10 So thus did both these nobles die, He had a bow bent in his hand, Against Sir Hugh Montgomery The gray goose wing that was thereon This sight did last from break of day For when they rung the ev'ning-bell, The battle scarce was done. One may observe likewise, that in the catalogue of the slain the author has followed the example of the greatest ancient poets, not only in giving a long list of the dead, but by diversifying it 20 with little characters of particular persons. And with Earl Douglas there was slain Sir Hugh Montgomery, Sir Charles Carrel, that from the field Sir Charles Murrel of Ratcliff too, Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd, The familiar sound in these names destroys the majesty of the 30 description; for this reason I do not mention this part of the poem but to show the natural cast of thought which appears in it, as the two last verses look almost like a translation of Virgil. In the catalogue of the English who fell, Witherington's behaviour is in the same manner particularized very artfully, as the 40 reader is prepared for it by that account which is given of him in the beginning of the battle; though I am satisfied that your little buffoon readers (who have seen that passage ridiculed in Hudibras)" will not be able to take the beauty of it for which reason I dare not so much as quote it. Then stept a gallant squire forth, Who said, I would not have it told That e'er my captain fought on foot, 10 We meet with the same heroic sentiments in Virgil. 20 Non pudet, O Rutuli, cunctis pro talibus unam Objectare animam? numerone an viribus æqui ÆN. xii. 229. What can be more natural or more moving, than the circumstances in which he describes the behaviour of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day? Next day did many widows come, They wash'd their wounds in brinish tears, Their bodies bathed in purple blood, They bore with them away: They kiss'd them dead a thousand times, When they were clad in clay. Thus we see how the thoughts of this poem, which naturally arise from the subject, are always simple, and sometimes exquisitely noble; that the language is often very sounding; and that the whole is written with a true poetical spirit. If this song had been written in the Gothic manner, which 30 is the delight of all our little wits, whether writers or readers, it would not have hit the taste of so many ages, and have pleased the readers of all ranks and conditions. I shall only beg pardon for such a profusion of Latin quotations; which I should not have made use of, but that I feared my own judgment would have looked too singular on such a subject, had not I supported it by the practice and authority of Virgil.—C. No. 165. On the Introduction of French military terms into English; letter describing the battle of Blenheim. Si forte necesse est, Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis Continget: dabiturque licentia sumpta pudenter. HOR. Ars Poet. 48. I have often wished, that as in our constitution there are several persons whose business it is to watch over our laws our liberties and commerce, certain men might be set apart as superintendents of our language, to hinder any words of a foreign coin from passing among us; and in particular to prohibit any French phrases from being current in this kingdom, when those of our own stamp are altogether as valuable. The present war has so adulterated our tongue with strange words, that it would be impossible for one of our great grandfathers to know what 10 his posterity have been doing, were he to read their exploits in a modern newspaper. Our warriors are very industrious in propagating the French language, at the same time that they are so gloriously successful in beating down their power. Our soldiers are men of strong heads for action, and perform such feats as they are not able to express. They want words in their own tongue to tell us what it is they achieve, and therefore send us over accounts of their performances in a jargon of phrases, which they learn among their conquered enemies. They ought however to be provided with secretaries, and assisted by our 20 foreign ministers, to tell their story for them in plain English, and to let us know in our mother-tongue what it is our brave countrymen are about. The French would indeed be in the right to publish the news of the present war in English phrases, and make their campaigns unintelligible. Their people might flatter themselves that things are not so bad as they really are, were they thus palliated with foreign terms, and thrown into shades and obscurity: but the English cannot be too clear in their narrative of those actions, which have raised their country to a higher pitch of glory than it ever yet arrived at, and which 30 will be still the more admired the better they are explained. For my part, by that time a siege is carried on two or three days, I am altogether lost and bewildered in it, and meet with so many inexplicable difficulties, that I scarce know what side has FRENCH TECHNICAL TERMS. 389 the better of it, till I am informed by the Tower guns that the place is surrendered. I do indeed make some allowance for this part of the war, fortifications having been foreign inventions, and upon that account abounding in foreign terms. But when we have won battles, which may be described in our own language, why are our papers filled with so many unintelligible exploits, and the French obliged to lend us a part of their tongue before we can know how they are conquered? They must be made accessary to their own disgrace, as the Britons were formerly so 10 artificially wrought in the curtain of the Roman theatre, that they seemed to draw it up, in order to give the spectators an opportunity of seeing their own defeat celebrated upon the stage: for so Mr. Dryden has translated that verse in Virgil: Purpurea intexti tollunt aulæa Britanni. GEORG. iii. 25. Which interwoven Britons seem to raise, And shew the triumph that their shame displays. The histories of all our former wars are transmitted to us in our vernacular idiom, to use the phrase of a great modern 20 critic". I do not find in any of our chronicles that Edward III. ever reconnoitered the enemy, though he often discovered the posture of the French, and as often vanquished them in battle. The Black Prince passed many a river without the help of pontoons, and filled a ditch with faggots as successfully as the generals of our times do it with fascines. Our commanders lose half their praise, and our people half their joy, by means of those hard words and dark expressions in which our newspapers do so much abound. I have seen many a prudent citizen, after having read every article, enquire of his next neighbour what news the mail had brought. 30 I remember, in that remarkable year, when our country was delivered from her greatest fears and apprehensions, and raised to the greatest height of gladness it had ever felt since it was a nation,—I mean the year of Blenheim,—I had the copy of a letter sent me out of the country, which was written from a young gentleman in the army to his father, a man of a good estate and plain sense: as the letter was very modishly chequered with this modern military eloquence, I shall present my reader with a copy of it. 'SIR, 'Upon the junction of the French and Bavarian armies, they took post behind a great morass, which they thought impracticable. Our general the next day sent a party of horse to reconnoitre them from a little hauteur, at about a quarter of an hour's distance from the army, who returned again to the camp unobserved through several defiles, in one of which they met with a party of French that had been marauding, and made them all prisoners at discretion. The day after, a drum arrived 10 at our camp, with a message which he would communicate to none but the general; he was followed by a trumpet, who they say behaved himself very saucily, with a message from the duke of Bavaria. The next morning our army, being divided into two corps, made a movement towards the enemy; you will hear in the public prints how we treated them, with the other circumstances of that glorious day 1. I had the good fortune to be in that regiment that pushed the Gens d'Armes. Several French battalions, who some say were a corps de réserve, made a show of resistance; but it only proved a gasconade, for upon our 20 preparing to fill up a little fosse, in order to attack them, they beat the chamade, and sent us charte blanche. Their commandant, with a great many other general officers, and troops without number, are made prisoners of war, and will I believe give you a visit in England, the cartel not being yet settled. Not questioning but those particulars will be very welcome to you, I congratulate you upon them, and am your most dutiful son,' &c. The father of the young gentleman upon the perusal of the letter found it contained great news, but could not guess what 30 it was. He immediately communicated it to the curate of the parish, who upon the reading of it, being vexed to see any thing he could not understand, fell into a kind of a passion, and told him that his son had sent him a letter that was neither fish, flesh, nor good red-herring. 'I wish,' says he, 'the captain may be compos mentis; he talks of a saucy trumpet, and a drum that carries messages; then who is this Charte Blanche? He must either banter us, or he is out of his senses.' The father, who always looked upon the curate as a learned man, began to fret inwardly at his son's usage, and producing a letter which he had |