shall have a reward of fifty pounds, which Her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid on such discovery. He soon gave himself up; and having been tried, he stood in the pillory with great fortitude: for soon after he published his poem, entitled A Hymn to the Pillory, in which are the following singular lines : Men that are men, in thee can feel no pain, And all thy insignificants disdain; Contempt, that false new word for shame, Is, without crime, a: empty name; A shadow to amuse mankind, But never frights the wise or well-fix'd mind Virtue despises human scorn, And scandals innocence adorn. Referring to a design of putting the learned Selden into the pillory for his History of Tithes, he says smartly— Even the learned Selden saw A prospect of thee thro' the law; But so much honor never was thy due. Had the great Selden triumph'd on thy stage, No man would ever shun thee more, Or grudge to stand where Selden stood before. This original poem ends with these remarkable lines, referring to himself: Tell them, the men that placed him here, Are scandals to the times, Are at a loss to find his guilt, And can't commit his crimes. De Foe, however, was afterwards received into favor without any concessions on his part, and proceeded straight onwards in the discharge of what he deemed to be his duty to mankind. He certainly was an extraordinary man for disinterestedness, perseverance, and industry. CLUBS. Club is defined by Johnson to be "an assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions." The present system of clubs may be traced in its progressive steps from those small associations, meeting (as clubs of a lower grade still do) at a house of public entertainment; then we come to a time when the club took exclusive possession of the house, and strangers could be only introduced, under regulations, by the members; in the third stage, the clubs build houses, or rather palaces, for themselves. The club at the Mermaid Tavern in Friday Street, owed its origin to Sir Walter Raleigh, who had here instituted a meeting of men of wit and genius, previously to his engagement with the unfortunate Cobham. This society comprised all that the age held most distinguished for learning and talent, numbering among its members Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Selden, Sir Walter Raleigh, Donne, Cotton, Carew, Martin, and many others. There it was that the "wit-combats" took place between Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, to which, probably, Beaumont alludes with so much affection in his letter to the old poet, written from the country :— What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble and so full of subtle flame, As if that every one from whom they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest. Ben Jonson had another club, of which he appears to have been the founder, held in a room of the old Devil Tavern, distinguished by the name of the "Apollo." It stood between the Temple Gates and Temple Bar. It was for this club that Jonson wrote the "Leges Convivales," printed among his works. In the reign of Henry IV. there was a club called "La Court de bone Compagnie," of which Occleve was a member, and probably Chaucer. In the works of the former are two ballads, written about 1413, one a congratulation from the brethren to Henry Somer, on his appointment as Sub-Treasurer of the Exchequer; and the other a reminder to the same person, that the "styward had warned him that he was→→→ for the dyner arraye Ageyn Thirsday next, and nat it delaye. That there were certain conditions to be observed by this Society, appears from the latter epistle, which commences with an answer to a letter of remonstrance the "Court" has received from Henry Somer against some undue extravagance, and a breach of their rules. They were evidently a jovial company; and such a history as could be collected of these Societies would be both interesting and curious. We have proof that Henry Somer received Chaucer's pension for him. BANQUO'S GHOST. It is said that John Kemble attempted to play the banquet scene in Macbeth without the visible appearance of the ghost of Banquo; but the galleries took offence, and roared "Ghost! ghost!" till Banquo was obliged to come on and take the chair. The late “Thomas Ingoldsby" praises Kemble highly for the improvement, and regrets that he was not allowed to free the stage from Banquo's ghost, as Garrick did from those of Jaffier and Pierre. In his own tale of Hamilton Tighe, "Ingoldsby" made the ghost a phantom of the mind, with good effect: 'Tis ever the same, in hall or bower, The lady mutters, and talks to the air, And the mealy-faced boy still whispers with dread, Robert Lloyd has, too, the same idea. When chilling horrors shake th' affrighted king, And guilt torments him with her scorpion's sting; The king alone should form the phantom there, The Poetical Works of Robert Lloyd, A.M. CHRONOGRAMS. In the second paper by Addison on the different species of false wit (Spectator, No. 60), is noticed the medal that was struck of Gustavus Adolphus, with the motto— ChristVs Dux ergo trIVMphVs. "If you take the pains," continues the author, "to pick the figures out of the several words, and range them in their proper order, you will find they amount to MDCXVVVII, or 1627; the year in which the medal was stamped." Perhaps the most extraordinary instance to be found in reference to chronograms, is the following: Chronographica Gratulatio in Felicissimum adventum Serenissimi Cardinalis Ferdinandi, Hispaniarum Infantis, a Collegio Soc. Jesu. Bruxellæ publico Belgarum Gaudio exhibita. This title is followed by a dedication to S. Michael and an address to Ferdinand; after which come one hundred hexameters, every one of which is a chronogram, and each chronogram gives the same result, viz.: 1634. The first three verses are AngeLe CæLIVogI MIChaëL LUX UnICa CætUs. Pro nUtU SUCCInCta tUo CUI CUnCta MInIstrant. The last two are Vota Cano: hæc LeVIbus qUamVIs nUnC InCLyte prInCeps. All the numeral letters are printed in capitals, and the whole is to be found in the Parnassus Poeticus Societatis Jesu (Francofurti, 1654,) at pp. 445-448 of part i. In the same volume there is another example of the chronogram, at p. 261, in the "Septem Mariæ Mysteria" of Antonius Chanut. It occurs at the close of an inscription: The date is 1647. StatUaM hanC-eX Voto ponIt Here is another chronogram "by Godard, upon the birth of Louis XIV. in 1638, on a day when the eagle was in conjunction with the lion's heart:" EXorIens DeLphIn AqUILa CorDIsqUe LeonIs The banks of the Rhine furnish abundant examples of this literary pleasantry: chronograms are as thick as blackberries. Here are a dozen, gathered during a recent tour. 1. Cologne Cathedral, 1722; on a beam in a chapel, on the south side of the choir: PIA VIRGINIS MARIE SODALITAS ANNOS SECVLARI RENOVAT. 2. Popplesdorf Church, near Bonn. 1812: PAROCHIALIS TEMPLI RVINIS ÆDIFICABAR. |