The Fortunes of Nigel by Walter Scott (good summer reads txt) 📕

Note IX. p. 134.—PAGES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

About this time the ancient customs arising from the long prevalence of chivalry, began to be grossly varied from the original purposes of the institution. None was more remarkable than the change which took place in the breeding and occupation of pages. This peculiar species of menial originally consisted of youths of noble birth, who, that they might be trained to the exercise of arms, were early removed from their paternal homes, where too much indulgence might have been expected, to be placed in the family of some prince or man of rank and military renown, where they served, as it were, an apprenticeship to the duties of chivalry and courtesy. Their education was severely moral, and pursued with great strictness in respect to useful exercises, and what were deemed elegant accomplishments. From being pages, they were advanced to the next gradation of squires; from squires, these candidates for the honours of knighthood were frequently made knights.

But in the sixteenth century the page had become, in many instances, a mere domestic, who sometimes, by the splendour of his address and appearance, was expected to make up in show for the absence of a whole band of retainers with swords and bucklers. We have Sir John's authority when he cashiers part of his train.

“Falstaff will learn the humour of the age, French thrift, you rogues, myself and skirted page.”

Jonson, in a high tone of moral indignation, thus reprobated the change. The Host of the New Inn replies to Lord Lovel, who asks to have his son for a page, that he would, with his own hands hang him, sooner

“Than damn him to this desperate course of life. LOVEL. Call you that desperate, which, by a line Of institution, from our ancestors Hath been derived down to us, and received In a succession, for the noblest way Of brushing up our youth, in letters, arms, Fair mien, discourses civil, exercise, And all the blazon of a gentleman? Where can he learn to vault, to ride, to fence, To move his body gracefully, to speak The language pure, or to turn his mind Or manners more to the harmony of nature, Than in these nurseries of nobility? HOST. Ay, that was when the nursery's self was noble, And only virtue made it, not the market, That titles were not vended at the drum And common outcry; goodness gave the greatness, And greatness worship; every house became An academy, and those parts We see departed in the practice now Quite from the institution. LOVEL. Why do you say so, Or think so enviously? do they not still Learn us the Centaur's skill, the art of Thrace, To ride? or Pollux' mystery, to fence? The Pyrrhick gestures, both to stand and spring In armour; to be active for the wars; To study figures, numbers and proportions, May yield them great in counsels and the art; To make their English sweet upon their tongue? As reverend Chaucer says. HOST. Sir, you mistake; To play Sir Pandarus, my copy hath it, And carry messages to Madam Cressid; Instead of backing the brave steed o'mornings. To kiss the chambermaid, and for a leap O' the vaulting horse, to ply the vaulting house; For exercise of arms a bale of dice, And two or three packs of cards to show the cheat And nimbleness of hand; mistake a cloak From my lord's back, and pawn it; ease his pockets Of a superfluous watch, or geld a jewel Of an odd stone or so; twinge three or four buttons From off my lady's gown: These are the arts, Or seven liberal deadly sciences, Of pagery, or rather paganism, As the tides run; to which, if he apply him, He may, perhaps, take a degree at Tyburn, A year the earlier come to read a lecture Upon Aquinas, at Saint Thomas-a-Watering's And so go forth a laureate in hemp-circle.” The New Inn, Act I.

Note X. p. 135.—LORD HENRY HOWARD

Lord Henry Howard was the second son of the poetical Earl of Surrey, and possessed considerable parts and learning. He wrote, in the year 1583, a book called, A Defensative against the Poison of supposed Prophecies. He gained the favour of Queen Elizabeth, by having, he says, directed his battery against a sect of prophets and pretended soothsayers, whom he accounted infesti regibus, as he expresses it. In the last years of the Queen, he became James's most ardent partisan, and conducted with great pedantry, but much intrigue, the correspondence betwixt the Scottish King and the younger Cecil. Upon James's accession, he was created Earl of Northampton, and Lord Privy Seal. According to De Beaumont the French Ambassador, Lord Henry Howard, was one of the greatest flatterers and calumniators that ever lived.

Note XI. p. 136.—SKIRMISHES IN THE PUBLIC STREETS

Edinburgh appears to have been one of the most disorderly towns in Europe, during the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. The Diary of the honest citizen Birrel, repeatedly records such incidents as the following: “The 24 of November (1567), at two afternoon, the Laird of Airth and the Laird of Weems met on the High Gate of Edinburgh, and they and their followers fought a very bloody skirmish, where there were many hurt on both sides with shot of pistol.” These skirmishes also took place in London itself. In Shadwell's play of The Scowrers, an old rake thus boasts of his early exploits:—“I knew the Hectors, and before them the Muns, and the Tityretu's; they were brave fellows indeed! In these days, a man could not go from the Rose Garden to the Piazza once, but he must venture his life twice, my dear Sir Willie.” But it appears that the affrays, which, in the Scottish capital, arose out of hereditary quarrels and ancient feuds, were in London the growth of the licentiousness and arrogance of young debauchees.

Note XII. p. 144.—FRENCH COOKERY

The exertion of French ingenuity mentioned in the text is noticed by some authorities of the period; the siege of Leith was also distinguished by the protracted obstinacy of the besieged, in which was displayed all that the age possessed of defensive war, so that Brantome records that those who witnessed this siege, had, from that very circumstance, a degree of consequence yielded to their persons and opinions. He tells a story of Strozzi himself, from which it appears that his jests lay a good deal in the line of the cuisine. He caused a mule to be stolen from one Brusquet, on whom he wished to play a trick, and served up the flesh of that unclean animal so well disguised, that it passed with Brusquet for venison.

Note XIII. p. 145.—CUCKOO'S NEST

The quarrel in this chapter between the pretended captain and the citizen of London, is taken from a burlesque poem called The Counter Scuffle, that is, the Scuffle in the Prison at Wood street, so called. It is a piece of low humour, which had at the time very considerable vogue. The prisoners, it seems, had fallen into a dispute amongst themselves “which calling was of most repute,” and a lawyer put in his claim to be most highly considered. The man of war repelled his pretence with much arrogance.

“'Wer't not for us, thou swad,' quoth he, 'Where wouldst thou fay to get a fee? But to defend such things as thee 'Tis pity; For such as you esteem us least, Who ever have been ready prest To guard you and your cuckoo's nest, The City'”

The offence is no sooner given than it is caught up by a gallant citizen, a goldsmith, named Ellis.

“'Of London city I am free, And there I first my wife did see, And for that very cause,' said he, 'I love it. And he that calls it cuckoo's nest, Except he say he speaks in jest, He is a