The same Scipio, when he and Hannibal met before the battle, if the fact be true.

Cincinnatus, when the messengers sent by the senate to make him dictator, found him at the plough.

Epaminondas, when the Persian ambassador. came to his house, and found him in the midst of poverty.

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The earl of Strafford, the day that he made his own defence at his trial. *

King Charles the Martyr, during his whole trial, and at his death.

The Black Prince, when he waited at supper on the King of France, whom he had conquered and taken prisoner the same day.

Virgil, when, at Rome, the whole audience rose up, out of veneration, as he entered the theatre.

Mahomet the Great, when he cut off his beloved mistress's head, on a stage erected for that purpose, to convince his soldiers, who taxed him for preferring his love to his glory.

Cromwell, when he queiled a mutiny in Hyde Park.

Harry the Great of France, when he entered Paris, and sat at cards the same night with some great ladies, who were his mortal enemies.

Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, at his trial. Cato of Utica, when he provided for the safety of his friends, and had determined to die.

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*Concerning which, Whitlocke, no friend to the Earl or his cause, has left the following testimony: Certainly never any man acted such a part on such a theatre with more wisdome, constancy and eloquence, with greater reason, judgment, and temper, and with a better grace in all his words and gestures, than this great and excellent person did; and he moved the hearts of all his auditors, some few excepted, to remorse and pity."--WHITLOCKE'S Memorials, p. 43.

Sir Thomas More, during his imprisonment, and at his execution.

Marius, when the soldier sent to kill him in the dungeon was struck with so much awe and veneration, that his sword fell from his hand.

Douglas, when the ship he commanded was on fire, and he lay down to die in it, because it should not be said that one of his family ever quitted their post.

*

Of those who have made a mean contemptible figure, in some action or circumstance of their lives.

Anthony, at Actium, when he fled after Cleopatra.

Pompey, when he was killed on the sea-shore in Egypt.

Nero and Vitellius, when they were put to death.

Lepidus, when he was compelled to lay down his share of the triumvirate.

Cromwell, the day he refused the kingship out of fear.

Perseus king of Macedon, when he was led in triumph.

Richard II of England, after he was deposed. The late king of Poland, when the king of Sweden forced him to give up his kingdom; and when

*This instance of stubborn desperation, rather than courage, happened when the Dutch burned some ships at Chatham in the reign of Charles II. Marvel celebrates the circumstance in his "Advice to a Painter."

he took it again, upon the king of Sweden's defeat by the Muscovites.

King James II. of England, when the prince of Orange sent to him at midnight to leave London. King William III. of England, when he sent to beg the house of commons to continue his Dutch guards, and was refused.

The late queen Anne of England, when she sent Whitworth to Muscovy on an embassy of humiliation, for an insult committed here on that prince's ambassador. *

The lord chancellor Bacon, when he was convicted of bribery.

The late duke of Marlborough, when he was forced, after his own disgrace, to carry his duchess's gold key to the queen †

The old earl of Pembroke, when a Scotch lord gave him a lash with a whip at Newmarket, in presence of all the nobility, and he bore it with patience. +

* He was arrested by a creditor, and carried, after some resistance and ill usage, to a common spunging house. The Czar Peter demanded that the offenders should be capitally punished; and as it was difficult to make him comprehend, that the English law did not permit such summary vengeance, he threatened to make our trade feel the effect of his resentment, and was appeased with great difficulty.

↑ It may be doubted, whether the queen on this occasion might not make the lesser figure of the two.

It was Philip Earl of Pembroke, and Montgomery, who disgraced his ancient family, by submitting to this gross insult. He received the blow from Ramsay Earl of Holderness.

"It was at a horse-race, where many both Scotch and English met; the latter of which did upon this accident draw together with a resolution to make it a national quarrel, so far as MrJohn Pinchback, though a maimed man, having but the perfect use of his two fingers, rode about with his dagger in his hand, crying, Let us break our fast with them here, and dine with the rest at London! But Herbert, not offering to strike again, there was nothing spilt but

King Charles II of England, when he entered into the second Dutch war; and in many other actions during his whole reign.

Philip II. of Spain, after the defeat of the Armada.

The emperor Charles V,. when he resigned his crown, and nobody would believe his reasons.

King Charles I. of England, when, in gallantry to his queen, he thought to surprise her with a present of a diamond buckle, which he pushed down her breast, and tore her flesh with the tongue; upon which she drew it out, and flung it on the ground.

Fairfax, the parliament general, at the time of king Charles's trial. *

Julius Cæsar, when Anthony offered to put a diadem on his head, and the people shouted for joy to see him decline it; which he never offered to do, until he saw their dislike in their counte

nances.

Coriolanus, when he withdrew his army from Rome at the entreaty of his mother.

Hannibal, at Antiochus's court.

Beau Fielding, † at fifty years old, when, in a

the reputation of a gentleman; in lieu of which, if I am not mistaken, the king made him a knight, a baron, a viscount, and an earl, in one day; as he well deserved, having for his sake, or rather out of fear, transgressed all the gradations of honour.”Osborne's Traditional Memorials, apud Works, Lon. 1673. 8. p. 505.

*When he was generally supposed to have determined on saving the king, but suffered himself to be outwitted by Cromwell.

Robert Fielding of Fielding Hall, commonly called Beau Fielding. He was very handsome, and set up as a fortune hunter; but, meeting with a female more able than himself, he was tricked into marriage, under the idea of her being possessed of a large fortune, while, in truth, she was as pennyless as obscure. This incident, he conceived, ought not to suspend his career of fortune, and

quarrel upon the stage, he was run into his breast, which he opened and showed to the ladies, that he might move their love and pity; but they all fell a laughing.

The count de Bussy Rabutin, when he was recalled to court after twenty years' banishment into the country, and affected to make the same figure he did in his youth.

The earl of Sunderland, when he turned papist in the time of king James II. and underwent all the forms of a heretic converted.

Pope Clement VII,. when he was taken prisoner, at Rome, by the emperor Charles the Fifth's for

ces.

Queen Mary of Scotland, when she suffered Bothwell to ravish her, and pleaded that as an excuse for marrying him.

King John of England, when he gave up his kingdom to the pope, to be held as a fief to the see of Rome.

accordingly, sixteen days after it took place, Beau Fielding united himself to the most noble Barbara Duchess of Cleaveland. He was tried for felony at the Old Bailey, and his second marriage set aside. He himself had the benefit of clergy, and this odd adven. ture closed the long list of the Duchess of Cleaveland's gallantries, which, commencing with the restoration, had run through nearly four reigns, not a little distinguished by their promiscuous and motley complexion. Fielding is described by the Tatler, No. 50. under the name of Orlando, and is said to be" full but not loaded with years." From the account there given of him, as well as the anecdote in the text, it would seem that conceit of his conquests, and vanity of his figure, had crazed his brain. He received the wound mentioned by Swift, at Mrs Oldfield's benefit. The com bat took place betwixt him and Mr Fullwood, a barrister, whose foot he had trodden upon in pressing forward to display his person to most advantage. His antagonist was killed in a duel the very same night, having engaged in a second theatrical quarrel. The conduct of the hero might be sufficiently absurd; but a wound of several inches depth, was an odd subject of ridicule. Fielding died about 1712.