A Constellation of Celebrated Cobblers.
"This day is called the feast of Crispin:
.. .. .. .
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."
--_Shakespeare. King Henry Fifth's Address
to the Leaders of the English Army on
the Eve of the Battle of Agincourt. Act
v. Scene 3._
Archbishop Whately once amused a clerical dinner-party by asking the
question, "Why do _white_ sheep eat more than _black_ sheep?" When none
of his friends could answer the question, the witty Archbishop dryly
remarked that _one_ reason undoubtedly was that "there were more of
them." The question is often asked, "How are we to account for the fact
that shoemakers outnumber any other handicraft in the ranks of
illustrious men?"[72] Perhaps this question may be answered in the same
way. At all events, the answer "there are more of them," will go a long
way toward a solution of this interesting social problem. The sons of
Crispin are certainly a very numerous class, and it is but natural that
they should figure largely in the lists of famous men. But inquirers on
this subject are not generally satisfied by an appeal to statistics. It
is felt that something more is required in order to account for the
remarkable proportion of shoemakers in the roll of men of mark. In
addition to this, it must be borne in mind that the reputation of
shoemakers does not depend entirely on their most illustrious
representatives. They have, _as a class_, a reputation which is quite
unique. The followers of "the gentle craft" have generally stood
foremost among artisans as regards intelligence and social influence.
Probably no class of workmen could, in these respects, compete with them
fifty or a hundred years ago, when education and reading were not so
common as they are now. Almost to a man they had some credit for
thoughtfulness, shrewdness, logical skill, and debating power; and their
knowledge derived from books was admitted to be beyond the average among
operatives. They were generally referred to by men of their own social
status for the settlement of disputed points in literature, science,
politics, or theology. Advocates of political, social, or religious
reform, local preachers, Methodist "class-leaders," and Sunday-school
teachers, were drafted in larger numbers from the fraternity of
shoemakers than from any other craft.
[72] Among others, Coleridge observed that shoemakers
had given to the world a larger number of eminent men than any
handicraft. The philosopher was rather partial to shoemakers,
from the time when, as a boy at Christ's Hospital, he wished to
be apprenticed to the trade of shoemaking.
How are we to account for such facts as these? Is there anything in the
_occupation_ of the shoemaker which is peculiarly favorable to habits of
thought and study? It would seem to be so; and yet it would be difficult
to show what it is that gives him an advantage over all other workmen.
The secret may lie in the fact that he _sits_ to his work, and, as a
rule, sits _alone_; that his occupation stimulates his mind without
wholly occupying and absorbing its powers; that it leaves him free to
break off, if he will, at intervals, and glance at the book or make
notes on the paper which lies beside him. Such facts as these have been
suggested, and not without reason, as helping us to account for the
reputation which the sons of Crispin enjoy as an uncommonly clever class
of men.
ANCIENT EXAMPLES IN ASIA AND AFRICA
THE COBBLER AND THE ARTIST APELLES.
"Let the cobbler stick to his last."
The reputation of the shoemaker class is not confined to our own country
or to modern times. It is pretty much the same in all countries, and
reaches back to very ancient times. The proverb, "_Ne Sutor ultra
crepidam_"--"Let the cobbler stick to his last"--is one of the oldest in
existence. Few proverbs are more universally and frequently quoted. It
is based on a story which comes down to us from the times of Alexander
the Great. Even if the story, as it is told in our Grecian histories, be
not authentic, it serves to show that even in times preceding the
Christian era cobblers were regarded as a shrewd and observant set of
men. But there is no reason that we know of to doubt the story, which is
well worth repeating. It is told of Apelles, one of the most celebrated
of the old Greek painters, who flourished about 300 B.C. He was the
friend of Alexander, and the only artist whom the great warrior would
allow to paint his portrait. Apelles, we are told, was not ashamed to
learn from the humblest critics. As Lord Bacon says, he did not object
to "light his torch at any man's candle." For this reason, knowing that
a good deal may sometimes be learned from the observations of
passers-by, he was in the habit of placing his pictures before they were
quite finished outside his house; and then, crouching down behind them,
he listened to the remarks of spectators. On one occasion a cobbler
noticed a fault in the painting of a shoe, and remarking upon it to a
person standing by, passed on. As soon as the man was out of sight
Apelles came from his hiding-place, examined the painting, found that
the cobbler's criticism was just, and at once corrected the error. Once
more the picture was exposed, while the artist lay behind it to hear
what further might be said. The cobbler came by again, and soon
discovered that the fault he had pointed out had been remedied; and,
emboldened by the success of his criticism, began to express his opinion
pretty freely about the painting of the _leg_! This was too much for the
patience of the artist, who rushed from his hiding-place, and told the
cobbler _to stick to his shoes_. Hence the proverb, which for more than
two thousand years[73] has expressed the common feeling, that critics
would do well not to venture beyond their legitimate province.
[73] It is used by Pliny, who died A.D. 79.
TWO SHOEMAKER-BISHOPS--ANNIANUS OF ALEXANDRIA, AND ALEXANDER OF COMANA.
If the shoemaker has found a place in classic history, it must not be
forgotten that he has a place in ecclesiastical history also. In two
instances a shoemaker is said to have been taken direct from the stall
and elevated to the episcopal chair. No doubt many shoemakers have been
endowed with sufficient piety and learning for this sacred and dignified
office, and probably not a few have deemed themselves fit, whether they
were so or not, to discharge its high functions; but the instances here
given are, we believe, quite unique. The first is that of Anianus or
Annianus (A.D. 62-86), who is said to have been appointed by St. Mark to
assist him in the government of the Church at Alexandria. On the
outbreak of persecution under Nero, Mark fled from the city; and, as
Eusebius says, "Nero was now in his eighth year, when Annianus succeeded
the Apostle and Evangelist Mark in the administration of the Church at
Alexandria." The historian adds, "He (Annianus) was a man distinguished
for piety, and admirable in every respect."[74] He died in the fourth
year of Domitian, 86 A.D. He was the first Bishop of Alexandria, and
filled the office twenty-two years.[75] To these simple statements of
the historian are added the stories which found a ready acceptance in
later times. To the fact that the worthy Alexandrian was a _shoemaker_
tradition added the account of the miracle wrought upon him by St. Mark.
One account tells us that the Evangelist, on passing along the street,
burst his shoe and turned in to get it repaired, and so became
acquainted with Annianus. Another version of the story declares that
the cobbler, having hurt his hand with an awl, uttered a not very pious
exclamation, which Mark overheard as he passed by, and going in to
inquire the cause, took the opportunity not only to heal the wound, but
to speak to the impatient workman of the true and living God whose name
he had taken in vain. Annianus is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology
with St. Mark on the 25th April.[76]
[74] Eccles. Hist., Book ii. cap. xxiv.
[75] Ibid., Book iii. cap. xiv.
[76] Annianus is regarded in some countries as the
patron saint of shoemakers. Campion's "Delightful History of ye
Gentle Craft." Northampton: Taylor & Son, 2d ed., 1876, p. 25.
The other appointment of a shoemaker to the episcopate was due to the
piety and wisdom of Gregory Thaumaturgus, the pupil and friend of Origen
(220-270 A.D.). Gregory was then Bishop of Neo-Cæsarea in Asia Minor,
and when a vacancy occurred in the bishopric of Comana in Cappadocia, he
defied all conventionalism and prejudice, and appointed "a poor
shoemaker named _Alexander_, despised by the world, but great in the
sight of God, who did honor to so exalted a station in the Church."[77]
He was chosen in preference to scholars and men of good social status on
account of his extraordinary piety. This Alexander justified the choice
thus made by reason of his excellent discourse, his holy living, and a
martyr's death. He is honored in the Roman Calendar on August 11th.[78]
[77] Pressense's "Early Years of Christianity."
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1879, vol. ii. p. 355.
[78] Dr. Smith's "Dict. Christian Biog.," art.
"Gregory Thaumaturgus." In this article Gregory is called a
charcoal-burner. Probably, like many other shoemakers, he
followed more than one vocation.
THE PIOUS COBBLER OF ALEXANDRIA.
Quite as good a man, no doubt, if not as fit to fill the episcopal
chair, was _the pious cobbler of Alexandria_, of whom we read that St.
Anthony paid him a visit in consequence of a voice from Heaven which
said to him, "Antony, thou art not so perfect as a cobbler that dwelleth
at Alexandria." The pious anchorite was in the habit of hearing such
voices and obeying them. All the leading events of his life were
accompanied by a similar message from heaven, as he deemed it.
Accordingly he took his staff, and leaving his secluded retreat in the
desert, came down to the great city in search of the pious cobbler.
Arriving before his door, where the good man sat at work, Antony asked
him for an account of himself and his mode of living. "Sir," answered
the cobbler, "as for me, good works I have none. My life is but simple,
seeing I am but a poor cobbler. In the morning when I rise, I pray for
the whole city wherein I dwell, especially for all such neighbors and
poor friends as I have; after that I sit me down to my labor, where I
spend the whole day in getting my living; and I keep me from all
falsehood, for I hate nothing so much as I do deceitfulness; wherefore
when I make any man a promise, I keep it and perform it truly; and thus
I spend my time poorly with my wife and children, whom I teach and
instruct, so far as my wit will serve me, to fear and dread God; and
this is the sum of my simple life."
RABBI JOCHANAN THE SHOEMAKER.
Speaking of Alexandria reminds us of another worthy of that city, the
famous Jewish Rabbi Jochanan _Sandalarius_, or the shoemaker. Learned
Rabbins were common enough in Alexandria from the time of its foundation
by Alexander the Great, 332 B.C., down to its capture by the Arabs in
the seventh century A.D. And as it was the custom with even the most
learned Rabbins to learn a trade, it can be no matter of surprise that
many of the most eminent leaders of thought among the Jews were employed
in what are now regarded as very humble occupations. The Delegate Chief
Rabbi of Great Britain, in an interesting article in the _Nineteenth
Century_,[79] tells us that "in the grand basilica synagogue of
Alexandria, separate portions of the building were assigned to the
silversmiths, weavers, and other trades.... The Rabbins, the authorized
expounders of the law, deemed it derogatory to receive any reward for
the exercise of their spiritual, doctrinal, or judicial functions, and
maintained themselves by the labor of their hands. And thus in the
Talmud we meet, in curious juxtaposition, the Rabbi and his trade in
such phrases as these: "It was taught by Rabbi Jochanan the shoemaker."
This illustrious Rabbi came from Alexandria to Palestine, attracted by
the great name of Akiba Ben Joseph, the famous Rabbi, who was the chief
teacher of the rabbinical school at Jaffa at the close of the first
century and the beginning of the second. In this school there were said
to be no less than 24,000 pupils. Akiba sided with Bar Cocheba in his
revolt against Rome, 132 A.D., acknowledged him as the Messiah, and
became his armor-bearer. On the death of Bar Cocheba and the destruction
of his army, Akiba was taken prisoner, and remained in the hands of the
Romans for a long time, until his cruel death under Severus. During his
imprisonment Jochanan managed to get access to his cell, and receive
instructions from him on questions which had not been settled. Through
Jochanan and Meir, Akiba greatly influenced the teachers of the next
generation. Jochanan was certainly one of his most illustrious pupils,
taking a leading part in the theological discussions of the Tanaim, the
authors of the Mishna and Gamara, where his opinions are frequently
quoted. In the Mishna Aboth[80] "Rabbi Jochanan the shoemaker" is
reported to have made the following sensible remark, which reminds one
of the counsel of Gamaliel to the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem:[81] "An
association established for a praiseworthy object must ultimately
succeed; but an association established without such an object cannot
succeed."
[79] December, 1881.
[80] 4:11.
[81] Acts 5:38, 39.
EUROPEAN EXAMPLES.
FRANCE.
SS. CRISPIN AND CRISPIANUS, THE PATRON SAINTS OF SHOEMAKERS.
Undoubtedly the first shoemakers who obtained anything like a general
reputation were the famous brothers Crispin and Crispianus, who are said
to have lived in the third century of our era. These saints have been
regarded almost ever since that early time as the tutelary or patron
saints of shoemakers, who are, to tell the truth, not a little proud of
their romantic title, "the sons of Crispin." We must be careful how we
speak of these saints, for it seems to be an open question whether the
story of their holy self-denying lives and martyr-deaths be true or
false. If the main features of the story be true, they have been greatly
distorted by fable. We give the story as it is generally reported.
_SS. Crispin and Crispianus_ were born in Rome. Having become converts
to Christianity, they set out with St. Denis from that city to become
preachers of the Gospel, travelled on foot through Italy, and finally
settled down at a little town, now called Soissons, in the modern
department of Aisne, about fifty or sixty miles to the north-east of
Paris. Here they are said to have devoted their time during the day to
preaching, and to have maintained themselves by working during most of
the night as shoemakers. This they did on the apostolic model of Paul,
who, while he carried on his mission as a preacher, maintained himself
by his trade as a tent-maker, that he might be "chargeable to no man."
Very little more can be told of the life of these saintly shoemakers
than this; but this, surely, is a great deal. The story goes that they
suffered martyrdom by the order of Rictus Varus, governor or consul in
Belgic Gaul, during the persecution under Diocletian and Maximinus, on
the 25th of October, 287. The 25th of October is still kept in honor of
these saints in some parts of England and Wales, and in other European
countries. The shoemakers of the district turn out in large numbers and
parade the streets, headed by bands of music, and accompanied by banners
on which are emblazoned the emblems of the craft.
It is difficult, as already intimated, to tell how much of pure legend
has been imported into the history of the saints of Soissons. One
tradition declares them to have been of noble birth, and to have adopted
their humble trade entirely for Christian and charitable purposes.
Another story relates how they furnished the poor with shoes at a very
low price, and that, in order to replenish their stock, and as a mark of
divine favor, an angel came to them by night with supplies of leather;
while yet another fable, not very creditable to their morals, avows that
_Saint_ Crispin _stole_ the leather, so that he might be able to _give_
shoes to the poor. Hence the term _Crispinades_ to denote charities done
at the expense of other people. To crown all, it is averred on one
authority that after suffering a horrible death by the sword, their
bodies were thrown into the sea, and were cast ashore at Romney
Marsh.[82] Such tales are worthless, except as indicating the wide
extent of popularity the shoemakers of Soissons secured by virtue of
their piety and benevolence.[83]
[82] On the beach at Lidde, near Stonend, "there is
yet to be seene," says Weever, in his "Funeral Monuments," "an
heap of great stones which the neighbour inhabitants call St.
Crispin's and St. Crispinian's tomb, whom they report to have
been cast upon this shore by ship-wracke, and from hence called
into the glorious company of the saints. Look _Jacobus de
Voraigne_, in the legend of their lives, and you may believe
perhaps as much as is spoken. They were shoemakers, and
suffered martyrdom the tenth of the kalends of November (25th
October), which day is kept holy to this day by all our
shoemakers in London and elsewhere."--Quoted in "Crispin
Anecdotes," Sheffield, 1827, p. 18.
[83] For the legends of these saints, and much curious
information respecting the craft and its guilds in early times,
the reader may consult Lacroix, "Manners, Customs, and Dress in
the Middle Ages;" "Histoire de la Chaussure," etc. That quaint
old book, "The Delightful, Princely, and Entertaining History
of the Gentle Craft," by T. Deloney, 1678, gives the story of
the _princely_ and _saintly_ brothers in its English dress, and
it is one of the strangest tales even in legendary lore. This
story, Deloney tells us, accounts for the term "gentle craft"
as applied to shoemaking, and explains the saying "a
shoemaker's son is a prince born." The _Princes_ Crispin and
Crispinian becoming shoemakers sufficiently accounts for the
former term, for
"The gentle craft is fittest then
For poor distressed gentlemen;"
and the marriage of Crispine to Ursula, the daughter of the
Emperor Maximinus, and the birth of a son to the Prince, will
explain the latter. See the stories and ballads thereanent in
Campion's "Delightful History of the Gentle Craft,"
Northampton, Taylor & Son, 2d ed., 1876, pp. 25-35. A most
interesting and valuable little book on shoes and shoemakers in
ancient and modern times.
Mrs. Jameson, in her interesting work on "Legendary Art,"[84] says, "The
devotional figures which are common in old French prints represent these
saints standing together, holding the palm in one hand, and in the other
the awl or shoemaker's knife. They are very often met with in old
stained glass working at their trade, or making shoes for the poor--the
usual subjects in shoemakers' guilds all over France and Germany.
Italian pictures of these saints are rare. There is, however, one by
Guido, which presents the throned Madonna, and St. Crispin presenting to
her his brother, St. Crispianus, while angels from above scatter flowers
on the group. Looking over the old French prints of St. Crispin and St.
Crispinian, which are in general either grotesque or commonplace, I met
with one not easily to be forgotten. It represents these two famous
saints proceeding on their mission to preach the gospel in France. They
are careering over the sea in a bark drawn by sea-horses and attended by
tritons, and are attired in the full court-dress of the time of Louis
XV., with laced coats and cocked hats and rapiers!"
[84] Vol. ii. pp. 305, 306. London, Longmans, 1848.
Probably many of these curious prints may still be seen in the library
of the cathedral at Soissons, famous for its rare MSS. and books. But a
better memorial of these patron saints than any of the absurd
representations of legendary art was the church erected in their honor
in the sixth century, and the religious house which stood on the
traditionary site of their prison. This house was afterward transformed
into a monastery dedicated to St. Crispin, and in the year 1142 received
the sanction of Pope Innocent II.[85]
[85] Another memorial of the saints, of a very
different character, was the semi-sacred play entitled "The
Mystery of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian," which used to be
performed on St. Crispin's Day by the Guilds or Brotherhoods of
Shoemakers in Paris and elsewhere.
THE LEARNED BAUDOUIN.
The eminent French antiquary, _Benoit Baudouin_, is by far the most
learned man who has risen from the ranks of the shoemaker class in
France. A native of Amiens, he was born somewhere about the middle of
the sixteenth century. His father, who was also a _cordonnier_ in that
city, taught him the art and mystery of the craft; but the clever youth
soon rose above his lowly circumstances, and became first a theological
student, and afterward the principal of the college in the old town of
Troyes. Here the ancient and extensive library delighted him, and his
studies as a historian and antiquary were determined to some extent by
his former occupation as a shoemaker; for, besides a translation of
certain ancient tragedies,[86] he is not known to have written any
original work excepting his "Chaussures des Anciens," or "The Shoes of
the Ancients." Baudouin never blushed to own his former vocation,[87]
and in writing this remarkable work he was evidently moved by a desire
to do it honor.[88] A strange book indeed it must be, full of the most
curious and out-of-the-way learning and singular notions; for, not
content with describing the various kinds of shoes worn by Roman and
Greek and other ancient peoples who have flourished within the historic
period, the enthusiastic and daring scholar pushes his inquiry back to
the days "when Adam delved and Eve span," until, at length, he discovers
the origin of the foot-covering in the communication of the secret by
the Almighty Himself to "the first man, Adam!" Spite of its preposterous
speculations, the work of the ex-shoemaker of Amiens is learned and
valuable, contains a vast amount of curious lore in regard to a not
unimportant subject, and helps to confirm his claim to the ambitious
title of "the learned Baudouin." The first edition of this work seems to
have been published in Paris, 1615.[89] It was afterward issued at
Amsterdam, 1667, and at Leyden, 1711, and Leipsic, 1733, in Latin. A
writer in the _Biographie Universelle_ says that Baudouin held at one
time the office of director of the _Hotel Dieu_ at Troyes. This
illustrious French shoemaker died and was buried in that town in 1632.
[86] "Biographie Universelle." Paris, 1811.
[87] Ibid.
[88] "Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique," tom. ii.
[89] "Nouvelle Biographie Generale." Paris, 1853, tom.
iv. p. 786.
HENRY MICHAEL BUCH--"GOOD HENRY."
Whether the story of the shoemaker-saints of Soissons be regarded as
apocryphal or not, it has undoubtedly had considerable influence for
good, either directly or indirectly, over the minds of those who call
themselves sons of Crispin. Much of this has been due to the character
and work of a man who was evidently inspired by the story of St.
Crispin. Through the agency of this man a very important movement was
begun in the middle of the seventeenth century, which ultimately issued
in a widespread religious and social reform among the shoemakers and
other operatives of Western Europe. We allude to the foundation of a
society called "The Pious Confraternity of Brother Shoemakers," having
as their patrons and models the saints Crispin and Crispianus. The
founder of this society was Henry Michael Buch, who was known throughout
Paris, in his day and long after, as _Good Henry_.
Henry Michael Buch came from the Duchy of Luxemburg, where he had been
born, and where his parents, who were day-laborers, had brought him up
in a very simple manner. As a child, Buch was remarkably gifted and very
pious. He was early apprenticed to a shoemaker, and was accustomed to
spend his Sundays and holidays in public worship or private devotion.
During his apprenticeship he began the work of reform among the members
of his own craft, for his young heart was grieved to see them living in
ignorance and vice. Enlisting the help of the more serious among them in
his good work, he endeavored to instruct the apprentices of the town in
the doctrines of religion, to draw them away from ale-houses and vicious
company, and to persuade them to spend their time in a sensible and
profitable manner. Taking the patron saints of the trade for a model, he
cultivated habits of self-denial and beneficence, went always meanly
clad, abandoned luxuries in food and clothing, and frequently gave away
his own garments in order to clothe some poor brother shoemaker. While
at Luxemburg and Messen, he lived chiefly on bread and water, so that he
might be able to feed the hungry and destitute.
Having removed to Paris, his good deeds soon attracted the attention of
Gaston John Baptist, Baron of Renti, who was so much impressed by the
shoemaker's simplicity of manner, intelligence, and missionary zeal,
that he persuaded Buch to establish in that city a confraternity among
the members of his own humble craft for the purpose of instructing them
in the principles and practices of a holy life. With a view to
strengthen his hands for such a task, the freedom of the city was
purchased for him, and means were supplied him for starting in business
as a master shoemaker, "so that he might take apprentices and journeymen
who were willing to follow the rules that were prescribed them."[90]
[90] Butler's "Lives of the Primitive Fathers,
Martyrs, and Saints," 1799, p. 532.
Seven men and youths having joined him on these terms, the foundation of
his Confraternity was laid in 1645, Good Henry being appointed the first
superior.[91]
[91] This society flourished until the outbreak of the
French Revolution, 1789, when it was suppressed.
Two years after this, the _tailors_ of the city, who had noticed the
conduct of the shoemakers, and had been delighted with the goodly
spectacle presented in their happy and useful lives, resolved to follow
the example. They borrowed a copy of the rules, and started a similar
society in 1647.
These brotherhoods, but notably those of the shoemakers, were spread
through France and Italy, and were the means of doing an immense amount
of good among the members of the two crafts.
The rules of the fraternity founded by Buch were assimilated to certain
monastic orders. They enjoined rising at five o'clock and meeting for
united prayer before engaging in work, prayers offered by the superior
as often as the clock strikes, at certain hours the singing of hymns
while at work, at other times silence and meditation; meditation before
dinner, the reading of some devotional work by one of the number during
meals; a _retreat_ for a few days in every year; assisting on Sundays
and holy days at sermons and "the divine office;" the visitation of the
poor and sick, of hospitals and prisons; self-examination, followed by
prayer together at night and retiring to rest at nine o'clock.
Henry Michael Buch, the founder of this remarkable society with its
offshoots all over Western Europe, succeeded in making the title _Sons
of Crispin_ something more than a name in the case of thousands of his
brother workmen. Bearing in mind his humble birth and training, his
scanty means, his social position, the unpromising materials he had to
work with, it will be allowed that the moral reform he inaugurated among
working-men deserves to be classed among the best things of the kind of
which we read in history. Buch died at Paris on the 9th June, 1666, and
was buried in the churchyard of St. Gervaise.[92]
[92] If this were a history of the craft and trade of
shoemaking, attention might be called to the genuinely
illustrious _shoemaker_, Nicholas Lestage of Bordeaux. This
clever artisan having made a remarkably fine pair of boots,
presented them to the king, Louis XIV., on his visit to
Bordeaux, shortly before his marriage to the Infanta of Spain.
The fortunate son of Crispin was made shoemaker to his Majesty,
and rose rapidly to wealth and favor at court. In 1663 he
presented to his royal patron the famous boot "without a seam,"
which was spoken of as a "miracle of art," and of which it was
declared that "the name of a boot would fill the world." About
a dozen years after Lestage succeeded in making this wonderful
seamless boot, a small book of poems was written to commemorate
the extraordinary achievement. Among other extravagant things
said about "cette admirable chaussure," it was affirmed that
"neither antiquity nor the sun had ever seen its equal," "that
man was not its inventor," and its structure was truly
_divine_!" etc.
GERMANY.
HANS SACHS, THE NIGHTINGALE OF THE REFORMATION.
Before Good Henry's day two famous shoemakers had appeared in Germany,
whose names are now much better known than his: _Hans Sachs_, the
shoemaker-poet of the Reformation, and _Jacob Boehmen_, the mystic.
_Hans Sachs_ was the son of a tailor at Nuremberg, and was born November
5th, 1494. At the age of fifteen he was put apprentice in his native
town. His schooling had been but slight, but he managed after
school-days were passed to retain and add to the little he had learned.
His studies as an apprentice soon lifted him considerably above the
level of his class. All his spare time was given to poetry and music, in
which arts he was greatly assisted by a clever fellow named Nunnenbeck,
a weaver in the city. On attaining his majority, Sachs, after the
fashion of the time, travelled as a workman from town to town throughout
Germany, in order to learn his trade perfectly and see what he could of
the wide world around him. In this expedition he seems to have thought
as much of poetry as of shoemaking, for he never omitted, wherever he
went, visiting the little poetical and musical societies which then
existed in nearly every town in Germany. These societies were formed by
the various trades guilds, and their members were called
_meistersingers_.
On his return from this tour, Sachs settled down to work in Nuremberg,
and proved himself both an expert shoemaker and a first-rate
meistersinger. In fact, he outshone all his compeers of the guild to
which he belonged, and it was not long before he earned the reputation
of being the first German poet of his day. The Reformation movement, led
by Martin Luther, was then in full vigor, and found a hearty sympathizer
and vigorous supporter in this "unlettered cobbler but richly gifted
poet," who was counted among the friends and admirers of the great
Reformer. Luther had few more valuable supporters in his work than the
shoemaker of Nuremberg, whose simple, spirit-stirring songs were rapidly
learned and readily sung by the humbler sorts of people all over the
country.
Sachs' writings were very numerous, both in prose and verse. Few poets,
indeed, have ventured to write and publish so much. He averaged more
than a volume a year for over thirty years. On an inventory being made
of his literary stock in the year 1546, when he was about fifty-two
years of age, it was found that he had written 34 volumes, containing
4275 songs, 208 comedies and tragedies, about 1700 merry tales, and
secular and religious dialogues, and 73 other pieces.
His best writings are said to be the "Schwanke" or merry tales, the
humor of which is sometimes unsurpassable. His collected works were
published by Willer, 1570-79, in five folio volumes.
Exactly two hundred years after Hans Sachs' death, Goethe, who was a
warm admirer of the shoemaker-poet, published a poem entitled _Hans
Sachs Erklärung eines alten Holzschnitts, vorstellend Hans Sachs'
poetische Sendung_ (Explanation of an old woodcut representing Hans
Sachs' poetical mission). This tribute from the pen of Germany's
greatest poet brought the shoemaker of Nuremberg again into notice, and
put him in the right place in the temple of fame. Since the date of
Goethe's poem, Sachs' works have been published in various forms, and
are now as much read and as warmly appreciated as when they were first
published. Nuremberg, his native town, is proud of her humble yet
illustrious poet, and treasures up in her museum every relic connected
with his name, MS. copies of his writings, poetical fly-sheets issued
during his lifetime, or early editions of his works. In the libraries
of Zwickau, Dresden, and Leipsic similar relics of the poet may be seen.
No testimony to his merit could be higher than that of Goethe, the
prince of German critics in literature. It may be of value, however, in
addition to this, to give the opinion of two very different men
respecting Sachs. Dr. Hagenbach in his "History of the Reformation"
says: "A happy union of wholesome humor and moral purity meets us in
Hans Sachs of Nuremberg;" and Thomas Carlyle, in his own style, which
happily is "inimitable," speaks of him as a "gay, childlike, devout,
solid character--a man neither to be despised nor patronized, but left
standing on his own basis as a singular product, and legible symbol, and
clear mirror of the time and country where he lived."
He died on the 25th of January, 1576, at the age of eighty-two, in full
mental vigor. He was busy writing verses and tales almost to the last
days of his life. His grave is still shown in the churchyard of St.
John's, Nuremberg.
JACOB BOEHMEN, THE MYSTIC.
Jacob Boehmen, or Boehme, was born at the village of Altseidenberg, near
Gorlitz, in Prussian Silesia, about a year before the death of Hans
Sachs. A shoemaker for the greater part of his life, Boehmen devoted the
powers of a remarkable mind to philosophical and religious speculation,
and produced works which, notwithstanding their mystical and well-nigh
unintelligible character, are declared by some of the best authorities
in Germany and England to have laid the foundation of metaphysics and
philosophy. It is impossible to give a true idea of the writings of this
extraordinary man except by a complete review of his philosophy and its
influence on German philosophical writers. The most contradictory
opinions have been expressed in regard to the value of his productions.
By some critics he is set down as a rhapsodist who wrote nothing but
mystical jargon, and by others as a profound philosopher whose thoughts
and dreams are full of inspiration. Mosheim, _e.g._, says: "It is
impossible to find greater obscurity than there is in these pitiable
writings, which exhibit an incongruous mixture of chemical terms,
mystical jargon, and absurd visions." On the other hand, it is curious
to read the opinions expressed by our own King Charles I., who of all
the Stuarts, not excepting his own father, James I., that "so learned
and judicious a prince," was most capable of being a judge in such
matters. Charles is reported to have said of the writings of the
shoemaker of Gorlitz: "Had they been the productions of a scholar and a
man of learning, they would have been truly wonderful; but if, as he
heard, they were the productions of a poor shoemaker, they furnished a
proof that the Holy Ghost had still a habitation in the souls of men."
Sir Isaac Newton was a student of Boehmen, whose dissertation on "The
Three Principles" is said to have furnished hints to the philosopher
which put him on the track of some of his great discoveries; and Blake,
the half-mad, half-inspired poet, painter, and engraver, frequently
spoke of him as a divinely inspired man. Before Blake's day the writings
of Boehmen had been translated by William Law, author of "The Serious
Call," and published by Ward & Co. in two quarto volumes (1762-84).
Law's writings had immense influence over the minds of John and Charles
Wesley, and their followers, the Methodists. Law, who was no mean judge
of the worth of Boehmen's writings, held them in high esteem.
But of more value than these opinions is the estimate formed by
philosophers themselves as to the works of this great mystic. Spinoza
frequently studied them, and acknowledged their influence on his own
mind. Schelling, the idealist philosopher, bears testimony to Boehmen's
great merits as a thinker. Hegel speaks of him as the "Teutonic
philosopher," and adds, "In reality, through him, for the first time,
did philosophy in Germany come forward with a characteristic stamp." S.
T. Coleridge in his "Literary Remains"[93] says: "I have often thought
of writing a book to be entitled 'A Vindication of Great Men Unjustly
Branded,' and at such times the names prominent to my mind's eye have
been Giordano Bruno, Jacob Boehmen, Benedict Spinoza, and Emanuel
Swedenborg." In the library of Manchester New College, London, is a copy
of the works of Spinoza with marginal notes written by Coleridge,[94]
and among them is the following note to Epistle xxxvi.: "The truth is,
Spinoza, in common with all metaphysicians before him (Boehme perhaps
excepted), began at the wrong end," etc., etc. Coleridge frequently
spoke of Boehmen in the warmest terms of admiration.
[93] Vol. iv. p. 423.
[94] This book once belonged to Henry Crabb Robinson:
see H. C. R.'s Diary, etc., vol. i. pp. 400, 401, for the above
quotation.
At a very early age Jacob Boehmen showed a disposition to pious
meditation and fancied himself inspired. He was poorly educated as a
youth, and nearly all his knowledge was self-acquired. His first work
was published when he was thirty-seven years of age, and was entitled
"Aurora," or _the morning dawn_. He was severely attacked by the
religious leaders of his day, but the court at Dresden patronized and
protected him. His death took place November 27th, 1624. His works have
been frequently published in Germany, Holland, and England, where they
are much more warmly appreciated now than they were in his own lifetime.
ITALY.
GABRIEL CAPPELLINI, IL CALIGARINO, OR THE LITTLE SHOEMAKER.
If it be characteristic of Germany that one of her illustrious
shoemakers should be a _poet_ and another a _philosopher_, it is no less
characteristic of Italy and Holland that several followers of the gentle
craft in these countries should have distinguished themselves as
_painters_. We take three examples from the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.
Gabriel Cappellini of Ferrara in Italy was more generally known by the
appellation _Il Caligarino_, or the _little shoemaker_, a name derived
from his original occupation. He is said to have been led to throw down
the awl and take to the brush in consequence of a compliment paid to him
one day by one of the great family of painters called Dossi, who told
the shoemaker that a pair of shoes he had just made were so elegant that
they looked as if they had been painted. He became a scholar of Dossi,
and made a fair name as an artist in the sixteenth century. He is
praised by Barotti for "the boldness of his design and the sobriety of
his color." Several of his paintings may now be seen in the city of
Ferrara, the best of which is in the Church of St. Giovannino. This is
an altar-piece representing the Virgin and Child with infant saints
attending upon them. In the Church of St. Francesco is a painting of
SS. John and James. There is also an altar-piece ascribed to him in the
Church of St. Alesandro at Bergamo, representing the Last Supper. A
small painting of the same subject is in the possession of Count
Carrara.[95]
[95] Lanzi's "History of Painting." London: Bohn, vol.
iii. p. 200; and Bryan's "Dictionary of Painters." London:
Bohn, p. 138.
FRANCESCO BRIZZIO, THE ARTIST.
Francesco Brizzio (or Briccio) was the most eminent of the three
painters we have to name who began life as shoemakers. He was born at
Bologna in 1574. Up to the age of twenty he worked as a shoemaker, and
then, being free to follow his bent, became at first a pupil of
Passerotti, who taught him design, afterward of Agostini, who initiated
him in the engraver's art, and finally of Lodovico Caracci, under whom
he became so proficient that "by some he has been pronounced the most
eminent disciple of Caracci;" and it has been affirmed of this son of
Crispin that of all Caracci's pupils except Domenichino he was gifted
with the most universal genius. In perspective, landscape, architecture,
and figures, a competent critic, Andrea Sacchi, the famous Roman artist,
says, "Brizzio surpassed all his rivals." Guido speaks highly of the
beauty of his cherubs. His extant paintings are an altar-piece entitled
"The Coronation of the Virgin," which is very rich in coloring, and the
"Table of Cebes," a grand painting executed for the Angellili family.
Numerous engravings of his are known to connoisseurs, and highly prized
as the work of an artist "who often approaches Guido." "His pictures
were not only admired for the truth of the perspective and the beauty of
his coloring, but also for the grandeur of his ideas, the majestic style
of the architecture, the elegance of the ornaments, and the noble taste
of the landscapes which he introduced to set off his buildings." Brizzio
died in 1623 at the age of forty-nine.[96]
[96] Lanzi's "History of Painting." London: Bohn, vol.
iii. p. 126; Bryan's "Dictionary of Painters." London: Bohn, p.
114; and Pilkington's "Dictionary of Painters," p. 95 (1770
ed.).
HOLLAND.
LUDOLPH DE JONG, THE DUTCH PORTRAIT-PAINTER.
Ludolph de Jong, was the son of a shoemaker at Oberschic, a village near
Rotterdam, and was born in the year 1616. His father intended to bring
his son up to his own humble trade, but having been treated with great
severity, Ludolph ran away from home and bade good-by to the cobbler's
stall, and became soon afterward a pupil of Sacht Coen. After two years
spent with this master, he also studied under Palamedes at Delft and
Baylaert at Utrecht. Seven years of his life were spent in France, where
he gained renown as a portrait-painter, in which branch of art he showed
his best hand. From France he returned to Holland and settled at
Rotterdam, where his skill and fame gained him much patronage and a
handsome fortune. His best work is at Rotterdam in the _Salle des
Princes_, and consists of portraits of officers belonging to the Company
of Burghers.
De Jong the younger, the clever etcher of battle-scenes, who signs
himself IMDI (Jan Martss de Jong), is generally thought to be the son of
the well-known painter.[97]
[97] Sons of shoemakers have often become famous. See
the list given below, which might be greatly extended.
SONS OF SHOEMAKERS.
Before leaving the continent of Europe to come to Great Britain for
examples, we may here mention one or two instances in which boys who
have been brought up amid the humble surroundings of the shoemaker's
home have become illustrious in the field of literature, or science, or
theology.
_Pope John XXII._ (1316-1334), whose popedom was distinguished by the
existence of an _anti-pope_, was the son of a shoemaker living at Cahors
in France.
_Jean Baptiste Rousseau_ (1670-1741), the French poet, author of "Le
Cafè," "Jason," "Adonais," "Le Flatteur," etc., was the son of a
well-to-do shoemaker in Paris. The poet was always rather ashamed of his
origin, and on one occasion treated his father in the most heartless
manner because he stepped forward at the conclusion of the first
performance of a play to offer his warm congratulations to his clever
and popular son. "I know you not," said the proud poet, waving his
father off. The poor fellow retired in bitter grief and uncontrollable
anger.
_Johan Joachim Wincklemann_, the eminent art-critic and writer, was the
son of a humble member of the craft, who lived at Stendal in Prussia.
His father gave him as good an education as lay within his reach, and
was rewarded by the progress his son made in the study of languages.
From the position of teacher of languages in the College of Seehausen he
passed on to that of librarian to Count Bunan, and finally to the
curatorship of the Vatican Museum at Rome, where he published his famous
works, "Ancient Statues," "Taste of the Greek Artists," "History of
Art," and "Antique Monuments." He died by the hand of an assassin at
Trieste, 1768, aged fifty-two.
_Hans Christian Andersen_ was born in 1805, at Adense in Denmark, where
his father worked as a shoemaker. While a mere boy he went to Copenhagen
in the hope of getting his living as a singer and writer of plays, and
eventually became known as the writer of incomparable fairy tales, the
joy and wonder of children, young and old, all over the world.
The name of Dr. Isaac Watts, the hymnist, has sometimes been set down in
this category, on the authority of a line in Dr. Johnson's "Lives of the
Poets." But Johnson speaks only of "common report," making the father of
Isaac Watts a shoemaker. Johnson says he "kept a boarding-school for
young gentlemen." He may have done so and followed the gentle craft as
well; there is no knowing to what occupation the shoemaker may aspire!
If we go far enough back, we may find a very striking example of ability
displayed by a shoemaker's son in military affairs. _Iphicrates_ (4th
cent. B.C.), one of the most capable and trusted Athenian generals, rose
from this humble position to the highest offices of command and trust in
the armies of Greece. His reforms in the arms, dress, and tactics of the
soldiers, formed an "epoch in the Grecian art of war." He distinguished
himself in battles fought against the Thracians and Spartans, and in the
service of the King of Persia in his Egyptian campaign.
GREAT BRITAIN.
"YE COCKE OF WESTMINSTER."
Coming now to Great Britain, we are able to select from the records of
history and biography illustrations for our purpose which represent
pretty nearly all the varieties of English life. Practical philanthropy
all men will allow to be one of the most prominent and honorable
features of the national character, and to this shoemakers have
contributed a good share. Our readers will remember the good work done
by Drs. Carey and Morrison, the pioneer missionaries to India and China,
and noble old John Pounds, one of the founders of ragged schools in this
country. Two examples, in a different field, may be given here. One can
easily understand how shoemaking would pay better before the invention
of machinery than it does now, yet it appears strange to us to read of
men making anything like a fortune by so humble a craft. So it was,
however, after a certain modest fashion; and shoemakers, like men whose
fortune has been made on a larger scale, have shown themselves veritable
philanthropists in the use they have made of their money. The two
instances we refer to are wide apart as to time, but closely related as
regards the benevolent spirit they exhibit. Holinshed has very properly
thought it worth his while to chronicle the good deed of a benevolent
old shoemaker who lived in Westminster in the reign of Edward VI. This
true son and follower of Crispin bore the name of _Richard Castell_, but
was still better known, in his own day, by the sobriquet, _Ye Cocke of
Westminster_, not only "because he was so famous with the faculty of his
hands," but on account of his early rising; for every morning, all the
year round, saw him sitting down to his work "at four of the clock." His
skill and diligence in the craft brought him in a considerable sum of
money, which he invested in lands and tenements in the neighborhood of
Westminster, yielding a yearly rental of £42--not at all a poor living
for a retired shoemaker three hundred years ago. It appears that Castell
greatly admired the generosity of his monarch, Edward VI., who had
recently endowed Christ's Hospital, and the shoemaker having no family
to whom he could bequeath his property, and being blessed, moreover,
with a wife as generously disposed as himself, resolved to leave his
property to the endowment fund of this public charity. It is much more
than probable that the fame of the kingly founder of the hospital has
totally eclipsed that of his humble subject, and for this reason it
seems right for us to find a place in our list of illustrious shoemakers
for a worthy man whose industry and benevolence are bearing good fruit
to this day, and who once, it may be, was not a little proud of the
honorable nickname of _Ye Cocke of Westminster_.[98]
[98] For this and one or two other examples of noted
shoemakers the writer is indebted to a series of most
interesting articles entitled "Concerning Shoes and
Shoemakers," in the _Leisure Hour_, 1876.
TIMOTHY BENNETT, THE HERO OF HAMPTON-WICK.
It would be hard to find a name more worthy of being enrolled in our
list than that of the public-spirited and courageous shoemaker of
Hampton-Wick in Surrey named _Timothy Bennett_,[99] who, early in the
last century, undertook, at his own cost, to rescue a right of road
from loss to the public. This road ran from Hampton-Wick to
Kingston-upon-Thames through the well-known Bushy Park, belonging to the
Crown. Bennett was grieved to see the right of way infringed by the
Crown authorities, and to observe the consequent inconvenience to
thousands of his neighbors. He determined, therefore, to go to law about
the matter, and, if possible, put a stop to the high-handed and unjust
proceedings of the "Ranger of the Park." He went to a lawyer and
inquired as to the probable chances of success in his project, and as to
the cost, saying, "I have _seven hundred pounds_ which I would be
willing to bestow upon this attempt. It is all I have, and has been
saved through a long course of honest industry." Satisfied on both
points, he resolved to carry out his plan. Lord Halifax was then Ranger
of Bushy Park, and having heard of Bennett's intentions, sent for him.
"Who are you, sir," demanded my lord, "that have the assurance to meddle
in this affair?" "My name, my lord, is Timothy Bennett, shoemaker, of
Hampton-Wick. I remember, an't please your Lordship, when I was a young
man, of seeing, while sitting at my work, the people cheerfully pass by
to Kensington market; but now, my lord, they are forced to go round
about, through a hot sandy road, ready to faint beneath their burdens,
and I am unwilling" (using a phrase he was very fond of) "to leave the
world worse than I found it. This, my lord, I humbly represent, is the
reason of my conduct." "Be gone! You are an impertinent fellow!" said
the Ranger of Bushy Park. After thinking the matter over in a calmer
mood, Lord Halifax saw the equity of the shoemaker's claim, and the
certainty of his own failure to justify his conduct, and gave up his
opposition. The road was opened, and remains open to this day, and is
used not only by those who pass on business between Hampton and
Kingston, but by thousands of pleasure-seekers from the busy and
smoke-laden metropolis, who run down by rail in the spring and summer to
enjoy the sight of one of the finest avenues of chestnut-trees in the
world, or to breathe the sweet country air, and rest beneath the
refreshing shade of the trees of the park. The good people who make
constant use of the road, which the worthy shoemaker has secured to them
and their descendants forever, can hardly be ignorant of the story of
LORD HALIFAX THE NOBLEMAN nonsuited by TIMOTHY BENNETT THE SHOEMAKER;
yet the stranger who goes down to the Park in May to see
"The chestnuts with their milky cones,"
will probably never have heard of this
"Village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood."
Bennett died an old man in 1756, having had his wish, at least, to leave
the world no worse than he found it. Assuredly many who have more fame
have done less to merit it.
[99] Born 1676; died 1756. Bennett is placed out of
his chronological order because it seems most fitting that he
should follow the benevolent Castell.
MILITARY AND NAVAL HEROES.
"THE SOUTERS OP SELKIRK."
The old Border song, sung at public dinners "when Selkirk folks began to
be merry"--
"Up wi' the souters of Selkirk,
And down wi' the Earl of Home;
And up wi' a' the braw lads
That sew the single shoon.
"Fye upon yellow and yellow,
And fye upon yellow and green,
And up wi' the true blue and scarlet,
And up wi' the single-soled sheen.
"Up wi' the souters o' Selkirk,
For they are baith trusty and leal;
And up wi' the men o' the Forest,[100]
And down wi' the Merse[101] to the deil,"
has made the "Souters of Selkirk" famous throughout Scotland. The origin
of the song seems to be lost. Whether it has reference, as the common
tradition in Selkirk goes, to the part which a gallant band of Selkirk
men played at the battle of Flodden Field, 1513, "when the flower of the
Scottish nobility fell around their sovereign, James IV.," which Sir
Walter Scott and Mr. Plummer assert,[102] or to "a bet between the
Philiphaugh and Home families" on a match of football "between the
souters (or shoemakers) of Selkirk against the men of Home," as Mr.
Robertson in his "Essay on Scottish Song" declares, it is not easy to
determine. At any rate, whether the song points to the historical event
or not, the event itself is beyond dispute. Selkirk did "certainly send
a brave band of eighty or a hundred men to Flodden Field to support the
cause of James. No doubt a large proportion of these men were veritable
_souters_, for the chief trade of the town in the sixteenth century was
the making of "a sort of brogues with a single thin sole." This local
manufacture seems to have given a name to the inhabitants of the burgh,
who were called _souters_, pretty much as natives of Sheffield might be
called _blades_, or Birmingham folk _buttons_. The people of Selkirk are
not ashamed of the designation, but rather glory in perpetuating the
name and the tradition on which it rests. "A singular custom," we are
told, is observed at conferring the freedom of the burgh. Four or five
bristles, such as are used by shoemakers, are attached to the seal of
the burgess ticket. These the new-made burgess must dip in his wine and
pass through his mouth, in token of respect for the Souters of Selkirk.
This ceremony is on no account dispensed with.[103]
[100] Selkirkshire, otherwise called Ettrick Forest.
[101] Berwickshire, otherwise, called the Merse.
[102] See "Border Minstrelsy."
[103] Scott's "Border Minstrelsy," foot-note.
WATT TINLINN.
That the souters of that time knew how to fight and win renown by their
valor and skill may be gathered from the story which the author of "The
Lay of the Last Minstrel" tells us anent the reference to Watt of
Liddelside in the fourth canto of the "Lay":
"Now loud the heedful gateward cried,
'Prepare ye all for blows and blood!
Watt Tinlinn from the Liddelside
Comes wading through the flood.
Full oft the Tynedale snatchers knock
At his lone gate and prove the lock;
It was but last St. Barnabright
They sieged him a whole summer night,
But fled at morning; well they knew
In vain he never twanged the yew.'"
This Watt was a shoemaker and a soldier, and if he had no large field
for the display of his skill and valor in the Border skirmishes of his
time, he nevertheless deserves a place among his more illustrious
brethren of the craft, if only for the sake of the following note
respecting him. "This person was in my younger days," says Sir Walter
Scott,[104] "the theme of many a fireside tale. He was a retainer of the
Buccleuch family, and held for his Border service a small tower on the
frontiers of Liddesdale. Watt was by profession a sutor, but by
inclination and practice an archer and warrior. Upon one occasion, the
captain of Bewcastle, military governor of that wild district of
Cumberland, is said to have made an incursion into Scotland, in which he
was defeated and forced to fly. Watt Tinlinn pursued him closely through
a dangerous morass; the captain, however, gained the firm ground, and
seeing Tinlinn dismounted and floundering in the bog, used these words
of insult, "Sutor Watt, ye cannot sew your boots; the heels risp and the
seams rive."[105] "If I cannot sew," retorted Tinlinn, discharging a
shaft which nailed the captain's thigh to his saddle--"if I cannot sew I
can yerk."[106]
[104] Note IV. to Canto IV., "Lay of the Last
Minstrel."
[105] Risp and rive, creak and tear.
[106] To twitch the thread as shoemakers do in
securing the stitches.
COLONEL HEWSON, THE "CERDON" OF "HUDIBRAS."
In the turbulent days of the Stuarts and the Commonwealth, when the
lofty were laid low and the lowly were set in high places, it can hardly
be matter of surprise that the shoemaker should have had his share of
the favors of fortune. The circumstances of the time had led to the
adoption of the rational rule of granting promotion by merit. In an army
commanded by Cromwell it is not likely that any other rule would be
adopted. His two chief requirements were military capacity and moral
character. With men of this class he made up his invincible _Ironsides_.
One of his colonels was John Hewson. "This man," Grainger says,[107]
"once wore a leather apron, and from a mender of old shoes became a
reformer of government and religion. He was, allowing for his education,
a very extraordinary person. His behavior in the army soon raised him to
the rank of a colonel; and Cromwell had so great an opinion of him as to
intrust him with the government of the city of Dublin, whence he was
called to be a member of Barebones'[108] parliament. He was a frequent
speaker in that and the other parliament of which he was a member, and
was at length thought a fit person to be a lord of the upper house. He
was one of the committee of safety, and was, with several of his
brethren, very intent upon a new model of the republic at the eve of the
Restoration." Rugge, in his "Diurnal," 5th December, 1659, says that
Hewson "was a very stout man, and a very good commander;" and adds, "But
in regard of his former employment, they (the city apprentices) threw at
him old shoes and slippers, and turnip-tops and brickbats, stones and
tiles." He was the object of no end of lampooning on the part of the
Royalists. Pepys, in his "Diary," 25th January, 1659-60, has an
interesting memorandum in regard to the notoriety of the
cobbler-colonel: "Coming home, heard that in Cheapside there had been
but a little before a gibbet set up, and a picture of Huson (Hewson)
hung upon it, in the middle of the street."[109] One of these squibs
bore the title, "Colonel Hewson's Confession; or, a Parley with Pluto,"
and referred to his removal of the gates of Temple Bar. Lord Braybrooke
informs us that Hewson "had but one eye, which did not escape the notice
of his enemies." Nor did the burly cobbler-colonel escape the notice of
Dr. Butler, who makes him a conspicuous figure in the first part of
"Hudibras"[110] under the nickname of _Cerdon_:
"The upright Cerdon next advanc'd,
Of all his race the valiant'st:
Cerdon the Great, renowned in song,
Like Herc'les, for repair of wrong.
He rais'd the low, and fortify'd
The weak against the strongest side:
Ill has he read that never hit
On him in Muses deathless writ.
He had a weapon keen and fierce,
That through a bull-hide shield would pierce,
And out it in a thousand pieces,
Though tougher than the Knight of Greece his,
With whom his black-thumb'd ancestor
Was comrade in the ten years' war.
* * * * *
Fast friend he was to reformation,
Until 'twas worn quite out of fashion;
Next rectifier of every law,
And would make three to cure one flaw.
Learned he was, and could take note,
Transcribe, collect, translate, and quote."[111]
[107] "Biographical History of England," vol. iii.
[108] The author of "Crispin Anecdotes," p. 127, says,
"Praise-God Barebones was a shoemaker, but from all the writer
can learn he was a leather-seller; and Bloomfield is reported
as saying that Secretary Craggs was a chip of leather. On what
authority it is hard to say. His father, the
postmaster-general, is more likely to have been in such a
position; but _his_ trade was that of a country
barber."--Grainger, Noble's continuation, vol. iii.
[109] Pepys' Diary, note, January 25th, 1659-60.
[110] Part I. Canto II., 409-430, etc.
[111] Part I. Canto II., 409-430, etc.
Later on,[112] Hudibras describes the scene at the bear-gardens when
Hewson and the Puritan party endeavor to put a stop to the savage sport
of bear-baiting. The mob turn on the Puritans, but as for the fat
colonel--
"Quarter he scorns, he is so stout,
And therefore cannot long hold out."
[112] Part I. Canto III, 118, 119.
One of the squibs alluded to above was entitled "A Hymn to the Gentle
Craft; or, Hewson's Lamentation."[113] The reader will observe that
Hewson's _one eye_ "does not escape the notice of his enemies." This
piece was sung as a ballad in the streets:
"Listen awhile to what I shall say,
Of a blind cobbler that's gone astray
Out of the Parliament's highway.
Good people, pity the blind!
"His name you wot well is Sir John Howson,
Whom I intend to set my muse on,
As great a warrior as Sir Miles Lewson.
Good people, pity the blind!
"He'd now give all the shoes in his shop
The Parliament's fury for to stop,
Whip cobbler like any town-top.
Good people, pity the blind!
"Oliver made him a famous Lord,
That he forgot his cutting-board,
But now his thread's twisted to a cord.
Good people, pity the blind!
"Sing hi, ho, Hewson!--the state ne'er went upright,
Since cobblers could pray, preach, govern, and fight;
We shall see what they'll do now you're out of sight.
Good people, pity the blind!"
[113] Quoted in Chambers's "Book of Days," August
15th. W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh.
Having been one of the men who sat in judgment on King Charles I., the
Colonel was with other regicides condemned to be hung October 14th,
1660;[114] but he is said to have escaped hanging by flight, and to have
died at Amsterdam "in his original obscurity," 1662.[115]
[114] Evelyn's "Diary" of this date.
[115] Pepys, see above.
SIR CHRISTOPHER MYNGS, ADMIRAL OF THE ENGLISH FLEET.
Christopher Myngs (or Minns), "the son of an honest shoemaker in London,
from whom he inherited nothing but a good constitution,"[116] is said to
have worn the leathern apron for a short time before he went to sea.
Speaking of the men of humble origin who, toward the end of the
seventeenth century, made their way to high office by their skill and
bravery, Lord Macaulay says: "One of the most eminent of these officers
was Sir Christopher Mings, who entered the service as a cabin-boy, who
fell fighting bravely against the Dutch, and whom his crew, weeping and
vowing vengeance, carried to the grave. From him sprang, by a singular
kind of descent, a line of valiant and expert sailors. His cabin-boy was
Sir John Narborough, and the cabin-boy of Sir John Narborough was Sir
Cloudesley Shovel. To the strong natural sense and dauntless courage of
this class of men England owes a debt never to be forgotten."[117] Myngs
knew how to be familiar and friendly with his men, and yet to keep his
position and authority. Seamen learn to love bravery, and of this they
saw enough in their gallant Admiral. They had additional reason for
their devotion in the care he always took to see them well paid and fed,
and the justice he did them in the distribution of prizes. It was in the
great four days' fight off the English coast, June 1st-4th, 1666,
between the English and Dutch fleets, that this brave man met with his
death. The English fleet was commanded by the Duke of Albemarle and
Prince Rupert, and the Dutch by De Ruyter and Van Tromp the younger. The
battle was one of the most memorable on record, both for its length and
the valor displayed on both sides. "On the fourth day of the famous
battle that began on the 1st of June, he received a shot in the neck;
after which, though he was in exquisite pain, he continued in his
command, holding his wound with both his hands for above an hour. At
length another shot pierced his throat and laid him forever at
rest."[118]
[116] Grainger's "Biographical History of England,"
vol. iii.
[117] "History of England," vol. i. p. 316 (People's
Edition).
[118] Grainger's "Biographical History of England,"
vol. iii. Grainger has an interesting note concerning Myngs,
which we cannot forbear copying: "I am credibly informed that
when he had taken a Spanish man-of-war and gotten the commander
on board his ship, he committed the care of him to a
lieutenant, who was directed to observe his behavior. Shortly
after word was brought to Myngs that the Spaniard was deploring
his captivity and wondering what great captain it could be who
had made Don----, with a long and tedious string of names and
titles, his prisoner. The lieutenant was ordered to return to
his charge, and if the Don persisted in his curiosity, to tell
him that 'Kit Minns' had taken him. This diminutive name
utterly confounded the _titulado_, threw him into an agony of
grief, and gave him more acute pangs than all the rest of his
misfortunes."
The portrait of Sir Christopher Myngs is now in the Painted Hall of
Greenwich Hospital. It is a half-length by Sir Peter Lely, and came from
Windsor Castle, having been presented by George IV. in 1824.[119]
[119] See the "Descriptive Catalogue of the Portraits
of Naval Commanders," etc., in the "Painted Hall, Greenwich
Hospital," Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1881, p.
10. The editor of the catalogue states that "this portrait and
those numbered 7, 8, 47-49, 102, 105, 107, 110-112 form the
series of valuable pictures mentioned in Pepys' 'Diary,' as
follows:--'To Mr. Lilly's the painter's, and there saw the
heads--some finished and all begun--of the flagg-men in the
late great fight with the Duke of York against the Dutch. The
Duke of York hath them done to hang in his chamber, and very
finely they are done indeed. Here are the Prince's (Rupert),
Sir George Askue's, Sir Thomas Teddiman's, Sir Christopher
Myngs', Sir Joseph Jordan's, Sir William Berkeley's, Sir Thomas
Allen's, and Captain Harman's, as also the Duke of Albemarle's;
and will be my Lord Sandwich's, Sir W. Penn's, and Sir Jeremy
Smith's.'"
ASTROLOGERS AND OTHERS.
DR. PARTRIDGE, ASTROLOGER, PHYSICIAN TO HIS MAJESTY, ETC.
In the same age lived another noteworthy man, whose connection with the
gentle craft was much more intimate, and, indeed, of almost life-long
duration. This man was an astrologer, and blended with his study of the
subtle influences of the stars over human affairs the study of medicine.
What relation there is between these two things it were hard to tell;
but certain it is, that for many years men who were not otherwise fools
and knaves believed in this relation; and, combining the two
"professions," found very often that success in the one gave them a
certain prestige in the other. A lucky hit in "casting the nativity" of
a notable person, brought the "astrologer and physician" endless
patients and no small fortune. Probably an appointment as physician to
the king was due to no better cause; and, with such an appointment, of
course the practitioner's position was secure for life. This seems to
have been pretty much the case with _John Partridge_, who is spoken of
as a shoemaker in Covent Garden in 1680, and in 1682 is styled
_physician to His Majesty Charles II._ Here is a case, then, of a
cobbler who ventured _ultra crepidam_ to some purpose, and who might
very well have taken James Lackington's motto for his own.[120]
Partridge, it must be allowed, was a scholar of no mean attainments,
whatever he may have been as a physician, and his scholarship was
self-acquired. During his apprenticeship to a shoemaker he began the
study of Latin with a copy of Lilye's Grammar, Gouldman's Dictionary,
Ovid's Metamorphoses, and a Latin Bible. Having got a sufficient
knowledge of Latin to read astrological works, he betook himself to the
study of Greek and Hebrew. Then came _physic_, with the grand result of
royal patronage. Partridge was a considerable author or editor, and the
list of his works shows the strong bent of his mind toward the occult
science. He published a "Hebrew Calendar" for 1678; "Vade Mecum," 1679;
"Ecclesilegia, an Almanac," 1679; the same for 1680; "The King of
France's Nativity;" "A Discourse of Two Moons;" "Mercurius Coelestis,"
being an almanac for 1681; "Prodomus, a Discourse on the Conjunction of
Saturn and Mars;" "The Black Life of John Gadbury," in which a brother
astrologer is roundly abused; and shown to be, as a matter of course, a
rogue and impostor; and a "Translation of Hadrianus a Mynsicht's
Treasury of Physic," 1682.
[120] Sutor ultra crepidam feliciter ausus. See
Lackington's Life, p. 45.
The inscription over Partridge's tomb is in Latin, as becomes the
memorial of so learned a man and so eminent a physician! The visitor to
the churchyard of Mortlake in Surrey may still learn--if the great
destroyer has dealt gently with the record--how
JOHANNES PARTRIDGE, ASTROLOGUS
ET MEDICINÆ DOCTOR,
was born at East Sheen, in Surrey, on the 18th January, 1644, and died
in London, 24th June, 1715; how he made medicine for two kings and one
queen, _Carolo scilicet Secundo, Willielmo Tertio, Reginæque Mariæ_; and
how the Dutch University of Leyden conferred on him the diploma
_Medicinæ Doctor_.
Partridge seems to have given his MS. of the "Conjunction of Saturn and
Mars" to Elias Ashmole, who presented it in 1682, with other
curiosities, to the University of Oxford, where it may still be seen in
the Ashmolean Museum.[121]
[121] Elias Ashmole appears to have been given to
astrology and alchemy; see his "Way to Bliss," a work on the
Philosopher's stone, published 1658.
Partridge is alluded to in Pope's "Rape of the Lock," where the poet
speaks of Belinda's "wavy curl," which has been stolen and placed among
the stars--
"This Partridge soon shall view in cloudless skies,
When next he looks through Galileo's eyes;
And hence the egregious wizard shall foredoom
The fate of Louis and the fall of Rome."
"What sacrifices," says the author of "The Book of Days," "would many a
sage or poet have made to be connected through all time with Pope and
the charming Belinda! Yet here, in this case, we find the almanac-making
shoemaker enjoying a companionship and a celebrity for qualities which,
morally, have no virtue or endurance in them, but quite the reverse."
Swift, whose satire stung many an abuse to death, made endless fun of
Partridge and his absurd prophecies based on astrology. In 1708 Swift
published a burlesque almanac containing "predictions for the year,"
etc., etc., the first of which was about Partridge himself. Fancy the
astrologer's feelings when he read the following awful announcement:--"I
have consulted the star of his nativity by my own rules, and find he
will infallibly die on the 29th of March next of a raging fever;
therefore I advise him to consider it and settle his affairs in time!"
After the 29th of March was past, Partridge positively took the trouble
to inform the public that he was _not_ dead! This he did in his almanac
for 1709. Whereupon the cruel Dean took the matter up again and tried to
show Partridge his error. He was dead, argues Swift, if he did but know
it; but then there is no accounting for some men's ignorance! He says,
"I have in another place and in a paper by itself sufficiently convinced
this man that he is dead; and if he has any shame, I don't doubt but
that by this time he owns it to all his acquaintance."[122] Not content
with this, Swift wrote an "Elegy on the supposed Death of Partridge, the
Almanac-maker," and wound up the _painful_ business by writing his
epitaph too.
[122] _The Tatler_, April 11, 1709. Steele and Congreve
assisted in the joke. Congreve pretended to take the side of
Partridge by defending him against the charge of "sneaking
about without paying his funeral expenses!" See Timb's
"Anecdote Biog." vol. i. pp. 24 and 154.
THE EPITAPH.
"Here, five foot deep, lies, on his back,
A cobbler, starmonger, and quack,
Who to the stars, in pure good-will,
Does to his best look upward still.
Weep, all ye customers, that use
His pills, or almanacs, or shoes;
And you that did your fortunes seek,
Step to his grave but once a week.
This earth, which bears his body's print,
You'll find has so much virtue in't,
That I durst pawn my ear 'twill tell
Whate'er concerns you full as well,
In physic, stolen goods, or love,
As he himself could when above."
THE BROTHERS SIBLY.--EBENEZER SIBLY, M.D., F.R.C.P., ASTROLOGER, ETC.
Here also may be mentioned the once famous _Dr. Ebenezer Sibly_, the
physician and astrologer, and his brother Manoah, who by turns was
shoemaker, shorthand reporter, and preacher of the "heavenly doctrines"
of the New Jerusalem Church. However great a figure these men may have
made in their day, they have managed to drop so completely out of notice
that no encyclopædia, biographical dictionary, or magazine[123] the
writer has met with contains any account of them. They are said to have
been born in Bristol, and to have been brought up to the gentle
craft.[124] The first edition of Ebenezer Sibly's "Astrological
Astronomy" was published in 1789, in three vols. 8vo, and was entitled
"Astronomy and Elementary Philosophy," being a translation of Placidus
de Titus. The various editions of this work contain a collection of
remarkable nativities, and among them Sibly includes that of Thomas
Chatterton, "the marvellous boy" of Bristol.[125] Of course the
astrologer sees in the horoscope of Chatterton sure signs of remarkable
genius. Sibly was frequently consulted both for astrological and medical
purposes, the two professions, astrology and medicine, being regarded as
having a certain necessary relation. At all events, it answered the
purposes of men like Sibly and Partridge to associate them in their
practice. Human credulity dies hard, the race of fools seems to be
endowed with wondrous vitality; even as late as 1826 Sibly's "Celestial
Science of Astrology," in two bulky 4to vols., was published in a
twelfth edition, and at that time there must have been many readers of
his costly works[126] on the "Occult Sciences, comprehending the Art of
Foretelling Future Events and Contingencies by the Aspect and Influences
of the Heavenly Bodies." This work was accompanied by a key to physic
and the occult sciences. "Many of my readers," says the author of
"Crispin Anecdotes," "otherwise indebted to Dr. Sibly, may remember his
solar and lunar tinctures, and may probably have experienced their
efficacy in transmuting gold coin into AURUM POTABILE!" In his
astrological works and his edition of "Culpepper's Herbal," Sibly signs
himself "M.D.," "Fellow of the Royal Harmonic Philosophical Society at
Paris," "Member of the Royal College of Physicians in Aberdeen," etc.,
etc. The "Herbal" is dated in the year of Masonry 5798, and is written
from No. 1 Upper Tichfield Street, Cavendish Square, London. We have no
record of the death of this illustrious son of Crispin, who, perhaps,
had better have stuck to his last. He is called "_the late_ E. Sibly,
M.D.," in the 1817 edition of his "Celestial Science."
[123] In regard to Manoah Sibly, see below.
[124] "Crispin Anecdotes," p. 85. The plates in E.
Sibly's works are by Ames, a Bristol name a century ago. His
portrait in the 1790 edition is by Roberts.
[125] His birth is set down as occurring 20th
November, p.m., 1752.
[126] They were published at _two guineas_.
MANOAH SIBLY, SHORTHAND WRITER, ETC.
Manoah Sibly appears to have been a man of more varied and certainly of
much more useful gifts than his brother "the doctor;" but it may well be
doubted if he made as much capital out of them. He was born August 20th,
1757.[127] If the writer above quoted be correct in saying that Manoah
was a shoemaker, he must have made good use of his spare time, and even
of his working hours, for at the age of nineteen he is said to have been
teaching Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac. During the greater part of
his life he was a prominent preacher in connection with the New
Jerusalem or Swedenborgian community. For fifty-three years, from the
time of his ordination in 1790, he held the pastorate of the
congregation for which the Friars Street Chapel, London, was built in
1803. This congregation is now represented by the well-known Argyle
Square Church, King's Cross, where a tablet to his memory has been
erected. Manoah Sibly does not seem at any time to have been wholly
occupied with the work of preaching, although he delivered two sermons a
week for forty-three years, and one a week for the remaining ten of his
ministry. "Whether he dabbled in the muddy waters of astrology or no, it
is rather hard to tell; probably he left the task of reading the stars,
for the most part, to his more astute brother, Ebenezer. At any rate, a
translation of Placidus de Titus is set down in certain lists as having
been published in his name in 1789;[128] and when he opened a shop as a
bookseller, he dealt chiefly in works on occult philosophy. In 1795 he
is styled shorthand writer to the City of London on the title-page of
the published reports from his own notes of the trial of Gillman and of
Thomas Hardy, the political shoemaker, whose trial and acquittal created
so great an excitement throughout the country. Two years after this he
obtained a situation in the Bank of England, which he held for no less
than forty-three years. In addition to all this multifarious work, he
found time for writing and slight editorial duties. In 1796 a volume of
sermons preached in the New Jerusalem Temple appeared in his name, and
in 1802 he edited a liturgy for his own church, and wrote a hymn-book.
If in no other way, his memory will be perpetuated among his
coreligionists by the hymns that bear his name. His first published work
was a critical essay on Jeremiah 38:16, issued in 1777; and his last, a
discourse on "Jesus Christ, the only Divine object of Praise," delivered
on the forty-fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the "heavenly
doctrines," appeared fifty-six years after, viz., in 1833. Manoah
Sibly's long life of fourscore and three years came to an end December
16th, 1840.
[127] The Secretary of the Swedenborg Society, Mr.
James Speirs, has obligingly supplied the writer with most of
the facts given above, which are taken from an obituary of M.S.
in the _Intellectual Repository_, a Swedenborg magazine for
1841. Mr. Speirs says that Manoah Sibly was "presumably" born
in London, but see above.
[128] The exact correspondence in _title_ and _date_
between this book and the first edition of E. Sibly's similar
work creates a suspicion of error in the name.
MACKEY, THE LEARNED SHOEMAKER OF NORWICH, AND TWO OTHER LEARNED
SHOEMAKERS.
In this connection we may mention a curious instance of learning in
lowly life, mentioned in one of a series of interesting articles in the
_Leisure Hour_, already alluded to. The writer says: "In that most
entertaining miscellany _Notes and Queries_ (No. 215) we find an
interesting account of a very poor Norwich shoemaker named _Mackey_,
whose mind appears to have been a marvellous receptacle of varied
learning. He died in Doughty's Hospital, in Norwich, an asylum for aged
persons there. The writer of the paper found him surrounded by the tools
of his former trade and a variety of astronomical instruments and
apparatus, and he instantly was ready for conversation upon the
mysteries of astronomical and mythological lore, the "Asiatic Researches
of Captain Wilford," and the mythological speculations of Jacob Bryant
and Maurice, quoting Latin and Greek to his auditor. He was called "the
learned shoemaker." His learning was probably greatly undigested and
ungeneralized, but it was none the less another singular instance of the
pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, as is shown by his published
works on mythological astronomy and on "The Age of Mental Emancipation."
To this notice of Mackey the writer in the _Leisure Hour_ adds an
amusing story, which is too good to be omitted, of a brother of the
gentle craft (a cobbler) who, in order to eclipse a rival who lived
opposite to him, put over his door on his stall the well-known motto,
"_Mens conscia recti_" (a mind conscious of rectitude). But his
adversary, determined not to be outdone, showed himself also a cobbler
in classics as well as in shoes, by placing over his door the
astonishingly comprehensive defiance, "Men's and Women's _conscia
recti_."
ANTHONY PURVER, THE SHOEMAKER WHO REVISED THE BIBLE.
Another curious instance of extensive reading and remarkable linguistic
talent, somewhat similar to that of Dr. Partridge and the learned
shoemaker of Norwich, is that of _Anthony Purver_. He was born at Up
Hurstbourne in Hampshire in 1702. His parents were poor, and put their
boy apprentice to the art and mystery of making and mending boots and
shoes. When his "time was out," he betook himself to the leisurely and
healthy employment of keeping sheep, and began to study. His special
line in after-life was decided by his meeting with a tract which pointed
out some errors of translation in the authorized version of the Bible.
This led him to resolve that he would read the Scriptures in the
original Hebrew and Greek. Taking lessons from a Jew, Purver soon
learned to read Hebrew. After this he took up Greek and Latin, until he
could read with ease in either language. "On settling as a schoolmaster
at Andover," we are told,[129] "he undertook the extraordinary labor of
translating the Bible into English, which work he actually accomplished,
and it was printed at the expense of Dr. Fothergill in two vols. folio.
This learned shoemaker, shepherd, and schoolmaster deeply felt the need
of the great work which has been accomplished in our own day by the
united scholarship of England and America. In his own way he completed
the Herculean task single-handed; and if his translation was not of any
general and practical utility, it none the less deserves mention as a
monument of self-acquired learning and honorable industry. Purver died
in 1777, at the age of seventy-five.
[129] "Maunder's Biographical Treasury." London:
Longmans.
POETS OF THE COBBLER'S STALL.
In coming to speak of the _poets_ of the cobbler's stall, the task of
selection is found to be by no means an easy one. It is hard enough to
tell where to begin; it is harder still to know where to leave off.
"This brooding fraternity" of shoemakers, it is said, "has produced more
rhymers than any other of the handicrafts."[130]
"Crispin's sons
Have from uncounted time with ale and buns
Cherish'd the gift of song, which sorrow quells;
And working single in their low-built cells,
Oft cheat the tedium of a winter's night
With anthems."[131]
[130] _Quarterly Review_, January, 1831, p. 76.
[131] Charles Lamb, "Album Verses," 1830, p. 57.
In the days of the revival of learning and the reformation of religion
in England, shoemakers had their share in the mental and moral
awakening. Many of them turned poets, and essayed to write ballads and
songs, of which we have a sample in Deloney's "Delightful, Princely, and
Entertaining History of the Gentle Craft."[132] Such a spirited songster
as Richard Rigby, "a brother of the craft," who undertook to show in his
"Song of Praise to the Gentle Craft" how "royal princes, sons of kings,
lords, and great commanders have been shoemakers of old, to the honor of
the ancient trade," also deserves to be mentioned. This song, beginning
"I sing in praise of shoemakers,
Whose honor no person can stain,"[133]
is no mean performance; its historic allusions may not be unimpeachable,
but its poetic ring is genuine. Scores of pieces of a similar character
have issued from the cobbler's room, and either perished, like many
another ballad and song of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or
found their way into odd corners of our literature, where they are
buried almost beyond hope of resurrection.
[132] London, 1675 and 1725.
[133] See Campion's "Delightful History," p. 51.
Speaking of men who have aspired to be poets and have published their
productions, one is fain to begin with a name which, if it could be
proved to belong to the gentle craft, would certainly have to stand at
the head of the long list of poetical shoemakers--the Elizabethan
dramatist _Thomas Dekker_, who wrote "one of the most light-hearted of
merry comedies," _The Shoomaker's Holyday_. One of the most prominent
characters in the play is Sir Simon Eyre, the reputed builder of
Leadenhall Market, London, and Lord Mayor of the city.[134] Of this
worthy, who lived in the time of Henry VI., Rigby, in his "Song in
Praise of the Gentle Craft," says--
"Sir Simon, Lord Mayor of fair London,
He was a shoemaker by trade."
[134] The author of "Crispin Anecdotes" mentions
another shoemaker who was made Lord Mayor of London, viz., Sir
Thomas Tichbourne, who was Mayor in 1656, during the
Protectorate.--"Crispin Anecdotes," p. 127.
It is hard to think that the writer of _The Shoomaker's Holyday_, in
which the ways of shoemakers and the details of the craft are described
with all the ease and exactitude of familiarity, was not a brother of
the craft.[135] When the famous quarrel arose between the quondam
friends and coworkers, Ben Jonson and Dekker, Jonson in his _Poetaster_
satirized the author of _The Shoomaker's Holyday_ under the name of
_Crispinus_. This epithet may be simply an allusion to the subject of
Dekker's well-known comedy; but may it not also be regarded as a
veritable "cut at a cobbler?"
[135] One is ready to ask who but a shoemaker could
have gone so heartily into the rollicking fun of the
shoemaker's room, or asked such a question as the
following:--"Have you all your tools; a good rubbing pin, a
good stopper, a good dresser, your four sorts of awls, and your
two balls of wax, your paring knife, your hand and thumb
leathers, and good St. Hugh's bones to smooth your work?" It
may be remarked here that St. Hugh is another patron saint of
the craft. Hugh, son of the king of Powis, was in love with
Winifred, daughter of Donvallo, king of Flintshire. Both were
martyrs under Diocletian. St. Hugh's bones were stolen by the
shoemakers, and worked up into tools to avoid discovery. Hence
the cobbler's phrase, "St. Hugh's bones." See Deloney's
"Entertaining History."
JAMES WOODHOUSE, THE FRIEND OF SHENSTONE.
James Woodhouse stands first on our list in point of time, but not in
regard to ability. He evidently owed his little brief popularity to the
friendship of William Shenstone, author of "The Schoolmistress."
Shenstone lived at Leasowes, seven miles from Birmingham, in a charming
country-house surrounded by gardens, artistically laid out and
cultivated with the utmost care by the eccentric, fantastic poet.
Woodhouse, who was born about 1733, was a village shoemaker and eke a
schoolmaster at Rowley, two miles off. Shenstone had been obliged to
exclude the public from his gardens and grounds at Leasowes on account
of the wanton damage done to flowers and shrubs. Whereupon the village
shoemaker addressed the poet in poetical terms asking to be "excluded
from the prohibition." In reply Shenstone admitted him not only to
wander through his grounds, but to make a free use of his library.
"Shenstone found," says Southey, "that the poor applicant used to work
with a pen and ink at his side while the last was in his lap--the head
at one employ, the hands at another; and when he had composed a couplet
or a stanza, he wrote it on his knee." Woodhouse was then about
twenty-six years of age. His lot must have been rather hard at that
time, for, speaking of his wife's work and his own, he says in one of
his poems--
"Nor mourn I much my task austere,
Which endless wants impose;
But oh! it wounds my soul to hear
My Daphne's melting woes!
"For oft she sighs and oft she weeps
And hangs her pensive head,
_While blood her farrowed finger steeps_
_And stains the passing thread._
"When orient hills the sun behold,
Our labors are begun;
And when he streaks the west with gold,
The task is still undone."
Five years after his introduction to Shenstone, a collection of his
poems was published, entitled "Poems on Several Occasions." About forty
years afterward he issued another edition with additional pieces, such
as "Woodstock, an Elegy," "St. Crispin," etc. In the later years of his
life he was living near Norbury Park, and had found a generous patron in
Mr. Lock, who superintended the publication of his poetry, and in Lord
Lyttleton of Hagley.
JOHN BENNET OF WOODSTOCK, PARISH CLERK AND POET.
The name of Bennet occurs once more in our list, and in this instance,
if classed at all, it should be classed with the poets, although it must
be confessed that the claim of John Bennet to that honorable title
would hardly be allowed in some quarters. This little local celebrity
inherited the office of parish clerk from his father, and with it some
degree of musical taste, for his father's psalm-singing is said to have
charmed the ear of Thomas Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and
sometime curate of Woodstock. John Bennet, junior, succeeded to the
clerkship in Warton's time, and thus came under the notice of the kindly
clergyman, who was a generous patron of men of this class. When Bennet
took to writing poetry and thought of publishing, Warton gave him every
assistance in his power. A poor uneducated poet could scarcely have
fallen into better hands, for the young curate was geniality itself, if
we may judge from the estimate of him formed by Southey, who speaks of
his "thorough good nature and the boyish hilarity which he retained
through life," and furthermore adds, "The Woodstock shoemaker was
chiefly indebted for the patronage which he received to Thomas Warton's
good-nature, for my predecessor was the best-natured man that ever wore
a great wig."[136] The shoemaker's poetry was "published by
subscription" in 1774, and the long list of notable names speaks well
for the industry and influence of the patron to whose efforts the
splendid array of subscribers must be attributed. Bennet's poetry, which
was not of a very high order of merit, consisted chiefly of simple
rhymes on rustic themes, in which he does not forget to sing the praises
of the _gentleman-like craft_ to which he belongs; nor does he hesitate
frankly to declare that his reason for publishing his rhymes is "to
enable the author to rear an infant offspring, and to drive away all
anxious solicitude from the breast of a most amiable wife." Later in
life he published another volume, having for its chief piece a poem
entitled "Redemption;" and, as a set-off, a kindly preface by Dr. Mavor,
Rector of Woodstock. This honest parish clerk of poetical fame died and
was buried at Woodstock on the 8th of August, 1803.
[136] See Southey's preface to "Attempts in Verse, by
John Jones," London, 1830; and article thereon in _Quarterly
Review_, January, 1831, p. 81.
RICHARD SAVAGE, THE FRIEND OF POPE.
A far better poet but a far less worthy man than Bennet of Woodstock or
Woodhouse of Rowley was _Richard Savage_, the friend of Pope. From
beginning to end the story of his life, as told by Dr. Johnson in his
"Lives of the Poets," is one of the most romantic and melancholy
biographies in existence. It only concerns us here to say that Richard
Savage, the reputed[137] son of Earl Rivers and the Countess of
Macclesfield, was, on leaving school, apprenticed to a shoemaker, and
remained in this humble position "longer than he was willing to confess;
nor was it, perhaps, any great advantage to him that an unexpected
discovery determined him to quit his occupation." Dr. Johnson thus
speaks of this discovery and its immediate results: "About this time his
nurse, who had always treated him as her own son, died; and it was
natural for him to take care of those effects which, by her death, were,
as he imagined, become his own. He therefore went to her house, opened
her boxes, and examined her papers, among which he found some letters
written to her by the Lady Mason, which informed him of his birth and
the reason for which it was concealed. Dissatisfied with his employment,
but unable to obtain either pity or help from his mother, to whom he
made many tender appeals, he resolved to devote himself to literature.
His first attempt in this line was a short poem called 'The Battle of
the Pamphlets,' written anent the Bangorian Controversy; and his second
a comedy under the title 'Woman's Riddle.' Two years after appeared
another comedy, 'Love in a Veil.' In 1723 he wrote a drama, having for
its subject certain events in the life of Sir Thomas Overbury. Previous
to the publication of a small volume entitled 'A Miscellany of Poems,'
Savage wrote the story of his life in a political paper called _The
Plain Dealer_. His best poem, 'The Wanderer,' in which are some pathetic
passages referring to himself, was published in 1729." For the story of
the life of this unhappy man the reader must be referred to Johnson's
"Lives." Savage died in the debtors' prison, Bristol, August 1st, 1743.
[137] For an able discussion of the question, "Was
Richard Savage an Impostor?" to which the writer, Mr. Moy
Thomas, says, "Yes," see _Notes and Queries_, 2d Series, vol.
vi.
THOMAS OLIVERS, HYMN-WRITER, FRIEND AND COWORKER WITH JOHN WESLEY.
It is a relief to turn from the thought of Savage to _Thomas Olivers_,
one of John Wesley's most intimate friends and zealous coworkers. We
have seen already how prominent a part another shoemaker played in the
Methodist revival;[138] but Olivers is perhaps better known to the
general public than Samuel Bradburn, for the latter has left no mark on
our literature, while the former has made a name among hymn-writers as
the author of several excellent hymns, and of one, in particular, which
holds a place of first rank in Christian hymnology. Olivers' fame
outside Methodism rests chiefly on the fine hymn beginning--
"The God of Abram praise,
Who reigns enthroned above,
Ancient of everlasting days,
And God of love.
Jehovah great, I Am,
By earth and heaven confest;
I bow and bless the sacred name,
Forever blest."
[138] See Life of Samuel Bradburn, President of the
Wesleyan Conference.
One hymn may seem to be a very narrow basis on which to build a
reputation, yet the name of Olivers will as surely be handed down to
future generations, on account of this fine sacred lyric, as it would
have been if he had written a whole volume of hymns of merely average
merit. A dozen instances might be cited in which a single brief poem of
rare excellence has won an undying fame for the writer. Gray's "Elegy
Written in a Country Churchyard," and Michael Bruce's "Elegy Written in
Spring," Wolfe's "Burial of Sir John Moore," and Blanco White's single
sonnet, "Night and Death," and, in an inferior degree, poor Herbert
Knowles' "Lines Written in the Churchyard of Richmond, Yorkshire," are
cases in point.
Thomas Olivers in his autobiography[139] tells us that he was born at
Tregonon in Montgomeryshire in 1725. After the death of his father and
uncle, Thomas was left in charge of another relative named Tudor, who
sent him to school and afterward bound him apprentice to a shoemaker. He
was, by his own account, idle, dissolute, and profane--"the worst boy
seen in those parts for the last twenty or thirty years." His evil
conduct compelled him to fly from the scene of his early dissipation as
soon as he could; and, after living a wild life at Shrewsbury and
Wrexham, he came to Bristol. This city was his spiritual birthplace;
for, under a sermon by George Whitfield, the sinful, reckless young
Welshman was converted, and became as noted for piety and earnest
Christian work as he had once been for blasphemy and opposition to all
religion. Shortly after his conversion he removed to Bradford in Wilts,
where he joined the Methodists. On recovering from a terrible attack of
small-pox he went back to visit the scenes of his early life. In this
expedition he had a double object--to obtain a sum of money left him by
his uncle, and then to go round to all his creditors and pay his debts.
This most Christian conduct won him golden opinions and formed a capital
introduction to the preaching of the Gospel; for Olivers had now begun
to exercise his rare gifts in that direction. Returning to Bradford, he
was soon appointed by John Wesley as a travelling preacher. After
preaching in many parts of England and enduring the usual amount of
hardship and risk to life and limb incident to the field-preacher's work
in those days, he finally settled in London as John Wesley's _editor_,
having charge of the _Arminian Magazine_, and other publications, for
which Wesley was responsible. This office he held for twelve years; but
he was never quite fit for it, and his chief was reluctantly compelled
at last to put a more scholarly man in his place.
[139] See a book of unusual interest, "Lives of the
Early Methodist Preachers," ed. by Rev. I. Jackson. Wesleyan
Book-Room, London, 3 vols. 1865.
In the controversy between Wesley and Toplady on Predestination, etc., a
controversy marked by the worst features of the time, the fiery Welshman
was put forward to take the leading part on the Arminian side. Nothing
could exceed the severity of Toplady's remarks and the fierceness of his
attacks, both on the character and teaching of the veteran preacher,
John Wesley, whom all the world now agrees to honor as one of the most
devout, unselfish, and useful men who have adorned the Christian Church
in any age. Right manfully did the "Welsh Cobbler," as Olivers was
contemptuously styled, stand up for the doctrine of free grace. In his
hands Wesley was quite content to leave the work of reply to Toplady's
_Zanchius_, quietly remarking, "I can only make a few strictures, and
leave the young man Toplady to be further corrected by one that is fully
his match, Thomas Olivers."
Tyerman[140] speaks of Olivers as a man of high intellectual power; but
"laments that the fiery Welshman undertook to meet the furious
Predestinarian with the not too respectable weapons of his own
choosing." What this means may be imagined by the following sample of
Toplady's personalities in this strife of tongues. He says, "Mr. Wesley
skulks for shelter under a cobbler's apron;" and again, "Has Tom the
Cobbler more learning and integrity than John the Priest?" It must be
confessed that Cobbler Tom hit hard in reply. But an end has now come to
the discreditable and useless strife; and, happily, it is in no danger
of revival; while the hymns written by the pious Calvinist[141] and the
zealous Arminian are both alike sung with devout emotion wherever the
Saviour's name is known and adored.
[140] "Life of Wesley," vol. iii. p. 108. London:
Hodder & Stoughton, 1870.
[141] Toplady wrote the fine hymn "Rock of Ages,"
etc.
Besides several controversial tracts, Olivers wrote a number of hymns,
and is known as the composer of a number of Psalm-tunes.[142] He
continued his ministry in London till March, 1799, when he died at the
age of seventy-four. He was buried in John Wesley's tomb, in the City
Road Chapel Yard, London, as a token of the esteem in which he was held
by Wesley and his friends.
[142] "_Helmsley_" has been set down to Olivers; but
Mr. Benham says it was composed by Martin Madan, Cowper's
uncle, author of "_Thelyphthora_." See Cowper's "Poems," Globe
Ed., Intro., p. 34.
THOMAS HOLCROFT, DRAMATIST, NOVELIST, ETC.[143]
[143] "Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft, written by
Himself, and Continued to the Time of his Death from his
Diary," by W. Hazlitt. The Traveller's Library, vol. xvii.
1856.
Thomas Holcroft was a much more noteworthy man. At the time of the State
Trials he had made a considerable name as a writer of political novels.
In his "Anna St. Ives" and "Hugh Trevor" he had exposed the follies and
vices of society around him, and had set forth his own political views
in a manner well calculated to captivate the fancy of young and ardent
reformers. When the trial of Hardy began, Holcroft surrendered himself
in court, deeming it base and unmanly to refuse to share the fate of
those whose political views he had warmly espoused. Both friends and
foes honored him for his chivalrous conduct in the affair. On the
acquittal of his friends he was discharged without a trial.
The life of Holcroft is as full of romance as any of those depicted in
his novels. He was born in London in 1745. During the first six years
of the boy's life, his father was a shoemaker. Giving up this occupation
in 1751, Holcroft, senior, "took to the road" as a hawker and peddler,
and his poor child led a vagrant, gypsy-like life, and passed through
privations which he could never afterward think of without shame and
sorrow. And yet he managed to turn this worst period of his life to some
account. The first-hand knowledge it afforded him of nature and human
affairs gave freshness and power to the comedies and dramas written in
later years. During these early years his father taught him to read out
of the Bible, and such was his progress, that in a little while the
daily task consisted of eleven chapters. These, he tells us, he could
often have missed by telling a falsehood, which his conscience never
would allow; and, besides this, he had no wish to evade the task, for
the stories of the Old Testament were so full of interest to his boyish
mind, that he was eager to go on to the end. While his father and mother
were engaged as hawkers, young Holcroft was sent out to beg. In this
miserable employment he became quite an expert; and, like many another
unfortunate beggar, he was led to draw on his imagination for tales to
answer his purpose. On returning home he would recount his adventures,
and repeat the marvellous stories he had invented, until his father, who
at first admired the lad's gift as a romancer, came to be ashamed of
allowing him to lead such an idle and mischievous life, and put a stop
to his escapades.
After this he was employed as a stable-boy and jockey at Newmarket. The
change in his circumstances thus brought about was a very happy one, for
he had now good fare, a comfortable bed to sleep on, decent or rather
_smart_ clothes, of which he was not a little proud; and, added to all
this, a certain position in respectable society! His father had a friend
at Newmarket who had a taste for reading, and followed the "profession"
of feeder and trainer of gamecocks for the pit. This man was struck with
Thomas Holcroft's natural ability, and lent him books to read, such as
the "Spectator" and "Gulliver's Travels." While at Newmarket he was one
day passing a church, and stopped to listen to the music of the choir,
then engaged in practice. He ventured to enter the church, and feeling a
strong desire to learn to sing, spoke to the leader. Mr. Langham, who,
finding the stable-boy had a good voice, admitted him into the choir. He
threw himself so heartily into this new and fascinating study, that it
was not long before he could read music and sing in good style.
At the age of sixteen, he again went to live with his father, who had
once more returned to the shoemaker's stall, and lived in London. Here
he learned enough of the trade to earn a livelihood, but he involved
himself in premature cares by an imprudent marriage when only twenty
years of age.
And now the passion for a roving life got the better of him, and
quitting the monotony of a cobbler's room, he betook himself to the
stage. For seven years he led the life of a strolling player, "and
sounded all the depths and shoals" of misery incident to such a
precarious existence.
It was not till after his thirtieth year that he began to acquire
settled habits of study, to learn the languages--French, German, and
Italian--in which he afterward became a ready translator, and to set
about any kind of literary work. The first products of his pen appeared
in the _Whitehall Evening Post_. He was in his thirty-fifth year when
his first novel, "Alwyn, or the Gentleman Comedian," appeared. The year
after this saw the issue of his earliest comedy, _Duplicity_, which was
put on the stage at Covent Garden Theatre, and had a good run of
success. This was followed by some thirty dramatic pieces of one kind or
other, in poetry or prose, comedies and comic operas, dramas and
melodramas, which last he had the credit of introducing into England.
The _Road to Ruin_ is accounted, by some judges of note, the best of his
dramas. Holcroft was a man of versatile powers and great industry. His
natural gifts were remarkable, and his extensive knowledge was almost
entirely self-acquired. As already indicated, he was a very prolific
author. Besides the three novels and the plays referred to above, he
issued translations from the _French_ of Toucher d'Obsonville and Pierre
de Long; from the _German_, Goethe's "Herman and Dorothea;" and from the
Italian. He spent much of his time in Germany and France, and his
interesting work, "Travels into France," is one of his most valued
productions. Thomas Holcroft died 23d March, 1809, at the age of
sixty-four, having crowded as much work into his eventful life as most
of the leading men of his time.
JOSEPH BLACKET, POET, "THE SON OF SORROW."
At the beginning of this century there were two young shoemakers in
London who were spending their leisure time in hard reading and attempts
at musical composition. One of them, Robert Bloomfield, a sketch of
whom has already been given,[144] is known as widely as the English
language itself. The other, _Joseph Blacket_, made but little stir in
the world, and is now well-nigh forgotten. He took to writing poetry at
a much earlier age than Bloomfield, who wrote nothing before his
sixteenth year, while Blacket, if we may trust the notes in his
"Specimens" and "Remains," began, very characteristically, with "The
Sigh," written at _ten_ years of age. His unhappy life was brought to a
close when he was but twenty-four years old. At this age Bloomfield had
written very little poetry, and "The Farmer's Boy" was not begun. But if
his genius ripened slowly, it produced fruits far more valuable than
those presented to the world by the precocity of poor Blacket. There is
nothing of Blacket's to compare with "The Farmer's Boy," or "Richard and
Kate," or "The Fakenham Ghost." It is interesting to know that the two
poetical sons of Crispin were acquainted, and cherished a high regard
for each other. They seem to have met at the house of Mr. Pratt,
Blacket's patron and editor, and afterward to have exchanged copies of
each other's works, accompanied by friendly letters. What Bloomfield
thought of his young friend may be gathered from the following portion
of a letter: "The instant I received your volume I resolved to shake
hands with you, by letter at least, and to thank you for a pleasure of
no common sort. The 'Conflagration' is so truly full of fire that it
almost burns one's fingers to read it. 'Saragossa' is a noble poem.
Choose your own themes, and let the master-tints of your mind have full
play."
[144] It may be thought by some readers that
Bloomfield's brothers, George and Nathaniel, ought to have a
place in our list of illustrious shoemakers. _George_, in his
correspondence with Mr. Capel Lofft, Robert's patron, showed
himself a man of good sense and a fair writer. See preface to
Bloomfield's Poems. But _Nathaniel_, the author of a little
volume of poems, edited by Capel Lofft, 1803, entitled, "An
Essay on War," in blank verse, and "Honington Green, a Ballad,"
was _not_ a shoemaker. He was a _tailor_, though not a few
writers have made Byron's mistake of classing him with "ye
tuneful cobblers."
[Illustration: JOSEPH BLACKET]
In a letter to his friend Mr. Pratt, Blacket says that he was born in
1786 at Tunstill, five miles from Richmond, in Yorkshire. His father was
a day-laborer, who had eight children to provide for at the time Joseph
was old enough for school.[145] It was therefore fortunate for him that
the village schoolmistress took a fancy for him, and taught him for
nothing. He stayed with her until he was seven, and then went to a
school taught by a master. At the age of eleven he was removed to
London, his brother John having engaged to provide a home for him and
teach him his trade during the next seven years. In this respect his
position was very similar to that of Bloomfield, whose brother George
became the guardian of the shy Suffolk lad when he first went up to
London.[146] John Blacket was so anxious that his ward should not forget
his little learning that he often kept the lad at home to write on
Sunday. There were such books in John's library as "Josephus,"
"Eusebius' Church History," "Fox's Martyrs," all of which were read
through by the time Joseph was fifteen years of age. "At that time," he
says, "the drama was totally unknown to me; a play I had neither seen
nor read." One evening a companion called on him and begged him to go
and see Kemble play _Richard the Third_ at Drury Lane. His brother John
refused consent at first, but yielded at last to the clever strategy of
an appeal made in a few impromptu verses, which so greatly pleased and
surprised the fond brother, that he at once "gave him leave to go,
together with a couple of shillings to defray his expenses." From this
time forth he devoted himself to the study of the poets Milton, Pope,
Young, Otway, Rowe, Beattie, Thompson, but especially, and for a time
almost exclusively, to Shakespeare. As a young poet it is said of him
that "His anxiety to produce something that should be thought worthy of
the public in the form of a drama appears to have surpassed all his
other cares.... Something of the dramatic kind pervades the whole mass
of his papers. I have traced it on bills, receipts, backs of letters,
shoe patterns, slips of paper hangings, grocery wrappers, magazine
covers, battalion orders for the volunteer corps of St. Pancras, in
which he served, and on various other scraps on which his ink could
scarcely be made to retain the impression of his thoughts; yet most of
them crowded on both sides and much interlined."[147]
[145] Blacket's "Remains," preface, vol. i. pp. 62,
63. London, 1811.
[146] Blacket's "Remains," preface, vol. i. pp. 2-7.
[147] Editor of Blacket's "Remains," Letters, pp. 9,
10.
Like most ardent young students in poor circumstances, Blacket was
reckless of his health. His hard work by day and loss of nightly sleep
sowed the seeds of the disease to which he eventually fell a victim. He
married very young, and had the misfortune to lose his wife when he was
only twenty-one years of age. A sister who came to nurse her was taken
ill of brain fever, and nearly lost her life. "Judge of my situation,"
he says to his friend Mr. Pratt, "a dear wife stretched on the bed of
death; a sister senseless, whose dissolution I expected every hour; an
infant piteously looking round for its mother; creditors clamorous,
friends cold or absent. I found, like the melancholy Jaques, that 'when
the deer was stricken the herd would shun him.'" In this wretched
position he was obliged to sell everything to pay his debts. No wonder
that he became a "son of sorrow," and that most of the poetry written
after this date bears the marks of gloom and distraction of mind. Yet it
must be confessed that when the young poet sought to enter on his
literary career by the publication of his poems, he had no cause to
complain of want of friends. Mr. Marchant, a printer, took kindly to
him, and published his first copies of "Specimens" free of expense. It
was he who introduced the young aspirant for poetical fame to Mr. Pratt,
the editor of the "Remains," who seems, from the letters published, to
have been a man of considerable means, but not of the best judgment in
literary affairs. This friend had the most exalted notions of the
"genius" of his _protégé_, showed him the utmost kindness till the day
of his death, and took charge of the funds raised by the publication of
his "Remains," investing them in behalf of the poet's orphan child. In
August, 1809, Blacket removed to Seaham, Durham, to the house of a
brother-in-law, gamekeeper to Sir Ralph Milbanke of Castle Eden. The
baronet and his family were very kind to him; a horse was lent him;
dainty food was sent down for him from the castle; doctors were procured
who attended him gratis; Lady Milbanke and Miss Milbanke, afterward Lady
Byron, visited him constantly, and interested others in his behalf;
among them the Duchess of Leeds, who procured a large number of
subscribers to his volume of "Specimens."[148] No effort was spared by
either doctors or friends to save his life and to ensure his reputation
as a poet; but to no purpose, as it seemed, in either case. He died of
consumption on the 23d of September, 1810, at the house of his
brother-in-law, and was buried in Seaham churchyard by his friend Mr.
Wallis, rector of the parish, who had been a Christian counsellor and
comforter to the young poet during his long illness. At his own request,
Miss Milbanke selected the spot for his grave, and caused a suitable
monument to be placed over it, on which were inscribed the lines, taken
from his own poem, "Reflections at Midnight"--
"Shut from the light, 'mid awful gloom,
Let clay-cold honor rest in state;
And, from the decorated tomb,
Receive the tributes of the great.
"Let me, when bade with life to part
And in my narrow mansion sleep,
Receive a tribute from the heart,
Nor bribe one sordid eye to weep."
[148] That these generous friends labored to some
purpose may be judged from the fact that after Blacket's little
legacies and funeral expenses were paid, £97 10s remained over
for the benefit of his child. "Remains," p. 101.
DAVID SERVICE, AND OTHER SONGSTERS OF THE COBBLER'S STALL.
David Service of Yarmouth represents a pretty numerous class of
songsters of the cobbler's stall, worthy men in their way, but writers
of inferior merit, of whom much cannot be said. Such writers were _John
Foster_ of Winteringham, Lincolnshire, who owed the publication of his
"Serious Poems," in 1793, to the kindness of the vicar of the parish;
_J. Johnstone_, a Scotchman, who published a small volume of poems in
1823; the Rev. _James Nichol_ of Traquair, Selkirkshire, who in his
shoemaking days "published two or three volumes of poetry."[149] _Gavin
Wilson_, of Edinburgh, who, in 1788, published "A Collection of Masonic
Songs," of whom Campbell says: "I knew Gavin Wilson; he was an honest,
merry fellow, and a good boot, leather-leg, arm, and hand maker, but as
sorry a poetaster as ever tried a couplet."[150] _James Devlin_, a man
of versatile gifts and most irregular habits, who by turns wrote poetry,
corresponded for the _Daily News_, and contributed to the _Spectator_,
_Builder_, and _Notes and Queries_, and died about twenty years ago in
poverty and obscurity.[151] These men, as regards their literary merit
and fame, excepting perhaps the last, are well represented by the
herdboy from the banks of the Clyde, who, after serving his time as a
_sutor_ at Greenock, journeyed south in search of work, and settled at
Yarmouth, Norfolk, and there, at the age of twenty-seven, published a
"Rural Poem," called "The Caledonian Herdboy," in 1802. Two years after
he was encouraged by his friends to issue "The Wild Harp's Murmurs" and
"St. Crispin, or the Apprentice Boy," the former being dedicated to that
friend of unknown young poets, Capel Lofft, the friend of the
Bloomfields and Kirke White. His last adventure in this line bore the
romantic title "A Voyage and Travels in the Region of the Brain." This
verse occurs in one of his publications--
"'Apollo, why,' a matron cried,
'Are poets all so poor?'
'They write for fame,' Apollo cried,
'And seldom ask for more.'"
But this _poet_, it is to be feared, obtained neither wealth nor fame.
He became an inmate of the Yarmouth Workhouse, and died there on the
13th of March, 1825. And his "memorial," like that of many another local
celebrity, has well-nigh perished with him.
[149] "Crispin Anecdotes," pp. 87, 88.
[150] Ibid.
[151] "Campion's Delightful History," p. 81.
JOHN STRUTHERS, POET, EDITOR, ETC.
John Struthers, a Scottish poet, the friend of Sir Walter Scott and
Joanna Baillie, followed the trade of a shoemaker for many years after
he had begun to gain a literary reputation. He was born at Kilbride in
Lanarkshire in 1776, and learned his trade in his own home, for his
father was a member of the same craft. Struthers is best known in
Scotland as the author of "The Poor Man's Sabbath," a simple,
unpretentious poem, which appeared in 1804, and rapidly passed through
several editions.[152] His success in this first venture led to the
publication of "The Peasant's Death," in 1806; "The Winter's Day," in
1811; "The Plough," in 1816; "The Dechmont," in 1836. He was the editor
of a Scottish anthology, called "The Harp of Caledonia," in three
volumes, to which his friends Sir Walter Scott and Joanna Baillie "sent
voluntary contributions." He wrote a history of Scotland from the Union,
1707 to 1827, by which his reputation was greatly enhanced.
[152] Of "The Sabbath," a writer in the _Quarterly
Review_, January, 1831 (p. 77), says it is "a poem of which
unaffected piety is not the only inspiration, and which but for
its unfortunate coincidence of subject with the nearly
contemporary one of the late amiable James Grahame, would
probably have attracted a considerable share of favor, even in
these hypercritical days."
A considerable number of the biographies in Chambers's "Lives of
Illustrious Scotchmen" are from his pen. For several years he held the
position of press-corrector for Khull, Blackie & Co., of Glasgow. In
1832 he was made librarian in Stirling's Library, which office he held
until within a few years of his death in 1853. His poetical works were
collected and published by himself in 1850. He is spoken of as an
excellent specimen of a shrewd, intelligent, strong-minded
Scotchman.[153]
[153] "Imperial Dictionary of Biography." Glasgow:
Blackie & Co.
JOHN O'NEILL, THE POET OF TEMPERANCE.
The name of John O'Neill is intimately associated with that of George
Cruickshank in the work of temperance reform; for not only did
Cruickshank prove himself a friend to the poor shoemaker and poet by
illustrating his little poem entitled "The Blessings of Temperance," but
it is with good reason declared that these illustrations and the scenes
depicted in the poem itself suggested to the artist the leading ideas
worked out in his series of plates entitled "The Bottle." Some of these
sketches, as, for example, "The Upas Tree" and "The Raving Maniac and
the Drivelling Fool," derive their titles from O'Neill's language in the
poem itself. So closely, indeed, do the graphic sketches of the artist
and the poet correspond, that O'Neill in the later editions of his
little work surnamed it "A Companion to Cruickshank's 'Bottle.'"[154] On
its first appearance the poem was entitled "The Drunkard," and received
favorable notice in the pages of the _Athenæum_ and the _Spectator_,
besides other journals and papers of less literary merit. "The Drunkard"
was not his first work, but it was his best, and the one by which his
name became known and honored among teetotallers. As early as 1821 he
had published a drama entitled "Alva." "The Sorrows of Memory" and a
number of Irish melodies belonging to different periods in his life were
issued a little later. His friend the Rev. Isaac Doxsey, in a sketch
prefixed to "The Blessings of Temperance," speaks of O'Neill as the
author of seven dramatic pieces, a collection of poems, and a novel
called "Mary of Avonmore, or the Foundling of the Beach," and of
numerous contributions to various periodicals.
[154] "The Blessings of Temperance, Illustrated in the
Life and Reformation of the Drunkard: a Poem by John O'Neill,
etc., forming a Companion to Cruickshank's 'Bottle,' with
etchings from his pencil." London: W. Tweedie. 1851. Fourth
edition.
John O'Neill was an Irishman, born at Waterford on the 8th of January,
1777. His mother was in wretched circumstances at the time of his birth,
having been deserted by a worthless husband, who left her and her little
family to the care of fortune. As a boy he was very slow to learn, and
gave no indication of the gifts he afterward displayed. He and his
brother, much his senior, were apprenticed to a relative who acted as a
sort of guardian to the boys. O'Neill's mind was first awakened to a
love for poetry by a drama in rhyme entitled "The Battle of Aughrim," by
a shoemaker named Ansell, which he committed to memory. On leaving the
service of his first master he became an apprentice to his brother, but
soon quarrelled and the indentures were thrown into the fire. During the
Rebellion of 1798 and 1799, when food was at famine prices, he lived in
great poverty at Dublin and Carrick-on-Suir; and in the latter place,
notwithstanding the miserable state of his affairs, he found some one
with love and courage sufficient to enable her to become his wife. It
was at this time also that he began to read in earnest, chiefly poetry,
though nothing came amiss, and, as a matter of course, every book was
borrowed. The first-fruits of his poetic genius, if the term be
permissible, were presented to the world in a little satirical poem
written at Carrick, "The Clothier's Looking-Glass." This was designed to
expose what was regarded as the cruelty and heartlessness of the
master-clothiers in uniting to reduce the wages of the men. O'Neill was
induced to contribute to this trade dispute by a man named Stacey, a
printer, under whose guidance the shoemaker acquired some knowledge of
the art of printing, and set up a press. The press was a capital adjunct
to the pen, which the active young shoemaker and amateur printer was now
using pretty freely.
At this time he became a strong political partisan, and used both his
pen and press in an election contest in favor of General Matthew,
brother of the Earl of Llandaff. It was the Earl's promise of patronage
that induced O'Neill to leave Ireland and settle in London, some time in
1812 or 1813. This promise was never redeemed, for the Earl about this
time became a resident in Naples. Disheartened by his disappointment,
the poor shoemaker dropped for a time all reading and literary toil and
aspiration, and stuck doggedly and sullenly to his last.
For seven years he seems to have neither read nor written anything. At
length a long period of "enforced leisure," occasioned by an accident
which made work with the awl impossible, compelled him to betake
himself to reading, and thus his mind was roused from its torpor. An
English translation of a volume of Spanish novels fell in his way, and
its perusal suggested the subject for the drama _Alva_, which, as we
have said, he published in 1821. His other works are named above. None
of these seem to have brought him much profit, neither were his attempts
at "business for himself," once as a master-shoemaker and again as a
huckster, at all successful. On several occasions he was assisted by
grants from the Literary Fund, and was thankful for the kindly aid
afforded him by his friends the teetotalers.
In spite of all his hard work as a shoemaker, and his many little
literary adventures (perhaps because of _them_), he was in his old age a
very poor man. Mr. Doxsey says in 1851, "John O'Neill and his aged
partner dwell in a miserable garret in St. Giles's." In his poor earthly
estate he had one comfort, at all events--he did not "suffer as an
evil-doer," and he could feel pretty sure that he had done not a little
by his graphic pen and rude eloquence to turn many a sinner from a life
of misery and shame. His death occurred on the 3d of February, 1858.
JOHN YOUNGER, SHOEMAKER, FLY-FISHER, AND POET.
In 1860 a charming little book on "River Angling for Salmon and
Trout"[155] was added to our extensive angling literature by a devout
follower of Isaac Walton. The preface showed that it was the work of a
Lowland Scotchman, who was accustomed to divide his time between the two
"gentle" occupations of shoemaking and fishing, and that this man, _John
Younger_, had an enthusiasm for other things besides making
fishing-boots and fishing-rods and lines, and the sport of the
river-side. He was a zealous and, we had almost said, a desperate
politician. He made corn-law rhymes, which came into the hands and drew
forth praise from the pen of Ebenezer Elliott, who sent the best copy of
his works as a present to the poetical shoemaker. In 1834 Younger tried
the public with a volume of verse under the quaint title, "Thoughts as
they Rise."[156] But the public, like the shy fish of some of his own
Scottish rivers, would not "rise" to his bait, for the work fell
uncommonly flat. He was much more successful with his "River Angling,"
which appeared first in 1840, and again, with a sketch of his life, in
1860. In 1847 John Younger won the second prize for an essay on "The
Temporal Advantages of the Sabbath to the Working-Classes," and it was a
proud day for him and his neighbors at St. Boswell's when he set off to
go up to London to receive his reward of £15 at the hands of Lord
Shaftesbury in the big meeting at Exeter Hall. Younger, who was all his
life a brother of the craft, was born at Longnewton, in the parish of
Ancrum, 5th July, 1785. He died and was buried at St. Boswell's in June,
1860. As we are writing we observe that his autobiography[157] has just
been published, concerning which a writer in the _Athenæum_
remarks,[158] "John Younger, shoemaker, fly-fisher, and poet, has left a
Life which is certainly worth reading;" and adds, "There is something
more in him than a vein of talent sufficient to earn a local celebrity."
With this opinion agree the remarks of the _Scotsman_ and the
_Sunderland Times_, which said of him at the time of his death, "One of
the most remarkable men of the population of the South of Scotland,
whether as a genial writer of prose or verse or a man of high
conversational powers and clear common-sense, the shoemaker of St.
Boswell's had few or no rivals in the South;" and "Nature made him a
poet, a philosopher, and a nobleman; society made him a cobbler of
shoes." He was certainly a most original character, and his originality
and genius appear in every chapter of his Autobiography.
[155] Kelso: Rutherford. Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons.
[156] Glasgow, 1834.
[157] "Autobiography of John Younger, Shoemaker, of
St. Boswell's." Kelso: J. & J. H. Rutherford, 1881.
[158] 6th May, 1882, p. 564.
CHARLES CROCKER, "THE POOR COBBLER OF CHICHESTER".
Charles Crocker, who was born in Chichester, 22d June, 1797, was the son
of poor parents, who could not afford to send him to school after he was
seven years of age, but they were assisted by friends who procured him
admission to the Chichester "Greycoat School." He was sent before the
age of twelve to work as a shoemaker's apprentice. "This arrangement,"
he says in the brief sketch of his life which is given in the preface
to his poems,[159] "was perhaps rather favorable than otherwise to the
improvement of my mind, for the sedentary labor necessary in this kind
of employment, while it keeps the hands fully engaged, gives little or
no exercise to the mental faculties, consequently the mind of a person
so employed may, without any hindrance to his work, find occupation or
amusement in intellectual or imaginative pursuits." His youthful days
were spent in hard work and study. Spite of his schooling, grammar
presented a great difficulty when he began to apply himself seriously to
literary work. He even went so far as to commit an entire book to memory
in his efforts to master the art. He mentions a lecture on Milton by
Thelwall as having given him much help in trying to understand the
structure of English verse. Besides Milton, Cowper, Collins, and
Goldsmith became favorites, and he committed large portions of their
writings to memory, and so learned to frame a style. The first volume of
his poems was published in 1830, and the third in 1841. He also wrote "A
Visit to Chichester Cathedral," which passed through several editions.
Crocker died in 1861.[160]
[159] "The Vale of Obscurity, and Other Poems," by
Charles Crocker, 3d edition. Chichester: W. H. Mason, 1841.
[160] It is perhaps best, on the whole, not to speak
of living men in such a work as this. An exception has,
however, been made to such a rule in the rare instances of the
famous politician, poet, and preacher Thomas Cooper, and the
American poet Whittier. If the writer did not feel the
necessity of adhering, in the main, to this rule, it would be
easy enough for him to cite many instances in proof of the
statement that the literary reputation of shoemakers is being
well sustained in the present day by writers in prose and
poetry, who either have been or still are working at the stall.
Most Scottish _sutors_, one would think, have heard of the
author of "Homely Words and Songs" and "Lays and Lectures for
Scotia's Daughters of Industry" (Edinburgh, 1853 and 1856).
London craftsmen know and honor the names of J. B. Rowe, a
political writer and poet, and John B. Leno, the editor of "St.
Crispin," and author of the "Drury Lane Lyrics," "Tracts for
Rich and Poor," and "King Labor's Song-Book" (London, 1867-68;
see also "Kimburton, and Other Poems," London, 1875-76); and
the shoemaker of Wellinborough, John Askham, by his "Sonnets of
the Months," "Descriptive Poems," and "Judith" (Northampton:
Taylor & Son, 1863, 1866, 1868, and 1875), has made a
reputation which is not entirely confined to his own locality,
nor to the members of the craft to which he belongs.
PREACHERS.
GEORGE FOX, FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.
The name of George Fox belongs to the list of practical philanthropists;
for Fox may be said to have given himself body and soul to the good of
his fellow-men, and to have lived the life of a martyr to the cause to
which he felt called to consecrate himself. He was born in 1624, the
year in which Jacob Boehmen died. We are the more inclined to notice
this coincidence because the character and work of George Fox suggest a
comparison between the two men. Both men were pietists and mystics; but
in this alone are they alike. When we look at their life-work, we are at
once reminded of their nationality. The German is speculative, the
Englishman is practical; the one turns his dreams and visions into
books, and the other into acts.[161]
[161] All the writings of George Fox were published
after his death. See below.
George Fox's early life was spent near his native place, Drayton, in
Leicestershire, with a man who combined the occupations of shoemaker and
dealer in wool and cattle. After eight years' service with this master,
the young shoemaker, then at the age of nineteen, clad in a leathern
doublet of his own making, went forth into the world as a preacher and
reformer. He was led to adopt this life by what he regarded as a voice
from heaven. He had been to a fair, and was grieved by the intemperance
of two of his youthful friends whom he saw there. In his "Journal" he
speaks of the effect this sight produced upon his mind, and the resolve
to which it led him. "I went away," he says, "and when I had done my
business, returned home; but I did not go to bed that night, nor could I
sleep, but sometimes walked up and down, and sometimes prayed and cried
to the Lord, who said unto me, 'Thou seest how many young people go
together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake
all, young and old, keep out of all, and be a stranger to all.'" After
living the life of a wandering preacher for a few years, he was induced
to return home for a short time, but the voice from heaven forbade his
resisting, and summoned him again into the Lord's vineyard. In 1648,
when only twenty-four years of age, he began to preach in Manchester,
and to gather round him a number of adherents. From Manchester he went
on a tour through the northern counties of England. Two years after this
his followers began to be known by the name of Quakers. This term was
first used by Justice Bennet of Derby, before whom Fox was cited for
disturbing the peace. In 1655 he was summoned to appear before Cromwell,
who dismissed the Leicestershire shoemaker as a harmless enthusiast,
whose attempts at moral and religious reform could not do anything but
good among the people. In fact, Cromwell, a sturdy Puritan and a
religious enthusiast himself, was deeply moved by the spiritual fervor
of the simple-hearted preacher; for Fox, who never feared the face of
any man, did not fail to speak his mind to Cromwell on religious
matters. As the preacher left the room, the Protector said to him, "Come
again to my house, for if thou and I were but an hour of a day together,
we should be nearer one to the other."
In the reign of Charles II., when the anti-puritan reaction set in, Fox
fared far worse than before. Time after time he was thrown into prison
for speaking in the "steeple-houses" (churches) and disturbing public
worship. It was not at all an uncommon thing for the rough preacher,
clad in his leathern doublet, to stand up in church while service was
going on, and rebuke the lukewarmness of the minister and the formalism
of the worshippers. This he conceived to be part of the mission to which
the spirit-voice had called him. Nor did he expect to be allowed to
discharge it without bringing down the hand of the civil authorities
upon his own head. But he had counted the cost, and was prepared to
suffer. A large part of his time was spent in jail, where he underwent
terrible hardships from want of food and clothing. Nothing, however,
could daunt his ardor, or make him "disobedient unto the heavenly
vision." He was no sooner at large than he began again to deliver his
message, calling on men to listen to the voice of Christ within, and to
reform their lives. Surely nothing could have been more pure, more
simple, and more unselfish than the life of this devout and eccentric
preacher of the gospel of love, peace, and truth; yet he was hounded
from jail to jail by the bigots of his day as if he had been a common
vagrant or thief. The sufferings he endured at the hands of furious mobs
are often recorded in his journal. These he bore with the utmost
meekness, as a firm believer in the doctrine of non-resistance to evil.
Once when he had been half killed, and the mob stood round him as he lay
upon the floor, he says, "I lay still a little while, and the power of
the Lord sprang through me, and eternal refreshings revived me, so that
I stood up again in the strengthening power of the eternal God, and
stretching out my arms among them, I said, 'Strike again! here are my
arms, my head, my cheeks!' Then they began to fall out among
themselves." The distinctive principles of the Society of Friends, of
which George Fox was the founder, are too well known to need description
here. In 1669 Fox married the widow of Judge Fell. After visiting
Ireland, America, Holland, Denmark, and Prussia, this apostle of the
seventeenth century returned to England, and died in London, January
13th, 1691, at the age of sixty-seven.
Spite of all his so-called _vagaries_, his want of education and culture
and grasp of intellect, the Leicestershire shoemaker, by dint of moral
earnestness and undaunted courage, succeeded in laying the foundation of
a religious society, which in proportion to its numbers has exerted a
greater moral influence than any other denomination of Christians. His
"Journal," which is one of the most singular records of mental
experience and missionary adventure ever written, was first published in
1694. His "Epistles" were printed in 1698, and his "Doctrinal Pieces" in
1706.
THOMAS SHILLITOE, THE SHOEMAKER WHO STOOD BEFORE KINGS.
The term "calling," as applied to the trade or occupation a man follows,
is, or rather was, originally supposed to indicate a belief that he is
called and appointed of God to follow it. This belief underlies the
teaching of the Church Catechism.[162] How far it prevails nowadays it
would be hard to tell. The term seems to have survived the belief which
gave rise to it; for one does not often meet with instances outside the
Christian ministry in which men regard their daily avocation as a
veritable "calling." This, however, was the case with _Thomas
Shillitoe_, who was evidently as well satisfied of his "call" to be a
shoemaker as of his Divine commission to stand before kings and rulers
as a witness for the truth of God. This devout man would have had no
hesitation, we apprehend, in the simplicity and strength of his
conviction about the matter, to speak of himself as "called to be" a
shoemaker. He was a member of the Society of Friends, a follower, and
indeed a very close follower, in the spirit and method of his life-work,
of the apostolic George Fox. Shillitoe's "Journal" will often remind the
reader of the records and experiences of the shoemaker of
Leicestershire.
[162] See answer to the question, "What is thy duty
toward thy neighbor?"
Thomas Shillitoe was born in Holborn, London, in 1754. His father, who
had been librarian to the Society of Gray's Inn, became the landlord of
the "Three Tuns" public house, Islington, when Thomas was about twelve
years of age. "Merry Islington" was then a village, and a favorite
resort of idlers from the great city. Sundays were the busiest days of
the week, and were chiefly spent by the boy in waiting on his father's
customers. At the age of sixteen he became an apprentice to a grocer,
whose failure very soon compelled Thomas to return home. About this time
he began to attend the meetings of the Society of Friends. This led to
serious thought and prayer, and the resolve to lead a Christian life and
unite himself with these earnest Christian people. "His father, finding
he was thus minded, was greatly displeased, and told him he would rather
have followed him to the grave than he should have gone among the
Quakers, and he was determined he should at once quit his house." But
the youth was prepared for such a severe trial as this by that strong
faith in Divine Providence which formed the most marked feature of his
character throughout the rest of his life. Nor was his faith unrewarded,
for, on the very day on which he bade good-by to his father's roof, a
situation was offered him in a banking-house in Lombard Street. Here he
remained until he was twenty-four years of age.
He was at this time very anxious to become a preacher, but dreaded the
danger of "running before he was sent," and therefore he waited for the
Divine voice bidding him "Go forth." But before he could be made fit for
this great work he must learn to humble himself and take up the cross.
The banking-house and its surroundings must be forsaken; he must go
forth like Moses into the land of Midian, like Paul into Arabia, and be
prepared by simpler ways of life for the stern duties of the ministry of
God's word. And so it came to pass, he tells us, that one Sunday while
in earnest prayer that the Lord would be pleased to direct him, "He in
mercy, I believe, heard my cries, and answered my supplications,
pointing out to me the business I was to be willing to take to for a
future livelihood as intelligibly to my inward ear as ever words were
expressed clearly and intelligibly to my outward ear--that I must be
willing to humble myself and learn the trade of a shoemaker. This caused
me much distress of mind, as my salary had been small, and having been
obliged to make a respectable appearance, I had but little means to pay
for instruction in a new line of business. Yet believing I was to keep
close to my good Guide and He would not fail me, I entered on the work,
though for the first twelve months my earnings only provided me at best
with bread, cheese, and water, and sometimes only bread, and sitting
constantly on the seat made it hard for me, yet both I and my instructor
soon became reconciled to it." His diligence and thrift enabled him in a
short time to open a shop of his own in Tottenham, and to employ
workmen. It was not long after this that he received his first call to
go forth from his home and preach. It was no easy matter to obey such a
call at this time. His young wife knew nothing of business, and the
foreman was not very trustworthy. Still the good man went out on a sort
of missionary tour in Norfolk, and returned home to find, as he avers he
always did find on returning from such a mission, that the words of
Divine promise spoken to his inward ear were verified: "I will be more
than bolts and bars to thy outward habitation, more than a master to thy
servants, for I can restrain their wandering minds; more than a husband
to thy wife, and a parent to thy infant children."