IV. De Thou gives the following anecdote, when speaking of a defeat, more disgraceful, however, than disastrous, which befel the French on the borders of Flanders, A.D. 1555, in which many nobles and gentry were captured by the Flemings:
"Cùm delectus illi ex CCCC peditibus et MCC equitibus conflati, quorum dux erat Jallius ex primariâ in Andibus nobilitatæ vir, in hosticum excurrissent, et magnas prædas abegissent, dum redirent solutis ordinibus homines ut plurimum militiæ ignari, inter Rigiacum Atrebatum et Bapalmam, ab Alsimontio loci illius præfecto secus viam et oppositam silvam ac subjectum rivum, insidiis excepti sunt, et ab exiguo numero cæsi, ac majorem partem, cum effugium non esset capti, non sine verborum ludibrio, nimirum, Nobiles Galliæ non appensos a Belgis capi! Quod dicebatur allusione factâ ad Monetæ aureæ Anglicanæ genus, quod vulgò nobilium nomine indigitatur."
Thuani Hist. lib. XVI. ad. a. 1555, tom. i. p. 494. ed. Genev. 1626.
"When these levies, made up of 400 foot soldiers and 1200 horsemen, whose leader was La Jaille, one of the principal nobility of Anjou, had made a foray on the enemy's border, and driven off an immense booty; upon their retreat, which, being men for the most part utterly ignorant of military service, they conducted with great disorder, between Arras and Bapaume, they were entrapped by Osmand, who commanded in those parts, into an ambuscade set for them close to their line of march, with a wood in their front and a river below them. A few of them were slain, but the greater part, inasmuch as there was no way of escape, were taken prisoners: which gave occasion to the following satirical play upon words: 'That Flemings had taken French Nobles without first weighing them!' The play on the words, of course, alluding to the English gold coins commonly known by the name of 'the noble.'"
The last instance shows the common opinion entertained of the Flemings, as being traders far too keen to take any coin except it were of full tale and weight. And although the expression "Flemish account" may have originated from their practice as merchants, yet, from the second instance quoted from Ford and Decker, it may not unreasonably be inferred that it received greater currency from their method of paying the soldiers who also served as mercenaries in the wars of the Low Countries.
E. A. D.
POPE AND FLATMAN.
(Vol. iv., p. 132.)
MR. BARTON, in his "Note" on Pope and Flatman, inquires whether the coincidence mentioned by him has been noticed before. I believe it has, by more than one commentator, and among others by Croly in his edition of Pope, London, E. J. Valpy, 1835. Dr. Croly introduces the ode of "The Dying Christian to his Soul," with these remarks, from which it will be seen that Flatman was not the only source of Pope's inspiration:
"Pope, in a letter to Steele, at whose suggestion he had adopted the subject, gives this brief history of his composition:—'You have it,' he says, 'as Cowley calls it, warm from the brain; it came to me the first moment I waked this morning; yet you'll see it was not so absolutely inspiration but that I had in my head not only the verses of Hadrian, but the fine fragment of Sappho.' Pope omitted to observe the close similarity of his lines to those of Flatman, an obscure writer of the century before. Between his rough versification and the polished elegance of Pope there can be no comparison; but the thoughts are the same. Prior translated Hadrian's ode with more fidelity, but less good fortune."
HENRY H. BREEN.