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redeemed your wife, at the cost of your ten thousand florins, and some perils besides; for which, if you owe me any thing, I leave her my executor, for I have nothing left me now but to die." The merchant, looking somewhat amazed at his discourse, then answered him

thus:

"If the lady you speak of is the wife of my brother Gio Mercanti, he has been dead these three months; but I shall rejoice to see her, and, likewise to make over the properties that belong to her by his bequest. And for the eminent service you have rendered to her, for my late brother's sake, I will gratefully repay you, his last words having been full of concern for his dear lady, and of confidence in the integrity of the Signor Tebaldo Zanche; which name I doubt not you have made honourable in your own person. I beseech of you, therefore, to lead me instantly to my kinswoman, that I may entertain her as she deserves."

The overjoyed Tebaldo, without waiting to make any answer to these courtesies, ran instantly on board ship to Bianca, who now, without any reserve, cast her self into his loving arms. She did not forget, however, the tears that were due to the generosity of her dead husband, but mourned for him a decent season; after which, with the very good-will of her parents and all parties, she gave her hand to the faithful Tebaldo. Thus, after many trials, which they endured nobly, they were finally made happy, as their long misfortunes and virtue well deserved and their names are preserved until this day, as the Two Faithful Lovers of Sicily.-Hood's National Tales.

MYSTERIES; OR, RELIGIOUS

DRAMAS.

THESE devout spectacles have been generally believed to have originated with the pilgrims who returned from the Holy Land, or other consecrated places; they began by composing canticles of their travels, and amused their religious fancies by interweaving scenes, of which Christ, the Apostles, and other objects of devotion, served as themes. These pilgrims travelled in troops, and stood in the public streets, where they recited their poems, staff in hand; while their chaplets and cloaks, covered with shells and images of various colours, formed a picturesque exhibition, which at length excited the piety of the citizens to erect ocasionally a stage on an extensive spot of ground. From such circumstances, most probably,

we may date the origin of our present dramatic exhibitions. These spectacles served as the amusement and instruction of the people. So attractive were these gross exhibitions, in the darker ages, that they formed one of the principal ornaments of the reception which was given to princes when they entered towns.

When these mysteries were performed, at a more improved period, the actors were distinguished characters, and very frequently were composed of the ecclesiastics of the neighbouring villages. Their productions were not divided into acts, but into different days of performance, and they were acted in the open plain. In these pieces the actors represented the person of the Almighty, after their fashion, without being sensible of the gross impropriety. So unskilful were they in this infancy of the theatrical art, that very serious consequences were often produced by their ridiculous blunders and illmanaged machinery. In the history of the French theatre the following anecdotes are preserved, which throw considerable light upon these singular representations and their performers.

In the year 1437, when Conrad, Bishop of Metz, caused the Mystery of the Passion to be represented on the plain or Veximel, near that city, the Almighty was represented by an old gentleman, by name Nicholas Neufchatel, curate of St. Victory, of Metz, and who was very near expiring on the cross, had he not been timely assisted; he was so enfeebled that it was agreed another priest should be placed on the cross the next day, to finish the representation of the person crucified, and which was done; at the same time the said Mr. Nicholas undertook to perform the resurrection, which being a less difficult task, he did it admirably well. Another priest, whose name was John de Dicey, curate of Metrange, personated Judas, who was almost stifled while he hung on the tree, by his neck being nearly dislocated; this was fortunately perceived time enough to allow him to be taken down and recovered.

Another instance is recorded by John Bouchet, in his Annals of Aquitaine, a French author who lived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which informs us that in the year 1486, he saw played and exhibited in mysteries, by persons_of Poictiers, the Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ, in great triumph and splendour, before an immense assemblage of the ladies and gentlemen from the surrounding provinces.

The first of these incongruous exhibitions in Italy is said to have taken place

as early as 1243, and the earliest account of them in England is recorded by Matthew Paris, the English historian, who wrote in the thirteenth century, detailing in his writings the performance of a religious play by the scholars of the Abbey school of Dunstable; these representations were given in most of the counties of England, especially Chester and Warwickshire, and furnished amusement for all classes, from the king and the nobles down to the meanest peasant. The performers who assumed the characters in the drama were the religious of monasteries, the pupils of learned men, the trading companies of cities, and the society of Parish Clerks, in London, who were greatly famed for their performances at the Skinners' Well, Clerkenwell. The period of the year when these amusements were resorted to was the festival of Corpus Christi day.

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Beneath their fleecy load; or o'er the dale, Lends a new glory to the spangled brake. Not so with me, chill'd by the piercing blast, Of keen misfortune bitter, fierce, and cold; O'er life's expanse my eager eyes I cast,

No dawn of hope these cheerless realms unfold,

A trackless wild arrests my shudd'ring sight, Without a star to gild the horrors of the night.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF HISTORY.

THE DISCOVERY OF GUNPOWDER.

We owe the discovery of this destructive agent to a circumstance that happened in 1292, to Barthold Schwartz, otherwise called the Black Monk, or Constantine Aucklitzen, a native of Fribourg, in Germany, which was occasioned by his having put some saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal in a mortar, for some chemical preparation; a spark of fire accidentally flew into it, when the mortar was rent asunder by the sudden explosion.

The monk, who, unfortunately for mankind, escaped with his life, had no sooner recovered his fright than he began to make experiments, which, by moderating of this dreadful composition, taught him

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how to use it as a sure engine of destruction.

Though the invention has been set down in the pages of history as the result ought to be of German ingenuity, yet ranked among the discoveries of this country. For that the ingredients of gunpowder, and the art of making it, was known to the celebrated Roger Bacon, an English monk, who was born near Ilchester, in the year 1214, is very certain. But that humane philosopher, aware of the danger of communicating such a baneful discovery to the world, so transposed the letters of the Latin word which signify charcoal, as to render the whole obscure and unintelligible. By this means he rendered it difficult for any one to discover the fatal secret by the perusal of his works, and secured to himself the honour of the invention, if it should be discovered by any other person.

Enabled as we are to state correctly the date when the art of making gunpowder was first found out, yet we are at fault when we attempt to attach a date as to its first being employed to discharge firearms; however, but a short period intervened from its being first made, to its use in the field, for we find that it travelled from Germany into France, as may be seen by the following item from the accounts of the treasurer of war, in the year 1335:-"To Henry de Faumichan, for gunpowder and other things necessary for the cannon at the siege of Puy Guillaume." In 1340 the English were compelled to raise the siege of Eu, at which artillery was employed by the garrison: this artillery consisted of two large "iron boxes," which they loaded with round pebbles. It was considered as a remarkable instance of good fortune that these pieces had received no damage; proving, that the art of managing them with effect was unknown. Froissard tells us, that when the English laid siege to St. Malo, in 1373, they had four hundred cannon with them, which account is somewhat at variance with Hume's detail in his History of England, where he seems to say that at the besieging of Orleans, in the reign of Henry the Sixth, in the year 1428, "that it might be reckoned among the first sieges where cannon was employed in Europe to advantage. cannon spoken of by Froissart were hand cannon, which was carried by two men, and fired from a rest fixed in the ground. These portable fire-arms were not used in France till the reign of Charles the Sixth. In Italy gunpowder was first used against the Genoese by the Venetians, in 1380. Some authorities state it to have been first employed in Europe, at

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Chrogia, against Laurence de Medicis, when all Italy made a complaint against it, as a manifest contravention of the law of arms.

The introduction of gunpowder and fire arms may be looked upon as giving a fatal blow to chivalry, and the cause of effecting a total alteration in the art of war. The bravest warrior could no longer rely on his personal prowess, or the excellence of his arms, as means of defence against an adversary, who, though destitute of courage, might with success attack him at a distance. A tranquil intrepidity, accustomed to give and to receive death without design as without fear, was now substituted in the room of that active valour which had hitherto been deemed the chief support of hostile armies. Battles became more bloody in proportion as the means of mutual destruction were multiplied. By this new mode of fighting every man was rendered fit for the purposes of war. Armies were more numerous, and nations exhausted their resources in augmenting their military force.

Customs of Various Countries.

PLOUGH MONDAY IN ENGLAND.

THE first Monday after Twelfth day, is called Plough Monday, and appears to have received that name from the circum

mas holidays were wholly devoted to pastime, the gentry and farmers feasting their servants and taskmen, on which occasion but little was done in the field until Plough Monday, and on the morning of that day, both man and maid shewed their readiness to obey the call, by seeing which would be the earliest riser, when if the ploughman collected his implements of labour before the maid placed the kettle on the fire, he was the gainer of the Shrove-tide cock instead of the maid. For a more extended account of ceremonies observed on this day, see Mr. Hone's E. D. B. vol. 1, to which we are indebted materially for this account.

stance of its being the first day after Christmas on which husbandmen resume their labours with the plough, in some parts of England, and more especially in the north. The farming men have a procession, in which the plough is drawn by a number of men, stripped to their clean white shirts, having waistcoats beneath, as a protection against cold; their arms are gaily decorated with ribbons of various colours, their hats being ornamented in the same way. On this occasion, it is usual to have the ceremony attended by a female, sprucely bedizened, termed the Bessy, the sport being heightened by a humorous countryman representing a fool, who generally performs a variety of curious feats to the admiration of all the beholders: the procession is sometimes attended by morris dancers, when they can be procured, but there is always a sportive dance by a few village lads and lasses in their holiday finery, with an abundance of ribands. Money is collected from the farmers and inhabitants of the town or village, which is spent at night in conviviality. In times past the Christ

Science and Art.

TYRIAN DYE OF THE ANCIENTS.

Ir has been supposed by many authors that England must have been known to the primitive inhabitants of the world, from the circumstance that they used the oxide of tin in making theit Tyrian dye, as the use of cochineal without it would not have produced the brilliancy of colour which it was so famed for possessing. In making this dye, it is only necessary to infuse a little nitro-muriate of tin in some cochineal extract, and it will be at once exhibited.

REMARKS ON RESTORING FADED INK

Ink

BERTHOLLET, in his "Elements of the Arts of Dyeing," makes the following observations on this very useful liquid. turns blacker by exposure to the air, because the oxigen that the gall-nut attracts is the requisite degree of combustion which is effected by additional oxygen from the atmosphere. Ink made with a large proportion turns yellow, because the iron not being saturated with the astringent matter, absorbs oxygen. Hence infusion of galls will restore the legibility of old writings, as well as Prussian alkali."

Anecdotiana.

J. P. KEMBLE AND DELPINI. MANY anecdotes are told of this celebrated master of posture and grimace, but none exhibit his eccentricity and selfishness, (a combination, by the by, generally found in the characters of too many foreign artistes of the Theatre and Opera,) in a more ludicrous point of view than

the following, which was one evening related at Brookes's by Mr. Sheridan, when the Prince and Duke of York, who knew Delpini well, were present.

It should be premised, that several members of the Royal Family, and particularly the Prince of Wales, had pressed Sheridan to procure the insertion of Delpini's name in the books of the Theatrical Fund, in order to secure a provision for his old age. Mr. Sheridan did all in his power to promote the object in question; but one grand difficulty was started in the course of the negociation, which even his influence could not well remove this was, that as Mr. Delpini was merely a clown, he could not be admitted; for the laws of the society forbade relief to any but such as were accustomed to speak on the stage. A remedy, however, was at length suggested, viz. that a few words should be written in the forthcoming pantomine, for Delpini to repeat; and thus he was to rank among the Garricks and the Kembles of the day.

The words in question were only three in number; and they were to be uttered by Delpini in the character of a Magician, at the instant that Harlequin and Columbine were in the act of embracing: they were-Pluck them asunder!

Big with the expectation of his pension, but more so with the importance of his new character, Delpini repeated the above short sentence on every occasion, for several weeks, and with every possible variety of accent and intonation. There was not a performer in the theatre whom he did not apply to, to hear him rehearse his part; so that, at length, every one voted him a complete bore.

The gentleman whose applause he was most anxious of obtaining was Mr. Kemble; and whenever he met him behind the scenes, in the passages, or in the green-room, he caught hold of him by the arm or by a button, and held him fast, until he had repeated the important words with suitable gesture and action. One night, as Kemble was standing beside the wing, helmeted and buskined as Coriolanus, and with truncheon in hand, preparing to lead the Volsci forth to battle, Delpini made his appearance, and thus addressed the Roman hero.

"Mistare Kembel, I am ver glad I av found you, Sare, you sal see me rehearsal my part."

"Not now," answered Kemble, "it is impossible, Mr. Delpini; do you not see that I am just going on the stage?"

"But," persisted the grimacier, "I sal not detain you, Sare, un moment; you sall see dat I pronounce mon charactere,

proprement; and vith de propere emphasis on de last voard."

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Well, well!" replied Kemble, pettishly; "begin, begin :-I must go on the stage directly."

"I sal not detain you, Sare," returned Delpini, as he leaned on his right leg, and threw out his arm at an angle of forty-five degrees. Then, infusing into his countenance all the imitative rage which it was capable of expressing, he bellowed out, "Plock dem assondere!"

Poor Kemble, the muscles of whose face had been screwed up to the most heroic pitch, felt his risible chord so tickled by Delpini's ludicrous pronunciation and manner, that, at that instant receiving his cue of entrance, he was forced to turn his head aside from the audience, for nearly a minute, before he could address his troops without laughing.

At length, the awful, important, and ominous night arrived when Mr. Delpini was to make his debut as a speaking actor. To those who are acquainted with the nature of what is, among theatrical people, termed stage fright, the writer need not state, that, however perfectly a young actor may be able to repeat his part by rote, in his own apartment, or at rehearsal, there is a something, when he comes before the audience, in all the blaze of dazzling light reflected upon his person, that strikes him with terror, binds up his tongue, deprives him of memory, scatters his senses, and roots him to the spot, as if he were in a state of fascination or, to speak in theatrical terms, "he is stuck fast."

Such was the case with poor Delpini: he had repeated his little part until he had almost forgotten it, for it had left no impression upon his mind; and his extreme anxiety destroyed even the little chance there was of his recollecting it in the time of need. He had spoken the words at least ten thousand times: he had repeated them sitting, standing, walking lying; he had rehearsed them to all sorts of per

sons,

and on all occasions, both at home and abroad; he had given them every variety of form, accent, and emphasis, of which they were capable-but, when the hour of trial came, he was found wanting.

The performers had crowded around, all anxious for his success, and all ready to prompt him; but, as Solomon says, "in the multitude of advisers the counsel faileth," so it turned out on the present occasion. Columbine had flown to her faithful lover, and locked him in her fast embrace the magician's wand was raised aloft to command their separation ; but— no words accompanied the action. De.pini was stuck fast. Voices from every

side cried out, "Now, Delpini, now's your time!-fire away, my hearty! speak, man!-why don't you speak? But the magician was, himself, in a state of enchantment ;-he was immoveable ;until the prompter's voice was heard above the rest, saying, "Pluck them asunder!" These words shot across his brain like a flash of lightning: he recovered from his trance, and repeating his action with the wand, he roared out"Masson DERE plock et!"

This ludicrous termination of his ar

duous labours made the theatre echo with laughter, both behind and before the curtain; and poor Delpini retired behind the scenes, in a state of the most complete discomfiture. Being a little recovered, however, he said to several of the performers who came up to condole with him, their sides shaking with laughter, "Ne. vere mind, ladies and gentlemens: dose may laugh dat lose; I av win, and sal laugh to myself. I av gain de pension, by Gar! and I care noting at all for nobody."-Clubs of London.

ORIGIN OF COCK-FIGHTING.

THE Athenians upon gaining a victory over the Persians, made a law, that on a certain day in every year there should be an exhibition of a cock-fight, which custom arose from the following circumstance: -When Themistocles, the Athenian general, led an army of his countrymen against the barbarians, he saw two cocks fighting. The spectacle was not lost upon him; he made his army halt, and thus addressed them." These cocks," said he, are not fighting for their country, for their paternal gods, nor do they endure this for the monuments of their ancestors, for the sake of glory in the cause of liberty, or for their offspring; the only motive is, that one is determined not to yield to the other."

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CURIOUS PARODY OF A DEAN OF CAN

TERBURY.

Dr. Boys, a learned divine, and a dean of Canterbury, in the reign of James I., was a very warm adversary against the Pope: he would often attack him, both with unsparing ridicule and elaborate argument. Strange as it may sound, he turned the Lord's prayer into an execration upon his holiness, which he introduced with great applause, in a sermon preached on the anniversary of the gunpowder plot at St. Paul's Cross. The execration consisted of the following very singular parody:-"Our Pope, which art at Rome, accursed be thy name; thy kingdom perish; thy will be hindered as in heaven, so also on earth. Give us this day our cup in the Lord's supper, and re

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THE following anecdote is told of the celebrated physician, Dr. Radcliffe, who by his great skill, gained the top of his profession in the reign of William and Mary. He was chosen a member of parliament for Buckingham a year before his death, which took place in 1714. doctor being once sent for into the country to attend a gentleman ill of an inveterate quinsey, and finding that no external or internal application would be of service, he desired the lady of the house to order a hasty pudding to be made. When it was done, his own servants were to bring it up, and while the pudding was preparing he gave them his private instructions. In a short time it was set on the table in full view of the patient. "Come, Jack and Dick," said Radcliffe, "eat as quickly as possible, you have had no breakfast this morning.' Both began with their spoons, but on Jack's dipping once to Dick's twice, a quarrel arose. Spoonfuls of hot pudding were discharged on both sides, and at last handfuls were pelted at each other. The patient, on beholding the ludicrous spectacle, was seized with an immoderate fit of laughter, the quinsey burst and discharged its contents, and the doctor soon completed the cure, to the great satisfaction of his patient.

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