Part 11
The old Buonarotti was perfectly upset; he held his head between his hands, and asked of himself which had lost his reason, his son or himself. Michael Angelo not allowing him farther time for reflection, dragged him by force to the palace of the great Medicis. The Governor believed himself to be in a dream. No guard forbade their approach, and the courtiers drew respectfully back to give them passage.
At the door of the Prince’s closet, a page raised the hanging curtain, and the old Buonarotti stood with his son in the presence of the Medicis.
“Sir,” said the Prince, coming forward and courteously addressing him, “I have been the cause of disturbing you, in order to ask your leave that I may retain about me a son of whom you may be justly proud, and who bids fair to become the first artist of his time. My house shall be his home, and his salary you will yourself name.
“In return, I make you only one request; your son has probably already told you what. It is that you ask of me any appointment most suitable to your taste and habits. It is granted beforehand.”
“My son,” replied the agitated father, endeavouring to master his emotion, “will, I think, be paid beyond his deserts, if he receives five ducats monthly.”
“And for yourself, Sir?”
“For myself, Prince, I ask a trifling situation now vacant in the customs: it can only be given to a citizen of the State; I ask it, because it is a post I feel I can fill with honour.”
“You will never be rich, my dear Buonarotti,” laughingly replied the Medicis, “for, offered any situation you please, you content yourself with a little place in the customs.”
“Enough too--for the father of a _mason_!”
And thus was Michael Angelo de Buonarotti introduced to the patronage of the illustrious Medicis.
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[Sidenote: Sir Sidney Smith.]
Qui a peur du mal a déjà le mal de la peur. Qui espère le bien a déjà le bien de l’espoir.
The above lines were written on the window of his prison by Sir Sidney Smith, the day of his escape from the Temple; the hand of the hero of Acre threw them on the Cairn.
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[Sidenote: Of Bees.]
It is easy to imagine why they are highly valued. They have always been very numerous in Palestine. Frequent mention is made in the sacred volume of “honey out of the rock.” The Scriptures also speak of honey as forming a part of the presents which it was usual to send to persons of distinction. Canaan is described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” John the Baptist is said to have lived upon “locusts and wild honey,” and among the articles of food set before our Saviour, when, after his resurrection he ate with his disciples, was a piece of an “honeycomb.”
These combined circumstances have doubtless had their share in leading the uninstructed, in nearly all countries and times, to look upon the Bee with a feeling of superstitious reverence.
_Mead_, the produce of the Bee, was the favourite drink, the nectar of the ancient Britons; and their attachment to this extraordinary little insect ascended to a very remote period. According to their belief, the high origin of the Bee is from Paradise, and it was on account of man’s transgression they left it, and then God gave them a blessing. The priests therefore maintained that no _Mass_ ought to be celebrated, except by the light of _wax_.
These extraordinary little insects make the tops and bottoms of their cells of three planes meeting in a point, and the inclinations or angles at which they meet, are precisely those found out by the mathematicians to be the best possible for saving wax and work. Who could dream the Bee was conversant with the highest branch of the mathematics, the fruit of Newton’s most wonderful labour, of the source of which he was himself ignorant; one of his most celebrated followers having found it out in a later age? This little insect works with a truth and correctness which are perfect, and according to the principles at which man has arrived only after ages of slow improvement in the most difficult branch of the most difficult science. But the mighty and all-wise Creator who made the insect and the philosopher, bestowing reason on the latter, and giving skill to the former to work without it, to Him all truths are known from all eternity with an intuition that mocks even the conceptions of the sagest of human kind.
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[Sidenote: Bayonets.]
The word bayonet is derived from the circumstance of this weapon being first manufactured at Bayonne.
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[Sidenote: Hope.]
Farewell! but not for ever, Hope replies, Trace but his steps, and meet him in the skies; There nothing shall renew our parting pain, Thou shalt not wither, or I weep again.
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[Sidenote: Oliver Cromwell.]
It is related by Pope, and also by Spencer in his Anecdotes, that on the night after the decollation of King Charles I. his body was placed in a room at Whitehall, and that the Earl of Southampton sat in the room to guard and manifest his respect to the royal corse. About midnight the door opened, and a person so muffled that he could not be known entered; who, after slowly walking to the coffin, looked at the corse some time, and having exclaimed “Cruel necessity!” as slowly retired. Lord Southampton imagined from the figure and voice, that it was Oliver Cromwell!
Supposing this to be the case, it were only consistent with the hypocrisy of his character, that he should assume the appearance of feeling, in order to impress people with a character for humanity.
It is remarked in Walpoliana as a singular fact, that the descendants of Charles I. and Oliver Cromwell intermarried in the fourth degree
By the marriage of my father, Sir Charles Shipley, connected with the “Bradshawes,” by the Rudyerds, and my mother the great granddaughter of the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II.
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[Sidenote: Origin of the term “Sandwich.”]
To the memory of “Lord Sandwich” belongs the name of that edible. Being during his administration (as was very usual with him), at a gambling house, he had, in the fascination of play, for more than five and twenty hours forgotten fatigue and hunger, when suddenly, feeling disposed to break his fast, though still riveted to the table, he called to bid some one bring him any thing that was to be had to eat, which happened to prove a slice of beef, and two pieces of bread. Placing them together for the sake of expedition, he devoured them with the greatest relish. The most ecstatic encomiums published his discovery, and giving it his name, bequeathed it as a memento to his country, as one of the most important acts of his administration.
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[Sidenote: Catherine II.]
During the splendid progress which the Empress Catherine II. made through her dominions, she was one day expressing her opinion of the various surmises her journey would create, and the different causes that would be assigned for it at the several courts of Europe; adding, “this Cabinet of Petersburgh, which is now floating down the Dneiper, must be considered of great importance, since it affords so much occupation to many others.” “Yes, Madam,” replied the Prince de Ligne, “and yet I don’t know one that is so small; for its whole dimensions are but a few inches, it extends but from one temple to the other, and from the root of the nose to that of the hair.”
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Addison amused himself with inventing fourteen years of the Pretender’s reign. The fourth year has the following passage: “He ordered the Lord High Treasurer to pay off the debts of the crown, which had been contracted since his accession to the throne, particularly a _milk_ score of three years’ standing.”
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[Sidenote: Duke of Monmouth.]
Arguments in favour of the belief that the Duke of Monmouth was _not_ executed, as declared, but suffered to escape; an individual who was under sentence of death having been induced to pass for this unfortunate prince.
Hume says, Après son exécution ses partisans conservaient l’espérance de le revoir à leur tête; ils se flattèrent que le prisonnier qu’on avait exécuté n’était pas le Duc de Monmouth, mais qu’un de ses amis, qui lui ressemblait beaucoup, avait eu le courage de mourir pour lui.
Sainte Foix, in a letter on the subject of the “Masque de Fer,” dated Amsterdam, 1768, says, “Il est certain que le bruit courut dans Londres qu’un officier de l’armée de Monmouth, qui lui ressemblait beaucoup, fait prisonnier et sûr d’être condamné au mort, avait reçu la proposition de passer pour lui avec autant de joie que si on lui avait accordé la vie, et que, sur ce bruit, une grande dame, ayant gagné ceux qui pouvaient ouvrir son cercueil, et lui ayant regardé le bras droit, s’écria, ‘Ah! ce n’est pas le Duc de Monmouth!’”
Enfin, Sainte-Foix, qui cherche à prouver que le Masque de Fer n’était autre que le Duc de Monmouth, cite un passage d’un ouvrage par Pyms, et dans lequel on dit, “Le Comte Danby envoya chercher le Colonel Skelton, qui avait eu ci-devant la Lieutenance de la Tour de Londres, et à qui le Prince d’Orange l’avait otée pour la donner au Lord Lucas. ‘Skelton,’ lui dit le Comte Danby, ‘hier au soir en soupant avec Robert Johnston, vous lui dites, que le Duc de Monmouth était vivant et enfermé dans quelque chateau en Angleterre.’ ‘Je n’ai point affirmé cela, puisque je n’en sais rien,’ dit Skelton, ‘mais j’ai dit, que, la nuit d’après la prétendue exécution du Duc de Monmouth, le Roi, accompagné de trois hommes, vint lui-même le tirer de la Tour, et que le Duc fut emmené par lui.”
Sainte-Foix cite encore une conversation du père Tournemine, et ajoute:
“La Duchesse de Portsmouth dit au père Tournemine et au Confesseur du Roi Jacques, qu’elle reprocherait toujours à la mémoire de ce Prince l’exécution du Duc de Monmouth après que Charles Second, à l’heure de la mort, et prêt à communier devant l’hostie, que Haldeston prêtre catholique avait secrètement apportée, avait fait promettre au Roi Jacques (alors Duc d’York), que quelque revolte, que quant au Duc de Monmouth, il ne le ferait jamais punir de mort. _Aussi le Roi Jacques ne l’a-t-il pas fait mourir_, repondit le père Sanders.”
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[Sidenote: Death.]
Strange, that we can live so constantly with that threatening hand hung over us, and not think of it always! How difficult it is to realise death! how difficult to believe that the hand with whose every vein you are familiar will ever lose its motion and warmth! That the quick eye will settle and grow dull. It is at first hard to believe that we _must die_; harder still to believe the repulsive circumstances that follow this terrible change! It is a bitter thought, at the lightest. There is little comfort in knowing that the sense and the mind, that feel and measure suffering, will be gone. The separation of soul and body is too great a mystery to satisfy fear: it is the body that we know; it is this material frame in which the affections have grown up. The spirit is a thought, a presence, that we are told of, but do not see. The idea of existence is connected indissolubly with the visible body, and its pleasant and familiar scenes. We talk of, and rest our belief on the soul’s ascent to its Maker; but it is not ourselves, it is not our own conscious breathing identity, that we, in imagination, send up through the invisible air; we do not understand, we cannot realise the wondrous thought.
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[Sidenote: Origin of the Title of Earl.]
During the government of the Anglo-Saxons _Earldoms_ of counties were not merely dignities of honour, but officers of justice; each person having the charge and custody of the county of which he was Earl; and for their assistance in the discharge of this duty, they had also deputies, or _vicecomes_, as they were denominated, appointed, which office still continues to be executed by the Sheriffs annually chosen for the different counties of England and Wales. The _Earls_, in recompense for their travelling expenses, and other charges incidental to the affairs of this important office, had originally a salary derived from the profits of the third penny of the county[14] granted to them; and this custom continued for a long time after the conquest, and was formerly inserted as a princely benevolence in their patents of creation. These salaries were at a later period changed into pensions for the better support of their dignity, as appears by many ancient records. The word Earl, by the Saxons was called _Erlig_, or Ethling; by the Germans, _Grave_, as Landgrave, Margrave, &c. and by the Dutch, Eorle: but upon the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, in 1066, and the subsequent settlement of the Normans in this country they were called _Comes_, or _Comites_, and for consequence in State affairs were usually styled _Comes Illustres_. Formerly Kings were addressed by the title of _Your Grace_. Henry VIII. was the first, says Houssaie, who assumed the title of _Highness_; and at length _Majesty_. It was Francis I. who began to give him this last title, in their interview in the year 1520.
[14] Third part of fines arising from law-suits, the other two going to the King.
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Il est des âmes que le malheur peut abattre, mais qu’il n’avilit jamais.
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[Sidenote: James II.]
The Diary of James II. which from his earliest youth he had kept, he, at the time of his abdication, as one of his last acts, confided to the Count of Therese, by whose means the papers were sent to Italy; and afterwards found their way to the Scotch College at Paris. About the beginning of the French revolution, the original MSS. were sent to St. Amiens, secreted in a cellar, afterwards buried in a garden of a country house, and it is supposed were taken up and destroyed; but copies were previously taken and formed into a life of James II. which, with other papers termed the “Stuart Manuscripts,” were published.
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Heureux celui qui sait quitter l’état qui le quitte, et rester heureux en dépit du sort.
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La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir d’avoir quelqu’un à qui on puisse dire: La solitude est une belle chose.
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Peut-on se consoler de la perte d’un enfant! ce malheur, le plus poignant de tous, semble tellement opposé à la nature, que la douleur qu’il produit doit durer toujours.
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[Sidenote: Sea-fire.]
The phenomenon called by sailors _Sea-fire_, is one of the most beautiful and interesting which is witnessed in the Hebrides. At times the ocean appears entirely illuminated around the vessel, and a long train of lambent corruscations are perpetually breaking upon her sides, or pursuing her wake through the darkness. These phosphoric appearances, concerning the origin of which naturalists are not agreed in opinion, seem to be called into action by the rapid motion of the ship, through the water being saturated with _fish_ and _spawn_, and other animal substance.
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“_Lisez et Croyez._”
A Device on a Lady’s Seal.
Quelques censeurs peu délicats, Oubliant ce qu’on doit aux femmes, Ont dit, en parlant de ces dames, “Lisez-les, ne les croyez pas.” Ces messieurs ont fait leur histoire: Jugeons-les par ce qu’ils ont dit. Pour vous, Iris, quand on vous lit, On admire autant votre esprit Qu’on a de plaisir à vous croire.
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_A la même, en lui annoncant mon départ._
De mon bonheur le sort jaloux A ne vous plus revoir me condamne peut-être. Ah! je devais ne jamais vous connaître, Ou rester toujours près de vous.
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[Sidenote: Troubadours.]
The Troubadours were the ancient wandering poets, supposed to originate in Provence, and who composed and sung their own verses. The Trombe, or Trompe, was an instrument of the trumpet kind, from which it is believed the word “Trombadour,” or “Troubadour,” is derived; it being to this instrument they sung their poems. Several princes and nobles were among the number of these bards: Richard I. of England was of the former. The Italian poets are said to have borrowed their best pieces from the Troubadours; they flourished in Europe about two hundred and fifty years, from 1120 till the year 1382.
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S’occuper, c’est savoir jouir; L’oisiveté pèse et tourmente; L’âme est un feu qu’il faut nourir, Et qui s’éteint, s’il ne s’augmente.
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Je ne vous parle point d’amis, car je sais combien cette denrée là est rare: mais je vous parle des connaissances agréables. Avec un bon soupé on a qui on veut: et si on le juge àpropos, on se moque encore après de ses convives.
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Etre avec les gens qu’on aime, cela suffit. Rêver, leur parler, ne leur parler point, penser à eux, penser à des choses indifférentes; mais auprès d’eux, tout est égal.
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[Sidenote: Pride and Humility.]
On the marriage of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, with Mary the sister of King Henry VIII. and widow of Louis XII. of France, he appeared at the tournament given in honour of his bride, with an ingenious device, delicately alluding to the event which had brought him within the pale of royalty. To the trappings of his horse, which were one half of cloth of gold, and the other of cloth of freize, was appended the following motto.
Cloth of gold, do not despise, Though thou art match’d with cloth of freize; Cloth of freize, be not too bold, Though thou art match’d with cloth of gold.
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Les convalescences de l’âme sont comme celles du corps: on en sent bien mieux le prix que celui de la santé.
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Les louanges les plus flatteuses, et les plus énivrantes, sont celles que l’on reçoit unanimement devant l’objet qu’on aime.
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[Sidenote: Voltaire.]
Those who proclaim Voltaire to be an atheist, only evince their ignorance of his real sentiments, and the beautiful principle by which he was influenced; his every act tended to acquit him of the charge of atheism. Besides, it never did, never can exist! Were it possible our lips could deny this truth, our hearts must witness to it; and however strongly the wretched atheist would assert the nonexistence of the power he denies, the very faculties, the reasoning, the subtle arguments which he employs, are these not so many attributes derived from a power, Almighty, though indefinite, Omnipresent, though invisible? The command of language, the superiority of talent he proudly displays, give the lie to his own system; whilst common sense declares beyond all doubt, the existence of that wonderful chain of creation, of which man is the first link, formed by a Divine intelligence, foreseeing and pre-ordaining all things. Alas! it must be admitted, that Voltaire denied the _Divinity_ of our Saviour, although his virtues were those of a Christian; so often evinced in acts of the purest benevolence and philanthropy, rejecting all sectarian intolerance, affecting no uncharitable jargon. How to be regretted that such virtues were not guided and supported by belief!
Happy they who rely on the eternity of the soul, who believe as the loved fall, one after one, from their side, that they have returned to their native country, that they await the Divine reunion; who feel that each treasure of knowledge they attain, they carry with them through illimitable being; who see in virtue the essence of the element of that world they are to inhabit, and to which they but accustom themselves betimes; who comfort their weariness amidst the storms of time, by seeing far across the melancholy seas the haven they will reach at last; who deem that every struggle has its assured reward, and every sorrow its balm; who know, that however forsaken or bereaved below, they never can be alone, and never deserted; that above is the protection of Eternal power, and the mercy of Eternal love.
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[Sidenote: Antipathies.]
The Princess de Lamballe fainted, if a nosegay of violets was in the room.
A celebrated Counsellor of Parliament at Douai, if he saw an apple not cut with a knife, but broken, would rise from table, and scarcely be able to totter to the door; whereas, the apple cut in the usual manner, he would have felt no ill effect.
The celebrated Lord Bolingbroke had an insurmountable horror of a cat: he frequently visited the Marechale de Mirepoix, and always waited in the anti-room till he was assured that all the cats, of which she possessed several of a famous Angora breed, had been turned out. These animals were so sociable, that they would sit on the large Loto table, and whenever a counter rolled near them, they would play with it with their paws in their usual graceful manner. I have often been fortunate enough, says M. de Levis, to be of their party without ever having to complain of them. One day, when the valet de chamber, after carefully searching every where, believed there could not be a cat in the apartment, Lord Bolingbroke came in, but immediately screamed and rushed back; the next day it was discovered that one of the cats had been accidentally shut up in a closet.
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[Sidenote: Anne of Austria: a Sketch.]
Anne Maurice was daughter of Philippe III. King of Spain, and of Margarette of Austria; she was born at Valladolid, on Saturday the 22nd of September, 1601; married to Louis XIII. King of France, called “the Just,” the 9th of November, 1615, and not till after twenty-three years became a mother, giving birth first to Louis XIV. and next to Philippe of France, Duke of Orléans, who married the Princess Henrietta of England, daughter of the unfortunate Charles I. and of Henrietta sister of Louis XIII. At the death of this monarch, his son being only _nine_ years of age, he declared Anne of Austria Regent, and during the period of her administration, to that in which she surrendered the direction of his kingdom, at the majority of Louis XIV. she fully justified the election; her great strength of mind and justice of conduct never giving way, though intestine dissention and foreign wars rendered her task not a little arduous. More than once the Queen Regent abandoned her capital during the tumult of the parliamentary faction, supported by the Duke of Orléans,[15] the late King’s brother. The spirit of discontent gave the ministry of Cardinal Mazarin as its source, but it was long before the Queen would yield her predilection for, and support of this minister. His eventual exile restored peace at home, but it was not of long duration, and the Cardinal returned to negotiate the marriage of his sovereign with the Infanta of Spain, niece to the Queen Regent. This amiable Princess was not only chosen by Anne of Austria as the means of restoring peace between Spain and France, but also as interesting to her by the ties of maternal affection, being her brother’s daughter.
Till the death of Mazarin, Louis was little conspicuous in the administration of his government, and so much had he felt the evil consequence of the authority and patronage assumed by the Italian Cardinal, that he resolved to keep the reins in future wholly in his own hands. Mazarin had been brought forward by the minister Richelieu, and raised from obscurity; he died possessed of incalculable riches, after having made the fortunes of all his family.[16]