserves a distinguished rank  reviewers. The Latinity probably is pure, the prosody
among the men of our golden age.                      correct, the versification sufficiently easy and sounding,
and such as might serve to evince an intimate acquaintJOIhN BEAVERIDGE.                    ance with the classics of ancient Rome; But I should
BEVERIDGE was a celebrated teacher, in Philadel-  doubt their possessing much of the soul of poetry. One
phia, before the Revolution, and many of the most emi-  of them is neither more or less than a humble petition
nent men of the time studied under him the languages  in hexameters, aind certainly a very curious specimen
and mathematics. His acquirements in Latin and back-  of pedantic mendicity.  It is addressed to Thomas
gammon were unequaled in this country, and he is  Penn, the proprietary of Pennsylvania; and the poet
deserving of remembrance as the author of the first  very modestly proposes, that he should bestow upon
volume of Latin poems published in the colonies.  him a few of his acres, innumerable, he observes, as
Among his pupils was Alexander Graydon, who wrote  the sands of the Delaware: in return for which, his
the most interesting book of personal memoirs* yet  verse shall do its best to confer immortal fame upon
produced in the United States. Graydon furnishes the  the donor. By way of further inducement to the gift,
following reminiscences of him-                       he sets before his excellency the usual ingratitude of an
"Various were the rogueries that were played upon  enriched and unknown posterity, on the one hand; and
him; but the most audacious of all was the following.  on the other, the advantages which Ajax, Eneas, and
At the hour of convening in the afternoon, that being  Mrecenas derived from the muses of Homer, of Virgil,
found the most convenient, from the circumstance of  and Horace. But lest I might be suspected of misrepMr. Beveridge being usually a little beyond the time;  resentation, let my good quondam preceptor speak for
the bell having rung, the ushers being at their posts,  himself.
and the scholars arranged in their classes, three or four
of the conspirators concealed themselves without, for    Jugera quum tibi sint quot habet Delavarus arenas,
the purpose of observing the motions of their victim.  Fu ndamenta caste, Borihuas i frigora parvi
Fundamenta casie, Boreae qua frigora pellam.
He arrives, enters the school, and is permitted to pro-  Non dabis ingrato dederis licet aris egeno,
ceed until lie is supposed to have nearly reached his  Quodque tibi minimum, magnum esset pauca roganti.
chair at the upper end of the room, when instantly the  Sin renuas, tanti nec sint commercia nostra,
door and every window-shutter is closed.  Now,  Hoc quoque ne pigeat cito spem prcecidere vanam.
shrouded in titter darkness, the most hideous yells that    Nec periisse puta, dederis quod vivus amico;
can be conceived, are sent forth from at least three  Credere fas sit enim, si quid mea carmina Fossint,
score of throats; and Ovids, and Virgils, and Horaces,  Sera licet, majora feras quam Mexico nobis,
Sen Tagus auriferis exundans mittit arenis,
together with the more heavy metal of dictionaries,      Tagus auriferis exudans mittit arenis,
Auguror et si quid vives post fata superstes.
*' Memoirs of a Life Chiefly Passed in Pennsylvania,    Quid juvat ignotis, ingratis forsitan, auri
within the last sixty years " Harrisburg, 1811.      Pondera, frugiferis vetl millia jugera campis
6




62                                    CURIOSITIES OF
Linquere post natis? Nequeunt nam prodere famam     ing repentance, and asking forgiveness."  "But wha
Divitite, nequeunt titulis monumenta superbis.       shall I say?"  WVitherspoon gave some hints, upoL
Quid foret Alneas, et magni nominis Ajax,           which Towne said, "Doctor, you write expeditiously,
Atque alii quorum sunt nomina multa virorum;
i  foret      t      vates divini carnominis auctuta virorum  and to the purpose: I will thank you to write some
Maeonides, sacro qui primus vertice Pindi            thing for me, and I will publish it."  He assented, obDeduxit faciles Phmobo plaudente, Camenas?           tained paper and ink, and immediately wrote " The
Vel quid Macenas anirni mentisque benigna           Humble Confession, Recantation, and Apology of Ben
Ni benefacta sui celebrasset carmen Horati,          jamin Towne," which was afterward published as the
Et Maro nlunificumn cecinisset gratus aimicum? &c. &c.    genuine composition of the editor, and greatly increas"Might not one here be tempted to exclaim in the  ed his reputation as a writer. We give a few characspirit of Prior to Boileau:teristic paragraphs from it:
Pindar, that eagle, mounts the skies,               "The following facts are well known-lst. That I
While virtue leads the noble way:                 Benjamin Towne, used to print the Pennsylvania EveToo like a vulture Beveridge flies                ning Post, under the protection of Congress, and did
Where sordid interest lures the prey.             frequently, and earnestly solicit sundry members of
"I iever heard, however, that the poet was the better  the said Congress for dissertations and articles of infor his application: I rather think that the proprietor  tel]igence, professing myself to be a very firm. 4 zealwas of opinion, there was a want of reciprocity in the  ous friend to American Liberty.  2d. That on.he
proposal, and that, whatever the carmen Horati vel  English taking possession of Philadelphia, I turned
M' arovis might have been worth, that of Mr. Beveridge  fairly round, and printed my Evening Post under the
did not amount to a very valuable consideration. An-  protection of General Howe and his army, calling the
other of the principal poems in this collection is a pas-  Congress and all their adherents, Rebels, Rascals, and
toral, which, if Mr. Beveridge had had the salutary fear  Raggamuffins, and several other unsavoury names, with
of Boileau before his eyes, he certainly would not have  which the humane and Polite English are pleased to
written; since never was production more completely  honour them-neither did I ever refuse to insert any
u;tnder the lash of the following satirical lines:   dissertation however scurrilous, or any article of inVien(draije, en une Eglogue entoure de troupeaux  telligence sent to me, altho' many of them I well knew
All milieu de Paris enfler mes chalumeaux,        to be, as a certain gentleman elegantly expresses it,
Et ldans mon cabinet assis au pied des hetres,    facts that never happened. 3d. That I am now willing
Faire dire aux echos des sottises champetres?    and desirous to turn once more, to unsay all that I have
" The complainant in this pastoral is an Edinburgh cit, last said, and to print and publish for the United States
\ tot!rn he appropriately calls Urbanus: nevertheless he  of America, which are likely to be uppermost, against
is, without the smallest difficulty, transformed into a  the British Tyrant; nor will I be backward in calling
shc!uherd, surrounded with sheep, and proclaiming to  him, after the example of the great and eminent authoe
the echoes his sottises champetres, in strains like  of Common Seise, The Royal Brcte, or giving hini
these:                                               any other appellation still more opprobrious, if such
can be found."
Acdiit et planctus gemebunda remurmurat Echo, *" The rational moralists of the last age used to tell us
Echo sola meos miserata est, inquit amores;
that there was an essential difference between virtue
Fiebile luctisonis responsat et usque cicutis.    and vice, because there was an essential difference to
MIe miserum quoties exclamo, lugubris illa        be observed in the nature and reason of things. Now,
ale niserum ingeminat gelidis e vallibus: Eheu,   with all due deference to these great men, I think I am
Clanianti exclamat, repetitis vocibus, Eheu!       as much of a Philosopher as to know that there are no
But after all, it is perhaps too much to expect from a  circumstances of action more important than those of
mnodern, good Latin, good poetry, and good sense, all  time and place, therefore, if a man pay no regard to
at the same time."                                    the changes that may happen in these circumstances,
there will be very little Virtue, and still less Prudence
EDITORIAL RECANTATIONS.                   in his behaviour. Perhaps I have got rather too deep
WVE have mentioned elsewhere the confessions of  for common readers, and therefore shall ask any plain
Rivington, editor of the Royal Gazette, in New York.  Quaker in this city, what he would say to a man who
During the Revolution the Vicars of Bray were fre-  should wear the same coat in summer as in winter in
quently compelled to change their positions so sudden-  this climate? He would certainly say,'Friend, thy
ly as not to allow of the shows of" consistency " made  wisdom is not great.' Now whether I have not had as
by the politicians of our own time, and some of their  good reason to change my conduct as my coat, since last
bulletins are curious and amusing. Benjamin Towne  January, I leave to every impartial person to determine.
became editor of the Pennsylvania Evening Post in:2dly, I do hereby declare and confess, that when I
1775. He was a Whig until the British took posses-;printed for Congress, and on the side of Liberty, it was
sion of Philadelphia, when he excelled all the Tories  not by any means from principle, or a desire that the
in his loyalty to His Majesty's government. On the   cause of Liberty should prevail, but purely and simply
evacuation of the city, Towne remained, and assumed  from the love of gain. I could have made nothing but
a second time the language of the Whig party.  One  tar and feathers by printing against them as things then
day, soon after the meeting of Congress, he met the  stood. I make this candid acknowledgment not only
celebrated Dr. Witherypoon, in Aitkin's bookstore, and  as a penitent to obtain pardon, but to show that there
requested him to become a writer for his paper. The  was more consistency in my conduct than my enemies
Doctor refused, urfless Towne would first make his  are willing to allow. They are pleased to charge me
"peace with the country."  "How  shall I do it?"  with hypocrisy in pretending to be a Whig when I was
"Why, write a piece, acknowledging your fault, profess-  none. This charge is false; I was neitht r Whig nor




AMERICAN LITERATURE.                                                    j3
Tory, but a Printer. I detest and abhor hypocrisy. I  big that I cannot run-and I am so great a lover of eathad n5i more regard for General Howe or General Clin-  ing and, drinking that I cannot starve. When those
ton, or even for Mrs. Lowring* or any other of the  three things are considered, I hope they will fully acChaste Nymphs that attended the fete Champetre,  ccunt for my past conduct, and procure me the liberty
alias Mischianza,t when I printed in their behalf, than  of going on in the same uniform tenor for the future
for the Congress on the day of their retreat. It is pre-  No just judgment can be formed of a man's character
tended that I certainly did in my heart incline to the  and conduct unless every circumstance is taken in and
E.,gl'sh, because that I printed much bigger lies and in  fairly attended to; I therefore hops that this justice will
grcaternumber for them, than for the Congress. This is  be done in my case. I am also verily persuaoed tkti
a  r,ost false and unjust insinuation. It was entirely the  if all those who are c wawds as well as myself, A,at
fault of the Congress themselves, who thought fit (be. who are better'off in other respects, and therefore cair
ing but a new potentate upon the earth,) to be much  and-do run whenever danger is near them, wou'1 be
more modest, and keep nearer the truth than their ad- friend me, I should have no inconsiderable body on:at
versaries. Had any of them brought me in a lie as big as  side. Peace be with the Congress and the ar.mv 
a mountain it should have issued from my press. This  mean no reflections; but the world is a wide field, ard i
gives me an opportunity of showing the folly as well  wish everybody would do as they would be done bt.
as malignity of those who are actuated by party spirit; Finally, I do hereby recant, draw back, eat in, and swa:-.
many of them have affirmed that I printed monstrous  low down, every word that I have ever spoken, written
and incredible lies forGeneral Howe. Nowpray what or printed to the prejudice of the United States of
harm could incredible lies do? the only hurt, I con-  America, hoping it will not only satisfy the good peoceive, that any lie can do, is by obtaining belief, as a  ple in general, but also all those scatter-brained fellows,
truth; but an incredible lie can obtain no belief, and  who call one another out to shoot pistols in the air,
therefore at least must be perfectly harmless. What  while they tremble so much they cannot hit the mark.
will those cavilers think, if I should turn this argu-  In the meantime I will return to labour with assiduity
ment against them, and say that the most effectual way  in my lawful calling, and essa s and intelligence as beto disgrace any cause is to publish monstrous and in- fore shall be gratefully accepted by the Public's most
credible lies in its favour? In this view, I have not obedient humble servant,  BENJAMIN TOWNE."
only innocence, but some degree of merit to plead.
However, take it which way you will, there never wasTHOMS PAINE.
a lie published in Philadelphia that could bear the least  HE popularity of Paine's writings resulted rathr
Iotaparison with those published by James Rivington, from accident than from any merit which they possessin l\%ewv York. This in my opinion is to be imputed to  ed, but his political essays made him famous for a day,
the superiority not of the Printer, but of the Prompter  and every one connected with the press become anxious
or Prompters. I reckon Mr. T.- -to  have excelled  to engage his services. Aitken, the publisher of the
in that branch; and he had probably many coadjutors. Pennsylvania Magazine, contracted with him to write
-What do you think of 40,000 Russians and 20,000
Moors, which Moors too were said by Mr. Rivington  periodical, but Paine's indolence was such that he
to be dreadful among the women'? as also the boats  could rarely procure his articles in season, and on one
building at the forks of the Monongahela to carry the  occasion he went to his lodgings and complained with
Congress down the Ohio to New Orleans? these were  severity of his not finishing articles in the proper time.
swingers. —As to myself and friend H-.s, we  Paine heard him patiently, and coolly answered, "You
contented ourselves with publishing affidavits to prove  shall have them  in time."  Aitken expressed some
that the King of France was determined to preserve  doubts on the subject, and insisted on Paine's accomthe friendship that subsisted between him and his good  panying  him and proceeding immediately to business,
brother the King of England, of which he has given a  as the workmen were waiting for copy. He according.
new proof by entering into and communicating his  Jy vent home with Aitken, and was soon seated atthe
treaty with the United States of America. Upon the  table with the necessary apparatus, which always inwhole I hope the public will attribute my conduct, not cluded a glass, and a decanter of brandy. Aitken oh.
to disaffection, but to attachment to my own interest served, " he would never write without that."  The
and desire of gain in my profession; a principle, if I first glass put him in a train of thinking; Aitken feared
mistake not, pretty general and pretty powerful in the  the second would disqualify him, or render him unpresent day. 3dly. I hope the public will consider that tractable; but it only illuminated his intellectual sys.
I have been a timorous man, or, if you will, a coward, tem; and when he had swallowed the third glass, he
from my youth, so that I cannot fight-my belly is so  wrote with rapidity, intelligence, and precision; and his
ideas appeared to flow faster than he could commit
* A married lady, said to have been the mistress of the  them  to paper.  What he penned from the inspiration
British General H —e. See Battle of the Kegs.
8r6tish General H-e. See Battle of the Kegs.them to paper. What he penned from the inspiration
t A public exhibition in honour of the British General of the brandy, was perfectly fit for the press without
Itxwe                                             any alteration, or correction
T11E  END.




CONTENTS.
".&erican Taxation,"   -      -      -   Page 38  Keith's "Travels from New Hampshire to Caratack   4
Authorship of the Declaration o  ndependence,  45  Lovewell's Fight, ballad on,  -    -          2"7
American Cadmus,..                   50  Literary Confederacies,    -     -             58
Anagrams,    -..          58  Mather Cotton: his Life and Character,   -      7
Allen, Ethan, -.                             56              - His connection with the WitchBay Psalm Book,   -      -   -.    8                     craft Delusion,    -   -   -             7
lEraxstreet, Anne,-her Poems,      -   -      13    -             Grahame's Opinion of his "Mag"Battle of Bunker Hill," -..         26         nalia,"  -...                7
Burning of Charlestown, ballad on the,  -     29  Minstrelsy of the Indian Wars and the Revolution, 27
" Ballad of the Tea Party,"    -   -          30  Mayhew, Dr. Jonathan, -                        52
"' Battle of Trenton,"    -   -   -           31  "New-England's Prospect,"   -   - - - 5
"Brave Pawling and the Spy,"                  34  "North Campaign, the," a ballad,  -            32
"Bold Hawthorne,"      -   -                  37  Penn, William, and John Locke,   -             15
"Battle of the Kegs," -..   39  Poetry of Governor Wolcott, -   -                 15
Byles, Mather, and Joseph Green,  -   -   -   41  Poem by Allen on the Boston Massacre, -   -   16
Bogart, Alexander H., -58 Patriot's Appeal, the,                                                 28
Barlow, his Life, Writings and Opinions, -.   59  " Progress of Sir Jack Brag," -   -   -   -   31
Beveridge: his Latin Poems, -   -   -         61  Paine, Robert Treat,    -                      56
Curious Account of the Battle of Saratoga,    33  -. —.       High prices paid for his Poems, 57
Cow Chase, the, written by Andre, -   -       34                    Rapidity with which he wrote, 57
Cherokee Alphabet; invention of,  -   -       50  Rare and Curious Books by the Early Travelers in
Correspondence of Dr. Mayhew,  -   -          51         America, -                               4
Controversial Mendacity,    -   -      -      56  Rogers's "Concise Account of North America,"   5
Confederacies, Literary, -. 58  Rivington and Freneau,.                                          22
Dunton's "Life and Errors,"   -   -   -        3  Rivington's Confessions, -     -   -           22
Dedication of the Indian Bible,    -   -      10             Last Will and Testament,            24
u Discourse concerning the Currencies in the Bri-       -    Epigrams on,      -   -             22
tish Plantations in America,"  -         5  Randolph, Edward, -                            42
Dexter, Lord Timothy: his " Pickle for the Know-   "Randolph's Welcome,"...   43
ing Ones," -  *                         48 Ralph, James, -.. 44
Dedications and Introductory Poems,    -      49  Rapid Composition, -                   -       58
Dr. Dwight and Mr. Dennie,  -   -             51  Recantations, Editorial,          -            62
Dudley, Thomas; Epitaph on, -   -   -         53  "Simple Cobler of Aggawam,"         -           17
Eliot and his Indian Translations,  -   -      9  Satirical, Dramatic, and other Poems, written durEpitaphs, Anagrams, and Elegies, of the Puritans, 53     ing the Revolution,      -        -.   26
Elegy on Thomas Shepard, by Urian Oakes,.   55  "Song for the Sons of Liberty,"    -   -        30
Editorial Recantations, -                      2  Sewall, Dr. J. M.: his Writings,   -            30
Frampton's "New Found World," -   -            6  Sands-Fabrication of Authorities, -   -         57'Free America," by General Warren,   -        29  Towne, Benjamin, -                             62
"' Fate of John Burgoyne," a ballad,  -       32  " Virgo Triumphans,".                   3
Foulger, Peter: his "Looking Glass for the         "Virginia Richly Valued," &c.-.               4
Times," -... 43  Verses on the Massacre of Wyoming,. ~  34
Fabrication of Authorities,    -   -   -      57  Williams, Roger, and his Controversies, -   -   14
Green, Joseph, and Byles,    -   -     -      41  Ward, Nathaniel: his "Simple Cobler of Aggawam," 17
History of Connecticut, by Dr. Peters,   -     5  War Song, written in 1776,     -   -           28
Hopkinson, Francis,  -38  Wigglesworth, Michael: Extracts from his "Day
Hooker, Rev. Thomas, Elegy on, by Cotton,.  54         of Doom,"       -                       44
-    Lament for his death, ~     -.        55                  -  -   Epitaph on,   4
2osselln's two Voyages to America.             3 - Witherspoon, Dr., and Benjamin Towne,. 
&t




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