Gibbon says, “The use of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice were often subservient to the propagation of the faith.” And again, “The richness of her arms and apparel were conspicuous in the foremost ranks.”
Macaulay says, “The poetry and eloquence of the Augustan age was assiduously studied in Mercian and Northumbrian monasteries.”
THE STRETCHES OF POETIC LICENSE
In descriptive poems which are written to embalm the story of actual occurrences, our poets sometimes draw upon their fertile fancies for the materials they employ, accepting flying rumors of incidents or experiences, the verification or contradiction of which is within easy reach. Take, for instance, such as relate to our recent sectional conflict. Whittier says, in “Barbara Frietchie,” in speaking of the flag,—
“In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.”
And farther on he says,—
“She leaned far out on the window sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.”
That there is no semblance of truth in these statements is proved by numerous witnesses. One of them, a near relative of Dame Barbara, testifies thus: “As to the waving of the Federal flag in the face of the rebels by Dame Barbara on the occasion of Stonewall Jackson’s march through Frederick, truth requires me to say that Stonewall Jackson, with his troops, did not pass Barbara Frietchie’s residence at all, but passed up what is popularly called ‘the Mill Alley,’ about three hundred yards above her residence, then passed due west toward Antietam, and thus out of the city.” “Again,” continues the witness, “the poem by Whittier represents the venerable lady (then ninety-six years of age) as nimbly ascending to her attic window and waving her small Federal flag defiantly in the face of Stonewall Jackson’s troops. Now what is the fact? At the period referred to, Dame Barbara was bedridden and helpless, and had lost the power of locomotion. She could only move as she was moved, by the help of her attendants.”