All this, without a gloss, or comment, In proper terms, such as men smatter To match his learning and his wit; And prove their doctrine orthodox from the curse which condemned him to crawl upon his belly. The inference drawn by some commentators is that he had previously gone erect upon his tail. * Blue was the usual livery of servants-hence, perhaps, it came to be proverbially regarded as the colour of service or fidelity. It was commonly the habit of beadles and other officers : Came a velvet justice with a long The expression 'true blue' is found in the old proverb-True blue will never stain. + Literally itinerant or wandering saints, who go about on a mission of propagandism-in this instance enforcing their doctrines by fire and sword. Upon these Cornet Joyce built his faith, when he carried away the King by force from Holdenby: for when his Majesty asked him for a sight of his instructions, Joyce said he should see them presently; and so, drawing up his troop in the inward court, These, sir,' said the Cornet, are my instructions.'-ECHARD. A sect, whose chief devotion lies As if they worshipped God for spite. In them, in other men all sin. Rather than fail, they will defy That which they love most tenderly; Quarrel with minced-pies, and disparage Their best and dearest friend-plum-porridge; And blaspheme custard through the nose. * A sect whose religion consisted less in the articles in which it believed, than in its opposition to articles held by others. Thus the Presbyterians opposed all the pastimes and amusements of the people, particularly those which had any connexion with the Church: they especially objected to the eating of pies and plum-porridge at Christmas, which they denounced as sinful; and carried their hostility even into matters of costume, such as the mode of dressing hair, and the shape of the dress. The The Presbyterians strained their opposition so far as to keep a sort of Lent at Christmas by converting the festival into a fast. crusade against Christmas and its traditional 'good cheer' is thus noticed in one of the ballads of the day : :- Gone are the golden days of yore, When Christmas was a high-day, Whose sports we now shall see no more, 'Tis turned into Good-Friday. The abolition of the Christmas festivities is a frequent subject of sarcasm in the songs of the Cavaliers. See, also, Cleveland's Christmas Day. Th' apostles of this fierce religion, Had got the advowson of his conscience. And tell, with hieroglyphic spade, The ass is the milk-white beast, called Alborach, upon which Mahomet rode to heaven; and by the widgeon must be understood the pigeon that was trained by Mahomet to pick seeds out of his ear, so that it might be thought to be the messenger of inspired communica、 tions. It seems that the breed of that favoured pigeon was long preserved at Mecca with superstitious care. In the time of Charles I. the beard was generally worn sharply peaked, and the hair long over the neck. Powder appears to have been sometimes worn. John Owen, Dean of Christchurch and ViceChancellor of Oxford, 1652, is described, in querpo like a young scholar, with powdered hair, snake-bone bandstrings, a lawn band, a large set of ribands pointed at the knees, Spanish leather boots with large lawn tops, and his hat most curiously cocked.' The cultivation of the beard was an object of serious concern. They were so curious in the management of them,' says Dr. Grey, 'that some had pasteboard cases to put over them in the night, lest they should turn upon them, and rumple them in their sleep.' As a comet is supposed to portend some dire calamities to the state, so this beard, dedicated to the Parliament, menaced the fall of the monarchy. Like Samson's heart-breakers,* it grew * The 'heart-breakers' were loose flying locks worn by ladies over their shoulders. + Originally monastic-changed by Butler in the ed. 1674. This vow is chronicled in the burlesque ballad of The Cobbler and Vicar of Bray. Here again the beard is described as a meteor : This worthy knight was one that swore He would not cut his beard, 'Till this ungodly nation was From kings and bishops cleared. Which holy vow he firmly kept, 'Till they were both no more. § A friar of the Franciscan Order, called in England (where they first established themselves in 1224) a Grey Friar. They wore a knotted cord tied round the waist-hence the name of Cordeliere. This custom of offering up the beard, or the hair of the head, as a sacrifice, may be traced to a remote antiquity, and seems to be a remnant of the Jewish law. For a passage where Arcite makes Whose thread of life the fatal sisters Both down together at a blow. His back, or rather burthen, showed Upon his shoulders through the fire, a vow to devote his beard to Mars, see Chaucer's Poems, Ann. Ed. i. 167: And eek to this avow I wol me bynde: My berd, myn heer that hangeth longe adoun, That never yit ne fell offensioun Of rasour ne of schere, I wol thee give, And be thy trewe servaunt whiles I lyve. * Gasper Taliacotius, a professor of surgery at Bologna, where he died in 1599, published a treatise on the art of ingrafting noses, ears, lips, &c. The practice is ridiculed in a humorous paper in the Tatler; but there is no doubt that the operation has been frequently performed with success. So lately as 1815 Mr. Carpue published an account of 'two successful operations for restoring a lost nose, from the integuments of the forehead, in cases of two officers of his majesty's army.' Taliacotius was not the originator of the art; it had been practised by Vesalius, the anatomist, and one or two others before his time. The magistrates of Bologna had so high an opinion of his skill, that they erected a statue of him, holding a nose in his hand. + Literally a notch, or slit-hence nick, which is a corruption of it; used also to imply something of a different material added to finish off anything. It was likewise applied figuratively to the posteriors; but the more usual term in that sense was nock-andro: Blest be Dulcinea, whose favour I beseeching, Rescued poor Andrew, and his nock-andro from breeching. |