Punch: Punch (38.1860)

156

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[April 14, 1860.

John. “ Now, then, I thought you, said, if I gave you a trifle, you ’d give up that— ”

[Oh ! don’t you wish you may get him !

BEUTUM FULMEN

Tune—“ Pop Goes the WeateL

No one minds the Papal Bim .
Excommunication,

Sentence once of terror full.

Makes no sensation.

Mere sheet lightning is the flash,
Strikes none e’en with wonder.

Whilst, instead of awful crash,

Pop goes the thunder.

Fulmination, wide of aim,
Platitudes propounding,

Curses nobody by name,

Gently resounding.

Shot and powder thrown away.

Oh, how great a blunder!

People, smiling, ordy say
Pop goes the thunder.

Victor not a button cares
For the malediction.

Which Napoleon, if he shares.
Deems no affliction.

Ei’her sinner sits at ease,

Papal censure under;

Bringing neither on his knees,

Pop goes the thunder.

Now the doleful days are past
When the Pope could lighten.

Smiting kingdoms, which his blast
Now cannot frighten.

Kings and subjects Interdict
Burn or tear asunder;

Out of doors the Bull is kicked:
Pop goes the thunder.

PUNCH’S BOOK OF BRITISH COSTUMES.

CHAPTER XI.—THE EARLY NORMAN PERIOD—(Continued.)

xtreme accuracy ’[being our chief
object in this history, to the de-
scription of the hauberk which
ended our last chapter, we must
add now, that the garment was
made generally of rings, like the
ringed tunic, or byrne, which was
in use among the Saxons. In some
instances, however, the hauberk
was composed of little plates of
steel, shaped like our jujube lo-
zenges ; a kind of mail then known
by the name of “mascled” armour,
from the resemblance which it bore
to the meshes of a net. These
lozenges were also sometimes stuck
upon the pectoral, and doubtless
proved as efficacious for protection
of the chest as the lozenges called
pectoral, which are now-a-days in
use. They must, however, have
been pleasanter to wear outside
than in; and one can hardly envy
the sensations of King William,
when, as is stated, he put on his
coat of mail the wrong side out,
in the haste with which lie armed himself before the battle of
Haste-ings. Lozenges of steel when externally applied, must be rather
a sharp stimulant lo persons with thin skins; and although we have
been told that King William was not wounded, we cannot well
believe he left the field without a scratch.

For their further preservation the Normans carried shields, which, a
living writer tells us, “in shape somewhat resembled the modern
schoolboy’s kite.55 The writer who says this, however, seems to have
forgotten that there are no such creatures as “schoolboys55 extant
now; and flying kites is much too vulgar a pursuit for the “young
gentlemen55 who honour our “Academies55 to patronise. Our older
readers may however recollect the pastime, and to iheir minds tiie
comparison requires no explanation. Whether shields like kites were
any help to soldiers in flying from the field, is a point “that Lath no

magnitude,55 as saith Euclid, in our eyes, and which we have little
wish at present to look into. Neither care we to inquire, why it was
the Normans used to copy the Chinese (whom we, however, doubt if
they had ever seen or heard of), in the fashion of bedaubing their
shields with fierce devices, representing dragons, griffins, and the like
“ fabulous animals.” That they did so is however shown by the old
tapestries (that at Bayeux is especially instructive on the point) : and
if further proof were wanting, it might be supplied by the passage we
subjoin, which will be recognised by savants as a fragment of a war-
song, that until now has had existence only in MS.:—

“ ge barbie potman’s nose of gore
& bcItttcff'Suatbc bgb basato:

% grgffgn on bgs stiiclbe ljc bore,
ioiytcBE bgs tibbes bpb sa=abc.

Inne bauberke eke bias be g=maileb,

Soe farre as toe ge knec=tc;

Qnb brauclte tipis rgggeb out Ijec sailcts
To sea infjattc ijre mote sendee! ”

These interesting lines leave nolLing more to notice in the armour
of the Normans, and we proceed to take in hand the description ol