AND I TOO IN ARCADIA.” ARE ye come forth, amidst the leaves and flowers Deep midst the hoary pines and olives dim? -My voice once mingled in Arcadia's hymn! If this were all !-but there are other hours Than those which pour out sunshine on the bowers, F. H. TWELVE O'CLOCK AT NIGHT. "Well, if any thing be damn'd, It is the Judas of the hours, wherein THE opinion above delivered concerning that " celebrated hour*" to which the literary world is so deeply indebted, is most harsh and unchristian. It is now many years since first I had the honour of forming an acquaintance with Twelve o'clock at Night, and in the interim I have known it in almost every department of life; yet I cannot charge my memory with any misconduct of which it has been guilty, that at all warrants so severe a denunciation; but, on the contrary, must own that of all the four-and-twenty hours it is the one from which I have derived the most intense and most varied pleasure, and is indeed" the sweetest morsel of the night." Whoever will take the pains of looking a little deeper than the surface of things, and of giving that attention to the subject which common charity requires of all men when a re putation is at stake, will discover that there is much more of antique prejudice than of sound reason in the damnatory clauses of the poet; and will find that if certain of the imputations levelled against the "witching hour" may formerly have had some slight semblance of "It was at the celebrated hour of twelve, &c." See "The Heroine." foundation, twelve o'clock at night, like a good Christian hour as it is, has repented of the past, and, in the language of Shakspeare, has "reformed it altogether;" leading at the present day (if that be not a bull) as exemplary a life, as if it had been brought up in the tabernacle, or had been appointed deputy licenser of plays to my Lord Chamberlain. One of the standing accusations against twelve o'clock at night is, that it is a dark and gloomy hour, of a louring and suspicious countenance, and an avowed protector of rogues and vagabonds. "Oh! grim-look'd night! oh! night with hue so black." Now though this might fairly be met with a reflection that the matter in charge is more a misfortune than a fault; and that if the sun chose to keep better hours, or the moon were not so capricious in her movements, midnight might be as flaunting as the "garish eye of day;" yet there is no necessity for availing ourselves of the plea. Let any one who has a curiosity to gratify, but take the trouble of walking into Regent-street, or any other of the great thoroughfares of the metropolis, and he will find twelve o'clock at night fairly outshining its soi-disant radiant brother, twelve at noon, (who by the by is much too frequently under a cloud,) and, without being dependant upon "the seasons or their changes," is all the year round alike brilliant and gay; which is much more than can be said of the greatest and happiest wits upon town, from Jekyll to inclusive. Then as to the keeping bad company, twelve o'clock may be seen every evening at the best houses in London ushering into the ball-room whatever is most choice and select in the supreme bon ton of the supreme bon genre. Another most absurd imputation, from which it is scarcely necessary to defend this" injured innocent," is that of murder. A night-prowling bandit figures well in a melodrame; such innuendoes as "Wither'd murder Alarum'd by his sentinel the wolf, Whose howl's his watch," may cut a very good splash in poetry; and "The midnight murd rer bursts the faithless bar," is very soon said; but who ever heard of twelve o'clock at night being present at a duel, that most fashionable and approved mode of manslaughter? If such a charge had been brought against six o'clock in the morning, or against the hour between riding-time and dressing for dinner, it might not be wholly divested of colour; but twelve at night would be very clever to catch a man to kill, at Chalk Farm, or the "Fifteen Acres" either.* Then as to assassination, that might have been all very well when men passed the midnight hour asleep and alone; but now, when this hour has become the time of general assembly, the thing is impossible. In this respect, indeed, twelve at night is much more sinned against than sinning for there is not a tavern in London in which, on every night : The Fifteen Acres is the accustomed seat of duelling rendezvous for his Majesty's lieges of the city of Dublin. An Attorney lately, in penning a challenge, which perhaps he mistook for a lease, directed his opponent to meet him "at the Fifteen Acres, be the same more or less." in the year, there will not be found a set of jolly dogs drowning the calumniated hour, like the unfortunate Clarence, in a wine cask; and while the masters are thus killing this eldest born of time, the apprentices, with a like murderous intention, engage in fights with the Charleys, and strive to get rid of midnight by the most violent and disreputable means. Even the gravest dowagers do not flinch from this species of slaughter; not only forming an unholy alliance with the four kings, but enlisting the very knaves in their warfare against poor twelve at night. There is not, indeed, an hour on the dial-plate that has so much to fear from clubs, or has more cause to dread finding every man with his card in his hand, as it were, prepared for a challenge. Amongst its other imputed sins, twelve o'clock at night likewise labours under an ill reputation for gallantry, which, but for the plea of " numerus defendit," might perhaps give us some trouble, so inveterate is the notion. No one has a worse name for dealing in ropeladders and assignations, for hiding blushes and encouraging all sorts of peccadilloes. All this, however, is prejudice, pure prejudice; for, as I hope to be saved, I do not think there is a single cuckold, even east of Temple-bar, that can fairly lay his misfortune to the door of this hour. The worst that can justly be charged against twelve at night is the helping a lady to put on her rouge; or, perhaps, a little innocent flirtation in window-seats, doorways, or the staircases of crowded assemblies. Most commonly, indeed, twelve at night is otherwise employed; being either engaged at the dinner-table, or, perhaps, listening to the snoring of country gentlemen in the House of Commons, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer explains his budget, or Messrs. Bor B-favour the speaker with a methodist sermon. There are some malicious persons, I own, who pretend that this good behaviour of twelve at night is all owing to gas lights and vagrant acts, which make him more careful of exposing his infirmities. But every body knows that the chief pleasure of gallantry lies in the vice; and Milton has told us that "It's only daylight that makes sin;" from which premises the logical conclusion is, that twelve at night is a stranger to the greatest charm of love, and may be regarded as less disposed to indulgence than certain other sly and prudish hours, which hope to pass unobserved and unsuspected. In confirmation of all which, appeal may safely be made to the prevalence of ottomans and muslin curtains, and to the published annals of Doctors Commons. Another unfounded accusation against midnight is keeping late hours. Formerly, not to be in bed before midnight was, I admit, esteemed a rakehellish practice. But Shakspeare, who knew every thing, (omne cognoscibile, at least,) and, as the Frenchman has it, "first destroyed this worl' and den made anoser for himself,*"-Shakspeare has fully refuted this calumny. "To be up after midnight," he says, "and to go to bed then, is early; so that to go to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes." Midnight lucubrations were formerly, perhaps, a frequent cause of those pale and emaciated faces which were then to * In probable quotation of "Exhausted worlds and then imagined new."Dr. Johnson's Prologue. be found in the quadrangles of Trinity and Christchurch; but now-adays, if such faces are to be seen there, I should much rather be disposed to accuse Aurora, brandy-punch, and Havannah cigars. While some persons have busied themselves in traducing twelve at night, and accusing it of all sorts of wantonness and debauchery, others have been no less industrious in embroiling this hour with legitimacy, and in sending it to the carcere duro for treason and conspiracy. If these gentlemen, however, would tell the truth, they would own that the only treason now in vogue, the treason against common sense and common right, is carried on openly and in the face of day. To defend midnight from the charge of sorcery will, with many, be thought a rejection of all authority, and a contempt for established order, that unforgiveable sin of the modern code. There are, it must be owned, so many useful practices and prejudices which are alone "upheld by old repute, consent, and custom," without any other foundation, that it is no wonder if certain folks are a little shy of meddling with ghosts, witches, and divining rods, for fear of pulling an old house about their heads. The hole of a water-rat may let in water enough to burst a dyke. At first sight, therefore, I was, like a loyal rightthinking man as I am, about to let judgment go by default, to admit the "secret, black, and midnight hags" of Macbeth, and abide by the consequences, when luckily I recollected a recent declaration against the reality of witchcraft from the Bench, which seems to prove with tolerable satisfaction that sorcery is no longer "part and parcel of the law of the land," and consequently not under the protection of the libel code. I shall, therefore, take the liberty-under correction of the Constitutional Society-of asserting that if, in the language of the poet, "there's no such thing" as witchcraft, we may logically conclude that midnight cannot have been guilty of the offence. All this, however, I advance with great modesty and hesitation, seeing that contradictory precedents are equally binding; and that the dictum of King James's judges is quite as valid in law as Mr. Justice Abbot's can be, for the life of him. Twelve o'clock at night, like other great personages, leads a very different life in town and in the country. In London the only stars it ever sees are those in the chalky firmament of ball-rooms or on the breasts of gallant knights; its only lights are wax candles and ladies' eyes; and if it were even inclined to dose, the thunder of rolling carriages, and the roar of the footmen's artillery, would " murder sleep." In the country, midnight is as tranquil as the grave, and melancholy as the churchyard. When its approach is announced by the iron tongue of time, the owl hoots in concert with the bell, and the tender virgin hides her moistened forehead deep between the sheets, while her snowy bosom palpitates with " thick-coming fancies" and "horrible imaginings." Why this particular hour should be so disagreeable to village maidens, while it is in such general estimation with metropolitan belles, I leave for others to elucidate; nor shall I further extend the present lucubration, than to do justice by twelve at night upon the score of religion; a point the more important, because in the present day it is so much the fashion to think that no man is right in his own faith, unless he is troublesomely inquisitive concerning that of his neighbour; and because it is so customary to be more anxious to know what church an indi vidual frequents, than what are his actions, or what his moral respectability. For the satisfaction of the curious, then, be it known that twelve o'clock at night, before the Reformation, bore a most exemplary character for piety; and "midnight lauds" were in universal request. I presume, therefore, that no one in these Protestant realms will suppose for one moment that twelve at night is the worse for having embraced the Lutheran religion; or will believe that its piety is a bit the less fervent because it seeks the privacy of a chamber, and is no longer exhibited in churches and monasteries. With this fact in the rear of my defence, I think I may save myself the trouble of peroration, and without further ceremony commit my client, with a certainty of acquittal, to the verdict of an cnlightened and intelligent country. M. TO IANTHE SLEEPING LADY! dream, but not of Love ; Feverish hopes, and pining fears, Love is an inconstant thing, Flying most, when most pursued, Let not words, and looks of art, Let thy virgin beauties glow, Like the gems that shine unseen, Where man, the spoiler, ne'er hath been. Like the flowers that wreathe their leaves Be thy glancing foot the fleetest, To weave the dance, and breathe the song, |