Hansford: A Tale of Bacon's Rebellion Part 13

Christmas, yawning and stretching himself, then roars out in a merry, l.u.s.ty voice:

"My spirit rejoices to hear merry voices, With a prospect of breaking my fast, For with such a lean platter, these days they call latter[34]

Were very near being my last.

"In that cursed conventicle, as chill as an icicle, I caught a bad cold in my head, And some impudent va.s.sal stole all of my wa.s.sail, And left me small beer in its stead.

"Of all that is royal and all that is loyal They made a nice mess of mince-meat.

With their guns and gunpowder, and their prayers that are louder, But the de'il a mince-pie did I eat.

"No fat sirloin carving, I scarce kept from starving, And my bones have become almost bare, As if I were the season of the gunpowder treason, To be hallowed with fasting and prayer.

"If they fancy pulse diet, like the Jews they may try it, Though I think it is fit but to die on.

But may the Emanuel long keep this new Daniel From the den of the brave British Lion.

"In the juice of the barley I'll drink to King Charley, The bright star of royalty risen, While merry maids laughing and honest men quaffing Shall welcome old Christmas from prison."

As he thunders out the last stave of his song, the Queen of May steps forward, and sings the following welcome to Spring:

"Come with blooming cheek, Aurora, Leading on the merry morn; Come with rosy chaplets, Flora, See, the baby Spring is born.

"Smile and sing each living creature, Britons, join me in the strain; Lo! the Spring is come to Nature, Come to Albion's land again.

"Winter's chains of icy iron Melt before the smile of Spring; Cares that Albion's land environ Fade before our rising king.

"Crown his brow with freshest flowers, Weave the chaplet fair as May, While the sands with golden hours Speed his happy life away.

"Crown his brow with leaves of laurel, Twined with myrtle's branch of peace- A hero in fair Britain's quarrel, A lover when her sorrows cease.

"Blessings on our royal master, Till in death he lays him down, Free from care and from disaster, To a.s.sume a heavenly crown."

As she concludes her lay, she places the May-pole in the centre of the stage, and a happy throng of gay young swains and damsels enter and commence the main dance around it. The Puritan watches them at first with a wild gaze, in which horror is mingled with something of admiration. Gradually his stern features relax into a grim smile, and at last, unable longer to restrain his feelings, he bursts forth in a most immoderate and carnal laugh. His feet at first keep time to the gay music; he then begins to shuffle them grotesquely on the floor, and finally, overcome by the wild spirit of contagion, he unites in the dance to the sound of the merry rebecks. While the dance continues, he shakes off the straight-laced puritan dress which he had a.s.sumed, and tossing the peaked hat high in the air, appears, amid the deafening shouts of the delighted auditory, in the front of the stage in the rich costume of the English court, and with a royal diadem upon his brow, the mimic impersonation of Charles the Second.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] The intelligent reader, familiar with the Odyssey, need not to be reminded that with this wand of Moly, which Mercury presented to Ulysses, the Grecian hero was enabled to restore his unhappy companions, who, by the magic of the G.o.ddess Circe, had been transformed into swine.

[30] A true copy from the records.

[31] "Cromwell," says an old writer, "hath beat up his drums clean through the Old Testament. You may learn the genealogy of our Saviour by the names of his regiment. The muster-master has no other list than the first chapter of St. Matthew." If the Puritan sergeant had lost this roll, Nehemiah XII. would serve him instead.

[32] The actual name of one of the Puritans.

[33] General Monk, the restorer of royalty.

[34] The Puritans believed the period of the revolution to be the latter days spoken of in prophecy.

CHAPTER XVI.

"I charge you, oh women! for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you; and I charge you, oh men! for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hate them,) that between you and the women the play may please."

_As you Like It._

"There is the devil haunts thee, in the likeness of a fat old man; a tun of man is thy companion."

_Henry IV._

The good-natured guests at the Governor's awarded all due, and more than due merit to the masque which was prepared for their entertainment.

Alfred Bernard became at once the hero of the evening, and many a bright eye glanced towards him, and envied the fair Virginia the exclusive attention which he paid to her. Some young cavaliers there were, whose envy carried them so far, that they sneered at the composition of the young poet; declared the speeches of Liberty to be prosy and tiresome; and that the song of Christmas was coa.r.s.e, rugged, and devoid of wit; nay, they laughed at the unnatural transformation of the grim-visaged Puritan into the royal Charles, and referred sarcastically to the pretentious pedantry of the young author, in introducing the threadbare story of Ulysses and the Moly into a modern production-and at the inconsistent jumble of ancient mythology and pure Christianity. Bernard heard them not, and if he had, he would have scorned their strictures, instead of resenting them. But he was too much engrossed in conversation with Virginia to heed either the good-natured applause of his friends, or the peevish jealousy of his young rivals. Indeed, the loyalty of the piece amply atoned for all its imperfections, and the old colonists smiled and nodded their heads, delighted at the wholesome tone of sentiment which characterized the whole production.

The character of Christmas was well sustained by Richard Presley,[35] a member of the House of Burgesses, whose jolly good humour, as broad sometimes as his portly stomach, fitted him in an eminent degree for the part. He was indeed one of those merry old wags, who, in an ill.u.s.trated edition of Milton, might have appeared in L'Allegro, to represent the idea of "Laughter holding both his sides."

Seeing Sir William Berkeley and Colonel Temple engaged in earnest conversation, in one corner of the room, the old burgess bustled, or rather waddled up to them, and remaining quiet just long enough to hear the nature of their conversation chimed in, with,

"Talking about Bacon, Governor? Why he is only imitating old St. Albans, and trying to establish a _novum organum_ in Virginia. By G.o.d, it seems to me that Sir Nicholas exhausted the whole of his _mediocria firma_ policy, and left none of it to his kinsmen. Do you not know what he meant by that motto, Governor?"

"No;" said Sir William, smiling blandly.

"Well, I'll tell you, and add another wrinkle to your face. Mediocria firma, when applied to Bacon, means nothing more nor less than sound middlings. But I tell you what, this young mad-cap, Bacon, will have to adopt the motto of another namesake of his, and ancestor, perhaps, for friars aye regarded their t.i.thes more favourably than their vows of virtue-and were fathers in the church as well by the first as the second birth."

"What ancestor do you allude to now, d.i.c.k?" asked the Governor.

"Why, old Friar Bacon, who lamented that time was, time is, and time will be. And to my mind, when time shall cease with our young squealing porker here, we will e'en subst.i.tute hemp in its stead."

"Thou art a mad wag, Presley," said the Governor, laughing, "and seem to have sharpened thy wit by strapping it on the Bible containing the whole Bacon genealogy. Come, Temple, let me introduce to your most favourable acquaintance, Major Richard Presley, the Falstaff of Virginia, with as big a paunch, and if not as merry a wit, at least as great a love for sack-aye, Presley?"

"Yes, but indifferent honest, Governor, which I fear my great prototype was not," replied the old wag, as he shook hands with Colonel Temple.

"Well, I believe you can be trusted, d.i.c.k," said the Governor, kindly, "and I may yet give you a regiment of foot to quell this modern young Hotspur of Virginia."

"Aye, that would be rare fun," said Presley, with a merry laugh, "but look ye, I must take care to attack him in as favourable circ.u.mstances as the true Falstaff did, or 'sblood he might embowell me."

"I would like to own the tobacco that would be raised over your grave then, d.i.c.k," said the Governor, laughing, "but never fear but I will supply you with a young Prince Hal, as merry, as wise, and as brave."

"Which is he, then? for I can't tell your true prince by instinct yet."

"There he stands talking to Miss Virginia Temple. You know him, Colonel Temple, and I trust that you have not found that my partiality has overrated his real merit."

"By no means," returned Temple; "I never saw a young man with whom I was more pleased. He is at once so ingenuous and frank, and so intelligent and just in his views and opinions on all subjects-who is he, Sir William? One would judge, from his whole mien and appearance, that n.o.ble blood ran in his veins."

"I believe not," replied Berkeley, "or if so, as old Presley would say, he was hatched in the nest where some n.o.ble eagle went a birding. I am indebted to my brother, Lord Berkeley, for both my chaplain and my private secretary. Good Parson Hutchinson seems to have been the guardian of Bernard in his youth, but what may be the real relation between them I am unable to say."

"Perhaps, like Major Presley's old Friar Bacon," said Temple, "the good parson may have been guilty of some indiscretion in his youth, for which he would now atone by his kindness to the offspring of his early crime."

"Hardly so," replied the Governor, "or he would probably acknowledge him openly as his son, without all this mystery. I have several times hinted at the subject to Mr. Hutchinson, but it seems to produce so much real sorrow, that I have never pushed my inquiries farther. All that I know is what I tell you, that my brother, in whose parish this Mr. Hutchinson long officiated as rector, recommended him to me-and the young man, who has been thoroughly educated by his patron, or guardian, by the same recommendation, has been made my private secretary."

"He is surely worthy to fill some higher post," said Temple.