ROMANCES. HOLY-CROSS DAY. ON WHICH THE JEWS WERE FORCED TO ATTEND AN ANNUAL CHRISTIAN SERMON IN ROME. ["Now was come about Holy-Cross Day, and now must my lord preach his first sermon to the Jews: as it was of old cared for in the merciful bowels of the Church, that, so to speak, a crumb at least from her conspicuous table here in Rome, should be, though but once yearly, cast to the famishing dogs, under-trampled and bespitten-upon beneath the feet of the guests. And a moving sight in truth, this, of so many of the besotted blind restif and ready-to-perish Hebrews! now maternally brought-nay, (for He saith, 'Compel them to come in') haled, as it were, by the head and hair, and against their obstinate hearts, to partake of the heavenly grace. What awakening, what striving with tears, what working of a yeasty conscience! Nor was my lord wanting to himself on so apt an occasion; witness the abundance of conversions which did incontinently reward him: though not to my lord be altogether the glory.”—Diary by the Bishop's Secretary, 1600.] What the Jews really said, on thus being driven to church, was rather to this effect: I. FEE, faw, fum! bubble and squeak! Blessedest Thursday 's the fat of the week. Rumble and tumble, sleek and rough, Take the church-road, for the bell's due chime II. Boh, here's Barnabas! Job, that's you? III. Higgledy piggledy, packed we lie, IV. Bow, wow, wow-a bone for the dog! I liken his Grace to an acorned hog. What, a boy at his side, with the bloom of a lass, To help and handle my lord's hour-glass! Didst ever behold so lithe a chine? His cheek hath laps like a fresh-singed swine. V. Aaron 's asleep-shove hip to haunch, Or somebody deal him a dig in the paunch! Look at the purse with the tassel and knob, Now you've his curtsey-and what comes next? VI. See to our converts-you doomed black dozen- You five, that were thieves, deserve it fairly; VII. Give your first groan-compunction 's at work; VIII. Whom now is the bishop a-leering at? I meddle no more with the worst of trades- IX. Groan all together now, whee-hee-hee! It began, when a herd of us, picked and placed, To usher in worthily Christian Lent. X. It grew, when the hangman entered our bounds, Which gutted my purse, would throttle my creed: Men I helped to their sins, help me to their God. XI. But now, while the scapegoats leave our flock, XII. For Rabbi Ben Ezra, the night he died, Called sons and sons' sons to his side, And spoke, "This world has been harsh and strange; "Something is wrong: there needeth a change. "But what, or where? at the last or first? "In one point only we sinned, at worst. XIII. "The Lord will have mercy on Jacob yet, "And again in his border see Israel set. "When Judah beholds Jerusalem, "The stranger-seed shall be joined to them: "To Jacob's House shall the Gentiles cleave. "So the Prophet saith and his sons believe. XIV. "Ay, the children of the chosen race XV. "God spoke, and gave us the word to keep: XVI. "Thou! if thou wast he, who at mid-watch came, "Fell on thee coming to take thine own, "And we gave the Cross, when we owed the Throne XVII. "Thou art the Judge. We are bruised thus. "But, the Judgment over, join sides with us! |