H. F. W.

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MACAULAY’S “YOUNG LEVITE.”

Sir,—­The following passage from the Anatomy of Melancholy, published 1651, struck me as a curious corroboration of the passage in Mr. Macaulay’s History which describes the “young Levite’s” position in society during the seventeenth century; and as chance lately threw in my way the work from which Burton took his illustration, I take the liberty of submitting Notes of both for your examination.

“If he be a trencher chaplain in a gentleman’s house (as it befel Euphormio), after some seven years’ service he may perchance have a living to {27} the halves, or some small rectory, with the mother of the maids at length, a poor kinswoman, or a crackt chambermaid, to have and to hold during the time of his life.”—­Burton, Anat. of Mel. part i. sect. 2. mem. 3. subsect 15.

Burton is here referrng to the Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon, published anno 1617.  It professes to be a satire, or rather A FURIOUS INVECTIVE, on the corrupt manners of the times, and is in four parts:  the 1st is dedicated to King James I.; the 2nd to Robert Cecil; the 3rd to Charles Emmanuel of Savoy; the 4th to Louis XIII., King of France.

The use that Burton makes of the name of Euphormio is any thing but happy.  He was not a “trencher chaplain” but the slave of a rich debauchee, Callion, sent in company with another slave, Percas, to carry some all-potent nostrum to Fibullius, a friend of Callion, who was suffering from an attack of stone.  Euphormio cures Fibullius, not by the drug with which he was armed, but by a herb, which he sought for and found on a mountain.  Fibullius, to reward his benefactor, offers him as a wife a most beautiful girl, whom he introduces to him privately while in his sick room.  Euphormio looks with no little suspicion on the offer; but, after a few excuses, which are overruled by Fibullius, accepts the lady as his betrothed, “seals the bargain with a holy kiss,” and walks out of the room (to use his own words) “et sponsus, et quod nesciebam—­Pater,” page 100.  The next mention of this lady [evidently the prototype of the “crackt chambermaid,”] is in page 138.  Callion had paid his sick friend Fibullius a visit, and, on the eve of his departure, had ordered Euphormio to ride post before him, and prepare the inhabitants of the districts through which he was to pass for his arrival.  While Euphormio is on the horseblock in the act of mounting his steed, a rustic brings him a letter from Fibullius, and in conversation gives him such an account of his bride as forces upon him the reflection, that even the grim Libitina would be preferable, as a bride, to so confirmed a Thais, so fruitful a partner, as the protegee of Fibullius would be likely to prove.  But, as these notes have, in spite of all my attempts at condensation, already grown to a most formidable