GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 
 DR.JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTOR! 
 
 to the 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH
 
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 LOS ANGELES 
 
 UBRARY
 
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 January 6 1858 
 
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 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLET ON & COMPANY 
 
 1858. 
 
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 Entered according to Act of Congrefs in the year 1858, 
 
 BY D. APPLETON & CO., 
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 The Twelfth-Night feftival of merry Old 
 England correfponds with, and is founded 
 upon, the Epiphany of the ecclefiaftical 
 year, as obferved by the Roman Catholic 
 Church, the Greek Church in the Eaft and 
 in Ruflia, and by several Proteftant Churches 
 in Europe and America. It is the anniver- 
 fary celebration of the firfl: manifeftation of 
 the promifed Mefliah to the Gentiles, as rep- 
 refented by the adoration of the Magi or 
 wife men who came from the Eaft to wor-
 
 fliip the new-born King. As a commemo- 
 rative religious feftival, it dates from the 
 earUeft ages of the Chriftian Church, being 
 mentioned by writers of the third century 
 as then a common obfervance. A widely 
 spread popular tradition, which may be 
 traced back above a thoufand years, though 
 it has no sanction either from written hiftory, 
 sacred or profane, or from any exprefs 
 Church authority, has elevated thefe Magi, 
 the learned men, the sages, and aftronomers 
 of the Eaft, into Kings. Some of the 
 theologians of the middle ages adopted the 
 same opinion, on the suppoHtion that thefe 
 were the perfonages foretold in prophetic 
 poetry. " The kings of Tarfhifh and the 
 ifles fhall bring prefents ; the kings of 
 Sheba and Seba fhall brino; gifts." This 
 traditional or fanciful verfion of the Gofpel 
 narrative not only conferred the regal dignity
 
 5 
 
 on thefe Eaftern sages, but alfo defignated 
 their number, their names, the nature of 
 their several gifts, and even their personal 
 appearance. They were but three in num- 
 ber : One was an aged venerable long-bearded 
 man, who was named Melchior, and who of- 
 fered a gift of gold. The second crowned 
 head was that of a beardlefs very young man, 
 to whom tradition affigned the name of Jaf- 
 per, and who made an offering of frankin- 
 cenfe. The third was a ftately swarthy 
 Moor, named Balthazar, whofe offering was 
 of myrrh. The Church feftival, in addition 
 to its more solemn religious obfervances, soon 
 paffed into a popular and domeftic holiday, 
 and as such became general both in Europe 
 and the East, as early as the seventh century, 
 perhaps ftill earlier. The tradition of the 
 Three Kings accompanied and ftamped 
 itfelf upon the obfervance of the feafl.
 
 Hence, in France, it is popularly known as 
 the Feafl: of the Kings, *' Fete des Rois" ; in 
 Holland and Flanders as the day of the 
 Three Kings, '' Driekoningendag " ; and 
 throughout all Germany as the '* Feaft of 
 the Three Holy Kings," or the '' Tag der 
 Heiligen dree Konige." So fixed and gen- 
 eral were the belief and veneration of thefe 
 Eaftern sages, as the Three Kings, that 
 ever fince the reign of Charlemagne, their 
 fkulls and other relics have been enllirined at 
 the once imperial city of Cologne, where 
 they are il:ill lliown, and the city itfelf is 
 confidered by its inhabitants, as specially 
 under the guardianlliip of the Kings. 
 Hence in old popular phrafe, they were 
 called in France, the Kings of Cologne j 
 in Italy of Colonia ; in Germany, of Koln, 
 or Coin ; in the Netherlands, of Keuleun ; 
 in our older Englilh tongue of Cullen, all
 
 7 
 
 of them being national variations of the 
 same name. 
 
 This same tradition soon pafled into the 
 arts of defign. The Adoration of the royal 
 Magi has long been a favorite subject for 
 the arts, and it has always been reprefented, 
 under the traditional forms of Three Kings, 
 one aged, one boyilh, and one black, from 
 the Pre-Raphaelites in Italy, and Van 
 Eyck, and his old Dutch and Flemifh pupils, 
 down to the works of modern continental 
 artifts. Rubens, for example, painted " the 
 Adoration of the Magi," repeatedly, and with 
 his ufual fertility varied his whole compofi- 
 tion in each pidure, but in every one he 
 preferved the three Magi as Kings, with their 
 known legendary charaderiftics. The subjcd 
 is fimilarly reprefented in the spirited Belgian 
 wood carvings and in the bas-relief and other 
 sculptured ftone-work of old cathedrals.
 
 s 
 
 It is undoubtedly from some affociation 
 with this tradition of wide-spread popidar 
 beHef as well as of liigh art, that the fefHve 
 and extra-ecclefialHeal celebration of the 
 Feaft of the Epiphany has throughout Chrif 
 tendom taken as its principal feature the se- 
 lection by some sort of lot of a Twelfth- 
 Night King and Queen, who rule with des- 
 potic authority and receive unqueftioned 
 voluntary homage during their brief span of 
 power and dignity. The reafon of such an 
 alTociation of ideas thus refulting in a 
 univerliil cuftom is not very obvious ; but the 
 fa6l is certain that the traditional opinion 
 and the feftive cuftom have always gone 
 together, for many centuries and in many 
 different lands. Even in England, where 
 the feftival has never borne the name of 
 '' the Kings," the same ufage prevails. In- 
 deed, we have the exprefs authority of Selden
 
 9 
 
 the moft philofophical as well as the moft 
 learned of Englifh antiquarians, as given in 
 his agreeable and moft inftructive little 
 volume of '' Table Talk," that " the Encr 
 lifli cuftom of choofmg king and queen at 
 Twelfth-Night is from the tradition of the 
 Three Kings of Cullen." 
 
 In old England the popular as well as 
 the literary and poetical name of this fefti- 
 val has always been Twelfth-Day, or Twelfth- 
 Night, it being the twelfth from Chriftmas, 
 concluding the Chriftmas holidays, and 
 univerfally kept as "the blitheft and the 
 laft." 
 
 For the laft hundred years paft, it has been 
 very commonly known among the Englifti 
 people as " Old Chriftmas," this being the 
 day when Chriftmas would fall according to 
 the old ftyle which was ufed in Great Britain 
 until 1752, when the reformed or Gregorian
 
 lO 
 
 computation was adojuctl b\ law, and the 
 k'tral almanac conformed to the '' nev. Ayle" 
 by dr(oj:)jMng eleven days, as well as by provid- 
 ing againil future error by divers other ar- 
 rangements of the calendar. Hiis, liow- 
 ever, has little to do with the popularity of 
 Twelfth-Night, which, as one of the mofl 
 joyous of Engliih holidays, dates back much 
 beyond the formation of our prefent Engliih 
 language. The ancient royal houfehold 
 books which have been of late years brought 
 to light and printed by the Antiquarian and 
 Archaeological Societies, contain directions 
 for the magnificent and precife ceremonial 
 of ^' Twelfe-Day " ; while the poets and 
 dramatifts give equal evidence how dear this 
 feftival was to the people, and how general 
 and joyous was its celebration in town and 
 country. 
 
 Thus we find the houfehold regulations
 
 II 
 
 of Henry VII. prefcribing the very robes 
 the true King was to wear on that day when 
 he went to offer gold, incenfe, and myrrh, 
 walking in ftate, '' with his laffe before him." 
 For the benefit of the reader who may hap- 
 pen to be unfkilled in early Englifh phrafe- 
 ology, it muft be added that the "laffe " was 
 not, as he may imagine, a favourite court lady, 
 but the great " cutlafs " or sword of ftate. 
 The same books provide both ruler and funds 
 for the wild revelry of the evening, under the 
 management of the Lord of Mifrule, who 
 was the defpotic did:ator of the sports in 
 court and city during the Chriftmas Holi- 
 days, ending with the acceffion of a cake- 
 elecSled sovereign to rule till morning. 
 The sports and ufages of '' Twelfe-Day," 
 under the earlier Plantagenets, are defcribed 
 in rhyming Latin verfe by a learned and jolly 
 monk of thofe days, Nargeorgus ; and some-
 
 12 
 
 time later by Ikirnaby Gouge in Englilh 
 rliyme which can hardly be called verfc. 
 Tlie gayeil and moil graceful oi Shake- 
 fpeare's comedies bears the title oi 7\velith- 
 Night, doiibtlefs becaiife it was fir{\ prcfented 
 on that feiHval ; for the ingenuity and learn- 
 ing of his legion of commentators, have 
 not been able to aifign any other reafon for 
 the title, and this feftival, we know from 
 other sources, was always chofen ior the firil: 
 preienting oi any new dramatic piece. Her- 
 rick, the Anacreon of old Engliili litera- 
 ture, luxuriates in the details of Twelith- 
 Night feafting and frolicking, to which 
 he gives a diftinguiilied place in enu- 
 merating the feftal splendours and gaieties 
 of his country. 
 
 " Thy sports, thy pageantries and plays. 
 Thy mummeries — Thy Twelfe-Tide Kings 
 And Queens — thy Chriftmas revellings."
 
 13 
 
 The election of King and Queen by some 
 sort of lot, appears to have been everywhere 
 and at all times of the very effence of this 
 feftivity. In old England it was effected 
 generally by a pea and a bean, or sometimes 
 a ring or coin in a plum cake, to be cut 
 into flices ; the fortunate drawers of thofe 
 containing the pea and bean being inftanta- 
 neoufly elevated to royal honour. Herrick 
 chants forth the myfteries of the King-and- 
 Queen-making bean and pea ; thus deciding, 
 
 " Who ftiall for the prefent delight, here. 
 Be a King by the lot. 
 And who fhall not 
 Be Twelfth-Day Queen for the night." 
 
 The merry old Anglican prieft, for such 
 was Herrick, joys mofi: luftily over " the 
 mighty cakes, full of plums," to be devour- 
 ed after they had served to decide this great 
 queftion of eled:ive sovereignty. He then, 
 with that authority due to old experience.
 
 prcfcribcs the ingredients and compofition 
 of the " WaiTailing bowl." 
 
 " Addc sugar, nutmegs and ginger. 
 With ftore of ale too. 
 Aye, thus ye muft do 
 To make the WafTail, a swinger." 
 
 Nor is he lefs authoritative- and peremp- 
 tory as to quantity, than he is to tlie rightly- 
 compounded quality of the myftic beverage, 
 for, to correfpond fittingly with his '' mighty 
 cakes," he thus adds, 
 
 " Fill me a mighty bowl 
 Up to the brim." 
 
 But it is not for his own exclusive confump- 
 tion that the frolickfome old prieft requires 
 this liberal proviiion, for he trolls forth to all 
 ''his merry, merry boys," 
 
 " Honor to you who fit 
 Near by this well of wit. 
 And drink your fill of it." 
 
 Moreover, the Boar's Head, dreffed after 
 some moft elaborate receipt of the times,
 
 15 
 
 and carried aloft in great ftate, was alfo an 
 important, and in ancient times abfo- 
 lutely an effential, feature of an EnglilTi 
 Twelfth-Tide. This was accompanied by 
 various carrols, chants, glees, or songs, sev- 
 eral of which, with the appropriate mufic, 
 have come down to our time. One of thefe 
 preferved by Oxonian tradition, ran to this 
 meafure : 
 
 The boare is dead, 
 
 Loe heare is his head, &c. 
 
 But the decidedly favourite chant, which 
 the antiquarians pronounce to be the one 
 in conftant ufe from the reign of Edward I., 
 when our prefent Englifh tongue had par- 
 tially evolved itfelf from its Saxon and An- 
 glo-Norman elements, down through all 
 the Plantagenets and the Tudors, is ftiU 
 annually ufed at Oxford, though obfolete 
 elfewhere. It was happily preferved by
 
 i6 
 
 the prefs of Waynkyn dc Wordc, witli the 
 date of MDXXI., with the very air then iifed. 
 Its intermixture of Latin verfe attefts its 
 origin from the conventual dining hall of 
 some merry monks. 
 
 Caput Apri dcfen 
 Reddens laudcs Domino. 
 
 The Bore's head in hande bring I, 
 With Garlandcs gay and rofemarie, 
 I pray you all synge merrily, 
 Que estis in convivio. 
 
 The Bore's head I underftande 
 Is the chiefe servyce in this lande, 
 Looke wherever it be founde 
 Servite cum cantico. 
 
 Be gladde, Lordes both more and lafse 
 Far this hath ordayncd our stewarde 
 To cheer you all this Chriftmafle 
 The bore's head with muftarde. 
 
 Our older Englifh anceftors seem to 
 have relifhed high flomatic ftimulants in all 
 their cookery, and were "very ftrong upon 
 ginger and muftard." Dr. King, the play-
 
 17 
 
 ful and poetical praditioner of civil law in 
 Doctors' Commons, and afterwards an admi- 
 ralty judge in Ireland, whofe almoft forgot- 
 ten volumes sparkle throughout with wit, 
 original yet learned, and innocent though 
 sportive, in giving poetical direftions how 
 " to send up the Brawner's head," enjoins 
 specially, 
 
 " Sauce like himfelf offensive to his foes. 
 The roguifh muftard dangerous to the nofe." 
 
 King wrote in the firft years of the laft 
 century, but the muftard, which in his day 
 had dwindled down to a mere sauce or mi- 
 nor adjunct, figured much more prominently 
 in the ftill older days of England's feftivities. 
 In the antique carrols it is frequently intro- 
 duced, rhyming moft incongruously in senfe 
 though matching in sound, with '^ custard; " 
 whilst in one of the old rituals of Twelfe- 
 Day, it was commanded, '' De par le Roy,"
 
 i8 
 
 that the bearer of the Boar's head, the 
 goodhefl: man and higheft in ftatiire that 
 could be found, ihould walk between '^ two 
 pages yclad in tafatye sarcenet, each bearing 
 a good niefs of nuifl-ard." 
 
 The members and guells of the Century 
 Club, need not to be informed of what it is 
 nevertheleis due to ourfelves to mention 
 in this place, for the inflruction and guidance 
 of the public tafte, as well as the vindication 
 of our own kitchen, that this venerable 
 afTociation does not follow the rules and 
 cookery of the old Engliili Twelve-Tide, 
 in the preparation of their annual Boar's head. 
 Upon a very erudite and scientific report, 
 made by their official Standing committee 
 of Supplies, after deliberate examination of 
 the authorities and repeated scientific prac- 
 tical experiments, the Century solemnly 
 refolved that the aforesaid Annual Twelfth-
 
 19 
 
 Night Boar's head, fhould always be cooked 
 with sugar and vinegar, and without muftard, 
 after " the high Roman fafhion," according 
 to a very precife receipt for the preparation 
 of Boar's flefh, whether wild or tame, brought 
 from Italy some years ago by the eminent 
 artift, whofe great national painting of 
 the " Embarkation of the Pilgrims," 
 adorns the Rotunda of the Capitol of our 
 Union. The report of the Committee was 
 fortified by the authority of another eminent 
 artift, whofe works alfo adorn our national 
 Capitol. John G. Chapman, one of the 
 moft honoured and beloved fathers of the 
 club, now and for some years part a refident 
 at Rome, particularly certified, as the refult 
 of his own perfonal inveftigation, that it 
 had been well settled that this receipt was 
 proved by indubitable artiftic tradition, as 
 well as by unimpeachable literary evidence.
 
 20 
 
 to have been the one iifed for the Epiphany 
 feafts of which Michael Angelo, and Ra- 
 phael, and Titran annually partook, and 
 which had on a special occafion, received the 
 exprefs approbation of that critical judge of 
 good-living, Italy's favourite poet, Ludovico 
 Ariofto. It was therefore unanimoufly re- 
 folved, that on this matter the more grace- 
 ful and eflhetic pradice of Italy and 
 all Southern Europe, fhould supersede the 
 narrow and merely insular Englifh ufage. 
 It is alfo specially worthy of remark, that 
 the mofi: erudite and acute of Europe's 
 claffical scholars, the excellent Cardinal 
 Angelo Mai has intimated an opinion, that 
 this prefent Roman fafhion of cooking the 
 Boar's flefh, has come down from the high 
 and palmy days of Rome's luxury, and is the 
 very same ufed in the kitchens of Lucullus, 
 of Apicius, and of Mark Anthony, with the
 
 21 
 
 mere subftitute of our sugar to the honey 
 ufed by the culinary artifts of old Rome. 
 
 The logical connection of the subjedt 
 here compells us to speak on another collat- 
 eral point, on which the Century Club has 
 upon principle not hefoated to depart from 
 the old Englifh regulations of Twelfth- 
 Night, and the high authority of the ven- 
 erable Herrick. It was upon the maturefl: 
 advifement that they refolved that, on this 
 and other high feftivities, their Waffail 
 should not, like that of Herrick and his 
 compeers, confifl: only, or even chiefly, of 
 thofe liquid compounds whereof malt forms 
 the chemical bafis. Not at all partaking of 
 the ariftocratic contempt of Tacitus for malt 
 liquors, which the sneering old wine-drink- 
 ing patrician infolently terms, " a liquor 
 from barley or wheat, corrupted into a cer- 
 tain semblance of wine," ''in quandam
 
 ? o 
 
 similitiidincm vini corriiptum," hut indeed 
 liolding them in honour as national heverages 
 of hrave and lloiit men, they yet thought it 
 to be due alike to the artiflic and the literary 
 character of their own afToeiation, and the 
 mixed anceftry of their own members, to ex- 
 hibit this prominent feature of such celebra- 
 tions in more efthetic forms, indicating a 
 larger nationality, a more catholic com- 
 prehenfivenefs than could find room within 
 the infular narrownefs of the Englilli rule. 
 The Hio;h Stewards of their feftivals there- 
 fore, on such occafions, are directed, in ad- 
 dition to sufficient supplies of malted com- 
 pounds, for thofe w^ho prefer them, alfo to 
 crown the feftive boards with such fluids 
 as may beft recall the glories and the joys of 
 other races and other fatherlands. Thefe 
 learned and discriminating officers, have ac- 
 cordingly always prefented for the Centurial
 
 23 
 
 Waffail, wines of Champaigne, such as had 
 erst ripened under the golden fkies which 
 Claude painted, had foamed and mantled 
 in the grand declamations of Corneille, 
 and giv^en their own fervent life to many a 
 song of Beranger — wines of Bordeaux in 
 
 Thofe royal purple ftreams. 
 Coloured by the sun's red beams ; 
 
 such as had infpired the eloquence of the 
 haplefs Gironde, and the wit and wifdom of 
 Montaigne and Montesquieu — tall flafks 
 fraught with old vintages from the mountain 
 vineyards of the Rhine, every one of them 
 eloquent with the memory of Schiller and 
 Goethe, and the arts of Munich or Duffel- 
 dorf — grave and ftately wines of Spain, 
 some from the rocky vineyards of La Mancha, 
 of the very growths made claffical by the 
 praifes of Sancho Panza, and others again 
 from Xeres, breathing the scent of the
 
 cTufliccl Camomile flower that I.opcz dc la 
 Vega loved, and all of them bright with 
 the glories of Cer\'antes and Miirillcj. 
 Moreover, ftrietly abitinent as thefe high 
 funetionaries ever are from all '' hot and 
 rebellions liquors,'- they found that their high 
 senfe of right obliged them, upon principle, 
 to add to their XA'afTliil duly compounded 
 preparations of the more potent fluid which 
 Ireland loves, and which Scotland honours, 
 whose smoky flavour gains added zest from 
 the recolledions of the eloquence and genius 
 of Curran, and the Emmets, and Tom 
 Moore, of Burns, and of Walter Scott. 
 
 It is trufled that enough has now been said 
 without any more formal reply to the malign- 
 ers of the Centurial Waflliil, and the cook- 
 ing of the Boar's head to prove that in both 
 the Century is at once antiquarian and 
 efthetic, catholic, and cofmopolitan.
 
 25 
 
 It has been learnedly and moft zealoufly 
 maintained by some Englifh, and certain 
 French antiquarians, that the obfervances 
 and rites of Twelfth-Tide, such as the 
 Boar's Head, the Waflail, with many others 
 which we are compelled to pafs over in 
 the prefent fketchy outlines, are certainly 
 of Celtic, and probably of Druidical 
 origin. On the contrary, several great 
 scholars of Germany and of Italy are equally 
 poiitive that all the ceremonials and ufages 
 have come down from ancient Rome, and 
 its annual Saturnalia, and were at an early 
 period engraffed in Italy, upon the previous 
 purely religious church feftival. 
 
 The Century Club cannot, with the pre- 
 fent imperfedl lights on the subjed:, venture 
 to pronounce any decided opinion on this 
 intricate and very important archaeological 
 queftion, and therefore sufpend their judg-
 
 26 
 
 mcnt thereon until further arguments are 
 submitted by tlie learned of Oxford, of 
 Leyden, of Paris, Ikrlin, and Rome. 
 
 JUit whatever may be the origin of thefe 
 ufages, the extent of their adoption is truly 
 remarkable, for '' Le Roi de la Fevc," in 
 Franee, and the ^' Duca di Maggio " in Italy, 
 are eleeted with as mueh solemnity, and reign 
 as defpotieally, on this feftival, as the Eng- 
 lilli Twelfth-Night Kings and Queens; 
 whilft Holland, even in the moft republican 
 days of the Seven United Provinces, and in 
 Germany, even in our ow^n time, in the 
 proud little republics of Hamburgh and 
 Bremen, not a fingle murmur of rebellion 
 was ever raifed againfl: the royal authority 
 of the cake-elected sovereigns of the Dutch 
 <' Driekoningendag," or of the German 
 " Tag der heiligen drei Konige." 
 
 On Italy's claffic soil the morning of the
 
 27 
 
 feftival is welcomed with solemn religious 
 pomp, as the Epifania (the Epiphany), whilft 
 under its endeared colloquial name of La 
 Befania, for the reft of the day it is every 
 where celebrated with unreftrained and boy- 
 ifli jocularity, with mirth, and feaft, and 
 dance, and song ; so that — if we may venture 
 to imitate Webfter's grand image of the re- 
 port of England's morning gun circling the 
 globe — the mixed sound of mufic, of laugh- 
 ter, and of feftive fhouts, flows along, wave 
 after wave, over the sunny land of the 
 myrtle and the vine, from village to village, 
 from city to city, without a paufe from 
 Palermo to Nice. 
 
 The Befania is alfo in Italy a fixed epoch 
 for annual prefents, like the Chriftmas gifts 
 and boxes of England, and the New- Year's 
 Day for etrennes of France. 
 
 If any of our readers fhould be defirous
 
 28 
 
 of knowing how this klHval was kept in 
 older days of Italy's glory, and wealth, and 
 art, we nuiii he eontent to reler him to the 
 pages of their brilliant eonteniporary authors, 
 who told with patriot pride of " her palaees, 
 her ladies, and her pomp," and efpeeially to 
 thofe Hernesei poets (for so they are termed), 
 the poets of the sehool of the spirited and 
 playful Berni, who, like him, pais rapidly 
 from grave to gay, mixing the droll with the 
 brilliant in the very tafte and spirit of our 
 own Halleck. 
 
 We have already alluded to the " Jour 
 des Rois " in France, and its King of the 
 Bean. In former days this was celebrated 
 with as much ftate and as much frolic as in 
 Italy, as the curious reader can satisfy himfelf 
 very pleaiantly, by looking into some of the 
 writings of French antiquarians or hiftorians, 
 who, ftrikingly contraft to the writers of
 
 29 
 
 other nations upon fnnilar topics, ordi- 
 narily as dry and heavy as the subjeds them- 
 selves ; for many a French antiquary has 
 drefled the moft unpromifing themes of 
 this sort with the same grace and HveH- 
 nefs with which Count Hamilton told his 
 fairy tales in the laft century, or Scribe and 
 his affociates conftrud: a farce in the prefent 
 day. 
 
 The national adoption of Le Jour de I'An, 
 New Year's Day, for the exclulive diflribu- 
 tion of prefents to friends and children, and 
 gifts to servants, and employes, has fhorn 
 Twelfth-Night in Paris of some of the 
 special honour and affed:ions of humbler and 
 of youthful minds, which in some other 
 countries it divides with Chriftmas. Besides, 
 as to Paris, what with revolutions and specu- 
 lations, politics and the Bourse, the Parifians 
 have certainly become a sadder if not a
 
 30 
 
 w'ifcT pLoplc. 1 f()\vc\'cr, thu Day ol the 
 Kings is iHIl lionoiircci there more or lefs, 
 and in nianv a uortliv I^ourgeois family and 
 in many a laded I lotel ot the I'aiihourg St. 
 Germain inhabiteti hv noble names, it is wel- 
 comed uith warm hearts and beaming faces. 
 In a large part ol the prov inees it (HI! keeps 
 its ground, \aried w ith sundry local ceremo- 
 nies and euiloms. 'I heir majeilies are some- 
 times cholen hv the bean in the cake, some- 
 times by the finding in the selected ilice a 
 I'llver or gold coin, and sometimes (as in what 
 was formerly Lower Normandy) by the 
 more primitive method of a boy blinded 
 under the table calling out as by chance the 
 fortunate names. There too, in spite of 
 changes in governments, in manners, and 
 in names, nay even in spite of rail-roads, 
 many an old ufage yet lingers, that was 
 practised centuries ago ; they dance juft as
 
 31 
 
 they did more than a hundred years ago, to 
 the mufic of the traveller poet, 
 
 Alike all ages, dames of ancient days 
 
 Still lead their children through the mirthful maze, 
 
 And the gay grandsire (killed in geflic lore. 
 
 Still frifks beneath the burden of three score. 
 
 The laugh-provoking ciiftom, known as 
 " Le Roi boit," prefcribing certain penal- 
 ties or prizes, whenever his Majefty drinks, 
 is of French origin, though it has spread 
 elfewliere. 
 
 Throughout univerfal Germany, the Day 
 of the Three Holy Kings (der Tag de Heil- 
 igen Drei Koninge) has perhaps a ftronger 
 hold upon the people than anywhere else. 
 Its form of obfervance varies somewhat in 
 Northern Cicrmany from that in Southern, 
 and in Roman Catholic from Proteftant 
 cities or ftates. Local habits and chara6lers, 
 alfo, caufe some variety. 
 
 Cologne of courfe celebrates with great
 
 32 
 
 |)()in|), ami noise, aiui public iLiUvitv, the 
 day of tlu- MiuTntrd Kings \vho(e rclic<i sin- 
 giiauis. Lillic, hut rciiowncd (iottiiigcn, 
 cjuict aiul ihidious, welcomes the day in her 
 own lalliion, uilh children's gilts and frolics, 
 some fhident jollification, and in the evening 
 with a *' the danlant," of tea and cake, nuif'ie 
 and walt/ing, at the nKnleii reiidenee of some 
 eminent j^rotellor, wiio jfndies and teaches 
 fifteen hours a day, and is an oracle of the 
 uhole learned world in Mathematics, or 
 in (ireek or I lehrew, or ecclefiafUcal his- 
 tory, or Biblical criticism. 
 
 But it is e\erywhere the children's favour- 
 ite holiday. In many places fairs are held 
 with booths full of toys, trinkets, and con- 
 fedionary ; while masked or fantaftically 
 decc^rated proceffions roam about the fl-reets, 
 headed by three crowned children. 
 
 Even in sober, methodical, commercial
 
 
 Lutheran Hamburg, bufinefs is sufpended; 
 even that famous bank, which deals in cur- 
 rency only, meddles with no paper but its 
 own, and whole notes are always worth 
 more than gold or filver, is clofed. Friend- 
 ly prefents are given, and all the children 
 made happy bv their holiday wealth as well 
 as by their holiday frolics. 
 
 The morning opens witii merry chimes 
 from the church towers, the ftreets are vocal 
 all dav with the chaunts and carols of 
 choriiler boys ; in houles public and private 
 rifcs the smell of the feaft, mixed with the 
 perfumes of flowers, and of Rhein-Wein, 
 and the fimies of choice Canafler ; or elfe, 
 blended with the more plebeian odours of 
 Lager Bier, and the thick smoke of Rauch- 
 taback. On that fixth of January night, in 
 that fir northern city swept by keen blafts 
 from the North Sea, it mufl be a wild night 
 
 3
 
 3+ 
 
 iiuiccd, which can prc\'cnt the iirccts from 
 being \'ocal with nuiiic and scjng, and with 
 many a serenade, even at midnight, not lefs 
 melodious, and hir more cordially received 
 by the blue-eyed maidens of Hamburg, tlian 
 thofe in milder climes at which Milton 
 scolled in his sneer at 
 
 " Mix'd dance or wanton maflc, or midnight hnll. 
 Or scrcnatc, which the ftarvcd lover fingi 
 To his proud fair, bcft quitcd with difJain.'' 
 
 Throughout the Netherlands, whetlicr 
 Belgian or l^atavian, in both branches of the 
 separated but kindred people, Flemilli and 
 Low Dutch, this same feil:i\al, '^ de Driekon- 
 ingenfeeft," is obferved by all claffes. It is 
 kept more as a social holiday by the Holland- 
 ers, and in Flanders with more of the external 
 ceremonial of Cologne ; but in both the gen- 
 eral cuftom of eledlion by lot prevails, and 
 in both, there is a difplay and confumption
 
 35 
 
 of cakes and "cookies" of all sorts, which 
 would put Herrick's " mighty cakes " out of 
 countenance, as zingerkoek, zoetekoek, 
 pannekoekj olikoek and waafEls, with 
 many artocreatic dainties, some of which 
 ftill linger at the tea-tables of burghers of 
 old defcent in New York and Albany, 
 but moft have sunk into oblivion, together 
 with that sonorous and expreffive tongue 
 that was once as much at home on the 
 banks of the Hudfon, as on the dykes of 
 
 the Y. 
 
 The chara6ler and ftyle of the family cel- 
 ebration, as well as its antiquity in Flanders 
 and Brabant, is shown in one of the moft 
 popular and brilliant paintings of the Flem- 
 iili school, the " Le Roi Boit" of Joerdans, 
 the worthy pupil of Rubens. The life-like 
 original, gay and glowing in colour, and 
 beaming withjoyousexpreffion; is well known
 
 ro tnivcllud artiils and connoillciirs, and sev- 
 eral sjiirited cFi<j;ra\ iiigs have made it laniiliar 
 to thoiilaiuls more. 
 
 To the ciri/Lii^ ol this nutch-foiiiulcd 
 city, w liLTc the names ami blooci ot I loHand 
 abound, and many a eiiltom ol Holland 
 iHll lingers, the hiltory, aneetlotes and speeial 
 uiaires of the '^ Neder-Dmtseh Driekonin- 
 ^renfeefK" would of eoiiiie have peculiar in- 
 tereli. With the aid of good lather Cats, he 
 whoftill moulds the hearts of Dutch children 
 and 'Milb the ianey on the fide of truth," and 
 of the fertile and various \'ondel, the Dutch 
 Dryden, and with aceefs to the choice col- 
 ledion of Duteh hiftory and literature in 
 the Alter Library, it would be eafy to fill 
 pages with paffages of sonorous or of jocofe 
 verfe, touchino; this feftivity in the earlier 
 days of the Seven United Provinces, or with 
 Twelfth-Day anecdotes, some of them
 
 11 
 
 lofty and deviating, and others of fun broad 
 enough to provoke the loudefl: laughter of 
 Burgomaftcrs. To thefe there might be 
 added some perhaps not unpidurefque 
 fketches, drawn from our own obfervations 
 and recolledions of the Dutch Day of 
 Kings in later times. But from this we 
 muft refrain; partly becaufe we fear to 
 weary the patience of thofe of our readers 
 whofe blood " boafts no drop from that 
 immortal line," but chiefly becaufe we dare 
 not trefpafs on the peculiar domain of that 
 exclufive and venerable body, the High 
 and Mighty the St. Nicholas Society of 
 New York, the legitimate and jealous con- 
 servators of all that pertains to the social 
 ufiges of the founders of our city. Their 
 Board of Stewards, into which no man can 
 be elected whofe name does not boaft of the 
 prehx of a Van, has for years been engaged 
 
 844G3
 
 i« 
 
 on a great work upon ** the Ritual of Santa 
 Clans nnrl rlu- Ifolidavs cxi llullaiul/' wlu-rr 
 all the learning on sueh snhjecfls is enilxKiieil. 
 It will he iilueil on next Pinxtcr Monday from 
 the prefs of the Appletons in lour imperial 
 (.jiKiilob, and to this noble uuik we mui^ re- 
 fer our reailers, as an ample suhlHtute for the 
 meagre aeeoiint that our spaee could now 
 allow us to give. 
 
 Vet there is one Twelfth- Day incident in 
 the earlv maritime hiitory of Holland which 
 we cannot omit to mention; partly becaufc 
 it ha^ ne\ei Oeiore been Uvtrrated in connec- 
 tion with this subject ; but chiefly becaufc 
 the llory, interefting and touching in itfelf, 
 prefents alio and enforces an impreflivc 
 lellon ot the great practical and moral value 
 of such national and domellic feftivc anni- 
 vcriliries, which, endeared bv the pleafures of 
 childhood and early youth, and confecrated 
 

 
 39 
 
 by the remembrance of domeiiic and social 
 jovs, bring back with them as they recur in 
 after life, together with the recollections, 
 something of the reality of the joys and the 
 piirit\- of youth and of home. It has alfo 
 a IHll additional intereil in this coimtry and 
 at this time, from its parallel \yith some of 
 the recent Arctic ad\entures of our own 
 c()iintr\ men, and their aflociation with the 
 memory of Dr. Kane, who whilit living 
 filled the |)ublic minti, and whole death 
 has saddened the public heart. 
 
 Neyer was the spirit of maritime enter- 
 prife more ardent and eflective than in Hol- 
 land, during the continuance of the pro- 
 tracted war for the independence of the 
 United Netherlands, after the firft: terrible 
 ftruggle was oyer, and national soyereignty 
 was subftantially achieyed. Near the clofe 
 of the sixteenth century, seyeral expeditions
 
 40 
 
 lor maritime cllfcoNcry were fitted out, some 
 for tile American eoails, ami others lor a 
 tlifeoxery ol a lliorter |)airage In the North 
 to China and [ajKin, whither Dutch com- 
 merce had already found its wav bv the 
 lon<j; and te^iiou^ .Southern pallage hv the 
 Cape of (Jooil I lope. Ihe conuiiercial en- 
 terprife thrected to the W'elkrn Indies, as 
 our whole 1 lemilphere was then denomina- 
 ted, led a few years alter to the difcovcry 
 antl settlement of New Amfterdam. It 
 was the enterprile and capital ol the same 
 far-seeing merchants, which under lefs hap- 
 py aufpices projected and equipped the ex- 
 pedition o\ 1596 lor the dilcovery of a North- 
 wel} palTage to the Indies. There was more 
 than one of thele expeditions, but we speak 
 of that under the command of Ian Cornelius- 
 on and Jacob \^an Heemllcirk, which sailed 
 from Amil:erdam in Mav 1596. Cornelius-
 
 4-1 
 
 on was an experienced navigator; Heem- 
 ikirk a young man, (he was but twenty- 
 seven,) of kind manners, bright talents, and 
 high moral worth. 
 
 Their veiTels were of the kind ufed for 
 the intricate and fhallow navigation of the 
 iikmds and inlets of Holland and Zealand, 
 and were preferred by the Dutch for pur- 
 pofes of coafl: and river exploration, being 
 broad, capacious, and of little draught of 
 water. They were called by them '' Vlie 
 boots," from their being firfl: ufed to navigate 
 the Vlie, a name which has palled with flight 
 changes into nautical ufe in other languages. 
 We mention this flidt, though not important 
 to our ftorv, becaufe it was in a veflel of this 
 sort, the fly -boat '' HaalvT Maan " or the 
 Half Moon, originally selected and fitted out 
 for another voyage of Ardfic exploration, 
 that Hendrick Hudfon, twelve years after,
 
 42 
 
 firfl broke the unknown wave of the Har- 
 bour of New York, and thence sounded his 
 slow and doubtful way up tlie broad Maha- 
 kaneghtuek, "thcCireat riwrof the Moun- 
 tains." 
 
 The narrative of this expedition of i 596, 
 is given minutely and ehron(jlogieally in the 
 annals of Peter Hor Chriftianzoon, known in 
 his days as a lawyer, and a fbtesman, high in 
 office but now remembered only as the con- 
 scientious, laborious, and graphic annalifl 
 of the Netherlands, from 1550 to 1605 the 
 brighefl: period of the early antl heroic age 
 of the Dutch Republic. The hnc copy 
 of his annals in the Aftor Library, whence 
 we chiefly draw our information, is in 
 seven mafTy parchment-covered folios, and 
 is illuftrated amongfl many other spirited 
 engravings of heroes, battles, and great 
 events, with several prints reprefenting the
 
 4 
 
 '-» 
 
 Ardic scenes of the exploration of 1596- 
 1597, perils from combats with huge bears 
 and elephantine sea-lions, from mountains of 
 ice and other Ardic incidents, and show- 
 ing, from such scenes being intermixed with 
 engravings of great national events and the 
 fine portraits of chiefs and llatesmen, the 
 deep interefl: felt in tliis ilory by the author 
 and his readers. 
 
 The two vefiels penetrated together so 
 far North as to difcover the mofi: Northern 
 land which was reached for two centuries 
 and a half afterwards, thofe iflands and fteep 
 mountains to which Heemfkirk gave the 
 defcriptive appellation of Spitzbergen, (or 
 Iharp-pointed mountains,) which they ftill 
 bear. Tliey then parted company, Corne- 
 liuson taking a weflern courfe. Heemfkirk 
 attempted a paillige by the North of Nova 
 Zembla, but though it was yet early autumn
 
 +4 
 
 soon found his way iniiKticd and dangerous 
 from lali-niaking ice, ami hclorc the end of 
 October his \Lilel was locked in the ice 
 near the North coafl^ of \o\'a Zemhhi, only 
 hiteen degrees from the North Pole. The 
 days luui (lirunk to an hour's length, and 
 were fall liiniinilliing, ami there was no hope 
 of extricating the veird, lor the ocean was 
 fro/en as I'ar as it could he seen. The crew 
 had therefore only to prepare to jxifs the 
 winter on lliore, as heft they might. 
 
 They dismantled their veiTel, and landed 
 their sea-ftores, and then, with some large 
 drift wood and timber which they found on 
 that totally barren ifland, together with 
 materials from their velTel, conftructed a 
 laree low hut, near a ftream that remained un- 
 frozen in spite of the severity of the cold 
 they already experienced. It was probably 
 one of thofe hot springs not uncommon in
 
 4-5 
 
 high Northern hititudes. They provided 
 themfelvTS from the drift-wood on the fhore 
 with a tolerable supply of fuel for the win- 
 ter, but they found nothing elfe on the ifland 
 likely to contribute to their comfort, save 
 immenfe white bears, some of which, while 
 daylight yet lafted, they killed, preferving the 
 flefli for food, and the fat for a subftitute for 
 oil when that Ihould fail for their lamps. 
 
 On the 4.th of November the sun set in 
 the lowerino; Weft for the laft time it fhould 
 rife again, until after a night of almoft the 
 third of a year. The ikies were covered 
 with fogs and snow, all was in utter dark- 
 nefs without. The hiftorian tells us that it 
 was " bitter cold " (bitter koud) when the 
 adventurers landed, but when the sun left 
 them, he says, it became yet more exceed- 
 ingly bitter cold ; '' uytermater bitter koud." 
 Their limbs were numbed, their blood chilled,
 
 their hearts sunk within them. Chrilhnas 
 eunie, ami iloubtlefs, as may be inferred from 
 I [eenilkirk's eliaracter as it a|)|)earetl in after 
 life, was re\'erentlv ohleiNetl as their Re- 
 lormecl C-hiireh ol I lollaml preferihed; but if 
 C>hriihnas br()U<j^ht with it piuus reiignation, 
 or reliirious eonlohition, it was unaccom- 
 paniecl by any of its aeeiiRomecl train of 
 mirthful tealls and Hght-hearted sports. i he 
 New ^'ear eame in, but there rofe no New 
 Year's sun either in the heavens or in their 
 hearts. 
 
 At hiil: the telli\al of the Three Kings 
 approaehed. Then after conlultation among 
 thcmfelves, on the eve before the IWelfth- 
 Day, some of the oldeil: and wilell sailors 
 rel'pectfully addrelTed Sehipper Heemfkirk, 
 and told him that it would not do to pafs 
 their time like a pack of white bears, be- 
 tween growling and flecping, that they muft
 
 4-7 
 
 keep the '' Drickoningendag," as the good 
 people did at home ; they therefore requefted 
 that due order fhoiild be taken for such 
 celebration as their means could afford, and 
 that they might choofe a king by the ufual 
 lot, and have a hearty frolic. The Cap- 
 tain cordially affented to this requeft, which 
 was probably made from his own sugges- 
 tion. The ship-ftores laid in by Dutch 
 prudence, and their coarfe bear's meat, 
 afforded subllantials enough, but luxuries 
 were scarce. Probably the '' jenever-vat " 
 afforded some humbler materials for their 
 Waffail bout, but Bor tells us that the 
 Captain brought forth a little wine that 
 had been kept for special ufes, that they 
 had even a eood allowance of white- 
 bread, and that, moreover, they fortunately 
 had meal enough whereof to enable them 
 to bake pan-cakes, '' pannekoeken af bak-
 
 48 
 
 ten." With thcTc hiinil^lc luxuries, the) 
 feafted and frolicked, says the worthy Bor, 
 as jovially as '' they eouKI have frolicked 
 with the mof} coftlv victuals and drinks." 
 The choice of King fell upon the '' high- 
 boatswain," who ruled that night the undif- 
 puted " King of Nova Zenibla," as the 
 hiftorian calls him. Thev could not want a 
 queen, for our readers may learn from Mot- 
 ley's admirable hiftory, how the Dutch women 
 of the coafl:, particularly thofe of the iflands 
 of Zealand, fhared in the maritime hardiliips 
 -and contells of their hulbands and fathers. 
 Yet it is to be feared that the Queen of 
 Nova Zembla, on the 6th of January, 1597, 
 was neither quite as young or as handfome 
 as thofe whom the accurately difcriminating 
 chance of the Century Club elects to rule 
 on fimilar feftivals. But they frolicked with 
 a hearty good will ; they sung, they
 
 49 
 
 danced, they huzzaed, they jumped, and 
 they wreftled. 
 
 Their toils, their wants, were all forgot. 
 Their prefent fate, their future lot. 
 And lighted up each faded eye 
 With all the sailor's ecftafv. 
 
 The noify and merry frolic was doubtlefs 
 prolonged for many an hour, for their fleep 
 was sound, and they all arofe fortified and 
 refrefhed. The hour of gloom had pafled 
 away from their souls. They now braced 
 themfelves up to bear their privations and 
 their perils as became men who had sailed 
 under the three-coloured ftripes of Holland, 
 and fought under the Lion-crefted banner of 
 Orange. They now kept their limbs from 
 ftiffening, and their blood warm by athletic 
 exercifes ; and waited with cheerful confi- 
 dence for that sun which was to rife on the 
 sixteenth of February. But on the 24.th of 
 January, they were surprifed and cheered
 
 50 
 
 by the ap|K"arancc of light ; and the light 
 continued and inereafetl. Whether it was 
 from Northern Lights, or whether this was 
 the firll and long prohjnged daybreak (jf an 
 ar6lie winter's night, is doubtful ; but ne\'er 
 was the ''Holy Light, offspring of I lea\en's 
 firfl-born," hailed with more re\ercntial joy 
 and gratitude. J he men now ifTued forth 
 from their liut, boldly breathed the cold pure 
 air, hunted the bears, and fhot smaller animals 
 whieh now began to appear in numbers. 
 
 But even when the night liad almoil: 
 wholly lied before the long Northern summer 
 days, his veflel befidcs being serioufly dam- 
 aged, was ftill fall: locked in a mountain of 
 ice. Heemfkirk now perceived that it was 
 hopelefs to exped: it to be extricated, and 
 that if their return was long delayed winter 
 mio;ht ao;ain overtake them. He had had 
 the forefight to secure the boats on lliore,
 
 51 
 
 and in two of the ftouteft of thefe, fitted 
 out as well as mio;ht be from the means 
 his Fly-boat gave him, he determined to 
 embark, trufting to reach Norway. 
 
 It was not till the 15th of June that he 
 could effed: even this. The two boats were 
 fortunate in being able to keep company. 
 After nearly three months of dreadful and 
 ceafelefs hardfhips, in which the seamen 
 were supported, cheered, and guided by the 
 kindnefs, the spirit, energy, and refources of 
 their young captain, they reached a harbour 
 on the coalT: of Norway. On entering it 
 they defcried a sail ; but their joy was re- 
 doubled when they made out the three- 
 coloured flag, and the flout Fly-boat of 
 their comrade Corneliuson. He had win- 
 tered with some comfort in Norway, and 
 was now returning, as soon as the ice would 
 permit, to Holland, there to report the dif-
 
 52 
 
 covcry of S|)it/hcrgL'n, and his opinion of 
 the improbability of any Arctic pafTiigc to 
 the Indies. 
 
 It need not be told ]]()\v joyous this 
 meeting was. They returned with Cor- 
 neliiison in his lliij^ to Amllerdam. They 
 were all received as the li\ ing from the dead ; 
 with a warmer greeting than if they had re- 
 turned vidors from a sea-fight with the 
 Spaniili navy, or laden with ingots taken in 
 galleons from Mexico. They were followed 
 with huzzas, feailed by the l^urgomaflers, 
 received by the city with illuminations and 
 lliouts, and every man among them was a 
 '' lion " in his own circle. All of them 
 were promoted, employed, or penfioned, ac- 
 cording to their several deferts. 
 
 Van Heemfkirk himfelf was promoted to 
 the naval service. From a bold Arctic ex- 
 plorer he became a great naval commander.
 
 S3 
 
 Ten years after, as Vice Admiral of the 
 
 United Provinces, he gained the famous 
 
 victory in the Bay of Gibraltar, over the 
 
 Spanifh fleet of more than double his 
 
 force, moored near fhore and supported by 
 
 the batteries of the town and caftle. In this 
 
 adion he anticipated by almoft two centuries 
 
 Nelfon's brilliant naval tadics, by breaking 
 
 the enemy's line and doubling his fhips 
 
 infide and outfide on the van of the Spanifh 
 
 fleet. Here he was killed in the very 
 
 moment of vidlory — a vidlory deciflve of 
 
 his country's independence. He fell in the 
 
 meridian of his life and talent, in the full 
 
 triumph of his genius and patriotism. 
 
 This vidtory in the Bay of Gibraltar, was 
 at once his Aboukir and his Trafalgar to 
 this Nelfon of Holland. 
 
 It might not be (as Shakespeare says) " to 
 conlider it too curioufly," were we to trace,
 
 5+ 
 
 Hl'P by ftcp, how, in the mylkrious order of 
 ProvitlciKc, the chLcrrul and innocent cele- 
 bration of a popiihir and trailitional old 
 feftival tended to prefervc ami |)repare a 
 hero to serve his country in the a|)pointed 
 hour of his glorious delHny ; how the 
 efpeeial value of his services was proved by 
 an originality of tadiical genius such as he 
 alone polTefled in that age, and such as was 
 not attain witneffed on the ocean till nearly 
 two hundred years had pail: ; how the victory 
 so achieved preferved and secured the civil 
 and relieious liberties of Holland; how 
 thofe liberties, soon and powerfully and long 
 influenced the deftinies of Europe; how 
 from the effeds so produced there has been 
 spread a wide and lafting influence over the 
 whole civilized world, promoting the beft 
 interefis of the human race. 
 
 This rude Twelfth-night fefl:ivity of a
 
 55 
 
 party of sailors on a barren ifland in 1597, 
 might thus appear to be not an unimportant 
 link in that mighty and myfterious chain of 
 secondary caufes and effects, which not only 
 produced the foundation, profperity, and 
 commercial greatnefs of our own New York, 
 but the vaft and grand refults of the settle- 
 ment of our whole land by enlightened 
 races, fitted for the rights and duties of self- 
 government, and of the Independence and 
 the liberties of these United States. 
 
 But this is not the place for so high an 
 argument requiring at each ffep the guidance 
 of a reverent and cautious philosophy. Let 
 us pafs on to another, and to us very ftriking 
 afped: of this Nova Zembla Feafl: of the 
 Three Kings. 
 
 Looking at dates, names, and some collat- 
 eral circumftances, it is by no means out 
 of the range of probability, that amongfl:
 
 56 
 
 that brilliant throng who partook of the 
 Century Club Twelfth-Night rY-fli\'al of 
 1858, may have been some of the great- 
 grandsons, and great-great-granddaughters, 
 in the ninth or tenth generation of that 
 noble-hearted Captain and erew who in the 
 midfl: of an Ar6tie winter's night, in whieh 
 the sun was not to rife before seven long 
 weeks more had expired, on a barren ifland 
 at the 75th degree of North Latitude, cele- 
 brated with hearty enjoyment, the same fes- 
 tival in 1597. 
 
 It is quite certain that many of that gay 
 Twelfth-Night affembly of 1858, in New 
 York, were defcendants of the countrymen 
 and companions of Van Heemfkirk and his 
 Ardic explorers, of thofe who fitted out their 
 expedition, or welcomed their return. 
 
 How pidurefque, how poetical, how 
 touching is the contrafl: between the bare and
 
 S7 
 
 low interior of that Nova Zemblan hut, 
 feebly lighted with two or three glimmering 
 lamps fed with bear's-grease, and noify with 
 the rude jollity of some twenty brave and 
 honefl: sailors, and perhaps one or two as 
 brave and ftout-hearted " vrouween " ; and 
 that spacious and lofty hall in our New Am- 
 fterdam, as it was seen on the 6th of Jan- 
 uary 18585 blazing with lights, refounding 
 with mufic, song, and laughter, fragrant as 
 June with frefh-gathered flowers, rich with 
 works of art, gay with the elegant splendours 
 of modern fafhion quaintly mixed with the 
 theatrical pomp of mediaeval coftume, and 
 the whole scene bright and radiant with 
 youth and merriment and grace and beauty. 
 However ftrong a contrafi- thefe two scenes 
 may fhow in their external afped:, yet there 
 was a common element pervading both, and 
 impreffing upon both its own character. It
 
 5« 
 
 was this, that the hilarities and cnjoviiK-nts of 
 each were not entirely ol the moment and 
 the individual ncjr lor the moment and the 
 individual ; hut that thefe were elevated and 
 purified by ennobling or endearing alTocia- 
 tions, that the\' were connected in the mind 
 with the paii or the diftant, and thus in some 
 degree tranijK)rted beyond the bounds ol 
 *' this ignorant i^refent." 
 
 The Century Club had obser\ed with re- 
 gret that the ancient fellival, with its p(K-tical 
 and reverential airociations, and its pleafant 
 and pidliirefqiie iifages, which had for ages 
 contributed every year to the innocent enjoy- 
 ments and social affedtions of the Dutch, 
 Englifh, French, Irilli, and German anceftors 
 of our cofmopolitan New York, was falling 
 into difufe in this overworked and care-worn 
 city. They therefore felt that it belonged 
 to their proper vocation, to endeavour to
 
 59 
 
 revive the love and honour due to this joy- 
 ous Inftitution. 
 
 How tar thev have succeeded in this at- 
 tempt it is for their kind and fair guefts to 
 judge, and their memory of the evening and 
 their judgment upon it, may be aided by 
 this little volume. 
 
 For themselves they cherifh the lively 
 hope that the antique pageantry and fan- 
 tartic ceremonial, mixed with more ufual 
 social joys, as presented at the Century Club's 
 Twelfth-Night of 1858, will by no means. 
 
 Like unfubftantial pageants faded. 
 Leave not a rack behind ; 
 
 But will rather, as the great Poet himself 
 teaches, 
 
 " Witness more than Fancy's images. 
 And tend to something of great conflancy." 
 
 Ccnturn UoomS, Shrove Tuesday, 
 February i6, 1858.
 
 6o 
 
 ^*OtCG. 
 
 Wines of Spain. P. 23. 
 
 Some of our readers, cfpccially our fair readers, may be fo little flcillcd 
 in the more recondite myfteries of the winc-prcfs as to require fomc further 
 explanation of the allusions on this paffage. The "wines of La Mancha" — 
 Don Quixotte's native province, as every one knows — here specially dcfig- 
 nated, are grown on a rocky foil, and one of the beft growths, is indicated 
 by the name of \''al de Pcfias, or " Valley of Stones." It was glowingly 
 eulogized by Sancho Panza, for whofe unerring inftinftive judgment on 
 wines Cervantes ftrongly vouches. It is only of late years that the fame 
 of this wine has fpread beyond the Caftilles, but fmce it has become known 
 in England and this country, Sancho's judgment has been affirmed by judges 
 from whofe decifion there can be no appeal. 
 
 The kind of Sherry or Xcres wine, particularly referred to, is the delicate 
 pale wine, of a flavor and fmcU refembling thofc of the camomile, and thence 
 called Manzanilla, that being the Spanifh word for camomile. It receives 
 fpecial honor in this place, not merely for its excellence as a wine, but be- 
 caufe it is more efteemed by the natives than any of the wines of Andalu- 
 fia (the Sherry-growing province), and has been clofely aflbciated with the 
 hiftory, literature, and arts of Spain fmce the fifteenth century.
 
 6i 
 
 Van Heemskirk. P. 40. 
 
 The very brief account of Van Hcemfkirk's Arftic adventures here 
 given is chiefly from Bor's great hiftory. But they are also fully re- 
 corded, from the journal of his pilot Barentfen, by De Veer in Latin and 
 alfo in antiquated French of that day. This work has been condenfed and 
 infcrted by Prevoft, in his " Hiftoirc Generale de Voyages," in more modern 
 French. 
 
 Van Heemfldrk's great naval viftory is related by fevcral original 
 authorities, by Metteren and others in Dutch, by Grotius and by De Thou 
 in claffical Latin, and in French by Sully. The latter, while he relates the 
 aftion itfclf more briefly, points out efpecially, as was natural from his 
 pofition as a llatcfman, the efFcd of this viftory in forcing Spain to the treaty 
 which acknowledged and fccured the Independence of the Seven United 
 Provinces. The whole Hfe and achievements of Van Heemlkirk are ad- 
 mirably fummed up, with Tacitus-like concifenefs, in the Latin epitaph on 
 his monument in Amfterdam erefted by the States-General. 
 
 But it is a curious faft that whilft all writers, whether contemporary or 
 more modern, who have related this naval achievement, agree in the accounts 
 of the greatnefs of the viftory and of its efFefls, and of the perfonal heroilm 
 of the commanding admiral, they attribute the refult mainly to that and the 
 valor and fkill of his officers and men, without apparently perceiving how 
 much was due to the originality and ability of his naval taftics. Nautical 
 men muft have underftood it at the time, but it required the fplendid com- 
 mentary of Nelfon's great vidlories, nearly two hundred years after, and the
 
 62 
 
 difcuflions and explanations to which they gave rife, to prove the remarkable 
 merit of Van Hccmfkirk. This is, perhaps, the firft time in which they 
 have been diftindly pointed out in tliis light, unlefs it may have been done 
 by fome quite modern Dutch author. 
 
 Nelfon's viftory of the Nile, in the Bay of Aboukir, was a pcrfcd and 
 remarkable parallel with the vidlory of 1607 in the Bay of Gibraltar, in its 
 tadlics and incidents. In both, the vanquifhcd fleet, fuperior in force, was 
 drawn up and attacked in the fame manner, and in both the admiral's fhip 
 of the defeated, greatly fuperior in force to any of the afTailants — (the Span- 
 ifli admiral boafted that his fliip was a match for the whole aflailing fleet) — 
 was blown up and the admiral killed. Again, Van Hccmfkirk's death in 
 the viftory of the Bay of Gibraltar Angularly refcmbled that of Nelfon in 
 his laft vi£lory of Trafalgar. That battle was fought and won on another 
 application of the fame principle of nautical taftics which feems alfo to have 
 been ufed by Van Hccmfkirk on a change in the Spanifli line. Both ad- 
 mirals lived long enough to be aflured of viftory, and to see it won 
 under their orders by their feconds in command after thcmfelves receiving 
 the fatal wound. 
 
 Van Heemfkirk was a great, a virtuous, and an admirable man ; his 
 perfonal charader feems quite exempt from thofe weaknefTes which dimmed 
 the luftre of Nelfon's fame. The Angle fault which his contemporaries rather 
 infmuate than charge, is too large a portion of that " laft infirmity of noble 
 minds," ambition and the defire of glory. 
 
 Hiftory has not yet done full juftice to Van Heemlkirk ; but it is doubtlefs 
 referved to be amply paid him by the fame hand which has fo faithfully and 
 fo glowingly depifted the deeds and charader of William the Silent— the 
 Wafhington of the fixteenth century— by our countryman, the hiftorian 
 Motley.
 
 PROCLAMATION 
 
 and 
 ORDINANCE. 
 
 
 (Dac0 I (D}]C0 ! ®iic0 !
 
 tPc. tl)c Ccntttig, , 
 
 By Patent of wit and art, from the Supreme 
 Power of the State of New York, Cenfor 
 of Tafte, Critic of the Times, and Fofterer 
 of Letters, in the Ifland of Manatta, 
 
 Forafmuch as the people of our realm 
 are burdened with affairs, and much worn 
 with toil for gain, whereby their fpirits lofe 
 all cheer, and their nimble wits grow dull, 
 and fmce a certain peftilent invention, 
 yclept Bufmefs, doth fteal their hearts and 
 lure their brains away from all blithefomenefs ; 
 
 We being, alfo, aware of the wife ufage
 
 66 
 
 of our forcrathcrs, Hill upholclcn in their 
 Iflaiul of Hritain, to lii^htLn care by ohlerv- 
 aiKL, w ith well-orciered nurriiiient, of niaiiy 
 feiHvals, faints' days, aiul holidays, whereof 
 miieh good cometh to the people, 
 
 Haye deemed it fitting to ordain, that in 
 eaeh year there he celebrated at our Palace, 
 a folemn Rcyel, with meet attendance of 
 mufic, mafques, and banqueting, whereiinto 
 fliall be bidden the ladies of our realm, whofe 
 fweet influence may aid in uplifting our sub- 
 jects from the low^ and pitiable eflate of men 
 of bulmefs. 
 
 And for the more feemly conduct of what 
 gamefome devices may then be prefented, 
 we do command to be recorded in our Ar- 
 chives as a guide and pattern, this order 
 w4iich followeth of a quaint di\ertifement 
 lately performed before us, upon the twelfth 
 night of this prefent year.
 
 67 
 
 The Great Hall prefenting a Throne Room, 
 by erection upon a dais of two chairs of 
 State, and by lit difpofal over the arras of 
 feftoons and pictures meet for the eyes of 
 princes, and the banqueting halls being hung 
 with antlers, armor, and the fkins of hearts, 
 and decked with holly and seafonable greens, 
 and with torches in colors, surrounding a 
 tranfparerbcy wherein is depicted the ancient 
 ceremonial of the twelfth night. 
 
 The Prefident being seated upon a chair 
 of ftate, there enters to him, attended by 
 folemn mufic, 
 
 (Tlic proccesiott. 
 
 Led by the Herald, with tabard and trum- 
 pet, whom follows the Hunter, his head and
 
 68 
 
 shoulders supporting the liorns and hide of 
 a flag. Next, a mighty J^oar's head, borne 
 aloft upon a iiher trenelier by servitors at- 
 tired in riiflet drefses of the chafe. Behind 
 thefe come ioiir chorilkrs, of tender years, 
 clothed in flowing robes of white. I hen 
 follow the Jefters, two, in particolored suits, 
 orange and crimson, bravely decked with 
 ribbons and flafhes, wearing mock crowns, 
 and bearing flaves. After thefe, fix pages, 
 pretty youths in gay and seemly habits, all 
 diverfe, bearing the velvet banner of the 
 Century, and, on cufhions, the sceptre and 
 crowns. Next in order paces the Chan- 
 cellor, with sad-colored ample garments, his 
 gray locks covered by a crimfon fkuU cap. 
 Then four maids of honor, wearing snowy 
 ftoles, with ivy chaplets, attended by as many 
 lords in w^aiting, plumed and splendidly 
 arrayed.
 
 69 
 
 Thus difpofed, the proceflion traverfes the 
 Hall, when the Herald, ftanding before the 
 Prefident, makes proclamation that the elec- 
 tion will begin. Whereupon, at the lower 
 end of the Hall the Great Cake is cut, and 
 diftributed, the chorifters meanwhile fmging 
 in parts, to a quaint and well conceited air 
 words as follow : 
 
 I. 
 
 Now the myftic rite beginning. 
 Here the facred board prepare, 
 Crown and sceptre wait the winning. 
 Who fhall prove the royal pair ? 
 From amidft the congregation 
 Shall a King and Queen arife, 
 Try the venture, rank and ftation 
 Are for thofe who gain the prize.
 
 yo 
 
 II. 
 
 Now upon the royal dais 
 Sec our Lord and Lady wait, 
 Now let lord and lady pay his 
 Coiirtcfy to the crown and ihitc. 
 So the inftallation ended, 
 Let the Herald's voice proclaim 
 By no other queen tranlcended 
 Is our gracious royal dame. 
 
 The Kino; and Queen, havino; now been 
 chofen by their fortunate finding of the 
 rings, approach the Prefident, who rifes, 
 and with grave words of welcome receives 
 them. 
 
 This done, the King being robed by his 
 lords in waiting, while the maids of honor
 
 71 
 
 perform the same office for the Queen, af- 
 cends his throne. The Jefters being seated 
 upon the fteps, and the court ranged in a 
 half circle about, the King places the crown 
 upon his head, and crowns alfo the Queen. 
 Upon this, the Herald making lignal, there 
 goes up a mighty fhout of "Vive le Roi," 
 which being quieted, the King thus speaks : 
 
 We welcome our loyal subjects to thefe 
 our Feftive Halls, and greet moft gracioufly 
 this goodly company. 
 
 This is not '' Twelfth Night, or what you 
 will," but Twelfth Night, or what we will. 
 Be it therefore proclaimed to all the leffer 
 potentates of earth that they have our beft 
 wifhes, and full permiffion to reign or fhine. 
 
 And now, in order that our royal spoufe 
 and you our faithful people may know the 
 grandeur of our empire, we bid you liften,
 
 72 
 
 while our venerable Chancellor makes full 
 report of the condition of our realm. 
 
 Thereafter the Chancellor with serious 
 accent readeth his 
 
 Ucpovt- 
 
 May it pleafe your Majefly, 
 
 I congratulate your Majefty on the aufpi- 
 cious event which has raifed your Majefty to 
 the throne of your royal anceftors. 
 
 The Cakes upon which your Majefty's 
 throne is founded, afford sure guarantee that 
 it can never crumble into ruin. 
 
 I congratulate your Majefty upon the 
 general profperity of the realm. 
 
 It is true, a smart commercial crifis has 
 swept over the nation, but it has done no 
 injury to thofe whofe property was in gold 
 and filver.
 
 73 
 
 Notwithftanding the crilis, thefe precious 
 metals retain their ufual value throughout 
 your Majefty's dominions. 
 
 The receipts into your Majefty's exchequer 
 during the paft year were three hundred and 
 fixty-one millions, and the expenditures dur- 
 ing the same period were fix hundred and 
 ninety-two millions, leaving the small defi- 
 ciency of three hundred and thirty millions 
 to be added to the national debt, which sum 
 is but a flight addition to the eafy burden 
 of your Majefty's moft patient and loyal sub- 
 jects. 
 
 The caufes of this increafe in the nation- 
 al debt are threefold. 
 
 First. The enormous importation of 
 crinolines for the adornment of the ladies 
 of her Majefty's houfehold. 
 
 Second. The vast importation of for-
 
 74- 
 
 eign wines and tobacco, and of the works 
 of the old mailers, by your Majefty's loyal 
 male siibjcds. 
 
 Third. The expenditures for the build- 
 ing and furniOiing of the new Royal 
 Palace, erected for your Majefty's ufe and 
 convenience, and which \vl ha\'e the lujnor 
 of inaugurating on this glorious and aufpi- 
 cious occafion. 
 
 With regard to the firft of thefe caufes, 
 it is humbly recommended to your Majefty 
 to caufe a law to be pafled, limiting the ex- 
 tenfion of the crinoline to a circumference 
 of fifty yards, and also a sumptuary law, 
 restricting your subjects to ten bottles of 
 wine per diem, always excepting from its 
 pains and penalties your Majefty 's moft faith- 
 ful and devoted Lord Chancellor, who fhall 
 be unreftricted in the number he may re-
 
 1^ 
 
 quire, in which to drink the health of your 
 moft excellent Majefty. 
 
 The expenditures on the new Royal 
 Palace, erected under the supervifion of your 
 Majefty 's Board of Commiffioners, conftsting 
 of 
 
 The Lord Harry Pierson, 
 Earl Rossiter, 
 
 and your Majefty 's renowned architect, 
 
 Sir Joseph Wells, 
 
 have exceeded the eftimates by the trifling 
 sum of thirty millions. 
 
 This sum has been adequately provided 
 for by being merged into the national debt, 
 which has given great satisfaction to your 
 Majefty 's subjects, as it removes the burden 
 from themfelves to their defcendants. 
 
 I am proud to be able to congratulate
 
 76 
 
 your Majcfly on the happy progrcfs which 
 which has been made throughout your realm 
 in Learning, Science, and the Arts. 
 
 By your Majefty's command, the higheit: 
 dignities of the ftate have been conferred on 
 the following named subjedts, lor their emi- 
 nent services to the caufe of Literature. 
 
 Irving, 
 Bryant, 
 Bancroft, 
 Longfellow, 
 
 Verplanck, and 
 Bayard Taylor, 
 
 and alfo upon thefe, for their equally emi- 
 nent services in the Fine Arts. 
 
 DURAND, 
 
 Kensett, 
 Gignoux, 
 Lang,
 
 77 
 
 Hicks, 
 
 Gray, and others. 
 
 Thefe gifted men add glory and dignity to 
 your reign, and a luftre to the age in which 
 they live. 
 
 The adminiftration of Juftice and the 
 Law is moft perfed: throughout yourMajefty's 
 Kingdom. Crime is now unknown, and 
 difhonefty meets its rapid and appropriate 
 reward. 
 
 We commend to your Majefty's gracious 
 confideration, the propriety of raifing to the 
 peerage 
 
 My Lord Chief Justice Duer, 
 
 My Lords Daly, 
 
 bosworth, 
 
 Slosson, and 
 
 Woodruff,
 
 78 
 
 with a pcnfion for ten lives of thirty thou- 
 fmd a year, for their diftinguilhed services 
 in the adminiftration of your Majefty's hiws. 
 
 The great syftem of internal improvements, 
 projected by your Majefty's command, has 
 been succefsfully completed. The Railroad 
 which unites your Majefty's caftle of Tillie- 
 tudlem with the port of Communipaw is in 
 excellent condition. 
 
 Its coft has been greater than was antici- 
 pated, but the deficiency has been met by 
 an iffue of third mortgage bonds which 
 were negotiated on very favorable terms. 
 The firft and second mortgage bonds will 
 not be iffued until an anticipated contin- 
 gency occurs. The receipts during the 
 paft year fell fhort of the expenditures by 
 the small sum of twenty millions, but with 
 the referve of unnegotiated bonds on hand.
 
 79 
 
 that sum will be amply provided for, with- 
 out any further aid from your Majefty's 
 Royal Exchequer. 
 
 We congratulate your Majefty that you are 
 at peace with all the world. 
 
 The trifling difference of opinion which 
 exifl:s between your Majefty 's government 
 and the powerful and pugnacious Republic 
 of the United States has been left to the ar- 
 bitration of your Majefty'smoft faithful allies, 
 Her Majefty the Queen of England, and 
 His Imperial Majefty Napoleon 3d, and will 
 doubtlefs be settled to the entire satisfaction 
 of your Majefty. 
 
 We have aflurances from your Royal allies 
 of the moft friendly difpofttion, and it will 
 be the duty and the pleafure of your Majefty 's 
 Minifters to promote the good feeling which 
 now exifts.
 
 8o 
 
 Your Majcfty's royal court is surround- 
 ed by the Ambafladors of thefe great na- 
 tions. 
 
 Their prefence adds dignity to the augufl 
 ceremony of your coronation. We welcome 
 them with the cordiality which is due to 
 their diftinguifhed rank. 
 
 The fair lady who fhares your Majefty's 
 throne, and whofe beauty and accomplifh- 
 ments have won the hearts and the affections 
 of all your Majefty's subjedls, will receive the 
 homage of our undivided loyalty. 
 
 The noble retinue of brilliant and ac- 
 complifhed ladies who surround the throne, 
 will continue to give splendor and magnifi- 
 cence to her court. 
 
 Long may your Majefties reign in the af- 
 fections of a loyal people, and may your
 
 8i 
 
 throne remain, as it now is, the pride and 
 glory of the Century in which we Hve. 
 
 (Boh Bavt tl]c (Dttccn ! 
 
 To whom the King refponds, 
 
 Well haft thou spoken, worthy Chancellor, 
 and well thy duty done. Our cofFers over- 
 flow with gold; let therefore some millions 
 be devoted to our royal confort's private purse, 
 ten millions, say, for pins ; thirty millions 
 for her laces ; and thrice thirty millions for 
 her robes of ftate. 
 
 We will remember thee, good Chancellor. 
 Perchance haft not forgot thyfelf ! So good 
 an office fhould be elective ! there muft be 
 many perquisites. 
 
 But where's our Laureate Bard, to give 
 us joy in song on this aufpicious night?
 
 82 
 
 Hereon the Herald with sound of trum- 
 pet summons tlie Poet. 
 
 Come forth, O Poet, at the King's com- 
 mand ! 
 
 This perfonage faihng to appear, the Jes- 
 ters irreverently make reply. 
 
 Dialoc\uc. 
 
 First Jester. 
 
 Second Jester. 
 First " 
 Second " 
 First " 
 Second " 
 First " 
 Second " 
 King. 
 
 First Jester. 
 Second 
 First 
 Second 
 First 
 Second 
 
 My Licgc, there's not a finglc one on hand. 
 
 Your Highnefs' dearth of Poets is alarming. 
 
 There's Cozzens, Curtis, Mitchel, wived and farming, 
 
 Taylor is anglicifing Saxon ladies. 
 
 And Bryant spurring Pegafus at Cadiz. 
 
 Ward's nought to do, and Butler nought to wear. 
 
 And all the mufes fall into dis-pair. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher-like, let's make a Poet ! 
 
 Your Majefty confents? 
 
 Ay! 
 
 Brother, go it. 
 Defcend ye Mufes ! 
 
 Five a piece ! 
 
 Oh ! nine! 
 Our Oueen's the tenth. 
 
 And more than all divine.
 
 83 
 
 i-iRST Jester. 
 
 Second 
 
 (C 
 
 Both. 
 
 
 First Jester. 
 
 Second 
 
 tt 
 
 First 
 
 t( 
 
 Second 
 
 c< 
 
 First 
 
 i{ 
 
 Second 
 
 i( 
 
 First 
 
 (C 
 
 Second 
 
 it 
 
 First 
 
 iC 
 
 Second 
 
 (< 
 
 First 
 
 (( 
 
 
 \ 
 
 Second 
 
 i( 
 
 First 
 
 a 
 
 Second 
 
 (< 
 
 First 
 
 <c 
 
 Second 
 
 i< 
 
 First 
 
 t( 
 
 Second 
 
 (< 
 
 First 
 
 King. 
 
 First Jester, 
 Second " 
 
 For her we've wandered late your kingdom o'er. 
 
 From Burnham wood to Coney Ifland ftiore. 
 
 And at her feet Manatta's tribute pour. 
 
 Alack ! what worlds of mifery I saw ! 
 
 And I, what oyfters at Communipaw ! 
 
 What hunger mobs, by confcript fathers led ! 
 
 And I, the bulls and bears a raifm' Ned. 
 
 Mine eyes have wept at barefoot children's pleadings. 
 
 I've blubbered over Fanny Kemble's readings. 
 
 Whole blocks of filent factories I've seen. 
 
 And I, wide acres swept by crinoline. 
 
 I saw a Mayor's neft, filled with eggs of Wood ! 
 
 Old Tieman broke thofe yolks ! 
 
 One Schell held good, 
 
 I saw a Court, fleered by a caudal Finn ! 
 Why, that's the Judge that didn't quite get in ! 
 
 I heard the crafh of fortunes ! 
 
 Paper-founded ! 
 
 While notes of proteft through the reahn refounded. 
 I saw ten thoufand fools! 
 
 All drefled as we ? 
 Nay ! they're the real fools ; we only seem to be. 
 We kneel to you, great King, to right thefe wrongs. 
 Turn all thefe tears to smiles, thefe fighs to songs. 
 Or, if our King will truft his faithful Jefters, 
 We'll mix a charm fhall heal the kingdom's fellers. 
 Your Majefty confents ? 
 
 It is my wifh. 
 
 Bring forth the caldron ! 
 
 Ho ! a chafing difh !
 
 84 
 
 [ The Incantation followcth, over and about the chafing-difli. ] 
 
 First Jester. 
 Second " 
 First " 
 Second " 
 Both. 
 
 First Jester. 
 Second " 
 First " 
 Both. 
 
 Second 
 
 First 
 
 Second 
 
 First 
 
 Second 
 
 First 
 
 Second 
 
 First 
 
 Both. 
 
 Second Jester. 
 First " 
 Second " 
 First " 
 
 I'll gather in the flircds and patchei, 
 I'll light the flame of brimrtone matches. 
 Thrice the City bells have toll'd ! 
 And thrice an alderman been sold ! 
 Mingle Folly, Want, and Crime, 
 Harper cries, 'tis time, 'tis time. 
 Round about the caldron go, 
 In the vilcft humbugs throw. 
 By the pricking of my thumbs. 
 Something wicked this way comes ! 
 A City contraft. 
 
 Swindling got. 
 Boil thou firft i' the charmed pot. 
 Double, double, joint-flock bubble. 
 Railroad smafli, and specie trouble ! 
 Fill it high with auction sherr)-. 
 Pitch in — 
 
 Law's new one cent ferry. 
 A merchant-prince's peddled ftock. 
 The rus in urbe pavement rock. 
 Party pledges ! 
 
 Tweedledee ! 
 Broken fkuUs from Tammany ! 
 Double, double, joint-flock bubble. 
 Railroad smafh, and specie trouble ! 
 The Bar's good manners. 
 
 Kanfas thunder. 
 Fighting parfons. 
 
 Throw 'em under.
 
 85 
 
 Second Ji 
 
 ester 
 
 First 
 
 (I 
 
 Second 
 
 a 
 
 First 
 
 « 
 
 Second 
 
 a 
 
 First 
 
 ({ 
 
 Second 
 
 c< 
 
 First 
 
 (t 
 
 Both. 
 
 
 First Je; 
 
 ;ter. 
 
 Second 
 
 <t 
 
 First 
 
 te 
 
 Second 
 
 (< 
 
 First 
 
 (. 
 
 Second 
 
 c( 
 
 First 
 
 (( 
 
 Both. 
 
 
 First Jester. 
 
 Second 
 
 <( 
 
 Both. 
 
 
 Stewart's half a million offer. 
 Stealings from the city coffer. 
 The laft new hugger-mugger dance 
 A native comedy. — 
 
 From France ! 
 Huge hoop, and Lilliputian bonnet. 
 The Atlantic Magazine's laft sonnet ; 
 Governor Walker's proclamations. 
 General Walker's new-made nations. 
 Double, double, joint-ftock bubble. 
 Railroad smafh, and specie trouble. 
 I hurl in new glafs ballot boxes, 
 I, fifty thoufand railroad proxies, 
 I, an eledlive Judge's ermine, 
 I, aldermen, and such small vermin. 
 Policeman's eye. 
 
 And Nandy Wood, 
 Enough, the mixture's flab and good. 
 Round the caldron thrice we've gone. 
 In the trafh and humbugs thrown. 
 Let them simmer, hifs, and boil. 
 The charm is ended, and our toil. 
 So our great king may kindly say. 
 Our duties did his welcome pay. 
 
 Thus addrefled, and being well contented 
 or well wearied therewith, the King con- 
 tinueth.
 
 86 
 
 Let now the imperial jointrels of this 
 happy ftate receive our homage, and to our 
 people be more clofely bound, by wearing 
 from this time forth the order of our Cen- 
 tury, wherewith we now inveft her. 
 
 Thus speaking, he difpofes about the neck 
 of the Oueen the p;olden order (;f the Cen- 
 tury, and thereon thus to his subjects : 
 
 Good friends now join us in our banquet 
 halls. My lords and ladies, follow us, while 
 mulic's harmonious sounds attend. 
 
 Which royal command being uttered, the 
 Herald proclaims the banquet, and precedes 
 the King and Oueen, after whom follows 
 the proceffion, grouped in due order as be- 
 fore, marching solemnly thrice around the 
 Hall, while all voices chant as followeth, the
 
 S7 
 
 Hail to our gracious Queen, 
 Well has she chofen been. 
 
 Hail gracious Queen ! 
 Freely we own thy sway. 
 Gladly we all obey 
 
 Hail gracious Queen! 
 
 Honor the newly crowned, 
 Raife high the feftive sound, 
 
 Hail gracious Queen ! 
 Here on this feftive night. 
 Gathered to grace our rite. 
 Subjects we all unite. 
 
 Hail gracious Queen ! 
 
 Earth knows no Queen like ours. 
 Strew then her path with flowers, 
 Hail gracious Queen !
 
 88 
 
 Here on our bended knee, 
 Homage we pay to thee, 
 Oueen of the Century, 
 Hail gracious (^ueen ! 
 
 After which, to supper, and thereafter 
 a measure, with much gay converfe of the 
 well-pleafed guests, and so an end of 
 
 THE CENTURY'S 
 
 Winter Festival, 
 Jan. 6, 1858.
 
 89 
 
 [The following graphic flcetch of the Century Twelfth-Night Feftival, 
 January 1858, appeared in the Crayon, a monthly Journal of New York, 
 zealou/ly and ably directed to the service of tafte and art. As it contains 
 some particulars of intereft relating to the architeftural charafter and artiftic 
 decorations of the apartments in which the feftival was held, and some inci- 
 dents of the feftival itfelf not contained in the preceding solemn and official 
 documents, it has been thought proper to add it in this place.] 
 
 2:l)c ^entur}) JesttuaL 
 
 The Century Club, on the 6th of January laft, on the occafion of the 
 inauguration of its new building, held a Twelfth-Night Feftival, which ftands 
 forth prominently among the pleafant social entertainments of the winter. 
 The whole building, like the baronial hall of the olden time, was devoted to 
 the feftivities. Before we mention the order of entertainment, we must glance 
 at the elegant reception-room on the second ftory, a magnificent apartment 
 that well illuftrates architefturally and decoratively, the artiftic spirit which 
 animates the club. This room is 28 by 48 feet in area, and is 18 feet high, 
 lighted by three windows on one fide, and a fine Iky-Iight. Over the entrance 
 door is an orcheftra-balcony, which on this occafion was well and efFedively 
 filled. At either end are richly carved mantels of continuous defign, extend-
 
 90 
 
 ing to the ceiling, forming a rich frame for the mirrors. The ceiling is divided 
 into panels, the central compartment being the (ky-light ; the decorations 
 of which are painted in dillemper, representing allegorically Painting, Sculp- 
 ture, Mufic, and Architecture ; and under the cornice arc a scries of panels, 
 arranged to form a frieze, into which it is intended to infcrt the portraits of 
 diftinguiflicd members of the club. The walls are hung with crimfon hang- 
 ings, and the windows with rich deep blue curtains ; the furniture, of black 
 wahiut, being covered with a material of the same color as the curuins ; the 
 chandeliers and brackets are of elegant and appropriate defign, as is likewife the 
 carpet, the whole forming an apartment that may be referred to as a model 
 of decorative tafte and refinement. On this Twelfth-Night fcftival the walls 
 were adorned with several large and fine piftures, including " Hcfter and Little 
 Pearl," by Leutzc ; "The Dorcas Society," by Lang; " Hagar and 
 Ishmael," by Gray ; " A View in South America," by Church ; " Lake 
 Nemi," by GifFord ; " Primeval Forcft," by Durand ; " Bafhbifh Fall " 
 and " View near Newport," by Kenfctt ; " Portrait," by Baker; a " Winter 
 Scene," by Gignoux. Added to this was a throne erefted under the recess 
 of the great window, upon which were placed two chairs elaborately carved 
 in the richeft style of Belgian workmanfhip. Two pretty boudoirs, one 
 at either end, opening into the large reception-room, with a spacious ante- 
 chamber, added to the variety and accommodation of the (late apartments. 
 The room being brilliantly illuminated, and prepared for the reception 
 of guefts, the honored Prefidcnt of the Century flood at the spacious entrance 
 to receive them as they arrived. At half-pafl ten o'clock, the company had 
 afTembled, when the Herald, richly clothed in an official coflume, approached 
 the Prefidcnt and handed him a baton of office, and then preceded him to 
 the foot of the throne, making way among the crowd as he pafTed. The 
 Prefidcnt announced that an election for King and Queen of Twelfth-Night 
 would take place, according to time-honored ufage, and he direded the 
 Herald to make proclamation to that effeft, which duty that officer per- 
 formed with a fiourifh of his trumpet, calling upon the afTcmbly to attend to
 
 91 
 
 this auguft ceremony. The eleftion was held in keeping with ancient form, 
 the symbols of the royal office being depofited in a Twelfth-Night cake, 
 which was cut up and handed around on-maffive filver salvers. During this 
 ceremony and the proceedings of eleftion, the whole court advanced in pro- 
 ceffion, an impofmg retinue of charafteriftic perfonages, with pages in white 
 satin, bearing the two crowns on splendid red cuftiions, whilft choriilers in 
 antique garbs, chanted alternately, the Boar's-Head hymn to an ancient tune, 
 supported in chorus by numerous voices, and with a moft effeftive orcheftra. 
 The Herald then advanced forward, and prefented to the Prefident a large 
 ftatc document, which, on being unrolled, was announced to be the certificate 
 of cleftion of the King and Queen of Twelfth-Night : this was read by the 
 Prefident, after which he direfted it to be proclaimed by the Herald, who 
 announced the elcdlion of Egbert the 31st, and Amelia the ist. The pro- 
 clamation was made with great formality in the midft of the cheers and re- 
 joicings of the loyal and delighted aflembly. The King and Queen eleft 
 advanced, and were received by the Prefident rifing ; they were then robed 
 by the lords and ladies in waiting, and crowned by the Prefident's own 
 hands, upon which the Prefident kifled her Majefty's hand, and retired 
 from the throne. His Majefty invested the Queen with the order of the 
 Century, after which the orcheftra ftruck up the air of God Save the 
 Queen, the chorifters finging appropriate and original words, and the entire 
 aflembly accompanying them. His Majefty addrefled his liege subjeds in 
 a very dignified manner, and then called upon the officers of the crown. 
 The Lord Chancellor, in his robes of ftate, ftepped forward, and addrefled 
 the throne, setting forth the financial ftate of the realm, and recommending 
 many promotions and rewards to diftinguiftied merit, literary, artiftic, and 
 profeffional. 
 
 After this speech, which was moft gracioufly received, the King called 
 upon his poets laureates, whereupon the two jefters, in their motley garb, 
 arofe, and announced, in alternate rhymes, that the various poets were all 
 abfenc or abroad ; Bryant in Spain, Halleck on the Sound, Bayard Taylor in
 
 92 
 
 Germany, teaching his Saxon wife Enghlli, and Allan Butler with "Nothing 
 to Wear." They then encouraged each other to undertake to supply all defi- 
 ciencies. They accordingly proceeded in a spirited, brilliant, and witty vcr- 
 fified dialogue, to allude rapidly to all the prominent follies of the day, end- 
 ing with a ludicrous parody of the witches' incantation-scenc, in Macbeth, 
 throwing in corporation contrafts, American plays from France, politicians' 
 pledges, railroad bubbles, and other salient points of political and social intercft. 
 After this their Majellies invited their loyal subjeds prcfcnt to a banquet, 
 themfelves leading the way in proceflion to the room below, decorated in 
 true baronial ftyle, the hall hung with countlefs banners, and the infignia of 
 the chafe, such as elk and flag-horns and fkins of buffaloes, bears, leopards, 
 panthers, etc., with magnificent suits of genuine antique armor, and a splcn 
 did colleaion of ancient swords, lances, and maces, the whole gay with ever- 
 greens and frefh flowers. All this was harmonized by a soft, rofy light as 
 it came into the room, tempered by numerous tranfparencies. The ban- 
 quet was served at the end of the apartment, the King and Queen fitting 
 in antique chairs, and the reft of the company generally ftanding, except 
 such ladies as chofe to find accommodation in large adjoining apartments. 
 The luxurious table was arranged in truly regal ftyle, abundantly supplied, 
 on a complete and very elegant filver service. The interfperfion of 
 gilding and superb flowers, the mingling of colors on the royal board 
 spread out beneath the brilliant painting, reprefenting a Twelfth-Night pro- 
 ceffion in the Middle Ages, together with the banners, devices, mottoes, 
 and tranfparencies, difplayed upon the walls of the room, all presented a 
 ftriking and harmonious efFcft, and a highly impofmg scene. The regal 
 hall of reception and coronation, had now become a ball-room, and 
 the feftivities there, as well as in the banqueting rooms below, were 
 lengthened into a late hour of the night, some of the graver perfonages re- 
 tiring between twelve and one. Beauty, over which the fairy Queen prefided, 
 did, indeed, grace the Century that night, and not only beauty, but men 
 and women distinguifhed in Art, Literature, and Mufic, including a ftrong
 
 9 
 
 '■> 
 
 reprefentation of the Bench and the Bar, for all thefe avocations were fully 
 and powerfully reprefented. 
 
 Having thus glanced at the prominent points of this charming fellival, 
 it will not be deemed inappropriate to mention that for the artiftic elements 
 of its attraftivenefs, the Century and its guefts were indebted chiefly to Mr. 
 Louis Lang, who defigned and painted the " ProcefTion in the Middle Ages," 
 and other tranfparencies, and whofe tafte and knowledge directed the ar- 
 rangement of the entire system of decoration. To Mr. Joseph C. Wells is 
 alfo due much of the pleafure of the evening. The beautiful reception-room 
 was defigned and completed under his superintendence, and it elicited the 
 moft unquahfied admiration.
 
 \
 
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 JAN 5 19513 
 
 MAR 1 4 IdSO 
 
 DEC 7 1*354 
 
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