“Luminary Epistle” to Henri II. in 1557. M. le Pelletier holds (i. 10)
that Henri II. never knew of the dedicatory epistle written to him by
name, and that, as the events referred to do not concern the House of
Valois, they could have had no interest for him had he known of the
epistle. M. le Pelletier adds a most singular note to this remark, that
the epistle is dedicated “_A l’invictissime, très puissant, et très
chrestien Henry Roy de France Second_.” This epigraph he maintains not
to be addressed to Henri II., for he remarks that he was no longer alive
when it made its appearance. Now, this is not so; for the dedicatory
letter was dated in print June 27, 1558, and the king’s death only took
place in 1559, so that the document was even in print before his death.
But, had it not been so, there is no reason whatever why Nostradamus
should not have supplied the king with a copy of the letter and quatrains
in manuscript long before either of them had been committed to type.
Jean de Roux, Curé de Louvicamp, wrongly suggests that it was intended
as a prophetical dedication to Louis le Grand or XIV. M. le Pelletier
thinks it was not even dedicated to the great Henri Quatre, but to a
“_Henry, Roy de France Second_”—_second_ being the Latin _secundus_, or
prosperous, _i.e._ some king not less illustrious than Henri Quatre,
whose reign is to arise in the future. This it is which furnishes to
the reader the secret purpose of Le Pelletier’s book, which is to set
forth the claims of the Duc de Bordeaux, who would have ascended the
French throne as Henri Cinq. Accordingly, in the body of the book, he
has interpreted five quatrains and one sixain of the prophecies of
Nostradamus as referring to this glorious King _Henri Second_, who has
never arrived, and who, being now some years dead, never can. We have
seen that the Curé de Louvicamp could even suppose that Louis XIV. could
stand for “Henry, Roy de France Second.” M. F. Buget, in his “Étude
sur Nostradamus,” has the same idea, that he does not address Henri
II., because he was not of a character sufficiently great to merit the
attribution of such spiritual authority to him by our prophet, as if the
flattery of a dedication was to be interpreted _au pied de la lettre_.
It could only be addressed, he thinks, to a really great man, a saint.
M. Buget, in his book of 1862, evidently was another of those who made
the fatal error of interpreting Nostradamus out of the future, instead
of carefully following the enigmas thrown out by him to find their
fulfilment in the past. These gentlemen, if they had assiduously read the
Epistle itself, instead of consulting their imaginative faculties, would
have perceived plainly enough that Nostradamus was writing to the only
king he knew, before whom he had personally presented himself, and whom,
as he says, he had highly reverenced from “_iceluy jour que premierement
devant icelle je me presentay_.” The concluding words of the Dedication
are equally plain, and show that he is addressing a king whom he has
individually seen with his own eyes: “_depuis que mes yeux furent si
proches de vostre splendeur solaire_.” All the rest is to be set down to
the strain of courtly flattery that was customarily addressed to kings,
then and down to a period full two hundred years later, especially on
occasion of penning royal dedications. The purpose of this long note is
to establish, once and for all, I trust, that “_Henry, Roy de France
Second_,” stands, without any subtlety at all, simply for King Henri II.,
and nothing more. It is vain to endeavour to make millstones transparent
that we may shoot unexpected rays of light through them. They will answer
their purpose by being left in the dark, and will grind grain the better
for it. Transparency will in such cases represent frangibility.
[13] Aulus Gellius, “Noctes Atticæ,” xv. 7.
[14] It was really in the sixth month of his sixty-third year that he
died.
[15] _Temple Bar_, xli. p. 87, authority for the term of years.
[16] How any could have been written in 1567, I know not, as Nostradamus
died in 1566. But, however this may be, there are twelve _Presages_, or
one for each month throughout the year 1567. The last one is that which
we have already given, as relating to his own death.
[17] The book was entitled, “Les vies des plus célèbres et anciens poëtes
provensaux, qui ont floury du tems des comtes de Provence” (Lyon, 1575);
a book still sought for, and rather rare.
[18] “In 1566 died that trifler, so famous throughout the world, Michael
Nostradamus, who boasted while he lived that he knew and could foretell
future events by the influence of the stars, in whose name afterwards
many ingenious men have put forth their imaginings, justifying him who
said so aptly, ‘Nostra damus,’ etc.”
[19] Bouys does the same for Napoleon I.
[20] See the ban he utters in Century VI., at the close—“_Barbari procul
sunto._” He shows a quite Horatian and heathen antipathy to the _profanum
vulgus_.
[21] Cæsar Nostradamus was born at the beginning of 1555, so he was
but a few weeks old when his father dedicated to him the first four
“Centuries,” published for the first time in 1555, by Macé Bonhomme,
the printer at Lyons. In the name of this son the epistle is really
a dedication to his spiritual sons; that is, to his interpreters and
students in all future ages.
[22] Lymphatics, Garencières (p. 16) tells, were anciently those who were
mad for love; and he absurdly adds that the sign of it was, that such
persons threw themselves into the water,—_lympha_ meaning water. Varro
says that in Greece those who were mad were called νυμφολήπτους, which
means caught by nymphs. Festus, to fit this, thinks that men went mad by
seeing the image of nymphs in the water fountains. Others have it that
they were afraid of water, as if it were hydrophobia that possessed them.
But _nympha_ and _lympha_ approach each other so nearly, that when a man
is once caught by a nymph he is, for the time being, mad to all intents
and purposes,—“it is not given to a man to love and to be wise.” Leaving
all this to be settled as it may, there is no question but in the medical
technology of Nostradamus a deep melancholy is what was understood by the
Lymphatic motion,—melancholy being the temperament most apt for study,
poetry, and vaticination. Garencières invents a word for the occasion, or
uses one that has since grown obsolete. He employs the verb _lymphatize_.
[23] “Such alone as are inspired by the divine power can predict
particular events in a spirit of prophecy.”
[24] “Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, _i.e._
from the powerful and from kings, and hast revealed them to the small and
weak.” This is Nostradamus’s gloss upon Matt. xi. 25.
[25] Acts i. 7.
[26] Nostradamus seems, whenever he alludes to this appearance of flame
as preceding vaticination, to have in his mind the descent of tongues
of fire at Pentecost (Acts ii. 3), διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός.
A flame of fire, be it observed, conveys a double symbol: it resembles
a tongue in form. Its luminousness and its purifying tendency express
the celestial nature of spirit, as contrasted with matter, and also
inspiration. So that intrinsically and extrinsically it represents
prophetic utterance. Grotius contributes an unusually good note upon this
passage, pointing out that as in Genesis (xi. 9), confusion of tongues
scattered mankind, so here (Acts ii. 3) the gift of tongues was to bring
men again into one brotherhood.
[27] This passage is very difficult to bring to a clear sense in
translation. Garencières has simply evaded it. It seems to mean that
God operates all the great effects in the universe; that, as He is the
Maker, so is He the perpetual operator in the world,—its cause and life;
but that the guardian angels are good and bad, and are charged with some
sort of duty and office, not as affecting the mechanic frame of the
world, but in respect of mankind. This is in conformity with the Cabala
and Hermetical teaching; but what he precisely means cannot, I think, be
quite absolutely stated.
[28] “He who is called prophet now, once was called seer.”
[29] “For all things are naked and open.”
[30] “I am able not to err, fail, or be deceived.”
[31] “Whence it shall not deviate from age to age.”
[32] “I will visit their iniquities with a rod of iron, and with blows
will strike them.” This somewhat resembles a passage in the Psalms (ii.
7), but it is not a quotation.
[33] “I will trample them and break them, and not show pity.” This
resembles Isai. lxiii. 3.
[34] In prose, and not in verse, as the quatrains are. These prose
forecastings have, I am afraid, been altogether lost.
[35] “When the time arrives for the removal of ignorance.”
[36] “When Minerva was free and favourable.”
[37] “There can be no truth entirely determined for certain which
concerns the future.”
[38] See Joel ii. 28.
[39] Which proceeds from fate, but from God, and nature.
[40] “Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee, to release the
children of death” (Ps. lxxviii. 11).
[41] “The sea blushed red with the blood of naval fights.”
[42] “Many things, O most potent king of all, of the most remarkable kind
are shortly to happen, that I neither could nor would interweave them
all into this epistle; but in order to comprehend certain facts, a few
horrible destinies must be set down in extract, although your amplitude
and humanity towards all men is so great, and your piety to the gods, and
that you alone seem worthy of the grand title of the most Christian King,
and to whom the highest authority in all religion should be deferred.”
[43] Romance tongue, _sele_ for _selle_, tripod seat, _tripode æneo_,
such as the priestess of Apollo or Pythia sat on to deliver oracles.
[44] Latin, _prosperare_, to succeed, or realize an experience.
[45] _Qui_ for _ce qui_.
[46] Latin, _virga_, branch or wand.
[47] Latin, _limbus_, hem, border, fringe.
[48] Latin, _per_, in, or through.
[49] Ex Michaele Psello, _de Dæmonibus_. Works of Marsilius Ficinus, ii.
884, ed. 1641, folio.
[50] This refers to some Good Friday evening on the 10th Calend of April
Old Style, as set forth in the first line of this quatrain.
[51] This is exhibited in the third line of the quatrain: _Le feu
estainct, assemblée diabolique_.
[52] Æneid, iii. 92 and vi. 347.
[53] Old word for _jamais_, never.
[54] Latin, _a_, by.
[55] Bouys [_Oracles_, p. 103] says that the King alone had the right to
a visor of pure gold. I believe this to be pure nonsense. It would be
little stronger than lead. It merely means a gilt casque, and I think
some of the accounts say so in as many words. If Bouys were right, the
King courted death.
[56] Greek, κλάσις, breaking or lopping.
[57] Latin, _una_, the one or first.
[58] See also Brantôme, _Vie des hommes illustres de son temps_.
[59] _Qu’en_, for _qui en_.
[60] Romance, for _lutte_.
[61] _Porté_, pour _remporté_.
[62] Latin, _subito_, suddenly.
[63] Romance, _surprins_ for surpris.
[64] Romance, _surprins_ = _surpris_.
[65] Latin, _exspoliare_, totally despoiled.
[66] Romance, for _pris_.
[67] Romance, _hostaige_, maison, house, palace.
[68] Romance, _tiers_, third.
[69] Latin, _trucidare_, cut the throat.
[70] Latin, _inconditus_, dispersed.
[71] Greek, σάρπος, wooden case, coffin.
[72] _Sortiront bas_, for _d’en bas_.
[73] Latin, _infernus_, subterranean.
[74] Romance, _vefve_, veuve. The word is made here to apply to the wife,
Mary Stuart, whom he leaves a widow without children. The grammatical
effort is somewhat violent; but _vef_ or _veuf_ is the masculine form, so
there is very little choice given.
[75] In the quatrain this ought to be written _eage_, as it stands in the
_texte-type_, or the line will not scan.
[76] _Près_, for après.
[77] This is how M. le Pelletier renders the last line.
[78] Italian, _piloto_, pilot.
[79] Latin, _mandatus_, appointed to a charge.
[80] Latin, _classis_, fleet.
[81] Romance, _contrebandé_, marching in a contrary band.
[82] _Ordo_ is, _Venise craindra une armée de barbares qui viendra_.
[83] This line is a foot short. Garencières reads:
Le coup volant luy crevera un œil.
[84] _Noir_, anagram of roi, cutting off _n_.
[85] _Arcs tendus_, arquebus.
[86] Latin, _tantum_, much.
[87] The family name of Pope Gregory XIII. was Hugo Buon-Compagni. On
May 13, 1572, he was made Pope. He assumed the name of Gregory out of
respect to St. Gregory Nazianzen. He caused the Church to encourage the
murder of refractory kings; he promoted the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s
Day, which Sir Paul Rycaut, the historian of the Popes, does not so
much as mention in the life of Gregory. He only says towards the end
that “he may be numbered amongst the good Popes.” As Buon-Compagni was
a good lawyer before he became a good Pope, he was pre-qualified for a
virtuous career in any line of life. He re-confirmed the excommunication
of Queen Elizabeth; he rectified the Calendar which goes by his name,—the
Gregorian. The Jesuits’ College was finished by him at Rome, dedicated so
oddly—
Religioni et bonis Artibus.
In his day Japan was, by Jesuit missionary effort, brought within the
pale of the Church: on which a wit remarked that Japan varnish was
introduced into Europe, and Christian varnish into Japan. He died at
eighty-three, and to the last could almost mount on horseback without the
help of his servants. His place of retirement, Rycaut says, was Frescati,
about ten miles distant from Rome, where the Borghese Palace now is, and
was then called _Monte Dragone_—a most fit name for the residence of the
_Old Worm_ of St. Bartholomew’s massacre.—_V._ Paul Rycaut, “Lives of the
Popes,” ed. 1688, vol. ii. p. 163.
[88] Will sound in full volley.
[89] These letters are interpreted by the old commentators and Guynaud
(p. 107) as meaning the peace concluded with Philip II. of Spain: V.,
cinq, S., sucesseur, C., Charles—_i.e._, Successor to Charles Quint.
[90] Romance, _vefve_ = veuve, widow.
[91] Latin, _qui_, celui qui.
[92] Latin, _ductus_, led.
[93] _Appaiser_, for pour apaiser.
[94] _Pourchas_, old word, pursuit, active intrigue (_proquassatio_).
[95] Razes, tonsured priests and monks (_têtes rasées_).
[96] Greek, πεσσικός, draught-playing, or gambling. The word was applied
to gaming by the Greeks, as we find a story in Plutarch [Liddell and
Scott, Lex.], exhibiting Hermes as playing draughts (on the πεσσευτήριον)
with Selene, and winning five days, which he adds to the year. Guynaud
(p. 119) reads _poche_, which I take to be an abscess, wolf, or devouring
ulcer; both he and Le Pelletier interpret it as meaning Poland.
[97] _Plaindre_, for se plaindre.
[98] _Guiere._ Nobody explains this word, and yet it seems to stand much
in need of it. It is given by Roquefort, as from _gubernator_, a general.
Leader, or we may say _dux_, for the Duc d’Alençon. It is really _guides_
or guide. _Guber_, _govern_, _guide_, being all three cognate.
[99] Latin, _decisus_, cut off, severed.
[100] This term is applied to Poland by Nostradamus in allusion to its
elective throne, which became purely venal—a thing at last coming to be
played for as a hazard at dice. But, curiously enough, the less authentic
reading _poche_ is almost equally descriptive—a burning ulcer eating into
the body politic till it destroys it.
[101] Latin, _virtuosus_; according to M. le Pelletier “vigorous.”
Classical Latin has no such word, and the lower Latin means _probus_,
_bonis moribus et virtute præditus_. Nostradamus probably meant
_vertueux_, in old French, to be equivalent to _robuste_.
[102] _Aloi_, the quality of the substance of a metal. The battle of
French etymologists is very instructive over this word, as may be seen in
Littré. Of course, however, it comes from _à loi_, conformable to law.
But I think there is a misprint, and that we ought to read _toute loi_
= _toute la loi_. Guynaud (p. 122) reads _loi_ in the second line for
_foy_. We might suppose that that variant had been introduced to correct
the fourth line, and was only by a “devil” carried to the second instead,
by which that imp of mischief contrived to leave two errors in place of
one. In confirmation somewhat of this, the _texte-type_ reads _tout à
loy_.
[103] Latin, _ira_, anger.
[104] Ordo, deux mourront par ire, etc.
[105] Romance, _prins_, pris.
[106] Romance, _joyne_, jeune homme.
[107] Romance, _cultre_, couteau.
[108] Latin, _perpetratio_.
[109] _Husne_, a small tower, or belvidere.
[110] Romance, _murtre_, meurtre.
[111] Latin, _pernicies_, destruction.
[112] Romance, _esmues_, émus, seditious.
[113] _Tien_, for _tienne_.
[114] Latin, _Lætitia_, joy, pleasure, and play on _Lutetia_, Paris.
[115] Romance, _cavilleux_, cavillers.
[116] _Mendosus_, anagram of _Vendosme_ (the _u_ standing for _v_ of
course). The _texte-type_ reads _Mandosus_; but as _Mendosus_ is the
perfect anagram of Vendosme, and makes also the Latin word’s meaning
_full of faults_, it is best to read _Mendosus_.
[117] _Norlaris_, anagram for Lorrains the patronymic of the Guise family.
[118] Romance, _esleu_, _élu_, chosen.
[119] _Cape_, for _Capet_, a descendant of Hugh Capet.
[120] Latin, _tacite_, silently.
[121] _Norlarin_, anagram for _Lorrain_; here it represents the Duc de
Mayenne.
[122] _Qu’à_ for _qui à_.
[123] Romance, _si_ for _très_, very.
[124] Latin, _traditor_, traitor.
[125] His body shall be dragged through the streets in the mud of the
gutters.
[126] _Robin_, anagram for _Biron_.
[127] Romance, _sceu_ for _su_, known.
[128] _Lafin_ was the name of the secretary, the accomplice of Biron.
[129] The ordo here is _dans l’Espagne amye_ which means, then at peace
with Henri IV.
[130] Romance, _poste_, messenger, postillion.
[131] _La plume au vent_ is supposed by le Pelletier to stand for
_currente calamo_. I should rather think it means the feather (wing) to
the wind. It was written with a quill, and started on its way as a bird
flies; but _irrevocabile semel emissum_. We are to understand this line
to relate to l’Oste’s treasonable complicity with Spain, of which an
account will be given further on. Also, _l’escrivain_, in the closing
line stands for the same individual.
[132] We shall see that the two Spanish couriers were arrested at the
post office in Paris. Le Pelletier confuses all this from not happening
to know that l’Oste is the scrivener, so he applies it to the affair of
Lafin, whose messenger, when carrying Spanish despatches, had thrown
them into the river when he found himself pursued. Unfortunately, when
he finds himself in the difficulty which this involves him in, he glozes
till he has forced the words to fit his erroneous view. He had far better
have stated the difficulty, and said that he could not harmonize the
text. But he very rarely trips thus.
[133] _Le Grand Chyren_ is the anagram of _Henri le Grand_. Before
mounting the throne, he bore the name of Vendosme, from his father
Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme and King of Navarre. In the first
Quatrain of the series, _Henri Quatre_, _Vendosme_ was anagrammatically
given as Mendosus; as to _Chiren_ it is the precise anagram of _Henri_,
as spelt in the old language _Henric_, from the Latin _Henricus_.
Numerous etymologies have been assigned to Henry. Camden derived it from
_honore_, Verstegan from the Teutonic _Han_, a haven, and _Rice_, Saxon
for rich. Killian writes it _Heynrick_, or _Heymrick_, rich home. This is
very nearly right, but now it is generally considered that _rick_ stands
for powerful; so chief of a house or district.
[134] _Los_, old word for glory. Latin, _laus_.
“A la sainte divinité,
Soit _los_, honeur, et potesté.”
_Le Mystère des Actes des Apôtres._
[135] Latin, _victor_, conqueror.
[136] _Dauffois_, for _Dauphinois_ synonym, for _Dauphin_.
[137] _Portera_, for supportera, says Le Pelletier. For my part, it seems
best to leave it to its natural rendering, that he will carry his colours
into Nancy.
[138] Latin, _obturare_, to shut up in.
[139] _Prouvés_ is for approuvés.
[140] _Delivré_, is for livré.
[141] This is a play upon words, unrecognized by Garencières, as he
did not know that _Clerepeyne_ was the name of the man who cut off
Montmorency’s head, although, of course, Garencières is quite alive
to the fact that the quatrain refers to Louis XIII. and the great
Montmorency. In Latin _clara pœna_ means celebrated punishment. Here is
another instance of the mention of a name of an obscure individual that
history for a moment flashes light upon, and then drops him back into the
mud of oblivious ooze for ever,—emblem apt of Fame! This was written, if
not printed, a good eighty years before Clerepeyne became the midge-mote
of a sunbeam upon that late autumnal day in history, when the night
struck chilly on high roofs in Dauphiny.
[142] Latin, _decisus_, suppressed cut off.
[143] _Ne monstres._ I think there is a printer’s error here in the
_texte-type_, and that we should read _le monstre_.
[144] _Double_, diploma, or duplicate of a treaty.
[145] Latin, _ille aquâ ductus_, he that is taken by water.
[146] Richelieu, if you examine him by Philippe de Champagne’s splendid
triple portrait of him, hanging in our Gallery, may be read as if in life
by any physiognomist who pleases to devote the time to it. I have gazed
many a time, through long years, with gifted friends and others, and
oftener still alone, into those heartless eyes, attracted irresistibly (I
only now see why) by the vast discrepancy between the world-wide renown
of this French Minister, and his cynically petty face—sly, vulpine,
unfeeling, unprincipled, spiteful, a coxcomb of feminine manners, of an
egotism and paltry vanity inordinate, but of a refinement, showing the
highest social culture, a tongue that could gloze with ladies; he might,
by _lettre de cachet_, have shut up a French Walsingham in the Bastille
to prevent his own overthrow; but as to coping with him or a Burleigh as
a statesman, as an equal in any powerful cabinet in Europe, by force of
character, he could not have done it. Artifice, backed by the force of
France, then rising into unity of action, or helped by circumstances that
tied the hands of his antagonist, he might even throw a giant unawares.
Richelieu was an artificial contriver, not a born ruler, if a mature face
of fifty be any index to the volume or memoir of a man’s life.
[147] Arrange these words, _l’animal domestique à l’homme_, i.e. _the
dog_.
[148] Latinism, _fulmen à virgâ_, saltpetre; that is, the powder and
ram-rod.
[149] Romance, _si_, synonym of _très_, very.
[150] Romance, _prinse_, _prise_, taken, brought.
[151] The _chien_ is the cock or hammer of the lock.
[152] Added to the text in the edition of 1605.
[153] _Paux_, plural of _pal_, _pieu_, a term of blazonry, stake.
[154] Read _cors_, horns.
[155] Æmathien, or Emathion, Le Pelletier says, son of Cephalus and
Aurora, who opened the gates of the morning to the sun. I do not find
this account of him anywhere. Cephalus is the chaste Joseph of mythology,
tempted by Aurora. But Hesiod makes him father of Phaeton by her.
Possibly M. le Pelletier has mistaken Æmathion for Phaeton. Generally,
Emathion is reckoned as son of Titan and Aurora, and a king of Macedonia.
His connection in some way however with the sun is certain, and this
suffices for the use made of his name by Nostradamus. Ἠμαθίων is given
by Suidas as a proper name. Now, Ἠμάθιος is _daily_, with but the change
of one letter. Further than this Ἠμάθιος is Macedonian, and Alexander is
called _Emathius dux_, as in Milton, “the Emathian conqueror bid spare;”
implying that Louis le Grand should be a counterpart to Alexander the
Great, an impostor who also pretended birth from Apollo. By which flight
of ambition he bastardized himself by choice, dishonoured his mother,
and put his father outside the door. Shakespeare says, “By this sin fell
the angels;” but a too prosperous fool seems equally ready to annihilate
himself by it, and all belonging to him, of his own act.
[156] Latin, _per_, through.
[157] Romance, _emmy_, entre, between.
[158] _Phi_, for Philip.
[159] Latin, _classis_, fleet.
[160] _Corseque_, Romance for Corsica.
[161] Romance, _esgrongné_, or _esgruné_, pulverised.
[162] Turn this; when Æmathion shall build Hercules.
[163] Latin, _felinus_, like a cat.
[164] _La barque_ of St. Peter, the Holy Seat, Rome.
[165] Latin, _tentare_, to assail.
[166] _Phocen_ is another reading. Marseilles, founded by the Phocians,
A.C. 660.
[167] Old word for west, or sundown.
[168] Latin, _per_, because of.
[169] _Voiles_, for vessels.
[170] Latin, _classis_, fleet.
[171] Latin, _Narbo Martius_, Narbonne, in the department de l’Aude, said
to be so called from its founder _Martius_. [See p. 160, IX. 38.]
[172] Romance, _si_, very.
[173] _Cap_, for Capet.
[174] Ordo. He who shall succeed to the great monarch dead.
[175] _Faudra_, future tense of _faillir_, fail, or disappear.
[176] Latin, _gens_, nation.
[177] _Franche_, for _gent Franche_, French nation.
[178] Latin, _per_, by reason of.
[179] Latin: _Aries_ sign of the Ram.
[180] _Bastarnie_, corresponding to ancient Poland.
[181] Romance, _nay_, _né_, born.
[182] _Lonole_, anagram for Ὀλλύων, destroying, from the verb ὀλλύειν, to
destroy. Destroyer.
[183] _Donra_, for donnera, will give.
[184] _Topique_, flowers of rhetoric, oratory.
[185]
When hempe is sponne,
England’s done.
When Elizabeth was in the flower of her age, Bacon remembered well to
have heard the above; hempe standing for Henry, Edward, Mary and Philip,
and Elizabeth. “Which,” says he, “thanks be to God, is verified only in
the change of name; for that the King’s style is now no more of England
but of Britain.” Observe the wonderful propriety of the words used by
Nostradamus. He noted at the right spot and instant a national change of
name; a point of precision that nine out of ten lettered Englishmen would
fail to reply to correctly, in answer to the sudden question, When was
England first called Great Britain? It would be interesting to know the
history of this “trivial prophecy” as his lordship calls it, for it has a
good deal of the true spirit of forecast in it. It certainly was genuine,
as it evidently was known to the narrator as being in circulation before
it was accomplished.
[186] Romance, _dechassé_, simply _chassé_.
[187] Latin, _per_, by reason of.
[188] Latin, _ira_, anger.
[189] Romance, _tracer_, follow a road, track.
[190] _Contre_, à côté de, opposite, or near to.
[191] Italian, _macellaio_, butcher, from Latin _macellum_.
[192] Romance, _nay_, né, born.
[193] _Pempotam_, a shocking word made out of Greek and Latin
πᾶν—_potens_, all powerful.
[194] Latin, _Copia_, military forces.
[195] Latin, _Lusitani_, Portuguese.
[196] The full title runs: “The Prophecies of Nostradamus concerning the
fate of all the Kings and Queens of Great Britain since the Reformation,
and the succession of his present Majesty King George, and the
continuation of the British Crown in his most serene Royal House to the
last day of the world. Collected and explained by D. D., 1715.” This book
is in the British Museum. I do not know whether it is scarce or not. It
is not common, for I never meet with it in booksellers catalogues.