The Captain of the Wight

que period in the history of Western

sting. The rough simplicity of the proud medi?val knight, gradually yielding to the subtle spell of pure poesy and courtly love, while the

life, with its sordid materialism, there are many men and women who dwell with delight on some noble life clothed round with the glamour of ancient time, and presenting itself to the mind in the

Captain of the Wight, but what little there is, shows him in so noble a light, that I feel I am not necessarily exaggerating, may even be accurately describing, his knightly character. His attachment to his own unfortunate family, and his mur

devil, etc, etc.--are as numerous as those of Leicester, who wrote his own name eight different ways; while Villiers va

he seems to have made himself so popular that, by his own influence alone, he was able to induce four hundred of the inhabitants to follow him to Brittany. "Noble and courageous," "hardie and valyant," "a valiant gentleman, and desirous of honour," are the epithets

ortunate, inhabitant of Carisbrooke C

hing common

hat memora

, died fighting with his sword in hand, and his face to

le gentil Seigneur de Bayart," have been my chief sources for knightly feats and the accessories of chivalry; while the chroniclers Halle, Grafton, Fabyan, Stowe, Philip de Commines, Bouchet, and the Paston Letters, have been my chief historical guides. Lord Bacon has surveyed the whole period from a loftier standpoint, and in his "

ing of that fatal expedition to Brittany, every one of the old historians speak of the bravery

e same year (1488). I have tried laboriously to find out the names of the chief inhabitants of the Isle of Wight at that time; but owing to the great danger and discomfort there was in living in the island during the 15th cen

ale line. This fact is very significant of the troubled state of the times. It was not that the manhood of

d less attention to the delineation of character than the animation of incident, and the variety of the scene, I tru