absurd, and consistent with the characteristic folly of his life.

Yet in any other king or any other man it might have been accounted a wise and philosophical interposition to stop so cruel and irrational a mode of settling disputes, in which general equity or individual justice could have no sort of influence; a method of decision by which strong muscular powers, a mettlesome steed, or a well-tempered lance, might prostrate an innocent and injured man at the feet of an unprincipled and cruel desperado, who relying on a nervous arm, or superior dexterity in military equitation, might thus set at defiance the laws of God and man.

But although THE LAWS OF CHIVALRY had many evils and some imperfections, it cannot be denied, that in the precise state of society and manners, when they were most prevalent, their influence was in many respects desirable and salutary; they produced a mild species of liberty and equality, the equality of honour and the liberty which did not degrade a gentleman; they humbled proud independence, and coerced savage ferocity.

The different kingdoms of modern Europe were then, in form or in effect, divided into petty sovereignties, and each lord or

baron exercised over the vassals of his district almost royal prerogatives; exacting personal service, maintaining a a military force, and considering himself as fully justified and legally authorized to lead them in hostile array against his neighbours, on any call of avarice, ambition, or revenge.

Under this state of things THE FEUDAL system would naturally degenerate into a system of feuds, and afford apt occasion for indulging malignant passions; but fortunately for mankind, the evil in some degree produced a remedy, the enthusiasm of chivalry suddenly blazed forth, checked with a gentle but irresistible power the haughty lord or the successful warrior in his impetuous career, and arrested ambition, avarice, lust, insolence, and revenge, by the salutary restraints of religion, gallantry, and courtesy, that cheap defence of nations," that unbought grace of life."

After a revolution of five hundred years, DUELLING, evidently founded on the laws of chivalry, maintains despotic sway: though condemned by moralists and divines, and pregnant with domestic calamity, legislators, statesmen, philosophers, and warriors, submissively yielding to its mandates, have confirmed

its utility, if not by actual open avowal, at least by tacit acknowledgment, and the mild sentences pronounced by our courts of justice against the survivors of those, who have fallen in these more than civil wars.

CHURCHYARD, THO

MAS, a native of Shrewsbury, in the reign of king Henry the eighth, "addicted to letters from his youth, and taught by his father to sweeten the labour of grammatical studies by playing at intervals on a lute."

Some method of attaching him, although he possessed quick parts, seems to have been necessary,

for at the age of seventeen it became matter of doubt whether his head or his heels were most restless."

At this period, a fond mother imprudently furnishing him with money, that great relaxer of juvenile exertion, he laid aside his books and took a journey to London, where he became a frequenter of the court and other places of gay resort, was sought after as a facetious companion, and acquired the character of a roystering fellow.

Meeting with those who assisted him in emptying his purse, his head soon became cool; his pa

He was the confidential page between the lover and his mistress, to whom several sonnets, addressed by the earl, are still extant; but the amiable and interesting Surrey did not live to gain his mistress, or to afford effectual patronage to Churchyard.

He had however collected a little coin, when his "old vagaries" returned and again set him rambling; for the purpose of indulging this propensity, he embraced the military line, and trailed a pike for three campaigns in Scotland and Flanders: he was taken prisoner, and underwent many difficulties and hardships, from which he was at length delivered by virtue of the vivacity of his discourse, and the graces of his person, which procuring him general favour with the wives and daughters of his enemies, they furnished him with the means of escape.

He returned to England sickly and pennyless; prudence, the hard-nursed parish child of

poverty,

poverty, once more returned, and he became part of the household of Robert, earl of Leicester.

Churchyard appears to have been disappointed at not finding his new master thoughtless like himself, dissipated and extravagant; he complained of the difference between the prudent Leicester and the generous Surrey; forgetting, as men of his stamp generally do, that previous to generosity, we ought to be just.

He occasionally visited his friends in Shrewsbury, where he soothed chagrin by his pen and frequent draughts of Shropshire ale, which the editor has found potent, but stupefying.

Perhaps it was from too free a use of this fluid that he was accounted a rhymer rather than a poet.

Churchyard was a copious writer; of his productions the majority are departed to the land of oblivion, some of them are extant in a collection famous in its day, called THE MYRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES, of which three editions, 1559, 1587, and 1610, have been printed; he also contributed to another poetical compilation, once in great repute, called The Paradise of Dainty Devises; three Epistles of Ovid's Tristria were done

by Churchyard into English

verse. The following are the titles of some other of his works:

A Chip from the Old Block -1575.

The Spider and the Gout. The Unhappy Life of Sir Simon Burley.

The Friar and Shoemaker's Wife.

A Light Bundle of Lively Discourses-1580.

A Description of a Paper Mill, built near Darthford, by a High German.

Churchyard, who is said to have been a fond or a despairing lover during his whole life, to use the words of his biographer, to whom I am indebted for almost the whole of this article, visited his namesake, in other words, was buried in 1602.

A lady, who has occasionally seen, but sometimes finds it difficult to read my productions in manuscript, objects strongly to the word roystering, introduced at the beginning of this article; I alledge in vain that it is actually and precisely the word of the author from whom I compile; this does not satisfy, and I am required at my peril to produce an instance, in which any good English writer has used it.

A few days after meeting myfair critic, I repeated to her the

following

following lines of Swift, who with all his defects of temper and wrong political opinions, was a correct composer; they are in one of his squibs against Wood and his halfpence:"Salmoneus, as the Grecian tale is,

Was a mad coppersmith at Elis: Up before day at morning peep, No creature in the lane could sleep :

Among a set of roystering fellows, Would spend whole evenings at the ale-house."

COCONAS, a favourite and

COCONAS,

confidential friend of the duke of Alençon, who was brother to Charles the ninth, king of France against this monarch, the subject of our present article was accused of entertaining treasonable designs, and practising unlawful arts.

At the moment of suspicion he was seized, and with several of his companions put to the torture, for the purpose of procuring further information.

Certain little images formed of wax, found in their possession, excited considerable attention in an age devoted to the opposite extremes of superstition and infidelity; an age which gave credit to tales of magic, and dreaded the operations of witchcraft.

The adversaries of these unhappy men insisted, that the waxen images, particularly one with needles driven through its breast in the direction of the heart, were representations of the king, over which they had read magic incantations, and practised infernal mysteries; in the hope of gradually undermining his majesty's health, and paving the way for their patron, the duke of Alençon, to

the Gallic throne.

It was in vain that the prisoners protested their innocence of the crimes alledged against them, and their attachment to the

king, by whose favour they had been placed in the service of his brother; they proved that the images in question had been purchased of an astrologer, whom they had consulted on the best method of softening the heart of an obdurate mistress.

In proof of the truth of this allegation, they referred without scruple to the images which were found in every instance to represent women.

Their defence was thought insufficient, and as it was more important at that period to impress terror than examine minutely, they suffered an ignominious death.

The artist who furnished the waxen images (imagiunculas

cereas

cereas) exciting fear or awakening resentment, was also taken into custody, and sentenced to the gallies, but he found means of evading punishment by fa-, vour of the queen;, his story is short, and sufficiently remarkable.

The name of this dealer in supernatural gifts was Cosmo Rugieri, a native of Florence, who finding the Italian soil not sufficiently productive of follies or of crimes, emigrated to France, and settling in Paris, drew large sums from the purses of the nobility, gentry and others, by casting their nativities, and answering lawful questions.

On these occasions, the replies made to his credulous folfowers were favourable or unfavourable, exactly in proportion to the price they paid.

Previously to the transaction which is here related, he had been applied to by her majesty, concerning the future conduct of Henry the fourth, when king of Navarre, and of the prince of Conde; his reply, after due consideration, was that their demeanour would be loyal and pacific.

It is remarkable, and corfirmed by collateral evidence, that this prediction of a judicial astrologer, actually saved the lives of those eminent persons,

VOL, IV.

as it had been previously resolved to put them both to death; death; on this occasion, the professor gave a hint to the parties, earnestly requesting that they would not by their conduct falsify what he had foretold; for, that the answer given was founded rather on his hopes and the affection he entertained for them, than on any certain foreknowledge he possessed; such questions being beyond the reach of his art to tamper with, or resolve.