says hand of him lines, hooks, and other tackling, lying in a round; and on his other hand his angle-rods of several sorts." It is evident from all this, that Walton thought Dr. Nowel, as he was a good angler, could not fail to be a good Christian. Numerous other passages might be pointed out, to shew that Walton actually felt, if he did not believe, that there is, in fact, some natural and necessary connexion between angling and virtue. I will refer to one or two more on this point, as their characteristic naïveté is perfectly delightful. After having described, to his pupil, with infinite gusto, the best mode of dressing a pike, he adds, "This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men. Again, speaking of a "brother of the angle," he he was honest man, and a most excellent fly-fisher.' With him the two characters never occur separately. Nay, he carries his enthusiasm so far on this point, that he believes men are born to angling, as they are to poetry, and that without a genius for it they cannot succeed; "for angling is somewhat like poetry,-men are to be born so." Finally, he has little doubt that a person thus gifted is equally capable of all other good works. His book contains several beautiful copies of verses; but hear what he says of the most beautiful of them all: "Trust me, scholar, I thank you heartily for these verses: they be choicely good, and doubtless made by a lover of angling." And yet there is not one word in them that would countenance this idea; on the contrary, the few words that do refer to angling, tend to prove directly the opposite. 66 an It is to be remarked, as another curious result of Walton's enthusiasm for angling, that it not only destroyed his excellent natural feelings, but also his good sense and good taste, in all points connected with that subject. He had, generally speaking, an admirable taste for poetry; and yet because Du Bartas (that ideal of the bombastical and mock-heroic) says something about angling and fishes, Walton quotes him with ecstacy, and calls him "the divine Du Bartas;" and believes and instances ever so many wild and ridiculous stories that he tells about the "chaste mullet," the "constant cantharus," and the "adulterous sargus." Nay, on this subject he believes and quotes that proverbial liar, Ferdinand Mendez Pinto himself. I will now close my extracts by a short passage, which cannot fail to convey to the reader an apt idea of the peculiar style in which the Complete Angler is written: " Piscator-And now, scholar, my direction for fly-fishing is ended with this shower, for it has done raining; and now look about you, and see how pleasantly that meadow looks; nay, and the earth smells as sweetly too. Come, let me tell you what holy Mr. Herbert says of such days and flowers as these; and then we will thank God that we enjoy them, and walk to the river and sit down quietly, and try to catch the other brace of trouts." Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky; Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night; For thou must die. Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like season'd timber, never gives, But when the whole world turns to coal, "6 WHEN eastern skies are tinged with red, To snatch the fresh and fleeting hour, Oh shake off slumber's drowsy spell, With careless foosteps freely rove While new-mown hay its sweets bestowing, Oh haste-oh haste To meet the bee on busy wing To taste the gifts of earth and air, Who stealing forth, now hopes unseen Oh haste-oh haste Joys like these will never stay, But melt like summer's mist away, From day's too piercing eye. N. ON THE GAME OF CHESS IN EUROPE DURING THE BEFORE I proceed to an examination of the various MSS. consulted in drawing up the present Essay, I beg leave to make a few additional allusions to the ancient romances. In the romance of "Tristan de Leonnois," written about the year 1120, Tristan goes to the court of King Pharamond for his education, where "tant creust et amenda tant que chascun s'en merveilloit, il sçeut tant des Eschez et des tables que nul ne l'en peult macter." The romance of " Ogier le Danois" is peculiarly interesting from the minute description it gives of a Game at Chess played between Charlot and Baldwin; the tale is thus told :"Et quat ce vit sur le vespre tournoierent vng peu a la salle. Et il print voulente a charlot de iouer aux eschez: si dema'da a baudouin sil y scauoit rien et il respo'dit q'ouy. Adonc lui commanda quil allast querir leschequier et le fist et si tost quil fut venu chascu assist son ieu. Et quant charlot comenca a iouer tira ong petit paonnet et print ong cheualier et baudouyn q fin et soubtil estoit tira le sien et leua et print deux cheualiers. De son rey lui dist eschac. En lui disant monseigneur nous aurons tantost la fin de ce jeu. Puis couu'rit charlot son roc et prit ung paonnet. Adonc baudouyn trayt son cheualier et la mis au plus pres de son roy. Et charlot ne puoit point a plaisir, mais lui dist plusieurs fois laissez celle raille ou ie vous iure ma foy q' vous en repentirez. Monseigneur se dist baudouyn cela vault mieulx que tout le ieu car le ieu des eschez est de telle propriete quil ne dema'de que langaige ioyeulz," &c. This of course leads to more violent language, and terminates in Charlot's seizing the chess-board and dashing out the brains of Baldwin. In the sixth book of the "Philicolo" of Boccacio, a game is described with similar minuteness, but the courteous conduct of Philicolo is a striking contrast to the insolent and overbearing behaviour of Baldwin: the former not only permits his petulant antagonist, a Castellan, to win several games, but when he at length wins and the other in a pet oversets the chess-board, addresses him in the following mild and soothing words,-" Signor mio, per cio che usanza de piu sauii di crucciarsi a questo giuoco, io voi men sauio non reputo, per che contra gli Scacchi crucciato siate; ma se voi haueste ben riguardato il giuoco prima che guastatolo, harreste conosciuto che io era in duo tratti matto da voi. Credo che 'l vedeste, ma per essermi cortese, monstra'doui crucciato uoleste il giuoco hauer perduto, ma cio non sia cosi. Questi bisanti siano tutti uostri," &c.Sir, as it is customary for the wisest men to be vexed at this game, I do not esteem you the less wise, because you vented your anger on the chess-men, but if you had considered the game well before you spoilt it, you would have known that in two moves you might have mated me. I believe you saw it, but in order to be courteous to me, appearing to be vexed, you pretended to have lost the game, but let that not be so. Let these besants be all yours, &c. There are several MSS. on chess deposited in the British Museum, of which I shall attempt a description, commencing with the least important, and concluding with the more valuable ones.-MS. Sloan: 4029. is a small MS. on paper, containing a variety of tales in Latin. Mr. Twiss, in his very interesting work on chess, describes it in the following laconic terms: Cod. Sec. XIV. Sloan. 4029. Plut. xxiii. D. Fabula de ludo Scaccarii, Two pages on paper, of which it is almost impossible to read a line.' Without doubting the truth of Mr. T.'s assertion when applied merely to himself, I must nevertheless beg leave to differ in the general application of his opinion; since, with little or no difficulty, I have been enabled to peruse every line of it. It, however, will not repay the labour of perusal, as it is a wretched morality on chess, similar to that ascribed to Pope Innocent, which will be presently noticed. In this MS. the eight squares (octo puncta) of the chess-board, are very sagaciously compared to the eight kinds of men living in the world, viz. Wyldhede, Wykkydhede, Clergy, Laymen, Rich, and Poor; the writer omitting, possibly from forgetfulness, to add the two remaining descriptions. He then mentions the names of the chess-men, and explains their various moves, which I shall advert to in their proper place. -Bibl. Reg. 12 E. xxi. consists of two pages in rhyme, written on vellum, and called, 'Incipit modus et scientia ludi Scaccorum ;' and the Morality of Pope Innocent, who was raised to the see of Rome in 1198. This morality (moralitatis de Scaccario per dominum Innocentium Papam) is supposed to be one of the earliest manuscripts extant on this game, but great doubts exist whether the holy father were really the author of so absurd and trifling a performance, it being likewise attributed to an English monk of the same name, who lived about the commencement of the 13th century.-MS. Harl. 1275. is a small 4to, of 50 leaves of parchment, and about twenty-nine lines on a page. This is the work of Jacobus de Cesulis, entitled 'Liber moralis de ludo Scaccorum. The first page has a border well illuminated in gold and colours, representing flowers, birds, angels, &c. The first letter, which is an M. of about an inch square, is ornamented with a miniature of a king playing at chess with a philosopher. The drawing is good, the colours vivid, and the whole of the writing in the manuscript extremely neat, and in perfect preservation. Dr. Hyde, speaking of this book, says, that it was written by Jacopo Dacciesole, a Dominican friar, before the year There is a Latin manuscript of this work in the library of Dresden, with the following title: 'Solatium ludi Scacchorum, scilicet regiminis ac morum hominum, et officium Virorum Nobilium, quorum formas si quis menti impresserit, bellum ipsum, et Ludi virtutem corde faciliter, vel feliciter poterit obtinere.' At the end are these facetious lines 1200. Finito libro, sit laus et gloria Christo! Penna, precor, cessa, quoniam manus est mihi fessa. I am indebted for this information to an exceedingly curious Catalogue of Writers on the Game of Chess, inserted in "A Treatise on the Game of Chess; containing the Games on odds, from the Traité des Amateurs; the Games of the celebrated Anonymous Modenese; a variety of Games actually played," &c. By John Cochrane, Esq. 1822. 8vo. Mr. C. has done no little service to the chess world by giving, in this excellent Treatise on Chess, the games of the Anonymous Modenese. Some of the games, collected from actual play, evince great skill, particularly that at p. 250. His defence to what he terms "The Queen's Pawn two Game," at p. 251, and his notice of "The King's Pawn one Game," are also very There are several other copies of this work in the British Museum, which need not be enumerated.-MS. Cotton. Cleop. B. ix. 1. is a very curious little treatise on chess, without date or title, written on vellum about the middle of the 13th century. Mr. Twiss says that it is contained “in seven octavo parchment leaves," but we must not infer from thence that the MS. extends throughout the whole of them, on the contrary it consists of only nine double-columned pages, each column having on an average forty lines of neatly written French verse, and illustrated with fifteen coloured diagrams. The work commences with the author's general address to his readers : Seignors un poi mentendez. En tutes curz aseurement Lordings, a little to me attend, The defences, as we have learnt them, That he who of game-parties has great know- In all courts assuredly Can play more skilfully. But there is one people who in despite To despise that which none knows the truth of; For it is not just before he knows for certain, Then follows a particular address to a friend, which, as a specimen of the argumentative powers of the writer, is too curious to be omitted: Beal frere souent mauez requis. Fair brother, you have often requested me, The gameparties should translate good; the frontispiece to the work exhibits a specimen of one of the most beautiful positions in Chess. On the whole, Mr. C.'s Treatise will be found extremely useful to amateurs, and not undeserving the attention of more experienced players. This word does not bear in ancient writers the modern acceptation of the term: it significs generally the French language, and, by implication, works of either history or fable, composed in that tongue. |