No. 607. Friday, October 15. Dicite To Paan, & Iö bis dicite Pean: Mr. SPECTATOR, Ovid. AVING in your Paper of Monday last published my report on the Cafe of Mrs. Fanny Fickle, wherein I have taken Notice, that Loves comes • after Marriage; I hope your Readers are fatisfied of 'this Truth, that as Love generally produces Matrimony, so it often happens that Matrimony produces Love. 'IT perhaps requires more Virtues to make a good • Husband or Wife, than what go to the finishing any • the most shining Character whatsoever. 6 DISCRETION seems absolutely necessary, and ⚫ accordingly we find that the best Husbands have been • most famous for their Wisdom. Homer, who hath • drawn a perfect Pattern of a prudent Man, to make it • the more complete, hath celebrated him for the juft Returns of Fidelity and Truth to his Penelope; info• much that he refused the Caresses of a Goddess for her • Sake, and to use the Expression of the best of Pagan Authors, vetulam fuam prætulit Immortalitati, his • old Woman was dearer to him than Immortality. 6 VIRTUE is the next necessary Qualification for ⚫ this domestick Character, as it naturally produces Con• stancy and mutual Esteem. Thus Brutus and Portia were more remarkable for Virtue and Affection than any others of the Age in which they lived. 6 6 GOOD-NATURE is a third necessary Ingredient • in the Marriage-State, without which it would inevitably fowre upon a thousand Occafions. When Greatness of Mind is joined with this amiable Quality, it at• tracts tracts the Admiration and Esteem of all who behold it. Thus Cæfar, not more remarkable for his Fortune and • Valour than for his Humanity, stole into the Hearts of the Roman People, when breaking through the Cuftom, he pronounced an Oration at the Funeral of his • first and best beloved Wife. • GOOD-NATURE is insufficient, unless it be steady • and uniform, and accompanied with an Evenness of • Temper, which is, above all Things, to be preserved • in this Friendship contracted for Life. A Man must be easy within himself, before he can be so to his • other self. Socrates and Marcus Aurelius, are Instances • of Men, who, by the Strength of Philosophy, having • entirely composed their Minds, and subdued their Paf• fions are celebrated for good Husbands, notwithstanding the first was yoked with Xantippe, and the other • with Faustina. If the wedded Pair would but habi tuate themselves for the first Year to bear with one ano• ther's Faults, the Difficulty would be pretty well conquer'd. This mutual Sweetness of Temper and Complacency, was finely recommended in the Nuptial Ceremonies among the Heathens, who when they sacri• ficed to Juno at the Solemnity, always tore out the • Gall from the Entrails of the Victim, and caft it behind the Altar. • I shall conclude this Letter with a Passage out of Dr. • Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire, not only as it • will serve to fill up your present Paper; but if I find myself in the Humour, may give Rise to another; I having by me an old Register, belonging to the Place • here undermentioned. SIR Philip de Somervile held the Manors of Whichenovre, Scirefcot, Ridware, Neherton, and Cowlee, all the Com. Stafford, of the Earls of Lancaster, by this memorable Service. The said Sir Philip shall find, maintain, and sustain, one Bacon Flitch, hanging in his Hall at Whichenovre, ready arrayed all Times of the Year, but in Lent, to be given to every Man or Woman married, after the Day and the Year of their Marriage be past, in Form following. WHENSOEVER that any one fuch before named will come to enquire for the Bacon, in their own Person, they shall come to the Bailiff, or to the Porter of the Lordship of Whichenovre, and shall say to him in the manner as ensueth; 4 • BAYLIFF, or Porter, I doo you to know, that I • am come for myself, to demand one Bacon Flyke hang• ing in the Hall of the Lord of Whichenovre, after the • Form thereunto belonging. AFTER which Relation, the Bayliff or Porter shall assign a Day to him, upon Promise by his Faith to return, and with him to bring Twain of his Neighbours. And in the mean Time the said Bayliff shall take with him Twain of the Freeholders of the Lordship of Whichenovre, and they three shall go to the Manor of Rudlow, belonging to Robert Knightleye, and there shall summon the aforefaid Knightleye, or his Bayliff, commanding him to be ready at Whichenovre the Day appointed, at Prime of Day, with his Carriage, that is to say, a Horse and a Saddle, a Sack and a Pryke, for to convey the faid Bacon and Corn a Journey out of the County of Stafford, at his Costages. And then the faid Bailiff shall, with the said Freeholders, summon all the Tenants of the said Mannor, to be ready at the Day appointed, at Whichenovre, for to do and perform the Services which they owe to the Bacon. And at the Day assigned, all fuch as owe Services to the Bacon, shall be ready at the Gate of the Manor of Whichenovre, from the Sun-rifing to Noon, attending and awaiting for the coming of him who fetcheth the Bacon. And when he is come, there shall be delivered to him and his Fellows, Chapelets; and to all those which shall be there, to do their Services due to the Bacon. And they shall lead the said Demandant with Trumps and Tabours, and other manner of Minstrels to the HallDoor, where he shall find the Lord of Whichenovre, or his Steward, ready to deliver the Bacon in this Man ner. He shall enquire of him, which demandeth the Bacon, if he have brought Twain of his Neighbours with him: Which must answer, They be bere ready. And then 4 then the Steward shall cause these two Neighbours to fwear, if the said Demandant be a wedded Man, or have been a wedded Man; and if fince his Marriage one Year and a Day be past; and if he be a Freeman, or a Villain. And if his faid Neighbours make Oath, that he hath for him all these three Points rehearsed; then shall the Bacon be taken down and brought to the Hall-Door, and shall there be laid upon one half Quarter of Wheat, and upon one other of Rye. And he that demandeth the Bacon shall kneel upon his Knee, and shall hold his right Hand upon a Book, which Book shall be laid upon the Bacon, and the Corn, and shall make Oath in this manner. 'HERE ye, Sir, Philip de Somervile, Lord of Whichenovre, mayntener and gyver of this Baconne : That I A fithe I Wedded B my Wife, and fithe I * had hyr in my kepying, and at my Wylle, by a • Year and a Day after our Marriage, I would not have chaunged for none other; farer ne fowler; richer, ne pourer; ne for none other descended of greater Lynage; flepying ne waking, at noo tyme. And if ' the seyd B were sole and I fole I would take her to 'be my Wife before all the Wymen of the Worlde, * of what Condiciones foever they be good or evylle, as help me God and his Seyntes, and this Flesh and all • Fieshes. AND his Neighbours shall make Oath, that they trust verily he hath faid truly. And if it be found by his Neighbours before-named that he be a Freeman, there shall be delivered to him halfa Quarter of Wheat and a Cheese, and if he be a Villain, he shall have half a Quarter of Rye without Cheese. And then shall Knightleye the Lord of Rudlow be called for, to carry all these Things tofore rehearsed; and the faid Corn shall be laid on one Horse and the Bacon above it: and he to whom the Bacon appertaineth shall afcend upon his Horse, and shall take the Cheese before him if he have a Horse. And if he have none, the Lord of Whichenovre shall cause him to have one Horse and Saddle, to such time as he be past his Lordship: and so shall they depart the Manor of Whichenovre with the Corn and the Bacon, tofore him that hath won it, with 14 with Trumpets, Tabourets, and other manner of Minstrelfie. And all the Free Tenants of Whichenovre shall Conduct him to be passed the Lordship of Whichenovre. And then shall they all return; except him, to whom appertaineth to make the Carriage and Journey without the County of Stafford, at the Costs of his Lord of Whichenovre. No.608. Monday, October 18. - Perjuria ridet Amantum. F Mr. SPECTATOR, 6 6 6 A Ovid. CCORDING to my Promise, I herewith tranfmit to you a Lift of several Perfons, who from Time to Time demanded the Flitch of Bacon, • of Sir Philip de Somervile, and his Defcendants; as • it is preferved in an ancient Manuscript under the Title of The Register of Whichenovre-Hali, and of the • Bacon Flitch there maintained. In the Beginning of this Record is recited the • Law or Institution in Form, as it is already printed in your last Paper: To which are added Two By-Laws, as a Comment upon the general Law, the Substance • whereof is, that the Wife shall take the fame Cath as the Husband, mutatis mutandis; and that the Judges shall, as they think meet, interrogate or cross-examine ⚫ the Witnesses. After this proceeds the Register in • Manner following. ، 'AUBRY de Falstaff, Son of Sir John Falstaff, Kt. with Dame Maude his Wife, were the first that demand• ed the Bacon, be having bribed twain of his Father's Companions to swear falsly in his Behalf, whereby he gained the Flitch: But he and his faid Wife falling immediately into a Dispute how the said Bacon should be dreffed. |