SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

IIEGERTARY LORE.

St. Patrick's Purgatory ; an Essav. on the Legends of Purgatory. Hell, and Paradise, current during the Middle Ages. By Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., See. BIOORAWITI Russell Smith.

Life of Geoffrey Chaucer. By Sir Harris Nicolas Pickering. Titavsre,

Journals kept by Mr. Gully and Captain Denham during a Captivity in China, in

the year 1842. Edited by a Barrister Chapman and Hall.

narrow,

The Laurringtons ; or Superior People. By Mrs. Trollope, Author of "The Widow

Barnaby." &c. &c. Is three volumes Longman and Co. Mentand Women: or Manorial Rights. By the Author of " The Adventures of Susan Hopley." In three volumes Saunders and &ley.

SFR. WRIGHT'S ST. PATRICK'S PURGATORY.

THIS volume scarcely fulfils the design of its author in illustrating the morality of the middle ages ; as it is only indirectly that we gain any idea of the subject, and that slightly, and in terms too general to convey a vivid or exact representation. St. Patrick's Purgatory, however, may be praised as a pleasant and useful essay on a subject interesting in itself, curious for its exhibition of human superstition, and still more for the light it throws upon the pro- gress of popular religion, and the influence which both have exer- cised upon modern literature. The further researches are carried, the less does there seem to be of invention in the sense of creation ; all great poets having really selected and improved what was already existent. The Divina Commedia of DANTE, though animated by a more vivid genius, is a mere expansion—and in plan not always, it strikes us, a happy or popular expansion—of visions of Purga- tory that had existed in written as well as traditional forms cen- turies before the great Italian poet was born, and which had origi- nally sprung up one can hardly tell how. They would seem, how- ever, to have originated in a sort of reality ; the earlier visions of Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell, being real dreams, induced by popu- lar superstitions ; which superstitions, if they could be traced up through the mists of antiquity, might, in their first origin, have had as little of invention.

St. Patrick's Purgatory gives a title to Mr. WRIGHT'S volume, not because the work is confined to that particular purgatorial place,—for only one division, and that not a large one, is devoted to it ; nor because St. Patrick originated the superstition,—which it is not clear that he did; but because at Lough Derg in Ireland there was a Christian Avernus which derived its name from the Irish Saint. The entrance to this Purgatory was a cave, in which volcanic vapours and effluvia were met with near the mouth. Into this place the faithful might penetrate, and undergo their purgatory in the flesh ; which freed them from the process after death. To accomplish this, it was necessary to address the Bishop of the dio- eese ; who commenced by demanding his fee, and then handed the applicant over to the resident clergy. By them certain ceremonies of the Church were performed ; and the Christian champion was prepared for his adventure by prayer, fasting, and confession. At the appointed day, he was put into the cave at sunset ; and the eave was opened at sunrise the next morning. If, penetrating too far, the adventurer got struck down by the vapours, or lost himself in the recesses, and was not forthcoming, it was held that his faith had failed him. Unable, when beset, to utter the religious words of might that would have scattered the enemy, he was seized by the dremons and carried to Hell before his time. If, through caution or luck, the champion was found living, the dreams or reveries produced in an ardent disposition by the influence of the vapours, of the genius loci, and of the preliminary preparations, were received by the faithful as actual facts; though it would seem that the soul was on these occasions supposed to be separated from the body, and to make its explorations as a spirit. As information and know- ledge increased, the true nature of these visions was penetrated. FROISSART relates the case of Sir WILLIAM LISLE, who, with " another knight of Englande " went thither, and, after descending some way into the cave sat down in consequence of the effects of the vapour, went to sleep, and in sleeping "entered into great ymaginacyons and in marvellous dremes, otherwise than they were wonte to have in their chambres ; and in the mornynge they issued out, and wythin a shorte season clene forgate their drernes and visions ; wherefore he thought all that mater was but a fantasy." Those of colder temperament and greater wakefulness do not seem to have dreamed at all ; and a disappointed Dutchman, who visited the place not many years after the use of printing had given a blow to the grosser forms of superstition, procured the abolition of the ceremonies, in a fit of feeling analogous to that which prompts a "letter to the editor" from the excited matter-of-fact man of mo- dern times, who expects the show to fulfil the advertisement to the

letter.

A Monk of Eymstadt, in holland, who proved either more conscientious or less credulous than former visiters, undertook the pilgrimage to Lough Derg. When he arrived at the lake, he applied for entrance to the Prior; who referred him to the Bishop of the diocese, without whose licence no visitors were re- *ceived. The Monk then repaired to the residence of the Bishop; but as he was 'poor and moneyless,' the servants refused to admit him into their master's presence. having, however, with difficulty obtained an audience, he fell in a supplicating posture before the Prelate, and begged permission to enter St. Patrick's Purgatory. The Bishop demanded a certain sum of money, which, he said, was due to him from every pilgrim who came on this errand. The Monk represented his poverty ; and, after much urgent solicitation, the Bishop grudgingly gave him the necessary licence. He then went to the Prior, per- formed the usual ceremonies, and was shut up in the cavern. There he re- mained all night, trembling with fear, and in constant expectation of a visit from the dtemons; hut when the Prior let him out next morning, he had had no vision of any kind ; and, dissatisfied with the result of his pilgrimage, he ,hastened to Rome, where he made his complaint to Pope Alexander the Sixth. The Pope acknowledged himself convinced of the imposture, and sent orders for the destruction of the Purgatory ; which were put in effect with great solemnity on St. Patrick's Day, 1497."

Visions of Purgatory, Paradise, and, sometimes, of Hell, (for such an obscurity often hovered over it that the seers could see nothing,) were not, however, limited to Lough Derg, and to those who entered the cave, but were dreamed by other parties, even before St. Patrick's Purgatory acquired its reputation. It is of a selection from these visions, with an account of some originative or collateral superstitions, that the volume before us consists. The authorities from whom the visions are derived commence with BEDE and end with DANTE; though a sequel exhibits other visions, of a burlesque or literary rather than of a religious character. Whether or not some of these be rather wearisome, from a repetition of the same general features, must be a matter of individual taste ; but Mr. WRIGHT has displayed judgment in selecting the various visions, so as to exhibit their different styles, that the reader may trace the successive changes they underwent. The earlier ones exhibit much simplicity both in the character of the place and the nature of the punishments : those which follow seem to have had the touches of a "ghostly practitioner," the material horrors being increased in a gross and barbarous manner. Political objects and particular moral ends were next aimed at ; as, in the vision of the Emperor Charles the Fat, the monarch sees Bishops and other per- sonages who had disturbed the world, as well as lodgings preparing for some of his own ; whilst men and women were frequently shown undergoing punishment for the fashionable offences of the day. To what degree fanatical good faith might be intermingled with pious frauds in these earlier visions, it may not be easy to determine; but the subsequent stage exhibits them applied to the purposes of burlesque ; after which they fell into the hands of the poets, who used them with a purely literary view, introducing new forms and per- sons, sometimes real, sometimes allegorical, adding incident and variety to the simple old adventure, and making them vehicles of bitter satire against the age, especially the clergy. We are not sure, however, that these later visions are so interesting as those of the earlier periods. The art of the poet, no doubt, gives greater variety and purpose to the later productions, and the manners of the times may be better seen in them ; but, as the authors were rather for their " age than for all time," they have now, we think, more of tedium than the bald and simple directness of the first class of visions. The dreamer of the following, for example, has more earnestness and closeness than there is in those of the litterateurs.

THE VISION OP DEMTHELM.

Drihthelm was a Northumbrian, of the town of Cununing, perhaps the same which is now called Cuningham, within the borders of Scotland. He bad lived a pious life, and in his later days was favoured with a vision like that of Fureene. On the return of his soul to its body he became a monk in the Abbey of Mailross. He told his story to H.nvila from whom Bede seems to have learnt it, and who, when Bede wrote his history, WRB a hermit in Ireland, When his soul first left its body, he said be was led in silence by a shining angel in a white garment. They went towards the North-east ; and as they walked along they came to a valley which was broad and deep, and infinitely long. One side of this valley was tilled with roaring flames ; the other side was not less intolerably cold, with furious storms of hail and snow driving about in all directions. The whole valley was full of souls; who were tossed constantly from one side to the other, and were equally tormented in each by the heat and the cold, as well as by the foul spirits which were everywhere flying about. Drihthelm began to think this must be Hell; but his conductor said to him, "Think not so, we have not yet come there." It was indeed only Purgatory.: so they went onwards, till they came into a region of extreme darkness; where he could hardly distinguish the shining form of the angel which accompanied him. And suddenly he saw as it were globes of dusky flame, rising apparently from a great pit, and constantly falling down into it again. When he air. proached it, his guide suddenly left him in the midst of the darkness ; and he now saw that the globes of fire were full of souls, which were thus continually tossed up from the pit, the stench of which filled the country around. And as he stood terrified and doubtful which way to turn, he suddenly heard behind him a sound of miserable wailing, and mixed with it laughter, "like that of churls exulting over their captured enemies." Then he saw a crowd of evil spirits dragging along five souls, who were lamenting grievously, whilst the fiends were mucking at them. When these had gone down into the pit, several fiends rushed out from the flames and surrounded Drihthelm : he was scorched by the stinking flames which issued from their mouths and their eyes and their nostrils; and they were on the point of dragging him into the pit with their red-hot forks, when suddenly a light appeared at a distance, which proved to be his former guide, who had come to his rescue. The assailants were disappointed, and fled. The pit was Hell, out of which no one returned. They now went towards the South-east ; and there was a clear light, and before them a wall, which seemed in every direction of unbounded extent, and without any apparent gate or window. In an instant he was, he knew not bow, at the top of the wall; and beheld a vast and pleasant plain, full of fragrant flowers, and the light was brighter than that of the sun at noon, and there were innumerable assemblages of people in shining vests ; and all was joy and delight, so that it appeared to Dribthelm as though he were in Heaven. But this was not Heaven : it was the place where dwelt those who had done good works during their abode on earth, but were not sufficiently perfect to enjoy at once the immediate fellowship of Christ. After this he approached a country where the light was much brighter'; and be beard beautiful singing, and per. ceived a smell of ravishing fragrance ; when his guide suddenly stopped, and led him back by the way he went, after be had heard at a distance the songs of' the saints of Heaven.