Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian; At any time, to grace my stratagems.-Buckingham. Acts. THE Battle of Pydna, and defeat of Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, by the Romans, under Æmylius Paulus, B. C. 168. This date is settled by the eclipse, which happened the preceding night. Perseus was shortly afterwards seized by the conqueror, in Samothrace, and thus terminated the independence of a country which had seen a succession of thirty legitimate monarchs, and eight usurpers. The great and third Alexander was the nineteenth lineal ruler from Caranus, the founder of the empire, B. C. 814, six years after the fall of Assyria. The third Ecumenical council assembles at Ephesus, to execute the decree of Pope Celestine as to the heresy of Nestorius, A. D. 431. There were present, in the first session, one hundred and thirty-eight bishops. He was deposed from his see, and banished to an oasis. The death of Saint Wenefride, of Holy-well.-See 3d November. A remarkable eclipse, eight in the morning, 2d Richard I. (who was then at Acre), which caused an artificial night. In that year a parhelion appeared, undistinguishable by the naked sight from the real sun, 1191. The victory of the Scotch Earl of March, on Nesbit Moor, 1402. The defeat of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, at Morat, in Switzerland, 1476. Philip de Comines, speaking of this celebrated conflict for liberty, mentions harquebussiers as troops. The accession of the usurper, Richard III. 1483. It was that memorable Sunday when Dr. Shaw, a brother of the Lord Mayor, preached at St. Paul's Cross, from the singular text, " Bastard slips shall not strike deep roots ;" and thence proceeded, by the appointment of Gloucester, to show the illegitimacy of the infant princes. The Cornish rebels, under Lord Audley, encamp on Blackheath, 1497. Sir Thomas Randolph embarks at Harwich, as Envoy to Russia, 1568. A mercantile treaty was concluded there the 20th of June, 1569. The King's favour, to say the truth (for sin it were to belie the devil), she never abused to any man's hurt, but to many a man's comfort and relief; and now she beggeth of many at this day living, that this day had begged if she had not been. Sir Thomas More's character of Jane Shore. False in thy glass all objects are, In only thee, O Jealousy! Thou tyrant, tyrant of the mind. - Dryden. Acts. The surrender of Cadiz, by capitulation, 1596. The impetuous Essex, with a handful of men, at that moment was in the market-place, dealing death around him as the devil's cards. A ransom of 120,000 crowns was to be paid for their lives; and the town and merchandize were abandoned to the rapacity of the conquerors. The Admiral, Howard, in a letter to his father-in-law, Lord Burleigh, kindly but flatteringly observes: "I can assure you, there is not a braver man in the world than the Earl is; and I protest, in my simple poor judgment, a grave soldier; for what he doth is in great order and good discipline performed." An order of the Privy Council, 1600 (the Court was then at Greenwich), inhibiting all public performances about the city, except in two houses; the Globe, in Surrey, upon the Bankside; and the other, the Fortune, in Golding Lane, Middlesex, then erecting by one Edward Allen, a servant of the Lord Admiral, instead of another (The Curtain) to be plucked down. "And for the other house to be allowed on Surrey side, whereas their lordships are pleased to permit, to the company of players, that shall play there [Shakspeare's covey] to make their own choice, which they will have, of divers houses that are there, choosing one of them and no more. And the said company of players, being the servants of the Lord Chamberlain, [' skill-embracing heir of Hunsdon'] have made choice of the house called the Globe." It was also ordered, that the two companies should play "twice a week and no oftener; and especially they shall refrain to play on the Sabbath-day.". Henslowe, MSS.: "Lent unto Benjemy Johnsone, at the apoyntment of E. Alleyn and William Birde, the 22 of June, 1602, in earnest of a boocke [play] called "Richard Crook-back," and for new adycions for "Jeronimo," the sum of xlb." That tragedy if ever acted,' was speedily withdrawn. For plays are good, or bad, as they are us'd; Wi' joy unfeign'd brothers and sisters meet, Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new; The father mixes a' wi' admonition due.---Saturday Night. Acts. HENRY III. upon his going into Gascony, delivers the custody of the Great Seal, as Chancellor, to Eleanor his Queen, 1253. Sir Nicholas Bacon, a son of the Lord Keeper of that name, is created by King James I. the premier Baronet of England, 1611. Galileo and his books are condemned by the Inquisition, 1632. The Scottish covenanters are defeated at the bridge of Bothwell, a village on the Clyde, by the Duke of Monmouth, 1679. Mr. Canning's motion in favour of the Catholic claims, is carried by a signal majority of one hundred and nineteen. The same motion, introduced by the Marquis Wellesley, in the House of Lords, on the 1st of July, 1812, was only lost by a majority of one; “and on each side,” says a judicious annalist, "were ranged ministers and their habitual supporters, Royal dukes and bishops; the latter, indeed, in very unequal proportion." In short, the solid array of mind in this cause, which at length it has achieved by storm, would illuminate many pages; and to omit one name (as Gray has very well said) is better avoided. Louis XVI. King of France and his family, who had escaped the preceding day from Paris, are arrested at Varennes, in the department of the Meuse, and conducted back to the Thuilleries, 1791. A brilliant and general illumination to commemorate the battle of Waterloo, 1815. Louis XVIII. re-entered Paris the 8th of July. Messieurs Brougham and Denman are first heard at the bar of the House of Lords, as the advocates of the late Princess of Brunswick, called by courtesy, the Queen, 1820. While men are endowed with passions there will be excess and prejudice; so long as this country is free, there must be party, and the weak will always find protectors; but existence is far too limited and valuable to busy ourselves with personal enmities respecting those who, disrobed of every earthly vanity, "their little feelings now no more," are mingled peaceably together. The King is the fountain of honour, which should not run with a waste pipe, lest the courtiers sell the water, and then (as Papists say of their holy wells) it loses the virtue. Bacon. Oft am I by the women told, 'Tis time short pleasures now to take, Of little life the best to make, And manage wisely the last stake.-Age. Day. IX. Cal. 23. Bishop (John) Fell, 1625, Caius Flaminius, killed, B. C. 217. Longworth. Sir Fletcher Norton, Lord Grant- Mary Tudor (Dutchess of Suf- Stephen Louis Malus, 1775, Dr. John Mill, 1707. Bleching St. Etheldreda (or Ediltrudis, and good men cannot be over- St. Mary, of Oignies, in Bra- to be preferred before the mere I will straight conduct you to a hill-side, where I will point you out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.---Milton on Education. The hoary fool, who many days Has struggl'd with continued sorrow, The desp❜rate bet upon to-morrow : This day like all the former flies: Yet on he runs, to seek delight To-morrow, 'till to-night he dies.---Prior. Acts. UPON the vigil of St. John the Baptist (Midsummer-eve), at night, in the olden time, the London Watch was accustomed to be set with great parade, marches, and counter-marches, "from the little conduit by Paul's Gate, through West Cheap, by the Stocks, through Cornhill, by Leadenhall to Aldgate, then back down Fenchurch Street, by GrassChurch, about Grass-Church conduit, and up Grass-Church Street into Cornhill, and through it into West Cheap again, and so broke up." It was altogether a very imposing civic spectacle, scarcely inferior and very similar to the Lord Mayor's show of the present age. The French regal ceremony, called "Le feu de la Saint Jean," when a certain number of cats, with a fox, are burnt in the Place de Grève, upon St. John's Eve, is probably as ancient as the monarchy. The overthrow of the Consul, Flaminius, near the lake Thrasymenus, (Perugia), B. C. 217. It was one of the most decisive and destructive victories on record, sounding as a drum to Roman ears, the promising but deceptive talents of Hannibal.-See 21st May. The Caliph Ali, fourth from the prophet, is chosen, A. D. 655. The Emperor Henry VI. who meanly purchased, imprisoned, and sold our Richard I. is inaugurated by Pope Celestine, Sunday, 1191. Matthew Paris states, that the eclipse took place upon this day. A terrible convulsion of Mount Etna, about sunset, 1281. Richard III. publishes his famous proclamation, 1485. It stated, that Henry Tudor “intended to change and subvert the laws of the realm, and to do the most cruel murders, slaughters, robberies, and disherisons that were ever seen in any Christian country." Charles II. arrives in the Frith of Cromartie, 1649.-Two moons are seen at London, noticed by the famous John Partridge, N. S. 1679. One consolation is, that as I have always very readily manumized my slaves, their death does not seem altogether immature, if they have lived long enough to receive their freedom: the other, that I have allowed them to make a kind of will, which I observe as religiously as if they were legally entitled to that privilege. Pliny the Younger. |
