out of danger. And when I have gained the victory, come to me; I will then own you to be mine, and take care of you. But if I should be so unfortunate as to lose the battle, then shift as well as you can, and take care to let nobody know that I am your father; for no mercy will be shown to any one so nearly related to me." Then the king gave him a purse of gold, and dismissed him. He followed the king's directions; and, when he saw the battle was lost, and the king killed, he hasted to London, sold his horse and fine clothes, and, the better to conceal himself from all suspicion of being son to a king, and that he might have means to live by his honest labour, he put himself apprentice to a bricklayer. But, having a competent skill in the Latin tongue, he was unwilling to lose it; and having an inclination also to reading, and no delight in the conversation of those he was obliged to work with, he generally spent all the time he had to spare in reading by himself. Sir Thomas said, "You are now old, and almost past your labour; I will give you the running of my kitchen as long as you live." He answered, "Sir, you have a numerous family; I have been used to live retired; give me leave to build a house of one room for myself, in such a field, and there, with your good leave, I will live and die." Sir Thomas granted his request; he built his house, and there continued to his death. I suppose (though my lord did not mention it) that he went to eat in the family, and then retired to his hut. My lord said that there was no park at that time; but when the park was made, that house was taken into it, and continued standing till his (my lord's) father pulled it down. "But," said my lord, "I would as soon have pulled down this house;" meaning Eastwell Place. I have been computing the age of this Richard Plantagenet when he died, and find it to be about 81. For Richard III. was killed August 23, 1485, which, subtracted from 1550, there remains 65, to which add 16, (for the age of Richard Plantagenet at that time,) and it makes 81. But, though he lived to that age, he could scarcely enjoy his retirement in his little house above two or three years, or a little more. For I find by Philpot, that Sir Thomas Moyle did not purchase the estate of Eastwell till about the year 1543 or 1544. We may, therefore, reasonably suppose that, upon his building a new house on his purchase, he could not come to live in it till 1546, but that his workmen were continued to build the walls about his gardens, and other conveniences off from the house. And till he came to live in the house he could not well have an opportunity of observing how Richard Plantagenet retired with his book. So that it was probably towards the latter end of the year 1546 when Richard and Sir Thomas had the fore-mentioned dialogue together. Consequently, Richard could not build his house, and have it dry enough for him to live in, till the year 1547. So that he must be 77 or 78 years of age before he had his writ of ease. The Old and the Young Courtier. ANONYMOUS. [THE whole of the sixteenth century was marked by important changes of every kind-political, religious, and social. The wars with France, and the internal contests of the Roses, were over, and the energy of the nation was directed to new objects. Trade and commerce were extended; fresh sources of wealth were developed; and new classes of society sprung up into importance, whose riches enabled them to outvie the old landed gentry, but who had few of their hereditary tastes and habits. Hence the innovation of old customs, and the decay of ancient manners, to which the gentry themselves were compelled to conform. The following song, which is printed in the "Percy Reliques," from an ancient black-letter copy in the "Pepys Collection," is a lament over the changes which had taken place in the early part of the seventeenth century, as compared with the days of Queen Elizabeth.] An old song made by an aged old pate, Of an old worshipful gentleman, who had a great estate, And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate; Like an old courtier of the queen's, And the queen's old courtier. With an old lady, whose anger one word assuages, That every quarter paid their old servants their wages, And never knew what belong'd to coachmen, footmen, nor pages, But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and badges; Like an old courtier, &c. With an old study fill'd full of learned old books, With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his looks; And an old kitchen that maintain'd half-a-dozen old cooks; With an old hall hung about with pikes, guns, and bows, Like an old courtier, &c. With a good old fashion, when Christmas was come, With an old falconer, huntsman, and a kennel of hounds, But to his eldest son his house and lands he assign'd, And the king's young courtier. Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come to his land, And takes up a thousand pounds upon his father's land, With a new-fangled lady, that is dainty, nice, and spare, With a new-fashion'd hall, built where the old one stood, Hung round with new pictures that do the poor no good; With a new study stuft full of pamphlets and plays, And a new chaplain that swears faster than he prays, With a new buttery hatch that opens once in four or five days, And a new French cook to devise fine kickshaws and toys; Like a young courtier, &c. With a new fashion, when Christmas is drawing on, And a new journey to London straight we all must be gone, With a new gentleman usher, whose carriage is complete; With a new coachman, footman, and pages to carry up the meat; Like a young courtier, &c. With new titles of honour, bought with his father's old gold, The Modern Dramatic Poets.—I. [IN subsequent "Half-Hours," we shall give scenes from some of the great dramatic writers who were contemporary with Shakspere-from Webster, Ben Jonson, Dekker, Beaumont and Fletcher, and others, as we have already given scenes from Massinger. The golden age of the English Drama did not last for more than sixty years. After an interval in which the stage, in common with many other of the graces and refinements of life, was proscribed by a misdirected though sincere zeal, the Restoration gave us a degenerate and corrupt drama-false in its principles of art, debasing in its gross licentiousness. The Augustan age, as it used to be called, brought its brilliant comedy, in which Wit went hand in hand with Profligacy-meretricious sisters—and its feeble Tragedy, which rested its claims upon its dissimilarity to Shakspere. From "Cato" to "Irene" we had no serious drama that was not essentially based upon French models-declamation taking the place of passion, and monotonous correctness substituted for poetical fervour. In more recent times, the imitation of the old drama, or, to speak more correctly, the knowledge of the principles upon which the old dramatists worked, has given us a far higher dramatic literature than that which preceded it. DE MONTFORT. JOANNA BAILLIE. [MISS BAILLIE'S "Series of Plays to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind," was the first great attempt to cast off the frigid conventionalities that had long encumbered all modern dramatic poetry. Here was a woman of genius working upon a bold theory. The notion of making the conduct of a drama wholly rest upon the development of one intense master passion appears to us a mistake. Passions, as they exist in actual life, and as they are portrayed by the greatest poetical revealers of man's nature, are complicated and modified by the antagonism of motives and circumstances. Othello is not simply jealous-Macbeth not merely ambitious. It is to this cause that we may perhaps attribute the circumstance that one only, we believe, of Joanna Baillie's plays has been acted, although they were written for the stage, as every drama must be that has a dramatic vitality. But, whatever may be the defects of their scenic construction, they are, in many respects, models of strong and earnest dialogue, which rejects all cumbrous ornament, and is really poetical through its unaffected simplicity. This was a revolution in dramatic composition. It was at the beginning of the present century that these "Plays on the Passions" were published. Their authoress lived to see many changes in literary reputation; but none in which she was not recognised with the honours which very few can permanently win and wear. She died on February 23, 1851, aged 89.] |