was very near incurring fentence of excommunication: although 't is now fuppofed that the caufe of general literature was in fuch times rather promoted than impeded by rendering our ifland a fort of mart for diftant profeffors, and encouraging that commerce in every branch of knowledge which importation naturally tends to produce. Yet Fleury, candid, elegant, and amiable Fleury, whofe piety emanates in gentleness, whofe scholarship, a comment upon common fenfe, never yet overlaid one grain of it with learned lumber; laments the ill fuccefs and danger of a prelate, who in this early dawn of future day dared cry aloud against Papal ufurpations; in confequence of which, moft of our rich benefices were occupied by Italians, notwithflanding the vigorous efforts of our own people, who now gave much of their time to ftudy. Ariftotle's Ethics, and I believe Politics, had worked their way through Arabic verfions from the Eait to England, and were, at the time we speak of, tranflating into Latin: yet my readers must not fuppofe all the clergy could write and read that language familiarly they were for the moft part of a different caft. An old entry fhows how an archdeacon of Richemont, in Yorkshire, came to Bridlington priory with ninety-fix fine horfes, twenty-one dogs, and three hawks a faire establiffemente is the expreffion-he had alio one large book, unborrowed: yet Velley fays that cantadours and mufars, violars and taletellers, were beyond all enumeration in thefe days. Thibaut, King of Navarre, compofed and fet the pretty verfes preferved by Dr. Burney, and tranflated totidem fyllabis, containing his adventure with a country girl, which I have heard an old Frenchman, native of le Gevaudan, fing to the tune printed in Burney's Hiftory of Mufic. He was in love with Queen Blanche, as I remember, although 't is plain he could not beaft a rigid conftancy, like that of Rudelle. The kings of France and England fet bad examples of conjugal deportment; and Innocent III. himfelf a Frenchman, defcended from Lothaire, endeavoured a long time, with fruitless pains, to reconcile Philip Auguftus with his confort Ingelburgha, whom he kept confined in her own private palace, whilft he lived publicly with Mary, daughter to the Duke of remon Bohemia, who ufurped regal honours, and behaved as if actually queen. The Pope, however, finding no ftrance, or even cenfure, had the leaft effect upon their manners, laid (as he had threatened) their whole land under an interdict, forbidding all ecclefiaftical functions for fix months, except baptifm of infants, and abfolution of penitents at point of death. Every church was hung with black, and the fame colour covered all devotional pillars in the ftreet: the crucifixes and images were laid on the floors, and a fable pall thrown over them. No preaching heard, no prayers read, no pfalms fung, no facrament administered, no proceffion permitted, no holyday kept. The people were fhocked, were terrified; and flocked in frighted crowds about the palace, demanding their fovereign lady's reftoration, and the difmifl of adulterous Mary. While fuch incidents are objects of Retrofpect alone, readers will pause perhaps, and wonder why-but in the thirteenth century bufinefs and pleasure both depended on devotion. Thofe artificers who were not kept in fome great baron's caftle to work for him, derived their fubfiftence chiefly by labouring for the decoration of ecclefiaftical dignity; all fuch were ftarving for employment, therefore, a circumftance which might affect even an English bofom: while those who relied on feftive fhows for their amufement, fat pining and nerveless, and found no means of paffing away the time; a cafe that fhould excite compaflion in my female readers, for ladies loved diverfion then as now, and were detained from it by the unpleafing carefulness of mothers. A Northfolke dame's counfille to hyr childe, written not long after, advises her thus: And goe notte to the wrestlinge or An as it werre a madde wench or a fhootinge of the coc, giglotte; And But lough notte to fcorne nodir olde, nodir yong, be of good berying, and have a good tonge, were injunctions as it appears ever needful in England, where to fatirize their companions feemed always to conftitute much of the women's pleafure in public places. A Papal interdiet was, in fhort, fuch a calamity as no nation would long endure, and Philip felt felt himself forced by it to recall Ingelburgha, and drive the beautiful fupplanter from his arms, however he might retain her in his affections. Certain it is, he never received the patient queen to perfonal favour or even endurance, till news was brought him that Bohemian Mary had accepted another lover. The French nation meanwhile, partial to Danish blood, would not receive the king's fon by that lady, as heir to their crown. He was made Earl of Boulogne, and his fifter, firft affianced to our young Prince Arthur, was, after his death, Dutchess of Lorraine; during which time Lewis, fole child of Ingelburgha, was folemnly recognised Dauphin of France, and compenfated his father's unkindness by every mark of filial affection to the Princefs of Denmark, whofe nature was fofter than her name." Vol. i. p. 319. KING JOHN-INSTANCES OF SORDID "MR. Gray fays fomewhere, and fays very wifely, that the Retrospect of error is ferviceable when it tends to vindicate the leffons of truth. Our King John's ftrange behaviour contributed against his own intention to afcertain his people's future liberties -a baby fucceffor coming to the throne fomewhat accelerated the then diftant moment; for although governed by the wife Earl of Pembroke, juftly fo called, that Earl of Pembroke was at most a steward; and who ever saw a fteward yet, that would not favour tenants rather than their landlord? The tender prince willingly confirmed our famous Magna Charta, wherein claufes were added propitious to the poor, and of confolation to the people, not then deemed dangerous by their haughty lords, who each kept up a fhow of royalty within their feparate caftles, where the fenefchal and chancellor, constable and chamberlain, lived as in petty courts; while mercenary exactions were by them prac tifed on inferior claffes, as by the fovereign himfelf on the nobility; till the bribes openly given and received, even fhock a modern reader with the recital: witness the ftory how Hugh de Oyfel prefented King Henrye with two robes, of a grene colore, for the fake of ob-" taining, through his influence over fome Flemish merchants, one thoufand marks, which the faid Oyfel had left in Flanders, and could not get agayne; and Hoveden tells us how Richard de Neville gave one of our kings twenty palfreys for his Grace's good word with Isolda Biget, a beautiful French lady whom he wished to marry. King John had three greyhounds given on a like account, if I remember, and they had claffic names, Achilles, Hannibal, and Hector: the laft has been a common name for greyhounds ever fince. We read likewife in fome of the old books that Dame Nichole paid one hundred marks for permiffion to marry her daughter to whoever the pleased, the king's mimics alone excepted; nor can I find whether the exception was made because of royalty or confcience, for it had been decreed fome years before, that mimics must not be admitted to receive the holy facrament. Such fordid defire of accumulating wealth forts but ill, as it should feem, with military pride: and even l'amour des dames, of which fo much was faid, appears to have been fwallowed up in avaricious rapacity, when records inform us how Robert de Veux gave our fovereign fix Lombardy fteeds, and a famous hawk befide, to make him hold his tongue, and tell no tales of Henri de Pinel's wife, whofe reputation feems to have depended on his filence. Such indeed was the frequency of bribes in those days, and fuch the necefity of an inferior's offering visible inducements to perfuade nobles or princes to act as it is now decmed indifpenfable for every man of honour to do without perfuafion, that Saint Lewis of France was canonized for having taken no presents to pervert the courfe of law; and Innocent III. had been justly enough *«The seneschal was a person of no small confequence. There is an old tale in Gefta Romanorum, how an old baron left his favourite child and dog, both creatures of ineftimable value, under the care of five knights, to be fed by the fenefchalle. This officer, neglectful of his charge, and going out to vifit a neighbouring female, the ftarved blood-hound devours the baby, whilft the knights were fallied forth in queft of food. The nobleman returning, and hearing this tale, burns the fenefchalle alive." half half adored for a like delicacy in all Oh wretched ftate of poor humanity! While I am lamenting the fervour which glowed up into madness in the early ages of Chriftianity, infulting Heaven by trying to tear down the myftic veil that keeps our fight from agony of knowledge, I am forced to regret that in the days I am writing no fpark of fervour feems to remain at all; no warmth of love, no zealous fpirit of defence, no defire of imprefling our truly petrified hearts either with ideas of the glorious majesty of a judging God, or fweet remembrance of a meek and gentle Saviour. The fanctifying Spirit feems far off too: is it too late to pray the Comforter for confolation? Let us make hafte before the doors be fhut." Vol. i. p. 338. IX. PREFERENCE OF FOREIGNERS. -on cardinals; and the three pontiffs FRIAR BACON-ROBIN HOOD-—-LEWIS who followed each other in fucceffion after Innocent, added splendour to their city without lofing aught of her authority. But every high mountain has a plain upon its top, where you run level for a while before defcent .commences; and there feems to be a fort of folftitial paufe in governments, when they have reached their utmoft elevation: perhaps the appearance may be fallacious, owing to the obliquity of the fphere; thofe who live under the equator are not confcious of it; yet it was undoubtedly fo with pagan, and I think with papal Rome. Contentions concerning the bleffed Trinity, and its inexplicable nature, had ended fome time fince; yet were thofe difputes rather finished by fatigue at laft, than reconciled by reafon or reflection: for however we fee fire, water, and air, creatures expofed to conftant obfervation, fubfifting in and for and through and by each other all day long; there never was wife mortal could tell how: and yet this limited and arrogant animal, this ftill more unaccountable man, will daringly prefume to pry into his Maker's effence, and refift redemption till he is made acquainted with the conflituent fubftance of his Redeemer, never difGovering by common fenfe, what in "THIS genius of gigantic mould; lifting his head above furrounding vapours, faw foon how chemistry might be applied to her beft ufes, medicine. He difcovered the powers of a burningglafs, and the proportions of a ca mera-obfcura: he knew the fpherical figure of our earth, and was (as one would think) by intuition well perfuaded of what experience has fince confirmed. He looked on fcience as Mofes on the Promised Land from Pifgah, and difcerned effects in their poffibilities. His kill in mechanism may have been too highly praifed; his conviction of its efficacy to purpofes then unknown, cannot be fufficiently admired. We have done nothing fince the time of Roger Bacon beyond his capacity of hope and of belief. Gunpowder, æther, electricity, are but new names for things cafily, though faintly to be defcried, by those who carefully examine his Opus magnum, where it appears that he knew every thing except the vaft extent of human folly, which after wondering at fuch wifdom, deemed it madnefs: and after mature deliberation, refolved to denounce it as witchcraft. I. "Thofe "Thofe dubious days could not diftinguish fuperiority from eccentricity of character. Five funs, fuppofed to have appeared all at once, difgrace the remarkable occurrences of this reign, and difgrace it the more, becaule the grand conjunétion of planets in Libra had been obferved all over Europe in 136. But the world, as Fuller fays, fees most vifions when the is moft blind; and fairies now, a new importation of femi-deities from the East, were seriously believed in. This is fo true, that the Ashmolean collection of MSS. at Oxford, exhibits A fure way to bind a faery, Elaby Gatbon by name, and hold her to a Venice glafs meekly and mildly, till the have anfwered all lawful quef⚫tions.' Ireland, where this folly flouwrithed ftill better than with us, is faid to have named a whole diftrict from thefe tripping elves; o'ferri land, or land o'faerie, as Gatton in Surrey was called after Elaby*. "There is a humorous ftory recorded too, how the Earl of Devonfhire, A. D. 1240, afked a farmer of his how he could bear his fituation, feeing that his grange was reported to be much troubled by faeries, which, adds the nobleman, may peradventure be fpirits from hell. Right honoured Lord' (replied the quaint fellow), there be verily two faints bleffed in heaven which do trouble me more than all the devils in hell, and in true fadnefs those be the Mother of cur Lord and St. Michael the archangel, because it is on their days that I am bound to pay his dues to the good Earl of Devonshire.' "If Bryant's derivation of the gry. phons be a true one, kir-OUTH-on pronounced quick and fhort, as is moft likely: the ouph comes from the fame country as that compofite animal, which Milton, ever accurate though fublime, defcribes fo properly: "The scholars fay, indeed, that even this book was borrowed from a Per fian manufcript, and wits tell one that Scuderi drew many incidents from thence. Certain it is, that Alexander's exploits were remembered in the Eaft a prodigious time, and with unobliterated veneration: his hiftory by Quintus Curtius, although unmentioned for 1000 years after the author's death, was one of the earliest books on the revival of literature, and Montfaucon mentions a copy in the Colbertine library, as early as the year 800; the following extract from which may be cited to excufe the numberleis things to be forgiven in this fummary: Equidem plura tranfcribo quam credo ; nam nec affirmare fuftineo de quibus dubito, nec fubducere quæ accepi;' but the awkward imitators add a story of Alexander's tugle-born, which no wight but himself could wield, and might be heard fixty miles. Boyardo and Berni enjoyed this horn too; it dropt to them, but not till Robin Hood had done with it. He was a fort of fecon dary hero among us in the thirteenth century: Dr. Stukely thinks he was an outlawed Earl of Huntingdon FitzOoth, easily corrupted to Fitzhood, and mentions his coat-armour. Whatever he was before, he was after his outlawry, as I imagine, Robin o'th'ood, meaning of the wood, corrupted to Hood; and the manner in which he and his companions lived among forefts, defending and providing for "From Elaby comes lullaby, l'elaby, invoked by mothers and nurfes to watch over the fleeping babe, who, fafe in her protection, was in no danger of being changed by wicked fpirits into an idiot, whence changeling." themselves themfelves with their bow, is interefting and curious, and strongly marks the manners of the times. That 't was by a gradual and long courfe of experiments that men's eyes opened to wifdem and decorum, may be exemplified by recollecting how Lewis the Dauphin (he who had invaded England), defiring a marriage with Urraca, daughter of Alphonfo King of Spain, by a fifter of Cœur de Lion, was turned from his purpose on its being reprefented to him that the princefs, though fair, had a very unlucky name, and would certainly bring him no children. He accordingly wedded her fifter Lady Blanche, of fewer charms but happier appellation, and on her was made the verse preferved by Camden in his Remaynes of a greater .work: Candida, candefcens, candore in cordis et oris. St. Lewis, an exemplary prince, confirmed mankind in thefe fantastic notions; the more, perhaps, as, being regent in her fon's minority, fhe foon fuppreffed the barons' bold rebellion headed by Philip, the firft Duke of Orleans, uncle and competitor to his lawful king; from whom her forces took the caftle of Blois, forcing him into fubmiffion, and I think to banishment. A marriage between her incomparable son Lewis IX. and the daughter of unhappy Raymond Comte de Thoulouse, produced another bleffing to all Europe, the end of a truly favage war, long carried on in his dominions against the Albigenfes. Languedoc, fo named from langue de got, as many think, being from that time united to the crown of France: fome Huguenots have always fheltered there; we saw them inhabiting Grenoble and its environs when the communion was administered in a cave for privacy, fo late as 1786. "But this inimitable sovereignturned his arms only against the Turks and Saracens; to them he fhowed himself fon of Lewis, furnamed the Lion, performing acts worthy a hero, while his own country flourished at home as under the protection of a faint. Such was his faith,' fays Boffuet, that one The father of Robin a forefter was, muft, if this account be true, fuffer difmiffal from our Retrofpe&tion, and I should confefs myself forry, because when they brought • Adam Bell and Clym of the clough, • And William of Cloudeflye, To fhoot with our forefter for forty marks, Our forefter beat them all three.' "Though the last faved his own and his companions lives long after by his archery, when the king hearing that his fheriff and juftices were all fhot at merye Carlisle, attempting to take thefe outlaws, fent troops to bring them to London; but they were come of themselves, or at leaft bold William of Cloudeflye, who brought his little boy befide to beg a charter of peace. And now, fays King Henry, they fhall fure be hanged; but the queen requested their life; and her husband faid, Let us fee them fhoot which have coft us all this care. After many feats, William fet an apple upon his own child's head, and standing one hundred and twenty yards diftance, cleft it with an arrow. The king had fworne that if he miffed, the attempt fhould revoke his pardon. For if thou touch his head or gown, In fyghte that men may fee, By all the fayates that fit in heaven, I'll hang you up all three.' "Succefs in that bufinefs faved and advanced them all, and the youth was made cellar-keeper to the queen.” 'would |