Volume I Part 14 (1/2)
In a shop, in the high or princ.i.p.al street, I saw an active carpenter, who had lost the fore finger of his right hand, hard at work--alternately whistling and singing--over a pretty piece of ornamental furniture in wood.
It was the full face of a female, with closely curled hair over the forehead, surmounted by a wreath of flowers, having side curls, necklace, and platted hair. The whole was carved in beech, and the form and expression of the countenance were equally correct and pleasing. This merry fellow had a man or two under him, but he worked double tides, compared with his dependants. I interrupted him singing a French air, perfectly characteristic of the taste of his country. The t.i.tle and song were thus:
TOU JOURS.
TOUJOURS, toujours, je te serai fidele; Disait Adolphe a chaque instant du jour; Toujours, toujours je t'aimerai, ma belle, Je veux le dire aux echos d'alentour; Je graverai sur l'ecorce d'un hetre, Ce doux serment que le dieu des amours, Vient me dieter, en me faisant connaitre; Que mon bonheur est de t'aimer toujours. _Bis_.
Toujours, toujours, lui repondit Adele, Tu regneras dans le fond de mon coeur; Toujours, toujours, comme une tourterelle, Je promets bien t'aimer avec ardeur; Je pense a toi quand le soleil se leve, J'y pense encore a la tin de son cours; Dans le sommeil si quelquefois je reve, C'est au bonheur de te cherir toujours.
He was a carver on wainscoat wood: and if I would give myself ”la peine d'entrer,” he would shew me all sorts of curiosities. I secured a favourable reception, by purchasing the little ornament upon which he was at work--for a napoleon. I followed the nimble mechanic (ci-devant a soldier in Bonaparte's campaigns, from whence he dated the loss of his finger) through a variety of intricate pa.s.sages below and up stairs; and saw, above, several excellently well finished pieces of furniture, for drawers or clothes-presses, in wainscoat wood:--the outsides of which were carved sometimes with cl.u.s.tered roses, surrounding a pair of fond doves; or with representations of Cupids, sheep, bows and arrows, and the various _emblemata_ of the tender pa.s.sion. They would have reminded you of the old pieces of furniture which you found in your grandfather's mansion, upon taking possession of your estate: and indeed are of themselves no despicable ornaments in their way. I was asked from eight to twelve napoleons for one of these pieces of ma.s.sive and elaborately carved furniture, some six or seven feet in height.
In all other respects, this is a town deserving of greater antiquarian research than appears to have been bestowed upon it; and I cannot help thinking that its ancient ecclesiastical history is more interesting than is generally imagined. In former days the discipline and influence of its See seem to have been felt and acknowledged throughout nearly the whole of Normandy. Adieu. In imagination, the spires of COUTANCES CATHEDRAL begin to peep in the horizon.
[141] [Mr. Cotman has an excellent engraving of it.]
[142] He has since established himself at Paris, near the Luxembourg palace, as a _bookseller_; and it is scarcely three months since I received a letter from him, in which he told me that he could no longer resist the more powerful impulses of his heart--and that the phials of physic were at length abandoned for the volumes of Verard and of Gourmont. My friend, Mr. Dawson Turner, who knew him at Bayeux, has purchased books of him at Paris. [The preceding in 1820.]
[143] Mr. Stothard, Jun. See page 221 ante. Mr. S's own account of the tapestry may be seen in the XIXth volume of the Archaeologia. It is brief, perspicuous, and satisfactory. His fac-simile is one half the size of the original; executed with great neatness and fidelity; but probably the touches are a _little_ too artist-like or masterly.
[144] [The facsimile of that portion of the tapestry which is supposed to be a portrait of Harold, and which Mr. Lewis, who travelled with me, executed, is perhaps of its kind, one of the most perfect things extant. In saying this, I only deliver the opinions of very many competent judges. It must however be noticed, that the Society of Antiquaries published the whole series of this exceedingly curious and ancient Representation of the Conquest of our Country by William I. Of this publication, the figures measure about four inches in height: but there is also a complete, and exceedingly successful fac-simile of the first two figures of this series--of the size of the originals (William I. and the Messenger coming to announce to him the landing of Harold in England) also published from the same quarter. The whole of these Drawings were from the pencil of the late ingenious and justly lamented THOS. STOTHARD, Esq. Draftsman to the Society of Antiquaries.]
[145] A complete copy is of rarity in our own country, but not so abroad.
It is yet, however, an imperfect work.
[146] There have been bibliographers, and there are yet knowing book-collectors, who covet this edition in preference to the Leipsic impression of Sir T. More's Works of 1698; in folio. But this must proceed from sheer obstinacy; or rather, perhaps, from ignorance that the latter edition contains the _Utopia_--whereas in the former it is unaccountably omitted to be reprinted--which it might have been, from various previous editions.
[147] This figure is introduced with pursuivants and dogs: but great liberties, as a nice eye will readily discern, have been taken by Montfaucon, when compared with the original--of which the fac-simile, in the previous edition of this work, may be p.r.o.nounced to be PERFECT.
[148] Something similar may be seen round the border of the baptismal vase of St. Louis, in Millin's _Antiquites Nationales_. A part of the border in the Tapestry is a representation of subjects from Aesop's Fables.
[149] Of a monument, which has been p.r.o.nounced by one of our ablest antiquaries to be ”THE n.o.bLEST IN THE WORLD RELATING TO OUR OLD ENGLISH HISTORY,” (See _Stukely's Palaeog. Britan._ Number XI.
1746, 4to. p. 2-3) it may be expected that some archaeological discussion should be here subjoined. Yet I am free to confess that, after the essays of Messrs. Gurney, Stothard, and Amyot, (and more especially that of the latter gentleman) the matter--as to the period of its execution--may be considered as well nigh, if not wholly, at rest. These essays appear in the XVIIIth and XIXth volumes of the Archaeologia. The Abbe de la Rue contended that this Tapestry was worked in the time of the second Matilda, or the Empress Maud, which would bring it to the earlier part of the XIIth century. The antiquaries above mentioned contend, with greater probability, that it is a performance of the period which it professes to commemorate; namely, of the defeat of Harold at the battle of Hastings, and consequently of the acquiring of the Crown of England, by conquest, on the part of William. This latter therefore brings it to the period of about 1066, to 1088--so that, after all, the difference of opinion is only whether this Tapestry be fifty years older or younger, than the respective advocates contend.
But the most copious, particular, and in my humble judgment the most satisfactory, disquisition upon the date of this singular historical monument, is ent.i.tled, ”_A Defence of the early Antiquity of the Bayeux Tapestry_,” by Thomas Amyot, Esq. immediately following Mr.
Stothard's communication, in the work just referred to. It is at direct issue with all the hypotheses of the Abbe de la Rue, and in my opinion the results are triumphantly established. Whether the _Normans_ or the _English_ worked it, is perfectly a secondary consideration. The chief objections, taken by the Abbe, against its being a production of the XIth century, consist in, first, its not being mentioned among the treasures possessed by the Conqueror at his decease:--secondly, that, if the Tapestry were deposited in the church, it must have suffered, if not have been annihilated, at the storming of Bayeux and the destruction of the Cathedral by fire in the reign of Henry I., A.D. 1106:--thirdly, the silence of _Wace_ upon the subject,--who wrote his metrical histories nearly a century after the Tapestry is supposed to have been executed.” The latter is chiefly insisted upon by the learned Abbe; who, which ever champion come off victorious in this archaeological warfare, must at any rate receive the best thanks of the antiquary for the methodical and erudite manner in which he has conducted his attacks.
At the first blush it cannot fail to strike us that the Abbe de la Rue's positions are all of a _negative_ character; and that, according to the strict rules of logic, it must not be admitted, that because such and such writers have _not_ noticed a circ.u.mstance, therefore that circ.u.mstance or event cannot have taken place. The first two grounds of objection have, I think, been fairly set aside by Mr. Amyot. As to the third objection, Mr. A. remarks--”But it seems that Wace has not only _not_ quoted the tapestry, but has varied from it in a manner which proves that he had never seen it. The instances given of this variation are, however, a little unfortunate.
The first of them is very unimportant, for the difference merely consists in placing a figure at the _stern_ instead of the _prow_ of a s.h.i.+p, and in giving him a bow instead of a trumpet.
From an authority quoted by the Abbe himself, it appears that, with regard to this latter fact, the Tapestry was right, and Wace was wrong; and thus an argument is unintentionally furnished in favour of the superior antiquity of the Tapestry. The second instance of variation, namely, that relating to Taillefer's sword, may be easily dismissed; since, after all, it now appears, from Mr. Stothard's examination, that neither Taillefer nor his sword is to be found in the Tapestry,” &c. But it is chiefly from the names of aeLFGYVA and WADARD, inscribed over some of the figures, that I apprehend the conclusion in favour of the Tapestry's being nearly a contemporaneous production, may be safely drawn.
It is quite clear that these names belong to persons living when the work was in progress, or within the recollection of the workers, and that they were attached to persons of some particular note or celebrity, or rather perhaps of _local_ importance. An eyewitness, or a contemporary only would have introduced them. They would not have lived in the memory of a person, whether mechanic or historian, who lived a _century_ after the event. No antiquary has yet fairly appropriated these names, and more especially the second. It follows therefore that they would not have been introduced had they not been in existence at the time; and in confirmation of that of WADARD, it seems that Mr. Henry Ellis (Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries) ”confirmed Mr. Amyot's conjecture on that subject, by the references with which he furnished him to _Domesday Book_, where his name occurs in no less than six counties, as holding lands of large extent under _Odo_, Bishop of Bayeux, the tenant in capite of those properties from the crown. That he was not a _guard_ or _centinel,_ as the Abbe de la Rue supposes, but that he held an _office of rank_ in the household of either William or Odo, seems now decided beyond a doubt.” Mr. Amyot thus spiritedly concludes:--alluding to the successful completion of Mr.
Stothard's copy of the entire original roll.--”Yet if the BAYEUX TAPESTRY be not history of the first cla.s.s, it is perhaps something better. It exhibits general traits, elsewhere sought in vain, of the costume and manners of that age, which, of all others, if we except the period of the Reformation, ought to be the most interesting to us;--that age, which gave us a new race of monarchs, bringing with them new landholders, new laws, and almost a new language.”
Mr. Amyot has subjoined a specimen of his own poetical powers in describing ”the Minstrel TAILLEFER'S achievements,” in the battle of Hastings, from the old Norman lays of GAIMAR and WACE. I can only find room for the first few verses. The poem is ent.i.tled,
THE ONSET OF TAILLEFER.
Foremost in the bands of France, Arm'd with hauberk and with lance, And helmet glittering in the air, As if a warrior knight he were, Rush'd forth the MINSTREL TAILLEFER Borne on his courser swift and strong, He gaily bounded o'er the plain, And raised the heart-inspiring song (Loud echoed by the warlike throng) Of _Roland_ and of _Charlemagne_, Of _Oliver_, brave peer of old, Untaught to fly, unknown to yield, And many a Knight and Va.s.sal bold, Whose hallowed blood, in crimson flood, Dyed _Roncevalle's_ field.
[150] M. Denon told me, in one of my visits to him at Paris, that by the commands of Bonaparte, he was charged with the custody of this Tapestry for three months; that it was displayed in due form and ceremony in the Museum; and that after having taken a hasty sketch of it, (which he admitted could not be considered as very faithful) he returned it to Bayeux--as it was considered to be the peculiar property of that place.