FOOTNOTES:

“Pour tromper vos ennuis, et l’esprit employer.”

Aux Dames et Damoyselles.

Sonnet.“L’un s’efforce à gaigner le cœur desgrãdsSeigneursPour posseder en fin une exquise richesse;L’autre aspire aux estats, pour monter en altesse,Et l’autre, par la guerre alléche les honneurs.“Quand à moy, seulement pour chasser mes langueurs,Je me sen satisfaict de vivre en petitesse,Et de faire si bien, qu’aux Dames ie delaisseUn grand contentement en mes graves labeurs.“Prenez doncques en gré (mes Dames) ie vous prie,Ces pourtrais ouvragez lesquels ie vous dedie,Pour tromper vos ennuis, et l’esprit employer.“En ceste nouveauté, pourrez beaucoup apprendre,Et maistresses en fin en cest œuvre vous rendre,Le travail est plaisant: Si grand est le loyer.”

Sonnet.

“L’un s’efforce à gaigner le cœur desgrãdsSeigneursPour posseder en fin une exquise richesse;L’autre aspire aux estats, pour monter en altesse,Et l’autre, par la guerre alléche les honneurs.

“Quand à moy, seulement pour chasser mes langueurs,Je me sen satisfaict de vivre en petitesse,Et de faire si bien, qu’aux Dames ie delaisseUn grand contentement en mes graves labeurs.

“Prenez doncques en gré (mes Dames) ie vous prie,Ces pourtrais ouvragez lesquels ie vous dedie,Pour tromper vos ennuis, et l’esprit employer.

“En ceste nouveauté, pourrez beaucoup apprendre,Et maistresses en fin en cest œuvre vous rendre,Le travail est plaisant: Si grand est le loyer.”

Which, barring elegant diction and poetic rule, may be read thus:—

Whilst one man worships lordly stateAs yielding all that he desires—This, fertile acres begs from fate;Another, bloody laurels fires.To dissipate my devils blue,Trifles, I’m satisfied to do;For surely if the fair I please,My very labours smack of ease.Take then, fair ladies, I you pray,The book which at your feet I lay,To make you happy, brisk and gay.There’s much you here may learn anew,Whichcomme il fautwill render you,And bring you joy and honour too.

Whilst one man worships lordly stateAs yielding all that he desires—This, fertile acres begs from fate;Another, bloody laurels fires.

To dissipate my devils blue,Trifles, I’m satisfied to do;For surely if the fair I please,My very labours smack of ease.

Take then, fair ladies, I you pray,The book which at your feet I lay,To make you happy, brisk and gay.

There’s much you here may learn anew,Whichcomme il fautwill render you,And bring you joy and honour too.

Proceed we to the—

“Ouvrages de point Coupé,” of which there are thirty-six. Some birds, animals, and figures are introduced; but the patterns are chiefly arabesque, set off in white, on a thick black ground.

Then, with a repetition of the ornamented title-page, come about fifty patterns, which are represented much like the German patterns of the present day, in squares for stitches, but not so finely wrought as some which we shall presently notice. These patterns consist of arabesques, figures, birds, beasts, flowers, in every variety. To many the stitches are ready counted (as well as pourtrayed), thus:—

“Ce Pélican contient en longueur 70 mailles, et en hauteur 65.” This pattern of maternity is represented as pecking her breast, towards which three young ones are flying; their course being indicated by the three lines of white stitches, all converging to the living nest.

“Ce Griffoncõtienten hauteur 58 mailles, et enlõgueur67.” Small must be the skill of the needlewoman who does not make this a very rampant animal indeed.

“Ce Paon contient en longueur 65 mailles, et en hauteur 61.”

“La Licorne en hauteurcõtiẽt44 mailles, et en longueur 62, &c. &c.”

“La bordure contient 25 mailles.”

“La bordure de hautcõtiẽt35 mailles.” This is a very handsome one, resembling pine apples.

“Ce quarré contient 65 mailles.” There are several of these squares, and borders appended, of very rich patterns.

But the book contains far more ambitious designs. There are Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Neptune, and others, whose dignities and vocation must be inferred from the emblematical accompaniments.

There is “La Déesse des fleurs représentant le printemps.”

“La Déesse des Bleds representant l’esté.”

“Ce Bacchus representant l’Autonne.”

“Ceste figure representant l’hiver,” &c. &c.

Appended is this “Extraict du Privilege.”

“Per grace et privelege du Roy, est permis a Jean le Clerc le jeune, tailleur d’histoires à Paris, d’imprimer ou faire imprimervẽdreet distribuer un livre intitulé livre de patrons de Lingerie,Dedie a la Royne, nouvellement inventé par le Seigneur Federic de Vinciolo Venitien, avec deffences à tous Libraires, Imprimeurs, ou autres, de quelque condition et qualité quilz soyent, de faire ny contrefaire, aptisser nyagrãdir, ou pocher lesdits figures, ny exposer en vente ledict Livre sans lecõgéou permission dudict le Clerc, et ce jusques au temps et terme de neuf ans finis et accomplis, sur peine de confiscation de tous les livres qui se trouveront imprimez, et damande arbitraire: comme plus a plein est declaré en lettres patentes, données à Paris ce douziesme jour de Novembre, 1587.”

Another work, preserved in the British Museum, was published at Strasbourg, 1596, seemingly from designs of the same Vinciolo. These consist of about six-and-thirty plates, with patterns in white on a black ground, consisting of a few birds and figures, but chiefly of stars and wreaths pricked out in every possible variety; and at the end of the book a dozen richly wrought patterns, without any edging, were seemingly designed for what we should now call “insertion” work or lace.

There is another, by the same author, printed at Basil in 1599, which varies but slightly from the foregoing.

This Frederick de Vinciolo is doubtless the same person who was summoned to France, by Catherine de Medicis, to instruct the ladies of the court in the art of netting the lace of which the then fashionable ruffs were made.

In another volume we have—

“Corona delle Nobili et virtuose Donne, nel quale si dimostra in varij Dissegni tutte le sorti di Mostre di punti tagliati, punti in Aria, punti Fiamenghi, punti à Reticelle, e d’ogni altre sorte, cosi per Freggi, per Merli, e Rosette, che con l’Aco si usano hoggidì per tutta l’Europa.

“E molte delle quali Mostre possono servire ancora per opere a Mazzette.

“Con le dichiarationi a le Mostre a Lavori fatti da Lugretia Romana.

“In Venetia appresso Alessandro di Vecchi, 1620.”

The plates here are very similar to those in the above-mentioned works. Some are accompanied byshort explanations, saying where they are most used and to whom they are best suited, as—

“Hopera Bellissima, che per il più le Signore Duchese, et altre Signore si servono per li suoi lavori.”

“Queste bellissime Rosette usano anco le gentildonne Venetiane da far traverse.”

But certainly the best work of the kind is, “The Needle’s Excellency,” referred to in Mr. Douce’s list. It contains a variety of plates, of which the patterns are all, or nearly all, arabesque. They are beautifully executed, many of them being very similar to, and equally fine with, the German patterns before the colouring is put on, which, though it guides the eye, defaces the work. These are seldom seen uncoloured, the Germans having a jealousy of sending them; but we have seen, through the polite attention of Mr. Wilks, of Regent Street, one or two in this state, and we could not but admire the extreme delicacy and beauty of the work. Some few of the patterns in the book we are now referring to are so extremely similar, that we doubt not the modern artists have borrowed theideaof their beautifully traced patterns from this or some similar work; thereby adding one more proof of the truth of the oft quoted proverb, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

As a fitting close to this chapter, we give the Needle’s praises in full, as sung by the water poet, John Taylor, and prefixed to the last-mentioned work.

The Praise of the Needle.“To all dispersed sorts of arts and trades,I write the needles prayse (that never fades)So long as children shall be got or borne,So long as garments shall be made or worne,So long as hemp or flax, or sheep shall bearTheir linnen wollen fleeces yeare by yeare:So long as silkwormes, with exhausted spoile,Of their own entrailes for man’s gaine shall toyle:Yea till the world be quite dissolv’d and past,So long at least, the needles use shall last:And though from earth his being did begin,Yet through the fire he did his honour win:And unto those that doe his service lacke,He’s true as steele and mettle to the backeHe hath indeed, I see, small single sight,Yet like a pigmy,Poliphemein fight:As a stout captaine, bravely he leades on,(Not fearing colours) till the worke be done,Through thicke and thinne he is most sharpely set,With speed through stitch, he will the conquest get.And as a souldier (Frenchefyde with heat)Maim’d from the warres is forc’d to make retreat;So when a needles point is broke, and gone,No point Mounsieur, he’s maim’d, his worke is done,And more the needles honour to advance,It is a tailor’s javelin, or his lance;And for my countries quiet, I should like,That women kinde should use no other pike.It will increase their peace, enlarge their store,To use their tongues lesse, and their needles more.The needles sharpnesse, profit yields, and pleasure,But sharpnesse of the tongue, bites out of measure.A needle (though it be but small and slender)Yet it is both a maker and a mender:A grave Reformer of old rents decay’d,Stops holes and seames and desperate cuts display’d,And thus without the needle we may seeWe should without our bibs and biggins bee;No shirts or smockes, our nakednesse to hide,No garments gay, to make us magnifide:No shadowes, shapparoones, caules, bands, ruffs, kuffs,No kerchiefes, quoyfes, chinclouts, or marry-muffes,No croscloaths, aprons, handkerchiefes, or falls,No table-cloathes, for parlours or for halls,No sheetes, no towels, napkins, pillow beares,Nor any garment man or woman weares.Thus is a needle prov’d an instrumentOf profit, pleasure, and of ornament.Which mighty queenes have grac’d in hand to take,And high borne ladies such esteeme did make,That as their daughters daughters up did grow,The needles art, they to the children show.And as ’twas then an exercise of praise,So what deserves more honour in these dayes,Than this? which daily doth itselfe expresseA mortall enemy to idlenesse.The use of sewing is exceeding old,As in the sacred text it is enrold:Our parents first in Paradise began,Who hath descended since from man to man:The mothers taught their daughters, sires their sonsThus in a line successively it runsFor generall profit, and for recreation,From generation unto generation.With work like cherubims embroidered rare,The covers of the tabernacle were.And by the Almighti’s great command, we see,That Aaron’s garments broidered worke should be;And further, God did bid his vestments shouldBe made most gay, and glorious to behold.Thus plainly and most truly is declar’dThe needles worke hath still bin in regard,For it doth art, so like to nature frame,As if it were her sister, or the same.Flowers, plants and fishes, beasts, birds, flyes, and bees,Hills, dales, plaines, pastures, skies, seas, rivers, trees;There’s nothing neere at hand, or farthest sought,But with the needle may be shap’d and wrought.In clothes of arras I have often seene,Men’s figur’d counterfeits so like have beene,That if the parties selfe had been in place,Yet art would vie with nature for the grace;Moreover, posies rare, and anagrams,Signifique searching sentences from names,True history, or various pleasant fiction,In sundry colours mixt, with arts commixion,All in dimension, ovals, squares, and rounds,Arts life included within natures bounds:So that art seemeth merely naturall,In forming shapes so geometricall;And though our country everywhere is fildWith ladies, and with gentlewomen, skildIn this rare art, yet here they may discerneSome things to teach them if they list to learne.And as this booke some cunning workes doth teach,(Too hard for meane capacities to reach)So for weake learners, other workes here be,As plaine and easie as are A B C.Thus skilful, or unskilful, each may takeThis booke, and of it each good use may make,All sortes of workes, almost that can be nam’d,Here are directions how they may be fram’d:And for this kingdomes good are hither come,From the remotest parts of Christendome,Collected with much paines and industrie,From scorchingSpaineand freezingMuscovie,From fertillFrance, and pleasantItaly,FromPoland,Sweden,Denmark,Germany,And some of these rare patternes have beene fetBeyond the bounds of faithlesseMahomet:From spaciousChina, and those kingdomes East,And from greatMexico, the Indies West.Thus are these workes,farrefetchtanddearely bought,And consequentlygood for ladies thought.Nor doe I derogate (in any case)Or doe esteeme of other teachings base,Fortent worke,rais’d worke,laid worke,frost works,net worke,Most curiouspurles, or rareItalian cut worke,Fine,ferne stitch,finny stitch,new stitch, andchain stitch,Bravebred stitch,Fisher stitch,Irish stitch, andQueen stitch,TheSpanish stitch,Rosemary stitch, andMowse stitchThe smartingwhip stitch,back stitch, and thecrosse stitchAll these are good, and these we must allow,And these are everywhere in practise now:And in this booke there are of these some store,With many others, never seene before.Here practise and invention may be free.And as a squirrel skips from tree to tree,So maids may (from their mistresse or their mother)Learne to leave one worke, and to learne another,For here they may make choice of which is which,And skip from worke to worke, from stitch to stitch,Until, in time, delightful practise shall(With profit) make them perfect in them all.Thus hoping that these workes may have this guide,To serve for ornament, and not for pride:To cherish vertue, banish idlenesse,For these ends, may this booke have good successe.”

The Praise of the Needle.

“To all dispersed sorts of arts and trades,I write the needles prayse (that never fades)So long as children shall be got or borne,So long as garments shall be made or worne,So long as hemp or flax, or sheep shall bearTheir linnen wollen fleeces yeare by yeare:So long as silkwormes, with exhausted spoile,Of their own entrailes for man’s gaine shall toyle:Yea till the world be quite dissolv’d and past,So long at least, the needles use shall last:And though from earth his being did begin,Yet through the fire he did his honour win:And unto those that doe his service lacke,He’s true as steele and mettle to the backeHe hath indeed, I see, small single sight,Yet like a pigmy,Poliphemein fight:As a stout captaine, bravely he leades on,(Not fearing colours) till the worke be done,Through thicke and thinne he is most sharpely set,With speed through stitch, he will the conquest get.And as a souldier (Frenchefyde with heat)Maim’d from the warres is forc’d to make retreat;So when a needles point is broke, and gone,No point Mounsieur, he’s maim’d, his worke is done,And more the needles honour to advance,It is a tailor’s javelin, or his lance;And for my countries quiet, I should like,That women kinde should use no other pike.It will increase their peace, enlarge their store,To use their tongues lesse, and their needles more.The needles sharpnesse, profit yields, and pleasure,But sharpnesse of the tongue, bites out of measure.A needle (though it be but small and slender)Yet it is both a maker and a mender:A grave Reformer of old rents decay’d,Stops holes and seames and desperate cuts display’d,And thus without the needle we may seeWe should without our bibs and biggins bee;No shirts or smockes, our nakednesse to hide,No garments gay, to make us magnifide:No shadowes, shapparoones, caules, bands, ruffs, kuffs,No kerchiefes, quoyfes, chinclouts, or marry-muffes,No croscloaths, aprons, handkerchiefes, or falls,No table-cloathes, for parlours or for halls,No sheetes, no towels, napkins, pillow beares,Nor any garment man or woman weares.Thus is a needle prov’d an instrumentOf profit, pleasure, and of ornament.Which mighty queenes have grac’d in hand to take,And high borne ladies such esteeme did make,That as their daughters daughters up did grow,The needles art, they to the children show.And as ’twas then an exercise of praise,So what deserves more honour in these dayes,Than this? which daily doth itselfe expresseA mortall enemy to idlenesse.The use of sewing is exceeding old,As in the sacred text it is enrold:Our parents first in Paradise began,Who hath descended since from man to man:The mothers taught their daughters, sires their sonsThus in a line successively it runsFor generall profit, and for recreation,From generation unto generation.With work like cherubims embroidered rare,The covers of the tabernacle were.And by the Almighti’s great command, we see,That Aaron’s garments broidered worke should be;And further, God did bid his vestments shouldBe made most gay, and glorious to behold.Thus plainly and most truly is declar’dThe needles worke hath still bin in regard,For it doth art, so like to nature frame,As if it were her sister, or the same.Flowers, plants and fishes, beasts, birds, flyes, and bees,Hills, dales, plaines, pastures, skies, seas, rivers, trees;There’s nothing neere at hand, or farthest sought,But with the needle may be shap’d and wrought.In clothes of arras I have often seene,Men’s figur’d counterfeits so like have beene,That if the parties selfe had been in place,Yet art would vie with nature for the grace;Moreover, posies rare, and anagrams,Signifique searching sentences from names,True history, or various pleasant fiction,In sundry colours mixt, with arts commixion,All in dimension, ovals, squares, and rounds,Arts life included within natures bounds:So that art seemeth merely naturall,In forming shapes so geometricall;And though our country everywhere is fildWith ladies, and with gentlewomen, skildIn this rare art, yet here they may discerneSome things to teach them if they list to learne.And as this booke some cunning workes doth teach,(Too hard for meane capacities to reach)So for weake learners, other workes here be,As plaine and easie as are A B C.Thus skilful, or unskilful, each may takeThis booke, and of it each good use may make,All sortes of workes, almost that can be nam’d,Here are directions how they may be fram’d:And for this kingdomes good are hither come,From the remotest parts of Christendome,Collected with much paines and industrie,From scorchingSpaineand freezingMuscovie,From fertillFrance, and pleasantItaly,FromPoland,Sweden,Denmark,Germany,And some of these rare patternes have beene fetBeyond the bounds of faithlesseMahomet:From spaciousChina, and those kingdomes East,And from greatMexico, the Indies West.Thus are these workes,farrefetchtanddearely bought,And consequentlygood for ladies thought.Nor doe I derogate (in any case)Or doe esteeme of other teachings base,Fortent worke,rais’d worke,laid worke,frost works,net worke,Most curiouspurles, or rareItalian cut worke,Fine,ferne stitch,finny stitch,new stitch, andchain stitch,Bravebred stitch,Fisher stitch,Irish stitch, andQueen stitch,TheSpanish stitch,Rosemary stitch, andMowse stitchThe smartingwhip stitch,back stitch, and thecrosse stitchAll these are good, and these we must allow,And these are everywhere in practise now:And in this booke there are of these some store,With many others, never seene before.Here practise and invention may be free.And as a squirrel skips from tree to tree,So maids may (from their mistresse or their mother)Learne to leave one worke, and to learne another,For here they may make choice of which is which,And skip from worke to worke, from stitch to stitch,Until, in time, delightful practise shall(With profit) make them perfect in them all.Thus hoping that these workes may have this guide,To serve for ornament, and not for pride:To cherish vertue, banish idlenesse,For these ends, may this booke have good successe.”

FOOTNOTES:[115]It is worth while to remark the circumstance, that by a machine of the simplest construction, being nothing in fact but a tray, 20,000 needles thrown promiscuously together, mixed and entangled in every way, are laid parallel, heads to heads, and points to points, in the course of three or four minutes.[116]Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 92.[117]This seems to be a somewhat earlier edition of the second book in Mr. Douce’s list.

[115]It is worth while to remark the circumstance, that by a machine of the simplest construction, being nothing in fact but a tray, 20,000 needles thrown promiscuously together, mixed and entangled in every way, are laid parallel, heads to heads, and points to points, in the course of three or four minutes.

[116]Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 92.

[117]This seems to be a somewhat earlier edition of the second book in Mr. Douce’s list.

“For, round about, the walls yclothed wereWith goodly Arras of great majesty,Woven with gold and silk so close and nere,That the rich metal lurked privily,As faining to be hidd from envious eye;Yet here, and there, and every where unwaresIt shew’d itselfe and shone unwillingly;Like to a discolour’d Snake, whose hidden snaresThrough the greene gras his long bright burnisht back declares.”Faerie Queene.

Raphael, whose name is familiar to all “as a household word,” seems to have been equally celebrated for a handsome person, an engaging address, an amiable disposition, and high talents. Language exhausts itself in his eulogy.[118]But theextravagant encomiums of Lanzi and others must be taken in a very modified sense, ere we arrive at the rigid truth. The tone of morals in Italy “did not correspond with evangelical purity;” and Raphael’s follies were not merely permitted, but encouraged and fostered by those who sought eagerly for the creations of his pencil. His thousand engaging qualities were disfigured by a licentiousness which probably shortened his career, for he died at the early age of thirty-seven.

Great and sincere was the grief expressed at Rome for his untimely death, and no testimony of sorrow could be more affecting, more simple, or more highly honourable to its object than the placing his picture of the Transfiguration over his mortal remains in the chamber wherein he died.

It was probably within two years of the close of his short life when he was engaged by Pope Leo the Tenth to paint those cartoons which have more than all his works immortalised his name, and which render the brief hints we have given respecting him peculiarly appropriate to this work.

The cartoons were designs, from Scripture chiefly, from which were to be woven hangings to ornament the apartments of the Vatican; and their dimensions being of course proportioned to the spaces they were designed to fill, the tapestries, though equal in height, differed extremely in breadth.

The designs were,

1. The Nativity.2. The Adoration of the Magi.}3.4.The Slaughter of the Innocents.5.6. The Presentation in the Temple.7. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes.8. St. Peter receiving the Keys.9. The Descent of Christ into Limbus.10. The Resurrection.11. Noli me tangere.12. Christ at Emmaus.13. The Ascension.14. The Descent of the Holy Ghost.15. The Martyrdom of St. Stephen.16. The Conversion of St. Paul.17. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra.18. Paul Preaching.19. Death of Ananias.20. Elymas the Sorcerer.21. An earthquake; showing the delivery of Paul and Silas from prison: named from the earthquake which shook the foundations of the building. The artist endeavours to render it ideally visible to the spectator by placing a gigantic figure, which appears to be raising the superincumbent weight on his shoulders; but the result is not altogether successful.22. St. Peter healing the cripple.23-24. Contain emblems alluding to Leo the Tenth. These are preserved in one of the private apartments of the Vatican palace.25. Justice. In this subject the figures of Religion, Charity, and Justice are seen above the papal armorial bearings. The last figure gives name to the whole.

1. The Nativity.

2. The Adoration of the Magi.

6. The Presentation in the Temple.

7. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes.

8. St. Peter receiving the Keys.

9. The Descent of Christ into Limbus.

10. The Resurrection.

11. Noli me tangere.

12. Christ at Emmaus.

13. The Ascension.

14. The Descent of the Holy Ghost.

15. The Martyrdom of St. Stephen.

16. The Conversion of St. Paul.

17. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra.

18. Paul Preaching.

19. Death of Ananias.

20. Elymas the Sorcerer.

21. An earthquake; showing the delivery of Paul and Silas from prison: named from the earthquake which shook the foundations of the building. The artist endeavours to render it ideally visible to the spectator by placing a gigantic figure, which appears to be raising the superincumbent weight on his shoulders; but the result is not altogether successful.

22. St. Peter healing the cripple.

23-24. Contain emblems alluding to Leo the Tenth. These are preserved in one of the private apartments of the Vatican palace.

25. Justice. In this subject the figures of Religion, Charity, and Justice are seen above the papal armorial bearings. The last figure gives name to the whole.

When the cartoons were finished they were sent into Flanders to be woven (at the famous manufactory at Arras) under the superintendence of Barnard Van Orlay of Brussels, and Michael Coxis, artists who had been for some years pupils of Raphael at Rome. Two sets were executed with the utmost care and cost, but the death of Raphael, the murder of the Pope, and subsequent intestine troubles seem to have delayed their appropriation. They cost seventy thousand crowns, a sum which is said to have been defrayed by Francis the First of France, in consideration of Leo’s having canonised St. Francis of Paola, the founder of the Minims.

Adrian the Second was a man “alienissimo da ogni bell’arte;” an indifference which mayaccount for the cartoons not being sent with the tapestries to Rome, though some accounts say that the debt for their manufacture remained unliquidated, and that the paintings were kept in Flanders as security for it. They were carried away by the Spanish army in 1526-7 during the sack of Rome, but were restored by the zeal and spirit of Montmorenci the French general, as set forth in the woven borders of the tapestries Nos. 6 and 9. Pope Paul the Fourth (1555) first introduced them to the gaze of the public by exhibiting them before the Basilica of St. Peter on the festival of Corpus Domini, and also at the solemn “function of Beatification.” This use of them was continued through part of the last century, and is now resumed.

In 1798 they were taken by the French from Rome and sold to a Jew at Leghorn, and one of them was burnt by him in order to extract the gold with which they were richly interwoven; but happily they did not furnish so much spoil as the speculator hoped, and this devastation was arrested. The one that was destroyed represented Christ’s Descent into Limbus; the rest were repurchased for one thousand three hundred crowns, and restored to the Vatican in 1814.

We have alluded to two sets of these tapestries, and it is believed that there were two; whetherexactlycounterparts has not been ascertained. We have traced the migrations of one set. The other was, according to some authorities, presented by Pope Leo the Tenth to our Henry the Eighth; whilst others say that our king purchased it from the state of Venice. It was hung in the BanquetingHouse of Whitehall, and after the unhappy execution of Charles the First, was put up, amongst other royal properties, to sale. Being purchased by the Spanish ambassador, it became the property of the house of Alva, and within a few years back was sold by the head of that illustrious house to Mr. Tupper, our consul in Spain, and by him sent back to this country.

These tapestries were then exhibited for some time in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, and were afterwards repurchased by a foreigner. Probably they have been making a “progress” throughout the kingdom, as within this twelvemonth we had the satisfaction of viewing them at the principal town in a northern county. The motto of our chapter might have been written expressly for these tapestries, so exquisitely accurate is the description as applied to them of the gold thread:—

“As here and there, and every where unwaresIt shew’d itselfe and shone unwillingly;Like to a discolour’d snake, whose hidden snaresThrough the greene gras his long bright burnisht back declares.”

The cartoons themselves, the beautiful originals of these magnificent works, remained in the Netherlands, and were all, save seven, lost and destroyed through the ravages of time, and chance, and revolution. These seven, much injured by neglect, and almost pounced into holes by the weaver tracing his outlines, were purchased by King Charles the First, and are now justly considered a most valuable possession. It is supposed that the chief object of Charles in the purchase was to supply the thenexisting tapestry manufactory at Mortlake with superior designs for imitation. Five of them werecertainlywoven there, and it is far from improbable that the remaining ones were also.[119]

There was also a project for weaving them by a person of the name of James Christopher Le Blon, and houses were built and looms erected at Chelsea expressly for that purpose, but the design failed.

The “British Critic,” for January, this year, has the following spirited remarks with regard to the present situation of the cartoons. “The cartoons of Raffaelle are very unfairly seen in their present locale; a long gallery built for the purpose by William the Third, but in which the light enters through common chamber windows, and therefore is so much below the cartoons as to leave the greater part of them in shade. We venture to say there is no country in Europe in which such works as these—unique, and in their class invaluable—would be treated with so little honour. It has been decided by competent opinions, that their removal to London would be attended with great risk to their preservation, from the soot, damp, accumulation of dust, and other inconveniences, natural or incident to a crowded city. This, however, is no fair reason for their being shut up in their present ill-assorted apartment. There is not a petty state in Germany that would not erect a gallery on purpose for them;and a few thousand pounds would be well bestowed in providing a fitting receptacle for some of the finest productions of human genius in art; and of the full value of which wealone, their possessors, seem to be comparatively insensible. Various portions of cartoons by Raffaelle, part of the same series or set, exist in England; and it is far from unlikely that, were there a proper place to preserve and exhibit the whole in, these would in time, by presentation or purchase, become the property of the country, and we should then possess a monument of the greatest master of his art, only inferior to that which he has left on the walls of the Vatican.”

Of all these varied and beautiful paintings, that of the Adoration of the Magi, from the variety of character and expression, the splendor and oriental pomp of the whole, the multitude of persons, between forty and fifty, the various accessaries, elephants, horses, &c., with the variety of splendid and ornamental illustrations, and the exquisite grouping, is considered as the most attractive and brilliant in tapestry. As a piece of general and varied interest it may be so; but we well remember being, not so suddenly struck, as attracted and fascinated by the figure of the Christ when, after his resurrection, he is recommending the care of his flock to St. Peter. The colours have faded gradually and equably—(an advantage not possessed by the others, where some tints which have stood the ravages of time better than those around them, are in places strikingly and painfully discordant)—but in this figure the colours, though greatly faded, have yet faded so harmoniously as to add very much to the illusion, givingto the figure really the appearance of one risen from the dead. The outline is majestic; turn which way we would, we involuntarily returned to look again. At length we mentioned our admiration to the superintendent, and the reply of the enthusiastic foreigner precluded all further remark—for nothing further could be said:—

“Madam, I should have been astonished if you had not admired that figure:it is itself; it is preciselythe finest thing in the world.”

FOOTNOTES:[118]For example:—“Egli avea tenuto sempre un contegno da guadagnarsi il cuore di tutto. Rispettoso verso il maestro, ottenne dal Papa che le sue pitture in una volta delle camere Vaticane rimanessero intatte; giusto verso i suoi emuli ringraziava Dio d’averlo fatto nascere a’ tempi del Bonarruoti; grazioso verso i discepoli gl’istruì e gli amò come figli; cortese anche verso gl’ignoti, a chiunque ricorse a lui per consiglio prestò liberalmente l’opera sua, e per far disegni ad altrui o dar gl’indirizzo lasciò indietro talvolta i lavori propri, non sapendo non pure di negar grazia, ma differirla.”—Lanzi, vol. ii.Consequently when his body before interment lay in the room in which he was accustomed to paint, “Non v’ebbe sì duro artefice che a quello spettacolo non lagrimasse.”—“Ne pianse il Papa.”Of his works:—“Le sue figure veramente amano, languiscono, temono, sperano, ardiscono; mostrano ira, placabilità, umiltà, orgoglio, come mette bene alla storia: spesso chi mira que’ volti, que’ guardi, quelle mosse, non si ricorda che ha innanzi una immagine; si sente accendere, prende partito, crede di trovarsi in sul fatto.—Tutto parla nel silenzio; ogni attore,Il cor negli occhi e nella fronte ha scritto; i piccioli movimenti degli occhi, degli narici, della bocca, delle dita corrispondono a’ primi moti d’ogni passione; i gesti più animati e più vivi ne descrivono la violenza; e ciò ch’è più, essi variano in cento modi senza uscir mai del naturale, e si attemperano a cento caratteri senza uscir mai dalla proprietà. L’eroe ha movimenti da eroe, il volgar da volgare; e quel che non descriverebbe lingua nè penna, descrive in pochissimi tratti l’ingegno e l’arte di Raffaello.”—p. 65.“Il paese, gli elementi, gli animali, le fabbriche, le manifatture, ogni età dell’uomo, ogni condizione, ogni affetto, tutte comprese con la divinità del suo ingegno, tutto ridusse più bello.”—p. 71.I have thought this long extract pardonable as applied to one whose finest designs are now, through so many channels, rendered familiar to us.[119]In a priced catalogue of His Majesty’s collection of “Limnings,” edited by Vertue, is the following entry. “Item, in a slit box-wooden case, someTWO CARTOONSof Raphael Urbinus for hangings to be made by, andthe otherFIVEare by the King’s appointment delivered to Mr. Francis Cleen at Mortlake, to make hangings by.”—Cartonensia.

[118]For example:—“Egli avea tenuto sempre un contegno da guadagnarsi il cuore di tutto. Rispettoso verso il maestro, ottenne dal Papa che le sue pitture in una volta delle camere Vaticane rimanessero intatte; giusto verso i suoi emuli ringraziava Dio d’averlo fatto nascere a’ tempi del Bonarruoti; grazioso verso i discepoli gl’istruì e gli amò come figli; cortese anche verso gl’ignoti, a chiunque ricorse a lui per consiglio prestò liberalmente l’opera sua, e per far disegni ad altrui o dar gl’indirizzo lasciò indietro talvolta i lavori propri, non sapendo non pure di negar grazia, ma differirla.”—Lanzi, vol. ii.Consequently when his body before interment lay in the room in which he was accustomed to paint, “Non v’ebbe sì duro artefice che a quello spettacolo non lagrimasse.”—“Ne pianse il Papa.”Of his works:—“Le sue figure veramente amano, languiscono, temono, sperano, ardiscono; mostrano ira, placabilità, umiltà, orgoglio, come mette bene alla storia: spesso chi mira que’ volti, que’ guardi, quelle mosse, non si ricorda che ha innanzi una immagine; si sente accendere, prende partito, crede di trovarsi in sul fatto.—Tutto parla nel silenzio; ogni attore,Il cor negli occhi e nella fronte ha scritto; i piccioli movimenti degli occhi, degli narici, della bocca, delle dita corrispondono a’ primi moti d’ogni passione; i gesti più animati e più vivi ne descrivono la violenza; e ciò ch’è più, essi variano in cento modi senza uscir mai del naturale, e si attemperano a cento caratteri senza uscir mai dalla proprietà. L’eroe ha movimenti da eroe, il volgar da volgare; e quel che non descriverebbe lingua nè penna, descrive in pochissimi tratti l’ingegno e l’arte di Raffaello.”—p. 65.“Il paese, gli elementi, gli animali, le fabbriche, le manifatture, ogni età dell’uomo, ogni condizione, ogni affetto, tutte comprese con la divinità del suo ingegno, tutto ridusse più bello.”—p. 71.I have thought this long extract pardonable as applied to one whose finest designs are now, through so many channels, rendered familiar to us.

Consequently when his body before interment lay in the room in which he was accustomed to paint, “Non v’ebbe sì duro artefice che a quello spettacolo non lagrimasse.”—“Ne pianse il Papa.”

Of his works:—“Le sue figure veramente amano, languiscono, temono, sperano, ardiscono; mostrano ira, placabilità, umiltà, orgoglio, come mette bene alla storia: spesso chi mira que’ volti, que’ guardi, quelle mosse, non si ricorda che ha innanzi una immagine; si sente accendere, prende partito, crede di trovarsi in sul fatto.—Tutto parla nel silenzio; ogni attore,Il cor negli occhi e nella fronte ha scritto; i piccioli movimenti degli occhi, degli narici, della bocca, delle dita corrispondono a’ primi moti d’ogni passione; i gesti più animati e più vivi ne descrivono la violenza; e ciò ch’è più, essi variano in cento modi senza uscir mai del naturale, e si attemperano a cento caratteri senza uscir mai dalla proprietà. L’eroe ha movimenti da eroe, il volgar da volgare; e quel che non descriverebbe lingua nè penna, descrive in pochissimi tratti l’ingegno e l’arte di Raffaello.”—p. 65.

“Il paese, gli elementi, gli animali, le fabbriche, le manifatture, ogni età dell’uomo, ogni condizione, ogni affetto, tutte comprese con la divinità del suo ingegno, tutto ridusse più bello.”—p. 71.

I have thought this long extract pardonable as applied to one whose finest designs are now, through so many channels, rendered familiar to us.

[119]In a priced catalogue of His Majesty’s collection of “Limnings,” edited by Vertue, is the following entry. “Item, in a slit box-wooden case, someTWO CARTOONSof Raphael Urbinus for hangings to be made by, andthe otherFIVEare by the King’s appointment delivered to Mr. Francis Cleen at Mortlake, to make hangings by.”—Cartonensia.

“A worthie woman judge, a woman sent for staie.”

“When Fame resounds with thundring trump, which rends the ratling skies,And pierceth to the hautie Heavens, and thence descending fliesThrough flickering ayre: and so conjoines the sea and shore togither,In admiration of thy grace, good Queene, thou’rt welcome hither.”The Receyving of the Queene’s Maiestie into hir Citie of Norwich.

“We may justly wonder what has become of the industry of the English ladies; we hear no more of their rich embroiderings, and curious needlework. Is all the domestic simplicity of the former ages entirely vanished?”—Aikin.

The age of Elizabeth presents a never-failing field of variety through which people of all tastes may delightedly rove, gathering flowers at will. The learned statesman, the acute politician, the subtle lawyer, will find in the measures of her Burleigh, her Walsingham, her Cecil, abundant food for approbation or for censure; the heroic sailor will gloryover the achievements of her time; the adventurous traveller will explore the Eldoradic regions with Raleigh, or plough the waves with Drake and Frobisher; the soldier will recal glorious visions of Essex and Sidney, while poesy wreathes a bay round the memory of the last, which shines freshly and bright even in the age which produced a Ben Jonson, and him “who was born with a star on his forehead to last through all time”—Shakspeare.

The age of Elizabeth was especially a learned age. The study of the dead languages had hitherto been confined almost exclusively to ecclesiastics and scholars by profession, but from the time of Henry the Seventh it had been gradually spreading amongst the higher classes. The great and good Sir Thomas More gave his daughters a learned education, and they did honour to it; Henry the Eighth followed his example; Lady Jane Grey made learning lovely; and Elizabeth’s pedantry brought the habit into full fashion.

If a queen were to talk Sanscrit, her court would endeavour to do so likewise. The example of learned studies was given by the queen herself, who translated from the Greek a play of Euripides, and parts of Isocrates, Xenophon, and Plutarch; from the Latin considerable portions of Cicero, Seneca, Sallust, Horace, &c. She wrote many Latin letters, and is said to have spoken five languages with facility. As a natural consequence the nobility and gentry, their wives and daughters, became enthusiasts in the cause of letters. The novelty which attended these studies, the eager desire to possess what had been so long studiously and jealouslyconcealed, and the curiosity to explore and rifle the treasures of the Greek and Roman world, which mystery and imagination had swelled into the marvellous, contributed to excite an absolute passion for study and for books. The court, the ducal castle, and the baronial hall were suddenly converted into academies, and could boast of splendid tapestries. In the first of these, according to Ascham, might be seen the queen reading “more Greeke every day than some prebendarie of this church doth readLatinin a whole week;” and while she was translating Isocrates or Seneca, it may be easily conceived that her maids of honour found it convenient to praise and to adopt the disposition of her time. In the second, observes Warton, “the daughter of a duchess was taught not only to distil strong waters, but to construe Greek; and in the third, every young lady who aspired to be fashionable was compelled, in imitation of the greater world, to exhibit similar marks of erudition.”

A contemporary writer says, that some of the ladies of the court employ themselves “in continuall reading either of the holie Scriptures, or histories of our owne or forren nations about us, and diverse in writing volumes of their owne, or translating of other mens into our English and Latine toongs. I might here (he adds) make a large discourse of such honorable and grave councellors, and noble personages, as give their dailie attendance upon the queene’s majestie. I could in like sort set foorth a singular commendation of the vertuous beautie, or beautiful vertues of such ladies and gentlewomen as wait upon his person, betweene whose amiablecountenances and costlinesse of attire there seemeth to be such a dailie conflict and contention, as that it is verie difficult for me to gesse whether of the twaine shall beare awaie the preheminence. This further is not to be omitted, to the singular commendation of both sorts and sexes of our courtiers here in England, that there are verie few of them which have not the use and skill of sundrie speaches, beside an excellent veine of writing before-time not regarded. Would to God the rest of their lives and conversations were correspondent to these gifts! for as our common courtiers (for the most part) are the best lerned and endued with excellent gifts, so are manie of them the worst men when they come abroad, that anie man shall either heare or read of. Trulie it is a rare thing with us now to heare of a courtier which hath but his owne language. And to saie how many gentlewomen and ladies there are, that beside sound knowledge of the Greeke and Latine toongs, are thereto no lesse skilful in the Spanish, Italian, and French, or in some one of them, it resteth not in me. Sith I am persuaded, that as the noblemen and gentlemen doo surmount in this behalfe, so these come verie little or nothing at all behind them for their parts, which industrie God continue, and accomplish that which otherwise is wanting!”[120]

At this time the practice (derived from the chivalrous ages, when every baronial castle was the resort of young persons of gentle birth, of both sexes) was by no means discontinued of placing young women, of gentle birth, in the establishmentof ladies of rank, where, without performing any menial offices, they might be supposed to have their own understood duties in the household, and had in return the advantage of a liberal education, and constant association with the best company. Persons of rank and fortune often retained in their service many young people of both sexes of good birth, and bestowed on them the fashionable education of the time. Indeed their houses were the best, if not then the only schools of elegant learning. The following letter, written in 1595, is from a young lady thus situated:

“To my good mother Mrs. Pake, at Broumfield, deliver this.“Deare Mother,“My humble dutye remembred unto my father and you, &c. I received upon Weddensday last a letter from my father and you, whereby, I understand, it is your pleasures that I should certifie you what times I do take for my lute, and the rest of my exercises. I doe for the most part playe of my lute after supper, for then commonlie my lady heareth me; and in the morninges, after I am reddie, I play an hower; and my wrightinge and siferinge, after I have done my lute. For my drawinge I take an hower in the afternowne, and my French at night before supper. My lady hath not bene well these tooe or three dayes: she telleth me, when she is well, that she will see if Hilliard will come and teche me; if she can by any means she will, &c. &c.—As touchinge my newe corse in service, I hope I shall performe my dutye to my ladywith all care and regard to please her, and to behave myselfe to everye one else as it shall become me. Mr. Harrisone was with me upone Fridaye; he heard me playe, and brought me a dusson of trebles; I had some of him when I came to London. Thus desiring pardone for my rude writinge, I leave you to the Almightie, desiringe him to increase in you all health and happines.“Your obedient daughter,“Rebecca Pake.”

“To my good mother Mrs. Pake, at Broumfield, deliver this.

“Deare Mother,

“My humble dutye remembred unto my father and you, &c. I received upon Weddensday last a letter from my father and you, whereby, I understand, it is your pleasures that I should certifie you what times I do take for my lute, and the rest of my exercises. I doe for the most part playe of my lute after supper, for then commonlie my lady heareth me; and in the morninges, after I am reddie, I play an hower; and my wrightinge and siferinge, after I have done my lute. For my drawinge I take an hower in the afternowne, and my French at night before supper. My lady hath not bene well these tooe or three dayes: she telleth me, when she is well, that she will see if Hilliard will come and teche me; if she can by any means she will, &c. &c.—As touchinge my newe corse in service, I hope I shall performe my dutye to my ladywith all care and regard to please her, and to behave myselfe to everye one else as it shall become me. Mr. Harrisone was with me upone Fridaye; he heard me playe, and brought me a dusson of trebles; I had some of him when I came to London. Thus desiring pardone for my rude writinge, I leave you to the Almightie, desiringe him to increase in you all health and happines.

“Your obedient daughter,“Rebecca Pake.”

Could any thing afford a stronger contrast to the grave and certainly severe study to which Elizabeth had habituated herself, than the vain and fantastic puerility of many of her recreations and habits,—the unintellectual brutality of the bearbaits which she admired, or the gaudy and glittering pageants in which she delighted? She built a gallery at Whitehall at immense expense, and so superficially, that it was in ruins in her successor’s time; but it was raised, in order to afford a magnificent reception to the ambassadors who, in 1581, came to treat of an alliance with the Duke of Anjou. It was framed of timber, covered with painted canvas, and decorated with the utmost gaudiness. Pendants of fruit of various kinds (amongst which cucumbers and even carrots are enumerated) were hung from festoons of flowers intermixed with evergreens, and the whole was powdered with gold spangles; the ceiling was painted like a sky with stars, sunbeams, and clouds, intermixed with scutcheons of the royal arms; and glass lustres and ornaments were scattered all around. Here were enacted masques and pageantschiefly remarkable for their pedantic prolixity of composition, and the fulsome and gross flattery towards the queen with which they were throughout invested.

Everything, in accordance with the rage of the day, assumed an erudite, or, more truly speaking, a pedantic cast. When the queen (says Warton) paraded through a country town, almost every pageant was a pantheon. When she paid a visit at the house of any of her nobility, at entering the hall she was saluted by the Penates, and conducted to her privy chamber by Mercury. Even the pastry cooks were expert mythologists. At dinner, select transformations of Ovid’s metamorphoses were exhibited in confectionary; and the splendid iceing of an immense historic plum-cake was embossed with a delicious basso-relievo of the destruction of Troy. In the afternoon, when she condescended to walk in the garden, the lake was covered with Tritons and Nereids; the pages of the family were converted into wood-nymphs, who peeped from every bower; and the footmen gambolled over the lawns in the figure of satyrs.

Scarcely we think could even the effusions of Euphues—a fashion also of this period—be more wearisome to the spirit than a repetition of these dull delights.

This predilection for learning, and the time perforce given to its acquisition, must necessarily have subtracted from those hours which might otherwise have been bestowed on the lighter labours and beguiling occupations of the needle. Nor does it appear that after her accession Elizabeth did muchpatronise this gentle art. She was cast in a more stirring mould. In her father’s court, under her sister’s jealous eye, within her prison’s solitary walls, her needle might be a prudent disguise, a solacing occupation, “woman’s pretty excuse for thought.” But after her own accession to the throneactionwas her characteristic.

Nevertheless we are not to suppose that, because needlework was not “a rage,” it was frowned upon and despised. By no means. It is perhaps fortunate that Elizabeth did not especially patronise it; for so dictatorial and absolute was she, that by virtue of the “right divine” she would have made her statesmen embroider their own robes, and her warriors lay aside the sword for the distaff. But as, happily, it now only held a secondary place in her esteem, we have Raleigh’s poems instead of his sampler, and Bacon’s learning instead of his stitchery. But it was not in her nature to suffer any thing in which she excelled to lie quite dormant. She was an accomplished needlewoman; some exquisite proofs of her skill were then glowing in all their freshness, and her excellence in this art was sufficiently obvious to prevent the ladies of her court from entirely forsaking it. Many books, with patterns for needlework, were published about this time, and in a later one Queen Elizabeth is especially celebrated in a laudatory poem for her skill in it. That proficiency in ornamental needlework was an absolute requisite in the accomplishments of a country belle, may be inferred from the prominent place it holds in Drayton’s description of thewell-educated daughter of a country knight in Elizabeth’s days:

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