266 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
moral effect. Perhaps Spenser's account of the discharge of a cannon may 
give a colour to this statement.:— 
“ As when that divelish yron engin, wrought 
In deepest hell, and framed by furies’ skill, 
With windy nitre and quick sulphur fraught, 
And ramd with bollet rownd, ordained to kill, 
Conceiveth fyre : the heavens it doth fill 
With thundering noyse, and all the ayre doth choke 
That none can breathe, nor see, nor heare- at will, 
Thro’ smouldering cloud of duskish stinking smoke, 
That th’ only breath him daunts, that hath escaped the stroke. 1 2 ” 
Shakespeare, a little later, makes frequent mention of artillery, speaking 
of “ the fatal balls of murdering basilisks/' 2 and the “ dangerous artillery " 
of Bourdeaux. 3 
During the Thirty Years' War, artillery was considerably improved on the 
continent by Gustavus Adolphus, and one of the earliest attempts at com¬ 
bining cavalry and field artillery was made by that monarch at Dirschen, and 
with success. At Liitzen, 1632, he again made good use of his artillery. 
He was singular however in his knowledge of this arm. The loss of the 
battle of Leipsic, 1631, by Tilly may be almost entirely attributed to his 
utter ignorance of the use of artillery : 
(1) He posted his guns behind his infantry, firing over their heads, so 
that he could not advance without masking the fire of his own guns; 
(2) He did advance and thereby masked them; 
(3) He permitted the enemy to change front in his presence without a 
struggle, Gustavus covering this manoeuvre with his leather guns; the con¬ 
sequence of which was that Tilly's guns were captured and turned against 
himself. 4 
Artillery in England at this time was in a very backward state, for during 
the Erench wars the navy had been so improved that comparatively speaking 
England was safe from invasion, and consequently from the close of those 
wars in 1559 the army had been neglected in all its branches. At Edge 
Hill and Marston Moor the Boundheads bad no guns, but the Cavaliers 
were so totally unacquainted with the use of theirs, that the presence of their 
artillery on the field afforded them but very little advantage. As late as 
the battle of Sedgemoor, 1685, “so defective were the appointments of an 
1 “ Faerie Queen.” Book I. chap. vii. sect. 13. 
2 “ Henry V.” Act 5. Sc. 2. 
3 First part of “ Henry VI.” Act 4, Sc. 2. It may be doubted whether the word “Artillery ” 
here means “Artillerie a feu ,” as this word when used in the Bible, which was translated after 
Henry YI. was written, refers to bows and arrows, and at that time included all machines de 
guerre. As however the translators of the Bible were directed to follow the old editions of the 
Bible, their language is much more antiquated than that of the time in which they wrote, and it is 
quite possible that Shakespeai’e used the word in the modern sense. 
4 See Schiller’s “ History of the Thirty Years’ War.” 
