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little important, discussion. I cannot, however, close my note without the remark, that, as the grade of frankelein has been converted into the surname of man; thus, also, has that of Vavasour increased our nomenclature, and borne the owners thereof to a yet higher modern grade. The name of Vavasour is attached to two modern Baronetcies of the County of York.

NOTE 17-(p. 210.)

"Massinger." It is uncertain, whether this Dramatist was born at Salisbury, or Wilton. The general opinion seems to be in favour of the former place. I shall here beg permission to extract the following brief memoir of him from Mr. Britton's "Historical, Topographical, and Antiquarian Sketches of Wiltshire," p. 343: "Philip Massinger, an eminent dramatic poet, was born either at Salisbury, or at Wilton House, and, most probably, at the latter. His father, who had passed many years in the service of the Earl of Pembroke, sent him to the University of Oxford, where he became a Commoner of St. Alban's Hall, on the 14th of May, 1602, in the eighteenth year of his age. In consequence of the death of his father he left the University abruptly, and being precluded, in all probability, by his tenets as a Catholic, from benefiting from the kindness of his patrons, on his arrival in London he was driven partly by inclination, and partly by necessity, to dedicate his talents to the service of the stage.

"To trace the history of Massinger from this period to his death would only be to record the publication of his various dramas. For more than sixteen years (from 1606 to 1622) after his arrival in London, his efforts were confined to the assistance of Beaumont, Fletcher, and other cotemporary dramatists. In the last of these years the Virgin Martyr was given to the public, and from the appearance of that play, till the period of his death, his exertions as a writer for the stage were unremitted. His labours, however, great and multifarious as they were, scarcely secured him from absolute destitution; and a letter is still extant, in which a brother dramatist, an actor, and himself, combine to supplicate, in the most humble and pathetic language, the loan of four pounds of their own money. After a long and constant struggle with adversity, he died on

the 17th of March, 1640. He went to bed in good health, and was found dead in the morning in his own house on the Bankside, and his remains were interred in the church-yard of St. Saviour's, Southwark and in the register of deaths, the memorial of his mortality accords too well with the obscure and humble passages of his life: March 20, 1639-40, buried Philip Massinger, a Stranger.'

"All the writers of Massinger's life agree in representing him as a man of singular modesty, gentleness, and candor. His dramas are distinguished by copiousness and energy of diction; by artful construction and easy developement of fable; ingenuity of incident, and exact discrimination and consistency of character. He is sometimes humorous, but seldom witty; and chiefly excels in elaborate description, or lofty declamation; in harmony of verse, and rythmical modulation he stands unrivalled."

An edition of "The Plays of Philip Massinger" was published in four vols. 8vo., by Gifford, in the year 1813. This Editor, in the "Introduction," gives us as extensive memorials of this dramatic poet as he was able to collect, and accompanies them with a critical essay on his writings by Dr. Ferriar, of Manchester. Some few of the Plays of Massinger have held possession of the stage even till modern days, especially his "New Way to Pay Old Debts."

66

NOTE 18-(p. 220.)

Fingers." The now unseemly, but ancient, custom of eating with the aid of the fingers alone (before the invention of the cleanly, and useful, fork) is not only here developed, but connected with an awful dispensation of Providence. Earl Goodwin accompanies the act of depositing with his fingers that morsel of meat, which he was about to swallow with a perjurious asseveration-he was choked, and-ceased to live. Many, and well-attested, instances there are of the immediate judgment of an avenging God on the perjuries of mankind, so well does. he love verity, and singleness of heart.

It will not be inapplicable to cite here an awful instance, which, some years since, occurred in the County of Wilts. The event alluded to took place at Devizes, and was recorded on a

cross, or some other small public building, in the centre of the market-place of that town. This was, in the year 1814, replaced by a handsome cross, from a design by Wyatt, at the expense of Henry, Viscount Sidmouth, as a testimony of his attachment to the Borough, which is recorded thereon. Another side of that cross presents a memorial to posterity of the awful event alluded to, and proclaims aloud to the surrounding traffickers in this world's goods, that, at all times, "Honesty is the best Policy," and that " doubtless, there is a God, that judgeth the earth." The recording inscription thus saith:

"The Mayor and Corporation of Devizes avail themselves of the Stability of this Building to transmit to future times the record of an awful event, which occurred in this Market-Place in the year 1753; hoping, that such record may serve as a salutary warning against the danger of impiously invoking Divine Vengeance, or of calling on the Holy Name of GOD to conceal the devices of Falsehood and Fraud.

"On Thursday, the 25th of January, 1753, Ruth Pierce, of Potterne, in this County, agreed with three other women to buy a sack of wheat in the Market, each paying her due proportion towards the same; One of these Women, in collecting the several Quotas of Money, discovered a deficiency, and demanded of Ruth Pierce the Sum, which was wanting to make good the Amount; Ruth Pierce protested, that she had paid her share, and said, She wished she might drop down dead, if she had not.' She rashly repeated this awful wish, when, to the consternation and terror of the surrounding Multitude, she instantly fell down, and expired, having the Money concealed in her hand."

Plot, in his "History of Staffordshire," relates an analogous, but, in its circumstances, a much more dreadful instance of the consequence of a solemn appeal to the Almighty in the aid of falsehood, and fraud. The circumstances occurred shortly prior to his publication of that work in the year 1686, and he, so fully, and so circumstantially, relates the place of the occurrence, and the names of all parties, that we must give heed to his relation, which, if false, could have been at once proved so by the united voice of that whole County.

These well-established instances do clearly testify, not only that Empires, in their rise and fall, are under the rule, and governance, of the Supreme, but that the insulted Majesty of

Heaven will, as a warning to the world, even in this life, avenge himself of those, who impiously, and falsely, appeal to his attributes of honour, and justice; yet mankind must not, from these detached, and obvious, manifestations of the Sovereign Will, draw conclusions in detriment of their neighbours from those adversities, to which, from the changes, and chances, of human life, all are subject. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Here is a declaration not only of the Divine Power, and Will, but, as it seems to me, a censure is meant to be conveyed to those presumptuous men, who are ready to stigmatise, with the loss of character, those, who are already overwhelmed with the afflictions of life. Men must not think, that, because the impious wretch draws down on his devoted head the wrath of the Almighty, the non-success-the misfortunes of life are any sure signs, that their neighbours do really lie under the displeasure of the Almighty from secret sin, or unhallowed inclinations.

The disposition of men ever to impute to Divine Vengeance the calamities of others was finely rebuked by our Blessed Saviour, who, in answer to those, who addressed him, not only repudiates the folly, and wickedness, of such charges, but well turns their observations on themselves, admonishing them to take heed, and look to their own salvation, lest, whatever may be the fate of others, and whether the Divine Vengeance were, or not, the cause of their destruction, they "shall all likewise perish :" but-hear, ye, his own words" There were present, at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus, answering, said unto them, Suppose ye, that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them; think ye, that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'

NOTE 19-(p. 225.)

"Furcifer." That you may understand, and that, understanding, you may relish the joke, which Mr. Laurence Whitaker

Luke xiii. 1-5.

played off on his friend, Tom Coryat, I must first explain to you the primary meaning of the Latin Word, furca, which, Minshieu saith, "à ferendo stramenta nomen obtinuit, ut Varroni placet. Est enim instrumentum rusticum, quo paleas, stramenta, quisquilias, & similia, efferre solent." Thus have we the description of the ancient fork used amongst the Romans as the modern pitch-fork. Its useful, but lesser, analogue, the fork for eating, was not then invented.

This furca-this ancient pitch-fork-became the prototype of an instrument to be placed around the neck of the offending slave, who was obliged, according to Godwin, in his "Roman Antiquities,"" for small offences furcam circa urbem ferre— to carry the furca, or yoke, upon his shoulders about the City, confessing his faults, and admonishing others to beware of the like offence, and hence such a servant, or slave, was afterwards called furcifer." From the similarity of shape to the twograined prong, or pitch-fork, the gallows for execution not only bore the name of patibulum, but, also, that of furca; and it was under such an erection, as I strongly opine, that the sturdy Romans made their captive foes to march, or (as was said) to pass under the yoke-in other words, telling them, in strong metaphorical, but silent, language, that they richly deserved the gallows, but that, in their mercy, they would permit them— to live.

We have seen, that the peccant slave, the thief, was made, as a punishment, to bear publicly on his shoulders the furca, or yoke the model of the gallows-to shame, and to punish, him withal. From hence he became a marked man-he was degraded he was denominated a furcifer—the bearer of the furca -or, in plain terms, a-thief! Now, from the convenience of its form, the pitch-fork of the Romans became the archetype of the modern fork, so well suited as the aid of man at his meals, the bearer of which may be justly denominated, also, a furcifer, or carrier of the fork; which, at its first introduction, was borne by every man for his own convenience, ready, as he ever was, to partake of good cheer, whenever it came in his way. Thus did Laurence Whitaker jeer his friend, Coryat, as a furciferthe bearer of the fork-or-a thief, and thus did the latter take occasion to explain this equivocal language-to assure his friends, and the world, that it was "only for vsing a forke at feeding, but for no other cause."

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