Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

-are the unconscious attunement of his mental attitude to the circumstances of his daily environment. Thus were he Persian or Indian, a family bereavement, say, would find unconscious expression in the freer use of white in the figures of his pattern, or a marriage might give cause for a preponderant employ of brilliant red ; a misfortune to the state in which all his interests were centred might be shown by the depicting of an eagle descending; while the scattering of hunting scenes throughout the field of his work with hounds and leopards and cheetas killing game would indicate the fame and increasing honour of someone to whom he owed allegiance or affection.

When animal life is depicted in a carpet, the pigeon almost invariably finds its place in the scheme. This of course is natural enough, inasmuch as nearly everywhere the pigeon has entered into the history of religion. Pigeons were sacred at Mecca (as they are to-day) long before the time of Mahomet. They were and are called the Doves of the Kaaba.' The tradition of the dove and olive branch of Noah's ark has always been known among Arabs, and may perhaps at first have accounted for the bird being held sacred. Moslems connect it with their faith in regard to two special occasions once when a dove appeared to be whispering to Mahomet, and again when these birds accompanied him on his flight to Medina. They call the bird "Allah's Proclaimer,' because its movement when cooing bears some resemblance to prostration. At a much earlier date the dove was adopted as a device of the Assyrian empire, because the Assyrians believed that Semiramis, wife of Ninus, was miraculously preserved by the bird. The Hindoos, too, have a superstition that at one time Vishnu and Siva dwelt at Mecca in the form of doves. In many Indian carpets the peacock finds a place; this bird is a favourite armorial bearing of the Rajput warriors; it is

On Oriental Carpets

indeed sacred to their god Kumara (Mars), and is regarded as an emblem of immortality. The thrush, which by many is supposed to be the sparrow mentioned in the Bible, is also a bird of good omen, and is therefore often represented. Moore, in Lalla Rookh,' says:

Mecca's blue sacred pigeon and the thrush of Hindustan,

Whose holy warblings gush at evening from the tall pagoda tree.

The bird of paradise is frequently introduced. The Arabs hold this bird to be a visitant from heaven to earth (its name in Malay, Manuk devata, means 'Bird of God'). Another superstition is that, feeling the approach of death, the paradise bird flies upward towards the sun, but having spent its strength in the lower world it fails to reach again its celestial home and falls and dies as it descends.

The goose is constantly employed in eastern textile decorations. The earliest carpet indeed known to the world—an ancient Egyptian rug-has as its chief feature the presentment of a goose. The bird, it may be said, in conjunction usually with the lotus, is positively connected with the ordinary textile fabrics. In Hindoo mythology the goose was the vehicle or vahan allotted to Brahma and to his sakti or wife Sarasvati, the goddess of harmony and arts. In Egypt, Greece, and India it was sacred to the sun. On Greek tombs it symbolized love and watchfulness, and it is expressly stated on the tomb inscription that it represented the watchfulness of a good housewife. To the Hindoos it was a sign of eloquence, while at Cyprus an emblem of love, and as such was sacrificed to Venus. The owl sometimes is to be found in a carpet, and is a sign of misfortune. It is at once the bird of night and of death. The weaver has introduced into his work every kind of deer known to him. The ibex, the oryx, the gazelle, the antelope, the wild goat, and others, would seem all to bear practically the same

meaning. According to Lajard (at one time French minister in Persia) the solar symbolism of the gazelle and the antelope was the same as that of the bull. In his 'Culte de Mithra,' he says that the bull was an emblem of generation and of life in Persia, and was supposed to be the first created being, and when slain by Ahriman his soul became the germ of all later creation. Ahriman was held by ancient Persians, and is held by modern Parsees, to be the deadly principle from whom all evil sprang, as opposed to Ormazd (Ahura Mazda) the good principle. Frequently is to be found depicted in a carpet the presentment of a trained hunting lion slaying a bull or an antelope. According to Lajard the ceremony of turning a lion loose to run down and kill a bull in the presence of the king was observed in Persia at the time of the vernal equinox as recently as the year 1808. Professor Goodyear, on the other hand, is of opinion that a lion attacking a deer is emblematical of the sun entering the sign of the deer, Capricornus,' and is a sign of the winter solstice. The serpent in its original form is but seldom represented in oriental carpets, though now and again it may be found; but like many other symbols, and especially those having an evil signification, it has been so distorted and manipulated as, in many instances, to have almost wholly lost its identity. It can, however, be traced by its connexion with other objects with which it is found in contact.

America, and also to the Kalmucks in Europe. The rukh or roc-the amgha of the Arabs-the supernatural bird which has its place in all oriental mythology, is constantly to be found depicted in carpets. Its emblematic signification is power and light, and it is always represented as of great size and in vivid colouring. The Indian garuda, which is the same bird, is regarded as the king of feathered fowl, and is the vehicle or vahan of Vishnu. When the dragon or the alligator finds a place in the pattern scheme of an oriental rug, it is a certain sign of predominating Mongol influence. In Chinese or Mongol symbolism the dragon, which is the evil spirit or the darkness, is supposed to represent the four seas-the Tonquin Gulf, the China Sea, the Eastern Sea, and the Yellow Sea. In 1725 the Emperor Yang Ching conferred upon these waters, presumably with a propitiatory intention, the titles of Hin-yan, Ching Hung, Shung Sai, and Tchu-ming, as well as other honours. Many other animals, as also figures of human beings mounted and afoot, are depicted in the patterns of oriental carpets in conjunction with the birds and beasts that have been mentioned. They are not all necessarily so introduced with a symbolic intention; of course, a hunting or a battle scene conveys its natural signification, although it may perhaps be intended to typify some event of high importance in the history of the locality inhabited by the weaver, or by some earlier weaver The serpent, it may be said, is regarded who had transmitted to him the design. by certain authorities as being the primi- Very frequently, however, such objects as tive fetich of mankind. Mr. Fergusson, in elephants, or camels, are simply portrayed his 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' considers because they bulk largely in the narrow it to be established beyond dispute that horizon of the artist. For, as has been wherever human sacrifices existed, there the said already in the course of these papers, serpent was worshipped. Serpent worship it is more than any kind of symbolism the has been traced to nearly every quarter local environment of the worker that finds of the world-to Asia, Africa, Palestine, its way naturally from the impressionable Chaldaea, Babylon, Persia, Kashmir, Camspectrum of his mental mirror to the tips bodia, Thibet, India, China, Ceylon, and of his dexterous fingers. (N.B.-The previous articles of this series were published in Nos. I, III, IV, VI, IX, and XI.)

[ocr errors]

A CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF THE FALL OF RICHARD THE SECOND

BY SIR EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON, K.C.B.

[ocr errors]

PART II (Conclusion)

[graphic]

E left Richard with his scanty following at Conway, while traitors were flocking to Bolingbroke's standard. The king turns to his friends and asks their counsel in his sore need. Then his half-brother, the duke of Exeter, recommends an attempt to come to terms with the invader, to inquire, to expostulate; and he himself is accordingly chosen to go on this embassy in company with his nephew, the duke of Surrey. Thus the two dukes set forth, as we see them in the ninth miniature,' attended by their squires and an escort of mounted archers.

'Now the king continued all sorrowful at Conway, where he had no more with him than two or three of his intimate friends, sad and distressed. There was the courteous earl of Salisbury, and the great and upright bishop of Carlisle; Feriby was also with them, who was not very secure, for the duke hated him. Moreover there was another good friend, whom I heard called sir Stephen Scrope; I saw him frequently with the king at that time. My companion and myself were there. Every one was very uneasy for himself, with sufficient cause. Reckoning nobles and other persons, we were but sixteen in all.' In his helplessness and irresolution Richard bethought him of his troops at Milford, and was minded to summon them to join him, when a messenger arrived and told of their dispersion. Then the fugitive hurries to Beaumaris; then to Caernarvon; then back to Conway, full of lamentation. Creton, writing as he does for French readers, here composes a pretty lament of Richard

1 Plate V, page 271.

for his young queen. Bearing in mind the fact that even now, after three years of marriage, she was still only a child of eleven years, the style of language is at least extravagant. In the pleasure of listening to his verses, the audience, the author may have hoped, would forget the youth of the lady :

'Ma belle suer, ma dame, et tout mon vueil,
Quant voir ne puis vostre plaisant accueil,
Dedens mon cuer tant de douleur recueil
Et de grevance,

Que souvent sui pres de desesperance.
Las! Ysabel, droite fille de France,
Vous souliez estre ma joie et mesperance
Et mon confort.

Jendure

Au cuer souvent une doulour si dure,
Que jour et nuit je sui en aventure
De recevoir la mort amere et sure.'

Meanwhile the two dukes rode to Chester, which Bolingbroke had occupied early in August, and were received not altogether in unfriendly fashion. There Exeter delivered his message of expostulation with discretion, but honestly. In the tenth miniature,2 which represents this scene, Henry appears before us for the first time. He is in armour, with a surcoat of black, worn, it has been suggested, in mourning for his father, John of Gaunt, recently deceased. In his left hand he carries a baton. But the most distinguishing point of his attire is the tall black hat, fitting close to his head and spreading wider at the crown, in marked contrast to the fanciful flat head-gear of the other nobles. Henry appears to have specially affected this form of head covering, which attracted general attention. In a French Chronique de Richard II,'

2 Plate V, page 271.

printed in the appendix to Buchon's edition of Froissart, it is noticed, during the course of his altercation with Norfolk, that Henry 'adoncques osta un chapeau noir sus de sa tête.'

Neither of the two envoys was allowed to return to Conway. Exeter was kept with Henry's retinue; while Surrey was lodged in Chester castle. Henry's next step was to get possession of Holt castle, where it was said that Richard had deposited treasure, and which was summoned and surrendered. He is then represented as calling together his friends to counsel him as to his future proceedings, when archbishop Arundel advises gentle measures: to negotiate with Richard for peace, and for the summoning of a parliament to call to account those who had instigated the duke of Gloucester's murder. If the king cannot be persuaded, he may slip away over sea. Thereupon Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, is despatched to bring in the king by truce or force;' and he sets out with a following of four hundred lances and a thousand archers. On the march he summonses and receives the surrender of the castles of Flint and Rhuddlan; and then, before approaching Conway, he posts his men in hiding on the road, and goes forward with a small retinue, sending before him a herald to gain his admission to Richard's presence. Then follows the interview depicted in the eleventh miniature.3 Northumberland, represented as an old man with grey head and beard, wearing a robe of blue powdered with sprigs of gold, is received by the king, with Salisbury and the bishop and other followers around him.

Northumberland delivers his message, demanding, in Henry's name, the calling of parliament; the pardon and restoration of Bolingbroke; the trial of Exeter, Surrey, Salisbury, the bishop of Carlisle, and Richard Maudelain, the king's chaplain. All this

Plate VI, page 273.

being agreed to, the road to London is to be open to Richard without hindrance. Richard then, in private, addresses his friends: he will profess to accept the terms, but he will call no parliament to endanger their lives; he will summon the Welsh together to his rescue; he will induce Henry to march with him through Wales; then, when sufficient force is gathered, he will display his banner and fall upon the traiNorthumberland is then recalled, and Richard challenges him to swear on the Host that he designs no treachery; to which the earl consents, and forthwith takes the oath, as shown in the twelfth miniature.4 Creton observes, as impartially as might be expected of him, that 'Lun pensoit mal, et lautre encores pis,' of course imputing the greater sin to

tors.

the earl.

By Northumberland's persuasion, then, Richard agreed to set out from Conway to meet Bolingbroke, the earl going forward, nominally to prepare for the king's arrival at Rhuddlan. Then follows the story of the trap laid by Northumberland, in which the unfortunate king was taken, along with his score of followers, including Creton, who naïvely remarks, 'Jeusse voulu bien alors estre en France.' This is the subject of the thirteenth miniature.5 Northumberland addresses the king: 'Be not displeased, my rightful lord, that I should come to seek you for better security; for the country, as you know, is disturbed by war.' To which Richard replies: "I could very well without so many people as you have brought here. I think this is not what you promised me. You told me that you had been sent with only five others. This is very ill done, Deconsidering the oath that you made. pend upon it, I shall return to Conway that I left this day.' But it was too late. Perforce he had to go on to Rhuddlan first,

Plate VI, page 273. Plate VII, page 275.

go

your

and thence to Flint. And that night Bolingbroke had word that Richard was in his power.

'Now,' says Creton, 'will I tell you of the taking of the king, without seeking for any more rhymes, that I may the better set down the whole of the words that passed between these two at their meeting, because I think I thoroughly remember them. So I will relate them in prose; for it seems that in verse one sometimes adds or brings together too many words to the matter whereof one is treating.'

On August 22, Henry marched out of Chester, his host moving along the seashore, marshalled in battle array. From the walls of Flint castle the unhappy king looked down upon the approach of his enemies. Then did he commend himself into the holy keeping of our Lord and of all the saints of heaven.' Presently came archbishop Arundel and others for a conference. Then the king came down from the walls, to whom they made very great obeisance, kneeling on the ground. The king caused them to rise, and drew the archbishop aside; and they talked together a very long while. What they said I know not; but the earl of Salisbury afterwards told me that he comforted. the king in a very gentle manner, telling him not to be alarmed, and that no harm should happen to his person.' The deputation then left the castle; but others of Henry's followers made their way in, while the king was dining, and used threats that even alarmed Creton and his companion for their own safety. At last Henry himself approached. He quitted his men, who were drawn up in very fair array before the castle, and with nine or eleven of the greatest lords who were with him came to the king. At the entrance of the castle, Lancaster, the herald, brought us before the duke, kneeling on the ground; and the herald told him in the English language that we were of France, and that the king had sent us with king Richard into Ireland for recreation and to

The Fall of Richard the Second

see the country, and earnestly entreated him to save our lives. And then the duke made answer in French, "Mes enfans, naiez paour ne freeur de chose que vous voiez, et vous tenez pres de moy, et je vous garantiray la vie." This reply was a most joyful hearing for us. After this the duke entered the castle, armed at all points, except his basinet, as you may see in this picture (Miniature xiv). Then they made the king, who had dined in the donjon, come down to meet the duke Henry, who, as soon as he perceived him at a distance, bowed very low to the ground; and as they approached each other he bowed a second time, with his hat in his hand; and then the king took off his cap and spake first in this manner: "Fair cousin of Lancaster, be you right welcome." Then duke Henry replied, bowing very low to the ground: "My lord, I am come sooner than you sent for me, the reason wherefore I will tell you. The common report of your people is such, that you have for the space of twenty or two and twenty years governed them very ill and very rigorously, and to a degree that they are not well content therewith. But, if it please our Lord I will help you to govern them better than they have been governed in time past." Then king Richard answered him: "Fair cousin of Lancaster, since it pleaseth you, it pleaseth us well." And be assured that these are the very words that they two spake together, without taking away or adding anything: for I heard and understood them very well. And the earl of Salisbury also rehearsed them to me in. French, and another aged knight who was one of the council of duke Henry.'

Thus did king Richard fall into the hands of his enemy. Two sorry nags,' not worth forty francs,' were provided for him and Salisbury; and that night he was lodged in Chester castle. From that time Creton and his comrade were forbidden further intercourse with the unhappy king. Four

Plate VII, page 275.

« AnteriorContinua »