years of age, the Maid of Arc underwent her martyrdom. She was conducted
before mid-day, guarded by eight hundred spearmen, to a platform of
prodigious height, constructed of wooden billets supported by occasional
walls of lath and plaster, and traversed by hollow spaces in every
direction for the creation of air currents. The pile "struck terror,"
says M. Michelet, "by its height"; and, as usual, the English purpose
in this is viewed as one of pure malignity. But there are two ways of
explaining all that. It is probable that the purpose was merciful. On
the circumstances of the execution I shall not linger. Yet, to mark the
almost fatal felicity of M. Michelet in finding out whatever may injure
the English name, at a moment when every reader will be interested
in Joanna's personal appearance, it is really edifying to notice the
ingenuity by which he draws into light from a dark corner a very unjust
account of it, and neglects, though lying upon the highroad, a very
pleasing one. Both are from English pens. Grafton, a chronicler, but
little read, being a stiff-necked John Bull, thought fit to say that
no wonder Joanna should be a virgin, since her "foule face" was a
satisfactory solution of that particular merit. Holinshead, on the other
hand, a chronicler somewhat later, every way more important, and at
one time universally read, has given a very pleasing testimony to the
interesting character of Joanna's person and engaging manners. Neither
of these men lived till the following century, so that personally this
evidence is none at all. Grafton sullenly and carelessly believed as
he wished to believe; Holinshead took pains to inquire, and reports
undoubtedly the general impression of France. But I cite the case
as illustrating M. Michelet's candour. [Footnote: Amongst the many
ebullitions of M. Michelet's fury against us poor English are four which
will be likely to amuse the reader; and they are the more conspicuous
in collision with the justice which he sometimes does us, and the very
indignant admiration which, under some aspects, he grants to us. 1. Our
English literature he admires with some gnashing of teeth. He pronounces
it "fine and sombre," but, I lament to add, "skeptical, Judaic,
Satanic--in a word, antichristian." That Lord Byron should figure as a
member of this diabolical corporation will not surprise men. It _will_
surprise them to hear that Milton is one of its Satanic leaders. Many
are the generous and eloquent Frenchmen, besides Chateaubriand, who
have, in the course of the last thirty years, nobly suspended their own
burning nationality, in order to render a more rapturous homage at the
feet of Milton; and some of them have raised Milton almost to a level
with angelic natures. Not one of them has thought of looking for him
_below_ the earth. As to Shakspere, M. Michelet detects in him a most
extraordinary mare's nest. It is this: he does "not recollect to have
seen the name of God" in any part of his works. On reading such words,
it is natural to rub one's eyes, and suspect that all one has ever seen
in this world may have been a pure ocular delusion. In particular, I
begin myself to suspect that the word "_la gloire_" never occurs in any
Parisian journal. "The great English nation," says M. Michelet, "has one
immense profound vice"--to wit, "pride." Why, really, that may be true;
but we have a neighbour not absolutely clear of an "immense profound
vice," as like ours in colour and shape as cherry to cherry. In short,
M. Michelet thinks us, by fits and starts, admirable--only that we are
detestable; and he would adore some of our authors, were it not that so
intensely he could have wished to kick them.
2. M. Michelet thinks to lodge an arrow in our sides by a very odd
remark upon Thomas à Kempis: which is, that a man of any conceivable
European blood--a Finlander, suppose, or a Zantiote--might have written
Tom; only not an Englishman. Whether an Englishman could have forged Tom
must remain a matter of doubt, unless the thing had been tried long ago.
That problem was intercepted for ever by Tom's perverseness in choosing
to manufacture himself. Yet, since nobody is better aware than M.
Michelet that this very point of Kempis _having_ manufactured Kempis is
furiously and hopelessly litigated, three or four nations claiming to
have forged his work for him, the shocking old doubt will raise
its snaky head once more--whether this forger, who rests in so much
darkness, might not, after all, be of English blood. Tom, it may be
feared, is known to modern English literature chiefly by an irreverent
mention of his name in a line of Peter Pindar's (Dr Wolcot) fifty years
back, where he is described as
"Kempis Tom,
Who clearly shows the way to Kingdom Come"
Few in these days can have read him, unless in the Methodist version of
John Wesley Among those few, however, happens to be myself, which arose
from the accident of having, when a boy of eleven, received a copy of
the "De Imitatione Christi" as a bequest from a relation who died
very young, from which cause, and from the external prettiness of
the book--being a Glasgow reprint by the celebrated Foulis, and gaily
bound--I was induced to look into it, and finally read it many times
over, partly out of some sympathy which, even in those days, I had with
its simplicity and devotional fervour, but much more from the savage
delight I found in laughing at Tom's Latinity that, I freely grant to M
Michelet, is inimitable. Yet, after all, it is not certain whether the
original _was_ Latin. But, however that may have been, if it is possible
that M Michelet [Footnote: "_If M. Michelet can be accurate_"--However,
on consideration, this statement does not depend on Michelet. The
bibliographer Barbier has absolutely _specified_ sixty in a separate
dissertation, _soixante traductions_ among those even that have not
escaped the search. The Italian translations are said to be thirty. As
to mere editions, not counting the early MSS. for half a century before
printing was introduced, those in Latin amount to 2000, and those in
French to 1000. Meantime it is very clear to me that this astonishing
popularity so entirely unparalleled in literature, could not have
existed except in Roman Catholic times, nor subsequently have lingered
in any Protestant land. It was the denial of Scripture fountains
to thirsty lands which made this slender rill of Scripture truth so
passionately welcome.] can be accurate in saying that there are no
less than sixty French versions (not editions, observe, but separate
versions) existing of the "De Imitatione," how prodigious must have
been the adaptation of the book to the religious heart of the fifteenth
century! Excepting the Bible, but excepting _that_ only in Protestant
lands, no book known to man has had the same distinction. It is the most
marvellous bibliographical fact on record.
3. Our English girls, it seems, are as faulty in one way as we English
males in another. None of us men could have written the _Opera Omnia_
of Mr. à Kempis; neither could any of our girls have assumed male attire
like La Pucelle. But why? Because, says Michelet, English girls and
German think so much of an indecorum. Well, that is a good fault,
generally speaking. But M. Michelet ought to have remembered a fact in
the martyrologies which justifies both parties--the French heroine for
doing, and the general choir of English girls for _not_ doing. A female
saint, specially renowned in France, had, for a reason as weighty as
Joanna's--viz., expressly to shield her modesty among men--worn a male
military harness. That reason and that example authorised La Pucelle;
but our English girls, as a body, have seldom any such reason, and
certainly no such saintly example, to plead. This excuses _them_. Yet,
still, if it is indispensable to the national character that our young
women should now and then trespass over the frontier of decorum, it then
becomes a patriotic duty in me to assure M. Michelet that we _have_ such
ardent females among us, and in a long series; some detected in naval
hospitals when too sick to remember their disguise; some on fields
of battle; multitudes never detected at all; some only suspected; and
others discharged without noise by war offices and other absurd
people. In our navy, both royal and commercial, and generally from deep
remembrances of slighted love, women have sometimes served in disguise
for many years, taking contentedly their daily allowance of
burgoo, biscuit, or cannon-balls--anything, in short, digestible or
indigestible, that it might please Providence to send. One thing, at
least, is to their credit: never any of these poor masks, with their
deep silent remembrances, have been detected through murmuring, or what
is nautically understood by "skulking." So, for once, M. Michelet has an
_erratum_ to enter upon the fly-leaf of his book in presentation copies.
4. But the last of these ebullitions is the most lively. We English, at
Orleans, and after Orleans (which is not quite so extraordinary, if
all were told), fled before the Maid of Arc. Yes, says M. Michelet, you
_did_: deny it, if you can. Deny it, _mon cher_? I don't mean to
deny it. Running away, in many cases, is a thing so excellent that no
philosopher would, at times, condescend to adopt any other step. All of
us nations in Europe, without one exception, have shown our philosophy
in that way at times. Even people "_qui ne se rendent pas_" have deigned
both to run and to shout, "_Sauve qui peut_!" at odd times of sunset;
though, for my part, I have no pleasure in recalling unpleasant
remembrances to brave men; and yet, really, being so philosophic, they
ought _not_ to be unpleasant. But the amusing feature in M. Michelet's
reproach is the way in which he _improves_ and varies against us the
charge of running, as if he were singing a catch. Listen to him: They
"_showed their backs_" did these English. (Hip, hip, hurrah! three times
three!) "_Behind good walls they let themselves be taken_." (Hip, hip!
nine times nine!) They "_ran as fast as their legs could carry them_"
(Hurrah! twenty-seven times twenty-seven!) They "_ran before a girl_";
they did. (Hurrah! eighty-one times eighty-one!) This reminds one of
criminal indictments on the old model in English courts, where (for fear
the prisoner should escape) the crown lawyer varied the charge perhaps
through forty counts. The law laid its guns so as to rake the accused
at every possible angle. While the indictment was reading, he seemed a
monster of crime in his own eyes; and yet, after all, the poor fellow
had but committed one offence, and not always _that_. N. B.--Not having
the French original at hand, I make my quotations from a friend's copy
of Mr. Walter Kelly's translation; which seems to me faithful, spirited,
and idiomatically English--liable, in fact, only to the single reproach
of occasional provincialisms.]
The circumstantial incidents of the execution, unless with more space
than I can now command, I should be unwilling to relate. I should fear
to injure, by imperfect report, a martyrdom which to myself appears so
unspeakably grand. Yet, for a purpose, pointing not at Joanna, but at M.
Michelet--viz, to convince him that an Englishman is capable of thinking
more highly of La Pucelle than even her admiring countrymen--I shall,
in parting, allude to one or two traits in Joanna's demeanour on the
scaffold, and to one or two in that of the bystanders, which authorise
me in questioning an opinion of his upon this martyr's firmness. The
reader ought to be reminded that Joanna D'Arc was subjected to an
unusually unfair trial of opinion. Any of the elder Christian martyrs
had not much to fear of _personal_ rancour. The martyr was chiefly
regarded as the enemy of Cæsar; at times, also, where any knowledge
of the Christian faith and morals existed, with the enmity that arises
spontaneously in the worldly against the spiritual. But the martyr,
though disloyal, was not supposed to be therefore anti-national; and
still less was _individually_ hateful. What was hated (if anything)
belonged to his class, not to himself separately. Now, Joanna, if hated
at all, was hated personally, and in Rouen on national grounds. Hence
there would be a certainty of calumny arising against _her_ such as
would not affect martyrs in general. That being the case, it would
follow of necessity that some people would impute to her a willingness
to recant. No innocence could escape _that_. Now, had she really
testified this willingness on the scaffold, it would have argued nothing
at all but the weakness of a genial nature shrinking from the instant
approach of torment. And those will often pity that weakness most who,
in their own persons, would yield to it least. Meantime, there never
was a calumny uttered that drew less support from the recorded
circumstances. It rests upon no _positive_ testimony, and it has a
weight of contradicting testimony to stem. And yet, strange to say, M,
Michelet, who at times seems to admire the Maid of Arc as much as I do,
is the one sole writer among her _friends_ who lends some countenance to
this odious slander. His words are that, if she did not utter this word
_recant_ with her lips, she uttered it in her heart. "Whether she _said_
the word is uncertain; but I affirm that she _thought_ it."
Now, I affirm that she did not; not in any sense of the word "_thought_"
applicable to the case. Here is France calumniating La Pucelle; here
is England defending her. M. Michelet can only mean that, on _a priori_
principles, every woman must be presumed liable to such a weakness; that
Joanna was a woman; _ergo_, that she was liable to such a weakness. That
is, he only supposes her to have uttered the word by an argument which
presumes it impossible for anybody to have done otherwise. I, on the
contrary, throw the onus of the argument not on presumable tendencies of
nature, but on the known facts of that morning's execution, as recorded
by multitudes. What else, I demand, than mere weight of metal, absolute
nobility of deportment, broke the vast line of battle then arrayed
against her? What else but her meek, saintly demeanour won, from the
enemies that till now had believed her a witch, tears of rapturous
admiration? "Ten thousand men," says M. Michelet himself--"ten thousand
men wept"; and of these ten thousand the majority were political enemies
knitted together by cords of superstition. What else was it but her
constancy, united with her angelic gentleness, that drove the fanatic
English soldier--who had sworn to throw a fagot on her scaffold as _his_
tribute of abhorrence, that _did_ so, that fulfilled his vow--suddenly
to turn away a penitent for life, saying everywhere that he had seen
a dove rising upon wings to heaven from the ashes where she had stood?
What else drove the executioner to kneel at every shrine for pardon to
_his_ share in the tragedy? And, if all this were insufficient, then I
cite the closing act of her life as valid on her behalf, were all other
testimonies against her. The executioner had been directed to apply his
torch from below. He did so. The fiery smoke rose upward in billowing
volumes. A Dominican monk was then standing almost at her side. Wrapped
up in his sublime office, he saw not the danger, but still persisted
in his prayers. Even then, when the last enemy was racing up the fiery
stairs to seize her, even at that moment did this noblest of girls think
only for _him_, the one friend that would not forsake her, and not
for herself; bidding him with her last breath to care for his own
preservation, but to leave _her_ to God. That girl, whose latest breath
ascended in this sublime expression of self-oblivion, did not utter the
word _recant_ either with her lips or in her heart. No; she did not,
though one should rise from the dead to swear it.
* * * * *
Bishop of Beauvais! thy victim died in fire upon a scaffold--thou upon
a down bed. But, for the departing minutes of life, both are oftentimes
alike. At the farewell crisis, when the gates of death are opening, and
flesh is resting from its struggles, oftentimes the tortured and the
torturer have the same truce from carnal torment; both sink together
into sleep; together both sometimes kindle into dreams. When the mortal
mists were gathering fast upon you two, bishop and shepherd girl--when
the pavilions of life were closing up their shadowy curtains about
you--let us try, through the gigantic glooms, to decipher the flying
features of your separate visions.
The shepherd girl that had delivered France--she, from her dungeon,
she, from her baiting at the stake, she, from her duel with fire, as she
entered her last dream--saw Domrémy, saw the fountain of Domrémy, saw
the pomp of forests in which her childhood had wandered. That
Easter festival which man had denied to her languishing heart--that
resurrection of springtime, which the darkness of dungeons had
intercepted from _her_, hungering after the glorious liberty of
forests--were by God given back into her hands as jewels that had been
stolen from her by robbers. With those, perhaps (for the minutes of
dreams can stretch into ages), was given back to her by God the bliss
of childhood. By special privilege for _her_ might be created, in this
farewell dream, a second childhood, innocent as the first; but not,
like _that_, sad with the gloom of a fearful mission in the rear. This
mission had now been fulfilled. The storm was weathered; the skirts even
of that mighty storm were drawing off. The blood that she was to reckon
for had been exacted; the tears that she was to shed in secret had
been paid to the last. The hatred to herself in all eyes had been faced
steadily, had been suffered, had been survived. And in her last fight
upon the scaffold she had triumphed gloriously; victoriously she had
tasted the stings of death. For all, except this comfort from her
farewell dream, she had died--died amid the tears of ten thousand
enemies--died amid the drums and trumpets of armies--died amid peals
redoubling upon peals, volleys upon volleys, from the saluting clarions
of martyrs.
Bishop of Beauvais! because the guilt-burdened man is in dreams haunted
and waylaid by the most frightful of his crimes, and because upon that
fluctuating mirror--rising (like the mocking mirrors of _mirage_ in
Arabian deserts) from the fens of death-most of all are reflected the
sweet countenances which the man has laid in ruins; therefore I know,
bishop, that you also, entering your final dream, saw Domrémy. That
fountain, of which the witnesses spoke so much, showed itself to your
eyes in pure morning dews; but neither dews, nor the holy dawn, could
cleanse away the bright spots of innocent blood upon its surface. By
the fountain, bishop, you saw a woman seated, that hid her face. But,
as _you_ draw near, the woman raises her wasted features. Would Domrémy
know them again for the features of her child? Ah, but _you_ know them,
bishop, well! Oh, mercy! what a groan was _that_ which the servants,
waiting outside the bishop's dream at his bedside, heard from his
labouring heart, as at this moment he turned away from the fountain and
the woman, seeking rest in the forests afar off. Yet not _so_ to escape
the woman, whom once again he must behold before he dies. In the forests
to which he prays for pity, will he find a respite? What a tumult, what
a gathering of feet is there! In glades where only wild deer should run
armies and nations are assembling; towering in the fluctuating crowd
are phantoms that belong to departed hours. There is the great English
Prince, Regent of France. There is my Lord of Winchester, the princely
cardinal, that died and made no sign. There is the bishop of Beauvais,
clinging to the shelter of thickets. What building is that which hands
so rapid are raising? Is it a martyr's scaffold? Will they burn the
child of Domrémy a second time? No; it is a tribunal that rises to the
clouds; and two nations stand around it, waiting for a trial. Shall my
Lord of Beauvais sit again upon the judgment-seat, and again number the
hours for the innocent? Ah, no! he is the prisoner at the bar. Already
all is waiting: the mighty audience is gathered, the Court is hurrying
to their seats, the witnesses are arrayed, the trumpets are sounding,
the judge is taking his place. Oh, but this is sudden! My lord, have you
no counsel? "Counsel I have none; in heaven above, or on earth beneath,
counsellor there is none now that would take a brief from _me_: all
are silent." Is it, indeed, come to this? Alas! the time is short, the
tumult is wondrous, the crowd stretches away into infinity; but yet I
will search in it for somebody to take your brief; I know of somebody
that will be your counsel. Who is this that cometh from Domrémy? Who is
she in bloody coronation robes from Rheims? Who is she that cometh with
blackened flesh from walking the furnaces of Rouen? This is she, the
shepherd girl, counsellor that had none for herself, whom I choose,
bishop, for yours. She it is, I engage, that shall take my lord's brief.
She it is, bishop, that would plead for you; yes, bishop, _she_--when
heaven and earth are silent.
NOTES
THE ENGLISH MAIL-COACH
"In October 1849 there appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_ an article
entitled _The English Mail-Coach, or the Glory of Motion_. There was
no intimation that it was to be continued; but in December 1849 there
followed in the same magazine an article in two sections, headed by a
paragraph explaining that it was by the author of the previous article
in the October number, and was to be taken in connexion with that
article. One of the sections of this second article was entitled _The
Vision of Sudden Death_, and the other _Dream-Fugue on the above
theme of Sudden Death_. When De Quincey revised the papers in 1854 for
republication in volume iv of the Collective Edition of his writings,
he brought the whole under the one general title of _The English
Mail-Coach_, dividing the text, as at present, into three sections or
chapters, the first with the sub-title _The Glory of Motion_, the second
with the sub-title _The Vision of Sudden Death_, and the third with the
sub-title _Dream-Fugue, founded on the preceding theme of Sudden Death_.
Great care was bestowed on the revision. Passages that had appeared in
the magazine articles were omitted; new sentences were inserted; and
the language was retouched throughout."--MASSON. Cf. as to the revision,
Professor Dowden's article, "How De Quincey worked," _Saturday Review_,
Feb. 23, 1895. This selection is found in _Works_, Masson's ed., Vol.
XIII, pp. 270-327; Riverside ed., Vol. I, pp. 517-582.
1 6 HE HAD MARRIED THE DAUGHTER OF A DUKE: "Mr. John Palmer, a native of
Bath, and from about 1768 the energetic proprietor of the Theatre Royal
in that city, had been led, by the wretched state in those days of
the means of intercommunication between Bath and London, wand his own
consequent difficulties in arranging for a punctual succession of good
actors at his theatre, to turn his attention to the improvement of the
whole system of Post-Office conveyance, and of locomotive machinery
generally, in the British Islands. The result was a scheme for
superseding, on the great roads at least, the then existing system of
sluggish and irregular stage-coaches, the property of private persons
and companies, by a new system of government coaches, in connexion
with the Post-Office, carrying the mails and also a regulated number of
passengers, with clockwork precision, at a rate of comparative speed,
which he hoped should ultimately be not less than ten miles an hour. The
opposition to the scheme was, of course, enormous; coach proprietors,
innkeepers, the Post-Office officials themselves, were all against
Mr. Palmer; he was voted a crazy enthusiast and a public bore.
Pitt, however, when the scheme was submitted to him, recognized its
feasibility; on the 8th of August 1784 the first mail-coach on Mr.
Palmer's plan started from London at 8 o'clock in the morning and
reached Bristol at 11 o'clock at night; and from that day the success of
the new system was assured.--Mr. Palmer himself, having been appointed
Surveyor and Comptroller-General of the Post-Office, took rank as an
eminent and wealthy public man, M. P. for Bath and what not, and lived
till 1818. De Quincey makes it one of his distinctions that he "had
married the daughter of a duke," and in a footnote to that paragraph he
gives the lady's name as "Lady Madeline Gordon." From an old Debrett,
however, I learn that Lady Madelina Gordon, second daughter of
Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon, was first married, on the 3d of April
1789, to Sir Robert Sinclair, Bart., and next, on the 25th of November
1805, to _Charles Palmer, of Lockley Park, Berks, Esq._ If Debrett is
right, her second husband was not John Palmer of Mail-Coach celebrity,
and De Quincey is wrong."--MASSON.
1 (footnote) INVENTION OF THE CROSS: Concerning the _Inventio sanctae
crucis_, see Smith, _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_, Vol. I, p.
503.
2 4 NATIONAL RESULT: Cf. De Quincey's paper on _Travelling, Works,_
Riverside ed., Vol. II, especially pp. 313-314; Masson's ed., Vol. I,
especially pp. 270-271.
3 13 THE FOUR TERMS OF MICHAELMAS, LENT, EASTER, AND ACT: These might
be called respectively the autumn, winter, spring, and summer terms.
Michaelmas, the feast of St. Michael and All Angels, is on September
29. Hilary and Trinity are other names for Lent term and Act term
respectively. Act term is the last term of the academic year; its name
is that originally given to a disputation for a Master's degree; such
disputations took place at the end of the year generally, and hence gave
a name to the summer term. Although the rules concerning residence
at Oxford are more stringent than in De Quincey's time, only eighteen
weeks' residence is required during the year, six in Michaelmas, six in
Lent, and six in Easter and Act.
3 17 GOING DOWN: Cf. "Going down with victory," i.e. from London into
the country.
3 30 POSTING-HOUSES: inns where relays of horses were furnished for
coaches and carriages. Cf. De Quincey on _Travelling, loc. cit._
4 3 AN OLD TRADITION... from the reign of Charles II: Then no one sat
outside; later, outside places were taken by servants, and were quite
cheap.
4 9 ATTAINT THE FOOT: The word is used in its legal sense. The blood of
one convicted of high treason is "attaint," and his deprivations extend
to his descendants, unless Parliament remove the attainder.
4 14 PARIAHS: The fate of social outcasts seems to have taken early and
strong hold upon De Quincey's mind; one of the _Suspiria_ was to have
enlarged upon this theme. Strictly speaking, the Pariahs is that one of
the lower castes of Hindoo society of which foreigners have seen most;
it is not in all districts the lowest caste, however.
5 6 OBJECTS NOT APPEARING, ETC.: _De non apparentibus et non
existentibus eadem est lex_, a Roman legal phrase.
5 16 "SNOBS": Apparently snob originally meant "shoemaker"; then, in
university cant, a "townsman" as opposed to a "gownsman." Cf. _Gradus ad
Cantabrigiam_ (1824), quoted in _Century Dictionary_: "_Snobs_.--A term
applied indiscriminately to all who have not the honour of being members
of the university; but in a more particular manner to the 'profanum
vulgus,' the tag-rag and bob-tail, who vegetate on the sedgy banks of
Camus." This use is in De Quincey's mind. Later, in the strikes of that
time, the workmen who accepted lower wages were called _snobs_; those
who held out for higher, _nobs_.
7 33 FO FO... FI FI: "This paragraph is a caricature of a story told
in Staunton's Account of the Earl of Macartney's Embassy to China in
1792."--MASSON.
8 4 ÇA IRA ("This will do," "This is the go"): "a proverb of the French
Revolutionists when they were hanging the aristocrats in the streets,
&c., and the burden of one of the most popular revolutionary songs, 'Ça
ira, ça ira, ça ira.'"--MASSON.
8 18 ALL MORALITY,--ARISTOTLE'S, ZENO'S, CICERO'S: Each of these three
has a high place in the history of ethical teaching. Aristotle wrote
the so-called _Nicomachean Ethics_. According to his teaching, "ethical
virtue is that permanent direction of the will which guards the mean
[_to méson_] proper for us... Bravery is the mean between cowardice
and temerity; temperance, the mean between inordinate desire and stupid
indifference; etc." (Ueberweg, _History of Philosophy_, Vol. I, p. 169).
Zeno, who died about 264 B.C., founded about 308 the Stoic sect, which
took its name from the "Painted Porch" (_Stoa poklae_) in the Agora at
Athens, where the master taught. The Stoics held that men should be free
from passion, and undisturbed by joy or grief, submitting themselves
uncomplainingly to their fate. Such austere views are, of course, as far
as possible removed from those of the Eudæmonist, who sought happiness
as the end of life. Cicero was the author of De Officiis, "Of Duties."
9 9 ASTROLOGICAL SHADOWS: misfortunes due to being born under an unlucky
star; house of life is also an astrological term.
9 24 VON TROIL'S ICELAND: The Letters on Iceland (Pinkerton's Voyages
and Travels, Vol. I, p. 621), containing Observations ... made during
a Voyage undertaken in the year 1772, by Uno Von Troil, D.D., of
Stockholm, contains no chapter of the kind. Such a chapter had appeared,
however, in N. Horrebow's (Danish, 1758) Natural History of Iceland:
"Chap. LXXII. Concerning snakes. No snakes of any kind are to be met
with throughout the whole island." In Boswell's Johnson, Vol. IV, p.
314, Temple ed., there is a much more correct allusion, which may have
been in De Quincey's mind: "Langton said very well to me afterwards,
that he could repeat Johnson's conversation before dinner, as Johnson
had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of The Natural History
of Iceland, from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly
thus: 'Chap. LXXII. Concerning Snakes. There are no snakes to be met
with throughout the whole island.'"
9 25 A PARLIAMENTARY RAT: one who deserts his own party when it is
losing.
10 16 "JAM PROXIMUS," etc.: Æneid, II, lines 311-312: "Now next (to
Deiphobus' house) Ucalegon (i.e. his house) blazes!"
11 27 QUARTERINGS: See p. 47, footnote, and note 47 2.
11 32 WITHIN BENEFIT OF CLERGY: Benefit of clergy was, under old English
law, the right of clerics, afterward extended to all who could read, to
plead exemption from trial before a secular judge. This privilege was
first legally recognized in 1274, and was not wholly abolished until
1827.
12 9 QUARTER SESSIONS: This court is held in England in the counties by
justices of the peace for the trial of minor criminal offenses and to
administer the poor laws, etc.
12 26 FALSE ECHOES OF MARENGO: General Desaix was shot through the heart
at the battle of Marengo (June 14, 1800); he died without a word, and
his body was found by Rovigo (cf. Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo, London,
1835, Vol. I, p. 181), "stripped of his clothes, and surrounded by other
naked bodies." Napoleon, however, published three different versions
of an heroic and devoted message from Desaix to himself, the original
version being: "Go, tell the First Consul that I die with this
regret,--that I have not done enough for posterity." (Cf. Lanfrey,
History of Napoleon the First, 2d ed., London, 1886, Vol. II, p. 39.)
Napoleon himself was credited likewise with the words De Quincey adopts.
"Why is it not permitted me to weep" is one version (Bussey, _History
of Napoleon_, London, 1840, Vol. I, p. 302). Cf. Hazlitt, _Life of
Napoleon_, 2d ed., London, 1852, Vol. II, p. 317, footnote.
12 (footnote) THE CRY OF THE FOUNDERING LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIP "VENGEUR":
On the 1st of June, 1794, the English fleet under Lord Howe defeated the
French under Villaret-Joyeuse, taking six ships and sinking a seventh,
the _Vengeur_. This ship sank, as a matter of fact, with part of her
crew on board, imploring kid which there was not time to give them. Some
two hundred and fifty men had been taken off by the English; the rest
were lost. On the 9th of July Barrere published a report setting forth
"how the _Vengeur_, ... being entirely disabled, ... refused to strike,
though sinking; how the enemies fired on her, but she returned
their fire, shot aloft all her tricolor streamers, shouted _Vive la
République_, ... and so, in this mad whirlwind of fire and shouting
and invincible despair, went down into the ocean depths; _Vive la
République_ and a universal volley from the upper deck being the last
sounds she made." Cf. Carlyle, _Sinking of the Vengeur_, and _French
Revolution, Book_ XVIII, Chap. VI.
12 (footnote) LA GARDE MEURT, ETC.: "This phrase, attributed to
Cambronne, who was made prisoner at Waterloo, was vehemently denied by
him. It was invented by Rougemont, a prolific author of _mots_, two
days after the battle, in the _Indépendant_."--Fournier's _L'Esprit dans
l'Histoire_, trans. Bartlett, _Familiar Quotations_, p. 661.
13 25 BRUMMAGEM: Birmingham became early the chief place of manufacture
of cheap wares. Hence the name _Brummagem_, a vulgar pronunciation of
the name of the city, has become in England a common name for cheap,
tawdry jewelry. Cf. also Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, sc. iv, 1. 55:
False, fleeting, perjured Clarence.
13 27 LUXOR occupies part of the site of ancient Thebes, capital of
Egypt; its antiquities are famous.
14 9 BUT ON OUR SIDE... WAS A TOWER OF MORAL STRENGTH, ETC.: Cf.
Shakespeare, _Richard_ III, Act V, sc. in, 11. 12-13:
Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength,
Which they upon the adverse party want.
14 20 FELT MY HEART BURN WITHIN ME: Cf. Luke xxiv. 32.
14 32 A VERY FINE STORY FROM ONE OF OUR ELDER DRAMATISTS: The dramatist
in question has not been identified. I am indebted indirectly to
Professor W. Strunk, Jr., of Cornell University, for reference to Johann
Caius' Of English Dogs, translated by A. Fleming, in Arber's English
Garner, original edition, Vol. III, p. 253 (new edition, Social England
Illustrated, pp. 28-29), where, after telling how Henry the Seventh,
perceiving that four mastiffs could overcome a lion, ordered the dogs
all hanged, the writer continues: "I read an history answerable to
this, of the selfsame HENRY, who having a notable and an excellent
fair falcon, it fortuned that the King's Falconers, in the presence and
hearing of his Grace, highly commended his Majesty's Falcon, saying,
that it feared not to intermeddle with an eagle, it was so venturous and
so mighty a bird; which when the king heard, he charged that the falcon
should be killed without delay: for the selfsame reason, as it may seem,
which was rehearsed in the conclusion of the former history concerning
the same king."
15 l OMRAHS... FROM AGRA AND LAHORE: There seems to be a reminiscence
here of Wordsworth's Prelude, Book X, 11. 18-20:
The Great Mogul, when he
Erewhile went forth from Agra or Lahore,
Rajahs and Omrahs in his train.
Omrah, which is not found in Century Dictionary, is itself really plural
of Arabic amir (ameer), a commander, nobleman.
15 23 THE 6TH OF EDWARD LONGSHANKS: a De Quinceyan jest, of course. This
wrould refer to a law of the sixth year of Edward I, or 1278, but there
are but fifteen chapters in the laws of that year.
16 8 NOT MAGNA LOQUIMUR,... BUT VIVIMUS: not "we speak great things,"
but "we live" them.
17 21 MARLBOROUGH FOREST is twenty-seven miles east of Bath, where De
Quincey attended school.
18 18 ULYSSES, ETC.: The allusion is, of course, to the slaughter of
the suitors of Penelope, his wife, by Ulysses, after his return. Cf.
Odyssey, Books XXI-XXII.
19 3 ABOUT WATERLOO: i.e. about 1815. This phrase is one of many that
indicate the deep impression made by this event upon the English mind.
Cf. p. 58.
19 17 "SAY, ALL OUR PRAISES," ETC.: Cf. Pope, Moral Essays: Epistle III,
Of the Use of Riches, II. 249-250:
But all our praises why should lords engross,
Rise, honest Muse! and sing the Man of Ross.
20 3 TURRETS: "Tourettes fyled rounde" appears in Chaucer's Knight's
Tale, 1. 1294, where it means the ring on a dog's collar through which
the leash was passed. Skeat explains _torets_ as "probably eyes in which
rings will turn round, because each eye is a little larger than the
thickness of the ring." Cf. Chaucer's _Treatise on the Astrolabe_, Part
I, sec. 2, "This ring renneth in a maner turet," "this ring runs in a
kind of eye." But Chaucer does not refer to harness.
21 2 MR. WATERTON TELLS ME: Charles Waterton, the naturalist, was
born in 1782 and died in 1865. His _Wanderings in South America_ was
published in 1825.
23 11 EARTH AND HER CHILDREN: This paragraph is about one fifth of the
length of the corresponding paragraph as it appeared in _Blackwood_. For
the longer version see Masson's ed., Vol. XIII, p. 289, note 2.
24 14 THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE: The present office was opened Sept. 23,
1829. St. Martin's-le-Grand is a church within the "city" of London,
so named to distinguish it from St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, which faces
what is now Trafalgar Square, and is, as the name indicates, outside the
"city." The street takes its name from the church.
28 10 BARNET is a Hertfordshire village, eleven miles north of London.
29 33 A "COURIER" EVENING PAPER, CONTAINING THE GAZETTE: A gazette was
originally one of the three official papers of the kingdom; afterwards
any official announcement, as this of a great victory.
30 17 FEY: This is not a Celtic word; it is the Anglo-Saxon _faege_
retained in Lowland Scotch, which is the most northerly English dialect.
The word appears frequently in descriptions of battles, the Anglo-Saxon
fatalistic philosophy teaching that, certain warriors entered the
conflict _faege_, "doomed." Now the meaning is altered slightly: "You
are surely fey," would be said in Scotland, as Professor Masson remarks,
to a person observed to be in extravagantly high spirits, or in any mood
surprisingly beyond the bounds of his ordinary temperament,--the
notion being that the excitement is supernatural, and a presage of his
approaching death, or of some other calamity about to befall him.
31 27 THE INSPIRATION OF GOD, ETC.: This is an indication--more
interesting than agreeable, perhaps--of the heights to which the martial
ardor of De Quincey's toryism rises.
33 13 CÆSAR THE DICTATOR, AT HIS LAST DINNER-PARTY, ETC.: related by
Suetonius in his life of Julius Cæsar, Chap. LXXXVII: "The day before he
died, some discourse occurring at dinner in M. Lepidus' house upon that
subject, which was the most agreeable way of dying, he expressed his
preference for what is sudden and unexpected" (repentinum inopinatumque
praetulerat). The story is told by Plutarch and Appian also.
35 13 _BIATHANATOS_: "De Quincey has evidently taken this from John
Donne's treatise: _BIATHANATOS, A Declaration of that Paradoxe or
Thesis, That Self-homicide is not so naturally Sin, that it may never be
otherwise_, 1644. See his paper on _Suicide, etc._, Masson's ed., VIII,
398 [Riverside, IX, 209]. But not even Donne's precedent justifies the
word formation. The only acknowledged compounds are _biaio-thanasia_,
'violent death,' and _biaio-thanatos_, 'dying a violent death.' Even
_bia thanatos_, 'death by violence,' is not classical."--HART. But the
form _biathanatos_ is older than Donne and is said to be common in MSS.
It should be further remarked that neither of the two compounds cited
is classical. As to De Quincey's interpretation of Cæsar's meaning here,
cf. Merivale's _History of the Romans under the Empire_, Chap.
XXI, where he translates Cæsar's famous reply: "That which is least
expected." Cf. also Shakespeare, _Julius Cæsar_, Act II, sc. ii, 1. 33.
37 25 "NATURE, FROM HER SEAT," ETC.: Cf. Milton's _Paradise Lost_, Book
IX, 11. 780-784:
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.
38 2 SO SCENICAL, ETC.: De Quincey's love for effects of this sort
appears everywhere. Cf. the opening paragraphs of the _Revolt of the
Tartars_, Masson's ed., Vol. VII; Riverside ed., Vol. XII.
39 4 JUS DOMINII: "the law of ownership," a legal term.
39 14 JUS GENTIUM: "the law of nations," a legal term.
39 30 "MONSTRUM HORRENDUM," ETC..: _Æneid_, III, 658. Polyphemus, one of
the Cyclopes, whose eye was put out by Ulysses, is meant. Cf. _Odyssey_,
IX, 371 et seq.; _Æneid_, III, 630 _et seq_.
40 1 ONE OF THE CALENDARS, ETC.: The histories of the three Calenders,
sons of kings, will be found in most selections from the _Arabian
Nights_. A Calender is one of an order of Dervishes founded in the
fourteenth century by an Andalusian Arab; they are wanderers who preach
in market places and live by alms.
40 10 AL SIRAT: According to Mahometan teaching this bridge over Hades
was in width as a sword's edge. Over it souls must pass to Paradise.
40 12 UNDER THIS EMINENT MAN, ETC.: For these two sentences the
original in _Blackwood_ had this, with its addition of good De Quinceyan
doctrine: "I used to call him _Cyclops Mastigophorus_, Cyclops the
Whip-bearer, until I observed that his skill made whips useless, except
to fetch off an impertinent fly from a leader's head, upon which
I changed his Grecian name to _Cyclops Diphrelates_ (Cyclops the
Charioteer). I, and others known to me, studied under him the
diphrelatic art. Excuse, reader, a word too elegant to be pedantic. And
also take this remark from me as a _gage d'amitié_--that no word ever
was or _can_ be pedantic which, by supporting a distinction, supports
the accuracy of logic, or which fills up a chasm for the understanding."
41 1 SOME PEOPLE HAVE CALLED ME PROCRASTINATING: Cf. Page's (Japp's)
_Life_, Chap. XIX, and Japp's _De Quincey Memorials_, Vol. II, pp.
45,47,49- 42 11 THE WHOLE PAGAN PANTHEON: i.e. all the gods put
together; from the Greek _Pantheion_, a temple dedicated to all the
gods.
43 2 SEVEN ATMOSPHERES OF SLEEP, ETC.: Professor Hart suggests that De
Quincey is here "indulging in jocular arithmetic. The three nights
plus the three days, plus the present night, equal seven." Dr. Cooper
compares with this a reference to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. But it
seems doubtful whether any explanation is necessary.
43 17 LILLIPUTIAN LANCASTER: the county town of Lancashire, in which
Liverpool and Manchester, towns of recent and far greater growth, are
situated.
44 (footnote) "Giraldus Cambrensis," or Gerald de Barry (1146-1220), was
a Welsh historian; one of his chief works is the _Itinerarium Cambrica_,
or Voyage in Wales.
47 2 QUARTERING: De Quincey's derivation of this word in his footnote
is correct, but its use in this French sense is not common. De Quincey,
however, has it above, p. 11.
49 8 THE SHOUT OF ACHILLES: Cf. Homer, _Iliad_, XVIII, 217 _et seq_.
50 10 BUYING IT, ETC.: De Quincey refers, no doubt, to the pay of common
soldiers and to the practice of employing mercenaries.
52 1 FASTER THAN EVER MILL-RACE, ETC.: the change in the wording of this
sentence in De Quincey's revision is, as Masson remarks, particularly
characteristic of his sense of melody; it read in _Blackwood_, "We ran
past them faster than ever mill-race in our inexorable flight."
52 15 HERE WAS THE MAP, ETC.: This sentence is an addition in the
reprint. Masson remarks "how artistically it causes the due pause
between the horror as still in rush of transaction and the backward look
at the wreck when the crash was past."
53 18 "WHENCE THE SOUND," ETC.: _Paradise Lost_, Book XI, 11. 558-563.
54 3 WOMAN'S IONIC FORM: In thus using the word Ionic, De Quincey
doubtless has in mind the character of Ionic architecture, with its tall
and graceful column, differing from the severity of the Doric on the one
hand and from the floridity of the Corinthian on the other. Probably he
is thinking of a caryatid. Cf. the following version of the old story of
the origin of the styles of Greek architecture in Vitruvius, IV, Chap. I
(Gwilt's translation), quoted by Hart: "They measured a man's foot, and
finding its length the sixth part of his height, they gave the column
a similar proportion, that is, they made its height six times the
thickness of the shaft measured at the base. Thus the Doric order
obtained its proportion, its strength, and its beauty from the human
figure. With a similar feeling they afterward built the Temple of Diana.
But in that, seeking a new proportion, they used the female figure as
a standard; and for the purpose of producing a more lofty effect they
first made it eight times its thickness in height. Under it they placed
a base, after the manner of a shoe to the foot; they also added volutes
to its capital, like graceful curling hair hanging on each side, and the
front they ornamented with _cymatia_ and festoons in the place of hair.
On the shafts they sunk channels, which bear a resemblance to the folds
of a matronal garment. Thus two orders were invented, one of a masculine
character, without ornament, the other bearing a character which
resembled the delicacy, ornament, and proportion of a female. The
successors of these people, improving in taste, and preferring a more
slender proportion, assigned seven diameters to the height of the Doric
column, and eight and a half to the Ionic."
55 3 CORYMBI: clusters of fruit or flowers.
55 28 QUARREL: the bolt of a crossbow, an arrow having a square,
or four-edged head (from Middle Latin _quadrellus_, diminutive of
_quadrum_, a square).
58 20 WATERLOO AND RECOVERED CHRISTENDOM! Cf. note 19 3.
61 20 THEN A THIRD TIME THE TRUMPET SOUNDED: There are throughout this
passage, as Dr. Cooper remarks, many reminiscences of the language of
the Book of Revelation. Cf. this with Revelation viii. 10; cf. 61 28
with Revelation xii. 5, and 62 5 with ix. 13.
63 29 THE ENDLESS RESURRECTIONS OF HIS LOVE: The following, which Masson
prints as a postscript, was a part of De Quincey's introduction to the
volume of the Collective Edition containing this piece:
"'THE ENGLISH MAIL-COACH.'--This little paper, according to my original
intention, formed part of the 'Suspiria de Profundis'; from which, for
a momentary purpose, I did not scruple to detach it, and to publish it
apart, as sufficiently intelligible even when dislocated from its place
in a larger whole. To my surprise, however, one or two critics, not
carelessly in conversation, but deliberately in print, professed their
inability to apprehend the meaning of the whole, or to follow the links
of the connexion between its several parts. I am myself as little
able to understand where the difficulty lies, or to detect any lurking
obscurity, as these critics found themselves to unravel my logic.
Possibly I may not be an indifferent and neutral judge in such a case. I
will therefore sketch a brief abstract of the little paper according
to my original design, and then leave the reader to judge how far this
design is kept in sight through the actual execution.
"Thirty-seven years ago, or rather more, accident made me, in the dead
of night, and of a night memorably solemn, the solitary witness of an
appalling scene, which threatened instant death in a shape the most
terrific to two young people whom I had no means of assisting, except
in so far as I was able to give them a most hurried warning of their
danger; but even _that_ not until they stood within the very shadow
of the catastrophe, being divided from the most frightful of deaths by
scarcely more, if more at all, than seventy seconds.
"Such was the scene, such in its outline, from which the whole of this
paper radiates as a natural expansion. This scene is circumstantially
narrated in Section the Second, entitled 'The Vision of Sudden Death.'
"But a movement of horror, and of spontaneous recoil from this dreadful
scene, naturally carried the whole of that scene, raised and idealised,
into my dreams, and very soon into a rolling succession of dreams.
The actual scene, as looked down upon from the box of the mail, was
transformed into a dream, as tumultuous and changing as a musical fugue.
This troubled dream is circumstantially reported in Section the Third,
entitled 'Dream-Fugue on the theme of Sudden Death.' What I had beheld
from my seat upon the mail,--the scenical strife of action and passion,
of anguish and fear, as I had there witnessed them moving in ghostly
silence,--this duel between life and death narrowing itself to a
point of such exquisite evanescence as the collision neared; all these
elements of the scene blended, under the law of association, with
the previous and permanent features of distinction investing the mail
itself; which features at that time lay--1st, in velocity unprecedented,
2dly, in the power and beauty of the horses, 3dly, in the official
connexion with the government of a great nation, and, 4thly, in the
function, almost a consecrated function, of publishing and diffusing
through the land the great political events, and especially the great
battles, during a conflict of unparalleled grandeur. These honorary
distinctions are all described circumstantially in the First or
introductory Section ('The Glory of Motion'). The three first were
distinctions maintained at all times; but the fourth and grandest
belonged exclusively to the war with Napoleon; and this it was
which most naturally introduced Waterloo into the dream. Waterloo, I
understand, was the particular feature of the 'Dream-Fugue' which my
censors were least able to account for. Yet surely Waterloo, which, in
common with every other great battle, it had been our special privilege
to publish over all the land, most naturally entered the dream under the
licence of our privilege. If not--if there be anything amiss--let the
Dream be responsible. The Dream is a law to itself; and as well quarrel
with a rainbow for showing, or for _not_ showing, a secondary arch.
So far as I know, every element in the shifting movements of the Dream
derived itself either primarily from the incidents of the actual scene,
or from secondary features associated with the mail. For example, the
cathedral aisle derived itself from the mimic combination of features
which grouped themselves together at the point of approaching
collision--viz. an arrow-like section of the road, six hundred yards
long, under the solemn lights described, with lofty trees meeting
overhead in arches. The guard's horn, again--a humble instrument in
itself--was yet glorified as the organ of publication for so many great
national events. And the incident of the Dying Trumpeter, who rises from
a marble bas-relief, and carries a marble trumpet to his marble lips
for the purpose of warning the female infant, was doubtless secretly
suggested by my own imperfect effort to seize the guard's horn, and to
blow the warning blast. But the Dream knows best; and the Dream, I say
again, is the responsible party."
JOAN OF ARC
This article appeared originally in _Taifs Magazine_ for March and
August, 1847; it was reprinted by De Quincey in 1854 in the third volume
of his _Collected Writings_. It is found in _Works_, Masson's ed., Vol.
V, pp. 384-416; Riverside ed., Vol. VI, pp. 178-215.
64 10 LORRAINE, now in great part in the possession of Germany, is the
district in which Domrémy, Joan's birthplace, is situated.
65 14 VAUCOULEURS: a town near Domrémy; cf. p. 70.
65 28 EN CONTUMACE: "in contumacy," a legal term applied to one who,
when summoned to court, fails to appear.
66 13 ROUEN: the city in Normandy where Joan was burned at the stake.
66 25 THE LILIES OF FRANCE: the royal emblem of France from very early
times until the Revolution of 1789, when "the wrath of God and man
combined to wither them."
67 5 M. MICHELET: Jules Michelet (1798-1874) is said to have spent forty
years in the preparation of his great work, the _History of France_.
Cf. the same, translated by G. H. Smith, 2 vols., Appleton, Vol. II,
pp. 119-169; or _Joan of Arc_, from Michelet's _History of France_,
translated by O. W. Wight, New York, 1858.
67 8 RECOVERED LIBERTY: The Revolution of 1830 had expelled the restored
Bourbon kings.
67 20 THE BOOK AGAINST PRIESTS: Michelet's lectures as professor of
history in the Collège de France, in which he attacked the Jesuits, were
published as follows: _Des Jésuites_, 1843; _Du Prêtre, de la Femme
et de la Famille_, 1844; _Du Peuple_, 1845. To the second De Quincey
apparently refers.
67 26 BACK TO THE FALCONER'S LURE: The lure was a decoy used to recall
the hawk to its perch,--sometimes a dead pigeon, sometimes an artificial
bird, with some meat attached.
68 6 ON THE MODEL OF LORD PERCY: These lines, as Professor Hart notes,
in Percy's Folio, ed. Hales and Furnivall, Vol. II, p. 7, run:
The stout Erle of Northumberland
a vow to God did make,
his pleasure in the Scottish woods
3 som_m_ers days to take.
68 27 PUCELLE D'ORLÉANS: Maid of Orleans (the city on the Loire which
Joan saved).
69 1 THE COLLECTION, ETC.: The work meant is Quicherat, _Procès de
Condamnation et Réhabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc_, 5 vols., Paris,
1841-1849. Cf. De Quincey's note.
69 21 DELENDA EST ANGLIA VICTRIX! "Victorious England must be
destroyed!" Cf. _Delenda est Carthago_! "Carthage must be destroyed!"
_Delenda est Karthago_ is the version of Florus (II, 15) of the words
used by Cato the Censor, just before the Third Punic War, whenever he
was called upon to record his vote in the Senate on any subject under
discussion.
69 27 HYDER ALI (1702-1782), a Mahometan adventurer, made himself
maharajah of Mysore and gave the English in India serious trouble;
he was defeated in 1782 by Sir Eyre Coote. Tippoo Sahib, his son and
successor, proved less dangerous and was finally killed at Seringapatam
in 1799.
70 4 NATIONALITY IT WAS NOT: i.e. nationalism--patriotism--it was not.
Cf. _Revolt of the Tartars_, Riverside ed., Vol. XII, p. 4; Masson's
ed., Vol. VII, p. 370, where De Quincey speaks of the Torgod as "tribes
whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing forms of superstition,
and by a nationality as well as an inflated conceit of their own merit
absolutely unparalleled." Cf. also footnote, p. 94.
70 4 SUFFREN: the great French admiral who in 1780-1781 inflicted so
much loss upon the British.
70 10 MAGNANIMOUS JUSTICE OF ENGLISHMEN: As Professor Hart observes, the
treatment of Joan in _Henry VI_ is hardly magnanimous.
71 29 THAT ODIOUS MAN: Cf. pp. 79-80.
72 12 THREE GREAT SUCCESSIVE BATTLES: Rudolf of Lorraine fell at
Crécy (1346); Frederick of Lorraine at Agincourt (1415); the battle of
Nicopolis, which sacrificed the third Lorrainer, took place in 1396.
73 24 CHARLES VI (1368-1422) had killed several men during his first fit
of insanity. He was for the rest of his life wholly unfit to govern. He
declared Henry V of England, the conqueror of Agincourt, his successor,
thus disinheriting the Dauphin, his son.
74 2 THE FAMINES, ETC.: Horrible famines occurred in France and England
in 1315, 1336, and 1353. Such insurrections as Wat Tyler's, in 1381, are
probably in De Quincey's mind.
74 6 THE TERMINATION OF THE CRUSADES: The Crusades came to an end
about 1271. "The ulterior results of the crusades," concludes Cox in
_Encyclopedia Britannica_, "were the breaking up of the feudal system,
the abolition of serfdom, the supremacy of a common law over the
independent jurisdiction of chiefs who claimed the right of private
wars."
74 7 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLARS: This most famous of the military
orders, founded in the twelfth century for the defense of the Latin
kingdom of Jerusalem, having grown so powerful as to be greatly feared,
was suppressed at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
74 7 THE PAPAL INTERDICTS: "De Quincey has probably in mind such an
interdict as that pronounced in 1200, by Innocent III, against France.
All ecclesiastical functions were suspended and the land was in
desolation."--HART. England was put under interdict several times, as in
1170 (for the murder of Becket) and 1208.
74 8 THE TRAGEDIES CAUSED OR SUFFERED BY THE HOUSE OF ANJOU, AND BY
THE EMPEROR: "The Emperor is Konradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen,
beheaded by Charles of Anjou at Naples, 1268. The subsequent cruelties
of Charles in Sicily caused the popular uprising known as the
Sicilian Vespers, 1282, in which many thousands of Frenchmen were
assassinated."--HART.
74 10 THE COLOSSAL FIGURE OF FEUDALISM, ETC.: The English yeomen at
Crecy, overpowering the mounted knights of France, took from feudalism
its chief support,--the superiority of the mounted knight to the
unmounted yeoman. Cf. Green, _History of the English People_, Book IV,
Chap. II.
74 15 THE ABOMINABLE SPECTACLE OF A DOUBLE POPE: For thirty-eight years
this paradoxical state of things endured.
75 15 THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY: a list of the martyrs of the Church,
arranged according to the order of their festivals, and with accounts of
their lives and sufferings.
76 4 "ABBEYS THERE WERE," ETC.: Cf. Wordsworth, _Peter Bell_, Part
Second:
Temples like those among the Hindoos,
And mosques, and spires, and abbey windows,
And castles all with ivy green.
76 17 THE VOSGES ... HAVE NEVER ATTRACTED MUCH NOTICE, ETC.: They came
into like prominence after De Quincey's day in the Franco-Prussian War
of 1870.
76 31 THOSE MYSTERIOUS FAWNS, ETC.: In some of the romances of the
Middle Ages, especially those containing Celtic material, a knight,
while hunting, is led by his pursuit of a white fawn (or a white stag or
boar) to a _fee_ (i.e. an inhabitant of the "Happy Other-world") or into
the confines of the "Happy Other-world" itself. Sometimes, as in the
_Guigemar_ of Marie de France, the knight passes on to a series of
adventures in consequence of his meeting with the white fawn. I owe this
note to the kindness of Mr. S. W. Kinney, A.M., of Baltimore.
76 33 THAT ANCIENT STAG: See _Englische Studien,_ Vol. V, p. 16,
where additions are made to the following account from Hardwicke's
_Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore,_ Manchester and London, 1872,
p. 154:
This chasing of the white doe or the white hart by the spectre huntsman
has assumed various forms. According to Aristotle a white hart was
killed by Agathocles, King of Sicily, which a thousand years beforehand
had been consecrated to Diana by Diomedes. Alexander the Great is said
by Pliny to have caught a white stag, placed a collar of gold about its
neck, and afterwards set it free. Succeeding heroes have in after days
been announced as the capturers of this famous white hart. Julius Caesar
took the place of Alexander, and Charlemagne caught a white hart at both
Magdeburg, and in the Holstein woods. In 1172 William [Henry] the Lion
is reported to have accomplished a similar feat, according to a Latin
inscription on the walls of Lubeck Cathedral. Tradition says the white
hart has been caught on Rothwell Hay Common, in Yorkshire, and in
Windsor Forest.
This reference I owe indirectly to Professor J. M. Manly, of Chicago.
77 4 OR, BEING UPON THE MARCHES OF FRANCE, A MARQUIS: _Marquis_ is
derived from _march,_ and was originally the title of the guardian of
the frontier, or march.
77 13 AGREED WITH SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY THAT A GOOD DEAL MIGHT BE SAID
ON BOTH SIDES: This expression, as has been pointed out to me, is from
the middle of _Spectator_ No. 122, where Sir Roger, having been appealed
to on a question of fishing privileges, replied, "with an air of a man
who would not give his judgment rashly, that much might be said on both
sides." It is likely, however, that De Quincey may have connected it
in his mind with the discussion of witchcraft at the beginning of
_Spectator_ No. 117, where Addison balances the grounds for belief and
unbelief somewhat as De Quincey does here.
78 7 BERGERETA: a very late Latin form of French _bergerette,_ "a
shepherdess."
78 15 M. SIMOND, IN HIS "TRAVELS": The reference is to _Journal of a
Tour and Residence in Great Britain during the years 1810 and 1811,_ by
Louis Simond, 2d ed. (Edinburgh, 1817), to which is added an appendix on
France, written in December, 1815, and October, 1816. De Quincey refers
to this story with horror several times, but such scenes are not yet
wholly unknown.
79 21 A CHEVALIER OF ST. LOUIS: The French order of St. Louis
was founded by Louis XIV in 1693 for military service. After its
discontinuance at the Revolution this order was reinstated in 1814; but
no knights have been created since 1830. "Chevalier" is the lowest rank
in such an order; it is here erroneously used by De Quincey as a title
of address.
79 22 "CHEVALIER, AS-TU DONNÉ," etc.: "Chevalier, have you fed the hog?"
"MA FILLE," ETC.: "My daughter, have you," etc. "PUCELLE," ETC.: "Maid
of Orleans, have you saved the lilies (i.e. France)?"
79 28 IF THE MAN THAT TURNIPS CRIES: Cf. _Johnsoniana_, ed. R. Napier,
London, 1884, where, in _Anecdotes of Johnson_, by Mrs. Piozzi, p. 29,
is found: "'T is a mere play of words (added he)"--Johnson is speaking
of certain "verses by Lopez de Vega"--"and you might as well say, that
"If the man who turnips cries,
Cry not when his father dies,
'T is a proof that he had rather
Have a turnip than his father."
This reference is given in Bartlett's _Familiar Quotations_.
80 4 THE ORIFLAMME OF FRANCE: the red banner of St. Denis, preserved in
the abbey of that name, near Paris, and borne before the French king as
a consecrated flag.
80 22 TWENTY YEARS AFTER, TALKING WITH SOUTHEY: In 1816 De Quincey was
a resident of Grasmere; Southey lived for many years at Keswick, a
few miles away; they met first in 1807. For De Quincey's estimate
of Southey's _Joan of Arc_, see _Works_, Riverside ed., Vol. VI, pp.
262-266; Masson's ed., Vol. V, pp. 238-242.
80 28 CHINON is a little town near Tours.
81 3 SHE "PRICKS" FOR SHERIFFS: The old custom was to prick with a pin
the names of those chosen by the sovereign for sheriffs.
82 9 AMPULLA: the flask containing the sacred oil used at coronations.
82 10 THE ENGLISH BOY: Henry VI was nine months old when he was
proclaimed king of England and France in 1422, Charles VI of France, and
Henry V, his legal heir, having both died in that year. Henry's mother
was the eldest daughter of Charles VI.
82 13 DRAWN FROM THE OVENS OF RHEIMS: Rheims, where the kings of France
were crowned, was famous for its biscuits and gingerbread.
82 26 TINDAL'S "CHRISTIANITY AS OLD AS THE CREATION": Matthew Tindal
(1657-1732) published this work in 1732; its greatest interest lies in
the fact that to this book more than to any other Butler's _Analogy_ was
a reply. Tindal's argument was that natural religion, as taught by the
deists, was complete; that no revelation was necessary. A life according
to nature is all that the best religion can teach. Such doctrine as this
Joan preached in the speech ascribed to her.
82 27 A PARTE ANTE: "from the part gone before"; Joan's speech being
three centuries earlier than the book from which it was taken.
83 9 THAT DIVINE PASSAGE IN "PARADISE REGAINED": from Book I, II.
196-205.
84 34 PATAY IS NEAR ORLEANS: Troyes was the capital of the old province
of Champagne.
86 25 "NOLEBAT," ETC.: "She would not use her sword or kill any one."
87 24 MADE PRISONER BY THE BURGUNDIANS: The English have accused the
French officers of conniving at Joan's capture through jealousy of her
successes. Compiègne is fifty miles northeast of Paris.
87 27 BISHOP OF BEAUVAIS: Beauvais is forty-three miles northwest
of Paris, in Normandy. This bishop, Pierre Cauchon, rector of the
University at Paris, was devoted to the English party.
87 30 "BISHOP THAT ART," ETC.: Cf. Shakespeare's _Macbeth_, Act I, sc.
v, 1. 13.
87 33 A TRIPLE CROWN: The papacy is meant, of course. The pope's tiara
is a tall cap of golden cloth, encircled by three coronets.
88 17 JUDGES EXAMINING THE PRISONER: The judge in France questions a
prisoner minutely when he is first taken, before he is remanded for
trial. De Quincey displays here his inveterate prejudice against the
French; but this practice is widely regarded as the vital error of
French criminal procedure.,
89 5 A WRETCHED DOMINICAN: a member of the order of mendicant friars
established in France by Domingo de Guzman in 1216. Their official name
was Fratres Predicatores, "Preaching Friars," and their chief objects
were preaching and instruction. Their influence was very great until
the rise of the Jesuit order in the sixteenth century. The Dominicans
Le Maitre and Graverent (the Grand Inquisitor) both took part in the
prosecution.
89 31 FOR A LESS CAUSE THAN MARTYRDOM: Cf. Genesis ii. 24.
91 14 FROM THE FOUR WINDS: There may be a reminiscence here of Ezekiel
xxxvii. 1-10, especially verse 9: "Come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."
91 30 LUXOR. See note 13 27.
92 15 DAUGHTER OF CÆSARS: She was the daughter of the German emperor,
Francis I, whose sovereignty, as the name "Holy Roman Empire" shows, was
supposed to continue that of the ancient Roman emperors.
92 17 CHARLOTTE CORDAY (1768-93) murdered the revolutionist Marat in the
belief that the good of France required it; two days later she paid the
penalty, as she had expected, with her life.
93 18 GRAFTON, A CHRONICLER: Richard Grafton died about 1572. He was
printer to Edward VI. His chronicle was published in 1569.
93 20 "FOULE FACE": _Foule_ formerly meant "ugly."
9321 HOLINSHEAD: Raphael Holinshed died about 1580. His great work,
_Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland_, was used by Shakespeare
as the source of several plays. He writes of Joan: "Of favor
[appearance] was she counted likesome; of person stronglie made, and
manlie; of courage, great, hardie, and stout withall."
94 (footnote) SATANIC: This epithet was applied to the work of some
of his contemporaries by Southey in the preface to his _Vision of
Judgement_, 1821. It has been generally assumed that Byron and Shelley
are meant. See Introduction to Byron's _Vision of Judgment_ in the new
Murray edition of Byron, Vol. IV.
96 (footnote) BURGOO: a thick oatmeal gruel or porridge used by seamen.
According to the _New English Dictionary_ the derivation is unknown; but
in the _Athenaeum_, Oct. 6, 1888, quoted by Hart, the word is explained
as a corruption of Arabic _burghul_.
101 30 ENGLISH PRINCE, REGENT OF FRANCE: John, Duke of Bedford, uncle
of Henry VI. "In genius for war as in political capacity," says J.
R. Green, "John was hardly inferior to Henry [the Fifth, his brother]
himself" (_A History of the English People_, Book IV, Chap. VI).
101 31 MY LORD OF WINCHESTER: Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester,
half-brother of Henry IV. He was the most prominent English prelate of
his time and was the only Englishman in the Court that condemned
Joan. As to the story of his death, to which De Quincey alludes, see
Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI, Act III, sc. in. Beaufort became cardinal in
1426.
102 17 WHO IS THIS THAT COMETH FROM DOMRÉMY? This is an evident
imitation of the famous passage from Isaiah Ixiii. I: "Who is this that
cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?" "Bloody coronation
robes" is rather obscure, but probably refers to the fact that Joan had
shed her own blood to bring about the coronation of her sovereign; she
is supposed to have appeared in armor at the actual coronation ceremony,
and this armor might with reason be imagined as "bloody."
102 22 SHE ... SHALL TAKE MY LORD'S BRIEF: that is, she shall act as the
bishop's counsel. In the case of Beauvais, as in that of Winchester,
it must be remembered that in all monarchical countries the bishops are
"lords spiritual," on an equality with the greater secular nobles, the
"lords temporal."