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He took her hollow lute,

Tumultuous, and, in chords that tenderest be,
He play'd an ancient diety, long since mute,
In Provence call'd, "La belle dame sans mercy
Close to her ear touching the melody;-
Wherewith disturb'd, she utter'd a soft moan:
He ceas'd-she panted quick-and suddenly
Her blue affrayed eyes wide open shone :

Upon his knees he sank, pale as smooth-sculptured stone.
Her eyes were open, but she still beheld,
Now wide awake, the vision of her sleep:
There was a painful change, that nigh expell'd
The blisses of her dream so pure and deep,
At which fair Madeline began to weep,
And moan forth witless words with many a sigh,
While still her gaze on Porphyro would keep;
Who knelt, with joined hands aud piteous eye,
Fearing to move or speak, she look'd so dreamingly

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Ah, Porphyro!" said she, "but even now

Thy voice was at sweet tremble in mine ear,
"Made tuneable with every sweetest vow;
"And those sad eyes were spiritual and clear.

"How chang'd thou art! how pallid, chill, and drea
"Give me that voice again, my Porphyro,

"Those looks immortal, those complainings dear! "Oh, leave me not in this eternal woe,

For if thou diest, my love, I know not where to go."

Beyond a mortal man impassion'd far

At these voluptuous accents, he arose,
Ethereal, flush'd, and like a throbbing star,
Seen 'mid the sapphire heaven's deep repose,
Into her dream he melted, as the ro e
Blendeth its odour with the violet,-

Solution sweet: meantime the frost-wind blows
Like Love's alarum pattering the sharp sleet
Against the window-panes.

"Hark! 'tis an elfin-storm from faery land,
"Of haggard seeming, but a boon indeed
"Arise-arise! the morning is at hand;—
"Let us away, my love, with happy speed.

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AQUARIUS,

OR, THE WATER BEARER.

The sun enters Aquarius on this day, though he does not enter it in the visible zodiac until the 18th of February.

Ganymede, who succeeded Hebe as cup-bearer to Jove, is fabled to have been changed into Aquarius. Canobus of the Egyptian zodiac, who was the Neptune of the Egyptians, with a water-vase and measure, evidently prefigured this constellation. They worshipped him as the God of many breasts, from whence he replenished the Nile with fertilizing streams. Aquarins contains one hundred and eight stars, the two chief of which are about fifteen degrees in height:

His head, his shoulders, and his lucid breast, Glisten with stars; and when his urn inclines, Rivers of light brighten the watery track.

January 21.

Eudosia.

St. Agnes. St Fructuosus, &c. Vimin, or Vivian. St. Publius. Epiphanius.

St.

St.

St. Agnes. "She has always been looked upon," says Butler," as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate mother of God." According to him, she suffered martyrdom, about 304, and performed

wonderful miracles before her death,wnich was by beheading, when she was thirteen years old; whereupon he enjoins females to a single life, as better than a married one, and says, that her anniversary "was formerly a holiday for the women in England." Ribadeneira relates, that she was to have been burned, and was put into the fire for that purpose, but the flames, refusing to touch her, divided on each side, burnt some of the bystanders, and then quenched, as if there had been none made: a compassionate quality in nre, of which iron was not sensible, for her head was cut off at a single blow Her legend further relates, that eight days after her death she came to her parents arrayed in white, attended by virgins with garlands of pearls, and a lamb whiter than snow; she is therefore usually represented by artists with a lamb by her side; though not, as Mr. Brand incautiously says," in every graphic representation." It is further related, that a priest who officiated in a church dedicated to St. Agnes, was very desirous of being married. He prayed the pope's license, who gave it him, together with an emerald ring, and commanded him to pay his addresses to the image of St. Agnes in his own church Then the priest did so, and the image put forth her finger, and he put the ring thereon; whereupon the image drew her finger again, and kept the ring fast, and the priest was contented to remain a bu

chelor; "and yet, as it is sayd, the rynge secrated animals were afterwards shorn,

is on the fynger of the ymage

In a Romish Missal printed at Paris, in 1520, there is a prayer to St. Agnes, remarkably presumptive of her powers; it is thus englished by Bp. Patrick:

Agues, who art the Lamb's chaste spouse,
Enlighten thou our minds within;
Not only lop the spreading boughs,
But root out of us every sin.

O, Lady, singularly great,
After this state, with grief opprest
Translate us to that quiet seat
Above, to triumph with the blest.

From Naogeorgus, we gather that in St. Agnes' church at Rome, it was customary on St. Agnes' Day to bring two snow-white lambs to the altar, upon which they were laid while the Agnus was singing by way of offering. These con

and palls made from their fleeces; for each
of which, it is said, the pope exacted or
the bishops from eight to ten, or thirty
thousand crowns, and that the custom
originated with Limes, who succeeded the
apostle Peter: whereupon Naogeorgus
inquires,

But where was Agnes at that time?
who offred up, and how,

The two white lambes? where then was
Masse,

as it is used now?

Yea, where was then the Popish state,
and dreadfull monarchee?
Sure in Saint Austen's time, there were

no palles at Rome to see, &c.
In Jephson's" Manners, &c. of France
and Italy," there is one dated from Rome,
February, 14, 1793. That this ceremony
was then in use, is evident from the fol-
lowing lines:-

St. Agnes' Shrine.

Where each pretty Ba-lamb most gaily appears,
With ribands stuck round on its tail and its ears;
On gold fringed cushions they're stretch'd out to eat,
And piously ba, and to church-musick bleat;

Yet to me they seem'd crying, alack, and alas!
What's all this white damask to daisies and grass?

Then they're brought to the Pope, and with transport they're kiss'd, And receive consecration from Sanctity's fist. Blessing of Sheep Stopford, in "Pagano-Papismus," recites this ceremony of the Romish church. The sheep were brought into the church, and the priest, having blessed some salt and water, read in one corner this gospel, "To us a child is born," &c. with the whole office, a farthing being laid upon the book, and taken up again; in the second corner he read this gospel, "Ye men of Galilee," &c. with the whole office, a farthing being laid upon the book, and taken up again; in the third corner he read this gospel, "I am the good shepherd," &c. with the whole office, a farthing being laid upon the book, and taken up again; and in the fourth corner he read this gospel, "In these days," &c. with the whole office, a farthing being laid upon the book, and taken up again After that, he sprinkled all the sheep with holy water, saying, "Let the blessing of God, the Father Almighty, descend and remain upon you; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." Then he signed all the sheep with the sign of the cross, repeated thrice some Latin verses, with the Paternoster and Ave-Marias

sung the mass of the Holy Ghost, and at the conclusion, an offering of fourpence was for himself, and another of threepence was for the poor. This ceremony was adopted by the Romish church from certain customs of the ancient Romans, in their worship of Pales, the goddess of sheepfolds and pastures. They prayed her to bless the sheep, and sprinkled them with water. The chief difference between the forms seems to have consisted in this, that the ancient Romans let the sheep remain in their folds, while the moderns drove them into the church.

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Christmas Rose.

St. Agnes.

Helleborus niger flor. albo.

THE CROCUS.

Dainty young thing

Of life!-Thou vent'rous flower,
Who growest through the hard, cold
Of wintry Spring:

Thou various-hued,
Soft, voireless bell, whose spire
Rocks in the grassy leaves like wire
In solitude:

Like Patience, thou

Art quiet in thy earth,

Instructing Hope that Virtue's birth

Is Feeling's vow.

Thy fancied bride!

The delicate Snowdrop, keeps

ment of his fees; if convicted, he was set in the stocks on each of the three subsequent market-days in Halifax, with the stolen goods on his back, if they were portable; if not, they were placed before his face. This was for a terror to others,

Her home with thee; she wakes and sleeps and to engage any who had aught against

Near thy true side.

Will Man but hear!

A simple flower can tell

What beauties in his mind should dwell Tarough Passion's sphere.

CHRONOLOGY.

J. R. Prior.

1793. On the 21st of January, Louis XVI. was beheaded at Paris, in the thirtyninth year of his age, and nineteenth of his reign, under circumstances which are in the recollection of many, and known to most persons. A similar instrument to the guillotine, the machine by which Louis XVI. was put to death, was formerly used in England. It was first introduced into France, during the revolution, by Dr. Guillotine, a physician, and hence its name.

THE HALIFAX GIBBET AND GIBBET-LAW.

a true account

The History of Halifax in Yorkshire, 12mo. 1712, sets forth " of their ancient, odd, customary gibbetlaw and their particular form of trying and executing of criminals, the like not us'd in any other place in Great Britain." The Halifax gibbet was in the form of the guillotine, and its gibbet-law quite as remarkable. The work referred to, which is more curious than rare, painfully endeavours to prove this law wise and salutary. It prevailed only within the forest of Hardwick, which was subject to the lord of the manor of Wakefield, a part of the duchy of Lancaster. If a felon were taken within the liberty of the forest with cloth, or other commodity, of the value of thirteen-pence halfpenny, he was, after three market-days from his apprehension and condemnation, to be carried to the gibbet, and there have his head cut off from his body. When first taken, he was brought to the lord's bailiff in Halifax, who kept the town, had also the keeping of the axe, and was the executioner at the gibbet. This officer summoned a jury of trith-burghers to try him on the evidence of witnesses not upon oath: if acquitted, he was set at liberty, upon pay

him, to bring accusations, although after the three market-days he was sure to be executed for the offence already proved upon him. But the convict had the satisfaction of knowing, that after he was put to death, it was the duty of the corothe same jury that condemned him," to ner to summon a jury," and sometimes inquire into the cause of his death, and that a return thereof would be made into the Crown-office; "which gracious and sage proceedings of the coroner in that matter ought, one would think, to abate, in all considering minds, that edge of acriwhich hath provoked malicious and prejudiced persons to debase this laudable and necessary custom." So says the book.

mony

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In April, 1650, Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchell were found guilty of stealing nine yards of cloth and two colts, and on the 30th of the month received sentence, to suffer death, by having their heads severed and cut off from their bodies at Halifax gibbet," and they suffered accordingly. These were the last persons executed under Halifax gibbet-law.

The execution was in this manner :The prisoner being brought to the scaffold by the bailiff, the axe was drawn up by a pulley, and fastened with a pin to the side of the scaffold. "The bailiff, the jurors, and the minister chosen by the prisoner, being always upon the scaffold with the prisoner, in most solemn manner, after the minister had finished his ministerial office and christian duty, if it was a horse, an ox, or cow, &c. that was taken with the prisoner, it was thither brought along with him to the place of execution, and fastened by a cord to the pin that stay'd the block, so that when the time of the execution came, (which was known by the jurors holding up one of their hands,) the bailiff, or his servant, whipping the beast, the pin was pluck'd out, and execution done; but if there were no beast in the case, then the hailiff, or his servant, cut the rope."

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But if the telon, after his apprehension, or in his going to execution, happened to make his escape out of the forest of Hardwick, which liberty, on the east end of the town, doth not extend above the breadth of a small river; on the north about six hundred paces; on the south about a mile; but on the west about ten miles;---if such an escape were made, then the bailiff of Halifax had no power to apprehend him out of his liberty; but if ever the felon came again into the liberty of Hardwick, and were taken, he was certainly executed. One Lacy, who made his escape, and lived seven years out of the liberty, after that time coming boldly within the liberty of Hardwick, was retaken, and executed upon his former verdict of condemnation

The records of executions by the Halifax gibbet, before the time of Elizabeth, are lost; but during her reign twentyfive persons suffered under it, and from

1623 to 1650 there were twelve executions. The machine is destroyed. The engraving placed above, represents the instrument, from a figure of it in an old map of Yorkshite, which is altogether better than the print of it in the work before cited

The worthy author of the Halifax gibbet-book seems by his title to be well assured, that the machine was limited to, and to the sole use and behoof of, his district; but in this, as in some other particulars, he is mistaken.

A small print by Aldegraver, one of the little German masters, in 1553, now lying before the writer, represents the execution of Manlius, the Roman, by the same instrument; and he has a similar print by Pens, an early engraver of that school. There are engravings of it in books printed so early as 1510. In Hollinshed's Chronicle there is a cat o.

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