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Some Incidents in the Life of Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch of Constantinople.

No. II. [Concluded from No. LXXII.]

ABOUT noon of the day appointed, the printing-office of Metaxa was suddenly surrounded by a band of one hundred and fifty Janissaries, whom the Vizier had dispatched thither with the intention of arresting the supposed criminal in the very act of printing blasphemy and treason. Metaxa, fortunately for himself, was absent at the high church of Galata, attending the solemnities of the day. Confusion and terror prevailed every where, without any one being able to divine the reason of this extraordinary visit. The Janissaries, disappointed in their principal object, wreaked their rage on the press and its machinery, part of which they demolished, and carried away the remainder, together with books, paper, money, furniture, &c. to the amount of four thousand dollars, on the pretext that they were the goods of a traitor, and therefore forfeit to the crown; the real object however, according to oriental practice, appears to have been private plunder. The workmen were put in irons. Whilst the tumult was at its height, the secretary of the English ambassador and his retinue, Metaxa among the rest, happened to pass by on his return from Galata. Some of the workmen, in the officiousness of fear, pointed out their master to the captain of the Janissaries: the secretary, however, claiming him as one of his suite, and his English hat and dress favoring the deception, he was allowed to pass unquestioned through the midst of the enraged soldiery, and reached the English residence almost lifeless with terror. The commander of the guards, with his troop, returned to the Vizier's to render his report. He was encountered on the way by one of the dragomans belonging to the French embassy, with information of the artifice which had been practised, and of Metaxa's place of refuge. To this he replied, with more regard to justice and humanity than his informer, that it was beyond the line of his instructions to follow him thither.

It was while Sir Thomas Rowe, in company with the Patriarch and the Venetian envoy, was enjoying the festivities of the day, that the unwelcome tidings were conveyed to him. Indignant as he was at the gross insult offered to his dignity as ambassador, and uneasy on account of the serious charges in which not only the Patriarch and Metaxa, but himself and the

commend the compilation of Dr. Smith. The documents which he has collected are well worthy of perusal, as containing an authentic, though not very studied or finished picture of Turkish government, French and English diplomacy, Papal policy, Jesuit proselytism, and the state of the oppressed and degraded church of Greece, both in itself and in its external relations : a picture colored, indeed, by the prejudices of the several writers, yet faithful in the main, and so far instructive. It will suffice to say, that after a long series of struggles with established abuse and error, supported by Turkish venality and foreign intrigue; after having been deposed four times from his patriarchal office, and as often reinstated, Cyrillus was arrested under the stale and false charge of treasonable correspondence, privately strangled, and his body thrown into the sea. His death happened in 1638. Dr. Smith's account of this event reminds us forcibly of the circumstances accompanying the execution of the late venerated Patriarch Gregory, the insults offered to his remains, and his subsequent honorable interment at Odessa, as described by Dr. Henderson.'

Præfectus Urbis, Musa Bassa, Cyrillum, sibi triste illud ac ultimum fatum instare parum cogitantem, missis Janisariis in Patriarchio deprehensum, in Occidentale castrum, quod Bosporo imminet, amandat. Junii 27 die, vespere satellites illum in lembum trudentes, dixerunt, se ad portum S. Stephani, qui paulo infra Constantinopolim est in litore Thracico, recta ituros, ut illic navi impositus ad quandam maris Ægæi insulam traducatur. At oram solventes, dum se ad carnificinam destinatam accingunt, ille flexis genibus ad Deum optimum maximum magna tum animi tum vocis contentione preces effudit, jamjam moriturus. Venerandum senem primo omni contumeliarum genere prosequuntur, deinde faciem colaphis cædunt, tandemque gutture chorda eliso suffocant. Corpus, vestibus exutum, in mare projectum, nacti piscatores ad littus exponunt, quod aliquanto post ab amicis terræ mandatur. At hostium ipsius livor et odium non cessant: in mortuum enim inhumanissime sæviunt. Male enim offensi, quod tumulum reperisset, Kaimakamum (ita urbis gubernatorem nuncupant) adeunt, ut effosso tumulo corpus in mare projiceretur. Iterum ex aquis receptum corpus, in quapiam ex insulis sinui Nicomediensi objacentibus, clam omni turba tumulabatur. Posteaquam vero Cyrillus Berrhaensis, [the usurper of the Patriarchate,] variis criminibus a Græcis antistitibus apud Imperatorem, e bello Persico reducem, infamatus, sede, quam impietate summa invaserat, motus, Tunetum, 1641, ubi laqueo vitam finiit, relegaretur, Parthenius Patriarcha effossas reliquias cadaveris Constantinopolim efferri curavit: inde post solennes in templo Patriarchali exequias, quibus ille, et e Metropolitis non pauci, ingensque cæterorum Græcorum, qui viri optimi dirum ac triste fatum, justa miseratione tacti, veris lacrymis deflebant, multitudo interfuere, decenti funebri pompa, plurimis quoque

1 Biblical Researches, &c. in Russia, p. 273, 4

comitantibus, in templum apud Ortakui, quod ad Bosporum jacet, terræ instratum corpus recondebatur. Ita hostium invidia, odio, et fictis injustissimisque criminationibus oppressus cecidit vir maximus, Cyrillus Lucarius, quem ob inculpatos mores, nullis probris commaculatos, et ob acerbissimas vitæ calamitates, et cruentam mortem, quam obiit religionis Evangelicæ defendendæ causa, quicquid censeat D. Arnaldus, et Sanctum et Martyrem habebo.

Dr. Smith, in his appendix, mentions an Arabic Pentateuch presented by Cyrillus to Archbishop Laud, and afterwards deposited in the Bodleian library, containing the following inscriptions, to which subsequent events attach a melancholy interest.

I

Κύριλλος οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης τῷ μακαριωτάτῳ καὶ σοφω τάτῳ Κυρίῳ Γουλιέλμῳ Λάουτ δωρεῖται τὸ παρὸν βιβλίον εἰς τεκμήριον ἀδελφικῆς ἀγάπης. Beneath is the following, which must have been written within a few years, at farthest, of Laud's own death: “Donum Cyrilli Patriarchæ Constantinopolitani, paulo antequam octogenarius Turcarum manibus indigne occubuit."

EXTRACTS FROM NEGLECTED BOOKS.

No. III.-[Continued from No. LXVII.]

Opus Merlini Cocaii Poëtæ Mantuani Macaronicorum. Venetiæ, 1585, &c.

A GREEK poet, having invented a very sorry kind of metre, thought his invention of sufficient importance to be dedicated to Apollo. Assuredly, there is in man a love of distinction for its own sake, and independent of the why and wherefore. "Fama bonus est odor ex re Qualibet." We must do or be something, which no one has done or been before us: if we cannot be pre-eminent, we must be peculiar; for peculiarity itself, to our self-love, seems a kind of pre-eminence. Some have even founded their pride on extraordinary villany; while others, "too good for great things and too great for good," content themselves with aiming at originality in trifles. "Slaves build their little Babylons in straw." We cannot reform a government-we will not endow a hospital-so we content ourselves with the discovery of a metrical canon, or the in

The epithet olxovμivinds appears to be merely an obsolete form, like the title of King of France, retained so long by our own monarchs.

vention of an improved cheese-toaster. It is not to be doubted, that the original author of Macaronic verse felicitated himself on the happiness of his conception, and rejoiced in his secret soul at the thought of the wide and lasting fame it was to obtain for him in future ages.

All this, and more, might a supercilious critic say, and show nothing more than his own narrowness of mind. Why should we despise what is good in its kind, because it is not of a high order? or who would wish to abridge the proportion, already too small, of harmless amusement in the world? The class Fun, to which Macaronics belong as a genus, is undoubtedly the lowest division of wit; it is, however, the honest growth of human nature, and as such deserves to be cherished.

Of the history of Macaronic poetry it is not our intention to treat. Its most florishing period appears to have been the sixteenth and the former part of the seventeenth century; since that time it has fallen into decay, with Latin verse in general. In our own country it has been comparatively neglected; a circumstance for which a French writer on the subject accounts in the following very polite manner: Ce n'est point un reproche à faire à cette nation, qu'elle ait négligé ou méprisé une sorte de poësie dont on peut dire en général: Turpe est difficiles habere nugas, Et stultus labor est ineptiarum."

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Who was the inventor of Macaronic poetry appears not to be known with certainty; but the first who cultivated it with success was Teofilo Folengio, or, as he styles himself in his poems, Merlinus Cocaius, a monk of Mantua, who florished in the former part of the sixteenth century. His principal work, Baldus, is a kind of mock-heroic romance, written in a medley of Latin and Italian, or rather Mantuan, founded on the adventures of an imaginary grandson of Charlemagne, who, accompanied by a trusty knave, a giant, a centaur, and other equally strange allies, traverses the world in search of glory. There is much of ludicrous invention in the incidents, much vigorous though coarse satire, together with lively painting of manners; and the grotesque combinations, in which the peculiar merit of Macaronic verse consists, are managed with good effect. Voltaire (Memoirs of Casanova) pronounced it to be a mere heap of dull absurdities; but Voltaire was too much an exquisite in this as in far higher matters. The work deserves a more extended notice than our limits will allow us to give it. We must content ourselves with an extract or two. A rogue of a monk is represented as cajoling Zambellus (one of the genus dolt, common in Italian comic stories) out of a fine cow, on which he and the rest of his fraternity are described as feasting luxuriously. Cingar, Zambellus's friend, who is the Ulysses of the poem, and a very diverting fellow, lays a plot for the recovery of the cow, and obtains admittance to the monastery, where he arrives only in

time to secure his share of poor Chiarina's remains. The banquet is described as follows:

Cingar eos reperit quodam cantone cubantes,
Circaque rostitam vaccam glutiendo sedebant.
Forsan erant numero vinti vel trenta capuzzi.
Alter spallazzum, ferit alter dente groponem,
Alter vult cossam, vult alter roddere pectus, &c.
Cingar tirare coramum

Incipit, et schincam Zambello tradidit unam.
Nullus ibi parlat: sentitur fractio tantum,
Membrorumque sonus, sofiatio supra manestram,
Nam caldironus trippis ibi plenus habetur :
Chioccant labra simul grassum stillantia brodum.
Festinanter edunt, quia sic scriptura comandat.
Jam caret infelix gambis humerisque Chiarina,
Jam caput efficitur vas aptum prendere cancros,
Interiora patent, grandisque corazza videtur.
Quanto magis comedunt, tanto magis ipsa recedit
Ventre fames: pariter decrescit vacca famesque.
Jamque polita nimis sub desco membra jacebant ;
Nulla magis restat vaccarum forma Chiarinæ ;
Ossa videntur ibi tantum: leccare taeros
Incipiunt; aliter non vasa lavare solebant.

The above is a fair specimen of his strange dialect, rather than of his better or worse qualities, saving one or two strokes of sarcasm which might do credit to a more cultivated satirist. Occasionally he deviates into serious poetry, and not without effect; as in the opening of one of the cantos:

Tempus erat quando Sol Tauri cornua scaldat:
Impregnata novos emittunt arva fiores:
Frondificant boschi, salices viridare comenzant,
Provocat et somnum cantu rosignolus in umbra :
Undiculis tremulis fontanæ prata bagnascunt:
Quando simul Baldus, Cingar, bellusque Lonardus.
In quendam roseis completum floribus agrum
Haud procul a Chioza desmontavere cavallos.
Hic pinus celsam porgebat in æthera cimam,
Quæ prohibet ramis penetrare brusamina Phobi,
Ac pulchram spissis cum frondibus explicat umbram:
Sub qua projectis armis dant membra quieti,

Atque reassumunt in lasso corpore forzam.

Besides the " Baldus," Folengio wrote several other Macaronic poems of less merit, a burlesque romance in Italian, entitled Orlandino, &c.

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