Sense is deceitful, and may feign, In which it oft mistakes the case. 190 195 Northern Worthies; or, the Lives of Peter the Great, and his Illustrious Consort, Catherine,-London, 1728, p. 84, 85. See likewise p. 23. and a further account of the remarkable fashions in beards, Dr. Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, s. 12. p. 210. v. 183. This thing call'd pain, &c.] See the opinions of the Stoics, Cic. De Nat. Deor. 2. 24. De Finibus, 5, 31. Erasmi Maglaç Eynaμ, fo. 4. op. p. 430. Archbishop Potter's Antiquities of Greece, v. 1. cap. 8. Dr. Middleton's Life of Cicero, 4to edit. vol 1, p. 45. and an account of Pompey's visit to Possidonius, at Rhodes, Spectator, No. 312. v. 201. Some have been wounded with conceit] Remarkable are the effects both of fear and joy. A trial of the former kind was made upon a condemned malefactor, in the following manner. A dog was by surgeons let blood, and suffered to bleed to death before him; the surgeons talking all the while, and describing the gradual loss of blood, and of course a gradual faintness of the dog, occasioned thereby: and just before the dog died, they said unanimously, Now he is going to die. They told the malefactor, that he was to be bled to death in the same way, and accordingly blindfolded him, and tied up his arm; then one of them thrust a lancet into his arm, but purposely missed the vein; however, they soon began to describe the poor man's gradual loss of blood, and of course, a gradual faintness occasioned thereby; and just before the supposed minute of his death, the surgeons said unanimously, Now he dies. The malefactor thought all this real, and died by mere conceit, though he had not lost above twenty drops of blood.- -See Athenian Oracle. And just so far are sore and griev'd, As by the fancy is believ'd. Some have been wounded with conceit, 200 (Mr. S. of B.) Almost as remarkable was the case of the Chevalier Jarre, "who was upon the scaffold at Troyes, had his hair cut off, the handkerchief before his eyes, and the sword in the executioner's hand to cut off his head, but the king pardoned him: being taken up, his fear had so taken hold of him, that he could not stand nor speak: they led him to bed, and opened a vein, but no blood would come." (Lord Strafford's Letters, vol. 1. p. 166) There are three remarkable instances of persons whose hair suddenly turned, one from red to white, upon the apprehension that they should be put to death. (Mr. Daniel Turner's book, De Morbis Cutaneis, chap. 12. 3d. edit. 1726, p. 163, 164. See Spectator, No. 615, on the subject of fear.) Nay, if my memory fails me not, there are accounts to be met with in history, of persons who have dropped down dead before an engagement, and before the discharge of one gun. An excess of joy has been attended sometimes with as bad an effect. The Lady Poynts, (in the year 1563) by the ill usage of her husband, had almost lost her sight, her hearing, and her speech, which she recovered in an instant, upon a kind letter from Queen Elizabeth: but her joy was so excessive, that she died immediately after kissing the Queen's Letter. (Strype's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1. p. 239. 2d edition.) No less remarkable was the case of one Ingram, upon a large unexpected accession of fortune. (See Lord Strafford's Letters, vol. 1. p. 509.) And Mr. Fenton observes upon those lines of Mr. Waller's, Our guilt preserves us from excess of joy, Which scatters spirits, and would life destroy. "That Mr. Oughtred, that famous Mathematician, expired in a transport of joy, upon hearing, that the Parliament had addressed the King to return to his dominions." (Observations on Waller's Poems, p.67.) Many are the instances of this kind in Ancient History, as that of Polycrata a noble lady in the Island of Naxus; Philippides a comic poet; and - Diagoras the Rhodian, &c. Auli Gellii Noct. Attic. lib. 3. cap. 15. vid. Valerii Maximi, lib. 9. De Mortibus non vulgaribus, p. 828. edit, varior. 1651. A Saxon Duke did grow so fat, That mice (as histories relate) Ate grots and labyrinths to dwell in 205 Should e'er reach that way to the quick? 210 For one that's basted, to feel pain, 215 v. 204.-discretion] A cut, a separation of parts, from the Latin, discretus. (ED.) v. 205. A Saxon Duke &c.] He certainly alludes to the case of Hatto Bishop of Mentz, (who was devoured by mice) whom he mistakes for a Saxon Duke, because he is mentioned to have succeeded in that Bishoprick, a person who was advanced to the Dukedom of Saxony. Quo anno hoc factum sit, dissentiunt autores: verum nos ex Fuldensis Monasterii, ac Moguntinensium Archiepiscoporum Annalibus, deprehendimus, id contigisse, dum præfuissit Moguntinæ sedi post Gulielmum Saxonie Ducem, mense undecimo, a restituta nobis per Christum Salute 969. murium infestatione occubuit, & in templo Sancti Albani sepultus est; (Chronic. Chronicor. Politic. lib. 2. p. 228.) No less remarkable is the story mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerar. Cambriæ, lib. 2. cap. 2. Camdeni Anglic. Normanic. &c. p. 861. See as remarkable a story, of a person devoured by toads, id. ib. chap. 2. p. 859. Stowe's Chronicle by Howes, p. 156. The above story of the Saxon Duke could not, in this circumstance of the mice, suit any of them: though amongst them there were some that were very fat, namely Henry surnamed Crassus, who lived in the twelfth century; vide Chronie. Rhidhagshufens: Meibomii Rer. German. t. 111. p. 344. or another Henry made mention of by Hoffman, Lexic. Universal. or Albertus great grandson to Henry Duke of Saxony, who was called in his own time the Fat Albert; Meibomii Rer. Germanic. tom. 1. p. 40. Albertus Pinguis obiit 1318. Meibomii Rer. Germanic. tom. 3. p. 166. Quoth he,-That honour's very squeamish, And yet have met, after long running, 220 225 With some whom they have taught that cunning. In th' end does prove the nearest home; They that are bruis'd with wood or fists, 230 235 v. 232. · poltroons] Pultroons, in all editions to 1716, inclusive, altered afterwards to poltroons. Vid. Junii Etymologic. Anglicanum. v. 235. Th' old Romans freedom did bestow] The old Romans had several ways of manumitting, or bestowing freedom: Aut vindicta, aut inter amicos, aut per epistolam, aut per testamentum, aut per aliam quamlibet ultimam voluntatem; (vid. Justiniani Institut. lib. 1. tit. 5. s. 1. cum Not. Vinnii) Vindicta inquit Boetius in topica Ciceronis, est virgula quædam, quam lictor manumittendi servi capiti imponens; eundum servum in libertatem vindicabat. Vid. Calvini Lexic. sub voce Vindicta. Vindicius, a slave, discovered to Valerius Publicola the design of Brutus's sons and their accomplices, to betray the gates of Rome to the Tarquins, for which discovery he was rewarded, and made free; and from him the rod laid upon the head of a slave, when made free, was called vindicta ; King Pyrrhus cur'd his splenetick And pardon'd for some great offence, With which he's willing to dispense; 240 vid. Livii Histor. lib. 2. cap. 5. vol. 1. p. 93. edit. Jo. Clerici, Amst. 1710. In some countries, it was of more advantage to be a favourite slave, than to be set free. In Egypt (see Prince Cantemir's Growth, &c. of the Othman Empire.) the manner of inheriting was as follows: the dying person excluding all his sons, made some slave, or captive of approved fidelity, his heir; who, immediately after his master's death, enjoyed all his effects, and made the sons of the deceased, his seiz or grooms with which condition they were forced to be content, and to obey their father's slave all their lives. This (says he) is vulgarly ascribed to Joseph's benediction of slaves, in force to this day. v. 237. King Pyrrhus] Pyrrhus King of Epyrus, as Pliny says, had this occult quality in his toe, Pollicis in dextro pede tactu lienosis medebatur. Vide Plutarchi Op. tom. 1. edit. Lutet. Paris, 1624, p. 384. v. 239. The Negus, when some mighty lord &c.] Negus Æthiopia Rex. Vid. Ludolfi Histor. Æthiopic. lib. 2. cap. 2. sect. 23. Mr. Collier (Dictionary, see Abyssinia) gives us his several titles. This account of the Negus, is true, with regard to the lower part of his subjects; (see Le Blanc's Travailes, part 2. p. 203.) but the Prince of Melinde was the person who punished his nobility in the manner described. "If a nobleman (says Le Blanc, Travailes, part 2. chap. 4. p. 190. edit. 1660.) is found guilty of a crime, the King leads him to his chamber, where being disrobed, prostrate on the ground, craving pardon, he receives from the King's own hand certain stripes with a cudgel, more, or fewer in proportion to the crime, or services he hath done: which done, he revests, kisses the King's feet, and with all humility thanks him for the favour received." Artaxerxes's method was much better, who, when any of his nobility misbehaved; he caused them to be stripped, and their clothes to be whipped by the common hangman, without so much as touching their bodies, out of respect to the dignity of the order. (See. Sir Roger L'Estrange's Fables, part 2. Moral to Fable 83. Montaigne's Essays, vol. 2. book 2. p. 148.) |