John Knight

“ Sir John was a republican; but he did not despise either his office of mayor or his courtesy title of knight. Had he possessed more discretion and less zeal, he probably would have prospered in proportion. In the best, that is, in the quietest, of times, Sir Jeffrey could with difficulty keep his tongue from wagging. He never appeared in the streets with his wig-bag on his shoulder, without a numerous crowd following, whom he delighted with his sallies, made against men in power, whose weak points were assailable. ”

“ Watts-Dunton in the ‘Athenæum.’ Indeed, I should not expect to find him trenching upon the domain of the greatest dramatic critic of our time, Mr. Joseph Knight. No one speaks with greater admiration of Mr. Knight than his friend of thirty years’ standing, Mr. Watts-Dunton himself; and when an essay on ‘King John’ was required for the series of Shakespeare essays to accompany Mr. Edwin Abbey’s famous illustrations in ‘Harper’s Magazine,’ it was Mr. Knight whom Mr. Watts-Dunton invited to discuss this important play. ”

“ Each saw that the device on the upper vestment of his adversary was the same as his own, blue worked with rays of gold round the border. They each fell to sharp, and not very courteous words. The French lord at length remarked that Sir John’s claim to wear the device was just like “the boastings of you English. You can not invent anything new,” added the angry French knight, “but when you stumble on a pretty novelty, you forthwith appropriate it.” ”

“ One named Joseph Knight came with his master, John Wedderburn, Esq., to Glasgow in 1771, and remained with him as his bound slave for two years. A love-affair then set the man upon the idea of attempting to recover his liberty, which a recent decision by Lord Mansfield in England seemed to make by no means hopeless. With the help of friends, he carried his claim through a succession of courts, till a 454|1720.| decision of the Court of Session in 1775 finally established that, however he might be a slave while in the West Indies, he, being now in Scotland, was a free man. ”

“ KNIGHT, Sir JOHN, ‘the younger’ (d. 1718) , Jacobite, is supposed to have been a kinsman of his namesake, Sir John the elder [q. v.] He was a native of Bristol, and was sheriff of that city in 1681, when he rivalled his relative in his zeal against the dissenters. He was rewarded by being knighted during March 1682. A prosperous merchant, like his kinsman, Knight henceforth took an equally prominent part in the town's affairs, and the politics of the two men being very similar their identity has been inextricably confused. ”

“ Knight wrote many pieces himself. His ‘Thelyphthora, or the Blessings of two Wives at once,’ a farce, was acted at Hull in 1783, but neither printed nor apparently brought to London; ‘Trudge and Wowski,’ a prelude, supposedly from ‘Inkle and Yarico,’ was acted by Knight for his benefit in Bristol 1790, and ‘Honest Thieves,’ a two-act abridgment of the ‘Committee’ of Sir Robert Howard, was produced at Covent Garden with Knight as Abel, 9 May 1797. ”

“ A sorrier man than he was one Rode never in summer's day. Little John was full curt-eyse, And set him on his knee: "Welcome be ye, gentle knight, Welc-ome are ye to me, Welcome be thou to green wood, Hende knight and free; My master hath abiden you fast-ing, Sir, all these hour-es three." "Who is your master?" ”

“ Greatly needing money for his campaign, John ordered another scutage to be taken from his tenants; this, moreover, was to be at the unprecedented rate of three marks on the knight’s fee, not as on previous occasions of two marks, although this latter sum had hitherto been regarded as a very high rate. The northern barons refused to pay, and the gathering forces of resistance received a powerful stimulus when a little later came the news of the king’s humiliation at Bouvines. Then in October the beaten monarch returned to England, no course open to him but to bow before the storm. ”

“ John bears himself sturdily; the king can punish him, but the king is honorable and will keep his word, and may remember the promised warison. The king gives thanks for the hot capons and good wine, the queen urges that the reve should be promoted. The king, nothing loath, makes John a gentleman, and gives him his manor, a hundred pound and a tun of wine yearly, then takes a collar and creates him knight. John blenches a little at the collar; he has heard that after a collar comes a rope ”

“ No one shall be compelled to perform greater service for a knight’s fee, or for any other free tenement, than is due therefrom.
For military tenants, the transition from scutage to service was a natural one; since it was not enough to protect themselves from exactions in money, if they were still exposed to arbitrary exactions in kind. John, therefore, declared that no freeholder should be constrained to do more service for his lands than he was legally bound to do. ”

“ This general condemnation probably included the increased frequency of John’s exactions, the assessment of scutages on the new basis provided by the Inquest of 1212, the levy of both scutage and service cumulatively, and, above all, the exaction of the high rate of three marks per knight’s 173fee. The essence of the demands pressed on the government by the baronial leaders in 1217 must undoubtedly have been the return to the normal maximum rate of 20s. per knight’s fee. Henry II., we have seen, sometimes took less, but only on one occasion took more. ”

“ So, resolved in his heart that he would put all his strength into a stroke, either to win or to lose, he gathered himself together, and struck the monster with a blow so fierce that he shore the head from the body, and she fell dead upon the ground.
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Then said the Lady Una: “Well, indeed, have you carried yourself, Sir Knight. Surely you were born under a lucky star, seeing that you have overcome so terrible a foe. You are worthy of these arms wherewith you are clad. So is your first adventure brought to a good result. ”

“ His experiences as a strolling player were naturally varied, and not seldom disagreeable. While with Beverley at Stroud he refused to play Laertes to the Hamlet of ‘Master’ Betty, saying, ‘Damme, I won't play second to any man living except to John Kemble.’ In July 1808, at Stroud, Kean married Mary Chambers, an actress nine years older than himself, with whom he had been playing. The next six years saw Kean in various country towns suffering unmitigated hardship. Stephen Kemble, struck with his Octavian in the ‘Mountaineers,’ offered him a London engagement ”

“ The combat was to cease as soon as Prince John should throw down his leading staff, or truncheon—another precaution usually taken to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood by the too long endurance of a sport so desperate. Any knight breaking the rules of the tournament, or otherwise transgressing the rules of honorable chivalry, was liable to be stripped of his arms, and, having his shield reversed, to be placed in that posture astride upon the bars of the palisade, and exposed to public derision, in punishment of his unknightly conduct. ”

“ KNIGHT, EDWARD (1774–1826) , actor, commonly known as ‘Little Knight,’ and spoken of as a Yorkshireman, was born in 1774 in Birmingham. While practising as a sign-painter, or, as is sometimes said, an artist, he was stirred to emulation by the performance of a provincial company. He appeared accordingly at Newcastle, Staffordshire, as Hob in ‘Hob in the Well,’ and was so complete a victim to stage-fright that, despite the encouragement of a friendly audience, he ran off the stage and quitted the town. ”

“ On the other hand Sir John Falstaff has had injustice done him by the actors; and of Shakespeare’s jolly old gentleman they have made what, down to Macklin’s times, they made of Shylock, a mere mountebank.
In the very first scene, in the first part of Henry IV., when the Prince and Sir John appear in company, the knight is, by far, a more accomplished gentleman than the heir-apparent, for he speaks more refinedly of phrase, and indeed seldom indulges in scurrilous epithets, until provoked. Strong language is the result of his infirmity of nature, not of vicious inclination. ”

“ A traitor and a coward he was, while he was yet alive; and now he lies dishonoured!”
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“Nay, Sir Knight,” answered the pilgrim, “you do wrong so to revile the dead. He was a true knight and valiant in the field, as none know more surely than yourself.”
Then said the other pagan, Cymochles: “Old man, you dote. And, indeed, what know you of knighthood and valour? All is not gold that glitters; nor are all good knights that know how to set spear in rest and use the sword. Let a man be judged by his end. There he lies dead on the field, and the dead are nothing worth.” ”

“ Knight was an admirable actor, and a worthy man. Though living in good style, and consorting with men of science and letters, he realised an independence, which was augmented by a legacy from an uncle. ”

“ John said, "What grieveth thee? It is alms to help a gentle knight That is fall in povert-y. Master," then said Little John, "His clothing is full thin, Ye must give the knight a liver-ay, To wrap his bod-y therein. For ye have scarl-et and green, mast-er, And many a rich array, There is no merch-ant in merry Engl-and So rich, I dare well say." "Take him three yards of every colo-ur, And look that well mete it be." Little John took none other meas-ure But his bow-e tree, And of every handfull that he met He leapt ouer foot-es three. ”

“ In November 1791, owing to the bankruptcy of John Jackson (1761–1792) [q. v.] , the theatres of Edinburgh and Glasgow were advertised to be let. At the instigation of Jackson, who was to be his partner in management, Kemble took the Edinburgh Theatre Royal, at a rent of 1,350l., over the head of Mrs. Esten. Jackson accused Kemble of sharp practice; Kemble withheld from him any share whatever in the management, and denied him admission into the house. Furious attacks were made on Kemble in print by Jackson and his friends. Kemble opened his theatre on 19 Jan. ”

“ And when they had had enough of meat and drink, she said: “Tell us, Sir Knight, on what errand you are come and what end you seek.”
Then said Sir Guyon: “What you ask brings to my mind that great Queen, fairest and best of all that are in the wide world. She is wont to make a great feast on the first day of the New Year, to which come all knights that seek adventure and desire to gain honour for themselves. ”

“ Till life itself hath ceased,
And falls beneath the self-same blow
The lover and the priest!
O pitying Mother! souls of light,
And saints and martyrs old!
Pray for a weak and sinful knight,
A suffering man uphold. ”

“ The Life in the Biographia Dramatica supplies a full list of Kemble's adaptations. The Life of John Philip Kemble, Esq., London (no date) [1809] , 8vo, went through two editions. Of Kembliana, a collection of the jeux d'esprit, &c., that were issued respecting King John, a first part only, so far as is known, has appeared. The Covent Garden Journal, 2 vols. 8vo, 1810, by Stockdale, gives a full account of the O. P. riots. Lives appear in the Georgian Era, Celebrities of the Century, in the Biographies Universelles of Dr. ”

“ In 1806, presumably on 9 June, Kean made his first appearance at the Haymarket, playing Ganem in the ‘Mountaineers.’ Peter, a servant, in the ‘Iron Chest,’ Simon in ‘John Bull,’ Rosencrantz to the Hamlet of Rae, the Polonius of Mathews, and the First Gravedigger of Liston, and other subordinate parts followed. An application to Kemble for an engagement was unsuccessful, and Kean returned into the country and played in various towns from Portsmouth to Edinburgh and Belfast, in which last town he acted Osmyn in the ‘Mourning Bride’ to the Zara of Mrs. ”

“ The Visitation by St George, 1615, is still less full; it names only Ralph, Robert, and Richard, omitting all the daughters.—A modern Pedigree of less authority amongst Mr Allan’s collections at Grange, states Knox’s wife to be Joan—but is answered by the old narrative statement, which is far the fullest, and by the marginal note affixed to it. It was very common at that time to have two children of the same Christian name.
The Knight Marshall had two wives. From the first, a Mallory of Studley, descends Thomas Bowes, now of Bradley, Esq. Co. Pal. who is the male heir of the whole family ”

“ In Trinity term, 1827, he was appointed a king's serjeant, and he succeeded Lord Abinger in the office of attorney-general of the duchy of Lancaster. On 2 Dec. 1831 he was appointed by letters patent a judge of the court of bankruptcy, and was knighted. Subsequently he became chief judge, and held that office until 5 Nov. 1842, when, on his return home from his court at Westminster, he suddenly died. On his death the separate court of bankruptcy was abolished, and its jurisdiction transferred to the court of chancery, Vice-chancellor Sir James Knight-Bruce becoming chief judge. ”

“ I never can make out how it is that a knight-errant does not expect to be paid for his trouble, but a pedlar-errant always does;—that people are willing to take hard knocks for nothing, but never to sell ribands cheap;—that they are ready to go on fervent crusades to recover the tomb of a buried God, never on any travels to fulfil the orders of a living God;—that they will go anywhere barefoot to preach their faith, but must be well bribed to practise it, and are perfectly ready to give the Gospel gratis, but never the loaves and fishes. ”

“ It did not often happen; for Mr. John Knightley had really a great regard for his father-in-law, and generally a strong sense of what was due to him; but it was too often for Emma's charity, especially as there was all the pain of apprehension frequently to be endured, though the offence came not. ”