Ellustrated Article. THE THREE FRIARS; OR, THE MAIDEN'S RESCUE. For the Olio. LORDINGS, it chanced about the time The first and merriest of the three, P A light blue eye, where freakish wiles Half-veil'd a visage bland and fair, 'Oh, Santa Maria!' quoth he, Nay, hark thee,' said the questioned man, Thou'lt choke me an thou'lt not ha' done. Out on thee! think'st an honest quean Would venture through the forest green, When thieves and knaves infest the road, And rogues like thou are seen abroad? An Ned be not a brainless wight, She'll pass not from her home to-night. But soft, what's yonder knave in green, Lurking behind yon hazel screen?' 125 Just as he spoke, a jovial band, A goodlier form in sooth than he, How's this?' the sturdy archer cried, Each of us three by dint of blow; A bout for courtesy prepare.' A sturdy form in steel arryed, Looming amid the evening shade. Scarlock, whose brow grew red with rage, Doff'd cap and jerkin to engage, But when the other 'gan reveal His sinewy limbs begirt in steel, The wight resumed his Lincola green, Not greatly relishing the fight, A pause of wonderment ensued, When thus exclaim'd bold Robin Hood:- The dewy sward, the distant tower, The sombre oak, the plashing stream, The love sick maiden's jassmine bower, Wherein the mournful songstress' pour'd Calm, undisturb'd, her plaintive tale, Save when the roying owlet show'red His startling cadence on the gale. Anon a lovely spot they gain'd Surrounded by a woodbine skreen Nigh drunk with dew, and sprinkled o'er The black-jack charg'd with nut-brown beer. Sir Knights,' quoth Robin Hood, anon Sir Arthur Vernon's moss-grown towers. It chanced some few short hours agone Your aid! O gentle strangers lend, Screen'd by an hazle copse, the train Till furthermore our will be known.' As meets the owl the sun-beam's blaze. T. F. THE PASSOVER OF THE JEWS, WITH REMARKS. (For the Olio.) So much interest is taken in behalf of the Hebrew nation, in the City, in the British Senate, and with liberal-minded men of all persuasions, without touching upon polemical points, we ga he a few observations for the "Olio," which refer immediately to the "Feast of the Passover," it having been kept with due interest and care by the most ancient people (the Welch, of course, excepted) that are scattered nearly over the world. *— The word "Passover"-Pascha signifies "God's own," to pass by, to leap over, or pass over. The following stanza, though not of very extraordinary_poetic beauty, or likely to be owned for Byron's in the controversy between Campbell and > Moore, is applicable, at least, to the purpose of its paraphrase :— Untill this people overpasst shall be, which purchas-ed thou hast, The word Passover, however, is used in three particular acceptations. First, from the yearly solemnity, celebrated the 14th of Nisan, alias Abib, the Passover of the Lamb, because on that day toward evening, the Israelites were commanded, according to their families, to roast a Lamb, and eat it in their private houses. 2ndly, The yearly festivity, celebrated the 15th of Nisan, called simply the Passover. Towards this feast, Josiah gave to the people sheep, lambs, kids and bullocks. 3dly, It is taken for the whole solemnity, beginning the 14th of Nisan and ending the 21st of the same month. A custom, we believe, prevails to this day of the Readership in the synagogue being put up at auction and disposed of to the highest bidder, during the Passover; and cakes, as large as plates, with holes pricked through them, and very thin, are given generally by the Jews to the Gentile brethren with whom they deal and have fellowship, to preserve a good understanding in social and business intercourse. Though the feast of unleavened bread was distinctly kept, yet, properly speaking, it also consisted of the Passover. This was first kept the 14th of the first month at even. This was the second sacrament in which, although they were enjoined to eat unleavened bread with the Lamb, yet the feast of the unleavened bread began not till the morrow following, being the 15th of the same month, and lasted seven days; of which the first and last only were holy convocations, wherein they might do no servile work.† Secondly. The Passover, in the age following its first institution, might not be solemnized in any other place, save only where the Lord placed his name, which afterwards was at Jerusalem. The rites and ceremonies in the eating of the Paschal Lamb agreed with their usual solemnities. They blessed the cup and the bread, and divided among the guests,-washing their feet who sat at table. The question was thus put to a child, "What does this service mean?" To which the answer implied, "How different is this night to all other nights, when we wash but once, in this twice. In others, we eat leavened or unleavened bread, in this only unleavened. In others, we eat any sort of herbs, in this night bitter herbs. In others, we eat or drink, sitting or lying, but in this we lie along." The catechist then declared, "that the Passover was in respect that the Lord passed over the houses of their fathers in Egypt." He held up the bitter herbs in his hand and said, "These are in respect that the Egyptians made the lives of our fathers bitter in Egypt." Then he held the unleavened bread and said, "This which we eat is in respect that the dough of our fathers had not time to be leavened when the Lord appeared and redeemed them out of the hand of the enemy." The Lamb, after it was eight days old or †The Hebrew word Lechem is sometimes used for many loaves, or cakes-' wave bread,' two. Maimony thus observes of the bread brought with the sacrifice to Confession,-a custom borrowed in part by the Papists :"He (the priest) took 20-tenths or pottles of fine flour, and made of them ten pottles, leavened and ten unleavened. The ten that were leavened, he made of them ten cakes. And the ten that were unleavened, he made of them thirty cakes equally, ten cakes of every sort,-to wit, ten cakes baked in the oven, and ten wafers, and ten cakes hastily fried. These thirty cakes were made with the quantity of half a log of oil; a fourth part thereof, for the cakes hastily fried; an eighth part for the baked cakes, and an eighth part for the wafers, &c. And the priest took one of all four cakes, one of every sort." Rum is the only spirit, and that only upon which the priest has set his seal as genuine, allowed to be drunk during the Passover. more, was an allowable offering,-in the idea that nothing was perfect till the Sabbath had passed over it. The time appointed for the Lamb to be slain were between the sun declining and the sun setting, as between the two evenings. The bitter herbs eaten with the Lamb were dipped in sauce, thick like mustard. The sop given to Judas was dipped in like manner. It was made of the palm-tree branches, or of dry figs, or raisins, stamped and steeped in vinegar, seasoned and made like clay, and brought to the table in the night of the Passover. Four preparations to this feast were required: first, their cleansing the vessels and household implements. 2ndly, The searching after leaven in the rooms of their houses, even to the mouseholes, with a wax candle. 3dly, A burning of the leaven about dinner time,-at which followed the last degree," the cursing of the leaven, of a threefold degree,-to be cut off from his heavenly inheritance,that God would cut off such by an untimely death,-that he should die without children, agreeably with their proverb, a man childless is lifeless." 66 By the instance of Barabbas, it is evident it was a custom with the Jews on the` Passover to free or enlarge a prisoner. Some think this commemorated of Jonathan, rescued from his father's hands.Others say that the feast might be more joyfully celebrated; and others, in token of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Lastly, There was a second Passover for those who by reason of their distance could not be present at the first. The distance afar off was computed at fifteen miles from the walls of Jerusalem. The properties of the Lamb for the Passover were thus defined, and thus eligibly partaken : 1. One of the flock. 2. Without blemish. THE ENGLISH TAR AND FRENCH SAILOR. (For the Olio.) On Portsmouth beach, an English tar Of chance and fate, as on they walk'd, The hostile Tars in conflict warm, Each urged his point was right. for once you're under such a promising combination of circumstances as those which distinguished the present Bridal of Argenteins. Youth, beauty, birth, and affluence, every thing which the world deems desirable, accompanied this match, but it was mutual love and long intimacy, and all those amiable qualities that the world too often leaves out of the question, that first set it on foot. Sir Arthur Heveningham, the silverheaded lord of Argenteins, was the twenty-sixth of that name, whose lineage descended to the reign of Canute; and his house had, at this period, attained the summit of its wealth and grandeur. His heir, the gallant and accomplished courtier of his day, was the bridegroom. And never did the brown and homely peasant clasp, with more affectionate and simple H. INCE. truth, the wife whom he had won by his prowess on the village green, than John Heveningham, when, in the glittering circle of high-born and proudly apparelled personages, Katherine Mordaunt vowed to be his for ever. "English as well as Frenchmen fight, "For what they want the most." St. Margaret's, near Dovor. Tales of the Tapestry; OR, EVENINGS AT ARGENTEINS. BY HORACE GUILFORD. (For the Olio.) The very walls of their apartments were hung with romantic histories, Tapestry was anciently the fashionable furniture of our houses, and it was chiefly filled with lively representations of this sort. The Stories of the Tapestries in the Royal Palaces of Henry the Eighth are still preserved. WARTON'S HIS. ENG. POETRY. INTRODUCTION. ARGENTEINS AND ITS GUESTS. For round about the walls yclothed were nished back declares. FAERY QUEEN. Ir was on the Vigil of Saint Martin, 1624, near the close of King James the First's reign, that the large and magnificent manor-castle of Argenteins in Norfolk, beheld a gorgeous bevy of noble, knightly, and gentle guests congregated in its towered halls. Rarely had such splendid trains gleamed through the majestic vista of the avenue; rarely had the broad moat mirrored such coloured pageantry of costly raiment, and still more rarely had the old mansion of Argenteins been the theatre of such auspicious festivity. It is not frequently, indeed, that alliances between high and opulent families are concerted The solemn festival now commenced, and each day saw some new pageant, or invented some rare device;-a company of His Majesty's players had been hired by his permission-the waits filled the old quadrangles with their music, and mummers and masquers intermingled their gaudy exhibitions. These had lasted some days, and at length (in spite of invention's skill,) began to pall. Had it not been, indeed, that a noble sheet of water in the Keteringham woods afforded admirable opportunities for falconry, it is to be doubted whether even courtesy due to the host and the occasion would have supported some of the guests through the fortnight prescribed for this stately festivity. It was at the close of a beautiful autumn day, that a party of the guests, who with Sir Arthur, had passed the morning with unusual success in hawking, were slowly returning to the manor-house. High and animating debates on the exploits of the morning were not slightly mixed up with sundry (of course, unexpressed,) misgivings as to the spiritless repetitions of gaudy spectacles, or twice-told-tales that they might expect in the evening. A sudden expression of delight that burst from the lips of Sir Robert Vernon, attracted the attention of the party. He was a young knight of Staffordshire, a stranger to Argenteins, though he had visited Sir Arthur at his stately hall of Aston, and had been invited on this occasion, from his near relationship to the bride, Lewis, Lord Mordaunt being his uncle. |