Showing posts with label March 19. Show all posts
Showing posts with label March 19. Show all posts
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Bondman
Tuesday 19 March 1660/61
We met at the office this morning about some particular business, and then I to Whitehall, and there dined with my Lord, and after dinner Mr. Creed and I to White-Fryars, where we saw “The Bondman” acted most excellently, and though I have seen it often, yet I am every time more and more pleased with Betterton’s action. From thence with him and young Mr. Jones to Penell’s in Fleet Street, and there we drank and talked a good while, and so I home and to bed.
“The Bondman” was produced by English playwright Philip Massinger a generation earlier than Samuel Pepys. Pepys writes of the plays he sees often in his diary, and his March 19, 1661 entry is two decades after Massinger died. The name Philip Massinger found a way into Walter Scott’s “The Fortunes of Nigel”:
“Oh! a well-known piece,” said Lord Nigel, impatiently throwing down the Proclamation, which he had hitherto been twisting to and fro in his hand,—“an excellent and well-approved piece — A New Way to Pay Old Debts. ”
Master Heriot stooped down, saying, “Ah! my old acquaintance, Philip Massinger;” but, having opened the paper and seen the purport, he looked at Lord Nigel with surprise, saying, “I trust your lordship does not think this prohibition can extend either to your person or your claims?”
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Unhorsed
On March 19, 1286 (OS), King Alexander III of Scotland died. His death was caused by a broken neck, suffered while riding to Fife to visit his new queen, Yolande of Dreux. Wife number two, it was hoped, would provide a replacement heir for the children Alexander had recently lost; Margaret, Alexander, and David all preceded him to the grave. Walter Scott includes this historical note on Alexander (in a section on Sir Patrick Spens) in his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border":
'Alexander III. of Scotland died in 1286; and, for the misfortune of his country, as well as his own, he had been bereaved of all his children before his decease. The crown of Scotland descended upon his grand-daughter, Margaret, termed, by our historians, the Maid of Norway. She was the only offspring of a marriage betwixt Eric, King of Norway, and Margaret, daughter of Alexander III. The kingdom had oeen secured to her by the Parliament of Scotland held at Scone, the year preceding her grandfather's death. The regency of Scotland entered into a congress with the ministers of the King of Norway, and with those of England, for the establishment of good order in the kingdom of the infant Princess. Shortly afterwards, Edward I. conceived the idea of matching his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, with the young Queen of Scotland. The plan was eagerly embraced by the Scottish nobles; for, at that time, there was little of the national animosity, which afterwards blazed betwixt the countries, and they patriotically looked forward to the important advantage of uniting the island of Britain into one kingdom. But Eric of Norway seems to have been unwilling to deliver up his daughter: and, while the negotiations were thus protracted. the death of the Maid of Norway effectually crushed a scheme, the consequences of which might have been, that the distinction betwixt England and Scotland would, in our day. have been as obscure and uninteresting as that of the realms of the heptarchy. — Hailes Annals. Fordun, &c.'
'Alexander III. of Scotland died in 1286; and, for the misfortune of his country, as well as his own, he had been bereaved of all his children before his decease. The crown of Scotland descended upon his grand-daughter, Margaret, termed, by our historians, the Maid of Norway. She was the only offspring of a marriage betwixt Eric, King of Norway, and Margaret, daughter of Alexander III. The kingdom had oeen secured to her by the Parliament of Scotland held at Scone, the year preceding her grandfather's death. The regency of Scotland entered into a congress with the ministers of the King of Norway, and with those of England, for the establishment of good order in the kingdom of the infant Princess. Shortly afterwards, Edward I. conceived the idea of matching his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, with the young Queen of Scotland. The plan was eagerly embraced by the Scottish nobles; for, at that time, there was little of the national animosity, which afterwards blazed betwixt the countries, and they patriotically looked forward to the important advantage of uniting the island of Britain into one kingdom. But Eric of Norway seems to have been unwilling to deliver up his daughter: and, while the negotiations were thus protracted. the death of the Maid of Norway effectually crushed a scheme, the consequences of which might have been, that the distinction betwixt England and Scotland would, in our day. have been as obscure and uninteresting as that of the realms of the heptarchy. — Hailes Annals. Fordun, &c.'
Friday, March 19, 2010
Tobias Smollet
"The Life of Smollett, whose genius has raised an imperishable monument to his fame, has been written, with spirit and elegance- by his friend and contemporary, the celebrated Dr Moore, and more lately by Dr Robert Anderson of Edinburgh, with a careful research, which leaves to us little except the task of selection and abridgement..."
Thus Walter Scott begins his brief biography of Tobias Smollett, published in "The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott". Smollett, born on March 19, 1721, died the month following Scott's own birth (Smollett passed Sept. 17, 1771). His youth was spent in what is now Renton, in West Dunbartonshire. Scott describes the scene: "Tobias Smollett (baptized Tobias George) was born in 1721, in the old house of Dalquhurn, in the valley of Leven, in perhaps the most beautiful district in Britain."
Smollett trained as a surgeon at the University of Glasgow, and served as a naval surgeon. His true calling however, was to literature, and he was also partial to Scotland. His first publication was the poem " The Tears of Scotland", about the Battle of Culloden. Scott reports a story of Smollet's working on this poem: "...The late Robert Graham, Esq. 01 Gartmore, a particular friend and trustee of Smollett, has recorded the manner in which this effusion was poured forth.
" Some gentlemen having met at a tavern were amusing themselves before supper with a game at cards j while Smollett, not choosing to play, sat down to write. One of the company, who also was nominated by him one of his trustees," ( Gartmore himself,) " observing his earnestness, and supposing lie was writing verses, asked him if it was not so. He accordingly read them the first sketch of his Tears of Scotland, consisting only of six stanzas ; and on their remarking that the termination of the poem, being too strongly expressed, might give offence to persons whose political opinions were different, he sat down, without reply, and, with an air of great indignation, subjoined the concluding stanza:—
" While the warm blood bedews my veins.
And unimpaired remembrance reigns,
Resentment of my Country's fate
Within my filial breast shall heat.
Yes, spite of thine insulting foe,
My sympathizing verse shall flow.
Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn,
Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn !"..."
Smollett established himself as a literary figure with the publication of his novel "The Adventures of Roderick Random, in 1748. Smollett's great work, to his own thinking, was his "A Complete History of England." Smollett had already achieved quite a literary reputation before embarking on this study, which took from 1757 - 1765 to complete.
Smollett was contemporary with Samuel Johnson, who he nicknamed "the great Cham of literature". James Boswell records this conversation in his "Life of Johnson" (April 10, 1776), which highlights the great esteem Smollett was held in, as well as his reputation as a critic: "...He (Johnson) talked of Lord Lyttelton's extreme anxiety as an authour; observing, that 'he was thirty years in preparing his History, and that he employed a man to point it for him; as if (laughing) another man could point his sense better than himself.' Mr. Murphy said, he understood his history was kept back several years for fear of Smollet. JOHNSON. 'This seems strange to Murphy and me, who never felt that anxiety, but sent what we wrote to the press, and let it take its chance.' MRS. THRALE. 'The time has been, Sir, when you felt it.' JOHNSON. 'Why, really, Madam, I do not recollect a time when that was the case.'..." Dr. Johnson edited the Latin inscription on a memorial column at Smollett's burial site.
Thus Walter Scott begins his brief biography of Tobias Smollett, published in "The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott". Smollett, born on March 19, 1721, died the month following Scott's own birth (Smollett passed Sept. 17, 1771). His youth was spent in what is now Renton, in West Dunbartonshire. Scott describes the scene: "Tobias Smollett (baptized Tobias George) was born in 1721, in the old house of Dalquhurn, in the valley of Leven, in perhaps the most beautiful district in Britain."
Smollett trained as a surgeon at the University of Glasgow, and served as a naval surgeon. His true calling however, was to literature, and he was also partial to Scotland. His first publication was the poem " The Tears of Scotland", about the Battle of Culloden. Scott reports a story of Smollet's working on this poem: "...The late Robert Graham, Esq. 01 Gartmore, a particular friend and trustee of Smollett, has recorded the manner in which this effusion was poured forth.
" Some gentlemen having met at a tavern were amusing themselves before supper with a game at cards j while Smollett, not choosing to play, sat down to write. One of the company, who also was nominated by him one of his trustees," ( Gartmore himself,) " observing his earnestness, and supposing lie was writing verses, asked him if it was not so. He accordingly read them the first sketch of his Tears of Scotland, consisting only of six stanzas ; and on their remarking that the termination of the poem, being too strongly expressed, might give offence to persons whose political opinions were different, he sat down, without reply, and, with an air of great indignation, subjoined the concluding stanza:—
" While the warm blood bedews my veins.
And unimpaired remembrance reigns,
Resentment of my Country's fate
Within my filial breast shall heat.
Yes, spite of thine insulting foe,
My sympathizing verse shall flow.
Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn,
Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn !"..."
Smollett established himself as a literary figure with the publication of his novel "The Adventures of Roderick Random, in 1748. Smollett's great work, to his own thinking, was his "A Complete History of England." Smollett had already achieved quite a literary reputation before embarking on this study, which took from 1757 - 1765 to complete.
Smollett was contemporary with Samuel Johnson, who he nicknamed "the great Cham of literature". James Boswell records this conversation in his "Life of Johnson" (April 10, 1776), which highlights the great esteem Smollett was held in, as well as his reputation as a critic: "...He (Johnson) talked of Lord Lyttelton's extreme anxiety as an authour; observing, that 'he was thirty years in preparing his History, and that he employed a man to point it for him; as if (laughing) another man could point his sense better than himself.' Mr. Murphy said, he understood his history was kept back several years for fear of Smollet. JOHNSON. 'This seems strange to Murphy and me, who never felt that anxiety, but sent what we wrote to the press, and let it take its chance.' MRS. THRALE. 'The time has been, Sir, when you felt it.' JOHNSON. 'Why, really, Madam, I do not recollect a time when that was the case.'..." Dr. Johnson edited the Latin inscription on a memorial column at Smollett's burial site.
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