any systematic development of human nature would have a right to be indicated; and thus have assigned an external characteristic to a faculty of the third order-suppose (or perhaps a mere accidental effect of a faculty or a mere imaginary faculty), whilst a primary faculty went with out any expression at all:-partly, I say, to this cause which is obviously not merely a subjective but also an accidental cause; and partly also to the following cause, which is objective (i. e. seated in the inherent imperfections of the art itself, and not removeable therefore by any future improvements to be anticipated from a more matured psychology); viz. that the human mind transcends or overflows the gamut or scale of the art; in other words, that the qualities-intellectual or moral, which ought to be expressed, are far more in number than the alphabet of signs or expressions by which they are to be enunciated. Hence it follows as an inevitable dilemma, that many qualities must go unrepresented; or else be represented by signs common to them with other qualities: in the first of which cases we have an art imperfect from defect, in the other case imperfect from equivocal language. Thus, for example, determination of character is built in some cases upon mere energy of the will (a moral cause); and again in other cases upon capaciousness of judgment and freedom from all logical perplexity (an intellectual cause). Yet it is possible that either cause will modify the hand-writing in the same way. From the long analysis which we have thus given of the book recording this new system of education, it is sufficiently evident that we think very highly of it. In the hands of its founder we are convinced that it is calculated to work wonders; and so strong is the impression which his book conveys, that he is not only a man of very extraordinary talents for the improvement of the science of education, but also a very conscientious man-that, for our own parts, we should confide a child to his care with that spirit of perfect confidence which he has himself described at p. 74. There is an air of gentlemanly feeling spread over the book which tends still further to recommend the author. Meantime two questions arise on the system,-first, is it a good system? which we have answered:-secondly, is it a system adapted for general diffusion? This question we dare not answer in the affirmative, unless we could ensure the talents and energy of the original inventor in every other superintendant of this system. In this we may be wrong: but at all events, it ought not to be considered as any deduction from the merits of the author-as a very original thinker on the science of education, that his system is not (like the Madras system) independent of the teacher's ability, and therefore not unconditionally applicable.-Upon some future occasion we shall perhaps take an opportunity of stating what is in our opinion the great desideratum which is still to be supplied in the art of education considered simply in its intellectual purposes-viz. the communication of knowledge, and the development of the intellectual faculties: purposes which have not been as yet treated in sufficient insulation from the moral purposes. For the present we shall conclude by recommending to the notice of the Experimentalist the German writers on education. Basedow, who naturalized Rousseau in Germany, was the first author who called the attention of the German public to this important subject. Unfortunately Basedow had a silly ambition of being reputed an infidel, and thus created a great obstacle to his own success : he was also in many other respects a sciolist and a trifler: but, since his time, the subject has been much cultivated in Germany: "Paedogogic" journals even, have been published periodically, like literary or philosophic journals: and, as might be anticipated from that love of children which so honourably distinguishes the Germans as a people, not without very considerable success. THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE THORN. 'Tis a popular Legend, that the Nightingale, singing, leans upon a Thorn. FACETIÆ BIBLIOGRAPHICÆ; OR, The Dlo English Testers. No. VI. TARLTON'S JESTS. DRAWNE INTO THESE THREE PARTS. 1. HIS COURT-WITTY IESTS. 2. HIS SOUND CITY IESTS. 3. HIS COUNTREY PRETTY IESTS. TARLTON. subjects very rapidly. "Our Tarl ton (says Fullerf) was master of his faculty. When Queen Elizabeth was serious (I dare not say sullen) and out of good humour, he could un FULL OF DELIGHT, WIT, AND HONEST dumpish her at his pleasure. Her high MIRTH. LONDON, PRINTED BY I. H. FOR ANDREW CROOK, AND ARE TO BE SOLD IN PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, AT THE SIGNE OF THE BEARE. 1638. (Small quarto: containing five sheets, black letter). Or this very rare volume an earlier edition, probably the first, had appeared in 1611, but the reprint of 1638 is of so seldom occurrence, that the late Mr. Malone, who was not very fond of extravagant doings at book auctions, gave five guineas and a half for one at Mr. Stanhope's sale, an enormous price," as he notes on the blank leaf of his copy, now in the Bodleian library. 66 est favourites would in some cases go to Tarlton, before they would go to the Queen, and he was their usher to prepare their advantageous access to her. In a word, he told the Queen more of her faults, than most of her chaplains, and cured her melancholy better than all of her physicians. Heywood says of him; "heere I must needs remember Tarleton, in his time gratious with the Queene his soueraigne, and in the people's generall applause;" and Howes, the editor and continuator of Stow, tells us, that Elizabeth, at the suit of Sir Francis Walsingham, constituted twelve players at Barn Elms, allowing them wages and liveries as grooms of the chamber (a custom which lasted till Colley Cibber's time), and one of these was Tarlton. Richard Tarlton was born at Condover, in Shropshire, and, if we may believe Fuller (who says, that some of his name and relations were living" there when be wrote his Worthies), he was found in a field, keeping his father's swine, by a servant of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who accidentally meeting with him, as he was travelling on business for his Lord, entered into conversation, " and was so highly pleased with his happy unhappy answers," that he took him under his patronage, induced him to accompany him to London, and brought him to the court. He seems to have risen into favour with the Queen, and popularity with her Among these twelve players (continues Howes) were two rare men; viz. Thomas Wilson, for a quickę, delicate, refined, extemporall witte, and Richard Tarlton, for a wondrous plentifull, pleasant, extemporall wit, was the wonder of his tyme, and so beloued that men vse his picture for their signes."§ One of these signs was in existence so late as the beginning of the last century, when Oldys saw it over an obscure alehouse in the borough of Southwark, which then went by the name of The Tabor and Pipe Man.|| * Worthies in Staffordshire, (where Fuller places him, not having learned his birthplace in time to introduce him in the account of his native county) page 47. + Ibid. Bishop Hall in his Satires, In his Apology for Actors, London, 1612, 4to. Sign. E. 2. b. Annales or Chronicle, London, 1615, folio, p. 697. alludes to the frequency of Tarlton's portrait as a sign: "Or sit with Tarlton on an alepost's signe." MS. notes to Langbaine. The tabor seems to have been the usual accompanyment of the early clowns. In Twelfth-Night, Act III, Scene 1, the stage direction says, "Enter Viola and Clown with a tabor," and the wood-cut prefixed to the volume we are now noticing, gives a portrait of Tarlton with that instrument, and a long pipe. See this subject admirably treated on in Mr. Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, &c. 1, 97, 2, 209. * There was something so irresistibly comick in Tarlton's countenance, that, although he did not utter a syllable, the spectators were delighted. Sir Richard Baker, speaking of Prynne, the puritanical opposer of all theatrical amusements, says "Let him try it when he will, and come himself upon the stage, with all the scurrility of the wife of Bath, with all the ribaldry of Poggius or Boccace, yet I dare affirm he shall never give that contentment to be holders, as honest Tarlton did, though he said never a word;" and the same writer, in another work,+ bears ample testimony to his merits, and concludes his commendation of Allen and Burbage by declaring that "to make their comedies complete, they had Richard Tarleton, who for the part, called the clowne's part, never had his match, never will have." We 'will conclude these contemporary testimonies in praise of our comedian by an extract from Dr. Cave's treatise, De Politica, printed in quarto, at Oxford, 1588, who writes, " Aristoteles suum Theodoretum laudavit quendam peritum tragœdiarum actorem, Cicero suum Roscium, nos Angli TARLETONUM, in cujus voce et vultu omnes jocosi affectus, in cujus cerebroso ca'pite lepidæ facetiæ habitant." From the volume of Tarlton's Jests now before us, a good many particulars relating to himself may be gleaned. He was for some-time an actor at the Bull in Bishopsgate-street, and the following is given as an instance of his wit and ready humour: it is also a proof of the licence used by favourite performers in those days, and the buffoonery they descended to, in order to excite merriment. An excellent Iest of Tarlton suddenly spoken. At the Bull, at Bishopsgate, was a play of Henry the Fift, wherein the judge was to take a box on the eare, and because he was absent that should take the blow, Tarlton himselfe (euer forward to please) besides his owne part of the clowne: and tooke vpon him to play the same judge, Tarlton a sound boxe indeed, which made Knel then playing Henry the Fift, hit the people laugh the more because it was he. But anon the judge goes in, and inmediately Tarlton (in his clowne's cloathes) comes out, and askes the actors what newes; O (saith one) hadst thou been here, thou shouldest haue seen Prince Henry hit the judge a terrible box on the care. "What! man," said Tarlton, "strike a judge? "It is true, yfaith;' said the other. "No other like," said Tarlton," and it could not be but terrible to the judge, thinkes the blow remaines still on my when the report so terrifies me, that mechecke, that it burns againe." The people laught at this mightily; and to this day I huae heard it commended for rare; but no maruell, for he had many of these. But I would see our clownes in these dayes doe the like: no, I warrant ye, and yet they thinke well of themselues too." § Tarlton, besides his occupations as player, jester, and clown, kept an ordinary in Paternoster-row, and afterwards the sign of the Saba,|| a tavern in Gracious (Grace-church) street. He was also married, his wife being a widow named Katharine, and as report went, none of the best either for temper or reputation. How Tarlton would have drowned his Wife. Vpon a time as Tarlton and his wife (as passengers) came sailing from Southampton Theatrum triumphans. London, 1670, 8vo. p. 31. + Chronicle of England. London, 1674, folio, p. 500. There is no clown in Shakspeare's King Henry V. consequently Tarlton's prac tical witticism must refer to some previous drama with a similar title. A play so called was entered on the Stationers' books in 1594; Shakspeare's Henry V, according to Malone's calculation, was not written before 1599. § Jests. Sign. c. 2, b. The Saba, translated Sheba in the authorized versions of the Bible, and subsequently corrupted into the Bell-Savage: In heore land is a cite On of the noblest in Christiante: Hit hotith Sabba in langage, Thennes cam Sibely savage Of al theo world theo fairest quene, To Jerusalem, Salamon to seone. Adam Davie's Romance of Alexander. See Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 98. Boswell's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 430. Weber's Romances, 1, 263: 3, 328. ** Jests. D. 3, b. to towards London, a mighty storme arose and endangered the ship, wherevpon the captaine thereof charged euery man throw into the seas the heauiest thing hee could best spare, to the end to lighten some-what the ship. Tarlton, that had his wife there, offered to throw her ouer-board: but the company rescued her; and being asked wherefore he meant so to doe, he answered: "She is the heauiest thing I haue, and I can best spare her." During the summer it appears that the players left London, being prohibited from exhibiting in the metropolis, and went to the various fairs, large towns, and gentlemen's seats, in different parts of England. From one part of the book we learn, that a single waggon sufficed to carry the dresses and decorations of the whole company, and probably the actors themselves to boot. Being on one of these expeditions in Kent, Tarlton and his boy got as far as Sandwich, on their return to London, where their money failing them, our jester was fain to have recourse to his wits for a conveyance. After spending two days at the best inn, and in the best manner, he makes his boy mutter certain mysterious words before the host and his family, which led them to suppose Tarlton was a seminary priest in disguise." Lord, Lord (said the boy), what a scald master doe I serue! As I am an honest boy I'll leaue him in the lurch, and shift for myselfe; here's adoe about penance and mortification!" Such exclamations exciting the suspicions of the innkeeper, he communicated his fears to the constable, and the two worthies being anxious to secure the reward offered for the detection of Roman Catholic Priests, seized him in his chamber, (where, to keep up the joke, he was discovered on his knees crossing himself,) paid his reckoning, and bore his charges up to London. There they took him before recorder Fleetwood, who knowing him, received him very kindly, and dismissed his accusers "with fleas in their ears," for being such egregious fools; though we must own there was ample ground for suspicion. We hasten now to give a few extracts from the Jests of this celebrated personage: How Tarlton plaid the Drunkard before the Queene. The Queene being discontented, which Tarlton perceiuing, took vpon him to delight her with some quaint iest: whereupon he counterfaited a drunkard, and called for beere, which was brought immediately. Her Maiestie noting his humor, commanded that he should haue no more; for (quoth shee) he will play the beast, and so shame himselfe. Feare not you (quoth Tarlton), for your beere is Whereat her Maiestie small enough. laughed heartily, and commanded that he should haue enough. Tarlton's Opinion of Oysters. Certaine noblemen and ladies of the court being eating of oysters, one of them seeing Tarlton, called him, and asked him if he loued oysters? No (quoth Tarlton), for they be vngodly meate, vncharitable meate, and vnprofitable meate. Why? quoth the courtiers. They are vngodly, sayes Tarlton, because they are eaten without grace; vncharitable, because they leaue nought but shelles, and vnprofitable, because they must swim in wine. Tarlton's answer to a Courtier. Tarlton being at the court all night, in the morning he met a great courtier coming from his chamber, who espying Tarlton, said, "Good morrow, M. Didimus and Tridimus!" Tarlton being somewhat abashed, not knowing the meaning thereof, said, "Sir, I vnderstand you not, expound, I pray you." Quoth the courtier, Didimus and Tridimus is a fool and a knaue." "You ouerloade me," replied Tarlton," for my backe cannot beare both; therefore take you the one, and I will take the other; take you the knaue, and I will carry the foole with me.' Tarlton's Answer to a Nobleman's Question. There was a nobleman that asked Tarlton what hee thought of souldiers in time of peace? "Marry (quoth he) they are like chimneys in summer." Tarlton's Iest to an vnthrifty Courtier. There was an vnthriftie gallant belonging to the court, that had borrow'd fiue pounds of Tarlton; but having lost it at dice, he sent his man to Tarlton to borrow fiue The oyster-cater of the present day would not consider his dish improved by the introduction of wine sauce, and yet such was the custom in Queen Elizabeth's reign. It was considered necessary, to prevent their disagreeing when eaten raw. Cogan, who wrote a very learned and no less entertaining treatise "for all those that haue a care of their health," which he entitled The Haven of Health, and in which he advises on Labour, Meat, Drink, Sleep, and Venus, prefers oysters before all other shell fish, but he gives his readers this caution" if they be eaten raw they require good wine to be drunke after them to helpe digestion," and he recommends red wine or sack as best for that purpose. Haven of Health, London, 1596, 4to. p. 146. |