Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

ing patronage or support; it was, indeed, frequently the channel through which charity delighted to exert her holy influence, and, though originating in the heathen world, became sanctified by the Christian virtues. See Dr. Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i, p. 123.

For some customs in France on New Year's Day, see T. T. for 1815, p. 2, and our last volume, p. 3.

*2. 1815.-LORD BYRON MARRIED

To Anne Isabella, only child of Sir Ralph Noel, Bart., by whom he has one daughter.

Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child!
Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart?
When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled,
And when we parted,-not as now we part,

But with a hope.

My daughter!

I see thee not,-I hear thee not, but none
Can be so wrapt in thee; thou art the friend
To whom the shadows of far years extend:
Albeit my brow thou never should'st behold,
My voice shall with thy future visions blend,
And reach into thy heart,-when mine is cold,-
A token and a tone, even from thy father's mould.

To aid thy mind's developement,—to watch
Thy dawn of little joys,—to sit and see
Almost thy very growth,-to view thee catch
Knowledge of objects,-wonders yet to thee!
To hold thee lightly on a gentle knee,
And print on thy soft cheek a parent's kiss,—
This, it should seem, was not reserved for me;
Yet this was in my nature:-as it is,

I know not what is there, yet something like to this.

Yet, though dull Hate as duty should be taught,
I know that thou wilt love me; though my name
Should be shut from thee, as a spell still fraught
With desolation,—and a broken claim:

Though the grave closed between us,-'twere the same,
I know that thou wilt love me; though to drain

My blood from out thy being, were an aim
And an attainment,-all would be in vain,—

Still thou would'st love me, still that more than life retain.

The child of love, though born in bitterness,
And nurtured in convulsion. Of thy sire
These were the elements,—and thine no less.
As yet such are around thee,—but thy fire
Shall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher.
Sweet be thy cradled slumbers! O'er the sea,
And from the mountains where I now respire,
Fain would I waft such blessing upon thee,
As, with a sigh, I deem thou might'st have been to me!
CHILDE HAROID, Canto 3, p. 62-64.

*4. 1568.-ROGER ASCHAM DIED.

He was Latin secretary and tutor in the learned languages to Queen Elizabeth, by whom he was much lamented; her Majesty having, it is said, declared, that she would rather have lost ten thousand pounds than her tutor Ascham. Being remarkable for writing a fine hand, he was employed to instruct several of the royal family in that art.

*5. 1793.-MRS. GRIFFITHS DIED.

Her letters to young married women, her plays, and her volume on the Morality of Shakspeare's Dramas, bespeak this lady to have been one of those numerous females who were the ornament of the age and country in which she lived.

6.-EPIPHANY.

The rites of this day, the name of which signifies an appearance of light, or a manifestation, are different in various places, though the object of them is much the same in all; namely, to do honour to the memory of the Eastern magi, to whom Christ on this day was manifested, and who, according to a tradition of the Romish church, were three in number, and of royal dignity. This being the Twelfth-day after the Nativity of our Lord, is celebrated in the metropolis, and in the south of England, by drawing lots, and assuming fictitious characters for the evening: formerly the king or queen was chosen by a bean found in a piece of divided cake; and this was once a common Christmas gambol in both the English Universities. Herrick, who was the contemporary of Shakspeare from the year 1591 to 1610, gives the

following curious and pleasing account of the ceremonies of Twelfth-night, as we may suppose them to have been then observed in almost every private family:

TWELFTH NIGHT; or, KING and QUEEN.
Now, now the mirth comes

With the cake full of plums,

Where Beane's the king of the sport here ;
Beside, we must know,

The Pea also

[blocks in formation]

Be Twelfe-day Queene for the night here.

Which knowne, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;

And let not a man then be seen here,
Who unurged will not drinke

To the base from the brink

A health to the King and the Queene here.
Next crowne the bowle full
With gentle lambs-wooll;
Adde sugar, nutmeg and ginger,

With store of ale, too;

And thus ye must doe

To make the wassaile a swinger.

Give then to the King

And Queene wassailing;

And though with ale ye be whet here;

Yet part ye from hence,

As free from offence,

As when ye innocent met here.

During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, the celebration of Twelfth-night was, equally with Christmas Day, a festival through the land, and was observed with great ostentation and ceremony in both the Universities, at Court, at the Temple, and at Lincoln's and Gray's Inn. Many of the Masques of Ben Jonson were written for the amusement of the

Royal Family on this night; and Dugdale, in his Origines Juridicales, has given us a long and parti cular account of the revelry at the Temple on each of the twelve days of Christmas, in the year 1562. It appears from this document that the hospitable rites of St. Stephen's Day, St. John's Day, and Twelfth Day, were ordered to be exactly alike; and as many of them are, in their nature, perfectly rural, and were, there is every reason to suppose, observed, to a certain extent, in the halls of the country gentry and substantial yeomanry, a short record here of those that fall under this description cannot be deemed inapposite.

The breakfast on Twelfth Day is directed to be of brawn, mustard, and malmsey; the dinner of two courses, to be served in the hall; and after the first course cometh in the Master of the Game, apparalled in green velvet; and the Ranger of the Forest also, in a green suit of satten, bearing in his hand a green bow and divers arrows, with either of them a hunting horn about their necks, they pace round about the fire three times. Then the Master of the Game maketh three curtesies, kneels down, and petitions to be admitted into the service of the Lord of the Feast.

This ceremony performed, a huntsman cometh into the hall with a fox, and a purse-net with a cat, both bound at the end of a staff, and with them nine or ten couple of hounds, with the blowing of huntinghorns. And the fox and cat are by the hounds set upon, and killed beneath the fire. This sport finished, the Marshal (an officer so called, who, with many others under different appellations, were created for the purpose of conducting the revels) placeth them in their several appointed places.'

After the second course, the antientest of the Masters of the Revels singeth a song, with the assistance of others there present;' and, after some repose and revels, supper, consisting of two courses,

is then served in the hall, and, being ended, the Marshall presenteth himself with drums afore him, mounted upon a scaffold, born by four men; and goeth three times round about the harthe, crying out aloud 'A Lord, a Lord,' &c.; then he descendeth, and goeth to dance. This done, the Lord of Misrule addresseth himself to the Banquet, which ended with some minstralsye, mirth, and dancing, every man departeth to rest.'-See Dr. Drake's admirable Illustrations of the manners and customs of these times, in his Shakspeare,' vol. i, p. 131, and the authors there cited.

[ocr errors]

The customs on this day in Northumberland, France, and at Rome, are described at length in T.T. for 1815, p. 5. On the Epiphany, the King of England offers annually, by proxy, at the chapel royal, St. James's, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The day after Twelfth Day was called St. Distaff's Day.'

*6. 1684.-THE THAMES FROZEN.

Mr. Evelyn in his Memoirs' affords some curious particulars of this remarkable frost. Jan. 9. I went crosse the Thames on the ice, now become so thicke as to beare not only streetes of boothes in which they roasted meate, and had divers shops of ware quite across as in a towne, but coaches, carts, and horses passed over.-16. The Thames was filled with people and tents, selling all sorts of wares as in the city.-24. The frost continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London was still planted with boothes in formal streetes, all sorts of trades and shops furnish'd and full of commodities, even to a printing presse, where the people and ladyes tooke a fancy to have their names printed, and the day and yeare set down when printed on the Thames; this humour tooke so universally, that 'twas

1 See some lines on this subject in T. T. for 1814, p. 4.

« AnteriorContinuar »