The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 538, March 17, 1832
TekstMISS KEMBLE'S TRAGEDY
FRANCIS I
I passed him with his train,
The gathering crowd thronging and clamouring
Around him, stunning him with benedictions,
And stifling him with love and fumes of garlic;
He, with the air he knows so well to don,
With cap in hand, and his thick chestnut hair
Fann'd from his forehead, bowing to his saddle,
Smiling and nodding, cursing at them too
For hindering his progress—while his eye,
His eagle eye, well versed in such discernment,
Roved through the crowd; and ever lighted where
Some pretty ancle, clad in woollen hose,
Peeped from beneath a short round petticoat,
Or where some wealthy burgher's buxom dame,
Decked out in all her high-day splendour, stood
Showing her gossips the gold chain, which lay
Cradled upon a bosom, whiter far
Than the pure lawn that kerchieft it.
A BEAUTY
Had a limner's hand
Traced such a heavenly brow, and such a lip,
I would have sworn the knave had dreamt it all
In some fair vision of some fairer world.
See how she stands, all shrined in loveliness;
Her white hands clasped; her clustering locks thrown back
From her high forehead; and in those bright eyes
Tears! radiant emanations! drops of light!
That fall from those surpassing orbs as though
The starry eyes of heaven wept silver dew.
A BETROTHED LOVER'S FAREWELL
Ay; but ere I go, perchance for ever, lady,
Unto the land, whose dismal tales of battles,
Where thousands strew'd the earth, have christen'd it
The Frenchman's grave; I'd speak of such a theme
As chimes with this sad hour, more fitly than
Its name gives promise. There's a love, which born
In early days, lives on through silent years,
Nor ever shines, but in the hour of sorrow,
When it shows brightest: like the trembling light
Of a pale sunbeam, breaking o'er the face
Of the wild waters in their hour of warfare.
Thus much forgive; and trust, in such an hour,
I had not said e'en this, but for the hope
That when the voice of victory is heard
From the fair Tuscan valleys, in its swell
Should mournful dirges mingle for the dead,
And I be one of those who are at rest,
You may chance recollect this word, and say,
That day, upon the bloody field, there fell
One who had loved thee long, and loved thee well.
A MONK'S CURSE
Hear me, thou hard of heart:
They who go forth to battle, are led on
With sprightly trumpets and shrill clam'rous clarions!
The drum doth roll its double notes along,
Echoing the horses' tramp; and the sweet fife
Runs through the yielding air in dulcet measure,
That makes the heart leap in its case of steel;
Thou—shalt be knell'd unto thy death by bells,
Pond'rous and brazen-tongued, whose sullen toll
Shall cleave thine aching brain, and on thy soul
Fall with a leaden weight: the muffled drum
Shall mutter round thy path like distant thunder:
'Stead of the war-cry, and wild battle roar,—
That swells upon the tide of victory,
And seems unto the conqueror's eager ear
Triumphant harmony of glorious discords:
There shall be voices cry, Foul shame on thee;
And the infuriate populace shall clamour
To heaven for lightnings on thy rebel head.
THE COSMOPOLITE
SUPERSTITIONS, FABLES, &. RELATIVE TO ANIMALS
(For the Mirror.)
A superstition prevails both in England and Scotland (Qu. Are Wales and Ireland excepted?) that Goats are never to be seen for twenty-four hours together, owing to their paying Satan a visit once during that period, to have their beards combed; indeed, since the classical representations of Pan and the satyrs, from whose semi-brutal figures we derive our own superstitious idea of the form of the evil one, goats, rams, and pongos have shared with serpents and cats the obloquy of being in a manner his animal symbols. The offensive smell of this animal is thus accounted for by the natives of South Guinea:—
Having requested a female deity to allow them to use an aromatic ointment which she used, the enraged goddess rubbed them with one of a very different description, and the smell of this has been ever since retained by the descendants of the presumptuous offenders.
We may here remark, that of late years some doubts have arisen, and not without foundation, respecting the wholesomeness of goats' milk, hitherto believed to be, in many respects, superior even to that of the cow. The goat was much venerated by the ancient Egyptians, and never sacrificed, because Pan was represented with the legs and feet of that animal, but the Greeks destroyed it on account of its cropping the vines.
Few animals have been the cause, perhaps, of so many superstitions as the common domestic Cat; most of them are too well known here to require repetition, but the still prevalent, popular prejudice that this creature sucks the breath of sleepers, especially children, and thereby kills them, has been signally refuted by modern naturalists, who observe, that even if it were capable of drawing a person's breath thus, the construction of its mouth renders it impossible to impede the respiration of the slumberer through mouth and nostrils at the same time; this vulgar superstition probably arose from cats liking to lie warm, and nestling consequently in beds, cribs, and cradles. To dream of cats is considered unlucky, denoting treachery and quarrels on the part of friends. Cats, from no apparent cause, seeming shy, agitated, and traversing the house uttering cries, as if alarmed, is believed to forbode sudden and causeless strife between the members of the families with whom they reside. That the breath of these animals is poisonous, that they can play with serpents and remain uninjured, whilst their fur communicates the infection of the venom of those reptiles, that they lend themselves readily to infernal agents and purposes, that certain portions of their bodies possess magical properties and were efficacious in the preparation of charmed potions, and that they are partly supernatural creatures, endowed with a power of bringing good or evil fortune upon their possessors, with other facts just as credible, was once devoutly believed by the illiterate, as it is partially at this very day. 8
Dogs are generally supposed to possess the faculty of beholding spirits when they are invisible to mortals, and of foretelling death by lamentable howls. It is lucky to be followed by a strange dog. The Welch believe in the apparition of certain spirits under the form of hunting dogs, which they call dogs of the sky (cwn wybir, or cwn aunwy:) they indicate the death of a relation or friend of the person to whom they appear, but though generally accompanied by fire, are innocuous. The tradition of the Spectre Hound of Peel Castle (Isle of Man) or Manthe Doog, is well known. The religious superstition of Mahommedans lead them to consider the dog as an unclean animal; but the dog of the Seven Sleepers, according to a tale in the Koran, is, say the faithful, the only animal admitted into heaven. A more sweet and soothing creed is held by "the untutored Indian," who believes that the faithful companion of his laborious mortal career will accompany him into the everlasting regions; and, indeed, the idea that animals possess actually an inferior soul, and that, maltreated as they are on earth, they too have their appropriate heaven, has by many been considered a speculation less superstitious than truly philosophical.
The miraculous circumstance of Balaam's Ass being empowered to behold that startling apparition which his rider's eyes were holden so that he could not see, may have originated the superstition that animals behold spirits when they are invisible to man. Horses, from frequently starting at no apparent cause, have thus been placed amongst the seers. In the Highlands it is deemed lucky to meet a horse; but, according to Virgil, the sight of one of these animals was ominous of war, the reason for which may be found in a horse being as a martial animal dedicated to the god of war. The Persians, Armenians, and other ancient nations sacrificed horses to the sun. Tacitus says the Suevi maintained white horses in the several woods at the public charge, to draw omens from them; and there are to this day vestiges in England of some superstition relative to white horses, and of supposed Danish origin.
The Hyaena has been the subject of strange fables: its neck was supposed to be jointless, consisting but of one bone, and considered of great efficacy in magical preparations; and the Arabs to this day, when they kill this fierce animal, bury its head, lest it should be made the element of some charm against them. It was believed to possess the power of changing its sex annually; to be able to fascinate shepherds by its eyes and render them motionless, and its cognomen, "Laughing" is, of course, derived from the idea of its being able to imitate the human voice.
The ancients believed that if a man encountered a Wolf, and the animal first fixed its eyes upon him, he was deprived for ever of the power of speech: connected with these ferocious brutes is the fearful superstition of the Lycanthropos, Were-wulf, Loup-garou, or Man-wolf. "These were-wolves," says Verstegan, "are certain sorcerers, who having anointed their bodies with an ointment they make by the instinct of the devil, and putting on a certain enchanted girdle, do not only unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves so long as they wear the said girdle; and they do dispose themselves as very wolves, in worrying, and killing, and waste of human creatures." The Germans had a similar superstition regarding wolves, and the same respecting the wild boar; and with these let us compare the British belief, that warlocks and weird women possess the power of transforming themselves into hares, cats, &.
Swine, which are strangely uneasy in or against tempestuous weather, are believed to see the wind. In some parts of Great Britain it is a popular belief that, on commencing a journey, if a sow and pigs be met it will prove successful, but if a sow only crosses the road, the traveller, if he cannot pass, must ride round about it, otherwise ill luck will attend him.