A History of Caricature and Grotesque

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Title: A History of Caricature and Grotesque - in Literature and Art
Author: Wright, Thomas, 1859-1936
Language: English
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Transcriber's Notes

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as _italic_ and =bold=. The 'oe' ligature is given as separate
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they are enclosed in brackets ({}).

Illustrations appear as [Illustration: caption] in their approximate
positions in the text. There are several decorative illustrations which
appear merely as [Illustration]. Two illustrations, on pp. 199 and 204,
were labelled No. 127. To resolve this, the second of them, and
references to it, were changed to No. 127a.

Footnotes have been moved to the end of the paragraphs where they are
referenced.

Please consult the Transcriber's Note at the end of this text for
details regarding the resolution of any other textual issues.

A HISTORY

CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE.

[Illustration: _ARISTOTLE AND PYTHAÏS._
_From an Engraving by Burgmair_ (_15th cent._)]

A HISTORY

CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE

In Literature and Art.

BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A., F.S.A.

[Illustration]

THE ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN AND ENGRAVED BY

F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A.

London:

CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY.

1875.

LONDON:
SAVILL, EDWARDS, AND CO., PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.

[Illustration]

PREFACE.

I have felt some difficulty in selecting a title for the contents of
the following pages, in which it was, in fact, my design to give, as
far as may be done within such moderate limits, and in as popular a
manner as such information can easily be imparted, a general view of
the History of Comic Literature and Art. Yet the word comic seems to
me hardly to express all the parts of the subject which I have sought
to bring together in my book. Moreover, the field of this history is
very large, and, though I have only taken as my theme one part of it,
it was necessary to circumscribe even that, in some degree; and my
plan, therefore, is to follow it chiefly through those branches which
have contributed most towards the formation of modern comic and satiric
literature and art in our own island.

Thus, as the comic literature of the middle ages to a very great
extent, and comic art in a considerable degree also, were founded
upon, or rather arose out of, those of the Romans which had preceded
them, it seemed desirable to give a comprehensive history of this
branch of literature and art as it was cultivated among the peoples of
antiquity. Literature and art in the middle ages presented a certain
unity of general character, arising, probably, from the uniformity of
the influence of the Roman element of society, modified only by its
lower degree of intensity at a greater distance from the centre, and
by secondary causes attendant upon it. To understand the literature
of any one country in Western Europe, especially during what we may
term the feudal period--and the remark applies to art equally--it
is necessary to make ourselves acquainted with the whole history of
literature in Western Europe during that time. The peculiarities in
different countries naturally became more marked in the progress of
society, and more strongly individualised; but it was not till towards
the close of the feudal period that the literature of each of these
different countries was becoming more entirely its own. At that period
the plan I have formed restricts itself, according to the view stated
above. Thus, the satirical literature of the Reformation and pictorial
caricature had their cradle in Germany, and, in the earlier half of
the sixteenth century, carried their influence largely into France and
England; but from that time any influence of German literature on these
two countries ceases. Modern satirical literature has its models in
France during the sixteenth century, and the direct influence of this
literature in France upon English literature continued during that and
the succeeding century, but no further. Political caricature rose to
importance in France in the sixteenth century, and was transplanted
to Holland in the seventeenth century, and until the beginning of the
eighteenth century England owed its caricature, indirectly or directly,
to the French and the Dutch; but after that time a purely English
school of caricature was formed, which was entirely independent of
Continental caricaturists.

There are two senses in which the word history may be taken in regard
to literature and art. It has been usually employed to signify a
chronological account of authors or artists and their works, though
this comes more properly under the title of biography and bibliography.
But there is another and a very different application of the word, and
this is the meaning which I attach to it in the present volume. During
the middle ages, and for some period after (in special branches),
literature--I mean poetry, satire, and popular literature of all
kinds--belonged to society, and not to the individual authors, who
were but workmen who gained a living by satisfying society's wants;
and its changes in form or character depended all upon the varying
progress, and therefore changing necessities, of society itself. This
is the reason why, especially in the earlier periods, nearly the whole
mass of the popular--I may, perhaps, be allowed to call it the social
literature of the middle ages, is anonymous; and it was only at rare
intervals that some individual rose and made himself a great name by
the superiority of his talents. A certain number of writers of fabliaux
put their names to their compositions, probably because they were names
of writers who had gained the reputation of telling better or racier
stories than many of their fellows. In some branches of literature--as
in the satirical literature of the sixteenth century--society still
exercised this kind of influence over it; and although its great
monuments owe everything to the peculiar genius of their authors, they
were produced under the pressure of social circumstances. To trace all
these variations in literature connected with society, to describe the
influences of society upon literature and of literature upon society,
during the progress of the latter, appears to me to be the true meaning
of the word history, and it is in this sense that I take it.

This will explain why my history of the different branches of popular
literature and art ends at very different periods. The grotesque and
satirical sculpture, which adorned the ecclesiastical buildings,
ceased with the middle ages. The story-books, as a part of this social
literature, came down to the sixteenth century, and the history of
the jest-books which arose out of them cannot be considered to extend
further than the beginning of the seventeenth; for, to give a list of
jest-books since that time would be to compile a catalogue of books
made by booksellers for sale, copied from one another, and, till
recently, each more contemptible than its predecessor. The school of
satirical literature in France, at all events as far as it had any
influence in England, lasted no longer than the earlier part of the
seventeenth century. England can hardly be said to have had a school of
satirical literature, with the exception of its comedy, which belongs
properly to the seventeenth century; and its caricature belongs
especially to the last century and to the earlier part of the present,
beyond which it is not a part of my plan to carry it.

These few remarks will perhaps serve to explain what some may consider
to be defects in my book; and with them I venture to trust it to the
indulgence of its readers. It is a subject which will have some novelty
for the English reader, for I am not aware that we have any previous
book devoted to it. At all events, it is not a mere compilation from
other people's labours.

THOMAS WRIGHT.

[Illustration]

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
ORIGIN OF CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE--SPIRIT OF CARICATURE
IN EGYPT--MONSTERS: PYTHON AND GORGON--GREECE--THE
DIONYSIAC CEREMONIES, AND ORIGIN OF THE DRAMA--THE OLD
COMEDY--LOVE OF PARODY--PARODIES ON SUBJECTS TAKEN
FROM GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY: THE VISIT TO THE LOVER; APOLLO
AT DELPHI--THE PARTIALITY FOR PARODY CONTINUED AMONG
THE ROMANS: THE FLIGHT OF ÆNEAS 1

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN OF THE STAGE IN ROME--USES OF THE MASK
AMONG THE ROMANS--SCENES FROM ROMAN COMEDY--THE
SANNIO AND MIMUS--THE ROMAN DRAMA--THE ROMAN
SATIRISTS--CARICATURE--ANIMALS INTRODUCED IN THE
CHARACTERS OF MEN--THE PIGMIES, AND THEIR INTRODUCTION
INTO CARICATURE; THE FARM-YARD; THE PAINTER'S STUDIO;
THE PROCESSION--POLITICAL CARICATURE IN POMPEII; THE
GRAFFITI 23

CHAPTER III.

THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE
AGES--THE ROMAN MIMI CONTINUED TO EXIST--THE TEUTONIC
AFTER-DINNER ENTERTAINMENTS--CLERICAL SATIRES:
ARCHBISHOP HERIGER AND THE DREAMER; THE SUPPER OF THE
SAINTS--TRANSITION FROM ANCIENT TO MEDIÆVAL ART--TASTE
FOR MONSTROUS ANIMALS, DRAGONS, ETC.; CHURCH OF SAN
FEDELE, AT COMO--SPIRIT OF CARICATURE AND LOVE OF
GROTESQUE AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS--GROTESQUE FIGURES OF
DEMONS--NATURAL TENDENCY OF THE EARLY MEDIÆVAL ARTISTS
TO DRAW IN CARICATURE--EXAMPLES FROM EARLY MANUSCRIPTS
AND SCULPTURES 40

CHAPTER IV.

THE DIABOLICAL IN CARICATURE--MEDIÆVAL LOVE OF THE
LUDICROUS--CAUSES WHICH MADE IT INFLUENCE THE NOTIONS
OF DEMONS--STORIES OF THE PIOUS PAINTER AND THE ERRING
MONK--DARKNESS AND UGLINESS CARICATURED--THE DEMONS IN
THE MIRACLE PLAYS--THE DEMON OF NOTRE DAME 61

CHAPTER V.

EMPLOYMENT OF ANIMALS IN MEDIÆVAL SATIRE--POPULARITY
OF FABLES; ODO DE CIRINGTON--REYNARD THE
FOX--BURNELLUS AND FAUVEL--THE CHARIVARI--LE MONDE
BESTORNÉ--ENCAUSTIC TILES--SHOEING THE GOOSE, AND
FEEDING PIGS WITH ROSES--SATIRICAL SIGNS; THE MUSTARD
MAKER 75

CHAPTER VI.

THE MONKEY IN BURLESQUE AND CARICATURE--TOURNAMENTS
AND SINGLE COMBATS--MONSTROUS COMBINATIONS OF
ANIMAL FORMS--CARICATURES ON COSTUME--THE HAT--THE
HELMET--LADIES' HEAD-DRESSES--THE GOWN, AND ITS LONG
SLEEVES 95

CHAPTER VII.

PRESERVATION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE MIMUS AFTER THE FALL
OF THE EMPIRE--THE MINSTREL AND JOGELOUR--HISTORY OF
POPULAR STORIES--THE FABLIAUX--ACCOUNT OF THEM--THE
CONTES DEVOTS 106

CHAPTER VIII.

CARICATURES OF DOMESTIC LIFE--STATE OF DOMESTIC LIFE
IN THE MIDDLE AGES--EXAMPLES OF DOMESTIC CARICATURE
FROM THE CARVINGS OF THE MISERERES--KITCHEN
SCENES--DOMESTIC BRAWLS--THE FIGHT FOR THE
BREECHES--THE JUDICIAL DUEL BETWEEN MAN AND WIFE AMONG
THE GERMANS--ALLUSIONS TO WITCHCRAFT--SATIRES ON THE
TRADES: THE BAKER, THE MILLER, THE WINE-PEDLAR AND
TAVERN KEEPER, THE ALE-WIFE, ETC. 118

CHAPTER IX.

GROTESQUE FACES AND FIGURES--PREVALENCE OF THE TASTE FOR
UGLY AND GROTESQUE FACES--SOME OF THE POPULAR FORMS
DERIVED FROM ANTIQUITY: THE TONGUE LOLLING OUT, AND
THE DISTORTED MOUTH--HORRIBLE SUBJECTS: THE MAN
AND THE SERPENTS--ALLEGORICAL FIGURES: GLUTTONY AND
LUXURY--OTHER REPRESENTATIONS OF CLERICAL GLUTTONY
AND DRUNKENNESS--GROTESQUE FIGURES OF INDIVIDUALS,
AND GROTESQUE GROUPS--ORNAMENTS OF THE BORDERS OF
BOOKS--UNINTENTIONAL CARICATURE; THE MOTE AND THE BEAM 144

CHAPTER X.

SATIRICAL LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES--JOHN
DE HAUTEVILLE AND ALAN DE LILLE--GOLIAS AND
THE GOLIARDS--THE GOLIARDIC POETRY--TASTE FOR
PARODY--PARODIES ON RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS--POLITICAL
CARICATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES--THE JEWS OF
NORWICH--CARICATURE REPRESENTATIONS OF
COUNTRIES--LOCAL SATIRE--POLITICAL SONGS AND POEMS 159

CHAPTER XI.

MINSTRELSY A SUBJECT OF BURLESQUE AND
CARICATURE--CHARACTER OF THE MINSTRELS--THEIR JOKES
UPON THEMSELVES AND UPON ONE ANOTHER--VARIOUS
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS REPRESENTED IN THE SCULPTURES
OF THE MEDIÆVAL ARTISTS--SIR MATTHEW GOURNAY AND
THE KING OF PORTUGAL--DISCREDIT OF THE TABOR AND
BAGPIPES--MERMAIDS 188

CHAPTER XII.

THE COURT FOOL--THE NORMANS AND THEIR GABS--EARLY
HISTORY OF COURT FOOLS--THEIR COSTUME--CARVINGS IN
THE CORNISH CHURCHES--THE BURLESQUE SOCIETIES OF THE
MIDDLE AGES--THE FEASTS OF ASSES, AND OF FOOLS--THEIR
LICENCE--THE LEADEN MONEY OF THE FOOLS--THE BISHOP'S
BLESSING 200

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DANCE OF DEATH--THE PAINTINGS IN THE CHURCH OF
LA CHAISE DIEU--THE REIGN OF FOLLY--SEBASTIAN
BRANDT; THE SHIP OF FOOLS--DISTURBERS OF
CHURCH SERVICE--TROUBLESOME BEGGARS--GEILER'S
SERMONS--BADIUS, AND HIS SHIP OF FOOLISH WOMEN--THE
PLEASURES OF SMELL--ERASMUS; THE PRAISE OF FOLLY 214

CHAPTER XIV.

POPULAR LITERATURE AND ITS HEROES; BROTHER RUSH, TYLL
EULENSPIEGEL, THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM--STORIES AND
JEST-BOOKS--SKELTON, SCOGIN, TARLTON, PEELE 228

CHAPTER XV.

THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION--THOMAS MURNER; HIS GENERAL
SATIRES--FRUITFULNESS OF FOLLY--HANS SACHS--THE
TRAP FOR FOOLS--ATTACKS ON LUTHER--THE POPE AS
ANTICHRIST--THE POPE-ASS AND THE MONK-CALF--OTHER
CARICATURES AGAINST THE POPE--THE GOOD AND BAD
SHEPHERDS 244

CHAPTER XVI.

ORIGIN OF MEDIÆVAL FARCE AND MODERN
COMEDY--HROTSVITHA--MEDIÆVAL NOTIONS OF TERENCE--THE
EARLY RELIGIOUS PLAYS--MYSTERIES AND MIRACLE
PLAYS--THE FARCES--THE DRAMA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 264

CHAPTER XVII.

DIABLERIE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY--EARLY TYPES OF THE
DIABOLICAL FORMS--ST. ANTHONY--ST. GUTHLAC--REVIVAL OF
THE TASTE FOR SUCH SUBJECTS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY--THE FLEMISH SCHOOL OF BREUGHEL--THE
FRENCH AND ITALIAN SCHOOLS--CALLOT, SALVATOR ROSA 288

CHAPTER XVIII.

CALLOT AND HIS SCHOOL--CALLOT'S ROMANTIC HISTORY--HIS
"CAPRICI," AND OTHER BURLESQUE WORKS--THE "BALLI"
AND THE BEGGARS--IMITATORS OF CALLOT; DELLA
BELLA--EXAMPLES OF DELLA BELLA--ROMAIN DE HOOGHE 300

CHAPTER XIX.

THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE OF THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY--PASQUIL--MACARONIC POETRY--THE EPISTOLÆ
OBSCURORUM VIRORUM--RABELAIS--COURT OF THE QUEEN OF
NAVARRE, AND ITS LITERARY CIRCLE; BONAVENTURE DES
PERIERS--HENRI ETIENNE--THE LIGUE, AND ITS SATIRE: THE
"SATYRE MENIPPEE" 312

CHAPTER XX.

POLITICAL CARICATURE IN ITS INFANCY--THE REVERS DU
JEU DES SUYSSES--CARICATURE IN FRANCE--THE THREE
ORDERS--PERIOD OF THE LIGUE; CARICATURES AGAINST HENRI
III.--CARICATURES AGAINST THE LIGUE--CARICATURE IN
FRANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY--GENERAL GALAS--THE
QUARREL OF AMBASSADORS--CARICATURE AGAINST LOUIS XXV.;
WILLIAM OF FURSTEMBERG 347

CHAPTER XXI.

EARLY POLITICAL CARICATURE IN ENGLAND--THE SATIRICAL
WRITINGS AND PICTURES OF THE COMMONWEALTH
PERIOD--SATIRES AGAINST THE BISHOPS; BISHOP
WILLIAMS--CARICATURES ON THE CAVALIERS; SIR JOHN
SUCKLING--THE ROARING BOYS; VIOLENCE OF THE ROYALIST
SOLDIERS--CONTEST BETWEEN THE PRESBYTERIANS AND
INDEPENDENTS--GRINDING THE KING'S NOSE--PLAYING-CARDS
USED AS THE MEDIUM FOR CARICATURE; HASELRIGGE AND
LAMBERT--SHROVETIDE 360

CHAPTER XXII.

ENGLISH COMEDY--BEN JONSON--THE OTHER WRITERS OF HIS
SCHOOL--INTERRUPTION OF DRAMATIC PERFORMANCES--COMEDY
AFTER THE RESTORATION--THE HOWARDS BROTHERS; THE DUKE
OF BUCKINGHAM; THE REHEARSAL--WRITERS OF COMEDY IN THE
LATTER PART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY--INDECENCY OF
THE STAGE--COLLEY CIBBER--FOOTE 375

CHAPTER XXIII.

CARICATURE IN HOLLAND--ROMAIN DE HOOGHE--THE ENGLISH
REVOLUTION--CARICATURES ON LOUIS XIV. AND
JAMES II.--DR. SACHEVERELL--CARICATURE BROUGHT
FROM HOLLAND TO ENGLAND--ORIGIN OF THE WORD
"CARICATURE"--MISSISSIPPI AND THE SOUTH SEA; THE YEAR
OF BUBBLES 406

CHAPTER XXIV.

ENGLISH CARICATURE IN THE AGE OF GEORGE II.--ENGLISH
PRINTSELLERS--ARTISTS EMPLOYED BY THEM--SIR ROBERT
WALPOLE'S LONG MINISTRY--THE WAR WITH FRANCE--THE
NEWCASTLE ADMINISTRATION--OPERA INTRIGUES--ACCESSION
OF GEORGE III., AND LORD BUTE IN POWER 420

CHAPTER XXV.

HOGARTH--HIS EARLY HISTORY--HIS SETS OF PICTURES--THE
HARLOT'S PROGRESS--THE RAKE'S PROGRESS--THE MARRIAGE A
LA MODE--HIS OTHER PRINTS--THE ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY, AND
THE PERSECUTION ARISING OUT OF IT--HIS PATRONAGE BY
LORD BUTE--CARICATURE OF THE TIMES--ATTACKS TO WHICH
HE WAS EXPOSED BY IT, AND WHICH HASTENED HIS DEATH 434

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE LESSER CARICATURISTS OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE
III.--PAUL SANDBY--COLLET: THE DISASTER,
AND FATHER PAUL IN HIS CUPS--JAMES SAYER:
HIS CARICATURES IN SUPPORT OF PITT, AND HIS
REWARD--CARLO KHAN'S TRIUMPH--BUNBURY'S: HIS
CARICATURES ON HORSEMANSHIP--WOODWARD: GENERAL
COMPLAINT--ROWLANDSON'S INFLUENCE ON THE STYLE OF
THOSE WHOSE DESIGNS HE ETCHED--JOHN KAY OF EDINBURGH:
LOOKING A ROCK IN THE FACE 450

CHAPTER XXVII.

GILLRAY--HIS FIRST ATTEMPTS--HIS CARICATURES BEGIN
WITH THE SHELBURNE MINISTRY--IMPEACHMENT OF
WARREN HASTINGS--CARICATURES ON THE KING; NEW
WAY TO PAY THE NATIONAL DEBT--ALLEGED REASON FOR
GILLRAY'S HOSTILITY TO THE KING--THE KING AND THE
APPLE-DUMPLINGS--GILLRAY'S LATER LABOURS--HIS IDIOTCY
AND DEATH 464

CHAPTER XXVIII.

GILLRAY'S CARICATURES ON SOCIAL LIFE--THOMAS
ROWLANDSON--HIS EARLY LIFE--HE BECOMES A
CARICATURIST--HIS STYLE AND WORKS--HIS DRAWINGS--THE
CRUIKSHANKS 480

A HISTORY

CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE.

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE.--SPIRIT OF CARICATURE IN
EGYPT.--MONSTERS: PYTHON AND GORGON.--GREECE.--THE DIONYSIAC
CEREMONIES, AND ORIGIN OF THE DRAMA.--THE OLD COMEDY.--LOVE OF
PARODY.--PARODIES ON SUBJECTS TAKEN FROM GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY: THE
VISIT TO THE LOVER: APOLLO AT DELPHI.--THE PARTIALITY FOR PARODY
CONTINUED AMONG THE ROMANS: THE FLIGHT OF ÆNEAS.

It is not my intention in the following pages to discuss the question
what constitutes the comic or the laughable, or, in other words, to
enter into the philosophy of the subject; I design only to trace
the history of its outward development, the various forms it has
assumed, and its social influence. Laughter appears to be almost a
necessity of human nature, in all conditions of man's existence,
however rude or however cultivated; and some of the greatest men of
all ages, men of the most refined intellects, such as Cicero in the
ages of antiquity, and Erasmus among the moderns, have been celebrated
for their indulgence in it. The former was sometimes called by his
opponents _scurra consularis_, the "consular jester;" and the latter,
who has been spoken of as the "mocking-bird," is said to have laughed
so immoderately over the well-known "Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum,"
that he brought upon himself a serious fit of illness. The greatest of
comic writers, Aristophanes, has always been looked upon as a model of
literary perfection. An epigram in the Greek Anthology, written by the
divine Plato, tells us how, when the Graces sought a temple which would
not fall, they found the soul of Aristophanes:--

Ἁι χάριτες τέμενός τι λαβεῖν ὁπερ οὐχὶ πεσεῖται
Ζητοῦσαι, ψυχὴν εὔρον Ἀριστοφάνους.

On the other hand, the men who never laughed, the ἀγέλαστοι, were
looked upon as the least respectable of mortals.

A tendency to burlesque and caricature appears, indeed, to be a feeling
deeply implanted in human nature, and it is one of the earliest talents
displayed by people in a rude state of society. An appreciation of, and
sensitiveness to, ridicule, and a love of that which is humorous, are
found even among savages, and enter largely into their relations with
their fellow men. When, before people cultivated either literature or
art, the chieftain sat in his rude hall surrounded by his warriors,
they amused themselves by turning their enemies and opponents into
mockery, by laughing at their weaknesses, joking on their defects,
whether physical or mental, and giving them nicknames in accordance
therewith,--in fact, caricaturing them in words, or by telling stories
which were calculated to excite laughter. When the agricultural slaves
(for the tillers of the land were then slaves) were indulged with a
day of relief from their labours, they spent it in unrestrained mirth.
And when these same people began to erect permanent buildings, and
to ornament them, the favourite subjects of their ornamentation were
such as presented ludicrous ideas. The warrior, too, who caricatured
his enemy in his speeches over the festive board, soon sought to give
a more permanent form to his ridicule, which he endeavoured to do by
rude delineations on the bare rock, or on any other convenient surface
which presented itself to his hand. Thus originated caricature and
the grotesque in art. In fact, art itself, in its earliest forms, is
caricature; for it is only by that exaggeration of features which
belongs to caricature, that unskilful draughtsmen could make themselves
understood.

[Illustration: _No. 1. An Egyptian Lady at a Feast._]

Although we might, perhaps, find in different countries examples of
these principles in different states of development, we cannot in any
one country trace the entire course of the development itself: for in
all the highly civilised races of mankind, we first become acquainted
with their history when they had already reached a considerable
degree of refinement; and even at that period of their progress, our
knowledge is almost confined to their religious, and to their more
severely historical, monuments. Such is especially the case with
Egypt, the history of which country, as represented by its monuments
of art, carries us back to the remotest ages of antiquity. Egyptian
art generally presents itself in a sombre and massive character, with
little of gaiety or joviality in its designs or forms. Yet, as Sir
Gardner Wilkinson has remarked in his valuable work on the "Manners
and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," the early Egyptian artists
cannot always conceal their natural tendency to the humorous, which
creeps out in a variety of little incidents. Thus, in a series of grave
historical pictures on one of the great monuments at Thebes, we find
a representation of a wine party, where the company consists of both
sexes, and which evidently shows that the ladies were not restricted
in the use of the juice of the grape in their entertainments; and,
as he adds, "the painters, in illustrating this fact, have sometimes
sacrificed their gallantry to a love of caricature." Among the
females, evidently of rank, represented in this scene, "some call the
servants to support them as they sit, others with difficulty prevent
themselves from falling on those behind them, and the faded flower,
which is ready to drop from their heated hands, is intended to be
characteristic of their own sensations." One group, a lady whose
excess has been carried too far, and her servant who comes to her
assistance, is represented in our cut No. 1. Sir Gardner observes that
"many similar instances of a talent for caricature are observable in
the compositions of the Egyptian artists, who executed the paintings
of the tombs" at Thebes, which belong to a very early period of the
Egyptian annals. Nor is the application of this talent restricted
always to secular subjects, but we see it at times intruding into the
most sacred mysteries of their religion. I give as a curious example,
taken from one of Sir Gardner Wilkinson's engravings, a scene in the
representation of a funeral procession crossing the Lake of the Dead
(No. 2), that appears in one of these early paintings at Thebes, in
which "the love of caricature common to the Egyptians is shown to have
been indulged even in this serious subject; and the retrograde movement
of the large boat, which has grounded and is pushed off the bank,
striking the smaller one with its rudder, has overturned a large table
loaded with cakes and other things, upon the rowers seated below, in
spite of all the efforts of the prowman, and the earnest vociferations
of the alarmed steersman." The accident which thus overthrows and
scatters the provisions intended for the funeral feast, and the
confusion attendant upon it, form a ludicrous scene in the midst of a
solemn picture, that would be worthy of the imagination of a Rowlandson.

[Illustration: _No. 2. Catastrophe in a Funeral Procession._]

[Illustration: _No. 3. An Unfortunate Soul._]

Another cut (No. 3), taken from one of the same series of paintings,
belongs to a class of caricatures which dates from a very remote
period. One of the most natural ideas among all people would be to
compare men with the animals whose particular qualities they possessed.
Thus, one might be as bold as a lion, another as faithful as a dog,
or as cunning as a fox, or as swinish as a hog. The name of the
animal would thus often be given as a nickname to the man, and in
the sequel he would be represented pictorially under the form of the
animal. It was partly out of this kind of caricature, no doubt, that
the singular class of apologues which have been since distinguished
by the name of fables arose. Connected with it was the belief in
the metempsychosis, or transmission of the soul into the bodies of
animals after death, which formed a part of several of the primitive
religions. The earliest examples of this class of caricature of mankind
are found on the Egyptian monuments, as in the instance just referred
to, which represents "a soul condemned to return to earth under the
form of a pig, having been weighed in the scales before Osiris and
been found wanting. Being placed in a boat, and accompanied by two
monkeys, it is dismissed the sacred precinct." The latter animals, it
may be remarked, as they are here represented, are the cynocephali, or
dog-headed monkeys (the _simia inuus_), which were sacred animals among
the Egyptians, and the peculiar characteristic of which--the dog-shaped
head--is, as usual, exaggerated by the artist.

The representation of this return of a condemned soul under the
repulsive form of a pig, is painted on the left side wall of the long
entrance-gallery to the tomb of King Rameses V., in the valley of
royal catacombs known as the Biban-el-Molook, at Thebes. Wilkinson
gives the date of the accession of this monarch to the throne as 1185,
B.C. In the original picture, Osiris is seated on his throne
at some distance from the stern of the boat, and is dismissing it from
his presence by a wave of the hand. This tomb was open in the time of
the Romans, and termed by them the "Tomb of Memnon;" it was greatly
admired, and is covered with laudatory inscriptions by Greek and Roman
visitors. One of the most interesting is placed beneath this picture,
recording the name of a _daduchus_, or torch-bearer in the Eleusinian
mysteries, who visited this tomb in the reign of Constantine.

[Illustration: _No. 4. The Cat and the Geese._]

[Illustration: _No. 5. The Fox turned Piper._]

The practice having been once introduced of representing men under the
character of animals, was soon developed into other applications of the
same idea--such as that of figuring animals employed in the various
occupations of mankind, and that of reversing the position of man and
the inferior animals, and representing the latter as treating their
human tyrant in the same manner as they are usually treated by him.
The latter idea became a very favourite one at a later period, but
the other is met with not unfrequently among the works of art which
have been saved from the wrecks of antiquity. Among the treasures
of the British Museum, there is a long Egyptian picture on papyrus,
originally forming a roll, consisting of representations of this
description, from which I give three curious examples. The first (see
cut No. 4) represents a cat in charge of a drove of geese. It will be
observed that the cat holds in her hand the same sort of rod, with a
hook at the end, with which the monkeys are furnished in the preceding
picture. The second (No. 5) represents a fox carrying a basket by means
of a pole supported on his shoulder (a method of carrying burthens
frequently represented on the monuments of ancient art), and playing on
the well-known double flute, or pipe. The fox soon became a favourite
personage in this class of caricatures, and we know what a prominent
part he afterwards played in mediæval satire. Perhaps, however, the
most popular of all animals in this class of drolleries was the monkey,
which appears natural enough when we consider its singular aptitude
to mimic the actions of man. The ancient naturalists tell us some
curious, though not very credible, stories of the manner in which this
characteristic of the monkey tribes was taken advantage of to entrap
them, and Pliny (Hist. Nat. lib. viii. c. 80) quotes an older writer,
who asserted that they had even been taught to play at draughts. Our
third subject from the Egyptian papyrus of the British Museum (No. 6)
represents a scene in which the game of draughts--or, more properly
speaking, the game which the Romans called the _ludus latrunculorum_,
and which is believed to have resembled our draughts--is played by two
animals well known to modern heraldry, the lion and the unicorn. The
lion has evidently gained the victory, and is fingering the money; and
his bold air of swaggering superiority, as well as the look of surprise
and disappointment of his vanquished opponent, are by no means ill
pictured. This series of caricatures, though Egyptian, belongs to the
Roman period.

[Illustration: _No. 6. The Lion and the Unicorn._]

[Illustration: _No. 7. Typhon._]

The monstrous is closely allied to the grotesque, and both come within
the province of caricature, when we take this term in its widest
sense. The Greeks, especially, were partial to representations of
monsters, and monstrous forms are continually met with among their
ornaments and works of art. The type of the Egyptian monster is
represented in the accompanying cut (No. 7), taken from the work of
Sir Gardner Wilkinson before quoted, and is said to be the figure
of the god Typhon. It occurs frequently on Egyptian monuments, with
some variation in its forms, but always characterised by the broad,
coarse, and frightful face, and by the large tongue lolling out. It is
interesting to us, because it is the apparent origin of a long series
of faces, or masks, of this form and character, which are continually
recurring in the grotesque ornamentation, not only of the Greeks and
Romans, but of the middle ages. It appears to have been sometimes given
by the Romans to the representations of people whom they hated or
despised; and Pliny, in a curious passage of his "Natural History,"[1]
informs us that at one time, among the pictures exhibited in the Forum
at Rome, there was one in which a Gaul was represented, "thrusting
out his tongue in a very unbecoming manner." The Egyptian Typhons had
their exact representations in ancient Greece in a figure of frequent
occurrence, to which antiquaries have, I know not why, given the name
of Gorgon. The example in our cut No. 8, is a figure in terra-cotta,
now in the collection of the Royal Museum at Berlin.[2]

[1] Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. xxxv. c. 8.

[2] Panoska Terracotten des Museums Berlin, pl. lxi. p. 154.

[Illustration: _No. 8. Gorgon._]

In Greece, however, the spirit of caricature and burlesque
representation had assumed a more regular form than in other
countries, for it was inherent in the spirit of Grecian society.
Among the population of Greece, the worship of Dionysus, or Bacchus,
had taken deep root from a very early period--earlier than we can
trace back--and it formed the nucleus of the popular religion and
superstitions, the cradle of poetry and the drama. The most popular
celebrations of the people of Greece, were the Dionysiac festivals,
and the phallic rites and processions which accompanied them, in
which the chief actors assumed the disguise of satyrs and fawns,
covering themselves with goat-skins, and disfiguring their faces by
rubbing them over with the lees of wine. Thus, in the guise of noisy
bacchanals, they displayed an unrestrained licentiousness of gesture
and language, uttering indecent jests and abusive speeches, in which
they spared nobody. This portion of the ceremony was the especial
attribute of a part of the performers, who accompanied the procession
in waggons, and acted something like dramatic performances, in which
they uttered an abundance of loose extempore satire on those who
passed or who accompanied the procession, a little in the style of
the modern carnivals. It became thus the occasion for an unrestrained
publication of coarse pasquinades. In the time of Pisistratus, these
performances are assumed to have been reduced to a little more order by
an individual named Thespis, who is said to have invented masks as a
better disguise than dirty faces, and is looked upon as the father of
the Grecian drama. There can be no doubt, indeed, that the drama arose
out of these popular ceremonies, and it long bore the unmistakable
marks of its origin. Even the name of tragedy has nothing tragic in
its derivation, for it is formed from the Greek word _tragos_
(τράγος), a goat, in the skins of which animal the satyrs clothed
themselves, and hence the name was given also to those who personated
the satyrs in the processions. A _tragodus_ (τραγῳδὸς) was the singer,
whose words accompanied the movements of a chorus of satyrs, and the
term _tragodia_ was applied to his performance. In the same manner,
a _comodus_ (κωμωδὸς) was one who accompanied similarly, with chants
of an abusive or satirical character, a _comus_ (κῶμος), or band of
revellers, in the more riotous and licentious portion of the
performances in the Bacchic festivals. The Greek drama always betrayed
its origin by the circumstance that the performances took place
annually, only at the yearly festivals in honour of Bacchus, of which
in fact they constituted a part. Moreover, as the Greek drama became
perfected, it still retained from its origin a triple division, into
tragedy, comedy, and the satiric drama; and, being still performed
at the Dionysiac festival in Athens, each dramatic author was expected
to produce what was called a _trilogy_, that is, a tragedy, a satirical
play, and a comedy. So completely was all this identified in the
popular mind with the worship of Bacchus, that, long afterwards, when
even a tragedy did not please the audience by its subject, the common
form of disapproval was, τί ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν Διόνυσον--"What has this
to do with Bacchus?" and, οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸν Διόνυσον--"This has nothing
to do with Bacchus."

We have no perfect remains of the Greek satiric drama, which was,
perhaps, of a temporary character, and less frequently preserved; but
the early Greek comedy is preserved in a certain number of the plays
of Aristophanes, in which we can contemplate it in all its freedom of
character. It represented the waggon-jesting, of the age of Thespis, in
its full development. In its form it was burlesque to a wanton degree
of extravagance, and its essence was personal vilification, as well as
general satire. Individuals were not only attacked by the application
to them of abusive epithets, but they were represented personally on
the stage as performing every kind of contemptible action, and as
suffering all sorts of ludicrous and disgraceful treatment. The drama
thus bore marks of its origin in its extraordinary licentiousness
of language and costume, and in the constant use of the mask. One
of its most favourite instruments of satire was parody, which was
employed unsparingly on everything which society in its solemn moments
respected--against everything that the satirist considered worthy of
being held up to public derision or scorn. Religion itself, philosophy,
social manners and institutions--even poetry--were all parodied in
their turn. The comedies of Aristophanes are full of parodies on the
poetry of the tragic and other writers of his age. He is especially
happy in parodying the poetry of the tragic dramatist Euripides. The
old comedy of Greece has thus been correctly described as the comedy of
caricature; and the spirit, and even the scenes, of this comedy, being
transferred to pictorial representations, became entirely identical
with that branch of art to which we give the name of caricature in
modern times. Under the cover of bacchanalian buffoonery, a serious
purpose, it is true, was aimed at; but the general satire was chiefly
implied in the violent personal attacks on individuals, and this became
so offensive that when such persons obtained greater power in Athens
than the populace the old comedy was abolished.

Aristophanes was the greatest and most perfect poet of the Old Comedy,
and his remaining comedies are as strongly marked representations of
the hostility of political and social parties in his time, as the
caricatures of Gillray are of party in the reign of our George III.,
and, we may add, even more minute. They range through the memorable
period of the Peloponnesian war, and the earlier ones give us the
regular annual series of these performances, as far as Aristophanes
contributed them, during several years. The first of them, "The
Acharnians," was performed at the Lenæan feast of Bacchus in the sixth
year of the Peloponnesian war, the year 425 B.C., when it gained the
first prize. It is a bold attack on the factious prolongation of the
war through the influence of the Athenian demagogues. The next, "The
Knights," brought out in B.C. 424, is a direct attack upon Cleon, the
chief of these demagogues, although he is not mentioned by name; and
it is recorded that, finding nobody who had courage enough to make a
mask representing Cleon, or to play the character, Aristophanes was
obliged to perform it himself, and that he smeared his face with lees
of wine, in order to represent the flushed and bloated countenance of
the great demagogue, thus returning to the original mode of acting
of the predecessors of Thespis. This, too, was the first of the
comedies of Aristophanes which he published in his own name. "The
Clouds," published in 423, is aimed at Socrates and the philosophers.
The fourth, "The Wasps," published in B.C. 422, presents a satire on
the litigious spirit of the Athenians. The fifth, entitled "Peace"
(Ἔιρηνη), appeared in the year following, at the time of the peace of
Nicias, and is another satire on the bellicose spirit of the Athenian
democracy. The next in the list of extant plays comes after an interval
of several years, having been published in B.C. 414, the first year of
the Sicilian war, and relates to an irreligious movement in Athens,
which had caused a great sensation. Two Athenians are represented as
leaving Athens, in disgust at the vices and follies of their fellow
citizens, and seeking the kingdom of the birds, where they form a new
state, by which the communication between the mortals and the immortals
is cut off, and is only opened again by an arrangement between all
the parties. In the "Lysistrata," believed to have been brought out
in 411, when the war was still at its height, the women of Athens are
represented as engaging in a cunning and successful plot, by which
they gain possession of the government of the state, and compel their
husbands to make peace. "The Thesmophoriazusæ," appears to have been
published in B.C. 410; it is a satire upon Euripides, whose writings
were remarkable for their bitter attacks on the character of the
female sex, who, in this comedy, conspire against him to secure his
punishment. The comedy of "The Frogs" was brought out in the year
405 B.C., and is a satire on the literature of the day; it
is aimed especially at Euripides, and was perhaps written soon after
his death, its real subject being the decline of the tragic drama,
which Euripides was accused of having promoted. It is perhaps the most
witty of the plays of Aristophanes which have been preserved. "The
Ecclesiazusæ," published in 392, is a burlesque upon the theories of
republican government, which were then started among the philosophers,
some of which differed little from our modern communism. The ladies
again, by a clever conspiracy, gain the mastery in the estate, and they
decree a community of goods and women, with some laws very peculiar
to that state of things. The humour of the piece, which is extremely
broad, turns upon the disputes and embarrassments resulting from this
state of things. The last of his comedies extant, "Plutus," appears to
be a work of the concluding years of the active life of Aristophanes;
it is the least striking of them all, and is rather a moral than a
political satire.

In a comedy brought out in 426, the year before "The Archarnians,"
under the title of "The Babylonians," Aristophanes appears to have
given great offence to the democratic party, a circumstance to which
he alludes more than once in the former play. However, his talents and
popularity seem to have carried him over the danger, and certainly
nothing can have exceeded the bitterness of satire employed in his
subsequent comedies. Those who followed him were less fortunate.

One of the latest writers of the Old Comedy was Anaximandrides,
who cast a reflection on the state of Athens in parodying a line of
Euripides. This poet had said,--

ἡ φύσις ἐβούλεθ’ ἦ νόμων οὐδεν μέλει
(Nature has commanded, which cares nothing for the laws);

which Anaximandrides changed to--

ἡ πόλις ἐβούλεθ’ ἦ νόμων οὐδεν μέλει
(The state has commanded, which cares nothing for the laws).

Nowhere is oppression exercised with greater harshness than under
democratic governments; and Anaximandrides was prosecuted for this
joke as a crime against the state, and condemned to death. As may be
supposed, liberty of speech ceased to exist in Athens. We are well
acquainted with the character of the Old Comedy, in its greatest
freedom, through the writings of Aristophanes. What was called the
Middle Comedy, in which political satire was prohibited, lasted from
this time until the age of Philip of Macedon, when the old liberty of
Greece was finally crushed. The last form of Greek comedy followed,
which is known as the New Comedy, and was represented by such names as
Epicharmus and Menander. In the New Comedy all caricature and parody,
and all personal allusions, were entirely proscribed; it was changed
entirely into a comedy of manners and domestic life, a picture of
contemporary society under conventional names and characters. From this
New Comedy was taken the Roman comedy, such as we now have it in the
plays of Plautus and Terence, who were professed imitators of Menander
and the other writers of the new comedy of the Greeks.

[Illustration: _No. 9. A Greek Parody._]

Pictorial caricature was, of course, rarely to be seen on the public
monuments of Greece or Rome, but must have been consigned to objects
of a more popular character and to articles of common use; and,
accordingly, modern antiquarian research has brought it to light
somewhat abundantly on the pottery of Greece and Etruria, and on the
wall-paintings of domestic buildings in Herculaneum and Pompeii. The
former contains comic scenes, especially parodies, which are evidently
transferred to them from the stage, and which preserve the marks and
other attributes--some of which I have necessarily omitted--proving the
model from which they were taken. The Greeks, as we know from many
sources, were extremely fond of parodies of every description, whether
literary or pictorial. The subject of our cut No. 9 is a good example
of the parodies found on the Greek pottery; it is taken from a fine
Etruscan vase,[3] and has been supposed to be a parody on the visit of
Jupiter to Alcmena. This appears rather doubtful, but there can be no
doubt that it is a burlesque representation of the visit of a lover
to the object of his aspirations. The lover, in the comic mask and
costume, mounts by a ladder to the window at which the lady presents
herself, who, it must be confessed, presents the appearance of giving
her admirer a very cold reception. He tries to conciliate her by a
present of what seem to be apples, instead of gold, but without much
effect. He is attended by his servant with a torch, to give him light
on the way, which shows that it is a night adventure. Both master and
servant have wreaths round their heads, and the latter carries a third
in his hand, which, with the contents of his basket, are also probably
intended as presents to the lady.

[3] Given in Panofka, "Antiques du Cabinet Pourtalès," pl. x.

A more unmistakable burlesque on the visit of Jupiter to Alcmena is
published by Winckelmann from a vase, formerly in the library of the
Vatican, and now at St. Petersburg. The treatment of the subject is
not unlike the picture just described. Alcmena appears just in the
same posture at her chamber window, and Jupiter is carrying his ladder
to mount up to her, but has not yet placed it against the wall. His
companion is identified with Mercury by the well-known caduceus he
carries in his left hand, while with his right hand he holds a lamp
up to the window, in order to enable Jupiter to see the object of his
amour.

It is astonishing with how much boldness the Greeks parodied and
ridiculed sacred subjects. The Christian father, Arnobius, in writing
against his heathen opponents, reproached them with this circumstance.
The laws, he says, were made to protect the characters of men from
slander and libel, but there was no such protection for the characters
of the gods, which were treated with the greatest disrespect.[4] This
was especially the case in their pictorial representations.

[4] Arnobius (_contra Gentes_), lib. iv. p. 150. Carmen malum
conscribere, quo fama alterius coinquinatur et vita, decemviralibus
scitis evadere noluistis impune: ac ne vestras aures convitio
aliquis petulantiore pulsaret, de atrocibus formulas constituistis
injuriis. Soli dii sunt apud vos superi inhonorati, contemtibiles,
viles: in quos jus est vobis datum quæ quisque voluerit dicere
turpitudinem, jacere quas libido confinxerit atque excogitaverit
formas.

Pliny informs us that Ctesilochus, a pupil of the celebrated Apelles,
painted a burlesque picture of Jupiter giving birth to Bacchus, in
which the god was represented in a very ridiculous posture.[5] Ancient
writers intimate that similar examples were not uncommon, and mention
the names of several comic painters, whose works of this class were
in repute. Some of these were bitter personal caricatures, like a
celebrated work of a painter named Ctesicles, described also by Pliny.
It appears that Stratonice, the queen of Seleucus Nicator, had received
this painter ill when he visited her court, and in revenge he executed
a picture in which she was represented, according to a current scandal,
as engaged in an amour with a common fisherman, which he exhibited in
the harbour of Ephesus, and then made his escape on ship-board. Pliny
adds that the queen admired the beauty and accuracy of the painting
more than she felt the insult, and that she forbade the removal of the
picture.[6]

[5] Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxv. c. 40.

[6] Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxv. c. 40.

[Illustration: _No. 10. Apollo at Delphi._]

The subject of our second example of the Greek caricature is better
known. It is taken from an oxybaphon which was brought from the
Continent to England, where it passed into the collection of Mr.
William Hope.[7] The _oxybaphon_ (ὀξύβαφον), or, as it was called
by the Romans, _acetabulum_, was a large vessel for holding vinegar,
which formed one of the important ornaments of the table, and was
therefore very susceptible of pictorial embellishment of this
description. It is one of the most remarkable Greek caricatures
of this kind yet known, and represents a parody on one of the most
interesting stories of the Grecian mythology, that of the arrival of
Apollo at Delphi. The artist, in his love of burlesque, has spared
none of the personages who belonged to the story. The Hyperborean
Apollo himself appears in the character of a quack doctor, on his
temporary stage, covered by a sort of roof, and approached by wooden
steps. On the stage lies Apollo's luggage, consisting of a bag, a
bow, and his Scythian cap. Chiron (ΧΙΡΩΝ) is represented as labouring
under the effects of age and blindness, and supporting himself by the
aid of a crooked staff, as he repairs to the Delphian quack-doctor for
relief. The figure of the centaur is made to ascend by the aid of a
companion, both being furnished with the masks and other attributes of
the comic performers. Above are the mountains, and on them the nymphs
of Parnassus (ΝΥΜΦΑΙ), who, like all the other actors in the scene, are
disguised with masks, and those of a very grotesque character. On the
right-hand side stands a figure which is considered as representing the
_epoptes_, the inspector or overseer of the performance, who alone wears
no mask. Even a pun is employed to heighten the drollery of the scene,
for instead of ΠΥΘΙΑΣ, the Pythian, placed over the head of the
burlesque Apollo, it seems evident that the artist had written ΠΕΙΘΙΑΣ,
the consoler, in allusion, perhaps, to the consolation which the
quack-doctor is administering to his blind and aged visitor.

[7] Engraved by Ch. Lenormant et J. de Witt, "Elite des Monuments
Céramographiques," pl. xciv.

[Illustration: _No. 11. The Flight of Æneas from Troy._]

The Greek spirit of parody, applied even to the most sacred subjects,
however it may have declined in Greece, was revived at Rome, and we
find examples of it on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum. They
show the same readiness to turn into burlesque the most sacred and
popular legends of the Roman mythology. The example given (cut No. 11),
from one of the wall-paintings, is peculiarly interesting, both from
circumstances in the drawing itself, and because it is a parody on
one of the favourite national legends of the Roman people, who prided
themselves on their descent from Æneas. Virgil has told, with great
effect, the story of his hero's escape from the destruction of Troy--or
rather has put the story into his hero's mouth. When the devoted
city was already in flames, Æneas took his father, Anchises, on his
shoulder, and his boy, Iulus, or, as he was otherwise called, Ascanius,
by the hand, and thus fled from his home, followed by his wife--

_Ergo age, care pater, cervici imponere nostræ;
Ipse subibo humeris, nec me labor iste gravabit.
Quo res cumque cadent, unum et commune periclum,
Una salus ambobus erit. Mihi parvus Iulus
Sit comes, et longe servat vestigia conjux._
--Virg. Æn., lib. ii. l. 707.

Thus they hurried on, the child holding by his father's right hand, and
dragging after with "unequal steps,"--

_dextræ se parvus Iulus
Implicuit sequiturque patrem non passibus æquis._
--Virg. Æn., lib. ii. 1. 723.

And thus Æneas bore away both father and son, and the penates, or
household gods, of his family, which were to be transferred to another
country, and become the future guardians of Rome--

_Ascanium, Anchisemque patrem, Tencrosque penates._--Ib., 1. 747.

[Illustration: _No. 12. The Flight of Æneas._]

In this case we know that the design is intended to be a parody, or
burlesque, upon a picture which appears to have been celebrated at the
time, and of which at least two different copies are found upon ancient
intaglios. It is the only case I know in which both the original and
the parody have been preserved from this remote period, and this is so
curious a circumstance, that I give in the cut on the preceding page
a copy of one of the intaglios.[8] It represented literally Virgil's
account of the story, and the only difference between the design on the
intaglios and the one given in our first cut is, that in the latter
the personages are represented under the forms of monkeys. Æneas,
personified by the strong and vigorous animal, carrying the old monkey,
Anchises, on his left shoulder, hurries forward, and at the same time
looks back on the burning city. With his right hand he drags along
the boy Iulus, or Ascanius, who is evidently proceeding _non passibus
æquis_, and with difficulty keeps up with his father's pace. The boy
wears a Phrygian bonnet, and holds in his right hand the instrument
of play which we should now call a "bandy"--the pedun. Anchises has
charge of the box, which contains the sacred penates. It is a curious
circumstance that the monkeys in this picture are the same dog-headed
animals, or cynocephali, which are found on the Egyptian monuments.

[8] These intaglios are engraved in the Museum Florentinum of Gorius,
vol. ii. pl. 30. On one of them the figures are reversed.

* * * * *

When this chapter was already given for press, I first became
acquainted with an interesting paper, by Panofka, on the "Parodieen
und Karikaturen auf Werken der Klassischen Kunst," in the
"Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin," for the
year 1854, and I can only now refer my readers to it.

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN OF THE STAGE IN ROME.--USES OF THE MASK AMONG THE
ROMANS.--SCENES FROM ROMAN COMEDY.--THE SANNIO AND MIMUS.--THE
ROMAN DRAMA.--THE ROMAN SATIRISTS.--CARICATURE.--ANIMALS
INTRODUCED IN THE CHARACTERS OF MEN.--THE PIGMIES, AND THEIR
INTRODUCTION INTO CARICATURE; THE FARM-YARD; THE PAINTER'S STUDIO;
THE PROCESSION.--POLITICAL CARICATURE IN POMPEII; THE GRAFFITI.

The Romans appear to have never had any real taste for the regular
drama, which they merely copied from the Greeks, and from the earliest
period of their history we find them borrowing all their arts of this
description from their neighbours. In Italy, as in Greece, the first
germs of comic literature may be traced in the religious festivals,
which presented a mixture of religious worship and riotous festivity,
where the feasters danced and sung, and, as they became excited with
wine and enthusiasm, indulged in mutual reproaches and abuse. The
oldest poetry of the Romans, which was composed in irregular measure,
was represented by the _versus saturnini_, said to have been so called
from their antiquity (for things of remote antiquity were believed to
belong to the age of Saturn). Nævius, one of the oldest of Latin poets,
is said to have written in this verse. Next in order of time came the
Fescennine verses, which appear to have been distinguished chiefly
by their license, and received their name because they were brought
from Fescennia, in Etruria, where they were employed originally in the
festivals of Ceres and Bacchus. In the year 391 of Rome, or 361 B.C.,
the city was visited by a dreadful plague, and the citizens hit upon
what will appear to us the rather strange expedient of sending for
performers (_ludiones_) from Etruria, hoping, by employing them, to
appease the anger of the gods. Any performer of this kind appears to
have been so little known to the Romans before this, that there was
not even a name for him in the language, and they were obliged to adopt
the Tuscan word, and call him a _histrio_, because _hister_ in that
language meant a player or pantomimist. This word, we know, remained
in the Latin language. These first Etrurian performers appear indeed
to have been mere pantomimists, who accompanied the flute with all
sorts of mountebank tricks, gestures, dances, gesticulations, and the
like, mixed with satirical songs, and sometimes with the performance of
coarse farces. The Romans had also a class of performances rather more
dramatic in character, consisting of stories which were named _Fabulæ
Atellanæ_, because these performers were brought from Atella, a city of
the Osci.

A considerable advance was made in dramatic Art in Rome about the
middle of the third century before Christ. It is ascribed to a freedman
named Livius Andronicus, a Greek by birth, who is said to have brought
out, in the year 240 B.C., the first regular comedy ever performed in
Rome. Thus we trace not only the Roman comedy, but the very rudiments
of dramatic art in Rome, either direct to the Greeks, or to the Grecian
colonies in Italy. With the Romans, as well as with the Greeks, the
theatre was a popular institution, open to the public, and the state
or a wealthy individual paid for the performance; and therefore the
building itself was necessarily of very great extent, and, in both
countries open to the sky, except that the Romans provided for throwing
an awning over it. As the Roman comedy was copied from the new comedy
of the Greeks, and therefore did not admit of the introduction of
caricature and burlesque on the stage, these were left especially to
the province of the pantomime and farce, which the Romans, as just
stated, had received from a still earlier period.

[Illustration: _No. 13. A Scene from Terence._]

[Illustration: _No. 14. Geta and Demea._]

Whether the Romans borrowed the mask from the Greeks, or not, is
rather uncertain, but it was used as generally in the Roman theatres,
whether in comedy or tragedy, as among the Greeks. The Greek actors
performed upon stilts, in order to magnify their figures, as the area
of the theatre was very large and uncovered, and without this help
they were not so well seen at a distance; and one object of utility
aimed at by the mask is said to have been to make the head appear
proportionate in size to the artificial height of the body. It may
be remarked that the mask seems generally to have been made to cover
the whole head, representing the hair as well as the face, so that
the character of age or complexion might be given complete. Among the
Romans the stilts were certainly not in general use, but still the
mask, besides its comic or tragic character, is supposed to have served
useful purposes. The first improvement upon its original structure
is said to have been the making it of brass, or some other sonorous
metal, or at least lining the mouth with it, so as to reverberate, and
give force to the voice, and also to the mouth of the mask something
of the character of a speaking-trumpet.[9] All these accessories could
not fail to detract much from the effect of the acting, which must in
general have been very measured and formal, and have received most of
its importance from the excellence of the poetry, and the declamatory
talents of the actors. We have pictures in which scenes from the Roman
stage are accurately represented. Several rather early manuscripts of
Terence have been preserved, illustrated with drawings of the scenes
as represented on the stage, and these, though belonging to a period
long subsequent to the age in which the Roman stage existed in its
original character, are, no doubt, copied from drawings of an earlier
date. A German antiquary of the last century, Henry Berger, published
in a quarto volume a series of such illustrations from a manuscript of
Terence in the library of the Vatican at Rome, from which two examples
are selected, as showing the usual style of Roman comic acting, and
the use of the mask. The first (No. 13) is the opening scene in the
_Andria_. On the right, two servants have brought provisions, and on
the left appear Simo, the master of the household, and his freedman,
Sosia, who seems to be entrusted with the charge of his domestic
affairs. Simo tells his servants to go away with the provisions, while
he beckons Sosia to confer with him in private:--

Si. _Vos istæc intro auferte; abite. Sosia,
Adesdum; paucis te volo._ So. _Dictum puta
Nempe ut curentur recte hæc._ Si. _Imo aliud_.
Terent. Andr., Actus i., Scena 1.

When we compare these words with the picture, we cannot but feel
that in the latter there is an unnecessary degree of energy put into
the _pose_ of the figures; which is perhaps less the case in the
other (No. 14), an illustration of the sixth scene of the fifth act
of the _Adelphi_ of Terence. It represents the meeting of Geta, a
rather talkative and conceited servant, and Demea, a countryfied and
churlish old man, his acquaintance, and of course superior. To Geta's
salutation, Demea asks churlishly, as not at first knowing him, "Who
are you?" but when he finds that it is Geta, he changes suddenly to an
almost fawning tone:--

G. ... _Sed eccum Demeam. Salvus fies._
D. _Oh, qui vocare?_ G. _Geta._ D. _Geta, hominem maximi
Pretii esse te hodie judicavi animo mei._

[9] It is said to have received its Latin name from this circumstance,
_persona, a personando_. See Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att., lib. v.
c. 7.

[Illustration: _No. 15. Comic Scene from Pompeii._]

That these representations are truthful, the scenes in the
wall-paintings of Pompeii leave us no room to doubt. One of these is
produced in our cut No. 15, which is no doubt taken from a comedy
now lost, and we are ignorant whom the characters are intended to
represent. The _pose_ given to the two comic figures, compared with
the example given from Berger, would lead us to suppose that this
over-energetic action was considered as part of the character of comic
acting.

[Illustration: _No. 16. Cupids at Play._]

The subject of the Roman masks is the more interesting, because they
were probably the origin of many of the grotesque faces so often met
with in mediæval sculpture. The comic mask was, indeed, a very popular
object among the Romans, and appears to have been taken as symbolical
of everything that was droll and burlesque. From the comic scenes of
the theatre, to which it was first appropriated, it passed to the
popular festivals of a public character, such as the Lupercalia, with
which, no doubt, it was carried into the carnival of the middle ages,
and to our masquerades. Among the Romans, also, the use of the mask
soon passed from the public festivals to private supper parties. Its
use was so common that it became a plaything among children, and was
sometimes used as a bugbear to frighten them. Our cut No. 16, taken
from a painting at Resina, represents two cupids playing with a mask,
and using it for this latter purpose, that is, to frighten one another;
and it is curious that the mediæval gloss of Ugutio explains _larva_,
a mask, as being an image, "which was put over the face to frighten
children."[10] The mask thus became a favourite ornament, especially on
lamps, and on the antefixa and gargoyls of Roman buildings, to which
were often given the form of grotesque masks, monstrous faces, with
great mouths wide open, and other figures, like those of the gargoyls
of the mediæval architects.

[10] "Simulacrum ... quod opponitur faciei ad terrendos parvos."
(Ugutio, ap. Ducange, v. _Masca_.)

[Illustration: _No. 17. The Roman Sannio, or Buffoon._]

While the comic mask was used generally in the burlesque
entertainments, it also became distinctive of particular characters.
One of these was the _sannio_, or buffoon, whose name was derived from
the Greek word σάννος, "a fool," and who was employed in performing
burlesque dances, making grimaces, and in other acts calculated to
excite the mirth of the spectator. A representation of the _sannio_
is given in our cut No. 17, copied from one of the engravings in the
"Dissertatio de Larvis Scenicis," by the Italian antiquary Ficoroni,
who took it from an engraved gem. The sannio holds in his hand what is
supposed to be a brass rod, and he has probably another in the other
hand, so that he could strike them together. He wears the _soccus_, or
low shoe peculiar to the comic actors. This buffoon was a favourite
character among the Romans, who introduced him constantly into their
feasts and supper parties. The _manducus_ was another character of this
description, represented with a grotesque mask, presenting a wide mouth
and tongue lolling out, and said to have been peculiar to the Atellane
plays. A character in Plautus (Rud., ii. 6, 51) talks of hiring himself
as a _manducus_ in the plays.

"_Quid si aliquo ad ludos me pro manduco locem?_"

The mediæval glosses interpret _manducus_ by _joculator_, "a jogelor,"
and add that the characteristic from which he took his name was the
practice of making grimaces like a man gobbling up his food in a vulgar
and gluttonous manner.

[Illustration: _No. 18. Roman Tom Fool._]

Ficoroni gives, from an engraved onyx, a figure of another burlesque
performer, copied in our cut No. 18, and which he compares to the
Catanian dancer of his time (his book was published in 1754), who was
called a _giangurgolo_. This is considered to represent the Roman
_mimus_, a class of performers who told with mimicry and action scenes
taken from common life, and more especially scandalous and indecent
anecdotes, like the jogelors and performers of farces in the middle
ages. The Romans were very much attached to these performances, so much
so, that they even had them at their funeral processions and at their
funeral feasts. In our figure, the _mimus_ is represented naked, masked
(with an exaggerated nose), and wearing what is perhaps intended as a
caricature of the Phrygian bonnet. In his right hand he holds a bag,
or purse, full of objects which rattle and make a noise when shaken,
while the other holds the _crotalum_, or castanets, an instrument in
common use among the ancients. One of the statues in the Barberini
Palace represents a youth in a Phrygian cap playing on the _crotalum_.
We learn, from an early authority, that it was an instrument especially
used in the satirical and burlesque dances which were so popular among
the Romans.

As I have remarked before, the Romans had no taste for the regular
drama, but they retained to the last their love for the performances
of the popular _mimi_, or _comædi_ (as they were often called), the
players of farces, and the dancers. These performed on the stage, in
the public festivals, in the streets, and were usually introduced at
private parties.[11] Suetonius tells us that on one occasion, the
emperor Caligula ordered a poet who composed the Atellanes (_Attellanæ
poetam_) to be burnt in the middle of the amphitheatre, for a pun. A
more regular comedy, however, did flourish, to a certain degree, at
the same time with these more popular compositions. Of the works of
the earliest of the Roman comic writers, Livius Andronicus and Nævius,
we know only one or two titles, and a few fragments quoted in the
works of the later Roman writers. They were followed by Plautus, who
died B.C. 184, and nineteen of whose comedies are preserved and well
known; by several other writers, whose names are almost forgotten, and
whose comedies are all lost; and by Terence, six of whose comedies are
preserved. Terence died about the year 159 B.C. About the same time
with Terence lived Lucius Afranius and Quinctius Atta, who appear to
close the list of the Roman writers of comedy.

[11] See, for allusions to the private employment of these
performances, Pliny, Epist. i. 15, and ix. 36.

But another branch of comic literature had sprung out of the satire of
the religious festivities. A year after Livius Andronicus produced the
first drama at Rome, in the year 239 B.C., the poet Ennius was born
at Rudiæ, in Magna Græcia. The satirical verse, whether Saturnine or
Fescennine, had been gradually improving in its form, although still
very rude, but Ennius is said to have given at least a new polish, and
perhaps a new metrical shape, to it. The verse was still irregular, but
it appears to have been no longer intended for recitation, accompanied
by the flute. The Romans looked upon Ennius not only as their earliest
epic poet, but as the father of satire, a class of literary composition
which appears to have originated with them, and which they claimed
as their own.[12] Ennius had an imitator in M. Terentius Varro. The
satires of these first writers are said to have been very irregular
compositions, mixing prose with verse, and sometimes even Greek with
Latin; and to have been rather general in their aim than personal. But
soon after this period, and rather more than a century before Christ,
came Caius Lucilius, who raised Roman satirical literature to its
perfection. Lucilius, we are told, was the first who wrote satires in
heroic verse, or hexameters, mixing with them now and then, though
rarely, an iambic or trochaic line. He was more refined, more pointed,
and more personal, than his predecessors, and he had rescued satire
from the street performer to make it a class of literature which was
to be read by the educated, and not merely listened to by the vulgar.
Lucilius is said to have written thirty books of satires, of which,
unfortunately, only some scattered lines remain.

[12] Quintilian says, "_Satira quidem tota nostra est_." De Instit.
Orator., lib. x. c. 1.

Lucilius had imitators, the very names of most of whom are now
forgotten, but about forty years after his death, and sixty-five
years before the birth of Christ, was born Quintus Horatius Flaccus,
the oldest of the satirists whose works we now possess, and the most
polished of Roman poets. In the time of Horace, the satire of the
Romans had reached its highest degree of perfection. Of the two other
great satirists whose works are preserved, Juvenal was born about the
year 40 of the Christian era, and Persius in 43. During the period
through which these writers flourished, Rome saw a considerable number
of other satirists of the same class, whose works have perished.

In the time of Juvenal another variety of the same class of literature
had already sprung up, more artificial and somewhat more indirect
than the other, the prose satiric romance. Three celebrated writers
represent this school. Petronius, who, born about the commencement
of our era, died in A.D. 65, is the earliest and most remarkable of
them. He compiled a romance, designed as a satire on the vices of the
age of Nero, in which real persons are supposed to be aimed at under
fictitious names, and which rivals in license, at least, anything
that could have been uttered in the Atellanes or other farces of the
_mimi_. Lucian, of Samosata, who died an old man in the year 200, and
who, though he wrote in Greek, may be considered as belonging to the
Roman school, composed several satires of this kind, in one of the
most remarkable of which, entitled "Lucius, or the Ass," the author
describes himself as changed by sorcery into the form of that animal,
under which he passes through a number of adventures which illustrate
the vices and weaknesses of contemporary society. Apuleius, who was
considerably the junior of Lucian, made this novel the groundwork of
his "Golden Ass," a much larger and more elaborate work, written in
Latin. This work of Apuleius was very popular through subsequent ages.

[Illustration: _No. 19. The Farm-yard in Burlesque._]

[Illustration: _No. 20. An Asilla-Bearer._]

Let us return to Roman caricature, one form of which seems to have
been especially a favourite among the people. It is difficult to
imagine how the story of the pigmies and of their wars with the cranes
originated, but it is certainly of great antiquity, as it is spoken
of in Homer, and it was a very popular legend among the Romans, who
eagerly sought and purchased dwarfs to make domestic pets of them. The
pigmies and cranes occur frequently among the pictorial ornamentations
of the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum; and the painters of Pompeii
not only represented them in their proper character, but they made use
of them for the purpose of caricaturing the various occupations of
life--domestic and social scenes, grave conferences, and many other
subjects, and even personal character. In this class of caricatures
they gave to the pigmies, or dwarfs, very large heads, and very small
legs and arms. I need hardly remark that this is a class of caricature
which is very common in modern times. Our first group of these pigmy
caricatures (No. 19) is taken from a painting on the walls of the
Temple of Venus, at Pompeii, and represents the interior of a farm-yard
in burlesque. The structure in the background is perhaps intended for a
hayrick. In front of it, one of the farm servants is attending on the
poultry. The more important-looking personage with the pastoral staff
is possibly the overseer of the farm, who is visiting the labourers,
and this probably is the cause why their movements have assumed so much
activity. The labourer on the right is using the _asilla_, a wooden
yoke or pole, which was carried over the shoulder, with the _corbis_,
or basket, suspended at each end. This was a common method of carrying,
and is not unfrequently represented on Roman works of art. Several
examples might be quoted from the antiquities of Pompeii. Our cut No.
20, from a gem in the Florentine Museum, and illustrating another class
of caricature, that of introducing animals performing the actions and
duties of men, represents a grasshopper carrying the _asilla_ and the
_corbes_.

[Illustration: _No. 21. A Painter's Studio._]

A private house in Pompeii furnished another example of this style
of caricature, which is given in our cut No. 21. It represents the
interior of a painter's studio, and is extremely curious on account
of the numerous details of his method of operation with which it
furnishes us. The painter, who is, like most of the figures in these
pigmy caricatures, very scantily clothed, is occupied with the portrait
of another, who, by the rather exaggerated fulness of the gathering
of his toga, is evidently intended for a dashing and fashionable
patrician, though he is seated as bare-legged and bare-breeched as the
artist himself. Both are distinguished by a large allowance of nose.
The easel here employed resembles greatly the same article now in use,
and might belong to the studio of a modern painter. Before it is a
small table, probably formed of a slab of stone, which serves for a
palette, on which the painter spreads and mixes his colours. To the
right a servant, who fills the office of colour-grinder, is seated by
the side of a vessel placed over hot coals, and appears to be preparing
colours, mixed, according to the directions given in old writers,
with punic wax and oil. In the background is seated a student, whose
attention is taken from his drawing by what is going on at the other
side of the room, where two small personages are entering, who look as
if they were amateurs, and who appear to be talking about the portrait.
Behind them stands a bird, and when the painting was first uncovered
there were two. Mazois, who made the drawing from which our cut is
taken, before the original had perished--for it was found in a state
of decay--imagined that the birds typified some well-known singers or
musicians, but they are, perhaps, merely intended for cranes, birds so
generally associated with the pigmies.

[Illustration: _No. 22. Part of a Triumphal Procession._]

According to an ancient writer, combats of pigmies were favourite
representations on the walls of taverns and shops;[13] and, curiously
enough, the walls of a shop in Pompeii have furnished the picture
represented in our cut No. 22, which has evidently been intended for
a caricature, probably a parody. All the pigmies in this picture
are crowned with laurel, as though the painter intended to turn to
ridicule some over-pompous triumph, or some public, perhaps religious,
ceremony. The two figures to the left, who are clothed in yellow
and green garments, appear to be disputing the possession of a bowl
containing a liquid. One of these, like the two figures on the right,
has a hoop thrown over his shoulder. The first of the latter personages
wears a violet dress, and holds in his right hand a rod, and in his
left a statuette, apparently of a deity, but its attributes are not
distinguishable. The last figure to the right has a robe, or mantle, of
two colours, red and green, and holds in his hand a branch of a lily,
or some similar plant; the rest of the picture is lost. Behind the
other figure stands a fifth, who appears younger and more refined in
character than the others, and seems to be ordering or directing them.
His dress is red.

[13] ἐπί των καπηλίων. Problem. Aristotelic. Sec. x. 7.

We can have no doubt that political and personal caricature flourished
among the Romans, as we have some examples of it on their works of art,
chiefly on engraved stones, though these are mostly of a character
we could not here conveniently introduce; but the same rich mine of
Roman art and antiquities, Pompeii, has furnished us with one sample
of what may be properly considered as a political caricature. In the
year 59 of the Christian era, at a gladiatorial exhibition in the
amphitheatre of Pompeii, where the people of Nuceria were present,
the latter expressed themselves in such scornful terms towards the
Pompeians, as led to a violent quarrel, which was followed by a pitched
battle between the inhabitants of the two towns, and the Nucerians,
being defeated, carried their complaints before the reigning emperor,
Nero, who gave judgment in their favour, and condemned the people of
Pompeii to suspension from all theatrical amusements for ten years.
The feelings of the Pompeians on this occasion are displayed in the
rude drawing represented in our cut No. 23, which is scratched on the
plaster of the external wall of a house in the street to which the
Italian antiquarians have given the name of the street of Mercury. A
figure, completely armed, his head covered with what might be taken
for a mediæval helmet, is descending what appear to be intended for
the steps of the amphitheatre. He carries in his hand a palm-branch,
the emblem of victory. Another palm-branch stands erect by his side,
and underneath is the inscription, in rather rustic Latin, "CAMPANI
VICTORIA VNA CVM NVCERINIS PERISTIS"--"O Campanians, you perished in
the victory together with the Nucerians." The other side of the picture
is more rudely and hastily drawn. It has been supposed to represent
one of the victors dragging a prisoner, with his arms bound, up a
ladder to a stage or platform, on which he was perhaps to be exhibited
to the jeers of the populace. Four years after this event, Pompeii
was greatly damaged by an earthquake, and sixteen years later came
the eruption of Vesuvius, which buried the town, and left it in the
condition in which it is now found.

[Illustration: _No. 23. A Popular Caricature._]

[Illustration: _No. 24. Early Caricature upon a Christian._]

This curious caricature belongs to a class of monuments to which
archæologists have given technically the Italian name of _graffiti_,
scratches or scrawls, of which a great number, consisting chiefly of
writing, have been found on the walls of Pompeii. They also occur
among the remains on other Roman sites, and one found in Rome itself
is especially interesting. During the alterations and extensions which
were made from time to time in the palace of the Cæsars, it had been
found necessary to build across a narrow street which intersected the
Palatine, and, in order to give support to the structure above, a
portion of the street was walled off, and remained thus hermetically
sealed until about the year 1857, when some excavations on the spot
brought it to view. The walls of the street were found to be covered
with these _graffiti_, among which one attracted especial attention,
and, having been carefully removed, is now preserved in the museum
of the Collegio Romano. It is a caricature upon a Christian named
Alexamenos, by some pagan who despised Christianity. The Saviour is
represented under the form of a man with the head of an ass, extended
upon a cross, the Christian, Alexamenos, standing on one side in the
attitude of worship of that period. Underneath we read the inscription,
ΑΛΕΞΑΜΕΝΟΣ CΕΒΕΤΕ (for σεβεται), "Alexamenos worships God." This
curious figure, which may be placed among the most interesting as well
as early evidences of the truth of Gospel history, is copied in our cut
No. 24. It was drawn when the prevailing religion at Rome was still
pagan, and a Christian was an object of contempt.

CHAPTER III.

THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE AGES.--THE
ROMAN MIMI CONTINUED TO EXIST.--THE TEUTONIC AFTER-DINNER
ENTERTAINMENTS.--CLERICAL SATIRES; ARCHBISHOP HERIGER AND THE
DREAMER; THE SUPPER OF THE SAINTS.--TRANSITION FROM ANCIENT
TO MEDIÆVAL ART.--TASTE FOR MONSTROUS ANIMALS, DRAGONS, ETC.;
CHURCH OF SAN FEDELE, AT COMO.--SPIRIT OF CARICATURE AND LOVE
OF GROTESQUE AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS.--GROTESQUE FIGURES OF
DEMONS.--NATURAL TENDENCY OF THE EARLY MEDIÆVAL ARTISTS TO DRAW IN
CARICATURE.--EXAMPLES FROM EARLY MANUSCRIPTS AND SCULPTURES.

The transition from antiquity to what we usually understand by the name
of the middle ages was long and slow; it was a period during which much
of the texture of the old society was destroyed, while at the same
time a new life was gradually given to that which remained. We know
very little of the comic literature of this period of transition; its
literary remains consist chiefly of a mass of heavy theology and of
lives of saints. The stage in its perfectly dramatic form--theatre and
amphitheatre--had disappeared. The pure drama, indeed, appears never
to have had great vitality among the Romans, whose tastes lay far more
among the vulgar performances of the mimics and jesters, and among
the savage scenes of the amphitheatre. While probably the performance
of comedies, such as those of Plautus and Terence, soon went out of
fashion, and tragedies, like those of Seneca, were only written as
literary compositions, imitations of the similar works which formed
so remarkable a feature in the literature of Greece, the Romans of
all ranks loved to witness the loose attitudes of their _mimi_, or
listen to their equally loose songs and stories. The theatre and the
amphitheatre were state institutions, kept up at the national expense,
and, as just stated, they perished with the overthrow of the western
empire; and the sanguinary performances of the amphitheatre, if the
amphitheatre itself continued to be used (which was perhaps the case
in some parts of western Europe), and they gave place to the more
harmless exhibitions of dancing bears and other tamed animals,[14] for
deliberate cruelty was not a characteristic of the Teutonic race. But
the mimi, the performers who sung songs and told stories, accompanied
with dancing and music, survived the fall of the empire, and continued
to be as popular as ever. St. Augustine, in the fourth century, calls
these things _nefaria_, detestable things, and says that they were
performed at night.[15] We trace in the capitularies the continuous
existence of these performances during the ages which followed the
empire, and, as in the time of St. Augustine, they still formed the
amusement of nocturnal assemblies. The capitulary of Childebert
proscribes those who passed their nights with drunkenness, jesting,
and songs.[16] The council of Narbonne, in the year 589, forbade
people to spend their nights "with dancings and filthy songs."[17] The
council of Mayence, in 813, calls these songs "filthy and licentious"
(_turpia atque luxuriosa_); and that of Paris speaks of them as
"obscene and filthy" (_obscæna et turpia_); while in another they are
called "frivolous and diabolic." From the bitterness with which the
ecclesiastical ordinances are expressed, it is probable that these
performances continued to preserve much of their old paganism; yet it
is curious that they are spoken of in these capitularies and acts of
the councils as being still practised in the religious festivals, and
even in the churches, so tenaciously did the old sentiments of the
race keep their possession of the minds of the populace, long after
they had embraced Christianity. These "songs," as they are called,
continued also to consist not only of general, but of personal satire,
and contained scandalous stories of persons living, and well known to
those who heard them. A capitulary of the Frankish king Childeric III.,
published in the year 744, is directed against those who compose and
sing songs in defamation of others (_in blasphemiam alterius_, to use
the rather energetic language of the original); and it is evident that
this offence was a very common one, for it is not unfrequently repeated
in later records of this character in the same words or in words to the
same purpose. Thus one result of the overthrow of the Roman empire was
to leave comic literature almost in the same condition in which it was
found by Thespis in Greece and by Livius Andronicus in Rome. There was
nothing in it which would be contrary to the feelings of the new races
who had now planted themselves in the Roman provinces.

[14] On this subject, see my "History of Domestic Manners and
Sentiments," p. 65. The dancing bear appears to have been a
favourite performer among the Germans at a very early period.

[15] Per totam noctem cantabantur hic nefaria et a cantatoribus
saltabatur. Augustini Serm. 311, part v.

[16] Noctes pervigiles cum ebrietate, scurrilitate, vel canticis. See
the Capitulary in Labbei Concil., vol. v.

[17] Ut populi.....saltationibus et turpibus invigilant canticis.

The Teutonic and Scandinavian nations had no doubt their popular
festivals, in which mirth and frolic bore sway, though we know little
about them; but there were circumstances in their domestic manners
which implied a necessity for amusement. After the comparatively early
meal, the hall of the primitive Teuton was the scene--especially in the
darker months of winter--of long sittings over the festive board, in
which there was much drinking and much talking, and, as we all know,
such talking could not preserve long a very serious tone. From Bede's
account of the poet Cædmon, we learn that it was the practice of the
Anglo-Saxons in the seventh century, at their entertainments, for all
those present to sing in their turns, each accompanying himself with a
musical instrument. From the sequel of the story we are led to suppose
that these songs were extemporary effusions, probably mythic legends,
stories of personal adventure, praise of themselves, or vituperation
of their enemies. In the chieftain's household there appears to have
been usually some individual who acted the part of the satirist, or, as
we should perhaps now say, the comedian. Hunferth appears as holding
some such position in Beowulf; in the later romances, Sir Kay held a
similar position at the court of king Arthur. At a still later period,
the place of these heroes was occupied by the court fool. The Roman
_mimus_ must have been a welcome addition to the entertainments of the
Teutonic hall, and there is every reason to think that he was cordially
received. The performances of the hall were soon delegated from the
guests to such hired actors, and we have representations of them in
the illuminations of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.[18] Among the earliest
amusements of the Anglo-Saxon table were riddles, which in every form
present some of the features of the comic, and are capable of being
made the source of much laughter. The saintly Aldhelm condescended to
write such riddles in Latin verse, which were, of course, intended for
the tables of the clergy. In primitive society, verse was the ordinary
form of conveying ideas. A large portion of the celebrated collection
of Anglo-Saxon poetry known as the "Exeter Book," consists of riddles,
and this taste for riddles has continued to exist down to our own
times. But other forms of entertainment, if they did not already
exist, were soon introduced. In a curious Latin poem, older than the
twelfth century, of which fragments only are preserved, and have been
published under the title of "Ruodlieb," and which appears to have
been a translation of a much earlier German romance, we have a curious
description of the post-prandial entertainments after the dinner of a
great Teutonic chieftain, or king. In the first place there was a grand
distribution of rich presents, and then were shown strange animals, and
among the rest tame bears. These bears stood upon their hind legs, and
performed some of the offices of a man; and when the minstrels (_mimi_)
came in, and played upon their musical instruments, these animals
danced to the music, and performed all sorts of strange tricks.

_Et pariles ursi....
Qui vas tollebant, ut homo, bipedesque gerebant.
Mimi quando fides digitis tangunt modulantes,
Illi saltabant, neumas pedibus variabant.
Interdum saliunt, seseque super jaciebant.
Alterutrum dorso se portabant residendo,
Amplexando se, luctando deficiunt se._

Then followed dancing-girls, and exhibitions of other kinds.[19]

[18] The reader is referred, for further information on this subject,
to my "History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments," pp. 33-39.

[19] This curious Latin poem was printed by Grimm and Schmeller, in
their Lateinische Gedichte des x. und xi. Jh., p. 129.

Although these performances were proscribed by the ecclesiastical laws,
they were not discountenanced by the ecclesiastics themselves, who, on
the contrary, indulged as much in after-dinner amusements as anybody.
The laws against the profane songs are often directed especially at
the clergy; and it is evident that among the Anglo-Saxons, as well as
on the Continent, not only the priests and monks, but the nuns also,
in their love of such amusements, far transgressed the bounds of
decency.[22] These entertainments were the cradle of comic literature,
but, as this literature in the early ages of its history was rarely
committed to writing, it has almost entirely perished. But, at the
tables of the ecclesiastics, these stories were sometimes told in
Latin verse, and as Latin was not so easily carried in the memory as
the vernacular tongue, in this language they were sometimes committed
to writing, and thus a few examples of early comic literature have
fortunately been preserved. These consist chiefly of popular stories,
which were among the favourite amusements of mediæval society--stories
many of which are derived from the earliest period of the history of
our race, and are still cherished among our peasantry. Such are the
stories of the Child of Snow, and of the Mendacious Hunter, preserved
in a manuscript of the eleventh century.[21] The first of these was
a very popular story in the middle ages. According to this early
version, a merchant of Constance, in Switzerland, was detained abroad
for several years, during which time his wife made other acquaintance,
and bore a child. On his return, she excused her fault by telling him
that on a cold wintry day she had swallowed snow, by which she had
conceived; and, in revenge, the husband carried away the child, and
sold it into slavery, and returning, told its mother, that the infant
which had originated in snow, had melted away under a hotter sun. Some
of these stories originated in the different collections of fables,
which were part of the favourite literature of the later Roman period.
Another is rather a ridiculous story of an ass belonging to two sisters
in a nunnery, which was devoured by a wolf.[20] curious how soon the
mediæval clergy began to imitate their pagan predecessors in parodying
religious subjects and forms, of which we have one or two very curious
examples. Visits to purgatory, hell, and paradise, in body or spirit,
were greatly in fashion during the earlier part of the middle ages,
and afforded extremely good material for satire. In a metrical Latin
story, preserved in a manuscript of the eleventh century, we are
told how a "prophet," or visionary, went to Heriger, archbishop of
Mayence from 912 to 926, and told him that he had been carried in a
vision to the regions below, and described them as a place surrounded
by thick woods. It was the Teutonic notion of hell, and indeed of
all settlements of peoples; and Heriger replied with a sneer that he
would send his herdsmen there with his lean swine to fatten them. Each
"mark," or land of a family or clan, in the early Teutonic settlements,
was surrounded by woodland, which was common to all members of the clan
for fattening their swine and hunting. The false dreamer added, that he
was afterwards carried to heaven, where he saw Christ sitting at the
table and eating. John the Baptist was butler, and served excellent
wine round to the saints, who were the Lord's guests. St. Peter was
the chief cook. After some remarks on the appointments to these two
offices, archbishop Heriger asked the informant how he was received in
the heavenly hall, where he sat, and what he eat. He replied that he
sat in a corner, and stole from the cooks a piece of liver, which he
eat, and then departed. Instead of rewarding him for his information,
Heriger took him on his own confession for the theft, and ordered him
to be bound to a stake and flogged, which, for the offence, was rather
a light punishment.

[20] On the character of the nuns among the Anglo-Saxons, and indeed of
the inmates of the monastic houses generally, I would refer my
readers to the excellent and interesting volume by Mr. John
Thrupp, "The Anglo-Saxon Home: a History of the Domestic
Institutions and Customs of England from the fifth to the eleventh
century." London, 1862.

[21] These will be found in M. Edélestand du Méril's Poésies Populaires
Latines antérieures au douzième siècle, pp. 275, 276.

[22] This, and the metrical story next referred to, were printed in
the "Altdeutsche Blätter," edited by Moriz Haupt and Heinrich
Hoffmann, vol. i. pp. 390, 392, to whom I communicated them from
a manuscript in the University Library at Cambridge.

_Heriger illum
jussit ad palum
loris ligari,
scopisque cedi,
sermone duro
hunc arguendo._

These lines will serve as a specimen of the popular Latin verse in
which these monkish after-dinner stories were written; but the most
remarkable of these early parodies on religious subjects, is one which
may be described as the supper of the saints; its title is simply
_Cœna_. It is falsely ascribed to St. Cyprian, who lived in the
third century; but it is as old as the tenth century, as a copy was
printed by professor Endlicher from a manuscript of that period at
Vienna. It was so popular, that it is found and known to have existed
in different forms in verse and in prose. It is a sort of drollery,
founded upon the wedding feast at which the Saviour changed water into
wine, though that miracle is not at all introduced into it. It was a
great king of the East, named Zoel, who held his nuptial feast at Cana
of Galilee. The personages invited are all scriptural, beginning with
Adam. Before the feast, they wash in the river Jordan, and the number
of the guests was so great, that seats could not be provided for them,
and they took their places as they could. Adam took the first place,
and seated himself in the middle of the assembly, and next to him Eve
sat upon leaves (_super folia_),--fig-leaves, we may suppose. Cain sat
on a plough, Abel on a milk-pail, Noah on an ark, Japhet on tiles,
Abraham on a tree, Isaac on an altar, Lot near the door, and so with
a long list of others. Two were obliged to stand--Paul, who bore it
patiently, and Esau, who grumbled--while Job lamented bitterly because
he was obliged to sit on a dunghill. Moses, and others, who came late,
were obliged to find seats out of doors. When the king saw that all
his guests had arrived, he took them into his wardrobe, and there, in
the spirit of mediæval generosity, distributed to them dresses, which
had all some burlesque allusion to their particular characters. Before
they were allowed to sit down to the feast, they were obliged to go
through other ceremonies, which, as well as the eating, are described
in the same style of caricature. The wines, of which there was great
variety, were served to the guests with the same allusions to their
individual characters; but some of them complained that they were badly
mixed, although Jonah was the butler. In the same manner are described
the proceedings which followed the dinner, the washing of hands, and
the dessert, to the latter of which Adam contributed apples, Samson
honey; while David played on the harp and Mary on the tabor; Judith led
the round dance; Jubal played on the psalter; Asael sung songs, and
Herodias acted the part of the dancing-girl:--

_Tunc Adam poma ministrat, Samson favi dulcia.
David cytharum percussit, et Maria tympana.
Judith choreas ducebat, et Jubal psalteria.
Asael metra canebat, saltabat Herodias._

Mambres entertained the company with his magical performances; and
the other incidents of a mediæval festival followed, throughout which
the same tone of burlesque is continued; and so the story continues,
to the end.[23] We shall find these incipient forms of mediæval comic
literature largely developed as we go on.

[23] The text of this singular composition, with a full account of the
various forms in which it was published, will be found in M. du
Méril's "Poésies Populaires Latines antérieures au douzième
siècle," p. 193.

[Illustration: _No. 25. Saturn Devouring his Child._]

The period between antiquity and the middle ages was one of such great
and general destruction, that the gulf between ancient and mediæval art
seems to us greater and more abrupt than it really was. The want of
monuments, no doubt, prevents our seeing the gradual change of one into
the other, but nevertheless enough of facts remain to convince us that
it was not a sudden change. It is now indeed generally understood that
the knowledge and practice of the arts and manufactures of the Romans
were handed onward from master to pupil after the empire had fallen;
and this took place especially in the towns, so that the workmanship
which had been declining in character during the later periods of the
empire, only continued in the course of degradation afterwards. Thus,
in the first Christian edifices, the builders who were employed, or at
least many of them, must have been pagans, and they would follow their
old models of ornamentation, introducing the same grotesque figures,
the same masks and monstrous faces, and even sometimes the same
subjects from the old mythology, to which they had been accustomed. It
is to be observed, too, that this kind of iconographical ornamentation
had been encroaching more and more upon the old architectural purity
during the latter ages of the empire, and that it was employed more
profusely in the later works, from which this taste was transferred
to the ecclesiastical and to the domestic architecture of the middle
ages. After the workmen themselves had become Christians, they still
found pagan emblems and figures in their models, and still went on
imitating them, sometimes merely copying, and at others turning them
to caricature or burlesque. And this tendency continued so long, that,
at a much later date, where there still existed remains of Roman
buildings, the mediæval architects adopted them as models, and did not
hesitate to copy the sculpture, although it might be evidently pagan in
character. The accompanying cut (No. 25) represents a bracket in the
church of Mont Majour, near Nismes, built in the tenth century. The
subject is a monstrous head eating a child, and we can hardly doubt
that it was really intended for a caricature on Saturn devouring one of
his children.

Sometimes the mediæval sculptors mistook the emblematical designs
of the Romans, and misapplied them, and gave an allegorical meaning
to that which was not intended to be emblematical or allegorical,
until the subjects themselves became extremely confused. They readily
employed that class of parody of the ancients in which animals were
represented performing the actions of men, and they had a great taste
for monsters of every description, especially those which were made up
of portions of incongruous animals joined together, in contradiction to
the precept of Horace:--

_Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas,
Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum
Desinet in piscem mulier formosa superne;
Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici?_

[Illustration: _No. 26. Sculpture from San Fedele, at Como._]

The mediæval architects loved such representations, always and in all
parts, and examples are abundant. At Como, in Italy, there is a very
ancient and remarkable church dedicated to San Fedele (Saint Fidelis);
it has been considered to be of so early a date as the fifth century.
The sculptures that adorn the doorway, which is triangular-headed, are
especially interesting. On one of these, represented in our cut No. 26,
in a compartment to the left, appears a figure of an angel, holding in
one hand a dwarf figure, probably intended for a child, by a lock of
his hair, and with the other hand directing his attention to a seated
figure in the compartment below. This latter figure has apparently the
head of a sheep, and as the head is surrounded with a large nimbus,
and the right hand is held out in the attitude of benediction, it
may be intended to represent the Lamb. This personage is seated on
something which is difficult to make out, but which looks somewhat
like a crab-fish. The boy in the compartment above carries a large
basin in his arms. The adjoining compartment to the right contains the
representation of a conflict between a dragon, a winged serpent, and a
winged fox. On the opposite side of the door, two winged monsters are
represented devouring a lamb's head. I owe the drawing from which this
and the preceding engraving were made to my friend Mr. John Robinson,
the architect, who made the sketches while travelling with the medal
of the Royal Academy. Figures of dragons, as ornaments, were great
favourites with the peoples of the Teutonic race; they were creatures
intimately wrapped up in their national mythology and romance, and they
are found on all their artistic monuments mingled together in grotesque
forms and groups. When the Anglo-Saxons began to ornament their books,
the dragon was continually introduced for ornamental borders and
in forming initial letters. One of the latter, from an Anglo-Saxon
manuscript of the tenth century (the well-known manuscript of Cædmon,
where it is given as an initial V), is represented in our cut on the
next page, No. 27.

[Illustration: _No. 27. Anglo-Saxon Dragons._]

Caricature and burlesque are naturally intended to be heard and seen
publicly, and would therefore be figured on such monuments as were most
exposed to popular gaze. Such was the case, in the earlier periods of
the middle ages, chiefly with ecclesiastical buildings, which explains
how they became the grand receptacles of this class of Art. We have few
traces of what may be termed comic literature among our Anglo-Saxon
forefathers, but this is fully explained by the circumstance that very
little of the popular Anglo-Saxon literature has been preserved. In
their festive hours the Anglo-Saxons seem to have especially amused
themselves in boasting of what they had done, and what they could do;
and these boasts were perhaps often of a burlesque character, like the
_gabs_ of the French and Anglo-Norman romancers of a later date, or
so extravagant as to produce laughter. The chieftains appear also to
have encouraged men who could make jokes, and satirise and caricature
others; for the company of such men seems to have been cherished, and
they are not unfrequently introduced in the stories. Such a personage,
as I have remarked before, is Hunferth in Beowulf; such was the Sir
Kay of the later Arthurian romances; and such too was the Norman
minstrel in the history of Hereward, who amused the Norman soldiers at
their feasts by mimicry of the manners of their Anglo-Saxon opponents.
The too personal satire of these wits often led to quarrels, which
ended in sanguinary brawls. The Anglo-Saxon love of caricature is
shown largely in their proper names, which were mostly significant of
personal qualities their parents hoped they would possess; and in these
we remark the proneness of the Teutonic race, as well as the peoples
of antiquity, to represent these qualities by the animals supposed to
possess them, the animals most popular being the wolf and the bear.
But it is not to be expected that the hopes of the parents in giving
the name would always be fulfilled, and it is not an uncommon thing
to find individuals losing their original names to receive in their
place nicknames, or names which probably expressed qualities they did
possess, and which were given to them by their acquaintances. These
names, though often not very complimentary, and even sometimes very
much the contrary, completely superseded the original name, and were
even accepted by the individuals to whom they applied. The second names
were indeed so generally acknowledged, that they were used in signing
legal documents. An Anglo-Saxon abbess of rank, whose real name was
Hrodwaru, but who was known universally by the name Bugga, the Bug,
wrote this latter name in signing charters. We can hardly doubt that
such a name was intended to ascribe to her qualities of a not agreeable
character, and very different to those implied by the original name,
which perhaps meant, a dweller in heaven. Another lady gained the name
of the Crow. It is well known that surnames did not come into use
till long after the Anglo-Saxon period, but appellatives, like these
nicknames, were often added to the name for the purpose of distinction,
or at pleasure, and these, too, being given by other people, were
frequently satirical. Thus, one Harold, for his swiftness, was called
Hare-foot; a well-known Edith, for the elegant form of her neck,
was called Swan-neck; and a Thurcyl, for a form of his head, which
can hardly have been called beautiful, was named Mare's-head. Among
many other names, quite as satirical as the last-mentioned, we find
Flat-nose, the Ugly Squint-eye, Hawk-nose, &c.

Of Anglo-Saxon sculpture we have little left, but we have a few
illuminated manuscripts which present here and there an attempt at
caricature, though they are rare. It would seem, however, that the two
favourite subjects of caricature among the Anglo-Saxons were the clergy
and the evil one. We have abundant evidence that, from the eighth
century downwards, neither the Anglo-Saxon clergy nor the Anglo-Saxon
nuns were generally objects of much respect among the people; and their
character and the manner of their lives sufficiently account for it.
Perhaps, also, it was increased by the hostility between the old clergy
and the new reformers of Dunstan's party, who would no doubt caricature
each other. A manuscript psalter, in the University Library, Cambridge
(Ff. 1, 23), of the Anglo-Saxon period, and apparently of the tenth
century, illustrated with rather grotesque initial letters, furnishes
us with the figure of a jolly Anglo-Saxon monk, given in our cut No.
28, and which it is hardly necessary to state represents the letter Q.
As we proceed, we shall see the clergy continuing to furnish a butt for
the shafts of satire through all the middle ages.

[Illustration: _No. 28. A Jolly Monk._]

[Illustration: _No. 29. Satan in Bonds._]

The inclination to give to the demons (the middle ages always looked
upon them as innumerable) monstrous forms, which easily ran into the
grotesque, was natural, and the painter, indeed, prided himself on
drawing them ugly; but he was no doubt influenced in so generally
caricaturing them, by mixing up this idea with those furnished by the
popular superstitions of the Teutonic race, who believed in multitudes
of spirits, representatives of the ancient satyrs, who were of a
playfully malicious description, and went about plaguing mankind in
a very droll manner, and sometimes appeared to them in equally droll
forms. They were the Pucks and Robin Goodfellows of later times;
but the Christian missionaries to the west taught their converts to
believe, and probably believed themselves, that all these imaginary
beings were real demons, who wandered over the earth for people's ruin
and destruction. Thus the grotesque imagination of the converted people
was introduced into the Christian system of demonology. It is a part of
the subject to which we shall return in our next chapter; but I will
here introduce two examples of the Anglo-Saxon demons. To explain the
first of these, it will be necessary to state that, according to the
mediæval notions, Satan, the arch demon, who had fallen from heaven
for his rebellion against the Almighty, was not a free agent who went
about tempting mankind, but he was himself plunged in the abyss,
where he was held in bonds, and tormented by the demons who peopled
the infernal regions, and also issued thence to seek their prey upon
God's newest creation, the earth. The history of Satan's fall, and the
description of his position (No. 29), form the subject of the earlier
part of the Anglo-Saxon poetry ascribed to Cædmon, and it is one of
the illuminations to the manuscript of Cædmon (which is now preserved
at Oxford), which has furnished us with our cut, representing Satan
in his bonds. The fiend is here pictured bound to stakes, over what
appears to be a gridiron, while one of the demons, rising out of a
fiery furnace, and holding in his hand an instrument of punishment,
seems to be exulting over him, and at the same time urging on the troop
of grotesque imps who are swarming round and tormenting their victim.
The next cut, No. 30, is also taken from an Anglo-Saxon manuscript,
preserved in the British Museum (MS. Cotton., Tiberius, C. vi.), which
belongs to the earlier half of the eleventh century, and contains a
copy of the psalter. It gives us the Anglo-Saxon notion of the demon
under another form, equally characteristic, wearing only a girdle
of flames, but in this case the especial singularity of the design
consists in the eyes in the fiend's wings.

[Illustration: _No. 30. Satan._]

[Illustration: _No. 31. The Temptation._]

[Illustration: _No. 32. David and the Lion._]

Another circumstance had no doubt an influence on the mediæval taste
for grotesque and caricature--the natural rudeness of early mediæval
art. The writers of antiquity tell us of a remote period of Grecian
art when it was necessary to write under each figure of a picture the
name of what it was intended to represent, in order to make the whole
intelligible--"this is a horse," "this is a man," "this is a tree."
Without being quite so rude as this, the early mediæval artists,
through ignorance of perspective, want of knowledge of proportion, and
of skill in drawing, found great difficulty in representing a scene in
which there was more than one figure, and in which it was necessary
to distinguish them from each other; and they were continually trying
to help themselves by adopting conventional forms or conventional
positions, and by sometimes adding symbols that did not exactly
represent what they meant. The exaggeration in form consisted chiefly
in giving an undue prominence to some characteristic feature, which
answered the same purpose as the Anglo-Saxon nickname and distinctive
name, and which is, in fact, one of the first principles of all
caricature. Conventional positions partook much of the character of
conventional forms, but gave still greater room for grotesque. Thus
the very first characteristics of mediæval art implied the existence
of caricature, and no doubt led to the taste for the grotesque. The
effect of this influence is apparent everywhere, and in innumerable
cases serious pictures of the gravest and most important subjects are
simply and absolutely caricatures. Anglo-Saxon art ran much into this
style, and is often very grotesque in character. The first example we
give (cut No. 31) is taken from one of the illustrations to Alfric's
Anglo-Saxon version of the Pentateuch, in the profusely illuminated
manuscript in the British Museum (MS. Cotton., Claudius B iv.), which
was written at the end of the tenth, or beginning of the eleventh,
century. It represents the temptation and fall of man; and the subject
is treated, as will be seen, in a rather grotesque manner. Eve is
evidently dictating to her husband, who, in obeying her, shows a
mixture of eagerness and trepidation. Adam is no less evidently going
to swallow the apple whole, which is, perhaps, in accordance with the
mediæval legend, according to which the fruit stuck in his throat. It
is hardly necessary to remark that the tree is entirely a conventional
one; and it would be difficult to imagine how it came to bear apples at
all. The mediæval artists were extremely unskilful in drawing trees;
to these they usually gave the forms of cabbages, or some such plants,
of which the form was simple, or often of a mere bunch of leaves. Our
next example (cut No. 32) is also Anglo-Saxon, and is furnished by
the manuscript in the British Museum already mentioned (MS. Cotton.,
Tiberius C vi.) It probably represents young David killing the lion,
and is remarkable not only for the strange posture and bad proportions
of the man, but for the tranquillity of the animal and the exaggerated
and violent action of its slayer. This is very commonly the case in the
mediæval drawings and sculptures, the artists apparently possessing
far less skill in representing action in an animal than in man, and
therefore more rarely attempting it. These illustrations are both taken
from illuminated manuscripts. The two which follow are furnished by
sculptures, and are of a rather later date than the preceding. The
abbey of St. George of Boscherville, in the diocese of Auxerre (in
Normandy), was founded by Ralph de Tancarville, one of the ministers of
William the Conqueror, and therefore in the latter half of the eleventh
century. A history of this religious house was published by a clever
local antiquary--M. Achille Deville--from whose work we take our cut
No. 33, one of a few rude sculptures on the abbey church, which no
doubt belonged to the original fabric. It is not difficult to recognise
the subject as Joseph taking the Virgin Mary with her Child into
Egypt; but there is something exceedingly droll in the unintentional
caricature of the faces, as well as in the whole design. The Virgin
Mary appears without a nimbus, while the nimbus of the Infant Jesus
is made to look very like a bonnet. It may be remarked that this
subject of the flight into Egypt is by no means an uncommon one in
mediæval art; and a drawing of the same subject, copied in my "History
of Domestic Manners and Sentiments" (p. 115), presents a remarkable
illustration of the contrast of the skill of a Norman sculptor and of
an almost contemporary Anglo-Norman illuminator. Our cut also furnishes
us with evidence of the error of the old opinion that ladies rode
astride in the middle ages. Even one, who by his style of art must have
been an obscure local carver on stone, when he represented a female on
horseback, placed her in the position which has always been considered
suitable to the sex.

[Illustration: _No. 33. The flight into Egypt._]

[Illustration: _No. 34. David and Goliah._]

For the drawing of the other sculpture to which I allude, I am indebted
to Mr. Robinson. It is one of the subjects carved on the façade of
the church of St. Gilles, near Nismes, and is a work of the twelfth
century. It appears to represent the young David slaying the giant
Goliah, the latter fully armed in scale armour, and with shield and
spear, like a Norman knight; while to David the artist has given a
figure which is feminine in its forms. What we might take at first
sight for a basket of apples, appears to be meant for a supply of
stones for the sling which the young hero carries suspended from his
neck. He has slain the giant with one of these, and is cutting off his
head with his own sword.

CHAPTER IV.

THE DIABOLICAL IN CARICATURE.--MEDIÆVAL LOVE OF THE
LUDICROUS.--CAUSES WHICH MADE IT INFLUENCE THE NOTIONS
OF DEMONS.--STORIES OF THE PIOUS PAINTER AND THE ERRING
MONK.--DARKNESS AND UGLINESS CARICATURED.--THE DEMONS IN THE
MIRACLE PLAYS.--THE DEMON OF NOTRE DAME.

As I have already stated in the last chapter, there can be no doubt
that the whole system of the demonology of the middle ages was
derived from the older pagan mythology. The demons of the monkish
legends were simply the elves and hobgoblins of our forefathers, who
haunted woods, and fields, and waters, and delighted in misleading
or plaguing mankind, though their mischief was usually of a rather
mirthful character. They were represented in classical mythology by
the fauns and satyrs who had, as we have seen, much to do with the
birth of comic literature among the Greeks and Romans; but these
Teutonic elves were more ubiquitous than the satyrs, as they even
haunted men's houses, and played tricks, not only of a mischievous,
but of a very familiar character. The Christian clergy did not look
upon the personages of the popular superstitions as fabulous beings,
but they taught that they were all diabolical, and that they were
so many agents of the evil one, constantly employed in enticing and
entrapping mankind. Hence, in the mediæval legends, we frequently find
demons presenting themselves under ludicrous forms or in ludicrous
situations; or performing acts, such as eating and drinking, which are
not in accordance with their real character; or at times even letting
themselves be outwitted or entrapped by mortals in a very undignified
manner. Although they assumed any form they pleased, their natural form
was remarkable chiefly for being extremely ugly; one of them, which
appeared in a wild wood, is described by Giraldus Cambrensis, who wrote
at the end of the twelfth century, as being hairy, shaggy, and rough,
and monstrously deformed.[24] According to a mediæval story, which
was told in different forms, a great man's cellar was once haunted by
these demons, who drank all his wine, while the owner was totally at a
loss to account for its rapid disappearance. After many unsuccessful
attempts to discover the depredators, some one, probably suspecting
the truth, suggested that he should mark one of the barrels with holy
water, and next morning a demon, much resembling the description given
by Giraldus, was found stuck fast to the barrel. It is told also of
Edward the Confessor, that he once went to see the tribute called
the Danegeld, and it was shown to him all packed up in great barrels
ready to be sent away--for this appears to have been the usual mode
of transporting large quantities of money. The saintly king had the
faculty of being able to see spiritual beings--a sort of spiritual
second-sight--and he beheld seated on the largest barrel, a devil, who
was "black and hideous."

_Vit un déable saer desus
Le tresor, noir et hidus._--Life of S. Edward, l. 944.

[Illustration: _No. 35. The Demon of the Treasure._]

An early illuminator, in a manuscript preserved in the library of
Trinity College, Cambridge (MS. Trin. Col., B x. 2), has left us a
pictorial representation of this scene, from which I copy his notion
of the form of the demon in cut No. 35. The general idea is evidently
taken from the figure of the goat, and the relationship between the
demon and the classical satyr is very evident.

[24] "Formam quandam villosam, hispidam, et hirsutam, adeoque enormiter
deformem." Girald. Camb., Itiner. Camb., lib. i. c. 5.

Ugliness was an essential characteristic of the demons, and, moreover,
their features have usually a mirthful cast, as though they greatly
enjoyed their occupation. There is a mediæval story of a young
monk, who was sacristan to an abbey, and had the directions of the
building and ornamentation. The carvers of stone were making admirable
representations of hell and paradise, in the former of which the demons
"seemed to take great delight in well tormenting their victims"--

_Qui par semblant se delitoit
En ce que bien les tormentoit._

The sacristan, who watched the sculptors every day, was at last moved
by pious zeal to try and imitate them, and he set to work to make a
devil himself, with such success, that his fiend was so black and ugly
that nobody could look at it without terror.

_Tant qu'un déable à fere emprist;
Si i mist sa poine et sa cure,
Que la forme fu si oscure
Et si laide, que cil doutast
Que entre deus oilz l'esgardast._

The sacristan, encouraged by his success--for it must be understood
that his art was a sudden inspiration (as he had not been an artist
before)--continued his work till it was completed, and then "it was so
horrible and so ugly, that all who saw it affirmed upon their oaths
that they had never seen so ugly a figure either in sculpture or in
painting, or one which had so repulsive an appearance, or a devil which
was a better likeness than the one this monk had made for them"--

_Si horribles fu et si lez,
Que trestouz cels que le véoient
Seur leur serement afermoient
C'onques mès si laide figure,
Ne en taille ne en peinture,
N'avoient à nul jor véue,
Qui si éust laide véue,
Ne déable miex contrefet
Que cil moines leur avoit fet._--Meon's Fabliaux, tom. ii. p. 414.

The demon himself now took offence at the affront which had been
put upon him, and appearing the night following to the sacristan,
reproached him with having made him so ugly, and enjoined him to break
the sculpture, and execute another representing him better looking, on
pain of very severe punishment; but, although this visit was repeated
thrice, the pious monk refused to comply. The evil one now began to
work in another way, and, by his cunning, he drew the sacristan into a
disgraceful amour with a lady of the neighbourhood, and they plotted
not only to elope together by night, but to rob the monastery of its
treasure, which was of course in the keeping of the sacristan. They
were discovered, and caught in their flight, laden with the treasure,
and the unfaithful sacristan was thrown into prison. The fiend now
appeared to him, and promised to clear him out of all his trouble on
the mere condition that he should break his ugly statue, and make
another representing him as looking handsome--a bargain to which the
sacristan acceded without further hesitation. It would thus appear that
the demons did not like to be represented ugly. In this case, the fiend
immediately took the form and place of the sacristan, while the latter
went to his bed as if nothing had happened. When the other monks found
him there next morning, and heard him disclaim all knowledge of the
robbery or of the prison, they hurried to the latter place, and found
the devil in chains, who, when they attempted to exorcise him, behaved
in a very turbulent manner, and disappeared from their sight. The
monks believed that it was all a deception of the evil one, while the
sacristan, who was not inclined to brave his displeasure a second time,
performed faithfully his part of the contract, and made a devil who
did not look ugly. In another version of the story, however, it ends
differently. After the third warning, the monk went in defiance of the
devil, and made his picture uglier than ever; in revenge for which the
demon came unexpectedly and broke the ladder on which he was mounted
at his work, whereby the monk would undoubtedly have been killed. But
the Virgin, to whom he was much devoted, came to his assistance, and,
seizing him with her hand, and holding him in the air, disappointed
the devil of his purpose. It is this latter _dénouement_ which is
represented in the cut No. 36, taken from the celebrated manuscript in
the British Museum known as "Queen Mary's Psalter" (MS. Reg. 2 B vii.).
The two demons employed here present, well defined, the air of mirthful
jollity which was evidently derived from the popular hobgoblins.

[Illustration: _No. 36. The Pious Sculptor._]

[Illustration: _No. 37. The Monk's Disaster._]

[Illustration: _No. 38. The Demons Disappointed._]

There was another popular story, which also was told under several
forms. The old Norman historians tell it of their duke Richard
Sans-Peur. There was a monk of the abbey of St. Ouen, who also held
the office of sacristan, but, neglecting the duties of his position,
entered into an intrigue with a lady who dwelt in the neighbourhood,
and was accustomed at night to leave the abbey secretly, and repair
to her. His place as sacristan enabled him thus to leave the house
unknown to the other brethren. On his way, he had to pass the little
river Robec, by means of a plank or wooden bridge, and one night
the demons, who had been watching him on his errand of sin, caught
him on the bridge, and threw him over into the water, where he was
drowned. One devil seized his soul, and would have carried it away,
but an angel came to claim him on account of his good actions, and
the dispute ran so high, that duke Richard, whose piety was as great
as his courage, was called in to decide it. The same manuscript from
which our last cut was taken has furnished our cut No. 37, which
represents two demons tripping up the monk, and throwing him very
unceremoniously into the river. The body of one of the demons here
assumes the form of an animal, instead of taking, like the other, that
of a man, and he is, moreover, furnished with a dragon's wings. There
was one version of this story, in which it found its place among the
legends of the Virgin Mary, instead of those of duke Richard. The
monk, in spite of his failings, had been a constant worshipper of the
Virgin, and, as he was falling from the bridge into the river, she
stepped forward to protect him from his persecutors, and taking hold
of him with her hand, saved him from death. One of the compartments
of the rather early wall-paintings in Winchester Cathedral represents
the scene according to this version of the story, and is copied in
our cut No. 38. The fiends here take more fantastic shapes than we
have previously seen given to them. They remind us already of the
infinitely varied grotesque forms which the painters of the age of the
Renaissance crowded together in such subjects as "The Temptation of
St. Anthony." In fact these strange notions of the forms of the demons
were not only preserved through the whole period of the middle ages,
but are still hardly extinct. They appear in almost exaggerated forms
in the illustrations to books of a popular religious character which
appeared in the first ages of printing. I may quote, as an example, one
of the cuts of an early and very rare block-book, entitled the _Ars
Moriendi_, or "Art of Dying," or, in a second title, _De Tentationibus
Morientium_, on the temptations to which dying men are exposed. The
scene, of which a part is given in the annexed cut (No. 39), is in the
room of the dying man, whose bed is surrounded by three demons, who
are come to tempt him, while his relatives of both sexes are looking
on quite unconscious of their presence. The figures of these demons
are particularly grotesque, and their ugly features betray a degree of
vulgar cunning which adds not a little to this effect. The one leaning
over the dying man suggests to him the words expressed in the label
issuing from his mouth, _Provideas amicis_, "provide for your friends;"
while the one whose head appears to the left whispers to him, _Yntende
thesauro_, "think of your treasure." The dying man seems grievously
perplexed with the various thoughts thus suggested to him.

[Illustration: _No. 39. A Mediæval Death-bed._]

[Illustration: _No. 40. Condemned Souls carried to their Place of
Punishment._]

Why did the mediæval Christians think it necessary to make the devils
black and ugly? The first reply to this question which presents itself
is, that the characteristics intended to be represented were the
blackness and ugliness of sin. This, however, is only partially the
explanation of the fact; for there can be no doubt that the notion
was a popular one, and that it had previously existed in the popular
mythology; and, as has been already remarked, the ugliness exhibited
by them is a vulgar, mirthful ugliness, which makes you laugh instead
of shudder. Another scene, from the interesting drawings at the foot
of the pages in "Queen Mary's Psalter," is given in our cut No. 40. It
represents that most popular of mediæval pictures, and, at the same
time, most remarkable of literal interpretations, hell mouth. The
entrance to the infernal regions was always represented pictorially
as the mouth of a monstrous animal, where the demons appeared leaving
and returning. Here they are seen bringing the sinful souls to their
last destination, and it cannot be denied that they are doing the work
right merrily and jovially. In our cut No. 41, from the manuscript in
the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, which furnished a former
subject, three demons, who appear to be the guardians of the entrance
to the regions below--for it is upon the brow above the monstrous mouth
that they are standing--present varieties of the diabolical form. The
one in the middle is the most remarkable, for he has wings not only
on his shoulders, but also on his knees and heels. All three have
horns; in fact, the three special characteristics of mediæval demons
were horns, hoofs--or, at least, the feet of beasts,--and tails, which
sufficiently indicate the source from which the popular notions of
these beings were derived. In the cathedral of Treves, there is a mural
painting by William of Cologne, a painter of the fifteenth century,
which represents the entrance to the shades, the monstrous mouth, with
its keepers, in still more grotesque forms. Our cut No. 42 gives but a
small portion of this picture, in which the porter of the regions of
punishment is sitting astride the snout of the monstrous mouth, and
is sounding with a trumpet what may be supposed to be the call for
those who are condemned. Another minstrel of the same stamp, spurred,
though not booted, sits astride the tube of the trumpet, playing on
the bagpipes; and the sound which issues from the former instrument is
represented by a host of smaller imps who are scattering themselves
about.

[Illustration: _No. 41. The Guardians of Hell Mouth._]

[Illustration: _No. 42. The Trumpeter of Evil._]

It must not be supposed that, in subjects like these, the drollery of
the scene was accidental; but, on the contrary, the mediæval artists
and popular writers gave them this character purposely. The demons and
the executioners--the latter of whom were called in Latin _tortores_,
and in popular old English phraseology the "tormentours"--were the
comic characters of the time, and the scenes in the old mysteries or
religious plays in which they were introduced were the comic scenes,
or farce, of the piece. The love of burlesque and caricature was,
indeed, so deeply planted in the popular mind, that it was found
necessary to introduce them even in pious works, in which such scenes
as the slaughter of the innocents, where the "knights" and the women
abused each other in vulgar language, the treatment of Christ at
the time of His trial, some parts of the scene of the crucifixion,
and the day of judgment, were essentially comic. The last of these
subjects, especially, was a scene of mirth, because it often consisted
throughout of a coarse satire on the vices of the age, especially on
those which were most obnoxious to the populace, such as the pride and
vanity of the higher ranks, and the extortions and frauds of usurers,
bakers, taverners, and others. In the play of "Juditium," or the day
of doom, in the "Towneley Mysteries," one of the earliest collections
of mysteries in the English language, the whole conversation among
the demons is exactly of that joking kind which we might expect from
their countenances in the pictures. When one of them appears carrying
a bag full of different offences, another, his companion, is so joyful
at this circumstance, that he says it makes him laugh till he is out
of breath, or, in other words, till he is ready to burst; and, while
asking if anger be not among the sins he had collected, proposes to
treat him with something to drink--

Primus dæmon. _Peasze, I pray the, be stille; I laghe that I kynke.
Is oghte ire in thi bille? and then salle thou drynke._
--Towneley Mysteries, p. 309.

And in the continuation of the conversation, one telling of the events
which had preceded the announcement of Doomsday says, rather jeeringly,
and somewhat exultingly, "Souls came so thick now of late to hell, that
our porter at hell gate is ever held so close at work, up early and
down late, that he never rests"--

_Saules cam so thyk now late unto helle,
As ever
Oure porter at helle gate
Is halden so strate,
Up erly and downe late,
He rystys never._--Ib., p. 314.

With such popular notions on the subject, we have no reason to be
surprised that the artists of the middle ages frequently chose the
figures of demons as objects on which to exercise their skill in
burlesque and caricature, that they often introduced grotesque figures
of their heads and bodies in the sculptured ornamentation of building,
and that they presented them in ludicrous situations and attitudes in
their pictures. They are often brought in as secondary actors in a
picture in a very singular manner, of which an excellent example is
furnished by the beautifully illuminated manuscript known as "Queen
Mary's Psalter," which is copied in our cut No. 43. Nothing is more
certain than that in this instance the intention of the artist was
perfectly serious. Eve, under the influence of a rather singularly
formed serpent, having the head of a beautiful woman and the body of
a dragon, is plucking the apples and offering them to Adam, who is
preparing to eat one, with evident hesitation and reluctance. But three
demons, downright hobgoblins, appear as secondary actors in the scene,
who exercise an influence upon the principals. One is patting Eve
on the shoulder, with an air of approval and encouragement, while a
second, with wings, is urging on Adam, and apparently laughing at his
apprehensions; and a third, in a very ludicrous manner, is preventing
him from drawing back from the trial.

[Illustration: _No. 43. The Fall of Man._]

In all the delineations of demons we have yet seen, the ludicrous is
the spirit which chiefly predominates, and in no one instance have
we had a figure which is really demoniacal. The devils are droll but
not frightful; they provoke laughter, or at least excite a smile,
but they create no horror. Indeed, they torment their victims so
good-humouredly, that we hardly feel for them. There is, however, one
well-known instance in which the mediæval artist has shown himself
fully successful in representing the features of the spirit of evil. On
the parapet of the external gallery of the cathedral church of Notre
Dame in Paris, there is a figure in stone, of the ordinary stature of
a man, representing the demon, apparently looking with satisfaction
upon the inhabitants of the city as they were everywhere indulging in
sin and wickedness. We give a sketch of this figure in our cut No. 44.
The unmixed evil--horrible in its expression in this countenance--is
marvellously portrayed. It is an absolute Mephistophiles, carrying in
his features a strange mixture of hateful qualities--malice, pride,
envy--in fact, all the deadly sins combined in one diabolical whole.

[Illustration: _No. 44. The Spirit of Evil._]

CHAPTER V.

EMPLOYMENT OF ANIMALS IN MEDIÆVAL SATIRE.--POPULARITY OF FABLES;
ODO DE CIRINGTON.--REYNARD THE FOX.--BURNELLUS AND FAUVEL.--THE
CHARIVARI.--LE MONDE BESTORNÉ.--ENCAUSTIC TILES.--SHOEING THE
GOOSE, AND FEEDING PIGS WITH ROSES.--SATIRICAL SIGNS; THE MUSTARD
MAKER.

The people of the middle ages appear to have been great admirers
of animals, to have observed closely their various characters and
peculiarities, and to have been fond of domesticating them. They
soon began to employ their peculiarities as means of satirising and
caricaturing mankind; and among the literature bequeathed to them by
the Romans, they received no book more eagerly than the "Fables of
Æsop," and the other collections of fables which were published under
the empire. We find no traces of fables among the original literature
of the German race; but the tribes who took possession of the Roman
provinces no sooner became acquainted with the fables of the ancients,
than they began to imitate them, and stories in which animals acted
the part of men were multiplied immensely, and became a very important
branch of mediæval fiction.

Among the Teutonic peoples especially, these fables often assumed very
grotesque forms, and the satire they convey is very amusing. One of the
earliest of these collections of original fables was composed by an
English ecclesiastic named Odo de Cirington, who lived in the time of
Henry II. and Richard I. In Odo's fables, we find the animals figuring
under the same popular names by which they were afterwards so well
known, such as Reynard for the Fox, Isengrin for the wolf, Teburg for
the cat, and the like. Thus the subject of one of them is "Isengrin
made Monk" (_de Isengrino monacho_). "Once," we are told, "Isengrin
desired to be a monk. By dint of fervent supplications, he obtained
the consent of the chapter, and received the tonsure, the cowl, and
the other insignia of monachism. At length they put him to school,
and he was to learn the 'Paternoster,' but he always replied, 'lamb'
(_agnus_) or 'ram' (_aries_). The monks taught him that he ought to
look upon the crucifix and upon the sacrament, but he ever directed his
eyes to the lambs and rams." The fable is droll enough, but the moral,
or application is still more grotesque. "Such is the conduct of many
of the monks, whose only cry is 'aries,' that is, good wine, and who
have their eyes always fixed on fat flesh and their platter;" whence the
saying in English--

_They thou the vulf hore_ _Though thou the hoary wolf_
_hod to preste,_ _consecrate to a priest,_
_they thou him to skole sette_ _though thou put him to school_
_salmes to lerne,_ _to learn Psalms,_
_hevere bet hise geres_ _ever are his ears turned_
_to the grove grene_. _to the green grove._

These lines are in the alliterative verse of the Anglo-Saxons, and
show that such fables had already found their place in the popular
poetry of the English people. Another of these fables is entitled "Of
the Beetle (_serabo_) and his Wife." "A beetle, flying through the
land, passed among most beautiful blooming trees, through orchards
and among roses and lilies, in the most lovely places, and at length
threw himself upon a dunghill among the dung of horses, and found there
his wife, who asked him whence he came. And the beetle said, 'I have
flown all round the earth and through it; I have seen the flowers of
almonds, and lilies, and roses, but I have seen no place so pleasant as
this,' pointing to the dunghill." The application is equally droll with
the former and equally uncomplimentary to the religious part of the
community. Odo de Cirington tells us that, "Thus many of the clergy,
monks, and laymen listen to the lives of the fathers, pass among the
lilies of the virgins, among the roses of the martyrs, and among the
violets of the confessors, yet nothing ever appears so pleasant and
agreeable as a strumpet, or the tavern, or a singing party, though it
is but a stinking dunghill and congregation of sinners."

[Illustration: _No. 45. The Fox in the Pulpit._]

[Illustration: _No. 46. Ecclesiastical Sincerity._]

[Illustration: _No. 47. Reynard turned Monk._]

Popular sculpture and painting were but the translation of popular
literature, and nothing was more common to represent, in pictures
and carvings, than individual men under the forms of the animals
who displayed similar characters or similar propensities. Cunning,
treachery, and intrigue were the prevailing vices of the middle ages,
and they were those also of the fox, who hence became a favourite
character in satire. The victory of craft over force always provoked
mirth. The fabulists, or, we should perhaps rather say, the satirists,
soon began to extend their canvas and enlarge their picture, and,
instead of single examples of fraud or injustice, they introduced
a variety of characters, not only foxes, but wolves, and sheep,
and bears, with birds also, as the eagle, the cock, and the crow,
and mixed them up together in long narratives, which thus formed
general satires on the vices of contemporary society. In this manner
originated the celebrated romance of "Reynard the Fox," which in
various forms, from the twelfth century to the eighteenth, has enjoyed
a popularity which was granted probably to no other book. The plot of
this remarkable satire turns chiefly on the long struggle between the
brute force of Isengrin the Wolf, possessed only with a small amount
of intelligence, which is easily deceived--under which character is
presented the powerful feudal baron--and the craftiness of Reynard
the Fox, who represents the intelligent portion of society, which had
to hold its ground by its wits, and these were continually abused to
evil purposes. Reynard is swayed by a constant impulse to deceive
and victimise everybody, whether friends or enemies, but especially
his uncle Isengrin. It was somewhat the relationship between the
ecclesiastical and baronial aristocracy. Reynard was educated in the
schools, and intended for the clerical order; and at different times
he is represented as acting under the disguise of a priest, of a monk,
of a pilgrim, or even of a prelate of the church. Though frequently
reduced to the greatest straits by the power of Isengrin, Reynard
has generally the better of it in the end: he robs and defrauds
Isengrin continually, outrages his wife, who is half in alliance
with him, and draws him into all sorts of dangers and sufferings,
for which the latter never succeeds in obtaining justice. The old
sculptors and artists appear to have preferred exhibiting Reynard in
his ecclesiastical disguises, and in these he appears often in the
ornamentation of mediæval architectural sculpture, in wood-carvings,
in the illuminations of manuscripts, and in other objects of art. The
popular feeling against the clergy was strong in the middle ages, and
no caricature was received with more favour than those which exposed
the immorality or dishonesty of a monk or a priest. Our cut No. 45 is
taken from a sculpture in the church of Christchurch, in Hampshire, for
the drawing of which I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt.
It represents Reynard in the pulpit preaching; behind, or rather
perhaps beside him, a diminutive cock stands upon a stool--in modern
times we should be inclined to say he was acting as clerk. Reynard's
costume consists merely of the ecclesiastical hood or cowl. Such
subjects are frequently found on the carved seats, or misereres, in the
stalls of the old cathedrals and collegiate churches. The painted glass
of the great window of the north cross-aisle of St. Martin's church in
Leicester, which was destroyed in the last century, represented the
fox, in the character of an ecclesiastic, preaching to a congregation
of geese, and addressing them in the words--_Testis est mihi Deus,
quam cupiam vos omnes visceribus meis_ (God is witness, how I desire
you all in my bowels), a parody on the words of the New Testament.[25]
Our cut No. 46 is taken from one of the misereres in the church of
St. Mary, at Beverley, in Yorkshire. Two foxes are represented in the
disguise of ecclesiastics, each furnished with a pastoral staff, and
they appear to be receiving instructions from a prelate or personage
of rank--perhaps they are undertaking a pilgrimage of penance. But
their sincerity is rendered somewhat doubtful by the geese concealed
in their hoods. In one of the incidents of the romance of Reynard,
the hero enters a monastery and becomes a monk, in order to escape the
wrath of King Noble, the lion. For some time he made an outward show of
sanctity and self-privation, but unknown to his brethren he secretly
helped himself freely to the good things of the monastery. One day he
observed, with longing lips, a messenger who brought four fat capons as
a present from a lay neighbour to the abbot. That night, when all the
monks had retired to rest, Reynard obtained admission to the larder,
regaled himself with one of the capons, and as soon as he had eaten it,
trussed the three others on his back, escaped secretly from the abbey,
and, throwing away his monastic garment, hurried home with his prey. We
might almost imagine our cut No. 47, taken from one of the stalls of
the church of Nantwich, in Cheshire, to have been intended to represent
this incident, or, at least, a similar one. Our next cut, No. 48, is
taken from a stall in the church of Boston, in Lincolnshire. A prelate,
equally false, is seated in his chair, with a mitre on his head, and
the pastoral staff in his right hand. His flock are represented by a
cock and hens, the former of which he holds securely with his right
hand, while he appears to be preaching to them.

[25] An engraving of this scene, modernised in character, is given in
Nichols's "Leicestershire," vol. i. plate 43.

[Illustration: _No. 48. The Prelate and his Flock._]

Another mediæval sculpture has furnished events for a rather curious
history, at the same time that it is a good illustration of our
subject. Odo de Cirington, the fabulist, tells us how, one day, the
wolf died, and the lion called the animals together to celebrate his
exequies. The hare carried the holy water, hedgehogs bore the candles,
the goats rang the bells, the moles dug the grave, the foxes carried
the corpse on the bier. Berengarius, the bear, celebrated mass, the ox
read the gospel, and the ass the epistle. When the mass was concluded,
and Isengrin buried, the animals made a splendid feast out of his
goods, and wished for such another funeral. Our satirical ecclesiastic
makes an application of this story which tells little to the credit
of the monks of his time. "So it frequently happens," he says, "that
when some rich man, an extortionist or a usurer, dies, the abbot or
prior of a convent of beasts, _i.e._ of men living like beasts, causes
them to assemble. For it commonly happens that in a great convent of
black or white monks (Benedictines or Augustinians) there are none
but beasts--lions by their pride, foxes by their craftiness, bears by
their voracity, stinking goats by their incontinence, asses by their
sluggishness, hedgehogs by their asperity, hares by their timidity,
because they were cowardly where there was no fear, and oxen by their
laborious cultivation of their land."[26]

[26] The Latin text of this and some others of the fables of Odo de
Cirington will be found in my "Selection of Latin Stories," pp.
50-52, 55-58, and 80.

[Illustration: _No. 49. The Funeral of the Fox._]

A scene closely resembling that here described by Odo, differing only
in the distribution of the characters, was translated from some such
written story into the pictorial language of the ancient sculptured
ornamentation of Strasburg Cathedral, where it formed, apparently,
two sides of the capital or entablature of a column near the chancel.
The deceased in this picture appears to be a fox, which was probably
the animal intended to be represented in the original, although, in
the copy of it preserved, it looks more like a squirrel. The bier is
carried by the goat and the boar, while a little dog underneath is
taking liberties with the tail of the latter. Immediately before the
bier, the hare carries the lighted taper, preceded by the wolf, who
carries the cross, and the bear, who holds in one hand the holy-water
vessel and in the other the aspersoir. This forms the first division
of the subject, and is represented in our cut No. 49. In the next
division (cut No. 50), the stag is represented celebrating mass, and
the ass reads the Gospel from a book which the cat supports with its
head.

[Illustration: _No. 50. The Mass for the Fox._]

This curious sculpture is said to have been of the thirteenth century.
In the fifteenth century it attracted the attention of the reformers,
who looked upon it as an ancient protest against the corruptions of
the mass, and one of the more distinguished of them, John Fischart,
had it copied and engraved on wood, and published it about the year
1580, with some verses of his own, in which it was interpreted as a
satire upon the papacy. This publication gave such dire offence to the
ecclesiastical authorities of Strasburg, that the Lutheran bookseller
who had ventured to publish it, was compelled to make a public apology
in the church, and the wood-engraving and all the impressions were
seized and burnt by the common hangman. A few years later, however, in
1608, another engraving was made, and published in a large folio with
Fischart's verses; and it is from the diminished copy of this second
edition--given in Flögel's "Geschichte des Komisches Literatur"--that
our cuts are taken. The original Sculpture was still more unfortunate.
Its publication and explanation by Fischart was the cause of no little
scandal among the Catholics, who tried to retort upon their opponents
by asserting that the figures in this funeral celebration were intended
to represent the ignorance of the Protestant preachers; and the
sculpture in the church continued to be regarded by the ecclesiastical
authorities with dissatisfaction until the year 1685, when, to take
away all further ground of scandal, it was entirely defaced.

[Illustration: _No. 51. The Fox Provided._]

Reynard's mediæval celebrity dates certainly from a rather early
period. Montflaucon has given an alphabet of ornamental initial
letters, formed chiefly of figures of men and animals, from a
manuscript which he ascribes to the ninth century, among which is the
one copied in our cut No. 51, representing a fox walking upon his hind
legs, and carrying two small cocks, suspended at the ends of a cross
staff. It is hardly necessary to say that this group forms the letter
T. Long before this, the Frankish historian Fredegarius, who wrote
about the middle of the seventh century, introduces a fable in which
the fox figures at the court of the lion. The same fable is repeated
by a monkish writer of Bavaria, named Fromond, who flourished in the
tenth century, and by another named Aimoinus, who lived about the year
1,000. At length, in the twelfth century, Guibert de Nogent, who died
about the year 1124, and who has left us his autobiography (_de Vita
sua_), relates an anecdote in that work, in explanation of which he
tells us that the wolf was then popularly designated by the name of
Isengrin; and in the fables of Odo, as we have already seen, this name
is commonly given to the wolf, Reynard to the fox, Teburg to the cat,
and so on with the others. This only shows that in the fables of the
twelfth century the various animals were known by these names, but it
does not prove that what we know as the romance of Reynard existed.
Jacob Grimm argued from the derivation and forms of these names, that
the fables themselves, and the romance, originated with the Teutonic
peoples, and were indigenous to them; but his reasons appear to me to
be more specious than conclusive, and I certainly lean to the opinion
of my friend Paulin Paris, that the romance of Reynard was native of
France,[27] and that it was partly founded upon old Latin legends
perhaps poems. Its character is altogether feudal, and it is strictly
a picture of society, in France primarily, and secondly in England and
the other nations of feudalism, in the twelfth century. The earliest
form in which this romance is known is in the French poem--or rather
poems, for it consists of several branches or continuations--and is
supposed to date from about the middle of the twelfth century. It soon
became so popular, that it appeared in different forms in all the
languages of Western Europe, except in England, where there appears
to have existed no edition of the romance of Reynard the Fox until
Caxton printed his prose English version of the story. From that time
it became, if possible, more popular in England than elsewhere, and
that popularity had hardly diminished down to the commencement of the
present century.

[27] See the dissertation by M. Paulin Paris, published in his nice
popular modern abridgment of the French romance, published in
1861, under the title "Les Aventures de Maître Renart et
d'Ysengrin son compère." On the debated question of the origin
of the Romance, see the learned and able work by Jonckbloet,
8vo., Groningue, 1863.

The popularity of the story of Reynard caused it to be imitated in a
variety of shapes, and this form of satire, in which animals acted
the part of men, became altogether popular. In the latter part of the
twelfth century, an Anglo-Latin poet, named Nigellus Wireker, composed
a very severe satire in elegiac verse, under the title of _Speculum
Stultorum_, the "Mirror of Fools." It is not a wise animal like the
fox, but a simple animal, the ass, who, under the name of Brunellus,
passes among the various ranks and classes of society, and notes their
crimes and vices. A prose introduction to this poem informs us that its
hero is the representative of the monks in general, who were always
longing for some new acquisition which was inconsistent with their
profession. In fact, Brunellus is absorbed with the notion that his
tail was too short, and his great ambition is to get it lengthened.
For this purpose he consults a physician, who, after representing to
him in vain the folly of his pursuit, gives him a receipt to make
his tail grow longer, and sends him to the celebrated medical school
of Salerno to obtain the ingredients. After various adventures, in
the course of which he loses a part of his tail instead of its being
lengthened, Brunellus proceeds to the University of Paris to study and
obtain knowledge; and we are treated with a most amusingly satirical
account of the condition and manners of the scholars of that time.
Soon convinced of his incapacity for learning, Brunellus abandons the
university in despair, and he resolves to enter one of the monastic
orders, the character of all which he passes in review. The greater
part of the poem consists of a very bitter satire on the corruptions of
the monkish orders and of the Church in general. While still hesitating
which order to choose, Brunellus falls into the hands of his old
master, from whom he had run away in order to seek his fortune in the
world, and he is compelled to pass the rest of his days in the same
humble and servile condition in which he had begun them.

A more direct imitation of "Reynard the Fox" is found in the early
French romance of "Fauvel," the hero of which is neither a fox nor
an ass, but a horse. People of all ranks and classes repair to the
court of Fauvel, the horse, and furnish abundant matter for satire
on the moral, political, and religious hypocrisy which pervaded the
whole frame of society. At length the hero resolves to marry, and,
in a finely illuminated manuscript of this romance, preserved in the
Imperial Library in Paris, this marriage furnishes the subject of a
picture, which gives the only representation I have met with of one of
the popular burlesque ceremonies which were so common in the middle
ages.

[Illustration: _No. 52. A Mediæval Charivari._]

Among other such ceremonies, it was customary with the populace, on the
occasion of a man's or woman's second marriage, or an ill-sorted match,
or on the espousals of people who were obnoxious to their neighbours,
to assemble outside the house, and greet them with discordant music.
This custom is said to have been practised especially in France, and
it was called a _charivari_. There is still a last remnant of it in
our country in the music of marrow-bones and cleavers, with which the
marriages of butchers are popularly celebrated; but the derivation
of the French name appears not to be known. It occurs in old Latin
documents, for it gave rise to such scandalous scenes of riot and
licentiousness, that the Church did all it could, though in vain, to
suppress it. The earliest mention of this custom, furnished in the
_Glossarium_ of Ducange, is contained in the synodal statutes of the
church of Avignon, passed in the year 1337, from which we learn that
when such marriages occurred, people forced their way into the houses
of the married couple, and carried away their goods, which they were
obliged to pay a ransom for before they were returned, and the money
thus raised was spent in getting up what is called in the statute
relating to it a _Chalvaricum_. It appears from this statute, that
the individuals who performed the _charivari_ accompanied the happy
couple to the church, and returned with them to their residence,
with coarse and indecent gestures and discordant music, and uttering
scurrilous and indecent abuse, and that they ended with feasting.
In the statutes of Meaux, in 1365, and in those of Hugh, bishop of
Beziers, in 1368, the same practice is forbidden, under the name of
_Charavallium_; and it is mentioned in a document of the year 1372,
also quoted by Ducange, under that of _Carivarium_, as then existing at
Nîmes. Again, in 1445, the Council of Tours made a decree, forbidding,
under pain of excommunication, "the insolences, clamours, sounds, and
other tumults practised at second and third nuptials, called by the
vulgar a _Charivarium_, on account of the many and grave evils arising
out of them."[28] It will be observed that these early allusions to
the _charivari_ are found almost solely in documents coming from the
Roman towns in the south of France, so that this practice was probably
one of the many popular customs derived directly from the Romans.
When Cotgrave's "Dictionary" was published (that is, in 1632) the
practice of the _charivari_ appears to have become more general in its
existence, as well as its application; for he describes it as "a public
defamation, or traducing of; a foule noise made, blacke santus rung,
to the shame and disgrace of another; hence an infamous (or infaming)
ballad sung, by an armed troupe, under the window of an old dotard,
married the day before unto a yong wanton, in mockerie of them both."
And, again, a _charivaris de poelles_ is explained as "the carting of
an infamous person, graced with the harmonie of tinging kettles and
frying-pan musicke."[29] The word is now generally used in the sense
of a great tumult of discordant music, produced often by a number of
persons playing different tunes on different instruments at the same
time.

[28] "Insultationes, clamores, sonos, et alios tumultus, in
secundis et tertiis quorundam nuptiis, quos charivarium vulgo
appellant, propter multa et gravia incommoda, prohibemus sub pœna
excommunitationis."--Ducange, v. _Charivarium_.

[29] Cotgrave's Dictionarie, v. _Charivaris_.

[Illustration: _No. 53. Continuation of the Charivari._]

As I have stated above, the manuscript of the romance of "Fauvel" is in
the Imperial Library in Paris. A copy of this illumination is engraved
in Jaime's "Musée de la Caricature," from which our cuts Nos. 52 and 53
are taken. It is divided into three compartments, one above another,
in the uppermost of which Fauvel is seen entering the nuptial chamber
to his young wife, who is already in bed. The scene in the compartment
below, which is copied in our cut No. 52, represents the street
outside, and the mock revellers performing the _charivari_; and this is
continued in the third, or lowest, compartment, which is represented
in our cut No. 53. Down each side of the original illumination is a
frame-work of windows, from which people, who have been disturbed by
the noise, are looking out upon the tumult. It will be seen that all
the performers wear masks, and that they are dressed in burlesque
costume. In confirmation of the statement of the ecclesiastical synods
as to the licentiousness of these exhibitions, we see one of the
performers here disguised as a woman, who lifts up his dress to expose
his person while dancing. The musical instruments are no less grotesque
than the costumes, for they consist chiefly of kitchen utensils, such
as frying-pans, mortars, saucepans, and the like.

[Illustration: _No. 54. The Tables Turned._]

There was another series of subjects in which animals were introduced
as the instruments of satire. This satire consisted in reverting
the position of man with regard to the animals over which he had
been accustomed to tyrannise, so that he was subjected to the same
treatment from the animals which, in his actual position, he uses
towards them. This change of relative position was called in old French
and Anglo-Norman, _le monde bestorné_, which was equivalent to the
English phrase, "the world turned upside down." It forms the subject
of rather old verses, I believe, both in French and English, and
individual scenes from it are met with in pictorial representation at
a rather early date. During the year 1862, in the course of accidental
excavations on the site of the Friary, at Derby, a number of encaustic
tiles, such as were used for the floors of the interiors of churches
and large buildings, were found.[30] The ornamentation of these tiles,
especially of the earlier ones, is, like all mediæval ornamentations,
extremely varied, and even these tiles sometimes present subjects of
a burlesque and satirical character, though they are more frequently
adorned with the arms and badges of benefactors to the church or
convent. The tiles found on the site of the priory at Derby are
believed to be of the thirteenth century, and one pattern, a diminished
copy of which is given in our cut No. 54, presents a subject taken
from the _monde bestorné_. The hare, master of his old enemy, the
dog, has become hunter himself, and seated upon the dog's back he
rides vigorously to the chace, blowing his horn as he goes. The design
is spiritedly executed, and its satirical intention is shown by the
monstrous and mirthful face, with the tongue lolling out, figured on
the outer corner of the tile. It will be seen that four of these tiles
are intended to be joined together to make the complete piece. In an
illumination in a manuscript of the fourteenth century in the British
Museum (MS. Reg. 10 E iv.), the hares are taking a still more severe
vengeance on their old enemy. The dog has been caught, brought to trial
for his numerous murders, and condemned, and they are represented here
(cut No. 55) conducting him in the criminal's cart to the gallows. Our
cut No. 56, the subject of which is furnished by one of the carved
stalls in Sherborne Minster (it is here copied from the engraving
in Carter's "Specimens of Ancient Sculpture"), represents another
execution scene, similar in spirit to the former. The geese have seized
their old enemy, Reynard, and are hanging him on a gallows, while two
monks, who attend the execution, appear to be amused at the energetic
manner in which the geese perform their task. Mr. Jewitt mentions two
other subjects belonging to this series, one of them taken from an
illuminated manuscript; they are, the mouse chasing the cat, and the
horse driving the cart--the former human carter in this case taking the
place of the horse between the shafts.

[30] Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, in his excellent publication, the
_Reliquary_, for October, 1862, has given an interesting paper on
the encaustic tiles found on this occasion, and on the conventual
house to which they belonged.

[Illustration: _No. 55. Justice in the Hands of the Persecuted._]

[Illustration: _No. 56. Reynard brought to Account at Last._]

"The World turned upside down; or, the Folly of Man," has continued
amongst us to be a popular chap-book and child's book till within a
very few years, and I have now a copy before me printed in London
about the year 1790. It consists of a series of rude woodcuts, with a
few doggrel verses under each. One of these, entitled "The Ox turned
Farmer," represents two men drawing the plough, driven by an ox. In the
next, a rabbit is seen turning the spit on which a man is roasting,
while a cock holds a ladle and bastes. In a third, we see a tournament,
in which the horses are armed and ride upon the men. Another represents
the ox killing the butcher. In others we have birds netting men and
women; the ass, turned miller, employing the man-miller to carry his
sacks; the horse turned groom, and currying the man; and the fishes
angling for men and catching them.

In a cleverly sculptured ornament in Beverley Minster, represented
in our cut No. 57, the goose herself is represented in a grotesque
situation, which might almost give her a place in "The World turned
upside down," although it is a mere burlesque, without any apparent
satirical aim. The goose has here taken the place of the horse at the
blacksmith's, who is vigorously nailing the shoe on her webbed foot.

[Illustration: _No. 57. Shoeing the Goose._]

[Illustration: _No. 58. Food for Swine._]

Burlesque subjects of this description are not uncommon, especially
among architectural sculpture and wood-carving, and, at a rather
later period, on all ornamental objects. The field for such subjects
was so extensive, that the artist had an almost unlimited choice,
and therefore his subjects might be almost infinitely varied, though
we usually find them running on particular classes. The old popular
proverbs, for instance, furnished a fruitful source for drollery, and
are at times delineated in an amusingly literal or practical manner.
Pictorial proverbs and popular sayings are sometimes met with on the
carved misereres. For example, in one of those at Rouen, in Normandy,
represented in our cut No. 58, the carver has intended to represent
the idea of the old saying, in allusion to misplaced bounty, of
throwing pearls to swine, and has given it a much more picturesque and
pictorially intelligible form, by introducing a rather dashing female
feeding her swine with roses, or rather offering them roses for food,
for the swine display no eagerness to feed upon them.

[Illustration: _No. 59. The Industrious Sow._]

We meet with such subjects as these scattered over all mediæval
works of art, and at a somewhat later period they were transferred
to other objects, such as the signs of houses. The custom of placing
signs over the doors of shops and taverns, was well known to the
ancients, as is abundantly manifested by their frequent occurrence
in the ruins of Pompeii; but in the middle ages, the use of signs
and badges was universal, and as--contrary to the apparent practice
in Pompeii, where certain badges were appropriated to certain trades
and professions--every individual was free to choose his own sign,
the variety was unlimited. Many still had reference, no doubt, to the
particular calling of those to whom they belonged, while others were of
a religious character, and indicated the saint under whose protection
the householder had placed himself. Some people took animals for their
signs, others monstrous or burlesque figures; and, in fact, there were
hardly any of the subjects of caricature or burlesque familiar to
the mediæval sculptor and illuminator which did not from time to time
appear on these popular signs. A few of the old signs still preserved,
especially in the quaint old towns of France, Germany, and the
Netherlands, show us how frequently they were made the instruments of
popular satire. A sign not uncommon in France was _La Truie qui file_
(the sow spinning). Our cut No. 59 represents this subject as treated
on an old sign, a carving in bas-relief of the sixteenth century, on
a house in the Rue du Marché-aux-Poirées, in Rouen. The sow appears
here in the character of the industrious housewife, employing herself
in spinning at the same time that she is attending to the wants of her
children. There is a singularly satirical sign at Beauvais, on a house
which was formerly occupied by an _épicier-moutardier_, or grocer who
made mustard, in the Rue du Châtel. In front of this sign, which is
represented in our cut No. 60, appears a large mustard-mill, on one
side of which stands Folly with a staff in her hand, with which she
is stirring the mustard, while an ape with a sort of sardonic grin,
throws in a seasoning, which may be conjectured by his posture.[31] The
trade-mark of the individual who adopted this strange device, is carved
below.

[31] See an interesting little book on this subject by M. Ed. de
la Quérière, entitled "Recherches sur les Enseignes des Maisons
Particulières," 8vo., Rouen, 1852, from which both the above
examples are taken.

[Illustration: _No. 60. Adulteration._]

CHAPTER VI.

THE MONKEY IN BURLESQUE AND CARICATURE.--TOURNAMENTS AND SINGLE
COMBATS.--MONSTROUS COMBINATIONS OF ANIMAL FORMS.--CARICATURES ON
COSTUME.--THE HAT.--THE HELMET.--LADIES' HEAD-DRESSES.--THE GOWN,
AND ITS LONG SLEEVES.

The fox, the wolf, and their companions, were introduced as instruments
of satire, on account of their peculiar characters; but there were
other animals which were also favourites with the satirist, because
they displayed an innate inclination to imitate; they formed, as it
were, natural parodies upon mankind. I need hardly say that of these
the principal and most remarkable was the monkey. This animal must
have been known to our Anglo-Saxon forefathers from a remote period,
for they had a word for it in their own language--_apa_, our _ape_.
Monkey is a more modern name, and seems to be equivalent with maniken,
or a little man. The earliest _Bestiaries_, or popular treatises on
natural history, give anecdotes illustrative of the aptness of this
animal for imitating the actions of men, and ascribe to it a degree of
understanding which would almost raise it above the level of the brute
creation. Philip de Thaun, an Anglo-Norman poet of the reign of Henry
I., in his _Bestiary_, tells us that "the monkey, by imitation, as
books say, counterfeits what it sees, and mocks people:"--

_Li singe par figure, si cum dit escripture,
Ceo que il vait contrefait, de gent escar hait._[32]

He goes on to inform us, as a proof of the extraordinary instinct of
this animal, that it has more affection for some of its cubs than for
others, and that, when running away, it carried those which it liked
before it, and those it disliked behind its back. The sketch from the
illuminated manuscript of the Romance of the Comte d'Artois, of the
fifteenth century, which forms our cut No. 61, represents the monkey,
carrying, of course, its favourite child before it in its flight, and
what is more, it is taking that flight mounted on a donkey. A monkey on
horseback appears not to have been a novelty, as we shall see in the
sequel.

[32] See my "Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle
Ages," p. 107.

[Illustration: _No. 61. A Monkey Mounted._]

Alexander Neckam, a very celebrated English scholar of the latter part
of the twelfth century, and one of the most interesting of the early
mediæval writers on natural history, gives us many anecdotes, which
show us how much attached our mediæval forefathers were to domesticated
animals, and how common a practice it was to keep them in their houses.
The baronial castle appears often to have presented the appearance
of a menagerie of animals, among which some were of that strong and
ferocious character that rendered it necessary to keep them in close
confinement, while others, such as monkeys, roamed about the buildings
at will. One of Neckam's stories is very curious in regard to our
subject, for it shows that the people in those days exercised their
tamed animals in practically caricaturing contemporary weaknesses and
fashions. This writer remarks that "the nature of the ape is so ready
at acting, by ridiculous gesticulations, the representations of things
it has seen, and thus gratifying the vain curiosity of worldly men
in public exhibitions, that it will even dare to imitate a military
conflict. A jougleur (_histrio_) was in the habit of constantly taking
two monkeys to the military exercises which are commonly called
tournaments, that the labour of teaching might be diminished by
frequent inspection. He afterwards taught two dogs to carry these apes,
who sat on their backs, furnished with proper arms. Nor did they want
spurs, with which they strenuously urged on the dogs. Having broken
their lances, they drew out their swords, with which they spent many
blows on each other's shields. Who at this sight could refrain from
laughter?"[33]

[33] Alexander Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, lib. ii. c. 129.

[Illustration: _No. 62. A Tournament._]

Such contemporary caricatures of the mediæval tournament, which was
in its greatest fashion during the period from the twelfth to the
fourteenth century, appear to have been extremely popular, and are not
unfrequently represented in the borders of illuminated manuscripts.
The manuscript now so well known as "Queen Mary's Psalter" (MS. Reg.
2 B vii.), and written and illuminated very early in the fourteenth
century, contains not a few illustrations of this description. One of
these, which forms our cut No. 62, represents a tournament not much
unlike that described by Alexander Neckam, except that the monkeys
are here riding upon other monkeys, and not upon dogs. In fact, all
the individuals here engaged are monkeys, and the parody is completed
by the introduction of the trumpeter on one side, and of minstrelsy,
represented by a monkey playing on the tabor, on the other; or,
perhaps, the two monkeys are simply playing on the pipe and tabor,
which were looked upon as the lowest description of minstrelsy, and are
therefore the more aptly introduced into the scene.

The same manuscript has furnished us with the cut No. 63. Here the
combat takes place between a monkey and a stag, the latter having
the claws of a griffin. They are mounted, too, on rather nondescript
animals--one having the head and body of a lion, with the forefeet
of an eagle; the other having a head somewhat like that of a lion,
on a lion's body, with the hind parts of a bear. This subject may,
perhaps, be intended as a burlesque on the mediæval romances, filled
with combats between the Christians and the Saracens; for the ape--who,
in the moralisations which accompany the _Bestiaries_, is said to
represent the devil--is here armed with what are evidently intended for
the sabre and shield of a Saracen, while the flag carries the shield
and lance of a Christian knight.

[Illustration: _No. 63. A Feat of Arms._]

The love of the mediæval artists for monstrous figures of animals,
and for mixtures of animals and men, has been alluded to in a former
chapter. The combatants in the accompanying cut (No. 64), taken from
the same manuscript, present a sort of combination of the rider and
the animal, and they again seem to be intended for a Saracen and a
Christian. The figure to the right, which is composed of the body of
a satyr, with the feet of a goose and the wings of a dragon, is armed
with a similar Saracenic sabre; while that to the left, which is on
the whole less monstrous, wields a Norman sword. Both have human faces
below the navel as well as above, which was a favourite idea in the
grotesque of the middle ages. Our mediæval forefathers appear to
have had a decided taste for monstrosities of every description, and
especially for mixtures of different kinds of animals, and of animals
and men. There is no doubt, to judge by the anecdotes recorded by such
writers as Giraldus Cambrensis, that a belief in the existence of such
unnatural creatures was widely entertained. In his account of Ireland,
this writer tells us of animals which were half ox and half man, half
stag and half cow, and half dog and half monkey.[34] It is certain that
there was a general belief in such animals, and nobody could be more
credulous than Giraldus himself.

[34] See Girald. Cambr., Topog. Hiberniæ, dist. ii. cc. 21, 22; and the
Itinerary of Wales, lib. ii. c. 11.

[Illustration: _No. 64. A Terrible Combat._]

[Illustration: _No. 65. Fashionable Dress._]

The design to caricature, which is tolerably evident in the subjects
just given, is still more apparent in other grotesques that adorn
the borders of the mediæval manuscripts, as well as in some of the
mediæval carvings and sculpture. Thus, in our cut No. 65, taken from
one of the borders in the Romance of the Comte d'Artois, a manuscript
of the fifteenth century, we cannot fail to recognise an attempt at
turning to ridicule the contemporary fashions in dress. The hat is
only an exaggerated form of one which appears to have been commonly
used in France in the latter half of the fifteenth century, and which
appears frequently in illuminated manuscripts executed in Burgundy;
and the boot also belongs to the same period. The latter reappeared at
different times, until at length it became developed into the modern
top-boots. In cut No. 66, from the same manuscript, where it forms the
letter T, we have the same form of hat, still more exaggerated, and
combined at the same time with grotesque faces.

[Illustration: _No. 66. Heads and Hats._]

Caricatures on costume are by no means uncommon among the artistic
remains of the middle ages, and are not confined to illuminated
manuscripts. The fashionable dresses of those days went into far more
ridiculous excesses of shape than anything we see in our times--at
least, so far as we can believe the drawings in the manuscripts;
but these, however seriously intended, were constantly degenerating
into caricature, from circumstances which are easily explained, and
which have, in fact, been explained already in their influence on
other parts of our subject. The mediæval artists in general were not
very good delineators of form, and their outlines are much inferior
to their finish. Conscious of this, though perhaps unknowingly,
they sought to remedy the defect in a spirit which has always been
adopted in the early stages of art-progress--they aimed at making
themselves understood by giving a special prominence to the peculiar
characteristics of the objects they wished to represent. These were
the points which naturally attracted people's first attention, and
the resemblance was felt most by people in general when these points
were put forward in excessive prominence in the picture. The dresses,
perhaps, hardly existed in the exact forms in which we see them in
the illuminations, or at least those were only exceptions to the
generally more moderate forms; and hence, in using these pictorial
records as materials for the history of costume, we ought to make a
certain allowance for exaggeration--we ought, indeed, to treat them
almost as caricatures. In fact, much of what we now call caricature,
was then characteristic of serious art, and of what was considered its
high development. Many of the attempts which have been made of late
years to introduce ancient costume on the stage, would probably be
regarded by the people who lived in the age which they were intended to
represent, as a mere design to turn them into ridicule. Nevertheless,
the fashions in dress were, especially from the twelfth century to the
sixteenth, carried to a great degree of extravagance, and were not only
the objects of satire and caricature, but drew forth the indignant
declamations of the Church, and furnished a continuous theme to the
preachers. The contemporary chronicles abound with bitter reflections
on the extravagance in costume, which was considered as one of the
outward signs of the great corruption of particular periods; and they
give us not unfrequent examples of the coarse manner in which the
clergy discussed them in their sermons. The readers of Chaucer will
remember the manner in which this subject is treated in the "Parson's
Tale." In this respect the satirists of the Church went hand in hand
with the pictorial caricaturists of the illuminated manuscripts,
and of the sculptures with which we sometimes meet in contemporary
architectural ornamentation. In the latter, this class of caricature is
perhaps less frequent, but it is sometimes very expressive. The very
curious _misereres_ in the church of Ludlow, in Shropshire, present the
caricature reproduced in our cut No. 67. It represents an ugly, and, to
judge by the expression of the countenance, an ill-tempered old woman,
wearing the fashionable head-dress of the earlier half of the fifteenth
century, which seems to have been carried to its greatest extravagance
in the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. It is the style of coiffure
known especially as the horned head-dress, and the very name carries
with it a sort of relationship to an individual who was notoriously
horned--the spirit of evil. This dashing dame of the olden time appears
to have struck terror into two unfortunates who have fallen within
her influence, one of whom, as though he took her for a new Gorgon,
is attempting to cover himself with his buckler, while the other,
apprehending danger of another kind, is prepared to defend himself with
his sword. The details of the head-dress in this figure are interesting
for the history of costume.

[Illustration: _No. 67. A Fashionable Beauty._]

[Illustration: _No. 68. A Man of War._]

Our next cut, No. 68, is taken from a manuscript in private possession,
which is now rather well known among antiquaries by the name of the
"Luttrell Psalter," and which belongs to the fourteenth century. It
seems to involve a satire on the aristocratic order of society--on the
knight who was distinguished by his helmet, his shield, and his armour.
The individual here represented presents a type which is anything
but aristocratic. While he holds a helmet in his hand to show the
meaning of the satire, his own helmet, which he wears on his head, is
simply a bellows. He may be a knight of the kitchen, or perhaps a mere
_quistron_, or kitchen lad.

[Illustration: _No. 69. A Lady's Head-dress._]

We have just seen a caricature of one of the ladies' head-dresses of
the earlier half of the fifteenth century, and our cut No. 69, from
an illuminated manuscript in the British Museum of the latter half of
the same century (MS. Harl., No. 4379), furnishes us with a caricature
of a head-dress of a different character, which came into fashion in
the reign of our Edward IV. The horned head-dress of the previous
generation had been entirely laid aside, and the ladies adopted in its
place a sort of steeple-shaped head-dress, or rather of the form of a
spire, made by rolling a piece of linen into the form of a long cone.
Over this lofty cap was thrown a piece of fine lawn or muslin, which
descended almost to the ground, and formed, as it were, two wings. A
short transparent veil was thrown over the face, and reached not quite
to the chin, resembling rather closely the veils in use among our
ladies of the present day (1864). The whole head-dress, indeed, has
been preserved by the Norman peasantry; for it may be observed that,
during the feudal ages, the fashions in France and England were always
identical. These steeple head-dresses greatly provoked the indignation
of the clergy, and zealous preachers attacked them roughly in their
sermons. A French monk, named Thomas Conecte, distinguished himself
especially in this crusade, and inveighed against the head-dress with
such effect, that we are assured that many of the women threw down
their head-dresses in the middle of the sermon, and made a bonfire
of them at its conclusion. The zeal of the preacher soon extended
itself to the populace, and, for a while, when ladies appeared in this
head-dress in public, they were exposed to be pelted by the rabble.
Under such a double persecution it disappeared for a moment, but when
the preacher was no longer present, it returned again, and, to use the
words of the old writer who has preserved this anecdote, "the women
who, like snails in a fright, had drawn in their horns, shot them out
again as soon as the danger was over." The caricaturist would hardly
overlook so extravagant a fashion, and accordingly the manuscript in
the British Museum, just mentioned, furnishes us with the subject of
our cut No. 69. In those times, when the passions were subjected to no
restraint, the fine ladies indulged in such luxury and licentiousness,
that the caricaturist has chosen as their fit representative a sow, who
wears the objectionable head-dress in full fashion. The original forms
one of the illustrations of a copy of the historian Froissart, and was,
therefore, executed in France, or, more probably, in Burgundy.

The sermons and satires against extravagance in costume began at
an early period. The Anglo-Norman ladies, in the earlier part of
the twelfth century, first brought in vogue in our island this
extravagance in fashion, which quickly fell under the lash of satirist
and caricaturist. It was first exhibited in the robes rather than
in the head-dress. These Anglo-Norman ladies are understood to have
first introduced stays, in order to give an artificial appearance of
slenderness to their waists; but the greatest extravagance appeared in
the forms of their sleeves. The robe, or gown, instead of being loose,
as among the Anglo-Saxons, was laced close round the body, and the
sleeves, which fitted the arm tightly till they reached the elbows,
or sometimes nearly to the wrist, then suddenly became larger, and
hung down to an extravagant length, often trailing on the ground, and
sometimes shortened by means of a knot. The gown, also, was itself
worn very long. The clergy preached against these extravagances in
fashion, and at times, it is said, with effect; and they fell under
the vigorous lash of the satirist. In a class of satires which became
extremely popular in the twelfth century, and which produced in the
thirteenth the immortal poem of Dante--the visions of purgatory and of
hell--these contemporary extravagances in fashion are held up to public
detestation, and are made the subject of severe punishment. They were
looked upon as among the outward forms of pride. It arose, no doubt,
from this taste--from the darker shade which spread over men's minds in
the twelfth century--that demons, instead of animals, were introduced
to personify the evil-doers of the time. Such is the figure (cut No.
70) which we take from a very interesting manuscript in the British
Museum (MS. Cotton. Nero, C iv.). The demon is here dressed in the
fashionable gown with its long sleeves, of which one appears to have
been usually much longer than the other. Both the gown and sleeve are
shortened by means of knots, while the former is brought close round
the waist by tight lacing. It is a picture of the use of stays made at
the time of their first introduction.

[Illustration: _No. 70. Sin in Satins._]

This superfluity of length in the different parts of the dress was a
subject of complaint and satire at various and very distant periods,
and contemporary illuminations of a perfectly serious character show
that these complaints were not without foundation.

CHAPTER VII.

PRESERVATION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE MIMUS AFTER THE FALL OF
THE EMPIRE.--THE MINSTREL AND JOGELOUR.--HISTORY OF POPULAR
STORIES.--THE FABLIAUX.--ACCOUNT OF THEM.--THE CONTES DEVOTS.

I have already remarked that, upon the fall of the Roman empire, the
popular institutions of the Romans were more generally preserved to
the middle ages than those of a higher and more refined character.
This is understood without difficulty, when we consider that the lower
class of the population--in the towns, what we might perhaps call the
lower and middle classes--continued to exist much the same as before,
while the barbarian conquerors came in and took the place of the ruling
classes. The drama, which had never much hold upon the love of the
Roman populace, was lost, and the theatres and the amphitheatres, which
had been supported only by the wealth of the imperial court and of
the ruling class, were abandoned and fell into ruin; but the _mimus_,
who furnished mirth to the people, continued to exist, and probably
underwent no immediate change in his character. It will be well to
state again the chief characteristics of the ancient _mimus_, before we
proceed to describe his mediæval representative.

The grand aim of the _mimus_ was to make people laugh, and he employed
generally every means he knew of for effecting this purpose, by
language, by gestures or motions of the body, or by dress. Thus he
carried, strapped over his loins, a wooden sword, which was called
_gladius histricus_ and _clunaculum_, and wore sometimes a garment
made of a great number of small pieces of cloth of different colours,
which was hence called _centunculus_, or the hundred-patched dress.[35]
These two characteristics have been preserved in the modern harlequin.
Other peculiarities of costume may conveniently be left undescribed;
the female mimæ sometimes exhibited themselves unrestricted by dress.
They danced and sung; repeated jokes and told merry stories; recited
or acted farces and scandalous anecdotes; performed what we now call
mimicry, a word derived from the name of mimus; and they put themselves
in strange postures, and made frightful faces. They sometimes acted
the part of a fool or zany (_morio_), or of a madman. They added to
these performances that of the conjurer or juggler (_præstigiator_),
and played tricks of sleight of hand. The mimi performed in the streets
and public places, or in the theatres, and especially at festivals, and
they were often employed at private parties, to entertain the guests at
a supper.

[35] "Uti me consuesse tragœdi syrmate, histrionis crotalone ad
trieterica orgia, aut mimi centunculo."--Apuleius, Apolog.

We trace the existence of this class of performers during the earlier
period of the middle ages by the expressions of hostility towards
them used from time to time by the ecclesiastical writers, and the
denunciations of synods and councils, which have been quoted in a
former chapter.[36] Nevertheless, it is evident from many allusions
to them, that they found their way into the monastic houses, and were
in great favour not only among the monks, but among the nuns also;
that they were introduced into the religious festivals; and that they
were tolerated even in the churches. It is probable that they long
continued to be known in Italy and the countries near the centre
of Roman influence, and where the Latin language was continued, by
their old name of _mimus_. The writers of the mediæval vocabularies
appear all to have been much better acquainted with the meaning of
this word than of most of the Latin words of the same class, and they
evidently had a class of performers existing in their own times to whom
they considered that the name applied. The Anglo-Saxon vocabularies
interpret the Latin _mimus_ by _glig-mon_, a gleeman. In Anglo-Saxon,
_glig_ or _gliu_ meant mirth and game of every description, and as the
Anglo-Saxon teachers who compiled the vocabularies give, as synonyms
of _mimus_, the words _scurra_, _jocista_, and _pantomimus_, it is
evident that all these were included in the character of the gleeman,
and that the latter was quite identical with his Roman type. It was
the Roman _mimus_ introduced into Saxon England. We have no traces of
the existence of such a class of performers among the Teutonic race
before they became acquainted with the civilisation of imperial Rome.
We know from drawings in contemporary illuminated manuscripts that the
performances of the gleeman did include music, singing, and dancing,
and also the tricks of mountebanks and jugglers, such as throwing up
and catching knives and balls, and performing with tamed bears, &c.[37]

[36] See before, p. 41 of the present volume.

[37] See examples of these illuminations in my "History of Domestic
Manners and Sentiments," pp. 34, 35, 37, 65.

But even among the peoples who preserved the Latin language, the word
_mimus_ was gradually exchanged for others employed to signify the
same thing. The word _jocus_ had been used in the signification of a
jest, playfulness, _jocari_ signified to jest, and _joculator_ was a
word for a jester; but, in the debasement of the language, _jocus_
was taken in the signification of everything which created mirth. It
became, in the course of time the French word _jeu_, and the Italian
_gioco_, or _giuoco_. People introduced a form of the verb, _jocare_,
which became the French _juer_, to play or perform. _Joculator_ was
then used in the sense of _mimus_. In French the word became _jogléor_,
or _jougléor_, and in its later form _jougleur_. I may remark that, in
mediæval manuscripts, it is almost impossible to distinguish between
the _u_ and the _n_, and that modern writers have misread this last
word as _jongleur_, and thus introduced into the language a word which
never existed, and which ought to be abandoned. In old English, as we
see in Chaucer, the usual form was _jogelere_. The mediæval joculator,
or jougleur, embraced all the attributes of the Roman _mimus_,[38] and
perhaps more. In the first place he was very often a poet himself, and
composed the pieces which it was one of his duties to sing or recite.
These were chiefly songs, or stories, the latter usually told in verse,
and so many of them are preserved in manuscripts that they form a very
numerous and important class of mediæval literature. The songs were
commonly satirical and abusive, and they were made use of for purposes
of general or personal vituperation. Out of them, indeed, grew the
political songs of a later period. There were female jougleurs, and
both sexes danced, and, to create mirth among those who encouraged
them, they practised a variety of performances, such as mimicking
people, making wry and ugly faces, distorting their bodies into strange
postures, often exposing their persons in a very unbecoming manner, and
performing many vulgar and indecent acts, which it is not necessary to
describe more particularly. They carried about with them for exhibition
tame bears, monkeys, and other animals, taught to perform the actions
of men. As early as the thirteenth century, we find them including
among their other accomplishments that of dancing upon the tight-rope.
Finally, the jougleurs performed tricks of sleight of hand, and were
often conjurers and magicians. As, in modern times, the jougleurs of
the middle ages gradually passed away, sleight of hand appears to have
become their principal accomplishment, and the name only was left in
the modern word _juggler_. The jougleurs of the middle ages, like
the mimi of antiquity, wandered about from place to place, and often
from country to country, sometimes singly and at others in companies,
exhibited their performances in the roads and streets, repaired to all
great festivals, and were employed especially in the baronial hall,
where, by their songs, stories, and other performances, they created
mirth after dinner.

[38] People in the middle ages were so fully conscious of the identity
of the mediæval jougleur with the Roman mimus, that the Latin writers
often use mimus to signify a jougleur, and the one is interpreted by
the others in the vocabularies. Thus, in Latin-English vocabularies of
the fifteenth century, we have--

_Hic joculator_, }
} _Anglice_ jogulour.
_Hic mimus_, }

This class of society had become known by another name, the origin of
which is not so easily explained. The primary meaning of the Latin word
_minister_ was a servant, one who ministers to another, either in his
wants or in his pleasures and amusements. It was applied particularly
to the cup-bearer. In low Latinity, a diminutive of this word was
formed, _minestellus_, or _ministrellus_, a petty servant, or minister.
When we first meet with this word, which is not at a very early date,
it is used as perfectly synonymous with _joculator_, and, as the
word is certainly of Latin derivation, it is clear that it was from
it the middle ages derived the French word _menestrel_ (the modern
_ménétrier_), and the English _minstrel_. The mimi or jougleurs were
perhaps considered as the petty ministers to the amusements of their
lord, or of him who for the time employed them. Until the close of the
middle ages, the minstrel and the jougleur were absolutely identical.
Possibly the former may have been considered the more courtly of the
two names. But in England, as the middle ages disappeared, and lost
their influence on society sooner than in France, the word minstrel
remained attached only to the musical part of the functions of the old
mimus, while, as just observed, the juggler took the sleight of hand
and the mountebank tricks. In modern French, except where employed
technically by the antiquary, the word _ménétrier_ means a fiddler.

The jougleurs, or minstrels, formed a very numerous and important,
though a low and despised, class of mediæval society. The dulness of
every-day life in a feudal castle or mansion required something more
than ordinary excitement in the way of amusement, and the old family
bard, who continually repeated to the Teutonic chief the praises of
himself and his ancestors, was soon felt to be a wearisome companion.
The mediæval knights and their ladies wanted to laugh, and to make
them laugh sufficiently it required that the jokes, or tales, or comic
performances, should be broad, coarse, and racy, with a good spicing of
violence and of the wonderful. Hence the jougleur was always welcome
to the feudal mansion, and he seldom went away dissatisfied. But the
subject of the present chapter is rather the literature of the jougleur
than his personal history, and, having traced his origin to the Roman
mimus, we will now proceed to one class of his performances.

It has been stated that the mimus and the jougleurs told stories.
Of those of the former, unfortunately, none are preserved, except,
perhaps, in a few anecdotes scattered in the pages of such writers as
Apuleius and Lucian, and we are obliged to guess at their character,
but of the stories of the jougleurs a considerable number has been
preserved. It becomes an interesting question how far these stories
have been derived from the mimi, handed down traditionally from mimus
to jougleur, how far they are native in our race, or how far they were
derived at a later date from other sources. And in considering this
question, we must not forget that the mediæval jougleurs were not the
only representatives of the mimi, for among the Arabs of the East also
there had originated from them, modified under different circumstances,
a very important class of minstrels and story-tellers, and with these
the jougleurs of the west were brought into communication at the
commencement of the crusades. There can be no doubt that a very large
number of the stories of the jougleurs were borrowed from the East, for
the evidence is furnished by the stories themselves; and there can be
little doubt also that the jougleurs improved themselves, and underwent
some modification, by their intercourse with Eastern performers of the
same class.

On the other hand, we have traces of the existence of these popular
stories before the jougleurs can have had communication with the East.
Thus, as already mentioned, we find, composed in Germany, apparently
in the tenth century, in rhythmical Latin, the well-known story of the
wife of a merchant who bore a child during the long absence of her
husband, and who excused herself by stating that her pregnancy had been
the result of swallowing a flake of snow in a snow-storm. This, and
another of the same kind, were evidently intended to be sung. Another
poem in popular Latin verse, which Grimm and Schmeller, who edited
it,[39] believe may be of the eleventh century, relates a very amusing
story of an adventurer named Unibos, who, continually caught in his own
snares, finishes by getting the better of all his enemies, and becoming
rich, by mere ingenious cunning and good fortune. This story is not
met with among those of the jougleurs, as far as they are yet known,
but, curiously enough, Lover found it existing orally among the Irish
peasantry, and inserted the Irish story among his "Legends of Ireland."
It is a curious illustration of the pertinacity with which the popular
stories descend along with peoples through generations from the
remotest ages of antiquity. The same story is found in an oriental form
among the tales of the Tartars published in French by Guenlette.

[39] In a volume entitled "Lateinische Gedichte des x. und xi. Jh."
8vo. Göttingen, 1838.

The people of the middle ages, who took their word _fable_ from the
Latin _fabula_, which they appear to have understood as a mere term for
any short narration, included under it the stories told by the mimi and
jougleurs; but, in the fondness of the middle ages for diminutives, by
which they intended to express familiarity and attachment, applied to
them more particularly the Latin _fabella_, which in the old French
became _fablel_, or, more usually, _fabliau_. The fabliaux of the
jougleurs form a most important class of the comic literature of the
middle ages. They must have been wonderfully numerous, for a very large
quantity of them still remain, and these are only the small portion of
what once existed, which have escaped perishing like the others by the
accident of being written in manuscripts which have had the fortune to
survive; while manuscripts containing others have no doubt perished,
and it is probable that many were only preserved orally, and never
written down at all.[40] The recital of these fabliaux appears to have
been the favourite employment of the jougleurs, and they became so
popular that the mediæval preachers turned them into short stories in
Latin prose, and made use of them as illustrations in their sermons.
Many collections of these short Latin stories are found in manuscripts
which had served as note-books to the preachers,[41] and out of them
was originally compiled that celebrated mediæval book called the "Gesta
Romanorum."

[40] Many of the Fabliaux have been printed, but the two principal
collections, and to which I shall chiefly refer in the text, are
those of Barbazan, re-edited and much enlarged by Méon, 4 vols.
8vo., 1808, and of Méon, 2 vols. 8vo., 1823.

[41] A collection of these short Latin stories was edited by the author
of the present work, in a volume printed for the Percy Society in
1842.

It is to be regretted that the subjects and language of a large portion
of these fabliaux are such as to make it impossible to present them
before modern readers, for they furnish singularly interesting and
minute pictures of mediæval life in all classes of society. Domestic
scenes are among those most frequent, and they represent the interior
of the mediæval household in no favourable point of view. The majority
of these tell loose stories of husbands deceived by their fair spouses,
or of tricks played upon unsuspecting damsels. In some instances the
treatment of the husband is perhaps what may be called of a less
objectionable character, as in the fabliau of La Vilain Mire (the
clown doctor), printed in Barbazan (iii. 1), which was the origin of
Molière's well-known comedy of "Le Médecin malgré lui." A rich peasant
married the daughter of a poor knight; it was of course a marriage of
ambition on his part, and of interest on hers--one of those ill-sorted
matches which, according to feudal sentiments, could never be happy,
and in which the wife was considered as privileged to treat her husband
with all possible contempt. In this instance the lady hit upon an
ingenious mode of punishing her husband for his want of submission to
her ill-treatment. Messengers from the king passed that way, seeking
a skilful doctor to cure the king's daughter of a dangerous malady.
The lady secretly informed these messengers that her husband was a
physician of extraordinary talent, but of an eccentric temper, for he
would never acknowledge or exercise his art until first subjected to
a severe beating. The husband is seized, bound, and carried by force
to the king's court, where, of course, he denies all knowledge of the
healing art, but a severe beating obliges him to compliance, and he is
successful by a combination of impudence and chance. This is only the
beginning of the poor man's miseries. Instead of being allowed to go
home, his fame has become so great that he is retained at court for
the public good, and, with a rapid succession of patients, fearful
of the results of his conscious ignorance, he refuses them all, and
is subjected in every case to the same ill-treatment to force his
compliance. The examples in which the husband, on the other hand,
outwits the wife are few. A fabliau by a poet who gives himself the
name of Cortebarbe, printed also by Barbazan (iii. 398), relates how
three blind beggars were deceived by a clerc, or scholar, of Paris, who
met them on the road near Compiègne. The clerk pretended to give the
three beggars a bezant, which was then a good sum of money, and they
hastened joyfully to the next tavern, where they ordered a plentiful
supper, and feasted to their hearts' content. But, in fact, the clerk
had not given them a bezant at all, although, as he said he did so,
and they could only judge by their hearing, they imagined that they
had the coin, and each thought that it was in the keeping of one of
his companions. Thus, when the time of paying came, and the money
was not forthcoming, in the common belief that one of the three had
received the bezant and intended to keep it and cheat the others, they
quarrelled violently, and from abuse soon came to blows. The landlord,
drawn to the spot by the uproar, and informed of the state of the case,
accused the three blind men of a conspiracy to cheat him, and demanded
payment with great threats. The clerk of Paris, who had followed them
to the inn, and taken his lodging there in order to witness the result,
delivered the blind men by an equally ingenious trick which he plays
upon the landlord and the priest of the parish.

Some of these stories have for their subject tricks played among
thieves. In one printed by Méon (i. 124), we have the story of a rich
but simple villan, or countryman, named Brifaut, who is robbed at
market by a cunning sharper, and severely corrected by his wife for
his carelessness. Robbery, both by force and by sleight of hand and
craft, prevailed to an extraordinary degree during the middle ages. The
plot of the fabliau of Barat and Haimet, by Jean de Boves (Barbazan,
iv. 233), turns upon a trial of skill among three robbers to determine
who shall commit the cleverest act of thievery, and the result is, at
least, an extremely amusing story. It may be mentioned as an example
of the numerous stories which the jougleurs certainly obtained from
the East, that the well-known story of the Hunchback in the "Arabian
Nights" appears among them in two or three different forms.

The social vices of the middle ages, their general licentiousness,
the prevalence of injustice and extortion, are very fully exposed to
view in these compositions, in which no class of society is spared.
The villan, or peasant, is always treated very contemptuously; he
formed the class from which the jougleur received least benefit. But
the aristocracy, the great barons, the lords of the soil, come in for
their full share of satire, and they no doubt enjoyed the ridiculous
pictures of their own order. I will not venture to introduce the reader
to female life in the baronial castle, as it appears in many of these
stories, and as it is no doubt truly painted, although, of course,
in many instances, much exaggerated. We have already seen how in the
story of Reynard, the character of mediæval society was represented
by the long struggle between brute force represented by the wolf, the
emblem of the aristocratic class, and the low astuteness of the fox,
or the unaristocratic class. The success of the craft of the human fox
over the force of his lordly antagonist is often told in the fabliaux
in ludicrous colours. In that of Trubert, printed by Méon (i. 192),
the "duke" of a country, with his wife and family, become repeatedly
the dupes of the gross deceptions of a poor but impudent peasant.
These satires upon the aristocracy were no doubt greatly enjoyed by
the good _bourgeoisie_, who, in their turn, furnished abundance of
stories, of the drollest description, to provoke the mirth of the lords
of the soil, between whom and themselves there was a kind of natural
antipathy. Nor are the clergy spared. The priest is usually described
as living with a concubine--his order forbade marrying--and both are
considered as fair game to the community; while the monk figures more
frequently as the hero of gallant adventures. Both priest and monk are
usually distinguished by their selfishness and love of indulgence. In
the fabliau Du Bouchier d'Abbeville, in Barbazan (iv. 1), a butcher, on
his way home from the fair, seeks a night's lodging at the house of an
inhospitable priest, who refuses it. But when the former returns, and
offers, in exchange for his hospitality, one of his fat sheep which he
has purchased at the fair, and not only to kill it for their supper,
but to give all the meat they do not eat to his host, he is willingly
received into the house, and they make an excellent supper. By the
promise of the skin of the sheep, the guest succeeds in seducing both
the concubine and the maid-servant, and it is only after his departure
the following morning, in the middle of a domestic uproar caused by
the conflicting claims of the priest, the concubine, and the maid, to
the possession of the skin, that it is discovered that the butcher had
stolen the sheep from the priest's own flock.

The fabliaux, as remarked before, form the most important class of the
extensive mass of the popular literature of the middle ages, and the
writers, confident in their strong hold upon public favour, sometimes
turn round and burlesque the literature of other classes, especially
the long heavy monotony of style of the great romances of chivalry and
the extravagant adventures they contained, as though conscious that
they were gradually undermining the popularity of the romance writers.
One of these poems, entitled "De Audigier," and printed in Barbazan
(iv. 217), is a parody on the romance writers and on their style, not
at all wanting in spirit or wit, but the satire is coarse and vulgar.
Another printed in Barbazan (iv. 287), under the title "De Berengier,"
is a satire upon a sort of knight-errantry which had found its way
into mediæval chivalry. Berengier was a knight of Lombardy, much given
to boasting, who had a beautiful lady for his wife. He used to leave
her alone in his castle, under pretext of sallying forth in search
of chivalrous adventures, and, after a while, having well hacked his
sword and shield, he returned to vaunt the desperate exploits he had
performed. But the lady was shrewd as well as handsome, and, having
some suspicions of his truthfulness as well as of his courage, she
determined to make trial of both. One morning, when her husband rode
forth as usual, she hastily disguised herself in a suit of armour,
mounted a good steed, and hurrying round by a different way, met the
boastful knight in the middle of a wood, where he no sooner saw that he
had to encounter a real assailant, than he displayed the most abject
cowardice, and his opponent exacted from him an ignominious condition
as the price of his escape. On his return home at night, boasting as
usual of his success, he found his lady taking her revenge upon him in
a still less respectful manner, but he was silenced by her ridicule.

The _trouvères_, or poets, who wrote the fabliaux--I need hardly
remark that _trouvère_ is the same word as _trobador_, but in the
northern dialect of the French language--appear to have flourished
chiefly from the close of the twelfth century to the earlier part of
the fourteenth. They all composed in French, which was a language then
common to England and France, but some of their compositions bear
internal evidence of having been composed in England, and others are
found in contemporary manuscripts written in this island. The scene of
a fabliau, printed by Méon (i. 113), is laid at Colchester; and that
of La Male Honte, printed in Barbazan (iii. 204), is laid in Kent. The
latter, however, was written by a trouvère named Hugues de Cambrai.
No objection appears to have been entertained to the recital of these
licentious stories before the ladies of the castle or of the domestic
circle, and their general popularity was so great, that the more pious
clergy seem to have thought necessary to find something to take their
place in the post-prandial society of the monastery, and especially
of the nunnery; and religious stories were written in the same form
and metre as the fabliaux. Some of these have been published under the
title of "Contes Devots," and, from their general dulness, it may be
doubted if they answered their purpose of furnishing amusement so well
as the others.

CHAPTER VIII.

CARICATURES OF DOMESTIC LIFE.--STATE OF DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE
AGES.--EXAMPLES OF DOMESTIC CARICATURE FROM THE CARVINGS OF THE
MISERERES.--KITCHEN SCENES.--DOMESTIC BRAWLS.--THE FIGHT FOR
THE BREECHES.--THE JUDICIAL DUEL BETWEEN MAN AND WIFE AMONG
THE GERMANS.--ALLUSIONS TO WITCHCRAFT.--SATIRES ON THE TRADES;
THE BAKER, THE MILLER, THE WINE-PEDLAR AND TAVERN-KEEPER, THE
ALE-WIFE, ETC.

The influence of the jougleurs over people's minds generally, with
their stories and satirical pieces, their grimaces, their postures,
and their wonderful performances, was very considerable, and may be
easily traced in mediæval manners and sentiments. This influence would
naturally be exerted upon inventive art, and when a painter had to
adorn the margin of a book, or the sculptor to decorate the ornamental
parts of a building, we might expect the ideas which would first
present themselves to him to be those suggested by the jougleur's
performance, for the same taste had to be indulged in the one as in the
other. The same wit or satire would pervade them both.

[Illustration: _No. 71. A Mediæval Kitchen Scene._]

Among the most popular subjects of satire during the middle ages, were
domestic scenes. Domestic life at that period appears to have been in
its general character coarse, turbulent, and, I should say, anything
but happy. In all its points of view, it presented abundant subjects
for jest and burlesque. There is little room for doubt that the Romish
Church, as it existed in the middle ages, was extremely hostile to
domestic happiness among the middle and lower classes, and that the
interference of the priest in the family was only a source of domestic
trouble. The satirical writings of the period, the popular tales,
the discourses of those who sought reform, even the pictures in the
manuscripts and the sculptures on the walls invariably represent the
female portion of the family as entirely under the influence of the
priests, and that influence as exercised for the worst of purposes.
They encouraged faithlessness as well as disobedience in wives, and
undermined the virtue of daughters, and were consequently regarded with
anything but kindly feeling by the male portion of the population. The
priest, the wife, and the husband, form the usual leading characters
in a mediæval farce. Subjects of this kind are not very unfrequent in
the illuminations of manuscripts, and more especially in the sculptures
of buildings, and those chiefly ecclesiastical, in which monks or
priests are introduced in very equivocal situations. This part of the
subject, however, is one into which we shall not here venture, as we
find the mediæval caricaturists drawing plenty of materials from the
less vicious shades of contemporary life; and, in fact, some of their
most amusing pictures are taken from the droll, rather than from the
vicious, scenes of the interior of the household. Such scenes are
very frequent on the misereres of the old cathedrals and collegiate
churches. Thus, in the stalls at Worcester Cathedral, there is a droll
figure of a man seated before a fire in a kitchen well stored with
flitches of bacon, he himself occupied in attending to the boiling pot,
while he warms his feet, for which purpose he has taken off his shoes.
In a similar carving in Hereford Cathedral, a man, also in the kitchen,
is seen attempting to take liberties with the cook maid, who throws a
platter at his head. A copy of this curious subject is given in cut
No. 71, and the cut No. 72 is taken from a similar miserere in Minster
Church, in the Isle of Thanet. It represents an old lady seated,
occupied industriously in spinning, and accompanied by her cats.

[Illustration: _No. 72. An Old Lady and her Friends._]

[Illustration: _No. 73. The Lady and her Cat._]

We might easily add other examples of similar subjects from the same
sources, such as the scene in our cut No. 73, taken from one of the
stalls of Winchester Cathedral, which seems to be intended to represent
a witch riding away upon her cat, an enormous animal, whose jovial
look is only outdone by that of its mistress. The latter has carried
her distaff with her, and is diligently employed in spinning. A stall
in Sherborne Minster, given in our cut No. 74, represents a scene in a
school, in which an unfortunate scholar is experiencing punishment of
a rather severe description, to the great alarm of his companions, on
whom his disgrace is evidently acting as a warning. The flogging scene
at school appears to have been rather a favourite subject among the
early caricaturists, for the scourge was looked upon in the middle ages
as the grand stimulant to scholarship. In those good old times, when a
man recalled to memory his schoolboy days, he did not say, "When I was
at school," but, "When I was under the rod."

[Illustration: _No. 74. Scholastic Discipline._]

[Illustration: _No. 75. A Point in Dispute._]

An extensive field for the study of this interesting part of our
subject will be found in the architectural gallery in the Kensington
Museum, which contains a large number of calls from stalls and other
sculptures, chiefly selected from the French cathedrals. One of these,
engraved in our cut No. 75, represents a couple of females, seated
before the kitchen fire. The date of this sculpture is stated to be
1382. To judge by their looks and attitude, there is a disagreement
between them, and the object in dispute seems to be a piece of meat,
which one has taken out of the pot and placed on a dish. This lady
wields her ladle as though she were prepared to use it as a weapon,
while her opponent is armed with the bellows. The ale-pot was not
unfrequently the subject of pictures of a turbulent character, and
among the grotesque and monstrous figures in the margins of the noble
manuscript of the fourteenth century, known as the "Luttrell Psalter,"
one represents two personages not only quarrelling over their pots,
which they appear to have emptied, but actually fighting with them. One
of them has literally broken his pot over his companion's head. The
scene is copied in our cut No. 76.

[Illustration: _No. 76. Want of Harmony over the Pot._]

[Illustration: _No. 77. Domestic Strife._]

[Illustration: _No. 78. A Struggle for the Mastery._]

It must be stated, however, that the more common subjects of these
homely scenes are domestic quarrels, and that the man, or his wife,
enjoying their fireside, or similar bits of domestic comfort, only
make their appearance at rare intervals. Domestic quarrels and combats
are much more frequent. We have already seen, in the cut No. 75,
two dames of the kitchen evidently beginning to quarrel over their
cookery. A stall in the church of Stratford-upon-Avon gives us the
group represented in our cut No. 77. The battle has here become
desperate, but whether the male combatant be an oppressed husband or
an impertinent intruder, is not clear. The quarrel would seem to have
arisen during the process of cooking, as the female, who has seized
her opponent by the beard, has evidently snatched up the ladle as
the readiest weapon at hand. The anger appears to be mainly on her
side, and the rather tame countenance of her antagonist contrasts
strangely with her inflamed features. Our next cut, No. 78, is taken
from the sculpture of a column in Ely Cathedral, here copied from an
engraving in Carter's "Specimens of Ancient Sculpture." A man and
wife, apparently, are struggling for the possession of a staff, which
is perhaps intended to be the emblem of mastery. As is generally
represented to be the case in these scenes of domestic strife, the
woman shows more energy and more strength than her opponent, and she
is evidently overcoming him. The mastery of the wife over the husband
seems to have been a universally acknowledged state of things. A stall
in Sherborne Minster, in Dorset, which has furnished the subject of our
cut No. 79, might almost be taken as the sequel of the last cut. The
lady has possessed herself of the staff, has overthrown her husband,
and is even striking him on the head with it when he is down. In our
next cut, No. 80, which is taken from one of the casts of stalls in
the French cathedrals exhibited in the Kensington Museum, it is not
quite clear which of the two is the offender, but, perhaps, in this
case, the archer, as his profession is indicated by his bow and arrows,
has made a gallant assault, which, although she does not look much
displeased at it, the offended dame certainly resists with spirit.

[Illustration: _No. 79. The Wife in the Ascendant._]

[Illustration: _No. 80. Violence Resisted._]

One idea connected with this picture of domestic antagonism appears
to have been very popular from a rather early period. There is a
proverbial phrase to signify that the wife is master in the household,
by which it is intimated that "she wears the breeches." The phrase
is, it must be confessed, an odd one, and is only half understood by
modern explanations; but in mediæval story we learn how "she" first
put in her claim to wear this particular article of dress, how it was
first disputed and contested, how she was at times defeated, but how,
as a general rule, the claim was enforced. There was a French poet of
the thirteenth century, Hugues Piaucelles, two of whose _fabliaux_, or
metrical tales, entitled the "Fabliau d'Estourmi," and the "Fabliau de
Sire Hains et de Dame Anieuse," are preserved in manuscript, and have
been printed in the collection of Barbazan. The second of these relates
some of the adventures of a mediæval couple, whose household was not
the best regulated in the world. The name of the heroine of this
story, Anieuse, is simply an old form of the French word _ennuyeuse_,
and certainly dame Anieuse was sufficiently "ennuyeuse" to her lord
and husband. "Sire Hains," her husband, was, it appears, a maker of
"cottes" and mantles, and we should judge also, by the point on which
the quarrel turned, that he was partial to a good dinner. Dame Anieuse
was of that disagreeable temper, that whenever Sire Hains told her of
some particularly nice thing which he wished her to buy for his meal,
she bought instead something which she knew was disagreeable to him.
If he ordered boiled meat, she invariably roasted it, and further
contrived that it should be so covered with cinders and ashes that
he could not eat it. This would show that people in the middle ages
(except, perhaps, professional cooks) were very unapt at roasting meat.
This state of things had gone on for some time, when one day Sire Hains
gave orders to his wife to buy him fish for his dinner. The disobedient
wife, instead of buying fish, provided nothing for his meal but a dish
of spinage, telling him falsely that all the fish stank. This leads to
a violent quarrel, in which, after some fierce wrangling, especially
on the part of the lady, Sire Hains proposes to decide their difference
in a novel manner. "Early in the morning," he said, "I will take off
my breeches and lay them down in the middle of the court, and the one
who can win them shall be acknowledged to be master or mistress of the
house."

_Le matinet, sans contredire,
Voudrai mes braies deschaucier,
Et enmi nostre cort couchier;
Et qui conquerre les porra,
Par bone reson mousterra
Qu'il ert sire ou dame du nostre._
Barbazan, Fabliaux, tome iii. p. 383.

Dame Anieuse accepted the challenge with eagerness, and each prepared
for the struggle. After due preparation, two neighbours, friend Symon
and Dame Aupais, having been called in as witnesses, and the object
of dispute, the breeches, having been placed on the pavement of the
court, the battle began, with some slight parody on the formalities
of the judicial combat. The first blow was given by the dame, who was
so eager for the fray that she struck her husband before he had put
himself on his guard; and the war of tongues, in which at least Dame
Anieuse had the best of it, went on at the same time as the other
battle. Sire Hains ventured a slight expostulation on her eagerness
for the fray, in answer to which she only threw in his teeth a fierce
defiance to do his worst. Provoked at this, Sire Hains struck at her,
and hit her over the eyebrows, so effectively, that the skin was
discoloured; and, over-confident in the effect of this first blow, he
began rather too soon to exult over his wife's defeat. But Dame Anieuse
was less disconcerted than he expected, and recovering quickly from
the effect of the blow, she turned upon him and struck him on the same
part of his face with such force, that she nearly knocked him over the
sheepfold. Dame Anieuse, in her turn, now sneered over him, and while
he was recovering from his confusion, her eyes fell upon the object of
contention, and she rushed to it, and laid her hands upon it to carry
it away. This movement roused Sire Hains, who instantly seized another
part of the article of his dress of which he was thus in danger of
being deprived, and began a struggle for possession, in which the said
article underwent considerable dilapidation, and fragments of it were
scattered over the court. In the midst of this struggle the actual
fight recommenced, by the husband giving his wife so heavy a blow on
the teeth that her mouth was filled with blood. The effect was such
that Sire Hains already reckoned on the victory, and proclaimed himself
lord of the breeches.

_Hains fiert sa fame enmi les denz
Tel cop, que la bouche dedenz
Li a toute emplie de sancz.
"Tien ore," dist Sire Hains, "anc,
Je cuit que je t'ai bien atainte,
Or t'ai-je de deux colors tainte--
J'aurai les braies toutes voies."_

But the immediate effect on Dame Anieuse was only to render her more
desperate. She quitted her hold on the disputed garment, and fell upon
her husband with such a shower of blows that he hardly knew which way
to turn. She was thus, however, unconsciously exhausting herself, and
Sire Hains soon recovered. The battle now became fiercer than ever,
and the lady seemed to be gaining the upper hand, when Sire Hains gave
her a skilful blow in the ribs, which nearly broke one of them, and
considerably checked her ardour. Friend Symon here interposed, with
the praiseworthy aim of restoring peace before further harm might be
done, but in vain, for the lady was only rendered more obstinate by
her mishap; and he agreed that it was useless to interfere until one
had got a more decided advantage over the other. The fight therefore
went on, the two combatants having now seized each other by the hair
of the head, a mode of combat in which the advantages were rather on
the side of the male. At this moment, one of the judges, Dame Aupais,
sympathising too much with Dame Anieuse, ventured some words of
encouragement, which drew upon her a severe rebuke from her colleague,
Symon, who intimated that if she interfered again there might be two
pairs of combatants instead of one. Meanwhile Dame Anieuse was becoming
exhausted, and was evidently getting the worst of the contest, until at
length, staggering from a vigorous push, she fell back into a large
basket which lay behind her. Sire Hains stood over her exultingly,
and Symon, as umpire, pronounced him victorious. He thereupon took
possession of the disputed article of raiment, and again invested
himself with it, while the lady accepted faithfully the conditions
imposed upon her, and we are assured by the poet that she was a good
and obedient wife during the rest of her life. In this story, which
affords a curious picture of mediæval life, we learn the origin of the
proverb relating to the possession and wearing of the breeches. Hugues
Piaucelles concludes his _fabliau_ by recommending every man who has a
disobedient wife to treat her in the same manner; and mediæval husbands
appear to have followed his advice, without fear of laws against the
ill-treatment of women.

[Illustration: _No. 81. The Fight for the Breeches._]

A subject like this was well fitted for the burlesques on the stalls,
and accordingly we find on one of those in the cathedral at Rouen, the
group given in our cut No. 81, which seems to represent the part of the
story in which both combatants seize hold of the disputed garment, and
struggle for possession of it. The husband here grasps a knife in his
hand, with which he seems to be threatening to cut it to pieces rather
than give it up. The _fabliau_ gives the victory to the husband, but
the wife was generally considered as in a majority of cases carrying
off the prize. In an extremely rare engraving by the Flemish artist
Van Mecken, dated in 1480, of which I give a copy in our cut No. 82.
the lady, while putting on the breeches, of which she has just become
possessed, shows an inclination to lord it rather tyrannically over her
other half, whom she has condemned to perform the domestic drudgery of
the mansion.

[Illustration: _No. 82. The Breeches Won._]

[Illustration: _No. 83. A Legal Combat._]

In Germany, where there was still more roughness in mediæval life, what
was told in England and France as a good story of domestic doings,
was actually carried into practice under the authority of the laws.
The judicial duel was there adopted by the legal authorities as a
mode of settling the differences between husband and wife. Curious
particulars on this subject are given in an interesting paper entitled
"Some observations on Judicial Duels as practised in Germany,"
published in the twenty-ninth volume of the Archæologia of the Society
of Antiquaries (p. 348). These observations are chiefly taken from
a volume of directions, accompanied with drawings, for the various
modes of attack and defence, compiled by Paulus Kall, a celebrated
teacher of defence at the court of Bavaria about the year 1400. Among
these drawings we have one representing the mode of combat between
husband and wife. The only weapon allowed the female, but that a very
formidable one, was, according to these directions, a heavy stone
wrapped up in an elongation of her chemise, while her opponent had only
a short staff, and he was placed up to the waist in a pit formed in
the ground. The following is a literal translation of the directions
given in the manuscript, and our cut No. 83 is a copy of the drawing
which illustrates it:--"The woman must be so prepared, that a sleeve
of her chemise extend a small ell beyond her hand, like a little sack;
there indeed is put a stone weighing three pounds; and she has nothing
else but her chemise, and that is bound together between the legs with
a lace. Then the man makes himself ready in the pit over against his
wife. He is buried therein up to the girdle, and one hand is bound at
the elbow to the side." At this time the practice of such combats in
Germany seems to have been long known, for it is stated that in the
year 1200 a man and his wife fought under the sanction of the civic
authorities at Bâle, in Switzerland. In a picture of a combat between
man and wife, from a manuscript resembling that of Paulus Kall, but
executed nearly a century later, the man is placed in a tub instead
of a pit, with his left arm tied to his side as before, and his right
holding a short heavy staff; while the woman is dressed, and not
stripped to the chemise, as in the former case. The man appears to be
holding the stick in such a manner that the sling in which the stone
was contained would twist round it, and the woman would thus be at
the mercy of her opponent. In an ancient manuscript on the science of
defence in the library at Gotha, the man in the tub is represented as
the conqueror of his wife, having thus dragged her head-foremost into
the tub, where she appears with her legs kicking up in the air.

This was the orthodox mode of combat between man and wife, but it was
sometimes practised under more sanguinary forms. In one picture given
from these old books on the science of defence by the writer of the
paper on the subject in the Archæologia, the two combatants, naked
down to the waist, are represented fighting with sharp knives, and
inflicting upon each other's bodies frightful gashes.

[Illustration: _No. 84. The Witch and the Demon._]

[Illustration: _No. 85. The Witch and her Victim._]

A series of stall carvings at Corbeil, near Paris, of which more will
be said a little farther on in this chapter, has furnished the curious
group represented in our cut No. 84, which is one of the rather rare
pictorial allusions to the subject of witchcraft. It represents a
woman who must, by her occupation, be a witch, for she has so far got
the mastery of the demon that she is sawing off his head with a very
uncomfortable looking instrument. Another story of witchcraft is told
in the sculpture of a stone panel at the entrance of the cathedral of
Lyons, which is represented in our cut No. 85. One power, supposed to
be possessed by witches, was that of transforming people to animals at
will. William of Malmesbury, in his Chronicle, tells a story of two
witches in the neighbourhood of Rome, who used to allure travellers
into their cottage, and there transform them into horses, pigs, or
other animals, which they sold, and feasted themselves with the money.
One day a young man, who lived by the profession of a jougleur, sought
a night's lodging at their cottage, and was received, but they turned
him into an ass, and, as he retained his understanding and his power of
acting, they gained much money by exhibiting him. At length a rich man
of the neighbourhood, who wanted him for his private amusement, offered
the two women a large sum for him, which they accepted, but they warned
the new possessor of the ass that he should carefully restrain him
from going into the water, as that would deprive him of his power of
performing. The man who had purchased the ass acted upon this advice,
and carefully kept him from water, but one day, through the negligence
of his keeper, the ass escaped from his stable, and, rushing to a pond
at no great distance, threw himself into it. Water--and running water
especially--was believed to destroy the power of witchcraft or magic;
and no sooner was the ass immersed in the water, than he recovered his
original form of a young man. He told his story, which soon reached the
ears of the pope, and the two women were seized, and confessed their
crimes. The carving from Lyons Cathedral appears to represent some such
scene of sorcery. The naked woman, evidently a witch, is, perhaps,
seated on a man whom she has transformed into a goat, and she seems to
be whirling the cat over him in such a manner that it may tear his face
with its claws.

There was still another class of subjects for satire and caricature
which belongs to this part of our subject--I mean that of the trader
and manufacturer. We must not suppose that fraudulent trading, that
deceptive and imperfect workmanship, that adulteration of everything
that could be adulterated, are peculiar to modern times. On the
contrary, there was no period in the world's history in which dishonest
dealing was carried on to such an extraordinary extent, in which there
was so much deception used in manufactures, or in which adulteration
was practised on so shameless a scale, as during the middle ages. These
vices, or, as we may, perhaps, more properly describe them, these
crimes, are often mentioned in the mediæval writers, but they were
not easily represented pictorially, and therefore we rarely meet with
direct allusions to them, either in sculpture, on stone or wood, or
in the paintings of illuminated manuscripts. Representations of the
trades themselves are not so rare, and are sometimes droll and almost
burlesque. A curious series of such representations of arts and trades
was carved on the _misereres_ of the church of St. Spire, at Corbeil,
near Paris, which only exist now in Millin's engravings, but they seem
to have been works of the fifteenth century. Among them the first
place is given to the various occupations necessary for the production
of bread, that article so important to the support of life. Thus we
see, in these carvings at Corbeil, the labours of the reaper, cutting
the wheat and forming it into sheaves, the miller carrying it away to
be ground into meal, and the baker thrusting it into the oven, and
drawing it out in the shape of loaves. Our cut No. 86, taken from one
of these sculptures, represents the baker either putting in or taking
out the bread with his peel; by the earnest manner in which he looks at
it, we may suppose that it is the latter, and that he is ascertaining
if it be sufficiently baked. We have an earlier representation of a
mediæval oven in our cut No. 87, taken from the celebrated illuminated
manuscript of the "Romance of Alexandre," in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford, which appears to belong to an early period of the fourteenth
century. Here the baker is evidently going to take a loaf out of the
oven, for his companion holds a dish for the purpose of receiving it.

[Illustration: _No. 86. A Baker of the Fifteenth Century._]

[Illustration: _No. 87. A Mediæval Baker._]

In nothing was fraud and adulteration practised to so great an
extent as in the important article of bread, and the two occupations
especially employed in making it were objects of very great dislike and
of scornful satire. The miller was proverbially a thief. Every reader
of Chaucer will remember his character so admirably drawn in that of
the miller of Trumpington, who, though he was as proud and gay "as eny
pecok," was nevertheless eminently dishonest.

_A theef he was for soth of corn and mele,
And that a sleigh_ (sly), _and usyng_ (practised) _for to stele_.
Chaucer's Reeves Tale.

This practice included a large college then existing in Cambridge,
but now forgotten, the Soler Hall, which suffered greatly by his
depredations.

_And on a day it happed in a stounde,
Syk lay the mauncyple on a maledye,
Men wenden wisly that he schulde dye;
For which this meller stal bothe mele and corn
A thousend part more than byforn.
For ther biforn he stal but curteysly;
But now he is a theef outrageously.
For which the wardeyn chidde and made fare,
But therof sette the meller not a tare;
He crakked boost, and swor it was nat so._

Two of the scholars of this college resolved to go with the corn to the
mill, and by their watchfulness prevent his depredations. Those who are
acquainted with the story know how the scholars succeeded, or rather
how they failed; how the miller stole half a bushel of their flour and
caused his wife to make a cake of it; and how the victims had their
revenge and recovered the cake.

As already stated, the baker had in these good old times no better
character than the miller, if not worse. There was an old saying, that
if three persons of three obnoxious professions were put together in a
sack and shaken up, the first who came out would certainly be a rogue,
and one of these was a baker. Moreover, the opinion concerning the
baker was so strong that, as in the phrase taken from the old legends
of the witches, who in their festivals sat thirteen at a table, this
number was popularly called a devil's dozen, and was believed to be
unlucky--so, when the devil's name was abandoned, perhaps for the
sake of euphony, the name substituted for it was that of the baker,
and the number thirteen was called "a baker's dozen." The makers of
nearly all sorts of provisions for sale were, in the middle ages,
tainted with the same vice, and there was nothing from which society in
general, especially in the towns where few made bread for themselves,
suffered so much. This evil is alluded to more than once in that
curious educational treatise, the "Dictionarius" of John de Garlande,
printed in my "Volume of Vocabularies." This writer, who wrote in the
earlier half of the thirteenth century, insinuates that the makers
of pies (_pastillarii_), an article of food which was greatly in
repute during the middle ages, often made use of bad eggs. The cooks,
he says further, sold, especially in Paris to the scholars of the
university, cooked meats, sausages, and such things, which were not
fit to eat; while the butchers furnished the meat of animals which had
died of disease. Even the spices and drugs sold by the apothecaries,
or _épiciers_, were not, he says, to be trusted. John de Garlande
had evidently an inclination to satire, and he gives way to it not
unfrequently in the little book of which I am speaking. He says that
the glovers of Paris cheated the scholars of the university, by selling
them gloves made of bad materials; that the women who gained their
living by winding thread (_devacuatrices_, in the Latin of the time),
not only emptied the scholars' purses, but wasted their bodies also (it
is intended as a pun upon the Latin word); and the hucksters sold them
unripe fruit for ripe. The drapers, he says, cheated people not only
by selling bad materials, but by measuring them with false measures;
while the hawkers, who went about from house to house, robbed as well
as cheated.

M. Jubinal has published in his curious volume entitled "Jongleurs et
Trouvères," a rather jocular poem on the bakers, written in French
of, perhaps, the thirteenth century, in which their art is lauded as
much better and more useful than that of the goldsmith's. The millers'
depredations on the corn sent to be ground at the mill, are laid to the
charge of the rats, which attack it by night, and the hens, which find
their way to it by day; and he explains the diminution the bakings
experienced in the hands of the baker as arising out of the charity of
the latter towards the poor and needy, to whom they gave the meal and
paste before it had even been put into the oven. The celebrated English
poet, John Lydgate, in a short poem preserved in a manuscript in the
Harleian Library in the British Museum (MS. Harl. No. 2,255, fol. 157,
v^o), describes the pillory, which he calls their Bastile, as the
proper heritage of the miller and the baker:--

_Put out his hed, lyst nat for to dare,
But lyk a man upon that tour to abyde,
For cast of eggys wil not oonys spare,
Tyl he be quallyd body, bak, and syde.
His heed endooryd, and of verray pryde
Put out his armys, shewith abrood his face;
The fenestrallys be made for hym so wyde,
Claymyth to been a capteyn of that place._

_The bastyle longith of verray dewe ryght
To fals bakerys, it is trewe herytage
Severalle to them, this knoweth every wyght,
Be kynde assygned for ther sittyng stage;
Wheer they may freely shewe out ther visage,
Whan they tak oonys their possessioun,
Owthir in youthe or in myddyl age;
Men doon hem wrong yif they take hym down._

_Let mellerys and bakerys gadre hem a gilde,
And alle of assent make a fraternité,
Undir the pillory a letil chapelle bylde,
The place amorteyse, and purchase lyberté,
For alle thos that of ther noumbre be;
What evir it coost afftir that they wende,
They may clayme, be just auctorité,
Upon that bastile to make an ende._

The wine-dealer and the publican formed another class in mediæval
society who lived by fraud and dishonesty, and were the objects of
satire. The latter gave both bad wine and bad measure, and he often
also acted as a pawnbroker, and when people had drunk more than they
could pay for, he would take their clothes as pledges for their money.
The tavern, in the middle ages, was the resort of very miscellaneous
company; gamblers and loose women were always on the watch there to
lead more honest people into ruin, and the tavern-keeper profited
largely by their gains; and the more vulgar minstrel and "jogelour"
found employment there; for the middle classes of society, and even
their betters, frequented the tavern much more generally than at the
present day. In the carved stalls of the church of Corbeil, the liquor
merchant is represented by the figure of a man wheeling a hogshead
in a barrow, as shown in our cut No. 88. The graveness and air of
importance with which he regards it would lead us to suppose that the
barrel contains wine; and the cup and jug on the shelf above show that
it was to be sold retail. The wine-sellers called out their wines
from their doors, and boasted of their qualities, in order to tempt
people in; and John de Garlande assures us that when they entered,
they were served with wine which was not worth drinking. "The criers
of wine," he says, "proclaim with extended throat the diluted wine
they have in their taverns, offering it at four pennies, at six, at
eight, and at twelve, fresh poured out from the gallon cask into the
cup, to tempt people." ("Volume of Vocabularies," p. 126.) The ale-wife
was an especial subject of jest and satire, and is not unfrequently
represented on the pictorial monuments of our forefathers. Our cut No.
89 is taken from one of the misereres in the church of Wellingborough,
in Northamptonshire; the ale-wife is pouring her liquor from her jug
into a cup to serve a rustic, who appears to be waiting for it with
impatience.

[Illustration: _No. 88. The Wine Dealer._]

[Illustration: _No. 89. The Ale-Wife._]

[Illustration: _No. 90. The Ale-Drawer._]

The figure of the ale-drawer, No. 90, is taken from one of the
misereres in the parish church of Ludlow, in Shropshire. The size
of his jug is somewhat disproportionate to that of the barrel from
which he obtains the ale. The same misereres of Ludlow Church furnish
the next scene, cut No. 91, which represents the end of the wicked
ale-wife. The day of judgment is supposed to have arrived, and she has
received her sentence. A demon, seated on one side, is reading a list
of the crimes she has committed, which the magnitude of the parchment
shows to be a rather copious one. Another demon (whose head has been
broken off in the original) carries on his back, in a very irreverent
manner, the unfortunate lady, in order to throw her into hell-mouth, on
the other side of the picture. She is naked with the exception of the
fashionable head-gear, which formed one of her vanities in the world,
and she carries with her the false measure with which she cheated her
customers. A demon bagpiper welcomes her on her arrival. The scene is
full of wit and humour.

[Illustration: _No. 91. The Ale-Wife's End._]

The rustic classes, and instances of their rusticity, are not
unfrequently met with in these interesting carvings. The stalls of
Corbeil present several agricultural scenes. Our cut No. 92 is taken
from those of Gloucester cathedral, of an earlier date, and represents
the three shepherds, astonished at the appearance of the star which
announced the birth of the Saviour of mankind. Like the three kings,
the shepherds to whom this revelation was made were always in the
middle ages represented as three in number. In our drawing from the
miserere in Gloucester cathedral, the costume of the shepherds is
remarkably well depicted, even to the details, with the various
implements appertaining to their profession, most of which are
suspended to their girdles. They are drawn with much spirit, and even
the dog is well represented as an especially active partaker in the
scene.

[Illustration: _No. 92. The Shepherds of the East._]

[Illustration: _No. 93. The Carpenter._]

[Illustration: _No. 94. The Shoemaker._]

Of the two other examples we select from the misereres of Corbeil, the
first represents the carpenter, or, as he was commonly called by our
Anglo-Saxon and mediæval forefathers, the _wright_, which signifies
simply the "maker." The application of this higher and more general
term--for the Almighty himself is called, in the Anglo-Saxon poetry,
_ealra gescefta wyrhta_, the Maker, or Creator, of all things--shows
how important an art that of the carpenter was considered in the
middle ages. Everything made of wood came within his province. In the
Anglo-Saxon "Colloquy" of archbishop Alfric, where some of the more
useful artisans are introduced disputing about the relative value of
their several crafts, the "wright" says, "Who of you can do without
my craft, since I make houses and all sorts of vessels (_vasa_), and
ships for you all?" ("Volume of Vocabularies," p. 11.) And John de
Garlande, in the thirteenth century, describes the carpenter as making,
among other things, tubs, and barrels, and wine-cades. The workmanship
of those times was exercised, before all other materials, on wood
and metals, and the wright, or worker in the former material, was
distinguished by this circumstance from the smith, or worker in metal.
The carpenter is still called a wright in Scotland. Our last cut (No.
94), taken also from one of the misereres at Corbeil, represents the
shoemaker, or as he was then usually called, the cordwainer, because
the leather which he chiefly used came from Cordova in Spain, and was
thence called _cordewan_, or _cordewaine_. Our shoemaker is engaged
in cutting a skin of leather with an instrument of a rather singular
form. Shoes, and perhaps forms for making shoes, are suspended on pegs
against the wall.

CHAPTER IX.

GROTESQUE FACES AND FIGURES.--PREVALENCE OF THE TASTE FOR UGLY
AND GROTESQUE FACES.--SOME OF THE POPULAR FORMS DERIVED
FROM ANTIQUITY; THE TONGUE LOLLING OUT, AND THE DISTORTED
MOUTH.--HORRIBLE SUBJECTS: THE MAN AND THE SERPENTS.--ALLEGORICAL
FIGURES: GLUTTONY AND LUXURY.--OTHER REPRESENTATIONS OF
CLERICAL GLUTTONY AND DRUNKENNESS.--GROTESQUE FIGURES OF
INDIVIDUALS, AND GROTESQUE GROUPS.--ORNAMENTS OF THE BORDERS OF
BOOKS.--UNINTENTIONAL CARICATURE; THE MOTE AND THE BEAM.

The grimaces and strange postures of the jougleurs seem to have had
great attractions for those who witnessed them. To unrefined and
uneducated minds no object conveys so perfect a notion of mirth as an
ugly and distorted face. Hence it is that among the common peasantry
at a country fair few exhibitions are more satisfactory than that of
grinning through a horse-collar. This sentiment is largely exemplified
in the sculpture especially of the middle ages, a long period,
during which the general character of society presented that want
of refinement which we now observe chiefly in its least cultivated
classes. Among the most common decorations of our ancient churches and
other mediæval buildings, are grotesque and monstrous heads and faces.
Antiquity, which lent us the types of many of these monstrosities,
saw in her Typhons and Gorgons a signification beyond the surface of
the picture, and her grotesque masks had a general meaning, and were
in a manner typical of the whole field of comic literature. The mask
was less an individual grotesque to be laughed at for itself, than
a personification of comedy. In the middle ages, on the contrary,
although in some cases certain forms were often regarded as typical
of certain ideas, in general the design extended no farther than the
forms which the artist had given to it; the grotesque features, like
the grinning through the horse-collar, gave satisfaction by their mere
ugliness. Even the applications, when such figures were intended to
have one, were coarsely satirical, without any intellectuality, and,
where they had a meaning beyond the plain text of the sculpture or
drawing, it was not far-fetched, but plain and easily understood. When
the Anglo-Saxon drew the face of a bloated and disfigured monk, he no
doubt intended thereby to proclaim the popular notion of the general
character of monastic life, but this was a design which nobody could
misunderstand, an interpretation which everybody was prepared to give
to it. We have already seen various examples of this description of
satire, scattered here and there among the immense mass of grotesque
sculpture which has no such meaning. A great proportion, indeed, of
these grotesque sculptures appears to present mere variations of a
certain number of distinct types which had been handed down from a
remote period, some of them borrowed, perhaps involuntarily, from
antiquity. Hence we naturally look for the earlier and more curious
examples of this class of art to Italy and the south of France, where
the transition from classical to mediæval was more gradual, and the
continued influence of classical forms is more easily traced. The
early Christian masons appear to have caricatured under the form of
such grotesques the personages of the heathen mythology, and to this
practice we perhaps owe some of the types of the mediæval monsters.
We have seen in a former chapter a grotesque from the church of Monte
Majour, near Nismes, the original type of which had evidently been some
burlesque figure of Saturn eating one of his children. The classical
mask doubtless furnished the type for those figures, so common in
mediæval sculpture, of faces with disproportionately large mouths; just
as another favourite class of grotesque faces, those with distended
mouths and tongues lolling out, were taken originally from the Typhons
and Gorgons of the ancients. Many other popular types of faces rendered
artificially ugly are mere exaggerations of the distortions produced on
the features by different operations, such, for instance, as that of
blowing a horn.

The practice of blowing the horn, is, indeed, peculiarly calculated
to exhibit the features of the face to disadvantage, and was not
overlooked by the designers of the mediæval decorative sculpture. One
of the large collection of casts of sculptures from French cathedrals
exhibited in the museum at South Kensington, has furnished the two
subjects given in our cut No. 95. The first is represented as blowing
a horn, but he is producing the greatest possible distortion in his
features, and especially in his mouth, by drawing the horn forcibly
on one side with his left hand, while he pulls his beard in the other
direction with the right hand. The force with which he is supposed to
be blowing is perhaps represented by the form given to his eyes. The
face of the lower figure is in at least comparative repose. The design
of representing general distortion in the first is further shown by the
ridiculously unnatural position of the arms. Such distortion of the
members was not unfrequently introduced to heighten the effect of the
grimace in the face; and, as in these examples, it was not uncommon to
introduce as a further element of grotesque, the bodies, or parts of
the bodies, of animals, or even of demons.

[Illustration: _No. 95. Grotesque Monsters._]

[Illustration: _No. 96. Diabolical Mirth._]

[Illustration: _No. 97. Making Faces._]

Another cast in the Kensington Museum is the subject of our cut No.
96, which presents the same idea of stretching the mouth. The subject
is here exhibited by another rather mirthful looking individual, but
whether the exhibitor is intended to be a goblin or demon, or whether
he is merely furnished with the wings and claws of a bat, seems rather
uncertain. The bat was looked upon as an unpropitious if not an unholy
animal; like the owl, it was the companion of the witches, and of the
spirits of darkness. The group in our cut No. 97 is taken from one of
the carved stalls in the church of Stratford-upon-Avon, and represents
a trio of grimacers. The first of these three grotesque faces is
lolling out the tongue to an extravagant length; the second is simply
grinning; while the third has taken a sausage between his teeth to
render his grimace still more ridiculous. The number and variety of
such grotesque faces, which we find scattered over the architectural
decoration of our old ecclesiastical buildings, are so great that I
will not attempt to give any more particular classification of them.
All this church decoration was calculated especially to produce its
effect upon the middle and lower classes, and mediæval art was, perhaps
more than anything else, suited to mediæval society, for it belonged to
the mass and not to the individual. The man who could enjoy a match at
grinning through horse-collars, must have been charmed by the grotesque
works of the mediæval stone sculptor and wood carver; and we may add
that these display, though often rather rude, a very high degree of
skill in art, a great power of producing striking imagery.

These mediæval artists loved also to produce horrible objects as well
as laughable ones, though even in their horrors they were continually
running into the grotesque. Among the adjuncts to these sculptured
figures, we sometimes meet with instruments of pain, and very talented
attempts to exhibit this on the features of the victims. The creed of
the middle ages gave great scope for the indulgence of this taste in
the infinitely varied terrors of purgatory and hell; and, not to speak
of the more crude descriptions that are so common in mediæval popular
literature, the account to which these descriptions might be turned by
the poet as well as the artist are well known to the reader of Dante.
Coils of serpents and dragons, which were the most usual instruments
in the tortures of the infernal regions, were always favourite objects
in mediæval ornamentation, whether sculptured or drawn, in the details
of architectural decoration, or in the initial letters and margins
of books. They are often combined in forming grotesque tracery with
the bodies of animals or of human beings, and their movements are
generally hostile to the latter. We have already seen, in previous
chapters, examples of this use of serpents and dragons, dating from the
earliest periods of mediæval art; and it is perhaps the most common
style of ornamentation in the buildings and illuminated manuscripts
in our island from the earlier Saxon times to the thirteenth century.
This ornamentation is sometimes strikingly bold and effective. In the
cathedral of Wells there is a series of ornamental bosses, formed by
faces writhing under the attacks of numerous dragons, who are seizing
upon the lips, eyes, and cheeks of their victims. One of these bosses,
which are of the thirteenth century, is represented in our cut No. 98.
A large, coarsely featured face is the victim of two dragons, one of
which attacks his mouth, while the other has seized him by the eye. The
expression of the face is strikingly horrible.

[Illustration: _No. 98. Horror._]

The higher mind of the middle ages loved to see inner meanings through
outward forms; or, at least, it was a fashion which manifested itself
most strongly in the latter half of the twelfth century, to adapt these
outward forms to inward meanings by comparisons and moralisations;
and under the effect of this feeling certain figures were at times
adopted, with a view to some other purpose than mere ornament, though
this was probably an innovation upon mediæval art. The tongue lolling
out, taken originally, as we have seen, from the imagery of classic
times, was accepted rather early in the middle ages as the emblem or
symbol of luxury; and, when we find it among the sculptured ornaments
of the architecture especially of some of the larger and more important
churches, it implied probably an allusion to that vice--at least the
face presented to us was intended to be that of a voluptuary. Among
the remarkable series of sculptures which crown the battlements of
the cloisters of Magdalen College, Oxford, executed a very few years
after the middle of the fifteenth century, amid many figures of a very
miscellaneous character, there are several which were thus, no doubt,
intended to be representatives of vices, if not of virtues. I give two
examples of these curious sculptures.

[Illustration: _No. 99. Gluttony._]

[Illustration: _No. 100. Luxury._]

The first, No. 99, is generally considered to represent gluttony, and
it is a remarkable circumstance that, in a building the character of
which was partly ecclesiastical, and which was erected at the expense
and under the directions of a great prelate, Bishop Wainflete, the
vice of gluttony, with which the ecclesiastical order was especially
reproached, should be represented in ecclesiastical costume. It is an
additional proof that the detail of the work of the building was left
entirely to the builders. The coarse, bloated features of the face,
and the "villainous" low forehead, are characteristically executed;
and the lolling tongue may perhaps be intended to intimate that, in
the lives of the clergy, luxury went hand in hand with its kindred
vice. The second of our examples, No. 100, appears by its different
characteristics (some of which we have been unable to introduce in our
woodcut) to be intended to represent luxury itself. Sometimes qualities
of the individual man, or even the class of society, are represented in
a manner far less disguised by allegorical clothing, and therefore much
more plainly to the understanding of the vulgar. Thus in an illuminated
manuscript of the fourteenth century, in the British Museum (MS.
Arundel, No. 91), gluttony is represented by a monk devouring a pie
alone and in secret, except that a little cloven-footed imp holds up
the dish, and seems to enjoy the prospect of monastic indulgence. This
picture is copied in our cut No. 101. Another manuscript of the same
date (MS. Sloane, No. 2435) contains a scene, copied in our cut No.
102, representing drunkenness under the form of another monk, who has
obtained the keys and found his way into the cellar of his monastery,
and is there indulging his love for good ale in similar secrecy. It
is to be remarked that here, again, the vices are laid to the charge
of the clergy. Our cut No. 103, from a bas-relief in Ely Cathedral,
given in Carter's "Specimens of Ancient Sculpture," represents a man
drinking from a horn, and evidently enjoying his employment, but his
costume is not sufficiently characteristic to betray his quality.

[Illustration: _No. 101. Monkish Gluttony._]

[Illustration: _No. 102. The Monastic Cellarer._]

[Illustration: _No. 103. Drunkenness._]

[Illustration: _No. 104. A Strange Monster._]

The subject of grotesque faces and heads naturally leads us to
that of monstrous and grotesque bodies and groups of bodies, which
has already been partly treated in a former chapter, where we have
noticed the great love shown in the middle ages for monstrous animated
figures, not only monsters of one nature, but, and that especially,
of figures formed by joining together the parts of different, and
entirely dissimilar, animals, of similar mixtures between animals and
men. This, as stated above, was often effected by joining the body
of some nondescript animal to a human head and face; so that, by the
disproportionate size of the latter, the body, as a secondary part
of the picture, became only an adjunct to set off still further the
grotesque character of the human face. More importance was sometimes
given to the body combined with fantastic forms, which baffle any
attempt at giving an intelligible description. The accompanying cut,
No. 104, represents a winged monster of this kind; it is taken from
one of the casts from French churches exhibited in the Kensington
Museum.

[Illustration: _No. 105. Rolling Topsy Turvy._]

Sometimes the mediæval artist, without giving any unusual form to
his human figures, placed them in strange postures, or joined them
in singular combinations. These latter are commonly of a playful
character, or sometimes they represent droll feats of skill, or
puzzles, or other subjects, all of which have been published
pictorially and for the amusement of children down to very recent
times. There were a few of these groups which are of rather frequent
occurrence, and they were evidently favourite types. One of these is
given in the annexed cut, No. 105. It is taken from one of the carved
misereres of the stalls in Ely cathedral, as given in Carter, and
represents two men who appear to be rolling over each other. The upper
figure exhibits animal's ears on his cap, which seem to proclaim him
a member of the fraternity of fools: the ears of the lower figure
are concealed from view. This group is not a rare one, especially on
similar monuments in France, where the architectural antiquaries have a
technical name for it; and this shows us how even the particular forms
of art in the middle ages were not confined to any particular country,
but more or less, and with exceptions, they pervaded all those which
acknowledged the ecclesiastical supremacy of the church of Rome;
whatever peculiarity of style it took in particular countries, the same
forms were spread through all western Europe. Our next cut, No. 106,
gives another of these curious groups, consisting, in fact, of two
individuals, one of which is evidently an ecclesiastic. It will be seen
that, as we follow this round, we obtain, by means of the two heads,
four different figures in so many totally different positions. This
group is taken from one of the very curious seats in the cathedral of
Rouen in Normandy, which were engraved and published in an interesting
volume by the late Monsieur E. H. Langlois.

[Illustration: _No. 106. A Continuous Group._]

[Illustration: _No. 107. Border Ornament._]

[Illustration: _No. 108. A Triumphal Procession._]

Among the most interesting of the mediæval burlesque drawings are
those which are found in such abundance in the borders of the pages of
illuminated manuscripts. During the earlier periods of the mediæval
miniatures, the favourite objects for these borders were monstrous
animals, especially dragons, which could easily be twined into
grotesque combinations. In course of time, the subjects thus introduced
became more numerous, and in the fifteenth century they were very
varied. Strange animals still continued to be favourites, but they
were more light and elegant in their forms, and were more gracefully
designed. Our cut No. 107, taken from the beautifully-illuminated
manuscript of the romance of the "Comte d'Artois," of the fifteenth
century, which has furnished us previously with several cuts, will
illustrate my meaning. The graceful lightness of the tracery of the
foliage shown in this design is found in none of the earlier works
of art of this class. This, of course, is chiefly to be ascribed to
the great advance which had been made in the art of design since the
thirteenth century. But, though so greatly improved in the style of
art, the same class of subjects continued to be introduced in this
border ornamentation long after the art of printing, and that of
engraving, which accompanied it, had been introduced. The revolution
in the ornamentation of the borders of the pages of books was effected
by the artists of the sixteenth century, at which time people had
become better acquainted with, and had learnt to appreciate, ancient
art and Roman antiquities, and they drew their inspiration from a
correct knowledge of what the middle ages had copied blindly, but had
not understood. Among the subjects of burlesque which the monuments
of Roman art presented to them, the stumpy figures of the pigmies
appear to have gained special favour, and they are employed in a manner
which reminds us of the pictures found in Pompeii. Jost Amman, the
well-known artist, who exercised his profession at Nüremberg in the
latter half of the sixteenth century, engraved a set of illustrations
to Ovid's Metamorphoses, which were printed at Lyons in 1574, and each
cut and page of which is enclosed in a border of very fanciful and
neatly-executed burlesque. The pigmies are introduced in these borders
very freely, and are grouped with great spirit. I select as an example,
cut No. 108, a scene which represents a triumphal procession--some
pigmy Alexander returning from his conquests. The hero is seated on
a throne carried by an elephant, and before him a bird, perhaps a
vanquished crane, proclaims loudly his praise. Before them a pigmy
attendant marches proudly, carrying in one hand the olive branch of
peace, and leading in the other a ponderous but captive ostrich, as a
trophy of his master's victories. Before him again a pigmy warrior,
heavily armed with battle-axe and falchion, is mounting the steps
of a stage, on which a nondescript animal, partaking somewhat of
the character of a sow, but perhaps intended as a burlesque on the
strange animals which, in mediæval romance, Alexander was said to have
encountered in Egypt, blows a horn, to celebrate or announce the return
of the conqueror. A snail, also advancing slowly up the stage, implies,
perhaps, a sneer at the whole scene.

[Illustration: _No. 109. The Mote and the Beam._]

Nevertheless, these old German, Flemish, and Dutch artists were still
much influenced by the mediæval spirit, which they displayed in their
coarse and clumsy imagination, in their neglect of everything like
congruity in their treatment of the subject with regard to time and
place, and their _naïve_ exaggerations and blunders. Extreme examples
of these characteristics are spoken of, in which the Israelites
crossing the Red Sea are armed with muskets, and all the other
accoutrements of modern soldiers, and in which Abraham is preparing
to sacrifice his son Isaac by shooting him with a matchlock. In
delineating scriptural subjects, an attempt is generally made to
clothe the figures in an imaginary ancient oriental costume, but the
landscapes are filled with the modern castles and mansion houses,
churches, and monasteries of western Europe. These half-mediæval
artists, too, like their more ancient predecessors, often fall into
unintentional caricature by the exaggeration or simplicity with which
they treat their subjects. There was one subject which the artists of
this period of regeneration of art seemed to have agreed to treat in
a very unimaginative manner. In the beautiful Sermon on the Mount,
our Saviour, in condemning hasty judgments of other people's actions,
says (Matt. vii. 3-5), "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy
brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of
thine eye, and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite,
first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." Whatever be
the exact nature of the beam which the man was expected to overlook
in his "own eye," it certainly was not a large beam of timber. Yet
such was the conception of it by artists of the sixteenth century.
One of them, named Solomon Bernard, designed a series of woodcuts
illustrating the New Testament, which were published at Lyons in 1553;
and the manner in which he treated the subject will be seen in our
cut No. 109, taken from one of the illustrations to that book. The
individual seated is the man who has a mote in his eye, which the
other, approaching him, points out; and he retorts by pointing to the
"beam," which is certainly such a massive object as could not easily
have been overlooked. About thirteen years before this, an artist of
Augsburg, named Daniel Hopfer, had published a large copper-plate
engraving of this same subject, a reduced copy of which is given in the
cut No. 110. The individual who sees the mote in his brother's eye, is
evidently treating it in the character of a physician or surgeon. It
is only necessary to add that the beam in his own eye is of still more
extraordinary dimensions than the former, and that, though it seems
to escape the notice both of himself and his patient, it is evident
that the group in the distance contemplate it with astonishment. The
building accompanying this scene appears to be a church, with paintings
of saints in the windows.

[Illustration: _No. 110. The Mote and the Beam--Another Treatment._]

CHAPTER X.

SATIRICAL LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.--JOHN DE HAUTEVILLE AND ALAN
DE LILLE.--GOLIAS AND THE GOLIARDS.--THE GOLIARDIC POETRY.--TASTE
FOR PARODY.--PARODIES ON RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS.--POLITICAL
CARICATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.--THE JEWS OF NORWICH.--CARICATURE
REPRESENTATIONS OF COUNTRIES.--LOCAL SATIRE.--POLITICAL SONGS AND
POEMS.

In a previous chapter I have spoken of a class of satirical literature
which was entirely popular in its character. Not that on this account
it was original among the peoples who composed mediæval society, for
the intellectual development of the middle ages came almost all from
Rome through one medium or other, although we know so little of the
details of the popular literature of the Romans that we cannot always
trace it. The mediæval literature of western Europe was mostly modelled
upon that of France, which was received, like its language, from Rome.
But when the great university system became established, towards the
end of the eleventh century, the scholars of western Europe became
more directly acquainted with the models of literature which antiquity
had left them; and during the twelfth century these found imitators
so skilful that some of them almost deceive us into accepting them
for classical writers themselves. Among the first of these models to
attract the attention of mediæval scholars, were the Roman satirists,
and the study of them produced, during the twelfth century, a number of
satirical writers in Latin prose and verse, who are remarkable not only
for their boldness and poignancy, but for the elegance of their style.
I may mention among those of English birth, John of Salisbury, Walter
Mapes, and Giraldus Cambrensis, who all wrote in prose, and Nigellus
Wireker, already mentioned in a former chapter, and John de Hauteville,
who wrote in verse. The first of these, in his "Polycraticus," Walter
Mapes, in his book "De Nugis Curialium," and Giraldus, in his "Speculum
Ecclesiæ," and several other of his writings, lay the lash on the
corruptions and vices of their contemporaries with no tender hand.
The two most remarkable English satirists of the twelfth century were
John de Hauteville and Nigellus Wireker. The former wrote, in the year
1184, a poem in nine books of Latin hexameters, entitled, after the
name of its hero, "Architrenius," or the Arch-mourner. Architrenius
is represented as a youth, arrived at years of maturity, who sorrows
over the spectacle of human vices and weaknesses, until he resolves to
go on a pilgrimage to Dame Nature, in order to expostulate with her
for having made him feeble to resist the temptations of the world,
and to entreat her assistance. On his way, he arrives successively at
the court of Venus and at the abode of Gluttony, which give him the
occasion to dwell at considerable length on the license and luxury
which prevailed among his contemporaries. He next reaches Paris, and
visits the famous mediæval university, and his satire on the manners of
the students and the fruitlessness of their studies, forms a remarkable
and interesting picture of the age. The pilgrim next arrives at the
Mount of Ambition, tempting by its beauty and by the stately palace
with which it was crowned, and here we are presented with a satire on
the manners and corruptions of the court. Near to this was the Hill of
Presumption, which was inhabited by ecclesiastics of all classes, great
scholastic doctors and professors, monks, and the like. It is a satire
on the manners of the clergy. As Architrenius turns from this painful
spectacle, he encounters a gigantic and hideous monster named Cupidity,
is led into a series of reflections upon the greediness and avarice
of the prelates, from which he is roused by the uproar caused by a
fierce combat between the prodigals and the misers. He is subsequently
carried to the island of far-distant Thule, which he finds to be the
resting-place of the philosophers of ancient Greece, and he listens
to their declamations against the vices of mankind. After this visit,
Architrenius reaches the end of his pilgrimage. He finds Nature in the
form of a beautiful woman, dwelling with a host of attendants in the
midst of a flowery plain, and meats with a courteous reception, but she
begins by giving him a long lecture on natural philosophy. After this
is concluded, Dame Nature listens to his complaints, and, to console
him, gives him a handsome woman, named Moderation, for a wife, and
dismisses him with a chapter of good counsels on the duties of married
life. The general moral intended to be inculcated appears to be that
the retirement of domestic happiness is to be preferred to the vain and
heartless turmoils of active life in all its phases. It will be seen
that the kind of allegory which subsequently produced the "Pilgrim's
Progress," had already made its appearance in mediæval literature.

Another of the celebrated satirists of the scholastic ages was
named Alanus de Insulis, or Alan of Lille, because he is understood
to have been born at Lille in Flanders. He occupied the chair of
theology for many years in the university of Paris with great
distinction, and his learning was so extensive that he gained the
name of _doctor universalis_, the universal doctor. In one of his
books, which is an imitation of that favourite book in the middle
ages "Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ," Dame Nature, in the
place of Philosophy--not, as in John de Hauteville, as the referee,
but as the complainant--is introduced bitterly lamenting over the
deep depravity of the thirteenth century, especially displayed in
the prevalence of vices of a revolting character. This work, which,
like Boethius, consists of alternate chapters in verse and prose, is
entitled "De Planctu Naturæ," the lamentation of nature. I will not,
however, go on here to give a list of the graver satirical writers, but
we will proceed to another class of satirists which sprang up among
the mediæval scholars, more remarkable and more peculiar in their
character--I mean peculiar to the middle ages.

The satires of the time show us that the students in the universities
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who enjoyed a great amount
of independence from authority, were generally wild and riotous, and,
among the vast number of youths who then devoted themselves to a
scholastic life, we can have no doubt that the habit of dissipation
became permanent. Among these wild students there existed, probably,
far more wit and satirical talent than among their steadier and more
laborious brethren, and this wit, and the manner in which it was
displayed, made its possessors welcome guests at the luxurious tables
of the higher and richer clergy, at which Latin seems to have been
the language in ordinary use. In all probability it was from this
circumstance (in allusion to the Latin word _gula_, as intimating their
love of the table) that these merry scholars, who displayed in Latin
some of the accomplishments which the jougleurs professed in the vulgar
tongue, took or received the name of _goliards_ (in the Latin of that
time, _goliardi_, or _goliardenses_).[42] The name at least appears
to have been adopted towards the end of the twelfth century. In the
year 1229, during the minority of Louis IX., and while the government
of France was in the hands of the queen-mother, troubles arose in the
university of Paris through the intrigues of the papal legate, and the
turbulence of the scholars led to their dispersion and to the temporary
closing of the schools; and the contemporary historian, Matthew Paris,
tells us how "some of the servants of the departing scholars, or those
whom we used to call goliardenses," composed an indecent epigram on
the rumoured familiarities between the legate and the queen. But this
is not the first mention of the goliards, for a statute of the council
of Treves, in 1227, forbade "all priests to permit truants, or other
wandering scholars, or goliards, to sing verses or _Sanctus_ and
_Angelus Dei_ in the service of the mass."[43] This probably refers to
parodies on the religious service, such as those of which I shall soon
have to speak. From this time the goliards are frequently mentioned. In
ecclesiastical statutes published in the year 1289, it is ordered that
the clerks or clergy (_clerici_, that is, men who had their education
in the university) "should not be jougleurs, goliards, or buffoons;"[44]
and the same statute proclaims a heavy penalty against those _clerici_
"who persist in the practice of goliardy or stage performance during a
year,"[45] which shows that they exercised more of the functions of the
jougleur than the mere singing of songs.

[42] In the mediæval Latin, the word _goliardia_ was introduced to
express the profession of the goliard, and the verb
_goliardizare_, to signify the practice of it.

[43] "Item, præcipimus ut omnes sacerdotes non permittant trutannos et
alios vagos scholares, aut goliardos, cantare versus super
_Sanctus_ et _Angelus Dei_ in missis," etc.--Concil. Trevir.,
an. 1227, ap. Marten. et Durand. Ampliss. Coll., vii. col. 117.

[44] "Item, præcipimus quod clerici non sint joculatores, goliardi, seu
bufones."--Stat. Synod. Caduacensis, Ruthenensis, et Tutelensis
Eccles. ap. Martene, Thes. Anecd., iv. col. 727.

[45] "Clerici ... si in goliardia vel histrionatu per annum
fuerint."--Ib. col. 729. In one of the editions of this statute it
is added, "after they have been warned three times."

These vagabond clerks made for themselves an imaginary chieftain,
or president of their order, to whom they gave the name of Golias,
probably as a pun on the name of the giant who combated against David,
and, to show further their defiance of the existing church government,
they made him a bishop--_Golias episcopus_. Bishop Golias was the
burlesque representative of the clerical order, the general satirist,
the reformer of eclesiastical and all other corruptions. If he was not
a doctor of divinity, he was a master of arts, for he is spoken of as
_Magister Golias_. But above all he was the father of the Goliards,
the "ribald clerks," as they are called, who all belonged to his
household,[46] and they are spoken of as his children.

_Summa salus omnium, filius Mariæ,
Pascat, potat, vestiat pueros Golyæ!_[47]

"May the Saviour of all, the Son of Mary, give food, drink, and clothes
to the children of Golias!" Still the name was clothed in so much
mystery, that Giraldus Cambrensis, who flourished towards the latter
end of the twelfth century, believed Golias to be a real personage,
and his contemporary. It may be added that Golias not only boasts of
the dignity of bishop, but he appears sometimes under the title of
_archipoeta_, the archpoet or poet-in-chief.

[46] "Clerici ribaldi, maxime qui vulgo dicuntur _de famila
Goliæ_."--Concil. Sen. ap. Concil., tom. ix. p. 578.

[47] See my "Poems of Walter Mapes," p. 70.

Cæsarius of Heisterbach, who completed his book of the miracles of his
time in the year 1222, tells us a curious anecdote of the character
of the wandering clerk. In the year before he wrote, he tells us, "It
happened at Bonn, in the diocese of Cologne, that a certain wandering
clerk, named Nicholas, of the class they call archpoet, was grievously
ill, and when he supposed that he was dying, he obtained from our
abbot, through his own pleading, and the intercession of the canons
of the same church, admission into the order. What more? He put on
the tunic, as it appeared to us, with much contrition, but, when the
danger was past, he took it off immediately, and, throwing it down with
derision, took to flight." We learn best the character of the goliards
from their own poetry, a considerable quantity of which is preserved.
They wandered about from mansion to mansion, probably from monastery
to monastery, just like the jougleurs, but they seem to have been
especially welcome at the tables of the prelates of the church, and,
like the jougleurs, besides being well feasted, they received gifts of
clothing and other articles. In few instances only were they otherwise
than welcome, as described in the rhyming epigram printed in my "Latin
Poems attributed to Walter Mapes." "I come uninvited," says the goliard
to the bishop, "ready for dinner; such is my fate, never to dine
invited." The bishop replies, "I care not for vagabonds, who wander
among the fields, and cottages, and villages; such guests are not for
my table. I do not invite you, for I avoid such as you; yet without my
will you may eat the bread you ask. Wash, wipe, sit, dine, drink, wipe,
and depart."

Goliardus.
_Non invitatus venio prandere paratus;
Sic sum fatatus, nunquam prandere vocatus._

Episcopus.
_Non ego curo vagos, qui rura, mapalia, pagos
Perlustrant, tales non vult mea mensa sodales.
Te non invito, tibi consimiles ego vito;
Me tamen invito potieris pane petito.
Ablue, terge, sede, prande, bibe, terge, recede._

In another similar epigram, the goliard complains of the bishop who
had given him as his reward nothing but an old worn-out mantle. Most
of the writers of the goliardic poetry complain of their poverty, and
some of them admit that this poverty arose from the tavern and the love
of gambling. One of them alleges as his claim to the liberality of
his host, that, as he was a scholar, he had not learnt to labour, that
his parents were knights, but he had no taste for fighting, and that,
in a word, he preferred poetry to any occupation. Another speaks still
more to the point, and complains that he is in danger of being obliged
to sell his clothes. "If this garment of vair which I wear," he says,
"be sold for money, it will be a great disgrace to me; I would rather
suffer a long fast. A bishop, who is the most generous of all generous
men, gave me this cloak, and will have for it heaven, a greater reward
than St. Martin has, who only gave half of his cloak. It is needful
now that the poet's want be relieved by your liberality [addressing
his hearers]; let noble men give noble gifts--gold, and robes, and the
like."

_Si vendatur propter denarium
Indumentum quod porto varium,
Grande mihi fiet opprobrium;
Malo diu pati jejunium.
Largissimus largorum omnium
Prœsul dedit mihi hoc pallium,
Majus habens in cælis præmium
Quam Martinus, qui dedit medium.
Nunc est opus ut vestra copia
Sublevetur vatis inopia;
Dent nobiles dona nobilia,--
Aurum, vestes, et his similia._

There has been some difference of opinion as to the country to which
this poetry more especially belongs. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing at
the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century,
evidently thought that Golias was an Englishman; and at a later date
the goliardic poetry was almost all ascribed to Giraldus's contemporary
and friend, the celebrated humourist, Walter Mapes. This was, no doubt,
an error. Jacob Grimm seemed inclined to claim them for Germany; but
Grimm, on this occasion, certainly took a narrow view of the question.
We shall probably be more correct in saying that they belonged in
common to all the countries over which university learning extended;
that in whatever country a particular poem of this class was composed,
it became the property of the whole body of these scholastic jougleurs,
and that it was thus carried from one land to another, receiving
sometimes alterations or additions to adapt it to each. Several of
these poems are found in manuscripts written in different countries
with such alterations and additions, as, for instance, that in the
well-known "Confession," in the English copies of which we have, near
the conclusion, the line--

_Præsul Coventrensium, parce confitenti;_

an appeal to the bishop of Coventry, which is changed, in a copy in a
German manuscript, to

_Electe Coloniæ, parce pœnitenti,_

"O elect of Cologne, spare me penitent." From a comparison of what
remains of this poetry in manuscripts written in different countries,
it appears probable that the names Golias and goliard originated in the
university of Paris, but were more especially popular in England, while
the term _archipoeta_ was more commonly used in Germany.

In 1841 I collected all the goliardic poetry which I could then find in
English manuscripts, and edited it, under the name of Walter Mapes, as
one of the publications of the Camden Society.[48] At a rather later
date I gave a chapter of additional matter of the same description
in my "Anecdota Literaria."[49] All the poems I have printed in
these two volumes are found in manuscripts written in England, and
some of them are certainly the compositions of English writers. They
are distinguished by remarkable facility and ease in versification
and rhyme, and by great pungency of satire. The latter is directed
especially against the clerical order, and none are spared, from the
pope at the summit of the scale down to the lowest of the clergy. In
the "Apocalypsis Goliæ," or Golias's Revelations, which appears to
have been the most popular of all these poems,[50] the poet describes
himself as carried up in a vision to heaven, where the vices and
disorders of the various classes of the popish clergy are successively
revealed to him. The pope is a devouring lion; in his eagerness for
pounds, he pawns books; at the sight of a mark of money, he treats Mark
the Evangelist with disdain; while he sails aloft, money alone is his
anchoring-place. The original lines will serve as a specimen of the
style of these curious compositions, and of the love of punning which
was so characteristic of the literature of that age:--

_Est leo pontifex summus, qui devorat,
Qui libras sitiens, libros impignorat;
Marcam respiciet, Marcum dedecorat;
In summis navigans, in nummis anchorat._

[48] The Latin Poems commonly attributed to Walter Mapes, collected and
edited by Thomas Wright, Esq., 4to., London, 1841.

[49] "Anecdota Literaria; a Collection of Short Poems in English,
Latin, and French, illustrative of the Literature and History of
England in the Thirteenth Century." Edited by Thomas Wright, Esq.
8vo., London, 1844.

[50] In my edition I have collated no less than sixteen copies which
occur among the MSS. in the British Museum, and in the libraries
at Oxford and Cambridge, and there are, no doubt, many more.

The bishop is in haste to intrude himself into other people's pastures,
and fills himself with other people's goods. The ravenous archdeacon
is compared to an eagle, because he has sharp eyes to see his prey
afar off, and is swift to seize upon it. The dean is represented by an
animal with a man's face, full of silent guile, who covers fraud with
the form of justice, and by the show of simplicity would make others
believe him to be pious. In this spirit the faults of the clergy, of
all degrees, are minutely criticised through between four and five
hundred lines; and it must not be forgotten that it was the English
clergy whose character was thus exposed.

_Tu scribes etiam, forma sed alia,
Septem ecclesiis quæ sunt in Anglia._

Others of these pieces are termed Sermons, and are addressed, some to
the bishops and dignitaries of the church, others to the pope, others
to the monastic orders, and others to the clergy in general. The court
of Rome, we are told, was infamous for its greediness; there all right
and justice were put up for sale, and no favour could be had without
money. In this court money occupies everybody's thoughts; its cross--i.
e. the mark on the reverse of the coin--its roundness, and its
whiteness, all please the Romans; where money speaks law is silent.

_Nummis in hac curia non est qui non vacet;
Crux placet, rotunditas, et albedo placet,
Et cum totum placeat, et Romanis placet,
Ubi nummus loquitur, et lex omnis tacet._

Perhaps one of the most curious of these poems is the "Confession of
Golias," in which the poet is made to satirise himself, and he thus
gives us a curious picture of the goliard's life. He complains that
he is made of light material, which is moved by every wind; that he
wanders about irregularly, like the ship on the sea or the bird in the
air, seeking worthless companions like himself. He is a slave to the
charms of the fair sex. He is a martyr to gambling, which often turns
him out naked to the cold, but he is warmed inwardly by the inspiration
of his mind, and he writes better poetry than ever. Lechery and
gambling are two of his vices, and the third is drinking. "The tavern,"
he says, "I never despised, nor shall I ever despise it, until I see
the holy angels coming to sing the eternal requiem over my corpse. It
is my design to die in the tavern; let wine be placed to my mouth when
I am expiring, that when the choirs of angels come, they may say, 'Be
God propitious to this drinker!' The lamp of the soul is lighted with
cups; the heart steeped in nectar flies up to heaven; and the wine in
the tavern has for me a better flavour than that which the bishop's
butler mixes with water.... Nature gives to every one his peculiar
gift: I never could write fasting; a boy could beat me in composition
when I am hungry; I hate thirst and fasting as much as death."

_Tertio capitulo memoro tabernam:
Illam nullo tempore sprevi, neque spernam,
Donec sanctos angelos venientes cernam,
Cantantes pro mortuo requiem æternam._

_Meum est propositum in taberna mori;
Vindum sit appositum morientis ori,
Ut dicant cum venerint angelorum chori,
'Deus sit propitius huic potatori!'_

_Poculis accenditur animi lucerna;
Cor imbutum nectare volat ad superna:
Mihi sapit dulcius vinum in taberna,
Quam quod aqua miscuit præsulis pincerna._

_Unicuique proprium dat natura munus:
Ego nunquam potui scribere jejunus;
Me jejunum vincere posset puer unus;
Sitim et jejunium odi tanquam funus._[51]

Another of the more popular of these goliardic poems was the advice of
Golias against marriage, a gross satire upon the female sex. Contrary
to what we might perhaps expect from their being written in Latin, many
of these metrical satires are directed against the vices of the laity,
as well as against those of the clergy.

[51] Poems attributed to Walter Mapes, p. 73. The stanzas here quoted,
with some others, were afterwards made up into a drinking song,
which was rather popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

In 1844 the celebrated German scholar, Jacob Grimm, published in the
"Transactions of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin" a selection of
goliardic verses from manuscripts in Germany, which had evidently been
written by Germans, and some of them containing allusions to German
affairs in the thirteenth century.[52] They present the same form of
verse and the same style of satire as those found in England, but the
name of Golias is exchanged for _archipoeta_, the archpoet. Some of
the stanzas of the "Confession of Golias" are found in a poem in which
the archpoet addresses a petition to the archchancellor for assistance
in his distress, and confesses his partiality for wine. A copy of the
Confession itself is also found in this German collection, under the
title of the "Poet's Confession."

[52] "Gedichte des Mittelalters auf König Friedrich I. den Staufar, und
aus seiner so wie der nächstfolgenden Zeit," 4to. Separate copies
of this work were printed off and distributed among mediæval
scholars.

The Royal Library at Munich contains a very important manuscript of
this goliardic Latin poetry, written in the thirteenth century. It
belonged originally to one of the great Benedictine abbeys in Bavaria,
where it appears to have been very carefully preserved, but still
with an apparent consciousness that it was not exactly a book for a
religious brotherhood, which led the monks to omit it in the catalogue
of their library, no doubt as a book the possession of which was not
to be proclaimed publicly. When written, it was evidently intended
to be a careful selection of the poetry of this class then current.
One part of it consists of poetry of a more serious character, such
as hymns, moral poems, and especially satirical pieces. In this class
there are more than one piece which are also found in the manuscripts
written in England. A very large portion of the collection consists
of love songs, which, although evidently treasured by the Benedictine
monks, are sometimes licentious in character. A third class consists
of drinking and gambling songs (_potatoria et lusoria_). The general
character of this poetry is more playful, more ingenious and intricate
in its metrical structure, in fact, more lyric than that of the poetry
we have been describing; yet it came, in all probability, from the same
class of poets--the clerical jougleurs. The touches of sentiment, the
descriptions of female beauty, the admiration of nature, are sometimes
expressed with remarkable grace. Thus, the green wood sweetly enlivened
by the joyous voices of its feathered inhabitants, the shade of its
branches, the thorns covered with flowers, which, says the poet, are
emblematical of love, which pricks like a thorn and then soothes like a
flower, are tastefully described in the following lines:--

_Cantu nemus avium
Lascivia canentium
Suave delinitur,
Fronde redimitur,
Vernant spinæ floribus
Micantibus,
Venerem signantibus
Quia spina pungit, flos blanditur._

And the following scrap of the description of a beautiful damsel shows
no small command of language and versification--

_Allicit dulcibus
Verbis et osculis,
Labellulis
Castigate tumentibus,
Roseo nectareus
Odor infusus ori;
Pariter eburneus
Sedat ordo dentium
Par niveo candori._

The whole contents of this manuscript were printed in 1847, in an
octavo volume, issued by the Literary Society at Stuttgard.[53] I had
already printed some examples of such amatory Latin lyric poetry in
1838, in a volume of "Early Mysteries and Latin Poems;"[54] but this
poetry does not belong properly to the subject of the present volume,
and I pass on from it.

[53] "Carmina Burana. Lateinische und Deutsche Lieder und Gedichte
einer Handschrift des XIII. Jahrhunderts aus Benedictbeurn auf
der K. Bibliothek zu München." 8vo. Stuttgart, 1847.

[54] "Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems of the Twelfth and
Thirteenth Centuries," edited by Thomas Wright, Esq. 8vo. London,
1838.

The goliards did not always write in verse, for we have some of
their prose compositions, and these appear especially in the form
of parodies. We trace a great love for parody in the middle ages,
which spared not even things the most sacred, and the examples
brought forward in the celebrated trial of William Hone, were mild in
comparison to some which are found scattered here and there in mediæval
manuscripts. In my Poems, attributed to Walter Mapes,[55] I have
printed a satire in prose entitled "_Magister Golyas de quodam abbate_"
(i.e., Master Golias's account of a certain abbot), which has somewhat
the character of a parody upon a saint's legend. The voluptuous life of
the superior of a monastic house is here described in a tone of banter
which nothing could excel. Several parodies, more direct in their
character, are printed in the two volumes of the "Reliquæ Antiquæ."[56]
One of these (vol. ii. p. 208) is a complete parody on the service of
the mass, which is entitled in the original, "_Missa de Potatoribus_,"
the Mass of the Drunkard. In this extraordinary composition, even the
pater-noster is parodied. A portion of this, with great variations, is
found in the German collection of the Carmina Burana, under the title
of _Officium Lusorum_, the Office of the Gamblers. In the "Reliquæ
Antiquæ" (ii. 58) we have a parody on the Gospel of St. Luke, beginning
with the words, _Initium fallacis Evangelii secundum Lupum_, this last
word being, of course, a sort of pun upon Lucam. Its subject also is
Bacchus, and the scene having been laid in a tavern in Oxford, we have
no difficulty in ascribing it to some scholar of that university in the
thirteenth century. Among the Carmina Burana we find a similar parody
on the Gospel of St. Mark, which has evidently belonged to one of these
burlesques on the church service; and as it is less profane than the
others, and at the same time pictures the mediæval hatred towards the
church of Rome, I will give a translation of it as an example of this
singular class of compositions. It is hardly necessary to remind the
reader that a mark was a coin of the value of thirteen shillings and
fourpence:--

"The beginning of the holy gospel according to Marks of silver.
At that time the pope said to the Romans: 'When the son of man
shall come to the seat of our majesty, first say, Friend, for what
hast thou come? But if he should persevere in knocking without
giving you anything, cast him out into utter darkness.' And it
came to pass, that a certain poor clerk came to the court of the
lord the pope, and cried out, saying, 'Have pity on me at least,
you doorkeepers of the pope, for the hand of poverty has touched
me. For I am needy and poor, and therefore I seek your assistance
in my calamity and misery.' But they hearing this were highly
indignant, and said to him: 'Friend, thy poverty be with thee in
perdition; get thee backward, Satan, for thou dost not savour of
those things which have the savour of money. Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Thou shalt not enter into the joy of thy lord, until
thou shalt have given thy last farthing.'

"Then the poor man went away, and sold his cloak and his gown,
and all that he had, and gave it to the cardinals, and to the
doorkeepers, and to the chamberlains. But they said, 'And what is
this among so many?' And they cast him out of the gates, and going
out he wept bitterly, and was without consolation. After him there
came to the court a certain clerk who was rich, and gross, and
fat, and large, and who in a tumult had committed manslaughter. He
gave first to the doorkeeper, secondly to the chamberlain, third
to the cardinals. But they judged among themselves, that they
were to receive more. Then the lord the pope, hearing that the
cardinals and officials had received many gifts from the clerk,
became sick unto death. But the rich man sent him an electuary of
gold and silver, and he was immediately made whole. Then the lord
the pope called before him the cardinals and officials, and said
to them: 'Brethren, see that no one deceive you with empty words.
For I give you an example, that, as I take, so take ye also.'"

[55] Introduction, p. xl.

[56] "Reliquiæ Antiquæ. Scraps from Ancient Manuscripts, illustrating
chiefly Early English Literature and the English Language." Edited
by Thomas Wright, Esq., and J. O. Halliwell, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo.
Vol. i., London, 1841; vol. ii., 1843.

This mediæval love of parody was not unfrequently displayed in a
more popular form, and in the language of the people. In the _Reliquæ
Antiquæ_ (i. 82) we have a very singular parody in English on the
sermons of the Catholic priesthood, a good part of which is so written
as to present no consecutive sense, which circumstance itself implies
a sneer at the preachers. Thus our burlesque preacher, in the middle
of his discourse, proceeds to narrate as follows (I modernise the
English):--

"Sirs, what time that God and St. Peter came to Rome, Peter asked
Adam a full great doubtful question, and said, 'Adam, Adam, why
ate thou the apple unpared?' 'Forsooth,' quod he, 'for I had no
wardens (pears) fried.' And Peter saw the fire, and dread him, and
stepped into a plum-tree that hanged full of ripe red cherries.
And there he saw all the parrots in the sea. There he saw steeds
and stockfish pricking 'swose' (?) in the water. There he saw hens
and herrings that hunted after harts in hedges. There he saw eels
roasting larks. There he saw haddocks were done on the pillory for
wrong roasting of May butter; and there he saw how bakers baked
butter to grease with old monks' boots. There he saw how the fox
preached," &c.

The same volume contains some rather clever parodies on the old English
alliterative romances, composed in a similar style of consecutive
nonsense. It is a class of parody which we trace to a rather early
period, which the French term a _coq-à-l'âne_, and which became
fashionable in England in the seventeenth century in the form of
songs entitled "Tom-a-Bedlams." M. Jubinal has printed two such poems
in French, perhaps of the thirteenth century,[57] and others are
found scattered through the old manuscripts. There is generally so
much coarseness in them that it is not easy to select a portion for
translation, and in fact their point consists in going on through the
length of a poem of this kind without imparting a single clear idea.
Thus, in the second of those published by Jubinal, we are told how,
"The shadow of an egg carried the new year upon the bottom of a pot;
two old new combs made a ball to run the trot; when it came to paying
the scot, I, who never move myself, cried out, without saying a word,
'Take the feather of an ox, and clothe a wise fool with it.'"--

_Li ombres d'un oef
Portoit l'an reneuf
Sur la fonz d'un pot;
Deus viez pinges neuf
Firent un estuef
Pour courre le trot;
Quant vint au paier l'escot,
Je, qui onques ne me muef,
M'escriai, si ne dis mot:--
'Prenés la plume d'un buef,
S'en vestez un sage sot.'_--Jubinal, Nouv. Rec., ii. 217.

[57] "Achille Jubinal, Jongleurs et Trouvères." 8vo., Paris, 1835, p.
34; and "Nouveau Recueil de Contes, Dits, Fabliaux," &c. 8vo.,
Paris, 1842. Vol. ii. p. 208. In the first instance M. Jubinal has
given to this little poem the title _Resveries_, in the second,
_Fatrasies_.

The spirit of the goliards continued to exist long after the name
had been forgotten; and the mass of bitter satire which they had
left behind them against the whole papal system, and against the
corruptions of the papal church of the middle ages, were a perfect
godsend to the reformers of the sixteenth century, who could point
to them triumphantly as irresistible evidence in their favour. Such
scholars as Flacius Illyricus, eagerly examined the manuscripts
which contained this goliardic poetry, and printed it, chiefly as
good and effective weapons in the great religious strife which was
then convulsing European society. To us, besides their interest as
literary compositions, they have also a historical value, for they
introduce us to a more intimate acquaintance with the character of the
great mental struggle for emancipation from mediæval darkness which
extended especially through the thirteenth century, and which was only
overcome for a while to begin more strongly and more successfully at
a later period. They display to us the gross ignorance, as well as
the corruption of manners, of the great mass of the mediæval clergy.
Nothing can be more amusing than the satire which some of these pieces
throw on the character of monkish Latin. I printed in the "Reliquæ
Antiquæ," under the title of "The Abbot of Gloucester's Feast," a
complaint supposed to issue from the mouth of one of the common herd
of the monks, against the selfishness of their superiors, in which all
the rules of Latin grammar are entirely set at defiance. The abbot and
prior of Gloucester, with their whole convent, are invited to a feast,
and on their arrival, "the abbot," says the complainant, "goes to sit
at the top, and the prior next to him, but I stood always in the back
place among the low people."

_Abbas ire sede sursum,
Et prioris juxta ipsum;
Ego semper stavi dorsum
inter rascalilia._

The wine was served liberally to the prior and the abbot, but "nothing
was give to us poor folks--everything was for the rich."

_Vinum venit sanguinatis
Ad prioris et abbatis;
Nihil nobis paupertatis,
sed ad dives omnia._

When some dissatisfaction was displayed by the poor monks, which the
great men treated with contempt, "said the prior to the abbot, 'They
have wine enough; will you give all our drink to the poor? What does
their poverty regard us? they have little, and that is enough, since
they came uninvited to our feast.'"

_Prior dixit ad abbatis,
'Ipsi habent vinum satis;
Vultis dare paupertatis
noster potus omnia?
Quid nos spectat paupertatis?
Postquam venit non vocatis
ad noster convivia.'_

Thus through several pages this amusing poem goes on to describe the
gluttony and drunkenness of the abbot and prior, and the ill-treatment
of their inferiors. This composition belongs to the close of the
thirteenth century. A song very similar to it in character, but much
shorter, is found in a manuscript of the middle of the fifteenth
century, and printed with the other contents of this manuscript in a
little volume issued by the Percy Society.[58] The writer complains
that the abbot and prior drunk good and high-flavoured wine, while
nothing but inferior stuff was usually given to the convent; "But,"
he says, "it is better to go drink good wine at the tavern, where the
wines are of the best quality, and money is the butler."

_Bonum vinum cum sapore
Bibit abbas cum priore;
Sed conventus de pejore
semper solet bibere.
Bonum vinum in taberna,
Ubi vina sunt valarna_ (for Falerna),
_Ubi nummus est pincerna,
Ibi prodest bibere._

[58] "Songs and Carols, now first printed from a Manuscript of the
Fifteenth Century." Edited by Thomas Wright, Esq. 8vo., London,
1847, p. 2.

[Illustration: _No. 111. Caricature upon the Jews at Norwich._]

Partly out of the earnest, though playful, satire described in this
chapter, arose political satire, and at a later period political
caricature. I have before remarked that the period we call the middle
ages was not that of political or personal caricature, because it
wanted that means of circulating quickly and largely which is necessary
for it. Yet, no doubt, men who could draw, did, in the middle ages,
sometimes amuse themselves in sketching caricatures, which, in general,
have perished, because nobody cared to preserve them; but the fact of
the existence of such works is proved by a very curious example, which
has been preserved, and which is copied in our cut No. 111. It is a
caricature on the Jews of Norwich, which some one of the clerks of the
king's courts in the thirteenth century has drawn with a pen, on one
of the official rolls of the Pell office, where it has been preserved.
Norwich, as it is well known, was one of the principal seats of the
Jews in England at this early period, and Isaac of Norwich, the crowned
Jew with three faces, who towers over the other figures, was no doubt
some personage of great importance among them. Dagon, as a two-headed
demon, occupies a tower, which a party of demon knights is attacking.
Beneath the figure of Isaac there is a lady, whose name appears to be
Avezarden, who has some relation or other with a male figure named
Nolle-Mokke, in which another demon, named Colbif, is interfering. As
this latter name is written in capital letters, we may perhaps conclude
that he is the most important personage in the scene; but, without any
knowledge of the circumstances to which it relates, it would be in vain
to attempt to explain this curious and rather elaborate caricature.

[Illustration: _No. 112. An Irishman._]

Similar attempts at caricature, though less direct and elaborate, are
found in others of our national records. One of these, pointed out to
me by an excellent and respected friend, the Rev. Lambert B. Larking,
is peculiarly interesting, as well as amusing. It belongs to the
Treasury of the Exchequer, and consists of two volumes of vellum called
Liber A and Liber B, forming a register of treaties, marriages, and
similar documents of the reign of Edward I., which have been very fully
used by Rymer. The clerk who was employed in writing it, seems to have
been, like many of these official clerks, somewhat of a wag, and he
has amused himself by drawing in the margin figures of the inhabitants
of the provinces of Edward's crown to which the documents referred.
Some of these are evidently designed for caricature. Thus, the figure
given in our cut No. 112 was intended to represent an Irishman. One
trait, at least, in this caricature is well known from the description
given by Giraldus Cambrensis, who speaks with a sort of horror of the
formidable axes which the Irish were accustomed to carry about with
them. In treating of the manner in which Ireland ought to be governed
when it had been entirely reduced to subjection, he recommends that,
"in the meantime, they ought not to be allowed in time of peace, on
any pretence or in any place, to use that detestable instrument of
destruction, which, by an ancient but accursed custom, they constantly
carry in their hands instead of a staff." In a chapter of his
"Topography of Ireland," Giraldus treats of this "ancient and wicked
custom" of always carrying in their hand an axe, instead of a staff,
to the danger of all persons who had any relations with them. Another
Irishman, from a drawing in the same manuscript, given in our cut No.
113, carries his axe in the same threatening attitude. The costume of
these figures answers with sufficient accuracy to the description given
by Giraldus Cambrensis. The drawings exhibit more exactly than that
writer's description the "small close-fitting hoods, hanging a cubit's
length (half-a-yard) below the shoulders," which, he tells us, they
were accustomed to wear. This small hood, with the flat cap attached to
it, is shown better perhaps in the second figure than in the first. The
"breeches and hose of one piece, or hose and breeches joined together,"
are also exhibited here very distinctly, and appear to be tied over
the heel, but the feet are clearly naked, and evidently the use of the
"brogues" was not yet general among the Irish of the thirteenth century.

[Illustration: _No. 113. Another Irishman._]

If the Welshman of this period was somewhat more scantily clothed
than the Irishman, he had the advantage of him, to judge by this
manuscript, in wearing at least one shoe. Our cut No. 114, taken from
it, represents a Welshman armed with bow and arrow, whose clothing
consists apparently only of a plain tunic and a light mantle. This
is quite in accordance with the description by Giraldus Cambrensis,
who tells us that in all seasons their dress was the same, and that,
however severe the weather, "they defended themselves from the cold
only by a thin cloak and tunic." Giraldus says nothing of the practice
of the Welsh in wearing but one shoe, yet it is evident that at the
time of this record that was their practice, for in another figure of
a Welshman, given in our cut No. 115, we see the same peculiarity,
and in both cases the shoe is worn on the left foot. Giraldus merely
says that the Welshmen in general, when engaged in warfare, "either
walked bare-footed, or made use of high shoes, roughly made of untanned
leather." He describes them as armed sometimes with bows and arrows,
and sometimes with long spears; and accordingly our first example of
a Welshman from this manuscript is using the bow, while the second
carries the spear, which he apparently rests on the single shoe of
his left foot, while he brandishes a sword in his left hand. Both our
Welshmen present a singularly grotesque appearance.

[Illustration: _No. 114. A Welsh Archer._]

[Illustration: _No. 115. A Welshman with his Spear._]

[Illustration: _No. 116. A Gascon at his Vine._]

[Illustration: _No. 117. The Wine Manufacturer._]

The Gascon is represented with more peaceful attributes. Gascony was
the country of vineyards, from whence we drew our great supply of
wines, a very important article of consumption in the middle ages.
When the official clerk who wrote this manuscript came to documents
relating to Gascony, his thoughts wandered naturally enough to its
rich vineyards and the wine they supplied so plentifully, and to
which, according to old reports, clerks seldom showed any dislike, and
accordingly, in the sketch, which we copy in our cut No. 116, we have
a Gascon occupied diligently in pruning his vine-tree. He, at least,
wears two shoes, though his clothing is of the lightest description. He
is perhaps the _vinitor_ of the mediæval documents on this subject, a
serf attached to the vineyard. Our second sketch, cut No. 117, presents
a more enlarged scene, and introduces us to the whole process of making
wine. First we see a man better clothed, with shoes (or boots) of much
superior make, and a hat on his head, carrying away the grapes from
the vineyard to the place where another man, with no clothing at all,
is treading out the juice in a large vat. This is still in some of the
wine countries the common method of extracting the juice from the
grape. Further to the left is the large cask in which the juice is put
when turned into wine.

Satires on the people of particular localities were not uncommon
during the middle ages, because local rivalries and consequent local
feuds prevailed everywhere. The records of such feuds were naturally
of a temporary character, and perished when the feuds and rivalries
themselves ceased to exist, but a few curious satires of this kind have
been preserved. A monk of Peterborough, who lived late in the twelfth
or early in the thirteenth century, and for some reason or other
nourished an unfriendly feeling to the people of Norfolk, gave vent
to his hostility in a short Latin poem in what we may call goliardic
verse. He begins by abusing the county itself, which, he says, was as
bad and unfruitful as its inhabitants were vile; and he suggests that
the evil one, when he fled from the anger of the Almighty, had passed
through it and left his pollution upon it. Among other anecdotes of
the simplicity and folly of the people of this county, which closely
resemble the stories of the wise men of Gotham of a later date, he
informs us that one day the peasantry of one district were so grieved
by the oppressions of their feudal lord, that they subscribed together
and bought their freedom, which he secured to them by formal deed,
ratified with a ponderous seal. They adjourned to the tavern, and
celebrated their deliverance by feasting and drinking until night came
on, and then, for want of a candle, they agreed to burn the wax of the
seal. Next day their former lord, informed of what had taken place,
brought them before a court, where the deed was judged to be void for
want of the seal, and they lost all their money, were reduced to their
old position of slavery, and treated worse than ever. Other stories,
still more ridiculous, are told of these old Norfolkians, but few of
them are worth repeating. Another monk, apparently, who calls himself
John de St. Omer, took up the cudgels for the people of Norfolk,
and replied to the Peterborough satirist in similar language.[59] I
have printed in another collection,[60] a satirical poem against
the people of a place called Stockton (perhaps Stockton-on-Tees in
Durham), by the monk of a monastic house, of which they were serfs.
It appeared that they had risen against the tyranny of their lord,
but had been unsuccessful in defending their cause in a court of law,
and the ecclesiastical satirist exults over their defeat in a very
uncharitable tone. There will be found in the "Reliquæ Antiquæ,"[61]
a very curious satire in Latin prose directed against the inhabitants
of Rochester, although it is in truth aimed against Englishmen in
general, and is entitled in the manuscript, which is of the fourteenth
century, "Proprietates Anglicorum" (the Peculiarities of Englishmen).
In the first place, we are told, that the people of Rochester had
tails, and the question is discussed, very scholastically, what
species of animals these Rocestrians were. We are then told that the
cause of their deformity arose from the insolent manner in which
they treated St. Augustine, when he came to preach the Gospel to the
heathen English. After visiting many parts of England, the saint came
to Rochester, where the people, instead of listening to him, hooted
at him through the streets, and, in derision, attached tails of pigs
and calves to his vestments, and so turned him out of the city. The
vengeance of Heaven came upon them, and all who inhabited the city and
the country round it, and their descendants after them, were condemned
to bear tails exactly like those of pigs. This story of the tails
was not an invention of the author of the satire, but was a popular
legend connected with the history of St. Augustine's preaching, though
the scene of the legend was laid in Dorsetshire. The writer of this
singular composition goes on to describe the people of Rochester as
seducers of other people, as men without gratitude, and as traitors.
He proceeds to show that Rochester being situated in England, its
vices had tainted the whole nation, and he illustrates the baseness of
the English character by a number of anecdotes of worse than doubtful
authenticity. It is, in fact, a satire on the English composed in
France, and leads us into the domains of political satire.

[59] Both these poems are printed in my "Early Mysteries, and other
Latin Poems of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries." 8vo.,
London, 1838.

[60] "Anecdota Literaria," p. 49.

[61] "Reliquæ Antiquæ," vol. ii. p. 230.

Political satire in the middle ages appeared chiefly in the form of
poetry and song, and it was especially in England that it flourished,
a sure sign that there was in our country a more advanced feeling of
popular independence, and greater freedom of speech, than in France or
Germany.[62] M. Leroux de Lincy, who undertook to make a collection
of this poetry for France, found so little during the mediæval period
that came under the character of political, that he was obliged to
substitute the word "historical" in the title of his book.[63] Where
feudalism was supreme, indeed, the songs which arose out of private
or public strife, which then were almost inseparable from society,
contained no political sentiment, but consisted chiefly of personal
attacks on the opponents of those who employed them. Such are the four
short songs written in the time of the revolt of the French during
the minority of St. Louis, which commenced in 1226; they are all of a
political character which M. Leroux de Lincy has been able to collect
previous to the year 1270, and they consist merely of personal taunts
against the courtiers by the dissatisfied barons who were out of power.
We trace a similar feeling in some of the popular records of our
baronial wars of the reign of Henry III., especially in a song, in the
baronial language (Anglo-Norman), preserved in a small roll of vellum,
which appears to have belonged to the minstrel who chanted it in the
halls of the partisans of Simon de Montfort. The fragment which remains
consists of stanzas in praise of the leaders of the popular party, and
in reproach of their opponents. Thus of Roger de Clifford, one of earl
Simon's friends, we are told that "the good Roger de Clifford behaved
like a noble baron, and exercised great justice; he suffered none,
either small or great, or secretly or openly, to do any wrong."

_Et de Cliffort ly bon Roger
Se contint cum noble ber,
Si fu de grant justice;
Ne suffri pas petit ne grant,
Ne arère ne par devant,
Fere nul mesprise._

On the other hand, one of Montfort's opponents, the bishop of Hereford,
is treated rather contemptuously. We are told that he "learnt well that
the earl was strong when he took the matter in hand; before that he
(the bishop) was very fierce, and thought to eat up all the English;
but now he is reduced to straits."

_Ly eveske de Herefort
Sout bien que ly quens fu fort,
Kant il prist l'affère;
Devant ce esteit mult fer,
Les Englais quida touz manger,
Mès ore ne set que fere._

This bishop was Peter de Aigueblanche, one of the foreign favourites,
who had been intruded into the see of Hereford, to the exclusion of
a better man, and had been an oppressor of those who were under his
rule. The barons seized him, threw him into prison, and plundered his
possessions, and at the time this song was written, he was suffering
under the imprisonment which appears to have shortened his life.

[62] I have published from the original manuscripts the mass of the
political poetry composed in England during the middle ages in my
three volumes--"The Political Songs of England, from the Reign
of John to that of Edward II." 4to., London, 1839 (issued by
the Camden Society); and "Political Poems and Songs relating to
English History, composed during the Period from the Accession of
Edward III. to that of Richard III." 8vo., vol i., London, 1859;
vol. ii., 1861 (published by the Treasury, under the direction of
the Master of the Rolls.)

[63] "Receuil de Chants Historiques Français depuis le xii^e. jusqu'au
xviii^e. Siècle, par Leroux de Lincy.... Première Série, xii^e.,
xiii^e., xiv^e, et xv^e., Siècles." 8vo., Paris, 1841.

The universities and the clerical body in general were deeply involved
in these political movements of the thirteenth century; and our
earliest political songs now known are composed in Latin, and in that
form and style of verse which seems to have been peculiar to the
goliards, and which I venture to call goliardic. Such is a song against
the three bishops who supported king John in his quarrel with the
pope about the presentation to the see of Canterbury, printed in my
Political Songs. Such, too, is the song of the Welsh, and one or two
others, in the same volume. And such, above all, is that remarkable
Latin poem in which a partisan of the barons, immediately after the
victory at Lewes, set forth the political tenets of his party, and gave
the principles of English liberty nearly the same broad basis on which
they stand at the present. It is an evidence of the extent to which
these principles were now acknowledged, that in this great baronial
struggle our political songs began to be written in the English
language, an acknowledgment that they concerned the whole English
public.

We trace little of this class of literature during the reign of Edward
I.; but, when the popular feelings became turbulent again under the
reign of his son and successor, political songs became more abundant,
and their satire was directed more even than formerly against measures
and principles, and was less an instrument of mere personal abuse. One
satirical poem of this period, which I had printed from an imperfect
copy in a manuscript at Edinburgh, but of which a more complete copy
was subsequently found in a manuscript in the library of St. Peter's
College, Cambridge,[64] is extremely curious as being the earliest
satire of this kind written in English that we possess. It appears to
have been written in the year 1320. The writer of this poem begins by
telling us that his object is to explain the cause of the war, ruin,
and manslaughter which then prevailed throughout the land, and why
the poor were suffering from hunger and want, the cattle perished in
the field, and the corn was dear. These he ascribes to the increasing
wickedness of all orders of society. To begin with the church, Rome
was the head of all corruptions, at the papal court false-hood and
treachery only reigned, and the door of the pope's palace was shut
against truth. During the twelfth and following centuries these
complaints, in terms more or less forcible, against the corruptions of
Rome, are continually repeated, and show that the evil must have been
one under which everybody felt oppressed. The old charge of Romish
simony is repeated in this poem in very strong terms. "The clerk's
voice shall be little heard at the court of Rome, were he ever so good,
unless he bring silver with him; though he were the holiest man that
ever was born, unless he bring gold or silver, all his time and anxiety
are lost. Alas! why love they so much that which is perishable?"

_Voys of clerk shall lytyl be heard at the court of Rome,
Were he never so gode a clerk, without silver and he come;
Though he were the holyst man that ever yet was ibore,
But he bryng gold or sylver, al hys while is forlore
And his thowght.
Allas! whi love thei that so much that schal turne to nowght?_

[64] "A Poem on the Times of Edward III., from a MS. preserved in the
Library of St. Peter's College, Cambridge." Edited by the Rev.
C. Hardwick. 8vo. London, 1849. (One of the publications of the
Percy Society.)

When, on the contrary, a wicked man presented himself at the pope's
court, he had only to carry plenty of money thither, and all went well
with him. According to our satirist, the bishops were "fools," and the
other dignitaries and officials of the church were influenced chiefly
by the love of money and self-indulgence. The parson began humbly, when
he first obtained his benefice, but no sooner had he gathered money
together, than he took "a wenche" to live with him as his wife, and
rode a hunting with hawks and hounds like a gentleman. The priests were
men with no learning, who preached by rote what they neither understood
nor appreciated. "Truely," he says, "it fares by our unlearned priests
as by a jay in a cage, who curses himself: he speaks good English, but
he knows not what it means. No more does an unlearned priest know his
gospel that he reads daily. An unlearned priest, then, is no better
than a jay."

_Certes at so hyt fareth by a prest that is lewed,
As by a jay in a cage that hymself hath beshrewed:
Gode Englysh he speketh, but he not never what.
No more wot a lewed prest hys gospel wat he rat
By day.
Than is a lewed prest no better than a jay._

Abbots and priors were remarkable chiefly for their pride and luxury,
and the monks naturally followed their examples. Thus was religion
debased everywhere. The character of the physician is treated with
equal severity, and his various tricks to obtain money are amusingly
described. In this manner the songster presents to view the failings of
the various orders of lay society also, the selfishness and oppressive
bearing of the knights and aristocracy, and their extravagance in
dress and living, the neglect of justice, the ill-management of the
wars, the weight of taxation, and all the other evils which then
afflicted the state. This poem marks a period in our social history,
and led the way to that larger work of the same character, which
came about thirty years later, the well-known "Visions of Piers
Ploughman,"[65] one of the most remarkable satires, as well as one of
the most remarkable poems, in the English language.

We will do no more than glance at the further progress of political
satire which had now taken a permanent footing in English literature.
We see less of it during the reign of Edward III., the greater part of
which was occupied with foreign wars and triumphs, but there appeared
towards the close of his reign, a very remarkable satire, which I have
printed in my "Political Poems and Songs." It is written in Latin, and
consists of a pretended prophecy in verse by an inspired monk named
John of Bridlington, with a mock commentary in prose--in fact, a parody
on the commentaries in which the scholastics of that age displayed
their learning, but in this case the commentary contains a bold though
to us rather obscure criticism on the whole policy of Edward's reign.
The reign of Richard II. was convulsed by the great struggle for
religious reform, by the insurrections of the lower orders, and by
the ambition and feuds of the nobles, and produced a vast quantity of
political and religious satire, both in prose and verse, but especially
the latter. We must not overlook our great poet Chaucer, as one of the
powerful satirists of this period. Political song next makes itself
heard loudly in the wars of the Roses. It was the last struggle of
feudalism in England, and the character of the song had fallen back
to its earlier characteristics, in which all patriotic feelings were
abandoned to make place for personal hatred.

[65] "The Vision and the Creed of Piers Ploughman;" with Notes and a
Glossary by Thomas Wright. 2 vols. 12mo. London, 1842. Second and
revised edition, 2 vols. 12mo. London, 1856.

CHAPTER XI.

MINSTRELSY A SUBJECT OF BURLESQUE AND CARICATURE.--CHARACTER
OF THE MINSTRELS.--THEIR JOKES UPON THEMSELVES AND UPON ONE
ANOTHER.--VARIOUS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS REPRESENTED IN THE
SCULPTURES OF THE MEDIÆVAL ARTISTS.--SIR MATTHEW GOURNAY AND THE
KING OF PORTUGAL.--DISCREDIT OF THE TABOR AND BAGPIPES.--MERMAIDS.

One of the principal classes of the satirists of the middle ages, the
minstrels, or jougleurs, were far from being unamenable to satire
themselves. They belonged generally to a low class of the population,
one that was hardly acknowledged by the law, which merely administered
to the pleasures and amusements of others, and, though sometimes
liberally rewarded, they were objects rather of contempt than of
respect. Of course there were minstrels belonging to a class more
respectable than the others, but these were comparatively few; and the
ordinary minstrel seems to have been simply an unprincipled vagabond,
who hardly possessed any settled resting-place, who wandered about from
place to place, and was not too nice as to the means by which he gained
his living--perhaps fairly represented by the street minstrel, or
mountebank, of the present day. One of his talents was that of mocking
and ridiculing others, and it is not to be wondered at, therefore, if
he sometimes became an object of mockery and ridicule himself. One of
the well-known minstrels of the thirteenth century, Rutebeuf, was, like
many of his fellows, a poet also, and he has left several short pieces
of verse descriptive of himself and of his own mode of life. In one
of these he complains of his poverty, and tells us that the world had
in his time--the reign of St. Louis--become so degenerate, that few
people gave anything to the unfortunate minstrel. According to his own
account, he was without food, and in a fair way towards starvation,
exposed to the cold without sufficient clothing, and with nothing but
straw for his bed.

_Je touz de froit, de fain baaille,
Dont je suis mors et maubailliz,
Je suis sanz coutes et sans liz;
N'a si povre jusqu'à Senliz.
Sire, si ne sai quel part aille;
Mes costeiz connoit le pailliz,
Et liz de paille n'est pas liz,
Et en mon lit n'a fors la paille._
--Œuvres de Rutebeuf, vol. i. p. 3.

In another poem, Rutebeuf laments that he has rendered his condition
still more miserable by marrying, when he had not wherewith to keep
a wife and family. In a third, he complains that in the midst of his
poverty, his wife has brought him a child to increase his domestic
expenses, while his horse, on which he was accustomed to travel to
places where he might exercise his profession, had broken its leg, and
his nurse was dunning him for money. In addition to all these causes of
grief, he had lost the use of one of his eyes.

_Or a d'enfant géu ma fame;
Mon cheval a brisié la jame
A une lice;
Or veut de l'argent ma norrice,
Qui m'en destraint et me pélice,
For l'enfant pestre._

Throughout his complaint, although he laments over the decline of
liberality among his contemporaries, he nevertheless turns his poverty
into a joke. In several other pieces of verse he speaks in the same
way, half joking and half lamenting over his condition, and he does not
conceal that the love of gambling was one of the causes of it. "The
dice," he says, "have stripped me entirely of my robe; the dice watch
and spy me; it is these which kill me; they assault and ruin me, to my
grief."

_Li dé que li détier ont fet,
M'ont de ma robe tout desfet;
Li dé m'ocient.
Li dé m'aguetent et espient;
Li dé m'assaillent et dessient,
Ce poise moi._--Ib., vol. i. p. 27.

And elsewhere he intimates that what the minstrels sometimes gained
from the lavish generosity of their hearers, soon passed away at the
tavern in dice and drinking.

One of Rutebeuf's contemporaries in the same profession, Colin Muset,
indulges in similar complaints, and speaks bitterly of the want of
generosity displayed by the great barons of his time. In addressing one
of them who had treated him ungenerously, he says, "Sir Count, I have
fiddled before you in your hostel, and you neither gave me a gift, nor
paid me my wages. It is discreditable behaviour. By the duty I owe to
St. Mary, I cannot continue in your service at this rate. My purse is
ill furnished, and my wallet is empty."

_Sire quens, j'ai vielé
Devant vos en vostre ostel;
Si ne m'avez riens donné,
Ne mes gages acquitez,
C'est vilanie.
Foi que doi sainte Marie,
Ensi ne vos sieurré-je mie.
M'aumosnière est mal garnie,
Et ma male mal farsie._

He proceeds to state that when he went home to his wife (for Colin
Muset also was a married minstrel), he was ill received if his purse
and wallet were empty; but it was very different when they were full.
His wife then sprang forward and threw her arms round his neck; she
took his wallet from his horse with alacrity, while his lad conducted
the animal cheerfully to the stable, and his maiden killed a couple of
capons, and prepared them with piquant sauce. His daughter brought a
comb for his hair. "Then," he exclaims, "I am master in my own house."

_Ma fame va destroser
Ma male sans demorer;
Mon garçon va abuvrer
Men cheval et conreer;
Ma pucele va tuer
Deux chapons por deporter
A la sause aillie.
Ma fille m'aporte un pigne
En sa main par cortoisie.
Lors sui de mon ostel sire._

When the minstrels could thus joke upon themselves, we need not be
surprised if they satirised one another. In a poem of the thirteenth
century, entitled "Les deux Troveors Ribauz," two minstrels are
introduced on the stage abusing and insulting one another, and while
indulging in mutual accusations of ignorance in their art, they display
their ignorance at the same time by misquoting the titles of the poems
which they profess to be able to recite. One of them boasts of the
variety of instruments on which he could perform:--

_Je suis jugleres de viele,
Si sai de muse et frestele,
Et de harpes et de chifonie,
De la gigue, de l'armonie,
De l'salteire, et en la rote
Sai-ge bien chanter une note._

It appears, however, that among all these instruments, the viol, or
fiddle, was the one most generally in use.

[Illustration: _No. 118. A Charming Fiddler._]

The mediæval monuments of art abound with burlesques and satires on the
minstrels, whose instruments of music are placed in the hands sometimes
of monsters, and at others in those of animals of a not very refined
character. Our cut No. 118 is taken from a manuscript in the British
Museum (MS. Cotton, Domitian A. ii.), and represents a female minstrel
playing on the fiddle; she has the upper part of a lady, and the lower
parts of a mare, a combination which appears to have been rather
familiar to the imagination of the mediæval artists. In our cut No.
119, which is taken from a copy made by Carter of one of the misereres
in Ely Cathedral, it is not quite clear whether the performer on the
fiddle be a monster or merely a cripple; but perhaps the latter was
intended. The instrument, too, assumes a rather singular form. Our cut
No. 120, also taken from Carter, was furnished by a sculpture in the
church of St. John, at Cirencester, and represents a man performing on
an instrument rather closely resembling the modern hurdy-gurdy, which
is evidently played by turning a handle, and the music is produced by
striking wires or strings inside. The face is evidently intended to be
that of a jovial companion.

[Illustration: _No. 119. A Crippled Minstrel._]

[Illustration: _No. 120. The Hurdy-Gurdy._]

Gluttony was an especial characteristic of that class of society to
which the minstrel belonged, and perhaps this was the idea intended to
be conveyed in the next picture, No. 121, taken from one of the stalls
in Winchester Cathedral, in which a pig is performing on the fiddle,
and appears to be accompanied by a juvenile of the same species of
animal. One of the same stalls, copied in our cut No. 122, represents
a sow performing on another sort of musical instrument, which is not
at all uncommon in mediæval delineations. It is the double pipe or
flute, which was evidently borrowed from the ancients. Minstrelsy was
the usual accompaniment of the mediæval meal, and perhaps this picture
is intended to be a burlesque on that circumstance, as the mother is
playing to her brood while they are feeding. They all seem to listen
quietly, except one, who is evidently much more affected by the music
than his companions. The same instrument is placed in the hands of a
rather jolly-looking female in one of the sculptures of St. John's
Church in Cirencester, copied in our cut No. 123.

[Illustration: _No. 121. A Swinish Minstrel._]

[Illustration: _No. 122. A Musical Mother._]

[Illustration: _No. 123. The Double Flute._]

Although this instrument is rather frequently represented in mediæval
works of art, we have no account of or allusion to it in mediæval
writers; and perhaps it was not held in very high estimation, and was
used only by a low class of performers. As in many other things, the
employment of particular musical instruments was guided, no doubt, by
fashion, new ones coming in as old ones went out. Such was the case
with the instrument which is named in one of the above extracts, and
in some other mediæval writers, a _chiffonie_, and which has been
supposed to be the dulcimer, that had fallen into discredit in the
fourteenth century. This instrument is introduced in a story which is
found in Cuvelier's metrical history of the celebrated warrior Bertrand
du Gueselin. In the course of the war for the expulsion of Pedro the
Cruel from the throne of Castile, an English knight, Sir Matthew
Gournay, was sent as a special ambassador to the court of Portugal. The
Portuguese monarch had in his service two minstrels whose performances
he vaunted greatly, and on whom he let great store, and he insisted
on their performing in the presence of the new ambassador. It turned
out that they played on the instrument just mentioned, and Sir Matthew
Gournay could not refrain from laughing at the performance. When the
king pressed him to give his opinion, he said, with more regard for
truth than politeness, "in France and Normandy, the instruments your
minstrels play upon are regarded with contempt, and are only in use
among beggars and blind people, so that they are popularly called
beggar's instruments." The king, we are told, took great offence at the
bluntness of his English guest.

The fiddle itself appears at this time to have been gradually sinking
in credit, and the poets complained that a degraded taste for more
vulgar musical instruments was introducing itself. Among these we
may mention especially the pipe and tabor. The French antiquary,
M. Jubinal, in a very valuable collection of early popular poetry,
published under the title of "Jongleurs et Trouvères," has printed
a curious poem of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, intended as
a protest against the use of the tabor and the bagpipes, which he
characterises as properly the musical instruments of the peasantry. Yet
people then, he says, were becoming so besotted on such instruments,
that they introduced them in places where better minstrelsy would be
more suitable. The writer thinks that the introduction of so vulgar an
instrument as the tabor into grand festivals could be looked upon in
no other light than as one of the signs which might be expected to be
the precursors of the coming of Antichrist. "If such people are to come
to grand festivals as carry a bushel [_i.e._ a tabor made in the form
of a bushel measure, on the end of which they beat], and make such a
terrible noise, it would seem that Antichrist must now be being born;
people ought to break the head of each of them with a staff."

_Déussent itiels genz venir à bele feste
Qui portent un boissel, qui mainent tel tempeste,
Il samble que Antecrist doie maintenant nestre;
L'en duroit d'un baston chascun brisier la teste._

This satirist adds, as a proof of the contempt in which the Virgin Mary
held such instruments, that she never loved a tabor, or consented to
hear one, and that no tabor was introduced among the minstrelsy at her
espousals. "The gentle mother of God," he says, "loved the sound of the
fiddle," and he goes on to prove her partiality for that instrument by
citing some of her miracles.

_Onques le mère Dieu, qui est virge honorée,
Et est avoec les angles hautement coronée,
N'ama onques tabour, ne point ne li agrée,
N'onques tabour n'i ot quant el fu espousée.
La douce mère Dieu ama son de viele._

[Illustration: _No. 124. The Tabor, or Drum._]

[Illustration: _No. 125. Bruin turned Piper._]

The artist who carved the curious stalls in Henry VII.'s Chapel at
Westminster, seems to have entered fully into the spirit displayed by
this satirist, for in one of them, represented in our cut No. 124, he
has introduced a masked demon playing on the tabor, with an expression
apparently of derision. This tabor presents much the form of a bushel
measure, or rather, perhaps, of a modern drum. It may be remarked that
the drum is, in fact, the same instrument as the tabor, or, at least,
is derived from it, and they were called by the same names, _tabor_
or _tambour_. The English name _drum_, which has equivalents in the
later forms of the Teutonic dialects, perhaps means simply something
which makes a noise, and is not, as far as I know, met with before the
sixteenth century. Another carving of the same series of stalls at
Westminster, copied in our cut No. 125, represents a tame bear playing
on the bagpipes. This is perhaps intended to be at the same time a
satire on the instrument itself, and upon the strange exhibitions of
animals domesticated and taught various singular performances, which
were then so popular.

[Illustration: _No. 126. Royal Minstrelsy._]

In our cut No. 126 we come to the fiddle again, which long sustained
its place in the highest rank of musical instruments. It is taken
from one of the sculptures on the porch of the principal entrance to
the Cathedral of Lyons in France, and represents a mermaid with her
child, listening to the music of the fiddle. She wears a crown, and
is intended, no doubt, to be one of the queens of the sea, and the
introduction of the fiddle under such circumstances can leave no doubt
how highly it was esteemed.

The mermaid is a creature of the imagination, which appears to have
been at all times a favourite object of poetry and legend. It holds
an important place in the mediæval bestiaries, or popular treatises
on natural history, and it has only been expelled from the domains of
science at a comparatively recent date. It still retains its place in
popular legends of our sea-coasts, and more especially in the remoter
parts of our islands. The stories of the merrow, or Irish fairy, hold a
prominent place among my late friend Crofton Croker's "Fairy Legends of
the South of Ireland." The mermaid is also introduced not unfrequently
in mediæval sculpture and carving. Our cut No. 127, representing a
mermaid and a merman, is copied from one of the stalls of Winchester
Cathedral. The usual attributes of the mermaid are a looking-glass and
comb, by the aid of which she is dressing her hair; but here she holds
the comb alone. Her companion, the male, holds a fish, which he appears
to have just caught, in his hand.

[Illustration: _No. 127. Mermaids._]

While, after the fifteenth century the profession of the minstrel
became entirely degraded, and he was looked upon more than ever as a
rogue and vagabond, the fiddle accompanied him, and it long remained,
as it still remains in Ireland, the favourite instrument of the
peasantry. The blind fiddler, even at the present day, is not unknown
in our rural districts. It has always been in England the favourite
instrument of minstrelsy.

CHAPTER XII.

THE COURT FOOL.--THE NORMANS AND THEIR GABS.--EARLY HISTORY OF COURT
FOOLS.--THEIR COSTUME.--CARVINGS IN THE CORNISH CHURCHES.--THE
BURLESQUE SOCIETIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.--THE FEASTS OF ASSES, AND
OF FOOLS.--THEIR LICENCE.--THE LEADEN MONEY OF THE FOOLS.--THE
BISHOP'S BLESSING.

From the employment of minstrels attached to the family, probably arose
another and well-known character of later times, the court fool, who
took the place of satirist in the great households. I do not consider
what we understand by the court fool to be a character of any great
antiquity.

It is somewhat doubtful whether what we call a jest, was really
appreciated in the middle ages. Puns seem to have been considered
as elegant figures of speech in literary composition, and we rarely
meet with anything like a quick and clever repartee. In the earlier
ages, when a party of warriors would be merry, their mirth appears
to have consisted usually in ridiculous boasts, or in rude remarks,
or in sneers at enemies or opponents. These jests were termed by the
French and Normans _gabs_ (_gabæ_, in mediæval Latin), a word supposed
to have been derived from the classical Latin word _cavilla_, a mock
or taunt; and a short poem in Anglo-Norman has been preserved which
furnishes a curious illustration of the meaning attached to it in the
twelfth century. This poem relates how Charlemagne, piqued by the
taunts of his empress on the superiority of Hugh the Great, emperor
of Constantinople, went to Constantinople, accompanied by his _douze
pairs_ and a thousand knights, to verify the truth of his wife's story.
They proceeded first to Jerusalem, where, when Charlemagne and his
twelve peers entered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, they looked so
handsome and majestic, that they were taken at first for Christ and
his twelve apostles, but the mystery was soon cleared up, and they were
treated by the patriarch with great hospitality during four months.
They then continued their progress till they reached Constantinople,
where they were equally well received by the emperor Hugo. At night
the emperor placed his guests in a chamber furnished with thirteen
splendid beds, one in the middle of the room, and the other twelve
distributed around it, and illuminated by a large carbuncle, which gave
a light as bright as that of day. When Hugh left them in their quarters
for the night, he lent them wine and whatever was necessary to make
them comfortable; and, when alone, they proceeded to amuse themselves
with _gabs_, or jokes, each being expected to say his joke in his
turn. Charlemagne took the lead, and boasted that if the emperor Hugh
would place before him his strongest "bachelor," in full armour, and
mounted on his good steed, he would, with one blow of his sword, cut
him through from the head downwards, and through the saddle and horse,
and that the sword should, after all this, sink into the ground to the
handle. Charlemagne then called upon Roland for his _gab_, who boasted
that his breath was so strong, that if the emperor Hugh would lend him
his horn, he would take it out into the fields and blow it with such
force, that the wind and noise of it would shake down the whole city of
Constantinople. Oliver, whose turn came next, boasted of exploits of
another description if he were left alone with the beautiful princess,
Hugh's daughter. The rest of the peers indulged in similar boasts, and
when the _gabs_ had gone round, they went to sleep. Now the emperor of
Constantinople had very cunningly, and rather treacherously, made a
hole through the wall, by which all that passed inside could be seen
and heard, and he had placed a spy on the outside, who gave a full
account of the conversation of the distinguished guests to his imperial
master. Next morning Hugh called his guests before him, told them what
he had heard by his spy, and declared that each of them should perform
his boast, or, if he failed, be put to death. Charlemagne expostulated,
and represented that it was the custom in France when people retired
for the night to amuse themselves in that manner. "Such is the custom
in France," he said, "at Paris, and at Chartres, when the French are
in bed they amuse themselves and make jokes, and say things both of
wisdom and of folly."

_Si est tel custume en France, à Paris e à Cartres,
Quand Franceis sunt culchiez, que se giuunt e gabent,
E si dient ambure e saver e folage._

But Charlemagne expostulated in vain, and they were only saved from the
consequence of their imprudence by the intervention of so many miracles
from above.[66]

[66] "Charlemagne, an Anglo-Norman Poem of the Twelfth Century, now
first published, by Francisque Michel," 12mo., 8vo., London, 1836.

In such trials of skill as this, an individual must continually have
arisen who excelled in some at least of the qualities needful for
raising mirth and making him a good companion, by showing himself more
brilliant in wit, or more biting in sarcasms, or more impudent in his
jokes, and he would thus become the favourite mirth-maker of the court,
the boon companion of the chieftain and his followers in their hours of
relaxation. We find such an individual not unusually introduced in the
early romances and in the mythology of nations, and he sometimes unites
the character of court orator with the other. Such a personage was the
Sir Kay of the cycle of the romances of king Arthur. I have remarked
in a former chapter that Hunferth, in the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf,
is described as holding a somewhat similar position at the court of
king Hrothgar. To go farther back in the mythology of our forefathers,
the Loki of Scandinavian fable appears sometimes to have performed a
similar character in the assembly of his fellow deities; and we know
that, among the Greeks, Homer on one occasion introduces Vulcan acting
the part of joker (γελωτοποιὸς) to the gods of Olympus. But all these
have no relationship whatever to the court-fool of modern times.

The German writer Flögel, in his "History of Court Fools,"[67] has
thrown this subject into much confusion by introducing a great mass
of irrelevant matter; and those who have since compiled from Flögel,
have made the confusion still greater. Much of this confusion has
arisen from the misunderstanding and confounding of names and terms.
The mimus, the joculator, the ministrel, or whatever name this class
of society went by, was not in any respects identical with what we
understand by a court fool, nor does any such character as the latter
appear in the feudal household before the fourteenth century, as
far as we are acquainted with the social manners and customs of the
olden time. The vast extent of the early French _romans de geste_, or
Carlovingian romances, which are filled with pictures of courts both of
princes and barons, in which the court fool must have been introduced
had he been known at the time they were composed, that is, in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, contains, I believe, no trace of such
personage; and the same may be said of the numerous other romances,
fabliaux, and in fact all the literature of that period, one so rich in
works illustrative of contemporary manners in their most minute detail.
From these facts I conclude that the single brief charter published
by M. Rigollot from a manuscript in the Imperial Library in Paris,
is either misunderstood or it presents a very exceptional case. By
this charter, John, king of England, grants to his _follus_, William
Picol, or Piculph (as he is called at the close of the document), an
estate in Normandy named in the document Fons Ossanæ (Menil-Ozenne in
Mortain), with all its appurtenances, "to have and to hold, to him and
to his heirs, by doing there-for to us once a year the service of one
_follus_, as long as he lives; and after his death his heirs shall
hold it of us, by the service of one pair of gilt spurs to be rendered
annually to us."[68] The service (_servitium_) here enjoined means the
annual payment of the obligation of the feudal tenure, and therefore
if _follus_ is to be taken as signifying "a fool," it only means that
Picol was to perform that character on one occasion in the course of
the year. In this case, he may have been some fool whom king John had
taken into his special favour; but it certainly is no proof that the
practice of keeping court fools then existed. It is not improbable
that this practice was first introduced in Germany, for Flögel speaks,
though rather doubtfully, of one who was kept at the court of the
emperor Rudolph I. (of Hapsburg), whose reign lasted from 1273 to 1292.
It is more certain, however, that the kings of France possessed court
fools before the middle of the fourteenth century, and from this time
anecdotes relating to them begin to be common. One of the earliest
and most curious of these anecdotes, if it be true, relates to the
celebrated victory of Sluys gained over the French fleet by our king
Edward III. in the year 1340. It is said that no one dared to announce
this disaster to the French king, Philippe VI., until a court fool
undertook the task. Entering the king's chamber, he continued muttering
to himself, but loud enough to be heard, "Those cowardly English! the
chicken-hearted Britons!" "How so, cousin?" the king inquired. "Why,"
replied the fool, "because they have not courage enough to jump into
the sea, like your French soldiers, who went over headlong from their
ships, leaving those to the enemy who showed no inclination to follow
them." Philippe thus became aware of the full extent of his calamity.
The institution of the court fool was carried to its greatest degree of
perfection during the fifteenth century; it only expired in the age of
Louis XIV.

[67] "Geschichte der Hofnarren, von Karl Friedrich Flögel," 8vo.
Liegnitz und Leipzig, 1789.

[68] The words of this charter, as given by Rigollot, are:--"Joannes,
D G., etc. Sciatis nos dedisse et præsenti charta confirmasse
Willelmo Picol, follo nostro, Fontem Ossanæ, cum omnibus
pertinenciis suis, habendum et tenendum sibi et hæredibus suis,
faciendo inde nobis annuatim servitium unius folli quoad vixerit;
et post ejus decessum hæredes sui eam tenebunt, et per servitium
unius paris calcarium deauratorum nobis annuatim reddendo.
Quare volumus et firmiter præcipimus quod prædictius Piculphus
et hæredes sui habeant et teneant in perpetuum, bene et in
pace, libere et quiete, prædictam terram."--Rigollot, Monnaies
inconnues des Evêques des Innocens, etc., 8vo., Paris, 1837.

It was apparently with the court fool that the costume was introduced
which has ever since been considered as the characteristic mark of
folly. Some parts of this costume, at least, appear to have been
borrowed from an earlier date. The _gelotopœi_ of the Greeks, and
the _mimi_ and _moriones_ of the Romans, shaved their heads; but the
court fools perhaps adopted this fashion as a satire upon the clergy
and monks. Some writers professed to doubt whether the fools borrowed
from the monks, or the monks from the fools; and Cornelius Agrippa,
in his treatise on the Vanity of Sciences, remarks that the monks had
their heads "all shaven like fools" (_raso toto capite ut fatui_).
The cowl, also, was perhaps adopted in derision of the monks, but
it was distinguished by the addition of a pair of asses' ears, or by
a cock's head and comb, which formed its termination above, or by
both. The court fool was also furnished with a staff or club, which
became eventually his bauble. The bells were another necessary article
in the equipment of a court fool, perhaps also intended as a satire
on the custom of wearing small bells in the dress, which prevailed
largely during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially among
people who were fond of childish ostentation. The fool wore also a
party-coloured, or motley, garment, probably with the same aim--that of
satirising one of the ridiculous fashions of the fourteenth century.

[Illustration: _No. 127a. Court Fools._]

It is in the fifteenth century that we first meet with the fool in
full costume in the illuminations or manuscripts, and towards the end
of the century this costume appears continually in engravings. It is
also met with at this time among the sculptures of buildings and the
carvings of wood-work. The two very interesting examples given in our
cut No. 127a are taken from carvings of the fifteenth century, in the
church of St. Levan, in Cornwall, near the Land's End. They represent
the court fool in two varieties of costume; in the first, the fool's
cowl, or cap, ends in the cock's head; in the other, it is fitted with
asses' ears. There are variations also in other parts of the dress;
for the second only has bells to his sleeves, and the first carries
a singularly formed staff, which may perhaps be intended for a strap
or belt, with a buckle at the end; while the other has a ladle in
his hand. As one possesses a beard, and presents marks of age in his
countenance, while the other is beardless and youthful, we may consider
the pair as an old fool and a young fool.

[Illustration: _No. 128. A Fool and a Grimace-maker._]

The Cornish churches are rather celebrated for their early carved
wood-work, chiefly of the fifteenth century, of which two examples
are given in our cut, No. 128, taken from bench pannels in the church
of St. Mullion, on the Cornish coast, a little to the north of the
Lizard Point. The first has bells hanging to the sleeves, and is no
doubt intended to represent folly in some form; the other appears to be
intended for the head of a woman making grimaces.[69]

[69] For the drawings of these interesting carvings from the Cornish
churches, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. J. T. Blight, the
author of an extremely pleasing and useful guide to the beauties
of a well-known district of Cornwall, entitled "A Week at the
Land's End."

The fool had long been a character among the people before he became a
court fool, for Folly--or, as she was then called, "Mother Folly"--was
one of the favourite objects of popular worship in the middle ages,
and, where that worship sprang up spontaneously among the people,
it grew with more energy, and presented more hearty joyousness and
bolder satire than under the patronage of the great. Our forefathers
in those times were accustomed to form themselves into associations or
societies of a mirthful character, parodies of those of a more serious
description, especially ecclesiastical, and elected as their officers
mock popes, cardinals, archbishops and bishops, kings, &c. They held
periodical festivals, riotous and licentious carnivals, which were
admitted into the churches, and even taken under the especial patronage
of the clergy, under such titles as "the feast of fools," "the feast of
the ass," "the feast of the innocents," and the like. There was hardly
a Continental town of any account which had not its "company of fools,"
with its mock ordinances and mock ceremonies. In our own island we
had our abbots of misrule and of unreason. At their public festivals
satirical songs were sung and satirical masks and dresses were worn;
and in many of them, especially at a later date, brief satirical dramas
were acted. These satires assumed much of the functions of modern
caricature; the caricature of the pictorial representations, which were
mostly permanent monuments and destined for future generations, was
naturally general in its character, but in the representations of which
I am speaking, which were temporary, and designed to excite the mirth
of the moment, it became personal, and, often, even political, and it
was constantly directed against the ecclesiastical order. The scandal
of the day furnished it with abundant materials. A fragment of one of
their songs of an early date, sung at one of these "feasts" at Rouen,
has been preserved, and contains the following lines, written in Latin
and French:--

_De asino bono nostro,
Meliori et optimo,
Debemus_ faire fête.
En revenant _de Gravinaria_,
Un gros chardon _reperit in via_,
Il lui coupa la tête.

_Vir monachus in mense Julio
Egressus est e monasterio_,
C'est dom de la Bucaille;
_Egressus est sine licentia_,
Pour aller voir dona Venissia,
Et faire la ripaille.

TRANSLATION.

_For our good ass,
The better and the best,
We ought to rejoice.
In returning from Gravinière,
A great thistle he found in the way,
He cut off its head._

_A monk in the month of July
Went out of his monastery,
It is dom de la Bucaille;
He went out without license,
To pay a visit to the dame de Venisse,
And make jovial cheer._

It appears that De la Bucaille was the prior of the abbey of St.
Taurin, at Rouen, and that the dame de Venisse was prioress of St.
Saviour, and these lines, no doubt, commemorate some great scandal of
the day relating to the private relations between these two individuals.

These mock religious ceremonies are supposed to have been derived from
the Roman Saturnalia; they were evidently of great antiquity in the
mediæval church, and were most prevalent in France and Italy. Under the
name of "the feast of the sub-deacons" they are forbidden by the acts
of the council of Toledo, in 633; at a later period, the French punned
on the word _sous-diacres_, and called them _Saouls-diacres_ (Drunken
Deacons), words which had nearly the same sound. The "feast of the
ass" is said to be traced back in France as far as the ninth century.
It was celebrated in most of the great towns in that country, such as
Rouen, Sens, Douai, &c., and the service for the occasion is actually
preserved in some of the old church books. From this it appears that
the ass was led in procession to a place in the middle of the church,
which had been decked out to receive it, and that the procession was
led by two clerks, who sung a Latin song in praise of the animal. This
song commences by telling us how "the ass came from the east, handsome
and very strong, and most fit for carrying burthens":--

_Orientis partibus
Adventavit asinus,
Pulcher et fortissimus,
Sarcinis aptissimus._

The refrain or burthen of the song is in French, and exhorts the animal
to join in the uproar--"Eh! sir ass, chant now, fair mouth, bray, you
shall have hay enough, and oats in abundance:"--

_Hez, sire asnes, car chantez,
Belle bouche, rechignez,
Vous aurez du foin assez,
Et de l'avoine à plantez._

In this tone the chant continues through nine similar stanzas,
describing the mode of life and food of the ass. When the procession
reached the altar, the priest began a service in prose. Beleth, one
of the celebrated doctors of the university of Paris, who flourished
in 1182, speaks of the "feast of fools" as in existence in his time;
and the acts of the council of Paris, held in 1212, forbid the
presence of archbishops and bishops, and more especially of monks and
nuns, at the feasts of fools, "in which a staff was carried."[70] We
know the proceedings of this latter festival rather minutely from
the accounts given in the ecclesiastical censures. It was in the
cathedral churches that they elected the archbishop or bishop of
fools, whose election was confirmed, and he was consecrated, with a
multitude of buffooneries. He then entered upon his pontifical duties
wearing the mitre and carrying the crosier before the people, on whom
he bestowed his solemn benediction. In the exempt churches, or those
which depended immediately upon the Holy See, they elected a pope of
fools (_unum papam fatuorum_), who wore similarly the ensigns of the
papacy. These dignitaries were assisted by an equally burlesque and
licentious clergy, who uttered and performed a mixture of follies and
impieties during the church service of the day, which they attended in
disguises and masquerade dresses. Some wore masks, or had their faces
painted, and others were dressed in women's clothing, or in ridiculous
costumes. On entering the choir, they danced and sang licentious songs.
The deacons and sub-deacons ate black puddings and sausages on the
altar while the priest was celebrating; others played at cards or dice
under his eyes; and others threw bits of old leather into the censer
in order to raise a disagreeable smell. After the mass was ended, the
people broke out into all sorts of riotous behaviour in the church,
leaping, dancing, and exhibiting themselves in indecent postures, and
some went as far as to strip themselves naked, and in this condition
they were drawn through the streets with tubs full of ordure and filth,
which they threw about at the mob. Every now and then they halted,
when they exhibited immodest postures and actions, accompanied with
songs and speeches of the same character. Many of the laity took part
in the procession, dressed as monks and nuns. These disorders seem to
have been carried to their greatest degree of extravagance during the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.[71]

[70] "A festis follorum ubi baculus accipitur omnino abstineatur....
Idem fortius monachis et monialibus prohibemus."

[71] On the subject of all these burlesques and popular feasts and
ceremonies, the reader may consult Flögel's "Geschichte des
Grotesk-Komischen," of which a new and enlarged edition has
recently been given by Dr. Friedrich W. Ebeling, 8vo., Leipzig,
1862. Much interesting information on the subject was collected
by Du Tilliot, in his "Memoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la
Fête des Fous," 8vo., Lausanne, 1751. See also Rigollot, in the
work quoted above, and a popular article on the same subject will
be found in my "Archæological Album."

Towards the fifteenth century, lay societies, having apparently
no connection with the clergy or the church, but of just the same
burlesque character, arose in France. One of the earliest of these was
formed by the clerks of the Bazoche, or lawyers' clerks of the Palais
de Justice in Paris, whose president was a sort of king of misrule. The
other principal society of this kind in Paris took the rather mirthful
name of _Enfans sans Souci_ (Careless Boys); it consisted of young men
of education, who gave to their president or chieftain the title of
_Prince des Sots_ (the Prince of Fools). Both these societies composed
and performed farces, and other small dramatic pieces. These farces
were satires on contemporary society, and appear to have been often
very personal.

[Illustration: _No. 129. Money of the Archbishop of the Innocents._]

[Illustration: _No. 130. Money of the Pope of Fools._]

Almost the only monuments of the older of these societies consist of
coins, or tokens, struck in lead, and sometimes commemorating the
names of their mock dignitaries. A considerable number of these have
been found in France, and an account of them, with engravings, was
published by Dr. Rigollot some years ago.[72] Our cut No. 129 will
serve as an example. It represents a leaden token of the Archbishop of
the Innocents of the parish of St. Firmin, at Amiens, and is curious
as bearing a date. On one side the archbishop of the Innocents is
represented in the act of giving his blessing to his flock, surrounded
by the inscription, MONETA · ARCHIEPI · SCTI · FIRMINI. On the other
side we have the name of the individual who that year held the office
of archbishop, NICOLAVS · GAVDRAM · ARCHIEPVS · 1520, surrounding a
group consisting of two men, one of whom is dressed as a fool, holding
between them a bird, which has somewhat the appearance of a magpie.
Our cut No. 130 is still more curious; it is a token of the _pope_ of
fools. On one side appears the pope with his tiara and double cross,
and a fool in full costume, who approaches his bauble to the pontifical
cross. It is certainly a bitter caricature on the papacy, whether that
were the intention or not. Two persons behind, dressed apparently in
scholastic costume, seem to be merely spectators. The inscription is,
MONETA · NOVA · ADRIANI · STVLTORV [M]· PAPE (the last E being in the
field of the piece), "new money of Adrian, the pope of fools." The
inscription on the other side of the token is one frequently repeated
on these leaden medals, STVLTORV [M] · INFINITVS · EST · NVMERVS, "the
number of fools is infinite." In the field we see Mother Folly holding
up her bauble, and before her a grotesque figure in a cardinal's hat,
apparently kneeling to her. It is rather surprising that we find so
few allusions to these burlesque societies in the various classes
of pictorial records from which the subject of these chapters has
been illustrated; but we have evidence that they were not altogether
overlooked. Until the latter end of the last century, the misereres of
the church of St. Spire, at Corbeil, near Paris, were remarkable for
the singular carvings with which they were decorated, and which have
since been destroyed, but fortunately they were engraved by Millin.
One of them, copied in our cut No. 131, evidently represents the bishop
of fools conferring his blessing; the fool's bauble occupies the place
of the pastoral staff.

[72] "Monnaies inconnues des Evêques des Innocens, des Fous," &c.,
Paris, 1837.

[Illustration: _No. 131. The Bishop of Fools._]

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DANCE OF DEATH.--THE PAINTINGS IN THE CHURCH OF LA CHAISE
DIEU.--THE REIGN OF FOLLY.--SEBASTIAN BRANDT; THE "SHIP
OF FOOLS."--DISTURBERS OF CHURCH SERVICE.--TROUBLESOME
BEGGARS.--GEILER'S SERMONS.--BADIUS, AND HIS SHIP OF FOOLISH
WOMEN.--THE PLEASURES OF SMELL.--ERASMUS; THE "PRAISE OF FOLLY."

There is still one cycle of satire which almost belongs to the middle
ages, though it only became developed at their close, and became most
popular after they were past. There existed, at least as early as the
beginning of the thirteenth century, a legendary story of an interview
between three living and three dead men, which is usually told in
French verse, and appears under the title of "Des trois vifs et des
trois morts." According to some versions of the legend, it was St.
Macarius, the Egyptian recluse, who thus introduced the living to the
dead. The verses are sometimes accompanied with figures, and these have
been found both sculptured and painted on ecclesiastical buildings. At
a later period, apparently early in the fifteenth century, some one
extended this idea to all ranks of society, and pictured a skeleton,
the emblem of death, or even more than one, in communication with an
individual of each class; and this extended scene, from the manner
of the grouping--in which the dead appeared to be wildly dancing off
with the living--became known as the "Dance of Death." As the earlier
legend of the three dead and the three living was, however, still
often introduced at the beginning of it, the whole group was most
generally known--especially during the fifteenth century--as the "Danse
Macabre," or Dance of Macabre, this name being considered as a mere
corruption of Macarius. The temper of the age--in which death in every
form was constantly before the eyes of all, and in which people sought
to regard life as a mere transitory moment of enjoyment--gave to this
grim idea of the fellowship of death and life great popularity, and it
was not only painted on the walls of churches, but it was suspended
in tapestry around people's chambers. Sometimes they even attempted
to represent it in masquerade, and we are told that in the month of
October, 1424, the "Danse Macabre" was publicly danced by living
people in the cemetery of the Innocents, in Paris--a fit place for so
lugubrious a performance--in the presence of the Duke of Bedford and
the Duke of Burgundy, who came to Paris after the battle of Verneuil.
During the rest of the century we find not unfrequently allusions
to the "Danse Macabre." The English poet Lydgate wrote a series of
stanzas to accompany the figures, and it was the subject of some of
the earliest engravings on wood. In the posture and accompaniments
of the figures representing the different classes of society, and in
the greater or less reluctance with which the living accept their not
very attractive partners, satire is usually implied, and it is in
some cases accompanied with drollery. The figure representing death
has almost always a grimly mirthful countenance, and appears to be
dancing with good will. The most remarkable early representation of
the "Danse Macabre" now preserved, is that painted on the wall of the
church of La Chaise Dieu, in Auvergne, a beautiful fac-simile of which
was published a few years ago by the well-known antiquary M. Jubinal.
This remarkable picture begins with the figures of Adam and Eve, who
are introducing death into the world in the form of a serpent with a
death's head. The dance is opened by an ecclesiastic preaching from
a pulpit, towards whom death is leading first in the dance the pope,
for each individual takes his precedence strictly according to his
class--alternately an ecclesiastic and a layman. Thus next after the
pope comes the emperor, and the cardinal is followed by the king. The
baron is followed by the bishop, and the grim partner of the latter
appears to pay more intention to the layman than to his own priest, so
that two dead men appear to have the former in charge. The group thus
represented by the nobleman and the two deaths, is copied in our cut
No. 132, and will serve as an example of the style and grouping of this
remarkable painting. After a few other figures, perhaps less striking,
we come to the merchant, who receives the advances of his partner with
a thoughtful air; while immediately after him another death is trying
to make himself more acceptable to the bashful nun by throwing a cloak
over his nakedness. In another place two deaths armed with bows and
arrows are scattering their shafts rather dangerously. Soon follow
some of the more gay and youthful members of society. Our cut No. 133
represents the musician, who appears also to attract the attentions
of two of the persecutors. In his dismay he is treading under foot
his own viol. The dance closes with the lower orders of society, and
is concluded by a group which is not so easily understood. Before the
end of the fifteenth century, there had appeared in Paris several
editions of a series of bold engravings on wood, in a small folio
size, representing the same dance, though somewhat differently treated.
France, indeed, appears to have been the native country of the "Danse
Macabre." But in the century following the beautiful set of drawings by
the great artist Hans Holbein, first published at Lyons in 1538, gave
to the Dance of Death a still greater and wider celebrity. From this
time the subjects of this dance were commonly introduced in initial
letters, and in the engraved borders of pages, especially in books of a
religious character.

[Illustration: _No. 132. The Knight in the Dance of Death._]

[Illustration: _No. 133. The Musician in Death's Hands._]

Death may truly be said to have shared with Folly that melancholy
period--the fifteenth century. As society then presented itself to
the eye, people might easily suppose that the world was running mad,
and folly, in one shape or other, seemed to be the principle which
ruled most men's actions. The jocular societies, described in my last
chapter, which multiplied in France during the fifteenth century,
initiated a sort of mock worship of Folly. That sort of inauguration
of death which was performed in the "Danse Macabre," was of French
growth, but the grand crusade against folly appears to have originated
in Germany. Sebastian Brandt was a native of Strasburg, born in 1458.
He studied in that city and in Bâle, became a celebrated professor in
both those places, and died at the former in 1520. The "Ship of Fools,"
which has immortalised the name of Sebastian Brandt, is believed to
have been first published in the year 1494. The original German text
went through numerous editions within a few years; a Latin translation
was equally popular, and it was afterwards edited and enlarged by
Jodocus Badius Ascensius. A French text was no less successful; an
English translation was printed by Richard Pynson in 1509; a Dutch
version appeared in 1519. During the sixteenth century, Brandt's "Ship
of Fools" was the most popular of books. It consists of a series of
bold woodcuts, which form its characteristic feature, and of metrical
explanations, written by Brandt, and annexed to each cut. Taking his
text from the words of the preacher, "Stultorum numerus est infinitus,"
Brandt exposes to the eye, in all its shades and forms, the folly
of his contemporaries, and bares to view its roots and causes. The
cuts are especially interesting as striking pictures of contemporary
manners. The "Ship of Fools" is the great ship of the world, into which
the various descriptions of fatuity are pouring from all quarters
in boat-loads. The first folly is that of men who collected great
quantities of books, not for their utility, but for their rarity, or
beauty of execution, or rich bindings, so that we see that bibliomania
had already taken its place among human vanities. The second class
of fools were interested and partial judges, who sold justice for
money, and are represented under the emblem of two fools throwing a
boar into a caldron, according to the old Latin proverb, _Agere aprum
in lebetem_. Then come the various follies of misers, fops, dotards,
men who are foolishly indulgent to their children, mischief-makers,
and despisers of good advice; of nobles and men in power; of the
profane and the improvident; of foolish lovers; of extravagant
eaters and drinkers, &c., &c. Foolish talking, hypocrisy, frivolous
pursuits, ecclesiastical corruptions, impudicity, and a great number
of other vices as well as follies, are duly passed in review, and are
represented in various forms of satirical caricature, and sometimes
in simpler unadorned pictures. Thus the foolish valuers of things are
represented by a fool holding a balance, one scale of which contains
the sun, moon, and stars, to represent heaven and heavenly things, and
the other a castle and fields, to represent earthly things, the latter
scale overweighing the other; and the procrastinator is pictured by
another fool, with a parrot perched on his head, and a magpie on each
hand, all repeating _cras, cras, cras_ (to-morrow). Our cut No. 134
represents a group of disturbers of church service. It was a common
practice in former days to take to church hawks (which were constantly
carried about as the outward ensign of the gentleman) and dogs. The
fool has here thrown back his fool's-cap to exhibit more fully the
fashionable "gent" of the day; he carries his hawk on his hand, and
wears not only a fashionable pair of shoes, but very fashionable clogs
also. These gentlemen _à la mode, turgentes genere et natalibus altis_,
we are told, were the persons who disturbed the church service by
the creaking of their shoes and clogs, the noise made by their birds,
the barking and quarrelling of their dogs, by their own whisperings,
and especially with immodest women, whom they met in church as in a
convenient place of assignation. All these forms of the offence are
expressed in the picture. Our second example cut No. 135, which forms
the fifty-ninth title or subject in the "Ship of Fools," represents
a party of the beggars with which, either lay or ecclesiastical, the
country was then overrun. In the explanation, these wicked beggars are
described as indulging in idleness, in eating, drinking, rioting, and
sleep, while they levy contributions on the charitable feelings of the
honest and industrious, and, under cover of begging, commit robbery
wherever they find the opportunity. The beggar, who appears to be only
a deceptive cripple, leads his donkey laden with children, whom he is
bringing up in the same profession, while his wife lingers behind to
indulge in her bibulous propensities. These cuts will give a tolerable
notion of the general character of the whole, which amount in number to
a hundred and twelve, and therefore present a great variety of subjects
relative to almost every class and profession of life.

[Illustration: _No. 134. Disturbers of Church Service._]

[Illustration: _No. 135. Mendicants on their Travels._]

We may remark, however, that after Folly had thus run through all the
stages of society, until it had reached the lowest of all, the ranks
of mendicity, the gods themselves became alarmed, the more so as this
great movement was directed especially against Minerva, the goddess
of wisdom, and they held a conclave to provide against it. The result
is not told, but the course of Folly goes on as vigorously as ever.
Ignorant fools who set up for physicians, fools who cannot understand
jokes, unwise mathematicians, astrologers, of the latter of which the
moraliser says, in his Latin verse--

_Siqua voles sortis prænoscere damna futuræ,
Et vitare malum, sol tibi signa dabit.
Sed tibi, stulte, tui cur non dedit ille furoris
Signa? aut, si dederit, cur tanta mala subis?
Nondum grammaticæ callis primordia, et audes
Vim cœli radio supposuisse tuo._

The next cut is a very curious one, and appears to represent a
dissecting-house of this early period. Among other chapters which
afford interesting pictures of that time, and indeed of all times, we
may instance those of litigious fools, who are always going to law,
and who confound blind justice, or rather try to unbind her eyes;
of filthy-tongued fools, who glorify the race of swine; of ignorant
scholars; of gamblers; of bad and thievish cooks; of low men who seek
to be high, and of high who are despisers of poverty; of men who
forget that they will die; of irreligious men and blasphemers; of
the ridiculous indulgence of parents to children, and the ungrateful
return which was made to them for it; and of women's pride. Another
title describes the ruin of Christianity: the pope, emperor, king,
cardinals, &c., are receiving willingly from a suppliant fool the cap
of Folly, while two other fools are looking derisively upon them from
an adjoining wall. It need hardly be said that this was published on
the eve of the Reformation.

In the midst of the popularity which greeted the appearance of the
work of Sebastian Brandt, it attracted the special attention of a
celebrated preacher of the time named Johann Geiler. Geiler was born
at Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, in 1445, but having lost his father
when only three years of age, he was educated by his grandfather, who
lived at Keysersberg, in Alsace, and hence he was commonly called
Geiler of Keysersberg. He studied in Freiburg and Bâle, obtained a
great reputation for learning, was esteemed a profound theologian, and
was finally settled in Strasburg, where he continued to shine as a
preacher until his death in 1510. He was a bold man, too, in the cause
of truth, and declaimed with earnest zeal against the corruptions of
the church, and especially against the monkish orders, for he compared
the black monks to the devil, the white monks to his dam, and the
others he said were their chickens. On another occasion he said that
the qualities of a good monk were an almighty belly, an ass's back,
and a raven's mouth. He told his congregation from the pulpit that a
great reformation was at hand, that he did not expect to live to see
it himself, but that many of those who heard him would live to see
it. As may be supposed, the monks hated him, and spoke of him with
contempt. They said, that in his sermons he took his texts, not from
the Scriptures, but from the "Ship of Fools" of Sebastian Brandt; and,
in fact, during the year 1498, Geiler preached at Strasburg a series of
sermons on the follies of his time, which were evidently founded upon
Brandt's book, for the various follies were taken in the same order.
They were originally compiled in German, but one of Geiler's scholars,
Jacob Other, translated them into Latin, and published them, in 1501,
under the title of "Navicula sive Speculum Fatuorum præstantissimi
sacrarum literarum doctoris Johannis Geiler." Within a few years this
work went through several editions both in Latin and in German, some
of them illustrated by woodcuts. The style of preaching is quaint and
curious, full of satirical wit, which is often coarse, according to the
manner of the time, sometimes very indelicate. Each sermon is headed
by the motto, "Stultorum infinitus est numerus." Geiler takes for his
theme in each sermon one of the titles of Brandt's "Ship of Fools," and
he separates them into subdivisions, or branches, which he calls the
bells (_nolas_) from the fool's-cap.

The other scholar who did most to spread the knowledge of Brandt's
work, was Jodocus Badius, who assumed the additional name of Ascensius
because he was born at Assen, near Brussels, in 1462. He was a very
distinguished scholar, but is best known for having established a
celebrated printing establishment in Paris, where he died in 1535. I
have already stated that Badius edited the Latin translation of the
"Ship of Fools" of Sebastian Brandt, with additional explanations of
his own, but he was one of the first of Brandt's imitators. He seems to
have thought that Brandt's book was not complete--that the weaker sex
had not received its fair share of importance; and apparently in 1498,
while Geiler was turning the "Stultifera Navis" into sermons, Badius
compiled a sort of supplement to it (_additamentum_), to which he gave
the title of "Stultiferæ naviculæ, seu Scaphæ, Fatuarum Mulierum," the
Boats of Foolish Women. As far as can be traced, the first edition
appears to have been printed in 1502. The first cut represents the
ship carrying Eve alone of the female race, whose folly involved the
whole world. The book is divided into five chapters, according to the
number of the five senses, each sense represented by a boat carrying
its particular class of foolish women to the great ship of foolish
women, which lies off at anchor. The text consists of a dissertation
on the use and abuse of the particular sense which forms the substance
of the chapter, and it ends with Latin verses, which are given as the
boatman's _celeusma_, or boat song. The first of these boats is the
_scapha stultæ visionis ad stultiferam navem perveniens_--the boat of
foolish seeing proceeding to the ship of fools. A party of gay ladies
are taking possession of the boat, carrying with them their combs,
looking-glasses, and all other implements necessary for making them
fair to be looked upon. The second boat is the _scapha auditionis
fatuæ_, the boat of foolish hearing, in which the ladies are playing
upon musical instruments. The third is the _scapha olfactionis stultæ_,
the boat of foolish smell, and the pictorial illustration to it is
partly copied in our cut No. 136. In the original some of the ladies
are gathering sweet-smelling flowers before they enter the boat, while
on board a pedlar is vending his perfume. One _folle femme_, with her
fool's cap on her head, is buying a pomander, or, as we should perhaps
now say, a scent-ball, from the itinerant dealer. Figures of pomanders
are extremely rare, and this is an interesting example; in fact, it
is only recently that our Shakspearian critics really understood the
meaning of the word. A pomander was a small globular vessel, perforated
with holes, and filled with strong perfumes, as it is represented in
our woodcut. The fourth of these boats is that of foolish tasting,
_scapha gustationis fatuæ_, and the ladies have their well-furnished
table on board the boat, and are largely indulging in eating and
drinking. In the last of these boats, the _scapha contactionis fatuæ_,
or boat of foolish feeling, the women have men on board, and are
proceeding to great liberties with them; one of the gentle damsels,
too, is picking the pocket of her male companion in a very unlady-like
manner.

[Illustration: _No. 136. The Boat of Pleasant Odours._]

Two ideas combined in this peculiar field of satiric literature, that
of the ship and that of the fools, now became popular, and gave rise
to a host of imitators. There appeared ships of health, ships of
penitence, ships of all sorts of things, on the one hand; and on the
other, folly was a favourite theme of satire from many quarters. One of
the most remarkable of the personages involved in this latter warfare,
was the great scholar Desiderius Erasmus, of Rotterdam, who was born in
that city in 1467. Like most of these satirists, Erasmus was strongly
imbued with the spirit of the Reformation, and he was the acquaintance
and friend of those to whom the Reformation owed a great part of its
success. In 1497, when the "Ship of Fools" of Sebastian Brandt was in
the first full flush of its popularity, Erasmus came to England, and
was so well received, that from that time forward his literary life
seemed more identified with our island than with any other country. His
name is still a sort of household word in our universities, especially
in that of Cambridge. He made here the friendly acquaintance of the
great Sir Thomas More, himself a lover of mirth, and one of those whose
names are celebrated for having kept a court fool. In the earlier years
of the sixteenth century, Erasmus visited Italy, and passed two or
three years there. He returned thence to England, as appears, early
in the year 1508. It is not easy to decide whether his experience of
society in Italy had convinced him more than ever that folly was the
presiding genius of mankind, or what other feeling influenced him,
but one of the first results of his voyage was the Μωρίας Ἐγκώμιον
(_Moriæ Encomium_), or "Praise of Folly." Erasmus dedicated this
little jocular treatise to Sir Thomas More as a sort of pun upon his
name, although he protests that there was a great contrast between
the two characters. Erasmus takes much the same view of folly as
Brandt, Geiler, Badius, and the others, and under this name he writes
a bold satire on the whole frame of contemporary society. The satire
is placed in the mouth of Folly herself (the Mère Folie of the jocular
clubs), who delivers from her pulpit a declamation in which she sets
forth her qualities and praises. She boasts of the greatness of her
origin, claims as her kindred the sophists, rhetoricians, and many of
the pretentious scholars and wise men, and describes her birth and
education. She claims divine affinity, and boasts of her influence over
the world, and of the beneficent manner in which it was exercised.
All the world, she pretends, was ruled under her auspices, and it was
only in her presence that mankind was really happy. Hence the happiest
ages of man are infancy, before wisdom has come to interfere, and old
age, when it has passed away. Therefore, she says, if men would remain
faithful to her, and avoid wisdom altogether, they would pass a life
of perpetual youth. In this long discourse of the influence of folly,
written by a man of the known sentiments of Erasmus, it would be
strange if the Romish church, with its monks and ignorant priesthood,
its saints, and relics, and miracles, did not find a place. Erasmus
intimates that the superstitious follies had become permanent, because
they were profitable. There are some, he tells us, who cherished the
foolish yet pleasant persuasion, that if they fixed their eyes devoutly
on a figure of St. Christopher, carved in wood or painted on the wall,
they would be safe from death on that day; with many other examples
of equal credulity. Then there are your pardons, your measures of
purgatory, which may be bought off at so much the hour, or the day,
or the month, and a multitude of other absurdities. Ecclesiastics,
scholars, mathematicians, philosophers, all come in for their share of
the refined satire of this book, which, like the "Ship of Fools," has
gone through innumerable editions, and has been translated into many
languages.

[Illustration: _No. 137. Superstition._]

In an early French translation, the text of this work of Erasmus
is embellished with some of the woodcuts belonging to Brandt's
"Ship of Fools," which, it need hardly be remarked, are altogether
inappropriate, but the "Praise of Folly" was detained to receive
illustrations from a more distinguished pencil. A copy of the book came
into the hands of Hans Holbein--it may possibly have been presented to
him by the author--and Holbein took so much interest in it, that he
amused himself with drawing illustrative sketches with a pen in the
margins. This book afterwards passed into the library of the University
of Bâle, where it was found in the latter part of the seventeenth
century, and these drawings have since been engraved and added to most
of the subsequent editions. Many of these sketches are very slight, and
some have not a very close connection with the text of Erasmus, but
they are all characteristic, and show the spirit--the spirit of the
age--in which Holbein read his author. I give two examples of them,
taken almost haphazard, for it would require a longer analysis of the
book than can be given here to make many of them understood. The first
of these, our cut No. 137, represents the foolish warrior, who has a
sword long enough to trust to it for defence, bowing with trembling
superstition before a painting of St. Christopher crossing the water
with the infant Christ on his shoulder, as a more certain security for
his safety during that day. The other, our cut No. 138, represents
the preacher, Lady Folly, descending from her pulpit, after she has
concluded her sermon.

[Illustration: _No. 138. Preacher Folly ending her Sermon._]

CHAPTER XIV.

POPULAR LITERATURE AND ITS HEROES; BROTHER RUSH, TYLL EULENSPIEGEL,
THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM.--STORIES AND JEST-BOOKS.--SKELTON, SCOGIN,
TARLTON, PEELE.

The people in the middle ages, as well as its superiors, had its
comic literature and legend. Legend was the literature especially of
the peasant, and in it the spirit of burlesque and satire manifested
itself in many ways. Simplicity, combined with vulgar cunning, and the
circumstances arising out of the exercise of these qualities, presented
the greatest stimulants to popular mirth. They produced their popular
heroes, who, at first, were much more than half legendary, such as
the familiar spirit, Robin Goodfellow, whose pranks were a source of
continual amusement rather than of terror to the simple minds which
listened to those who told them. These stories excited with still
greater interest as their spiritual heroes became incarnate, and the
auditors were persuaded that the perpetrators of so many artful acts of
cunning and of so many mischievous practical jokes, were but ordinary
men like themselves. It was but a sign or symbol of the change from
the mythic age to that of practical life. One of the earliest of these
stories of mythic comedy transformed into, or at least presented under
the guise of, humanity, is that of Brother Ruth. Although the earliest
version of this story with which we are acquainted dates only from the
beginning of the sixteenth century,[73] there is no reason for doubt
that the story itself was in existence at a much more remote period.

[73] This earliest known version is in German verse, and was printed
in 1515. An English version, in prose, was printed in 1620, and
is reprinted in Thoms's "Collection of Early Prose Romances."

Rush was, in truth, a spirit of darkness, whose mission it was
to wander on the earth tempting and impelling people to do evil.
Perceiving that the internal condition of a certain abbey was well
suited to his purpose, he presented himself at its gates in the
disguise of a youth who wanted employment, and was received as an
assistant in the kitchen, but he pleased the monks best by the skill
with which he furnished them all with fair companions. At length he
quarrelled with the cook, and threw him into the boiling caldron, and
the monks, assuming that his death was accidental, appointed Rush to be
cook in his place. After a service of seven years in the kitchen--which
appears to have been considered a fair apprenticeship for the new
honour which was to be conferred upon him--the abbot and convent
rewarded him by making him a monk. He now followed still more earnestly
his design for the ruin of his brethren, both soul and body, and began
by raising a quarrel about a woman, which led, through his contrivance,
to a fight, in which the monks all suffered grievous bodily injuries,
and in which Brother Rush was especially active. He went on in this
way until at last his true character was accidentally discovered. A
neighbouring farmer, overtaken by night, took shelter in a hollow tree.
It happened to be the night appointed by Lucifer to meet his agents
on earth, and hear from them the report of their several proceedings,
and he had selected this very oak as the place of rendezvous. There
Brother Rush appeared, and the farmer, in his hiding-place, heard his
confession from his own lips, and told it to the abbot, who, being as
it would appear a magician, conjured him into the form of a horse, and
banished him. Rush hurried away to England, where he laid aside his
equine form, and entered the body of the king's daughter, who suffered
great torments from his possession. At length some of the great doctors
from Paris came and obliged the spirit to confess that nobody but the
abbot of the distant monastery had any power over him. The abbot came,
called him out of the maiden, and conjured him more forcibly than ever
into the form of a horse.

Such is, in mere outline, the story of Brother Rush, which was
gradually enlarged by the addition of new incidents. But the people
wanted a hero who presented more of the character of reality, who,
in fact, might be recognised as one of themselves; and such heroes
appear to have existed at all times. They usually represented a
class in society, and especially that class which consisted of idle
sharpers, who lived by their wits, and which was more numerous and more
familiarly known in the middle ages than at the present day. Folly
and cunning combined presented a never-failing subject of mirth. This
class of adventurers first came into print in Germany, and it is there
that we find its first popular hero, to whom they gave the name of
Eulenspiegel, which means literally "the owl's mirror," and has been
since used in German in the sense of a merry fool. Tyll Eulenspiegel,
and his story, are supposed to have belonged to the fourteenth century,
though we first know them in the printed book of the commencement of
the sixteenth, which is believed to have come from the pen of the
well-known popular writer, Thomas Murner, of whom I shall have to speak
more at length in another chapter. The popularity of this work was very
great, and it was quickly translated into French, English, Latin, and
almost every other language of Western Europe. In the English version
the name also was translated, and appears under the form of Owleglass,
or, as it often occurs with the superfluous aspirate, Howleglass.[74]
According to the story, Tyll Eulenspiegel was the son of a peasant, and
was born at a village called Kneitlingen, in the land of Brunswick.
The story of his birth may be given in the words of the early English
version, as a specimen of its quaint and antiquated language:--

"Yn the lande of Sassen, in the vyllage of Ruelnige, there
dwelleth a man that was named Nicholas Howleglas, that had a wife
named Wypeke, that lay a childbed in the same wyllage, and that
chylde was borne to christening; and named Tyell Howleglass. And
than the chyld was brought into a taverne, where the father was
wyth his gosseppes and made good chere. Whan the mydwife had wel
dronke, she toke the childe to bere it home, and in the wai was a
litle bridg over a muddy water. And as the mydwife would have gone
over the lytle brydge, she fel into the mudde with the chylde,
for she had a lytel dronk to much wyne, for had not helpe come
quickly, the had both be drowned in the mudde. And whan she came
home with the childe, the made a kettle of warm water to be made
redi, and therin they washed the child clen of the mudde. And
thus was Howleglas thre tymes in one dai cristened, once at the
churche, once in the mudde, and once in the warm water."

[74] The title of this English translation is, "Here beginneht a merye
Jest of a man that was called Howleglas, and of many marveylous
thinges and jestes that he dyd in his lyfe, in Eastlande, and in
many other places." It was printed by Coplande, supposed about
1520. An edition of Eulenspiegel in English, by Mr. Kenneth
Mackenzie, has recently been published by Messrs. Trübner & Co.,
of Paternoster Row.

It will be seen that the English translator was not very correct in his
geography or in his names. The child, having thus escaped destruction,
grew rapidly, and displayed an extraordinary love of mischief, with
various other evil propensities, as well as a cunning beyond his age,
in escaping the risks to which these exposed him. At a very early age,
he displayed a remarkable talent for setting the other children by the
ears, and this was his favourite amusement during life. His mother,
who was now a widow, contemplating the extraordinary cunning of her
child, which, as she thought, must necessarily ensure his advancement
in the world, resolved that he should no longer remain idle, and put
him apprentice to a baker; but his wicked and restless disposition
defeated all the good intentions of his parent, and Eulenspiegel was
obliged to leave his master in consequence of his mal-practices. One
day his mother took him to a church-dedication, and the child drank
so much at the feast on that occasion, that he crept into an empty
beehive and fell asleep, while his mother, thinking he had gone home,
returned without him. In the night-time two thieves came into the
garden to steal the bees, and they agreed to take first the hive which
was heaviest. This, as may be supposed, proved to be the hive in
which Eulenspiegel was hidden, and they fixed it on a pole which they
carried on their shoulders, one before and one behind, the hive hanging
between them. Eulenspiegel, awakened by the movement, soon discovered
the position in which he was placed, and hit upon a plan for escaping.
Gently lifting the lid of the hive, he put out his arm and plucked the
hair of the man before, who turned about and accused his companion of
insulting him. The other asserted that he had not touched him, and the
first, only half satisfied, continued to bear his share of the burthen,
but he had not advanced many steps when a still sharper pull at his
hair excited his great anger, and from wrathful words the two thieves
proceeded to blows. While they were fighting, Eulenspiegel crept out of
the hive and ran away.

After leaving the baker, Eulenspiegel became a wanderer in the world,
gaining his living by his trickery and deception, and engaging himself
in all sorts of strange and ludicrous adventures. He ended everywhere
by creating discord and strife. He became at different times a
blacksmith, a shoemaker, a tailor, a cook, a drawer of teeth, and
assumed a variety of other characters, but remained in each situation
only long enough to make it too hot for him, and to be obliged to
secure his retreat. He intruded himself into all classes of society,
and invariably came to similar results. Many of his adventures, indeed,
are so droll that we can easily understand the great popularity
they once enjoyed. But they are not merely amusing--they present a
continuous satire upon contemporary society, upon a social condition in
which every pretender, every reckless impostor, every private plunderer
or public depredator, saw the world exposed to him in its folly and
credulity as an easy prey.

The middle ages possessed another class of these popular satirical
histories, which were attached to places rather than to persons. There
were few countries which did not possess a town or a district, the
inhabitants of which were celebrated for stupidity, or for roguery,
or for some other ridiculous or contemptible quality. We have seen,
in a former chapter, the people of Norfolk enjoying this peculiarity,
and, at a later period, the inhabitants of Pevensey in Sussex, and
more especially those of Gotham in Nottinghamshire, were similarly
distinguished. The inhabitants of many places in Germany bore this
character, but their grand representatives among the Germans were the
Schildburgers, a name which appears to belong entirely to the domain
of fable. Schildburg, we are told, was a town "in Misnopotamia, beyond
Utopia, in the kingdom of Calecut." The Schildburgers were originally
so renowned for their wisdom, that they were continually invited into
foreign countries to give their advice, until at length not a man was
left at home, and their wives were obliged to assume the charge of the
duties of their husbands. This became at length so onerous, that the
wives held a council, and resolved on despatching a solemn message
in writing to call the men home. This had the desired effect; all the
Schildburgers returned to their own town, and were so joyfully received
by their wives that they resolved upon leaving it no more. They
accordingly held a council, and it was decided that, having experienced
the great inconvenience of a reputation of wisdom, they would avoid
it in future by assuming the character of fools. One of the first
evil results of their long neglect of home affairs was the want of a
council-hall, and this want they now resolved to supply without delay.
They accordingly went to the hills and woods, cut down the timber,
dragged it with great labour to the town, and in due time completed
the erection of a handsome and substantial building. But, when they
entered their new council-hall, what was their consternation to find
themselves in perfect darkness! In fact, they had forgotten to make
any windows. Another council was held, and one who had been among the
wisest in the days of their wisdom, gave his opinion very oracularly;
the result of which was that they should experiment on every possible
expedient for introducing light into the hall, and that they should
first try that which seemed most likely to succeed. They had observed
that the light of day was caused by sunshine, and the plan proposed was
to meet at mid-day when the sun was brightest, and fill sacks, hampers,
jugs, and vessels of all kinds, with sunshine and daylight, which they
proposed afterwards to empty into the unfortunate council-hall. Next
day, as the clock struck one, you might see a crowd of Schildburgers
before the council-house door, busily employed, some holding the sacks
open, and others throwing the light into them with shovels and any
other appropriate implements which came to hand. While they were thus
labouring, a stranger came into the town of Schildburg, and, hearing
what they were about, told them they were labouring to no purpose,
and offered to show them how to get the daylight into the hall. It is
unnecessary to say more than that this new plan was to make an opening
in the roof, and that the Schildburgers witnessed the effect with
astonishment, and were loud in their gratitude to their new comer.

The Schildburgers met with further difficulties before they completed
their council-hall. They sowed a field with salt, and when the
salt-plant grew up next year, after a meeting of the council, at
which it was stiffly disputed whether it ought to be reaped, or mowed,
or gathered in in some other manner, it was finally discovered that
the crop consisted of nothing but nettles. After many accidents of
this kind, the Schildburgers are noticed by the emperor, and obtain a
charter of incorporation and freedom, but they profit little by it. In
trying some experiments to catch mice, they set fire to their houses,
and the whole town is burnt to the ground, upon which, in their sorrow,
they abandon it altogether, and become, like the Jews of old, scattered
over the world, carrying their own folly into every country they visit.

The earliest known edition of the history of the Schildburgers was
printed in 1597,[75] but the story itself is no doubt older. It will
be seen at once that it involves a satire upon the municipal towns of
the middle ages. A similar series of adventures, only a little more
clerical, bore the title of "Der Pfarrherrn vom Kalenberg," or the
Parson of Kalenberg, and was first, as far as we know, published in the
latter half of the sixteenth century. The first known edition, printed
in 1582, is in prose. Von der Hagen, who reprinted a subsequent edition
in verse, in a volume already quoted, seems to think that in its first
form the story belongs to the fourteenth century.

[75] It was reprinted by Von der Hagen, in a little volume entitled
"Narrenbuch; herausgegeben durch Friedrich Heinrich von der
Hagen." 12mo., Halle, 1811.

The Schildburgers of Germany were represented in England by the wise
men of Gotham. Gotham is a village and parish about seven miles to
the south-west of Nottingham, and, curiously enough, a story is told
according to which the folly of the men of Gotham, like that of the
Schildburgers, was at first assumed. It is pretended that one day
king John, on his way to Nottingham, intended to pass through the
village of Gotham, and that the Gothamites, under the influence of
some vague notion that his presence would be injurious to them, raised
difficulties in his way which prevented his visit. The men of Gotham
were now apprehensive of the king's vengeance, and they resolved
to try and evade it by assuming the character of simpletons. When
the king's officers came to Gotham to inquire into the conduct of
the inhabitants, they found them engaged in the most extraordinary
pursuits, some of them seeking to drown an eel in a pond of water,
others making a hedge round a tree to confine a cuckoo which had
settled in it, and others employing themselves in similar futile
pursuits. The commissioners reported the people of Gotham to be no
better than fools, and by this stratagem they escaped any further
persecution, but the character they assumed remained attached to them.

This explanation is, of course, very late and very apocryphal; but
there can be little doubt that the character of the wise men of Gotham
is one of considerable antiquity. The story is believed to have been
drawn up in its present form by Andrew Borde, an English writer of the
reign of Henry VIII. It was reprinted a great number of times under
the form of those popular books called chap-books, because they were
hawked about the country by itinerant booksellers or chap-men. The
acts of the Gothamites displayed a greater degree of simplicity even
than those of the Schildburgers, but they are less connected. Here
is one anecdote told in the unadorned language of the chap-books, in
explanation of which it is only necessary to state that the men of
Gotham admired greatly the note of the cuckoo. "On a time the men of
Gotham fain would have pinn'd in the cuckow, that she might sing all
the year; and, in the midst of the town, they had a hedge made round in
compass, and got a cuckow and put her into it, and said, 'Sing here,
and you shall lack neither meat nor drink all the year.' The cuckow,
when she perceived herself encompassed with the hedge, flew away. 'A
vengeance on her,' said these wise men, 'we did not make our hedge high
enough.'" On another occasion, having caught a large eel which offended
them by its voracity, they assembled in council to deliberate on an
appropriate punishment, which ended in a resolution that it should be
drowned, and the criminal was ceremoniously thrown into a great pond.
One day twelve men of Gotham went a-fishing, and on their way home they
suddenly discovered that they had lost one of their number, and each
counted in his turn, and could find only eleven. In fact, each forgot
to count himself. In the midst of their distress--for they believed
their companion to be drowned--a stranger approached, and learnt the
cause of their sorrow. Finding they were not to be convinced of their
mistake by mere argument, he offered, on certain conditions, to find
the lost Gothamite, and he proceeded as follows. He took one by one
each of the twelve Gothamites, struck him a hard blow on the shoulder,
which made him scream, and at each cry counted one, two, three, &c.
When it came to twelve, they were all satisfied that the lost Gothamite
had returned, and paid the man for the service he had rendered them.

As a chap-book, this history of the men of Gotham became so popular,
that it gave rise to a host of other books of similar character, which
were compiled at a later period under such titles--formerly well
known to children--as, "The Merry Frolicks, or the Comical Cheats of
Swalpo;" "The Witty and Entertaining Exploits of George Buchanan,
commonly called the King's Fool;" "Simple Simon's Misfortunes;" and the
like. Nor must it be forgotten that the history of Eulenspiegel was
the prototype of a class of popular histories of larger dimensions,
represented in our own literature by "The English Rogue," the work of
Richard Head and Francis Kirkman, in the reign of Charles II., and
various other "rogues" belonging to different countries, which appeared
about that time, or not long afterwards. The earliest of these books
was "The Spanish Rogue, or Life of Guzman de Alfarache," written in
Spanish by Mateo Aleman in the latter part of the sixteenth century.
Curiously enough, some Englishman, not knowing apparently that the
history of Eulenspiegel had appeared in English under the name of
Owlglass, took it into his head to introduce him among the family of
rogues which had thus come into fashion, and, in 1720, published as
"Made English from the High Dutch," what he called "The German Rogue,
or the Life and Merry Adventures, Cheats, Stratagems, and Contrivances
of Tiel Eulespiegle."

The fifteenth century was the period during which mediæval forms
generally were changing into forms adapted to another state of society,
and in which much of the popular literature which has been in vogue
during modern times took its rise. In the fourteenth century, the
fabliaux of the jougleurs were already taking what we may perhaps term
a more literary form, and were reduced into prose narratives. This
took place especially in Italy, where these prose tales were called
_novelle_, implying some novelty in their character, a word which was
transferred into the French language under the form of _nouvelles_,
and was the origin of our modern English _novel_, applied to a work of
fiction. The Italian novelists adopted the Eastern plan of stringing
these stories together on the slight framework of one general plot,
in which are introduced causes for telling them and persons who tell
them. Thus the Decameron of Boccaccio holds towards the fabliaux
exactly the same position as that of the "Arabian Nights" to the older
Arabian tales. The Italian novelists became numerous and celebrated
throughout Europe, from the time of Boccaccio to that of Straparola,
at the commencement of the sixteenth century, and later. The taste for
this class of literature appears to have been introduced into France at
the court of Burgundy, where, under duke Philippe le Bon, a well-known
courtier and man of letters named Antoine de La Sale, who had, during
a sojourn in Italy, become acquainted with one of the most celebrated
of the earlier Italian collections, the "Cento Novello," or the Hundred
Novels, compiled a collection in French in imitation of them, under the
title of "Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles," or the Hundred new Novels,
one of the purest examples of the French language in the fifteenth
century.[76] The later French story-books, such as the Heptameron of
the queen of Navarre, and others, belong chiefly to the sixteenth
century. These collections of stories can hardly be said to have ever
taken root in this island as a part of English literature.

[76] I am obliged to pass over this part of the subject very rapidly.
For the history of that remarkable book, the "Cent Nouvelles
Nouvelles," I would refer the reader to the preface to my own
edition, "Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, publiées d'après le
seul manuscrit connu, avec Introduction et Notes, par M. Thomas
Wright." 2 vols, 12mo., Paris, 1858.

But there arose partly out of these stories a class of books which
became greatly multiplied, and were, during a long period, extremely
popular. With the household fool, or jester, instead of the old
jougleur, the stories had been shorn of their detail, and sank into
the shape of mere witty anecdotes, and at the same time a taste arose
for what we now class under the general term of jests, clever sayings,
what the French call _bons mots_, and what the English of the sixteenth
century termed "quick answers." The word _jest_ itself arose from the
circumstance that the things designated by it arose out of the older
stories, for it is a mere corruption of gestes, the Latin _gesta_, in
the sense of narratives of acts or deeds, or tales. The Latin writers,
who first began to collect them into books, included them under the
general name of _facetiæ_. The earlier of these collections of facetiæ
were written in Latin, and of the origin of the first with which we
are acquainted, that by the celebrated scholar Poggio of Florence,
a curious anecdote is told. Some wits of the court of pope Martin
V., elected to the papacy in 1417, among whom were the pope's two
secretaries, Poggio and Antonio Lusco, Cincio of Rome, and Ruzello of
Bologna, appropriated to themselves a private corner in the Vatican,
where they assembled to chat freely among themselves. They called
it their _buggiale_, a word which signifies in Italian, a place of
recreation, where they tell stories, make jests, and amuse themselves
with discussing satirically the doings and characters of everybody.
This was the way in which Poggio and his friends entertained themselves
in their buggiale, and we are assured that in their talk they neither
spared the church nor the pope himself or his government. The facetiæ
of Poggio, in fact, which are said to be a selection of the good things
said in these meetings, show neither reverence for the church of Rome
nor respect for decency, but they are mostly stories which had been
told over and over again, long before Poggio came into the world. It
was perhaps this satire upon the church and upon the ecclesiastics
which gave much of their popularity to these facetiæ at a time when
a universal agitation of men's minds on religious affairs prevailed,
which was the great harbinger of the Reformation; and the next Latin
books of facetiæ came from men such as Henry Bebelius, who were zealous
reformers themselves.

Many of the jests in these Latin collections are put into the mouths of
jesters, or domestic fools, _fatui_, or _moriones_, as they are called
in the Latin; and in England, where these jest-books in the vernacular
tongue became more popular perhaps than in any other country, many
of them were published under the names of celebrated jesters, as the
"Merie Tales of Skelton," "The Jests of Scogin," "Tarlton's Jests," and
"The Jests of George Peele."

John Skelton, poet-laureat of his time, appears to have been known in
the courts of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. quite as much in the character
of a jester as in that of a poet. Poet-laureat was then a title or
degree given in the university of Oxford. His "Merye Tales" are all
personal of himself, and we should be inclined to say that his jests
and his poetry are equally bad. The former picture him as holding a
place somewhere between Eulenspiegel and the ordinary court-fool. We
may give as a sample of the best of them the tale No. 1.--

"_How Skelton came home late to Oxford from Abington._

"Skelton was an Englysheman borne as Skogyn was, and hee was
educated and broughte up in Oxfoorde, and there was he made a
poete lauriat. And on a tyme he had ben at Abbington to make mery,
wher that he had eate salte meates, and hee did com late home to
Oxforde, and he did lye in an ine named the Tabere, whyche is now
the Angell, and hee dyd drynke, and went to bed. About midnight
he was so thyrstie or drye that he was constrained to call to
the tapster for drynke, and the tapster harde him not. Then hee
cryed to hys oste and hys ostes, and to the ostler, for drinke,
and no man would here hym. Alacke, sayd Skelton, I shall peryshe
for lacke of drynke! What reamedye? At the last he dyd crie out
and sayd, Fyer, fyer, fyer! When Skelton hard every man bustle
hymselfe upward, and some of them were naked, and some were halfe
asleepe and amased, and Skelton dyd crye, Fier, fier! styll, that
everye man knewe not whether to resorte. Skelton did go to bed,
and the oste and ostis, and the tapster, with the ostler, dyd
runne to Skeltons chamber with candles lyghted in theyr handes,
saying, Where, where, where is the fyer? Here, here, here, said
Skelton, and poynted hys fynger to hys mouth, saying, Fetch me
some drynke to quenche the fyer and the heate and the drinesse in
my mouthe. And so they dyd."

Another of these "Merye Tales" of Skelton contains a satire upon
the practice which prevailed in the sixteenth and early part of the
seventeenth centuries of obtaining letters-patent of monopoly from the
crown, and also on the bibulous propensities of Welshmen--

"_How the Welshman dyd desyre Skelton to ayde hym in hys sute to
the kynge for a patent to sell drynke._

"Skelton, when he was in London, went to the kynges courte,
where there did come to hym a Welshman, saying, Syr, it is so,
that manye dooth come upp of my country to the kynges court, and
some doth get of the kyng by patent a castell, and some a parke,
and some a forest, and some one fee and some another, and they
dooe lyve lyke honest men; and I shoulde lyve as honestly as
the best, if I myght have a patyne for good dryncke, wherefore
I dooe praye yow to write a fewe woords for mee in a lytle byll
to geve the same to the kynges handes, and I wil geve you well
for your laboure. I am contented, sayde Skelton. Syt downe then,
sayde the Welshman, and write. What shall I wryte? sayde Skelton.
The Welshman sayde wryte _dryncke_. Nowe, sayde the Welshman,
write _more dryncke_. What now? sayde Skelton. Wryte nowe, _a
great deale of dryncke_. Nowe, sayd the Welshman, putte to all
thys dryncke _a littell crome of breade_, and _a great deale of
drynke_ to it, and reade once agayne. Skelton dyd reade, _Dryncke,
more dryncke, and a great deale of dryncke, and a lytle crome of
breade, and a great deale of dryncke to it_. Than the Welshman
sayde, Put oute _the litle crome of breade_, and sette in, _all
dryncke and no breade_. And if I myght have thys sygned of the
kynge, sayde the Welshman, I care for no more, as longe as I dooe
lyve. Well then, sayde Skelton, when you have thys signed of the
kyng, then wyll I labour for a patent to have bread, that you wyth
your drynke and I with the bread may fare well, and seeke our
livinge with bagge and staffe."

These two tales are rather favourable specimens of the collection
published under the name of Skelton, which, as far as we know, was
first printed about the middle of the sixteenth century. The collection
of the jests of Scogan, or, as he was popularly called, Scogin, which
is said to have been compiled by Andrew Borde, was probably given to
the world a few years before, but no copies of the earlier editions are
now known to exist. Scogan, the hero of these jests, is described as
occupying at the court of Henry VII. a position not much different from
that of an ordinary court-fool. Good old Holinshed the chronicler says
of him, perhaps a little too gently, that he was "a learned gentleman
and student for a time in Oxford, of a pleasant wit, and bent to merrie
devices, in respect whereof he was called into the court, where, giving
himselfe to his naturall inclination of mirth and pleasant pastime,
he plaied manie sporting parts, although not in such uncivil manner
as hath beene of him reported." This allusion refers most probably to
the jests, which represent him as leading a life of low and coarse
buffoonery, in the course of which he displayed a considerable
share of the dishonest and mischievous qualities of the less real
Eulenspiegel. He is even represented as personally insulting the king
and queen, and as being consequently banished over the Channel, to
show no more respect to the majesty of the king of France. Scogin's
jests, like Skelton's, consist in a great measure of those practical
jokes which appear in all former ages to have been the delight of the
Teutonic race. Many of them are directed against the ignorance and
worldliness of the clergy. Scogin is described as being at one time
himself a teacher in the university, and on one occasion, we are told,
a husbandman sent his son to school to him that he might be made a
priest. The whole story, which runs through several chapters, is an
excellent caricature on the way in which men vulgarly ignorant were
intruded into the priesthood before the Reformation. At length, after
much blundering, the scholar came to be ordained, and his examination
is reported as follows:--

"_How the scholler said Tom Miller of Oseney was Jacob's father._

"After this, the said scholler did come to the next orders, and
brought a present to the ordinary from Scogin, but the scholler's
father paid for all. Then said the ordinary to the scholler, I
must needes oppose you, and for master Scogin's sake, I will
oppose you in a light matter. Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob.
Who was Jacob's father? The scholler stood still, and could not
tell. Well, said the ordinary, I cannot admit you to be priest
untill the next orders, and then bring me an answer. The scholler
went home with a heavy heart, bearing a letter to master Scogin,
how his scholler could not answer to this question: Isaac had
two sons, Esau and Jacob; who was Jacob's father? Scogin said to
his scholler, Thou foole and asse-head! Dost thou not know Tom
Miller of Oseney? Yes, said the scholler! Then, said Scogin, thou
knowest he had two sonnes, Tom and Jacke; who is Jacke's father?
The scholler said, Tom Miller. Why, said Scogin, thou mightest
have said that Isaac was Jacob's father. Then said Scogin, Thou
shalt arise betime in the morning, and carry a letter to the
ordinary, and I trust he will admit thee before the orders shall
be given. The scholler rose up betime in the morning, and carried
the letter to the ordinary. The ordinary said, For Master Scogin's
sake I will oppose you no farther than I did yesterday. Isaac had
two sons, Esau and Jacob; who was Jacob's father? Marry, said the
scholler, I can tell you now that was Tom Miller of Oseney. Goe,
foole, goe, said the ordinary, and let thy master send thee no
more to me for orders, for it is impossible to make a foole a wise
man."

Scogin's scholar was, however, made a priest, and some of the stories
which follow describe the ludicrous manner in which he exercised the
priesthood. Two other stories illustrate Scogin's supposed position at
court:--

"_How Scogin told those that mocked him that he had a wall-eye._

"Scogin went up and down in the king's hall, and his hosen hung
downe, and his coat stood awry, and his hat stood a boonjour, so
every man did mocke Scogin. Some said he was a proper man, and did
wear his rayment cleanly; some said the foole could not put on his
owne rayment; some said one thing, and some said another. At last
Scogin said, Masters, you have praised me wel, but you did not
espy one thing in me. What is that, Tom? said the men. Marry, said
Scogin, I have a wall-eye. What meanest thou by that? said the
men. Marry, said Scogin, I have spyed a sort of knaves that doe
mocke me, and are worse fooles themselves."

"_How Scogin drew his sonne up and downe the court._

"After this Scogin went from the court, and put off his foole's
garments, and came to the court like an honest man, and brought
his son to the court with him, and within the court he drew his
sonne up and downe by the heeles. The boy cried out, and Scogin
drew the boy in every corner. At last every body had pity on the
boy, and said, Sir, what doe you meane, to draw the boy about the
court? Masters, said Scogin, he is my sonne, and I doe it for this
cause. Every man doth say, that man or child which is drawne up in
the court shall be the better as long as hee lives; and therefore
I will every day once draw him up and downe the court, after that
hee may come to preferment in the end."

The appreciation of a good joke cannot at this time have been very
great or very general, for Scogin's jests were wonderfully popular
during at least a century, from the first half of the sixteenth
century. They passed through many editions, and are frequently
alluded to by the writers of the Elizabethan age. The next individual
whose name appears at the head of a collection of his jests, was the
well-known wit, Richard Tarlton, who may be fairly considered as court
fool to Queen Elizabeth. His jests belong to the same class as those
of Skelton and Scogin, and if possible, they present a still greater
amount of dulness. Tarlton's jests were soon followed by the "merrie
conceited jests" of George Peele, the dramatist, who is described in
the title as "gentleman, sometimes student in Oxford;" and it is added
that in these jests "is shewed the course of his life, how he lived;
a man very well knowne in the city of London and elsewhere." In fact,
Peele's jests are chiefly curious for the striking picture they give
us of the wilder shades of town life under the reigns of Elizabeth and
James I.

During the period which witnessed the publication in England of these
books, many other jest-books appeared, for they had already become
an important class of English popular literature. Most of them were
published anonymously, and indeed they are mere compilations from the
older collections in Latin and French. All that was at all good, even
in the jests of Skelton, Scogin, Tarlton, and Peele, had been repeated
over and over again by the story-tellers and jesters of former ages.
Two of the earlier English collections have gained a greater celebrity
than the rest, chiefly through adventitious circumstances. One of
these, entitled "A Hundred Merry Tales," has gained distinction among
Shakespearian critics as the one especially alluded to by the great
poet in "Much Ado about Nothing," (Act ii., Sc. 1), where Beatrice
complains that somebody had said "that I had my good wit out of the
Hundred Merry Tales." The other collection alluded to was entitled
"Mery Tales, Wittie Questions, and Quicke Answeres, very pleasant
to be readde," and was printed in 1567. Its modern fame appears to
have arisen chiefly from the circumstance that, until the accidental
discovery of the unique and imperfect copy of the "Hundred Merry
Tales," it was supposed to be the book alluded to by Shakespeare.
Both these collections are mere compilations from the "Cent Nouvelles
Nouvelles," "Poggio," "Straparola," and other foreign works.[77] The
words put into the mouth of Beatrice are correctly descriptive of the
use made of these jest-books. It had become fashionable to learn out
of them jests and stories, in order to introduce them into polite
conversation, and especially at table; and this practice continued
to prevail until a very recent period. The number of such jest-books
published during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries,
was quite extraordinary. Many of these were given anonymously; but many
also were put forth under names which possessed temporary celebrity,
such as Hobson the carrier, Killigrew the jester, the friend of Charles
II., Ben Jonson, Garrick, and a multitude of others. It is, perhaps,
unnecessary to remind the reader that the great modern representative
of this class of literature is the illustrious Joe Miller.

[77] A neat and useful edition of these two jest-books, with the
other most curious books of the same class, published during the
Elizabethan period, has recently been published in two volumes,
by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt.

CHAPTER XV.

THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION.--THOMAS MURNER; HIS GENERAL
SATIRES.--FRUITFULNESS OF FOLLY.--HANS SACHS.--THE TRAP FOR
FOOLS.--ATTACKS ON LUTHER.--THE POPE AS ANTICHRIST.--THE POPE-ASS
AND THE MONK-CALF.--OTHER CARICATURES AGAINST THE POPE.--THE GOOD
AND BAD SHEPHERDS.

The reign of Folly did not pass away with the fifteenth century--on the
whole the sixteenth century can hardly be said to have been more sane
than its predecessor, but it was agitated by a long and fierce struggle
to disengage European society from the trammels of the middle ages. We
have entered upon what is technically termed the _renaissance_, and
are approaching the great religious reformation. The period during
which the art of printing began first to spread generally over Western
Europe, was peculiarly favourable to the production of satirical
books and pamphlets, and a considerable number of clever and spirited
satirists and comic writers appeared towards the end of the fifteenth
century, especially in Germany, where circumstances of a political
character had at an early period given to the intellectual agitation
a more permanent strength than it could easily or quickly gain in the
great monarchies. Among the more remarkable of these satirists was
Thomas Murner, who was born at Strasburg, in 1475. The circumstances
even of his childhood are singular, for he was born a cripple, or
became one in his earliest infancy, though he was subsequently healed,
and it was so universally believed that this malady was the effect
of witchcraft, that he himself wrote afterwards a treatise upon this
subject under the title of "De Phitonico Contractu." The school in
which he was taught may at least have encouraged his satirical spirit,
for his master was Jacob Locher, the same who translated into Latin
verse the "Ship of Fools" of Sebastian Brandt. At the end of the
century Murner had become a master of arts in the University of Paris,
and had entered the Franciscan order. His reputation as a German
popular poet was so great, that the emperor Maximilian[ ]I., who
died in 1519, conferred upon him the crown of poetry, or, in other
words, made him poet-laureat. He took the degree of doctor in theology
in 1509. Still Murner was known best as the popular writer, and he
published several satirical poems, which were remarkable for the bold
woodcuts that illustrated them, for engraving on wood flourished at
this period. He exposed the corruptions of all classes of society,
and, before the Reformation broke out, he did not even spare the
corruptions of the ecclesiastical state, but soon declared himself a
fierce opponent of the Reformers. When the Lutheran revolt against the
Papacy became strong, our king, Henry VIII., who took a decided part
against Luther, invited Murner to England, and on his return to his
own country, the satiric Franciscan became more bitter against the
Reformation than ever. He advocated the cause of the English monarch in
a pamphlet, now very rare, in which he discussed the question whether
Henry VIII. or Luther was the liar--"Antwort dem Murner uff seine
frag, ob der künig von Engllant ein Lügner sey oder Martinus Luther."
Murner appears to have divided the people of his age into rogues and
fools, or perhaps he considered the two titles as identical. His
"Narrenbeschwerung," or Conspiracy of Fools, in which Brandt's idea
was followed up, is supposed to have been published as early as 1506,
but the first printed edition with a date, appeared in 1512. It became
so popular, that it went through several editions during subsequent
years; and that which I have before me was printed at Strasburg in
1518. It is, like Brandt's "Ship of Fools," a general satire against
society, in which the clergy are not spared, for the writer had not yet
come in face of Luther's Reformation. The cuts are superior to those
of Brandt's book, and some of them are remarkable for their design and
execution. In one of the earliest of them, copied in the cut No. 139,
Folly is introduced in the garb of a husbandman, scattering his feed
over the earth, the result of which is a very quick and flourishing
crop, the fool's heads rising above ground, almost instantaneously,
like so many turnips. In a subsequent engraving, represented in our
cut No. 140, Folly holds out, as an object of emulation, the fool's
cap, and people of all classes, the pope himself, and the emperor, and
all the great dignitaries of this world, press forward eagerly to seize
upon it.

[Illustration: _No. 139. Sowing a Fruitful Crop._]

The same year (1512) witnessed the appearance of another poetical,
or at least metrical, satire by Murner, entitled "Schelmenzunft," or
the Confraternity of Rogues, similarly illustrated with very spirited
engravings on wood. It is another demonstration of the prevailing
dominion of folly under its worst forms, and the satire is equally
general with the preceding. Murner's satire appears to have been felt
not only generally, but personally; and we are told that he was often
threatened with assassination, and he raised up a number of literary
opponents, who treated him with no little rudeness; in fact, he had
got on the wrong side of politics, or at all events on the unpopular
side, and men who had more talents and greater weight appeared as his
opponents--men like Ulrich von Utten, and Luther himself.

[Illustration: _No. 140. An Acceptable Offering._]

Among the satirists who espoused the cause to which Murner was
opposed, we must not overlook a man who represented in its strongest
features, though in a rather debased form, the old spontaneous poetry
of the middle ages. His name was Hans Sachs, at least that was the
name under which he was known, for his real name is said to have
been Loutrdorffer. His spirit was entirely that of the old wandering
minstrel, and it was so powerful in him, that, having been apprenticed
to the craft of a weaver, he was no sooner freed from his indentures,
than he took to a vagabond life, and wandered from town to town,
gaining his living by singing the verses he composed upon every
occasion which presented itself. In 1519, he married and settled in
Nüremberg, and his compositions were then given to the public through
the press. The number of these was quite extraordinary--songs, ballads,
satires, and dramatic pieces, rude in style, in accordance with the
taste of the time, but full of cleverness. Many of them were printed
on broadsides, and illustrated with large engravings on wood. Hans
Sachs joined in the crusade against the empire of Folly, and one of
his broadsides is illustrated with a graceful design, the greater part
of which is copied in our cut No. 141. A party of ladies have set a
bird-trap to catch the fools of the age, who are waiting to be caught.
One fool is taken in the trap, while another is already secured and
pinioned, and others are rushing into the snare. A number of people of
the world, high in their dignities and stations, are looking on at this
remarkable scene.

[Illustration: _No. 141. Bird-Traps._]

The evil influence of the female sex was at this time proverbial, and,
in fact, it was an age of extreme licentiousness. Another poet-laureat
of the time, Henricus Bebelius, born in the latter half of the
fifteenth century, and rather well known in the literature of his time,
published, in 1515, a satirical poem in Latin, under the title of
"Triumphus Veneris," which was a sort of exposition of the generally
licentious character of the age in which he lived. It is distributed
into six books, in the third of which the poet attacks the whole
ecclesiastical state, not sparing the pope himself, and we are thereby
perfectly well initiated into the weaknesses of the clergy. Bebelius
had been preceded by another writer on this part of the subject, and we
might say by many, for the incontinence of monks and nuns, and indeed
of all the clergy, had long been a subject of satire. But the writer to
whom I especially allude was named Paulus Olearius, his name in German
being Oelschlägel. He published, about the year 1500, a satirical
tract, under the title of "De Fide Concubinarum in Sacerdotes." It
was a bitter attack on the licentiousness of the clergy, and was
rendered more effective by the engravings which accompanied it. We
give one of these as a curious picture of contemporary manners; the
individual who comes within the range of the lady's attractions, though
he may be a scholar, has none of the characteristics of a priest. She
presents a nosegay, which we may suppose to represent the influence of
perfume upon the senses; but the love of the ladies for pet animals
is especially typified in the monkey, attached by a chain. A donkey
appears to show by his heels his contempt for the lover.

[Illustration: _No. 142. Courtship._]

From an early period, the Roman church had been accustomed to
treat contemptuously, as well as cruelly, all who dissented from
its doctrines, or objected to its government, and this feeling was
continued down to the age of the Reformation, in spite of the tone
of liberalism which was beginning to shine forth in the writings
of some of its greatest ornaments. Some research among the dusty,
because little used, records of national archives and libraries would
no doubt bring to light more than one singular caricature upon the
"heretics" of the middle ages, and my attention has been called to one
which is possessed of peculiar interest. There is, among the imperial
archives of France, in Paris, among records relating to the country of
the Albigeois in the thirteenth century, a copy of the bull of pope
Innocent IV. giving directions for the proceedings against dissenters
from Romanism, on the back of which the scribe, as a mark of his
contempt for these arch-heretics of the south, has drawn a caricature
of a woman bound to a stake over the fire which is to burn her as an
open opponent of the church of Rome. The choice of a woman for the
victim was perhaps intended to show that the proselytism of heresy was
especially successful among the weaker sex, or that it was considered
as having some relation to witchcraft. It is, by a long period, the
earliest known pictorial representation of the punishment of burning
inflicted on a heretic.

[Illustration: _No. 143. Burning a Heretic._]

The shafts of satire were early employed against Luther and his new
principles, and men like Murner, already mentioned, Emser, Cochlæus,
and others, signalised themselves by their zeal in the papal cause.
As already stated, Murner distinguished himself as the literary ally
of our king Henry VIII. The taste for satirical writings had then
become so general, that Murner complains in one of his satires that
the printers would print nothing but abusive or satirical works, and
neglected his more serious writings.

_Da sindt die trucker schuld daran,
Die trucken als die Gauchereien,
Und lassen mein ernstliche bücher leihen._

Some of Murner's writings against Luther, most of which are now very
rare, are extremely violent, and they are generally illustrated with
satirical woodcuts. One of these books, printed without name of place
or date, is entitled, "Of the great Lutheran Fool, how Doctor Murner
has exorcised him" (_Von dem grossen Lutherisschen Narren, wie in
Doctor Murner beschworen hat_). In the woodcuts to this book Murner
himself is introduced, as is usually the case in these satirical
engravings, under the character of a Franciscan friar, with the head of
a cat, while Luther appears as a fat and jolly monk, wearing a fool's
cap, and figuring in various ridiculous circumstances. In one of the
first woodcuts, the cat Franciscan is drawing a rope so tight round the
great Lutheran fool's neck, that he compels him to disgorge a multitude
of smaller fools. In another the great Lutheran fool has his purse, or
pouch, full of little fools suspended at his girdle. This latter figure
is copied in the cut No. 144, as an example of the form under which the
great reformer appears in these satirical representations.

[Illustration: _No. 144. Folly in Monastic Habit._]

In a few other caricatures of this period which have been preserved,
the apostle of the Reformation is attacked still more savagely. The
one here given (Fig. 145), taken from a contemporary engraving on
wood, presents a rather fantastic figure of the demon playing on the
bagpipes. The instrument is formed of Luther's head, the pipe through
which the devil blows entering his ear, and that through which the
music is produced forming an elongation of the reformer's nose. It was
a broad intimation that Luther was a mere tool of the evil one, created
for the purpose of bringing mischief into the world.

[Illustration: _No. 145. The Music of the Demon._]

The reformers, however, were more than a match for their opponents in
this sort of warfare. Luther himself was full of comic and satiric
humour, and a mass of the talent of that age was ranged on his side,
both literary and artistic. After the reformer's marriage, the papal
party quoted the old legend, that Antichrist was to be born of the
union of a monk and a nun, and it was intimated that if Luther himself
could not be directly identified with Antichrist, he had, at least, a
fair chance of becoming his parent. But the reformers had resolved, on
what appeared to be much more conclusive evidence, that Antichrist was
only emblematical of the papacy, that under this form he had been long
dominant on earth, and that the end of his reign was then approaching.
A remarkable pamphlet, designed to place this idea pictorially before
the public, was produced from the pencil of Luther's friend, the
celebrated painter, Lucas Cranach, and appeared in the year 1521 under
the title of "The Passionale of Christ and Antichrist" (_Passional
Christi und Antichristi_). It is a small quarto, each page of which is
nearly filled by a woodcut, having a few lines of explanation in German
below. The cut to the left represents some incident in the life of
Christ, while that facing it to the right gives a contrasting fact in
the history of papal tyranny. Thus the first cut on the left represents
Jesus in His humility, refusing earthly dignities and power, while on
the adjoining page we see the pope, with his cardinals and bishops,
supported by his hosts of warriors, his cannon, and his fortifications,
in his temporal dominion over secular princes. When we open again we
see on one side Christ crowned with thorns by the insulting soldiery,
and on the other the pope, enthroned in all his worldly glory, exacting
the worship of his courtiers. On another we have Christ washing the
feet of His disciples, and in contrast the pope compelling the emperor
to kiss his toe. And so on, through a number of curious illustrations,
until at last we come to Christ's ascension into heaven, in contrast
with which a troop of demons, of the most varied and singular forms,
have seized upon the papal Antichrist, and are casting him down into
the flames of hell, where some of his own monks wait to receive him.
This last picture is drawn with so much spirit, that I have copied it
in the cut No. 146.

[Illustration: _No. 146. The Descent of the Pope._]

[Illustration: _No. 147. The Pope-ass._]

The monstrous figures of animals which had amused the sculptors and
miniaturists of an earlier period came in time to be looked upon
as realities, and were not only regarded with wonder as physical
deformities, but were objects of superstition, for they were believed
to be sent into the world as warnings of great revolutions and
calamities. During the age preceding the Reformation, the reports
of the births or discoveries of such monsters were very common, and
engravings of them were no doubt profitable articles of merchandise
among the early book-hawkers. Two of these were very celebrated in
the time of the Reformation, the Pope-ass and the Monk-calf, and were
published and republished with an explanation under the names of
Luther and Melancthon, which made them emblematical of the Papacy and
of the abuses of the Romish church, and, of course, prognostications
of their approaching exposure and fall. It was pretended that the
Pope-ass was found dead in the river Tiber, at Rome, in the year
1496. It is represented in our cut No. 147, taken from an engraving
preserved in a very curious volume of broadside Lutheran caricatures,
in the library of the British Museum, all belonging to the year 1545,
though this design had been published many years before. The head of
an ass, we are told, represented the pope himself, with his false and
carnal doctrines. The right hand resembled the foot of an elephant,
signifying the spiritual power of the pope, which was heavy, and
stamped down and crushed people's consciences. The left hand was that
of a man, signifying the worldly power of the pope, which grasped at
universal empire over kings and princes. The right foot was that of
an ox, signifying the spiritual ministers of the papacy, the doctors
of the church, the preachers, confessors, and scholastic theologians,
and especially the monks and nuns, those who aided and supported
the pope in oppressing people's bodies and souls. The left foot was
that of a griffin, an animal which, when it once seizes its prey,
never lets it escape, and signified the canonists, the monsters of
the pope's temporal power, who grasped people's temporal goods, and
never returned them. The breast and belly of this monster were those
of a woman, and signified the papal body, the cardinals, bishops,
priests, monks, &c., who spent their lives in eating, drinking, and
incontinence; and this part of the body was naked, because the popish
clergy were not ashamed to expose their vices to the public. The legs,
arms, and neck, on the contrary, were clothed with fishes' scales;
these signified the temporal princes and lords, who were mostly in
alliance with the papacy. The old man's head behind the monster, meant
that the papacy had become old, and was approaching its end; and
the head of a dragon, vomiting flames, which served for a tail, was
significative of the great threats, the venomous horrible bulls and
blasphemous writings, which the pontiff and his ministers, enraged at
seeing their end approach, were launching into the world against all
who opposed them. These explanations were supported by apt quotations
from the Scriptures, and were so effective, and became so popular, that
the picture was published in various shapes, and was seen adorning the
walls of the humblest cottages. I believe it is still to be met with in
a similar position in some parts of Germany. It was considered at the
time to be a masterly piece of satire. The picture of the Monk-calf,
which is represented in our cut No. 148, was published at the same
time, and usually accompanies it. This monster is said to have been
born at Freyburg, in Misnia, and is simply a rather coarse emblem of
the monachal character.

[Illustration: _No. 148. The Monk-Calf._]

[Illustration: _No. 149. The Head of the Papacy._]

The volume of caricatures just mentioned contains several satires on
the pope, which are all very severe, and many of them clever. One has
a movable leaf, which covers the upper part of the picture; when it is
down, we have a representation of the pope in his ceremonial robes,
and over it the inscription ALEX · VI · PONT · MAX. Pope Alexander VI.
was the infamous Roderic Borgia, a man stained with all the crimes
and vices which strike most horror into men's minds. When the leaf is
raised, another figure joins itself with the lower part of the former,
and represents a papal demon, crowned, the cross being transformed into
an instrument of infernal punishment. This figure is represented in our
cut No. 149. Above it are inscribed the words EGO · SVM · PAPA, "I am
the Pope." Attached to it is a page of explanation in German, in which
the legend of that pope's death is given, a legend that his wicked
life appeared sufficient to sanction. It was said that, distrusting
the success of his intrigues to secure the papacy for himself, he
applied himself to the study of the black art, and sold himself to
the Evil One. He then asked the tempter if it were his destiny to be
pope, and received an answer in the affirmative. He next inquired how
long he should hold the papacy, but Satan returned an equivocal and
deceptive answer, for Borgia understood that he was to be pope fifteen
years, whereas he died at the end of eleven. It is well known that
Pope Alexander VI. died suddenly and unexpectedly through accidentally
drinking the poisoned wine he had prepared with his own hand for the
murder of another man.

[Illustration: _No. 150. The Pope's Nurse._]

An Italian theatine wrote a poem against the Reformation, in which
he made Luther the offspring of Megæra, one of the furies, who is
represented as having been sent from hell into Germany to be delivered
of him. This sarcasm was thrown back upon the pope with much greater
effect by the Lutheran caricaturists. One of the plates in the
above-mentioned volume represents the "birth and origin of the pope"
(_ortus et origo papæ_), making the pope identical with Antichrist.
In different groups, in this rather elaborate design, the child is
represented as attended by the three furies, Megæra acting as his
wet-nurse, Alecto as nursery-maid, and Tisiphone in another capacity,
&c. The name of Martin Luther is added to this caricature also.

_Hie wird geborn der Widerchrist.
Megera sein Seugamme ist;
Alecto sein Keindermeidlin,
Tisiphone die gengelt in._--M. Luth., D. 1545.

One of the groups in this plate, representing the fury Megæra, a
becoming foster-mother, suckling the pope-infant, is given in our cut,
No. 150.

In another of these caricatures the pope is represented trampling on
the emperor, to show the manner in which he usurped and tyrannised
over the temporal power. Another illustrates "the kingdom of Satan and
the Pope" (_regnum Satanæ et Papæ_), and the latter is represented
as presiding over hell-mouth in all his state. One, given in our cut
No. 151, represents the pope under the form of an ass playing on the
bagpipes, and is entitled _Papa doctor theologiæ et magister fidei_.
Four lines of German verse beneath the engraving state how "the pope
can alone expound Scripture and purge error, just as the ass alone can
pipe and touch the notes correctly."

[Illustration: _No. 151. The Pope giving the Tune._]

_Der Bapst kan allein auslegen
Die Schrifft, und irthum ausfegen;
Wie der esel allein pfeiffen
Kan, und die noten recht greiffen._--1545.

This was the last year of Luther's active labours. At the commencement
of the year following he died at Eissleben, whither he had gone to
attend the council of princes. These caricatures may perhaps be
considered as so many proclamations of satisfaction and exultation in
the final triumph of the great reformer.

Books, pamphlets, and prints of this kind were multiplied to an
extraordinary degree during the age of the Reformation, but the
majority of them were in the interest of the new movement. Luther's
opponent, Eckius, complained of the infinite number of people who
gained their living by wandering over all parts of Germany, and
selling Lutheran books.[78] Among those who administered largely to
this circulation of polemic books was the poet of farces, comedies, and
ballads, Hans Sachs, already mentioned. Hans Sachs had in one poem,
published in 1535, celebrated Luther under the title of "the Wittemberg
Nightingale:"--

_Die Wittembergisch' Nachtigall,
Die man jetzt höret überall_;

and described the effects of his song over all the other animals; and
he published, also in verse, what he called a Monument, or Lament, on
his death ("Ein Denkmal oder Klagred' ob der Leiche Doktors Martin
Luther"). Among the numerous broadsides published by Hans Sachs, one
contains the very clever caricature of which we give a copy in our cut
No. 152. It is entitled "Der gut Hirt und böss Hirt," the good shepherd
and bad shepherd, and has for its text the opening verses of the tenth
chapter of the gospel of St. John. The good and bad shepherds are,
as may be supposed, Christ and the pope. The church is here pictured
as a not very stately building; the entrance, especially, is a plain
structure of timber. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "He that entereth not
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the
same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is
the shepherd of the flock." In the engraving, the pope, as the hireling
shepherd, sits on the roof of the stateliest part of the building,
pointing out to the Christian flock the wrong way, and blessing the
climbers. Under him two men of worldly distinction are making their
way into the church through a window; and on a roof below a friar is
pointing to the people the way up. At another window a monk holds
out his arms to invite people up; and one in spectacles, no doubt
emblematical of the doctors of the church, is looking out from an
opening over the entrance door to watch the proceedings of the Good
Shepherd. To the right, on the papal side of the church, the lords
and great men are bringing the people under their influence, till
they are stopped by the cardinals and bishops, who prevent them from
going forward to the door and point out very energetically the way
up the roof. At the door stands, the Saviour, as the good shepherd,
who has knocked, and the porter has opened it with his key. Christ's
true teachers, the evangelists, show the way to the solitary man of
worth who comes by this road, and who listens with calm attention to
the gospel teachers, while he opens his purse to bestow his charity
on the poor man by the road side. In the original engraving, in the
distance on the left, the Good Shepherd is seen followed by his flock,
who are obedient to his voice; on the right, the bad shepherd, who has
ostentatiously drawn up his sheep round the image of the cross, is
abandoning them, and taking to flight on the approach of the wolf. "He
that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the
porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own
sheep he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his
voice.... But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own
the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and
fleeth; and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep." (John x.
2-4, 12.)

[78] "Infinitus jam erat numerus qui victum ex Lutheranis libris
quæritantes, in speciem bibliopolarum longe lateque per Germaniæ
provincias vagabantur."--Eck., p. 58.

[Illustration: _No. 152. The Two Shepherds._]

[Illustration: _No. 153. Murner and Luther's Daughter._]

The triumph of Luther is the subject of a rather large and elaborate
caricature, which is an engraving of great rarity, but a copy of it is
given in Jaime's "Musée de Caricature." Leo X. is represented seated
on his throne upon the edge of the abyss, into which his cardinals are
trying to prevent his falling; but their efforts are rendered vain by
the appearance of Luther on the other side supported by his principal
adherents, and wielding the Bible as his weapon, and the pope is
overthrown, in spite of the support he receives from a vast host of
popish clergy, doctors, &c.

The popish writers against Luther charged him with vices for which
there was probably no foundation, and invented the most scandalous
stories against him. They accused him, among other things, of
drunkenness and licentiousness. and there may, perhaps, be some
allusion to the latter charge in our cut No. 153, which is taken from
one of the comic illustrations to Murner's book, "Von dem grossen
Lutherischen Narren," which was published in 1522; but, at all events,
it will serve as a specimen of these illustrations, and of Murner's
fancy of representing himself with the head of a cat. In 1525, Luther
married a nun who had turned Protestant and quitted her convent,
named Catherine de Bora, and this became the signal to his opponents
for indulging in abusive songs, and satires, and caricatures, most
of them too coarse and indelicate to be described in these pages.
In many of the caricatures made on this occasion, which are usually
woodcut illustrations to books written against the reformer, Luther is
represented dancing with Catherine de Bora, or sitting at table with a
glass in his hand. An engraving of this kind, which forms one of the
illustrations to a work by Dr. Konrad Wimpina, one of the reformer's
violent opponents, represents Luther's marriage. It is divided into
three compartments; to the left, Luther, whom the Catholics always
represented in the character of a monk, gives the marriage ring to
Catherine de Bora, and above them, in a sort of aureole, is inscribed
the word _Vovete_; on the right appears the nuptial bed, with the
curtains drawn, and the inscription _Reddite_; and in the middle the
monk and nun are dancing joyously together, and over their heads we
read the words--

Discedat ab aris
Cui tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus.

While Luther was heroically fighting the great fight of reform in
Germany, the foundation of religious reform was laid in France by
John Calvin, a man equally sincere and zealous in the cause, but of
a totally different temper, and he espoused doctrines and forms of
church government which a Lutheran would not admit. Literary satire
was used with great effect by the French Calvinists against their
popish opponents, but they have left us few caricatures or burlesque
engravings of any kind; at least, very few belonging to the earlier
period of their history. Jaime, in his "Musée de Caricature," has given
a copy of a very rare plate, representing the pope struggling with
Luther and Calvin, as his two assailants. Both are tearing the pope's
hair, but it is Calvin who is here armed with the Bible, with which
he is striking at Luther, who is pulling him by the beard. The pope
has his hands upon their heads. This scene takes place in the choir of
a church, but I give here (cut No. 154) only the group of the three
combatants, intended to represent how the two great opponents to papal
corruptions were hostile at the same time to each other.

[Illustration: _No. 154. Luther and Calvin._]

CHAPTER XVI.

ORIGIN OF MEDIÆVAL FARCE AND MODERN COMEDY.--HROTSVITHA.--MEDIÆVAL
NOTIONS OF TERENCE.--THE EARLY RELIGIOUS PLAYS.--MYSTERIES AND
MIRACLE PLAYS.--THE FARCES.--THE DRAMA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

There is still another branch of literature which, however it may have
been modified, has descended to us from the middle ages. It has been
remarked more than once in the course of this book, that the theatre
of the Romans perished in the transition from the empire to the middle
ages; but something in the shape of theatrical performances appears
to be inseparable from society even in its most barbarous state, and
we soon trace among the peoples who had settled upon the ruins of the
empire of Rome an approach towards a drama. It is worthy of remark,
too, that the mediæval drama originated exactly in the same way as that
of ancient Greece, that is, from religious ceremonies.

Such was the ignorance of the ancient stage in the middle ages,
that the meaning of the word _comœdia_ was not understood. The
Anglo-Saxon glossaries interpret the word by _racu_, a narrative,
especially an epic recital, and this was the sense in which it was
generally taken until late in the fourteenth or the fifteenth century.
It is the sense in which it is used in the title of Dante's great poem,
the "Divina Commedia." When the mediæval scholars became acquainted in
manuscripts with the comedies of Terence, they considered them only as
fine examples of a particular sort of literary composition, as metrical
narratives in dialogue, and in this feeling they began to imitate them.
One of the first of these mediæval imitators was a lady. There lived
in the tenth century a maiden of Saxony, named Hrotsvitha--a rather
unfortunate name for one of her sex, for it means simply "a loud noise
of voices," or, as she explains it herself, in her Latin, _clamor
validus_. Hrotsvitha, as was common enough among the ladies of those
days, had received a very learned education, and her Latin is very
respectable. About the middle of the tenth century, she became a nun
in the very aristocratic Benedictine abbey of Gandesheim, in Saxony,
the abbesses of which were all princesses, and which had been founded
only a century before. She wrote in Latin verse a short history of
that religious house, but she is best known by seven pieces, which are
called comedies (_comœdiæ_), and which consist simply of legends of
saints, told dialogue-wise, some in verse and some in prose. As may
be supposed, there is not much of real comedy in these compositions,
although one of them, the Dulcitius, is treated in a style which
approaches that of farce. It is the story of the martyrdom of the three
virgin saints--Agape, Chione, and Irene--who excite the lust of the
persecutor Dulcitius; and it may be remarked, that in this "comedy,"
and in that of Callimachus and one or two of the others, the lady
Hrotsvitha displays a knowledge of love-making and of the language of
love, which was hardly to be expected from a holy nun.[79]

[79] Several editions of the writings of Hrotsvitha, texts and
translations, have been published of late years both in Germany
and in France, of which I may point out the following as most
useful and complete--"Théatre de Hrotsvitha, Religieuse Allemande
du x^e siècle....par Charles Magnin," 8vo., Paris, 1845;
"Hrotsvithæ Gandeshemensis, virginis et monialis Germanicæ, gente
Saxonica ortæ, Comœdias sex, ad fidem codicis Emmeranensis
typis expressas edidit.... J. Benedixen," 16mo., Lubecæ, 1857;
"Die Werke der Hrotsvitha: Herausgegeben von Dr. K. A. Barack,"
8vo., Nürnberg, 1858.

Hrotsvitha, in her preface, complains that, in spite of the general
love for the reading of the Scriptures, and contempt for everything
derived from ancient paganism, people still too often read the
"fictions" of Terence, and thus, seduced by the beauties of his style,
soiled their minds with the knowledge of the criminal acts which are
described in his writings. A rather early manuscript has preserved a
very curious fragment illustrative of the manner in which the comedies
of the Romans were regarded by one class of people in the middle ages,
and it has also a further meaning. Its form is that of a dialogue in
Latin verse between Terence and a personage called in the original
_delusor_, which was no doubt intended to express a performer of some
kind, and may be probably considered as synonymous with _jougleur_. It
is a contention between the new jouglerie of the middle ages and the
old jouglerie of the schools, somewhat in the same style as the fabliau
of "Les deux Troveors Ribauz," described in a former chapter.[80] We
are to suppose that the name of Terence has been in some way or other
brought forward in laudatory terms, upon which the jougleur steps
forward from among the spectators and expresses himself towards the
Roman writer very contemptuously. Terence then makes his appearance to
speak in his own defence, and the two go on abusing one another in no
very measured language. Terence asks his assailant who he is? to which
the other replies, "If you ask who I am, I reply, I am better than
thee. Thou art old and broken with years; I am a tyro, full of vigour,
and in the force of youth. You are but a barren trunk, while I am a
good and fertile tree. If you hold your tongue, old fellow, it will be
much better for you."

_Si rogitas quis sum, respondeo: te melior sum.
Tu vetus atque senex; ego tyro, valens, adulescens.
Tu sterilis truncus; ego fertilis arbor, opimus.
Si taceas, o vetule, lucrum tibi quæris enorme._

Terence replies:--"What sense have you left? Are you, think you,
better than me? Let me see you, young as you are, compose what
I, however old and broken, will compose. If you be a good tree,
show us some proofs of your fertility. Although I may be a barren
trunk, I produce abundance of better fruit than thine."

_Quis tibi sensus inest? numquid melior me es?
Nunc vetus atque senex quæ fecero fac adolescens.
Si bonus arbor ades, qua fertilitate redundas?
Cum sim truncus iners, fructu meliore redundo._

And so the dispute continues, but unfortunately the latter part has
been lost with a leaf or two of the manuscript. I will only add that I
think the age of this curious piece has been overrated.[81]

[80] See p. 191 of the present volume.

[81] This singular composition was published with notes by M. de
Montaiglon, in a Parisian journal entitled, "L'Amateur de
Livres," in 1849, under the title of "Fragment d'un Dialogue
Latin du ix^e siècle entre Terence et un Bouffon." A few separate
copies were printed, of which I possess one.

Hrotsvitha is the earliest example we have of mediæval writers in this
particular class of literature. We find no other until the twelfth
century, when two writers flourished named Vital of Blois (_Vitalis
Blesensis_) and Matthew of Vendôme (_Matthæus Vindocinensis_), the
authors of several of the mediæval poems distinguished by the title of
_comœdiæ_, which give us a clearer and more distinct idea of what
was meant by the word. They are written in Latin Elegiac verse, a form
of composition which was very popular among the mediæval scholars, and
consist of stories told in dialogue. Hence Professor Osann, of Giessen,
who edited two of those of Vital of Blois, gives them the title of
eclogues (_eclogæ_). The name comedy is, however, given to them in
manuscripts, and it may perhaps admit of the following explanation.
These pieces seem to have been first mere abridgments of the plots of
the Roman comedies, especially those of Plautus, and the authors appear
to have taken the Latin title of the original as applied to the plot,
in the sense of a narrative, and not to its dramatic form. Of the two
"comedies" by Vital of Blois, one is entitled "Geta," and is taken from
the "Amphytrio" of Plautus, and the other, which in the manuscripts
bears the title of "Querulus," represents the "Aulularia" of the
same writer. Independent of the form of composition, the scholastic
writer has given a strangely mediæval turn to the incidents of the
classic story of Jupiter and Alcmena. Another similar "comedy," that
of Babio, which I first printed from the manuscripts, is still more
mediæval in character. Its plot, perhaps taken from a fabliau, for the
mediæval writers rarely invented stories, is as follows, although it
must be confessed that it comes out rather obscurely in the dialogue
itself. Babio, the hero of the piece, is a priest, who, as was still
common at that time (the twelfth century), has a wife, or, as the
strict religionists would then say, a concubine, named Pecula. She has
a daughter named Viola, with whom Babio is in love, and he pursues
his design upon her, of course unknown to his wife. Babio has also a
man-servant named Fodius, who is engaged in a secret intrigue with
his mistress, Pecula, and also seeks to seduce her daughter, Viola.
To crown the whole, the lord of the manor, a knight named Croceus, is
also in love with Viola, though with more honourable designs. Here is
surely intrigue enough and a sufficient absence of morality to satisfy
a modern French novelist of the first water. At the opening of the
piece, amid some by-play between the four individuals who form the
household of Babio, it is suddenly announced that Croceus is on his
way to visit him, and a feast is hastily prepared for his reception.
It ends in the knight carrying away Viola by force. Babio, after a
little vain bluster, consoles himself for the loss of the damsel with
reflections on the virtue of his wife, Pecula, and the faithfulness of
his man, Fodius, when, at this moment, Fame carries to his ear reports
which excite his suspicions against them. He adopts a stratagem very
frequently introduced in the mediæval stories, surprises the two lovers
under circumstances which leave no room for doubting their guilt, and
then forgives them, enters a monastery, and leaves them to themselves.
In form, these "comedies" are little more than scholastic exercises;
but, at a later period, we shall see the same stories adopted as the
subjects of farces.[82]

[82] To judge by the number of copies found in manuscripts,
especially of the "Geta," these dramatic poems must have enjoyed
considerable popularity. The "Geta" and the "Querulus" were
published in a volume entitled, "Vitalis Blesensis Amphitryon et
Aulularia Eclogæ. Edidit Fridericus Osannus, Professor Gisensis,"
8vo., Darmstadt, 1836. The "Geta" and the "Babio" are included
in my "Early Mysteries, and other Latin Poems of the Twelfth and
Thirteenth Centuries."

Already, however, by the side of these dramatic poems, a real
drama--the drama of the middle ages--was gradually developing
itself. As stated before, it arose, like the drama of the Greeks,
out of the religious ceremonies. We know nothing of the existence of
anything approaching to dramatic forms which may have existed among
the religious rites of the peoples of the Teutonic race before
their conversion to Christianity, but the Christian clergy felt the
necessity of keeping up festive religious ceremonies in some form or
other, and also of impressing upon people's imagination and memory by
means of rude scenical representations some of the broader facts of
scriptural and ecclesiastical history. These performances at first
consisted probably in mere dumb show, or at the most the performers
may have chanted the scriptural account of the transaction they were
representing. In this manner the choral boys, or the younger clergy,
would, on some special Saint's day, perform some striking act in
the life of the saint commemorated, or, on particular festivals of
the church, those incidents of gospel history to which the festival
especially related. By degrees, a rather more imposing character was
given to these performances by the addition of a continuous dialogue,
which, however, was written in Latin verse, and was no doubt chanted.
This incipient drama in Latin, as far as we know it, belongs to the
twelfth century, and is represented by a tolerably large number of
examples still preserved in mediæval manuscripts. Some of the earliest
of these have for their author a pupil of the celebrated Abelard, named
Hilarius, who lived in the first half of the twelfth century, and is
understood to have been by birth an Englishman. Hilarius appears before
us as a playful Latin poet, and among a number of short pieces, which
may be almost called lyric, he has left us three of these religious
plays. The subject of the first of these is the raising of Lazarus
from the dead, the chief peculiarity of which consists of the songs of
lamentation placed in the mouths of the two sisters of Lazarus, Mary
and Martha. The second represents one of the miracles attributed to St.
Nicholas; and the third, the history of Daniel. The latter is longer
and more elaborate than the others, and at its conclusion, the stage
direction tells us that, if it were performed at matins, Darius, king
of the Medes and Persians, was to chant _Te Deum Laudamus_, but if it
were at vespers, the great king was to chant _Magnificat anima mea
Dominum_.[83]

[83] "Hilarii Versus et Ludi," 8vo., Paris, 1835. Edited by M.
Champollion Figeac.

That this mediæval drama was not derived from that of the Roman is
evident from the circumstance that entirely new terms were applied
to it. The western people in the middle ages had no words exactly
equivalent with the Latin _comœdia_, _tragœdia_, _theatrum_, &c.;
and even the Latinists, to designate the dramatic pieces performed
at the church festivals, employed the word _ludus_, a play. The
French called them by a word having exactly the same meaning, _jeu_
(from _jocus_). Similarly in English they were termed _plays_. The
Anglo-Saxon glossaries present as the representative of the Latin
_theatrum_, the compounded words _plege-stow_, or _pleg-stow_, a
play-place, and _pleg-hus_, a play-house. It is curious that we
Englishmen have preferred to the present time the Anglo-Saxon words
in _play_, _player_, and _play-house_. Another Anglo-Saxon word with
exactly the same signification, _lac_, or _gelac_, play, appears to
have been more in use in the dialect of the Northumbrians, and a
Yorkshireman still calls a play a _lake_, and a player a _laker_. So
also the Germans called a dramatic performance a _spil_, _i.e._ a play,
the modern _spiel_, and a theatre, a _spil-hus_. One of the pieces of
Hilarius is thus entitled "Ludus super iconia sancti Nicolai," and the
French _jeu_ and the English _play_ are constantly used in the same
sense. But besides this general term, words gradually came into use to
characterise different sorts of plays. The church plays consisted of
two descriptions of subjects, they either represented the miraculous
acts of certain saints, which had a plain meaning, or some incident
taken from the Holy Scriptures, which was supposed to have a hidden
mysterious signification as well as an apparent one, and hence the
one class of subject was usually spoken of simply as _miraculum_, a
miracle, and the other as _mysterium_, a mystery. _Mysteries_ and
_miracle-plays_ are still the names usually given to the old religious
plays by writers on the history of the stage.

We have a proof that the Latin religious plays, and the festivities
in which they were employed, had become greatly developed in the
twelfth century, in the notice taken of them in the ecclesiastical
councils of that period, for they were disapproved by the stricter
church disciplinarians. So early as the papacy of Gregory VIII., the
pope urged the clergy to "extirpate" from their churches theatrical
plays, and other festive practices which were not quite in harmony
with the sacred character of these buildings.[84] Such performances are
forbidden by a council held at Treves in 1227.[85] We learn from the
annals of the abbey of Corbei, published by Leibnitz, that the younger
monks at Heresburg performed on one occasion a "sacred comedy" (_sacram
comœdiam_) of the selling into captivity and the exaltation of
Joseph, which was disapproved by the other heads of the order.[86] Such
performances are included in a proclamation of the bishop of Worms, in
1316, against the various abuses which had crept into the festivities
observed in his diocese at Easter and St. John's tide.[87] Similar
prohibitions of the acting of such plays in churches are met with at
subsequent periods.

[84] "Interdum ludi fiunt in ecclesiis theatrales," &c.--_Decret
Gregorii_, lib. iii. tit. i.

[85] "Item non permittant sacerdotes ludos theatrales fieri in
ecclesia et alios ludos inhonestos."

[86] "Juniores fratres in Heresburg sacram habuere comœdiam de
Josepho vendito et exalto, quod vero reliqui ordinis nostri
prælati male interpretati sunt."--_Leibn., Script. Brunsv._ tom.
ii. p. 311.

[87] The acts of this synod of Worms are printed in Harzheim, tom. iv.
p. 258.

While these performances were thus falling under the censure of the
church authorities, they were taken up by the laity, and under their
management both the plays and the machinery for acting them underwent
considerable extension. The municipal guilds contained in their
constitution a considerable amount of religious spirit. They were
great benefactors of the churches in cities and municipal towns, and
had usually some parts of the sacred edifice appropriated to them,
and they may, perhaps, have taken a part in these performances, while
they were still confined to the church. These guilds, and subsequently
the municipal corporations, took them entirely into their own hands.
Certain annual religious festivals, and especially the feast of _Corpus
Christi_, were still the occasions on which the plays were acted, but
they were taken entirely from the churches, and the performances took
place in the open streets. Each guild had its particular play, and
they acted on movable stages, which were dragged along the streets in
the procession of the guild. These stages appear to have been rather
complicated. They were divided into three floors, that in the middle,
which was the principal stage, representing this world, while the upper
division represented heaven, and that at the bottom hell. The mediæval
writers in Latin called this machinery a _pegma_, from the Greek word
πῆγμα, a scaffold; and they also applied to it, for a reason which
is not is easily seen, unless the one word arose out of a corruption
of the other, that of _pagina_, and from a further corruption of these
came into the French and English languages the word _pageant_, which
originally signified one of these movable stages, though it has since
received secondary meanings which have a much wider application. Each
guild in a town had its pageant and its own actors, who performed
in masks and costumes, and each had one of a series of plays, which
were performed at places where they halted in the procession. The
subjects of these plays were taken from Scripture, and they usually
formed a regular series of the principal histories of the Old and New
Testaments. For this reason they were generally termed _mysteries_, a
title already explained; and among the few series of these plays still
preserved, we have the "Coventry Mysteries," which were performed by
the guilds of that town, the "Chester Mysteries," belonging to the
guilds in the city of Chester, and the "Towneley Mysteries," so called
from the name of the possessor of the manuscript, but which probably
belonged to the guilds of Wakefield in Yorkshire.

During these changes in the method of performance, the plays themselves
had also been considerably modified. The simple Latin phrases, even
when in rhyme, which formed the dialogue of the earlier _ludi_--as in
the four miracles of St. Nicholas, and the six Latin mysteries taken
from the New Testament, printed in my volume of "Early Mysteries and
other Latin Poems"--must have been very uninteresting to the mass of
the spectators, and an attempt was made to enliven them by introducing
among the Latin phrases popular proverbs, or even sometimes a song
in the vulgar tongue. Thus in the play of "Lazarus" by Hilarius, the
Latin of the lamentations of his two sisters is intermixed with French
verses. Such is the case also with the play of "St. Nicholas" by
the same writer, as well as with the curious mystery of the Foolish
Virgins, printed in my "Early Mysteries" just alluded to, in which
latter the Latin is intermingled with Provençal verse. A much greater
advance was made when these performances were transferred to the
guilds. The Latin was then discarded altogether, and the whole play
was written in French, or English, or German, as the case might be,
the plot was made more elaborate, and the dialogue greatly extended.
But now that the whole institution had become secularised, the want
of something to amuse people--to make them laugh, as people liked to
laugh in the middle ages--was felt more than ever, and this want was
supplied by the introduction of droll and ludicrous scenes, which are
often very slightly, if at all, connected with the subject of the play.
In one of the earliest of the French plays, that of "St. Nicholas," by
Jean Bodel, the characters who form the burlesque scene are a party
of gamblers in a tavern. In others, robbers, or peasants, or beggars
form the comic scene, or vulgar women, or any personages who could be
introduced acting vulgarly and using coarse language, for these were
great incitements to mirth among the populace.

In the English plays now remaining, these scenes are, on the whole,
less frequent, and they are usually more closely connected with
the general subject. The earliest English collection that has been
published is that known as the "Towneley Mysteries," the manuscript of
which belongs to the fifteenth century, and the plays themselves may
have been composed in the latter part of the fourteenth. It contains
thirty-two plays, beginning with the Creation, and ending with the
Ascension and the Day of Judgment, with two supplementary plays, the
"Raising of Lazarus" and the "Hanging of Judas." The play of "Cain and
Abel" is throughout a vulgar drollery, in which Cain, who exhibits
the character of a blustering ruffian, is accompanied by a _garcio_,
or lad, who is the very type of a vulgar and insolent horse-boy, and
the conversation of these two worthies reminds us a little of that
between the clown and his master in the open-air performances of the
old wandering mountebanks. Even the death of Abel by the hand of his
brother is performed in a manner calculated to provoke great laughter.
In the old mirthful spirit, to hear two persons load each other with
vulgar abuse, was as good as seeing them grin through a horse-collar,
if not better. Hence the droll scene in the play of "Noah" is a
domestic quarrel between Noah and his wife, who was proverbially a
shrew, and here gives a tolerable example of abusive language, as it
might then come from a woman's tongue. The quarrel arises out of her
obstinate refusal to go into the ark. In the New Testament series the
play of "The Shepherds" was one of those most susceptible of this sort
of embellishment. There are two plays of the Shepherds in the "Towneley
Mysteries," the first of which is amusing enough, as it represents,
in clever burlesque, the acts and conversation of a party of mediæval
shepherds guarding their flocks at night; but the second play of the
Shepherds is a much more remarkable example of a comic drama. The
shepherds are introduced at the opening of the piece conversing very
satirically on the corruptions of the time, and complaining how the
people were impoverished by over-taxation, to support the pride and
vanity of the aristocracy. After a good deal of very amusing talk, the
shepherds, who, as usual, are three in number, agree to sing a song,
and it is this song, it appears, which brings to them a fourth, named
Mak, who proves to be a sheep-stealer; and, in fact, no sooner have
the shepherds resigned themselves to sleep for the night, than Mak
chooses one of the best sheep in their flocks, and carries it home
to his hut. Knowing that he will be suspected of the theft, and that
he will soon be pursued, he is anxious to conceal the plunder, and
is only helped out of his difficulty by his wife, who suggests that
the carcase shall be laid at the bottom of her cradle, and that she
shall lie upon it and groan, pretending to be in labour. Meanwhile the
shepherds awake, discover the loss of a sheep, and perceiving that Mak
has disappeared also, they naturally suspect him to be the depredator,
and pursue him. They find everything very cunningly prepared in the
cottage to deceive them, but, after a large amount of roundabout
inquiry and research, and much drollery, they discover that the boy of
which Mak's wife pretends to have been just delivered, is nothing else
but the sheep which had been stolen from their flocks. The wife still
asserts that it is her child, and Mak sets up as his defence that the
baby had been "forspoken," or enchanted, by an elf at midnight, and
that it had thus been changed into the appearance of a sheep; but the
shepherds refuse to be satisfied with this explanation. The whole of
this little comedy is carried out with great skill, and with infinite
drollery. The shepherds, while still wrangling with Mak and his wife,
are seized with drowsiness, and lie down to sleep; but they are aroused
by the voice of the angel, who proclaims the birth of the Saviour. The
next play in which the drollery is introduced, is that of "Herod and
the Slaughter of the Innocents." Herod's bluster and bombast, and the
vulgar abuse which passes between the Hebrew mothers and the soldiers
who are murdering their children, are wonderfully laughable. The plays
which represented the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus, are all
full of drollery, for the grotesque character which had been given to
the demons in the earlier middle ages, appears to have been transferred
to the executioners, or, as they were called, the "tormentors," and
the language and manner in which they executed their duties, must have
kept the audience in a continual roar of laughter. In the play of
"Doomsday," the fiends retained their old character, and the manner
in which they joke over the distress of the sinful souls, and the
details they give of their sinfulness, are equally mirth-provoking. The
"Coventry Mysteries" are also printed from a manuscript of the middle
of the fifteenth century, and are, perhaps, as old as the "Towneley
Mysteries." They consist of forty-two plays, but they contain, on the
whole, fewer droll scenes than those of the Towneley collection. But
a very remarkable example is furnished in the play of the "Trial of
Joseph and Mary," which is a very grotesque picture of the proceedings
in a mediæval consistory court. The sompnour, a character so well
known by Chaucer's picture of him, opens the piece by reading from his
book a long list of offenders against chastity. At its conclusion,
two "detractors" make their appearance, who repeat various scandalous
stories against the Virgin Mary and her husband Joseph, which are
overheard by some of the high officers of the court, and Mary and
Joseph are formally accused and placed upon their trial. The trial
itself is a scene of low ribaldry, which can only have afforded
amusement to a very vulgar audience. There is a certain amount of the
same kind of indelicate drollery in the play of "The Woman taken in
Adultery," in this collection. The "Chester Mysteries" are still more
sparing of such scenes, but they are printed from manuscripts written
after the Reformation, which had, perhaps, gone through the process
of expurgation, in which such excrescences had been lopped off.
However, in the play of "Noah's Flood," we have the old quarrel between
Noah and his wife, which is carried so far that the latter actually
beats her husband in the presence of the audience. There is a little
drollery in the play of "The Shepherds," a considerable amount of what
may be called "Billingsgate" language in the play of the "Slaughter
of the Innocents," but less than the usual amount of insolence in the
tormentors and demons.[88] It is probable, however, that these droll
scenes were not always considered an integral part of the play in which
they were introduced, but that they were kept as separate subjects, to
be introduced at will, and not always in the same play, and therefore
that they were not copied with the play in the manuscripts.

[88] The editions of the three principal collections of English
mysteries are--1. "The Towneley Mysteries," 8vo., London,
1836, published by the Surtees Society; 2. "Ludus Coventriæ: a
Collection of Mysteries, formerly represented at Coventry on the
Feast of Corpus Christi," edited by James Orchard Halliwell,
Esq., 8vo., London, 1841, published by the Shakespeare Society;
3. "The Chester Plays: a Collection of Mysteries founded upon
Scriptural Subjects, and formerly represented by the Trades of
Chester at Whitsuntide," edited by Thomas Wright, Esq., 2 vols.
8vo., London, 1843 and 1847, published by the Shakespeare Society.

In the Coventry play of "Noah's Flood," when Noah has received the
directions from an angel for the building of the ark, he leaves the
stage to proceed to this important work. On his departure, Lamech comes
forward, blind and led by a youth, who directs his hand to shoot at a
beast concealed in a bush. Lamech shoots, and kills Cain, upon which,
in his anger, he beats the youth to death, and laments the misfortune
into which the latter has led him. This was the legendary explanation
of the passage in the fourth chapter of Genesis: "And Lamech said ...
I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt; if Cain
shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven-fold." It
is evident that this is a piece of scriptural story which has nothing
to do with Noah's flood, and accordingly, in the Coventry play, we
are told in the stage directions, that it was introduced in the place
of the "interlude,"[89] as if there were a place in the machinery of
the pageant where the episode, which was not an integral part of the
subject, was performed, and that this part of the performance was
called an interlude, or play introduced in the interval of the action
of the main subject. The word _interlude_ remained long in our language
as applied to such short and simple dramatic pieces as we may suppose
to have formed the drolleries of the mysteries. But they had another
name in France which has had a greater and more lulling celebrity.
In one of the early French miracle-plays, that of "St. Fiacre," an
interlude of this kind is introduced, containing five personages--a
brigand or robber, a peasant, a sergeant, and the wives of the two
latter. The brigand, meeting the peasant on the highway, asks the way
to St. Omer, and receives a clownish answer, which is followed by one
equally rude on a second question. The brigand, in revenge, steals
the peasant's capon, but the sergeant comes up at this moment and,
attempting to arrest the thief, receives a blow from the latter which
is supposed to break his right arm. The brigand thus escapes, and the
peasant and the sergeant quit the scene, which is immediately occupied
by their wives. The sergeant's wife is informed by the other of the
injury sustained by her husband, and she exults over it because it will
deprive him of the power of beating her. They then proceed to a tavern,
call for wine, and make merry, the conversation turning upon the faults
of their respective husbands, who are not spared. In the midst of
their enjoyments, the two husbands return, and show, by beating their
wives, that they are not very greatly disabled. In the manuscript of
the miracle-play of "St. Fiacre," in which this amusing episode is
introduced, a marginal stage direction is expressed in the following
words, "_cy est interposé une farsse_" (here a farce is introduced).
This is one of the earliest instances of the application of the term
_farce_ to these short dramatic facetiæ. Different opinions have been
expressed as to the origin of the word, but it seems most probable
that it is derived from an old French verb, _farcer_, to jest, to make
merry, whence the modern word _farceur_ for a joker, and that it thus
means merely a drollery or merriment.

[89] "Hic transit Noe cum familia sua pro navi, quo exeunte, _locum
interludii subintret_ statim Lameth, conductus ab adolescente, et
dicens," &c.

I have just suggested as a reason for the absence of these interludes,
or farces, in the mysteries as they are found in the manuscripts,
that they were probably not looked upon as parts of the mysteries
themselves, but as separate pieces which might be used at pleasure.
When we reach a certain period in their history, we find that not only
was this the case, but that these farces were performed separately and
altogether independently of the religious plays. It is in France that
we find information which enables us to trace the gradual revolution
in the mediæval drama. A society was formed towards the close of the
fourteenth century under the title of _Confrères de la Passion_, who,
in 1398, established a regular theatre at St. Maur-des-Fossés, and
subsequently obtained from Charles VI. a privilege to transport their
theatre into Paris, and to perform in it mysteries and miracle-plays.
They now rented of the monks of Hermières a hall in the hospital of the
Trinity, outside of the Porte St. Denis, performing there regularly
on Sundays and saints' days, and probably making a good thing of it,
for, during a long period, they enjoyed great popularity. Gradually,
however, this popularity was so much diminished, that the _confrères_
were obliged to have recourse to expedients for reviving it. Meanwhile
other similar societies had arisen into importance. The clerks of
the Bazoche, or lawyers' clerks of the Palais de Justice, had thus
associated together, it is said, as early as the beginning of the
fourteenth century, and they distinguished themselves by composing
and performing farces, for which they appear to have obtained a
privilege. Towards the close of the fourteenth century, there arose
in Paris another society, which took the name of _Enfans sans souci_,
or Careless Boys, who elected a president or chief with the title
of _Prince des Sots_, or King of the Fools, and who composed a sort
of dramatic satires which they called _Sotties_. Jealousies soon
arose between these two societies, either because the sotties were
made sometimes to resemble too closely the farces, or because each
trespassed too often on the territories of the other. Their differences
were finally arranged by a compromise, whereby the Bazochians yielded
to their rivals the privilege of performing farces, and received in
return the permission to perform sotties. The Bazochians, too, had
invented a new class of dramatic pieces which they called _Moralities_,
and in which allegorical personages were introduced. Thus three
dramatic societies continued to exist in France through the fifteenth
century, and until the middle of the sixteenth.

These various pieces, under the titles of farces, sotties, moralities,
or whatever other names might be given to them, had become exceedingly
popular at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and a very
considerable number of them were printed, and many of them are still
preserved, but they are books of great rarity, and often unique.[90]
Of these the farces form the most numerous class. They consist simply
of the tales of the older jougleurs or story-tellers represented in a
dramatic form, but they often display great skill in conducting the
plot, and a considerable amount of wit. The story of the sheep-stealer
in the Towneley play of "The Shepherds," is a veritable farce. As
in the fabliaux, the most common subjects of these farces are love
intrigues, carried on in a manner which speaks little for the morality
of the age in which they were written. Family quarrels frequently
form the subject of a farce, and the weaknesses and vices of women.
The priests, as usual, are not spared, but are introduced as the
seducers of wives and daughters. In one the wives have found a means of
re-modelling their husbands and making them young again, which they put
in practice with various ludicrous circumstances. Tricks of servants
are also common subjects for these farces. One is the story of a boy
who does not know his own father, and some of the subjects are of a
still more trivial character, as that of the boy who steals a tart from
the pastrycook's shop. Two hungry boys, prowling about the streets,
come to the shop door just as the pastrycook is giving directions for
sending an eel-pie after him. By an ingenious deception the boys gain
possession of the pie and eat it, and they are both caught and severely
chastised. This is the whole plot of the farce. A dull schoolboy
examined by his master in the presence of his parents, and the mirth
produced by his blunders and their ignorance, formed also a favourite
subject among these farces. One or two examples are preserved, and,
from a companion of them, we might be led to suspect that Shakespeare
took the idea of the opening scene in the fourth act of the "Merry
Wives of Windsor" from one of these old farces.

[90] The most remarkable collection of these early farces, sotties,
and moralities yet known, was found accidentally in 1845, and
is now in the British Museum. These were all edited in Paris
as the first three volumes of a work in ten, entitled "Ancien
Théatre François, ou Collection des Ouvrages dramatiques les plus
remarquable depuis les Mystères jusqu'à Corneille, publié ... par
M. Viollet le Duc," 12mo., Paris, 1854. It is right to state that
these three volumes were edited, not by M. Viollet le Duc, but
by a scholar better known for his learning in the older French
literature, M. Anatole de Montaiglon.

The sotties and moralities were more imaginative and extravagant
than the farces, and were filled with allegorical personages. The
characters introduced in the former have generally some relation to
the kingdom of folly. Thus, in one of the sotties, the king of fools
(_le roy des sotz_) is represented as holding his court, and consulting
with his courtiers, whose names are Triboulet, Mitouflet, Sottinet,
Coquibus, and Guippelin. Their conversation, as may be supposed, is
of a satirical character. Another is entitled "The Sottie of the
Deceivers," or cheats. Sottie--another name for mother Folly--opens
the piece with a proclamation or address to fools of all descriptions,
summoning them to her presence. Two, named Teste-Verte and Fine-Mine,
obey the call, and they are questioned as to their own condition, and
their proceedings, but their conversation is interrupted by the sudden
intrusion of another personage named Everyone (_Chascun_), who, on
examination, is found to be as perfect a fool as any of them. They
accordingly fraternise, and join in a song. Finally, another character,
The Time (_le Temps_), joins them, and they agree to submit to his
directions. Accordingly he instructs them in the arts of flattery
and deceiving, and the other similar means by which men of that time
sought to thrive. Another is the Sottie of Foolish Ostentation (_de
folle bobance_). This lady similarly opens the scene with an address
to all the fools who hold allegiance to her, and three of these make
their appearance. The first fool is the gentleman, the second the
merchant, the fourth the peasant, and their conversation is a satire
on contemporary society. The personification of abstract principles is
far bolder. The three characters who compose one of these moralities
are Everything (_tout_), Nothing (_rien_), and Everyone (_chascun_).
How the personification of Nothing was to be represented, we are not
told. The title of another of these moralities will be enough to give
the reader a notion of their general title; it is, "A New Morality of
the Children of Now-a-Days (_Maintenant_), who are the Scholars of
Once-good (_Jabien_), who shows them how to play at Cards and at Dice,
and to entertain Luxury, whereby one comes to Shame (_Honte_), and
from Shame to Despair (_Desespoir_), and from Despair to the gibbet of
Perdition, and then turns himself to Good-doing." The characters in
this play are Now-a-Days, Once-good, Luxury, Shame, Despair, Perdition,
and Good-doing.

The three dramatic societies which produced all these farces, sotties,
and moralities, continued to flourish in France until the middle of
the sixteenth century, at which period a great revolution in dramatic
literature took place in that country. The performance of the Mysteries
had been forbidden by authority, and the Bazochians themselves were
suppressed. The petty drama represented by the farces and sotties
went rapidly out of fashion, in the great change through which the
mind of society was at this time passing, and in which the taste for
classical literature overcame all others. The old drama in France had
disappeared, and a new one, formed entirely upon an imitation of the
classical drama, was beginning to take its place. This incipient drama
was represented in the sixteenth century by Etienne Jodel, by Jacques
Grevin, by Rémy Belleau, and especially by Pierre de Larivey, the most
prolific, and perhaps the most talented, of the earlier French regular
dramatic authors.

These French dramatic essays, the farces, the sotties, and the
moralities, were imitated, and sometimes translated, in English, and
many of them were printed; for the further our researches are carried
into the early history of printing, the more we are astonished at the
extreme activity of the press, even in its infancy, in multiplying
literature of a popular character. In England, as in France, the
farces had been, at a rather early period, detached from the mysteries
and miracle-plays, but the word _interludes_ had been adopted here
as the general title for them, and continued in use even after the
establishment of the regular drama. Perhaps this name owed its
popularity to the circumstance that it seemed more appropriate to its
object, when it became so fashionable in England to act these plays at
intervals in the great festivals and entertainments given at court, or
in the households of the great nobles. At all events, there can be
no doubt that this fashion had a great influence on the fate of the
English stage. The custom of performing plays in the universities,
great schools, and inns of court, had also the effect of producing a
number of very clever dramatic writers; for when this literature was
so warmly patronised by princes and nobles, people of the highest
qualifications sought to excel in it. Hence we find from books of
household expenses and similar records of the period, that there was,
during the sixteenth century, an immense number of such plays compiled
in England which were never printed, and of which, therefore, very few
are preserved.

The earliest known plays of this description in the English language
belong to the class which were called in France moralities. They are
three in number, and are preserved in a manuscript in the possession
of Mr. Hudson Gurney, which I have not seen, but which is said to be
of the reign of our king Henry VI. Several words and allusions in them
seem to me to show that they were translated, or adapted, from the
French. They contain exactly the same kind of allegorical personages.
The allegory itself is a simple one, and easily understood. In the
first, which is entitled the "Castle of Perseverance," the hero is
_Humanum Genus_ (Mankynd), for the names of the parts are all given in
Latin. On the birth of this personage, a good and a bad angel offer
themselves as his protectors and guides, and he chooses the latter, who
introduces him to _Mundus_ (the World), and to his friends, _Stultitia_
(Folly), and _Voluptas_ (Pleasure). These and some other personages
bring him under the influence of the seven deadly sins, and _Humanum
Genus_ takes for his bedfellow a lady named _Luxuria_. At length
_Confessio_ and _Pœnitentia_ succeed in reclaiming _Humanum Genus_,
and they conduct him for security to the Castle of Perseverance, where
the seven cardinal virtues attend upon him. He is besieged in this
castle by the seven deadly sins, who are led to the attack by Belial,
but are defeated. _Humanum Genus_ has now become aged, and is exposed
to the attacks of another assailant. This is _Avaritia_, who enters
the Castle stealthily by undermining the wall, and artfully persuades
_Humanum Genus_ to leave it. He thus comes again under the influence
of _Mundus_, until _Mors_ (Death) arrives, and the bad angel carries
off the victim to the domains of Satan. This, however, is not the end
of the piece. God appears, seated on His throne, and Mercy, Peace,
Justice, and Truth appear before Him, the two former pleading for,
and the latter against, _Humanum Genus_, who, after some discussion,
is saved. This allegorical picture of human life was, in one form or
other, a favourite subject of the moralisers. I may quote as examples
the interludes of "Lusty Juventus," reprinted in Hawkins's "Origin
of the English Drama," and the "Disobedient Child," and "Trial of
Treasure," reprinted by the Percy Society.

The second of the moralities ascribed to the reign of Henry VI., has
for its principal characters Mind, Will, and Understanding. These are
assailed by Lucifer, who succeeds in alluring them to vice, and they
change their modest raiment for the dress of gay gallants. Various
other characters are introduced in a similar strain of allegory, until
they are reclaimed by Wisdom. Mankind is again the principal personage
of the third of these moralities, and some of the other characters in
the play, such as Nought, New-guise, and Now-a-days, remind us of the
similar allegorical personages in the French moralities described above.

These interludes bring us into acquaintance with a new comic character.
The great part which folly acted in the social destinies of mankind,
had become an acknowledged fact; and as the court and almost every
great household had its professed fool, so it seems to have been
considered that a play also was incomplete without a fool. But,
as the character of the fool was usually given to one of the most
objectionable characters in it, so, for this reason apparently, the
fool in a play was called the _Vice_. Thus, in "Lusty Juventus," the
character of Hypocrisy is called the Vice; in the play of "All for
Money," it is Sin; in that of "Tom Tyler and his Wife," it is Desire;
in the "Trial of Treasure" it is Inclination; and in some instances the
Vice appears to be the demon himself. The Vice seems always to have
been dressed in the usual costume of a court fool, and he perhaps had
other duties besides his mere part in the plot, such as making jests of
his own, and using other means for provoking the mirth of the audience
in the intervals of the action.

A few of our early English interludes were, in the strict sense of the
word, farces. Such is the "mery play" of "John the Husband, Tyb the
Wife, and Sir John the Priest," written by John Heywood, the plot of
which presents the same simplicity as those of the farces which were so
popular in France. John has a shrew for his wife, and has good causes
for suspecting an undue intimacy between her and the priest; but they
find means to blind his eyes, which is the more easily done, because
he is a great coward, except when he is alone. Tyb, the wife, makes a
pie, and proposes that the priest shall be invited to assist in eating
it. The husband is obliged, very unwillingly, to be the bearer of the
invitation, and is not a little surprised when the priest refuses it.
He gives as his reason, that he was unwilling to intrude himself into
company where he knew he was disliked, and persuaded John that he had
fallen under the wife's displeasure, because, in private interviews
with her, he had laboured to induce her to bridle her temper, and treat
her husband with more gentleness. John, delighted at the discovery
of the priest's honesty, insists on his going home with him to feast
upon the pie. There the guilty couple contrive to put the husband to a
disagreeable penance, while they eat the pie, and treat him otherwise
very ignominiously, in consequence of which the married couple fight.
The priest interferes, and the fight thus becomes general, and is only
ended by the departure of Tyb and the priest, leaving the husband alone.

The popularity of the moralities in England is, perhaps, to be
explained by peculiarities in the condition of society, and the
greater pre-occupation of men's minds in our country at that time
with the religious and social revolution which was then in progress.
The Reformers soon saw the use which might be made of the stage, and
compiled and caused to be acted interludes in which the old doctrines
and ceremonies were turned to ridicule, and the new ones were held up
in a favourable light. We have excellent examples of the success with
which this plan was carried out in the plays of the celebrated John
Bale. His play of "Kyng Johan," an edition of which was published by
the Camden Society, is not only a remarkable work of a very remarkable
man, but it may be considered as the first rude model of the English
historical drama. The stage became now a political instrument in
England, almost as it had been in ancient Greece, and it thus became
frequently the object of particular as well as general persecution.
In 1543, the vicar of Yoxford, in Suffolk, drew upon himself the
violent hostility of the other clergy in that county by composing and
causing to be performed plays against the pope's counsellors. Six years
afterwards, in 1549, a royal proclamation prohibited for a time the
performance of interludes throughout the kingdom, on the ground that
they contained "matter tendyng to sedicion and contempnyng of sundery
good orders and lawes, whereupon are growen daily, and are likely
to growe, muche disquiet, division, tumultes, and uproares in this
realme." From this time forward we begin to meet with laws for the
regulation of stage performances, and proceedings in cases of supposed
infractions of them, and it became customary to obtain the approval of
a play by the privy council before it was allowed to be acted. Thus
gradually arose the office of a dramatic censor.

With Bale and with John Heywood, the English plays began to approach
the form of a regular drama, and the two now rather celebrated pieces,
"Ralph Roister Doister," and "Gammer Gurton's Needle," which belong
to the middle of the sixteenth century, may be considered as comedies
rather than as interludes. The former, written by a well-known scholar
of that time, Nicholas Udall, master of Eton, is a satirical picture
of some phases of London life, and relates the ridiculous adventures
of a weak-headed and vain-glorious gallant, who believes that all
the women must be in love with him, and who is led by a needy and
designing parasite named Matthew Merygreeke. Rude as it is as a
dramatic composition, it displays no lack of talent, and it is full
of genuine humour. The humour in "Gammer Gurton's Needle" is none
the less rich because it is of coarser and rather broader cast. The
good dame of the piece, Gammer Gurton, during an interruption in the
process of mending the breeches of her husband, Hodge, has lost her
needle, and much lamentation follows a misfortune so great at a time
when needles appear to have been rare and valuable articles in the
rural household. In the midst of their trouble appears Diccon, who is
described in the _dramatis personæ_ as "Diccon the Bedlam," meaning
that he was an idiot, and who appears to hold the position of Vice in
the play. Diccon, however, though weak-minded, is a cunning fellow, and
especially given to making mischief, and he accuses a neighbour, Dame
Chat, of stealing the needle. At the same time, the same mischievous
individual tells Dame Chat that Gammer Gurton's cock had been stolen in
the night from the henroost, and that she, Dame Chat, was accused of
being the thief. Amid the general misunderstanding which results from
Diccon's successful endeavours, they send for the parson of the parish,
Dr. Rat, who appears to unite in himself the three parts of preacher,
physician, and conjurer, in order to have advantage of his experience
in finding the needle. Diccon now contrives a new piece of mischief.
He persuades Dame Chat that Hodge intends to hide himself in a certain
hole in the premises, in order, that night, to creep out and kill all
her hens; and at the same time he informs Dr. Rat, that if he will
hide in the same hole, he will give him ocular demonstration of Dame
Chat's guilt of stealing the needle. The consequence is that Dame Chat
attacks by surprise, and somewhat violently, the supposed depredator
in the hole, and that Dr. Rat gets a broken head. Dame Chat is brought
before "Master Bayly" for the assault, and the proceedings in the trial
bring to light the deceptions which have been played upon them all,
and Diccon stands convicted as the wicked perpetrator. In fact, the
"bedlam" confesses it all, and it is finally decided by "Master Bayly"
that there shall be a general reconciliation, and that Diccon shall
take a solemn oath on Hodge's breech, that he will do his best to find
the lost needle. Diccon has still the spirit of mischief in him, and
instead of laying his hand quietly on Hodge's breech, he gives him a
sharp blow, which is responded to by an unexpected scream. The needle,
indeed, which has never quitted the breeches, is driven rather deep
into the fleshy part of Hodge's body, and the general joy at having
found it again overruling all other considerations, they all agree to
be friends over a jug of "drink."

We cannot but feel astonished at the short period which it required
to develop rude attempts at dramatic composition like this into the
wonderful creations of a Shakespeare; and it can only be explained
by the fact that it was an age remarkable for producing men of
extraordinary genius in every branch of intellectual development.
Hitherto, the literature of the stage had represented the intelligence
of the mass; it became individualised in Shakespeare, and this fact
marks an entirely new era in the history of the drama. In the writings
of our great bard, nearly all the peculiarities of the older national
drama are preserved, even some which may be perhaps considered as its
defects, but carried to a degree of perfection which they had never
attained before. The drollery, which, as we have seen, could not be
dispensed with even in the religious mysteries and miracle-plays, had
become so necessary, that it could not be dispensed with in tragedy.
Its omission belonged to a later period, when the foreign dramatists
became objects of imitation in England. But in the earlier drama, these
scenes of drollery seem frequently to have no connection whatever with
the general plot, while Shakespeare always interweaves them skilfully
with it, and they seem to form an integral and necessary part of it.

CHAPTER XVII.

DIABLERIE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.--EARLY TYPES OF THE DIABOLICAL
FORMS.--ST. ANTHONY.--ST. GUTHLAC.--REVIVAL OF THE TASTE FOR SUCH
SUBJECTS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.--THE FLEMISH
SCHOOL OF BREUGHEL.--THE FRENCH AND ITALIAN SCHOOLS, CALLOT,
SALVATOR ROSA.

We have seen how the popular demonology furnished materials for the
earliest exercise of comic art in the middle ages, and how the taste
for this particular class of grotesque lasted until the close of the
mediæval period. After the "renaissance" of art and literature, this
taste took a still more remarkable form, and the school of grotesque
_diablerie_ which flourished during the sixteenth century, and the
first half of the seventeenth, justly claims a chapter to itself.

The birthplace of this demonology, as far as it belongs to
Christianity, must probably be sought in the deserts of Egypt. It
spread thence over the east and the west, and when it reached our
part of the world, it grafted itself, as I have remarked in a former
chapter, on the existing popular superstitions of Teutonic paganism.
The playfully burlesque, which held so great a place in these
superstitions, no doubt gave a more comic character to this Christian
demonology than it had possessed before the mixture. Its primitive
representative was the Egyptian monk, St. Anthony, who is said to have
been born at a village called Coma, in Upper Egypt, in the year 251.
His history was written in Greek by St. Athanasius, and was translated
into Latin by the ecclesiastical historian Evagrius. Anthony was
evidently a fanatical visionary, subject to mental illusions, which
were fostered by his education. To escape from the temptations of the
world, he sold all his property, which was considerable, gave it to
the poor, and then retired into the desert of the Thebaid, to live a
life of the strictest asceticism. The evil one persecuted him in his
solitude, and sought to drive him back into the corruptions of worldly
life. He first tried to fill his mind with regretful reminiscences
of his former wealth, position in society, and enjoyments; when this
failed, he disturbed his mind with voluptuous images and desires, which
the saint resisted with equal success. The persecutor now changed his
tactics, and presenting himself to Anthony in the form of a black and
ugly youth, confessed to him, with apparent candour, that he was the
spirit of uncleanness, and acknowledged that he had been vanquished by
the extraordinary merits of Anthony's sanctity. The saint, however,
saw that this was only a stratagem to stir up in him the spirit of
pride and self-confidence, and he met it by subjecting himself to
greater mortifications than ever, which of course made him still more
liable to these delusions. Now he sought greater solitude by taking
up his residence in a ruined Egyptian sepulchre, but the farther he
withdrew from the world, the more he became the object of diabolical
persecution. Satan broke in upon his privacy with a host of attendants,
and during the night beat him to such a degree, that one morning the
attendant who brought him food found him lying senseless in his cell,
and had him carried to the town, where his friends were on the point of
burying him, believing him to be dead, when he suddenly revived, and
insisted on being taken back to his solitary dwelling. The legend tells
us that the demons appeared to him in the forms of the most ferocious
animals, such as lions, bulls, wolves, asps, serpents, scorpions,
panthers, and bears, each attacking him in the manner peculiar to its
species, and with its peculiar voice, thus making together a horrible
din. Anthony left his tomb to retire farther into the desert, where he
made a ruined castle his residence; and here he was again frightfully
persecuted by the demons, and the noise they made was so great and
horrible that it was often heard at a vast distance. According to the
narrative, Anthony reproached the demons in very abusive language,
called them hard names, and even spat in their faces; but his most
effective weapon was always the cross. Thus the saint became bolder,
and sought a still more lonely abode, and finally established himself
on the top of a high mountain in the upper Thebaid. The demons still
continued to persecute him, under a great variety of forms; on one
occasion their chief appeared to him under the form of a man, with the
lower members of an ass.

The demons which tormented St. Anthony became the general type for
subsequent creations, in which these first pictures were gradually, and
in the sequel, greatly improved upon. St. Anthony's persecutors usually
assumed the shapes of _bonâ fide_ animals, but those of later stories
took monstrous and grotesque forms, strange mixtures of the parts of
different animals, and of others which never existed. Such were seen
by St. Guthlac, the St. Anthony of the Anglo-Saxons, among the wild
morasses of Croyland. One night, which he was passing at his devotions
in his cell, they poured in upon him in great numbers; "and they filled
all the house with their coming, and they poured in on every side,
from above and from beneath, and everywhere. They were in countenance
horrible, and they had great heads, and a long neck, and lean visage;
they were filthy and squalid in their beards, and they had rough ears,
and distorted face, and fierce eyes, and foul mouths; and their teeth
were like horses' tusks, and their throats were filled with flame, and
they were grating in their voice; they had crooked shanks, and knees
big and great behind, and distorted toes, and shrieked hoarsely with
their voices; and they came with such immoderate noises and immense
horror, that it seemed to him that all between heaven and earth
resounded with their dreadful cries." On another similar occasion, "it
happened one night, when the holy man Guthlac fell to his prayers, he
heard the howling of cattle and various wild beasts. Not long after
he saw the appearance of animals and wild beasts and creeping things
coming in to him. First he saw the visage of a lion that threatened him
with his bloody tusks, also the likeness of a bull, and the visage of
a bear, as when they are enraged. Also he perceived the appearance of
vipers, and a hog's grunting, and the howling of wolves, and croaking
of ravens, and the various whistlings of birds, that they might, with
their fantastic appearance, divert the mind of the holy man."

Such were the suggestions on which the mediæval sculptors and
illuminators worked with so much effect, as we have seen repeatedly
in the course of our preceding chapters. After the revival of art
in western Europe in the fifteenth century, this class of legends
became great favourites with painters and engravers, and soon gave
rise to the peculiar school of _diablerie_ mentioned above. At that
time the story of the Temptation of St. Anthony attracted particular
attention, and it is the subject of many remarkable prints belonging
to the earlier ages of the art of engraving. It employed the pencils
of such artists as Martin Schongauer, Israel van Mechen, and Lucas
Cranach. Of the latter we have two different engravings on the same
subject--St. Anthony carried into the air by the demons, who are
represented in a great variety of grotesque and monstrous forms. The
most remarkable of the two bears the date of 1506, and was, therefore,
one of Cranach's earlier works. But the great representative of this
earlier school of _diablerie_ was Peter Breughel, a Flemish painter
who flourished in the middle of the sixteenth century. He was born at
Breughel, near Breda, and lived some time at Antwerp, but afterwards
established himself at Brussels. So celebrated was he for the love of
the grotesque displayed in his pictures, that he was known by the name
of Peter the Droll. Breughel's "Temptation of St. Anthony," like one
or two others of his subjects of the same class, was engraved in a
reduced form by J. T. de Bry. Breughel's demons are figures of the most
fantastic description--creations of a wildly grotesque imagination;
they present incongruous and laughable mixtures of parts of living
things which have no relation whatever to one another. Our cut No. 155
represents a group of these grotesque demons, from a plate by Breughel,
engraved in 1565, and entitled _Divus Jacobus diabolicis præstigiis
ante magnum sistitur_ (St. James is arrested before the magician by
diabolical delusions). The engraving is full of similarly grotesque
figures. On the right is a spacious chimney, and up it witches, riding
on brooms, are making their escape, while in the air are seen other
witches riding away upon dragons and a goat. A kettle is boiling over
the fire, around which a group of monkeys are seen sitting and warming
themselves. Behind these a cat and a toad are holding a very intimate
conversation. In the background stands and boils the great witches'
caldron. On the right of the picture the _magus_, or magician, is
seated, reading his _grimoire_; with a frame before him supporting the
pot containing his magical ingredients. The saint occupies the middle
of the picture, surrounded by the demons represented in our cut and by
many others; and as he approaches the magician, he is seen raising his
right hand in the attitude of pronouncing a benediction, the apparent
consequence of which is a frightful explosion of the magician's pot,
which strikes the demons with evident consternation. Nothing can be
more _bizarre_ than the horse's head upon human legs in armour, the
parody upon a crawling spider behind it, the skull (apparently of a
horse) supported upon naked human legs, the strangely excited animal
behind the latter, and the figure furnished with pilgrim's hood
and staff, which appears to be mocking the saint. Another print--a
companion to the foregoing--represents the still more complete
discomfiture of the _magus_. The saint here occupies the right-hand
side of the picture, and is raising his hand higher, with apparently
a greater show of authority. The demons have all turned against their
master the magician, whom they are beating and hurling headlong from
his chair. They seem to be proclaiming their joy at his fall by all
sorts of playful attitudes. It is a sort of demon fair. Some of them,
to the left of the picture, are dancing and standing upon their heads
on a tight-rope. Near them another is playing some game like that
which we now call the thimble-rig. The monkeys are dancing to the
tune of a great drum. A variety of their mountebank tricks are going
on in different parts of the scene. Three of these playful actors are
represented in our cut No. 156.

[Illustration: _No. 156. Strange Demons._]

Breughel also executed a series of similarly grotesque engravings,
representing in this same fantastic manner the virtues and vices, such
as Pride (_superbia_), Courage (_fortitudo_), Sloth (_desidia_), &c.
These bear the date of 1558. They are crowded with figures equally
grotesque with those just mentioned, but a great part of which it
would be almost impossible to describe. I give two examples from the
engraving of "Sloth," in the accompanying cut (No. 157).

[Illustration: _No. 155. St. James and his Persecutors._]

[Illustration: _No. 157. Imps of Sloth._]

[Illustration: _No. 158. The Folly of Hunting._]

From making up figures from parts of animals, this early school of
grotesque proceeded to create animated figures out of inanimate
things, such as machines, implements of various kinds, household
utensils, and other such articles. A German artist, of about the same
time as Breughel, has left us a singular series of etchings of this
description, which are intended as an allegorical satire on the follies
of mankind. The allegory is here of such a singular character, that
we can only guess at the meaning of these strange groups through four
lines of German verse which are attached to each of them. In this
manner we learn that the group represented in our cut, No. 158, which
is the second in this series, is intended as a satire upon those who
waste their time in hunting, which, the verses tell us, they will in
the sequel lament bitterly; and they are exhorted to cry loud and
continually to God, and to let that serve them in the place of hound
and hawk.

_Die zeit die du verleurst mit jagen,
Die wirstu zwar noch schmertzlich klagen;
Ruff laut zu Gott gar oft und vil,
Das sey dein hund und federspil._

[Illustration: _No. 159. The Wastefulness of Youth._]

The next picture in the series, which is equally difficult to describe,
is aimed against those who fail in attaining virtue or honour through
sluggishness. Others follow, but I will only give one more example. It
forms our cut No. 159, and appears, from the verses accompanying it,
to be aimed against those who practice wastefulness in their youth,
and thus become objects of pity and scorn in old age. Whatever may be
the point of the allegory contained in the engraving, it is certainly
far-fetched, and not very apparent.

This German-Flemish school of grotesque does not appear to have
outlived the sixteenth century, or at least it had ceased to flourish
in the century following. But the taste for the _diablerie_ of the
Temptation scenes passed into France and Italy, in which countries
it assumed a much more refined character, though at the same time
one equally grotesque and imaginative. These artists, too, returned
to the original legend, and gave it forms of their own conception.
Daniel Rabel, a French artist, who lived at the end of the sixteenth
century, published a rather remarkable engraving of the "Temptation of
St. Anthony," in which the saint appears on the right of the picture,
kneeling before a mound on which three demons are dancing. On the
right hand of the saint stands a naked woman, sheltering herself with
a parasol, and tempting the saint with her charms. The rest of the
piece is filled with demons in a great variety of forms and postures.
Another French artist, Nicholas Cochin, has left us two "Temptations of
St. Anthony," in rather spirited etching, of the earlier part of the
seventeenth century. In the first, the saint is represented kneeling
before a crucifix, surrounded by demons. The youthful and charming
temptress is here dressed in the richest garments, and the highest
style of fashion, and displays all her powers of seduction. The body of
the picture is, as usual, occupied by multitudes of diabolical figures,
in grotesque forms. In Cochin's other picture of the Temptation of St.
Anthony, the saint is represented as a hermit engaged in his prayers;
the female figure of voluptuousness (_voluptas_) occupies the middle of
the picture, and behind the saint is seen a witch with her besom.

[Illustration: _No. 160. The Demon Tilter (Callot)._]

[Illustration: _No. 161. Uneasy Riding (Callot)._]

But the artist who excelled in this subject at the period at which we
now arrive, was the celebrated Jacques Callot, who was born at Nancy,
in Brittany, in 1593, and died at Florence on the 24th of March, 1635,
which, according to the old style of calculating, may mean March,
1636. Of Callot we shall have to speak in another chapter. He treated
the subject of the Temptation of St. Anthony in two different plates,
which are considered as ranking among the most remarkable of his
works, and to which, in fact, he appears to have given much thought
and attention. He is known, indeed, to have worked diligently at it.
They resemble those of the older artists in the number of diabolical
figures introduced into the picture, but they display an extraordinary
vivid imagination in the forms, postures, physiognomies, and even
the equipments, of the chimerical figures, all equally droll and
burlesque, but which present an entire contrast to the more coarse and
vulgar conceptions of the German-Flemish school. This difference will
be understood best by an example. One of Callot's demons is represented
in our cut No. 160. Many of them are mounted on nondescript animals,
of the most extraordinary demoniacal character, and such is the case
of the demon in our cut, who is running a tilt at the saint with his
tilting spear in his hand, and, to make more sure, his eyes well
furnished with a pair of spectacles. In our next cut, No. 161, we give
a second example of the figures in Callot's peculiar _diablerie_.
The demon in this case is riding very uneasily, and, in fact, seems
in danger of being thrown. The steeds of both are of an anomalous
character; the first is a sort of dragon-horse; the second a mixture
of a lobster, a spider, and a craw-fish. Mariette, the art-collector
and art-writer of the reign of Louis XV. as well as artist, considers
this grotesque, or, as he calls it, "fantastic and comic character,"
as almost necessary to the pictures of the Temptation of St. Anthony,
which he treats as one of Callot's especially _serious_ subjects.
"It was allowable," he says, "to Callot, to give a flight to his
imagination. The more his fictions were of the nature of dreams,
the more they were fitted to what he had to express. For the demon
intending to torment St. Anthony, it is to be supposed that he must
have thought of all the forms most hideous, and most likely to strike
terror."

Callot's first and larger print of the Temptation of St. Anthony is
rare. It is filled with a vast number of figures. Above is a fantastic
being who vomits thousands of demons. The saint is seen at the entrance
of a cavern, tormented by some of these. Others are scattered about in
different occupations. On one side, a demoniacal party are drinking
together, and pledging each other in their glasses; here, a devil is
playing on the guitar; there, others are occupied in a dance; all
such grotesque figures as our two examples would lead the reader to
expect. In the second of Callot's "Temptations," which is dated in
1635, and must therefore have been one of his latest works, the same
figure vomiting the demons occupies the upper part of the plate, and
the field is covered with a prodigious number of imps, more hideous in
their forms, and more varied in their extraordinary attitudes, than in
the same artist's first design. Below, a host of demons are dragging
the saint to a place where new torments are prepared for him. Callot's
prints of the Temptation of St. Anthony gained so great a reputation,
that imitations of them were subsequently published, some of which so
far approached his style, that they were long supposed to be genuine.

Callot, though a Frenchman, studied and flourished in Italy, and
his style is founded upon Italian art. The last great artist whose
treatment of the Temptation I shall quote, is Salvator Rosa, an Italian
by birth, who flourished in the middle of the seventeenth century.
His style, according to some opinions, is refined from that of Callot;
at all events, it is bolder in design. Our cut No. 162 represents St.
Anthony protecting himself with the cross against the assaults of the
demon, as represented by Salvator Rosa. With this artist the school of
_diablerie_ of the sixteenth century may be considered to have come to
its end.

[Illustration: _No. 162. St. Anthony and his Persecutor._]

CHAPTER XVIII.

CALLOT AND HIS SCHOOL.--CALLOT'S ROMANTIC HISTORY.--HIS
"CAPRICI," AND OTHER BURLESQUE WORKS.--THE "BALLI" AND THE
BEGGARS.--IMITATORS OF CALLOT; DELLA BELLA.--EXAMPLES OF DELLA
BELLA.--ROMAIN DE HOOGHE.

The art of engraving on copper, although it had made rapid advances
during the sixteenth century, was still very far from perfection; but
the close of that century witnessed the birth of a man who was destined
not only to give a new character to this art, but also to bring in a
new style of caricature and burlesque. This was the celebrated Jacques
Callot, a native of Lorraine, and descended from a noble Burgundian
family. His father, Jean Callot, held the office of herald of Lorraine.
Jacques was born in the year 1592,[91] at Nancy, and appears to have
been destined for the church, with a view to which his early education
was regulated. But the early life of Jacques Callot presents a
romantic episode in the history of art aspirations. While yet hardly
more than an infant, he seized every opportunity of neglecting more
serious studies to practise drawing, and he displayed especially a
very precocious taste for satire, for his artistic talent was shown
principally in caricaturing all the people he knew. His father, and
apparently all his relatives, disapproved of his love for drawing, and
did what they could to discourage it; but in vain, for he still found
means of indulging it. Claude Henriet, the painter to the court of
Lorraine, gave him lessons, and his son, Israel Henriet, formed for
him a boy's friendship. He also learnt the elements of the art of
engraving of Demange Crocq, the engraver to the duke of Lorraine.

[91] This is the date fixed by Meaume, in his excellent work on
Callot, entitled "Recherches sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de
Jacques Callot," 2 tom. 8vo., 1860.

About this time, the painter Bellange, who had been a pupil of Claude
Henriet, returned from Italy, and gave young Callot an exciting account
of the wonders of art to be seen in that country; and soon afterwards
Claude Henriet dying, his son Israel went to Rome, and his letters
from thence had no less effect on the mind of the young artist at
Nancy, than the conversation of Bellange. Indeed the passion of the boy
for art was so strong, that, finding his parents obstinately opposed
to all his longings in this direction, he left his father's house
secretly, and, in the spring of 1604, when he had only just entered his
thirteenth year, he set out for Italy on foot, without introductions
and almost without money. He was even unacquainted with the road, but
after proceeding a short distance, he fell in with a band of gipsies,
and, as they were going to Florence, he joined their company. His
life among the gipsies, which lasted seven or eight weeks, appears to
have furnished food to his love of burlesque and caricature, and he
has handed down to us his impressions, in a series of four engravings
of scenes in gipsy life, admirably executed at a rather later period
of his life, which are full of comic humour. When they arrived at
Florence, Jacques Callot parted company with the gipsies, and was
fortunate enough to meet with an officer of the grand duke's household,
who listened to his story, and took so much interest in him, that he
obtained him admission to the studio of Remigio Canta Gallina. This
artist gave him instructions in drawing and engraving, and sought to
correct him of his taste for the grotesque by keeping him employed upon
serious subjects.

After studying for some months under Canta Gallina, Jacques Callot
left Florence, and proceeded to Rome, to seek his old friend Israel
Henriet; but he had hardly arrived, when he was recognised in the
streets by some merchants from Nancy, who took him, and in spite of
his tears and resistance, carried him home to his parents. He was
now kept to his studies more strictly than ever, but nothing could
overcome his passion for art, and, having contrived to lay by some
money, after a short interval he again ran away from home. This time
he took the road to Lyons, and crossed Mont Cenis, and he had reached
Turin when he met in the street of that city his elder brother Jean,
who again carried him home to Nancy. Nothing could now repress young
Callot's ardour, and soon after this second escapade, he engraved a
copy of a portrait of Charles III., duke of Lorraine, to which he put
his name and the date 1607, and which, though it displays little skill
in engraving, excited considerable interest at the time. His parents
were now persuaded that it was useless to thwart any longer his natural
inclinations, and they not only allowed him to follow them, but they
yielded to his wish to return to Italy. The circumstances of the moment
were especially favourable. Charles III., duke of Lorraine, was dead,
and his successor, Henry II., was preparing to send an embassy to Rome
to announce his accession. Jean Callot, by his position of herald,
had sufficient interest to obtain for his son an appointment in the
ambassador's retinue, and Jacques Callot started for Rome on the 1st
of December, 1608, under more favourable auspices than those which had
attended his former visits to Italy.

Callot reached Rome at the beginning of the year 1609, and now at
length he joined the friend of his childhood, Israel Henriet, and began
to throw all his energy into his art-labours. It is more than probable
that he studied under Tempesta, with Henriet, who was a pupil of that
painter, and another Lorrainer, Claude Dervet. After a time, Callot
began to feel the want of money, and obtained employment of a French
engraver, then residing in Rome, named Philippe Thomassin, with whom he
worked nearly three years, and became perfect in handling the graver.
Towards the end of the year 1611, Callot went to Florence, to place
himself under Julio Parigi, who then flourished there as a painter and
engraver. Tuscany was at this time ruled by its duke Cosmo de' Medicis,
a great lover of the arts, who took Callot under his patronage, giving
him the means to advance himself. Hitherto his occupation had been
principally copying the works of others, but under Parigi he began to
practise more in original design, and his taste for the grotesque came
upon him stronger than ever. Although Parigi blamed it, he could not
help admiring the talent it betrayed. In 1615, the grand duke gave a
great entertainment to the prince of Urbino, and Callot was employed
to make engravings of the festivities; it was his first commencement
in a class of designs by which he afterwards attained great celebrity.
In the year following, his engagement with Parigi ended, and he became
his own master. He now came out unfettered in his own originality. The
first fruits were seen in a new kind of designs, to which he gave the
name of "Caprices," a series of which appeared about the year 1617,
under the title of "Caprici di varie Figure." Callot re-engraved them
at Nancy in later years, and in the new title they were stated to have
been originally engraved in 1616. In a short preface, he speaks of
these as the first of his works on which he set any value. They now
strike us as singular examples of the fanciful creations of a most
grotesque imagination, but they no doubt preserve many traits of the
festivals, ceremonies, and manners of that land of masquerade, which
must have been then familiar to the Florentines; and these engravings
would, doubtless, be received by them with absolute delight. One is
copied in our cut No. 163; it represents a cripple supporting himself
on a short crutch, with his right arm in a sling. Our cut No. 164 is
another example from the same set, and represents a masked clown, with
his left hand on the hilt of his dagger, or perhaps of a wooden sword.
From this time, although he was very industrious and produced much,
Callot engraved only his own designs.

[Illustration: _No. 163. A Cripple._]

[Illustration: _No. 164. A Grotesque Masker._]

While employed for others, Callot had worked chiefly with the graver,
but now that he was his own master, he laid aside that implement, and
devoted himself almost entirely to etching, in which he attained the
highest proficiency. His work is remarkable for the cleanness and ease
of his lines, and for the life and spirit he gave to his figures.
His talent lay especially in the extraordinary skill with which he
grouped together great numbers of diminutive figures, each of which
preserved its proper and full action and effect. The great annual fair
of the Impruneta was held with extraordinary festivities, and attended
by an immense concourse of people of all classes on St. Luke's Day,
the 18th of October, in the outskirts of Florence. Callot engraved
a large picture of this fair, which is absolutely wonderful. The
picture embraces an extensive space of ground, which is covered with
hundreds of figures, all occupied, singly or in groups, in different
manners, conversing, masquerading, buying and selling, playing games,
and performing in various ways; each group or figure is a picture in
itself. This engraving produced quite a sensation, and it was followed
by other pictures of fairs, and, after his final return to Nancy,
Callot engraved it anew. It was this talent for grouping large masses
of persons which caused the artist to be so often employed in drawing
great public ceremonies, sieges, and other warlike operations.

By the duke of Florence, Cosmo II., Callot was liberally patronised
and loaded with benefits, but on his death the government had to be
placed in the hands of a regency, and art and literature no longer met
with the same encouragement. In this state of things, Callot was found
by Charles of Lorraine, afterwards duke Charles IV., and persuaded to
return to his native country. He arrived at Nancy in 1622, and began to
work there with greater activity even than he had displayed before. It
was not long after this that he produced his sets of grotesques, the
Balli (or dancers), the Gobbi (or hunchbacks), and the Beggars. The
first of these sets, called in the title _Balli_, or _Cucurucu_,[92]
consists of twenty-four small plates, each of them containing two comic
characters in grotesque attitudes, with groups of smaller figures in
the distance. Beneath the two prominent figures are their names, now
unintelligible, but at that time no doubt well known on the comic stage
at Florence. Thus, in the couple given in our cut No. 165, which is
taken from the fourth plate of the series, the personage to the left
is named Smaraolo Cornuto, which means simply Smaraolo the cuckold;
and the one on the right is called Ratsa di Boio. In the original the
background is occupied by a street, full of spectators, looking on at
a dance of pantaloons, round one who is mounted on stilts and playing
on the tabour. The couple in our cut No. 166, represents another of
Callot's "Caprices," from a set differing from the first "Caprices,"
or the Balli. The Gobbi, or hunchbacks, form a set of twenty-one
engravings; and the set of the Gipsies, already alluded to, which was
also executed at Nancy, was included in four plates, the subjects of
which were severally--1, the gipsies travelling; 2, the avant-guard;
3, the halt; and 4, the preparations for the feast. Nothing could be
more truthful, and at the same time more comic, than this last set of
subjects. We give, as an example of the set of the Baroni, or beggars,
Callot's figure of one of that particular class--for beggars and rogues
of all kinds were classified in those days--whose part it was to
appeal to charity by wounds and sores artificially represented. In the
English slang of the seventeenth century, these artificial sores were
called _clymes_, and a curious account of the manner in which they were
made will be found in that singular picture of the vicious classes of
society in this country at that period, the "English Rogue," by Head
and Kirkman. The false cripple in our cut is holding up his leg to make
a display of his pretended infirmity.

[92] Meaume appears to be doubtful of the meaning of this word; a
friend has pointed out to me the correction. It was the title
of a song, so called because the burden was an imitation of the
crowing of a cock, the singer mimicking also the action of the
bird. When Bacchus, in Redi's "Bacco in Toscana," is beginning
to feel the exhilarating effects of his critical investigation
of the Tuscan wines, he calls upon Ariadne to sing to him "sulla
mandola la Cucurucù," "on the mandola the Cucurucu." A note
fully explains the word as we have stated it--"Canzone cosi
detta, perchè in esse si replica molte volte la voce del gallo; e
cantandola si fanno atti e moti simili a quegli di esso gallo."

[Illustration: _No. 165. Smaraolo Cornuto.--Ratsa di Boio._]

[Illustration: _No. 166. A Caprice._]

[Illustration: _No. 167. The False Cripple._]

Callot remained at Nancy, with merely temporary absences, during the
remainder of his life. In 1628, he was employed at Brussels in drawing
and engraving the "Siege of Breda," one of the most finished of his
works, and he there made the personal acquaintance of Vandyck. Early
in 1629, he was called to Paris to execute engravings of the siege of
La Rochelle, and of the defence of the Isle of Rhé, but he returned to
Nancy in 1630. Three years afterwards his native country was invaded
by the armies of Louis XIII., and Nancy surrendered to the French on
the 25th of September, 1633. Callot was required to make engravings
to celebrate the fall of his native town; but, although he is said
to have been threatened with violence, he refused; and afterwards he
commemorated the evils brought upon his country by the French invasion
in those two immortal sets of prints, the lesser and greater "Misères
de la Guerre." About two years after this, Callot died, in the prime of
life, on the 24th of March, 1635.

The fame of Callot was great among his contemporaries, and his name
is justly respected as one of the most illustrious in the history of
French art. He had, as might be expected, many imitators, and the
Caprices, the Balli, and the Gobbi, became very favourite subjects.
Among these imitators, the most successful and the most distinguished
was Stephano Della Bella; and, indeed, the only one deserving of
particular notice. Della Bella was born at Florence, on the 18th of
May, 1610;[93] his father, dying two years afterwards, left him an
orphan, and his mother in great poverty. As he grew up, he showed, like
Callot himself, precocious talents in art, and of the same kind. He
eagerly attended all public festivals, games, &c., and on his return
from them made them the subject of grotesque sketches. It was remarked
of him, especially, that he had a curious habit of always beginning
to draw a human figure from the feet, and proceeding upwards to the
head. He was struck at a very early period of his pursuit of art by the
style of Callot, of which, at first, he was a servile imitator, but he
afterwards abandoned some of its peculiarities, and adopted a style
which was more his own, though still founded upon that of Callot. He
almost rivalled Callot in his success in grouping multitudes of figures
together, and hence he also was much employed in producing engravings
of sieges, festive entertainments, and such elaborate subjects. As
Callot's aspirations had been directed towards Italy, those of Della
Bella were turned towards France, and when in the latter days of
the ministry of Cardinal Richelieu, the grand duke of Florence sent
Alexandro del Nero as his resident ambassador in Paris, Della Bella
was permitted to accompany him. Richelieu was occupied in the siege
of Arras, and the engraving of that event was the foundation of Della
Bella's fame in France, where he remained about ten years, frequently
employed on similar subjects. He subsequently visited Flanders and
Holland, and at Amsterdam made the acquaintance of Rembrandt. He
returned to Florence in 1650, and died there on the 23rd of July, 1664.

[93] The materials for the history of Della Bella and his works,
will be found in a carefully compiled volume, by C. A. Jombert,
entitled, "Essai d'un Catalogue de l'Oeuvre d'Etienne de la
Bella." 8vo., Paris, 1772.

[Illustration: _No. 168. A Witch Mounted._]

While still in Florence, Della Bella executed four prints of dwarfs
quite in the grotesque style of Callot. In 1637, on the occasion of
the marriage of the grand duke Ferdinand II., Della Bella published
engravings of the different scenes represented, or performed, on that
occasion. These were effected by very elaborate machinery, and were
represented in six engravings, the fifth of which (_scena quinta_)
represents hell (_d' Inferno_), and is filled with furies, demons, and
witches, which might have found a place in Callot's "Temptation of St.
Anthony."

A specimen of these is given in our cut No. 168--a naked witch seated
upon a skeleton of an animal that might have been borrowed from some
far distant geological period. In 1642, Della Bella executed a set of
small "Caprices," consisting of thirteen plates, from the eighth of
which we take our cut No. 169. It represents a beggar-woman, carrying
one child on her back, while another is stretched on the ground. In
this class of subjects Della Bella imitated Callot, but the copyist
never succeeded in equalling the original. His best style, as an
original artist of burlesque and caricature, is shown in a set of five
plates of Death carrying away people of different ages, which he
executed in 1648. The fourth of this set is copied in our cut No. 170,
and represents Death carrying off, on his shoulder, a young woman, in
spite of her struggles to escape from him.

[Illustration: _No. 169. Beggary._]

With the close of the seventeenth century these "Caprices" and
masquerade scenes began to be no longer in vogue, and caricature and
burlesque assumed new forms; but Callot and Della Bella had many
followers, and their examples had a lasting influence upon art.

We must not forget that a celebrated artist, in another country, at the
end of the same century, the well-known Romain de Hooghe, was produced
from the school of Callot, in which he had learnt, not the arts of
burlesque and caricature, but that of skilfully grouping multitudes of
figures, especially in subjects representing episodes of war, tumults,
massacres, and public processions.

Of Romain de Hooghe we shall have to speak again in a subsequent
chapter. In his time the art of engraving had made great advance
on the Continent, and especially in France, where it met with more
encouragement than elsewhere. In England this art had, on the whole,
made much less progress, and was in rather a low condition, one branch
only excepted, that of portraits. Of the two distinguished engravers
in England during the seventeenth century, Hollar was a Bohemian, and
Faithorne, though an Englishman, learnt his art in France. We only
began to have an English school when Dutch and French engravers came in
with King William to lay the groundwork.

[Illustration: _No. 170. Death carrying off his Prey._]

CHAPTER XIX.

THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.--PASQUIL.--
MACARONIC POETRY.--THE EPISTOLÆ OBSURORUM VIRORUM.--RABELAIS.--
COURT OF THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE, AND ITS LITERARY CIRCLE;
BONAVENTURE DES PERIERS.--HENRI ETIENNE.--THE LIGUE, AND ITS
SATIRE: THE "SATYRE MÉNIPPÉE."

The sixteenth century, especially on the Continent, was a period of
that sort of violent agitation which is most favourable to the growth
of satire. Society was breaking up, and going through a course of
decomposition, and it presented to the view on every side spectacles
which provoked the mockery, perhaps more than the indignation, of
lookers-on. Even the clergy had learnt to laugh at themselves, and
almost at their own religion; and people who thought or reflected were
gradually separating into two classes--those who cast all religion
from them, and rushed into a jeering scepticism, and those who entered
seriously and with resolution into the work of reformation. The
latter found most encouragement among the Teutonic nations, while the
sceptical element appears to have had its birth in Italy, and even in
Rome itself, where, among popes and cardinals, religion had degenerated
into empty forms.

At some period towards the close of the fifteenth century, a mutilated
ancient statue was accidentally dug up in Rome, and it was erected
on a pedestal in a place not far from the Ursini Palace. Opposite
it stood the shop of a shoemaker, named Pasquillo, or Pasquino, the
latter being the form most commonly adopted at a later period. This
Pasquillo was notorious as a facetious fellow, and his shop was usually
crowded by people who went there to tell tales and hear news; and, as
no other name had been invented for the statue, people agreed to give
it the name of the shoemaker, and they called it Pasquillo. It became
a custom, at certain seasons, to write on pieces of paper satirical
epigrams, sonnets, and other short compositions in Latin or Italian,
mostly of a personal character, in which the writer declared whatever
he had seen or heard to the discredit of somebody, and these were
published by depositing them with the statue, whence they were taken
and read. One of the Latin epigrams which pleads against committing
these short personal satires to print, calls the time at which it was
usual to compose them Pasquil's festival:--

Jam redit illa dies in qua Romana juventus
Pasquilli festum concelebrabit ovans.
Sed versus impressos obsecro ut edere omittas,
Ne noceant iterum quæ nocuere semel.

The festival was evidently a favourite one, and well celebrated. "The
soldiers of Xerxes," says another epigram, placed in Pasquil's mouth,
"were not so plentiful as the paper bestowed upon me; I shall soon
become a bookseller"--

Armigerûm Xerxi non copia tanta papyri
Quanta mihi: fiam bibliopola statim.

The name of Pasquil was soon given to the papers which were deposited
with the statue, and eventually a _pasquil_, or _pasquin_, was only
another name for a lampoon or libel. Not far from this statue stood
another, which was found in the forum of Mars (_Martis forum_), and was
thence popularly called Marforio. Some of these satirical writings were
composed in the form of dialogues between Pasquil and Marforio, or of
messages from one to the other.

A collection of these pasquils was published in 1544 in two small
volumes.[94] Many of them are extremely clever, and they are sharply
pointed. The popes are frequent objects of bitterest satire. Thus we
are reminded in two lines upon pope Alexander VI. (_sextus_), the
infamous Borgia, that Tarquin had been a Sextus, and Nero also, and now
another Sextus was at the head of the Romans, and told that Rome was
always ruined under a Sextus--

De Alexandro VI. Pont.
_Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et iste:
Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit._

The following is given for an epitaph on Lucretia Borgia, pope
Alexander's profligate daughter:--

_Hoc tumulo dormit Lucretia nomine, sed re
Thais, Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus._

[94] "Pasquillorum Tomi duo." Eleutheropoli, MDXLIIII.

In another of a rather later date, Rome, addressing herself to Pasquil,
is made to complain of two successive popes, Clement VII. (Julio de
Medicis, 1523-1534) and Paul III. (Alexandro Farnese, 1534-1549), and
also of Leo X. (1513-1521). "I am," Rome says, "sick enough with the
physician (_Medicus_, as a pun on the Medicis), I was also the prey of
the lion (_Leo_), now, Paul, you tear my vitals like a wolf. You, Paul,
are not a god to me, as I thought in my folly, but you are a wolf,
since you tear the food from my mouth"--

_Sum Medico satis ægra, fui quoque præda Leonis,
Nunc mea dilaceras viscera, Paule, lupus.
Non es, Paule, mihi numen, ceu stulta putabam,
Sed lupus es, quoniam subtrahis ore cibum._

Another epigram, addressed to Rome herself, involves a pun in Greek
(in the words _Paulos_, Paul, and _Phaulos_, wicked). "Once, Rome," it
says, "lords of lords were thy subjects, now thou in thy wretchedness
art subject to the serfs of serfs; once you listened to the oracles of
St. Paul, but now you perform the abominable commands of the wicked"--

_Quondam, Roma, tibi suberant domini dominorum,
Servorum servis nunc miseranda subes;
Audisti quondam divini oracula Παύλου,
At nunc των φαύλων jussa nefanda facis._

The idea, of course, is the contrast of Rome in her Pagan glory, with
Rome in her Christian debasement, very much the same as that which
struck Gibbon, and gave birth to his great history of Rome's "decline
and fall."[95]

[95] Pasquil and Pasquin became, during the latter part of the
sixteenth and the whole of the seventeenth centuries, a
well-known name in French and English literature. In English
popular literature he was turned into a jester, and a book was
published in 1604 under the title "Pasquil's Jests; with the
Merriments of Mother Bunch. Wittie, pleasant, and delightfull."

The pasquils formed a body of satire which struck indiscriminately at
everybody within its range, but satirists were now rising who took for
their subjects special cases of the general disorder. Rotten at the
heart, society presented an external glossiness, a mixture of pedantry
and affectation, which offered subjects enough for ridicule in whatever
point of view it was taken. The ecclesiastical body was in a state of
fermentation, out of which new feelings and new doctrines were about to
rise. The old learning and literature of the middle ages remained in
form after their spirit had passed away, and they were now contending
clumsily and unsuccessfully against new learning and literature of a
more refined and healthier character. Feudalism itself had fallen, or
it was struggling vainly against new political principles, yet the
aristocracy clung to feudal forms and feudal assumptions, with an
exaggeration which was meant for an appearance of strength. Among the
literary affectations of this false feudalism, was the fashion for
reading the long, dry, old romances of chivalry; while the churchmen
and schoolmen were corrupting the language in which mediæval learning
had been expressed, into a form the most barbarous, or introducing
words compounded from the later into the vernacular tongue. These
peculiarities were among the first to provoke literary satire. Italy,
where this class of satire originated, gave it its name also, though it
appears still to be a matter of doubt why it was called _macaronic_,
or in its Italian form _maccharonea_. Some have considered this name
to have been taken from the article of food called _macaroni_, to
which the Italians were, and still are, so much attached; while others
pretend that it was derived from an old Italian word _macarone_, which
meant a lubberly fellow. Be this, however, as it may, what is called
macaronic composition, which consists in giving a Latin form to words
taken from the vulgar tongue, and mixing them with words which are
purely Latin, was introduced in Italy at the close of the fifteenth
century.

Four Italian writers in macaronic verse are known to have lived before
the year 1500.[96] The first of these was named Fossa, and he tells
us that he composed his poem entitled "Vigonce," on the second day
of May, 1494. It was printed in 1502. Bassano, a native of Mantua,
and the author of a macaronic which bears no title, was dead in 1499;
and another, a Paduan named Fifi degli Odassi, was born about the
year 1450. Giovan Georgio Allione, of Asti, who is believed also to
have written during the last ten years of the fifteenth century,
is a name better known through the edition of his French works,
published by Monsieur J. C. Brunet in 1836. All these present the
same coarseness and vulgarity of sentiment, and the same licence in
language and description, which appear to have been taken as necessary
characteristics of macaronic composition. Odassi appears to give
support to the derivation of the name from macaroni, by making the
principal character of his poem a fabricator of that article in Padua--

_Est unus in Padua natus speciale cusinus,
In maccharonea princeps bonus atque magister._

[96] The great authority on the history of Macaronic literature is my
excellent friend Monsieur Octave Delepierre, and I will simply
refer the reader to his two valuable publications, "Macaronéana,
ou Mélanges de Littérature Macaronique des differents Peuples de
l'Europe," 8vo., Paris, 1852; and "Macaronéana," 4to., 1863; the
latter printed for the Philobiblon Club.

But the great matter of macaronic poetry was Teofilo Folengo, of whose
life we know just sufficient to give us a notion of the personal
character of these old literary caricaturists. Folengo was descended
from a noble family, which had its seat at the village of Cipada, near
Mantua, where he was born on the 8th of November, 1491, and baptised by
the name of Girolamo. He pursued his studies, first in the university
of Ferrara, under the professor Visago Cocaio, and afterwards in that
of Bologna, under Pietro Pomponiazzo; or rather, he ought to have
pursued them, for his love of poetry, and his gaiety of character, led
him to neglect them, and at length his irregularities became so great,
that he was obliged to make a hasty flight from Bologna. He was ill
received at home, and he left it also, and appears to have subsequently
led a wild life, during part of which he adopted the profession of a
soldier, until at length he took refuge in a Benedictine convent near
Brescia, in 1507, and became a monk. The discipline of this house
had become entirely relaxed, and the monks appear to have lived very
licentiously; and Folengo, who, on his admission to the order, had
exchanged his former baptismal name for Teofilo, readily conformed to
their example. Eventually he abandoned the convent and the habit, ran
away with a lady named Girolama Dedia, and for some years he led a
wandering, and, it would seem, very irregular life. Finally, in 1527,
he returned to his old profession of a monk, and remained in it until
his death, in the December of 1544. He is said to have been extremely
vain of his poetical talents, and a story is told of him which, even if
it were invented, illustrates well the character which was popularly
given to him. It is said that when young, he aspired to excel in
Latin poetry, and that he wrote an epic which he himself believed to
be _superior_ to the Æneid. When, however, he had communicated the
work to his friend the bishop of Mantua, and that prelate, intending
to compliment him, told him that he had equalled Virgil, he was so
mortified, that he threw the manuscript on the fire, and from that time
devoted his talents entirely to the composition of macaronic verse.

Such was the man who has justly earned the reputation of being the
first of macaronic poets. When he adopted this branch of literature,
while he was in the university of Bologna, he assumed in writing it
the name of Merlinus Cocaius, or Coccaius, probably from the name of
his professor at Ferrara. Folengo's printed poems consist of--1. The
Zanitonella, a pastoral in seven eclogues, describing the love of
Tonellus for Zanina; 2, the macaronic romance of Baldus, Folengo's
principal and most remarkable work; 3, the Moschæa, or dreadful battle
between the flies and the ants; and 4, a book of Epistles and Epigrams.

The first edition of the Baldus appeared in 1517. It is a sort of
parody on the romances of chivalry, and combines a jovial satire upon
everything, which, as has been remarked, spares neither religion nor
politics, science nor literature, popes, kings, clergy, nobility, or
people. It consists of twenty-five cantos, or, as they are termed in
the original, _phantasiæ_, fantasies. In the first we are told of the
origin of Baldus. There was at the court of France a famous knight
named Guy, descended from that memorable paladin Renaud of Montauban.
The king, who showed a particular esteem for Guy, had also a daughter
of surpassing beauty, named Balduine, who had fallen in love with
Guy, and he was equally amorous of the princess. In the sequel of a
grand tournament, at which Guy has distinguished himself greatly, he
carries off Balduine, and the two lovers fly on foot, in the disguise
of beggars, reach the Alps in safety, and cross them into Italy. At
Cipada, in the territory of Brescia, they are hospitably entertained by
a generous peasant named Berte Panade, with whom the princess Balduine,
who approaches her time of confinement, is left; while her lover goes
forth to conquer at least a marquisate for her. After his departure
she gives birth to a fine boy, which is named Baldus. Such, as told
in the second canto, is the origin of Folengo's hero, who is destined
to perform marvellous acts of chivalry. The peasant Berte Panade has
also a son named Zambellus, by a mother who had died in childbirth
of him. Baldus passes for the son of Berte also, so that the two are
supposed to be brothers. Baldus is successively led through a series of
extraordinary adventures, some low and vulgar, others more chivalrous,
and some of them exhibiting a wild fertility of imagination, which are
too long to enable me to take my readers through them, until at length
he is left by the poet in the country of Falsehood and Charlatanism,
which is inhabited by astrologers, necromancers, and poets. Thus
is the hero Baldus dragged through a great number of marvellous
accidents, some of them vulgar, many of them ridiculous, and some,
again, wildly poetical, but all of them presenting, in one form or
other, an opportunity for satire upon some of the follies, or vices,
or corruptions of his age. The hybrid language in which the whole is
written, gives it a singularly grotesque appearance; yet from time to
time we have passages which show that the author was capable of writing
true poetry, although it is mixed with a great amount of coarse and
licentious ideas, expressed no less coarsely and licentiously. What we
may term the filth, indeed, forms a large proportion of the Italian
macaronic poetry. The pastoral of Zanitonella presents, as might be
expected, more poetic beauty than the romance of Balbus. As an example
of the language of the latter, and indeed of that of the Italian
macaronics in general, I give a few lines of a description of a storm
at sea, from the twelfth canto, with a literal translation:--

_Jam gridor æterias hominum concussit abyssos,
Sentiturque ingens cordarum stridor, et ipse
Pontus habet pavidos vultus, mortisque colores.
Nunc Sirochus habit palmam, nunc Borra superchiat;
Irrugit pelagus, tangit quoque fluctibus astra,
Fulgure flammigero creber lampezat Olympus;
Vela forata micant crebris lacerata balottis;
Horrendam mortem nautis ea cuncta minazzant.
Nunc sbalzata ratis celsum tangebat Olympum,
Nunc subit infernam unda sbadacchiante paludem._

TRANSLATION

_Now the clamour of the men shook the ethereal abysses,
And the mighty crashing of the ropes is felt, and the very
Sea has pale looks, and the hue of death.
Now the Sirocco has the palm, now Eurus exults over it;
The sea roars, and touches the stars with its waves,
Olympus continually blazes out with flaming thunder,
The pierced sails glitter torn with frequent thunderbolts;
All these threaten frightful death to the sailors.
Now the ship tossed up touched the top of Olympus,
Now, the wave yawning, it sinks into the infernal lake._

Teofilo Folengo was followed by a number of imitators, of whom it
will be sufficient to state that he stands in talent as far above his
followers as above those who preceded him. One of these minor Italian
macaronic writers, named Bartolommeo Bolla, of Bergamo, who flourished
in the latter half of the sixteenth century, had the vanity to call
himself, in the title of one of his books, "the Apollo of poets, and
the Cocaius of this age;" but a modern critic has remarked of him
that he is as far removed from his model Folengo, as his native
town Bergamo is distant from Siberia. An earlier poet, named Guarino
Capella, a native of the town of Sarsina, in the country of Forli, on
the borders of Tuscany, approached far nearer in excellence to the
prince of macaronic writers. His work also is a mock romance, the
history of "Cabrinus, king of Gagamagoga," in six books or cantos,
which was printed at Arimini in 1526, and is now a book of excessive
rarity.

The taste for macaronics passed rather early, like all other fashions
in that age, from Italy into France, where it first brought into
literary reputation a man who, if he had not the great talent of
Folengo, possessed a very considerable amount of wit and gaiety.
Antoine de la Sable, who Latinised his name into Antonius de Arena,
was born of a highly respectable family at Soliers, in the diocese
of Toulon, about the year 1500, and, being destined from his youth
to follow the profession of the law, studied under the celebrated
jurisconsult Alciatus. He had only arrived at the simple dignity of
_juge_, at St. Remy, in the diocese of Arles, when he died in the year
1544. In fact, he appears to have been no very diligent student, and we
gather from his own confessions that his youth had been rather wild.
The volume containing his macaronics, the second edition of which (as
far as the editions are known) was printed in 1529, bears a title which
will give some notion of the character of its contents,--"_Provencalis
de bragardissima villa de Soleriis, ad suos compagnones qui sunt de
persona friantes, bassas dansas et branlas practicantes novellas, de
guerra Romana, Neapolitana, et Genuensi mandat; una cum epistola ad
falotissimam suam garsam, Janam Rosæam, pro passando tempora_"--(_i.e._
a Provençal of the most swaggering town of Soliers, sends this to his
companions, who are dainty of their persons, practising basse dances
and new brawls, concerning the war of Rome, Naples, and Genoa; with an
epistle to his most merry wench, Jeanne Rosée, for pastime). In the
first of these poems Arena traces in his burlesque verse, which is an
imitation of Folengo, his own adventures and sufferings in the war in
Italy which led to the sack of Rome, in 1527, and in the subsequent
expeditions to Naples and Genoa. From the picture of the horrors of
war, he passes very willingly to describe the joyous manners of the
students in Provençal universities, of whom he tells us, that they are
all fine gallants, and always in love with the pretty girls.

_Gentigalantes sunt omnes instudiantes,
Et bellas garsas semper amare solent._

He goes on to describe the scholars as great quarrellers, as well as
lovers of the other sex, and after dwelling on their gaiety and love
of the dance, he proceeds to treat in the same burlesque style on the
subject of dancing; but I pass over this to speak of Arena's principal
piece, the satirical description of the invasion of Provence by the
emperor Charles V. in 1536. This curious poem, which is entitled
"Meygra Enterprisa Catoloqui imperatoris," and which extends to upwards
of two thousand lines, opens with a laudatory address to the king of
France, François I., and with a sneer at the pride of the emperor, who,
believing himself to be the master of the whole world, had foolishly
thought to take away France and the cities of Provence from their
rightful monarch. It was Antonio de Leyva, the boaster, who had put
this project into the emperor's head, and they had already pillaged
and ravaged a good part of Provence, and were dividing the plunder,
when, harassed continually by the peasantry, the invaders were brought
to a stand by the difficulty of subsisting in a devastated country,
and by the diseases to which this difficulty gave rise. Nevertheless,
the Spaniards and their allies committed terrible devastation, which
is described by Arena in strong language. He commemorates the valiant
resistance of his native town of Soliers, which, however, was taken
and sacked, and he lost in it his house and property. Arles held the
imperialists at bay, while the French, under the constable Montmorency,
established themselves firmly at Avignon. At length disease gained
possession of Antonio de Leyva himself, and the emperor, who had been
making an unsuccessful demonstration against Marseilles, came to him
in his sickness. The first lines of the description of this interview,
will serve as a specimen of the language of the French macaronics:--

_Sed de Marsella bragganti quando retornat,
Fort male contentus, quando repolsat eum,
Antonium Levam trobavit forte maladum,
Cui mors terribilis triste cubile parat.
Ethica torquet eum per costas, et dolor ingens:
Cum male res vadit, vivere fachat eum.
Dixerunt medici, speransa est nulla salutis:
Ethicus in testa vivere pauca potest.
Ante suam mortem voluit parlare per horam
Imperelatori, consiliumque dare.
Scis, Cæsar, stricte nostri groppantur amores,
Namque duas animas corpus utrumque tenet,
Heu! fuge Provensam fortem, fuge littus amarum,
Fac tibi non noceat gloria tanta modo._

TRANSLATION.

_But when he returns from boasting Marseilles,
Very ill content, that she had repulsed him,
He found Antonio de Leyva very ill,
For whom terrible death is preparing a sorrowful bed.
Hectic fever tortures him in the ribs, and great pain;
Since things are going ill, he is weary of life.
Before his death he wished to speak an hour
To the emperor, and to give him counsel.
"You know, Cæsar, our affections are closely bound together,
For either body holds the two souls,
Alas! fly Provence the strong, fly the bitter shore,
Take care that your great glory prove not an injury to you."_

Thus Leyva goes on to persuade the emperor to abandon his enterprise,
and then dies. Arena exults over his death, and over the emperor's
grief for his loss, and then proceeds to describe the disastrous
retreat of the imperial army, and the glory of France in her king.

Antonius de Arena wrote with vigour and humour, but his verses are
tame in comparison with his model, Folengo. The taste for macaronic
verse never took strong root in France, and the few obscure writers
who attempted to shine in that kind of composition are now forgotten,
except by the laborious bibliographer. One named Jean Germain, wrote
a macaronic history of the invasion of Provence by the imperialists
in rivalry of Arenas. I will not follow the taste for this class of
burlesque composition into Spain or Germany, but merely add that it
was not adopted in England until the beginning of the seventeenth
century, when several authors employed it at about the same time.
The most perfect example of these early English macaronics is the
"Polemo-Middiana," _i.e._ battle of the dunghill, by the talented and
elegant-minded Drummond of Hawthornden. We may take a single example of
the English macaronic from this poem, which will not need an English
translation. One of the female characters in the dunghill war, calls,
among others, to her aid--

_Hunc qui dirtiferas tersit cum dishclouty dishras,
Hunc qui gruelias scivit bene lickere plettas,
Et saltpannifumos, et widebricatos fisheros,
Hellæosque etiam salteros duxit ab antris,
Coalheughos nigri girnantes more divelli;
Lifeguardamque sibi sævas vocat improba lassas,
Maggyam magis doctam milkare covœas,
Et doctam suepare flouras, et sternere beddas,
Quæque novit spinnare, et longas ducere threddas;
Nansyam, claves bene quæ keepaverat omnes,
Quæque lanam cardare solet greasy-fingria Betty._

Perhaps before this was written, the eccentric Thomas Coryat had
published in the volume of his Crudities, printed in 1611, a short
piece of verse, which is perfect in its macaronic style, but in which
Italian and other foreign words are introduced, as well as English. The
celebrated comedy of "Ignoramus," composed by George Ruggle in 1615,
may also be mentioned as containing many excellent examples of English
macaronics.

While Italy was giving birth to macaronic verse, the satire upon the
ignorance and bigotry of the clergy was taking another form in Germany,
which arose from some occurrences which it will be necessary to relate.
In the midst of the violent religious agitation at the beginning of
the sixteenth century in Germany, there lived a German Jew named
Pfeffercorn, who embraced Christianity, and to show his zeal for his
new faith, he obtained from the emperor an edict ordering the Talmud
and all the Jewish writings which were contrary to the Christian faith
to be burnt. There lived at the same time a scholar of distinction,
and of more liberal views than most of the scholastics of his time,
named John Reuchlin. He was a relative of Melancthon, and was secretary
to the palsgrave, who was tolerant like himself. The Jews, as might
be expected, were unwilling to give up their books to be burnt, and
Reuchlin wrote in their defence, under the assumed name of Capnion,
which is a Hebrew translation of his own name of Reuchlin, meaning
smoke, and urged that it was better to refute the books in question
than to burn them. The converted Pfeffercorn replied in a book entitled
"Speculum Manuale," in answer to which Reuchlin wrote his "Speculum
Oculare." The controversy had already provoked much bigoted ill-feeling
against Reuchlin. The learned doctors of the university of Cologne
espoused the cause of Pfeffercorn, and the principal of the university,
named in Latin Ortuinus Gratius, supported by the Sorbonne in Paris,
lent himself to be the violent organ of the intolerant party. Hard
pressed by his bigoted opponents, Reuchlin found good allies, but one
of the best of these was a brave baron named Ulric von Hutten, of an
old and noble family, born in 1488 in the castle of Staeckelberg,
in Franconia. He had studied in the schools at Fulda, Cologne, and
Frankfort on the Oder, and distinguished himself so much as a scholar,
that he obtained the degree of Master of Arts before the usual age.
But Ulric possessed an adventurous and chivalrous spirit, which led
him to embrace the profession of a soldier, and he served in the wars
in Italy, where he was distinguished by his bravery. He was at Rome
in 1516, and defended Reuchlin against the Dominicans. The same year
appeared the first edition of that marvellous book, the "Epistolæ
Obscurorum Virorum," one of the most remarkable satires that the world
has yet seen. It is believed that this book came entirely from the
pen of Ulric von Hutten; and the notion that Reuchlin himself, or
any others of his friends, had a share in it appears to be without
foundation. Ulric was in the following year made poet-laureat.
Nevertheless, this book greatly incensed the monks against him, and he
was often threatened with assassination. Yet he boldly advocated the
cause and embraced the opinions of Luther, and was one of the staunch
supporters of Lutheranism. After a very turbulent life, Ulric von
Hutten died in the August of the year 1523.

The "Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum," or letters of obscure men, are
supposed to be addressed to Ortuinus Gratius, mentioned above, by
various individuals, some his scholars, others his friends, but all
belonging to the bigoted party opposed to Reuchlin, and they were
designed to throw ridicule on the ignorance, bigotry, and immorality
of the clergy of the Romish church. The old scholastic learning
had become debased into a heavy and barbarous system of theology,
literary composition consisted in writing a no less barbarous Latin,
and even the few classical writers who were admitted into the schools,
were explained and commented upon in a strange half-theological
fashion. These old scholastics were bitterly opposed to the new
learning, which had taken root in Italy, and was spreading abroad,
and they spoke contemptuously of it as "secular." The letters of the
obscure individuals relate chiefly to the dispute between Reuchlin
and Pfeffercorn, to the rivalry between the old scholarship and the
new, and to the low licentious lives of the theologists; and they
are written in a style of Latin which is intended for a parody on
that of the latter, and which closely resembles that which we call
"dog-Latin."[97] They are full of wit and humour of the most exquisite
description, but they too often descend into details, treated in terms
which can only be excused by the coarse and licentious character of
the age. The literary and scientific questions discussed in these
letters are often very droll. The first in order of the correspondents
of Ortuinus Gratius, who boasts of the rather formidable name, Thomas
Langschneiderius, and addresses master Ortuinus as "poet, orator,
philosopher, and theologist, and more if he would," propounds to him a
difficult question:--

"There was here one day an Aristotelian dinner, and doctors,
licenciates, and masters too, were very jovial, and I was
there too, and we drank at the first course three draughts of
Malmsey, ... and then we had six dishes of flesh and chickens
and capons, and one of fish, and as we passed from one dish to
another, we continually drunk wine of Kotzburg and the Rhine,
and ale of Embeck, and Thurgen, and Neuburg. And the masters
were well satisfied, and said that the new masters had acquitted
themselves well and with great honour. Then the masters in their
hilarity began to talk learnedly on great questions, and one
asked whether it were correct to say _magister nostrandus_, or
_noster magistrandus_, for a person fit to be made doctor in
theology.... And immediately Master Warmsemmel, who is a subtle
Scotist, and has been master eighteen years, and was in his time
twice rejected and thrice delayed for the degree of master,
and he went on offering himself, until he was promoted for the
honour of the university, ... spoke, and held that we should say
_noster magistrandus_.... Then Master Andreas Delitsch, who is
very subtle, and half poet, half artist (_i.e._ one who professed
in the faculty of arts), physician, and jurist; and now he
reads ordinarily 'Ovid on the Metamorphoses,' and expounds all
the fables allegorically and literally, and I was his hearer,
because he expounds very fundamentally, and he also reads at home
Quintillian and Juvencus, and he held the opposite to Master
Warmsemmel, and said that we ought to say _magister nostrandus_.
For as there is a difference between _magister noster_ and _noster
magister_, so also there is a difference between _magister
nostrandus_ and _noster magistrandus_; for a doctor in theology
is called _magister noster_, and it is one word, but _noster
magister_ are two words, and it is taken for any master; and he
quoted Horace in support of this. Then the masters much admired
his subtlety, and one drank to him a cup of Neuburg ale. And
he said, 'I will wait, but spare me,' and touched his hat, and
laughed heartily, and drank to Master Warmsemmel, and said,
'There, master, don't think I am an enemy,' and he drank it off at
one draught, and Master Warmsemmel replied to him with a strong
draught. And the masters were all merry till the bell rang for
Vespers."

[97] This style differs entirely from the macaronic. It consists
merely in using the words of the Latin language with the forms
and construction of the vulgar tongue, as illustrated by the
directions of the professor who, lecturing in the schools, was
interrupted by the entrance of a dog, and shouted out to the
doorkeeper, _Verte canem ex_, meaning thereby that he should
"turn the dog out." It was perhaps from this, or some similar
occurrence, that this barbarous Latin gained the name of
dog-Latin. The French call it _Latin de cuisine_.

Master Ortuin is pressed for his judgment on this weighty question. A
similar scene described in another letter ends less peacefully. The
correspondent on this occasion is Magister Bornharddus Plumilegus, who
addresses Ortuinus Gratius as follows:--

"Wretched is the mouse which has only one hole for a refuge! So
also I may say of myself, most venerable sir, for I should be poor
if I had only one friend, and when that one should fail me, then
I should not have another to treat me with kindness. As is the
case now with a certain poet here, who is called George Sibutus,
and he is one of the secular poets, and reads publicly in poetry,
and is in other respects a good fellow (_bonus socius_). But as
you know these poets, when they are not theologists like you, will
always reprehend others, and despise the theologists. And once
in a drinking party in his house, when we were drinking Thurgen
ale, and sat until the hour of tierce, and I was moderately drunk,
because that ale rose into my head, then there was one who was not
before friendly with me, and I drank to him half a cup, and he
accepted it. But afterwards he would not return the compliment.
And thrice I cautioned him, and he would not reply, but sat in
silence and said nothing. Then I thought to myself, Behold this
man treats thee with contempt, and is proud, and always wants to
confound you. And I was stirred in my anger, and took the cup, and
threw it at his head. Then that poet was angry at me, and said
that I had caused a disturbance in his house, and said I should go
out of his house in the devil's name. Then I replied, 'What matter
is it if you are my enemy? I have had as bad enemies as you, and
yet I have stood in spite of them. What matters it if you are a
poet? I have other poets who are my friends, and they are quite as
good as you, _ego bene merdarem in vestram poetriam_! Do you think
I am a fool, or that I was born under a tree like apples?' Then he
called me an ass, and said that I never saw a poet. And I said,
'You are an ass in your skin, I have seen many more poets than
you.' And I spoke of you.... Wherefore I ask you very earnestly to
write me one piece of verse, and then I will show it to this poet
and others, and I will boast that you are my friend, and you are a
much better poet than he."

The war against the secular poets, or advocates of the new learning,
is kept up with spirit through this ludicrous correspondence. One
correspondent presses Ortuinus Gratius to "write to me whether it be
necessary for eternal salvation that scholars learn grammar from the
secular poets, such as Virgil, Tullius, Pliny, and others; for," he
adds, "it seems to me that this is not a good method of studying." "As
I have often written to you," says another, "I am grieved that this
ribaldry (_ista ribaldria_), namely, the faculty of poetry, becomes
common, and is spread through all provinces and regions. In my time
there was only one poet, who was called Samuel; and now, in this city
alone, there are at least twenty, and they vex us all who hold with the
ancients. Lately I thoroughly defeated one, who said that _scholaris_
does not signify a person who goes to the school for the purpose of
learning; and I said, 'Ass! will you correct the holy doctor who
expounded this word?'" The new learning was, of course, identified
with the supporters of Reuchlin. "It is said here," continues the same
correspondent, "that all the poets will side with doctor Reuchlin
against the theologians. I wish all the poets were in the place where
pepper grows, that they might let us go in peace!"

Master William Lamp, "master of arts," sends to Master Ortuinus
Gratius, a narrative of his adventures in a journey from Cologne to
Rome. First he went to Mayence, where his indignation was moved by the
open manner in which people spoke in favour of Reuchlin, and when he
hazarded a contrary opinion, he was only laughed at, but he held his
tongue, because his opponents all carried arms and looked fierce. "One
of them is a count, and is a long man, and has white hair; and they
say that he takes a man in armour in his hand, and throws him to the
ground, and he has a sword as long as a giant; when I saw him, then I
held my tongue." At Worms, he found things no better, for the "doctors"
spoke bitterly against the theologians, and when he attempted to
expostulate, he got foul words as well as threats, a learned doctor in
medicine affirming "_quod merdaret super nos omnes_." On leaving Worms,
Lamp and his companion, another theologist, fell in with plunderers who
made them pay two florins to drink, "and I said _occulte_, Drink what
may the devil bless to you!" Subsequently they fell into low amours
at country inns, which are described coarsely, and then they reached
Insprucken, where they found the emperor, and his court and army, with
whole manners and proceedings Magister Lamp became sorely disgusted.
I pass over other adventures till they reach Mantua, the birthplace
of Virgil, and of a late mediæval Latin poet, named from it Baptista
Mantuanus. Lamp, in his hostile spirit towards the "secular poets,"
proceeds,--"And my companion said, 'Here Virgil was born.' I replied,
'What do I care for that pagan? We will go to the Carmelites, and see
Baptista Mantuanus, who is twice as good as Virgil, as I have heard
full ten times from Ortuinus;' and I told him how you once reprehended
Donatus, when he says, 'Virgil was the most learned of poets, and
the best;' and you said, 'If Donatus were here, I would tell him to
his face that he lies, for Baptista Mantuanus is above Virgil.' And
when we came to the monastery of the Carmelites, we were told that
Baptista Mantuanus was dead; then I said, 'May he rest in peace!'" They
continued their journey by Bologna, where they found the inquisitor
Jacob de Hochstraten, and Florence, to Siena. "After this there are
small towns, and one is called Monte-flascon, where we drunk excellent
wine, such as I never drank in my life. And I asked the host what that
wine is called, and he replied that it is lachryma Christi. Then said
my companion, 'I wish Christ would cry in our country!' And so we drank
a good bout, and two days after we entered Rome."

In the course of these letters the theologists, the poets especially,
the character of the clergy, and particularly Reuchlin and
Pfeffercorn, afford continual subjects for dispute and pleasantry.
The last mentioned individual, in the opinion of some, had merited
hanging for theft, and it was pretended that the Jews had expelled
him from their society for his wicked courses. One argued that all
Jews stink, and as it was well known that Pfeffercorn continued to
stink like a Jew, it was quite evident that he could not be a good
Christian. Some of Ortuinus's correspondents consult him on difficult
theological questions. Here is an example in a letter from one Henricus
Schaffmulius, another of his scholars who had made the journey to
Rome:--

"Since, before I journeyed to the Court, you said to me that I am
to write often to you, and that sometimes I am to send you any
theological questions, which you will solve for me better than
the courtiers of Rome, therefore now I ask your mastership what
you hold as to the case when any one on a Friday, or any other
fast day, eats an egg, and there is a chicken inside. Because
the other day we sat in a tavern in the Campo-flore, and made a
collation, and eat eggs, and I, opening an egg, saw that there was
a young chicken in it, which I showed to my companion, and then he
said, 'Eat it quickly before the host sees it, for if he sees it,
then you will be obliged to give a carlino or a julio for a hen,
because it is the custom here that, when the host places anything
on the table, you must pay for it, for they will not take it back.
And when he sees there is a young hen in the egg, he will say,
Pay me for the hen, because he reckons a small one the same as a
large one.' And I immediately sucked up the egg, and with it the
chicken, and afterwards I bethought me that it was Friday, and I
said to my companion. 'You have caused me to commit a mortal sin,
in eating flesh on Friday.' And he said that it is not a mortal
sin, nor even a venial sin, because that embryo of a chicken is
not reckoned other than an egg till it is born; and he told me
that it is as in cheeses, in which there are sometimes worms,
and in cherries, and fresh peas and beans, yet they are eaten on
Fridays, and also in the vigils of the apostles. But the hosts
are such rogues, that they say that they are flesh, that they may
have more money. Then I went away, and thought about it. And, _per
Deum_! Magister Ortuinus, I am much troubled, and I know not how
I ought to rule myself. If I went to ask advice of a courtier [of
the papal court], I know that they have not good consciences. It
seems to me that these young hens in the eggs are flesh, because
the matter is already formed and figured in members and bodies of
an animal, and it has life; it is otherwise with worms in cheeses
and other things, because worms are reputed for fishes, as I have
heard from a physician, who is a very good naturalist. Therefore I
ask you very earnestly, that you will give me your reply on this
question. Because if you hold that it is a mortal sin, then I will
purchase an absolution here, before I return to Germany. Also you
must know that our master Jacobus de Hochstraten has obtained a
thousand florins from the bank, and I think that with these he
will gain his cause, and the devil confound that John Reuchlin,
and the other poets and jurists, because they will be against
the church of God, that is, against the theologists, in whom is
founded the church, as Christ said: Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church. And so I commend you to the Lord God.
Farewell. Given from the city of Rome."

While in Italy macaronic literature was reaching its greatest
perfection, there arose in the very centre of France a man of great
original genius, who was soon to astonish the world by a new form of
satire, more grotesque and more comprehensive than anything that had
been seen before. Teofilo Folengo may fairly be considered as the
precursor of Rabelais, who appears to have taken the Italian satirist
as his model. What we know of the life of François Rabelais is rather
obscure at best, and is in some parts no doubt fabulous. He was born
at Chinon in Touraine, either in 1483 or in 1487, for this seems to
be a disputed point, and some doubt has been thrown on the trade or
profession of his father, but the most generally received opinion is
that he was an apothecary. He is said to have shown from his youth a
disposition more inclined to gaiety than to serious pursuits, yet at
an early age he had made great proficiency in learning, and is said to
have acquired a very sufficient knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew,
two of which, at least, were not popular among the popish clergy, and
not only of the modern languages and literature of Italy, Germany, and
Spain, but even of Arabic. Probably this estimate of his acquirements
in learning is rather exaggerated. It is not quite clear where the
young Rabelais gained all this knowledge, for he is said to have been
educated in convents and among monks, and to have become at a rather
early age a Franciscan friar in the convent of Fontenai-le-Compte, in
Lower Poitou, where he became an object of jealousy and ill-feeling to
the other friars by his superior acquirements. It was a tradition, at
least, that the conduct of Rabelais was not very strictly conventual,
and that he had so far shown his contempt for monastic rule, and for
the bigotry of the Romish church, that he was condemned to the prison
of his monastery, upon a diet of bread and water, which, according to
common report, was very uncongenial with the tastes of this jovial
friar. Out of this difficulty he is said to have been helped by his
friend the bishop of Maillezais, who obtained for him the pope's
licence to change the order of St. Francis for the much more easy and
liberal order of St. Benedict, and he became a member of the bishop's
own chapter in the abbey of Maillezais. His unsteady temper, however,
was not long satisfied with this retreat, which he left, and, laying
aside the regular habit, assumed that of a secular priest. In this
character he wandered for some time, and then settled at Montpellier,
where he took a degree as doctor in medicine, and practised for some
time with credit. There he published in 1532 a translation of some
works of Hippocrates and Galen, which he dedicated to his friend the
bishop of Maillezais. The circumstances under which he left Montpellier
are not known, but he is supposed to have gone to Paris upon some
business of the university, and to have remained there. He found
there a staunch friend in Jean de Bellay, bishop of Paris, who soon
afterwards was raised to the rank of cardinal. When the cardinal de
Bellay went as ambassador to Rome from the court of France, Rabelais
accompanied him, it is said in the character of his private medical
adviser, but during his stay in the metropolis of Christendom, as
Christendom was understood in those days by the Romish church, Rabelais
obtained, on the 17th of January, 1536 the papal absolution for all
his transgressions, and licence to return to Maillezais, and practise
medicine there and elsewhere as an act of charity. Thus he became again
a Benedictine monk. He, however, changed again, and became a secular
canon, and finally settled down as the curé of Meudon, near Paris, with
which he also held a fair number of ecclesiastical benefices. Rabelais
died in 1553, according to some in a very religious manner, but others
have given strange accounts of his last moments, representing that,
even when dying, he conversed in the same spirit of mockery, not only
of Romish forms and ceremonies, but of all religions whatever, which
was ascribed to him during his life, and which are but too openly
manifested in the extraordinary satirical romance which has given so
much celebrity to his name.

During the greater part of his life, Rabelais was exposed to troubles
and persecutions. He was saved from the intrigues of the monks by
the friendly influence of popes and cardinals; and the favour of two
successive kings, François I. and Henri II., protected him against the
still more dangerous hostility of the Sorbonne and the parliament of
Paris. This high protection has been advanced as a reason for rejecting
the anecdotes and accounts which have been commonly received relating
to the personal character of Rabelais, and his irregularities may
possibly have been exaggerated by the hatred which he had drawn upon
himself by his writings. But nobody, I think, who knows the character
of society at that time, who compares what we know of the lives of
the other satirists, and who has read the history of Gargantua and
Pantagruel, will consider such an argument of much weight against the
deliberate statements of those who were his contemporaries, or be
inclined to doubt that the writer of this history was a man of jovial
character, who loved a good bottle and a broad joke, and perhaps other
things that were equally objectionable. His books present a sort
of wild riotous orgy, without much order or plan, except the mere
outline of the story, in which is displayed an extraordinary extent
of reading in all classes of literature, from the most learned to the
most popular, with a wonderful command of language, great imagination,
and some poetry, intermixed with a perhaps larger amount of downright
obscene ribaldry, than can be found in the macaronics of Folengo,
in the "Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum," or in the works of any of the
other satirists who had preceded him, or were his contemporaries. It
is a broad caricature, poor enough in its story, but enriched with
details, which are brilliant with imagery, though generally coarse,
and which are made the occasions for turning to ridicule everything
that existed. The five books of this romance were published separately
and at different periods, apparently without any fixed intention of
continuing them. The earlier editions of the first part were published
without date, but the earliest editions with dates belong to the year
1535, when it was several times reprinted. It appeared as the life of
Gargantua. This hero is supposed to have flourished in the first half
of the fifteenth century, and to have been the son of Grandgousier,
king of Utopia, a country which lay somewhere in the direction of
Chinon, a prince of an ancient dynasty, but a jovial fellow, who loved
good eating and drinking better than anything else. Grandgousier
married Gargamelle, daughter of the king of the Parpaillos, who became
the mother of Gargantua. The first chapters relate rather minutely
how the child was born, and came out at its mother's ear, why it was
called Gargantua, how it was dressed and treated in infancy, what were
its amusements and disposition, and how Gargantua was put to learning
under the sophists, and made no progress. Thereupon Grandgousier sent
his son to Paris, to seek instruction there, and he proceeds thither
mounted on an immense mare, which had been sent as a present by the
king of Numidia--it must be borne in mind that the royal race of Utopia
were all giants. At Paris the populace assembled tumultuously to
gratify their curiosity in looking at this new scholar; but Gargantua,
besides treating them in a very contemptuous manner, carried off the
great bells of Notre Dame to suspend at the neck of his mare. Great
was the indignation caused by this theft. "All the city was risen up
in sedition, they being, as you know, upon any slight occasions, so
ready to uproars and insurrections, that foreign nations wonder at the
patience of the kings of France, who do not by good justice restrain
them from such tumultuous courses." The citizens take counsel, and
resolve on sending one of the great orators of the university, Master
Janotus de Bragmardo, to expostulate with Gargantua, and obtain the
restoration of the bells. The speech which this worthy addresses to
Gargantua, in fulfilment of his mission, is an amusing parody on the
pedantic style of Parisian oratory. The bells, however, are recovered,
and Gargantua, under skilful instructors, pursues his studies with
credit, until he is suddenly called home by a letter from his father.
In fact, Grandgousier was suddenly involved in a war with his neighbour
Picrocole, king of Lerné, caused by a quarrel about cakes between some
cake-makers of Lerné and Grandgousier's shepherds, in consequence of
which Picrocole had invaded the dominions of Grandgousier, and was
plundering and ravaging them. His warlike humour is stirred up by the
counsels of his three lieutenants, who persuade him that he is going
to become a great conqueror, and that they will make him master of the
whole world. It is not difficult to see, in the circumstances of the
time, the general aim of the satire contained in the history of this
war. It ends in the entire defeat and disappearance of king Picrocole.
A sensual and jovial monk named brother Jean des Entommeurs, who has
first distinguished himself by his prowess and strength in defending
his own abbey against the invaders, contributes largely to the victory
gained by Gargantua against his father's enemies, and Gargantua
rewards him by founding for him that pleasant abbey of Thélème, a
grand establishment, stored with everything which could contribute to
terrestrial happiness, from which all hypocrites and bigots were to be
excluded, and the rule of which was comprised in the four simple words,
"Do as you like."

Such is the history of Gargantua, which was afterwards formed by
Rabelais into the first book of his great comic romance. It was
published anonymously, the author merely describing himself as
"l'abstracteur de quinte essence;" but he afterwards adopted the
pseudonyme of Alcofribas Nasier, which is merely an anagram of his own
name, François Rabelais. A very improbable story has been handed down
to us relating to this book. It is pretended that, having published
a book of medical science which had no sale, and the publisher
complaining that he had lost money by it, Rabelais promised to make
amends for his loss, and immediately wrote the history of Gargantua,
by which the same book-seller made his fortune. There can be no doubt
that this remarkable satire had a deeper origin than any casual
accident like this; but it was exactly suited to the taste and temper
of the age. It was quite original in its form and style, and it met
with immediate and great success. Numerous editions followed each
other rapidly, and its author, encouraged by its popularity, very soon
afterwards produced a second romance, in continuation, to which he
gave the title of Pantagruel. The caricature in this second romance
is bolder even than in the first, the humour broader, and the satire
more pungent. Grandgousier has disappeared from the scene, and his son,
Gargantua, is king, and has a son named Pantagruel, whose kingdom is
that of the Dipsodes. The first part of this new romance is occupied
chiefly with Pantagruel's youth and education, and is a satire on
the university and on the lawyers, in which the parodies on their
style of pleading as then practised is admirable. In the latter part,
Pantagruel, like his father Gargantua, is engaged in great wars. It was
perhaps the continued success of this new production of his pen which
led Rabelais to go on with it, and form the design of making these two
books part only of a more extensive romance. During his studies in
Paris, Pantagruel has made the acquaintance of a singular individual
named Panurge, who becomes his attached friend and constant companion,
holding somewhat the position of brother Jean in the first book, but
far more crafty and versatile. The whole subject of the third book
arises out of Pantagreul's desire to marry, and its various amusing
episodes describe the different expedients which, at the suggestion of
Panurge, he adopts to arrive at a solution of the question whether his
marriage would be fortunate or not.

In publishing his fourth book, Rabelais complains that his writings
had raised him enemies, and that he was accused of having at least
written heresy. In fact, he had bitterly provoked both the monks and
the university and parliament; and, as the increasing reaction of
Romanism in France gave more power of persecution to the two latter,
he was not writing without some degree of danger, yet the satire of
each successive book became bolder and more direct. The fifth, which
was left unfinished at his death, and which was published posthumously,
was the most severe of them all. The character of Gargantua, indeed,
was almost forgotten in that of Pantagruel, and Pantagruelism became
an accepted name for the sort of gay, reckless satire of which he was
looked upon as the model. He described it himself as a _certaine gaieté
d'esprit confite en mépris des choses fortuites_, in fact, neither
Romanism nor Protestantism, but simply a jovial kind of Epicurianism.
All the gay wits of the time aspired to be Pantagruelists, and the
remainder of the sixteenth century abounded in wretched imitations of
the style of Rabelais, which are now consigned as mere rarities to the
shelves of the bibliophilist.

Among the dangers which began to threaten them in France in the earlier
part of the sixteenth century, liberal opinions found an asylum at the
court of a princess who was equally distinguished by her beauty, by her
talents and noble sentiments, and by her accomplishments. Marguerite
d'Angoulême, queen of Navarre, was the only sister of François I., who
was her junior by two years, and was affectionately attached to her.
She was born on the 11th of April, 1492. She had married, first, that
unfortunate duke d'Alençon, whose misconduct at Pavia was the cause of
the disastrous defeat of the French, and the captivity of their king.
The duke died, it was said of grief at his misfortune, in 1525; and
two years afterwards, on the 24th of January, 1527, she married Henri
d'Albret, king of Navarre. Their daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, carried
this petty royalty to the house of Bourbon, and was the mother of Henri
IV.

Marguerite held her court in true princely manner in the castle of Pau
or at Nérac, and she loved to surround herself with a circle of men
remarkable for their character and talents, and ladies distinguished
by beauty and accomplishments, which made it rival in brilliance
even that of her brother François. She placed nearest to her person,
under the character of her _valets-de-chambre_, the principal poets
and _beaux-esprits_ of her time, such as Clement Marot, Bonaventure
des Periers, Claude Gruget, Antoine du Moulin, and Jean de la Haye,
and admitted them to such a tender familiarity of intercourse, as to
excite the jealousy of the king her husband, from whose ill-treatment
she was only protected by her brother's interference. The poets called
her chamber a "veritable Parnassus." Hers was certainly a great
mind, greedy of knowledge, dissatisfied with what was, and eager for
novelties, and therefore she encouraged all who sought for them. It
was in this spirit, combined with her earnest love for letters, that
she threw her protection over both the sceptics and the religious
reformers. At the beginning of the persecutions, as early as 1523,
she openly declared herself the advocate of the Protestants. When
Clement Marot was arrested by order of the Sorbonne and the Inquisitor
on the charge of having eaten bacon in Lent, Marguerite caused him
to be liberated from prison, in defiance of his persecutors. Some of
the purest and ablest of the early French reformers, such as Roussel
and Le Fèvre d'Etaples, and Calvin himself, found a safe asylum from
danger in her dominions. As might be supposed, the bigoted party were
bitterly incensed against the queen of Navarre, and were not backward
in taking advantage of an opportunity for showing it. A moral treatise,
entitled "Le Miroir de l'Ame Pécheresse," of which Marguerite was the
author, was condemned by the Sorbonne in 1533, but the king compelled
the university, in the person of its rector, Nicolas Cop, to disavow
publicly the censure. This was followed by a still greater act of
insolence, for, at the instigation of some of the more bigoted papists,
the scholars of the college of Navarre, in concert with their regents,
performed a farce in which Marguerite was transformed into a fury of
hell. François I., greatly indignant, sent his archers to arrest the
offenders, who further provoked his anger by resistance, and only
obtained their pardon through the generous intercession of the princess
whom they had so grossly insulted.

Marguerite was herself a poetess, and she loved above all things
those gay, and seldom very delicate, stories, the telling of which
was at that time one of the favourite amusements of the evening,
and one in which she was known to excel. Her poetical writings were
collected and printed, under her own authority, in 1547, by her then
_valet-de-chambre_, Jean de la Haye, who dedicated the volume to her
daughter. They are all graceful, and some of them worthy of the best
poets of her time. The title of this collection was, punning upon
her name, which means a pearl, "Marguerites de la Marguerite des
princesses, très illustre reyne de Navarre." Marguerite's stories
(_nouvelles_) were more celebrated than her verses, and are said to
have been committed to writing under her own dictation. All the ladies
of her court possessed copies of them in writing. It is understood to
have been her intention to form them into ten days' tales, of ten in
each day, so as to resemble the "Decameron" of Boccaccio, but only
eight days were finished at the time of her death, and the imperfect
work was published posthumously by her _valet-de-chambre_, Claude
Gruget, under the title of "L'Heptameron, ou Histoire des Amants
Fortunés." It is by far the best collection of stories of the sixteenth
century. They are told charmingly, in language which is a perfect model
of French composition of that age, but they are all tales of gallantry
such as could only be repeated in polite society in an age which was
essentially licentious. Queen Marguerite died on the 21st of December,
1549, and was buried in the cathedral of Pau. Her death was a subject
of regret to all that was good and all that was poetic, not only in
France, but in Europe, which had been accustomed to look upon her as
the tenth Muse and the fourth Grace:--

_Musarum decima et Charitum quarta, inclyta regum
Et soror et conjux, Marguaris illa jacet._

Before Marguerite's death, her literary circle had been broken up by
the hatred of religious persecutors. Already, in 1536, the imprudent
boldness of Marot had rendered it impossible to protect him any
longer, and he had been obliged to retire to a place of concealment,
from whence he sometimes paid a stealthy visit to her court. His
place of _valet-de-chambre_ was given to a man of talents, even more
remarkable, and who shared equally the personal esteem of the queen of
Navarre, Bonaventure des Periers. Marot's successor paid a graceful
compliment to him in a short poem entitled "L'Apologie de Marot
absent," published in 1537. The earlier part of the year following
witnessed the publication of the most remarkable work of Bonaventure
des Periers, the "Cymbalum Mundi," concerning the real character
of which writers are still divided in opinion. In it Des Periers
introduced a new form of satire, imitated from the dialogues of Lucian.
The book consists of four dialogues, written in language which forms a
model of French composition, the personages introduced in them intended
evidently to represent living characters, whose names are concealed
in anagrams and other devices, among whom was Clement Marot. It was
the boldest declaration of scepticism which had yet issued from the
Epicurean school represented by Rabelais. The author sneers at the
Romish church as an imposture, ridicules the Protestants as seekers
after the philosopher's stone, and shows disrespect to Christianity
itself. Such a book could hardly be published in Paris with impunity,
yet it was printed there, secretly, it is said, by a well-known
bookseller, Jean Morin, in the Rue St. Jacques, and therefore in the
immediate vicinity of the persecuting Sorbonne. Private information
had been given of the character of this work, possibly by the printer
himself or by one of his men, and on the 6th of March, 1538, when it
was on the eve of publication, the whole impression was seized at the
printer's, and Morin himself was arrested and thrown into prison. He
was treated rigorously, and is understood to have escaped only by
disavowing all knowledge of the character of the book, and giving up
the name of the author. The first edition of the "Cymbalum Mundi" was
burnt, and Bonaventure des Periers, alarmed by the personal dangers
in which he was thus involved, retired from the court of the queen of
Navarre, and took refuge in the city of Lyons, where liberal opinions
at that time found a greater degree of tolerance than elsewhere. There
he printed a second edition of the "Cymbalum Mundi," which also was
burnt, and copies of either edition are now excessively rare.[98]
Bonaventure des Periers felt so much the weight of the persecution in
which he had now involved himself, that, in the year 1539, as far as
can be ascertained, he put an end to his own existence. This event cast
a gloom over the court of the queen of Navarre, from which it seems
never to have entirely recovered. The school of scepticism to which Des
Periers belonged had now fallen into equal discredit with Catholics and
Protestants, and the latter looked upon Marguerite herself, who had
latterly conformed outwardly with Romanism, as an apostate from their
cause. Henri Estienne, in his "Apologie pour Herodote," speaks of the
"Cymbalum Mundi" as an infamous book.

[98] A cheap and convenient edition of the "Cymbalum Mundi," edited
by the Bibliophile Jacob (Paul Lacroix), was published in Paris
in 1841. I may here state that similar editions of the principal
French satirists of the sixteenth century have been printed
during the last twenty-five years.

Bonaventure des Periers left behind him another work more amusing to us
at the present day, and more characteristic of the literary tastes of
the court of Marguerite of Navarre. This is a collection of facetious
stories, which was published several years after the death of its
author, under the title of "Les Contes, ou Les Nouvelles Récréations et
Joyeux Devis de Bonaventure des Periers." They have some resemblance
in style to the stories of the Heptameron, but are shorter, and rather
more facetious, and are characterised by their bitter spirit of satire
against the monks and popish clergy. Some of these stories remind us,
in their peculiar character and tone, of the "Epistolæ Obscurorum
Virorum," as, for an example, the following, which is given as an
anecdote of the curé de Brou:--

"This curé had a way of his own to chant the different offices
of the church, and above all he disliked the way of saying the
Passion in the manner it was ordinarily said in churches, and he
chanted it quite differently. For when our Lord said anything to
the Jews, or to Pilate, he made him talk high and loud, so that
everybody could hear him, and when it was the Jews or somebody
else who spoke, he spoke so low that he could hardly be heard
at all. It happened that a lady of rank and importance, on her
way to Châteaudun, to keep there the festival of Easter, passed
through Brou on Good Friday, about ten o'clock in the morning,
and, wishing to hear service, she went to the church where the
curé was officiating. When it came to the Passion, he said it
in his own manner, and made the whole church ring again when
he said _Quem quæritis_? But when it came to the reply, _Jesum
Nazarenum_, he spoke as low as he possibly could. And in this
manner he continued the Passion. The lady, who was very devout,
and, for a woman, well informed in the holy scriptures, and
attentive to the ecclesiastical ceremonies, felt scandalised
at this mode of chanting, and wished she had never entered the
church. She had a mind to speak to the curé, and tell him what
she thought of it; and for this purpose sent for him to come to
her after the service. When he came, she said to him, 'Monsieur
le Curé, I don't know where you learnt to officiate on a day like
this, when the people ought to be all humility; but to hear you
perform the service, is enough to drive away anybody's devotion.'
'How so, madame?' said the curé. 'How so?' said she, 'you have
said a Passion contrary to all rules of decency. When our Lord
speaks, you cry as if you were in the town-hall; and when it is a
Caiaphas, or Pilate, or the Jews, you speak softly like a young
bride. Is this becoming in one like you? are you fit to be a curé?
If you had what you deserve, you would be turned out of your
benefice, and then you would be made to know your fault!' When the
curé had very attentively listened to her, he said, 'Is this what
you had to say to me, madame? By my soul! it is very true, what
they say; and the truth is, that there are many people who talk of
things which they do not understand. Madame, I believe that I know
my office as well as another, and I beg all the world to know that
God is as well served in this parish according to its condition,
as in any place within a hundred leagues of it. I know very well
that the other curés chant the Passion quite differently; I could
easily chant it like them if I would; but they do not understand
their business at all. I should like to know if it becomes those
rogues of Jews to speak as loud as our Lord! No, no, madame; rest
assured that in my parish it is my will that God be the master,
and He shall be as long as I live; and let the others do in their
parishes according to their understanding.'"

Another story, equally worthy of Ulric von Hutten, is satirical enough
on priestly pedantry:--

"There was a priest of a village who was as proud as might be,
because he had seen a little more than his Cato; for he had read
_De Syntaxi_, and his _Fauste precor gelida_ [the first eclogue
of Baptista Mantuanus]. And this made him set up his feathers,
and talk very grand, using words that filled his mouth, in order
to make people think him a great doctor. Even at confession, he
made use of terms which astonished the poor people. One day he
was confessing a poor working man, of whom he asked, 'Here, now,
my friend, tell me, art thou ambitious?' The poor man said 'No,'
thinking this was a word which belonged to great lords, and almost
repented of having come to confess to this priest; for he had
already heard that he was such a great clerk, and that he spoke
so grandly, that nobody understood him, which he now knew by this
word _ambitious_; for although he might have heard it somewhere,
yet he did not know at all what it was. The priest went on to
ask 'Art thou not a fornicator?' 'No,' said the labourer, who
understood as little as before. 'Art thou not a gourmand?' said
the priest. 'No.' 'Art thou not superbe [_proud_]?' 'No.' 'Art
thou not iracund?' 'No.' The priest seeing the man answer always
'No,' was somewhat surprised. 'Art thou not concupiscent?' 'No.'
'And what art thou, then?' said the priest. 'I am,' said he, 'a
mason; here is my trowel!'"

At this time "Pantagruelism" had mixed itself more or less largely in
all the satirical literature of France. It is very apparent in the
writings of Bonaventure des Periers, and in a considerable number of
satirical publications which now issued, many of them anonymously, or
under the then fashionable form of anagrams, from the press in France.
Among these writers were a few who, though far inferior to Rabelais,
may be considered as not unequal to Des Periers himself. One of the
most remarkable of these was a gentleman of Britany, Noel du Fail, lord
of La Hérissaye, who was, like so many of these satirists, a lawyer,
and who died, apparently at an advanced age, at the end of 1585, or
beginning of 1586. In his publications, according to the fashion of
that age, he concealed his name under an anagram, and called himself
Leon Ladulfil (doubling the _l_ in the name Fail). Noel du Fail has
been called the ape of Rabelais, though the mere imitation is not very
apparent. He published (as far as has been ascertained), in 1548,
his "Discours d'aucuns propos ruftiques facétieux, et de singulière
récréation." This was followed immediately by a work entitled
"Baliverneries, ou Contes Nouveaux d'Eutrapel;" but his last, and most
celebrated book, the "Contes et Discours d'Eutrapel," was not printed
until 1586, after the death of its author. The writings of Noel du Fail
are full of charming pictures of rural life in the sixteenth century,
and, though sufficiently free, they present less than most similar
books of that period of the coarseness of Rabelais. I cannot say the
same of a book which is much more celebrated than either of these,
and the history of which is still enveloped in obscurity. I mean the
"Moyen de Parvenir." This book, which is full of wit and humour, but
the licentiousness of which is carried to a degree which renders it
unreadable at the present day, is now ascribed by bibliographers, in
its present form, to Béroalde de Verville, a gentleman of a Protestant
family who had embraced Catholicism, and obtained advancements in the
church, and it was not printed until 1610, but it is supposed that in
its present form it is only a revision of an earlier composition,
perhaps even an unacknowledged work of Rabelais himself, which had been
preserved in manuscript in Beroald's family.

Pantagruelism, or, if you like, Rabelaism, did not, during the
sixteenth century, make much progress beyond the limits of France.
In the Teutonic countries of Europe, and in England, the sceptical
sentiment was small in comparison with the religious feeling, and the
only satirical work at all resembling those we have been describing,
was the "Utopia" of Sir Thomas More, a work comparatively spiritless,
and which produced a very slight sensation. In Spain, the state of
social feeling was still less favourable to the writings of Rabelais,
yet he had there a worthy and true representative in the author of
Don Quixote. It was only in the seventeenth century that the works of
Rabelais were translated into English; but we must not forget that our
satirists of the last century, such as Swift and Sterne, derived their
inspiration chiefly from Rabelais, and from the Pantagruelistic writers
of the latter half of the sixteenth century. These latter were most of
them poor imitators of their original, and, like all poor imitators,
pursued to exaggeration his least worthy characteristics. There is
still some humour in the writings of Tabourot, the sieur des Accords,
especially in his "Bigarrures," but the later productions, which
appeared under such names as Bruscambille and Tabarin, sink into mere
dull ribaldry.

There had arisen, however, by the side of this satire which smelt
somewhat too much of the tavern, another satire, more serious,
which still contained a little of the style of Rabelais. The French
Protestants at first looked upon Rabelais as one of their towers of
strength, and embraced with gratitude the powerful protection they
received from the graceful queen of Navarre; but their gratitude
failed them, when Marguerite, though she never ceased to give them her
protection, conformed outwardly, from attachment to her brother, to the
forms of the Catholic faith, and they rejected the school of Rabelais
as a mere school of Atheists. Among them arose another school of
satire, a sort of branch from the other, which was represented in its
infancy by the celebrated scholar and printer, Henri Estienne, better
known among us as Henry Stephens.

The remarkable book called an "Apologie pour Herodote," arose out of
an attack upon its writer by the Romanists. Henri Estienne, who was
known as a staunch Protestant, published, at great expense, an edition
of Herodotus in Greek and Latin, and the zealous Catholics, out of
spite to the editor, decried his author, and spoke of Herodotus as a
mere collector of monstrous and incredible tales. Estienne, in revenge,
published what, under the form of an apology for Herodotus, was really
a violent attack on the Romish church. His argument is that all
historians must relate transactions which appear to many incredible,
and that the events of modern times were much more incredible, if
they were not known to be true, than anything which is recorded by
the historian of antiquity. After an introductory dissertation on the
light in which we ought to regard the fable of the Golden Age, and on
the moral character of the ancient peoples, he goes on to show that
their depravity was much less than that of the middle ages and of his
own time, indeed of all periods during which people were governed by
the Church of Rome. Not only did this dissoluteness of morals pervade
lay society, but the clergy were more vicious even than the people, to
whom they ought to serve as an example. A large part of the book is
filled with anecdotes of the immoral lives of the popish clergy of the
sixteenth century, and of their ignorance and bigotry; and he describes
in detail the methods employed by the Romish church to keep the mass
of the people in ignorance, and to repress all attempts at inquiry.
Out of all this, he says, had risen a school of atheists and scoffers,
represented by Rabelais and Bonaventure des Periers, both of whom he
mentions by name.

As we approach the end of the sixteenth century, the struggle of
parties became more political than religious, but not less bitter than
before. The literature of the age of that celebrated "Ligue," which
seemed at one time destined to overthrow the ancient royalty of France,
consisted chiefly of libellous and abusive pamphlets, but in the midst
of them there appeared a work far superior to any purely political
satire which had yet been seen, and the fame of which has never passed
away. Its object was to turn to ridicule the meeting of the Estates
of France, convoked by the duke of Mayenne, as leader of the Ligue,
and held at Paris on the 10th of February, 1503. The grand object of
this meeting was to exclude Henri IV. from the throne; and the Spanish
party proposed to abolish the Salic law, and proclaim the infanta of
Spain queen of France. The French ligueurs proposed plans hardly less
unpatriotic, and the duke of Mayenne, indignant at the small account
made of his own personal pretensions, prorogued the meeting, and
persuaded the two parties to hold what proved a fruitless conference at
Suresne. It was the meeting of the Estates in Paris which gave rise to
that celebrated _Satyre Ménippée_, of which it was said, that it served
the cause of Henri IV. as much as the battle of Ivry itself.

This satire originated among a party of friends, of men distinguished
by learning, wit, and talent, though most of their names are obscure,
who used to meet in an evening in the hospitable house of one of
them, Jacques Gillot, on the Quai des Orfèvres in Paris, and there
talk satirically over the violence and insolence of the ligueurs.
They all belonged either to the bar or to the university, or to the
church. Gillot himself, a Burgundian, born about the year 1560, had
been a dean in the church of Langres, and afterwards canon of the
Sainte Chapelle in Paris, and was at this time conseiller-clerc to
the parliament of Paris. In 1589 he was committed to the Bastille,
but was soon afterwards liberated. Nicolas Rapin, one of his friends,
was born in 1535, and was said to have been the son of a priest, and
therefore illegitimate. He was a lawyer, a poet, and a soldier, for he
fought bravely in the ranks of Henri IV. at Ivry, and his devotion to
that prince was so well known, that he was banished from Paris by the
ligueurs, but had returned thither before the meeting of the Estates in
1593. Jean Passerat, born in 1534, was also a poet, and a professor in
the Collège Royal. Florent Chrestien, born at Orleans in 1540, had been
the tutor of Henri IV., and was well known as a man of sound learning.
The most learned of the party was Pierre Pithou, born at Troyes in
1539, who had abjured Calvinism to return to Romanism, and who held
a distinguished position at the French bar. The last of this little
party of men of letters was a canon of Rouen named Pierre le Roy, a
patriotic ecclesiastic, who held the office of almoner to the cardinal
de Bourbon. It was Le Roy who drew up the first sketch of the "Satyre
Ménippée," each of the others executed his part in the composition, and
Pithou finally revised it. For several years this remarkable satire
circulated only secretly, and in manuscript, and it was not printed
until Henri IV. was established on the throne.

The satire opens with an account of the virtues of the "Catholicon,"
or nostrum for curing all political diseases, or the _higuiero
d'infierno_, which had been so effective in the hands of the Spaniards,
who invented it. Some of these are extraordinary enough. If, we are
told, the lieutenant of Don Philip "have some of this Catholicon on
his flags, he will enter without a blow into an enemy's country, and
they will meet him with crosses and banners, legates and primates; and
though he ruin, ravage, usurp, massacre, and sack everything, and carry
away, ravish, burn, and reduce everything to a desert, the people of
the country will say, 'These are our friends, they are good Catholics;
they do it for our peace, and for our mother holy church.'" "If an
indolent king amuse himself with refining this drug in his escurial,
let him write a word into Flanders to Father Ignatius, sealed with
the Catholicon, he will find him a man who (_salva conscientia_) will
assassinate his enemy whom he has not been able to conquer by arms in
twenty years." This, of course, is an allusion to the murder of the
prince of Orange. "If this king proposes to assure his estates to his
children after his death, and to invade another's kingdom at little
expense, let him write a word to Mendoza, his ambassador, or to Father
Commelet (one of the most seditious orators of the Ligue), and if he
write with the _higuiero del infierno_, at the bottom of his letter,
the words _Yo el Rey_, they will furnish him with an apostate monk, who
will go under a fair semblance, like a Judas, and assassinate in cold
blood a great king of France, his brother-in-law, in the middle of his
camp, without fear of God or men; they will do more, they will canonise
the murderer, and place this Judas above St. Peter, and baptise this
prodigious and horrible crime with the name of a providential event,
of which the godfathers will be cardinals, legates, and primates." The
allusion here is to the assassination of Henri III. by Jacques Clement.
These are but a few of the marvellous properties of the political drug,
after the enumeration of which the report of the meeting of the Estates
is introduced by a burlesque description of the grand procession
which preceded it. Then we are introduced to the hall of assembly, and
different subjects pictured on the tapestries which cover its walls,
all having reference to the politics of the Ligue, are described fully.
Then we come to the report of the meeting, and to the speeches of the
different speakers, each of which is a model of satire. It is not known
which of the little club of satirists wrote the open speech of the duke
of Mayenne, but that of the Roman legate is known to be the work of
Gillot, and that of the cardinal de Pelvé, a masterpiece of Latin in
the style of the "Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum," was written by Florent
Chrestien. Nicolas Rapin composed the "harangue" placed in the mouth
of the archbishop of Lyons, as well as that of Rose, the rector of
the university; and the long speech of Claude d'Aubray was by Pithou.
Passerat composed most of the verses which are scattered through the
book, and it is understood that Pithou finally revised the whole. This
mock report of the meeting of the Estates closes with a description of
a series of political pictures which are arranged on the wall of the
staircase of the hall.

These pictures, as well as those on the tapestries of the hall of
meeting, are simply so many caricatures, and the same may be said of
another set of pictures, of which a description is given in one of the
satirical pieces which followed the "Satyre Ménippée," on the same
side, entitled, "Histoire des Singeries de la Ligue." It was amid
the political turmoil of the sixteenth century in France that modern
political caricature took its rise.

CHAPTER XX.

POLITICAL CARICATURE IN ITS INFANCY.--THE REVERS DU JEU DES
SUYSSES.--CARICATURE IN FRANCE.--THE THREE ORDERS.--PERIOD OF THE
LEAGUE; CARICATURES AGAINST HENRI III.--CARICATURES AGAINST THE
LEAGUE.--CARICATURE IN FRANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--GENERAL
GALAS.--THE QUARREL OF AMBASSADORS.--CARICATURE AGAINST LOUIS
XIV.; WILLIAM OF FÜRSTEMBERG.

It has been already remarked that political caricature, in the modern
sense of the word, or even personal caricature, was inconsistent with
the state of things in the middle ages, until the arts of engraving
and printing became sufficiently developed, because it requires the
facility of quick and extensive circulation. The political or satirical
song was carried everywhere by the minstrel, but the satirical picture,
represented only in some solitary sculpture or illumination, could
hardly be finished before it had become useless even in the small
sphere of its influence, and then remained for ages a strange figure,
with no meaning that could be understood. No sooner, however, was
the art of printing introduced, than the importance of political
caricature was understood and turned to account. We have seen what a
powerful agent it became in the Reformation, which in spirit was no
less political than religious; but even before the great religious
movement had begun, this agent had been brought into activity. One
of the earliest engravings which can be called a caricature--perhaps
the oldest of our modern caricatures known--is represented in our
cut No. 171, is no doubt French, and belongs to the year 1499. It is
sufficiently explained by the history of the time.

[Illustration: _No. 171. The Political Game of Cards._]

At the date just mentioned, Louis XII. of France, who had been king
less than twelve months, was newly married to Anne of Britany, and
had resolved upon an expedition into Italy, to unite the crown of
Naples with that of France. Such an expedition affected many political
interests and Louis had to employ a certain amount of diplomacy with
his neighbours, several of whom were strongly opposed to his projects
of ambition, and among those who acted most openly were the Swiss,
who were believed to have been secretly supported by England and the
Netherlands. Louis, however, overcame their opposition, and obtained a
renewal of the alliance which had expired with his predecessor Charles
VIII. This temporary difficulty with the Swiss is the subject of our
caricature, the original of which bears the title "Le Revers du Jeu
des Suysses" (the defeat of the game of the Swiss). The princes most
interested are assembled round a card-table, at which are seated the
king of France to the right, opposite him the Swiss, and in front the
doge of Venice, who was in alliance with the French against Milan. At
the moment represented, the king of France is announcing that he has a
flush of cards, the Swiss acknowledges the weakness of his hand, and
the doge lays down his cards--in fact, Louis XII. has won the game.
But the point of the caricature lies principally in the group around.
To the extreme right the king of England, Henry VII., distinguished
by his three armorial lions, and the king of Spain, are engaged in
earnest conversation. Behind the former stands the infanta Margarita,
who is evidently winking at the Swiss to give him information of the
state of the cards of his opponents. At her side stands the duke of
Wirtemberg, and just before him the pope, the infamous Alexander VI.
(Borgia), who, though in alliance with Louis, is not able, with all his
efforts, to read the king's game, and looks on with evident anxiety.
Behind the doge of Venice stands the Italian refugee, Trivulci, an able
warrior, devoted to the interests of France; and at the doge's right
hand, the emperor, holding in his hands another pack of cards, and
apparently exulting in the belief that he has thrown confusion into
the king of France's game. In the background to the left are seen the
count Palatine and the marquis of Montserrat, who also look uncertain
about the result; and below the former appears the duke of Savoy, who
was giving assistance to the French designs. The duke of Lorraine is
serving drink to the gamblers, while the duke of Milan, who was at this
time playing rather a double part, is gathering up the cards which have
fallen to the ground, in order to make a game for himself. Louis XII.
carried his designs into execution; the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza,
nick-named the Moor, played his cards badly, lost his duchy, and died
in prison.

[Illustration: _No. 172. The Three Orders of the State._]

Such is this earliest of political caricatures--and in this case it
was purely political--but the question of religion soon began not only
to mix itself up with the political question, but almost to absorb it,
as we have seen in the review of the history of caricature under the
Reformation. Before this period, indeed, political caricature was only
an affair between crowned heads, or between kings and their nobles, but
the religious agitation had originated a vast social movement, which
brought into play popular feelings and passions: these gave caricature
a totally new value. Its power was greatest on the middle and lower
classes of society, that is, on the people, the _tiers état_, which was
now thrown prominently forward. The new social theory is proclaimed
in a print, of which a fac-simile will be found in the "Musée de la
Caricature," by E. J. Jaime, and which, from the style and costume,
appears to be German. The three orders, the church, the lord of the
land, and the people, represented respectively by a bishop, a knight,
and a cultivator, stand upon the globe in an honourable equality, each
receiving direct from heaven the emblems or implements of his duties.
To the bishop is delivered his bible, to the husbandman his mattock,
and to the knight the sword with which he is to protect and defend the
others. This print--see cut No. 172--which bears the title, in Latin,
"Quis te prætulit?" (Who chose thee?) belongs probably to the earlier
half of the sixteenth century. A painting in the Hôtel de Ville of
Aix, in Provence, represents the same subject much more satirically,
intending to delineate the three orders as they were, and not as they
ought to be. The divine hand is letting down from heaven an immense
frame in the form of a heart, in which is a picture representing a king
kneeling before the cross, intimating that the civil power was to be
subordinate to the ecclesiastical. The three orders are represented
by a cardinal, a noble, and a peasant, the latter of whom is bending
under the burthen of the heart, the whole of which is thrown upon his
shoulders, while the cardinal and the noble, the latter dressed in
the fashionable attire of the court minions of the day, are placing
one hand to the heart on each side, in a manner which shows that they
support none of the weight.

Amid the fierce agitation which fell upon France in the sixteenth
century, for a while we find but few traces of the employment of
caricature by either party. The religious reformation there was rather
aristocratic than popular, and the reformers sought less to excite
the feelings of the multitude, which, indeed, went generally in the
contrary direction. There was, moreover, a character of gloom in the
religion of Calvin, which contracted strongly with the joyousness of
that of the followers of Luther; and the factions in France sought to
slaughter, rather than to laugh at, each other. The few caricatures
of this period which are known, are very bitter and coarse. As far as
I am aware, no early Huguenot caricatures are known, but there are a
few directed against the Huguenots. It was, however, with the rise of
the Ligue that the taste for political caricature may be said to have
taken root in France, and in that country it long continued to flourish
more than anywhere else. The first caricatures of the ligueurs were
directed against the person of the king, Henri de Valois, and possess
a brutality almost beyond description. It was now an object to keep up
the bitterness of spirit of the fanatical multitude. In one of these
caricatures a demon is represented waiting on the king to summon him
to a meeting of the "Estates" in hell; and in the distance we see
another demon flying away with him. Another relates to the murder of
the Guises, in 1588, which the ligueurs professed to ascribe to the
councils of M. d'Epernon, one of his favourites, on whom they looked
with great hatred. It is entitled, "Soufflement et Conseil diabolique
de d'Epernon à Henri de Valois pour faccager les Catholiques." In the
middle of the picture stands the king, and beside him D'Epernon, who
is blowing into his ear with a bellows. On the ground before them lie
the headless corpses of the _deux frères Catholiques_, the duke of
Guise, and his brother the cardinal, while the executioner of royal
vengeance is holding up their heads by the hair. In the distance is
seen the castle of Blois, in which this tragedy took place; and on the
left of the picture appear the cardinal de Bourbon, the archbishop of
Blois, and other friends of the Guises, expressing their horror at the
deed. Henri III. was himself murdered in the year following, and the
caricatures against him became still more brutal during the period in
which the ligueurs tried to set up a king of their own in his place. In
one caricature, which has more of an emblematical character than most
of the others, he is pictured as "Henri le Monstrueux;" and in others,
entitled "Les Hermaphrodites," he is exhibited under forms which point
at the infamous vices with which he was charged.

[Illustration: _No. 173. The Assembly of Apes._]

The tide of caricature, however, soon turned in the contrary direction,
and the coarse, unprincipled abuse employed by the ligueurs found a
favourable contrast in the powerful wit and talent of the satirists
and caricaturists who now took up pen and pencil in the cause of
Henri IV. The former was, on the whole, the more formidable weapon,
but the latter represented to some eyes more vividly in picture what
had already been done in type. This was the case on both sides; the
caricature last mentioned was founded upon a very libellous satirical
pamphlet against Henri III., entitled "L'Isle des Hermaphrodites." It
is the case also with the first caricatures against the ligueurs, which
I have to mention. The Estates held in Paris by the duke of Mayenne
and the ligueurs for the purpose of electing a new king in opposition
to Henri of Navarre, were made the subject of the celebrated "Satyre
Ménippée," in which the proceedings of these Estates were turned to
ridicule in the most admirable manner. Four large editions were sold
in less than as many months. Several caricatures arose out of or
accompanied this remarkable book. One of these is a rather large print,
entitled "La Singerie des Estats de la Ligue, l'an 1593," in which the
members of the Estates and the ligueurs are pictured with the heads
of monkeys. The central part represents the meeting of the Estates,
at which the lieutenant-general of the kingdom, the duke of Mayenne,
seated on the throne, presides. Above him is suspended a large portrait
of the infanta of Spain, _L'Espousée de la Ligue_, as she is called
in the satire, ready to marry any one whom the Estates shall declare
king of France. In chairs, on each side of Mayenne, are the two "ladies
of honour" of the said future spouse. To the left are seated in a row
the celebrated council of sixteen (_les seize_), reduced at this time
to twelve, because the duke of Mayenne, to check their turbulence,
had caused four of them to be hanged. They wear the favours of the
future spouse. Opposite to them are the representatives of the three
orders, all, we are told, devoted to the service of "the said lady."
Before the throne are the two musicians of the Ligue, one described as
Phelipottin, the blind performer on the viel, or hurdy-gurdy, to the
Ligue, and his subordinate, the player on the triangle, "kept at the
expense of the future spouse." These were to entertain the assembly
during the pauses between the orations of the various speakers. All
this is a satire on the efforts of the king of Spain to establish a
monarch of his own choice. On the bench behind the musicians sit the
deputies from Lyons, Poitiers, Orleans, and Rheims, cities where the
influence of the Ligue was strong, discussing the question as to who
should be king. Thus much of this picture is represented in our cut
No. 173. There are other groups of figures in the representation of
the assembly of the Estates; and there are two side compartments--that
on the left representing a forge, on which the fragments of a broken
king are laid to be refounded, and a multitude of apes, with hammers
and an anvil, ready to work him into a new king; the other side of
the picture represents the circumstances of a then well-known act of
tyranny perpetrated by the Estates of the Ligue. Another large and
well-executed engraving, published at Paris in 1594, immediately after
Henri IV. had obtained possession of his capital, also represents the
grand procession of the Ligue as described at the commencement of the
"Satyre Ménippée," and was intended to hold up to ridicule the warlike
temper of the French Catholic clergy. It is entitled, "La Procession de
la Ligue."

Henri's triumph over the Ligue was made the subject of a series of
three caricatures, or perhaps, more correctly, of a caricature in three
divisions. The first is entitled the "Naissance de la Ligue," and
represents it under the form of a monster with three heads, severally
those of a wolf, a fox, and a serpent, issuing from hell-mouth. Under
it are the following lines:--

_L'enfer, pour asservir soubs ses loix tout le monde,
Vomit ce monstre hideux, fait d'un loup ravisseur,
D'un renard enveilly, et d'un serpent immonde,
Affublé d'un manteau propre à toute couleur._

The second division, the "Declin de la Ligue," representing its
downfall, is copied in our cut No. 174. Henri of Navarre, in the form
of a lion, has pounced fiercely upon it, and not too soon, for it had
already seized the crown and sceptre. In the distance, the sun of
national prosperity is seen rising over the country. The third picture,
the "Effets de la Ligue," represents the destruction of the kingdom and
the slaughter of the people, of which the Ligue had been the cause.

[Illustration: _No. 174. The Destruction of the Ligue._]

[Illustration: _No. 175. General Galas._]

The caricatures in France became more numerous during the seventeenth
century, but they are either so elaborate or so obscure, that each
requires almost a dissertation to explain it, and they often relate to
questions or events which have little interest for us at the present
day. Several rather spirited ones appeared at the time of the disgrace
of the mareschal d'Ancre and his wife; and the inglorious war with
the Netherlands, in 1635, furnished the occasion for others, for
the French, as usual, could make merry in their reverses as well as
in their successes. The imperialist general Galas inflicted serious
defeat on the French armies, and compelled them to a very disastrous
retreat from the countries they had invaded, and they tried to amuse
themselves at the expense of their conqueror. Galas was rather
remarkable for obesity, and the French caricaturists of the day made
this circumstance a subject for their satire. Our cut No. 175 is copied
from a print in which the magnitude of the stomach of General Galas
is certainly somewhat exaggerated. He is represented, not apparently
with any good reason, as puffed up with his own importance, which is
evaporating in smoke; and along with the smoke thus issuing from his
mouth, he is made to proclaim his greatness in the following rather
doggrel verses:--

_Je suis ce grand Galas, autrefois dans l'armée
La gloire de l'Espagne et de mes compagnons;
Maintenant je ne suis qu'un corps plein de fumée,
Pour avoir trop mangé de raves et d'oignons.
Gargantua jamais n'eut une telle panse, &c._

[Illustration: _No. 176. Batteville Humiliated._]

Caricatures in France began to be tolerably abundant during the middle
of the seventeenth century, but under the crushing tyranny of Louis
XIV., the freedom of the press, in all its forms, ceased to exist, and
caricatures relating to France, unless they came from the court party,
had to be published in other countries, especially in Holland. It will
be sufficient to give two examples from the reign of Louis XIV. In the
year 1661, a dispute arose in London between the ambassador of France,
M. D'Estrades, and the Spanish ambassador, the baron de Batteville,
on the question of precedence, which was carried so far as to give
rise to a tumult in the streets of the English capital. At this very
moment, a new Spanish ambassador, the marquis de Fuentes, was on his
way to Paris, but Louis, indignant at Batteville's behaviour in London,
sent orders to stop Fuentes on the frontier, and forbid his further
advance into his kingdom. The king of Spain disavowed the act of his
ambassador in England, who was recalled, and Fuentes received orders
to make an apology to king Louis. This event was made the subject of
a rather boasting caricature, the greater portion of which is given in
our cut No. 176. It is entitled "Batteville vient adorer le Soliel"
(Batteville comes to worship the sun). In the original the sun is seen
shining in the upper corner of the picture to the right, and presenting
the juvenile face of Louis XIV., but the caricaturist appears to have
substituted Batteville in the place of Fuentes. Beneath the whole are
the following boastful lines:--

_On ne va plus à Rome, on vient de Rome en France,
Mériter le pardon de quelque grande offence.
L'Italie tout entière est soumise à ces loix;
Un Espagnol s'oppose à ce droit de nos rois.
Mais un Français puissant joua des bastonnades,
Et punit l'insolent de ses rodomontades._

From this time there sprung up many caricatures against the Spaniards;
but the most ferocious caricature, or rather book of caricatures, of
the reign of Louis XIV., came from without, and was directed against
the king and his ministers and courtiers. The revocation of the edict
of Nantes took place in October, 1685, and was preceded and followed
by frightful persecutions of the Protestants, which drove away in
thousands the earnest, intelligent, and industrious part of the
population of France. They carried with them a deep hatred to their
oppressors, and sought refuge especially in the countries most hostile
to Louis XIV.--England and Holland. The latter country, where they
then enjoyed the greatest freedom of action, soon sent forth numerous
satirical books and prints against the French king and his ministers,
of which the book just alluded to was one of the most remarkable. It
is entitled "Les Heros de la Ligue, ou la Procession Monacale conduite
par Louis XIV. pour la Conversion des Protestans de son Royaume," and
consists of a series of twenty-four most grotesque faces, intended to
represent the ministers and courtiers of the "grand roi" most odious
to the Calvinists. It must have provoked their wrath exceedingly. I
give one example, and as it is difficult to select, I take the first in
the list, which represents William of Fürstemberg, one of the German
princes devoted to Louis XIV., who, by his intrigues, had forced him
into the archbishopric of Cologne, by which he became an elector
of the empire. For many reasons William of Fürstemberg was hated by
the French Protestants, but it is not quite clear why he is here
represented in the character of one of the low merchants of the Halles.
Over the picture, in the original, we read, _Guillaume de Furstemberg,
crie, ite, missa est_, and beneath are the four lines:--

_J'ay quitté mon pais pour servir à la France,
Soit par ma trahison, soit par ma lacheté;
J'ay troublé les états par ma méchanceté,
Une abbaye est ma recompense._

[Illustration: _No. 177. William of Fürstemberg._]

CHAPTER XXI.

EARLY POLITICAL CARICATURE IN ENGLAND.--THE SATIRICAL WRITINGS
AND PICTURES OF THE COMMONWEALTH PERIOD.--SATIRES AGAINST
THE BISHOPS; BISHOP WILLIAMS.--CARICATURES ON THE CAVALIERS;
SIR JOHN SUCKLING.--THE ROARING BOYS; VIOLENCE OF THE
ROYALIST SOLDIERS.--CONTEST BETWEEN THE PRESBYTERIANS AND
INDEPENDENTS.--GRINDING THE KING'S NOSE.--PLAYING-CARDS USED AS
THE MEDIUM FOR CARICATURE; HASELRIGGE AND LAMBERT.--SHROVETIDE.

During the sixteenth century caricature can hardly be said to have
existed in England, and it did not come much into fashion, until the
approach of the great struggle which convulsed our country in the
century following. The popular reformers have always been the first to
appreciate the value of pictorial satire as an offensive weapon. Such
was the case with the German reformers in the age of Luther; as it was
again with the English reformers in the days of Charles I., a period
which we may justly consider as that of the birth of English political
caricature. From 1640 to 1661 the press launched forth an absolute
deluge of political pamphlets, many of which were of a satirical
character, scurrilous in form and language, and, on whatever side
they were written, very unscrupulous in regard to the truth of their
statements. Among them appeared a not unfrequent engraving, seldom
well executed, whether on copper or wood, but displaying a coarse and
pungent wit that must have told with great effect on those for whom it
was intended. The first objects of attack in these caricatures were
the Episcopalian party in the church and the profaneness and insolence
of the cavaliers. The Puritans or Presbyterians who took the lead
in, and at first directed, the great political movement, looked upon
Episcopalianism as differing in little from popery, and, at all events,
as leading direct to it. Arminianism was with them only another name
for the same thing, and was equally detested. In a caricature published
in 1641, Arminius is represented supported on one side by Heresy,
wearing the triple crown, while on the other side Truth is turning away
from him, and carrying with her the Bible. It was the indiscreet zeal
of archbishop Laud which led to the triumph of the Puritan party, and
the downfall of the episcopal church government, and Laud became the
butt for attacks of all descriptions, in pamphlets, songs and satirical
prints, the latter usually figuring in the titles of the pamphlets.
Laud was especially obnoxious to the Puritans for the bitterness with
which he had persecuted them.

In 1640 Laud was committed to the Tower, an event which was hailed
as the first grand step towards the overthrow of the bishops. As an
example of the feeling of exultation displayed on this occasion by his
enemies, we may quote a few lines from a satirical song, published in
1641, and entitled "The Organs Eccho. To the Tune of the Cathedrall
Service." It is a general attack on the prelacy, and opens with a cry
of triumph over the fall of William Laud, of whom the song says--

_As he was in his braverie,
And thought to bring us all in slaverie,
The parliament found out his knaverie;
And so fell William.
Alas! poore William!_

_His pope-like domineering,
And some other tricks appearing,
Provok'd Sir Edward Deering
To blame the old prelate.
Alas! poore prelate!_

_Some say he was in hope
To bring England againe to th' pope;
But now he is in danger of an axe or a rope.
Farewell, old Canterbury.
Alas! poore Canterbury!_

Wren, bishop of Ely, was another of the more obnoxious of the prelates,
and there was hardly less joy among the popular party when he was
committed to the Tower in the course of the year 1641. Another song,
in verse similar to the last, contains a general review of the demerits
of the members of the prelacy, under the title of "The Bishops Last
Good-night." At the head of the broadside on which it is printed stand
two satirical woodcuts, but it must be confessed that the words of the
song are better than the engraving. The bishop of Ely, we are told, had
just gone to join his friend Laud in the Tower--

_Ely, thou hast alway to thy power
Left the church naked in a storme and showre,
And now for 't thou must to thy old friend i' th' Tower.
To the Tower must Ely;
Come away, Ely._

A third obnoxious prelate was bishop Williams. Williams was a Welshman
who had been high in favour with James I., but he had given offence
to the government of Charles I., and been imprisoned in the Tower
during the earlier part of that king's reign. He was released by the
parliament in 1640, and so far regained the favour of king Charles,
that he was raised to the archbishopric of York in the year following.
When the civil war began, he retired into Wales, and garrisoned Conway
for the king. Williams's warlike behaviour was the source of much mirth
among the Roundheads. In 1642 was published a large caricature on the
three classes to whom the parliamentarians were especially hostile--the
royalist judges, the prelates, and the ruffling cavaliers; represented
here, as we are told in writing in the copy among the king's pamphlets,
by judge Mallet, bishop Williams, and colonel Lunsford. These three
figures are placed in as many compartments with doggrel verses under
each. That of bishop Williams is copied in our cut No. 178. The bishop
is armed cap-à-pie, and in the distance behind him are seen on one
side his cathedral church, and on the other his war-horse. The verses
beneath it contain an allusion to this prelate's Welsh extraction in
the orthography of some of the words:--

_Oh, sir, I'me ready, did you never heere
How forward I have byn t'is many a yeare,
T'oppose the practice dat is now on foote,
Which plucks my brethren up both pranch and roote?
My posture and my hart toth well agree
To fight; now plud is up: come, follow mee._

[Illustration: _No. 178. The Church Militant._]

The country had now begun to experience the miseries of war, and to
smart under them; and the cavaliers were especially reproached for the
cruelty with which they plundered and ill-treated people whenever they
gained the mastery. Colonel Lunsford was especially notorious for the
barbarities committed by himself and his men--to such a degree that he
was popularly accused of eating children, a charge which is frequently
alluded to in the popular songs of the time. Thus one of these songs
couples him with two other obnoxious royalists:--

_From Fielding, and from Vavasour,
Both ill-affected men,
From Lunsford eke deliver us,
Who eateth up children._

[Illustration: _No. 179. The Sucklington Faction._]

In the third compartment of the caricature just mentioned, we see in
the background of the picture, behind colonel Lunsford, his soldiers
occupied in burning towns, and massacring women and children. The model
of the gay cavalier of the earlier period of this great revolution,
before the war had broken out in its intensity, was the courtly Sir
John Suckling, the poet of the drawing-room and tavern, the admired
of "roaring boys," and the hated of rigid Puritans. Sir John outdid
his companions in extravagance in everything which was fashionable,
and the display of his zeal in the cause of royalty was not calculated
to conciliate the reformers. When the king led an army against the
Scottish Covenanters in 1639, Suckling raised a troop of a hundred
horse at his own expense; but they gained more reputation by their
extraordinary dress than by their courage, and the whole affair was
made a subject of ridicule. From this time the name of Suckling became
identified with that gay and profligate class who, disgusted by the
outward show of sanctity which the Puritans affected, rushed into
the other extreme, and became notorious for their profaneness, their
libertinism, and their indulgence in vice, which threw a certain degree
of discredit upon the royalist party. There is a large broadside
among the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, entitled, "The
Sucklington Faction; or (Sucklings) Roaring Boys." It is one of those
satirical compositions which were then fashionable under the title
of "Characters," and is illustrated by an engraving, from which our
cut No. 179 is copied. This engraving, which from its superior style
is perhaps the work of a foreign artist, represents the interior of
a chamber, in which two of the Roaring Boys are engaged in drinking
and smoking, and forms a curious picture of contemporary manners.
Underneath the engraving we read the following lines:--

_Much meate doth gluttony produce,
And makes a man a swine;
But hee's a temperate man indeed
That with a leafe can dine._

_Hee needes no napkin for his handes,
His fingers for to wipe;
He hath his kitchin in a box,
His roast meate in a pipe._

When the war spread itself over the country, many of these Roaring
Boys became soldiers, and disgraced the profession by rapacity and
cruelty. The pamphlets of the parliamentarians abound with complaints
of the outrages perpetrated by the Cavaliers, and the evil appears to
have been increased by the ill-conduct of the auxiliaries brought over
from Ireland to serve the king, who were especially objects of hatred
to the Puritans. A broadside among the king's pamphlets is adorned
by a satirical picture of "The English Irish Souldier, with his new
discipline, new armes, old stomacke, and new taken pillage; who had
rather eat than fight." It was published in 1642. The English Irish
soldier is, as may be supposed, heavily laden with plunder. In 1646
appeared another caricature, which is copied in our cut No. 180. It
represents "England's Wolfe with Eagles clawes: the cruell impieties
of bloud-thirsty royalists and blasphemous anti-parliamentarians,
under the command of that inhumane prince Rupert, Digby, and the rest,
wherein the barbarous crueltie of our civill uncivill warres is briefly
discovered." England's wolf, as will be seen, is dressed in the high
fashion of the gay courtiers of the time.

[Illustration: _No. 180. "England's Wolf."_]

A few large caricatures, embodying satire of a more comprehensive
description, appeared from time to time, during this troubled age. Such
is a large emblematical picture, published on the 9th of November,
1642, and entitled "Heraclitus' Dream," for the scene is supposed to
be manifested to the philosopher in a vision. In the middle of the
picture the sheep are seen shearing their shepherd; while one cuts his
hair, another treats his beard in the same manner. Under the picture we
read the couplet--

_The flocke that was wont to be shorne by the herd,
Now polleth the shepherd in spight of his beard_.

[Illustration: _No. 181. Folly Uppermost._]

On the 19th of January, 1647, a caricature appeared under the title
"An Embleme of the Times." On one side War, represented as a giant in
armour, is seen standing upon a heap of dead and mutilated bodies,
while Hypocrisy, in the form of a woman with two faces, is flying
towards a distant city. "Libertines," "anti-sabbatarians," and others,
are hastening in the same direction; and the angel of pestilence,
hovering over the city, is ready to pounce upon it.

The party of the parliament was now triumphant, and the question of
religion again became the subject of dispute. The Presbyterians had
been establishing a sort of tyranny over men's minds, and sought to
proscribe all other sects, till their intolerance gradually raised up
a strong and general feeling of resistance. Since 1643 a brisk war of
political pamphlets had been carried on between the Presbyterians and
their opponents, when, in 1647, the Independents, whose cause had been
espoused by the army, gained the mastery. "Sir John Presbyter" or to
use the more familiar phrase, "Jack Presbyter," furnished a subject
for frequent satire, and the Presbyterians were not slow in returning
the blow. In the collection in the British Museum we find a caricature
which must have come from the Presbyterian party, entitled "Reall
Persecution, or the Foundation of a general Toleration, displaied
and portrayed by a proper emblem, and adorned with the same flowers
wherewith the scoffers of this last age have strowed their libellous
pamphlets." The group which occupies the middle part of this broadside,
is copied in our cut No. 181. It has its separate title, "The Picture
of an English Persecutor, or a foole-ridden ante-Presbeterian sectary."
(I give the spelling as in the original.) Folly is riding on the
sectarian, whom he holds with a bridle, the sectarian having the ears
of an ass. The following homely rhymes are placed in the mouth of
Folly,--

_Behould my habit, like my witt,
Equalls his on whom sitt._

Anti-Presbyterian is, as will be seen, dressed in the height of the
fashion, and says--

_My cursed speeches against Presbetry
Declares unto the world my foolery._

The mortification of the Presbyterians led in Scotland to the
proclamation of Charles II. as king, and to the ill-fated expedition
which ended in the battle of Worcester in 1651, when satirical
pamphlets, ballads, and caricatures against the Scottish Presbyterians
became for a while very popular. One of the best of the latter
is represented in our cut No. 182. Its object is to ridicule the
conditions which the Presbyterians exacted from the young prince
before they offered him the crown. It is printed in the middle of the
broadside, in prose, published on the 14th of July, 1651, with the
general title, "Old Sayings and Predictions verified and fulfilled,
touching the young King of Scotland and his gude subjects." The
picture has its separate title, "The Scots holding their young kinges
nose to the grinstone." followed by the lines--

_Come to the grinstone, Charles, 'tis now to late
To recolect, 'tis presbiterian fate,
You covinant pretenders, must I bee
The subject of youer tradgie-comedie?_

[Illustration: _No. 182. Conditions of Royalty._]

In fact, the picture represents Presbyterianism--Jack
Presbyter--holding the young king's nose to the grindstone, which is
turned by the Scots, personified as Jockey. The following lines are put
into the mouths of the three actors in this scene:--

_Jockey._--I, Jockey, turne the stone of all your plots,
For none turnes faster than the turne-coat Scots.

_Presbyter._--We for our ends did make thee king, be sure,
Not to rule us, we will not that endure.

_King._--You deep dissemblers, I kow what you doe,
And, for revenges sake, I will dissemble too.

Charles's defeat and flight from Worcester furnished materials for a
much more elaborate caricature than most of the similar productions
of this period, and of a somewhat singular design. It was published
on the 6th of November, 1651, and bears the title "A Mad Designe; or
a Description of the king of Scots marching in his disguise, after
the Rout at Worcester." A long, and not unnecessary, explanation of
the several groups forming this picture, enables us to understand it.
On the left Charles is seated on the globe "in a melancholy posture."
A little to the right, and nearly in front, the bishop of Clogher is
performing mass, at which lords Ormond and Inchquin, in the shapes of
strange animals, hold torches, and the lord Taaf, in the form of a
monkey, holds up the bishop's train. The Scottish army is seen marching
up, consisting, according to the description, of papists, prelatical
malignants, Presbyterians, and old cavaliers; the latter of whom are
represented by the "fooles head upon a pole in the rear." The next
group consists of two monkeys, one with a fiddle, the other carrying
a long staff with a torch at the end, concerning which we learn that
"The two ridiculous anticks, one with a fiddle, and the other with
a torch, set forth the ridiculousness of their condition when they
marched into England, carried up with high thoughts, yet altogether
in the darke, having onely a fooles bawble to be their light to walke
by, mirth of their own whimsies to keep up their spirits, and a
sheathed sword to truste in." Next come a troop of women, children,
and papists, lamenting over their defeat. Two monkeys on foot, and one
on horseback, follow, the latter riding with his face turned to the
horse's tail, and carrying in his hand a spit with provisions on it.
It is explained as "The Scots Kings flight from Worcester, represented
by the foole on horseback, riding backward, turning his face every way
in feares, ushered by duke Hambleton and the lord Wilmot." Lastly,
a crowd of women with flags bring up the rear. It cannot be said
that the wit displayed in this satire is of the very highest order.

After this period we meet with comparatively few caricatures until the
death of Cromwell, and the eve of the Restoration, when there came
a new and fierce struggle of political parties. The Dutch were the
subject of some satirical prints and pamphlets in 1652; and we find a
small number of caricatures on the social evils, such as drunkenness
and gluttony, and on one or two subjects of minor agitation. With the
close of the Commonwealth a new form of caricature came in. Playing
cards had, during this seventeenth century, been employed for various
purposes which were quite alien to their original character. In France
they were made the means of conveying instruction to children. In
England, at the time of which we are speaking, they were adopted as
the medium for spreading political caricature. The earliest of these
packs of cards known is one which appears to have been published at the
very moment of the restoration of Charles II., and which was, perhaps,
engraved in Holland. It contains a series of caricatures on the
principal acts of the Commonwealth, and on the parliamentary leaders.
Among other cards of a similar character which have been preserved is
a pack relating to the popish plot, another relating to the Rye House
conspiracy, one on the Mississippi scheme, published in Holland, and
one on the South Sea bubble.

[Illustration: _No. 183. Arthur Haselrigg._]

[Illustration: _No. 184. General Lambert_.]

The earliest of these packs of satirical cards, that on the
Commonwealth, belonged a few years ago to a lady of the name of Prest,
and is very fully described in a paper by Mr. Pettigrew, printed in
the "Journal of the British Archæological Association." Each of the
fifty-two cards presents a picture with a satirical title. Thus the
ace of diamonds represents "The High Court of Justice, or Oliver's
Slaughter House." The eight of diamonds is represented in our cut No.
183; its subject is "Don Haselrigg, Knight of the Codled Braine." It
is hardly necesiary to say that Sir Arthur Haselrigg acted a very
prominent and remarkable part during the whole of the Commonwealth
period, and that his manners were impetuous and authoritative, which
was probably the meaning of the epithet here given to him. The card
of the king of diamonds represents rather unequivocally the subject
indicated by its title, "Sir H. Mildmay solicits a citizen's wife, for
which his owne corrects him." It is an allusion to one of the petty
scandals of the republican period. The eight of hearts is a satire on
major-general Lambert. This able and distinguished man was remarkably
fond of flowers, took great pleasure in cultivating them, and was
skilful in drawing them, which was one of his favourite amusements.
He withdrew to Amsterdam during the Protectorate, and there gave
full indulgence to this love of flowers, and I need hardly say that
it was the age of the great tulip mania in Holland. When, after the
Restoration, he was involved in the fate of the regicides, but had
his sentence commuted for thirty years of imprisonment, he alleviated
the dulness of his long confinement in the isle of Guernsey by the
same amusement. In the card we have engraved, Lambert is represented
in his garden, holding a large tulip in his hand; and it is no doubt
in allusion to this innocent taste that he is here entitled "Lambert,
Knight of the Golden Tulip."

[Illustration: _No. 185. Shrovetide._]

The Restoration furnished better songs than prints, and many years
passed before any caricatures worthy of notice appeared in England.
Even burlesque subjects of any merit occur but rarely, and I hardly
know of one which is worth describing here. Among the best of those I
have met with, is a pair of plates, published in 1660, representing
Lent and Shrovetide, and these, I believe, are copied or imitated from
foreign prints. Lent is come as a thin miserable-looking knight-errant,
appropriately armed and mounted, ready to give battle to Shrovetide,
whose good living is pernicious to the whole community, and he abuses
his opponent in good round terms. In the companion print, of which our
cut No. 185 is a copy, Shrovetide appears as a jolly champion, quite
ready to meet his enemy. He is best described in the following lines,
extracted from the verses which accompany the prints:--

_Fatt Shrovetyde, mounted on a good fatt oxe,
Supposd that Lent was mad, or caught a foxe,[99]
Armed cap-a-pea from head unto the heel,
A spit his long sword, somewhat worse than steale,
(Sheath'd in a fatt pigge and a peece of porke),
His bottles fild with wine, well stopt with corke;
The two plump capons fluttering at his crupper;
And 's shoulders lac'd with sawsages for supper;
The gridir'n (like a well strung instrument)
Hung at his backe, and for the turnament
His helmet is a brasse pott, and his flagge
A cookes foule apron, which the wind doth wagg,
Fixd to a broome: thus bravely he did ride,
And boldly to his foe he thus replied._

[99] _i.e._, was drunk.

CHAPTER XXII.

ENGLISH COMEDY.--BEN JONSON.--THE OTHER WRITERS OF HIS
SCHOOL.--INTERRUPTION OF DRAMATIC PERFORMANCES.--COMEDY AFTER
THE RESTORATION.--THE HOWARDS BROTHERS; THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM;
THE REHEARSAL.--WRITERS OF COMEDY IN THE LATTER PART OF
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--INDECENCY OF THE STAGE.--COLLEY
CIBBER.--FOOTE.

In England, as in Athens of old, perfect comedy arose gradually out
of the personalities of the rude dramatic attempts of an earlier
period. Such productions as Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer Gurton's
Needle were mere imperfect attempts at, we may perhaps rather say
feelers towards, comedy itself--that drama, the object of which was to
caricature, and thus to dissect and apply correctives to, the vices
and weaknesses of contemporary society. The genius of Shakespeare was
far too exquisitely poetical to qualify him for a task like this; it
wanted some one who could use the lancet and scalpel skilfully, but
soberly, and who was not liable to be led astray by too much vigour of
imagination.

Such a one was Ben Jonson, whom we may rightly consider as the father
of English comedy. "Bartholomew Fair," first performed at the Hope
Theatre, on Bankside, London, on the 31st of October, 1614, is the
most perfect and most remarkable example of the truly English comedy,
remarkable, among many other things, for the extraordinary number of
characters who were brought upon the stage in one piece, and who are
all at the same time grouped and individualised with a skill that
reminds us of the pictorial triumphs of a Callot or a Hogarth. London
life is placed before us in all its more popular forms in one grand
tableau, the one in which it would show itself in its more grotesque
attitudes; the London citizen, his vain or easy wife, sharpers of
every description, and their victims no less varied in character,
the petty city officers, all come in for their share of satire. The
different groups are distributed so naturally, that it is difficult
to say who is the principal character of the piece--and who ever was
the principal character in Bartholomew Fair? Perhaps the character of
Cokes, the young booby squire from Harrow--for in those times even
so near London as Harrow, a young squire was considered to be in all
probability but a young country booby--strikes us most. It is said to
have been at a later period the favourite character of Charles II.
Among the other principal characters of the play are a proctor of
the Arches Court named Littlewit, who imagines himself to be a _bel
esprit_ of the first order; his wife, and her mother, dame Purecraft,
who is a widow; Justice Overdo, a London magistrate, to whose ward,
Grace Wellborn, Cokes is affianced in marriage; a zealous Puritan,
named Zeal-of-the-land Busy, who is a suitor to the widow Purecraft,
herself also a Puritan; Winwife, Busy's rival; and a gamester named
Tom Quarlous, who figures as Winwife's friend and companion. All these
meet in town, on the morning of the fair, Cokes under the care of a
sort of steward or upper servant, named Waspe, who was of a quarrelsome
disposition, and separate in groups among the crowd which filled
Smithfield and its vicinity, each having their separate adventures, but
meeting from time to time, and reassembling at the end. Cokes behaves
as a simpleton from the country, longs for everything, and wonders at
everything, buys up toys and gingerbread, is separated from all his
companions, robbed of his money and even of his outer garments, and in
this condition finally settles down at a puppet-show. Meanwhile the
Puritan Busy, by his zeal against the "heathen abominations" of the
fair on one hand, and Waspe, by his quarrelsome temper on the other,
fall into a series of scrapes, which end in both being carried to the
stocks. They are there joined by another important personage. Justice
Overdo, who is distinguished by an extraordinary zeal for the right
administration of justice and the suppression of social vices of all
kinds, has come into the fair in disguise, in order to make himself
acquainted with its various abuses, and he passes among them unknown;
and his inquisitive intermeddling brings him into a variety of mishaps,
in the course of which he also is seized by the constable, and allows
himself to be taken to the stocks, rather than betray his identity.
Thus all three, Busy, Waspe, and Overdo, are placed in the stocks
at the same time; but Waspe, by a clever trick, escapes, and leaves
the Puritan and the justice confined together, the one looking upon
himself as a martyr for religion's sake, the other rather glorying in
suffering through his disinterested zeal for the common good. They,
too, after a while make their escape through an accidental oversight of
their keepers, and mix again with the mob. The women, likewise, have
been separated from their male companions, have fallen among sharpers
and bullies, been made drunk, and escaped but narrowly from still
worse disasters. They all finally meet before the puppet-show, which
has fixed the attention of Cokes, and there justice Overdo discovers
himself. Such are the materials of Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair,"
the busiest and most amusing of plays. It is said, when first acted,
to have given great satisfaction to king James, by the ridicule thrown
upon the Puritans, and it continued to be a favourite comedy when
revived after the Restoration.

"The Alchemist," by the same author, preceded "Bartholomew Fair," by
four years, and was designed as a satire upon a class of impostors
who, in that age, were among the greatest pests of society, and were
instruments, one way or other, in the greatest crimes of the day.
"The Alchemist" belongs, also, to the pure English comedy, but its
plot is more simple and distinct than that of "Bartholomew Fair." It
involves events which may have occurred frequently, at periods when the
metropolis was from time to time exposed to the vicissitudes of the
plague. On one of these occasions, Lovewit, a London gentleman, obliged
to quit the metropolis in order to avoid the plague, leaves his town
house to the charge of one man-servant, Face, who proves dishonest,
associates himself with a rogue named Subtle, and an immoral woman
named Dol Common, and introduces them into the house, which is made the
basis for their subsequent operations. Subtle assumes the character of
a magician and alchemist, while Dol acts various female parts, and Face
goes about alluring people into their snares. Among their dupes are a
knight who lives upon the town, two English Puritans from Amsterdam, a
lawyer's clerk, a tobacco man, a young country squire, and his sister
dame Pliant, a widow. The various intrigues in which these individuals
are involved, show us the way in which the pretended conjurers and
alchemists contributed to all the vices of the town. At length their
base dealings are on the point of being exposed by the cunning of
one upon whom they had attempted to impose, when Truewit, the master
of the house, returns unexpectedly, and all is discovered, but the
alchemist and his female associate contrive to escape. The object of
their last intrigue had been to entrap dame Pliant, who was rich, into
a marriage with a needy sharper; and Lovewit, finding the lady in the
house, and liking her, marries her himself, and, in consideration of
the satisfaction he has thus procured, forgives his unfaithful servant.
Many have considered the Alchemist to be the best of Jonson's dramas.
"Epicœne, or the Silent Woman," which belongs to the year 1609, is
another satirical picture of London society, in which the same class of
characters appear. Morose, an eccentric gentleman of fortune, who has
a great horror for noise, and even obliges his servants to communicate
with him by signs, has a nephew, a young knight named Sir Dauphine
Eugenie, with whom he is dissatisfied, and he refuses to allow him
money for his support. A plot is laid by his friends, whereby the uncle
is led into a marriage with a supposed silent woman, named Epicœne,
but she only sustains the character until the wedding formalities
are completed, and these are followed by a scene of noise and riot,
which completely horrifies Morose, and leads to a reconciliation with
his nephew, to whom he makes over half his fortune. The earliest of
Ben Jonson's comedies, "Every Man in his Humour," was composed in
its present form in 1598, and is the first of these dramatic satires
on the manners and character of the citizens of London, of whom it
was fashionable at the courts of James I. and Charles I. to speak
contemptuously. Kno'well, an old gentleman of respectability, is
highly displeased with his son Edward, because the latter has taken to
writing poetry, and has formed a friendship with another gentleman of
his own age, who loves poetry and frequents the rather gay society of
the poets and wits of the town. Wellbred has a half-brother, a "plain
squire," named Downright, and a sister married to a rich city merchant
named Kitely. Kitely, the merchant, who is extremely jealous of his
wife, has a great desire to reform Wellbred, and draw him to a steadier
line of life, a sentiment in which Downright heartily joins. Kitely's
jealousy, and the steps taken to reform Wellbred, lead to the most
comic parts of the play, which concludes with the marriage of young
Kno'well to Kitely's daughter, Miss Bridget, and his reconciliation
with his father. Among the other characters in the piece are captain
Bobadil, "a blustering coward," justice Clement, "an old merry
magistrate," his clerk, Roger Formal, and a country gull and a town
gull.

These comedies of London life became popular, and continued so
during this and the following reign--in fact, the mass of those who
attended the theatres could understand and appreciate them better
than any others, and, what was more, they felt them. Among Jonson's
contemporaries in the literature of this English comedy were Middleton
and Thomas Heywood, both very prolific writers, Chapman, and Marston.
Certain classes of characters are continually repeated in this comedy,
because they belonged especially to the London society of the time,
but the employment and distribution of these characters admitted of
great variations, and they perhaps often had at the time a special
interest, as representing known individuals, or as being combined in a
plot which was built upon real incidents in London life. Among these
were usually a country gentleman of fortune, who was very avaricious,
and had a spendthrift son, or who had a daughter, a rich heiress, who
was the object of the intrigues of spendthrift suitors; young heirs,
who have just come to their estates, and are spending them in London;
young country squires who are easy victims; a needy knight, as poor
in principles as in money, who lived upon the public in every way he
could; designing and unscrupulous women; bullies and sharpers of every
description. In fact, we seem to be always in the smell of the tavern,
and in the midst of dissipation. Then there are fat, sleek, and wealthy
citizens, whole souls are entirely wrapt up in their merchandise,
who are proud, nevertheless, of their position; and easy, credulous
city wives, who are fond of finery and of praise, eager for gaiety
and display, impatient of the rule of husbands, or of the dulness of
home, and very ready to listen to the advances of the gay gallants
from the court end of the town, or from the tavern. The city tradesman
has generally an apprentice or two, sometimes very sober but perhaps
more frequently dissipated, who play their parts in the piece; and
often a daughter, who is either a model of modesty and all the domestic
virtues, and is finally the reward of some hero of good principles,
who has been temporarily led astray, and his character misinterpreted,
or who is gay and intriguing, and comes to disgrace. But the favourite
idea of excellence, or, to use a technical phrase, the _beau ideal_
of this comedy, appears to have been a wild youth, who goes through
every scene of dissipation, in a gentlemanly manner (as the term was
then understood), and comes out at the end of the play as an honest,
virtuous man, and receives the reward for qualities which he had not
previously displayed.

Sometimes the writers of this comedy indulged in personal, or even
in political, allusions which brought them into trouble. In the year
1605, Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston, wrote jointly a
comedy entitled "Eastward Hoe." It is a very excellent and amusing
comedy, and was very popular. Touchstone, an honest goldsmith in the
city, has two apprentices, Golding, a sober and industrious youth, and
Quicksilver, who is an irreclaimable rake. Touchstone has also two
daughters, the eldest of whom, Gertrude, affects the fine lady, and
is ambitious of finding a husband in the fashionable world, while her
younger sister, Mildred, is all virtue and humility. An attachment
arises between Golding and Mildred. Another character in this drama
is a needy, scheming knight, who lives upon the town, and rejoices in
the name of Sir Petronel Flash. Sir Petronel is attracted by the rich
dowry which the young lady, Gertrude, had to expect, pays his court
to her, and easily works upon her vanity; and, her mother encouraging
her, they are hastily married, contrary to the wishes of her father.
The knight is supposed to possess a magnificent castle somewhere to the
east of London, and the young bride and her mother proceed in search of
this, from which the comedy derives its title of "Eastward Hoe," but
they are involved in various disagreeable adventures in the search,
which ends in the conviction that it is all a fable. Another character
in the play is a greedy and unprincipled usurer, who is so jealous of
his young and pretty wife, that he keeps her under lock and key; and
this man is deeply involved in money-lending with Sir Petronel Flash,
and they are engaged in a series of unprincipled transactions, which
lead to the disgrace of them all, and in the course of which the virtue
of the usurer's wife falls a sacrifice. Meanwhile the fortunes of the
two apprentices have been advancing in directly opposite directions.
Quicksilver, the unworthy apprentice, leaves his master, proceeds
from bad to worse, and finally is committed to prison, for a crime
the punishment of which was death. On the other hand, Golding has not
only gained his master's esteem and married his daughter Mildred, and
been adopted as the heir to his wealth, but he has merited the respect
of his fellow-citizens, and has been promoted in municipal rank. It
becomes Golding's duty to preside over the trial of his old fellow
apprentice Quicksilver, but the latter escapes through Golding's
generosity.

There is some sound morality in the spirit of this comedy, and a
very large amount of immorality in the text. There was, indeed, a
coarse licence in the relations of society at this period, which are
but too faithfully represented in its literature. But there are two
circumstances, accidentally attached to this drama, which give it
a peculiar interest. When brought out upon the stage it contained
reflections upon Scotchmen which provoked the anger of king James I.
to such a degree, that all the authors were seized and thrown into
prison, and narrowly escaped the loss of their ears and noses, but they
obtained their release with some difficulty, and only through powerful
intercession. In the copy which has been brought down to us through
the press, we find no reflections whatever upon Scotchmen, so that it
must have been altered from the original text. When we consider that,
at this time, the English court and capital were crowded with needy
Scottish adventurers, who were looked upon with great jealousy, it is
not improbable that in the original form of the comedy, Sir Petronel
Flash may have been a Scotchman, and intended not only as a satire upon
the Scottish adventurers in general, but to have been designed for some
one in particular who had the means of bringing upon the authors the
extreme displeasure of the court.

The other circumstance which has given celebrity to this comedy, is one
of still greater interest. After the Restoration, it was new modelled
by Nicholas Tate, and brought again upon the stage under the title of
"Cuckold's Haven." Perhaps through this remodelled edition, Hogarth
took from the comedy of "Eastward Hoe," the idea of his series of
plates of the history of the Idle and Industrious Apprentices.

When we consider the ridicule which was continually thrown upon them
in this earlier period of the English comedy, we can easily understand
the bitterness with which the Puritans regarded the stage and the
drama. When they obtained power, the stage, as might be expected, was
suppressed, and for some years England was without a theatre. At the
Restoration, however, the theatres were opened again, and with greater
freedom than ever. At first the old comedies of the days of James I.
and Charles I. were revived, and many of them, modified and adapted to
the new circumstances, were again brought upon the stage. The original
comedies which appeared immediately after the Restoration, were often
marked with a political tinge; as the stage saw its natural protectors
in the court, and in the court party, it embraced their politics; and
Puritans, Roundheads, Whigs, all whose principles were supposed to be
contrary to royalty and arbitrary power, fell under its satire. Such
was the character of the comedy of "The Cheats," by a play-writer of
some repute named Wilson, which was brought out in 1662. The object
of this play appears to have been, in the first place, to satirise
the Nonconformists or Puritanical clergy--with whom were classed the
astrologers and conjurers, who had increased in number during the
Commonwealth time, and infested society more than ever--and the city
magistrates, who were not looked upon as being generally over-loyal.
The three cheats who are the heroes of this comedy, are Scruple, the
Nonconformist, Mopus, a pretender to physic and astrology, and alderman
Whitebroth. Direct personal attacks had been introduced into the comedy
of the Restoration, and it is probable that somebody of influence was
satirised under the name of Scruple, for the play was suppressed by
authority, and at a later period, when it was revived, the prologue
announces this fact in the following words:--

_Sad news, my masters; and too true, I fear,
For us--Scruple's a silenc'd minister.
Would ye the cause? The brethren snivel, and say,
'Tis scandalous that any cheat but they._

Many of the dramatists of the Restoration were men of good and
aristocratic families, witty and profligate cavaliers, who had returned
from exile with their king. The family of the earl of Berkshire
produced no less than four writers of comedy, all brothers, Edward
Howard, colonel Henry Howard, sir Robert Howard, and James Howard,
while their sister, the lady Elizabeth Howard, was married to the
poet Dryden. Edward Howard's first dramatic piece was a tragi-comedy
entitled "The Usurper," which came out in 1668, and was intended as
a satire upon Cromwell. His best known comedies were "The Man of
Newmarket," and "Woman's Conquest." Colonel Henry Howard composed a
comedy entitled "United Kingdoms," which appears not to have been
printed. To James Howard, the youngest of the brothers, the play-going
public, even then rather a large one, owed "The English Mounsieur,"
and "All Mistaken, or the Mad Couple." Sir Robert Howard was the best
writer of the four, and wrote both tragedies and comedies, which were
afterwards published collectively. The best of his comedies is "The
Committee," which was first brought on the stage in 1665, and through
some chance, certainly not by its merit, continued to be an acting play
during the whole of the last century.

"The Committee" is by far the best of the dramatic writings of the
Howards. Its design was to turn to ridicule the Commonwealth men and
the Puritans. Colonel Blunt and colonel Careless are two royalists,
whose estates are in the hands of the committee of sequestrations,
and who repair to London for the purpose of compounding for them.
The chairman of the committee is a Mr. Day, a worldly-minded and
sufficiently selfish Puritan, but who is ruled by his more crafty and
still less scrupulous wife, a designing and very talkative woman. Both
are of low origin, for Mrs. Day had been a kitchen-woman, and both are
very proud and very tyrannical. Among the other principal characters
are Abel Day, their son, Obadiah, the clerk to the committee, a man in
the interest of the Days, and an Irish servant named Teague, who had
been the servant of Careless's dear friend, a royalist officer killed
in battle, and whom the colonel finds in great distress, and takes into
his own service out of charity. The character of Teague is a very poor
caricature upon an Irishman, and his blunders and bulls are of a very
spiritless description. Here is an example. Teague has overheard the
two colonels state that they should be obliged to take the Covenant,
and express their reluctance to do it, and in his inconsiderate zeal,
he hurries away to try if he cannot take the covenant for them, and
thus save them a disagreeable operation. In the street he meets a
wandering bookseller--a class of pedlars who were then common--and a
scene takes place which is best given in the words of the original:--

_Bookseller._--New books, new books! A Desperate Plot and
Engagement of the Bloody Cavaliers! Mr. Saltmarshe's Alarum
to the Nation, after having been three days dead! Mercurius
Britannicus--

_Teague._--How's that? They cannot live in Ireland after they are
dead three days!

_Book._--Mercurius Britannicus, or the Weekly Post, or the Solemn
League and Covenant!

_Teag._--What is that you say? Is it the Covenant you have?

_Book._--Yes; what then, sir?

_Teag._--Which is that Covenant?

_Book._--Why, this is the Covenant.

_Teag._--Well, I must take that Covenant.

_Book._--You take my commodities?

_Teag._--I must take that Covenant, upon my soul, now.

_Book._--Stand off, sir, or I'll set you further!

_Teag._--Well, upon my soul, now, I will take the Covenant for my
master.

_Book._--Your master must pay me for't, then!

_Teag._--I must take it first, and my master will pay you
afterwards.

_Book._--You must pay me now.

_Teag._--Oh! that I will [_Knocks him down_]. Now you're paid, you
thief of the world. Here's Covenants enough to poison the whole
nation.

[_Exit._

_Book._--What a devil ails this fellow? [_Crying_]. He did not come
to rob me, certainly; for he has not taken above two-pennyworth
of lamentable ware away; but I feel the rascal's fingers. I may
light upon my wild Irishman again, and, if I do, I will fix him
with some catchpole, that shall be worse than his own country
bogs.

[_Exit._

In the sequel, Teague is caught by the constables, and is liberated
at the interference of his master, who pays twopence for the book.
The plot of the comedy is but a simple one, and is neither skilfully
nor naturally carried out. Colonel Blunt comes to London from Reading
in the inside of a stage-coach, having for his travelling companions
Mrs. Day, her supposed daughter Ruth, and Arabella, a young lady whose
father is recently dead, leaving his estates in the hands of the
committee of sequestrations. Ruth is, in truth, a young lady whose
estates the Days have, under similar circumstances, robbed her of, and
it is their design to treat Arabella in the same manner, under disguise
of forcing her to marry their son Abel, a vain silly lad. To effect
this, as the committee itself requires some influencing to engage them
in the selfish plans of their chairman, Day and his wife forge a letter
from the exiled king, complimenting the former on his great power and
influence and talents as a statesman, and offering him great rewards
if he will secretly promote his cause. Day communicates this to the
committee under the pretext that it is his duty to make them acquainted
with all such perfidious designs that might come to his knowledge, and
they, convinced of his honesty and value to them, give up Arabella's
estates to the Days, and she falls entirely under their power.
Meanwhile, on the one hand, Arabella has gained the confidence of
Ruth, who makes her acquainted with the whole plot against her and her
estates, and on the other, Ruth falls in love with colonel Careless,
and colonel Blunt is smitten with the charms of Arabella, and all this
takes place in the committee room. Various incidents follow, which seem
not very much to the purpose, but at last, as the marriage of Arabella
to Abel Day is pressed forward, the two young ladies, although as yet
they have hardly had an interview with the colonels, resolve to make
their escape from the house of the chairman of the committee, and fly
to their lovers for protection. A short absence from the house of Mr.
and Mrs. Day and their son together, presents the desired opportunity,
and Day having accidentally left his keys behind him, the idea suggests
itself to Ruth to open his cabinet, and gain possession of the deeds
and papers of her own estates and those of Arabella. As she had before
this secretly observed the private drawer in which they were placed,
she met with no difficulty in effecting her purpose, and not only found
these documents, but also with them the forged letter from the king,
and some letters addressed to Day by young women whom he was secretly
keeping, and who demanded money for the support of children they had by
him, and alluded to matters of a still more serious character. Ruth
takes possession of all these, and thus laden, the two damsels hurry
away, and reach without interruption the house where they were to meet
the colonels. The Days return home immediately after the departure
of their wards, and at once suspect the real state of affairs, which
is fully confirmed, when Mr. Day finds that his most private drawer
has been opened, and his most important papers carried off. They
immediately proceed in search of the fugitives, having sent orders for
a detachment of soldiers to assist them, and the house in which the
lovers have taken refuge is surrounded before they have had time to
escape. Finding it useless to attempt resistance by force, the besieged
call for a parley, and then Ruth frightens Day by acquainting him with
the contents of the private letters she has become possessed of, and
his wife by the knowledge she has obtained of the forged letter, which
also she has in her possession. The Days are thus overreached, and the
play ends with a general reconciliation. The ladies are left with the
titles of their estates, and with their lovers, and we are left to
suppose that they afterwards married, and were happy.

The plot of "The Committee," it will be seen, is not a very capital
one, but the manner in which it is worked out is still worse. The
dialogue is extremely tame, and the incidents are badly interwoven.
When I say that the example of wit given above is the best in the play,
and that there are not many attempts at wit in it, it will hardly be
thought that it could be amusing, and we cannot but feel astonished
at the popularity which it once enjoyed. This popularity, indeed, is
only explained by the fashion of ridiculing the Puritans, which then
prevailed so strongly; and it perhaps retained its place on the stage
during the last century chiefly from the circumstance of its wanting
the objectionable qualities which characterised the written plays of
the latter half of the seventeenth century.

"The Committee" is, after all, one of the very best comedies of the
school of dramatists represented by the brothers Howard. Contemporary
with this school of flat comedies, there was a school of equally
inflated tragedy, and both soon became objects of ridicule to the
satirists of the day. Of these, one of the boldest was George Villiers,
duke of Buckingham, the son of the favourite of king James I., and
equally celebrated for his talents and his profligacy. Buckingham is
said to have planned and begun his satirical comedy of "The Rehearsal"
as early as the year 1663, and to have had it ready for representation
towards the December of 1665, when the breaking out of the great plague
caused the theatres to be closed. After this interruption its author,
who was a desultory writer, appears to have laid it aside for some
time and then, new objects for satire having presented themselves, he
altered and modified it, and it was finally completed in 1671, when it
was brought out at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. It is said that
Buckingham was assisted in the composition of this satire, but it is
not stated in what manner, by Butler, and by Martin Clifford, of the
Charter-house. It is understood that, in the first form of his satire,
Buckingham had chosen the Hon. Edward Howard for its hero, and that he
afterwards exchanged him for Sir William Davenant, but he finally fixed
upon Dryden, whose tragedies and comedies are certainly not the best of
his writings--possibly some personal pique may have had an influence
in the selection. Nevertheless, with Dryden, the Howards, Davenant,
and one or two other writers of comedy, come in for their share of
ridicule. Dryden, under the name of Bayes, has composed a new drama,
and a friend named Johnson goes to witness the rehearsal of this play,
taking with him a country friend of the name of Smith. The play itself
is a piece of mockery throughout, made up of parodies, often very
happy, on the different play-writers of the day, and especially upon
Dryden; and it is mixed up with a running conversation between Bayes,
the author, and his two visitors, which is full of satirical humour.
The first part of the prologue explains to us sufficiently the spirit
in which this satire was written.

_We might well call this short mock-play of ours
A posie made of weeds instead of flowers;
Yet such have been presented to your noses,
And there are such, I fear, who thought 'em roses.
Would some of 'em were here, to see this night
What stuff it is in which they took delight.
Here, brisk, insipid rogues, for wit, let fall
Sometimes dull sense, but oft'ner none at all;
There, strutting heroes, with a grim-fac'd train,
Shalt brave the gods, in king Cambyses vein.
For (changing rules, of late, as if men writ
In spite of reason, nature, art, and wit)
Our poets make us laugh at tragedy,
And with their comedies they make us cry._

A short account of this satire will, perhaps, be best understood, if I
explain that the antagonism of two contending kings of Granada having
been a favourite idea of Dryden in his tragedies, Buckingham is said to
have designed to ridicule him in making two, not rival, but associate
kings of Brentford, though others say that these two kings of Brentford
were intended for a sneer upon king Charles II. and the duke of York.
These two kings are the heroes of Bayes's play. The first act of
"The Rehearsal" consists of a discussion between Bayes, Johnson, and
Smith, on the general character of the play, in which Bayes exhibits
a large amount of vanity and self-confidence, said to have been a
characteristic of all these play-writers of the earlier period of the
Restoration, and he informs them that he has "made a prologue and an
epilogue, which may both serve for either; that is, the prologue for
the epilogue, or the epilogue for the prologue, (do you mark!) nay,
they may both serve, too, 'egad, for any other play as well as this."
Smith observes, "That's indeed artificial." Finally Bayes explains,
that as other authors, in their prologues, sought to flatter and
propitiate their audience, in order to gain their favourable opinion of
the plot, he, on the contrary, intended to force their applause out of
them by mere dint of terror, and for that purpose, he had introduced
as speakers of his prologue, no less personages than Thunder and
Lightning. This prologue, disengaged from the remarks of Bayes and his
friends, runs as follows:--

_Enter_ THUNDER _and_ LIGHTNING.

_Thun._--I am the bold Thunder.

_Light._--The brisk Lightning I.

_Thun._--I am the bravest Hector of the sky.

_Light._--And I fair Helen, that made Hector die.

_Thun._--I strike men down.

_Light._--I fire the town.

_Thun_.--Let critics take heed how they grumble,
For then I begin for to rumble.

_Light_.--Let the ladies allow us their graces,
Or I'll blast all the paint on their faces,
And dry up their peter to soot.

_Thun_.--Let the critics look to't.

_Light_.--Let the ladies look to't.

_Thun_.--For the Thunder will do't.

_Light_.--For the Lightning will shoot.

_Thun_.--I'll give you dash for dash.

_Light_.--I'll give you flash for flash.
Gallants, I'll singe your feather.

_Thun_.--I'll Thunder you together.

_Both_.--Look to't, look to't; we'll do't, we'll do't;
look to't; we'll do't. [_Twice or thrice repeated._

Bayes calls this "but a slash of a prologue," in reply to which, Smith
observes, "Yes; 'tis short, indeed, but very terrible." It is a parody
on a scene in "The Slighted Maid," a play by Sir Robert Stapleton,
where Thunder and Lightning were introduced, and their conversation
begins in the same words. But the poet has another difficulty on which
he desires the opinion of his visitors. "I have made," he says, "one of
the most delicate, dainty similes in the whole world, 'egad, if I knew
how to apply it. 'Tis," he adds, "an allusion to love." This is the
simile--

_So boar and sow, when any storm is nigh
Snuff up, and smell it gathering in the sky;
Boar beckons sow to trot in chesnut groves,
And there consummate their unfinished loves:
Pensive in mud they wallow all alone,
And snore and gruntle to each others moan._

It is a rather coarse, but clever parody on a simile in Dryden's
"Conquest of Granada," part ii.:--

_So two kind turtles, when a storm is nigh,
Look up, and see it gathering in the sky;
Each calls his mate to shelter in the groves,
Leaving, in murmurs, their unfinished loves;
Perch'd on some dropping branch, they sit alone,
And coo, and hearken to each other's moan._

It is decided that the simile should be added to the prologue, for, as
Johnson remarks to Bayes, "Faith, 'tis extraordinary fine, and very
applicable to Thunder and Lightning, methinks, because it speaks of a
storm." In the second act we come to the opening of the play, the first
scene consisting of whispering, in ridicule of a scene in Davenant's
"Play-house to Let," where Drake senior says--

_Draw up your men,
And in low whispers give your orders out._

In fact, the Gentleman-Usher and the Physician of the two kings of
Brentford appear upon the scene alone, and discuss a plot to dethrone
the two kings of Brentford, which they communicate by whispers into
each other's ears, which are totally inaudible. In Scene ii., "Enter
the two kings, hand in hand," and Bayes remarks to his visitors,
"Oh! these are now the two kings of Brentford; take notice of their
style--'twas never yet upon the stage; but, if you like it, I could
make a shift, perhaps, to show you a whole play, writ all just so." The
kings begin, rather familiarly, because, as Bayes adds, "they are both
persons of the same quality:"--

_1st King._--Did you observe their whispers, brother king?

_2nd King._--I did, and heard, besides, a grave bird sing,
That they intend, sweetheart, to play us pranks.

_1st King._--If that design appears,
I'll lay them by the ears,
Until I make 'em crack.

_2nd King._--And so will I, i' fack!

_1st King._--You must begin, _mon foi_.

_2nd King._--Sweet sir, _pardonnez moi_.

Bayes observes that he makes the two kings talk French in order
"to show their breeding." In the third act, Bayes introduces a new
character, prince Prettyman, a parody upon the character of Leonidas,
in Dryden's "Marriage-a-la-Mode." The prince falls asleep, and then
his beloved Cloris comes in, and is surprised, upon which Bayes
remarks, "Now, here she must make a simile." "Where's the necessity of
that, Mr. Bayes?" asks the critical Mr. Smith. "Oh," replies Bayes,
"because she's surprised. That's a general rule. You must ever make
a simile when you are surprised; 'tis a new way of writing." Now
we have another parody upon one of Dryden's similes. In the fourth
scene, the Gentleman-Usher and Physician appear again, discussing the
question whether their whispers had been heard or not, a discussion
which they conclude by seizing on the two thrones, and occupying them
with their drawn swords in their hands. Then they march out to raise
their forces, and a battle to music takes place, four soldiers on each
side, who are all killed. Next we have a scene between prince Prettyman
and his tailor, Tom Thimble, which involves a joke upon the princely
principle of non-payment. A scene or two follows in a similar tone,
without at all advancing the plot; although it appears that another
prince, Volscius, who, we are to suppose, supports the old dynasty of
Brentford, has made his escape to Piccadilly, while the army which he
is to lead has assembled, and is concealed, at Knightsbridge. This
incident produces a discussion between Mr. Bayes and his friends:--

_Smith._--But pray, Mr. Bayes, is not this a little difficult, that
you were saying e'en now, to keep an army thus concealed in
Knightsbridge?

_Bayes._--In Knightsbridge?--stay.

_Johnson._--No, not if inn-keepers be his friends.[100]

_Bayes._--His friends? Ay, sir, his intimate acquaintance; or else,
indeed, I grant it could not be.

_Smith._--Yes, faith, so it might be very easy.

_Bayes._--Nay, if I don't make all things easy, 'egad, I'll give
'em leave to hang me. Now you would think that he is going
out of town; but you will see how prettily I have contrived
to stop him, presently.

[100] Knightsbridge, as the principal entrance to London from the west,
was full of inns.

Accordingly, prince Volscius yields to the influence of a fair
_demoiselle_, who bears the classical name of Parthenope, and after
various exhibitions of hesitation, he does not leave town. Another
scene or two, with little meaning, but full of clever parodies on the
plays of Dryden, the Howards, and their contemporaries. The first scene
of the fourth act opens with a funeral, a parody upon colonel Henry
Howard's play of the "United Kingdoms." Pallas interferes, brings the
lady who is to be buried to life, gets up a dance, and furnishes a very
extempore feast. The princes Prettyman and Volscius dispute about their
sweethearts. At the commencement of the fifth act the two usurping
kings appear in state, attended by four cardinals, the two princes,
all the lady-loves, heralds, and sergeants-at-arms, &c. In the middle
of all this state, "the two right kings of Brentford descend in the
clouds, singing, in white garments, and three fiddlers sitting before
them in green." "Now," says Bayes to his friends, "because the two
right kings descend from above, I make 'em sing to the tune and style
of our modern spirits." And accordingly they proceeded in a continuous
parody:--

_1st King._--Haste, brother king, we are sent from above.

_2nd King._--Let us move, let us move;
Move, to remove the fate
Of Brentford's long united state.

_1st King._--Tara, tan, tara!--full east and by south.

_2nd King._--We sail with thunder in our mouth.
In scorching noon-day, whilst the traveller stays,
Busy, busy, busy, busy, we bustle along,
Mounted upon warm Phœbus's rays,
Through the heavenly throng,
Hasting to those
Who will feast us at night with a pig's pettytoes.

_1st King._--And we'll fall with our plate
In an olio of hate

_2nd King._--But, now supper's done, the servitors try,
Like soldiers, to storm a whole half-moon pie.

_1st King._--They gather, they gather, hot custards in spoons:
But, alas! I must leave these half-moons,
And repair to my trusty dragoons.

_2nd King._--O stay! for you need not as yet go astray;
The tide, like a friend, has brought ships in our way,
And on their high ropes we will play;
Like maggots in filberts, we'll snug in our shell,
We'll frisk in our shell,
We'll firk in our shell,
And farewell.

_1st King._--But the ladies have all inclination to dance,
And the green frogs croak out a coranto of France.

All this is quite Aristophanic. It is interrupted by a discussion
between Bayes and his visitors on the music and the dance, and then the
two kings continue:--

_2nd King._--Now mortals, that hear
How we tilt and career,
With wonder, will fear
The event of such things as shall never appear.

_1st King._--Stay you to fulfil what the gods have decreed.

_2nd King._--Then call me to help you, if there shall be need.

_1st King._--So firmly resolved is a true Brentford king,
To save the distressed, and help to 'em bring,
That, ere a full pot of good ale you can swallow,
He's here with a whoop, and gone with a halloo.

The rather too inquisitive Smith wonders at all this, and complains
that, to him, the sense of this is "not very plain." "Plain!" exclaims
Bayes, "why, did you ever hear any people in the clouds speak plain?
They must be all for flight of fancy, at its full range, without the
least check or control upon it. When once you tie up sprites and people
in clouds to speak plain, you spoil all." The two kings of Brentford
now "light out of the clouds, and step into the throne," continuing the
same _dignified_ conversation:--

_1st King._--Come, now to serious council we'll advance.

_2nd King._--I do agree; but first, let's have a dance.

This confidence of the two kings of Brentford is suddenly disturbed
by the sound of war. Two heralds announce that the army, that of
Knightsbridge, had come to protect them, and that it had come _in
disguise_, an arrangement which puzzles the author's two visitors:--

_1st King._--What saucy groom molests our privacies?

_1st Herald._--The army's at the door, and, in disguise,
Desires a word with both your majesties.

_2nd Herald._--Having from Knightsbridge hither march'd by stealth.

_2nd King._--Bid 'em attend a while, and drink our health.

_Smith._--How, Mr. Bayes? The army in disguise!

_Bayes._--Ay, sir, for fear the usurpers might discover them, that
went out but just now.

War itself follows, and the commanders of the two armies, the general
and the lieutenant-general, appear upon the stage in another parody
upon the opening scenes of Dryden's "Siege of Rhodes:"--

_Enter, at several doors, the_ GENERAL _and_ LIEUTENANT-GENERAL,
_armed cap-à-pie, with each a lute in his hand, and his sword
drawn, and hung with a scarlet riband at the wrist_.

_Lieut.-Gen._--Villain, thou liest.

_Gen._--Arm, arm, Gonsalvo, arm. What! ho!
The lie no flesh can brook, I trow.

_Lieut.-Gen._--Advance from Acton with the musqueteers.

_Gen._--Draw down the Chelsea cuirassiers.

_Lieut.-Gen._--The band you boast of, Chelsea cuirassiers,
Shall in my Putney pikes now meet their peers.

_Gen._--Chiswickians, aged, and renowned in fight,
Join with the Hammersmith brigade.

_Lieut.-Gen._--You'll find my Mortlake boys will do them right,
Unless by Fulham numbers over-laid.

_Gen._--Let the left wing of Twick'n'am foot advance,
And line that eastern hedge.

_Lieut.-Gen._--The horse I raised in Petty France
Shall try their chance,
And scour the meadows, overgrown with sedge.

_Gen._--Stand: give the word.

_Lieut.-Gen._--Bright sword.

_Gen._--That may be thine,
But 'tis not mine.

_Lieut.-Gen._--Give fire, give fire, at once give fire,
And let those recreant troops perceive mine ire.

_Gen._--Pursue, pursue; they fly,
That first did give the lie! [_Exeunt._

Thus the battle is carried on in talk between two individuals. Bayes
alleges, as an excuse for introducing these trivial names of places,
that "the spectators know all these towns, and may easily conceive
them to be within the dominions of the two kings of Brentford."
The battle is finally stopped by an eclipse, and three personages,
representing the sun, moon, and earth, advance upon the stage, and
by dint of singing and manœuvring, one gets in a line between the
other two, and this, according to the strict rules of astronomy,
constituted the eclipse. The eclipse is followed by another battle
of a more desperate character, to which a stop is put in an equally
extraordinary manner, by the entrance of the furious hero Drawcansir,
who slays all the combatants on both sides. The marriage of prince
Prettyman was to form the subject of the fifth act, but while Bayes,
Johnson, and Smith withdraw temporarily, all the players, in disgust,
run away to their dinners, and thus ends "The Rehearsal" of Mr. Bayes's
play. The epilogue returns to the moral which the play was designed to
inculcate:--

_The play is at an end, but where's the plot?
That circumstance the poet Bayes forgot.
And we can boast, though 'tis a plotting age,
No place is freer from it than the stage._

Formerly people sought to write so that they might be understood, but
"this new way of wit" was altogether incomprehensible:--

_Wherefore, for ours, and for the kingdom's peace,
May this prodigious way of writing cease;
Let's have, at least once in our lives, a time
When we may hear some reason, not all rhyme.
We have this ten years felt its influence;
Pray let this prove a year of prose and sense._

English comedy was certainly greatly reformed, in some senses of the
word reform, during the period which followed the publication of "The
Rehearsal," and, in the hands of writers like Wycherley, Shadwell,
Congreve, and D'Urfey, the dulness of the Howards was exchanged for
an extreme degree of vivacity. The plot was as little considered as
ever--it was a mere peg on which to hang scenes brilliant with wit
and _repartee_. The small intrigue is often but a frame for a great
picture of society in its forms then most open to caricature, with
all the petty intrigues inseparable from it. "Epsom Wells," one of
Shadwell's earlier comedies, and perhaps his best, will bear comparison
with Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair." The personages represented in it
are exactly those which then shone in such society--three "men of wit
and pleasure," one of the class of country squires whom the wits of
London loved to laugh at, and who is described as "a country justice,
a public spirited, politick, discontented fop, an immoderate hater of
London, and a lover of the country above measure, a hearty true English
coxcomb." Then we have "two cheating, sharking, cowardly bullies."
The citizens of London are represented by Bisket, "a comfit-maker, a
quiet, humble, civil cuckold, governed by his wife, whom he very much
fears and loves at the same time, and is very proud of," and Fribble,
"a haberdasher, a surly cuckold, very conceited, and proud of his
wife, but pretends to govern and keep her under," and their wives, the
first "an impertinent, imperious strumpet," and the other, "an humble,
submitting wife, who jilts her husband that way, a very ----." One
or two other characters of the same stamp, with "two young ladies of
wit, beauty, and fortune," who behave themselves not much better than
the others, and a full allowance of "parsons, hectors, constables,
watchmen, and fiddlers," complete the _dramatis personæ_ of "Epsom
Wells." With such materials anybody will understand the character of
the piece, which was brought out on the stage in 1672. "The Squire of
Alsatia," by the same author, brought upon the stage in the eventful
year 1688, is a vivid picture of one of the wildest phases of London
life in those still rather primitive times. Alsatia, as every reader of
Walter Scott knows, was a cant name for the White Friars, in London, a
locality which, at that time, was beyond the reach of the law and its
officers, a refuge for thieves and rogues, and especially for debtors,
where they could either resist with no great fear of being overcome,
or, when resistance was no longer possible, escape with ease. With such
a scene, and such people for characters, we are not surprised that the
printed edition of this play is prefaced by a vocabulary of the cant
words employed in it. The principal characters in the play are of the
same class with those which form the staple of all these old comedies.
First there is a country father or uncle, who is rich and severe upon
the vices of youth, or arbitrary, or avaricious. He is here represented
by sir William Belfond, "a gentleman of about £3000 per annum, who in
his youth had been a spark of the town; but married and retired into
the country, where he turned to the other extreme--rigid, morose, most
sordidly covetous, clownish, obstinate, positive, and forward." He must
have a London brother, or near relative, endowed with exactly contrary
qualities, here represented by sir Edward Belfond, sir William's
brother, "a merchant, who by lucky hits had gotten a great estate,
lives single with ease and pleasure, reasonably and virtuously, a man
of great humanity and gentleness and compassion towards mankind, well
read in good books, possessed with all gentlemanlike qualities." Sir
William Belfond has two sons. Belfond senior, the eldest, is "bred
after his father's rustic, swinish manner, with great rigour and
severity, upon whom his father's estate is entailed, the confidence
of which makes him break out into open rebellion to his father, and
become lewd, abominably vicious, stubborn, and obstinate." The younger
Belfond, Sir William's second son, had been "adopted by Sir Edward,
and bred from his childhood by him, with all the tenderness and
familiarity, and bounty, and liberty that can be;" he was "instructed
in all the liberal sciences, and in all gentleman-like education;
somewhat given to women, and now and then to good fellowship; but
an ingenious, well-accomplished gentleman; a man of honour, and of
excellent disposition and temper." Then we have some of the leading
heroes of Alsatia, and first Cheatly, who is described as "a rascal,
who by reason of debts, dares not stir out of Whitefryers, but there
inveigles young heirs in tail; and helps 'em to goods and money upon
great disadvantages; is bound for them, and shares with them, till he
undoes them; a lewd, impudent, debauched fellow, very expert in the
cant about the town." Shamwell is "cousin to the Belfonds, an heir,
who, being ruined by Cheatly, is made a decoy-duck for others; not
daring to stay out of Alsatia, where he lives; is bound with Cheatly
for heirs, and lives upon them, a dissolute, debauch'd life." Another
of these characters is captain Hackum, "a block-headed bully of
Alsatia; a cowardly, impudent, blustering fellow; formerly a sergeant
in Flanders, run from his colours, retreating into Whitefryers for a
very small debt; where by the Alsatians he is dubb'd a captain; marries
one that lets lodgings, sells cherry-brandy, and is a bawd." Nor is
Alsatia without a representative of the Puritanical part of society, in
Scrapeall, "a hypocritical, repeating, praying, psalm-singing, precise
fellow, pretending to great piety; a godly knave, who joins with
Cheatly, and supplies young heirs with goods and money." A rather large
number of inferior characters fill up the canvas; and the females,
with two exceptions, belong to the same class. The plot of this play is
very simple. The elder son of sir William Belfond has taken to Alsatia,
but sir William, on his return from abroad, hearing talk of the fame of
a squire Belfond among the Alsatians, imagines that it is his younger
son, and out of this mistake a considerable amount of misunderstanding
arises. At last sir William discovers his error, and finds his eldest
son in Whitefryers, but the youth sets him at defiance. The father, in
great anger, brings tipstaff constables, to take away his son by force;
but the Alsatians rise in force, the officers of the law are beaten,
and sir William himself taken prisoner. He is rescued by the younger
Belfond, and in the conclusion the elder brother becomes penitent, and
is reconciled with his father. There is an underplot, far from moral
in its character, which ends in the marriage of Belfond junior. It is
a busy, noisy play, and was a great favourite on the stage; but it is
now chiefly interesting as a vivid picture of London life in the latter
half of the seventeenth century. "Bury Fair," by Shadwell, is another
comedy of the same description; with little interest in the plot, but
full of life and movement. If "The Squire of Alsatia" was noisy, "The
Scowrers," another comedy by the same author, first brought on the
stage in 1691, was still more so. The wild and riotous gallants who,
in former times of inefficient police regulation, infested the streets
at night, and committed all sorts of outrages, were known at different
periods by a variety of names. In the reign of James I. and Charles
I. they were the "roaring boys;" in the time of Shadwell, they were
called the "scowrers," because they scowered the streets at night, and
rather roughly cleared them of all passengers; a few years later they
took the name of Mohocks, or Mohawks. During the night London lay at
the mercy of these riotous classes, and the streets witnessed scenes of
brutal violence, which, at the present day, we can hardly imagine. This
state of things is pictured in Shadwell's comedy. Sir William Rant,
Wildfire, and Tope, are noted scowrers, well known in the town, whose
fame has excited emulation in men of less distinction in their way,
Whachum, "a city wit and scowrer, imitator of sir William," and "two
scoundrells," his companions, Bluster and Dingboy. Great enmity arises
between the two parties of rival scowrers. The more serious characters
in the play are Mr. Rant, sir William Rant's father, and sir Richard
Maggot, "a foolish Jacobite alderman" (it must be remembered that we
are now in the reign of king William). Sir Richard's wife, lady Maggot,
like the citizen's wives of the comedy of the Restoration generally,
is a lady rather wanting in virtue, ambitious of mixing with the gay
and fashionable world, and somewhat of a tyrant over her husband. She
has two handsome daughters, whom she seeks to keep confined from the
world, lest they should become her rivals. There are low characters
of both sexes, who need not be enumerated. Much of the play is taken
up with street rows, capital satirical pictures of London life. The
play ends with marriages, and with the reconciliation of sir William
Rant with his father, the serious old gentleman of the play. Shadwell
excelled in these busy comedies. One of the nearest approaches to him
is Mountfort's comedy of "Greenwich Park," which is another striking
satire on the looseness of London life at that time. As in the others,
the plot is simply nothing. The play consists of a number of intrigues,
such as may be imagined, at a time when morality was little respected,
in places of fashionable resort like Greenwich Park and Deptford Wells.

An element of satire was now introduced into English comedy which does
not appear to have belonged to it before--this was mimicry. Although
the principal characters in the play bore conventional names, they
appear often to have been intended to represent individuals then well
known in society, and these individuals were caricatured in their
dress, and mimicked in their language and manners. We are told that
this mimicry contributed greatly to the success of "The Rehearsal,"
the duke of Buckingham having taken incredible pains to make Lacy, who
acted the part of Bayes, perfect in imitating the voice and manner
of Dryden, whose dress and gait were minutely copied. This personal
satire was not always performed with impunity. On the 1st of February,
1669, Pepys went to the Theatre Royal to see the performance of "The
Heiress," in which it appears that sir Charles Sedley was personally
caricatured, and the secretary of king Charles's admiralty has left
in his diary the following entry:--"To the king's house, thinking to
have seen the Heyresse, first acted on Saturday, but when we come
thither we find no play there; Kynaston, that did act a part therein
in abuse to sir Charles Sedley, being last night exceedingly beaten
with sticks by two or three that saluted him, so as he is mightily
bruised, and forced to keep his bed." It is said that Dryden's comedy
of "Limberham," brought on the stage in 1678, was prohibited after the
first night, because the character of Limberham was considered to be
too open a satire on the duke of Lauderdale.

Another peculiarity in the comedies of the age of the Restoration was
their extraordinary indelicacy. The writers seemed to emulate each
other in presenting upon the stage scenes and language which no modest
ear or pure mind could support. In the earlier period coarseness in
conversation was characteristic of an unpolished age--the language put
in the mouths of the actors, as remarked before, smelt of the tavern;
but under Charles II. the tone of fashionable society, as represented
on the stage, is modelled upon that of the brothel. Even the veiled
allusion is no longer resorted to, broad and direct language is
substituted in its place. This open profligacy of the stage reached its
greatest height between the years 1670 and 1680. The staple material
of this comedy may be considered to be the commission of adultery,
which is presented as one of the principal ornaments in the character
of the well-bred gentleman, varied with the seducing of other men's
mistresses, for the keeping of mistresses appears as the rule of
social life. The "Country Wife," one of Wycherley's comedies, which is
supposed to have been brought on the stage perhaps as early as 1672,
is a mass of gross indecency from beginning to end. It involves two
principal plots, that of a voluptuary who feigns himself incapable of
love and insensible to the other sex, in order to pursue his intrigues
with greater liberty; and that of a citizen who takes to his wife a
silly and innocent country girl, whose ignorance he believes will be
a protection to her virtue, but the very means he takes to prevent
her, lead to her fall. The "Parson's Wedding," by Thomas Killigrew,
first acted in 1673, is equally licentious. The same at least may be
said of Dryden's "Limberham, or the Kind Keeper," first performed in
1678, which, according to the author's own statement, was prohibited
on account of its freeness, but more probably because the character
of Limberham was believed to be intended for a personal satire on the
unpopular earl of Lauderdale. Its plot is simple enough; it is the
story of a debauched old gentleman, named Aldo, whose son, after a
rather long absence on the Continent, returns to England, and assumes
the name of Woodall, in order to enjoy freely the pleasures of London
life before he makes himself known to his friends. He takes a lodging
in a house occupied by some loose women, and there meets with his
father, but, as the latter does not recognise his son, they become
friends, and live together licentiously so long, that when the son at
length discovers himself, the old man is obliged to overlook his vices.
Otway's comedy of "Friendship in Fashion," performed the same year, was
not a whit more moral. But all these are far outdone by Ravenscroft's
comedy of "The London Cuckolds," first brought out in 1682, which,
nevertheless, continued to be acted until late in the last century. It
is a clever comedy, full of action, and consisting of a great number
of different incidents, selected from the less moral tales of the old
story-tellers as they appear in the "Decameron" of Boccaccio, among
which that of the ignorant and uneducated young wife, similar to the
plot of Wycherley's "Country Wife," is again introduced.

The corruption of morals had become so great, that when women took
up the pen, they exceeded in licentiousness even the other sex, as
was the case with Mrs. Behn. Aphra Behn is understood to have been
born at Canterbury, but to have passed some part of her youth in the
colony of Surinam, of which her father was governor. She evidently
possessed a disposition for intrigue, and she was employed by the
English government, a few years after the Restoration, as a political
spy at Antwerp. She subsequently settled in London, and gained a living
by her pen, which was very prolific in novels, poems, and plays. It
would be difficult to point out in any other works such scenes of
open profligacy as those presented in Mrs. Behn's two comedies of
"Sir Patient Fancy" and "The City Heiress, or Sir Timothy Treat-all,"
which appeared in 1678 and 1681. Concealment of the slightest kind is
avoided, and even that which cannot be exposed to view, is tolerably
broadly described.

It appears that the performance of the "London Cuckolds" had been the
cause of some scandal, and there were, even among play-goers, some who
took offence at such outrages on the ordinary feelings of modesty.
The excess of the evil had begun to produce a reaction. Ravenscroft,
the author of that comedy, produced on the stage, in 1684, a comedy,
entitled "Dame Dobson, or the Cunning Woman," which was intended to be
a modest play, but it was unceremoniously "damned" by the audience.
The prologue to this new comedy intimates that the "London Cuckolds"
had pleased the town and diverted the court, but that some "squeamish
females" had taken offence at it, and that he had now written a "dull,
civill" play to make amends. They are addressed, therefore, in such
terms as these:--

_In you, chaste ladies, then we hope to-day,
This is the poet's recantation play.
Come often to 't, that he at length may see
'Tis more than a pretended modesty.
Stick by him now, for if he finds you falter,
He quickly will his way of writing alter;
And every play shall send you blushing home,
For, though you rail, yet then we're sure you'll come._

And it is further intimated,--

_A naughty play was never counted dull--
Nor modest comedy e'er pleased you much._

"I remember," says Colley Cibber in his "Apology," looking back to
these times, "I remember the ladies were then observed to be decently
afraid of venturing bare-faced to a new comedy, till they had been
assured they might do it without the risk of an insult to their
modesty; or if their curiosity were too strong for their patience,
they took care at least to save appearances, and rarely came upon the
first days of acting but in masks (then daily worn, and admitted in the
pit, the side boxes, and gallery), which custom, however, had so many
ill consequences attending it, that it has been abolished these many
years." According to the _Spectator_, ladies began now to desert the
theatre when comedies were brought out, except those who "never miss
the first day of a new play, lest it should prove too luscious to admit
of their going with any countenance to the second."

In the midst of this abuse, there suddenly appeared a book which
created at the time a great sensation. The comedies of the latter half
of the seventeenth century were not only indecent, but they were filled
with profane language, and contained scenes in which religion itself
was treated with contempt. At that time there lived a divine of the
Church of England, celebrated for his Jacobitism--for I am now speaking
of the reign of king William--for his talents as a controversial
writer, and for his zeal in any cause which he undertook. This was
Jeremy Collier, the author of several books of some merit, which are
seldom read now, and who suffered for his zeal in the cause of king
James, and for his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to king
William. In the year 1698 Collier published his "Short View of the
Immorality and Profaneness of the English stage," in which he boldly
attacked the licentiousness of the English comedy. Perhaps Collier's
zeal carried him a little too far; but he had offended the wits, and
especially the dramatic poets, on all sides, and he was exposed to
attacks from all quarters, in which Dryden himself took an active part.
Collier showed himself fully capable of dealing with his opponents, and
the controversy had the effect of calling attention to the immoralities
of the stage, and certainly contributed much towards reforming them.
They were become much less frequent and less gross at the opening of
the eighteenth century.

Towards the end of the reign of king Charles II., the stage was more
largely employed as a political agent, and under his successor, James
II., the Puritans and the Whigs were constantly held up to scorn. After
the Revolution, the tables were turned, and the satire of the stage
was often aimed at Tories and Non-jurors. "The Non-juror," by Colley
Cibber, which appeared in 1717, at a very opportune moment, gained for
its author a pension and the office of poet-laureate. It was founded
upon the "Tartuffe" of Molière, for the English comedy writers borrowed
much from the foreign stage. A disguised priest, who passes under the
name of Dr. Wolf, and who had been engaged in the rebellion of 1715,
has insinuated himself into the household of a gentleman of fortune, of
not very strong judgment, Sir John Woodvil, whom, under the title of a
Non-juror, he has not only induced to become an abettor of rebels, but
he has persuaded him to disinherit his son, and he labours to seduce
his wife and to deceive his daughter. His baseness is exposed only just
soon enough to defeat his designs. Such a production as this could
not fail to give great offence to all the Jacobite party, of whatever
shade, who were then rather numerous in London, and Cibber assures us
that his reward was a considerable amount of adverse criticism in every
quarter where the Tory influence reached. His comedies were inferior in
brilliance of dialogue to those of the previous age, but the plots were
well imagined and conducted, and they are generally good acting plays.

To Samuel Foote, born in 1722, we owe the last change in the form and
character of English comedy. A man of infinite wit and humour, and
possessed of extraordinary talent as a mimic, Foote made mimicry the
principal instrument of his success on the stage. His plays are above
all light and amusing; he reduced the old comedy of five acts to three
acts, and his plots were usually simple, the dialogue full of wit and
humour; but their peculiar characteristic was their open boldness of
personal satire. It is entirely a comedy of his own. He sought to
direct his wit against all the vices of society, but this he did by
holding up to ridicule and scorn the individuals who had in some way
or other made themselves notorious by the practice of them. All his
principal characters were real characters, who were more or less known
to the public, and who were so perfectly mimicked on the stage in
their dress, gait, and speech, that it was impossible to mistake them.
Thus, in "The Devil upon Two Sticks," which is a general satire on the
low condition to which the practice of medicine had then fallen, the
personages introduced in it all represented quacks well known about the
town. "The Maid of Bath" dragged upon the stage scandals which were
then the talk of Bath society. The nabob of the comedy which bears
that title, had also his model in real life. "The Bankrupt" may be
considered as a general satire on the baseness of the newspaper press
of that day, which was made the means of propagating private scandals
and libellous accusations in order to extort money, yet the characters
introduced are said to have been all portraits from the life; and the
same statement is made with regard to the comedy of "The Author."

It is evident that a drama of this inquisitorial character is a
dangerous thing, and that it could hardly be allowed to exist where the
rights of society are properly defined; and we are not surprised if
Foote provoked a host of bitter enemies. But in some cases the author
met with punishment of a heavier and more substantial description.
One of the individuals introduced into "The Maid of Bath," extorted
damages to the amount of £3,000. One of the persons who figured in
"The Author," obtained an order from the lord chamberlain for putting
a stop to the performance after it had had a short run; and the
consequences of "The Trip to Calais," were still more disastrous.
It is well known that the character of lady Kitty Crocodile in that
play was a broad caricature on the notorious duchess of Kingston.
Through the treachery of some of the people employed by Foote, the
duchess obtained information of the nature of this play before it was
ready for representation, and she had sufficient influence to obtain
the lord chamberlain's prohibition for bringing it on the stage. Nor
was this all, for as the play was printed, if not acted,--and it was
subsequently brought out in a modified form, with omission of the part
of lady Kitty Crocodile, though the characters of some of her agents
were still retained,--infamous charges were got up against Foote, in
retaliation, which caused him so much trouble and grief, that they are
said to have shortened his days.

The drama which Samuel Foote had invented did not outlive him; its
caricature was itself transferred to the caricature of the print-shop.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CARICATURE IN HOLLAND.--ROMAIN DE HOOGHE.--THE ENGLISH
REVOLUTION.--CARICATURES ON LOUIS XIV. AND JAMES II.--DR.
SACHEVERELL.--CARICATURE BROUGHT FROM HOLLAND TO ENGLAND.--ORIGIN
OF THE WORD "CARICATURE."--MISSISSIPPI AND THE SOUTH SEA; THE YEAR
OF BUBBLES.

Modern political caricature, born, as we have seen, in France, may be
considered to have had its cradle in Holland. The position of that
country, and its greater degree of freedom, made it, in the seventeenth
century, the general place of refuge to the political discontents of
other lands, and especially to the French who fled from the tyranny of
Louis XIV. It possessed at that time some of the most skilful artists
and best engravers in Europe, and it became the central spot from which
were launched a multitude of satirical prints against that monarch's
policy, and against himself and his favourites and ministers. This was
in a great measure the cause of the bitter hatred which Louis always
displayed towards that country. He feared the caricatures of the Dutch
more than their arms, and the pencil and graver of Romain de Hooghe
were among the most effective weapons employed by William of Nassau.

The marriage of William with Mary, daughter of the duke of York, in
1677, naturally gave the Dutch a greater interest than they could
have felt before in the domestic affairs of Great Britain, and a new
stimulus to their zeal against Louis of France, or, which was the
same thing, against arbitrary power and Popery, both of which had
been rendered odious under his name. The accession of James II. to
the throne of England, and his attempt to re-establish Popery, added
religious as well as political fuel to these feelings, for everybody
understood that James was acting under the protection of the king
of France. The very year of king James's accession, in 1685, the
caricature appeared which we have copied in our cut No. 186, and which,
although the inscription is in English, appears to have been the work
of a foreign artist. It was probably intended to represent Mary of
Modena, the queen of James II., and her rather famous confessor, father
Petre, the latter under the character of the wolf among the sheep. Its
aim is sufficiently evident to need no explanation. At the top, in the
original, are the Latin words, _Converte Angliam_, "convert England,"
and beneath, in English, "It is a foolish sheep that makes the wolf her
confessor."

[Illustration: _No. 186. A Dangerous Confessor._]

The period during which the Dutch school of caricature flourished,
extended through the reign of Louis XIV., and into the regency in
France, and two great events, the revolution of 1688 in England, and
the wild money speculations of the year 1720, exercised especially the
pencils of its caricaturists. The first of these events belongs almost
entirely to Romain de Hooghe. Very little is known of the personal
history of this remarkable artist, but he is believed to have been born
towards the middle of the seventeenth century, and to have died in
the earlier years of the eighteenth century. The older French writers
on art, who were prejudiced against Romain de Hooghe for his bitter
hostility to Louis XIV., inform us that in his youth he employed his
graver on obscene subjects, and led a life so openly licentious, that
he was banished from his native town of Amsterdam, and went to live
at Haerlem. He gained celebrity by the series of plates, executed in
1672, which represented the horrible atrocities committed in Holland by
the French troops, and which raised against Louis XIV. the indignation
of all Europe. It is said that the prince of Orange (William III.
of England), appreciating the value of his satire as a political
weapon, secured it in his own interests by liberally patronising the
caricaturist; and we owe to Romain de Hooghe a succession of large
prints in which the king of France, his _protégé_ James II., and the
adherents of the latter, are covered with ridicule. One, published
in 1688, and entitled "Les Monarches Tombants," commemorates the
flight of the royal family from England. Another, which appeared at
the same date, is entitled, in French, "Arlequin fur l'hypogryphe à
la croisade Loioliste," and in Dutch, "Armeé van de Heylige League
voor der Jesuiten Monarchy" (_i.e._ "the army of the holy league for
establishing the monarchy of the Jesuits"). Louis XIV. and James II.
were represented under the characters of Arlequin and Panurge, who are
seated on the animal here called a "hypogryphe," but which is really
a wild ass. The two kings have their heads joined together under one
Jesuit's cap. Other figures, forming part of this army of Jesuitism,
are distributed over the field, the most grotesque of which is that
given in our cut No. 187. Two personages introduced in some ridiculous
position or other, in most of these caricatures, are father Petre, the
Jesuit, and the infant prince of Wales, afterwards the old Pretender.
It was pretended that this infant was in fact the child of a miller,
secretly introduced into the queen's bed concealed in a warming-pan;
and that this ingenious plot was contrived by father Petre. Hence the
boy was popularly called Peterkin, or Perkin, _i.e._ little Peter,
which was the name given afterwards to the Pretender in songs and
satires at the time of his rebellion; and in the prints a windmill
was usually given to the child as a sign of its father's trade. In
the group represented in our cut, father Petre, with the child in his
arms, is seated on a rather singular steed, a lobster. The young prince
here carries the windmill on his head. On the lobster's back, behind
the Jesuit, are carried the papal crown, surmounted by a fleur-de-lis,
with a bundle of relics, indulgences, &c., and it has seized in one
claw the English church service book, and in the other the book of the
laws of England. In the Dutch description of this print, the child is
called "the new born Antichrist." Another of Romain de Hooghe's prints,
entitled "Panurge secondé par Arlequin Deodaat à la croisade d'Irlande,
1689," is a satire on king James's expedition to Ireland, which led to
the memorable battle of the Boyne. James and his friends are proceeding
to the place of embarkation, and, as represented in our cut No. 188,
father Petre marches in front, carrying the infant prince in his arms.

[Illustration: _No. 187. A Jesuit well Mounted._]

The drawing of Romain de Hooghe is not always correct, especially in
his larger subjects, which perhaps may be ascribed to his hasty and
careless manner of working; but he displays great skill in grouping
his figures, and great power in investing them with a large amount of
satirical humour. Most of the other caricatures of the time are poor
both in design and execution. Such is the case with a vulgar satirical
print which was published in France in the autumn of 1690, on the
arrival of a false rumour that king William had been killed in Ireland.
In the field of the picture the corpse of the king is followed by a
procession consisting of his queen and the principal supporters of
his cause. The lower corner on the left hand is occupied by a view of
the interior of the infernal regions, and king William introduced in
the place allotted to him among the flames. In different parts of the
picture there are several inscriptions, all breathing a spirit of very
insolent exultation. One of them is the--

_Billet d'Enterrement._

Vous estes priez d'assister au convoy, service, et enterrement
du tres haut, tres grand, et tres infame Prince infernal, grand
stadouter, des Armés diaboliques de la ligue d'Ausbourg, et
insigne usurpateur des Royaumes d'Angleterre, d'Eccosse, et
d'Irlande, décédé dans l'Irlande au mois d'Aoust 1690, qui se
fera le dit mois, dans sa paroisse infernale, ou assisteront Dame
Proserpine, Radamonte, et les Ligueurs.

Les Dames lui diront s'il leur plaist des injures.

[Illustration: _No. 188. Off to Ireland._]

The prints executed in England at this time were, if possible, worse
than those published in France. Almost the only contemporary caricature
on the downfall of the Stuarts that I know, is an ill-executed print,
published immediately after the accession of William III., under the
title, "England's Memorial of its wonderful deliverance from French
Tyranny and Popish Oppression." The middle of the picture is occupied
by "the royal orange tree," which flourishes in spite of all the
attempts to destroy it. At the upper corner, on the left side, is a
representation of the French king's "council," consisting of an equal
number of Jesuits and devils, seated alternately at a round table.

The circumstance that the titles and inscriptions of nearly all
these caricatures are in Dutch, seems to show that their influence
was intended to be exercised in Holland rather than elsewhere. In
two or three only of them these descriptions were accompanied with
translations in English or French; and after a time, copies of them
began to be made in England, accompanied with English descriptions. A
curious example of this is given in the fourth volume of the "Poems
on State Affairs," printed in 1707. In the preface to this volume the
editor takes occasion to inform the reader--"That having procur'd
from beyond sea a Collection of Satyrical Prints done in Holland and
elsewhere, by Rom. de Hoog, and other the best masters, relating to
the French King and his Adherents, since he unjustly begun this war,
I have persuaded the Bookseller to be at the expense of ingraving
several of them; to each of which I have given the Explanation in
English verse, they being in Dutch, French, or Latin in the originals."
Copies of seven of these caricatures are accordingly given at the end
of the volume, which are certainly inferior in every respect to those
of the best period of Romain de Hooghe. One of them commemorates the
eclipse of the sun on the 12th of May, 1706. The sun, as it might be
conjectured, is Louis XIV., eclipsed by queen Anne, whose face occupies
the place of the moon. In the foreground of the picture, just under the
eclipse, the queen is seated on her throne under a canopy, surrounded
by her counsellors and generals. With her left arm she holds down the
Gallic cock, while with the other hand she clips one of its wings
(see our cut No. 189). In the upper corner on the right, is inserted
a picture of the battle of Ramillies, and in the lower corner on the
left, a sea-fight under admiral Leake, both victories gained in that
year. Another of these copies of foreign prints is given in our cut
No. 190. We are told that "these figures represent a French trumpet and
drum, sent by Louis le Grand to enquire news of several citys lost by
the Mighty Monarch last campaign." The trumpeter holds in his hand a
list of lost towns, and another is pinned to the breast of the drummer;
the former list is headed by the names of "Gaunt, Brussels, Antwerp,
Bruges," the latter by "Barcelona."

[Illustration: _No. 189. Clipping the Cock's Wings._]

[Illustration: _No. 190. Trumpet and Drum._]

[Illustration: _No. 191. The Three False Brethren._]

The first remarkable outburst of caricatures in England was caused by
the proceedings against the notorious Dr. Sacheverell in 1710. It is
somewhat curious that Sacheverell's partisans speak of caricatures
as things brought recently from Holland, and new in England, and
ascribe the use of them as peculiar to the Whig party. The writer of
a pamphlet, entitled "The Picture of Malice, or a true Account of Dr.
Sacheverell's Enemies, and their behaviour with regard to him," informs
us that "the chief means by which all the lower order of that sort of
men call'd Whigs, shall ever be found to act for the ruin of a potent
adversary, are the following three--by the Print, the Canto or Doggrell
Poem, and by the Libell, grave, calm, and cool, as the author of the
'True Answer' describes it. These are not all employed at the same
time, any more than the ban and arierban of a kingdom is raised, unless
to make sure work, or in cases of great exigency and imminent danger."
"The Print," he goes on to say, "is originally a Dutch talisman
(bequeathed to the ancient Batavians by a certain Chinese necromancer
and painter), with a virtue far exceeding that of the Palladium, not
only of guarding their cities and provinces, but also of annoying their
enemies, and preserving a due balance amongst the neighbouring powers
around." This writer warms up so much in his indignation against this
new weapon of the Whigs, that he breaks out in blank verse to tell
us how even the mysterious power of the magician did not destroy its
victims--

_Swifter than heretofore the Print effac'd
The pomp of mightiest monarchs, and dethron'd
The dread idea of royal majesty;
Dwindling the prince below the pigmy size.
Witness the once Great Louis in youthful pride,
And Charles of happy days, who both confess'd
The magic power of mezzotinto[101] shade,
And form grotesque, in manifestoes loud
Denouncing death to boor and burgomaster.
Witness, ye sacred popes with triple crown,
Who likewise victims fell to hideous print,
Spurn'd by the populace who whilome lay
Prostrate, and ev'n adored before your thrones._

[101] The method of engraving called mezzotinto was very generally
adopted in England in the earlier part of the last century for
prints and caricatures. It was continued to rather a late period
by the publishing house of Carrington Bowles.

We are then told that "this, if not the first, has yet been the chief
machine which his enemies have employ'd against the doctor; they have
exposed him in the same piece with the pope and the devil, and who now
could imagine that any simple priest should be able to stand before a
power which had levelled popes and monarchs?" At least one copy of the
caricature here alluded to is preserved, although a great rarity, and
it is represented in our cut No. 191. Two of the party remained long
associated together in the popular outcry, and as the name of the third
fell into contempt and oblivion, the doctor's place in this association
was taken by a new cause of alarm, the Pretender, the child whom we
have just seen so joyously brandishing his windmill. It is evident,
however, that this caricature greatly exasperated Sacheverell and the
party which supported him.

It will have been noticed that the writer just quoted, in using the
term "print," ignores altogether that of caricature, which, however,
was about this time beginning to come into use, although it is not
found in the dictionaries, I believe, until the appearance of that of
Dr. Johnson, in 1755. _Caricature_ is, of course, an Italian word,
derived from the verb _caricare_, to charge or load; and therefore,
it means a picture which is charged, or exaggerated (the old French
dictionaries say, "_c'est la même chose que charge en peinture_").
The word appears not to have come into use in Italy until the latter
half of the seventeenth century, and the earliest instance I know of
its employment by an English writer is that quoted by Johnson from
the "Christian Morals" of Sir Thomas Brown, who died in 1682, but it
was one of his latest writings, and was not printed till long after
his death:--"Expose not thyself by four-footed manners unto monstrous
draughts (_i.e._ drawings) and _caricatura_ representations." This very
quaint writer, who had passed some time in Italy, evidently uses it as
an exotic word. We find it next employed by the writer of the Essay No.
537, of the "Spectator," who, speaking of the way in which different
people were led by feelings of jealousy and prejudice to detract from
the characters of others, goes on to say, "From all these hands we
have such draughts of mankind as are represented in those burlesque
pictures which the Italians call _caricaturas_, where the art consists
in preserving, amidst distorted proportions and aggravated features,
some distinguishing likeness of the person, but in such a manner as to
transform the most agreeable beauty into the most odious monster." The
word was not fully established in our language in its English form of
_caricature_ until late in the last century.

[Illustration: _No. 192. Atlas._]

The subject of agitation which produced a greater number of caricatures
than any previous event was the wild financial scheme introduced into
France by the Scottish adventurer, Law, and imitated in England in
the great South Sea Bubble. It would be impossible here, within our
necessary limits, to attempt to trace the history of these bubbles,
which all burst in the course of the year 1720; and, in fact, it is a
history of which few are ignorant. On this, as on former occasions, the
great mass of the caricatures, especially those against the Mississippi
scheme, were executed in Holland, but they are much inferior to the
works of Romain de Hooghe. In fact, so great was the demand for these
caricatures, that the publishers, in their eagerness for gain, not
only deluged the world with plates by artists of no talent, which were
without point or interest, but they took old plates of any subject
in which there was a multitude of figures, put new titles to them,
and published them as satires on the Mississippi scheme; for people
were ready to take anything which represented a crowd as a satire on
the eagerness with which Frenchmen rushed into the share-market.
One or two curious instances of this deception might be pointed out.
Thus, an old picture, evidently intended to represent the meeting
of a king and a nobleman, in the court of a palace, surrounded by
a crowd of courtiers, in the costume probably of the time of Henri
IV., was republished as a picture of people crowding to the grand
scene of stock-jobbing in Paris, the Rue Quinquenpoix; and the old
picture of the battle between Carnival and Lent came out again, a
little re-touched, under the Dutch title, "Stryd tuszen de smullende
Bubbel-Heeren en de aanstaande Armoede," _i.e._, "The battle between
the good-living bubble-lords and approaching poverty."

Besides being issued singly, a considerable number of these prints
were collected and published in a volume, which is still met with not
unfrequently, under the title "Het groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid,"
"The great picture of folly." One of this set of prints represents a
multitude of persons, of all ages and sexes, acting the part of Atlas
in supporting on their backs globes, which, though made only of paper,
had become, through the agitation of the stock exchange, heavier than
gold. Law himself (see our cut No. 192) stands foremost, and requires
the assistance of Hercules to support his enormous burthen. In the
French verses accompanying this print, the writer says--

_Ami Atlas, on voit (sans conter vous et moi)
Faire l'Atlas partout des divers personnages,
Riche, pauvre, homme, femme, et sot et quasi-sage,
Valet, et paisan, le gueux s'eleve en roi._

Another of these caricatures represents Law in the character of Don
Quixote, riding upon Sancho's donkey. He is hastening to his Dulcinia,
who waits for him in the _actie huis_ (action or share-house), towards
which people are dragging the animal on which he is seated. The
devil (see our cut No. 193), sits behind Law, and holds up the ass's
tail, while a shower of paper, in the form of shares in companies,
is scattered around, and scrambled for by the eager _actionnaires_.
In front, the animal is laden with the money into which this paper
has been turned,--the box bears the inscription, "_Bombarioos
Geldkist_, 1720," "Bombario's (Law's) gold chest;" and the flag bears
the inscription, "_Ik koom, ik koom, Dulcinia_," "I come, I come,
Dulcinia." The best, perhaps, of this lot of caricatures is a large
engraving by the well-known Picart, inserted among the Dutch collection
with explanations in Dutch and French, and which was re-engraved in
London, with English descriptions and applications. It is a general
satire on the madness of the memorable year 1720. Folly appears as
the charioteer of Fortune, whose car is drawn by the representatives
of the numerous companies which had sprung up at this time, most of
which appear to be more or less unsound. Many of these agents have the
tails of foxes, "to show their policy and cunning," as the explanation
informs us. The devil is seen in the clouds above, blowing bubbles of
soap, which mix with the paper which Fortune is distributing to the
crowd. The picture is crowded with figures, scattered in groups, who
are employed in a variety of occupations connected with the great folly
of the day, one of which, as an example, is given in our cut No. 194.
It is a transfer of stock, made through the medium of a Jew broker.

[Illustration: _No. 193. The Don Quixote of Finance._]

[Illustration: _No. 194. Transfer of Stock._]

It was in this bubble agitation that the English school of caricature
began, and a few specimens are preserved, though others which are
advertised in the newspapers of that day, seem to be entirely lost. In
fact, a very considerable portion of the caricature literature of a
period so comparatively recent as the first half of the last century,
appears to have perished; for the interest of these prints was in
general so entirely temporary that few people took any care to preserve
them, and few of them were very attractive as pictures. As yet, indeed,
these English prints are but poor imitations of the works of Picart
and other continental artists. A pair of English prints, entitled
"The Bubbler's Mirrour," represents, one a head joyful at the rise in
the value of stock, the other, a similar head sorrowful at its fall,
surrounded in each case with lists of companies and epigrams upon them.
They are engraved in mezzotinto, a style of art supposed to have been
invented in England--its invention was ascribed to Prince Rupert--and
at this time very popular. In the imprint of these last-mentioned
plates, we are informed that they were "Printed for Carington Bowles,
next y^e Chapter House, in St. Paul's Ch. Yard, London," a well-known
name in former years, and even now one quite familiar to collectors,
of this class of prints, especially. Of Carington Bowles we shall have
more to say in the next chapter. With him begins the long list of
celebrated English printsellers.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ENGLISH CARICATURE IN THE AGE OF GEORGE II.--ENGLISH
PRINTSELLERS.--ARTISTS EMPLOYED BY THEM.--SIR ROBERT
WALPOLE'S LONG MINISTRY.--THE WAR WITH FRANCE.--THE NEWCASTLE
ADMINISTRATION.--OPERA INTRIGUES.--ACCESSION OF GEORGE III., AND
LORD BUTE IN POWER.

With the accession of George II., the taste for political caricatures
increased greatly, and they had become almost a necessity of social
life. At this time, too, a distinct English school of political
caricature had been established, and the print-sellers became more
numerous, and took a higher position in the commerce of literature
and art. Among the earliest of these printsellers the name of Bowles
stands especially conspicuous. Hogarth's burlesque on the Beggar's
Opera, published in 1728, was "printed for John Bowles, at the Black
Horse, in Cornhill." Some copies of "King Henry the Eighth and Anna
Bullen," engraved by the same great artist in the following year,
bear the imprint of John Bowles; and others were "printed for Robert
Wilkinson, Cornhill, Carington Bowles, in St. Paul's Church Yard, and
R. Sayer, in Fleet Street." Hogarth's "Humours of Southwark Fair" was
also published, in 1733, by Carington and John Bowles. This Carington
Bowles was, perhaps, dead in 1755, for in that year the caricature
entitled "British Resentment" bears the imprint, "Printed for T.
Bowles, in St. Paul's Church Yard, and Jno. Bowles & Son, in Cornhill."
John Bowles appears to have been the brother of the first Carington
Bowles in St. Paul's Churchyard, and a son named Carington succeeded to
that business, which, under him and his son Carington, and then as the
establishment of Bowles and Carver, has continued to exist within the
memory of the present generation. Another very celebrated printshop was
established in Fleet Street by Thomas Overton, probably as far back
as the close of the seventeenth century. On his death his business was
purchased by Robert Sayers, a mezzotinto engraver of merit, whose name
appears as joint publisher of a print by Hogarth in 1729. Overton is
said to have been a personal friend of Hogarth. Sayers was succeeded in
the business by his pupil in mezzotinto engraving, named Laurie, from
whom it descended to his son, Robert H. Laurie, known in city politics,
and it became subsequently the firm of Laurie and Whittle. This
business still exists at 53, Fleet Street, the oldest establishment
in London for the publication of maps and prints. During the reign of
the second George, the number of publishers of caricatures increased
considerably, and among others, we meet with the names of J. Smith, "at
Hogarth's Head, Cheapside," attached to a caricature published August,
1756; Edwards and Darly, "at the Golden Acorn, facing Hungerford,
Strand," who also published caricatures during the years 1756-7;
caricatures and burlesque prints were published by G. Bickham, May's
Buildings, Covent Garden, and one, directed against the employment of
foreign troops, and entitled "A Nurse for the Hessians," is stated to
have been "sold in May's Buildings, Covent Garden, where is 50 more;"
"The Raree Show," published in 1762, was "sold at Sumpter's Political
Print-shop, Fleet Street," and many caricatures on contemporary
costume, especially on the Macaronis, about the year 1772, were
"published by T. Bowen, opposite the Haymarket, Piccadilly." Sledge,
"printseller, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden," is also met with about
the middle of the last century. Among other burlesque prints, Bickham,
of May's Buildings, issued a series of figures representing the various
trades, made up of the different tools, &c., used by each. The house
of Carington Bowles, in St. Paul's Churchyard, produced an immense
number of caricatures, during the last century and the present, and of
the most varied character, but they consisted more of comic scenes of
society than of political subjects, and many of them were engraved in
mezzotinto, and rather highly coloured. Among them were caricatures on
the fashions and foibles of the day, amusing accidents and incidents,
common occurrences of life, characters, &., and they are frequently
aimed at lawyers and priests, and especially at monks and friars,
for the anti-Catholic feeling was strong in the last century. J.
Brotherton, at No. 132, New Bond Street, published many of Bunbury's
caricatures; while the house of Laurie and Whittle gave employment
especially to the Cruikshanks. But perhaps the most extensive publisher
of caricatures of them all was S. W. Fores, who dwelt first at No. 3,
Piccadilly, but afterwards established himself at No. 50, the corner
of Sackville Street, where the name still remains. Fores seems to have
been most fertile in ingenious expedients for the extension of his
business. He formed a sort of library of caricatures and other prints,
and charged for admission to look at them; and he afterwards adopted a
system of lending them out in portfolios for evening parties, at which
these portfolios of caricatures became a very fashionable amusement
in the latter part of the last century. At times, some remarkable
curiosity was employed to add to the attractions of his shop. Thus, on
caricatures published in 1790, we find the statement that, "In Fores'
Caricature Museum is the completest collection in the kingdom. Also
_the head and hand of Count Struenzee_. Admittance, 1_s._" Caricatures
against the French revolutionists, published in 1793, bear imprints
stating that they were "published by S. W. Fores, No. 3, Piccadilly,
where may be seen _a complete Model of the Guillotine_--admittance, one
shilling." In some this model is said to be six feet high.

Among the artists employed by the print-publishers of the age of
George II., we still find a certain number of foreigners. Coypel, who
caricatured the opera in the days of Farinelli, and pirated Hogarth,
belonged to a distinguished family of French painters. Goupy, who
also caricatured the _artistes_ of the opera (in 1727), and Boitard,
who worked actively for Carington Bowles from 1750 to 1770, were also
Frenchmen. Liotard, another caricaturist of the time of George II.,
was a native of Geneva. The names of two others, Vandergucht and
Vanderbank, proclaim them Dutchmen. Among the English caricaturists who
worked for the house of Bowles, were George Bickham, the brother of
the printseller, John Collet, and Robert Dighton, with others of less
repute. R. Attwold, who published caricatures against admiral Byng in
1750, was an imitator of Hogarth. Among the more obscure caricaturists
of the latter part of the half-century, were MacArdell--whose print
of "The Park Shower," representing the confusion raised among the
fashionable company in the Mall in St. James's Park by a sudden fall
of rain, is so well known--and Darley. Paul Sandby, who was patronised
by the duke of Cumberland, executed caricatures upon Hogarth. Many of
these artists of the earlier period of the English school of caricature
appear to have been very ill paid--the first of the family of Bowles is
said to have boasted that he bought many of the plates for little more
than their value as metal. The growing taste for caricature had also
brought forward a number of amateurs, among whom were the countess of
Burlington, and general, afterwards marquis, Townshend. The former, who
was the lady of that earl who built Burlington House, in Piccadilly,
was the leader of one of the factions in the opera disputes at the
close of the reign of George I., and is understood to have designed the
well-known caricature upon Cuzzoni, Farinelli, and Heidegger, which was
etched by Goupy, whom she patronised. It must not be forgotten that
Bunbury himself, as well as Sayers, were amateurs; and among other
amateurs I may name captain Minthull, captain Baillie, and John Nixon.
The first of these published caricatures against the Macaronis (as the
dandies of the earlier part of the reign of George III. were called),
one of which, entitled "The Macaroni Dressing-Room," was especially
popular.

[Illustration: _No. 195. A Party of Mourners._]

English political caricature came into its full activity with the
ministry of Sir Robert Walpole, which, beginning in 1721, lasted
through the long period of twenty years. In the previous period
the Whigs were accused of having invented caricature, but now the
Tories certainly took the utmost advantage of the invention, for,
during several years, the greater number of the caricatures which
were published were aimed against the Whig ministry. It is also a
rather remarkable characteristic of society at this period, that the
ladies took so great an interest in politics, that the caricatures
were largely introduced upon fans, as well as upon other objects of
an equally personal character. Moreover, the popular notion of what
constituted a caricature was still so little fixed, that they were
usually called _hieroglyphics_, a term, indeed, which was not ill
applied, for they were so elaborate, and so filled with mystical
allusions, that now it is by no means easy to understand or appreciate
them. Towards the year 1739, there was a marked improvement in the
political caricatures--they were better designed, and displayed more
talent, but still they required rather long descriptions to render them
intelligible. One of the most celebrated was produced by the motion in
the House of Commons, Feb. 13, 1741, against the minister Walpole. It
was entitled "The Motion," and was a Whig satire upon the opposition,
who are represented as driving so hurriedly and inconsiderately to
obtain places, that they are overthrown before they reach their object.
The party of the opposition retaliated by a counter-caricature,
entitled, "The Reason," which was in some respects a parody upon the
other, to which it was inferior in point and spirit. At the same time
appeared another caricature against the ministry, under the title of
"The Motive." These provoked another, entitled, "A Consequence of the
Motion;" which was followed the day after its publication by another
caricature upon the opposition, entitled, "The Political Libertines;
or, Motion upon Motion;" while the opponents of the government also
brought out a caricature, entitled, "The Grounds," a violent and rather
gross attack upon the Whigs. Among other caricatures published on this
occasion, one of the best was entitled, "The Funeral of Faction,"
and bears the date of March 26, 1741. Beneath it are the words,
"Funerals performed by Squire S----s," alluding to Sandys, who was the
motion-maker in the House of Commons, and who thus brought on his party
a signal defeat. Among the chief mourners on this occasion are seen the
opposition journals, _The Craftsman_, the creation of Bolingbroke and
Pulteney, the still more scurrilous _Champion_, _The Daily Post_, _The
London and Evening Post_, and _The Common Sense Journal_. This mournful
group is reproduced in our cut No. 195.

[Illustration: _No. 196. British Resentment._]

[Illustration: _No. 197. Britannia in a New Dress._]

[Illustration: _No. 198. Caught by a Bait._]

From this time there was no falling off in the supply of caricatures,
which, on the contrary, seemed to increase every year, until
the activity of the pictorial satirists was roused anew by the
hostilities with France in 1755, and the ministerial intrigues of
the two following years. The war, accepted by the English government
reluctantly, and ill prepared for, was the subject of much discontent,
although at first hopes were given of great success. One of the
caricatures, published in the middle of these early hopes, at a time
when an English fleet lay before Louisbourg, in Canada, is entitled,
"British Resentment, or the French fairly coop'd at Louisbourg,"
and came from the pencil of the French artist Boitard. One of its
groups, representing the courageous English sailor and the despairing
Frenchman, is given in our cut No. 196, and may serve as an example
of Boitard's style of drawing. It became now the fashion to print
political caricatures, in a diminished form, on cards, and seventy-five
of these were formed into a small volume, under the title of "A
Political and Satirical History of the years 1756 and 1757. In a
series of seventy-five humorous and entertaining Prints, containing
all the most remarkable Transactions, Characters, and Caricaturas of
those two memorable years.... London: printed for E. Morris, near St.
Paul's." The imprints of the plates, which bear the dates of their
several publications, inform us that they came from the well-known
shop of "Darly and Edwards, at the Acorn, facing Hungerford, Strand."
These caricatures begin with our foreign relations, and express the
belief that the ministers were sacrificing English interests to French
influence. In one of them (our cut No. 197), entitled, "England made
odious, or the French Dressers," the minister, Newcastle, in the garb
of a woman, and his colleague, Fox, have dressed Britannia in a new
French robe, which does not fit her. She exclaims, "Let me have my own
cloathes. I cannot stir my arms in these; besides, everybody laughs at
me." Newcastle replies, rather imperiously, "Hussy, be quiet, you have
no need to stir your arms--why, sure! what's here to do?" While Fox, in
a more insinuating tone, offers her a fleur-de-lis, and says, "Here,
madam, stick this in your bosom, next your heart." The two pictures
which adorn the walls of the room represent an axe and a halter; and
underneath we read the lines,--

_And shall the substitutes of power
Our genius thus bedeck?
Let them remember there's an hour
Of quittance--then, ware neck._

In another print of this series, this last idea is illustrated more
fully. It is aimed at the ministers, who were believed to be enriching
themselves at the expense of the nation, and is entitled, "The Devil
turned Bird-catcher." On one side, while Fox is greedily scrambling
for the gold, the fiend has caught him in a halter suspended to the
gallows; on the other side another demon is letting down the fatal
axe on Newcastle, who is similarly employed. The latter (see our cut
No. 198) is described as a "Noddy catching at the bait, while the
bird-catcher lets drop an axe." This implement of execution is a
perfect picture of a guillotine, long before it was so notoriously in
use in France.

[Illustration: _No. 199. British Idolatry._]

The third example of these caricatures which I shall quote is entitled
"The Idol," and has for its subject the extravagancies and personal
jealousies connected with the Italian opera. The rivalry between
Mingotti and Vanneschi was now making as much noise there as that of
Cuzzoni and Faustina some years before. The former acted arbitrarily
and capriciously, and could with difficulty be bound to sing a few
times during the season for a high salary: it is said, £2,000 for the
season. In the caricature to which I allude, this lady appears raised
upon a stool, inscribed "£2,000 per annum," and is receiving the
worship of her admirers. Immediately before her an ecclesiastic is seen
on his knees, exclaiming, "Unto thee be praise now and for evermore!"
In the background a lady appears, holding up her pug-dog, then the
fashionable pet, and addressing the opera favourite, "'Tis only pug and
you I love." Other men are on their knees behind the ecclesiastic, all
persons of distinction; and last comes a nobleman and his lady, the
former holding in his hand an order for £2,000, his subscription to the
opera, and remarking, "We shall have but twelve songs for all this
money." The lady replies, with an air of contempt, "Well, and enough
too, for the paltry trifle." The idol, in return for all this homage,
sings rather contemptuously--

_Ra, ru, ra, rot ye,
My name is Mingotti,
If you worship me notti,
You shall all go to potti._

The closing years of the reign of George II., under the vigorous
administration of the first William Pitt, witnessed a calm in the
domestic politics of the country, which presented a strange contrast
to the agitation of the previous period. Faction seemed to have hidden
its head, and there was comparatively little employment for the
caricaturist. But this calm lasted only a short time after that king's
death, and the new reign was ushered in by indications of approaching
political agitation of the most violent description, in which satirists
who had hitherto contented themselves with other subjects were tempted
to embark in the strife of politics. Among these was Hogarth, whose
discomforts as a political caricaturist we shall have to describe in
our next chapter.

[Illustration: _No. 200. Fox on Boots._]

Perhaps no name ever provoked a greater amount of caricature and
satirical abuse than that of Lord Bute, who, through the favour of
the Princess of Wales, ruled supreme at court during the first period
of the reign of George III. Bute had taken into the ministry, as his
confidential colleague, Fox--the Henry Fox who became subsequently
the first Lord Holland, a man who had enriched himself enormously
with the money of the nation, and these two appeared to be aiming at
the establishment of arbitrary power in the place of constitutional
government. Fox was usually represented in the caricatures with the
head and tail of the animal represented by his name rather strongly
developed; while Bute was drawn, as a very bad pun upon his name, in
the garb of a Scotchman, wearing two large boots, or sometimes a single
boot of still greater magnitude. In these caricatures Bute and Fox are
generally coupled together. Thus, a little before the resignation of
the duke of Newcastle in 1762, there appeared a caricature entitled
"The State Nursery," in which the various members of the ministry, as
it was then formed under Lord Bute's influence, are represented as
engaged in childish games. Fox, as the whipper-in of parliamentary
majorities, is riding, armed with his whip, on Bute's shoulders (see
our cut No. 200), while the duke of Newcastle performs the more menial
service of rocking the cradle. In the rhymes which accompany this
caricature, the first of these groups is described as follows (Fox was
commonly spoken of in satire by the title of Volpone)--

_First you see old sly Volpone-y,
Riding on the shoulders brawny
Of the muckle favourite Sawny;
Doodle, doodle, doo._

[Illustration: _No. 201. Fanaticism in another Shape._]

The number of caricatures published at this period was very great, and
they were almost all aimed in one direction, against Bute and Fox,
the Princess of Wales, and the government they directed. Caricature,
at this time, ran into the least disguised licence, and the coarsest
allusions were made to the supposed secret intercourse between the
minister and the Princess of Wales, of which perhaps the most harmless
was the addition of a petticoat to the boot, as a symbol of the
influence under which the country was governed. In mock processions
and ceremonies a Scotchman was generally introduced carrying the
standard of the boot and petticoat. Lord Bute, frightened at the amount
of odium which was thus heaped upon him, fought to stem the torrent
by employing satirists to defend the government, and it is hardly
necessary to state that among these mercenary auxiliaries was the great
Hogarth himself, who accepted a pension, and published his caricature
entitled, "The Times, Nov. 1," in the month of September, 1762. Hogarth
did not excel in political caricature, and there was little in this
print to distinguish it above the ordinary publications of a similar
character. It was the moment of negotiations for Lord Bute's unpopular
peace, and Hogarth's satire is directed against the foreign policy of
the great ex-minister Pitt. It represents Europe in a state of general
conflagration, and the flames already communicating to Great Britain.
While Pitt is blowing the fire, Bute, with a party of soldiers and
sailors zealously assisted by his favourite Scotchmen, is labouring
to extinguish it. In this he is impeded by the interference of the
duke of Newcastle, who brings a wheelbarrow full of _Monitors_ and
_North Britons,_ the violent opposition journals, to feed the flames.
The advocacy of Bute's mercenaries, whether literary or artistic, did
little service to the government, for they only provoked increased
activity among its opponents. Hogarth's caricature of "The Times," drew
several answers, one of the best of which was a large print entitled
"The Raree Show: a political contrast to the print of 'The Times,' by
William Hogarth." It is the house of John Bull which is here on fire,
and the Scots are dancing and exulting at it. In the centre of the
picture appears a great actors' barn, from an upper window of which
Fox thrusts out his head and points to the sign, representing Æneas
and Dido entering the cave together, as the performance which was
acting within. It is an allusion to the scandal in general circulation
relating to Bute and the princess, who, of course, were the Æneas and
Dido of the piece, and appear in those characters on the scaffold in
front, with two of Bute's mercenary writers, Smollett, who edited the
_Briton_, and Murphy, who wrote in the _Auditor_, one blowing the
trumpet and the other beating the drum. Among the different groups
which fill the picture, one, behind the actors' barn (see our cut No.
201), is evidently intended for a satire on the spirit of religious
fanaticism which was at this time spreading through the country.
An open-air preacher, mounted on a stool, is addressing a not very
intellectual-looking audience, while his inspiration is conveyed to him
in a rather vulgar manner by the spirit, not of good, but of evil.

The violence of this political warfare at length drove Lord Bute from
at least ostensible power. He resigned on the 6th of April, 1763. One
of the popular favourites at this time was the duke of Cumberland, the
hero of Culloden, who was regarded as the leader of the opposition
in the House of Lords. People now believed that it was the duke of
Cumberland who had overthrown "the boot," and his popularity increased
on a sudden. The triumph was commemorated in several caricatures. One
of these is entitled, "The Jack-Boot kick'd down, or English Will
triumphant: a Dream." The duke of Cumberland, whip in hand, has kicked
the boot out of the house, exclaiming to a young man in tailor's
garb who follows him, "Let me alone, Ned; I know how to deal with
Scotsmen. Remember Culloden." The youth replies, "Kick hard, uncle,
keep him down. Let me have a kick too." Nearly the same group, using
similar language, is introduced into a caricature of the same date,
entitled, "The Boot and the Blockhead." The youthful personage is no
doubt intended for Cumberland's nephew, Edward, duke of York, who was
a sailor, and was raised to the rank of rear-admiral, and who appears
to have joined his uncle in his opposition to Lord Bute. The "boot," as
seen in our cut No. 202, is encircled with Hogarth's celebrated "line
of beauty," of which I shall have to speak more at length in the next
chapter.

[Illustration: _No. 202. The Overthrow of the Boot._]

With the overthrow of Bute's ministry, we may consider the English
school of caricature as completely formed and fully established. From
this time the names of the caricaturists are better known, and we shall
have to consider them in their individual characters. One of these,
William Hogarth, had risen in fame far above the group of the ordinary
men by whom he was surrounded.

CHAPTER XXV.

HOGARTH.--HIS EARLY HISTORY.--HIS SETS OF PICTURES.--THE HARLOT'S
PROGRESS.--THE RAKE'S PROGRESS.--THE MARRIAGE A LA MODE.--HIS
OTHER PRINTS.--THE ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY, AND THE PERSECUTION ARISING
OUT OF IT.--HIS PATRONAGE BY LORD BUTE.--CARICATURE OF THE
TIMES.--ATTACKS TO WHICH HE WAS EXPOSED BY IT, AND WHICH HASTENED
HIS DEATH.

On the 10th of November, 1697, William Hogarth was born in the city of
London. His father, Richard Hogarth, was a London schoolmaster, who
laboured to increase the income derived from his scholars by compiling
books, but with no great success. From his childhood, as he tells us
in his "Anecdotes" of himself, the young Hogarth displayed a taste for
drawing, and especially for caricature; and, out of school, he appears
to have been seldom without a pencil in his hand. The limited means
of Richard Hogarth compelled him to take the boy from school at an
early age, and bind him apprentice to a steel-plate engraver. But this
occupation proved little to the taste of one whose ambition rose much
higher; and when the term of his apprenticeship had expired, he applied
himself to engraving on copper; and, setting up on his own account, did
considerable amount of work, first in engraving arms and shop-bills,
and afterwards in designing and engraving book illustrations, none
of which displayed any superiority over the ordinary run of such
productions. Towards 1728 Hogarth began to practice as a painter, and
he subsequently attended the academy of sir James Thornhill, in Covent
Garden, where he became acquainted with that painter's only daughter,
Jane. The result was a clandestine marriage in 1730, which met the
disapproval and provoked the anger of the lady's father. Subsequently,
however, sir James became convinced of the genius of his son-in-law,
and a reconciliation was effected through the medium of lady Thornhill.

At this time Hogarth had already commenced that new style of design
which was destined to raise him soon to a degree of fame as an artist
few men have ever attained. In his "Anecdotes" of himself, the
painter has given us an interesting account of the motives by which
he was guided. "The reasons," he says, "which induced me to adopt
this mode of designing were, that I thought both writers and painters
had, in the historical style, totally overlooked that intermediate
species of subjects which may be placed between the sublime and the
grotesque. I therefore wished to compose pictures on canvas similar
to representations on the stage; and further hope that they will be
tried by the same test, and criticised by the same criterion. Let it
be observed, that I mean to speak only of those scenes where the human
species are actors, and these, I think, have not often been delineated
in a way of which they are worthy and capable. In these compositions,
those subjects that will both entertain and improve the mind bid fair
to be of the greatest public utility, and must therefore be entitled to
rank in the highest class. If the execution is difficult (though that
is but a secondary merit), the author has claim to a higher degree of
praise. If this be admitted, comedy, in painting as well as writing,
ought to be allotted the first place, though _the sublime_, as it is
called, has been opposed to it. Ocular demonstration will carry more
conviction to the mind of a sensible man than all he would find in a
thousand volumes, and this has been attempted in the prints I have
composed. Let the decision be left to every unprejudiced eye; let the
figures in either pictures or prints be considered as players dressed
either for the sublime, for genteel comedy or farce, for high or low
life. I have endeavoured to treat my subjects as a dramatic writer: my
picture is my stage, and men and women my players, who, by means of
certain actions and gestures, are to exhibit _a dumb-show_."

The great series of pictures, indeed, which form the principal
foundation of Hogarth's fame, are comedies rather than caricatures,
and noble comedies they are. Like comedies, they are arranged, by a
series of successive plates, in acts and scenes; and they represent
contemporary society pictorially, just as it had been and was
represented on the stage in English comedy. It is not by delicacy
or excellence of drawing that Hogarth excels, for he often draws
incorrectly; but it is by his extraordinary and minute delineation of
character, and by his wonderful skill in telling a story thoroughly. In
each of his plates we see a whole act of a play, in which nothing is
lost, nothing glossed over, and, I may add, nothing exaggerated. The
most trifling object introduced into the picture is made to have such
an intimate relationship with the whole, that it seems as if it would
be imperfect without it. The art of producing this effect was that in
which Hogarth excelled. The first of Hogarth's great _suites_ of prints
was "The Harlot's Progress," which was the work of the years 1733 and
1734. It tells a story which was then common in London, and was acted
more openly in the broad face of society than at the present day; and
therefore the effect and consequent success were almost instantaneous.
It had novelty, as well as excellence, to recommend it. This series
of plates was followed, in 1735, by another, under the title of "The
Rake's Progress." In the former, Hogarth depicted the shame and ruin
which attended a life of prostitution; in this, he represented the
similar consequences which a life of profligacy entailed on the other
sex. In many respects it is superior to the "Harlot's Progress," and
its details come more home to the feelings of people in general,
because those of the prostitute's history are more veiled from the
public gaze. The progress of the spendthrift in dissipation and riot,
from the moment he becomes possessed of the fruits of paternal avarice,
until his career ends in prison and madness, forms a marvellous drama,
in which every incident presents itself, and every agent performs his
part, so naturally, that it seems almost beyond the power of acting.
Perhaps no one ever pictured despair with greater perfection than it
is shown in the face and bearing of the unhappy hero of this history,
in the last plate but one of the series, where, thrown into prison
for debt, he receives from the manager of a theatre the announcement
that the play which he had written in the hope of retrieving somewhat
of his position--his last resource--has been refused. The returned
manuscript and the manager's letter lie on the wretched table (cut No.
203); while on the one side his wife reproaches him heartlessly with
the deprivations and sufferings which he has brought upon her, and
on the other the jailer is reminding him of the fact that the fees
exacted for the slight indulgence he has obtained in prison are unpaid,
and even the pot-boy refuses to deliver him his beer without first
receiving his money. It is but a step further to Bedlam, which, in the
next plate, closes his unblessed career.

[Illustration: _No. 203. Despair._]

Ten years almost from this time had passed away before Hogarth gave to
the world his next grand series of what he called his "modern moral
subjects." This was "The Marriage _à la mode_," which was published in
six plates in 1745, and which fully sustained the reputation built upon
the "Harlot's Progress" and the "Rake's Progress." Perhaps the best
plate of the "Marriage _à la mode_," is the fourth--the music scene--in
which one principal group of figures especially arrests the attention.
It is represented in our cut No. 204. William Hazlitt has justly
remarked upon it that, "the preposterous, overstrained admiration of
the lady of quality; the sentimental, insipid, patient delight of the
man with his hair in papers, and sipping his tea; the pert, smirking,
conceited, half-distorted approbation of the figure next to him; the
transition to the total insensibility of the round face in profile, and
then to the wonder of the negro boy at the rapture of his mistress,
form a perfect whole."

[Illustration: _No. 204. Fashionable Society._]

[Illustration: _No. 205. An Old Maid and her Page._]

[Illustration: _No. 206. Loss and Gain._]

In the interval between these three great monuments of his talent,
Hogarth had published various other plates, belonging to much the same
class of subjects, and displaying different degrees of excellence. His
engraving of "Southwark Fair," published in 1733, which immediately
preceded the "Harlot's Progress," may be regarded almost as an attempt
to rival the fairs of Gallot. "The Midnight Modern Conversation"
appeared in the interval between the "Harlot's Progress" and the
"Rake's Progress;" and three years after the series last mentioned, in
1738, the engraving, remarkable equally in design and execution, of
the "Strolling Actresses in a Barn," and the four plates of "Morning,"
"Noon," "Evening," and "Night," all full of choicest bits of humour.
Such is the group of the old maid and her footboy in the first of this
series (cut No. 205)--the former stiff and prudish, whose religion
is evidently not that of charity; while the latter crawls after,
shrinking at the same time under the effects of cold and hunger,
which he sustains in consequence of the hard, niggardly temper of his
mistress. Among the humorous events which fill the plate of "Noon," we
may point to the disaster of the boy who has been sent to the baker's
to fetch home the family dinner, and who, as represented in our cut No.
206, has broken his pie-dish, and spilt its contents on the ground;
and it is difficult to say which is expressed with most fidelity to
nature--the terror and shame of the unfortunate lad, or the feeling
of enjoyment in the face of the little girl who is feasting on the
fragments of the scattered meal. In 1741 appeared the plate of "The
Enraged Musician." During this period Hogarth appears to have been
hesitating between two subjects for his third grand pictorial drama.
Some unfinished sketches have been found, from which it would seem
that, after depicting the miseries of a life of dissipation in either
sex, he intended to represent the domestic happiness which resulted
from a prudent and well-assorted marriage; but for some reason or
other he abandoned this design, and gave the picture of wedlock in
a less amiable light, in his "Marriage _à la mode_." The title was
probably taken from that of Dryden's comedy. In 1750 appeared "The
March to Finchley," in many respects one of Hogarth's best works. It
is a striking exposure of the want of discipline, and the low _morale_
of the English army under George II. Many amusing groups fill this
picture, the scene of which is laid in Tottenham Court Road, along
which the guards are supposed to be marching to encamp at Finchley, in
consequence of rumours of the approach of the Pretender's army in the
Rebellion of '45. The soldiers in front are moving on with some degree
of order, but in the rear we see nothing but confusion, some reeling
about under the effects of liquor, and confounded by the cries of women
and children, camp-followers, ballad-singers, plunderers, and the like.
One of the latter, as represented in our cut No. 207, is assisting a
fallen soldier with an additional dose of liquor, while his pilfering
propensities are betrayed by the hen screaming from his wallet, and by
the chickens following distractedly the cries of their parent.

[Illustration: _No. 207. A brave Soldier._]

[Illustration: _No. 208. A Painter's Amusements._]

Hogarth presents a singular example of a satirist who suffered under
the very punishment which he inflicted on others. He made many personal
enemies in the course of his labours. He had begun his career with a
well-known personal satire, entitled "The Man of Taste," which was
a caricature on Pope, and the poet is said never to have forgiven
it. Although the satire in his more celebrated works appears to us
general, it told upon his contemporaries personally; for the figures
which act their parts in them were so many portraits of individuals
who moved in contemporary society, and who were known to everybody,
and thus he provoked a host of enemies. It was like Foote's mimicry.
He was to an extraordinary degree vain of his own talent, and jealous
of that of others in the same profession; and he spoke in terms of
undisguised contempt of almost all artists, past or present. Thus, the
painter introduced into the print of "Beer Street," is said to be a
caricature upon John Stephen Liotard, one of the artists mentioned in
the last chapter. He thus provoked the hostility of the greatest part
of his contemporaries in his own profession, and in the sequel had
to support the full weight of their anger. When George II., who had
more taste for soldiers than pictures, saw the painting of the "March
to Finchley," instead of admiring it as a work of art, he is said to
have expressed himself with anger at the insult which he believed
was offered to his army; and Hogarth not only revenged himself by
dedicating his print to the king of Prussia, by which it did become
a satire on the British army, but he threw himself into the faction
of the prince of Wales at Leicester House. The first occasion for the
display of all these animosities was given in the year 1753, at the
close of which he published his "Analysis of Beauty." Though far from
being himself a successful painter of beauty, Hogarth undertook in
this work to investigate its principles, which he referred to a waving
or serpentine line, and this he termed the "line of beauty." In 1745
Hogarth had published his own portrait as the frontispiece to a volume
of his collected works, and in one corner of the plate he introduced a
painter's palette, on which was this waving line, inscribed "The line
of beauty." For several years the meaning of this remained either quite
a mystery, or was only known to a few of Hogarth's acquaintances, until
the appearance of the book just mentioned. Hogarth's manuscript was
revised by his friend, Dr. Morell, the compiler of the "Thesaurus,"
whose name became thus associated with the book. This work exposed
its author to a host of violent attacks, and to unbounded ridicule,
especially from the whole tribe of offended artists. A great number of
caricatures upon Hogarth and his line of beauty appeared during the
year 1754, which show the bitterness of the hatred he had provoked;
and to hold still further their terror over his head, most of them
are inscribed with the words, "To be continued." Among the artists
who especially signalised themselves by their zeal against him, was
Paul Sandby, to whom we owe some of the best of these anti-Hogarthian
caricatures. One of these is entitled, "A New Dunciad, done with a view
of [fixing] the fluctuating ideas of taste." In the principal group
(which is given in our cut No. 208), Hogarth is represented playing
with a _pantin_, or figure which was moved into activity by pulling a
string. The string takes somewhat the form of the line of beauty, which
is also drawn upon his palette. This figure is described underneath the
picture as "a painter at the proper exercise of his taste." To his
breast is attached a card (the knave of hearts), which is described
by a very bad pun as "the fool of arts." On one side "his genius" is
represented in the form of a black harlequin; while behind appears a
rather jolly personage (intended, perhaps, for Dr. Morell), who, we
are told, is one of his admirers. On the table are the foundations, or
the remains, of "a house of cards." Near him is Hogarth's favourite
dog, named Trump, which always accompanies him in these caricatures.
Another caricature which appeared at this time represents Hogarth on
the stage as a quack doctor, holding in his hand the line of beauty,
and recommending its extraordinary qualities. This print is entitled
"A Mountebank Painter demonstrating to his admirers and subscribers
that crookedness is y^e most beautifull." Lord Bute, whose patronage at
Leicester House Hogarth now enjoyed, is represented fiddling, and the
black harlequin serves as "his puff." In the front a crowd of deformed
and hump-backed people are pressing forwards (see our cut No. 209), and
the line of beauty fits them all admirably.

[Illustration: _No. 209. The Line of Beauty exemplified._]

[Illustration: _No. 210. Piracy Exposed._]

Much as this famous line of beauty was ridiculed, Hogarth was not
allowed to retain the small honour which seemed to arise from it
undisputed. It was said that he had stolen the idea from an Italian
writer named Lomazzo, Latinised into Lomatius, who had enounced it in
a treatise on the Fine Arts, published in the sixteenth century.[102]
In another caricature by Paul Sandby, with a vulgar title which I will
not repeat, Hogarth is visited, in the midst of his glory, by the ghost
of Lomazzo, carrying in one hand his treatise on the arts, and with his
other holding up to view the line of beauty itself. In the inscriptions
on the plate, the principal figure is described as "An author sinking
under the weight of his saturnine analysis;" and, indeed, Hogarth's
terror is broadly painted, while the volume of his analysis is resting
heavily upon "a strong support bent in the line of beauty by the mighty
load upon it." Beside Hogarth stands "his faithful pug," and behind
him "a friend of the author endeavouring to prevent his sinking to his
natural lowness." On the other side stands Dr. Morell, or, perhaps,
Mr. Townley, the master of Merchant Taylors' School, who continued
his service in preparing the book for the press after Morell's death,
described as "the author's friend and corrector," astonished at the
sight of the ghost. The ugly figure on the left hand of the picture
is described as "Deformity weeping at the condition of her darling
son," while the dog is "a greyhound bemoaning his friend's condition."
This group is represented in our cut No. 210. The other caricatures
which appeared at this time were two numerous to allow us to give a
particular description of them. The artist is usually represented,
under the influence of his line of beauty, painting ugly pictures from
deformed models, or attempting historical pictures in a style bordering
on caricature, or, on one occasion, as locked up in a mad-house, and
allowed only to exercise his skill upon the bare walls. One of these
caricatures is entitled, in allusion to the title of one of his most
popular prints, "The Painter's March through Finchley, dedicated to the
king of the gipsies, as an encourager of arts, &c." Hogarth appears in
full flight through the village, closely pursued by women and children,
and animals in great variety, and defended only by his favourite dog.

[102] It was translated into English by Richard Haydocke, under the
title of "The Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge, Buildinge,"
fol. 1598. This is one of the earliest works on art in the
English language.

With the "Marriage _à la mode_," Hogarth may be considered as having
reached his highest point of excellence. The set of "Industry and
Idleness" tells a good and useful moral story, but displays inferior
talent in design. "Beer Street" and "Gin Lane" disgust us by their
vulgarity, and the "Four Stages of Cruelty" are equally repulsive
to our feelings by the unveiled horrors of the scenes which are too
coarsely depicted in them. In the four prints of the proceedings at
an election, which are the last of his pictures of this description,
published in 1754, Hogarth rises again, and approaches in some degree
to his former elevation.

In 1757, on the death of his brother-in-law, John Thornhill, the office
of sergeant-painter of all his Majesty's works became vacant, and it
was bestowed upon Hogarth, who, according to his own account, received
from it an income of about £200 a-year. This appointment caused another
display of hostility towards him, and his enemies called him jeeringly
the king's chief panel painter. It was at this moment that a plan for
the establishment of an academy of the fine arts was agitated, which,
a few years later, came into existence under the title of the Royal
Academy, and Hogarth proclaimed so loud an opposition to this project,
that the old cry was raised anew, that he was jealous and envious of
all his profession, and that he sought to stand alone as superior to
them all. It was the signal for a new onslaught of caricatures upon
himself and his line of beauty. Hitherto his assailants had been found
chiefly among the artists, but the time was now approaching when he
was destined to thrust himself into the midst of a political struggle,
where the attacks of a new class of enemies carried with them a more
bitter sting.

George II. died on the 17th of October, 1760, and his grandson
succeeded him to the throne as George III. It appears evident that
before this time Hogarth had gained the favour of lord Bute, who,
by his interest with the princess of Wales, was all-powerful in the
household of the young prince. The painter had hitherto kept tolerably
clear of politics in his prints, but now, unluckily for himself,
he suddenly rushed into the arena of political caricature. It was
generally said that Hogarth's object was, by displaying his zeal in the
cause of his patron, lord Bute, to obtain an increase in his pension;
and he acknowledges himself that his object was gain. "This," he says,
"being a period when war abroad and contention at home engrossed every
one's mind, prints were thrown into the background; and the stagnation
rendered it necessary that I should do some _timed thing_ [the italics
are Hogarth's] to recover my lost time, and stop a gap in my income."
Accordingly he determined to attack the great minister, Pitt, who had
then recently been compelled to resign his office, and had gone over to
the opposition. It is said that John Wilkes, who had previously been
Hogarth's friend, having been privately informed of his design, went
to the painter, expostulated with him, and, as he continued obstinate,
threatened him with retaliation. In September, 1762, appeared the print
entitled "The Times, No. I," indicating that it was to be followed by
a second caricature. The principal features of the picture are these:
Europe is represented in flames, which are communicating to Great
Britain, but lord Bute, with soldiers and sailors, and the assistance
of Highlanders, is labouring to extinguish them, while Pitt is blowing
the fire, and the duke of Newcastle brings a barrowful of _Monitors_
and _North Britons_, the violent journals of the popular party, to
feed it. There is much detail in the print which it is not necessary
to describe. In fulfilment of his threat, Wilkes, in the number of
the _North Briton_ published on the Saturday immediately following
the publication of this print, attacked Hogarth with extraordinary
bitterness, casting cruel reflections upon his domestic as well as his
professional character. Hogarth, stung to the quick, retaliated by
publishing the well-known caricature of Wilkes. Thereupon Churchill,
the poet, Wilkes's friend, and formerly the friend of Hogarth also,
published a bitter invective in verse against the painter, under the
title of an "Epistle to William Hogarth." Hogarth retaliated again:
"Having an old plate by me," he tells us, "with some parts ready,
such as a background and a dog, I began to consider how I could turn
so much work laid aside to some account, so patched up a print of
Master Churchill in the character of a bear." The unfinished picture
was intended to be a portrait of Hogarth himself; the canonical bear,
which represented Churchill, held a pot of porter in one hand, and
in the other a knotted club, each knot labelled "lie 1," "lie 2," &c.
The painter, in his "Anecdotes," exults over the pecuniary profit he
derived from the extensive sale of these two prints.

[Illustration: _No. 211. An Independent Draughtsman._]

The virulence of the caricaturists against Hogarth became on this
occasion greater than ever. Parodies on his own works, sneers at his
personal appearance and manners, reflections upon his character, were
all embodied in prints which bore such names as Hogg-ass, Hoggart,
O'Garth, &c. Our cut No. 211 represents one of the caricature portraits
of the artist. It is entitled "Wm. Hogarth, Esq., drawn from the Life."
Hogarth wears the thistle on his hat, as the sign of his dependence on
lord Bute. At his breast hangs his palette, with the line of beauty
inscribed upon it. He holds behind his back a roll of paper inscribed
"Burlesque on L--d B--t." In his right hand he presents to view two
pictures, "The Times," and the "Portrait of Wilkes." At the upper
corner to the left is the figure of Bute, offering him in a bag a
pension of "£300 per ann." Some of the allusions in this picture are
now obscure, but they no doubt relate to anecdotes well known at the
time. They receive some light from the following mock letters which are
written at the foot of the plate:--

"_Copy of a Letter from Mr. Hog-garth to Lord Mucklemon, w^{th}
his Lordship's Answer._

"My Lord,--The enclosed is a design I intend to publish; you are
sensible it will not redound to your honour, as it will expose you
to all the world in your proper colours. You likewise know what
induced me to do this; but it is in y^r power to prevent it from
appearing in publick, which I would have you do immediately.

"WILL^M HOG-GARTH.

"Mais^r Hog-garth,--By my saul, mon, I am sare troobled for what
I have done; I did na ken y^r muckle merit till noow; say na mair
aboot it; I'll mak au things easy to you, & gie you bock your
Pension.

"SAWNEY MUCKLEMON."

In an etching without a title, published at this time, and copied in
our cut No. 212, the Hogarthian dog is represented barking from a
cautious distance at the canonical bear, who appears to be meditating
further mischief. Pugg stands upon his master's palette and the line of
beauty, while Bruin rests upon the "Epistle to Wm. Hogarth," with the
pen and ink by its side. On the left, behind the dog, is a large frame,
with the words "Pannel Painting" inscribed upon it.

[Illustration: _No. 212. Beauty and the Bear._]

The article by Wilkes in the _North Briton_, and Churchill's metrical
epistle, irritated Hogarth more than all the hostile caricatures, and
were generally believed to have broken his heart. He died on the 26th
of October, 1764, little more than a year after the appearance of the
attack by Wilkes, and with the taunts of his political as well as his
professional enemies still ringing in his ears.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE LESSER CARICATURISTS OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.--PAUL
SANDBY.--COLLET; THE DISASTER, AND FATHER PAUL IN HIS
CUPS.--JAMES SAYER; HIS CARICATURES IN SUPPORT OF PITT, AND
HIS REWARD.--CARLO KHAN'S TRIUMPH.--BUNBURY; HIS CARICATURES
ON HORSEMANSHIP.--WOODWARD; GENERAL COMPLAINT.--ROWLANDSON'S
INFLUENCE ON THE STYLE OF THOSE WHOSE DESIGNS HE ETCHED.--JOHN KAY
OF EDINBURGH: LOOKING A ROCK IN THE FACE.

The school of caricature which had grown amid the political agitation
of the reigns of the two first Georges, gave birth to a number of men
of greater talent in the same branch of art, who carried it to its
highest degree of perfection during that of George III. Among them are
the three great names of Gillray, Rowlandson, and Cruikshank, and a
few who, though second in rank to these, are still well remembered for
the talent displayed in their works, or with the effect they produced
on contemporaries. Among these the principal were Paul Sandby, John
Collet, Sayer, Bunbury, and Woodward.

Sandby has been spoken of in the last chapter. He was not by profession
a caricaturist, but he was one of those rising artists who were
offended by the sneering terms in which Hogarth spoke of all artists
but himself, and he was foremost among those who turned their satire
against him. Examples of his caricatures upon Hogarth have already been
given, sufficient to show that they display skill in composition as
well as a large amount of wit and humour. After his death, they were
republished collectively, under the title, "Retrospective Art, from the
Collection of the late Paul Sandby, Esq., R.A." Sandby was, indeed, one
of the original members of the Royal Academy. He was an artist much
admired in his time, but is now chiefly remembered as a topographical
draughtsman. He was a native of Nottingham, where he was born in
1725,[103] and he died on the 7th of November, 1809.[104]

[103] His death is usually placed, but erroneously, in 1732.

[104] Sandby etched landscapes on steel, and in aquatinta, the latter
by a method peculiarly his own, besides painting in oil and
opaque colours. But his fame rests _mainly_ on being the founder
of the English school of _water-colour painting_, since he was
the first to show the capability of that material to produce
finished pictures, and to lead the way to the perfection in
effect and colour to which that branch of art has since attained.

[Illustration: _No. 213. A Disaster._]

John Collet, who also has been mentioned in a previous chapter, was
born in London in 1725, and died there in 1780. Collet is said to have
been a pupil of Hogarth, and there is a large amount of Hogarthian
character in all his designs. Few artists have been more industrious
and produced a greater number of engravings. He worked chiefly for
Carrington Bowles, in St. Paul's Churchyard, and for Robert Sayers,
at 53, Fleet Street. His prints published by Bowles were engraved
generally in mezzotinto, and highly coloured for sale; while those
published by Sayers were usually line engravings, and sometimes
remarkably well executed. Collet chose for his field of labour that
to which Hogarth had given the title of comedy in art, but he did not
possess Hogarth's power of delineating whole acts and scenes in one
picture, and he contented himself with bits of detail and groups of
characters only. His caricatures are rarely political--they are aimed
at social manners and social vanities and weaknesses, and altogether
they form a singularly curious picture of society during an important
period of the last century. The first example I give (No. 213) is taken
from a line engraving, published by Sayers in 1776. At this time the
natural adornments of the person in both sexes had so far yielded to
artificial ornament, that even women cut off their own hair in order to
replace it by an ornamental _peruque_, supporting a head-dress, which
varied from time to time in form and in extravagance. Collet has here
introduced to us a lady who, encountering a sudden and violent wind,
has lost all her upper coverings, and wig, cap, and hat are caught by
her footman behind. The lady is evidently suffering under the feeling
of shame; and hard by, a cottager and his wife, at their door, are
laughing at her discomfiture. A bill fixed against a neighbouring wall
announces "A Lecture upon Heads."

At this time the "no-popery" feeling ran very high. Four years
afterwards it broke out violently in the celebrated lord Gordon riots.
It was this feeling which contributed greatly to the success of
Sheridan's comedy of "The Duenna," brought out in 1775. Collet drew
several pictures founded upon scenes in this play, one of which is
given in our cut No. 214. It forms one of Carington Bowles's rather
numerous series of prints from designs by Collet, and represents the
well-known drinking scene in the convent, in the fifth scene of the
third act of "The Duenna." The scene, it will be remembered, is "a room
in the priory," and the excited monks are toasting, among other objects
of devotion, the abbess of St. Ursuline and the blue-eyed nun of St.
Catherine's. The "blue-eyed nun" is, perhaps, the lady seen through the
window, and the patron saint of her convent is represented in one of
the pictures on the wall. There is great spirit in this picture, which
is entitled "Father Paul in his Cups, or the Private Devotions of a
Convent." It is accompanied with the following lines:--

_See with these friars how religion thrives,
Who love good living better than good lives;
Paul, the superior father, rules the roast,
His god's the glass, the blue-eyed nun his toast.
Thus priests consume what fearful fools bestow,
And saints' donations make the bumpers flow.
The butler sleeps--the cellar door is free--
This is a modern cloister's piety._

[Illustration: _No. 214. Father Paul in his Cups._]

From Collet to Sayer we rush into the heat--I may say into the
bitterness--of politics, for James Sayer is known, with very trifling
exceptions, as a political caricaturist. He was the son of a captain
of a merchant ship at Great Yarmouth, but was himself put to the
profession of an attorney. As, however, he was possessed of a moderate
independence, and appears to have had no great taste for the law, he
neglected his business, and, with considerable talent for satire and
caricature, he threw himself into the political strife of the day.
Sayer was a bad draughtsman, and his pictures are produced more by
labour than by skill in drawing, but they possess a considerable
amount of humour, and were sufficiently severe to obtain popularity
at a time when this latter character excused worse drawing even than
that of Sayer. He made the acquaintance and gained the favour of the
younger William Pitt, when that statesman was aspiring to power, and
he began his career as a caricaturist by attacking the Rockingham
ministry in 1782--of course in the interest of Pitt. Sayer's earliest
productions which are now known, are a series of caricature portraits
of the Rockingham administration, that appear to have been given to
the public in instalments, at the several dates of April 6, May 14,
June 17, and July 3, 1782, and bear the name of C. Bretherton as
publisher. He published his first veritable caricature on the occasion
of the ministerial changes which followed the death of lord Rockingham,
when lord Shelburne was placed at the head of the cabinet, and Fox
and Burke retired, while Pitt became chancellor of the exchequer.
This caricature, which bears the title of "Paradise Lost," and is, in
fact, a parody upon Milton, represents the once happy pair, Fox and
Burke, turned out of their paradise, the Treasury, the arch of the
gate of which is ornamented with the heads of Shelburne, the prime
minister, and Dunning and Barré, two of his staunch supporters, who
were considered to be especially obnoxious to Fox and Burke. Between
these three heads appear the faces of two mocking fiends, and groups
of pistols, daggers, and swords. Beneath are inscribed the well-known
lines of Milton--

_To the eastern side
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms!
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon.
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and providence their guide.
They, arm in arm, with wand'ring steps, and slow,
Thro' Eden took their solitary way._

Nothing can be more lugubrious than the air of the two friends,
Fox and Burke, as they walk away, arm in arm, from the gate of the
ministerial paradise. From this time Sayer, who adopted all Pitt's
virulence towards Fox, made the latter a continual subject of his
satire. Nor did this zeal pass unrewarded, for Pitt, in power, gave the
caricaturist the not unlucrative offices of marshal of the court of
exchequer, receiver of the sixpenny duties, and cursitor. Sayer was,
in fact, Pitt's caricaturist, and was employed by him in attacking
successively the coalition under Fox and North, Fox's India Bill, and
even, at a later period, Warren Hastings on his trial.

[Illustration: _No. 215. A Contrast._]

I have already remarked that Sayer was almost exclusively a political
caricaturist. The exceptions are a few prints on theatrical subjects,
in which contemporary actors and actresses are caricatured, and a
single subject from fashionable life. A copy of the latter forms our
cut No. 215. It has no title in the original, but in a copy in my
possession a contemporary has written on the margin in pencil that
the lady is Miss Snow and the gentleman Mr. Bird, no doubt well-known
personages in contemporary society. It was published on the 19th of
July, 1783.

One of Sayer's most successful caricatures, in regard to the effect
it produced on the public, was that on Fox's India Bill, published on
the 5th of September, 1783. It was entitled "Carlo Khan's Triumphal
Entry into Leadenhall Street," Carlo Khan being personified by Fox,
who is carried in triumph to the door of the India House on the back
of an elephant, which presents the face of lord North. Burke, who had
been the principal supporter of the bill in debate, appears in the
character of the imperial trumpeter, and leads the elephant on its way.
On a banner behind Carlo, the old inscription, "The Man of the People,"
the title popularly given to Fox, is erased, and the two Greek words,
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ "king of kings," substituted in its place. From
a chimney above, the bird of ill omen croaks forth the doom of the
ambitious minister, who, it was pretended, aimed at making himself more
powerful than the king himself; and on the side of the house just below
we read the words--

_The night-crow cried foreboding luckless time._--Shakespeare.

Henry William Bunbury belonged to a more aristocratic class in society
than any of the preceding. He was the second son of sir William
Bunbury, Bart., of Mildenhall, in the county of Suffolk, and was
born in 1750. How he first took so zealously to caricature we have
no information, but he began to publish before he was twenty-one
years of age. Bunbury's drawing was bold and often good, but he had
little skill in etching, for some of his earlier prints, published
in 1771, which he etched himself, are coarsely executed. His designs
were afterwards engraved by various persons, and his own style was
sometimes modified in this process. His earlier prints were etched and
sold by James Bretherton, who has been already mentioned as publishing
the works of James Sayer. This Bretherton was in some esteem as an
engraver, and he also had a print-shop at 132, New Bond Street, where
his engravings were published. James had a son named Charles, who
displayed great talent at an early age, but he died young. As early as
1772, when the macaronis (the dandies of the eighteenth century) came
into fashion, James Bretherton's name appears on prints by Bunbury as
the engraver and publisher, and it occurs again as the engraver of
his print of "Strephon and Chloe" in 1801, which was published by
Fores. At this and a later period some of his designs were engraved
by Rowlandson, who always transferred his own style to the drawings
he copied. A remarkable instance of this is furnished by a print of a
party of anglers of both sexes in a punt, entitled "Anglers of 1811"
(the year of Bunbury's death). But for the name, "H. Bunbury, del.,"
very distinctly inscribed upon it, we should take this to be a genuine
design by Rowlandson; and in 1803 Rowlandson engraved some copies of
Bunbury's prints on horsemanship for Ackermann, of the Strand, in which
all traces of Bunbury's style are lost. Bunbury's style is rather
broadly burlesque.

[Illustration: _No. 216. How to Travel on Two Legs in a Frost._]

Bunbury had evidently little taste for political caricature, and he
seldom meddled with it. Like Collet, he preferred scenes of social
life, and humorous incidents of contemporary manners, fashionable
or popular. He had a great taste for caricaturing bad or awkward
horsemanship or unmanageable horses, and his prints of such subjects
were numerous and greatly admired. This taste for equestrian pieces
was shown in prints published in 1772, and several droll series of
such subjects appeared at different times, between 1781 and 1791,
one of which was long famous under the title of "Geoffrey Gambado's
Horsemanship." An example of these incidents of horsemanship is copied
in our cut No. 216, where a not very skilful rider, with a troublesome
horse, is taking advantage of the state of the ground for accelerating
locomotion. It is entitled, "How to travel on Two Legs in a Frost," and
is accompanied with the motto, in Latin, "_Ostendunt terris hunc tantum
fata, neque ultra esse sinent_."

[Illustration: _No. 217. Strephon and Chloe._]

Occasionally Bunbury drew in a broader style of caricature, especially
in some of his later works. Of our examples of this broader style, the
first cut, No. 217, entitled "Strephon and Chloe," is dated the 1st of
July, 1801. It is the very acme of sentimental courtship, expressed
in a spirit of drollery which could not easily be excelled. The next
group (cut No. 218), from a similar print published on the 21st of
July in the same year, is a no less admirable picture of overstrained
politeness. It is entitled in the original, "The Salutation Tavern,"
probably with a temporary allusion beyond the more apparent design of
the picture. Bunbury, as before stated, died in 1811. It is enough to
say that sir Joshua Reynolds used to express a high opinion of him as
an artist.

[Illustration: _No. 218. A Fashionable Salutation._]

Bunbury's prints rarely appeared without his name, and, except when
they had passed through the engraving of Rowlandson, are easily
recognised. No doubt his was considered a popular name, which was
almost of as much importance as the print itself. But a large
mass of the caricatures published at the latter end of the last
century and the beginning of the present, appeared anonymously, or
with imaginary names. Thus a political print, entitled "The Modern
Atlas," bears the inscription "Mas^r Hook fecit;" another entitled
"Farmer George delivered," has that of "Poll Pitt del." "Everybody
delin^{it}," is inscribed on a caricature entitled "The Lover's Leap;"
and one which appeared under the title of "Veterinary Operations,"
is inscribed "Giles Grinagain fect." Some of these were probably
the works of amateurs, for there appear to have been many amateur
caricaturists in England at that time. In a caricature entitled
"The Scotch Arms," published by Fores on the 3rd of January, 1787,
we find the announcement, "Gentlemen's designs executed gratis,"
which means, of course, that Fores would publish the caricatures of
amateurs, if he approved them, without making the said amateurs pay
for the engraving. But also some of the best caricaturists of the
day published much anonymously, and we know that this was the case
to a very great extent with such artists as Cruikshank, Woodward,
&c., at all events until such time as their names became sufficiently
popular to be a recommendation to the print. It is certain that many
of Woodward's designs were published without his name. Such was the
case with the print of which we give a copy in our cut No. 219, which
was published on the 5th of May, 1796, and which bears strongly the
marks of Woodward's style. The spring of this year, 1796, witnessed a
general disappointment at the failure of the negociations for peace,
and therefore the necessity of new sacrifices for carrying on the war,
and of increased taxation. Many clever caricatures appeared on this
occasion, of which this by Woodward was one. Of course, when war was
inevitable, the question of generals was a very important one, and
the caricaturist pretends that the greatest general of the age was
"General Complaint." The general appears here with an empty purse in
his right hand, and in his left a handful of papers containing a list
of bankrupts, the statement of the budget, &c. Four lines beneath, in
rather doggrel verse, explain the situation as follows:--

_Don't tell me of generals raised from mere boys,
Though, believe me, I mean not their laurel to taint;
But the general, I'm sure, that will make the most noise,
If the war still goes on, will be General Complaint._

[Illustration: _No. 219. General Complaint._]

[Illustration: _No. 220. Desire._]

There was much of Bunbury's style in that of Woodward, who had a taste
for the same broad caricatures upon society, which he executed in a
similar spirit. Some of the _suites_ of subjects of this description
that he published, such as the series of the "Symptoms of the Shop,"
those of "Everybody out of town" and "Everybody in Town," and the
"Specimens of Domestic Phrensy," are extremely clever and amusing.
Woodward's designs were also not unfrequently engraved by Rowlandson,
who, as usual, imprinted his own style upon them. A very good example
of this practice is seen in the print of which we give a copy in our
cut No. 220. Its title, in the original, is "Desire," and the passion
is exemplified in the case of a hungry schoolboy watching through a
window a jolly cook carrying by a tempting plum-pudding. We are told in
an inscription underneath: "Various are the ways this passion might be
depicted; in this delineation the subjects chosen are simple--a hungry
boy and a plum-pudding." The design of this print is stated to be
Woodward's; but the style is altogether that of Rowlandson, whose name
appears on it as the etcher. It was published by R. Ackermann, on the
20th of January, 1800. Woodward is well known by his prolific pencil,
but we are so little acquainted with the man himself, that I cannot
state the date either of his birth or of his death.

[Illustration: _No. 221. Looking a Rock in the Face._]

There lived at this time in Edinburgh an engraver of some eminence in
his way, but whose name is now nearly forgotten, and, in fact, it does
not occur in the last edition of Bryan's "Dictionary of Engravers."
This name was John Kay, which is found attached to prints, of which
about four hundred are known, with dates extending from 1784 to 1817.
As an engraver, Kay possessed no great talent, but he had considerable
humour, and he excelled in catching and delineating the striking
points in the features and gait of the individuals who then moved in
Edinburgh Society. In fact, a large proportion of his prints consist of
caricature portraits, often several figures on the same plate, which is
usually of small dimensions. Among them are many of the professors and
other distinguished members of the university of Edinburgh. Thus one,
copied in our cut No. 221, represents the eminent old geologist, Dr.
James Hutton, rather astonished at the shapes which his favourite rocks
have suddenly taken. The original print is dated in 1787, ten years
before Dr. Hutton's death. The idea of giving faces to rocks was not
new in the time of John Kay, and it has been frequently repeated. Some
of these caricature portraits are clever and amusing, and they are at
times very satirical. Kay appears to have rarely ventured on caricature
of any other description, but there is one rare plate by him, entitled
"The Craft in Danger," which is stated in a few words pencilled on the
copy I have before me, to have been aimed at a cabal for proposing Dr.
Barclay for a professorship in the university of Edinburgh. It displays
no great talent, and is, in fact, now not very intelligible. The
figures introduced in it are evidently intended for rather caricatured
portraits of members of the university engaged in the cabal, and are in
the style of Kay's other portraits.[105]

[105] In the library of the British Museum there is a collection of
John Kay's works bound in two volumes quarto, with a title and
table of contents in manuscript, but whether it is one of a few
copies intended for publication, or whether it is merely the
collection of some individual, I am not prepared to say. It
contains 343 plates, which are stated to be all Kay's works down
to the year 1813, when this collection was made. "The Craft in
Danger" is not among them. I have before me a smaller, but a very
choice selection, of Kay's caricatures, the loan of which I owe
to the kindness of Mr. John Camden Hotten, of Piccadilly. I am
indebted to Mr. Hotten for many courtesies of this description,
and especially for the use of a very valuable collection of
caricatures of the latter part of the eighteenth century and
earlier part of the present, mounted in four large folio volumes,
which has been of much use to me.

CHAPTER XXVII.

GILLRAY.--HIS FIRST ATTEMPTS.--HIS CARICATURES BEGIN WITH THE
SHELBURNE MINISTRY.--IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.--CARICATURES
ON THE KING; "NEW WAY TO PAY THE NATIONAL DEBT."--ALLEGED
REASON FOR GILLRAY'S HOSTILITY TO THE KING.--THE KING AND THE
APPLE-DUMPLINGS.--GILLRAY'S LATER LABOURS.--HIS IDIOTCY AND DEATH.

In the year 1757 was born the greatest of English caricaturists,
and perhaps of all caricaturists of modern times whose works are
known--James Gillray. His father, who was named like himself, James,
was a Scotchman, a native of Lanark, and a soldier, and, having
lost one arm at the battle of Fontenoy, became an out-pensioner of
Chelsea Hospital. He obtained also the appointment of sexton at the
Moravian burial-ground at Chelsea, which he held forty years, and it
was at Chelsea that James Gillray the younger was born. The latter,
having no doubt shown signs of artistic talent, was put apprentice
to letter-engraving; but after a time, becoming disgusted with this
employment, he ran away, and joined a party of strolling players,
and in their company passed through many adventures, and underwent
many hardships. He returned, however to London, and received some
encouragement as a promising artist, and obtained admission as a
student in the Royal Academy--the then young institution to which
Hogarth had been opposed. Gillray soon became known as a designer and
engraver, and worked in these capacities for the publishers. Among
his earlier productions, two illustrations of Goldsmith's "Deserted
Village" are spoken of with praise, as displaying a remarkable freedom
of effect. For a long time after Gillray became known as a caricaturist
he continued to engrave the designs of other artists. The earliest
known caricature which can be ascribed to him with any certainty, is
the plate entitled "Paddy on Horseback," and dated in 1779, when he
was twenty-two years of age. The "horse" on which Paddy rides is a
bull; he is seated with his face turned to the tail. The subject of
satire is supposed to be the character then enjoyed by the Irish as
fortune-hunters. The point, however, is not very apparent, and indeed
Gillray's earliest caricatures are tame, although it is remarkable
how rapidly he improved, and how soon he arrived at excellence. Two
caricatures, published in June and July, 1782, on the occasion of
admiral Rodney's victory, are looked upon as marking his first decided
appearance in politics.

A distinguishing characteristic of Gillray's style is, the wonderful
tact with which he seizes upon the points in his subject open to
ridicule, and the force with which he brings those points out. In the
fineness of his design, and in his grouping and drawing, he excels all
the other caricaturists. He was, indeed, born with all the talents of
a great historical painter, and, but for circumstances, he probably
would have shone in that branch of art. This excellence will be the
more appreciated when it is understood that he drew his picture with
the needle on the plate, without having made any previous sketch of
it, except sometimes a few hasty outlines of individual portraits or
characters scrawled on cards or scraps of paper as they struck him.

Soon after the two caricatures on Rodney's naval victory, the
Rockingham administration was broken up by the death of its chief, and
another was formed under the direction of Lord Shelburne, from which
Fox and Burke retired, leaving in it their old colleague, Pitt, who
now deserted the Whig party in parliament. Fox and Burke became from
this moment the butt of all sorts of abuse and scornful satire from the
caricaturists, such as Sayer, and newspaper writers in the pay of their
opponents; and Gillray, perhaps because it offered at that moment the
best chance of popularity and success, joined in the crusade against
the two ex-ministers and their friends. In one of his caricatures,
which is a parody upon Milton, Fox is represented in the character of
Satan, turning his back upon the ministerial Paradise, but looking
enviously over his shoulder at the happy pair (Shelburne and Pitt) who
are counting their money on the treasury table:--

_Aside he turned
For envy, yet with jealous leer malign
Eyed them askance._

Another, also by Gillray, is entitled "Guy Faux and Judas Iscariot,"
the former represented by Fox, who discovers the desertion of his
late colleague, lord Shelburne, by the light of his lantern, and
recriminates angrily, "Ah! what, I've found you out, have I? Who arm'd
the high priests and the people? Who betray'd his mas--?" At this
point he is interrupted by a sneering retort from Shelburne, who is
carrying away the treasury bag with a look of great self-complacency,
"Ha, ha! poor Gunpowder's vexed! He, he, he!--Shan't have the bag, I
tell you, old Goosetooth!" Burke was usually caricatured as a Jesuit;
and in another of Gillray's prints of this time (published Aug. 23,
1782), entitled "Cincinnatus in Retirement," Burke is represented as
driven into the retirement of his Irish cabin, where he is surrounded
by Popish relics and emblems of superstition, and by the materials
for drinking whisky. A vessel, inscribed "Relick No. 1., used by St.
Peter," is filled with boiled potatoes, which Jesuit Burke is paring.
Three imps are seen dancing under the table.

[Illustration: _No. 222. A Strong Dose._]

In 1783 the Shelburne ministry itself was dissolved, and succeeded
by the Portland ministry, in which Fox was secretary of state for
foreign affairs, and Burke, paymaster of the forces, and Lord North,
who had joined the Whigs against lord Shelburne, now obtained office
as secretary for the home department. Gillray joined warmly in the
attacks on this coalition of parties, and from this time his great
activity as a caricaturist begins. Fox, especially, and Burke, still
under the character of a Jesuit, were incessantly held up to ridicule
in his prints. In another year this ministry also was overthrown, and
young William Pitt became established in power, while the ex-ministers,
now the opposition, had become unpopular throughout the country. The
caricature of Gillray followed them, and Fox and Burke constantly
appeared under his hands in some ridiculous situation or other. But
Gillray was not a hired libeller, like Sayer and some of the lower
caricaturists of that time; he evidently chose his subjects, in some
degree independently, as those which offered him the best mark for
ridicule; and he had so little respect for the ministers or the court,
that they all felt his satire in turn. Thus, when the plan of national
fortifications--brought forward by the duke of Richmond, who had
deserted the Whigs to be made a Tory minister, as master-general of
the ordnance--was defeated in the House of Commons in 1787, the best
caricature it provoked was one by Gillray, entitled "Honi soit qui
mal y pense," which represents the horror of the duke of Richmond at
being so unceremoniously compelled to swallow his own fortifications
(cut No. 222). It is lord Shelburne, who had now become marquis of
Lansdowne, who is represented as administering the bitter dose. Some
months afterwards, in the famous impeachment against Warren Hastings,
Gillray sided warmly against the impeachers, perhaps partly because
these were Burke and his friends; yet several of his caricatures on
this affair are aimed at the ministers, and even at the king himself.
Lord Thurlow, who was a favourite with the king, and who supported the
cause of Warren Hastings with firmness, after he had been deserted by
Pitt and the other ministers, was especially an object of Gillray's
satire. Thurlow, it will be remembered, was rather celebrated for
profane swearing, and was sometimes spoken of as the thunderer. One
of the finest of Gillray's caricatures at this period, published on
the 1st of March, 1788, is entitled "Blood on Thunder fording the Red
Sea," and represents Warren Hastings carried on chancellor Thurlow's
shoulders through a sea of blood, strewed with the mangled corpses
of Hindoos. As will be seen in our copy of the most important part of
this print (cut No. 223), the "saviour of India," as he was called by
his friends, has taken care to secure his gains. A remarkably bold
caricature by Gillray against the government appeared on the 2nd of May
in this year. It is entitled "Market-Day--every man has his price," and
represents a scene in Smithfield, where the horned cattle exposed for
sale are the supporters of the king's ministry. Lord Thurlow, with his
characteristic frown, appears as the principal purchaser. Pitt, and
his friend and colleague Dundas, are represented drinking and smoking
jovially at the window of a public-house. On one side Warren Hastings
is riding off with the king in the form of a calf, which he has just
purchased, for Hastings was popularly believed to have worked upon king
George's avarice by rich presents of diamonds. On another side, the
overwhelming rush of the cattle is throwing over the van in which Fox,
Burke, and Sheridan are driving. This plate deserves to be placed among
Gillray's finest works.

[Illustration: _No. 223. Blood on Thunder._]

Gillray caricatured the heir to the throne with bitterness, perhaps
because his dissipation and extravagance rendered him a fair subject
of ridicule, and because he associated himself with Fox's party in
politics; but his hostility to the king is ascribed in part to personal
feelings. A large and very remarkable print by our artist, though his
name was not attached to it, and one which displays in a special manner
the great characteristics of Gillray's style, appeared on the 21st of
April, 1786, just after an application had been made to the House of
Commons for a large sum of money to pay off the king's debts, which
were very great, in spite of the enormous income then attached to the
crown. George was known as a careful and even a parsimonious man, and
the queen was looked upon generally as a mean and very avaricious
woman, and people were at a loss to account for this extraordinary
expenditure, and they tried to explain it in various ways which were
not to the credit of the royal pair. It was said that immense sums were
spent in secret corruption to pave the way to the establishment of
arbitrary power; that the king was making large savings, and hoarding
up treasures at Hanover; and that, instead of spending money on his
family, he allowed his eldest son to run into serious difficulties
through the smallness of his allowance, and thus to become an object of
pity to his French friend, the wealthy duc d'Orleans, who had offered
him relief. The caricature just mentioned, which is extremely severe,
is entitled "A new way to pay the National Debt." It represents the
entrance to the treasury, from which king George and his queen, with
their band of pensioners, are issuing, their pockets, and the queen's
apron, so full of money, that the coins are rolling out and scattering
about the ground. Nevertheless, Pitt, whose pockets also are full,
adds to the royal treasures large bags of the national revenue, which
are received with smiles of satisfaction. To the left, a crippled
soldier sits on the ground, and asks in vain for relief; while the
wall above is covered with torn placards, on some of which may be
read, "God save the King;" "Charity, a romance;" "From Germany, just
arrived a large and royal assortment...;" and "Last dying speech of
fifty-four malefactors executed for robbing a hen-roost." The latter
is a satirical allusion to the notorious severity with which the most
trifling depredators on the king's private farm were prosecuted. In the
background, on the right hand side of the picture, the prince appears
in ragged garments, and in want of charity no less than the cripple,
and near him is the duke of Orleans, who offers him a draft for
£200,000. On the placards on the walls here we read such announcements
as "Economy, an old song;" "British property, a farce;" and "Just
published, for the benefit of posterity, the dying groans of Liberty;"
and one, immediately over the prince's head, bears the prince's
feathers, with the motto, "Ich starve." Altogether this is one of the
most remarkable of Gillray's caricatures.

[Illustration: _No. 224. Farmer George and his Wife._]

The parsimoniousness of the king and queen was the subject of
caricatures and songs in abundance, in which these illustrious
personages appeared haggling with their tradesmen, and making bargains
in person, rejoicing in having thus saved a small sum of money. It
was said that George kept a farm at Windsor, not for his amusement,
but to draw a small profit from it. By Peter Pindar he is described
as rejoicing over the skill he has shown in purchasing his live stock
as bargains. Gillray seized greedily all these points of ridicule,
and, as early as 1786, he published a print of "Farmer George and his
Wife" (see our cut No. 224), in which the two royal personages are
represented in the very familiar manner in which they were accustomed
to walk about Windsor and its neighbourhood. This picture appears to
have been very popular; and years afterwards, in a caricature on a
scene in "The School for Scandal," where, in the sale of the young
profligate's effects, the auctioneer puts up a family portrait, for
which a broker offers five shillings, and Careless, the auctioneer,
says, "Going for no more than one crown," the family piece is the
well-known picture of "Farmer George and his Wife," and the ruined
prodigal is the prince of Wales, who exclaims, "Careless, knock down
the farmer."

Many caricatures against the undignified meanness of the royal
household appeared during the years 1791 and 1792, when the king
passed much of his time at his favourite watering-place, Weymouth;
and there his domestic habits had become more and more an object of
remark. It was said that, under the pretence of Weymouth being an
expensive place, and taking advantage of the obligations of the royal
mail to carry parcels for the king free, he had his provisions brought
to him by that conveyance from his farm at Windsor. On the 28th of
November, 1791, Gillray published a caricature on the homeliness of
the royal household, in two compartments, in one of which the king
is represented, in a dress which is anything but that of royalty,
toasting his muffins for breakfast; and in the other, queen Charlotte,
in no less homely dress, though her pocket is overflowing with money,
toasting sprats for supper. In another of Gillray's prints, entitled
"Anti-saccharites," the king and queen are teaching their daughters
economy in taking their tea without sugar; as the young princesses show
some dislike to the experiment, the queen admonishes them, concluding
with the remark, "Above all, remember how much expense it will save
your poor papa!"

[Illustration: _No. 225. A Flemish Proclamation._]

According to a story which seems to be authentic, Gillray's dislike
of the king was embittered at this time by an incident somewhat
similar to that by which George II. had provoked the anger of Hogarth.
Gillray had visited France, Flanders, and Holland, and he had made
sketches, a few of which he engraved. Our cut No. 225 represents
a group from one of these sketches, which explains itself, and is
a fair example of Gillray's manner of drawing such subjects. He
accompanied the painter Loutherbourg, who had left his native city
of Strasburg to settle in England, and become the king's favourite
artist, to assist him in making sketches for his great painting of
"The Siege of Valenciennes," Gillray sketching groups of figures
while Loutherbourg drew the landscape and buildings. After their
return, the king expressed a desire to see their sketches, and they
were placed before him. Loutherbourg's landscapes and buildings
were plain drawings, and easy to understand, and the king expressed
himself greatly pleased with them. But the king's mind was already
prejudiced against Gillray for his satirical prints, and when he
saw his hasty and rough, though spirited sketches, of the French
soldiers, he threw them aside contemptuously, with the remark, "I
don't understand these caricatures." Perhaps the very word he used was
intended as a sneer upon Gillray, who, we are told, felt the affront
deeply, and he proceeded to retort by a caricature, which struck at
once at one of the king's vanities, and at his political prejudices.
George III. imagined himself a great connoisseur in the fine arts, and
the caricature was entitled "A Connoisseur examining a Cooper." It
represented the king looking at the celebrated miniature of Oliver
Cromwell, by the English painter, Samuel Cooper. When Gillray had
completed this print, he is said to have exclaimed, "I wonder if the
royal connoisseur will understand this!" It was published on the 18th
of June, 1792, and cannot have failed to produce a sensation at that
period of revolutions. The king is made to exhibit a strange mixture
of alarm with astonishment in contemplating the features of this
great overthrower of kingly power, at a moment when all kingly power
was threatened. It will be remarked, too, that the satirist has not
overlooked the royal character for domestic economy, for, as will be
seen in our cut No. 226, the king is looking at the picture by the
light of a candle-end stuck on a "save-all."

[Illustration: _No. 226. A Connoisseur in Art._]

From this time Gillray rarely let pass an opportunity of caricaturing
the king. Sometimes he pictured his awkward and undignified gait, as he
was accustomed to shuffle along the esplanade at Weymouth; sometimes
in the familiar manner in which, in the course of his walks in the
neighbourhood of his Windsor farm, he accosted the commonest labourers
and cottagers, and overwhelmed them with a long repetition of trivial
questions--for king George had a characteristic manner of repeating his
questions, and of frequently giving the reply to them himself.

[Illustration: _No. 227. Royal Affability._]

[Illustration: _No. 228. A Lesson in Apple Dumplings._]

_Then asks the farmer's wife, or farmer's maid,
How many eggs the fowls have laid;
What's in the oven, in the pot, the crock;
Whether 'twill rain or no, and what's o'clock;
Thus from poor hovels gleaning information,
To serve as future treasure for the nation._

So said Peter Pindar; and in this _rôle_ king George was represented
not unfrequently in satirical prints. On the 10th of February Gillray
illustrated the quality of "Affability" in a picture of one of these
rustic encounters. The king and queen, taking their walk, have arrived
at a cottage, where a very coarse example of English peasantry is
feeding his pigs with wash. The scene is represented in our cut No.
227. The vacant stare of the countryman betrays his confusion at the
rapid succession of questions--"Well, friend, where a' you going,
hay?--What's your name, hay?--Where do you live, hay?--hay?" In other
prints the king is represented running into ludicrous adventures while
hunting, an amusement to which he was extremely attached. One of the
best known of these has been celebrated equally by the pen of Peter
Pindar and by the needle of Gillray. It was said that one day while
king George was following the chase, he came to a poor cottage, where
his usual curiosity was rewarded by the discovery of an old woman
making apple dumplings. When informed what they were, he could not
conceal his astonishment how the apples could have been introduced
without leaving a seam in their covering. In the caricature by Gillray,
from which we take our cut No. 228, the king is represented looking
at the process of dumpling making through the window, inquiring
in astonishment, "Hay? hay? apple dumplings?--how get the apples
in?--how? Are they made without seams?" The story is told more fully
in the following verses of Peter Pindar, which will serve as the best
commentary on the engraving:--

_THE KING AND THE APPLE DUMPLING._

_Once on a time a monarch, tired with whooping,
Whipping and spurring,
Happy in worrying
A poor, defenceless, harmless buck
(The horse and rider wet as muck),
From his high consequence and wisdom stooping,
Enter'd through curiosity a cot,
Where sat a poor old woman and her pot._
_The wrinkled, blear-eyed, good old granny,
In this same cot, illum'd by many a cranny.
Had finish'd apple dumplings for her pot.
In tempting row the naked dumplings lay,
When lo! the monarch in his usual way
Like lightning spoke, "What this? what this? what? what?"
Then taking up a dumpling in his hand,
His eyes with admiration did expand,
And oft did majesty the dumpling grapple.
"'Tis monstrous, monstrous hard, indeed?" he cried;
"What makes it, pray, so hard?"--The dame replied,
Low curtseying, "Please your majesty, the apple."
"Very astonishing, indeed! strange thing!"
Turning the dumpling round, rejoined the king;
"'Tis most extraordinary then, all this is--
It beats Pinetti's conjuring all to pieces--
Strange I should never of a dumpling dream!
But, Goody, tell me where, where, where's the seam?"
"Sir, there's no seam," quoth she, "I never knew
That folks did apple dumplings sew."
"No!" cried the staring monarch with a grin,
"How, how the devil got the apple in?"
On which the dame the curious scheme reveal'd
By which the apple lay so sly conceal'd,
Which made the Solomon of Britain start;
Who to the palace with full speed repair'd
And queen, and princesses so beauteous, scared,
All with the wonders of the dumpling art.
There did he labour one whole week, to show
The wisdom of an apple dumpling maker;
And lo! so deep was majesty in dough,
The palace seem'd the lodging of a baker!_

Gillray was not the only caricaturist who turned the king's weaknesses
to ridicule, but none caricatured them with so little gentleness, or
evidently with so good a will. On the 7th of March, 1796, the princess
of Wales gave birth to a daughter, so well known since as the princess
Charlotte. The king is said to have been charmed with his grandchild,
and this sentiment appears to have been anticipated by the public, for
on the 13th of February, when the princess's accouchment was looked
forward to with general interest, a print appeared under the title of
"Grandpapa in his Glory." In this caricature, which is given in our
cut No. 229, king George, seated, is represented nursing and feeding
the royal infant in an extraordinary degree of homeliness. He is
singing the nursery rhyme--

_There was a laugh and a craw,
There was a giggling honey,
Goody good girl shall be fed,
But naughty girl shall have noney._

This print bears no name, but it is known to be by Woodward, though it
betrays an attempt to imitate the style of Gillray. Gillray was often
imitated in this manner, and his prints were not unfrequently copied
and pirated. He even at times copied himself, and disguised his own
style, for the sake of gaining money.

[Illustration: _No. 229. Grandfather George._]

At the period of the regency bill in 1789, Gillray attacked Pitt's
policy in that affair with great severity. In a caricature published
on the 3rd of January, he drew the premier in the character of an
over-gorged vulture, with one claw fixed firmly on the crown and
sceptre, and with the other seizing upon the prince's coronet, from
which he is plucking the feathers. Among other good caricatures on this
occasion, perhaps the finest is a parody on Fuseli's picture of "The
Weird Sisters," in which Dundas, Pitt, and Thurlow, as the sisters,
are contemplating the moon, the bright side of whose disc represents
the face of the queen, and the other that of the king, overcast with
mental darkness. Gillray took a strongly hostile view of the French
revolution, and produced an immense number of caricatures against the
French and their rulers, and their friends, or supposed friends, in
this country, during the period extending from 1790 to the earlier
years of the present century. Through all the changes of ministry or
policy, he seems to have fixed himself strongly on individuals, and
he seldom ceased to caricature the person who had once provoked his
attacks. So it was with the lord chancellor Thurlow, who became the
butt of savage satire in some of his prints which appeared in 1792,
at the time when Pitt forced him to resign the chancellorship. Among
these is one of the boldest caricatures which he ever executed. It is a
parody, fine almost to sublimity, on a well-known scene in Milton, and
is entitled, "Sin, Death, and the Devil." The queen, as Sin, rushes to
separate the two combatants, Death (in the semblance of Pitt) and Satan
(in that of Thurlow). During the latter part of the century Gillray
caricatured all parties in turn, whether ministerial or opposition,
with indiscriminate vigour; but his hostility towards the party of
Fox, whom he persisted in regarding, or at least in representing,
as unpatriotic revolutionists, was certainly greatest. In 1803 he
worked energetically against the Addington ministry; and in 1806 he
caricatured that which was known by the title of "All the Talents;" but
during this later period of his life his labours were more especially
aimed at keeping up the spirit of his countrymen against the threats
and designs of our foreign enemies. It was, in fact, the caricature
which at that time met with the greatest encouragement.

In his own person, Gillray had lived a life of great irregularity, and
as he grew older, his habits of dissipation and intemperance increased,
and gradually broke down his intellect. Towards the year 1811 he
ceased producing any original works; the last plate he executed was a
drawing of Bunbury's, entitled "A Barber's Shop in Assize Time," which
is supposed to have been finished in the January of that year. Soon
afterwards his mind sank into idiotcy, from which it never recovered.
James Gillray died in 1815, and was buried in St. James's churchyard,
Piccadilly, near the rectory house.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

GILLRAY'S CARICATURES ON SOCIAL LIFE.--THOMAS ROWLANDSON.--HIS EARLY
LIFE.--HE BECOMES A CARICATURIST.--HIS STYLE AND WORKS.--HIS
DRAWINGS.--THE CRUIKSHANKS.

Gillray was, beyond all others, the great political caricaturist of
his age. His works form a complete history of the greater and more
important portion of the reign of George III. He appears to have had
less taste for general caricature, and his caricatures on social life
are less numerous, and with a few exceptions less important, than
those which were called forth by political events. The exceptions are
chiefly satires on individual characters, which are marked by the same
bold style which is displayed in his political attacks. Some of his
caricatures on the extravagant costume of the time, and on its more
prominent vices, such as the rage for gambling, are also fine, but his
social sketches generally are much inferior to his other works.

This, however, was not the case with his contemporary, Thomas
Rowlandson, who doubtlessly stands second to Gillray, and may, in some
respects, be considered his equal. Rowlandson was born in the Old
Jewry in London, the year before that of the birth of Gillray, in the
July of 1756. His father was a city merchant, who had the means to
give him a good education, but embarking rashly in some unsuccessful
speculations, he fell into reduced circumstances, and the son had to
depend upon the liberality of a relative. His uncle, Thomas Rowlandson,
after whom probably he was named, had married a French lady, a
Mademoiselle Chatelier, who was now a widow, residing in Paris, with
what would be considered in that capital a handsome fortune, and she
appears to have been attached to her English nephew, and supplied him
rather freely with money. Young Rowlandson had shown at an early age
great talent for drawing, with an especial turn for satire. As a
schoolboy, he covered the margins of his books with caricatures upon
his master and upon his fellow-scholars, and at the age of sixteen he
was admitted a student in the Royal Academy in London, then in its
infancy. But he did not profit immediately by this admission, for his
aunt invited him to Paris, where he began and followed his studies in
art with great success, and was remarked for the skill with which he
drew the human body. His studies from nature, while in Paris, are said
to have been remarkably fine. Nor did his taste for satirical design
fail him, for it was one of his greatest amusements to caricature the
numerous individuals, and groups of individuals, who must in that age
have presented objects of ridicule to a lively Englishman. During
this time his aunt died, leaving him all her property, consisting of
about £7,000 in money, and a considerable amount in plate and other
objects. The sudden possession of so much money proved a misfortune to
young Rowlandson. He appears to have had an early love for gaiety, and
he now yielded to all the temptations to vice held out by the French
metropolis, and especially to an uncontrollable passion for gambling,
through which he soon dissipated his fortune.

Before this, however, had been effected, Rowlandson, after having
resided in Paris about two years, returned to London, and continued
his studies in the Royal Academy. But he appears for some years
to have given himself up entirely to his dissipated habits, and
to have worked only at intervals, when he was driven to it by the
want of money. We are told by one who was intimate with him, that,
when reduced to this condition, he used to exclaim, holding up his
pencil, "I have been playing the fool, but here is my resource!"
and he would then produce--with extraordinary rapidity--caricatures
enough to supply his momentary wants. Most of Rowlandson's earlier
productions were published anonymously, but here and there, among
large collections, we meet with a print, which, by companion of the
style with that of his earliest known works, we can hardly hesitate
in ascribing to him; and from these it would appear that he had begun
with political caricature, because, perhaps, at that period of great
agitation, it was most called for, and, therefore, most profitable.
Three of the earliest of the political caricatures thus ascribed to
Rowlandson belong to the year 1784, when he was twenty-eight years
of age, and relate to the dissolution of parliament in that year,
the result of which was the establishment of William Pitt in power.
The first, published on the 11th of March, is entitled "The Champion
of the People." Fox is represented under this title, armed with the
sword of Justice and the shield of Truth, combating the many-headed
hydra, its mouths respectively breathing forth "Tyranny," "Assumed
Prerogative," "Despotism," "Oppression," "Secret Influence," "Scotch
Politics," "Duplicity," and "Corruption." Some of these heads are
already cut off. The Dutchman, Frenchman, and other foreign enemies
are seen in the background, dancing round the standard of "Sedition."
Fox is supported by numerous bodies of English and Irishmen, the
English shouting, "While he protects us, we will support him." The
Irish, "He gave us a free trade and all we asked; he shall have our
firm support." Natives of India, in allusion to his unsuccessful India
Bill, kneel by his side and pray for his success. The second of these
caricatures was published on the 26th of March, and is entitled "The
State Auction." Pitt is the auctioneer, and is represented as knocking
down with the hammer of "prerogative" all the valuable articles of
the constitution. The clerk is his colleague, Henry Dundas, who holds
up a weighty lot, entitled, "Lot 1. The Rights of the People." Pitt
calls to him, "Show the lot this way, Harry--a'going, a'going--speak
quick, or it's gone--hold up the lot, ye Dund-ass!" The clerk replies
in his Scottish accent, "I can hould it na higher, sir." The Whig
members, under the title of the "chosen representers," are leaving
the auction room in discouragement, with reflections in their mouths,
such as, "Adieu to Liberty!" "Despair not!" "Now or never!" While Fox
stands firm in the cause, and exclaims--"I am determined to bid with
spirit for Lot 1; he shall pay dear for it that outbids me!" Pitt's
Tory supporters are ranged under the auctioneer, and are called the
"hereditary virtuosis;" and their leader, who appears to be the lord
chancellor, addresses them in the words, "Mind not the nonsensical
biddings of those common fellows." Dundas remarks, "We shall get the
supplies by this sale." The third of these caricatures is dated on the
31st of March, when the elections had commenced, and is entitled,
"The Hanoverian Horse and British Lion--a Scene in a new Play, lately
acted in Westminster, with distinguished applause. Act 2nd, Scene
last." At the back of the picture stands the vacant throne, with the
intimation, "We shall resume our situation here at pleasure, _Leo
Rex_." In front, the Hanoverian horse, unbridled, and without saddle,
neighs "pre-ro-ro-ro-ro-rogative," and is trampling on the safeguard of
the constitution, while it kicks out violently the "faithful commons"
(alluding to the recent dissolution of parliament). Pitt, on the back
of the horse, cries, "Bravo!--go it again!--I love to ride a mettled
steed; send the vagabonds packing!" Fox appears on the other side of
the picture, mounted on the British lion, and holding a whip and bridle
in his hand. He says to Pitt, "Prithee, Billy, dismount before ye get a
fall, and let some abler jockey take your seat;" and the lion observes,
indignantly, but with gravity, "If this horse is not tamed, he will
soon be absolute king of our forest."

[Illustration: _No. 230. Opera Beauties._]

If these prints are correctly ascribed to Rowlandson, we see him here
fairly entered in the lists of political caricature, and siding with
Fox and the Whig party. He displays the same boldness in attacking
the king and his ministers which was displayed by Gillray--a boldness
that probably did much towards preserving the liberties of the country
from what was no doubt a resolute attempt to trample upon them, at a
time when caricature formed a very powerful weapon. Before this time,
however, Rowlandson's pencil had become practised in those burlesque
pictures of social life for which he became afterwards so celebrated.
At first he seems to have published his designs under fictitious names,
and one now before me, entitled "The Tythe Pig," bears the early date
of 1786, with the name of "Wigstead," no doubt an assumed one, which
is found on some others of his early prints. It represents the country
parson, in his own parlour, receiving the tribute of the tithe pig
from an interesting looking farmer's wife. The name of Rowlandson,
with the date 1792, is attached to a very clever and humorous etching
which is now also before me, entitled "Cold Broth and Calamity," and
representing a party of skaters, who have fallen in a heap upon the
ice, which is breaking under their weight. It bears the name of Fores
as publisher. From this time, and especially toward the close of the
century, Rowlandson's caricatures on social life became very numerous,
and they are so well known that it becomes unnecessary, nor indeed
would it be easy, to select a few examples which would illustrate all
his characteristic excellencies. In prints published by Fores at the
beginning of 1794, the address of the publisher is followed by the
words, "where may be had all Rowlandson's works," which shows how
great was his reputation as a caricaturist at that time. It may be
stated briefly that he was distinguished by a remarkable versatility of
talent, by a great fecundity of imagination, and by a skill in grouping
quite equal to that of Gillray, and with a singular ease in forming his
groups of a great number of figures. Among those of his contemporaries
who spoke of him with the highest praise were sir Joshua Reynolds and
Benjamin West. It has been remarked, too, that no artist ever possessed
the power of Rowlandson of expressing so much with so little effort. We
trace a great difference in style between Rowlandson's earlier and his
later works; although there is a general identity of character which
cannot be mistaken. The figures in the former show a taste for grace
and elegance that is rare in his later works, and we find a delicacy
of beauty in his females which he appears afterwards to have entirely
laid aside. An example of his earlier style in depicting female faces
is furnished by the pretty farmer's wife, in the print of "The Tythe
Pig," just alluded to; and I may quote as another example, an etching
published on the 1st of January, 1794, under the title of "English
Curiosity; or, the foreigner stared out of countenance." An individual,
in a foreign costume, is seated in the front row of the boxes of a
theatre, probably intended for the opera, where he has become the
object of curiosity of the whole audience, and all eyes are eagerly
directed upon him. The faces of the men are rather coarsely grotesque,
but those of the ladies, two of which are given in our cut No. 230,
possess a considerable degree of refinement. He appears, however,
to have been naturally a man of no real refinement, who easily gave
himself up to low and vulgar tastes, and, as his caricature became more
exaggerated and coarse, his females became less and less graceful,
until his model of female beauty appears to have been represented
by something like a fat oyster-woman. Our cut No. 231, taken from a
print in the possession of Mr. Fairholt, entitled, "The Trumpet and
Bassoon," presents a good example of Rowlandson's broad humour, and of
his favourite models of the human face. We can almost fancy we hear the
different tones of this brace of snorers.

[Illustration: _No. 231. The Trumpet and Bassoon._]

A good example of Rowlandson's grotesques of the human figure is given
in our cut No. 232, taken from a print published on the 1st of January,
1796, under the title of "Anything will do for an Officer." People
complained of the mean appearance of the officers in our armies, who
obtained their rank, it was pretended, by favour and purchase rather
than by merit; and this caricature is explained by an inscription
beneath, which informs us how "Some school-boys, who were playing at
soldiers, found one of their number so ill-made, and so much under
size, that he would have disfigured the whole body if put into the
ranks. 'What shall we do with him?' asked one. 'Do with him?' says
another, 'why make an officer of him.'" This plate is inscribed with
his name, "Rowlandson fecit."

[Illustration: _No. 232. A Model Officer._]

[Illustration: _No. 233. Antiquaries at Work._]

At this time Rowlandson still continued to work for Fores, but
before the end of the century we find him working for Ackermann, of
the Strand, who continued to be his friend and employer during the
rest of his life, and is said to have helped him generously in many
difficulties. In these, indeed, he was continually involved by his
dissipation and thoughtlessness. Ackermann not only employed him in
etching the drawings of other caricaturists, especially of Bunbury,
but in furnishing illustrations to books, such as the several series
of Dr. Syntax, the "New Dance of Death," and others. Rowlandson's
illustrations to editions of the older standard novels, such as "Tom
Jones," are remarkably clever. In transferring the works of other
caricaturists to the copper, Rowlandson was in the habit of giving his
own style to them to such a degree, that nobody would suspect that
they were not his own, if the name of the designer were not attached
to them. I have given one example of this in a former chapter, and
another very curious one is furnished by a print now before me,
entitled "Anglers of 1811," which bears only the name "H. Bunbury
del.," but which is in every particular a perfect example of the style
of Rowlandson. During the latter part of his life Rowlandson amused
himself with making an immense number of drawings which were never
engraved, but many of which have been preserved and are still found
scattered through the portfolios of collectors. These are generally
better finished than his etchings, and are all more or less burlesque.
Our cut No. 233 is taken from one of these drawings, in the possession
of Mr. Fairholt; it represents a party of antiquaries engaged
in important excavations. No doubt the figures were intended for
well-known archæologists of the day.

Thomas Rowlandson died in poverty, in lodgings in the Adelphi, on the
22nd of April, 1827.

Among the most active caricaturists of the beginning of the present
century we must not overlook Isaac Cruikshank, even if it were only
because the name has become so celebrated in that of his more talented
son. Isaac's caricatures, too, were equal to those of any of his
contemporaries, after Gillray and Rowlandson. One of the earliest
examples which I have seen bearing the well-known initials, I. C.,
was published on the 10th of March, 1794, the year in which George
Cruikshank was born, and probably, therefore, when Isaac was quite
a young man. It is entitled "A Republican Belle," and is an evident
imitation of Gillray. In another, dated the 1st of November, 1795, Pitt
is represented as "The Royal Extinguisher," putting out the flame of
"Sedition." Isaac Cruikshank published many prints anonymously, and
among the numerous caricatures of the latter end of the last century we
meet with many which have no name attached to them, but which resemble
so exactly his known style, that we can hardly hesitate in ascribing
them to him. It will be remarked that in his acknowledged works he
caricatures the opposition; but perhaps, like other caricaturists of
his time, he worked privately for anybody who would pay him, and was
as willing to work against the government as for it, for most of the
prints which betray their author only by their style are caricatures
on Pitt and his measures. Such is the group given in our cut No. 234,
which was published on the 15th of August, 1797, at a time when there
were loud complaints against the burthen of taxation. It is entitled
"Billy's Raree-Show; or, John Bull En-lighten'd," and represents Pitt,
in the character of a showman, exhibiting to John Bull, and picking
his pocket while his attention is occupied with the show. Pitt, in
a true showman's style, says to his victim, "Now, pray lend your
attention to the enchanting prospect before you,--this is the prospect
of peace--only observe what a busy scene presents itself--the ports are
filled with shipping, the quays loaded with merchandise, riches are
flowing in from every quarter--this prospect alone is worth all the
money you have got about you." Accordingly, the showman abstracts the
same money from his pocket, while John Bull, unconscious of the theft
exclaims with surprise, "Mayhap it may, master showman, but I canna zee
ony thing like what you mentions,--I zees nothing but a woide plain,
with some mountains and molehills upon't--as sure as a gun, it must be
all behoind one of those!" The flag of the show is inscribed, "Licensed
by authority, Billy Hum's grand exhibition of moving mechanism; or,
deception of the senses."

[Illustration: _No. 234. The Raree-Show._]

[Illustration: _No. 235. Flight across the Herring Pond._]

In a caricature with the initials of I. C., and published on the 20th
of June, 1797, Fox is represented as "The Watchman of the State,"
ironically, of course, for he is betraying the truth which he had
ostentatiously assumed, and absenting himself at the moment when his
agents are putting the match to the train they have laid to blow up
the constitution. Yet Cruikshank's caricatures on the Irish union
were rather opposed to ministers. One of these, published on the 20th
of June, 1800, is full of humour. It is entitled "A Flight across the
Herring Pond." England and Ireland are separated by a rough sea, over
which a crowd of Irish "patriots" are flying, allured by the prospect
of honours and rewards. On the Irish shore, a few wretched natives,
with a baby and a dog, are in an attitude of prayer, expostulating
with the fugitives,--"Och, och! do not leave us--consider your old
house, it will look like a big wallnut-shell without a kernel." On the
English shore, Pitt is holding open the "Imperial Pouch," and welcoming
them,--"Come on, my little fellows, there's plenty of room for you
all--the budget is not half full." Inside the "pouch" appears a host
of men covered with honours and dignities, one of whom says to the
foremost of the Irish candidates for favour, "Very snug and convenient,
brother, I allure you." Behind Pitt, Dundas, seated on a pile of public
offices united in his person, calls out to the immigrants, "If you've
ony consciences at a', here's enugh to satisfy ye a'." A portion of
this clever caricature is represented in our cut No. 235.

[Illustration: _No. 236. A Case of Abduction._]

There is a rare caricature on the subject of the Irish union, which
exhibits a little of the style of Isaac Cruikshank, and a copy of which
is in the possession of Mr. Fairholt. From this I have taken merely
the group which forms our cut No. 236. It is a long print, dated on
the 1st of January, 1800, and is entitled "The Triumphal entry of the
Union into London." Pitt, with a paper entitled "Irish Freedom" in his
pocket, is carrying off the young lady (Ireland) by force, with her
natural accompaniment, a keg of whisky. The lord chancellor of Ireland
(lord Clare) sits on the horse and performs the part of fiddler.
In advance of this group are a long rabble of radicals, Irishman,
&c., while close behind comes Grattan, carried in a sedan-chair, and
earnestly appealing to the lady, "Ierne, Ierne! my sweet maid, listen
not to him--he's a false, flattering, gay deceiver." Still farther in
the rear follows St. Patrick, riding on a bull, with a sack of potatoes
for his saddle, and playing on the Irish harp. An Irishman expostulates
in the following words--"Ah, long life to your holy reverence's memory,
why will you lave your own nate little kingdom, and go to another
where they will tink no more of you then they would of an old brogue?
Shure, of all the saints in the red-letter calendar, we give you the
preference! och hone! och hone!" Another Irishman pulls the bull by
the tail, with the lament, "Ah, masther, honey, why will you be after
leaving us? What will become of poor Shelagh and all of us, when you
are gone?" It is a regular Irish case of abduction.

[Illustration: _No. 237. The Farthing Rushlight._]

The last example I shall give of the caricatures of Isaac Cruikshank is
the copy of one entitled "The Farthing Rushlight," which, I need hardly
say, is a parody on the subject of a well-known song. The rushlight
is the poor old king, George, whom the prince of Wales and his Whig
associates, Fox, Sheridan, and others, are labouring in vain to blow
out. The latest caricature I possess, bearing the initials of Isaac
Cruikshank, was published by Fores, on the 19th of April, 1810, and
is entitled, "The Last Grand Ministerial Expedition (on the Street,
Piccadilly)." The subject is the riot on the arrest of sir Francis
Burdett, and it shows that Cruikshank was at this time caricaturing on
the radical side in politics.

Isaac Cruikshank left two sons who became distinguished as
caricaturists, George, already mentioned, and Robert. George
Cruikshank, who is still amongst us, has raised caricature in art to
perhaps the highest degree of excellence it has yet reached. He began
as a political caricaturist, in imitation of his father Isaac--in
fact the two brothers are understood to have worked jointly with
their father before they engraved on their own account. I have in my
own possession two of his earliest works of this class, published by
Fores, of Piccadilly, and dated respectively the 3rd and the 19th of
March, 1815. George was then under twenty-one years of age. The first
of these prints is a caricature on the restrictions laid upon the trade
in corn, and is entitled "The Blessings of Peace, or, the Curse of
the Corn Bill." A foreign boat has arrived, laden with corn at a low
price--one of the foreign traders holds out a sample and says, "Here
is de best for 50s." A group of bloated aristocrats and landholders
stand on the shore, with a closed storehouse, filled with corn behind
them; the foremost, warning the boat away with his hand, replies to
the merchant, "We won't have it at any price--we are determined to
keep up our own to 80s., and if the poor can't buy at that price, why
they must starve. We love money too well to lower our rents again; the
income tax is taken off." One of his companions exclaims, "No, no, we
won't have it at all." A third adds, "Ay, ay, let 'em starve, and be
d-- to 'em." Upon this another of the foreign merchants cries, "By
gar, if they will not have it at all, we must throw it overboard!" and
a sailor is carrying this alternative into execution by emptying a
sack into the sea. Another group stands near the closed storehouse--it
consists of a poor Englishman, his wife with an infant in the arms,
and two ragged children, a boy and a girl. The father is made to say,
"No, no, masters, I'll not starve; but quit my native country, where
the poor are crushed by those they labour to support, and retire to one
more hospitable, and where the arts of the rich do not interpose to
defeat the providence of God." The corn bill was passed in the spring
of 1815, and was the cause of much popular agitation and rioting. The
second of these caricatures, on the same subject, is entitled, "The
Scale of Justice reversed," and represents the rich exulting over the
disappearance of the tax on property, while the poor are crushed under
the weight of taxes which bore only upon them. These two caricatures
present unmistakable traces of the peculiarities of style of George
Cruikshank, but not as yet fully developed.

George Cruikshank rose into great celebrity and popularity as a
political caricaturist by his illustrations to the pamphlets of William
Houe, such as "The Political House that Jack built," "The Political
Showman at Home," and others upon the trial of queen Caroline; but this
sort of work suited the taste of the public at that time, and not that
of the artist, which lay in another direction. The ambition of George
Cruikshank was to draw what Hogarth called moral comedies, pictures of
society carried through a series of acts and scenes, always pointed
with some great moral; and it must be confessed that he has, through a
long career, succeeded admirably. He possesses more of the true spirit
of Hogarth than any other artist since Hogarth's time, with greater
skill in drawing. He possesses, even to a greater degree than Hogarth
himself, that admirable talent of filling a picture with an immense
number of figures, every one telling a part of the story, without
which, however minute, the whole picture would seem to us incomplete.
The picture of the "Camp at Vinegar Hill," and one or two other
illustrations to Maxwell's "History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798,"
are equal, if not superior, to anything ever produced by Hogarth or by
Callot.

The name of George Cruikshank forms a worthy conclusion to the "History
of Caricature and Grotesque." He is the last representative of the
great school of caricaturists formed during the reign of George III.
Though there can hardly be said to be a school at the present day, yet
our modern artists in this field have been all formed more or less
under his influence; and it must not be forgotten that we owe to that
influence, and to his example, to a great degree, the cleansing of this
branch of art from the objectionable characteristics of which I have on
more than one occasion been obliged to speak. May he still live long
among the friends who not only admire him for his talents, but love him
for his kindly and genial spirit; and none among them love and admire
him more sincerely than the author of the present volume.

FINIS.

[_Post Office Orders payable [DECEMBER, 1874.
at Piccadilly Circus._

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=Artemus Ward, Complete.=--The Works of CHARLES FARRER BROWNE,
better known as ARTEMUS WARD, now first collected. Crown 8vo, with
fine Portrait, facsimile of handwriting, &c., 540 pages, cloth extra,
7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Artemus Ward's Lecture at the Egyptian Hall=, with the
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and gold, TINTED ILLUST., 6_s._

* * * * *

UNIFORM WITH MR. RUSKIN'S EDITION OF "GRIMM."

=Bechstein's As Pretty as Seven=, and other Popular German Stories.
Collected by LUDWIG BECHSTEIN. With Additional Tales by the Brothers
GRIMM. 100 Illustrations by RICHTER. Small 4to, green and gold, 6_s._
6_d._; gilt edges, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Boccaccio's Decameron=; or, Ten Days' Entertainment. Now fully
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HARRY CURWEN. Crown 8vo, over 500 pages, frontispiece and numerous
Portraits and Illusts., cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration: HEADPIECE USED BY WILLIAM CAXTON.]

"_In these days, ten ordinary Histories of Kings and Courtiers
were well exchanged against the tenth part of one good History of
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indeed, must be the reader who, opening it anywhere, lights upon
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"Mr. Curwen has produced an interesting work."--_Daily News._

"Ought to have a permanent place on library shelves."--_Court
Circular._

* * * * *

=Book of Hall-Marks=; or, Manual of Reference for the Goldsmith and
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Office. Crown 8vo, with 46 Plates of the Hall-Marks of the different
Assay Towns of the United Kingdom, as now stamped on Plate and
Jewellery, 7_s._ 6_d._

*** _This work gives practical methods for testing the quality of gold
and silver. It was compiled by the author as a Supplement to
"Chaffers."_

* * * * *

=Boudoir Ballads=: Vers de Société. By J. ASHBY STERRY. Crown 8vo,
cloth extra, gilt, and gilt edges, 6_s._ [_In preparation._

* * * * *

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* * * * *

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gilt, with full-page Portraits. 4_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Bright's (Rt. Hon. J., M.P.) Speeches= on Public Affairs of the last
Twenty Years. Collated with the best Public Reports. Royal 16mo, 370
pages, cloth extra, 1_s._

* * * * *

[Illustration: "_A Border Song._"]

COLMAN'S HUMOROUS WORKS.

=Broad Grins.= My Nightgown and Slippers, and other Humorous Works,
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Anecdotes of the Author by G. B. BUCKSTONE, and Frontispiece by
HOGARTH. Crown 8vo, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Broadstone Hall=, and other Poems. By W. E. WINDUS. With 40
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* * * * *

=Conquest of the Sea=: A History of Diving, from the Earliest Times.
By HENRY SIEBE. Profusely Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 4_s._
6_d._

* * * * *

MISS BRADDON'S NEW NOVEL.

=Lost for Love: A Novel.= By M. E. BRADDON, Author of "Lady Audley's
Secret," &c. Now ready, in 3 vols., crown 8vo, at all Libraries, and
at the Booksellers.

"One of the best novels lately produced. In several important
respects, it appears to us, Miss Braddon's recent works deserve
the highest commendation."--_Illustrated London News._

"We may confidently predict for it a warm welcome from Miss
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"'Lost for Love' must be placed high among Miss Braddon's novels.
It has a quiet power, which makes it attractive in a high
degree."--_Scotsman._

"Unaffected, simple, and easily written, it will disappoint Miss
Braddon's early admirers, and please that which we hope is a wider
public."--_Athenæum._

* * * * *

=Byron's (Lord) Letters and Journals, with Notices of his Life.=
By THOMAS MOORE. A Reprint of the Original Edition, newly revised,
complete in a thick volume of 1060pp., with Twelve full-page Plates.
Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

"We have read this book with the greatest pleasure. Considered
merely as a composition, it deserves to be classed among the
best specimens of English prose which our age has produced. It
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we could select from the Life of Sheridan; but, as a whole, it
is immeasurably superior to that work. The style is agreeable,
clear, and manly, and, when it rises into eloquence, rises
without effort or ostentation. Nor is the matter inferior to the
manner. It would be difficult to name a book which exhibits more
kindness, fairness, and modesty. It has evidently been written,
not for the purpose of showing--what, however, it often shows--how
well its author can write, but for the purpose of vindicating,
as far as truth will permit, the memory of a celebrated man who
can no longer vindicate himself. Mr. Moore never thrusts himself
between Lord Byron and the public. With the strongest temptations
to egotism, he has said no more about himself than the subject
absolutely required. A great part, indeed the greater part, of
these volumes consists of extracts from the Letters and Journals
of Lord Byron; and it is difficult to speak too highly of the
skill which has been shown in the selection and arrangement....
It is impossible, on a general survey, to deny that the task has
been executed with great judgment and great humanity. When we
consider the life which Lord Byron had led, his petulance, his
irritability, and his communicativeness, we cannot but admire the
dexterity with which Mr. Moore has contrived to exhibit so much
of the character and opinions of his friend, with so little pain
to the feelings of the living."--LORD MACAULAY, in the _Edinburgh
Review_.

* * * * *

Carols of Cockayne: Vers de Société descriptive of London Life. By
HENRY S. LEIGH. Third Edition. With numerous Illustrations by ALFRED
CONCANEN. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 5_s._

* * * * *

Carlyle (T.) on the Choice of Books. With New Life and Anecdotes.
Brown cloth, UNIFORM WITH THE 2_s._ EDITIONS OF HIS WORKS, 1_s._ 6_d._

Celebrated Claimants, Ancient and Modern. Being the Histories of all
the most celebrated Pretenders and Claimants from PERKINS WARBECK to
ARTHUR ORTON. Fcap. 8vo, 350 pages, illustrated boards, price 2_s._

* * * * *

MR. WILKIE COLLINS'S NEW NOVEL.

=The Law and the Lady=: A Novel. By WILKIE COLLINS, Author of "The
Woman in White." 3 vols., crown 8vo, 31_s._ 6_d._ [_Shortly._

* * * * *

=Christmas Carols and Ballads.= Selected and Edited by JOSHUA
SYLVESTER. A New Edition, beautifully printed and bound in cloth,
extra gilt, gilt edges, 3_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Cruikshank's Comic Almanack.=

Complete in TWO SERIES: the FIRST from 1835 to 1843; the SECOND
from 1844 to 1853. A Gathering of the BEST HUMOUR of THACKERAY,
HOOD, MAYHEW, ALBERT SMITH, A'BECKETT, ROBERT BROUGH, &c. With
2,000 Woodcuts and Steel Engravings by CRUIKSHANK, HINE, LANDELLS,
&c. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, two very thick volumes, 15_s._; or,
separately, 7_s._ 6_d._ per volume.

*** _The "Comic Almanacks" of George Cruikshank have long been
regarded by admirers of this inimitable artist as among his
finest, most characteristic productions. Extending over a period
of nineteen years, from 1835 to 1853, inclusive, they embrace
the best period of his artistic career, and show the varied
excellences of his marvellous power. The late Mr. Tilt, of Fleet
Street, first conceived the idea of the "Comic Almanack," and
at various times there were engaged upon it such writers as_
THACKERAY, ALBERT SMITH, _the Brothers_ MAYHEW, _the late_ ROBERT
BROUGH, GILBERT A'BECKETT, _and, it has been asserted,_ TOM HOOD
_the elder._ THACKERAY'S _stories of "Stubbs' Calendar; or, The
Fatal Boots," which subsequently appeared as "Stubbs' Diary;" and
"Barber Cox; or, The Cutting of his Comb," formed the leading
attractions in the numbers for 1839 and 1840._

* * * * *

THE BEST GUIDE TO HERALDRY.

=Cussans' Handbook of Heraldry=; with Instructions for Tracing
Pedigrees and Deciphering Ancient MSS.; also, Rules for the
Appointment of Liveries, &c., &c. By JOHN E. CUSSANS. Illustrated
with 360 Plates and Woodcuts. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt and
emblazoned, 7_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration]

*** _This volume, beautifully printed on toned paper, contains
not only the ordinary matter to be found in the best books on the
science of Armory, but several other subjects hitherto unnoticed.
Amongst these may be mentioned:_--1. DIRECTIONS FOR TRACING
PEDIGREES. 2. DECIPHERING ANCIENT MSS., ILLUSTRATED BY ALPHABETS
AND FACSIMILES. 3. THE APPOINTMENT OF LIVERIES. 4. CONTINENTAL AND
AMERICAN HERALDRY, &c.

* * * * *

NEW AND IMPORTANT WORK.

=Cyclopædia of Costume=; or, A Dictionary of Dress, Regal,
Ecclesiastical, Civil, and Military, from the Earliest Period in
England to the reign of George the Third. Including Notices of
Contemporaneous Fashions on the Continent, and preceded by a General
History of the Costume of the Principal Countries of Europe. By J. R.
PLANCHÉ, F.S.A., Somerset Herald.

_This work will be published in Twenty-four Monthly Parts, quarto,
at Five Shillings, profusely illustrated by Plates and Wood
Engravings; with each Part will also be issued a splendid Coloured
Plate, from an original Painting or Illumination, of Royal and
Noble Personages, and National Costume, both foreign and domestic.
The First Part will be ready on Jan. 1, 1875._

[Illustration]

In collecting materials for a History of Costume of more
importance than the little handbook which has met with so much
favour as an elementary work, I was not only made aware of my
own deficiencies, but surprised to find how much more vague are
the explanations, and contradictory the statements, of our best
authorities, than they appeared to me, when, in the plenitude of
my ignorance, I rushed upon almost untrodden ground, and felt
bewildered by the mass of unsifted evidence and unhesitating
assertion which met my eyes at every turn.

During the forty years which have elapsed since the publication
of the first edition of my "History of British Costume" in the
"Library of Entertaining Knowledge," archæological investigation
has received such an impetus by the establishment of metropolitan
and provincial peripatetic antiquarian societies, that a flood
of light has been poured upon us, by which we are enabled to
re-examine our opinions and discover reasons to doubt, if we
cannot find facts to authenticate.

That the former greatly preponderate is a grievous acknowledgment
to make after assiduously devoting the leisure of half my life
to the pursuit of information on this, to me, most fascinating
subject. It is some consolation, however, to feel that where I
cannot instruct, I shall certainly not mislead, and that the
reader will find, under each head, all that is known to, or
suggested by, the most competent writers I am acquainted with,
either here or on the Continent.

That this work appears in a glossarial form arises from the
desire of many artists, who have expressed to me the difficulty
they constantly meet with in their endeavours to ascertain the
complete form of a garment, or the exact mode of fastening a
piece of armour, or buckling of a belt, from their study of a
sepulchral effigy or a figure in an illumination; the attitude of
the personages represented, or the disposition of other portions
of their attire, effectually preventing the requisite examination.

The books supplying any such information are very few, and the
best confined to armour or ecclesiastical costume. The only
English publication of the kind required, that I am aware of,
is the late Mr. Fairholt's "Costume in England" (8vo, London,
1846), the last two hundred pages of which contain a glossary,
the most valuable portion whereof are the quotations from old
plays, mediæval romances, and satirical ballads, containing
allusions to various articles of attire in fashion at the time
of their composition. Twenty-eight years have expired since that
book appeared, and it has been thought that a more comprehensive
work on the subject than has yet issued from the English press,
combining the pith of the information of many costly foreign
publications, and, in its illustrations, keeping in view the
special requirement of the artist, to which I have alluded, would
be, in these days of educational progress and critical inquiry, a
welcome addition to the library of an English gentleman.

J. R. PLANCHÉ.

* * * * *

=Cussans' History of Hertfordshire.=

A County History, got up in a very superior manner, and ranging
with the finest works of its class. By JOHN E. CUSSANS. Illustrated
with full-page Plates on Copper and Stone, and a profusion of small
Woodcuts. Parts I. to VIII. are now ready, price 21_s._ each.

*** _An entirely new History of this important County, great
attention being given to all matters pertaining to Family History._

* * * * *

=Dickens' Life and Speeches.= By THEODORE TAYLOR. Complete in One
Volume, square 16mo, cloth extra, 2_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

"DON QUIXOTE" IN THE ORIGINAL SPANISH. */

=El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha.= Nueva Edicion,
corregida y revisada. Por MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA. Complete in
one volume, post 8vo, nearly 700 pages, cloth extra, price 4_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

GIL BLAS IN SPANISH.

=Historia de Gil Blas de Santillana.=

Por LE SAGE. Traducida al Castellano por el PADRE ISLA. Nueva
Edicion, corregida y revisada. Complete in One Volume. Post 8vo,
cloth extra, nearly 600 pages, price 4_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Earthward Pilgrimage=, from the Next World to that which now is. By
MONCURE D. CONWAY. Crown 8vo, beautifully printed and bound, 7_s._
6_d._

* * * * *

=Ellis's (Mrs.) Mothers of Great Men.= A New Edition, with
Illustrations by VALENTINE W. BROMLEY. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, over
500 pages, 6_s._

"Mrs. Ellis believes, as most of us do, that the character of the
mother goes a long way; and, in illustration of this doctrine, she
has given us several lives written in her charming, yet earnest,
style. We especially commend the life of Byron's and Napoleon's
mothers.... The volume has some solid merits."--_Echo._

"This is a book which ought to be in the libraries of all who
interest themselves in the education of women."--_Victoria Magazine._

"An extremely agreeable and readable book, ... and its value is not
a little enhanced by Mr. Bromley's illustrations."--_Illustrated
Dramatic News._

* * * * *

=Emanuel on Diamonds and Precious Stones=; Their History, Value,
and Properties; with Simple Tests for ascertaining their Reality.
By HARRY EMANUEL, F.R.G.S. With numerous Illustrations, Tinted and
Plain. A New Edition, Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 6_s._

* * * * *

[Illustration: POE'S COTTAGE AT FORDHAM.]

=Edgar Allan Poe's Prose and Poetical Works=; including Additional
Tales and his fine Critical Essays. With a Translation of CHARLES
BAUDELAIRE'S "Essay." 750 pages, crown 8vo, fine Portrait and
Illustrations, cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=English Surnames=: Their Sources and Significations. By CHARLES
WAREING BARDSLEY, M.A. SECOND EDITION, revised throughout,
considerably enlarged, and partially re-written. Crown 8vo, cloth
extra, 9_s._

"Mr. Bardsley has faithfully consulted the original mediæval
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"Mr. Bardsley's volume is a very good specimen of the work
which the nineteenth century can turn out. He has evidently
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but upon philology in general. The book is a mine of
information."--_Westminster Review._

"We welcome this book as an important addition to our knowledge of
an important and interesting subject."--_Athenæum._

* * * * *

=Englishman's House= (The): A Practical Guide to all interested
in Selecting or Building a House, with full Estimates of Cost,
Quantities, &c. By C. J. RICHARDSON, Architect, Author of "Old
English Mansions," &c. Third Edition. With nearly 600 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration]

*** _This Work might not inappropriately be termed "A Book of
Houses." It gives every variety of house, from a workman's cottage to
a nobleman's palace. The book is intended to supply a want long felt,
viz., a plain, non-technical account of every style of house, with
the cost and manner of building._

* * * * *

=Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle.= Lectures delivered to a
Juvenile Audience. A New Edition, edited by W. CROOKES, Esq., F.C.S.,
&c. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with all the Original Illustrations,
4_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Faraday's Various Forces of Nature.= A New Edition, edited by W.
CROOKES, Esq., F.C.S., &c. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with all the
Original Illustrations, 4_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

FATHER PROUT'S REMAINS.

=Final Reliques of Father Prout.= Collected and Edited, from MSS.
supplied by the Family of the Rev. FRANCIS MAHONEY, by BLANCHARD
JERROLD. [_In preparation._

=Finish to Life in and out of London=; or, The Final Adventures of
Tom, Jerry, and Logic. By PIERCE EGAN. Royal 8vo, cloth extra, with
Spirited Coloured Illustrations by CRUIKSHANK, 21_s._

=Flagellation and the Flagellants.=--A History of the Rod in all
Countries, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. By the Rev.
W. COOPER, B.A. Third Edition, revised and corrected, with numerous
Illustrations. Thick crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 12_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Fools' Paradise=; with the Many Wonderful Adventures there, as seen
in the strange, surprising Peep-Show of Professor Wolley Cobble.
Crown 4to, with nearly 350 very funny Coloured Pictures, cloth extra,
gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration: THE PROFESSOR'S LEETLE MUSIC LESSON.]

* * * * *

RUSKIN AND CRUIKSHANK.

=German Popular Stories.= Collected by the Brothers GRIMM, and
Translated by EDGAR TAYLOR. Edited, with an Introduction, by JOHN
RUSKIN. With 22 Illustrations after the inimitable designs of GEORGE
CRUIKSHANK. Both Series complete. Square crown 8vo, 6_s._ 6_d._; gilt
leaves, 7_s._ 6_d._

"The illustrations of this volume ... are of quite sterling and
admirable art, in a class precisely parallel in elevation to the
character of the tales which they illustrate; and the original
etchings, as I have before said in the Appendix to my 'Elements
of Drawing,' were unrivalled in masterfulness of touch since
Rembrandt (in some qualities of delineation, unrivalled even by
him).... To make somewhat enlarged copies of them, looking at them
through a magnifying glass, and never putting two lines where
Cruikshank has put only one, would be an exercise in decision and
severe drawing which would leave afterwards little to be learnt in
schools."--_Extract from Introduction by_ JOHN RUSKIN.

* * * * *

=Golden Treasury of Thought.= The Best Encyclopædia of Quotations
and Elegant Extracts, from Writers of all Times and all Countries,
ever formed. Selected and Edited by THEODORE TAYLOR. Crown 8vo, very
handsomely bound, cloth gilt, and gilt edges, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Genial Showman=; or, Show Life in the New World. Adventures with
Artemus Ward, and the Story of his Life. By E. P. HINGSTON. Third
Edition. Crown 8vo, Illustrated by W. BRUNTON, cloth extra, 7_s._
6_d._

* * * * *

THE GOLDEN LIBRARY.

Square 16mo (Tauchnitz size), cloth, extra gilt, price 2_s._ per vol.

=Clerical Anecdotes=: The Humours and Eccentricities of "the Cloth."

* * *

=Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.= With an Introduction by
GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.

* * *

=Holmes's Professor at the Breakfast Table.= With the STORY OF IRIS.

* * *

=Hood's Whims and Oddities.= Both Series complete in One Volume, with
all the original Illustrations.

* * *

=Lamb's Essays of Elia.= Both Series complete in One Volume.

* * *

=Leigh Hunt's Essays=: A Tale for a Chimney Corner, and other Pieces.
With Portrait, and Introduction by EDMUND OLLIER.

* * *

=Shelley's Early Poems=: Queen Mab, &c. Reprinted from the Author's
Original Editions. With Essay by LEIGH HUNT. (First Series of his
Works.)

* * *

=Shelley's Later Poems=: Laon and Cythna, the Cenci, and other
Pieces. Reprinted from the Author's Original Editions. With an
Introductory Essay. (Second Series of his Works.)

* * *

=Shelley's Miscellaneous Poems and Prose Works.= The Third and
Fourth Series. These Two Volumes will include the Posthumous Poems,
published by Mrs. SHELLEY in 1824; the Shelley Papers, published in
1833; the Six Weeks' Tour (1816); the Notes to "Queen Mab," &c.; the
Marlow and Dublin Pamphlets; "The Wandering Jew," a Poem; and the
two Novels, "Zastrozzi" and "St. Irvyne." The three last now first
included in any edition of Shelley.

* * * * *

=Great Condé (The), and the Period of the Fronde=: An Historical
Sketch. By WALTER FITZPATRICK. Second Edition, in 2 vols. 8vo, cloth
extra, 15_s._

* * * * *

=Greenwood's (James) Wilds of London=: Being Descriptive Sketches,
from the Personal Observations and Experiences of the Writer, of
Remarkable Scenes, People, and Places in London. By JAMES GREENWOOD,
the "Lambeth Casual." With Twelve full-page tinted Illustrations by
ALFRED CONCANEN. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

"Mr. James Greenwood presents himself once more in the character
of 'one whose delight it is to do his humble endeavour towards
exposing and extirpating social abuses and those hole-and-corner
evils which afflict society.'"--_Saturday Review._

* * * * *

=Hall's (Mrs. S. C.) Sketches of Irish Character=. "WOOING AND
WEDDING," "JACK THE SHRIMP," "PETER THE PROPHET," "GOOD AND
BAD SPIRITS," "MABEL O'NEIL'S CURSE," &c., &c. With numerous
Illustrations on Steel and Wood, by DANIEL MACLISE, R.A., Sir JOHN
GILBERT, W. HARVEY, and G. CRUIKSHANK. 8vo, pp. 450, cloth extra,
7_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration]

"The Irish sketches of this lady resemble Miss Mitford's beautiful
English Sketches in 'Our Village,' but they are far more vigorous
and picturesque and bright."--_Blackwood's Magazine._

* * * * *

THE MOST COMPLETE HOGARTH EVER PUBLISHED.

=Hogarth's Works=: with Life and Anecdotal Descriptions of the
Pictures, by JOHN IRELAND and JOHN NICHOLS. The Work includes 160
Engravings, reduced in exact facsimile of the Original Plates,
specimens of which have now become very scarce. The whole in Three
Series, 8vo, cloth, gilt, 22_s._ 6_d._; or, separately, 7_s._ 6_d._
per volume. Each Series is Complete in itself.

[Illustration: THE TALKING HAND.]

"Will be a great boon to authors and artists as well as
amateurs.... Very cheap and very complete."--_Standard._

"For all practical purposes the three handsome volumes comprising
this edition are equal to a collection of Hogarthian prints. We
are quite sure that any one who adds this work to his library
will be amply repaid by the inexhaustible charms of its facsimile
prints."--_Birmingham Daily Mail._

"The plates are reduced in size, but yet truthfully reproduced.
The best and cheapest edition of Hogarth's complete works yet
brought forward."--_Building News._

"Three very interesting volumes, important and valuable additions
to the library. The edition is thoroughly well brought out, and
carefully printed on fine paper."--_Art Journal._

* * * * *

=Hogarth's Five Days' Frolic=; or, Peregrinations by Land and Water.
Illustrated with Tinted Drawings, made by HOGARTH and SCOTT during
the Journey. 4to, beautifully printed, cloth, extra gilt, 10_s._ 6_d._

*** _A graphic and most extraordinary picture of the hearty
English times in which these merry artists lived._

* * * * *

=Hogg's Jacobite Relics of Scotland=: Being the Songs, Airs, and
Legends of the Adherents to the House of Stuart. Collected and
Illustrated by JAMES HOGG. In 2 vols. Vol. I., a Facsimile of the
original Edition; Vol. II., the _original_ Edition. 8vo, cloth, 28_s._

* * * * *

=Haunted=; or, Tales of the Weird and Wonderful. A new and entirely
original series of GHOST STORIES, by FRANCIS E. STAINFORTH. Post 8vo,
illust. bds., 2_s._ [_Nearly ready_.

* * * * *

=Hawthorne's English and American Note Books=. Edited, with an
Introduction, by MONCURE D. CONWAY. Royal 16mo, paper cover, 1_s._;
in cloth, 1_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Hone's Scrap-Books=: The Miscellaneous Writings of WILLIAM HONE,
Author of "The Table-Book," "Every-Day Book," and the "Year Book:"
being a Supplementary Volume to those works. Now first collected.
With Notes, Portraits, and numerous Illustrations of curious and
eccentric objects. Crown 8vo, cloth extra. [_Preparing_.

* * * * *

MR. HORNE'S EPIC.

=Orion.= An Epic Poem, in Three Books. By RICHARD HENGIST HORNE. With
Photographic Portrait-Frontispiece. TENTH EDITION. Crown 8vo, cloth
extra, 7_s._

"Orion will be admitted, by every man of genius, to be one of the
noblest, if not the very noblest poetical work of the age. Its
defects are trivial and conventional, its beauties intrinsic and
supreme."--EDGAR ALLAN POE.

* * * * *

=Hunt's (Robert) Drolls of Old Cornwall=; or, POPULAR ROMANCES OF THE
WEST OF ENGLAND. With Illustrations by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. Crown 8vo,
cloth extra, gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration]

*** "Mr. Hunt's charming book of the Drolls and Stories of the West of
England."--_Saturday Review._

* * * * *

=Irish Guide.--How to Spend a Month in Ireland.= Being a complete
Guide to the Country, with an Appendix containing information as
to the Fares between the Principal Towns in England and Ireland,
and as to Tourist Arrangements for the Season. With a Map and 80
Illustrations. By Sir CUSACK P. RONEY. A New Edition, Edited by Mrs.
J. H. RIDDELL. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, price 1_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *
[Illustration]

=Jennings' (Hargrave) One of the Thirty.= With curious Illustrations.
Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 10_s._ 6_d._

* * *

=Jennings' (Hargrave) The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries.=
With Chapters on the Ancient Fire and Serpent Worshippers and
Explanations of Mystic Symbols in Monuments and Talismans of Primeval
Philosophers. Crown 8vo, 300 Illustrations, 10_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Jerrold's (Blanchard) Cent. per Cent.= A Story Written on a Bill
Stamp. A New Edition. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated boards, 2_s._

* * * * *

NEW WORK BY DOUGLAS JERROLD.

=Jerrold's (Douglas) The Barber's Chair, and The Hedgehog Letters.=
Now first collected. Edited, with an Introduction, by his Son,
BLANCHARD JERROLD. Crown 8vo, with Steel Plate Portrait from his
Bust, engraved by W. H. MOTE, cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._

"No library is complete without Douglas Jerrold's Works; _ergo_,
no library is complete without the 'Barber's Chair.' A delightful
volume; the papers are most amusing; they abound with sly touches
of sarcasm; they are full of playful wit and fancy."--_Pictorial
World._

"An amusing volume, full of Douglas Jerrold's well-known sharpness
and repartee."--_Daily News._

"Better fitted than any other of his productions to give an idea
of Douglas Jerrold's amazing wit; the 'Barber's Chair' may be
presumed to give as near an approach as is possible in print to
the wit of Jerrold's conversation."--_Examiner._

* * *
=Jerrold's (Douglas) Brownrigg Papers=: The Actress at the Duke's;
Baron von Boots; Christopher Snubb; The Tutor Fiend and his Three
Pupils; Papers of a Gentleman at Arms, &c. By DOUGLAS JERROLD. Edited
by his Son, BLANCHARD JERROLD. Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2_s._

* * * * *

=Kalendars of Gwynedd.= Compiled by EDWARD BREESE, F.S.A. With Notes
by WILLIAM WATKIN EDWARD WYNNE, Esq., F.S.A. Demy 4to, cloth extra,
28_s._

* * * * *

=Lamb's (Charles) Complete Works=, in Prose and Verse, reprinted from
the Original Editions, with many pieces now first included in any
Edition. Edited, with Notes and Introduction, by R. H. SHEPHERD. With
Two Portraits and facsimile of a page of the "Essay on Roast Pig."
Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

"Is it not time for a new and final edition of Lamb's Works--a
finer tribute to his memory than any monument in Edmonton
churchyard? Lamb's writings, and more especially his fugitive
productions, have scarcely yet escaped from a state of
chaos."--_Westminster Review_, October, 1874.

ABSTRACT OF CONTENTS.

ESSAYS OF ELIA, as originally published in _The London Magazine_,
_The Examiner_, _The Indicator_, _The Reflector_, _The New
Monthly_, _The Englishman's Magazine_, _The Athenæum_, &c.

PAPERS contributed to "Hone's Table Book," "Year Book," and "Every
Day Book," and to Walter Wilson's "Life of Defoe."

NOTES ON THE ENGLISH DRAMATISTS, 1808-1827.

REVIEW OF WORDSWORTH'S "EXCURSION" (from the _Quarterly Review_).

ROSAMOND GRAY (from the Edition of 1798).

TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE and from MRS. LEICESTER'S SCHOOL.

THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES.

DRAMATIC PIECES:

John Woodvil: a Tragedy (from the Edition of 1802).

Mr. H----, a Farce.

The Wife's Trial; or, The Intruding Widow.

The Pawnbroker's Daughter.

POEMS:

Sonnets and other Poems printed with those of Coleridge in 1796-7,
1800, and 1813.

Blank Verse (from the Edition of 1798).

Poetry for Children, 1809.

Album Verses, 1830.

Satan in Search of a Wife, 1831, &c.

* * * * *

=Lamb (Mary & Charles): Their Poems, Letters, and Remains.= Now first
collected, with Reminiscences and Notes, by W. CAREW HAZLITT. With
HANCOCK'S Portrait of the Essayist, Facsimiles of the Title-pages of
the rare First Editions of Lamb's and Coleridge's Works, Facsimile of
a Page of the Original MS. of the "Essay on Roast Pig," and numerous
Illustrations of Lamb's Favourite Haunts. Crown 8vo, cloth extra,
10_s._ 6_d._; LARGE-PAPER COPIES 21_s._

"Mr. W.C. Hazlitt has published a very pretty and interesting
little volume. It has many pictorial illustrations, which were
supplied by Mr. Camden Hotten; and, above all, it contains a
facsimile of the first page of Elia on 'Roast Pig.' It is well
got up, and has a good portrait of Elia. There are also some
letters and poems of Mary Lamb which are not easily accessible
elsewhere."--_Westminster Review._

"Must be consulted by all future biographers of the
Lambs."--_Daily News._

"Tells us a good deal that is interesting and something that is
fairly new."--_Graphic._

"Very many passages will delight those fond of literary trifles;
hardly any portion will fail to have its interest for lovers of
Charles Lamb and his sister."--_Standard._

"Mr. Hazlitt's work is very important and valuable, and all lovers
of Elia will thank him for what he has done."--_Sunday Times._

"Will be joyfully received by all Lambites."--_Globe._

* * * * *

=Lee (General Edward): His Life and Campaigns.= By his Nephew,
EDWARD LEE CHILDE. With Portrait and Plans. 1 vol. Crown 8vo. [_In
preparation._

* * * * *

=Life in London=; or, The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn
and Corinthian Tom. WITH THE WHOLE OF CRUIKSHANK'S VERY DROLL
ILLUSTRATIONS, in Colours, after the Originals. Crown 8vo, cloth
extra, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Literary Scraps.= A Folio Scrap-Book of 340 columns, with guards,
for the reception of Cuttings from Newspapers, Extracts, Miscellanea,
&c. In folio, half-roan, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Little London Directory of 1677.= The Oldest Printed List of the
Merchants and Bankers of London. Reprinted from the Rare Original,
with an Introduction by JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN. 16mo, binding after the
original, 6_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration]

=Longfellow's Prose Works=, complete, including "Outre-Mer,"
"Hyperion," "Kavanagh," "Driftwood," "On the Poets and Poetry of
Europe." With Portrait and Illustrations by BROMLEY. 800 pages, crown
8vo, cloth gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

*** _The reader will find the present edition of Longfellow's
Prose Writings by far the most complete ever issued in this
country. "Outre-Mer" contains two additional chapters, restored
from the first edition; while "The Poets and Poetry of Europe,"
and the little collection of Sketches entitled "Driftwood," are
now first introduced to the English public._

* * * * *

=Lost Beauties of the English Language.= An Appeal to Authors, Poets,
Clergymen, and Public Speakers. By CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D. Crown 8vo,
cloth extra, 6_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Linton's (Mrs. E. Lynn) True History of Joshua Davidson, Christian
and Communist.= SIXTH EDITION, with a New Preface. Small crown 8vo,
cloth extra, 4_s._ 6_d._

"In a short and vigorous preface, Mrs. Linton defends, in certain
points, her notion of the logical outcome of Christianity as
embodied in this attempt to conceive how Christ would have
acted, with whom He would have fraternised, and who would
have declined to receive Him, had He appeared in the present
generation."--_Examiner._

* * * * *

MRS. LYNN LINTON'S NEW NOVEL.

=Patricia Kemball=: A Novel, by E. LYNN LINTON, Author of "Joshua
Davidson," &c., in Three Vols. crown 8vo, is now ready at all the
Libraries and at the Booksellers'.

"Perhaps the ablest novel published in London this year.... We
know of nothing in the novels we have lately read equal to the
scene in which Mr. Hamley proposes to Dora.... We advise our
readers to send to the library for the story."--_Athenæum._

"This novel is distinguished by qualities which entitle it to a
place apart from the ordinary fiction of the day; ... displays
genuine humour, as well as keen social observation.... Enough
graphic portraiture and witty observation to furnish materials for
half a dozen novels of the ordinary kind."--_Saturday Review._

* * * * *

=Madre Natura= _versus_ The Moloch of Fashion.= A Social Essay. By
LUKE LIMNER. With 32 Illustrations by the Author. FOURTH EDITION,
revised, corrected, and enlarged. Crown 8vo, cloth extra gilt, red
edges, price 2_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration]

"Bravo, Luke Limner! In this treatise, aptly and ably illustrated,
the well-known artist scathingly exposes the evils of the present
fashions--more especially of tight-lacing. Girls should be made to
learn it by heart, and act on its precepts."--_Fun._

"Agreeably written and amusingly illustrated. Common sense and
erudition are brought to bear on the subjects discussed in
it."--_Lancet._

* * * * *

=Magna Charta.= An exact Facsimile of the Original Document in the
British Museum, carefully drawn, and printed on fine plate paper,
nearly 3 feet long by 2 feet wide, with the Arms and Seals of the
Barons emblazoned in Gold and Colours. Price 5_s._

A full Translation, with Notes, printed on a large sheet, price 6_d._

* * * * *

AUTHOR'S CORRECTED EDITION.

=Mark Twain's Choice Works.= Revised and Corrected throughout by the
Author. With Life, Portrait, and numerous Illustrations. 700 pages,
cloth extra gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * *

=Mark Twain's Pleasure Trip on the Continent of Europe.= With
Frontispiece. 500 pages, illustrated boards, 2_s._; or cloth extra,
2_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Marston's (Dr. Westland) Poetical and Dramatic Works.= A New and
Collected Library Edition, in Two Vols. crown 8vo, is now in the
press, and will be ready very shortly.

* * * * *

MR. PHILIP MARSTON'S POEMS.

=Song Tide=, and other Poems. By PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON. SECOND
EDITION. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 8_s._

"This is a first work of extraordinary performance and of still
more extraordinary promise. The youngest school of English poetry
has received an important accession to its ranks in Philip Bourke
Marston."--_Examiner._

"Mr. Marston has fairly established his claim to be heard as a
poet.... His present volume is well worthy of careful perusal, as
the utterance of a poetic, cultivated mind."--_Standard._

"We have spoken plainly of some defects in the poetry before
us, but we have read much of it with interest, and even
admiration."--_Pall Mall Gazette._

* * *

=All in All=: Poems and Sonnets. By PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON. Crown 8vo,
cloth extra, 8_s._

* * * * *

=Mayhew's London Characters=: Illustrations of the Humour, Pathos,
and Peculiarities of London Life. By HENRY MAYHEW, Author of "London
Labour and the London Poor," and other Writers. With nearly 100
graphic Illustrations by W. S. GILBERT, and others. Crown 8vo, cloth
extra, 6_s._

"Well fulfils the promise of its title.... The book is an
eminently interesting one, and will probably attract many
readers."--_Court Circular._

* * * * *

=Memorials of Manchester Streets.= By RICHARD WRIGHT PROCTER. With
an Appendix, containing "The Chetham Library," by JAMES CROSSLEY,
F.S.A.; and "Old Manchester and its Worthies," by JAMES CROSTON,
F.S.A. Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Photographic Frontispiece and
numerous Illustrations, 15_s._

* * * * *

=Monumental Inscriptions of the West Indies=, from the Earliest
Date, with Genealogical and Historical Annotations, &c., from
Original, Local, and other Sources. Illustrative of the Histories
and Genealogies of the Seventeenth Century, the Calendars of State
Papers, Peerages, and Baronetages. With Engravings of the Arms of
the principal Families. Chiefly collected on the spot by the Author,
Capt. J. H. LAWRENCE-ARCHER. Demy 4to, cloth extra, 42_s._ [_Nearly
ready._

* * * * *

=Muses of Mayfair=: Vers de Société of the Nineteenth Century,
including selections from TENNYSON, BROWNING, SWINBURNE,
ROSSETTI, JEAN INGELOW, LOCKER, INGOLDSBY, HOOD, LYTTON, C. S.
C., LANDOR, HENRY S. LEIGH, and very many others. Edited by H.
CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL, Author of "Puck on Pegasus." Beautifully
printed, cloth extra gilt, gilt edges, uniform with "The Golden
Treasury of Thought," 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

MR. O'SHAUGHNESSY'S POEMS.

=Music and Moonlight=: Poems and Songs. By ARTHUR O'SHAUGHNESSY,
Author of "An Epic of Women." Fcap. 8vo, cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._

"It is difficult to say which is more exquisite, the technical
perfection of structure and melody, or the delicate pathos of
thought. Mr. O'Shaughnessy will enrich our literature with some of
the very best songs written in our generation."--_Academy._

* * * * *

=An Epic of Women=, and other Poems. SECOND EDITION. Fcap. 8vo, cloth
extra, 6_s._

"Of the formal art of poetry he is in many senses quite a master;
his metres are not only good,--they are his own, and often of an
invention most felicitous as well as careful."--_Academy._

* * * * *

=Lays of France.= (Founded on the "Lays of Marie.") SECOND EDITION.
Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 10_s._ 6_d._

"As we have before remarked in noticing an earlier volume of
his, this modern votary of Marie has, in imaginative power, keen
intuition, and ear, a genuine claim to be writing poetry, as
things go now.... And Mr. O'S. is also an accomplished master in
those peculiar turns of rhythm which are designed to reproduce the
manner of the mediæval originals."--_Saturday Review._

* * * * *

=Mystery of the Good Old Cause=: Sarcastic Notices of those Members
of the Long Parliament that held Places, both Civil and Military,
contrary to the Self-denying Ordinance of April 3, 1645; with the
Sums of Money and Lands they divided among themselves. Small 4to,
half-morocco, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Napoleon III., the Man of His Time=; from Caricatures. PART I. THE
STORY OF THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON III., as told by J. M. HASWELL. PART
II. THE SAME STORY, as told by the POPULAR CARICATURES of the past
Thirty-five Years. Crown 8vo, with Coloured Frontispiece and over 100
Caricatures, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Original Lists of Persons of Quality=; Emigrants; Religious Exiles;
Political Rebels; Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years; Apprentices;
Children Stolen; Maidens Pressed; and others who went from Great
Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. With their Ages, the
Localities where they formerly Lived in the Mother Country, Names of
the Ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars.
From MSS. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's
Public Record Office, England. Edited by JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN. A very
handsome volume, crown 4to, cloth gilt, 700 pages, 38_s._ A few Large
Paper copies have been printed, price 60_s._

"This volume is an English Family Record, and as such may be
commended to English families, and the descendants of English
families, wherever they exist."--_Academy._

* * * * *

THE OLD DRAMATISTS.

MR. SWINBURNE'S NEW ESSAY.

=George Chapman's Poems and Minor
Translations.= Complete, including some Pieces now first printed.
With an Essay on the Dramatic and Poetical Works of GEORGE
CHAPMAN, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. Crown 8vo, with Frontispiece,
cloth extra, 6_s._

* * *

=George Chapman's Translations of
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.= Edited by RICHARD HERNE
SHEPHERD. In one volume, crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._

* * *

=George Chapman's Plays=, Complete, from
the Original Quartos, including the doubtful Plays. Edited by
R. H. SHEPHERD. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Frontispiece, 6_s._

* * *

=Ben Jonson's Works.= With Notes, Critical
and Explanatory, and a Biographical Memoir by WILLIAM
GIFFORD. Edited by Lieut.-Col. FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM. Complete
in 3 vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, Portrait, 6_s._ each.

* * *

=Christopher Marlowe's Works=; Including
his Translations. Edited, with Notes and Introduction, by
Lt.-Col. F. CUNNINGHAM. Cr. 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, Portrait, 6_s._

* * *

=Philip Massinger's Plays.= From the
Text of WM. GIFFORD. With the addition of the Tragedy of
"Believe as You List." Edited by Lieut.-Col. FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM.
Crown 8vo, cloth extra gilt, with Portrait, price 6_s._

* * * * *

OLD BOOKS--FACSIMILE REPRINTS.

=Musarum Deliciæ=; or, The Muses' Recreation, 1656; Wit Restor'd,
1658; and Wit's Recreations, 1640. The whole compared with the
originals; with all the Wood Engravings, Plates, Memoirs, and Notes.
A New Edition, in 2 vols., post 8vo, printed on antique laid paper,
and bound in antique boards, 21_s._

* * *

=Rump (The)=; or, An Exact Collection of the choicest POEMS and SONGS
relating to the late Times, and continued by the most eminent Wits;
from Anno 1639 to 1661. A Facsimile Reprint of the rare Original
Edition (London, 1662), with Frontispiece and Engraved Title-page. In
2 vols., large fcap. 8vo, printed on antique laid paper, and bound in
antique boards, 17_s._ 6_d._

* * *

=D'Urfey's ("Tom") Wit and Mirth=; or, PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY:
Being a Collection of the best Merry Ballads and Songs, Old and New.
Fitted to all Humours, having each their proper Tune for either Voice
or Instrument: most of the Songs being new set. London: Printed by W.
Pearson, for J. Tonson, at Shakespeare's Head, over-against Catherine
Street in the Strand, 1719. An exact reprint. In 6 vols., large fcap.
8vo, printed on antique laid paper, antique boards, £3 3_s._

* * *

=English Rogue (The)=, described in the Life of MERITON LATROON, and
other Extravagants, comprehending the most Eminent Cheats of both
Sexes. By RICHARD HEAD and FRANCIS KIRKMAN. A Facsimile Reprint of
the rare Original Edition (1665-1672), with Frontispiece, Facsimiles
of the 12 copper plates, and Portraits of the Authors. In 4 vols.,
large fcap. 8vo, printed on antique laid paper, and bound in antique
boards, 36_s._

* * *

=Westminster Drolleries=: Being a choice Collection of Songs
and Poems sung at Court and Theatres. With Additions made by a
Person of Quality. Now first reprinted in exact facsimile from the
Original Editions of 1671 and 1672. Edited, with an Introduction
on the Literature of the Drolleries, a copious Appendix of Notes,
Illustrations, and Emendations of Text, Table of Contents, and Index
of First Lines, by J. WOODFALL EBSWORTH, M.A. Cantab. Large fcap.
8vo, printed on antique paper, and bound in antique boards, 10_s._
6_d._; large paper copies, 21_s._

* * *

=Ireland Forgeries.--Confessions of= WILLIAM-HENRY IRELAND.
Containing the Particulars of his Fabrication of the Shakspeare
Manuscripts; together with Anecdotes and Opinions (hitherto
unpublished) of many Distinguished Persons in the Literary,
Political, and Theatrical World. A Facsimile Reprint from the
Original Edition, with several additional Facsimiles. Fcap. 8vo,
printed on antique laid paper, and bound in antique boards, 10_s._
6_d._; a few Large Paper copies, at 21_s._

* * *

=Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.= 1785. An unmutilated
Reprint of the First Edition. Quarto, bound in half-Roxburghe, gilt
top, price 8_s._

* * *

=Joe Miller's Jests=: the politest Repartees, most elegant Bon-Mots,
and most pleasing short Stories in the English Language. London:
printed by T. Read. 1739. A Facsimile of the Original Edition. 8vo,
half-morocco, 9_s._ 6_d._

* * *

=Old Prose Stories (The)= whence TENNYSON'S "Idylls of the King" were
taken. By B. M. RANKING. Royal 16mo, paper cover, 1_s._; cloth extra,
1_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

OLD SHEKARRY'S WORKS.

=Forest and Field=: Life and Adventure in Wild Africa. By the OLD
SHEKARRY. With Eight Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt,
6_s._

* * *

=Wrinkles=; or, Hints to Sportsmen and Travellers upon Dress,
Equipment, Armament, and Camp Life. By the OLD SHEKARRY. A New
Edition, with Illustrations. Small crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 6_s._

* * * * *

OUIDA'S NOVELS.

Uniform Edition, each Complete in One Volume, crown 8vo, red
cloth extra, price 5_s._ each.

=Folle Farine.=

=Idalia=: A Romance.

=Chandos=: A Novel.

=Under Two Flags.=

=Cecil Castlemaine's Gage.=

=Tricotrin=: The Story of a Waif and Stray.

=Pascarèl=: Only a Story.

=Held In Bondage=; or, Granville de Vigne.

=Puck=: His Vicissitudes, Adventures, &c.

=A Dog of Flanders=, and other Stories.

=Strathmore=; or, Wrought by his Own Hand.

=Two Little Wooden Shoes.=

* * * * *

=Parochial History of the County of Cornwall.= Compiled from the best
Authorities, and corrected and improved from actual Survey. 4 vols.
4to, cloth extra, £3 3_s._ the set; or, separately, the first three
volumes, 16_s._ each; the fourth volume, 18_s._

* * * * *

=Plain English.= By JOHN HOLLINGSHEAD. One vol., crown 8vo.
[_Preparing._

* * * * *

=Private Book of Useful Alloys and Memoranda for Goldsmiths and
Jewellers.= By JAMES E. COLLINS, C.E. Royal 16mo, 3_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

SEVENTH EDITION OF
=Puck on Pegasus.= By H. CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL.

Profusely illustrated by the late JOHN LEECH, H. K. BROWNE, Sir NOEL
PATON, JOHN MILLAIS, JOHN TENNIEL, RICHARD DOYLE, Miss ELLEN EDWARDS,
and other artists. A New Edition (the SEVENTH), crown 8vo, cloth
extra, gilt, price 5_s._; or gilt edges, 6_s._

"The book is clever and amusing, vigorous and healthy."--_Saturday
Review._

"The epigrammatic drollery of Mr. Cholmondeley-Pennell's 'Puck
on Pegasus' is well known to many of our readers.... The present
(_the sixth_) is a superb and handsomely printed and illustrated
edition of the book."--_Times._

"Specially fit for reading in the family circle."--_Observer._

* * * * *

"AN AWFULLY JOLLY BOOK FOR PARTIES."

=Puniana=: Thoughts Wise and Otherwise. By the Hon. HUGH ROWLEY. Best
Book of Riddles and Puns ever formed. With nearly 100 exquisitely
Fanciful Drawings. Contains nearly 3000 of the best Riddles, and
10,000 most outrageous Puns, and is one of the most Popular Books
ever issued. New Edition, small quarto, green and gold, gilt edges,
price 6_s._

"Enormous burlesque--unapproachable and pre-eminent. We think this
very queer volume will be a favourite. We should suggest that,
to a dull person desirous to get credit with the young holiday
people, it would be good policy to invest in the book, and dole it
out by instalments."--_Saturday Review._

Also,

=More Puniana.=

By the Hon. HUGH ROWLEY. Containing nearly 100 beautifully
executed Drawings, and a splendid Collection of Riddles and Puns,
rivalling those in the First Volume. Small 4to, green and gold,
gilt edges, uniform with the First Series, 6_s._

[Illustration: _When are persons entitled to speak like a
book? Only when they are a tome on the subject._]

* * * * *

[Illustration]

=Pursuivant of Arms (The)=; or, Heraldry founded upon Facts. A
Popular Guide to the Science of Heraldry. By J. R. PLANCHÉ, Esq.,
F.S.A., Somerset Herald. To which are added, Essays on the BADGES OF
THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK. A New Edition, enlarged and revised
by the Author, illustrated with Coloured Frontispiece, Five full-page
Plates, and about 200 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, bound in cloth extra,
gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Practical Assayer=: A Guide to Miners and Explorers. By OLIVER
NORTH. With Tables and Illustrative Woodcuts. Crown 8vo, 7_s._ 6_d._

*** _This book gives directions, in the simplest form, for
assaying bullion and the baser metals by the cheapest, quickest,
and best methods. Those interested in mining property will be
enabled, by following its instructions, to form a tolerably
correct idea of the value of ores, without previous knowledge of
assaying; while to the young man seeking his fortune in mining
countries it is indispensable._

"Likely to prove extremely useful. The instructions are clear and
precise."--_Chemist and Druggist._

"An admirable little volume."--_Mining Journal._

"We cordially recommend this compact little volume to all engaged
in mining enterprize, and especially to explorers."--_Monetary and
Mining Review._

* * * * *

GUSTAVE DORÉ'S DESIGNS.

=Rabelais' Works.= Faithfully translated from the French, with
variorum Notes, and numerous characteristic Illustrations by GUSTAVE
DORÉ. Cr. 8vo, cl. extra, 700 pp. 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

UNIFORM WITH "WONDERFUL CHARACTERS."

=Remarkable Trials and Notorious Characters.= From "Half-Hanged
Smith," 1700, to Oxford, who shot at the Queen, 1840. By Captain L.
BENSON. With spirited full-page Engravings by PHIZ. 8vo, 550 pages,
7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Rochefoucauld's Reflections and Moral Maxims.= With Introductory
Essay by SAINTE-BEUVE, and Explanatory Notes. Cloth extra, 1_s._
6_d._

* * * * *

=Reminiscences of the late Thomas Assheton Smith, Esq.=; or, The
Pursuits of an English Country Gentleman. By Sir J. E. EARDLEY
WILMOT, Bart. A New and Revised Edition, with Steel-plate Portrait,
and plain and coloured Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7_s._
6_d._

* * * * *

=Roll of Battle Abbey=; or, A List of the Principal Warriors who came
over from Normandy with William the Conqueror, and Settled in this
Country, A.D. 1066-7. Carefully drawn, and printed on fine plate
paper, nearly three feet by two feet, with the Arms of the principal
Barons elaborately emblazoned in Gold and Colours. Price 5_s._; or,
handsomely framed in carved oak of an antique pattern, 22_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Roll of Caerlaverock=, the Oldest Heraldic Roll; including the
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* * * * *

=Roman Catholics in the County of York in 1604.= Transcribed from the
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Roundheads and Cavaliers, 1642." Small 4to, handsomely printed and
bound, 15_s._

*** _Genealogists and Antiquaries will find much new and curious
matter in this work. An elaborate Index refers to every name in
the volume, among which will be found many of the highest local
interest._

* * * * *

=Ross's (Chas. H.) Story of a Honeymoon.= A New Edition of this
charmingly humorous book, with numerous Illustrations by the Author.
Fcap. 8vo, illustrated boards, 2_s._

* * * * *

=School Life at Winchester College=; or, The Reminiscences of a
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"The Water Lily on the Danube." Second Edition, Revised, COLOURED
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* * * * *

=Schopenhauer's The World Considered as Will and Imagination.=
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* * * * *

THE "SECRET OUT" SERIES.

Crown 8vo, cloth extra, profusely Illustrated, price 4_s._ 6_d._ each.

=Art of Amusing.= A Collection of Graceful Arts, Games, Tricks,
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* * *

=Hanky-Panky.= A Wonderful Book of Very Easy Tricks, Very Difficult
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Deceptions which the Great Wizards call "Hanky-Panky." Edited by W.
H. CREMER. With nearly 200 Illustrations.

* * *

=Magician's Own Book.= Ample Instruction for Performances with Cups
and Balls, Eggs, Hats, Handkerchiefs, &c. All from Actual Experience.
Edited by W. H. CREMER. With 200 Illustrations.

* * *

=Magic No Mystery.= A Splendid Collection of Tricks with Cards, Dice,
Balls, &c., with fully descriptive working Directions. With very
numerous Illustrations. [_Nearly ready._

* * *

=Merry Circle (The)=, and How the Visitors were entertained during
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* * *

=Secret Out=; or, One Thousand Tricks with Cards, and other
Recreations; with Entertaining Experiments in Drawing Room or "White
Magic." Edited by W. H. CREMER. With 300 Engravings.

* * *

=Shelley's Early Life.= From Original Sources. With Curious
Incidents, Letters, and Writings, now First Published or Collected.
By DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY. Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, 440
pages, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * *

=Sheridan's Complete Works=, with Life and Anecdotes. Including his
Dramatic Writings, printed from the Original Editions, his Works
in Prose and Poetry, Translations, Speeches, Jokes, Puns, &c.;
with a Collection of Sheridaniana. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, with 10
beautifully executed Portraits and Scenes from his Plays, 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Signboards=: Their History. With Anecdotes of Famous Taverns and
Remarkable Characters. By JACOB LARWOOD and JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN.
SEVENTH EDITION. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._

"It is not fair on the part of a reviewer to pick out the plums of
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inclined, we could not in the present instance pick out all
Messrs. Larwood and Hotten's plums, because the good things are so
numerous as to defy the most wholesale depredation."--_The Times._

[Illustration: HELP ME THROUGH THIS WORLD!]

*** _Nearly 100 most curious illustrations on wood are given,
showing the signs which were formerly hung from taverns, &c._

HANDBOOK OF COLLOQUIALISMS.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE WEDGE AND THE WOODEN SPOON.]

=The Slang Dictionary=: Etymological, Historical, and Anecdotal. An
ENTIRELY NEW EDITION, revised throughout, and considerably Enlarged,
containing upwards of a thousand more words than the last edition.
Crown 8vo, with Curious Illustrations, cloth extra, 6_s._ 6_d._

"Peculiarly a book which 'no gentleman's library should be
without,' while to costermongers and thieves it is absolutely
indispensable."--_Dispatch._

"Interesting and curious. Contains as many as it was possible to
collect of all the words and phrases of modern slang in use at the
present time."--_Public Opinion._

"In every way a great improvement on the edition of 1864. Its uses
as a dictionary of the very vulgar tongue do not require to be
explained."--_Notes and Queries._

"Compiled with most exacting care, and based on the best
authorities."--_Standard._

"In 'The Slang Dictionary' we have not only a book that reflects
credit upon the philologist; it is also a volume that will repay,
at any time, a dip into its humorous pages."--_Figaro._

* * * * *

WEST-END LIFE AND DOINGS.

=Story of the London Parks.= By JACOB LARWOOD. With numerous
Illustrations, Coloured and Plain. In One thick Volume, crown 8vo,
cloth extra, gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

*** _A most interesting work, giving a complete History of these
favourite out-of-door resorts, from the earliest period to the
present time._

* * * * *

A KEEPSAKE FOR SMOKERS.

=Smoker's Text-Book.= By J. HAMER, F.R.S.L. Exquisitely printed from
"silver-faced" type, cloth, very neat, gilt edges, 2_s._ 6_d._, post
free.

* * * * *

CHARMING NEW TRAVEL-BOOK.

[Illustration: "It may be we shall touch the happy isles."]

=Summer Cruising in the South Seas.= By CHARLES WARREN STODDARD. With
Twenty-five Engravings on Wood, drawn by WALLIS MACKAY. Crown 8vo,
cloth, extra gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._

"This is a very amusing book, and full of that quiet humour for
which the Americans are so famous. We have not space to enumerate
all the picturesque descriptions, the poetical thoughts, which
have so charmed us in this volume; but we recommend our readers to
go to the South Seas with Mr. Stoddard in his prettily illustrated
and amusingly written little book."--_Vanity Fair._

"Mr. Stoddard's book is delightful reading, and in Mr.
Wallis Mackay he has found a most congenial and poetical
illustrator."--_Bookseller._

"A remarkable book, which has a certain wild
picturesqueness."--_Standard._

"The author's experiences are very amusingly related, and, in
parts, with much freshness and originality."--_Judy._

"Mr. Stoddard is a humourist; 'Summer Cruising' has a good deal of
undeniable amusement."--_Nation._

* * * * *

=Syntax's (Dr.) Three Tours.= With the whole of ROWLANDSON'S very
droll full-page Illustrations, in Colours, after the Original
Drawings. Comprising the well-known TOURS--1. IN SEARCH OF THE
PICTURESQUE. 2. IN SEARCH OF CONSOLATION. 3. IN SEARCH OF A WIFE.
The Three Series Complete, with a Life of the Author by JOHN CAMDEN
HOTTEN. Medium 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, price 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Theseus: A Greek Fairy Legend.= Illustrated, in a series of Designs
in Gold and Sepia, by JOHN MOYR SMITH. With descriptive text. Oblong
folio, price 7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

[Illustration: THEODORE HOOK'S HOUSE, NEAR PUTNEY.]

=Theodore Hook's Choice Humorous Works=, with his Ludicrous
Adventures, Bons-mots, Puns, and Hoaxes. With a new Life of the
Author, PORTRAITS, FACSIMILES, and ILLUSTRATIONS. Crown 8vo, 600
pages, cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._

*** "As a wit and humourist of the highest order his name will
be preserved. His political songs and _jeux d'esprit_, when the
hour comes for collecting them, _will form a volume of sterling
and lasting attraction_!"--J. G. LOCKHART.

* * * * *

MR. SWINBURNE'S WORKS.

SECOND EDITION NOW READY OF

=Bothwell=: A Tragedy. By ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. Crown 8vo,
cloth extra, pp. 540, 12_s._ 6_d._

"Mr. Swinburne's most prejudiced critic cannot, we think, deny
that 'Bothwell' is a poem of a very high character. Every line
bears traces of power, individuality, and vivid imagination. The
versification, while characteristically supple and melodious, also
attains, in spite of some affectations, to a sustained strength
and dignity of a remarkable kind. Mr. Swinburne is not only a
master of the music of language, but he has that indescribable
touch which discloses the true poet--the touch that lifts from off
the ground."--_Saturday Review._

"It is not too much to say that, should he never write anything
more, the poet has by this work firmly established his position,
and given us a poem upon which his fame may safely rest. He no
longer indulges in that frequent alliteration, or that oppressive
wealth of imagery and colour, which gave rhythm and splendour to
some of his works, but would have been out of place in a grand
historical poem; we have now a fair opportunity of judging what
the poet can do when deprived of such adventitious aid,--and the
verdict is, that he must henceforth rank amongst the first of
British authors."--_Graphic._

"The whole drama flames and rings with high passions and
great deeds. The imagination is splendid; the style large and
imperial; the insight into character keen; the blank verse
varied, sensitive, flexible, alive. Mr. Swinburne has once more
proved his right to occupy a seat among the lofty singers of our
land."--_Daily News._

"A really grand, statuesque dramatic work.... The reader will
here find Mr. Swinburne at his very best; if manliness, dignity,
and fulness of style are superior to mere pleasant singing and
alliterative lyrics."--_Standard._

"Splendid pictures, subtle analyses of passion, and wonderful
studies of character will repay him who attains the end.... In
this huge volume are many fine and some unsurpassable things.
Subtlest traits of character abound, and descriptive passages of
singular delicacy."--_Athenæum._

"There can be no doubt of the dramatic force of the poem. It
is severely simple in its diction, and never dull; there are
innumerable fine touches on almost every page."--_Scotsman._

"'Bothwell' shows us Mr. Swinburne at a point immeasurably
superior to any that he has yet achieved. It will confirm and
increase the reputation which his daring genius has already won.
He has handled a difficult subject with a mastery of art which is
a true intellectual triumph."--_Hour._

* * *

=Chastelard=: A Tragedy. Foolscap 8vo, 7_s._

* * *

=Poems and Ballads.= Foolscap 8vo, 9_s._

* * *

=Notes on "Poems and Ballads,"= and on the Reviews of them. Demy 8vo,
1_s._

* * *

=Songs before Sunrise.= Post 8vo, 10_s._ 6_d._

* * *

=Atalanta in Calydon.= Fcap. 8vo, 6_s._

* * *

=The Queen Mother and Rosamond.= Foolscap 8vo, 5_s._

* * *

=A Song of Italy.= Foolscap 8vo, 3_s._ 6_d._

* * *

=Ode on the Proclamation of the French Republic.= Demy 8vo, 1_s._

* * *

=Under the Microscope.= Post 8vo, 2_s._ 6_d._

* * *

=William Blake=: A Critical Essay. With facsimile Paintings, Coloured
by Hand, after the Drawings by Blake and his Wife. Demy 8vo, 16_s._

* * * * *

THE THACKERAY SKETCH-BOOK.

[Illustration]

=THACKERAYANA=: Notes and Anecdotes, Illustrated by about Six Hundred
Sketches by WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, depicting Humorous Incidents
in his School-life, and Favourite Scenes and Characters in the books
of his every-day reading, NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME PUBLISHED, from the
Original Drawings made on the margins of his books, &c. Large post
8vo, clth. extra gilt, gilt top, price 12_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration]

"It is Thackeray's aim to represent life as it is actually and
historically--men and women as they are, in those situations in
which they are usually placed, with that mixture of good and
evil, of strength and foible, which is to be found in their
characters, and liable only to those incidents which are of
ordinary occurrence. He will have no faultless characters, no
demi-gods,--nothing but men and brethren."--DAVID MASSON.

* * * * *

=Timbs' English Eccentrics and Eccentricities.= Stories of Wealth
and Fashion, Delusions, Impostures and Fanatic Missions, Strange
Sights and Sporting Scenes, Eccentric Artists, Theatrical Folks, Men
of Letters, &c. By JOHN TIMES, F.S.A. An entirely New Edition, with
about 50 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 600 pages, 7_s._ 6_d._

[Illustration: _Sir Lumley Skeffington at the Birthday Ball._]

=Timbs' Clubs and Club Life in London.= With ANECDOTES of its FAMOUS
COFFEE HOUSES, HOSTELRIES, and TAVERNS. By JOHN TIMBS, F.S.A. New
Edition, with NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS drawn expressly. Crown 8vo,
cloth extra, 600 pages, 7_s._ 6_d._

*** _A Companion to "The History of Sign-Boards."_ _It abounds in
quaint stories of the_ Blue Stocking, Kit-Kat, Beef Steak, Robin
Hood, Mohocks, Scriblerus, One o'Clock, the Civil, _and hundreds
of other Clubs; together with_ Tom's, Dick's, Button's, Ned's,
Will's, _and the famous Coffee Houses of the last century_.

"The book supplies a much-felt want. The club is the avenue to
general society at the present day, and Mr. Timbs gives the
_entrée_ to the club. The scholar and antiquary will also find
the work a repertory of information on many disputed points of
literary interest, and especially respecting various well-known
anecdotes, the value of which only increases with the lapse of
time."--_Morning Post._

=Blake's Works.= Messrs. CHATTO & WINDUS have in preparation a
series of Reproductions in Facsimile of the Works of WILLIAM
BLAKE, including the "Songs of Innocence and Experience," "The
Book of Thel," "America," "The Vision of the Daughters of
Albion," "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," "Europe, a Prophecy,"
"Jerusalem," "Milton," "Urizen," "The Song of Los," &c. These
Works will be issued both coloured and plain.

* * * * *

=Taylor's History of Playing Cards.= With Sixty curious
Illustrations. 550 pp., crown 8vo, cloth, extra gilt, price 7_s._
6_d._

*** _Ancient and Modern Games, Conjuring, Fortune-Telling,
and Card Sharping, Gambling and Calculation, Cartomancy, Old
Gaming-Houses, Card Revels and Blind Hookey, Picquet and
Vingt-et-un, Whist and Cribbage, Tricks, &c._

* * * * *

=Vagabondiana=; or, Anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers through the
Streets of London; with Portraits of the most remarkable, drawn from
the Life by JOHN THOMAS SMITH, late Keeper of the Prints in the
British Museum. With Introduction by FRANCIS DOUCE, and descriptive
text. Reprinted from the original, with the Woodcuts, and the 32
Plates, from the original Coppers, in crown 4to, half Roxburghe,
price 12_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

"LES MISÉRABLES." Complete in Three Parts.

=Victor Hugo's Fantine.= Now first published in an English
Translation, complete and unabridged, with the exception of a few
advisable omissions. Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2_s._

"This work has something more than the beauties of an exquisite
style or the word-compelling power of a literary Zeus to recommend
it to the tender care of a distant posterity: in dealing with all
the emotions, passions, doubts, fears, which go to make up our
common humanity, M. Victor Hugo has stamped upon every page the
Hall-mark of genius and the loving patience and conscientious
labour of a true artist. But the merits of 'Les Misérables' do not
merely consist in the conception of it as a whole; it abounds,
page after page, with details of unequalled beauty."--_Quarterly
Review._
* * *
=Victor Hugo's Cosette and Marius.= Translated into English,
complete, uniform with "Fantine." Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2_s._

* * *

=Victor Hugo's Saint Denis and Jean Valjean.= Translated into
English, complete, uniform with the above. Post 8vo, illustrated
boards, 2_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Vyner's Notitia Venatica=: A Treatise on Fox-Hunting, the General
Management of Hounds, and the Diseases of Dogs; Distemper and Rabies;
Kennel Lameness, &c. Sixth Edition, Enlarged. By ROBERT C. VYNER.
WITH SPIRITED ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOURS, BY ALKEN, OF MEMORABLE
FOX-HUNTING SCENES. Royal 8vo, cloth extra, 21_s._

*** _An entirely new edition of the best work on Fox-Hunting._

* * * * *

=Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.= The Complete Work, precisely as
issued by the Author in Washington. A thick volume, 8vo, green cloth,
price 9_s._

* * * * *

[Illustration]

=Walton and Cotton, Illustrated.=--=The Complete Angler=; or,
the Contemplative Man's Recreation; being a Discourse of Rivers,
Fish-ponds, Fish and Fishing, written by IZAAK WALTON; and
Instructions how to Angle for a Trout or Grayling in a clear Stream,
by CHARLES COTTON. With Original Memoirs and Notes by Sir HARRIS
NICOLAS, K.C.M.G. With the whole 61 Illustrations, precisely as in
the royal 8vo two-volume Edition issued by Pickering. A New Edition,
complete in One Volume, large crown 8vo, with the Illustrations from
the original plates, printed on full pages, separately from the text,
7_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Warrant to Execute Charles I.= An exact Facsimile of this important
Document, with the Fifty-nine Signatures of the Regicides, and
corresponding Seals, admirably executed on paper made to imitate
the original document, 22 in. by 14 in. Price 2_s._; or, handsomely
framed and glazed in carved oak of antique pattern, 14_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Warrant to Execute Mary Queen of Scots.= The Exact Facsimile of this
important Document, including the Signature of Queen Elizabeth and
Facsimile of the Great Seal, on tinted paper, to imitate the Original
MS. Price 2_s._; or, handsomely framed and glazed in carved oak,
antique pattern, 14_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=Waterford Roll (The).=--Illuminated Charter-Roll of Waterford, Temp.
Richard II.

*** _Amongst the Corporation Muniments of the City of Waterford
is preserved an ancient Illuminated Roll, of great interest
and beauty, comprising all the early Charters and Grants to
the City of Waterford, from the time of Henry II. to Richard
II. A full-length Portrait of each King, whose Charter is
given--including Edward III., when young, and again at an advanced
age--adorns the margin. These Portraits, with the exception of
four which are smaller, and on one sheet of vellum, vary from
eight to nine inches in length--some in armour, and some in robes
of state. In addition to these are Portraits of an Archbishop
in full canonicals, of a Chancellor, and of many of the chief
Burgesses of the City of Waterford, as well as singularly curious
Portraits of the Mayors of Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, and
Cork, figured for the most part in the quaint bipartite costume
of the Second Richard's reign, though partaking of many of the
peculiarities of that of Edward III. Altogether this ancient
work of art is unique of its kind in Ireland, and deserves to
be rescued from oblivion, by the publication of the unedited
Charters, and of fac-similes of all the Illuminations. The
production of such a work would throw much light on the question
of the art and social habits of the Anglo-Norman settlers in
Ireland at the close of the fourteenth century. The Charters are,
many of them, highly important from an historic point of view._

_The Illuminations have been accurately traced and coloured for
the work from a copy carefully made, by permission of the Mayor
and Corporation of Waterford, by the late George V. Du Noyer,
Esq., M.R.I.A.; and those Charters which have not already appeared
in print will be edited by the Rev. James Graves, A.B., M.R.I.A.,
Hon. Secretary Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archæological
Society._

_The Work will be brought out in the best manner, with embossed
cover and characteristic title-page; and it will be put to press
as soon as 250 subscribers are obtained. The price, in imperial
4to, is 20s. to subscribers, or 30s. to non-subscribers._

* * * * *

=Wonderful Characters=: Memoirs and Anecdotes of Remarkable and
Eccentric Persons of Every Age and Nation. From the text of HENRY
WILSON and JAMES CAULFIELD. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Sixty-one
full-page Engravings of Extraordinary Persons, 7_s._ 6_d._

*** _There are so many curious matters discussed in this volume,
that any person who takes it up will not readily lay it down
until he has read it through. The Introduction is almost entirety
devoted to a consideration of Pig-Faced Ladies, and the various
stories concerning them._

* * * * *

=Wright's (Andrew) Court-Hand Restored=; or, Student's Assistant
in Reading Old Deeds, Charters, Records, &c. Half Morocco, a New
Edition, 10_s._ 6_d._

*** _The best guide to the reading of old Records, &c._

* * * * *

=Wright's Caricature History of the Georges= (House of Hanover). With
400 Pictures, Caricatures, Squibs, Broadsides, Window Pictures, &c.
By THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A., F.S.A. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7_s._
6_d._

[Illustration]

"A set of caricatures such as we have in Mr. Wright's volume
brings the surface of the age before us with a vividness that no
prose writer, even of the highest power, could emulate. Macaulay's
most brilliant sentence is weak by the side of the little woodcut
from Gillray, which gives us Burke and Fox."--_Saturday Review._

"A more amusing work of its kind was never issued."--_Art Journal._

"It is emphatically one of the liveliest of books, as also one of
the most interesting. It has the twofold merit of being at once
amusing and edifying."--_Morning Post._

* * * * *

=Yankee Drolleries=, Edited by G. A. SALA. Containing ARTEMUS WARD'S
BOOK; BIGLOW PAPERS; ORPHEUS C. KERR; JACK DOWNING; and NASBY PAPERS.
700 pp., 3_s._ 6_d._

* * * * *

=More Yankee Drolleries.= Containing ARTEMUS WARD'S TRAVELS; HANS
BREITMANN; PROFESSOR AT BREAKFAST TABLE; BIGLOW PAPERS, Part II.; and
JOSH BILLINGS; with Introduction by G. A. SALA. 700 pp., cloth, 3_s._
6_d._

* * * * *

=A Third Supply of Yankee Drolleries.= Containing ARTEMUS WARD'S
FENIANS; AUTOCRAT OF BREAKFAST TABLE; BRET HARTE'S STORIES; INNOCENTS
ABROAD; and NEW PILGRIM'S PROGRESS; with an Introduction by G. A.
SALA. 700 pp., cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._

Transcriber's Notes

In general, spelling is retained as printed. On occasion, apparent
printer's errors, however, are corrected, where the author uses a more
standard spelling elsewhere (e.g., 'acknowleges' on p. 283). Where the
printer simply missed a word (e.g.,'hand' on p. 151), it is added.

Incidental punctuation, especially of abbreviated words and in captions,
which is missing from the printed original, has been silently restored.

In the advertisement section at the end of the text, an asterism (three
asterisks arranged in an inverted triangle) are used as a 'bullet'.
In this text, these will be retained as "***".

This table summarizes the various issues detected, and their resolution.

p. xii LE MONDE BESTORN[E/É] Corrected.
p. 6 as 1185[,] B.C. Removed.
p. 57 and trepidation[.] Added.
p. 76 fat flesh and their platter;["] Probable
placement
p. 107 i[t] is evident from many allusions Added.
p. 151 luxury went hand in [hand] Added.
p. 153 a playful character[./,] or sometimes Added.
p. 155 N[u/ü]remberg Corrected.
p. 160 and [meats] with a courteous reception _sic._
p. 162 ["]should not be jougleurs, goliards, Probable
or buffoons;" placement.
p. 163 de [famila] Goliæ _sic._
p. 173 ["/']Adam, Adam ... Corrected.
p. 201 received by the [the ]emperor Hugo Removed.
p. 230 Here [beginneht] a merye jest _sic._
n. 74
p. 243 "Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles," ["]Poggio,"
"Straparola," Added.
seventee[n]th Added.
p. 254 the early book-hawkers[,/.] Corrected.
p. 289 acknowle[d]ged Added.
p. 335 aspired to be P[l]antagruelists Removed.
p. 344 Florent Chr[e]stien Added.
p. 396 who jilts her husband that way, a very ----[.]" Added.
p. 445 were [two/too] numerous Corrected.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "A History of Caricature and Grotesque - in Literature and Art" ***

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