Part 87

DREADFUL INSTANCES OF THE PLAGUE, IN EUROPE.--Thucydides, lib. ii. gives an account of a dreadful plague which happened in Athens about B. C. 430, and with which he was himself infected, while the Peloponnesians under the command of Archidamus wasted all her territory abroad; but of these two enemies the plague was by far the most severe. The most dreadful plague that ever raged at Rome, was in the reign of Titus, A. D. 80. The emperor left no remedy unattempted to abate the malignity of the distemper, acting during its continuance like a father to his people. The same fatal disease raged in all the provinces of the Roman empire, in the reign of M. Aurelius, A. D. 167, and was followed by a dreadful famine, earthquakes, inundations, and other calamities. About A. D. 430, the plague visited Britain, just after the Picts and Scots had made a formidable invasion of the southern part of the island. It raged with uncommon fury, and swept away most of those whom the sword and famine had spared, so that the living were scarcely sufficient to bury the dead. About A. D. 1348, the plague became almost general over Europe. Many authors give an account of this plague, which is said to have appeared first in the kingdom of Kathay, in 1346, and to have proceeded gradually west to Constantinople and Egypt. From Constantinople it passed into Greece, Italy, France, and Africa, and by degrees along the coast of the ocean into Britain and Ireland, and afterwards into Germany, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and the other northern kingdoms. According to Antonius, archbishop of Florence, the distemper carried off 60,000 people in that city. In 1656, the plague was brought from Sardinia to Naples, being introduced into the city by a transport with soldiers on board. It raged with excessive violence, carrying off, in less than six months, 400,000 of the inhabitants. In 1720, the city of Marseilles was visited with this destructive disease, brought in a ship from the Levant; and in seven months, during which time it continued, it carried off not less than 60,000 people. The ravages of this disease have been dreadful wherever it has made its appearance. On the first arrival of the Europeans at the island of Grand Canaria, it contained 14,000 fighting men; soon after which, two-thirds of these inhabitants fell a sacrifice to the plague. The destruction it has made in Turkey in Europe, and particularly in Constantinople, must be known to every reader; and its fatal effects have been particularly heightened there by that firm belief which prevails among the people of predestination, &c. It is generally brought into European Turkey from Egypt; where it is very frequent, especially at Grand Cairo. To give even a list of all the plagues which have desolated many flourishing countries, would extend this article beyond all bounds, and minutely to describe them all is impossible. Respecting the plague which raged in Syria in 1760, we refer to the Abbe Mariti's Travels through Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine, volume i. pages 278, 296. This plague was one of the most malignant and fatal that Syria ever experienced; for it scarcely had made its appearance in any part of the body, before it carried off the patient.

Some particulars respecting THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON.--The following is part of the inscription on the Monument, which records this calamitous event. "The second day of September, 1666, at the distance of two hundred and two feet, the height of this column, a terrible fire broke out about midnight. It consumed in its progress eighty-nine churches, the city gates, Guildhall, many public structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, a vast number of stately edifices, thirteen thousand two hundred dwelling-houses, and four hundred streets. The ruins of the city were four hundred and thirty-six acres, from the Tower by the Thames side to the Temple church, and from the north-east gate along the city wall, to Holborn bridge. Three days after, when this fatal fire had baffled all human counsels and endeavours, it stopped, as it were by a command from Heaven, and was on every side extinguished."

VICAR OF BRAY.--Every one has frequently heard this reverend son of the church mentioned; probably his name may have outlived the recollection of his pious manoeuvres: he was in his principles a SIXTUS THE FIFTH. The vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, was a Papist under the reign of Henry the Eighth, and a Protestant under Edward the Sixth; he was a Papist again under Mary, and once more became a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When this scandal to the gown was reproached for his versatility of religious creeds, and taxed for being a turn-coat and an inconstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied, "Not so, neither! for if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true to my principle; which is, to live and die the Vicar of Bray!"

This vivacious and reverend hero has given birth to a proverb peculiar to his county, "The Vicar of Bray will be Vicar of Bray still." Fuller tells us, in his facetious chronicle of his Worthies, that this vicar had seen some martyrs burnt two miles off at Windsor, and found this fire too hot for his tender temper. He was one of those who, though they cannot turn the wind, will turn their mills, and set them so, that wheresoever it bloweth, their grist shall certainly be ground.

The following ACCOUNT OF THE CEREMONIES AT QUEEN ELIZABETH'S DINNER, deserves to be recorded.--A German traveller, (Hentzner) talking of Queen Elizabeth, thus describes the solemnity of her dinner. "While she was at prayers, we saw her table set out in the following solemn manner: a gentleman entered the room, bearing a rod, and along with him another who had a table-cloth, which, after they had both kneeled three times with the utmost veneration, he spread upon the table; and, after kneeling again, they both retired. Then came two others, one with the rod again, the other with a salt-cellar, a plate, and bread: when they had kneeled, as the others had done, and placed what was brought upon the table, they too retired with the same ceremonies performed by the first. At last came an unmarried lady, (we were told she was a countess,) and along with her a married one, bearing a lasting knife: the former, who was dressed in white silk, when she had prostrated herself three times in the most graceful manner, approached the table, and rubbed the plates with bread and salt, with as much care as if the queen had been present: when they had waited there a little while, the yeomen of the guard entered, bareheaded, clothed in scarlet, with a golden rose upon their backs, bringing in at each turn a course of twenty-four dishes, served in plate, most of it gilt; these dishes were received by a gentleman in the same order they were brought, and placed upon the table, while the lady-taster gave to each of the guards a mouthful to eat, of the particular dish he had brought, for fear of any poison. During the time that this guard, which consists of the tallest and stoutest men that could be found in all England, were bringing dinner, twelve trumpets and two kettledrums made the hall ring for half an hour together. At the end of this ceremonial, a number of unmarried ladies appeared, who, with particular solemnity, lifted the meat off the table, and conveyed it into the queen's inner and more private chamber, where, after she had chosen for herself, the rest went to the ladies of the court."

A BLACKSMITH'S WIFE BECOME A QUEEN.--It is a curious circumstance, that the present queen of the Sandwich islands, was formerly, or rather is at this time, the wife of a Russian blacksmith. An English vessel lying off what we usually call the Fox Island, several years ago, one of the officers became enamoured of the fair spouse of a son of Vulcan there; and, his passion being returned, he contrived to smuggle her on board the vessel, and keep her there concealed without the knowledge of his captain, till they had cleared the port.

In the course of the voyage, however, the circumstance became known to the captain, who being highly enraged at such a breach of faith and discipline, kept her confined till they arrived at the Sandwich Islands, where she was put on shore. The forlorn Ariadne, however, found a Bacchus for her Theseus,--a royal lover, to replace her lost lieutenant. The king of the island became enamoured of the fair Russian, made her his wife, and raised her to his throne. He was no every-day king. He was a statesman and a hero, though we should call him a savage. He progressively created a respectable navy of several well-built frigates; taught his subjects to be excellent sailors; raised armies; subdued the surrounding islands; and at the close of a prosperous reign, left his possessions and his sovereignty to his queen, who now reigns as his successor. She is well obeyed by her subjects; possesses great wealth in flocks, herds, and rice-ground; and sends frequent presents to her former deserted husband, who still continues to hammer horses' shoes in a Russian colony, while his faithless, but it seems not quite ungrateful spouse, stretches her sceptre over several prosperous isles.

THE SWINE'S CONCERT.--The abbot of Baigne, a man of great wit, and who had the art of inventing new musical instruments, being in the service of Louis XI. king of France, was ordered by that prince to get him a concert of swine's voices, thinking it impossible. The abbot was not surprised, but asked money for the performance, which was immediately delivered him; and he wrought a thing as singular as ever was seen. For out of a great number of hogs, of several ages, which he got together, and placed under a tent or pavilion covered with velvet, before which he had a table of wood painted, with a certain number of keys, he made an organical instrument; and as he played upon the said keys, he, by means of little spikes, which pricked the hogs, made them cry in such order and consonance, as highly delighted the king and all his company.

CHAP. LXXX.

CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE.

_Origin of the Materials of Writing--Minute Writing--Titles of Books--Literary Labour and Perseverance--Curious Account of the Scarcity of Books--Celebrated Libraries--Book of Blunders--Curious Account of the Means of Intellectual Improvement in London._

"Of all the pleasures, noble and refin'd, Which form the taste and cultivate the mind; In ev'ry realm where science darts its beam, From Zembla's ice to Afric's golden stream; From climes where Phoebus pours his orient ray, To the fair regions of declining day: The 'feast of reason' which from reading springs, To reas'ning man the highest solace brings. 'Tis books a lasting pleasure can supply, Charm while we live, and teach us how to die."

ORIGIN OF THE MATERIALS OF WRITING.--The most ancient mode of writing was on bricks, and on tables of stone; afterwards on plates of various materials, on ivory, on the bark of trees, and on their leaves.

Specimens of most of these modes of writing may be seen in the British Museum. No. 3478, in the Sloanian library, is a Nabob's letter, on a piece of bark about two yards long, and richly ornamented with gold. No. 3207, is a book of Mexican hieroglyphics, painted on bark. In the same collection are various species, many from the Malabar coast, and other parts of the East. The latter writings are chiefly on leaves. The prophecies of the Sibyls were on leaves. There are several copies of Bibles written on palm-leaves, still preserved in various collections in Europe. The ancients, doubtless, wrote on any leaves they found adapted for the purpose. Hence the leaf of a book, as well as that of a tree, is derived.

In the book of Job, mention is made of writing on stone, and on sheets of lead. The law of Moses was written on stone. Hesiod's works were written on leaden tables; lead was used for writing, and rolled up like a cylinder, as Pliny states. The laws of the Greeks were engraven on bronze tables. In the shepherd state, they wrote their songs with thorns and awls, on leather. The Icelanders wrote on walls; and Olaf, according to one of the sagas, built a large house, on the balks and spars of which he had engraven the history of his own and more ancient times; while another northern hero appears to have had nothing better than his own chair and bed, on which to perpetuate his own heroic acts. The Arabs took the shoulder-bones of sheep, on which they carved remarkable events with a knife, and after tying them with a string, they hung these chronicles up in their cabinets.

These early inventions led to the discovery of tablets of wood; and as cedar is incorruptible, from its bitterness, they chose this wood for cases or chests to preserve their most important writings. From this custom arises the celebrated expression of the ancients, when they meant to give the highest eulogium of an excellent work, _et cedro digna locuti_; that it was worthy to be written on cedar. These tablets were made of the trunks of trees; the use of them still exists, but in general they are made of other materials than wood. The same reason which led them to prefer the cedar to other trees, induced them to write on wax, which is incorruptible from its nature. Men generally used it to write their testaments, in order the better to preserve them: thus Juvenal says, _Ceras implere capaces_. This thin paste of wax was also spread on tablets of wood, that it might more easily admit of erasure.

They wrote with an iron bodkin, as they did on the other substances we have noticed. The _stylus_ was made sharp at one end to write with, and blunt and broad at the other, to deface and correct easily; hence the phrase _vertere stylum_, to turn the stylus, was used to express blotting out. But the Romans forbade the use of this sharp instrument, from the circumstance of many persons having used them as daggers. A schoolmaster was killed by the _pugillares_, or table-book, and the styles of his own scholars. They substituted a stylus made of the bone of a bird, or other animal, so that their writings resembled engravings. When they wrote on softer materials, they employed reeds and canes, split like our pens at the points, which the Orientalists still use to lay their colour or ink neater on the paper.

By the word _pen_ in the translation of the Bible, we are to understand an iron style. Table-books of ivory are still used for memoranda, written by black-lead pencils. The Romans used ivory to write the edicts of the senate on; and the expression of _libris elephantinis_, which, some authors imagine, alludes to books which for their size were called _elephantine_, others more rationally conclude, were composed of ivory, the tusk of the elephant.

Pumice was likewise a writing material of the ancients, which they used to smooth the roughness of the parchment, or to sharpen their reeds.

In the progress of time, the art of writing consisted in painting with different kinds of ink. This novel mode of writing occasioned them to invent other materials proper to receive their writing. They now chose the thin bark of certain trees and plants; they wrote on linen, and at length, when this was found apt to become mouldy, they prepared the skins of animals. Those of asses are still in use; and on those of serpents, &c. were once written the Iliad and Odyssey. The first place where they began to dress these skins was Pergamus, in Asia; whence the Latin name is derived of _Pergamenæ_, or parchment. These skins are, however, better known amongst the authors of the purest Latin, under the name of _membrana_, so called from the membranes of animals of which they were composed. The ancients had parchments of three different colours, white, yellow, and purple. At Rome, white parchment was disliked, because it was more subject to be soiled than the others, and dazzled the eye. They generally wrote letters of gold and silver on purple or violet parchment. This custom continued in the early ages of the church; and copies of the Evangelists of this kind are preserved in the British Museum.

When the Egyptians employed for writing the bark of a plant or reed, called _papyrus_,[24] or paper-rush, it superseded all former modes, because this was the most convenient. Formerly there grew great quantities of it on the sides of the Nile. It is this plant which has given the name to our paper, although the latter is composed of linen or rags. After the eighth century the papyrus was superseded by parchment. The Chinese make their paper with silk. The use of paper is of great antiquity; it is what the ancient Latinists call _charta_, or _chartæ_. Before the use of parchment and paper passed to the Romans, they contrived to use the thin peel which was found on trees, between the wood of these trees and their bark. This second skin they called _liber_, whence the Latin word _liber_, a book, and library and librarian, in the European languages, and the French _livre_ for book; but we of northern origin derive our book from the Danish _bog_, the beech-tree, because that being the most plentiful in Denmark, was used to engrave on. Anciently, instead of folding this bark, this parchment, or paper, as we fold ours, they rolled it according as they wrote on it; and the Latin name which they gave these rolls has passed into our language as well as the others. We say a volume or volumes, although our books are composed of pages cut and bound together. The books of the ancients on the shelves of their libraries, were rolled up on a pin, and placed erect, titled on the outside in red letters, or rubrics, and appeared like a number of small pillars on the shelves.

Curious information respecting small, or MINUTE WRITING.--The Iliad of Homer in a nut-shell, which Pliny says that Cicero once saw, it is pretended might have been a fact, however to some it may appear impossible. Ælian notices an artist who wrote a distich in letters of gold, which he inclosed in the rind of a grain of corn.

Antiquity, and modern times, have recorded many penmen, whose glory consisted in writing so small a hand, that it could not be legible to the naked eye. One wrote a verse of Homer on a grain of millet; and another, more indefatigably industrious in this important trifling, is said by Menage to have written whole sentences which were not perceptible to the eye without the microscope: pictures and portraits, also, appeared at first to be lines and scratches thrown down at random; one of these formed the face of the Dauphiness, with the most pleasing delicacy and correct resemblance. He read an Italian poem in praise of this princess, containing some thousands of verses, written by an officer, in the space of a foot and a half. This species of curious idleness has not been lost in our own country: about a century ago, this minute writing was a fashionable curiosity. A drawing of the head of Charles I. is in the library of St. John's college, at Oxford. It is wholly composed of minute written characters, which at a small distance resemble the lines of engraving. The lines of the head and ruff, are said to contain the book of Psalms, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. In the British Museum we find a drawing representing the portrait of Queen Anne, not much above the size of the hand. On this drawing appear a number of lines and scratches, which, the librarian assures the marvelling spectator, includes the entire contents of a thin folio volume, that on this occasion is carried in the hand, as if to vouch for the truth of a statement so liable to be received with hesitation.

On this subject it may be worth noticing, that the learned Huet asserts that he, like the rest of the world, for a long time considered as a fiction the story of that industrious writer, who is said to have inclosed the Iliad in a nut-shell. But having examined the matter more closely, he thought it possible. One day, in company at the Dauphin's, this learned man trifled half a hour in proving it. A piece of vellum, about ten inches in length and eight in width, pliant and firm, can be folded up and enclosed in the shell of a large walnut. It can hold in its breadth one line, which can contain 30 verses, and in its length 250 lines. With a crow-quill the writing can be perfect. A page of this vellum will then contain 7500 verses, and the reverse as much; the whole 15,000 verses of the Iliad. And this he proved in their presence, by using a piece of paper, and with a common pen. The thing is possible to be effected; and if some occasion should happen, when paper is excessively rare, it may be useful to know, that a volume of matter may be contained in a very small space.

We submit the following curious particulars respecting the TITLES OF BOOKS.--The Jewish, and many Oriental authors, were fond of allegorical titles, which always shews the most puerile age of taste. The titles were usually adapted to their obscure works. It might exercise an able enigmatist to explain their allusions; for we must understand by "The Heart of Aaron," a commentary on several of the prophets. "The Bones of Joseph" is an introduction to the Talmud. "The Garden of Nuts," and "The Golden Apples," are theological questions, and "The Pomegranate with its Flower," is a treatise of ceremonies no longer practised. Jortin gives a title, which he says, of all the fantastical titles he can recollect, is one of the prettiest. A Rabbin published a catalogue of Rabbinical writers, and called it _Labia Dormientium_, from Cantic. vii. 9. "Like the best wine of my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak." It has a double meaning, of which he was not aware, for most of his Rabbinical brethren talk very much like men in their sleep.

Almost all their works bear such titles as, Bread, Gold, Silver, Roses, Eyes, &c.; in a word, any thing that meant nothing.

Affected title-pages were not peculiar to the Orientalists; but the Greeks and the Romans have shewn a finer taste. They had their Cornucopias, or horns of abundance; Limones, or meadows; Pinakidions, or tablets; Pancarpes, or all sorts of fruits: titles not unhappily adapted for the miscellanists. The nine books of Herodotus, and the nine epistles of Æschines, were respectively honoured by the name of a Muse; and three orations of the latter, by those of the Graces.

The modern fanatics have had a most barbarous taste for titles. We could produce numbers from abroad, and also at home. Some works have been called, "Matches Lighted at the Divine Fire," and one "The Gun of Penitence:" a collection of passages from the Fathers, is called, "The Shop of the Spiritual Apothecary:" we have "The Bank of Faith," and "The Sixpennyworth of Divine Spirit:" one of these works bears the following elaborate one; "Some fine Baskets baked in the Oven of Charity, carefully conserved for the Chickens of the Church, the Sparrows of the Spirit, and the sweet Swallows of Salvation." Sometimes their quaintness has some humour. One Sir Humphrey Lind, a zealous puritan, published a work, which a Jesuit answered by another, entitled, "A Pair of Spectacles for Sir Humphrey Lind." The doughty knight retorted, by "A Case for Sir Humphrey Lind's Spectacles."

Some of these obscure titles have an entertaining absurdity; as, "The Three Daughters of Job," which is a treatise on the three virtues of patience, fortitude, and pain. "The Innocent Love, or the Holy Knight," is a description of the ardours of a saint for the Virgin. "The Sound of the Trumpet," is a work on the day of judgment; and "A Fan to drive away Flies," is a theological treatise on purgatory.