Part 28 (1/2)
”Dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground”
for her.
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 mother--_Taste_, 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 canva.s.s--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.
FOOTNOTE:
[124] She was then a mere child, not more, if I remember rightly, than twelve years old.
CHAPTER XXI.
”LES ANCIENNES TAp.i.s.sERIES;” TAPESTRY OF ST. MARY'S HALL, COVENTRY; TAPESTRY OF HAMPTON COURT.
”There is a sanct.i.ty in the past.”
Bulwer.
All monuments of antiquity are so speedily pa.s.sing 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 n.o.blest use, the guidance and improvement of the present.
In this point of view the work which forms the subject of this chapter[125] a.s.sumes a value which its intrinsic worth--beautiful as is its execution--would 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 siege ou un tournoi; ici un festin, plus loin une cha.s.se; et toujours, cha.s.se, festin, tournoi, siege, tout cela est _pourtraict au vif_, comme aurait dit Montaigne, tout cela nous retrace au naturel la vie de nos peres, nous montre leurs chateaux, leurs eglises, leurs costumes, leurs armes et meme, grace aux legendes explicatives, leur langage a diverses epoques. Il y a mieux. Si nous nous en rapportons a l'inventaire de Charles V., execute en 1379, toute la litterature francaise des siecles feconds qui precederent celui de ce sage monarque, aurait ete 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 letter-press 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 of the correspondence on the tapestry to which we in our sketch alluded.
LA TAp.i.s.sERIE DE NANCY.--”aurait une ill.u.s.tre origine, et remonterait a une a.s.sez haute antiquite. Prise dans la tente de Charles le Temeraire, lors de la mort de ce prince, en 1477, devant la capitale de la Lorraine, qu'il a.s.siegeait, elle serait devenue un meuble de la couronne, et aurait servi au palais des ducs de ce pays, depuis Rene 2 jusqu'a Charles IV.----C'est une de ces anciennes tap.i.s.series flamandes dont le tissu, de laine tres fine, est eclaire par l'or et la soie. La soie et la laine subsistent encore, mais l'or ne s'apercoit plus que dans quelques endroits et a la faveur d'un beau soleil. Nous ferons remarquer que le costume des divers personnages que figurent dans notre monument est tout a fait caracteristique. Ce sont bien la les vetements et les ornements en usage vers la moitie du quinzieme siecle, et la disposition artistique, le choix du sujet, ainsi que l'execution elle-meme portent bien l'empreinte du style des oeuvres de 1450 environ.----La maison de Bourgogne etait fort riche en joyaux, en vaisselle d'or ou d'argent et en _tapis_.”
The tapestry presents an allegorical history, of which the object is to depict the inconveniences consequent on what is called ”good cheer.” Later on this formed the subject of ”a morality.” Originally this tapestry was only one vast page, the requisite divisions being wrought in the form of ornamented columns. It was afterwards cut in pieces, and unfortunately the natural divisions of the subject were not attended to in the severment. More unhappily still the pieces have since been rejoined in a wrong order; and after every possible endeavour to read them aright, the publishers are indebted to the ”Morality” before referred to, which was taken from it, and was ent.i.tled ”La Nef de Sante, avec le gouvernail du corps humain, et la cond.a.m.nacion des bancquetz, a la louenge de Diepte et Sobriete, et la Traictie des Pa.s.sions de l'ame.”
Banquet, Bonnecompagnie, Souper, Gourmandise, Friandise, Pa.s.setemps, Je pleige d'autant, Je boy a vous, and other rare personifications, not forgetting that indispensable guest _then_ in all courtly pastime, Le fol, ”go it” to their hearts' content, until they are interrupted _vi et armis_ by a ghastly phalanx in powerful array of Apoplexie, Ydropsie, Epilencie, Pleurisie, Esquinancie, Paralasie, Gravelle, Colicque, &c.
TAp.i.s.sERIE DE DIJON.--”On conviendra qu'il serait difficile de trouver un monument de ce genre plus fidele sur le rapport historique, plus interessant pour les arts, et plus digne d'etre reproduit par la gravure. Je ferai en outre remarquer combien cet immense tableau de laine, qui est unique, renferme de details precieux a la fois pour la panoplie, pour les costumes, et l'architecture du commencement du 16 siecle, ainsi que pour l'histoire monumentale de Dijon.”
This tapestry, judging by the engravings in the work we quote, must be very beautiful. The groups are spirited and well disposed; and the countenances have so much _nature_ and expression in them, as to lead us readily to credit the opinion of the writer that they were portraits. The buildings are well outlined; and in the third piece an excellent effect is produced by exposing--by means of an open window, or some simple contrivance of the sort--part of the interior of the church of Notre Dame, and so displaying the brave leader of the French army, La Tremouille, as he offers thanks before the shrine of the Virgin.
The tapestry was worked immediately after the siege of Dijon, (1513) and represents in three scenes the most important circ.u.mstances relating to it; the costumes, the arms, and the architecture of the time being displayed with fidelity and exact.i.tude. The first represents the invading army before the walls; the second a solemn procession in honour of Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Espoir. In the midst is elevated the image of the Virgin, which is surrounded by the clergy in their festal vestments, by the religious communities, by the n.o.bility, the bourgeois, and the military, all bearing torches.
To this solemn procession was attributed the truce which led to a more lasting peace, though there are some heterodox dissentients who attribute this substantial advantage to the wisdom and policy of the able commander La Tremouille, who shared with Bayard the honourable distinction of being ”sans peur et sans reproche.”
TAp.i.s.sERIES DE BAYARD.--A chateau which belonged to this noted hero was despoiled at the Revolution, and it was doubtless only owing to an idea of its worthlessness that some of the ancient tapestry was left there. These fragments, in a deplorable state, were purchased in 1807, and there are yet sufficient of them to bear testimony to their former magnificence, and to decide the date of their creation at the close of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century. The subjects are taken from Homer's ”Iliad,” and ”il est probable (says M. Jubinal) que ce poeme se trouvait originairement reproduit en laine presque tout entier, malgre sa longueur, car ce n'etait pas le travail qui effrayait nos aeux.”