Robert de Clermont, fifth fon of great St. Louis, and firft Lord de Bourbon; and when she was about to bring her famous fon into the world, her father, Albert II. king of Navarre (who never left the room) infisted on her finging fome ftanzas of a Bernoife ballad be tween the paroxyfms of parturition. This family had been closely pursued and carefully watched by Tufcan Catherine and her cruel Guifes, efpecially when Charles IX. died without iffue; yet after all, Henry the Third, leaving no heirs by beautiful but neglected Louife de Vaudemont, that lady caught his spirit of devotion, and turned nun; while the ambitious Florentine, forced to endure the fight of the young Bourbon fet on the throne of France, recurred to all her artifices, and fucceeded in making him divide it with her daughter Marguerite de Valois, hoping no doubt that when four of her children had fucceffively reigned in Paris, the fucceffion must be fixed in her own progeny for ever. In vain! Fair Margaret's gallantries were fo early notorious, her husband was obliged to fhut her up; and though, having obtained a divorce from her, he married a coufin of the fame Mediccan house, old Catherine broke her heart. She had adorned France with many beautiful buildings, and enriched it with valuable MSS. from Italy; but was juftly detefted by a people whofe blood the fpared not. Mary, though of the fame family, was no literary character: when the Swifs envoys came to compliment her, fhe, who understood them not, afked Melson what they faid? The courtier boldly replied: Madam, they fay your Majefty is more lovely and more excel'lent than any princefs ever feen on 'earth.' A perfon prefent fmiled :-'Well!' fays the Queen, Melfon 'tells what they ought to have said *.’ After her marriage with the King, Margaret was no more forbid the court, which the filled with her intrigues, her verses, her talents, her amours, and laftly, like her brothers, with her penances. Brantôme celebrates her wit and elegance, and her memoirs are deeply interefting. The Queen of Na varre's tales, however, were compofed for Henri the Fourth's grandmother, fifter to Francis the Firft. The book was named Les Marguerites de la Marguerite des Princeffes, très illuftre Reine de Navarre. Marguerite means a pearl, and likewife a daify. I fuppofe the compiler, who at first called it Heptameron, meant that his readers should confider these as picked pearls or flowers---choice tales. It was this lady's daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, who gave to the admiring world one of its gayeft, braveft, greateft chieftans, the gallant Henri IV. who loved his fubjects, protected their interefts, extends ed their commerce, and confirmed their happiness. 'Twas after the peace his change of religion procured for France, that her artificers learned to work in glass, a manufacture till then confined to Venice, but Lyons in this reign began to flourish, and tapestry-work gavė hope of that perfection we have witneffed fince in the fine Gobelin's loom. Silk too was cultivated in Provence, and the kind king expreffed his friendly with that every peafant from Picardy to Perpignan fhould have a pot and fowl ready to boil in it, each Sunday through the year. His good intentions were well feconde by wife and faithful Sully, of whofe fervices Henry ap peared moft fenfible: for when his rival miftreffes tormented him with their jealoufies and jars, his answer was---a dozen pretty girls were of not half the value in his eyes as that one honeft man. How rightly he had judged, the great event declares; for Sully, though himfelf a Lutheran, urged his master to accept the terms, and take the kingdom and Catholicifm together. Change then yourself,' replied the fovereign. 'That could do only mifchief,' faid the minifter. "I may be a Proteftant, and no harm. done. Your Majefty muft abfolutely profefs the Romish tenets.' The fweetness and focial temper of this prince made him after that event little lefs than adored at home, while his heroic courage in the field, by proving him refpectable for well-tried valour, filled even felfifh Spain with admiration, rendered him a powerful media * "Mary de Medici loved gallantries well enough; and fo encouraged Ottavio Rinuccini, called by fome authors inventor of Italian operas, that he followed her to France and loft his wits for love. Recovering, he hid his fhame and difappointment in a monaftery." tor "A SCOTCH filling then (temp. Jac. II.) Buchanan fays, was equal to an English fixpence, the halfpenny was firft coined in the next reign and called a bawbie, because stamped with the image of James III. then a babice, perhaps, or poffibly from a corruption of bafpiece, low money, French. It is obfervable that many French words are retained among this people, who have always maintained a clofe, not to say a kind correfpondence with France, ever fince Charlemagne made an alliance with their king Achaius, and took young Mailros for his tutor, exchanging chivalry for literature, if it be true that Mailros inftituted, on his return from the continent, that ancient military Order of the Thiftle, and added the well-known motto, Nemo me impune lace fit. The words marrow for hufband, from mari; bonie from bonne, and a thousand more befpeak French derivations. Cards are mentioned as the diverfion of the Scottish court in 1501, before ours had an idea of them: they were called quartes, four-fided things, in French pronunciation cartes. Charles VI., was the firft person we read of in Europe, who made his amufement confift in arranging and difpofing the four fuits, originally devifed to reprefent the four claffes or defcriptions of men: Hommes de chaur, viz. quoir-men, choir-men, clergy; carreaux or coin, for the monied peo ple, merchants; picques, for the foldiery; and trefie or trefoil, denoting the agricolifts. These are green yet in fome packs of cards I have examined on the continent; and as to the fuit of diamonds, carreaux, they have in Italy now when playing tarocco the reprefentation of a coin upon them. The king of hearts had a chorifter's gown on his back, A. D. 1783, at Seville and Barcelona, but l'as de picq, as a good foldier, conquers in every game. The nine of diamonds has a reference to nine lucklefs · merchants, combined for fome, difcovering enterprise about the time when all eyes were turning weftward; 'tis called the curfe of Scotland ftill, from their failure, as I have read and heard * Vol. ii. p. 160. "It is a well-known vulgarity in England to fay, Come, Sir, will you have. a ftreke at the old hiftory of the four kings? meaning, Will you play a game at cards? Yet has this phrase a deep and rational meaning. These four kings represented the four great monarchies, Efther, Greeks, Romans, Spades, Clubs, Pallas, Franks, Charlemagne. Diamonds. Judith. The queens are, "Knaves are valets. Servetus Burn tells us, that in Saxon, knata or knapha, fignifies a fervant; the thatcher calls fome inftrument a knave to this day. "The Spaniards not understanding, the trefle, called that fuit balos; accord, ingly we find the ace of clubs at ombre and quadrille called bafto, we tranflating thence fay clubs; and the thing we call a fpade is evidently a pike's head; but we do not mean a gardener's spade, we mean a fword, from the Spanish efpada.” "Means Regina par excellence, anagram." is too little, but if they be in jeft, believe me, 'tis too much!' A meffenger arriving to tell how Henry II. of France had received his death's wound in a fimilar conteft ten days before; the entertainment was broken up, and tournaments put to a final and fatal end, both in our own country and our neighbour's. Thefe romantic and dangerous amusements had their exit haftened ftill more, by the tafte people took up in tranflating the old Greek tragedies, and correcting our stage by model of the old Greek drama. In this again our fovereign bore her part, and rendered the Hercules Etæus into English. I fuppofe Shakespear was a better courtier than to ridicule what had attracted her immediate notice, elfe fhould I be tempted ftrongly to believe, that the nonfenfe he puts into Bottom the weaver's mouth about Ercles' vein, a ty rant's vein, and a part to tear a cat in, had reference to Hercules, in the Queen's favourite play, throwing the beafts about from the top of Mount Eta. Her Majefty was not the only woman employed in Greek literature; and verfifications of old poets by female hands, were then coming out every day. Puttenham fays,We would not have girls be too precife poets, 'left with fuch fhrewd wit, as rhyme requireth, they become hateful to huf'bands who love not fantastic wives.' Harvey had said in his character of a maid of honour, Saltet item, pingatque eadem, doc tumque poema Pangat; nec mufas nefciat illa meas.' But the fear of dying malds and fingle wymmen, as Puttenham threatens, feems to have taken immediate effect; and ladies were fo well warned by him, and by Edward Hake afterwards, in his Touchflone of Time Prefent, that inftead of being fuch scholars, that Roger Afcham reproached the univerfity with the court laffes' fuperior erudition, they ran into a contrary extreme, and by the time the Stuart race was ended, a family receipt book contained all the literature of an English country hufwife, however high her rank, while Swift's account of Queen Anne's maids of honour, forms a droll contraft to Harvey and Afcham's notion of that post under Elizabeth, and of their knowledge who occupied the station. "All changed apace; Hake wrote a book on the impiety of dancing, but girls did not leave that off as willingly as grammar. The art, however, underwent many alterations: a dance called Pavan, from Pavo the peacock, because they performed it in long robes puffing and trailing after them, was difiniffed, and the fame figure to quick time came in with Scots' reels, &c. We call it a truffed peacock* ftill, in the north, because the train is tucked up, as in a jig. The galliard which fet Sir Chriftopher Hatton high in his fovereign's favour, till ftep by step he became lord keeper; ftill held its place at Paris, where Furetiere tells us, that in 1558, a book of Orchefography was published, denoting the names of various motions in a dance, fiefon relevée, brifce marche and clofe words now familiar to us all, but apparently new enough to English people in Addison's time, becaufe the Spectator makes much fport out on't. The Marefco, or Moorish dance, brought in by Cathe rine of Arragon, is fcarcely gone quite out of the island yet, I believe. Morris dancing (for fo by corruption it was called) lafted till George the Second's reign at leaft, and Morrice pikes for the purpose were common in Wales five years ago. "Queen Mary delighted much in what reminded her of Spain and Spaniards; but tumbling and trampoline ed her, as we read, to muche merriment. tricks, at that time a novelty, inchauntWhat wonder then, if James of Scotland, her firft coufin once removed, was ftruck with fuch performances! his mind was not empty, though it was flexible, but no endowments give the power to ufe them. That quality depends on firength of mind, not fulnefs. This prince faw plainly how the world was going, and he faw plainly too, he could not ftop or turn it.He recommended other modes to his nobility, and told the great lords with good fenfe enough, that here in town they could appear only like great ships upon the ocean, but that in their own fhires and boroughs, they would thine like great fhips at a river's mouth, esteemed and wondered at, and benefiting thofe around. "From a trufs'd pea comes the word ftra:hey, I believe,” VOL. V.-No. XLV. "The « The wise maxims of a man whose conduct was repugnant to decorum however, juft at the moment when decorum began to hold a higher price than learning; failed of all effect upon his hearers, who faw him every day duped by Gondemar, cajoled by Baffompierre, and fooled by Buckingham, almoft to fatuity. The trick this lastnamed nobleman played, bringing a fucking pig wrapt in a mantle for the king to kifs, making him believe it was a new-born baby to which his Majefty had promised to ftand fponfor, was a device even below contempt, had it been practifed on a child of eleven years old: yet ferved it as a standing jeft at court, and to that foolery the Duke alludes, when in his letters from France and Spain, preferved in our British Mufeum, he begins, Dear dad and gofip. One is not forry to fee every one of fuch epiftles ending however with, your Highness's humble flave and dog, Stenny. Many ftrange paffages are recorded of their odd familiarity by French Memoires. Thofe of le Marquis de Balompierre, Marefchal de France, compiled whilft Richelieu kept him in the Baftile, whence that great minifter's death releafed him, teem with tales told of our English monarch and his favourite. Among the reft he fays, how while King James and he were fpeaking fericufly upon bufinefs one morning, without any witneffes in the bedchamber, Buckingham came tumbling in, in his odd way, and clapping a hand on each of their fhoulders, leaped fuddenly between his own legs in the air- Gliffant et fautant (fays he) comme un danfeur de corde, et d'une maniere merveilleufe,' put an end to the converfation. Grave characters always affect levity in their domeftic companions; and I fuppofe Charles I. whofe face was faid by phyfiognomifts to be marked ftrongly with melancholy and misfortune, delighted in feats and frolics like his father, otherwise it seems to me foolisher fill, that he fhould for a friend and future minifter make his deliberate election of the youth his predeceffor had taken up merely as a toy. The intimacy between them grew up from the young prince's defire of feeing the Infanta, whom it was thought fit for him to marry, and for whom he fancied himfelf already poffeffed with paffion.--Villiers, eager to efcape from his old 4 Tom master's awkward fondness, and defirous to display his fpirit of gallantry and variety of accomplishments on a new and more extenfive theatre, refolved to obtain confent for accompa nying Baby Charles (as his doting parent called him), who, although convinced beyond a doubt of the folly of fuch an exploit-being overawed by a favourite he now began to fear, and over-perfuaded by a fon who above all things he loved, and being ever unable to deny fuits, permitted their abfence on the filly and dangerous errand, when tears and entreaties failed of power to detain them. My countryman, Sir Richard Wynne, was in their train and confidence, and has given the best account we have of their adventures. Hearne publifhed it, but it is little read, though very entertaining: his head, painted by Cornelius Janfen, is preferved at Wynnftay, and Bartolozzi engraved it for Mr. Pennant's book, but the author's body lies at Wimbledon in Surrey, far from his native land. He tells how the Infanta was used to go and gather May dea for her complexion in early morn at a cafadi campo, or fummer-houfe, on t'other fide the river, I remember; and how Prince Charles, taking with him Master Endymion Porter, went thither likewife, and got furreptitiously into the house, and into the garden too; but his fair one was in the orchard, between which and them was a high partition wall. This did not, however, keep out the active Englishmen: our future fovereign, like Romeo, with love-light wings did overleap that wall-but the old Marquis Olivarez hearing him, hobbled to the scene of meeting, and fell on his knees, conjuring the prince to retire, and protefting that his head muft inevitably anfwer for fuch a breach of custom and ancient usages. "Goodness of heart prevailed over abfurdity for once, and no more private conferences were even fought by Charles, who now contented himself with watching her, the Spaniards faid, as a cat watches a moufe,' and finging feguedillas under her window, among which the following feems best remembered. Carlos Estuardo foy Que fiendo amor mi guia;, As As a proof that our royal adventurer made his own verfes, they are bad ones; and fuch as none but a foreigner would make. The match went off, however, through the caprices of Buckingham, who once to withed it; and the two friends, their friendship unimpaired, in fpite of all his pranks, returned home through France, where Villiers felt himself more at home than in grave Caftile, the courtiers of whofe king recollected a thousand infults offered to them or to their families by a prefumptuous favourite, who, while among them, they felt half afraid of.” Vol. ii. P.226. (To be concluded in our next.) Town and Bridge of Caerleon. 16. Front Vie of St. Julian's-Back View of St. Julian's. 17. Bridge and Cafile of Ufk. 20. Infide View of Raglan Cafle. 23. Abergavenny, with a diftant View of the Skyvid. 24. Werndee-Perthir-Treowen and Caeluch. 8. Ruins of Lanvair Caftle. 2. 9. Ruins of Striguil Caftle. 10. Chriftchurch-Malpas Church. 3. 11. Bridge and Castle at Newport, Encampments in the Vicinity of Oldcaftle--Paul y Bala, near Campfton-Gwen Cafle-Coed y Crafel -Walter fton-On the Summit of the Gaer above Trewyn Houfe-Portfeit Encampment-Ground Plan of Caldecot Castle. Ground Plans of Penhow-Pencoed -Lanvair and Striguil Caffles. 4. Ground Z 2 |