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diff --git a/5671-0.txt b/5671-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4026197 --- /dev/null +++ b/5671-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4439 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Visions of the Sleeping Bard, by Ellis +Wynne, Translated by Robert Gwyneddon Davies + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Visions of the Sleeping Bard + + +Author: Ellis Wynne + + + +Release Date: July 10, 2014 [eBook #5671] +[This file was first posted on August 6, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VISIONS OF THE SLEEPING BARD*** + + +Transcribed from the 1897 Welsh National Press Company edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + [Picture: Book cover] + + [Picture: Glasynys, The Birthplace of Ellis Wynne] + + + + + + THE VISIONS + OF THE + SLEEPING BARD + + + BEING + + ELLIS WYNNE’S + + “_Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc_” + + TRANSLATED BY + + ROBERT GWYNEDDON DAVIES + + * * * * * + + LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARHSALL & CO., LIMITED. + + CARNARVON: THE WELSH NATIONAL PRESS COMPANY, LIMITED + + * * * * * + + MDCCCXCVII + + * * * * * + + TO + PROFESSOR JOHN RHŶS, M.A., LL.D. + PRINCIPAL OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD + AND + VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE + OF NORTH WALES, + IN TOKEN OF + HIS DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARSHIP AND UNRIVALLED + SERVICES + TO + CELTIC LITERATURE + THIS TRANSLATION + IS + RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED + + + + +PREFACE + + +AT the National Eisteddfod of 1893, a prize was offered by Mr. Lascelles +Carr, of the _Western Mail_, for the best translation of Ellis Wynne’s +_Vision of Hell_. The Adjudicators (Dean Howell and the Rev. G. Hartwell +Jones, M.A.), awarded the prize for the translation which is comprised in +the present volume. The remaining Visions were subsequently rendered +into English, and the complete work is now published in the hope that it +may prove useful to those readers, who, being unacquainted with the Welsh +language, yet desire to obtain some knowledge of its literature. + +My best thanks are due to the Rev. J. W. Wynne Jones, M.A., Vicar of +Carnarvon, for much help and valuable criticism; to the Rev. R Jones, +MA., Rector of Llanfair-juxta-Harlech, through whose courtesy I am +enabled to produce (from a photograph by Owen, Barmouth) a page of the +register of that parish, containing entries in Ellis Wynne’s handwriting; +and to Mr. Isaac Foulkes, Liverpool, for the frontispiece, which appeared +in his last edition of the _Bardd Cwsc_. + + R. GWYNEDDON DAVIES. + +_Caernarvon_, + _1st July_, _1897_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE +Frontispiece +Genealogical Tables xii +Introduction:— + I. The Author’s Life xv + II. The Text xx + III. The Summary xxiv +Facsimile of Ellis Wynne’s Handwriting +Vision of the World 3 +Vision of Death 43 +Vision of Hell 67 +Notes 123 + + + + +GENEALOGICAL TABLES. {0} + + +ELLIS WYNNE’S PEDIGREE. + + +*** (_I am indebted to E. H. Owen_, _Esqr._, _F.S.A._, _Tycoch_, +_Carnarvon_, _for most of the information compiled in the following +tables_.) + + [Picture: Ellis Wynne’s Pedigree] + + + +THE RELATION BETWEEN ELLIS WYNNE & BISHOP HUMPHREYS. + + + [Picture: The Relation between Ellis Wynne & Bishop Humphreys] + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +I.—THE AUTHOR’S LIFE. + + +ELLIS WYNNE was born in 1671 at Glasynys, near Harlech; his father, +Edward Wynne, came of the family of Glyn Cywarch (mentioned in the second +Vision), his mother, whose name is not known, was heiress of Glasynys. +It will be seen from the accompanying table that he was descended from +some of the best families in his native county, and through _Osborn +Wyddel_, from the Desmonds of Ireland. His birth-place, which still +stands, and is shown in the frontispiece hereto, is situate about a mile +and a half from the town of Harlech, in the beautiful Vale of Ardudwy. +The natural scenery amidst which he was brought up, cannot have failed to +leave a deep impression upon his mind; and in the Visions we come across +unmistakeable descriptions of scenes and places around his home. +Mountain and sea furnished him with many a graphic picture; the +precipitous heights and dark ravines of Hell, its caverns and its cliffs, +are all evidently drawn from nature. The neighbourhood is also rich in +romantic lore and historic associations; Harlech Castle, some twenty-five +years before his birth, had been the scene of many a fray between +Roundheads and Cavaliers, and of the last stand made by the Welsh for +King Charles. These events were fresh in the memory of his elders, whom +he had, no doubt, often heard speaking of those stirring times; members +of his own family had, perhaps, fought in the ranks of the rival parties; +his father’s grand-uncle, Col. John Jones, was one of those “who +erstwhile drank of royal blood.” + +It is not known where he received his early education, and it has been +generally stated by his biographers that he was not known to have entered +either of the Universities; but, as the following notice proves, he at +least matriculated at Oxford:— + + WYNNE, ELLIS, s. Edw. of Lasypeys, co. Merioneth, pleb. Jesus Coll. + matric. 1st March 1691–2, aged 21; rector of Llandanwg, 1705, & of + Llanfair-juxta-Harlech (both) co. Merioneth, 1711. (_Vide_ Foster’s + _Index Eccles_.) + +Probably his stay at the University was brief, and that he left without +taking his degree, for I have been unable to find anything further +recorded of his academic career. {0a} The Rev. Edmund Prys, Vicar of +Clynnog-Fawr, in a prefatory _englyn_ to Ellis Wynne’s translation of the +“_Holy Living_” says that “in order to enrich his own, he had ventured +upon the study of three other tongues.” This fact, together with much +that appears in the Visions, justifies the conclusion that his scholarly +attainments were of no mean order. But how and where he spent the first +thirty years of his life, with the possible exception of a period at +Oxford, is quite unknown, the most probable surmise being that they were +spent in the enjoyment of a simple rural life, and in the pursuit of his +studies, of whatever nature they may have been. + +According to Rowlands’s _Cambrian Bibliography_ his first venture into +the fields of literature was a small volume entitled, _Help i ddarllen yr +Yscrythur Gyssegr-Lân_ (“Aids to reading Holy Writ”), being a translation +of the _Whole Duty of Man_ “by E. W., a clergyman of the Church of +England,” published at Shrewsbury in 1700. But as Ellis Wynne was not +ordained until 1704, this work must be ascribed to some other author who, +both as to name and calling, answered to the description on the +title-page quoted above. But in 1701 an accredited work of his appeared, +namely, a translation into Welsh of Jeremy Taylor’s _Rules and Exercises +of Holy Living_, a 12mo. volume published in London. It was dedicated to +the Rev. Humphrey Humphreys, D.D., Bishop of Bangor, who was a native of +the same district of Merionethshire as Ellis Wynne, and, as is shown in +the genealogical table hereto, was connected by marriage with his family. + +In 1702 {0b} he was married to Lowri Llwyd—_anglicè_, Laura Lloyd—of +Hafod-lwyfog, Beddgelert, and had issue by her, two daughters and three +sons; one of the daughters, Catherine, died young, and the second son, +Ellis, predeceased his father by two years. {0c} His eldest son, Gwilym, +became rector of Llanaber, near Barmouth, and inherited his ancestral +home; his youngest son, Edward, also entered the Church and became rector +of Dolbenmaen and Penmorfa, Carnarvonshire. Edward Wynne’s son was the +rector of Llanferres, Denbighshire, and his son again was the Rev. John +Wynne, of Llandrillo in Edeyrnion, who died only a few years ago. + +The following year (1703), he published the present work—his _magnum +opus_—which has secured him a place among the greatest names in Welsh +Literature. It will be noticed that on the title-page to the first +edition the words “_Y Rhann Gyntaf_” (“The First Part”) appear; the +explanation given of this is that Ellis Wynne did actually write a second +part, entitled, _The Vision of Heaven_, but that on hearing that he was +charged with plagiarism in respect of his other Visions, he threw the +manuscript into the fire, and so destroyed what, judging from the title, +might have proved a greater success than the first part, as affording +scope for lighter and more pleasing flights of the imagination. + +It is said by his biographers that he was induced to abandon the pursuit +of the law, to which he was educated, and to take holy orders, by Bishop +Humphreys, who had recognised in his translation of the _Holy Living_ +marked ability and piety, and that he was ordained deacon and priest the +same day by the Bishop, at Bangor, in 1701, and presented on the +following day to the living of Llanfair-juxta-Harlech and subsequently to +Llandanwg. + +All these statements appear to be incorrect. To deal with them +categorically: I find no record at the Diocesan Registry of his having +been ordained at Bangor at all; the following entry in the parish +register of Llanfair shows that he was not in holy orders in July, 1704: +“_Gulielmus filius Elizaei Wynne generosi de Lâs ynys et uxoris suis +baptizatus fuit quindecimo die Julii_, _1704_.—_W. Wynne Rr._, _O. +Edwards_, _Rector_.” His first living was Llandanwg, and not Llanfair, +to which he was collated on January 1st, 1705. Moreover, the above-named +Owen Edwards was the rector of Llanfair until his death which took place +in 1711. {0d} From that date on to 1734, the entries in the register at +Llanfair church are all in Ellis Wynne’s handwriting; these facts prove +conclusively that it was in 1711 he became rector of the latter parish. + +In 1710 he edited a new and revised edition of the Book of Common Prayer, +at the request of his patron, the Bishop of Hereford (Dr. Humphreys) and +the four Welsh bishops,—a clear proof of the confidence reposed in him by +the dignitaries of his church as a man of learning and undoubted piety. +He himself published nothing more, but _A Short Commentary on the +Catechism_ and a few hymns and carols were written by him and published +posthumously by his son, Edward, being included in a volume of his own, +entitled _Prif Addysc y Cristion_, issued in 1755. + +The latter part of his life is as completely obscure as the earlier; he +lapsed again into the silence from which he had only just emerged with +such signal success, and confined his efforts as a Christian worker +within the narrow limits of his own native parts, exercising, +doubtlessly, an influence for good upon his immediate neighbourhood +through force of character and noble personality, as upon his +fellow-countrymen at large by means of his published works. His wife +died in 1720, and his son, Ellis, in 1732; two years later he himself +died and was buried under the communion table in Llanfair church, on the +17th day of July, 1734. {0e} There is no marble or “perennial brass” to +mark the last resting-place of the Bard, nor was there, until recent +years, any memorial of him in either of his parish churches, when the +late Rev. John Wynne set up a fine stained-glass window at Llanfair +church in memory of his illustrious ancestor. + +Ellis Wynne appeared at a time when his country had sore need of him, +when the appointed teachers of the nation were steeped in apathy and +corruption, when ignorance and immorality overspread the land—the darkest +hour before the dawn. He was one of the early precursors of the +Methodist revival in Wales, a voice crying in the wilderness, calling +upon his countrymen to repent. He neither feared nor favored any man or +class, but delivered his message in unfaltering tone, and performed his +alloted task honestly and faithfully. How deeply our country is indebted +to him who did her such eminent service in the days of adversity and +gloom will never be known. And now, in the time of prosperity, Wales +still remembers her benefactor, and will always keep honored the name of +Ellis Wynne, the SLEEPING BARD. + + + +II.—THE TEXT. + + +The _Bardd Cwsc_ was first published in London in 1703, a small 24mo. +volume of some 150 pages, with the following title-page + + “GWELEDIGAETHEU Y BARDD CWSC. Y Rhann Gyntaf. Argraphwyd yn + Llundain gan E. Powell i’r Awdwr, 1703.” {0f} + +A second edition was not called for until about 1742, when it was issued +at Shrewsbury; but in the thirty years following, as many as five +editions were published, and in the present century, at least twelve +editions (including two or three by the Rev. Canon Silvan Evans) have +appeared. The text followed in this volume is that of Mr. Isaac Foulkes’ +edition, but recourse has also been had to the original edition for the +purpose of comparison. The only translation into English hitherto has +been that of George Borrow, published in London in 1860, and written in +that charming and racy style which characterises his other and better +known works. He has, however, fallen into many errors, which were only +natural, seeing that the Visions abound in colloquial words and phrases, +and in idiomatic forms of expression which it would be most difficult for +one foreign to our tongue to render correctly. + +The author’s name is not given in the original nor in any subsequent +edition previous to the one published at Merthyr Tydfil in 1806, where +the _Gweledigaetheu_ are said to be by “Ellis Wynne.” But it was well +known, even before his death, that he was the author; the fact being +probably deduced from the similarity in style between the Visions and an +acknowledged work, namely, his translation of the _Holy Living_. The +most likely reason for his preferring anonymity is not far to seek; his +scathing denunciation of the sins of certain classes and, possibly, even +of certain individuals, would be almost sure to draw upon the author +their most bitter attacks. Many of the characters he depicts would be +identified, rightly or wrongly, with certain of his contemporaries, and +many more, whom he never had in his mind at all, would imagine themselves +the objects of his satire; he had nothing to gain by imperilling himself +at the hands of such persons, or by coming into open conflict with them; +he had his message to deliver to his fellow-countrymen, his Visions a +purpose to fulfil, the successful issue of which could not but be +frustrated by the introduction of personal hatred and ill-will. Ellis +Wynne was only too ready to forego the honor of being the acknowledged +author of the Visions if thereby he could the better serve his country. + + * * * * * + +The _Bardd Cwsc_ is not only the most popular of Welsh prose works, but +it has also retained its place among the best of our classics. No better +model exists of the pure idiomatic Welsh of the last century, before +writers became influenced by English style and method. Vigorous, fluent, +crisp, and clear, it shows how well our language is adapted to +description and narration. It is written for the people, and in the +picturesque and poetic strain which is always certain to fascinate the +Celtic mind. The introduction to each Vision is evidently written with +elaborate care, and exquisitely polished—“_ne quid possit per leve +morari_,” and scene follows scene, painted in words which present them +most vividly before one’s eyes, whilst the force and liveliness of his +diction sustain unflagging interest throughout. The reader is carried +onward as much by the rhythmic flow of language and the perfect balance +of sentences, as by the vivacity of the narrative and by the reality with +which Ellis Wynne invests his adventures and the characters he depicts. +The terrible situations in which we find the Bard, as the drama unfolds, +betoken not only a powerful imagination, but also an intensity of feeling +which enabled him to realise the conceptions of such imagination. We +follow the Bard and his heavenly guide through all their perils with +breathless attention; the demons and the damned he so clothes with flesh +and blood that our hatred or our sympathy is instantly stirred; his World +is palpitating with life, his Hell, with its gloom and glare, is an +awful, haunting dream. But besides being the possessor of a vivid +imagination, Ellis Wynne was endowed with a capacity for transmitting his +own experience in a picturesque and life-like manner. The various +descriptions of scenes, such as Shrewsbury fair, the parson’s revelry and +the deserted mansions; of natural scenery, as in the beginning of the +first and last Visions; of personages, such as the portly alderman, and +the young lord and his retinue, all are evidently drawn from the Author’s +own experience. He was also gifted with a lively sense of humor, which +here and there relieves the pervading gloom so naturally associated with +the subject of his Visions. The humorous and the severe, the grotesque +and the sublime, the tender and the terrible, are alike portrayed by a +master hand. + +The leading feature of the Visions, namely the personal element which the +Author infuses into the recital of his distant travels, brings the reader +into a closer contact with the tale and gives continuity to the whole +work, some parts of which would otherwise appear disconnected. This +telling of the tale _in propria persona_ with a guide of shadowy or +celestial nature who points out what the Bard is to see, and explains to +him the mystery of the things around him, is a method frequently adopted +by poets of all times. Dante is the best known instance, perhaps; but we +find the method employed in Welsh, as in “The Dream of Paul, the +Apostle,” where Paul is led by Michael to view the punishments of Hell +_(vide_ Iolo MSS.). Ellis Wynne was probably acquainted with Vergil and +Dante, and adopted the idea of supernatural guidance from them; in fact, +apart from this, we meet with several passages which are eminently +reminiscent of both these great poets. + +But now, casting aside mere speculation, we come face to face with the +indisputable fact that Ellis Wynne is to a considerable degree indebted +to the _Dreams_ of Gomez de Quevedo y Villegas, a voluminous Spanish +author who flourished in the early part of the 17th century. In 1668, +Sir Roger L’Estrange published his translation into English of the +_Dreams_, which immediately became very popular. Quevedo has his Visions +of the World, of Death and her (_sic_) Empire, and of Hell; the same +characters are delineated in both, the same classes satirized, the same +punishments meted out. We read in both works of the catchpoles and +wranglers, the pompous knights and lying knaves—in fine, we cannot +possibly come to any other conclusion than that Ellis Wynne has “read, +marked and inwardly digested” L’Estrange’s translation of Quevedo’s +_Dreams_. But admitting so much, the _Bardd Cwsc_ still remains a purely +Welsh classic; whatever in name and incident Ellis Wynne has borrowed +from the Spaniard he has dressed up in Welsh home-spun, leaving little or +nothing indicative of foreign influence. The sins he preached against, +the sinners he condemned, were, he knew too well, indigenous to Welsh and +Spanish soil. George Borrow sums up his comments upon the two authors in +the following words: “Upon the whole, the Cymric work is superior to the +Spanish; there is more unity of purpose in it, and it is far less +encumbered with useless matter.” + +The implication contained in the foregoing remarks of Borrow—that the +_Bardd Cwsc_ is encumbered to a certain degree with useless matter, is no +doubt well founded. There is a tendency to dwell inordinately upon the +horrible, more particularly in the Vision of Hell; a tiring sameness in +the descriptive passages, an occasional lapse from the tragic to the +ludicrous, and an intrusion of the common-place in the midst of a speech +or a scene, marring the dignity of the one and the beauty of the other. + +The most patent blemish, however, is the unwarranted coarseness of +expression to which the Author sometimes stoops. It is true that he must +be judged according to the times he lived in; his chief object was to +reach the ignorant masses of his countrymen, and to attain this object it +was necessary for him to adopt their blunt and unveneered speech. For +all that, one cannot help feeling that he has, in several instances, +descended to a lower level than was demanded of him, with the inevitable +result that both the literary merit and the good influence of his work in +some measure suffer. Many passages which might be considered coarse and +indecorous according to modern canons of taste, have been omitted from +this translation. + +From the literary point of view THE VISIONS OF THE SLEEPING BARD has from +the first been regarded as a masterpiece, but from the religious, two +very different opinions have been held concerning it. One, probably the +earlier, was, that it was a book with a good purpose, and fit to stand +side by side with Vicar Pritchard’s _Canwyll y Cymry_ and _Llyfr yr +Homiliau_; the other, that it was a pernicious book, “_llyfr codi +cythreuliaid_”—a devil-raising book. A work which in any shape or form +bore even a distant relationship to fiction, instantly fell under the ban +of the Puritanism of former days. To-day neither opinion is held, the +_Bardd Cwsc_ is simply a classic and nothing more. + +The Visions derive considerable value from the light they throw upon the +moral and social condition of our country two centuries ago. Wales, at +the time Ellis Wynne wrote was in a state of transition: its old-world +romance was passing away, and ceasing to be the potent influence which, +in times gone by, had aroused our nation to chivalrous enthusiasm, and +led it to ennobling aspirations. Its place and power, it is true, were +shortly to be taken by religion, simple, puritanic, and intensely +spiritual; but so far, the country was in a condition of utter disorder, +morally and socially. Its national life was at its lowest ebb, its +religious life was as yet undeveloped and gave little promise of the +great things to come. The nation as a whole—people, patrician, and +priest—had sunk to depths of moral degradation; the people, through +ignorance and superstition; the patrician, through contact with the +corruptions of the England of the Restoration; while the priesthood were + + “Blind mouths, that scarce themselves knew how to hold + A sheep-hook, or had learnt aught else the least + That to the faithful herdman’s art belongs.” + +All the sterner and darker aspects of the period are chronicled with a +grim fidelity in the Visions, the wrongs and vices of the age are exposed +with scathing earnestness. Ellis Wynne set himself the task of +endeavouring to arouse his fellow-countrymen and bring them to realize +the sad condition into which the nation had fallen. He entered upon the +work endowed with keen powers of perception, a wide knowledge of life, +and a strong sense of justice. He was no respecter of person; all orders +of society, types of every rank and class, in turn, came under +castigation; no sin, whether in high places or among those of low degree, +escaped the lash of his biting satire. On the other hand, it must be +said that he lacked sympathy with erring nature, and failed to recognize +in his administration of justice that “to err is human, to forgive, +divine.” His denunciation of wrong and wrong-doer is equally stern and +pitiless; mercy and love are rarely, if ever, brought on the stage. In +this mood, as in the gloomy pessimism which pervades the whole work, he +reflects the religious doctrines and beliefs of his times. In fine, when +all has been said, favourably and adversely, the Visions, it will readily +be admitted, present a very faithful picture of Welsh life, manners, and +ways of thought, in the 17th century, and are, in every sense, a true +product of the country and the age in which they were written. + + + +III.—A BRIEF SUMMARY. + + +I. VISION OF THE WORLD. + + +One summer’s day, the Bard ascends one of the mountains of Wales, and +gazing a long while at the beautiful scene, falls asleep. He dreams and +finds himself among the fairies, whom he approaches and requests +permission to join. They snatch him up forthwith and fly off with him +over cities and realms, lands and seas, until he begins to fear for his +life. They come to a huge castle—Castle Delusive, where an Angel of +light appears and rescues him from their hands. The Angel, after +questioning him as to himself, who he was and where he came from, bids +him go with him, and resting in the empyrean, he beholds the earth far +away beneath them. He sees an immense City made up of three streets; at +the end of which are three gates and upon each gate a tower and in each +tower a fair woman. This is the City of Destruction and its streets are +named after the daughters of Belial—Pride, Lucre and Pleasure. The Angel +tells him of the might and craftiness of Belial and the alluring witchery +of his daughters, and also of another city on higher ground—the City of +Emmanuel—whereto all may fly from Destruction. They descend and alight +in the Street of Pride amidst the ruined and desolate mansions of +absentee landlords. They see there kings, princes, and noblemen, +coquettes and fops; there is a city, too, on seven hills, and another +opposite, with a crescent on a golden banner above it, and near the gate +stands the Court of Lewis XIV. Much traffic is going on between these +courts, for the Pope, the Sultan and the King of France are rivals for +the Princesses’ hands. + +They next come to the Street of Lucre, full of Spaniards, Dutchmen and +Jews, and here too, are conquerors and their soldiers, justices and their +bribers, doctors, misers, merchants and userers, shopmen, clippers, +taverners, drovers, and the like. An election of Treasurer to the +Princess is going on—stewards, money-lenders, lawyers and merchants being +candidates, and whoso was proved the richest should obtain the post. The +Bard then comes to the Street of Pleasure, where all manner of seductive +joys abound. He passes through scenes of debauchery and drunken riot, +and comes to a veritable Bedlam, where seven good fellows—a tinker, a +dyer, a smith and a miner, a chimney-sweep, a bard and a parson—are +enjoying a carousal. He beholds the Court of Belial’s second daughter, +Hypocrisy, and sees a funeral go by where all the mourners are false. A +noble lord appears, with his lady at his side, and has a talk with old +Money-bags who has lent him money on his lands—all three being apt pupils +of Hypocrisy. + +The Angel then takes him to the churches of the City; and first they come +to a pagan temple where the human form, the sun and moon, and various +other objects are worshipped. Thence they come to a barn where +Dissenters imitate preaching, and to an English church where many +practise all manner of hypocrisy. The Bard then leaves the City of +Destruction and makes for the celestial City. He beholds one man part +from his friends and, refusing to be persuaded by them, hasten towards +Emmanuel’s City. The gateway is narrow and mean, while on the walls are +watchmen urging on those that are fleeing from Destruction. Groups from +the various streets arrive and claim admittance, but, being unable to +leave their sins, have to return. The Bard and his Guide enter, and +passing by the Well of Repentance come in view of the Catholic Church, +the transept of which is the Church of England, with Queen Anne enthroned +above, holding the Sword of Justice in the left hand, and the Sword of +the Spirit in the right. Suddenly there is a call to arms, the sky +darkens, and Belial himself advances against the Church, with his earthly +princes and their armies. The Pope and Lewis of France, the Turks and +Muscovites fall upon England and her German allies, but, the angels +assisting, they are vanquished; the infernal hosts, too, give way and are +hurled headlong from the sky; whereupon the Bard awakes. + + +II. THE VISION OF DEATH. + + +It is a cold, winter’s night and the Bard lies abed meditating upon the +brevity of life, when Sleep and his sister Nightmare pay him a visit, and +after a long parley, constrain him to accompany them to the Court of +their brother Death. Hieing away through forests and dales, and over +rivers and rocks, they alight at one of the rear portals of the City of +Destruction which opens upon a murky region—the chambers of Death. On +all hands are myriads of doors leading into the Land of Oblivion, each +guarded by the particular death-imp, whose name was inscribed above it. +The Bard passes by the portals of Hunger, where misers, idlers and +gossips enter, of Cold, where scholars and travellers go through, of +Fear, Love, Envy and Ambition. + +Suddenly he finds himself transported into a bleak and barren land where +the shades flit to and fro. He is straightway surrounded by them, and, +on giving his name as the “Sleeping Bard,” a shadowy claimant to that +name sets upon him and belabours him most unmercifully until Merlin bid +him desist. Taliesin then interviews him, and an ancient manikin, +“Someone” by name, tells him his tale of woe. After that he is taken +into the presence of the King of Terrors himself, who, seated on a throne +with Fate and Time on either hand, deals out their doom to the prisoners +as they come before him. Four fiddlers, a King from the neighbourhood of +Rome with a papal dispensation to pass right through to Paradise, a +drunkard and a harlot, and lastly seven corrupt recorders, are condemned +to the land of Despair. + +Another group of seven prisoners have just been brought to the bar, when +a letter comes from Lucifer concerning them; he requests that Death +should let these seven return to the world or else keep them within his +own realm—they were far too dangerous to be allowed to enter Hell. Death +hesitates, but, urged by Fate, he indites his answer, refusing to comply +with Lucifer’s request. The seven are then called and Death bids his +hosts hasten to convey them beyond his limits. The Bard sees them hurled +over the verge beneath the Court of Justice and his spirit so strives +within him at the sight that the bonds of Sleep are sundered and his soul +returns to its wonted functions. + + +III. THE VISION OF HELL. + + +The Bard is sauntering, one April morning, on the banks of the Severn, +when his previous visions recur to his mind and he resolves to write them +as a warning to others, and while at this work he falls asleep, and the +Angel once more appears and bears him aloft into space. They reach the +confines of Eternity and descend through Chaos for myriads of miles. A +troop of lost beings are swept past them towards the shores of a +death-like river—the river of the Evil One. After passing through its +waters, the Bard witnesses the tortures the damned suffer at the hands of +the devils, and visits their various prisons and cells. Here is the +prison of Woe-that-I-had-not, of Too-late-a-repentance and of the +Procrastinators. There the Slanderers, Backbiters, and other envious +cowards are tormented in a deep and dark dungeon. He hears much laughter +among the devils and turning round finds that the cause of their +merriment are two noblemen who have just arrived and are claiming the +respect due to their rank. Further on is a crowd of harlots calling down +imprecations upon those that ruined them; and in a huge cavern are +lawyers, doctors, stewards and other such rogues. The Princesses of the +City of Destruction bring batches of their subjects as gifts to their +sire. + +A parliament is summoned and Lucifer addresses his princes, calling upon +them to do their utmost to destroy the rest of mankind. Moloch makes his +reply, reciting all that he has done, when Lucifer in rage starts off to +do the work himself, but is drawn back by an invisible hand. He speaks +again, exhorting them to greater activity and cruelty. Justice brings +three prisoners to Hell and returning causes such a rush of fiery +whirlwinds that all the infernal lords are swept away into the Uttermost +Hell. + +The Bard hears the din of arms and news comes that the Turks, Papists, +and Roundheads are advancing in three armies. Lucifer and his hosts +immediately set out to meet them and after a stubborn contest succeed in +quelling the rebellion. More prisoners are brought before the +King—Catholics, who had missed the way to Paradise, an innkeeper, five +kings, assize-men and lawyers, gipsies, laborers and scholars. Scarcely +is judgment passed on these than war again breaks out—soldiers and +doctors, lawyers and userers, misers and their own offspring, are +fighting each other. The leaders of this revolt having been taken, +another parliament is called and more prisoners yet brought to trial. + +Lucifer asks the advice of his peers as to whom he should appoint his +viceroy in Britain. Cerberus, first of all, offers the service of +Tobacco; then Mammon speaks in praise of Gold and Apolyon tells what +Pride can do; Asmodai, the demon of Lust, Belphegor, the demon of Sloth, +and Satan, devil of Delusion, each pleads for his own pet sin; and after +Beelzebub has spoken in favour of Thoughtlessness, Lucifer sums up, +weighs their arguments, and finally announces that it is another he has +chosen as his vicegerent in Britain. This other is Prosperity, and her +he bids them follow and obey. Then the lost Archangel and his +counsellors are hurled into the Bottomless Pit, and the Angel takes the +Bard up to the vault of Hell where he has full view of a three-faced +ogress, Sin, who would make of heaven, a hell, and thence departing, a +heaven of hell. The Angel then leaves him, bidding him, as he went, to +write down what he had seen for the benefit of others. + + [Picture: Facsimile of Ellis Wynne’s Handwriting] + + + + +TO THE READER. + + + Let whoso reads, consider; + Considering, remember, + And from remembering, do, + And doing, so continue. + Whoso abides in Virtue’s paths, + And ever strives until the end + From sinful bondage to be free, + Ne’er shall possess wherewith to feed + The direful flame, nor weight of sin + To sink him in th’ infernal mire; + Nor will he come to that dread realm + Where Wrong and Retribution meet. + But, woe to that poor, worthless wight + Who lives a bitter, stagnant life, + Who follows after every ill + And knows not either Faith or Love, + (For Faith in deeds alone doth live). + Eternal woe shall be his doom— + More torments he shall then behold + Yea, in the twinkling of an eye + Than any age can e’er conceive. + + + + +_The_ +_VISIONS OF THE SLEEPING BARD_ + + +I.—VISION OF THE WORLD. + + +On {1a} the fine evening of a warm and mellow summer I betook me up one +of the mountains of Wales, {1b} spy-glass in hand, to enable my feeble +sight to see the distant near, and to make the little to loom large. +Through the clear, tenuous air and the calm, shimmering heat, I beheld +far, far away over the Irish Sea many a fair scene. At last, when mine +eyes had taken their fill of all the beauty around me, and the sun well +nigh had reached his western ramparts, I lay down on the sward, musing +how fair and lovely compared with mine own land were the distant lands of +whose delightful plains I had just obtained a glimpse; how fine it would +be to have full view thereof, and how happy withal are they, besides me +and my sort, who have seen the world’s course. So, from the long +journeying of mine eye, and afterwards of my mind, came weariness, and +beneath the cloak of weariness came my good Master Sleep {1c} stealthily +to bind me, and with his leaden keys safe and sound he locked the windows +of mine eyes and all mine other senses. But it was in vain he tried to +lock up the soul which can exist and travel without the body; for upon +the wings of fancy my spirit soared free from out the straitened corpse, +and the first thing I perceived close by was a dancing-knoll and such a +fantastic rout {4a} in blue petticoats and red caps, briskly footing a +sprightly dance. I stood awhile hesitating whether I should approach +them or not, for in my confusion I feared they were a pack of hungry +gipsies and that the least they would do, would be to kill me for their +supper, and devour me saltless. But gazing steadfastly upon them I +perceived that they were of better and fairer complexion than that lying, +tawny crew; so I plucked up courage and drew near them, slowly, like a +hen treading on hot coals, in order to find out what they might be; and +at last I addressed them over my shoulder, thus, “Pray you, good friends, +I understand that ye come from afar, would ye take into your midst a bard +who wishes to travel?” Whereupon the din instantly ceased, every eye was +turned upon me, and in shrill tones “a bard” quoth one, “to travel,” said +another, “into our midst,” a third exclaimed. By then I had recognised +those who were looking at me most fiercely, and they commenced whispering +one to another some secret charms, still keeping their gaze upon me; the +hubbub then broke out again and everyone laying hands upon me, lifted me +shoulder-high, like a knight of the shire, and off like the wind we go, +over houses and lands, cities and realms, seas and mountains, unable to +notice aught so swiftly were they flying. And to make matters worse, I +began to have doubts of my companions from the way they frowned and +scowled when I refused to lampoon my king {4b} at their bidding. + +“Well, now,” said I to myself, “farewell to life; these accursed, arrant +sorcerers will bear me to some nobleman’s larder or cellar and leave me +there to pay penalty by my neck for their robbery, or peradventure they +will leave me stark-naked and benumbed on Chester Marsh or some other +bleak and remote place.” But on considering that those whose faces I +knew had long been buried, and that some were thrusting me forward, and +others upholding me above every ravine, it dawned upon me that they were +not witches but what are called the Fairies. Without delay I found +myself close to a huge castle, the finest I had ever seen, with a deep +moat surrounding it, and here they began discussing my doom. “Let us +take him as a gift to the castle,” suggested one. “Nay, let us throw the +obstinate gallows-bird into the moat, he is not worth showing to our +great prince,” said another. “Will he say his prayers before sleeping,” +asked a third. At the mention of prayer, I breathed a groaning sigh +heavenwards asking pardon and aid; and no sooner had I thought the prayer +than I saw a light, Oh! so beautiful, breaking forth in the distance. As +this light approached, my companions grew dark and vanished, and in a +trice the Shining One made for us straight over the castle: whereupon +they let go their hold of me and departing, turned upon me a hellish +scowl, and had not the Angel supported me I should have been ground fine +enough to make a pie long before reaching the earth. + +“What is thy errand here?” asked the Angel. “In sooth, my lord,” cried +I, “I wot not what place here is, nor what mine errand, nor what I myself +am, nor what has made off with mine other part; I had a head and limbs +and body, but whether I left ’em at home or whether the Fairies, if fair +their deed, have cast me into some deep pit (for I mind my passing over +many a rugged gorge) an’ I be hanged, Sir, I know not.” “Fairly, +indeed,” said he, “they would have dealt with thee, had I not come in +time to save thee from the toasting-forks of the brood of hell. Since +thou hast such a great desire to see the course of this little world, I +am commanded to give thee the opportunity to realize thy wish, so that +thou mayest see the folly of thy discontent with thine own lot and +country. Come now!” he bade, and at the word, with the dawn just +breaking, he snatched me up far away above the castle; and upon a white +cloudledge we rested in the empyrean to see the sun rising, and to look +at my heavenly companion, who was far brighter than the sun, save that +his radiance only shone upwards, being hidden from all beneath by a veil. +When the sun waxed strong, I beheld in the refulgence of the two our +great, encircled earth as a tiny ball in the distance below. “Look +again,” said the Angel, and he gave me a better spy-glass than the one I +had on the mountain-side. When I looked through this I saw things in a +different light and clearer than ever before. + +I could see one city of enormous magnitude, with thousands of cities and +kingdoms within it, the wide ocean like a whirlpool around it, and other +seas, like rivers, dividing it into parts. After gazing a longwhile, I +observed that it was made up of three tremendously long streets, with a +large and splendid gateway at the lower end of each street; on each +gateway, a magnificent tower, and on each tower, in sight of all the +street, a woman of exceeding beauty; and the three towers at the back of +the ramparts reached to the foot of that great castle. Of the same +length as these immense streets, but running in a contrary direction, I +saw another street which was but narrow and mean compared with them, +though it was clean and upon higher ground than they, and leading upwards +to the east, whilst the other three led downwards northerly to the great +towers. I could no longer withhold from asking my friend’s permission to +speak. “What then,” said the Angel, “if thou wilt speak, listen +carefully, so that there be no need of telling thee a thing twice.” “I +will, my lord, and prithee,” asked I, “what castle is that, away yonder +to the north?” “That castle aloft in the sky,” said he, “belongs to +Belial, prince of the power of the air, and ruler of all that vast city +below; it is called Castle Delusive: for an arch-deluder is Belial, and +it is through delusion that he is able to keep under his sway all that +thou see’st with the exception of that little bye-street yonder. He is a +powerful prince, with thousands of princes under him. What was Cæsar or +Alexander the Great compared with him? What are the Turk and old Lewis +of France {7} but his servants? Great, aye, exceedingly great is the +might, craftiness and diligence of Prince Belial and of the countless +hosts he hath in the lower region.” “Why do those women stand there?” I +asked, “and who are they?” “Slowly,” cried the Angel, “one question at a +time; they stand there in order to be loved and worshipped.” “No wonder, +in sooth,” said I, “so lovely are they that were I the possessor of hands +and feet as once I was, I too would go and love or worship them.” “Hush! +hush!” cried he, “if that is what thou wouldst do with thy members ’tis +well thou’rt wanting them: know, foolish spirit, that these three +princesses are no other than three destroying enchantresses, daughters of +Prince Belial; and that all the beauty and gentleness which dazzles the +streets, is nought else but a gloss over ugliness and cruelty; the three +within are like their sire, full of deadly venom.” “Woe’s me, is’t +possible,” cried I sorrowfully, “that their love wounds?” “’Tis true, +the more the pity,” said he, “thou art delighted with the way the three +beam on their adorers: well, there is in that ray of light many a +wondrous charm, it blindens them so that they cannot see the hook; it +stupifies them so that they pay no heed to their danger, and consumes +them with an insatiate lust for more, even though it be a deadly poison, +breeding diseases which no physician, yea, not death itself can ever +heal, nor aught at all unless a heavenly medicine called Repentance be +had to purge the evil in good time ere it become too deeply rooted, +through gazing upon them too long.” “Wherefore will not Belial have this +adoration to himself?” asked I. “It is the same thing,” said he, “for so +long as a man adheres to these or to one of them, that man is sure to +bear the mark of Belial and wear his livery.” + +“By what names are these three enchantresses called?” “The furthest away +is called Pride, the eldest daughter of Belial; the second is Pleasure, +and the nearest to us is Lucre; these three are the trinity the world +adores.” “I would fain know the name of this vast, madding city,” said +I, “hath it a better name than great Bedlam?” “Yea, ’tis called the City +of Destruction.” “Alas!” I cried, “are all that dwell therein ruined and +lost?” “All,” said he, “save a few that flee from it into yon upper city +which is King Emmanuel’s.” “Woe is me and mine! how shall they escape +while ever staring at what makes them more and more blind, and preys upon +them in their blindness?” “It would be utterly impossible for any man to +escape hence were it not that Emmanuel sends his ministers from on high, +night and morn, to persuade them to leave the rebels and turn to Him, +their true Sovereign, and sends to some a gift of precious ointment +called Faith to anoint their eyes, and whoso obtains that genuine +ointment (for there is an imitation of this as of everything else in the +City of Destruction) and anoints himself therewith, at once becomes aware +of his own wounds and madness, and will not tarry here a moment longer, +even though Belial gave him his three daughters, yea, or his fourth who +is greatest of all, for staying.” + +“What are the names of these immense streets?” I enquired. “They are +called, each according to the name of the princess who rules therein; +furthest is the Street of Pride, the middle, the Street of Pleasure, and +next, the Street of Lucre.” “Who, prithee, dwell in these streets? What +tongue is spoken there? Wherefrom and of what nations are their +inhabitants?” “Many people,” answered he, “of every language, religion, +and nation under the sun dwell there; many a one lives in each of the +three streets at different seasons, and everyone as near the gateway as +he can; and very often do they change about, being unable to stay long in +the one because they so greatly love the princess of the other street. +And the old renard, slyly looking on, lets everyone love whichever he +prefers, or the three if he will—all the more certain is he of him.” + +“Come nearer to them,” said the Angel, snatching me downwards in the veil +through the noxious vapours rising from the city. We alighted in the +Street of Pride, on the top of a great, roofless mansion with its eyes +picked out by the dogs and crows, and its owners gone to England or +France, there to seek what might be gotten with far less trouble at home; +thus in place of the good old country-family of days gone by, so full of +charity and benevolence, none keep possession now but the stupid owl, the +greedy crows, or the proud-pied magpies or the like, to proclaim the +deeds of the present owners. There were thousands of such deserted +palaces, which but for pride might still be the resort of noblemen, a +refuge for the weak, a school of peace and all goodness, and a blessing +to the thousands of cottages surrounding them. From the top of these +ruins we had plenty of room and quietness to see the whole street on both +sides. The houses were very fine, and of wonderful height and grandeur, +and good reason why, for emperors and kings lived there, princes in +hundreds, noblemen and gentlemen in thousands, and a great many women of +all grades. I could see many a horned coquette, like a full-rigged ship, +strutting as if set in a frame with a fair store of pedlery about her, +and pearls in her ears to the value of a good-sized farm: some were +singing so as to be praised for their voices, some dancing, to show their +figures; others coloring, to improve their complexion, others having been +a good three hours before a mirror trimming themselves, learning to +smile, pinning and unpinning, making grimaces and striking attitudes. +Many a coy wench was there who knew not how to open her lips to speak, +much less to eat, or from very ceremony, how to look under foot; and many +a ragged shrew who would contend that she was equal to the best lady in +the street, and many an ambling fop who might winnow beans by the wind of +his train. + +Whilst I was looking from afar at these and a hundred similar things, lo! +there came by us a gaudy, strapping quean of arrogant mien, and after +whom a hundred eyes were turned; some made obeisance, as if in worship of +her, a few put something in her hand. I could not make out what she was, +and so I enquired. “Oh,” said my friend, “she is one whose entire dowry +is on show, and yet thou see’st how many fools there are who seek her, +and the meanest is received notwithstanding all the demand there is for +her; whom she will, she cannot have, and whom she can, she will not; she +will only speak to her betters because her mother told her that a young +woman can make no greater mistake than to be humble in courtship.” +Thereupon a burly Falstaff, who had been alderman and in many offices, +came out from beneath us, spreading out his wings as if to fly, when he +could scarcely limp along like a pack-horse, on account of his huge +paunch, and the gout, and many other gentlemanly complaints; but for all +that you could not get a single glance from him except as a great favour, +remembering the while to address him by all his title and offices. From +him I turned my eyes to the other side of the street, and saw a bluff +young nobleman with a numerous following, smiling graciously and bowing +low to everyone he met. “It is strange,” said I, “that these two should +belong to the same street.” “It is the same princess—Pride, who governs +them both,” answered he, “this one’s errand is but to speak fair; he is +now making a bid for fame with the intent thereby to attain the highest +office in the State; he is most ready to weep with the people, and tell +them how greatly they are wronged through the oppression of wicked +ministers; yet it is his own exaltation, and not the common weal that is +the main object of his pursuit.” + +After looking for a longwhile I saw close by the Porch of Pride a fair +city on seven hills, and over its magnificent court the triple crown, the +swords and cross-keys. “Well, here is Rome,” quoth I, “here lives the +Pope, is it not?” “Yes, most often,” said the Angel, “but he hath a +court in each of the other streets.” Over against Rome I could see a +city with a very fine court, whereon was raised on high a crescent on a +golden banner, by which I knew the Turk was there. After these came the +court of Lewis XIV. of France, as I perceived by his arms—the three +fleur-de-lys on a silver banner reared high. Whilst admiring the +loftiness and magnificence of these palaces, I observed that there was +much traversing from one court to another, and asked the reason. “Oh, +there is many a dark reason,” said the Angel, “existing between these +three potent and crafty monarchs, but though they deem themselves fitting +peers to the three princesses up yonder, their power and guile is nought +compared with theirs. Yea more, great Belial deems the whole city, +notwithstanding the number of its kings, unsuitable for his daughters. +Although he offers them in marriage to everybody, he has never actually +given them to anyone. Keen rivalry has existed between these three for +their hands; the Turk, who calls himself the god of earth, would have the +eldest, Pride, to wife. “Nay,” said the king of France, “she is mine, +for I keep all my subjects in her street, and bring her many from England +and many other realms.” Spain would have the Princess of Lucre, spite of +Holland and all the Jews, and England, the Princess of Pleasure in spite +of the Pagans. But the Pope claimed the three, and for better reasons +than all the others; and Belial admits him next to them in each street.” +“Is that the cause of this commerce?” said I. “No,” said he, “Belial has +made peace between them upon that matter long ago. But now he has bid +the three put their heads together to consider how they can the soonest +destroy yon bye-street; that is the City of Emmanuel, and especially one +great mansion therein, out of mere jealousy, perceiving it to be a finer +edifice than any in all the City of Destruction. And Belial promises +half his kingdom during his life, and the whole on his decease, to him +who succeeds in doing so. But notwithstanding the magnitude of his +power, the depth of his wiles, and the number of emperors, kings and +crafty rulers that are beneath his sceptre in that huge City of +Destruction, notwithstanding the courage of his countless hosts beyond +the gates in the lower region, that task will prove too difficult for +them; however great, powerful and untiring his majesty may be, in yon +small street is a greater than he.” + +I was not able to give very close attention to his angelic reasons, being +occupied in watching the frequent falls people were having on the +slippery street. Some I could see with ladders scaling the tower, and +having reached the highest rung, falling headlong to the bottom. “Where +do those fools try to get to?” I asked. “To a place that is high +enough—they are endeavouring to break into the treasury of the princess.” +“I warrant it be full,” quoth I. “Yes,” answered he, “of everything that +belongs to this street, to be distributed among its denizens: all kinds +of weapons for invading and extending territories; all kinds of +coats-of-arms, banners, escutcheons, books of genealogy, sayings of the +ancients, and poems, all sorts of gorgeous raiments, boastful tales and +flattering mirrors; every pigment and lotion to beautify the face; every +high office and title—in short, everything is there which makes a man +think better of himself and worse of others than he ought. The chief +officers of this treasury are masters of the ceremonies, roysters, +heralds, bards, orators, flatterers, dancers, tailors, gamblers, +seamstresses and the like.” + +From this street we went to the next where the Princess of Lucre rules +supreme; this street was crowded and enormously wealthy; yet not half so +magnificent and clean as the Street of Pride, nor its people so foolishly +haughty, for here they were for the most part skulking and sly. +Thousands of Spaniards, Dutchmen, Venetians, and Jews were here, and also +a great many aged people. “Prithee, sir,” said I, “what manner of men +might these be?” “They are pinchfists one and all. In the lower end +thou shalt see the Pope once more together with conquerors of kingdoms +and their soldiery, oppressors, foresters, obstructors of public paths, +justices and their bribers, and all their progeny from the barrister to +the constable; on the other side, physicians, apothecaries, leeches, +misers, merchants, extortioners, money lenders, withholders of tithes, +wages, rents or doles left to schools, almhouses and the like; drovers, +dealers who regulate the market for their own benefit; shopmen (or +rather, sharpers) who profit on the need or ignorance of their customers; +stewards of all grades; clippers {14} and innkeepers who despoil the +idlers’ family of their goods and the country of its barley, which would +otherwise be made into bread for the poor. All these are arrant robbers, +the others in the upper end of the street are mostly small fry, such as +highwaymen, tailors, weavers, millers, grocers and so on.” + +In the midst of this I could hear a terrible commotion towards the far +end of the street, and a great crowd of people thronging the gate, and +such pushing and quarelling as made me think that there was a general +riot afoot, until I asked my friend what was the matter. “There is very +valuable treasure in that tower,” said the Angel, “and the reason for +this tumult is that they are about to choose a treasurer for the +Princess, instead of the Pope, who has been driven from office.” So we +went to see the election. + +The candidates for the post were the stewards, the money-lenders, the +lawyers, and the merchants, and it was the wealthiest of these that was +to have it (for the more thou hast, the more wilt thou have and seek +for—an insatiate complaint pertaining to this street). The stewards were +rejected at the outset, lest they might impoverish the whole street and, +just as they had erected their mansions upon their masters’ ruins, in the +end dispossess the princess herself. The contest then lay between the +other three. The merchants had more silk, the lawyers more mortgages on +land, and the money-lenders more bills and bonds and fuller purses. “Ho, +they won’t agree this night,” said the Angel, “come away; the lawyers are +richer than the merchants, the money-lenders than the lawyers, the +stewards than the money-lenders, and Belial richer than all; for they and +all that belongs to them are his.” “Why does the princess keep these +robbers about her?” “What more befitting, seeing that she herself is +arch-robber?” I was amazed to hear him call the princess by such name, +and the proudest gentry in the land arrant robbers. “Why, pray my lord,” +said I, “do you consider these great noblemen worse thieves than +highwaymen?” “Thou art a simpleton—think on that knave who roves the +wide world over, sword in hand, and with his ravagers at his back, +slaying and burning, and depriving the true possessors of their states, +and afterwards expecting to be worshipped as conqueror; is he not worse +than the petty thief who takes a purse on the highway? What is a tailor +who filches a piece of cloth compared to a squire who steals from the +mountain-side half a parish? Ought the latter not be called a worse +robber than the former, who only takes a shred from him, while he +deprives the poor of pasture for his beast, and consequently of the means +of livelihood for himself, and those depending upon him? What is the +stealing a handful of flour in the mill compared with the storing up of a +hundred bushels to rot, in order to obtain later on for one bushel the +price of four? What is a threadbare soldier who robs thee of thy clothes +at the swords’ point when compared with the lawyer who despoils thee of +thy whole estate with the stroke of a quill, and against whom thou canst +claim no recompense or remedy? What is a pickpocket who steals a +five-pound in comparison to a dice-sharper who robs thee of a hundred +pounds in the third part of a night? And what the swindler that deceives +thee in a worthless old hack compared with the apothecary who swindles +thee of thy money and life too, for some effete, medicinal stuff? And +moreover, what are all these robbers compared with that great arch-robber +who deprives them all of everything, yea, of their hearts and souls after +the fair is over?” + +From this foul and disorderly street we proceeded to the street of the +Princess of Pleasure wherein I saw many English, French, Italians and +Paynims. The Princess is very fair to behold, with mixed wine in one +hand, and a fiddle and a harp in the other; and in her treasury, +innumerable pleasures and toys to gain the custom of everybody, and +retain them in her father’s service. Yea, many were wont to escape to +this pleasant street to drown their grief for losses and debts they had +incurred in the others. It was exceedingly crowded, especially with +young people; whilst the Princess is careful to please everyone, and to +have an arrow ready for every mark. If thou art thirsty, here thou will +find thy favorite beverage; if thou lovest song and dance, here thou +shalt have thy fill. If the beauty of the Princess has kindled thy lust, +thou need’st but beckon one of her sire’s officers (who, although +invisible, always surround her) and they will immediately attend thy +behest. There are here fair mansions, fine gardens, full orchards, shady +groves fit for every secret intrigue, or to trap birds or a white rabbit +or twain; clear streams, most pleasant to fish in; rich, boundless +plains, whereon to hunt the hare and fox. Along the street we could see +them playing interludes, juggling and conjuring, singing lewd songs to +the sound of the harp and ballads, and all manner of jesting. Men and +women of handsome appearance danced and sang, and many came hither from +the Street of Pride in order to be praised and worshipped. Within the +houses we perceived some on silken beds wallowing in debauchery; some at +the gaming-table, cursing and swearing, others tossing dice and shuffling +cards. Some from the Street of Lucre, having a room here, ran hither to +count their money, but stayed not long lest aught of the countless +geegaws that are here should entice them to part with their money without +interest. Others I saw at tables feasting with somewhat of every created +thing before them; and when everyone, mess after mess, had guzzled as +much of the dainties as would afford a moderate man a feast for a whole +week, grace followed in the form of blasphemous howling; then the king’s +health was called for, and that of every boon companion, and so on to +quench the taste of the viands, and drown their cares. Then came +tobacco, and then each one began to talk scandal of his neighbour—whether +true or false it mattered not as long as it was humorous or fresh, or, +best of all, degrading. At last, what with a round of blasphemy, and the +whole crowd with clay pistols belching smoke and fire and slander of +their neighbours, and the floor already befouled with dregs and spittle, +I feared lest viler deeds should happen, and craved to depart. + +Thence we went where we heard a loud noise, beating and clamouring, +crying and laughing, shouting and singing. “Well, here’s Bedlam and no +mistake,” quoth I. By the time we got in, the turmoil had ceased; one +man lay like a log on the ground, another was vomiting, another nodding +his head over a hearth full of battered flagons, and broken pipes and +mugs. On enquiring, what should it be but a carousal of seven thirsty +neighbours—a tinker, a dyer, a blacksmith, a miner, a chimney-sweep, a +bard, and a parson who had come to preach sobriety, and to show in his +own person how repulsive drunkenness is; and the beginning of the recent +altercation was a discussion and dispute they had as to which of the +seven callings loved best the pot and pipe; the bard had beaten all but +the parson and, due regard being observed for the cloth, he was adjudged +victor and worthy to be leader of his good comrades, and so the bard +wound up the discussion thus: + + “Where can ye find such thirsty seven, + Search every clime and land? + And quaffing off the ruddy ale, + Bard and parson lead the band.” + +Thoroughly tired of these drunken swine, we drew nearer the gate in order +to spy out the blemishes in the magnificent court of Love, the purblind +king, wherein it is easy to enter, but difficult to get out again, and +where are chambers innumerable. In the hall opposite the door stood +giddy Cupid, with two arrows in his bow, darting a languishing venom +called lust. Along the floor I saw many fair and comely women walking +with measured steps, and following them, wretched youths gazing upon +their beauty, and each one begging a glance from his mistress, fearing a +frown even more than death; now and then one, bowing to the ground, would +place a letter in his goddess’ hand, and another a sonnet, the while in +fear expectant, like schoolboys showing their task to the master. They +in return would favour their adorers with a simpering smile or two, just +to keep their desires on edge, but granting nought more lest their lust +be sated and they depart healed of the disease. Going on into the +parlour I saw them having lessons in dancing and singing, with voice and +hand, in order to make their lovers sevenfold madder than before; on +again into the dining hall where they were taught coy smartness in +eating; into the cellar, where potent love philtres were being mixed of +nail parings and the like; in the upper rooms we could see one in a +secret chamber twisting himself into all shapes, practising gentlemanly +behaviour when in his mistress’ presence; another before a mirror +learning how to smile correctly without showing his teeth too prominently +to his ladylove; another preparing his tale to tell her, repeating the +same thing an hundred times. Wearied with this insipid babbling we came +to another cell: here a nobleman had sent for a poet from the Street of +Pride to indite him a sonnet of praise to his angel, and an eulogy of +himself; the bard was discoursing of his art: “I can,” said he, “liken +her to everything red and everything white under the sun, and her tresses +to an hundred things more yellow than gold, and as for your poem, I can +trace your lineage through many knights and princes, and through the +water of the deluge right up to Adam.” “Well, here’s a poet,” quoth I, +“who is a better genealogist than I.” “Come, come,” said the Angel, +“their intention is to deceive the woman, but, once in her presence, you +may be sure they will have to meet trick with trick.” + +Upon leaving these we had a glimpse of cells where fouler deeds were +being done than modesty permits to mention, and which caused my companion +to snatch me away in anger from this fatuous court into the princess’ +treasury (for we went where we list notwithstanding doors and locks). +There we saw myriads of fair women, all kinds of beverages, fruits and +dainties, stringed instruments and books of songs,—harps, pipes, odes and +carols, all sorts of games,—backgammon, dice {20} and cards; pictures of +various lands, towns and persons, inventions and amusing tricks; all +kinds of waters, perfumes, pigments and spots to make the ugly fair, and +the old look young, and the leman’s malodorous bones smell sweet for the +nonce. In short, the shadow of pleasure and the guise of happiness in +every conceivable form was to be found there; and sooth to say, I almost +think I too had been enticed by the place had not my friend instantly +hurried me away far from the three alluring towers to the top end of the +streets, and set me down near an immense palatial castle, the front view +of which seemed fair, but the further side was mean and terribly ugly, +though it was scarcely to be seen at all. It had a myriad portals—all +splendid without but rotten within. “An’t please you, my lord,” asked I, +“what is this wondrous place?” “This is the court of Belials’ second +daughter whose name is Hypocrisy; here she keeps her school, and there is +no man or woman throughout the whole city who has not been a pupil of +hers, and most of them have imbibed their learning remarkably well; so +that her lessons are discernible as a second nature intertwined with all +their thoughts, words, and deeds from very childhood almost.” I had been +looking awhile on the falsity of every part of the edifice when a funeral +came by with many weeping and sighing, and many men and horses in +mourning trappings; and shortly the poor widow, veiled so as not to see +this cruel world any more, came along with piping voice and weary sighs, +and fainting fits at intervals. In truth, I could not help but weep a +little out of pity for her. “Nay, nay,” said the Angel, “keep thy tears +for a more worthy occasion; these voices are only what Hypocrisy has +taught, and these mourning weeds were fashioned in her great school. Not +one of these weep sincerely; the widow, even before the body had left the +house, let in another husband to her heart; were she rid of the expenses +connected with the corpse she would not care a straw if his soul were at +the bottom of hell; nor do his own kindred care any more than she: for +when it went hardest with him, instead of giving him good counsel and +earnestly praying for mercy upon him, they were talking of his property, +his will or his pedigree; or what a handsome robust man he was, and such +talk; and now this wailing {21} on the part of some is for mere ceremony +and custom, on the part of others for company’s sake or for pay.” + +Scarcely had these gone by than another throng came in sight: a most +gallant lord with his lady at his side, slowly advancing in state, to +whom many men of position doffed, and many were on tiptoe with eagerness +to show him obeisance and reverence. “Here is a noble lord,” said I, +“who is worthy such respect from all these!” “Wert thou to take +everything to consideration thou wouldst speak differently. This lord +comes from the Street of Pleasure, she is of the Street of Pride, and yon +old man who is conversing with him comes from the Street of Lucre, and +has a mortgage on almost every acre of my lord’s, and is come to-day to +complete the loan.” We drew nigh to hear the conversation. “In sooth, +sir,” Old Money-bags was saying, “I would not for all that I possess that +you should lack anything which lies in my power to enable you to appear +your own true self this day, especially seeing that you have met so +beautiful and lovely a lady as madam here” (the wily dog knowing full +well what she was). “By the — by the —,” said the lord, “next to gazing +at her beauty, my greatest pleasure was to hearken to your fair reasons; +I had liefer pay you interest than get money elsewhere free.” “Indeed, +my lord,” said one of his chief friends called Flatterer, “nuncle pays +you not a whit less respect than is due to you, but an it please you, he +has bestowed upon her ladyship scarce the half her mead of praise. I +defy any man,” quoth he, “to show a lovelier woman in all the Street of +Pride, or a nobler than you in all the Street of Pleasure, or a kinder +than you, good mine uncle, in all the Street of Lucre.” “Ah, that is +your good opinion,” said my lord, “but I cannot believe that any couple +were ever more united in the bonds of love than we twain.” As they went +on the crowd increased, and everyone had a pleasant smile and low bow for +the other, and hastened to salute each other with their noses to the +ground, like a pair of gamecocks on the point of striking. “Know then,” +said the Angel, “that thou hast seen naught of civility nor heard one +word which Hypocrisy has not taught. There is no one here, after all +this gentleness, who has a hap’orth of love one to another, yea, many of +them are sworn foes. This lord is the butt {23} of everybody, and all +have their dig at him. The lady looks only to his greatness and high +degree, so that she may thereby ascend a step above many of her +neighbours. Old Money-bags has his eye on my lord’s lands for his own +son, and all the others on the money he received as dowry; for they are +all his dependants, his merchants, tailors, cobblers and other craftsmen, +who have decked him out and maintained him in this splendor, and have +never had a brass farthing for it, nor are likely to get aught save +smooth words and sometimes threats perhaps. How many layers, how many +folds had Hypocrisy laid over the face of Truth! He, promising greatness +to his love, while his lands were on the point of being sold; she, +promising him dower and beauty, while her beauty is but artificial, and +cancer is consuming both her dowry and her body.” “Well, this teaches +us,” said I, “never to judge by appearances.” “Yes verily,” said he, +“but come on and I will show thee more.” + +At the word he transported me up to where the churches of the City of +Destruction were; for everyone therein, even the unbelieving, has a +semblance of religion. And it was to the temple of the unbelievers that +we first came, and there I saw some worshipping a human form, others the +sun, the moon and a countless other like gods down to onions and garlic; +and a great goddess called Deceit was universally worshipped. However, +there were some traces of the influence of Christianity to be found in +most of these religions. Thence we came to a congregation of mutes, {24} +where there was nothing but sighing and quaking and beating the breast. +“Here,” said the Angel, “is the appearance of great repentance and +humility, but which in reality is perversity, stubbornness, pride and +utter darkness; although they talk much about the light within, they have +not even the spectacles of nature which the heathen thou erstwhile saw, +possess.” + +From these dumb dogs we chanced to turn into an immense, roofless church, +with thousands of shoes lying at the porch, whereby I learnt it was a +Turkish mosque. These had but very dark and misty spectacles called the +Koran; yet through these they gazed intently from the summit of their +church for their prophet, who falsely promised to return and visit them +long ago, but has left his promise unfulfilled. + +From thence we entered the Jewish synagogue—these too were unable to flee +from the City of Destruction, although they had grey-tinted spectacles, +for when they look a film comes over their eyes from want of anointing +them with that precious ointment—faith. + +Next we came to the Papists. “Here is the church that beguiles the +nations,” exclaimed the Angel, “it was Hypocrisy that built this church +at her own cost. For the Papists encourage, yea, command men to break an +oath with a heretic even though sworn on the sacraments.” From the +chancel we went through the keyholes, up to the top of a certain cell +which was full of candles, though it was broad daylight, and where we +could see a tonsured priest walking about as if expecting someone to come +to him; and ere long there comes a buxom matron, with a fair maid in her +wake, bending their knees before him to confess their sins. “My +spiritual father,” said the good wife, “I have a burthen too heavy to +bear unless I obtain your mercy to lighten it: I married a member of the +Church of England!” “What!” cried the shorn-pate, “married a heretic! +wedded to an enemy? forgiveness can never be obtained!” At these words +she fainted, while he kept calling down imprecations upon her head. +“Woe’s me, and what is worse,” cried she when come to herself, “I killed +him!” “Oh ho! thou hast killed him? Well, that’s something towards +gaining the reconciliation of the Church; I tell thee now, hadst thou not +slain him, thou wouldst never have obtained absolution nor purgatory, but +a straight gate and a leaden weight to the devil. But where’s your +offering, you jade?” he demanded with a snarl. “Here,” said she, handing +him a considerable bag of money. “Well,” said he, “now I’ll make your +reconciliation: your penance is to remain always a widow lest you should +make another bad bargain.” When she was gone, the maiden also came +forward to make her confession. “Your pardon, father confessor,” cried +she, “I conceived a child and slew it.” “A fair deed, i’faith,” said the +confessor, “and who might the father be?” “Indeed ’twas one of your +monks.” “Hush, hush,” he cried, “speak no ill of churchmen. {25} What +satisfaction have you for the Church?” “Here it is,” said she and handed +him a gold trinket. “You must repent, and your penance will be to watch +at my bedside to-night,” he said with a leer. Hereupon four other +shavelings entered, dragging before the confessor a poor wretch, who came +about as willingly as he would to the gallows. “Here’s for you a rogue,” +cried one of the four, “who must do penance for disclosing the secrets of +the Catholic Church.” “What!” exclaimed the confessor, looking towards a +dark cell near at hand: “but come, villain, confess what thou hast said?” +“Indeed,” began the poor fellow, “a neighbour asked me whether I had seen +the souls that were groaning underneath the altar on All-souls’ day; and +I said I had heard the voice, but had seen nothing.” “So, sirrah, come +now, tell everything.” “I said moreover,” he continued, “that I had +heard that you were playing tricks on us unlettered hinds, that, instead +of souls, there was nothing but crabs making a row under the carpet.” +“Oh, thou hell-hound! cursed knave!” cried the confessor, “but, proceed, +mastiff.” “And that it was a wire that turned the image of St. Peter, +and that it was along a wire the Holy Ghost descended from the roodloft +upon the priest.” “Thou heir of hell!” cried the shriver, “Ho there, +torturers, take him and cast him into that smoky chimney for +tale-bearing.” “Well, this is the church Hypocrisy insists upon calling +the Catholic Church, and she avers that these only are saved,” said the +Angel; “they once had the proper spectacles, but they cut the glass into +a thousand forms; they once had true faith, but they mixed that salve +with substances of their own, so that they see no better than the +unbelieving.” + +Leaving the cell we came to a barn {26} where someone was delivering a +mock sermon extempore, sometimes repeating the same thing thrice in +succession. “These,” said the Angel, “have the right sort of spectacles +to see ‘the things which belong unto their peace,’ but there is wanting +in their ointment one of the most necessary ingredients, namely, perfect +love. People come hither for various reasons; some out of respect to +their elders, some from ignorance, and many for worldly gain. One would +think, looking at their faces, that they are on the point of choking, but +they will swallow frogs sooner than starve; for so does Princess +Hypocrisy teach those meeting in barns. + +“Pray tell,” said I, “where may the Church of England be?” “Oh, it is +yonder in the upper city, forming a large part of the Catholic Church, +but there are in this city a few probationary churches belonging to the +Church of England, where the Welsh and English stay for a time on +probation, so that they may become fit to have their names enrolled as +members of the Catholic Church, and ever blessed be he who shall have his +name so enrolled. Yet, more’s the pity, there are but few who befit +themselves for its citizenship. For too many, instead of looking +thitherwards, allow themselves to be blinded by the three princesses down +below; Hypocrisy too, keeps many with one eye on the upper city and the +other on the lower; yea, Hypocrisy is clever enough to beguile many who +have withstood the other enchantresses. Enter here, and thou shalt see +more,” he said, and snatched me up into the roodloft in one of the Welsh +churches, when the people were at service; there we saw some busily +whispering, some laughing, some staring at pretty women, others prying +their neighbour’s dress from top to toe; others, in eagerness for the +position due to their rank, keep shoving forward and showing their teeth +at one another, others dozing, others assiduous at their devotions, and +many of these too, dissimulating. “Thou hast not yet seen, nay, not even +among infidels shamelessness so barefaced and public as this,” said the +Angel, “but so it is, I am sorry to say, there is no worse corruption +than the corruption of the best.” {28a} Then they went to communion, and +everybody appeared fairly reverent before the altar; yet through my +friend’s glass I could see one taking unto himself with the bread the +form of a mastiff, another, that of a mole, another, that of an eagle, a +pig or a winged serpent, and a few, ah, how few, received a ray of bright +light with the bread and wine. “There,” he pointed out, “is a Roundhead, +who is going to be sheriff, and because the law calls upon a man to +receive the sacrament in the Church before taking office he has come here +rather than lose it, and although there are some here who rejoice on +seeing him, we have felt no joy at his conversion, because he has only +become converted for the occasion. Thus thou perceivest that Hypocrisy, +with exceeding boldness, approaches the altar in the presence of the God +that cannot be deceived. But though she wields great power in the City +of Destruction, she is of no avail in the City of Emmanuel beyond those +ramparts.” + +Upon that we turned our faces from the great City of Destruction and +ascended towards the other city, which was considerably less; and on our +way we met several at the upper end of the streets who had made a move as +of turning away from the temptations of the gates of Destruction, and +making for the gate of life. But they either failed to find it or grew +weary on the way; very few went through—one man of rueful countenance, +ran in earnest while crowds on all sides derided him, some mocking, {28b} +some threatening him, and his kindred clinging to him, begging him not to +condemn himself to lose the whole world at one stroke. “I lose but a +small portion of it, and were I to lose all, what loss, I pray you, would +it be? For what is there in the world to be desired, unless it be +deceit, oppression and squalor, wickedness, folly and madness? +Contentment and rest is man’s supreme happiness—this is not to be found +in your city. For who of you is content? {29} ‘Higher, higher,’ is the +aim of all in the Street of Pride, ‘More, more’ cry all that dwell in the +Street of Lucre, ‘Sweet, sweet, yet more’ is the voice of everybody in +the Street of Pleasure. And as for rest, where is it, and who hath +obtained it? If a man is of high degree, adulation and envy almost kill +him; if poor, everybody is ready to trample and despise him. If one +would prosper, he must set his mind upon being an intriguer; if one would +gain respect, let him be a boaster or braggart; if one would be godly, +and attend church and approach the altar, he is dubbed a hypocrite, if he +abstain from doing so, he becomes at once an antichrist or a heretic; if +he is light-hearted, he is called a scoffer, if silent, a morose cur; if +he practises honesty, he is but a good-for-nothing fool; if well dressed, +he is proud, if not, he is a pig; if gentle of speech, he is double-faced +and a rogue, whom none can fathom; if rough, he is an arrogant and +froward devil. This is the world you make so much of, and pray you take +my share of it and welcome,” and at the word he shook himself free of +them all, and away he sped boldly to the narrow gate, and spite of all, +pushing onwards he entered, and we too at his heels. Upon the +battlements on either side of the gate were many men dressed in black, +encouraging the man and applauding him. “Who are those in black up +yonder?” I asked. “They are the watchmen of King Emmanuel,” answered he, +“who in their sovereign’s name invite men hither and help them through +the gate.” + +By this we were at the gate: it was very low and narrow, and mean, +compared with the lower gates; around the door the Ten Commandments were +graven—the first table on the right hand and above it, “Thou shalt love +God with all thy heart,” and above the other table on the left, “Thou +shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” and above the whole “Love not the +world neither the things that are in the world.” I had not been looking +on long before the watchmen began calling in a loud voice upon the +condemned men: “Flee, flee for your lives!” But it was few that gave any +heed at all to them, though some enquired, “What are we to flee from?” +“From the prince of this world, who ruleth in the children of +disobedience; from the corruption that is in the world through the lust +of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; from the +wrath that is coming upon you.” “What is your beloved city?” cried a +watchman, “but a huge charred roof over the mouth of hell, and were ye +here ye should see the conflagration beyond your walls ready to burst in +and consume you even unto the bottomless pit.” Some mocked, others, +menacing, bade them have done with their wicked nonsense; yet one here +and there would ask, “Whither shall we flee?” “Hither,” answered the +watchmen, “flee hither to your rightful king, who through us still offers +you reconciliation, if ye return to your allegiance, and leave that rebel +Belial and his bewitching daughters. However fair they appear, it is all +sham; Belial is but a very poor prince at home; he has nought but you as +faggots for the fire and for food, both roast and boiled, and never will +ye suffice him; never will his hunger be appeased or your pain cease. +Who would ever in a moment of madness enter the service of such a +malignant slaughterer, and suffer eternal torments, when he might live +well under a king who is merciful and kind to his subjects, and who hath +never done them aught but good on all sides, and kept them from Belial, +so that in the end he might give to each one a kingdom in the realm of +light. Oh, ye fools, will ye have that terrible foe, whose lips are +parched with thirst for your blood, and reject the compassionate prince +who hath given his own blood to save you?” Yet these reasons which would +melt the rock seemed to have no good effect upon them, and chiefly +because few had the time to listen to them, the others were too intently +gazing at the gates; and of those listening, very few reflected thereon, +and of these again, many soon forgot them; some would not believe they +served Belial, others would not have it that this untrodden little hole +was the gate of Life, and that the other bright portals, and this castle, +were a delusion to prevent them seeing their doom before coming face to +face with it. + +Just then, behold a troop of people from the Street of Pride, knocking +boldly enough at the gate; but they were all so stiff-necked that they +could never enter a place so low without soiling their periwigs and +horns, so they sulkily retraced their steps. In their wake there came up +a group from the Street of Lucre: “And is this the Gate of Life?” asked +one; “Yea,” said the watchman overhead. “What must be done to enter?” he +enquired. “Read what is inscribed above the doorway and ye shall know.” +The miser read the Ten Commandments through: “Who will say that I have +broken one of these?” he exclaimed. But when he looked up, and saw the +words, “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world,” he was +amazed, and could not swallow that hard saying. There was one, +green-eyed and envious, who turned back when he read: “Thou shalt love +thy neighbour as thyself.” There was a gossip and a slanderer who became +dazed on reading: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” When he read, +“Thou shalt not kill,” “This is not the place for me” quoth the +physician. In short, everybody saw something which troubled him, and so +they all returned together to consider the matter. I saw no one yet come +back who had conned his lesson; they had so many bags and scripts tightly +bound to them, that they could never have got through such a narrow +needle’s eye, even if they had tried to. After that a drove from the +Street of Pleasure walked up to the gate. “Where, pray, does this road +lead to?” asked one of the watchmen. “This,” answered he, “is the way +that leads to eternal joy and happiness.” Whereupon all strove to enter, +but failed, for some were too stout to pass through such a strait +opening; others too weak to struggle, being enfeebled through debauchery. +“Oh, ye must not attempt to take your baubles with you,” said the +watchman, observing them; “ye must leave behind your pots and dishes, +your minions, and all other things, and then hasten on.” “How shall we +live?” asked the fiddler, who would have been through long since but that +he feared to smash his fiddle. “Ye must trust the king’s promise to send +after you as many of these things as will do you good,” said the +watchman. This made them all prick their ears, “Oh, oh!” said one, “a +bird in hand is worth two in the bush,” and at that they with one accord +turned back. + +“Let us enter then,” said the Angel, and drew me in; and there in the +porch I first of all perceived a large baptismal font, and hard by, a +well of salt water. “What is this doing in the middle of the road?” I +asked. “Because everybody must wash therein before obtaining citizenship +in the Court of Emmanuel; it is called the well of repentance.” Overhead +I could see inscribed “This is the gate of the Lord.” The gateway, and +street also, widened and became less steep as we went on, and after +proceeding a short distance I heard a voice behind me slowly saying, +“That is the way, walk ye in it.” The street trended upwards, but was +very clean and straight, and though the houses there were not so lofty as +those in the City of Destruction, they were fairer to behold; if there +was less wealth, there was also less dissension and care; if the choice +dishes were fewer, pain was more rare; if there was less turmoil, there +was less grief and more undoubtedly of true joy. I wondered at the +silence and sweet tranquility there, when thinking of what was going on +below. Instead of the cursing and swearing, the scoffing, debauchery and +drunkenness, instead of the pride and vanity, the torpitude of one +quarter and the violence of another, yea, for all the bustle and the +pomp, the hurly-burly and the brawl which there unceasingly bewildered +men, and for the innumerable and unvarying sins, there was nothing to be +seen here but sobriety, kindness and cheerfulness, peace and +thankfulness, compassion, innocence and contentment stamped upon the face +of every man, except where one or two silently wept, grieving that they +had tarried so long in the enemy’s city. There was no hatred or anger, +except towards sin, and this was certain to be overcome; no fear, but of +displeasing their king, who was more ready to be reconciled than to be +angry with his subjects; no sound, but that of psalms of praise to their +Saviour. By this we had come in sight of an exceedingly fine building, +oh, so magnificent! No one in the City of Destruction, neither the Turk +nor the Mogul nor any one else, has anything equal to it. “This is the +Catholic Church,” said the Angel. “Is it here Emmanuel holds his court?” +asked I. “Yes, this is the only royal court he has on earth.” “Are +there many crowned heads beneath his sway?” “A few—thy queen, some of +the princes of Scandinavia and Germany, and a few other petty princes.” +“What is that compared with those over whom great Belial rules—emperors +and kings without number?” “For all that,” said the Angel, “not one of +them can move a finger without Emmanuel’s permission—no, not even Belial +himself. For Emmanuel is his rightful liege too, only that he rebelled, +and was in consequence bound in chains to all eternity; although he is +still allowed for a short period to visit the City of Destruction where +he entices all he can into like rebellion, and to bear a share of his +punishment; and though he well knows that by so doing he increases his +own penalty, {34} yet malice and envy urge him on whenever he has a +pretext, and so much does he love evil that he seeks to destroy this city +and this edifice, although he knows of yore that its Saviour is +invincible.” + +“Prithee, my lord,” said I, “may we approach so as to obtain a better +view of this magnificent royal court” (for my heart waxed warm towards +the place since first I had beheld it). “Oh yes, easily,” answered the +Angel, “for therein is my place, my duty and my work.” The nearer I came +thereto the more I wondered at the height, strength, splendour, grandeur, +and beauty of its every part, how skilful the work was, and how apt the +materials. Its base was an enormous rock wondrously fashioned, and of +strength impregnable; upon it were living stones, laid and joined in such +perfect order that no stone could possibly appear finer elsewhere than in +its own place. One part of the church projected in the form of a +wonderfully handsome cross, and the Angel saw me looking at it, and said, +“Dost thou recognise that part?” I knew not what to answer. “That is +the Church of England,” he said. I was somewhat startled, and looking up +beheld Queen Anne on the church-top enthroned, with a sword in each +hand—the one in the left called “Justice,” to defend her subjects against +the inhabitants of the City of Destruction, the one in the right, to +preserve them from Belial and his spiritual evils, and this was called +“the sword of the Spirit,” or the Word of God. Beneath the left sword +lay the statute book of England, and beneath the other, a big Bible. The +sword of the Spirit was fiery, and of immense length, and would kill +further away than the other would touch. I could see the other princes +with like arms defending their part of the church, but I deemed mine own +queen fairest of all, and her arms the brightest. At her right hand I +observed throngs clad in black—archbishops, bishops, and learned men +upholding with her the sword of the Spirit, while soldiers and officials, +with a few lawyers, supported the other sword. I was allowed to rest +awhile, by one of the magnificent doors where people came in to obtain +membership in the Universal Church, and whereat a tall angel was +doorkeeper. The interior of the church was lit up so brilliantly that +Hypocrisy dared not show her face therein, and though sometimes she +appeared at the threshold she never entered. Just as I saw, in the space +of a quarter of an hour, a Papist, who thought that the Catholic Church +belonged to the Pope, came and claimed its freedom. “What have you to +prove your right?” demanded the porter. “I have plenty of the traditions +of the fathers, and of councils of the church,” he answered, “but what +need I more certain than the word of the Pope, who sits in the infallible +chair?” Then the doorkeeper opened a huge Bible—a load in itself; +“This,” said he, “is our only statute book—prove your right from this or +go.” And he straightway departed. + +Then came a flock of Quakers, who wished to enter with their hats on, but +were turned away for being so ill-mannered. After them some of the +barn-folk, who had been there only a short while, began to speak: “We +have the same statute book as ye have,” they averred, “and therefore show +us our privileged place.” “Stay,” said the bright porter, steadfastly +gazing on their foreheads, “I will show you something: see yon mark of +the rent ye made in the church when leaving it without cause or reason? +And would ye now have a place therein? Get ye back to the narrow gate, +and wash thoroughly in the well of repentance, to see if ye will reach +some of the royal blood ye erstwhile drank {36} and bring some of the +water of that well to moisten the clay, so as to make up yonder rent and +then ye are welcome.” + +Before we had gone a rood westward I heard a noise coming from above, +from among the princes, and everybody, great and small, was taking up +arms and donning his armour as if for war, and ere I had time to cast +about me for a refuge, the whole sky became black, and the city darker +than when an eclipse befalls; the thunder roared, the lightning flashed +to and fro, and ceaseless showers of deadly shafts were directed from the +lower gates against the Catholic Church, and had there not been in each +man’s hand a shield to receive the fiery darts, and had the foundation +rock not been so strong that nothing could ever harm it, we all would +have become one burning mass. But alack, this was but a prologue or +foretaste of what was to follow; for suddenly the darkness became +sevenfold more intense, and Belial himself advanced in the densest cloud, +and around him his chief officers both earthly and infernal, ready to +receive and accomplish his behest at their several posts. He had +entrusted the Pope and his other son of France {37} with the destruction +of the Church of England and its queen; the Turks and Muscovites were to +strike at the other sections of the Church, and slay the people, and +especially the queen and the other princes, and above all to burn the +Bible. The first thing the queen and the other saints did was to bend +the knee and tell of their wrongs to the King of Kings in these words: +“The stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, oh +Emmanuel.” And immediately a voice replied: “Resist the devil and he +will flee from you.” And then commenced the greatest and most terrible +conflict that ever took place on earth. When the sword of the Spirit +began to be whirled round, Belial and his infernal hosts began to +retreat; then the Pope began to waver, while the King of France still +held out, though he too was almost giving up heart, seeing the queen and +her subjects so united, while he himself was losing ships and men on the +one hand, and on the other many of his subjects were in open revolt; and +the onslaught of the Turk also was becoming less fierce. Just then, +woe’s me, I saw my beloved companion shooting away from me into the +welkin to join a myriad other bright princes. Thereupon the Pope and the +other earthly commanders began to slink off and become prostrate through +fear, and the infernal princes to fall by the thousands. The noise of +each one falling seemed to me as if a great mountain fell into the depths +of the sea, and between this noise and the agitation on losing my friend, +I awoke from sleep, and returned to this oppressive sod, most +unwillingly, so pleasant and enjoyable it was to be a free spirit, and +above all to be in such company, notwithstanding the great danger I was +in. Now I had no one to comfort me save the Muse, and she was rather +moody—scarcely could I get her to bray out these lines that follow:— + + Behold this wondrous edifice, + Both heaven and earth comprising, + The universe and all that is + At God’s command arising— + This world, with ramparts wide from pole to pole, + Down from its starry, brilliant dome, + E’en to the depths where angry billows roll, + And beasts that through the forest roam— + All things that sea and sky afford, + Thy faithful subjects eke to be; + A lesser heaven, a home for thee + Oh! man, creation’s lord. + + But once that thou desired to know + The ways of sin, seductive, + The hellish tempter, to our woe, + Became a power destructive; + He cursed our earth and ruin brought on all, + Yea, very nature felt the bane— + Its blighted walls now totter to their fall, + And soon disorder rules again. + This earthly palace then at last, + Unroofed, dismantled and decayed, + A hideous, barren waste is laid + By desolation’s blast. + + Behold oh, man! this glorious place + In the empyrean hovering + While all is but a treach’rous face + Foul swamps and quagmires covering. + Thy sin, that whelmed this earth in days of yore, + Shall draw upon it quenchless fire + With flaming torrents wildly rushing o’er— + A prey to conflagration dire; + If thou wouldst ’scape this dreadful fate, + I pray thee counsel take from me, + To Mercy’s city straightway flee + For life within its gate. + + Behold that city’s peerless might + Withstanding all oppression— + Then flee thereto in thy sad plight, + Be free from sin’s possession. + Behold thy refuge in this dreary land + Where all may find true, peaceful rest, + A rock, impregnable on every hand, + Where perfect love reigns ever blest; + We sinful men, the way must search, + And there in faith for pardon pray, + And live a blissful, tranquil day + Within the Holy Church. + + + +II.—THE VISION OF DEATH IN HIS NETHERMOST COURT. + + +One long, cold, and dark winter’s night, when one-eye’d Phœbus well nigh +had reached his utmost limit in the south and, from afar, lowered upon +Great Britain and all the Northern land, and when it was much warmer in +the kitchen of Glyn Cywarch {43a} than at the top of Cader Idris, and +better in a cosy room with a warm bedfellow than in a shroud in the +lychgate, I was meditating upon a talk I had had by the fireside with a +neighbour concerning the brevity of human life, and how certain it was +that death would come to all, and yet how uncertain its coming. Thus +engaged, I had just lain down, and was half-asleep, when I felt a heavy +weight stealthily creeping over me, from head to heel, so that I could +not move a finger—my tongue only was unbound. I perceived, methought, a +man upon my chest, and above him, a woman. After eyeing him carefully I +recognised by his strong odours, dewy locks and blear eyes, that the man +was no other than my good Master Sleep. “I pray you, sir,” cried I, +squeaking, “what have I done to you that you bring that witch here to +torment me?” “Hush,” said he, “it is only my sister Nightmare; we twain +are going to pay our brother Death {43b} a visit, and want a third to +accompany us, and lest thou shouldst resist we came upon thee, just as he +does, unawares. Consequently come thou must, willy-nilly.” “Alas,” I +cried, “must I die?” “Nay,” said Nightmare, “we will spare thee this +time.” “But an’t please you,” said I, “your brother Death has never +spared anyone yet who came beneath his stroke—he who wrestled with the +Lord of Life himself, though it was little he gained by that contest.” +Nightmare, at that word, rose up angrily and departed. “Come along,” +cried Sleep, “thou wilt never repent of thy journey.” “Well,” said I, +“may there never be night in Sleepton, and may Nightmare never have rest +save on an awl’s point if ye bring me not back where ye found me.” + +Then away we went over hills and through forests, across seas and +valleys, over castles and towers, rivers and rocks, and where should we +alight but at one of the gates of the daughters of Belial, at the rear of +the City of Destruction, where I noticed that the three gateways of +Destruction contracted into one at the back, and opened upon the same +place—a murky, vaporous, pestilent place, full of noisome mists, and +terrible lowering clouds. “Prithee, good sir,” asked I, “what place be +this?” “The chambers of Death,” replied Sleep. And no sooner had I +asked than I could hear some wailing, groaning, and sighing; some +deliriously muttering to themselves or feebly moaning, others in great +travail, and with all the signs of man’s departure from life; and, now +and then, would one give a long-drawn gasp, and lapse into silence. At +that moment, I heard a key being turned in a lock, and at the noise I +looked around for the door, and gazing steadfastly, perceived thousands +upon thousands of doors, seemingly afar off but really close at hand. +“Please, Master Sleep, where do these doors open upon?” asked I. “Upon +the land of Oblivion,” was the answer, “an extensive domain {44} under +the sceptre of my brother Death, and this great rampart is the boundary +of vast Eternity.” By this I could see that there was a little death-imp +at every door, each one bearing arms, and a name different from that of +his fellows; though it was evident that they, one and all, were the +ministers of the same king. Nevertheless they were continually +quarrelling about the sick; one would snatch the patient to take him as a +gift through his own door, while another strove to take him through his. + +On our approach, I observed that over each door the name of the Death who +kept it was written, and also that at each door were an hundred various +things left all of a heap, showing plainly that those who went through +were in haste. Over one door I saw “Hunger,” and yet on the floor close +by were full purses, and bags, and brass-nailed trunks. “This is the +Porch of Misers,” said Sleep. “Whom do those rags belong to?” “To the +misers, mostly,” he replied, “but there are some which belong to idlers, +gossipmongers and others, who, poor in everything except in spirit, +preferred to die of hunger rather than ask for help.” Next door was +Death-by-Cold, and when I came opposite him I could hear much shuddering +and shivering, and at his door, were many books, pots and flagons, a few +sticks and bludgeons, compasses, cords and ship’s tackle. “Scholars have +gone this way,” said I. “Yea, lonely and helpless, far from the succour +of those who loved them, their very garments stolen from them. Those,” +he continued, pointing to the pots, “are relics of the boon companions, +whose feet were benumbed under the benches, while their heads were +seething in drink and noise; those things over there belonged to those +who journeyed amid snow-clad mountains, and to North Sea traders.” The +next was a lanky skeleton called Fear-Death—so transparent you could see +he had no heart; at his door, too, there were bags and chests, bars and +strongholds. Through this one went userers and traitors, oppressors and +murderers, though many of these last called at the next door, at which +was a Death named Gallows, with a rope ready round his neck. Next to him +was Love-Death, and at his feet thousands of musical instruments and +song-books, love-letters, spots and pigments to beautify the face, and +hundreds of tinselled toys for the same purpose, together with a few +swords: “With these rivals have fought duels for their mistresses, and +some have killed themselves,” said Sleep. I could see that this Death +was sandblind. At the next door was a Death whose colour was worst of +all, and whose liver was entirely gone—his name was Envy. “This is the +Death,” said Sleep, “which brings hither those who have lost money, +slanderers, and a rideress or two, who are jealous of the law which +demands that a wife should submit herself unto her husband.” “Pray, sir, +what is a rideress?” “A rideress is a woman who will over-ride her +husband, her neighbourhood, and the whole country if she can, and by dint +of long riding, at last, rides a devil from that door down to the +bottomless pit.” Next was the door of Ambition-Death for those who hold +their heads high, and break their necks, for want of looking on the +ground they tread on; at this door lay crowns, sceptres, standards, +petitions for offices, and all manner of arms of heraldry and war. + +But before I had time to notice any more of these innumerable doors, I +heard a voice bidding me by name to be dissolved, and at the word I felt +myself beginning to melt like a snowball in the heat of the sun; then my +master gave me a sleeping draught, so that I slumbered; and when I awoke, +he had taken me by some road or other far away on the other side of the +castle. I perceived myself in a pitch-dark vale of infinite radius, +methought, and shortly, I saw by a few bluish lights, like the flickering +flame of a candle, countless, ah! countless shades of men, some afoot and +some on horseback, rushing back and fro like the wind, in awful silence +and solemnity; the land was barren, bleak and blasted, without either +grass or hay, trees or animals, save deadly beasts and poisonous vermin +of every kind—serpents, snakes, lice, frogs, worms, locusts, gids and all +such that exist on man’s corruption. Through a myriad shades and +reptiles, graves, churchyards and tombs, we made our way to view the land +unmolested, until I happened to see some turning round and looking at me; +in an instant, notwithstanding the prevailing silence, a whisper passed +from one to another that there was a man from earth there. “A man from +earth!” cried one, “a man from earth,” exclaimed another, while they +crowded round me, like caterpillars, from every quarter. “Which way came +you, sirrah?” asked a morkin of a death-imp. “Indeed, sir,” said I, “I +know not any more than you do.” “What is your name?” he asked. “Call me +here in your own country what ye will, but at home I am called the +Sleeping Bard.” + +At that word I could see an ancient mannikin, bent double, head to feet, +like a bramble, straightening himself, and looking at me more malignantly +than the red devil, and without a word he hurled a big skull at my head, +but, thanks to a sheltering tombstone, missed me. “Truce, sir, I pray +you,” cried I, “to a stranger who was never here before, and will never +come again, could I but once find the way home.” “I’ll make you remember +you’ve been here,” quoth he, and, again setting upon me with a thighbone, +he beat me most unmercifully, while I dodged about as best as I could. +“Ho ho!” I cried, “this country is very unmannerly towards strangers; is +there no justice of the peace here?” “Peace, indeed,” said he, “thou, +surely, hast no right to sue for peace, who disturbest the dead in their +graves.” “Pray, sir, might I know your name, for I wot not that I have +ever molested anyone from this country?” “Sirrah!” cried he, “know then +that I, and not you, am the Sleeping Bard, and have been left in peace +these nine centuries by all but you,” and again he set upon me. +“Withhold, brother,” said Merlin {48a} who stood near, “be not too hasty; +thank him rather for that he hath kept your name in respected memory on +earth.” “In great respect, forsooth,” quoth he, “by such a blockhead as +this. Are you, sirrah, versed in the four and twenty metres? Can you +trace the line of Gog and Magog and of Brutus son of Silvius {48b} down +to a century before the destruction of Troy? Can you prophesy when, and +how the wars between the lion and the eagle, and between the stag and the +red deer will end? Can you?” “Ho there! let me ask him a question,” +said another who stood by a huge seething cauldron, {48c} “draw near, and +tell me the meaning of this:— + + “Upon the face of earth I’ll be + Until the judgment day, + And whether I be fish or flesh + No man can ever say.” {48d} + +“I would know your name, sir,” said I, “so that I might the more +befittingly give answer.” “I am Taliesin, Chief of the Western Bards, +{48e} and those are lines from my mystery-song.” “I know not what your +meaning may be, if it be not the yellow plague which destroyed Maelgwn +Gwynedd, {49a} slew you upon the sea, and divided you between the ravens +and fishes.” “Tush, you fool,” cried he, “I was foretelling of my two +callings—as lawyer and poet—and which sayest thou now bears greatest +resemblance, whether a lawyer to a raven, or a poet to a whale? How many +will a single lawyer lay bare of flesh to swell his own paunch, and oh! +so callously doth he shed blood and leave the man half dead! The poet, +too, what fish can gulp as much as he? And though he hath always a sea +round him, not all the ocean can quench his thirst. And when a man is +both a poet and a lawyer, who can tell whether he is fish or flesh, and +especially if he be a courtier as well, as I was, and had to change his +taste with every mouth. But tell me, are there many of these folk now on +earth?” “Yes, plenty,” answered I, “if a man can patch together any sort +of metre, straightway he becomes a chaired bard. And of the others, +there is such a plague of barristers, petty lawyers, and clerks that the +locusts of Egypt preyed less heavily on the country than they. In your +time, sir, there were only roadside bargains and a hands-breadth of +writing on the purchase of a hundred pound farm, and a cairn or an +Arthur’s quoit {49b} raised as a memorial of the purchase and boundaries. +People have not the courage to do so nowadays, but more cunning, knavery, +and written parchment, wide as a cromlech, is necessary to bind the +bargain, and for all that it would be strange if no flaw existed or were +contrived therein.” “Well, well,” said Taliesin, “I would not be worth a +straw there, I may as well be here; truth will never be found where there +are many bards, nor justice where many lawyers, until health be found +where there be many doctors.” + +Upon this a grey-haired, writhled shrimp, who had heard of the presence +of an earthly man, came and fell at my feet, weeping profusely. “Alack, +poor fellow,” cried I, “what art thou?” “One who suffers too much wrong +on earth day by day,” he replied, “and your soul must obtain me justice.” +“What is thy name?” I enquired. “I am called Someone,” was the answer, +“and there is no love-message, slander, lie, or tale to breed quarrels, +but that I am blamed for most of them. ‘In sooth,’ said one, ‘she is an +excellent wench, and has spoken highly of you to Someone, although +someone great was seeking her.’ ‘I heard Someone,’ said another, +‘reckoning a debt of nine hundred pounds on such and such an estate.’ ‘I +saw Someone yesterday,’ said the beggar, ‘with a mottled neckerchief, +like a sailor, who had come with a grain vessel to the next port;’ and so +every rag and tag mauls me to suit his own evil purpose. Some call me +‘Friend.’ ‘A friend told me,’ saith one, ‘that so and so does not intend +leaving a single farthing to his wife, and that there is no love lost +between them.’ Others further disgrace me and call me a crow: ‘a crow +tell me there is some trickery going on,’ they say. Yea, some call me by +a more honoured name—Old Man, and yet not a half of the omens, +prophecies, and cures attributed to me are really mine. I never +counselled walking the old way if the new were better, and I never +intended forbidding men to church by saying: ‘Frequent not the place +where thou art most welcome,’ and a hundred such. But Someone is the +name generally given me, and most often heard of when anything uncommonly +bad happens; for if you ask one where that scandalous lie was told and +who told it. ‘Indeed,’ he will say, ‘I know not, but Someone in the +company said it,’ and if you enquire of all the company concerning the +story, all have heard it of Someone, but no one knows of whom. Is it not +a shameful wrong?” he cried, “I beg of you to inform everybody who names +me that I uttered nought of such things. I never invented or repeated a +lie to disgrace anyone, nor a single tale to cause kinsmen to fly at each +other’s throats; I do not come near them; I know nothing of their +scandal, or business, or accursed secrets—they must not charge me with +their evils, but their own corrupt brains.” + +Hereupon a little Death, one of the King’s secretaries, asked me my name, +and bade Master Sleep carry me at once into the King’s presence. I had +to go, though most unwilling, by reason of the power that took me up like +a whirlwind, ’twixt high and low, thousands of miles back on our left, +till we came, a second time, in sight of the boundary wall, and in an +enclosed corner we could see a vast palace, roofless and in ruins, +extending to the wall wherein were the countless doors, all of which led +to this terrible court. Its walls were built of human skulls with +hideous, grinning teeth; the clay was black with mingled tears and sweat, +the lime ruddy with gore. On the summit of each tower stood a Deathling, +with a quivering heart on the point of his shaft. Around the court were +a few trees—a poisonous yew or twain, or a deadly cypress, and in these +owls, ravens, vampires and the like, make their nests, and cry +unceasingly for flesh, although the whole place is but one vast, putrid +shamble. The pillars of the hall were made of thighbones, and those of +the parlour of shinbones, while the floors were formed of layer upon +layer of all manner of charnel. + +I had not to wait a longwhile ere I came in view of a tremendous altar, +where we could see the King of Terrors devouring human flesh and blood, +while a thousand impish deaths, from every hole, were continually feeding +him with warm, fresh meat. “Here is a rogue,” said the Death that led me +thither, “whom I found in the midst of the land of Oblivion, having +approached so light-footed that your majesty never tasted a bite of him,” +“How can that be?” demanded the king, opening his jaws, wide as a chasm, +to swallow me. Whereupon I turned trembling to Sleep. “It was I who +brought him hither,” said he. “Well then, for my brother Sleep’s sake,” +said the awful and lanky monarch, “you can retrace your steps for the +nonce; but beware of me the next time.” Having been for some time +cramming his gluttonous maw with carrion, he caused his subjects to be +called together, and moved from the altar to a very lofty and dreadful +throne, to adjudge newly-arrived prisoners. In an instant, lo! the dead +in countless multitudes paid homage to the king, and took their places in +wonderful array. King Death was in his regal robe of brilliant scarlet, +whereon depicted were wives and children weeping and husbands sighing; on +his head a dark-red, three-cornered cap, a gift his cousin Lucifer had +sent him, on the corners of which were written Grief, Sorrow, and Woe. +Above his head were a myriad pictures of battles on land and sea, of +towns aflame, of the earth yawning, and of the waters of the deluge; the +ground beneath his feet was nought else than the crowns and sceptres of +all the kings he had ever conquered. At his right hand sat Fate with a +morose and scowling visage, reading an enormous tome that lay before him; +at his left, was an old man called Time, warping innumerable threads of +gold, silver, copper, and many of iron—some threads were growing better +towards the end, a myriad worse; along the threads were marked hours, +days and years, and Fate, at his book, cut the thread of life and opened +the doors in the boundary wall between the two worlds. + +I had not been looking about me long, when I heard four fiddlers, just +dead, summoned to the bar. “How is it,” asked the King of Terrors, “that +ye, who are so found of joy, did not stay on yonder side of the chasm? +For on this side joy never existed.” “We have done no man ever any +hurt,” said one of the minstrels, “but on the contrary have made them +merry, and quietly took whatever was given us for our pains.” “Have ye +caused no one,” said Death, “to lose time from his work, or to absent +himself from church, eh?” “No,” replied another, “unless we were some +Sundays after service in an inn till the morrow, or in summer time on the +village green, and indeed we had a better and more beloved congregation +than the parson.” “Away, with them to the land of Oblivion,” cried the +terrible king, “bind the four, back to back, and pitch them to their +partners, to dance barefoot on glowing hearths, and scrape their fiddles +for ever without praise or pay.” + +The next to come to the bar was a king from near Rome. “Raise thy hand, +caitiff,” bade one of the officers. “I hope,” said he, “ye have somewhat +better manners and favor for a king.” “Sirrah, you too,” said Death, +“ought to have kept on the other side of the gulf where everybody is +king; but know that, on this side, there are none besides myself and +another, who dwelleth down below, and you shall see that that king and +myself will set no value upon the degree of your greatness, but rather +upon the degree of your wickedness, and so make your punishment +proportionate to your crimes; therefore give answer to the questions.” +“Sir, allow me to tell you that you have no authority to arrest and +examine me,” said he, “I hold a pardon under the Pope’s own hand for all +my sins. Because I served him faithfully, he gave me a dispensation to +go straight to Paradise, without a moment’s stay in Purgatory.” At that +the king, and all the lean jaws, gave a dismal grin in imitation of +laughter, and the other, angered at their laughing, ordered them to show +him the way. “Silence, lost fool!” cried Death, “Purgatory lies behind +thee, on the other side of the wall, for it was in life thou hadst ought +to have purified thyself, and Paradise is on the right, beyond that +chasm. Now there is no way of escape for thee, neither across this abyss +to Paradise, nor through the boundary wall back to earth; for wert thou +to give thy kingdom—though thou hast not a ha’penny to give—the warder of +those doors would not let thee look once, even through the keyhole. This +is called the irremeable wall, for once it is passed there is no hope of +return. But since you are so high in the Pope’s favor, {54} you shall go +and get his bed ready with his predecessor, and there you may kiss his +toe for ever, and he, the toe of Lucifer.” At the word, four death-imps +raised him up, now trembling like an aspen leaf, and snatched him away +out of sight, with the speed of lightning. + +Next after him, came a man and woman; he had been a boon companion, and +she a kind and lavish maid, but there they were called by their plain, +unvarnished names, a drunkard and a harlot. “I hope,” said the drunkard, +“I may obtain some favor in your eyes, for I despatched hither on a flood +of good ale many a fatted prey, and when I failed to slay others, I +willingly came myself to feed you.” “By the court’s leave,” said the +minion, “not half so many as I have despatched to you as a burnt offering +ready for table.” “Ha, ha,” exclaimed Death, “it was to feed your own +accursed lusts, and not me, that all this was done. Let them be bound +together and hurled into the land of darkness.” And so they too were +hurried away headlong. + +Next to them came seven recorders, who, on being bidden to raise their +hands {55} to the bar, pretended not to hear the command, for their palms +were so thickly greased. One of them, bolder than the rest, began to +argue, “We ought to have had fair citation, in order to prepare our +reply, instead of being attacked unawares.” “Oh, we are not bound to +give you any particular notice,” said Death, “because ye have, +everywhere, and everywhile throughout your lives, warning of my advent. +How many sermons on the mortality of man have ye heard? How many books, +how many graves, knells and fevers, how many messages and signs, have ye +seen? What is your Sleep but my brother? Your heads but my image? Your +daily food but dead creatures? Seek not to lay the blame of your ill hap +on my shoulders—ye would not hear of the summons, although ye had it an +hundred times.” “Pray what have you against us?” asked one ruddy +recorder. “What indeed?” exclaimed Death, “the drinking the sweat and +blood of the poor, and the doubling your fees.” “Here is an honest man,” +he said, pointing to a wrangler behind them, “who knows I never did aught +but what was fair, and it is not fair in you to detain us here, seeing +you have no specific charge to prove against us.” “Ha, ha!” cried Death, +“ye shall bring proof against yourselves; place them on the verge of the +precipice before the throne of Justice; there they will obtain justice, +though they practised it not.” + +There were yet seven other prisoners, who kept up such commotion and +clamour—some blandishing, gnashing the teeth and uttering threats, others +giving advice and so on. Scarcely had they been summoned to the bar than +the whole court darkened sevenfold more hideously than before, a +murmuring and great confusion arose around the throne, and Death became +more livid than ever. Upon enquiry it seemed that one of Lucifer’s +envoys had arrived, bearing a letter to Death, concerning these seven +prisoners; and shortly, Fate called for silence to read the letter which, +as far as I can recollect, was as follows:— + + “LUCIFER, _King of the Kings of Earth_, _Prince of Perdition and + Archruler of the Deep_, _To our natural son_, _mightiest and most + terrible King Death_, _greeting_, _wishing you supremacy and booty + without end_: + + “Whereas some of our swift messengers, who are always out espying, + have informed us that there lately came into your royal court seven + prisoners of the seven most worthless and dangerous species in the + world, and that you are about to hurl them over the precipice into my + realm: our advice is, that you endeavour, by every possible way, to + let them return to the earth; there they will be more serviceable—to + you, in the matter of food, to me, for supplying better company. We + had too much trouble with their partners in days gone by, and our + kingdom is, even now, unsettled. Wherefore, turn them back or retain + them yourself; for, by the infernal crown, if thou cast them hither, + I will undermine the foundations of thy kingdom, until it fall and + become one with mine own great realm. + + “_From our Court_, _on the miry Swamp in the glowing Evildom_, _in + the year of our reign_, _5425_.” + +King Death, his visage green and livid, stood for a time undecided. But +while he was meditating, Fate turned upon him such a grim frown that he +trembled. “Sire,” said Fate, “consider well what you are about to do. I +dare not allow anyone to repass the bounds of Eternity—the insurmountable +ramparts, nor deign you harbour any here, wherefore, send them on to +their doom, spite of the great Evil One. He has been able to array in a +moment many a haul of a thousand or ten thousand souls, and allot each +one his place, and what difficulty will he have with these seven now, +however dangerous they may be? Whatever happen, even if they overturn +the infernal government, send them thither instantly, lest I be commanded +to crush thee to untimely nothingness. As for his menaces, they are +false, and although thy doom, and that of yon ancient (looking at Time), +are not many pages hence, yet, thou need have no fear of sinking down to +Lucifer, for however glad everybody there would be to have thee, they +never will; for the eternal rocks of steel and adamant, which roof Hell, +are somewhat too firm to be shattered.” Whereupon Death, in great +agitation, called for someone to indite thus his reply:— + + “DEATH, _King of Terrors_, _Conqueror of Conquerors_, _To our most + revered kinsman and neighbour_, _Lucifer_, _Monarch of the Endless + Night_, _and Emperor of the Sheer Vortex_, _Salutation_: + + “After giving earnest thought to this your royal wish, it seemeth to + us more advantageous, not only to our state, but also to your vast + realm, that these prisoners be sent to the furthest point possible + from the portals of the impervious wall, left their putrid odour + should so terrify the entire City of Destruction that no one would + ever enter Eternity from that side of the gulf, and I, in + consequence, would be unable to cool my sting, and you should have no + commerce betwixt earth and hell. But I leave you to judge them, and + to cast them into the cells you deem most secure and befitting. + + “_From our Lower Court in the Great Tollgate of Destruction: from the + year of the restoration of my Kingdom_, _1670_.” + +After hearing all this, I was itching to know what manner of folk these +seven might be, seeing that the devils themselves feared them so much. +But ere long, the Clerk to the Crown calls them by name, as follows: +“Mister Busybody, alias Finger-in-every-pie.” This fellow was so fussily +and busily directing the others, that he had no leisure to answer to his +name until Death threatened to sunder him with his dart. Then, “Mr. +Slanderer, alias Foe-of-Good-Fame,” was called, but no response came. +“He is rather bashful to hear his titles,” said the third, “he can’t +abide the nicknames.” “Have you no titles, I wonder?” asked the +Slanderer, “call Mr. Honey-tongued Swaggerer, alias Smoothgulp, alias +Venomsmile.” “Here,” cried a woman, who was standing near, pointing to +the Swaggerer. “Ha, Madam Huntress!” cried he, “your humble servant; I +am glad to see you well, I never saw a more beautiful woman in breeches, +but woe’s me to think how pitiable is the country, having lost in you +such an unrivalled ruler; and yet, your pleasant company will make hell +itself somewhat better.” “Oh, thou scion of evil,” cried she, “no one +need a worse hell than to be with thee—thou art enough.” Then the crier +called, “Huntress, alias Mistress o’ the Breeches.” “Here,” answered +someone else, she herself not saying a word because they did not “madam” +her. Next was called the Schemer, alias Jack-of-all-Trades. But he, +too, failed to answer, for he was assiduously plotting to escape the Land +of Despair. “Here, here,” cried someone behind him, “here he is spying +for a place to break out of your great court, and unless you be on your +guard, he has a considerable plot against you.” “Then,” said the +Schemer, “Let him also be called, to wit, The Accuser-of-his-Brethren, +alias Faultfinder, alias Complaint-monger.” “Here, here he is,” cried +the Litigious Wrangler—for each one knew the other’s name, but none would +acknowledge his own. “You are also called,” said the Accuser, “Mr. +Litigious Wrangler, alias Cumber-of-Courts.” “Witness, witness, all of +you, what names the knave has given me,” cried the Wrangler. “Ha, ha, +’tis not according to the font, but according to the fault, that +everybody is named in this land,” said Death, “and with your permission, +Mr. Wrangler, these names must stick to you for evermore.” “Indeed,” +quoth the Wrangler, “by the devil, I’ll make it hot for you; although you +may put me to death, you have no right to nickname me. I shall enter a +plaint for this and for false imprisonment, against you and your kinsman +Lucifer, in the Court of Justice.” + +By this I could see the armies of Death in array and armed, looking to +the king for the word of command. Then the king, standing erect on his +throne, spoke as follows: “My terrible and invincible hosts, spare +neither care nor haste to despatch these prisoners out of my territories, +lest they corrupt my country; throw them in bonds headlong over the +hopeless precipice. But as to the eighth, this cumbrous fellow who +menaces me, let him free on the brink beneath the Court of Justice, so +that he may make good his charge against me, if he can.” No sooner had +he sat down than the whole deadly armies surrounded and bound the +prisoners, and led them towards their appointed dwelling. And when I, +having gone out, half-turned to look at them. “Come hither,” cried +Sleep, and flew with me to the top of the loftiest tower on the court; +from whence I saw the prisoners going forth to their everlasting doom. +Before long a sudden whirlwind arose, and drove away the pitch-dark mist +usually hovering over the Land of Oblivion, and in the wan light, I could +see myriads of livid candles, and by their gleam, I obtained a far-off +view of the mouth of the bottomless abyss. But if that was a horrible +sight, overhead was one still more horrible—Justice, on her throne, +guarding the portal of hell, and holding a special tribunal above the +entrance thereto, to pronounce the doom of the damned as they arrive. I +beheld the seven hurled headlong over the terrible verge, and the +Wrangler, too, rushing to throw himself over, lest he should once look on +the Court of Justice, for, alas, the sight thereof was intolerable to +guilty eyes. I was only gazing from a distance, yet I beheld more +dreadful horrors than I can now relate, nor then could endure; for my +spirit so strove and panted through exceeding fear, and struggled so +violently, that all the bonds of Sleep were burst; my soul returned to +its wonted functions, and I rejoiced greatly to perceive myself still +among the living, and resolved to lead a better life, for I would rather +suffer affliction an hundred years in the paths of holiness than, +perforce, take another glance at the horrors of that night. + + 1 Must I leave home and fatherland, + And every charm and pleasure? + Leave honored name and high degree + Enjoyed in life’s brief measure? + + 2 Leave beauty, strength, and wisdom, too, + All won in hard employment,— + All I have learnt, and all I’ve loved, + And all this world’s enjoyment. + + 3 Can I evade the stroke of Death + That rends all ties asunder? + Do not his awful shambles gape + For me to be his plunder? + + 4 Ye gilded men would fain enjoy + The wealth your souls engrossing, + But ye must bow to him and go + The journey of his choosing. + + 5 Ye favored fair, whose lightest word + Has caused ten thousand errors, + Think not your garish, tinselled charms + Can blind the King of Terrors. + + 6 Ye who rejoice in heedless youth + And follow fleeting pleasures, + Know that ye cannot conquer Death + By valor, arts, or treasures. + + 7 Ye who exult in madding song + The giddy dances treading, + Think not that all the mirth of France + Can thwart the fate you’re dreading. + + 8 Ye who have roamed the wide world o’er, + Where have ye found the tower, + With walls and portals strong enough + To check Death’s awful power? + + 9 Statesmen and learned sages, all + Of godlike understanding, + What will your craft and skill avail? + ’Tis Death who is commanding. + + 10 The greatest foes of man are now + The world, the flesh, the devil; + And yet, ere long, we’ll surely find + In Death a greater evil. + + 11 How little now it seems to die— + To gain the suit or lose it? + But when the doom is of thyself + How great thy care to chose it? + + 12 We care, at present, not a jot + Which way our gains may turn us; + Eternal life, howe’er so great, + We think can not concern us. + + 13 But when thou’rt hedged on every side + And Death himself is nearest, + For one brief, ling’ring space we’ll give + Whate’er to us is dearest. + + 14 Think not that thou canst make thy terms + For thine eternal dwelling, + On either side of that dread gulf, + With death thy steps compelling. + + 15 Repentence, faith, and righteousness, + Alone are thy Salvation, + And in the agony of Death + Shall be thy consolation. + + 16 And when the world is passing by, + Its joys and pleasures ending, + Infinite thou wilt deem their worth + When to the bourne descending! + + + +III.—THE VISION OF HELL. + + +One April morning, bright and mild, when earth was with verdure laden, +and Britain, like a paradise, had donned its brilliant livery, +foretelling summer’s sunshine, I sauntered along the banks of the Severn, +while around me, chaunting their sweet carols, the forest’s little +songsters in rivalry poured forth songs of praise to their Maker; and I, +who was far more bounden than they to give praise, at one while lifted up +my voice with the gentle winged choristers, and at another read “_The +Practice of Piety_.” {67} For all that, my previous visions would not +from my mind, but time after time broke in upon every other thought. +They continued to trouble me until after careful reasoning I concluded +that every vision is a heaven-sent warning against sin, and that +therefore it was my duty to write them down as a warning to others also. +And whilst occupied with this work, and sadly endeavouring to recall some +of those awful memories, there fell upon me at my task such drowsiness +that soon opened the way for Master Sleep to glide in perforce. No +sooner had sleep taken possession of my senses than there drew nigh unto +me a glorious apparition upon the form of a young man, tall and exceeding +fair; his raiments were whiter sevenfold than snow, the brightness of his +face darkened the sun, his wavy, golden locks rested on his brow in two +shining coronal wreaths. “Come with me, thou mortal being,” he +exclaimed, when he had drawn near. “Who art thou, Lord?” said I. “I am +the Angel of the realms of the North,” answered he, “guardian of Britain +and its queen. I am one of the princes who stand below the throne of the +Lamb, receiving his commands to protect the Gospel against all its +enemies in Hell, in Rome and in France, in Constantinople, in Africa and +in India, and wherever else they may be, devising plans for its +destruction. I am the Angel who saved thee beneath the Castle of Belial, +and who showed thee the vanity and madness of all the earth, the City of +Destruction and the splendor of Emmanuel’s City; and again have I come at +his bidding to show thee greater things, because thou art seeking to make +good use of what thou hast seen erstwhile.” “How can it be, Lord,” asked +I, “that your glorious highness, guardian of kings and kingdoms, does +condescend to associate with carrion such as I?” “Ah,” said he, “in our +sight a beggar’s virtue is more than a king’s majesty. What if I am +greater than all the kings of earth, and supreme to many of the countless +lords of heaven? Yet, since our eternal Sovereign vouchsafed to take +upon Himself such unutterable humiliation—put on one of your bodies, +lived in your midst, and died to save you, how dare I deem it otherwise +than too sublime for my office to serve thee and the meanest of men, who +are so high in my Master’s favor? Hence, spirit, cast off thine earthy +mould!” he cried, gazing upwards: and at the word, I beheld him fall free +of all bodily form, and snatch me up to the vault of heaven, through the +region of thunder and lightning, and all the glowing armouries of the +empyrean; higher, immeasureably higher than I had previously been with +him, and where the earth appeared scarcely wider than a stack-yard. +Having allowed me to rest awhile, he hurried me upwards a myriad miles, +until the sun appeared far beneath us; through the milky way, past +Pleiades, and many other stars of appalling magnitude, catching a distant +glimpse of other worlds. And after journeying for a long time, we come +at last to the confines of the great eternity, in sight of the two courts +of the vauntful King of Death—one to the right, the other to the left, +but very far apart from one another as there lay an immense void between +them. I asked whether I might go and see the court on my right hand, for +I observed that this was not at all like the other I had previously seen. +“Thou shalt perchance,” said he, “see, somewhile, more of the difference +there is between them. But now we must proceed in another direction.” +At that we turned away from the little world, and across the intervening +space we let ourselves descend into the Eternal Realm between the two +courts, into the formless void, a boundless tract, most deep and dark, +chaotic and uninhabited, at one time cold, at another hot, {69} now +silent, now resounding with the roaring of cataracts falling and +quenching the fires, and anon of the fire bursting out and burning up the +water. Thus, there was neither order nor completeness, nor life nor +form: nought but this dazing dissonance, this mysterious stupor which +would have made me for ever blind, had not my friend laid bare once more +his vesture of heavenly sheen. By the light he gave I saw before me to +the left the Land of Oblivion, and the borders of the Wilds of +Destruction; and to my right, methought, the base of the ramparts of +Glory. “This is the great abysm between Abraham and Dives,” said he, +“which is called Chaos: this is the land of the matter which God did +first create, and here is the seed of every living thing; of these the +Almighty Word created your world and all it doth contain—water, fire, +air, earth, beasts, fishes, insects, birds and the human body; but your +souls are of a higher and nobler origin and stock.” + +Through the huge, frightful chaos we at length broke forth to the left; +and ere we had journey’d far therein where every object grew uglier and +uglier, I felt my heart in my throat, and my hair erect like a hedgehog’s +bristles, even before perceiving anything; but what I did perceive was a +sight no tongue can describe nor the mind of a mortal dwell upon. I +fainted. Oh, that limitless abyss, so dire and terrible, opening out +upon another world! How those awful flames crackled incessantly as they +darted upwards above the banks of the accursed ravine, and the shafts of +impetuous lightning rent the thick, black smoke which the yawning chasm +belched forth! When my beloved companion awoke me, he gave me ambrosial +water to drink, of most excellent flavor and color. After drinking this +heavenly water I felt some wonderful power within me,—wit, courage, +faith, and many other divine virtues. Thereupon I drew nigh with him +unfearingly to the edge of the precipice, shrouded in the veil, whilst +the flames parted asunder around us, and dared not touch denizens of the +supernal regions. Then from the edge of that dread gulf, we let +ourselves descend, like two stars falling from the canopy of heaven, +down, down for myriad millions of miles, over many sulphurous rocks, and +many a hideous cataract and fiery precipice, where all things bent +downwards ever, with impending aspect; yet they all avoided us, except +when once I poked my nose out of the veil, there struck me such a +stifling and choking stench as would have ended me had he not saved me +out of hand with the reviving water. When I had recovered, I could see +that we were come to a halt, for in all that stupenduous chasm no sooner +stay were possible, so sheer and slippery was it. There my Guide allowed +me once more to rest; and during that respite it chanced that the thunder +and the fierce whirlwinds were a little hushed, and above the roar of the +foaming cataracts, {71} I could hear from afar, louder than all, the +noise of such awful shrieks, wails, cries, and loud groans, of swearing, +cursing and blaspheming, that I would rather have set a bargain upon my +ears than listen. And before we had moved an inch, we heard from above +such _hip-drip-drop_ that had we not straightway stepped aside, there +would have fallen upon us hundreds of unhappy men whom a host of fiends +were hurling headlong, and too hurriedly to a woful fate. “Ho, slowly +sir!” quoth one sprite, “lest you displace your curly lock;” and to +another “Madam, will you have your soft cushion? I fear me you will be +much disordered before you reach your resting-place.” + +The strangers were most reluctant to advance, insisting that they were on +the wrong road; still, onward they went, up to the bank of a wide, dark +torrent, whilst we followed in their wake and crossed over with them, my +companion, meanwhile, holding the water to my nostrils to protect me from +the stench rising out of the river. When I beheld some of the +inhabitants (for till now I had not seen a single devil, though I had +heard their voices) I asked: “What, pray, my Guide, is the name of this +death-like stream?” “The river of the Evil One,” answered he, “wherein +all his subjects are immersed to render them accustomed to the country; +its cursed waters changed their countenance, washing away every relic of +goodness, every shadow of hope and happiness.” And on seeing the horde +pass through, I could perceive no difference in loathsomeness between the +devils and the damned. Some wished to crouch at the bottom of the river, +there to remain in suffocation to all eternity, rather than find further +on a worse dwelling; but as the proverb says: “He whom the devil urges +must run,” so these damned beings, thrust on by the demons, were swiftly +borne along the stream of destruction to their eternal ruin; where I too +saw at the first glimpse more tortures and torments than man’s heart can +imagine, far less a tongue repeat; to see one of which was enough to +cause one’s hair to stand on an end, his blood to freeze, his flesh to +melt, his bones to give way, yea and his spirit to swoon within him. Why +speak I of such deeds as the impaling or sawing of men alive, the tearing +of the flesh in pieces with iron pincers or the broiling of it, chop by +chop, with candles, or the jambing of skulls as flat as a slate, in a +press, and all the most frightful degradation the earth ever witnessed? +All such are but pleasures compared with one of these. Here, a million +shrieks, harsh groans and deep sighs; there, fierce lamentations and loud +cries in answer: the howling of dogs were sweet, delightful music +compared with these voices. Before we had gone far from the shores of +that accursed river into wild Perdition, we could see by the light of +their own fire, here and there, men and women without number, whom a +countless host of devils unceasingly and with all their might kept always +torturing; and as the devils were shrieking from the intensity of their +own suffering, they made the damned give response to the utmost. I +observed the part nearest me more minutely: there, the devils with +pitchforks hurled them head foremost upon poisonous hatchels formed of +terrible, barbed darts, thereon to struggle by their brains; then +shortly, they threw them together, layer on layer, upon the summit of one +of the burning crags, there to blaze like a bonfire. Thence they were +snatched away up the ravines amidst the eternal ice and snow; {73} then +plunged again into an enormous flood of seething brimstone to be parched, +stifled, and choked by the direful stench; thence to a quagmire of +vermin, to embrace hellish reptiles far more noxious than serpents or +vipers. After that the devils took knotted rods of fiery steel from the +furnace, wherewith they beat them so that their howls resounded +throughout all Hell, so inexpressibly excruciating was the pain, and then +they seized hot irons to sear the bloody wounds. No swoon or trance is +there to beguile with a moment’s respite, but an unchanging strength to +suffer and to feel; though one would have thought that after one awful +wail there never could be the strength to raise another as weirdly-loud; +yet never will their key be lowered, with the devils ever answering: +“This is your welcome for aye.” And worse, were it possible, than the +pain, was the scorn and bitterness of the devils’ mockery and derision, +but worst of all, their own conscience was now thoroughly awakened, and +devoured them more relentlessly than a thousand infernal lions. + +Still down we go, down afar—the further we go the worse the plight; at +the first view I saw a horrid prison wherein a great many men were +uttering blasphemous groans beneath the scourges of the devils: “Who are +all these?” asked I; “This,” answered the Angel, “this is the abode of +Woe-that-I-had-not.” “Woe that I had not been cleansed of all manner of +sin in good time,” quoth one. “Woe is me that I had not believed and +repented before my coming here,” quoth another. Next to the cell of +Too-late-a-repentance, and of Pleading-after-judgment, was the prison of +the Procrastinators, who were always promising to mend their ways, but +who never fulfilled the promise. “When this trouble is past,” saith one, +“I will turn over a new leaf.” “When this hinderance goes by, I’ll be +another man yet,” said another. But when that comes about, they are no +nearer; some other obstacle ever and anon occurs to preventing their +starting towards the gate of holiness; and if sometimes a start is made, +it takes but little to turn them back again. Next to these was the +prison of Presumption, full of those who, whenever they were urged of old +to be rid of their Wantonness, or drunkenness, or avarice, would say: +“God is merciful, and better than His word; He will never damn his own +creature upon a cause so trivial.” But here they yelped blasphemy, +asking: “Where is that mercy boasted to be infinite?” “Silence, ye +whelps!” said a huge, crabbed devil who heard them, “Silence! would he +have mercy who did nought to obtain it? Would ye that Truth should make +its word a lie, merely to gain the company of dross so vile as ye? Was +too much mercy shewn you, a Saviour, a Comforter given you, and the +angels, books, sermons and good examples? Will ye not cease plaguing us +now, prating of mercy where it never was.” + +While making our exit from this glaring pit, I heard one moaning and +crying dolefully: “I knew no better; no pains were ever taken to teach me +to read my duties, nor could I spare the time to read and pray whereof I +had need in order to earn bread for myself and my poor family.” +“Indeed,” quoth a crookback devil who stood close at hand, “hadst thou no +leisure to tell merry tales, no idle roasting before thy fire through the +long winter evenings when I was up the chimney, so that no time might +have been given to learning to read or pray? What of thy Sabbaths? Who +was it that was wont to accompany me to the alehouse rather than the +parson to the church? How many a Sunday afternoon was spent in vain, +noisy talk of worldly things, or in sleeping, instead of in learning to +meditate and pray? Didst thou act according to thy knowledge? Silence, +sirrah, with thy lying chatter!” “Thou raving bloodhound!” exclaimed the +condemned, “’tis not long since thou wert whispering other words in mine +ear; hadst thou said this another day, it is not likely I would have come +hither.” “Ah!” said the devil, “it matters not that we tell you the +hateful truth here; for there is no fear of your returning hence now to +carry tales.” + +Lower down I could see a deep, valley whence arose the bluish glare of +what seemed to be a countless number of enormous, burning mounds; and +after drawing nigh, I knew by their howling that they were men piled +mountains high with terrible flames crackling through them. “That +hollow,” said the Angel, “is the abode of those who after committing some +heinous deeds, exclaim: ‘Well, I am not the first—I have plenty of +companions,’ and thus thou see’st they have plenty, to verify their words +and add to their affliction.” Opposite this was a large cellar where I +saw men tortured just as withes are twisted or wet sheets wrung. “Who, +prithee, are these?” asked I. “They are the Mockers,” said he, “and the +devils from pure derision essay to find whether they can be twisted as +pliantly as their tales.” A little below, but scarcely visible, was +another gloomy dungeon-cell, wherein was what had once been men, but now +with the faces of wolf-hounds, up to their lips in a morass, madly +howling blasphemy and lies as often as they got their tongues clear of +the mire. Just then a legion of devils passed by, and some attempted to +bite the heels of ten or twelve of the devils that had brought them +there: “Woe and ruin take you, ye hell-hounds!” exclaimed one of the +bitten devils, at the same time stamping upon the quagmire until they +sank in the reeking depths. “Who more deserving of hell than ye, who +gossipped and imagined all manner of tales, who retailed lies from house +to house so that ye might laugh, after setting the entire neighbourhood +at war? What more would one of us have done?” “This,” said the Angel, +“is the abode of the slanderers, defamers and backbiters, and of all +envious cowards who always do hurt in word or deed behind one’s back.” + +From thence we went past an enormous lair, the vilest I had yet seen, and +the fullest of vermin, of soot, and of stench. “This,” said he, “is the +place of those who hoped for heaven because they were harmless, in other +words, because they were neither good nor bad.” Next to this foul pit I +saw a great multitude sitting down, whose groans were more fierce than +anything I had heard hitherto in hell. “Save us all!” cried I, “what +makes these complain more than all others, seeing there be no pain, nor +demon near them?” “Ah,” answered the Angel, “if the pain without is +less, that which is within is more,—here are stubborn heretics, the +godless and unchristian, many of the worldy-wise, of apostates, of the +persecutors of the church, and millions such as they, who have utterly +been given over to the more bitterly painful punishment of the +conscience, which now without let or ceasing has its full sway over them. +“I will not this time,” quoth conscience, “be drowned in beer, or blinded +by rewards, or deafened by song and good company, or hushed or stupified +by a thoughtless torpor; now I will be heard, and never shall the truth, +the stinging truth, cease dinning in your ears.” The will creates a +desire for the lost paradise, the memory reproaches them with the ease +wherewith it might have been gained, and the reason shews the greatness +of the loss, and the certainty that nought awaits them but this +unspeakable gnawing for ever and ever; so by these three means, +conscience rends them more terribly than would all the devils in hell. + +Coming out of that wondrous defile, I heard much talking, and for every +word such wild horse-laughter as if some five hundred devils would shed +their horns with laughing. But after I had drawn near to behold the very +rare sight of a smile in hell, what was it but two gentlemen, lately +arrived, appealing for the respect due to their rank, and the merriment +was intended only to give affront to them. A pot-bellied squire stood +there with an enormous roll of parchment, his genealogical chart, +declaring from how many of the Fifteen Tribes of Gwynedd he had sprung, +how many justices of the peace, and how many sheriffs there had been of +his house. “Ha ha,” cried one of the devils, “we know the merit of most +of your forebears, were you like your father, or great-great-grandsire, +we would not have deigned to touch you. But thou, thou art but the heir +of utter darkness, vile whelp, thou art hardly worth a night’s lodging; +and yet thou shalt have some nook to await the dawn.” And at the word +the impetuous monster pierces him with his pitchfork, and after whirling +him thirty times through the fiery welkin, hurled him into a hole out of +sight. “That is right enough for a half-blood squire,” said the other, +“but I hope ye will be better mannered towards a knight who has served +the king in person; twelve earls and fifty knights can I recount from +mine own ancient line.” “If thine ancestors, and thy long pedigree are +all thy plea, thou canst go the same gate,” quoth a devil, “for we +remember scarce one old estate of large extent which some oppressor, some +murderer or robber has not founded, leaving it to others as arrant as +they, to idle blockheads or to drunken swine. To maintain lavish pomp, +they had to grind their vassals and tenants, and if there be a beautiful +pony or a fine cow which my lady covets, she will have them, and well it +happens if the daughters, yea, even the wives, escape the lust of their +lord. And the small free-holders around them must either vainly follow +or give bail for them, resulting in their own ruin, the loss of their +possessions, and the sale of their patrimony, or expect to be hated and +despised, and forced to every idle pursuit. Oh how nobly they swear to +gain the confidence of their minions or of their tradesmen, and when +decked out in their finery, how contemptuously they look upon many an +officer of importance in church and state, as if such were mere worms +compared with them. Woe’s me, is not all blood of one color? Was it not +the same way that ye all entered the world?” “For all that, craving your +pardon,” said the knight, “there are some births purer than others.” +“For the great doom all your carcases are the same,” said the imp, +“everyone of you is defiled by the sin that took its origin in Adam.” +“But, sir,” continued he, “if your blood is aught better than another, +the less scum will there be when shortly it will be bubbling through your +body, and if there be more, we must examine you, part by part, through +fire and through water.” Thereupon, a devil in the shape of a fiery +chariot receives him, and the other mockingly lifts him thereinto, and +away he goes with the speed of lightning. Ere long the angel bade me +look, and I saw the poor knight most horribly sodden in an enormous +boiling furnace with Cain, Nimrod, Esau, Tarquin, Nero, Caligula, and +others who first established lineage, and emblazoned family arms. + +After wending our way onward a little, my guide bade me peer through a +riven wall, and within I saw a group of coquetts busily primming up, +doing and undoing the deeds of folly they were formerly wont to do on +earth; some puckering their lips, some plucking their eyebrows with +irons, some anointing themselves, some patching their faces with black +spots to make the yellow look whiter, and some endeavouring to crack the +mirror; and after all the pains to color and adorn, upon seeing their +faces far uglier than the devils’, they would tear away with tooth and +nail all the false coloring, the spots, the skin and the flesh all at +once, and would shriek most dismally. “Accursed be my father,” said one, +“it was he who forced me when a girl to wed an old shrivelling, and it +was his kindling my desires with no power to satiate them, that doomed me +to this place.” “A thousand curses on my parents,” cried another, “for +sending me to a monastery to be taught to live a life of chastity; they +might as well have sent me to a Roundhead to learn how to be generous, or +to a Quaker to be taught good manners, as to a Papist to be taught +honesty.” “Fell ruin seize my mother,” shrieked a third, “whose covetous +pride refused me a husband at my need, and so drove me to obtain by +stealth what I might have honestly obtained.” “Hell, a double hell to +the raging bull of a nobleman who first tempted me,” cried another, “had +he not by fair and foul broken through all bounds, I would not have +become a common chattel, nor would I have come to this infernal place;” +and then would they lacerate themselves again. + +I made all haste to leave their loathsome kennel, but I had not proceeded +far before I observed, to my astonishment, another prison full of women, +still more abominable; some had become frogs; some, dragons; some, +serpents, and there they swam about, hissing and foaming, and butting one +another, in a fœtid, stagnant pool that was much larger than Bala Lake. +“Pray, what can these be?” asked I. “There are here,” said he, “four +chief classes of women, not to mention their minions—_Firstly_: Panders, +who maintained harlots to sell their virginity an hundred times, and the +worst of these around them. _Secondly_: Mistresses of gossip, surrounded +by thousands of tale-bearing hags. _Thirdly_: Huntresses followed by a +pack of cowardly, skulking hounds, for no man ever dared approach them, +unless in fear of them. _Fourthly_: The scolds, become a hundredfold +more horrid than snakes, always grinding and gnashing their venomous +stings.” “I would have deemed Lucifer too gracious a monarch to place a +noble lady of my rank with these vulgar furies,” complained one, who much +resembled the others, but was far more hideous than a winged serpent. +“Oh, that he would send hither seven hundred of the basest demons of hell +in exchange for thee, thou poisonous hellworm,” cried another ugly viper. +“Many thanks to you,” quoth a gigantic devil, overhearing them, “we +regard our place and worth as something better; though ye would cause +everyone as much pain as we, yet we do not choose to be deprived of our +office in your favor.” “And Lucifer hath another reason,” whispered the +Angel, “for keeping strict guard over these, and that is, lest on +breaking loose, they might send all hell into utter confusion.” + +Thence we still descended until I saw an immense cavern wherein was such +fearful clamor that I had never heard the like before—swearing, cursing, +blaspheming, snarling, groaning and yelling. “Whom have we here?” I +asked. “This,” answered he, “is the Den of Thieves; here are myriads of +foresters, lawyers and stewards, with old Judas in their midst.” And it +grieved them sorely to behold a pack of tailors and weavers above them in +a more comfortable chamber. Hardly had I turned round when a demon, in +the shape of a steed, bore in a physician, and an apothecary, and hurled +them into the midst of the pedlars and horse cheats, because they had +sold worthless drugs. And they too began murmuring against being +allotted to such low society. “Stay, stay,” cried one of the devils, “ye +deserve a better place,” and he pitched them down amongst conquerors and +murderers. There were vast numbers in here for playing false dice and +cheating at cards, but before I had time to observe them closely, I could +hear by the door a huge crowd in wild tumult and shouts—_hai_, _hw_, +_ptrw-how-ho-o-o-p_—as of cattle being driven along. I turned round to +see the cause of it, but could perceive only the hornèd demons. I +enquired of my Guide if there were cuckolds with the devils. “No,” said +he, “they are in another cell; these are drovers who wished to escape to +the prison of the Sabbath-breakers, and are sent here against their +will.” Thereupon I look and saw that they had on their heads the horns +of sheep and kine; and those that were driving them on, cast them down +beneath the feet of blood-stained robbers. “Lie there,” said one, +“however much ye feared footpads on the London road erstwhile, ye +yourselves were the very worst class of highwaymen, who made your living +on the road and on robbery, yea and by the perishing of many a poor +family whom ye left in hunger, vainly hoping for the sustenance of their +possessions, while ye were in Ireland or in the King’s Bench laughing at +them, or on the road with your wine and lemans.” On leaving the +furnace-like cave, I caught a glimpse of a haunt, which for loathsome, +stinking abomination, went beyond anything (with one sole exception) that +I had set my eyes upon in hell,—where an accursed herd of drunken swine +lay weltering in the foulest slime. + +The next den was the abode of Gluttony, where Dives and his companions, +wallowing on their bellies, devoured dirt and fire alternately, with +never a drop to drink. A little below this, was a very extensive +roasting-kitchen, where some were being roasted and boiled, others +broiling and flaming in a fiery chimney. “This is the place of the +merciless and the unfeeling,” said the Angel. Turning a little to the +left, where there was a cell lighter than any I had so far seen, I asked +what place it was: “The abode of the Infernal Dragons,” said he, “which +growl and rage, rush about and rend one another every instant.” I drew +near and oh! what an indescribable sight they were! It was the glowing +fire of their eyes that gave all that light. “These are the descendants +of Adam,” said my Guide, “scolds and raving, wrathful men; but yonder are +some of the ancient seed of the great Dragon, Lucifer;” but verily I +could not perceive any difference in loveliness between them. In the +next dungeon dwell the misers in awful torment, being linked by their +hearts to chests of burning coin, the rust of which was consuming them +without end, just as they had never thought of an end to the piling of +them, and now they were tearing themselves to pieces with more than +madness through grief and remorse. Below this was a charnel vault where +some of the apothecaries had been ground down and stuffed into +earthenware pots with _Album graecum_, dung, and many a stale ointment. + +Ever downward we were journeying through the wilderness of ruin, in the +midst of untold and eternal tortures, from cell to cell, from dungeon to +dungeon, the last alway surpassing in monstrous ghastliness, until +finally we came within view of an enormous entrance hall, most unsightly +of all that I had previously seen. It was very spacious and terribly +steep, running in the direction of a gloomy red corner, full of the most +inconceivable abominations and horrors: it was the royal court. At the +upper end of the king’s accursed hall, amidst thousands of other dread +sights, by the light my companion shed, I could see in the darkness two +feet of prodigious size, and so enormous as to overcast the whole +infernal firmament. I inquired of my Guide what such immensities might +be. “Thou shalt have a fuller view of this monster when returning,” said +he, “but, come now, let us to see the court.” As we were going down that +awful entrance hall, we heard behind us the noise as of very many people +advancing; on stepping aside to let them pass I noticed four divers host, +and upon enquiry I learnt that it was the four princesses of the City of +Destruction leading their subjects as an offering to their sire. I +distinguished the troop of the Princess of Pride, not only because they +insisted upon the foremost position, but also because they stumbled now +and then from want of keeping their eyes upon the ground. She led +captive kings without number, princes, courtiers, noblemen and braggarts, +many Quakers, and women innumerable and of all grades. Next to these +came the Princess of Lucre with her sly and crafty followers—a great many +of the brood of Simon Skinflint, money lenders, lawyers, userers, +stewards, foresters, harlots, and some of the clergy. Then came the +gracious Princess of Pleasure and her daughter Folly, leading her +subjects—players of dice, cards and back-gammon, conjurers, bards, +minstrels, storytellers, drunkards, bawds, balladmongers and pedlars with +their trinkets in countless number, to be at length instruments of +punishment to the damned fools. + +When these three had taken their captives into the court to receive +judgment, Hypocrisy, last of all, brings in a more numerous troop than +any of the others, of every nation and age, from town and country, +patrician and plebeian, men and women. In the rear of this double-faced +legion we came within sight of the court; passing through the midst of +many dragons and hornèd demons, and hell’s giants, the dusky porters of +the devil-hunted fire; I, the while, carefully hiding within the veil, we +entered that direful edifice: wonderful, and of amazing roughness was +every part of it; the walls were cruel rocks of burning adamant; the +floor was one unendurable extent of sharp-cutting flint, the roof of +fiery steel, meeting in an arch of greenish and blood-red flames, +similar, except in its size and heat, to a tremendous circular oven. +Opposite the door, upon a flame-encompassed throne sat the Evil One with +the lost archangels around him, seated on benches of terrible fire, +according to the rank they formerly bore in the region of light—the +lovely whelps—it would only be a waste of words to attempt to describe +how atrociously ugly they were, and the longer I gazed upon them, +sevenfold more frightful did they become. In the centre above Lucifer’s +head was a huge hand grasping an awful bolt. The princesses, after +paying their courtesy, immediately returned to their duties on earth. No +sooner had they departed than at the King’s bidding, a gigantic devil +with cavernous jaws set up a roar, louder than the discharge of a hundred +cannon, and as loud, were it possible, as the last trump, to proclaim the +infernal Parliament, and behold, without delay, the court and hall are +filled by the rabble of hell in every shape, each upon the form and image +of that particular sin he was wont to urge upon men. After enjoining +silence, Lucifer, looking steadfastly upon the chieftains nearest him, +began and spake these gracious words:— + +“Ye peers of this profoundest gulf, princes of the hopeless gloom, if we +have lost the place we erst possessed, when, clothed with brightness, we +dwelt in those celestial, happy realms; yet, however great our fall, +’twas glorious, nought less than all did we hazard, nor is all lost—for, +behold regions wide and deep extending to the utmost bounds of desolate +Perdition still ’neath our sway. ’Tis true we reign while racked with +raging torment, yet, for spirits of our majesty, ’tis better to reign in +hell than serve in heaven. {85a} And what is more, we have well nigh won +another world, a greater than a fifth of earth has been for long beneath +my standard. And although our Omnipotent Enemy sent his own Son to die +for them, I, by my pleasing guile, gain ten for every one He gains +through his crucified Son. Though we cannot aspire to do hurt to Him on +high who hurls His all-conquering thunder, yet revenge by whatsoever +means is sweet. {85b} Let us then bring ruin on the rest of men who +adore our Destroyer. Well do I recollect the time when ye caused them, +their armies and their cities, to be consumed in horrible combustion, yea +and caused nigh all the dwellers on the earth to fall through the +whelming waters into this fire. But now, although your strength and +innate cruelty are no whit less, ye have been somewhat listless; were it +not for this, we would have long ago destroyed the godly few, and brought +the earth one with this our vast domain. But know this, ye grim +ministers of my wrath, if ye henceforth be not up and doing, valiantly +and with all haste, seeing the brevity of our alloted time, I swear by +Hell and by Perdition, and by the vast, eternal gloom, that upon you, +yourselves, my ire first shall fall, with pain the like of which the +oldest amongst you hath never proved.” Whereupon he frowned until the +court became sevenfold darker than before. + +Next him, Moloch one of the infernal potentates, stood up, and after +making due obeisance to his king, spake thus:—“Oh Emperor of the Sky, +great ruler of the darkness, none ever doubted my desire to practice +utmost bale and cruelty, for that has always been my pleasure; no sound +was more delightful to mine years than the shrieks of children perishing +in the flames outside Jerusalem, where in former days they were +sacrificed to me. And also after our crucified foe had returned to his +celestial home, I, during the reigns of ten emperors, continued as long +as it availed me, slaying and burning his followers in my attempt to +sweep the Christians off the face of the earth. And afterwards in Paris, +in England, and in several other places, did I cause many a massacre of +them; but what have we gained? The tree whose branches are lopped off +grows but the quicker; we snarl without the power of biting.” + +“Pshaw!” exclaimed Lucifer, “shame! cowardly hosts that ye are! Never +more will I place my trust in you. This work I myself will perform, this +enterprise none shall partake with me. {87} In mine own imperial majesty +will I descend upon the earth, and alone will I devour all therein +contained; henceforth no man shall there be found to worship the Most +High.” Thereon he gave one terrific flying leap to start—a blaze of +living fire, but the hand overhead whirls the terrible dart so that he +trembles notwithstanding his rage, and ere he had gone far, an invisible +hand drags the brute back by the chain for all his struggles; his rage +becomes sevenfold more vehement, his eyes more fierce than dragons, thick +black clouds of smoke issue from his nostrils, livid flames from his +mouth and bowels, while he gnaws his chain in his grief, and mutters +fearful blasphemy and awful oaths. + +At last, finding how futile was his attempt to sunder his bonds and how +unavailing to contend against the Almighty, he returned to his throne and +resumed his speech, in words somewhat more calm, but twice as malignant: +“Though none but the Omnipotent Thunderer could overcome my power and my +guile, to Him I am unwillingly constrained to submit; but I can pour +forth the vials of my wrath here below, nearer at hand, and let loose my +ire upon those who are already under my banner, and within the length of +my chain. Arise, ye too, ministers of destruction, lords of the +unquenchable fires, and as my anger and my venom overflow, and my malice +rush forth, do ye assiduously scatter all broadcast among the damned, and +chiefly among the Christians; urge on the engines of torture to their +uttermost; devise and invent; increase the heat of the fire and the +ebullition, until the hissing flood of the cauldrons overwhelms them; and +when their unutterable woes are extremest, then sneer at them and +mockingly reproach them, and when ye have exhausted all your store of +scorn and gall, hie to me and ye shall be replenished.” + +A great stillness had brooded over hell for some time, while the pains +grew far more unbearable by being given no vent. But now the silence +which Lucifer had enjoined was broken, when the fierce butchers, like +bears maddened by hunger, fell upon their captives; then there arose such +doleful cries, such dismal howling, from every quarter, louder than the +roar of rushing torrents, than the rumble of an earthquake, till hell +itself became ten times more horrible. I would have died, had not my +friend saved me. “Quaff deep this time,” said he, “to give thee strength +to behold things yet more dire.” Hardly were the words from his lips, +when lo! heavenly Justice, who sits above the abyss, guardian of the +gates of Hell, advanced scourging three men with rods of fiery scorpions. +“Ha ha,” cried Lucifer, “here are three reverend gentlemen whom Justice +thought worthy himself to conduct to my kingdom.” “Woe’s me,” said one +of the three, “who ever wanted him to take the trouble?” “That matters +not,” answered he, with a look that made the fiends wax pale, and tremble +so that they knocked one against the other, “it was the will of the +Infinite Creator that I myself should lead to their home such accursed +murderers.” “Sirrah,”—addressing one of the demons,—“open me the fold of +the assassins, where Cain, Nero, Bradshaw, Bonner, Ignatius and +innumerable others like them dwell.” “Alack, alack! we have never slain +any man,” cried one. “No thanks to you that you did not, for time only +was wanting,” said Justice. When the den was opened, there came out such +a hideous blast of blood-red flames, and such a shriek as if a thousand +dragons were uttering their death-wail. As Justice was passing by on his +return, in an instant he caused such a tempest of fiery whirlwinds to +fall upon the Evil One and his princes that Lucifer was swept away, and +with him Beelzebub, Satan, Moloch, Abadon, Asmodai, Dagon, Apolyon, +Belphegor, Mephistopheles, and all their compeers, and they were hurled +headlong into a whirlpool which opened and closed in the centre of the +court and which, both in aspect and in the execrable stench that arose +from it, was a hundredfold more foul and horrid than anything I had ever +seen. Before I could ask aught, quoth the Angel: “This is the gulf that +reaches to another great world.” “What, pray, is that world called?” I +enquired. “’Tis called the bottomless pit or the Nethermost Hell, the +home of the devils, whither they now have gone. And those vast, dreary +wilds, parts of which thou hast traversed, are called the Region of +Despair, ordained for the condemned until the Judgment Day; then it will +become one with the utmost, bottomless Hell; then will one of us come and +seal up the devils and the damned together, never more to open upon them, +never to all eternity. In the meantime they have leave to come to this +colder country to torment lost souls. Yea, often are they suffered to +wander through the air, and about the earth, to tempt men into the +pernicious ways that lead to this horrible prison whence no man returns.” + +While listening to this account, and wondering that the entrance of +Perdition should differ so from that of the Upper Hell, I heard the +tremendous clash of arms, and the roar of artillery, from one quarter, +and what seemed like loud-rumbling thunder answering from another +quarter, while the deadly rocks resounded. “This is the turmoil of war!” +I cried, “if there be war in hell.” “There is,” said he, “there cannot +be but continuous warfare here.” When we were on the point of going out +to know of the affair, I beheld the jaws of the Pit open and belch forth +thousands of hideous, greenish candles—for such had Lucifer and his +chiefs become after surviving the tempest. But when he heard the din of +war he turned more livid than Death, and began to call out, and levy +armies of his proven veterans to suppress the tumult. While thus +occupied he came across a little imp, who had escaped between the feet of +the warriors. “What is the matter?” demanded the King. “Such a matter +as will endanger your crown, an you look not to it.” Close upon this +one’s heels another devilish courier in a harsh voice cries: “You that +plan the disquietude of others, look now to your own peace; yonder are +the Turks, the Papists and the murderous Roundheads in three armies, +filling the whole plain of Darkness, committing every outrage and turning +everything topsy-turvey.” “How came they out?” demanded the Evil One, +frowning more terribly than Demigorgon. “The Papists,” said the +messenger, “somehow or other broke out of their purgatory, and then, to +pay off old scores, went to unhinge the portals of Mahomet’s paradise, +and let loose the Turks from their prison, and afterwards in the +confusion, through some ill chance, Cromwell’s crew escaped from their +cells.” Then Lucifer turned and peered beneath his throne, where every +damned king lay, and commanded that Cromwell himself should be kept +secure in his kennel, and that all the sultans should be guarded. +Accordingly, Lucifer and his host hurried across the sombre wilds of +darkness, each one’s own person furnishing light and heat; guided by the +tumultuous clangor he marched fearlessly upon them. Silence was +proclaimed in the King’s name, and Lucifer demanded the cause of such +uproar in his realm. “May it please your infernal majesty,” said +Mahomet, “a quarrel arose between myself and Pope Leo as to which had +done you the better service—my Koran or the Romish religion; and when +this was going on a pack of Roundheads, who had broken out of their +prison during the disorder, joined in and clamoured that their Solemn +League and Covenant deserved more respect at your hands than either; so, +from striving to striking from words to blows. But now, since your +majesty hath returned from hell, I lay the matter for your decision.” +“Stay, we’ve not done with you yet,” cried Pope Julius, and madly they +engage once more, tooth and nail, until the strokes clashed like +earthquakes; the three armies of the damned tore each other piecemeal, +and like snakes became whole again, and spread far and wide over the +jagged, burning crags, until Lucifer bade his veterans, the giants of +Hell, separate them, which indeed was no easy task. + +When the conflict ceased, Pope Clement spake—“Thou Emperor of Horrors, no +throne has ever performed more faithful and universal service to the +infernal crown than have the bishops of Rome, throughout a large portion +of the world, for eleven centuries, and I hope you will allow none to vie +with them for your favor.” “Well,” said a Scotch-man of Cromwell’s gang, +“however great has been the service of the Koran for these eight hundred +years, and of popish superstitions for a longer period, yet the Covenant +has done far more since its appearance, and everyone begins to doubt the +others and be weary of them, but we are still increasing, the wide world +over, and have much power in the island of your foes, that is, in Britain +and in London, the happiest city under the sun.” “Ha ha,” exclaimed +Lucifer, “if I hear rightly ye too are about to suffer disgrace there. +But whatever ye may have done in other kingdoms, I will have none of your +rioting in mine. Wherefore make your peace forthwith under the penalty +of more woes, bodily and spiritual.” And at the word I could see many of +the fiends and all the damned, with their tails between their hoofs, +steal away to their holes in fear of a change for the worse. + +Then after ordering all to be locked up in their lairs, and punishing and +dismissing the officers whose carelessness had allowed them to break +loose, Lucifer and his counsellors returned to the court, and sat once +more upon the fiery thrones, according to their rank; and when silence +had been obtained, and the court cleared, a burly, lob-shouldered devil +threw down at the bar a fresh load of prisoners. “Is this the way to +Paradise?” asked one (for they had no idea where they were). “Or if this +be Purgatory,” said another, “I have a dispensation under the Pope’s own +signet to pass straight on to Paradise, without a moment’s delay +anywhere; wherefore show us the way, or by the Pope’s toe, we will have +him punish you.” “Ha ha,” laughed a thousand demons, and Lucifer himself +opened his tusked jaws some half a yard in scornful laughter. At which +the new comers were sore amazed. “Look ye,” said one, “if we have missed +our way in the dark, we will pay for guidance.” “Ha ha,” cried Lucifer, +“ye shall not hence till ye have paid the uttermost farthing.” But on +searching them it was found that they had one and all left their trouser +behind. “Ye went past Paradise on the left above those mountains there,” +said the Evil One, “and although it is easy to descend hither, to return +is next to impossible, so dark and intricate is the country, so many +steep ascents of flaming iron are there on the way, and huge imminent +rocks, overhanging glaciers of insurmountable ice, and here and there, a +headlong cataract, all too difficult to clamber over, if ye have not +nails as long as a devil’s. Ho there! convey these blockheads to our +paradise to their companions.” Just then I heard voices drawing nigh, +swearing and cursing fearfully. “Fiends’ blood! a myriad devils seize me +if ever I go!” and immediately the noisy crew were cast down before the +court. “There,” exclaimed the steed that bore them, “there is fuel with +the best in hell.” “What are they?” asked Lucifer. “Past masters in the +gentle art of swearing and cursing,” said he, “who knew the language of +hell as well as we do.” “A lie to your face, i’ the devil’s name!” cried +one. “Sirrah! wilt take my name in vain?” said the Evil One. “Ho, seize +them and hook them by their tongues, to that burning precipice, and be at +hand to serve them; if on one devil they call, or on a thousand, they +shall have their fill.” + +When these had departed, a gigantic fiend calls loudly for clearing the +bar, and throws down thereat a man who was a load in himself. “What hast +thou there?” demanded Lucifer. “An innkeeper,” answered he. “What?” +cried the King, “only one innkeeper, when they used to come by the +thousands. Hast thou, sirrah, not been out for ten years, and dost bring +hither but one, and such an one as would serve us in the world better +than thee, foul lazy hound!” “You are too just to condemn me before +hearing me,” pleaded he, “he was the only one laid to my charge, and now +I am rid of him. But I despatched you from his house many an idler who +drank his family’s maintenance, and now and then a dicer, and card +player, a fine swearer, an innocent glutton, a negligent tapster and a +maid, harsh in the kitchen, but never a kinder abed or in the cellar.” +“Although this fellow deserves to be with the flatterers beneath,” said +the Evil One, “natheless take him to his comrades in the cell of the +liquid-poisoners, among the apothecaries and drugsters who have concocted +drinks to murder their customers; boil him well for that he did not brew +better beer.” “By your leave,” began the innkeeper tremblingly, “I +deserve no such treatment, the trade must be carried on.” “Couldst thou +not have lived,” quoth the Evil One, “without allowing rioting and +gambling, wantonness and drunkenness, oaths and quarrels, slanders and +lies? and wouldst thou, old hell-hound, now live better than we? +Prithee, tell what evil have we here which thou hadst not at thine home, +save the punishment alone? Indeed, to speak the plain truth here, the +infernal heat and cold are nothing new to thee. Hast thou not seen +sparks of our fire upon the tongues of the cursers and the scolds, whilst +dragging their husbands home? Was there not a deal of the undying flame +on the drunkard’s lips or in the eyes of the angry? And couldst thou not +perceive a trace of hellish cold in the rake’s generosity, and especially +in thine own kindness towards him as long as he had anything in his +possession; in the mocker’s jest; in the praise of the envious and of the +defamer, in the promises of the lecherous, or in the limbs of thy boon +companions, benumbed beneath thy tables? Is hell strange to thee whose +very home is a hell? Aroint thee, flamhound, to thy penance!” + +After that ten devils, panting heavily, drop their burdens upon the fiery +floor. “What have ye?” asked Lucifer. “We have what a day or two ago +were called kings,” answered one of the fiendish steeds. (I sought +carefully to see whether Lewis of France were among them.) “Throw them +here,” bade the King; and at that they were thrown amongst the other +crowned heads that lay beneath Lucifer’s feet; and following the monarchs +came their courtiers and their flatterers to receive sentence. Before I +had time to ask any question, I heard the blast of brazen trumpets and +shouts. “Make way, make way,” and at once there came in view a herd of +assize-men and devils bearing the train of six justices, and millions of +their race—barristers, {95a} attorneys, clerks, recorders, bailiffs, +catchpolls, and the litigous busybody. I wondered that none of them was +examined; but in truth, they knew the matter had gone too far against +them, so none of the learned counsels opened their lips, but the busybody +threatened that he would bring an action for false imprisonment against +Lucifer. “Thou shalt have good cause of complaint now,” said the Evil +One, “and never see a court at all.” Then he donned his red cap, and +with unbearable, haughty mien, said: “Go, take the justices to the hall +of Pontius Pilate, to Master Bradshaw, who condemned King Charles; pack +the barristers with the assassins of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, {95b} and +their other false co-partners who simulate mutual contention, merely in +order to slay whomsoever might interpose. Go, greet that prudent lawyer, +who, when dying offered a thousand pounds for a good conscience, and ask +whether he is now willing to give more. Roast the lawyers by the fire of +their own parchments and papers till their learned bowels burst forth; +let the litigous busybodies hang above them with their nostrils deepest +down the roasting chimneys, in order to inhale the noxious vapors arising +thence, to see if they will ever get their fill of law. Throw the +recorders amongst the retailers who prevent or forestall the sale of +corn, who mix it and sell the mixture at double the price of the pure +corn: similarly, they demand for wrong double the fees formerly given for +right. As to the catchpolls, let them free to hunt about and lie in the +ravines and bushes of the earth, to capture those that are debtors to the +infernal crown; for what devil of you could do the work better than +they?” + +Shortly there appear twenty demons, like Scotch-men, with packs across +their shoulders, which they cast down before the throne of despair, and +which turned out to be gipsies. “Ho there!” cried Lucifer, “how was it +that ye who knew the fortune of others so well, did not know that your +own fortune was leading you hither?” No answer was given, for they were +amazed at seeing here beings uglier than themselves. “Throw the +tan-faced loons to the witches,” bade the King, “there are no cats or +rush-lights here for them, but divide a frog between them every ten +thousand years, if they will be quiet and not deafen us with their +barbarous chatter.” + +After them came, methought, thirty labourers. Everybody wondered to see +so many of that honest calling, so seldom did any of them appear; but +they did not all come from the same parts nor for like faults—some for +raising prices, many for withholding their tithes, and defrauding the +parson of his dues, others for leaving their work to follow after the +gentry, and who in trying to stride along with their masters, strained +themselves, some for doing work on the Sabbath, some for thinking of +their sheep and kine in church, instead of giving attention to the +reading of Holy Writ, and others for wrongful bargains. When Lucifer +began to question them, lo! they were all as pure as gold, and not one of +them found anything amiss in himself so as to deserve such a dwelling +place. One can scarcely believe what neat excuses each one had to hide +his sin, although they were already in hell for it, offering them merely +out of evil disposition to thwart Lucifer and to accuse the righteous +Judge, who had condemned them, of injustice. But it was still more +astonishing to see how cleverly the Evil One exposed their foul sins, and +how he answered with a home-thrust their false excuses. When these were +about to receive their infernal doom, forty scholars were borne forward +by porpoise-shaped fiends, uglier, if possible, than Lucifer himself. +And when they heard the labourers pleading, they too waxed bold to give +excuses, but what ready answers the old Serpent had for them with all +their knavery and learning! As it happened that I heard similar pleas in +another court of justice I will hereafter recount them together, and now +proceed with what I saw in the meantime. + +Lucifer had barely pronounced their sentence—that they should be driven +to the great glacier in the land of eternal ice, a doom that set their +teeth a-gnashing, even before they saw their prison, when suddenly, hell +again most marvellously resounded with the crash of terrible bolts, with +loud-rolling thunder, and with every noise of war. Lucifer loured and +grew pale; in a moment, there flew in a wry-footed imp, panting and +trembling. “What is the matter?” cried Lucifer. “A matter fraught with +the greatest peril for you since hell is hell,” said the dwarf, “all the +ends of the kingdom of darkness have risen up against you and against +each other, especially those between whom there was longstanding enmity, +who are already locked together fang to fang, so that it is impossible to +pull them apart. Soldiers have attacked the doctors for taking away +their trade of slaughter; a myriad userers have fallen upon the lawyers, +for claiming a share in the business of robbery; the busybodies and the +swindlers are tearing the gentlemen, limb-meal, for unnecessary swearing +and cursing, whereby they gained their living. Harlots and their +minions, and a million other old friends and former comrades have fallen +out with one another irreconcilably. But worst of all is the fray raging +between the misers and their own offspring, for wasting the goods and +money which, the old pinchfists aver, ‘cost us much pain on earth, and +here endless anguish.’ Their sons, on the other hand, cursing and +rending them outrageously, call for eternal ruin upon their heads for +leaving overmuch wealth to madden them with pride and riotous living, +when a little, under the blessing of heaven, would have rendered them +happy in both worlds.” “Enough, enough,” cried Lucifer, “there is more +need of arms than words. Return, sirrah, and play the spy in every watch +to find the where and why of this great negligence, for there’s some +treachery in the air we wot not of as yet.” The imp departed at his +bidding, and in the meantime Lucifer and his compeers arose in terror and +exceeding fear, and ordered the levying of the bravest armies of the +black angels; and having disposed them, he himself started foremost to +quell the rebellion, his chieftains and their hosts going other ways. +The royal army, like shafts of lightning across the hideous gloom, +advanced (and we in their rear); ere long the uproar falls upon their +ears; a fiendish bellower cries, “Silence, in the King’s name!” to no +purpose, it would be an easier task to hale apart old beavers than one of +these. But when Lucifer’s veterans dashed into their midst, the growls, +and blows, and battering lessened. “Silence in Lucifer’s name!” roared +the devil a second time. “What is this,” demanded the King, “and who are +these?” “Nothing, sire, but that in the general confusion, the drovers +came across the cuckolds, and set a-butting to prove whose horns were the +harder; it might have turned out seriously, had not your horned giants +joined in the affray.” “Well,” said Lucifer, “since ye are all so ready +with your arms, come with me to trounce the other rebels.” But when the +rumour reached these that Lucifer was approaching with three horned +armies, everyone made for his lair. + +So he marched on across the desolate plains unresisted, and seeking in +vain the cause of the revolt. After a while, however, one of the King’s +spies returns, quite out of breath: “Most noble, Lucifer! Moloch, your +prince, hath subdued part of the North, and hath cut thousands to pieces +upon the glaciers, but there are three or four dangerous evils still +threatening you.” “Whom meanest thou?” asked Lucifer. “The Slanderer, +the Busybody, and the Lawmonger, have broken out of their prisons and got +free.” “No wonder then,” said the Evil One, “if further troubles arise.” +Then there comes another spy from the South, informing that matters would +soon reach a dire pass in that quarter if the three who had already +thrown the West into utter confusion be not taken, namely, the Huntress, +the Rogue and the Swaggerer. “Since the day I tempted Adam from his +garden,” said Satan, who stood next but one to Lucifer, “I have never +seen so many evils of his race at liberty together. The Huntress, the +Swaggerer, the Rogue, on the one hand, and on the other, the Slanderer, +the Lawmonger and the Busybody—a mixture would make devils reach.” +“Little wonder, verily,” said Lucifer, “that they were so much hated by +all on earth, seeing that they are capable of causing such trouble to us +here.” Not long after, the Huntress comes to meet the King upon the way. +“Ho! grandam o’ the breeches,” cries a shrill-voiced demon, “good night +to you.” “Thy grandam on which side, prithee?” said she, displeased +because he did not “madam” her. “You are a fine king, Lucifer, to keep +such impudent rascals about you; a thousand pities that such a vast realm +should be under so impotent a ruler; would that I might be made its +regent.” Then comes the Swaggerer, nodding in the dark—“Your humble +servant, sir,” saith he to one, over his shoulder; “Are you quite well?” +to another; “Can I be of any service to you?” addressing a third, with a +leering smirk, and to the Huntress: “Your beauty quite fascinates me, +madam.” “Oh oh,” cried she, “away with the hell-hound;” and all join in +the shout: “Away with this new tormentor, hell on hell that he is!” “Let +both be bound together hand and foot,” commanded Lucifer. Soon after the +Lawmonger comes on the scene between two devils. “Ho, ho, thou angel of +peace,” exclaimed Lucifer, “hast thou come? Keep him safe, guards, at +your peril!” Before we had gone far, the Rogue and the Slanderer +appeared, chained between forty devils, and whispering to one another. +“Most noble Lucifer,” began the Rogue, “I am very sorry there is so much +disturbance in your kingdom; but if I may be heard, I will teach you a +better method. Under the pretence of holding a Parliament, you can cite +all the damned into the burning Evildom, and then bid the devils hurl +them headlong to bottomless perdition, and lock them up in its vortex, to +trouble you no more.” “But the Common Meddler is still missing,” said +Lucifer, frowning most darkly at the Rogue. When we reached once more +the entrance of the infernal court, who should come straight to meet the +King but the Busybody. “Ah, your majesty, I have a word with you.” “And +I have one or two with you, peradventure,” said the Evil One. “I have +been over the half of Hell,” said he, “to see how your affairs went. You +have many officers in the East who are remiss, and take their ease +instead of attending to the torturing of their prisoners and to their +safe keeping; it was this that gave rise to the great rebellion. And +moreover many of your fiends, and of the lost whom you sent to the world +to tempt men, have not returned, although their time is up, and others +have come, but hide rather than give an account of their doings.” + +Then commanded Lucifer his herald to summon a second Parliament, and in +the twinkling of an eye all the potentates and their officers were again +in attendance at their infernal _Eisteddfod_. The first thing done was +to change the officers, and to order a place to be made round the mouth +of the pit for the Swaggerer and the Huntress, linked face to face, and +for the other rebels, bound topsy-turvy together; and a law was published +that whosoever of the demons or of the damned thenceforth transgressed +his duty should be thrown into their midst till doomsday. At these words +all the fiends and even Lucifer himself trembled and were sore perturbed. +Then next came the trial of the devils and the lost who had been sent to +earth to find “associates and co-partners of their loss;” the devils gave +a clear account, but the statement of the damned was so hazy and +uncertain, that they were driven to the ever-burning school, and there +scourged with fiery, knotted serpents to teach them their task the +better. “Here’s a wench that’s pretty enough when dressed up,” said an +imp, “she was sent up into the world to gain you new subjects; and whom +should she first tempt but a weary ploughman, homeward wending his way, +late from his toils, who, instead of succumbing to her wiles, went on his +knees praying to be saved from the devil and his angels.” “Ho there!” +cried Lucifer, “throw her to that worthless losel who long ago loved +Einion ab Gwalchmai of Mona.” {102} “Stay, stay,” pleaded the fair one, +“this is but my first offence; there is yet scarcely a year since the day +when all was over with me, when I was condemned to your cursed state, Oh +king of woes!” “No, there is not yet three weeks,” said the demon that +had brought her there. “How therefore,” said she, “would you have me be +as skilled as those lost beings who have been here three or four +centuries hunting their prey? If you desire better service at my hands, +let me go free into the world once more to roam about uncensured; and if +I bring you not twenty adulterers for every year I am out, mete me what +punishment you list.” Nevertheless the verdict went against her, and she +was doomed to live a hundred long years under chastisement, that she +might be more careful a second time. Presently, another devil entered, +pushing to the front a man. “Here is a fine messenger,” he said, “who +wandering the other night in his old neighbourhood above, saw a thief +stealing a stallion, but could not help him even to catch the foal +without showing himself; and the thief, when he saw him, abandoned that +career for ever.” “Begging the court’s pardon,” said the man, “if the +thief’s child was endowed with power from above to see me, could I help +that? Moreover, this is only a single case; ’t is not a hundred years +since that day which put an end to all my hopes for ever, and how many of +my own family and of my neighbours have I enticed here after me in that +time? Perdition hold me, if I am not as dutiful to my trade as the best +of you, but the wisest is sometimes at fault.” Then said Lucifer: “Throw +him into the school of the fairies, who are still under castigation for +their mischievous tricks in days gone by, when they were wont to strangle +and threaten their neighbours, and so awaken them from their torpor; for +their fear probably had more influence upon them than forty sermons.” + +Then came four constables, an accuser, and fifteen of the damned, +dragging forward two devils. “Lest you lay the blame of every wrongful +service upon the children of Adam,” said the accuser, “here are two of +your old angels who misspent their time above as much as the two who were +last before the court. Here is a rogue quite as worthless as that one at +Shrewsbury the other day, when the Interlude of _Doctor Faustus_ was +being played, amidst all manner of most wanton and lascivious revelries, +and where many things were going on conducive to the welfare of your +realm; when they were busiest, the devil himself appeared to play his +part, and so drove all away from pleasure to prayers. Even so this one, +in his wanderings over the world: he heard some people talk of walking +round the church {104} to see their sweethearts, and what should the fool +do but show himself to the simpletons in his own natural form, and though +their fright was great they recovered their senses, and made a vow to +leave that vanity for ever; whereas had he only assumed the form of some +vile jades, they would have held themselves bound to accept those; and so +the foul fiend might have been master of the household with both parties, +since he himself had mated them. And here is another, who went, last +Twelfth Night, to visit two Welsh lasses who were turning their shifts, +and instead of enticing them to wantonness in the form of a fair youth, +to one he took a bier, to make her thoughts more serious; to the other, +he went with the tumult of war in a hellish whirlwind, to make her madder +than before; and this was quite needless. Nor was this all; for after he +had entered the maiden, and had thrown her about, and sorely tormented +her, some of our learned enemies were sent for to pray for her and to +cast him out, and instead of tempting her to despair and endeavouring to +win over the preachers, he began to preach to them, and to disclose the +mysteries of your kingdom, thus aiding their salvation instead of +hindering it.” At the word “salvation” I saw some leaping up, a living +fire of rage. “Every tale is fair till the other side be told,” quoth +the devil, “I hope Lucifer will not allow one of the earth-born race of +Adam to contend with me, who am an angel of far superior kind and stock.” +“His punishment is certain,” said Lucifer, “but do thou, sirrah, give +clear and ready answer to these charges; or by hopeless Hell I will—.” +“I have led hither,” said he, “many a soul since Satan was in the Garden +of Eden, and I ought to understand my business, better than this upstart +accuser.” “Blood of infernal firebrands,” cried Lucifer, “did I not bid +thee answer clearly and readily?” “By your leave,” said the demon, “I +have preached a hundred times, and have denounced many of the various +ways that lead to your confines, and yet at the same breath, have quietly +brought them hither safe and sound by some other delusive path, just as I +did while preaching recently in the German States, in one of the Faro +Isles, and in several other places. In this manner, through my preaching +have many Papist beliefs, and old traditions come first into the world, +and all in the guise of goodness. For who ever would swallow a baitless +hook? Who ever gained credence for a tale which had not some truth +mingled with the false, or some little good overshadowing the bad? So, +if whilst preaching I can instil one counsel of mine own among a hundred +that are good and true, by means of that one, through heedlessness or +superstition, will more weal betide your kingdom than woe through all the +others ever.” “Well,” said Lucifer, “since thou canst do so much good in +the pulpit, I bid thee dwell seven years in the mouth of a barndoor +preacher who always utter what first comes to his mind; there thou wilt +have an opportunity of putting in a word now and then to thine own +purpose.” + +There were many more devils and damned darting to and fro like lightning +about the awful throne, to count and to receive offices. But suddenly +without any warning there came a command for all the messengers and +prisoners to depart from the court, each one to his den, leaving the King +and his chief counsellors alone together. “Is it not better for us also +to depart, lest they find us?” I asked my friend. “Thou needest have no +fear,” answered the angel, “no unclean spirit can ever pierce this veil.” +Wherefore we remained there invisible, to see the issue. + +Then Lucifer began graciously to address his peers thus:—“Ye mightiest +spirits of evil, ye archfiends of hellish guile, the utmost of your +malicious wiles am I now constrained to demand. All here know that +Britain and its adjacent isles is the realm most dangerous to my state, +and fullest of mine enemies; and what is a hundredfold worse, there +reigns now a queen most dangerous of all, who has never once inclined +hither, nor along the old way of Rome on the one hand nor yet along the +way of Geneva on the other: to think what great good the Pope has for a +long time done us there and Oliver even to this day! What therefore +shall we do? I fear me we shall entirely lose our ancient possession of +that mart unless we instantly set-to to pave a new way for them to travel +over, for they know too well all the old roads that lead hitherwards. +Since this invincible hand shortens my chain, and prevents me from going +myself to the earth, your advice I pray. Whom shall I appoint my viceroy +to oppose yon hateful queen, Our Enemy’s vicegerent?” + +“Oh! thou great Emperor of Darkness,” said Cerberus, {106} the demon of +tobacco, “’tis I that supply the third of that country’s maintenance, I +shall go, and I will despatch you a hundred thousand of your foemen’s +souls through a pipe stem.” “In sooth,” said Lucifer, “thou hast done me +some good service, what with causing the slaughter of the owners in India +and poisoning those that indulge in it, through the saliva, sending many +to wander with it idly from house to house, others to steal in order to +obtain it, and millions to grow that fond of it that they cannot spend a +single day without it, and be in their right mind. For all this, go and +do thy best, but thou art nought to our present purpose.” + +Whereupon Cerberus sat down; then rose Mammon, the devil of money, and +with surly skulking mien began: “’T was I who pointed out the first mine +whence money was to be obtained, and ever since I am praised and +worshipped more than God, and men lay their pain and peril, all their +mind, their affection and their trust upon me, yea, there is no man +content, but all crave more of my favor; the more they obtain, the +further still are they from rest, until at last, while seeking ease, they +come to this region of everlasting woes. How many a crafty old miser +have I enticed hither over paths that were harder to traverse than those +that lead to the realm of bliss? Whenever a fair was held, a market, +assize or election, or any other concourse, who had more subjects than I +or greater power and authority? Cursing, swearing, fighting, litigation, +falsehood and deceit, beating, clawing, murdering and robbing one +another, Sabbath-breaking, perjury, cruelty, and what black mark besides, +which stamps men as of Lucifer’s fold, that I have not had a hand in +placing? For which reason have I been called ‘the root of all evil.’ +Wherefore, an it please your majesty, I will go.” + +He ceased. Then Apolyon uprose and spoke: “I know of nought more certain +to lead them hither than what brought you here, {107} and that is Pride; +once it plants its straight stake in them and puffs them up, there is no +need to fear that they will condescend to bear the cross or go through +the narrow gate. I will go with your daughter Pride, and before they can +realise where they are, I will drive the Welsh hither headlong while +admiring the pomp of the English, and the English while imitating the +vivacity of the French.” + +After him arose Asmodai, the devil of lust: “’T is not unknown to you, +mightiest King of the deep, nor to you, princes of the land of despair, +how many of the gulfs of hell have I filled through voluptuousness and +lewdness. What of the time I kindled such a flame of lust over all the +world that the deluge had needs be sent to clear the earth of men, and to +sweep them all into our unquenchable fire? What of Sodoma and Gomorrah, +fine and fair cities, which I so consumed with licentiousness that a +hell-shower blazed in their infernal lusts and beat them down here alive, +to burn for ages on ages. And what of the great hosts of the Assyrians, +who were all slain in one night on my account? I disappointed Sarah of +seven husbands’ {108} and Solomon and many a thousand other kings did I +bring to shame through women. Wherefore let me and this sweet sin go, +and I will kindle the hellish spark so generally that it will at length +become one with this inextinguishable flame, for scarce one will ever +return from following me to walk in the paths of life.” At that he sat +down. + +Then Belphegor, chief of sloth and idleness, stood up and spake thus: “I +am the great prince of listlessness and sloth, who have great influence +upon millions of all sorts and conditions of men; I am that stagnant pond +where the spawn of every evil is bred, where the dregs of every +corruption and baleful slime grows rank. What good wouldst thou be, +Asmodai, or ye, chief damned evils, were I not? I, who keep the windows +open and unguarded that ye may enter into the man when ye will, through +his eyes, his ears and his mouth. I will go and roll them all over the +precipice unto you in their sleep.” + +Then Satan, the devil of delusion, who was on Lucifer’s left hand, arose, +and turning his grim visage to the king, began: “It is unnecessary for me +to recount my deeds to thee, Oh lost Archangel, or to you, swarthy +princes of Destruction: for ’twas I who dealt the first blow to man, and +mighty was that blow, to be the cause of death from the beginning of the +world to its end. Is it likely that I, who erst ravaged all the earth, +could not now give advice that would serve one little isle? Could not I, +who deceived Eve in Paradise, overcome Anne in Britain? If inborn craft +and continuous experience for five thousand years profit aught, my advice +is that you adorn your daughter Hypocrisy to deceive Britain and its +queen: you have no other as serviceable as she; her sway extends more +widely than that of all the rest of your daughters, and her subjects are +more numerous. Was it not through her that I beguiled the first woman? +And ever since she has remained on earth and waxed very great therein, so +that by now the world is hardly anything but one mass of hypocrisy. And +were it not for the craftiness of Hypocrisy how could anyone of us do +business in any part of the world? For what man would ever have aught to +do with sin, did he once behold it in its true color and under its own +proper name? He would sooner clasp a devil in his own infernal shape and +garb. If it were not that Hypocrisy can disguise the name and nature of +every evil under the semblance of some good, and give a bad name to every +goodness, no man at all would put forth his hand to do evil or would lust +after it. Walk through the entire city of Destruction and ye will +perceive her greatness in every quarter. Go to the street of Pride and +ask for an arrogant man or for a penny-worth of affectation mixed through +pride: ‘Woe is me,’ exclaims Hypocrisy, ‘there is no such thing here,’ +no, nor for a devil, anything else in the whole street save proud +demeanour. Or walk into the street of Lucre and enquire for the miser’s +house: pshaw, there is no one of the kind therein; or for the dwelling of +the murderer among the doctors, or for the abode of highwaymen amongst +the drovers; thou wouldst sooner be thrown to prison for asking than that +one should confess to his own name. Yea, Hypocrisy crawls in between a +man and his own heart, and so skilfully does she hide every wrong under +the name and guise of some virtue that she has caused well nigh all to +lose cognisance of their own selves. Greed she calls thrift; in her +tongue riotous living is innocent joy; pride is courtesy; the froward, a +clever, courageous man; the drunkard, a boon companion; and adultery is a +mere freak of youth. On the other hand, if she and her scholars’ {110} +are to be believed, the godly is a hypocrite or a fool; the gentle, a +coward; the abstemious, a churl, and so for every other quality. Send +her thither in all her adornment, and I warrant you she will deceive +everyone; she will blinden the counsellors, the soldiers, and all the +officers of church and state, and will draw them hither in hurrying +multitudes with the varicolored mask upon their eyes.” Whereupon he too +sat down. + +Then Beelzebub, the devil of thoughtlessness stood up, and in a harsh +voice said: “I am the great prince of heedlessness whose duty it is to +prevent a man taking reflective heed of his state; I am chief of the +incessant hell-flies who utterly amaze men, ever dinning in their ears +concerning their possessions or their pleasures, and never willingly +allowing them a moment’s leisure to think of their ways or of their end. +No one of you must dare enter the lists against me in feats serviceable +to the realm of darkness. For what is tobacco, but one of my meanest +weapons to stupefy the brain? What is Mammon’s kingdom but a part of my +great dominion? Yea, were I to loosen the bonds I have upon the subjects +of Mammon and Pride, and even of Asmodai, Belphegor and Hypocrisy, no man +would for an instant abide their domination. Wherefore I will do the +work and let no one of you ever utter a word.” + +Then great Lucifer himself arose from his burning seat, and having turned +his hideous face to both sides, thus began: “Ye chief spirits of the +Eternal Night, princes of hopeless guile, although the vasty gloom and +the wilds of Destruction are more bounden to none for their inhabitants +than to mine own supreme majesty—for it was I who erewhile wishing to +usurp the Almighty’s throne, drew myriads of you, my swarthy angels, at +my tail into these deadly horrors, and afterwards drew unto you myriads +of men to share this region—yet there is no gainsay that ye all have done +your share in maintaining and extending this great infernal empire.” +Then he began to answer them one by one: “Considering thy recent origin, +Cerberus, I will not deny but that thou hast gained for us much prey in +the island of our foes through tobacco. For they that carry, mix, and +weigh it, practise all manner of fraud; and by its indulgence some are +led on to habitual drinking, some to curse and swear, and some to seek it +through blandishment, and to lie in denying their use of it—not to speak +of the injury it inflicts upon many, and its immoderate use upon all, +body as well as soul. And better than that, myriads of the poor, whom +else we never should touch, sink hither through laying the burden of +their affection upon tobacco, and allowing it to be their master, to +steal the bread from their children’s mouth. Then, brother Mammon, your +power is so universal and so well-known on earth that it is a proverb, +‘Everything may be had for money.’ And without doubt,” said he, turning +to Apolyon, “my beloved daughter Pride is most serviceable to us, for +what can there be more pernicious to a man’s estate, to his body and +soul, than that proud, obdurate opinion which will make him squander a +hundred pounds rather than yield a crown to secure peace. She keeps them +all so stiff-necked and so intent on things on high that it is amusing to +see them, while gazing upwards, and ‘extolling their heads to the stars’ +fall straightway into the depths of hell. You too, Asmodai, we all +remember your great services in the past; there is none more resolute +than you to keep safe his prisoners under lock and key, nor any so +unimpeachable. Nowadays a wanton freak provokes only a little laughter, +but you came near perishing there from famine during the recent years of +dearth. And you, my son Belphegor, verminous prince of sloth, no one has +afforded us more pleasure than you; your influence is exceeding great +among noblemen and also among the common people, even to the beggar. And +were it not for the skill of my daughter Hypocrisy in coloring and +adorning, who ever would swallow a single one of our hooks? But after +all, if it were not for the unwearying courage of my brother Beelzebub in +keeping men in heedless dazedness, ye all would not be worth a straw. +Let us once more recapitulate. What good wouldst thou be, Cerberus, with +thy foreign whiff, if Mammon did not succour thee? What merchant would +ever run such risks to obtain thy paltry leaves from India, except for +Mammon’s sake? And only for him what king would receive them, especially +into Britain, and who but for his sake would carry them to every part of +the kingdom? Yet how worthless thou too wouldst be, Mammon, if Pride did +not lavish thee upon fair mansions, fine clothes, needless lawsuits, +gardens and horses, extravagant relatives, numerous dishes, floods of +beer and ale, beyond the power and station of their owner; for if money +were spent within the limit of necessity and of becoming moderation, what +would Mammon avail us? Thus thou art nought without Pride; and little +would Pride profit without Wantonness, for bastards are the most numerous +and the most fierce of all the subjects of my daughter Pride. And thou, +Asmodai, what wouldst thou profit us were it not for Sloth and Idleness? +Where wouldst thou obtain a night’s lodging? Thou wouldst not dare +expect it from a laborer or diligent student. And who, for the dishonor +and the shame, would ever give thee, Belphegor the Slothful, a moment’s +welcome, if Hypocrisy did not disguise thy foulness under the name of an +internal disease, or as a good intent or a seeming despisal of wealth or +the like. She too—my dear daughter Hypocrisy—what good is or ever would +she be, notwithstanding her skill as a seamstress, and her boldness, +without thy aid, my eldest brother, Beelzebub, great chief of +Distraction: if he gave people peace and leisure to reflect seriously +upon the nature of things and their differences, how long would it take +them to find holes in the folds of Hypocrisy’s golden garments, and to +see the hooks through the bait? What man in his senses would gather +together toys and fleeting pleasures, surfeiting, vain and disgraceful, +and choose them in preference to a calm conscience and the bliss of a +glorious eternity? Who would refuse to suffer the pangs of martyrdom for +his faith for an hour or a day, or affliction for forty or sixty years, +if he considered that his neighbours suffer here in an hour more than he +could suffer on earth for ever. Tobacco is nothing without Money, or +Money without Pride, and Pride is but a weakling without Wantonness, nor +is Wantonness aught without Sloth, nor Sloth without Hypocrisy, nor +Hypocrisy without Thoughtlessness. Wherefore, now,” said Lucifer, +lifting his infernal hoofs on their claw-ends, “to give my own opinion: +however excellent all these may be, I have a friend better suited than +all to our foe of Britain.” Then could I see all the archfiends open +wide their horrid mouths upon Lucifer in eager expectation as to what +this could possibly be, while I too was as anxious as they. “A friend,” +continued Lucifer, “whose true worth I have too long neglected, just as +thou, Satan, tempting Job of yore, didst foolishly turn upon him with +severity. This, my kinswoman, I now appoint regent in all matters +appertaining to my kingdom on earth, next to myself. Her name is +Prosperity: she has damned more than all of you together, and little +would ye avail without her presence. For who in war or peril, in famine +or in plague, would lay any value by tobacco, or by money or by the +sprightliness of pride, or who would deign welcome licentiousness or +sloth? And men in such straits are too wide-awake to be distraught by +Hypocrisy, or even by Thoughtlessness; none of the infernal vermin of +Distraction dare show himself in one such storm. Whereas Prosperity, +with its ease and comfort, is the nurse of all of you; beneath her +peaceful shadow and upon her tranquil bosom ye all are nourished, and +every other hellish worm that has its place in the conscience and will be +for ever here gnawing its possessor. As long as one is at ease, there is +no talk but of merriment, of feasts, bargains, genealogies, tales, news +and the like; the name of God is never mentioned except in profane oaths +and curses, whereas the poor and the afflicted have His name upon their +lips and in their hearts always. Go ye, the seven of you, and follow her +and be mindful to keep all a-slumbering and in peace, in good fortune, in +ease and in perfect carelessness; then shall ye see the honest poor +become an untractable, arrogant knave, once he has quaffed of the +alluring cup of Prosperity; ye shall behold the diligent laborer become a +careless babbler and everything else that pleases you. For all seek and +love happy Prosperity; she neither hearkens to advice nor fears censure; +the good she knows not, the bad she nurtures. But this is the greatest +mishap: the man that escapes her sweet charms must be given up in +despair, we must bid farewell to his company for ever. Prosperity then +is my earthly vicegerent; follow her to Britain, and obey her as ye would +our own royal majesty.” + +At that instant the huge bolt was whirled, and Lucifer and his chief +counsellors were swept away into the vortex of Uttermost Perdition; woe’s +me, how terrible it was to behold the jaws of Hell yawning wide to +receive them! “Come now,” said the Angel, “we will return, but what thou +hast seen is as nothing compared with all that is within the bounds of +Hell; and if thou didst see everything therein that again would be as +nought when compared with the unutterable woe of the Bottomless Pit; for +it is impossible to have any conception of the life in the Uttermost +Hell.” Then suddenly the heavenly Eagle caught me up into the vault of +the accursed gloom by a way I knew not, where, from the court, across the +entire firmament of dark-burning Perdition, and all the land of oblivion +up to the ramparts of the City of Destruction, I obtained full view of +the hideous monster of a giantess whose feet I had previously observed. +“Words fail me to describe her ways and means; but of herself I can tell +thee, that she was a three-faced ogress: one villainous face turned +towards Heaven, yelping and snarling and belching forth cursèd +abomination against the heavenly King; another face (and this was fair to +look upon) towards earth, to allure men beneath her baneful shadow; and +the other direful face towards the infernal abyss, to torture all therein +for ages without end. She is greater than the earth in its entirety, and +still continuously increases; she is a hundredfold more hideous than all +Hell which she herself created and which she peoples. If Hell were rid +of her, the vasty deep would be a Paradise; if she were driven from the +earth, the little world would become a heaven; and if she ascended into +Heaven, she would make an uttermost hell of that blissful realm. There +is nought in all the worlds which God has not created, save her alone. +She is the mother of the four deadly enchantresses; she is the mother of +Death and of all evil and misery, and her terrible grasp is upon every +living being. Her name is Sin. Blessed, ever blessed be he who escapes +from her clutches,” said the Angel. Thereupon he departed, and I could +hear the distant echo of his voice saying; “Write down what thou hast +seen; and whosoever readeth it thoughtfully will never repent.” + + + +WITH HEAVY HEART. + + + With heavy heart I sought th’ infernal coast + And saw the vale of everlasting woes, + The awful home of fiends and of the lost + Where torments rage and never grant repose— + A lake of fire whence horrid flames arose + And whither tended every wayward path + Its prey to lead ’midst cruel dragon-foes; + Yet, though I wandered through withouten scath, + A world I’d spurn, to view again that scene of wrath. + + With heavy heart oft I recall to mind + How many a loving friend unwarnèd fell + To bottomless perdition, there to find + A dread abode where he for aye must dwell; + Who erst were men are now like hounds of Hell + And with unceasing energy entice + To dire combustion all with wily spell, + And to themselves have ta’en the devils’ guise, + Their power and skill all ill to do in every wise. + + With heavy heart I roamed the dismal land + That is ordained the sinner’s end to be; + What mighty waves surge wild on every hand! + What gloomy shadows haunt its canopy! + What horrors fall on high and mean degree! + How hideous is the mien of its fell lords, + What shrieks rise from that boundless glowing sea, + How fierce the curses of the damnèd hordes, + No mortal ken can e’er conceive or paint in words. + + With heavy heart we mourn true friends or kin + And grieve the loss of home, of liberty, + Of that good name which all aspire to win + Or health and ease and sweet tranquility; + When dim, dark clouds enshroud our memory + And pass ’tween us and heaven’s gracious smiles, + ’Tis sadder far to wake to misery + And feel that Pleasure now no more beguiles, + That sin has left nought but the wounds of its base wiles. + + With heavy heart the valiantest of men + Lays low his head beneath th’ impending doom; + In terror he descends death’s awsome glen; + While there appear flashing through the gloom + The lurid shades of deeds which in the bloom + Of youth he dared; at last the conscience cries + With ruthless voice: “There’s life beyond the tomb;” + His dying thoughts all vanities despise + As on the threshold of Eternity he lies. + + The heavy heart that suffers all such grief + May, while the breath of life doth still remain, + Hope for a joyous peace and blest relief; + But if grim Death his fated victim gain, + Woe’s him that entereth the realm of pain— + For e’er on him its frowning portals close, + Nor gleam of hope shall he perceive again, + For in that vast eternal night he knows + A woe awaits that far surpasseth earthly woes. + + The heavy heart beneath its weight is crushed, + And at its very name—Damnation writ, + All men their vain and froward clamors hushed; + But when within the fiery gaping pit + Whose flaming ramparts none will ever quit, + Above the thunder’s roar th’ accursed host + Raise such loud cries, it passeth human wit + To dream of aught so dire, for at the most, + All woes of earth as pleasures seem unto the lost. + + From every vain complaining, cease, my friend, + Since thou art yet not numbered with the dead + But turn thy thoughts unto thy destined end, + Behold thy Fates spin out the vital thread, + And oftèn as thy mind to Hell be led, + To contemplate the doleful gloom aglow, + There will forthwith possess thee such a dread, + Which Christ’s unbounded mercy doth bestow, + Lest thou be doomed to that eternal realm of woe. + + + + +NOTES + + +In the book this note section contains footnotes for the preceding text. +Each note is numbered by the page on which it occurs and as such are just +footnotes poorly done. They have been turned back into footnotes in the +eBook.—DP. + + * * * * * + +{0} The genealogical tables in the book are in graphical form. The +content is reproduced below as text—DP. + + ELLIS WYNNE’S PEDIGREE + +William Wynne of Glyn [Cywarch]. Sheriff of Merioneth 1618 & 1637. D. +1658. 12th in direct male descent from Osborn Wyddel = Catherine, +daughter of William Lewis Anwyl of Park. Died 1638. Child: Ellis Wynne +[1], 3rd son who probably lived at Maes-y-garnedd, Llanbedr. + +Ellis Wynne [1] = Lowri, only daughter and heiress of Ed. Jones of +Maes-y-garnedd, eldest borther of Col. Jones, Cromwell’s brother-in-law +who was executed in 1660 as a regicide. Children: Edward Wynne [1] + +Edward Wynne [1] = . . . heiress of Glasynys. Children: daughter; ELLIS +WYNNE [2]. + +ELLIS WYNNE [2] = Lowri Llwyd of Hafod-lwyfog Beddgelert. Children: +William [1] Rector of Llanaber; Ellis, died 1752; Catherine, died young; +Edward [1], Rector of Penmorfa; Mary [1]. + +William [1] = . . . Lloyd of Trallwyn. Children: Daughter [1]. + +Daughter [1] = Robert Puw of Garth Maelan: Child: John Wynne Puw. + +John Wynne Puw’s children: Robert and John. + +Edward [1] had children: Frances; Ellis [3], Rector of Llanferres. + +Ellis [3] had children: Elizabeth; Ann; Edward; John, Rector of +Llandrillo; Frances; Ellis. + +Mary [1] = Robert Own of Tygwyn Dolgellau. + + THE RELATION BETWEEN ELLIS WYNNE & BISHOP HUMPHREYS. + +Meredydd ap Evan ap Robert (11th in male descent from Owen Gwynedd). +Died 1525. = Margaret, daughter of Morris ap John ap Meredydd of +Clunnenau. Child: Humphrey Wynne ap Meredydd [1] of Gesail-gyfarch. + +Humphrey Wynne ap Meredydd [1] = Catherine, daughter and heiress of Evan +ap Griffith of Cwmbowydd. Children: John Wynne ap Humphrey [1] of +Gesail-gyfarch; Evan Llwyd [1] of Hafod-lwyfog. + +John Wynne ap Humphrey [1] = Catherine, daughter of William Wynne ap +William of Cochwillan. Child: Robert Wynne [1] died 1637. + +Robert Wynne [1] = Mary, daughter of Ellis ap Cadwaladr of Ystumllyn. +Children: John Wynne [2]; Margaret, [2] succeeded to Gesail-gyfarch on +her nephew’s death. + +John Wynne [2] = Jane, daughter of Evan Llwyd of Dylase. Child: Robert +Wynne of Gesail-gyfarch, Barr.-at-law. Ob. s. p. 1685. + +Margaret [2] = Richard Humphreys of Hendref Gwenllian, Penrhyndeudraeth. +Desceneded in male line from Marchweithian. An Officer in the Royal Army +through Civil War. Died 1699. Children: HUMPHREY [1]. Born 1648. +Dean of Bangor, 1680, Bishop 1689. Bishop of Hereford, 1701. Died 1712; +John, died at Oxford; Catherine. + +HUMPHREY [1] = Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Morgan Bishop of Bangor 1678, +son of Rd. Morgan, M.P. for Montgomery Boroughs. Children: Ann, ob. s. +p. 1698; Margaret [1], died 1759. + +Margaret [1] = John Llwyd of Penylan, Barr.-at-law, son of Dr. W. Lloyd, +Bishop of Norwich, deprived in 1691 as one of the Nonjurors. + +Evan Llwyd [1] = Catherine, Daughter of Griffith Wynne of Penyberth. +Child: John [3] + +John [3] had children: Griffith [1] and Evans. + +Griffith [1] had children: William ob. s. p.; LOWRI. + +LOWRI = ELLIS WYNNE. + +{0a} “A Catalogue of Graduates in the University of Oxford between 1659 +and 1850” contains the following entry:—“Wynne (Ellis) Jes. BA., Oct. 14, +1718, MA., June 13, 1722.” But one can hardly suppose this to have been +the _Bardd Cwsr_, as in 1718 he would be 47 years of age. + +{0b} The following entries are taken from the register at +Llanfair-juxta-Harlech:—“_Elizaeus Wynne Generosus de Lâsynys et Lowria +Lloyd de Havod-lwyfog in agro Arvonensi in matrimonio conjuncti fuere +decimo quarto die Feb. 1702_.” + +{0c} “_Elizaeus Wynne junr. de Lâsynys sepultus est decimo die Octobris +A.D. 1732_.” + +{0d} “_Owenus Edwards cler. nuper Rector hums ecclesiae sepultus est +tricesimo die Maii A.D. 1711_.” (From the Llanfair parish register.) + +{0e} “_Lowria Uxor Elizaei Wynne cler. de Lasynys vigesimo quarto die +Augti. sepulta est Ano. Dom. 1720_.” + +“_Elizaeus Wynne Cler. nuper Rector dignissimus huius ecclesiae sepultus +est 17mo. die Julii 1734_.” (From the parish register at Llanfair.) + +{0f} “_The Visions of the Sleeping Bard_. First Part. Printed in +London by E. Powell for the Author, 1703.” + +{1a} _The opening lines_.—Ellis Wynne opens his vision as so many early +English poets are wont, with a description of the season when, and the +circumstances under which he fell asleep. Compare especially Langland’s +Visions, _prologus_: + + In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne + I went wyde in this world wondres to here, + Ac on a May mornynge on Malvern hulles + Me befel a ferly of fairy me thoughte, + I was wery forwandred and went me to reste + Under a brode bank bi a bornes side + And as I lay and leued and loked in the wateres + I slombred in a slepyng it sweyved so merye. + +{1b} _One of the mountains_.—The scene these opening lines describe was +one with which the Bard was perfectly familiar. He had often climbed the +slopes of the Vale of Ardudwy to view the glorious panorama around him +from Bardsey Isle to Strumble Head, the whole length of rock-bound coast +lay before him, while behind was the Snowdonian range, from Snowdon +itself to Cader Idris; and often, no doubt, he had watched the sun +sinking “far away over the Irish Sea, and reaching his western ramparts” +beyond the Wicklow Hills. + +{1c} _Master Sleep_.—Cp.: + + Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh’d + My senses down. + + —_Dante: Inf. C.I._ (_Cary’s trans_.) + + Now leaden slumber with life’s strength doth fight. + + —_Shakespere_: _Lucrece_, _124_. + +{4a} _Such a fantastic rout_.—Literally “such a battle of Camlan.” This +was the battle fought between Arthur and his nephew Medrod about the year +540 on the banks of the Camel between Cornwall and Somerset, where Arthur +received the wounds of which he died. The combatants being relatives and +former friends, it was characterised with unwonted ferocity, and has +consequently come to be used proverbially for any fray or scene of more +than usual tumult and confusion. + + So all day long the noise of battle roll’d + Among the mountains by the winter sea, + Until King Arthur’s table, man by man, + Had fallen in Lyonness about their Lord. + + —_Tennyson_: _Morte d’Arthur_. + +{4b} _To lampoon my king_.—The Bard commenced this Vision in the reign +of William III. (v. also p. 17, “to drink the King’s health”) and +completed it in that of Queen Anne, who is mentioned towards the end of +the Vision. + +{7} _The Turk and old Lewis of France_.—The Sultan Mustapha and Lewis +XIV. are thus referred to. + +{14} _Clippers_.—The context seems to demand this meaning, that is, +“those who debase coin of the realm,” rather than “beggars” from the +Welsh “_clipan_.” + +{20} _Backgammon and dice_.—These games, together with chess, were +greatly in vogue in mediæval Wales, and are frequently alluded to in the +Mabinogion and other early works. The four minor games or feats +(_gogampau_) among the Welsh were playing the harp, chess, backgammon, +and dice. The word “_ffristial a disiau_” are here rendered by the one +word “dice”—_ffristial_ meaning either the dice-box, or the game itself, +and _disiau_, the dice. + +{21} _This wailing is for pay_.—Cp. + + Ut qui conducti plorant in funere dicunt + et faciunt prope plora dolentibus ex animo. + + —_Horace_: _Ars Poetica_, _430–1_. + +{23} _The butt of everybody_.—Whenever a number of bards, in the course +of their peregrinations from one patron’s hall to another, met of a +night, their invariable custom was to appoint one of the company to be +the butt of their wit, and he was expected to give ready answer in verse +and parry the attacks of his brethren. It is said of Dafydd ap Gwilym +that he satirized one unfortunate butt of a bard so fiercely that he fell +dead at his feet. + +{24} _Congregation of mutes_.—At the time Ellis Wynne wrote, the Quakers +were very numerous in Merioneth and Montgomery and especially in his own +immediate neighbourhood, where they probably had a burying-ground and +conventicle. They naturally became the objects of cruel persecution at +the hands of the dominant church as well as of the state; their meetings +were broken up, their members imprisoned and maltreated, until at last +they were forced to leave their fatherland and seek freedom of worship +across the Atlantic. + +{25} _Speak no ill_.—A Welsh proverb; _v. Myv. Arch. III. 182_. + +{26} _We came to a barn_.—The beginning of Nonconformity in Wales. In +the Author’s time there were already many adherents to the various +dissenting bodies in North Wales. Walter Cradoc, Morgan Llwyd and others +had been preaching the Gospel many years previously throughout the length +and breadth of Gwynedd; and it was their followers that now fell under +the Bard’s lash. + +{28a} _Corruption of the best_.—A Welsh adage; _v. Myv. Arch. III. 185_. + +{28b} _Some mocking_.—Compare Bunyan’s Christian starting from the City +of Destruction: “So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle +of the plain. The neighbours came out to see him run, and as he ran, +some mocked, others threatened and some cried after him to return.” + +{29} _Who is content_.—Cp. + + Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem + Seu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illa + Contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes? + + —_Horace_: _Sat. I. i._ + +{34} _Increases his own penalty_.—Cp. + + —the will + And high permission of all-ruling heaven + Left him at large to his own dark designs, + That with reiterated crimes he might + Heap on himself damnation, while he sought + Evil to others. + + —_Par. Lost_: _I. 211–6_. + +{36} _Royal blood_—referring to the execution of Charles I. + +{37} _The Pope and his other son_.—The concluding lines of this Vision +were evidently written amidst the rejoicings of the nation at the +victories of Marlborough over the French and of Charles XII. over the +Muscovites + +{43a} _Glyn Cywarch_.—The ancestral home of the Author’s father, situate +in a lonely glen about three miles from Harlech. + +{43b} _Our brother Death_.—This idea of the kinship of Death and Sleep +is common to all poets, ancient and modern; cp. the “_Consanguineus Leti +Sopor_” of Vergil (Æneid: VI. 278); and also: + + Oh thou God of Quiet! + Look like thy brother, Death, so still,—so stirless— + For then we are happiest, as it may be, we + Are happiest of all within the realm + Of thy stern, silent, and unawakening twin. + + —_Byron_: _Sardanapulus_, _IV_. + +{44} _An extensive domain_.—Compare what follows with Vergil’s +description (Dryden’s trans.): + + Just in the gate and in the jaws of Hell, + Revengeful cares and sullen sorrows dwell, + And pale diseases and repining age— + Want, fear, and famine’s unresisted rage; + Here toils and death, and death’s half-brother, Sleep, + Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep. + + —_Æneid_: _VI. 273–8_ + +{48a} _Merlin_.—A bard or seer who is supposed to have flourished about +the middle of the fifth century, when Arthur was king. He figures +largely in early tales and traditions, and many of his prophecies are to +be found in later Cymric poetry, to one of which Tennyson refers in his +_Morte d’Arthur_: + + I think that we + Shall never more, at any future time, + Delight our souls with talks of knightly deeds + Walking about the gardens and the halls + Of Camelot, as in the days that were. + I perish by this people which I made— + Though Merlin sware that I should come again + To rule once more—but let what will be, be. + +{48b} _Brutus_, _the son of Silvius_.—According to the Chronicles of the +Welsh Kings, Brwth (Brutus) was the son of Selys (Silvius), the son of +Einion or Æneas who, tradition tells, was the first king of Prydain. In +these ancient chronicles we find many tales recorded of Brutus and his +renowned ancestors down to the fall of Troy and even earlier. + +{48c} _A huge_, _seething cauldron_.—This was the mystical cauldron of +Ceridwen which Taliesin considered to be the source of poetic +inspiration. Three drops, he avers, of the seething decoction enabled +him to forsee all the secrets of the future. + +{48d} _Upon the face of earth_.—These lines occur in a poem of Taliesin +where he gives an account of himself as existing in various places, and +contemporary with various events in the early eras of the world’s +history—an echo of the teachings of Pythagoras: + + Morte carent animae; semperque priore relicta + Sede, novis habitant domibus vivuntque receptae. + + —_Ovid_: _Metam. XV. 158–9_. + +{48e} _Taliesin_.—Taliesin is one of the earliest Welsh bards whose +works are still extant. He lived sometime in the sixth century, and was +bard of the courts of Urien and King Arthur. + +{49a} _Maelgwn Gwynedd_.—He became lord over the whole of Wales about +the year 550 and regained much territory that had once been lost to the +Saxons. Indeed Geoffrey of Monmouth asserts that at one time Ireland, +Scotland, the Orkneys, Norway and Denmark acknowledged his supremacy. +Whatever truth there be in this assertion, it is quite certain that he +built a powerful navy whereby his name became a terror to the Vikings of +the North. In his reign, however, the country was ravaged by a more +direful enemy—the Yellow Plague; “whoever witnessed it, became doomed to +certain death. Maelgwn himself, through Taliesin’s curse, saw the _Vad +Velen_ through the keyhole in Rhos church and died in consequence.” +(_Iolo MSS._) + +{49b} _Arthur’s quoit_.—The name given to several _cromlechau_ in Wales; +there is one so named, near the Bard’s home, in the parish of Llanddwywe, +“having the print of a large hand, dexterously carved by man or nature, +on the side of it, as if sunk in from the weight of holding it.” (_v. +Camb. Register_, _1795_.) + +{54} _In the Pope’s favor_.—Clement XI. became Pope in 1700, his +predecessor being Innocent XII. + +{55} _Their hands to the bar_.—Referring to the custom (now practically +obsolete) whereby a prisoner on his arraignment was required to lift up +his hands to the bar for the purpose of identification. Ellis Wynne was +evidently quite conversant with the practice of the courts, though there +is no proof of his ever having intended to enter the legal profession or +taken a degree in law as one author asserts. (_v. Llyfryddiaeth y +Cymry_, sub. tit. Ellis Wynne.) + +{67} “_The Practice of Piety_.”—Its author was Dr. Bayley, Bishop of +Bangor; a Welsh translation by Rowland Vaughan, of Caergai, appeared in +1630, “printed at the signe of the Bear, in Saint Paul’s Churchyard, +London.” + +{69} _At one time cold_.—Cp.: + + I come + To take you to the other shore across, + Into eternal darkness, there to dwell + In fierce heat and in ice. + + —_Dante_: _Inf. c. III._ (_Cary’s trans._). + +{71} _Above the roar_.—Cp.: + + The stormy blast of Hell + With restless fury drives the spirits on: + When they arrive before the ruinous sweep + There shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans, + And blasphemies. + + —_Dante: Inf. c. V._ (_Cary’s trans._). + +{73} _Amidst eternal ice_.—Cp.: + + Thither . . . all the damned are brought + . . . and feel by turns the bitter change + Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce! + From beds of raging fire to starve in ice + Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine + Immoveable, infix’d and frozen round + Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire. + + —_Par. Lost_, _II. 597–603_. + +{85a} _Better to reign_.—This speech of Lucifer is very Miltonic; +compare especially— + + —in my choice + To reign is worth ambition, though in hell; + Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. + + —_Par. Lost_, _I. 261–3_. + +{85b} _Revenge is sweet_.—Cp.: + + Revenge, at first though sweet + Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils. + + —_Par. Lost_, _IX. 171–2_. + +{87} _This enterprize_.—Cp.: + + —this enterprize + None shall partake with me. + + —_Par. Lost_, _II. 465_. + +{95a} _Barristers_.—The word _cyfarthwyr_, here rendered “barristers,” +really means “those who bark,” which is probably only a pun of the Bard’s +on _cyfarchwyr_—“those who address (the court).” + +{95b} _Sir Edmundbury Godfrey_.—A London magistrate who took prominent +part against the Catholics in the reign of Charles II. At the time the +panic which the villainy of Titus Oates had fomented was at its height, +Sir Edmundbury was found dead on Primrose Hill, with his sword through +his body; his tragic end was attributed to the Papists, and many innocent +persons suffered torture and death for their supposed complicity in his +murder. + +{102} _Einion the son of Gwalchmai_.—This is a reference to a fable +entitled “Einion and the Lady of the Greenwood,” where the bard is led +astray by “a graceful, slender lady of elegant growth and delicate +feature, her complexion surpassing every red and every white in early +dawn, the snow-flake on the mountain-side, and every beauteous colour in +the blossoms of wood, meadow, and hill.” (_v. Iolo MSS._) Einion was an +Anglesey bard, flourishing in the twelfth century. + +{104} _Walking round the church_.—Referring to a superstitious custom in +vogue in some parts of Wales as late as the beginning of the present +century. On All Souls’ Night the women-folk gathered together at the +parish church, each with a candle in her hand; the sexton then came round +and lit the candies, and as these burnt brightly or fitfully, so would +the coming year prove prosperous or adverse. When the last candle died +out, they solemnly march round the church twice or thrice, then home in +silence, and in their dreams that night, their fated husbands would +appear to them. + +{106} _Cerberus_, _et seq._—Compare the seven deadly sins in Langland’s +_Vision of Piers Plowman_, Pride, Luxury (_lecherie_), Envy, Wrath, +Covetousness, Gluttony, and Sloth. See also Chaucer’s Persones Tale, +_passim_. A description of these seven sins occurs very frequently in +old authors. + +{107} _What brought you here_.—Pride is the greatest of all the deadly +sins. Compare Spenser’s _Faery Queen I. c. IV_, where “proud Lucifera, +as men did call her,” was attended by “her six sage counsellors”—the +other sins. Shakespere names this sin Ambition: + + Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition, + For by this sin fell the angels. + +{108} _Sarah_.—v. Apocrypha, the book of Tobit, c. VI. + +{110} If she and her scholars—Cp.: + + At nos virtutes ipsas invertimus atque + sincerum cupimus vas incrustare. probus quis + nobiscum vivit multum demissus homo: illi + tardo cognomen pingui damus. his fugit omnes + insidias nullique malo latus obdit apertum pro bene sano + at non incauto fictum astutumque vocamus. + + —_Horace_: _Sat. I. iii_. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VISIONS OF THE SLEEPING BARD*** + + +******* This file should be named 5671-0.txt or 5671-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/6/7/5671 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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