80 DR. S. CROMPTON ON A PORTRAIT OF TYCHO BRAHE. 



tions an engraving of Brahe in which he is represented 

 wearing both of the Orders so given to hira. 



As the inscription on Dr. Crompton's portrait says that 

 it was painted on the completion of his 50th year, it is a 

 representation of Tycho ten years later than the engraving 

 by Meurs of 1586; and the tenor of the emblems and of 

 the inscription seems to be conclusive that the picture was 

 painted after Brahe had left Denmark, which he did (Gas- 

 sendi, p. 142) about Midsummer, 1597, whence he went to 

 Rostock ; but this place he left for fear of the plague, after 

 the end of October, when, by invitation, he went to the 

 Castle of Wandsburg, near Hamburg, to stay with his 

 friend Ranzovius. Immediately on his arrival there he 

 composed a long poem in Latin (given by Gassendi at pages 

 143, 144, and 145) in which he complains bitterly of his 

 country^s blindness and want of appreciation of his notable 

 services, which he lauds in a remarkable way, but not be- 

 yond their deserts. In the course of this poem are passages 

 which justify the emblem on Dr. C.'s portrait, and several 

 lines which bear closely on the inscription on his picture. 



The following may be quoted (p. 145) : — 



" Pro quibus, o Superi, mihi gratia reddita talis, 

 Sex ego cum natis, matreque ut exsul agam. 



Sum tainen baud exsul, libertas contigit anipla ; 

 Exsilium in pafria verius ante tuli. 



Nunc ego prosper ago ; proprii nunc juris alumnus ; 

 Nunc mihi pro patria maximus orbis adest." 



From these facts Dr. C. conjectures that the portrait was 

 painted between the end of October and the 13th of Decem- 

 ber 1597. I^ could not have been painted later than the 

 1 3th of December; for then the inscription would have been 

 "anno 51 completo;^^ and as this poem is addressed to 

 Ranzovius, the presumption is that it was written after 

 Brahe^s arrival at Ranzovius's. And Dr. C. conjectures 

 that the portrait may have been painted to be engraved for 



