2nd s. N« 116., Mar. 20. '68.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



229 



LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 20. 1858. 



WILLIAM PENN AND THE TAUNTON MAIDS. 



As the controversy respecting William Penn 

 and the Taunton maids has been revived, will you 

 allow me to state that " The Case of Reginald 

 Tucker," one of Monmouth's followers (which is 

 in the British Museum), contains evidence that 

 William Penn (not George Penne) was an agent 

 in the adjustment of the prisoner's estates. 



Tucker's estate, so he himself says, was granted 

 by King James to Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, who 

 sold his interest therein to a " Mr. Hall." [The 

 Halls of Gloucestershire and Wilts were mostly 

 Romanists,] Tucker, seeking to flee into Holland, 

 was arrested and cast into prison. His wife, being 

 assured that he was dead in law, was persuaded to 

 marry a villain named Vaughan, but she died in 

 great remorse. While the widowed husband thus 

 lay in prison,^ robbed of all earthly comfort, Ogle- 

 thorpe " wrote him a letter, acquainting him that 

 if he did not confirm Mr. Hall's purchase, he 

 should certainly be hanged ; and William Penn, 

 who procured this defendant's reprieve during 

 pleasure, wrote another letter to him, that if he 

 did not comply with Mr. Hall, it was supposed 

 King James would be prevailed on to give order 

 for his execution." But Tucker, resolving at all 

 hazards not to sign away his patrimonial estate, 

 remained firm, and was in consequence kept close 

 prisoner until the happy arrival of William of 

 Orange. This evidence is contradicted in another 

 broadsheet, entitled "Mr. Hall's Answer," where- 

 in it is asserted in general terms that no threaten- 

 ing letters were sent to Tucker. But I suppose 

 Tucker's word is as good as Hall's. 



Such is the contribution, small though it be, 

 which I beg to throw into the general fund, touch- 

 ing William Penn's conduct at that period. Truth 

 will never hurt any good cause. I have no fear 

 that it will hurt William Penn's good name, be- 

 lieving as I do that Lord Macaulay has causelessly 

 traduced the character of one of the best and 

 wisest of Englishmen. But how does the case 

 bear on Penn's supposed agency in the Taunton 

 maids' composition ? It just shows that William 

 Penn, as well as George Penne, was concerned in 

 the negotiation with the prisoners implicated in 

 Monmouth's rebellion ; and so far it seems at first 

 sight to favour the Macaulay version ; but when 

 we look at the nature of William Penn's inter- 

 ference, it only proves his humanity : for he first 

 obtains the prisoner's reprieve, and afterwards 

 warns him of the king's vindictive disposition. 

 Let the tesljimony stand for what it is worth ; and 

 let Lord Macaulay, when next he attempts to 

 vindicate his text in the matter of the famous 

 letter " to Mr, Penne," raise no more dust about 



its orthography (for which we care not a doit) ; 

 but let him address himself to the justification of 

 that fatal sentence : " And Penn accepted the 

 commission." J, Waylen. 



DIFFICULTIES OF CHAUCBE, NO, VII, 



Eclympasteire. — 



" Then as these goddis lay a slepe, 

 Morpheus and Eclympasteire" — 



The Dreame of Chaucer, 166, 7. 



It will perhaps excite surprise if we suggest 

 that by Eclympasteire we are to understand 

 Death ; but this appears the fittest explanation 

 that can be given. 



The artists of classic antiquity portrayed Death 

 and Sleep, when they portrayed them together, 

 as two deities or genii very much alike. Some- 

 times each held an inverted torch extinct. Some- 

 times both. Sleep and Death, were portrayed as 

 lying " a slepe" Of this latter myth the above 

 lines are Chaucer's version. 



According to the old Homeric idea. Sleep and 

 Death were twins : 



" IXe'^iTTe Se /nic TTOixiroicriv a[i,a KpatTTvdiffi. (jyeptirOai, 

 'YTTi'to KoX ©OKOTW SiSviJ.do(n.v." 



II. xvi. 671, 2. and 681, 2. 



Now Lessing observes, in his very learned and 

 interesting Essay entitled Wie die Alien den Tod 

 gebildet ("How the Ancients represented Death"), 

 that — 



" the artists of antiquity did not portray Death as a ske- 

 leton ; for they portrayed him, in accordance with the 

 Homeric conception, as the twin-brother of Sleep ; and 

 they portrayed the two, Death and Sleep, with that mu- 

 tual resemblance which one naturally looks for in twins." 

 (Sammtliche Schriften, Berlin, 1838 — 40, vol. viii.) 



And accordingly he proceeds to show that the 

 '''■tivo images" of Sleep, which have been found, 

 as alleged, upon some ancient tombs, are in fact 

 images of Sleep and Death. 



Lessing shows moreover that it was sometimes 

 the practice to portray these twin brothers. Sleep 

 and Death, when portrayed together, as sleeping. 

 On a chest of cedar in the temple of Juno at Elis 

 they both reposed, as children (knaben), in the 

 arms of their mother, Night. (Pausanias, book v. 

 ch. xviii.) Some such ideas as these were doubt- 

 less in Chaucer's mind, when he described the two 

 "goddis," "Morpheus and Eclympasteire," as lying 

 " a slepe." And it is curious to observe how, while 

 Lessing illustrates Chaucer, Chaucer supports Les- 

 sing, whose treatise is controversial. 



But how can Eclympasteire stand for Death f 

 Those classical scholars, who were so much dis- 

 turbed by the appearance of the word telegram, 

 can hardly be expected to look with clemency on 

 Eclympasteire, which is a very anomalous deri- 

 vative from the Gr. eKAtfnrdvci}. ^EicAifiTrdyM is nearly 

 equivalent to iKXd-ircc, which sometimes signifies to 



