Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-12-04
THEIR LAST WORDS.
The Deathbed Speeches OF the Great
In History.

The Deathbed Speeches OF the Great
In History.
Cynics there may be, who will as
scribe to the inventive faculties of pos
terity the words which generations of
mankind have reyerenced at the last
utterances of the worlds great men.
To the worst of them perhaps even
the last poignant cry Of the murder
ed Julius, or the pathetic tenderness
of Nelson's farewell TO Hardy, may
seem no more than Pigments Of the
dramatic historian. Yet, as we like
| to hope, to the majority these utter
ances are the ipsissima verba of those
to whom they are attributed, and
worthy Of especial veneration In that
through them the characters Of those
who speak at this, often the most Sc
rious, crisis of life, the passing from
it, and revealed.
Who finds 1t hard to believe the ac-
count given Of the death of Cromwell
by Carlyle's Writer of our old Pam
phlet," of the saying God is good"
which he frequently used all along;
and would speak it with much cheer
fulness and fervor Of spirit In the
midst of his pains; and how towards
morning he used divers holy express
sions, implying much inward consola-
ton and peace" among the rest
speaking "some exceeding self-debas-
ing words, annihilating and judging
himself"
Our last glimpse Of Richelieu shows
him still the statesman absorbed In
public affairs, and Offering to the
world a spectacle of iron resolution
and unruffied composure. Among his
last words was his reply, recorded by
Nine. De Mottevile, when asked If
he pardoned his enemies: Il have had
no enemies except those Of the state"
1t is the man rather than the states
man that we see in the touching
picture drawn for us by the Comte De
Rrienne Of Mazarin in his last hours.
Death overtakes him in the midst Of
his splendor, triumphant at last over
all his enemies, and no less the real
ruler of France than his illustrious
predecessor. But it is not on France
that his last thoughts are fixed. In
spired as he was by genuine love of
art, though even here are to be found
traces of that avarice which disfigur-
ed his character, he had amassed in
his palace priceless treasures in pict-
ures tapestry and the goldsmith's art.
The thought Of these drags him from
his bed, and he forces himself pain
fully along, murmuring as he stops
before one treasure after another, I'll
faut gutter tout celia, II faut gutter
tout cela."
Characteristic, too, Is the deathbed
TRADE of Queen Elizabeth, when the
name of Beauchamp is suggested to
her as that of her successor: II will
have no rascal's son in my seat, but
one worthy to be king" All through
her reign she had Indignantly resisted
the attempts of parliament and the
nation to settle the questions Of her
marriage and the succession.
The dry humor Of the monarch who
tnever said a foolish thing and never
did wise one" did not fail him when,
amid the tortures of a painful death,
he apologized to his courtiers for the
unconscionable time he took in dy-
ing, and the keynote of his life is
struck in his last words to his sue
cessor, to whom he bequeaths no max
i'm of statecraft, no message to his
people, but a prayer not to "let poor
Nelly starve."
The true Roman spirit was shown
by the Emperor Vespasian as, in his
last delirium, he struggled to rise,
saying that an Imperator should die
standing: while his last words, ut
puto, deas fio'' ("Methinks l become a
god"), are characteristic.
The traditional death words OF
Nero, What an artist am to perish,
uttered as, paralyzed with terror, he
grovelled on straw to hide even from
his slaves, are less worthy of credence.
1t Is more reasonable to suppose that
in the face of death, with no flatterer
to interpose the lying mirror, he
would see himself more nearly as he
waS
We cannot leave the Roman en-
perors without quoting the verses
with which the contemplation OF
death inspired the Emperor Hadrian.
The naivete of their expression and
their almost childlike simplicity form
a striking contrast with the pomp and
gravity of an imperial deathbed. The
translation, good as it Is, fails ade-
quately to reproduce the tone of visit
full musng and the playfulness, with
its undercurrent Of melancholy, of the
original:
Soul Of mine, pretty one, fitting one,
Soul of mine pretty one, fitting one.
Whittier wilt thou HE away
Pallid one, rigid one, naked one
Never to play again, never to play.