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was so fertile that his works pass all enumeration. He courted numerous patrons, who valued the poetry, while they left the poet to his own miserable contemplations. In a long catalogue of his works, which this poet has himself given, he adds a few memoranda, as he proceeds, a. little ludicrous, but very melancholy. He wrote a book which he could never afterwards recover from one of his patrons, and adds, "all which book was in as good verse as ever I made; an honourable knight dwelling in the Black Friers can witness the same, because I read it unto him." Another accorded him the same remuneration-on which he adds, "An infinite number of other Songs and Sonnets given where they cannot be recovered, nor purchase any favour when they are craved." Still, however, he announces "twelve long tales for Christmas, dedicated to twelve honourable Lords." Well might Churchyard, write his own sad life under the title of "The tragicall Discourse of the haplesse Man's Life

Yet Churchyard was no contemptible Bard; he composed a national poem, "The Worthiness of Wales," which has been reprinted, and will be still dear to his "Father-land," as the Hollanders expressively denote their natal spot. He wrote, in "The Mirror of Magistrates," the life of Wolsey, which has parts of great dignity; and the life of Jane Shore, which was much noticed in his day, for a severe critic of the times writes: "Hath not Shore's wife, although a light skirt she,

"Given him a chaste, long, lasting memorie?" Churchyard and the miseries of his poetical life are alluded to by Spenser. He is old Palemon in "Colin Clout's come home again." Spenser is supposed to describe this laborious writer for half a century, whose melancholy pipe in his old age may make the reader "rew:" "Yet he himself may rewed be more right, "That sung so long until quite hoarse he grew." His epitaph, preserved by Camden, is extremely instructive to all poets, could epitaphs instruct them.

"Poverty and Poetry his tomb doth enclose; Wherefore, good neighbour, be merry in prose."

The case of a man of letters, of regular educa

tion, living by honest literary industry. "Ever since I was eleven years of age I have mingled with my studies the labour of teaching or of writing, to support and educate myself.

"During about twenty years, while I was in constant or occasional attendance at the University of Edinburgh, I taught and assisted young persons, at all periods, in the course of education, from the alphabet to the highest branches of Science and Literature.

"I read a course of lectures on the law of Nature, the law of Nations, the Jewish, the Grecian, the Roman, and the Canon law, and then on the Feudal law; and on the several forms of Municipal Jurisprudence, established in Modern Europe. I printed a Syllabus of these Lectures, which was approved. They were intended as introductory to the professional study of law, and to assist gentlemen who did not study it professionally, in the understanding of History.

"I translated Fourcroy's Chemistry twice, from both the second and the third editions of the

original; Foureroy's Philosophy of Chemistry; Savary's Travels in Greece; Dumourier's Letters; Gesner's Idylls in part; an abstract of Zimmerman on Solitude, and a great diversity of smaller pieces.

"I wrote a Journey through the Western parts of Scotland, which has passed through two editions; a History of Scotland in six volumes, &vo.; a Topographical account of Scotland, which has been several times reprinted; a number of communications in the Edinburgh Magazine; many Prefaces and Critiques; a Memoir of the life of Burns the poet, which suggested and promoted the subscription for his family; has been many times reprinted, and formed the basis of Dr. Currie's life of him, as I learned by a letter from he Doctor to one of his friends; a variety of d'Esprit in verse and prose; and many abridgments of large works.

"In the beginning of 1779 I was encouraged to come to London. Here I have written a great multiplicity of articles in almost every branch of Science and Literature; my education at Edinburgh having comprehended them all. The London Review, the Agricultural Magazine, the Anti-jacobin Review, the Monthly Magazine, the Universal Magazine, the Public Characters, the Annual Necrology, with several other periodical works, contain many of my communications. In such of those publications as have been reviewed distinguished with very high praise. I have writI can show that my anonymous pieces have been ten also a short system of Chemistry in one voJume, 8vo.--and I published a few weeks since, a small work called "Comforts of Life," of which the first edition was sold in one week, and the second edition is now in rapid sale.

"In the newspapers-the Oracle, the Porcupine when it existed, the General Evening Post, the Morning Post, the British Press, the Courier, &c. I have published many Reports of Debates in Parliament; and I believe, a greater variety of light fugitive pieces than I know to have been written by any one other person.

"I have written also a variety of compositions in the Latin and the French languages, in favour of which I have been honoured with the testimo nies of liberal approbation.

"I have invariably written to serve the cause of religion, morality, pious christian education, and good order, in the most direct manner. Í have considered what I have written as mere trifles; aud have, incessantly studied to qualify myself for something better. I can prove that I have, for many years, read and written one day with another, from twelve to sixteen hours a day. As a human being, I have not been free from follies and errors. But the tenor of my life has been temperate, laborious, humble, quiet, and, to the utmost of my power, beneficent. I can prove the general tenor of my writings to have been candid, and ever adapted to exhibit the most favourable views of the abilities, dispositions, and exertions of others.

"For these last ten months I have been brought to the very extremity of bodily and pecuniary distress.

"I shudder at the thoughts of perishing in a (In confinement.)

gaol.

92, Chancery-lane, Feb. 2. 1807."

[Calamities of Authors.1

THE

AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE

AND

CRITICAL REVIEW.

No. VI......VOL. II.

APRIL, 1818.

140

ART. 1. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATION.

Sketches of the History of Greece, subsequent to its subjugation by the Romans. (Continued from page 328.)

THE

decease of the second Antonine abandoned the empire to the sway of the execrable Commodus; his assassination relieved the earth from a monster; but from his death to the accession of Claudius, Rome was afflicted with a succession of princes who either governed in the spirit of military despotism, or plunged the state in the wildest horrors of misrule. In the profligate reign of Gallienus, the misfortunes of Greece excite the attention and pity of the historian. The Goths, who after the defeat of the emperor Decius, had established themselves in the inconsiderable principality of the Bosporus, grew discontented with their narrow boundaries. Allured by the riches of the south, and encouraged by the distractions of the empire, the needy barbarians conceived and executed a project, which in its success, exhibits a stronglycoloured and mournful picture of the consequences of civil dissension. In a light fleet of osier vessels the Goths embarked on the Euxine, ravaged the isl and, and destroyed the capital of Cyzicus in the Propontis; thence they directed their desolating course through the islands of the Archipelago, and the shores of Greece and Asia Minor were blasted by the presence of the corsairs. At length the Gothic armament cast anchor in the port of the Piræus, five miles distant from Athens, where every preparation of defence had been made which the suddenness of the calamity would permit. Cleodamus, a Grecian engineer in the service of Gallienus, had commenced the VOL. II.-No. vi.

51

repairs of the fortifications, which, since the siege of Sylla, had fallen into decay. But the unexpected celerity of the Gothic expedition rendered his exertions ineffectual. But few regular troops were stationed in garrison at Athens, a city whose distance from the frontiers was reasonably supposed to secure it from hostile attack. The convulsed state of the empire prevented the requisite attention to the defence of the provinces, which on all sides were open to invasion. The Goths landed; Athens fell; and in the gratification of every military, that is, every licentious, appetite, the illiterate barbarians were unconscious that the soil they pressed, the city they profaned, had been cultivated and adorned by the first of mankind :—that they rioted on a spot where a light had been kindled whose vivifying influence, in a future age, would be felt and acknowledged even in their own inhospitable regions.

Amidst the general terror and distress, a brave and determined individual resolved to revenge, he could not save, his country. Flying with Cleodamus from the sack of Athens, Dexippus assembled, armed, and animated the peasantry; his hasty and undisciplined levies were augmented by the regulars of the province; the spiri of their leader was communicat ed to the bosoms of his followers; and at the head of a slender but undaunted band, Dexippus surprised the guard of the Gothic fleet. His courage was rewarded by success; his success exalted his courage; and the advantages obtained against the barbarians by one resolute arm, had they been improved by Gallienus or his lieutenants, would have ter

minated in the destruction or captivity of the marauders.

In a period of public danger the camp was the only station befitting a Roman emperor. In the field, at the head of the legions, the son of Valerian might have commanded the respect of his people, and the terror of their enemies. But neither the sufferings of Greece, nor the calamities of the empire, could rouse the luxurious apathy of Gallienus to an effort of manly resolution. The rapacious insolence of the barbarians had been chastised by the courage of a citizen; but his unsupported prowess was insufficient to retrieve the glory, or assure the repose of the state. The successes of Dexippus, though splendid, were partial, were transient; and the Goths were only irritated to more savage excesses by an opposition which their numbers enabled them to despise. Their rapid victories, their bundant spoil, had revealed the wealth and weakness of the empire; they breathed the air, they quaffed the vintage of a more delicious climate than they had yet experienced; the licentious appetites of barbarians are quickened, rather than appeased, by gratification; and when the Goths resolved to spread their ravages through the interior, the fearless spirit of the north disdained to calculate the dangers of the march.

From the cape of Sunium to the borders of Epirus, from the Malian gulph to the promontory of Tenarus, Greece was overrun by the Goths, thirsting for plunder, and exasperated by resistance. The cities they sacked, they swept the harvest from the plains; of the inhabitants, those who by opposition attempted to preserve themselves or their property, they slaughtered, they enslaved the defenceless or pusillanimous; Thebes and Argos, Corinth and Sparta, unprotected either by troops or fortifications of sufficient strength, were stormed, and in each of those unfortunate cities the tragedy of Athens was successively and rapidly repeated. Neither age nor sex-neither rank nor merit-were respected by the relentless invaders; their brutal ignorance was unable to comprehend the claims of genius or learning; and the pride of barbarians delighted to trample on the insignia of Roman dignity. Satiated at length with the spoils and calamities of Greece, they directed their march westward: Epirus was oppressed by their numbers and ferocity; and the frontiers of Italy resounded to the mournful clangor of the Gothic trumpet. The danger approached the capital, the court, the per

son of the emperor, whose character, despicable in almost every respect, was, however, exempt from the reproach of cowardice. Gallienus started to armsassembled his troops-and the barbarians were astonished by the martial activity of a prince who had tamely endured the desolation of his most flourishing provinces. Yet even in this crisis of the state, the courage of Gallienus was counterpoised by his habitual indolence; and he was easily persuaded by his flatterers of the imprudence of committing the fate of the capital, perhaps the empire, to the chance of a single battle. A negociation was commenced with the Goths, who while they showed a willingness to treat, proportioned their demands to the fears of the Romans. Several thousands of the hardy barbarians were taken into the service of the empire; to others lands were assigned; and the majesty of Rome received an indelible stigma in the appointment of Naulobates, a Gothic chief, to the consulship.

Of the Goths, the fate was various. Some enlisted, as we have said, in the imperial service, and others settled in the Roman territory. Considerable numbers forced their way into Mæsia, intending to penetrate to their settlements beyond the Danube. The return of the remainder through the Hellespont and Bosporus was marked by the final destruction of the temple of Ephesus, an edifice in which the exertions of patriotism, and the liberality of foreign monarchs, were equally conspicuous.

In the confusion that ensued after the captivity of Valerian, the empire was split into nineteen divisions, in each of which some military chief, more worthy to reign than the prince against whom he revolted, ruled with absolute though precarious authority. Achaia, an appellation in which the whole of Greece may be included, was governed by Valens; of the virtues or vices of his administration nothing is recorded; of the length of his reign we are uncertain: but of this we may be assured, that the state of the Roman empire under Gallienus, who generally resided at Rome, and never quitted Italy, rendered rebellion a virtue, and that a prevince, whose government was conducted by the hands of an usurper, might satisfactorily compare its situation with that of the capital.

The measure of the public calamities was full, when Gallienus perished by the hands of conspirators beneath the walls of Milan, in which Aureolus, one of the usurpers, after a defeat in the neighbour

hood of Bergamo, had taken refuge with the determination of resisting to the last extremity, a prince careless of the duties of his station, yet jealous of the slightest invasion of his rank and prerogatives; and whose softness of temper was not incompatible with the most ferocious dictates of revenge. The fall of that worthless ruler introduced a succession of princes, by whose martial talents and civil energies the republic was reinstated in her original integrity. The licentious imbecility of the late emperor had encouraged the inroads of the barbarians, and awakened the ambition of his lieutenants. At one and the same moment the provinces beyond the Appenine were invaded by the Franks and Alemanni; the Goths were in possession of Greece; and Asia Minor was ravaged by Sapor and his Persians; while the Roman generals, disgusted by the levity or ingratitude of Gallienus, either remained mute spectators of the public evils, or assumed the title and power which were disgraced by the son of Valerian. About thirty years after his death, the military genius of Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Carus, and Diocletian had vanquished the foreign enemies, and quelled the domestic disturbers of the republic. During this period the history of Greece presents no facts for relation or comment sufficiently important to detain our attention. Upon the decease of Galerius the empire was divided between Constantine and Licinjus. The authority of Constantine was acknowledged by Italy and the West, while the eastern provinces recognized Licinius as their sovereign. Within the dominion of the latter prince, Greece was included. The ambition of the two monarchs soon involved them in mutual hostilities; in which Constantine remaining conqueror, a treaty was concluded between the empires, which separated from the dominions of Licinius, Greece, Macedonia, and the Provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Dacia.

Three hundred and thirty years after the birth of Christ, the Roman empire was reunited under the sway of Constantine, a prince usually ranked with those monarchs to whom sincerity or adulation has applied the epithet of GREAT. For this lofty title Constantine was indebted partly to the interested gratitude of the church, partly to the vanity of the Greeks, who were willing to believe that in the founder of Constantinople they beheld the restorer of Hellenic glory. Flattery is a weed that thrives to rankness in the artificial soil of a court:

A

and the Christians, who in the reigns of Diocletian and Galerius had sus tained the fiercest rage of persecution, hailed with rapture the ascension of a prince who, in his subordinate station of Cæsar, had always evinced towards their society an active and consoling sympathy. If we except Palestine, in no region of the empire had the gospel distilled so copious and prolific a dew as in the Grecian provinces. The sovereignty of Constantine ensured the reign of Christ, and if, in tracing the boundaries of his new capital, the emperor proclaimed that his steps were guided by a celestial sign or influence, the voice of the bishop, the courtier, and the patriot, might repeat and embellish the singular legend of the Labarum; and all would unite in celebrating the greatness of a sovereign from whom each expected the consummation of his hopes. But the lapse of nearly fifteen centuries has destroyed the embroidered veil which wrapt in artificial splendour the name and character of Constantine; and we, who have nothing to fear or desire from that christian emperor, may freely scrutinize his claims to an equality with the first of princes. just delineation of the son of Constantius would exhibit the portrait of a monarch who, in the summer of life, and in an inferior rank, moderated the evils produced by the fierce despotism of his colleagues; and we may allow, that when the Romans compared the cruelty and Asiatic pride of the Augusti with the benign and modest administration of the Cæsar, the result must have been an universal wish that the supreme authority were vested in the hands of Constantine. Such was the character supported by that sovereign till the battle of Chrysopolis, in which the East and the hopes of Licinius sustained an irreparable defeat, realised the secret vows of the empire. At the period of that memorable engagement Constantine was in the prime of life. Soldier, general, and prince, in each of those capacities he had secured the esteem of his people, and the Roman world rejoiced in the prospect of a long and virtuous reign. But the intoxication of absolute power betrays the imperfections which are concealed by the prudence of a dependant station, or restrained by the apprehensions of a divided authority. The character of Constantine was in a considerable measure artificial. Courage he certainly possessed; a sagacious, perhaps subtle, intellect, supplied the deficiencies of his uninstructed youth; but the virtues of moderation and benevolence inculcat

ed with divine pathos in the pages of the gospel, were so foreign to the education of a prince trained to government in the school of Diocletian, that our belief of their actual existence in the first christian sovereign of Rome, would be the spontaneous hypothesis of charity. An opinion may arise that when Constantine ceased to have a rival, he degenerated into a tyrant. The severity of his laws will not receive the approbation of an æra that desires to build a solid glory on the mildness of its penal code; and by diffusing among the body of the people the benefits of an effectual education, to prevent the birth, rather than to punish the commission of crime. The indiscreet ambition of immortalising his name by the erection of a second capital, which should rival or surpass the glories of Rome, produced but a faint imitation of the eternal city, while it planted the principle of decay in the heart of the empire. A prince who had himself mingled so largely in the evils of civil dissension should have foreseen the fatal consequences of transferring the seat of government to the confines of Asia. In his domestic policy the son of Constantius trod closely in the steps of Diocletian; the simple majesty that pervaded the administration of Trajan and the Antonines, was exchanged for the puerile pomp of the Persian king; the forms of the court were modelled after the severe and servile fashion of the east; and the free spirit of modern times, detesting the substantial tyranny of Constantine, is disposed to ridicule the minute and trifling gradations of his political hierarchy. New and galling imposts cemented the costly fabric of the imperial establishment, and the public misery was insulted by the oppressive splendour of the monarch and his favourites. Besides the ordinary sources of revenue, the cruel ingenuity of Constantine and his ministers resorted to the meanest expedients for additional supplies: the most ignominious of taxes was levied upon the vilest of professions; and the streams of treasure that were annually discharged into the exchequer from every province of the empire, were swollen with the impure contributions of wretchedness and crime. The instinctive jealousy of a tyrant is alarmed even by the virtues of his offspring, and in the execution, or rather murder of his son, the unnatural Constantine confessed the superior merits of Crispus. The fate of his nephew Licinius establishes an obvious parallel between a Roman emperor and a British

king; yet the comparison would incline in favour of the latter, since even the memory of the dark-souled and sanguinary Richard is exempt from the reproach of parricide.

The elevation of Constantinople produced the decline of the ancient metropolis; but the scite of the new capital was peculiarly advantageous to the interests of Greece. The inhabitants of that classie country were fallen below the standard of national honour, even as it subsisted for some ages after their union with the Romans. The corruption of their manners, their proneness to flattery, were congenial with the temper and inclinations of a proud luxurious court; their eloquence had degenerated into declamation, their literature into works of sophistry; and the leisure even of Athens could find no worthier pursuit than the vain and inconsequential subtleties of the schools. The loss of liberty deprives a nation of the noblest stimulus to exertion, and the pride of the conquered Greeks subsided to the level of their fortunes. The energy that was formerly devoted to the higher arts, or the plans of a generous ambition, was now directed to the advancement of manufactures, the cultivation of commerce, and the improvement of domestic conveniences. The demands of a populous and luxurious capital for the costly fabrics and curious commodities of Greece, called forth in a proportionate degree the active skill of her population. The port of Constantinople was crowded with the merchantmen of Athens and the Peloponesus; the trade of an immense and civilized empire became concentered in the hands of her citizens, and the Greeks rejoiced that the wealth of their conquerors was exhausted in the purchase of the luxuries by which they were enfeebled. The proximity of the new capital to the Grecian prefecture attracted a perpetual stream of adventurers from that fortunate province; their intermarriages with the nobles introduced a large mixture of Hellenic blood into the wealthy and exalted families of Byzantium; and the court, the palace, the offices of government, were gradually occupied by the loquacious and effeminate Greeks.

The death of Constantine was succeeded by the massacre of his kindred. Only Gallus and Julian, the cousins of Constantius, escaped from this savage and promiscuous slaughter, which was perpetrated at the instigation of their sanguinary relative. The empire was then divided between the sons of Constantine. The possession of Constan

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