the opinion entertained, that the carrying of the sword of state was, in fact, the admission of a claim of peerage.

"There was some question at court on Sunday, for that the Lord Roos, by the Lord Chamberlain's appointment, carried the sword before the King; wherto some noblemen took exceptions as being a kind of determining of the business betwixt him and the Earl of Rutland. The matter was argued eagerly before the King, but Sir Robert Cotton, that hath ever some old precedent in store, made proof, that knights and lords, that were not of the parliament, have at times carried the sword."-Vol. iii. p. 95.

Although Sir Anthony Weldon's highly satirical description of Scotland is tolerably well known, a few extracts cannot fail to be acceptable:

"First for the country, I must confess, it is too good for those that possess it, and too bad for others to be at the charge to conquer it. The air might be wholesome but for the stinking people that inhabit it; the ground might be fruitful, had they the will to manure it. Their beasts be generally small, women only excepted, of which sort there are none greater in all the world. There is great store of fowl, fowl houses, fowl sheets and shirts, fowl linnen, fowl dishes and pots, fowl trenchers and napkins, with which sort we have been forced to fare as the children [of Israel] did with their fowl in the wilderness. They have likewise great store of deare, but they are so far from the place where I have been yet, that I had rather believe it than go to disprove it: I confess all the dear I met withal, was dear lodgings, dear horse meat, dear tobacco and English beer. As for fruit, for their grandsire Adam's sake, they never planted any; and for other trees, had Christ been betrayed in this country (as doubtless he should have been had he come as a stranger), Judas had sooner found a tree of repentance than a tree to hang himself upon." "I see little grass but in the pottage; the thistle was not given them of naught, for it is the fairest flower in their garden. The word hay is heathen Greek unto them, neither man nor beast knoweth what it means. Corn is reasonable plentiful at this time, for, since they heard of the King's coming, it hath been as unlawful for the common people to eat wheat, as it was in the old time for any, but the priests, to eat the shew-bread: they prayed much for his coming, and long fasted for his welfare. All his followers were welcome but his guard, for those, they say, are like Pharaoh's lean kine, and threaten dearth wheresoever they come. They would persuade the footmen, that oaten cakes would make them long-winded, and the children of the chapel they have brought to eat of them for the maintenance of their voices. They persuade the trumpeters that fasting is good for men of that quality, for emptiness, say they, causeth wind, and wind causeth a trumpet to sound sweetly. The bringing of heralds, they say, was a needless charge; they all knew their pedigrees well enough."-Pp. 338-340.

Two of Mr. Chamberlain's letters indicate, that females of rank, if not in other classes of society, had, about the middle of James's reign, attained a state of independence and im

portance that was previously unknown; and that the King,' being extremely displeased, was resolved to restrain them. This circumstance is so interesting, that it shall receive all the elucidation which is afforded by the letters referred to. In February, 1620, Chamberlain says,

"Our pulpits ring continually of the insolence and impudence of women, and, to help forward, the players have likewise taken them to task, and so to the ballads and ballad-singers; so that they can come no where but their ears tingle. And if all this will not serve, the King threatens to fall upon their husbands, parents, or friends that have or should have power over them, and make them pay for it."-Vol. iii. p. 588.

And when James, in reply to his inquiry of Sir George Calvert about his wife, was told that

"she was a good woman, and had brought him ten children, and would assure his Majesty, that she was not a wife with a witness. This, and some other passages of this kind, seem to show (says Mr. Chamberlain) that the King is in a great vein of taking down highhanded women."

His Majesty's dislike to their exhibiting themselves in the windows on his passing through the streets was, in 1621, evinced in a manner that was little short of indecent; for, on looking up at a house, in his procession to open the parliament, and perceiving the window

"full of gentlewomen and ladies, all in yellow bands, he cried out aloud, A pox take ye! are ye there? at which, being much ashamed, they all withdrew themselves suddenly from the window 1."

Here our extracts must terminate. If we have not noticed the more important events of James's reign, the death of his eldest son, the romantic visit of Prince Charles to the court of Madrid, the rise of the various favourites, or the political transactions of the period, for example,-it has been solely because on these topics the industry of Mr. Nichols has produced very little that was not previously known; and though the plan of his work rendered such repetition unavoidable, it is our object to fill the little space we are enabled to devote to the publication before us with the new matter which it contains, especially as it is our intention to notice almost the whole of the volumes from which the "Progresses" have been compiled.

Notwithstanding that we have expressed our sense of the merits of the avowed editor of this work, it is but fair to state, that Mr. Nichols, for some time previous to his death, was prevented from attending to it by his infirmities, and that he died

Vol. iv. p. 650.

before the fourth volume appeared. The task of completing it devolved upon his grandson, Mr. John Gough Nichols; and such are his industry and intelligence that the loss has not been, in any degree, prejudicial to its value. But we cannot allow ourselves to conclude a review of the last publication of a gentleman who has conferred such permanent benefits on antiquarian literature, and whose unremitting exertions were directed towards its advancement for more than sixty years, without paying our homage to his literary and personal character. Mr. Nichols was one of the few men who have closed a long and active life in the possession of the esteem of all to whom he was known; and whilst more gratifying testimony of his moral worth is unnecessary, it is only requisite to allude to the extensive catalogue of his productions for proof of the services he has rendered to that department of literature to which he was enthusiastically attached, and which cannot fail to secure respect to his memory, when his goodness of heart, his zeal to serve all who required his aid, and his conduct in domestic life, are forgotten.

Showing Sin

Andronicus, or the Unfortunate Politician. slowly punished; Right surely rescued. Eccles. viii. 11." Because sentence against an ill worke is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in to doe evil." The Second Edition. By Thomas Fuller, B. D. London, printed by W. W. for John Williams, at the Crowne in St. Paules Church-yard. 1646.

THIS is one of the least known, if not the rarest, of the productions of the quaint writer whose name it bears. Already, in our former series, have we expounded the nature and quality of Fuller's style; already have we treated of his pleasant manner of handling grave things, and do not now propose to dwell so much on his general characteristics, as to rescue from oblivion some of his passages and sayings that deserve a longer sojourn in the land of literary life. The subject of this piece is the usurpation of Andronicus, an obscure portion of the history of the Eastern empire, which the writer has chosen for the purpose of moralizing its facts, and epigrammatizing the records that remain concerning it. Fuller's treatment of history is extraordinary he is not especially precise in his choice of authorities, or exact in his detail of events-he is content with a name and a fortune, that he may comment upon their mutability; with a character, that he may balance and weigh all its properties. Acts suggest conceits, speeches puns, and his de

scriptions are crowded with similes and metaphors, so apt in their circumstances that they excite the attention, so unlike in their nature that they provoke laughter. Thus, in his historical attempts, Fuller is rather a moralist or a rhetorician than a historian. It is only in this view that this portion of his writings is ordinarily worthy of notice.

The preface to Andronicus explains, that the author has applied to the writing of it as a relief from the anxieties of the times. The civil wars had driven him into concealment, and the best solace appeared to him in the reading and writing of "such stories as his weak judgment commended unto him as the more beneficial." The use of all history he illustrates, as usual, by a simile, which, for its aptness, has found favour with subsequent authors.

"Great is the pleasure and profit thereof. Zaccheus ', wee know, was low and little in stature, but when he had borrowed some height from the fig-tree, into which he climbed, the dwarfe was made a gyant on a suddain; last minute beneath the armes, but now grown above the heads of other men. Thus our experimentall knowledge is in itselfe, both short and narrow, as which cannot exceed the spanne of our owne life. But when wee are mounted on the advantage of history, we can, not onely reach the yeere of Christs incarnation, but, even touch the top of the worlds beginning, and at one view over-see all remarkeable accidents of former ages."

He then more particularly applies another historical reminiscence to his own case.

"Our English writers tell us of David King of the Scots, that whilst he was prisoner in a cave in Nottingham castle, he, with his nailes, shall I say carved, (or) scratched out the whole history of our Saviours passion in the wall. And although the figures be rough and rude, yet in one respect they are to bee compared unto, yea, preferred before the choysest pieces, and most exact platformes of all engravers, being done at such disadvantages; cut out of a maine rock, without any light to direct him, or instruments to helpe him, besides his bare hands.

"The application of the story serves me for manifold uses. First, here I learn, if that princes, then meaner persons, are bound to finde themselves some honest employment. Secondly, that in a sad and solitary condition, a calling is a comfortable companion. Thirdly, where men want necessaries, fit tooles and materialis, the worke that they doe, (if it be any degree passable,) deserves, if not to bee praised, to bee pardoned. Which encourageth me to expect of the charitable reader, favour for the faults in this tract committed, when he considers the author in effect banished, and booklesse, and wanting severall accommodations requisite to the compleating an history.

"Noah, to make an essay, whether the waters were abated from

the face of the earth, before he would adventure to expose the whole fraught of his arke to danger, dispatch'd a dove to make discovery, and report unto him the condition of the world, intending to order himselfe accordingly. A deep deluge hath lately over-flowed the whole kingdome, to the drowning of many, and dangering of all. I send forth this small treatise, to try whether the swelling surges, and boyling billowes in mens breasts (flowing from the distance in their judgments, and difference in their affection) begin now to asswage, and whether there be a dry place for this my innocent dove, safely to settle her selfe. If shee finde any tollerable entertainment, or indifferent approbation abroad, it will give mee encouragement to adventure a volumne of a more usefull subject, and greater concernment in the view of the world."

We will now pursue the author's "innocent dove," and ascertain what "entertainment" and "approbation" she deserves. The first book opens with an account of the state of the Greek, empire. Alexius Comnenus, in the year 1179, had succeeded his father, Manuel Comnenus; his mother Xene retained a portion of her power, and had married a second time, Proto Sebastus. Andronicus, a prince of the blood, had been banished in the lifetime of the late emperor, and now resided in Paphlagonia. The courtiers and nobility of Constantinople, either disgusted with the sensuality of the reigning emperor and his mother, or jealous of the favours they bestowed on upstart favourites, conspired to invite the return of Andronicus. The invitation was eagerly accepted, and Andronicus, who came at the head of an army, and found the forces of the emperor, by land and sea, betrayed into his hands, had no difficulty in assuming the chief authority in Constantinople. At first he was associated with Alexius; after the violent death of his partner in empire, the usurper reigned alone, and the historians describe him as indulging in the worst cruelties of a tyrant. His rule became insupportable, and another conspiracy drove Andronicus, in his turn, from the throne in favour of Isaacus Angelus, a prince of the imperial blood, who had long lived the life of a hermit. Andronicus, captured in his flight, was given up to the savage brutality of the mob of Constantinople, who inflicted upon him the most intolerable tortures, which quickly brought the usurper, now a very old man, to his end. This is the story, which is here ornamented after the quaint fashion of the author. The character of Alexius is thus described:

"Alexius Comnenus, only son of Manuel Comnenus, succeeded his father in the empire of Constantinople. A child hee was in age and judgment: of wit, too short to measure an honourable sport, but lost himselfe in low delights. He hated a booke, more than a monster did a looking glasse, and when his tutor endeavored to play him into scollership, by presenting pleasant authors unto him. le returned,