[64] A certain modern Latin Author, whose name I have forgot,
has written a Treatise on the antiquity of the practice so much
recommended above, of whipping boys at School. Had I been so happy
as to have seen his Book, I would have been enabled to make, in this
place, learned remarks on the subject; but as I have not had that
advantage, I find myself unable to make any, and can only refer the
Reader to the discovery of Uncle Thomas, as well as to the few other
critical annotations that are contained in p. 76, 77, 78, of this
Work.
I could have likewise wished much to be able to add the names of some
of those illustrious Characters who have distinguished themselves in
the practice of flagellating School-boys, to those of the respectable
Thwackum, and the _plagosus_ Orbilius, mentioned in the above place;
but though the History of great Schools, in this and other Countries,
supplies numbers of such names, yet I have not been able to discover
any of sufficient eminence to deserve a place in this Book; except
indeed that of the great Doctor _Tempête_, who is mentioned by
Rabelais as a celebrated flagellator of School-boys in the _College_
of _Montaigu_, in Paris, and which I therefore insert in this place.
Neither should we neglect to mention here, the name of Buchanan, his
pupil having afterwards been a King; and the more so, as he used,
it seems, to make the flagellations bestowed by him on his royal
disciple (_the Anointed of the Lord_) the subject of his jokes with
the Ladies at Court[65].
The justice which is due to the Reverend Fathers Jesuits, also
requires that we should, in a Book like this, give an account of the
laudable regularity with which they used to inflict flagellations
upon the young Men who pursued their studies in their Schools, as
well as upon such Strangers as were occasionally recommended to them
for that purpose. Among the different facts which may serve to prove
both the spirit of justice that has constantly directed the actions
of the Society, and the punctuality of their flagellations, the
following is not the least remarkable.
It was, the Reader ought to know, an established custom in their
Schools, to give prizes every year to such Scholars as had made the
best Latin verses upon proposed subjects. One year it happened that
the subject which had been fixed upon, was the Society of the Jesuits
itself; and a Scholar took that opportunity, only by quibbling on
the names of the two principal Schools belonging to the Fathers, to
give them a smart stroke of satire. The name of the one of these two
Schools, was the School of the Bow (_le Collège de l’Arc_), which
was situated at Dôle, in Franche-Comté; and the other happened to be
called, the School of the Arrow (_la Flêche_), it being situated near
the Town of that name in Anjou, and was originally a Royal mansion
which was given by the Crown to the Society, in the reign of King
Henry the Fourth. The import of the distich made by the School-boy
(or perhaps by somebody else for him) was this: “Dôle gave the Bow to
the Fathers, mother France gave them the Arrow; who shall give them
the String which they have deserved?” The following are the Latin
verses themselves, which indeed are very beautiful.
Arcum _Dôla dedit Patribus, dedit alma_ Sagittam _Gallia_; _quis_
funem _quem meruere dabit?_
The Reverend Fathers, struck with the merit of these lines, and, at
the same time, unwilling to suffer a bon-mot made at their expence,
and that was so likely to be circulated, to go unpunished, delivered
the prize to the boy, and ordered him to be flagellated immediately
after.
The celebrated Fathers of St. _Lazare_, in Paris, whose School was
otherwise named the “Seminary of the good Boys” (_des bons enfans_)
have no less recommended themselves by the regularity of the
disciplines they inflicted, than the Reverend Fathers Jesuits. They
were even superior to the latter, in regard to those _recommendatory_
flagellations mentioned above, which were administered to such
persons as were, by some means or other, induced to deliver letters
to the Fathers for that purpose. Being situated in the metropolis,
the Seminary carried on, a very extensive business in that way.
Fathers or Mothers who had undutiful Sons, Tutors who had unruly
Pupils, Uncles who were intrusted with the education of ungovernable
Nephews, Masters who had wickedly-inclined Apprentices, whom they
durst not themselves undertake to correct, applied to the Fathers of
St. Lazare, and by properly seeing them, had their wishes gratified.
Indeed the Fathers had found means to secure their doors with such
good bolts, they were so well stocked with the necessary implements
or giving disciplines, and had such a numerous crew of stout
_Cuistres_ to inflict them, that they never failed to execute any job
they had engaged to perform, and without minding either age, courage,
or strength, were at all times ready to undertake the most difficult
flagellations. So regular was the trade carried on, by the good
Fathers in that branch of Business, that letters of the above kind
directed to them, were literally notes of hand payable on sight; and
provided such notes did but come to hand, whoever the bearer might
be, the Fathers were sure to have them discharged with punctuality.
This kind of business, as it was carried on, for a number of years,
frequently gave rise to accidents, or mistakes, of rather a ludicrous
kind. Young men who had letters to carry to the House of St. Lazare,
the contents of which they did not mistrust, would often undesignedly
charge other persons to carry the same for them, either on account
of their going to that part of the town, or for some other reason of
a like kind: and the unfortunate bearer, who suspected no harm, had
no sooner delivered the dangerous letter with which he had suffered
himself to be intrusted, than he was collared, and rewarded for his
good-nature by a severe and unexpected flagellation.
Ladies, it is likewise said, who had been forsaken, or otherwise
ungenteelly used, by their Admirers, when every other means of
revenge failed, would also recur to the ministry of the Fathers of
St. Lazare. Either by making interest with other persons, or using
some artfully-contrived scheme, the provoked Fair-one endeavoured to
have the Gentleman who caused her grief, inveigled into the House
of the Seminary: at the same time she took care to have a letter to
recommend him, sent there from some unknown quarter, with proper fees
in it; for that was a point that must not be neglected: and when the
Gentleman came afterwards to speak with the Fathers, he was no sooner
found by them, either from the nature of the business he said he came
upon, or other marks, to be the person mentioned in the letter they
had before received, than they shewed him into an adjoining-room,
where this treacherous and deceitful Lover was immediately seized,
mastered, and every thing in short was performed that was requisite
to procure ample satisfaction to the fair injured Lady.
It is also said (for a number of stories are related on that subject,
and the Seminary of St. Lazare was become for a while an object of
terror to all Paris) that schemes of the most abusive kind were in
latter times carried on, through the connivance which the Fathers
began to shew at the knavery of certain persons: and this indeed
seems to be a well-ascertained part of the story. Abuses of the same
kind as those which once prevailed in the Mad-houses established in
this country, were at last practised in the Seminary. Men possessed
of estates which some near relations wanted to enjoy, or whom it
was the interest of other persons to keep for a while out of the
way, were inveigled into the House of St. Lazare, where they were
detained, and large sums paid monthly for their board. Though they
might be full-grown persons, they were boldly charged with having
been naughty, or such-like grievous guilt; and the Fathers, in order
to shew that they meant to act a perfectly honest part in the affair,
ordered them to be flagellated with more than common regularity.
Nor was it of any service for the unfortunate boarders to expostulate
with the Fathers, to insist that it was unlawful to detain them by
force in a strange house, and use them in the manner they were used,
that they had important affairs which they must go and settle, that
they were no boys, after all, or to offer other equally pertinent
arguments: the Fathers continued to be well paid; they cared for no
more; and all the complainants got by raising objections like these,
were cold negative answers, and fresh flagellations. Abuses of the
kind we mention, came at last to the knowledge of the Government,
which interposed its authority, and the Seminary was abolished.
[65] King James the First.--See Dr. Berkenhout’s _Biographia
Literaria_.