The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc Part 7

70 4 NATIONALITY IT WAS NOT: i.e. nationalism--patriotism--it was not.

Cf. _Revolt of the Tartars_, Riverside ed., Vol. XII, p. 4; Ma.s.son's ed., Vol. VII, p. 370, where De Quincey speaks of the TorG.o.d as "tribes whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing forms of superst.i.tion, and by a nationality as well as an inflated conceit of their own merit absolutely unparalleled." Cf. also footnote, p. 94.

70 4 SUFFREN: the great French admiral who in 1780-1781 inflicted so much loss upon the British.

70 10 MAGNANIMOUS JUSTICE OF ENGLISHMEN: As Professor Hart observes, the treatment of Joan in _Henry VI_ is hardly magnanimous.

71 29 THAT ODIOUS MAN: Cf. pp. 79-80.

72 12 THREE GREAT SUCCESSIVE BATTLES: Rudolf of Lorraine fell at Crecy (1346); Frederick of Lorraine at Agincourt (1415); the battle of Nicopolis, which sacrificed the third Lorrainer, took place in 1396.

73 24 CHARLES VI (1368-1422) had killed several men during his first fit of insanity. He was for the rest of his life wholly unfit to govern. He declared Henry V of England, the conqueror of Agincourt, his successor, thus disinheriting the Dauphin, his son.

74 2 THE FAMINES, ETC.: Horrible famines occurred in France and England in 1315, 1336, and 1353. Such insurrections as Wat Tyler's, in 1381, are probably in De Quincey's mind.

74 6 THE TERMINATION OF THE CRUSADES: The Crusades came to an end about 1271. "The ulterior results of the crusades," concludes c.o.x in _Encyclopedia Britannica_, "were the breaking up of the feudal system, the abolition of serfdom, the supremacy of a common law over the independent jurisdiction of chiefs who claimed the right of private wars."

74 7 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLARS: This most famous of the military orders, founded in the twelfth century for the defense of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, having grown so powerful as to be greatly feared, was suppressed at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

74 7 THE PAPAL INTERDICTS: "De Quincey has probably in mind such an interdict as that p.r.o.nounced in 1200, by Innocent III, against France.

All ecclesiastical functions were suspended and the land was in desolation."--HART. England was put under interdict several times, as in 1170 (for the murder of Becket) and 1208.

74 8 THE TRAGEDIES CAUSED OR SUFFERED BY THE HOUSE OF ANJOU, AND BY THE EMPEROR: "The Emperor is Konradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen, beheaded by Charles of Anjou at Naples, 1268. The subsequent cruelties of Charles in Sicily caused the popular uprising known as the Sicilian Vespers, 1282, in which many thousands of Frenchmen were a.s.sa.s.sinated."--HART.

74 10 THE COLOSSAL FIGURE OF FEUDALISM, ETC.: The English yeomen at Crecy, overpowering the mounted knights of France, took from feudalism its chief support,--the superiority of the mounted knight to the unmounted yeoman. Cf. Green, _History of the English People_, Book IV, Chap. II.

74 15 THE ABOMINABLE SPECTACLE OF A DOUBLE POPE: For thirty-eight years this paradoxical state of things endured.

75 15 THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY: a list of the martyrs of the Church, arranged according to the order of their festivals, and with accounts of their lives and sufferings.

76 4 "ABBEYS THERE WERE," ETC.: Cf. Wordsworth, _Peter Bell_, Part Second:

Temples like those among the Hindoos, And mosques, and spires, and abbey windows, And castles all with ivy green.

76 17 THE VOSGES ... HAVE NEVER ATTRACTED MUCH NOTICE, ETC.: They came into like prominence after De Quincey's day in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

76 31 THOSE MYSTERIOUS FAWNS, ETC.: In some of the romances of the Middle Ages, especially those containing Celtic material, a knight, while hunting, is led by his pursuit of a white fawn (or a white stag or boar) to a _fee_ (i.e. an inhabitant of the "Happy Other-world") or into the confines of the "Happy Other-world" itself. Sometimes, as in the _Guigemar_ of Marie de France, the knight pa.s.ses on to a series of adventures in consequence of his meeting with the white fawn. I owe this note to the kindness of Mr. S. W. Kinney, A.M., of Baltimore.

76 33 THAT ANCIENT STAG: See _Englische Studien,_ Vol. V, p. 16, where additions are made to the following account from Hardwicke's _Traditions, Superst.i.tions, and Folk-Lore,_ Manchester and London, 1872, p. 154:

This chasing of the white doe or the white hart by the spectre huntsman has a.s.sumed various forms. According to Aristotle a white hart was killed by Agathocles, King of Sicily, which a thousand years beforehand had been consecrated to Diana by Diomedes. Alexander the Great is said by Pliny to have caught a white stag, placed a collar of gold about its neck, and afterwards set it free. Succeeding heroes have in after days been announced as the capturers of this famous white hart. Julius Caesar took the place of Alexander, and Charlemagne caught a white hart at both Magdeburg, and in the Holstein woods. In 1172 William [Henry] the Lion is reported to have accomplished a similar feat, according to a Latin inscription on the walls of Lubeck Cathedral. Tradition says the white hart has been caught on Rothwell Hay Common, in Yorks.h.i.+re, and in Windsor Forest.

This reference I owe indirectly to Professor J. M. Manly, of Chicago.

77 4 OR, BEING UPON THE MARCHES OF FRANCE, A MARQUIS: _Marquis_ is derived from _march,_ and was originally the t.i.tle of the guardian of the frontier, or march.

77 13 AGREED WITH SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY THAT A GOOD DEAL MIGHT BE SAID ON BOTH SIDES: This expression, as has been pointed out to me, is from the middle of _Spectator_ No. 122, where Sir Roger, having been appealed to on a question of fis.h.i.+ng privileges, replied, "with an air of a man who would not give his judgment rashly, that much might be said on both sides." It is likely, however, that De Quincey may have connected it in his mind with the discussion of witchcraft at the beginning of _Spectator_ No. 117, where Addison balances the grounds for belief and unbelief somewhat as De Quincey does here.

78 7 BERGERETA: a very late Latin form of French _bergerette,_ "a shepherdess."

78 15 M. SIMOND, IN HIS "TRAVELS": The reference is to _Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain during the years 1810 and 1811,_ by Louis Simond, 2d ed. (Edinburgh, 1817), to which is added an appendix on France, written in December, 1815, and October, 1816. De Quincey refers to this story with horror several times, but such scenes are not yet wholly unknown.

79 21 A CHEVALIER OF ST. LOUIS: The French order of St. Louis was founded by Louis XIV in 1693 for military service. After its discontinuance at the Revolution this order was reinstated in 1814; but no knights have been created since 1830. "Chevalier" is the lowest rank in such an order; it is here erroneously used by De Quincey as a t.i.tle of address.

79 22 "CHEVALIER, AS-TU DONNe," etc.: "Chevalier, have you fed the hog?"

"MA FILLE," ETC.: "My daughter, have you," etc. "PUCELLE," ETC.: "Maid of Orleans, have you saved the lilies (i.e. France)?"

79 28 IF THE MAN THAT TURNIPS CRIES: Cf. _Johnsoniana_, ed. R. Napier, London, 1884, where, in _Anecdotes of Johnson_, by Mrs. Piozzi, p. 29, is found: "'T is a mere play of words (added he)"--Johnson is speaking of certain "verses by Lopez de Vega"--"and you might as well say, that

"If the man who turnips cries, Cry not when his father dies, 'T is a proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father."

This reference is given in Bartlett's _Familiar Quotations_.

80 4 THE ORIFLAMME OF FRANCE: the red banner of St. Denis, preserved in the abbey of that name, near Paris, and borne before the French king as a consecrated flag.

80 22 TWENTY YEARS AFTER, TALKING WITH SOUTHEY: In 1816 De Quincey was a resident of Grasmere; Southey lived for many years at Keswick, a few miles away; they met first in 1807. For De Quincey's estimate of Southey's _Joan of Arc_, see _Works_, Riverside ed., Vol. VI, pp.

262-266; Ma.s.son's ed., Vol. V, pp. 238-242.

80 28 CHINON is a little town near Tours.

81 3 SHE "p.r.i.c.kS" FOR SHERIFFS: The old custom was to p.r.i.c.k with a pin the names of those chosen by the sovereign for sheriffs.

82 9 AMPULLA: the flask containing the sacred oil used at coronations.

82 10 THE ENGLISH BOY: Henry VI was nine months old when he was proclaimed king of England and France in 1422, Charles VI of France, and Henry V, his legal heir, having both died in that year. Henry's mother was the eldest daughter of Charles VI.

82 13 DRAWN FROM THE OVENS OF RHEIMS: Rheims, where the kings of France were crowned, was famous for its biscuits and gingerbread.

82 26 TINDAL'S "CHRISTIANITY AS OLD AS THE CREATION": Matthew Tindal (1657-1732) published this work in 1732; its greatest interest lies in the fact that to this book more than to any other Butler's _a.n.a.logy_ was a reply. Tindal's argument was that natural religion, as taught by the deists, was complete; that no revelation was necessary. A life according to nature is all that the best religion can teach. Such doctrine as this Joan preached in the speech ascribed to her.

82 27 A PARTE ANTE: "from the part gone before"; Joan's speech being three centuries earlier than the book from which it was taken.

83 9 THAT DIVINE Pa.s.sAGE IN "PARADISE REGAINED": from Book I, II.

196-205.

84 34 PATAY IS NEAR ORLEANS: Troyes was the capital of the old province of Champagne.

86 25 "NOLEBAT," ETC.: "She would not use her sword or kill any one."

87 24 MADE PRISONER BY THE BURGUNDIANS: The English have accused the French officers of conniving at Joan's capture through jealousy of her successes. Compiegne is fifty miles northeast of Paris.

87 27 BISHOP OF BEAUVAIS: Beauvais is forty-three miles northwest of Paris, in Normandy. This bishop, Pierre Cauchon, rector of the University at Paris, was devoted to the English party.

87 30 "BISHOP THAT ART," ETC.: Cf. Shakespeare's _Macbeth_, Act I, sc.

v, 1. 13.

87 33 A TRIPLE CROWN: The papacy is meant, of course. The pope's tiara is a tall cap of golden cloth, encircled by three coronets.

88 17 JUDGES EXAMINING THE PRISONER: The judge in France questions a prisoner minutely when he is first taken, before he is remanded for trial. De Quincey displays here his inveterate prejudice against the French; but this practice is widely regarded as the vital error of French criminal procedure.,