mend his soul ever to your prayers, and also that we at our departing may depart in such wise.' "" So he is held up 88 an example of kindliness and learning to all good men and to all sound scholars. Leland, a a century after his death, echoes the praise of those who were his friends. Having exhausted the language of flattery, he fears that he may seem somewhat tedious to a hurried reader. "How can I help it?" he cries. less star such as this must not be robbed of a single ray." "A peer On the other side of the account stands the Butcher of England. And as catchwords govern the world, the Butoher of England has eclipsed in the general memory the amiable scholar and patron. Here is a manifest injustice, since if the two men united in Tiptoft are of equal force and energy, there is no reason why the one should survive the other. And though I would not soften the traits which give colour and interest to the character of the famous Earl of Worcester, it is worth while to ask how it is that so thick a cloud of obloquy has enveloped his name. He was a cruel man, who lived in a cruel age. At a time when a very low value was put upon human life, he sent his adversaries to the gallows without ruth, and went himself without regret. But he soiled his hands with no more blood than did Warwick and Montague, and so faithfully did he carry out the commands of his King, that he cannot be charged with the satisfaction of private revenge. Why, then, should he hold a place apart as the Butcher of England? I think because he came back to England with the imagined stain of Italy upon him, because those who suffered from his judgments believed that there was something un-English in his procedure. They suspected, as we have seen, the bias of the Paduan Law. They took their death from Montague with a light heart. He had not wasted his years in foreign travel. While Tiptoft was studying the classics, he had stood, sword in hand, on English battlefields, and had every right to send his countrymen to the gallows. In the very aspect and manner of Tiptoft there was something exotic, and the prisoner of state or his friends resented that sentence should be passed by one who had not the bluff heartiness of his fellows. And then there was the impalement at Southampton. For this no excuse or palliation can be found, & wanton outrage for which Tiptoft will be pilloried for all time as the Butcher of England. Thus, with his nickname to aid, Tiptoft became a kind of bogey. He has been denounced VOL. CLXXXVI.—NO. MOXXIX. VI. as an Italianate Englishman by many whose insular pride ascribes England's virtues to 2 U the compliment. A Venetian who visited England when Henry VII. was on the throne, was astonished at the lack of affection wherewith English parents regarded their children, and English husbands their wives. In no class could he trace real human nature or the passion of love. Thus are the insults of untravelled Englishmen avenged. Thus charges brought by zealous Englishmen against Italy became more precise and less heinous. Atheism, infidelity, vicious conversation, ambitious and proud behaviour-these are the sins which Harrison observed in the newly-returned Englishman. And presently the Italianate Briton, once a devil incarnate, was whittled down into a mere fop, a thing of frills and furbelows, of is a a check given to overantics and gestures, of fantastic speech and affected manners, not unlike the tourist of to-day who comes back from Paris with a flat-brimmed hat on his head and broken English in his mouth. It is a strange chapter in the history of international relations, and it seems not a little stranger when we remember that the Italians were quick to return hasty condemnation. As for the Italianate Englishman, he seemed a very real monster to three generations of men, and let it not be forgotten that, under whatever guise he presently appeared, he owed his beginning to John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, accomplished scholar, munificent patron of learning, and the Butcher of England. |