The Portland daily press., 1865-06-30
ENGLAND IL Oneen Elizabeth,s DaY.

SO rapidly were the English growing In the
vices of other lands, while they retained their
native yigor and coarse habits, that the play
wrights constantly alluded to the incongruity
of the fashions displayed in the dress OF dan
dies, to their language mixed of all the dia-
leets in Europe, TO their aptitude for every
kind of dissipation, to their skin in the sports
of all nations, and to the decay Of antique se-
verify. "We have robbed Greece of fgluttony,"
says Stephon Gasson, "Spain OF pride, France
of deceit and Dutchland of quaiing." But
these affectations were only kind of varnish
on the surface of society. The incidents of
court gossip show how savage was the life be-
meath. Queen Elizabeth spat one day in the
midst Of her mobiles at a gentleman who dis
pleased her. She struck Lord Essex on the
cheek. Burleigh often cried at her i'll treat
ment. The lords wrangled, and even drew
swordsSn her presence. Once Leicester took
her handkerchief from her lap to wipe his face
at tennis. Lady Jane Grey was starved and
beaten by her parents, and exposed to such in
dignites that she wearied of life; yet they
made her one of tha best Greek scho lars OF
the day. Heretics were burned In every town.
Sir Henry Sidney. as we learn from paper
recently published by Mr.. Froude, when sen t
to quell the Irish rebels, first proclaimed the
queens sovereignty, and then allowed no
mercy to the recusants. He "put man, Wom-
an, and child to the sword" while his sergeant
majors balanced the advantages of pillaging or
shaving some killing" with a preference Tor
the latter when they felt themselves In humor
for the chase. L
The belief in witches everywhere prevailed,
nor was it an uncommon village sport to
drown old women in the ponds, and to rack
suspected wizards till for very anguish they
confessed fictitious crimes. Country-folks
conducted their reyels with q license that
would shock our modern ears. The Lord oil
Misrule led cut his motley train, and ladies
went a-maying with their lovers to the woods
The Feasts of Asses aud oe Fools profaned the
sanctuaries; nor were the sports OF Christmas
SO well suited to celebrate Christian festival
as to recall the rites OF Wooden and of Freya
Men and women who read Plato and discuss
ed the beauties of Petrarch's poetry, allowed
the coarsest practical jokes and used the
gIossest language. They sold farms and for
ests, and wore their acres n the form OF gems
and gold lace on their backs. But their splen
did clothes and jewels did not prevent the N
from INDUCING in the most untidy habits
They would lie upon the rushes which con.
cealed the fragments of old feasts; and they
burned perfumes musty with bad air. The
church itself was not respected. The nave o
st. Pauls became a rendezvous of thieves anC
prostitutes 4s4
Fine gentlemen paid sums of money for the
privilege of cianking up and down Its aisles ii
service time; dancers and maskers, crowdine
from the square outside in all their fnery, of
ten took the sacrament and then ran out Il
recommence their sports. Men were Papis
and Protestants according to the time Of da
hearing mass in the morning and sermon il
the afternoon. There was no end to the ex
travagance ant incongruity Of elements which
then prevailed in England. Yet in the mids
of this confusion rose cavaliers like Sidney
philosophers like Bacon, poets like Spencer
in whom all that is pure, elevated, subtitle
tender, wise, delicate, and learned in our mod
ern cilization, displayed itself. .--Uornhill Mag
zine.