No More Learning

He
asked the Lords whether this was possible: they replied that it
would endanger himself and his wife and children. For no relax-
ation was to be obtained from the universal disposition both in
Parliament and in the city. Unless the King gave way it would
be scarcely possible to maintain his government any longer.
At the news of the King's submission, Strafford exclaimed
that "No one should trust in princes, who are but men. ” The
genuineness of his letter has been denied, it being supposed that
others wrote it in order to remove the King's personal scruples;
but a thorough examination of the fact removes every doubt.
Though Strafford confirmed in his own person the experience
expressed in the words of Scripture,* he himself with his last
words gave, with high-minded forbearance, the opinion that it
was necessary to sacrifice him, in consideration of the general
circumstances and of the possible consequences.
Strafford went to the scaffold in an exalted frame of mind.
On his way he saw Laud, who at his request appeared at the
window of his prison. The archbishop was unable to speak.
Strafford bade him farewell, and prayed that God might protect
his innocence; for he had no doubt that he was in the right in
fulfilling his King's will, and establishing his prerogative. He
persisted that he had never intended either to destroy the parlia-
mentary constitution, or to endanger the Protestant Church. He
did not appeal to the judgment of posterity, as if he had been
conscious that great antagonisms are transmitted from generation
to generation: he looked for a righteous judgment in the other
world.
Such moments must come, in order to bring to light the
absolute independence of success and of the world's judgment
which strong characters possess.
His guilt was of a nature entirely political; he had done his
best to guide the King in these complications, undoubtedly in the
belief that he was right in so doing, but still with indiscreet
zeal. So also his execution was a political act: it was the expres-
sion of the defeat which he had suffered and occasioned, of the
triumph of the ideas against which he had contended to the
death.
*«Put not your trust in princes" was the exact phrase he used.


## p. 12083 (#121) ##########################################

LEOPOLD VON RANKE
12083
THE RISE OF THE JESUITS IN GERMANY
From the History of the Popes of Rome >
T THE diet of Augsburg, in the year 1550, Ferdinand I. was
AT accompanied by his confessor, Bishop Urban of Laibach.
Urban was one of the few prelates whose opinions had
remained unshaken. At home he often ascended the pulpit to
exhort the people, in their own provincial dialect, to be constant
to the faith of their fathers; he preached to them of the one
fold under the one Shepherd. At this time the Jesuit Le Jay
was also at Augsburg, and excited great attention by his conver-
sions. Bishop Urban made his acquaintance, and from him first
heard of the colleges which the Jesuits had founded in several
universities. In order to rescue Catholic theology from the neg-
lect into which it had fallen in Germany, he advised his mas-
ter to establish a similar college at Vienna.
Ferdinand eagerly
embraced the project; and in the letter he addressed on the
subject to Ignatius Loyola, he expressed his conviction that the
only means of propping the declining cause of Catholicism in
Germany was to give the rising generation learned and pious
Catholic teachers. The arrangements were quickly made. In
the year 1551 thirteen Jesuits, among whom was Le Jay him-
self, arrived at Vienna, where Ferdinand instantly granted them
a dwelling, chapel, and pension; and shortly after incorporated
them with the university, and assigned them the superintendence
of it.
They soon after rose into consideration at Cologne, where
they had already dwelt for two years, but had been so far from
making any progress that they had even been forced to live sep-
arate; nor was it till the year 1556 that the endowed school,
established under a Protestant regent, gave them the means of
acquiring a more secure footing.
secure footing. For as there was a party in
the city which was most deeply interested in keeping the univer-
sity Catholic, the partisans of the Jesuits at length prevailed on
the citizens to confide the direction of the establishment to that
order. Their great advocates were -the prior of the Carthus-
ians; the provincial of the Carmelites; and above all, Dr. Johann
Gropper, who occasionally gave a feast to which he invited the
most influential burghers, in order that after the good old Ger-
man fashion, he might further the interests he had most at heart,
-


## p. 12084 (#122) ##########################################

12084
LEOPOLD VON RANKE
over a glass of wine. Fortunately for the Jesuits, one of their
order was a native of Cologne,- Johann Rhetius, a man of patri-
cian family, to whom the endowed school could be more partic-
ularly intrusted. This could not however be done without very
considerable restrictions: the Jesuits were expressly forbidden to
introduce into the school those monastic rules of life which were
in force in their colleges.
At the same period they also gained a firm footing in Ingol-
stadt. Their former attempts had been frustrated chiefly by the
resistance of the younger members of the university, who would
not suffer any privileged school to interfere with the private in-
struction they gave. In the year 1556, however,- after the duke,
as we have already related, had been obliged to make important
concessions in favor of the Protestants,-the duke's counselors,
who were zealous Catholics, deemed it a matter of urgent neces-
sity to have recourse to some vigorous measures for the support
of the ancient faith. The principal movers were the chancellor,
Wiguleus Hund, a man who displayed as much zeal in the
support of the Church as in the study of her ancient history and
constitution, and the duke's private secretary, Heinrich Schwig-
ger. By their instrumentality the Jesuits were recalled, and eigh-
teen of them entered Ingolstadt on the day of St. Wilibald, the
7th of July, 1556. They chose that day because St. Wilibald was
said to have been the first bishop of the diocese. They still had
to encounter great difficulties in the town and in the university;
but they gradually overcame all opposition by the assistance of
the same patronage to which they owed their establishment.
From these three metropolitan settlements the Jesuits now
spread in all directions.
―――――――
From Vienna they immediately extended over the whole of
the Austrian dominions. In 1556, Ferdinand I. removed some
of them to Prague, and founded a school there, intended princi-
pally for the young nobility. To this he sent his own pages, and
the order found support and encouragement from the Catholic
portion of the Bohemian nobility, especially from the families of
Rosenberg and Lobkowitz. One of the most considerable men
in Hungary at that time was Nicolaus Olahus, Archbishop of
Gran,-of Wallachian extraction, as his name denotes. His father
Stoia, in a fit of terror for the murder of a woiwode of his
family, had consecrated him to the Church, and the success of
his destination was complete. Under the last native kings he


## p. 12085 (#123) ##########################################

LEOPOLD VON RANKE
12085
filled the important office of private secretary, and he had subse-
quently risen still higher in the service of the Austrian party.
At the time of the general decline of Catholicism in Hungary,
he perceived that the only hope of support for it was from the
common people, who were not entirely alienated. But here also
Catholic teachers were wanting; in order to form them, he
founded a college of Jesuits at Tyrnau in 1561, and gave them a
pension out of his own income, to which the Emperor Ferdinand
added the grant of an abbey. An assembly of the clergy of the
diocese had just been convoked when the Jesuits arrived. Their
first labors were devoted to an attempt to reclaim the Hunga-
rian priests and clergymen from the heterodox opinions to which
they leaned. They were immediately after summoned to Moravia
also. William Prussinowski, bishop of Olmütz, who had become
acquainted with the order when he was studying in Italy, invited
them to his diocese: Hurtado Perez, a Spaniard, was the first
rector in Olmütz. Shortly after we find them likewise established
at Brünn.
From Cologne the society spread over the whole of the Rhen-
ish provinces. We have already mentioned that Protestantism
had found adherents, and had occasioned some fermentation in
Trèves. The archbishop Johann von Stein had determined to
inflict only slight punishments on the recalcitrants, and to oppose
innovation by argument rather than by force. He summoned
the two principals of the Jesuit college of Cologne to repair to
him at Coblentz, and represented to them that he wished to
have some of the members of their body with him; "in order,"
as he expresses it, "to lead the flock intrusted to him in their
duty, rather by means of admonition and friendly instruction,
than by arms or threats. " He then addressed himself to Rome,
and very soon came to an understanding with both. Six Jesu-
its were sent to him from Rome; the rest came from Cologne.
They opened their college with great solemnity on February 3d,
1561, and undertook to preach during the approaching season of
Lent.
Two privy-councilors of the elector Daniel of Mayence, Peter
Echter and Simon Bagen, now thought they perceived that the
introduction of the Jesuits was the only means of restoring the
declining university of Mayence. In spite of the opposition of
the canons and feudal lords, they founded for the order a college
at Mayence and a preparatory school at Aschaffenburg.


## p. 12086 (#124) ##########################################

12086
LEOPOLD VON RANKE
The society continued to advance higher up the Rhine. What
they more particularly desired was an establishment at Spires:
partly because the body of assessors to the Kammergericht in-
cluded so many remarkable men, over whom it would be of the
greatest importance to obtain influence; and partly in order to
place themselves in immediate and local opposition to the uni-
versity of Heidelberg, which at that time enjoyed the greatest
celebrity for its Protestant professors. The Jesuits gradually
gained a footing at Spires.
Without further delay they also tried their fortune along the
Main. Although Frankfort was wholly Protestant, they hoped
to achieve something there during the fair. This was not to be
done without danger, and they were forced to change their lodg
ing every night for fear of being discovered.
At Würzburg they were far safer and more welcome. It
seemed as if the exhortation which the Emperor Ferdinand
addressed to the bishops at the Diet of 1559, imploring them to
exert their strength at last in the support of the Catholic Church,
had contributed greatly to the brilliant success of the order in
the spiritual principalities. From Würzburg they spread through-
out Franconia.
In the mean while the Tyrol had been opened to them from
another point. At the desire of the Emperor's daughters they
settled themselves at Innsbrück, and then at Hall in that neigh-
borhood. In Bavaria they continued to make great progress. At
Munich, which they entered in 1559, they were even better satis-
fied than at Ingolstadt, and pronounced it to be "the Rome of
Germany. " A large new colony had already arisen not far from
Ingolstadt. In order to restore his university of Dillingen to its
original purpose, Cardinal Truchsess resolved to dismiss all the
professors who then taught there, and to commit the institution
to the exclusive care of Jesuits. A formal treaty was accordingly
concluded at Botzen, between German and Italian commissaries
of the cardinal and of the order. In the year 1563 the Jesuits
arrived in Dillingen, and took possession of the chairs of the
university. They relate with great complacency how the car-
dinal, who, returning shortly afterwards from a journey, made a
solemn entrance into Dillingen, turned with marked preference to
the Jesuits, amidst all the crowd arrayed to receive him, stretched
out his hand to them to kiss, greeted them as his brethren, vis-
ited their cells himself, and dined with them. He encouraged


## p. 12087 (#125) ##########################################

LEOPOLD VON RANK
12087
them to the utmost of his power, and soon established a mission
for them in Augsburg.
This was a most extraordinary progress of the society in so
short a time. As late as the year 1551 they had no firm sta-
tion in Germany: in 1566 their influence extended over Bavaria
and Tyrol, Franconia and Suabia, a great part of the Rhineland,
and Austria; they had penetrated into Hungary, Bohemia: and
Moravia. The effects of their labors were already perceptible;
in the year 1561, the papal nuncio affirms that "they gain over
many souls, and render great service to the Holy See. " This
was the first counteracting impulse, the first anti-Protestant im-
pression, that Germany received.
Above all, they labored at the improvement of the universities.
They were ambitious of their rivaling the fame of those of the
Protestants. The education of the time, being a purely learned
one, rested exclusively on the study of the languages of antiquity.
These the Jesuits cultivated with great ardor; and in a short
time they had among them teachers who might claim to be
ranked with the restorers of classical learning. They likewise
addicted themselves to the strict sciences; at Cologne, Franz
Koster taught astronomy in a manner equally agreeable and
instructive. Theological discipline, however, of course continued
the principal object. The Jesuits lectured with the greatest dili-
gence, even during the holidays; they re-introduced the practice
of disputations, without which they said all instruction was dead.
These were held in public, and were dignified, decorous, rich in
matter: in short, the most brilliant that had ever been witnessed.
In Ingolstadt they soon persuaded themselves that they had
attained to an equality with any other university in Germany, at
least in the faculty of theology. Ingolstadt acquired (in the con-
trary spirit) an influence like that which Wittenberg and Geneva
possessed.
The Jesuits devoted an equal degree of assiduity to the direc-
tion of the Latin schools. It was one of the principal maxims
of Lainez, that the lower grammar-schools should be provided
with good masters. He maintained that the character and con-
duct of man were mainly determined by the first impressions.
he received. With accurate discrimination, he chose men who,
when they had once undertaken this subordinate branch of teach-
ing, were willing to devote their whole lives to it; for it was
only with time that so difficult a business could be learned, or
the authority indispensable to a teacher be acquired. Here the


## p. 12088 (#126) ##########################################

12088
LEOPOLD VON RANKE
Jesuits succeeded to admiration: it was found that their scholars
learned more in one year than those of other masters in two;
and even Protestants recalled their children from distant gym-
nasia and committed them to their care.
Schools for the poor, modes of instruction suited to children,
and catechizing, followed. Canisius constructed his catechism,
which satisfied the mental wants of the learners by its well-
connected questions and concise answers.
The whole course of instruction was given entirely in that
enthusiastic, devout spirit which had characterized the Jesuits
from their earliest institution.
―――
Translated by Sarah Austin.
THE LAST YEARS OF QUEEN JOHANNA
From the History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations'
THE
HE old hereditary faction of the Nuñez and Gamboa, whose
heads were Najara and the Condestable, had already again
showed themselves among the grandees. What was next to
come depended chiefly upon the Queen's state of health. The
disease from which she was suffering first declared itself on Phil-
ip's journey to Lyons; that is, in the year 1503. After taking leave
of him with many tears, she never more raised her eyes, or said
a word save that she wished to follow him. When she learnt
that he had obtained a safe-conduct for her also, she heeded her
mother no longer; but ordered her carriage to proceed to Bay-
onne; thence - for horses were refused her- she attempted to
set out on foot; and when the gate was closed, she remained, in
spite of the entreaties of her attendant ladies and her father
confessor, in her light attire, sitting upon the barrier until late
into the November night; it was only her mother who at length
contrived to persuade her to seek her chamber. At last she
found her husband. She found him devoted to a beautiful girl
with fair hair. In a momentary outburst of jealous passion, she
had the girl's hair cut off. Philip did not conceal his vexation.
Here who can fathom the unexplored depths of the soul, see
where it unconsciously works, and where it unconsciously suffers;
who can discover where the root of its health or sickness lies? —
her mind became overshadowed. In Spain her love for Philip,
and in the Netherlands her reverence for her father, were her
guiding passions: these two feelings possessed her whole being,


## p. 12089 (#127) ##########################################

LEOPOLD VON RANKE
12089
alternately influenced her, and excluded the rest of the world.
Since then, she still knew the affairs of ordinary life, and could
portray vividly and accurately to her mind distant things; but
she knew not how to suit herself to the varying circumstances of
life.
Whilst still in the Netherlands, she expressed the wish that
her father should retain the government in his hands. On her
return to Spain, she entered her capital in a black-velvet tunic
and with veiled face; she would frequently sit in a dark room,
her cap drawn half over her face, wishing to be able only to
speak for once with her father. But it was not until after her
husband's death that her disease became fully developed. She
caused his corpse to be brought into a hall, attired in dress half
Flemish, half Spanish, and the obsequies celebrated over it. She
never, the while, gave vent to a sob. She did not shed tears, but
only sat and laid her hand to her chin. The plague drove her
away from Burgos, but not away from her loved corpse. A
monk had once told her that he knew of a king who awoke to
life after being fourteen years dead. She took the corpse about
with her. Four Frisian stallions drew the coffin, which was con-
veyed at night, surrounded by torches. Sometimes it halted, and
the singers sang wailing songs. Having thus come to Furnillos,
a small place of fourteen or fifteen houses, she perceived there a
pretty house with a fine view, and remained there; "for it was
unseemly for a widow to live in a populous city. " There she
retained the members of the government who had been installed,
the grandees of her court dwelling with her. Around the coffin
she gave her audiences.
.
In Tortoles the King met his daughter. As soon as they set
eyes on each other, the father took off his hat, and the daughter
her mourning-veil. When she prostrated herself to kiss his feet,
and he sank on one knee to recognize her royal dignity, they
embraced and opened their hearts to each other. He shed tears.
Tears she had none, but she granted his desire; only she would
not consent to bury the corpse. "Why so soon? " she inquired.
Nor would she go to Burgos, where she had lost her husband.
He took her to Tordesillas. Here the queen of such vast realms
lived for forty-seven years. She educated her youngest daugh-
ter, gazed from the window upon the grave of her dear departed,
and prayed for his eternal happiness. Her soul never more dis-
closed itself to the world.


## p. 12090 (#128) ##########################################

12090
LEOPOLD VON RANKE
THE SWISS ARMY IN ITALY IN 1513: AND THE BATTLE OF
NOVARA
From the History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations>
TH
HE four thousand Swiss who were in the country retired from
place to place. When thus the whole country rose up in
revolt, the French from the Castle of Milan again marched
through the city as lords and masters, and the four thousand
with their duke at their head fled to Novara, the very city where
Lodovico had been betrayed,- all appeared to be at an end;
and Trivulzio boasted that he had the Swiss like molten lead in
a spoon.
But on this occasion he boasted prematurely. The Swiss re-
plied to his attempts to persuade them, "With arms should he
try them, and not with words. " They all followed in this mat-
ter the advice of Benedict von Weingarten,- a man, according to
Anselm, stout, upright, and wise, who, though he unwillingly
took the command, led them bravely. The French attacks met
with almost more contempt than resistance. The gates of Novara
were left open, and the breach-holes hung with sheets. Whilst
thus the Swiss, by this show of unanimous bravery, wiped out
the shame of Novara of fourteen years before, their confeder-
ates of the reserve crossed the mountains: the greater portion, the
Waldstadts and Berne, came over the St. Gothard and down by
the Lake Maggiore; whilst the smaller contingent, the Zürichers
and Churwalden, crossed the Little St. Bernard and descended to
Lake Como. A messenger soon arrived, asking "why they hur-
ried? there was no danger;" a priest shortly afterwards made
the announcement that "the duke and all the Swiss had been
slain. " But they collected, and resolved to find their comrades,
dead or alive. Both forces hastened; the nearest road from the
St. Gothard was chosen; and on July 5th the greater part of
the force had arrived close to Novara.
On the same day the French raised the siege. On the road
to Trecas, Trivulzio selected a rising knoll called Riotta, which,
owing to ditches and marshes, was well suited for defense; they
bivouacked here at night, mounted their guns, and intended the
following morning to fix their iron palisade. Their good in-
trenchments emboldened them to await the coming of the six
thousand lansquenets, who with five hundred fresh lances were
already in the Susa Valley.


## p. 12091 (#129) ##########################################

LEOPOLD VON RANKE
12091
As soon as the Swiss appear in the field, their whole thought
is battle. They have neither generals nor plans, nor yet any
carefully considered strategy: the God of their fathers and St.
Urs, their strong arm and the halberd, are enough for them, and
their bravery shows them the way. Those who had arrived
at Novara on June 6th refreshed themselves with a draught, an
hour's sleep, and another draught; and then, without waiting for
the Zürichers, they all-both those who had been there and the
fresh arrivals-rushed in disorder, like a swarm of bees flying
from the hive into the summer sun, as Anselm describes it,
through the gates and the breaches, into the open. They were
almost without guns, entirely without cavalry, and many were
without armor; but all the same they rushed on the enemy,
well intrenched as he was behind good artillery, and upon those
knights "without fear and blame" in full cuirass.
They stood face to face with the enemy; the first rays of the
rising sun flashed from their breastplates; they seemed to them
like a hill of gleaming steel.
They first attacked the lances and cannon of Robert von der
Mark. Here were engaged the smaller body, in whose front
ranks stood with their spears the bravest heroes,-two Diesbachs,
Ærni Winkelried, and Niklaus Conrad, all distinguished for their
ancestry or the nobility of virtue: the greater body, almost more
by instinct than intention, made in the midst of the smoke and
the first effect of the hostile artillery a detour round a copse;
it sought and found the lansquenets. As these latter were re-
inforced by artillery, the Swiss again separated. Some fought
against the Black Flags; the greater part, however, threw them-
selves upon the guns. Thus they fought in three distinct places:
the first against the knights, who often broke up their own.
ranks and appeared behind their flags,—but they always rallied
and threw back their assailants; the next, four hundred men,
wielding the halberd in both hands, fought against a company of
Fleuranges's Black Flags, dealing blow for blow and thrust for
thrust; whilst the third and greatest body were engaged with the
lansquenets, who, besides cannon, had eight hundred arquebuses.
But soon the rain of bullets ceased: only the clash of swords and
the crash of pikes was audible. At length the flags of the lans-
quenets sank; their leaders were buried under a heap of slain;
their cannon were lost, and employed against them. Meanwhile
the Blacks also gave way. Robert von der Mark looked about


## p. 12092 (#130) ##########################################

12092
LEOPOLD VON RANKE
him: he saw his foot soldiery and his sons lost; in order to save
these, he also retreated. He found them among the dead, among
the victors, bleeding still from wounds, and rescued them. In
vain did Trivulzio appeal to St. Catherine and St. Mark; he too,
as well as Tremouille who was wounded, was forced to retire.
The Swiss gave no quarter to the fugitives whom they overtook;
they then returned, ordered their ranks for prayer, and knelt
down to give thanks to God and their saints. They next set
about dividing the spoil and burying the dead.
It was the second hour in the morning when the tidings of
the issue of the battle reached Milan.
The French, who in an-
ticipation of victory had left the castle, immediately fled,- some
back thither, others to the churches and their friends' palaces;
the Ghibelline faction at once rose, and city and country returned
to their allegiance to Maximilian Sforza. The Swiss undertook
to chastise those who had revolted. They compelled the Aste-
sans who had left their houses to pay one hundred thousand
ducats; Savoy, which had gone over to the enemy, fifty thou-
sand; and Montferrat, which had insulted their ambassador, one
hundred thousand. This event enabled the Spaniards to hold
their heads high. In Genoa they restored the Fregosi, who had
been expelled for twenty-one days, and Ottaviano among them;
they reconquered Bergamo, Brescia, and Peschiera, which also had
revolted.
After this victory, the Swiss enjoyed far greater power in
Milan than ever before. "What you have restored by your blood
and your strength," wrote Maximilian Sforza, "shall belong for
the future as much to you as to me;" and these were not empty
words. The Swiss perceived that they were strong enough to
attempt other achievements. "If we could only reckon upon
obedience in our men," they were heard to say, we would
march through the whole of France, long and broad as it is. "
<<
MAXIMILIAN AT THE DIET OF WORMS
From the History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations'
IN
N MARCH 1495, Maximilian came to the Diet at Worms. He
showed himself in his full chivalrous bearing, when he him-
self entered the lists with a Frenchman who had come to
challenge all the Germans, and conquered him. He appeared


## p. 12093 (#131) ##########################################

LEOPOLD VON RANKE
12093
in the full glory of his regal dignity when he sat in public
between the archbishops and his chancellors. On such occas-
ions, the Count Palatine sat on his right and held his orb, on his
left stood the Duke of Saxony and held his sword; before him,
facing him, stood the envoy of Brandenburg with the sceptre,
and behind him, instead of Bohemia, the hereditary cupbearer of
Limburg with the crown; and grouped round him were the rest
of the forty princes, sixty-seven counts and lords, -as many as
had come, and the ambassadors of the cities, and others, all in
their order. Then a prince would come before him, lower his
colors before the royal throne, and receive enfeoffment. One
could not perceive that the mode of enfeoffment involved any
compulsion upon the King, or that the insignia of royal power
resided in the hands of the princes.
At this Reichstag the King gained two momentous prospects.
In Würtemberg there had sprung from two lines two counts of
quite opposite characters. The elder was kind-hearted, tender,
always resolute, and dared "sleep in the lap of any one of his sub-
jects"; the younger, volatile, unsteady, violent, and always repent-
ant of what he had done. Both were named Eberhard; but the
elder, by special favor of the Imperial Court, also governed the
land of the younger. In return for this he furnished four hun-
dred horse for the Hungarian war, and dispatched aid against
Flanders. With the elder, Maximilian now entered into a compact.
Würtemberg was to be raised to a dukedom,-an elevation which
excluded the female line from the succession; and in the event
of the stock failing, was to be a "widow's portion" of the realm
to the use of the Imperial Chamber. Now, as the sole hopes
of this family centred in a weakling of a boy, this arrangement
held out to Maximilian and his successors the prospect of acquir-
ing a splendid country. Yet this was the smaller of his two suc-
cesses. The greater was the espousal of his children, Philip and
Margaret, with the two children of Ferdinand the Catholic, Juana
and Juan, which was here settled. This opened to his house
still greater expectations,-it brought him at once into the most
intimate alliance with the kings of Spain.


## p. 12094 (#132) ##########################################

12094
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
(1822-1872)
HOMAS BUCHANAN READ gained some distinction both as poet
and painter, and the picturesqueness of his verse suggests
one who saw things with the artist's eye. This is perhaps
the most marked characteristic of his poetry, which also possesses an
easy flow and a felicity of diction which make it pleasing, though
it is rather the product of taste and culture than the independent
inspiration of one compelled to song.
Read was born on March 12th, 1822, in
Chester, Pennsylvania; and spent his youth
there. When he was fourteen the family
went to Cincinnati; Thomas entered the
studio of the sculptor Clevenger, and after
a course of study turned his attention to
painting. From 1840 to 1845 he lived in
Boston, busy with pen and brush, winning
recognition as an artist, and contributing
poems to Graham's Magazine and to the
Boston newspapers. In 1846 he went to
Philadelphia, spent the year of 1850-1 in
Florence, and made several subsequent Ital-
ian journeys; residing mostly abroad, and
only returning for brief visits in Philadel-
phia and Cincinnati. He came back from Europe in 1872, to die in
New York May 11th of that year.

T. BUCHANAN READ
When Read began to publish his verse in Boston its merit was
pointed out by Longfellow; and the young poet gathered his fugi-
tive pieces together and brought out his first volume of 'Poems' in
1847. The contemporary criticism was kindly; in some cases what
now seems extravagant in laudation. Poe called Read "one of our
truest poets. " Other volumes of verse followed: 'Lays and Ballads'
(1848); Poems' (1852); 'Poems' (1853); The New Pastoral' (1855),
-sketches of country life, the result of observation in Italy; 'The
House by the Sea' (1856); Sylvia' (1857); 'Rural Poems (1857);
'The Wagoner of the Alleghanies,' a poem of the American Revo-
lution (1862); 'A Summer Story, Sheridan's Ride, and Other Poems'
(1865); and 'Good Samaritans' (1867). A general edition of his
poetical works appeared in 1860, and an enlarged edition in 1867.


## p. 12095 (#133) ##########################################

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
12095
His prose writings include a romance, The Pilgrims of the Great
St. Bernard,' published serially in a magazine; and a critical work on
'The Female Poets of America' (1848).
From the various books of verse published by Read during his
literary career, two or three poems have become popular favorites;
a slender legacy, but one sufficient to perpetuate his name. This is
true pre-eminently of the graceful and familiar Drifting,' which with
its happy form and expression is imbued with the very spirit of
dreamy revery, of sweet do-nothingness. It is the verse of the gen-
ial traveler who muses over rich foreign impressions. 'Sheridan's
Ride is another poem found in the anthologies. It is a ballad that
uses to good purpose a stirring national theme. It bears the mark of
being an improvisation, not a finished piece of ballad-writing, and
hardly belongs in the class of ballad masterpieces. But it is decid-
edly effective. The Closing Scene' is an example of the blending of
human interest with descriptions of nature. It is on a few of these
lyrics that Read's reputation rests; and he has had the good fortune
to strike an occasional note to which there was and is a response
from many readers.
[The following poems are reprinted with the approval of the J. B. Lippin-
cott Co. , publishers. ]
DRIFTING
Y SOUL to-day
M*
Is far away,
Sailing the Vesuvian Bay;
My winged boat,
A bird afloat,
Swims round the purple peaks remote;
Round purple peaks
It sails, and seeks
Blue inlets and their crystal creeks,
Where high rocks throw,
Through deeps below,
A duplicated golden glow.
Far, vague, and dim,
The mountains swim;
While on Vesuvius's misty brim,
With outstretched hands,
The gray smoke stands
O'erlooking the volcanic lands.


## p. 12096 (#134) ##########################################

12096
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
Here Ischia smiles
O'er liquid miles;
And yonder, bluest of the isles,
Calm Capri waits,
Her sapphire gates
Beguiling to her bright estates.
I heed not if
My rippling skiff
Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff;
With dreamful eyes
My spirit lies
Under the walls of Paradise.
Under the walls
Where swells and falls
The Bay's deep breast at intervals,
At peace I lie,
Blown softly by,-
A cloud upon this liquid sky.
The day, so mild,
Is heaven's own child,
With earth and ocean reconciled;
The airs I feel
Around me steal
Are murmuring to the murmuring keel.
Over the rail
My hand I trail
Within the shadow of the sail;
A joy intense,
The cooling sense
Glides down my drowsy indolence.
With dreamful eyes
My spirit lies
Where Summer sings and never dies;
O'erveiled with vines,
She glows and shines
Among her future oil and wines.
Her children, hid
The cliffs amid,
Are gamboling with the gamboling kid;


## p. 12097 (#135) ##########################################

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
12097
Or down the walls,
With tipsy calls,
Laugh on the rocks like waterfalls.
XXI-757
The fisher's child,
With tresses wild,
Unto the smooth, bright sand beguiled,
With glowing lips
Sings as she skips,
Or gazes at the far-off ships.
Yon deep bark goes
Where traffic blows,
From lands of sun to lands of snows;
This happier one,
Its course is run
From lands of snow to lands of sun.
O happy ship,
To rise and dip,
With the blue crystal at your lip!
O happy crew,
My heart with you
Sails, and sails, and sings anew!
No more, no more
The worldly shore
Upbraids me with its loud uproar:
With dreamful eyes
My spirit lies
Under the walls of Paradise!
SHERIDAN'S RIDE
U
P FROM the south at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste to the chieftain's door,
The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.
And wider still those billows of war
Thundered along the horizon's bar;


## p. 12098 (#136) ##########################################

12098
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
And louder yet into Winchester rolled
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled;
Making the blood of the listener cold,
As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.
But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good broad highway leading down:
And there, through the flush of the morning light,
A steed as black as the steeds of night
Was seen to pass, as with eagle flight,
As if he knew the terrible need;
He stretched away with his utmost speed:
Hills rose and fell; but his heart was gay,
With Sheridan fifteen miles away.
Still sprang from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
The dust, like smoke from the cannon's mouth,
Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster.
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away.
Under his spurning feet the road.
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed,
And the landscape sped away behind
Like an ocean flying before the wind;
And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire,
Swept on, with his wild eye full of fire.
But lo! he is nearing his heart's desire;
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only five miles away.
The first that the general saw were the groups
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops:
What was done? what to do? a glance told him both.
Then striking his spurs, with a terrible oath,
He dashed down the line, 'mid a storm of huzzas,
And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because
The sight of the master compelled it to pause.
With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;
By the flash of his eye and the red nostril's play


## p. 12099 (#137) ##########################################

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
12099
He seemed to the whole great army to say,
"I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down, to save the day. "
Hurrah! hurrah! for Sheridan!
Hurrah! hurrah! for horse and man!
And when their statues are placed on high,
Under the dome of the Union sky,
The American soldier's Temple of Fame,
There with the glorious general's name,
Be it said, in letters both bold and bright:-
"Here is the steed that saved the day
By carrying Sheridan into the fight,
From Winchester-twenty miles away! "
WITH
THE CLOSING SCENE
ITHIN his sober realm of leafless trees
The russet year inhaled the dreamy air;
Like some tanned reaper in his hour of ease,
When all the fields are lying brown and bare.
The gray barns looking from their hazy hills
O'er the dim waters widening in the vales,
Sent down the air a greeting to the mills,
On the dull thunder of alternate flails.
All sights were mellowed and all sounds subdued;
The hills seemed farther and the streams sang low;
As in a dream, the distant woodman hewed
His winter log with many a muffled blow.
The embattled forests, erewhile armed in gold,
Their banners bright with every martial hue,
Now stood, like some sad beaten host of old,
Withdrawn afar in Time's remotest blue.
On slumberous wings the vulture held his flight;
The dove scarce heard his sighing mate's complaint;
And like a star slow drowning in the light,
The village church-vane seemed to pale and faint.
The sentinel-cock upon the hillside crew
Crew thrice, and all was stiller than before,
―――


## p. 12100 (#138) ##########################################

12100
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
Silent till some replying warder blew
His alien horn, and then was heard no more.
Where erst the jay, within the elm's tall crest,
Made garrulous trouble round her unfledged young,
And where the oriole hung her swaying nest,
By every light wind like a censer swung;
Where sang the noisy masons of the eaves,
The busy swallows, circling ever near,
Foreboding, as the rustic mind believes,
An early harvest and a plenteous year;
Where every bird which charmed the vernal feast
Shook the sweet slumber from its wings at morn,
To warn the reaper of the rosy east,-
All now was songless, empty, and forlorn.
Alone from out the stubble piped the quail,
And croaked the crow through all the dreamy gloom;
Alone the pheasant, drumming in the vale,
Made echo to the distant cottage loom.
There was no bud, no bloom upon the bowers;
The spiders wove their thin shrouds night by night;
The thistle-down, the only ghost of flowers,
Sailed slowly by, passed noiseless out of sight.
Amid all this, in this most cheerless air,
And where the woodbine shed upon the porch
Its crimson leaves, as if the Year stood there
Firing the floor with his inverted torch; -
Amid all this, the centre of the scene,
The white-haired matron, with monotonous tread,
Plied the swift wheel, and with her joyless mien
Sat like a Fate, and watched the flying thread.
She had known Sorrow,- he had walked with her,
Oft supped and broke the bitter ashen crust;
And in the dead leaves still she heard the stir
Of his black mantle trailing in the dust.
While yet her cheek was bright with summer bloom,
Her country summoned and she gave her all;
And twice War bowed to her his sable plume—
Regave the swords to rust upon her wall.


## p. 12101 (#139) ##########################################

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
12101
Regave the swords,- but not the hand that drew
And struck for Liberty its dying blow;
Nor him who, to his sire and country true,
Fell 'mid the ranks of the invading foe.
Long, but not loud, the droning wheel went on,
Like the low murmur of a hive at noon;
Long, but not loud, the memory of the gone
Breathed through her lips a sad and tremulous tune.
At last the thread was snapped - her head was bowed;
Life dropped the distaff through his hands serene:
And loving neighbors smoothed her careful shroud,
While Death and Winter closed the autumn scene.
INEZ
DOWN
OWN behind the hidden village, fringed around with hazel
brake,
(Like a holy hermit dreaming, half asleep and half awake,
One who loveth the sweet quiet for the happy quiet's sake,)
Dozing, murmuring in its visions, lay the heaven-enamored lake.
And within a doll where shadows through the brightest days
abide,
Like the silvery swimming gossamer by breezes scattered wide,
Fell a shining skein of water that ran down the lakelet's side,
As within the brain by beauty lulled, a pleasant thought may
glide.
When the sinking sun of August, growing large in the decline,
Shot his arrows long and golden through the maple and the pine;
And the russet-thrush fled singing from the alder to the vine,
While the cat-bird in the hazel gave its melancholy whine;
And the little squirrel chattered, peering round the hickory bole,
And, a-sudden like a meteor, gleamed along the oriole;-
There I walked beside fair Inez, and her gentle beauty stole
Like the scene athwart my senses, like the sunshine through my
soul.
And her fairy feet that pressed the leaves, a pleasant music made,
And they dimpled the sweet beds of moss with blossoms thick in-
laid:


## p. 12102 (#140) ##########################################

12102
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ
There I told her old romances, and with love's sweet woe we
played,
Till fair Inez's eyes, like evening, held the dew beneath their
shade.
There I wove for her love ballads, such as lover only weaves,
Till she sighed and grieved, as only mild and loving maiden
grieves;
And to hide her tears she stooped to glean the violets from the
leaves,
As of old sweet Ruth went gleaning 'mid the Oriental sheaves.
Down we walked beside the lakelet: gazing deep into her eye,
There I told her all my passion! With a sudden blush and sigh,
Turning half away with look askant, she only made reply,
"How deep within the water glows the happy evening sky! "
Then I asked her if she loved me, and our hands met each in
each,
And the dainty, sighing ripples seemed to listen up the reach;
While thus slowly with a hazel wand she wrote along the beach,
"Love, like the sky, lies deepest ere the heart is stirred to speech. "
Thus I gained the love of Inez, thus I won her gentle hand;
And our paths now lie together, as our footprints on the strand;
We have vowed to love each other in the golden morning land,
When our names from earth have vanished like the writing from
the sand!


## p. 12103 (#141) ##########################################

12103
CHARLES READE
(1814-1884)
N THE early fifties, Mrs. Seymour, a popular actress at the
Haymarket Theatre, London, received a call one day from
a stranger, a Mr. Charles Reade. He was a tall, heavily
built man of attractive manner, and seemed younger than his age,
which was nearly forty. For some years he had been writing plays,
and trying unsuccessfully to get them accepted. He had brought
part of a manuscript drama, which he was anxious to read her. Mrs.
Seymour listened politely, was complimentary, but added, "Why don't
you write a novel? " This indirect criticism
stung the would-be dramatist, who hurried
away. Good-natured Mrs. Seymour, sorry
to have wounded her visitor, and conclud-
ing that he was pressed by poverty, wrote
him a kindly note inclosing a £5 note as
a loan. Charles Reade promptly returned
the money, but he welcomed the 'frank
sympathy. The two became friends; and
his talent thus gained a much-needed prac-
tical stimulus. Up to this time he had been
somewhat of a dilettante,- ardent, ambi-
tious, and energetic, but disseminating his
forces too widely for adequate achievement.

CHARLES READE
From his boyhood he had been strongly
attracted toward drama. Its life and action, the visual presentment
of moral problems, suited his taste. Yet all his first plays were re-
fused by the managers. To the end of his life he considered himself
primarily a playwright, in spite of the greater success of his fiction.
Some of his plots took form first as plays, and some first as stories;
but sooner or later most of them found their way to the stage.
Among his early works are many sketches and short stories, writ-
ten for cheap London journals; and it is characteristic of the man
that he did these as well as he could, and signed his own name to
them, although by so doing he led the critics to consider him beneath
their notice.
His first noteworthy original work- he had done some transla-
tion was the well known and brilliant comedy, 'Masks and Faces,'


## p. 12104 (#142) ##########################################

12104
CHARLES READE
which he wrote in collaboration with Tom Taylor. The effective plot-
development shows dramatic instinct; and the spontaneity and spark-
ling dialogue gave it great vogue. Later, acting upon Mrs. Seymour's
suggestion, he turned it into a novel, 'Peg Woffington' (1852). The
next year he published another story, 'Christie Johnstone,' which
resembles Peg Woffington' in its primarily dramatic arrangement.
In vivid characterization, descriptive charm, and emotional range, the
two are as fine and as distinctive as anything he ever wrote. During
holiday trips in Scotland he had gathered material for Christie
Johnstone'; and he was thoroughly at home in the breezy fishing
hamlet where Joan and Christie, sturdy young fishwives, teach the
blasé young viscount the true values of life. The wit though sharp
is good-natured, and mingled with deeper sentiment. Humor and
pathos, tragedy and comedy, are all blended in the one short tale.
With drawing-room life Reade was not in sympathy; nor does he
describe it successfully. But he excels in the strong presentment of
individuals, and in establishing the harmony between them and their
environment. Rugged Griffith Gaunt is an unpleasant but very real
country gentleman of a past century. Jael Dence in her reserve and
simple strength is the product of her native village.
Charles Reade was born at Ipsden in 1814, youngest of the eleven
children of John Reade, a good country squire. His father and
mother were busy, healthy people, fond of society, of religious ob-
servances, of regulating village affairs. Among their many interests
their children were decidedly in the way; and although they loved
them heartily, they gladly turned them over to tutors and governesses
as soon as possible. Charles spent much of his childhood in boarding-
school; for years with a merciless Mr. Slater, who flogged his pupils
daily, and whose only idea of teaching was memory-cramming. It
was not until he escaped from this thraldom that Reade began to
show his quickness of mind.
In 1831 he entered Magdalen College on a demyship; and three
years later, when he took his degree, he was appointed to a fellow-
ship, which he held for fifty years, until his death in 1884. In spite
of this long connection he did not love Oxford. His free-lance spirit
detested her conventions, and he preferred the freer air of London.
Nor did he love the fellowship which he could not resign. Charles
Reade never experienced acute poverty, yet for years his means
were just meagre enough to make him feel pinched and uncomforta-
ble. His fellowship with its income was necessary to him. So his
life was perforce influenced by monasticism; and he showed a deep
personal appreciation of all the commonplace happiness renounced by
the monk Gerard, the epic hero of The Cloister and the Hearth. '
After his graduation he read law; in rather desultory fashion, for his


## p. 12105 (#143) ##########################################

CHARLES READE
12105
livelier interests were in general reading, in making himself an
authority upon violins ancient and modern, and in traveling when-
ever he could afford it.
It took the public some time to relish Reade's new flavor and to
recognize his merit. But with 'It's Never too Late to Mend' (1856)
he found himself a popular novelist. The book provoked wide dis-
cussion, and was read, praised, and reviled on both sides of the
Atlantic.
Charles Reade was a fighting Englishman, always ready for a fray,
always believing himself or somebody else ill-used. He was a man
of deep feeling, too alive to human suffering to take life lightly. He
was a man of intense energy which constantly sought vent.
He was
generous and warm-hearted, ready to give time, money, and influence
for the relief of others. The morbid sensitiveness to criticism which
continually embroiled him with critics and publishers, and most of
those with whom he had business dealings, made him a butt of ridi-
cule. It was not all self-love, but a stout demand for justice, which
he was as ready to make for others as for himself. No sooner was
he fairly launched as a writer of repute than he aspired to become a
social reformer. This inclination was doubtless strengthened by his
friendship with Dickens, for whose Household Words and All the
Year Round he wrote; and whom he warmly admired. The two had
been introduced by Bulwer-Lytton, and found themselves in sym-
pathy at once. Like the author of 'Nicholas Nickleby,' Reade longed
to right abuses. 'It's Never too Late to Mend' was an exposition of
the evils of the English prison system. So strong was the indignation
aroused, that when reproduced at the Princess Theatre years after
its first dramatization, there was almost a riot in the audience. What
he himself said in it might stand as a motto to most of his novels:
"I have taken a few undeniable truths out of many, and have labored to
make my readers realize those appalling facts of the day which most men
know, but not one in a thousand comprehends, and not one in a hundred
thousand realizes, until fiction—which, whatever you may have been told to
the contrary, is the highest, widest, noblest, and greatest of all the arts-
comes to his aid, studies, penetrates, digests the hard facts of chronicles and
blue-books, and makes their dry bones live. "
He took up one alleged evil after another: in 'Hard Cash,' abuses
of insane asylums, and still more the legal power of physicians to
commit for insanity, which he accused them of exercising on the
sane for bribes; in Foul Play,' those in the merchant shipping ser-
vice; in 'Put Yourself in His Place,' those resulting from trades-unions
and labor conditions. Upon these different themes he employed all
his strength of mind and imagination, and he produced novels which


## p. 12106 (#144) ##########################################

12106
CHARLES READE
were read, and are still read, for their lively romantic interest. Never
dully didactic, they fully achieved a forceful presentment of the evil.
The system upon which he worked was laborious. "I propose
never to guess what I can know," he said; and was an indefatigable
collector of newspaper clippings, institution reports, and the like.
When his statements were questioned, his facts denied, or he was
accused of exaggeration, he would turn triumphantly to his carefully
classified collections, and refute the objection with positive proof.
He knew how to fuse this material into an artistic whole. "It
would require a chemical analysis to separate the fiction from the
reality," said Justin McCarthy of Reade's novels.
"I studied the great art of fiction closely for fifteen years before
I presumed to write a word of it. I was a ripe critic long before I
became an artist," wrote Reade. One result of this study was the
determination to seek personal sincerity of expression above every-
thing else.