[111] ... _Quæ cum recedere vellet, fixis ligno natibus, evelli non
potuit, &c.--Itinerarii Cambriæ, Lib. I._
This opinion of Catholic Divines concerning the great power of
flagellations to appease the wrath of female Saints, and the content
which they have supposed the latter to receive from such ceremonies,
after the example of the antient Goddesses, might furnish a new
subject of comparison between the Catholic Religion, and that of the
ancient Heathens; and if Dr. Middleton had thought of it, he might
have added a new article on that head, to his _Letter from Rome_.
In fact, the Reader may remember the account that has been given in
the sixth Chapter of this Book, of the singular ceremonies that were
exhibited at Lacedæmon, before the altar of Diana. (_See_ p. 79,
&c.) The same was done sometimes before the altar of Juno. Rites of
much the same flagellatory kind were practised in the Temple of the
Goddess of Syria. And similar ceremonies also used to be performed in
honour of the _great Goddess_, in Egypt. (_See_ p. 85, 86.)
So prevalent was become the opinion that Goddesses delighted in
seeing such corrections inflicted before their altars, that several
of them, among whom was Venus herself, were supposed to be supplied
with the necessary implements to inflict them with their own hands,
occasionally (p. 55). Nay, the Muses themselves had been provided
with instruments of the same kind: Lucian, in his Letter or Address
“to an ignorant Man who was taking much pains in collecting a
Library,” says to him, that the Muses will drive him from Parnassus,
with their _whips of myrtle_. And Bellona, the Goddess of war, has
also been armed by Virgil, in the 8th Book of his Æneid, with an
enormous whip.
_Quem cùm sanguineo sequitur Bellona flagelio._
These notions of the Ancients, concerning the inclination they
attributed to Goddesses, for corrections of the kind here alluded to,
may be explained in different ways.
In the first place, they perhaps thought it was owing to the greater
irascibility of temper of the Sex, which prompts them to give
effectual marks of their resentment, when they have good reason to
think that no resistance will be attempted. In the second place,
they possibly ascribed that inclination they supposed in the female
Sex, to their love of justice; which is certainly a very laudable
disposition. And, thirdly, they perhaps also considered that
propensity of Women, to use instruments which were, in those times,
deemed to be characteristic emblems of power, as the effect of that
love of dominion with which the Sex has at all times been charged,
and the consequence of some ambitious wish they supposed in them, of
having the uncontrouled sway of the terrible _flagellum_.
However, if I am allowed to deliver my opinion concerning the above
inclination of the fair Sex, about which the Antients seem to have
entertained so great a prepossession, I will say that I think it
owing to the second of the causes abovementioned, that is to say, to
their laudable love of justice, and at the same time, to the peculiar
nature of the Sex, which makes them feel a great reluctance in using
any instruments, either of a cruel, or an unwieldly and ungraceful
kind, for instance fire-arms or javelins, swords or clubs, but
prompts them to employ, when they mean to give effectual tokens of
their resentment, instruments suitable to the mercifulness of their
tempers, and the elegance of their manners.
Of this love of justice inherent in Women, a singular instance occurs
in the Greek History. I mean to speak of the flagellations which
Ladies, in Lacedæmon, who had reached a certain age without finding
husbands, used to bestow, before the altar of Juno, upon such Men as
continued past a certain time of life, to live in an unmarried state.
These flagellations the unmarried Lacedæmonian Ladies (no doubt
through the long use they had made of them) had at last converted
into an express right; and the ceremony was performed every year,
during a certain solemnity established for that purpose. Whether
they flagellated all the unmarried Men without exception, who came
within the words of the regulation on that subject, Historians have
neglected to inform us: perhaps they served in that manner only a
certain number, in order to shew the right they had of flagellating
all the rest.
Nor have Women of modern times less distinguished themselves than
the Greek Ladies, by their love of justice, or paid less regard to
elegance in their choice of the means they have employed to avenge
the insults they may have received.
In fact, we have seen in the present Chapter, that the persons who
have raised the fabric of the Catholick Church, or rather Creed,
persons who certainly were good observers of the manners of Mankind,
have given the same inclination and the same attributes, to their
female inhabitants of Paradise, as the Ancients had given to their
Goddesses. And conclusions to the same effect may be derived from
the works of imagination of a number of respectable modern Authors,
who have all given to the Ladies of whom they had occasion to speak,
the same elegant dispositions we mention, and made them act, when
offended, upon the same principles as the Ladies in Lacedæmon: these
works I do not scruple to mention as weighty authorities; for though
they may be, as I said, works in appearance of imagination merely,
yet it is well known that such great Authors, when they relate any
stories, always allude to certain facts of which they have either
been eye-witnesses, or received assured information.
And to quote one or two on the subject, we find that the celebrated
La Fontaine, in one of his Tales which he has entitled _The Pair
of Spectacles_, makes certain Nuns, who, as they thought, had had
a great affront put upon their Monastery, have immediate recourse
to the elegant method of revenge here alluded to. The story is as
follows.
Several Nuns, in a certain Convent, were found to be in a situation
which, though pretty natural for Women to be in, yet was not quite
so with Women who were supposed to have constantly lived inclosed in
the same walls with other Women, and made the Abbess judiciously
conclude that some _male_ Nun was harboured among them, or, as it was
expressed, that some wolf lay hidden among the sheep: a suspicion
which, by the by, was well grounded; for a young Man, who had as yet
no beard, had found means to introduce himself into the Convent,
where he lived, dressed like the Sisters, and was reckoned one among
them. In order both to ascertain such suspicion, and discover so
dangerous a person, all the Nuns were ordered into one room, and
there made to strip themselves stark naked; when the Abbess, with
her spectacles on her nose (whence the Tale has received its name)
inspected them all, one after another, carefully. To relate how the
young Man, notwithstanding the ingenious precautions he had taken,
came to be found out, and how the Abbess’s spectacles were thrown
from her nose and broken, is foreign to our subject: let it here
suffice to say that the young Man was really found out; and that
the Nuns, except those who had been concerned with him, who were
previously locked up in a safe place,--that the Nuns, I say, laid
hold of him, led him into a wood that stood close to their Convent,
and there tied him to a tree, naked as he was, in order to make
him atone for his audaciousness by a smart flagellation. Having
forgotten to supply themselves with the necessary instruments of
correction, they ran back to the Convent to fetch them, and whether
from the mislaying of a key, or some other accident, were detained
a little time. In the mean time a Miller, riding upon his Ass, went
through the wood; and seeing the young Man in the abovementioned
plight, stopped, and asked him the reason of it: to which the latter
made answer, that it was those wicked Nuns who had put him in that
situation, because he would not gratify their wanton requests; that
he had rather die than be guilty of such thing. The Miller then
cast upon him a look of the utmost contempt ... but it will be
better to refer the Reader to the abovementioned Author himself, for
the inimitable Dialogue that passed between the young Man and the
Miller: here it will be enough to say, that this latter proposed to
the other to put himself in his place, and warranted him he would
behave in quite a different manner, and much more to the satisfaction
of the Nuns than he had done. The young Man had no need of much
encouragement to accept the proposal: after the Miller had released
him, and stripped himself, he tied him fast to the same tree, and
had just time enough to steal away, and hide himself behind some
neighbouring bush, when the Nuns rushed again out of the same door
at which they had got in, armed with all the disciplines and besoms
they had been able to find in the Convent. They immediately marched
up to the person who was tied to the tree, and without minding the
broad shoulders and brawny limbs which were now offered to their
view, began to use their disciplines with great agility. In vain did
the Miller expostulate with them on their using him so ill: in vain
did he remonstrate that he was not the Man whom they took him to be;
that he was not that beardless stripling, that milk-sop simpleton,
with whom they had formerly had to do, that woman-hater who had given
them so just a cause of dissatisfaction; that they ought to try him
before they entertained so bad an opinion of him:--in vain did he
even at last, in the extremity of pain, apply to the utmost powers of
his native language, to convey to them the clearest ideas he could,
both to those wishes he supposed in them, and of his great abilities
to gratify them: the more loudly and clearly he spoke, the more
unmercifully they laid on, and only left him when they had worn out
their disciplines.
Cervantes likewise, whose authority is equal to that of any Author,
and who has moreover thrown a great light upon the subject of
flagellations, has introduced a fact which greatly serves to confirm
the observations we are discussing here. I mean to speak of what
happened in that memorable night in which the Senora Rodriguez paid
a visit to the valorous Don Quixote, in his bed. That Gentlewoman
having, in the course of the conversation she had with the Knight,
dropped several reflections of a very bad kind on the Duchess and the
fair Altisidora, who were at that very instant listening at the door,
these two Ladies, though justly and greatly offended at the liberty
that was thus taken with their character, recurred to no expedient of
a coarse and rough kind to avenge the insult; but they immediately
applied to the summary, yet smart,--genteel, yet effectual, mode of
correction here alluded to, namely, a flagellation. And here the
Author we mention has taken an opportunity of giving a singular
instance of the readiness of wit of the fair Sex, and of the
quickness with which they usually extricate themselves out of the
seemingly most perplexing difficulties. The Duchess and Altisidora
were entirely destitute of the necessary instruments to inflict the
chastisement they had resolved upon; but they had the great presence
of mind to think of using their slippers for that purpose: they
presently pulled them off their feet; bounced the door open; ran
to the Senora Rodriguez; in the twinkling of an eye made her ready
for flagellation, and immediately began to exert their new weapons
with great dexterity. Thence, still in the dark, they passed to the
astonished Knight, who lay snug in his bed, and who, by his listening
to the stories of the Senora, and also by his questions, had
encouraged her to proceed in her reflections (a thing which he might
full as well have avoided doing) and bestowed upon him a few of those
favours they had so plentifully heaped upon the above Gentlewoman.
At this place might also be mentioned, as being extremely well in
point to the subject we are treating, the kind of satisfaction
required by Dulcinea, from Sancho, and that which the Lady introduced
by Butler, prescribed to the renowned Hudibras, while he was in the
stocks; though, I confess, it might be said that the corrections here
alluded to, were only advised, not inflicted, by the above Ladies.
But it will suffice to mention, as a conclusion of these quotations
from great Authors, the manner in which _Lazarillo de Tormes_, the
notorious Spanish Cheat, was served by his four Wives. Having found
out the place of his abode, they immediately agreed among themselves
to serve him with the elegant kind of chastisement here mentioned;
and having all together surprized him one morning, while he was
asleep, they tied him fast to his bed, and served upon him one of the
most dreadful flagellations that ever were inflicted, since the use
of them has been contrived, as we are told in the History of the Life
of the said _Lazarillo_; a Book which is still in repute in Spain,
it being written with humour, and containing true pictures of the
manners of that Country, and being even, as some say, founded on
real facts.
Nor are true and well-authenticated instances wanting, to confirm
the same observations. None, however, can be mentioned, that sets
in a stronger light the love of justice inherent in the female
Sex, and their constant attention to make choice of expedients
of an elegant kind to express their resentment, than the custom
that prevails in France and Italy, and perhaps in other Countries,
according to which, Ladies use to flagellate their acquaintances,
while they are yet in bed, on the morning of the day of the festival
of the Innocents; whence this flagellatory custom is called “giving
the Innocents” (_dar gli Innocenti_): the word _Innocent_, we may
observe, has, in both the Italian and French languages, besides the
English signification of it, that of fool, or simpleton; hence the
words, _the Day of the Innocents_, seem also to signify in those two
languages, the Fools day, or the day of the _Unwary_.
Nay, so well established is the custom we mention, that Women, in
those parts, look upon that day, as a day of general justice and
retribution, or an Assize or Sessions day, to which they refer
taking satisfaction for the slight offences they may receive in
the course of the year, especially from their male friends. They
even will sometimes, when the latter hesitate too much in granting
their requests, or misbehave in any manner, hint to them the fatal
consequences that may ensue from such a conduct, and plainly intimate
to them, that a certain day in the year is to come on which every
thing is to be atoned for.
When this important day is arrived, those Ladies who have agreed
to join together in the same party, or (to continue the comparison
drawn from the law that has been above employed) who have agreed
to go together upon the circuit, repair early in the morning to
the appointed place of rendezvous, for instance the apartment of
one of them, sufficiently provided with disciplines from their
respective kitchens; and after laying the plan of their operations,
they sally out, to take a round to the apartments of their different
acquaintances.
The prudent and cautious, on such an important day, take great care
to secure well the bolts and locks of their doors; or rather, fearing
that sleep should overcome them, and knowing how fatal neglect might
prove, they take that precaution on the evening before, when going
to bed, and as an additional security, they heap all the chairs
and tables against the door. Others, who are of a bold and daring
spirit, on the contrary affect on that day, to leave the doors of
their rooms wide open, and stay in bed, resolved to wait the event,
and undauntedly to face the storm. However, as such an affectation
of bravery seems to indicate that some present trick, or at least
some future retaliation of some kind or other is intended, the
Ladies commonly keep clear from a place they judge so ominous; unless
there happens to be one among them of an uncommonly courageous
turn of mind, who places herself in the van, encourages the whole
party; and they all together rush into the room and fall upon the
adventurous Hero, who is then made to pay dearly for his temerity.
When this does not happen to be the case, and at the same time they
find the doors of all those persons whom they had expressly marked
out for chastisement, to be proof against either a coup-de-main
or a regular siege, as they must not part without some effectual
business has been transacted, the cloud commonly breaks upon some
unfortunate Simpleton, who has left his door open for no other reason
than because he had forgot what day of the month it was; they lay
fast hold of him, and seldom leave him before their disciplines are
worn out to the stumps. The story is soon circulated in whispers in
the neighbourhood; and if any person who has not yet heard of it,
observes that the Gentleman appears that day uncommonly grave and
sulky, his wonder presently ceases, when he is told that, on the
morning, they have given him the _Innocents_.
The custom we mention, seems to be of pretty ancient date; it is
alluded to in that old Book formerly quoted, _The Tales of the Queen
of Navarre_. A Man, an Upholsterer by trade, as it is said in one of
these Tales (for Men will sometimes avail themselves of the practice
in question when it may serve their turn) a Man was in love with
his servant Maid; and as he did not know how to find an opportunity
to escape the vigilance of his Wife, and be alone with her, he
pretended, in a conversation he brought about on the subject, on the
eve of _Innocent’s_ day, to find much fault with the Maid; complained
that she was a lazy Wench, and so on; and added, that, in order to
teach her better, he proposed, on the next morning, to give her the
_Innocents_. The Wife greatly applauded his resolution: at break at
day, he accordingly rose from his bed, took up a discipline of such a
monstrous size, that his Wife’s heart aked to think what correction
the Maid was about to undergo, and ran up stairs with a disposition
of seemingly very great severity: however, I am happy to inform
the Reader, that, after he had bounced the door open, and at first
frighted the Maid very much, every thing was concluded in an amicable
manner.
If from Ladies of a middling station in life, and in the class of
Upholsterers, we turn our eyes towards Ladies of rank, and Court
Ladies, we shall meet with instances no less instructive and
interesting.
We may, in the first place, mention the case of the Poet Clopinel,
which has been alluded to in a former Chapter. This Poet, who was
also called _John of Mehun_ (a small Town on the river Loire) lived
about the year 1300, under the reign of Philip the Fair, King of
France, at whose Court he was well received. He wrote several Books,
and among others translated into French the Letters of Abelard to
Heloisa: but that of his works which gave him most reputation, was
his conclusion of the celebrated _Roman de la Rose_; a Poem of much
the same turn with Ovid’s _Art of Love_, which had been begun by
William _de Lorris_, and met with prodigious success in those times,
and was afterwards imitated by Chaucer. However, Clopinel gave great
offence to the whole Sex, by four lines he had inserted in that Poem,
the meaning of which is as follows:--“All of you are, will be, or
were, either in deed, or intention, wh-res; and whoever would well
search into your conduct, wh-res would find you all to be.”
_Toutes êtes, serez, ou futes
De fait ou de volonté, putes;
Et qui bien vous chercheroit
Toutes putes vous trouveroit._
The meaning of these verses, if we take from them the coarseness
of the expressions, which did not perhaps sound so harsh in those
times as they would in our days, did not at bottom differ from the
well-known line of Pope,
“--Every Woman is at heart a Rake.”
Yet we do not hear that this Poet suffered any flagellation on that
account, from the Court Ladies, or any other Ladies; whether it was
that he prudently took care, after writing the above line, to keep
for some time out of the way, or that the Ladies felt no resentment
at the accusation. With respect to Clopinel, however, the case proved
otherwise: and whether his expressions really had, notwithstanding
what has been above suggested, much the same coarse meaning as now,
or Ladies had, in those days, a nicer sensibility to any thing that
might touch their honour, the Ladies at Court were much offended at
the harsh charge that was thus brought against the whole Sex without
distinction: they resolved to make the insolent Poet properly feel
the effects of their resentment: and as they were at the same time
firmly determined, especially being Court Ladies, not to use any
expedient but of an elegant and refined kind, they resolved upon a
flagellation. One day, accordingly, as Clopinel was coming to Court,
entirely ignorant of the fate that awaited him, the Ladies, who had
previously supplied themselves with proper instruments, laid hold
of him, and immediately proceeded to make him ready for correction.
No possible assistance could rescue Clopinel from having that
chastisement served upon him which he so justly deserved, except his
wit; which happily did not fail him in so imminent a danger, and
suggested to him to ask leave to speak a few words. The favour was
granted him, with express injunction, however, to make his story
short: when, after acknowledging the justice of the sentence that had
been passed upon him, he requested it, as an act of mercy, that that
Lady who thought herself most affronted by his lines, should give
the first blow: this request struck the Ladies with so much surprise
(owing no doubt to the fear every one of them immediately conceived,
of giving an advantage against herself for which she might afterwards
repent) that, to use the expression of the Author of Moreri’s
Dictionary, from which this fact is extracted, the rods fell from
their hands, and Clopinel escaped unpunished.
Court Ladies of more modern times, have given similar instances of
refinement and elegance in their method of revenging the affronts
they had received. On this occasion the Reader may be reminded of
the case of the Marchioness of Tresnel, which has been related at
length in a former place. Another instance of the justice of Ladies,
still more interesting by far, occurred at the Court of Russia
about the year 1740. The object of the Ladies resentment, was a Fop
of quality, lately returned from his Travels; nor will the Reader
question the propriety of the flagellation that was served upon him,
when he shall be informed that this presumptuous Spark had been
guilty of no less an offence than having publicly boasted of having
received favours which had never been shewn him. The fact is related
in a Book intitled, _Letters from Russia_, which was published by
a Lady whose husband resided at that Court in a public capacity,
between the years 1730 and 1740: the book is written in a pleasing
style, and contains a deal of interesting information concerning the
Russian Court at that time. The Author, it is said, lived a few years
ago at Windsor: her Letters from Russia were addressed to a female
friend in England.
In the eleventh letter, the following account is contained. ‘I long
to tell you a story; but your prudery (I beg pardon, your prudence)
frightens me: however, I cannot resist; so pop your fan before
your face, for I am going to begin. We have here a young fellow of
fashion, who has made the tour of France, &c. &c. At his return he
fell in company with three or four pretty Women at a friend’s house,
where he sung, danced, laughed, was very free with the Ladies, and
behaved quite _a-la-mode de_ Paris. As he had given the gazing
audience a specimen of his airs, so he did not fail afterwards to
brag of the fondness of the Ladies for him, and of the proofs they
had given him of it. This he repeated in all companies, till it
reached the ears of the husbands, who looked glum in silence; and at
last, in plain terms, expressed the cause of their ill-humour.’ To
abridge the account, it will suffice to say that the Ladies resolved
to punish the vain-boasting fop as he deserved: a letter was written
to him by one of them, appointing a place where she was to meet him:
“he flew on the wings of love to the rendezvous,” perfumed, we are
to suppose, and in his smartest dress. Though he expected to meet
only one of the Ladies, he found them all four waiting for him; and
instead of that delightful afternoon he had prepared himself to
spend, he was entertained with a most serious flagellation. ‘Some
say (continues the Author who relates this fact) that the Ladies
actually whipped him; others, they ordered their maids to do it: that
the punishment was inflicted with so much rigour as to oblige him
to keep his bed some time, is certain; but whether the Ladies were
executioners or spectators only, is a doubt.’
For my own part, I shall be bolder than the fair Author who gives
this account; and I will take upon myself to decide that the Ladies
were _spectators only_. Had this young fellow of fashion we are
speaking of, committed an offence of no very grievous kind; had he,
for instance, been guilty of some word, or even action, moderately
indecent in the presence of the Ladies, or affronted them by some
ill-timed jokes, or had he, like Clopinel, indulged himself in a
bon-mot, or even a whole song, against the honour of the Sex, then we
might suppose the Ladies arms, to have possessed sufficient vigour to
have served him with a correction proportioned to the degree of his
guilt. Not that I consider, however, as some Readers will perhaps do,
the falsehood of the facts he had boasted of, as being any aggravation
of his offence: very far from it: it is when such facts are true,
that the boasting of them is really a fault of a black nature: it is
such, in my humble opinion, that no possible flagellation can atone
for it; the ungrateful _Tell-tale_ ought to be stitched in a bag, and
thrown into the river. However, as the vain speeches of the young
fellow were in themselves highly wicked, we are to suppose that the
Ladies trusted the care of chastising him to more robustious hands
than their own; and we must side with that part of the Public, who
thought that they _ordered their Maids_ to perform for them; that is
to say, a set of Maid slaves selected among the stoutest of those
who composed their housholds, Maids imported from the banks of the
_Palus-meotis_, or the Black Sea, and who thought it a glorious
opportunity for shewing their mistresses their zeal in serving them.
This supposition agrees extremely well with the ensuing part of the
account, viz. that this vain-boasting Coxcomb _was obliged to keep
his bed some time_: who knows? perhaps five or six weeks.
The only personal share, we are to think, the Ladies took in the
affair, was, when the execution was concluded, to admonish the
culprit as to his future conduct. Milton makes the observation, which
is quoted by the Author of the Spectator, that the Devil seemed
once to be sensible of shame; it was when he received a censure
(unexpected for him, we may suppose) from a young Angel of remarkable
beauty. In like manner, what must have been the shame of that young
Coxcomb, who perhaps had never blushed in his life, when he heard
himself addressed by the Ladies who had caused him to be served with
so just a chastisement! what must have been his remorse for his
naughty behaviour! his grief in considering, that, had he perhaps
waited patiently a little time longer, they would have willingly
honoured him with their most valuable favours! The Lady who possessed
the easiest and most elegant delivery, advanced towards him a few
steps; and, accompanying her short speech with the action of an arm
of an exquisite form and hand as white as snow, and with a frown on
her face, which, without lessening its beauty, gave a true expression
of her just resentment, she made him sensible, in few words, of
the greatness of his fault, and the justice of the chastisement
that had been administered to him: then turning towards the Calmouk
and Tartarian Maids who had so well executed her former orders, she
directed them to shew him the way to the street door.
To these instances of the justice of Ladies, we may add those of the
corrections they have bestowed upon their husbands; as they have an
undoubted right. A very remarkable case of that sort is alluded to,
in the I. Canto P. II. of Hudibras.
Did not a certain Lady whip
Of late her husband’s own Lordship?
And, though a Grandee of the House,
Clawed him with fundamental blows.
Tied him stark-naked to a bed-post,
And firked his hide, as if sh’ had rid post;
And after, in the Sessions Court,
Where whipping’s judged, had honour for’t.
The noble person here mentioned, was Lord Munson: similar acts of
authority on their husbands, were performed, about the same time, by
Sir William Waller’s Lady, Mrs. May, and Sir Henry Mildmay’s Lady.
From these instances we find, that, amidst the general wreck of the
Monarchical, Aristocratical, and Clerical, powers in the Nation,
and while the King, Lords, and High Clergy, had their prerogatives
wrested from them and annihilated, Wives knew how to assert their
jurisdiction over their Husbands, and preserve their just authority.
The subject however is too deep to be discussed at large here: I
intend to offer more facts to the Public in a separate Work, which
will be a compleat Treatise, and a kind of _Matrimonial Code_ in
which the true principles shall be laid concerning the rights of
Wives, and the submission of Husbands[112].
Those Authors who have treated of the manner in which Men ought to
behave in their intercourse with the fair Sex, have been so sensible
that the latter must unavoidably, at one time or other, have occasion
to bestow lectures and corrections on their Suitors or Lovers (and
also their Husbands) that they have made it a point to these, to bear
those momentary mortifications with patience and humility, and not
to think that such submission reflects any dishonour upon them. This
is the precept expressly given by Ovid, in his _Art of Love_;--‘Do
not think it in any degree shameful for you, to submit to the harsh
words, and the blows, of the young Woman you court.’
_Nec maledicta puta, nec verbera ferre puellæ
Turpe_----
And indeed we find that those Lovers who have best understood their
business, have not only constantly followed the advice of Ovid, and
chearfully submitted to receive such corrections as their Mistresses
were pleased to impose upon them; but when they have happened to
have been involuntarily guilty of offences of a somewhat grievous
kind, they have done more; they have, of themselves, offered freely
to submit to them. Thus Polyenos, in the Satyr of Petronius, who
had been guilty with Circe of one of those faults which Ladies so
difficultly prevail upon themselves to forgive, who had in short
committed that offence which the abovementioned Miller boasted he
never happened to be guilty of, wrote afterwards to her,--“If you
want to kill me, I will come to you with an iron weapon; or if you
are satisfied with stripes, I run naked to my Mistress.” (_Polyaenos
Circæ salutem.... Sive occidere placet, cum ferro venio; sive
verberibus contenta es, curro nudus ad dominam. Id tantum memento,
non me, sed instrumenta, peccasse, &c. Cap. 130._)
The illustrious Count of Guiche, as we find in the Count of Buffi’s
_Amorous History of Gauls_, a Book which caused the disgrace of its
Author, on account of the liberties he had taken in it with the
character of King Lewis the Fourteenth, and his Mistress, _Madame de
la Valiere_, the Count of Guiche, I say, one of the first-rate Beaux
of the Court of the King just mentioned, behaved in the same manner
that Polyenos had done. Having committed a fault with the well-known
Countess of Olonne, of the same kind with that of Polyenos, he wrote
the next day to the Countess in much the same terms as the latter had
done to Circe. ‘If you want me to die, I will bring you my sword; if
you think I only deserve to be flagellated, I will come to you in
my shirt.’ (_Si vous voulez ma mort, j’irai vous porter mon épée;
si vous jugez que je ne mérite que le fouët, j’irai vous trouver en
chemise._)
The celebrated Earl of Essex, in one of the misunderstandings
between him, and Queen Elizabeth, having given her a more than
common cause of offence, and wishing in a particular manner to
soothe her resentment, wrote to her in much the same terms as those
abovementioned. He gave the Queen, as we find in Camden, explicit
thanks for the corrections she had inflicted upon him, and kissed
(to use his words, as recited by the above Author) and ‘kissed her
Majesty’s Royal Hand, and the rod which had chastised him.’ Not that
I propose, however, by quoting the above expressions of the Earl,
positively to affirm that they were meant to allude to any express
corrections of the kind mentioned in this Book, which his Royal
Mistress had at any time used to inflict upon him, or the other
persons in her service; but yet, when we, on the one hand, attend to
the invariable corruption, profligacy, shamelessness, wickedness, and
perverseness of Ministers, ever since the beginning of the world, and
on the other, consider to what degree those employed by the Princess
we speak of, proved just, and zealous for the public good, we cannot
help thinking that that great and magnanimous Queen had found out
some very peculiar method of rendering them such[113].
[112] The abovementioned Lord Munson had sat as one of the Judges
at the King’s Trial: he lived at St. Edmundsbury, when his Wife,
with the assistance of her Maids, served him with a flagellation. An
allusion to the same fact is also made in a song which is to be found
in the Collection of _Loyal Songs_. The thanks her Ladyship received
from the Sessions Court, were owing to its being generally suspected
the Noble Lord had altered his political principles; for which his
Wife had chastised him.
It really seems that a kind of flagellating fanaticism had taken
place, in those days, in this Country, similar in many respects to
that which arose in the times of Cardinal Damian and Dominic _the
Cuirassed_: there was this difference however, that it had for its
object to flagellate, not one’s-self, but others; which was the wiser
folly of the two. The thanks publicly decreed to Lady Munson (not to
mention several puritanical publications of those days) are proofs
of that flagellating spirit we mention; as well as the correction
inflicted by Zachary Crofton upon his servant maid (see p. 238),
and the pamphlet he wrote in defence of it; which was very likely
grounded on certain religious tenets concerning the mortification of
the flesh, &c. that were current in those times.
[113] It came out, in a certain late debate in the House of Commons
(June 1783) that, among the expences in the office of a prime
Minister, about a year before out of place, there was an article
(introduced among the Stationary ware) of three hundred and forty
pounds for _whip-cord_, for one year. It is very probably since the
days of Queen Elizabeth, that this kind of commodity has been made
part of the national expenditure.