תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Kar chose ke trop est poplee.
Meins valt. e meins est amee.
E sens. e aueir. plus uil ensunt.
Kant co'mun est a tut le mond.
Kar si les set sages de Rome.
Neu seusent plus ke altre home.
Nient plus ne fust de eus parle.
Ke daltres ke del siecle sunt ale.
E si li or fut si communs.
E um fer. v acer. v plumbs.
Nient ne fut de greignur chirte.
Ke lautre metal ke ai nome.
Pur ceo beal frere par icele fei.
Vus coniur, q' feistes amei.
Ke vus cest linere pas naprestez.
Si vus congie de moi ne aiez.

For a thing that is too common,

Is less valued and less loved;

And sense and knowledge become more vile,
When they are common to all the world:
For if the seven wise masters of Rome
Knew not more than other men,
Nothing more would be said of them
Than of others of that age that are passed:
And if gold were as common

As iron, or steel, or lead,

It would not be of greater dearness
Than the other metals that I have named.
Therefore, fair brother, by this faith,

I entreat you, as you profess friendship,
That you do not lend this book,

If you have not leave from me.

The principal merit of this author is, that he appears to have been the earliest writer on the subject; for, in other respects, his book contains no openings, and his ends of games are many of them so obscure, and his directions to play them so imperfect and unsatisfactory, that they almost defy elucidation. Still many of them undoubtedly merit commendation, and afford no inconclusive argument, that the knowledge of this game, at that early period, was not only far from being contemptible, but, on the contrary, exhibited a considerable portion of skill. Some of the parties in this manuscript are designated by a particular title, allusive either to the situation of the pieces, or nature of the game; a custom introduced probably for the sake of assisting the memory, and forming a species of memoria technica for the amateur. The following list shews the names given in this treatise to many of the parties and ends of games:

Game 3..Ki peot si prenge.

4.. Covena'nt lei ueint.

5.. Ki ne done chose amee.

Ne prendra chose desiree.

6.. Muse uilain.

12.. Giu des alfins.
13. Fol sil prent.

The remaining eight games are without titles to them.

The first game in this manuscript is introduced by the following short tale, no doubt inserted by the writer to induce his readers to examine the work, which even the interesting game of chess would have failed in effecting, without the additional temptation of a romance, and that a love one!

Dui baron estient iadis.
Ke des esches vrent apris.
A vn ior paratie sasistrent.

As esches giuer. e g'ntment mistrent.
Li vns mist sa teste pur copore.
Lautre sa fille. sil nel pout mater.
Tant iuerent kil fust suspris.
Ke sa teste al giu ont mis.
Mult fut dolent pur mort se tint.

Kant la nouele a la pucele vint.
Ke sil amis a mort ert liuerez.
Kant ele lentent. auale les desgrez.

There were formerly two barons,

Who had learnt chess;

One day they sat down

To play at chess, and greatly they staked.
The one staked his head to be cut off,
The other his daughter, if he could not mate him.
They played until he was surprised*
Who had staked his head on the game.
He was much troubled, preparing himself for
death,

When the news to the maid came
That her lover to death was delivered.
When she heard it, down the steps

* A chess term, the precise meaning of which is not clear.

De la chaumbre en la sale entra.
Vit sun ami susps. mult li peisa.

G'nt feice estut e estudia.
Coment deliuerer le purra.
Puis dit. m'lt est fols e bricun.
Ke sa teste met en raancun.
As esches. si bien ne purueit.
Vitre le neofime tret. e aparceit.
Quele chose aider la porra.
Plus ne dit. sis peres se coroca.
E iura ke mal ot parlee.
La pucele en chaumbre reestalee.
Le chiualer a ki ele ceo ot dit.
Mult estudia. e tant puruit.
Kil vit la defense e la mateson.
Si cum nus ici le aprendrum.

From her chamber* into the hall she entered. She saw her lover surprised-much she was concerned,

Long time she stood and studied

How she might deliver him:
Then she said, "He is very foolish
Who his head puts in ransom

At chess, unless he can well perceive
Beyond the ninth move, and see
What thing may aid him."

More she said not: her father was angry,
And swore it was ill-spoken.

The maid returned to her chamber.
The Knight on what she had said

Studied much, and so long surveyed it,

That he saw the defence and the check-mate,
As we have here learnt it.

That the author was not an ecclesiastic is evident from the uncomplimentary allusions to the clergy, in various parts of the Manuscript. Thus, in pag. 5. col. 1.

Cist giu resemble nos lettrez.

Nos eueskes, e nos abbez.
Ke tant riche sunt de g'nt auer.
E tant sages de terrien sauer.
E a degre e tut aesuent.

Lur almes liuerent a turment.

Si ke le diable uoillent v nun.
Les liuerent a perdicion.

Kar il alieuent filles e fiz.

E lur porenz (?) e lur norriz. &c. &c.

At the end of this MS. are the following Latin lines on the moves of the pieces at Chess:

It pedes ad bellum prior incipit ip'e duellum.
Pergit in obliquum punctum feriens inimicuin.
Alpheus in triueis parat insidias inimicis.
Pugnat potenter temptatq' ferire latenter.
Miles in aduerso puncto mediante relicto.
Prosilit & fortem prosternit fortior hostem.
Linea si pateat roco. capit omne q'd obstat
Pergit in obliquum regalis femina punctum.
Si scacces regem regalem perdere sedem.
Cogitur. & totus sit de sede remotus.

Dic regi scaccum. si semita non patet illi.
Matus erit factus. nusq'm latuisse coactus.

These lines are taken, with a slight variation, from a short poem on chess, (Bibl. Regia 12 E. xxi.) entitled, “ Incipit modus et scientia ludi Scaccorum," which will be mentioned in its proper place, as will likewise another treatise (in the same Manuscript) attributed to Pope Innocent, and entitled, "Sequitur quædam moralitas de Scaccario, per Dominum Innocentium Papam."

There is a Chess MS. in the King's Library, marked 13 A. xviii.,

The chambers of the ladies about the period of this manuscript were constructed of wooden boards or shingles, and called chambers or bowers, probably from their resemblance to an arbour. The hall, in which the noblemen and their feudatories resided, formed a separate building, connected either by a flight of steps, or a long and narrow passage.

considerably longer than that just described, and containing not only all the positions in that treatise, but many additional games. The writer has evidently formed his book on the foundation of the former, and has extended it to nearly two thousand lines. The names of the games are as follows:

Game 1.. Guy de chr'.

2.. Guy de chr'.

3.. Guy de chr'.

4.. Le guy de dames.

5.. Le guy de damoyseles.

6.. Le guy de alfins.

7.. Le guy de alfins.
8.. Le guy de anel.
9.. Le guy de couenau't.
10.. Guy de p'pre confusiou'.
11.. Guy de p'pre confusiou'.
12.. Guy de p'pre confusiou'.
13.. Mal assis.
14.. Guy cotidian.
15.. Le guy cotidian.
16.. Le poynt estrau'ge.
17.. Le poynt estrau'ge.
18.. Ky perde sey salue.

19.. Ky ne donne ceo ke il eyme ne
p'nt ke desire.

20.. Bien troue.

21.. Beal petiz.

[blocks in formation]

Game 28.. Meschef fet hom penser.

29.. La chace de chiualer.

30.. La chace de ferce e de chr'. 31.. Bien fort.

32.. Fol si prent.

33.. Ly ennoyous.

34.. Le seons sey ennoye.
35. Le veil conu.
36.. Le haut enprise.
37.. Le guy de cu'dut.
38. Ky put se prenge.
39.. La batalie saunz aray.
40.. Le tret emble.
41.. Le tret emble.

42.. Ly desperez.

43.. Ly meruelious.

44.. Ly meruelious.

45.. De pou' ferce home fet.
46.. Muse vyleyn.

47.. Le guy de dames & de da-
moyseles.

48.. Fol si sey fie.

49.. Has no title.
50.. Mal veysyn.

51.. Has no title.

52.. Le mat de ferces.

53.. Flour de guys.

54.. Le batalie de Rokes.
55.. Duble eschec.

The MS. opens with the following preface, taken from that prefixed to the Cotton Manuscript:

Icy come cent les iup'tiez des Esches.

Seignours, vn poy entendez.
Vs. ke les gius des eschez ames.
E ieo vn p'tie V3. dirray.
Solunc ceo ke apris enaỳ.
De plusures mestres les ay apris.
Grau't ueisdie i ad moy est auys.
Kar kỳ voudra ente'tiueme't.
Des giusp'tiez apredre le doctneme't.
Les sutils trayz & les matey sou❜nes.
Les defenses cu' les apre'deromes.
En tute cours asseureme't.

Juer porra le plus afeiteme't.
Mes Vs. ke ceste liueret en auez.

Vs. requer ke top ne le pupliez.
Meyns vaut & meyns est amee.
E sens & auer plus vil ensou't.
Ka'nt co'mon sou't a tut le mo❜nd.
Kar si li set sage de rome.
Ne siussent plus ke altre home.
Nient plus ne fut ore de eus p'le.
Ke des altres ke del siecle su't passe.
E si li or fut si comuns.
Q'n fer ou assez ou plumbs.
Il ne fut de plus chierte.
Ke altre metal q' aỳ nome.

DUBLIN, IN 1822.

DUBLIN is a miniature of London: it is built like a metropolis, and has its squares and great streets. It is not like any of the great provincial towns which are places of trade, and only inhabited by persons more or less directly connected with trade; nor is it, like Bath, a great theatre of amusement. It exhibits the same variety of ranks as London. It has its little court, its viceroy, with all the attendants upon his reflected royalty; it has its little aristocracy and its leaders of bon ton; it has its corporation; it has its Lord Mayor, and all the pageantry of city grandeur; it has its manufacturing, its mercantile, and its monied interests: it is the Westminster of Ireland, and is accordingly the locus in quo of judges, barristers, attorneys, &c. Almost every thing we find in London may be found also in Dublin. The difference is but in degree, and the similitude may be traced in the minutest details. Dublin has its club-rooms, just as we have our's in St. James'sstreet; there are also balls on the same aristocratic plan as ours at Almack's; and the gardens attached to the Rotunda are, during the season, lighted up in humble and distant imitation of Vauxhall. Dublin too resembles the English capital in its ebbs and flows. At the commencement of the long vacation the gentlemen of the long robe take wing, and the whole moveable population disembogues itself into the cottages, villas, and mansions which line the Bay. Before the Union the resemblance was, no doubt, more complete; and the state of society then existing must have been exceedingly worthy of observation, and the varieties it presented highly entertaining. The recollections of this period cherished by the elder inhabitants of Dublin are very lively, and their representations of the great excitement and festivity which prevailed are probably correct. While the rich nobles and gentry were attending in their places in the parliament, all was gaiety and animation. The wealth which was necessarily diffused, increased the shrewdness and enlivened the humour of the most quickwitted people of Europe. The very chairmen, porters, and shoe-blacks (a fraternity now, alas! nearly extinct) partook the general hilarity, and cracked such jokes and said such excellent things as they are now seldom heard to utter. The mob, previous to the extinction of the Irish parliament, took a warm interest in the subjects of its debates, which were of a popular nature; and several choice spirits arose, whose feats and prowess are recorded in many a ballad and ditty. Parties ran high, and one quarter of the city was sometimes arrayed against the other. The coal-porters were at one time at variance with the weavers of the Liberty; the burden of their war-cry ran thus :

"We'll not leave a weaver alive in the Combe*,

We'll cut their weft, and we'll break their loom."

But the feuds of the coal-porters and weavers are now nearly forgotten. Had they not had a bard, we should not now have mentioned them. At this period a slang arose, and very generally prevailed amongst the

*The Combe in Dublin is near St. Patrick's (Swift's !) cathedral; the situation is a low one, and we presume that it should properly be spelled without the final e.— See Johnson's Dictionary, v. Comb, and Camden's Britannia, by Gibson.

lower orders, which was of a most curious character, and which gave additional zest to their farcical sayings and jests. The dialogue between two shoeblacks playing pitch and toss, which appeared in Edgeworth's Irish Bulls, is exquisite in its kind. What dandy of the highest water could make a proposition to a brother fop in a finer spirit of enjouement than that conveyed in the phrase "Tim, will you sky a copper?" and the glorious conclusion spoken in a tone of such profligate valour, and "So I gives it him, plaise your honour, into the bread-basket with my bread-winner (knife) up to the Lampsey (maker's name)!" Even better than this we deem "The night before Larry was stretched," one of the best slang songs ever made. In the records of Irish crime such offenders as Larry are often found. Our Old Bailey culprits are dark, gloomy knaves; but the Irish rogues are all Macheaths and Don Juans in their way, gay, bold, dashing villains.” An Irishman was asked by an acquaintance one day why he looked so sad. "Ah!" was his reply, "I have just taken leave for ever of one of the pleasantest fellows, a friend of mine, whom the world ever saw.”

[ocr errors]

"How, for ever?"-" Yes, for ever; he's to be hanged to-day for a burglary!" It was a fact that this gentleman, now enjoying name and station, used to frequent the Dublin Newgate, and found his boon companions among some of its inmates; and certainly those who have a stomach strong enough for coarse low humour, could not make a better selection.

While Dublin was the seat of legislature, there was a great commixture of the Bar with the members of the House of Commons: almost every lawyer of any eminence had a seat in parliament; the scene was a strange one. Not merely all interests, but all the varieties of human character had their suitable representations. In the British House of Commons the active men are all endowed with much the same qualities there is some small distinction between the great orators and the men of business; every man is expected, however, to exhibit good sense and information. In the Irish parliament it was not so. Business was carried on there in every possible diversity of means. There were the fighting members, ready to take off an obnoxious man if he did but "bite his thumb;" there were the jokers, who prostrated a foe with a bon mot, or a sneer at his expense; there were the vehement declaimers, whose weapon was invective, and who levelled abuse at him whose views and reasonings they could not impugn. Let any one look to the Irish debates, and he will find ample fund for astonishment. The entire city used to be pervaded with anxiety upon the subject under discussion in the house. Multitudes used to throng its avenues and cheer the popular members. All this is now past, and the scene is comparatively dull; but there is yet much in Dublin to repay enquiry skilfully directed, and to excite interest. The great proprietors no longer residing in Dublin, the first place in society has naturally devolved to the Bar, which, generally speaking, is held in higher estimation in Ireland than in this country. The profession is by no means so much detached as here, and a counsellor, as he is termed, is expected to be not merely acquainted with law, but to be well-informed on every subject, and he is accordingly regarded as an authority upon all points. An English practitioner would be much surprised at the course of an Irish barrister's life. The courts do not sit till near eleven

« הקודםהמשך »