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the joy of self-exultation. This was the halo that shone from heaven, and shed over the tragedy a lustre by which it was sanctified in the eye of freedom.

I have brought heavy charges against this performance as a drama, and it is only justice that I should bring forward some of its beauties in detail: and here enough of matter will be found to soften the rigour of criticism. However wide the tragedies of Eschylus may be of the standard of excellence established in the land that gave Shakspeare birth, yet in all ages and in all countries he must be considered an eminent poet. In the eye that kindles as it rolls over the beauties of nature, and in the imagination that teems with great conceptions, he is inferior to few poets. There is a grandeur and loftiness of soul about hiin, generated by the elevation of freedom, that is blazing forth on every fit occasion,-a mysterious sublimity that cannot be understood, much less felt, by the slaves of a despot.

The following is a feeble attempt to render the meaning of the beautiful passage in which Prometheus describes the degraded state in which he found man, and by what means he had raised him from it; and it will be well if the meaning is given-the inspiration of poetry evaporates at the touch of translation.

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Eyes had they, but they saw not; they
had ears,
But heard not: Like the shadows of a dream,
For ages did they flit upon the earth,
Rising and vanishing, and left no trace
Of wisdom or of forethought. Their abodes
Were not of wood nor stone, nor did the sun
Warm them; for then they dwelt in light

less caves.

The season's change they knew not; when

the Spring

Should shed its roses, or the Summer pour
Its golden fruits, or icy Winter breathe
In barrenness and bleakness on the year.

To heaven I rais'd their eyes, and bade them

mark

The time the constellations rose and set,

By which their labours they might regulate.
I taught them numbers: letters were my gift,
By which the poet's genius might preserve
The memory of glorious events.

I to the plough bound the submissive ox,
And laid the panniers on the ass's back,
That they might mankind in their labours aid.
I to the chariot trained the willing steed,
The luxury and glory of the wealthy.
I to the tall mast hung the flaxen pinions,
To bear the vessel bounding o'er the billows.
In sickness, man, without a remedy,
Was left to perish, till my pity taught

The herbs' sweet influences, and the balm
That wak'd the bloom upon the faded cheek.
And strung the perveless arm with strength
again.

99

I was man's saviour, but have now no power
From these degrading bonds myself to save.'
The most sublime passage in this
sublime poem
is that in which Pro-
metheus replies to Mercury, when, in
the name of Jupiter, he denounces
a terrible vengeance if he refuse to
reveal the secrets of fate touching the
dethronement of the thunderer.

P. To be a slave, thy words sound
wondrous well,
The words of wisdom and authority.
The tyrant is but young in power, and deems
His place inaccessible to sorrow,
But bear him this defiance: I have seen
Two hated despots hurl'd from the same
throne,

And in him I shall soon behold a third,
Flung thence in an irreparable ruin.
Think not that I do fear thy upstart gods,
Beings of yesterday; but hie thee hence,
Go tell him that his thunders have no power
To humble me, or wrest my secret from me.

M. It was thy proud rebellion brought
thee here,

Else hadst thou from calamity been free.

P. Thinkst thou that I would change

these galling bonds
For slavery, and be the thing that thou art?
No! I would rather hang upon this rock
For aye, than be the slave of Jupiter.
Thus I return his insults,-thus defy him.
Yet must he fall; but he shall never learn

From me whose hand shall strike the whelm-
ing blow:

There is no pang by which he may prevail.
No let him launch at me the flaming bolt,
Load with the white-wing'd snow the weary

earth,

And to its centre rock it by the earthquake,
He shall not shake me from my firm resolve."

There is so striking a resemblance between this passage and Satan's address to Infernal Horrors in the first book of Paradise Lost, that there is reason to believe that Milton's farfamed line,

"Betterto reign in hell than serve in heaven."
might have been suggested by this:
"No! I would rather hang upon this rock
For aye, than be the slave of Jupiter."

It would be easy, were not this article already swelled too much in length, to draw such a parallel betwixt the two characters, as to give strong reason to suspect that Milton took his first idea of that of Satan from Prometheus. Yet this is to detract little from the glory of one of the greatest of our poets. An accidental spark is sufficient to kindle the fires of a volcano.

Z.

NOTICES CONCERNING THE SCOTTISH GYPSIES.

"Hast thou not noted on the bye-way side,
Where aged saughs lean o'er the lazy tide,
A vagrant crew, far strangled through the glade,
With trifles busied, or in slumber laid;
Their children lolling round them on the grass,
Or pestering with their sports the patient ass?
The wrinkled beldame there you may espy,
And ripe young maiden with the glossy eye,
Men in their prime, and striplings dark and dun,-
Scathed by the storm and freckled with the sun :
Their swarthy hue and mantle's flowing fold,
Bespeak the remnant of a race of old:

Strange are their annals !-list, and mark them well-
For thou hast much to hear and I to tell."

THAT an Asiatic people should have resided four hundred years in the heart of Europe, subject to its civilized polity and commingled with its varied population, and yet have retained almost unaltered their distinct oriental character, customs, and language, is a phenomenon so singular as only to be equalled, perhaps, by the unaccountable indifference with which, till very lately, this remarkable fact appears to have been regarded. Men of letters, while eagerly investigating the customs of Otaheite or Kamschatka, and losing their tempers in endless disputes about Gothic and Celtic antiquities, have witnessed with apathy and contempt the striking spectacle of a Gypsey camp, pitched, perhaps, amidst the mouldering entrenchments of their favourite Picts and Romans. The rest of the community, familiar from infancy with the general character and appearance of these vagrant hordes, have probably never regarded them with any deeper interest than what springs from the recollected terrors of a nursery tale, or the finer associations of poetical and picturesque description. It may, indeed, be reckoned as one of the many remarkable circumstances in the history of this singular race, that the best and almost the only accounts of them that have hitherto appeared in this country, are to be found in works of fiction. Disregarded by philosophers and literati,-the strange, picturesque, and sometimes terrific features of the gypsey character, have afforded to our poets and novelists a favourite subject for delineation; and they have executed the task so well, that we have little more to ask of the historian, than merely to extend the canvass, and to affix the stamp of authenticity to the striking representations which they

HOGG.

have furnished. In presenting to the public the following desultory notices, we are very far from any thoughts of aspiring to this grave office-nor indeed is it our province. Our duty is rather to collect and store up (if we may so express it,) the raw materials of literature-to gather into our repository scattered facts, hints, and observations,-which more elaborate and learned authors may afterwards work up into the dignified tissue of history or science. With this idea, and with the hope of affording to general readers something both of information and amusement on a subject so curious and so indistinctly known, we have collected some particulars respecting the Gypsies in Scotland, both from public records and popular tradition; and, in* order to render the picture more complete, we shall introduce these by a rapid view of their earlier history-reserving to a future occasion our observations on their present state, and on the mysterious subject of their national language and origin.

That this wandering people attracted considerable attention on their first arrival in Christendom in the beginning of the fifteenth century, is sufficiently evident, both from the notices of contemporary authors, and from the various edicts respecting them still existing in the archives of every state in Europe. Their first appearance and pretensions were indeed somewhat imposing. They entered Hungary and Bohemia from the east, travelling in numerous hordes, under leaders who assumed the titles of Kings, Dukes, Counts, or Lords of Lesser Egypt, and they gave themselves out for Christian Pilgrims, who had been expelled from that country by the Saracens for their adherence to the true religion. However doubt

ful may now appear their claims to this sacred character, they had the address to pass themselves on some of the principal sovereigns of Europe, and, as German historians relate, even on the Pope himself, for real pilgrims; and obtained, under the seals of these potentates, various privileges and passports, empowering them to travel through all christian countries under their patronage, for the space of seven years. Having once gained this footing, however, the Egyptian pilgrims were at no great loss in finding pretences for prolonging their stay; and though it was soon discovered that their manners and conduct corresponded but little to the sanctity of their first pretensions, yet so strong was the delusion respecting them, and so dexterous were they in the arts of imposition, that they seem to have been either legally protected or silently endured by most of the European governments for the greater part of a century.

*

When their true character became at length fully understood, and they were found to be in reality a race of profligate and thievish impostors,— who from their numbers and audacity had now become a grievous and intolerable nuisance to the various countries that they had inundated,-severe measures were adopted by different states to expel them from their territories. Decrees of expulsion were is sued against them by Spain in 1492, by the German empire in 1500, and by France in 1561 and 1612. Whether it was owing, however, to the inefficient systems of police at that time in use, or, that the common people among whom they were mingled favoured their evasion of the public edicts, it is certain, that notwithstand ing many long and bloody persecutions, no country that had once ad

mitted" these unknown and uninvited guests," has ever again been able to get rid of them. When rigorously prosecuted by any government on account of their crimes and depredations, they generally withdrew for a time to the remote parts of the country, or crossed the frontiers to a neighbouring jurisdiction-only to return to their accustomed haunts and habits as soon as the storm passed over. Though their numbers may perhaps have since

* Grellmann.

been somewhat diminished in particular states by the progress of civilization, it seems to be generally allowed that their distinctive character and modes of life have nowhere undergone any material alteration. In Germany, Hungary, Poland,-in Italy, Spain, France, and England, this singular people, by whatever appellation they may be distinguished,-Cingari, Zigeuners, Tziganys, Bohemiens, Gitanos, or Gypsies, still remain uncombined with the various nations among whom they are dispersed, and still continue the same dark, deceitful, and disorderly race as when their wandering hordes first emigrated from Egypt or from India. They are still every where characterized by the same strolling and pilfering propensities,-the same peculiarity of aspect, and the same pretensions to fortune-telling and ' warlockry."

**

The estimate of their present numbers, by the best informed continental writers on the subject, is almost incredible." Independently," says Grellmann, "of the multitudes of gypsies in Egypt and some parts of Asia, could we obtain an exact estimate of them in the countries of Europe, the immense number would probably greatly exceed what we have any idea of. At a moderate calculation, and without being extravagant, they might be reckoned at between seven and eight hundred thousand."

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The gypsies do not appear to have found their way to this Island till about 100 years after they were first known in Europe. Henry VIII. and his immediate successors, by several severe enactments, and by re-exporting numbers of them at the public expense, endeavoured to expel from their dominions "this outlandish people calling themselves Egupeians, but apparently with little better success than their brother sovereigns in other countries; for in the reign of Elizabeth the number of them in England is stated to have exceeded 10,000, and they afterwards became still more numerous. If they made any pretension to the character of [pilgrims, on their arrival among our southern neighbours, it is evident at least that neither Henry nor

Grellmann. See also Hume on Crim. Law of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 344. Maekenzie's Obs, on Stat. p, 333.

Elizabeth were deceived by their impostures. Both these monarchs, indeed, (particularly the former), were too much accustomed to use religion, as well as law, for a cloak to cover their own violent and criminal conduct, to be easily imposed upon by the like artifices in others. We find them accordingly using very little ceremony with the Egyptian pilgrims,' who, in several of their statutes, are described by such designations as the following Sturdy roags,'' rascalls, vacabonds, masterless men, ydle, vagraunte, loyteringe, lewde, and yll disposed persons, going aboute usinge subtiltie and unlawful games or plaie,'

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such as faynt themselves to have knowledge in physiognomye, palmestrie, or other abused sciences-tellers of destinies, deaths, or fortunes, and such lyke fantasticall imaginatiouns.'In king Edward's journal we find them mentioned along with other masterless men. The following association of persons seems curious:— 'June 22, 1549. There was a privy search made through Suffolk for all vagabonds, gipsies, conspirators, prophesiers, all players, and such like.*

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A more distinct account of the English gypsies, on their first arrival, is to be found in a work quoted by Mr Hoyland, which was published in the year 1612, to detect and expose the art of juggling and legerdemain. "This kind of people," says the author, "about a hundred years ago, beganne to gather on head, at the first heere, about the southerne parts. And this, as I am informed, and can gather, was their beginning: Certain Egyptians banished their country, (belike not for their good conditions,) arrived heere in England, who for quaint tricks and devices not known heere at that time among us, were esteemed and had in great admiration; insomuch, that many of our English loyterers joined with them, and in time learned their crafty cozening.' "The speach which they used was the right Egyptian speach, with whom our Englishmen conversing, at last learned their language. These people, continuing about the country, and practising their cozening art, purchased themselves great credit among the country people, and got much by pal

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Appendix to Burnet's Hist. of Reformation, vol. ii.

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mistry and telling of fortunes; insomuch, they pitifully cozened poor country girls both of money, silver, spoons, and the best of their apparele, or any goods they could make.' They had a leader of the name of Giles Hather, who was termed their king; and a woman of the name of Calot was called queen. These riding through the country on horseback, and in strange attire, had a prettie traine after them." After mentioning some of the laws passed against them, this writer adds:-" But what numbers were executed on these statutes you would wonder; yet, notwithstanding, all would not prevail, but they wandered as before uppe and downe, and meeting once in a yeare at a place appointed; sometimes at the Peake's Hole in Derbyshire, and other whiles by Retbroak at Blackheath."

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It is probable that the gypsies entered Scotland about the same period in which they are stated by these accounts to have first pitched their tents in the sister kingdom. The earliest notice of them, however, that we have been able to discover in our national records, is contained in the celebrated writ of Privy Seal, passed in the 28th year of James V. (1540), in favour of "Johnne Faw, Lord and Erle of Litill Egipt." A complete copy of this document, which has been carefully collated with the original record in the Register House, will be found in another department of our Magazine. This writ was renewed by the Earl of Arran as Regent of Scotland in 1563, nearly in the same words. † It appears from these very curious edicts, that John Faw, under the character of 'Lord and Erle of Litill Egipt,' had formerly obtained letters under the Great Seal, enjoining all magistrates, &c. to support his authority" in exe cutioun of justice vpon his cumpany and folkis, conforme to the laws of Egipt, and in punissing of all thaim that rebellis aganis him." plains that certain of his followers had, nevertheless, revolted from his jurisdiction, robbed and left him, and were supported in their contumacious rebellion by some of the king's lieges; -"Sua that he (the said Johnne, thair lord and maister) on na wyse can apprehend nor get thame, to have thame

He com

Hoyland's Historical Survey. + Registrum Secreti Sigilli, vol. xxv. fol. 62.

hame agane
within thair awin cuntre,"
"howbeit he has biddin and remanit
of lang tyme vpon thame, and is
bundin and oblist to bring hame with
him all thame of his company that ar
on live, and ane testimoniale of thame
that ar deid;"the non-fulfilment of
which obligation, he pretends, will
subject him to "" hevy dampnage and
skaith, and grete perell of tynsell
(loss) of his heretage."-The names
of these rebellious Egyptians are exact-
ly the same in both edicts, and having
been given in to the Scottish govern-
ment by the chieftain himself, may be
supposed to be correctly reported. We
shall be glad if any of our learned
readers can help us to trace their ety-
mology.

It affords a striking evidence of the address of these audacious vagrants, and of the ignorance of the times, to find two of our sovereigns imposed upon by this gypsey chieftain's story, about his band' and 'heretage.' This was at least 120 years after the first arrival of these hordes in Europe. -We hear no more of the return of Earl John and his company to 'thair awin cuntre.'

In the following year (1554), "Andro Faw, capitane of the Egiptiunis,' and twelve of his gang, specified by name, obtained a remission for "the slauchter of Niniane Smaill, comittit within the toune of Lyntoune, in the moneth of March last bypast, vpoun suddantie."*

The gypsies appear to have kept their quarters in the country without further molestation for the next twenty-five years; and their enormities, as well as their numbers, it would seem, had greatly increased during the long political and religious struggles that occupied the greater part of Mary's disastrous reign. At length, in 1579, the government found it necessary to adopt the most rigorous methods to repress the innumerable swarm of strolling vagabonds of every description, who had overspread the kingdom. A new statute was enacted by parliament, "For pwnishment of the strang and ydle beggaris, and relief of the puir and impotent." In the comprehensive provisions of this act, we find bards, minstrels, and vagabond scholars, (lachrymabile dictu!) conjoined in ignominious fellowship with the Egyptian

Regist. Secreti Sigilli, vol. xxvii. fol. 3 36.

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jugglers. The following passages, prescribing the mode of punishment, and specifying some of the various sorts of vagrants against whom it is denounced, are particularly curious:-" That sic as makis thame selffis fuilis, and ar bairdts, or vtheris siclike rynarris about, being apprehendit, salbe put in the kingis waird and yrnis, sa lang as they haue ony guidis of thair awin to leif on; and fra they haue not quhairupoun to leif of their awin, that thair earis be nailit to the trone, or to ane vther trie, and thair earis cuttit of, and banist the cuntrie; and gif thairefter that they be found agane that they be hangit.' "And that it may be knawin quhat maner of personis ar meanit to be strang and idle beggaris, and vagaboundis, and worthie of the pwnishment before specifiit, it is declairit, that all ydle personis ganging about in ony cuntrie of this realme, vsing subtill, crafty, and vnlauchfull playis, as juglarie, fast and lowis, and sic vthers; the idle people calling thame selffis Egyptianis, or ony vtheris that fenzies thame selffis to have knowledge of prophecie, charmeing, or vtheris abusit sciences, quhairby they persuaid the people that they can tell their weardis deathis, and fortunes, and sic vther fantasticall imaginationes;"-" and all menstrallis, sangstaris, and tailtellaris, not avouit in speciall service be sum of the lordis of parliament, or greit barronis, or be the heid burrowis and cities, for thair commoun menstrallis;"-" all vagabund scholaris of the vniuersities of Sanctandrois, Glasgw, and Abirdene, not licencit be the rector and deane of facultie to ask almous," &c. &c. *

This statute was repeatedly renewed, and strengthened with additional clauses, during the twenty-five years ensuing,"anent the counterfaict Egyptianis ;"t-all which, however, proved so utterly ineffectual in restraining the crimes and depredations of these banditti, that in 1603, the Lords of Privy Council judged it expedient to issue a decree and proclamation, banishing the whole race out of Scotland for ever, under the severest penalties. This edict is not extant, (that part of the record which contained it being lost), but it was ratified and enforced in 1609,

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