Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

are the most vagrant imaginable; she is indeed the veriest little gossip in creation, but her disposition to roam is not more boundless than her to gratify it.

power

One instant she is in the depths of the ocean, loitering upon coral beds; the next above the stars, revelling in the immensity of space; one moment she tracks a comet in his course, the next hobnobs with the sea-king, or foots a measure with mermaids. A most skilful architect, she will build palaces on the clouds radiant with splendour and beautiful as herself; then, demolishing them with a breath, she flies to some moss-grown ruin of the earth, where a glimpse of her countenance drives away the bat and the owl; the wallflower, the moss, and the ivy, are displaced by the rose, the lily, and the myrtle; the damp building is clothed in freshness and splendour, the lofty halls resound with the melody of the lute and the harp, and the whole scene is vivid with light and life, with brilliancy and beauty. Again, in an instant, all is mute, and dim, and desolate, and the versatile sorceress is hunting the otter with an Esquimaux; or, pillowed on roses whose fragrance is wafted by softest zephyrs around, she listens to the strain which the Bulbul pours; or, wrapped in deepest maze of philosophic thought, she treads the long extent of backward time," by the gigantic sepulchres of Egyptian kings; or else she flies "from the tempest-rocked Hebrides or the icebound Northern Ocean-from the red man's wilderness of the west-from the steppes of Central Asia -from the teeming swamps of the Amazon-from the sirocco deserts of Africa-from the tufted islands

of the Pacific-from the heaving flanks of Ætna— or from the marbled shores of Greece;"-and draws the whole circle of her enchantments round the needlewoman's fingers, within the walls of an humble English cottage.

But it were equally unnecessary and useless to dilate on her fairy wanderings. Suffice it to say that so great is the beneficent liberality of this fascinating being, that every corner of her rich domain is open to the highest or lowest of mortals without reserve; and so lovely is she herself, and so bewitching is her company, that few, few indeed, are they who do not cherish her as a bosom friend and as the dearest of companions.

Bearing, however, her vagrant characteristics in mind, we shall not be surprised at the peculiar ideas some people entertain of her haunts, nor at the strange places in which they search for her person. One would hardly believe that hundreds of thousands have sought her through the smoke, din, and turmoil of those lines "where all antipathies to comfort dwell," the railroads; while others, more adventurous, plough the ocean deep, scale the mighty mountains, or soar amid the clouds for her; or, strange to say, have sought her in the battle field 'mid scenes of bloody death. Like Hotspur, such would pluck her

or would

for her.

"From the pale-faced moon;

"Dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground"

But she is a lady before whom strength and pride

fall nerveless and abased; her gracious smiles are to be wooed, not commanded; her bright presence may be won, not forced;

"For spotless, and holy, and gentle, and bright,

She glides o'er the earth like an angel of light."

Possessing all the gentleness of her motherTaste, she shrinks from everything rude or abrupt; and when, as has frequently been the case, persons have attempted to lay violent hands upon her, she has invariably eluded their vigilance, by leaving in her place, tricked out in her superabundant ornaments to blind them, her half-brother-Whim, who sprang from the same father-Wit, but by another mother-Humour. She herself, wanderer as she is, is not without her favourite haunts, in which she lingers as if even loath to quit them at all.

Finally, wherever yet the accomplished needlewoman has been found, in the Jewish tabernacle of old-in the Grecian dome where the " Tale of Troy divine" glowed on the canvass-or in the bower of the high-born beauty of the " bright days of the sword and the lance"-in the cell of the pale recluse or in the turretted prison of the royal captive-there has FANCY been her devoted friend, her inseparable companion.

329

CHAPTER XXI.

LES ANCIENNES TAPISSERIES;" TAPESTRY OF ST. MARY'S HALL, COVENTRY; TAPESTRY OF HAMPTON COURT.

"There is a sanctity in the past."-BULWER.

ALL monuments of antiquity are so speedily passing away, all traces of those bygone generations on which the mind loves to linger, and which in their dim and indistinct memories exercise a spell, a holy often, and a purifying spell on the imagination are so fleeting, and when irrevocably gone will be so lamented-that all testimonies which throw certain light on the habits and manners of the past, how slight soever the testimonies they afford, how trivial soever the characteristics they display, are of the highest possible value to an enlightened people, who apply the experience of the past to its legitimate and noblest use, the guidance and improvement of the present.

In this point of view the work which forms the subject of this chapter* assumes a value which its intrinsic worth-beautiful as is its execution-would

*"Les Anciennes Tapisseries Historiées, ou Collection des Monumens les plus remarquables, de ce genre, qui nous soient restés du moyen age." A Paris.

not impart to it; and it is thus rendered not less valuable as an historical record, than it is attractive as a work of taste.

"La chez eux, (we quote from the preface to the work itself,) c'est un siège ou un tournoi; ici un festin, plus loin une chasse; et toujours, chasse, festin, tournoi, siège, tout cela est pourtraict au vif, comme aurait dit Montaigne, tout cela nous retrace au naturel la vie de nos pères, nous montre leurs châteaux, leurs églises, leurs costumes, leurs armes et même, grâce aux légendes explicatives, leur langage à diverses époques. Il y a mieux. Si nous nous en rapportons à l'inventaire de Charles V., exécuté en 1379, toute la litterature française des siècles féconds qui précéderent celui de ce sage monarque, aurait été par ces ordres traduite en laine."

This book consists of representations of all the existing ancient tapestries which activity and research can draw from the hiding-places of ages, copied in the finest outline engraving, with letterpress descriptions of each plate. They are published in numbers, and in a style worthy of the object. We do not despair of seeing this spirited example followed in our own country, where many a beautiful specimen of ancient tapestry, still capable of renovation by care-is mouldering unthought of in the lumber-rooms of our ancient mansions.

We have seen twenty-one numbers of this work, with which we shall deal freely excepting, however, the eight parts which are entirely occupied by the Bayeux Tapestry. Our own chapters on the subject were written before we were fortunate enough to obtain a sight of these, which include the whole

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »