very wisely refused to adopt. The disputes on this subject led to a separation; and there being no one to look after business, the Black Raven was closed, Dunton setting off to Dublin with a venture of books. There he became involved in a ridiculous dispute with a rival bookseller, of which he published an account in a pamphlet termed The Dublin Scuffle. His wayward and unsettled disposition was now fast leading to its inevitable result. In 1705 we find him in terror of a gaol, hiding from his creditors, while writing his Life and Errors. As a bookseller he is no more known, though he long existed as a political pamphleteer, having written no less than forty tracts in favour of the Hanoverian succession. Swift says that one of Dunton's pamphlets, entitled Neck or Nothing, was one of the best ever published. In 1723, he petitioned George I. for a pension, comparing his unrequited services to those of Mordecai, but his application was unsuccessful. Surviving his second wife, he died in 1735, at the age of seventy-six; and the last literary notice of him is in The Dunciad, where he is not unjustly termed a broken bookseller and abusive scribbler. VACCINATION, AND ITS OPPONENTS. On the 14th of May 1796, the immortal Edward Jenner conclusively established the important principles of vaccination; proving that it was possible to propagate the vaccine affection by artificial inoculation from one human being to another, and thereby at will communicate security to all who were liable to small-pox. In a letter to his friend Gardner, the great discoverer thus modestly expresses himself on this memorable experiment: A boy of the name of Phipps was inoculated in the arm, from a pustule on the hand of a young woman, *who was infected by her master's cows. Having never seen the disease but in its casual way before, that is, when communicated from the cow to the hand of the milker, I was astonished at the close resemblance of the pustules, in some of their stages, to the variolous pustules. But now listen to the most delightful part of my story. The boy has since been inoculated for the small-pox, which, as I ventured to predict, produced no effect.' VACCINATION. character may undergo strange mutations from quadrupedan sympathy?' After vaccination had been for some time doing its benign work, a Dr Rowley adduced no less than five hundred cases of beastly new diseases' produced by vaccination, in a pamphlet adorned by two coloured engravings, representing the ox-faced boy and the cow-manged girl. Nor does he confine himself to the medical part of the subject; he asserts that small-pox is a visitation of God, while cow-pox is produced by impious and wicked men. The former being ordained by Heaven, the latter became neither more nor less than a daring impiety-' an attempt to wrest out of the hands of the Almighty the divine dispensations of Providence.' Mosely described a boy whose face and part of his body, after vaccination, became covered with cow's hair; and a Dr Smyth says:Among the numerous shocking cases of cowpox which I have heard of, I know not if the most horrible of all has yet been published, viz., of a child at Peckham, who, after being inoculated with the cow-pox, had his former natural disposition absolutely changed to the brutal; so that it ran upon all fours, bellowing like a cow, and butting with its head like a bull.' Well, indeed, might a satirical poet of the day thus sing 'O Mosely! thy books mighty phantasies rousing, Full oft make me quake for my heart's dearest treasures: For fancy, in dreams, oft presents them all brow sing On commons, just like little Nebuchadnezzars. There, nibbling at thistles, stand Jem, Joe, and Mary; On their foreheads, oh, horrible! crumpled horns Here Tom with a tail, and poor William all hairy, certain Ferdinand Smyth Stuart, who described Never was there a discovery so beneficial to the human race, and never did a discovery meet with so violent, so virulent an opposition. The lowest scribblers, excited by political animosity or personal rivalry, never vented such coarse, illiberal absurdities, as the learned physicians who opposed vaccination. Charges of murder and falsehood were freely made by them; nor was the war waged in the medical schools alone; and an atmosphere of accumulated disease, it polluted the sanctity of the pulpit, and malig- pain, and death around him, has made his nantly invaded the social harmonies of private appearance in the world, and devours mankind, life. Dr Mosely, one of the first of the anti-especially poor, helpless infants; not by scores vaccinists, sagely asks: Can any person say what may be the consequences of introducing a bestial humour into the human frame, after a long lapse of years? Who knows, besides, what ideas may rise in course of time from a brutal fever having excited its incongruous impressions on the brain? Who knows but that the human * Her name should be recorded-it was Sarah Nelmes. only, or hundreds, or thousands, but by hundreds member of a royal house will be sufficiently of thousands.' The spirit and wisdom of this exemplified by one more quotation. Rising with his subject, he exclaims: The omnipotent God of nature, the inconceivable Creator of all existence, has permitted Evil, Buonaparte, and Vaccination to exist, to prosper, and even to triumph for a short space of time, perhaps as the Scourge and punishment of mankind for their sins, and for reasons no doubt the best, far beyond the powers of our circumscribed and limited portion of penetration and knowledge to discover. But are we to worship, to applaud, or even to submit to Evil, to Buonaparte, or to Vaccination, because they have for some time been prosperous? No! Never let us degrade our honour, our virtue, or our conscience by such servility; let us contend against them with all our exertions and might, not doubting we shall ultimately triumph in a cause supported by truth, humanity, and virtue, and which therefore we well know Heaven itself will approve.' Supposing any one desired to take a course of reading in what is called hagiology, he might choose between the Acta Sanctorum and Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints. The first would be decidedly an alarming undertaking, for the Acts of the Saints occupy nearly sixty folios. The great work was commenced more than two hundred years ago by Bolland, a Belgian Jesuit. His design was to collect, under each day of the year, the saints' histories associated therewith. He got through January and February in five folios, when he died in 1658. Under the auspices of his successor, Daniel Papebroch, March appeared in 1668, and April in 1675, each in three volumes. Other editors followed bearing the unmelodious names of Peter Bosch, John Stilting, Constantine Suyskhen, Urban Sticken, Cornelius Bye, James Bue, and Ignacius Hubens; and in 1762, one hundred and forty years after the appearance of January, the month of September was completed in eight volumes, making forty-seven in all. A part WHITSUNTIde. of October was published, but in its midst the work came to a stand for nearly a century. It was resumed about twenty years ago. Nine volumes for October have now appeared, the last embracing only two days, the 20th and 21st of October, and containing as much matter as the five volumes of Macaulay's History of England. Although abounding in stores of strange, recondite, and interesting information, the Acta Sanctorum do not find many readers outside the walls of convents; and the secular inquirer into saintly history will, with better advantage, resort to Alban Butler's copious, yet manageable narratives. The Rev. Alban Butler, the son of a Northamptonshire gentleman of reduced fortune, was born in 1710, and in his eighth year was sent to the English college at Douay. There he became noted for his studious habits. He did nothing but read; except when sleeping and dressing, a book was never out of his hand. Of those he deemed worthy he drew up abstracts, and filled bulky volumes with choice passages. With a passion for sacred biography, he early began to direct his reading to the collection of materials for his Lives of the Saints. He became Professor of Philosophy, and then of Divinity, at Douay, and in 1745 accompanied the Earl of Shrewsbury and his brothers, the Talbots, on a tour through France and Italy. On his return he was sent to serve as a priest in England, and set his heart on living in London, for the sake of its libraries. To his chagrin he was ordered into Staffordshire. He pleaded that he might be quartered in London for the sake of his work, but was refused, Afterwards he was and quietly submitted. appointed chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk. His Lives of the Saints he published in five quarto volumes, after working on them for thirty years. The manuscript he submitted to Challoner, the vicar apostolic of the London district, who recommended the omission of all the notes, on which Butler had expended years of research and pains. Like a good Catholic he yielded to the advice, but in the second edition he was allowed to restore them. He was ultimately chosen President of the English college of St Omer's, where he died in 1773. Of Alban Butler there is nothing more to tell, save that he was a man of a gentle and tolerant temper, and left kindly memories in the hearts of all who knew him. His Lives are written in a simple and readable style; and Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, perhaps gives the correct Protestant verdict when he says, 'It is a work of merit; the sense and the learning belong to the author-his prejudices are those of his profession.' Whitsuntide. The Pentecost was a Jewish festival, held, as the name denotes, fifty days after the feast of unleavened bread; and its only interest in the history of Christianity arises from the circumstance that it was the day on which the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles and imparted to them the gift of tongues. It is remarkable that this feast appears to have had no name peculiar to the early languages of Western Europe, for in all these languages its only name, like the German Pfingst, is merely derived from the Greek word, with the exception of our English Whit Sunday, which appears to be of comparatively modern origin, and is said to be derived from some characteristic of the Romish ceremonial on this day. We might suppose, therefore, that the peoples of Western Europe, before their conversion, had no popular religious festival answering to this day. Yet in medieval Western Europe, Pentecost was a period of great festivity, and was considered a day of more importance than can be easily explained by the incidents connected with it, recorded in the gospel, or by any later Christian legends attached to it. It was one of the great festivals of the kings and great chieftains in the medieval romances. It was that especially on which King Arthur is represented as holding his most splendid court. The sixth chapter of the Mort d'Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory, tells us how, Then King Arthur removed into Wales, and let crie a great feast that it should be holden at Pentecost, after the coronation of him at the citie of Carlion.' And chapter one hundred and eighteen adds, So King Arthur had ever a custome, that at the high feast of Pentecost especially, afore al other high feasts in the yeare, he would not goe that day to meat until he had heard or seene some great adventure or mervaile. And for that custom all manner of strange adventures came before King Arthur at that feast afore all other feasts.' It was in Arthur's grand cour plenière at the feast of Pentecost, that the fatal mantle was brought which threw disgrace on so many of the fair ladies of his court. More substantial monarchs than Arthur held Pentecost as one of the grand festivals of the year; and it was always looked upon as the special season of chivalrous adventure of tilt and tournament. In the romance of Bevis of Hampton, Pentecost, or, as it is there termed, Whitsuntide, appears again as the season of festivitiesIn somer at Whitsontyde, 6 THE MORRIS-DANCE. regale in the best manner their circumstances THE MORRIS-DANCE. Antiquaries seem agreed that the old English morris-dance, so great a favourite in this country in the sixteenth century, was derived through Spain from the Moors, and that its name, in Whan knightes most on horsebacke ride, Spanish Morisco, a Moor, was taken from this A cours let they make on a daye, circumstance. It has been supposed to be Steedes and palfraye for to assaye, originally identified with the fandango. It was Whiche horse that best may ren.' certainly popular in France as early as the We seem justified from these circumstances in fifteenth century, under the name of Morisque, supposing that the Christian Pentecost had been which is an intermediate step between the identified with one of the great summer festivals Spanish Morisco and the English Morris. We of the pagan inhabitants of Western Europe. are not aware of any mention of this dance in And this is rendered more probable by the English writers or records before the sixteenth circumstance, that our Whitsuntide still is, and century; but then, and especially in writers of always has been, one of the most popularly the Shakspearian age, the allusions to it become festive periods of the year. It was commonly very numerous. It was probably introduced celebrated in all parts of the country by what into this country by dancers both from Spain was termed the Whitsun-ale, and it was the and France, for in the earlier allusions to it in great time for the morris-dancers. In Douce's English it is sometimes called the Morisco, and time, that is, sixty or seventy years ago, a sometimes the Morisce or Morisk. Here, howWhitsun-ale was conducted in the following ever, it seems to have been very soon united with manner: Two persons are chosen, previously an older pageant dance, performed at certain to the meeting, to be lord and lady of the ale, periods in honour of Robin Hood and his outwho dress as suitably as they can to the charac-laws, and thus a morris-dance consisted of a certain ters they assume. A large empty barn, or some such building, is provided for the lord's hall, and fitted up with seats to accommodate the company. Here they assemble to dance and number of characters, limited at one time to five, but varying considerably at different periods. The earliest allusions to the morris-dance and its characters were found by Mr Lysons in the churchwardens' and chamberlains' books at Kingston-upon-Thames, and range through the last two years of the reign of Henry VII. and the greater part of that of his successor, Henry VIII. We learn there that the two principal characters in the dance represented Robin Hood and Maid Marian; and the various expenses connected with their different articles of dress, show that they were decked out very gaily. There was also a frere, or friar; a musician, who is sometimes called a minstrel, sometimes a piper, and at others a taborer,-in fact he was a performer on the pipe and tabor, and a 'dysard' THE MORRIS-DANCE. or fool. The churchwardens accounts of St Mary's, Reading, for 1557, add to these characters that of the hobby-horse. Item, payed to the mynstrels and the hobby-horse uppon May-day, 3s.' Payments to the morris-dancers are again recorded on the Sunday after May-day, and at Whitsuntide. The dancers, perhaps, at first represented Moors-prototypes of the Ethiopian minstrels of the present day, or at least there was one Moor among them; and small bells, usually attached to their legs, were indispensable to them. In the Kingston accounts of the 29th of Henry VIII. (1537-8), the wardrobe of the morris-dancers, then in the custody of the churchwardens, is thus enumerated :-'Å fryers cote of russet, and a kyrtele weltyd with red cloth, a Mowrens (Moor's) cote of buckram, and four morres daunsars cotes of white fustian spangelid, and too gryne saten cotes, and disarddes cote of cotton, and six payre of garters with belles.' There was preserved in an ancient mansion at Betley, in Staffordshire, some years ago, and we suppose that it exists there still, a painted glass window of apparently the reign of Henry VIII., representing in its different compartments the several characters of the morris-dance. George Tollett, Esq., who possessed the mansion at the beginning of this century, and who was a friend of the Shakspearian critic, Malone, gave a rather lengthy dissertation on this window, with an engraving, in the variorum edition of the works of Shakspeare. Maid Marian, the queen of May, is there dressed in a rich costume of the period referred to, with a golden crown on her head, and a red pink, supposed to be intended as the emblem of summer, in her left hand. This queen of May is supposed to represent the goddess Flora of the Roman festival; Robin Hood appears as the lover of Maid Marian. An ecclesiastic also appears among the characters in the window, in the full clerical tonsure, with a chaplet of white and red beads in his right hand, his corded girdle and his russet habit denoting him to be of the Franciscan order, or one of the Grey Friars; his stockings are red; his red girdle is ornamented with a golden twist, and with a golden tassel.' This is supposed to be Friar Tuck, a well-known character of the Robin Hood Ballads. The fool, with his cock's comb and bauble, also takes his place in the figures in the window; nor are the tabourer, with his tabor and pipe, or the hobbyhorse wanting. The illustration on the preceding page throws these various characters into a group representing, it is conceived, a general morrisdance, for which, however, fewer performers might ordinarily serve. The morris-dance of the individual, with an occasional Maid Marian, seems latterly to have been more common. One of the most remarkable of these was performed by William Kemp, a celebrated comic actor of the reign of Elizabeth, being a sort of dancing journey from London to Norwich. This feat created so great a sensation, that he was induced to print an account of it, which was dedicated to one of Elizabeth's maids of honour. The pamphlet is entitled, Kemp's Nine Daies' Wonder, performed in a daunce from London to Norwich. Containing the pleasure, paines, and kinde entertainment of William Kemp betweene London and that Citty, in his late Morrice.' It was printed in 1600; and the title-page is adorned with a woodcut, representing Kemp dancing, and his attendant, Tom the Piper, playing on the pipe and tabor. The exploit took place in 1599, but it was a subject of popular allusion for many years afterwards. THE MORRIS-DANCE. hip; but he continued his progress, attended by a great number of spectators, and on Saturday morning reached Chelmsford, where the crowd assembled to receive him was so great, that it took him an hour to make his way through them to his lodgings. At this town, where Kemp remained till Monday, an incident occurred which curiously illustrates the popular taste for the morris-dance at that time. 'At Chelmsford, a mayde not passing foureteene years of age, dwelling with one Sudley, my kinde friend, made request to her master and dame, that she might daunce the Morrice with me in a great large roome. They being intreated, I was soone wonne to fit her with bels; besides, she would have the olde fashion, with napking on her armes; and to our jumps we fell. A whole houre she held out; but then being ready to lye downe, I left her off; but thus much in her praise, I would have challenged the strongest man in Chelmsford, and amongst many I thinke few would have done so much." Other challenges of this kind, equally unsuccessful, took place on Monday's progress; and on the Wednesday of the second week, which was Kemp's fifth day of labour,-in which he danced from Braintree, through Sudbury, to Melford,― he relates the following incidents. In this towne of Sudbury there came a lusty, tall fellow, a butcher by his profession, that would in a Morrice keepe me company to Bury. I being glad of his friendly offer, gave him thankes, and forward wee did set; but ere ever wee had measur'd halfe a mile of our way, he gave me over in the plain field, protesting, that if he might get a 100 pound, he would not hold out with me; for, indeed, my pace in dancing is not ordinary. As he and I were parting, a lusty country lasse being among the people, cal'd him faint-hearted lout, saying, "If I had begun to daunce, I would have held out one myle, though it had cost my life." At which words many laughed. "Nay," saith she, "if the dauncer will lend me a leash of his belles, I'le venter to treade one myle with him myselfe." I lookt upon her, saw mirth in her eies, heard boldness in her words, and beheld her ready to tucke up her russat petticoate; I fitted her with bels, which she merrily taking, garnisht her thicke short legs, and with a smooth brow bad the tabrer begin. The drum strucke; forward marcht I with my merry Mayde Marian, who shooke her fat sides, and footed it merrily to Melford, being a long myle. There parting with her (besides her skinfull of drinke), and English crowne to buy more drinke; for, good wench, she was in a pittious heate; my kindness she requited with dropping some dozen of short courtsies, and bidding God blesse the dauncer. I bade her adieu; and, to give her her due, she had a good eare, daunst truly, and wee parted friends.' Having been the guest of Master Colts,' of Melford, from Wednesday night to Saturday morning, Kemp made on this day another day's progress. Many gentlemen of the place accompanied him the first mile, 'Which myle, says he, Master Colts his foole would needs daunce with me, and had his desire, where leaving me, two fooles parted faire in a foule way; I keeping |