mighty EYCKs from little acorns
Art Neuendorffer
Interesting that Gerard JANssen is stated (by Dugdale)
to be of *Flemish* (not Dutch) descent like JAN Van Eyck:
[*EYCK* means *OAK* (EYCK painted with Oil on *OAK*)]
Jan Van Eyck was Dutch. He was born in the province of Limberg, in
the region between the Netherlands and what is now called Belgium.
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://91.1911encyclopedia.org/S/SH/SHAKESPEARE.htm
The Stratford bust and monument must have been erected on the N. wall
of the chancel or choir within six years after Shakespeare's death in
1616, as it is mentioned in the prefatory memorial lines by Leonard
Digges in the First Folio. The design in its general aspect was one
often adopted by the " tombe-makers "of the period, though not
originated by them,
and according to Dugdale was executed by a *Fleming* resident
in London since 1567, Garratt Johnson (Gerard Janssen),
a denizen, who was occasionally a collaborator with *Nick Stone*.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
(From M. H. Spielmann, "Shakespeare's Portraiture," in Studies in the
First Folio (Oxford University Press, 1924))
<<After 1616, but not later than 1622, the Stratford Monument, of a
design kindred to those already mentioned, was erected -- it is assumed,
but without any positive evidence -- to the order of Shakespeare's
son-in-law, Dr. John Hall. In any case, it must have had the approval of
Mistress Shakespeare and her family, and have received and withstood the
criticism of Shakespeare's friends and associates. According to Sir
William Dugdale it was the work of Garratt Janssen of Johnson, the
Anglo-Flemish tomb-maker of Southwark, whose father had been resident
in London since 1567.>>
http://shakespeareauthorship.com/monspiel.html
----------------------------------------------------------------
Mouse tap on picture to view (150%):
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/e/eyck_van/jan/02page/16rolin.html
Note the resemblance of Van Eyck's 1435 Christ child
to the pudgy, pointy nosed, curly haired Stratford bust
http://www.stratford-upon-avon.org/images/memorial.jpg
------------------------------------------------
Compare:
1) Jesus/Shakspere's beady-eyed smirks.
2) Shakspere's right middle & forefinger extended in writing.
to Jesus' right middle & forefinger extended in blessing.
3) the dark marble Corinthian columns.
4) Red & Blue/Green tasselled cushions for holding "the word".
[but with red side reversed & hair styles reversed]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.artglassworld.com/mag/sglass/celtic/hub_tale.html
<<Hubert was a nobleman who sought wealth and influence at the Court of
Theuderic III. At this time, Hubert devoted himself to worldly pursuits
of pleasure exclusively; he had an absorbing passion for the chase and
was a masterful huntsman. One Good Friday, Hubert organized a hunt
during church services. As he pursued a large stag, Hubert ventured much
further into a dense forest than he had planned. In the midst of the
thicket, Hubert spotted a pool of sparkling water. As he bent down to
quench his thirst, a vision of a large white stag with a brilliant
silver crucifix lodged between its antlers appeared to him as a
reflection in the water. The stag spoke to him and directed him to seek
guidance from Lambert, Bishop of Maastricht. Hubert's encounter with
the white stag and his meeting with Bishop Lambert changed his life.
Lambert persuaded Hubert to follow God's teachings and become a priest.
Following Lambert's death at Liege, Belgium in 705 A.D., Hubert was
selected to succeed him and govern the Episcopal See at Maastricht.
Years later, he moved Lambert's remains to Liege, and on the spot
where Lambert had died, Hubert constructed St. Peter's Cathedral and
established the Episcopal See at Liege, of which he became the first
bishop. As a religious leader, Hubert abolished the worship of pagan
idols and established Christianity in remote sections of the Belgian
ARDENNES forest, which stretched from the Rhine to MEUSE. Following
his death on May 30, 727 A.D., he was proclaimed a saint and became,
along with St. Eustace, the patron saint of huntsmen.>>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hubert was born at Maeseyck (i.e. Eyck on the MEUSE)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hubert and Jan van Eyck
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05732a.htm
Brothers, Flemish illuminators and painters, founders of the school of
Bruges and consequently of all the schools of painting in the North of
Europe. Hubert was born at Maeseyck (i.e. Eyck on the Meuse) in the
Diocese of Liège, about 1366, and his brother Jan about twenty years
later, 1385. They had a sister named Margaret who won fame as a miniaturist.
A document of 1413 makes the earliest mention we have of a painting by
"Master Hubert". In 1424 he was living at Ghent, and he died there on
the 18th of September, 1426. We have no further definite knowledge
concerning the elder of the brothers. Of the younger we know that in
1420 he presented a Madonna's head to the Guild of Antwerp, that in 1422
he decorated a paschal candle for the cathedral of Cambrai, and that in
1425 he was at The Hague in the service of Jean Sans Merci. Afterwards
he went to Bruges and to Lille to the court of Philip the Good, Duke of
Burgundy, as peintre et varlet de chambre. He was already a man of some
influence at court, and he travelled in the embassy charged to ask the
hand of Isabella of Portugal for Philip, and it was his privilege to
paint her portrait "true to life", thereby fixing Philip's choice. This
journey lasted from the 18th of October, 1428, to the end of December,
1429. In 1431 he went to Hesdin to superintend, for the Duke, the work
going on at the castle there: and afterwards he returned to Bruges,
which he seldom left again. He married, and a child of his was baptized
in 1434. In 1436 we learn once more that he received 720 livres on
account of "certain secret matter", doubtless in connection with some
new mission or journey. He died towards the end of June, 1441.
The most important work of the brothers Van Eyck, and the one that
places their names among the great masters of painting for ever, is the
famous altarpiece, "The Adoration of the Lamb", of which the central
Portion is preserved in St-Bavons at Ghent, while the wings have found
their way to the Museums of Berlin and of Brussels. It is one of the
enigmas of art. All the questions bearing on it may, however, be reduced
to two: Who was its author? and, What was its origin? As to its
authorship, all we know depends on an inscription obscure enough, which
is to be read on the edge of its frame:
Pictor Hubertus e Eyck major quo nemo repertus
Incepit pondus: quod Johannes arte secundus
Suscepit letus, Judoci Vyd prece fretus Vers-V seXta Ma-I: Vos CoLLoCat
a-Cta tVerI.
The faulty Latin of this cryptic inscription means: "Hubert van Eyck,
the greatest painter that ever lived, began this work [pondus], which
John, his brother, second only to him in skill, had the happiness to
continue at the request of Jodocus (Josse) Vydt. By this line, on the
6th of May, you learn when the work was completed, i.e., MCCCCXXXII."
That it is their joint work is certain, but it is impossible to
distinguish which portion belongs to each brother. Very soon Jan began
to get all the credit for it. Dürer mentions only Jan in his "Journal"
of 1521. But the inscription clearly states that Hubert began the work
and asserts that he was the greater artist, his brother being called in
only at his death, and in order to complete it. But how far had Hubert
progressed with it? How far back had he been commissioned to paint it?
In 1426 were portions of it finished, or was it merely a sketch, a
general outline when Jan took charge? Who suggested the subject? Who
planned its treatment? Can we believe that a painter of any school
living in a fifteenth century atmosphere could have elaborated by
himself from a few texts of the Apocalypse (v, 6-14) such a wealth of
detail, such symphony of symbolism and imagery? Who was the theologian
who inspired this mighty poem as others had inspired the learned
allegories of the Chapel of the Spaniards, and of the Hall of the
Segnatura? And again, in the history of painting from the miniatures of
the Irish Apocalypses (eleventh century) to the Angers tapestries, what
were the artistic sources of this great work?
This moral encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, if we may call it such,
treats of all things in heaven and on earth (there was a predella to it
depicting hell, but it disappeared in the sixteenth century); it
portrays God and man in all their historical and mystical relations; it
tells us of the heavenly and the earthly paradise, of the ages that have
followed one another in the flight of time, of the Dogma of the Fall,
and that of the Redemption, of Adam and Eve, and of the first
sacrifices; of the death of Abel (type of Christ); of the years of
expectation of the patriarchs and just men of the Old Law; of the
mystery of the Incarnation; of the Trinity; of the world subject to the
law of Christ; of the life of the Church in her saints, her hermits, her
virgins, her martyrs, her pontiffs, her confessors, her warrior princes;
of all Christendom in a landscape filled with cathedral spires (Rome,
Jerusalem, Utrecht, etc.). And can we in reason be asked to believe that
this wonderful pictorial epic reaching out from the beginning to the
consummation of the world and ending in a glimpse of the eternal life to
come as full in conception and as orderly in arrangement as the "Divina
Commedia" itself; summing up the Old as well as the New Testament,
drawing its inspiration from St. Augustine's "Civitas Dei", and "Vincent
of Beauvais' "Speculum Majus", as well as Jacobus de Voragine's "Legenda
Aurea", and Dante's "De Monarchia"; a compendium of politics, history
and theology, and which crowns the representation man's life on earth by
a glimpse of the Infinite, can we in reason be asked to believe that
this lofty expression of the ideals of Christendom in the Europe of the
Middle Ages sprang Minerva-like, fully formed from the brain of a single
artist?
No one can adopt this supposition except for the purpose of ascribing
all the honour of having conceived this painting to the elder of the
brothers. As an assumption, however, it is altogether gratuitous. There
is not one of the scenes that can be attributed to Hubert with any
degree of certainty; and no work the brothers Van Eyck have left us
(with the exception of the "Fount of Salvation" in the Prado Museum,
Madrid, and this is the work of a school) shows a similar dogmatic and
theological character, a like power of design and richness of thought
that this "Lamb does. Taken as a whole the work of the Van Eycks has a
totally different tendency. It is frankly naturalistic in face, as well
as in intention. So that when Hubert is labelled a thinker, it is for no
other reason than the wish to differentiate him, and to separate him
from Jan. How futile this distinction is, is made clear if we look into
the results obtained by applying it as a criterion to the work of the
two brothers. On not a single disputed painting has agreement been
reached; and every painting that has been attributed to Hubert by one
connoisseur, has been adjudged by others for equally good reasons to Jan.
The catalogue of their work has been reconstructed more than twenty
times. The altar-piece of the Lamb" has been divided in a hundred
different ways, and each in turn has been given to first one brother and
then to the other over and over again. Each year sees a new theory
proposed. After Waagen came James Weale; after Hymans, Dvorak, and after
Stoerck, Wurzbach; and we are as far from the solution as ever. The
masterpiece keeps its secret, and will probably never give it up. In any
case, seeing that the whole painting was retouched at least twice during
the sixteenth century, all evidence of individual technic must have been
buried beneath these restorations; and in all likelihood the little
points and peculiarities attributed to Hubert or to Jan, are really the
work of Michael Coxie. But there is a larger and a wider question at
issue than such idle wranglings that can never be settled, the question
as to the effect and the nature of the artistic revolution to which the
brothers Van Eyck have given their name.
What constitutes the altar-piece of the "Lamb" a unique moment in the
history of art and gives it its supreme interest in our eyes, is the
fact that it unites in itself the styles and the genius of two opposing
epochs. Whereas its general plan belongs to the Middle Ages, its
execution, its manner of seeing things and putting them on canvas, are
truly modern. The masterpiece has a double nature, so to speak. The
genius of the Renaissance for what was concrete and realistic is wedded
to the majesty of the Gothic and its love of the abstract. It shows us
the wondrous blending of two principles that would seem necessarily to
exclude each other, like the past and the future, and that we never meet
with again save in opposition. It is this that constitutes the supreme
interest of the work, that it contains the noblest expression of the old
mystical genius together with the most powerful example of modem
naturalism. In the sincerity, breadth, and naturalism, no one at any
time nor of any school has excelled the Van Eycks. Nature, which, prior
to their day, men had looked at as through a veil of formulae and
symbols, they seem suddenly to have unveiled. They invented, so to
speak, the world of realities. The happenings of all sorts in the world
of nature, the sylva rerum, with which they have endowed the art of
painting, are always true to life. Landscapes, atmospheres, types,
physiognomies, a wealth of studies and sketches of all sorts, rich
materials, cloths, cimars (robes), copes, brilliancy of precious stones
and works of the goldsmith's art; all are copied to perfection, and the
deftness of the work is beyond compare. The masterpiece inaugurates a
new era in painting. If the object of the painter's art is to depict the
visible world, if his aim ought to be not so much the expression of a
thought as to hold up the mirror to life, then for the first time in its
history painting entered into its birthright in this altar-piece, and
gave proof of its legitimacy in this first attempt. Life under all its
sensible forms and aspects sweeps through this mighty scene like a
motif, life with all its myriad changes and variety of moods, brushing
aside the dry as dust ideograms and crumbling hieroglyphics of the
Middle Ages.
The absolute is abandoned, and the relative brought into fashion. The
eye is turned away from the vision of the ideal, but the feet are more
firmly planted on the real. The word nature undergoes a change of
meaning. Once it had been a vague Platonic idea, a something like the
nominals and universals of the schools, which are understood by the
intelligence rather than perceived by the senses. In that lofty plane of
thought in which art in the thirteenth century loved to move, the
universe existed really in the intellect. Henceforth, however, nature
changed her aspect for the painter; he refrains from expressing any
opinions as to the essence of things, but delights in all their
accidental qualities. The actual, the fact, whether it be positive,
complex, capricious, or odd, becomes of more importance than the
abstract and immutable law. The absolute cause of all things is
neglected in favour of the rich and glowing vegetation of nature;
principles have less value than their consequences, less importance is
given to types than individuals. The vast harvest of phenomena from the
ever teeming field of reality and experience is henceforth open to art.
A painting becomes what the painter has actually seen; what he has found
in nature; the story of his feelings in the midst of things. In this a
new kind of idealism replaces the old. And art, thus freed from the
academism of the Gothic tradition, was not to slavishly copy nature, but
to serve as a vehicle for the expression of the painter's personality,
and to act as the safest confidante of his emotional experiences.
The altar-piece at Ghent marks the triumph of this basic artistic
revolution from which all modern art has sprung. Never was a richer
shrine of nature and of life got together by a painter. In two hundred
figures of every size, sex, race, and costume we behold a résumé of the
human race. We see before us all the beauty of the physical world, the
woods, the fields, the rocks, the desert places, a geography of earth
with its climates and its flora, palms, cacti, and aloes (which
foolishly has led some to believe that Hubert must have traveled in the
East). And the world of art is not forgotten; styles of architecture,
towers, cupolas, statues, bas-reliefs, are all brought in. In a word,
life out-of-doors and within doors, with all its social activities and
moral colouring, is portrayed. There are interiors, such as the room of
the Blessed Virgin, a young Flemish maiden, with its prie-Dieu, its
nicely tiled floor, its washstand and basin, and its open window looking
out on to the pointed roofs of a row of brick houses. There are
portraits of a marvellous realism, such as those of the donor and his
wife; epic figures, such as God the Father under the guise of
Charlemagne crowned with a triple tiara, type of the pontiff-king; and
there are figures full of charm and poetry, such as the singing angels
(Berlin museum), symbolizing the harmonies of paradise, under the form
of entrancing minstrelsy, or of the chanting of choir boys. Other
figures are fearful in their naturalism, such as the figures of our
first parents (Brussels museum) which would suffice alone to immortalize
their creator, because of their audacious nudity, their stiff and
awkward manner, and their eloquent ugliness.
Such a transformation, of course, exceeds the powers of any one man, or
even of two brothers. And like all great works, the altar-piece of Ghent
is but the result of the labours of more than one generation. It was not
a local movement; its influences were at work up and down throughout
Christendom.
In Italy the work of Jacopo della Quercia, of Ghiberti, the frescoes of
Masolino and of Masaccio (1428) are contemporary with the labours of the
Van Eycks: and bear traces of similar tendencies. But the birthplace of
the movement was not on Italian soil. It is in France we find the
earliest evidence of it, about the of the fourteenth century. A few
statues, like the Visitation group in the great doorway at Reims (1310),
the tombs of St. Denis, the portraits of King Charles V and his wife
Eleanor (in the Louvre), mark the last stages in the victorious
progress. The same school which a century earlier had developed the
Gothic ideal, was about to produce by a natural evolution the new
principles and the new methods. An important factor in this evolution
was the creation of the Duchies of Berry and of Burgundy, and the
alliance of Flanders and Burgundy by marriage (1384). At the Court of
the Valois, the most brilliant in the world, famous for its
voluptuousness, its elegance, and its worship of all the arts of life,
and under the patronage of its princes, no less famous for their
dissolute lives than for their artistic taste and love of luxury, there
rapidly grew up a school of painters, sculptors, goldsmiths, and
miniaturists, cosmopolitans by birth, but Parisian by education, who
were the nucleus of the Renaissance.
The larger part of the paintings, frescoes, and stained glass of this
epoch have perished; but the miniatures supply all the proof we need.
Especially in the manuscripts made at the time for the Duc de Berry do
we find the links of this glorious history. Many of the books collected
by this incomparable Maecenas have come down to us; some of them
illustrated by André Beauneveu, Jacquemart of Hesdin, or Jacques Cohn of
Antwerp. But the most important of all is the seignorial manuscript --
one of the treasures of Chantilly -- known as the "Book of Hours of the
Duc de Berry . This wonderful book was adorned from 1413 to 1416 by
three artists; "the three illuminator-brothers" spoken of by Guillebert
of Metz, the brothers de Limbourg or simply the Limbourgs. Nearly all
the poetic fancy of the Van Eycks is already outlined in this Book of
Hours , especially on their landscape side; And whereas the Limbourgs
kept to the country around Liège, the Van Eycks followed the same route,
and doubtless experienced the same influences. But there is something
more. Another manuscript, "The Hours of Turin , which was unfortunately
destroyed in the fire at the library of that town, 20 January, 1904,
belonged successively to the Duc de Berry (d. 1416) and to Duke William
IV of Bavaria-Hainault. And it has been proved that Hubert van Eyck
spent some time in the latter's service. Paul Durrieu has given very
weighty reasons for attributing the manuscript to him, and for believing
that he began it for the Duc de Berry. Thus the art of the Van Eycks
would be but the culminating point of the great Renaissance movement
inaugurated at the Court of the Valois in France, and which reached its
apogee in 1400. Perhaps this was what the Italian Bishop Facius meant to
imply when in 1456 he spoke of Jan van Eyck as Johannes Gallicus.
This is a partial solution of the enigma of the altarpiece. Hubert and
Jan van Eyck are but continuators, masters indeed, of an art that began
before them and without them. But what was it they added that caused the
new style in art to date only from their work? If we are to credit
Vasari, Van Mander, and all the historical writers, their great
discovery was the art of painting with oils. Painting with oil had been
discovered long before; the monk Theophilus gives a recipe for it in the
eleventh century. And as we have seen, the new aestheticism had been
already formulated in the miniatures of the Limbourgs and of the Van
Eycks themselves. Whatever importance in art its material and mechanical
methods may have, it would be too humiliating to make it depend entirely
on the particular fluid, water, gum, or albumen used in mixing the
colours. Moreover, on canvases 500 years old from which all moisture has
long since dried up he would be a daring critic who would venture to
assert the proportion of oil or distemper used by the artist. To build
one's criticism on such a doubtful principle is like seeking the scent
of the "Roses of Sadi." The real merit of the Van Eycks is elsewhere. By
a chain of circumstances (The Battle of Agincourt, the madness of
Charles VI, and the minority of Charles VII), France was brought to the
edge of ruin, and suddenly lost control of the movement that it had begun.
Comfort, art, luxury began to cluster around the new fortunes of the
Duchy of Burgundy, as the home of wealth in the North. Ghent, Bruges,
Brussels, Antwerp became the centres of the new school. In these new
towns of little culture and traditional refinement, and lacking in
reserve (Taine, "Philosophie de l'Art aux Pays-Bas" - description of the
festivals known as the Voeu du faisan), Naturalism, freed from the
restraints French taste would have imposed on it, was enabled to grow at
its ease and spread without restriction. The Germanic element which had
already shown itself in such men as Beauneveu, Malouel, the Limbourgs,
burst out, and carried everything before it in the work of the Van
Eycks. For the first time the genius of the North shook off all those
cosmopolitan influences which had hitherto refined it, and gave itself
free scope.
It paused not to think of what had gone before, and it was not concerned
with such things as taste, nobility, or beauty. Such preoccupations as
these, as the antique began to have an influence, became more and more
the distinguishing characteristics and limitation of Italian naturalism.
It is enough to compare the ugly yet touching figures of Adam and Eve by
Jan van Eyck with those by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel to be
convinced of this. On the one side there is realism, but the painter has
scruples, reserves, a sense of modesty: on the other there is absolute
crudity, what we might call naturalism pure and simple. What does this
mean, but that painting, which had hitherto been a universal,
international art, is beginning to localize itself; and that what had
hitherto been a European, or better still, Western, colour-language is
about to split up into many dialects and national modes of speech? It is
the real glory of the Van Eycks, that they emancipated the genius of the
races of the North and gave it its first full expression. During a whole
century (1430- 1530) the school they founded at Bruges was always
producing new works and renewing its own strength. During a century,
painters from Holland and Germany - Petrus Cristus, Gérard de St-Jean,
Ouwater, Hugo van der Goes, Roger van der Weyden, Memlinck, Gérard
David, Martin Schöngauer, Lucas of Leyden -- never ceased their more or
less directly from their work. In 1445 the Catalonian Luis Dalmau made a
copy of the altar-piece of Ghent. In France, Jean Fouquet, Nicolas
Froment, on the banks of the Loire and of the Rhone, were disciples of
Jan van Eyck. Even Italy did not escape their sovereign influence. As
early as the middle of the fifteenth century paintings by Jan van Eyck
were being treasured at Naples and at Urbino.
Antonello of Messina went to study art in Flanders. Ghirlandajo imitated
the famous Portinari altarpiece by H. van der Goes, and whenever an
Italian painter relaxed a moment his straining after art to snatch a
breath of gayety or a lesson in realism, it was always to the Flemish
school he turned; always, until the triumph of the antique was assured,
and Raphael and Michelangelo, by the constraining revelation of its
beauty, restored for a time the reign of the ideal. Their triumph was,
however, short-lived; the pagan and aristocratic ideal of art and life,
with all its loftiness and rigidity, begin to give way from the
beginning of the seventeenth century, with its new schools at Antwerp
and Amsterdam, before the naturalism of the North, before the more
homely, hearty, and winning genius of the Van Eycks. It is therefore
impossible to exaggerate the importance of their work, which, besides
occupying a unique position throughout the fifteenth century, led the
way in the evolution which two centuries later produced such painters as
Rubens and Rembrandt.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
HUBERT of Liege
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainth07.htm
Name Meaning: HUBERT <=> bright mind
Born: 705 @ Maasctricht
Died: 30 May 727
Memorial: 3 November; 30 May
Also known as: Apostle of the Ardennes
Profile: Grandson of Charibert, King of Toulouse. Son of Bertrand,
Duke of Aquitaine. Courtier @ Nuestra in youth, and passionately devoted
to the hunt. Married Floribanne, daughter of Dagobert, Count of Louvain
in 682. While hunting a stag, he received a vision of a crucifix between
its antlers, a voice warned him to turn to God, and converted. He became
the spiritual student of Saint Lambert. Widower. Priest. bishop of
Maestricht and Liege. Evangelized the Ardenne region, converting the
pagans and permitting them to decide on their own to destroy their
idols. Highly revered in the Middle Ages, there were several military
orders named in his honor.
Patronage: archers, dog bite, dogs, forest workers, furriers,
hunters, hunting, huntsmen, hydrophobia, machinists, mad dogs,
mathematicians, metal workers, precision instrument makers, rabies,
smelters, trappers
Representation: stag bearing a crucifix between its antlers; stag
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07507a.htm
St. Hubert
<<Confessor, thirty-first Bishop of Maastricht, first Bishop of Liège,
and Apostle of the Ardennes, born about 656; died at Fura (the modern
Tervueren), Brabant, 30 May, 727 or 728. He was honored in the Middle
Ages as the patron of huntsmen, and the healer of hydrophobia (rabies).
He was the eldest son of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and grandson of
Charibert, King of Toulouse, a descendant of the great Pharamond.
Bertrand's wife is variously given as Hugbern, and as Afre, sister of
Saint Oda. As a youth, Hubert went to the court of Neustria, where his
charming manners and agreeable address won universal esteem, gave him a
prominent position among the gay courtiers, and led to his investment
with the dignity of "count of the palace". He was a worldling and a
lover of pleasure, his chief passion being for the chase, to which
pursuit he devoted nearly all his time. The tyrannical conduct of Ebroin
caused a general emigration of the nobles and others to the court of
Austrasia. Hubert soon followed them and was warmly welcomed by Pepin
Heristal, mayor of the palace, who created him almost immediately
grand-master of the household. About this time (682) he married
Floribanne, daughter of Dagobert, Count of Louvain, and seemed to have
given himself entirely up to the ponp and vanities of this world. But a
great spiritual revolution was imminent. On Good Friday morn, when the
faithful were crowding the churches, Hubert sallied forth to the chase.
As he was pursuing a magnificent stag, the animal turned and, as the
pious legend narrates, he was astounded at perceiving a crucifix between
its antlers, while he heard a voice saying: "Hubert, unless thou turnest
to the Lord, and leadest an holy life, thou shalt quickly go down into
hell". Hubert dismounted, prostrated himself and said, "Lord, what
wouldst Thou have me do?" He received the answer, "Go and seek Lambert,
and he will instruct you."
Accordingly, he set out immediately for Maastricht, of which place St.
Lambert was then bishop. The latter received Hubert kindly, and became
his spiritual director. Hubert, losing his wife shortly after this,
renounced all his honors and his military rank, and gave up his
birthright to the Duchy of Aquitaine to his younger brother Eudon, whom
he made guardian of his infant son, Floribert. Having distributed all
his personal wealth among the poor, he entered upon his studies for the
priesthood, was soon ordained, and shortly afterwards became one of St.
Lambert's chief associates in the administration of his diocese. By the
advice of St. Lambert, Hubert made a pilgrimage to Rome and during his
absence, the saint was assassinated by the followers of Pepin. At the
same hour, this was revealed to the pope in a vision, together with an
injunction to appoint Hubert bishop, as being a worthy successor to the
see. Hubert was so much possessed with the idea of himself winning the
martyr's crown that he sought it on many occasions, but unsuccessfully.
He distributed his episcopal revenues among the poor, was diligent in
fasting and prayer, and became famous for his eloquence in the pulpit.
In 720, in obedience to a vision, Hubert translated St. Lambert's
remains from Maastrict to Liège with great pomp and ceremonial, several
neighboring bishops assisting. A church for the relics was built upon
the site of the martyrdom, and was made a cathedral the following year,
the see being removed from Maastricht to Liege, then only a small
village. This laid the foundation of the future greatness of Liege, of
which Lambert is honored as patron, and St. Hubert as founder and first
bishop.
Idolatry still lingered in the fastnesses of the forest of Ardennes--in
Toxandria, a district stretching from near Tongres to the confluence of
the Waal and the Rhine, and in Brabant. At the risk of his life Hubert
penetrated the remote lurking places of paganism in his pursuit of
souls, and finally brought about the abolishment of the worship of idols
in his neighborhood. Between Brussels and Louvain, about twelve leagues
from Liège, lies a town called Tervueren, formerly known as Fura. Hither
Hubert went for the dedication of a new church. Being apprised of his
impending death by a vision, he there preached his valedictory sermon,
fell sick almost immediately, and in six days died with the words "Our
Father, who art in Heaven . . . " on his lips. His body was deposited in
the collegiate church of St. Peter, Liège. It was solemnly translated in
825 to the Abbey of Amdain (since called St. Hubert's) near what is now
the Luxemburg frontier; but the coffin disappeared in the sixteenth
century. Very many miracles are recorded of him in the Acta SS., etc.
His feast is kept on 3 November, which was probably the date of the
translation. St. Hubert was widely venerated in the Middle Ages, and
many military orders were named after him.>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
King John
Hubert. Heralds, from off our towres we might behold
From first to last, the on-set and retyre:
Of both yonr Armies, whose equality
By our best eyes cannot be censured: ((blowes:
Blood hath bought blood, and blowes haue answerd [640]
Strength matcht with strength, and power confronted
power,
Both are alike, and both alike we like:
One must proue greatest. While they weigh so euen,
We hold our Towne for neither: yet for both.
Iohn. Hubert, keepe this boy: Philip make vp, [1290]
My Mother is assayled in our Tent,
And tane I feare.
Iohn. Come hether Hubert. O my gentle Hubert,
We owe thee much: within this wall of flesh
There is a soule counts thee her Creditor, [1320]
And with aduantage meanes to pay thy loue:
And my good friend, thy voluntary oath
Liues in this bosome, deerely cherished.
Giue me thy hand, I had a thing to say,
But I will fit it with some better tune
By heauen Hubert, I am almost asham'd
To say what good respect I haue of thee.
Hub. I am much bounden to your Maiesty.
Iohn. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet,
But thou shalt haue: and creepe time nere so slow, [1330]
Yet it shall come, for me to doe thee good.
I had a thing to say, but let it goe:
The Sunne is in the heauen, and the proud day,
Attended with the pleasures of the world,
Is all too wanton, and too full of gawdes
To giue me audience: If the mid-night bell
Did with his yron tongue, and brazen mouth
Sound on into the drowzie race of night:
If this same were a Church-yard where we stand,
And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs : [1340]
Or if that surly spirit melancholy
Had bak'd thy bloud, and made it heauy, thicke,
Which else runnes tickling vp and downe the veines,
Making that idiot laughter keepe mens eyes,
And straine their cheekes to idle merriment,
A passion hatefull to my purposes:
Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes,
Heare me without thine eares, and make reply
Without a tongue, vsing conceit alone,
Without eyes, eares, and harmefull sound of words: [1350]
Then, in despight of brooded watchfull day,
I would into thy bosome poure my thoughts:
But (ah) I will not, yet I loue thee well,
And by my troth I thinke thou lou'st me well.
Hub. So well, that what you bid me vndertake,
Though that my death were adiunct to my Act,
By heauen I would doe it.
Iohn. Doe not I know thou wouldst?
Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert throw thine eye
On yon young boy: Ile tell thee what my friend, [1360]
He is a very serpent in my way,
And wheresoere this foot of mine doth tread,
He lies before me: dost thou vnderstand me?
Thou art his keeper.
Hub. And Ile keepe him so,
That he shall not offend your Maiesty.
Iohn. Death.
Hub. My Lord.
Iohn. A Graue.
Hub. He shall not liue. [1370]
Iohn. Enough.
I could be merry now, Hubert, I loue thee.
Well, Ile not say what I intend for thee:
Remember: Madam, Fare you well,
Ile send those powers o're to your Maiesty.
Ele. My blessing goe with thee.
Iohn. For England Cosen, goe.
Hubert shall be your man, attend on you
With al true duetie: On toward Callice, hoa.
Exeunt. [1380]
Hub. Vncleanly scruples feare not you: looke too't.
Yong Lad come forth; I haue to say with you.
Enter
Arthur.
Ar. Good morrow Hubert. [1580]
Hub. Good morrow, little Prince.
Ar. As little Prince, hauing so great a Title
To be more Prince, as may be: you are sad.
Hub. Indeed I haue beene merrier.
Art. 'Mercie on me:
Me thinkes no body should be sad but I:
Yet I remember, when I was in France,
Yong Gentlemen would be as sad as night
Onely for wantonnesse: by my Christendome,
So I were out of prison, and kept Sheepe [1590]
I should be as merry as the day is long:
And so I would be heere, but that I doubt
My Vnckle practises more harme to me:
He is affraid of me, and I of him:
Is it my fault, that I was Geffreyes sonne?
No in deede is't not: and I would to heauen
I were your sonne, so you would loue me, Hubert:
Hub. If I talke to him, with his innocent prate
He will awake my mercie, which lies dead:
Therefore I will be sodaine, and dispatch. [1600]
Ar. Are you sicke Hubert? you looke pale to day,
Insooth I would you were a little sicke,
That I might sit all night, and watch with you.
I warrant I loue you more then you do me.
Hub. His words do take possession of my bosome.
Reade heere yong Arthur. How now foolish rheume?
Turning dispitious torture out of doore?
I must be breefe, least resolution drop
Out at mine eyes, in tender womanish teares.
Can you not reade it? Is it not faire writ? [1610]
Ar. Too fairely Hubert, for so foule effect,
Must you with hot Irons, burne out both mine eyes?
Hub. Yong Boy, I must.
Art. And will you?
Hub. And I will.
Art. Haue you the heart? When your head did but
ake,
I knit my hand-kercher about your browes
(The best I had, a Princesse wrought it me)
And I did neuer aske it you againe: [1620]
And with my hand, at midnight held your head;
And like the watchfull minutes, to the houre,
Still and anon cheer'd vp the heauy time;
Saying, what lacke you? and where lies your greefe?
Or what good loue may I performe for you?
Many a poore mans sonne would haue lyen still,
And nere haue spoke a louing word to you:
But you, at your sicke seruice had a Prince:
Nay, you may thinke my loue was craftie loue,
And call it cunning. Do, and if you will, [1630]
If heauen be pleas'd that you must vse me ill,
Why then you must. Will you put out mine eyes?
These eyes, that neuer did, nor neuer shall
So much as frowne on you.
Hub. I haue sworne to do it:
And with hot Irons must I burne them out.
Ar. Ah, none but in this Iron Age, would do it:
The Iron of it selfe, though heate red hot,
Approaching neere these eyes, would drinke my teares,
And quench this fierie indignation, [1640]
Euen in the matter of mine innocence:
Nay, after that, consume away in rust,
But for containing fire to harme mine eye:
Are you more stubborne hard, then hammer'd Iron?
And if an Angell should haue come to me,
And told me Hubert should put out mine eyes,
I would not haue beleeu'd him: no tongue but Huberts.
Hub. Come forth: Do as I bid you do.
Art. O saue me Hubert, saue me: my eyes are out
Euen with the fierce lookes of these bloody men. [1650]
Hub. Giue me the Iron I say, and binde him heere.
Art. Alas, what neede you be so boistrous rough?
I will not struggle, I will stand stone still:
For heauen sake Hubert let me not be bound:
Nay heare me Hubert, driue these men away,
And I will sit as quiet as a Lambe.
I will not stirre, nor winch, nor speake a word,
Nor looke vpon the Iron angerly:
Thrust but these men away, and Ile forgiue you,
What euer torment you do put me too. [1660]
Hub. Go stand within: let me alone with him.
Exec. I am best pleas'd to be from such a deede.
Art. Alas, I then haue chid away my friend,
He hath a sterne looke, but a gentle heart:
Let him come backe, that his compassion may
Giue life to yours.
Hub. Come (Boy) prepare your selfe.
Art. Is there no remedie?
Hub. None, but to lose your eyes.
Art. O heauen: that there were but a moth in yours, [1670]
A graine, a dust, a gnat, a wandering haire,
Any annoyance in that precious sense:
Then feeling what small things are boysterous there,
Your vilde intent must needs seeme horrible.
Hub. Is this your promise? Go too, hold your toong.
Art. Hubert, the vtterance of a brace of tongues,
Must needes want pleading for a paire of eyes:
Let me not hold my tongue: let me not Hubert,
Or Hubert, if you will cut out my tongue,
So I may keepe mine eyes. O spare mine eyes, [1680]
Though to no vse, but still to looke on you.
Loe, by my troth, the Instrument is cold,
And would not harme me.
Hub. I can heate it, Boy.
Art. No, in good sooth: the fire is dead with griefe,
Being create for comfort, to be vs'd
In vndeserued extreames: See else your selfe,
There is no malice in this burning cole,
The breath of heauen, hath blowne his spirit out,
And strew'd repentant ashes on his head. [1690]
Hub. But with my breath I can reuiue it Boy.
Art. And if you do, you will but make it blush,
And glow with shame of your proceedings, Hubert:
Nay, it perchance will sparkle in your eyes:
And, like a dogge that is compell'd to fight,
Snatch at his Master that doth tarre him on.
All things that you should vse to do me wrong
Deny their office: onely you do lacke
That mercie, which fierce fire, and Iron extends,
Creatures of note for mercy, lacking vses. [1700]
Hub. Well, see to liue: I will not touch thine eye,
For all the Treasure that thine Vnckle owes,
Yet am I sworne, and I did purpose, Boy,
With this same very Iron, to burne them out.
Art. O now you looke like Hubert. All this while
You were disguis'd.
Hub. Peace: no more. Adieu,
Your Vnckle must not know but you are dead.
Il fill these dogged Spies with false reports:
And, pretty childe, sleepe doubtlesse, and secure, [1710]
That Hubert for the wealth of all the world,
Will not offend thee.
Art. O heauen! I thanke you Hubert.
Hub. Silence, no more; go closely in with mee,
Much danger do I vndergo for thee. Exeunt
Enter Hubert.
Iohn. Let it be so: I do commit his youth
To your direction: Hubert, what newes with you?
Pem. This is the man should do the bloody deed:
He shew'd his warrant to a friend of mine,
The image of a wicked heynous fault
Liues in his eye: that close aspect of his, [1790]
Do shew the mood of a much troubled brest,
And I do fearefully beleeue 'tis done,
What we so fear'd he had a charge to do.
Pet. Fore-knowing that the truth will fall out so.
Iohn. Hubert, away with him: imprison him,
And on that day at noone, whereon he sayes
I shall yeeld vp my Crowne, let him be hang'd.
Deliuer him to safety, and returne,
For I must vse thee. O my gentle Cosen, [1880]
Hear'st thou the newes abroad, who are arriu'd?
Enter Hubert.
Hub. My Lord, they say fiue Moones were seene to
Foure fixed, and the fift did whirle about (night:
The other foure, in wondrous motion.
Ioh. Fiue Moones?
Hub. Old men, and Beldames, in the streets [1910]
Do prophesie vpon it dangerously:
Yong Arthurs death is common in their mouths,
And when they talke of him, they shake their heads,
And whisper one another in the eare.
And he that speakes, doth gripe the hearers wrist,
Whilst he that heares, makes fearefull action
With wrinkled browes, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I saw a Smith stand with his hammer (thus)
The whilst his Iron did on the Anuile coole,
With open mouth swallowing a Taylors newes, [1920]
Who with his Sheeres, and Measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust vpon contrary feete,
Told of a many thousand warlike French,
That were embattailed, and rank'd in Kent.
Another leane, vnwash'd Artificer,
Cuts off his tale, and talkes of Arthurs death.
Io. Why seek'st thou to possesse me with these feares?
Why vrgest thou so oft yong Arthurs death?
Thy hand hath murdred him: I had a mighty cause [1930]
To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.
H. No had (my Lord?) why, did you not prouoke me?
Iohn. It is the curse of Kings, to be attended
By slaues, that take their humors for a warrant,
To breake within the bloody house of life,
And on the winking of Authoritie
To vnderstand a Law; to know the meaning
Of dangerous Maiesty, when perchance it frownes
More vpon humor, then aduis'd respect.
Hub. Heere is your hand and Seale for what I did. [1940]
Ioh. Oh, when the last accompt twixt heauen & earth
Is to be made, then shall this hand and Seale
Witnesse against vs to damnation.
How oft the sight of meanes to do ill deeds,
Make deeds ill done? Had'st not thou beene by,
A fellow by the hand of Nature mark'd,
Quoted, and sign'd to do a deede of shame,
This murther had not come into my minde.
But taking note of thy abhorr'd Aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villanie: [1950]
Apt, liable to be employ'd in danger,
I faintly broke with thee of Arthurs death:
And thou, to be endeered to a King,
Made it no conscience to destroy a Prince.
Hub. My Lord.
Ioh. Had'st thou but shooke thy head, or made a pause
When I spake darkely, what I purposed:
Or turn'd an eye of doubt vpon my face;
As bid me tell my tale in expresse words:
Deepe shame had struck me dumbe, made me break off, [1960]
And those thy feares, might haue wrought feares in me.
But, thou didst vnderstand me by my signes,
And didst in signes againe parley with sinne,
Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent,
And consequently, thy rude hand to acte
The deed, which both our tongues held vilde to name.
Out of my sight, and neuer see me more:
My Nobles leaue me, and my State is braued,
Euen at my gates, with rankes of forraigne powres;
Nay, in the body of this fleshly Land, [1970]
This kingdome, this Confine of blood, and breathe
Hostilitie, and ciuill tumult reignes
Betweene my conscience, and my Cosins death.
Hub. Arme you against your other enemies:
Ile make a peace betweene your soule, and you.
Yong Arthur is aliue: This hand of mine
Is yet a maiden, and an innocent hand.
Not painted with the Crimson spots of blood,
Within this bosome, neuer entred yet
The dreadfull motion of a murderous thought, [1980]
And you haue slander'd Nature in my forme,
Which howsoeuer rude exteriorly,
Is yet the couer of a fayrer minde,
Then to be butcher of an innocent childe.
Iohn. Doth Arthur liue? O hast thee to the Peeres,
Throw this report on their incensed rage,
And make them tame to their obedience.
Forgiue the Comment that my passion made
Vpon thy feature, for my rage was blinde,
And foule immaginarie eyes of blood [1990]
Presented thee more hideous then thou art.
Oh, answer not; but to my Closset bring
The angry Lords, with all expedient hast,
I coniure thee but slowly: run more fast. Exeunt.
Hub. Whose there? Speake hoa, speake quickely, or I shoote.
Bast. A Friend. What art thou?
Hub. Of the part of England.
Bast. Whether doest thou go?
Hub. What's that to thee?
Why may not I demand of thine affaires,
As well as thou of mine?
Bast. Hubert, I thinke.
Hub. Thou hast a perfect thought: [2560]
I will vpon all hazards well beleeue
Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so well:
Who art thou?
Bast. Who thou wiIt: and if thou please
Thou maist be-friend me so much, as to thinke
I come one way of the Plantagenets.
Hub. Vnkinde remembrance: thou, & endles night,
Haue done me shame: Braue Soldier, pardon me,
That any accent breaking from thy tongue,
Should scape the true acquaintance of mine eare. [2570]
Bast. Come, come: sans complement, What newes
abroad?
Hub. Why heere walke I in the black brow of night
To finde you out.
Bast. Brcefe then: and what's the newes?
Hub. O my sweet sir, newes fitting to the night,
Blacke, fearefull, comfortIesse, and horrible.
Bast. Shew me the very wound of this ill newes,
I am no woman, Ile not swound at it.
Hub. The King I feare is poyson'd by a Monke, [2580]
I left him almost speechlesse, and broke out
To acquaint you with this euill, that you might
The better arme you to the sodaine time,
Then if you had at leisure knowne of this.
Bast. How did he take it? Who did taste to him?
Hub. A Monke I tell you, a resolued villaine
Whose Bowels sodainly burst out: The King
Yet speakes, and peraduenture may recouer.
Bast. Who didst thou leaue to tend his Maiesty?
Hub. Why know you not? The Lords are all come [2590]
backe, And brought Prince Henry in their companie,
At whose request the king hath pardon'd them,
And they are all about his Maiestie.
Bast. With-hold thine indignation, mighty heauen,
And tempt vs not to beare aboue our power.
Ile tell thee Hubert, halfe my power this night
Passing these Flats, are taken by the Tide,
These Lincolne-Washes haue deuoured them,
My selfe, well mounted, hardly haue escap'd. [2600]
Away before: Conduct me to the king,
I doubt he will be dead, or ere I come. Exeunt
------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer