SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS.
(Continued from p. 514.)
In a previous communication, fighting under the shield of a great authority, I attempted to prove that the effigies of the mediæval tombs presented the semblance of death—death in grandeur, mortality as the populace were accustomed to behold it, paraded in sad procession through the streets, and dignified in their temples. The character of the costume bears additional testimony to their supposed origin, and strongly warrants this conclusion. It is highly improbable that the statuaries of that age would clothe the expiring ecclesiastic in his sacerdotal robes, case the dying warrior in complete steel, and deck out other languishing mortals in their richest apparel, placing a lion or a dog, and such like crests or emblems, beneath their feet. They were far too matter-of-fact to treat a death-bed scene so poetically. The corpse however, when laid in state, was arrayed in the official or the worthiest dress, and these heraldic appurtenances did occupy that situation. Thus in 1852 were the veritable remains of Prince Paul of Wurtemburg, in full regimentals and decorated with honours, publicly exhibited in the Chapelle Ardente at Paris (Illustrated London News, vol. xx. p. 316.). Unimaginative critics exclaim loudly against the anomaly of a lifeless body, or a dying Christian, being thus dressed in finery, or covered with cumbrous armour; and such would have been the case in former days had not the people been so familiarised with this solemn spectacle. In an illumination in Froissart we have the funeral of Richard II., where the body is placed upon a simple car attired in regal robes, a crown being on the head, and the arms crossed. We are informed that "the body of the effigies of Oliver Cromwell lay upon a bed of state covered with a large pall of black velvet, and that at the feet of the effigies stood his crest, according to the custom of ancient monuments." The chronicler might, perhaps, have said with more propriety "in accordance with tradition;" cause and effect, original and copy, being here reversed.
"In a magnificent manner (he proceeds) the effigies was carried to the east end of Westminster Abbey, and placed in a noble structure, which was raised on purpose to receive it. It remained some time exposed to public view, the corpse having been some days before interred in Henry VII.'s Chapel."
In the account of the funeral obsequies of General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, in 1670, the writer says:
"Wren has acquitted himself so well, that the hearse, now that the effigy has been placed upon it, and surrounded by the banners and bannerols, is a striking and conspicuous object in the old abbey. It is supported by four great pillars, and rises in the centre in the shape of a dome."
It is here also worthy of note, that Horncastle Church affords a curious example of the principle of a double representation—one in life, and the other in death; before alluded to in the Italian monuments, and in that of Aylmer de Valence. On a mural brass (1519), Sir Lionel Dymock kneels in the act of prayer; and on another plate covering the grave below, the body is delineated wrapt in a shroud—beyond all controversy dead.
Mr. Markland, in his useful work, mentions "the steel-clad sires, and mothers mild reposing on their marble tombs;" and borrows from another archæologist an admirable description of the chapel of Edward the Confessor, who declares that "a more august spectacle can hardly be conceived, so many renowned sovereigns sleeping round the shrine of an older sovereign, the holiest of his line." It can only be the sleep of death, and this the sentiment conveyed: "These all died in faith." The subjects of this disquisition are not lounging in disrespectful supplication, nor wrapt in sleep enjoying pious dreams, nor stretched on a bed of mortal sickness: but the soul, having winged its way from sin and suffering, has left its tenement with the beams of hope yet lingering on the face, and the holy hands still refusing to relax their final effort. Impossible as this may seem to calculating minds, it is nevertheless one of the commonest of the authorised and customary modes designed to signify the faith, penitence, and peace attendant on a happy end.
C. T.