The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and WomenMarvin, Frederic Rowland
History
The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and Women
Marvin, Frederic Rowland
Last words
[12] In his _History of the Stage_, Curll states that Nell first
captivated the king by her manner of delivering the epilogue to
Dryden's _Tyrannic Love: or, The Royal Martyr_. The tragedy was
founded upon the story of the martyrdom of St. Catherine, by way of
compliment to Catherine of Braganza. She personated _Valeria_, the
daughter of Maximin, tyrant of Rome.
CHARLES V. (of France, called "The Wise." He was the son of John II. who
was made prisoner by the Black Prince at Poitiers), 1337-1380. "_Ah,
Jesus!_"
CHARLES IX. (of France, second son of Henry II. and Catharine de'
Medici), 1550-1574. "_Nurse, nurse, what murder! what blood! Oh! I have
done wrong. God pardon me!_" The king referred, no doubt, to the
massacre of St. Bartholomew, which he occasioned. Voltaire tells us his
dying remorse was so great that "blood oozed from his pores."[13] There
are recorded other examples of bloody sweat. It is said of a man at
Lyons that when sentenced to death a bloody sweat covered his body. In
the Medical Gazette, December, 1848, is an account by Dr. Schneider of
some Norwegian sailors who, in a tremendous storm, sweated blood from
extreme terror. See also the British Critic, 1831, p. 1. When our
Saviour bore the sins of the world in the Garden of Gethsemane, "his
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
(Luke xxii., 44.)
[13] The massacre of St. Bartholomew lasted seven days, during which
more than 5,000 persons were slain in Paris, and about 50,000 in the
country. During all this season of murder, the king betrayed neither
pity nor remorse, but fired with his long gun at the poor fugitives
across the river; and on viewing the body of Coligni on a gibbet, he
exulted with a fiendish malignity. In early life this monster had
been noted for his cruelty: nothing gave him greater pleasure than
cutting off the heads of asses or pigs with a single blow from his
couteau de chasse. After the massacre, he is said to have contracted
a singularly wild expression of feature, and to have slept little
and waked in agonies. He attributed his thirst for human blood to
the circumstance of his mother having at an early period of his life
familiarized his mind with the brutal sport of hunting bullocks, and
with all kinds of cruelty.--_Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide, p. 52,
note._
CHARLES V. (Don Carlos I. of Spain, afterwards Emperor of Germany),
1500-1558. "_Now, Lord, I go!_" a moment later, with eyes fixed upon the
crucifix, he added, "_Ay, Jesus!_" and expired.
CHARLEMAGNE (Charles I., King of France and Emperor of the West),
742-814. "_Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit._"
CHARLOTTE (Augusta, commonly called the Princess, daughter of George IV.
and Queen Caroline), 1796-1817. "_You make me drink. Pray leave me
quiet. I find it affects my head._" She died in child-bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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