_King._ How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign.
_Car._ If thou be"st death, I"ll give thee England"s treasure, Enough to purchase such another island, So thou wilt let me live and feel no pain.
_King._ Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, Where death"s approach is seen so terrible!
_War._ Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee:
_Car._ Bring me unto my trial when you will.
Died he not in his bed? where should he die?
Can I make men live, whether they will or no?
O, torture me no more! I will confess.
Alive again? Then show me where he is: I"ll give a thousand pound to look upon him.
He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them.
Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright, Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul.
Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary Bring the strong poison that I bought of him.
_King._ O thou eternal Mover of the heavens, Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch!
O, beat away the busy meddling fiend That lays strong siege unto this wretch"s soul, And from his bosom purge this black despair!
_War._ See how the pangs of death do make him grin!
_Sal._ Disturb him not; let him pa.s.s peaceably.
_King._ Peace to his soul, if G.o.d"s good pleasure be!
Lord cardinal, if thou think"st on heaven"s bliss, Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope.
He dies, and makes no sign. O G.o.d, forgive him!
_War._ So bad a death argues a monstrous life.
_King._ Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.
Close up his eyes and draw the curtain close; And let us all to meditation.
_Exeunt. --King Henry VI, Part II, Act iii._
BECKET (Thomas a, first Saxon archbishop of Canterbury after the Norman conquest), 1117-1170. "_For the name of Jesus and the defense of the church I am willing to die._"
He was a.s.sa.s.sinated by four barons, servants of Henry II. The Roman Catholic Church regarded him as a martyr; and in 1172 he was canonized.
BEDE (surnamed "The Venerable;" an English monk, and the author of "_Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum_"), 673-735. "_Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost._"
It is related that on the night of his death he continued dictating to his amanuensis a translation of some work, probably of the gospel of St.
John, into Anglo-Saxon. He asked the scribe how many chapters remained.
"Only one," he replied; "but you are too weak to dictate." "No," said Bede, "take your pen and write quickly." After some time the scribe said, "Master, it is finished;" to which Bede replied, "Thou hast said truly, _consummatum est_," and shortly after expired.
_Lippincott._
BEECHER (Henry Ward, distinguished American clergyman, for many years pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, N. Y.), 1813-1887.
"_Now comes the mystery._"
BEETHOVEN (Ludwig van), 1770-1827. "_I shall hear in heaven._"
When about thirty-five years old, while at work upon his opera of "Leonora," known in English as "Fidelio," he was attacked with deafness.
The malady began gradually, but after a year made more rapid progress, and soon his hearing was entirely destroyed.
Some authorities give his last words thus: "Is it not true, dear Hammel, that I have some talent after all?" Hammel was an old friend with whom he had once quarrelled, and who, after being separated from him for a long time, came to him when he was upon his death bed.
Beethoven received the sacraments of the Roman church, and at about one in the afternoon of the same day he sank into apparent unconsciousness, and a distressing conflict with death began which lasted the rest of that day, the whole of the next day, and until a quarter of six on the evening of the day following. As the evening closed in, there came a sudden storm of hail and snow, covering the ground and roofs of the Schwarzspanierplatz, and followed by a flash of lightning, and an instant clap of thunder. So great was the crash as to arouse even the dying man. He opened his eyes, clinched his fist, and shook it in the air above him. This lasted a few seconds while the hail rushed down outside, and then the hand fell, and the great composer was no more.
_Grove"s Dictionary of Music and Musicians._
BELLARMINO (Cardinal Roberto), 1542-1621. "_It is safest to trust in Jesus_," to one who enquired whether it is safer to trust in the Virgin Mary than in Jesus.
BENTHAM (Jeremy, English philosopher and jurist, author of "Defence of Usury," "Theory of Penalties and Rewards," "The Rationale of Judicial Evidence," "Panopticon," and many other works of interest and value. He devoted much of his time and ability to the development of the theory that "Utility is the test and measure of virtue"), 1748-1832. "_I feel now that I am dying._"
BeRENGER (de Tours, celebrated French ecclesiastic), 998-1088. "_I shall not long hesitate between conscience and the Pope, for I shall soon appear in the presence of G.o.d, to be acquitted, I hope; to be condemned, I fear._"
"No more "twixt conscience staggering and the Pope, Soon shall I now before my G.o.d appear: By him to be acquitted, as I hope; By him to be condemned, as I fear."--_Coleridge._
Berenger opposed the dogmas of Transubstantiation and the Real-Presence.
His teachings were condemned by Pope Leo IX. in 1050.
BERGERUS (councillor to the Emperor Maximilian), "_Farewell, O farewell all earthly things, and welcome heaven._"
BERKELEY (George, Bishop of Cloyne, metaphysical philosopher and author), 1684-1753.
The last words of Berkeley are not recorded, but the peacefulness and suddenness of his death are interesting. One evening he and his family were sitting and drinking tea together; he on one side of the fire, and his wife on the other, and his daughter making the tea at a little round table just behind him. She had given him one dish which he had drunk.
She had poured out another which he left standing some time. "Sir," said she, "will you not take your tea?" Upon his making no kind of an answer, she stooped forward and looked at him, and found that he was dead.
_Life of Bishop Berkeley._
Berkeley directed in his will that his body should be kept above ground more than five days, and until it became "offensive by the cadaverous smell, and that during the said time it lye unwashed, undisturbed and covered by the same bedclothes, in the same bed, the head raised upon pillows."
BERNARD ("Saint," Abbot of Clairvaux and active promoter of the crusade of 1146. He is the author of many beautiful hymns), 1091-1153. "_May G.o.d"s will be done_," said when he was told that his last hour was at hand.
BERRY or BERRI (Caroline Ferdinande Louise, Madame de), 1798-1870. "_Is not this dying with courage and true greatness?_"
BIRON (Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun, French general-in-chief of the army of the Rhine), 1747-1793. "_I have been false to my G.o.d, to my order, and to my king: I die full of faith and of repentance._"
The executioner"s messenger surprised him at a breakfast of oysters and white wine, and said he was at the duke"s orders; to which the latter rejoined, "_No morbleu_, "tis just the other way: I am at yours!" He then asked that he might be permitted to finish his breakfast, after which he answered the summons of the executioner.