July 28. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



69 



upon passages or examples in Scripture. An 

 extract of a few lines will show their nature : 



" How many sayling in full streames of wealth, 

 Pomp, honour, pleasure, favour, greatnesse, health, 

 And all contentments which the world can give 

 Unto her darlings, whilst they therein live, 

 Have in one houres space beene stript of all, 

 And dasht in peeces with a suddaine fall ! 

 How many mighty kings, states, monarchies, 

 Have in a moment felt such miseries. 

 Such fatall changes in their worldly state. 

 As no heart could conceive, no tongue relate! 

 Unconstant world, more full of changes then 

 The sea or moone, how can the sonnes of men 

 Once love or trust thee ! Goe, cheate [others, I] 

 Th}' sickely friendship ever will defie." 



Of a different character is the following. The 

 minuteness of the description of Mount-Orgueil 

 is almost topographical : 



« Mount-Orgueil Castle is a lofty pile 

 Within the easterne parts of Jersy Isle, 

 Seated upon a rocke, full large and high. 

 Close by the sea-shore, next to Normandie ; 

 Neere to a sandy bay, where boats do ride 

 Within a peere, safe both from wind and tide. 

 Three parts thereof the flowing seas surround, 

 The fourth (north-west-wards) is firme rockie ground. 

 A proud high mount it hath, a rampeir long. 

 Four gates, four posternes, bulworkes, sconces strong, 

 All built with stone, on which there mounted lye 

 Fifteene cast peeces of artillery. 

 With sundry murdering chambers, planted so 

 As best may fence itselfe and hurt a foe." 



And so he runs on through other lines. Prynne's 

 faculty was not that of imagination, but of ob- 

 servation. He would never have dreamt of writ- 

 ing poetry, but for the position in which he was 

 placed. It was the resource of an active mind, 

 cut off from all employment. Like the faults of 

 his character, it was the result of the shameful op- 

 pression of which he was the victim. In quiet 

 times he would have been a laborious practical 

 lawyer, and an acute historical investigator. The 

 misgovernment of Charles I., and the persecution 

 of Laud, made him a political pamphleteer, a 

 versifier, and a martyr. John Bedcb. 



PICTUEB AT LODVAIN. 



(Vol. xi., p. 486.) 



I went over the Town Hall at Louvain, in Sep- 

 tember, 1847, and did not see the picture men- 

 tioned in Mr. Wills's letter. It may have been 

 in some room which I did not visit. Lope de 

 Vega is copious in his attacks on heretics, and the 

 exact original of the inscription may perhaps be 

 found. The following is very near it : 



" Cespedes. Moviose una question la tarde misma 

 Sobre aquesta ocasion en el Palacio ; 

 Yo, Capitan, que estava hecho un veneno, 

 Alcfe la mano, y de un bofetoncillo 

 No. 300.] 



Hize escupar tres dientes a un herege, 

 Creo que se le andava, no fue nada. 



Hugo. Yo se que santa fue la bofetada 

 Y que hasta el cielo el eco llegaria." 



JSl valiente Cespedes, Act II. Sc. 1. 



Polemngraphia Nassovica^ authore Oulielmo JBau- 

 dartio, Amstelodamii, 1621. A pictorial history 

 of the Low-Country war of independence from 

 1559 to 1615, in two volumes, oblong quarto. I 

 believe it is not scarce, and, except the execution 

 of the assassin Balthazar Gherard, the plates are 

 not more shocking than the ordinary battle-pieces 

 of Wouvermans or Van der Meulen. Baudart is 

 as Protestant as Strada is Romish. 



Tragcedie van den Bloedigen Haeg of te Broeder- 

 Moord van Jan en Cornelius de Wit, geschiedt de 

 20 Oogst-Maendt 1672, binnen's Gravenhage, 

 t'Hantwerpen, 12mo., pp. 64, no date. 



I have no evidence that this piece ever was 

 acted ; but it might have been, as the eight illus- 

 trations are of events concurrent with, but not 

 forming part of the tragedy. Each is accompanied 

 by descriptive verses. I never saw anything so 

 abominable as the sixth and seventh, which re- 

 present the brutalities practised upon the bodies 

 of the De Witts. The details admit neither de- 

 scription nor allusion. The tragedy, though con- 

 taining some fustian, is not badly written, and the 

 characters are well marked, especially those of 

 Johanna the daughter of the pensionary, and her 

 devoted, but rather vacillating, lover Fredrick. 

 In the first plate the admiral De Witt holds a rope 

 in one hand, and a dagger and purse in the other, 

 before Tischelaer the barber, who is kneeling, 

 and bids him choose between hanging, and pardon 

 and pay for killing the Prince of Orange. The 

 prince appears in the first act only. He speaks 

 like a hero and a patriot, and when mentioned in 

 the course of the piece, it is with eulogy almost 

 as great as Mr. Macaulay's. The De Witts are 

 drawn as traitors and assassins. They are de- 

 tected, killed, and sent to eternal punishment. 

 In the last act, a citizen having described part* 



* "Een Boots-gast als verwoed die roept en tiert met 



vloecken, 

 Omstanders maackt my plaats, ich meet het hert 



gaan soecken. 

 My hongert na de spijs, en heeft soo 't staal gedruckt 

 Door sijnen boesem in de borst, soo 't hert ontruckt, 

 En tot drj'malen toe hem in't gesicht gesmeeten, 

 Riep, langt my zout en broodt, ick sal het hert op- 



eeten, 

 Soo blusch ick mijneen haat : een ander is 't die 't 



hert 

 Maakt, om dit snoo verraat, als eenen schoorsteen 



swert, 

 En seyt ; dit's trouwloos hert gevult met nijt en 



wrake, 

 Dat alderwitste Wit so swert heeft kommen maken 

 Dus is dat dan ooch dit Wit verandert in pick swert." 



P. 57. 

 Bad as this is, it is a trifle compared with the pictures. 



