Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small]

The Eve of St. Agnes.

St. Agnes' Eve? Ah, titter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold:

They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve,
Young virgins might have visions of delight
And soft adorings from their loves receive
Upon the honey'd middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright;
As, supperless to bed they must retire,
And couch supine their beauties, lily white;
Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
Of Heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire

Full of this whim was thoughtful Madeline

Out went the taper as she hurried in;
Its little smoke, in pallid moonshine, died:
She cos'd the door, she panted, all akin
To spirits of the air, and visions wide
No uttered syliable, or, woe betide!
But to her heart, her heart was voluble,
Paining with eloquence her balmy side;

As though a tongueless nightingale should swell
Her throat in vain, and die, heart-stifled, in her dell.

A casement high and triple arch'd there was,
All garlanded with carven imag'ries

Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot grass,
And diamonded with panes of quaint device
Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes,
As are the tiger-moth's deep damask'd wings;
And in the midst, 'mong thousand heraldries,
And twight saints, with dim emblazonings,

▲ shielded 'scutcheon blush'd with blood of queens and king

Full on this casement shone the wintry moon,
And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast,
As down she knelt for Heaven's grace and boon;
Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest,
And on her silver cross soft amethyst,
And on her hair a glory, like a saint:
She seem'd a splendid angel, newly drest,
Save wings, for Heaven:-

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

Stol'n to this paradise, and so extranced,
Porphyro gazed upon her empty dress,
And listened to her breathing.-

-Shaded was her dream

By the dusk curtains:-'twas a midnight charm
Impossible to melt as iced stream:-

He took her hollow lute,

Tumultuous, and, in chords that tenderest be,
He play'd an ancient ditty, long since mute,
In Provence call'd, "La belle dame sans mercy:*
Close to her ear touching the melody;—
Wherewith disturb'd, she utter'd a soft moan:
He ceas'd-she panted quick-and suddenly
Her blue affrayed eyes wide open shone :

Upon his knees he sank, pale as smooth-sculptured stone.
Her eyes were open, but she still beheld,
Now wide awake, the vision of her sleep:
There was a painful change, that nigh expell'd
The blisses of her dream so pure and deep,
At which fair Madeline began to weep,
And moan forth witless words with many a sigh,
While still her gaze on Porphyro would keep;
Who knelt, with joined hands and piteous eye,
Fearing to move or speak, she look'd so dreamingly

Ah, Porphyro!" said she, "but even now
"Thy voice was at sweet tremble in mine ear,
"Made tuneable with every sweetest vow;
"And those sad eyes were spiritual and clear:
"How chang'd thou art! how pallid, chill, and dres
"Give me that voice again, my Porphyro,

"Those looks immortal, those complainings dear!

[ocr errors]

Oh, leave me not in this eternal woe,

"For if thou diest, my love, I know not where to go."

Beyond a mortal man impassion'd far
At these voluptuous accents, he arose,
Ethereal, flush'd, and like a throbbing star,
Seen 'mid the sapphire heaven's deep repose,
Into her dream he melted, as the rose
Blendeth its odour with the violet,—

Solution sweet: meantime the frost-wind blows
Like Love's alarum pattering the sharp sleet
Against the window-panes.

“Hark! 'tis an elfin-storm from faery land,
"Of haggard seeming, but a boon indeed
"Arise-arise! the morning is at hand ;-
"Let us away, my love, with happy speed.—

[ocr errors]

And they are gone: ay, ages long ago
These lovers fled away into the storm.

FLORAL DIRECTORY,

St. Fabian

Large Dead Nettle. Larnium garganicum.

[graphic][ocr errors][ocr errors]

AQUARIUS,

OR, THE WATER BEARER.

The sun enters Aquarius on this day, though he does not enter it in the visible zodiac until the 18th of February.

Ganymede, who succeeded Hebe as cup-bearer to Jove, is fabled to have been changed into Aquarius. Canobus of the Egyptian zodiac, who was the Neptune of the Egyptians, with a water-vase and measure, evidently prefigured this constellation. They worshipped him as the God of many breasts, from whence he replenished the Nile with fertilizing streams. Aquarius contains one hundred and eight stars, the two chief of which are about fifteen degrees in height :

His head, his shoulders, and his lucid breast, Glisten with stars; and when his urn inclines, Rivers of light brighten the watery track.

January 21.

Eudosia.

St. Agnes. St Fructuosus, &c.

Vimin, or Vivian. St. Pubius. Epiphanius

St.

St.

St. Agnes. "She has always been looked upon," says Butler," as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate mother of God." According to him, she suffered martyrdom, about 304, and performed

wonderful miracles before her death,which was by beheading, when she was thirteen years old; whereupon he enjoins females to a single life, as better than a married one, and says, that her anniversary "was formerly a holiday for the women in England." Ribadeneira relates, that she was to have been burned, and was put into the fire for that purpose, but the flames, refusing to touch her, divided on each side, burnt some of the bystanders, and then quenched, as if there had been none made: a compassionate quality in hre, of which iron was not sensible, for her head was cut off at a single blow Her legend further relates, that eight days after her death she came to her parents arrayed in white, attended by virgins with garlands of pearls, and a lamb whiter than snow; she is therefore usually represented by artists with a lamb by her side; though not, as Mr. Brand incautiously says, in every graphic representation." It is further related, that a priest who offi ciated in a church dedicated to St. Agnes, was very desirous of being married. He prayed the pope's license, who gave it him, together with an emerald ring, and commanded him to pay his addresses to the image of St. Agnes in his own church Then the priest did so, and the image pur forth her finger, and he put the ring there on; whereupon the image drew her fin ger again, and kept the ring fast, and the priest was contented to remain a be

[ocr errors]

chelor;" and yet, as it is sayd, the rynge secrated animals were afterwards shorn,

is on the fynger of the ymage

[ocr errors]

In a Romish Missal printed at Paris, in 1520, there is a prayer to St. Agnes, remarkably presumptive of her powers; it is thus englished by Bp. Patrick:

Agnes, who art the Lamb's chaste spouse,
Enlighten thou our minds within;
Not only lop the spreading boughs,
But root out of us every sin.

O, Lady, singularly great,

After this state, with grief opprest
Translate us to that quiet seat
Above, to triumph with the blest.

From Naogeorgus, we gather that in St. Agnes' church at Rome, it was customary on St. Agnes' Day to bring two snow-white lambs to the altar, upon which they were laid while the Agnus was singing by way of offering. These con

and palls made from their fleeces; for each
of which, it is said, the pope exacted or
the bishops from eight to ten, or thirty
thousand crowns, and that the custom
originated with Limes, who succeeded the
apostle Peter: whereupon Naogeorgus
inquires,

But where was Agnes at that time?
who offred up, and how,

The two white lambes? where then was
Masse,

as it is used now?

Yea, where was then the Popish state,
and dreadfull monarchee?
Sure in Saint Austen's time, there were

no palles at Rome to see, &c.
In Jephson's "Manners, &c. of France
and Italy," there is one dated from Rome,
February, 14, 1793. That this ceremony
was then in use, is evident from the fol-
lowing lines :-

St. Agnes' Shrine.

Where each pretty Ba-lamb most gaily appears,
With ribands stuck round on its tail and its ears;
On gold fringed cushions they're stretch'd out to eat,
And piously ba, and to church-musick bleat;

Yet to me they seem'd crying, alack, and alas!
What's all this white damask to daisies and grass?

Then they're brought to the Pope, and with transport they're kiss'd,
And receive consecration from Sanctity's fist.
Blessing of Sheep

Stopford, in "Pagano-Papismus," re-
cites this ceremony of the Romish church.
The sheep were brought into the church,
and the priest, having blessed some salt
and water, read in one corner this gospel,
"To us a child is born," &c. with the
whole office, a farthing being laid upon
the book, and taken up again; in the
second corner he read this gospel, "Ye
men of Galilee," &c. with the whole
office, a farthing being laid upon the
book, and taken up again; in the third
corner he read this gospel, "I am
the good shepherd," &c. with the whole
office, a farthing being laid upon the
book, and taken up again; and in the
fourth corner he read this gospel, "In
these days," &c. with the whole office,
a farthing being laid upon the book, and
taken up again
After that, he sprinkled
all the sheep with holy water, saying,
"Let the blessing of God, the Father
Almighty, descend and remain upon you;
in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." Then he
signed all the sheep with the sign of the
cross, repeated thrice some Latin verses,
with the Paternoster and Ave-Marias,

sung the mass of the Holy Ghost, and at
the conclusion, an offering of fourpence
was for himself, and another of three-
pence was for the poor. This ceremony
was adopted by the Romish church from
certain customs of the ancient Romans,
in their worship of Pales, the goddess of
sheepfolds and pastures.
her to bless the sheep, and sprinkled them
with water. The chief difference between
the forms seems to have consisted in this,
that the ancient Romans let the sheep
remain in their folds, while the moderns
drove them into the church.

They prayed

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Christmas Rose.

St. Agnes.

Helleborus niger flor,

albo.

THE CROCUS.

Dainty young thing

Of life!-Thou vent'rous flower,
Who growest through the hard, cold
Of wintry Spring:-

Thou various-hued.
Soft, voiceless bell, whose spire
Rocks in the grassy leaves like wire
In solitude:

Like Patience, thou

Art quiet in thy earth,

Instructing Hope that Virtue's birth

Is Feeling's vow.

Thy fancied bride!

The delicate Snowdrop, keeps

ment of his fees; if convicted, he was set in the stocks on each of the three subsequent market-days in Halifax, with the stolen goods on his back, if they were portable; if not, they were placed before his face. This was for a terror to others,

Her home with thee; she wakes and sleeps and to engage any who had aught against

Near thy true side.

Will Man but hear!

A simple flower can tell

What beauties in his mind should dwell
Through Passion's sphere.

CHRONOLOGY.

J. R. Prior.

1793. On the 21st of January, Louis XVI. was beheaded at Paris, in the thirtyninth year of his age, and nineteenth of his reign, under circumstances which are in the recollection of many, and known to most persons. A similar instrument to the guillotine, the machine by which Louis XVI. was put to death, was formerly used in England. It was first introduced into France, during the revolution, by Dr. Guillotine, a physician, and hence its name.

THE HALIFAX GIBBET AND GIBBET-LAW.

The History of Halifax in Yorkshire, 12mo. 1712, sets forth ❝ a true account of their ancient, odd, customary gibbetlaw; and their particular form of trying and executing of criminals, the like not us'd in any other place in Great Britain." The Halifax gibbet was in the form of the guillotine, and its gibbet-law quite as remarkable. The work referred to, which is more curious than rare, painfully endeavours to prove this law wise and salutary. It prevailed only within the forest of Hardwick, which was subject to the lord of the manor of Wakefield, a part of the duchy of Lancaster. If a felon were taken within the liberty of the forest with cloth, or other commodity, of the value of thirteen-pence halfpenny, he was, after three market-days from his apprehension and condemnation, to be carried to the gibbet, and there have his head cut off from his body. When first taken, he was brought to the lord's bailiff in Halifax, who kept the town, had also the keeping of the axe, and was the executioner at the gibbet. This officer summoned a jury of trith-burghers to try him on the evidence of witnesses not upon oath: if acquitted, he was set at liberty, upon pay

him, to bring accusations, although after the three market-days he was sure to be executed for the offence already proved upon him. But the convict had the satisfaction of knowing, that after he was put to death, it was the duty of the coroner to summon a jury," and sometimes the same jury that condemned him," to inquire into the cause of his death, and that a return thereof would be made into the Crown-office; "which gracious and sage proceedings of the coroner in that matter ought, one would think, to abate, in all considering minds, that edge of acrimony which hath provoked malicious and prejudiced persons to debase this laudable and necessary custom." So says the book.

In April, 1650, Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchell were found guilty of stealing nine yards of cloth and two colts, and on the 30th of the month received sentence," to suffer death, by having their heads severed and cut off from their bodies at Halifax gibbet," and they suffered accordingly. These were the last persons executed under Halifax gibbet-law.

The execution was in this manner :The prisoner being brought to the scaffold by the bailiff, the axe was drawn up by a pulley, and fastened with a pin to the side of the scaffold. "The bailiff, the jurors, and the minister chosen by the prisoner, being always upon the scaffold with the prisoner, in most solemn manner, after the minister had finished his ministerial office and christian duty, if it was a horse, an ox, or cow, &c. that was taken with the prisoner, it was thither brought along with him to the place of execution, and fastened by a cord to the pin that stay'd the block, so that when the time of the execution came, (which was known by the jurors holding up one of theit hands,) the bailiff, or his servant, whipping the beast, the pin was pluck'd out, and execution done; but if there were no beast in the case, then the bailiff, or his servant, cut the rope."

« PreviousContinue »