of the test suits being filed by the Reverend James Maury. vox
argentea of Cicero: the silver voice of Cicero, the Roman orator.
Mr. Patrick Henry: the orator and statesman born in Hanover
County, Virginia, in 1736. In 1763 he came into prominence by his
brilliant plea for the defense in the suit brought by the Reverend James
Maury. His later career as an orator of Revolutionary times is too well
known to be repeated. Anacreon: a Greek lyric poet who lived in
the fifth century B.C.
Mr. Wythe, Colonel Bland, etc.: prominent characters in the history
of colonial Virginia. tictac: a kind of backgammon. spadille: a
game of cards. Corydons and Chloes: names common in pastoral
poetry for shepherds and shepherdesses. Here they are used as equiv
alent to beaux and belles. petit maitre: coxcomb. Myrtilla: see
note above. Cordelia: a character in Shakespeare s "King Lear. "-
Circe: a character in classical mythology who by her powers of en
chantment transformed human beings into animals, such as wolves,
lions, etc.
As the early Southern novels were so largely of the historical type, it is inter
esting to note the episodes of Southern history that formed their backgrounds.
A list arranged in the order of the historical situations contained in them will
not only serve to suggest the more important of these novels but will outline an
interesting course of reading.
The list would begin with William Caruthers " Cavaliers of Virginia " and
St. George Tucker Jr. s "Hansford," both of which record that dramatic episode
of colonial history known as Bacon s Rebellion. Next would come William Car
uthers Knights of the Horseshoe," based on the romantic expedition made by
Governor Spotswood of Virginia to the summit of the Blue Ridge, whence he and
his companions looked over for the first time into the Shenandoah valley. These
would be followed by John Pendleton Kennedy s "Rob of the Bowl," giving an
account of the struggle between Episcopalianism and Roman Catholicism in
Maryland under the second Lord Baltimore. Then would come William Gilmore
Simms s "Yemassee," with its background of the uprising of the Yemassee
Indians in 1715. In John Esten Cooke s! The Virginia Comedians" and its
sequel " Henry St. John, Gentleman " we are carried on to the splendid flowering
of Virginia life just before the Revolution. With William Gilmore Simms again
in his several novels "The Partisan," Katherine Walton," "Mellichampe,"
The Scout," "Eutav." "The Forayers," and "Woodcraft" we have various
phases of the Revolution. To this same period belongs John Pendleton Kennedy s
"Horseshoe Robinson." The great exodus into the Mississippi valley and the Southwest, which was the great thrill in Southern life in the earl}* nineteenth cen tury, found expression in the series of Border Romances by William Gilmore Simms, which well reflect pioneer existence in the various new states " Guy Rivers "for Georgia," Richard Hurdis?! for Alabama, " Border Beagles " for
