The book, put together, as was almost all Campion’s literary work, under highly disturbing conditions, is unfinished; and what there is of it is sketchy26 and out of proportion. One of its charms is its character-drawing, including the speeches with which, after the fashion of Livy, Campion fits the situation by putting them into the mouths of his personages. His was a dramatic mind. He knew both history and human nature: the latter knowledge crops up everywhere in all that he wrote, and spoke27, and did, and supplied him with no small share of his power over[31] others. The outstanding charm of the History of Ireland is its style, crisp, arresting, bright with idiom: an idiom so noble and so much his own, that one understands the almost breathless admiration29 with which his generation looked up to him and listened to him. But this book, like the View of the Present State, written some seventeen years later by another gentle-hearted Englishman, the poet Spenser, is all wrong in its theory that to get any footing in the modern world the “mere Irishry” must be Anglicized. Campion did not know the Celts, their laws, nor their literature; he never came nearer to them than through chronicles written in scorn of them, or the daily table-talk, wide of the mark, of the English Pale. Yet, according to his opportunity, he loved the country and the people, and deplored30 that the descendants of a race of medi?val scholars should be cut off from education. Afterwards he felt that his rather helter-skelter pamphlet represented limited knowledge and unformed opinion; he speaks of it as “premature,” and wished, when he[32] lost the manuscript, that it might perish rather than reach the public as it was. It bore a dedication31 to the Earl of Leicester, his “singular good lord,” in the hope that it might “make his travel seem neither causeless nor fruitless,” or, as he says again in plainer language: “I render you my poor book as an account of my voyage.” It was first printed, without supervision32 from the author, in a very muddled33, unsatisfactory way, by Raphael Holinshed in 1577; then in more scholarly fashion by Sir James Ware34, in his Ancient Irish Histories, 1633. We all remember how useful Holinshed’s pages were to Shakespeare: the twenty lines or so of the famous description of Wolsey in Act IV, Scene 2, of Henry VIII, is taken almost word for word from what Campion had written, and Holinshed had incorporated in his Chronicles.
Nowhere in this little book, begun and broken off at Turvey House, and purposely non-committal in its religious expressions, is there any sign that its author had already, as some have thought, returned[33] to the Church. For Parsons, his earliest biographer, whose facts concerning these years were supplied by Richard Stanihurst, says of Campion that his purity and devoutness35 in Ireland were marked, although he was not in the Church. Fr. Pollen36, summing up the evidence of these written pages, considers Campion “near to the Church, but distinctly avoiding a confession37 of faith.”
Chancellor38 Weston, a zealot of the most pronounced Protestant type, made a livelier pursuit after having been baffled by Campion’s escape from Dublin. The latter found himself quite unable to lead any sort of orderly life, thanks to the restless hue39 and cry after him; and one day he recognized with a shock of horror the penalties to which he was exposing the generous friends, so far unmolested, who were giving him shelter. His conscience would not allow him to come out with a flat denial of Catholic tenets or sympathies. His only alternative, after a half-year in Ireland, was flight homeward. Here once more he was aided (though they were in great sorrow at[34] his decision) by his Anglo-Irish friends, those “dear friends which ever after he loved most entirely41, and they him.”
Richard Stanihurst, as private tutor to the children of the Earl of Kildare, had acquaintance with the Earl’s steward42, Melchior Hussey. This man (a character by no means admirable) was about to embark43 at Drogheda for a visit to England, and it was arranged that Campion should be disguised to pass as his Irish servant. Thus, in the month of May, putting himself under the special patronage of the national Saint, and adopting his name, Campion boarded the ship as “Mr. Patrick.” Officers of the law promptly44 appeared on the track of the quasi-Papist, delaying the weighing of the anchor, annoying the crew, upsetting the cargo45, and questioning every passenger on deck except the harmless-looking person who stood “in a lackey’s weed” behind Hussey. Edmund Campion was a born actor. He put on and kept up a highly stupid expression, while he was praying with might and main for St. Patrick’s intercession in his great danger! He had cause[35] to thank his new patron in Heaven, although the party of searchers swooped46 upon his bags below deck, and carried off with them the rough draft of his precious manuscript, that History of Ireland which he was to see no more for many a year.
The early summer of 1571 was ill-starred. Various startling events had conjoined like tidal waves to lift the misbehaving English Government up to its highest pitch of alarm. Chief of these was the Bull of Deposition47 against Queen Elizabeth, issued by the Holy See after consultation48 with many temperate49 English advisers50. John Felton, a gentleman of Southwark, posted a copy of it upon the palace gates of the Bishop51 of London, on the morning of May 25, the Feast of Corpus Christi: by August he was to pay for the bold act with his life. The Queen of Scots had newly arrived in England. London, by the time Campion reached it, was in a ferment52. “Nothing was to be found there but fears, suspicions, arrestings, condemnations, tortures, executions. . . . The Queen and Council were so troubled that they could not tell whom[36] to trust, and so fell to rigorous proceedings53 against all, but especially against Catholics, whom they most feared; so that Campion could not tell where to rest in England, all men being in fear and jealousy54 one of another.”
Campion had not broken his old bonds, yet nothing interested him so powerfully as the things of religion. The love of God was lying in wait for him, and forced his hand. Of all possible places in London where he might have gone on the 26th or 27th of May, he chose Westminster Hall, in order to attend the trial of Dr. John Storey, former Principal of Broadgates Hall (Pembroke College) in Oxford, and that University’s first Regius Professor of Civil Law. Dr. Storey was very feeble for his years, which were sixty-seven. By a wretched breach55 of international law he had been trapped at Antwerp, carried away from his wife and family to England, and arraigned56 for having “feloniously and traitorously57 comforted Richard Norton,” his own friend, the old hero of the Pilgrimage of Grace. But the real cause of his[37] arrest and execution was a much larger matter. He was a troublesomely consistent person. He had spoken out in the House of Commons against the new Liturgy58 in the first Parliament of Edward VI, and against the Supremacy59 Bill in the first Parliament of Queen Elizabeth. He had been an Ecclesiastical Commissioner60 under Queen Mary. Foxe, in the famous Book of Martyrs61, lies in the most reckless way about Storey’s part in those sordid62 bygone persecutions, and Holinshed and Strype and many another historian repeat Foxe.
Storey was an honourable63 and even merciful man, but a man of his time. People were much of a piece in the sixteenth century when it came to holding to the grindstone the nose of the unwilling64! There is this to be said, however: that the Marian courts dealt out death to heretics and malcontents, and candidly65 stopped there, and were not inspired to any cruelty more subtle; whereas Good Queen Bess not only dealt out death very much more liberally, but invented a poison for all the springs of life. Her statutes66, terribly oppressive[38] from the first, ended in what Burke calls the most hateful code framed since the world began: Penal40 Laws which, especially from 1585 on, struck without mercy at Catholics in their rights of worship, property, inheritance, education, travel, professions, public service and private liberties of every kind. Another point to be noted67 in passing is that Queen Mary persecuted68 her subjects for changing their religion. Her more ingenious sister persecuted them for not changing it! Historians have not dwelt much upon the difference, but to a reader with some philosophy in him it will have no little weight.
Dr. Storey was executed five days after his trial, under even more horrible circumstances than were usual. Edmund Campion had then left England, after an exceedingly short stay. His standing28 watch in Westminster Hall had done more for him than many arguments and exhortations69: it kindled70 a spark in him which made him, in Lord Falkland’s phrase, “ready for the utmost hazard of war.” There was a cause to which he could run[39] home; there was a vocation71 to which he could climb: these opened out before him as he stood in the surging indoor crowd. “He was animated72 by that blessed man’s example,” says Parsons, “to any danger and peril73 for the same faith for which the Doctor died.” Edmund Campion lost no time. There had been enough of that sad old game, and he was thirty-one years old, with three quarters of his too brief life behind him. Now he was awake, and had touched, in the dark, his heart’s long-patient Master. He set out at once for the nearest stronghold of apostolic souls, the English Seminary at Douay in Belgium.
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1 horde | |
n.群众,一大群 | |
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2 hearty | |
adj.热情友好的;衷心的;尽情的,纵情的 | |
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3 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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4 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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5 providently | |
adv.有远虑地 | |
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6 patronage | |
n.赞助,支援,援助;光顾,捧场 | |
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7 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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8 Oxford | |
n.牛津(英国城市) | |
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9 muses | |
v.沉思,冥想( muse的第三人称单数 );沉思自语说(某事) | |
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10 succumb | |
v.屈服,屈从;死 | |
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11 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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12 dismal | |
adj.阴沉的,凄凉的,令人忧郁的,差劲的 | |
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13 dungeons | |
n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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14 inhale | |
v.吸入(气体等),吸(烟) | |
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15 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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16 wholesome | |
adj.适合;卫生的;有益健康的;显示身心健康的 | |
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17 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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18 delicacy | |
n.精致,细微,微妙,精良;美味,佳肴 | |
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19 quenchless | |
不可熄灭的 | |
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20 relics | |
[pl.]n.遗物,遗迹,遗产;遗体,尸骸 | |
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21 inclination | |
n.倾斜;点头;弯腰;斜坡;倾度;倾向;爱好 | |
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22 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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23 collapsed | |
adj.倒塌的 | |
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24 syllable | |
n.音节;vt.分音节 | |
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25 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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26 sketchy | |
adj.写生的,写生风格的,概略的 | |
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27 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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28 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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29 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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30 deplored | |
v.悲叹,痛惜,强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31 dedication | |
n.奉献,献身,致力,题献,献辞 | |
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32 supervision | |
n.监督,管理 | |
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33 muddled | |
adj.混乱的;糊涂的;头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱,弄糟( muddle的过去式);使糊涂;对付,混日子 | |
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34 ware | |
n.(常用复数)商品,货物 | |
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35 devoutness | |
朝拜 | |
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36 pollen | |
n.[植]花粉 | |
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37 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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38 chancellor | |
n.(英)大臣;法官;(德、奥)总理;大学校长 | |
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39 hue | |
n.色度;色调;样子 | |
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40 penal | |
adj.刑罚的;刑法上的 | |
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41 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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42 steward | |
n.乘务员,服务员;看管人;膳食管理员 | |
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43 embark | |
vi.乘船,着手,从事,上飞机 | |
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44 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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45 cargo | |
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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46 swooped | |
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47 deposition | |
n.免职,罢官;作证;沉淀;沉淀物 | |
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48 consultation | |
n.咨询;商量;商议;会议 | |
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49 temperate | |
adj.温和的,温带的,自我克制的,不过分的 | |
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50 advisers | |
顾问,劝告者( adviser的名词复数 ); (指导大学新生学科问题等的)指导教授 | |
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51 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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52 ferment | |
vt.使发酵;n./vt.(使)激动,(使)动乱 | |
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53 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
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54 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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55 breach | |
n.违反,不履行;破裂;vt.冲破,攻破 | |
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56 arraigned | |
v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 );控告;传讯;指责 | |
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57 traitorously | |
叛逆地,不忠地 | |
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58 liturgy | |
n.礼拜仪式 | |
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59 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
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60 commissioner | |
n.(政府厅、局、处等部门)专员,长官,委员 | |
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61 martyrs | |
n.martyr的复数形式;烈士( martyr的名词复数 );殉道者;殉教者;乞怜者(向人诉苦以博取同情) | |
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62 sordid | |
adj.肮脏的,不干净的,卑鄙的,暗淡的 | |
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63 honourable | |
adj.可敬的;荣誉的,光荣的 | |
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64 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
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65 candidly | |
adv.坦率地,直率而诚恳地 | |
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66 statutes | |
成文法( statute的名词复数 ); 法令; 法规; 章程 | |
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67 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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68 persecuted | |
(尤指宗教或政治信仰的)迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 ); 烦扰,困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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69 exhortations | |
n.敦促( exhortation的名词复数 );极力推荐;(正式的)演讲;(宗教仪式中的)劝诫 | |
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70 kindled | |
(使某物)燃烧,着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 ); 激起(感情等); 发亮,放光 | |
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71 vocation | |
n.职业,行业 | |
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72 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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73 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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