THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY, FROM THE CLOSE of the ELEVENTH TO THE COMMENCEMENT of the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED TWO DISSERTATIONS. I. ON THE ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION IN EUROPE. II. ON THE INTRODUCTION OF LEARNING INTO ENGLAND.
VOL. II.
By THOMAS WARTON, B. D. FELLOW of TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, and of the SOCIETY of ANTIQUARIES, and late PROFESSOR of POETRY in the UNIVERSITY of OXFORD.
LONDON: Printed for, and sold by, J. DODSLEY, Pall-Mall; J. WALTER, Charing-Cross; J. ROBSON, New Bond-Street; G. ROBINSON, and J. BEW, Pater-noster-Row; and Messrs. FLETCHER, at OXFORD. M. DCC. LXXVIII.
CONTENTS OF THE SECTIONS in the SECOND VOLUME.
SECTION I. p. 1.
JOHN GOWER. His character and poems. His tomb. His
Confessio Amantis.
Its subject and plan. An unsuccessful imitation of the
Roman de la Rose.
Aristotle's
Secretum Secretorum. Chronicles
of the middle ages. Colonna. Romance of Lancelot. The
Gesta Romanorum.
Shakespeare's caskets. Authors quoted by Gower. Chronology of some of Gower's and Chaucer's poems. The
Confessio Amantis
preceded the
Canterbury Tales.
Estimate of Gower's genius.
SECTION II. p. 32.
Boethius. Why, and how much, esteemed in the middle ages. Translated by
Johannes Capellanus,
the only poet of the reign of king Henry the fourth. Number of Harpers at the coronation-feast of Henry the fifth. A minstrel-piece on the
Battayle of Agynkourte.
Occleve. His poems. Egidius
de Regimine Principum,
and Jacobus of Casali
De Ludo Scaccorum.
Chaucer's picture. Humphrey duke of Gloucester. Sketch of his character as a patron of literature. Apology for the gallicisms of Chaucer, Gower, and Occleve.
SECTION III. p. 51.
Reign of Henry the sixth. Lydgate. His life and character. His
Dance of Death.
Macaber a German poet. Lydgate's poem in honour of
Saint Edmund.
Pre
ented to Henry the sixth, at Bury-abbey, in a most splendid manuscript, now remaining. His
Lyf of our Lady.
Elegance and harmony of his stile and ver
ification.
SECTION IV. p. 61.
Lydgate continued. His
Fall of Princes,
from Laurence Premierfait's French parapbra
e of B
ccace on the same subject. Nature, plan, and specimens of that poem. Its sublime allgorical figure of
Fortune.
Authors cited in the same. B
ccace's opportunities of collecting many stories of Greek original, now not extant in any Greek writer. Lydgate's
Storie of Thebes.
An additional
Canterbury Tale.
Its plan, and originals. Martianus Capella. Happily imitated by Lydgate. Feudal manners applied to Greece. Specimen of Lydgate's force in description.
SECTION V. p. 81.
Lydgate's
Troy-Boke.
A paraphrase of Co
nna's
Historia Trojana.
Homer, when, and how, first known in Europe. Lydgate's powers in rural painting. Dares and Dictys. Feudal manners, and Arabian imagery, ingrafted on the Trojan story. Anecdotes of antient Gothic architecture displayed in the structure of Troy. An ideal theatre at Troy so described, as to prove that no regular stage now existed. Game of chess invented at the
i
ge of Troy. Lydgate's gallantry. His anachronisms. Hector's shrine and chantry. Specimens of another
Troy-Boke,
anonymous, and written in the reign of Henry the sixth.
SECTION VI. p. 101.
Reign of Henry the sixth continued. Hugh Campeden translates the French romance of
Sidrac.
Thomas Chestre's Sir
Launfale.
Metrical romance of the
Erle of Tholouse.
Analysis of its Fable. Minstrels paid better than the clergy. Reign of Edward the fourth. Translation of the classics and other books into French. How it operated on English literature. Caxton. Anecdotes of English typography.
SECTION VII. p. 125.
Harding's
Chronicle.
First mention of the king's
Poet Laureate
occurs in the reign of Edward the fourth. History of that office. Scogan. Didactic poems on chemistry by Norton and Ripley.
SECTION VIII. p. 139.
Poems under the name of Thomas Rowlie. Supposed to be spurious.
SECTION IX. p. 165.
The reigns of Richard the third, and Henry the seventh, abound in obscure versifiers. Bertram Walton. Benedict Burgh translates
Cato's Latin Di
tichs.
History of that work. Julian Barnes. Abbesses fond of hunting and
awking. A religious poem by William of Nassyngton. His Prologue explained.
Minstrels
and
Gestours
to be distinguished.
Gest
of the Three
Kings of Cologne
sung in the arched chamber of the Prior at Winchester. The
Gest
of
the Seven Sleepers.
Originally a Greek Legend. Bradshaw's
Life of Saint Werburgh.
Metrical chronicles of the kings of England fashionable in this century. Ralph Higden proved to be the author of the
Chester-plays.
Specimen of Bradshaw's poem, from his description of the historical tapestry in the hall of Ely monastery when the princess Werburgh was admitted to the
eil. Legends and legend-makers. Fabyan. Watson. Caxton a poet.
Kalendar of Shepherds.
Pageaunts. Transition to the drama. Histrionic profession.
Mysteries
Nicodemus's
Gospel.
Use of
Mysteries.
SECTION X. p. 210.
Reign of Henry the seventh. Hawes. His poems. Painting on the walls of chambers.
Visions.
Hawes's
Pastyme of Pleasure.
The fable analysed. Walter. Medwall. Wade.
SECTION XI. p. 240.
Barklay's
Ship of Fools.
Its origin. Specimens. Barklay's
Eclogues,
and other pieces. Alcock bishop of Ely. Modern
Bucolics.
SECTION XII. p. 257.
Digression to the Scotch poets. William Dunbar. His
Thistle and Rose,
and
Golden Terge.
Specimens. Dunbar's comic pieces. Estimate of his genius.
Moralities
fashionable among the Scotch in the fifteenth century.
SECTION XIII. p. 280.
Scotch poets continued. Gawen Douglass. His translation of the
Eneid.
His genius for descriptive poetry. His
Palice of Honour,
and other pieces.
SECTION XIV. p. 295.
Scotch poets continued. Sir David Lyndesay. His chief performances the
Dreme,
and
Monarchie.
His talents for description and imagery. His other poems examined. An anonymous Scotch poem, never printed, called
Duncane Laider.
Its humour and satire. Feudal robbers. Blind Harry reconsidered. A
History
of the Scotch poetry recommended.
SECTION XV. p. 336.
Skelton. His life. Patronised by Henry, fifth earl of Northumberland. His character, and peculiarity of style. Critical examination of his poems.
Macaronic poetry.
Skelton's
Morality
called the
Nigramansir. Moralities
at their height about the close of the seventh Henry's reign.
SECTION XVI. p. 366.
A digression on the origin of
Mysteries.
Various origins assigned. Religious dramas at Constantinople. Plays first acted in the monasteries. This ecclesiastical origin of the drama gives rise to the practice of performing plays in universities, colleges, and schools. Influence of this practice on the vernacular drama. On the same principle, plays acted by singing-boys in choirs. Boybishop.
Fete de Foux.
On the same principle, plays acted by the company of parish cle
ks. By the Law-societies in London.
Temple-Masques.
SECTION XVII. p. 407.
Causes of the increase of vernacular composition in the fifteenth century. View of the revival of classical learning. In Italy. In France. In Germany. In Spain. In England.
SECTION XVIII. p. 433.
The same subject continued. Reformation of religion. Its effects on literature in England. Application of this digression to the main subject.
THE HISTORY O
ENGLISH POETRY.
SECT. I.
IF Chaucer had not existed, the compositions of John Gower, the next poet in succession, would alone have been sufficient to rescue the reigns of Edward the third and Richard the second from the imputation of barbarism. His education was liberal and uncircumscribed, his course of reading extensive, and he tempered his severer studies with a knowledge of life. By a critical cultivation of his native language, he laboured to reform its irregularities, and to establish an English style
See supr. vol. i. pag. 342.
. In these respects he resembled his friend and cotemporary Chaucer
It is certain that they both lived and wrote together. But I have considered Chaucer first, among other reaso
s h
re
fter given, as Gower survived him. Chaucer died October 25, 1400, aged 72 years. Gower died, 1402.
: but he participated no considerable portion of Chaucer's spirit, imagination, and elegance. His language is tolerably perspicuous, and his ver
i
ication often harmonious: but his poetry is of a grave and sententious turn. He has much good sense, solid reflection, and useful observation. But he is serious and didactic on all occasions: he preserves the tone of the scholar and the moralist on the most lively topics. For this reason he seems to have been characterised by Chaucer with the appellation of the MORALL Gower
Troil. Cress. ad calc. pag. 333. edit. Urr. ut supr.
. But his talent is not confined to English verse only. He wrote also in Latin; and copi
d Ovid's elegiacs with some degree of purity, and with fewer false quantities and corrupt phrases, than any of our countrymen had yet exhibited since the twelfth century.
Gower's capital work, consisting of three parts, only the last of which properly furnishes matter for our present enquiry, is entitled SPECULUM MEDITANTIS, VOX CLAMANTIS, CONFESSIO AMANTIS. It was finished, at least the third part, in the year 1393
CONFESS. AMANT. Prol. fol. 1. a. col. 1. Imprinted at London, in Flete
rete, by Thomas Berthelette, the xii. daie of March, ann. 1554. folio. This edition is here always cited.
. The SPECULUM MEDITANTIS, or the
Mirrour of Meditation,
is written in French rhymes, in ten books
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Bodl. NE. F. 8. 9. And MSS. Fairf. 3.
. This tract, which was never printed, displays the general nature of virtue and vice, enumerates the felicities of conjugal fidelity by examples selected from various authors, and describes the path which the reprobate ought to pursue for the recovery of the divine grace. The VOX CLAMANTIS, or the
Voice of one crying in the Wilderness,
which was also never printed, contains seven books of Latin elegiacs. This work is chiefly historical, and is little more than a metrical chronicle of the insurrection of the commons in the reign of king Richard the second. The best and most beautiful manuscript of it is in the library of All Souls college at Oxford; with a dedication in Latin verse, addressed by the author, when he was old and blind, to archbishop Arundel
MSS. Num. 26. It occurs more than once in the Bodleian library; and, I believe
often in private hands. There is a fine manuscript of it in the British Museum. It was written in the year 1397, as appears by the following line, MSS. Bodl. 294.
Hos ego BIS DENO Ricardi regis in anno.
. The CONFESSIO AMANTIS, or the
Lover's Confession,
is an English poem, in eight books, first printed by Caxton, in the year 1483. It was written at the command of Richard the second; who meeting our poet Gower rowing on the Thames near London, invited him into the royal barge, and after much conversation requested him to
book some new thing
TO THE REDER, in Berthlette's edition. From the PROLOGUE. See supr. vol. i. p. 539. Notes.
.
This tripartite work is represented by three volumes on Gower's curious tomb in the conventual church of Saint Mary Overee in Southwark, now remaining in its antient state; and this circumstance furnishes me with an obvious opportunity of adding an anecdote relating to our poet's munificence and piety, which ought not to be omitted. Although a poet, he largely contributed to rebuild that church in its present elegant form, and to render it a beautiful pattern of the lighter Gothic architecture: at the same time he founded, at his tomb, a perpetual chantry.
It is on the last of these pieces, the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, that Gower's character and reputation as a poet are almost entirely founded. This poem, which bears no immediate reference to the other two divisions, is a dialogue between a lover and his confessor, who is a priest of Venus, and, like the mystagogue in the PICTURE of Cebes, is called Genius. Here, as if it had been impossible for a lover not to be a good catholic, the ritual of religion is applied to the tender passion, and Ovid's Art of Love is blended with the breviary. In the course of the confession, every evil affection of the human heart, which may tend to impede the progress or counteract the success of love, is scientifically subdivided; and its fatal effects exemplifi
d by a variety of apposite stories, extracted from classics and chronicles. The poet often introduces or recapitulates his matter in a few couplets of Latin long and short verses. This was in imitation of Boethius.
This poem is strongly tinctured with those pedantic affectations concerning the passion of love, which the French and Italian poets of the fourteenth century borrowed from the troubadours of Provence, and which I have above examined at large. But the writer's particular model appears more immediately to have been John of Meun's celebrated ROMAUNT DE LA ROSE. He has, however, seldom attempted to imitate the picturesque imageries, and expressive personifications, of that exquisite allegory. His most striking pourtraits, which yet are conceived with no powers of creation, nor delineated with any fertility of fancy, are IDLENESS, AVARICE, MICHERIE or Thieving, and NEGLIGENCE, the
ecretary of SLOTH
Lib. iv. f. 62. a. col. 1. Lib. v. f. 94. a. col. 1. Lib. iv. f. 68. a. col. 1. Lib. v. f. 119. a col. 2.
. Instead of boldly cloathing these qualities with corporeal attributes, aptly and poetically imagined, he coldly yet sensibly describes their operations, and enumerates their properties. What Gower wanted in invention, he supplied from his common-place book; which appears to have been stored with an inexhaustible fund of instructive maxims, pleasant narrations, and philosophical definitions. It seems to have been his object to croud all his erudition into this elaborate performance. Yet there is often some degree of contrivance and art in his manner of introducing and adapting subjects of a very distant nature, and which are totally foreign to his general design.
In the fourth book, our confessor turns chemist; and discoursing at large on the Hermetic science, developes its principles, and exposes its abuses, with great penetration
Lib. iv. f. 76. b. col. 2.
. He delivers the doctrines concerning the vegetable, mineral, and animal stones, to which Falstaffe alludes in Shakespeare
Fal
taffe mentions a philosopher's or chemist's
two stones.
See P. Henr. iv. Act iii. Sc. 2. Our author abundantly confirms doctor Warburton's explication of this passage, which the rest of the commentators do not seem to have understood. See Ashm. Theatr. Chemic. p. 484. edit. Lond. 1652. 4to.
, with amazing accuracy and perspicuity
Ibid. f. 77. a. col. 1.
; although this doctrine was adopted from systems then in vogue, as we shall see below. In another place he applies the Argonautic expedition in search of the golden fleece, which he relates at length, to the same visionary philosophy
Lib. v. f. 101. a. seq.
. Gower very probably conducted his associate Chaucer into these profound mysteries, which had been just opened to our countrymen by the books of Roger Bacon
See supr. vol. 1. p. 425.
.
In the seventh book, the whole circle of the Aristotelic philosophy is explained; which our lover is desirous to learn, supposing that the importance and variety of its speculations might conduce to sooth his anxieties by diverting and engaging his attention. Such a discussion was not very likely to afford him much consolation: especially, as hardly a single ornamental digression is admitted, to decorate a field naturally so destitute of flowers. Almost the only one is the following description of the chariot and crown of the sun; in which the Arabian ideas concerning precious stones are interwoven with Ovid's fictions and the classical mythology.
Of goldè glistrende
Glistering.
, spoke and whele,
The Sonne his Carte
Chariot.
hath, faire and wele;
In which he sit, and is croned
With bright stones environed:
Of which, if that I speke shall
There be
Before.
tofore, inspeciall
Above all.
,
Set in the front of his corone,
Thre stones, which no persone
Hath upon erth: and the first is
By name cleped Leucachatis;
That other two cleped thus
Astroites and Ceraunus,
In his corone; and also byhynde,
By olde bokes, as I fynd,—
There ben of worthy stones three,
Set eche of hem in his degree;
Whereof a Cristelle is that one,
Which that corone is sett upon:
The second is an Adamant;
The third is noble and avenant
Beautiful.
,
Which cleped is Idriades—
And over this yet natheless
Still farther.
,
Upon the sidis of the werke,
After the writynge of the clerke
The philosopher.
,
There sitten five stones mo
More.
;
The Smaragdine is one of tho
Them.
,
Jaspis, and Helitropius,
And Vandides, and Jacinctus.
Lo! thus the corone is beset,
Whereof it shineth wel the bet
Much better.
.
And in such wise, his light to spreade,
Sit, with his diademe on heade,
The Sonne, shinende in his carte:
And for to lead him swithe
Swift.
and smarte,
After the bright daiès lawe,
There ben ordained for to drawe
Four hors his chare, and him withall,
Whereoff the names tell I shall:
Eritheus the first is hote
Named.
,
The whiche is redde, and shineth hote;
The second Acteos the bright,
Lampes the third courser hight,
And Philogeus is the ferth
Fourth.
,
That bringen light unto this erth
And gone so swift upon the heven, &c
Lib. vii. f. 145. b. col. 1. 2.
.
Our author closes this course of the Aristotelic philosophy with a system of politics
Lib. vii. f. 151. a.
: not taken from Aristotle's genuine treatise on that subject, but from the first chapter of a spurious compilation entitled, SECRETUM SECRETORUM ARISTOTELIS
See supr. vol. i. p. 132. Notes, x.
, addressed under the name of Aristotle to his pupil Alexander the Great, and printed at Bononia in the year 1516. A work, treated as genuine, and explained with a learned gloss, by Roger Bacon
See Wood, Hist. Antiquit. Univ. Oxon. lib. i. p. 15. col. 1.
: and of the highest reputation in Gower's age, as it was transcribed, and illustrated with a commentary, for the use of king Edward the third, by his chaplain Walter de Millemete, prebendary of the collegiate church of Glaseney in Cornwall
Tanner Bibl. p. 527. It is cited by Bradwardine, a famous English theologist, in his grand work de CAUSA DEI. He died 1349.
. Under this head, our author takes an opportunity of giving advice to a weak yet amiable prince, his patron king Richard the second, on a subject of the most difficult and delicate nature, with much freedom and dignity. It might also be proved, that Gower, through this detail of the sciences, copied in many other articles the SECRETUM SECRETORUM; which is a sort of an abridgement of the Aristotelic philosophy, filled with many Arabian innovations and absurdities, and enriched with an appendix concerning the choice of wines, phlebotomy, justice, public notaries, tournaments, and physiognomy, rather than from the Latin translations of Aristotle. It is evident, that he copied from this work the doctrine of the three chemical stones, mentioned above
There is an Epistle under the name of Alexander the Great,
De Lapide Philosophorum,
among the SCRIPTORES CHEMICI
artis aurif
rae,
Basil. 1593. tom. i. And edit. 1610. See below,
Note
k .
I have mentioned a Latin romance of Alexander's life, as printed by Frederick Corsellis, about 1468. supr. vol. i. p. 131. On examination, that impression is said to be finished Decemb. 17, 1468. Unluckily, the seventeenth day of December was a Sunday that year. A manifest proof that the name of Corsellis was forged.
. That part of our author's astronomy, in which he speaks of the magician Nectabanus instructing Alexander the Great, when a youth, in the knowledge of the fifteen stars, and their respective plants and precious stones, appropriated to the operations of natural magic
Lib. vii. f. 148. a. seq.
, seems to be borrowed from Callisthenes, the fabulous writer of the life of Alexander
h Or from fictitious books attributed to Alexander the Great,
De s
ptem H
rbis s
ptem Plan
tarum,
&c. See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. tom. ii. p. 206. See supr. vol. i. p. 129. And p. 223. Notes, f. Calli
henes is mentioned twice in this poem, Lib. vii. f. 139. b. col. 2. And vi. f. 139. b. col. 2. See a chapter of Callisthenes and Alexander, in Lydgate's FALL OF PRINCES, B. iv. ch. 1. seq. fol. 99. edit. ut infr.
. Yet many wonderful inventions, which occur in this romance of Alexander, are also to be found in the SECRETUM SECRETORUM: particularly the fiction of Alexander's Stentorian horn, mentioned above, which was heard at the distance of sixty miles
See supr. vol. i. p. 132.
, and of which Kircher has given a curious representation in his PHONURGIA, copied from an antient picture of this gigantic instrument, belonging to a manuscript of the SECRETUM SECRETORUM, preserved in the Vatican library
Pag. 140. See SEC
ETUM SECRETORUM, Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Bodl. D. i. 5. Cap. penult. lib. 5.
.
It is pretended by the mystic writers, that Aristotle in his old age reviewed his books, and digested his philosophy into one system or body, which he sent, in the form of an epistle, to Alexander. This is the supposititious tract of which I have been speaking; and it is thus described by Lydgate, who has translated a part of it.
Title of this boke LAPIS PHILOSOPHORUM,
Namyd also DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM,
Of philosophres SECRETUM SECRETORUM.—
The which booke direct to the kyng
Alysaundre, both in the werre and pees
Peace.
,
Lyke
According to.
his request and royall commanding
Fulle accomplishid by
Aristotiles.
Feeble of age.—
Then follows a rubric
"How Aristotile declareth to kynge Alysandre of the stonys
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Laud. B. 24. K. 53. Part of this manuscript is printed by Ashmol
, THEATR. CHEMIC.
t supr. p. 397. See Julius Bartolocc. tom. i. Bibl.
abbinic. p. 475. And Joann. a Lent, Theol. Judaic. p. 6.
."
It was early translated into French prose
Mem. de Litt. tom. xvii. p. 737. 4-to.
, and printed in English,
"The SECRET OF ARISTOTYLE, with the GOVERNALE OF PRINCES and every maner of estate, with rules for helth of body and soul, very gode to teche children to rede English, newly translated out of French, and emprented by Robert and William Copland, 1528
Octavo. A work called Aristotle's POLITIQUES, or DISCOURSES O
GOVERNMENT, from the French of Louis le Roy, printed by Adam Islip, in folio, in the year 1527, and dedicated to sir Robert Sid
ey, i
Aristotle's genuine work. In Gresham college library there is
"Alexandri M. Epistolae ad preceptorem Aristotelem,
Ang
ic
fa
."
MSS. 52. But I believ it Occleve's or Lydgate's poem on the subject, hereafter mentioned.
."
This work will occur again under Occleve and Lidgate. There is also another forgery consecrated with the name of Aristotle, and often quoted by the astrologers, which Gower might have used: it is DE REGIMINIBUS COELESTIBUS, which had been early translated from Arabic into Latin
Hotting. Bibl. Orient. p. 255. See Pic. Mirandulan. contra Astrolog. lib. i. p. 284.
.
Considered in a general view, the CONFESSIO AMANTI
may be pronounced to be no unpleasing miscellany of those shorter tales which delighted the readers of the middle age. Most of these are now forgotten, together with the voluminous chronicles in which they were recorded. The book which appears to have accommodated our author with the largest quantity of materials in this article, was probably a chronicle entitled PANTHEON, or MEMORIAE SECULORUM, compiled in Latin, partly in prose and partly in verse, by Godfrey of Viterbo, a chaplain and notary to three German emperours, who died in the year 1190
See sup. vol. i. p. 351. Notes, h. And Jacob. Quetif. i. p. 740.
. It commences, according to the established practice of the historians of this age, with the creation of the world, and is brought down to the year 1186. It was first printed at Basil, in the year 1569
In folio. Again, among Scriptor
de Reb. Germanicis, by Pistorius. Francof. fol. 1584. And Hanov. 1613. Lastly in a new edit. of Pistorius's collection by Struvius, Ratisbon. 1726. fol. There is a chronicle, I believe sometimes confounded with Godfrey's PANTHEON, called the PANTALEONE, from the creation to the year 1162, about which time it was compiled by the Benedictine monks of Saint Pantaleon at Cologn, printed by Eccard, with a German translation, in the first volume of SCRIPTORES MEDII AEVI, p. 683. 945. It was continued to the year 1237, by Godfridus, a Pantaleonist monk. This continuation, which has conside
able merit as a history, is extant in Freherus, Rer. Germanicar. tom. i. edit. Struvian. p. 335.
. The learned Muratori has not scrupled to insert the five last sections of this universal history in the seventh tome of his writers on Italy
P. 346.
. The subject of this work, to use the laborious compiler's own expressions, is the whole Old and New Testament; and all the emperours and kings, which have existed from the beginning of the world to his own times: of whom the origin, end, names, and atchievements, are commemorated
In proem.
. The authors which our chronicler professes to have consulted for the gentile story, are only Josephus, Dion Cassius, Strabo, Orosius, Hegesippus
See supr. vol. 1. p. 217.
, Suetonius, Solinus, and Julius Africanus: among which, not one of the purer Roman historians occurs. Gower also seems to have used another chronicle written by the same Godfrey, never printed, called SPECULUM REGUM, or the MIRROUR OF KINGS, which is almost as multifarious as the last; containing a genealogy of all the potentates, Trojan and German, from Noah's flood to the reign of the emperour Henry the sixth, according to the chronicles of the venerable Bede, Eusebius, and Ambrosius
See Lambecc. ii. p. 274.
. There are besides, two ancient collectors of marvellous and delectable occurrences to which our author is indebted, Cassiodorus and Isidorus. These are mentioned as two of the chroniclers which Caxton used in compiling his CRONICLES OF ENGLAND
Bale, apud Lewis's CAXTON, p. xvii. post pref. And in the prologue to the FRUCTUS TEMPORUM, printed at St. Alban's in 1483, one of the authors is
"Cassiodorus of the actys of emperours and bisshoppys."
. Cassiodorus
See CONFE
. AMANT. lib. vii. f. 156. b. col. 1. And our author to king Henry, Urry's Ch. p. 542. v. 330.
wrote, at the command of the Gothic king Theodoric, a work named CHRONICON BREVE, commencing with our first parents, and deduced to the year 519, chiefly deduced from Eusebius's ecclesiastic history, the chronicles of Prosper and Jerom, and Aurelius Victor's Origin of the Roman nation
It has often been printed. See OPERA Cassiodori, duobus tomis, Rothomag. 1679. fol.
. An Italian translation by Lodovico Dolce was printed in 1561
Compendio di Sesto Ruffo, con la C
ONICA DI CA
SIODORO, de Fatti de Romani, &c. In Venezia, per il Giolto, 1561. 4-to.
. Isidorus, called Hispalensis, cited by Davie and Chaucer
See supr. vol. i. p. 230, Notes, u.
, in the seventh century, framed from the same author a CRONICON, from Adam to the time of the emperor Heraclius, first printed in the year 1477, and translated into Italian under the title of CRONICA D' ISIDORO, so soon after as the year 1480
Stampata nel Friuli. It is sometimes called
Chronica
DE SEX MUNDI AETATIBUS, IMAGO MUNDI, and ABBREVIATIO TEMPORUM. It was continued by Isidorus Pacensis from 610 to 754. This continuation was printed in 1634, fol. Pampelon. Under the title
"Epitome Imperatorum vel Arabum Ephemeridos una cum Hispaniae Chronico."
Isidore has likewise left a history or chronicle of the Goths, copied also by our author, from the year 176, to the death of king Sisebut in the year 628. It was early printed. See it in Grotius's COLLECTIO RERUM GOTHICARUM, pag. 707. Amst. 1655. 8-vo.
.
These comprehensive systems of all sacred and profane events, which in the middle ages multiplied to an excessive degree, superseded the use of the classics and other established authors, whose materials they gave in a commodious abridgement, and in whose place, by selecting those stories only which suited the taste of the times, they substituted a more agreeable kind of reading: nor was it by these means only, that they greatly contributed to retard the acquisition of those ornaments of style, and other arts of composition, which an attention to the genuine models would have afforded, but by being written without any ideas of elegance, and in the most barbarous phraseology. Yet productive as they were of these and other inconvenient consequences, they were not without their use in the rude periods of literature. By gradually weaning the minds of readers from monkish legends, they introduced a relish for real and rational history; and kindling an ardour of inquiring into the transactions of past ages, at length awakened a curiosity to obtain a more accurate and authentic knowledge of important events by searching the original authors. Nor are they to be entirely neglected in modern and more polished ages. For, besides that they contain curious pictures of the credulity and ignorance of our ancestors, they frequently preserve facts transcribed from books which have not descended to posterity. It is extremely probable, that the plan on which they are all constructed, that of deducing a perpetual history from the creation to the writer's age, was partly taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and partly from the Bible.
In the mean time there are three histories of a less general nature, which Gower seems more immediately to have followed in some of his tales. These are Colonna's Romance of Troy, the Romance of Sir Lancelot, and the GESTA ROMANORUM.
From Colonna's Romance, which he calls
The Tale of Troie, The Boke of Troie
Of Palamedes and Nauplius,
"The
boke of Troie whoso rede."
Lib. ii. fol. 52. b. col. 2. The story of Jason and Medea,
"whereof the tale in speciall is in the
boke of Troie
writte."
Lib. v. fol. 101.
. col. 2. Of the Syrens seen by Ulysses,
"which in the
tale of Troie
I finde."
Lib. i. f. 10. b. col. 1. Of the eloquence of Ulysses,
"As in the
boke of Troie
is funde."
Lib. vii. f. 150. a. col. 1. &c. &c. See supr. vol. 1. p. 127.
, and sometimes
The Cronike
In the story of the Theban chief Capaneus,
"This knight as the CRONIKE seine."
Lib. 1. f. 18. b. col. 2. Of Achilles and Teucer,
"In a CRONIQUE I fynde thus."
Lib. iii. fol. 62. a. col. 1. Of Peleus and Phocus,
"As the CRONIQUE seithe."
Lib. iii. f. 61. b. col. 1. Of Ulysses and Penelope,
"In a CRONIQUE I finde writte."
Lib. iv. f. 63. b. col. 2. He mentions also the CRONIQUE for tales of other nations.
"In the CRONIQUE as I finde, Cham was he which first the letters fonde, and wrote in Hebrew with his honde, of naturall philosophie."
Lib. iv. fol. 76. a col. 1. For Darius's four questions, Lib. vii. fol. 151. b. col. 1. For Perillus's brazen bull. f. &c. &c. See below.
, he has taken all that relates to the Trojan and Grecian story, or, in Milton's language, THE TALE OF TROY DIVINE. This piece was first printed at Cologne in the year 1477
In quarto. HISTORIA TROJANA, a
Guidone de Columpna Messanensi Judice edita
1287.
Impressa per Arnoldum Therburnem Coloniae commorantem,
1477.
Die penult. Nov.
I am mistaken in what I have said, supr. vol. i. p. 126. There is another edition at Oxford by Rood, 1480, 4-to. Two at Strasburgh 1486, and 1489. fol. Ames calls him Columella. Hist. Print. p. 204.
. At Colonia an Italian translation appeared in the same year, and one at Venice in 1481. It was translated into Italian so early as 1324, by Philipp Ceffi a Florentine
See Haym's Bibl. Italian. p. 35. edit. Venez. 1741. 4-to. I am not sure whether Haym's Italian translation in the year 1477 is not the Latin of that year. They are both in quarto, and by Arnoldo Terbone. A Florence edition of the translation in 1610, quarto, is said to be most scarce.
. By some writers it is called the British as well as the Trojan story
Sandius and Hallerwood, in their Supplement to Vossius's Latin Historians, suppose Colonna's Trojan and British chronicle the same. In Theodoric Engelhusen's CHRONICA CHRONICORUM, compiled about the year 1420, where the author speaks of Troy, he cites Colonna
de Bello Trojano.
In the Preface he mentions Colonna's CHRONICA BRITANNORUM. See Engelhusen's first edition, Helmst. 1671, 4-to. Or rather, Scriptor. Brunsvic. Leibnitii, tom. p. 977. See also Fabyan and other historians.
; and there are manuscripts in which it is entitled the history of Medea and Jason
See supr. vol. i. p. 138. Notes. It will occur again under Lydgate.
. In most of the Italian translations it is called LA STORIA DELLA GUERRA DI TROJA. This history is repeatedly called the TROIE BOKE by Lydgate, who translated it into English verse
Tragedies of Bochas, B. i. ch. xvi.
How the translatoure wrote a booke of the siege of Troy, called
TROYE BOKE. And ib. St. 7. 17. 20. edit. Wayland. fol. xxx. b. xxxi. a. And in Lydg. DESTR. of Troy.
.
As to the romance of sir Lancelot, our author, among others on the subject, refers to a volume of which he was the hero: perhaps that of Robert Borron, altered soon afterwards by Godefroy de Leigny, under the title of le ROMAN DE LA CHARETTE, and printed with additions at Paris by Antony Verard, in the year 1494.
For if thou wilt the
bokes
rede
Of LAUNCELOT and other mo,
Then might thou seen how it was tho
Of armes, for this wolde atteine
To love, which, withouten peine
Maie not be gette of idleness:
And that I take to witnesse
An
old Cronike
in speciall
The which in to memoriall
Is write for his
loves sake,
How that a Knight shall undertake
Lib. iv. f. 74. a. col. 2.
.
He alludes to a story about sir Tristram, which he supposes to be universally known, related in this romance.
In everie mans mouth it is
How Tristram was of love dronke
With Bele Isolde, whan this dronke
The drinke which Bragweine him betoke,
Er that kyng Marke, &c
Lib. vi. f. 130. b. col. 2.
.
And again, in the assembly of lovers.
Ther was Tristram which was beloved
With Bele Isolde, and Lancelot
Stood with Gonnor
Geneura, Arthur's queen.
, and Galahot
With his lady
Lib. viii. f. 188. a. col. 1.
.—
The oldest edition of the GESTA ROMANORUM, a manuscript of which I have seen in almost Saxon characters, I believe to be this.
Incipiunt Hystorie
NOTABILES,
collecte ex
GESTIS ROMANORUM,
et quibusdam aliis libris cum applicationibus eorundem
Princip.
"Pompeius regnavit dives, &c.
Fin.
"
"Quidam vero princeps nomine Cleonicus, &c. Karissimi, is
e princeps est xps, &c. Oscula blandientis, &c."
It is in folio, in double columns, without initials, page
, signatures, or catchwords. ANGLIE i
mentioned in chapters, 155. 161.
. It is without date or place, but supposed by the critics in typographical antiquities to have been printed before or about the year 1473. Then followed a second edition at Louvain by John de Westfalia, with this title:
Ex
GESTIS ROMANORUM HISTORIE NOTABILES
de viciis virtutibusque tractantes cum applicationibus moralisatis et mysticis.
At the end this colophon appears: GESTA ROMANORUM
cum quibusdam aliis historiis eisdem annexis ad moralitates dilucide reducta hic finem habent. Quae diligenter, correctis aliorum viciis, impressit Joannes de Westfalia, alma in Univers. Louvaniensi
Princip.
"De DILECTIONE, cap. i. Pompeius regnavit dives valde, &c.—MORALIZATIO. De MISERICORDIA, cap. ii."
De ADULTERIO, in cap. clxxxi. It is in quarto, with signatures to K k. The initials are written in red ink. Mr. Farmer of Cambridge has this edition.
. This edition has twenty-nine chapters more than there are in the former: and the first of these additional chapters is the story of Antiochus, related in our author. It is probably of the year 1473. Another followed soon afterwards, by GESTIS ROMANORUM HISTORIE NOTABILES
moralizatae per Girardum Lieu. Goudae,
1480
In quarto.
. The next
But I think there is another Goudae, 1489. fol.
is at Louvain, GESTA ROMANORUM,
cum applicationibus moralisatis ac mysticis.
—At the end.—
Ex
GESTIS ROMANORUM
cum pluribus applicatis
HYSTORIIS
de virtutibus et vitiis mistice ad intellectum transumptis recollectorii finis. Anno nostrae salutis
1494.
In die sancti Adriani martyris
In quarto. Again, Paris. 1499, quarto. Hagen. 1508. fol. Paris. 1521. octav. And undoubtedly others. It appeared in Dutch so early as the year 1484. fol.
.
It was one of my reasons for giving these titles and colophons so much at large, that the reader might more fully comprehend the nature and design of a performance which operated so powerfully on the present state of our poetry. Servius says that the Eneis was sometimes called GESTA POPULI ROMANI
Ad Aeneid. vi. 752.
. Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote about the year 450, mentions a work called the GESTORUM VOLUMEN, which according to custom, was solemnly recited to the emperour
"Imperatori de more recitatum,"
Hist. xxix. i. In the title of the SAINT ALBANS CHRONICLE, printed 1483,
Titus Livyus de
GESTIS ROMANORUM is recited.
. Here perhaps we may perceive the groundwork of the title.
In this mixture of moralisation and narrative, the GESTA ROMANORUM somewhat resembles the plan of Gower's poem. In the rubric of the story of Julius and the poor knight, our author alludes to this book in the expression,
Hic secundum
GESTA, &c
Lib. viii. f. 153. a. col. 1. And in other rubrics. In the rubric there is also GESTA ALEXANDRI, lib. iii. f. 61. a. col. 1. And in the story of Sardanapalus,
"These olde GESTES tellen us,"
lib. iii. 167. a. col. 1.
. When he speaks of the emperours of Rome paying reverence to a virgin, he says he found this custom mentioned,
"Of Rome among the GESTES olde
Lib. v. f. 118. a. col. 2.
."
Yet he adds, that the GESTES took it from Valerius Maximus. The story of Tarquin and his son Arrous is ushered in with this line,
"So as these olde GESTES seyne
Lib. vii. f. 169. a. col. 1.
."
The tale of Antiochus, as I have hinted, is in the GESTA ROMANORUM; although for some parts of it Gower was perhaps indebted to Godfrey's PANTHEON abovementioned
See supr. vol i. p. 150. Notes, h.
. The foundation of Shakespeare's story of the three casketts in the MERCHANT OF VENICE, is to be found in this favourite collection: this is likewise in our author, yet in a different form, who cites a
Cronike
He refers to a CRONIKE for other stories, as the story of Lucius king of Rome, and the king's fool.
"In a CRONIKE it telleth us."
Lib. vii. f. 165. a. col. 2. Of the translation of the Roman empire to the Lombards.
"This made an emperour anon, whose name, the CHRONICLE telleth was Othes."
Prol. fol. 5. b. col. 2. Of Constantine's leprosy.
"For in CRONIKE thus I rede."
Lib. iii. f. 46. b. col. 2. For which he also cites
"the
bokes
of
Latine,"
ib. f. 45. a. col. 1. In the story of Caius Fabricius,
"In a CRONIQUE I fynde thus."
Lib. vii. f. 157. a. col. 2. Of the soothsayer and the emperor of Rome.
"As in CRONIKE it is witholde."
—
"Which the CHRONIKE hath autorized."
Lib. vii. f. 154. b. col. 1. f. 155. b. col. 2. Of the emperour's son who serves the Soldan of Persia.
"There was as the CRONIQUE seith, an emperour, &c."
Lib. ii. f. 41. b. col. 1. For the story of Carmidotoirus consul of Rome, he refers to these
olde bokes
Lib. vii. f. 157. b. col. 2. &c. &c.
for his authority. I make no apology for giving the passage somewhat at large, as the source of this elegant little apologue, which seems to be of eastern invention, has lately so much employed the searches of the commentators on Shakespeare, and that the circumstances of the story, as it is told by Gower, may be compared with those with which it appears in other books.
The poet is speaking of a king whose officers and courtiers complained, that after a long attendance, they had not received adequate rewards, and preferments due to their services. The king, who was no stranger to their complaints, artfully contrives a scheme to prove whether this defect proceded from his own want of generosity, or their want of discernment.
Anone he lette two cofres
Coffers. Chests.
make,
Of one semblance, of one make,
So lyche
Like.
, that no life thilke throwe
That one maie fro that other knowe:
Thei were into his chambre brought,
But no man wote why they be brought,
And netheles the kynge hath bede,
That thei be sette in privie stede,
As he that was of wisdome sligh,
Whan he therto his tyme sigh
Saw.
,
All privilyche
Privily.
, that none it wiste,
His own hondes that one chist
Chest.
Of
fine golde
and of
fine perie
Gems.
,
(The which oute of his tresurie
Was take) anone he filde full;
That other cofre of
strawe
and
mulle
Rubbish.
,
With
stones mened,
he filde also:
Thus be thei full both tho.
The king assembles his courtiers, and shewing them the two chests, acquaints them, that one of these is filled with gold and jewels; that they should chuse which of the two they liked best, and that the contents should instantly be distributed among them all. A knight by common consent is appointed to chuse for them, who fixes upon the chest filled with straw and stones.
This kynge then in the same stede
Place.
,
Anone that other cofre undede,
Whereas thei sawen grete richesse
Wile more than thei couthen gesse.
"Lo, saith the kynge, now maie ye see
"That there is no default in mee:
"Forthy
Therefore.
, myself I will acquite,
"And beareth your own wite
"Of that fortune hath you refused
Lib. v. f. 86. a. col. 1. seq. The
ory which follows is somewhat similar, in which the emperor Frederick places before two beggars two pasties, one filled with capons, the other with florins. ibid. b. col. 2.
."
It must be confessed, that there is a much greater and a more beautiful variety of incidents in this story as it is related in the GESTA ROMANORUM, which Shakespeare has followed, than in Gower: and was it not demonstrable, that this compilation preceded our author's age by some centuries, one would be tempted to conclude, that Gower's story was the original fable in its simple unimproved state. Whatever was the case, it is almost certain that one story produced the other.
A translation into English of the GESTA ROMANORUM was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, without date. In the year 1577, one Richard Robinson published
A Record of ancient
Hystoryes,
in Latin
GESTA ROMANORUM,
perused, corrected, and
bettered, by R. Robinson, London,
1577
In twelves. See among the Royal Manuscripts, Brit. Mus.
"Richard Robinson's Eupolemia, Archippus and Panoplia: being an account of his Patrons and Benefactions, &c. 1603."
See fol. 5. MSS. Reg. 18 A. lxvi. This R. Robinson, I believe, published
Part of the harmony of king David's harp.
A translation of the first twenty one psalms, for J. Wolfe, 1582. 4-to. A translation of Leland's ASSERTIO ARTHURI, for the same, 1582. 4to.
The auncient order societie, &c. of prince Arthure, and his knightly armory of the round table,
in verse, for the same, 1583, 4to.
. Of this translation there were six impressions before the year 1601
There is an edition, in black letter, so late as 1689.
. The later editions, both Latin and English, differ considerably from a manuscript belonging to the British Museum
MSS. Harl. 2270. 1. See ibid. cap. xcix. for this story. Tit.
"
Liber Asceticus cui titulus
Gesta Romanorum,
cum
Reductionibus
ive
Moralitatibus
eorundem.
"
There is an English translation, ibid. MSS. Harl. 7333. This has the
Je
's bond
and the
Casketts.
In the same library there is a large collection of legendary tales in different hands, written on parchment, 8-vo. MSS. Harl. 2316. One of these is,
"De vera amicitia, et de Passione Christi: Narratio a Petro Alphonso."
18. fol. 8. b. The history of the two friends here related, is told more at large in the GESTA ROMANORUM, where the friends are two knights. Peter Alphonsus lived about 1110. This tale, I think, is Lydgate's
fabula duorum mercatorum,
MSS. Harl. 2251. 33. fol. 56.
"In Egipt whilom, &c."
See also 2255. 17. fol. 72. Manuscripts of these GESTA occur thrice in the Bodleian library. MSS. Bodl. B. 3. 10. Ibid. super O. 1. Art. 17. And Hyper. Bodl. (Cod. Grav.) B. 55. 3. viz.
Narrationes breves e
GESTIS ROMANORUM
et aliorum.
But this last seems rather a defloration. In Hereford cathedral, 73. In Worcester cathedral, 80. In (late) Burscough's (rector of Totness) MSS. Cod. 82. 1. In (late) Sir Symonds D'Ewes's MSS. Cod. 150. 2. In Trinity college Dublin, G. 326. At Oxford, Saint John's college twice, C. 31. 2. G. 41. Magdalen college, twice, Cod. Lat. 13. 60. Lincoln college Libr. Theol. 60. See what is said of
Gests,
supr. vol. i. p. 74. Among the manuscript books written by Lapus de Castellione, a Florentine civilian, and a great translator from Greek into Latin, about the year 1350, Balusius mentions
De Origine Urbis Romae, et de G
stis Romanorum.
What this piece is I cannot ascertain. Apud Fabric. Bibl. Med. Inf. Latinitat. iv. 722. Compare de Gestis Imperatorum Liber, MSS. Harl. 5259. i.
, which contains not only the story of the CASKETTS in Shakespeare's MERCHANT of VENICE, but that of the JEW'S BOND in the same play
Ch. xlviii.
. I cannot exactly ascertain the age of this piece, which has many fictitious and fabulous facts intermixed with true history; nor have I been able to discover the name of its compiler.
It appears to me to have been formed on the model of Valerius Maximus, the favourite classic of the monks. It is quoted and commended as a true history, among many historians of credit, such as Josephus, Orosius, Bede, and Eusebius, by Herman Korner, a dominican friar of Lubec, who wrote a CHRONICA NOVELLA, or history of the world, in the year 1435
See Eccard's Corp. Histor. tom. ii. p. 432.—1343. Lips. 1723. fol.
.
In speaking of our author's sources, I must not omit a book translated by the unfortunate Antony Widville, first earl of Rivers, chiefly with a view of proving its early popularity. It is the
Dictes or Sayings of Philosophres,
which lord Rivers translated from the French of William de Thignonville, provost of the city of Paris about the year 1408, entitled
Les dictes moraux des philosophes, les dictes des sages et les secrets d' Aristote
See Mem. de Litt. xvii. 754. 4to.
. The English translation was printed by Caxton, in the year 1477. Gower refers to this tract, which first existed in Latin, more than once; and it is most probable, that he consulted the Latin original
Among these other
"
tales wise of philosophers
in this wise I rede, &c."
Lib. vii. f. 143. a. col. 1. f. 142. b. col. 2. &c. See Walpole's Cat. royal and noble authors.
There is another translation, done in 1450, dedicated to sir John Fastolfe, knight, by his son in law
Stevyn Scrope Squyer.
MSS. Harl. 2265. William de Thignonville is here said to have translated this book into French for the use of king Charles the sixth.
.
It is pleasant to observe the strange mistakes which Gower, a man of great learning, and the most general scholar of his age, has committed in this poem, concerning books which he never saw, his violent anachronisms, and misrepresentations of the most common facts and characters. He mentions the Greek poet Menander, as one of the first historians, or
"first enditours of the olde cronike,"
together with Esdras, Solinus, Josephus, Claudius Salpicius, Termegis, Pandulfe, Frigidilles, Ephiloquorus, and Pandas. It is extraordinary that Moses should not here be mentioned, in preference to Esdras. Solinus is ranked so high, because he recorded nothing but wonders
Our author has a story from Solinus concerning a monstrous bird, lib. iii. f. 62. b. col. 2. See supr. vol. i. p. 102. Notes, 0.
; and Josephus, on account of his subject, had long been placed almost on a level with the bible. He is seated on the first pillar in Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME. His Jewish history, translated into Latin by Ru
inus in the fourth century, had given rise to many old poems and romances
See supr. vol. 1. p. 217. 311. There is JOSEPHUS
de la
BATTAILLE JUDAIQUE
translaté de Latin en François,
printed by Verard at Paris, 1480. fol. I think it is a poem. All Josephus's works were printed in the old Latin translation, at Verona 1480. fol. And frequently soon afterwards. They were translated into French, German, Spanish, and Italian, and printed, between the years 1492 and 1554. See the COLLANA GRECA, in Haym's Bibliothec. p. 6. 7. A French translation was made in 1460, or 1463. Cod. Reg. Paris. 7015.
: and his MACCABAICS, or history of the seven Maccabees martyred with their father Eleazar under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, a separate work, translated also by Rufinus, produced the JUDAS MACCABEE of Belleperche in the year 1240, and at length enrolled the Maccabees among the most illustrious heroes of romance
See supr. vol. i. p. 417. In the British Museum there is
"Maccabeorum et Josephi Historiarum Epitome, metrice."
10 A. viii. 5. MSS. Reg. See MSS. Harl. 5713.
. On this account too, perhaps Esdras is here so respectably remembered. I suppose Sulpicius is Sulpicius Severus, a petty annalist of the fifth century. Termegis is probably Trismegistus, the mystic philosopher, certainly not an historian, at least not an antient one. Pandulf seems to be Pandulph of Pisa, who wrote lives of the popes, and died in the year 1198
See the story, in our author, of pope Boni
ace suppl
nting Celestine.
"In a CRONYKE of tyme ago."
Lib. ii. f. 42. a. col. 2.
. Frigidilles is perhaps Fregedaire, a Burgundian, who flourished about the year 641, and wrote a chronicon from Adam to his own times; often printed, and containing the best account of the Franks after Gregory of Tours
See Ruinart. Dissertat. de Fredegario ejusque Operibus. tom ii Hist. Franc. p. 443. There is also Fridegodus, a
onk of Dover, who wrote the lives of some sainted bishops about the year 960. And a Frigeridus,
nown only by a reference which Gregory of Tours makes to the
wel
th book of his H
stor
,
concerning the times preceding Valentinian the third, and the capture of Rome by Totila. Gregor. Turonens. Hist
Francor. lib. ii. cap.
. 9. If this last be the writer in the text, a manuscript of Frigeridus's History might have existed in Gower's age, which is now lost.
. Our author, who has partly suffered from ignorant transcribers and printers, by Ephiloquorus undoubtedly intended Eutropius. In the next paragraph indeed, he mentions Herodotus: yet not as an early historian, but as the first writer of a system of the metrical art,
"of metre, of ryme, and of cadence
Lib. vi. f. 76. b. col. 1.
."
We smile, when Hector in Shakespeare quotes Aristotle: but Gower gravely informs his reader, that Ulysses was a
clerke,
accomplished with a knowledge of all the sciences, a great rhetorician and magician: that he learned rhetoric of Tully, magic of Zoroaster, astronomy of Ptolomy, philosophy of Plato, divination of the prophet Daniel, proverbial instruction of Solomon, botany of Macer, and medicine of Hippocrates
Lib. vi. f. 135. a. col. 1.
. And in the seventh book, Aristotle, or the
philosophre,
is introduced reciting to his scholar Alexander the great, a disputation between a Jew and a Pagan, who meet between Cairo and Babylon, concerning their respective religions: the end of the story is to shew the cunning, cruelty, and ingratitude of the Jew, which are at last deservedly punished
Lib. vii. f. 156. b. col. 2.
. But I believe Gower's apology must be, that he took this narrative from some christian legend, which was feigned, for a religious purpose, at the expence of all probability and propriety.
The only classic Roman writers which our author cites are Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and Tully. Among the Italian poets, one is surprised he should not quote Petrarch: he mentions Dante only, who in the rubric is called
"a certain poet of Italy named Dante,"
quidam po
ta Italiae qui
DANTE
vocabatur
Lib. vii. f. 154. b. col. 1.
. He appears to have been well acquainted with the Homelies of pope Gregory the great
Prolog. f. 2. b. col. 1. Lib. v. f. 93. a. col. 1. 2. f. 94. a. col. 1.
, which were translated into Italian, and printed at Milan, so early as the year 1479. I can hardly decypher, and must therefore be excused from transcribing, the names of all the renowned authors which our author has quoted in alchemy, astrology, magic, palmistry, geomancy, and other branches of the occult philosophy. Among the astrological writers, he mentions Noah, Abraham, and Moses. But he is not sure that Abraham was an author, having never seen any of that patriarch's works: and he prefers Trismegistus to Moses
Lib. vii. f. 134. b. col. 1. vii. f. 149. b. col. 1.
. Cabalistical tracts were however extant, not only under the names of Abraham, Noah, and Moses, but of Adam, Abel, and Enoch
See supr. vol. i. p. 425. p. 393. Notes, h. And Morhof. Polyhist. tom. ii. p. 455. seq. edit. 1747.
. He mentions, with particular regard, Ptolomy's ALMAGEST; the grand source of all the superstitious notions propagated by the Arabian philosophers concerning the science of divination by the stars
Mabillon mentions, in a manuscript of the ALMAGEST written before the year 1240, a drawing of Ptolomy, holding a mirrour, not an optical tube, in his hand, and contemplating the stars. Itin. Germanic. p. 49.
, These infatuations seem to have completed their triumph over human credulity in Gower's age, who probably was an ingenious adept in the false and frivolous speculations of this admired species of study.
Gower, amidst his graver literature, appears to have been a great reader of romances. The lover, in speaking of the gratification which his passion receives from the sense of hearing, says, that to hear his lady speak is more delicious, than to feast on all the dainties that could be compounded by a cook of Lombardy. They are not so restorative
As bin the wordes of hir mouth;
For as the wyndes of the South
Ben most of all debonaire,
So when hir lust
She chuses.
to speak faire,
The vertue of her goodly speche
Is verily myne hartes leche
Physician.
.
These are elegant verses. To hear her sing is paradise
Then he adds,
Full oft tyme it falleth so,
My ere
Ear.
with a good pitance
Is fed of
redynge of romance
Of IDOYNE and AMADAS,
That whilom were in my cas;
And eke of
other, many a score,
That loved long ere I was bore
Born.
:
For when I of her
Their.
loves rede,
Myn ere with the tale I fede;
And with the lust of her histoire,
Sometime I draw into memoire,
Howe sorrowe may not ever last,
And so hope comith in at last
Lib. vi. f. 133. a. col. 2.
.
The romance of IDOYNE and AMADAS is recited as a favourite history among others, in the prologue to a collection of legends called CURSOR MUNDI, translated from the French
See supr. vol. 1. p.
23. Notes, t.
. I have already observed our poet's references to Sir LANCELOT'S romance.
Our author's account of the progress of the Latin language is extremely curious. He supposes that it was invented by the old Tuscan prophetess Carmens; that it was reduced to method, to composition, pronunciation, and prosody, by the grammarians Aristarchus, Donatus, and Didymus: adorned with the flowers of eloquence and rhetoric by Tully: then enriched by translations from the Chaldee, Arabic, and Greek languages, more especially by the version of the Hebrew bible into Latin by saint Jerom, in the fourth century: and that at length, after the labours of many celebrated writers, it received its final consummation in Ovid, the poet of lovers. At the mention of Ovid's name, the poet, with the dexterity and address of a true master of transition, seizes the critical moment of bringing back the dialogue to its proper argument
Lib. iv. f. 77. b. col. 2.
.
The CONFESSIO AMANTIS was most probably written after Chaucer's TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. At the close of the poem, we are presented with an assemblage of the most illustrious lovers
Lib. viii. f. 158. a. col. 2.
. Together with the renowned heroes and heroines of love, mentioned either in romantic or classical history, we have David and Bathsheba, Sampson and Dalila, and Solomon with all
is concubines. Virgil, also, Socrates, Plato, and Ovid, are enumerated as lovers. Nor must we be surprised to find Aristotle honoured with a place in this gallant groupe: for whom, says the poet, the queen of Greece made such a syllogism as destroyed all his logic. But, among the rest, Troilus and Cressida are introduced; seemingly with an intention of paying a compliment to Chaucer's poem on their story, which had been submitted to Gower's correction
Chaucer's Tr. Cress
Urr. edit. p. 333.
. Although this famous pair had been also recently celebrated in Boccacio's FILOSTRATO
See supr. vol. i. p. 385.
. And in another place, speaking of his absolute devotion to his lady's will, he declares himself ready to acquiesce in her choice, whatsoever she shall command: whether, if when tired of dancing and caroling, she should chuse to play at chess, or read TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. This is certainly Chaucer's poem.
That when her li
t on nights wake
In chambre, as to carol and daunce,
Methinke I maie me more avaunce,
If I may gone upon hir honde,
Than if I wynne a kynges londe.
For whan I maie her hand beclip
Clasp.
,
With such gladness I daunce and skip,
Methinketh I touch not the floore;
The roe which renneth on the moore
Is than nought so light as I.—
And whan it falleth other gate
Gaiety, or way.
,
So that hir liketh not to daunce,
But on the dyes to cast a chaunce,
Or aske of love some demaunde;
Or els that her list commaunde
To rede and here of TROILUS
Lib. iv.
. 78
b. col. 1.
.
That this poem was written after Chaucer's FLOURE AND LEAFE, may be partly collected from the following passage, which appears to be an imitation of Chaucer, and is no bad specimen of Gower's most poetical manner. Rosiphele, a beautiful princess, but setting love at defiance, the daughter of Herupus king of Armenia, is taught obedience to the laws of Cupid by seeing a vision of Ladies.
Whan come was the moneth of Maie,
She wolde walke upon a daie,
And that was er the son arist
Arose.
,
Of women but a fewe it wist
"But a few of her women knew of this."
;
And forth she went prively,
Unto a parke was faste by,
All softe walkende on the gras,
Tyll she came there
There
where.
the launde was
Through which ran a great rivere,
It thought her fayre; and said, here
I will abide under the shawe;
And bad hir women to withdrawe:
And ther she stood alone stille
To thinke what was in her wille.
She sighe
Saw.
the swete floures sprynge,
She herde glad fowles synge;
She sigh beastes in her kynde,
The buck, the doo, the hert, the hynde,
The males go with the femele:
And so began there a quarele
Dispute
Betwene love and her owne herte
Fro whiche she couthe not asterte.
And as she cast hir eie aboute,
She sigh, clad in one suit, a route
Of ladies where thei comen ride
Alonge under the wooddè side;
On fayre
Ambling.
ambulende hors thei set,
That were al whyte, fayre, and gret;
And everichone ride on side
A mark of high rank.
.
The sadels were of such a pride,
So riche sighe she never none;
With perles and golde so wel begone,
In kirtels and in copes riche
Thei were clothed all aliche
Alike
,
Departed even of white and blewe,
With all lustes
Lists. Colours.
that she knewe
Thei wer embroudred over all:
Her
Their.
bodies weren longe and small,
The beautee of hir fayre face,
There mai none erthly thing deface:
Corownes on their heades thei bare,
As eche of hem a quene were.
That all the golde of Cresus hall
The least coronall of all
Might not have boughte, after the worth,
Thus comen thei ridend forthe.
The kynges doughter, whiche this sigh,
For pure abasshe drewe hir adrigh,
And helde hir close undir the bough.
At length she sees riding in the rear of this splendid troop, on a horse lean, galled, and lame, a beautiful lady in a tattered garment, her saddle mean and much worn, but her bridle richly studded with gold and jewels: and round her waist were more than an hundred halters. The princess asks the meaning of this strange procession; and is answered by the lady on the lean horse, that these are spectres of ladies, who, when living, were obedient and faithful votaries of love.
"As to myself, she adds, I am now receiving my annual penance for being a rebel to love."
For I whilom no love had;
My horse is now feble and badde,
And al to torn is myn araie;
And everie year this freshe Mai
These lustie ladies ride aboute,
And I must nedes sew
Follow.
her route,
In this manner as ye nowe see,
And trusse her hallters forth with mee,
And am but her horse knave
Their groom.
.
The princess then asks her, why she wore the rich bridle, so inconsistent with the rest of her furniture, her dress, and horse? The lady answers, that it was a badge and reward for having loved a knight faithfully for the last fortnight of her life.
"Now have ye herde all mine answere;
"To god, madam, I you betake,
"And warneth all, for my sake,
"Of love, that thei be not idell,
"And bid hem thinke of my bridell."
And with that worde, all sodenly
She passeth, as it were a skie
A shadow,
,
umbra.
,
All clean out of the ladies sight
Lib. iv. f. 70. seq.
.
My readers will easily conjecture the change which this spectacle must naturally produce in the obdurate heart of the princess of Armenia. There is a farther proof that the FLOURE AND LEAFE preceded the CONFESSIO AMANTIS. In the eighth book, our author's lovers are crowned with the Flower and Leaf.
Myn eie I caste all aboutes,
To knowe amonge hem who was who:
I sigh where lustie YOUTH tho,
As he which was a capitayne
Before all others on the playne,
Stode with his route wel begon:
Her heades kempt, and thereupon
Garlondes not of
one
colour,
Some of the
lefe,
some of the
floure,
And some of grete perles were:
The new guise of Beme
Boeme. Bohemia.
was there, &c
Lib. viii. f. 188. a. col. 1. See supr. vol. i. p. 466.
.
I believe on the whole, that Chaucer had published most of his poems before this piece of Gower appeared. Chaucer had not however at this time written his TESTAMENT OF LOVE: for Gower, in a sort of Epilogue to the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, is addressed by Venus, who commands him to greet Chaucer as her favourite poet and disciple, as one who had employed his youth in composing songs and ditties to her honour. She adds at the close,
For thy, now in his
daies olde,
Thou shalt hym tell this message,
That he upon his
later
age
To sette
an ende
of all his werke
As he, which is myne owne clerke,
Do make his TESTAMENT OF LOVE,
As thou hast done thy SHRIFTE above:
So that my court it maie recorde
Lib. viii. f. 190. b. col. 1.
.
Chaucer at this time was sixty-five years of age. The Court of Love, one of the pedantries of French gallantry, occurs often. In an address to Venus,
"Madame, I am a man of thyne, that in thy COURTE hath served long
Lib. i. f. 8. b. col. 1.
."
The lover observes, that for want of patience, a man ought
"amonge the women alle, in LOVES COURTE, by
judgement
the name beare of paciant
Lib. iii. f. 51. a. col. 1.
."
The confessor declares, that many persons are condemned for disclosing secrets,
"In LOVES COURTE, as it is said, that lette their tonges gone untide
Lib. iii. f. 52. a. col. 1. See supr. vol. i. p. 460. In the
same strain, we have Cupid's
parlement.
Lib. viii. f. 187. b. col. 2.
."
By
Thy
SHRIFTE, the author means his own poem now before us, the Lover's CONFESSION.
There are also many manifest evidences which lead us to conclude, that this poem preceded Chaucer's CANTERBURY'S TALES, undoubtedly some of that poet's latest compositions, and probably not begun till after the year 1382. The MAN OF LAWES TALE is circumstantially borrowed from Gower's CONSTANTIA
Conf. Amant. Lib. ii f. 30. b. col. 2. See particularly, ibid. f. 35. b. col. 2. a. col. 1. And compare Ch. MAN OF L. T. v. 5505.
"Some men wold sayn, &c."
That is, GOWER.
: and Chaucer, in that TALE, apparently censures Gower, for his manner of relating the stories of Canace and Apollonius in the third and eighth books of the CONFESSIO AMANTIS
See Chaucer, ibid. v. 4500. And Conf. Amant. Lib. iii. f. 48. a. col. 1. seq. Lib. viii. f. 175. a. col. 2. seq. I have just discovered, that the favourite story of Apollonius, having appeared in antient Greek, Latin, Saxon, barbarous Greek, and old French, was at length translated from French into English, and printed in the black letter, by Wynkyn de Worde, A. D. 1510. 4to.
"Kynge Appolyn of Thyre."
[See supr. vol i. p. 350.] A copy is in my possession.
. The WIFE OF BATHES TALE is founded on Gower's Florent, a knight of Rome, who delivers the king of Sicily's daughter from the incantations of her stepmother
Lib. i. f. 15. b. col. 2.
. Although the GESTA ROMANORUM might have furnished both poets with this narrative. Chaucer, however, among other great improvements, has judiciously departed from the fable, in converting Sicily into the more popular court of king Arthur.
Perhaps, in estimating Gower's merit, I have pushed the notion too far, that because he shews so much learning he had no great share of natural abilities. But it should be considered, that when books began to grow fashionable, and the reputation of learning conferred the highest honour, poets became ambitious of being thought scholars; and sacrificed their native powers of invention to the ostentation of displaying an extensive course of reading, an
to the pride of profound erudition. On this account, the minstrels of these times, who were totally uneducated, and poured forth spontaneous rhymes in obedience to the workings of nature, often exhibit more genuine strokes of passion and imagination, than the professed poets. Chaucer is an exception to this observation: whose original feelings were too strong to be suppressed by books, and whose learning was overbalanced by genius.
This affectation of appearing learned, which yet was natural at the revival of literature, in our old poets, even in those who were altogether destitute of talents, has lost to posterity many a curious picture of manners, and many a romantic image. Some of our antient bards, however, aimed at no other merit, than that of being able to versify; and attempted nothing more, than to cloath in rhyme those sentiments, which would have appeared with equal propriety in prose.
SECT. II.
ONE of the reasons which rendered the classic authors of the lower empire more popular than those of a purer age, was because they were christians. Among these, no Roman writer appears to have been more studied and esteemed, from the beginning to the close of the barbarous centuries, than Boethius. Yet it is certain, that his allegorical personifications and his visionary philosophy, founded on the abstractions of the Platonic school, greatly concurred to make him a favourite
It is observable, that this SPIRIT OF PERSONIFICATION tinctures the writings of some of the christian fathers, about, or rather before, this period. Most of the agents in the SHEPHERD of HERMAS are
ideal
beings. An ancient lady converses with Hermas, and tells him that she is the CHURCH OF GOD. Afterwards several virgins appear and discourse with him; and when he desires to be informed who they are, he is told by the SHEPHERD-ANGEL, that they are FAITH, ABSTINENCE, PATIENCE, CHASTITY, CONCORD, &c. Saint Cyprian relates, that the church appeared in a vision,
in visione per noctem,
to Colerinus; and commanded him to assume the office of Reader, which he in humility had declined. Cyprian. Epist. xxxix. edit. Oxon. The church appearing as a woman they perhaps had from the scripture, REV. xii. 1. ESDRAS, &c.
. His CONSOLATION of PHILOSOPHY was translated into the Saxon tongue by king Alfred, the father of learning and civility in the midst of a rude and intractable people; and illustrated with a commentary by Asser bishop of Saint David's, a prelate patronised by Alfred for his singular accomplishments in literature, about the year 890. Bishop Grosthead is said to have left annotations on this admired system of morality. There is a very ancient manuscript of it in the Laurentian library, with an inscription prefixed in Saxon characters
Mabillon. Itin. Ital. p. 221.
. There are few of those distinguished eccle
iastics, whose erudition illuminated the thickest gloom of ignorance and superstition with uncommon lustre, but who either have cited this performance, or honoured it with a panegyric
He is much commended as a catholic and philosopher by Hincmarus archbishop of Rheims, about the year 880. De Pra
destinat. contr. Godeschalch. tom. i. 211. ii. 62. edit. Sirmond. And by John of Salisbury, for his eloquence and argument. Policrat. vii. 15. And by many other writers of the same class.
. It has had many imitators. Eccard, a learned French Benedictine, wrote in imitation of this CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, a work in verse and prose containing five books, entitled the CONSOLATION OF THE MONKS, about the year 1120
See Trithem. cap. 387. de S. E. And Illustr. Benedictin. ii. 107.
. John Gerson also, a doctor and chancellor of the university of Paris, wrote the CONSOLATION OF THEOLOGY in four books, about the year 1420
Opp. tom. i. p. 130. edit. Dupin. I think there is a French CONSOLATIO THEOLOGIAE by one Cerisier.
. It was the model of Chaucer's TESTAMENT OF LOVE. It was translated into French
See Haym, p. 199.
and English before the year 1350
Beside John of Meun's French version of Boethius, printed at Lyons 1483, with a translation of Virgil by Guillaume le Roy, there is one by De Cis, or Thri, an old French poet. Matt. Annal. Typogr. i. p. 171. Francisc. a Cruce, Bibl. Gallic. p. 216. 247. It was printed in Dutch at Ghent, apud Arend de Keyser, 1485. fol. In Spanish at Valladolid, 1598, fol. See supr. vol. i. p. 458. Polycarpus Leys
rus, in that very s
arce book DE POESI MEDII AEVI, [printed HALAE, 1721, 8vo.]
numerates many curious old editions of Boethius, p. 95. 105.
. Dante was an attentive reader of Boethius. In the PURGATORIO, Dante gives THEOLOGY the name of Beatrix his mistress, the daughter of Fulco Portinari, who very gravely moralises in that character. Being ambitious of following Virgil's steps in the descent of Eneas into hell, he introduces her, as a daughter of the empyreal heavens, bringing Virgil to guide him through that dark and dangerous region
See PURGAT. Cant. xxx.
. Leland, who lived when true literature began to be restored, says that the writings of Boethius still continued to retain that high estimation, which they had acquired in the most early periods. I had almost forgot to observe, that the CONSOLATION was translated into Greek by Maximus Planudes, the most learned and ingenious of the Constantinopolitan monks
Montfauc. Bibl. Coislin. p. 140. Of a Hebrew version, see Wolf. Bibl. Hebr. tom. i. p. 229. 1092. 243. 354. 369.
.
I can assign only one poet to the reign of king Henry the fourth, and this a translator of Boethius
I am aware that Occleve's poem, call
d the
Letter of Cupid,
was written in this king's reign in the year 1402.
"In the year of grace joyfull and joconde, a thousand fower hundred and seconde."
Urry's Chaucer, p. 537. v. 475. But there are reasons for making Occleve, as I have done, something later. Nor is Gower's
Balade to Henry the fourth
a su fficient reason for placing him in that reign. Ibid. p. 540. The same may be said of Chaucer.
. He is called Johannes Capellanus, or John the
Chaplain,
and he translated into English verse the treatise DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE in the year 1410. His name is John Walton. He was canon of Oseney, and died subdean of York. It appears probable, that he was patronised by Thomas Chaundler, among other preferments, dean of the king's chapel and of Hereford cathedral, chancellor of Wells, and successively warden of Wykeham's two colleges at Winchester and Oxford; characterised by Antony Wood as an able critic in polite literature, and by Leland as a rare example of a doctor in theology who graced scholastic disputation with the flowers of a pure latinity
Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. ii. p. 134. Leland, Script. Brit. CHAUNDLERUS.
. In the British Museum there is a correct manuscript on parchment of Walton's translation of Boethius: and the ma
gin is filled throughout with the Latin text, written by Chaundler above-mentioned
MSS. Harl. 43. 1. And MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. 75.
. There is another less elegant manuscript in the same collection. But at the end is this note;
Explicit liber Boecij de Consolatione Philosophie de Latino in Anglicum translatus
A. D. 1410.
per Capellanum Joannem
MSS. Harl. 44. chart. et pergam.
. This is the beginning of the prologue,
"In suffisaunce of cunnyng and witte."
And of the translation,
"Alas I wretch that whilom was in welth."
I have seen a third copy in the library of Lincoln cathedral
MSS. i. 53.
, and a fourth in Baliol college
MSS. B. 5. He bequeathed his
Biblia
and other books, to this library.
. This is the translation of Boethius printed in the monastery of Tavistoke, in the year 1525.
"The BOKE of COMFORT, called in Latin
Boecius de Consolatione Philosophie.
Emprented in the exempt monastery of Tavestock in Denshyre, by me Dan Thomas Rychard monke of the sayd monastry. To the instant desyre of the right worshipfull esquyre magister Robert Langdon.
Anno Domini,
MDXXV.
Deo gracias.
"
In octave rhyme
This is among Rawlinson's Codd. impress. Bibl. Bodl. There is an English translation of Boethius by one George Colvil, or Coldewell, bred at Oxford, with the Latin,
"according to the boke of the translatour, which was a very old printe."
Dedicated to queen Mary, and printed by John Cawood, 1556. 4to. Reprinted 1566. 4to.
. This translation was made at the request of Elisabeth Berkeley. I forbear to load these pages with specimens not original, and which appear to have contributed no degree of improvement to our poetry or our phraseology. Henry the fourth died in the year 1399.
The coronation of king Henry the fifth, was celebrated in Westminster-hall with a solemnity proportioned to the lustre of those great atchievements which afterwards distinguished the annals of that victorious monarch. By way of preserving order, and to add to the splendor of the spectacle, many of the nobility were ranged along the sides of the tables on large war-horses, at this stately festival; which, says my chronicle, was a second feast of Ahasuerus
Thomae de Elmham Vit. et Gest. Henr. V. edit. Hearne, Oxon. 1727. cap. xii. p. 23. Compare Lel. Coll. APPEND. iii. 226. edit. 1770.
. But I mention this ceremony, to introduce a circumstance very pertinent to our purpose; which is, that the number of harpers in the hall was innumerable
Elmham, ubi supr. p. 23.
, who undoubtedly accompanied their instruments with heroic rhymes. The king, however, was no great encourager of the popular minstrelsy, which seems at this time to have flourished in the highest degree of perfection. When he entered the city of London in triumph after the battle of Agincourt, the gates and streets were hung with tapestry, representing the histories of ancient heroes; and children were placed in artificial turrets, singing verses
Elmham, ubi supr. cap. xxxi. p. 72.
. But Henry, disgusted at these secular vanities, commanded by a formal edict, that for the future no songs should be recited by the harpers, or others, in praise of the recent victory
"CANTUS de suo triumpho fieri, seu per CITHARI ST AS, vel alios quoscunque, CANTARI, penitus prohibebat."
Ibid. p. 72. And Hearnii Praefat. p. xxix. seq. §. viii. See also Hollingsh. Chron. iii. p. 556. col. 1. 40.
. This prohibition had no other effect than that of displaying Henry's humility, perhaps its principal and real design. Among many others, a minstrel-piece soon appeared, evidently adapted to the harp, on the SEYGE of HARFLETT and the BATTALLYE of AGYNKOURTE. It was written about the year 1417. These are some of the most spirited lines.
Sent Jorge be fore our kyng they dyd se
"The French saw the standard of Saint George before our king."
,
They trompyd up full meryly,
The grete battell to gederes ȝed
This is Milton's "Together rush'd both battles main."
;
Our archorys
Archers.
theiy schot ful hartely,
They made the Frenche men faste to blede,
Her arrowys they went with full good spede.
Oure enemyes with them they gan down throwe
Thorow breste plats, habourgenys, and basnets
Breast-plates, habergeons and helmets.
.
Eleven thousand was slayne on a rew
Row.
.
Denters of dethe men myȝt well deme,
So fercelly in ffelde theye gan fythe
Fight.
.
The heve upon here helmyts schene
"They struck upon their bright helmets."
With axes and with swerdys bryȝt.
When oure arowys were at a flyȝt
Flying.
Amon the Frenche men was a wel sory schere
Much distress.
.
Ther was to bryng of gold bokylyd
Buckled.
so bryȝt
That a man myȝt holde a strong armoure.
Owre gracyus kyng men myȝt knowe
That day foȝt with hys owene hond,
The erlys was dys comwityd up on a rowe
I believe it is
"The earls he had slain were all thrown together on a heap or in a row."
,
That he had slayne understond.
He there
Shewed.
schevyd oure other lordys of thys lond,
Forsothe that was a ful fayre daye.
Therefore all England maye this syng
LAWS
Laus.
DEO we may well saye.
The Duke of Glocetor, that nys no nay,
That day full wordely
Worthily.
he wroȝt,
On every side he made goode waye,
The Frenche men faste to grond they browȝt.
The erle of Hontynton sparyd noȝt,
The erle of Oxynforthe
Oxford.
layd on all soo
Also.
,
The young erle of Devynschyre he ne rouȝt,
The Frenche men fast to grunde gan goo.
Our Englismen thei were ffoul sekes do
And ferce to fyȝt as any lyone.
Basnets bryȝt they crasyd a to
"They broke the bright helmets in two."
,
And bet the French banerys adoune;
As thonder-strokys ther was a scownde
Sound.
,
Of axys and sperys ther they gan glyd.
The lordys of Franyse
France.
lost her renowne
With gresoly
Griesly.
wondys they gan abyde.
The Frensche men, for all here pryde,
They fell downe all at a flyȝt:
Ie me rende
they cryde, on every syde,
Our Englys men they understod noȝt ariȝt
"They did not rightly."
.
Their pollaxis owt of her hondys they twiȝt,
And layde ham along stryte
Strait.
upon the grasse.
They sparyd nother deuke, erlle, ne knyght
Printed [from MSS. Cotton. VITELL. D. XII. 11. fol. 214.] by Hearne, Elmham, ut supr. APPEND. p. 359. Num. vi. See p. 371. seq. There is
The
BATTAYLE of EGYNCOURTE, Libr. impres
. Bibl. Bodl. C. 39. 4to. Art. Selden. See OBSERVAT. on Spens. ii. 41. Doctor Percy has printed an ancient ballad on this subject. ANC. BALL. vol. ii. p. 24. edit. 1767. See Hearne's PRAEFAT. ut supr. p. xxx.
.
These verses are much less intelligible than some of Gower'
and Chaucer's pieces, which were written fifty years before. In the mean time we must not mistake provincial for national barbarisms. Every piece now written is by no means a proof of the actual state of style. The improved dialect, which y
t is the estimate of a language, was confined only to a few writers, who lived more in the world and in polite life: and it was long, before a general change in the public phraseology was effected. Nor must we expect among the minstrels, who were equally careless and illiterate, those refinements of diction, which mark the compositions of men who professedly studied to embellish the English idiom.
Thomas Occleve is the first poet that occurs in the reign of Henry the fifth. I place him about the year 1420. Occleve is a feeble writer, considered as a poet: and his chief merit seems to be, that his writings contributed to propagate and establish those improvements in our language which were now beginning to take place. He was educated in the municipal law
He studied in
Chestres-inn
where Som
rset-house now stands. See Buck,
De t
r
a A
gliae Accademia,
cap. xxv.
, as were both Chaucer and Gower; and it reflects no small degree of honour on that very liberal profession, that its students were some of the first who attempted to polish and adorn the English tongue.
The titles of Occleve's pieces, very few of which have b
en ever printed, indicate a coldness of genius; and on the whole promise no gratification to those who seek for invention and fancy. Such as,
The tale of Jonathas and of a wicked woman
Ubi. infr. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. From th
GESTA ROMANORUM.
.
Fable of a certain emperess
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Seld. supr. 53. Digb. 185. Laud. K. 78. MSS. Reg. Brit. Mus. 17 D. vi. 2. This story seems to be also taken from the GESTA ROMANORUM. Pr.
"In the ROMAN ACTYS writyn."
.
A prologue of the nine lessons that is read over Allhalow-day
Ubi supr. Bibl. Bodl. MSS.
.
The most profitable and h
lsomest craft that is to cunne
Know.
,
to lerne to dye
MSS. Bodl. ut supr. And MSS. Reg. Brit. Mus. 17 D. vi. 3. 4. The best manuscript of Occleve.
.
Consolation offered
by an old man
MSS. Digb. 185. More [Cant.] 427.
. Pentasthicon to the king. Mercy as defined by Saint Austin. Dialogue to a friend
MSS. Seld. ut supr.
. Dialogue between Occleef and a beggar
MSS. Harl. 4826. 6.
. The letter of Cupid
MSS. Digb. 181. MSS. Arch. Bodl. Seld. B. 24. It is printed in Chaucer's Works, Urr. p. 534. Bale [MS. Glynne] mentions one or two more pieces, particularly
De Theseo Atheniensi,
lib. i. Pr.
"Tum esset, ut veteres historiae tradunt."
This is the beginning of Chaucer's KNIGHT'S TALE. And there are other pieces in the libraries.
. Verses to an empty purse
This, and the
Pentastichon ad Regem,
are in MSS. Fairf. xvi. Bibl. Bodl. And in the editions of Chaucer. But the former appears to be Chaucer's, from the twenty additional stanzas not printed in Urry's Chaucer, pag. 549. MSS. Harl. 2251. 133. fol. 298.
.
But Occleve's most considerable poem is a piece called a translation of Egidius DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM.
This is a sort of paraphrase of the first part of Aristotle's epistle to Alexander abovementioned, entitled SECRETUM SECRETORUM, of Egidius, and of Jacobus de Casulis, whom he calls
Jacob de Cassolis.
Egidius, a native of Ro
e, a pupil of Thomas Aquinas, eminent among the schoolmen by the name of
Doctor Fundatissimus,
and an archbishop, flourished about the year 1280. He wrote a Latin tract in three books DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM, or the ART OF GOVERNMENT, for the use of Philip le Hardi, son of Louis king of France, a work highly esteemed in the middle ages, and translated early into Hebrew, French
Wolf. Biblioth. Hebr. tom. iii. p. 1206. It was translated into French by Henry de Gand, at the command of Philip king of France. Mem. de Lit. tom. xvii. p. 733. 4to.
, and Italian. In those days ecclesiastics and schoolmen presumed to dictate to kings, and to give rules for administering states, drawn from the narrow circle of speculation, and conceived amid the pedantries of a cloister. It was probably recommended to Occleve's notice, by having been translated into English by John Trevisa, a celebrated translator about the year 1390
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Digb. 233.
Princip.
"To his special, [etc.] politik sentence that is."
In this manuscript there is an elegant picture of a monk, or ecclesiastic, presenting a book to a king. See supr. vol. i. p. 343. Notes, g.
. The original was printed at Rome in 1482, and at Venice 1498, and, I think, again at the same place in 1598
All in folio. Those of 1482, and 1598, are in the Bodleian library. In AllSouls college library at Oxford, there is a manuscript TABULA IN AEGIDIUM DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM, by one Thomas Abyndon. MSS. G. i. 5.
. The Italian translation was printed at Seville, in folio, 1494,
"Transladar de Latin en romance don Bernardo Obispo de Osma: impresso por Meynardo Ungut Alemano et Stanislao Polono Companeros."
The printed copies of the Latin are very rare, but the manuscripts innumerable. A third part of the third book, which treats of
De Re Militari Veterum,
was printed by Hahnius in 1722
In the first tome of
Collectio Monumentorum veter. et recent. ine
itorum.
E. Cod. MS. in Biblioth. Obrecktina. The curious reader may see a full account of Aegidius de REGIMINE PRINCIPUM in Morlier,
Essais de Litterature,
tom. i. p. 198. seq. And of the Venetian edition in 1498, in Theophilus Sincerus
De Libris Rariorib.
tom. i. p. 82. seq.
. One of Egidius's books, a commentary on Aristotle DE ANIMA, is dedicated to our Edward the first
Cave, p. 755. edit. 1688.
.
Jacobus de Casulis, or of Casali in Italy, another of the writers copied in this performance by our poet Occleve, a French Dominican friar, about the year 1290, wrote in four parts a Latin treatise on chess, or, as it is entitled in some manuscripts,
De moribus hominum et de officiis nobilium super
LUDO LATRUNCULORUM
sive
SCACCORUM. In a parchment manuscript of the Harleian library, neatly illuminated, it is thus entitled, LIBER MORALIS DE LUDO SCACCORUM,
ad honorem et solacium Nobilium et maxime ludencium, per fratrem
JACOBUM D
CASSULIS
ordinis fratrum Praedicatorum.
At the conclusion, this work appears to be a translation
MSS. Harl. 1275. 1. 4to. membran.
. Pits carelessly gives it to Robert Holcot, a celebrated English theologist, perhaps for no other reason than because Holcot was likewise a Dominican. It was printed at Milan in 1479. I believe it was as great a favourite as Egidius on GOVERNMENT, for it was translated into French by John Ferron, and John Du Vignay, a monk hospitalar of Saint James du Haut-pag
Who also translated the GOLDEN LEGEND of James de Voragine, and the SPECULUM HISTORIALE of Vincent of Beauvais. Vie de Petr. tom. iii. p. 548. And Mem. Lit. xvii. 742. 746. 747. edit. 4to.
, under the patronage of Jeanne dutchess of Bourgogne, Caxton's patroness, about the year 1360, with the title of LE JEU DES ECHECS
moralise,
or
Le traite des Nobles et de gens du peuple selon le
JEU DES ECHECS. This was afterwards translated by Caxton, in 1474, who did not know that the French was a translation from the Latin, and called the GAME OF THE CHESS. It was also translated into German, both prose and verse, by Conrade von Almenhusen
See Jacob. Quetif. tom. i. p. 471. ii. p. 818. Lambecc. tom. ii. Bibl. Vindob. p. 848. One Simeon Ailward, an Englishman, about the year 1456, wrote a Latin poem
De L
do Scaccorum.
Pits. APPEND. p. 909. Princip.
"Ludus scaccorum datur hic correctio morum."
. Bale absurdly supposes that Occleve made a separate and regular translation of this work
Bale in OCCLEVE.
.
Occleve's poem was never printed. This is a part of the Prologue.
Aristotle, most famous philosofre
The learned doctor Gerard Langbaine, author of the
Lives of the Dramatick Poets,
speaking of the REGIMINE PRINCIPUM by Occleve, says that it is
"collected out of Aristotle, Alexander, and Aegidius on the same, and Jacobus de Cassolis (a fryar preacher) his book of chess, viz. that part where he speaks of the king's draught, &c."
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Langb. Cod. xv. pag. 102.
,
His epistles to Alisaunder sent
See supr. p. 9.
;
Whos sentence is wel bet then golde in cofre,
And more holsum, grounded in trewe entent,
Fore all that ever the Epistle ment
To sette us this worthi conqueroure,
In rewle howe to susteyne his honoure,
The tender love, and the fervent good chere,
That the worthi clerke aye to this king bere,
Thrusting sore his welth durable to be,
Unto his hert
lah and sate sovere,
That bi writing his counsel gaf he clere
Unto his lord to hope him from mischaunce,
As witnesseth his Boke of Governaunce
Aristotle's SECRETUM SECRETORUM.
,
Of which, and of Giles his REGIMENT
Aegidius de REGIMINE PRINCIPUM.
Of prince's plotmele, think I to translete, &c.
My dere mayster, god his soul quite
Aquitt.
Save.
,
And fader Chaucer fayne would have me taught,
But I was dule
Dull.
, and learned lyte or naught.
Alas my worthie maister honorable,
This londis verray tresour and richesse,
Deth by thy deth hathe harme irreparable
Unto us done: his vengeable duresse
Cruelty.
Dispoiled hath this lond of the sweetnesse
Of rhetoryke, for unto Tullius
Was never man so like amongest us.
Alas! who was here
There.
in phylosophy
To Aristotle in owre tonge but thow?
The steppis of Virgile in poesie
Thou suedest
Followedst.
eke: men knowè well inowe
That combre-world
He calls death the
encumbrance
of the
world.
The expression seems to be taken from Chaucer, where Troilus says of himself,
"I
combre-world,
that maie of nothing serve."
Tr. Cress. p. 307. v. 279. Urr. edit.
that thou, my mayster, slowe
Slew.
:
Wold I slaine were! Deth was too hastise
To renne on thee, and reve thee of thy life:
She might have tarried her vengeaunce awhile
To that some man had egal to thee be:
Nay, let that be: she knew well that this isle
May never man forth bryng like unto thee,
And her of offis nedis do mote she;
God bade her so, I trust for all the best,
O mayster, mayster, god thy soulè rest!
In another part of the Prologue we have these pathetic lines, which seem to flow warm from the heart, to the memory of the immortal Chaucer, who I believe was rather Occleve's model than his master, or perhaps the patron and encourager of his studies.
But weleawaye, so is myne hertè wo
That the honour of English tonge is dede,
Of which I wont was han counsel and rede!
O mayster dere, and fadir reverent,
My mayster Chaucer, floure of eloquence,
Mirrour of fructuous entendement,
O universal fadir in science,
Alas that thou thine excellent prudence
In thy bed mortel mighest not bequethe,
What eyled
Ailed.
Deth? Alas why would he sle' the!
O Deth that didist nought harm singulere
In slaughtre of him, but all the lond it smertith:
But nathelesse yit hastowe
Ha
t thou.
no powere
His name to sle. His hie vertue astertith
Unslayn from thee, which aye us lifely hertith
With boke of his ornatè enditing,
That is to all this lo
d enlumyning
MSS. Rawlins. 647. fol. This poem has at the end
"Explicit Aegidius de Regimine Principum"
in MSS. Laud. K. 78. Bibl. Bodl. See also ibid. MSS. Selden. Supr. 53. Digb. 185. MSS. Ashmol. 40. MSS. Reg. 17 D. vi. 1. 17 D. xviii. MSS. Harl. 4826. 7. and 4866. In some of these a sort of dialogue is prefixed between a father and a son. Occleve, in the Prologue cited in the text, mentions
Jacobus
e Cassolis
[Casulis] as one of his authors.
.
Occleve seems to have written some of these verses immediately on Chaucer's death, and to have introduced them long afterwards into this Prologue.
It is in one of the royal manuscripts of this poem in the British Museum that Occleve has left a drawing of Chaucer
MSS. Reg. 17 D. vi. 1.
: according to which, Chaucer's portraiture was made on his monument, in the chapel of Saint Blase in Westminsterabbey, by the benefaction of Nicholas Brigham, in the year 1556
He was of Caversham in Oxfordshire. Educated at Hart-Hall in Oxford, and studied the law. He died at Westminster, 1559.
. And from this drawing, in 1598, John Speed procured the print of Chaucer prefixed to Speght's edition of his works; which has been since copied in a most finished engraving by Vertue
In Urry's edit. 1721. fol.
. Yet it must be remembered, that the same drawing occurs in an Harleian manuscript written about Occleve's age
MSS. Harl. 4866. The drawing is at fol. 91.
, and in another of the Cottonian department
MSS. Cotton. OTH. A. 18.
. Occleve himself mentions this drawing in his CONSOLATIO SERVILIS. It exactly resembles the curious picture on board of our venerable bard, preserved in the Bodleian gallery at Oxford. I have a very old picture of Chaucer on board, much like Occleve's, formerly kept in Chaucer's house, a quadrangular stone-mansion, at Woodstock in Oxfordshire; which commanded a prospect of the ancient magnificent royal palace, and of many beautiful scenes in the adjacent park: and whose last remains, chiefly consisting of what was called Chaucer's bed-chamber, with an old carved oaken roof, evidently original, were demolished about fifteen years ago. Among the ruins, they found an ancient gold coin of the city of Florence
I think a FLOREIN, antiently common in England. Chaucer, PARDON. TALE, v. 2290. p. 135. col. 2.
"For that the FLORAINS ben so faire and bright."
Edward the third, in 1344, altered it from a lower value to 6
s.
and 8
d.
The particular piece I have mentioned seems about that value.
. Before the grand rebellion, there was in the windows of the church of Woodstock, an escucheon in painted glass of the arms of sir Payne Rouet, a knight of Henault, whose daughter Chaucer married.
Occleve, in this poem, and in others, often celebrates Humphrey duke of Glocester
As he does John of Gaunt.
; who at the dawn of science was a singular promoter of literature, and, however unqualified for political intrigues, the common patron of the scholars of the times. A sketch of his character in that view, is therefore too closely connected with our subject to be censured as an unnecessary digression. About the year 1440, he gave to the university of Oxford a library containing six hundred volumes, only one hundred and twenty of which were valued at more than one thousand pounds. These books are called
Novi Tractatus,
or New Treatises, in the universityregister
Reg. F. fol. 52. 53. b. Epist. 142.
, and said to be
admirandi apparatus
Ibid. fol. 57. b. 60. a. Epist. 148.
. They were the most splendid and costly copies that could be procured, finely written on vellum, and elegantly embellished with miniatures and illuminations. Among the rest was a translation into French of Ovid's Metamorphoses
Leland. coll. iii. p. 58. edit. 1770.
. Only a single specimen of these valuable volumes was suffered to remain: it is a beautiful manuscript in folio of Valerius Maximus, enriched with the most elegant decorations, and written in Duke Humphrey's age, evidently with a design of being placed in this sumptuous collection. All the rest of the books, which, like this, being highly ornamented, looked like missals, and conveyed ideas of popish superstition, were destroyed or removed by the pious visitors of the university in the reign of Edward the sixth, whose zeal was equalled only by their ignorance, or perhaps by their avarice. A great number of classics, in this grand work of reformation, were condemned as antichristian
Some however had been before stolen or mutilated. Leland, coll. iii. p. 58. edit. 1770.
. In the library of Oriel college at Oxford, we find a manuscript
Commentary on Gene
is,
written by John Capgrave, a monk of saint Austin's monastery at Canterbury, a learned theologist of the fourteenth century. It is the author's autograph, and the work is dedicated to Humphrey duke of Glocester. In the superb initial letter of the dedicatory epistle is a curious illumination of the author Capgrave, humbly presenting his book to his patron the duke, who is seated, and covered with a sort of hat. At the end is this entry, in the hand-writing of duke Humphrey.
"C' est livre est a moy Humfrey duc de Gloucestre du don de frere Jehan Capgrave, quy le me fist presenter a mon manoyr de Pensherst le jour ... de l'an.
MCCCXXXVIII.
Cod. MSS. 32.
."
This is one of the books which Humphrey gave to his new library at Oxford, destroyed or dispersed by the active reformers of the young Edward
He gave also Capgrave SUPER EXODUM ET REGUM LIBROS. Registr. Univ. Oxon. F.
ol. 67. b.
. John Whethamstede, a learned abbot of saint Alban's, and a lover of scholars, but accused by his monks for neglecting their affairs, while he was too deeply engaged in studious employments and in procuring transcripts of useful books
Supr. vol. i. See DISSERTAT. i. Signat. F. 2. We are told in this abbot's GESTA, that soon after his installment he built a library for his abbey, a design which had long employed his contemplation. He covered it with lead; and expended on the bare walls, besides desks, glasing, and embattelling, or, to use the expressions of my chronologer,
educta vitriacione, crestacione, positione descorum,
upwards of one hundred and twenty pounds. Apud Hearne's OTTERBOURNE, vol. i. Praefat. Append. p. cxxiii. ed. Oxon. 1732. He founded also a library for all the students of his monastery at Oxford. Ibid. p. cxiii. And to each of these students he allowed an annual pension, at his own expence, of thirteen shillings and four-pence. Ibid. p. cxviii. See also p. cxxix. A grand transcript of the Postilla of Nicholas de Lyra on the bible was begun during his abbacy, and at his command, with the most splendid ornaments and hand-writing. The monk who records this important anecdote, lived soon after him, and speaks of this great undertaking, then unfinished, as if it was some magnificent public edifice.
"God grant, says he, that this work in our days may receive a happy consummation!"
Ibid. p. cxvi.
, notwithstanding his unwearied assiduity in beautifying and enriching their monastery
Among other things, he expended forty pounds in adorning the roof and walls of the virgin Mary's chapel with pictures. GEST. ut supr. p. cx. He gave to the choir of the church an organ; than which, says my chronicler, there was not one to be found in any monastery in England, more beautiful in appearance, more pleasing for its harmony, or more curious in its construction. It cost upwards of fifty pounds. Ibid. p. cxxviii. His new buildings were innumerable: and the MASTER OF THE WORKS was of his institution, with an ample salary. Ibid. p. cxiii.
, was in high favour with this munificent prince
Leland, Script. Brit. p. 437.
. The duke was fond of visiting this monastery, and employed abbot Whethamstede to collect valuable books for him
Leland, ibid. 442. 432. See also Hollinsh. Chron. f. 488. b. And f. 1234. 1235. 1080. 868. 662. Weever FUN. MON. p. 562. 574. Whethamstede erected in his life-time the beautiful tabernacle or shrine of stone, now remaining, over the tomb of duke Humphrey in saint Alban's abbey church. Hearne's OTTERB. ut supr. p. cxxi. seq. See also ibid. p. cxix. cxvi.
. Some of Whethamstede's tracts, manuscript copies of which often occur in our libraries, are dedicated to the duke
See Whethamstede,
De viris illustribus,
Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton. TIBER. D. vi. i. OTH. B. iv. And Hearne, Pref. Pet. Langtoft. p. xix. seq.
: who presented many of them, particularly a fine copy of Whethamstede's GRANARIUM
Registr. Univ. Oxon. F f. 68.
, an immense work, which Leland calls
ingens volumen,
to the new library
Leland, ubi modo infr.
. The copy of Valerius Maximus, which I mentioned before, has a curious table or index made by Whethamstede
MSS. Bodl. NE. vii. ii.
. Many other abbots paid their court to the duke by sending him presents of books, whose margins were adorned with the most exquisite paintings
"Multos codices,
pulcherrime pi
t
s,
ab abbatibus dono accepit."
The Du
e wrote in the frontispieces of his books, MOUN BIEN MONDAIN. Leland. Coll. iii. p. 58. edit. ut supr.
. Gilbert Kymer, physician to king Henry the sixth, among other ecclesiastic promotions, dean of Salisbury, and chancellor of the university of Oxford
By the recommendatory letters of duke Humphrey. Registr. Univ. Oxon. F. fol. 75. Epist. 180.
, inscribed to duke Humphrey his famous medical system
Diaetarium de sanitatis custodia,
in the year 1424
See Hearne's Append. ad Libr. Nigr. Scaccar. p. 550. And Praefat. p. 34.
. I do not mean to anticipate when I remark, that Lydgate, a poet mentioned hereafter, translated Boccacio's book de CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM at the recommendation and command, and under the protection and superintendence, of duke Humphrey: whose condescension in conversing with learned ecclesiastics, and diligence in study, the translator displays at large, and in the strongest expressions of panegyric. He compares the duke to Julius Cesar, who amidst the weightiest cares of state, was not ashamed to enter the rhetorical school of Cicero at Rome
PROL. Sign. A. ii. A. iii. edit. Wayland, ut supr. He adds,
And hath joye with clarkes to commune,
And no man is more expert in langage,
Stable in study.—
His courage never dothe appall
To study in bokes of antiquitie.—
He studieth ever to have intelligence,
Readyng of bokes.—
And with support of his magnificence,
Under the wings of his protection,—
I shall proce
d in this translation.—
Lowly submittyng, every houre and space,
My rude langage to my lordes grace.
See also fol. xxxviii. b. col. 2. Lydgate has an epitaph on the duke, MSS. Ashmol. 59. 2. MSS. Harl. 2251. 6. fol. 7. There
s a curious letter of Lydgate, in which he sends for a supply of money to the duke, while he was translating BOCHAS.
"Litterra dom. Joh. Lydgate missa ad ducem Glocestrie in
tempore translationis Bochasii,
pro
oportunitate pecunie.
"
MSS. ibid. 5. fol. 6. See also ibid. 131. fol. 279. b. of the duke's marriage.
. Nor was his patronage confined only to English scholars. His favour was solicited by the most celebrated writers of France and Italy, many of whom he bountifully rewarded
Leland, Script. p. 442.
. Leonard Aretine, one of the first restorers of the Greek tongue in Italy, which he learned of Emanuel Chrysoloras, and of polite literature in general, dedicates to this universal patron his elegant Latin translation of Aristotle's POLITICS. The copy presented to the duke by the translator, most elegantly illuminated, is now in the Bodleian library at Oxford
See MSS. Bodl. D. i. 8. 10. And Leland, Script. p. 443.
. To the same noble encourager of learning, Petrus Candidus, the friend of Laurentius Valla, and secretary to the great Cosmo duke of Milan, inscribed by the advice of the archbishop of Milan, a Latin version of Plato's REPUBLIC
Leland, Script. p. 442. And Mus. Ashmol. 789. f. 54. 56. Where are also two of the duke's epistles to Petrus Candidus.
. An illuminated manuscript of this translation is in the British museum, perhaps the copy presented, with two epistles prefixed, from the duke to Petrus Candidus
P. Candidi Decembris, Duci Mediolani a secretis, Translatio POLITIAE Platonis,—ad Hum
redum Gloucestrie Ducem, &c. Cui praefiguntur duae Epistolae Ducis Glocestriae ad P. Candidum. Most elegantly written. Membran. ad fin.
"Cest livre est a moy Humfrey Duc de Glocestre du don P. Candidus secretarie du duc de Mylan."
Catal. MSS. Angl. tom. ii. pag. 212. Num. 6858. [See MSS. Harl. 1705. fol.]
. Petrus de Monte, another learned Italian, of Venice, in the dedication of his treatise DE VIRTUTUM ET VITIORUM DIFFERENTIA to the duke of Glocester, mentions the latter's ardent attachment to books of all kinds, and the singular avidity with which he pursued every species of literature
MSS. Nowic. MORE. 257. Bibl. publ. Cantabrig.
. A tract, entitled COMPARATIO STUDIORUM ET REI MILITARIS, written by Lapus de Castellione, a Florentine civilian, and a great translator into Latin of the Greek classics, is also inscribed to the duke, at the desire of Zeno archbishop of Bayeux. I must not forget, that our illustrious duke invited into England the learned Italian, Tito Livio of Foro-Juli, whom he naturali
ed, and constituted his poet and orator
Author of the
Vita Henrici quinti,
printed by Hearne, Oxon. 1716. And of other pieces. See Hollinsh. iii. 585.
. Humphrey also retained learned foreigners in his service, for the purpose of transcribing, and of translating from Greek into Latin. One of these was Antonio de Beccaria, a Veronese, a translator into Latin prose of the Greek poem of Dionysius Afer DE SITU ORBIS
Printed at Venice 1477. Ibid. 1498. Pari
. 1501. Basil. 1534. 4to.
: whom the duke employed to translate into Latin six tracts of Athanasius. This translation, inscribed to the duke, is now among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum, and at the end, in his own hand-writing, is the following insertion:
"C'est livre est a moi Homphrey Duc le Gloucestre: le que
je fis translater de Grec en Latin par un de mes secretaires Antoyne de Beccara, nè de Verone
MSS. Reg. 5 F. 4to. ii. In the same library is a fine folio manuscript of
"Chronique des Roys de France jusques a la mort de S. Loys, l'an. 1270."
At the end is written with the duke of Gloucester's hand,
"C est livre est a moy Homfrey duc de Gloucestre du don des executeurs le Sr de Faunhore."
16 G. vi.
."
An astronomical tract, entitled by Leland TABULAE DIRECTIONUM, is falsely supposed to have been written by duke Humphrey
See Hollingsh. Chron. sub. ann. 1461. f. 662. col. 2.
. But it was compiled at the duke's instance, and according to tables which himself had constructed, called by the anonymous author in his preface,
Tabulas illustrissimi principis et nobilissimi domini mei Humfredi,
&c
MSS. More, 820.
. In the library of Gresham college, however, there is a scheme of calculations in astronomy, which bear his name
MSS. Gresh. 66. See MSS. Ashmol. 856.
. Astronomy was then a favourite science: nor is to be doubted, that he was intimately acquainted with the politer branches of knowledge, which now began to acquire estimation, and which his liberal and judicious attention greatly contributed to restore.
I close this section with an apology for Chaucer, Gower, and Occleve; who are supposed, by the severe
etymologists, to have corrupted the purity of the English language, by affecting to introduce so many foreign words and phrases. But if we attend only to the politics of the times, we shall find these poets, as also some of their successors, much less blameable in this respect, than the critics imagine. Our wars with France, which began in the reign of Edward the third, were of long continuance. The principal nobility of England, at this period, resided in France, with their families, for many years. John king of France kept his court in England;
o which, exclusive of these French lords who were his fellow-prisoners, or necessary attendants, the chief nobles of his kingdom must have occasionally resorted. Edward the black prince made an expedition into Spain. John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, and his brother the duke of York, were matched with the daughters of Don Pedro king of Castile. All these circumstances must have concurred to produce a perceptible change in the language of the court. It is rational therefore, and it is equitable to suppose, that instead of coining new words, they only complied with the common and fashionable modes of speech. Would Chaucer's poems have been the delight of those courts in which he lived, had they been filled with unintelligible pedantries? The cotemporaries of these poets never complained of their obscurity. But whether defensible on these principles or not, they much improved the vernacular style by the use of this exotic phraseology. It was thus that our primitive diction was enlarged and enriched. The English language owes its copiousness, elegance, and harmony, to these innovations.
SECT. III.
I Consider Chaucer as a genial day in an English spring. A brilliant sun enlivens the face of nature with an unusual lustre: the sudden appearance of cloudless skies, and the unexpected warmth of a tepid atmosphere, after the gloom and the inclemencies of a tedious winter, fill our hearts with the visionary prospect of a speedy summer: and we fondly anticipate a long continuance of gentle gales and vernal serenity. But winter returns with redoubled horrors: the clouds condense more formidably than before; and those tender buds, and early blossoms, which were called forth by the transient gleam of a temporary sun-shine, are nipped by frosts, and torn by tempests.
Most of the poets that immediately succeeded Chaucer, seem rather relapsing into barbarism, than availing themselves of those striking ornaments which his judgment and imagination had disclosed. They appear to have been insensible to his vigour of versification, and his flights of fancy. It was not indeed likely that a poet should soon arise equal to Chaucer: and it must be remembered, that the national distractions which ensued, had no small share in obstructing the exercise of those studies which delight in peace and repose. His successors, however, approach him in no degree of proportion. Among these, John Lydgate is the poet who follows him at the shortest interval.
I have placed Lydgate in the reign of Henry the sixth, and he seems to have arrived at his highest point of eminence about the year 1430
In a copy of Lydgate's
Chronicle of English Kings,
there is a stanza of Edward the fourth. MSS. Harl. 2251. 3. In his poem
Ab inimicis nostris,
&c. Edward the fourth, his
Quene
and
Modir
are remembered. MSS. Harl. ibid. 9. fol. 10. But these pieces could not well be written by Lydgate. For he was ordained a subdeacon, 1389. Deacon, 1393. And priest, 1397. Registr. Gul. Cratfield, abbatis de Bury, MSS. Cott. TIBER. B. ix. fol. 1. 35. 52. Edward came to the crown, 1461. Pitts says, that our author died, 1482. Lydgate, in his PHILOMELA, mentions the death of Henry lord Warwick, who died in 1446. MSS. Harl. ibid. 120. fol. 255.
. Many of his poems, however, appeared before. He was a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Bury in Suffolk, and an uncommon ornament of his profession. Yet his genius was so lively, and his accomplishments so numerous, that I suspect the holy father saint Benedict would hardly have acknowledged him for a genuine disciple. After a short education at Oxford, he travelled into France and Italy
See one of his DITTIES, MSS. Harl. 2255. 41. fol. 148.
I have been offte in dyvers londys, &c.
; and returned a complete master of the language and the literature of both countries. He chiefly studied the Italian and French poets, particularly Dante, Boccacio, and Alain Chartier; and became so distinguished a proficient in polite learning, that he opened a school in his monastery, for teaching the sons of the nobility the arts of versification, and the elegancies of composition. Yet although philology was his object, he was not unfamiliar with the fashionable philosophy: he was not only a poet and a rhetorician, but a geometrician, an astronomer, a theologist, and a disputant. On the whole I am of opinion, that Lydgate made considerable additions to those amplifications of our language, in which Chaucer, Gower, and Occleve led the way: and that he is the first of our writers whose style is cloathed with that perspicuity, in which the English phraseology appears at this day to an English reader.
To enumerate Lydgate's pieces, would be to write the catalogue of a little library. No poet seems to have possessed a greater versatility of talents. He moves with equal ease in every mode of composition. His hymns, and his ballads, have the same degree of merit: and whether his subject be the life of a hermit or a hero, of saint Austin or Guy earl of Warwick, ludicrous or legendary, religious or romantic, a history or an allegory, he writes with facility. His transitions were rapid from works of the most serious and laborious kind to sallies of levity and pieces of popular entertainment. His muse was of universal access; and he was not only the poet of his monastery, but of the world in general. If a disguising was intended by the company of goldsmiths, a mask before his majesty at Eltham, a maygame for the sheriffs and aldermen of London, a mumming before the lord mayor, a procession of pageants from the creation for the festival of Corpus Christi, or a carol for the coronation, Lydgate was consulted and gave the poetry
See a variety of his pieces of this kind, MSS. Ashmol. 59. ii. Stowe says, that at the reception of Margaret queen of Henry sixth, several pageaunts, the verses by Lydgate, were shewn at Paul's gate, in 1445. Hist. p. 385. See also MSS. Harl. 2251. 118. fol. 250. b. The COVENTRY PLAY for Corpus Christi day, in the Cotton library, was very probably written by our author. VESPAS. D. viii. fol.
.
About the year 1430, Whethamstede the learned and liberal abbot of saint Albans, being desirous of familiarising the history of his patron saint to the monks of his convent, employed Lydgate, as it should seem, then a monk of Bury, to translate the Latin legend of his life in English rhymes. The chronicler who records a part of this anecdote seems to consider Lydgate's translation, as a matter of mere manual mechanism; for he adds, that Whethamstede paid for the translation, the writing, and illuminations, one hundred shillings. It was placed before the altar of the saint, which Whethamstede afterwards adorned with much magnificence, in the abbey church
GEST. Joh. Whethamst. ut supr. p. cxvi. cxxvii. cxxiv. It is added, that Whethamstede expended on the binding, and other exterior ornaments of the manuscript, upwards of three pounds. Bal
and Pitts say, that Whethamstede himself made the translation. p. 584. 630. It is in Trinity college at Oxford, MSS. 10. And in Lincoln cathedral, MSS. I. 57. Among Lydgate's works is recited,
Vita S. Albani Martyris ad
JOH. FRUMENTARIUM [Whethamstede]
abbatem.
.
Our author's stanzas, called the DANCE OF DEATH, which he translated from the French, at the request of the chapter of saint Paul's, to be inscribed under the representation of DEATH leading all ranks of men about the cloister of their church in a curious series of paintings, are well known. But their history has not, I believe, yet appeared. These verses, founded on a sort of spiritual masquerade, anciently celebrated in churches
See supr. vol. i. p. 210. Notes, h .
A DANCE OF DEATH seems to be alluded to so early as in Pierce Plowman's VISIONS, written about 1350.
DEATH came driving after and al to dust pashed
K
NGS, and KAISA
S, KNIGHTS, and POPES.
, were originally written by one Macaber in German rhymes, and were translated into Latin about the year 1460, by one who calls himself Petrus Desrey Orator. This Latin translation was published by Goldastus, at the end of the SPECULUM OMNIUM STATUUM TOTIUS ORBIS TERRARUM compiled by Rodericus Zamorensis, and printed at Hanau in the year 1613
In 4to.
But a French translation was made much earlier than the Latin, and written about the walls of saint Innocents cloister at Paris; from which Lydgate formed his English version
See the DAUNCE OF MACABRE, MSS. Harl. 116. 9. fol. 129. And OBSERVATIONS on the FAIRY QUEEN, vol. ii. p. 116.
eq. The DANCE OF DEATH, falsly supposed to have been invented by Holbein, is different from this, though founded in the same idea. It was painted by Holbein in the Augustine monastery at Basil, 1543. But it appeared much earlier. In the chronicle of Hartmannus Schedelius, Norimb. 1493. fol. In the Quotidian Offices of the church, Paris, 1515. 8vo. And, in public buildings, at Minden, in Westphalia, so early as 1383. At Lubec, in the portico of saint Mary's church, 1463. At Dresden, in the castle or palace, 1534. At Annaberg
1525. At Leipsic, &c. Paul Christian Hilscher has written a very learned and entertaining German book on this subject, printed at Dresden, 1705. 8vo. Engravings of Holbein's pictures at Basil were published, curante Matthaeo Meriano, at Francfort 1649, and 1725, 4to. The German verses there ascribed, appeared in Latin elegiacs, in Caspar Laudisman's DECENNALIA HUMANAE PEREGRINATIONIS, A. D. 1584. I have not mentioned in my Observations on Spenser, that Georgius Aemylius published this DANCE at Lyons, 1542. One year befor
Holbein's painting at Basil appeared. Next, at the same place, 1547. 8vo.
.
In the British Museum is a most splendid and elegant manuscript on vellum, undoubtedly a present to king Henry the sixth
MSS. Harl. 2278. 4to.
. It contains a set of Lydgate's poems, in honour of saint Edmund the patron of his monastery at Bury. Besides the decoration of illuminated initials, and one hundred and twenty pictures of various sizes, representing the incidents related in the poetry, executed with the most delicate pencil, and exhibiting the habits, weapons, architecture, utensils, and many other curious particulars, belonging to the age of the ingenious illuminator, there are two exquisite portraits of the king, one of William Curteis abbot of Bury, and one of the poet Lydgate kneeling at saint Edmund's shrine
There is an antient drawing, probably coeval, of Lydgate presenting his poem called the PILGRIM to the earl of Salisbury, MSS Harl. 4826. 1. It was written 1426. Another of these drawings will be mentioned below.
. In one of the king's pictures, he is represented on his throne, crowned, and receiving this volume from the abbot kneeling: in another he appears as a child prostrate on a carpet at saint Edmund's shrine, which is richly delineat
d, yet without any idea of perspective or proportion. The figures of a great number of monks, and attendants, are introduced. Among the rest, two noblemen, perhaps the king's uncles, with bonnets, or caps, of an uncommon shape. It appears that our pious monarch kept his Christmas at this magnificent monastery, and that he remained here, in a state of seclusion from the world, and of an exemption from public cares, till the following Easter: and that at his departure he was created a brother of the chapter
Fol. 6.
. It is highly probable, that this sumptuous book, the poetry of which was undertaken by Lydgate at the command of abbot Curteis
Cu
t
is was abbot of Bury between the years 1429, and 1445. It appears that Lydgate was also commanded,
"Late charchyd in myn oold days,"
to make an English me
rical translation of
De Profundis,
&c. To be hung against the walls of the abbey church. MSS. Harl. 2255. 11. fol. 40. See the last stanza.
, was previously prepared, and presented to his majesty during the royal visit, or very soon afterwards. The substance of the whole work is the life or history of sain
Edmund, whom the poet calls the
"precious charbo
martirs alle
The poet's
Prayer to saint Edmund for his assistance in compilin
his
LIF
, fol. 9. The history begins thus, fol. 10. b.
In Saxonie whilom ther was a kyng
Callid Alkmond of excellent noblesse.
It seems to be taken from John of Tinmouth's SANCTILOGIUM, who flourished about the year 1360. At the end, connected with saint Edmund's legend, and a part of the work, is the life of saint Fremund. fol. 69. b. But Lydgate has made many additions. It begins thus,
Who han remembre the myracles merueilous
Which Crist Jhesu list for his seyntes shewe.
Compare MSS. Harl. 372. 1. 2. fol. 1. 25. 43. b.
."
In some of the prefatory pictures, there is a description and a delineation of two banners, pretended to belong to saint Edmund
Fol. 2. 4.
. One of these is most brilliantly displayed, and charged with Adam and Eve, the serpent with a human shape to the middle, the tree of life, the holy lamb, and a variety of symbolical ornaments. This banner our bard feigns to have been borne by his saint, who was a king of the east Angles, against the Danes: and he prophesies, that king Henry, with this ensign, would always return victorious
Fol. 2.
. The other banner, given also to saint Edmund, appears to be painted with the arms of our poet's monastery, and its blazoning is thus described.
The' other standard, ffeld sable, off colour ynde
Blue.
,
In which of gold been notable crownys thre,
The first toknè: in cronycle men may fynde,
Grauntyd to hym for royal dignyte:
And the second for his virgynyte:
For martyrdam the thridde, in his suffring.
To these annexyd feyth, hope, and charyte,
In toknè he was martyr, mayd, and kyng.
These three crownys
See fol. 103. b. f. 104.
kynge Edmund bar certeyn,
Whan he was sent by grace of goddis hand,
At Geynesburuhe for to sleyn kyng Sweyn.
A sort of office, or service to saint Edmund, consisting of an antiphone, versicle, response, and collect, is introduced with these verses.
To all men present, or in absence,
Whiche to seynt Edmund have devocion
With hool herte and dewe reverence,
Seyn
Sing.
this antephnè and this orison;
Two hundred days is grauntid of pardoun,
Writ and registred afforn his holy shryne,
Which for our feyth suffrede passioun,
Blyssyd Edmund, kyng, martyr, and virgyne.
This is our poet's
l'envoye.
Go littel book, be ferfull, quaak for drede,
For to appere in so hyhe presence
Fol. 118. b.
.
Lydgate's poem called the LYFE OF OUR LADY, printed by Caxton
"This book was compyled by Dan John Lydgate monke of Burye, at the excitation and styrrynge of the noble and victorious prynce, Harry the fyfthe, in the honowre, glory and reverance of the byrthe of our most blessed lady, &c."
Without date. fol. Afterwards by Robert Redman, 1531. 4to
See MSS. Harl. 629. fol. membran.
, is opened with these harmonious and elegant lines, which do not seem to be destitute of that eloquence which the author wishes to share with Tully, Petrarch, and Chaucer
Cap. xxxiii. xxxiv.
. He compares the holy Virgin to a star.
O thoughtfull hertè, plonged in distresse
With slombre of slouth, this long wynter's night!
Out of the slepe of mortal hevinesse
Awake anon, and loke upon the light
Of thilkè sterre, that with her bemys bright,
And with the shynynge of her stremes meryè,
Is wont to glad all our hemisperie
Hemisphere.
!—
This sterre in beautie passith Pleiades,
Bothe of shynynge, and eke of stremes clere,
Bootes, and Arctur, and also Iades,
And Esperus, whan that it doth appere:
For this is Spica, with her brightè spere
Sphere.
,
That towarde evyn, at midnyght, and at morowe,
Downe from hevyn adawith
Affright. Remove.
al our sorowe.—
And dryeth up the bytter terys wete
Of Aurora, after the morowe graye,
That she in wepying dothe on floures flete
Float.
Drop.
,
In lusty Aprill, and in fresshè Maye:
And causeth Phebus, the bryght somers daye,
Wyth his wayne gold-yborned
Burnished with gold.
So in Lydgate's Legend on Dan Joos a monk, taken from Vincentius Bellovacensis's
Speculum
HISTORIALE, the name Maria is
ful fayre igraven
on a red rose, in
lettris of
BOURNID
gold.
MSS. Harl. 2251. 39. fol. 71. b.
, bryght and fayre,
To' enchase the mystès of our cloudy ayre.
Now fayrè sterre, O sterre of sterrys all!
Whose lyght to se the angels do delyte,
So let the gold-dewe of thy grace yfall
Into my breste, lyke scalys fayre and whyte,
Me to enspire
Prologue.
!—
Lydgate's manner is naturally verbose and diffuse. This circumstance contributed in no small degree to give a clearness and a fluency to his phraseology. For the same reason he is often tedious and languid. His chief excellence is in description, especially where the subject admits a flowery diction. He is seldom pathetic, or animated.
In another part of this poem, where he collects arguments to convince unbelievers that Christ might be born of a pure virgin, he thus speaks of God's omnipotence.
And he that made the high and cristal heven,
The firmament, and also every sphere,
The golden ax-tre
Of the sun.
, and the sterres seven,
Citherea, so lusty for to' appere,
And reddè Marse
Mars.
, with his sternè here;
Myght he not eke onèly for our sake
Wythyn a mayde of man his
Nature.
kyndè take?
For he that doth the tender braunches sprynge,
And the fresshe flouris in the gretè mede,
That were in wynter dede and eke droupynge,
Of bawmè all yvoyd and lestyhede;
Myght he not make his grayne to growe and sede,
Within her brest, that was both mayd and wyfe,
Whereof is made the sothfast
True.
breade of lyfe
Cap. xx.
?
We are surprised to find verses of so modern a cast as the following at such an early period; which in this sagacious age we should judge to be a forgery, was not their genuineness authenticated, and their antiquity confirmed, by the venerable types of Caxton, and a multitude of unquestionable manuscripts.
Like as the dewe discendeth on the rose
With sylver drops
Cap. xix.
.—
Our Saviour's crucifixion is expressed by this remarkable metaphor.
Whan he of purple did his baner sprede
On Calvarye abroad upon the rode,
To save mankynde
Cap. ix.
. .—
Our author, in the course of his panegyric on the Virgin Mary, affirms, that she exceeded Hester in meekness, and Judith in wisdom; and in beauty, Helen, Polyxena, Lucretia, Dido, Bathsheba, and Rachel
Cap. iv. In a LIFE of the Virgin in the British museum, I find these
sy lyrics introduced, MSS. Harl. 2382. 2. 3. fol. 75. fol. 86. b. Though I am not certain that they properly belong to this work.
A mery tale I telle yow may
Of seynt Marie that swete may:
Alle the tale of this lesson
Is of her Assumptione.—
Mary moder, welle thee be!
Mary mayden, thenk on me!
Mayden and moder was never none,
Togader, lady, save thee allone.
But these lines will be considered again
. It is amazing, that in an age of the most superstitious devotion so little discrimination should have been made between sacred and profane characters and incidents. But the common sense of mankind had not yet attained a just estimate of things. Lydgate, in another piece, has versified the rubrics of the missal, which he applies to the god Cupid: and declares, with how much delight he frequently meditated on the holy legend of those constant martyrs, who were not afraid to suffer death for the faith of that omnipotent divinity
MSS. Fairfax, xvi. Bibl. Bodl.
. There are instances, in which religion was even made the instrument of love. Arnaud Daniel, a celebrated troubadour of the thirteenth century, in a fit of amorous despair, promises to found a multitude of annual masses, and to dedicate perpetual tapers to the shrines of saints, for the important purpose of obtaining the affections of an obdurate mistress.
SECT. IV.
BUT Lydgate's principal poems are the FALL OF PRINCES, the SIEGE OF THEBES, and the DESTRUCTION OF TROY. Of all these I shall speak distinctly.
About the year 1360, Boccacio wrote a Latin history in ten books, entitled DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ET FEMINARUM ILLUSTRIUM. Like other chronicles of the times, it commences with Adam, and is brought down to the author'
age. Its last grand event is John king of France taken prisoner by the English at the battle of Poitiers, in the year 1359
Printed at Ausbourg. And at Paris, 1544. fol. It is amazing, that Vossius should not know the number of books of which this work consisted, and that it was ever printed. De Hist. Lat. lib. iii. cap. ii. It was translated into Italian by Betussi, in Firenza, 1566. 8vo. 2 volum.
. This book of Boccacio was soon afterwards translated into French, by one of whom little more seems to be known, than that he was named Laurence; yet so paraphrastically, and with so many considerable additions, a
almost to be rendered a new work
In Lydgate's PROLOGUE, B. i. fol. i. a col. 1. edit. ut infr.
He that sumtime did his diligence
The boke of Bochas
in French to translate
Out of Latin,
he called was LAURENCE.
He says that Laurence (in his Prologue) declares, that he avails himself of the privilege of skillful artificers; who may
chaunge and turne,
by
good dis
e
ion, shapes and forms,
and newly
them devise, make and unma
,
&c. And that old authors may be rendered more agreeable, by b
ing cloathed in new ornaments of language, and improved with new inventions. Ibid. a. col. 1. He adds, that it was Laurence's design, in his translation into French, to
amende, co
rect,
and declare,
and not to spare thinges touched shortly.
Ibid. col. 2. Afterwards he calls him this
noble translatour.
Ibid. b. col. 1. In another place, where a panegyric on France is introduced, he says that this passage is not Boccacio's, but added.
By one LAURENCE, which was
translatour
Of this processe, to
commende
France;
To prayse that lande was all his
pleasaunce.
B. ix. ch. 28. fol. 31. a. col. 1. edit ut in
r. Our author, in the Prologue above-cited
seems to speak as if there had been a previous translation of Boccacio's book into French. Ut supr. a. col. 1.
Thus LAURENCE from him envy excluded
Though
toforne him translated
was this book.
But I suspect he only means, that Boccacio's original work wa
nothing more than a collection or compilation from more ancient authors.
. Laurence's French translation, of which there is a copy in the British Museum
MSS. Harl. See also ibid. MSS. Reg. 18 D. vii. And 16 G. v. And MSS. Bodl. F
10. 2. [2465.] He is said to have translated this work in 1409. MSS. Reg. ut supr. 20 C. iv.
, and which was printed at Lyons in the year 1483
In folio. Bayle says, that a French translation appeared at Paris, by Claudius Vitart, in 1578. 8vo. Diction. BOCCACE. Note g.
, is the original of Lydgate's poem. This Laurence or Laurent, sometimes called Laurent de Premierfait, a village in the diocese of Troies, was an ecclesiastic, and a famous translator. He also translated into French Boccacio's DECAMERON, at the request of Jane queen of Navarre: Cicero DE AMICITIA and DE SENECTUTE; and Aristotle's Oeconomics, dedicated to Louis de Bourbon, the king's uncle. These versions appeared in the year 1414 and 1416
He died in 1418. See Martene, Ampl. Collect. tom. ii. p. 1405. And Mem. de Litt. xvii. 7
9. 4to. Compare du Verdier, Biblioth. Fr. p 72. And Bibl. Rom. ii. 291. It is extraordinary that the piece before us should not be mentioned by the French antiquaries as one of Laurence's translations. Lydgate, in the Prologue above-cited, observes, that Laurence, who in
unyng did excel,
undertook this translation at the request of some eminent personages in France, who had the interest of
rhetorike
at heart. Ut supr. a. col. 2.
. Caxton's TULLIUS OF OLD AGE, or DE SENECTUTE, printed in 1481, is translated from Laurence's French version. Caxton, in the postscript, calls him
Laurence de primo facto.
Lydgate's poem consists of nine books, and is thus entitled in the earliest edition.
"The TRAGEDIES gathered by Jhon BOCHAS of all such princes as fell from theyr
states throughe the mutability of fortune since the CREACION of ADAM until his time, &c. Translated into English by John Lidgate monke of Burye
Imprinted at London by John Wayland, without date, fol. H
printed in the reign of H
nry the eighth. There is a small piece by L
dgate, not connected with this, entitled
The Trag
d
of princes that were
LECHEROUS. MSS. Ashmol. 59. ii.
."
The best and most authentic manuscript of this piece is in the British Museum; probably written under the inspection of the author, and perhaps intended as a present to Humphrey duke of Glocester, at whose gracious command the poem, as I have before hinted, was undertaken. It contains among numerous miniatures illustrating the several histories, portraits of Lydgate, and of another monk habited in black, perhaps an abbot of Bury, kneeling before a prince, who seems to be saint Edmund, seated on a throne under a canopy, and grasping an arrow
MSS. Harl. 1766. fol 5.
.
The work is not improperly styled a set of tragedies. It is not merely a narrative of men eminent for their rank and misfortunes. The plan is perfectly dramatic, and partly suggested by the pageants of the times. Every personage is supposed to appear before the poet, and to relate his respective sufferings: and the figures of these spectres are sometimes finely drawn. Hence a source is opened for moving compassion, and for a display of imagination. In some of the lives the author replies to the speaker, and a sort of dialogue is introduced for conducting the story. Brunchild, a queen of France, who murthered all her children, and was afterwards hewn in pieces, appears thus.
She came, arayed nothing like a quene,
Her hair untr
ssed, Bochas toke good hede;
In al his booke he had afore not sene
A morè wofull creature indede,
With weping eyne, to torne was al her wede:
Rebuking Bochas cause he' had left behynde
Her wretchednes for to put in mynde
Lib. vii. f. xxi. a. col. 1.
.
Yet in some of these interesting interviews, our poet excites pity of another kind. When Adam appears, he familiarly accosts the author with the salutation of
Cosyn Bochas
B. i. sol. i. a. col. 2. In the same style he calls Ixion Juno's
secr
tary.
B. i. ch. xii. fol. xxi. b. col. 2.
.
Nor does our dramatist deal only in real characters and historical personages. Boccacio standing pensive in his library, is alarmed at the sudden entrance of the gigantic and monstrous image of FORTUNE, whose agency has so powerful and universal an influence in human affairs, and especially in effecting those vicissitudes which are the subject of this work. There is a Gothic greatness in her figure, with some touches of the grotesque. An attribute of the early poetry of all nations, before ideas of selection have taken place. I must add, that it was Boethius's admired allegory on the CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, which introduced personification into the poetry of the middle ages.
Whyle Bochas pensyfe stode in his lybrarye,
Wyth chere oppressed, pale in hys vysage,
Somedeale abashed, alone and solitarye;
To hym appeared a monstruous ymage,
Parted in twayne of color and corage,
Her ryght syde ful of sommer floures,
The tother oppressed with winter stormy showres.
Bochas astonied, full fearfull to abrayde,
When he beheld the wonderfull fygure
Of FORTUNE, thus to hymself he sayde.
"What may this meane? Is this a crëature,
"Or a monstrè transfourmed agayne nature,
"Whose brenning eyen spercle of their lyght,
"As do the sterres the frosty wynter nyght?"
And of her cherè ful god hede he toke;
Her face semyng cruel and terrible,
And by disdaynè menacing of loke;
Her heare untrussd, harde, sharpe, and horyble,
Frowarde of shape, lothsome, and odible:
An hundred handes she had, of eche part
On either
ide.
,
In sondrye wise her gyftes to departe
Distribute.
.
Some of her handès lyft up men alofte,
To hye estate of wordlye dignitè;
Another handè griped ful unsofte,
Which cast another in grete adversite,
Gave one richesse, another poverte, &c.—
Her habyte was of manyfolde colours,
Watchet blewè of fayned stedfastnesse,
Her gold allayd like sun in watry showres,
Meynt
Mingled.
with grene, for chaunge and doublenesse.—
Her hundred hands, her burning eyes, and disheveled tresses, are sublimely conceived. After a long silence, with a stern countenance she addresses Bochas, who is greatly terrified at her horrible appearance; and having made a long harangue on the revolutions and changes which it is her business to produce among men of the most prosperous condition and the most elevated station, she calls up Caius Marius, and presents him to the poet.
Blacke was his wede, and his habyte also,
His heed unkempt, his lockès hore and gray,
His loke downe-cast in token of sorowe and wo;
On his chekès the saltè teares lay,
Which bare recorde of his deadly affray.—
His robè stayned was with Romayne blode,
His sworde aye redy whet to do vengeaunce;
Lyke a tyraunt most furyouse and wode
Mad.
,
In slaughter and murdre set at his plesaunce
Ibid. f. cxxxviii. b. col. 2.
.
She then teaches Bochas how to describe his life, and disappears.
These wordès saydè, Fortune made an ende,
She bete her wynges, and toke her to flyght,
I can not sè what waye she did wende;
Save Bochas telleth, lyke an angell bryght,
At her departing she shewed a great lyght
Ibid. fol. cxxxix. a. col. 2.
.
In another place, Dante,
"of Florence the laureate poete, demure of loke fullfilled with patience,"
appears to Bochas; and commands him to write the tale of Gualter duke of Florence, whose days
for his tiranny, lechery, and covetyse, ended in mischefe.
Dante then vanishes, and only duke Gualter is left alone with the poet
B. ix. fol. xxxiv. b. col. 1. 2. In another place Dante's three books on heaven, purgatory, and hell, are particularly commended. B. iv. Prol. fol. xciii. a. col. 1.
. Petrarch is also introduced for the same purpose
B. viii. fol. 1. Prol. a. b. He mentions all Petrarch's works, Prol. B. iv. fol. 93. a. col. 1.
.
The following golden couplet, concerning the prodigies which preceded the civil wars between Cesar and Pompey, indica
e dawnings of that poetical colouring of expression, and of that facility of versification, which mark the poetry of the present times.
Serpents and adders, scaled sylver-bryght,
Were over Rome sene flying al the nyght
B. vi. fol. 147. a. col. 1.
.
These verses, in which the poet describes the reign of S
turn, have much harmony, strength, and dignity.
Fortitude then stode stedfast in his might,
Defended wydowes, cherishd chastity;
Knyghtehood in prowes gave so clere a light,
Girte with his sworde of truthe and equity
B. vii. fol. 161. b. col. 1.
.
Apollo, Diana, and Miner
a, joining the Roman army, when Rome was besieged by Bren
us, are poetically touched.
Appollo first yshewed his presence,
Fresshe, yonge, and lusty, as any sunnè shene,
Armd all with golde; and with great vyolence
Entred the feldè, as it was wel sene:
And Dianà came with her arowes kene:
And Mynervà in a bryght haberjoun;
Which in ther coming made a terrible soun
B. iv. ch. 22. fol. cxiii. a. col. 1,
.
And the following lines are remarkable.
God hath a thousand handès to chastyse,
A thousand dartès of punicion,
A thousand bowès made in divers wyse,
A thousand arlblasts bent in his dongeon
Tower. Castle. B. 1. ch. 3. fol. vi. a. col. 1.
.
Lydgate, in this poem, quotes Seneca's tragedies
B. i. ch. 9. fol. xviii. a. col. 1.
for the story of Oedipus, Tully, Virgil and his commentator Servius, Ovid, Livy, Lucan, Lactantius, Justin
B. i. ch. 11. fol. xxi. b. col. 2. B. ii. ch. 6. fol. xlv. a. col. 1. B. iii. ch. 14. fol. lxxxi. b col. 1. Ibid. ch. 25. fol. Ixxxix. a. col. 2. B. iv. ch. 11. fol. iii. b. col. 1. See PROL. B. i.
or
"prudent Justinus an old croniclere,"
Josephus, Valerius Maximus, saint Jerom's chronicle, Boethius
B. ii. ch. 15. fol. li. a. col. 1. col. 2. Ibid. ch. 16. fol. 52. a. col. 2. Ibid. ch
2. fol. xlii. a. col. 1. Ibid. ch. 30. fol. lxii.
. col. 1. B. viii. ch. 24. fol. xiiii. a. col. 2.
, Plato on the immortality of the soul
B. iii. ch. 5. fol. lxxi. a. col. 1.
, and Fulgentius the mythologist
B. ix. ch. 1. fol. xx. a. col. 1. From whom Boccacio largely transcribes in his GENEALOGIAE DEORUM, hereafter mentioned.
. He mentions
"noble Persius,"
Prosper's epigrams, Vegetius's book on Tactics, which was highly esteemed, as its subject coincided with the chivalry of the times, and which had been just translated into French by John of Meun and Christina of Pisa, and into English by John Trevisa
MSS. Digb. Bibl. Bodl. 233.
Princip.
"In olde tyme it was the manere."
Finished at the command of his patron Thomas lord Berkeley. See supr. vol. i. p. 343.
,
"the grene chaplet of Esop and Juvenal
Prol. B. iv. fol. 92. a. col. 2. 93. a. col. 1.
,"
Euripides
"in his tyme a great tragician, because he wrote many tragedies,"
and another called
Clarke
Demosthenes
B. ii. ch. 22. fol. 54. b. col. 2.
. For a catalogue of Tully's works, he refers to the SPECULUM HISTORIALE
See supr. vol. i. p.
, or
Myrrour Hystori
ll,
of Vyncentius Bellovacensis; and says, that he wrote twelve books of Orations, and several
morall ditti
s
B. vi. ch. 15. fol. 151. b. col. 1.
. Aristotle is introduced as teaching Alexander and Callisthenes philosophy
B. iv. ch. 9. fol. xcix. seq. This is from Aristotle's SECRETUM SECRETORUM, which Lydgate, as I have mentioned above, translated. But he did not
ini
h the translation: for about the middle of it we have this note.
"Here dyed this translator and notable poet John Lydgate, monk of Bury, and FOWLER bygan his prolog in this wyse.
Where floure of knighthood the bataile doth re
use.
"
fol. 336. MSS. Laud. K. 53. The Prologue consists of ten stanzas: in which he compares himself to a dwarf entering the lists when the knight is foiled. But it is the
yong
FOWLER, in MSS. Laud. B. xxiv. In the Harleian copy of this piece I find the following note, at fol. 236.
"Here deyde the translatour a noble poete Dan Johne Lydgate, and his
folowere
began his prologe in this wise. Per Benedictum Burghe.
Where floure of,
&c."
MSS. Harl. 2251. 117. Where
Folowere
may be a corruption of
Folwer,
or
Fowler.
But it must be observed, that there was a Benedict Burghe, coeval with Lydgate, and preferred to many dignities in the church, who translated into English verse, for the use of lord Bourchier son of the earl of Essex, CATONIS
moralia carmina,
altered and printed by Caxton, 1483. fol. More will be said of Burgh's work in its proper place.
. With regard to Homer, he observes, that
"Grete Omerus, in Isidore ye may see, founde amonge Grekes the crafte of eloquence
B. ii. ch. 15. fol. 51. a. col. 2.
."
By Isidore he means the ORIGINES, or ETYMOLOGIES of Isidore Hispalensis, in twenty books; a system of universal information, the encyclopede of the dark ages, and printed in Italy before the year 1472
See Gesner. Bibl. p. 468. And Matt. Annal. Typ. i. p. 100.
. In another place, he censures the singular partiality of the book called
Omere,
which places Achilles above Hector
B. iv. Prol. fol. 93. a. col. 1.
. Again, speaking of the Greek writers, he tells us, that Bochas mentions a
scriveyn,
or scribe, who in a small scroll o
paper wrote the destruction of Troy, following Homer: a history much esteemed among the Greeks, on account of its brevity
B. ii. cap. 15. fol. 51. b. col. 1.
. This was Dictys Cre
ensis, or Dares Phrygius. But for perpetuating the atchievements of the knights of the round table, he supposes that a clerk was appointed, and that he compiled a register from the poursuivants and heralds who attended their tournaments; and that thence the histories of those invincible champions were framed, which, whether read or sung, have afforded so much delight
B. viii. ch. 25. fol. xv. a. col. 1. See supr. col. 1. p. 331. seq.
. For the stories of Constantine and Arthur he brings as his vouchers, the chronicle or romance called BRUT or BRUTUS, and Geoffrey of Monmouth
B. viii. ch. 13. fol. 7. a. col. 2. fol. 14. b. col. 1. fol. 16. a. col. 2. See supr. vol. 1. p. 62.
. He concludes the legend of Constantine by telling us, that an equestrian statue in brass is still to be seen at Constantinople of that emperor; in which he appears armed with a prodigious sword, menacing the Turks
B. viii. ch. 13. fol. viii. b. col. 2. Boccacio wrote the original Latin of this work long before the Turks took and sacked Constantinople, in 1453.
. In describing the Pantheon at Rome, he gives us some circumstances highly romantic. He relates that this magnificent fane was full of gigantic idols, placed on lofty stages: these images were the gods of all the nations conquered by the Romans, and each turned his countenance to that province over which he presided. Every image held in his hand a bell framed by magic; and when any kingdom belonging to the Roman jurisdiction was meditating rebellion against the imperial city, the idol of that country gave, by some secret principle, a solemn warning of the distant treason by striking his bell, which never sounded on any other occasion
B. viii. ch. 1. fol. xx. a. col. 1.
. Our author, following Boccacio who wrote the THESEID, supposes that Theseus founded the order of knighthood at Athens
B. i. c. 12. fol. xxii. a. col. 2.
. He introduces, much in the manner of Boethius, a disputation between Fortune and Poverty; supposed to have been written by ANDALUS the
blake,
a doctor of astronomy at Naples, who was one of Bochas's preceptors.
At Naples whylom, as he dothe specifye,
In his youth when he
Boccacio.
to schole went,
There was a doctour of astronomye.—
And he was called
Andalus the blake
B. iii. ch. 1. fol. lxv. a. col. 1.
"He rede in scholes the moving of the heavens, &c."
Boccacio mentions with much regard ANDALUS DE NIGRO as one of his masters, in his GENEAL. DEOR. lib. xv. cap. vi. And says, that Andalus has extant many
Opuscula astrorum caelique motus ostendentia.
I think Leander, in his ITALIA, calls this Andalus,
Andalotius niger, curiosus astrologus.
See Papyrius Mass. Elog. tom. ii. p. 195.
.
Lydgate appears to have been far advanced in years when he finished this poem: for at the beginning of the eighth book he complains of his trembling joints, and declares that age, having benumbed his faculties, has deprived him
"of all the subtylte of curious makyng in Englysshe to endyte
B. vii. Prol. fol. i. b. col. 2. ad calc. He calls himself older than sixty years.
."
Our author, in the structure and modulation of his style, seems to have been ambitious of rivalling Chaucer
Prol. B. i. f. ii. a. col. 2. seq.
: whose capital compositions he enumerates, and on whose poetry he bestows repeated encomiums.
I cannot quit this work without adding an observation relating to Boccacio, its original author, which perhaps may deserve attention. It is highly probable that Boccacio learned many anecdotes of Grecian history and Grecian fable, not to be found in any Greek writer now extant, from his preceptors Barlaam, Leontius, and others, who had lived at Constantinople while the Greek literature was yet flourishing. Some of these are perhaps scattered up and down in the composition before us, which contains a considerable part of the Grecian story; and especially in his treatise of the genealogies of the gods
In fifteen books. First printed in 1481. fol. And in Italian by Betussi, Venet. 1553. In French at Paris, 1531. fol. In the interpretation of the fables he is very prolix and jejune.
. Boccacio himself calls his master Leontius an inexhaustible archive of Grecian tales and fables, although not equally conversant with those of the Latins
GENEAL. DEOR. lib. xv. cap. vi.
. He confesses that he took many things in his book of the genealogies of the gods from a vast work entitled COLLECTIVUM, now lost, written by his cotemporary Paulus Peru
inus, the materials of which had in great measure been furnished by Barlaam
"Quicquid apud Graecos inveniri potest, ADJUTORIO BARLAAE arbitror collegisse."
GENEAL. DEOR. lib. xv. cap. vi.
. We are informed also, that Perusinus made use of some of these fugitive Greek scholars, especially Barlaam, for collecting rare books in that language. Perusinus was librarian, about the year 1340, to Robert king of Jerusalem and Sicily: and was the most curious and inquisitive man of his age for searching after unknown or uncommon manuscripts, especially histories, and poetical compositions, and particularly such as were written in Greek. I will beg leave to cite the words of Boccacio, who records this anecdote.
"Et, si usquam CURIOSISSIMUS
uit homo in perquirendis, jussu etiam principis, PEREGRINIS undecunque libris, HISTORIIS et POETICIS operibus, iste fuit. Et ob id, singulari amicitiae Barlaae conjunctus, quae a Latinis habere non poterat EO MEDIO INNUMERA exhausit a GRAECIS
GENEAL. DEOR. lib. xv. cap. vi.
."
By these HISTORIAE and POETICA OPERA, brought from Constantinople by Barlaam, undoubtedly works of entertainment, and perhaps chiefly of the romantic and fictitious species, I do not understand the classics. It is natural to suppose that Boccacio, both from his connections and his curiosity, was no stranger to these treasures: and that many of these pieces, thus imported into Italy by the dispersion of the Constantinopolitan exiles, are only known at present through the medium of his writings. It is certain that many oriental fictions found their way into Europe by means of this communication.
Lydgate's STORIE OF THEBES was first printed by William Thinne, at the end of his edition of Chaucer's works, in 1561. The author introduces it as an additional Canterbury tale. After a severe sickness, having a design to visit the shrine of Thomas a Beckett at Canterbury, he arrives in that city while Chaucer's pilgrims were assembled there for the same purpose; and by mere accident, not suspecting to find so numerous and respectable a company, goes to their inn. There is some humour in our monk's travelling figure
Edit. 1687. fol. ad CALC. CHAUCER'S WORKS. pag. 623. col. 1. Prol.
.
In a cope of black, and not of grene,
On a palfray, slender, long, and lene,
With rusty bridle, made not for the sale,
My man toforne with a void male
Portmanteau.
.
He sees, standing in the hall of the inn, the convivial host of the tabard, full of his own importance; who without the least introduction or hesitation thus addresses our author, quite unprepared for such an abrupt salutation.
—Dan Pers,
Dan Dominike, Dan Godfray, or Clement,
Ye be welcome newl
into Kent;
Though your bridle have neither boss, ne bell
See supr. vol. i. p. 164. notes, h .
,
Beseching you that you will tell,
First of your name, &c.—
That looke so pale, all devoid of blood,
Upon your head a wonder thredbare hood
Ibid.
.—
Our host then invites him to supper, and promises that he shall have, made according to his own directions, a large pudding, a round
hagis,
a French
moile,
or a
phrase
of eggs: adding, that he looked extremely lean for a monk, and must certainly have been sick, or else belong to a poor monastery: that some nut-brown ale after supper will be of service, and that a quantity of the seed of annis, cummin, or coriander, taken before going to bed, will remove flatulencies. But above all, says the host, chearful company will be your best physician. You shall not only sup with me and my companions this evening, but return with us to-morrow to London; yet on condition, that you will submit to one of the indispensable rules of our society, which is to tell an entertaining story while we are travelling.
What, looke up, Monke! For by
God's.
cockes blood,
Thou shall be mery, whoso that say nay;
For to-morrowe, anone as it is day,
And that it ginne in the east to dawe
Dawn.
,
Thou shall be bound to a newe lawe,
At going out of Canterbury toun,
And lien aside thy professioun;
Thou shall not chese
Chuse.
, nor thyself withdrawe,
If any mirth be found in thy mawe,
Like the custom of this company;
For none so proude that dare me deny,
Knight, nor knave, chanon, priest, ne nonne,
To telle a tale plainely as they conne
Can,
or Know.
,
When I assigne, and see time oportune;
And, for that we our purpose woll contune
Continue.
,
We will homeward the same custome use
Pag. 622. col. 2. seq.
.
Our monk, unable to withstand this profusion of kindness and festivity, accepts the host's invitation, and sups with the pilgrims. The next morning, as they are all riding from Canterbury to Ospringe, the host reminds his friend DAN JOHN of what he had mentioned in the evening, and without farther ceremony calls for a story. Lydgate obeys his commands, and recites the tragical destruction of the city of Thebes
Ibid.
. As the story is very long, a pause is made in descending a very steep hill near the
Thrope
Or
Thorpe.
Properly a lodge in a forest. A hamlet. It occurs again pag. 651. col. 1.
Bren townes,
thropes,
and villages.
And in the TROY-BOKE, he mentions
"provinces, borowes, vyllages, and
thropes.
"
B. ii. c. x.
of Broug
ton on the Blee;
when our author, who was not furnished with that accommodation for knowing the time of the day, which modern improvements in science have given to the traveller, discovers by an accurate examination of his calendar, I suppose some sort of graduated scale, in which the sun's horary progress along the equator was marked, that it is nine in the morning
Pag. 630. col. 2.
.
It has been said, but without any authority or probability, that Chaucer first wrote this story in a Latin narrative, which Lydgate afterwards translated into English verse. Our author's originals are Guido Colonna, Statius, and Seneca the tragedian
See. pag. 630. col. 1.
. Nicholas Trevet, an Englishman, a Dominican friar of London, who flourished about the year 1330, has left a commentary on Seneca's tragedies
MSS. Bodl. NE. F. 8. 6. Leland saw this Commentary in the library of the Cistercian abbey of Buckfast-Lees in Devonshire. Coll. iii. p. 257.
: and he was so favorite a poet as to have been illustrated by Thomas Aquinas
Some say, Thomas Anglicus.
. He was printed at Venice so early as the year 1482. Lydgate in this poem often refers to
myne auctor,
who, I suppose, is either Statius, or Colonna
Pag. 623. col. 2. 630. col. 1. 632. col. 2. 635. col. 2. 647. col. 2. 654. col. 1. 659. col. 1. See supr. vol. i. p. 126.
. He sometimes cites Boccacio's Latin tracts: particularly the GENEALOGIAE DEORUM, a work which at the restoration of learning greatly contributed to familiarise the classical stories, DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM, the ground-work of the FALL OF PRINCES just mentioned, and DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS, in which pope Joan is one of the heroines
First printed, Ulm. 1473. fol.
. From the first, he has taken the story of Amphion building the walls of Thebes by the help of Mercury's harp, and the interpretation of that fable, together with the
Lydgate says, that this was the same Lycurgus who came as an ally with Palamon to Athens against his brother Arcite, drawn by four white bulls, and crowned with a wreath of gold. Pag. 650. col. 2. See KN. TALE, Urry's Ch. p. 17. v. 2
31. seq. col. 1. Our author expres
ly refers to Chaucer's KNIGHT'S TALE about Theseus, and with some address,
"As ye have before heard it related in passing through Dept
ord, &c."
pag. 568. col. 1.
ictions about Lycurgus king of Thrace
Pag. 623. col. 2. 624. col. 1. 651. col. 1.
. From the second, as I recollect, the accoutrements of Polymites
Pag. 634. col. 2.
: and from the third, part of the tale of Isophile
Pag. 648. col. 1. seq.
. He also characterises Boccacio for a talent, by which he is not now so generally known, for his poetry; and styles him,
"among poetes in Itaile stalled
Pag. 651. col. 1.
."
But Boccacio's THESEID was yet in vogue. He says, that when Oedipus was married, none of the Muses were present, as they were at the wedding of SAPIENCE with ELOQUENCE, described by that poet
whilom so sage, Matrician inamed de Capella.
This is Marcianus Mineus Felix de Capella, who lived about the year 470, and whose Latin prosaico-metrical work,
de Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii,
in two books, an introduction to his seven books, or system, of the SEVEN SCIENCES, I have mentioned before
See su
r. vol. 1. p. 391.
: a writer highly extolled by Scotus Erigena
De Divis. Natur. lib. iii. p. 147. 14
.
, Peter of Blois
Ep
st. 101.
, John of Salisbury, and other early authors in corrupt Latinity
See Alcuin. De Sept. Artib. p. 1256. Ho
orius Augustodunus, de Philosophia Mundi, lib. ii. cap. 5. And the book of Thomas Cantipratanus attributed to Boethius, De Disciplina Scholarium. Compare Barth. ad Claudian. p. 32.
; and of such eminent estimation in the dark centuries, as to be taught in the seminaries of philological education as a classic
Barth. ad Bri
on. p. 110.
"M
di
aevi scholas tenuit, adol
scentibus praelectus, &c."
See Wilibaldus, Epist. 147. tom. ii. Vet. Monum. Marten. p. 334.
. Among the royal manuscripts in the British museum, a manuscript occurs written about the
venth century, which is a commentary on these nine books of Capella, compiled by Duncant an Irish bishop
Leland says he saw this work in the library of Worcester ab
ey. Coll. iii. p. 268.
, and given to his scholars in the monastery of saint Remigius
MSS. Reg. 15 A. xxxiii.
Liber olim S. Remig. Studio Gi
ardi scriptus.
Labb. Bibl. Nov. Manus
r. p. 66. In imitation of the first part of this work, a Frenchman, Jo. Bor
us, wrote NUPTIAE JURISCONSULTI ET PHILOLOGIAE, Paris. 1651. 4to.
. They were early translated into Latin leonine rhymes, and are often imitated by Saxo Grammaticus
Stephan. in Prolegomen. c. xix. And in the Notes, passim. He is adduced by
lgentius.
. Gregory of Tours has the vanity to hope, that no readers will think his Latinity barbarous: not even those, who have refined their taste, and enriched their understanding with a complete knowledge of every species of literature, by studying attentively this treatise of Marcianus
Hi
t. Fr. lib. x. ad calc. A manuscript of Marcianus, more than seven hundred years old, is mentioned by Bernard a Pez. Thesaur. Anecdot. tom. iii. p. 620. But by some writers of the early ages he is censured as obscure. Galfredus Canonicus, who flourished about 1170, declares,
"Non petimus nos, aut
la
civir
cum
Sidonio,
aut
v
rnare
cum
Hortensio,
aut
inv
lvere
cum
Marciano.
"
Apud Marten. ubi supr. to
. i. p. 506. He will occur again.
. Alexander Necham, a learned abbot of Cirencester, and a voluminous Latin writer about the year 1210, wrote annotations on Marcianus, which are yet preserved
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Digb. 221. And in other places. As did Scotus Erigena, Labb. Bibl. Nov. Manuscr. p. 45. And others of that period.
. He was first printed in the year 1499, and other editions appeared soon afterwards. This piece of Marcianus, dictated by the ideal philosophy of Plato, is supposed to have led the way to Boethius's celebrated CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY
See Mabillon. Itin. Ital. p. 221.
.
The marriage of SAPIENCE and ELOQUENCE, or Mercury and Philology, as described by Marcianus, at which Clio and Calliope with all their sisters assisted, and from which
ISCORD and SEDITION, the great enemies of literature, we
excluded, is artfully introduced, and beautifully contraste
w
h that of Oedipus and Jocasta, which was celebrated by an assemblage of the most hideous beings.
Ne was there none of the Muses nine,—
By one accorde to maken melody:
For there sung not by heavenly harmony,
Neyther Clio nor Caliope,
None of the sistren in number thrise thre,
As they did, when PHILOLAIE
PHILOLOGIA.
Ascended up highe above the skie,
To be wedded, this lady virtuous,
Unto her lord the god Mercurius.—
But at this weddinge, plainly for to telle,
Was CERBERUS, chiefe porter of hell;
And HEREBUS, fader to Hatred,
Was there present with his holle kindred,
His WIFE also
NIGHT.
with her browes blacke,
And her daughters, sorow for to make,
Hideously chered, and uglie for to see,
MEGERA, and THESIPHONEE,
ALECTO eke: with LABOUR, and ENVIE,
DREDE, FRAUDE, and false TRETCHERIE,
TRESON, POVERT, INDIGENCE, and NEDE,
And cruell DEATH in his rent wede
Garment.
:
WRETCHEDNESSE, COMPLAINT, and eke RAGE,
FEAR full pale, DRONKENESSE, croked AGE:
Cruell MARS, and many a tigre wood
The attendants on Mars.
,
Brenning
Burning.
IRE, and UNKINDE BLOOD,
FRATERNALL HATE depe sett in the roote,
Sauf only death that there was no boote
"Death was the only refuge, or remedy."
:
ASSURED OTHES at fine untrew
"Oaths which proved false in the end."
,
All these folkes were at weddyng new;
To make the town desolate and bare,
As the story after shall declare
Pag. 629. col. 1.
.
The bare conception of the attendance of this allegorical groupe on these incestuous espousals, is highly poetical: and although some of the personifications are not presented with the addition of any picturesque attributes, yet others are marked with the powerful pencil of Chaucer.
This poem is the THEBAID of a troubadour. The old classical tale of Thebes is here cloathed with feudal manners, enlarged with new fictions of the Gothic species, and furnished with the descriptions, circumstances, and machineries, appropriated to a romance of chivalry. The Sphinx is a terrible dragon, placed by a necromancer to guard a mountain, and to murther all travellers passing by
Pag. 627. col. 2.
. Tydeus being wounded sees a castle on a rock, whose high towers and
crested
pinnacles of polished stone glitter by the light of the moon: he gains admittance, is laid in a sumptuous bed of cloth of gold, and healed of his wounds by a king's daughter
Pag. 640. col. 2. seq.
. Tydeus and Polymite tilt at midnight for a lodging, before the gate of the palace of king Adrastus; who is awakened with the din of the strokes of their weapons, which shake all the palace, and descends into the court with a long train by torch-light: he orders the two combatants to be disarmed, and cloathed in rich mantles studded with pearls; and they are conducted to repose by
many a stair
to a stately tower, after being served with a refection of hypocras from golden goblets. The next day they are both espoused to the king's two daughters, and entertained with tournaments, feasting, revels, and masques
Pag. 633. col. 1. seq. Concerning the dresses, perhaps in the masques, we have this line. pag. 635. col. 2.
And the DEVISE of many a SOLEIN WEDE.
. Afterwards Tydeus, having a message to deliver to Eteocles king of Thebes, enters the hall of the royal palace, completely armed and on horseback, in the midst of a magnificent festival
Pag 637. col. 2.
. This palace, like a Norman fortress, or feudal castle, is guarded with barbicans, portcullisses, chains, and fosses
Pag. 644. col. 2.
. Adrastus wishes to close his old age in the repose of rural diversions, of hawking and hunting
Pag. 635. col. 1.
.
The situation of Polymite, benighted in a solitary wilderness, is thus forcibly described.
Holding his way, of hertè nothing light,
Mate
Afraid.
Fatigued.
and weary, till it draweth to night:
And al the day beholding envirown,
He neither sawe ne castle, towre, ne town;
The which thing greveth him full sore,
And sodenly the see began to rore,
Winde and tempèst hidiously to arise,
The rain down beten in ful grisly wise;
That many à beast thereof was adrad,
And nigh for ferè gan to waxè mad,
As it seemed by the full wofull sownes
Of tigres, beres, of bores, and of liounes;
Which to refute, and himself for to save,
Evrich in haste draweth to his cave.
But Polymitè in this tempest huge
Alas the whilè findeth no refuge.
Ne, him to shrowde, saw no where no succour,
Till it was passed almost midnight hour
P. 631. col. 2.
.
When Oedipus consults concerning his kindred the oracle of Apollo, whose image stood on a golden chariot with four wheels
burned bright and sheen,
animated with a fiend, the manner in which he receives his answer is touched with spirit and imagination.
And when Edipus by great devotion
Finished had fully his orison,
The fiend anon, within invisible,
With a voice dredefull and horrible,
Bade him in haste take his voyage
Towrds Thebes, &c
Pag. 626. col. 2.
.—
In this poem, exclusive of that general one already mentioned, there are some curious mixtures of manners, and of classics and scripture. The nativity of Oedipus at his birth is calculated by the most learned astronomers and physicians
Pag. 62
col. 1.
. Eteocles defends the walls of Thebes with great guns
Pag. 644. col. 2. Great and small, and some as large as
tonnes.
. And the priest
As in Chaucer.
Amphiorax, or Amphiaraus, is styled a bishop
Pag. 645. col. 1.
, whose wife is also mentioned. At a council held at Thebes, concerning the right of succession to the throne, Esdras and Solomon are cited: and the history of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem is introduced
Pag. 636. col. 1.
. The moral intended by this calamitous tale consists in shewing the pernicious effects of war: the diabolical nature of which our author still further illustrates by observing, that discord received its origin in hell, and that the first battle ever fought was that of Lucifer and his legion of rebel angels
Pag. 660. col. 1.
. But that the argument may have the fullest confirmation, Saint Luke is then quoted to prove, that avarice, ambition, and envy, are the primary sources of contention; and that Christ came into the world to destroy these malignant principles, and to propagate universal charity.
At the close of the poem, the mediation of the holy virgin is invoked, to procure peace in this life, and salvation in the next. Yet it should be remembered, that this piece is written by a monk, and addressed to pilgrims
Lydgate was near fifty when this poem was written. pag. 622. col. 2.
.
SECT. V.
THE third of Lydgate's poems which I proposed to consider, is the TROY BOKE, or the DESTRUCTION OF TROY. It was first printed at the command of king Henry the eighth, in the year 1513, by Richard Pinson, with this title,
"
THE HYSTORY SEGE AND DESTRUCCION OF TROYE.
The table or rubrisshe of the content of the chapitres, &c. Here after foloweth the
TROYE BOKE,
otherwise called the
SEGE OF TROYE.
Translated
by JOHN LYDGATE
monke of Bury, and emprynted at the commaundement of oure souveraygne lorde the kynge Henry the eighth,
by Richarde Pinson, &c. the yere of our lorde god a M. CCCCC. and XIII
Among other curious decorations in the title page, there are soldiers firing great guns at the city of Troy. Caxton, in his RECUYLE OF THE HYSTORYES OF TROYE, did not translate the account of the final destruction of the city from his French author Rauol le Feure,
"for as muche as that worshipfull and religious man Dan John Lydgate monke of Burye did
translate it but late,
after whose worke I feare to take upon me, &c."
At the end of B. ii.
."
Another, and a much more correct edition followed, by Thomas Marshe, under the care of one John Braham, in the year 1555
With this title.
"The auncient historie, and only true and syncere cronicle, of the warres betwixte the Grecians and the Troyans, and subsequently of the fyrst evercyon of the auncient and famouse cyte of Troye under Laomedon the king, and of the last and fynall destructyon of the same under Pryam: wrytten by Daretus a Troyan and Dictus a Grecian, both souldiours and present at and in all the sayd warres, and digested in Latyn by the learned Guydo de Columpnis, and sythes translated into Englyshe verse by John Lydgate moncke of Burye and newly imprinted."
The colophon,
"Imprinted at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of the Princes Armes by Thomas Marshe. Anno. do. M. D. L. V."
This book was modernised, and printed in five
lined stanzas, under the title,
"The LIFE AND DEATH OF HECTOR, &c. written by John Lydgate monk of Berry, &c. At London, printed by Thomas Purfoot. Anno Dom. 1614."
fol. But I suspect this to be a second edition.
Princip.
"In Thessalie king Pel
us once did raigne."
See Farmer's ESSAY, p. 39. 40. edit. 1767. This spurious TROYEBOKE is cited by Fuller, Winstanley, and others, as Lydgate's genuine work.
. It was begun in the year 1414, the last year of the reign of king Henry the fourth. It was written at that prince's command, and is dedicated to his successor. It was finished in the year 1420. In the Bodleian library there is a manuscript of this poem elegantly illuminated, with the picture of a monk presenting a book to a king
MSS. Digb. 232.
. From the splendour of the decorations, it appears to be the copy which Lydgate gave to Henry the fifth.
This poem is professedly a translation or paraphrase of Guido de Colonna's romance, entitled HISTORIA TROJANA
Princip.
"Licet cotidie vetera recentioribus obruantur."
. But whether from Colonna's original Latin, or from a French version
Of a Spanish version, by Petro Nunez Degaldo, see Nic. Anton. Bibl. Hispan. tom. ii. p. 179.
mentioned in Lygdate's Prologue, and which existed soon after the year 1300, I cannot ascertain
See supr. vol. i. p. 127. Notes. Yet he says, having finished his version, B. v. Signat. EE. i.
I have no more of
Latin
to translate,
After Dytes, Dares, and Guydo.
Again, he despairs of translating Guido's
Latin
elegantly. B. ii. c. x. See also B. iii. Sign. R. iii. There was a French translation of Dares printed, Cadom. 1573. See WORKS OF THE LEARNED. A. 1703. p. 222.
. I have before observed
Ibid. p. 126.
, that Colonna formed his Trojan History from Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis
As Colonna's book is extremely scarce, and the subject interesting, I will translate a few lines f
om Colonna's Prologue and Postscript. From the Prologue.
"These things, originally written by the Grecian D
ctys and the Phrygian Dares, (who were present in the Trojan war, and faithful, relators of what they saw,) are transferred into this book by Guido, of Colonna, a judge.—And although a certain Roman, Cornelius by name, the nephew of the great Sallustius, translated Dares and Dictys into Latin, yet, attempting to be concise, he has very improperly omitted those particulars of the history, which would have proved most agreeable to the reader. In my own book therefore every article belonging to the Trojan story will be comprehended."
—And in his Postscript.
"And I Guido de Colonna have followed the said Dictys in every particular; for this reason, because Dictys made his work perfect and complete in every thing.—And I should have decorated this history with more m
taphors and ornaments of style, and by incidental digressions, which are the
pictures
of composition. But deterred by the difficulty of the work, &c."
Guido has indeed ma
e Dictys nothing more than the ground-work of his story. All this is translated in Lydgate's Prologue.
; who perpetually occur as authorities in Lydgate's translation. Homer is however referred to in this work; particularly in the catalogue, or enumeration, of the ships which brought the several Grecian leaders with their forces to the Trojan coast. It begins thus, on the testimony of Colonna
From Dict. Cretens. lib. i. c. xvii. p. 17. seq. edit. Dacer. Amstel. 1702. 4to. And Dar. Phryg. cap. xiv. p. 158. ibid. There is a very ancient edition of Dares in quarto, without name or place. Of Dictys at Milan, 1477
4to. Dares is in German, with cuts, by Marcus Tatius, August. Vindel. 1536. fol. Dictys, by John Herold, at Basil, 1554. Both in Russian, at Moscow, 1712. 8vo.
.
Myne auctor
telleth how Agamamnon,
The worthi kynge, an hundred shippis brought.
And is closed with these lines.
Full many shippès was in this navye,
More than GUIDO maketh rehersayle,
Towards Troyè with Grekès for to sayle:
For as HOMER in his discrypcion
Of Grekès shippès maketh mencion,
Shortly affyrminge the man was never born
That such a nombre of shippes sawe to forne
B. ii. c. xvi.
.
In another place Homer, notwithstanding
all his rhetoryke and sugred eloquence,
his
lusty songes
and
dytees swete,
is blamed as a prejudiced writer, who favours the Greeks
B. iv. c. xxxi. And in the PROLOGUE, Virgil is censured for following
the traces of
HOMERIS
style,
in othe
respects a
tru
writer. We have the same complaint in our author's FALL OF PRINCIS. See supr. And in Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME, Colonna is introduced, among other authors of the Trojan story, making this objection to Homer's veracity. B. iii. p. 468. col. 1. v. 389. Urr. edit.
One
aied that OMERE made lies,
And feinyng in his poetries;
And was to the Grekès favorable,
And therefore held he it but fable.
: a censure, which flowed from the favorite and prevailing notion held by the western nations of their descent from the Trojans. Homer is also said to paint with colours of gold and azure
B. iv. c. xxxi. Signat. X. ii.
. A metaphor borrowed from the fashionable art of illumining. I do not however suppose, that Colonna, who flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century, had ever seen Homer's poems: he might have known these and many other particulars, contained in the Iliad, from those factitious historian
whom he professes to follow. Yet it is not, in the mean time, impossible, that Lydgate might have seen the Iliad, at least in a Latin translation. Leontius Pilatus, already mentioned, one of the learned Constantinopolitan exiles, had translated the Iliad into Latin prose, with part of the Odyss
y, at the desire of Boccacio
It is a slight error in Vigneul Marville, that this translation was procured by Petrarch. Mel. Litt. tom. i. p. 21. The very ingenious and accurate author of MEMOIRES POUR LA VIE DE PETRARQUE, is mistaken in saying that Hody supposes this version to have been made by Petrarch himself. liv. vi. tom. iii. p. 633. On the contrary, Hody has adjusted this matter with great perspicuity, and from the best authorities. DE GRAEC. ILLUSTR. lib. i. c. 1. p. 2. seq.
, about the year 1360. This appears from Petrarch's Epistles to his friend Boccacio
SENIL. lib. iii. Cap. 5.
: in which, among other curious circumstances, the former requests Boccacio to send him to Venice that part of Leontius's new Latin version of the Odyssey, in which Ulysses'
descent into hell, and the vestibule of Erebus, are described. He wishes also to see, how Homer, blind and an Asiatic, had described the lake of Averno and the mountain of Circe. In another part of these letters, he acknowledges the receipt of the Latin Homer; and mentions with how much satisfaction and joy the report of its arrival in the public library at Venice was received, by all the Greek and Latin scholars of that city
Hody, ubi supr. p. 5. 6. 7. 9. The Latin Iliad in prose was published under the name of Laurentius Valla, with some slight alterations, in 1497.
. The Iliad was also translated into French verse, by Jacques Milet, a licentiate of laws, about the year 1430
Mem. de Litt. xvii. p. 761. ed. 4to.
. Yet I cannot believe that Lydgate had ever consulted these translations, although he had travelled in France and Italy. One may venture to pronounce peremptorily, that he did not understand, as he probably never had seen, the original. After the migration of the Roman emperors to Greece, Boccacio was the first European that could read Homer; nor was there perhaps a copy of either of Homer's poems existing in Europe, till about the time the Greeks were driven by the Turks from Constantinople
See Boccat. GENEAL. DEOR. xv. 6. 7. Theodorus archbishop of Canterbury in the seventh century brought from Rome into England a manuscript of Homer; which is now said to be in Bennet library at Cambridge. See the SECOND DISSERTATION. In it is written with a modern hand,
Hic liber quondam
THEODORI
archiepiscopi Cant.
But probably this
Theodore
is THEODORE Gaza, whose book, or whose transcript, it might have been. Hody,
bi supr. Lib. i. c. 3. p. 59. 60.
. Long after Boccacio's time, the knowledge of the Greek tongue, and consequently of Homer, was confined only to a few scholars. Yet some ingenious French critics have insinuated, that Homer was familiar in France very early, and that Christina of Pisa, in a poem never printed, written in the year 1398, and entitled L'EPITRE D'OTHEA A HECTOR
In the royal manuscripts of the British Museum, this piece is entitled LA CHEVALERIE SPIRITUELLE
de ce monde.
17 E. iv. 2.
, borrowed the word Othea, or WISDOM, from
in Homer, a formal appellation by which that poet often invocates Minerva
Mons. L'Abbè Sallier, Mem. Litt. xvii. p. 518.
.
This poem is replete with descriptions of rural beauty, formed by a selection of very poetical and picturesque circumstances, and cloathed in the most perspicuous and musical numbers. The colouring of our poet's
Streaks of light. A very common word in Lydgate. Chaucer, Kn. T. v. 597. col. 2. Urr. p. 455.
And while the twilight and the
rowis
red
Of Phebus light.—
mornings is often remarkably rich and splendid.
When that the rowes
Streaks of light. A very common word in Lydgate. Chaucer, Kn. T. v. 597. col. 2. Urr. p. 455.
And while the twilight and the
rowis
red Of Phebus light.—
and the rayes redde
Eastward to us full early ginnen spredde,
Even at the twylyght in the dawneynge,
Whan that the larke of custom ginneth synge,
For to salüè
Salute.
in her heavenly laye,
The lusty goddesse of the morowe graye,
I meane Aurora, which afore the sunne
Is wont t'
Chase.
enchase the blackè skyès dunne,
And al the darknesse of the dimmy night:
And freshe Phebùs, with comforte of his light,
And with the brightnes of his bemès shene,
Hath overgylt the hugè hyllès grene;
And flourès eke, agayn the morowe-tide,
Upon their stalkes gan playn
Open.
their leavès wide
B. i. c. vi.
.
Again, among more pictures of the same subject.
When Aurorà the sylver droppè shene,
Her teares, had shed upon the freshè grene;
Complaynyng aye, in weping and in sorowe,
Her chyldren's death on every sommer-morowe:
That is to sayè, when the dewe so soote,
Embawmed hath the floure and eke roote
With lustie lycoùr in April and in Maye:
When that the larke, the messenger of daye,
Of custom aye Aurora doth salùe,
With sundry notes her sorowe to
Change.
transmuè
B. iii. c. xxiiii.
.
The spring is thus described, renewing the buds or blossoms of the groves, and the flowers of the meadows.
And them whom winter's blastes have shaken bare
With sotè blosomes freshly to repare;
And the meadòws of many a sundry hewe,
Tapitid ben with divers flourès newe
Of sundry motless
Colours.
, lusty for to sene;
And holsome balm is shed among the grene.
Frequently in these florid landscapes we find the same idea differently expressed. Yet this circumstance, while it weakened the description, taught a copiousness of diction, and a variety of poetical phraseology. There is great softness and facility in the following delineation of a delicious retreat.
Tyll at the last, amonge the bowès glade,
Of adventure, I caught a plesaunt shade;
Ful smothe, and playn, and lusty for to sene,
And softe as velvette was the yongè grene:
Where from my hors I did alight as fast,
And on a bowe aloft his reynè cast.
So faynte and mate of werynesse I was,
That I me layd adowne upon the gras,
Upon a brinckè, shortly for to telle,
Besyde the river of a cristall welle;
And the watèr, as I rehersè can,
Like quickè-sylver in his streames yran,
Of which the gravell and the bryghtè stone,
As any golde, agaynst the sun yshone
B. ii. cap. xii.
.
The circumstance of the pebbles and gravel of a transparent stream glittering against the sun, which is uncommon, has much of the brilliancy of the Italian poetry. It recalls to my memory a passage in Theocritus, which has been lately restored to its pristine beauty.
—
They found a perpetual spring, under a high rock,
Filled with pure water: but underneath
The pebbles
sparkled as with crystal and silver
From the bottom
. Idyll. xxii. v. 37.
.—
There is much elegance of sentiment and expression in the portrait of Creseide weeping when she parts with Troilus.
And from her eyn the teare's round drops tryll,
That al fordewed have her blackè wede;
And eke untrussd her haire abrode gan sprede,
Lyke golden wyre, forrent and alto torn.—
And over this, her freshe and rosey hewe,
Whylom ymeynt
Mingled.
with whitè lylyes newe,
Wyth wofull wepyng pyteously disteynd;
And lyke the herbes in April all bereynd,
Or floures freshè with the dewè swete,
Ryght so her chekès moystè were and wete
B. iii. c. xxv. So again of Polyxena, B. iv. c. xxx.
And aye she rentè with her fingers smale
Her golden heyre upon her blackè wede.
.
The following verses are worthy of attention in another style of writing, and have great strength and spirit. A knight brings a steed to Hector in the midst of the battle.
And brought to Hector. Sothly there he stoode
Among the Grekes, al bathed in their bloode:
The which in haste ful knightly he bestrode,
And them amonge like Mars himselfe he rode
B. iii. c. xxii.
.
The strokes on the helmets are thus expressed, striking fire amid the plumes.
But strokys felle, that men might herden rynge,
On bassenetts, the fieldès rounde aboute,
So cruelly, that the fyrè sprange oute
Amonge the tuftès brodè, bright and shene,
Of foyle of golde, of fethers white and grene
B. ii. c. xviii.
.
The touches of feudal manners, which our author affords, are innumerable: for the Trojan story, and with no great difficulty, is here entirely accommodated to the ideas of romance. Hardly any adventure of the champions of the round table was more chimerical and unmeaning than this of our Grecian chiefs: and the cause of their expedition to Troy was quite in the spirit of chivalry, as it was occasioned by a lady. When Jason arrives at Cholcos, he is entertained by king Oetes in a Gothic castle. Amadis or Lancelot were never conducted to their fairy chambers with more ceremony and solemnity. He is led through many a hall and many a tower, by many a stair, to a sumptuous apartment, whose walls, richly painted with the histories of antient heroes, glittered with gold and azure.
Through many a halle, and many a riche toure,
By many a tourne, and many divers waye,
By many a gree
Greece. Degree.
Step. Stair.
Gradus.
ymade of marbyll graye.—
And in his chambre', englosed
Painted. Or
r.
Englased. Skelton's CROWNE OF LAWRELL, p. 24. edit. 1736.
Wher the postis wer enbulioned with saphir's indy blewe
Englased
glitteringe, &c.
bright and cleare,
That shone ful shene with gold and with asure,
Of many image that ther was in pictùre,
He hath commaunded to his offycers,
Only' in honoùr of them that were straungers,
Spyces and wyne
B. i. c. v. See Colonna, Signat. b.
.—
The siege of Troy, the grand object of the poem, is not conducted according to the classical art of war. All the military machines, invented and used in the crusades, are assembled to demolish the bulwarks of that city, with the addition of great guns. Among other implements of destruction borrowed from the holy war, the Greek fire, first discovered at Constantinople, with which the Saracens so greatly annoyed the Christian armies, is thrown from the walls of the besieged
B. ii. c. xviii. See supr. vol. i. p. 157. In Caxton's TROY-BOOK, Hercules is said to make the
fire artificiall
as well as Cacus, &c. ii. 24.
.
Nor are we only presented in this piece with the habits of feudal life, and the practices of chivalry. The poem is enriched with a multitude of oriental fictions, and Arabian traditions. Medea gives to Jason, when he is going to combat the brazen bulls, and to lull the dragon who guarded the golden fleece asleep, a marvellous ring; in which was a gem whose virtue could destroy the efficacy of poison, and render the wearer invisible. It was the same sort of precious stone, adds our author, which Virgil celebrates, and which Venus sent her son Eneas that he might enter Carthage unseen. Another of Medea's presents to Jason, to assist him in this perilous atchievement, is a silver image, or talisman, which defeated all the powers of incantation, and was framed according to principles of astronomy
Ibid.
. The hall of king Priam is illuminated at night by a prodigious carbuncle, placed among saphires, rubies, and pearls, on the crown of a golden statue of Jupiter, fifteen cubits high
B. ii. c. xi.
. In the court of the palace, was a tree made by magic, whose trunk was twelve cubits high; the branches, which overshadowed distant plains, were alternately of solid gold and silver, blossomed with gems of various hues, which were renewed every day
B. ii. c. xi.
. Most of these extravagancies, and a thousand more, are in Guido de Colonna, who lived when this mode of fabling was at its height. But in the fourth book, Dares e Phrigius is particularly cited for a description of Priam's palace, which seemed to be founded by FAYRIE, or enchantment; and was paved with crystal, built of diamonds, saphires, and emeralds, and supported by ivory pillars, surmounted with golden images
Cap. xxvi.
. This is not, however, in Dares. The warriors who came to the assistance of the Trojans, afford an ample field for invention. One of them be
ongs to a region of forests; amid the gloom of which wander many monstrous beasts, not real, but appearances or illusive images, formed by the deceptions of necromancy, to terrify the traveller
B. ii. c. xviii.
. King Epistrophus brings from the land beyond the Amazons, a thousand knights; among which is a terrible archer, half man and half beast, who neighs like a horse, whose eyes sparkle like a furnace, and strike dead like lightening
So described by Colonna, Signat. n 4. seq.
. This is Shakespeare's DREADFUL SAGITTARY
Ibid. And B. iii. c. xxiv. The Sagittary is not in Dictys or Dares. In whom also, these warriors are but barely named, and are much fewer in number. See Dar. cap. xviii. p. 161. Dict. lib. ii. cap. xxxv. p. 51. The description of the persons of Helen, and of the Trojan and Gre
ian heroes [B. ii. c. xv.] is from Dares through Colonna, Daret. Hist. c. xii. p. 156. seq.
. The Trojan horse, in the genuine spirit of Arabian philosophy, is formed of brass
In Dictys
"tabulatis extruitur ligneis."
lib. v. c. x. p. 113. In Gower he is also a
hors of brasse.
Conf. Amant. lib. i. fol. xiiii. a. col. 1. From Colonna, Signat. t 4. Here also are Shakespeare's
abulous names of the gates of Troy. Signat. d 4. seq.
of such immense size, as to contain a thousand soldiers.
Colonna, I believe, gave the Trojan story its romantic additions. It had long before been falsified by Dictys and Dares; but those writers, misrepresenting or enlarging Homer, only invented plain and credible facts. They were the basis of Colonna: who first filled the faint outlines of their fabulous history with the colourings of eastern fancy, and adorned their scanty forgeries with the gorgeous trappings of Gothic chivalry. Or, as our author expresses himself in his Prologue, speaking of Colonna's improvements on his originals.
For he ENLUMINETH, by crafte and cadence,
This noble story with many a FRESHE COLOURE
Of rhetorike, and many a RYCHE FLOURE
Of eloquence, to make it sound the bett
Better.
.
Cloathed with these new inventions, this favourite tale descended to later times. Yet it appears, not only with these, but with an infinite variety of other embellishments, not fabricated by the fertile genius of Colonna, but adopted from French enlargements of Colonna, and incorporated from romances on other subjects, in the French RECUYEL OF TROY, written by a French ecclesiastic, Rauol le Feure, about the year 1464, and translated by Caxton
As for instance, Hercules having killed the eleven giants of Cremona, builds over them a vast tower, on which he placed eleven images of metal, of the size and figure of the giants. B. ii. c. 24. Something like this, I think, is in Amadis de Gaul. Robert Braham, in the EPISTLE TO THE READER, prefixed to the edition of Lydgate's TROY-BOOK of 1555, is of opinion, that the fables in the French RECUYEL ought to be ranked with the
trifeling tales
and
bar
ay
e lu
rdries
of ROBYN HODE and BEVYS OF HAMPTON, and are not to be compared with the
faythful
and
trewe
reports of this history given by Dares Phrigius and Dictys Cretensis.
.
The description of the city of Troy, as newly built by king Priam, is extremely curious; not for the capricious incredibilities and absurd inconsistencies which it exhibits
It is three days journey in length and breadth. The walls are two hundred cubits high, of marble and alabaster, and machiocolated. At every angle was a crown of gold, set with the riche
t gems. There were great guns in the towers. On each turret were figures of savage and monstrous beasts in brass. The gates were of brass, and each has a portcullis. The houses were all uniform, and of marble, sixty cubits high.
, but because it conveys anecdotes of antient architecture, and especially of that florid and improved species, which began to grow fashionable in Lydgate's age. Although much of this is in Colonna. He avoids to describe it geometrically, having never read Euclid. He says that Priam procured,
—Eche carver, and curious joyner,
To make knottes with many a queint floure
To sette on crestes within and eke without.—
That he sent for such as could
"grave, groupe, or carve, were sotyll in their fantasye, good devysours, marveylous of castinge, who could raise a wall with batayling and crestes marciall, every imageour in entayle
Intaglia.
, and every portreyour who could paynt the work with fresh hewes, who could pullish alabaster, and make an ymage."
And yf I shulde rehersen by and by,
The corvè knottes by craft of masonry;
The fresh embowing
Arching.
with verges right as lynes,
And the housyng full of bachewines,
The ryche coynyng, the lusty tablemènts,
Vinettes
Vignettes.
running in casemènts.—
Nor how they put, instedè of mortère,
In the joyntoures, coper gilt ful clere;
To make them joyne by levell and by lyne,
Among the marbell freshly for to shyne
Agaynst the sunne, whan that his shenè light
Smote on the goldè that was burned bright.
The sides of every street were covered with
freshe alures
Allies, or covert-ways. Lat.
Alura.
viz.
"ALURA quae ducit a coquina conventus, usque ad cameram prioris."
Hearne's OTTERB. Praef. Append. p. cxi. Where Hearne derives it from ALA, a wing, or side. Rather from
All
r,
whence Allée, Fr.
Al
ey.
Robert of Gloucester mentions the ladies standing
"upe [upon] the
alurs
of the castle,"
to see a tournament. See supr. vol. 1. p. 50. The word
Alura
in not in Du Cange.
of marble, or cloisters, crowned with rich and lofty pinnacles, and fronted with tabernacular or open work
Like the latticed stone-work, or
cancelli,
of a Gothic shrine.
, vaulted like the dormitory of a monastery, and called
deambulatories,
for the accommodation of the citizens in all weathers.
And every house ycovered was with lead;
And many a gargoyle, and many a hideous head,
With spoutès thorough, &c.—
And again, of Priam's palace.
And the walles, within and eke without,
Endilong were with knottes graven clere,
Depeynt with asure, golde, cinople', and grene.—
And al the wyndowes and eche fenestrall
Wrought were with beryll and of cler
crystall.
s Said to have been invented by Marchion of Arezzo. Walpole, ANECD. PAINT. i
p. 111.
.
With regard to the reality of the last circumstance, we are told, that in Studley castle in Shropshire, the windows, so late as the reign of Elizabeth, were of beryl
Har
ison's DESCRIPT. BRIT. Cap. xii. p. 188. The occupations of the citizens of Troy are mention
d. Ther
were goldsmiths, jewellers, embroiderers, weavers of woollen and linen, of cloth, of gold, damask, sattin, velvet,
sendel,
or a think silk like cypress, and double
samyte,
or satin. Smiths, who forged poll-axes, spears, and
quarrel-heads,
or cross-bow darts shaped square. Armourers, Bowyers, Fletchers, makers of trappings, banners, standards, penons,
and for the field
freshe and gaye
G
TOURS. I do not precisely understand the last word. Perhaps it is a sort of ornamented armour for the legs.
.
The account of the Trojan theatre must not be omitted, as it displays the imperfect ideas of the stage, at least of dramatic exhibition, which now prevailed; or rather, the absolute inexistence of this sort of spectacle. Our author supposes, that comedies and tragedies were first represented at Troy
All that follows on this subject, is not in Colonna.
. He defines a comedy to begin with complaint and to end with
gladnesse:
expressing the actions of those only who live in the lowest condition. But tragedy, he informs us, begins in prosperity, and ends in adversity: shewing the wonderful vicissitudes of fortune which have happened in the lives of kings and mighty conquerours. In the theatre of Troy, he adds, was a pulpit, in which stood a poet, who rehearsed the
noble dedes that were historial of kynges, prynces, and worthy emperours;
and, above all, related those fatal and sudden catastrophes, which they sometimes suffered by murther, poison, conspiracy, or other secret and unforeseen machinations.
And this was tolde and redde by the poete.
And while that he in the pulpet stode
With deadlye facè all devoyd of blode,
Syngynge his dites with tresses al to rent;
Amydde the theatre, shrowded in a tent,
There came out men, gastfull of their cheres,
Disfygured their faces with vyseres,
Playing by signès in the people's syght
That the poete songe hathe on height
"That which the poet sung, standing in the pulpit."
:
So that there was no maner discourdaunce,
Atween his ditees and their countenaunce.
For lyke as he aloftè dyd expresse
Wordes of joyè or of hevinesse,—
So craftely they
The actors.
could them
Themselves.
transfygure
Lib. ii. cap. x. See also, B. iii. c. xxviii.
.
It is added, that these plays, or
rytes of tragedyes old,
were acted at Troy, and
in the theatre halowed and yholde,
when the months of April and May returned.
In this detail of the dramatic exhibition which prevailed in the ideal theatre of Troy, a poet, placed on the stage in a pulpit, and characteristically habited, is said to have recited a series of tragical adventures; whose pathetic narrative was afterwards expressed, by the dumb gesticulations of a set of masqued actors. Some perhaps may be inclined to think, that this imperfect species of theatric representation, was the rude drama of Lydgate's age. But surely Lydgate would not have described at all, much less in a long and laboured digression, a public shew, which from its nature was familiar and notorious. On the contrary, he describes it as a thing obsolete, and existing only in remote times. Had a more perfect and legitimate stage now subsisted, he would not have deviated from his subject, to communicate unnecessary information, and to deliver such minute definitions of tragedy and comedy. On the whole, this formal history of a theatre, conveys nothing more than an affected display of Lydgate's learning; and is collected, yet with apparent inaccuracy and confusion of circumstances, from what the antient grammarians have left concerning the origin of the Greek tragedy. Or perhaps it might be borrowed by our author from some French paraphrastic version of Colonna's Latin romance.
Among the antient authors, beside those already mentioned, cited in this poem, are Lollius for the history of Troy, Ovid for the tale of Medea and Jason, Ulysses and Polyphemus, the Myrmidons and other stories, Statius for Polynices and Eteocles, the venerable Bede, Fulgentius the mythologist, Justinian with whose institutes Colonna as a civilian must have been well acquainted, Pliny, and Jacobus de Vitriaco. The last is produced to prove, that Philometer, a famous philosopher, invented the game of chess, to divert a tyrant from his cruel purposes, in Chaldea; and that from thence it was imported into Greece. But Colonna, or rather Lydgate, is of a different opinion; and contends, in opposition to his authority, that this game,
so sotyll and so marvaylous,
was discovered by
prudent clerkes
during the siege of Troy, and first practiced in that city.
y Colonna calls him,
ille
FABULARIUS
Sulmonensis,—fabulose commentans,
&c. Signat. b 2.
Jacobus de Vitriaco was a canon regular at Paris, and, among other dignities in the church, bishop of Ptolemais in Palestine, about the year 1230. This tradition of the invention of chess is mentioned by Jacobus de Vitriaco in his ORIENTAL AND OCCIDENTAL HISTORY
In three books.
. The anecdote of Philometer is, I think, in Egidius Romanus on this subject, above-mentioned. Chaucer calls Athalus, that is Attalus Philometer, the same person, and who is often mentioned in Pliny, the invento
of chess
DREME, p. 408. col. 2. edit. Urr.
.
I must not pass over an instance of Lydgate's gallantry, as it is the gallantry of a monk. Colonna takes all opportunities of satirising the fair sex; and Lydgate with great politeness declares himself absolutely unwilling to translate those passages of this severe moralist, which contain such unjust and illiberal misrepresentations of the female character. Instead of which, to obviate these injurious reflections, our translator enters upon a formal vindication of the ladies; not by a panegyric on their beauty, nor encomiums on those amiable accomplishments, by which they refine our sensibilities, and give elegance to life; but by a display of that religious fortitude with which some women have suffered martyrdom; or of that inflexible chastity, by means of which others have been snatched up alive into heaven, in a state of genuine virginity. Among other striking examples which the calendar affords, he mentions the transcendent grace of the eleven thousand virgins who were martyred at Cologne in Germany. In the mean time, female saints, as I suspect, in the barbarous ages were regarded with a greater degree of respect, on account of those exaggerated ideas of gallantry which chivalry inspired: and it is not improbable that the distinguished honours paid to the virgin Mary might have partly proceeded from this principle.
Among the anachronistic improprieties which this poem contains, some of which have been pointed out, the most conspicuous is the fiction of Hector's sepulchre, or tomb: which also merits our attention for another reason, as it affords us an opportunity of adding some other notices of the modes of antient architecture to those already mentioned. The poet from Colonna supposes, that Hector was buried in the principal church of Troy, near the high altar, within a magnificent oratory, erected for that purpose, exactly resembling the Gothic shrines of our cathedrals, yet charged with many romantic decorations.
With crafty archys raysyd wonder clene,
Embowed over all the work to cure,
So marveylous was the celature:
That al the rofe, and closure envyrowne,
Was of
With.
fyne goldè plated up and downe,
With knottès gravè wonder curyous
Fret ful of stony's rich and precious, &c.
The structure is supported by angels of gold. The steps are of crystall. Within, is not only an image of Hector in solid gold; but his body embalmed, and exhibited to view with the resemblance of real life, by means of a precious liquor circulating through every part in golden tubes artificially disposed, and operating on the principles of vegetation. This is from the chemistry of the times. Before the body were four inextinguishible lamps in golden sockets. To complete the work, Priam founds a regular chantry of priests, whom he accommodates with mansions near the church, and endows with revenues, to sing in this oratory for the soul of his son Hector
B. iii.
. xxviii. Joseph of Exeter in his Latin poem entitled ANTIOCHEIS, or the CRUSADE, has borrowed from this tomb of Hector, in his brilliant description of the mausoleum of Teuthras. lib. iv. 451. I have quoted the passage in the SECOND DISSERTATION. Signat. i.
.
In the Bodleian library, there is a prodigious folio manuscript on vellum, a translation of Colonna's TROJAN HISTORY into verse
MSS. Laud. K. 76. fol.
; which has been confounded with Lydgate's TROYE-BOKE now before us. But it is an entirely different work, and is written in the short minstrel-metre. I have given a specimen of the Prologue, above
Supr. vol. i. p. 119. 120.
. It appears to me to be Lydgate's TROYE-BOKE divested of the octave stanza, and reduced into a measure which might more commodiously be sung to the harp
It may, however, be thought, that this poem is rather a translation or imitation of some French original, as the writer often refers to
The Romance.
If this be the case, it is not immediately formed from the TROYE-BOKE of Lydgate, as I have suggested in the text. I believe it to be about Lydgate's age; but there is no other authority for supposing it to be written by Lydgate, than that, in the beginning of the Bodleian manuscript now before us, a hand-writing, of about the reign of James the first, assigns it to that poet. I will give a few lines from the poem itself: which begins with Jason's expedition to Cholcos, the constant prelude to the Trojan story in all the writers of this school.
In Colkos ile a cite was,
That men called hanne Jaconitas;
F
air, and mekel
Great.
, large, and long,
With walles huge and wondir strong,
Fful of toures, and heye paleis,
Off rich knyȝtes, and burgeis:
A kyng that tyme hete
Hig
t,
named.
Eetes
Gouerned than that lond in pes
Peace.
,
With his baronage, and his meynè,
Dwelleden thanne in that citè:
Ffor al aboute that riche toun
Stode wodes, and parkis, enviroun,
That were replenysched wonderful
Of herte, and hynd, bore, and bul,
And othir many savage bestis,
Betwixt that wode and that forestis.
Ther was large contray and playn,
Ffaire wodes, and champayn
Fful of semely-rennyng welles,
As the ROMAUNCE the sothe
Tr
th.
telles,
Withoute the cite that ther sprong.
Ther was of briddes michel song,
Thorow al the ȝer
Year.
and michel cry,
Of al joyes gret melody.
To that citè [of] Eetes
Ȝode
Came.
Jason and Hercules,
And al the ffelawes that he hadde
In clothe of golde as kynges he cladde, &c.
Afterwards, the sorceress Medea, the king's daughter, is thus characterised.
Sche couthe the science of clergy,
And mochel of nigramauncy.—
Sche coude with conjurisouns,
With here schleyght
Slight,
art.
, and oresouns,
The day, that was most fair and lyght,
Make as darke as any nyght:
Sche couthe also, in selcouthe wise,
Make the wynde both blowe and rise,
And make him so loude blowe,
As it schold howses overthrowe.
Sche couth turne, verament,
All weders
Wethers.
, and the firmament, &c.
The reader, in some of these lines, observes the appeal to
The romance
for authority. This is common throughout the poem, as I have hinted. But at
he close, the poet wishes eternal salvation to the soul of the author of the
Romaunce.
And he that this
romaunce
wroght and made,
Lord in heven thow him glade.
If this piece is translated from a French romance, it is not from the antient metrical one of Benoit, to whom, I believe, Colonna is much indebted; but perhaps from some later French romance, which copied, or translated, Colonna's book. This, among other circumstances, we may collect from these lines.
Dares the heraud of Troye says,
And Dites that was of the Gregeis, &c.
And after him cometh
maister
GY,
That was of Rome a notary.
This
maister Gy,
or
Guy,
that is Guido of Colonna, he adds, wrote this history,
In the
manere
I schall telle.
That is
"my author, or romance, follows Colonna."
[See supr. vol. i. p. 127.]
Dares the heraud
is Dares Phrygius, and
Dites
Dictys Cretensis.
This poem, in the Bodleian manuscript aforesaid, is finished, as I have partly observed, with an invocation to god, to save the author, and the readers, or hearers; and ends with this line,
Seythe alle Amen for charite.
But this rubric immediately follows, at the beginning of a page.
"Hic bellum de Troy
ffinit et Greci transierunt versus p
triam suam."
Then follow several lineated pages of vellum, without writing. I have never seen any other manuscript of this piece.
. It is not likely that Lydgate is its author: that he should either thus transform his own composition, or write a new piece on the subject. That it was a poem in some considerable estimation, appears from the size and splendour of the manuscript: and this circumstance induces me to believe, that it was at a very early period ascribed to Lydgate. On the other hand, it is extraordinary that the name of the writer of so prolix and laborious a work, respectable and conspicuous at least on account of its length, should have never transpired. The language accords with Lydgate's age, and is of the reign of Henry the sixth: and to the same age I refer the hand-writing, which is executed with remarkable elegance and beauty.
SECT. VI.
TWO more poets remain to be mentioned under the reign of Henry the sixth, if mere translation merit that appellation. These are Hugh Campeden and Thomas Chester.
The first was a great traveller, and translated into English verse the French romance of SIDRAC
See supr. vol. i. p. 143.
. This translation, a book of uncommon rarity, was printed with the following title, at the expence of Robert Saltwood, a monk of saint Austin's convent at Canterbury, in the year 1510.
"The Historie of king Boccus and SYDRACKE how he confoundyd his lerned men, and in the sight of them dronke stronge venyme in the name of the trinite and dyd him no hurt. Al
o his divynite that he lerned of the boke of Noe. Also his profesyes that he had by revelation of the angel. Also his aunsweris to the questyons of wysdom both morall and naturall with muche wysdom contayned in [the] noumber CCCLXV. Translated by Hugo of Caumpeden out of French into Englishe, &c
With a wooden cut of Bocchus, and Sidracke. There is a fine manuscript of this translation, Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Laud. G. 57. pergam.
.
There is no sort of elegance in the diction, nor harmony in the versification. It is in the minstrel-metre
MS. Laud. G. 57. Princip.
Men may fynde in olde bookes
Who soo yat in them lookes
That men may mooche here
And yerefore yff yat yee wolle le
e
I shall teche yoowe a lytill jeste
That befell oonys in the este
There was a kynge that Boctus hyght
And was a man of mooche myght
His londe lay de grete Inde
Bectorye hight hit as we fynde
After the tyme of Noee even
VIIJ•• hundred yere fourty and seven
The kynge Boc
us hym be thought
That he would have a citee wrought
The rede Jewes fro hym spere
And for to mayntene his were
A yenst a kyng that was hys foo
And hath moste of Inde longyng hym to
His name was Garaab the kyng
Bocchus tho proved all this thing
And smartly a towre begenne he
There he wolde make his citee
And it was right at the incomyng
Of Garabys londe the kyng
The masons with grete laboure
Beganne to worke uppon the toure
And all that they wroghten on day
On night was hit done away
On morn when Bochus hit herde
Hee was wroth that hit so ferde
And dyd hyt all new begynne
At even whan they shuld blynne
Off worke when they went to reste
In the night was all downe heste
Well vii monthes this thei wrought
And in the night avaylid yt nought
Boccus was wroth wonderly
And callid his folke that was hym by
Councellith me lordinges seyde hee
Howe I may beste make this citee
They sayde sir sendith a noon
Aftir your philosophers everychon
And the astronomers of your londe
Of hem shall yee counseill fonde.
Afterwards king Tractabare is requested to send
—the booke of astronomye
That whilom Noe had in baylye,
together with his astronomer Sidracke.
At the end.
And that Hugh of Campedene
That this boke hath thorogh soght
And untoo Englyssh ryme hit brought.
Sidrake, who is a christian, at length builds the tower
in Nomine S. Trinitatis,
and he teaches Bocchus, who is an idolater, many articles of true religion. The only manuscript I have seen of this translation is
mong MSS. Laud. G. 57. fol. ut. supr.
.
Thomas Chestre appears also to have been a writer for the minstrels. No anecdote of his life is preserved. He has left a poem entitled Sir LAUNFALE, one of Arthur's knights
who is celebrated with other champions in a set of French metrical tales or romances, written by some Armorican bard, under the name of LANVAL
It begins thus.
LAUNFAL M
LES.
Le douȝty Artours dawes
That held Engelond in good lawe,
Ther fell a wondyr cas,
Of a ley
Liege.
that was ysette,
That hyȝt LAUNFAL and hatte ȝette.
Now herkeneth how hyt was;
Douȝty Artour some whyle
Sojournede yn Kerdenyle
Or, K
rdevyle. f. Ca
rli
e.
,
With joye and gr
et solas,
And knyȝts that wer profitable,
With Artour of the rounde table,
Never noon better th
r was.
Sere Persevall, and syr Gawyn
Syr Gyherther, and syr Agrayn,
And Lancelot du Lake,
Syr Kay, and syr Ewayn,
That well couthe fyȝt yn playn,
Bateles for to take.
Kyng Ban Boort, and kyng Bos,
Of ham ther was a greet los,
Men sawe tho no wher
Th
r.
her
Match.
make.
Syr Galafre, and syr LAUNFALE,
Whereof a noble tale
Among us shall a wake.
With A
tour ther was a bachelor
And hadde y be well many a ȝer,
LAUNFAL for soot
Soth.
he hyȝt,
He gaf gyftes largelyche
Gold and sylver and clothes ryche,
To squyer and to knyȝt.
For hys largesse and hys bounte
The kinges steward made was he
Ten yer I you plyȝt,
Of alle the knyȝtes of the table rounde
So large there was noon y
ounde,
Be days ne be nyȝt.
So hyt befyll yn the tenth ȝere
Marlyn was Artours counsalare,
He radde him for to wende
To kyng Ryon of Irlond ryȝt,
And fette hym ther a lady bryȝt
Gwenere hys doughter hende, &c.
In the conclusion.
THOMAS CHESTER made thys tale
Of the noble knyȝt syr Launfale
Good of chyvalrye:
Jesus that ys hevene kyng
Ȝeve us all hys blessyng
And hys moder Marye.
EXPLICIT LAUNFALE.
Never printed. MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2. f. 33. I am obliged to doctor Percy for this transcript. It was afterwards altered into the romance of sir LAMBWELL.
. They are in the British Museum
MSS. Harl. 978. 112. fol. i. 154.
"En Bretains l'apelent LAUNVAL."
See a note at the beginning of DISS.
.
.
I think I have seen some evidence to prove, that Chestre was also the author of the metrical romance called the ERLE OF THOLOUSE
Never printed. MSS. Ashmol. Oxon. 45. 4to. [6926.] And MSS. More. Camb. 27.
Princip.
Jesu Crist in trinite,
Only god in persons thre, &c.
Lefe frendys I shall you telle
Of a tale that sometyme befell
Far in unkouthe lade,
Howe a lady had grete myschese, &c.
. This is one of the romances called LAIS by the poets of Britany, or Armorica: as appears from these lines,
In romance this gest
A LEY
Perhaps
ley
in the fourth line of sir LAUNFAL may mean Lay in this sense. See note at the beginning of the FIRST DISSERTATION.
of BRITAYN callyd I wys, &c.
And that it is a translation, appears from the reference to an original,
"The
Romans
telleth so."
I will however give the outlines of the story, which is not uninteresting, nor inartificially constructed.
Dioclesian, a powerful emperour in Germany, has a rupture with Barnard earl of Tholouse, concerning boundaries of territory. Contrary to the repeated persuasions of the empress, who is extremely beautiful, and famous for her conjugal fidelity, he meets the earl, with a numerous army, in a pitched battle, to decide the quarrel. The earl is victorious, and carries home a great multitude of prisoners, the most respectable of which is sir Tralabas of Turky, whom he treats as his companion. In the midst of their festivities they talk of the beauties of the empress; the earl's curiosity is inflamed to see so matchless a lady, and he promises liberty to sir Tralabas, if he can be conducted unknown to the emperour's court, and obtain a sight of her without discovery. They both set forward, the earl disguised like a hermit. When they arrive at the emperour's court, sir Tralabas proves false: treacherously imparts the secret to the empress that he has brought with him the earl of Tholouse in disguise, who is enamoured of her celebrated beauty; and proposes to take advantage of so fair an opportunity of killing the emperour's great and avowed enemy. She rejects the proposal with indignation, injoyns the knight not to communicate the secret any farther, and desires to see the earl next day in the chapel at mass. The next day the earl in his hermit's weeds is conveniently placed at mass. At leaving the chapel, he asks an alms of the empress; and she gives him forty florins and a ring. He receives the present of the ring with the highest satisfaction, and although obliged to return home, in point of prudence, and to avoid detection, comforts himself with this reflection.
Well is me, I have thy grace,
Of the to have thys thyng!
If ever I have grace of the,
That
any love betweene us be,
This may be a TOKENYNG.
He then returns home. The emperour is called into some distant country; and leaves his consort in the custody of two knights, who attempting to gain her love without success, contrive a stratagem to defame her chastity. She is thrown into prison, and the emperour returns unexpectedly
The emperour's disappointment is thus described.
Anon to the chamber went he,
He longyd sore his wyf to se,
That was so swete a wyght:
He callyd theym that shulde her kepe,
Where is my wif is she on slepe?
How farys that byrd so bryght?
The traytors answeryd anon,
And ye wi
t how she had done, &c.—
The yonge knyght sir Artour,
That was her hervour, &c.
For bale his armys abrode he sprede,
And sell in swoone on his bed.
, in consequence of a vision. The tale of the two treacherous knights is believed, and she is sentenced to the flames: yet under the restriction, that if a champion can be found who shall foil the two knights in battle, her honour shall be cleared, and her life saved. A challenge is published in all parts of the world; and the earl of Tholouse, notwithstanding the animosities which still subsist between him and the emperour, privately undertakes her quarrel. He appears at the emperour's court in the habit of a monk, and obtains permission to act as confessor to the empress, in her present critical situation. In the course of the confession, she protests that she was always true to the emperour; yet owns that once
she gave a ring to the earl of Tholouse.
The supposed confessor pronounces her innocent of the charge brought against her; on which one of the traiterous knights affirms
that the monk was suborned to publish this confession, and that he deserved to be consumed in the same fire which was prepared for the lady. The monk pretending that the honour of his religion and character was affected by this insinuation, challenges both the knights to combat: they are conquered; and the empress, after this trial, is declared innocent. He then openly discovers himself to be the earl of Tholouse, the emperour's antient enemy. A solemn reconciliation ensues. The earl is appointed seneschal of the emperour's domain. The emperour lives only three years, and the earl is married to the empress.
In the execution of this performance, our author was obliged to be concise, as the poem was intended to be sung to the harp. Yet, when he breaks through this restraint, instead of dwelling on some of the beautiful situations which
he story affords, he is diffuse in displaying trivial and unimportant circumstances. These popular poets are never so happy, as when they are describing a battle or a feast.
It will not perhaps be deemed impertinent to observe, that about this period the minstrels were often more amply paid than the clergy. In this age, as in more enlightened times, the people loved better to be pleased than instructed. During many of the years of the reign of Henry the sixth, particularly in the year 1430, at the annual feast of the fraternity of the HOLIE CROSSE at Abingdon, a town in Berkshire, twelve priests each received four pence for singing a dirge: and the same number of minstrels were rewarded each with two shillings and four pence, beside diet and horse-meat. Some of these minstrels came only from Maydenhithe, or Maidenhead, a town at no great distance in the same county
Hearne's Lib. Nig. Scacc. APPEND. p. 598.
. In the year 1441, eight priests were hired from Coventry to assist in celebrating a yearly obit in the church of the neighbouring priory of Maxtoke; as were six minstrels, called MIMI, belonging to the family of
ord Clinton, who lived in the adjoining castle of Maxtoke, to sing, harp, and play, in the hall of the monastery, during the extraordinary refection allowed to the monks on that anniversary. Two shillings were given to the priests, and four to the minstrels
Ex Computis Prioris Priorat. de Max
ock. penes me. [See supr. vol. i. p. 90.]
"Dat. sex Mimis domini Clynton cantantibus, citharisantibus, et ludentibus, in aula in dicta Pietantia, iiii. s."
: and the latter are said to have supped in
camera picta,
or the painted chamber of the convent, with the subprior
"Mimis cenantibus in camera picta cum suppriore eodem tempore,"
[the sum
bliterated.]
, on which occasion the chamberlain furnished eight massy tapers of wax
Ex comp. Camerarii, ut supr.
. That the gratuities allowed to priests, even if learned, for their labours, in the same age of devotion, were extremely slender, may be collected from other expences of this priory
Ex comp. praedict.
. In the same year, the prior gives only sixpence
Worth about five shillings of our pre
ent money.
for a sermon, to a DOCTOR PRAEDICANS, or an itinerant doctor in theology of one of the mendicant orders, who went about preaching to the religious houses.
We are now arrived at the reign of king Edward the fourth, who acceded to the throne in the year 1461
I know not whether it is worth mentioning, that a metrical
Dialogue between God and the penitent Soul,
belonging to the preceding reign, is preserved at Caius college, Cambridge.
Pr.
"Our gracious lord prince of pite."
MSS. E. 147. 6. With other pieces of the kind. The writer, William Lichfield, a doctor in theology, shone most in prose; and is said to have written, with his own hand, 3083 English sermons. See T. Gascoign, (MS.) Diction. V. PRAEDICATOR. He died 1447. See Stowe, Lond. 251. 386. Newcourt, i. 819.
. But before I proceed in my series, I will employ the remainder of this section in fixing the reader's attention on an important circumstance, now operating in its full extent, and therefore purposely reserved for this period, which greatly contributed to the improvement of our literature, and consequently of our poetry: I mean the many translations of Latin books, especially classics, which the French had been making for about the two last centuries, and were still continuing to make, into their own language. In order to do this more effectually, I will collect into one view the most distinguished of these versions: not solicitous about those notices on this subject which have before occurred incidentally; nor scrupulous about the charge of anticipation, which, to prepare the reader, I shall perhaps incur by lengthening this enquiry, for the sake of comprehension, beyond the limits of the period just assigned. In the mean time it may be pertinent to premise, that from the close communication which formerly subsisted between England and France, manuscript copies of many of these translations, elegantly written, and often embellished with the most splendid illuminations and curious miniatures, were presented by the translators or their patrons to the kings of England; and that they accordingly appear at present among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum. Some of these, however, were transcribed, if not translated, by command of our kings; and others brought into England, and placed in the royal library, by John duke of Bedford, regent of France.
It is not consistent with my design, to enumerate the Latin legends, rituals, monastic rules, chronicles, and historical parts of the bible, such as the BOOK OF KINGS and the MACCABEES, which were looked upon as stories of chivalry
As
"Plusieurs Battailes des Roys d'Israel en contre les Philistien
et Assyrien
, &c."
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 19 D. 1. 7.
, translated by the French before the year 1200. These soon became obsolete: and are, besides, too deeply tinctured with the deplorable superstition and barbarity of their age, to bear a recital
I must however except their LAPIDAIRE, a poem on precious stones, from the Latin of Marbodeus; and the BESTIAIRE, a set of metrical fables, from the Latin Esop. These however ought to be looked upon as efforts of their early poetry, rather than translations.
. I will therefore begin with the thirteenth century. In the year 1210, Peter Comestor's
Or
Le Mangeur,
because he
devoured
the scriptures.
HISTORIA SCHOLASTICA, a sort of breviary of the old and new testament, accompanied with elaborate expositions from Josephus and many pagan writers, a work compiled at Paris about the year 1175, and so popular, as not only to be taught in schools, but even to be publicly read in the churches with its glosses, was translated into French by Guiart des Moulins, a canon of Aire
The French was first published, without date or place, in two tomes. With old wood-cuts. Vossius says that the original was abridged by Gualter Hunte, an English Carmelite, about the year 1460. Hist. Lat. lib. iii. c. 9. p. 197. edit. Amst. 1689. fol. It was translated into German rhymes about 1271. Sander. Bibl. Belg. pag. 285. There are numerous and very sumptuous manuscripts of this work in the British Museum. One of them, with exquisite paintings, was ordered to be
written
by Edward the fourth at Bruges, 1470. MSS. Reg. 15 D. i. Another is written in 1382. Ibid. 19. B. xvii.
. About the same time, some of the old translations into French made in the eleventh century by Thibaud de Vernon, canon of Rouen, were retouched: and the Latin legends of many lives of saints, particularly of saint George, of Thomas a Beckett, and the martyrdom of saint Hugh, a child murthered in 1206 by a Jew at Lincoln
See Chaucer, PRIORES. T. p. 144. col. 2. v. 3193.
, were reduced into French verse. These pieces, to which I must add a metrical version of the bible from Genesis to Hezekiah, by being written in rhyme, and easy to be sung, soon became popular, and produced the desired impression on the minds of the people
It is rather beside my purpose to speak particularly of some of the divine Offices now made French, and of the churchhymns.
. They were soon followed by the version of AEGIDIUS DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM
See modo supr. p. 39. And MSS. Reg. 15 E. vi. 11. And ibid. 19 B. i. And ibid. 19 A. xx.
"Stephanus Fortis clericus scripsit, An. 1395."
, by Henri de Gauchi. Dares Phrygius, The SEVEN SAGES OF ROME by Hebers
See supr. vol. i. p. 462.
, Eutropius
He was early translated into Greek at Constantinople.
, and Aristotle's SECRETUM SECRETORUM
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 20 B. iv. 3.
, appeared about the same time in French. To say nothing of voluminous versions of PANDECTS and feudal COUTUMES
See a French JUSTINIAN, &c. Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 20 D. ix. 2. 3. A manuscript before 1300.
, Michael de Harnes translated Turpin's CHARLEMAGNE in the year 1207
Caxton printed a life of CHARLES THE GREAT, 1485.
. It was into prose, in opposition to the practice which had long prevailed of turning Latin prose into French rhymes. This piece, in compliance with an age addicted to romantic fiction, our translator undoubtedly preferred to the more rational and sober Latin historians of Charlemagne and of France, such as Gregory of Tours, Fredegaire, and Eginhart. In the year 1245, the SPECULUM MUNDI, a system of theology, the seven sciences, geography, and natural philosophy
One of the most eminent astronomers in this work is the poet Virgil.
I know not when the LE LIVRE ROYALL, a sort of manual, was made French. The Latin original was compiled at the command of Philip le Bell, king of France, in 1279. Pref. to Caxton's Engl. Translat. 1484. fol.
, was translated at the instance of the duke of Berry and Auvergne
See Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 19 A. ix. This version was translated into English, and printed, by Caxton, 1480.
. Among the royal manuscripts, is a sort of system of pious tracts, partly of ritual offices, compiled in Latin by the confessors of Philip in 1279, translated into French
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 19 C. ii.
; which translation queen Isabel ordered to be placed in the church of saint Innocents at Paris, for the use of the people.
The fourteenth century was much more fertile in French translation. The spirit of devotion, and indeed of this species of curiosity, raised by saint Louis, after a short intermission, rekindled under king John and Charles the fifth. I pass over the prose and metrical translations of the Latin bible in the years 1343, and 1380, by Macè, and Raoul de Presles. Under those reigns, saint Austin, Cassianus, and Gregory the Great
See Brit. M
s. MSS. Reg. 15 D. v. 1. 2.
, were translated into French; and they are the first of the fathers that appeared in a modern tongue. Saint Gregory's HOMELIES are by an anonymous translator
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 15 D. v. 1. 20 D. v.
. His DIALOGUES were probably translated by an English ecclesiastic
It is supposed that they were rendered by an Englishman, or one living in England, as the translator's name is marked by an A. And as there is a prayer in the manuscript to saint Frideswide, an Oxford saint. Mem. Litt. xvii. p 735. 4to. It is very rare that we find the French tran
ting from us. Yet Fauchett mentions a French poetess, named Marie de France, who translated the Fables of Esop MORALISED, from English into French, about the yea
1310. But this was to gratify a
com
e Guillaume,
with whom she was in love, and who did not perhaps understand English. See Fauchett, RECUEIL, lxxxiv. p. 163. edit. 1581. I know nothing of the fables.
. Saint Austin's DE CIVITATE DEI was translated by Raoul de Presles, who acted professedly both as confessor and translator to Charles the fifth
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 17 F. iii. With pictures. And 14 D. i.
, about the year 1374. During the work he received a yearly pension of six hundred livres from that liberal monarch, the first founder of a royal library in France, at whose command it was undertaken. It is accompanied with a prolix commentary, valuable only at present as preserving anecdotes of the opinions, manners, and literature, of the writer's age; and from which I am tempted to give the following specimen, as it strongly illustrates the antient state of the French stage, and demonstrably proves that comedy and tragedy were now known only by name in France
See supr. vol. i. p. 235.
. He observes, that Comedies are so denominated from a room of entertainment, or from those places, in which banquets were accustomed to be closed with singing, called in Greek CONIAS: that they were like those
jeux
or plays, which the minstrel,
le Chanteur,
exhibits in halls or other public places, at a feast: and that they were properly styled INTERLUDIA, as being presented between the two courses. Tragedies, he adds, were spectacles, resembling those personages which at this day we see acting in the LIFE and PASSION of a matyr
Ch. viii. liv. ii.
. This shews that only the religious drama now subsisted in France. But to proceed, Cassianus's COLLATIONES PATRUM, or the CONFERENCES, was translated by John Goulain, a Carmelite monk, about 1363. Two translations of that theological romance Boethius's CONSOLATION, one by the celebrated Jean de Meun, author of the ROMANCE OF THE ROSE, existed before the year 1340. Others of the early Latin christian writers were ordered to be turned into French by queen Jane, about 1332. But finding that the archbishop of Rouen, who was commissioned to execute this arduous task, did not understand Latin, she employed a mendicant friar. About the same period, and under the same patronage, the LEGENDA AUREA, written by James de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa, about the year 1260, that inexhaustible repository of religious fable
In the year 1555, the learned Claud. Espence was obliged to make a public recantation for calling it LEGENDA FERREA. Thuan. sub. ann. Laun. Hist. Gymnas. Navarr. p. 704. 297.
, was translated by Jehan de Vignay, a monk hospitalar
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 19 B. xvii. The copy was written 1382. This version seems to be the same which Caxton translated, and printed, 1483. While it was printing, William lord Arundel gave Caxton annually a buck in summer and a doe in winter.
. The same translator gave also a version of a famous ritual entitled SPECULUM ECCLESIAE, or the MIRROUR OF THE CHURCH, of CHESS MORALISED, written by Jacobus de Casulis
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 19 C. xi. 1. This version was translated in English, and printed, by Caxton, 1474.
: and of Odoricus's VOYAGE INTO THE EAST
Ibid. 19 D. i. 4. 5.
. Thomas Benoit, a prior of saint Genevieve gratified the religious with a translation into a more intelligible language of some Latin liturgic pieces about the year 1330. But his chief performance was a translation into French verse of the RULE OF SAINT AUSTIN. This he undertook merely on a principle of affection and charity, for the edification of his pious brethren who did not understand Latin.
Pour l'amour de vous, très chers freres,
En François ai traduit ce Latin.
And in the preface he says,
"Or sçai-je que
plusieurs
de vous n'
entendent pas bien
LATIN auquel il fut chose necessaire de la rieule [regle]
entendre.
"
Benoit's successour in the priorate of saint Genevieve was not equally attentive to the discipline and piety of his monks. Instead of translating monkish Latin, and enforcing the salutary regulations of saint Austin, he wrote a system of rules for BALLAD-WRITING, L'ART DE DICTIER BALLADE ET RONDELS, the first Art of poetry that ever appeared in France.
Among the moral books now translated, I must not omit the SPIRITUELLE AMITIE of John of Meun, from the Latin of Aldred an English monk
It is mentioned in the cata
ogue of his
traductions,
at the beginning of his
C
ns
lation philosophique.
I am not acquainted with the English monk.
. In the same style of mystic piety was the treatise of CONSOLATION, written in Latin, by Vincent de Beauvais, and sent to saint Louis, translated in the year 1374. In the year 1340, Henri de Suson, a German dominican and a mystic doctor, wrote a most comprehensive treatise called HOROLOGIUM SAPIENTIAE. This was translated into French by a monk of saint François
Englished, and printed by Caxton, very early.
. Even the officers of the court of Charles the fifth were seized with the ardour of translating religious pieces, no less than the ecclesiastics. The most elegant tract of moral Latinity translated into French, was the celebrated book of our countryman John of Salisbury, DE NUGIS CURIALIUM. This version was made by Denis Soulechart, a learned Cordelier, about the year 1360. Notwithstanding the EPISTLES of Abelard and Eloisa, not only from the celebrity of Abelard as a Parisian theologist, but on account of the interesting history of that unfortunate pair, must have been as commonly known, and as likely to be read in the original, as any Latin book in France, they were translated into French in this century, by John of Meun; who prostituted his abilities when he relinquished his own noble inventions, to interpret the pedantries of monks, schoolmen, and proscribed classics. I think he also translated Vegetius, who will occur again
There is a copy written in 1284, [1384,] Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 20 B. xv. Often, ibid. John of Meun is also said to have translated MIRABILIA HIBERNIAE.
. In the library of saint Genevieve, there is, in a sort of system of religion, a piece called JERARCHIE, translated from Latin into French at the command of our queen Elinor in the year 1297, by a French friar
"Cette JERARCHIE translata frere J
han de Pentham de Latin en Françoys, à la requeste la r
ine d'Engleterre Alienore femme le roy Edward."
There is also this note in the manuscript.
"Cest livre resigna frere Jordan de Kyngestone à la commune des freres Menurs de Southampton, par la volunte du graunt frere Willame Notington [f. Northington in Hampshire,] ministre d'Engleterre ... l'an. de grace M. CCC. XVII."
. I must not however forget, that amidst this profusion of treatises of religion and instruction, civil history found a place. That immense chaos of events real and fictitious, the HISTORICAL MIRROUR of Vincent de Beauvais, was translated by Jehan de Vignay above mentioned
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 1
E. i.
. One is not surprised that the translator of the GOLDEN LEGEND should make no better choice.
The desolation produced in France
A curious picture of the dis
racted state of France is recorded by Petrarch. The king, with the Dauphin, returning from his captivity in England, in passing through Picardy, was obliged to make a pecuniary bargain with the numerous robbers that infested that country, to travel unmolested
VIE PETR. iii. 543.
by the victorious armies of the English, was instantly succeeded by a flourishing state of letters. King John, having indulged his devotion, and satisfied his conscience, by procuring numerous versions of books written on sacred subjects, at length turned his attention to the classics. His ignorance of Latin was a fortunate circumstance, as it produced a curiosity to know the treasures of Latin literature. He employed Peter Bercheur, prior of saint Eloi at Paris, an eminent theologist, to translate Livy into French
See Henault, NOUVEL. ABR
G. HIST. FR. p. 229. edit. 1752. 4to. And VIE DE PERTRARQUE, iii. p. 547.
; notwithstanding that author had been anathematised by pope Gregory. But so judicious a choice was undoubtedly dictated by Petrarch, who regarded Livy with a degree of enthusiasm, who was now resident at the court of France, and who perhaps condescended to direct and superintend the translation. The translator in his Latin work called REPERTORIUM, a sort of general dictionary, in which all things are proved to be allegorical, and reduced to a moral meaning, under the word ROMA, records this great attempt in the following manner.
"TITUM LIVIUM, ad requisitionem domini Johannis inclyti Francorum regis,
non sine labore et sudoribus,
in linguam Gallicam transtuli
This was the translation of Livy, which, with other books, the duke of Bedford, regent of France, about 1425, sent into England to Humphrey duke of Gloucester. The copy had been a present to the king of France. Mem. Litt. ii. 747. 4to. See the SECOND DISSERTATION. In the Sorbonne library at Paris, there is a most valuable manuscript of this version in two folio volumes. In the front of each book are various miniatures and pictures, most beautifully finished. Dan. Maichel de Bibliothec. Paris. p. 79. There is a copy, transcribed about the time the translation was finished. Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 15 D. vi. DES FAIS DE ROMAINS. With pictures.
."
To this translation we must join those of Sallust, Lucan, and Cesar: all which seem to have been finished before the year 1365. This revival of a taste for Roman history, most probably introduced and propagated by Petrarch during his short stay in the French court, immediately produced a Latin historical compilation called ROMULEON, by an anonymous gentleman of France; who soon found it necessary to translate his work into the vernacular language. Valerius Maximus could not remain long untranslated. A version of that favourite author, begun by Simon de Hesdin, a monk, in 1364, was finished by Nicolas de Gonesse, a master in theology, 1401
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 18 E. iii. iv. With elegant delineations, and often in the same library.
. Under the last-mentioned reign, Ovid's Metamorphoses MORALISED
Perhaps written in Latin by Joannes Grammaticus, about 1070. See the SECOND DISSERTATION.
were translated by Guillaume de Nangis: and the same poem was translated into French verse, at the request of Jane de Bourbonne, afterwards the consort of Charles the fifth, by Philip de Vitri, bishop of Meaux, Petrarch's friend, who was living in 1361
There was a French Ovid in duke Humphrey's library at Oxford. See supr. p. 45. And Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 17 E. iv. 1. This version, as I apprehend, is the same that Caxton translated into English prose, and printed, 1480. A manuscript is in Bibl. Pepys Magd. Coll. Cant. Cat. MSS. Angl. &c. tom. ii. N. 6791.
. A bishop would not have undertaken this work, had he not perceived much moral doctrine couched under the pagan stories. Jean le Fevre, by command of Charles the fifth, translated the poem DE VETULA, falsly ascribed to Ovid
Polycarpus Leyserus supposes this piece to be the forgery of one Leo Protonotarius, an officer in the court at Constantinople, who writes the preface. Hist. Poes. Med. Aev. p. 2089. He proves the work supposititious, from its several Arabicisms and scrip
ural expressions, &c. Brawardine cites many lines from it, Advers. Pelag. p. 33. As does Bacon, in his astrological tracts. It is condemned by Bede as heretical. In Boeth. de Trinit. Selden intended a DISSERTATION on this forgery
De Synedr. iii. 16. It is in hexameters, in three books.
. Cicero's RHETORICA appeared in French by master John de Antioche, at the request of one friar W
lliam, in the year 1383. About the same time, some of Aristotle's pieces were translated from Latin; his PROBLEMS by Evrard de Conti, physician to Charles the fifth: and his ETHICS and POLITICS by Nicholas d'Oresme, while canon of Rouen. This was the most learned man in France, and tutor to Charles the fifth; who, in consequence of his instructions, obtained a competent skill in Latin, and in the rules of the grammar
Christin. VIE CHARLES V.
. Other Greek classics, which now began to be known by being translated into Latin, became still more familiarised, especially to general readers, by being turned into French. Thus Poggius Florentinus's recent Latin version of Xenophon's CYROPEDIA was translated into French by Vasque de Lucerie, 1370
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 17 E. v. 1. And 16 G. ix. Wi
h pictures.
. The TACTICS of Vegetius, an author who frequently confounds the military practices of his own age with those of antiquity, appeared under
the title of LIVRES DES FAIS D'ARMES ET DE CHEVALLERIE, by Christina of Pisa
MSS. Reg. 19 B. xviii. &c. Vegetius was early translated into all the modern languages. There is an English one, probably by John Trevisa, as it is addressed to his patron lord Berkeley, A. D. 1408. MSS. Digb. 233.
Prin
.
"In olde tyme it was the manere."
There is a translation of Vegetius,
written
at Rhodes,
"die 25 Octobris, 1459, per Johannem Newton."
ad cal
. Bibl. Bodl. K. 53. Laud. MSS. Christina's version was translated, and printed, by Caxton, 1489. See supr. p. 67.
. Petrarch DE REMEDIIS UTRIUSQUE FORTUNAE, a set of Latin dialogues, was translated, not only by Nicholas d'Oresme, but by two of the officers of the royal houshold
See Niceron, tom. 28. p. 384.
, in compliment to Petrarch at his leaving France
Mons. l'Ab. Lebeuf says
Seneca
instead of
P
trarch.
Mem. Litt. xvii. p. 752.
I must not forget to observe, that several whole books in Brunetto's TRESOR consist of translations from Aristotle, Tully, and Pliny, into French. Brunetto was a Florentine, and the master of Dante. He died in 1295. The TRESOR was a sort of Encyclopede, exhibiting a course of practical and theoretic philosophy, of divi
ity, cosmography, geography, history sacred and profane, physics, ethics, rhetoric, and politics. It was written in French by Brunetto du
ing his residence in France: but he afterwards translated it into Italian, and it has been translated by others into Latin. It was the model and foundation of Bartholomeus of the PROPERTIES OF THINGS, of Berch
ur's REPERTORIUM, and of many other works of th
same species, which soon followed. See Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 17 E. i. It will occur again.
. Many philosophical pieces, particularly in astrology, of which Charles the fifth was remarkably fond, were translated before the
nd of the fourteenth century. Among these, I must not pass over the QUADRIPARTITUM of Ptolemy, by Nicholas d'Oresme; the AGRICULTURE
DES PROUFFITZ CHAMPESTRES ET RURAUX. Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 14 E.
, or LIBRI RURALIUM COMMODORUM, of Peter de Crescentiis, a physician of Bononia, about the year 1285, by a nameless friar preacher
In twelve books. See Jacob. Quetif. tom. i. p. 666.
; and the book DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM of Bartholomew Anglicus, the Pliny of the monks, by John Corbichon, an Augustine monk
Leland says, that this translation is elegant; and that he saw it in duke Humfrey's library at Oxford. Script. Brit. cap. ccclxviii. See Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 17 E. iii. With pictures. Ibid. 15 E. ii. Where the translation is assigned to the year 1362. The writing of the manuscript, to 1482. With pictures.
. I have seen a French manuscript of Guido de Colonna's Trojan romance
the hand-writing of which belongs to this century
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 16 F. ix. A new translation seems to have been made by Rauol le Feure, in 1464. Englished by Caxton, and printed, 1471. Caxton's GODEFROY OF BOLOGNE, translated from the French, and printed 1481, had a Latin original. The French, a fine copy, is in Brit. Mus. 17 F. v. MSS. Reg. Saepiu
ibid. [See s
pr. p. 99.]
.
In the fifteenth century it became fashionable among the French, to polish and reform their old rude translations made two hundred years before; and to reduce many of their metrical versions into prose. At the same time, the rage of translating ecclesiastical tracts began to decrease. The latter circumstance was partly owing to the introduction of better books, and partly to the invention of printing. Instead of procuring laborious and expensive translations of the antient fathers, the printers, who multiplied greatly towards the close of this century, found their advantage in publishing new translations of more agreeable books, or in giving antient versions in a modern dress
I take this opportunity of observing, that one of these was the romance of sir LANCELOT DU LAC, translated from the Latin by Robert de Borron, at the command of our Henry the second or third. See supr. vol. i. p. 114. This new LANCELOT, I believe, is the same which was printed at Paris by Antony Verard, 1494. In three vast folio volumes. Another, is the romance of GYRON LE COURTOIS, translated also from Latin, at the command of the same monarch, by Lucas, or Luce,
chevalier du Chateau du Gast,
or
Gat,
or
Gal,
and printed by Verard as above. See Lenglet, Bibl. Rom. ii. p. 117. The old GUIRON LE COURTOIS is said to be translated by
"LUCE chevalier seigneur du chasteau du Gal, [perhaps
Sal.
an abreviation for Salisbury,] voisin prochain du
ire du Sablieres, par le commendement de tres noble et tres puissant prince M. le roy Henry jadis roy d'Angleterre."
Bibl. Reg. Paris. Cod. 7586. See su
r. vol. i. p. 115. Notes.
. Yet in this century some of the more recent doctors of the church were translated. Not to mention the epistles of saint Jerom, which Antoine Dufour, a Dominican frier, presented in French to Anne de Bretagne, consort to king Charles the eighth, we find saint Anselm's CUR DEUS HOMO
Written in 1098.
, The LAMENTATIONS OF SAINT BERNARD, The SUM OF THEOLOGY of Albertus Magnus, The PRICK OF DIVINE LOVE
Supr. vol. i. p. 77.
of saint Bonaventure a seraphic doctor
He flourished in Italy, about the year 1270. The enormous magni
icence of his funeral deserves notice, more than any anecdote of his life; as it paints the high devotion of the times, and the attention formerly paid to theological literature. There were present pope Gregory the tenth, the emperour of Greece by several Greek noblemen his proxies, Baldwin the second the Latin eastern emperour, James king of Arragon, the patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch, all the cardinals, five hundred bishops and archbishops, sixty abbots, more than a thousand prelates and priests of lower rank, the ambassadors of many kings and potentates, the deputies of the Tartars and other nations, and an innumerable concourse of people of all orders and degrees. The sepulchral ceremonies were celebrated with the most consummate pomp, and the funeral oration was pronounced by a future pope. Miraei Auctar. Script. Eccles. pag. 72. edit. Fabric. [See supr. vol. i. p. 77.]
, with other pieces of the kind, exhibited in the French language before the year 1480, at the petition and under the patronage of many devout duchesses. Yet in the mean time, the lives of saints and sacred history gave way to a species of narrative more entertaining and not less fabulous. Little more than Josephus, and a few MARTYRDOMS, were now translated from the Latin into French.
The truth is, the French translators of this century were chiefly employed on profane authors. At its commencement, a French abridgement of the three first decads of Livy was produced by Henri Romain a canon of Tournay. In the year 1416, Jean de Courci, a knight of Normandy, gave a translation of some Latin chronicle, a HISTORY OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS, entitled BOUQUASSIERE. In 1403, Jean de Courteauisse, a doctor in theology at Paris, translated Seneca on the FOUR CARDINAL VIRTUES
It is supposititious. It was forged, about the year 560, by Martianus an archbishop of Portugal, whom Gregory of Tours calls the most eminent writer of his time. Hist. Franc. v. 38. It was a great favourite of the theological ages.
. Under the reign of king Charles the seventh, Jean Cossa translated the CHRONOLOGY of Mattheus Palmerius a learned Florentine, and a writer of Italian poetry in imitation of Dante. In the dedication to Jane the third, queen of Jerusalem, and among other titles countess of Provence, the translator apologises for supposing her highness to be ignorant of Latin; when at the same time he is fully convinced, that a lady endowed with so much natural grace, must be perfectly acquainted with that language.
"Mais pour ce que le vulgar Françoys est plus commun, j' ai pris peine y translater ladite oeuvre."
Two other translations were offered to Charles the seventh in the year 1445. One, of the FIRST PUNIC war of Leonard of Arezzo, an anonymous writer, who does not chuse to publish his name
a cause de sa petitesse;
and the STRATAGEMS of Frontinus, often cited by John of Salisbury, and mentioned in the Epistles of Peter of Blois
Epist. 94.
, by Jean de Rouroy, a Parisian theologist. Under Louis the eleventh, Sebastian Mamerot of Soissons, in the year 1466, attempted a new translation of the ROMULEON: and he professes, that he undertook it solely with a view of improving or decorating the French language
I am not sure whether this is not much the same as LE GRANDE HISTOIRE CESAR, &c. Taken from Lucan, Su
tonius, Orosius, &c. Written at Bruges at the command of our Edward the fourth, in 1479. That is, ordered to be
written
by him. A manuscript with pictures. MSS. Reg. 17 F. ii. 1. Brit. Mus. But see ibid. ROMELEON,
ou des Faits des Romains,
in ten b
oks. With pictures. MSS. Reg. 19 E. v. See also 20 C. i.
.
Many French versions of classics appeared in this century. A translation of Quintus Curtius is dedicated to Charles duke of Burgundy, in 1468
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 17 F. i. With beautiful pictures.
. Six years afterwards, the same liberal patron commanded Cesar's COMMENTARIES to be translated by Jean du Chesne
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 16 G. viii. With pictures. Another appeared by Robert Gaguen in 1485.
. Terence was made French by Guillaume Rippe, the king's secretary, in the year 1466. The following year a new translation of Ovid's METAMORPHOSES was executed by an ecclesiastic of Normandy
Perhaps this might be Caxton's copy. See above, p. 115.
. But much earlier in the century, Laurence Premierfait, mentioned above, translated, I suppose from the Latin, the OECONOMICS of Aristotle, and Tully's DE AMICITIA and DE SENECTUTE, before the year 1426
The two latter versions were translated into English by William Botoner, and John Tiptoft earl of Worcester, and printed by Caxton, 1481. Botoner presented his manuscript copy to William of Waynflete bishop of Winchester in 1473. See supr. p. 62. Caxton's English CATO, printed 1483, was from the French. As were his FABLES OF AESOP, printed 1483.
. He is said also to have translated some pieces, perhaps the EPISTLES, of Seneca
Crucimanius mentions a version of Seneca by Premi
rfait, as printed at Paris, in 1500. Bibl. Gall. p. 287. A translation of Seneca's DE QUATUOR VIRTUTIBUS CARDINALIBUS, but supposititious, is given to Premierfait, Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 20 A. xii. Sanders recites the EPISTLES of Seneca, translated into French by some anonymous writer, at the command of Messire Barthelemi Siginulfe a nobleman of Naples. Bibl. Cathedr. Tornacens. p. 209. Pieces of Seneca have been frequently translated into French, and very early.
. Encouraged by this example, Jean de Luxembourgh, Laurence's cotemporary, translated Tully's Oration against Verres. I must not forget, that Hippocrates and Galen were translated from Latin into French in the year 1429. The translator was Jean Tourtier, surgeon to the duke of Bedford, then regent of France; and he humbly supplicates Rauoul Palvin, confessor and physician to the duchess, and John Major, first physician to the duke, and graduate
en l'estude d'Auxonford
Oxonford. Oxford.
, and master Roullan, physician and astronomer of the university of Paris, amicably to amend the faults of this translation, which is intended to place the science and practice of medicine on a new foundation. I presume it was from a Latin version that the ILIAD, about this period, was translated into French metre.
Among other pieces that might be enumerated in this century, in the year 1412, Guillaume de Tignonville, provost of Paris, translated the DICTA PHILOSOPHORUM
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 19 A. viii. Saepius. ibid. This version was translated into English by lord Rivers, and printed by Caxton, 1477,
: as did Jean Gallopes dean of the collegiate church of saint Louis, of Salsoye, in Normandy, the ITER VITAE HUMANAE of Guillaume prior of Chalis
See Labb. Bibl. MSS. p. 317. Bibl. Roman. ii. 236. And Oudin. iii. 976. Guillaum lived about 1352. Some of the French literary antiquaries suppose this to be a Latin piece. It is
however, in French verse, which was reduced into prose by Gallopes.
. This version, entitled LE PELERINAGE DE LA VIE HUMAINE, is dedicated to Jean queen of Sicily, above mentioned; a duchess of Anjou and a countess of Provence: who, without any sort of difficulty, could make a transition from the Life of sir Lancelot to that of saint Austin, and who sometimes quitted the tribunal of the COURT OF LOVE to confer with learned ecclesiastics, in an age when gallantry and religion were of equal importance. He also translated, from the same author, a composition of the same ideal and contemplative cast, called LE PELERIN DE L'AME, highly esteemed by those visionaries who preferred religious allegory to romance, which was dedicated to the duke of Bedford
I am not certain, whether this is Caxton's PILGRIMAGE OF THE SOWLE, an English translation from the French, printed in 1483. fol. Ames says, that Antonine Gerard is the author of the French, which was printed at Paris, 1480. Hist. Print. p. 34.
. In Bennet college library at Cambridge, there is an elegant illuminated manuscript of Bonaventure's LIFE OF CHRIST, translated by Gallopes; containing a curious picture of the translator presenting his version to our Henry the fifth
See ARCHAEOL. vol. ii. p. 194. And Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 16 G. iii. 20 B. iv. Englished about 1410, and printed by Caxton very early. The English translator, I believe, is John Morton, an Augustine frier.
. About the same time, but before 1427, Jean de Guerre translated a Latin compilation of all that was marvellous in Pliny, Solinus, and the OTIA IMPERIALIA, a book abounding in wonders, of our countryman Gervais of Tilbury
He flourished about the year 1218.
. The French romance, entitled L'ASSAILLANT, was now translated from the Latin chronicles of the kings of Cologne: and the Latin tract DE BONIS MORIBUS of Jacobus Magnus, confessor to Charles the seventh, about the year 1422, was made French
See supr. p. 61. There is a version of Boccacio's DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS, perhaps by Premierfait, Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 20 C. v.
. Rather earlier, Jean de Premierfait translated BOCCACIO DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM
This version was Englished, and printed, by Caxton, 1487.
. Nor shall I be thought to deviate too far from my detail, which is confined to Latin originals, when I mention here a book, the translation of which into French conduced in an eminent degree to circulate materials for poetry: this is Boccacio's DECAMERON, which Premierfait also translated, at the command of queen Jane of Navarre, who seem
to have made no kind of conditions about suppressing the licentious stories, in the year 1414
See Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 19 E. i. Where it is said that the Decameron wa
first translated into Latin. It is not very literal. It was printed at Paris 1485. fol. Again, ibid. 1534. 8vo. It was again translated by Antoine le Macon, fol. Paris 1543. And often afterwards.
.
I am not exactly informed, when the ENEID of Virgil was translated into a sort of metrical romance or history of Eneas, under the title of LIVRE D' ENEIDOS COMPILE PAR VIRGILE, by Guillaume de Roy. But that translation was printed at Lyons in 1483, and appears to have been finished not many years before. Among the translator's historical additions, are the description of the first foundation of Troy by Priam, and the succession of Ascanius and his descendants after the death of Turnus. He introduces a digression upon Boccacio, for giving in his FALL OF PRINCES an account of the death of Dido, different from that in the fourth book of the Eneid. Among his omissions, he passes over Eneas's descent into hell, as a tale manifestly forged, and not to be believed by any rational reader: as if many other parts of the translator's story were not equally fictitious and incredible
It was translated, and printed, by Caxton, 1490.
.
The conclusion intended to be drawn from this long digression is obvious. By means of these French translations, our countrymen, who understood French much better than Latin, became acquainted with many useful books which they would not otherwise have known. With such assistances, a commodious access to the classics was opened, and the knowledge of antient literature facilitated and familiarised in England, at a much earlier period than is imagined; and at a time, when little more than the productions of speculative monks, and irrefragrable doctors, could be obtained or were studied. Very few Englishmen, I will venture to pronounce, had read Livy before the translation of Bercheur was imported by the regent duke of Bedford. It is certain that many of the Roman poets and historians were now read in England, in the original. But the Latin language was for the most part confined to a few ecclesiastics. When these authors, therefore, appeared in a language almost as intelligible as the English, they fell into the hands of illiterate and common readers, and contributed to sow the seeds of a national erudition, and to form a popular taste. Even the French versions of the religious, philosophical, historical, and allegorical compositions of those more enlightened Latin writers who flourished in the middle ages, had their use, till better books came into vogue: pregnant as they were with absurdities, they communicated instruction on various and new subjects, enlarged the field of information, and promoted the love of reading, by gratifying that growing literary curiosity which now began to want materials for the exercise of its operations. How greatly our poets in general availed themselves of these treasures, we may collect from this circumstance only: even such writers as Chaucer and Lydgate, men of education and learning, when they translate a Latin author, appear to execute their work through the medium of a French version. It is needless to pursue this history of French translation any farther. I have given my reason for introducing it at all. In the next age, a great and universal revolution in literature ensued; and the English themselves began to turn their thoughts to translation.
These French versions enabled Caxton, our first printer, to enrich the state of letters in this country with many valuable publications. He found it no difficult task, either by himself, or the help of his friends, to turn a considerable number of these pieces into English, which he printed. Antient learning had as yet made too little progress among us, to encourage this enterprising and industrious artist to publish the Roman autho
s in their original language
It is, however, remarkable, that from the year 1471, in which Caxton began to print, down to the year 1540, during which period the English press flourished greatly under the conduct of many industrious, ingenious, and even learned artists, only the very few following classics, some of which hardly deserve that name, were printed in England. These were, BOETHIUS
de Consolatione;
both Latin and English, for Caxton, without date. The Latin ESOPIAN Fables, in verse, for Wynkyn de Worde, 1503. 4to. [And once or twice afterwards.] TERENCE, with the Comment of Badi
s Ascensius, for the same, 1504. 4to. VIRGIL'S BUCOLICS, for the same, 1512. 4to. [Again, 1533. 4to.] TULLY'S OFFICES, Latin and English, the translation by Whittington, 1533. 4to. The university of Oxford, during this period, produced only the first Book of TULLY'S EPISTLES, at the charge of cardinal Wolsey, without date, or printer's name. Cambridge not a single classic.
No Greek book, of any
kind, had yet appeared from an English press. I believe the first Greek characters used in any work printed in England, are in Linacer's translation of
Galen de Temperamentis,
printed at Cambridge in 1521, 4to. A few Greek words, and abbreviatures, are here and there introduced. The printer was John Siberch, a German, a friend of Erasmus, who styles himself
primus
UTRIUSQUE
linguae in Anglia impressor.
There are Greek characters in some of his other books of this date. But he printed no entire Greek book. In Linacer's treatise
De emendata Structura Latini sermonis,
printed by Pinson in 1524, many Greek characters are intermixed. In the sixth book are seven Greek lines together. But the printer apologises for his imperfections and unskillfulness in the Greek types; which, he says, were but recently cast, and not in a sufficient quantity for such a work. The passage is curious.
"Aequo animo feras siquae literae, in exemplis Hellenismi, vel
tonis
vel
spiritibus
careant. His enim non
satts instructus
erat typographus, videlicet
recens
ab
eo fusis
ch
racteribus Graecis, nec
parata
ei
copia
qua ad hoc agendum opus est."
About the same period of the English press, the same embarrassments appear to have happened with regard to Hebrew types; which yet were more likely, as that language was so much less known. In the year 1524, doctor Robert Wakefield, chaplain to Henry the eighth, published his
Oratio de laudibus et utilitate trium linguarum Arabicae, Chald
ic
, et Hebraicae,
&c. 4to. The printer was Wynkyn de Worde; and the author complains, that he was obliged to omit his whole third part, because the printer had no Hebrew types. Some few Hebrew and Arabic characters, however, are introduced; but extremely rude, and evidently cut in wood. They are the first of the sort used in England. This learned orientalist was instrumental in preserving, at the dissolution of monasteries, the Hebrew manuscripts of Ramsey abbey, collected by Holbech one of the monks, together with Holbech's
Hebrew Dictionary
Wood, Hist. Ant. Univ. Oxon. ii. 251. Leland. Scriptor. v. HOLBECCUS.
It was a circumstance favourable at least to English literature, owing indeed to the general illiteracy of the times, that our first printers were so little employed on books written in the learned languages. Almost all Caxton's books are English. The multiplication of English copi
s multiplied English readers, and these again produced new vernacular writers. The existence of a press induced many persons to turn authors, who were only qualified to write in their native tongue.
: and had not the French furnished him with these materials, it is not likely, that Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, and many other good writers, would by the means of his press have been circulated in the English tongue, so early as the close of the fifteenth century • .
SECT. VII.
THE first poet that occurs in the reign of king Edward the fourth is John Harding
To the preceding reign of Henry the sixth, belongs a poem written by James the first, king of Scotland, who was atrociously murthered at Perth in the year 1436. It it entitled the KING'S COMPLAINT, is allegorical, and in the seven-lined stanza. The subject was suggested to the poet by his own misfortunes, and the mode of composition by reading Boethius. At the close, he mentions Gower and Chaucer as seated on the
steppys of rhetoryke.
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Selden. Archiv. B. 24. chart. fol. [With many pieces of Chaucer.] This unfortunate monarch was educated while a prisoner in England, at the command of our Henry the fourth, and the poem was written during his captivity there. The Scotch historians represent him as a prodigy of erudition. He civilised the Scotch nation. Among other accomplishments, he was an admirable musician, and particularly skilled in playing on the harp. See Lesley, DE REB. GEST. SCOT. lib. vii. p. 257. 266. 267. edit. 1675. 4to. The same historian says,
"ita orator erat, ut ejus dictione nihil fuerit artificiosius: ita POETA, ut carmina non tam arte strinxisse, quam natura sponte fudisse vider
tur. Cui rei
idem faciunt carmina diversi generis, quae in rhythmum Scotice illigavit,
o artificio, &c."
Ibid. p. 267. See also Buchanan, RER. Scot. lib. x. p. 186.—196. Opp. tom. i. Edingb. 1715. Among other pieces, which I have never seen, Bale mentions his CANTILENAE SCOTICAE, and RHYT
MI LATINI. Bale, paral. post. Cent. xiv. 56. pag. 217. It is not the plan of this work to comprehend and examine in form pieces of Scotch poetry, except such only as are of singular merit. Otherwise, our royal bard would have been considered at large, and at his proper period, in the text. I will, however, add here, two stanzas of the poem contained in the Seld
n manuscript, which seems to be the most distinguished of his compositions, and was never printed.
In ver that full of vertue is and gude,
When nature first begynneth her empryse,
That quilham was be cruell frost and flude,
And shoures scharp, opprest in many wyse;
And Cynthius gynneth to aryse
Heigh in the est a morow soft and swete
Upwards his course to drive in Ari
t
:
Passit bot mydday
oure grees evyn
Off lenth and brede, his angel wingis bright
He spred uppon the ground down fro the hevyn;
That for gladness and confort of the sight,
And with the tiklyng of his hete and light
The tender sloures opinyt thanne and sprad
And in thar nature thankit him for glad.
This piece is not specified by Bale, Dempster, or Mackenzie. See Bale, ubi supr. Dempster, SCOT. SCRIPTOR. ix. 714. pag. 380. edit. 1622. Mackenzie, vol. i. p. 318. Edingb. 1708. fol.
John Major mentions the beginning of some of his other poems, viz.
"Yas sen, &c."
And
"At Beltayn, &c."
Both these poems seem to be written on his wife, Joan daughter of the dutchess of Clarence, with whom he fell in love while
prisoner in England. Major mentions besides, a
libellus artificiosus,
whether verse or prose I know not, which he wrote on this lady in England, before his marriage; and which Bale entitles,
Super Uxore futura.
This historian, who flourished about the year 1520, adds, that our monarch's CANTILENAE were commonly sung by the Scotch as the most
avorite compositions: and that he played better on the harp, than the most skillful Irish or highland harper. Major does not enumerate the poem I have h
r
cited. Major, GEST. SCOT. lib. vi. cap. xiv. fol. 135. edit. 1521. 4to. Doctor Percy has one of James's CANTILENAE, in which there is much merit.
. He was of northern extraction, and educated in the family of lord Henry Percy
One William Peeris, a priest, and secretary to the fifth
a
l of Northumberland, wrote in verse,
William P
ri
's discente of the Lord P
rcis. Pr.
Prol.
"Cronykills and annuel books of kyngs."
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 18 D. 9. Then immediately follows (
0) in the same manuscript, perhaps written by the same author, a collection of metrical proverbs painted in several chambers of Lekingfield and Wresille, antient seats of the Percy family.
: and, at twenty-five years of age, hazarded his fortunes as a volunteer at the decisive battle of Shrewsbury, fought against the Scots in the year 1403. He appears to have been indefatigable in
xamining original records, chiefly with a design of ascertaining the fealty due from the Scottish kings to the crown of England: and he carried many instruments from Scotland, for the elucidation of this important enquiry, at the hazard of his life, which he delivered at different times to the fifth and sixth Henry, and to Edward the fourth
Henry the sixth granted immunities to Harding in several patents for procuring the Scottish evidences. The earliest is dated
n. reg. xviii. [1440.] There is a memorandum in the exchequer, that, in 1458, John Harding of Kyme delivered to John Talbot, treasurer of England, and chancellor of the exchequer, five Scottish letters patent, acknowledging various homages of the kings and nobility of Scotland. They are enclosed in a wooden box in the exchequ
r, kept in a large chest, under th
mark, SCOTIA. HARDING. So says Ashmole [MSS. Ashmol. 860. p. 186.] from a register in the exchequer called the YELLOW-BOOK.
. These investigations seem to have fixed his mind on the study of our national antiquities and history. At length he cloathed his researches in rhyme, which he dedicated under that form to king Edward the fourth, and with the title of
The Chronicle of England unto the reigne of king Edward the fourth in verse
Printed, at London, 1543. 4to. by Grafton, who has prefixed a dedication of three leaves in verse to Thoma
duke of Norfolk. A continuation in prose from Edward the fourth to Henry the eighth is add
d, probably by Grafton. But s
Grafton's Preface to his ABRID
EMENT OF THE CHRONICLE OF ENGLAND, edit
1570.
. The copy probably presented to the king, although it exhibits at the end the arms of Henry Percy earl of Northumberland, most elegantly transcribed on vellum, and adorned with superb illuminations, is preserved among Selden's manuscripts in the Bodleian library
MSS. Archiv. Seld. B. 26. It is richly bound and studded. At the end is a curious map of Scotland; together with many prose pieces by Harding of the historical kind. The Ashmolean manuscript is entitled,
The
CHRONICLE OF JOHN HARDING
in metre from the beginning of England unto the reign of Edward the fourth.
MSS. Ashmol. Oxon. 34. membran.
. Our author is concise and compendious in his narrative of events from Brutus to the reign of king Henry the fourth: he is much more minute and diffuse in relating those affairs of which, for more than the space of sixty years, he was a living witness, and which occurred from that period to the reign of Edward the fourth. The poem seems to have been completed about the year 1470. In his final chapter he exhorts the king, to recall his rival king Henry the sixth, and to restore the partisans of that unhappy prince.
This work is almost beneath criticism, and fit only for the attention of an antiquary. Harding may be pronounced to be the most impotent of our metrical historians, especially when we recollect the great improvements which English poetry had now received. I will not even except Robert of Gloucester, who lived in the infancy of taste and versification. The chronicle of this authentic and laborious annalist has hardly those more modest graces, which could properly recommend and adorn a detail of the British story in prose. He has left some pieces in prose: and Winstanly says,
"as his prose was very usefull, so was his poetry as much delightfull."
I am of opinion, that both his prose and poetry are equally useful and delightful. What can be more frigid and unanimated than these lines?
Kyng Arthur then in Avalon so dyed,
Where he was buryed in a chapel fayre,
Whiche nowe is made, and fully edifyed,
The mynster church, this day of great repayre
Of Glastenbury, where nowe he hath his layre;
But then it was called the blacke chapell
Of our lady, as chronicles can tell.
Where Geryn earle of Chartres then abode
Besyde his tombe, for whole devocion,
Whither Lancelot de Lake came, as he rode
Upon the chase, with trompet and claryon;
And Geryn told hym, ther all up and downe
How Arthur was there layd in sepulture
For which with hym to abyde he hyght ful sure
Ch. lxxxiv. fol. lxxvii. edit. Graft. 1543.
.
Fuller affirms our author to have
"drunk as deep a draught of Helicon as any of his age."
An assertion partly true: it is certain, however, that the diction and imagery of our poetic composition would have remained in just the same state had Harding never wrote.
In this reign, the first mention of the king's poet, under the appellation of LAUREATE, occurs. John Kay was appointed poet laureate to Edward the fourth. It is extraordinary, that he should have left no pieces of poetry to prove his pretensions in some degree to this office, with which he is said to have been invested by the king, at his return from Italy. The only composition he has transmitted to posterity is a prose English translation of a Latin history of the Siege of Rhodes
MSS. Cotton. Brit. Mus. VITELL. D. xii. 10. It was printed at London, 1506. This impres
ion was in Henry Worsley's library, Cat. MSS. Angl. etc. tom. ii. p. 212. N. 6873. 25. I know nothing of the Latin; except that Gulielmus Caorsinus, vice-chancellor for forty years of the knights of Malta, wrote an ORSIDIO RHODIAE URBIS, when it was in vain attempted to be taken by the Turks in 1480. Separately printed without date or place in quarto. It was also printed in German, Argentorat. 1513. The works of this Gulielmus, which are numerous, were printed together, at Ulm, 1496. fol. with rude wooden prints. See an exact account of this writer, Diar. Eruditor. Ital. tom. xxi. p. 412.
One John Caius a poet of Cambridge is mentioned in sir T. More's WORKS, p. 204. And in Parker's
De
. of Pr. Marr
against Martin,
p. 99.
: in the dedication addressed to king Edward, or rather in the title, he styles himself
hys humble poete laureate.
Although this our laureate furnishes us with no materials as a poet, yet his office, which here occurs for the first time under this denomination, must not pass unnoticed in the annals of English poetry, and will produce a short digression.
Great confusion has entered into this subject, on account of the degrees in grammar, which included rhetoric and versification
In the antient statutes of the university of Oxford, every Regent Master in Grammar is prohibited from reading in his faculty, unless
e first pass an examination DE MODO VERSIFICANDI
et dictandi,
&c. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. fol. membran. Arch. A. 91. [nunc 2874.] f. 55. b. This scholastic cultivation of the art of PROSODY gave rise to many Latin systems of METRE about this period. Among others, Thomas Langley, a monk of Hulm in Norfolk, in the year 1430, wrote, in two books, DE VARIETATE CARMINUM. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Digb. 100. One John Seguard, a Latin poet and rhetorician of Norwich, about the year 1414, wrote a piece of this kind called METRISTENCHIRIDION, addressed to Courtney bishop of Norwich, treating of the nature of metre in general, and especially of the
common
metres of the
Hymns
of Boecius and
Oracius
[Horace.] Oxon. MSS. Coll. Merton. Q. iii. 1.
, antiently taken in our universities, particularly at Oxford: on which occasion, a wreath of laurel was presented to the new graduate, who was afterwards usually styled
poeta laureatus
When any of these graduated grammarians were licenced to teach boys, they were publicly presented in the Convocationhouse with a rod and ferrel. Registr. Univ. Oxon. G. fol. 72. a.
. These scholastic laureations, however, seem to have given rise to the appellation in question. I will give some instances at Oxford, which at the same time will explain the nature of the studies for which our accademical philologists received their rewards. About the year 1470, one John Watson, a student in grammar, obtained a concession to be graduated and laureated in that science; on condition that he composed one hundred Latin verses in praise of the university, and a Latin comedy
Registr. Univ. Oxon. G. fol. 143. I take this opportunity of acknowledging my obligations to the learned Mr. Swinton, keeper of the Archives at Oxford, for giving me frequent and free access to the Registers of that university.
. Another grammarian was distinguished with the same badge, after having stipulated, that, at the next public Act, he would affix the same number of hexameters on the great gates of saint Mary's church, that they might be seen by the whole university. This was at that period the most convenient mode of publication
Ibid
fol. 162.
. About the same time, one Maurice Byrchensaw, a scholar in rhetoric, supplicated to be admitted to read lectures, that is, to take a degree, in that faculty; and his petition was granted, with a provision, that he should write one hundred verses on the glory of the university, and not suffer Ovid's ART OF LOVE, and the Elegies of Pamphilus
Ovid's supposititious pieces, and other verses of the lower age, were printed together by Goldastus, Francof. 1610. 8vo. Among these is,
"Pamphili Mauriliani PAMPHILUS,
ive de Arte Amandi, Elegiae lxiii."
This is from the same school with Ovid DE VETULA, and by some thought to be forged by the same author.
, to be studied in his auditory
Registr. Univ. Oxon. G. fol. 134. a.
. Not long afterwards, one John Bulman, another rhetorician, having complied with the terms imposed, of explaining the first book of Tully's OFFICES, and likewise the first of his EPISTLES, without any pecuniary emolument, was graduated in rhetoric; and a crown of laurel was publicly placed on his head by the hands of the chancellour of the university
Registr. ut supr. G. fol. 124. b.
. About the year 1489
Caxton, in the preface to his English ENEYDOS, Mentions
"mayster John Skelton, late created poete laureate in the universite of Oxenford, &c."
This work was printed in 1490. Churchyard mentions Skelton's accademical laureation, in his poem prefixed to Skelton's works, Lond
1568. 8vo.
Nay Skelton wore the
laurel wreath,
And
past
in
scholes
ye knoe.
And again,
That
war
the garland wreath.
Of
laurel leaves so late.
, Skelton was laureated at Oxford, and in the year 1493, was permitted to wear his laurel at Cambridge
Registr. Univ. Cantabrig. sub anno.
"Conceditur Johanni Skelton poetae in partibus transmarinis atque Oxonii laurea ornato, ut apud nos eadem decoraretur."
And afterwards, Ann. 1504, 5.
"Conceditur Johanni Skelton poete laureato quod possit constare eodem gradu hic quo stetit Oxonii, et quod possit uti habitu sibi concesso a principe."
The latter clause, I believe, relates to some distinction of habit, perhaps of
ur or velvet, granted him by the king. Skelton is said to have been poet laureate to Henry the eighth. He also styles himself
Orator regius,
p. 1. 6. 109. 107. 284. 285. 287. Works, 1736.
. Robert Whittington affords the last instance of a rhetorical degree at Oxford. He was a secular priest, and eminent for his various treatises in grammar, and for his facility in Latin poetry: having exercised his art many years, and submitting to the customary demand of an hundred verses, he was honoured with the laurel in the year 1512
Registr. Univ. Oxon. ut supr. G. 173. b. 187. b.
. This title is prefixed to one of his grammatical systems.
"ROBERTI WHITTINTONI,
Lichfeldiensis, Grammatices Magistri,
PROTOVATIS
Angliae, in florentissima Oxoniensi Achademia
LAUREATI, DE OCTO PARTIBUS ORATIONIS
Lond. 1513. See the next note.
."
In his PANEGYRIC to cardinal Wolsey, he mentions his laurel,
Suscipe LAURICOMI munuscula parva Roberti
In his
"Opusculum Roberti Whittintoni in florentissima Oxoniensi achademia laureati."
Signat. A. iii. Bl. Let. 4to. Colophon,
"Expliciunt Roberti Whittintoni Oxonii protovatis epigrammata, una cum quibusdam panegyricis, impressa Londini per me Wynandum de Worde. Anno post virgineum partum M. CCCCC. xix. decimo vero Kal. Maii."
The Panegyrics are, on Henry the eighth, and cardinal Wols
y. The Epigrams, which are long copies of verse, are addressed to Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk, sir Thomas More, and to Skelton, under the title
Ad lepidissimum poetam
SCHELTONEM
carmen,
&c. Some of the lines are in a very classical style, and much in the manner of the earlier Latin Italian poets. At the end of these Latin poems i
a defence of the author, called ANTILYCON, &c. This book is extremely scarce, and not mentioned by Wood, Ames, and some other collectors. These pieces are in manuscript, Oxon. MSS. Bodl. D. 3. 22.
.
With regard to the Poet laureate of the kings of England, an officer of the court remaining under that title to this day, he is undoubtedly the same that is styled the KING'S VERSIFIER, and to whom one hundred shillings were paid as his annual stipend, in the year 1251
See supr. vol. i. p. 47.
. But when or how that title commenced, and whether this officer was ever solemnly crowned with laurel at his first investiture, I will not pretend to determine, after the
earches of the learned Selden on this question have proved unsuccessful. It seems most probable, that the barbarous and inglorious name of VERSIFIER gradually gave way to an appellation of more elegance and dignity: or rather, that at length, those only were in general invited to this appointment, who had received accademical sanction, and had merited a crown of laurel in the universities for their abilities in Latin composition, particularly Latin versification. Thus the
king's Laureate
was nothing more than
"a
graduated
rhetorician employed in the service of the king."
That he originally wrote in Latin, appears from the antient title
versificator:
and may be moreover collected from the two Latin poems, which Baston and Gulielmus, who appear to have respectively acted in the capacity of royal poets to Richard the first and Edward the second, officially composed on Richard's crusade, and Edward's
iege of Striveling castle
See supr. vol. i. p. 232. By the way, Baston is called by Bale
"laureatus apud Oxonienses."
Cent. iv. cap. 92.
.
Andrew Bernard, successively poet laureate of Henry the seventh and the eighth, affords a still stronger proof that this officer was a Latin scholar. He was a native of Tholouse, and an Augustine monk. He was not only the king's poet laureate
See an instrument PRO POETA LAUREATO. dat. 1486. Rymer's FO
D. tom. xii. p. 317. But, by the way, in this instrument there is no specification of any thing to be done
officially
by Bernard. The king only grants to Andrew Bernard,
Poetae
au
ato,
which we may construe either THE
laureated poet,
or
A poet laureate,
a salary of ten marcs, till he can obtain some equivalent appointment. This, however, is only a precept to the treasurer and chamberlains to disburse the salary, and refers to letters patent, not printed by Rymer. It is certain that Gower and Chaucer were never appointed to this office, notwithstanding this is commonly supposed. Skelton, in his CROWNE OF LAWRELL, sees Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate approach: he describes their whole apparel as glittering with the richest precious stones, and then immediately adds,
They wanted nothing but the LAURELL.
Afterwards, however, there is the rubric
Maister Chaucer
LAUREATE
poete to Skelton.
Works, p. 21. 22. edit. 1736.
, as it is supposed, but his historiographer
Apostolo Zeno was both poet and historiographer to his imperial majesty. So was Dryden to James the second. It is observable that Petrarch was laureated as poet and historian.
, and preceptor in grammar to prince Arthur. He obtained many eccle
iastical preferments in England
One of these, the mastership of saint Leonard's hospital at Bedford, was given him by bishop Smith, one of the founders of Brase-nose college, Oxford, in the year 1498. Registr. SMITH, epis
. Lincoln. sub. ann.
. All the pieces now to be found, which he wrote in the character of poet laureate, are in Latin
Some of Skelton's Latin poems seem to be written in the character of the
Royal
laureate, particularly one, entitled
"Haec Laureatus Skeltonus, orator reginae, super triumphali, &c.
It is subscribed
"Per Skeltonida Laureatum, oratorem regium."
Work
, p. 110. edit. ut supr. Hardly any of his English pieces, which are numerous, appear to belong to that character. With regard to the ORATOR REGIUS, I find one John Mallard in that office to Henry the eighth, and his epistolary secretary. He has left
a Latin elegiac paraphrase on the lord's prayer,
MSS. Bibl. Reg. 7 D. xiii. Dedicated to that king.
Le premier livre de la cosmographie,
in verse, ibid. 20 B. xii. And a
P
alter,
beautifully written by himself, for the use of the king. In the margin, are short notes in the handwriting, and two exquisite miniatures, of Henry the eighth. Ibid. 2 A. xvi.
. These are,
an
ADDRESS
to Henry the
eighth for the most auspicious beginning of the tenth year of his reign,
with an EPITHALAMIUM
on the marriage of Francis the Dauphin of France with the king's daughter
MS. olim penes Thom. Martin de Palgrave.
. A NEW YEAR'SGIFT for the year 1515
MSS. Coll. Nov. Oxon. 287.
. And verses wishing prosperity to his majesty's thirteenth year
Brit. Mus. MSS. Reg. 12 A. x. The copy presented. In paper. There is a wretched false quantity in the first line,
Indue, honor, cult
s, et
adole
munera flammis.
. He has left some Latin hymns
And a Latin life of saint Andrew. MSS. Cotton. DOMITIAN. A. xviii. 15.
: and many of his Latin prose pieces, which he wrote in the quality of historiographer to both monarchs, are remaining
A chronicle of the life and atchievements of Henry the seventh to the taking of Perkin Warbeck, MSS. Cotton. DOMITIAN. A. xviii. 15. Other historical commentaries on the reign of that king. Ibid. JUL. A. 4. JUL. A. 3.
.
I am of opinion, that it was not customary for the royal laureate to write in English, till the reformation of religion had begun to diminish the veneration for the Latin language: or rather, till the love of novelty, and a better sense of things, had banished the narrow pedantries of monastic erudition, and taught us to cultivate our native tongue. In the mean time it is to be wished, that another change might at least be suffered to take place in the execution of this institution, which is confessedly Gothic, and unaccommodated to modern manners. I mean, that the more than annual return of a composition on a trite argument would be no longer required. I am conscious I say this at a time, when the best of kings affords the most just and copious theme for panegyric: but I speak it at a time, when the department is honourably filled by a poet of taste and genius, which are idly wasted on the most splendid subjects, when imposed by constraint, and perpetually repeated.
To what is here incidentally collected on an article more curious than important, I add an observation, which shews that the practice of other nations in this respect altogether corresponded with that of our own. When we read of the laureated poets of Italy and Germany, we are to remember, that they most commonly received this honour from the state, or some university; seldom, at least not immediately, from the prince: and if we find any of these professedly employed in the department of a court-poet, that they were not, in consequence of that peculiar situation, styled poets laureate. The distinction, at least in general, was previously conferred
The reader who requires a full and particular information concerning the first origin of the laureation of poets, and the solemnities with which this ceremony was performed in Italy and Germany, is referred to Selden's TIT. HON. Op. tom. p. 457. seq. VIE DE PETRARQUE, tom. iii.
Notes,
&c. p. 1. Not. quat. And to a memoir of M. l'Abbè du Resnel, MEM. LIT. x. 507. 4to. I will only add, the form of the creation of three poets laureate by the chancellor of the university of Strasburgh, in the year 1621.
"I create you, being placed in a chair of state, crowned with laurel and ivy, and wearing a ring of gold, and the same do pronounce and constitute, POETS LAUREATE, in the name of the holy Trinity, the father, son, and holy ghost. Amen."
.
John Scogan is commonly supposed to have been a cotemporary of Chaucer, but this is a mistake
See Hollinsh. Chron. iii. f. 710. It is uncertain whether the poem addressed by Chaucer to Scogan, was really written by the former, MSS. Fairfax. xvi.
. He was educated at Oriel college in Oxford: and being an excellent mimic, and of great pleasantry in conversation, became the favourite buffoon of the court of Edward the fourth, in which he passed the greatest part of his life. Bale inaccurately calls Scogan, the JOCULATOR of Edward the fourth: by which word he seems simply to understand the king's JOKER, for he certainly could not mean that Scogan was his majesty's MINSTREL
Script. xi. 70. By the way, the SERJEANT of the King's Minstrels occurs under this reign: and in a manner, which shews the confidential character of this officer, and his facility of access to the king at all hours and on all occasions.
"And as he [k. Edw. iv.] was in the north contray in the moneth of Septembre, as he laye in his bedde, one namid Alexander Carlisle, that was
sariaunt of the mynstrallis,
cam to him in grete h
ste, and bade hym aryse, for he hadde enemys cummyng, &c."
A REMARKABLE FRAGMENT, etc. [an. ix.
Edw. iv.] ad calc. SPORTTI CHRON. edit. Hearne. Oxon. 1729. 8vo. Compare Percy's E
. MINSTR. p. 56. Anstis, ORD. GART. ii. 303.
. Andrew Borde, a mad physician and a dull poet in the reign of Henry the eighth, published his JESTS, under the title of SCOGIN'S JESTS
It is from these pieces we learn that he was of Oriel college: for he speaks of retiring, with that society, to the hospital of saint Bartholomew, while the plague was at Oxford. These JESTS are sixty in number.
Pr.
Pref.
"There is nothing besides."
Pr.
"On a time in Lent."
They were reprinted about the restoration. 4to.
, which are without humour or invention; and give us no very favourable idea of the delicacy of the king and courtiers, who could be exhilarated by the merriments of such a writer. A MORAL BALADE, printed in Chaucer's works, addressed to the dukes of Clarenc
, Bedford, and Gloucester, and sent from a tavern in the Vintry at London, is attributed to Scogan
It may yet be doubted whether it belongs to Scogan; as it must have been written before the year 1447, and the writer complains of the approach of old age. col. i. v. 10. It was first printed, under Scogan's name, by Caxton, in the COLLECTION OF CHAUCER'S and LYDGATE'S POEMS. The little piece, printed as Chaucer's, [Urr. ed. p. 548.] called FLEE FROM THE PRESSE, is expres
ly given to Scogan, and called PROVERBIUM JOANNIS SKOGAN, MSS. C. C. C. Oxon. 203.
. But our jocular bard evidently mistakes his talents when he attempts to give advice. This piece is the dullest sermon that ever was written in the octave stanza. Bale mentions his COMEDIES
xi. 70.
, which certainly mean nothing dramatic, and are perhaps only his JESTS above-mentioned. He seems to have flourished about the year 1480.
Two didactic poets on chemistry appeared in this reign, John Norton and George Ripley. Norton was a native of Bristol
He speaks of the wife of William Canning, who will occur again below, five times mayor of Bristol, and the founder of saint Mary of Radcliffe church there. ORDINAL, p. 34.
, and the most skillful alchemist of his age
Printed by Ashmole, in his THEATRUM CHEMICUM Lond. 1652. 8vo. p. 6. It was finished A. D. 1477. ORDIN. p. 106. It was translated into Latin by Michael Maier, M. D. Francof. 1618. 4to. Norton wrote other chemical pieces.
. His poem is called the ORDINAL, or a manual of the chemical art
See ORDIN. p. 9. 10. Norton declares, that he learned his art in forty days, at twenty-eight years of age. Ibid. p. 33. 88.
. It was presented to Nevil archbishop of York, who was a great patron of the hermetic philosophers
Ashmole, ubi supr. p. 455.
Notes.
; which were lately grown so numerous in England, as to occasion an act of parliament against the transmutation of metals. Norton's reason for treating his subject in English rhyme, was to circulate the principles of a science of the most consummate utility among the unlearned
Pag. 106.
. This poem is totally void of every poetical elegance. The only wonder which it relates, belonging to an art, so fertile in striking inventions, and contributing to enrich the store-house of Arabian romance with so many magnificent imageries, is that of an alchemist, who projected a bridge of gold over the river Thames near London, crowned with pinnacles of gold, which being studded with carbuncles, diffused a blaze of light in the dark
Pag. 26.
. I will add a few lines only, as a specimen of his versification.
Wherefore he would set up in higth
That bridge, for a wonderfull sight,
With pinnacles guilt, shininge as goulde,
A glorious thing for men to behoulde.
Then he remembered of the newe,
Howe greater fame shulde him pursewe,
If he mought make that bridge so brighte,
That it mought shine alsoe by night:
And so continewe and not breake,
Then all the londe of him would speake, &c
Pag. 26.
.
Norton's heroes in the occult sciences are Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Raymond Lully, to whose specious promises of supplying the coinage of England with inexhaustible mines of philosophical gold, king Edward the third became an illustrious dupe
Ashmol. ubi supr. p. 443. 467. And Camden's REM. p. 242. edit. 1674. By the way, Raymond Lu
ly is said to have died at eighty years of age, in the year 1315. Whart. APP. Cave, cap. p. 6.
.
George Ripley, Norton's cotemporary, was accomplished in many parts of erudition; and still maintains his reputation as a learned chemist of the lower ages. He was a canon regular of the monastery of Bridlington in Yorkshire, a great traveller
Ashmole says, that Ripley, during his long stay at Rhodes, gave the knights of Malta 100,000 l. annually, towards maintaining the war against the Turks. Ubi supr. p. 458. Ashmole could not have made this incredible assertion, without supposing a circumstance equally incredible, that Ripley was in actual possession of the Philosopher's Stone.
, and studied both in France and Italy. At his return from abroad, pope Innocent the eighth absolved him from the observance of the rules of his order, that he might prosecute his studies with more convenience and freedom. But his convent not concurring with this very liberal indulgence, he turned Carmelite at saint Botolph's in Lincolnshire, and died an anachorite in that fraternity in th
year 1490
Ashmol. p. 455. seq. Bale, viii. 49. Pits. p. 677.
. His chemical poems are nothing more than the doctrines of alchemy cloathed in plain language, and a very rugged versification. The capital performance is THE COMPOUND OF ALCHEMIE, written in the year 1471
Ashmol. THEATR. CHEM. p. 193. It was first printed in 1591. 4to. Reprinted by Ashmole, THEATR. CHEM. ut supr. p. 107. It has been thrice translated into Latin, Ashm. ut supr. p. 465. See Ibid. p. 108. 110. 122. Most of Ripley's Latin works were printe
by Lud. Combachius, Cassel. 16
9. 12mo .
. It is in the octave metre, and dedicated to Edward the fourth
He mentions the abbey church at Westminster as unfinished. Pag. 154. st. 27. P. 156. and st. 34.
. Ripley has left a few other compositions on his favourite science, printed by Ashmole, who was an enthusiast in this abused species of philosophy
Ashmole conjectures, that an English chemical piece in the octave stanza, which he has printed, called HERMES'S BIRD, no unpoetical fiction, was translated from Raymond Lully, by Cremer, abbot of Westminster, a great chemist: and adds, that Cremer brought Lully into England, and introduced him to the notice of Edward the third, about the year 1334. Ashmol. ubi supr. p. 213. 467. The writer of HERMES'S BIRD, however, appears by the versification and language, to have lived at least an hundred years after that period. He informs us, that he made the translation
"owte of the Frensche."
Ibid. p. 214. Ashmole mentions a curious picture of the GRAND MYST
RIES OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, which abbot Cremer ordered to
e painted in Westminster abbey, upon an arch where the waxen kings and queens are placed: but that it was obliterated with a plaisterer's brush by the puritans in Oliver's time. He al
o mentions a large and beautiful window
behind the pulpit in the neighbouring church of saint Margaret, painted with the same subject, and destroyed by the same ignoran
zealots, who mistook these innocent hi
roglyphics for some story in a popish legend. Ashmol. ibid. 211. 466. 467. Compar
Widmore's Hist. WESTMINSTER-ABBEY. p. 174. seq. edit. 1751. 4to.
. One of them, the MEDULLA, written in 1476, is dedicated to archbishop Nevil
Ashm. p. 389. See also p. 374. seq.
. These pieces have no other merit, than that of serving to develope the history of chemistry in England. They certainly contributed nothing to the state of our poetry
It will be sufficient to throw some of the obscurer rhymers of this period into the Notes. Osbern Bokenham wrote or translated metrical lives of the saints, about 1445. See supr. vol. i. p. 14.
Notes.
Gilbert Banester wrote in English verse the
Miracle of saint Thomas,
in the year 1467. CCCC. MSS. Q. viii. See supr. vol. i. p. 75.
Notes.
And Lel. COLLECTAN. tom. i. (p. ii.) pag. 510. edit. 1770. Wydville earl of Rivers, already mentioned, translated into English dis
ichs,
The morale Proverbes of Crystyne of Pyse,
printed by Caxton, 1477. They consist of two sheets in folio. This is a couplet;
Little vailleth good example to see
For him that wole not the contrarie flee.
This nobleman's only original piece is a
Balet
of four stanzas, preserved by Rouse, a cotemporary historian, Ross. Hist. p. 213. edit. Hearn. apud Leland. Itin. tom. x. edit. Oxon. 1745. I refer also the NOTBROWNE MAYDE to this period. See Capel's PROLUSION
, p. 23. seq. edit. 1760. And Percy's ANC. BALL. vol. ii. p. 26. seq. edit. 1767. Of the same date is perhaps
the
DELECTABLE HISTORIE
of king Edward the fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth,
&c. &c. See Percy, ubi supr. p. 81. Hearne affirms, that in this piece there are some
"romantic
assertions:
—otherwise 'tis a book of
value,
and more
authority
is to be given to it than is given to
poetical books of
LATE YEARS."
Hearne's Leland, ut supr. vol. ii. p. 103.
.
SECT. VIII.
BUT a want of genius will be no longer imputed to this period of our poetical history, if the poems lately discovered at Bristol, and said to have been written by Thomas Rowlie, a secular priest of that place, about the year one thousand four hundred and seventy, are genuine.
It must be acknowledged, that there are some circumstances which incline us to suspect these pieces to be a modern forgery. On the other hand, as there is some degree of plausibility in the history of their discovery, as they possess considerable merit, and are held to be the real productions of Rowlie by many respectable critics; it is my duty to give them a place in this series of our poetry, if it was for no other reason than that the world might be furnished with an opportunity of examining their authenticity. By exhibiting therefore the most specious evidences, which I have been able to collect, concerning the manner in which they were brought to light
I acknowledge myself greatly indebted to the ingenious doctor Harrington of Bath, for facilitating my enquiries on this subject.
, and by producing such specimens, as in another respect cannot be deemed unacceptable; I will endeavour, not only to gratify the curiosity of the public on a subject that has long engaged the general attention, and has never yet been fairly or fully stated, but to supply the more inquisitive reader with every argument, both external and internal, for determining the merits of this interesting controversy. I shall take the liberty to add my own opinion, on a point at least doubtful: but with the greatest deference to decisions of much higher authority.
About the year 1470, William Cannynge, an opulent merchant and an alderman of Bristol, afterwards an ecclesiastic, and dean of Westbury college, erected the magnificent church of Saint Mary of Redcliffe, or Radcliff, near Bristol
He is said to have rebuilt Westbury college. Dugd. WARWICKSH. p. 634. edit. 1730. And Atkyns, GLOCESTERSH. p. 802. On his monument in Radcliffechurch, he is twice represented, both in an alderman's and a priest's habit. He was five times mayor of Bristol. See Godwin's BISH. p. 446. [But see edit. fol. p. 467.]
. In a muniment-room over the northern portico of the church, the founder placed an iron chest, secured by six different locks
It is said there were four chests: but this is a circumstance of no consequence.
; which seems to have been principally intended to receive instruments relating to his new structure, and perhaps to his other charities
These will be mentioned below.
, inventories of vestments and ornaments
See an inventory of ornaments given to this church by the founder, Jul. 4, 1470
ormerly kept in this chest, and printed by Mr. Walpole, AN
CD. PAINT. i. p. 45.
, accompts of church-wardens, and other parochial evidences. He is said to have directed, that this venerable chest should be annually visited and opened by the mayor and other chief magistrates of Bristol, attended by the vicar and church-wardens of the parish: and that a feast should be celebrated every year, on the day of visitation. But this order, that part at least which relates to the inspection of the chest, was soon neglected.
In the year 1768, when the present new bridge at Bristol was finished and opened for passengers, an account of the ceremonies observed on occasion of opening the old bridge, appeared in one of the Bristol Journals; taken, as it was declared, from an antient manuscript
The old bridge was built about the year 1248. HISTORY of BRISTOL, MS. Archiv. Bodl. C. iii. By Abel Wantner.
Archdeacon Furney, in the year 1755, left by will to the Bodleian library, large collections, by va
ious hands, relating to the history and antiquities of the city, church, and county of Gloucester, which are now preserved there, Archiv. C. ut supr. At the end of N. iii. is the manuscript HISTORY just mentioned, supposed to have been compiled by Abel Wantner, of Minchin-Hampton in Glocestershire, who published proposals and specimens for a history of that county, in 1683.
. Curiosity was naturally raised to know from whence it came. At length, after much enquiry concerning the person who sent this singular memoir to the news-paper, it was discovered that he was a youth about seventeen years old, whose name was Chatterton; and whose father had been sexton of Radcliffe church for many years, and also master of a writing-school in that parish, of which the church-wardens were trustees. The father however was now dead: and the son was at first unwilling to acknowledge, from whom, or by what means, he had procured so valuable an original. But after many promises, and some threats, he confessed that he received a manuscript on parchment containing the narrative abovementioned, together with many other manuscripts on parchment
from his father; who had found them in an iron chest, the same that I have mentioned, placed in a room situated over the northern entrance of the church.
It appears that the father became possessed of these manuscripts in the year 1748. For in that year, he was permitted, by the church-wardens of Radcliffe-church, to take from this chest several written pieces of parchment, supposed to be illegible and useless, for the purpose of converting them into covers for the writing-books of his scholars. It is impossible to ascertain, what, or how many, writings were destroyed, in consequence of this absurd and unwarrantable indulgence. Our school-master, however, whose accomplishments were much above his station, and who was not totally destitute of a taste for poetry, found, as it is said, in this immense heap of obsolete manuscripts, many poems written by Thomas Rowlie abovementioned, priest of Saint John's church in Bristol, and the confessor of alderman Cannynge, which he carefully preserved. These at his death, of course fell into the hands of his son.
Of the extraordinary talents of this young man more will be said hereafter. It will be sufficient to observe at present, that he saw the merit and value of these poems, which he diligently transcribed. In the year 1770, he went to London, carrying with him these transcripts, and many originals, in hopes of turning so in
stimable a treasure to his great advantage. But from these flattering expectations, falling into a dissipated course of life, which ill suited with his narrow circumstances, and finding that a writer of the most distinguished taste and judgement, Mr. Walpole, had pronounced the poems to be suspicious, in a fit of despair, arising from distress and disappointment, he destroyed all his papers, and poisoned himself. Some of the poems however, both transcripts and originals, he had previously sold, either to Mr. Catcott, a merchant of Bristol, or to Mr. Barrett, an eminent surgeon of the same place, and an ingenious antiquary, with whom they now remain
Mr. Barrett, to whom I am greatly o
iged
or his unreserved and liberal information on this subject, is now engaged in writing the ANTIQUITIES of BRISTOL.
. But it appears, that among these there were but very few of parchment: most of the poems which they purchased were copies in his own hand. He was always averse to give any distinct or satisfactory account of what he possessed: but from time to time, as his necessities required, he produced copies of his originals, which were bought by these gentlemen. The originals, one or two only excepted, he chose to retain in his own possession.
The chief of these poems are, The TRAGEDY of ELLA, The EXECUTION of sir CHARLES BAWDWIN, ODE to ELLA, The BATTLE of HASTINGS, The TOURNAMENT, one or two DIALOGUES, and a Description of CANNYNGE'S FEAST.
The TRAGEDY OF ELLA has six characters; one of which is a lady, named Birtha. It has a chorus consisting of minstrels, whose songs are often introduced. Ella was governor of the castle of Bristol, and a puissant champion against the Danes, about the year 920. The story seems to be the poet's invention. The tragedy is opened with the following soliloquy.
CELMONDE
atte Brystowe.
Before yonne roddie sonne has droove hys wayne
Through half hys joornie, dyghte yn gites of gowlde,
Mee, hapless mee, he wylle a wretch behowlde,
Myselfe, and alle thatts myne, bounde yn Myschaunche's chayne!
Ah Byrtha, whie dydde nature frame thee fayre,
Whie art thou alle that poyntelle
Pencil.
canne bewreene?
Whie art thou notte as coarse as odhers are?
Botte thenne thie soughle
Soul.
woulde throwe thie vysage sheene,
Yatte
That.
shemres
Glimmers.
onne thie comlie semlykeene
Seemliness.
Beauty.
,
Or scarlette with waylde lynnen clothe
Perhaps we should read, O
scarlette vailed with a linnen clothe.
,
Lyke would thie sprite
Soul.
[shine] upon thie vysage:
This daie brave Ella dothe thyne honde and harte
Clayme as hys owne to bee, whyche nee
Never.
from hys moste parte.
And cann I lynne to see herre with anere
Another.
?
Ytte cannotte, must notte, naie ytte shall notte bee!
Thys nyght I'lle putt strong poysonne yn the beere,
And hymme, herre, and myselfe attones
At once.
wylle slea.
Assyst, me helle, lette devylles rounde me tende,
To slea myselfe, my love, and eke my doughhtie friende!
The following beautiful descriptions of SPRING, AUTUM
, and MORNING, are supposed to be sung in the tragedy, by the chorus of minstrels.
SPRING.
The boddyng flowrettes bloshes at the lyhte,
The mees be springede
The meadows are sprinkled, &c.
with the yellowe hue,
Yn daiseyed mantells ys the monntayne dyghte,
The neshe
Tender.
younge cowslepe bendethe wythe the dewe;
The trees enleafede, into heaven straught
Stretching. Stretched.
,
Whanne gentle wyndes doe blowe, to whestlynge dynne ys
i. e. Are.
brought.
The evenynge commes, and brynges the dewe alonge,
The rodie welkynne sheeneth toe the eyne,
Arounde the alestake
A sign-post before an alchouse. In Chaucer, the HOSTE says,
—Here at this
ale
ouse-sta
e,
I wol both drinke, and etin of a cake.
WORDES HOST. v. 1835. Urr. p. 131. And in the SHIP OF FOOLES, fol. 9. a. edit. 1570.
By the
ale-sta
e
knowe we the alehouse,
And everie inne is knowen by the signe.
mynstrelles synge the songe,
Yonge ivie rounde the doore-post doth entwyne;
I laie mee on the grasse: yette to mie wylle,
Albeytte alle ys fayre, theere lackethe sommethynge stylle.
AUTUMN.
Whanne Autumne, blake, and sonne-brente doe appere,
Wythe hys goulde honde, guylteynge the falleynge lefe,
Bryngeynge oppe Wynterre to folfylle the yere,
Beereynge uponne hys backe the riped shefe;
Whanne alle the hylls wythe woddie seede is whyte,
Whanne levynne fyres, ande lemes, do mete fromme farr the syghte:
Whanne the fayre apple, rudde as even skie,
Doe bende the tree untoe the fructyle grounde,
Whanne joicie peres, and berryes of blacke die,
Doe daunce ynne ayre, and calle the eyne arounde:
Thanne, bee the even fowle, or even fayre,
Meethynckes mie hartys joie ys steyned withe somme care.
MORNING.
Bryghte sonne han ynne hys roddie robes byn dyghte,
Fro the redde easte hee flytted wythe hys trayne;
The howers drawe awaie the geete of nyghte,
Herre sable tapistrie was rente ynne twayne:
The dauncynge streakes bedeckedd heavenne's playne,
And onne the dewe dydd smyle wythe shemrynge
Glimmering.
eie,
Lyche gottes
Drops.
of blodde whyche doe blacke armoure steyne,
Sheenynge uponne the borne whyche stondethe bye:—
The souldyerrs stoode uponne the hyllis syde,
Lyche yonge enlefed trees whych ynne a forreste byde
There is a description of morning in another part of the tragedy.
The mornynge gynes alonge the east to sheene,
Darkling the lyghte does on the waters plaie;
The feynte rodde beam slowe creepethe over the leene,
To chase the morkynesse of nyghte awaie.
Swift fleis the hower that will brynge oute the daie,
The softe dewe falleth onne the greeynge grasse;
The shepster mayden dyghtynge her arraie,
Scante sees her vysage ynne the wavie glasse:
By the fulle daylight wee scalle ELLA see,
Or BRISTOWE'S walled towne. Damoyselle followe mee.
.
But the following ode, belonging to the same tragedy, has much more of the choral or lyric strain.
I.
O! synge unto mie roundelaie,
O! drop the bryny tear with me,
Daunce ne moe atte hallie day,
Lyke a running river bee.
My love is dedde,
Gone to his death bedde,
Al under the willowe tree.
II.
Blacke his cryne
Hair.
as the wyntere night,
Whyte his rode
Neck.
as summer snowe,
Rodde his face as morning lyght,
Cold he lies in the grave below.
My love is dedde, &c.
III.
Swote his tounge as the throstle's note,
Quycke in daunce as thought can be,
Deft his tabor, codgelle stote,
Oh! he lies by the willowe tree.
My love is dedde, &c.
IV.
Hark! the raven flaps his wynge,
In the brier'd delle belowe;
Hark! the dethe owl loud doth sing
To the night mares as they go.
My love is dedde, &c.
V.
See the white moon sheenes on hie!
Whyter is my true love's shrowde,
Whyter than the morning skie,
Whyter than the evening cloud.
My love is dedde, &c.
VI.
Here upon my true love's grave
Shall the garen
Bright.
fleurs be layde:
Ne one hallie saynte to save
Al the celness of a mayde.
My love is dedde, &c.
VII.
With my hondes I'll dente
Indent.
Bend into the ground.
the brieres,
Round his hallie corse to gre
Grow.
,
Ouphante
Ouphan. Elphin.
faeries, light your fyres,
Here my bodie still shall bee.
My love is dedde, &c.
VIII.
Come with acorne-cup, and thorne,
Drain mie harty's blodde awaie:
Lyfe and all its goodes I scorne,
Daunce by night, or feast by day.
My love is dedde, &c.
IX.
Watere wytches crownde with reytes
R
eds
,
Bere me to your lethale tyde;
I die—I come—My true love waytes!
Thos the damselle spake, and dy'd.
According to the date assigned to this tragedy, it is the first drama extant in our language. In an Epistle prefixed to his patron Cannynge, the author thus censures the MYSTERIES, or religious interludes, which were the only plays then existing.
Plaies made from HALLIE
Holy.
TALES I hold unmete;
Let some
great story of a man
be songe;
Whanne, as a man, we Godde and Jesus trete,
Ynne mie poore mynde we doe the godhead wronge.
The ODE TO ELLA is said to have been sent by Rowlie in the year 1468, as a specimen of his poetical abilities, to his intimate friend and cotemporary Lydgate, who had challenged him to write verses. The subject is a victory obtained by Ella over the Danes, at Watchett near Bristol
With this address to Lydgate prefixed.
Well thenne, good John, sythe ytt muste needes so be,
That thou, and I a bowtynge matche muste have;
Lett ytt ne breakynge of oulde friendshipp
bee,
Thys ys the on
lie allaboone I crave.
Remember Stowe, the Bryghtstowe Carmalyte,
Who, when John Clackynge, one of myckle lore,
Dydd throwe hys gauntlette penne wyth
hym to wryte,
He shewde smalle wytte, and shewde his weaknesse more.
Thys ys mie 'formance, whiche I now have wrytte,
The best performance of mie lyttel wytte.
S
owe
should be
Stone,
a Carmelite friar of Bristol, educated at Cambridge, and a famous preacher. Lydgate's answer on receiving the ode, which certainly cannot be genuine, is beneath transcription. The writer, freely owning his inferiority, declares, that Rowlie rivals Chaucer and Turgotus, who both lived in
Norman tymes.
The latter, indeed, may in some measure be said to have flourished in that era, for he died bishop of Saint Andrews in 1115. But he is oddly coupled with Chaucer in another respect, for he wrote only some Latin chronicles. Besides, Lydgate must have been sufficiently acquainted with Chaucer's age; for he was living, and a young man, when Chaucer died. The writer also m
ntions Stone, the Carmelite, as living with Chaucer and Turgotus: whereas he was Lydgate's cotemporary. These circumstances, added to that of the extreme and affected meanness of the composition, evidently prove this little piece a forgery.
. I will give this piece at length.
SONGE TO AELLE LORDE OF THE CASTLE OF BRISTOWE
ynne daies of yore.
Oh! thou (orr whatt remaynes of thee)
EALLE the darlynge of futuritie!
Lette thys mie songe bolde as thie courage bee,
As everlastynge to posteritie!
Whanne Dacya's sonnes, whose hayres of bloude redde hue,
Lyche kynge cuppes brastynge wythe the mornynge due,
Arraung'd ynn dreare arraie,
Uppone the lethale daie,
Spredde farr and wyde onn Watchett's shore:
Thenn dyddst thou furyouse stonde,
And bie thie brondeous honde
Beesprengedd all the mees with gore.
Drawne bie thyne anlace felle
Sword.
,
Downe to the depthe of helle,
Thousandes of Dacyanns wente;
Brystowannes menne of myghte,
Ydar'd the bloudie fyghte,
And actedd deedes full quente.
Oh! thou, where'er (thie bones att reste)
Thie spryte to haunt delyghteth beste,
Whytherr upponn the bloude-embrewedd pleyne
Orr whare thou kennst fromme farre
The dysmalle crie of warre,
Orr seeste somme mountayne made of corse of sleyne:
Orr seeste the harnessd steede,
Yprauncynge o
er the meede,
And neighe to bee amonge the poynctedd speeres;
Orr ynn blacke armoure staulke arounde
Embattell'd Brystowe, once thie grounde,
And glowe ardorous onn the castell steeres:
Orr fierie rounde the mynster
The monastery. Now the cathedral.
glare:
Lette Brystowe stylle bee made thie care,
Guarde ytte fromme foemenne and consumynge fyre
Lyche Avone streme ensyrke ytt rounde;
Ne lett a flame enharme the grounde,
'Tyll ynne one flame all the whole worlde expyres.
The BATTLE OF HASTINGS is called a translation from the Saxon: and contains a minute description of the persons, arms, and characters of many of the chiefs, who fought in that important action. In this poem, Stonehenge is described as a Druidical temple.
The poem called the TOURNAMENT, is dramatically conducted, among others, by the characters of a herald, a knight, a minstrel, and a king, who are introduced speaking.
The following piece is a description of an alderman's feast at Bristol; or, as it is entitled, ACCOUNTE OF W. CANNYNGE'S FEAST.
Thorowe the hall the belle han sounde,
Byalccoyle
BELLACCOYLE. A personage in Chaucer's Rom. R. v. 2984. &c. i. e. KIND WELCOME. From the Fr.
Bel ac
ueil.
doe the grave beseeme;
The ealdermenne doe sytte arounde,
And snoffelle
Snuff up.
opp the cheorte steeme.
Lyke asses wylde in deserte waste
Swotely the morneynge doe taste,
Syke kene thei ate: the mynstrells plaie,
The dynne of angelles doe thei kepe:
Thei stylle
The mi
strels cease.
: the guestes ha ne to saie,
But nodde ther thankes, and falle asleepe.
Thos echeone daie bee I to deene
Dine.
,
Gyff
If.
Rowley, Ischamm, or Tybb Gorges, be ne seen.
But a dialogue between two ladies, whose knights, or husbands, served in the wars between York and Lancaster, and were now fighting at the battle of Saint Albans, will be more interesting to many readers. This battle happened in the reign of Edward the fifth, about the year 1471.
ELINOUR and JUGA.
Anne Ruddeborne
Rudborn, in Saxon, red-water, a river near Saint Albans.
bank twa pynynge maydens sate,
Theire teares faste dryppeynge to the waterre cleere;
Echone bementynge
Lamenting.
for her absente mate,
Who atte Seyncte Albonns shouke the morthynge
Murdering.
speare.
The nottebrowne Ellynor to Juga fayre,
Dydde speke acroole
Faintly.
, with languyshmente of eyne,
Lyke droppes of pearlie dewe, lemed
Glistened.
the quyvrynge brin
.
ELINOUR.
O gentle Juga! hear mie dernie
Sad complaint.
plainte,
To fyghte for Yorke mie love is dyght
Arrayed, or cased.
in stele;
O mai ne sanguen steine the whyte rose peyncte,
Maie good Seyncte Cuthberte watch syrre Robynne wele!
Moke moe thanne death in phantasie I feelle;
See! see! upon the grounde he bleedynge lies!
Inhild
Infuse.
some joice
Juice.
of life, or else my deare love dies.
JUGA.
Systers in sorrowe on thys daise ey'd banke,
Where melancholych broods, we wylle lamente:
Be wette with mornynge dewe and evene danke;
Lyche levynde
Blasted.
okes in eche the oder bente:
Or lyke forletten
Forsaken.
halles of merriemente,
Whose gastlie
Ruins.
nitches holde the traine of fryghte
Fear.
,
Where lethale
Deadly, or death-boding.
ravens bark, and owlets wake the nyghte.
No mo the miskynette
A small bagpipe.
shalle wake the morne,
The minstrelle daunce, good cheere, and morryce plaie;
No mo the amblynge palfrie and the horne,
Shall from the lessel
In a confined sense, a bush or hedge, though sometimes used as a forest.
rouȝe the foxe awaie:
Ill seke the foreste alle the lyve-longe daie:
Alle nete amenge the gravde cherche
Church-yard, full of graves.
glebe wyll goe,
And to the passante spryghtes lecture
Relate.
mie tale of woe.
Whan mokie
Black.
cloudes do hange upon the leme
Of leden
Decreasing.
moon, ynn sylver mantels dyghte:
The tryppeynge faeries weve the golden dreme
Of selyness
Happiness
Chaucer, TR. CRES. iii. 815.
, whyche flyethe with the nyghte;
Thenne (but the seynctes forbydde) gif to a spryghte
Syrre Rychardes forme is lyped; I'll holde dystraughte
Hys bledeynge clai-colde corse, and die eche daie yn thoughte.
ELINOUR.
Ah, woe-bementynge wordes; what wordes can showe!
Thou limed
Glassy.
river, on thie linche
Bank.
mai bleede
Champyons, whose bloude wylle wythe thie waterres flowe,
And Rudborne streeme be rudborne streeme indeede!
Haste gentle Juga, trippe ytte o'ere the meade
To know or wheder wee muste waile agayne,
Or whythe oure fallen knyghte be menged onne the plain.
So saieing, lyke twa levyn-blasted trees,
Or twain of cloudes that holdeth stormie raine,
Theie moved gentle o'ere the dewe mees
Meads.
;
To where Seyncte Albon's holie shrynes remayne.
There dyd theye finde that bothe their knyghtes were sleyne;
Distraughte
Distracted.
, theie wandered to swollen Rudborne's syde,
Yelled theyre leathalle knelle, sonke in the waves and dyde.
In a DIALOGUE, or ECLOGUE, spoken by two ladies, are these lines.
Sprytes of the blaste, the pious Nygelle sedde,
Powre oute your pleasaunce on mie fadres hedde.
Richard of lyonn's harte to fyghte is gonne,
Uppon the broad sea doe the banners gleme;
The aminusedd natyons be astonn
To ken syke
So.
large a flete, syke fyne, syke breme
Fierce.
:
The barkis heofods coupe the lymed
Polished. Bright.
streme:
Oundes
Waters.
synkyng oundes uppon the hard ake
Oak.
Ship.
rise;
The waters slughornes wyth a swoty cleme
Conteke
Contend with.
the dynninge
Noisy.
ayre, and reche
Reach.
the skies.
Sp
ytes of the blaste, on gouldenn trones astedde
Seated.
,
Powre oute your pleasaunce on mie fadres hedde!
I am of opinion, that none of these pieces are genuine. The EXECUTION of SIR CHARLES BAUDWIN is now allowed to be modern, even by those who maintain all the other poems to be antient
It contains 98 stanzas, and was printed at London, in the year 1772. 4to. I am told, that in the abovementioned chest, belonging to Radcliffe-church, an antient Record was discovered, containing the expences for Edward the fourth to see the execution of sir Charles Baldwin; with a description of a canopy under which the king
ate at thi
execution. This Record seems to have given rise to the poem. A bond which sir Charles Baldwin gave to king Henry the sixth, I suppose about seizing the earl of Warwick, is said to have be
n mentioned in one of Rowlie's manuscripts, called the YELLOW ROLL, perhaps the same, found in Cannynge's chest, but now lost. See Stowe's CHRON. by Howes, edit. fol. 1615. p. 406. col. 2. And Speed's, p. 669. col. 2. edit. 1611. Stowe says, that king Edward
the fourth was
at Bristol, on a progress through England, in the
harvest s
ason
of the year 1462. And that he was
mos
royally received.
Ibid. p. 416. col. 2. Cannynge was then mayor of Bristol. Sir Charles Baldwin is said to have been executed at Bristol, in the presence of Edward the fourth, in the year 1463. MS. Wantn. Bibl. Bodl. ut supr. The same king was at Bristol, and lodged in saint Augu
tine's abbey, in 1472, when he received a large gratuity from the citizens for carrying on the war against France. Wantner, ibid.
. The ODE TO ELLA, and the EPISTLE to Lydgate, with his ANSWER, were written on one piece of parchment; and, as pretended, in Rowlie's own hand. This was shewn to an ingenious critic and intelligent antiquary of my acquaintance; who assure
me, that the writing was a gross and palpable forgery. It was not even skilfully counterfeited. The form of the letters, although artfully contrived to wear an antiquated appearance, differed very essentially from every one of our early alphabets. Nor were the characters uniform and consistent: part of the same manuscript exhibiting some letters shaped according to the present round hand, while others were traced in imitation of the antient court and text hands. The parchment was old; and that it might look still older, was stained on the outside with ochre, which was easily rubbed off with a linen cloth. Care had also been evidently taken to tincture the ink with a yellow cast. To communicate a stronger stamp of rude antiquity, the ODE was written like prose: no distinction, or termination, being made between the several verses. Lydgate's ANSWER, which makes a part of this manuscript, and is written by the same hand, I have already proved to be a manifest imposition. This parchment has since been unfortunately lost
At the same time, another manuscript on parchment, written, as pretended, by Rowlie, was shewn to this gentleman: which, tallying in every respect with the ODE to ELLA, plainly appeared to be forged, in the same manner, and by the same modern hand. It was in prose; and contained an account of Saxon coins, and the rise of coining in England, with a list of coins, poems, antient inscriptions, monuments, and other curiosities, in the cabinet of Cannynge abovementioned. This parchment is also lost; and, I believe, no copy remain
.
. I have myself carefully examined the original manuscript, as it is called, of the little piece entitled, ACCOUNTE OF W. CANNYNGE'S FEAST. It is likewise on parchment, and, I am sorry to say, that the writing betrays all the suspicious signatures which were observed in that of the ODE TO ELLA. I have repeatedly and diligently compared it with three or four authentic manuscripts of the time of Edward the fourth, to all which I have found it totally unlike. Among other smaller vestiges of forgery, which cannot be so easily described and explained here, at the bottom are added in ink two coats of arms, containing empalements of Cannynge and of his friends or relations, with family-names, apparently delineated by the same pen which wrote the verses. Even the style and drawing of the armorial bearings discover the hand of a modern herald. This, I believe, is the only pretended original of the poetry of Rowlie, now remaining.
As to internal arguments, an unnatural affectation of antient spelling and of obsolete words, not belonging to the period assigned to the poems, strikes us at first sight. Of these old words combinations are frequently formed, which never yet existed in the unpolished state of the English language: and sometimes the antiquated diction is most inartificially misapplied, by an improper contexture with the present modes of speech. The attentive reader will also discern, that our poet sometimes forgets his assumed character, and does not always act his part with consistency: for the chorus, or interlude, of the damsel who drowns herself, which I have cited at length from the TRAGEDY of ELLA, is much more intelligible, and free from uncouth expressions, than the general phraseology of these compositions. In the BATTLE OF HASTINGS, said to be translated from the Saxon, Stonehenge is called a Druidical temple. The battle of Hastings was fought in the year 1066. We will grant the Saxon original to have been written soon afterwards: about which time, no other notion prevailed concerning this miraculous monument, than the supposition which had been delivered down by long and constant tradition, that it was erected in memory of Hengist's massacre. This was the established and uniform opinion of the Welsh and Armorican bards, who most probably received it from the Saxon minstrels: and that this was the popular belief at the time of the battle of Hastings, appears from the evidence of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote his history not more than eighty years after that memorable event. And in this doctrine Robert of Gloucester and all the monkish chroniclers agree. That the Druids constructed this stupendous pile for a place of worship, was a discovery reserved for the sagacity of a wiser age, and the laborious discussion of modern antiquaries. In the EPISTLE to Lydgate, prefixed to the TRAGEDY, our poet condemns the absurdity and impropriety of the religious dramas, and recommends SOME GREAT STORY OF HUMAN MANNERS, as most suitable for theatrical representation. But this idea is the result of that taste and discrimination, which could only belong to a more advanced period of society
It would be tedious and trifling to descend to minute particulars. But I will mention one or two. In the ODE TO ELLA, the poet supposes, that the spectre of Ella sometimes appears in the
mynster,
that is Bristol-cathedral. But when Rowlie is supposed to have lived, the present cathedral of Bristol was nothing more than an Augustine monastery, in which Henry the eighth established long afterwards a bishop, and a dean and chapter, in the year 1542.
Minster
is a word almost appropriated to Cathedrals: and I will venture to say, that the church of this monastery, before the present foundation took place, never was called
Bristol-minster,
or
The minster.
The inattention to this circumstance, has produced another unfortunate anachronism in some of Rowlie's papers. Where, in his panegyric on Cannynge he says,
"The favouryte of godde, the
ryende of the chyrche, the companyonne of kynges, and the fadre of hys natyve CITIE, the grete and good Wyllyamme Canynge."
Bristol was never styled a CITY till the erection of its bishoprick in 1542. See Willis's NOTIT. PARLIAMENT. p. 43. Lond. 1750. See also king Henry's Patent for creating the bishoprick of Bristol, in Rymer, dat. Jun. 4. A. D. 1542. An. reg. 34. Where the king orders,
"Ac quod tota
Villa
nostra Bristolliae
exnunc
et
d
inceps
imperpetuum sit
Civitas,
ipsamque CIVITATEM BRISTOLLIAE appellari et nominari, volumus et decernimus, &c."
FOED. tom. xv. p. 749. Bristol was
proclaimed
a CITY, an. 35 Henr. viii. MS. Wantner, ut supr. In which manuscript, to that period it is constantly called a
town.
The description of Cannynge's feast, is called an ACCOUNTE of CANNYNGE'S FEAST. I do not think, that so early as the year 1470, the word
Accounte
had lost its literal and original sense of a
computus,
or
computation,
and was used in a looser acceptation for
narrative
or
detail.
Nor had it even then lost its true spelling
accompt,
in which its proper and primary signification is preserved and implied.
.
But, above all, the cast of thought, the complexion of the sentiments, and the structure of the composition, evidently prove these pieces not antient. The ODE TO ELLA, for instance, has exactly the air of modern poetry; such, I mean, as is written at this day, only disguised with antique spelling and phraseology. That Rowlie was an accomplished literary character, a scholar, an historian, and an antiquarian, if contended for, I will not deny
He is also said to have been an eminent mechanic and mathematician. I am informed, that one of Rowlie's manuscripts discovered in Cannynge's iron chest, was a plan for supporting the tower of the Temple-church in B
istol, which had greatly declined from its perpendicular. In a late reparation of that church, some subterraneous works were found, minutely corresponding with this manuscript.
. Nor is it impossible that he might write English poetry. But that he is the writer of the poems which I have here cited, and which have been so confidently ascribed to him, I am not yet convinced.
On the whole, I am inclined to believe, that these poem
were composed by the son of the school-master before mentioned; who inherited the inestimable treasures of Cannynge's chest in Radcliffe-church, as I have already related at large. This youth, who died at eighteen, was a prodigy of genius: and would have proved the first of English poets, had he reached a maturer age. From his childhood, he was fond of reading and writing verses: and some of his early compositions, which he wrote without any design to deceive, have been judged to be most astonishing productions by the first critic of the present age. From his situation and connections, he became a skilful practitioner in various kinds of hand-writing. Availing himself therefore of his poetical talent, and his facility in the graphic art, to a miscellany of obscure and neglected parchments, which were commodiously placed in his own possession, he was tempted to add others of a more interesting nature, and such as he was enabled to forge, under these circumstances, without the fear of detection. As to his knowledge of the old English literature, which is rarely the study of a young poet, a sufficient quantity of obsolete words and phrases were readily attainable from the glossary to Chaucer, and to Percy's Ballads. It is confessed, that this youth wrote the EXECUTION OF SIR CHARLES BAWDWIN: and he who could forge that poem, might easily forge all the rest.
In the mean time, we will allow, that some pieces of poetry written by Rowlie might have been preserved in Cannynge's chest: and that these were enlarged and improved by young Chatterton. But if this was the case, they were so much altered as to become entirely new compositions. The poem which bids the fairest to be one of these originals is CANNYNGE'S FEAST. But the parchment-manuscript of this little poem has already been proved to be a forgery. A circumstance which is perhaps alone sufficient to make us suspect that no originals ever existed.
It will be asked, for what end or purpose did he contrive such an imposture? I answer, from lucrative views; or perhaps from the pleasure of deceiving the world, a motive which, in many minds, operates more powerfully than the hopes of gain. He probably promised himself greater emoluments from this indirect mode of exercising his abilities: or, he might have sacrificed even the vanity of appearing in the character of an applauded original author, to the private enjoyment of the success of his invention and dexterity.
I have observed above, that Cannynge ordered his iron chest in Radcliffe-church to be solemnly visited once in every year, and that an annual entertainment should be provided for the visitors. In the notices relating to this matter, which some of the chief patrons of Rowlie's poetry hav
lately sent me from Bristol, it is affirmed, that this order is contained in Cannynge's will: and that he specifies therein, that not only his manuscript evidences abovementioned, but that the POEMS of HIS CONFESSOR ROWLIE, which likewise he had deposited in the aforesaid iron chest, were also to be submitted to this annual inspection. This circumstance at first strongly inclined me to think favourably of the authenticity of these pieces. At least it proved, that Rowlie had left some performances in verse. But on examining Cannynge's will, no such order appears. All his bequests relating to Radcliffe-church, of every kind, are the following. He leaves legacies to the vicar, and the three clerks, of the said church: to the two chantry-priests, or chaplains, of his foundation: to the keeper of the PYXIS OBLATIONUM, in the north-door: and to the fraternity
Commemoracionis martirum.
Also vestments to the altars of saint Catharine, and saint George. He mentions his tomb built near the altar of saint Catharine, where his late wife is inrerred. He gives augmentations to the endowment of his two chantries
Compare Willis, MITR. ABB. ii. 88.
, at the altars of saint Catharine and saint George, abovementioned. To the choir, he leaves two service-books, called
Liggers,
to be used there, on either side, by his two chantry-priests. He directs, that his funeral shall be celebrated in the said church with a
month's mind,
and the usual solemnities
This will is in Latin, dated Nov. 12. 1474. Proved Nov. 29. It was made in Westbury college. Cur. Praerog. Cant. Registr. WATTIS, quatern. xvii. fol. 125. Beside the bequests mentioned in the text, he leaves legacies to all the canons, the chaplains and deacons, and the twelve choristers, of Westbury college. To the six priests, six almsmen and six almswomen, founded in the new chapel at Westbury by Carpenter, bishop of Worcester. To many of the servants of the said college. To the fabric of the church of that college, xl
s.
To rebuilding the tower of the church of Compton Graynefield, xl
s.
He also makes bequests to his almshouses at Bristol, and to the corporation of that town. He remembers some of the religious foundations, chiefly the mendicants, at Bristol. He styles himself,
nuper mercator villae Bristoll,
t nunc decanus collegii S. Trin. de Westbury.
The subdean of Westbury college is one of the executors. In this will the name of ROWLIE is not mentioned. Compare Tanner, NOTIT. MONAST. p. 484. And Atkyns's GLOUCESTERSH. p. 802.
Bishop Carpenter, about the year 1460, was a considerable benefactor to Westbury college. He pulled down the old college,
"and in the new building, enlarged it very much, compassing it about with a strong wall embattled, adding a faire gate with divers towers, more like unto a castle than a colledge: and lastly, bestowed much good land for augmenting the revenew of the same."
Godwin, SUCCESS. BISHO
S, pag. 446. edit. 1. ut supr. And Leland speaks much to the same purpose.
"Hic [Carpenter] ex veteri collegio, quod erat Westberiae, novum fecit, et praediis auxit, addito pinnato muro, porta, et turribus, instar castelli."
ITIN. vol. viii. fol. 112. a. And hence it appears to be a mistake, that Cannynge, who was indeed dean while these benefactions took place, rebuilt the college. As Dugd. WARWICKSH. p. 634. edit. 1730. Atkyns, GLOUCESTERSH. p. 802. supr. citat. p. 140.
.
Very few anecdotes of Rowlie's life have descended to posterity. The following MEMOIRS of his life are said to have been written by himself in the year 1460, and to have been discovered with his poetry: which perhaps to many readers will appear equally spurious.
I was fadre confessour to masteres Roberte and mastre William Cannings. Mastre Roberte was a man after his fadre's own harte, greedie of gaynes and sparying of alms deedes; but master William was mickle courteous, and gave me many marks in my needs. At the age of twenty-two years deceasd master Roberte, and by master William's desyre, bequeathd me one hundred marks; I went to thank master
William for his mickle courtesie, and to make tender of my selfe to him.—Fadre, quod he, I have a crotchett in my brayne that will need your aide. Master William, said I, if you command me I will go to Roome for you; not so farr distant, said he: I ken you for a mickle learnd priest, if you will leave the parysh of our ladie, and travel for mee, it shall be mickle to your profits.
I gave my hands, and he told mee I must goe to all the abbies and pryorys, and gather together auncient drawyings
I much doubt, if this word now existed, in the modern, or any, sense. Indeed, the phrase
to draw a picture
might have been now known: but to
draw,
in its present uncombined use, had not yet acquired this meaning. So late as the reign of James the first, a Painter was often called a
picture-drawer.
In antient inventories of furniture, a
drawing
never occurs as any species of production of the art of designing: it became a technical and distinguishing term when that art began to attain some degree of maturity.
Pictures,
although this word is now confined to a precise signification, would not have been improper here. Yet the word
Picture
was not antiently used in its present sense and manner: but, a
picture with a cloth, a table with a picture,
&c.
, if of anie account at any price. Consented I to the same, and pursuant sett out the Mundaie following for the minster of our ladie
I suppose, Worcester cathedral.
and Saint Goodwyne, where a drawing of a steeple, contryvd for the belles when runge to swaie out of the syde into the ayre, had I thence, it was done by syr Symon de Mambrie
Or Malmesbury.
, who in the troublesomme rayne of kyng Stephen devoted himselfe, and was shorne.
Hawkes showd me a manuscript
This was not an English word at this early period: it was not used, and for obvious reasons, till after the invention of printing. So again we have below,
"the Saxon
manuscript
.
"
These, at this time, would have been called
books.
in Saxonne, but I was onley to bargayne for drawyngs.—The next drawyings I metten with was a church to be reard, so as in form of a cross, the end standing in the ground, a long manuscript was annexd. Master Canning thought no workman culd be found handie enough to do it.—The tale of the drawers deserveth relation.—Thomas de Blunderville, a preeste, although the preeste had no allows, lovd a fair mayden, and on her begett a sonn. Thomas educated his soon; at sixteen years he went into the warrs, and neer did return for five years.—His mother was married to a knight, and bare a daughter, then sixteen, who was seen and lovd by Thomas, son of Thomas, and married to him unknown to her mother, by Ralph de Mesching, of the Minster, who invited, as custom was, two of his brothers, Thomas de Blunderville and John Heschamme. Thomas nevertheless had not seen his sonn for five years, kenning him instauntly; and learning the name of the bryde, toke him asyde and disclosd to him that he was his sonn, and was weded to his own sistre.—Yoyng Thomas toke on so that he was shorne.
He drew manie fine drawyings on glass.
The abott of the minster of Peterburrow sold it me, he might have bargaynd twenty marks better, but master William would not depart with it. The prior of Coventree did sell me a picture of great account, made by Badilian Y'allyanne, who did lyve in the rayne of kyng Henrie the first, a mann of fickle temper, havyng been tendred syx pounds of silver for it, to which he said naie, and afterwards did give it to the then abott
This should have been
Prior.
An
abbot
was never the title of the superiour in cathedral-convents. The PRIOR OF COVENTRY must have been a dignitary wellknown by that name, as he sate in parliament.
of Coventriee. In brief, I gathered together manie marks value of fine drawyings, all the works of mickle cunning.—Master William culld the most choise parts, but hearing of a drawying in Durham church hee did send me.
Fadree you have done mickle well, all the chatills are more worth than you gave; take this for your paynes: so saying, he did put into my hands a purse of two hundreds good pounds, and did say that I should note be in need, I did thank him most heartily.—The choise drawyng, when his fadre did dye, was begunn to be put up, and somme houses neer the old church erased; it was drawn by Aflema, preest of Saint Cutchburts, and offerd as a drawyng for Westminster, but cast asyde, being the tender did not speak French.
I had now mickle of ryches, and lyvd in a house on the hyll, often repayrings to mastere William, who was now lord of the house. I sent him my verses touching his church, for which he did send me mickle good things.
In the year kyng Edward came to Bristow, Master Cannings send for me to avoid a marriage which the kyng was bent upon between him and a ladie he neer had seen, of the familee of the Winddivilles, the danger where nigh, unless avoided by one remidee, an holie one, which was, to be ordained a sonn of holy church, beyng franke from the power of kynges in that cause, and can be wedded.—Mr. Cannings instauntly sent me to Carpenter, his good friend, bishop of Worcester, and the Fryday following was prepaird and ordaynd the next day, the daie of Saint Mathew, and on Sunday sung his first mass in the church of our ladie
Most probably Worcester cathedral.
, to the astonishing of kyng Edward, who was so furiously madd and ravyngs withall, that master Cannings was wyling to give him three thousand markes, which made him peace again, and he was admyted to the presence of the kyng, staid in Bristow, partook of all his pleasures and pastimes till he departed the next year
See above, p. 153.
.
I gave master Cannings my Bristow tragedy
That is, the poem called the EXECUTION OF SIR CHARLES BAWDWIN, mentioned above, p. 153. What is there said concerning this poem, greatly invalidates the authenticity of these MEMOIRS. Rowlie might indeed write a poem on this subject; but not the poem circulated as his.
, for which he gave me in hands twentie pound, and did praise it more then I did think my self did deserve, for I can say in troth I was never proud of my verses since I did read master Chaucer; and now haveing nought to do, and not wyling to be ydle, I went to the minster of our Ladie and Saint Goodwin, and then did purchase the Saxon manuscripts, and sett my self diligently to translate and worde it in English metre, which in one year I performd and settled in the Battle of Hastyngs; master William did bargyin for one to be manuscript, and John Pelham, an esquire, of Ashley, for another.—Master William did praise it muckle greatly, but advisd me to tender it to no man, beying the mann whose name where therein mentioned would be offended. He gave me twenty markes, and I did goe to Ashley, to master Pelham, to be payd of him for the other one I left with him.
But his ladie being of the family of the Fiscamps
A Norman family.
, of whom some things are said, he told me he had burnt it, and would have me burnt too if I did not avaunt. Dureing this dinn his wife did come out, and made a dinn to speake by a figure would have over sounded the bells of our Ladie of the Cliffe; I was fain content to gett away in a safe skin.
I wrote my Justice of Peace
I know nothing of this piece.
, which master Cannings advisd me secrett to keep, which I did; and now being grown auncient I was seizd with great pains, which did cost me mickle of marks to be cured off.—Master William offered me a cannon's place in Westbury collige, which gladly had I accepted, but my pains made me to staie at home. After this mischance I livd in a house by the Tower, which has not been repaird since Robert Consull of Gloucester repayrd the castle and wall; here I livd warm, but in my house on the hyll the ayre was mickle keen, some marks it cost me to put it in repair my new house, and brynging my chattles from the ould; it was a fine house, and I much marville it was untenanted. A person greedy of gains was the then possessour, and of him I did buy it at a very small rate, having lookd on the ground works and mayne supports, and fynding them staunch, and repayrs no need wanting, I did buy of the owner, Geoffry Coombe, on a
repayring lease
for ninety-nine years
I very much question, whether this technical law-term, or even this mode of contract, existed in the year 1460.
, he thinkying it would fall down everie day; but with a few marks expence did put it up in a manner neat, and therein I lyvd.
It is with regret that I find myself obliged to pronounce Rowlie's poems to be spurious. Antient remains of English poetry, unexpectedly discovered, and fortunately rescued from a long oblivion, are contemplated with a degree of fond enthusiasm: exclusive of any real or intrinsic excellence, they afford those pleasures, arising from the idea of antiquity, which deeply interest the imagination. With these pleasures we are unwilling to part. But there is a more solid satisfaction, resulting from the detection of artifice and imposture.
SECT. IX.
THE subsequent reigns of Richard the third, Edward the fifth, and Henry the seventh, abounded in obscure versifiers.
A mutilated poem which occurs among the Cotton manuscripts in the British museum, and principally contains a satire on the nuns, who not less from the nature of their establishment, than from the usual degeneracy which attends all institutions, had at length lost their original purity, seems to belong to this period
Disadvantageous suspicions against the chastity of the female religious were
pretended
in earlier times. About the year 1250, a bishop of Lincoln visited the nunneries of his diocese: on which occasion, says the continuator of Matthew Paris,
"ad domos religiosarum veniens, fecit EXPRIMI MAMILLAS earundem, ut sic
physice,
si esset inter eas corruptela, experiretur."
Matt. Paris. Hist. p. 789. HENRICUS iii. edit. Tig. 1589. fol. An anecdote, which the historian relates with indignation; not on account of the nuns, but of the bishop.
. It is without wit, and almost without numbers. It was written by one Bertram Walton, whose name now first appears in the catalogue of English poets; and whose life I calmly resign to the researches of some more laborious and patient antiquary.
About the year 1480, or rather before, Benedict Burgh, a master of arts of Oxford, among other promotions in the church, archdeacon of Colchester, prebendary of saint Paul's, and canon of saint Stephen's chapel at Westminster
See Newcourt, Repertor. i. 90. ii. 517. The university sealed his letters testimonial, jul. 3. A. D. 1433. Registr. Univ. Oxon. supr. citat. T. f. 27. b. He died A. D. 1483.
, translated Cato's MORALS into the royal stanza, for the use of his pupil lord Bourchier son of the earl of Essex
Gascoigne says that
"rithme royal is a verse of ten syllables, and ten such verses make a staffe, &c."
Instructions for verse,
&c. Sign. D. i. ad calc. WORKES, 1587. [See supr. vol. i. p. 464. Notes, a .] Burgh's stanza is here called
balade royall:
by which, I believe, is commonly signified the
octave stanza.
All those pieces in Chaucer, called
Certaine Ballads,
are in this measure. In Chaucer's LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN, written in long verse, a song of three octave stanzas is introduced; beginning,
Hide Absolon thy gilte tressis clere.
v. 249. p. 340. Urr. Afterwards, Cupid says, v. 537. p. 342.
—a ful grete negligence
Was it to thee, that ilke time thou made,
Hide Absolon thy tressis,
IN BALADE.
In the British Museum there is
a Kalandre in
Englysshe,
made in
BALADE
by Dann John Lydgate monke of Bury.
That is, in this stanza. MSS. Harl. 1706. 2. fol. 10. b. The reader will observe, that whether there are eight or seven lines, I have called it the
octave
stanza. Lydgate has, most commonly, only seven lines. As in his poem on Guy earl of Warwick, MSS. Laud. D. 31. fol. 64.
Here ginneth the lyff of Guy of Warwyk.
[Pr. From Criste's birth compleat nine 100 yere.] He is speaking of Guy's combat with the Danish giant Colbrand, at Winchester.
Without the gate remembered as I rede,
The place callyd of antiquytye
In Inglysh tonge named
hyde mede,
Or ellis
denmarch
nat far from the cyte:
Meeting to gedre, there men myght see
Terryble strokys, lyk the dent of thond
r;
Sparklys owt of thar harnyss, &c.
. Encouraged by the example and authority of so venerable an ecclesiastic, and tempted probably by the convenient opportunity of pilfering phraseology from a predecessor in the same arduous task, Caxton translated the same Latin work; but from the French version of a Latin paraphrase, and into English prose, which he printed in the year 1483. He calls, in his preface, the measure, used by Burgh, the BALAD ROYAL. Caxton's translation, which superseded Burgh's work, and with which it is confounded, is divided into four books, which comprehend seventy-two heads.
I do not mean to affront my readers, when I inform them, without any apology, that the Latin original of this piece was not written by Cato the censor, nor by Cato Uticensis
See Vignol. Marville. Miscell. tom. i. p. 56.
: although it is perfectly in the character of the former, and Aulus Gellius has quoted Cato's poem DE MORIBUS
Noct. Att. xi. 2.
. Nor have I the gravity of the learned Boxhornius, who in a prolix and elaborate dissertation has endeavoured to demonstrate, that these distichs are undoubtedly supposititious, and that they could not possibly be written by the very venerable Roman whose name they bear. The title is DISTICHA DE MORIBUS AD FILIUM, which are distributed into four books, under
he name of Dionysius Cato. But he is frequently called MAGNUS CATO.
This work has been absurdly attributed by some critics to Seneca, and by others to Ausonius
It was printed under the name of Ausonius, Rostoch. 1572. 8vo.
. It is, however, more antient than the time of the emperour Valentinian the third, who died in 455
Ex Epistol. Vindiciani Medici, ad Valent. They are mentioned by Notkerus, who flourished in the tenth century, among the
M
trorum, Hymnorum, Epigrammatumque conditor
s.
Cap. vi. DE ILLUSTRIB. VIR. etc. printed by Fabric. M. Lat. v. p. 904.
. On the other hand, it was written after the appearance of Lucan's PHARSALIA, as the author, at the beginning of the second book, commends Virgil, Macer
The poem DE VIRTUTIBUS HERBARUM, under the name of Macer, now extant, was written by Odo, or Odobonus, a physician of the dark ages. It was translated into English, by John Lelarmoner, or Lelamar, master of Hereford school, about the year 1373. MSS. Sloane. 29.
Princ.
"Apium, Ache is hote and drie."
There is
Macer's Herbal,
ibid. 43. This seems to have been printed, see Ames, p. 158.
, Ovid, and Lucan. The name of Cato probably became prefixed to these distichs, in a lower age, by the officious ignorance of transcribers, and from the acquiescence of readers equally ignorant, as Marcus Cato had written a set of moral distichs. Whoever was the author, this metrical system of ethics had attained the highest degree of estimation in the barbarous ages. Among Langbain's manuscripts bequeathed to the university of Oxford by Antony Wood, it is accompanied with a Saxon paraphrase
Cod. 12. [8615.]
. John of Salisbury, in his POLYCRATICON, mentions it as the favourite and established manual in the education of boys
Polycrat. vii. 9. p. 373. edit. Lugd. Bat. 1595. It is cited, ibid. p. 116. 321. 512. In the ART OF VERSIFICATION, a Latin poem, written by Eberhardus Bethuniensis, about the year 1212, there is a curious passage, in which all the classics of that age are recited; or the best authors, then in vogue, and whom he recommends to be taught to youth. [Leyser. Poet. Med. aev. p. 8
5.] They are, CATO the moralist. THEODULUS, the author of a l
onine Eclogue, a dialogue between Truth and Falshood, written in the tenth century, printed among the OCTO MORALES, and by Goldastus, Man. Bibl. 1620. 8vo. MSS. Harl. 3093. 4. Wynkyn de Worde printed this piece under the titl
of
Theodoli
liber, cum
comm
nto
satis
prolixo autoris cujusdam Anglici qui multa Anglicana ubique miscuit.
1515. 4to. It was from one of Theodulus's ECLOGUES, beginning
Aethiopum terras,
that Field, master of Fotheringay college, about the year 1480,
sette the v
rsis of the book caullid
Aethiopum terras,
in the glasse windowe, with figures very neatly.
Leland. ITIN. i. fol. 5. [p. 7. edit. 1745.] This seems to have been in a window of the new and beautiful cloister, built about that time. FLAVIUS AVIANUS, a writer of Latin sables, or apologues, Lugd. Bat. 1731. 8vo. AESOP, or the Latin fabulist, printed among the OCTO MORALES, Lugd. Bat. 1505. 4to. MAXIMIANUS, whose six elegies, written about the seventh century, pass under the name of Gallus. Chaucer cites this writer; and in a manner, which shews his elegies had not then acquired the name of Gallus. COURT OF L. v. 798.
"MAXIMINIAN truely thus doeth he write."
PAMPHILUS MAURILIANUS, author of the hexametrical poem
de Vetula,
and the elegies
de Arte amandi,
entitled PAMPHILUS, published by Goldastus, Catalect. Ovid. Francof. 1610. 8vo. [See supr. p. 130.] GETA, or
Hosidius Geta,
who has left a tragedy on Medea, printed in part by Pet. S
riverius, Fragm. Vett. Tragic. Lat. p. 187. [But see supr. vol. i. p. 234.] DARES PHRYGIUS, on the destruction of Troy. MACER. [See supr. p. 159.] MARBODEUS, a Latin poet on
Gems.
[See supr. vol. i. p. 378.] PETRUS DE RIGA, canon of Rheims, whose AURORA, or the
History of the Bible allegorised,
in Latin verses, some of which are in rhyme, was never printed entire. He has left also
Speculum Ecclesi
,
with other pieces, in Latin poetry. He flourished about the year 1130. SEDULIUS. PROSPER. ARATOR. PRUDENTIUS. BOETHIUS. ALANUS, author of the
Anticlaudian,
a poem in nine books, occasioned by the scepticism of Claudian. [See supr. vol. i. p. 391.] VIRGIL, HORACE, OVID, LUCAN, STATIUS, JUVENAL, and PERSIUS. JOHN HANVILLE, an Englishman, who wrote the A
CHITRENIUS, in the twelfth century, a Latin hexameter poem in nine books. PHILIP GUALTIER, of Chatillon, who wrote, about the same period, the ALEXANDREID, an heroic poem on Alexander the great. SOLYMARIUS, or GUNTHER, a German Latin poet, author of the SOLYMARIUM, or
Crusade.
GALFRIDUS, our countryman, whose NOVA POETRIA was in higher celebrity than Horace's
Art of Poetry.
[See vol. i. Dissertat. ii.] MATTHAEUS, of Vendosme, who in the year 1170, paraphrased the
Book of T
bit
into Latin elegiacs, from the Latin bible of saint Jerom, under the title of the TOBIAD, sometimes called the THEBAID, and first printed among the OCTO MORALES. ALEXANDER DE VILLA DEI, whose DOCT
INALE, or Grammar in Leonine verse, superseded Priscian about the year 1200.
t was first printed at Venice, fol. 1473. And by Wynkyn de Worde, 1503. He was a French frier minor, and also wrote the ARGUMENTS
of the chapters of all the books of either Testament,
in two hundred and twelve hexameters. With some other forgotten pieces. MARCIANUS CAPELLA, whose poem on the MARRIAGE OF MERCURY WITH PHILOLOGY rivalled Boethius. [See supr. p. 75.] JOANNES DE GARLANDIA, an Englishman, a poet and grammarian, who studied at Paris about the year 1200. The most eminent of his numerous Latin poems, which croud our libraries, seem to be his EPITHALAMIUM
on the Virgin Mary
in ten books of elegiacs. MSS. Cotton. CLAUD. A. x. And DE TRIUMPHIS ECCLESIAE, in eight books, which contains much English history. MS. ibid. Some of his pieces, both in prose and verse, have been printed. BERNARDUS CARNOTENSIS, or
Sylvester,
much applauded by John of Salisbury, who styles him the most
perfect
Platonic of that age. Metallog. iv. c. 35. His MEGACOSM and MICROCOSM, a work consisting both of verse and prose, is frequently cited by the barbarous writers. He is imitated by Chaucer,
Man of L. Tale,
v. 4617.
"In sterres many a winter, &c."
PHYSIOLOGUS, or THEOBALDUS EPISCOPUS, who wrote in Latin verse
De Naturis xii. animalium,
MSS. Harl. 3093. 5. He is there called
Italicus.
There is also a
Magister
FLORINUS, styled also PHYSIOLOGUS, on the same subject. Chaucer quotes PHYSIOLOGUS, whom I by mistake have supposed to be Pliny,
"For PHISIOLOGUS says sikerly."
NONNES PR. TALE. v. 15277. [See supr. vol. i. p
420.] SIDONIUS, who wrote a metrical dialogue between a Jew and a Christian on both the Testaments. And a SIDONIUS, perhaps the same,
r
gis qui
ingit praelia.
To these our author adds his own GRECISMUS, or a poem in hexameters on rhetoric and grammar; which, as Du Cange [Praef. Lat. Gloss. § XLV.] observes, was antiently a common manual in the seminaries of France, and, I suppose, of England.
. To enumerate no others, it is much applauded by Isidore the old etymologist
Etymol. V. OFFICIPERDA.
, Alcuine
Contra Elipand. lib. ii. p. 949.
, and Abelard
Lib. i. Theol. Christ. p. 1183.
: and we must acknowledge, that the writer, exclusive of the utility of his precepts, possesses the merit of a nervous and elegant brevity. It is perpetually quoted by Chaucer. In the MILLER'S TALE, he reproaches the simple carpenter for having never read in Cato, that a man should marry his own likeness
V. 3227.
: and in the MARCHAUNT'S TALE, having quoted Seneca to prove that no blessing is equal to an humble wife, he adds Cato's precept of prudently bearing a scolding wife with patience
V. 9261.
. It was translated into Greek at Constantinople by Maximus Planudes, who has the merit of having familiarised to his countrymen many Latin classics of the lower empire, by metaphrastic versions
It occurs often among the Baroccian manuscripts, Bibl. Bodl. viz. 64. 71, bis. 95. 111. 194. The first edition of Cato, soon followed by many others, I believe, is August. A D. 1485. The most complete edition is that of Christ. Daumius, Cygn. 1672. 8vo. Containing the Greek metaphrases of Maximus Planudes, Joseph Scaliger, Matthew Zuber, and John Mylius, a Ger
a
version by Martinus Apicius, with annotations and other accessions. It was before translated into German rhymes by Abraham Morterius, of Weissenburgh, Francof. 1590. 8vo.
: and at the restoration of learning in Europe, illustrated with a commentary by Erasmus, which is much extolled by Luther
Colloqu. Mensal. c. 37.
. There are two or three French translations
One by Peter Grosnet,
L
s mots dorces du sage Caton.
Paris. 1543.
. That of Mathurine Corderoy is dedicated to Robert Stephens. In the British museum, there is a French translation by Helis de Guincestre, or Winchester; made, perhaps, at the time when our countrymen affected to write more in French than English
MSS. H
rl. 4388. This manuscript is older than 1400. Du Cange quotes a CATO in French rhymes. Gl. Lat. V. LECATOR. See MSS. Ashmol. 789. 2. [6995.]
. Chaucer constantly calls this writer CATON or CATHON, which shews that he was more familiar in French than in Latin. Caxton in the preface to his aforesaid translation affirms, that Poggius Florentinus, whose library was furnished with the most valuable authors, esteemed CATHON GLOSED, that is, Cato with notes, to be the best book in his collection
Many of the
glossed
manuscripts, so common in the libraries, were the copies with which pupils in the university attended their readers, or lecturers; from whose mouths paraphrastic notes were
interlined
or written in the margin, by the more diligent hearers. In a Latin translation of some of Aristotle's philosophical works, once belonging to Rochester priory, and transcribed about the year 1350, one Henry de Rewham is said to be the writer; and to have
glossed
the book, during the time he heard it explained by a public reader in the schools of Oxford.
"Et
audivit
in scholis Oxonie, et emendavit et GLOSAVIT
audiendo.
"
MSS. Reg. 12 G. ii. 4to. In the mean time, I am of opinion, that the word
reader
originally took its rise from a paucity of books: when there was only ONE book to be had, which a professor or lecturer recited to a large audience.
. The glossarist I take to be Philip de Pergamo, a prior at Padua; who wrote a most elaborate MORALISATION on Cato, under the title of SPECULUM REGIMINIS, so early as the year 1380
Printed, August. 1475. In Exeter college library, there is CATO MORALISATUS, MSS. 37. [837.] And again at All Souls, MSS. 9. [1410.] Compare MSS. More, 35. [9221.] And Bibl. Coll. Trin. Dublin. 651. 14. And MSS. Harl. 6294.
. In the same preface, Caxton observes, that it is
the beste boke for to be taught to yonge children in scole.
But he supposes the author to be Marcus Cato, whom he duly celebrates with the two Scipios and other
noble Romaynes.
A kind of supplement to this work, and often its companion, under the title of CATO PARVUS, or
Facetus,
or
Urbanus,
was written by Daniel Churche, or Ecclesiensis, a domestic in the court of Henry the second, a learned prince and a patron of scholars, about the year 1180
MSS. Coll. Trin. Dublin. 275. And Bibl. Eccles. Vigorn sub. Tit. URBANUS, MSS. 147. One Tedbaldus, of the same age, is called the author, from a manuscript cited, Giornal. Lett. d'Ital. iv. p. 181. In Lewis's CAXTON, in a collection of Chaucer's and Lydgate's poems by Caxton, without date, are recited 3. PARVUS CATHO. 4. MAGNUS CATO. p. 104. What these translations are I know not. Beside Caxton's CATO, mentioned above, there is a separate work by Caxton,
"Hic incipit PARVUS CATON,"
in English and Latin. No date. Containing thirtyseven leaves in quarto. I find PARVUS CATO in English rhyme, MSS. Vernon. Bibl. Bodl. fol. cccx. [See supr. vol. i. p. 14.] The Latin of the lesser CATO is printed among AUCTORES OCTO MORALES, Lugd. 1538. Compare MSS. Harl. 2251. iii. fol. 174. 112. fol. 175. A translation into English verses of both CATOS, perhaps by Lydgate. See also MSS. Coll. Trin. Dublin. V. 651. The PROVERBIA CATONIS are a different work from either of these, written in hexameters by Marbodeus, Opp. Hildebert. p. 1634. Paris 1708. fol.
. This was also translated by Burghe; and in the British museum, both the CATOS of his version occur, as forming one and the same work, viz.
Liber
MINORIS Catonis,
et
MAJORIS,
translatus a Latino in Anglicum per Mag. Benet Borugh
MSS. Harl. 116. 2. See also, 271. 2.
. Burghe's performance is too jejune for transcription; and, I suspect, would not have afforded a single splendid extract, had even the Latin possessed any sparks of poetry. It is indeed true, that the only critical excellence of the original, which consists of a terse conciseness of sentences, although not always expressed in the purest latinity, will not easily bear to be transfused. Burghe, but without sufficient foundation, is said to have finished Lydgate's GOVERNAUNCE OF PRINCIS
See supr. LYDGATE. There is a translation of the
Wyz Cato,
and
Aesop's Fables,
into English dogrell, by one William Bulloker, for Edm. Bollifant. 1585. This W. Bulloker wrote
a Pamphlet for grammar,
for the same, 1586. 12mo.
.
About the year 1481, Julian Barnes, more properly Berners, sister of Richard lord Berners, and prioress of the nunnery of Sopewell, wrote three English tracts on
Hawking, Hunting,
and
Armory,
or
Heraldry,
which were soon afterwards printed in the neighbouring
There was a strong connection between the two monasteries. In that of saint Alban's a monk was annually appointed, with the title of
Custos monialium de Sopewelle.
Registr. Abbat. Wallingford, [Sub an. 1480.] MSS. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Tanner.
monastery of saint Alban's
In the year 1486. fol. Again, at Westminster, by W. de Worde. 1496. 4to. The barbarism of the times strongly appears in the indelicate expressions which she often uses; and which are equally incompatible with her sex and profession. The poem begins thus. [I transcribe from a good manuscript, MSS. Rawlins. Bibl. Bodl. papyr. fol.]
Mi dere sones, where ye fare, by frith, or by fell
Wood or
ld.
,
Take good hede in his tyme how Tristrem
Sir Tristr
m. See OBSERVAT. SPENS. i. p. 21.
wol tell;
How many maner bestes of venery there were,
Listenes now to our Dame, and ye shullen here.
Ffowre maner bestes of venery there are,
The first of hem is a hart, the second is an hare;
The boor is one of tho,
The wolff, and no mo.
And whereso ye comen in play
Plain.
or in place,
Now shal I tel you which ben bestes of chace:
One of the a buck, another a doo,
The ffox, and the marteryn, and the wild
roo:
And ye shall, my dere sones, other bestes all,
Where so ye hem finde, rascall hem call,
In frith or in fell,
Or in fforrest, y yow tell.
And to speke of the hert, if ye wil hit lere,
Ye shall call him a calfe at the first yere;
The second yere a broket, so shall he be,
The third yere a spayard, lerneth this at me;
The iiii yere calles hem a stagge be any way
The first yere a grete stagge, my dame bade you say.
Among Crynes's books [911. 4to. Bibl. Bodl.] there is a bl. lett. copy of this piece,
"Imprynted at London in Paul's churchyarde by me Hary Tab."
Again by William Copland without date,
"Th
boke of hawkyng, hunting, and fishing, with all the properties and medecynes that are necessary to be kept."
With wooden cuts. Here the tract on
armory
is omitted, which seems to have been first inserted that the work might contain a complete course of education for a gentleman. The same title is in W. Powel's edit. 1550. The last edition is
"The GENTLEMAN'S ACADEMY, or the book of saint Albans, concerning hawking, hunting, and armory."
Lond. 1595. 4to.
. From an abbess disposed to turn author, we might more reasonably have expected a manual of meditations for the closet, or select rules for making salves, or distilling strong waters. But the diversions of the field were not thought inconsistent with the character of a religious lady of this eminent rank, who resembled an abbot in respect of exercising an extensive manerial jurisdiction; and who hawked and hunted in common with other ladies of distinction
At the magnificent marriage of the princess Margaret with James the fourth, king of Scotland, in 1503, his majesty sends the new queen,
"a grett tame hart, for to have a corse."
Leland. Coll. APPEND. iii. 280. edit. 1770.
. This work, however, is here mentioned, because the second of these treatises is written in rhyme. It is spoken in her own person; in which, being otherwise a woman of authority, she assumes the title of dame. I suspect the whole to be a translation from the French and Latin
This is the latter part of the colophon at the end of the saint Alban's edition.
"And here now endith the boke of blasyng of armys, translatyt and
ompylyt togedyr
t saynt Albons the yere from thyncarnacyon of oure lorde Jhesu Crist MCCCCLXXXVI."
[This very scarce book, printed in various inks, was in the late Mr. West's library.] This part is translated or abstracted from Upton's book
De re milita
i, et factis illustribus,
written about the year 1441. See the fourth book
De insignibus Anglorum nobilium.
Edit. Biss. Lond. 1654. 4to. It begins with the following curious piece of sacred heraldry.
"Of the offspring of the
gentilman
Jafeth, come Habraham, Moyses, Aron, and the profettys, and also the kyng of the right Iyne of Mary, of whom that
gentilman
Jhesus was borne, very god and man: after his manhode kynge of the land of Jude and of Jues,
gentilman
by is moder Mary,
prynce of Co
e armure,
&c."
Nicholas Upton, above mentioned, was a fellow of New college Oxford, about the year 1430. He had many dignities in the church. He was patronised by Humphrey duke of Glocester, to whom he dedicates his book. This I ought to have remarked before.
.
To this period I refer William of Nassyngton, a proctor or advocate in the ecclesiastical court at York. He translated into English rhymes, as I conjecture, about the year 1480, a theological tract, entitled
A treatise on the Trinity and Unity with a declaration of God's Works and of the Passion of Jesus Christ,
written by John of Waldenby, an Augustine frier of Yorkshire, a student in the Augustine convent at Oxford, the provincial of his order in England, and a strenuous champion against the doctrines of Wiccliffe
Wood
Ant. Univ. Oxon. i. 117.
. I once saw a manuscript of Nassyngton's translation in the library of Lincoln cathedral
See also MSS. Reg. 17 C. viii. p. 2.
; and was tempted to transcribe the few following lines from the prologue, as they convey an idea of our poet's character, record the titles of some old popular romances, and discover antient modes of public amusement.
I warne you firste at the begynnynge,
That I will make no vayne carpynge,
Of dedes of armes, ne of amou
s,
As does MYNSTRELLIS and GESTOURS,
That maketh carpynge in many a place
Of OCTOVIANE and ISENBRACE,
And of many other GESTES,
And namely when they come to festes;
Ne of the lyf of BEVYS OF HAMPTOUNE,
That was a knyght of grete renoune:
Ne of syr GYE OF WARWYKE, &c.
Our translator in these verses formally declares his intention of giving his reader no entertainment; and disavows all concern with secular vanities, especially those unedifying tales of love and arms, which were the customary themes of other poets, and the delight of an idle age. The romances of OCTAVIAN, sir BEVIS, and sir GUY, have already been discussed at large. That of sir ISEMBRAS was familiar in the time of Chaucer, and occurs in the RIME of SIR THOPAS
V. 6. See supr. vol. i. p. 123. Notes.
. In Mr. Garrick's curious library of chivalry, which his friends share in common with himself, there is an edition by Copland, extremely different from the manuscript copies preserved at Cambridge
MSS. Caius Coll. Class. A. 9. (2.)
, and in the Cotton collection
CALIG. A. 12. f. 128.
. I believe it to be originally a French romance, yet not of very high antiquity. It is written in the stanza of Chaucer's sir THOPAS
See Percy's BALL. i. 306.
. The incidents are for the most part those trite expedients, which almost constantly form the plan of these metrical narratives.
I take this opportunity of remarking, that the MINSTRELS, who in this prologue of Nassyngton are named separately from the GESTOURS, or tale-tellers, were sometimes distinguished from the harpers. In the year 1374, six Minstrels, accompanied with four Harpers, on the anniversary of Alwyne the bishop,
performed
their
minstrelsies,
at dinner, in the hall of the convent of saint Swithin at Winchester; and during supper, sung the same GEST, or tale, in the great
arched
chamber of the prior: on which solemn occasion, the said chamber was hung with the arras, or tapestry, of THE THREE KINGS OF COLOGNE
Registr. Priorat. S. Swithini Winton. ut supr. [vol. i. p. 89.]
"In festo Alwyni episcopi..... Et durante pietancia in aulâ conventûs, sex MINISTRALLI, cum quatuor CITHARISATORIBUS, faciebant ministralcias suas. Et post cenam, in magna camera arcuatâ dom. Prioris,
cantabant
idem GESTUM, in quâ camerâ suspendebatur, ut moris est, magnum dorsale Prioris, habens picturas trium regum Colein. Veniebant autem dicti joculatores a castello domini regis, et ex familiâ episcopi...."
The rest is much obliterated, and the date is hardly discernible. Among the Harleian manuscripts, there is an antient song on the three kings of Cologne, in which the whole story of that favorite romance is resolved into alchemy. MSS. 2407. 13. fol. Wynkyn de Worde printed this romance in quarto, 1526. It is in MSS. Harl. 1704. 11. fol. 49. b. Imperf. Coll. Trin. Dublin. V. 651. 14. [C. 16.] MSS. More, 37. And frequently in other places. Barclay, in his EGLOGES, mentions this subject, a part of the nativity, painted on the walls of a
churche cathedrall.
EGL. v. Signat. D. ii. ad calc.
Ship of fooles,
edit. 1570.
And the
thre kinges,
with all their company,
Their crownes glistening bright and oriently,
With their presentes and giftes misticall,
All this behelde I in picture on the wall.
In an Inventory of ornaments belonging to the church of Holbech in Lincolnshire, and sold in the year 1548, we find this article.
"
Item,
for the COATS of the iii. kyngs of Coloyne, v
s.
iiii
d.
"
I suppose these coats were for dressing persons who represented the three kings in some procession on the NATIVITY. Or perhaps for a MYSTERY on the subject, plaid by the parish. But in the same Inventory we have,
Item, for the apostylls
[the apostles]
coats,
and
for
HAROD'S [Herod's]
coate,
&c. Stukeley's ITIN. CURIOS. pag. 19. In old accompts of church-wardens for saint Helen's at Abingdon, Berks, for the year 1566, there is an entry
For setting up
ROBIN HOODES BOWER. I suppose for a parish interlude. ARCHAEOL. vol. i. p. 16.
. These minstrels and harpers belonged, partly to the royal houshold in Winchester castle, and partly to the bishop of Winchester. There was an annual mass at the shrine or tomb of bishop Alwyne in the church, which was regularly followed by a feast in the convent. It is probable, that the GEST here specified was some poetical legend of the prelate, to whose memory this yearly festival was instituted, and who was a Saxon bishop of Winchester about the year 1040
He is buried in the north wall of the presbytery, with an inscription.
. Although songs of chivalry were equally common, and I believe more welcome to the monks, at these solemnities. In an accompt-roll of the priory of Bicester, in Oxfordshire
In Thesauriaro Coll. Trin. Oxon. [See supr. vol. i. p. 90.]
, I find a parallel instance, under the year 1432. It is in this entry.
"
Dat.
sex Ministrallis de Bokyngham cantantibus in refectorio MARTYRIUM SEPTEM DORMIENTIUM
in ffesto epiphanie,
iv
s.
"
That is, the treasurer of the monastery gave four shillings to six
minstrels
from Buckingham, for singing in the refectory a legend called the MARTYRDOM OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS
In the fourth century, being inclosed in a cave at Ephesus by the emperour Decius 372 years, they were afterwards found sleeping, and alive.
, on the feast of the Epiphany. In the Cotton library, there is a Norman poem in Saxon characters on this subject
MSS. Cott. CALIG. A. ix. iii. fol. 213. b. [See supr. vol. i. p. 18.]
"
Jci commence la vie
de Semt dormanz."
La uertu deu iur tut ius & dure
tvt iurz est certeine epure.
; which was probably translated afterwards into English rhyme. The original is a Greek legend
MSS. Lambecc. viii. p. 375. Photius, without naming the author, gives the substance of this Greek legend, Bibl. COD. CCLIII. pag. 1399. edit. 1591. fol. This story was common among the Arabians. The mussulmans borrowed many wonderful narratives from the christians, which they embellished with new fictions. They pretend that a dog, which was accidentally shut up in the cavern with the
seven sleepers,
become rational. See Herbelot, DICT. ORIENT. P
139. a. V. ASHAB. p. 17. In the British Museum there is a poem, partly in Saxon characters,
De pueritia domini nostri Jhesu Cristi.
Or,
the childhood of Christ.
MSS. Harl. 2399. 10. fol. 47. It begins thus.
Alle myȝhty god yn Trynyte,
That bowth [bought] man on rode dere;
He gefe ows washe to the
A lytyl wyle that ye wylle me here.
Who would suspect that this absurd legend had also a Greek original? It was taken, I do not suppose immediately, from an apocryphal narrative ascribed to saint Thomas the apostle, but really compiled by Thomas Israelites, and entitled,
,
Liber de pueritia et miraculis domini,
&c. It is printed in part by Cotelerius, Not. ad Patr
Apostol. p. 274. Who there mentions a book of Saint Matthew the Evangelist,
De Inf
ntia Salvatoris,
in which our Lord is introduced learning to read, &c. See Iren. lib. i. c. xvii. p. 104. Among other figments of this kind, in the Pseudo-Gelasian Decree are recited,
The
istory and nat
vity of our Saviour, and of Mary and the midwife.
And
The history of the inf
ncy of
r Saviour.
Jur. Can. DISTINCT. can. 3. The latter piece is mentioned by Ana
tafius, where he censures as supposititious, the
puerile miracles
of Christ.
c. xiii. p. 26.
On the s
me subject there is an Arabic book, probably compiled soon after the ri
e of Mahometani
m, translated into Latin by Sikius, called EVANGELIUM IN
ANTIAE, Arab. et Latin. Traject. ad Rhen. 169
. 8vo. In this piece, Christ is e
amined by the Jewish doctors, in astronomy, medicine, physics, and metaphysics. Sikius says, that the PUERILE MIRACLES of Christ were common among the Persians. Ibid. in Not. p
55. Fabricius cites a German poem, more than four hundred years old, founded on these legends. Cod. Apocryph. NOV. TEST. tom. i. pa
. 212. Hamburg. 1703.
At the end of the English poem on this subject above cited, is the following rub
ic.
"Qöd dnus Johannes Arcitenens canonicus Bodminie et natus in illa."
Whether this canon of Bodmin in Cornwall, whose name was perhaps Archer, or Bowyer, is the poet, or only the transcriber, I cannot say. See fol. 48. In the same manuscript volume, [8.] there is an old English poem to our Sa
iour, with this note.
"Explicit
Contemplati
nem b
nam.
Qu
d dnus Johannes Arcuarius Canonicus Bodminie."
See what is said, below, of the PSEUDO-EVANGELIUM attributed to Nichodemus.
, never printed; but which, in the dark ages, went about in a barbarous Latin translation, by one Syrus
Apud Surium, ad 2
Jul.
; or in a narrative framed from thence by Gregory of Tours
Hist
ria Sept
m Dormientium.
Paris. 1511. 4to. Ibid. 1640. And apud Ruinart. p. 1270. See Praef. Ruinart. §. 79. And Gregory himself
De gl
ria martyrum,
cap. 95. pag. 826. This piece is noticed and much commended by the old chronicler Albericus, ad ann. 319.
.
Henry Bradshaw has rather larger pretensions to poetical fame than William of Nassington, although scarcely deserving the name of an original writer in any respect. He was a native of Chester, educated at Gloucester college in Oxford, and at length a Benedictine monk of saint Werburgh's abbey in his native place
Athen. Oxon. i. p. 9. Pits. 690.
. Before the year 1500, he wrote the LIFE OF SAINT WERBURGH, a daughter of a king of the Mercians, in English verse
He declares, that he does not mean to rival Chaucer, Lydgate
sententious, pregnaunt
Barklay, and
i
ventive
Skelton. The two last were his cotemporaries. L. ii. c.
4.
. This poem, beside the devout deeds and passion of the poet's patroness saint, comprehends a variety of other subjects; as a description of the kingdom of the Mercians
Lib. i. c. ii.
, the lives of saint Etheldred and saint Sexburgh
Lib. i. cap. xviii. xix.
, the foundation of the city of Chester
Lib. i. cap. iii.
, and a chronicle of our kings
Lib. ii. cap. xv. The fashion of writing metrical
Chronicles of the kings of England
grew very fashionable in this century. See supr. vol. i. p. 92. Many of these are evidently composed for the harp: but they are mostly mere genealogical deductions. Hearne has printed, from the Heralds office, a PETEGREE of our kings, from William the conqueror to Henry the sixth, written in 1448. [APPENDIX to Rob. Gloucestr. vol. ii. p. 585. see p. 588.] This is a specimen.
Then regnyd Harry nought full wyse,
The son of Mold [Maud] the emperyse.
In hys tyme then seynt Thomas
At Caunterbury marteryd was.
He held Rosomund the sheen,
Gret sorwe hit was for the queen:
At Wodestoke for hure he made a toure,
That is called ROSEMOUNDES
OURE.—
And sithen regnyd his sone Richerd,
A man that was never aferd:
He werred ofte tyme and wyse
Worthily upon goddis enemyse.
And sithen he was shoten, alas!
Atte castle Gailard there he was.
A
te Fonte Everarde he lithe there:
He regnyd almost two yere.—
In Johne is tyme, as y understonde,
Was entredyted alle Engelonde:
He was fulle wrothe and grym,
For prestus would nought synge before hym, &c.
Lydgate has left the best chronicle of the kind, and most approaching to poetry.
The regnynge of kyngys after the conquest by the monk of Bury.
MSS
Fairf. Bibl. Bodl. 16. [And MSS. Ashmol. 59. ii. MSS. Harl. 2251. 3. And a beautiful copy, with pictures of the kings, MSS. Cotton. JULIUS. E. 5.] Never printed. [Unless printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1530. 4to.
"This myghty Wyllyam duke of Normandy."
] This is one of the stanzas. [See MSS. Bodl. B. 3. 1999. 6.]
RICARD
S PRIMUS.
Rychard the next by successyon,
Ffirst of that name, strong, har
y, and notable,
Was crouned kynge, called Cur de lyon,
With Saryzonys hedys served atte table:
Sleyn at Galard by death full lamentable:
The space regned fully ix yere;
His hert buryed in Roon, atte highe autere.
Compare MSS. Harl. 372. 5. There was partly a political view in these deductions: to ascertain the right of our kings to the crowns of France, Castile, Leon, and the dutchy of Normandy. See MSS. Harl. 326. 2.—116. 11. fol. 142. I know not whether it be worth observing, that about this time a practice prevailed of constructing long parchment-rolls in Latin, of the Pedigree of our kings. Of this kind is the
Pedigree of British kings from Adam to Henry the sixth,
written about the year 1450, by Roger Alban, a Carmelite friar of London. It begins,
"Considerans chronicorum prolixitatem."
The original copy, presented to Henry the sixth by the compiler, is now in Queen's college library at Oxford. MSS. [22.] B. 5. 3. There are two copies in Winchester college library, and another in the Bodleian. Among bishop More's manuscripts, there is a parchment-roll of the Pedigree
of our king
from Ethelred to Henry the fourth, in French, with pictures of the several monarchs. MSS. 495. And, in the same collection, a Pedigree from Harold to Henry the fourth, with elegant illuminations. MSS. 479. In the same rage of genealogising, Alban abovementioned framed the Descent of Jesus Christ, from Adam through the Levitical and regal tribes, the Jewish patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, and priests. The original roll, as it seems, on vellum, beautifully illuminated, is in MSS. More, ut supr. 495. But this was partly copied from Peter of Poictou, a disciple of Lombard about the year 1170, who, for the benefit of the poorer clergy, was the first that found out the method of forming, and reducing into parchment-rolls, HISTORICAL TREES of the old testament. Alberic. in Chron. p. 441. See MSS. Denb. 1627. 1. Rot. membr.
As to Bradshaw's history of the foundation of Chester, it may be classed with the FOUNDATION OF THE ABBEY OF GLOUCESTER, a poem of twenty-two stanzas, written in the year 1534, by the last abbot William Malverne, printed by Hearne, Ubi supr. p. 378. This piece is mentioned by Harpsfield, HIST. ECCLES. ANGL. p. 264. Princip.
"In sundrie
ayer volumes of antiquitie."
MSS. Harl. 539. 14. fol. 111.
. It is collected from Bede, Alfred of Beverly, Malmesbury, Girardus Cambrensis, Higden's Polychronicon, and the passionaries of the female saints, Werburgh, Etheldred, and Sexburgh, which were kept for public edification in the choir of the church of our poet's monastery
For as declareth the true PASSIONARY,
A boke where her holie lyfe wrytten is,
Which boke remayneth in Chester monastery.
Lib. i. c. vii. Signat. C ii. And again, ibid.
I folow the legend and true hystory
After an humble stile and from it lytell vary.
And in the Prologue, lib. i. Signat. A iiii.
Untoo this rude worke myne auctors these,
Fyrst the true Legends, and the venerable Bede,
Mayster Alfrydus, and Wyllyam Malmusbury,
Gyrard, Polychronicon, and other mo indeed.
. Bradshaw is not so fond of relating visions and miracles as his argument seems to promise. Although concerned with three saints, he deals more in plain facts than in the fictions of religious romance; and, on the whole, his performance is rather historical than legendary. This is remarkable, in an age, when it was the fashion to turn history into legend
Even scripture-history was turned into romance. The story of Esther and Ahasuerus, or of AMON or
Hamon,
and MARDOCHEUS or
Mordecai,
was formed into a fabulous poem. MS. Vernon, ut supr. fol. 213.
Of AMON and MARDOCHEUS.
Mony wynter witerly
Or Crist weore boren of vre ladi,
A rich kynge, hiȝte AHASWERE,
That stif was on stede and stere;
Mighti kynge he was, i wis,
He livede muchel in weolye ant blis,
His blisse may i nat telle ȝou,
How lange hit weore to schewe hit nou;
But thing that tovcheth to vre matere
I wol ȝou telle, gif ȝe wol here.
The kyng lovede a knight so wele,
That he commaunded men should knel
Bifore him, in vche a streete,
Over all ther men mihte him meete;
AMON was the knihtes nome,
On him fell muchel worldus schome,
Ffor in this ilke kynges lande
Was moche folke of Jewes wonande,
Of heore kynd the kyng hym tok
A qwene to wyve, as telleth the bok, &c.
In the British Museum, there is a long commentitious narrative of the
Creation of Adam and Eve, their Sufferings and Repentance, Death and Burial.
MSS. Harl. 1704. 5. fol. 18. This is from a Latin piece on the same subject, ibid. 495. 12. fol. 43. imperf. In the English, Peter Comestor, the
maister of stories,
author of the
historia scholastica,
who flourished about the year 1170, is quoted. fol. 26. But he is not mentioned in the Latin, at fol. 49.
In Chaucer's MILLER'S TALE, we have this passage, v. 3538.
Hast thou not herd, quod Nicholas also,
The sorwe of Noe with his felawship,
Or that he might get his wif to ship?
I know not whether this anecdote about Noah is in any similar supposititious book of Genesis. It occurs, however, in the
Chester Whitsun Playes,
where the authors, according to the established indulgence allowed to dramatic poets, perhaps thought themselves at liberty to enlarge on the sacred story. MSS. Harl. 2013. This altercation between Noah and his wife, takes up almost the whole third
pageaunt
of these interludes. Noah, having reproached his wife for her usual frowardness of temper, at last conjures her to come on board the ark, for fear of drowning. His wife insists on his sailing without her; and swears by
Christ
and
saint John,
that she will not embark, till some of her old female comp
nions are ready to go with her. She adds, that if he is in such a hurry, he may sail alone, and fetch himself a new wife. At length Shem, with the help of his brothers, forces her into the vessel; and while Noah very cordially welcomes her on board, she gives him a box on the ear.
There is an apocryphal book, of the expulsion of Adam from Paradise, and of Seth's pilgrimage to Paradise, &c. &c. MSS. Eccles. Cathedr. Winton. 4.
. His fabulous origin of Chester is not so much to be imputed to his own want of veracity, as to the authority of his voucher Ranulph Higden, a celebrated chronicler, his countryman, and a monk of his own abbey
There is the greatest probability, that RALPH HIGDEN, hitherto known as a grave historian and theologist, was the compiler of the
Chester-plays,
mentioned above, vol. i. p. 243. In one of the Harleian copies [2013. 1.] under the
Proclamation
for performing these plays in the year 1522, this note occurs, in the hand of the third Randal Holme, one of the Chester antiquaries.
"Sir John Arnway was mayor, A. D. 1327, and 1328. At which tyme these playes were written by RANDALL HIGGENET, a monke of Chester abbey, &c."
In a Prologue to these plays, when they were presented in the year 1600, are these lines, ibid. 2.
That some tymes ther was mayor of this citie
Sir John Arnway knight: who most worthilie
Contented hymselfe to sett out in
playe,
The
Devise
of
one Done
RONDALL, Moonke of Chester abbaye.
Done Rondall
is
Dan
[dominus]
Randal.
In another of the Harleian copies of these plays, written in the year 1607, this note appears, seemingly written in the year 1628. [MSS. Harl. 2124.]
"The Whitsun playes fir
t made by one
Don Rondle Heggenet,
a monke of Chester abbey: who was thrise at Rome before he could obtaine leave of the pope to have them in the English tongue."
Our chronicler's name in the text, sometimes written
Hikeden,
and
Higgeden,
was easily corrupted into
Higgenet
or
Heggenet:
and
Randa
is Ranulph or Randolph,
Ralph.
He died, having been a monk of Chester abbey sixty-four years, in the year 1363. In PIERS PLOWMAN, a frier says, that he is well acquainted with the
"
rimes
of RANDALL OF CHESTER"
fol. 26. edit. 1550. I take this pass
ge to allude to this very person, and to his compositions of this kind, for which he was probably soon famous. In an anonymous CHRONICON, he is styled
Ranulphus Cestrensis,
which is nothing more than RANDALL OF CHESTER, MS. Ric. James, xi. 8. Bibl. Bodl. And again we have, RANULPHI CESTRENSIS
"ars componendi sermone
."
MSS. Bodl. sup. N. 2. Art. 10. And in many other places.
By the way, if it be true that these MYSTERIES were composed in the year 1328, and there was so much difficulty in obtaining the pope's permission that they might be presented in English, a presumptive proof arises, that all our MYSTERIES before that period were in Latin. These plays will therefore have the merit of being the first English interludes.
. He supposes that Chester, called by the antient Britons CAIR LLEON, or
the city of Legions,
was founded by Leon Gaur, a giant, corrupted from LEON VAUR, or the
great legion.
The founder of this citie, as sayth Polychronicon,
Was Leon Gaur, a myghte stronge gyaunt,
Which buildid caves and dongeons manie a one,
No goodlie buildyng, ne proper, ne pleasant.
He adds, with an equal attention to etymology:
But kinge Leir a Britan fine and valiaunt,
Was founder of Chester by pleasaunt buildyng,
And was named Guar Leir by the kyng
Lib. ii. c. iii.
.
But a greater degree of credulity would perhaps have afforded him a better claim to the character of a poet: and, at least, we should have conceived a more advantageous opinion of his imagination, had he been less frugal of those traditionary fables, in which ignorance and superstition had cloathed every part of his argument. This piece was first printed by Pinson in the year 1521.
"Here begynneth the holy lyfe of SAYNT WERBURGE, very frutefull for all cristen people to rede
In octavo. With a wooden cut of the Saint. Princip.
"When Phebus had ronne his cours in Sagittari."
At the beginning is an English copy of verses, by J. T. And at the end two others.
."
He traces the genealogy of saint Werburg with much historical accuracy
A descryp
yon of the geanalogy of
SAYNT WERBURGE,
&c.
This noble prynces, the doughter of Syon,
The floure of vertu, and vyrgyn gloryous,
Blessed saynt Werburge, full of devocyon,
Descended by auncetry, and tytle famous,
Of foure myghty kynges, noble and vyctoryous,
Reynynge in his lande, by true successyon,
As her ly
e historyall
That is, her Legend.
, maketh declaracyon.
The year of our lorde, from the natyuyte
Fvue h
ndreth xiiii. and iiii. score,
Whan Aust
n was sende, from saynt Gregorye,
To conue
t this regyon, unto our sauyoure
The noble kyng Cryda than reygned with honoure
Upon the Mercyens, whiche kynge was father
Unto kynge Wybba, and Quadriburge his syster.
This Wybba gate Penda, kynge of Mercyens,
Which Penda subdued,
yue kynges of this regyon
Reygnynge thyrty yere, in worshyp and reuerens
Was grauntfather to Werburge, by lynyall successyon
By his quene Kyneswith, had a noble generacyon
Fyue valeant prynces, Penda and kynge Wulfer,
Kynge Ethelred, saynt Marceyl, saynt Marwalde in
ere
Edit. Pins. 1521.
.
.
The most splendid passage of this poem, is the following description of the feast made by king Ulpher in the hall of the abbey of Ely, when his daughter Werburgh was admitted to the veil in that monastery. Among other curious anecdotes of antient manners, the subjects of the tapestry, with which the hall was hung, and of the songs sung by the minstrels, on this solemn occasion, are given at large
"Of the great solempnyte kynge Wulfer made at the ghostly maryage of Saynt Werburge his doughter, to all his lovers, cosyns, and frendes."
Ca. xvi. L. i.
.
Kynge Wulfer her father at this ghostly spousage
Prepared great tryumphes, and solempnyte;
Made a royall feest, as custome is of maryage,
Sende for his frendes, after good humanyte
Kepte a noble housholde, shewed great lyberalyte
Both to ryche and poore, that to this feest wolde come,
No man was denyed, every man was wellcome.
Her uncles and auntes, were present there all
Ethelred and Merwalde, and Mercelly also
Thre blessed kynges, whome sayntes we do call
Saint Keneswyd, saint Keneburg, their sisters both two
And of her noble lynage, many other mo
Were redy that season, with reverence and honour
At this noble tryumphe, to do all theyr devour.
Tho kynges mette them, with their company,
Egbryct kynge of Kent, brother to the quene;
The second was Aldulphe kynge of the east party,
Brother to saynt Audry, wyfe and mayde serene;
With divers of theyr progeny, and nobles as I wene,
Dukes, erles, barons, and lordes ferre and nere,
In theyr best array, were present all in fere
Together.
.
It were full tedyous, to make descrypcyon
Of the great tryumphes, and solempne royalte,
Belongynge to the feest, the honour and provysyon,
By playne declaracyon, upon every partye;
But the sothe to say, withouten ambyguyte,
All herbes and flowres, fragraunt, fayre and swete,
Were strawed in halles, and layd under theyr fete.
Clothes of golde and arras, were hanged in the hall
Depaynted with pyctures, and hystoryes manyfolde,
Well wroughte and craftely, with precious stones all
Glyterynge as Phebus, and the beten golde,
Lyke an erthly paradyse, pleasaunt to beholde:
As for the sayd moynes
Nun. i. e. The Lady Werburg.
, was not them amonge,
But prayenge in her cell, as done all novice yonge.
The story of Adam, there was goodly wrought
And of his wyfe Eve, bytwene them the serpent,
How they were deceyved, and to theyr peynes brought;
There was Cayn and Abell, offerynge theyr present,
The sacryfyce of Abell, accepte full evydent:
Tuball and Tubalcain, were purtrayed in that place
The inventours of musyke, and crafte by great grace.
Noe and his shyppe, was made there curyously
Sendynge forthe a raven, whiche never came again;
And how the dove returned, with a braunche hastely,
A token of comforte and peace, to man certayne:
Abraham there was, standing upon the mount playne
To offer in sacrifice, Isaac his dere sone,
And how the shepe for hym was offered in oblacyon.
The twelve sones of Jacob, there were in purtrayture
And how into Egypt, yonge Joseph was solde,
There was imprisoned, by a false conjectour,
After in all Egypte, was ruler (as is tolde).
There was in pycture, Moyses wyse and bolde,
Our Lorde apperynge, in bushe flammynge as fyre
And nothing thereof brent, lefe, tree, nor spyre
Twig. Branch.
.
The ten plages of Egypt, were well embost
The chyldren of Israel, passyng the reed see,
Kynge Pharoo drowned, with all his proude hoost,
And how the two table, at the mounte Synaye
Were gyven to Moyses, and how soon to idolatry
The people were prone, and punyshed were therefore,
How Datan and Abyron, for pryde were full youre
Burnt.
.
Duke Josue was joyned, after them in pycture,
Ledynge the Isre
elytes to the land of promyssyon,
And how the said land was divided by mesure
To the people of God, by equall sundry porcyon:
The judges and bysshops were there everychone,
Theyr noble actes, and tryumphes marcyall,
Fresshly were browdred in these clothes royall.
Nexte to the greate lorde, appered fayre and bryght
Kynge Saull and David, and prudent Solomon,
Roboas succedynge, whiche soone lost his myght,
The good kynge Esechyas, and his generacyon,
And so to the Machabees, and dyvers other nacyon,
All these sayd storyes, so rychely done and wrought.
Belongyng to kyng Wulfer, agayn that tyme were brought
All this tapestry, belonging to king Wulfer, was brought to Ely monastery on this occasion.
.
But over the hye desse
Seat.
, in the pryncypall place
Where the sayd thre kynges sate crowned all,
The best hallynge
Tapestry.
hanged, as reason was,
Whereon were wrought the ix. orders angelicall
Dyvyded in thre ierarchyses, not cessynge to call
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus,
blessed be the Trynite,
Dominus Deus Sabaoth,
thre persons in one deyte.
Next in order suynge
Following.
, sette in goodly purtrayture
Was our blessed lady, flowre of femynyte,
With the twelve Apostles, echeone in his figure,
And the foure Evangelystes, wrought most curyously:
Also the Dyscyples of Christ in theyr degre
Prechynge and techynge, unto every nacyon,
The faythtes
Feats. Facts.
of holy chyrche, for their salvacyon.
Martyrs than folowed, right manifolde:
The holy Innocentes, whom Herode had slayne,
Blessed Saynt Stephen, the prothomartyr truly,
Saynt Laurence, Saynt Vyncent, sufferynge great payne;
With many other mo, than here ben now certayne,
Of which sayd martyrs exsample we may take,
Pacyence to observe, in herte, for Chrystes sake.
Confessours approched, right convenient,
Fressely enbrodred in ryche tysshewe and fyne;
Saynt Nycholas, Saynt Benedycte, and his convent,
Saynt Jerom, Basylyus, and Saynt Augustine,
Gregory the great doctour, Ambrose and Saynt Martyne:
All these were sette in goodly purtrayture,
Them to beholde was a heavenly pleasure.
Vyrgyns them folowed, crowned with the lyly,
Among whome our lady chefe president was;
Some crowned with rooses for their great vyctory:
Saynt Kather
ne, Saynt Margerette, Saynt Agathas,
Saynt Cycyly, Saynt Agnes, and Saynt Charytas,
Saynt Lucye, Saynt Wenefryde, and Saynt Apolyn;
All these were brothered
Embroidered.
, the clothes of golde within.
Upon the other syde of the hall sette were
Noble auncyent storyes, and how the stronge Sampson
Subdued his enemyes by his myghty power;
Of Hector of Troye, slayne by fals treason;
Of noble Arthur, kynge of this regyon:
With many other mo, which it is to longe
Playnly to expresse this tyme you amonge.
The tables were covered with clothes of dyaper,
Rychely enlarged with silver and with golde,
The cupborde with plate shynyng fayre and clere,
Marshalles theyr offyces fulfylled manyfolde:
Of myghty wyne plenty, both newe and olde,
All maner kynde of meetes delycate
(Whan grace was sayd) to them was preparate.
To this noble feest there was suche ordinaunce,
That nothynge wanted that goten myght be
On see and on lande, but there was habundance
Of all maner pleasures to be had for monye;
The bordes all charged full of meet plente,
And dyvers subtyltes
Dishes of curious cookery, so called.
prepared sothly were,
With cordyall and spyces, theyr guestes for to chere.
The joyfull wordes and sweet communycacyon
Spoken at the table, it were harde to tell;
Eche man at lyberte, without interrupcyon,
Bothe sadnes and myrthes, also pryve counsell,
Some adulacyon, some the truth dyd tell,
But the great astates
Kings.
spake of theyr regyons,
Knyghtes of theyr chyvalry, of craftes the comons.
Certayne at eche cours of service in the hall,
Trumpettes blewe up, shalmes and claryons,
Shewynge theyr melody, with toynes
Tunes.
musycall,
Dyvers other mynstrelles, in crafty proporcyons,
Mad swete concordaunce and lusty dyvysyons:
An hevenly pleasure, suche armony to here,
Rejoysynge the hertes of the audyence full clere.
A singuler Mynstrell, all other ferre passynge,
Toyned
Tuned.
his instrument in pleasaunte armony,
And sang moost swetely, the company gladynge,
Of myghty conquerours, the famous vyctory;
Wherwith was ravysshed theyr sprytes and memory:
Specyally he sange of the great Alexandere,
Of his tryumphes and honours endurynge xii yere.
Solemply he songe the scate of the Romans,
Ruled under kynges by policy and wysedome,
Of theyr hye justice and ryghtful ordinauns
Dayly encreasynge in worshyp and renowne,
Tyll Tarquyne the proude kynge, with that great confusion,
Oppressed dame Lucrece, the wyfe of Colatyne,
Kynges never reyned in Rome syth that tyme.
Also how the Romayns, under thre dyctatours,
Governed all regyons of the worlde ryght wysely,
Tyll Julyus Cesar, excellynge all conquerours,
Subdued Pompeius, and toke the hole monarchy
And the rule of Rome to hym selfe manfully;
But Cassius Brutus, the fals conspyratour,
Caused to be slayne the sayd noble emperour.
After the sayd Julius, succeded his syster sone,
Called Octavianus, in the imperyall see,
And by his precepte was made descrypcyon
To every regyon, lande, shyre
This puts one in mind of the
Sheriffs,
in our Translation of the Bible, among the officers of the kingdom of Babylon, DAN. iii. 2.
, and cytee,
A tribute to pay unto his dignyte:
That tyme was universal peas and honour,
In whiche tyme was borne our blessed Savyoure.
All these hystoryes, noble and auncyent,
Rejoysynge the audyence, he sange with pleasuer;
And many other mo of the Newe Testament,
Pleasaunt and profytable for their soules cure,
Whiche be omytted, now not put in ure
Not mentioned here.
:
The mynysters were ready, theyr offyce to fullfyll,
To take up the tables at their lordes wyll.
Whan this noble feest and great solempnyte,
Dayly endurynge a longe tyme and space,
Was royally ended with honour and royalte,
Eche kynge at other lysence taken hace,
And so departed from thens to theyr place:
Kyng Wulfer retourned, with worshyp and renowne,
From the house
Monastery.
of Ely to his owne mansyon.
If there be any merit of imagination or invention, to which the poet has a claim in this description, it altogether consists in the application. The circumstances themselves are faithfully copied by Bradshaw, from what his own age actually presented. In this respect, I mean as a picture of antient life, the passage is interesting; and for no other reason. The versification is infinitely inferior to Lydgate's worst manner.
Bradshaw was buried in the cathedral church, to which his convent was annexed, in the year 1513
Ath. Oxon. i. 9.
. Bale, a violent reformer, observes, that our poet was a person remarkably pious for the times in which he flourished
Cent. ix. Numb. 17.
. This is an in
irect satire on the monks, and on the period which preceded the reformation. I believe it will readily be granted,
our author had more piety than poetry. His Prolog
contains the following humble professions of his inability
o treat lofty subjects, and to please light readers.
To descrybe hye hystoryes I dare not be so bolde,
Syth it is a matter for clerkes convenyent;
As of the seven ages, and of our parentes olde,
Or of the four empyres whilom most excellent;
Knowyng my lerning therto insuffycient:
As for baudy balades you shall have none of me,
To excyte lyght hertes to pleasure and vanity
Prol. lib. i. Signat. A. iii.
.
A great translator of the lives of the Saxon saints, from the Saxon, in which language only they were then extant, into Latin, was Goscelinus, a monk of Saint Austin's at Canterbury, who passed from France into England, with Herman, bishop of Salisbury, about the year 1058
W. Malmesbur. lib. iv. ubi infr.—Goscelin. in Praefatt. ad Vit. S. Augustini. See Mabillon, ACT. BEN. Saec. i. p. 499.
. As the Saxon language was at this time but little understood, these translations opened a new and ample treasure of religious history: nor were they acquisitions only to the religion, but to the literature, of that era. Among the rest, were the Lives of saint Werburgh
Printed, ACT. SANCTOR. Bolland. tom. i. februar. p. 386. A part in Leland, Coll. ii. 154. Compare MSS. C. C. C. Cant. J. xiii.
, saint Etheldred
In Registr. Eliens. ut infr.
, and saint Sexburgh
See Leland. Coll. iii. p. 152. Compare the Lives of S. Etheldred, S. Werburgh, and S. Sexburgh, at the end of the HISTORIA AUREA of John of Tinmouth, MS. Lambeth. 12. I know not whether they make a part of his famous SANCTILOGIUM. He flourished about the year 1380.
, most probably the legends, which were Bradshaw's originals. Usher observes, that Goscelinus also translated into Latin the antient Catalogue of the Saxon saints buried in England
Antiquit. Brit. c. ii. p. 15. See Leland's Coll. iii. 86. seq. And Hickes. Thesaur. vol. ult. p. 86. 146. 208.
. In the register of Ely it is recorded, that he was the most eloquent writer of his age; and that he circulated all over England, the lives, miracles, and GESTS, of the saints of both sexes, which he reduced into prose-histories
Cap. x. Vit. Ethel.
. The words of the Latin deserve our attention.
"In historiis in
prosa
dictando mutavit."
Hence we may perhaps infer
that they were not before in prose, and that he took the
from old metrical legends: this is a presumptive proof, that the lives of the saints were at first extant in verse. In the same light we are to understand the words which i
diately follow.
"Hic scripsit
Prosam
sanctae Etheld
ae
Which is extant in this Ely register, and contains 54 heads.
."
Where the
Prose
of saint Etheldred is opposed to her
poetical
legend
And these improved prose-narratives were often turned back again into verse, even so late as in the age before us: to which, among others I could mention, we may refer the legend of Saint Eustathius, MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2.
Seynt
Eustace,
a nobull knyȝte,
Of hethen law he was;
And ere than he crystened was
Mene callyd him
Placidas.
He was with
Trajan
themperor, &c.
A Latin legend on this saint is in MSS. Harl. 2316. 42.
Concerning legend-makers, there is a curious story in MSS. James, xxxi. p. 6. [ad ITER LANCASTR. num. 39. vol. 40.] Bibl. Bodl. Gilbert de Stone, a learned ecclesiastic, who flourished about the year 1380, was soli
ed by the monks of Holywell in Flintshire, to write the life of their patron saint. Stone applying to these monks for materials, was answe
ed, that they had none in their monastery
Upon which he declared, that he could
ute the work just as easily without any
terials at all: and that he would write them a most excellent legend, after the
manner
of the legend of Thomas a Becket. He has the character of an elegant Latin writer; and seems to have done the same piece of service, perhaps in the same way, to other religious houses. From his EPISTLES, it appears that he wrote the life of saint
Wolfade,
patron of the priory of canons regular of his native town of Stone in Staffordshire, which he dedicated to the prior, William de Madely. Epist. iii. dat. 1399. [MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Sup. D i. Art. 123.] He was Latin secretary to several bishops, and could possibly write a legend or a letter with equal facility. His epistles are 123 in number. The first of them, in which he is stiled
chancellour to the bishop of Winchester,
is to the archbishop of Canterbury. That is,
secretary.
[MSS. Cotton. VITELL. E. x. 17.] This bishop of Winchester must have been William of Wykeham.
The most extraordinary composition of this kind, if we consider, among other circumstances, that it was compiled at a time when knowledge and literature had made some progress, and when mankind were so much less disposed to believe or to invent miracles, more especially when the subject was quite recent, is the LEGEND of KING HENRY the SIXTH. It is entitled,
De
MIRACULIS
beatissimi illius Militis Christi, Henrici sexti, etc.
That it might properly rank with other legends, it was translated from an English copy into Latin, by one Johannes, styled
Pauperculus,
a monk, about the year 1503, at the command of John Morgan, dean of Windsor, afterwards bishop of saint David's. It is divided into two books: to both of which, prefaces are prefixed, containing proofs of the miracles wrought by this pious monarch. At the beginning, there is a hymn, with a prayer, addressed to the royal saint. fol. 72.
Salve, miles preciose,
Rex Henrice generose, &c.
Henry could not have been a complete saint without his legend. MSS. Harl. 423. 7. And MSS. Reg. 13 C. 8. What shall we think of the judgment and abilities of the dignified ecclesiastic, who could seriously patronise so ridiculous a narrative?
. By
mutavit dictando,
we are to understand, that he
translated,
or
reformed,
or, in the most general sense,
wrote anew in Latin,
these antiquated lives. His principal objects were the more recent saints, especially those of this island. Malmesbury says,
"Innumeras SANCTORUM VITAS RECENTIUM
stylo extulit,
veterum vel amissas, vel
informiter editas,
comptius
renovavit
Hist. Angl. lib. iv. p. 130.
."
In this respect, the labours of Goscelin partly resembled those of Symeon Metaphrastes, a celebrated Constantinopolitan writer of the tenth century: who obtained the distinguishing appellation of the METAPHRAST, because, at the command, and under the auspices of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, he modernised the more antient narratives of the miracles and martyrdoms of the most eminent eastern and western saints, for the use of the Greek church: or rather digested, from detached, imperfect, or obsolete books on the subject, a new and more commodious body of the sacred biography.
Among the many striking contrasts between the manners and characters of antient and modern life, which these annals present, we must not be surprised to find a mercer, a sheriff, and an alderman of London, descending from his important occupations, to write verses. This is Robert Fabyan, who yet is generally better known as an historian, than as a poet. He was esteemed, not only the most facetious, but the most learned, of all the mercers, sheriffs, and aldermen, of his time: and no layman of that age is said to have been better skilled in the Latin language. He flourished about the year 1494. In his CHRONICLE, or
Concordance of histories,
from Brutus to the year 1485, it is his usual practice, at the division of the books, to insert metrical prologues, and other pieces in verse. The best of his metres is the COMPLAINT of king Edward the second; who, like the personages in Boccacio's FALL OF PRINCES, is very dramatically introduced, reciting his own misfortunes
Fol. 171. tom. ii. edit. 1533. See Hearne's Lib. Nig. Scacc. p. 425. And Praefat. p. xxxviii. Fabyan says,
"they are reported to be his own makynge, in the tyme of his emprysonment."
ibid. By the way, there is a passage in this chronicler which points out the true reading of a controverted passage in Shakespeare,
"Also children were christened thorough all the land, and menne
houseled and anealed,
excepte suche, &c."
tom. ii. p. 30. col. 2.
. But th
soliloquy is nothing more than a translation from a short and a very poor Latin poem attributed to that monarch, but probably written by William of Wyrcester, which is preserved among the manuscripts of the college of arms, and entitled,
Lamentatio gloriosi regis Edvardi de Karnarvon quam edidit tempore suae incarcerationis.
Our author's transitions from prose to verse, in the course of a prolix narrative, seem to be made with much ease; and, when he begins to versify, the historian disappears only by the addition of rhyme and stanza. In the first edition of his CHRONICLE, by way of epilogues to his seven books, he has given us
The seven joys of the Blessed Virgin in English Rime.
And under the year 1325, there is a poem to the virgin; and another on one Badby, a Lollard, under the year 1409
Edit.
ond. 1516. fol.
. These are suppressed in the later editions. He has likewise left a panegyric on the city of London; but despairs of doing justice to so noble a subject for verse, even if he had the eloquence of Tully, the morality of Seneca, and the harmony of that
faire Lady
Calliope
Fol. 2. tom. ii. ut supr.
. The reader will thank me for citing only one stanza from king Edward's COMPLAINT.
When Saturne, with his cold and isye face,
The ground, with his frostes, turneth grene to white;
The time winter, which treès doth deface,
And causeth all verdure to avoyde quite:
Then fortune, which sharpe was, with stormes not lite
Hath me assaulted with her froward wyll,
And me beclipped with daungers ryght yll
In the British Museum there is a poem on this subject, and in the same stanza. MSS. Harl. 2393. 4to. 1. The ghost of Edward the second, as here, is introduced speaking. It is addressed to queen Elizabeth, as appears, among other passages, from st. 92. 242. 243. 305. It begins thus.
Whi
should a wasted spirit spent in woe
Disclose the wounds receyved within his brest?
It is imperfect, having only 352 stanzas. Then follows the same poem; with many alterations, additions, and omissions. This i
addressed to James the first, as appears from st. 6. 259. 260. 326, &c. It contains 581 stanzas. There is another copy in the same library, Num. 558. At the end the poet calls himself INFORTUNIO. This is an appellation which, I think, Spenser sometimes assumed. But Spenser was dead before the reign of James: nor has this piece any of Spenser's characteristic merit. It begins thus.
I sing thy s
d disaster, fatal king,
Carnarvon Edward, second of that name.
The poem on this subject in the addition to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, by William Niccols, is a different composition. A WINTER NIGHT'S VISION. Lond. 1610. p. 702. These two manuscript poems deserve no further mention: nor would they have been mentioned at all, but from their reference to the text, and on account of their subject. Compare, MSS. Harl. 2251. 119. fol. 254. An unfinished poem on Edward the second, perhaps by Lydgate. Princ.
"Beholde this greate prince Edward the secunde."
.
As an historian, our author is the dullest of compilers. He is equally attentive to the succession of the mayors of London, and of the monarchs of England: and seems to have thought the dinners at guildhall, and the pageantries of the city-companies, more interesting transactions, than our victories in France, and our struggles for public liberty at home. One of Fabyan's historical anecdotes, under the important reign of Henry the fifth, is, that a new weathercock was placed on the cross of Saint Paul's steeple. It is said, that cardinal Wolsey commanded many copies of this chronicle to be committed to the flames, because it made too ample a discovery of the excessive revenues of the clergy. The earlier chapters of these childish annals faithfully record all those fabulous traditions, which generally supply the place of historic monuments in describing the origin of a great nation.
Another poet of this period is John Watson, a priest. He wrote a Latin theological tract entitled SPECULUM CHRISTIANI, which is a sort of paraphrase on the decalogue and the creed
MSS. C. C. C. Oxon. 155. MSS. Laud. G. 12. MSS. Thoresb. 530. There is an abridgement of this work, [MSS. Harl. 2250. 20.] with the date 1477. This is rather beyond the period with which we are at present engaged.
. But it is interspersed with a great number of wretched English rhymes: among which, is the following hymn to the virgin Mary
Compare a hymn to the holy virgin, supr. vol. i. p. 314. Mathew Paris relates, that Godrich, a hermit, about the year 1150, who lived in a solitary wild on the banks of the river Ware near Durham, had a vision, in his oratory, of the virgin Mary, who taught him this song.
Seint Marie clane virgine,
Moder Jesu Christe Nazarine,
On so scild thir Godrich
On
ang bringe haeli widh the in godes rich.
Seinte Marie, Christes bur,
Maidenes clenhad, moderes flur,
Delle mine sennen, rixe in mine mod,
Bringe me to winne widh self god.
Matt. Paris. Hist. Angl. [HENRIC. ii.] p. 115. edit. Tig. 1589.
In one of the Harl
ian manuscripts, many very antient hymns to the holy virgin occur. MS. 2253. These are specimens. 66. fol. 80. b.
Blessed be þou [thou] levedy, ful of heovene blisse,
Swete flur of parays, moder of mildenesse,
Praye ȝe Jhesu þy [thy] sone þat [that] he me rede and wysse
So my wey for to gon, þat he me nevere mysse.
Ibid. 67.
ol. 81. b.
As y me rod þis ender day,
By grene wode to seche play,
Mid harte y þohte al on a May [Maid], Swetest of al þinge!
Lyþe, and ich ou telle may al of þat swete þinge.
Ibid. 69. fol. 83. In French and English.
Mayden moder mild,
oyez cel oreysoun,
From shom þou me shilde,
e di la mal feloun,
For love of thine childe,
me muez de tresoun,
Ich wes wod and wilde,
ore su
n prisoun.
See also ibid. 49. fol. 75.—57. fol. 78. And 372. 7. fol. 55.
In the library of Mr. Farmer, of Tusmore in Oxfordshire, are, or were lately, a collection of hymns and antiphones, paraphrased into English, by William Herbert, a Franciscan frier, and a famous preacher, about the year 1330. These, with some other of his pieces contained in the same library, are unmentioned by Bale, v. 31. And Pitts, p. 428.
[Autogr. in pergamen.]
Pierre de Corbian, a troubadour, has left a hymn, or prayer, to the holy virgin: which, he says, he chose to compose in the romance
language, because he could write it more
intelligibly
than Latin. Another troubadour, a mendicant frier of the thirteenth century, had worked himself up into such a pitch of enthusiasm concerning the holy virgin, that he became deeply
in love
with her. It is partly owing, as I have already hinted, to the gallantry of the dark ages, in which the female sex was treated with so romantic a respect, that the virgin Mary received such exaggerated honours, and was so distinguished an object of adoration in the devotion of those times.
.
Mary Moder, wel thou be;
Mary Moder thenke on mee:
Mayden and moder was never none
Togeder, lady, safe thou allone
These four lines are in the exordium of a prayer to the virgin, MSS. Harl. 2382. (4to.) 3. fol. 86. b. [Se
supr. p. 60.]
.
Swete lady, mayden clene,
Schilde me fro ille, schame, and tene,
And out of dette, for charitee, &c.
Printed by William Maclyn or Machlinia. Without date.
.
Caxton, the celebrated printer, was likewise a poet; and beside the rhyming introductions and epilogues with which he frequently decorates his books, has left a poem of considerable length, entitled the WORKE OF SAPIENCE
Printed by him, without date. fol. in thirty-seven leaves.
. It comprehends, not only an allegorical fiction concerning the two courts of the castle of Sapience, in which there is no imagination, but a system of natural philosophy, grammar, logic, rhetoric, geometry, astronomy, theology, and other topics of the fashionable literature. Caxton appears to be the author, by the prologue: yet it is not improbable, that he might on this occasion employ some professed versifier, at least as an assistant, to prepare a new book of original poetry for his press. The writer's design, is to describe the effects of wisdom from the beginning of the world: and the work is a history of knowledge or learning. In a vision, he meets the goddess SAPIENCE in a delightful meadow; who conducts him to her castle, or mansion, and there displays all her miraculous operations. Caxton, in the poem, invokes the
gylted goddess
and
moost facundyous lady
Clio, apologises to those
makers
who delight in
termes gay,
for the inelegancies of language which as a foreigner he could not avoid, and modestly declares, that he neither means to rival or envy Gower and Chaucer.
Among the anonymous pieces of poetry belonging to this period, which are very numerous, the most conspicuous is the KALENDAR OF SHEPHERDS. It seems to have been translated into English about the year 1480, from a French book entitled KALENDRIER DES BERGERS
I have seen an edition of the French, of 1500.
. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in the year 1497
I have an edition printed by John Wally, at London, without date. 4to. In the prolog
e it is said,
"This book was first corruptly printed in France, and after that at the cost and charges of Richard Pinson newly translated and
eprinted although not so faithfully as the original copy required, &c."
It was certainly first printed by de Worde, 1497. Again, ch. ii.
"From the yeare this kalender was made M. CCCC. XCVII. unto the yeare M. CCCCC. XVI."
From whence I conclude, that Worde's edition was in 1497, Wally's in 1516. Again,
"This yeare of the present kalender whiche began to have course the first daye of January M. CCCC. XCVII."
. This piece was calculated for the purposes of a perpetual almanac; and seems to have been the universal magazine of every article of salutary and useful knowledge. It is a medley of verse and prose; and contains, among many other curious particulars, the saints of the whole year, the moveable feasts, the signs of the zodiac, the properties of the twelve months, rules for blood-letting, a collection of proverbs, a system of ethics, politics, divinity, phisiognomy, medicine, astrology, and geography
Pieces of this sort were not uncommon. In the British museum there is an ASTROLOGICAL poem, teaching when to buy and sell, to let blood, to build, to go to sea, the fortune of children, the interpretation of dreams, with other like important particulars, from the day of the moon's age. MSS. Harl. 2320. 3. fol. 31. In the principal letter the author is represented in a studious posture. The manuscript, having many Saxon letters intermixed, begins thus.
He þat wol herkyn of wit
þat ys witnest in holy wryt,
Lystenyth to me a stonde,
Of a story y schal ȝow telle,
What tyme ys good to byen and to fylle,
In boke as hyt ys y fownde.
The reader who is curious to know the state of quackery, astrology, fortune-telling, midwi
ery, and other occult sciences, about the year 1420, may consult the works of one John Crophill, who practised in Suffolk. MSS. Harl. 1735. 4to. 3. seq. [See fol. 29. 36.] This
cunning-man
was likewise a poet; and has left, in the same manuscript, some poetry spoken at an entertainment of
Frere Thomas,
and five ladies of quality, whose names are mentioned: at which, two great bowls, or goblets, called MERCY and CHARITY, were briskly circulated. fol. 48.
. Among other authors,
Cathon the great clarke
Epilogue.
,
Solomon, Ptolomeus the prince of astronomy,
and Aristotle's Epistle to Alexander, are quoted
Cap. 42.
. Every month is introduced respectively speaking, in a stanza of
balad royal,
its own panegyric. This is the speech of May
Cap. 2.
.
Of all monthes in the yeare I am kinge,
Flourishing in beauty excèllently;
For, in my time, in vertue is all thinge,
Fieldes and medes sprede most beautiously,
And birdes singe with sweete harmony;
Rejoysing lovers with hot love endewed,
With fragrant flowers all about renewed
In the theological part, the terrors and certainty of death are described, by the introduction of Death, seated on the pale horse of the Apocalypse, and speaking thus
Cap. xix.
.
Upon this horse, blacke and hideous
DEATH I am, that fiercely doth sitte:
There is no fairenesse, but sight tedious,
All gay colours I do hitte.
My horse runneth by dales and hilles,
And many he smiteth dead and killes.
In my trap I take some by every way,
By towns [and] castles I take my rent.
I will not respite one an houre of a daye,
Before me they must needes be present.
I slea all with my mortall knife,
And of duety I take the life.
HELL knoweth well my killing,
I sleepe never, but wake and warke;
It
That is, HELL.
followeth me ever running,
With my darte I slea weake and starke:
A great number it hath of me,
Paradyse hath not the fourth parte, &c.
In the eighth chapter of our KALENDER are described the seven visions, or the punishments in hell of the seven deadly sins, which Lazarus saw between his death and resurrection. These punishments are imagined with great strength of fancy, and accompanied with wooden cuts boldly touched, and which the printer Wynkyn de Worde probably procured from some German engraver at the infancy of the art
Compare the torments of Dante's hell. INFERN. Cant. v. vi. seq.
. The PROUD are bound by hooks of iron to vast wheels, like mills, placed between craggy precipices, which are incessantly whirling with the most violent impetuosity, and sound like thunder. The ENVIOUS are plunged in a lake half frozen, from which as they attempt to emerge for ease, their naked limbs are instantly smote with a blast of such intolerable keenness, that they are compelled to dive again into the lake. To the WRATHFULL is assigned a gloomy cavern, in which their bodies are butchered, and their limbs mangled by demons with various weapons. The SLOTHFULL are tormented in a
horrible hall dark and tenebrous,
swarming with innum
rable flying serpents of various shapes and sizes, which sting to the heart. This, I think, is the Hell of the Gothic EDDA. The COVETOUS are dipped in cauldrons filled with boiling metals. The GLUTTONOUS are placed in a vale near a loathsome pool, abounding with venomous creatures, on whose banks tables are spread, from which they are perpetually crammed with toads by devils. CONCUPISCENCE is punished in a field full of immense pits or wells, overflowing with fire and sulphur. This visionary scene of the infernal punishments seems to be borrowed from a legend related by Matthew Paris, under the reign of king John: in which the soul of one Thurkhill, a native of Tidstude in Essex is conveyed by saint Julian from his body, when laid asleep, into hell and heaven. In hell he has a sight of the torments of the damned, which are presented under the form and name of the INFERNAL PAGEANTS, and greatly resemble the fictions I have just described. Among the tormented, is a knight, who had passed his life in shedding much innocent blood at tilts and tournaments. He is introduced, compleatly armed, on horseback; and couches his lance against the demon, who is commissioned to seize and to drag him to his eternal destiny. There is likewise a priest who never said mass, and a baron of the exchequer who took bribes. Turkill is then conducted into the mansions of the blessed, which are painted with strong oriental colouring: and in Paradise, a garden replenished with the most delicious fruits, and the most exquisite variety of trees, plants, and flowers, he sees Adam, a personage of gigantic proportion, but the most beautiful symmetry, reclined on the side of a fountain which sent forth four streams of different water and colour, and under the shade of a tree of immense size and height, laden with fruits of every kind, and breathing the richest odours. Afterwards saint Julian conveys the soul of Turkhill back to his body; and when awakened, he relates this vision to his parish-priest
Matt. Paris. Hist. pag. 206. seq. E
it. Tig. Much the same sort of fable is related, ibid. p. 178. seq. There is an old poem on this subject, called OWAYNE MILES, MSS. COTT. CALIG. A. 12. f. 90.
. There is a story of a similar cast in Bede
See DISSERTATION ii. Signat. E. The DEAD MAN'S SONG there mentioned, seems to be more immediately taken from this fiction as it stands in our SHEPHERD'S KALENDER. It is entitled, The DEAD MAN'S SONG,
whos
Dwelling was near Basing
all in London.
Wood's BALLADS, Mus. Ashmol. Oxon. It is worthy of doctor Percy's excellent collection, and begins thus.
Sore sicke, dear frienns, long tyme I was,
And weakly laid in bed, &c.
See also the legend of saint Patrick's cave, Matt. Paris. p. 84. And MSS. Harl. 2385. 82.
De quo
am ducto videre pe
as Inferni.
fol. 56. b.
, which I have mentioned before
I chuse to throw together in the Notes many other anonymous pieces belonging to this period, most of which are too minute to be formally considered in the series of our poetry. The CASTELL OF HONOUR, printed in quarto by Wynkyn de Worde, 1506. The PARLYAMENT OF DEVYLLES. Princip.
"As Mary was great with Gabriel, &c."
For the same, in quarto, 1509. The HISTORIE OF JACOB AND HIS TWELVE SONS. In stanzas. For the same, without date. I believe about 1500. Princ.
"Al yo
ge and old that lyst to here."
A LYTEL TREATYSE
called the Dysputacyon or Complaynt of the Heart thorugh
erced with the lokynge of the eye.
For the same, in quarto, perhaps before 1500. The first stanza is elegant, and deserves to be transcribed.
n the fyrst weke of the season of Maye,
Whan that the wodes be covered in grene,
In which the nyghtyngale lyst for to playe
To shewe his voys among the thornès kene,
Them to rejoyce which lovès servaunts bene,
Which fro all comforte thynke them fast behynd;
My pleasyr was as it was after sene
For my dysport to chase the harte and hynde.
The LYFE OF SAINT JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. For Pinson, in quarto. 1520. The LYFE OF PETRONYLLA. In stanzas, for the same, without date, in quarto. THE CASTLE OF LABOURE. In stanzas. For the same, in quarto, without date, with neat wooden cuts. THE LYFE OF SAINT RADEGUNDA. In quarto, for the same. THE A. B. C. E. OF ARISTOTILLE, MSS. Harl. 1304. 4. Proverbial verses in the alliterative manner, viz.
Woso wil be wise and worship desireth,
Lett him lerne one letter, and loke on another, &c.
Again, ibid. 541. 19. fol. 213. [Compare, ibid
913. 10. fol. 15. b. 11. fol. 15. b.] See also some satyrical Ballads written by
Frere
Micha
l Kildare, chie
ly on the
Religious o
de
s, S
ints, the White Friars of D
ogheda, the vanity of riches,
&c. &c.
A divine poem on death,
&c. MSS. Harl. 913. 3. fol. 7. 4. fol. 9. 5. fol. 10. 13. fol. 16. [He has le
t a Latin poem in rhyme on the abbot and prior of Gloucester, ibid. 5. fol. 10. And burlesque pieces on some of the divine offices, ibid. 6. fol. 12. 7. fol. 13. b.] Hither we may also refer a few pieces written by one Whyting, not mentioned in Tanner, MSS. Harl. 541. 14. fol. 207. seq. Undoubtedly many other poems of this period
both printed and manuscript, have escaped my enquiries, but which, if discovered, would not have repaid the research.
Among Rawlinson's manuscripts there is a poem, of considerable length, on the antiquity of the Stanley family, beginning thus.
I entende with true reporte to praise
The valiaunte actes of the stoute Standelais,
Ffrom whence they came, &c.
It comes down no lower than Thomas earl of Derby, who was executed in the reign of Henry the seventh. This induced me to
hink at first, that the piece was written about that time. But the writer mentions king Henry the eighth, and the suppression of Mona
teri
s. I will only add part o
a Will in verse, dated 1477. MSS. Lang
. Bibl. Bodl.
i. fol. 176. [M. 13. Th.]
Fleshly lustes and festes,
And furures of divers bestes,
(A fend was hem fonde;)
Hole clothe cast on shredys,
And wymen with thare hye hedys
Have almost lost thys londe!
.
As the ideas of magnificence and elegance were enlarged, the public pageants of this period were much improved: and beginning now to be celebrated with new splendour, received, among other advantages, the addition of SPEAKING PERSONAGES. These spectacles, thus furnished with speakers, characteristically habited, and accompanied with proper scenery, co-operated with the MYSTERIES, of whose nature they partook at first, in introducing the drama. It was customary to prepare these shews at the reception of a prince, or any other solemnity of a similar kind: and they were presented on moveable theatres, or occasional stages, erected in the streets. The speeches were in verse; and as the procession moved forward, the speakers, who constantly bore some allusion to the ceremony, either conversed together in the form of a dialogue, or addressed the noble person whose presence occasioned the celebrity. Speakers seem to have been admitted into our pageants about the reign of Henry the sixth.
In the year 1432, when Henry the sixth, after his coronation at Paris, made a triumphal entry into London, many stanzas, very probably written by Lydgate, were addressed to his majesty, amidst a series of the most splendid allegorical spectacles, by a giant representing religious fortitude, Enoch and Eli, the holy Trinity, two
Judges
and eight
Serjeants of the coife, dame Clennesse,
Mercy, Truth, and other personages of a like nature
abyan, ubi supr. fol. 382. seq.
.
In the year 1456, when Margaret wife of Henry the sixth, with her little son Edward, came to Coventy, on the feast of the exaltation of the holy cross, she was received with the presentation of pageants, in one of which king Edward the confessor, saint John the Evangelist, and saint Margaret, each speak to the queen and the prince in verse
LEET-BOOK of the city of Coventry. MS. fol. 168. Stowe says, that at the reception of this queen in London, in the year 1445, several pageaunts were exhibited at
Paul's-gat
,
with verses written by Lydgate, on the following lemmata.
Ingr
dimini et replete terram. Non amplius irascar super terram. Madam Grace chancellor de di
u. Five wise and five foolish virgins. Of saint Margaret,
&c. HIST. ENGL. pag. 385. edit. Howes. I know not whether these poems were
spoken,
or only affixed to the pageaunts. Fabyan says, that in those pageaunts there was
resemblance of dyvirse olde hystoryes.
I suppose tapestry. CRON. tom. ii. fol. 398. edit. 1533. See the ceremonies at the coronation of Henry the sixth, in 1430. Fab. ibid. fol. 378.
. In the next reign in the year 1474, another prince Edward, son of Edward the fourth, visited Coventry, and was honoured with the same species of shew: he was first welcomed, in an octave stanza, by Edward the confessor; and afterwards addressed by saint George, completely armed: a king's daughter holding a lamb, and supplicating his assistance to protect her from a terrible dragon, the lady's father and mother, standing in a tower above, the conduit on which the champion was placed,
"renning wine in four places, and minstralcy of organ playing
Ibid. fol. 221.
."
Undoubtedly the Franciscan friers of Coventry, whose sacred interludes, presented on Corpus Christi day, in that city, and at other places, make so conspicuous a figure in the history of the English drama
See supr. vol. i. p. 293. The friers themselves were the actors. But this practice being productive of some enormities, and the laity growing as wise as the clergy, at least as well qualified to act plays; there was an injunction in the MEXICAN COUNCIL, ratified at Rome in the year 1589, to prohibit all clerks from playing in the Mysteries,
even on
CORPUS CHRISTIDAY.
"Neque in Comoediis personam agat,
etiam in
FESTO CORPORIS CHRISTI."
SACROSANCT. CONCIL. fol. per Labb. tom. xv. p. 1268. edit. Paris. 1672.
, were employed in the management of these devises: and that the Coventry men were famous for the arts of exhibition, appears from the share they took in the gallant entertainment of queen Elisabeth at Kenelworth-castle, before whom they played their
old storial show
See supr. vol. i. p. 91.
.
At length, personages of another cast were added; and this species of spectacle, about the period with which we are concerned, was enlivened by the admission of new characters, drawn either from profane history, or from profane allegory
Profane allegory, however, had been applied in pageants, somewhat earlier. In the pageants, abovementioned, presented to Henry the sixth, the seven liberal sciences personi
ed are introduced, in a
tabernacle of curious worke,
from which their queen
dame Sapience
speaks verses. At entering the city he is met, and faluted in metre by three ladies,
richly cladde in golde and silkes
with coronets, who suddenly issue from a stately tower hung with the most splendid arras. These are the Dames, NATURE, GRACE, and FORTUNE. Fabyan, ut supr. fol. 382. seq. But this is a rare instance so early.
, in the application of which, some degree of learning and invention appeared.
I have observed in a former work, and it is a topic which will again be considered in its proper place, that the frequent and familiar use of allegoric personifications in the public pageants, I mean the general use of them, greatly contributed to form the school of Spenser
See Obs. FAIRY QUEEN. ii. 90.
. But moreover from what is here said, it seems probable, that the PAGEAUNTS, which being shewn on civil occasions, derived great part of their decorations and actors from historical fact, and consequently made profane characters the subject of public exhibition, dictated ideas of a regular drama, much sooner than the MYSTERIES: which being confined to scripture stories, or rather the legendary miracles of sainted martyrs, and the no less ideal personifications of the christian virtues, were not calculated to make so quick and easy a transition to the representations of real life and rational action.
In the year 1501, when the princess Catharine of Spain came to London, to be married to prince Arthur, her procession through the city was very magnificent. The pageants were numerous, and superbly furnished; in which the principal actors, or speakers, were not only God the father, saint Catharine, and saint Ursula, but king Alphonsus the astronomer and an ancestor of the princess, a Senator, an Angel, Job, Boethius, Nobility, and Virtue. These personages sustained a sort of action, at least of dialogue. The lady was compared to Hesperus, and the prince to Arcturus; and Alphonsus, from his skill in the stars, was introduced to be the fortune-teller of the match
Chron. MS.
. These machineries were contrived and directed by an ecclesiastic of great eminence, bishop Fox; who, says Bacon,
"was not only a grave counsellor for war or peace, but also a good surveyor of works, and a good master of ceremonies, and any thing else that was fit for the active part, belonging to the service of court, or state of a great king."
It is probable, that this prelate's dexterity and address in the conduct of a courtrareeshow procured him more interest, than the gravity of his counsels, and the depth of his political knowledge: at least his employment in this business presents a striking picture of the importance of those popular talents, which even in an age of blind devotion, and in the reign of a superstitious monarch, were instrumental in paving the way to the most opulent dignities of the church.
"Whosoever, adds the same penetrating historian, had these toys in compiling, they were not altogether PEDANTICAL
Bacon's HENRY THE SEVENTH. COMPL. Hist. Engl. vol. i. p. 628.
."
About the year 1487, Henry the seventh went a progress into the north; and at every place of distinction was received with a pageant; in which he was saluted, in a poetical oration, not always religious, as, at York by Ebranck, a British king and the founder of the city, as well as by the holy virgin, and king David: at Worcester by Henry the sixth his uncle: at Hereford by saint George, and king Ethelbert, at entering the cathedral there: at Bristol, by king Bremmius, Prudence, and Justice. The two latter characters were personated by young girls
From a manuscript in the Cotton library, printed in Leland. COLLECTAN. ad calc. vol. iii. p. 185.
.
In the mean time it is to be granted, that profane characters were personated in our pageants, before the close of the fourteenth century. Stowe relates, that in the year 1377, for the entertainment of the young prince Richard, son of Edward the black prince, one hundred and thirty citizens rode disguised from Newgate to Kennington where the court resided, attended with an innumerable multitude of waxen torches, and various instruments of music, in the evening of the Sunday preceding Candlemas-day. In the first rank were forty-eight, habited like esquires, with visors; and in the second the same number, in the character of knights.
"Then followed one richly arrayed like an EMPEROR, and after him, at some distance, one stately-tyred like a POPE, whom followed twenty-four CARDINALLS, and after them eyght or tenne with blacke visors not amiable, as if they had been LEGATES from some forrain princes."
But this parade was nothing more than a DUMB SHEW, unaccompanied with any kind of interlocution. This appears from what follows. For our chronicler adds, that when they entered the hall of the palace, they were met by the prince, the queen, and the lords;
"whom the said mummers did salute,
shewing by a pair of dice their desire to play with the prince,
"
which they managed with so much complaisance and skill, that the prince won of them a bowl, a cup, and a ring of gold, and the queen and lords, each, a ring of gold. Afterwards, having been feasted with a sumptuous banquet, they had the honour of dancing with the young prince and the nobility, and so the ceremony was concluded
Stowe's SURV. LOND. pag. 71. edit. 1599. 4to. It will perhaps be said, that this shew was not properly a PAGEANT but a MUMMERY. But these are frivolous distinctions: and, taken in a general view, this account preserves a curious specimen of early PERSONATION, and proves at least that the practice was not then in its infancy.
. Matthew Paris informs us, that at the magnificent marriage of Henry the third with Eleanor of Provence, in the year 1236, certain strange pageants, and wonderful devises, were displayed in the city of London; and that the number of HISTRIONES on this occasion was infinite
I will cite the passage more at large, and in the words of the original.
"Convenerunt autem vocata ad convivium nuptiale tanta nobilium multitudo utriusque sexus, tanta religiosorum numerositas, tanta plebium populositas, tanta HISTRIONUM
Varietas,
quod vix eos civitas Londoniarum sinu suo capaci comprehenderet. Ornata est igitur civitas tota olosericis, et vexillis, coronis, et palliis, cereis et lampadibus, et quibusdam
prodigiosis ingeniis et portentis,
&c."
HIST. p. 406. edit. Tig. 1589. sub HENRICO iii. Here, by the way, the expression
Varietas
histrionum plainly implies the comprehensive and general meaning of the word HISTRIO; and the multi
arious performances of that order of men. Yet in the Injunctions given by the Barons to the religious houses, in the year 1258, there is an article which seems to shew, that the Histriones were sometimes a
particular
species of public entertainers.
"HISTRIONUM LUDI non
videantur
vel
audiantur,
vel permittantur fieri, coram abbate vel monasticis."
Annal. Burton. p. 437. Oxon. 1684. Whereas minstrels, harpers, and juglers, were notoriously permitted in the monasteries. We cannot ascertain whether LUDI here means plays, then only religious: LUDI
theatrales
in churches and church-yards, on vigils and festivals, are forbidden in the Synod of Exeter, dat. 1287. cap. xiii. CONCIL. MAGN. BRIT. per Wilkins. tom. ii. p. 140. col. 2. edit. 1737. fol.
I cannot omit the opportunity of adding a striking instance of the extraordinary freedom of speech, permitted to these people, at the most solemn celebrities. About the year 1250, king Henry the third, passing some time in France, held a most magnificent feast in the great hall of the knights-templars at Paris; at which, beside his own suite, were present the kings of France and Navarre, and all the nobility of France. The walls of the hall were hung all over with shields, among which was that of our king Richard the first. Just before the feast began, a JOCULATOR, or minstrel, accosted king Henry thus.
"My lord, why did you invite so many Frenchmen to feast with you in this hall? Behold, there is the shield of Richard, the magnanimous king of England!—All the Frenchmen present will eat their dinner in f
r and trembling!"
Matt. Paris. p. 871. sub. HENR. iii. edit. Tigur. 1589. fol. Whether this was a preconcerted compliment, previously suggested by the king of France, or not, it is equally a proof of the familiarity with which the minstrels were allowed to address the most eminent personages.
. But the word HISTRIO, in the Latin writers of the barbarous ages
There is a passage in John of Salisbury much to our purpose, which I am obliged to give in Latin,
"At eam [desidiam] nostris prorogant HISTRIONES. Admissa sunt ergo SPECTACULA, et infinita lenocinia vanitatis.—Hinc
mimi, salii vel saliares, balatroues, aemil
ani, gladiatores, palaestritae, gignadii, praestigiatores,
malefici quoque multi, et tota JOCULATORUM SCENA procedit. Quorum adeo error invaluit, ut a
praeclaris domibus
non arceantur etiam illi, qui
obscaenis partibus corporis, oculis
omnium eam ingerunt
turpitudinem,
quam erubescet videre vel cynicus. Quodque magis mirere, nec
tun
ejiciuntur, quando TUMULTUANTES INFERIUS
crebro sonitu aerem
aedant, et turpiter inclusum turpius produnt.
Veruntamen quid in singulis possit aut deceat, animus sapientis advertit, nec APOLOGOS refugit, aut NARRATIONES, aut quaecunque SPECTACULA, dum virtutis, &c."
POLYCRAT. lib. i. cap. viii. p. 28. edit. Lugd. Bat. 1595. Here, GIGNADII, a word unexplained by Du Cange, signifies wrestlers, or the performers of athletic exercises: for
gignasium
was used for
gymnasium
in the barbarous Latinity. By
apologos,
we are perhaps to understand an allegorical story or fable, such as were common in the Provencial poetry; and by
narrationes,
tales of chivalry: both which were recited at festivals by these HISTRIONES.
Spectacula
I need not explain: but here seems to be pointed out the whole system of antient exhibition or entertainment. I must add another pertinent passage from this writer, whom the reader will recollect to have flourished about the year 1140.
"Non facile tamen crediderim ad hoc quemquam impelli posse litteratorem, ut HISTRIONEM profiteatur.—GESTUS siquidem EXPRIMUNT, rerum utilitate deducta."
Ibid. lib. viii. cap. xii. p. 514. [Compa
e Bloun
's ANT. TENURES, p. 11. HEMINGSTON.]
With regard to APOLOGI, mentioned above, I have farther to observe, that the Latin metrical apologues of the dark ages, are probably translations from the Provencial poetry. Of this kind is Wircker's SPECULUM STULTORUM, or BURNELL'S ASS. See supr. vol. i. p. 419. And the ASINUS PAENITENTIARIUS, in which an ass, wol
, and fox, are introduced, confessing their
ins, &c. See Matt. Flacius, Catal. Test. Verit. pag. 903. edit. 1556. In the British museum there is an antient thin folio volume on vellum, containing upwards of two hundred short moral tales in Latin prose, which I also class under the APOLOGI here mentioned by John of Salisbury. Some are legendary, others romantic, and others allegorical. Many of them I believe to be translations from the Provencial poetry. Several of the Esopian fables are intermixed. In this collection is Parnell's HERMIT,
De
ANGELO
et Heremita Peregrinum occisum sepelientibus,
Rubr. 32. fol. 7. And a tale, I think in Fontaine,
of the king's son who never saw a woman.
Rubr. 8. fol. 2. The stories seem to have been collected by an Englishman, at least in England: for there is, the tale of one
Godfrey, a priest of Sussex.
Rubr. 40. fol. 8. MSS. Harl. 463. The story of Parnell's HERMIT is in
Gesta Roman
rum,
MSS. Harl. 2270. ch. lxxxx.
, generally comprehends the numerous tribe of mimics, juglers, dancers, tumblers, musicians, minstrels, and the like public practitioners of the recreative arts, with which those ages abounded: nor do I recollect a single instance in which it precisely bears the restrained modern interpretation.
As our thoughts are here incidentally turned to the rudiments of the English stage
See supr. vol. i. p. 236. seq.
, I must not omit an anecdote, entirely new, with regard to the mode of playing the MYSTERIES at this period, which yet is perhaps of much higher antiquity. In the year 1487, while Henry the seventh kept his residence at the castle at Winchester, on occasion of the birth of prince Arthur, on a sunday, during the time of dinner, he was entertained with a religious drama called CHRISTI DESCENSUS AD INFEROS, or
Christ's descent into hell
Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin. Winton. MS. ut supr.
. It was represented by the PUERI ELEEMOSYNARII, or choirboys, of Hyde abbey, and saint Swithin's priory, two large monasteries at Winchester. This is the only proof I have ever seen of choir-boys acting in the old MYSTERIES: nor do I recollect any other instance of a royal dinner, even on a festival, accompanied with this species of diversion
Except, that on the first Sunday of the magnificent marriage of king James of Scotland with the princess Margaret of England, daughter of Henry the seventh, celebrated at Edinburgh with high splendour,
"after dynnar a MORALITE was played by the said master Inglyshe and hys companyons in the presence of the kyng and qwene."
On one of the preceding days,
"After soupper the kynge and qwene beyng togader in hyr grett chamber, John Inglysh and his companyons
plaid.
"
This was in the year 1503. Apud Leland. coll. iii. p. 3co. 299. APPEND. edit. 1770.
. The story of this interlude, in which the chief characters were Christ, Adam, Eve, Abraham, and John the Baptist, was not uncommon in the antient religious drama, and I believe made a part of what is called the LUDUS PASCHALIS, or
Easter Play
The Italians pretend that they have a LUDUS PASCHALIS as old as the twelfth century. TEATRO ITALIANO, tom. i. See
Un Istoria del Teatro,
&c. prefixed, p. ii. Veron. 1723. 12mo.
. It occurs in the Coventry plays acted on Corpus Christi day
[See supr. vol. i.]
"Nunc dormiunt milites, et veniet anima Christi de inferno cum Adam et Eva, Abraham, Joh. Baptiste, et aliis."
; and in the Whitsun-plays at Chester, where it is called the HARROWING OF HELL
MSS. Harl. 2013. PAGEAUNT xvii. fol. 138.
. The representation is Christ entering hell triumphantly, delivering our first parents, and the most sacred characters of the old and new testaments, from the dominion of Satan, and conveying them into Paradise. There is an ancient poem, perhaps an interlude, on the same subject, among the Harleian manuscripts; containing our saviour's dialogues in hell with Sathanas, the Janitor, or porter of hell, Adam, Eve, Habraham, David, Johan
Baptist,
and Moyses. It begins,
Alle herkneþ to me nou:
A strif wolle y tellen ou
Of Jhesu ant of Sathan
Þo Jhesus was to hell y-gan
MSS. Harl. 2253. 21. fol. 55. b. There is a poem on this subject, MS. Bodl. 1687.
How Jesu Crist
harowed helle
Of hardi gestes ich wille telle.
[See supr. vol. i. p. 18.]
.
The composers of the MYSTERIES did not think the plain and probable events of the new testament sufficiently marvellous for an audience who wanted only to be surprised. They frequently selected their materials from books which had more of the air of romance. The subject of the MYSTERIES just-mentioned was borrowed from the PSEUDO-EVANGELIUM, or the FABULOUS GOSPEL, ascribed to Nicodemus
In Latin. A Saxon translation, from a manuscript at Cambridge, coeval with th
conquest, was printed at Oxford, by T
vaites, 1699. In an English translation by Wynkyn de Worde, the prologue says,
"Nichodemus, which was a worthy prynce, dydde wryte thys blessyd storye in Hebrewe. And Theodosius, the emperour, dyde it translate out of Hebrew into Latin, and bysshoppe Turpyn dyde translate it out of Latyn into Frensshe."
With wooden cuts, 1511. 4to. There was another edition by Wynkyn de Worde, 1518. 4to. and 1532. See a very old French version, MSS. Harl. 2253. 3. fol. 33. b. There is a translation into English verse, about the fourteenth century. MSS. Harl. 4196. 1. fol. 206. See also, 149. 5. fol. 254. b. And MSS. coll. Sion. 17. The title of the original is, NICODEMI DISCIPULI
de Jesu Christi passione et resurrectione
EVANGELIUM. Sometimes it is entitled GESTA SALVATORIS
nostri Jesu Christi.
Our lord's
Descent into hell
is by far the best invented part of the work. Edit. apud ORTHODOX. PATR. Jac. Greyn. [Basil. 1569. 4to.] pag. 653. seq. The old Latin title to the pageaunt of this story in the
Chester plays
is,
"DE DESCENSU AD INFERNA, et de his que ibidem fiebant
ecundum EVANGELIUM NICODEMI,"
fol. 138. ut supr. Hence the first line in the old interlude, called HICKSCORNER, is illustrated.
Now Jesu the gentyll that
brought Adam from hell.
There is a Greek homily on
Saint John's Descent into Hell,
by Eusebius Alexandrinus. They had a notion that saint John was our Saviour's precursor, not only in this world, but in hades. See Allat. de libr. eccles. Graecor. p. 303. seq. Compare
the Legend of Nicodemus, Christ's descent into hell, Pilate's exile,
&c. MSS. Bodl. B. 5. 2021. 4. seq.
: a book, which, together with the numerous apocryphal narratives, containing infinite innovations of the evangelical history, and forged at Constantinople
the early writers of the Greek church, gave birth to an
ndless variety of legends concerning the life of Christ and his apostles
In the manuscript register of saint Swithin's priory at Winchester, it is recorded, that Leofric, bishop of Exeter, about the year 1150, gave to the convent, a book called GESTA
Beatissimi Apostoli Petri cum Glosa.
This is probably one of these commentitious histories. By the way, the same Leofric was a great benefactor in books to his church at Exeter. Among others, he gave
Boetii Liber
ANGLICUS, and,
Magnus liber
ANGLICUS
omnino
METRICE
descriptus.
What was this translation of Boethius, I know not; unless it is Alfred's. It is still more difficult to determine, what was the other piece, the GREAT BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE, at so early a period. The grant is in Saxon, and, if not genuine, must be of high antiquity. Dugdal. MONAST. tom. i. p. 222. I have given Dugdale's Latin translation. The Saxon words are,
"Boeties boc on englisc.—And 1. mycel englisc boc be gehƿilcum þingum on leodþisan geƿoƿht."
; and which, in the barbarous ages, was better esteemed than the genuine gospel, on account of its improbabilities and absurdities.
But whatever was the source of these exhibitions, they were thought to contribute so much to the information and instruction of the people on the most important subjects of religion, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to every person who resorted peaceably to the plays performed in the Whitsun week at Chester, beginning with the creation, and ending with the general judgment; and this indulgence was seconded by the bishop of the diocese, who granted forty days of pa
on: the pope at the same time denouncing the sentence of damnation on all those incorrigible sinners, who presumed to disturb or interrupt the due celebration of these pious sports
MSS. Harl. 2124. 2013.
. It is certain that they had their use, not only in teaching the great truths of scripture to men who could not read the bible, but in abolishing the barbarous attachment to military games, and the bloody contentions of the tournament, which had so long prevailed as the sole species of popular amusement. Rude and even ridiculous as they were, they softened the manners of the people, by diverting the public attention to spectacles in which the mind was concerned, and by creating a regard for other arts than those of bodily strength and savage valour.
SECT. X.
THE only writer deserving the name of a poet in the reign of Henry the seventh, is Stephen Hawes. He was patronised by that monarch, who possessed some tincture of literature, and is said by Bacon to have confuted a Lollard in a public disputation at Canterbury
LIFE of HENRY vii. p. 628. edit. ut supr. One Hodgkins, a fellow of King's college in Cambridge, and vicar of Ringwood in Hants, was eminently skilled in the mathematics; and on that account, Henry the seventh frequently condescended to visit him at his house at Ringwood. Hatcher, MS.
Catal. Pr
pos. et Soc. Coll. Regal. Cant.
.
Hawes flourished
out the close of the fifteenth century; and was a native of Suffolk
Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 5.
. After an academical education at Oxford, he travelled much in France; and became a complete master of the French and Italian poetry. His polite accomplishments quickly procured him an establishment in the houshold of the king; who struck with the liveliness of his conversation, and because he could repeat by memory most of the old English poets, especially Lydgate, made him groom of the privy chamber
Bale says, that he was called by the king
"ab inter
ori camera ad privatum cubiculum."
Cent. viii.
. His facility in the French tongue was a qualification, which might strongly recommend him to the fa
our of Henry the seventh; who was fond of studying the best French books then in vogue
Bacon, ut supr. p. 637.
.
Hawes has left many poems, which are now but imperfectly known, and scarcely remembered. These are, the TEMPLE OF GLASSE. The CONVERSION OF SWERERS
"The CONVERSYON OF SWERERS, made and compyled by Stephen Hawes, groome of the chamber of our sovereigne lord kynge Henry vii."
, in octave stanzas, with Latin lemmata, printed by de Worde in 1509
It contains only one sheet in quarto.
. A JOYFULL MEDITATION OF ALL ENGLOND, OR THE CORONACYON TO OUR MOST NATURAL SOVEREIGN LORD KING HENRY THE EIGTH IN VERSE. By the same, and without date; but probably it was printed soon after the ceremony which it celebrates. These coronation-carols were customary. There is one by Lydgate
A BALLAD
presented to Henry the sixth the day of his coro
ation.
Princ.
"Most noble prince of crysten princes all."
MSS. Ashmol. 59. ii.
. THE CONSOLATION OF LOVERS. THE EXEMPLAR OF VIRTUE. THE DELIGHT OF THE SOUL. OF THE PRINCE'S MARRIAGE. THE ALPHABET OF BIRDS. Some of the five latter pieces, none of which I have seen, and which perhaps were never printed, are said by Wood to be written in Latin, and seem to be in prose.
The best of Hawes's poems, hitherto enumerated, is the TEMPLE OF GLASS
By mistake, as it seems, I have hither quoted Hawes's TEMPLE of GLASS, under the name of Lydgate. See supr. vol. i. p. 410. 417. It was first printed by Wynken de Worde, in 1500.
"
Here bygenneth
the TEMPLE of GLASS. By Stephen Hawes, grome of the chamber to king Henry vii."
[Ames, Hist. Print. pag. 86.] 8vo. in twenty-seven leaves. Afterwards by Berthelette, without date, or name of the author, with this colophon.
"Thus endeth the temple of glasse. Emprinted at London, in Fletestrete, in the house of Thomas Berthelette, near to the cundite, at the sygne of the Lucrece. Cum privilegio."
I will give the beginning, with the title.
This boke called the Temple of glasse, is in many places amended, and late diligently imprynted.
Through constreynt and greuous heuyness,
For great thought and for highe pensyuenesse,
To bedde I went nowe this other night,
Whan that Lucina with her pale
yght,
Was ioyned last with Phebus in Aquary,
Amydde Decembre, whan of January
There be kalendes of the newe yere;
And derke Dyana, horned and nothyng clere,
Hydde her beames under a mysty cloude,
Within my bedde for colde gan me shroude;
All desolate for constraynt of my wo,
The long night walowyng to and fro,
Tyll at last, or I gan take kep
, &c.
This edition, unmentioned by Ames, is in Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. C. 39. Art. Seld. 4to. In the same library are two manuscript copies of this poem. MSS. Fairfax, xvi. membran. without a name. And MSS. Bodl. 638. In the first leaf of the Fairfax manuscript is this entry.
"I bought this at Gloucester, 8 Sept. 1650, intending to exchange it for a better boke.
F
air
ax.
"
And at the end, in the same hand.
"Here lacketh seven leaves that are in Joseph Holland's boke."
This manuscript, however, contains as much as Berthelett's edition. Lewis mentions the
Temple of Glass by John Lydgat
,
in Caxton's s
cond edition of CHAUCER. [LIFE CH. p. 104. See also Middleton's DISSERT. p. 263.] But no such poem appears in that edition in saint John's college library at Oxford.
The strongest argument which induces me to give this poem to Hawes, and not to Lydgate, is, that it was printed in Hawes's life-time, with his name, by Wynkyn de Worde. Bale also mentions, among Hawes's poems,
Templum Crystallinum
in one book. There is, however, a no less strong argument for giving it to Lydgate, and that is from Hawes himself; who, reciting Lydgate's Works, in the PASTIME OF PLEASURE, says thus, [ch. xiv. edit. 1555. Signat. G. iiii. ut infr.]
—And the tyme to passe
Of love
he made the bryght
temple of glasse.
And I must add, that this piece is expressly recited in the large catalogue of Lydgate's works, belonging to W. Thinne, in Speght's edition of Chaucer, printed 1602. fol. 376. Yet on the whole, I think this point still doubtful: and I leave it to be determined by the reader, before whom the evidence on both sides is laid at large.
. On a comparison, it will be found to be a copy of the HOUSE OF FAME of CHAUCER, in which that poet sees in a vision a temple of glass, on the walls of which were engraved stories from Virgil's En
id and Ovid's Epistles. It also strongly resembles that part of Chaucer's ASSEMBLY OF FOULES, in which there is the fiction of a temple of brass, built on pillars of jasper, whose walls are painted with the stories of unfortunate lovers
V. 290.
. And in his ASSEMBLY of LADIES, in a chamber made of beryl and crystal, belonging to the sumptuous castle of
Pleasaunt Regard,
the walls are decorated with historical sculptures of the same kind
V. 451.
. The situation of Hawes's TEMPLE on a craggy rock of ice, is evidently taken from that of Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME. In Chaucer's DREAME, the poet is transported into an island, where
wall and yate was all of glasse
V. 72.
. These structures of glass have their origin in the chemistry of the dark ages. This is Hawes's exordium.
Me dyd oppresse a sodayne, dedely slepe:
Within the whichè, methought that I was
Ravyshed in spyrite into a TEMPLE OF GLAS,
I ne wyst howe ful ferre in wyldernesse,
That founded was, all by lyckelynesse,
Nat upon stele, but on a craggy roche
Lyke yse yfroze: and as I dyd approche,
Againe the sonne that shone, methought, so clere
As any cristall; and ever, nere and nere,
As I gan nyghe this grisely dredefull place,
I wext astonyed, the lyght so in my face
Began to smyte, so persyng ever in one,
On every partè where that I dyde gon,
That I ne mightè nothing as I wolde
Aboutè me consydre, and beholde,
The wondre esters
The wonderful chambers of this temple.
, for brightnesse of the sonne:
Tyll at the lastè, certayne skyes donne
Dun.
Dark.
With wynde
i. e. Collected.
ychased, han their course ywent,
Before the stremes of Titan and iblent
Blinded,
darkened the sun.
So that I myght within and without,
Where so I wolde, behelden me about,
For to report the facyon and manere
Of all this placè, that was circuler,
In cumpace-wyse rounde by yntale ywrought:
And whan I had longe goòn, and well sought,
I founde a wicket, and entred yn as faste
Into the temple, and myne eyen caste
On every side, &c
This text is given from Berthelett's edition, collated with MSS. Fairfax. xvi.
.
The walls of this wonderful temple were richly pictured with the following historical portraitures; from Virgil, Ovid, king Arthur's romance, and Chaucer.
I sawe depeynted upon a wall
From Pr. Cop. and MSS. Fairf. xvi. as before.
,
From est to west ful many a fayre ymage,
Of sondry lovers, lyke as they were of age
I set in ordre after they were true;
With lyfely colours, wonders fresshe of hewe,
And as methought I saw som syt and som stande,
And some knelyng, with bylles
Bills of complaint.
in theyr hande,
An some with complaynt woful and pitious,
With dolefull chere, to put to Venus,
So as she sate fletynge in the see,
Upon theyr wo for to have pite.
And fyrst of all I sawe there of Cartage
Dido the quene, so goodly of visage,
That gan complayne her auenture and caas,
Howe she disceyued was of Aeneas,
For all his hestes and his othes sworne,
And sayd helas that she was borne,
Whan she sawe that dede she must be.
And next her I sawe the complaynt of Medee,
Howe that she was falsed of Jason.
And nygh by Venus sawe I syt Addon,
And all the maner howe the bore hym sloughe,
For whom she wepte and had pite inoughe.
There sawe I also howe Penelope,
For she so long ne myght her lorde se,
Was of colour both pale and grene.
And alder next was the fresshe quene;
I mean Alcest, the noble true wife,
And for Admete howe she lost her lyfe;
And for her trouthe, if I shall nat lye,
Howe she was turned into a daysye.
There was also Grisildis innocence,
And all hir mekenesse and hir pacience.
There was eke Y
aude, and many other mo,
And all the tourment and all the cruell wo
That she had for Tristram all her lyue;
And howe that Tysbe her hert dyd ryue
With thylke swerde of syr Pyramus.
And all maner, howe that Theseus
The minotaure slewe, amyd the hous
That was forwrynked by craft of Dedalus,
Whan that he was in prison shyt in Crete, &c.
And uppermore men depeinten might see,
Howe with her ring goodlie Canace
Of every foule the leden
Language.
and the song
Could understand, as she hem walkt among:
And how her brother so often holpen was
In his mischefe by the stede of brass
See Chaucer's SQUIER'S TALE.
.
We must acknowledge, that all the picturesque invention which appears in this composition, entirely belongs to Chaucer. Yet there was some merit in daring to depart from the dull taste of the times, and in chusing Chaucer for a model, after his sublime fancies had been so long forgotten, and had given place for almost a century, to legends, homilies, and chronicles in verse. In the mean time, there is reason to believe, that Chaucer himself copied these imageries from the romance of GUIGEMAR, one of the metrical TALES, or LAIS, of Bretagne
Fol. 141. MSS. Harl. 978. See supr. DISSERTAT. i.
, translated from the Armorican original into French, by Marie, a French poetess, about the thirteenth century: in which the walls of a chamber are painted with Venus, and the
Art of love
from Ovid
A passage in Ovid's REMEDIUM AMORIS concerning Achilles's spear, is supposed to be alluded to by a troubadour, Bernard Ventadour, who lived about the year 1150. HIST. TROUB
D. p. 27. This Mons. Millot calls,
"Un trait d'erudition singulier dans un troubadour."
It is not, however, impossible, that he might get this fiction from some of the early romances about Troy.
. Although, perhaps, Chaucer might not look further than the temples in Boccacio's THESEID for these ornaments. At the same time it is to be remembered, that the imagination of these old poets must have been assisted in this respect, from the mode which antiently prevailed, of entirely covering the walls of the more magnificent apartments, in castles and palaces, with stories from scripture, history, the classics, and romance. I have already given instances of this practice, and I will here add more
See supr. vol. i. p. 303. To the passages adduced from Chaucer these may be added, CHAUCER'S DREME, v. 1320.
—In a chamber
paint
Full of
stories old
and
divers.
Again, ibid. v. 2167.
For there n' as no lady ne creture,
Save on the wals
old portraiture
Of horsemen, hawkis, and houndes, &c.
Compare Dante's PURGATORIO, c. x. pag. 105. seq. edit. Ald.
. In the year 1277, Otho, duke of Milan, having restored the peace of that city by a signal victory, built a noble castle, in which he ordered every particular circumstance of that victory to be painted. Paulus Jovius relates, that these paintings remained, in the great vaulted chamber of the castle, fresh and unimpaired, so late as the year 1547.
"Extantque adhuc in
maximo testudinatoque conclavi,
incorruptae praeliorum cum
veris ducum vultibus
imagines,
Latinis elegis
singula rerum elogia indicantibus
Vit. Vicecomit. Mediolan. OTHO. p. 56. edit. Paris, 1549. 4to.
."
That the castles and palaces of England were thus ornamented at a very early period, and in the most splendid style, appears from the following notices. Langton, bishop of Litchfield, commanded the coronation, marriages, wars, and funeral, of his patron king Edward the first, to be painted in the great hall of his episcopal palace, which he had newly built
Erdswicke's Staffordshire, p. 101.
. This must have been about the year 1312. The following anecdote relating to the old royal palace at Westminster, never yet was published. In the year 1322, one Symeon, a friar minor, and a doctor in theology, wrote an ITINERARY, in which is this curious passage. He is speaking of Westminster Abbey.
"Eidem monasterio quasi immediate conjungitur illud famosissimum palatium regium Anglorum, in quo illa VULGATA CAMERA, in cujus
parietibus
sunt omnes HISTORIAE BELLICAE TOTIUS BIBLIAE ineffabiliter
depictae,
atque in Gallico completissime et perfectissime constanter conscriptae, in non modica intuentium admiratione, et maxima regali magnificentia
"Itinerarium
Symeonis et fratris Hugonis Illuminatoris ex Hibernia in terram sanctam,
A. D. MCCCXXII." MSS. C. C. C. Cantabr. G. 6. Princip.
"Culmine honoris spreto."
It comprehends a journey through England, and describes many curiositie
now lost. See supr. vol. i. p. 114.
."
—
"Near this monastery stands the most famous royal palace of England; in which is that celebrated chamber, on whose walls all the warlike histories of the whole Bible are painted with inexpressible skill, and explained by a regular and complete series of texts, beautifully written in French over each battle, to the no small admiration of the beholder, and the increase of royal magnificence
This palace was consumed by fire in 1299, but immediately rebuilt, I suppose, by Edward the first. Stowe's LONDON, p. 379. 387. edit. 1599. So that these paintings must have been done between the years 1299, and 1322. It was again destroyed by fire in 1512, and never afterwards re-edified. Stowe, ibid. p. 389. About the year 1500, the walls of the Virgin Mary's chapel, built by prior Silkestede, in the cathedral of Winchester, were elegantly painted with the miracles, and other
ories, of the New Testament, in small
igures; many delicate traces of which now remain.
Falcandus, the old historian of Sicily, who wrote about the year 1200, says, that the chapel in the royal palace at Palermo, had its walls decorated
"de lapillulis quadris, partim aureis, partim diversicoloribus veteris ac novi Testamenti depictam historiam continentibus."
Sicil. Histor. p. 10. edit. Paris. 1550. 4to. But this was mosaic work, which, chiefly by means of the Crusades, was communicated to all parts of Europe from the Byzantine Greeks; and with which all the churches, and other public edifices at Constantinople, were adorned. EPIST. de COMPARAT. Vet. et Nov. Romae. p. 122. Man. Chrysolor. See supr. vol. i. p. 354. Leo Ostiensis says, that one of the abbots of Cassino in Italy, in the eleventh century, sent messengers to Constantinople, to bring over artificers in MOSAIC, to ornament the church of the monastery, after Rome or Italy had lost that art for five hundred years. He calls Rome
magistra Latinitas.
Chron. Cassin. lib. iii. c. 27. Compare Muratori, ANTICH. ITALIAN. Tom. i. Diss. xxiv. p. 279. Nap. 1752. 4to.
."
This ornament of a royal palace, while it conveys a curious history of the arts, admirably exemplifies the chivalry and the devotion of the times, united. That part of the Old Testament, indeed, which records the Jewish wars, was almost regarded as a book of chivalry: and their chief heroes, Joshua and David, the latter of whom killed a giant, are often recited among the champions of romance. In France, the battles of the kings of Israel with the Philistines and Assyrians, were wrought into a grand volume, under the title of
"Plusieurs Batailles des roys d'Israel en contre les Philistines et Assyriens
MSS. Reg. [Brit. Mus.] 19 D. 7.
ol. Among the Harleian manuscripts, there is an Arabic book, containing the Psalms of David, with an additional psalm, on the slaughter of the giant Goliah. MSS. Harl. 5476. See above.
."
With regard to the form of Hawes's poem, I am of opinion, that VISIONS, which are so common in the poetry of the middle ages, partly took their rise from Tully's SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS. Had this composition descended to posterity among Tully's six books de REPUBLICA, to the last of which it originally belonged, perhaps it would have been overlooked and neglected
But they were extant about the year 1000, for they are cited by Gerbert. Epist. 83. And by Peter of Poitou, who died in 1197. See Barth. Advers. xxxii. 5. 58. Leland says, that Tully de REPUBLICA was consumed by fire, among other books, in the library of William Selling, a learned abbot of saint Austin's at Canterbury, who died in 1494. SCRIPT. CELLINGUS.
. But being preserved, and illustrated with a prolix commentary, by Macrobius, it quickly attracted the attention of readers, who were fond of the marvellous, and with whom Macrobius was a more admired classic than Tully. It was printed, subjoined to Tully's OFFICES, in the infancy of the typographic art
Venet. 1472. fol. Apud. Vindel. Spiram.
. It was translated into Greek by Maximus Planudes
Lambeccius mentions a Greek manuscript of Julian, a cardinal of S. Angelo,
. 5. p. 153. The DISPUTATIO of Favonius Elogius, a Carthaginian rhetorician, and a disciple of saint Austin, on the SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS, was printed by G. S
hottus, Antw. 1613. 4to.
; and is frequently quoted by Chaucer
ROM. ROSE. lib. i. v. 7. [&c.]
An author that hight MACROBE,
That halte not dremis
alse ne lefe;
But undoth us the AVISION
That whilom met KING CIPIOUN.
NONNES PR. TALE, v. 1238. Urr.
MACROBIUS that writith th' AVISION
In A
ricke, of the worthy SCIPION.
DREME CH. v. 284 He mentions thi
as the most wonderful of dreams. HOUSE F. v. 407. lib. i. He describes a prospect more extensive and various than that which Scipio saw in his dream.
That sawe in dreme, at point devise,
Heven, and erth, hell, and paradise.
And in other places.
. Particularly in the ASSEMBLY OF FOULES, he supposes himself to fall asleep after reading the SOMNIUM SCIPIONIS, and that Scipio shewed him the beautiful vision which is the subject of that poem
He makes Scipio say to him, v. 110.
—Thou hast the so wel borne
In looking of mine olde book al to torne,
Of which MACROBIE raught not a lite, &c.
. Nor is it improbable, that, not only the form, but the first idea of Dante's INFERNO, was suggested by this favourite apologue; which, in Chaucer's words, treats
—Of heaven, and hell,
And yearth, and souls, that therein dwell
Ibid. v. 32.
.
Not to insist on Dante's subject, he uses the shade of Virgil for a mystagogue; as Tully supposes Scipio to have shewn the other world to his ancestor Africanus.
But Hawes's capital performance is a poem entitled,
"THE PASSETYME OF PLEASURE, or the HISTORIE OF GRAUNDE AMOURE and LA BAL PUCEL: contayning the knowledge of the seven sciences, and the course of man's lyfe in this worlde. Invented by Stephen Hawes, groome of kyng Henry the seventh hys chambre
By Wynkyn de Worde, in 1517. 4to. with wooden cuts. A second edition followed in 1554. By John Wayland, in 4to. A third, in 4to. by John Waley, in 1555. See a poem called a
Dialogue between a Lover and a Jay,
by one Thomas Feylde, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 4to. Princ. Prol.
"Thoug
e laureate poetes in old antiquite."
This obscure rhymer is here only mentioned, as he has an
llusion to his cotemporary Hawes.
."
It is dedicated to the king, and was finished at the beginning of the year 1506.
If the poems of Rowlie are not genuine, the PASTIME OF PLEASURE is almost the only effort of imagination and invention which had yet appeared in our poetry since Chaucer. This poem contains no common touches of romantic and allegoric fiction. The personifications are often happily sustained, and indicate the writer's familiarity with the Provencial school. The model of his versification and phraseology is that improved harmony of numbers, and facility of diction, with which his predecessor Lydgate adorned our octave stanza. But Hawes has added new graces to Lydgate's manner. Antony Wood, with the zeal of a true antiquary, laments, that
"such is the fate of poetry, that this book, which in the time of Henry the seventh and eighth was taken into the hands of all ingenious men, is now thought but worthy of a ballad-monger's stall!"
The truth is, such is the good fortune of poetry, and such the improvement of taste, that much better books are become fashionable. It must indeed be acknowledged, that this poem has been unjustly neglected: and on that account, an apology will be less necessary for giving the reader a circumstantial analysis of its substance and design.
GRAUNDE AMOURE, the hero of the poem, and who speaks in his own person
There is something dramatic in this circumstance. Raimond Vidal de Besaudin, a troubadour of Provence, who flourished about the year 1200, has given the following dramatic form to one of his
contes
or tales. One day, says the troubadour, Alphonsus, king of Castille, whose court was famous for good cheer, magnificence, loyalty, valour, the practice of arms and the management of horses, held a solemn assembly of minstrels and knights. When the hall was quite full, came his queen Eleanor, covered with a veil, and disguised in a close robe bordered with silver, adorned with the blason of a golden lion; who making obeysance, seated herself at some distance from the king. At this instant, a minstrel advancing to the king, addressed him thus.
"O king, emperour of valour, I come to supplicate you to give me audience."
The king, under pain of disgrace, ordered that no pers
should interrupt the minstrel in what he should say. The minstrel had travelled from his own country to recite an adventur
which had happened to a ba
on of Arragon,
ot unknown to king Alphonsus: and he now proceeds to tell no unaffecting story concerning a jealous husband. At the close, the minstrel humbly requests the king and queen, to banish all jealous husbands from their dominions. The king replied,
"MINSTREL, your tale is pleasant and gentle, and you shall be rewarded. But to shew you still further how much you have entertained me, I command that henceforth your tale shall be called Le JALOUX CHATIE."
Our troubadour's tale is greatly enlivened by these accompaniments, and by being thrown into the mouth of a minstrel.
, is represented walking in a delicious meadow. Here he discovers a path which conducts him to a glorious image, both whose hands are stretched out and pointing to two highways; one of which is the path of CONTEMPLATION, the other of ACTIVE LIFE, leading to the Tower of Beauty. He chuses the last-mentioned path, yet is often tempted to turn aside into a variety of bye-paths, which seemed more pleasant: but proceeding directly forward, he sees afar off another image, on whose breast is written,
"This is the road to the Tower of DOCTRINE, he that would arrive there must avoid sloth, &c."
The evening being far advanced, he sits down at the feet of the image, and falls into a profound sleep; when, towards the morning, he is suddenly awakened by the loud blast of a horn. He looks forward through a valley, and perceives a beautiful lady on a palfrey, swift as the wind, riding towards him, encircled with tongues of fire
In Shakespeare, RUMOUR is painted
full of tongues.
This was from the PAGEANTS.
. Her name was FAME, and with her ran two milk-white greyhounds, on whose golden collars were inscribed in diamond letters
Grace
and
Governaunce
See supr. vol. i. p. 363. Greyhounds were antiently almost as great favourites as hawks. Our forefathers reduced hunting to a science; and have left large treatises on this species of diversion, which was so connected with their state of life and manners. The most curious one I know, is, or was lately, among the manuscripts of Mr. Farmor, of Tusmore in Oxfordshire. It is entitled,
"LE ART DE VENERIE, le quel maistre Guillame Twici venour le roy d'Angleterre sist
n son temps per aprandre autres."
This
master William Twici
was grand huntsman to Edward the second. In the Cotton library, this book occurs in English under the names of William Twety and John Giffard, most probably a translation from the French copy, with the title of
a book of Venerie dialogue wise.
Princ.
"TWETY now will we beginnen."
MSS. Cotton. VESPAS. B. xii. The less antient tract on this subject, called the
Maistre of the Game,
written for the instruction of prince Henry, a
terwards Henry the fi
th, is much more common. MSS. Digb. 182. Bibl. Bodl. I believe the
maistre veneur
has been long abolished in England: but the
oyal falcon
r
still remains. The latter was an officer of high dignity in the Grecian court of Constantinople, at an early period, under the style of
. Pachym. lib. i. c. 8. x. 15. Codin. cap. ii. Phrenzes says, that the emperor Andronicus Palaeologus the younger kept more than one thousand and four hundred hawks, with almost as many men to take care of them. lib. i. c. 10.
About the year 750, Winifrid, or Boniface, a native of England, and archbishop of Mons, acquaints Ethelbald, a king of Kent, that he has sent him, one hawk, two falcons, and two shields. And Hedilbert, a king of the Mercians, requests the same archbishop Winifrid, to send him two falcons which have been trained to kill cranes. See EPISTOL. Winifrid. [Bonifac.] Mogunt. 1605. 1629. And in Bibl. Patr. tom. vi. and tom. xiii. p. 70.
Falconry,
or a right to sport with falcons, is mentioned so early as the year 986. Chart. Ottonis iii. Imperator. ann. 986. apud Ughell. de Episcop. Januens. A charter of Kenulf, king of the Mercians, granted to the abbey of Abingdon, and dated 821, prohibits all persons carrying hawks or falcons, to trespass on the lands of the monks. Dugd. Monast. i. p. 100. Julius Firmicus, who wrote about the year 355, is the first Latin author who mentions hawking, or has even used the word. FALCO. Math
s. lib. v. c. 7. vii. c. 4. Hawking is often mentioned in the capitularies of the eighth and ninth centuries. The
grand fauconnier
of France was an officer of great eminence. His salary was four thousand florins; he was attended by a retinue of fifty gentlemen and fifty assistant falconers, and allowed to keep three hundred hawks. He licens
d every vender of falcons in France; and received a tribute for every bird that was sold in that kingdom, even within the verge of the court. The king of France never rode out, on any occasion, without this officer. [See supr. vol. i. p. 166.]
An ingenious French writer insinuates, that the passion for hunting, which at this day subsists as a favourite and
ashionable species of diversion in the most civilised countries of Europe, is a strong indication of our gothic origin, and is one of the savage habits, yet unreformed, of our northern ancestors. Perhaps there is too much refinement in this remark. The pleasures of the chace seem to have been implanted by nature; and, under due regulation, if pursued as a matter of mere relaxation and not of employment, are by no means incompatible with the modes of polished life.
. Her palfrey is Pegasus; and the burning tongues denote her office of consigning the names of illustrious personages to posterity; among which she mentions a lady of matchless accomplishments, named LA BELL PUCELL, who lives within a tower seated in a delightful island; but which no person can enter, without surmounting many dangers. She then informs our hero, that before he engages in this enterprise, he must go to the Tower of DOCTRINE, in which he will see the Seven Sciences
The author of the TRESOR, a troubadour, gives the following account of his own system of erudition, which may not be inapplicable here. He means to shew himself a profound and universal scholar; and professes to understand the seven liberal arts, grammar, the Latin language, logic, the Decreta
s of Gratian, music according to Boethius and Guy Aretin, arithmetic, geography, astronomy, the ecclesiastic computation, medicine, pharmacy, surgery, necromancy, geomancy, magic, divination, and mythology,
better than Ovi and Thal
s le Menteur:
the histories of Thebes, Troy, Rome, Romulus, Cesar, Pompey, Augustus, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, who took Jerusalem, the
Twelve Cesars down to Constantine;
the history of Greece, and that of Alexander, who dying distributed his acquisitions among his
twelve peers;
the history of France, containing the transactions of Clovis, converted by saint Remi; Charles Ma
tel, who
established tenths;
king Pepin, Charlemagne and Roland, and the
good
king Louis. To these he adds, the HISTORY of ENGLAND, which comprehends the arrival of Brutus in England, and his conquest of the giant Corineus, the prophesies of Merlin, the redoubted death of Arthur, the adventures of Gawaine, and the amours of Tristram and Bel Isould. Amidst this profusion of fabulous history, which our author seems to think real, the history of the Bible is introduced; which he traces from the patriarchs down to the day of judgment. At the close of the whole, he gives us some more of his fashionable accomplishments; and says, that he is skilled in the plain chant, in singing to the lute, in making canzonetts, pastorals, amorous and pleasant poesies, and in dancing: that he is beloved by ecclesiastics, knights, ladies, citizens, minstrels, squires, &c. The author of this TREASURE, or cyclopede of science, mentioned above, is Pierre de Corbian, who lived about the year 1200. Crescimbeni says, that this TRESOR furnished materials of a similar compilation in Italian verse to Bennet, Dante's master; and of another in French prose. But see Jul. Niger, Script. Flor. p. 112.
; and that there, in the turret, or chamber, of Music, he will have the first sight of La Bell Pucell. FAME departs, but leaves with him her two greyhounds. Graunde Amoure now arrives at the Tower, or rather castle, of DOCTRINE, framed of fine copper, and situated on a craggy rock: it shone so bright, that he could distinctly discern the form of the building; till at length, the sky being covered with clouds, he more visibly perceives its walls decorated with figures of beasts in gold, and its lofty turrets crowned with golden images
He says, that the
little turr
ts
had, for weathercocks or fans, images of gold, which, moving with the wind, played a tune. So Chaucer, CH. DREAME, v. 75.
For everie yate [tower] of fine gold
A thousand fanis, aie turning,
tunid
had, and briddes singing
Div
rs, and on eche fane a paire,
With opin mouth againe the aire:
And of a sute were all the toures:—
And many a
small turret hie.
Again, in the castle of PLEASAUNT REGARD, the fans on the high towers are mentioned as a circumstance of pleasure and beauty. ASSEMBL. LAD. v. 160.
The towris hie
ull pleasant shall ye finde,
With
phanis freshe, turning with everie winde.
And our author again, ch. xxxviii.
Alost the towres the golden fanes goode
Dyde with the wynde make
ull sweete armony
Them for to heare it was great melody.
Our author here paints from the life. An excessive agglomeration of turrets, with their fans, is one of the characteristic marks of the florid mode of architecture, which was now almost at its heighth. See views of the palaces of Nonesuch and Richmond.
. He is admitted by COUNTENANCE the portress, who leads him into a court, where he drinks water of a most transcendent fragrance, from a magnificent fountain, whence flow four rivers, clearer than Nilus, Ganges, Tigris, or Euphrates
The Crusades made the eastern rivers more
amous among the Europeans than any of their own. Arnaud Daniel, a troubadour of the thirteenth century, declares, he had rather please his mistress than possess all the dominions which are washed by Hebrus, Meander, and Tigris. Hist. Troub. ii. p. 485. The compliment would have been equally exaggerated, if he had alluded to some of the rivers of his own country.
. He next enters the hall framed of jasper, its windows chrystal, and its roof overspread with a golden vine, whose grapes are represented by rubies
From sir John Maundeville's TRAVELS.
"In the hall, is a vine made of
gold,
that goeth all aboute the hall: and it hath many branches of grapes, some are white, &c. All the
red
are of
rubies,
&c."
ch. lxvii. Paulus Silentiarius, in his description of the church of S. Sophia at Constantinople, mentions such an ornament. ii. 235.
, &c.
Pa'mitibus auricomis circumcurrens vitis serpit.
: the floor is paved with beryl, and the walls hung with rich tapestry, on which our hero's future expedition to the Tower of La Bell Pucell was gloriously wrought
In the eleventh book of Boccacio's THESEID, after Arcite is dead, Palamon builds a superb temple in honour of him, in which his whole history is painted. The description of this painting is a recapitulatory abridgement of the preceding part of the poem. Hawes's tapestry is less judiciously placed in the beginning of the piece, because it precludes expectation by forestalling all the future incidents.
. The marshall of this castle is REASON, the sewer OBSERVANCE, the cook TEMPERANCE, the high-steward LIBERALITY, &c. He then explains to DOCTRINE his name and intended adventure; and she entertains him at a solemn feast. He visits her seven daughters, who reside in the castle. First he is conducted to GRAMMAR, who delivers a learned harangue on the utility of her science: next to LOGIC, who dismisses him with a grave exhortation: then to RHETORIC, who crowned with laurel, and seated in a stately chamber, strewed with flowers, and adorned with the clear mirrours of speculation, explains her five parts in a laboured oration. Graunde Amoure resolves to pursue their lessons with vigour; and animates himself, in this difficult task, with the examples of Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate
He recites some of the pieces of the two latter. Chaucer, he says, wrote the BOOK OF FAME
on hys own invencion.
The TRAGEDIES of the xix ladies,
a t
anslacyon.
The CANTERBURY TALES,
upon hys ymaginacyon,
some of which are
vertuous,
others
glad
and
merry.
The
pytous dolour
of TROYLUS AND CRESSIDA, and
many other bokes.
Amo
g Lydgate's works, he recites the LIFE of OUR LADY. SAINT EDMUND'S LIFE. The FALL OF PRINCES. The THREE REASONS. The CHORLE AND THE BIRD. The TROYBOOK. VIRTUE AND VICE, [MSS. Harl. 2251. 63. fol. 95.] The TEMPLE OF GLASS. The BOOK OF GODS AND GODDESSES. This last, I suppose, is The BANKET OF GODS AND GODDESSES.
The poem of the CHORLE AND THE BIRD our author calls a
pamfl
te.
Lydgate himself says, that he translated this tale from a
pamflete in Frensche,
st 5. It was first printed by Caxton in his CHAUCER. Afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde, before 1500, in quarto. And, I think, by Copland. Ashmole has printed it under the title of HERMES'S BIRD, and supposes it to have been written originally by Raymund Lully; or at least made English by Cremer, abbot of Westminster, Lully's scholar. THEATR. CHEM. p. 213. 467 465. Lydgate, in the last stanza, again speaks of this piece as a
"trans
acyon owte of the Frenshe."
But the fable on which it is founded, is told by Petrus Alphonsus, a writer of the twelfth century, in his tract
de Clericali Disciplina,
never printed. See supr. p. 137.
Our author, in his recital of Chaucer's pieces, calls the LEGENDE OF GOOD WOMEN
tragidyes.
Antiently a serious narrative in verse was called a
tragedy.
And it is observable, that he mentions
xix ladyes
belonging to this legend. Only
nine
appear at present.
Nineteen
was the number intended
as we may collect from Lydgate's FALL PR. Prol. and ibid. l. i. c. 6. Compare MAN of L. T. Prol. v. 60. Urr. Where eight more ladies than are in the present
legende
are mentioned. This piece is called the
l
gendis of ix good women,
MSS. Fairf. xvi. Chaucer himself says,
"I sawe cominge of ladyes
Nineteen
in royall
abit."
v. 383. Urr. Compare Pars. T. Urr. p. 214. col. 1.
, who are panegyrised with great propriety. He is afterwards admitted to ARITHMETIC, who wears a GOLDEN
wede
The walls of her chamber are painted in gold with the three fundamental rules of arithmetic.
: and, last of all, is led to the Tower of MUSIC
In the TRESOR of Pierre de Corbian, cited at large above, Music, according to Boethius and Guy Aretin, is one of the seven liberal sciences. At Oxford, the graduates in music, which still remains there as an academical science, are at this day required to shew their proficiency in Boethius DE MUSICA. In a pageant, at the coronation of king Edward the sixth, MUSIC personified appears among the seven sciences. Leland. Coll. APPEND. iii. 317. edit. 1770.
, which was composed of crystal, in eager expectation of obtaining a view of La Bell Pucell, according to FAME'S prediction. MUSIC was playing on an organ, before a solemn assembly; in the midst of which, at length he discovers La Bell Pucell, is instantly captivated with her beauty, and almost as soon tells her his name, and discloses his passion
In the description of her person, which is very elegant, and consists of three stanzas, there is this circumstance,
"She gartered wel her hose."
ch. xxx. Chaucer has this circumstance in describing the
Wife of Bath.
Prol. v. 458.
Hire hosen weren of fine scarlet rede
Ful
straite yteyed.—
. She is more beautiful than Helen, Proserpine, Cressida, queen Hyppolita, Medea, Dido, Polyxena, Alcmena, Menalippa, or even
fair Rosamund.
The solemnity being finished, MUSIC and La Bell Pucell go forth into a stately temple, whither they are followed by our hero. Here MUSIC seats herself amidst a concert of all kinds of instruments
That is, tabours, trumpets, pipes, sackbuts, organs, recorders, harps, lutes,
croudds, tymphans,
[l. symphans] dulcimers,
laricimbales,
rebeckes,
clarychordes.
ch. xvi. At the marriage of James of Scotland with the princess Margaret, in the year 1503,
"the king began before hyr to play of the
clarychord
s
and after of the
lut
And uppon the said
clarychorde
sir Edward Stanley played a ballade and sange therewith."
Again, the king and queen being together,
"after she played upon the
clarychorde
and after of the
lute,
he beinge uppon his knee allwaies bareheaded."
Leland. Coll. APPEND. iii. p. 284. 285. edit. 1770. In Lydgate's poem, entitled RESON AND SENSUALLITE,
compyl
d by John Lydgate,
various instruments and sorts of music are recited. MSS. Fairfax. xvi. Bibl. Bodl. [Pr.
"To all folkys virtuous."
]
"H
re rehersyth the auctor
the MYNSTRALCYS
that were in the gardyn."
Of al maner mynstralcye
That any man kan specifye:
F
or there were rotys of Almayne.
And eke of Arragon and Spayne:
Songes, stampes, and eke daunces,
Divers plente of plesaunces;
And many unkouth notys newe
Of swiche folke as lovid trewe;
And instrumentys that dyd excelle,
Many moo than I kan telle:
Harpys, fythales, and eke rotys,
Well according with her notys,
Lutys, ribibles, and geternes,
More for estatys than tavernes;
Orguys, cytolis, monacordys.—
There were trumpes, and trumpettes,
Lowde shallys, and doucettes.
Here
get
rn
,
is a
guittar,
which, with
cytolis,
has its origin in
cit
ara. Fythales
is
fiddles. Shallys,
I believe, should be
shalmies,
or
shawms. Orguys
is
organs.
See supr. vol. i. p. 429. and 61. By
estatys
he means
states,
or solemn assemblies.
. She explains the principles of harmony. A dance is plaid
Music commands her
mynstrelles
to play the dance, which was called
Mamours the swete.
So at the royal marriage just mentioned,
"The
mynstrelles
begonne to play a basse dance, &c. After this done,
they
plaid a rownde, the which was daunced by the lorde Grey ledyinge the said queene.—After the dinner incontynent
the mynstrelles of the chammer
[chamber] began to play and then daunced the quene, &c."
Leland, APPEND. ubi supr. p. 284. seq.
, and Graunde Amoure dances with La Bell Pucell. He retires, deeply in love. He is met by COUNSELL, who consoles and conducts him to his repose in a stately chamber of the castle. In the morning, COUNSELL and our hero both together visit La Bell Pucell. At the gate of the garden of the castle they are informed by the portress CURTESY, that the lady was sitting alone in an arbour, weaving a garland of various flowers. The garden is described as very delicious, and they find the lady in the arbour near a stately fountain,
among the floures of aromatyke fume.
After a long dialogue, in which for some time she seems to reject his suit, at last she resigns her heart; but withal acquaints her lover, that he has many monsters to encounter, and many dangers to conquer, before he can obtain her. He replies, that he is well acquainted with these difficulties; and declares, that, after having received instructions from ASTRONOMY, he will go to the Tower of CHIVALRY, in order to be more completely qualified to succeed in this hazardous enterprise. They take leave with tears; and the lady is received into a ship, which is to carry her into the island where her Tower stood. COUNSELL consoles Amoure
COUNSELL mentions the examples of Troilus and Cressida, and of Ponthus and Sidonia. Of the latter faithful pair, there is an old French romance,
"Le Roman du noble roy Pontus fils du roy de Gallice et de la belle Sidoine fille du roy de Bretagne."
Without date, in bl. letter. 4to. It is in the royal library at Paris, MS. fol. See Lengl. Bibl. Rom. ii. 250. And among the king's manuscripts in the British museum there is,
"Le Livre du roy Ponthus."
15 E. vi. 6. I think there are some elegant miniatures in this manuscript. Our author calls him
"the famous knyght yclypped Ponthus, whych loved Sydonye."
ch. xvi. KING PONTHUS is among the copies of James Roberts, a printer in the reign of queen Elisabeth, Ames, p. 342. I believe it was first printed by Wynkyn de Worde,
"The hystory of Ponthus and Galyce, and of lytel Brytayne."
With wooden cuts. 1511. 4to.
, and leaves him to attend other desponding lovers. Our hero bids adieu in pathetic terms to the Tower of MUSIC, where he first saw Pucell. Next he proceeds to the Tower of GEOMETRY, which is wonderfully built and adorned. From thence he seeks ASTRONOMY, who resides in a gorgeous pavilion pitched in a fragrant and flowery meadow: she delivers a prolix lecture on the several operations of the mind, and parts of the body
In a wooden cut Ptolomy the astronomer is here introduced, with a quadrant: and Plato, the
conynge and famous clerke,
is cited.
. He then, accompanied with his greyhounds, enters an extensive plain overspread with flowers; and looking forward, sees a flaming star over a tower. Going forward, he perceives that this tower stands on a rough precipice of steel, decorated with beasts of various figures. As he advances towards it, he comes to a mighty fortress, at the gate of which were hanging a shield and helmet, with a marvellous horn. He blows the horn with a blast that shook the tower, when a knight appears; who, asking his business, is answered, that his name is Graunde Amoure, and that he was just arrived from the tower of DOCTRINE. He is welcomed by the knight, and admitted. This is the castle of CHIVALRY. The next morning he is conducted by the porter STEDFASTNESS into the base court, where stood a tower of prodigious height, made of jasper: on its summit were four images of armed knights on horses of steel, which, on moving a secret spring, could represent a turney. Near this tower was an antient temple of Mars: within it was his statue, or picture, of gold, with the figure of FORTUNE on her wheel; and the walls were painted with the siege of Troy
This was a common subject of tapestry, as I have before observed: but as it was the most favourite martial subject of the dark ages, is here introduced with peculiar propriety. Chaucer, from the general popularity of the story, has made it a subject for painted glass. DREME CHAUC. v. 322. p. 406. Urr. col. 1.
—and with glas
Were al the windowes wel yglased
Ful clere, and nat an hole ycrased,
That to beholde it was grete joy;
For wholly all the
story of Troy
Was in the
glai
inge
ywrought thus,
Of Hector, and king Priamus,
Achilles, &c.
n our author's description of the palace of Pucell,
"there was enameled with figures curious
the syege of Troy.
"
cap. xxxviii. Sign. A. iii. edit. 1555. The arras was the
syege of Thebes.
ibid. In the temple of Mars was also
"the sege of Thebes depaynted
ayre and clere"
on the walls. cap. xxvii. Sign. Q. iii. [See supr. p. 216.]
. He supplicates Mars, that he may be enabled to subdue the monsters which obstruct his passage to the Tower of Pucell. Mars promises him assistance; but advises him first to invoke Venus in her temple. FORTUNE reproves Mars for presuming to promise assistance; and declares, that all human glory is in the power of herself alone. Amoure is then led
Through the sumptuous hall of the castle, which is painted with the
Siege of Theb
s,
and where many knights are playing at chess.
by Minerva to king Melyzus
A fabulous king of Thrace, who, I think, is mentioned in Caxton's RECUYAL OF THE HYSTORYES OF TROY, now just printed; that is, in the year 1471. Our author appeals to this romance, which he calls the
Recule of Troye,
as an authentic voucher for the truth of the labours of Hercules. ch. i. By the way, Boccacio's GENEALOGY OF THE GODS is quoted in this romance of Troy, B. ii. ch. xix.
, the inventor of tilts and tournaments, who dubs him a knight. He leaves the castle of CHIVALRY, and on the road meets a person, habited like a Fool, named Godfrey Gobilive
His father is
Davy Drunken nole,
Who never dranke but in a fayre
blacke boule.
Here he seems to allude to Lydgate's poem, called
Of Jack Wat that could pull the lining
out of a black boll.
MS. Ashmol. Oxon. 59. ii. MSS. Harl. 2251. 12. fol. 14. One
Jack Hare
is the same sort of ludicrou
character, who is thus described in Lydgate's
Tale of froward Maymonde.
MSS. Laud. D. 31. Bibl. Bodl.
A froward knave pleynly to descryve,
And a sloggard shortely to declare,
A precious knave that castith hym never to thryve,
His mouth weel weet, his slevis riht thredbare;
A turnebroche, [turn-spit] a boy for hogge of ware,
With louring face noddyng and slumb
ryng
Of new crystened, and called Jakke Hare,
Whiche of a
boll
can
lukke out the lynyng.
These two pieces of Lydgate appear to be the same.
, who enters into a long discourse on the falsehood of women
He relates, how Aristotle,
for all his clergy,
was so infatuated with love, that he suffered the lady, who only laughed at his passion, to bridle and ride him about his chamber. This story is in Gower, CONF. AMANT. lib. viii. fol. clxxxix. b. edit. ut supr. [See supr. p. 25.]
I saw there Aristote also
Whom that the quene of Grece also
Hath brideled, &c.
Then follows a long and ridiculous story about Virgil, not the poet, but a necromancer framed in the dark ages, who is deceived by the tricks of a lady at the court of Rome; on whom, however, her paramour takes ample revenge by means of his skill in music. ch. xxix. I have mentioned this Virgil, supr. vol. i. p. 407. See also, supr. p. 2
. Where I have falsely supposed him to be the poet. This
iction is also alluded to by Gower, and added to that of Aristotle's, among his ex
ples of the power of love over the wisest men. ubi supr.
And eke Virgile of acqueintance
I sigh [saw] where he the maiden praid
Which was the daughter, as men said,
Of themperour whilom of Rome.
There is an old book, printed in 1510, entitled,
"VIRGILIUS. This boke treateth of the lyfe of Virgilius, and of his deth, and many marvayles that he did in his lyfetyme by whitchcraft and nigramansy, thorouhg the help of the devylls of hell."
Coloph.
"
Thus endeth the lyfe of Virgilius with many dyvers consaytes that he dyd.
Emprynted in the cytie of Andewarpe by me John D
esborche, dw
llyng at the Camer Porte."
With cuts, octavo. It was in Mr. West's library.
Virgil's Li
e
is mentioned by Lan
ham among other romantic pieces,
Killinw. Castle.
p. 34. edit. 1575. 120. This fictitious personage, however, seems to be formed on the genuine Virgil, because, from the subject of his eighth Eclogue, he was supposed to be an adept in the mysteries of magic and incantation.
. They both go together into the temple of Venus, who was now holding a solemn assembly, or court, for the redress of lovers. Here he meets with SAPIENCE, who draws up a supplication for him, which he presents to Venus. Venus, after having exhorted him to be constant, writes a letter to Pucell, which she sends by Cupid. After offering a turtle, he departs with Godfrey Gobilive, who is overtaken by a lady on a palfrey, with a knotted whip in her hand, which she frequently exercises on Godfrey
In another place he is called FOLLY, and said to ride on a mare. When chivalry was at its heighth in France, it was a disgrace to any person, not below the degree of a gentleman,
to ride a mar
.
. Amoure asks her name, which, she answers, is CORRECTION; that she lived in the Tower of CHASTITY, and that he who assumed the name of Godfrey Gobilive was FALSE REPORT, who had just escaped from her prison, and disguised himself in a fool's coat. She invites Amoure to her Tower, where they are admitted by Dame MEASURE; and led into a hall with a golden roof, in the midst of which was a carbuncle of a prodigious size, which illuminated the room
From Chaucer, ROM. ROSE, v. 1120. Urr. p. 223. a. RICHESSE is crowned with the costliest gems,
But all before full subtilty
A
ine carboncle sel sawe I,
The stone so cleare was and bright,
That al so son
as it was night,
Men mightin sene to go for nede
A mile or two in length and
rede.
Such light ysprange out of that stone.
But this is not uncommon in romance, and is an Arabian idea. See supr. vol. i. p. 378. In the
History
of the SEVEN CHAMPIONS, a book compiled in the reign of James the first by one Richard Johnson, and containing some of the most capital
ictions of the old Arabian romance, in the adventure of the ENCHANTED FOUNTAIN, the knights entering a dark hall,
"tooke off their gauntletts from their left hands whereon they wore
marvellous great and
ine diamonds,
that gave so
much light,
that they might
plainly see
all things that were in the hall, the which was very great and wide, and upon the walls were painted the figures of many furious fiends, &c."
SEC. P. ch. ix. And in Maundeville's TRAVELLS,
"The emperour hath in his chamber a pillar of gold, in which is a ruby and carbuncle a foot long, which lighteth all his chamber by night, &c."
ch. lxxii.
. They are next introduced to a fair chamber; where they are welcomed by many famous women of antiquity, Helen,
quene
Proserpine, the
lady Meduse,
Penthesilea, &c. The next morning, CORRECTION shews our hero a marvellous dungeon, of which SHAMFAS
NESSE is the keeper; and here FALSE REPORT is severely punished. He now continues his expedition, and near a fountain observes a shield and a horn hanging. On the shield was a lion rampant of gold in a silver field, with an inscription, importing, that this was the way to La Bell Pucell's habitation, and that whoever blows the horn will be assaulted by a most formidable giant. He sounds the horn: when instantly the giant appeared, twelve feet high, armed in brass, with three heads, on each of which was a streamer, with the inscriptions
Falsehood, Imagination, Perjury.
After an obstinate combat, he cuts off the giant's three heads with his sword
Claraprudence.
He next meets three fair ladies, VANITY, GOOD-OPERATION, FIDELITY. They conduct him to their castle with music; where, being admitted by the portress OBSERVANCE, he is healed of his wounds by them. He proceeds and meets PERSEVERANCE, who acquaints him, that Pucell continued still to love: that, after she had read Venus's letter, STRANGENESS and DISDAIN came to her, to dissuade her from loving him; but that soon after, PEACE and MERCY
MERCY is no uncommon divinity in the love-system of the troub
dours. See M. Millot's HIST. LITT. DES TROUBAD. tom. i. p. 181. Par. 1774.
arrived, who soon undid all that DISDAIN and STRANGENESS had said, advising her to send PERSEVERANCE to him with a shield. This shield PERSEVERANCE now presents, and invites him to repose that night with her cousin COMFORT, who lived in a moated manor-place under the side of a neighbouring wood
There is a description of a magnificent
ma
or-place,
curious
or its antiquity, in an old poem, written before the year 1300, entitled a
Disputation bytwene a Cryste
man and a J
we,
perhaps translated from the French, MS. Vernon. fol. 301. ut supr. [See Carpentier's Suppl. du Cange, Lat. Gloss. V. RADIMERE.]
Forth heo
They.
wenten on the
eld
To an hul
Hill.
thei bi held,
The eorthe clevet
Cleaved.
as a scheld
Shield.
,
On the grownde grene:
Some fonde thei on
Road. Way. Cavern asc
nt.
stîh,
Thei went theron
Readily. Easily.
radly;
The cristen mon hedde
Was very attentive.
H
ded.
farly
What hit mihte mene.
Aftir that stiȝ lay a strete,
Clere i pavet with
Paved with
gritt, i. e.
sand, or gravel.
gete,
Thei fond a Maner that was mete
With murthes ful schene;
W
l corven and wroht
With halles heiȝe uppon
With halls built high.
loft,
To a place weore thei brouht
As paradys the
Bright, or pl
asant, as Paradise.
clene.
Ther was foulen
Fo
ls, birds.
song,
Much murthes among,
Hose lenge wolde longe
Fful luitell hym thouht:
On vche a syde of the halle,
Pourpell, p
lure, and
The guests sate on each side of the hall, cloathed in purple, furs, or ermine, and rich robes.
palle;
Wyndowes in the walle
Was wonderli
Wonderfully wrought.
i wrouht:
There was
D
ss
r
s a basket carried on the back. Lat.
Dorsarium.
Chaucer's H. F. iii.
50. "Or else hutchis or
Dossers.'
We must here understand Provisions.
dosers on the
Dees
is here the
table.
dees,
Hose the cheefe wolde
Whoever would chuse the best.
ches
That never richere was,
In no sale
Hall. Lat.
Sala.
souht:
Both the mot and the mold
Schone al on red golde
The cristene mon hadde ferli of that
House.
folde,
That hider was brouȝt.
Ther was erbes
An Herbary, for furnishing domestic medicines, always made a part of our antient gardens. In Hawes s poem, now before us, in the delicious garden of the castle of Music,
"Amid
the garden there was an
herber
fayre and quadrante."
ch. xviii. In the Glossary to Chaucer, Erbe is absurdly interpreted
Arbours.
NON. PR. T. v. 1081. "Or
r
e
ive growing in our
rberis."
Chaucer is here enumerating various medical herbs, usually planted in
rberis,
or herbaries.
growen grene,
Spices springynge bi twene,
Such hadde I not sene,
Ffor sothe as I say:
The thrustell
Thrush.
songe full srhille,
He newed notes at his wille;
Ffaire fflowers to
ille,
Ffine in that ffay:
And al the rounde table good,
Hou Arthur in eorthe
went. Walked
on earth.
ȝod,
Sum sate and sum stod,
O the grounde grey:
Hit was a wonder siht
As thei wer quik men
As if they were living men.
diht
To seo hou they
To see their sports, tournaments, &c.
play.
Together with some of his expressions, I do not always understand this writer's context and transitions, which have great abruptness. In what he says of king Arthur, I suppose he means, that king Arthur's round table, and his knights turneying, were painted on the walls of the hall.
. Here he is ushered into a
chamber precious,
per
umed with the richest odours. Next morning, guided by PERSEVERANCE and COMFORT, he goes forward, and sees a castle, nobly
ortified, and walled with jet. Before it was a giant with seven heads, and upon the trees about him were hanging many shields of knights, whom
e had conquered. On his seven heads were seven h
lmets crowned with seven streamers, on which were inscribed
Dissimulation, Delay, Discomfort, Variance, Envy, Detraction, Doubleness.
After a bloody battle, he kills the giant, and is saluted by the five ladies STEDFASTNESS, AMOROUS PURVEYANCE, JOY AFTER SORROW, PLEASAUNCE, GOOD REPORT, AMIT
E, CONTINUANCE, all riding from the castle on white palfries. These ladies inform Amoure, that they had been exiled from La Bell Pucell by DISDAINE, and besieged in this castle, for one whole year, by the giant whom he had just slain. They attend him on his journey, and travel through a dreary wilderness, full of wild beasts: at length they discern, at a vast distance, a glorious region, where stood a stately palace beyond a tempestuous ocean.
"That, says PERSEVERANCE, is the palace of Pucelle."
They then discover, in the island before them, an horrible fiend, roaring like thunder, and breathing flame, which my author strongly paints,
The fyre was greet, it made the ylande lyght.
PERSEVERANCE tells our hero, that this monster was framed by the two witches STRANGENESS and DISDAINE, to punish La Bell Pucell for having banished them from her presence. His body was composed of the seven metals, and within it a demon was inclosed. They now enter a neighbouring temple of Pallas; who shews Amoure, in a trance, the secret formation of this monster, and gives him a box of wonderful ointment. They walk on the sea-shore, and espy two ladies rowing towards them; who land, and having told Amoure that they are sent by PATIENCE to enquire his name, receive him and his company into the ship PERFECTNESS. They arrive in the island; and Amoure discovers the monster near a rock, whom he now examines more distinctly. The face of the monster resembled a virgin's, and was of gold; his neck of silver; his breast of steel; his forelegs, armed with strong talons, of laten; his back of copper; his tail of lead, &c. Amoure, in imitation of Jason, anoints his sword and armour with the unguent of Pallas; which, at the first onset, preserves him from the voluminous torrent of fire and smoke issuing from the monster's mouth. At length he is killed; and from his body flew out a
foule ethiope,
or black spirit, accompanied with such a smoke that all the island was darkened, and loud thunder-claps ensued. When this spirit was entirely vanished, the air grew serene; and our hero now plainly beheld the magnificent castle of La Pucell, walled with silver, and
many a story upon the wall enameled royally
See supr. p. 217. and vol. i. p. 114. 303. I know not from what romantic history of the crusades, Richard Johnson took the description of the stately house of the
courteous Jew
at Damascus, built for entertaining christian pilgrims, in which
"the
walls
were
painted
with as many
stories
as there were years since the creation of the world."
SEC. P. ch. iv. The word
enameled,
in the text, is probably used in the same sense as in Stowe, SURVEY LOND. p. 359. edit. 1599.
"The great bell-tower, [of the priory of S. John in Cle
kenwell,] a most curious piece of workmanshippe, graven, guilt, and
inamel
d,
to the great beautifying of the citie, and passinge all other that I have seene, &c."
So again our author, Hawes, ch. ii.
—The toure doth stande
Made all of golde,
enameled
aboute
With noble storyes.—
. He rejoins his company; and entering the gate of the castle, is solemnly received by PEACE, MERCY, JUSTICE, REASON, GRACE, and MEMORY. He is then led by the portress COUNTENAUNCE into the base court; where, into a conduit of gold, dragons spouted water of the richest odour. The gravel of the court is like gold, and the hall and chambers are most superbly decorated. Amoure and La Pucell sit down and coverse together. Venus intervenes, attended by Cupid cloathed in a blue mantle embroidered with golden hearts pierced with arrows, which he throws about the lovers, declaring that they should soon be joined in marriage. A sudden transition is here made from the pagan to the christian theology. The next morning they are married, according to the catholic ritual, by LEX ECCLESIAE; and in the wooden print prefixed to this chapter, the lovers are represented as joining hands at the western portal of a great church, a part of the ceremonial of antient marriages
For this custom, see supr. vol. i. p. 437. And the romance of APPOLYNE, ch. xxxiii.
. A solemn feast is then held in honour of the nuptials
Which is described thus, ch. xxix.
Why should I tary by long continuance
Of the feast, &c.
In the same manner Chaucer passes over the particularities of Cambuscan's feast, SQU. T. v. 83. Urr. And of Theseus's feast, KN. T. v. 2199. See also MAN OF L. T. v. 704. And Spenser's FAIRY QU. v. iii. 3. [See supr
vol. i. p. 333.] And Matthew Paris, in describing the magnificent marriage and coronation of queen Eleanor in 1236, uses exactly the same formulary, and on a similar subject,
"Quid in ecclesia seriem enarrem deo, ut decuit, reverenter ministrantium? Quid in mensa dapium et diversorum libaminum describam fertilitatem redundantem? Venationis [venison] abundantiam? Piscium varietatem? Joculatorum voluptatem? Ministrantium venustatem? etc."
HIST. ANGL. sub. HEN. iii. p. 406. edit. Tig. ut supr. Compare another feast described in the same chronicle, much after the same manner; and which, the writer adds, was more splendid than any feast celebrated in the time of Ahasuerus, king Arthur, or Charlemagne. ibid. p. 871.
.
Here the poem should have ended. But the poet has thought it necessary to extend his allegory to the death and burial of his hero. Graund Amoure having lived in consummate happiness with his amiable bride for many years, saw one morning an old man enter his chamber, carrying a staff, with which he strikes Amoure's breast, saying,
Obey,
&c. His name is OLD AGE. Not long after came POLICY or Cunning, and AVARICE. Amoure now begins to abandon his triumphal shows and splendid carousals, and to be intent on amassing riches. At last arrived DEATH, who peremptorily denounces, that he must prepare to quit his wealth and the world. After this fatal admonition, came CONTRITION and CONSCIENCE, and he dies. His body is interred by MERCY and CHARITY; and while his epitaph is written by REMEMBRANCE, FAME appears; promising that
he will enroll his name with those of Hector, Joshua, Judas Maccabeus, king David
The chief reason for ranking king David among the knights of romance was, as I have already hinted, because he killed the giant Goliah: an achievement here mentioned by Hawes. See supr. p. 217. and vol. i. p. 418.
, Alexander the Great, Julius Cesar, Arthur
Of Arthur and his knights he says, that their exploits are recorded
"in royall bokes and jestes hystoryall."
ch. xliii. Sir Thomas Maillorie had now just published his MORTE ARTHUR, a narrative digested from various French romances on Arthur's story. Caxton's printed copy of this favourite volume must have been known to our poet Hawes, which appeared in 1485. fol. By the way, in panegyrising Chaucer, Hawes mentions it, as a circumstance of distinction, that his works were printed. ch. xiiii.
—Whose name
In PRINTED bokès doth remayne in fame.
This was natural at the beginning of the typographic art. Many of Chaucer's poems were now recently printed by Caxton.
With regard to Millorie's book, much, if not most, of it, I believe, is taken from the great French romance of LANCELOT, translated from Latin into French at the command of one of our Henrys, a metrical English version of which is now in Benet library at Cambridge. [See a specimen in Mr. Naasmith's curious catalogue, p. 54.] I have left it doubtful whether it was the third Henry who ordered this romance to be translated into Latin, vol. i. p. 115. But, beside the proofs there suggested, in favour of that hypothesis, it appears, that Henry the third paid great attention to these compositions, from the following curious anecdote just published, which throws new light on that monarch's character.
Arnaud Daniel, a troubadour, highly celebrated by Dante and Petrarch, about the year 1240 made a voyage into England, where, in the court of king Henry the third, he met a minst
, who challenged him at
difficult rhymes.
The challenge was accep
ed, a considerable wager was laid, and the rival bards were shut up in separate chambers of the palace. The king, who appears to have much interested himself in the dispute, allowed them ten days for
composing,
and five more for
learning to sing,
their respective pieces: after which, each was to exhibit his performance in the presence of his majesty. The third day, the English minstrel announced that he was ready. The troubadour declared he had not wrote a line; but that he had tried, and could not as yet put two words together. The following evening he overheard the minstrel practising his
chanson
to himself. The next day he had the good fortune to hear the same again, and learned the air and words. At the day appointed they both appeared before the king. Arnaud desired to sing first. The minstrel, in a fit of the greatest surprise and astonishment, suddenly cried out,
C'est ma chanson, This is
MY SONG. The king said it was impossible. The minstrel still insisted upon it; and Arnaud, being closely pressed, ingenuously told the whole affair. The king was much entertained with this adventure; and ordering the wager to be withdrawn, loaded them with rich presents. But he afterwards obliged Arnaud to give a
chanson
of his own composition. Millot, ut supr. tom. ii. p. 491.
In the mean time I would not be understood to deny, that Henry the second encouraged these pieces; for it partly appears, that Gualter Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford, translated, from Latin into French, the popular romance of SAINT GRAAL, at the instance of Henry the second, to whom he was chaplain, about the year 1190. See MSS. Reg. 20 D. iii. a manuscript perhaps coeval with the translator; and, if so, the original copy presented to the king. Maister Benoit, or Benedict, a rhymer in French, was also patronised by this monarch: at whose command he compiled a metrical Chronicle of the DUKES OF NORMANDY: in which are cited Isidore Hispalensis, Pliny, and saint Austin. MSS. Harl. 1717. 1. on vellum. See fol. 85. 192. 163. 2
6. This old French poem is full of fabulous and romantic matter; and seems to be partly translated from a Latin Chronicle, DE MORIBUS ET ACTIS PRIMORUM NORMANNIAE DUCUM, written about the year 1000, by Dudo, dean of S. Quintin
s, and printed among Du Chesne's SCRIPTOR. NORMAN. p. 49. edit. 1619. Maister Benoit ends with our Henry the first. Dudo with the year 996.
, Charlemagne
With his
d
us
p
res,
or twelve peers, among which he mentions Rowland and Oliver.
, and Godfrey of Bulloign
These are the NINE WORTHIES: to whom Shakespeare alludes in LOVE'S LAB. LOST.
"Here is like to be a good presence of WORTHI
S. He presents Hector of Troy: The swain, Pompey the Great: The pari
h-curate, Alexander: Armado's page, Hercules: The pedant, Judas Macchabeus, &c."
ACT. v. SC. i. Elias Cairels, a troubadour of Perigord, about the year 1240, wishes for the wisdom of Solomon, the courtesy of Roland, the puissance of Alexander, the strength of Samson, the friendly attachment of sir Tristram, the
c
evalerie
of sir Gawaine, and the learning of Merlin. Though not immediately connected with the present purpose, I cannot resist the temptation of transcribing the remainder of our troubadour's idea of complete happiness in this world. His ambition can be gratified by nothing less than by possessing,
"Une si parfaite loyauté, que nul chevalier et nul jongleur n' aient rien à reprendre en lui; une maitresse jeune, jolie, et decente; mille cavaliers bien en ordre pour le suivre par tout, &c."
Millot, HIST. LITT. des TROUBAD. tom. i. p. 388. [See supr. vol. i. p. 417.
. Aftewards TIME, and ETERNITIE clothed in a white vestment and crowned with a triple diadem of gold, enter the temple, and pronounce an exhortation. Last follows an epilogue, in which the poet apologises for his hardiness in attempting to
feign
and
devise
this fable.
The reader readily perceives, that this poetical apologue is intended to shadow the education of a complete gentleman; or rather, to point out those accomplishments which constitute the character of true gallantry, and most justly deserve the reward of beauty. It is not pretended, that the personifications display that force of colouring, and distinctness of delineation, which animate the ideal portraits of John of Meun. But we must acknowledge, that Hawes has shewn no inconsiderable share of imagination, if not in inventing romantic action, at least in applying and enriching the general incidents of the Gothic fable. In the creation of allegoric imagery he has exceeded Lydgate. That he is greatly superior to many of his immediate predecessors and cotemporaries, in harmonious versification, and clear expression, will appear from the following stanza.
Besydes this gyaunt, upon every tree
I did see hanging many a goodly shielde
Of noble knygtes, that were of hie degree,
Whiche he had slayne and murdred in the fielde:
From farre this gyaunt I ryght well behelde;
And towarde hym as I rode on my way,
On his first heade I sawe a banner gay
Ch. xxxv.
.
To this poem a dedication of eight octave stanzas is prefixed, addressed to king Henry the seventh: in which our author professes to follow the manner of his
maister
Lydgate.
To folowe the trace and all the perfytness
Of my maister Lydgate, with due exercise,
Such fayned tales I do fynde
Invent.
and devyse:
For under coloure a truthe may aryse,
As was the guyse, in old antiquitie,
Of the poetes olde a tale to surmyse,
To cloake the truthe.—
In the course of the poem he complains, that since Lydgate,
the most dulcet sprynge of famous rhetoryke,
that species of poetry which deals in fiction and allegoric fable, had been entirely lost and neglected. He allows, that some of Lydgate's successors had been skilful versifiers in the
balade royall
or octave stanza, which Lydgate carried to such perfection: but adds this remarkable restriction,
They
fayne
no
fables
pleasaunt and
covert:
—
Makyng balades of fervent amytie,
As gestes and tryfles
Ch. xiv. So Barklay, in the SHIP OF FOOLES, finished in 1508, fol. 18. a. edit. 1570. He is speaking of the profane and improper conversation of priests in the choir.
And all of fables and
jestes
of Robin Hood,
Or other
tri
les.
—
.—
These lines, in a small compass, display the general state of poetry which now prevailed.
Coeval with Hawes was William Walter, a retainer to sir Henry Marney, chancellour of the duchy of Lancaster: an unknown and obscure writer whom I should not have named, but that he versified, in the octave stanza, Boccacio's story, so beautifully paraphrased by Dryden, of Sigismonda and Guiscard. This poem, I think, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and afterwards reprinted in the year 1597, under the title of THE STATELY TRAGEDY OF GUISCARD AND SIGISMOND
Viz.
"Certaine worthye manuscript poems of great antiquitie, reserved long in the studie of a Northfolke gentleman, now first published by J. S. Lond. R. D. 1597."
12mo. In this edition, beside the story of SIGISMUNDA, mentioned in the text, there is
"The Northern Mother's Blessing, written nine yeares before the death of G. Chaucer. And The Way to Thrift."
This collection is dedicated to the worthiest Poet MAISTER EDMOND SPENSER.
. It is in two books. He also wrote a dialogue in verse, called the
Spectacle of Lovers
Begins the PROLOGUE,
"Forasmuche as ydelness is rote of all vices"
This and the following piece are also printed in quarto, by Wynkin de Worde.
, and the
History of Titus and Gesippus,
a translation from a Latin romance concerning the siege of Jerusalem.
About the year 1490, Henry Medwall, chaplain to Morton archbishop of Canterbury, composed an interlude, called NATURE, which was afterwards translated into Latin. It is not improbable, that it was played before the archbishop. It was the business of chaplains in great houses to compose interludes for the family. This piece was printed by Rastel, in 1538, and entitled,
"NATURE, a goodly interlude of nature, compylyd by mayster Henry Medwall, chaplayn to the right reverent father in God, Johan Morton, sometyme cardynall, and archebyshop of Canterbury."
In the year 1497, Laurence Wade, a Benedictine monk of Canterbury
Professed in the year 1467. CATAL.
Mon.
ant.
inter MSS. C. C. C. C. N. 7.
, translated, into English rhymes, THE LIFE OF THOMAS A BECKETT, written about the year 1180, in Latin
VITA ET RES
ESTAE THOMAE EPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS, published in the QUADRILOGUS, Paris. 1495. 4to.
, by Herbert Bosham
See supr. vol. i. 61.
. The manuscript, which will not bear a citation, is preserved in Benet college in Cambridge
MSS. Coll. C. C. Cant. CCCXCVII. 1. Beginn. Prol.
"O ye vertuous soverayns spirituall and temporall."
. The original had been translated into French verse by Peter Langtoft
Pits. p. 890. APPEND.
. Bosham was Becket's secretary, and present at his martyrdom.
SECT. VII.
I Place Alexander Barklay within the year 1500, as his SHIP OF FOOLS appears to have been projected about that period. He was educated at Oriel college in Oxford
He seems to have spent some time at Cambridge, EGLOG. i. Signat. A. iii.
And once in Cambridge I heard a scoller say,
One of the same that go in copès gay.
, accomplished his academical studies by travelling, and was appointed one of the priests, or prebendaries, of the college of saint Mary Ottery in Devonshire
The chief patron of his studies appears to have been Thomas Cornish, provost of Oriel college, and Suffragan bishop of Tyne, in the diocese of Bath and Wells; to whom he dedicates, in a handsome Latin epistle, his SHIP OF FOOLS. But in the poem, he mentions
My Maister Kyrkham,
calling himself
"his true servitour, his chaplayne, and bede-man."
fol. 152. b. edit. 1570. Some biographers suppose Barklay to have been a native of Scotland. It is certain that he has a long and laboured encomium on James the fourth, king of Scotland; whom he compliments for his bravery, prudence, and other eminent virtues. One of the stanz
s of this panegyric is an acrostic on JACOBUS. fol. 206. a. He most probably was of Devonshire or Gloucestershire.
. Afterwards he became a Benedictine monk of Ely monastery
In the title to his tran
ation from Mancinus, called the MIRROUR OF GOOD MANNERS.
; and at length took the habit of the Franciscans at Canterbury
MS. Bale, Sl
an. f. 68.
. He temporised with the changes of religion; for he possessed some church-preferments in the reign of Edward the sixth
He was instituted to Much Badew in Essex, in 1546. Newcourt, REP. i. 254. And to Wokey in Somersetshire, the same year. Registr. Wellens. He had also the church of All Saints, in Lombard-street, London, on the presentation of the dean and chapter of Canterbury, which was vacant by his death, Aug. 24, 1552. Newcourt, ut supr.
. He died, very old, at Croydon, in Surry
He frequently mentions Croydon in his EGLOGES. He was buried in Croydon church. EGL. i. Signat. A. iii.
And as in CROIDON I heard the Collier preache.
Again, ibid.
While I in youth in CROIDON towne did dwell.
Again, ibid.
He hath no
elowe betwene this and CROIDON
Save the proude plowman
Gnatho
of
Chorlington.
He mentions the collier again, ibid.
Such maner riches the
collier
tell thee can.
Also, ibid.
As the riche shepheard that woned in
Mortlake.
, in the year 1552.
Barklay's principal work is the SHIP OF FOOLES, abovementioned. About the year 1494, Sebastian Brandt, a learned civilian of Basil, and an eminent philologist, published a satire in German with this title
I presume this is the same Sebastian Brandt, to whom Thomas Acuparius, poet laureate, dedicates a volume of Poggius's works, Argentorat. 1513. fol. He is here styled,
"Juris utriusque doctor, et. S. P. Q. Argentinensis cancellarius."
The dedication is dated 1511. See Hendreich. PANDECT. p. 703.
. The design was to ridicule the reigning vices and follies of every rank and profession, under the allegory of a Ship freighted with Fools of all kinds, but without any variety of incident, or artificiality of fable; yet although the poem is destitute of plot, and the voyage of adventures, a composition of such a nature became extremely popular. It was translated into French
By Joce Bade. Paris, 1497.
; and, in the year 1497, into tolerable Latin verse, by James Locher, a German, and a scholar of the inventour Brandt
See THE PROLOGUE.
. From the original, and the two translations, Barklay formed a large English poem, in the balade or octave stanza, with considerable additions gleaned from the follies of his countrymen. It was printed by Pinson, in 1509, whose name occurs in the poem.
Howbeit the charge PINSON has on me layde
With many fooles our navy not to charge
Fol. 38. In another place he complains that some of his
wordes
are
amis,
on account of the
printers not perfect in science.
And adds that,
—The printers in their busynes
Do all their workes speediely and in haste. fol. 258. b.
.
It was finished in the year 1508, and in the college of saint Mary Ottery, as appears by this rubric,
"The SHYP OF FOLYS, translated in the colege of saynt Mary Otery, in the counte of Devonshyre, oute of Laten, Frenche, and Doch, into Englishe tonge, by Alexander Barclay, preste and chaplen in the sayd colledge, M.CCCCC.VIII
In folio. A second edition, from which I cite, was printed with his other works, in the year 1570, by Cawood, in folio, with curious wooden cuts, taken from Pinson's impression, viz.
"The SHIP OF FOOL
S, wherein is shewed the solly of all stat
s, with divers other works adjoined to the same, &c."
This has both Latin and English. But Ames, under Wynkyn de Worde, recites
"The Ship of Fools in this World."
4to. 1517. HIST. PRINT. p. 94.
. "
Our author's stanza is verbose, prosaic, and tedious: and for many pages together, his poetry is little better than a trite homily in verse. The title promises much character and pleasantry: but we shall be disappointed, if we expect to find the foibles of the crew of our ship touched by the hand of the author of the CANTERBURY TALES, or exposed in the rough ye
strong
atire of Pierce Plowman. He sometimes has a stroke of humour: as in the following stanza, where he wishes to take on board the eight secondaries, or minor canons, of his college.
"Alexander Barclay ad
FATUOS,
ut dent locum
OCTO SECUNDARIIS
beatae Mariae de Ottery, qui quidem prima bujus ratis transtra merentur
Fol. 68.
."
Softe, Foolis, softe, a litle slacke your pace,
Till I have space you to' order by degree;
I have eyght neyghbours, that first shall have a place
Within this my shyp, for they most worthy be:
They may their learning receyve costles and fre
.
Their walles abutting and joining to the schooles
To the collegiate church of saint Mary Ottery a school was annexed, by the mu
ificent founder, Grandison, bishop of Exeter. This college was founded in the year 1337.
;
Nothing they can
Know.
, yet nought will they learn nor see,
Therefore shall they guide this one ship of fooles.
The ignorance of the English clergy is one of the chief objects of his animadversion. He says
Fol. 2.
For if one can flatter, and beare a hawke on his fist,
He shalbe made parson of Honington or of Clift.
These were rich benefices in the neighbourhood of saint Mary Ottery. He disclaims the profane and petty tales of the times.
I write no jeste ne tale of Robin Hood
Fol. 23.
,
Nor sowe no sparkles, ne sede of viciousnes;
Wi
e men love vertue, wilde people wantonnes,
It longeth not my science nor cuning,
For Philip the sparrow the dirige to sing.
The last line is a ridicule on his cotemporary Skelton, who wrote a LITLE BOKE OF PHILIP SPARROW, or a Dirge,
For the soule of Philip Sparrow
That was late slaine at Carow, &c
See Skelton's WORKS, p. 215. edit. 1736. This will be mentioned again, below.
.
And in another place, he thus censures the fashionable reading of his age: much in the tone of his predecessor Hawes.
For goodly scripture is not worth an hawe,
But tales are loved ground of ribaudry,
And many are so blinded with their foly,
That no scriptur thinke they so true nor god
As is a foolish jest of Robin hode
Fol. 23.
.
As a specimen of his general manner, I insert his character of the Student, or Bookworm: whom he supposes to be th
First Fool in the vessel.
That
I subjoin the Latin from which he translates, that the reader may judge how much is our poet's own. fol. 1. a.
Primus in excelso ten
o quod nave rudentes
Slultivagosque sequor comit
s per flumina vasta,
Non ratione vacat ce
ta, sensuque latenti
Conge
tis etenim stultus con
ido libellis;
Spem quoque, nec parvam, conge
ta volumina pr
ebent.
Calleo nec verbum
nec libri
sentio mentem:
Attamen in magno per me servantur honore,
Pulveris et cariem plumatis tergo flabellis.
Ast ubi doctrina
cer
amen volvitur, inquam,
Aedib
s in nostris librorum culta supellex
Emin
t, et chartis vivo contentus opertis,
Qu
s video ignora
s, juvat et me copia sola.
Con
tituit quondam dives Ptolomeus, haberet
Ut libros toto quaesit
s undique mundo;
Quos grandes rerum thesauros esse putabat:
Non tamen arcan
e legis documenta tenebat,
Q
eis
in
non poterat vitae disponere cursum
E
pariter teneo numerosa volumina, tardus:
Pauca lego, viridi contentus tegmine libri.
ur velle
studio sensus turbare frequenti,
Aut tam sollicitis animum confundere rebus?
Qui
udet, assiduo motu
it stultus et amens.
S
udeam, seu non, dominus tamen esse vo
bor;
Et possum studio socium disponere nos
ro
Qui pro me sapiat, doctasque examinet artes:
Aut si cum doctis versor,
concedere
malo
Omnia, ne cogar fors verba Latina profa
.
in this ship the chiefe place I govern
,
By this wide sea with foolis wandering,
The cause is plaine and easy to discerne;
Still am I busy bookes assembling,
For to have plentie it is a pleasaunt thing,
In my conceyt, to have them ay in hand;
But what they meane do I not understande.
But yet I have them in great reverence
And honour, saving them from filth and ordure;
By often brusshing and much diligence,
Full goodly bounde in pleasaunt coverture
Of damas, sattin, or els of velvet pure
Students and monks were antiently the binders of books. In the first page of a manuscript Life of Concubranus, this note occurs,
"EX CONJUNCTIONE dompni Wyllelmi Edys monasterii B. Mariae S. Modwenae virginis de Burton super Trent monachi, dum esset studens Oxoniae, A. D. MDXVII."
See MSS. Cotton. CLEOPATR. ii. And MSS. Coll. Oriel. N. vi. 3. et 7. Art. The word Conjunctio is
ligatura.
The book is much older than this entry.
:
I keepe them sure fearing least they should be lost
For in them is the cunning wherein I me boast.
But if it fortune that any learned man
Within my house fall to disputation,
I drawe the curtaynes to shewe my bokes then,
That they of my cunning should make probation:
I love not to fall in alterication:
And while the commen, my bookes I turne and winde,
For all is in them, and nothing in my minde.
Ptolomeus
Ptolomeus Philadelphus, for whom he quotes Josephus, lib. xii.
the riche caused, longe agone,
Over all the worlde good bookes to be sought,
Done was his commandement, &c.
Lo in likewise of bookès I have store,
But few I reade, and fewer understande;
I folowe not their doctrine, nor their lore,
It is enough to beare a booke in hande:
It were too much to be in such a lande;
For to be bounde to loke within the booke
I am content on the fayre coveryng to looke.—
Eche is not lettred that nowe is made a lorde,
Nor eche a clerke that hath a benefice;
They are not all lawyers that plees do recorde,
All that are promoted are not fully wise;
On suche chance now fortune throwes her dice:
That though one knowe but the yrishe game
Yet would he have a gentlemans name.
So in likewise, I am in such a case,
Though I nought can
Know.
, I would be called wise;
Also I may set another in my place
Which may for me my bookès exercise;
Or els I will ensue the common guise,
And say
concedo
to every argument
Lest by much speech my Latin should be spent
Fol. 2.
.
In one part of the poem, Prodicus's apologue, of Hercules meeting VIRTUE and PLEASURE, is introduced. In the speech of PLEASURE, our author changes his metre; and breaks forth into a lyrical strain, not totally void of elegance and delicacy, and in a rhythmical arrangement adopted by Gray.
All my vestùre is of golde pure,
My gay chaplèt with stonès set,
With couverture of fine asure,
In silver net my haire upknet,
Softe silke betwene, le
t it might fret;
My purple pall oercovereth all,
Cleare as cristàll, no thing egall.—
With harpe in hande, alway I stande,
Passing eche houre, in swete pleasoùr;
A wanton bande, of every lande,
Are in my towre, me to honoùr,
Some of valoùr, some bare and poore;
Kinges in their pride sit by my side:
Every freshe floure, of swete odourè,
To them I provide, that with me bide.—
Whoeer they be, that folowe me,
And gladly flee to my standàrde,
They shall be free, nor sicke, nor see
Adversitie, and paynès harde.
No poynt of payne shall he sustayne,
But joy soverayne, while he is here;
No frost ne rayne there shall distayne
His face by payne, ne hurt his chere.
He shall his hede cast to no drede
To get the mede
Meed.
Reward.
and lawde of warre;
Nor yet have nede, for to take hede,
How battayles spede, but stande afarre.
Nor yet be bounde to care the sounde
Of man or grounde, or trompet shrill;
Strokes that redound shall not confounde,
Nor his minde wounde, but if he will, &c
Fol. 241. b.
.
All antient satirical writings, even those of an inferior cast, have their merit, and deserve attention, as they transmit pictures of familiar manners, and preserve popular customs. In this light; at least, Barklay's SHIP OF FOOLS, which is a general satire on the times, will be found entertaining. Nor must it be denied, that his language is more cultivated than that of many of his cotemporaries, and that he contributed his share to the improvement of the English phraseology. His author, Sebastian Brandt, appears to have been a man of universal erudition; and his work, for the most part, is a tissue of citations from the ancient poets and historians.
Barklay's other pieces are the MIRROUR OF GOOD MANNERS, and five EGLOGES
He also wrote,
The figure of our mother holy
urch oppressed by the French king,
printed for Pinson, 4to.—
Answer to John Skelton the P
t.—The Lives of S. Catharine, S. Margaret, and St. Etheldred.—The Life of S. George,
from Mantuan: dedicated to N. West bishop of Ely, and written while our author was a monk of Ely.—
De Pronuntiatione Gallica.
John Pal
grave, a polite scholar, and an eminent preceptour of the French language about the reign of Henry the eighth, and one of the first who published in English a grammar or system of rules for teaching that language, says in his
L'Ecla
r
issement de la language François,
addressed to H
nry the eighth, and printed (fol. Lond.) in 1530, that our author Barklay wrote a tract on this subject at the command of Thomas duke of Norfolk.—
T
e famous Cronycle of the Warre which the Romans had agaynst Jugurth usurper of the kyngdom of Numidy: which cronycle is compyled in Latyn by the renowned Romayn Sa
lust.
And
translated into Englishe by
SYR ALEXAN
ER BARCLAY,
pre
st, at the commaundmente of the
ye and mighty prince Thomas duke of Norfolk.
In two editions, by Pinson, of this work, both in folio, and in the public library at Cambridge, the Latin and English are printed together. The Latin is dedicated to Vesey bishop of Exeter, and dated
"ex Cellula Hatfeld regis
[i. e.
Kings Hatfield, Hertfordshire] iii. id. Novemb."
A new edition, without the Latin and the two dedications, was printed by J. Waley, 1557, 4to.—
Orationes variae.—De
ide Orthodoxa.
—To these I add, what does not deserve mention in the text, a poem translated from the French, called The CASTEL OF LABOURE,
wherein is riches, vertue, and honor.
It is of some length, and an all
gory; in which Lady REASON conquers Despair, Poverty, and other evils, which attend a poor man lately married. The Prologue begins,
"Ye mortal people that desire to obtayne."
The poem begins,
"In musyng an evenynge with me was none."
Printed for Wynken de Worde, 1506. 4to. And again by Pinson, w
thout date. 4to. In seven-lined stanzas. By mi
take I have mentioned this piece as anonymous, supr. p. 200.
.
The MIRROUR is a translation from a Latin
legiac poem, written in the year 1516, by Dominic Mancini DE QUATUOR VIRTUTIBUS. It is in the ballad-stanza
Printed as above, 1570. fol. And by Pinson, at the command of Richard earl of Kent. Without date, 4to. The Latin elegiacs are printed in the margin, which have been frequently printed. At Basil, 1543. At Antwerp, 1559. With the epigram of Peter Carmelian annexed. And often before. Lastly, at the end of MARTINI
Braccarensis Formula honestae Vitae,
Helmstad. 1691. 8vo. They are dedicated
"Frederico Severinati episcopo Malleacensi."
They first appeared at Leipsic, 1516. See Trithemius, concerning another of his poems, Mancini's,
De passione domini,
cap. 995.
. Our translator, as appears by the address prefixed, had been requested by sir Giles Alyngton to abridge, or modernise, Gower's CONFESSIO AMANTIS. But the poet declined this undertaking, as unsuitable to his age, infirmities, and profession; and chose rather to oblige his patron with a grave system of ethics. It is certain that he made a prudent choice. The performance shews how little qualified he was to correct Gower.
Our author's EGLOGES, I believe, are the first that appeared in the English language
Printed as above, 1570, fol. First, I believe, by Humphry Powell. 4to. Without date. Perhaps about 1550.
. They are, like Petrarch's and Mantuan's
Whom he mentions, speaking of EGLOGES. EGLOG. I. PROL.
And in like maner, nowe lately in our dayes,
Hath other poetes attempted the same wayes,
As the most famous Baptist Mantuan
The best of that sort since poets first began,
And Frauncis Petrarke also in Italy, &c.
, of the moral and satirical kind; and contain but few touches of rural description and bucolic imagery. They seem to have been written about the year 1514
Because he praises
"noble Henry which now
departed late.
"
Afterwards he falls into a long panegyric on his successour Henry the eighth. EGLOG. i. As he does in the SHIP OF FOOLES, fol. 205. a. where he says,
This noble prince beginneth vertuously
By justice and pitie his realme to mayntayne.
He then wishes he may retake Jerusalem from the Turks; and compares him to Hercules, Achilles, &c.
. The three first are paraphrased, with very large additions, from the MISERIAE CURIALIUM of Eneas Sylvius
That is pope PIUS the second, who died in 1464. This piece is among his EPISTLES, some of which are called Tracts. EPIST. CLVI.
, and treat of the
Miseryes of Courtiers and Courtes of all Princes in general.
The fourth, in which is introduced a long poem in stanzas, called the
Tower of Vertue and Honour
It is properly an elegy on the death of the duke of Norfolk, lord high admiral.
,
of the behaviour of riche men agaynst poetes.
The fifth,
of the disputation of citizens and men of the country.
These pastorals, if they deserve the name, contain many allusions to the times. The poet is prolix in his praises of Alcock bishop of Ely, and founder of Jesus college in Cambridge
This very learned and munificent prelate deservedly possessed some of the highest dignities in church and state. He was appointed bishop of Ely in 1486. He died at Wisbich, 1501. See Whart. ANGL. SACR. i. 675. 801. 381. Rosse says, that he was tutor to prince Edward, afterwards Edward the fifth, but removed by the king's uncle Richard. Rosse, I think, is the only historian who records this anecdote. HIST. REG. ANGL. p. 212. edit. Hearn.
.
Yes since his dayes a cocke was in the fen
The isle of Ely.
,
I knowe his voyce among a thousand men:
He laught, he preached, he mended every wrong;
But, Coridon, alas no good thing bideth long!
He All was a Cock
ALCOCK.
, he wakened us from slepe,
And while we slumbered, he did our foldes kepe.
No cur, no foxes, nor butchers dogges wood,
Could hurte our fouldes, his watching was so good.
The hungry wolves, which that time did abounde,
What time he crowed
Among Wren's manuscript Collections, (Registr. parv. Consistorii Eliensis, called the BLACK BOOK.) the following curious memorial, concerning a long sermon preached by Alcock at saint Mary's in Cambridge, occur
.
"I. Alcock, divina gratia episcopus Eliensis prima die dominica, 1488, bonum et
blandum
sermonem praedicavit in ecclesia B. Mariae Cantabrig. qui incepit in hora prima post meridiem et duravit in horam tertiam et ultra."
He sometimes, and even in the episcopal character, condescended to sport with his own name. He published an address to the clergy assembled at Barnwell, under the title of GALLI CANTUS
ad con
ratres suos curatos in synodo apud Barnwell,
25 Sept. 1498. To which is annexed his CONSTITUTION for celebrating certain feasts in his diocese. Printed for Pinson, 1498. 4to. In the beginning is the figure of the bishop preaching to his clergy, with two cocks on each side. And there is a cock in the first page. By the way, Alcock wrote many other pieces. The HILL OF PERFECTION, from the Latin. For Pinson, 1497. 4to. For Wynkyn de Worde, 1497. 4to. Again, for the same, 1501. 4to. THE ABBY OF THE HOLY GHOST
that shall be founded and grounded in a clear conscience, in which abbey shall dwell twenty and nine ladies gh
stly.
For the same, 1531. 4to. Again, for the same, without date, but before 1500. 4to. At the end,
"Thus endeth without bost, The Abby of the holi go
t."
[See MSS. Harl. 5272. 3.—1704. 9. fol. 32. b. And MSS. C. C. C. Oxon. 155. And MSS. MORE, 191.] SPOUSAGE OF A VIRGIN TO CHRIST, 1486. 4to. HOMELIAE VULGARES. MEDITATIONES PIAE. A fragment of a comment upon the SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS, in English verse, is supposed to be by bishop Alcock, MSS. Harl. 1704. 4. fol. 13.
, abashed at the sounde.
This cocke was no more abashed of the foxe,
Than is a lion abashed of an oxe.
When he went, faded the floure of al the fen;
I boldly sweare this cocke trode never hen!
Alcock, while living, erected a beautiful sepulchral chapel in his cathedral, still remaining, but miserably defaced. To which the shepherd alludes in the lines that follow:
This was the father of thinges pastorall,
And that well sheweth his cathedrall.
There was I lately, aboute the midst of May:
Coridon, his church is twenty sith more gay
Then all the churches between the same and Kent;
There sawe I his tombe and chapel excellent.—
Our parishe church is but a dongeon
To that gay churche in comparison.—
When I sawe his figure lye in the chapel side, &c
E
LOG. i. Signat. A. iii.
.
In another place he thus represents the general lamentation for the death of this worthy prelate: and he rises above himself in describing the sympathy of the towers, arches, vaults, and images, of Ely monastery.
The prati
palace by him made in the fen
He rebuilt, or greatly improved, the episcopal palace at Ely.
,
The maidès, widowes, the wives, and the men,
With deadly dolour were pearsed to the hearte,
When death constraynd this shepherd to departe.
Corne, grasse, and fieldes, mourned for wo and payne,
For oft his prayer for them obtayned rayne.
The pleasaunt floures for him faded eche one.—
The okès, elmè: every sorte of dere
Beasts, quadrupeds of all kinds. So in the romance of SYR BEVIS, Signat. F. iii.
Rattes and myse and such smal
dere
Was his meate that seven yere.
Whence Shakespeare took, as Dr. Percy has observed, the well-known distich of the madman in KING LEAR, ACT iii. Sc. 4
Mice and rats and such small
decre
Have been Tom's food for seven long y
er
.
It cannot now be donbted, that Shakespeare in this passage wrote
deer,
instead of
g
er
or
cheer,
which have been conjecturally substituted by his commentators.
Shrunke under shadowes, abating all their chere.
The mightie walles of Ely monastery,
The stonès, rockes, and towrès semblably,
The marble pillours, and images ech
one,
Swete all for sorrowe, when this cocke was gone, &c
EGL. iii.
.
It should be remembered, that these pastorals were probably written while our poet was a monk of Ely: and although Alcock was then dead, yet the memory of his munificence and piety was recent in the mo
astery
He also compliments Alcock's prede
essour Moreton, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury: not without an allusion to his troubles, and restoration to favour, under Richard the third and Henry the seventh. EGL. iii.
And shepheard MORETON, when he dur
t not appeare,
Howe his olde servauntes
ere carefull of his chere;
In payne and pleasour they kept fidelitie,
Till grace agayne gave him authoritie, &c. And again, EGL. iiii.
Micene [Mecenas] and MORETON be dead
and gone certaine.
The
Deane of Powles,
I suppose dean Colet, is c
lebrated as a preacher, ibid. As is,
"The olde friar that wonned in Greenwich,"
EGL. v.
.
Speaking of the dignity and antiquity of shepherds, and particularly of Christ at his birth being first seen by shepherds, he seems to describe some large and splendid picture of the Nativity painted on the walls of Ely cathedral.
I sawe them myselfe well paynted on the wall,
Late gasing upon our churche cathedrall:
I saw great wethers, in picture, and small lambes,
Daunsing, some sleping, some sucking of their dams;
And some on the grounde, mesemed, lying still:
Then sawe I horsemen appendant of an hill;
And the three kings, with all their company,
Their crownes glistering bright and oriently,
With their presents and giftès misticall:
All this behelde I in picture on the wall
EGL. v.
.
Virgil's poems are thus characterised, in some of the best turned lines we find in these pastorals:
He sunge of fieldes, and tilling of the grounde,
Of shepe and oxen, and battayle did he sounde;
So shrille he sounded in termes eloquent
I trowe his tunes went to the firmament
EGL. iv.
.
He gives us the following idea of the sports, spectacles, and pleasures, of his age.
Some men deliteth beholding men to fight,
Or goodly knightes in pleasaunt apparayle,
Or sturdie souldiers in bright harnes and male
Armour and coats of mail.
.—
Some glad is to see these ladies beauteous,
Goodly appoynted in clothing sumpt
ous:
A number of people appoynted in like wise
Apparelled in uniform.
In costly clothing, after the newest gise;
Sportes, disgising
Masques, &c
, fayre coursers mount and praunce,
Or goodly ladies and knightes sing and daunce:
To see fayre houses, and curious picture,
Or pleasaunt hanging
Tapestry.
, or sumpteous vesture,
Of silke, of purpure, or golde moste orient,
And other clothing divers and excellent:
Hye curious buildinges, or palaces royall,
Or chapels, temples fayre and substanciall,
Images graven, or vaultes curious
Roofs, curiously vaulted.
;
Gardeyns, and meadowes, or places
Houses, Seats.
delicious,
Forests and parkes well furnished with dere,
Cold pleausant streames, or wellès fayre and clere,
Curious cundytes, &c
EGL. ii. I shall here throw together in the Notes, some traits in these Eclogues of the common customs and manners of the times. A shepherd, after mentioning his skill in shooting birds with a bow, says, EGL. i.
No shephearde throweth the
axletr
so farre.
A gallant is thus described, EGL. ii.
For women use to love them most of all,
Which boldly bosteth, or that can sing and jet;
Whiche hath the maistry oftimes in tournament,
Or that can gambauld, or dance feat and gent.
The following sorts of wine are recited, EGL. ii.
As muscadell, caprike, r
mney, and malmesy,
From Genoe brought, from Greece, or Hungary.
As are the dainties of the table, ibid. A shepherd at court must not think to eat,
—Swanne, nor heron,
Curlewe, nor crane.—
Again, ibid.
What fishe is of favour swete and delicious,—
Rosted or sodden in swete herbes or wine;
Or fried in oyle, most saporous and fine.—
—The pasties of a hart.—
The crane, the fesaunt, the pecocke, and curlewe,
The partriche, plover, bit
orn, and heronsewe:—
Seasoned so well in licour redolent,
That the hall is full of pleasant smell and sent.
At a feast at court, ibid.
Slowe be the sewers in serving in alway,
But swift be they after, taking the meate away:
A speciall custom is used them amonge,
No good dishe to suffer on borde to be long:
If the dishe be pleasaunt, eyther fleshe or fishe,
Te
handes at once swarme in the dishe:
And if it be fl
she ten knives shall thou se
Mangling the fleshe, and in the platter flee:
To put there thy handes is perill without fayle,
Without a gauntlet or els a glove of mayle.
The two last lines remind us of a saying of Quin, who declared it was not safe to sit down to a turtle-feast in one of th
city-halls, without a basket-hilted knife and
ork. Not that I suppose Quin borrowed his bon mots from black letter books.
The following lines point out some of the festive tales of our ancestors. EGL. iv.
Yet would I gladly heare some mery FIT
Of Mayde Marian, or els of Robin Hood;
Or Bentley's Ale which cha
eth well the blood,
Of Perte of Norwich, or sauce of Wilberton,
Or buckish Toby well-stuffed as a ton.
He mentions
Bentley's Ale,
which
maketh me to winke,
EGL. ii.
Some of our antient domestic pastimes and amusements are recorded, EGL. iv.
Then is it pleasure the yonge maydens amonge
To watche by the fire the winter-nightès long:—
And in the ashes some playès for to marke,
To cover wardens [pears] for faulte of other warke:
To toste white shevers, and to make prophitroles;
And, a
tir talking, oftimes to fill the bowles, &c.
He mentions some musical instrument
, EGL. ii.
—Methinkes no mirth is scant,
Where no rejoysing of minstrelsie doth wan
:
The bagpipe or fiddle to us is d
lectable, &c.
And the mercantile commodities of different countries and cities, EGL. iv.
England hath cloth, Bordeus hath
ore of wine,
Cornwalle hath tinne, and Lymster wool
s fine.
London hath scarlet, and Bristowe pleasaunt red, &c.
Of songs at feasts, EGL
iv.
When your fat dishes smoke hot upon your table,
Then laude ye songes and balades magnifie,
If they be merry, or written craftely,
Ye clappe your handes and to the makinge harke,
And one say to another, lo here a proper warke.
He says that minstrels and singers are highly favoured at court, especially those of the
French gise.
EGL. ii. Also
jugglers
and
pipers,
EGL. iv.
.
We have before seen, that our author and Skelton were rivals. He alludes to Skelton, who had been laureated at Oxford, in the following lines.
Then is he decked as
poete laureate,
When stinking Thais made him her
graduate:
—
If they have smelled the
artes triviall,
They count them poets
hye and heroicall
E
L. iv.
.
The TOWRE OF VERTUE AND HONOUR, introduced as a song of one of the shepherds into these pastorals, exhibits no very masterly strokes of a sublime and inventive fancy. It has much of the trite imagery usually applied in the fabrication of these ideal edifices. It, however, shews our author in a new walk of poetry. This magnificent tower, or castle, is built on inaccessible cliffs of flint: the walls are of gold, bright as the sun, and decorated with
olde historyes and pictures manyfolde:
the turrets are beautifully shaped. Among its heroic inhabitants are king Henry the eighth, Howard duke of Norfolk, and the earl of Shrewsbury. LABOUR is the porter at the gate, and VIRTUE governs the house. LABOUR is thus pictured, with some degree of spirit.
Fearfull is LABOUR, without favour at all,
Dreadfull of visage, a monster intractable;
Like Cerberus lying at gates infernall;
To some men his looke is halfe intollerable,
His shoulders large for burden strong and able,
His bodie bristled, his necke mightie and stiffe;
By sturdie sinewes his joynts strong and stable,
Like marble stones his handès be as stiffe.
Here must man vanquish the dragon of Cadmus,
Gainst the Chimere here stoutly must he fight;
Here must he vanquish the fearfull Pegasus,
For the golden flece here must he shewe his might:
If LABOUR gainsay, he can nothing be right:
This monster LABOUR oft changeth his figure,
Sometime an oxe, a bore, or lion wight,
Playnely he seemeth thus changeth his nature.
Like as Protheus ofte changeth his stature.
* * * * * * * * *
Under his browes he dreadfully doth lowre
With glistering eyes, and side-dependant beard,
For thirst and hunger alway his chere is soure,
His horned forehead doth make faynt hearts afeard.
Alway he drinketh, and yet alway is drye,
The sweat distilling with droppes abundant, &c.
e EGL. iv.
The poet adds, that when the noble Howard had long boldly contended with this hideous monster, had broken the bars and doors of the castle, had bound the porter, and was now preparing to ascend the tower of Virtue and Honour, FORTUNE and DEATH appeared, and interrupted his progress
bid.
.
The first modern Latin Bucolics are those of Petrarch, in number twelve, written about the year 1350
BUCOL
CORUM ECLOGAE XI
.
. The Eclogues of Mantuan, our author's model, appeared about the year 1400, and were followed by many others. Their number multiplied so soon, that a collection of thirty-eight modern bucolic poets in Latin was printed at Basil, in the year 1546
Viz. xxxviii. AUTHOR
BUCOLICI, Basil. 1546. 8vo.
. These writers judged this indirect and disguised mode of dialogue, consisting of simple characters which spoke freely and plainly, the most safe and convenient vehicle for abusing the corruptions of the church. Mantuan became so popular, as to acquire the estimation of a classic, and to be taught in schools. Nothing better proves the reputation in which this writer was held, than a speech of Shakespeare's pedant, the pedagogue Holofernes.
"
Fauste, precor, gelida quando pecus omne sub ulmo
One of Mantuan's lines. Farnaby in his Preface to Martial says, that
Fauste precor gelida,
was too often preferred to
Arma virumque cano.
I think there is an old black letter translation of Mantuan into English. Another translation appeared by one Thomas Harvey, 16
6. Mantuan was three times printed in England before the year 1600. Viz. B. Mantuani Carmelitae theologi ADOLESCENTIA seu BUCOLICA. With the commentary of Jodocus Badius. Excud. G. Dewes and H. Marshe, 1584. 12mo. Again, for the same, the same year, 12mo. Again, for Robert Dexter, 1598. 12mo. With Arguments to the Eclogues, and Notes by John Murmelius, &c.
, and so forth. Ah, good old MANTUAN! I may speak of thee, as the traveller doth of Venice,
Vinegia, Vinegia, chi non te v
di, ei non te pregia.
Old MANTUAN! Old MANTUAN! Who understandeth thee not, loveth thee not
LOVE'S LAB. L. ACT iv. Sc. 3.
."
But although Barklay copies Mantuan, the recent and separate publication in England of Virgil's bucolics, by Wynkyn de Worde
BUCOLICA VIRGILII
cum commento familiari.
At the end,
Ad juvenes
ujus Maro
iani operis commendatio. Die vero
viii
Aprilis.
4to. And they were reprinted by the same, 1514, and 1516.
, might partly suggest the new idea of this kind of poetry.
With what avidity the Italian and French poets, in their respective languages, entered into this species of composition, when the rage of Latin versification had subsided, and for the purposes above-mentioned, is an inquiry reserved for a future period. I shall only add here, that before the close of the fifteenth century, Virgil's bucolics were translated into Italian
Viz. LA BUCOLICA DI VIRGILIO per Fratrem Evangelistam FOSSA de Cremona ord. servorum. In Venezia, 1494. 4to. But thirteen years earlier we find, Bernardo PULCI nella BUCOLICA di Virgilio: di Jeronimo BENIVIENI, Jacopo FIORINO Buoninsegni de Sienna: Epistole di Luca Pulci. In Firenze, per Bartolomeo Miscomini, 1484. A dedication is per
ixed, by which it appears, that Buoninsegni wrote a PISCATORY ECLOGUE, the first ever written in Italy, in the year 1468. There was a second edition of Pulci's v
rsion, La BUCOLICA di VIRGILIO tradotta per Bernardo PULCI con l'Elegie. In Fiorenza, 1494.
, by Bernardo Pulci, Fossa de Cremona, Benivieni, and Fiorini Buoninsegni.
SECT. VIII.
IT is not the plan of this work to comprehend the Scotch poetry. But when I consider the close and national connection between England and Scotland in the progress of manners and literature, I am sensible I should be guilty of a partial and defective representation of the poetry of the former, was I to omit in my series a few Scotch writers, who have adorned the present period, with a degree of sentiment and spirit, a command of phraseology, and a fertility of imagination, not to be found in any English poet since Chaucer and Lydgate: more especially as they have left striking specimens of allegorical invention, a species of composition which appears to have been for some time almost totally extinguished in England.
The first I shall mention is William Dunbar, a native of Salton in East Lothian, about the year 1470. His most celebrated poems are The THISTLE AND THE ROSE, and THE GOLDEN TERGE.
The THISTLE AND THE ROSE was occasioned by the marriage of James the fourth, king of Scotland, with Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry the seventh, king of England: an event, in which the whole future political state of both nations was vitally interested, and which ultimately produced the union of the two crowns and kingdoms. It was finished on the ninth day of May in the year 1503, nearly three months before the arrival of the queen in Scotland: whose progress from Richmond to Edinburgh was attended with a greater magnificence of parade, processions, and spectacles, than I ever remember to have seen on any similar occasion
See a memoir, cited above, in Leland's COLL. tom. iii. APPEND. edit. 1770. p. 265. It is worthy of particular notice, that during this expedition there was in the magnificent suite of the princess a company of players, under the direction of one John Inglish, who is sometimes called Johannes.
"Amonge the saide lordes and the qweene was in order, Johannes and his companye, the menstrells of musicke, &c."
p 267. See also, p. 299. 300. 280. 289. In the midst of a most splendid procession, the princess rode on horse-back behind the king into the city of Edinburgh, p. 287. Afterwards the ceremonies of this stately marriage are described; which yet is not equal, in magnificence and expence, to that of Richard the second with Isabell of France, at Calais, in the year 1397. This last-mentioned marriage is recorded with the most minute circumstances, the dresses of the king and the new queen, the names of the French and English nobility who attended, the presents, one of which is a golden cup studded with jewels, and worth three thousand pounds, given on both sides, the banquets, entertainments, and a variety of other curious particulars, in five large vellum pages, in an antient Register of Merton priory in Surrey, in old French. MSS. LAUD, E. 54. fol. 105. b. Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. Froissart
who is most commonly prolix in describing pompous ceremonies, might have greatly enriched his account of the same royal wedding, from this valuable and authentic record. See his CRON. tom. iv. p. 226. ch. 78. B. penult. Paris, 1574. fol. Or lord Berners's Translation, vol. ii. f. 275. cap. ccxvi. edit. Pinson, 1523. fol.
. It may be pertinent to premise, that Margaret was a singular patroness of the Scotch poetry, now beginning to flourish. Her bounty is thus celebrated by Stewart of Lorne, in a Scotch poem, called LERGES OF THIS NEW YEIR DAY, written in the year 1527.
Grit god relief
Great god help, &c.
MARGARET our quene!
For and scho war and scho has bene
If she continues to do as she has done.
Scho wold be larger of lufray
Bounty. Fr.
L'Ossre.
Than all the laif that I of mene
Any other I could speak of.
,
For lerges
Largess. Bounty.
of this new-yeir day
St. x.
.
Dunbar's THISTLE AND ROSE is opened with the following stanzas, which are remarkable for their descriptive and picturesque beauties.
Quhen
When.
Qu
has the force of
w.
Merche was with variand windis past,
And Apperyll had with her silver shouris
Tane leif
Taken Leave.
of Nature, with ane orient blast,
And lusty May, that muddir
Mother.
is of flouris
Had maid the birdis to begyn thair houris
Mattin orisons. From
Horae
in the missal. So again in the GOLDEN TERGE, St. ii. Where he also calls the birds the
chapel-clarkes
of Venus, St. iii. In the COURTE OF LOVE, Chaucer introduces the birds singing a mass in honour of May. Edit. Urr. p. 570. v. 1353. seq.
On May-day, when the larke began to ryse,
To MATTINS went the lustie nighingale.
He begins the service with
Domine labia.
The eagle sings the
Venite.
The popingay
C
eli
narrant.
The peacock
Dominus regnavit.
The owl
Benedicite.
The
Te Deum
is converted into
T
Deum
AMORIS, and sung by the thrush, &c. &c. Skelton, in the BOKE OF PHILIP SPARROW, ridicules the missal, in supposing various parts of it to be sung by birds. p. 226. edit. Lond. 1739, 12mo. Much the same sort of fiction occurs in Sir David Lyndesay's CO
PLAYNT OF THE PAPYNGO, edit. ut infr. SIGNAT. B. iii.
Suppose the geis and hennis suld cry alarum,
And we sall serve
s
cundum usum Sarum,
&c.
,
Amang the tendir odouris reid and quhyt,
Quhois harmony to heir it was delyt:
In bed at morrow sleiping as I lay,
Methoct Aurora, with her cristall ene
In at th
window lukit
Looked.
by the day,
And halsit
Hailed.
me with visage pale and grene;
On quhois hand a lark sang, fro the splene
With good will. Loudly.
"Awak, luvaris
Lovers.
, out of your slemering
Slumbering.
,
"Se how the lusty morrow doth upspring!"
Methoct freshe May befoir my bed upstude
In weid
Attire.
depaynt of mony diverse hew,
Sober, benygn, and full of mansuetude,
In bright atteir of flouris forgit new
From Chaucer, MILLER'S TAL
, v. 147. p. 25. Urr.
Full brightir was the shining of hir hewe
Than in the Towre the noble
orged newe.
,
Hevinly of color, quhyt, reid, brown, and blew,
Balmit in dew, and gilt with Phebus' bemys;
Quhil al the house illumynit of her lemys
Brightnes
.
.
MAY then rebukes the poet, for not rising early, according to his annual custom, to celebrate the approach of the spring; especially as the lark has now announced the dawn of day, and his heart in former years had always,
—glaid and blissful bene
Sangis
Songs.
to mak undir the levis grene
St. iv. See Chaucer's KNIGHT'S TALE, v. 1042. p. 9. Urr.
She was arisin, and all redie dight,
For May will have no sluggardy annight:
The season prikkith every gentill herte;
And makith it out of his slepe to sterte,
And sayth, aryse, and do May observaunce, &c.
.
The poet replies, that the spring of the present year was unpromising and ungenial; unattended with the usual song of birds, and serenity of sky: and that storms and showers, and the loud blasts of the horn of
lord
Eolus, had usurped her mild dominion, and hitherto prevented him from wandering at leisure under the vernal branches. MAY rejects his excuse, and with a smile of majesty commands him to arise, and to perform his annual homage to the flowers, the birds, and the sun. They both enter a delicious garden, filled with the richest colours and odours. The sun suddenly appears in all his glory, and is thus described in the luminous language of Lydgate.
The purpour sone, with tendir bemys reid,
In orient bricht as angell did appeir,
Thorow goldin skyis putting up his heid,
Quhois gilt tressis schone so wondir cleir,
That all the world take comfort far and neir
St. viii.
.
Immediately the birds, like the morning-stars, singing together, hail the unusual appearance of the sun-shine.
And, as the blissful sone of cherarchy
The hierarchy. See JOB, ch. xxxviii. v. 7. The morning-stars singing together.
,
The fowlis sung throw comfort of the licht;
The burddis did with oppin voices cry,
"O luvaris, fo away thow dully nicht,
"And welcum day that comfortis every wicht.
"Hail May, hail Flora, hail Aurora schene,
"Hail princes Nature, hail Venus luvis quene
S
. ix.
.
NATURE is then introduced, issuing her interdict, that the progress of the spring should be no longer interupted, and that Neptune and Eolus should cease from disturbing the waters and air.
Dame Nature gaif an inhibitioun thair,
To fers Neptune, and Eolus the bauld
Bold.
,
Nocht to perturb the wattir nor the air;
And that no schouris
Read
Scho-u-ris.
nor blastis cawld
Effray suld
Should hurt.
floris, nor fowlis on the fauld;
Scho bad eke Juno goddes of the sky
That scho the hevin suld amene and dry
St. x.
.
This preparation and suspence are judicious and ingenious; as they give dignity to the subject of the poem, awaken our curio
ity, and introduce many poetical circumstances. NATURE immediately commands every bird, beast, and flower, to appear in her presence; and, as they had been used to do every May-morning, to acknowledge her universal sovereignty. She sends the roe to bring the beasts, the swallow to collect the birds, and the yarrow
The yarrow is
Achillea,
or Millefolium, commonly called
Sneeswort.
There is no reason for selecting this plant to go on a message to the flowers; but that its name has been supposed to be derived from
Arrow,
being held a remedy for healing wounds inflicted by that weapon. The poet, to apologise for his boldness in personifying a plant, has added,
"full craftely conjurit scho."
St. xii.
to summon the flowers. They are assembled before her in an instant. The lion advances first, whose figure is drawn with great force and expression.
This awefull beist full terrible was of cheir,
Persing of luke, and stout of countenance,
Ryght strong of corps, of fassoun fair but feir
Fierce.
,
Lusty of shaip, lycht of deliverance,
Reid of his cullour as the ruby glance,
In field of gold he stude full mychtely
With floure de lucis sirculit
Encircled.
lustely
St. xiv.
.
This is an elegant and ingenious mode of blazoning the Scottish arms, which are a lion with a border, or tressure, adorned with flower de luces. We should remember, that heraldry was now a science of high importance and esteem. NATURE lifting up his
cluvis cleir,
or shining claws, and suffering him to rest on her knee, crowns him with a radiant diadem of precious stones, and creates him the king of beasts: at the same time she injoins him to exercise justice with mercy, and not to suffer his subjects of the smallest size or degree, to be oppressed by those of superiour strength and dignity. This part of NATURE'S charge to the lion, is closed with the following beautiful stroke, which indicates the moral tenderness of the poet's heart.
And lat no bowgle with his busteous
Boisterous. Strong.
hornis
The meik pluch ox
Plough-ox.
oppress for all hys pryd,
Bot in the yok go peciable him besyd
St. xvi.
.
She next crowns the eagle king of fowls; and sharpening his talons like darts of steel, orders him to govern great and small, the wren or the peacock, with an uniform and equal impartiality. I need not point out to my reader the political lessons couched under these commands. NATURE now calls the flowers; and observing the thistle to be surrounded with a bush of spears, and therefore qualified for war, gives him a crown of rubies, and says,
"In field go forth and fend the laif
Defend the rest.
.
The poet continues elegantly to picture other parts of the royal arms; in ordering th
thistle, who is now king of vegetables, to prefer all herbs, or flowers, of rare virtue, and rich odour: nor ever to permit the nettle to associate with the flour de lys, nor any ignoble weed to be ranked in competition with the lily. In the next stanza, where NATURE directs the thistle to honour the rose above all other flowers, exclusive of the heraldic meaning, our author with much address insinuates to king James the fourth an exhortation to conjugal fidelity, drawn from the high birth, beauty, and amiable accomplishments, of the royal bride the princess Margaret
Among the pageants exhibited at Edinburgh in honour of the nuptials, she was complimented with the following curious mixture of classical and scriptural history.
"Ny to that cross was a scarfawst [scaffold] made, where was represented Paris and the three Deesses, with Mercure that gaff hym the apyll of gold for to gyffe to the most fayre of the Thre, which he gave to Venus. In the scarfawst was also represented the Salutacion of Gabriell to the Virgyne in saying
Ave gratia,
and sens after [next,] the sollempnizacion of the very maryage betwix the said Vierge [Virgin] and Joseph."
Leland, COLL. iii. APPEND. p. 289. ut supr. Not to mention the great impropriety, which they did not perceive, of applying such a part of scripture.
.
Nor hald no udir flower in sic denty
Dainty.
Price.
As the fresche ROSE, of cullour reid and quhyt;
For gif thou dois
If thou doest.
, hurt is thyne honesty,
Considdering that no flour is so perfyt,
So full of vertew, pleasans, and delyt,
So ful of blissfull angelick bewty,
Imperial birth, honour, and dignite
St. xxi.
.
NATURE then addresses the rose, whom she calls,
"O lusty daughter most benyng,"
and whose lineage she exalts above that of the lily. This was a preference of Tudor to Valois. She crowns the rose with
clarefied
gems, the lustre of which illumines all the land. The rose is hailed queen by the flowers. Last, her praises are sung by the universal chorus of birds, the sound of which awakens the poet from his delightful dream. The fairy scene is vanished, and he calls to the muse to perpetuate in verse the wonders of the splendid vision.
Although much fine invention and sublime fabling are displayed in the allegorical visions of our old poets, yet this mode of composition, by dealing only in imaginary personages, and by excluding real characters and human actions, necessarily fails in that chief source of entertainment which we seek in antient poetry, the representation of antient manners.
Another general observation, immediately resulting from the subject of this poem, may be here added, which illustrates the present and future state of the Scotch poetry. The marriage of a princess of England with a king of Scotland, from the new communication and intercourse opened between the two courts and kingdoms by such a connection, must have greatly contributed to polish the rude manners, and to improve the language, literature, and arts, of Scotland.
The design of Dunbar's GOLDEN TERGE, is to shew the gradual and imperceptible influence of love, when too far indulged, over reason. The discerning reader will observe, that the cast of this poem is tinctured with the morality and imagery of the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, and the FLOURE AND LEAFE, of Chaucer.
The poet walks forth at the dawn of a bright day. The effects of the rising sun on a vernal landscape, with its accompaniments, are thus delineated in the manner of Lydgate, yet with more strength, distinctness, and exuberance of ornament.
Richte as the starre of day began to schyne,
When gone to bed was Vesper and Lucyne,
I raise, and by a rosier
Rose-tree.
did me rest:
Upsprang the golden candle matutyne,
With cleir depurit
Purified.
bemys chrystallyne,
Glading the mirry fowlis in thair nest:
Or Phebus was in purpour kaip
Cape. Ere Phebus was dressed in his purple robe.
revest,
Upsprang the lark, the hevenis menstral syne
Then.
,
In May intill a morrow mirthfullest.
Full angelyk the birdis sang thair houris,
Within their courtings
Curtains.
grene, within thair bouris
Apparrellit quhaite and reid with blumys sweit:
Ennamelit was the feild with all cullouris,
The perlit droppis schuke as in silver schouris
The pearled drops fell from the trees like silver showers.
,
While al in balme did branche and levis fleit
Depairt from Phebus, did Aurora greit,
Hir chrystall teiris I saw hing on the flouris,
Quhilk he for lufe all drank up with his heit.
For mirth of May, with skippis and with hoppis,
The birdis sang upon the tendir croppis
Branches.
,
With curious notes, as Venus' chapell-clarkes:
The rosis reid, now spreiding of their knoppis
Knobs. Buds.
,
Were powderit
Besprinkled. An heraldic term. See OBSERVATIONS on the FAIRY QUEEN, ii. p. 158. seq.
bricht with heavenly beryl-droppis,
Throw bemys reid lemyng as ruby sparks;
The skyis rang with schoutyng of the larks,
The purpour hevin owreskalit in silver sloppis
Covered with streaks,
slips,
of silver.
Owregilt the treis, branchis, levis and barks.
Down thruch the ryss
Through the bushes, the trees. Rice, or
Ris,
is properly a long branch. This word is still used in the west of England. Chaucer, MILLER'S TALE, v. 215. p. 26. Urr. edit.
And thereupon he had a fair surplice
As white as is the blosome on the
rice.
[See supr. vol. i. p. 428.] So in a Scotch poem by Alexander Scott, written 1562. ANTIENT SCOTTISH POEMS, Edinb. 1770. p. 194.
Welcum oure rubent rois [rose] upon the
rice.
So also Lydgate, in his poem called LONDON LICKPENNY, MSS. Harl. 367.
Hot pescode own [one] began to crye,
Straberys rype, and
cherryes in the
RYSE.
That is, as he passed through London streets, they cried, hot pease, ripe strawberries, and cherries on a
bough,
or twig.
ane revir ran with stremis
So lustely upoun the lykand
Pleasant.
lemis,
That all the lake as lamp did leme of licht,
Quhilk shaddowit all about with twynklyng glemis
The water blazed like a lamp, and threw about it shadowy gleams of twinkling light.
;
The bewis
Boughs.
baithit war in secound bemis,
Through the reflex of Phebus visage bricht
On every side the egè raise on hicht
The high-raised edges, or bank.
:
The bank was grene, the son was ful of bemis,
The streimeirs cleir as starres in frostie nicht.
The crystall cleir, the sapheir firmament,
The ruby skyies of the reid orient,
Kest
Cast.
beryl bemis on emerault bewis grene,
The rosy garth
Garden.
, depaynt, and redolent,
With purpour, asure, gold, and gowlis
Gules. The heraldic term for red.
gent,
Arrayit was, by dame Flora the quene,
Sa nobilly, that joy was for to sene:
The rocke
The rock, glittering with the reflection of the river, illuminated as with fire all the bright leaves.
Low
is flame.
, agane the river resplendent,
As low illuminate all the levis schene
ST. i. seq. Compare Chaucer's Morning, in the KNIGHT'S TALE, v. 1493. p. 12. Urr.
The mery lark, messengere of the day,
Salewith in her song the morowe gray;
And fyrie Phebus rysing up so bright
That all the orient laughith at the sight,
And with his stremis dryith in the greves
The silver dropis hanging in the leves.
It is seldom that we find Chaucer indulging his genius to an absurd excess in florid descriptions. The same cannot be said of Lydgate.
.
Our author, lulled by the music of the birds, and the murmuring of the water, falls asleep on the flowers, which he calls
Flora's mantill.
In a vision, he sees a ship approach, whose sails are like the
blossom upon the spray,
and whose masts are of gold bright as the
star of day
In our old poetry and the romances, we frequently read of ships supe
bly decorated. This was taken from real life. Froissart, speaking of the French
l
et in 1387, prepared for the invasion of England under the reign of Richard the second, says, that the ships were painted with the arms of the commanders and gilt, with banners, p
nnons, and standards, of silk: and that the masts were painted from top to bottom, glittering with gold. The ship of lord Guy of Tremoyll was so sumptuously garnished, that the painting and colours cost 2000 French franks, more than 222 pounds of English currency at that time. See Grafton's CHRON. p. 364. At his second expedition into France, in 1417, king Henry the fifth was in a ship, whose sails were of purple silk most rich
y embroidered with gold. Speed's CH
ON. B. ix. p. 636. edit. 1611. Many other instances might be brought from antient miniatures and illuminations.
. She glides swiftly through a christal bay; and lands in the blooming meadows, among the green rushes and reeds, an hundred ladies clad in rich but loose attire. They are cloathed in green kirtles; their golden tresses, tied only with gl
ttering threads, flow to the ground; and their snowy bosoms are unveiled.
Als fresche as flours that in the May upspreids
In kirtills grene, withoutin kell
Caul.
or bands
Their bricht hair hung glittering on the strand
In tresis cleir, wypit
Bound.
with golden threidis;
With pawpys
Paps.
whyt, and middills small as wands
ST. vii.
.
In this brilliant assembly, the poet sees NATURE,
dam
Venus
quene, the fr
sche
AURORA, May,
lady
Flora
schene,
Juno, Latona, Proserpine, Diana goddess of the chase and
woodis grene, lady
Clio, Minerva, Fortune, and Lucina. These
michty quenes
are crowned with diadems, glittering like the morning-star. They enter a garden. May, the queen of mirthful
months,
is supported between her sisters April and June: as she walks up and down the garden, the birds begin to sing, and NATURE gives her a gorgeous robe adorned with every colour under heaven.
Thair sawe I NATURE present till
To her.
her a gown
Riche to beholde, and noble of renoune,
Of everie hew that undir the hevin has bene
Depaint and braid
Broad.
by gud proportioun
ST. x.
.
The vegetable tribes then do their obeisance to NATURE, in these polished and elegant verses.
And every blome on branche, and eik on bank,
Opnit, and spred thair balmy levis dank,
Full law inclyneand to thair queen full cleir,
Whom for their noble nurissing thay thank
ST. xi.
.
Immediately another court, or groupe, appears. Here Cupid the king presides:
—a bow in hand ay bent,
And dreadfull arrowis groundin scherp and squhair.
Thair sawe I Mars the god armipotent
Awefull and stirnè, strong and corpulent.
Thair sawe I crabit
Crabbed.
Saturne, auld and hair
Hoar.
,
His look was lyk for to perturb the air.
Thair was Mercurius, wi
e and eloquent,
Of retorik that fund
Found.
the floris fair
ST. xiii
.
These are attended with other pagan divinities, Janus, Priapus, Eolus, Bacchus the
glader of the table,
and Pluto. They are all arrayed in green; and singing amorous ditties to the harp and lute, invite the ladies to dance. The poet quits his ambush under the trees, and pressing forward to gain a more perfect view of this tempting spectacle, is espied by Venus. She bids her
keen archers
arrest the intruder. Her attendants, a groupe of fair ladies, instantly drop their green mantles, and each discovers a huge bow. They form themselves in battle-array, and advance against the poet.
And first of all, with bow in hand ay bent,
Came dame BEAUTY, richt as scho wald me schent;
Syne followit all her damosalls in feir,
With many divers awfull instrument
Formidable weapons.
:
Into the praiss FAIR HAVING
Behaviour.
with her went;
Syne
Next.
PORTRATOR, PLESANCE, and lusty CHEIR,
Than came RESSOUN, with Schield of gold so cleir,
In plait of mail, as Mars armipotent,
Defendit me that noble
Warrio
chevellier
ST. xvii.
.
BEAUTY is assisted by
tender
YOUTH with her
virgins ying,
GREEN INNOCENCE, MODESTY, and OBEDIENCE: but their resistance was but feeble against the golden target of REASON. WOMANHOOD then leads on PATIENCE, DISCRETION, STEDFASTNESS, BENIGNE LOOK, MYLDE CHEIR, and HONEST BUSINESS.
Bot RESSOUN bare the Terge with sic constance,
Thair scharp essay might do me no deirance
Injury.
,
For all thair praiss and awfull
Weapons.
ordinance
ST. xix.
.
The attack is renewed by DIGNITY, RENOWN, RICHES, NOBILITY, and HONOUR. These, after displaying their
high
banner, and shooting a cloud of arrows, are soon obliged to retreat. Venus, perceiving the rout, orders DISSEMBLANCE to make an attempt to pierce the Golden Shield. DISSEMBLANCE, or DISSIMULATION, chuses for her archers, PRESENCE, FAIR CALLING, and CHERISHING. These bring back BEAUTY to the charge. A new and obstinate conflict ensues.
Thik was the schott of grindin arrowis kene,
Bot RESSOUN, with the Schield of Gold so schene,
Weirly
Warily.
defendit quhosoeir assayit:
The awfull schour he manly did sustene
ST. xxiii.
.
At length PRESENCE, by whom the poet understands that irresistible incentive accruing to the passion of love by society, by being often admitted to the company of the beloved object, throws a magical powder into the eyes of REASON; who is suddenly deprived of all his powers, and reels like a drunken man. Immediately the poet receives a deadly wound, and is taken prisoner by BEAUTY; who now assumes a more engaging air, as the clear eye of REASON is growing dim by intoxication. DISSIMULATION then tries all her arts on the poet: FAIR CALLING smiles upon him: CHERISHING sooths him with soft speeches: NEW ACQUAINTANCE embraces him awhile, but soon takes her leave, and is never seen afterwards. At last DANGER delivers him to the custody of GRIEF.
By this time,
"God Eolus his bugle blew."
The leaves are torn with the blast: in a moment the pageant disappears, and nothing remains but the forest, the birds, the banks, and the brook
ST. xxvi.
. In the twinkling of an eye they return to the ship; and unfurling the sails, and stemming the sea with a rapid course, celebrate their triumph with a discharge of ordinance. This was now a new topic for poetical description. The smoke rises to the firmament, and the roar is re
echoed by the rocks, with a sound as if the rain-bow had been broken.
And as I did awak of this swowning
Dream.
,
The joyfull fowlis merrily did sing
For mirth of Phebus tendir bemis schene.
Sweit was the vapours, soft the morrowing,
Hailsum the vaill
Vale.
depaynt with flours ying,
The air intemperit sober and amene;
In whit and red was al the erd besene,
Throw Naturis nobill fresch ennameling
In mirthfull May of every moneth quene
ST. xxviii.
.
Our author then breaks out into a laboured encomium on Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate. This I chuse to recite at large, as it shews the peculiar distinction antiently paid to those fathers of verse; and the high ideas which now prevailed, even in Scotland, of the improvements introduced by their writings into the British poetry, language, and literature
Other instances occur in the elder Scotch poets. See supr. p. 125.
O reverend CHAUSER, rose of rhetouris all,
As in our tonge and flour
One flower.
imperial
That raise in Britain ever, quha reidis richt
Ever rose, or sprung, in Britain, whos
reads right.
,
Tho beiris of makin
Thou bearest of poets.
the triumphs royall,
The fresche enamilit termes celestiall:
This mater couth haif illuminit full bricht
This subject would have appeared t
some advantage, had not, &c.
;
Was thou nocht of our English all the licht,
Surmounting every toung terrestriall
As far as Mayis morrow dois midnycht.
O moral GOWER, and LYDGATE laureat,
Your suggarit
Sugared.
tonguis, and
Lips.
lippis aureat
Bene till our
To our ears.
eris cause of gret delyte;
Your angelic mouth most mellifluate
Our
ude language has cleir illumynat,
And has owregilt our speiche, that imperfyte
Stude, or your goldin pennis schup to wryt
Ere your golden pens were shaped to write.
,
This yle befoir was bair and dissolat
Bare and desolate.
Of rhetorik, or lusty fresche
Elegant composition.
indyte
ST. xxx.
.
This panegyric, and the poem, is closed with an apology, couched in elegant metaphors, for his own comparative humility of style. He addresses the poem, which he calls a
litill quair.
O know quhat thou of rhetoric has spent;
Of hir lusty rosis redolent
Is nane into thy garland sett on hicht
No fresh and fragrant roses of rhetoric are placed on high in thy garland.
.
O schame
Be ashamed.
thairfor, and draw thè out of sicht!
Rude is thy weid
Weed. Dress.
, destitute, bair, and rent,
Weill aucht thou be affeirit of the licht
ST. xxxi.
!
Dunbar's DAUNCE has very great merit in the comic style of painting. It exhibits a groupe of figures touched with the capricious but spirited pencil of Callot. On the eve of Lent, a general day of confession, the poet in a dream sees a display of heaven and hell. Mahomet
Mahon. Sometimes written Mahoun, or Mahound. See Mat. Paris. p. 289. ad ann. 1236. And Du Fresne, Lat. Gloss. V. MAHUM. The christians in the crusades were accustomed to hear the Saracens swear by their prophet Mahomet: which thence became in Europe another name for the devil.
, or the devil, commands a dance to be performed by a select party of fiends; particularly by those, who in the other world had never made confession to the priest, and had consequently never received absolution. Immediately the SEVEN DEADLY SINS appear; and present a mask, or mummery, with the newest gambols just imported from France
The original is
garmountis.
In the Memoir, cited above, concerning the progress of the princess Margaret into Scotland, we have the following passage.
"The lord of Northumberland m
de his
devoir,
at the departynge, of
gambades
and
lepps,
[leaps,] as did likewise the lord Scrop the father, and many others that retorned agayne, in
takyng ther congie.
"
p. 281. [See Notes, supr. p. 253.]
. The first is PRIDE, who properly takes place of all the rest, as by
that
SIN
fell the angels.
He is described in the fashionable and gallant dress of those times: in a bonnet and gown, his hair thrown back, his cap awry, and
his gown affectedly flowing to his feet in large folds.
Let se, quoth he
Mahomet.
now quha beginis?
With that the fowll Deadly Sinnis
Begouth to l
ip attanis
Began to dance at once.
.
And first of all in dance
as PRYD,
With hair wyld bak, bonet on syde,
Lyk to make vaistie wanis;
And round about him as a quheill
Wheel.
,
Hang all in rumpillis
Rumples.
to the heill,
His kethat
Casaque, Cassock.
for the nanis
Nonce. Designedly.
.
Many proud trumpour
Deceiver. See Spenser's SIR TROMPART. Or perhaps an empty fellow, a rattle. Or Trompour may be
trumpeter,
as in Chaucer's KNIGHT'S TALE, v. 2673. See Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES, with the NOTES of the very judicious and ingenious editor. Lond. 1775. vol. iv. p. 231.
with him trippit,
Throw skaldan
Scalding.
fyr ay as they skippit
They girnd with hyddous
They grinned hideously.
granis
ST. ii.
.
Several
holy harlots
follow, attended by monks, who make great sport for the devils
ST. iii.
.
Heilie Harlottis in hawtain wyis
Haughty guise.
,
Come in with mony sindrie gyis
Gambols.
,
But yet luche nevir
Never laughed.
Mahoun:
Quhill priestis cum with bair schevin
While priests came with bare-shaven.
nekks,
That all the feynds lewche
Laughed.
, and maid gekks
Signs of d
ision.
,
Black-belly,
and
Bawsy-brown.
Black-belly and Bawsy-brown are the names of popular spirits in Scotland. The latter is perhaps our ROBIN GOODFELLOW, known in Scotland by the name of BROWNIE.
ANGER is drawn with great force, and his accompaniments are boldly feigned. His hand is always upon his knife, and he is followed, in pairs, by boasters, threateners, and quarrelsome persons, all armed for battle, and perpetually wounding one another
ST. iv.
.
Than YRE come in with sturt
Disturbance. Affray.
and stryfe;
His hand was ay upon his knyfe,
He brandeist lyk a beir:
Bostaris, braggarists, and barganeris,
Efter hym passit in pairis,
All bodin in feir of weir
Literally,
"All arrayed in feature of war."
Bodi
,
and
feir
of
war,
are in the Scotch statute-book. Sir David Lyndesay thus speaks of the s
te of Scotland during the minority of James the fifth. COMPLAYNT OF THE PAPYNGO. SIGNAT. B. iii. edit. ut infr.
Oppressioun did sa loud his bougill blaw
That n
ne durst ride but into
feir of weir.
That is,
without being armed for battle.
:
In jakkis, stryppis, and bonnettis of steil
In short jackets, plates, or slips, and bonnets of steel. Short coats of mail and helmets.
,
Thair leggis wer cheyned to the heill
Either, chained together. Or, their legs armed with iron, perhaps iron net-work, down to the heel.
,
Frawart was thair affeir
Their business was untoward. Or else, their look
roward,
fierce.
Feir
i
feature.
;
Sum upon uder with brands beft
Some struck others, their companion
, with swords.
,
Sum jagit utheris to the heft
Wounded others to the quick. To the haft.
With knyvis that scheirp coud scheir
Cut sharp.
.
ENVY is equal to the rest. Under this SIN our author takes occasion to lament, with an honest indignation, that the courts of princes should still give admittance and encouragement to the whisperers of idle and injurious reports
ST. v.
.
Next in the dance followit INVY,
Fild full of feid
Enmity.
and fellony,
Hid malyce and dispyte;
For pryvie haterit
Hatred.
that tratour trymlit
Trembled.
,
Him followit mony freik dissymlit
Dissembling gallant.
,
With feynit wordis quhyte.
And flattereris into mens facis,
And back-byttaris
Backbiters.
of sundry racis,
To ley
Lye.
that had delyte.
With rownaris
Rounders, whisperers. To
round in the ear,
or simply to
round,
was to whisper in the ear.
of fals lesingis
Falsities.
:
Allace! that courtis of noble kingis
Of tham can nevir be quyte
Free.
!
AVARICE is ushered in by a troop of extortioners, and other miscreants, patronised by the magician Warloch, or the demon of the covetous; who vomit on each other torrents of melted gold, blazing like wild-fire: and as they are emptied at every discharge, the devils replenish their throats with fresh supplies of the same liquefied metal
ST. vi.
.
SLOTH does not join the dance till he is called twice: and his companions are so slow of motion, that they cannot keep up with the rest, unless they are roused from their lethargy by being sometimes warmed with a glimpse of hell-fire
ST. vii.
.
Syne SWIRNES, at the seccound bidding,
Come lyk a sow out of a midding
Dunghill.
,
Full slepy was his grunyie
Snout. Visage.
.
Mony sweir bumbard belly-huddroun
Lazy, drunken sloven.
,
Mony slute daw and slepy duddroun
Slothful, idle, spectre.
,
Him servit ay with sounyie
Attended on him with care.
.
He drew tham forth intill a chenyie
Into a chain.
,
And Belliall, with a brydill reynie
A bridle-rein. Thong of leather.
,
Evi
lascht on the lunyie
Lashed them on the loins.
.
In daunce thay wer so slow of feit
Thay gaif tham in the fyre a heit
And maid tham quicker of conyie
Apprehension.
.
LUST enters, neighing like a horse
"Berand like a bagit horse."
The French
baguett
need not be explained.
, and is led by IDLENESS. When his associates mingle in the dance, their visages burn red like the turkis-stone
ST. viii.
. The remainder of the stanza, although highly characteristical, is too obscene to be transcribed. But this gave no offence. Their manners were too indelicate to be shocked at any indecency. I do not mean that these manners had lost their delicacy, but that they had not yet acquired the sensibility arising from civilisation. In one of the Scotch interludes of this age, written by a fashionable court-poet, among other ridiculous obscenities, the trying on of a Spanish padlock in public makes a part of theatrical representation.
GLUTTONY brings up the rear; whose insatiable rout are incessantly calling out for meat and drink, and although they are drenched by the devils with draughts of melted lead, they still ask for more.
Than the fowll monster GLUTTONY,
Of wame
Womb. Belly.
unsasiable and gredy,
To daunce syn did him dress:
Him followit mony fowll drunckhart,
With can and collop, cop
Cup.
and quart,
In surfett and excess.
Full many a waistless wally-drag
Out-cast.
,
With waimis
Wombs. Bel
ies.
unweildable did furth wag,
In creische
Fat.
that did incress:
Drink, ay thay cryit with mony a gaip
Gape.
,
The feynds gave them hait leid to lap
Hot lead to drink, to lap.
Thair lovery
Desire. Appetite.
was na less
ST. ix.
.
At this infernal dance no minstrels plaid. No GLEEMAN, or minstrel, ever went to hell; except one who committed murder, and was admitted to an inheritance in hell
by brief of richt,
that is,
per breve de recto
ST. x.
. This circumstance seems an allusion to some real fact.
The concluding stanza is entirely a satire on the highlanders. Dunbar, as I have already observed, was born in Lothian, a county of the Saxons. The mutual antipathy between the Scottish Saxons and the Highlanders was excessive, and is not yet quite eradicated. Mahoun, or Mahomet, having a desire to see a highland pageant, a fiend is commissioned to fetch Macfadyan; an unmeaning name, chosen for its harshness. As soon as the infernal messenger begins to publish his summons, he gathers about him a prodigious crowd of
Ersche men;
who soon took up great room in hell. These loquacious
termagants
began to chatter like rooks and ravens, in their own barbarous language: and the devil is so stunned with their horrid yell, that he throws them down to his deepest abyss, and smothers them with smoke.
Than cryd Mahoun for a heleand padyane,
Syn ran a feynd to fetch Makfadayne
Far northwart in a nuke
Nook.
:
Be he the correnoth had done schout
As soon as he had made the cry of distress, what the French call
a l'aide.
Some suppose, that the
correnoth,
or
corynoch,
is a highland tune. In MAK-GREGOR'S TESTAMENT, [MS. infr. ci
at.] the author speaks of being out-lawed by the CORRINOCH, v. 51.
The loud CORRINOCH then did me exile,
Throw Lorne, Argyle, Monteith, and Braidalbane, &c.
That is, The
Hue and Cry.
I presume, what this writer, in another place, calls the KING'S-HORN, is the same thing, v. 382.
Quhen I have beine aft at the KINGIS HORNE.
,
Ersche men so gadderit him about,
In hell grit rume thay tuke:
Thae turmagantis
Perhaps the poet does not mean the common idea annexed to
termagant.
The context seems to shew, that he alludes to a species of wild-fowl, well known in the highlands, and called in the Scotch statutebook
termigant.
Thus he compares the highlanders to a flock of their country birds. For many illustrations of this poem, I am obliged to the learned and elegant editor of ANTIENT SCOTTISH POEMS, lately published from Lord Hyndford's manuscript: and to whom I recommend a task, for which he is well qualified, The History of Scotch Poetry.
with tag and tatter
Full loud in Ersche begout to clatter,
And rowp
Chattered hoarsely.
lyk revin and ruke.
The devil sa devit
Deafened.
wes with thair yell
That in the deepest pot of hell
He smorit them with smoke
ST. xi.
.
I have been prolix in my citations and explanations of
his poem, because I am of opinion, that the imagination of Dunbar is not less suited to satirical than to sublime allegory: and that he is the first poet who has appeared with any degree of spirit in this way of writing since Pierce Plowman. His THISTLE AND ROSE, and GOLDEN TERGE, are generally and justly mentioned as his capital works: but the natural complexion of his genius is of the moral and didactic cast. The measure of this poem is partly that of Sir THOPAS in Chaucer: and hence we may gather by the way, that Sir THOPAS was antiently viewed in the light of a ludicrous composition. It is certain that the pageants and interludes of Dunbar's age must have quickened his invention to form those grotesque groupes. The exhibition of MORALITIES was now in high vogue among the Scotch. A Morality was played at the marriage of James the fourth and the princess Margaret
MEMOIR, ut supr. p. 300.
. Mummeries, which they call GYSARTS, composed of moral personifications, are still known in Scotland: and even till the beginning of this century, especially among the festivities of Christmas, itinerant maskers were admitted into the houses of the Scotch nobility.
SECT. XIII.
ANother of the distinguished luminaries, that marked the restoration of letters in Scotland at the commencement of the sixteenth century, not only by a general eminence in elegant erudition, but by a cultivation of the vernacular poetry of his country, is Gawen Douglass. He was descended from a noble family, and born in the year 1475
Hume, HIST. DOUGL. p. 219.
. According to the practice of that age, especially in Scotland, his education perhaps commenced in a grammar-school of one of the monasteries: there is undoubted proof, that it was finished at the university of Paris. It is probable, as he was intended for the sacred function, that he was sent to Paris for the purpose of studying the canon law: in consequence of a decree promulged by James the first, which tended in some degree to reform the illiteracy of the clergy, as it injoined, that no ecclesiastic of Scotland should be preferred to a prebend of any value without a competent skill in that science
Lesl. REB. GEST. SCOT. Lib. ix.
. Among other high promotions in the church, which his very singular accomplishments obtained, he was provost of the collegiate church of saint Giles at Edinburgh, abbot of the opulent convent of Abberbrothrock, and bishop of Dunkeld. He appears also to have been nominated by the queen regent to the archbishoprick, either of Glasgow, or of saint Andrew's: but the appointment was repudiated by the pope
Thynne, CONTINUAT. HIST. SCOT. 455.
. In the year 1513, to avoid the persecutions of the duke of Albany, he fled from Scotland into England, and was most graciously received by king Henry the eighth; who, in consideration of his literary merit, allowed him a liberal pension
Hollinsh. SCOT. 307.—iii. 872.
. In England he contracted a friendship with Polydore Virgil, one of the classical scholars of Henry's court
Bale, xiv. 58.
. He died of the plague in London, and was buried in the Savoy church, in the year 1521
Weever, FUN. MON. p. 446. And Stilling
l. ORIG. BRIT. p. 54.
.
In his early years he translated Ovid's ART OF LOVE, the favorite Latin system of the science of gallantry, into Scottish metre, which is now lost
See edit. Edinb. fol. 1710. p. 483. In the EPISTLE, or EPILOGUE, to Lord Sinclair. I believe the editor's name is ROBERT FREEBAIRN, a Scotchman. This translation was first printed at London, 1553. 4to. bl. lett.
. In the year 1513, and in the space of sixteen months
Lesl. RE
. GEST. SCOT. lib. ix. p. 379. Rom. 1675.
, he translated into Scotch heroics the Eneid of Virgil, with the additional thirteenth book by Mapheus Vegius, at the request of his noble patron Henry earl of Sinclair
EPILOGUE, ut supr.
. But it was projected
o early as the year 1501. For in one of his poems written that year
The PALICE OF HONOUR. ad calcem.
he promises to Venus a translation of Virgil, in attonement for a ballad he had published against her court: and when the wo
k was finished, he tells Lord Sinclair, that he had now made his peace with Venus, by translating the poem which celebrated the actions of her son Eneas
EPIL. ut supr.
. No metrical version of a classic had yet appeared in English; except of Boethius, who scarcely deserves that appellation. Virgil was hitherto commonly known, only by Caxton's romance on the subject of the Eneid; which, our author says, no more resembles Virgil, than the devil is like saint Austin
PROLOGUE to the Translation, p. 5. The manuscript notes written in the margin of a copy of the old quarto edition o
this translation, by Patrick Junius, which bishop Nicolson (HIST. LIBR. p. 99.) declares to be excellent, are of no consequence, Bibl. Bodl. ARCHIV. SELD. B
54. 4to. The same may be said of Junius's Index of obsolete wor
s in this translation, Cod. MSS. Jun. 114. (5225.) Se
also Mus. Ashmol.
Diverse Scotch words,
&c. COD. ASHM. 846. 13.
.
This translation is executed with equal spirit and fidelity: and is a proof, that the lowland Scotch and English languages were now nearly the same. I mean the style of composition
more especially in the glaring affectation of anglicising Latin words. The several books are introduced with metrical prologues, which are often highly poetical; and shew that Douglas's proper walk was original poetry. In the prologue to the sixth book, he wishes for the Sybill's golden bough, to
nable him to follow his master Virgil through the dark and dangerous labyrinth of the infernal regions
In the PROLOGUE to the eighth book, the alliterative manner of Pierce Plowman is adopted.
. But the most conspicuous of these prologues is a d
scription of May. The greater part of which I will insert
Pag. 400.
.
As fresche Aurore, to mychty Tithone spous,
Ischit
Issued.
of her saffron bed, and euyr
Ivory.
hous,
In crammesy
Crimson.
clad and granite violate,
With sanguyne cape, the selvage
Edge.
purpurate;
Unschet
Unshut, i. e. opened.
the wyndois of hir large hall,
Spred all with rosis, and full of balme royall.
And eik the hevinly portis cristallyne
Upwarpis brade, the warlde till illumyne.
The twynkling stremouris
Streamers.
of the orient
Sched purpour sprayngis with gold and asure ment
Streaks mingled with, &c.
Eous the stede, with ruby hammys rede,
Abouf the seyis liftis furth his hede
Of culloure sore, and somedele broun as bery,
For to alichtin and glad our emispery;
The flambe out brastin at the neis thirlis.—
Quhil schortlie, with the blesand
Blazing.
torche of day,
Abulȝeit
Fr. Habillè. Cloathed.
in his lemand
Luminous.
fresche array,
Furth of his palice ryall ischit Phebus,
With golden croun and visage glorious,
Crisp haris
Curled locks.
, bricht as chrissolite or thopas;
For quhais hew
Whose excessive brightness.
mycht nane behold his face:
The firie sparkis brasting from his ene,
To purge the air, and gilt the tender grene.—
The auriat phanis
Fans, or vanes, of gold.
of his trone soverane
With glitterand glance overspred the octiane
Ocean.
;
The largè fludis, lemand all of licht,
Bot with ane blenk
Only with one glance.
of his supernal sicht,
For to behald, it was ane glore to se
The stabillyt
Settled, calmed.
wyndis, and the calmyt se;
The soft sessoun
Season.
, the firmament serene;
The loune illuminate are
Air without wind, &c.
, and firth
Frith.
amene:
The silver-scalit fyschis on the grete
Sand, gravel.
,
Ouer thowrt
Athwart, across, through.
clere stremes sprinkilland
Gliding swiftly,
ith a tremulous motion, or vibration, of their tails.
for the hete,
With fynnys schinand broune as synopare
Cinnabar.
,
And chesal talis
Tails shaped like chissels.
, stourand here and there
Swimming swiftly, darting hastily.
:
The new cullour, alichting
Illuminating.
all the landis,
Forgane the stanryis schene
Over, upon, over-against, the bright gravel, or small stones, thrown out on th
banks of rivers. Hence, the strands were all of beryl.
, and beriall strandis:
Quhil the reflex of the diurnal bemes
The bene bonkis
Pleasant banks.
kest ful of variant glemes:
And lustie Flora did her blomes sprede
Under the fete of Phebus fulȝeart
Brilliant, glittering.
stede,
The swardit soyll enbrode with selkouth hewis
Bladed with grass, and embroidered with strange colours.
,
Wod and forest obumbrate with bewis
Boughs.
,
Quhais blysful branchis, porturate
Portrayed, painted, re
ected.
on the ground,
With schaddois schene schew rocchis rubicund:
Towris, turrettis, kirnallis
Battlements.
, and pynnakillis hie,
Of kirkis, castellis, and ilk faire citie,
Stude payntit, every fane, phioll
Round tower.
, and stage
Story.
,
Apoun the playn grounde by thaire awn umbrage
Their own shadow.
.
Of Eolus north blastis havand
Having.
no drede,
The sulȝe spred hir brad bosum on brede
The soil, the country, spread abroad her expansive bosom.
.—
The cornis croppis, and the bere new-brerde
New-sprung barley.
,
With gladsum garment revesting the erde
Earth.
.—
The variant vesture of the venust vale
Schrowdis the scherand fur
Furrow.
, and every fale
Turf.
Ouerfrett
It is evident our author intends to describe two distinct things, viz. corn-fields,
nd meadows or pasture-lands: the former in the three first lines;
the varyant vesture,
&c, is plainly arab
e, and the
fulȝeis and fyguris full dyuers,
are the various leaves and flowers of the weeds growing among the corn, and making a piece of embroidery. And here the description of corn-fields ends: and that of pasture-lands begins at,
The pray bysprent,
&c.
Pr
y,
not as the printed glossary says,
corruptedly for spray,
but formed, through the French, from the Lat.
Pratum,
and
Spryngand Sproutis,
rising springs, from the Ital.
spruzzare, spruzz
lare, aspergere.
with fulȝeis
Leaves.
, and fyguris ful dyuers,
The pray
Mead.
bysprent with spryngand sproutis dyspers,
For callour humours on the dewy nycht,
Rendryng sum place the gyrs pylis thare licht,
Als fer as catal the lang somerys day
Had in thare pasture ete and gnyp away:
And blyssful blossomys in the blomyt ȝard
Submittis thare hedys in the ȝoung sonnys safgard:
Iue leius
Ivy-leaves.
rank ouerspred the barmkyn
ampart.
wall,
The blomit hauthorne cled his pykis all,
Furth of fresche burgeouns
Springs.
the wyne grapis
Young.
ȝing
Endlang the traȝileys
Trellisses. Espaliers for vines.
dyd on twistis hing,
The loukit
Locked. Enclosed. Gemmed.
buttouns on the gemyt treis
Ouerspredand leuis of naturis tapestryis.
Soft gresy verdoure eftir balmy schouris,
On curland stalkis smyland to thare flowris:
Behaldand thame sa mony divers hew
Sum piers
Red.
, sum pale, sum burnet, and sum blew,
Sum gres, sum gowlis, sum purpure, sum sanguane,
Blanchit or broun, fauch ȝallow mony ane,
Sum heuinly colourit in celestial gre,
Sum
Watchet.
watty hewit as the haw wally
Blue and wavy.
se,
And sum departe in freklis rede and quhyte,
Sum bricht as gold with aureate leuis lyte.
The dasy did on
Unbraid.
brede hir crownel smale,
And euery flour unlappit in the dale,
In battil gers
Grass embattelled.
burgeouns, the ban wart wyld,
The clauir, catcluke, and the cammomylde;
The flourdelyce furth sprede his heuynly hew,
Floure damas, and columbe blak and blew,
Sere downis smal on dentilioun
Dande
ion.
sprang
The ȝoung grene
Young weeds.
blomit strabery leus amang
Gimp jereflouris
Gilliflowers. Gariophilum, Lat.
Gr. The Scotch word is nearer the original. Probably the poet wrote
thare awi
.
See ver. 72.
thare awi
umbrage.
thareon leuis unschet,
resche prymrois, and the pourpour violet,
The rois knoppis, tetand furth thare hede,
Gan chyp, and kyth thare vernale lippis rede,
Crysp skarlet leuis sum scheddand baith at attanis,
Kest
It is observable, that our Poet ne
er once mentions the scent of flowers
ill he comes to the rose, and never at all the scent of any particular flower, except the rose, not even of the lily; for I take it, the words,
from thare sylkyn croppis,
are meant to describe the flowers in general; and
the balmy vapour
to be the same with the
fr
sche liquour,
and
the dulce hum
uris quhareof the b
is wrocht thare hony swet
,
an exhalation distinct from that which causes the scent. Afterwards
redole
t odour,
is gen
ral; for he certainly means to close his description of the vegetable world, by one universal cloud of fragrance from all nature.
fragrant smel amyd fra goldin granis
Seeds.
,
Heuinlie lyllyis, with lokkerand toppis quhyte,
Opynnit and schew thare creistis redemyte
Redeemed.
Released, opened. The glossary says, Decked, Beautiful, from
Redimitus,
Lat.
,
The balmy vapour from thare sylkyn croppis
Distilland halesum sugurat hony droppis,
And sylver schakeris
Shakers.
gan fra leuis hing,
With chrystal sprayngis on the verdure ȝing:
The plane pouderit with semelie seitis sound,
Bedyit ful of dewy peirlys round;
So that ilk burgeon, syon, herbe, or floure,
Wox all enbalmit of the fresche liquour,
And baithit hait did in dulce humouris flete,
Quhareof the beis wrocht thare hony swete.—
Swannis
That Milton had his eye upon this passage is plain, from his describing the swan, the cock, and peacock, in this order, and with several of the attributes that our author has given them. See PARAD. L. vii. 438. seq.
—The SWAN with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dan
, and rising on stiff pennons, tower
The mid aereal sky: Others on ground
Walk'd firm: the crested COCK, whose clarion sounds
The silent hours, and th' OTHER, whose gay train
Adorns him, color'd with the florid hue
Of rainbows and starry eyes.—
souchis throw o
t the respand
Rustling.
redis,
Ouer all the lochis
Lakes.
and the fludis gray,
Sersand by kynd ane place quhare they suld lay;
Phebus rede foule his curale creist can stere,
Oft strekand furth his hekkil crawand clere
Amyd the wortis, and the rutis gent,
Pickland hys mete in alayis quhare he went,
His wyffis Toppa and Partolet hym by,
As bird al tyme that hantis bygamy;
The payntit powne
Peacock.
paysand with plumys gym,
Kest up his tale ane proud plesand quhile rym
Wheel-rim.
,
Ischrowdit in his fedderane bricht and schene,
Schapand the prent of Argois hundreth ene;
Amang the bronys
Branches.
of the olyue twistis,
Sere smale floulis, wirkand crafty nestis,
Endlang the hedgeis thik, and on rank akis
Oaks.
Ilk bird reiosand with thare mirthful makis:
In corneris and clere fenesteris of glas
Full besely Arachne weuand was,
To knyt hyr nettis and hyr wobbis sle,
Tharewith to cauch the litil mige
Gnat.
or fle:
Under the bewis bene in lufely valis,
Within fermance and parkis clois of palis,
The bustuous bukkis rakis furth on raw,
Heirdis of hertis throw the thyck wod schaw,
The ȝoung fownys followand the dun days
Does.
,
Kiddis skippand throw ronnys eftir rais
Roes.
,
In lesuris
Leasowes.
and on leyis litill lammes
Full tait and trig socht bletand to thare dammes
On salt stremes wolk Dorida and Thetis,
By rynnand strandis, nymphs and naiades,
Sic as we clepe wenschis and damyssellis,
In gersy grauis wanderand by spring wellis,
Of blomed branchis and flouris quhyte and rede
Plettand their lusty chaplettis for thare hede:
Sum sang ring sangis, ledis, and roundis,
With vocis schil, quhil all the dale resoundis.—
Dame naturis menstralis on that uthyr parte,
Thare blissful bay intonyng euery arte,
To bete thare amouris of thare nychtis bale,
The merle, the mauys, and the nychtingale,
With mirry notis myrthfully furth brist,
Enforsing thaym quha micht do clink it best:
The kowschot
Dove.
croudis and pykkis on the ryse,
The stirling changis diuers steuynnys nyse
Fine tunes.
,
The sparrow chirmis in the wallis clyft,
Goldspink and lintquhite fordynnand the lyft
Firmament.
,
The gukkow galis
Cries. So Chaucer of the nightingale. COUR. L. v. 1357.
But DOMINE LABIA gan he crie and GALE.
So the Friar is said to
gal
,
WIFE OF B. PROL. v. 832.
, and so quhitteris the quale,
Quhil ryveris reirdit
Resounded.
, schawis, and euery dale,
And tendir twistis trymblit on the treis,
For birdis sang, and bemyng of the beis,
In werblis dulce of heuinlie armonyis,
The larkis loude releischand
Mounting.
in the skyis,
Louis thare lege
Praised their Lady NATURE.
with tonys curious;
Bayth to dame Natur, and the fresche Venus,
Rendring hie laudis in thare obseruance,
Quhais suggourit throttis
Sugared Throats.
made glade hartis dance,
And al smal foulis singis on the spray;
Welcum the lord of licht, and lampe of day,
Welcum fosterare of tendir herbis grene,
Welcum quhikkynnar of flurist flouris schene,
Welcum support of euery rute and vane,
Welcum confort of al kind frute and grane,
Welcum the birdis beild
Who build.
apoun the brere,
Welcum maister and reulare of the ȝere,
Welcum welefare of husbandis at the plewis
Ploughs.
,
Welcum reparare of woddis, treis, and bewis,
Welcum depaynter of the blomyt medis,
Welcum the lyffe of euery thing that spredis,
Welcum storare
Restorer.
of all kynd bestial,
Welcum be thy bricht bemes gladand al.
The poetical beauties of this specimen will be relished by every reader who is fond of lively touches of fancy, and rural imagery. But the verses will have another merit with those critics who love to contemplate the progress of composition, and to mark the original workings of genuine nature; as they are the effusion of a mind not overlaid by the descriptions of other poets, but operating, by its own force and bias, in the delineation of a vernal landscape, on such objects as really occurred. On this account, they deserve to be better understood: and I have therefore translated them into plain modern English prose. In the mean time, this experiment will serve to prove their native excellence. Divested of poetic numbers and expression, they still retain their poetry; and, to use the comparison of an elegant writer on a like occasion, appear like Ulysses, still a king and conqueror, although disguised like a peasant, and lodged in the cottage of the herdsman Eumaeus.
"Fresh Aurora, the wife of Tithonus, issued from her saffron bed, and ivory house. She was cloathed in a robe of crimson and violet-colour; the cape vermilion, and the border purple: she opened the windows of her ample hall, overspread with roses, and filled with balm, or nard. At the same time, the crystal gates of heaven were thrown open, to illumine the world. The glittering streamers of the orient diffused purple streaks mingled with gold and azure.—The steeds of the sun, in red harness of rubies, of colour brown as the berry, lifted their heads above th
sea, to glad our hemisphere: the flames burst f
om their nostrils:—While shortly, apparelled in his luminous array, Phebus, bearing the blazing torch of day, issued from his royal palace; with a golden crown, glorious visage, curled locks bright as the chrysolite or topaz, and with a radiance intolerable.—The fiery
parks, bursting from his eyes, purged the air, and gilded the new verdure.—The golden vanes of his throne covered the ocean with a glittering glance, and the broad waters were all in a blaze, at the first glimpse of his appearance. It was glorious to see the winds appeased, the sea becalmed, the soft season, the serene firmament, the still air, and the beauty of the watery scene. The silver-scaled fishes, on the gravel, gliding hastily, as it were from the heat or sun, through clear streams, with fins shining brown as cinnabar, and chissel-tails, darted here and there. The new lustre, enlightening all the land, beamed on the small pebbles on the sides of rivers, and on the strands, which looked like beryl: while the reflection of the rays played on the banks in variegated gleams; and Flora threw forth her blooms und
r the feet of the sun's brilliant horses. The bladed soil was embroidered with various hues. Both wood and forest were darkened with boughs; which, reflected from the ground, gave a shadowy lustre to the red rocks. Towers, turrets, battlements, and high pinnacles, of churches, castles, and every fair city, seemed to be painted; and, together with every bastion and story, expressed their own shape on the plains. The glebe, fearless of the northern blasts, spread her broad bosom.—The corn-crops, and the new-sprung barley, recloathed the earth with a gladsome garment.—The variegated vesture of the valley covered the cloven furrow; and the barleylands were diversified with flowery weeds. The meadow was besprinkled with rivulets: and the fresh moisture of the dewy night restored the herbage which the cattle had cropped in the day. The blossoms in the blowing garden trusted their heads to the protection of the young sun. Rank ivy-leaves overspread the wall of the rampart. The blooming hawthorn cloathed all his thorns in flowers. The budding clusters of the tender grapes hung end-long, by their tendrils, from the trellises. The gems of the trees unlocking, expanded themselves into the foliage of Nature's tapestry. There was a soft verdure after balmy showers. The flowers smiled in various colours on the bending stalks. Some red, &c. Others, watchet, like the blue and wavy sea; speckled with red and white; or, bright as gold. The daisy unbraided her little coronet. The grass stood embattelled, with banewort, &c. The seeded down flew from the dandelion. Young weeds appeared among the leaves of the strawberries. Gay gilliflowers, &c. The rose buds, putting forth, offered their
red vernal lips
to be kissed; and diffused fragrance from the crisp scarlet that surrounded their golden seeds. Lilies, with white curling tops, shewed their crests open. The odorous vapour moistened the silver webs that hung from the leaves. The plain was powdered with round dewy pearls. From every bud, scyon, herb, and flower, bathed in liquid fragrance, the bee sucked sweet honey.—The swans clamoured amid the rustling reeds; and searched all the lakes and gray rivers where to build their nests. The red bird of the sun lifted his coral crest, crowing clear among the plants and
rutis gent,
picking his food from every path, and attended by his wives Toppa and Partlet. The painted peacock with gaudy plumes, unfolded his tail like a bright wheel, inshrouded in his shining feathers, resembling the marks of the hundred eyes of Argus. Among the boughs of the twisted olive, the small birds framed their artful nests, or along the thick hedges, or rejoiced with their merry mates on the tall oaks. In the secret nook, or in the clear windows of glass, the spider full busily wove her sly net, to ensnare the little gnat or fly. Under the boughs that screen the valley, or within the pale-inclosed park, the nimble deer trooped in ranks, the harts wandered through the thick woody shaws, and the young fawns followed the dappled does. Kids skipped through the briers after the roes; and in the pastures and leas, the lambs,
full tight and trig,
bleated to their dams. Doris and Thetis walked on the salt ocean; and Nymphs and Naiads, wandering by springwells in the grassy groves, plaited lusty chapl
ts for their hair, of blooming branches, or of flowers red and white. They sung, and danced, &c.—Meantime, dame Nature's minstrels raise their amorous notes, the ring-dove coo
and pitches on the tall copse, the starling whistles her varied descant, the sparrow chirps in the clefted wall; the goldfinch and linnet filled the skies, the cuckow cried, the quail twittered; while rivers, shaws, and every dale resounded; and the tender branches trembled on the trees, at the song of the birds, and the buzzing of the bees, &c."
This Landscape may be finely contrasted with a description of WINTER, from the Prologue to the seventh book
P. 200. fol. edit.
, a part of which I will give in literal prose.
"The fern withered on the miry fallows: the brown moors assumed a barren mossy hue: banks, sides of hills, and bottoms, grew white and bare: the cattle looked hoary from the dank weather: the wind made the red weed waver on the dike: From crags and the foreheads of the yellow rocks hung great icicles, in length like a spear
the soil was dusky and gray, bereft of flowers, herbs, and grass: in every holt and forest, the woods were stripped of their array. Boreas blew his bugle horn so loud, that the solitary deer withdrew to the dales: the small birds flocked to the thick briers, shunning the tempestuous blast, and changing their loud notes to chirping: the cataracts roared, and every linden-tree whistled and
brayed
to the sounding of the wind. The poor labourers
went we
and weary, draggled in the fen.
The sheep and shepherds lurked under the hanging banks, or wild broom.—Warm from the chimney-side, and refreshed with generous cheer, I stole to my bed, and laid down to sleep; when I saw the moon, shed through the windows her twinkling glances, and watery light: I heard the horned bird, the nightowl, shrieking horribly with crook
d bill from her cavern: I heard the wild
geese, with screaming cries, fly over the city through the silent night. I was soon lulled asleep; till the cock clapping his wings crowed thric
, and the day peeped. I waked and saw the moon disappear, and heard the jack-daws cackle on the roof of the house. The cranes, prognosticating tempests, in a firm phalanx, pierced the air with voices sounding like a trumpet. The kite, perched on an old tree, fast by my chamber, cried lamentably, a sign of the dawning day. I rose, and halfopening my window, perceived the morning, livid, wan, and hoary; the air overwhelmed with vapour and cloud; the ground stiff, gray, and rough; the branches rattling; the sides of the hills looking black and hard with the driving blasts; the dew-drops congealed on the stubble and rind of trees; the sharp hail-stones, deadly-cold,
hopping
on the thatch and the neighbouring causeway, &c."
Bale, whose titles of English books are often obscured by being put into Latin, recites among Gawin Douglass's poetical works, his
Narration
s aureae,
and
Comoediae aliquot sa
rae
xiv
58.
Of his NARRATIONES AUREAE, our author seems to speak in the EPILOGUE to VIRGIL, addressed to his patron lord Sinclair
Ut supr. p. 483.
.
I have also a strange command [comment] compyld,
To expone strange hystoryes and termes wild.
Perhaps these tales were the fictions of antient mythology. Whether the COMOEDIAE were sacred interludes, or MYSTERIES, for the stage, or only sacred narratives, I cannot determine. Another of his original poems is the PALICE OF HONOUR, a moral vision, written in the year 1501, planned on the design of the TABLET of Cebes, and imitated in the elegant Latin dialogue
De Tranquillitate Animi
of his countryman Florence Wilson, or Florentius Volusenus
Lugd. apud Seb. Gryph. 1543. 4to.
. It was first printed at London, in 1553
In quarto. Again,
dinb. 1579. 4to.
"When pale Aurora with face lamentable."
Douglass also wrote a small Latin History
f Scotland. See also a DIALOGUE concerning a theological subject to be debated between,
duos famatos viros,
G. Douglas provost of saint Giles, and master David Cranstoun bachelour of divinity, pre
ixed to John Major's COMMENTARII
in
rim. Sentent.
Paris. 1519. fol.
. The object of this allegory, is to shew the instability and insufficiency of worldly pomp; and to prove, that a constant and undeviating habit of virtue is the only way to true Honour and Happiness, who reside in a magnificent palace, situated on the summit of a high and inaccessible mountain. The allegory is illustrated by a variety of examples of illustrious personages; not only of those, who by a regular perseverance in honourable deeds gained admittance into this splendid habitation, but of those, who were excluded from it, by debasing the dignity of their eminent stations with a vicious and unmanly behaviour. It is addressed, as an apologue for the conduct of a king, to James the fourth; is adorned with many pleasing incidents and adventures, and abounds with genius and learning.
SECT. XIV.
WITH Dunbar and Douglass I join Sir David Lyndesay, although perhaps in strictness he should not be placed so early as the close of the fifteenth century. He appears to have been employed in several offices about the person of James the fifth, from the infancy of that monarch, by whom be was much beloved; and at length, on account of his singular skill in heraldry, a science then in high estimation and among the most polite accomplishments, he was knighted and appointed Lion king of arms of the kingdom of Scotland. Notwithstanding these situations, he was an excellent scholar
See the WARKIS OF THE FAMOUS AND WORTHIE KNI
HT SCHIR DAVID LYNDESAY of the Mount, &c. Newly correctit and vindicate from the former errouris, &c. Pr. by Johne Scott, A. D. 1568. 4to. They have been often printed. I believe the last edition is at Edinburgh, 1709. 12mo.
.
Lyndesay's principal performances are The DREME, and The MONARCHIE. In the address to James the fifth, prefixed to the DREME, he thus, with much tenderness and elegance, speaks of the attention he paid to his majesty when a child.
When thou wes young, I bare thee in myne arme
Full tenderlie, till thow begouth to gang
Began to walk.
;
And in thy bed oft lappit thee full warme
With lute in hand, syne
Then.
sweitlie to thee sang.
He adds, that he often entertained the young prince with various dances and gesticulations, and by dressing himself in
igned characters, as in an interlude
So also his COMPLAYNT
to the Kingis Grace.
SIGNAT. E. iii.
—As an
chapman bures his pak,
I bure thy grace upon my bak;
And sometimes stridlingis on my nek,
Dansand with many bend and bek.—
And ay quhen thow come from the scule,
Than I behu
it to play the fule.—
I wol thou luffit me better than
Nor now some wyfe dois hir gude man.
. A new proof that theatrical diversions were now common in Scotland.
Sumtyme in dansing feirelie I flang,
And sumtyme playand fairsis
Playing farces, frolics.
on the
lure:
And sumtyme lyke ane feind
In the shape of a
iend.
trans
igurate,
And sumtyme lyke the gries
e gaist of Gy
The griesly ghost of Guy earl of Warwick.
,
In divers formis oftymes dis
igurate,
And sumtyme dissagist full plesandlie
Disguised, masked, to make sport. SIGNAT. D. i. He adds, what illustrates the text, above.
So sen thy birth I have continuallie
Ben occupyit, and ay to thy plesour,
And sumtyme Sewar, Coppar, and Carvour.
That is,
ewer, and cupper or butler. He then calls himself the king's
secreit Thesaurar,
and
chief Cubicular.
Afterwards he enumerates some of his own works.
I have at lenth the storeis done discryve
Of Hector, Arthur, and gentill Julius,
Of Alexander, and worthy Pompeius.
Of Jason and Medea, all at lenth,
Of Hercules the actis honorable,
And of Sampson the supernaturall strength,
And of leil luffaris [lovers] stories amiable;
And oftimes have I
einȝeit mony fable,
Of Troilus the sorrow and the joy,
And sieges all of Tire, Thebes, and Troy.
The prophecyis of Rymour, Beid, and Marling,
And of mony other plesand histories,
Of the reid Etin, and the gyir catling.
That is, the prophecies of Thomas Rymour, venerable Bede, and Merlin. [See supr. vol. i. p. 74. 75. seq. And MSS. Ashm. 337. 6.] Thomas the RIMOUR, or Thomas Leirmouth of Erceldoun, seems to have wrote a poem on Sir Tristram. Rob. BRUNNE says this story would exc
d all others,
If men yt sayd as made THOMAS.
That is,
"If men recited it according to the original composition of Thomas Erceldoun, or the RIMOUR."
See Langtoft's CHRON. Append. Pref. p. 100. vol. i. edit. Hearne. Oxon. 1725. 8vo. He flourished about 1280. I do not understand, The
reid Etin,
and the
gyir catling:
but
gyir
is a maske or masquerade. Many of Lyndesay's Interludes are among Lord Hyndford's manuscripts of Scotch poetry, and are exceedingly obscene. One of Lyndesay's MORALITIES, called, ANE SATYRE OF THE THREE ESTAITS
in commendation of vertew and vytuperation of vyce,
was printed at Edinburgh, 1602. This piece, which is intirely in rhyme, and consists of a variety of measures, must have taken up four hours in the representation.
.
In the PROLOGUE to the DREME, our author discovers strong talents for high description and rich imagery. In a morning of the month of January, the poet quits the copse and the bank, now destitute of verdure and flowers, and walks towards the sea-beach. The dawn of day is expressed by a beautiful and brilliant metaphor.
By this, fair Titan with his lemis licht
Oer all the land had spred his banner bricht.
In his walk, musing on the desolations of the winter, and the distance of spring, he meets Flora disguised in a sable robe
SIGNAT. D. ii.
.
I met dame Flora in dule weid dissgysit
Disguised in a dark garment.
,
Quhilk into May was dulce and delectabill,
With stalwart
Violent.
storms hir sweitness war supprist,
Her hevinlie hewis war turnid into sabill,
Quhilk umquihle
Once, one while.
war to luffaris amiabill.
Fled from the frost the tender flouris I saw
Under dame NATURIS mantill lurking law
Low.
.
The birds are then represented,
locking round NATURE, complaining of the severity of the season, and calling for the genial warmth of summer. The expostulation of the lark with Aurora, the sun, and the months, is conceived and conducted in the true spirit of poetry.
"Allace, AURORE, the syllie lark gan cry,
"Quhare has thou left thy balmy liquour sweit,
"That us rejoysit, mounting in the skye?
"Thy sylver dropps are turnit into sleit!
"O fair Phebus, where is thy holsum heit?
"Quhair art thou, MAY, with JUNE thy sister schene,
"Weill bordourit with dasyis of delyte?
"And gentill JULIE, with thy mantill grene
"Enamilit with rosis reid and quhyte?
The poet ascends the cliffs on the sea-shore, and entering a cavern,
high in the crags,
sits down to
register in rhyme some mery mater of antiquitie.
He compares the fluctuation of the sea with the instability of human affairs; and at length, being comfortably shrouded from the falling sleet by the closeness of his cavern, is lulled asleep by the whistling of the winds among the rocks, and the beating of the tide. He then has the following vision.
He sees a lady of great beauty, and benignity of aspect; who says, she comes to sooth his melancholy by shewing him some new spectacles. Her name is REMEMBRANCE. Instantaneously she carries him into the center of the earth. Hell is here laid open
It was a part of the old mundane system, that hell was placed in the centre of the earth. So a fragment, cited by Hearne, GLOSSARY Rob. Glouc. ii. 583.
Ryght so is hell-pitt, as clerkes telles,
Amyde the erthe and no where elles.
So also an old French tract, LIMAIGE DU MONDE, or
Image of the world,
"Saches que en la terre est enfer, car enfer ne pourrait estre en si noble lieu comme est l'air, &c."
ch. viii.
; which is filled with popes, cardinals, abbots, archbishops in their pontifical attire, and ecclesiastics of every degree. In explaining the causes of their punishments, a long satire on the clergy ensues. With these are joined
bishop
Caiphas,
bishop
Annas, the traitor Judas, Mahomet, Chorah, Dathan, and Abiram. Among the tyrants, or unjust kings, are Nero, Pharaoh, and Herod. Pontius Pilate is hung up by the heels. He sees also many duchesses and countesses, who suffer for pride and adultery. She then gives the poet a view of purgatory
See above, p. 197. seq. I have there mentioned a Vision of Hell, under the title of OWAYNE MILES. One Gilbertus Ludensis, a monk sent by king Stephen into Ireland, where he founded a monastery, with an Irish knight called OEN, wrote
De
OENI
Visione in Purgatorio.
See Wendover, apud Mat. Paris, sub ann. 1153. Reg. Stephan. According to Ware, Gilbertus flourished in the year 1152. SCRIPTOR. HIBERN. p. 111. Among the manuscripts of Magdalene college in Oxford, are the VISIONES of Tundal, or Tungal, a knight of Ireland.
"Cum anima mea corpus exueret."
MSS. Coll. Magd. 53. It is printed in Tinmouth's SANCTILOGIUM. And in the SPECULUM HISTORIALE of Vincentius Bellovacensis, lib. xxvii. cap. 88. He is called Fundalus in a manuscript of this piece, Bibl. Bodl. NE. B. 3. 16. He lived in the year 1149. Ware, ut supr. p. 55. I believe this piece is in the Cotton library, under the name of TUNDALE, MS. CALI
. A. 12. f. 17. See what is said in Froissart, of the visions of a cave in Ireland, called saint Patrick's Purgatory. tom. ii. c. 200. Berners's Transl.
.
A litle above that dolorous dungeon,
We enterit in ane countre full of cair;
Quhare that we saw mony one legioun
Gretand and grouland with mony ruthfull rair
Roar.
.
Quhat place is this, quod I, of blis so bair?
Scho answerit and said, Purgatorie,
Qhuilk purgis saulis or they cum to glorie
SIGNAT. D. iii.
.
After some theological reasonings on the absurdity of this intermediate state, and having viewed the dungeon of unbaptized babes, and the limbus of the souls of men who died before Christ, which is placed in a vault above the region of torment, they reascend through the bowels of the earth. In passing, they survey the secret riches of the earth, mines of gold, silver, and precious stones. They mount, through the ocean, which is supposed to environ the earth: then travel through the air, and next through the fire. Having passed the three elements, they bend towards heaven, but first visit the seven planets
The planetary system was thus divided. i. The Primum Mobile, or first motion. ii. The cristalline heaven, in which were placed the fixed stars. iii. The twelve signs of the zodiac. iv. The spheres or circles of the planets in this order: viz. Saturn, Jupiter
Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and lastly the moon, which they placed in the centre of universal nature. Again, they supposed the earth to be surrounded by three elementary spheres, fire, air, and water. Milton, in his Elegy on the DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT, makes a very poetical use of the notion of a
primum mobile,
where he supposes that the soul of the child hovers
—Above that high FIRST MOVIN
SPHERE,
Or in th' Elysian fields, &c.
ST. vi. v. 39. See PARAD. L. iii. 483.
. They enter the sphere of the moon, who is elegantly styled,
Quene of the sea, and beautie of the nicht.
The sun is then described, with great force.
Than past we to the spheir of Phebus bricht,
That lusty lamp and lanterne of the hevin;
And glader of the sterris with his licht;
And principal of all the planets sevin,
And sate in myddis of thame all full evin:
As roy
To be pronounced dissyllabically.
royall rolling in his sphair
Full plesandlie into his goldin chair.—
For to discryve his diademe royall,
Bordourit about with stonis schyning bricht,
His goldin car, or throne imperiall,
The four stedis that drawith it full richt, &c
SIGNAT. E. i.
.
They now arrive at that part of heaven which is called the CHRYSTALLINE
Most of this philosophy is immediately borrowed from the first chapters of the Nuremburgh Chronicle, a celebrated book when Lyndesay wrote, printed in the year 1493. It is there said, that of the water
above the firmament which were frozen like crystal, God made the crystalline heaven, &c. fol. iv. This idea is taken from GENESIS, i. 4. See also saint Paul, EPIST. COR. ii. xii. 2. The same system is in Tasso, where the archangel Michael descends from heaven, GIER. LIB. C. ix.
t. 60. seq. And in Milton, PARAD. L. iii. 481.
They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,
And that crystallin sphere, &c.
, and are admitted to the
Empyreal,
or heaven of heavens. Here they view the throne of God, surrounded by the nine orders of angels, singing with ineffable harmony
Because the scriptures have mentioned several degrees of angels, Dionysius the Areopagite, and others, have divided them into nine orders; and those they have reduced into three hierarchies. This was a tempting subject for the refining genius of the school-divines: and accordingly we find in Thomas Aquinas a disquisition,
De ordinatione Angelorum secundum Hierarchias et Ordines.
QUAEST. cviii. The system, which perhaps makes a better figure in poetry than in philosophy, has been adopted by many poets who did not outlive the influence of the old scholastic sophistry. See Dante, PARAD. C. xxviii. Tasso mentions, among
La grande o
e del ciel,
TRE FOLTE SQUADRE, et ogni squadra instrutta
In TRE ORDINI gira, &c.
GIER. LIB. xviii. 96. And Spenser speaks of the angels singing in their TRINALL TRIPLICITIES. FAIR. QU. i. xii. 39. And again, in his Hymne of HEAVENL
LOVE. See also Sannazarius, DE PART. VIRGIN. iii. 241. Milton perhaps is the last poet who has used this popular theory. PARAD. L. v. 748.
Regions they pass'd, and mighty regencies
Of Seraphim, and Potentates, and Thrones,
In their TRIPLE DEGREES.—
And it gives great dignity to his arrangement of the celestial army. See ibid. supr. 583.
—Th' empyreal host
Of angels, by imperial summons call'd,
Innumerable before th' Almighty's throne,
Forthwith from all the ends of heaven appear'd,
Under their HEIRARCHIES in ORDERS bright.—
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanc'd,
Standards and gonfalons, twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve
Of HIEARCHIES, of ORDERS, and DEGREES.
Such splendid and sublime imagery has Milton's genius raised on the problems of Thomas Aquinas! See also ibid. v. 600. Hence a passage in his Hymn on THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY is to be illustrated. ST. xiii. v. 131.
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full concert to the angelike symphony.
That is, the symphony of the nine orders of angels was to be answered by the ninefold music of the spheres. One Thomas Haywood, a most voluminous dramatic poet in the reign of James the first, wrote a long poem with large notes on this subject, called THE HIERARCHIE OF ANGELS, printed in folio, at London, 1635. See also Jonson's ELEGIE ON MY MUSE, in the UNDERWOOD. p. 260. edit. fol. Lond. 1640.
. Next the throne is the Virgin Mary, the queen of queens,
"well cumpanyit with ladyis of delyte."
An exterior circle is formed by patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, apostles, conquerors in the three battles of the world, of the flesh, and of the devil, martyrs, confessors, and
doctours in divinitie,
under the command of saint Peter, who is represented as their lieutenant-general
Ibid.
.
Milton, who feigns the same visionary route with very different ideas, has these admirable verses, written in his nineteenth year, yet marked with that characteristical great manner, which distinguishes the poetry of his maturer age. He is addressing his native language.
Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse,
Thy service in some graver subject use;
Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound:
Such, where the deep-transported mind may soar
Above the wheeling poles; and at Heaven's door
Look in, and see each blissfull deitie
How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
Listening to what unshorn Apollo sings
To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly sire.
Then passing through the sphears of watchfull fire,
And mistie regions of wide air next under,
And hills of snow, and lofts of piled thunder,
May tell at length how green-eyed Neptune raves,
In heaven's defiance mustering all his waves
At a VACATION EXERCISE, &c. Newton's MILT. ii. p. 11.
.
REMEMBRANCE and the poet, leaving heaven, now contemplate the earth, which is divided into three parts. To have mentioned America, recently discovered, would have been heresy in the science of cosmography; as that quarter of the globe did not occur in Pliny and Ptolemy
For the benefit of those who are making researches in antient cosmography, I observe that the map of England, mentioned by Harrison and Hearne, and belonging to Merton college library, appears to have existed at least so early as the year 1512. For in that year, it was lent to the dean of Wells, William Cosyn, with a caution of forty shillings. Registr. Vet. Coll. Mert. fol. 218. b. See its restitution, ibid. fol. 219. b.
. The most famous cities are here enumerated. The poet next desires a view of Paradise; that glorious
garth,
or garden, of every flower. It is represented as elevated in the middle region of the air, in a climate of perpetual serenity
"Paradisus tantae est altitudinis, quod est inaccessibilis secundum Bedam; et tam altus, quod etheream regionem pertingat, &c."
CHRON. NUR. ut supr. f. viii. b.
. From a
fair
fountain, springing in the midst of this ambrosial garden, descend four rivers, which water all the east. It is inclosed with walls of fire, and guarded by an angel.
The cuntre closit is about full richt,
With wallis hie of hote and birnyng fyre,
And straitly kepit by an angell bricht
SIGNAT. E. iii.
.
From Paradise a very rapid transition is made to Scotland. Here the poet takes occasion to lament, that in a country so fertile, and filled with inhabitants so ingenious and active, universal poverty, and every national disorder, should abound. It is very probable, that the poem was written solely with a view of introducing this complaint. After an enquiry into the causes of these infelicities, which are referred to political mismanagement, and the defective administration of justice, the COMMONWEALTH OF SCOTLAND appears, whose figure is thus delineated.
We saw a busteous berne
Boisterous fellow.
cum oer the bent
Coarse grass.
,
But
Without.
hors on fute, als fast as he micht go;
Quhose rayment was all raggit, rewin
Riven.
, and rent,
With visage leyne, as he had fastit Lent:
And fordwart fast his wayis he did advance,
With ane richt melancholious countenance:
With scrip on hip, and pyikstaff in his hand,
As he had bene purposit to pas fra hame.
Quod I, gude man, I wald fane understand,
Geve that ye pleisit
If you please.
, to wit
Know.
quhat wer your name?
Quod he, my sone, of that I think greit schame.
Bot sen thow wald of my name have ane feill,
Forswith they call me
JOHN, for what reason I know not, is a name of ridicule and contempt in most modern languages.
Johne the Comoun weill
SI
NAT. F. i.
.
The reply of SYR COMMONWEALTH to our poet's question, is a long and general satire on the corrupt state of Scotland. The spiritual plelates, he says, have sent away Devotion to the mendicant friars: and are more fond of describing the dishes at a feast, than of explaining the nature of their own establishment.
Sensual Pleasure has banished Chastity.
Liberality, Loyalty, and Knightly Valour, are fled,
And Cowardice with lords is laureate.
From this sketch of Scotland, here given by Lyndesay, under the reign of James the fifth, who acted as a viceroy to France, a Scotch historian might collect many striking features of the state of his country during that interesting period, drawn from the life.
The poet then supposes, that REMEMBRANCE conducts him back to the cave on the sea-shore, in which he fell asleep. He is awakened by a ship firing a broadside
They spared not the powder nor the
stones.
A proof that stones were now used instead of leaden bullets. At first they shot darts, or
carrieaux, i. e.
quarrels, from great guns. Afterwards stones, which they called
gun-stones.
In the BRUT OF ENGLAND, it is said, that when Henry the fifth, before Hareflete, received a taunting message from the Dauphine of France, and a ton of tennis-balls by way of contempt,
"he anoone lette make tenes balles for the
Dolfin
[Henry's ship] in all the haste that they myght, and they were great
ONNESTONES for the
Dolfin
to playe with alle."
But this game at tennis was too rough for the besieged, when Henry
"playede at the tenes with his harde
ONNESTONES, &c."
See Strutt's CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE ENGLISH, vol. ii. p. 32. Lond. 1775.
. He returns home, and entering his oratory, commits his vision to verse. To this is added an exhortation of ten stanzas to king James the fifth: in which he gives his majesty advice, and censures his numerous instances of misconduct, with incredible boldness and asperity. Most of the addresses to James the fifth, by the Scotch poets, are satires instead of panegyrics.
I have not at present either leisure or inclination, to enter into a minute enquiry, how far our author is indebted in his DREME to Tully's DREAM OF SCIPIO, and the HELL, PURGATORY, and HEAVEN, of Dante
In the Medicean library at Florence, and the Ambrosian at Milan, there is a long manuscript Italian poem, in three books, divided into one hundred chapters, written by Matteo Palmeri, a learned Flo
entine, about the year 1450. It is in imitation of Dante, in the
terza rima,
and entitled CITTA DI V
TA, or
The City of Life.
The subject is, the peregrination of the soul, freed from the shackles of the body, through various ideal places and situations, till at length it arrives in the city of heaven. This poem was publicly burnt at Cortona, because the author adopted Origen's heresy concerning a third class of angels, who for their sins wer
destined to animate human bodies. See Trithem. c. 797. Julius Niger, SCRIPTO
. FLORENT. p. 404.
.
Lyndesay's poem, called the MONARCHIE, is an account of the most famous monarchies that have flourished in the world: but, like all the Gothic prose-histories, or chronicles, on the same favorite subject, it begins with the creation of the world, and ends with the day of judgment
In a manuscript at Lambeth [332.] this poem is said to have been begun Jun. 11, 1556. This is a great mistake. It was printed Hafn. 1552. 4to.
. There is much learning in this poem. It is a dialogue between EXPERIENCE and a courtier. This mode of conducting a narrative by means of an imaginary mystagogue, is adopted from Boethius. A descriptive prologue, consisting of octave stanzas, opens the poem, in which the poet enters a delightful park
SIGNAT. i. B. A park is a favorite scene of action in our old poets. See Chaucer's COMPL. BL. KN. v. 39.
Toward a park enclosid with a wall, &c.
And in other place
. Parks were antiently the constant appendage of almost every considerable manerial house. The old patent-rolls are full of licences for imparcations, which do not now
xist.
. The sun clad in his embroidered mantle, brighter than gold or precious stones, extinguishes the
horned queen of night,
who hides her visage in a
misty veil.
Immediately Flora began to expand,
—hir tapistry
Wrocht by dame NATURE queynt and curiouslie,
Depaynt with many hundreth hevinlie hewis.
Meanwhile, Eolus and Neptune restrain their fury, that no rude
ounds might mar the melody of the birds which echoe
among the rocks
Instead of Pa
nassus he chuses mount Calvary, and his Helicon is the strea
which flowed from our Saviour's side on the cross, when he was wounded by Longinus, that is LONGIAS. This is a fictitious personage in Nicodemus's Gospel. I have mentioned him before. Being blind, he was restored to sight by wiping his eyes with his hands which were bloody. See more of him in Chaucer's LAMENTAT. MARY MAGD. v. 176. In the Gothic pictures of the Crucifixion, he is represented on horseback, piercing our Saviour's side: and in Xavier's Persic History of Christ, he is called a horseman. This notion arose from his using a spear, or lance: and that weapon,
, undoubtedly gave rise to his ideal name of Longias, or Longinus. He is afterwards supposed to have been a bishop of Cesarea, and to have suffered martyrdom. See Tillemont. ME
OR. HIST. EC
LESIAST. tom. i. pp. 81. 251. And Fabric. APOCR. NOV. T
STAM
tom. i. p. 261. In the old Greek tragedy of CHRIST SUFFERING, the CONVERTED CENTURION is expressly mentioned, but not by this name. Almost all that relates to this person, who could not escape the
ictions of the monks, has been collected by J. Ch. Wolfius, CUR. PHILOL. ET CRIT. IN S. EVANGEL. tom. i. p. 414. ii. 984. edit. Basil. 1741. 4to. See also Hoffman. LEXIC. UNIVERSAL. CONTINUAT. in Voc. tom. i. p. 1036. col.
. Ba
il. 1683. fol.
.
In the park our poet, under the character of a courtier, meets EXPERIENCE, reposing under the shade of a holly. This pourtrait is touched with uncommon elegance and expression.
Into that park I saw appeir
One agit man, quhilk drew me neir;
Quhose berd was weil thre quarters lang,
His hair doun oer his schulders hang,
The qhylke as ony snawe was whyte,
Quhome to beholde I thocht delyte.
His habit angellyke of hew,
Of colour lyke the sapheir blew:
Under an holyne he reposit.—
To sit down he requestit me
Under the schaddow of that tre,
To saif me from the sonnis heit,
Amanges the flouris soft and sweit
SIGNAT. B. i.
.
In the midst of an edifying conversation concerning the fall of man and the origin of human misery, our author, before he proceeds to his main subject, thinks it necessary to deliver a formal apology for writing in the vulgar tongue. He declares that his intention is to instruct and to be understood, and that he writes to the people
Quharefore to colyearis, carteris, and to cuki
To
Jok
and Thome, my ryme sall be derectit.
SIGNAT. C. i.
. Moses, he says, did not give the Judaic law on mount Sinai in Greek or Latin. Aristotle and Plato did not communicate their philosophy in Dutch or Italian. Virgil and Cicero did not write in Chaldee or Hebrew. Saint Jerom, it is true, translated the bible into Latin, his own natural language; but had saint Jerom been born in Argyleshire, he would have translated it into Erse. King David wrote the psalter in Hebrew, because he was a Jew. Hence he very sensibly takes occasion to recommend the propriety and necessity of publishing the scriptures and the missal, and of composing all books intended for common use, in the respective vernacular language of every country. This objection being answered, which shews the ideas of the times, our author thus describes the creation of the world and of Adam.
Quhen god had made the hevinnis bricht,
The sone, and mone, for to gyf licht,
The starry hevin, and cristalline;
And, by his sapience divine,
The planerts, in their circles round
Quhirlyng about with merie sound:—
He clad the erth with herbs and treis;
All kynd of fischis in the seis,
All kynd of best he did prepair,
With foulis fleting in the air.—
When hevin, and erth, and thare contents,
Were endit, with thare ornaments,
Than, last of all, the lord began
Of most vile erth to make the man:
Not of the lillie or the rose,
Nor cyper-tre, as I suppose,
Nether of gold, nor precious stonis,
Of earth he made flesche, blude, and bonis;
To that intent he made him thus,
That man shuld nocht be glorious,
And in himself no thinge shulde se
But matter of humilite
SIGNAT. C. iii.
.
Some of these nervous, terse, and polished lines, need only to be reduced to modern and English orthography, to please a reader accustomed solely to relish the tone of our present versification.
To these may be added the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's temple.
Prince Titus with his chivalrie
With sound of trumpe triumphantlie,
He enterit in that greit citie, &c.
Thare was nocht ells but tak and slay,
For thence might no man win his way
Escape.
.
The stramis of blude ran thruch the streit,
Of deid folk tramplit under feit;
Auld wydowis in the preis were smorit
Smothered.
,
Young virgins schamefullie deflorit.
The tempill greit of Solamone,
With mony a curious carvit stone,
With perfyt pinnakles on hicht,
Quhilks wer richt bewtifull and wicht
White.
,
Quharein riche jowells did abound,
Thay ruscheit
f.
Rased.
rudely to the ground;
And set, in tyll their furious ire
In their rage.
,
Sanctum Sanctorum into fire
SIGNAT. L. iii.
.
The appearance of Christ coming to judgement is poetically painted, and in a style of correctness and harmony, of which few specimens were now seen.
As fire flaucht hastily glansing
A meteor quickly glancing along.
,
Discend shall the most hevinly king;
As Phebus in the orient
Lichinis
Lightens.
in haist to occident,
So plesandlie he shall appeir
Among the hevinlie cloudis cleir.—
The angellis of the ordours nyne
Inviron shall his throne divyne.—
In his presence thare salbe borne
The signis
Representations.
of cros, and croun of thorne
Pillar, nailis, scurgis, and speir,
With everilk thing that did hym deir
Dismay. Tormen
.
,
The tyme of his grym passioun:
And, for our consolatioun,
Appeir sall, in his hands and feit,
And in his syde the print compleit
Of his fyve woundis precious
Schyning lyke rubies radious.
When Christ is seated at the tribunal of judging the world, he adds,
Thare sall ane angell blawe a blast
Quhilk sall make all the warld agast
SIGNAT. P. iii.
.
Among the monarchies, our author describes the papal see: whose innovations, impostures, and errors, he attacks with much good sense, solid argument, and satirical humour; and whose imperceptible increase, from simple and humble beginnings to an enormity of spiritual tyranny, he traces through a gradation of various corruptions and abuses, with great penetration, and knowledge of history
SIGNAT. M. iii.
.
Among antient peculiar customs now lost, he mentions a superstitious idol annually carried about the streets of Edinburgh.
Of Edingburgh the great idolatrie,
And manifest abominatioun!
On thare feist day, all creature may see,
Thay beir ane ald stok-image
An old image made of a stock of wood.
throw the toun,
With talbrone
Tabor.
, trumpet, shalme, and clarioun,
Quhilk has bene usit mony one yeir bigone,
With priestis, and freris, into processioun,
Siclyke
So as.
as Bal was borne through Babilon
SIGNAT. H. iii.
.
He also speaks of the people flocking to be cured of various infirmities, to the
auld rude,
or cross, of Kerrail
SIGNAT. H. i. For allusions of this kind the following stanza may be cited, which I do not entirely understand. SIGNAT. H. iii.
This was the practick of sum pilgrimage,
Quhen fillokis into Fyfe began to fen
With Jok and Thome than tuke thai thair voyage
In Angus to the field chapel of Dron:
Than Kittock thare als cadye as ane Con,
Without regard other to syn or schame,
Gave Lowrie leif at la
er to loup on,
Far better had bene till have biddin at hame.
I will here take occasion to explain two lines, SIGNAT. I. iii.
Nor yit the fai
madin of France
Danter of Inglish ordinance.
That is Joan of Arc, who so often
daunted
or defeated the English army. To this heroine, and to Penthesilea, he compares Semiramis.
.
Our poet's principal vouchers and authorities in the MONARCHIE, are Livy, Valerius Maximus, Josephus, Diodorus Siculus, Avicen the Arabic physician, Orosius, saint Jerom, Polydore Virgil, Cario's chronicle, the FASCICULUS TEMPORUM, and the CHRONICA CHRONICARUM. The FASCICULUS TEMPORUM is a Latin chronicle, written at the close of the fifteenth century by Wernerus Rolewinck, a Westphalian, and a Carthusian monk of Cologne; a most venerable volume, closed with this colophon.
"FASCICULUS TEMPORUM, a Carthusiense compilatum in formam cronicis figuratum usque in annum 1478, a me Nicolao Gatz de Seltztat impressum
See it also among
SCRIPTOR. GERMAN. per J. Pistorium, tom. i. p. 580.
."
The CHRONICA CRONICARUM or CHRONICON MUNDI, written by Hartmannus Schedelius, a physician at Nuremburgh, and from which our author evidently took his philosophy in his DREME, was printed at Nuremburgh in 1493
Again, ibid. by Joh. Schensperger. 1497. fol.
. This was a most popular compilation, and is at present a great curiosity to those who are fond of history in the Gothic style, consisting of wonders conveyed in the black letter and wooden cuts. Cario's chronicle is a much more rational and elegant work: it was originally composed, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, by Ludovicus Cario, an eminent mathematician, and improved or written anew by Melancthon. Of Orosius, a wretched but admired christian historian, who compiled in Latin a series of universal annals from the creation to the fifth century, he cites a translation.
The translatour of Orosius
In his cronicle wryttis thus
SIGNAT. F. ii.
.
I know of no English translation of Orosius,
nless th
Anglo-saxon version by king Alfred, and which would perhaps have been much more difficult to Lyndesay than the Latin original, may be called such: yet Orosius was early translated into French
By Philip Le Noir, Paris. 1526. fol.
and Italian
By Benaccivoli, Ven. 1528. 4to.
. For the story of Alexander the Great, our author seems to refer to Adam Davie's poem on that subject, written in the reign of Edward the second
See supr. vol. i. p. 220.
: a work, which I never remember to have seen cited before, and of which, although deserving to be printed, only two public manuscripts now remain, the one in the library of Lincoln's inn, and the other in the Bodleian library at Oxford.
Alexander the conqueror,
Geve thou at lenth wald reid his ring
If thou at length would read his reign.
,
And of his cruell conquessing,
In INGLIS TUNGE IN HIS GREAT BUKE,
At lenth his LYFE thare thow may luke
SIGNAT. K. iii. He also cites Lucan for Alexander, SIGNAT. L. i. For an account of the riches of pope John, he quotes Palmerius. SIGNAT. N. i. This must have been Mattheus Palmerius abovementioned, author of the CITTA DI VITA, who wrote a general chronicle from the fifth century to his own times, entitled DE TEMPORIBUS, and, I believe, first printed at Milan, 1475. fol. Afterwards reprinted with improvements and continuations. Particularly at Venice, 1483. 4to. And by Grynaeus at the end of Eusebius, fol. 1570.
.
He acquaints us, yet not from his own knowledge, but on the testimony of other writers, that Homer and Hesiod were the inventors in Greece, of poetry, medicine, music, and astronomy
SIGNAT. K. iii.
.
EXPERIENCE departs from the poet, and the dialogue is ended, at the approach of the evening; which is described with these circumstances.
Behald, quhow Phebus downwart dois discend,
Toward his palice in the occident!—
The dew now donkis
Moistens.
the rosis redolent:
The mariguldis, that all day wer rejoysit
Of Phebus heit, now craftily ar closit
Are closed.
.—
The cornecraick in the croft, I heir hir cry;
The bat, the howlatt
Owlet. Owl.
, feebill of thare eis,
For thare pastyme, now in the evinning flies.
The nichtingaill with myrthfull melody
Her naturall notis, peirsit throuch the sky
SIGNAT. R.
.
Many other passages in Lyndesay's poems deserve attention. Magdalene of France, married to James the fifth of Scotland
Not inelegantly, he compares James making frequent and dangerous voyage
into France to address the princess, to Leander swimming through the Hellespont to Hero.
, did not live to see the magnificent preparations made for her public entry into Edinburgh. In a poem, called the DEITH OF QUENE MAGDALENE, our author, by a most striking and lively prosopopeia, an expostulation with DEATH, describes the whole order of the procession. I will give a few of the stanzas.
THEIEF, saw thou not the greit preparativis
Of Edinburgh, the nobill famous toun?
Thow sawe the peple labouring for thare livis,
To make tryumph with trumpe and clarioun!—
Thow sawe makand
Making.
rycht costly scaffolding,
Depayntyt weill with golde and asure fyne,
Reddie preparit for the upsetting,
With fountanis flowing water cleir and wyne:
Disagysit
Men,
actors
disguised.
folkis, lyke creaturis divyne,
On ilk scaffold to play ane sundrie storie
Plays and pageants acted on moveable scaffolds.
:
Bot all in greitting
To grief.
turnit thow that glorie.
Thow saw mony ane lustie fresche galland
Weill ordourit for resaiving of thair quene,
Ilk craftisman with bent bowe in his hand,
Ful galȝeartlie in schort clothing of grene, &c.—
Syne next in ordour passing throw the toun,
Thou suld have herd the din of instrumentis,
Of tabrone, trumpet, schalme, and clarioun,
With reird
Sound.
reboundand throw the elementis;
The heraulds with thare awfull vestimentis,
With maseris
Maces.
upon ather of thare handis,
To rewle the prois, with burneist silver wandis.
Thow shuld have hard
Heard.
the ornate oratouris,
Makand hir hienes salutatioun,
Boith of the clergy toun and counsalouris,
With mony notable narratioun.
Thow suld have sene her coronation,
In the fair abbay of the holie rude,
In presence of ane myrthfull multitude.
Sic banketting, sic awfull tournamentis
On hors and fute, that tyme quhilk suld have bene,
Sic chapell royall with sic instrumentis,
And craftie musick, &c
SIGNAT. K. iii.
.—
Exclusive of this artificial and very poetical mode of introducing a description of these splendid spectacles, instead of saying plainly that the queen's death prevented the superb ceremonies which would have attended her coronation, these stanzas have another merit, that of transmitting the ideas of the times in the exhibition of a royal entertainment
The curious reader may compare
"The ordynaunce of the entre of quene Isabell into the towne of Paris,"
in Froissart. Berners's Transl. tom. ii. c. clvii. f. 172. b.
.
Our author's COMPLAYNT contains a curious picture, like that in his DREME, of the miserable policy by which Scotland was governed under James the fifth. But he diversifies and enlivens the subject, by supposing the public felicity which would take place, if all corrupt ministers and evil counsellors were removed from the throne. This is described by striking and picturesque personifications.
Justice holds her swerd on hie,
With her ballànce of equitie.—
Dame Prudence has the by the heid,
And Temperance dois thy brydill leid.
I see dame Force mak assistance,
Beirand thy targe of assurance:
And lusty lady Chastitie
Has bannischit Sensualitie.
Dame Riches takes on the sic cure,
I pray God that she long indure!
That Poverte dar nocht be sene
Into thy hous, for baith her ene:
But fra thy grace fled mony mylis
Amangis the hunteris in the ylis
SIGNAT. G. i.
.
b I here take occasion to explain the two following lines.
Als Jhone Makray, the kingis fule,
Gat dowbyll garmountis agane th
ȝule.
That is,
"The king's fool got two suits of apparel, or garments doubly thick, to wear at Christmas."
SIGNAT. G. i. Ȝule is Christmas. So James the first, in his declaration at an assembly of the Scotch Kirk at Edinburgh, in 1590,
"The church of Geneva keep
Pasche
and YULE,"
that is,
a
er
and CHRISTMAS. Calderwood's HIST. CH. SCOT. p. 256. Our author, in The COMPLAYNT OF THE PAPYNGO, says that his bird sung well enough to be a minstrel at Christmas. SIGNAT. A. iii.
Scho micht have bene ane menstrall at th
ȝule.
Thus Robert of Brunne, in his chronicle, speaking of King Arthur keeping Christmas at York.
On gole day mad he fest
With many barons of his geste.
See Hearne's ROB. GLOUC. vol. ii. p. 678. And Leland's ITIN. vol. ii. p. 116. In the north of England, Christmas to this day is called
ule, yule,
or
youle.
Blount
ays,
"in the northern parts they have an old custom, after sermon or service on Christmas-day; the people will, even in the churches, cry
ule, ule,
as a token of rejoycing, and the common sort run about the streets singing,
"ULE, ULE, ULE,
"Three puddings in a pule,
"Crack nuts, and cry ULE."
DICTION. VOC. ULE. In Saxon the word is gehul, gehol, or geol. In the Welch rubric every saint's day is the
Wyl,
or
Gwl,
of that saint: either from a British word signifying
watching,
or from the Latin
Vigilia,
Vigil, taken in a more extended
ense. In Wales
wyliau
or
gwyliau
hadolig, signifies the
Christmas
holidays, where
wyla
or
gwyliau
is the plural of
wyl
or
gwyl.
I also take this opportunity of observing, that the court of the Roman pontiff was exhilarated by a fool. The pope's fool was in England in 1230, and received forty shillings of king Henry the third,
de do
o regis.
MSS. James, xxviii. p. 190.
I know not whether it be worth observing, that playing at cards is mentioned in this poem, among the diversions, or games, of the court.
Thar was no play but CARTIS and dice
SIGNAT. F. iii.
.
And it is mentioned as an accomplishment in the character of a bishop.
Bot geve thay can play at the CAIRTIS
SIGNAT. G. i.
.
Thus, in the year 1503, James the fourth of Scotland, at an interview with the princess Margaret in the castle of Newbattle, finds her playing at cards.
"The kynge came prively to the said castell, and entred within the chammer [chamber] with a small cumpany
whare he founde the quene
playing at the
CARDES
Leland. COL
. AP
END. iii. p. 284. ut supr. In our author's TRAGEDIE o
CARDINAL BETOUN, a soliloquy spoken by the cardinal, he is made to declare, that he played with the king for three thousand crowns of gold in one night, at
cartis
and dice. SIGNAT. I. ii. They are also mentioned in an old anonymous Scotch poem,
Of
COVETICE. ANC. SC.
. ut supr. p. 168. st. iii.
Halking, hunting, and swift horse rynning,
Are changit all in wrangus wynning;
Thar is no play bot
cartis
and dyce.
Where, by the way, horse-racing is considered among the liberal sports, such as hawking, and hunting
and not as a species of gaming. See also, IBID. p. 146. st. v.
Cards are mentioned in a statute of Henry the seventh, xi. Hen. vii. cap. ii. That is, in 1496. Du Cange cites two Greek writers, who mention card-playing as one of the games of modern Greece, at least before the year 1498. GLOSS. GR. tom. ii. V. XAPTIA. p. 1734. It seems highly probable, that the Arabians, so famous for their ingenuity, more especially in whatever related to numbers and calculation, were the inventors of cards, which they communicated to the Constantinopolitan Greeks. Carpentier says, that cards, or
folia l
soria,
are prohibited in the STATUTA CRIMIN. Saonae. cap. xxx. p. 61. But the age of these statutes has not occured to me. SUPPLEM. LAT. GLOSS. Du Cange, V. CARTAE. tom. i. p. 842.
B
n
dictus Abbas has preserved a very curi
s edict, which shews the state of gaming in the christian army, commanded by Richard the first king of England, and Philip of France, during the crusade in the year 1190. No person in the army is permitted to play at any sort of game for mon
y, except Knights and Clergymen; who in one whole day and night shall not, each, lose more than twenty shillings: on pain of forfeiting one hundred shillings, to the archbishops of the army. The two kings may play for what they please: but their attendants, not for more than twenty shillings. Otherwise, they are to be whipped naked through the army for three days, &c. VIT. RIC. i. p. 610. edit. Hearn. tom. ii. King Richard is described playing at chess in this expedition. MSS
Harl. 4690.
And kyng Rychard stode and playe
Att the chesse in hys galleye.
."
Prophesies of apparent impossibilities were common in Scotland: such as the removal of one place to another. Under this popular prophetic formulary, may be ranked the prediction in Shakespeare's MACBETH, where the APPARITION says, that Birnam-wood shall go to Dusinane. In the same strain, peculiar to his country, says our author,
Quhen the Bas and the isle of May
Beis set upon the mount Sinay,
Quhen the Lowmound besyde Falkland
Beis liftit to Northumberland.
But he happily avails himself of the form, to introduce a stroke of satire.
Quhen Kirkman ȝairnis
Earn. Gain.
no dignite,
Nor wyffis no soveranite
Ibid. SIGNAT. H. i.
.
The minority of James the fifth was dissipated in pleasures, and his education most industriously neglected. He was flattered, not instructed, by his preceptors. His unguarded youth was artfully exposed to the most alluring temptations
Even his governors and preceptors threw these temptations in his way: a circumstance touched with some humour by our author. Ibid. SIGNAT. G.
Thare was few of that garni
oun
That lernit hym ane gude lessoun.—
Quod one, The devill stik me with ane knyfe,
Bot, Schir, I knaw ane maid in Fyfe,
Ane of the lustiest wantoun lassis!
Hald thy tunge brother, q
od ane uther,
I knaw ane fairer be fystene futh
r.
Schir, whan ye pl
is to Linlithquow pas,
Thare sall ye se ane lustie las.
Now
tritill tratill trow low,
Quod the third man, thow dois bot mow;
Quhen his grace cummis to faire Stirling
Thare sal he se ane dayis darling.
Schir quod the fourth, tak my counsell,
And go all to the hie bordell,
Thare may we loup at liberte
Withoutin any gravite, &c.
Compare Buchanan, HIST. lib. xiv. ad
in.
. It was in this reign, that the nobility of Scotland began to frequent the court; which soon became the theatre of all those idle amusements which were calculated to solicit the attention of a young king. All these abuses are painted in this poem with an honest unreserved indignation. It must not in the mean time be forgotten, that James possessed eminent abilities, and a love of literature: nor is it beside our present purpose to observe, that he was the author of the celebrated ballad called CHRIST'S KIRK ON THE GREEN
Printed at Oxford, by Edm. Gibson, 1691. 4to. with Notes. He died in 1452.
.
The COMPLAYNT OF THE PAPINGO is a piece of the like tendency. In the Prologue, there is a curious and critical catalogue of the Scotch poets who flourished about the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. As the names and works of many of them seem to be totally forgotten, and as it may contribute to throw some new lights on the neglected history of the Scotch poetry, I shall not scruple to give the passage at large, with a few illustrations. Our author declares, that the poets of his own age dare not aspire to the praise of the three English poets, Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate. He then, under the same idea, makes a transition to the most distinguished poets, who formerly flourished in Scotland.
Or quho can now the workis contrefait
Imitate.
Of KENNEDIE
I suppose Walter Kennedie, who wrote a poem in Scottish metre, whether printed I know not, on the Passion of Christ. MSS. Coll. Gresham, 286. Some of Kennedie's poems are in MSS. Hynd
ord. The
Flyting
between Dunba
and Kennedy is in the EVERGREEN. See Dunbar, ut supr. p. 77. And ibid. p. 274. And Kennedy's PRAIS OF AGE, ibid. p. 189. He exceeds his cotemporary Dunbar in smoothness of versification.
, with termis aureait?
Or of DUNBAR, quha language had at large,
As may be sene intyll his GOLDIN TARGE
The poem examined above, p. 264.
?
QUINTYN
He flourished about the year 1320. He was driven from Scotland under the devastations of Edward the first, and too
refuge
at Paris. He wrote a poem, called the
Complaint of the Miseri
s of his Country,
printed at Pari
, 1511. Dempst. xv. 1034.
, MERSER
Merser is celebrated by Dunbar, LAMENT FOR THE DETH OF THE MAKKARIS, or POETS. See ANC. SCOTTISH POEMS, ut supr. p. 77.
That did in luve so ly
y wryte,
So schort, so quick, of sentens hie.
See, in that Coll
ction, his PERRELL I
PARAMOURS
p. 156.
, ROWL
Dunbar mentions Rowll of Aberde
n, and Rowll of Corstorphine,
"twa bettir
allowis did no ma
sie."
Ibid. p. 77. In Lord Hyndford's Manuscript [p. 104. 2.] a poem is mentioned, called ROWLL'
CURSING. ibid. p. 272. There is a
allusion in this piece to pope Alexander the sixth, who presided from 1492 to 1503.
, HENDERSON
Perhaps Robert Henrison. See Dunbar, ubi supr. p. 77. And ibid. p. 98. seq. In MSS. Harl. are,
"The morall fabillis of Esope compylit be Maiste
Robert Henrysount scholmaister of Dumferling, 1571."
3865. 1. He was most probably a teacher of the youth in the Benedictine convent at Dun
ermline. See many of his poems, which are of a grave moral turn, in the elegant Scottish Miscellany just cited.
, HAY
I know not if he means Archibald Hay, who wrote a panegyric on Cardinal Beaton, printed at Paris, 1540. 4to. He also translated the HECUBA of Euripides from Greek into Latin. MSS. HATTON. But I have seen none of his Scotch poetry.
, and HOLLAND
See Dunbar, ut supr. p. 77. His poem, called the HOWLATT, is in the Manuscripts of Lord Hyndford, and Lord Auchinleck. In this are described, the
"Kyndis of instrumentis, the sportaris, [juglers] the Irish bard, and the
ule."
It was written before the year 1455.
,
Thocht thay be deid, thair libellis bene livand
Living.
,
Quhilk to reheirs makis redaris to rejoise.
Allace for one quhilk lamp was of this land,
Of eloquence the flowand balmy strand
Stream.
,
And in our Inglis rhetorick the rose,
As of rubeis the carbuncle bene chose,
And as Phebus dois Cynthie precell;
So GAWIN DOWGLAS, bischop of Dunkell,
Had, quhen he was into this land on lyve,
Above vulgar poetis prorogatyve,
Both in practick and speculatioun.
I say no more: gude redaris may discryve
His worthy workis, in noumer mo than fyve.
And speciallie the trew translatioun
Of Virgill, quhilk bene consolatioun
To cunnyng men to knawe his greit ingyne,
As weill in science naturall as devyne.
And in the court bene present in their dayis,
That ballatis brevis
Write.
lustally and layis,
Quhilkis to our princis daylie thay do present.
Qho can say more than schir JAMES INGLIS sayis
In ballatis, farsis, and in plesand playis
I know nothing of Sir James Ingl
s, or of his ballads, farces, and pleasant plays. But one John Inglish was master of a company of players, as we have before seen, at the marriage of James the fourth. Here is a proof, however, that theatrical representations were now in high repute in the court of Scotland.
?
Bot CULTROSE has his pen maid impotent,
Kid in cunnyng
Yet in knowing.
and practick richt prudent.
And STEWART quhilk desireth one statlie style
Full ornate workis daylis dois compyle.
STEWART of Lorne will carp richt curiouslie
See some of his satirical poetry, ANC. SC. P. p. 151.
,
GALBRAITH, KYNLOICH
These two poets are converted into one, under the name of GABRIELL KINLYCK, in an edition of some of Lyndesay's work
first turned and made perfect Englishe,
printed at London by Thomas Purfoote, A. D. 1581. p. 105. This edition often omits whole stanzas; and has the most arbitrary and licentious misrepresentations of the text, always for the worse. The editor, or
translat
r,
did not understand the Scottish language; and is, besides, a wretched writer of English. But the attempt sufficiently exposes itself.
, quhen thay tham lyst applie
Into that art, ar craftie of ingyne.
Bot now of late is start up haistelie,
One cunnyng clarke, quhilk wrytith craftelie:
One plant of poets callit BALLENDYNE
I presume this is John Balantyn, or Ballenden, archdeacon of Murray, canon of Rosse, and clerk of the register in the minority of James the fifth and his successour. He was a doctor of the Sorbonne at Paris. G. Con,
De duplici statu religionis apud Scotos,
lib. ii. p. 167. At the command of James the fifth, he translated the seventeen books of Hector Boethius's HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. Edinb. by T. Davidson, 1536. fol. The preface is in verse,
"Thow marcyal buke pas to the nobyll prince."
Prefixed is the COSMOGRAPHY of Boethius's History, which Mackenzie calls, A
Description of Albany,
ii. 596. Before it is a Prologue, a vision in verse, in which VIRTUE and PLEASURE address the king, after the manner of a dialogue. He wrote an addition of one hundred years to Boethius's history: but this does not appear in the Edinburgh edition: also
Epistles to James the fifth,
and
On the Life of Pythagoras.
Many of hi
poems are extant. The author of the article BALLENDEN, in the BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA, written more than thirty ago, says, that
"in the large collection of Scottish poems, made by Mr. Carmichael, there were some of our author's on various subjects; and Mr. Laurence Dundass had several, whether in manuscript or printed, I cannot say."
vol. i. p. 461. His style has many gallicisms. He seems to have been a young man, wh
n this compliment was paid him by Lyndesay. He died at Rome, 1550. Dempst. ii. 197. Bale, xiv. 65. Mackenz. ii. 595. seq.
;
Quhose ornate workis my wit can nocht defyne:
Get he into the court auctorite,
He will precell Quintyn and Kennedie
SIGNAT. K.
.
The Scotch, from that philosophical and speculative cast which characterises their national genius, were more zealous and early friends to a reformation of religion than their neighbours in England. The pomp and elegance of the catholic worship made no impression on a people, whose devotion sought only for solid edification; and who had no notion that the interposition of the senses could with any propriety be admitted to cooperate in an exercise of such a nature, which appealed to reason alone, and seemed to exclude all aids of the imagination. It was natural that such a people, in their system of spiritual refinement, should warmly prefer the severe and rigid plan of Calvin: and it is from this principle, that we find most of their writers, at the restoration of learning, taking all occasions of censuring the absurdities of popery with an unusual degree of abhorrence and asperity.
In the course of the poem before us, an allegory on the corruptions of the church is introduced, not destitute of invention, humour, and elegance: but founded on one of the weak theories of Wickliffe, who not considering religion as reduced to a civil establishment, and because Christ and his apostles were poor, imagined that secular possessions were inconsistent with the simplicity of the gospel.
In the primitive and pure ages of christianity, the poet supposes, that the Church married Poverty, whose children were Chastity and Devotion. The emperour Constantine soon afterwards divorced this sober and decent couple; and without obtaining or asking a dispensation, married the Church with great solemnity to Property. Pope Silvester ratified the marriage: and Devotion retired to a hermitage. They had two daughters, Riches and Sensuality; who were very beautiful, and soon attracted such great and universal regard, that they acquired the chief ascendancy in all spiritual affairs. Such was the influence of Sensuality in particular, that Chastity, the daughter of the Church by Poverty, was exiled: she tried, but in vain, to gain protection in Italy and France. Her success was equally bad in England. She strove to take refuge in the court of Scotland: but they drove her from the court to the clergy. The bishops were alarmed at her appearance, and protested they would harbour no rebel to the See of Rome. They sent her to the nuns, who received her in form, with processions and other honours. But news being immediately dispatched to Sensuality and Riches, of her friendly reception among the nuns, she was again compelled to turn fugitive. She next fled to the mendicant friers, who declared they could not take charge of ladies. At last she was found secreted in the nunnery of the Burrowmoor near Edinburgh, where she had met her mother Poverty and her sister Devotion. Sensuality attempts to besiege this religious house, but without effect. The pious sisters were armed at all points, and kept an irresistible piece of artillery, called
Domine custodi nos.
Within quhose schot, thare dar no enemies
Approche their places for dread of dyntis dour
Hard dints.
;
Boith nicht and day thay work lyke besie beis
Busy bees.
,
For thar defence reddie to stand in stour:
And keip sic watchis on their utter tour,
That dame Sensuall with seige dar not assaile,
Nor cum within the schot of thare artaile
Artillery. SIGNAT. C. ii.
.
I know not whether this chaste sisterhood had the delicacy to observe strictly the injunctions prescribed to a society of nuns in England; who, to preserve a cool habit, were ordered to be regularly blooded three times every year, but not by a secular person, and the priests who performed the operation were never suffered to be strangers
MSS. JAMES. xxvi. p. 32. Bibl. Bod
Oxon.
.
I must not dismiss this poem, without pointing out a beautiful valediction to the royal palace of Snowdon; which is not only highly sentimental and expressive of poetical feelings, but strongly impresses on the mind an image of the romantic magnificence of antient times, so remote from the state of modern manners.
Adew fair Snawdoune, with thy touris hie,
Thy chapell royall, park, and tabill rounde
Round table. Tournaments.
!
May, June, and July, wald I dwell in the,
War I one man, to heir the birdis sound
Quhilk doth againe thy royal roche rebound
SIGNAT. B. iii.
!
Our author's poem, To the
Kingis grace in contemptioun of syde taillis,
that is, a censure on the affectation of long trains worn by the ladies, has more humour than decency
Compare a manuscript poem of Occleve,
Of Pride and wast clothing of Lordis men which is aȝens her astate.
MSS. LAUD. K. 78. f. 67. b. Bibl. Bodl. His chief complaint is against pendent s
eeves, sweeping the ground, which with their
ur amount to more than twenty pounds.
. He allows a tail to the queen, but thinks it an affront to the royal dignity and prerogative that,
Every lady of the land
Should have hir taill so syde trailland
SIGNAT. L. ii.
.—
Quhare ever thay go it may be sene
How kirk and calsay they suepe clene
Causey. Street. Path.
.—
Kittok that clekkit was yestrene
Kitty that was born yesterday.
,
The morne wyll counterfute the quene.
Ane mureland
Moor-land.
Mag that milkid the ȝowis
Claggit
Clogged.
with clay above the howis,
In barn, nor byir, scho woll nocht byde
Without her kyrtill taill besyde.—
They waist more claith [cloth] within few yeiris
Than wald claith fyftie score of freris
SIGNAT. L. iii. He commends the ladies of Italy for their dece
cy in this article.
.
In a statute of James the second of Scotland
ACT. 70.
, about the year 1460, it was ordered, that no woman should come to church or to market with her face
mussaled,
that is muzzled, or covered. Notwithstanding this seasonable interposition of the legislature, the ladies of Scotland continued
muzzled
during three reigns
As appears from a passage in the poem before us.
Bot in the kirk and market placis
I think thay suld nocht hide thair facis.—
He therefore advises the king to issue a proclamation,
Both throw the land, and Borrowstonis,
To schaw thare face, and cut thare gownis.
He add
, that this is quite contrary to the mode of the French ladies.
Hails ane Frence lady quhen ye pleis,
Scho wyll discover
mouth and neis.
. The enormous excrescence of female tails was prohibited in the same statute,
"That na woman wear tails unfit in length."
The legitimate length of these tails is not, however, determined in this statute; a circumstance which we may collect from a mandate issued by a papal legate in Germany, in the fourteenth century.
"It is decreed, that the apparel of women, which ought to be consistent with modesty, but now, through their foolishness, is degenerated into wantonness and extravagance, more particularly the immoderate length of their petticoats, with which they sweep the ground, be restrained to a moderate fashion, agreeably to the decency of the sex, under pain of the sentence of excommunication
"Velamina etiam mulierum, quae ad
v
recundiam designandam
eis sunt concessa, sed nunc, per insipientiam earum, in lasciviam et luxuriam excreverunt, et
immoderata lo
git
do superpelliceorum, quibus pulverem trab
nt,
ad moder
tum usum, sicut
decet verecundiam sexus,
per excommunicationis sententiam cohibeantur."
Ludewig, RELIQ. DIPLOM. tom. ii. p. 441.
."
The orthodoxy of petticoats is not precisely ascertained in thi
salutary edict: but as it excommunicates those female tails, which, in our author's phrase,
keep the kirk and causey clean,
and allows such a moderate standard to the petticoat, as is compatible with female delicacy, it may be concluded, that, the ladies who covered their feet were looked upon as very laudable conformists: an inch or two less would have been avowed immodesty; an inch or two more an affectation bordering upon heresy
See Notes to A
C. SC. POEMS, ut supr. p. 256.
. What good effects followed from this ecclesiastical censure, I do not find: it is, however, evident
that the Scottish act of parliament against
long tails
was as little observed, as that against
muzzling.
Probably the force of the poet's satire effected a more speedy reformation of such abuses, than the menaces of the church, or the laws of the land. But these capricious vanities were not confined to Scotland alone. In England, as we are informed by several antiquaries, the women of quality first wore trains in the reign of Richard the second: a novelty which induced a well meaning divine, of those times, to write a tract
Contra caudas dominarum,
against the Tails of the Ladies
See Collectanea Historica, ex DIC
ION. MS. Thomae Gascoign. Apud Hearne's W. HEMINGFORD, p. 512.
. Whether or no this remonstrance operated so far, as to occasion the contrary extreme, and even to have been the distant cause of producing the short petticoats of the present age, I cannot say. As an apology, however, for the English ladies, in adopting this fashion, we should in justice remember, as was the case of the Scotch, that it was countenanced by Anne, Richard's queen: a lady not less enterprising than successful in her attacks on established forms; and whose authority and example were so powerful, as to abolish, even in defiance of France, the
afe, commodious, and natural mode of riding on horseback, hitherto practiced by the women of England, and to introduce side-saddles
Chaucer represents his WI
OF BATH a
riding with a pair of spurs. PROL. v. 475. p. 5. Urr.
And on her feete a paire of spurris sharpe.
.
An anonymous Scotch poem has lately been communicated to me, belonging to this period: of which, as it was never printed, and as it contains capital touches of satirical humour, not inferior to those of Dunbar and Lyndesay, I am tempted to transcribe a few stanzas
For the use of this manuscript I am obliged to the ingenious Mr. Pennant; whose valuable publications are familiar to every reader of taste and science.
. It appears to have been written soon after the death of James the fifth
V. 162.
. The poet mentions the death of James the fourth, who was killed in the battle of Flodden-field, fought in the year 1513
V. 78.
. It is entitled DUNCANE LAIDER, or MAKGREGOR'S TESTAMENT
"Copied, says my manuscript, at Taymouth, in September 1769. From a Manuscript in the library there, ending August 20th, 1490."
The latter date certainly cannot refer to the time when this poem was written.
. The Scotch poets were fond of conveying invective, under the form of an assumed character writing a will
See
The Testament of Mr. Andro Kennedy.
ANC. SC. POEMS, ut supr. p. 35.
. In the poem before us, the writer exposes the ruinous policy, and the general corruption of public manners, prevailing in Scotland, under the personage of the STRONG MAN
Viz. LAIDER.
, that is, tyranny or oppression. Yet there are some circumstances which seem to point out a particular feudal lord, famous for his exactions and insolence, and who at length was outlawed. Our testator introduces himself to the reader's acquaintance, by describing his own character and way of life, in the following expressive allegories.
My maister houshold was heich
Named.
Hight.
Oppressioun,
Reif
Robbery.
my stewart, that cairit of na wrang
Took many a booty.
;
Murthure, Slauchtir
Murder, Slaughter.
, aye of ane professioun,
My cubicularis
The pages of my bed-chamber. Ca
led, in Scotland,
Chamber-lads.
has bene thir yearis lang:
Recept, that oft tuik in mony ane fang
That scrupled to do no wrong.
,
Was porter to the yettis
Gates.
Yates, Yatt
s.
, to oppin wyde;
And Covatice was chamberlane at all tyde
All times.
.
Conspiracie, Invy, and False Report,
Were my prime counsalouris, leve
Beloved.
and dear
;
Then Robberie, the peepill to extort,
And common Thift
Theft.
tuke on tham
a the steir
Steer. Steerage. The management.
That Treuth in my presince durst not appeir,
For Falsheid had him ay at mortal feid
Enmity. Hatred.
,
And Thift brocht Lautie finallie to deid
Brought Loyalty to death,
Oppressioun clikit Gude Reule
Caught Good Rule. Read
cleikit,
clecked. CLEIK is crooked iron,
Uncus.
be the hair,
And suddainlie in ane preesoun
Threw him into prison.
him flang;
And Crueltie cast Piti
our the stair
Over the stairs.
,
Qhuill Innocence was murthurit in that thrang
Murthered in the croud.
.
Than Falsheid said, he maid my house richt strang,
And furnist weill with meikill wrangus geir
Furnished it well with much ill-gotten
ealth.
,
And bad me neither god nor man to feir
V. 15. seq.
.
At length, in consequence of repeated enormities and violations of justice, Duncane supposes himself to be imprisoned, and about to suffer the extreme sentence of the law. He therefore very providently makes his last will, which contains the following witty bequests.
To my CURAT Negligence I resigne,
Thairwith his parochinaris
Parishioners.
to teche;
Ane ather gift I leif him als condigne
As good.
,
Slouth and Ignorance sendill
Seldom.
for to preche:
The saullis he committis for to bleiche
To be bleached. Whitened, or purified.
In purgatorie, quhill
Till they be washed clean.
thaie be waschin clene,
Pure religion thairbie to sustene.
To the VICAR I leif Diligence and Care
To tak the upmost claith and the kirk kow
Part of the pall, taken as a fee at funerals. The
Kirk-kow,
or cow, is an ecclesiastical perquisite which I do not understand.
,
Mair nor
More than.
to put the corps in sepulture:
Have pouir wad six gryis and ane sow
If
the poor have six pigs and one sow.
,
He will have ane to fill his bellie fowe
His belly full. BELLY was not yet proscribed as a coarse indelicate word. I
often occurs in our Translation of the Bible: and is used, somewhat singularly, in a chapter
act of Westminster-abbey, so late as the year 1628. The prebendaries vindicate themselves from the imputation of having reported, that their dean, bishop Williams, repaired the abbey,
"out of the diet, and BELLIES of the prebendaries, and revenues of our said church, and not out of his own revenues, &c."
Widmore's WESTMINST. ABBEY, p. 213. Append. NUM. xii. Lond. 1751. Here, as we now think, a periphrasis, at least another term, was obvious. How shocking, or rather ridiculous, would this expression appear in a modern instrument, signed by a body of clergy!
:
His thocht is mair upon the pasche fynis,
Nor the saullis in purgatorie that pynis
He thinks more of his Easter-offerings, than of the souls in purgatory. Pasche is
paschal.
PAIS, Easter.
.
Oppressioun the PERSONE I leif untill
I leave Oppression to the PARSON, the proprietor of the great, or rectorial, tythes.
,
Pouir mens corne to hald upon the rig
To keep the corn of the poor in the
rig,
or rick.
,
Quhill he get the teynd
lhail at his will
Until he g
t the tythe all at his will.
:
Suppois the barins thair bread suld go thig
Suppose the children should beg their bread.
Barins,
or Bearns.
,
His purpois is na kirkis for to big
To build no churches.
;
Sa fair an barne-tyme
So fair a harvest.
god has him sendin,
This seven years the queir will ly unmendin
The choir, or chancel, which, as the rector, he is obliged to keep in repair. The more tythe he receives, the less willing
e is to return a due proportion of it to the church.
I leif unto the DEAN Dignite, bot faill
Without doubt.
,
With Greit Attendence quilk he sall not miss,
Fra adulteraris [to] tack the buttock-maill
A fine for adultery. MAILIS is dutie
, rents. MAILE-MEN, MAILLERIS, persons who pay rent. Male is Saxon for tribute or
x. Whence Maalman, Saxon, for one paying tribute. See Spelman and Dufresne, in VV.
;
Gif ane man to ane madin gif ane kiss
If a man give a maid one kiss. Chaucer says of his SOMPNOU
, or Apparitor, PROL. Urr. p. 6. v. 651.
He would suffer for a quart of wine
A good fellow to have his concubine.
See the FREERES TALE, where these
buses are exposed with much humour. Urr. edit. p. 87.
,
Get he not geir, thai sall not come to bliss
If he does not get his fine, they will not be saved. GEIR is properly goods
chattels.
:
His winnyng
His profits, in the spiritual court.
is maist throw fornicatioun,
Spending it shur with siclike
Surely in the same manner.
occupatioun.
I leif unto the PRIOURE, for his part,
Gluttony, him and his monkis to feid,
With far better will to drink ane quart
An English gallon.
,
Nor an the bible ane chaptoure
To read one chapter.
to reid;
Yit ar thai wyis and subtile into deid
Unto death.
,
Fenȝeis thame pouir
Feign themselves poor.
, and has gret sufficence,
And takith wolth away with gret patience.
I leif the ABBOT Pride and Arrogance,
With trappit mules in the court to ryde
To ride on a mule with rich trappings. Cavendish says, that when cardinal Wolsey went embassador to France, he rode through London with more than twenty sumptermules. He adds, that Wolsey
"rode very sumptuouslie like a cardinal, on a mule; with
is spare-mule, and his spare-horse, covered with crimson velvett, and gilt stirrops, &c."
MEM. OF CARD. WOLSEY. edit. Lond. 1708. 8vo. p. 57. When he meets the king of France near Amiens, he mounts another mule, more superbly caparisoned. Ibid. p. 69. See also p. 192. [See a manuscript of this Life, MSS. LAUD. i. 66. MSS. ARCH. B. 44. Bibl. Bodl.] The same writer, one of the cardinal's domestics, says that he constantly rode to Westminster-hall,
"on a mule trapped in crimson velvett with a
addle of the same."
Ibid. p. 29. 30. In the Computus of Maxtoke priory, in Warwickshire, for the year 1446, this article of expenditure occurs,
"Pro pabulo duarum mularum cum harnesiis domini PRIORIS hoc anno."
Again in the same year,
"Pro freno deaurato, cum sella et panno blodii coloris, mulae PRIORIS."
MS. penes me supr. citat. Wiccliffe describes a WORDLY PRIEST,
"with fair hors and jolly, and gay saddles and bridles ringing by the way, and himself in costly clothes and pelure."
Lewis's WICCL. p. 121.
,
Not in the closter to make residence;
It is na honoure thair for him to byde
Continue.
,
But ever for ane bischoprik provyde
Look out for a bishoprick.
:
For weill ye wat ane pouir benefice,
Of ten thousand markis
Marcs.
may not him suffice.
To the BISCHOP his Free will I allege
Give, Assign.
,
Becaus thair [is] na man him [dares] to blame;
Fra secular men he will him replege
He will order tryal in his
own
court. It is therefore unsafe to attack him.
,
And weill ye wat the pape is fur fra hame
You well know the pope is at a great distance.
:
To preich the gospell he thinkis schame,
(Supposis sum tym it was his professioun,)
Rather nor for to sit upon the sessioun
He had rather sit in parliament.
.
I leif my Flatterie, and Fals Dissembling,
Unto the FRERIS, thai sa weill can fleitche
Fawn.
,
With mair profit throwe ane marriage-making
Nor all the lentrane
Or, Lentron. Lent.
in the kirk to preiche
Who get more by making one match, than by preaching a whole Lent. The mendicants gained an establishment in families, and were consulted and gave their advice in all cases. Chaucer's FREERE
Had mad full manie a marriage
Of yong women, &c.
PROL. v. 212.
.
Thai gloiss
Expound.
the scripture, ever quhen thai teache,
Moer in intent the auditouris to pleiss,
Nor the trew worde of god for to appeiss
Explain. The mendicants not only perverted the plainest texts of scripture to cover their own fraudulent purposes, but
en amused their hearers with legends and religious romances. Wiccliffe, the grand a
tagonist of these orders, says that,
"Capped [graduated] friers that been cleped [called] masters of divinitie, have their chamber and service as lords and kings, and senden out idiots full of covetise to preche, not the gospel, but chronicles, fables, and lesinges, to plese the peple, and to robbe them."
Lewis's LIFE OF WICCL. p. 21. xiii.
.
Thir
These.
gifts that dame Nature has me lent
I have disponit
Disposed. Bequeathed.
heir, as ye may see:
It nevir was, nor yit is, my intent,
That trew kirkmen get acht belongis to me
A true churchman, a christian on the reformed plan, shall never get any thing belonging to me.
:
But that haulis
Whole.
Huredome and Harlottrie,
Gluttony, Invy, Covatice, and Pryde,
My executouris I mak tham at this tyde.
Adew all friends, quhill
Till.
after that we meit,
I cannot tell yow quhair, nor in quhat place;
But as the lord dispousis for my spreit,
Quher is the well of mercie and of grace,
That I may [stand] befoirr his godlie face:
Unto the devill I leif my synnis
Sins
all,
Fra him thai came, to him agane thei fall
V. 309. seq.
.
Some readers may perhaps be of opinion, that Makgregor was one of those Scottish lairds, who lived professedly by rapine and pillage: a practice greatly facilitated, and even supported, by the feudal system. Of this sort was Edom o'Gordon, whose attack on the castle of Dunse is recorded by the Scotch minstrels, in a pathetic ballad, which begins thus.
It fell about the Martinmas,
Qhen the wind blew schril and cauld,
Said Edom o'Gordon to his men,
We maun draw to a hauld:
And quhat a hauld sall we draw to,
My mirry men and me?
We wul gae to the house o' the Rhodes,
To see that fair ladie
Percy's BALL. i. 100.
.
Other parts of Europe, from the same situations in life, afford instances of the same practice. Froissart has left a long narrative of an eminent robber, one Amergot Marcell; who became at length so formidable and powerful, as to claim a place in the history of France. About the year 1380, he had occupied a strong castle for the space of ten years, in the province of Auvergne, in which he lived with the splendor and dominion of a petty sovereign
having amassed, by pillaging the neighbouring country, one hundred thousand francs. His depredations brought in an annual revenue of twenty thousand floreins. Afterwards he is tempted imprudently to sell his castle to one of the generals of the king for a considerable sum. Froissart introduces Marcell, after having sold his fortress, uttering the following lamentation, which strongly paints his system of depredation, the feudal anarchy, and the trade and travelling of those days.
"What a joy was it when we rode forthe at adventure, and somtyme found by the way a ryche priour, or marchaunt, or a route of mulettes, of Montpellyer, of Narbone, of Lymons, of Fongans, of Tholous, or of Carcassone, laden with clothe of Brusselles, or peltre ware comynge from the fayres, or laden with spycery from Bruges, from Damas, or from Alysaunder! Whatsoever we met, all was ours, or els raunsomed at our pleasures. Dayly we gate newe money; and the vyllaynes of Auvergne and of Lymosyn dayly provyded, and brought to our castell, whete mele, breed [bread] ready baken, otes for our horses and lytter, good wynes, beffes, and fatte mottons, pullayne, and wylde foule. We were ever furnyshed, as though we had been kings. Whan we rode forthe, all the country trembled for feare. All was oures, goynge or comynge. Howe toke we Carlaste, I and the Bourge of Companye! and I and Perot of Bernoys toke Caluset. How dyd we scale with lytell ayde the stronge castell of Marquell pertayninge to the erle Dolphyn! I kept it not past fyve dayes, but I receyved for it, on a fayre table, fyve thousand frankes; and forgave one thousand, for the love of the erle Dolphyn's chyldren. By my faithe, this was a fayre and goodlie life! &c
See tom. ii. c. 170. f. 115. a. And tom. i. c. 149. f. 73. See also, ib. c.. 440.
. 313. b. Berners's Transl.
."
But on the whole I am inclined to think, that our testator Makgregor, although a robber, was a personage of high rank, whose power and authority were such, as to require this indirect and artificial mode of abuse. For the same reason, I believe the name to be fictitious.
I take this opportunity of observing, that the old Scotch poet Blind Harry belongs to this period; and, at the same time, of correcting the mistake, which, in conformity to the common opinion, and on the evidence of Dempster and Mackenzie, I have committed, in placing him towards the close of the fourteenth century
See supr. vol. i. p. 321. Dempster says he lived in 1361.
. John Major the Scotch historian, who was born about the year 1470, remembered Blind Harry to have been living, and to have published a poem on the achievements of Sir William Wallace, when he was a boy. He adds, that he cannot vouch for the credibility of those tales which the bards were accustomed to sing for hire in the castles of the nobility
The poem as now extant has probably been reformed and modernised.
. I will give his own words.
"Integrum librum Gulielmi Wallacei Henricus, a nativitate luminibus captus, meae infantiae tempore cudit: et quae vulgo dicebantur carmine vulgari, in quo peritus erat, conscripsit. Ego autem talibus scriptis solum in parte fidem impertior; quippe qui HISTORIARUM RECITATIONE CORAM PRINCIPIBUS victum et vestitum, quo dignus erat, nactus est
HIST. MAGN. BRITAN. L. iv. c. xv. f. 74. a. edit. Ascens. 1521. 4to. Compare Hollinsh. SCOT. ii. p. 414. And Mack. tom. i. 423. Dempst lib. viii. p. 349.
."
And that, in this poem, Blind Harry has intermixed much fable with true history, will appear from some proofs collected by sir David Dalrymple, in his judicious and accurate annals of Scotland, lately published
See p. 245. edit. 1776. 4to.
.
I cannot return to the English poets without a hint, that a well-executed history of the Scotch poetry from the thirteenth century, would be a valuable accession to the general literary history of Britain. The subject is pregnant with much curious and instructive information, is highly deserving of a minute and regular research, has never yet been uniformly examined in its full extent, and the materials are both accessible and ample. Even the bare lives of the vernacular poets of Scotland have never yet been written with tolerable care; and at present are only known from the meagre outlines of Dempster and Mackenzie. The Scotch appear to have had an early propensity to theatrical representations; and it is probable, that in the prosecution of such a design, among several other interesting and unexpected discoveries, many anecdotes, conducing to illustrate the rise and progress of our ancient drama, might be drawn from obscurity.
SECT. XV.
MOST of the poems of John Skelton were written in the reign of king Henry the eighth. But as he was laureated at Oxford about the year 1489
See supr. p. 130.
, I consider him as belonging to the fifteenth century.
Skelton, having studied in both our universities, was promoted to the rectory of Diss in Norfolk
At least before the year 1507. For at the end of his TRENTALE
for old John Clarke,
there is this colophon.
"Auctore Skelton rectore de Dis. Finis, &c. Apud Trumpinton, script. per Curatum ejusdem quinto die Jan. A. D. 1507."
See the PITHY PLEASAUNT AND PROFITABLE WORKES OF MAISTER SKELTON, reprinted at London, 1736, 12mo. pag. 272. He was ordained both deacon and priest in the year 1498. On the title of the monastery de Graciis near the tower of London. REGISTR. Savage. Episc. Lond. There is a poem by Skelton on the death of king Edward the fourth, who died A. D. 1483. WORKES, ut supr. p. 100. This is taken into the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES.
Skelton's poems were first printed at London, 1512. 8vo. A more complete edition by Thomas Marshe appeared in 1568. 12mo. From which the modern edition, in 1736, was copied. Many pieces of this collection have appeared separately. We have also, CERTAINE BOKES OF SKELTON. For W. Bonham, 1547. 12mo. Again, viz. Five of his poems, for John Day, 1583. 12mo. Another collection for A. Scolocker, 1582. 12mo. Another of two pieces, without date, for A. Kytson. Another, viz. MERIE TALES, for T. Colwell, 1575. 12mo. MAGNIFICENCE,
a goodly Interlude and a mery devysed and made by mayster Skelton, poet laureate, late deceased,
was printed by Rastell, in 1533. 4to. This is not in any collection of his poems. He mentions it in his CROWNE OF LAWRELL, p. 47.
"And of MAGNIFICENCE, a notable mater, &c."
Pinson also printed a piece of Skelton, not in any collection,
"How yong scholars now a days emboldened in the fly blowne blast of the moche vayne glorious, &c."
Without date, 4to. There are also, not in his Works,
Epitaph of Jasper duke of Bedford,
Lond. 4to. And,
Miseries of England under Henry seventh,
Lond. 4to. See two of his Epitaphs in Camden's EPITAPHIA REGUM, &c. Lond. 1600. 4to. See a distich in Hollinsh. iii. 878. And Stanzas presented to Henry the seventh, in 1488, at Windsor, in Ashmole's ORD. GART. chap. xxi. SECT. vii. p. 594. A great number of Skelton's pieces remain unprinted. See MSS. Harl. 367. 36. fol. 101. seq.—2252. 51. fol. 134. seq. MSS. Reg. 18 D. 4 5. MSS. C. C. C. Cambr. G. ix. MSS. Cotton. VITELL. E. x. 28. And MSS. Cathedr. Linc. In the CROWNE OF LAWRELL, Skelton recites many of his own pieces. p. 47. seq. The
soverayne Interlude of Virtue.
The
Rosiar. Prince Arthur's creacion.
Of
Perfidia. Dialogues of Ymaginacion.
The
comedy of Achad
mios. Tullis familiars,
that is, a translation of Tully's Familiar Epistles. Of
good Advisement.
The
Recule against Gaguine.
See p. 47. 162. The
Popingay.
A
noble pamphelet of soveraintie.
The Play of
Magnificence,
abovementioned.
Maters of Myrth to maistres Margery.
The
Peregrinacion of Mannes Lyfe,
from the French, perhaps of Guillaume, prior of Chalis. [See supr. p. 120.] But it should be observed, that Pynson printed
Peregrinatio humani generis,
1508. 4to. The
triumphes of the redde rose,
containing many stories long
unremembered. Speculum principis,
a manual written while he was
creauncer,
or tutor, to Henry the eighth, when a boy. The
Tunnyng of Elinour Rummyng.
See p. 123.
Colin Clout.
See p. 179.
John Yve. Joforth Jacke.
Verses to
maistres Anne.
Epitaph of
one Adam a knave.
See p. 271. The
balade of the mustarde tarte.
The fate of
Philip Sparrowe.
See p. 215. The
grounting of the swyne.
The
mournyng of the map
ly rote.
A
prayer to Moyse's hornes.
The
paiants
[pageaunts]
played in joyous garde,
that is, in king Arthur's castle, so called in the romance of MORTE ARTHUR. The
fenestrall
[window]
of castell Angel.
The
recule of Rosamundes bowre. How dame Minerva first found the olive-tre.
The
myller and his joly mate,
or wife.
Marione clarion.
Of the
Bonhoms of Ashrige
near Berkhamstead, where is the
sange royall of Christ's blode,
that is, the
real
blood of Christ. He professes to have received many favours from this monastery. The
nacion of foles.
The
boke of three fooles
is printed in his works, p. 260.
Apollo that whirled up his chare.
The
mayden of Kent.
Of
lovers testaments.
Of
Jollas and Phillis.
The
boke of honorouse astate:
Of
royall demenaunce: How to fle synne: How to sp
ke well. How to dye when ye will.
A
translation of Diodorus Siculus, oute of freshe Latin,
that is, of Poggius Florentinus, containing six books. MS. C. C. C. Camb. viii. 5. Poggius's version was first printed at Venice, 1476. Caxton in his Preface to Virgil's ENEIDOS, says that Skelton
"translated diverse other workes out of Latyn into Englysh,"
beside Tully's Epistles, and Diodorus Siculus. Bale mentions his
Invectiva
on William Lily the grammarian. I know nothing more of this, than that it was answered by Lily in
Apologia ad Joh. Scheltonum.
Pr.
"Siccine vipereo pergis me, &c."
The piece of Skelton most frequently printed was, I believe, his ELINOUR RUMMYNG, or Rumpkin. The last of the old editions is, in 1624. 4to. In the title page, is the picture of our genial hostess, a deformed old woman, holding a pot of ale, with this inscription.
When Skelton wore the lawrel crown
My ale put all the alewives down.
See Davies's CRITICAL HISTORY OF PAMPHLETS, p. 28. 86.
. But for his buffooneries in the pulpit, and his satirical ballads against the mendicants
See WORKS, p. 200. 202. &c.
, he was severely censured, and perhaps suspended by Nykke his diocesan, a rigid bishop of Norwich, from exercising the duties of the sacerdotal function. Wood says, he was also punished by the bishop for
"having been guilty
of certain crimes,
AS MOST POETS are
AT
. OXO
. i. 2
. seq.
."
But these persecutions only served to quicken his ludicrous disposition, and to exasperate the acrimony of his satire. As his sermons could be no longer a vehicle for his abuse, he vented his ridicule in rhyming libels. At length, daring to attack the dignity of cardinal Wolsey, he was closely pursued by the officers of that powerful minister; and, taking shelter in the sanctuary of Westminster abbey, was kindly entertained and protected by abbot Islip
His Latin epitaph or elegy on the Death of Henry the seventh, is addressed to Islip, A. D. 1512. p. 285.
, to the day of his death. He died, and was buried in the neighbouring church of saint Margaret, in the year 1529.
Skelton was patronised by Henry Algernoon Percy, the fifth earl of Northumberland, who deserves particular notice here; as he loved literature at a time when many of the nobility of England could hardly read or write their names, and was the general patron of such genius as his age produced. He encouraged Skelton, almost the only professed poet of the reign of Henry the seventh, to write an elegy on the death of his father, which is yet extant. But still stronger proofs of his literary turn, especially of his singular passion for poetry, may be collected from a very splendid manuscript, which formerly belonged to this very distinguished peer, and is at present preserved in the British Museum
MSS. Reg. 18 D. 11.
. It contains a large collection of English poems, elegantly engrossed on vellum, and superbly illuminated, which had been thus sumptuously transcribed for his use. The pieces are chiefly those of Lydgate, after which follow the aforesaid Elegy of Skelton, and some smaller compositions. Among the latter are a metrical history of the family of Percy, presented to him by one of his own chaplains; and a prolix series of poetical inscriptions, which he caused to be written on the walls and ceilings of the principal apartments of his castles of Lekinfield and Wressil
See supr. p. 126. And MSS. C. C. C. Cant. 168. Three of the apartments in Wressill Castle, now destroyed, were adorned with POETICAL INSCRIPTIONS. These are called in the manuscript abovementioned,
"PROVERBES in the LODGINGS in WRESSILL."
"The proverbes in the sydis of the innere chamber at Wressill."
This is a poem of twenty-four stanzas, each containing seven lines
beginning thus,
When it is tyme of coste and greate expens,
Beware of waste and spende by measure:
Who that outrageously makithe his dispens,
Causy the his goodes not long to endure, &c.
"The counsel
of Aristotill, whiche he gayse to Alexander, kynge of Massydony; whiche are wrytyn in the syde of the Utter Chamber above the house in the Garden at Wresyll."
This is in distichs of thirty-eight lines; beginning thus,
"Punyshe moderatly and discretly correcte,
"As well to mercy as to justice havynge a respecte, &c.
"The proverbis in the syde of th'Utter Chamber above of the hous in the gardying at Wresyll."
A poem of thirty stanzas, chiefly of four lines, viz.
"Remorde thyne ey inwardly,
"Fyx not thy mynde on Fortune, that delythe dyversly, &c.
The following apartments in Lekinfield had poetical inscriptions: as mentioned in the said manuscript.
"PROVERBS in the LODGINGS at LEKINGFIELD."
"The proverbis of the garett over the Bayne at Lekyngfelde."
This is a dialogue in 32 stanzas, of four lines, between
"the Parte Sensatyve,"
and
"the Part Intellectyve;"
containing a poetical comparison between sensual and intellectual pleasures.
"The proverbis in the garet at the new lodge in the parke of Lekingfelde."
This is a poem of 32 stanzas, of four lines, being a discant on Harmony, as also on the manner of Singing, and playing on most of the instruments then used: i. e. the Ha
ps, Claricordes, Lute, Virgynall, Clarisymballis, Clarion, Shawme, Orgayne, Recorder. The following stanza relates to the SHAWME, and shews it to have been u
ed for the Bass, as the RECORDER was for the Meane or Tenor.
"A SHAWME makithe a sweete sounde for he tunithe BASSE,
"It mountithe not to hy, but kepithe rule and space.
"Yet yf it be blowne with a too vehement wynde,
"It makithe it to misgoverne out of his kynde.
"The proverbis in the rooffe of the hyest chawmbre in the gardinge at Leking
elde."
If we suppose this to be the room mentioned by Leland, where the Genealogy was kept; the following jingling reflections on the family motto (in thirty distichs) will not appear quite so misplaced;
"Esperaunce en Dyex,
"Truste in hym he is most trewe.
"En Dieu esperance,
"In hym put thyne affiance.
"Esperaunc
in the worlde? nay;
"The worlde varieth every day.
"Esperaunc
in riches? nay, not so,
"Riches slidithe and sone will go.
"Esperaunce
in exaltacion of honoure?
"Nay, it widderithe ... lyke a floure.
"Esperaunce
in bloode and highe lynage?
"At moste nede, bot esy avauntage.
The concluding distich is,
"Esperaunce en Die
,
in hym is all;
"Be thou contente and thou art above Fortune's fall."
"The proverbis in the rouse of my Lorde Percy closett at Lekyngfelde."
A poetical dialogue, containing instructions for youth, in 142 lines.
"The proverbis in the roufe of my Lordis library at Lekyngefelde."
Twentythree stanzas of four lines, from which take the following specimen:
"To every tale geve thou no credens.
"Prove the cause, or thou give sentens.
"Agayn the right make no dyffens,
"So hast thou a clene conscie
s."
"The counsell of Aristotell, whiche he gave to Alexander kinge of Macedony; in the syde of the garet of the gardynge in Lekynfelde."
This consists of nine stanzas, of eight lines: Take the last stanza but one:
"Punishe moderatly, and discretly correct,
"As well to mercy, as to justice havynge a respect;
"So shall ye have meryte for the punyshment,
"And cause the offender to be sory and penitent.
"If ye be movede with anger or hastynes,
"Pause in youre mynde and your yre repress:
"Defer vengeance unto your anger asswagede be;
"So shyll ye mynyster justice, and do dewe equyte."
This castle is also demolished. One of the ornaments of the apartments of the old castles in France, was to write the walls all over with amorous SONNETS.
. His cultivation of the arts of external elegance appears, from the s
ately sepulchral monuments which he erected in the minster, or collegiate church, of Beverly in Yorkshire, to the memory of his father and mother; which are executed in the richest style of the florid Gothic architecture, and remain to this day, the conspicuous and striking evidences of his taste and magnificence. In the year 1520, he founded an annual stipend of ten marcs for three years, for a preceptor, or professor, to teach grammar and philosophy in the monastery of Alnewick, contiguous to another of his magnificent castles
From the Receiver's accompts of the earl's estates in Com. Northumb. A. xv. Henr. viii. A. D. 1527.
"SOLUCIONES DENARIORUM per WARRANTUM DOMINI. Et in denariis per dominum receptorem doctori Makerell Abbati monasterii de Alnewyk solutis, de exitibus hujus anni, pro solucione vadii unius
EDAGOGI,
ive Magistri, existentis infra Abbathiam predictam, et docentis ac legentis GRAMMATICAM et PHILOSOPHIAM canonicis et fratribus monasterii predicti, ad x marcas per annum pro termino iij annorum, virtute unius warran
i, cujus data est apud Wressill xxm• die Septembris anno xij Regis predicti, signo manuali ipsius Comitis signati, et penes ips
m Abbatem remanentis, ultra vj lib. xiij s. iv d. sibi allocatas anno xiij Henr. viijv• , et vj lib. xiij s. iiij d. similiter sibi allocatas in anno xiiij ejusdem Regis ut per ii acquietancias inde confectas, et penes Auditorem remanentes."
From EVIDENCES of the PERCY FAMILY, at Sion-house. C. iii. Num. 5. 6. Communicated by doctor Percy,
. A further instance of his attention to letters and studious employments, occurs in his HOUSHOLD-BOOK, dated 1512, yet remaining; in which the LIBRARIES of this earl and of his lady are specified
Pag. 44. P. Cop.
: and in the same curious monument of antient manners it is ordered, that one of his chaplains should be a MAKER OF INTERLUDES
Pag. 378. I am indebted to the usual kindness of Dr. Percy for all the notices relating to this earl. See his Preface to the HOUSHOLD BOOK, pag. xxi. seq.
. With so much boldness did this liberal nobleman abandon the example of his brother peers, whose principal occupations were hawking and tilting; and who despised learning, as an ignoble and petty accomplishment, fit only for the purposes of laborious and indigent ecclesiastics. Nor was he totally given up to the pursuits of leisure and peace: he was, in the year 1497, one of the leaders who commanded at the battle of Blackheath against lord Audley and his partisans; and was often engaged, from his early years, in other public services of trust and honour. But Skelton hardly deserved such a patronage
I am informed by a manuscript note in one of Mr. Oldys's books, that Skelton also wrote a poem called TITUS AND GESIPPUS. This I believe to be a mistake: for I suppose he attributes to Skelton, William Walter's poem on this subject, mentioned above, p. 238. At the same time I take occasion to correct a mistake of my own, concerning that piece; which I have inadvertently called,
"a translation from a Latin romance concerning the siege of Jerusalem."
ibid. Titus and Gesippus were famous for their friendship; and their history forms an interesting novel in Boccacio, the substance of which is this. Gesippus, falling into poverty, thought himself despised by Titus; and thence growing weary of life, gave out that he was guilty of a murther just committed. But Titus knowing the true state of the case, and desiring to save the life of his friend by losing his own, charged himself with the murther: at which the real murtherer, who stood among the croud at the trial, was so struck, that he confessed the fact. All three are saved; and Titus, to repair the broken fortunes of Gesippus, gives him his sister in marriage, with an ample dower. Bocc. DECAM. Nov. viii. GIORN. x. This is a frequent example of consummate friendship in our old poets. In the FAERIE QUEENE, they are placed in the temple of Venus among the celebrated Platonic friends of antiquity, B. iv. c. x. st. 27.
Myld Titus and Gesippus without pryde.
See also SONGES and SONNETTS written by E. G. At the end of lord Surrey's Works, fol. 114.
O frendship flour of flours, O lively sprite of life,
O sacred bond of blisful peace, the stalworth staunch of life!
Scipio with Lelius didst thou conjoin in care:—
GESIPPUS eke with TITE, Damon with Pythias;
And with Menethus sonne Achill by thee combyned was:
Euryalus and Nisus, &c. &c.
There is a manuscript of some of Skelton's poems in the Cotton library: but the volume is so much damaged by fire, that they are almost illegible. [Brit. Mus.] VITELL. E. x. 28.
.
It is in vain to apologise for the coarseness, obscenity, and scurrility of Skelton, by saying that his poetry is tinctured with the manners of his age. Skelton would have been a writer without decorum at any period. The manners of Chaucer's age were undoubtedly more rough and unpolished than those of the reign of Henry the seventh. Yet Chaucer, a poet abounding in humour, and often employed in describing the vices and follies of the world, writes with a degree of delicacy, when compared with Skelton. That Skelton's manner is gross and illiberal, was the opinion of his cotemporaries; at least of those critics who lived but a few years afterwards, and while his poems yet continued in vogue. Puttenham, the author of the ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, published in the year 1589, speaking of the species of short metre used in the minstrel-romances, for the convenience of being sung to the harp at feasts, and in CAROLS and ROUNDS,
"and such other light or lascivious poems which are commonly more commodiously uttered by those buffoons or Vices in playes than by any other person,"
and in which the sudden return of the rhyme fatigues the ear, immediately subjoins:
"Such were the rimes of Skelton, being indeed but a rude rayling rimer, and all his doings ridiculous; he used both short distaunces and short measures, pleasing only the popular care
Lib. ii. ch. ix. p. 69.
."
And Meres, in his PALLADIS TAMIA, or WIT'S TREASURY, published in 1598.
"Skelton applied his wit to skurilities and ridiculous matters: such among the Greekes were called
pantomimi,
with us buffoons
"Being the second part of WIT'
COMMONWELTH. By Francis Meres, maister of artes of both universities. London, printed by P. Short, &c. 1598."
12mo. fol. 279. b. The first part is,
"POLITEUPHNIA, Wit's Commonwealth, for Nicholas Ling, 1598,"
12mo.
."
kelton's characteristic vein of humour is capricious and grotesque. If his whimsical extravagancies ever move our laughter, at the same time they shock our sensibility. His festive levities are not only vulgar and indelicate, but frequently want truth and propriety. His subjects are often as ridiculous as his metre: but he sometimes debases his matter by his versification. On the whole, his genius seems better suited to low burlesque, than to liberal and manly satire. It is supposed by Caxton, that he improved our language; but he sometimes affects obscurity, and sometimes adopts the most familiar phraseology of the common people.
He thus describes, in the BOKE OF COLIN CLOUTE, the pompous houses of the clergy.
Building royally
Their mancyons, curiously
With turrettes, and with toures,
With halles, and with boures,
Streching to the starres;
With glasse windowes and barres:
Hangyng about the walles
Clothes of golde and palles;
Arras of ryche arraye,
Freshe as floures in Maye:
With dame Dyana naked;
Howe lystye Venus quaked,
And howe Cupide shaked
His darte, and bente his bowe,
For to shote a crowe
At her tyrly tyrlowe:
And how Paris of Troye
Daunced a
l
ge de moy,
Made lustye sporte and toye
With dame Helyn the queene:
With suche storyes by deen
By the dozen.
,
Their chambres wel be seene.
With triumphes of Cesar, &c.—
Now
This is still a description of tapestry.
all the world stares
How they ryde in goodly chares,
Conveyed by olyphantes
With lauriat garlantes;
And by unycornes
With their semely hornes;
Upon these beastes riding
Naked boyes striding,
With wanton wenches winkyng.—
For prelates of estate
Their courage to abate;
From wordly wantonnes,
Their chambers thus to dres
With such parfytness,
And all such holynes,
How beit they lett down fall
Their churches cathedrall
The Boke of Colin Cloute,
p. 205. seq.
.
These lines are in the best manner of his petty measure: which is made still more disgusting by the repetition of the rhymes. We should observe, that the satire is here pointed at the subject of these tapestries. The graver ecclesiastics, who did not follow the levities of the world, were contented with religious subjects, or such as were merely historical. Rosse of Warwick, who wrote about the year 1460, relates, that he saw in the abbat's hall at saint Alban's abbey a suite of arras, containing a long train of incidents belonging to a most romantic and pathetic story in the life of the Saxon king Offa, which that historian recites at large
J. Ross. WARWIC. HIST. REG. ANGL. edit. Hearne, p. 64. Hugh de Foliot, a canon regular of Picardy, so early as the year 1140, censures] the magnificent houses of the bishops, with the sumptuous paintings, or tapestry, of their chambers, chiefly on the Trojan story.
"Episcopi domos non impares ecclesiis magnitudine construunt. Pictos del
ctantur habere thalamos: vestiuntur ibi imagines pretiosis colorum indumentis.—Trojanorum gestis paries, purpura atque auro vestitur.—Graecorum exercitui dantur arma. Hectori clypeus datur auro splendens, &c."
Bibl. Bodl. MSS. JAMES. ii. p. 203. But I believe the tract is published in the Works of a cotemporary writer, Hugo de Sancto-Victore. Among the manuscript EPISTLES of Gilbert de Stone, a canon of Wells, and who flourished about the year 1360, there is a curious passage concerning the spirit for fox-hunting which antiently prevailed among our bishops. Reginald Bryan, bishop of Worcester, in 1352, thus writes to the bishop of saint David's.
"Reverende in Christo pater et domine, premissa recommendatione d
bita tanto patri. Illos optimos canes venaticos, duodecim ad minus, quibus
non vidimus meliores,
quos nuper, scitis, vestra REVERENDA PATERNITAS repromisit, quotidie expectamus.
Languet namque cor nostrum,
donec realiter ad manus n
stras ven
rit repromissum."
He then owns his
eagerness of expectation
on this occasion to be sinful; but observes, that it is the fatal consequence of that deplorable frailty which we all inherit from our mother Eve. He adds, that the foxes, in his manor of Alnechurch, and elsewhere, had killed most of his rabbits, many of his capons, and had destroyed six of his swans in one night.
"Veniant ergo, PATER REVERENDE, illae
sex Caniculorum copulae,
et non tardent, &c."
He then describes the very exquisite pleasure he shall receive, in hearing his woods echo with the cry of the hounds, and the music of the horns; and in seeing the trop
ies of the chace affixed to the walls of his palace. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. SUPER. D. 1. ART. 123.—MSS. Cotton. VITELL. E. x. 17. [See MSS.] JAMES, xix. p. 139.]
From a want of the notions of common propriety and decorum, it is amazing to see the
trange absurdities committed by the clergy of the middle ages, in adopting the laical character. Du Cange says, that the deans of many cathedrals in France entered on the dignities habited in a surplice, girt with a sword, in boots and gilt spurs, and a hawk on the fist. LATIN. GLOSS. V. DECANUS, tom. i. p. 1326. See also ibid. p. 79. And tom. ii. p. 179. seq. Carpentier adds, that the treasurers of some churches, particularly that of Nivernois, claimed the privilege of ass
sting at mass, on whatever festival they pleased, without the canonical vestments, and carrying a hawk. And the lord of Sassay held some of his lands, by placing a hawk on the high altar of the church of Evreux, while his parish priest celebrated the service, booted and spurred, to the beat of drum, i
stead of the organ. SUPPL. tom. i. p. 32. Although their ideas of the dignity of the church were so high, yet we
ind them sometimes conferring the rank and title of secular nobility even on the Saints. Saint James was actually created a BARON at Paris. Thus Froissart, tom. iii. c. 30.
"Or eurent ils affection et devotion d'aller en pelerinage au BARON Saint Jaques."
And in Fabl. (tom. ii. p. 182.) cited by Carpentier, ubi supr. p. 469.
Dame, dist il, et je me v
u,
A dieu, et au BARON Saint Leu,
Et s' irai au BARON Saint Jaques.
Among the many contradictions of this kind, which entered into the system of these ages, the institution of the Knights templars is not the least extraordinary. It was an establishment of armed monks; who made a vow of living at the same time both as anchorets and soldiers.
.
In the poem, WHY COME YE NOT TO THE COURT, he thus satirises cardinal Wolsey, not without some tincture of humour.
He is set so hye
In his ierarchye
Hierarchy.
,
Of frantike frenesy,
And folish fantasy,
That in chambre of stars
The star-chamber. So below, p. 151.
In the
ster-chamber
he nods and becks.
Al maters ther he mars,
Clapping his rod on the borde,
No man dare speake a worde;
For he hath al the saying
Without any renaying,
He rolleth in his Recordes:
He saith, "how say ye my lordes?
"Is not my reason good?
"Good!—even good—
Robin-hood!
—
Borne up on every syde
With pompe and with pryde,
With trump up alleluya
The pomp in which he celebrates divine service.
,
For dame Philargyria
Love of money.
Hath so his hart in hold, &c.—
Adew Philosophia!
Adew Theologia!
Welcome dame Simonia
Simony.
,
With dame Castimergia
The true reading is CASTRIMARGIA, or
Gulae concupiscentia,
Gluttony. From the Greek,
, Ingluvies, helluatio. Not an uncommon word in the monkish latinity. Du Cange cites an old Litany of the tenth century,
"A Spiritu CASTRIMARGIAE
Libera nos domine!
"
LAT. GLOSS. i. p. 398. Carpentier adds, among other examples, from the statutes of the Cistercian order, 1375,
"Item, cum propter detestabile CASTRIMARGIAE vitium in labyrinthum vitiorum descendatur, &c."
SUPPL. tom. i. p. 862.
,
To drynke and for to eate
Swete ipocras, and swete meate
I have before spoken of Hypocras, or spiced wine. I add here, that the spice, for this mixture, was served, often separately, in what they called a spice-plate. So Froissart, describing a dinner in the castle of Thoulouse, at which the king of France was present.
"After dyner, they toke other pastymes in a great chambre, and hereyng of instruments, wherein the erle of Foiz greatly delyted. Than WINE and SPYCES was brought. The erle of Harcourt served the kyng of his SPYCE-PLADE. And sir Gerard de la Pyen served the duke of Burbone. And sir Monaunt of Noailles served the erle of Foiz, &c."
This was about the year 1360. CHRON. tom. ii. cap. 164. f. 184. a. Again, ibid. cap. 100
f. 114. a.
"The kynge alyght
d at his palis [of Westminster] whiche was redie apparelled for him. There the kynge DRANKE and TOKE SPYCES, and his uncles also: and other prelates, lordes, and knyghtes."
Lord Berners's TRANSL. In the Computus of Maxtoke priory [MS. supr. citat.] an. 1447, we have this entry,
"Item pro vino cretico cum speciebus et confectis datis diversis generosis in die sancti Dionysii quando
Le fole
domini Monfordes erat hic, et faceret jocositates suas in camera orioli."
Here, I believe,
vinum
reticum
is raisinwine, or wine made of dried grapes; and the meaning of the whole seems to be this.
"Paid for raisin wine with comfits and spices, when sir S. Montford's FOOL was here, and exhibited his merriments in the oriel-chamber."
With regard to one part of the entry, we have again,
"Item
extra cameram vocatam le
gestis chamber,
erat una litheamina furata in die sancti Georgii Martiris quando
le fole
de MONFORDES erat hic."
:
To kepe his fleshe chaste,
In Lente, for his repaste
He eateth capons stewed,
Fesaunt and partriche mewed:—
Spareth neyther mayd ne wife,
This is a postel's life
An apostle's. p. 147. He afterwards in
inuates, that the Cardinal had lost an eye by the French disease: and that
Balthasar,
who had cured of the same disorder
Domingo Lomelyn,
one who had won much money of the king at cards and
hasarding,
was employed to recover the cardinal's eye. p. 175. In the
Bok
of Colin Clout,
he mentions the cardinal's mule,
"Wyth golde all be trapped."
p. 188. [See supr. p. 329.]
!
The poem called the BOUGE OF COURT, or the
Rewards of a Court,
is in the manner of a pageaunt, consisting of seven personifications. Here our author, in adopting the more grave and stately movement of the seven lined stanza
But in this stanza he sometimes relapses into the absurdities of his favorite style of composition. For instance, in SPEAKE PARROT, p. 97.
Albertus de modo significandi,
And Donatus, be dryven out of schole;
Prisians hed broken now handy dandy,
And
Interdidascalos
is returned for a fole:
Alexander a gander of Menander's pole,
With
da Cansales
is cast out of the gate,
And
da Racionales
dare not shew his pate.
Here, by
da Cansales,
he perhaps means
Concilia,
or the canon law. By
da Racio
ales
he seems to intend
Logic.
Albertus is the author of the MARGARITA POETICA, a collection of Flores from the classics and other writers, printed at Nurenberg,
472. fol. For Donatus, see vol. i. p. 281. To which add, that Ingulphus says, in Croyland abbey library, there were many Catones and DONATI, in the year 1091. HIST. CROYL. Ingulph. Script. Vet. i. p. 104. And that no person was admitted into the college of Boissy at Paris, founded in 1358,
"nisi DONATUM aut Catonem didicerit."
Bul. HIST. UNIV. PARIS. tom. iv. p. 355. INTERDIDASCALOS is the name of an old grammar. Alexander was a schoolmaster at Paris about the year 1290, author of the DOCTRINALE PUERORUM, which for some centuries continued to be the most favorite manual of grammar used in schools, and was first printed at Venice in the year 1473. It is compiled from Priscian and in Leonine verse. See Henr. Gandav. SCRIPTORECCLES. cap. lix. This admired system has been loaded with glosses and lucubrations: but, on the authority of an eccles
astical synod, it was superseded by the COMMENTARII GRAMMATICI of Despauterius, in 1512. It was printed in England as early as the year 1503, by W. de Worde. [See supr. p. 168.] Barklay, in the SHIP OF FOOLES, mentions Alexander's book, which he calls
"The
olde
DOCTRINALL with his dis
use and unper
ite brevitie."
fol. 53. b.
, has shewn himself not always incapable of exhibiting allegorical imagery with spirit and dignity. But his comic vein predominates.
RYOTT is thus forcibly and humourously pictured.
With that came RYOTTE rushing al at ones,
A rustie galande
Galant.
, to ragged and to rente
All over tatters and rags.
;
And on the borde he whirled a paire of bones
Dice.
,
Quater treye dews
he clattered as he went:
Nowe have at all by saint Thomas of Kente
Saint Thomas Becket.
,
And ever he threwe, and kyst
Cast. He threw I know not what.
I wote nere what:
His here was growen thorowe out of his hat.
Than I behylde how he dysgysed was;
His hedd was heavy for watchinge over night,
His eyen blered, his face shone like a glas;
His gowne so shorte, that it ne cover myght
His rompe, he went so all for somer light;
His hose was gardyd with a lyste of grene
There was an affectation of smartness in the trimming of his hose, Yet, &c.
,
Yet at the knee they broken were I ween.
His cote was checkerd with patches rede and blewe,
Of Kyrkbye Kendall
See KENDALL-GREEN, in the Glossary to Shakespeare. edit. 1771.
was his short demye
Doublet. Jacket.
;
And aye he sange
in fayth decon thou crewe:
His elbowe bare, he ware his gere so nye
His coat-s
eeve was so short.
His nose droppinge, his lippès were full drye:
And by his syde his whynarde, and his pouche,
The devyll myght dance therin for any crouche
Pag. 70. The devil might dance in his purse without meeting with a single sixpence. C
OUCHE is
Cross,
a piece of money so called, from being marked with the cross. Hence the old phrase,
to cross the
and,
for,
to give money.
In Chaucer's MARCHAUNT'S TALE, when January and May are married, it is said the priest
"
Crouchid
them, and b
d god should them bless."
v. 1223. Urr. That is, "He
crossed
the new-married couple, &c." In the poem before us, RYOTTE says,
"I have no coyne nor
crosse.
"
p. 72. Carpentier mentions a coin, called in Latin CROSATUS, and in old French CROSA
, from being marked with the Cross. Hence CROISAGE, Fr. for TRIBUTE. V. CROSATUS. SUPPL. Du Cange, LAT. GLOSS. tom. i. p. 1208. In Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS, Flavius says,
More jewels yet! There is no CROSSING him in's humour,
Else I should tell him—well—ifaith I should,
When all's spent he'd be
ROSS'D then if he could.—
Act i. Sc. iv. That is, not
thwarting
him in his humour, but giving him money. Yet a jingle is intended. So in AS YOU LIRE IT, ii. iv.
"Yet I should bear no CROSS if I did bear you; for I think you have no
money
in your pu
se."
A CRUZADOE, a Portuguese coin, occurs in Shakespeare.
There is also merit in the delineation of DISSIMULATION, in the same poem
P. 73.
: and it is not unlike Ariosto's manner in imagining these allegorical personages.
Than in his hode I sawe there faces tweyne;
That one was lene and lyke a pyned ghost,
That other loked as he wolde me have slayne:
And to me ward as he gan for to coost,
Whan that he was even at me almoost,
I sawe a knyfe hid in his one sleve,
Whereon was wryten this worde MISCHEVE.
And in his other sleve methought I sawe
A spone of goldè, full of hony swete,
To feed a fole, and for to prey a dawe
To catch a silly bird.
, &c.
The same may be observed of the figure of DISDAYNE.
He looked hawtie, he sette eche man at nought;
His gawdy garment with scornes was al wrought,
With indignacyon lyned was his hode;
He frowned as he wolde swere by cockes blode
The Host's oath in Lydgate. See supr. p. 73.
.
He bote
Bitt.
the lyppe, he loked passynge coye;
His face was belymmed, as bees had hym stounge:
It was no tyme with hym to jape nor toye,
Envye hath wasted his lyver and his lounge;
Hatred by the herte so had hym wrounge,
That he loked pale as asshes to my syghte:
DISDAYNE, I wene, this comberous crab is hyghte.—
Forthwith he made on me a proude assawte,
With scornfull lokè movyd all in mode
In anger.
;
He wente about to take me in a fawte,
He fround, he stared, he stamped where he stoode:
I loked on hym, I wende
Weened. Thought.
he had be woode
Mad.
:
He set the arme proudly under the syde,
And in this wyse he gan with me chyde
P. 69.
.
In the CROWNE OF LAWRELL our author attempts the higher poetry: but he cannot long support the tone of solemn description. These are some of the most ornamented and poetical stanzas. He is describing a garden belonging to the superb palace of FAME.
In an herber
See supr. p. 231.
I sawe brought where I was;
The byrdes on the brere sange on every syde,
With aleys ensandyd about in compas,
The bankes enturfed with singular solas
It was surrounded with sand-walks.
,
Enrailed with rosers
Rose-trees. See Chaucer's ROM. R. v. 1651. seq. And our author, infr. p. 40.
The ruddy
rosary,
The pretty rosemary, &c.
, and vines engraped;
It was a new comfort of sorowes escaped.
In the middes a cundite, that curiously was cast
With pypes of golde, engushing out streames
Of cristall, the clerenes these waters far past,
Enswimminge with roches, barbilles, and breames,
Whose skales ensilvred again the son beames
Englisterd .....
.....
Where I sawe growyng a goodly laurell tre,
Enverdured with leave, continually grene;
Above in the top a byrde of Araby,
Men call a Phenix: her wynges bytwene
She bet up a fyre with the sparkes full kene,
With braunches and bowes of the swete olyve,
Whose fragraunt flower was chefe preservative
Ageynst all infections with rancour enflamed:
* * * * * * * * * *
It passed all baumes that ever were named,
Or gummes of Saby, so derely that be solde:
There blewe in that garden a soft piplynge colde,
Enbrething of Zephirus, with his pleasaunt wynde;
Al frutes and flowers grew there in their kynde.
Dryades there daunsed upon that goodly soile,
With the nyne Muses, Pierides by name;
Phillis and Testelis, there tresses with oyle
Were newly enbibed: And, round about the same
Grene tre of laurell, moche solacious game
They made, with chaplettes and garlandes grene;
And formost of al dame Flora the quene;
Of somer so formally she foted the daunce:
There Cinthius sat, twinklyng upon his harpestringes:
And Jopas his instrument dyd avaunce,
The poemes and stories auncyent in bringes
Of Atlas astrology, &c
P. 30. seq.
.—
Our author supposes, that in the wall surrounding the palace of FAME were a thousand gates, new and old, for the entrance and egress of all nations. One of the gates is called ANGLIA, on which stood a leopard
P. 28.
. There is som
boldness and animation in the figure and attitude of this ferocious animal.
The buyldyng thereof was passing commendable;
Wheron stode a lybbard crowned with gold and stones,
Terrible of countinaunce and passing formidable,
As quickly
With as much life.
touched as it were fleshe and bones,
As gastly that glaris
Glares.
, as grimly that grones,
As fiersly frownyng as he had ben fyghtynge,
And with firme fote he shoke forthe his writynge.
Skelton, in the course of his allegory, supposes that the
poets laureate,
or learned men, of all nations, were assembled before Pallas. This groupe shews the authors, both antient and modern, then in vogue. Some of them are quaintly characterised. They are, first,—
Olde
Quintilian, not with his Institutes of eloquence, but with his Declamations: Theocritus, with his
bucolicall relacions:
Hesiod, the
Icononucar
I cannot decypher this appellation.
: Homer,
the freshe historiar: The prince of eloquence,
Cicero: Sallust, who wrote both the
history
of Catiline and Jugurth: Ovid,
enshryned with the Musys nyne:
Lucan
Of the popularity of Lucan in the dark
ges, I have given proofs in the SECOND DISSERTATION, vol. i. To which I will here add others. The following passage occurs in Lydgate's PROLOGUE to the LYFF AND PASSIOUN
of the blessid Martyr seynt Alboon
[Alban]
and seynt Amphiballus,
written in 1439. MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. Num. xxxviii. fol. 1. a. [Never printed.]
I not acqueyntyd with Muses of Mars,
Nor with metris of LUCAN nor Virgile;
Nor with sugred diteys of Cichero,
Nor of Omere to folowe the fressh style.
And again, speaking of Julius Caesar, Lydgate refers to Lucan's PHARSALIA, which he calls the
"Records of
Lucan.
"
ibid. fol. 2. b. Peter de Blois, in writing to a professor at Paris, about the year 1170, says,
"Priscianus, et Tullius,
Lucanus,
et Persius, isti sunt dii vestri."
EPISTOL. iv. fol. 3. edit. 1517. fol. Eberhardus Bethuniensis, called GRAECISTA, a philologist who wrote about the year 1130, in a poem on VERSIFICATION, says of Philip Gualtier, author of a popular epic poem called ALEXANDREIS, that he
shines with the light of
LUCAN.
"Lucet Alexander Lucani luce."
And of Lucan he observes,
"Metro
lucidiore
canit."
[See supr. p. 167. 168.] It is
asy to conceive why Lucan should have been a favorite in the dark ages.
: Statius, writer of
Achilleidos:
Persius, with
problems dif
use:
Virgil, Juvenal, Livy: Ennius,
who wrote of marciall warre:
Aulus Gellius, that
noble historiar:
Horace, with his
N
w Po
try
That is, Horace's ART OF POETRY. Vinesauf wrote DE NOVA POETRIA. Horace's ART is frequently mentioned under this title.
:
Maister
Terence,
the famous comicar,
with Plautus: Sen
ca, the tragedian: Boethius: Maximian,
with his madde diti
s how dotyng age wolde jape with young foly
His six Elegies
De incommodis senectutis.
See supr. p. 168. Reinesius thinks that Maximinian was the bishop of Syracuse, in the seventh century: a most intimate friend, and the secretary, of pope Gregory the Great. EPIST. ad Daum. p. 207. These Elegies contain many things superior to the taste of that p
riod.
: Boccacio,
with hi
volumes grete:
Quintus Curtius: Macrobius, who treated o
Scipion's dr
ame:
Poggius Florentinus, with many a
mad tale
Poggius flourished about the year 1450. By his
mad tales,
Skelton means his FACETIAE, a set of comic stories, very licentious and very popular. See Poggius's WORKS by Thomas Aucuparius, fol. Argentorat. 1513. f. 157.—184. The obscenity contained in these compositions gave great offence, and fell under the particular censure of the learned Laurentius Valla. The objections of Valla, Poggius attempts to obviate; by saying, that Valla was a
lown, a cynic, and a pedant, without any idea
of wit or elegance: and that the FAC
T
AE were universally esteemed in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, and all countries that cultivated pure Latinity. Poggius's INVECTIVA. Invect. in Laurent. Vallam, f. 82. b. edit. ut supr.
: a friar of France
syr
Gaguine, who frowned on me
full angrily
Robert, or Rupert, Gaguin, a German, minister general of the Maturines, who died at Paris 1502. His most famous work is COMPENDIUM SUP
R FRANCORUM GESTIS, from Pharamond to the author's age. He has written, among many other pieces, Latin orations and poems, printed at Paris in 1498. The history of Skelton's quarrel with him is not known. But he was in England, as ambassador from the king of France, in 1490. He was a particular friend of dean Colet.
: Plutarch and Petrarch, two
famous clarkes:
Lucilius, Valerius Maximus, Propertius, Pisander
Our author got the name of Pisander, a Greek poet, from Macrobius, who cites a few of his verses.
, and Vincentius Bellovacensis, who wrote the SPECULUM HISTORIALE. The catalogue is closed by Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate, who first adorned the English language
In the
boke of Philip Sparow,
he says,
Gower's Englysh
is old,
but that Chauc
r
s
E
glyshe is wel allowed:
he adds, that Lydgate writes
after an hyer rate,
and that he has been censured for his elev
tion of phrase; but acknowledges,
"No man can amend those matters that he hath pend."
p. 237. In Ras
all's TERENS, in EN
LISH, printed in the reign of Henry the e
ghth, these three are mentioned in the Prologue, which is in stanzas, as the only English poets. Without date
4
o.
: in allusion to which part of their characters, their apparel is said to shine beyond the power of description, and their tabards to be studded with diamonds and rubies
P. 19. seq.
. That only these three English poets are here mentioned, may be con
idered as a proof, that only these three were yet thought to deserve the name.
No writer is more unequal than Skelton. In the midst of a page of the most wretched ribaldry, we sometimes are surprized with three or four nervous and manly lines, like these.
Ryot and Revell be in your court roules,
Mayntenaunce and Mischefe these be men of myght,
Extorcyon is counted with you for a knyght
Ibid. p. 15.
.
Skelton's modulation in the octave stanza is rough and inharmonious. The following are the smoothest lines in the poem before us; which yet do not equal the liquid melody of Lydgate, whom he here manifestly attempts to imitate
P. 26.
.
Lyke as the larke upon the fomers daye,
When Titan radiant burnisheth his bemes bright,
Mounteth on hye, with her melodious laye,
Of the son shyne engladed with the light.
The following little ode deserves notice; at least as a specimen of the structure and phraseology of a love-sonnet about the close of the fifteenth century.
TO MAISTRESS MARGARY WENTWORTH,
With margerain
Margel
in,
the herb Marjoram. Chaucer. ASS. LAD. 56.
And upon that a potte of MARGELAIN.
gentill,
The flowre of goodly hede
Goodlihed. Goodness.
,
Enbrawdered the mantill
Is of your maydenhede
Virginity.
.
Plainly I can not glose
In truth, I cannot flatter or deceive. Or,
glose
may be, simply to
write.
;
Ye be, as I devine
As I imagine. So Chaucer, NON. PR. T. 1381.
I can noon harme of no woman
divine.
,
The praty primèrose,
The goodly columbyne.
With margerain gentill, &c.
Benyne, courteis, and meke,
With wordès well devised;
In you, who lyst to seke,
Be
Are.
vertues well comprysed
F. 39.
.
With margerain gentill,
The flowre of goodly hede,
Enbrawdered the mantill
Is of your maydenhede.
For the same reason this stanza in a sonnet to
Maistress Margaret Hussey
deserves notice.
Mirry Margaret
As Midsomer flowre,
Gentyll as faucon,
Or hawke of the towre
F. 41. In the king's mews in the tower.
.
As do the following flowery lyrics, in a sonnet addressed to
Maistress Isabell Pennel.
—Your colowre
Is lyke the daisy flowre,
After the April showre,
Sterre of the morowe graye!
The blossome on the spraye,
The fresh
st flowre of Maye!
Madenly demure,
Of woma
hede the lure! &c
P. 41.
.
But Skelton most commonly appears to have mistaken his genius, and to write in a forced character, exc
pt when he is indulging his native vein of satire and jocularity, in the short minstrel-metre abovementioned: which he mars by a multiplied repetition of rhymes, arbitrary abbreviations of the verse, cant expressions, hard and sounding words newlycoined, and patches of Latin and French. This anomalous and motley mode of versification is, I believe, supposed to be peculiar to our author
Perhaps formed from Zanni, or Giovanni, a foolish character on the Italian stage. See Riccoboni, THEATR. ITAL. ch. ii. p. 14. seq.
. I am not, however, quite certain that it originated with Skelton.
About the year 1512, Martin Coccaie of Mantua, whose true name was Theophilo Folengio, a Benedictine monk of Casino in Italy, wrote a poem entitled PHANTASIAE MACARONICAE, divided into twenty-five parts. This is a burlesque Latin poem, in heroic metre, checquered with Italian and Tuscan words, and those of the plebeian character, yet not destitute of prosodical harmony. It is totally satirical, and has some degree of drollery; but the ridicule is too frequently founded on obscene or vulgar ideas. Prefixed is a similar burlesque poem called ZANITONELLA, or the Amours of Tonellus and Zanina
I have given specimens. But the following passage in the
Boke of C
lin Clout
affords
n apposite example at one view. p. 186.
Of suche vagabundus
Speaketh
totus
undus.
How some syng let abundus, &c.
Cum ipsis et illis
Qui manent in villis
Est uxor vel ancilla,
Welcome Jacke and Gilla,
My pretty Petronilla,
And you wil be stilla
Yo
shall have your willa:
Of such pater noster pekes
All the worlde spekes.
: and a piece is subjoined, with the title of MOSCHEA, or the War with the Flies and the Ants. The author died in 1544
See his Life, Jac. Phil. Thomasin's Elog. Patav. 1644. 4to. p. 71.
, but these poems, with the addition of s
me epistles and epigrams, in the same style, did not, I believe, appear in print before the year 1554
At Venice, 8vo. Again, 1564. And, 1613. 8vo.
. Coccaie is often cited by Rabelais, a writer of a cogenial cast
See Liv. iv. c. 13. ii. 1. xi. 3.
. The three last books, containing a description of hell, are a parody on part of Dante's INFERNO. In the preface, or APOLOGETICA, our author gives an account of this new species of poetry, since called the MACARONIC, which I must give in his own words.
"Ars ista poetica nuncupatur Ars MACARONICA, a
Macaronibus
derivata: qui
Macarones
sunt quoddam pulmentum, farina, caseo, butyro compaginatum, grossum, rude, et rusticanum. Ideo MACARONICA nil nisi grossedinem, ruditatem, et VOCABULAZZOS, debet in se continere
See Menag. DICTION. ETYMOL. ORIG. Lang. Franc. edit
1694. p. 462. V. MACARONS. And Oct. Ferrarius, ORIG. ITALIC.
."
Vavassor observes, that Coccaie in Italy, and Antonius de Arena in France, were the two first, at least the chief, authors of the semi-latin burlesque poetry
DICT. LUDR. p. 453.
. As to Antonius de Arena, he was a civilian of Avignon; and wrote, in the year 1519, a Latin poem in elegiac verses, ridiculously interlarded with French words and phrases. It is addressed to his fellow-students, or, in his own words,
"Ad suos compagnones studiantes, qui sunt de persona friantes, bassas dansas, in galanti stilo bisognatas, cum guerra Romana, totum ad longum sine require, et cum guerra Neapolitana, et cum revoluta Genuensi, et guerra Avenionensi, et epistola ad falotissimam garsam pro passando lo tempos
He wrote also DE BELLO MASSILIENS
.
."
I have gone out of my way, to mention these two obscure writers
Erythra
us mentions Bernardinus Stephonius as writing in this way. PINACOTH. i. p. 160. See also some poems in Baudius, which have a mixture of the Gre
k and Latin la
guages; and which others have imitated, in German a
d Latin.
with so much particularity, in order to observe, that Skelton, their cotemporary, probably copied their manner: at least to shew, that this singular mode of versification was at this time fashionable, not only in England, but also in France and Italy. Nor did it cease to be remembered in England, and as a species of poetry thought to be founded by Skelton, till even so late as the close of queen Elizabeth's reign. As appears from the following poem on the SPANISH ARMADA, which is filled with Latin words.
A SKELTONICALL salutation,
Or condigne gratulation,
And just vexation,
Of the Spanish nation;
That in a bravado
Spent many a crusado,
In setting forth the armado
England to envado, &c
Printed at Oxford by Joseph Barnes, 1589. 4to. See also a doggrel piece of this kind, in imitation of Skelton, introduced into Browne's SHEPHERD'S PIPE, Lond. 1614. 8vo. Perhaps this way of writing is ridiculed by Shakespeare, MERRY W. OF WINDS. A. ii. Sc. i. Where Falstaffe says,
"I will not say, Pity me, 'tis not a soldier's phrase, but I say love me: by me
"Thine own true knight, by day or night,
"Or any kind of light, with all his might
"With thee to fight.—"
See also the Interlude of
Pyramus and Thisbe,
in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Often printed separately in quarto,
a droll for Bartholomew fair, under the title of BOTTOM THE WEAVER. Skelton, however, seems to have retained his popularity till late. For the first part of T. Heywood's twofold play on the earl of Huntingdon, entitled,
"Robert earl of Huntingdon's downfall, afterwards called Robin Hood of merry Sherwoode, with his love to chaste Matilda the lord Fitzwater's daughter, afterwards his fair maid Marian,"
acted by lord Nottingham's players, and printed in quarto, at London, in
601, is introduced by JOHN SKELTON,
poet laureat to king Henry the eighth.
The second part, printed with the former, is introduced by FRYAR TUCK, with whom I am less acquainted.
.
But I must not here forget, that Dunbar, a Scotch poet of Skelton's own age, already mentioned, wrote in this way. His TESTAMENT OF MAISTER ANDRO KENNEDY, which represents the character of an idle dissolute scholar, and ridicules the funeral ceremonies of the Romish communion, has almost every alternate line composed of the formularies of a Latin Will, and shreds of the breviary, mixed with what the French call
Latin de cuisine
See ANT. SCOTTISH POEMS, Edinb. 1770. p. 35. And the Notes of the learned and ingenious editor; who says, tha
Dunbar's DERGE is a most profane parody on the popish litanies. p. 243.
. There is some humour, arising from these burlesque applications, in the following stanzas
ST. xiii. xiv.
.
In die meae sepulturae,
I will have nane but our awin gang
My own merry companions.
,
Et duos rusticos de rure,
Berand ane barrell on a stang
A stake.
;
Drinkand and playand cap out, even
Sicut egomet solebam;
Singand and greitand with the stevin
With that verse, or stanz
, in the Psalms,
"I have mingled my drink with weeping."
,
Potum meum cum fletu miscebam.
I will no priestis for me sing,
Dies ille, dies irae
A hymn on the resurrection in the missal, sung at funerals.
;
Nar yet no bellis for me ring
Sicut semper solet fieri;
But a bag-pyp to play a spring,
Et unum
ale-wisp
ante me,
Instead of torchis, for to bring,
Quatuor lag
nas cervisiae
Within the graif to sett, fit thing,
In modum crucis juxta me,
To fle the feyndis
Instead of a cross on my grave to keep off the devil.
, then hardly sing
De terra plasmasti me
A verse in the Psalms. See other instances in Dunbar, ibid. p. 73. In George Bannatyne's manuscript collection of old Scotch poetry are many examples of thi
mixture: the impropriety of which was not perhaps perceived by our ancestors. Ibid. p. 268. See a very
dicrous specimen in Harsenet's DETECTION, p. 156. Where he mentions a witch who has learned
"of an old wi
e in a chimnies end
Pax, max, fax,
for a spell; or
n say sir John of Grantam's curse for
he miller's eeles that were stolne.
"All you that stolen the miller's eeles,
"Laudate dominum de coelis,
"And all they that have consented thereto,
"Benedicamus domino."
See a poem on Becket's martyrdom, in Wasse's BIBL. LITER. Num. i. p. 39. Lond. 1722. 4to. Hither we must refer the old Caroll on the BOAR'S HEAD, Hearne's SPICILE
. ad Gul. Neubrig. HIST. vol. iii. p. 740. [See also supr. vol. i. p. 86.] Some of the metrical hymns in the French FETE DE ANE are in Latin and French. See MERCURE DE FRANCE, Avril. 1725. p. 724. suiv.
.
We must, however, acknowledge, that Skelton, notwithstanding his scurrility, was a classical scholar; and in that capacity, he was tutor to prince Henry, afterwards king Henry the eighth: at whose accession to the throne, he was appointed the royal orator. He is styled by Erasmus,
"Britannicarum literarum decus et lumen
See Op. p. 1019. 1021.
.
His Latin elegiacs are pure, and often unmixed with the monastic phraseology; and they prove, that if his natural propensity to the ridiculous had not more frequently seduced him to follow the whimsies of Walter Mapes and Golias
These two writers are ofte
confounded. See the Second DISSERTATION. James says, that Golias was not a name adopted by Mapes: but that there was a real writer of that name, a collection of whose works he had seen. See MSS. [Bibl. Bodl.] JAMES, i. p. 320. Golias and Mapes appear to have been cotemporaries, and of a similar genius. The curious reader will find many extracts from their poetry, which has very great merit in its way, among James's manuscript collections. The facility of these old Latin rhymers is amazing: and they have a degree of humour and elegance far exceeding their age.
, than to copy the elegancies of Ovid, he would have appeared among the first writers of Latin poetry in England at the general restoration of literature. Skelton could not avoid acting as a buffoon in any language, or any character.
I cannot quit Skelton, of whom I yet fear too much has been already said, without restoring to the public notice a play, or MORALITY, written by him, not recited in any catalogue of his works, or annals of English typography; and, I believe, at present totally unknown to the antiquarians in this sort of literature. It is,
The
NIGRAMANSIR, a
morall
ENTERLUDE
and a pithie written by Maister
SKELTON
laureate and plaid before the king and other estatys at Woodstoke on Palme Sunday.
It was printed by Wynkin de Worde in a thin quarto, in the year 1504
My lamented friend Mr. William Collins, whose ODES will be remembered while any taste for true poetry remains, shewed me this piece at Chichester, not many months before his death: and he pointed it out as a very rare and valuable curiosity. He intended to write the HISTORY OF THE RESTORATION OF LEARNING UNDER LEO THE TENTH, and with a view to that design, had collected many scarce books. Some few of these fell into my hands at his death. The rest, among which, I suppose, was this INTERLUDE, were dispersed.
In the Mystery of MARIE MAGDALENE, written in 1512, a
Heathen
is introduced celebrating the service of
Mabound,
who is called
Saracenorum fortisssmus;
in the midst of which, he reads a Lesson from the Alcoran, consisting of gibberish, much in the metre and manner of Skelton. MSS. Digb. 133.
. It must have been presented before king Henry the seventh, at the royal manor or palace, at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, now destroyed. The characters are a Necromancer, or conjurer, the devil, a notary public, Simonie
Simony is introduced as a person in SIR PENNY, an old Scotch poem, written in 1527, by Stewart of Lorne. See ANTIENT SCOTTISH POEMS. Edinb. 1770. 8vo. p. 154.
So wily can syr Peter wink,
And als sir SYMONY his servand,
That now is
gydar of the kyrk.
And again, in an antien
anonymous Scotch poem, ibid. p. 253. At a feast, to which many disorderly persons are invited, among the rest are,
And twa lerit men thairby,
Schir Ochir and schir SIMONY.
That is, sir Usury and sir Simony. SIMONY is also a character in Pierce Plowman's VISIONS. Pass. sec. fol. viii. b. edit. 1550. Wiccliffe, who flourished about the year 1350, thus describes the state of Simony in his time.
"Some lords, to colouren their Symony, wole not take for themselves but keverchief
for the lady, or a palfray, or a tun of wine. And when some lords wolden present a good man and able, for love of god and cristen souls, then some ladies been means to have a dancer, a tripper on tapits, or hunter or hawker, or a wild player of summers gamenes, &c."
MSS. C. C. C. Cant. O. 161. 148. There is an old poem on this subject, MSS. Bodl. 48.
, and Philargyria
Robert Crowley, a great reformer, of whom more hereafter, wrote
"
The
Fable
of PHILARGYRIA,
the great gigant of Great Britain, what houses were builded, and lands appointed, for his provision
&c."
1551. 4to.
, or Avarice. It is partly a satire on some abuses in the church; yet not without a due regard to decency, and an apparent respect for the dignity of the audience. The story, or plot, is the tryal of SIMONY and AVARICE: the devil is the judge, and the notary public acts as an assessor or scribe. The prisoners, as we may suppose, are found guilty, and ordered into hell immediately. There is no sort of propriety in calling this play the Necromancer: for the only business and use of this character, is to open the subject in a long prologue, to evoke the devil, and summon the court. The devil kicks the necromancer, for waking him so soon in the morning: a proof, that this drama was performed in the morning, perhaps in the chapel of the palace. A variety of measures, with shreds of Latin and French, is used: but the devil speaks in the octave stanza. One of the stage-directions is,
Enter Balsebub with a Berde.
To make him both frightful and ridiculous, the devil was most commonly introduced on the stage, wearing a visard with an immense beard
Thus in Turpin's HISTORY OF CHARLEMAGNE, the Saracens appear,
"Habentes LARVAS BARBATAS, cornutas, DAEMONIBUS con
imi
es."
c. xviii. And in LEWIS THE EIGHTH, an old French romance of Philip Mouskes.
J ot apries lui une barboire,
Com diable cornu et noire.
There was a species of masquerad
celebrated by the ecclesiastics in France, called the SHEW OF BEARDS, entirely consisting of an exhibition of the most formidable beards. Gregory of Tours says, that the abbess of Poictou was accused for suffering one of these shews, called a BARBATORIA, to be performed in her monastery. HIST. lib. x. c. vi. In the EPISTLES of Peter de Blois we have the following passage
"Regis curiam sequuntur a
idue histriones, candida
rices, aleatores, dulcorarii, caupones, n
bulatores, mimi, BARBATORES, balatrones, et hoc genus omne."
EPIST. xiv. Where, by
Barbatores,
we are not to understand
Barbers,
but mimics, or buffoons, disguised in huge
earded masks. In Don Quixote, the barber who personates the squire of the princess Micomicona, wears one of these masks,
"una gran barba, &c."
Part. prim. c. xxvi.
. 3. And the countess of Trifaldi's squire has
"la mas larga, la mas horrida, &c."
Part. sec. c. xxxvi.
. 8. See OBSERVAT. ON SPENSER, vol. i. p. 24. SECT. ii.
About the eleventh century, and long before, beards were looked upon by the clergy as a secular vanity; and accordingly were worn by the laity only. Yet in England this distinction seems to have been more rigidly observed than in France. Malmesbury says, that king Harold, at the Norman inva
ion, sent spies into Duke William's camp; who reported, that most of the French army were prie
ts, because their faces were
aved. HIST. lib. iii. p. 56. b. edit. Savil. 1596. The regulation remain
d among the English clergy at least till the reign of Henry the eighth: for Longland bishop of Lincoln, at a Visitation of Oriel college, Oxford, in 1531, orders one of the fellows, a priest, to abstain, under pain of expulsion, f
om wearing a beard, and pinked shoes, like a laic; and not to take the liberty, for the future, of insulting and ridiculing the governor and fellows of the society. ORDINAT. Coll. Oriel. Oxon. APPEND. ad Joh. TROKELOW
, p. 339. See Edicts of king John, in Prynne, LIBERTAT. ECCLES. ANGL.
om. iii. p. 23. But among the religious, the Templars were permitted to wear long beards. In the year 1311, king Edward the second granted letters of safe conduct to his valet Peter Auger, who had made a vow not to shave his beard; and who having resolved to visit some of the holy places abroad as a pilgrim, feared, on account of the length of his beard, that he might be mistaken for a knight-templar, and insulted. Pat. iv. Edw. ii. In Dugdale's WARWICKSHIRE, p. 704. Many orders about Beards occur in the registers of Lincoln's-inn, cited by Dugdale. In the year 1542, it was ordered, that no member,
wearing a
BEARD, should presume to dine in the hall. In 1553, says Dugdale,
"such as had beards should pay twelvepence for every meal they continued them; and every man to be shaven, upon pain of being put out of commons."
ORIG. JURID. cap. 64. p. 244. In 1559, no member is permitted to wear
any
beard above a fortnight's growth
under pain of expulsion for the third transgression. But the fashion of wearing beards beginning to spread, in 1560 it was agreed at a council, that
"all orders before that time made,
touching
BEARDS, should be void and repealed."
Dugd. ibid. p. 245.
. Philargyria quotes Seneca and saint Austin: and Simony offers the devil a bribe. The devil rejects her offer with much indignation: and swears by the
foule Eumenides,
and the hoary beard of Charon, that she shall be well fried and roasted in the unfathomable sulphur of Cocytus, together with Mahomet, Pontius Pilate, the traitor Judas, and king Herod. The last scene is closed with a view of hell, and a dance between the devil and the necromancer. The dance ended, the devil trips up the necromancer's heels, and disappears in fire and smoke
In the Mystery of MARY MAGDALENE, just mentioned, one of the stagedirections is,
"Here enters the pryn
e of the devylls in a stage, with hell onderneth the stage."
MSS. DI
B. 133.
. Great must have been the edification and entertainment which king Henry the seventh and his court derived from the exhibition of so elegant and rational a drama! The royal taste for dramatic repres
tation seems to have suffered a very rapid transition: for in the year 1520,
a goodlie comedie of Plautus
was played before king Henry the eighth at Greenwich
Hollinsh. iii. 850.
. I have before mentioned Skelton's play of MAGNIFICENCE
It is in Mr. Garrick's valu
ble coll
tion. No date. 4to. Hawkins, in the HISTORY OF MUSIC, has first printed a Song written by Skelton, alluded to in the CROWNE O
LAW
LL, and set to music by William Corni
e, a musician of the chapel royal under Henry the sev
n
h. B. i. ch. i. vol. iii. p. 3. Lond. 1776. It begins,
Ah, beshrew you, by my
ay,
These wanton clarkes ar
nice alway, &c.
The same diligent and ingenious inquirer has happily illustrated a passage in Skelton's description of RIOT. Ibid. B. iii. ch. ix. vol. ii. p. 354.
Counter he coulde O LUX upon a potte.
That is, this drunken disorderly fellow could play the beginning of the hymn, O LUX
beata Trinitas,
a very popular m
lody,
d on which many fugues and canons were antiently composed, on a quartpot at the tavern. See also, ibid. B. i. ch. vii. p. 90. ii. 1. p. 130.
By the way, the abov
ntioned William Cornish has a poem print
d at the end of Skelton's Works, called a
Treatise between Tr
t
e a
d I
for
atio
containing some anecdotes of the state of antient music, written while the author was in the Fleet, in the year 1504. MSS. REG. 18 D. ii. 4. See Thoresby's LEEDES, for
Old musical compositions by several masters, among them by
WILLIAM CORNISH. p. 517. Morley has assigned Cornysh a place in his Catalogue of English musicians.
.
MORALITIES seem have arrived at their heighth about the close of the seventh Henry's reign
See supr. p. 206.
. This sort of spectacle was now so fashionable, that John Rastall, a learned typographer, brother in law to sir Thomas More, extended its province, which had hitherto been confined, either to moral allegory, or to religion blended with buffoonery, and conceived a design of making it the vehicle of science and philosophy. With this view he published,
A new
INTERLUDE
and a mery, of the nature of the iiii Elements, declaringe many proper points of phylosophy naturall and dyvers straunge landys,
&c
Among Mr. Garrick's OLD PLAYS. [Imperf.] i. vol. 3. It was written about 1510, or rather later. One of the characters is NATURE
naturate:
under which title Bale inaccurately mentions this piece. viii. 75. See Percy, ESS. ENG. STAGE, p. 8. edit. 1767. Who supposes this play to have been written about 1510, from the following lines,
—Within this xx yer
Westwarde be founde new landes,
That we never harde tell of before this.
The West-Indies were discovered by Columbus in 1492.
. In the cosmographical part of the play, in which the poet professes to treat of
dyvers straunge regyons, and of the new founde landys,
the tracts of America recently discovered, and the manners of the natives, are described. The characters are, a Messenger who speaks the prologue, Nature, Humanity, Studious Desire, Sensual Appetite, a Taverner, Experience, and Ignorance
For the sake of connection I will here mention some more of Rastall'
pieces. He was a great writer of INTERLUDES. He has written,
"Of GENTYLNESS AND NOBYLYTE. A dyaloge between the marchaunt, the knyght, and the plowman, disputynge who is a veray gentylman, and how men shuld come to auctoryte, compiled in maner of an INTERLUDE. With dyvers TOYES and GESTIS addyd therto, to make mery pastyme and disport.
J. Rastall me fieri fecit.
"
Printed by himself in quarto, without date. PR.
"O what a gret welth and."
Also,
"A new Commodyte in Englysh in maner of an ENTERLUDE ryght elygant and full of craft of rhetoryck: wherein is shewed and dyscrybyd, as well the beute of good propertes of women, as theyr vyces and evyll condicions, with a morall conclusion and exhortation to vertew.
J. Rastall me imprimi
ecit.
"
In folio, without date. This is in English verse, and contains twelve leaves. PR.
"
Melebea,
&c."
He reduced a dialogue of Lucian into English verse, much after the manner of an interlude, viz.
"NECROMANTIA. A Dialogue of Lucyan for his fantasy fayned for a
mery pastyme,
&c.—
J. Rastall me
ieri fecit.
"
It is translated from the Latin, and has Latin notes in the margin. It may be doubted, whether Rastall was not the printer only of these pieces. If the printer only, they might come from the festive genius of his brother sir Thomas More. But Rastall appears to have been a scholar. He was educated at Oxford; and took up the employment of printing as a profession at that time esteemed liberal, and not unsuitable to the character of a learned and ingenious man. An English translation of Terence, called TERENS in ENGLISH, with a prologue in stanzas, beginning
"The famous renown through the worlde is spronge,"
is believed, at least from similarity of type, to be by Rastall. In quarto, without date. He published, in 1525, The MERY GESTYS of
one callyd
EDYTH
the lyeng wydow.
This is a d
scription, in English rhymes, of the frauds practised by a fem
le sharper in the neighbourhood of London: the scene of one of her impostures is laid in sir Thomas More's house at Chelsea. The author, one of her dupes, is Walter Smyth.
Empry
ted at London at the sygne of the M
remayde a
Pollis gate next to Chepesyde by J. Rastall.
fol. It will be sufficient to have given thi
short incidental notice of a piece which hardly deserves to be named. Rastall wrote and printed many other pieces, which I do not mention, as unconnected with the history of our poetry. I shall only observe further, in general, that he was eminently skilled in mathematics, cosmography, history, our municipal law, and theology. He died 1536.
.
I have before observed, that the frequent and public exhibition of personifications in the PAGEAUNTS, which antiently accompanied every high festivity, greatly contributed to cherish the spirit of allegorical poetry, and even to enrich the imagination of Spenser
And of Shakespeare. There is a passage in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, where the metaphor is exc
edingly beautiful; but where the beauty both of the expression and the allusion is lost, unless we recollect the frequency and the nature of these shews in S
akespeare's age. ACT iv. Sc. xi. I must cite the whole of the context, for th
sake of the last hemistich.
Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish,
A vapour sometime, like a bear or lion;
A towred citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon't, that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air. Thou'st seen these signs,
They are BLACK VESPER'S PAGEANTS.—
. The MORALITIES, which now began to acquire new celebrity, and in which the same groupes of the impersonated vices and virtues appeared, must have concurred in producing this effect. And hence, at the same time, we are led to account for the national relish for allegorical poetry, which so long prevailed among our ancestors. By means of these spectacles, ideal beings became common and popular objects: and emblematic imagery, which at present is only contemplated by a few retired readers in the obsolete pages of our elder poets, grew familiar to the general eye.
SECT. XVI.
IN a work of this general and comprehensive nature, in which the fluctuations of genius are surveyed, and the dawnings or declensions of taste must alike be noticed, it is impossible that every part of the subject can prove equally splendid and interesting. We have, I fear, been toiling for some time through materials, not perhaps of the most agreeable and edifying nature. But as the mention of that very rude species of our drama, called the MORALITY, has incidentally diverted our attention to the early state of the English stage, I cannot omit so fortunate and seasonable an opportunity of endeavouring to relieve the weariness of my reader, by introducing an obvious digression on the probable causes of the rise of the MYSTERIES, which, as I have before remarked, preceded, and at length produced, these allegorical fables. In this respect I shall imitate those map-makers mentioned by Swift, who
—O'er inhospitable downs,
Place elephants for want of towns.
Nor shall I perhaps fail of being pardoned by my reader, if, on the same principle, I should attempt to throw new light on the history of our theatre, by pursuing this enquiry through those deductions which it will naturally and more immediately suggest
Compar
vol. i. p. 235.
.
About the eighth century, trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, which lasted
everal days. Charlemagne established many great marts of this sort in France; as did William the conqueror, and his Norman successors, in England
See supr. vol. i. p. 279.
. The merchants, who frequented these fairs in numerous caravans or companies, employed every art to draw the people together. They were therefore accompanied by juglers, minstrels, and buffoons; who were no less interested in giving their attendance, and exerting all their skill, on these occasions. As now but few large towns existed, no public spectacles or popular amusements were established; and as the sedentary pleasures of domestic life and private society were yet unknown, the fair-time was the season for diversion. In proportion as these shews were attended and encouraged, they began to be set off with new decorations and improvements: and the arts of buffoonery being rendered still more attractive by extending their circle of exhibition, acquired an importance in the eyes of the people. By degrees the clergy, observing that the entertainments of dancing, music, and mimicry, exhibited at these protracted annual celebrities, made the people less religious, by promoting idleness and a love of festivity, proscribed these sports, and excommunicated the performers. But finding that no regard was paid to their censures, they changed their plan, and determined to take these recreations into their own hands. They turned actors; and instead of pro
ane mummeries, presented stories taken from legends or the bible. This was the origin of sacred comedy. The death of saint Catharine, acted by the monks of saint Dennis, rivalled the popularity of the professed players. Music was admitted into the churches, which served as theatres for the represention of holy farces. The festivals among the French, called LA FETE DE FOUX, DE L'ANE
For a most full and comprehensive account of these feasts, see
"Memoires pour
ervir a l'histoire de la FETE DE FOUX, qui se faisoit autrefois dans plu
ieurs egli
es. Par M. du TILLIOT, gentilhomme ordinaire de son Al
esse royale Monseigneur le duc de BERRY. A LAUSANNE et a GENEVE, 1741."
4to. Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln in the eleventh century, orders his dean and chapter to abolish the FESTU
A
INORUM,
um sit vanita
e pl
num, et voluptatibus spurcum,
which used to be annually celebrated in Lincoln cathedral on the feast of the Circumcision. Grossetesti EPISTOL. xxxii. apud Browne's FASCICUL. p. 331. edit. Lond. 1690. tom. ii. Append. And p. 412. Also he forbids the archdeacons of his diocese to permit SCOT-ALES in their chapters and synods, (Spelm. Gl. p. 506.) and other LUDI on holidays. Ibid. Epistol. xxii. p. 314. [See supr. vol. i. p. 247.] See in the MERCURE FRANCOIS for September, 1742, an account of a mummery celebrated in the city of Besançon in France, by the canons of the cathedral, consisting of dancing, singing, eating and drinking, in the cloisters and church, on Easter-day, called B
RGER
TTA, or the SONG OF THE SHEPHERDS; which remained unabolished till the year 1738. From the RITUAL of the church, pag. 1930, ad ann. 1582. See Carpentier, SUPPL. Du Cang. LAT. GLOSS. tom. i. p. 523. in V. And ibid. V. BOCLARE, p. 570.
, and DES INNOCENS, at length became greater favorites, as they certainly were more c
pricious and absurd, than the interludes of the buffoons at the fairs. These are the ideas of a judicious French writer, now living, who has investigated the history of human manners with great comprehension and sagacity.
Voltaire's theory on this subject is also very ingenious, and quite new. Religious plays, he supposes, came originally from Constantinople; where the old Grecian stage continued to flourish in some degree, and the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were represented, till the fourth century. About that period, Gregory Nazianzen, an archbishop, a poet, and one of the fathers of the church, banished pagan plays from the stage at Constantinople, and introduced select stories from the old and new Testament. As the antient Greek tragedy was a religious spectacle, a transition was made on the same plan; and the chorusses were turned into Christian hymns
See supr. vol. i. p. 244.
. Gregory wrote many sacred dramas for this purpose, which have not survived those inimitable compositions over which they triumphed for a time: one, however, his tragedy called
, or CHRIST'S PASSION, is still extant
OP. Greg. Nazianz. tom. ii. p. 253. In a manuscript cited by Lambeccius, it is called
. iv. 22. It seems to have been falsely attributed to Apollinaris, an Alexandrian, bishop of Laodicea. It is, however, written with les
elegance and judgement than most of Gregory's poetical pieces. Apollinaris lived about the year 370.
. In the prologue it is said to be in imitation of Euripides, and that this is the first time the Virgin Mary has been produced on the stage. The fashion of acting spiritual dramas, in which at first a due degree of method and decorum was preserved, was at length adopted from Constantinople by the Italians; who framed, in the depth of the dark ages, on this foundation, that barbarous species of theatrical representation called MYSTERIES, or sacred comedies, and which were soon afterwards received in France
Hist. Gen. Addit. p. 13
.
. This opinion will acquire probability, if we consider the early commercial intercouse between Italy and Constantinople: and although the Italians, at the time when they may be supposed to have imported plays of this nature, did not understand the Greek language, yet they could understand, and consequently could imitate, what they saw.
In defence of Voltaire's hypothesis it may be further observed, that the FEAST OF FOOLS and of the Ass, with other religious farces of that sort, so common in Europe, originated at Constantinople. They were instituted, although perhaps under other names, in the Greek church, about the year 990, by Theophylact, patriarch of Constantinople, probably with a better design than is imagined by the ecclesiastical annalists; that of weaning the minds of the people from the pagan ceremonies, particularly the Bacchanalian and calendary solemnities, by the substitution of christian spectacles, partaking of the same spirit of licentiousness. The fact is, however, recorded by Cedrenus, one of the Byzantine historians, who flourished about the year 1050, in the following words.
"
. "
That is,
"Theophylact introduced the practice, which prevails even to this day, of scandalising god and the memory of his saints, on the most splendid and popular festivals, by indecent and ridiculous songs, and enormous shoutings, even in the midst of those sacred hymns, which we ought to offer to the divine grace with compunction of heart, for the salvation of our souls. But he, having collected a company of base fellows, and placing over them one Euthymius, surnamed Casnes, whom he also appointed the superintendant of his church, admitted into the sacred service, diabolical dances, exclamations of ribaldry, and ballads borrowed from the streets and brothels
Cedren. COMPEND. HIST. p. 639. B. edit. Paris. 1647. Compare Baron. ANNAL. sub ann. 956. tom x. p. 752. C. edit. Plantin. Antw. 1603. fol.
."
This practice was subsisting in the Greek church two hundred years afterwards: for Balsamon, patriarch of Antioch, complains of the gross abominations committed by the priests at Christmas and other festivals, even in the great church at Constantinople; and that the clergy, on certain holidays, personated a variety of feigned characters, and even entered the choir in a military habit, and other enormous disguises
COMMENT. ad CANON. lxii. SYNOD. vi. in Trullo. Apud Beverigii SYNODIC. tom. i. Oxon. fol. 1672. p. 230. 231. In return, he
orbids the professed players to appear on the
age in the habit of monks. Saint Austin, who lived in the sixth century, reproves the paganising christians of his age, for their inde
nt sports on holidays; but it does not appear, that these sports were celebrated within the churches.
"In sanctis sestivitatibus choros ducendo, cantica luxuriosa et turpia, &c. Isti enim infelices ac miseri homines, qui balationes ac
altationes ANTE IPSAS BASILICAS sanctorum exercere nec metuunt nec erubescunt."
SERM. ccxv. tom. x. opp. S. Augustin. edit. Froben. 1529. fol. 763. B. See also SERM. cxcvii. cxcviii. opp. edit. Benedictin. tom. v. Paris. 168
. p. 904.
t seq.
.
I must however observe here, what perhaps did not immediately occur to our lively philosopher on this occasion, that in the fourth century it was customary to make christian parodies and imitations in Greek, of the best Greek classics, for the use of the christian schools. This practice prevailed much under the emperor Julian, who forbad the pagan poets, orators, and philosophers, to be taught in the christian seminaries
Apollinaris bishop of Laodicea, abovementioned, wrote Greek tragedies, adapted to the stage, on most of the grand events recorded in the old Testament, after the manner of Euripides. On some of the familiar and domestic stories of scripture, he composed comedies in imitation of Menander. He wrote christian odes on the plan of Pindar. In imitation of Homer, he wrote an heroic poem on the history of the bible, as far as the reign of Saul, in twenty-four books
Sozomen (ubi infra) says, that he compiled a system of grammar,
, on the christian model.
. Sozomen says, that these compositions, now lost, rivalled their great originals in genius, expression, and conduct. His son, a bishop also of Laodicea, reduced the four gospels and all the apostolical books into Greek dialogues, resembling those of Plato
Socrates, iii. 16. ii. 46. Sozomen, v. 18. vi. 26. Niceph. x. 25.
.
But I must not omit a much earlier and more singular specimen of a theatrical representation of sacred history, than this mentioned by Voltaire. Some fragments of an antient Jewish play on the EXODUS, or the Departure of the Israelites from Egypt under their leader and prophet Moses, are yet preserved in Greek iambics
In Clemens Alexandrin. lib. i. STROM. p. 344. seq. Eusebius, PRAEPARAT. EVANG. c. xxviii. xxix. Eustathius ad HEX. p. 25. They are collected, and translated into Latin, with emendations, by Fr. Morellus, Paris. 1580. See also CORPUS POETAR. GR. TRAGICOR. et COMICOR. Genev. 1614. fol. And POETAE CHRISTIAN. GRAECI, Paris. 1609. 8vo.
. The principal characters of this drama are Moses, Sapphora, and God from the Bush, or God speaking from the burning bush. Moses delivers the prologue, or introduction, in a speech of sixty lines, and his rod is turned into a serpent on the stage. The author of this piece is Ezekiel, a Jew, who is called
, or the tragic poet of the Jews
See Scaliger, ad EUSEB. p. 401.
. The learned Huetius endeavours to prove, that Ezekiel wrote at least before the christian era
DEMOMSTRAT. EVANGELIC. p. 99.
. Some suppose that he was one of the seventy, or septuagint, interpreters of the bible under the reign of Ptolomy Philadelphus. I am of opinion, that Ezekiel composed this play after the destruction of Jerusalem, and even in the time of Barocbas, as a political spectacle, with a view to animate his dejected countrymen with the hopes of a future deliverance from their captivity under the conduct of a new Moses, like that from the Egyptian servitude
See Le Moyne, OBS. ad VAR. SACR. tom. i. pag. 336.
. Whether a theatre subsisted among the Jews, who by their peculiar situation and circumstances were prevented from keeping pace with their neighbours in the culture of the social and elegant arts, is a curious speculation. It seems most probable, on the whole, that this drama was composed in imitation of the Grecian stage, at the close of the second century, after the Jews had been dispersed, and intermixed with other nations.
Boileau seems to think, that the antient PILGRIMAGES introduced these sacred exhibitions into France.
Chez nos devots ayeux le theátre abhorré
Fut long-tems dans la France une plaisir ignoré.
De PELERINS, dit on, une troupe grossiere
En public à Paris y monta la prémiere;
Et sotement zélee en sa simplicité,
Iöua les SAINTS
la VIERGE, et DIEU, par piété.
Le Savoir, a la fin, dissipant l'Ignorance,
Fit voir de ce projet la devote imprudence:
On chassa ces docteurs préchant sans mission,
On vit renaitre Hector, Andromaque, Ilion
ART. POET. cant. iii. 81.
.
The authority to which Boileau alludes in these nervous and elegant verses is Menest
ier, an intelligent French antiquary
Des Represent
en MUSIQU
. p. 153. seq.
. The pilgrims who returned from Jerusalem, saint James of Compostella, saint Baume of Provence, saint Reine, Mount saint Michael, Notre dame du Puy, and other places esteemed holy, composed songs on their adventures; intermixing recitals of passages in the life of Christ, descriptions of his crucifixion, of the day of judgement, of miracles, and martyrdoms. To these tales, which were recommended by a pathetic chant and a variety of gesticulations, the credulity of the multitude gave the name of Visions. These pious itinerants travelled in companies; and taking their stations in the most public streets, and singing with their staves in their hands, and their hats and mantles fantastically adorned with shells and emblems painted in various colours, formed a sort of theatrical spectacle. At length their performances excited the charity and compassion of some citizens of Paris; who erected a theatre, in which they might exhibit their religious stories in a more commodious and advantageous manner, with the addition of scenery and other decorations. At length professed practitioners in the histrionic art were hired to perform these solemn mockeries of religion, which soon became the principal public amusement of a devout but undiscerning people.
To those who are accustomed to contemplate the great picture of human follies, which the unpolished ages of Europe hold up to our view, it will not appear surprising, that the people, who were forbidden to read the events of the sacred history in the bible, in which they were faithfully and beautifully related, should at the same time be permitted to see them represented on the stage, disgraced with the grossest improprieties, corrupted with inventions and additions of the most ridiculous kind, sullied with impurities, and expressed in the language and gesticulations of the lowest farce.
On the whole, the MYSTERIES appear to have originated among the ecclesiastics; and were most probably first acted, at least with any degree of form, by the monks. This was certainly the case in the English monasteries
In some regulations given by cardinal Wolsey, to the monasteries of the canons regular of St. Austin, in the year 1519, the brothers are forbidden to be LUSORES
aut
MIMICI, players or mimics. Dugd. Monast. ii. 568. But the prohibition means, that the monks should not go abroad to exercise these arts in a secular and mercenary capacity. See ANNAL. BURTONENSES, p. 437. supra citat. p. 205. By the way, MIMICUS might also literally be construed a player, according to Jonson, EPI
. 195.
—But the
Vice
Acts old
iniquity,
and in the fit
Of MIMICRY gets th'opinion of a wit.
. I have already mentioned the play of saint Catharine, performed at Dunstable abbey by the novices in the eleventh century, under the superintendence of Geoffry a Parisian ecclesiastic: and the exhibition of the PASSION, by the mendicant friers of Coventry and other places. Instances have been given of the like practice among the French
See supra, vol. i. 246.
. The only persons who could read were in the religious societies: and various other circumstances, peculiarly arising from their situation, profession, and institution, enabled the monks to be the sole performers of these representations.
As learning encreased, and was more widely disseminated from the monasteries, by a natural and easy transition, the practice migrated to schools and universities, which were formed on the monastic plan, and in many respects resembled the ecclesiastical bodies. Hence a passage in Shakespeare's HAMLET is to be explained; where Hamlet says to Polonius,
"My lord, you played once in the UNIVERSITY, you say."
Polonius answers,
"That I did, my Lord, and was accounted a good
actor.
—I did
enact
Julius Cesar, I was killed i' th' capitol
ACT. iii. sc. 5.
."
Boulay observes, that it was a custom, not only still subsisting, but of very high antiquity,
vetustissima
consuetudo,
to act tragedies and comedies in the university of Paris
HIST. UNIV. PARIS. tom. ii. p. 226. See also his History
De Patronis quatuor Nationum,
edit. 1662.
. He cites a statute of the college of Navarre at Paris, dated in the year 1315, prohibiting the scholars to perform any immodest play on the festivals of saint Nicholas and saint Catharine.
"In festis sancti Nicolai et beatae Catharinae nullum ludum inhonestum faciant
HIST. UNIV. PARIS. tom. iv. p. 93. Saint Nicholas was the patron of scholars. Hence at Eton college saint Nicholas has a double f
ast. The celebrity of the Boy-bishop began on St. Nicholas's day. In a fragment of the cellarer's COMPUTUS of Hyde abbey near Winchester, A. D. 1397.
"Pro
pulis PUERI C
LEBRANTIS in festo S. Nicholai."
That is the Chorister celebrating mass. MSS. Wulves. Winton. Carpe
tier mentions an indecent sport, called le VIRELI, celebrated in the streets on the feast of St. Nicholas, by the vicar and other choral officers of a collegiate church. SUPPL. Du Cang. LAT. GLOSS. in V. to
. iii. p. 1178.
."
Reuchlin, one of the German classics at the restoration of antient literature, was the first writer and actor of Latin plays in the academies of Germany. He is said to have opened a theatre at Heidelberg; in which he brought ingenuous yo
ths or boys on the stage, in the year 1498
"Nunquam ante ipsius aetatem Como
dia in Germanorum scholis acta fuit, &c."
G. Lizelii HISTOR. POETAR. GERMAN. Francof. et Leips. 1730. 12mo. p. 11.
. In the prologue to one of his comedies, written in trimeter iambics, and printed in 1516
are the following lines.
Optans poeta placere paucis versibus,
Sat esse adeptum gloriae arbitratus est,
Si
autore se
Germaniae
SCHOLA
luserit
Graecanicis et Romuleis LUSIBUS.
The first of Reuchlin's Latin plays, seems to be one entitled, SERGIUS, SEU CAPITIS CAPUT, COMOEDIA, a satire on bad kings or bad ministers, and printed in 1508
Phorc
e. 4to. It is published with a gloss by Simlerus his Scholar.
. He calls it his
primiciae.
It consists of three acts, and is professedly written in imitation of Terence. But the author promises, if this attempt should please, that he will write INTEGRAS COMEDIAS, that is comedies of five acts
Fol. x.
. I give a few lines from the Prologue
Fol. iv.
.
Si unquam tulistis ad jocum vestros pedes,
Aut si rei aures praebuistis ludicrae,
In hac
nova,
obsecro, poetae fabula,
Dignemini attentiores esse quam antea;
Non hic erit lasciviae aut libidini
Meretriciae, aut tristi senum curae locus,
Sed
histrionum
exercitus et scommata.
For Reuch
in's other pieces of a like nature, the curious reader is referred to a very rare volume in quarto, PROGYMNASMATA SCENICA,
seu
LUDICRA PRAEEXERCITAMENTA
varii generis. Per Joannem Bergman de Olpe,
1498. An old biographer affirms, that Conradus Celtes was the first who introduced into Germany the fashion of acting tragedies and comedies in public halls, after the manner of the antients.
"Primus comaedias et tragaedias in publicis aulis veterum more egit
VIROR. I
LUST
. VITAE, &c. published by Fischardus, Franco
. 1536. 4to.
. 8. b. Celtes himself says, in his DE
CRIPT
U
BIS NORINBERGAE, written about 1500, that in the city there was an
"AUL
praetoria, ubi PUBLI
A
UPTIARUM ET CHOREARUM SPECTACULA celebrantur, hystoriis et ymaginibus imperatorum et regum nostrorum depicta."
Cap. x.
."
Not to enter into a controversy concerning the priority of these two obscure theatrical authors, which may be sufficiently decided for our present satisfaction by observing, that they were certainly cotemporaries; about the year 1500, Celtes wrote a play, or masque, called the PLAY OF DIANA, presented by a literary society, or seminary of scholars, before the emperor Maximilian and his court. It was printed in 1502, at Nuremberg, with this title,
"Incipit
LUDUS DYANAE,
coram Maximiliano rege, per Sodalitate
Litt
rariam Damulianam in Linzi
See Conr
di Celtis AMORES, Noring
. 1502. 4to. ad calc. SIGNAT. q.
."
It consists of the iambic, hexameter, and elegiac measures; and has five acts, but is contained in eight quarto pages. The plot, if any, is entirely a compliment to the emperor; and the personages, twenty-four in number, among which was the poet, are Mercury, Diana, Bacchus, Silenus drunk on his ass, Satyrs, Nymphs, and Bacchanalians. Mercury, sent by Diana, speaks the Prologue. In the middle of the third act, the emperor places a crown of laurel on the poet's head: at the conclusion of which ceremony, the chorus sings a panegyric in verse to the emperor. At the close of the fourth act, in the true spirit of a German shew, the imperial butlers refresh the performers with wine out of golden goblets, with a symphony of horns and drums: and at the end of the play, they are invited by his majesty to a sumptuous banquet
In the colleges of the Jesuits in Italy this was a constant practice in modern times. Denina says, that father Granelli's three best tragedies were written, for this purpose, between 1729, and 1731. ch. v. § 9. The
ragedies of Petavius, Bernardinus and Stephonius, all Jesuits, seem intended for this use. See Morhoff, POLYHIST. LITERAR. lib. vii. cap. iii. tom. i. 15. pag. 1069. edit.
abric. Lubec. 1747. 4to. Riccoboni relates, that he saw, in the Jesuit's college at Prague, a latin play acted by the students, on the subject of Luther's heresy
and the ridicule consisted in bringing Luther on the stage, with a bible in his hand, quoting chapter and verse in defence of the reformation.
.
It is more generally known, that the practice of acting Latin plays in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, continued to Cromwell's usurpation. The oldest notice I can recover of this sort of spectacle in an English university, is in the fragment of an antient accompt-roll of the dissolved college of Michael-house in Cambridge: in which, under the year 1386, the following expence is entered.
"
Pro ly pallio brusdato et pro sex larvis et barbis in comedia.
"
That is, for an embroidered pall, or cloak, and six visors and six beards, for the comedy
Inter MSS. Rawlins. Bib
. Bodl. Oxon.
. In the year 1544, a Latin comedy, called PAMMACHIUS, was acted at Christ's college in Cambridge: which was laid before the privy council by bishop Gardiner, chancellor of the university, as a dangerous libel, containing many offensive reflections on the papistic ceremonies yet unabolished
MSS. Coll. C. C. Cant. CATAL. Nasmith. p. 92. This mode of attack was seldom returned by the opposite party: the catholic worship, founded on sensible representations, afforded a much better hold for ridicule, than the religion of some of sects of the reformers, which was of a more simple and spiritual nature. But I say this of the infancy of our stage. In the next century, fanaticism was brought upon the English stage with great success, when polished manners had introduced humour into comedy, and character had taken place of spectacle. There are, however, two English interludes, one of the reign of Henry the eighth, called EVERY MAN, the other of that of Edward the sixth, called LUSTY JUVENTUS, written by R. Weever: the former defends, and the latter attacks, the church of Rome.
. The comedy of GAMMAR GURTON'S NEEDLE was acted in the same society about the year 1552. In an original draught of the statutes of Trinity college at Cambridge, founded in 1546, one of the chapters is entitled,
De Proefecto Ludorum qui
IMPERATOR
dicitur,
under whose direction and authority, Latin comedies and tragedies are to be exhibited in the hall at Christmas; as also
Sex
SPECTACULA, or as many DIALOGUES. Another title to this statute, which seems to be substituted by another and a more modern hand, is,
De Comediis ludisque in natali Christi exhibendis.
With regard to the peculiar business and office of IMPERATOR, it is ordered, that one of the masters of arts shall be placed over the juniors, every Christmas, for the regulation of their games and diversions at that season of festivity. At the same time, he is to govern the whole society in the hall and chapel, as a republic committed to his special charge, by a set of laws, which he is to frame in Latin or Greek verse. His sovereignty is to last during the twelve days of Christmas, and he is to exercise the same power on Candlemas-day. During this period, he is to see that six SPECTACLES or DIALOGUES be presented. His fee is forty shillings
This article is struck out from CAP. xxiv. p. 85. MSS. Rawlins. Num. 233. Only that part of the statute is retained, in which
Comedies
and
Tragedies
are ordered to be acted. These are to be written, or rather exhibited, by the nine lecturers. The senior lecturer is to produce one: the eight others are charged with four more. A fine of ten shillings is imposed for the omission of each interlude. Another
lause is then
truck out, which limits the number of the plays to THR
, if
IVE
commode exponi non que
.
. Probably the constitution of this officer, in other words,
a Master of the Revels,
gave a latitude to some licentious enormities, incompatible with the decorum of a house of learning and religion; and it was found necessary to restrain these Christmas celebrities to a more rational and sober plan. The SPECTACULA also, and DIALOGUES, originally appointed, were growing obsolete when the substitution was made, and were giving way to more regular representations. I believe these statutes were reformed by queen Elizabeth's visitors of the university of Cambridge, under the conduct of archbishop Parker, in the year 1573. John Dee, the famous occult philosopher, one of the first fellows of this noble society, acquaints us, that by his advice and endeavours, both here, and in other colleges at Cambridge, this master of the Christmas plays was first
named
and
confirmed
and EMPEROR.
"The first was Mr. John Dun, a very goodly man of person
habit, and complexion, and well learned also
COMPENDIOUS REHEARSALL of JOHN DEE, &c. written by himself, A. D. 1592. ch. i. p. 501. 502. APPEND. J. Glastonien
is CHRON.
dit. Hearne, Oxon. 1726.
."
He also further informs us, little thinking how important his
boyish attempts and exploits scholastical
would appear to future ages, that in the refectory of the college, in the character of Greek lecturer, he exhibited, before the whole university, the
, or PAX, of Aristophanes, accompanied with a piece of machinery, for which he was taken for a conjuror:
"with the performance of the scarabeus his flying up to Jupiter's palace, with a man, and his basket of victuals, on her back: whereat was great
wondering,
and many
vai
reports
spread abroad, of the means how that was effected
Ibid. p. 502.
."
The tragedy of Jepthah, from the eleventh chapter of the book of JUDGES, written both in Latin and Greek, and dedicated to king Henry the eighth, about the year 1546, by a very grave and learned divine, John Christopherson, another of the first fellows of Trinity college in Cambridge, afterwards master, dean of Norwich, and bishop of Chichester, was most probably composed as a Christmas-play for the same society. It is to be noted, that this play is on a religious subject
Buchanan has a tragedy on this subject, written in 1554. Hamlet seems to be quoting an old play, at least an old song, on Jepthah's story, HAML. ACT ii. Sc. 7. There is an Italian tragedy on this subject by Benedict Capuano, a monk of Casino. Florent. 1587. 4to.
. Roger Ascham, while on his travels in Flanders, says in one of his Epistles, written about 1550, that the city of Antwerp as much exceeds all other cities, as the refectory of saint John's college in Cambridge exceeds itself, when furnished at Christmas with its theatrical apparatus for acting plays
There is a latin tragedy, ARCHIPROPHETA,
five Johannes Ba
tista,
written in 1547, by Nicolas Grimald, one of the first Students of Christ-church, Oxford, which probably was acted in the refectory there. It is dedicated to the dean, doctor Richard Cox, and was printed, Colon. 1548. 8vo. This play coincided with his plan of a rhetoric lecture, which he had sett up in the college.
. Or, in his own words,
"
Quemadmodum aula Johannis,
theatrali more ornata,
seipsam post Natalem superat
Aschami EPISTOL. p. 126. b. Lond. 1581.
."
In an audit-book of Trinity college in Oxford, I think for the year 1559, I find the following disbursements relating to this subject.
"
Pro apparatu in comoedia Andria,
vii l. ix s. iv d.
Pro prandio Principis
NATALICII
eodem tempor
,
xiii s. ix d.
Pro refectione proefectorum et doctorum magis illustrium cum Bursariis prandentium tempore comoedioe,
iv l. vii d."
That is, For dresses and scenes in acting Terence's ANDRIA, for the dinner of the CHRISTMAS PRINCE, and for the entertainment of the heads of the colleges and the most eminent doctors dining with the bursars or treasurers, at the time of acting the comedy, twelve pounds, three shillings, and eight pence. A CHRISTMAS PRINCE, or LORD OF MISRULE, corresponding to the IMPERATOR at Cambridge just mentioned, was a common temporary magistrate in the colleges at Oxford: but at Cambridge, they were censured in the sermons of the puritans, in the reign of James the first, as a relic of the pagan ritual
Fuller, CH. HIST. Hist. of Cambridge, p. 159. edit. 1655. See OBSERVAT. on Spenser, ii. 211. In the court of king Edward the sixth, George Ferrers, a lawyer, poet, and historian, bore this office at Greenwich, all the twelve days of christmas, in 1552.
"Who so
pleasantly
and
wis
ly
behaved himself, that the king had great delight in his PASTIMES."
Stowe's CHRON. p. 632. Hollingshead says, that
"being of better credit and estimation than commonlie his predecessors had beene before, he received all his commissions and warrants by the name of the MAISTER OF THE KING'S PASTIMES. Which gentleman so well supplied his office, both in shew of sundrie
sights
and
devices
of rare inventions, and in act of divers INTERI
UDES, and matters of pastime
plaied by persons,
as not onlie satisfied the common sort, but also were verie well liked and allowed by the COUNCELL, and others of
skill
in the like PASTIMES, &c."
CHRON. iii. p. 1067. col. 2. 10. The appointment of so dex
rons and respectable an officer to this department, was a stroke of policy; and done with a design to give the court popularity, and to divert the mind of the young king, on the condemnation of Somerset.
In some great families this officer was called the ABBOT OF MISRULE. In Scotland, where the reformation took a more severe and gloomy turn, these and other festive characters were thought worthy to be suppressed by the legislature. See PARL. vi. of queen Mary of Scotland, 1555.
"It is statute and ordained, that in all times cumming, na maner of person be chosen ROBERT HUDE nor LITTLE JOHN, ABBOT OF UN-REASON, QUEENIS of MAY, nor
therwise, nother in burgh, nor to landwart, [in the country,] in onie time to cum."
And this under very severe penalties, viz. In burghs, to the chusers of such characters, loss of Freedom
with other punishments at the queen's pleasure: and those who accepted such offices were to be banished the realm. In the country, the chusers forfeited ten pounds, with an arbitrary imprisonment.
"And gif onie women or
ther about summer hees [hies, goes,] singand [si
ging] ... thorow Burrowes and uthers Landward tounes, the women ....
all be taken
handled, and put upon the cuck-stules, &c."
See Notes to the PERCY HOUSHOLD-BOOK. p. 441. Voltaire says, that since the Reformation, for two hundred years there has not been a
ddle heard in some of the cantons of Switze
land.
In the French towns there was L'ABBE DE LIESSE, who in many towns was elected from the burgesses by the magistrates, and was the director of a
l their public shows. Among his numerous mockofficers were a herald, and a
Maitre d'Hotel.
In the city of Auxerre he was especially concerned to superintend the play which was annually acted on Quinquagesima Sunday. Carpentier, SUPPL. GLOSS. LAT. Du, Cange, tom. i. p. 7. V. ABBAS LAETITIAE. See also, i
id. V. CHARAVA
ITUM, p. 923.
. The last article of this dis
ursement shews, that the most respectable company in the university were invited on these occasions. At length our universities adopted the representation of plays, in which the scholars by frequent exercise had undoubtedly attained a considerable degree of skill and address, as a part of the entertainment at the reception of princes and other eminent personages. In the year 1566, queen Elizabeth visited the university of Oxford. In the magnificent hall of the college of Christ Church, she was entertained with a Latin comedy called MARC
S GEMINUS, the Latin tragedy of PROGNE, and an English comedy on the story of Chaucer's PALAMON AND ARCITE, all acted by the students of the university. The queen's observations on the persons of the last mentioned piece, deserve notice: as they are at once a curious picture of the romantic pedantry of the times, and of the characteristical turn and predominant propensities of the queen's mind. When the play was over, she summoned the poet into her presence, whom she loaded with thanks and compliments: and at the same time turning to her levee, remarked, that Palamon was so justly drawn as a lover, that he certainly must have been in love indeed: that Arcite was a
right martial knight, having a swart and manly countenance,
yet with the aspect of a Venus clad in armour: that the lovely Emilia was a virgin of uncorrupted purity and unblemished simplicity, and that although she sung so sweetly, and gathered flowers alone in the garden, she preserved her chastity undeflowered. The part of Emilia, the only female part in the play, was acted by a boy of fourteen years of age, a son of the dean of Christ-Church, habited like a young princess; whose performance so captivated her majesty, that she gave him a present of eight guineas
This youth had before been introduced to the queen's notice, in her privy chamber at her lodgings at Christ-Church
where he saluted her in a short Latin oration with some Greek verses, with which she was so pleased, that she called in secretary Cecill, and encouraging the boy's modesty with many compliments and kind speeches, begged him to repeat his elegant performance. By Wood he is called,
summae spei puer.
HIST. ANTIQ. UNIV. OXON. lib. i. p. 287. col. 2. See also ATHEN. OXON. i. 152. And Peck's DESID. CURIOS. vol. ii. lib. vii. Num. xviii. p. 46. seq.
. During the exhibition a cry of hounds, belonging to Theseus, was counterfeited without, in the great square of the college: the young students thought it a real chace, and were seized with a sudden transport to join the hunters: at which the queen cried out from her box,
"O excellent! These boys, in very troth, are ready to leap out of the windows to follow the hounds
Wood. ATHEN. O
ON. ubi supr.
!"
In the year 1564, queen Elizabeth honoured the university of Cambridge with a royal visit
For a minute account
of which, see Peck's DESID. CURIOS. ut supr. p. 25. Num.
v. [MSS. Baker. vol. x. 703
. p. 109. Brit. Mus.] The writer was probably N. Robinson, domestic chaplain to archbishop Parker, afterwards bishop of Bangor. See Wood, ATHEN. OXON. i. col. 696. MS. Baker, ut supr. p. 181. And Parke
's ANT. BRIT. ECCLES
p. 14. MATH.
Vir
uit prudens,
&c. edit. 1572-3.
. Here she was present at the exhibition of the AULULARIA of Plautus, and the tragedies of DIDO, and of HEZEKIAH, in English: which were played in the body, or nave, of the chapel of King's college, on a stage extended from side to side, by a select company of scholars, chosen from different colleges at the discretion of five doctors,
"especially appointed to set forth such plays as should be exhibited before her grace
Peck, ut supr. p. 36. 39.
."
The chapel, on this occasion, was lighted by the royal guards; each of whom bore a staff-torch in his hand
Peck, ibid. p. 36.
. Her majesty's patience was so fatigued by the sumptuous parade of shews and speeches, with which every moment was occupied, that she could not stay to see the AJAX of Sophocles, in Latin, which was prepared. Having been praised both in Latin and Greek, and in prose and verse, for her learning and her chastity, and having received more compliments than are paid to any of the pastoral princesses in Sydney's ARCADIA, she was happy to return to the houses of some of her nobility in the neighbourhood. In the year 1583, Albertus de Alasco, a Polish prince Palatine, arrived at Oxford
Supposed to be the person whom Shakespeare, in the MERCHANT OF VENICE, called the
Count Palatine.
ACT. i. SC. i.
. In the midst of a medley of pithy orations, tedious sermons, degrees, dinners, disputations, philosophy, and fire-works, he was invited to the comedy of the RIVALES
This was in Latin, and written by William Gager, admitted a student of Christ-Church in 1572. By the way, he is styled by Wood, the best
comedian
of his time, that is dramatic poet. But he wrote only Latin plays. His Latin M
LEAGER was acted at Christ-Church before
ord Leicester, sir Philip Sydney, and other distinguished persons, in 1581. ATH. OXON. i. p. 366. This Gager had a controversy with doctor John Rainolds, president of Corpus, at Oxford, concerning the lawfulness of plays: which produced from the latter a pamphlet, called THE OVERTHROW OF STAGE-PLAYS, &c. Printed 1599. Gage
's letter, in defence of his plays, and of the students who acted in them, is in Bibl. Coll. Univ. MSS.
. 18. It appears by a pamphlet written by one W. Heale, and printed at Oxford in 1609, that Gager held it lawful, in a public Act of the university, for husbands to beat their wives.
, and the tragedy of DIDO, which were presented in Christ-Church hall by some of the scholars of that society, and of saint John's college. In the latter play, Dido's supper, and the destruction of Troy, were represented in a marchpane, or rich cake: and the tempest which drove Dido and Eneas to the same cave, was counterfeited by a snow of sugar, a hailstorm of comfits, and a shower of rose-water
Hollinsh. CHRON. iii
1355.
. In the year 1605, king James the first gratified his pedantry by a visit to the same university
See PREPARATIONS AT OXFORD, &c. APPEND. L
LANDI COLL. vol. ii. p. 626. seq. edit. Lond. 1774. [MSS. Baker, ut supr. Brit. Mus.] They were written by one present.
. He was present at three plays in Christ-Church hall: which he seems to have regarded as childish amusements, in comparison of the more solid delights of scholastic argumentation. Indeed, if we consider this monarch's insatiable thirst of profound erudition, we shall not be surprised to find, that he slept at these theatrical performances, and that he sate four hours every morning and afternoon with infinite satisfaction, to hear syllogisms in jurisprudence and theology. The first play, during this solemnity, was a pastoral comedy called ALBA: in which five men, almost naked, appearing on the stage as part of the representation, gave great offence to the queen and the maids of honour: while the king, whose delicacy was not easily shocked at other times, concurred with the ladies, and availing himself of this lucky circumstance, peevishly expressed his wishes to depart, before the piece was half finished
Ibid. p. 637.
. The second play was VERTUMNUS, which although
learnedly penned
in Latin, and by a doctor in divinity, could not keep the king awake, who was wearied in consequence of having executed the office of moderator all that day at the disputations in saint Mary's church
The queen was not present: but next morning, with her ladies, the young prince, and
gallants attending the court,
she saw an English pastoral, by Daniel, called ARCADIA RE
ORMED. Ibid. p. 642. Although the anecdote is foreign to our purpose, I cannot help mentioning the reason, why the queen, during this visit to Oxford, was more pleased to hear the Oration of the professor of Greek, than the king.
"The king heard him willingly, and the Queen
much more;
because, she sayd, she
never had h
ard Greek.
"
Ibid. 636.
. The third drama was the AJAX of Sophocles, in Latin, at which the stage was varied three times
Towards the end of the hall, was a scene like a wall,
"painted and adorned with stately pillars, which pillars would turn about, by reason whereof, with the help of other painted clothes, their stage did vary three times in the acting of one tragedy."
LEL APPEND. ut supr. p. 631. The machinery of these plays, and the temporary stages in St. Mary's church, were chiefly conducted by
"one Mr. Jones, a
great traveller,
who undertooke to furnish them with rare devices, but performed very little to that which was expected."
Ibid. p. 646. Notwithstanding these slighting expressions, it is highly probable that this was Inigo Jones, afterwards the famous architect. He was now but thirty-three years of age, and just returned into England. He was the principal Contriver for the masques at Whitehall. Gerrard, in STRAFFORDE'S LETTERS, describing queen Henrietta's popish chapel, says,
"Such a glorious scene built ov
r the altar! Inigo Jones never presented a more curious piece in any of the masks at Whitehall.
[dat. 1635.] vol. i. pag. 505.
.
"The king was very wearie before he came thither, but much more wearied by it, and spoke many words of dislike
Ibid. p. 639.
."
But I must not omit, that as the king entered the city from Woodstock, he was saluted at the gate of saint John's college with a short interlude, which probably suggested a hint to Shakespeare to write a tragedy on the subject of Macbeth. Three youths of the college, habited like witches, advancing towards the king, declared they were the same who once met the two chiefs of Scotland, Macbeth and Bancho; prophesying a kingdom to the one, and to the other a generation of monarchs: that they now appeared, a second time, to his majesty, who was descended from the stock of Bancho, to shew the confirmation of that prediction
REX PLATONICUS, five MUSAE RE
NANTES, Oxon. 1607. 4to. p. 18.
. Immediately afterwards,
"Three young youths, in habit and attire like Nymphs, confronted him, representing England, Scotland, and Ireland; and talking dialogue wise, each to the other, of their state, at last concluded, yielding themselves up to his gracious government
LEL. APPEND. ut supr. p. 636.
."
It would be unnecessary to trace this practice in our universities to later periods. The position advanced is best illustrated by proofs most remote in point of time; which, on that account, are also less obvious, and more curious. I could have added other antient proofs; but I chose to select those which seemed, from concomitant circumstances, most likely to amuse.
Many instances of this practice in schools, or in seminaries of an inferior nature, may be enumerated. I have before mentioned the play of ROBIN and MARIAN, performed, according to an annual custom, by the school-boys of Angiers in France, in the year 1392
Supr. i. 245. See more instances, ibid.
. But I do not mean to go abroad for illustrations of this part of our present inquiry. Among the writings of Udal, a celebrated master of Eton, about the year 1540, are recited
Plures Comediae,
and a tragedy
de Papatu,
on the papacy: written probably to be acted by his scholars. An extract from one of his comedies may be seen in Wilson's LOGIKE
Written in 1553, p. 69.
. In the antient CONSUETUDINARY, as it is called, of Eton-School, the following passage occurs.
"Circa festum divi Andreae, ludimagister eligere solet, pro suo arbitrio, SCENICAS FABULAS optimas et accommodatissimas, quas Pueri feriis Natalitiis subsequentibus, non sine LUDORUM ELEGANTIA, populo spectante, publice aliquando peragant.—Interdum etiam exhibet Anglico sermone contextas fabulas, siquae habeant acumen et leporem
Supposed to have been drawn up about the year 1560. But containing all the antient and original customs of the school. MSS. Rawlins. Bibl. Bodl.
."
That is, about the feast of saint Andrew, the thirtieth day of November, the master is accustomed to chuse, according to his own discretion, such Latin stage-plays as are most excellent and convenient; which the boys are to act in the following Christmas holidays, before a public audience, and with all the elegance of scenery and ornaments usual at the performance of a play. Yet he may sometimes order English plays; such, at least, as are smart and witty. In the year 1538, Ralph Radcliffe, a polite scholar, and a lover of graceful elocution, opening a school at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, obtained a grant of the dissolved friery of the Carmelites in that town: and converting the refectory into a theatre, wrote several plays, both in Latin and English, which were exhibited by his pupils. Among his comedies were
Dives and Lazarus,
Boccacio's
Patient Grisilde, Titus and Gesippus
See supr. p. 341.
, and Chaucer's
Melibeus:
his tragedies were, the
Delivery of Susannah,
the
Burning of John Huss, Job's Sufferings,
the
Burning of Sodom, Jonas,
and the
Fortitude of Judith.
These pieces were seen by the biographer Bale in the author's library, but are now lost
Bale viii. 98. ATH. OXON. i. 73. I have seen an anonymous comedy, APOLLO SHROVING, composed by the Master of Hadleigh-school, in Suffolk, and acted by his scholars, on Shrove-tuesday, Feb. 7. 1626. printed 1627. 8vo. Published, as it seems, by E. W. Shrove-tuesday, as the day immediately preceding Lent, was always a day of extraordinary sport and feasting. So in the song of Justice Silence in Shakespeare, See P. HENRY iv. A. v. S. 4.
Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,
And welcome MERRY SHROVETIDE.
In the Romish church there was antiently a feast immediately preceding Lent, which lasted many days, called CARNISCAPIUM. See Carpentier, in V. SUPPL. LAT. GL. Du Cang. tom. i. p. 831. In some cities of France an officer was annually chosen, called LE PRINCE D'AMOUREUX, who presided over the sports of the youth for six days before Ash-wednesday. Ibid. V. AMORATUS. p. 195. and V. CARDINALIS. p. 818. also V. SPINETUM, tom. iii. p. 848. Some traces of these festivities still remain in our universities. In the PERCY HOUSHOLD-BOOK, 1512, it appears that the clergy and officers of lord Percy's chapel performed a play
"before his lordship upon Shrowftewesday at night."
pag. 345.
. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader, that this very liberal exercise is yet preserved, and in the spirit of true classical purity, at the college of Westminster
It appears antiently to have been an exercise for youth, not only to act but to write interludes. Erasmus says, that sir Thomas More,
"adolescens COMOEDIOLAS et scripsit et egit."
EPISTOL. 447. But see what I have said of More's PAGEAUNTS, Observat. on Spens. ii. 47. And we are told, that More, while he lived a Page with archbishop Moreton, as the plays were going on in the palace during the christmas holidays, would often step upon the stage without previous notice, and exhibit a part of his own, which gave much more satisfaction than the whole performance besides. Roper's LIFE AND DEATH OF MORE, p. 27. edit. 1731. 8vo.
. I believe, the frequency of these school-plays suggested to Shakespeare the names of Seneca and Plautus as dramatic authors; where Hamlet, speaking of a variety of theatrical performances, says,
"Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light
ACT ii. SC. 7.
."
Jonson, in his comedy of THE STAPLE OF NEWES, has a satirical allusion to this practice, yet ironically applied: where CENSURE says,
"For my part, I beleeve it, and there were no wiser than I, I would have neer a cunning schoole-master in England: I mean a Cunning-man a schoole-master; that is, a conjurour, or a poet, or that had any acquaintance with a poet. They make all their schollers Play-boyes! Is't not a fine sight to see all our children made Enterluders? Doe we pay our money for this? Wee send them to learne their grammar and their Terence, and they learne their playbookes. Well, they talk we shall have no more parliaments, god blesse us! But an wee have, I hope
Zeale of the Land Buzzy,
and my gossip Rabby
Trouble-truth,
will start up, and see we have painfull good ministers to keepe schoole, and catechise our youth; and not teach em to speake Playes, and act fables of false newes, &c
ACT iii. p. 50. edit.
ol. 1631. This play was first acted in the year 1625.
.
In tracing the history of our stage, this early practice of performing plays in schools and universities has never been considered, as a circumstance instrumental to the growth and improvement of the drama. While the people were amused with Skelton's TRIAL OF SIMONY, Bale's GOD'S PROMISES, and CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO HELL, the scholars of the times were composing and acting plays on historical subjects, and in imitation of Plautus and Terence. Hence ideas of a legitimate fable must have been imperceptibly derived to the popular and vernacular drama. And we may add, while no settled or public theatres were known, and plays were chiefly acted by itinerant minstrels in the halls of the nobility at Christmas, these literary societies supported some idea of a stage: they afforded the best accommodations for theatrical exhibition, and were almost the only, certainly the most rational, companies of players that existed.
But I mean yet to trespass on my reader's patience, by pursuing this inquiry still further; which, for the sake of comprehension and connection, has already exceeded the limits of a digression.
It is perhaps on this principle, that we are to account for plays being acted by singing-boys: although they perhaps acquired a turn for theatrical representation and the spectacular arts, from their annual exhibition of the ceremonies of the boy-bishop; which seem to have been common in almost every religious community that was capable of supporting a choir
In a small college, for only one provost, five fellows, and six choristers, founded by archbishop Rotheram in 1481, in the obscure village of Rotheram in Yorkshire, this piece of mummery was not omitted. The founder leaves by will, among other bequests to the college,
"A Myter for the
barne-bishop
of cloth of gold, with two knopps of silver, gilt and enamelled."
Hearne's LIB. NIG. SCACC. APPEND. p. 674. 686. This establishme
t, but with a far greater degree of buffoonery, was common in the collegiate churches of France. See Dom. Marlot, HISTOIRE de la Metropole de Rheims, tom. ii. p. 769. A part of the ceremony in the church of Noyon was, that the children of the choir should celebrate the whole service on Innocent's day. Brillon, DICTIONAIRE DES ARRETS, Artic. NOYON. edit. de 1727. This privilege, as I have before observed, is permitted to the children of the choir of Winchester college, on that festival, by the founder's statutes, given in 1380. [See supr. vol. i. 248.] Yet in the statutes of Eton college, gi
en in 1441, and altogether transcribed from those of Winchester, the chorister-bishop of the chapel is permitted to celebrate the holy offices on the feast of saint Nicholas, but
by no means
on that of the INNOCENTS.—
"In festo sancti Nicolai, in QUO et NULLATENUS in festo sanctorum INNOCENTIUM, divina officia (praetur Missae Secreta) exequi et dici permittimus per Episcopum Puerorum, ad hoc, de eisdem [pueris choristis] annis singulis eligendum."
STATUT. Coll. Etonens. Cap. xxxi. The same clause is in the statutes of King's college at Cambridge. Cap. xlii. The parade of the mock-bishop is evidently akin to the
Fete des Foux,
in which they had a bishop, an abbot, and a precentor, of the fools. One of the pieces of humour in this last-mentioned shew, was to shave the precentor in public, on a stage erected at the west door of the church. M. Tilliot, MEM.
de la Fete des Foux,
ut supr. p. 13. In the Council of Sens, A. D. 1485, we have this prohibition.
"Turpem etiam illum abusum in quibusdam frequentatum ecclesiis, quo, certis annis, nonnulli cum mitra, baculo, ac vestibus pontificalibus,
more episcoporum
benedicu
t, alii ut reges et duces induti, quod Festum FATUORUM, vel INNOCENTIUM, seu PUERORUM, in quibusdam regionibus
uncupatu
, &c."
CONCIL. S
NON. cap. iii. Harduin. ACT. CONCIL. Paris. 1714. tom. ix. p. 1525. E. See also ibid. CONCIL. BASIL. Sess. xxi. p. 1122. E. And 1296. D. p. 1344. A. It is surprising that Colet, dean of saint Paul's, a friend to the purity of religion, and who had the good sense and resolution to censure the superstitions and
opperies of popery in his public sermons, should countenance this idle farce of the boy-bishop, in the statutes of his school at saint Paul's; which he founded with a view of establishing the education of youth on a more rational and liberal plan than had yet been known, in the year 1512. He expressly orders that his scholars,
"shall every Childermas [Innocents] daye come to Paulis churche
and hear the CHILDE-BYSHOP'S [of S. Paul's cathedral] sermon. And after, be at the hygh masse; and each of them offer a penny to the CHILDE-BYSHOP, and with them the maisters and surveyors of the scole."
Knight's LIFE OF CO
ET, (MISCELL. Num. V. APPEND.) p. 362. I take this opportunity of observing, that the annivers
ry cu
om at Eton of going
ad Montem,
originated from the antient and popular practice of these theatrical processions in collegiate bodies.
In
he statutes of New college in Oxford, founded about the year 1380, there is the following remarkable passage.
"Ac etiam illum LUDUM vilissimum et horribilem
ADENDI BA
BAS, qui
eri solet i
nocte praecedente Inceptionis Magistradorum in Artibus, infra collegium nostrum praedictum, vel alibi in Universitate praedicta, ubicunque, ipsis [sociis et scolaribus] penitus interdicimus, ac etiam prohibemus expresse."
RUBR. xxv. Hearne endeavours to explain this injunction, by supposing that it was made in opposition to the Wiccli
ites, who disregarded the laws of scripture; and, in this particular instance, violated the following text in LEVITICUS, where this custom is expressly forbidden. xix. 27.
"Neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard."
NOT. ad Joh. Trokelowe. p. 393. Nothing can be more unfortunate tha
this elucidation of our antiquary. The direct contrary was the case: for the Wickliffites entirely grounded their ideas of reformation both in morals and doctrine on scriptural proofs, and often committed absurdities in too precise and literal an acceptation of texts. And, to say no more, the custom, from the words of the statute, seems to have been long preserved in the university, as a mock-ceremony on the night preceding the solemn Act of Magistration. It is styled LUDUS, a Play: and I am of opinion, that it is to be ranked among the other ecclesiastic mummeries of that age; and that it has some connection with the exhibition mentioned above of shaving the Precentor in public.
. I have before given an instance of the singing-boys of Hyde abbey and saint Swithin's priory at Winchester, performing a MORALITY before king Henry the seventh at Winchester castle, on a Sunday, in the year 1487. In the accompts of Maxtoke priory near Coventry, in the year 1430, it appears, that the eleemosinary boys, or choristers, of that monastery, acted a play, perhaps every year, on the feast of the Purification, in the hall of the neighbouring castle belonging to lord Clinton: and it is specified, that the cellarer took no money for their attendance, because his lordship's minstrels had often assisted this year at several festivals in the refectory of the convent, and in the hall of the prior, without fee or gratuity. I will give the article, which is very circumstantial, at length,
"Pro jentaculis puerorum eleemosynae exeuntium ad aulam in castro ut ibi
LUDUM
peragerent in die Purificationis, xiv d. Unde nihil a domini
[Clinton]
thesaurario, quia saepius hoc anno ministralli castri fecerunt ministralsiam in aula conventus et Prioris ad festa plurima sine ullo regardo
Penes me. supr. citat.
."
That is, For the extraordinary breakfast of the children of the almonry, or singing-boys of the convent, when they went to the hall in the castle, to perform the PLAY on the feast of the Purification, fourteenpence. In consideration of which performance, we received nothing in return from the treasurer of the lord Clinton, because the minstrels of the castle had often this year plaid at many festivals, both in the hall of the convent and in the prior's hall, without reward. So early as the year 1378, the scholars, or choristers, of saint Paul's cathedral in London, presented a petition to king Richard the second, that his majesty would prohibit some ignorant and unexperienced persons from acting the HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, to the great prejudice of the clergy of the church, who had expended considerable sums for preparing a public presentation of that play at the ensuing Christmas
S
e RISE AND PROGRESS, &c. CI
L. vol. ii. p. 118.
. From MYSTERIES this young fraternity proceeded to more regular dramas: and at the commencement of a theatre, were the best and almost only comedians. They became at length so favorite a set of players, as often to act at court: and, on particular occasions of festivity, were frequently removed from London, for this purpose only, to the royal houses at some distance from town. This is a circumstance in their dramatic history, not commonly known. In the year 1554, while the princess Elizabeth resided at Hatfield-house in Hertfordshire, under the custody of sir Thomas Pope, she was visited by queen Mary. The next morning, after mass, they were entertained with a grand exhibition of bear-baiting,
with
which their highnesses were right well content.
In the evening, the great chamber was adorned with a sumptuous suit of tapestry, called
The Hanginge
of Antioch:
and after supper, a play was presented by the
children of Paul's
Who perhaps performed the play of HOLOPHERNES, the same year, after
a greate and rich maskinge and banquet,
given by sir Thomas Pope to the princess, in the
grete
all at Hatfelde.
LIFE of sir THO. POPE. SECT. iii. p. 85.
. After the play, and the next morning, one of the children, named Maximilian Poines, sung to the princess, while she
plaid at the virginalls
MS. ANNAL
S OF Q. MARIE'S REIGN
. MSS. Cotton. VIT
LL. F. 5. There is a curious anecdote in Melville's MEMOIRS, concerning Elizabeth, when queen, being surprized from behind the tapestry by lord Hunsdon, while she was playing on her virginals. Her majesty, I know not whether in a
it of royal prudery, or of royal coquetry, suddenly rose from the instrument and offered to
strike
his lordship: declaring,
"that she was not used
to play before m
n,
but when she was solitary to shun melancholy."
MEM. Lond. 1752. pag. 99. Leland applauds the skill of Elizabeth, both in playing and singing. EN COM. fol. 59. [p. 125. edit. Hearn.]
Aut quid commemor
m quos tu testudine sumpta
Concentus referas melli
luosque modos?
. Strype, perhaps from the same manuscript chronicle, thus describes a magnificent entertainment given to queen Elizabeth, in the year 1559, at Nonsuch in Surry, by lord Arundel, her majesty's housekeeper, or superintendant, at that palace, now destroyed. I chuse to give the description in the words of this simple but picturesque compiler.
"There the queen had great entertainment, with banquets, especially on Sunday night, made by the said earl: together with a Mask, and the warlike sounds of drums and flutes, and all kinds of musick, till midnight. On Monday, was a great supper made for her: but before night, she stood at her standing in the further park, and there she saw a Course. At night was a Play by the
Children of Paul's,
and their [music] master Sebastian. After that, a costly banquet, accompanied with drums and flutes. This entertainment lasted till three in the morning. And the earl presented her majesty a cupboard of plate
ANN. REF. vol. i. ch. xv. p. 194. edit. 1725. fol.
."
In the year 1
62, when the society of parish clerks in London celebrated one of their annual feasts, after morning service in Guildhall chapel, they retired to their hall; where, after dinner, a
goodly play
was performed by the choristers of Westminster abbey, with
waits, and regals, and singing
Strype's edit. of Stowe's SURV. LOND. B. v. p. 231.
. The children of the chapel-royal were also famous actors; and were formed into a company of players by queen Elizabeth, under the conduct of Richard Edwards, a musician, and a writer of Interludes, already mentioned, and of whom more will be said hereafter. All Lilly's plays, and many of Shakespeare's and Jonson's, were originally performed by these boys
Six of Lilly's nine comedies are entitled COURT-COMEDIES: which, I believe, were written professedly for this purpose. These were reprinted together, Lond. 1632. 12mo. His last play is dated 1597.
: and it seems probable, that the title given by Jonson to one of his comedies, called CYNTHIA'S REVELS, first acted in 1605
"by the children of her majesties chapel, with the allowance of the Master of the Revels,"
was an allusion to this establishment of queen Elizabeth, one of whose romantic names was CYNTHIA
They very frequently were joined by the choristers of saint Paul's. It is a mistake that these were rival companies; and that because Jonson's POETASTER was acted, in the year 1601, by the boys of the chapel, his antagonist Decker got his SATIROMASTIX, an answer to Jonson's play, to be performed, out of opposition, by those of saint Paul's. Lilly's court-comedies, and many others, were acted by the children of both choirs in conjunction. It is certain that Docker sneers at Johnson's interest with the Master of the Revels, in procuring his plays to be acted so often at court.
"
Sir Vaughan.
I have some cossen-germans at court shall beget you the reversion of the master of the king's revels, or else to be his lord of misrule nowe at Christmas."
SIGNAT. G. 3. Dekker's SATIROMASTIX,
or the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet.
Lond. for E. White, 1602. 4to. Again, SIGNAT. M.
"When your playes are misselikt at court, you shall not crie mew like a pusse-cat, and say you are glad you write out of the courtier's element."
On the same idea the satire is founded of sending Horace, or Jonson, to court, to be dubbed a poet: and of bringing
"the quivering bride to court in a maske, &c."
Ibid. SIGNAT. I. 3.
. The general reputation which they gained, and the particular encouragement and countenance which they received from the queen, excited the jealousy of the grown actors at the theatres: and Shakespeare, in HAMLET, endeavours to extenuate the applause which was idly indulged to their performance, perhaps not always very just, in the following speeches of Rosencrantz and Hamlet.—
"There is an aiery of little children, little eyases
Nest of young hawks.
, that cry out on the top of the question, and are most tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the fashion, and so berattle the
common
stages, so they call them, that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither.—
Ham.
What, are they children? Who maintains them? How are they escoted
Paid.
? Will they pursue the Quality no longer than they can sing, &c
ACT. ii. Sc. vi. And perhaps he glances at the same set of actors in ROMEO AND JULIET, when a play, or maske, is proposed. ACT i. Sc. v.
We'll have no Cupid, hood-wink'd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath.—
Nor a
without-book
prologue
faintly
spoke
After the prompter.—
."
This was about the year 1599. The latter clause means,
"Will they follow the
profession
of players, no longer than they keep the voices of boys, and sing in the choir?"
So Hamlet afterwards says to the player,
"Come, give us a taste of your
quality:
come, a passionate speech
Ibid. Sc. iii.
."
Some of these, however, were distinguished for their propriety of action, and became admirable comedians at the theatre of Black-friers
There is a passage in STRAFFORDE'S LETTERS, which seems to shew, that the dispositions and accommodations at the theatre of Black-friars, were much better than we now suppose.
"A little pique happened betwixt the duke of Lenox and the lord chamberlain, about a box at a new play in the Black-friers, of which the duke had got the key."
The dispute was fettled by the king. G. GARRARD to the LORD DEPUTY. Jan. 25. 1635. vol. i. p. 511. edit. 1759. fol. See a curious account of an order of the privy council, in 1633,
"hung up in a table near Paules and Black-fryars, t
command all that resort to the play-house there, to send away their coaches, and to disperse abroad in Paules church-yard, carter-lane, the conduit in f
eet-street, &c. &c."
Ibid. p. 175. Another of Garrard's letters mentions a play at this theatre, which
"cost three or four hundred pounds setting out; eight or ten suits of new cloaths he [the author] gave the players, an unheard of prodigality!"
Dat. 1637. Ibid. vol. ii. 150.
It appears by the Prologue of Chapman's ALL FOOLS, a comedy presented at Blackfriers, and printed 1605, that only the spectators of rank and quality sate on the stage.
—To fair attire the stage
Helps much; for if our
other audience
se
You on the stage
depart before we end,
Our wits go with you all, &c.—
. Among the children of queen Elizabeth's chapel, was one Salvadore Pavy, who acted in Jonson's POETASTER, and CYNTHIA'S REVELS, and was inimitable in his representation of the character of an old man. He died about thirteen years of age, and is thus elegantly celebrated in one of Jonson's epigrams.
An Epitaph on S. P. a child of queene Elizabeth's chapell.
Weep with me, all you that read
This little story!
And know, for whom a teare you shed
DEATH'S selfe is sorry.
Twas a child, that so did thrive
In grace and feature,
As HEAVEN and NATURE seem'd to strive
Which own'd the creature.
Yeares he numbred scarce thirteene,
When Fates turn'd cruell;
Yet three fill'd zodiackes had he beene
The Stage's Jewell:
And did acte, what now we moane,
Old men so duely;
As, sooth, the PARCAE thought him one,
He plaid so truely.
So, by errour, to his fate
They all consented;
But viewing him since, alas! too late,
They have repent
d:
And have sought, to give new birthe,
In bathes to steep him:
But, being so much too good for earthe,
HEAVEN vowes to keep him
EPI
RAMMES, Epig. cxx.
.
To this ecclesiastical origin of the drama, we must refer the plays acted by the society of the parish-clerks of London, for eight days successively, at Clerkenwell, which thenc
took its name, in the presence of most of the nobility and gentry of the kingdom, in the years 1390, and 1409. In the ignorant ages, the parish-clerks of London might justly be considered as a literary society. It was an essential part of their profession, not only to sing but to read; an accomplishment almost solely confined to the clergy: and, on the whole, they seem to come under the character of a religious fraternity. They were incorporated into a guild, or fellowship, by king Henry the third about the year 1240, under the patronage of saint Nicholas. It was antiently customary for men and women of the first quality, ecclesiastics, and others, who were lovers of church-music, to be admitted into this corporation: and they gave large gratuities for the support, or education, of many persons in the practice of that science. Their public feasts, which I have already mentioned, were frequent, and celebrated with singing and music; most commonly at Guildhall chapel or college
Stowe's SURV. LOND. ut supr. lib. v. p. 231.
. Before the reformation, this society was constantly hired to assist as a choir, at the magnificent funerals of the nobility, or other distinguished personages, which were celebrated within the city of London, or in its neighbourhood. The splendid ceremonies of their anniversary procession and mass, in the year 1554, are thus related by Strype, from an old chronicle.
"May the sixth, was a goodly evensong at Guildhall college, by the Masters of the CLARKS and their Fellowship, with singing and playing; and the morrow after, was a great mass, at the same place, and by the same fraternity: when every clark offered an halfpenny. The mass was sung by diverse of the queen's [Mary's] chapel and children. And after mass done, every clark went their procession, two and two together; each having on, a surplice and a rich cope, and a garland. And then, fourscore standards, streamers, and banners; and each one that bare them had an albe or a surplice. Then came in order the waits playing: and then, thirty clarkes, singing FESTA DIES. There were four of these choirs. Then came a canopy, borne over the Sacrament by four of the masters of the clarkes, with staffe torches burning, &c
ECCLES. MEM. vol. iii. ch. xiii. p. 121.
."
Their profession, employment, and character, naturally dictated to this spiritual brotherhood the representation of plays, especially those of the scriptural kind: and their constant practice in shews, processions, and vocal music, easily accounts for their address in detaining the best company which England afforded in the fourteenth century, at a religious farce, for more than a week.
Before I conclude this inquiry, a great part of which has been taken up in endeavouring to shew the connection between places of education and the stage, it ought to be remarked, that the antient fashion of acting plays in the inns of court, which may be ranked among seminaries of instruction, although for a separate profession, is deducible from this source. The first representation of this sort which occurs on record, and is mentioned with any particular circumstances, was at Gray's-inn. John Roos, or Roo, student at Gray's-inn, and created a serjeant at law in the year 1511, wrote a comedy which was acted at Christmas in the hall of that society, in the year 1527. This piece, which probably contained some free reflections on the pomp of the clergy, gave such offence to cardinal Wolsey, that the author was degraded and imprisoned
Hollinsh. CHRON. iii. 894.
. In the year 1550, under the reign of Edward the sixth, an order was made in the same society, that no comedies, commonly called Interludes, should be acted in the refectory in the intervals of vacation, except at the celebration of Christmas: and that then, the whole body of students should jointly contribute towards the dresses, scenes, and decorations
Dugdale, ORIG. JURID. cap. 67. p. 285.
. In the year 1561, Sackville's and Norton's tragedy of FERREX AND PORREX was presented before queen Elizabeth at Whitehall, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple
Printed at London, 1565. 12mo. In one of the old editions of this play, I think a quarto, of 1590, it is said to be
"set forth as the same was shewed before the queen's most excellent majestie, in her highness's court of the inner-temple."
It is to be observed, that Norton, one of the authors, was connected with the law: For the
"Approbation of Mr. T. Norton, counsellor and sollicitor of London, appointed by the bishop of London,"
is prefixed to Ch. Marbury's
Collection of Italian Proverbs,
Lond. 1581. 4to.
. In the year 1566, the SUPPOSES, a comedy, was acted at Gray's-inn, written by Gascoigne, one of the students. Dekker, in his satire against Jonson above cited, accuses Jonson for having stolen some jokes from the Christmas plays of the lawyers.
"You shall sweare not to bumbast out a new play with the old lyning of jestes stolne from the Temple-revells
SATIROMASTIX, edit. 1602. ut supr. SIGNAT. M.
."
It the year 1632 it was ordered, in the Inner Temple, that no play should be continued after twelve at night, not even on Christmas-eve
Dudg. ut supr. cap. 57. p. 140. seq. also c. 61. 205.
.
But these societies seem to have shone most in the representation of Masques, a branch of the old drama. So early as the year 1431, it was ordered, that the society of Lincoln's inn should celebrate four revels
It is not, however, exactly known whether these revels were not simply DANCES: for Dugdale says, that the students of this inn
"anciently had DANCINGS for their
recreation
and delight."
IBID. And he adds, that in the year 1610, the under barristers,
for example's sake,
were put out of commons by decimation, because they
offended
in not DANCING on Candlemasday, when the JUDGES
were present,
according to an antient order of the society. Ibid. col. 2. In an old comedy, called CUPID'S WHIRLIGIG, acted in the year 1616, by the children of his majesty's revels, a law-student is one of the persons of the drama, who says to a lady,
"Faith, lady, I remember the first time I saw you was in quadragessimo-sexto of the queene, in a michaelmas tearme, and I think it was the morrow upon
mense Michaelis,
or
crastino Animarum,
I cannot tell which. And the next time I saw you was at our REVELLS, where it pleased your ladyship to grace me with a galliard; and I shall never forget it, for my velvet pantables [pantofles] were stolne away the whilst."
But this may also allude to their masks and plays. SIGNAT. H. 2. edit. Lond. 1616. 4to.
, on four grand festivals, every year, which I conceive to have consisted in great measure of this species of impersonation. In the year 1613, they presented at Whitehall a masque before king James the first, in honour of the marriage of his daughter the princess Elizabeth with the prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine, at the cost of more than one thousand and eighty pounds
Dugdale IBID. p. 246. The other societies seem to have joined. IBID. cap. 67. p. 286. See also Finett's PHILOXENIS, p. 8. 11. edit. 1656. and Ibid. p. 73.
. The poetry was by Chapman, and the machinery by Jones
Printed LOND. 1614. 4to.
"With a description of the whole
hew, in the manner of their march on horseback to the court from the Master of the Rolls his house, &c."
It is dedicated to sir E
Philipps, Master of the Rolls. But we find a masque on the very same occasion, and at Whitehall, before the king and queen, called
The masque of Grays inn gentlemen and the Inner temple,
by Beaumont, in the works of Beaumont and Fletcher.
. But the most splendid and sumptuous performance of this kind, plaid by these societies, was the masque which they exhibited at Candlemas-day, in the year 1633, at the expence of two thousand pounds, before king Charles the first; which so pleased the king, and probably the queen, that he invited one hundred and twenty gentlemen of the law to a similar entertainment at Whitehall on Shrove Tuesday following
Dugd. ibid. p. 346.
. It was called the TRIUMPH OF PEACE, and written by Shirley, then a student of Gray's-inn. The scenery was the invention of Jones, and the music was composed by William Lawes and Simon Ives
It was printed, Lond. 1633. 4to. The author says, that it exceeded in variety and richness of decoration, any thing ever exhibited at Whitehall. There is a little piece called THE INNS OF COURT ANAGRAMMATIST, or
The Masquers Masqued in Anagrams,
written by Francis Lenton, the queen's poet, Lond. 1634. 4to. In this piece, the names, and respective houses, of each masquer are specified; and in commendation of each there is an epigram. The masque with which his majesty returned this compliment on the shrove-tuesday following at Whitehall, was, I think, Carew's COELUM BRITANNICUM, written by the king's command, and played by his majesty, with many of the nobility and their sons who were boys. The machinery by Jones, and the music by H. Lawes. It has been give
to Davenant, but improperly.
There is a play written by Middleton about the year 1623, called INNER TEMPLE MASQUE, or the MASQUE OF HEROES, presented as an
ent
rtainm
nt for many worthy ladies,
by the members of that society. Printed, Lond. 1640. 4to. I believe it is the foundation of Mrs. Behn's C
TY-HEIRESS.
I have also seen the MASQUE OF FLOWERS, acted by the students of Grays-inn, in the Banquetting-house at White-hall, on Twelf
h Night in 1613. It is dedicated to sir F. Bacon, and was printed, L
nd. 1614. 4to. It was the last of the courtsolemnities exhibited in honour of Carr, e
rl of Somers
t.
. Some curious anecdotes of this exhibition are preserved by a cotemporary, a diligent and critical observer of those seemingly insignificant occurrences, which acquire importance in the eyes of posterity, and are often of more value than events of greater dignity.
"On Monday after Candlemas-day, the gentlemen of the inns of court performed their MASQUE at Court. They were sixteen in number, who rode through the streets
They went from Ely house.
, in four chariots, and two others to carry their pages and musicians; attended by an hundred gentlemen on great horses, as well clad as every I saw any
They far exceeded in bravery [splendor] any Masque that had formerly been presented by those societies, and performed the dancing part with much applause. In their company, was one Mr. Read of Gray's-inn; whom all the women, and some men, cried up for as handsome a man as the duke of Buckingham. They were well used at court by the king and queen. No disgust given them, only this one accident fell: Mr. May, of Gray's-inn, a fine poet, he who translated Lucan, came athwart my lord chamberlain in the banquetting-house
At Whitehall.
, and he broke his staff over his shoulders, not knowing who he was; the king present, who knew him, for he calls him HIS POET, and told the chamberlain of it, who sent for him the next morning, and fairly excused himself to him, and gave him fifty pounds in pieces.—This riding-shew took so well, that both king and queen desired to see it again, so that they invited themselves to supper to my lord mayor's within a week after; and the Masquers came in a more glorious show with all the riders, which were increased twenty, to Merchant-taylor's Hall, and there performed again
STRAFFORDE'S L
TTER
, Garrard to
e Lord Deputy, dat. Feb. 27. 1633. vol. i. p. 207. It is added,
"On ShroveTuesday at night, the king and the lord
per
ormed their Masque. The templars were all invited, and well pleased, &c."
See also p. 177. And Fr. Osborn's TRADIT. MEM. vol. ii. p. 134. WORKS, edit. 1722. 8vo. It seems the queen and her ladies were experienced actresses: for the same writer says, Jan. 9. 1633.
"I never knew a duller Christmas than we had at Court this year; but one play all the time at Whitehall!—The queen had some little infirmity, which made her keep in: only on Twelfth-night, she feasted the king at Somerset-house, and presented him with a play, newly studied, long since printed, the FAITHFUL SHEPERDESS [of Fletcher] which the king's players acted in the robes
she and her ladies acted their
PASTORAL
in the last year.
"
Ibid. p. 177. Again, Jan. 11. 1634.
"There is some resolution for a Maske at Shrovetide: the queen, and fifteen ladies, are to perform, &c."
Ibid. p. 360. And, Nov. 9. 1637.
"Here are to be two maskes this winter; one at Christmass, which the king and the young noblesse do make; the other at Shrovetide, which the queen and her ladies do present to the king. A great room is now building only for this use betwixt the guard chamber and the banquetting-house, and of
ir, &c."
Ibid. vol. ii. p. 130. See also p. 140. And Finett's PHILOXENIS,
"There being a maske in practice of the queen in person, with other great ladies, &c."
p. 198. See Whitelock, sub. an. 1632. She was [also] an actress in Davenant's masque of the TEMPLE OF LOVE, with many of the nobility of both sexes. In Jonson's CLORIDIA at Shrovetide, 1630.—In Jon
on's Masque called LOVE FREED FROM IGNORANCE AND FOLLY, printed in 1640.—In W. Mountagu's SHE
HEARD
S ORACLE, a Pastoral, printed in 1649.—In the masque of ALBION'S TRIUMPH, the Sunday
fter Twelfth-night, 1631. Printed 1631.—I
LUMINALIA, or
The F
stival of Light, a masque,
on Shrove-tuesday in 1637. Printed Lond. 1637. 4to.—In SALMACIDA SPOLIA at Whitehall, 1639. Printed Lond. 16
9. 4to. The words, I believe, by Davenant; and the music by Lewis Richard, master of her majesty's music.—In TEMPE R
STORED, with fourteen other ladies, on Shrove-tuesday at Whitehall, 1631. Printed Lond. 1631. 4to. The words by Aurelian Townsend. The king acted in some of these pieces. In the preceding reign, queen Anne had given countenance to this practice; and, I believe. she is the first of our queens that appeared personally in this most elegant and rational amusement of a court. She acted in Daniel's Masque of THE VI
ION OF THE FOUR GODDESS
S, with eleven other ladies, at Hampton-court, in 1604. Lond. 1624. 4to.—In Jonson's MASQUE OF QUEENS, at Whitehall, in 1609.—In Daniel's TETHYS'S FESTIVAL, a Masque, at the creation o
prince Henry, Jun. 5. 1610. This was called the QUEEN'
WAKE. Se
Winwood. iii. 180. Daniel dedicates to this queen a pastoral tragicomedy, in which she perhaps performed, called HYMEN'S TRIUMPH. It was presented at Somerset-house, where she magnificently entertained the king on occasion of the marriage of lord Roxburgh. Many others, I presume, might be added. Among the ENTERTAINMENTS at RUTLANDHOUSE, composed by Davenant in the reign of Charles the first, there is a DECLAMATION, or rather Disputation, w
th music, concerning
Public E
tertainment by Moral R
pres
ntation.
The disputants are Diogenes and Ari
ophanes. I am informed, that among the manuscript papers o
the late Mr. Thomas Coxeter, of Trini
y college in Oxford, an ingenious and inqu
sitive gleaner of anecdotes for a biogra
hy of English poets, there was a correspondence between sir Fulke Greville and Daniel the poet, concerning improvements and reformations proposed to be made in these court-interludes. But this subject will be more fully examined, and further pursued, in its proper place.
After the Restoration, when the dignity of the old monarchical manners had suffered a long eclipse from a Calvinistic usurpation, a feeble effort was made to revive these liberal and elegant amusements at Whitehall. For about the year 1675, queen Catharine ordered Crowne to write a Pastoral called CALISTO, which was acted at court by the ladies Mary and Anne daughters of the duke of York, and the young nobility. About the same time lady Anne, afterwards queen, plaid the part of Semandra, in Lee's MITHRIDATES. The young noblemen were instructed by Better
on, and the princesses by his wife; who perhaps conceived Shakespeare more fully than any female that ever appeared on the stage. In remembrance of her theatrical instructions, Anne, when queen, assigned Mrs. Betterton an annual pension of one hundred pounds. Langb. DRAM. P. p. 92. edit. 1691. Cibber's APOL. p. 134.
This was an early practice in Franc
. In 1540, Margaret de Valois, queen of Navarre, wrote Moralities, which she called PASTORALS, to be acted by the ladies of her court.
."
But it was not only by the parade of processions, and the decorations of scenery, that these spectacles were recommended. Some of them, in point of poetical composition, were eminently beautiful and elegant. Among these may be mentioned a masque on the story of Circe and Ulysses, called the INNER TEMPLE MASQUE, written by William Brown, a student of that society, about the year 1620
Printed from a manuscript in Emanuelcollege at Cambridge, by Tho. Davies. WORKS of W. Browne, Lond. 1772. vol. iii. p. 121. In the dedication to the Society the author says,
"If it degenerate in kinde from those other the society hath produced, blame yourselves for not keeping a happier muse."
Wood says that Browne
"retiring to the inner temple, became famed there for his poetry."
ATH. OXON. i. p 492.
From this piece, as a specimen of the temple-masques in this view, I make no apology for my anticipation in transcribing the following ode, which Circe sings as a charm to drive away sleep from Ulysses, who is discovered reposing under a large tree. It is addressed to Sleep.
THE CHARME.
Sonne of Erebus and Nighte!
Hye away, and aime thy flighte,
Where consorte none other fowle
Than the batte and sullen owle:
Where, upon the lymber gras,
Poppy and mandragoras,
With like simples not a fewe,
Hange for ever droppes of dewe:
Where flowes Lethe, without coyle,
Softly like a streame of oyle.
Hye thee thither, gentle Sleepe!
With this Greeke no longer keepe.
Thrice I charge thee by my wand,
Thrice with moly from my hand
Doe I touch Ulysses' eyes,
And with th' iaspis. Then arise
Sagest Greeke
Pag. 135.
!
In praise of this song it will be sufficient to say, that it reminds us of some favorite touches in Milton's COMUS, to which it perhaps gave birth. Indeed one cannot help observing here in general, although the observation more properly belongs to another place, that a masque thus recently exhibited on the story of Circe, which there is reason to think had acquired some popularity, suggested to Milton the hint of a masque on the story of Comus. It would be superfluous to point out minutely the absolute similarity of the two characters: they both deal in incantations conducted by the same mode of operation, and producing effects exactly parallel.
From this practice of performing interludes in the inns of court, we may explain a passage in Shakespeare: but the present establishment of the context embarrasses that explanation, as it perplexes the sentence in other respects. In the SECOND PART OF HENRY THE FOURTH, Shallow is boasting to his cousin Silence of his heroic exploits when he studied the law at Clement's-inn.
"I was once of Clement's inn, where I think they will talk of mad Shallow yet.
Sil.
You were called
lusty Shallow
then, cousin.
Shal.
I was called any thing, and I would have done any thing, indeed too, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, &c. You had not four such swinge-bucklers in the inns of court again. We knew where all the Bona Roba's were, &c.—Oh, the mad days that I have spent
ACT iii. SC. iii.
!"
Falstaffe then enters, and is recognised by Shallow, as his brother-student at Clement'sinn; on which, he takes occasion to resume the topic of his juvenile frolics exhibited in London fifty years ago.
"She's old, and had Robin Night work, before I came to Clement's inn.—Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst That that this knight and I have seen! Hah, Sir John, &c."
Falstaffe's recruits are next brought forward to be inrolled. One of them is ordered to handle his arms: when Shallow says, still dwelling on the old favorite theme of Clement'sinn,
"He is not his craft-master, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-End Green, when I lay at Clement's-inn, I was then Sir Dagonet in ARTHUR'S SHOW, there was a little quiver fellow, and he would manage you his piece thus, &c."
Does he mean, that he acted sir Dagonet at Mile-end Green, or at Clement's-inn? By the application of a parenthesis only, the passage will be cleared from ambiguity, and the sense I would assign will appear to be just.
"I remember at Mile-end Green, (when I lay at Clement's-inn, I was then Sir Dagonet in ARTHUR'S SHOW,) there was a little quiver fellow, &c."
That is,
"I remember, when I was a very young man at Clement's-inn, and not fit to act any higher part than Sir Dagonet in the interludes which we used to play in the society, that among the soldiers who were exercised in Mile-end Green, there was one remarkable fellow, &c
In the text, "When I
laid
at Clement's inn," i
lodged,
or
lived.
So Leland.
"An old manor place, where in tymes paste sum of the Moulbrays LAY for a starte."
That is LIVED
for a time,
or
sometimes
ITIN. vol. i. fol. 119. Again,
"Maister Page hath translated the House, and now much LYITH there."
Ibid. fol. 121. And in many other places.
."
The performance of this part of Sir Dagonet was another of Shallow's feats at Clement's-inn, on which he delights to expatiate: a circumstance, in the mean time, quite foreign to the purpose of what he is saying, but introduced, on that account, to heighten the ridicule of his character. Just as he had told Silence, a little before, that he saw Schoggan's head broke by
alstaffe at the court-gate,
"and the
very same day,
I did fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's-inn."
Not to mention the satire implied in making Shallow act Sir Dagonet, who was King Arthur's Fool. ARTHUR'S SHOW, here supposed to have been presented at Clement's-inn, was probably an interlude, or masque, which actually existed, and was very popular, in Shakespeare's age: and seems to have been compiled from Mallory's MORTE ARTHUR, or the history of king Arthur, then recently published, and the favorite and most fashionable romance
That Mile-end green was the place for public sports and exercises, we learn from Froissart. In the affair of Tyler and Straw he says,
"Then the kynge sende to them that they shulde all drawe to a fayre playne place, called Myle-end, where the people of the cytie did sport themselve
in the somer season."
&c. Berner's TRANSL. tom. i. c. 383. f. 262. a.
.
When the societies of the law performed these shews within their own respective refectories, at Christmas, or any other festival, a Christmas-prince, or revel-master, was constantly appointed. At a Christmas celebrated in the hall of the Middle-temple, in the year 1635, the jurisdiction, privileges, and parade, of this mock-monarch, are thus circumstantially described
See also Dugd. ORIG. Jurid. p. 15
. where many of the circumstances of this officer are described at large: who also mentions, at Lincoln's-inn, a KING OF THE COCKNEY
on childermas-day, cap. 64. p. 247.
. He was attended by his lord keeper, lord treasurer, with eight white staves, a captain of his band of pensioners and of his guard; and with two chaplains, who were so seriously impressed with an idea of his regal dignity, that when they preached before him on the preceding Sunday in the Temple church, on ascending the pulpit, they saluted him with three low bows. He dined, both in the hall, and in his privy-chamber, under a cloth of estate. The pole-axes for his gentlemen pensioners were borrowed of lord Salisbury. Lord Holland, his temporary Justice in Eyre, supplied him with venison, on demand: and the lord mayor and sheriffs of London, with wine. On twelfth-day, at going to church, he received many petitions, which he gave to his master of requests: And, like other kings, he had a favorite, whom, with others, gentlemen of high quality, he knighted at returning from church. His expences, all from his own purse, amounted to two thousand pounds
STRAFFOLDE'S LETTERS, ut supr. vol. i. p. 507. The writer adds,
"All this is done, to make
hem fit to give the prince
lector a royal ent
rtainment, with masks, dancings, and some other exercises of wit in orations or arraingments, that day they invite him."
. We are also told, that in the year 1635,
"On Shrovetide at night, the lady Hatton feasted the king, queen, and princes, at her house in Holborn. The Wednesday before, the PRINCE OF THE TEMPLE invited the prince Elector and his brother to a Masque at the Temple
This, I think, was Davenant's TRIUMPHS OF PRINCE D'AMOUR, written at their request for the purpose, in three days. The music by H. and W. Lawes. The names of the performers are at the end.
, which was very compleatly fitted for the variety of the scenes, and excellently well performed. Thither came the queen with three of her ladies disguised, all clad in the attire of citizens.—This done, the PRINCE was deposed, but since the king knighted him at Whitehall
Ibid. p. 525. The writer adds,
"Mrs. Basset, the great lace-woman of Cheapside, went foremost, and led the queen by the hand, &c."
See ibid. p. 506.
."
But these spectacles and entertainments in our law-societies, not so much because they were romantic and ridiculous in their mode of exhibition, as that they were institutions celebrated for the purposes of merriment and festivity, were suppressed or suspended under the false and illiberal ideas of reformation and religion, which prevailed in the fanatical court of Cromwell. The countenance afforded by a polite court to such entertainments, became the leading topic of animadversion and abuse in the miserable declamations of the puritan theologists; who attempted the business of national reformation without any knowledge of the nature of society, and whose censures proceeded not so much from principles of a purer morality, as from a narrowness of mind, and from that ignorance of human affairs which necessarily accompanies the operations of enthusiasm.
SECT. XVII.
WE are now arrived at the commencement of the sixteenth century. But before I proceed to a formal and particular examination of the poetry of that century, and of those that follow, some preliminary considerations of a more general nature, and which will have a reference to all the remaining part of our history, for the purpose of preparing the reader, and facilitating our future inquiries, appear to be necessary.
On a retrospect of the fifteenth century, we find much poetry written during the latter part of that period. It is certain, that the recent introduction into England of the art of typography, to which our countrymen afforded the most liberal encouragement, and which for many years was almost solely confined to the impression of English books, the fashion of translating the classics from French versions, the growing improvements of the English language, and the diffusion of learning among the laity, greatly contributed to multiply English composition, both in prose and verse. These causes, however, were yet immature; nor had they gathered a sufficient degree of power and stability, to operate on our literature with any vigorous effects.
But there is a circumstance, which, among some others already suggested, impeded that progression in our poetry, which might yet have been expected under all these advantages. A revolution, the most fortunate and important in most other respects, and the most interesting that occur
in the history of the migration of letters, now began to take place; which, by diverting the attention of ingenious men to new modes of thinking, and the culture of new languages, introduced a new course of study, and gave a temporary check to vernacular composition. This was the revival of classical learning.
In the course of these annals we must have frequently remarked, from time to time, striking symptoms of a restless disposition in the human mind to rouse from its lethargic state, and to break the bonds of barbarism. After many imperfect and interrupted efforts, this mighty deliverance, in which the mouldering Gothic fabrics of false religion and false philosophy fell together, was not effectually completed till the close of the fifteenth century. An event, almost fortuitous and unexpected, gave a direction to that spirit of curiosity and discovery, which had not yet appeared in its full force and extent, for want of an object. About the year 1453, the dispersion of the Greeks, after Constantinople had been occupied by the Turks, became the means of gratifying that natural love of novelty, which has so frequently led the way to the noblest improvements, by the introduction of a new language and new books
and totally changed the state of letters in Europe
But it should be remembered, that some learned Grecians, foreseeing the persecutions impending over their country, frequented Italy, and taught their language there, before the taking of Constantinople. Some Gre
ks, who attended the Florentine council, and never returned for fear of the Turks, founded the present royal library in the city of Turenne. In the year 1401, the Greek emperor, unable to resist the frequent insults of these barbarians, came into England to seek redress or protection from Henry the fourth. He landed at Dover, attended by many learned Greeks; and the next day was honourably received at Christ-church priory at Canterbury, by the prior, Thomas Chyllenden. In a manuscript called SPECULUM PARVULORUM, lib. 5. c. 30. MSS. Bibl. Lamb
th.
.
This great change commenced in Italy; a country, from many circumstances, above all others peculiarly qualified and prepared to adopt such a deviation. Italy, during the darkest periods of monastic ignorance, had always maintained a greater degree of refinement and knowledge than any other European country. In the thirteenth century, when the manners of Europe appear to have been overwhelmed with every species of absurdity, its luxuries were less savage, and its public spectacles more rational, than those of France, England, and Germany. Its inhabitants were not only enriched, but enlightened, by that flourishing state of commerce, which its commodious situation, aided by the combination of other concomitant advantages, contributed to support. Even from the time of the irruptions of the northern barbarians, some glimmerings of the antient erudition still remained in this country; and in the midst of superstition and false philosophy, repeated efforts were made in Italy to restore the Roman classics. To mention no other instances, Alberti Mussato
He was honoured with the laurel, and died 1329.
of Padua, and a commander in the Paduan army against the Veronese, wrote two Latin tragedies, ECERRINIS
Printed at Venice, 1636. fol. with his EPISTOLAE, ELEGI, SOLILOQUIA, ECLOGAE, CENTO OVIDIANUS, Latin History of Italy, and BAVARUS
ad Filium.
And in Muratori's RER. ITAL. SCRIPTOR.
om. x. Mediolan. 1727. P. 1. 123. 569. 769. 785. See also in THESAUR. ITAL.
om. vi. part. ii. Lugd. Bat. 1722. Among his inedited works are mentioned, LI
ER DE LIT
NATURAE ET FORTUNAE, on Natural Causes and Fate. And three books in heroic verse, on the War against the Veronese above-mentioned. The name and writings of Mussato were hardly known, till they were brought forward to the public notice in the ESSAY ON POPE; which I shall not be accused of partiality, as I only join the voice of the world, in calling the most agreeable and judicious pi
ce of criticism produced by the present age.
, or the fate of the tyrant Ecerinus of Verona, and ACHILLEIS, on the plan of the Greek drama, and in imitation of Seneca, befor
the year 1320. The many monuments of legitimate sculpture and architecture preserved in Italy, had there kept alive ideas of elegance and grace; and the Italians, from their familiarity with those precious remains of antiquity, so early as the close of the fourteenth century, had laid the rudiments of their perfection in the antient arts. Another circumstance which had a considerable share in cl
aring the way for this change, and which deserves particular attention, was the innovation introduced into the Italian poetry by Petrarch: who, inspired with the most elegant of passions, and cloathing his exalted feelings on that delicate subject in the most melodious and brilliant Italian versification, had totally eclipsed the barbarous beauties of the Provencial troubadours; and by this new and powerful magic, had in an eminent degree contributed to reclaim, at least for a time, the public taste, from a love of Gothic manners and romantic imagery.
In this country, so happily calculated for their favourable reception, the learned
ugitives of Greece, when their empire was now destroyed, found shelter and protection. Hither they imported, and here they interpreted, their antient writers, which had been preserved entire at Constantinople. These being eagerly studied by the best Italian scholars, communicated a taste for the graces of genuine poetry and eloquence; and at the same time were instrumental in propagating a more just and general relish for the Roman poets, orators, and historians. In the mean time a more elegant and sublime philosophy was adopted: a philosophy more friendly to works of taste and imagination, and more agreeable to the sort of reading which was now gaining ground. The scholastic subtleties, and the captious logic of Aristotle, were abolished for the mild and divine wisdom of Plato.
It was a circumstance, which gave the greatest splendour and importance to this new mode of erudition, that it was encouraged by the popes: who, considering the encouragement of literature as a new expedient to establish their authority over the minds of men, and enjoying an opulent and peaceable dominion in the voluptuous region of Italy, extended their patronage on this occasion with a liberality so generous and unreserved, that the court of Rome on a sudden lost its austere character, and became the seat of elegance and urbanity. Nicholas the fifth, about the year 1440, established public rewards at Rome for composition in the learned languages, appointed p
ofessors in humanity, and employed intelligent persons to traverse all parts of Europe in search of classic manuscripts buried in the monasteries
See
"Dominei Georgii DISSERTATIO de Nich. quinti erga Li
. et Literat. Viros Patroc
nio."
Rom. 1742. 4to. Added to his LIFE.
. It was by means of the munificent support of pope Nicholas, that Cyriac of Ancona, who may be considered as the first antiquary in Europe, was enabled to introduce a taste for gems, medals, inscriptions, and other curious remains of classical antiquity, which he collected with indefatigable labour in various parts of Italy and Greece
See Fr. Burmanni PRAEFAT. ad Inscription. Gruterian. Amstel. 1707. fol. Baluz. MISCELL. tom. vi. p. 539. Ant. Augustini DIALOG. DE NUMI
MAT. ix. xi. Voss. de HISTOR. LAT. p. 809. His ITINERARIUM was printed at Florence, by L. Mehus, 1742. 8vo. See Leon. Aretini EPISTOL. tom. ii. lib. ix. p. 149. And GIORNAL.
de' Letterati d'Italia.
tom. xxi. p. 428. See the COLLECTION of
Inscriptions,
by P. Apianus, and B. Amantius, Ingoldstat. 1634. fol. at the MONUM. GADITAN.
. He allowed Francis Philelphus, an elegant Latin poet of Italy, about 1450, a stipend for translating Homer into Latin
Philelph. EPIST. xxiv. 1. xxxvi. 1. In the EPISTLE of Philelphus, and in his ten books of SATIRES in Latin verse, are many curious particulars relating to the literary history of those times. Venet. fol. 1502. His NICOLAUS, or two books of Lyrics, is a panegyric on the life and acts of pope Nicholas the fifth.
. Leo the tenth, not less conspicuous for his munificence in restoring letters, descended so far from his apostolical dignity, as to be a spectator of the POENULUS of Plautus; which was performed in a temporary theatre in the court of the capitol, by the flower of the Roman youth, with the addition of the most costly decorations
It was in the year 1513, on occasion of Juli
n Medicis, Leo's brother, being made free of Rome. P. Jovius, HIST. lib. xi. ad calc. And VIT. LEON. lib. iii. p. 145. Jovius says, that the actors were
Roman
juventutis lepidissimi.
And that several picces of poetry were recited at the same time. Leo was also present at an Italian comedy, written by cardinal Bibienna, called CALANDER, in honour of the Duchess of Mantua. It was acted by noble youths in the spacious apartments of the Vatican, and Leo was placed in a sort of throne. Jov. in VIT. p. 189.
: and Leo, while he was pouring the thunder of his anathemas against the h
retical doctrines of Martin Luther, published a bulle of excommunication against all those who should dare to censure the poems of Ariosto. It was under the pontificate of Leo, that a perpetual indulgence was granted for rebuilding the church of a monastery, which possessed a manuscript of Tacitus
Paulus Jovius relates an anecdote of pope Leo the tenth, which shews that some passages in the classics were studied at the court of Rome to very bad purposes. I must give it in his own
ords.
"Non caruit
tiam in
amia, quod parum honeste nonnullos e cubiculariis suis (erant enim
tota Italia nobilissimi) adamare, et cu
his tenerius atque libere jocari videretur."
In VITA LEONIS X. p. 192.
. It is obvious to observe, how little conformable, this just taste, these elegant arts, and these new amusements, proved in their consequences to the spirit of the papal system: and it is remarkable, that the court of Rome, whose sole design and interest it had been for so many centuries, to enslave the minds of men, should be the first to restore the religious and intellectual liberties of Europe. The apostolical fathers, aiming at a fatal and ill-timed popularity, did not reflect, that they were shaking the throne, which they thus adorned.
Among those who distinguished themselves in the exercise of these studies, the first and most numerous were the Italian ecclesiastics. If not from principles of inclination, and a natural impulse to follow the passion of the times, it was at least their interest, to concur in forwarding those improvements, which were commended, countenanced, and authorised, by their spiritual sovereign: they abandoned the pedantries of a barbarous theology, and cultivated the purest models of antiquity. The cardinals and bishops of Italy composed Latin verses, and with a success attained by none in more recent times, in imitation of Lucretius, Catullus, and Virgil. Nor would the encouragement of any other European potentate have availed so much, in this great work of restoring literature: as no other patronage could have operated with so powerful and immediate an influence on that order of men, who, from the nature of their education and profession, must always be the principal instruments in supporting every species of liberal erudition.
And here we cannot but observe the necessary connection between literary composition and the arts of design. No sooner had Italy banished the Gothic style in eloquence and poetry, than painting, sculpture, and architecture, at the same time, and in the same country, arrived at maturity, and appeared in all their original splendour. The beautiful or sublime ideas which the Italian artists had conceived from the contemplation of antient statues and antient temples, were invigorated by the descriptions of Homer and Sophocles. Petrarch was crowned in the capitol, and Raphael was promoted to the dignity of a cardinal.
These improvements were soon received in other countries. Lascaris, one of the most learned of the Constantinopolitan exiles, was invited into France by Lewis the twelfth, and Francis the first: and it was under the latter of these monarch that he was employed to form a library at Fontainbleau, and to introduce Greek professors into the university of Paris
Du Breul, ANTIQUITEZ de Paris, liv. ii. 1639. 4to. p. 563. Bembi HIST. VE
T. par. ii. p. 76. And R. Simon, CRITIQUE
de la Bibl. Eccles.
par du Pin, tom. i. p. 502. 512.
. Yet we find Gregory Typhernas teaching Greek at Paris, so early as the year 1472
Hody, p. 233.
. About the same time, Antonius Eparchus of Corsica sold one hundred Greek books to the emperour Charles the fifth and Francis the first
Morhoff, POLYHIST. iv. 6.
, those great rivals, who agreed in nothing, but in promoting the cause of literature. Francis the first maintained even a Greek secretary, the learned Angelus Vergerius, to whom he assigned, in the year 1541, a pension of four hundred livres from his exchequer
Du Breul, ibid. p. 568. It is a just remark of P. Victorius, that Francis the first, by founding beautiful Greek and Roman types at his own cost, invited many students, who were caught by the elegance of the impression, to read the antient books. PRAEFAT. AD COMMENT. in octo libr. Aristotelis d
Opt. Stat
Civitat.
. He employed Julius Camillus to teach him to speak fluently the language of Cicero and Demosthe
es, in the space of a month: but so chimerical an attempt necessarily proved abortive, yet it shewed his passion for letters
Alciati EPISTOL. xxiii. inter GUDIANAS, pag. 109.
. In the year 1474, the parliament of Paris, who, like other public bodies, eminent for their wisdom, could proceed on no other foundation than that of ancient forms and customs, and were alarmed at the appearance of an innovation, commanded a cargo of books, some of the first specimens of typography, which were imported into Paris by a factor of the city of Mentz, to be seized and destroyed. Francis the first would not suffer so great a dishonour to remain on the French nation; and although he interposed his authority too late for a revocation of the decree, he ordered the full price to be paid for the books. This was the same parliament that opposed the reformation of the calendar, and the admission of any other philosophy than that of Aristotle. Such was Francis's sollicitude to encourage the graces of a classical style, that he abolished the Latin tongue from all public acts of justice, because the first president of the parliament of
Paris had used a barbarous term in pronouncing sentence
Matagonis de Matagonibus adversus Italogalliam Antonii Matharelli, p. 226.
: and because the Latin code and judicial processes, hitherto adopted in France, familiarised the people to a base Latinity. At the same time, he ordered these formularies to be turned, not into good Latin, which would have been absurd or impossible, but into pure French
Varillas, HIST. de François I. livr. ix. pag. 381.
: a reformation which promoted the culture of the vernacular tongue. He was the first of the kings of France, that encouraged brilliant assemblies of ladies to frequent the French court: a circumstance, which not only introduced new splendour and refinement into the parties and carousals of the court of that monarchy, but gave a new turn to the manners of the French ecclesiastics, who of course attended the king, and destroyed much of their monkish pedantry
Brantome, MEM. tom. i. p. 227. Mezerai, HIST. France, sur HEN. III.
om. iii. p. 446. 447.
.
When we mention the share which Germany took in the restitution of letters, she needs no greater panegyric, than that her mechanical genius added, at a lucky moment, to all these fortunate contingencies in favour of science, an admirable invention, which was of the most singular utility in facilitating the diffusion of the antient writers over every part of Europe: I mean the art of printing. By this observation, I do not mean to insinuate that Germany kept no pace with her neighbours in the production of philological scholars. Rodolphus Langius, a canon of Munster, and a tolerable Latin poet, after many struggles with the inveterate prejudices and authoritative threats of German bishops, and German universities, opened a school of humanity at Munster: which supplied his countrymen with every species of elegant learning, till it was overthrown by the fury of fanaticism, and the revolutions introduced by the barbarous reformations of the anabaptistic zealots, in the year 1534
D. Chytraeus, SAXONIA.
. iii. p. 80. Trithem. p. 993. De S. E. Et D
LU
INARI
. GERMAN. p. 239.
. Reuchlin, otherwise called Capnio, cooperated with the laudable endeavours of Langius by professing Greek, before the year 1490, at Basil
See EPISTOL. CLAROR. VIROR. ad Reuchlin. p. m. 4. 17. Maius, in VITA REUCHLINI, &c. [See supr. p. 376.]
. Soon afterwards he translated Homer, Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon, Aeschines, and Lucian, into Latin, and Demosthenes into German. At Heidelberg he founded a library, which he stored with the choicest Greek manuscripts. It is worthy to remark, that the first public institution in any European university for promoting polite literature, by which I understand these improvements in erudition, appears to have been established at Vienna. In the year 1501, Maximilian the first, who, like Julius Cesar, had composed a commentary on his own illustrious military achievements, founded in the university of Vienna a COLLEGE of POETRY. This society consisted of four professors: one for poetry, a second for oratory, and two others for mathematics. The professor of poetry was so styled, because he presided over all the rest: and the first person appointed to this office was Conradus Celtes, one of the restorers of the Greek language in Germany, an elegant Latin poet, a critic on the art of Latin versification, the first poet laureate of his country, and the first who introduced the practice of acting Latin tragedies and comedies in public, after the manner of Terence
Ce
tes dedicates his AMOR
S, or Latin Elegies, to Maximilian, in a latin panegyric prefixed; in which he compliments the emperor,
"You who have this year endowed most liberally the muses, long wandering, and banished from Germany by the calumnies of certain unskilful men, with a college and a perpetual stipend: having, moreover, according to a custom practised in my time at Rome, delegated to me and my successors, in your stead, the authority of creating and laureating poets in the said college, &c."
PANEG. PRIM. ad Maximilian. IMP. Signat. a. ii. AMORES, &c. Noringb. 1502. 4to. The same author, in his DESCRIPTION of the city of Nuremburgh, written in 1501, men
ions it as a circumstance of importance and a singul
rity, that a person skilled in the Roman literature had just begun to give lectures in a public building, to the ingenuous youth of that city, in poetry and o
atory, with a salary of one hundred aurei, as was the practice in the cities of Italy. Descript. URB. NORINGB. cap. xii.
. It was the business of this professor, to examine candidates in philology; and to reward those who appeared to have made a distinguished proficiency in classical studies with a crown of laurel. Maximilian's chief and general design in this institution, was to restore the languages and the eloquence of Greece and Rome
See the imperial patent for erecting this college, in Freherus's GERMAN. RERUM SCRIPTOR. VAR. &c. tom. ii. fol. Francof. 1602. p. 237. And by J. Henry Van Seelen, Lubec. 4to. 1723. And in his SELECT. LITERAR. p. 488. In this patent, the purpose of the foundation i
declared to be,
"restituere abolitam prisci saeculi eloquentiam."
.
Among the chief restorers of literature in Spain, about 1490, was Antonio de Lebrixa, one of the professors in the university of Alacala, founded by the magnificent cardinal Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo. It was to the patronage of Ximenes that Lebrixa owed his celebrity
See Nic. Anton. BIBL. NOV. HISPAN. tom. i. p. 104.—109.
. Profoundly versed in every species of sacred and profane learning, and appointed to the respectable office of royal historian, he chose to be distinguished only by the name of the grammarian
L. Vives, de Causis CO
UPTARUM ART. ii. p. 72.
; that is, a teacher of polite letters. In this department, he enriched the seminaries of Spain with new systems of grammar, in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and, with a view to reduce his native tongue under some critical laws, he wrote comparative lexicons, in the Latin, Castilian, and Spanish languages. These, at this time, were plans of a most extraordinary nature in Spain; and placed the literature of his country, which, from the phlegmatic temper of the inhabitants was tenacious of antient forms, on a much wider basis than before. To these he added a manual of rhetoric, compiled from Aristotle, Tully, and Quintilian: together with commentaries on Terence, Virgil, Juvenal, Persius, and other classics. He was deputed by Ximenes, with other learned linguists, to superintend the grand Complutensian edition of the bible: and in the conduct of that laborious work, he did not escape the censure of heretical impiety for exercising his critical skill on the sacred text, according to the ideas of the holy inquisition, with too great a degree of precision and accuracy
See Alvarus Gomesius de VITA XIMENIS, lib. ii. pag. 43. Nic. Anton. ut supr. p. 109. Imbonatus, BIBL. LATINOHEBR. p. 315.
.
Even Hungary, a country by no means unifo
mly advanced with other parts of Europe in the common arts of civilisation, was illuminated with the distant dawning of science. Mattheo Corvini, king of Hungary and Bohemia, in the fifteenth century, and who died in 1490, was a lover and a guardian of literature
See Petr. Jaenichii NOTIT. BIBLIOTH. THORUNIENSIS, p. 32. Who has written a DISSERTATION
D
meritis Matthiae Corvini in r
m literariam.
. He purchased innumerable volumes of Greek and Hebrew writers at Constantinople and other Grecian cities, when they were sacked by the Turks: and, as the operations of typography were now but imperfect, employed at Florence many learned librarians to multiply copies of classics, both Greek and Latin, which he could not procure in Greece
See Joh. Alex. Brassicani PRAE
AT. AD SALVIANUM, Basil. 1530. fol. And MADERUS DE BIBLIOTHECIS. p. 145. 149.
. These, to the number of fifty thousand, he placed in a tower, which he had erected in the metropolis of Buda
Anton. Bon
inii RER. HUNGAR. Decad. iv. lib. 7. p. 460. edit. 1690.
: and in this library he established thirty amanuenses, skilled in painting, illuminating, and writing: who, under the conduct of Felix Ragusinus, a Dalmatian, consummately learned in the Greek, Chaldaic, and Arabic languages, and an elegant designer and painter of ornaments on vellum, attended incessantly to the business of transcription and decoration
Belius, APPARAT. AD HISTOR. HUNGAR. Dec. i. cap. 5.
. The librarian was Bartholomew Fontius, a learned Florentine, the writer of many philological works
Among other things, he wrote Commentaries on Persius, Juvenal, Livy, and Aristotle's POETIC
. He translated Phalaris's Epistles into the Tuscan language, published at Florence 1491. Crescimbeni has placed him among the the Italian po
ts. Lambeccius says, that in the year 1665, he was sent to Buda by the emperor Leopold, to examine what remained in this library. After repeated del
ys and difficulties, he was at length permitted by the Turks to enter the room: where he saw about four hundred books, printed, and of no value, dispersed on the floor, and covered with dust and filth. Lambeccius supposes, that the Turks, knowing the condition of the books, were ashamed to give him admittance. COMMENT. DE BIBL. VINDOBON. lib. ii. c. ix. p. 993.
, and a professor of Greek and oratory at Florence. When Buda was taken by the Turks in the year 1526, cardinal Bozmanni offered for the redemption of this inestimable collection, two hundred thousand pieces of the Imperial money: yet without effect, for the barbarous besiegers defaced or destroyed most of the books, in the violence of seizing the splendid covers and the silver bosses and clasps with which they were enriched
COLLECTIO Madero-Schmidiana, ACCESS. i. p. 310. seq. Belius, ut supr. tom. iii. p. 225.
. The learned Obsopaeus relates, that a book was brought him by an Hungarian soldier, which he had picked up, with many others, in the pillage of king Corvino's library, and had preserved as a prize, merely because the covering retained some marks of gold and rich workmanship. This proved to be a manuscript of the ETHIOPICS of Heliodorus; from which, in the year 1534, Obsopaeus printed at Basil the first edition of that elegant Greek romance
In the PREFACE. See Neandri PRAEFAT. AD GNOMOLOG. Stobaei, p. 27.
.
But as this incidental sketch of the history of the revival of modern learning, is intended to be applied to the general subject of my work, I hasten to give a detail of the rise and progress of these improvements in England: nor shall I scruple, for the sake of producing a full and uniform view, to extend the enquiry to a distant period.
Efforts were made in our English universities for the revival of critical studies, much sooner than is commonly imagined. So early as the year 1439, William Byngham, rector of Saint John Zachary in London, petitioned king Henry the sixth, in favour of his grammar scholars, for whom he had erected a commodious mansion at Cambridge, called GOD'S HOUSE, and which he had given to the college of Clare-hall: to the end, that twenty-four youths, under the direction and government of a learned priest, might be there perpetually educated, and be from thence transmitted, in a constant succession, into different parts of England, to those places where grammar schools had fallen into a state of desolation
Ubi scholae grammaticales existunt de
olatae." Pat. Hen. vi. ann. reg. xvii. p. 2. membr. 16.
. In the year 1498, Alcock bishop of Ely founded Jesus College in Cambridge, partly for a certain number of scholars to be educated in grammar
Rymer, Foeder
xii. 653. We find early establishments of this sort in the colleges of Paris. In the year 1304, queen Jane founded the college of Navarre, at Paris, for thirty theologists, thirty artists, and twenty GRAMMARIANS, who are also called
Enfans escholiers en grammaire.
They are ordered to hear
lectiones,
[lessons]
materias, et versus, prout in scholis grammati
alibus consu
vit.
Boul. HIST. ACAD. PARIS. vol. iv. p. 74. But the college of AVE MARIA, at Paris, founded in 1339, is for a Master and six boys only, from nine to sixteen years. Boul. ibid. p. 261. The society of Metton college, in Oxford, founded in 1272, originally maintained in the university such boys as claimed kindred to the founder, bishop Walter de Merton, in grammar learning, and all necessaries, sometimes till they were capable of taking a degree. They were placed in Nunhall, adjoining to the college on the ea
.
"Expens. factae per Thomam de Herlyngton, pro pueris de genere fundatoris a fest. Epiph. usque ad fest. S. Petri ad vincula, 21 Edw. iii. A. D. 1347."
—
"
Item,
in filo albo et viridi, et ceteris pertinenciis, ad reparationem vestium tam artistarum quam GRAMMATICORUM, vid.
Item,
Mag. Joh. Cornubiens
pro salario SCHOLAE, in tertio quadragesimali, xd. Et hostiario [u
her] suo, ii d. ob.
Item,
Mag. Joh. Cornubiensi pro tertio estivali, xd. Et hostiario suo. ii d. ob."
A. Wood, MS. Coll. Merton COLLECTAN. [Cod. MSS. Ballard. Bibl. Bodl. 46.]
. Yet there is reason to apprehend, that these academical pupils in grammar, with which the art of rhetoric was commonly joined, instead of studying the real models of style, were chiefly trained in systematic manuals of these sciences, filled with unprofitable definitions and unnecessary distinctions: and that in learning the arts of elegance, they acquired the barbarous improprieties of diction which those arts were intended to remove and reform. That the foundations I have mentioned did not produce any lasting beneficial effects, and that the technical phraseology of metaphysics and casuistry still continued to prevail at Cambridge, appears from the following anecdote. In the reign of Henry the seventh, that university was so destitute of skill in latinity, that it was obliged to hire an Italian, one Caius Auberinus, for composing the public orations and epistles, whose fee was at the rate of twenty-pence for an epistle
MSS. Bibl. C. C. C. Camb. MISCELL. P. p. 194.
O
icium magistri Glom
rioe.
I observe here, that Giles du Vadis, or Aegidius Dewes, successively royal librarian at Westminster, to Henry the seventh and eighth, was a Frenchman. The last king granted him a salary for that office, of ten pounds, in the year 1522. Priv. Sig. 13 Henr. viii. O
ic. Pell. He was preceptor in French to Henry eighth, prince Arthur, princess Mary, the kings of France and Scotland, and the marquis of Exeter. Stowe, LONDON, p. 230. Among other things of the sort, he wrote at the command of Henry,
An Introductorie for to lerne to rede, to prononnce, and to sp
ak French truely compyled for the princess Mary.
Lond. p. Waley, 4to. [See Pref. Palsgrave's LESCLAIRCISSMENT]. He died in 1535.
. The same person was employed to explain Terence in the public schools
"Quod fecit admodum frigide, ut ea erant tempora."
Lib. Matt. Archiep. Parker, MSS. BAKER, MSS. Harl. 7046. f. 125, 6.
. Undoubtedly the same attention to a futile philosophy, to unintelligible elucidations of Scotus and Aquinas, notwithstanding the accessions accruing to science from the establishment of the Humfredian library, had given the same tincture to the ordinary course of studies at Oxford. For, about the year 1468, the university of Oxford complimented Chadworth bi
hop of Lincoln, for his care and endeavours in restoring grammatical literature, which, as they represent, had long decayed and been forgotten in that seminary
Registr. Univ. Oxon. FF. [EPISTOL. ACAD.] fol. 254. The Epistles in this Register, contain many local anecdotes of the restoration of learning at Oxford.
.
But although these gleams of science long struggled with the scholastic cloud which inveloped our universities, we find the culture of the classics embraced in England much sooner than is supposed. Before the year 1490, many of our countrymen appear to have turned their thoughts to the revival of the study of classics: yet, chiefly in consequence of their communications with Italy, and, as most of them were clergymen, of the encouragements they received from the liberality of the Roman pontiffs
Such of our countrymen as wrote in Latin at this period, and were entirely educated at home without any connections with Italy, wrote a style not more classical than that of the monkish latin annalists who flourished two or three centuries before. I will instance only in Ross of Warwick, author of the HISTORIA REGUM ANGLIAE, educated at Oxford, an ecclesiastic, and esteemed an eminent scholar. Nor is the plan of Ross's History, which was finished so late as the year 1483, less barbarous than his latinity; for in writing a chronicle of the kings of England, he begins, according to the constant practice of the monks, with the creation and the first ages of the world, and adopts all their legends and fables. His motives for undertaking this work are exceedingly curious. He is speaking of the method of perpetuating the memories of famous men by statues:
"Also in our churches, tabernacles in stonework, or niches, are wrought for containing images of this kind. For instance, in the new work of the college of Windsor, [i. e. saint George's chapel,] such tabernacles abound, both within and without the building. Wherefore, being
requested, about the latter end of the reign of king Edward the fourth, by the venerable master Edward Seymor, Master of the Works there, and at the desire of the said king, to compile a history of those kings and princes who have founded churches and cities, that the images placed in those niches might appear to greater advantage, and more effectually preserve the names of the persons represented; at the instance of this my brother-student at Oxford, and especially at the desire of the said most noble monarch, as also to exhilarate the minds of his royal successours, I have undertaken his work, &c."
Edit. Hearne, Oxon. 1745. p. 120. 8vo.
. Millyng, abbot of Westminster, about the year 1480, understood the Greek language: which yet is mentioned as a singular accomplishment, in one, although a prelate, of the monastic profession
Leland, in V. One Adam Eston, educated at Oxford, a Benedictine monk of Norwich, and who lived at Rome the greatest part of his life, is said to have written many pieces in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. He died at Rome, in the year 1397. Tanner, p. 266. Leland mentions John Bate, a Carmelite, of York, about the year 1429, as a Greek scholar. Scriptor. BATUS.
. Robert Flemmyng studied the Greek and Latin languages under Baptista Guarini at Ferrara; and at his return into England, was preferred to the deanery of Lincoln about the year 1450
Wood, HIST. UNIV. OXON. ii. 62. Wharton, APPEND. p. 155. Bate, viii. 21.
. During the reign of Edward the fourth, he was at Rome; where he wrote an elegant Latin poem in heroic verse, entitled LUCUBRATIONES TIBURTINAE, which he inscribed to pope Sixtus his singular patron
Printed at Ferrara, 1477. 8vo. In two book
. He was prothonotary to pope Sixtus. In this poem he mentions Baptista Platina, the librarian at Rome; who, together with most of the Italian scholars, was his familiar friend. See Carbo's funeral Oration on Guarini. I know not whether one John Opicius, our countryman as it seems, and a Latin poet, improved his taste in Italy about this time: but he has le
t some copies of elegant Latin verses. MSS. COTTON. VESPAS. B. iv. One is,
De regis H
nrici s
timi in Galliam progressu.
It begins,
"Bella canant alii Trojae, prostrataque dicant."
Another is,
De ejusdem laudibus sub pratextu rosae purpureae,
a dialogue between Mopsus and Melibeus. One of the poems,
On Christmas,
has the date 1497.
. It has these three chaste and strong hexameters, in which he describes the person of that illustrious pontiff.
Sane, quisquis in hunc oculos converterit acr
is,
In facie vultuque viri sublime videbit
Elucere aliquid, majestatemque verendam.
Leland assures us, that he saw in the libraries of Oxford a Greco-Latin lexicon, compiled by Flemmyng, which has escaped my searches. He left many volumes, beauti
ully written and richly illuminated, to Lincoln college in Oxford, where he had received his academical education
Lel. ibid.
. About the same period, John Gunthorpe, afterwards, among other numerous and eminent promotions, dean of Wells, keeper of the privy seal, and master of King's hall in Cambridge, attended also the philological lectures of Guarini: and for the polished latinity with which he wrote EPISTLES and ORATIONS, compositions at that time much in use and request, was appointed by king Edward the fourth Latin secretary to queen Anne, in the year 1487
Pat. 7. Edw. iv. m. 2. Five of his ORATIONS before illustrious personages ars extant, MSS. Bodl. NE. F. ii. 20. In the same manuscript are his ANNOTATIONES
quaedam
CRITICAE
in v
rba quaedam apud poetas citata.
He gave many books, collected in Italy, to Jesus college at Cambridge. Lel. COLL. iii. 13. He was ambassador to the king of Castile, in 1466, and 1470. Rymer, FOED. xi. 572. 653. Bale mentions his
Diver
i generis
CARMINA. viii. 42. And a book on Rhetoric.
. The manuscripts collected in Italy, which he gave to both the universities of England, were of much more real value, than the sumptuous silver image of the virgin Mary, weighing one hundred and forty-three ounces, which he presented to his cathedral of Wells
Registr. Eccles. Wellens.
. William Gray imbibed under the same preceptors a knowledge of the best Greek and Roman writers: and in the year 1454, was advanced by pope Nicholas the fifth, equally a judge and a protector of scholars, to the bishoprick of Ely
Wharton, ANGL. SACR. i. 672.
. This prelate employed at Venice and Florence many scribes and illuminators
One of those was Antoninus Marius. In Baliol college library, one of bi
hop Gray's manuscripts has this entry.
"Antonius Marii silius Florentinus civis transcripsi ab originalibus exemplaribus, 2 Jul. 1448. &c."
MSS. lxviii. [Apud MSS. Langb. BAL. p. 81.] See Leland. COLL. iii. p. 21.
, in preparing copies of the classics and other useful books, which he gave to the library of Baliol college in Oxford
Leland, COLL. ut supr. p. 61.
, at that time esteemed the best in the university. John Phrea, or Free, an ecclesiastic of Bristol, receiving information from the Italian merchants who trafficked at Bristol, that multitudes of strangers were constantly crouding to the capitals of Italy for instruction in the learned languages, passed over to Ferrara; where he became a fellow-student with the prelate last mentioned, by whose patronage and assistance his studies were supported
Among Phrea's EPISTLES in Baliol library, one is PRECEPTORI SUO GUARINO, whose epistles are full of encomiums on Phreas, MSS. Bal. Coll. Oxon. G. 9. See ten of his epistles, five of which are written from Italy to bishop Gray, MSS. Bibl. Bodl. NE. F. ii. 20. In one of these he complains, that the bishop's remittances of money had failed, and that he was obliged to pawn his books and clothes to Jews at Ferrara.
. He translated Diodorus Siculus, and many pieces of Xenophon, into Latin
He also translated into latin Synesius's PANEGYRIC ON BALDNESS. Printed, Basil. 1521. 8vo. [Whence Abraham Flemming made his English translation, London, 1579.] Leland mentions some flowing latin heroics, which he addressed to his patron Tipto
t, earl of Worcester, in which Bacchus expostulates with a goat gnawing a vine. COLL. iii. 13. And SCRIPTOR. PHREAS. His COSMOGRAPHIA MUNDI is a collection from Pliny. Leland, COLL. iii. p. 58. See MSS. Br. Twyne, 8. pag. 285.
. On account of the former work, he was nominated bishop of Bath and Wells by pope Paul the second, but died before consecration in the year 1464
S
e Leland, COLL. iii. 58. Wood, HIST. UNIV. OXON. ii. 76.
. His Latin Epistles, five of which are addressed to his patron the bishop of Ely, discover an uncommon terseness and facility of expression. It was no inconsiderable testimony of Phrea's taste, that he was requested by some of his elegant Italian friends, to compose a new epitaph in Latin elegiacs for Petrarch's tomb: the original inscription in monkish rhymes, not agreeing with the new and improved ideas of Latin versification
See Leland, COLL. iii. 13. 63. Leland says that he had the new epitaph,
Novum ac
legans.
SCRIPTOR. Phreas.
"Tuscia me genuit, &c."
. William Sellynge, a fellow of All Souls college in Oxford, disgusted with the barren and contracted circle of philosophy taught by the irrefragable professors of that ample seminary, acquired a familiarity with the most excellent antient authors, and cultivated the conversation of Politian at Bononia
Leland, CELLINGUS.
, to whom he introduced the learned Linacer
Id. ITIN. vi. f. 5.
. About the year 1460, he returned into England; and being elected prior of Christ-Church at Canterbury, enriched the library of that fraternity with an inestimable collection of Greek and Roman manuscripts, which he had amassed in Italy
Wood, HIST. UNIV. OXON. ii. 177. In a monastic OBITARY, cited by Wharton, he is said to be,
"Latina quoque et GRAECA lingua apprime institutus."
It is added, that he adorned the library over the prior's chapel with exquisite sculptures, and furnished it with books, and that he glazed the south side of the cloysters of his monastery, for the use of his studious brethren, placing on the walls new TEXTS, or inscriptions, called CAROLI, or carols. ANGL. Sacr. i. p. 145. ses.
. It has been said, that among these books, which were all soon afterwards accidentally consumed by fire, there was a complete copy of Cicero's Platonic system of politics DE REPUBLICA
This is asserted on the authority of Leland. SCRIPTOR. ut supr. [See supr. p. 218.] Cardinal Pole expended two thousand crowns in searching for Tully's Six Books DE REPUBLICA in Poland, but without success. EPISTOL. Aschami ad Sturm. dat. 14 Sept. 1555. lib. i. p. 99. And Sturmius, in a letter to Ascham [dat. 30 Jan. 1552.] says, that a person in his neighbourhood had
lattered him with a promise of this inestimable treasure. Barthius reports, that they were in the monastery of Fulda, on vellum, but destroyed by the soldiers in a pillage of that convent. Christiani Feustell. MISCELLAN. p. 47. Compare Mabillon. MUS. ITALIC. tom. i. p. 79. IsaacBullart relates, that in the year 1576, during the siege of Moscow, some noble Polish officers, accompanied by one Voinuskius, a man profoundly skilled in the learned languages, made an excursion into the interior parts of Muscovy; where they found, among other valuable monuments of antient literature, Tully's REPUBLIC, written in golden letters. ACAD. Art. Scient. tom. p. 87. It is to be wished, that the same good fortune which discovers this work of Cicero, will also restore the remainder of Ovid's FASTI, the lost Decads of Livy, the ANTICATONES of Cesar, and an entire copy of Petronius.
. King Henry the seventh sent Sellynge in the quality of an envoy to the king of France: before whom he spoke a most elegant Latin oration
From his EPITAPH.
. It is mentioned on his monument, now remaining in Canterbury cathedral, that he understood Greek.
Doctor theologus Selling, GRAECA atque
Latina
Lingua perdoctus.—
This is an uncommon topic of praise in an abbot's epitaph. William Grocyn, a fellow of New college at Oxford, pursued the same path about the year 1488: and having perfected his knowledge of the Greek tongue, with which he had been before tinctured, at Florence under Demetrius Chalcondylas and Politian, and at Rome under Hermolaus Barbarus, became the first voluntary lecturer of that language at Oxford, before the year 1490
Wood, HIST. UNIV. OXON. i. 246. Se
Fiddes's WOLSEY, p. 201.
. Yet Polydore Virgil, perhaps only from a natural partiality to his county, affirms, that Cornelius Vitellus, an Italian of noble birth, and of the most accomplished learning, was the first who taught the Greek and Roman classics at Oxford
ANGL. HISTOR. lib. xxvi. p. 610. 30. edit. Basil. 1534. fol. But he seems to have only been schoolmaster of Magdalen or New-college. See Nic. Harpsfield, HIST. ECCLES. p. 651. who says, that this Vitellius spoke his
first oration
at Newcollege.
"Qui
primam
suam
ora
ionem
in collegio Wiccamensi hab
it."
. Nor must I forget to mention John Tiptoft, the unfortunate earl of Worcester; who, in the reign of Henry the sixth, rivalled the most learned ecclesiastics of his age, in the diligence and felicity with which he prosecuted the politer studies. At Padua, his singular skill in refined Latinity endeared him to pope Pius the second, and to the most capital ornaments of the Italian school
See Ware, SCRIPT. HIBERN. ii. 133. Camd. BRIT. p. 436. And the Funeral Oration of Ludovico Carbo, on Guarini.
. His Latin Letters still remain, and abundantly prove his abilities and connections
In this correspondence, four letters are written by the earl, viz. To Laurence More, John Fre or Phrea, William Atteclyff, and
Magister
Vincent. To the earl are letters of Galeotus Martius, Baptista Guarini, and other
anonymous
friends. MSS. Eccles. Cathedr. Lincoln.
. He translated Cicero's dialogue on FRIENDSHIP into English
Printed by Caxton, 1481. fol. Leland thinks, that the version of Tully
de Senectute,
printed also by Caxton, was made by this earl. But this translation was made by William of Wyrcestre, or William Botoner, an eminent physician and antiquary, from the French of Lawrence Premierfait, and presented by the translator to bishop Wayn
lete, Aug. 20, 1473. See MSS. Harl. 4329. 2. 3. Typtoft also translated into English two elegant Latin ORATIONS of Banatusius Magnomontanus, supposed to be spoken by C. Scipio and C. Flaminius, who were rivals in the courtship of Lucretia. This version was printed by Caxton, with Tully's two DIALOGUES abovementioned. He has left other pieces.
. He was the common patron of all his ingenious countrymen, who about this period were making rapid advances in a more rational and ample plan of study; and, among other instances of his unwearied liberality to true literature, he prepared a present of chosen manuscript books, valued at five hundred marcs, for the encrease of the Humphredian library at Oxford, then recently instituted
EPIST. Acad. Oxon. 259. Registr. F
.
.
. I suspect, that on the earl's execution, in 1470, they were never received by the university. Wood, ANTIQ. Un. Oxon. ii. 50. Who adds, that the earl meditated a benefaction of the same kind to Cambridge.
. These books appear to have been purchased in Italy; at that time the grand and general mart of antient authors, especially the Greek classics
As the Greek language became fashionable in the course of erudition, we find the petty scholars affecting to understand Greek. This appears from the following passage in Barclay's SHIP OF FOOLES, written, as we have seen, about the end of the fifteenth century:
Another boasteth himself that hath bene
In Greece at scholes, and many other lande;
But if that he were apposed
Examined.
well, I wene
The Greekes letters he scant doth understand.
Edit. 1570. ut supr. fol. 185. a. With regard to what is here suggested, of our countrymen resorting to Greece for instruction, Rhenanus acquaints us, that Lily, the famous grammarian, was not only intimately acquainted with the whole circle of Greek authors, but with the dome
ic life and familiar conversation of the Greeks, he having lived some time in the island of Rhodes. PRAEFAT. ad T. Mori EPIGRAM. edit. Basil. 1520. 4to. He staid at Rhodes five years. This was about the year 1500. I have before mentioned a Translation of Vegetius's TACTICS, written at Rhodes, in the year 1459, by John Newton, evinently one of our countrymen, who perhaps studied Greek there. MSS. LAUD. Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. K. 53. It must however be remembered, that the passion for visiting the holy places at Jerusalem did not cease among us till late in the reign of Henry the eighth. See
The pylgrymage of syr Richard Torky
gton, parson of Mulberton in Norfolk, to Jerusalem,
An. 1517. Catal. MSS. vol. 2. 182. vol. 2. William Wey, fellow of Eton college, celebrated mass
cum cantu organico,
at Jerusalem, in the year 1472. MSS. James, Bibl. Bodl. vi. 153. See his ITINERARIES, MSS. Bibl. Bodl. NE. F. 2. 12. In which are also some of his English rhymes on
The Way to Hierusalem.
He went twice thither.
Barclay, in the same stanza, like a plain ecclesiastic, censures the prevailing practice of going abroad for instruction; which, for a time at least, certainly proved of no small detriment to our English schools and universities.
But thou, vayne boaster, if thou wilt take in hand
To study
Knowledge.
cunning, and ydelnes despise,
Th'royalme of England might for thee suffice:—
In England is sufficient discipline,
And noble men endowed with science, &c.
And in another place, ibid. fol. 54. a.
One runneth to Almayne, another into Fraunce,
To Paris,
Padua.
Padway, Lombardy, or Spayne;
Another to
Bononia.
Bonony, Rome, or Orleaunce,
To Cayns, to
C
en
nd Tholou
e.
Tholous, Athens, or
Cologne in Germany.
Colayne:
And at the last returneth home agayne,
More ignoraunt.—
Yet this practice was encouraged by some of our bishops, who had received their education in English universities. Pace, one of our learned countrymen, a friend of Erasmus, was placed for education in grammar and music in the family of Thomas Langton, bishop of Winchester; who kept a domestic school within the precincts of his palace, for training boys in these sciences.
"Humaniores literas (says my author) tanti estimabat, ut domestica schola pueros ac juvenes ibi erudiendos curavit, &c."
The bishop, who took the greatest pleasure in examining his scholars every evening, observing that young Pace was an extraordinary proficient in music, thought him capable of better things; and sent him, while yet a boy, to the university of Padua. He afterwards studied at Bononia: for the same bishop
by Will, bequeaths to his
scholar,
Richard Pace, studying at Bononia, an exhibition of ten pounds annually for seven years. See Pace's TRACTATUS
de fructu qui ex doctrina percipitur,
edit. Basil, 1517. 4to. p. 27. 28. In which the author calls himself bishop Langton's
a man
minister.
See also Langton's Will, Cur. Praerog. Cant. Registr. MOONE. qu. 10. Bishop Langton had been provost of queen's college at Oxford, and died in 1501. At Padua Pace was instructed by Cuthbert Tunstall, afterwards bishop of Durham, and the giver of many valuable Greek books to the university of Cambridge; and by Hugh Latimer. TRACTAT. ut supr. p. 6. 99. 103. Leland, COLL. iii. 14.
We find also archbishop Wareham, before the year 1520, educating at his ow
expence, for the space of twelve years, Richard Croke, one of the first restorers of the Greek language in England, at the universities of Paris, Louvain, and Leipsic: from which returning a most accomplished scholar, he succeeded Erasmus in the Greek professorship at Cambridge. Croke dedicated to archbishop Wareham his INTRODUCTIONES IN RUDIMENTA GRAECA, printed in the shop of Eucharius Cervicornius, at Cologne, 1520.
With regard to what has been here said concerning the practice of educating boys in the families of our bishops, it appears that Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln in the thirteenth century, educated in this manner most of the nobility in the kingdom, who were placed there in the character of pages:
"Filios Nobilium procerum regni, quos secum habuit DOMICELLOS."
Joh. de Athona. in CONSTIT. OTTOBON. Tit. 23. in VOC. BARONES. Cardinal Wolsey, archbishop of York, educated in his house many of the young nobility. Fiddes's WOLSEY, p. 100. See what is said above of the quality of pope Leo's CUBICULARII, p. 411. Fiddes cites a record remaining in the family of the earl of Arundel, written in 1620, which contains instructions how the younger son of the writer, the earl of Arundel, should behave himself in the family of the bishop of Norwich, whither he is sent for education as page: and in which his lordship observes, that his grandfather the duke of Nor
olk, and his uncle the earl of Northampton
were both bred as
pages with bishopps.
Fiddes, ibid. RECORDS. No. 6. c. 4. pag. 19. Sir Thomas More was educated as a page with cardinal Moreton, archbishop of Canterbury, about 1490, who was so struck with his genius, that he would often say at dinner,
This child here waiting at table is so very ingenious, that he will one day prove an extraordinary man.
Mori UTOP. cited by Stapleton, p. 157. 138. And Roper's MO
E, p. 27. edit. ut supr.
. For the Turkish emperors, now seated at Constantinople, particularly Bajazet the second, freely imparted these treasures to the Italian emissaries, who availing themselves of the fashionable enthusiasm, traded in the cities of Greece for the purpose of purchasing books, which they sold in Italy: and it was chiefly by means of this literary t
affic, that Cosmo and Laurence of Medici, and their munificent successors the dukes of Florence, composed the famous Florentine library
Many of them were sent into Italy by Laurence of Medicis, particularly John Lascaris. Varillas says, that Bajazet the second understood Averroes's commentaries on Aristotle. ANECDOT. de Florence, p. 183. P. Jovii ELOG. c. xxxi. p. 74. Lascaris also made a voyage into Greece by command of Leo the tenth; and brought with him some Greek boys, who were to be educated in the college which that pope had founded on mount Quirinal, and who were intended to propagate the genuine and native pronunciation of the Greek tongue. Jov. ut supr. c. xxxi.
.
It is obvious to remark the popularity which must have accrued to these politer studies, while they thus paved the way to the most opulent and honourable promotions in the church: and the authority and estimation with which they must have been surrounded, in being thus cultivated by the most venerable ecclesiastics. It is indeed true, that the dignified clergy of the early and darker ages were learned beyond the level of the people
The inferiour clergy were in the mean time extremely ignorant. About the year 1300, pope Boniface the eighth published an edict, ordering the incumbents of ecclesiastic benefices to quit their cures for a certain time, and to study at the universities. [S
e his ten CONSTITUTIONES, in the BULLARIUM MAGNUM of Laertius Cherubinus, tom. i. p. 198. seq. Where are his
Erectiones studioru
g
neralium in civitate Firmana, Romae, et Avenione,
A. D. 1303.] Accordingly our episcopal registers are full of licences granted for this purpose. The rector of Bedhampton, Hants, being an accolite, is permitted to study for seven years from the time of his institution,
in lit
rarum s
ientia,
on condition that within one year he is made a subdeacon, and after seven
ears a deacon and priest. Mar. 5. 1302. Registr. PONTISSAR. Winton. fol. 38. Another rector is allowed to study for seven years,
in loco quem eligit et ubi viget studium generale,
16 kal. Octobr. 1303. ibid. fol. 40. Another receives the same privilege, to study at Oxford, Orleans, or Paris, A. D. 1304. ibid. fol. 42. Another, being desirous of study, and able to make a proficiency, is licenced to study in
aliquo studio transmarino,
A. D. 1291. ibid. fol. 84. This, however, was three years before Boniface became pope. Another is to study
per terminum constitutionis novell
,
A. D. 1302. ibid. fol. 37. b. But these dispensations, the necessity of which proves the illiteracy of the priests, were most commonly procured for pretence
of absence or neglect. Or, if in consequence of such dispensations, they went to any university, they s
m to have mispent their time there in riot and idleness, and to have returned more ignorant than before. A grievance to which Gower alludes in the VOX CLAMANTIS, a poem which presents some curious pictures of the manners of the clergy, both secular and monastic. cap. xvii. lib. 3. MSS. Coll. Omn. Anim. Oxon. xxix.
Hic loquitur de R
ctoribus illis, qui sub episcopo licentiati fingunt se ire scolas, ut sub nomine vir
utis vitia corporalia frequentent.
Et sic Ars nostrum Curatum reddit inertem,
De longo studio fert nihil inde domum:
Stultus i
i venit, sed stul
ior inde redibit, &c.
By
Ars
we are here to understand the scholastic sciences,
nd by
Curatus
the bebene
iced priest. But the most extraordina
y anecdote of incompetency which I have seen, occurs so late as the year 1448. A rector is instituted by Waynslete bishop of Winchester, on the presentation of Merton priory in Surrey, to the parish of Sherfield in Hampshire. But previously he takes an oath before the bishop, that on account of his insufficiency in letters, and d
ault of knowledge in the superintendence of souls, he will learn Latin for the two following years; and at the end of the first year he will submit himself to be examined by the bishop, concerning his progress in grammar; and that, if on a second examination he should be found desicient, he will resign the benefice. Registr. WAYNFLETE. Winton
fol. 7. In the Statutes of New College at Oxford, given in the year 1386, o
e of the ten chaplains is ordered to learn grammar, and to be able to
writ
;
in order that he may be qualified for the arduous task of as
isting the treasurers of the society in transcribing their Latin evidences. STATUT. Coll. Nov. RUBRIC. 58. In the statutes of Bradgare college in Kent, given in 1398, it is required that the governor of the house, who is to be a priest, should read well, construe Latin well, and fing well,
sciat b
ne leger
, bene cons
ruere, et bene cantare.
Dugd. MONAST. tom. iii. Eccles. Collegiat. p. 118. col. 2. At an epis
opal visitation of saint Swithin's priory at Winchester, an ample society of Benedict
es, bishop William of Wykeham orders the monastery to provide an INFORMATOR, or Latin preceptor, to teach the priests, who performed the service in the church without knowing what they were uttering and could not attend to the common stops
to read grammatically, Feb. 8. 1386. MSS
Harl. 328. These, indeed. were not secula
prie
ts: the instance, however, illustrates what is here thrown together.
Wiccliffe says, that the beneficed priests of his age
"kunnen [know] not the ten commandments, ne read their sauter, ne understand a verse of it."
LIFE of Wiccli
e, p. 38. Nor were even the bishops of the fourteenth century always very eminently qualified in literature of either sort. In the year 1387, the bishop of Worcester informed his clergy, that the Lollards, a sett of reformers whose doctrines, a few
anatical extravaganci
excepted, coincided in many respects with the present rational principles of protestantism, were
f
llowers of
MAHOMET. Wilkins, CONCIL. tom. iii. p. 202. [See supr. p. 190. in the NOTES.]
But at this time the most shameful grossness of manners, partly owing to their celibacy, prevailed among the clergy. In the statutes of the college of saint Mary Ottery in Devonshire, dated 1337, and given by the founder bishop Grandison, the following injunction occurs.
"Item statuimus, quod nullus Canonicus, Vicarius, vel Secundarius, pueros choristas [collegii]
secum pernoctare,
aut
in lectulo cum ipsis dormire, faciat
seu permittat."
Cap. 50. MS. apud Archiv. Wulves. Winton. And what shall we think of the religious manners and practices of an age, when the following precautions were thought necessary, in a respectable collegiate church, consist
ng of a dean and six secular canons, amply endowed?
"Statutum est, quod siquis convictus fuerit de peccato Sodomitico, vel arte magica, &c."
From the statutes of Stoke-Clare college, in Suffolk, given by the dean Thomas Barnesley, in the year 1422. Dugd. MONAST. ut supr. p. 169. col. 1.
From these horrid pictures let us turn our eyes, and learn to set a just value on that pure religion, and those improved habits of life and manners, which we at present enjoy.
. Peter de Blois, successively archdeacon of Bath and London, about the year 1160, acquaints us, that the palace of Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, was perpetually filled with bishops highly accomplished in literature: who passed their time there, in reading, disputing, and deciding important questions of the state. He adds, that these prelates, although men of the world, were a society of scholars: yet very different from those who frequented the universities, in which nothing was taught but words and syllables, unprofitable subtleties, elementary speculations, and trifling distinctions
EPIST. Petr. Blesens. vi. fol. 3. a. OPERA. edit. Paris. 1519. fol.
. De Blois was himself eminently learned, and one of the most distinguished ornaments of Becket's attendants. He tells us, that in his youth, when he learned the ARS VERSIFICATORIA, that is, philological literature, he was habituated to an urbanity of style and expression: and that he was instituted, not in idle fables and legendary tales, but in Livy, Quintus Curtius, Suetonius, Josephus, Trogus Pompeius, Tacitus, and other classical historians
EPIST. cii. fol. 49. b.
. At the same time he censures with a just indignation, the absurdity of training boys in the frivolous intricacies of logic and geometry, and other parts of the scholastic philosophy; which, to use his own emphatical words,
"Nec domi, nec militiae, nec in foro, nec in claustro, nec in ecclesia, nec in curia, nec alicubi prosunt alicui
Ibid. That is,
"Which are of no real use or service, at home, in the camp, at the bar, in the cloyster, in the court, in the church, or indeed in any place or situation whatsoever."
."
The Latin Epistles of De Blois, from which these anecdotes are taken, are full of good sense, observations on life, elegant turns, and ingenious allusions to the classics. He tells Jocelyne, bishop of Salisbury, that he had long wished to see the bishop's two nephews, according to promise: but that he feared he expected them as the Britons expected king Arthur, or the Jews the Messiah
EPIST. li. fol. 24. a.
. He describes, with a liveliness by no means belonging to the archdeacons of the twelfth century, the difficulties, disappointments, and inconveniencies, of paying attendance at court
"Ut ad ministeriales curiae redeam, apud forinsecos janitores biduanam forte gratiam aliquis multiplici obsequio merebitur.—Regem dormire, aut aegrotare, aut esse in consiliis, mentientur.—Ostiarios camerae confundat altissimus! Si nihil dederis ostiario actum est.
Si nihil attuleris ibis, Homer
, foras.
Post primum Cerberum, tibi superest alius horribilior Cerbero, Briareo terribilior, nequior Pygmalione, crudelior Minotauro. Quantacunque tibi mortis necessitas, aut discrimen exhaeredationis incubat, non intrabis ad regem."
EPIST. xiv. fol. 8. b.
. In the course of his correspondence, he quotes Quintilian, Cicero, Livy, Sallust, Seneca, Virgil, Quintus Curtius, Ovid, Statius, Suetonius, Juvenal, and Horace, more frequently and familiarly than the fathers
Latin and French, the vernacular excepted, were the only languages now known. Foliot bishop of London, cotemporary with De Blois and Becket, was esteemed, both in secular and sacred literature, the most consummate prelate of his time. Becket, EPISTOL. lib. iii. 5. Walter Mapes, their cotemporary, giving Foliot the same character, says he was TRIUM
peritissimus linguarum Latinae, Gallicae, Anglicae, et lucidissime disertus in singulis.
Apud. MSS. JAMES, xiv. p. 86. Bibl. Bodl. [EX NUGIS CURIAL.]
. Horace seems his favorite. In one of the letters, he quotes a passage concerning Pompey the Great, from the Roman History of Sallust, in six books, now lost, and which appears at present only in part among the fragments of that valuable historian
"De magno Pompeio refert Sallustius, quod cum alacribus saltu, cum velocibus cursu, cum validis vecte certabat, &c. &c."
EPIST. xciv. fol. 45. a. Part of this passage is cited by Vegetius, a favorite author of the age of Peter de Blois. De RE MILIT. lib. i. c. ix. It is exhibited by the modern editors of Sallust, as it stands in Vegetius.
. In the NUGAE CURIALIUM of MAPES, or some other manuscript Latin tract written by one of the scholars of the twelfth century, I remember to have seen a curious and striking anecdote, which in a short compass shews Becket's private ideas concerning the bigottries and superstitious absurdities of his religion. The writer gives an account of a dinner in Becket's palace; at which was present, among many other prelates, a Cistercian abbot. This abbot engrossed almost the whole conversation, in relating the miracles performed by Robert, the founder of his order. Becket heard him for some time with a patient contempt; and at length could not help breaking out with no small degree of indignation,
And these are your miracles!
We must however view the liberal ideas of these enlightened dignitaries of the twelfth century under some restrictions. It must be acknowledged, that their literature was clogged with pedantry, and depressed by the narrow notions of the times. Their writings shew, that they knew not how to imitate the beauties of the antient classics. Exulting in an exclusive privilege, the certainly did not see the solid and popular use of these studies: at least they did not chuse, or would not venture, to communicate them to the people, who on the other hand were not prepared to receive them. Any attempts of that kind, for want of assistances which did not then exist, must have been premature; and these lights were too feeble to dissipate the universal darkness. The writers who first appeared after Rome was ravaged by the Goths, such as Boethius, Prudentius, Orosius, Fortunatius, and Sedulius, and who naturally, from that circumstance, and because they were Christians, came into vogue at that period, still continued in the hands of common readers, and superseded the great originals. In the early ages of Christianity a strange opinion prevailed, in conformity to which Arnobius composed his celebrated book against the gentile superstitions, that pagan authors were calculated to corrupt the pure theology of the gospel. The prejudice however remained, when even the suspicions of the danger were removed. But I return to the progress of modern letters in the fifteenth century.
SECT. XVIII.
SOON after the year 1500, Lillye, the famous grammarian, who had learned Greek at Rhodes, and had afterwards acquired a polished Latinity at Rome, under Johannes Sulpicius and Pomponius Sabinus, became the first teacher of Greek at any public school in England. This was at saint Paul's school in London, then newly established by dean Colet, and celebrated by Erasmus; and of which Lillye, as one of the most exact and accomplished scholars of his age, was appointed the first master
Knight, LIFE of Colet, p. 19. Pace, abovementioned, in the Epistle dedica
ory to Colet, before his Treatise
De fructu qui ex Doctrina percipitur,
thus compliments Lillye, edit. Basil. ut supr. 1517. p. 13.
"Ut politiorem Latinitatem, et ipsam Romanam linguam, in Britanniam nostram introduxisse videatur.—Tanta [ei]
ruditio, ut extrusa barbarie, in qua nostri adolescentes solebant fere aetatem consumere, &c."
Erasmus says, in 1514,
hat he had taught a youth, in three years, more Latin than he could have acquired in any school in England,
n
Liliana quidam
xcepta,
not even Lillye's excepted. EPISTOL. 165. p. 140. tom. iii.
. And that antient prejudices were now gradually wearing off, and a national taste for critical studies and the graces of composition began to be diffused, appears from this circumstance alone: that from the year one thousand five hundred and three to the reformation, there were more grammar schools, most of which at present are perhaps of little use and importance, founded and endowed in England, than had been for three hundred years before. The practice of educating our youth in the monasteries growing into disuse, near twenty new grammar schools were established within this period: and among these, Wolsey's school at Ipswich, which soon fell a sacrifice to the resentment or the avari
e of Henry the eighth, deserves particular notice, as it rivalled those of Winchester and Eton. To give splendor to the institution
beside the scholars, it consisted of a dean, twelve canons, and a numerous choir
Tanner, NOTIT. MON. p. 520.
. So attached was Wolsey to the new modes of instruction, that he did not think it inconsistent with his high office and rank, to publish a general address to the schoolmasters of England, in which he orders them to institute their youth in the most elegant literature
"Elegantissima literatura."
Fiddes's WOLSEY. COLL. p. 105.
. It is to be wished that all his edicts had been employed to so liberal and useful a purpose. There is an anecdote on record, which strongly marks Wolsey's character in this point of view. Notwithstanding his habits of pomp, he once condescended to be a spectator of a Latin tragedy of DIDO, from Virgil, acted by the scholars of saint Paul's school, and written by John Rightwise, the master, an eminent grammarian
Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 15. See what is said of this practice, supr. p. 386.
. But Wolsey might have pleaded the authority of pope Leo the tenth, who more than once had been present at one of these classical spectacles.
It does not however appear, that the cardinal's liberal sentiments were in general adopted by his brother prelates. At the foundation of saint Paul's school above-mentioned, one of the bishops, eminent for his wisdom and gravity, at a public assembly, severely censured Colet the founder for suffering the Latin poets to be taught in the new structure, which he ther
fore styled a house of pagan idolatry
"Episcopum quendam, et eum qui habetur a SAPIENTIORIBUS, in magno hominum Conventu, nostram scholam blasphemasse, dixisseque, me erexisse rem inutilem, imo malam, imo etiam, ut illius verbis utar,
Do
um Idololatri
e,
&c."
[Coletus Erasmo. Lond. 1517.] Knight's LIFE OF COL
T, p. 319.
.
In the year 1517, Fox, bishop of Winchester, founded a college at Oxford, in which he constituted, with competent stipends, two professors for the Greek and Latin languages
STATUT. C. C. C. Oxon. dat. Jun. 20. 1517. CAP. xx. fol. 51. Bibl. Bodl. MSS LAUD. I. 56.
. Although some slight idea of a classical lecture had already appeared at Cambridge in the system of collegiate discipline
At Christ's college in Cambridge, where, in the
tatutes given in 1506, a lecturer is established; who, together with logic and philosophy is ordered to read,
"vel ex poetarum, vel ex oratorum operibus."
Cap. xxxvii. In the statutes of King's at Cambridge, and New college at Oxford, both much more antient, an instructour is appointed with the general name of INFORMATOR only, who taught all the learning then in vogue. ROTUL. COMPUT. vet. Coll. Nov. Oxon.
"Solut. Informatoribus sociorum et scolarium, iv l. xiis. ii d."
, this philological establishment may justly be looked upon, as the first conspicuous instance of an attempt to depart from the narrow plan of education, which had hitherto been held sacred in the universities of England. The course of the Latin professor, who is expressly directed to extirpate BARBARISM from the new society
"Lector seu professor artium humaniorum ... BARBARIEM a nostro alveario exstirpet."
STATUT. ut supr.
, is not confined to the private limits of the college, but open to the students of Oxford in general. The Greek lecturer is ordered to explain the best Greek classics: and the poets, historians, and orators, in that language, which the judicious founder, who seems of have consulted the most intelligent scholars of the times, recommends by name on this occasion, are the purest, and such as are most esteemed even in the present improved state of antient learning. And it is at the same time worthy of remark, that this liberal prelate, in forming his plan of study, does not appoint a philosophy-lecturer in his college, as had been the constant practice in most of the previous foundations: perhaps suspecting, that such an endowment would not have coincided with his new course of erudition, and would have only served to encourage that species of doctrine, which had so long choaked the paths of science, and obstructed the progress of useful knowledge
These happy beginnings in favour of new and a rational system of academical education, were seconded by the auspicious munificence of cardinal Wolsey. About the year 1519, he founded a public chair at Oxford, for rhetoric and humanity, and soon afterwards another for teaching the Greek language; endowing both with ample salaries
Wood, HIST. Univ. Oxon. i. 245. 246. But see Fiddes's WOLSEY, p. 197.
. About the year 1524, king Henry the eighth, who destroyed or advanced literary institutions from caprice, called Robert Wakefield, originally a student of Cambridge, but now a professor of humanity at Tubingen in Germany, into England, that one of his own subjects, a linguist of so much celebrity, might no longer teach the Greek and oriental languages abroad: and when Wakefield appeared before the king, his majesty lamented, in the strongest expressions of concern, the total ignorance of his clergy and the universities in the learned tongues; and immediately assigned him a competent stipend for opening a lecture at Cambridge, in this necessary and neglected department of letters
Wakefield's ORATIO DE LAUDIBUS TRIUM LINGUARUM, &c. Dated at Cambridge, 1524. Printed for W. de Worde, 4to.
Signa
C. ii. See also FAST. A
ad. Lovan
by Val. Andreas, p. 284. edit. 1650.
. Wakefield was afterwards a preserver of many copies of the Greek classics, in the havock of the religious houses. It is recorded by Fox, the martyrologist, as a memorable occurrence
ACT. MON. fol. 1192. edit. 1583.
, and very deservedly, that about the same time, Robert Barnes, prior of the Augustines at Cambridge, and educated at Louvain, with the assistance of his scholar Thomas Parnell, explained within the walls of his own monastery, Plautus, Terence, and Cicero, to those academics who saw the utility of philology, and were desirous of deserting the Gothic philosophy. It may seem at first surprising, that Fox, a weak and prejudiced writer, should allow any merit to a catholic: but Barnes afterwards appears to have been one of Fox's martyrs, and was executed at the stake in Smithfield for a defence of Lutheranism.
But these innovations in the system of study were greatly discouraged and opposed by the friends of the old scholastic circle of sciences, and the bigotted partisans of the catholic communion, who stigmatised the Greek language by the name of heresy. Even bishop Fox, when he founded the Greek lecture abovementioned, that he might not appear to countenance a dangerous novelty, was obliged to cover his excellent institution under the venerable mantle of the authority of the church. For as a seeming apology for what he had done, he refers to a canonical decree of pope Clement the fifth, promulged in the year 1311, at Vienne in Dauphine, which enjoined, that professors of Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, should be instituted in the universities of Oxford, Paris, Bononia, Salamanca, and in the cout of Rome
"Quem praeter
a in nostro Alveario collocavimus, quod SACROSANCTI CANONES commodissime pro bonis literis, et imp
imis christianis, instituerunt ac jusserunt, cum in ha
universitate Oxoniensi, perinde ac paucis aliis celeberrimis gymnasiis, nunquam desiderari."
STATUT. C. C. C. Oxon. ut supr. The words of this statute which immediately follow, deserve notice here, and require explanation.
"Nec tamen Eos hac ratione excusatos volumus, qui Gra
cam lectionem in co SUIS IMPENSIS su
entare debent."
By Eos, he means the bishops and abbots of England, who are the persons particularly ordered in pope Clement
s injunction to sustain these lectures in the university of Oxford. Bishop Fox, therefore, in founding a Greek lecture, would be understood, that he does not mean to absolve or excuse the other prelates of England from doing their proper duty in this nec
sary business. At the same time a charg
on their negligence s
ms to be implied.
. It was under the force of this ecclesiastical constitution, that Gregory Typhernas, one of the learned Greek exiles, had the address to claim a stipend for teaching Greek in the university of Paris
Naud. i. 3. p. 234. This was in 1472.
. We cannot but wonder at the strange disagreement in human affairs between cause and effect, when we consider, that this edict of pope Clement, which originated from a superstitious reverence annexed to two of these languages, because they composed part of the superscription on the cross of Christ, should have so strongly counteracted its own principles, and proved an instrument in the reformation of religion.
The university of Oxford was rent into factions on account of these bold attempts; and the advocates of the recent improvements, when the gentler weapons of persuasion could not prevail, often proceeded to blows with the rigid champions of the schools. But the facetious disposition of sir Thomas More had no small share in deciding this singular controversy, which he treated with much ingenious ridicule
See, among other proofs, his E
ISTOLA
Scholasticis quibusdam Trojanos se appellantibus,
published by Hearne, 1716, 8vo.
. Erasmus, about the same time, was engaged in attempting these reformations at Cambridge: in which, notwithstanding the mildness of his temper and conduct, and the general lustre of his literary character, he met with the most obstinate opposition. He expounded the Greek grammar of Chrys
loras in the public schools without an audience
Erasmi EPIST. Ammonio, dat. 1512. Ep. 123. Op. tom. iii. p. 110.
: and having, with a view to present the Grecian literature in the most specious and agreeable form by a piece of pleasantry, translated Lucian's lively dialogue called ICAROMENIPPUS, he could find no student in the university capable of transcribing the Greek with the Latin
Ibid. EPIST. 139. dat. 1512. p. 120. Henry Bullock, called Bovillus, one of E
asmus's friends, and much patronised by Wolsey, printed a Latin translation of Lu
ian,
, at Cambridge, 1521, quarto.
. His edition of the Greek testament, the most commodious that had yet appeared, was absolutely proscribed at Cambridge: and a programma was issued in one of the most ample colleges, threatening a severe fine to any member of the society, who should be detected in having so fantastic and impious a book in his possession
Ibid. EPIST. 148. dat. 1513. p. 126.
. One Henry Standish, a doctor in divinity and a mendicant frier, afterwards bishop of saint Asaph, was a vehement adversary of Erasmus in the promotion of this heretical literature; whom he called in a declamation, by way of reproach,
Graeculus ist
,
which soon became a synonymous appellation for an heretic
See Erasmi O
ERA. tom
ix. p. 1440. Even the priests, in their confessions of young scholars, cautioned against this growing evil.
"Cave a
Gr
cis
ne fias
haereticus.
"
Erasm. ADAG. Op. ii. 993.
. Yet it should be remembered, that many English prelates patronised Erasmus; and that one of our archbishops was at this time ambi
ious of learning Greek
Erasm. EPIST. 301.
.
Even the public diversions of the court took a tincture from this growing attention to the languages, and assumed a classical air. We have before seen, that a comedy of Plautus was acted at the royal palace of Greenwich in the year 1520. And when the French ambassadors with a most splendid suite of the French nobility were in England for the ratification of peace in the year 1514, amid the most magnificent banquets, tournaments, and masques, exhibited at the same palace, they were entertained with a Latin interlude; or, to use the words of a cotemporary writer, with such an
"excellent Interlude made in Latin, that I never heard the like; the actors apparel being so gorgious, and of such strange devices, that it passes my capacitie to relate them
Cavendish, MEM. Card. Wolsey, p. 94. edit. 1708. 8vo.
."
Nor was the protection of king Henry the eighth, who notwithstanding he had attacked the opinions of Luther, yet, from his natural liveliness of temper and a love of novelty, thought favourably of the new improvements, of inconsiderable influence in supporting the restoration of the Greek language. In 1519, a preacher at the public church of the university of Oxford, harangued with much violence, and in the true spirit of the antient orthodoxy, against the doctrines inculcated by the new professors: and his arguments were canvassed among the students with the greatest animosity. But Henry, being resident at the neighbouring royal manor of Woodstock, and having received a just detail of the merits of this dispute from Pace and More, interposed his uncontrovertible authority; and transmitting a royal mandate to the university, commanded that the study of the scriptures in their original languages should not only be permitted for the future, but received as a branch of the academical institution
Erasm. E
IST. 380. tom. iii.
. Soon afterwards, one of the king's chaplains preaching at court, took an opportunity to censure the genuine interpretations of the scriptures, which the Grecian learning had introduced. The king, when the sermon was ended, to which he had listened with a smile of contempt, ordered a solemn disputation to be held, in his own presence: at which the unfortunate preacher opposed, and sir Thomas More, with his usual dexterity, defended, the utility and excellence of the Greek language. The divine, who at least was a good courtier, instead of vindicating his opinion, instantly fell on his knees, and begged pardon for having given any offence in the pulpit before his majesty. However, after some slight altercation, the preacher, by way of making some sort of concession in form, ingenuously declared, that he was now better reconciled to the Greek tongue, because it was derived from the Hebrew. The king, astonished at his ridiculous ignorance, dismissed the chaplain, with a charge, that he should never again presume to preach at court
Ibid. p. 408.
. In the grammatical schools established in all the new cathedral foundations of this king, a master is appointed, with the uncommon qualification of a competent skill in both the learned languages
Statuimus praeterea, ut per Decanum, etc. unus [Archididascalus]
"eligatur, Latine et
Gra
ce
doctus, bonae famae, &c."
STATUT. Eccles. Roffens. cap. xxv. They were given Jun. 30, 1545. In the same st
tute the second master is required to be only
Latine doctus.
All the statutes of the new cathedrals are alike. It is remarkable, that Wolsey does not order Greek to be taught in his school at Ipswich, founded 1528. See Strype, ECCL. MEM. i. Append. xxxv. p. 94. seq.
. In the year 1523, Ludovicus Viv
s, having dedicated his commentary on Austin's DE CIVITATE DEI to Henry the eighth, was invited into England, and read lectures at Oxford in jurisprudence and humanity; which were countenanced by the presence, not only of Henry, but of queen Catharine and some of the principal nobility
Twyne, APOL. lib. ii. §. 210. seq. Probaby he was patronised by Catharine as a Spaniard.
. At length antient absurdities universally gave way to these encouragements. Even the vernacular language began to be cultivated by the more ingenious clergy. Colet, dean of saint Paul's, a divine of profound learning, with a view to adorn and improve the style of his discourses, and to acquire the graces of an elegant preacher, employed much time in reading Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate, and other English poets, whose compositions had embellished the popular diction
Erasm. EPISTOL. Jodoco Jonae. Ibid. Jun. 1521.
. The practice of frequenting Italy, for the purpose of acquiring the last polish to a Latin style both in eloquence and poetry, still continued in vogue; and was greatly promoted by the connections, authority, and good taste, of cardinal Pole, who constantly resided at the court of Rome in a high character. At Oxford, in particular, these united endeavours for establishing a new course of liberal and manly science, were finally consummated in the magnificent foundation of Wolsey's college, to which all the accomplished scholars of every country in Europe were invited; and for whose library, transcripts of all the valuable manuscripts which now fill the Vatican, were designed
Wood, HIST. UNIV. OXON, i. 249.
.
But the progress of these prosperous beginnings was soon obstructed. The first obstacle I shall mention, was, indeed, but of short duration. It was however an unfavourable circumstance, that in the midst of this career of science, Henry, who had ever been accustomed to gratify his passions at any rate, sued for a divorce against his queen Catharine. The legality of this violent measure being agitated with much deliberation and solemnity, wholly engrossed the attention of many able philologists, whose genius and acquisitions were destined to a much nobler employment; and tended to revive for a time the frivolous subtleties of casuistry and theology.
But another cause which suspended the progression of these letters, of much more importance and extent, ultimately most happy in its consequences, remains to be mentioned. The enlarged conceptions acquired by the study of the Greek and Roman writers seem to have restored to the human mind a free exertion of its native operations, and to have communicated a certain spirit of enterprise in examining every subject: and at length to have released the intellectual capacity of mankind from that habitual subjection, and that servility to system, which had hitherto prevented it from advancing any new principle, or adopting any new opinion. Hence, under the concurrent assistance of a preparation of circumstances, all centering in the same period, arose the reformation of religion. But this defection from the catholic communion, alienated the thoughts of the learned from those pursuits by which it was produced; and diverted the studies of the most accomplished scholars, to inquiries into the practices and maxims of the primitive ages, the nature of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the authority of scripture and tradition, of popes, councils, and schoolmen: topics, which men were not yet qualified to treat with any degree of penetration, and on which the ideas of the times unenlightened by philosophy, or warped by prejudice and passion, were not calculated to throw just and rational illustrations. When the bonds of spiritual unity were once broken, this separation from an established faith ended in a variety of subordinate sects, each of which called forth its respective champions into the field of religious contention. The several princes of christendom were politically concerned in these disputes; and the courts in which poets and orators had been recently caressed and rewarded, were now filled with that most deplorable species of philosophers, polemical metaphysicians. The public entry of Luther into Worms, when he had been summoned before the diet of that city, was equally splendid with that of the emperor Charles the fifth
Luther, Op. ii. 412. 414.
. Rome in return, roused from her deep repose of ten centuries, was compelled to vindicate her insulted doctrines with reasoning and argument. The profound investigations of Aquinas once more triumphed over the graces of the Ciceronian urbanity; and endless volumes were written on the expediency of auricular confession, and the existence of purgatory. Thus the cause of polite literature was for awhile abandoned; while the noblest abilities of Europe were wasted in theological speculation, and absorbed in the abyss of controversy. Yet it must not be forgotten, that wit and raillery, drawn from the sources of elegant erudition, were sometimes applied, and with the greatest success, in this important dispute. The lively colloquies of Erasmus, which exposed the superstitious practices of the papists, with much humour, and in pure Latinity, made more protestants than the ten tomes of John Calvin. A work of ridicule was now a new attempt: and it should be here observed, to the honour of Erasmus, that he was the first of the literary reformers who tried that species of composition, at least with any degree of popularity. The polite scholars of Italy had no notion that the German theologists were capable of making their readers laugh: they were now convinced of their mistake, and soon found that the German pleasantry prepared the way for a revolution, which proved of the most serious consequence to Italy.
Another great temporary che
k given to the general state of letters in England at this period, was the dissolution of the monasteries. Many of the abuses in civil society are attended with some advantages. In the beginnings of reformation, the loss of these advantages is always felt very sensibly: while the benefit arising from the change is the slow effect of time, and not immediately perceived or enjoyed. Scarce any institution can be imagined less favorable to the interests of mankind than the monastic. Yet these seminaries, although they were in a general view the nurseries of illiterate indolence, and undoubtedly deserved to be
uppressed under proper restrictions, contained invitations and opportunities to studious leisure and literary pursuits. On this event therefore, a visible revolution and decline in the national state of learning succeeded. Most of the youth of the kingdom betook themselves to mechanical or other illiberal employments, the profession of letters being now supposed to be without support and reward. By the abolition of the religious houses, many towns and their adjacent villages were utterly deprived of their only means of instruction. At the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth, Williams, speaker of the house of commons, complained to her majestry, that more than an hundred flourishing schools were destroyed in the demolition of the monasteries, and that ignorance had prevailed ever since
Strype, ANN. REF. p. 292. sub ann. 1562. The greater abbies appear to have had the direction of other schools in their neighbourhood. In an abbatial Register of Bury abbey there is this entry.
"Memorand. quod. A. D. 1418. 28 Jul. Gulielmus abbas contulit regimen et magisterium scholarum grammaticalium in villa de Bury S. Edmundi magistro Johanni Somerset, artium et grammaticae professori, et baccalaur
o in medicina, cum annua pensione xl. solidorum."
MS. Cotton. TIBER. B. ix. 2. This John Somerset was tutor and physician to king Henry the sixth, and a man of eminent learning. He was instrumental in procuring duke Humphrey's books to be conveyed to Oxford. Registr. Acad. Oxon. EPIST. F. 179. 202. 218. 220. And in the foundation of King's college at Cambridge. MSS. COTT. JULIUS, F. vii. 43.
. Provincial ignorance, at least, became universal, in consequence of this hasty measure of a rapacious and arbitrary prince. What was taught in the monasteries, was not always perhaps of the greatest importance, but still it served to keep up a certain degree of necessary knowledge
I do not, however, lay great stress on the following passage, which yet deserves attention, in Rosse of Warwickshire, who wrote about the year 1480:
"To this day, in the cath
drals and some of the greater collegiate churches, or monasteries, [quibusdam nobilibus collegiis,] and in the houses of the four mendicant orders, useful lectures and disputations ar
kept up; and such of their members as are thought capable of degrees, ar
sent to the universities. And in towns where there are two or more fraternities of mendicants, in each of these ar
held, every week by turns, proper exercises of scholars in disputation."
HIST. REG. ANGL. edit. Hearne, p. 74. [See supr. p. 340.]
. Nor should it be forgot, that many of the abbots were learned, and patrons of literature; men of public spirit, and liberal views. By their connections with parliament, and the frequent embassies to foreign courts in which they were employed, they became acquainted with the world, and the improvements of lif
: and, knowing where to chuse proper objects, and having no other use for the superfluities of their vast revenues, encouraged in their respective circles many learned young men. It appears to have been customary for the governors of the most considerable convents, especially those that were honoured with the mitre, to receive into their own private lodgings the sons of the principal families of the neighbourhood for education. About the year 1450, Thomas Bromele, abbot of the mitred monastery of Hyde near Winchester, entertained in his own abbatial house within that monastery, eight young gentlemen, or
gentiles pueri,
who were placed there for the purpose of literary instruction, and constantly dined at the abbot's table. I will not scruple to give the original words, which are more particular and expressive, of the obscure record which preserves this curious anecdote of monastic life.
"Pro octo gentilibus pueris apud dominum abbatem studii causa perhendinantibus, et ad mensam domini victitantibus, cum garcionibus suis ipsos comitantibus, hoc anno, xvii l. ix s. Capiendo pro ...
From a fragment of the COMPUTUS CAMERARII Abbat. Hidens. in Archiv. Wulves
apud Winton, ut supr.
"
This, by the way, was more extraordinary, as William of Wykeham's celebrated seminary was so near
And this seems to have been an established practice of the abbot of Glastonbury:
"whose apartment in the abbey was a kind of well-disciplined court, where the sons of noblemen and young gentlemen were wont to be sent for virtuous education, who returned thence home excellently accomplished
HIST. and ANTIQ. of GLASTON
URY, Oxon. 1722.
vo. p. 98.
."
Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, who was cruelly executed by the king, during the course of his government, educated near three hundred ingenuous youths, who constituted a part of his family: b
side many others whom he liberally supported at the universities
Reyner, APOSTOLAT. BENEDICT. Tract. i. sect. ii. p. 224. Sanders de SCHISM. pag. 176.
. Whitgift, the most excellent and learned archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was educated under Robert Whitgift his uncle, abbot of the Augustine monastery of black canons at Wellhow in Lincolnshire: who,
"says Strype, had several other young gentlemen under his care for education
Strype's WHITGIFT, b. i. ch. i. p. 3.
."
That, at the restoration of literature, many of these dignitaries were eminently learned, and even zealous promoters of the new improvements, I could bring various instances. Hugh Farringdon, the last abbot of Reading, was a polite scholar, as his Latin epistles addressed to the university of Oxford abundantly testify
Registr. Univ. Oxon. F. F. fol. 101.—125.
. Nor was he less a patron of critical studies. Leonard Coxe, a popular philological writer in the reign of Henry the eighth, both in Latin and English, and a great traveller, highly celebrated by the judicious Leland for his elegant accomplishments in letters, and honoured with the affectionate correspondence of Erasmus, dedicates to this abbot, his ARTE OR CRAFTE OF RHETORICKE, printed in the year 1524, at that time a work of an unusual nature
See Leland, COL
ECTAN. vol. 5. p. 118. vol. 6. p. 187. And ENCOM. p. 50. edit. 1589. Erasm. EPISTOL. p. 886.
. Wakefield abovementioned, a very capital Greek and oriental scholar, in his DISCOURSE ON THE EXCELLENCY AND UTILITY OF THE THREE LANGUAGES, written in the year 1524, celebrates William Fryssell, prior of the cathedral Benedictine convent at Rochester, as a distinguished judge and encourager of critical literature
Cited above, p. 124.
. Robert Shirwoode, an Englishman, but a professor of Greek and Hebrew at Louvaine, published a new Latin translation of ECCLESIASTES, with critical annotations on the Hebrew text, printed at Antwerp in 1523
Quarto.
This, in an elegant Latin epistle, he dedicates to John Webbe, prior of the Benedictine cathedral convent at Coventry; whom he styles, for his singular learning, and attention to the general cause of letters, MONACHORUM DECUS. John Batmanson, prior of the Carthusians in London, controverted Erasmus's
commentary on the new Testament with a degee of spirit and erudition, which was unhappily misapplied, and would have done honour to the cause of his antagonist
Theodor. Petreus, BIBL. CARTHUS. edit. Col. 1609. p. 157.
. He wrote many other pieces; and was patronised by Lee, a learned archbishop of York, who opposed Erasmus, but allowed Ascham a pension
Ascham, EPISTOL. lib. ii. p. 77. a. edit. 1581. [See also iii. p. 86. a.] O
the death of the archbishop, in 1544, Ascham desires, that a part of his pension then due might be paid out of some of the archbishop's greek books: one of these h
wishes may be Aldus's DECEM RHETORES GR
CI, a book which he could not purchase or procure at Cambridge.
. Kederminster, abbot of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, a traveller to Rome, and a celebrated preacher before king Henry the eighth, established regular lectures in his monastery, for explaining both scriptures in their original languages; which were so generally frequented, that his little cloister acquired the name and reputation of a new university
"Non aliter quam si fuisset altera NOVA UNIVERSITAS, tametsi exigua, claustrum Wynchelcombense tun
temporis se h
b
ret."
From his own HISTORIA, as below. Wood, HIST. Univ. OXON. i. p. 248. There is an Epistle from Colet, the learned dean of St. Paul's, to this abbot, concerning a passage in saint Paul'
E
ISTLES, fir
t printed by Knight, from the original manuscript at Cambridge. Knight's LIFE, p. 311.
. He was master of a terse and perspicuous Latin style, as appears from a fragment of the HISTORY OF WYNCHCOMB ABBEY
written by himself
Printed by Dugdale, before the whol
of the original was destroyed in the fire of London. MONAST. i. 188. But a transcript of a part remains in Dodsworth, MSS. Bibl. Bodl. lxv. 1. Compare A. Wood, ut
supr. and ATHEN. OXON. i. 28.
. His erudition is attested in an epistle from the university to king Henry the eighth
Registr. Univ. Oxon. F
. fol. 46.
. Longland, bishop of Lincoln, the most eloquent preacher of his time, in the dedication to Kederminster, of five quadragesimal sermons, delivered at court, and printed by Pinson in the year 1517, insists largely on his SINGULARIS ERUDITIO, and other shining qualifications.
Before we quit the reign of Henry the eighth, in this review of the rise of modern letters, let us turn our eyes once more on the universities; which yet do not always give the tone to the learning of a nation
It ought not here to be unnoticed, that the royal library of the kings of England, originally subsisting in the old palace at Westminster, and lately transferred to the British Museum, received great improvements under the reign of Henry the eighth; who constituted that elegant and judicious scholar, John Leland, his librarian, about the year 1530. Tanner, BIBL. pag. 475. Leland, at the dissolution of the monasteries, removed to this royal repository a great number of valuable manuscripts; particularly from saint Austin's abbey at Canterbu
y. SCRIPT. BRIT. p. 299. One of these was a manuscript given by Athelstan to that convent, a HARMONY of the FOUR GOSPELS. Bibl. Reg. MSS. i. A. xviii. See the hexasthic of Leland prefixed. See also SCRIPT. BRIT. ut supra, V. ATHEL
TANUS. Leland says, that he placed in the PALATINE library of Henry the eighth the COMMENTARII IN MATTHAEUM of Claudius, Bede's disciple. Ibid. V. CLAUDIUS. Many of the manuscripts of this library appear to have belonged to Henry's predecessors; and if we may judge from the splendour of the decorations, were presents. Some of them bear the name of Humphrey duke of Glocester. Others were written at the command of Edward the fourth. I have already mentioned the librarian of Henry the seventh. Bartholomew Traheron, a learned divine, was appointed the keeper of this library by Edward the
ixth, with a salary of twenty marcs, in the year 1
49. See Rymer's FoeD. xv. p. 351. Under the reign of Eli
abeth, Hentzner, a German traveller, who saw this library at Whitehall in 1598, says, that it was well furnished with Greek, Latin, Italian, and French books, all bound in velvet of different colours, yet chiefly red, with clasps of gold and silver; and that the covers of some were adorned with pearls and precious stones. ITINERAR.
Germaniae, Angliae,
&c. Noringb. 1629. 8vo. p. 188. It is a great mistake, that James the first was the first of our kings who founded a library in any of the royal palaces; and that this establishment commenced at St. James's palace, under the patronage of that monarch. This notion wa
first propagated by Smith in his life of Patrick Junius, Vit. QUORUND. etc. Lond. 1707. 4to. pp. 12. 13. 34. 35. Great part of the royal library, which indeed migrated to St. James's under James the first, was partly sold and dispersed, at Cromwell's accession: together with another inestimable part of its furniture, 12000 medals, rings, and gems, the entir
collection of Gorlaeus's DACTYLIOTHECA, purchased by prince Henry and Charles the first. It must be allowed, that James the first greatly enriched this library with the books of lord Lumley and Casaubon, and sir Thomas Roe's manuscripts brought from Constantinople. Lord Lumley's chiefly consisted of lord Arundel's, his father in law, a great collector at the dissolution of monasteries. James had previously granted a warrant to sir Thomas Bodley, in 1613, to chuse any books from the royal library at Whitehall, over the
Queen's Chamber.
[RELIQ. BODL. p. Hearne, p. 205. 286. 320.]
. In the year 1531, the learned Simon Grynaeus visited Oxford. By the interest of Claymund, president of Corpus Christi college, an admirable scholar, a critical writer, and the general friend and correspondent of the literary reformers, he was admitted to all the libraries of the university; which, he says, were about twenty in number, and amply furnished with the books of antiquity. Among these he found numerous manuscripts of Proclus on Plato, many of which he was easily permitted to carry abroad by the governors of the colleges, who did not know the value of these treasures
During his abode in England, having largely experie
ced the boun
y and advice of sir Thomas
More, he returned home, fraught with materials which he had long sought in vain, and published his PLATO
viz.
"Platonis Opera, cum commentarii
Procli in Timaeum et Politica, Basil. 1534."
fol. See the EPISTLE DEDICATORY to sir Thomas More. He there mentions other pi
ces of Proclus, which he saw at Oxford.
. In the year 1535, the king ordered lectures in humanity, institutions which have their use for a time, and while the novelty lasts, to be founded in those colleges of the university, where they were yet wanting: and these injunctions were so warmly approved by the scholars in the largest societies, that they seized on the venerable volumes of Duns Scotus and other irrefragable logicians, in which they had so long toiled without the attainment of knowledge, and tearing them in pieces, dispersed them in great triumph about their quadrangles, or gave them away as useless lumber
See Dr. Layton's letter to Cromwell. Strype's ECCL. MEM. i. 210.
. The king himself also established some public lectures with large endowments
Wood, HIST. Univ. Oxon. i. 26. ii. 36.
. Notwithstanding, the number of students at Oxford daily decreased: insomuch, that in 1546, not because a general cultivation of the new species of literature was increased, there were only ten inceptors in arts, and three in theology and jurisprudence
Wood, ibid. sub anno.
.
As all novelties are pursued to excess, and the most beneficial improvements often introduce new inconveniencies, so this universal attention to polite literature destroyed philosophy. The old philosophy was abolished, but a new one was not adopted in its stead. At Cambridge we now however find the antient scientific learning in some degree reformed, by the admission of better systems.
In the injunctions given by Henry to that university in the year 1535, for the reformation of study, the dialectics of Rodolphus Agricola, the great favorite of Erasmus, and the genuine logic of Aristotle, are prescribed to be taught, instead of the barren problems of Scotus and Burlaeus
Collier, ECCLES. HIST. vol. ii. p. 110.
. By the same edict, theology and causuistry were freed from many of their old incumbrances and perplexities: degrees in the canon law were forbidden; and heavy penalties were imposed on those academics, who relinquished the sacred text, to explain the tedious and unedifying commentaries on Peter Lombard's scholastic cyclopede of divinity, called the SENTENCES, which alone were sufficient to constitute a moderate library. Classical lectures were also directed, the study of words was enforced, and the books of Melancthon, and other solid and elegant writers of the reformed party, recommended. The politer studies, soon afterwards, seem to have risen into a flourishing state at Cambridge. Bishop Latimer complains, that there were now but few who studied divinity in that university
SERMONS, &c. p. 63. Lond. 1584. 4to. Sermon before Edward the sixth, in the year 1550. His words are,
"It would pitty a man's heart to hear that I hear of the state of Cambridge: what it is in Oxford I cannot tell. There be few that study divinity but so many a
of necessitie must furnish the colledges."
. But this is no proof of a decline of learning in that seminary. Other pursuits were now gaining ground there; and such as in fact were subservient to theological truth, and to the propagation of the reformed religion. Latimer himself, whose discourses from the royal pulpit appear to be barbarous beyond their age, in style, manner, and argument, is an example of the necessity of the ornamental studies to a writer in divinity. The Greek language was now making considerable advances at Cambridge, under the instruction of Cheke and Smith; notwithstanding the interruptions and opposition of bishop Gardiner, the chancellor of the university, who loved learning but hated novelties, about the proprieties of pronunciation. But the controversy which was agitated on both sides with much erudition, and produced letters between Cheke and Gardiner equal to large treatises, had the good effect of more fully illustrating the point in debate, and of drawing the general attention to the subject of the Greek literature
Ascham. EPISTOL. ut modo infr. p. 65. a. Ascham calls Gardiner,
"omnibus literarum, prudentiae, consilii, authoritatis, praesidiis ornatissimus,
absque ha
u
a re ess
t,
literarum et academiae nostrae patronus amplis
imus."
But he says, that Gardiner took this measure,
"quorundam
invidoru
ho
inum
precibus victus."
ibid. p. 64. b.
. Perhaps bishop Gardiner's intolerance in this respect was like his persecuting spirit in religion, which only made more heretics. Ascham observes, with no small degree of triumph, that instead of Plautus, Cicero, Terence, and Livy, almost the only classics hitherto known at Cambridge, a more extensive field was opened; and that Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Xenophon, an Isocrates, were universally and critically studied
Strype's CRANMER, p. 170. Ascham. EPISTOL. L. ii. p. 64. b. 1581.
. But Cheke being soon called away to the court, his auditors relapsed into dissertations on the doctrines of original sin and predestination; and it was debated with great obstinacy and acrimony, whether those topics had been most successfully handled by some modern German divines or saint Austin
Ascham. E
IST. lib. ii.
. Ascham observes, that at Oxford, a decline of taste in both languages was indicated, by a preference of Lucian, Plutarch, and Herodian, in Greek, and of Seneca, Gellius, and Apuleius, in Latin, to the more pure, antient, and original writers, of Greece and Rome
EPISTOL. lib. i. p. 18. b. Dat. 1550. edit. 1581.
. At length, both universities seem to have been reduced to the same deplorable condition of indigence and illiteracy.
It is generally believed, that the reformation of religion in England, the most happy and important event of our annals, was immediately succeeded by a flourishing state of letters. But this was by no means the case. For a long time afterwards an effect quite contrary was produced. The reformation in England was completed under the reign of Edward the sixth. The rapacious courtiers of this young prince were perpetually grasping at the rewards of literature; which being discouraged or despised by the rich, was neglected by those of moderate fortunes. Avarice and zeal were at once gratified in robbing the clergy of their revenues, and in reducing the church to its primitive apostolical state of purity and poverty
See Collier's ECCL. H
ST. Records, lxvii. p. 80.
. The opulent see of Winchester was lowered to a bare title: its amplest estates were portioned out to the laity; and the bishop, a creature of the protector Somerset, was contented to receive an inconsiderable annual stipend from the exchequer. The bishoprick of Durham, almost equally rich, was entirely dissolved. A favorite nobleman of the court occupied the deanery and treasurership of a cathedral with some of its best canonries
B
rnet, R
F. P. ii. 8.
. The ministers of this abused monarch, by these arbitrary, dishonest, and imprudent measures, only provided instruments, and furnished arguments, for restoring in the succeeding reign that superstitious religion, which they professed to destroy. By thus impoverishing the ecclesiastical dignities, they countenanced the clamours of the catholics; who declared, that the reformation was apparently founded on temporal views, and that the protestants pretended to oppose the doctrines of the church, solely with a view that they might share in the plunder of its revenues. In every one of these sacrilegious robberies the interest of learning also suffered. Exhibitions and pensions were, in the mean time, substracted from the students in the universities
Wood, s
b ann. 1550. See also Strype's CRANMER, Append. N. xciii. p. 220. viz. A Letter to secretary Cecil, dat. 1552.
. Ascham, in a letter to the marquis of Northampton, dated 1550, laments the ruin of grammar schools throughout England; and predicts the speedy extinction of the universities from this growing calamity
EPISTOL. lib. un. COMMENDAT. p. 194. a. Lond. 1581.
"Ruinam et interitum publicarum scholarum, &c."—"Quam gravis haec universa scholarum calamita
, &c."
See p. 62. b. p. 210. a.
. At Oxford the public schools were neglected by the professors and pupils, and allotted to the lowest purposes
Wood, ut supr. p. 273.
. Academical degrees were abrogated as antichristian
Catal. MSS. ANGL. fol. edit. 1697
in Hist. Bibl. Bodl. Prefat.
. Reformation was soon turned into fanaticism. Absurd refinements, concerning the inutility of human learning, were superadded to the just and rational purgation of christianity from the papal corruptions. The spiritual reformers of these enlightened days, at a visitation of the last-mentioned university, proceeded so far in their ideas of a superior rectitude, as totally to strip the public library, established by that munificent patron Humphrey duke o
Gloucester, of all its books and manuscripts
See supr. p. 44.
.
I must not, however, forget, as a remarkable symptom of an attempt now circulating to give a more general and unreserved diffusion of science, that in this reign, Thomas Wilson, originally a fellow of King's college in Cambridge, preceptor to Charles and Henry Brandon dukes of Suffolk, dean of Durham, and chief secretary to the king, published a system a rhetoric and of logic, in English
First printed in the reign of Edward the sixth. See Preface to the second edition of the RHETORIC, in 1560. He translated the three Olynthiacs, and the four Philippic
, of Demosthenes, from the Greek into English. Lond. 1570. 4to.
. This display of the venerable mysteries of the latter of these arts in a vernacular language, which had hitherto been confined within the sacred pale of the learned tongues, was esteemed an innovation almost equally daring with that of permitting the service of the church to be celebrated in English: and accordingly the author, soon afterwards happening to visit Rome, was incarcerated by the inquisitors of the holy see, as a presumptuous and dangerous heretic.
It is with reluctance I enter on the bloody reign of the relentless and unamiable Mary; whose many dreadful martyrdoms of men eminent for learning and piety, shock our sensibility with a double degree of horrour, in the present softened state of manners, at a period of society when no po
entate would inflict executions of so severe a nature, and when it would be difficult to find devotees hardy enough to die for difference of opinion. We must, however, acknowledge, that she enriched both universities with some considerable benefactions: yet these donations seem to have been made, not from any general or libe
al principle of advancing knowledge, but to repair the breaches of reformation, and to strengthen the return of superstition. It is certain, that her restoration of popery, together with the monastic institution, its proper appendage, must have been highly pernicious to the growth of polite erudition. Yet although the elegant studies were now beginning to suffer a new relapse, in the midst of this reign, under the discouragement of all these inauspicious and unfriendly circumstances, a college was established at Oxford, in the constitution of which, the founder principally inculcates the use and necessity of classical literature; and recommends it as the most important and leading object in that system of academical study, which he prescribes to the youth of the new society
In the year 1554.
. For, beside a lecturer in philosophy appointed for the ordinary purpose of teaching the scholastic sciences, he establishes in this seminary a teacher of humanity. The business of this preceptor is described with a particularity not usual in the constitutions given to collegiate bodies of this kind, and he is directed to exert his utmost diligence, in tincturing his auditors with a just reli
h for the graces and purity of the Latin language
"Latini sermonis ornatu et elegantia imbuendos diligenter curabit, &c."
Statut. Coll. Trin. Oxon. cap. iv. Again,
"Cupiens et ego Collegii mei juventutem
in primis
Latini sermonis
Purita
e
ac
ingenurarum
artium rudimentis, convenienter erudiri, &c."
Ibid. cap. xv.
: and to explain critically, in the public hall, for the space of two hours every day, the Offices, De Oratore, and rhetorical treatises of Cicero, the institutes of Quintilian, Aulus Gellius, Plautus, Terence, Virgil, Horace, Livy, and Lucan; together with the most excellent modern philological treatises then in vogue, such as the ELEGANCIES of Laurentius Valla, and the MISCELLANIES of Politian, or any other approved critical tract on oratory or versification
Ibid. cap. xv. A modern writer in dialectics, Rodolphus Agricola, is also recommended to be explained by the reader in philosophy, together with Aristotle.
. In the mean time, the founder permits it to the discretion of the lecturer, occasionally to substitute Greek authors in the place of these
Ibid. cap. xv. It may be also observed here, that the philosophy reader is not only ordered to explain Aristotle, but Plato. Ibid. cap. xv. It appears by implication in the close of this statute, that the public lectures of the university were now growing usel
ss, and dwindling into mere matters of form, viz.
"Ad hunc modum Domi meos LECTIONIBUS er
diri cupiens,
os a publicis in Academia lectionibus avocar
nolui.—Verum, si temporis tractu, et magistratuum i
curia, adeo a primario instituto degenerent Magi
rorum regentium Lectiones ordinariae, ut inde null
, aut admodum exigua, auditoribus acc
dat utilitas,
&c. Ibid. cap. xv.
. He moreover requires, that the candidates for admission into the college be completely skilled in Latin poetry; and in writing Epistles, then a favorite mode of composition
Ibid. cap. vii.
, and on which Erasmus
D
RATIONE CONSCRIBENDI EPI
TOLAS.
, and Conradus Celtes the restorer of letters in Germany
About the year 1500. At Ba
l, 1522. It was reprinted at Cambridge by Siberch, and dedicated to archbishop Fisher, 1521. 4to.
, had each recently published a distinct systematical work. He injoins, that the students shall be exercised every day, in the intervals of vacation, in composing declamations, and Latin verses both lyric and heroic
bid. cap. xv. Every day after dinner
"Aliquis scholarium, a Praefidente aut Lectore Rhetorico jussus, de themate quodam propo
ito, ad edendum
ing
nii
ac profectus sui specimen, diligenter,
orn
t
,
ac breviter, dicat, &c."
Ibid.
ap. x.
: and in his prefatory statute, where he describes the nature and design of his foundation, he declares, that he destines the younger part of his establishment, not only to dialectics and philosophy, but to the more polite literature
"Caeteri autem,
scholare
nuncupati, POLITIORI
US Literis, &c."
Ibid. cap. i.
. The statutes of this college were submitted to the inspection of cardinal Pole, one of the chief protectors of the revival of polite letters in England, as appears from a curious passage in a letter written by the founder, now remaining; which not only displays the cardinal's ideas of the new erudition, but shews the state of the Greek language at this period.
"My lord Cardinalls grace has had the overseeinge of my statutes. He muche lykes well, that I have therein ordered the Latin tonge [Latin classics] to be redde to my schollers. But he advyses me to order the Greeke to be more taught there than I have provyded. This purpose I well lyke: but I fear
the tymes will not bear it now.
I remember when I was a yong scholler at Eton
About the year 1520.
, the Greeke tonge was growing apace; the studie of which is now alate much decaid
Dated 1556. See LIFE of sir Thomas Pope, p. 226.
."
Queen Mary was herself eminently learned. But her accomplishments in letters were darkened or impeded by religious prejudices. At the desire of queen Catharine Parr, she translated in her youth Erasmus's paraphrase on saint John. The preface is written by Udall, master of Eton school: in which he much extolls her distinguished proficience in literature
Lond. 1548. fol.
. It would have been fortunate, if Mary's attention to this work had softened her temper, and enlightened her understanding. She frequently spoke in public with propriety, and always with prudence and dignity.
In the beginning of the reign of queen Elisabeth, which soon followed, when the return of protestantism might have been expected to produce a speedy change for the better, puritanism began to prevail; and, as the first fervours of a new sect are always violent, retarded for some time the progress of ingenuous and useful knowledge. The scriptures being translated into English, and every man assuming a right to dictate in matters of faith, and to chuse his own principles, weak heads drew false conclusions, and erected an infinite variety of petty religions. Such is the abuse which attends the best designs, that the meanest reader of the new Testament thought he had a full comprehension of the most mysterious metaphysical doctrines in the christian faith; and scorned to acquiesce in the sober and rational expositions of such difficult subjects, which he might have received from a competent and intelligent teacher, whom it was his duty to follow. The bulk of the people, who now possessed the means of discussing all theological topics, from their situation and circumstances in life, were naturally averse to the splendor, the dominion, and the opulence of an hierarchy, and disclaimed the yoke of episcopal jurisdiction. The new deliverance from the numerous and burthensome superstitions of the papal communion, drove many pious reformers into the contrary extreme, and the rage of opposition ended in a devotion entirely spiritual and abstracted. External forms were abolished, as impediments to the visionary reveries of a mental intercourse with heaven; and because the church of Rome had carried ceremonies to an absurd excess, the use of any ceremonies was deemed unlawful. The love of new doctrines and a new worship, the triumph of gaining proselytes, and the persecutions which accompanied these licentious zealots, all contributed to fan the flame of enthusiasm. The genius of this refined and false species of religion, which defied the salutary checks of all human authority, when operating in its full force, was attended with consequences not less pernicious to society, although less likely to last, than those which flowed from the establishment of the antient superstitions. During this unsettled state of things, the English reformed clergy who had fled into Germany from the menaces of queen Mary, returned home in great numbers: and in consideration of their sufferings and learning, and their abilities to vindicate the principles of a national church erected in opposition to that of Rome, many of them were preferred to bishopricks, and other eminent ecclesiastical stations. These divines brought back with them into England those narrow principles concerning church-government and ceremonies, which they had imbibed in the petty states and republics abroad, where the Calvinistic discipline was adopted, and where they had lived like a society of philosophers; but which were totally inconsistent with the nature of a more extended church, established in a great and magnificent nation, and requiring an uniform system of policy, a regular subordination of officers, a solemnity of public worship, and an observance of exterior institutions. They were, however, in the present circumstances, thought to be the most proper instruments to be employed at the head of ecclesiastical affairs; not only for the purpose of vindicating the new establishment by argument and authority, but of eradicating every trace of the papal corruptions by their practice and example, and of effectually fixing the reformation embraced by the church of England on a durable basis. But, unfortunately, this measure, specious and expedient as it appeared at first, tended to destroy that constitution which it was designed to support, and to counteract those principles which had been implanted by Cranmer in the reformed system of our religion. Their reluctance or refusal to conform, in a variety of instances, to the established ceremonies, and their refinements in theological discipline, filled the church with the most violent divisions; and introduced endless intricate disputations, not on fundamental doctrines of solid importance to the real interests of christianity, but on positive points of idle and empty speculation, which admitting no elegance of composition, and calling forth no vigour of abilities, exercised the learning of the clergy in the most barbarous and barren field of controversial divinity, and obstructed every pursuit of polite or manly erudition. Even the conforming clergy, from their want of penetration, and from their attachment to authorities, contributed to protract these frivolous and unbecoming controversies: for if, in their vindication of the sacerdotal vestments, and of the cross of baptism, instead of arguing from the jews, the primitive christians, the fathers, councils, and customs, they had only appealed to common sense and the nature of things, the propriety and expediency of those formalities would have been much more easily and more clearly demonstrated. To these inconveniencies we must add, that the common ecclesiastical preferments were so much diminished by the seizure and alienation of impropriations, in the late depredations of the church, and which continued to be carried on with the same spirit of rapacity in the reign of Elisabeth, that few persons were regularly bred to the church, or, in other words, received a learned education. Hence, almost any that offered themselves were, without distinction or examination, admitted to the sacred function. Insomuch, that in the year 1560, an injunction was directed to the bishop of London from his metropolitan, requiring him to forbear ordaining any more artificers and other illiterate persons who exercised secular occupations
Strype's GRINDAL. B. i. ch. iv. b. 40.
. But as the
vil was unavoidable, this caution took but little effect
Numerous illuminated artificers began
arly to preach and write in defence of the reformed religion. The first mechanic who left his lawful calling to vindicate the cause of the catholics, was one Miles Hoggard, a shoe-maker or hosier, of London; who, in the reign of queen Mary, wrote a pamphlet entitled,
The Displaying o
prote
ants, and
ondry their practices,
&c. Lond. 1556. 12mo. This piece soon acquired importance, by being answered by Lawrence Humphries, and other eminent reformers. He printed other pieces of the same tendency. He was likewise an English poet; and I am glad of this opportunity of mentioning him in that character, as I could not have ventured to give him a place in the series of our poetry. He wrote the MIRROUR of LOVE, Lond. 1555. 4to. Dedicated to queen Mary. Also the PATHWAY to THE TOWRE of PERFECTION
Lond. 1556. 4to. with some other pieces.
. About the year 1563, t
ere were only two divines, and those of higher rank, the president of Magdalen college
Doctor Lawrence Humphreys, mentioned in the last note. Of whom it will not be improper to observe further in this place, that about the year 1553, he wrote an
Epistola de Grecis literis et Homeri lectione et imitatione ad praesidem et socios collegii Magdalenae, Oxon.
In the CORNUCOPIA of Hadrian Junius, Basil. 1558. fol.
, and the dean of Christ Church, who were capable of preaching the public sermons before the university of Oxford
Wood, ut supr. i. 285.
. I will mention one instance of the extreme ignorance of our inferiour clergy about the middle of the sixteenth century. In the year 1570, Horne, bishop of Winchester, enjoined the minor canons of his cathedral to get by memory, every week, one chapter of saint Paul's epistles in Latin: and this formidable task, almost beneath the abilities of an ordinary school-boy, was actually repeated by some of them, before the bishop, dean, and prebendaries, at a public episcopal visitation of that church
Registr. Horne, Episc. Winton. fol. 80. b.
. It is well known that a set of homilies was published to supply their incapacity in composing sermons: but it should be remembered, that one reason for prescribing this authorised system of doctrine, was to prevent preachers from disturbing the peace of the church by disseminating their own novel and indigested opinions.
The taste for Latin composition in the reign of Elisabeth, notwithstanding it was fashionable both to write and speak in that language, was much worse than in the reign of Henry the eighth, when juster models were studied, and when the novelty of classical literature excited a general emulation to imitate the Roman authors. The Latinity of Ascham's prose has little elegance. The versification and phraseology of Buchanan's Latin poetry are splendid and sonorous, but not marked with the chaste graces and simple ornaments of the Augustan age. One is surprised to find the learned archbishop Grindal, in the statutes of a school which he founded, and amply endowed, recommending such barbarous and degenerate classics as Palingenius, Sedulius, and Prudentius, to be taught in his new foundation
Strype's GRINDAL. B. ii. ch. xvii. p. 312. This was in iu 1583.
. These, indeed, were the classics of a reforming bishop: but the well-meaning prelate would have contributed much more to the success of his intended reformation, by directing books of better taste and less piety. That classical literature, and the public institution of youth, were now in the lowest state, we may collect from a provision in archbishop Parker's foundation of three scholarships at Cambridge, in the year 1567. He orders that the scholars, who are appointed to be elected from three the most considerable schools in Kent and Norfolk, shall be
"the
best
and
aptest
schollers, well instructed in the grammar, and,
if it may be,
such as
can make a verse
Blomefield's NORFOLK, ii. 224.
."
It became fashionable in this reign to study Greek at court. The maids of honour indulged their ideas of sentimental affection in the sublime contemplations of Plato's Phaedo: and the queen, who understood Greek better than the canons of Windsor, and was certainly a much greater pedant than her successor James the first, translated Isocrates
Ascham's SCHOLEMASTER, p. 19. b. edit. 1589. Aud EPISTOL. lib. i. p. 19. ut supr.
. But this passion for the Greek language soon ended where it began: nor do we find that it improved the national taste, or influenced the writings, of the age of Elisabeth.
All changes of rooted establishments, especially of a national religion, are attended with shocks and convulsions, unpropitious to the repose science and study. But these unavoidable inconveniencies last not long. When the liberal genius of protestantism had perfected its work, and the first
anaticisms of well-meaning but misguided zealot
had subsided, every species of useful and elegant knowledge recovered its strength, and arose with new vigour. Acquisitions, whether in theology or humanity, were no longer exclusively confined to the clergy: the laity eagerly embraced those pursuits from which they had long been unjustly restrained: and, soon after the reign of Elisabeth, men attained that state of general improvement, and those situations with respect to literature and life, in which they have ever since persevered.
But it remains to bring home, and to apply, this change in the sentiments of mankind, to our main subject. The customs, institutions, traditions, and religion, of the middle ages, were favorable to poetry. Their pageaunts, processions, spectacles, and ceremonies, were friendly to imagery, to personification and allegory. Ignorance and superstition, so opposite to the real interests of human society, are the parents of imagination. The very devotion of the Gothic times was romantic. The catholic worship, besides that its numerous exteriour appendages were of a picturesque and even of a poetical nature, disposed the mind to a state of deception, and encouraged, or rather authorised, every species of credulity: its visions, miracles, and legends, propagated a general propensity to the Marvellous, and strengthened the belief of spectres, demons, witches, and incantations. These illusions were heightened by churches of a wonderful mechanism, and constructed on such principles of inexplicable architecture as had a tendency to impress the soul with every false sensation of religious fear. The savage pomp and the capricious heroism of the baronial manners, were replete with incident, adventure, and enterprise: and the intractable genius of the feudal policy, held forth those irregularities of conduct, discordancies of interest, and dissimilarities of situation, that framed rich materials for the minstrel-muse. The tacit compact of fashion, which promotes civility by diffusing habits of uniformity, and therefore destroys peculiarities of character and situation, had not yet operated upon life: nor had domestic convenience abolished unwieldy magnificence. Literature, and a better sense of things, not only banished these barbarities, but superseded the mode of composition which was formed upon them. Romantic poetry gave way to the force of reason and inquiry; as its own inchanted palaces and gardens instantaneously vanished, when the christian champion displayed the shield of truth, and baffled the charm of the necromancer. The study of the classics, together with a colder magic and a tamer mythology, introduced method into composition: and the universal ambition of rivalling those new patterns of excellence, the faultless models of Greece and Rome, produced that bane of invention, IMITATION. Erudition was made to act upon genius. Fancy was weakened by reflection and philosophy. The fashion of treating every thing scientifically, applied speculation and theory to the arts of writing. Judgment was advanced above imagination, and rules of criticism were established. The brave eccentricities of original genius, and the daring hardiness of native thought, were intimidated by metaphysical sentiments of perfection and refinement. Setting aside the consideration of the more solid advantages, which are obvious, and are not the distinct object of our contemplation at present, the lover of true poetry will ask, what have we gained by this revolution? It may be answered, much good sense, good taste, and good criticism. But, in the mean time, we have lost a set of manners, and a system of machinery, more suitable to the purposes of poetry, than those which have been adopted in their place. We have parted with extravagancies that are above propriety, with incredibilities that are more acceptable than truth, and with fictions that are more valuable than reality.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
EMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONS IN THE First and Second VOLUME.
*** The Binder is directed to place
EMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONS
at the
End
of the
Second Volume.
EMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONS. VOL. I.
DISSERTATION I.
SIGNAT. a. fol. vers. Not. a . lin. For
"Pocock,"
READ
"Erpenius."
Signat. c 2. fol. vers. lin. 3. READ
"Vienne."
Signat. e. Not. q . lin. 4. For
"101,"
READ
"92."
Signat. g. lin. 3. For
"mulsorum,"
READ
"mulso seu."
Ibid. lin. 4. READ
"Woton."
Signat. h 2. lin. 20. Before
"composed,"
INSERT
"not."
DISSERTATION II.
SIGNAT. a. fol. vers. lin. 24. READ
"Fryesby."
Signat. b. lin. 7. READ
"Roger."
Ibid. lin. antep. and pen. READ
"Bukdene, 10 jun."
Ibid. Not. x . lin. 2. READ
"vii.".
Signat. b 2. fol. vers. lin. ult. For
"monks,"
READ
"canons."
Signat. b 4. Not. o . lin. 9. READ
"son."
Signat. c 3. lin. 19. READ
"Vitalian."
So again fol. vers. lin. 5.
Signat. e 4. fol. vers. lin. 22. READ
"York."
Signat. f. 2. lin. 9. READ
"priory of Dunstable."
Signat. f. 4. Not. x . lin. ult. READ
"Hall."
Signat. g. fol. vers. lin. 15. READ
"1270."
[In Tanner's date, (viz. MLXX) cc had probably slipped out at the Press.]
Signat. i. Notes, col. 2. lin. 10. READ
"Martyrologium Ovidii de fastis."
Signat. i. 4. Not. m . lin. 1. DELE
"Monostichon."
Signat. k. 2. fol. vers. to Note f . ADD,
"But see Wood, Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 46. a."
PAG. 1. Not. b . lin. 1. For
"4,"
READ
"24."
Pag. 3. l. 7. For
"even the lower class of people,"
READ
"the nobility."
Pag. 6. lin. 17. After
"language,"
INSERT
"Among the Records of the Tower, a great revenue-roll, on many sheets of vellum, or MAGNUS ROTULUS, of the Duchy of Normandy, for the year 1083, is still preserved; indorsed, in a coevel hand, ANNO AB INCARNATIONE DNI Mo LXXXo IIIo APUD CADOMUM [Caen] WILLIELMO FILIO RADULFI SENESCALLO NORMANNIE. This most exactly and minutely resembles the pipe-rolls of our exchequer belonging to the same age, in form, method, and character. Ayloffe's CALENDAR of ANT. CHART. Pref. p. xxiv. edit. Lond. 1774. 4to .
Pag. 8. Not. g . lin. 13. READ
"Flacius Illyricus."
Pag. 11. to the last Note ADD,
"The secular indulgences, particularly the luxury, of a female convent, are intended to be represented in the following passage of an antient poem, called
A Disputation bytwene a crystene mon and a Jew,
written before the year 1300. MS. VERNON, fol. 301. [See vol. ii. p. 231.]
Till a Nonneri thei came,
But I knowe not the name;
Ther was mony a derworthe
Dear-worthy.
dame
In dyapre dere
Diaper fine.
:
Squiȝeres
Squires. Attendants.
in vche syde,
In the wones
Rooms. Apartments.
so wyde:
Hur schul we longe
Shall we long.
abyde,
Auntres
Adventures.
to heare.
Thene swithe
Swiftly. Immediately.
spekethe he,
Til a ladi so fre,
And biddeth that he welcum be,
"Sire Water my feere
My Companion. My Love
He is called afterwards,
"Sire [Sir] Walter of Berwick."
."
Ther was bords
Tables.
i clothed clene
With schire
Sheer. Clean.
clothes and schene,
Seþþe
Or
Sithe,
i. e. often.
a wasschen
Washed.
, i wene,
And wente to the sete:
Riche metes was forth brouht,
To all men that gode thouht:
The cristen mon wolde nouht
Drynke nor ete.
Ther was wyn ful clere
In mony a feir masere
Mazer. Great cup.
,
And other drynkes that weore dere,
In coupes
Cups.
ful gret:
Siththe was schewed him bi
Murththe and munstralsy
Afterwards there was sport and minstrelsy.
,
And preyed hem do gladly,
With ryal rechet
i. e. Recept. Reception. But see Chaucer's ROM. R. v. 6509.
Him, woulde I comfort and
rechete.
And TR. CRESS. iii. 350.
.
Bi the bordes up thei stode, &c.
Pag. 13. l. 15. READ
"Ciclatoun ant purpel pal."
Pag. 14. to Not. k . ADD,
"The LIVES OF THE SAINTS in verse, in Bennet library, contain the martyrdom and translation of Becket, NUM. clxv. This manuscript is supposed to be of the fourteenth century. Archbishop Parker, in a remark prefixed, has assigned the composition to the reign of Henry the second. But in that case, Becket's translation, which did not happen till the reign of king John, must have been added. See a specimen in Mr. Nasmith's accurate and learned CATALOGUE of the Bennet manuscripts, pag. 217. Cantab. 1777. 4to . There is a manuscript of these LIVES in Trinity college library at Oxford, but it has not the Life of Becket. MSS. NUM. LVII. In Pergamen. fol. The writing is about the fourteenth century. I will transcribe a few lines from the LIFE OF SAINT CUTHBERT. f. 2. b.
Seint Cuthberd was ybore here in Engelonde,
God dude for him meraccle, as ȝe scholleth vnderstonde.
And wel ȝong child he was, in his eigtethe ȝere,
Wit children he pleyde atte balle, that his felawes were:
That com go a lite childe, it thoȝt thre ȝer old,
A swete creature and a fayr, yt was myld and bold:
To the ȝong Cuthberd he ȝede, sene brother he sede,
Ne þench not such ydell game for it ne oȝte noȝt be thy dede:
Seint Cuthberd ne tok no ȝeme to the childis rede
And pleyde forth with his felawes, al so they him bede.
Tho this ȝonge child y seȝ that he his red forsok,
A doun he fel to grounde, and gret del to him to tok,
It by gan to wepe sore, and his honden wrynge,
This children hadde alle del of him, and bysened hare pleyinge.
As that they couthe hy gladede him, sore he gan to siche,
At even this ȝonge child made del y siche,
A welaway, qd seint Cuthbert, why wepes thou so sore
Ȝif we the haveth oȝt mysdo we ne scholleth na more.
Thanne spake this ȝonge child, sore hy wothe beye,
Cuthberd it falleth noȝt to the with ȝonge children to pleye,
For no suche idell games it ne cometh the to worche,
Whanne god hath y proveyd the an heved of holy cherche.
With this word, me nyste whidder, this ȝong child wente,
An angel it was of heven that our lord thuder sent.
Saxon letters are used in this manuscript. I will exhibit the next twelve lines as they appear in that mode of writing; together with the punctuation.
þo by gan seint Cuthberd . for to wepe sore
He made his fader and frendis . sette him to lore
So þat he servede boþe nyȝt and day . to plese god þe more
And in his ȝoughede nyȝt and day . of servede godis ore
þo he in grettere elde was . as þe bok us haþ y sed
It by fel þat seint Aydan . þe bisschop was ded
Cuthberd was a felde with schep . angeles of heven he seȝ
þe bisschopis soule seint Aydan . to heven bere on heȝ
Allas sede seint Cuthberd . fole ech am to longe
I nell þis schep no longer kepe . a fonge hem who so a fonge
He wente to þe abbeye of Germans . a grey monk he þer bycom
Gret joye made alle þe covent . þo he that abbyt nom, &c."
The reader will observe the constant return of the hemistichal point, which I have been careful to preserve, and to represent with exactness; as I suspect, that it shews how these poems were sung to the harp by the minstrels. Every line was perhaps uniformly recited to the same monotonous modulation, with a pause in a midst: just as we chant the psalms in our choral service. In the psalms of our liturgy, this pause is expressed by a colon: and often, in those of the Roman missal, by an asterisc. The same mark occurs in every line of this manuscript; which is a folio volume of considerable size, with upwards of fifty verses in every page.
Pag. 18. Not. x . lin. 3. Instead of
"Saint Dorman,"
READ
"The Seven Sleepers."
Pag. 30. to Not. d . ADD,
"In the same stile, as it is manifestly of the same antiquity, the following little descriptive song, on the Approach of Summer, deserves notice. MSS. HARL. 978. f. 5.
Sumer is i cumen,
Lhude sing cuccu:
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springeth the wde nu.
Sing, cuccu, cuccu.
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Louth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth,
Bucke verteth:
Murie sing, cuccu:
Wel sings thu cuccu;
Ne swik thou never nu.
That is,
"Summer is coming: Loud sing, Cuckow! Groweth seed, and bloweth mead, and springeth the wood now. Ewe bleateth after lamb, loweth cow after calf; bullock starteth, buck
verteth
Goes to harbour among the fern.
: merry sing, Cuckow! Well singest thou, Cuckow, Nor cease to sing now."
This is the most antient English song that appears in our manuscripts, with the musical notes annexed. The music is of that species of composition which is called
Canon in the Unison,
and is supposed to be of the fifteenth century.
Pag. 47. ADD to Not. e .
"Compare Tanner in JOANNES CORNUBIENSIS, who recites his other pieces. BIBL. p. 432. Notes, f . g .
Pag. 50. Not. q . For
"hills,"
READ
"halls."
Pag. 59. l. 9. For
"monk,"
READ
"canon."
Pag. 62. Not. l . lin. 7. READ
"Johnston."
Pag. 68. Not. n . lin. 1. DELE
"absurdly."
And l. 3. DELE
"It is a catapult or battering ram."
Pag. 68. Ibid. Notes, col. 2. After lin. 4. INSERT,
"See infr. p. 72. MANGONEL also signified what was thrown from the machine so called. Thus Froissart."
Et avoient les
"Brabançons de tres grans engins devant la ville, qui
gettoient
pierres de faix et
mangoneaux
jusques en la ville."
Liv. iii. c. 118. And in the old French OVIDE cited by Borel, TRESOR. in V.
Onques pour une tor abatre,
Ne oit on
Mangoniaux descendre
Plus briement ne du ciel destendre
Foudre pour abatre un clocher.
Ibid. ibid. After lin. 17. ADD,
"The use of artillery, however, is proved by a curious passage in Petrarch, to be older than the period to which it has been commonly referred. The passage is in Petrarch's book de REMEDIIS UTRIUSQUE FORTUNAE, undoubtedly written before the year 1334.
"G. Habeo machinas et balistas. R. Mirum, nisi et glandes aeneas, quae flammis injectis horrisono sonitu jaciuntur.—Erat haec pestis
nuper rara,
ut cum ingenti miraculo cerneretur:
nunc,
ut rerum pessimarum dociles sunt animi,
ita communis
est, ut
quodlibet
genus armorum."
Lib. i. DIAL. 99. See Muratori, ANTIQUITAT. Med. Aev. tom. ii. col. 514. Cannons are supposed to have been first used by the English at the battle of Cressy, in the year 1346. It is extraordinary that Froissart, who minutely describes that battle, and is fond of decorating his narrative with wonders, should have wholly omitted this circumstance. Musquets are recited as a weapon of the infantry so early as the year 1475.
"Quilibet peditum habeat balistam vel
bombardam.
"
LIT. Casimiri iii. an. 1475. LEG. POLON. tom. i. p. 228. These are generally assigned to the year 1520.
Pag. 72. l. 6. READ
"sueynes."
Pag. 73. to l. 21. ADD this Note,
"The rhymes here called, by Robert de Brunne,
Couwée,
and
Enterlacée,
were undoubtedly derived from the Latin rhymers of that age, who used versus
caudati
et
interlaqueati.
Brunne here professes to avoid these elegancies of composition, yet he has intermixed many passages in
Rime Couwée.
See his CHRONICLE, p. 266. 273. &c. &c. And almost all the latter part of his work from the Conquest is written in rhyme
enterlacée,
each couplet rhyming in the middle, as well as the end. As thus, MSS. HARL. 1002.
Plausus Graecorum | lux caecis et via claudis | Incola caelorum | virgo dignissima laudis.
The rhyme
Baston
had its appellation from Robert Baston, a celebrated Latin rhymer about the year 1315. The rhyme
strangere
means
uncommon.
See CANTERBURY TALES, vol. 4. p. 72. seq. ut infr. The reader, curious on this subject, may receive further information from a manuscript in the Bodleian library, in which are specimens of METRA
Leonina, cristata, cornuta, recriproca,
&c. MSS. LAUD. K. 3. 4to . In the same library, there is a very antient manuscript copy of Aldhelm's Latin poem
De Virginitate et Laude Sanctorum,
written about the year 700, and given by Thomas Allen, with Saxon glosses, and the text almost in semi-saxon characters. These are the two first verses.
Metrica tyrones nunc promant carmina casti,
Et laudem capiat quadrato carmine Virgo.
Langbaine, in reciting this manuscript, thus explains the
quadratum
carmen.
"Scil. prima cujusque versus litera, per Acrostichidem, conficit versum illum
Metrica tyrones.
Ultima cujusque versus litera, ab ultimo carmine ordine retrogardo numerando, hunc versum facit.
"Metrica tyrones nunc promant carmina casti."
[Langb. MSS. v. p. 126.] MSS. DIGB. 146. There is a very antient tract, by one Mico, I believe called also LEVITA, on Prosody,
De Quantitate Syllabarum,
with examples from the Latin poets, perhaps the first work of the kind. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Bodl. A. 7. 9. See J. L. Hocker's CATAL. MSS. Bibl. Heidelb. p. 24. who recites a part of Mico's Preface, in which he appears to have been a grammatical teacher of youth. See also Dacheri SPICILEG. tom. ii. p. 300. b. edit. ult.
Pag. 85. Not. d . After
"peresse,"
INSERT,
"In this manuscript the whole title is this.
"Le ROSSIGNOL, ou la pensee Jehan de Hovedene clerc la roine d'Engleterre mere le roi Edward de la naissance et de la mort et du relievement et de lascension Jesu Crist et de lassumpcion notre dame."
This manuscript was written in the fourteenth century.
Pag. 86. INSERT at the Beginning of Not. f .
"Among the learned Englishmen who now wrote in French, The Editor of the CANTERBURY TALES mentions Helis de Guincestre, or WINCHESTER, a translator of CATO into French. [See vol. ii. p. 169.] And Hue de Roteland, author of the Romance, in French verse, called Ipomedon, MSS. Cott. VESP. A. vii. [See vol. i. p. 169.] The latter is also supposed to have written a French Dialogue in metre, MSS. Bodl. 3904.
La pleinte par entre mis Sire Henry de Lacy Counte de Nichole
[Lincoln]
et Sire Wauter de Byblesworth pur la croiserie en la terre seinte.
And a French romantic poem on a knight called CAPANEE, perhaps Statius's Capaneus. MSS. Cott. VESP. A. vii. ut supr. It begins,
Qui bons countes viel entendre.
See
"The CANTERBURY TALES of CHAUCER. To which are added An ESSAY upon his LANGUAGE and VERSIFICATION, an INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE, and NOTES. Lond. 1775. 4 vol. 8vo ."
This masterly performance, in which the author has displayed great taste, judgement, sagacity, and the most familiar knowledge of those books which pecuculiarly belong to the province of a commentator on Chaucer, did not appear till more than half of my Second Volume was printed.
Pag. 88. Not. k . ADD
"And at Bennet college, Num. L. 1. It begins,
Ki veut oir chaunçoun damur."
Ibid. Not. m . l. 11. READ
"Davench."
Pag. 99. Not. q . READ
"Them."
Pag. 108. l. 1. ADD this Note to
"Edward."
It appears that king Edward the first, about the year 1271, took his HARPER with him to the Holy Land. This officer was a close and constant attendant of his master: for when Edward was wounded with a poisoned knife at Ptolemais, the harper,
cithareda suus,
hearing the struggle, rushed into the royal apartment, and killed the assassin. CHRON. Walt. Hemingford, cap. xxxv. p. 591. Apud V HISTOR. ANGLIC. SCRIPTOR. vol. ii. Oxon. 1687. fol.
Pag. 111. ADD to last Note,
"Geoffrey of Vinesauf says, that when king Richard the first arrived at the Christian camp before Ptolemais, he was received with
populares Cantiones,
which recited
Antiquorum Praeclara Gesta.
IT. HIEROSOL. cap. ii. p. 332. ibid.
Pag. 112. Before
"commenced,"
INSERT
"and that it."
Pag. 113. ADD to Not. i .
"On a review of this passage in Hoveden, it appears to have been William bishop of Ely, chancellor to king Richard the first, who thus invited minstrels from France, whom he loaded with favours and presents to sing his praises in the streets. But it does not much alter the doctrine of the text, whether he or the king was instrumental in importing the French minstrels into England. This passage is in a Letter of Hugh bishop of Coventry, which see also in Hearne's Benedictus Abbas, vol. ii. p. 704. sub ann. 1191. It appears from this letter, that he was totally ignorant of the English language. ibid. p. 708. By his cotemporary Gyraldus Cambrensis, he is represented as a monster of injustice, impiety, intemperance, and lust. Gyraldus has left these anecdotes of his character, which shew the scandalous grossness of the times.
"Sed taceo quod ruminare solet, nunc clamitat Anglia tota, qualiter puella, matris industria tam coma quam cultu puerum professa, simulansque virum verbis et vultu, ad cubiculum belluae istius est perducta. Sed statim ut exosi illius sexus est inventa, quanquam in se pulcherrima, thalamique thorique deliciis valde idonea, repudiata tamen est et abje
ta. Unde et in crastino, matri filia, tam flagitiosi facinoris conscia, cum Petitionis effectu, terrisque non modicis eandem jure haereditario contingentibus, virgo, ut venerat, est restituta. Tantae nimirum intemperantiae, et petulantiae fuerat tam immoderatae, quod quotidie in prandio circa finem, pretiosis tam potionibus quam cibariis ventre distento, virga aliquantulum longa in capite aculeum praeferente pueros nobiles ad mensam ministrantes, eique propter multimodam qua fungebatur potestatem in omnibus ad nutum obsequentes, pungere vicissim consueverit: ut eo indicio, quasi signo quodam secretiore, quem fortius, inter alios, atque frequentius sic quasi ludicro pungebat, &c. &c."
De VIT. GALFRID. Archiepiscop. Ebor. Apud Whart. ANGL. SACR. vol. ii. p. 406. But Wharton endeavours to prove, that the character of this great prelate and statesman in many particulars had been misrepresented through prejudice and envy. Ibid. vol. i. p. 632.
It seems the French minstrels, with whom the Song of ROLAND originated, were famous about this period. Muratori cites an old history of Bologna, under the year 1288, by which it appears, that they swarmed in the streets of Italy.
"Ut CANTATORES FRANCIGENARUM in plateis comunis ad cantandum morari non possent."
On which words he observes,
"Colle quali parole sembra verosimile, che sieno disegnati i cantatore del
favole romanze,
che
spezialmente
della
Franzia
erano portate in Italia."
DISSERT. ANTICHIT. Ital. tom. ii. c. xxix. p. 16. In Napoli, 1752. He adds, that the minstrels were so numerous in France, as to become a pest to the community; and that an edict was issued about the year 1200, to suppress them in that kingdom. Muratori, in further proof of this point, quotes the above passage from Hoveden; which, as I had done, he misapplies to our king Richard the first. But, in either sense, it equally suits his argument. In the year 1334, at a feast on Easter Sunday, celebrated at Rimini, on occasion of some noble Italians receiving the honour of knighthood, more than one thousand five hundred HISTRIONES are said to have attended.
"Triumphus quidem maximus fuit ibidem, &c.—Fuit etiam multitudo HISTRIONUM circa mille quingentos et ultra."
ANNAL. CAESENAT. tom. xiv. RER. ITALIC. SCRIPTOR. col. 1141. But their countries are not specified. In the year 1227, at a feast in the palace of the archbishop of Genoa, a sumptuous banquet and vestments without number were given to the minstrels, or
Joculatores,
then present, who came from Lombardy, Provence, Tuscany, and other countries. Caffari ANNAL. GENUENS. lib. vi. p. 449. D. Apud Tom. vi. ut supr. In the year 774, when Charlemagne entered Italy and found his passage impeded, he was met by a minstrel of Lombardy, whose song promised him success and victory.
"Contigit JOCULATOREM ex
Longobardorum gente
ad Carolum venire, et CANTIUNCULAM A SE COMPOSITAM, rotando in conspectu suorum, cantare."
Tom. ii. P. 2. ut supr. CHRON. MONAST. NOVAL. lib. iii. cap. x. p. 717. D.
To recur to the origin of this Note. Rymer, in his SHORT VIEW OF TRAGEDY, on the notion that Hovede
is here speaking of king Richard, has founded a theory, which is consequently false, and is otherwise but imaginary. See p. 66. 67. 69. 74. He supposes, that Richard, in consequence of his connection with Raimond count of Tholouse, encouraged the heresy of the Albigenses; and that therefore the historian Hoveden, as an ecclesiastic, was interested in abusing Richard, and in in
inuating, that his reputation for poetry rested only on the venal praises of the French minstrels. The words quoted are, indeed, written by a churchman, although not by Hoveden. But whatever invidious turn they bear, they belong, as we have seen, to quite another person; to a bishop who justly deserved such an indirect stroke of satire, for his criminal enormities, not for any vain pretensions to the character of a Provencial songster.
Pag. 114. l. 15. For
"second,"
READ
"third."
Pag. 15. l. 4. To
"Robert Borron"
ADD this Note,
"In Bennet college library at Cambridge, there is an English poem on the SANGREAL, and its appendages, containing forty thousand verses. MSS. LXXX. chart. The manuscript is imperfect both at the beginning and at the end. The title at the head of the first page is ACTA ARTHURI REGIS, written probably by Joceline, chaplain and secretary to archbishop Parker. The narrative, which appears to be on one continued subject, is divided into books, or sections, of unequal length. It is a translation made from Robert Borron's French romance called LANCELOT, abovementioned, which includes the adventure of the SANGREAL, by Henry Lonelich Skynner, a name which I never remember to have seen among those of the English poets. The diction is of the age of king Henry the sixth. Borel, in his TRESOR
de Recherches et Antiquitez Gauloises et Francoises,
says,
"Il y'a un Roman ancien intitule LE CONQUESTE DE SANGREALL, &c."
Edit. 1655. 4•o . V. GRAAL. It is difficult to determine with any precision which is Robert Borron's French Romance now under consideration, as so many have been written on the subject. [See vol. i. p. 134.] The diligence and accuracy of Mr. Nasmith have furnished me with the following transcript from Lonelich Skynner's translation in Bennet college library.
Thanne passeth forth this storye with al
That is cleped of som men SEYNT GRAAL
Also the SANK RYAL iclepid it is
Of mochel peple with owten mys
Now of al this storie have I mad an ende
That is schwede of Celidoygne and now forthere to wend
And of anothir brawnche most we be gynne
Of the storye that we clepen prophet Merlynne
Wiche that Maister ROBERT of BORROWN
Owt of Latyn it transletted hol and soun
Onlich into the langage of Frawnce
This storie he drowgh be adventure and chaunce
And doth Merlynne insten with SANK RYAL
For the ton storie the tothir medlyth withal
After the satting of the forseid ROBERT
That somtym it transletted in Middilerd
And I as an unkonneng man trewely
Into Englisch have drawen this storye
And thowgh that to ȝow not plesyng it be
Ȝit that ful excused ȝe wolde haven me
Of my neclegence and unkonnenge
On me to taken swich a thinge
Into owre modris tonge for to endite
The swettere to sowne to more and lyte
And more cler to ȝoure undirstondyng
Thanne owthir Frensh other Latyn to my supposing
And therfore atte the ende of this storye
A pater noster ȝe wolden for me preye
For me that HERRY LONELICH hyhte
And greteth owre lady ful of myhte
Hartelich with an ave that ȝe hir bede
This processe the bettere I myhte procede
And bringen this book to a good ende
Now thereto Jesu Crist grace me sende
And than an ende there offen myhte be
Now good Lord graunt me for charite
Thanne Merlyn to Blasye cam anon
And there to hym he seide thus son
Blasye thou schalt suffren gret peyne
This storye to an ende to bringen certeyne
And ȝit schall I suffren mochel more
How so Merlyn quod Blasye there
I schall be sowht quod Merlyne tho
Owt from the west with messengeris mo
And they that scholen comen to seken me
They have maad sewrawnce I telle the
Me forto slen for any thing
This sewrawnce hav they mad to her kyng
But whanne they me sen and with me speke
No power they schol hav on me to ben a wreke
For with hem hens moste I gon
And thou into othir partyes schalt wel son
To hem that hav the holy vessel
Which that is icleped the SEYNT GRAAL
And wete thow wel and ek forsothe
That thow and ek this storye bothe
Ful wel beherd now schall it be
And also beloved in many contre
And has that will knowen in sertaygne
What kynges that weren in grete Bretaygne
Sithan that Cristendom thedyn was browht
They scholen hem fynde has so that it sawht
In the storye of BRWTTES book
There scholen ȝe it fynde and ȝe weten look
Which that MARTYN DE BEWRE translated here
From Latyn into Romaunce in his manere
But leve me now of BRWTTES book
And aftyr this storye now lete us look.
After this latter extract, which is to be found nearly in the middle of the manuscript, the scene and personages of the poem are changed; and king Enalach, king Mordrens, Sir Nesciens, Joseph of Arimathea, and the other heroes of the former part, give place to king Arthur, king Brangors, king Loth, and the monarchs and champions of the British line. In a paragraph, very similar to the second of these extracts, the following note is written in the hand of the text,
Henry Lonelich Skynner, that translated this boke out of Frenshe into Englyshe, at the instaunce of Harry Barton.
The QUEST OF THE SANGREAL, as it is called, in which devotion and necromancy are equally concerned, makes a considerable part of king Arthur's romantic history, and was one grand object of the knights of the Round Table. He who achieved this hazardous adventure was to be placed there in the
siege perillous,
or
seat
of
danger.
"When Merlyn had ordayned the rounde table, he said, by them that be fellowes of the rounde table the truthe of the SANGREALL shall be well knowne, &c.—They which heard Merlyn say soe, said thus to Merlyn, sithence there shall be such a knight, thou shouldest ordayne by thy craft a siege that no man should sitte therein, but he onlie which shall passe all other knights.—Then Merlyn made the siege perillous, &c."
Caxton's MORT D'ARTHUR, B. xiv. cap. ii. Sir Lancelot,
who is come but of the eighth degree from our lord Jesus Christ,
is represented as the chief adventurer in this honourable expedition. Ibid. B. iii. c. 35. At a celebration of the feast of Pentecost at Camelot by king Arthur, the Sangreal suddenly enters the hall,
"but there was no man might see it nor who bare it,"
and the knights, as by some invisible power, are instantly supplied with a feast of the choicest dishes. Ibid. c. 35. Originally LE BRUT, LANCELOT, TRISTAN, and the SAINT GREAL were separate histories; but they were so connected and confounded before the year 1200, that the same title became applicable to all. The book of the SANGREAL, a separate work, is referred to in MORTE ARTHUR.
"Now after that the quest of the SANCGREALL was fulfylled
and that all the knyghtes that were lefte alive were come agayne to the Rounde Table, as the BOOKE OF THE SANCGREALL makethe mencion, than was there grete joye in the courte. And especiallie king Arthur and quene Guenever made grete joye of the remnaunt that were come home. And passynge glad was the kinge and quene of syr Launcelot and syr Bors, for they had been passynge longe awaye in the quest of the SANCGREALL. Then, as the Frenshe booke sayeth, syr Lancelot, &c."
B. xviii. cap. 1. And again, in the same romance.
"Whan syr Bors had tolde him [Arthur] of the adventures of the SANCGREALL, such as had befallen hym and his felawes,—all this was made in grete bookes, and put in almeryes at Salisbury."
B. xvii. cap. xxiii
The romance says, that king Arthur
"made grete clerkes com before him that they should cronicle the adventures of these goode knygtes."
[See supr. vol. i. p. 336.]
. The former part of this passage is almost literally translated from one in the French romance of TRISTAN, Bibl. Reg. MSS. 20 D. ii. fol. antep.
"Quant Boort ot conte laventure del Saint Graal teles com eles esloient avenues, eles furent mises en escrit, gardees en lamere de Salibieres,
dont Mestre
GALTIER MAP
l'estrest a faist son livre du Saint Graal por lamor du roy Herri son sengor, qui fist lestoire tralater del Latin en romanz
See supr. vol. ii. p. 235.
."
Whether
Salisbury,
or
Salibieres
is, in the two passages, the right reading, I cannot ascertain. [But see Not
. p. 117. vol. ii.] But in the royal library at Paris there is
"Le Roman de TRISTAN ET ISEULT, traduit de Latin en François, par Lucas chevalier du Gast pres de Sarisberi, Anglois, avec figures."
Montfauc. CATAL. MSS. Cod. Reg. Paris. Cod. 6776. fol. max. And again Cod. 6956. fol. max.
"Liveres de TRISTAN mis en François par Lucas chevalier sieur de chateau du Gat
There is printed,
"Le Roman du noble et vaillant Chevalier Tristan fils d
noble roy M
liadus de Leonnoys, par Luce, chevalier, seigneur du chastea
de Gast. Rouen, 1489. fol."
."
[See supr. vol. i. p. 115. Notes.]
Almeryes
in the English, and
l'Amere,
properly
aumoire
in the French, mean, I believe,
Presses, Chests,
or
Archives. Ambry,
in this sense, is not an uncommon old English word. From the second part of the first French quotation which I have distinguished by Italics, it appears, that Walter Mapes, a learned archdeacon in England, under the reign of king Henry the second, wrote a French SANGREAL, which he translated from Latin, by the command of that monarch. Under the idea, that Walter Mapes was a writer on this subject, and in the fabulous way, some critics may be induced to think, that the WALTER, archdeacon of Oxford, from whom Geoffrey of Monmouth professes to have received the materials of his history, was this Walter Mapes, and not Walter Calenius, who was also an eminent scholar, and an archdeacon of Oxford. [See vol. i. p. 65.] Geoffrey says in his Dedication to Robert earl of Gloucester,
"Finding nothing said in Bede or Gildas of king Arthur and his su
cessours, although their actions highly deserved to be recorded in writing, and are orally celebrated by the British bards, I was much surprised at so strange an omission. At length Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, a man of great eloquence, and learned in foreign histories, offered me an ancient book in the British or Armorican tongue; which, in one unbroken story, and an elegant diction, related the deeds of the British kings from Brutus to Cadwallader. At his request, although unused to rhetorical flourishes, and contented with the simplicity of my own plain language, I undertook the translation of that book into Latin."
B. i. ch. i. See also B. xii. ch. xx. Some writers suppose, that Geoffrey pretended to have received his materials from archdeacon Walter, by way of authenticating his romantic history. These notices seem to disprove that suspicion. In the year 1488, a French romance was published, in two magnificent folio volumes, entitled, HISTOIRE
de
ROY ARTUS
et des
CHEVALIERS
de la
TABLE RONDE. The first volume was printed at
Rouen,
the second at
Paris.
It contains in four detached parts, the Birth and Achievements of king Arthur, the Life of Sir Lancelot, the Adventure of the Sangreal, and the Death of Arthur, and his Knights. In the body of the work, this romance more than once is said to be written by Walter Map or Mapes, and by the command of his master king Henry. For instance, tom. ii. at the end of PARTIE DU SAINT GRAAL, Signat. d d i.
"Cy fine Maistre GUALTIER MAP son traittie du Saint Graal."
Again, tom. ii. LA DERNIERE PARTIE, ch. i. Signat. d d ii.
"Apres ce que Maistre GUALTIER MAP eut tractie des avantures du Saint Graal, assez sou
isamment, sicomme il luy sembloit, il fut ad adviz au ROY HENRY SON SEIGNEUR, que ce quil avoit fait ne debuit soufrire sil ne racontoys la fin de ceulx dont il fait mention.—Et commence Maistre Gualtier en telle manier ceste derniere partie."
This
derniere partie
treats of the death of king Arthur and his knights. At the end of the second tome there is this colophon.
"Cy fine le dernier volume de La Table Ronde, faisant mencion des fais et proesses de monseigneur Launcelot du Lac et dautres plusieurs nobles et vaillans hommes ses compagnons. Compile et extraict precisement et au juste des vrayes histoires faisantes de ce mencion par tresnotable et tresexpert historien Maistre GUALTIER MAP, et imprime a Paris par Jehan du Pre. Et lan du grace, mil. cccc. iiiixx. et viii. le xvi jour du Septembre."
The passage quoted above from the royal manuscript in the British Museum, where king Arthur orders the adventures of the Sangreal to be chronicled, is thus represented in this romance.
"Et quant Boort eut compte depuis le commencement jusques a la fin les avantures du Saint Graal telles comme ils les avoit veues, &c. Si fist le roy Artus rediger et mettre par escript aus dictz clers tout ci que Boort avoit compte, &c."
Ibid. tom. ii. La Partie du SAINT GRAAL, ch. ult.
Just before it is said,
"Le roy Artus fist venir les CLERCS qui les aventures aux chevalliers mettoient en escript."
As in MORT D'ARTHUR.
At the end of the royal manuscript
t Paris, [Cod. 6783.] entitled LANCELOT DU LAC
mis en François par Robert de Borron par le commandement de Henri roi d'Angleterre,
it is said, that Messire Robert de Borron translated into French, not only LANCELOT, but also the story of the SAINT GRAAL
li tout du Latin du
GAUTIER MAPPE. But the French antiquaries in this sort of literature are of opinion, that the word
Latin,
here signifies
Italian;
and that by this LATIN of Gualtier Mapes, were are to understand
English
versions of those romances made from the
Italian
language. The French History of the SANGREAL, printed at Paris in folio by Gallyot du Prè in 1516, is said, in the title, to be translated from Latin into French rhymes, and from thence into French prose by Robert Borron. This romance was reprinted in 1523.
Caxton's MORTE ARTHUR, finished in the year 1469, professes to treat of various separate histories. But the matter of the whole is so much of the same sort, and the heroes and adventures of one story are so mutually and perpetually blended with those of another, that no real unity or distinction is preserved. It consists of twenty-one books. The first seven books treat of king Arthur. The eighth, ninth, and tenth, of sir Trystram. The eleventh and twelfth of sir Lancelot
But at the end, this twelfth book is called the
the second booke of
SYR TRYSTRAM. And it is added,
"But here is no rehersall of the thyrd booke
[of
SIR TRISTRAM."
]
. The thirteenth of the SAINGRAL, which is also called sir Lancelot's Book. The fourteenth of sir Percival. The fifteenth, again, of sir Lancelot. The sixteenth of sir Gawaine. The seventeenth of sir Galahad. [But all the four last mentioned books are also called the
historye of the holy Sancgreall.]
The eighteenth and nineteenth of miscellaneous adventures. The two last of king Arthur and all the knights. Lwhyd mentions a Welsh SANGREALL, which, he says, contains various fables of king Arthur and his knights, &c. ARCHAEOLOG. BRIT. Tit. vii. p. 265. col. 2. MORTE ARTHUR is often literally translated from various and very ancient detached histories of the heroes of the round table, which I have examined; and on the whole, it nearly resembles Walter Map's romance abovementioned, printed at Rouen and Paris, both in matter and disposition.
I take this opportunity of observing, that a very valuable vellum fragment of LE BRUT, of which the writing is uncommonly beautiful and of high antiquity, containing part of the story of Merlin and king Vortigern, covers a manuscript of Chaucer's ASTROLABE, lately presented, together with several oriental manuscripts, to the Bodleian library, by Thomas Hedges, esquire, of Alderton in Wiltshire: a gentleman possessed of many curious manuscripts, and Greek and Roman coins, and most liberal in his communications.
Pag. 119. ADD to Not. x .
"Among Crynes's books in the Bodleian library is a copy of king Richard's romance, printed by W. de Worde in 1509. CR. 734. 8vo . This edition was in the Harleian library.
Pag. 120. Notes. l. 13. col. 2. After
"sixth,"
ADD
"By the way, it appears from this quotation, that there was an old romance called WADE. Wade's
Bote
is mentioned in Chaucer's MARCHAUNTS TALE, v. 940. p. 68. Urr.
And eke these olde wivis, god it wote,
They connin so much crafte in
Wadis bote.
Again, TROIL. CRESS. iii. 615.
He songe, she plaide, he tolde a tale of
Wade.
Where, says the glossarist,
"A romantick story, famous at that time, of one WADE, who performed many strange exploits, and met with many wonderful adventures in his Boat
Guigelot.
"
Speght says, that Wade's history was
long
and
fabulous.
Pag. 126. ADD to Not. c . 1. 9.
"See Preface to Hearne's Rob. of Gloucester, p. lx. And Strype's ANNALS, ii. p. 313. edit. 1725. Where Stowe is mentioned as an industrious collector of antient chronicles. In the year 1568, among the proofs of Stowe's attachment to popery, it was reported to the privy council by archbishop Grindal, that
"he had a great sort of foolish fabulous books of
old print,
as of sir DEGORY, sir TRYAMOUR, &c. A great parcell also of old-written English chronicles, both in parchment and paper."
See Strype's GRINDALL. B. i. ch. xiii. pag. 125. And APPEND. Num. xvii."
Pag. 127. Not. d . l. 2. After
"Latin,"
ADD
"romance."
In Lincoln's-inn library there is a poem entitled BELLUM TROJANUM, Num. 150. Pr.
Sichen god hade this worlde wroght.
Pag. 128. l. 7. DELE the first
"of."
Pag. 129. l. 3. READ
"Olynthian."
Pag. 131. l. 21. Not. col. 1. After
"fables,"
ADD
"See Wolfii Bibl. Hebr. i. 468. ii. 931. iii. 350. iv. 934."
Pag. 143. Not. p . ADD
"Among the Bennet manuscripts there is ROMANZ DE GUI DE WARWYK. Num. L. It begins,
Puis cel tems ke deus fu nez.
This book belonged to Saint Augustin's abbey at Canterbury. With regard to the preceding romance of BEVIS, the Italians had
Buovo d'Antona,
undoubtedly from the French, before 1348. And Luhyd recites in Welsh,
Ystori Boun o Hamtun.
ARCHAEOL. p. 264.
Pag. 147. Not. d . l. 2. DELE
"Treatisé on Monarchy."
Afterwards READ
"that piece."
Pag. 154. to l.
4. ADD this Note,
"It is
"One and twenti inches aboute."
So doctor Farmer's manuscript, purchased from Mr. Martin's library. See supr. p. 121. Not. g . This is in English.
Pag. 156. ADD to Not. y .
"Or perhaps,
By the lyfte,
is, through the air. See Lye in Junius, V. LIFT.
Pag. 157. l. 15. READ
"Comnena."
Pag. 158. Not. i . l. 17. READ
"area."
Pag. 161. ADD to Not. q .
"In the wardrobe-roll of prince Edward, afterwards king Edward the second, under the year 1272, the masters of the horse render their accounts for horses purchased, specifying the colours and prices with the greatest accuracy. One of them is called,
"Unus equus FAVELLUS cum stella in fronte, &c."
Hearne's JOANN. DE TROKELOWE. Praef. p. xxvi. Here
favellus
is interpreted by Hearne to be
honeycomb.
I suppose he understands a dappled or roan horse. But FAVELLUS, evidently an adjective, is barbarous Latin for FALVUS, or
fulvus,
a dun or light yellow, a word often used to express the colour of horses and hawks. See Carpentier, SUPPL. Du Fresne LAT. GLOSS. V. FAVELLUS. tom. ii. p. 370. It is hence that king Richard's horse is called FAVEL. From which word PHANUEL, in Robert de Brunne, is a corruption.
Pag. 165. Not. k . l. 3. READ
"paytrell."
Pag. 170. to
"corall"
in l. 16. ADD this Note,
"I do not perfectly understand the materials of this fairy palace.
The walls thereof were of cristall
And the somers of
corall.
But Chaucer mentions
corall
in his temple of Diana. KNIGHTES TALE, v. 1912.
And northward, in a touret on the wall,
Of alabastre white, and red corall,
An oratorie riche for to see.
Carpentier cites a passage from the romance
De Troyes,
in which a chamber of al
baster is mentioned. SUPPL. LAT, GLOSS. Du Cange, tom. i. p. 136.
En celle chambre n'oit noienz,
De chaux, d'areine, de cimenz,
Enduit, ni moillerons, ni emplaistre,
Tot entiere fut
alambastre.
Pag. 175. ADD to Not. w .
"The etymologists have been puzzled to find the derivation of an oriel-window. A learned correspondent suggests, that ORIEL is Hebrew for
Lux mea,
or
Dominus illuminatio mea.
Pag. 180. to Not. • . ADD,
"Cloath of Rennes seems to have been the finest sort of linen. In the old manuscript MYSTERY, or religious comedy, of MARY MAGDALENE, written in 1512, a GALANT, one of the retainers to the groupe of the Seven Deadly Sins, is introduced with the following speech.
Hof, Hof, Hof, a frysch new galaunt!
Ware of thryft, ley that a doune:
What mene ye, syrrys, that I were a marchaunt,
Because that I am new com to toun?
With praty .... wold I fayne round,
I have a
shert
of
reyns
with sleves peneaunt,
A lase of sylke for my lady Constant—
I woll, or even, be shaven for to seme yong, &c.
So also in Skelton's MAGNIFICENCE, a Morality written much about the same time. f. xx. b.
Your skynne, that was wrapped in
shertes of raynes,
Nowe must be storm ybeten.—
Pag. 186. Not. n . READ
"Ne wist."
Pag. 190. Not. col. 1. lin. 7. After
"Robert,"
ADD
"The French prose romance of ROBERT LE DIABLE, printed in 1496, is extant in the little collection, of two volumes, called BIBLIOTHEQUE BLEUE. It has been translated into other languages: among the rest into English. The English version was printed by Wynkyn de Worde. The title of one of the chapters is,
How god sent an aungell to the hermyte to shewe him the penaunce that
e sholde gyve to Robert for his synnes.
—
"Yf that Robert wyll be shryven of his synnes, he must kepe and counterfeite the wayes of a fole and be as he were dombe, &c."
It ends thus
Thus endeth the lyfe of Robert the devyll
That was the servaunte of our lorde
And of his condycyons that was full evyll
Emprinted in London by Wynkyn de Worde.
The volume has this colophon.
"Here endeth the lyfe of the moost ferefullest and unmercyfullest and myschevous Robert the devill which was afterwards called the servaunt of our Lorde Jhesu Cryste. Emprinted in Fletestrete in [at] the sygne of the sonne by Wynkyn de Worde."
There is an old English MORALITY on this tale, under the very corrupt title of ROBERT CICYLL, which was represented at the HighCross in Chester, in 1529. There is a manuscript copy of the poem, on vellum, in Trinity college library at Oxford, MSS. Num. LVII. fol.
Pag. 197. to l. 15. ADD this Note;
"I know not if by
sire Jovyn
he means Jupiter, or the Roman emperour called Jovinian, against whom saint Jerom wrote, and whose history is in the GESTA ROMANORUM, c. 59. He is mentioned by Chaucer as an example of pride, luxury, and lust. SOMP. T. v. 7511. Verdier (in V.) recites a
Moralite
on Jovinian, with nineteen characters, printed at Lyons, from an antient copy in 1581, 8vo . With the title
L'Orgueil et presomption de l'Empereur
JOVINIAN. But
Jovyn
being mentioned here with
Plotoun
and
Apollin,
seems to mean
Jove
or
Jupiter;
and the appellation, SIRE, perhaps implies
father,
or
chief,
of the heathen gods.
Pag. 200. to the Note ADD,
"Margaret countess of Richmond was a justice of peace."
Pag. 208. to Not. c . ADD
"I make no apology for adding here an account of the furniture of a CLOSET at the old royal palace of Greenwich, in the reign of Henry the eighth; as it throws light on our general subject, by giving a lively picture of the fashions, arts, amusements, and modes of life, which then prevailed. From the same manuscript in the British Museum.
"A clocke. A glasse of steele. Four battell axes of wood. Two quivers with arrowes. A painted table, [i. e. a picture.] A payre of ballance [balances], with waights. A case of tynne with a plot. In the window [a large bowwindow], a rounde mapp, A standinge glasse of steele in ship.—A branche of flowres wrought upon wyre. Two payre of playing tables of bone. A payre of chesmen in a case of black lether. Two birds of Araby. A gonne [gun] upon a stocke wheeled. Five paxes [crucifixes] of glasse and woode. A tablet of our ladie and saint Anne. A standinge glasse with imagery made of bone. Three payre of hawkes gloves, with two lined with velvett. Three combe-cases of bone furnished. A night-cappe of blacke velvett embrawdered. Sampson made in alablaster. A peece of unicorne's horne. Littel boxes in a case of woode. Four littel coffres for jewels. A horne of ivorie, A standinge diall in a case of copper. A horne-glasse. Eight cases of trenchers. Forty four dogs collars, of sondrye makynge. Seven
lyans
of silke. A purse of crymson satten for a ..... embrawdered with golde. A round painted table with th' ymage of a kinge. A foldinge table of images. One payre of bedes [beads] of jasper garnyshed with lether. One hundred and thirty eight hawkes hoodes. A globe of paper. A mappe made lyke a scryne. Two green boxes with wrought corall in them. Two boxes covered with blacke velvett. A reede tipt at both ends with golde, and bolts for a turony bowe
Perhaps Tyrone in Irela
d.
. A chaire of joyned worke. An elle of synnamounde [cinnamon] sticke tipt with sylver. Three ridinge roddes for ladies, and a yard [rod] of blake tipt with horne. Six walkyng staves, one covered with silke and golde. A blake satten-bag with chesmen. A table with a cloth [a picture] of saint George embrawdered. A case of fyne carved work. A box with a bird of Araby. Two long cases of blacke lether with pedegrees. A case of Irish arrows. A table, with wordes, of Jhesus. A target. Twenty-nine bowes."
MSS. Harl. 1419. fol. 58. In the GALLERY at Greenwich, mention is made of a
"Mappe of England."
Ibid. fol. 58. And in Westminster-palace
"a Mappe of Hantshire."
fol. 133. A proof that the topography of England was now studied. Among various HEADS of Furniture, or stores, at the castle of Windsor, such as HORNS, GYRDELLES, HAWKES HOODS, WEAPONS, BUCKLERS, DOGS COLLARS, and AIGLETTES, WALKINGSTAVES are specified. Under this last HEAD we have,
"A Cane garnished with sylver and gilte, with astronomie upon it. A Cane garnished with golde havinge a perfume in the toppe, undre that a diall, with a paire of twitchers, and a paire of compasses of golde and a foote reule of golde, a knife and the file, th' afte [the handle of the knife] of golde with a whetstone tipped with golde, &c."
fol. 407.
Ibid. Notes, col. 1. To l. 25. ADD
"It is in this romance of Syr BEVYS, that the knight passes over a bridge, the arches of which are hung round with small bells. Signat. E iv. This is an oriental idea. In the ALCORAN it is said, that one of the felicities in Mahomet's paradise, will be to listen to the ravishing music of an infinite number of bells, hanging on the trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of God. Sale's KORAN, Prelim. Disc. p. 100. In the enchanted horn, as we shall see hereafter, in
le Lai du Corn,
the rim of the horn is hung round with a hundred bells of a most musical sound.
Pag. 219. REFER Not. o . to
ilome
in the text.
Pag. 220. to l. 18. ADD this Note. In the Lincoln's-inn manuscript it is,
Divers is this myddel erde.
Hospit. Linc. MSS. N. 150.
Pag. 221. Not. f . READ
"Aurifrigium."
Ibid. Not. col. 1. l. 2, For
"Ethiope,"
READ
"Europe."
So MS. Hospit. Linc.
Pag. 232. Not. g . l. antep. READ
"Hubert."
[See Leland. SCRIPT. BRIT. p. 228. And a Note in the editor's first Index, under GULIELMUS DE CANNO.]
Pag. 248. l. 8. READ
"canonical."
Pag. 255. Not. s . READ
"238."
Pag. 265. To l. 11. ADD this Note,
"Much about the same period, Lawrence Minot, not mentioned by Tanner, wrote a collection of poems on the principal events of the reign of king Edward the third, preserved in the British Museum. MSS. Cotton. GALB. E. ix.
Pag. 276. Not. u . READ
"360."
Pag. 277. ADD to Not. z .
"Or, Cousin."
Pag. 278. ADD to Not. f .
"See below, p. 300."
Pag. 279. l. 18. To the word
"Wy"
ADD this Note.
"Wy is probably Weyhill in Hampshire, where a famous fair still subsists.
Pag. 289. Not. d . READ
"Austins."
Pag. 292. For
"John,"
READ
"Thomas."
Pag. 298. Not. READ
"p. 40."
Ibid. DELE Not. • . And SUBSTITUTE
"Robartes men, or Roberdsmen, were a set of lawless vagabonds, notorious for their outrages when PIERCE PLOWMAN was written, that is, about the year 1350. The statute of Edward the third [an. reg. 5. c. xiv.] specifies
"divers manslaughters, felonies, and robberies, done by people that be called
Roberdesmen,
Wastours, and drawlatches."
And the statute of Richard the second [an. reg. 7. c. v.] ordains, that the statute of king Edward concerning
Roberdsmen
and
Drawlacches
shall be rigorously observed. Sir Edward Coke [INSTIT. iii. 197.] supposes them to have been originally the followers of Robert Hood in the reign of Richard the first. See Blackstone's COMM. B. iv. ch. 17. Bishop Latimer says, that in a town where he intended to preach, he could not collect a congregation, because it was
Robinhoodes daye.
"I thought my rochet would have been regarded, though I were not: but it would not serve, it was faine to give place to
Robinhoodes men.
"
SERMONS, fol. 74. b. This expression is not without an allusion to the
bad
sense of
Roberdsmen.
Pag. 299. To l. 4. ADD this Note.
"In the LIBER PAENITENTIALIS there is this injunction,
"Si monachus per EBRIETATEM
vomitum fecerit,
triginta dies
paeniteat.
"
MSS. JAM. V. 237. Bibl. Bodl.
Pag. 300. ADD to Not. p .
"Most of the printed copies read
praid.
Hearne, in a quotation of this passage, reads
yrad.
GUL. NEWBRIG. p. 770. He quotes an edition of 1553.
"Your name shall be richly written in the windows of the church of the monastery, which men will READ there for ever."
This seems to be the true reading.
Ibid. Not. m . Before
"Painted,"
INSERT
"Must be."
Mote
is often used in Chaucer for must.
Pag. 301. l. antep. READ
"ycorven."
Pag. 302. DELE Not. p . And SUBSTITUTE,
"By
Merkes of merchauntes
we are to understand their symbols, cyphers, or badges, drawn or painted in the windows. Of this passage I have received the following curious explication from Mr. Cole, rector of Blechley in Bucks, a learned antiquary in the heraldic art.
"
Mixed with the arms of their founders and benefactors stand also the
MARKS
of tradesmen and merchants, who had no Arms, but used their Marks in a Shield like Arms.
Instances of this sort are very common. In many places in Great Saint Mary's church in Cambridge such a SHIELD of MARK occurs: the same that is to be seen in the windows of the great shop opposite the Conduit on the Market-hill, and the corner house of the Petty Curry. No doubt, in the reign of Henry the seventh, the owner of these houses was a benefactor to the building, or glasing Saint Mary's church. I have seen like instances in Bristol cathedral; and the churches at Lynn are full of them."
—In an antient system of heraldry in the British Museum, I find the following illustration, under a shield of this sort.
"Theys be none armys, bvt a MARKE as MARCHAUNTS vse, for every mane may take hyme a Marke, but not armys, without an herawde or purcyvaunte."
MSS. Harl. 2259. 9. fol. 110.
Ibid. Not. • . ADD
"But perhaps we should read HURNES, interpreted, in the short Glossary to the CREDE, CAVES, that is, in the present application,
niches, arches.
See GLOSS. Rob. Glouc. p. 660. col. i. HURN, is
angle, corner.
From the Saxon Pẏ
n,
Angulus.
Chaucer FRANKEL. T. Urr. p. 110. v. 2677.
Seeking in every halke [nook], and every
herne.
And again, CHAN. YEM. Prol. p. 121. v. 679.
Lurking in
hernis
and in lanis blind.
Read the line, thus pointed.
Housed in HURNES hard set abouten.
The sense is therefore.
"The tombs were within lofty-pinnacled tabernacles, and enclosed in a multiplicity of thickset arches."
HARD is
close
or
thick.
This conveys no bad idea of a Gothic sepulchral shrine.
Ibid. DELE Not. • .
Ibid. l. antep. For
"often,"
READ
"of ten."
Pag. 303. l. antep. READ
"quentelyche."
Pag. 309. Not. • . l. 1. READ
"140."
Pag. 317. ADD to Not. • .
"The Holy Virgin appears to a priest who often sung to her, and calls him her
joculator.
MSS. JAMES. xxvi. p. 32.
Pag. 321. l. 23. READ
"1594."
Pag. 339. Not. s . ADD
"Perhaps by
Cenes,
Froissart means SHENE, the royal palace at Richmond.
Pag. 343. l. 10. READ
"Gloucestershire."
Ibid. Not. g . l. 1. READ
"Glanville."
And ADD at the end
"See Lewis's WICCLIFFE, p. 66. 329. And Lewis's HISTORY of the TRANSLATIONS of the BIBLE, p. 66.
Pag. 346. l. 17. After
"Lucca in,"
INSERT,
"1570. The title of Granucci's prose THESEIDE is this, THESEIDE
di Boccacio de ottava Rima nuovamente ridotta in prosa per Nicolao Granucci di Lucca. In Lucca appresso Vinzenzza Busdraghi.
MDLXX. In the DEDICAZIONE to this work, which was printed more than two hundred years ago, and within one hundred years after the Ferrara edition of the THESEIDE appeared, Granucci mentions Boccacio's work as a TRANSLATION from the barbarous Greek poem cited below. DEDICAZ. fol. 5.
"Volendo far cosa, que non sio stata fatta da loro, pero mutato parere mi dicoli a ridurre in prosa questo Innamoramento, Opera di M. Giovanni Boccacio,
quale egli
transporto DAL GRECO
in octava
rima per compiacere alla sua Fiametta, &c."
Lib. SLONIAN. 1614. Brit. Mus.
Pag. 349. l. 5. After
"Theseid,"
INSERT
"The writer has translated the prefatory epistle addressed by Boccacio to the Fiametta.
Ibid. l. 10. READ
"1453."
Pag. 350. ADD to the last Note.
"In the edition of the GESTA ROMANORUM, printed at Rouen in 1521, and containing one hundred and eighty-one chapters, the history of Apollonius of Tyre occurs, ch. 153. This is the first of the additional chapters.
Pag. 352. To Not. r . ADD
"The translation of FLORES and BLANCAFLORE in Greek iambics might also be made in compliment to Boccacio. Their adventures make the principal subject of his PHILOCOPO: but the story existed long before, as Boccacio himself informs us, L. i. p. 6. edit. 1723. Flores and Blancaflore are mentioned as illustrious lovers by
Matfres Eymengau de Bezers,
a poet of Languedoc, in his BREVIARI D'AMOR, dated in the year 1288. MSS. REG. 19 C. i. fol. 199. This tale was probably enlarged in passing through the hands of Boccacio. See CANTERB. T. iv. p. 169.
Ibid. ADD to Not. t .
"I am informed, that Dr. George's books, amongst which was the Greek Theseid, were purchased by Lord Spencer.
Ibid. Not. c . l. 3. READ
"Tzetzes."
Pag. 357. l. 7. ADD this Note.
"Boccacio's situations and incidents, respecting the lovers, are often inartificial and unaffecting. In the Italian poet, Emilia walking in the garden and singing, is seen and heard first by Arcite, who immediately calls Palamon. They are both equally, and at the same point of time, captivated with her beauty; yet without any expressions of jealousy, or appearance of rivalry. But in Chaucer's management of the commencement of this amour, Palamon by seeing Emilia first, acquires an advantage over Arcite, which ultimately renders the catastrophe more agreeable to poetical justice. It is an unnatural and unanimated picture which Boccacio presents, of the two young princes violently enamoured of the same object, and still remaining in a state of amity. In Chaucer, the quarrel between the two friends, the foundation of all the future beautiful distress of the piece, commences at this moment, and causes a conversation full of mutual rage and resentment. This rapid transition from a friendship cemented by every tie, to the most implacable hostility, is on this occasion not only highly natural, but produces a sudden and unexpected change of circumstances, which enlivens the detail, and is always interesting. Even afterwards, when Arcite is released from the prison by Perithous, he embraces Palamon at parting. And in the fifth book of the THESEIDE, when Palamon goes armed to the grove in search of Arcite, whom he finds sleeping, they meet on terms of much civility and friendship, and in all the mechanical formality of the manners of romance. In Chaucer, this dialogue has a very different cast. Palamon at seeing Arcite, feels a
colde swerde
glide throughout his heart: he starts from his ambuscade, and instantly salutes Arcite with the appellation of
false traitour.
And although Boccacio has merit in discriminating the characters of the two princes, by giving Palamon the impetuosity of Achilles, and Arcite the mildness of Hector; yet Arcite by Boccacio is here injudiciously represented as too moderate and pacific. In Chaucer he returns the salute with the same degree of indignation, draws his sword, and defies Palamon to single combat. So languid is Boccacio's plan of this amour, that Palamon does not begin to be jealous of Arcite, till he is informed in the prison, that Arcite lived as a favorite servant with Theseus in disguise, yet known to Emilia. When the lovers see Emilia from the window of their tower, she is supposed by Boccacio to observe them, and not to be displeased at their signs of admiration. This circumstance is justly omitted by Chaucer, as quite unnecessary; and not tending either to promote the present business, or to operate in any distant consequences. On the whole, Chaucer has eminently shewn his good sense and judgement in rejecting the superfluities, and improving the general arrangement, of the story. He frequently corrects or softens Boccacio's false manners: and it is with singular address he has often abridged the Italian poet's ostentatious and pedantic parade of antient history and mythology.
Pag. 357. l. 21. READ
"sharpe."
Pag. 359. l. 14. For
"boris,"
READ
"beris."
Pag. 360. Not. c . l. 11. For
"wende,"
READ
"wonde."
Pag. 362. l. ult. DELE
"court."
Pag. 363. ADD to end of Note, col. 2.
"But to be more particular as to these imitations.
Ver. 900. p. 8. Urr. edit.
A company of ladys twey and twey, &c.
Thus Theseus, at his return in triumph from conquering Scythia, is accosted by the dames of Thebes, Stat. THEB. xii. 519.
Jamque domos patrias, Scythicae post aspera gentis
Praelia, laurigero subeuntem Thesea curru
Laetifici plausus, &c. &c.
Paulum et ab insessis moestae Pelopeides aris
Promovere gradum, seriemque et dona triumphi
Mirantur, victique animo rediere mariti.
Atque ubi tardavit currus, et ab axe superbo
Explorat causas victor, poscitque benigna
Aure preces; orsa ante alias Capaneia conjux,
Belliger Aegide, &c.
Chaucer here copies Statius, (v. 861,—966.) KN. T. from v. 519. to v. 600. THEB. See also ibid. 465. seq.
V. 930. p. 9.
Here in the Temple of the goddess Clemence, &c.
Statius mentions the temple of Clemency as the asylum where these ladies were assembled, THEB. xii. 481.
Urbe fuit media, nulli concessa potentum
Ara deum, mitis posuit Clementia sedem, &c.
V. 2947.
Ne what jewillis men into the fire cast, &c.
Literally from Statius, THEB. vi. 206.
Ditantur flammae, non unquam opulentior illa
Ante cinis; crepitant gemmae, &c.
But the whole of Arcite's funeral is minutely copied from Statius. More than a hundred parallel lines on this subject might be produced from each poet. In Statius the account of the trees felled for the pyre, with the consternation of the Nymphs, takes up more than twenty-four lines. v. 84.—116. In Chaucer about thirteen, v. 2922.—2937. In Boccacio, six stanzas. B. xi. Of the three poets, Statius is most reprehensible, the first author of this ill-placed and unnecessary description, and who did not live in a Gothic age. The statues of Mars and Venus I imagined had been copied from Fulgentius, Boccacio's favorite mythographer. But Fulgentius says nothing of Mars: and of Venus, that she only stood in the sea on a couch, attended by the Graces. It is from Statius that Theseus became a hero of romance.
Pag. 366. l. antep. "READ
"laughith."
And ADD this Note.
"For
Orient,
perhaps
Orisount,
or the
horison,
is the true reading. So the edition of Chaucer in 1561. So also the barbarous-Greek poem on this story,
. Dryden seems to have read, or to have made out of this mispelling of Horison, ORIENT.
Pag. 370. l. 8. READ
"buske."
Pag. 372. l. antep. For
"at,"
READ
"al."
Pag. 374. l. 20. READ
"forto."
Pag. 375. l. 6. READ
"This."
Pag. 376. ADD to Not. in col. 1.
"AMILED is from the French EMAIL, or ENAMEL. This art flourished most at Limoges in France. So early as the year 1197, we have
"Duas tabulas aeneas superauratas de
labore Limogiae.
"
Chart. ann. 1197. apud Ughelin. tom. vii. ITAL. SACR. p. 1274. It is called
Opus Lemnoviticum,
in Dugdale's MON. iii. 310. 313. 331. And in Wilkins's CONCIL. i. 666. where two cabinets for the host are ordered, one of silver or of ivory, and the other de
opere Lemovicino.
SYNOD. WIGORN. A. D. 1240. And in many other places. I find it called
Limaise,
in a metrical romance, the name of which I have forgot, where a tomb is described,
And yt was, the Romans sayes,
All with golde and
limaise.
Carpentier [V. LIMOGIA.] observes, that it was antiently a common ornament of sumptuous tombs. He cites a Testament of the year 1327,
"Je lais huit cent livres pour faire deux tombes hautes et levées de l'
EUVRE
de
LIMOGES.
"
The original tomb of Walter de Merton, bishop of Rochester, erected in his cathedral about the year 1276, was made at Limoges. This appears from the accompts of his executors, viz.
"Et computant xl l. v s. vi d. liberat. Magistro Johanni Linnomcensi, pro tumba dicti Episcopi Roffensis, scil. pro Constructione et carriagio de Lymoges ad Roffam. Et xl s. viii d. cuidam Executori apud Lymoges ad ordinandum et providendum Constructionem dictae Tumbae. Et x s. viii d. cuidam garcioni eunti apud Lymoges quaerenti dictam tumbam constructam, et ducenti eam cum dicto Mag. Johanne usque Roffam. Et xxii l. in materialibus circa dictam tumbam defricandam. Et vii marcas, in ferramento ejusdem, et carriagio a Londin. usque ad Roff. et aliis parandis ad dictam tumbam. Et xi s. cuidam vitriario pro vitris fenestrarum emptarum juxta tumbam dicti Episcopi apud Roffam."
Ant. Wood's MS. MERTON PAPERS, Bibl. Bodl. COD. BALLARD. 46.
Pag. 378. l. 9. READ
"preis."
Pag. 383. l. 4. READ
"Petrarch having desired his friend Guy de Gonzague to send him some new piece, he sent him, &c."
Pag. 385. l. 2. To the word Boccacio, ADD this Note.
"Boccacio's FILOSTRATO was printed in quarto at Milan, in 1488. The title is,
"Il FYOLOSTRATO, che tracta de lo innamoramento de TROILO a GRYSEIDA: et de molte altre infinite battaglie. Impresso nella inclita cita de Milano par magistro Uldericho Scinzenzeler nell anno M. CCCCLXXXXVIII. a di xxvii di mese Septembre."
It is in the octave stanza. The editor of the CANTERBURY TALES informs me, that Boccacio himself, in his DECAMERON, has made the same honourable mention of this poem as of the THESEIDA: although without acknowledging either for his own. In the Introduction to the Sixth Day, he says, that
"Dioneo insieme con Lauretta de TROILE ET DI CRISEIDA cominciarono cantare."
Just as, afterwards, in the conclusion of the Seventh Day he says, that the same
"Dioneo et Fiametta gran pezzi cantarono insieme D'ARCITA ET DI PALAMONE."
See CANTERB. T. vol. iv. p. 85. iii. p. 311. Chaucer appears to have been as much indebted to Boccacio in his TROILUS AND CRESSEIDE, as in his KNIGHTES TALE. At the same time we must observe, that there are several long passages, and even episodes, in TROILUS, of which no traces appear in the FILOSTRATO. Chaucer speaks of himself as a translator
out of Latin,
B. ii. 14. And he calls his author LOLLIUS, B. i. 394.—421. and B. v. 1652. The latter of these two passages is in the PHILOSTRATO: but the former, containing Petrarch's sonnet, is not. And when Chaucer says, he
translates from Latin,
we must remember, that the
Italian
language was called
Latino volgare.
Shall we suppos
, that Chaucer followed a more complete copy of the FILOSTRATO than that we have at present, or one enlarged by some officious interpolator? The Parisian manuscript might perhaps clear these difficulties. In Bennet library at Cambridge, there is a manuscript of Chaucer's TROILUS, elegantly written, with a frontispiece beautifully illuminated, LXI.
Ibid. l. 16. READ
"sike, and efte to."
Pag. 387. l. 5. READ
"alofte."
Ibid. l. 15. READ
"lo which a dede!"
Pag. 388. l. 14. READ
"Bradwardine."
So also, p. 421. l. 2. infr.
Pag. 389. Not. k . l. 3. READ
"B. iii."
Ibid. ibid. l. 2. col. 2. For
"Thomas a Beckett,"
READ
"Thomas Becket."
So also, p. 14. l. 13. p. 85. l. 15. p. 397. l. 4. p. 445. l. 12. [For this, see H. Wharton's Letter at the end of Strype's CRANMER, p. 526.]
Ibid. ibid. l. 5. col. 2. READ
"B. ii. v. 526."
Pag. 390. Not. • . l. 3. READ
"owne."
Pag. 392. l. 21. READ
"parlirs."
Ibid. Not. z . READ
"iii."
Ibid. l. 25. READ
"William Thomas."
And ADD this Note.
"Chaucer's Life in Urry's edition. William Thomas digested this Life from collections by Dart. His brother, Dr. Timothy Thomas, wrote or compiled the Glossary and Preface to that edition. See Dart's WESTMINST. ABBEY, i. 86. Timothy Thomas was of Christ Church Oxford, and died in 1751.
Pag. 401. l. 18. For
"Seraphic,"
READ
"Angelic."
Pag. 403. l. 9. READ
"mede."
Pag. 407. Not. f . ADD
"The same fiction is in Caxton's TROYE BOKE.
"Upon the pinacle or top of the towre he made an ymage of copper and gave hym in his hande a looking-glasse, having such vertue, that if it happened that any shippes came to harme the citie suddenly, their army and their coming should appear in the said looking-glasse."
B. ii. ch. xxii.
Pag. 408. Not. i . l. 1. col. 2. READ
"Gallic."
Pag. 413. To Not. h . l. 2. ADD,
"Mahomet believed this foolish story, at least thought it fit for a popular book, and has therefore inserted it in the Alcoran. See Grey on HUDIBRAS, part i. cant. i. v. 547.
Pag. 415. ADD to l. 15. this Note.
"The bridle of the enchanted horse is carried into the tower, which was the treasury of Cambuscan's castle, to be kept among the
jewels.
Thus when king Richard the first, in a crusade, took Cyprus, among the treasures in the castles are recited pretious stones, and golden cups, together with
"
Sellis aureis
frenis
et calcaribus.
"
Galfr. Vinesauf. ITER. HIEROSOL. cap. xli. p. 328. VET. SCRIPT. ANGL. tom. ii.
Pag. 416. ADD to Not. r .
"It may be doubted whether Boccacio invented the story of Grisilde. For, as the late inquisitive and judicious editor of THE CANTERBURY TALES observes, it appears by a Letter of Petrarch to Boccacio, [OPP. Petrarch. p. 540—7. edit. Basil. 1581.] sent with his Latin translation, in 1373, that Petrarch had
heard the story with pleasure,
many years before he saw the Decameron. vol. iv. p. 157.
Pag. 417. To l. 9. ADD,
"And in Bennet college library with this title.
"HISTORIA
ive FABULA de nobili Marchione WALTERIO domino terrae Saluciarum, quomodo duxit in uxorem GRISILDEM pauperculam, et ejus constantiam et patientiam mirabiliter et acriter comprobavit: quam de vulgari sermone Saluciarum in Latinum transtulit D. Franciscus Petrarcha."
CLXXVII. 10. fol. 76. Again, ibid. CCLXXV. 14. fol. 163. Again, ibid. CCCCLVIII. 3. with the date 1476, I suppose, from the scribe. And in Bibl. Bodl. MSS. LAUD. G. 80.
Ibid. Not. w . l. 2. After
"Bonne
ons,"
INSERT,
"This is the whole title.
"Le MYSTERE de Griseldis, Marquis d
Saluces, mis en rime françoise et par personnaiges."
Without date, in quarto, and in the Gothic type. In the colophon,
Cy finist la vie de Griseldis,
&c.
Pag. 419. l. 2. After
"growth,"
INSERT,
"The story of the cock and the fox is evidently borrowed from a collection of Esopean and other fables, written by Marie a French poetess, whose LAIS are preserved in MSS. HARL. ut infr. see f. 139. Beside the absolute resemblance, it appears still more probable that Chaucer copied from Marie, because no such fable is to be found either in the Greek Esop, or in any of the Latin Esopean compilations of the dark ages. See MSS. HARL. 978. f. 76. All the manuscripts of Marie's fables in the British Museum prove, that she translated her work
"de l'Anglois en Roman."
Probably her English original was Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Esop modernised, and still bearing his name. She professes to follow the version of a king; who, in the best of the Harleian copies, is called LI REIS ALURED. MSS. HARL. 978. supr. citat. She appears, from passages in her LAIS, to have understood English. See Chaucer's CANTERB. TALES, vol. iv. p. 179. I will give her Epilogue to the Fables from MSS. JAMES. viii. p. 23. Bibl. Bodl.
Al finement de cest escrit
Qu' en romanz ai treite e dit
Me numerai pour remembraunce
Marie ai nun sui de France
Pur cel estre que clerc plusur
Prendreient sur eus mun labeur
Ne voit que nul sur li sa die
Eil feit que fol que sei ublie
Pur amur le cunte Wllame
Le plus vaillant de nul realme
Meinlemir de ceste livre feire
E des Engleis en romanz treire
Esop apelum cest livre
Quil translata e fist escrire
Del Gru en Latin le turna
Le Reiz Alurez que mut lama
Le translata puis en Engleis
E jeo lai rimee en Franceis
Si cum jeo poi plus proprement
Ore pri a dieu omnipotent, &c.
Pag. 420. l. 18. READ
"beke."
Pag. 421. To Not. t . ADD,
"The ludicrous adventure of the Pear Tree, in JANUARY AND MAY, is taken from a collection of Fables in Latin elegiacs, written by one Adolphus in the year 1315. Leyser. HIST. POET. MED. AEVL. p. 2008. The same fable is among the
Fables
of
Alphonse,
in Caxton's ESOP.
Pag. 425. l. 15. For
"in,"
READ
"is."
Pag. 427. l. 9. READ
"perlid."
Pag. 428. Not. n . l. 2. READ
"be went."
[So the edit. in 1561.]
Ibid. To Not. q . ADD,
"
Calcei fenestrasti
occur in antient Injunctions to the clergy. In Eton-college statutes, given in 1446, the fellows are forbidden to wear,
sotularia rostrata,
as also
caligae,
white, red, or green. CAP. xix. In a chantry, or chapel, founded at Winchester in the year 1318, within the cemitery of the Nuns of the Blessed Virgin by Roger Inkpenne, the members, that is, a warden, chaplain and clerk, are ordered to go
"in meris caligis, et sotularibus non rostratis, nisi forsitan
botis
uti voluerunt."
And it is added,
"Vestes deferant non
fibulatas,
sed desuper clausas, vel
brevitate
non notanda
."
REGISTR. Priorat. S. Swithini Winton. MS. supr. citat. Quatern. 6. Compare Wilkins's CONCIL. iii. 670. ii. 4.
Pag. 429. l. 3. READ
"Oxenforde."
Ibid. l. 6. READ
"song sometime a loud."
Pag. 430. Not. q . l.
. After
"DISSERRAT. i."
ADD,
"It is not my intention to enter into the controversy concerning the cultivation of vines, for making wine, in England. I shall only bring to light the following remarkable passage on that subject from an old English writer on gardening and farming.
"We might have a reasonable good wine growyng in many places of this realme: as undoubtedly wee had immediately after the Conquest; tyll partly by slouthfulnesse, not liking any thing long that is painefull, partly by civill discord long continuyng, it was left, and so with tyme lost, as appeareth by a number of places in this realme that keepe still the name of Vineyardes: and uppon many cliffes and hilles, are yet to be seene the rootes and olde remaynes of Vines. There is besides Nottingham, an auncient house called Chilwell, in which house remayneth yet, as an auncient monument, in a Great Wyndowe of Glasse, the whole Order of planting, pruyning, [pruning,] stamping and pressing of vines. Beside, there [at that place] is yet also growing an old vine, that yields a grape sufficient to make a right good wine, as was lately proved.—There hath, moreover, good experience of late yeears been made, by two noble and honorable barons of this realme, the lorde Cobham and the lorde Wylliams of Tame, who had both growyng about their houses, as good wines as are in many parts of Fraunce, &c."
Barnabie Googe's FOURE BOOKES OF HUSBANDRY, &c. Lond. 1578. 4to . TO THE READER.
Pag. 431. To Not. k . ADD,
"But both Boccacio and Chaucer probably borrowed from an old CONTE, or FABLIAU, by an anonymous French rhymer,
De Gombert et des deux Clers.
See FABLIAUX et CONTES, Paris, 1756. tom. ii. p. 115.—124. The SHIPMAN'S TALE, as I have hinted, originally came from some such French FABLEOUR, through the medium of Boccacio.
Ibid. To Not. b . ADD,
"It is entitled BURNELLUS,
sive Speculum stultorum,
and was written about the year 1190. See Leyser. POET. MED. AEVI. p. 752. It is a common manuscript.
Burnell
is a nick-name for Balaam's ass in the Chester WHITSUN PLAYS. MSS. HARL. 2013.
Pag. 432. Not. l . l. 4. After
"Cambridge,"
INSERT,
"There is, however, Abington, with a mill-stream, seven miles from Cambridge.
Ibid. Not. n . l. 9. READ
"881."
Ibid. l. 14. READ
"Salarii."
Pag. 436. To Not. c . ADD
"The Prioresse's exact behaviour at table, is copied from ROM. ROSE, 14178.—14199.
Et bien se garde, &c.
To speak French is mentioned above, among her accomplishments. There is a letter in old French from queen Philppa, and her daughter Isabell, to the Priour of Saint Swithin's at Winchester, to admitt one Agnes Patshull into an eleemosynary sisterhood belonging to his convent. The Priour is requested to grant her,
"Une Lyvere en votre Maison dieu de Wyncestere et estre un des soers,"
for her life. Written at
Windesor,
Apr. 25. The year must have been about 1350. REGISTR. Priorat. MS. supr. citat. Quartern. xix. fol. 4. I do not so much cite this instance to prove that the Priour must be supposed to understand French, as to shew that it was now the court language, and even on a matter of business. There was at least a great propriety, that the queen and princess should write in this language, although to an ecclesiastic of dignity. In the same Register, there is a letter in old French from the queen Dowager Isabell to the Priour and Convent of Winchester; to shew, that it was at her request, that king Edward the third her son had granted a church in Winchester diocese, to the monastery of Leedes in Yorkshire, for their better support,
"a trouver sis chagnoignes chantans tous les jours en la chapele du Chastel de Ledes, pour laime madame Alianore reyne d'Angleterre, &c."
A. D. 1341. Quatern vi.
The Prioresse's
greatest
oath is by Saint Eloy. I will here throw together some of the most remarkable oaths in the Canterbury Tales. The HOST, swears by
my father's soule.
Urr. p. 7. 783. Sir THOPAS, by
ale and breade.
p. 146. 3377. ARCITE, by
my pan,
i. e.
head.
p. 10. 1167. THESEUS, by
mightie Mars the red.
p. 14. 1749. Again,
as he was a trew knight.
p. 9. 961. The CARPENTER'S wife, by
saint Thomas of Kent.
p. 26. 183. The SMITH, by
Christes foote.
p. 29. 674. The CAMBRIDGE SCHOLAR, by
my father's kinn.
p. 31. 930. Again, by
my croune,
ib. 933. Again, for
godes benes,
or
benison.
p. 32. 965. Again, by
seint Cuthberde,
ib. 1019. Sir JOHAN of BOUNDIS, by
seint Martyne.
p. 37. 107. GAMELYN, by
goddis boke.
p. 38. 181. GAMELYN'S brother, by
saint Richere.
ibid. 273. Again, by
Cristis ore.
ib. 279. A FRANKELEYN, by
saint Jame that in Galis is,
i. e. saint James of Galicia. p. 40. 549. 1514. A PORTER, by
Goddis berde.
ib. 581. GAMELYN, by
my hals,
or neck. p. 42. 773. The MAISTIR OUTLAWE, by the
gode rode.
p. 45. 1265. The HOSTE, by the
precious corpus Madrian,
p. 160. 4. Again, by
saint Paulis bell.
p. 168. 893. The MAN of LAWE,
Depardeux.
p. 49. 39. The MARCHAUNT, by
saint Thomas of Inde.
p. 66. 745. The SOMPNOUR, by
goddis armis two.
p. 82. 833. The HOSTE, by
cockis bonis.
p. 106. 2235. Again, by
naylis
and by
blode,
i. e. of Christ. p. 130. 1802. Again, by
saint Damian.
p. 131. 1824. Again, by
saint Runion.
ib. 1834. Again, by
Corpus domini.
ib. 1838. The RIOTTOUR,
by Goddis digne bones.
p. 135. 2211. The HOSTE, to the Monke, by
your father kin.
p. 160. 43. The MONKE, by his
porthose,
or breviary. p. 139. 2639. Again, by
God and saint Martin.
ib. 2656. The HOSTE, by
armis, blode and bonis.
p. 24. 17.
Pag. 438. l. 14. READ
"man."
Pag. 440. l. 8. READ
"unyd."
Pag. 441. l. 10. READ
"Peripatetic."
Ibid. Not. n . l. 2. READ
"L. ii."
Pag. 442. l. ult. READ
"Pits."
Pag. 443. Not. col. 1. l. 6. After
"249,"
ADD,
"See Freind's HIST. OF PHYSICK, ii. 257.
Ibid. Not. w . l. 3. READ
"quaestum."
Ibid. l. 5. For
"foreign writers,"
READ
"English students abroad."
ADD to the end of the Note,
"See more of Gilbertus Anglicus, ibid. p. 356.
Pag. 445. l. 16. READ
"Watte."
And ADD as a Note,
"So edit. 1561. See Johnson's Dictionary, in MAGPIE.
Pag. 446. l. 5. For
"to,"
READ
"the."
Pag. 447. Notes, col. 2. l. 2. READ
"298."
Pag. 449. To Not. d . ADD,
"The gulf and castle of Satalia are mentioned by Benedictus Abbas, in the crusade under the year 1191.
"Et cum rex Franciae recessisset ab Antiochet, statim intravit
gulfum
SATHALIAE.—SATHALIAE
Castellum
est optimum, unde gulfus ille nomen accepit; et super gulfum illum sunt duo Castella et Villae, et utrumque dicitur SATALIA. Sed unum illorum est desertum, et dicitur Vetus SATALIA quod piratae destruxerunt, et alterum Nova SATALIA dicitur, quod Manuel imperator Constantinopolis firmavit."
VIT. ET GEST. HENR. et RIC. ii. p. 680. Afterwards he mentions
Mare Graecum,
p. 683. That is, the Mediterranean from Sicily to Cyprus. I am inclined, in the second verse following, to read
"Greke
sea.
"
Leyis
is the town of Layas in Armenia.
Pag. 450. l. 16. For
"in,"
READ
"is."
Ibid. l. ult. READ
"Sheff."
Ibid. Not. • . l. 3. READ
"chivauchie."
Pag. 452. l. 10. DELE
"in."
Ibid. Not. s . READ
"447."
Pag. 453. Note, col. 2. l. 14. READ
"full."
Pag. 454. Not. b . l. 9. READ
"Tapiser."
And in the next line,
"Chanon's."
Pag. 458. l. 19. ADD this Note to
"Provence."
"The ingenious editor of the CANTERBURY TALES treats the notion, that Chaucer imitated the Provencial poets, as totally void of foundation. He says,
"I have not observed in any of his writings a single phrase or word, which has the least appearance of having been fetched from the South of the Loire. With respect to the manner and matter of his compositions, till some clear instance of imitation be produced, I shall be slow to believe, that in either he ever copied the poets of Provence; with whose works, I apprehend, he had very little, if any acquaintance."
Vol. i. APPEND. PREF. p. xxxvi. I have advanced the contrary doctrine, at least by implication: and I here beg leave to explain myself on a subject materially affecting the system of criticism that has been formed on Chaucer's works. I have never affirmed, that Chaucer imitated the Provencial bards; although it is by no means improbable, that he might have known their tales. But as the peculiar nature of the Provencial poetry entered deeply into the substance, cast, and character, of some of those French and Italian models, which he is allowed to have followed, he certainly may be said to have copied, although not immediately, the
matter
and
manner
of these writers. I have called his HOUSE OF FAME originally a Provencial composition. I did not mean that it was written by a Provencial troubadour: but that Chaucer's original was compounded of the capricious mode of fabling, and that extravagant style of fiction, which constitute the essence of the Provencial poetry. As to the FLOURE AND THE LEAFE, which Dryden pronounces to have been composed
after their manner,
it is framed on the old allegorising spirit of the Provencial writers, refined and disfigured by the fopperies of the French poets in the fourteenth century. The ideas of these fablers had been so strongly imbibed, that they continued to operate long after Petrarch had introduced a more rational method of composition.
Pag. 462. Not. q . BEGIN this Note with
"Compare"
in the preceding Note.
Pag. 463. Not. col. 1. To the end of l. 8. ADD,
"The ground-work of DOLOPATHOS is a Greek story-book called SYNTIPAS, often cited by Du Cange, whose copy appears to have been translated from the Syriac. See GLOSS. MED. et INFIM. Graecitat.—IND. Auctor. p. 33. Among the Harleian manuscripts is another, which is said to be translated from the Persic. MSS. HARL. 5560. Fabricius says, that Syntipas was printed at Venice,
lingua vulgari.
BIBL. GR. x. 515. On the whole, the plan of SYNTIPAS appears to be exactly the same with that of LES SEPT SAGES, the Italian ERASTO, and our own little story book the SEVEN WISE MASTERS: except that, instead of Dioclesian of Rome, the king is called CYRUS of PERSIA; and, instead of one Tale, each of the Philosophers tells two. The circumstance of Persia is an argument, that SYNTIPAS was originally an oriental composition. See what is collected on this curious subject, which is intimately concerned with the history of the invention of the middle ages, by the learned editor of the CATERBURY TALES, vol. iv. p. 329. There is a translation, as I am informed by the same writer, of this Romance in octosyllable verse, probably not later than the age of Chaucer. MSS. COTTON. GALB. E. ix. It is entitled
"The Proces of the seven Sages,"
and agrees entirely with LES SEPT SAGES DE ROME in French prose. MSS. HARL. 3860. See also MSS. C. C. Coll. Oxon. 252. in membran. 4to . The Latin book, called HISTORIA SEPTEM SAPIENTUM ROMAE, is not a very scarce manuscript: it was printed before 1500. I think there are two old editions among More's books at Cambridge. Particularly one printed in
arto at Paris, in 1493.
Pag. 466. Notes, col. 2. l. 1. Instead of
"All this while,"
READ
"Speght supposes that."
To the end ADD,
"See
Le dit de la fleur de lis et de la Marguerite,
by Guillaume Machaut, ACAD. INSCRIPT. xx. p. 381. x. 669. infr. citat. On the whole, it may be doubted whether, either Froissart, or Chaucer, means Margaret, countess of Pembroke. For compare APPEND. PREF. CANTERB. TALES, vol. i. p. xxxiv. I add, that in the year 1547, the poetical pieces of Margaret de Valois, queen of Navarre, were collected and published under the title of MARGUERITE
de la Marguerites des Princesses, tres illustre Royne de Navarre,
by John de la Haye, her valet de chambre. It was common in France, to give the title of MARGUERITES to studied panegyrics, and flowery compositions of every kind, both in prose and verse.
VOL. II.
PAGE 5. ADD to Not. k .
"The nations bordering upon the Jews, attributed the miraculous events of that people, to those external means and material instruments, such as symbols, ceremonies, and other visible signs or circumstances, which by God's special appointment, under their mysterious dispensation, they were directed to use. Among the observations which the oriental Gentiles made on the history of the Jews, they found that the Divine will was to be known by certain appearances in pretious stones. The Magi of the east, believing that the preternatural discoveries obtained by means of the Urim and Thummim, a contexture of gems in the breast-plate of the Mosaic priests, were owing to some virtue inherent in those stones, adopted the knowledge of the occult properties of gems as a branch of their magical system. Hence it became the peculiar profession of one class of their Sages, to investigate and interpret the various shades and coruscations, and to explain, to a moral purpose, the different colours, the dews, clouds, and imageries, which gems, differently exposed to the sun, moon, stars, fire, or air, at particular seasons, and inspected by persons particularly qualified, were seen to exhibit. This notion being once established, a thousand extravagancies arose, of healing diseases, of procuring victory, and of seeing future events, by means of pretious stones and other lucid substances. See Plin. NAT. HIST. xxxvii. 9. 10. These superstitions were soon ingrafted into the Arabian philosophy, from which they were propagated all over Europe, and continued to operate even so late as the visionary experiments of Dee and Kelly
When king Richard the first, in 1191, took the isle of Cyprus, he is said to have found the castles filled with rich furniture of gold and silver,
"necnon lapidibus pretiosis, et
plurima
vi
tut
m
habentibus."
G. Vines. ITER. HIEROSOL. cap. xli. p. 328. Hist. Anglic. SCRIPT. vol
ii. Oxon. 1687.
. It is not in the mean time at all improbable, that the Druidical doctrines concerning the virtues of stones were derived from these lessons of the Magi: and they are still to be traced among the traditions of the vulgar, in those parts of Britain and Ireland, where Druidism retained its latest establishments. See Martin's WEST. ISLES, p. 167. 225. And Aubrey's MISCELL. p. 128. Lond. 8vo .
Pag. 31. ADD,
"In lord Gower's library, there is a thin oblong manuscript on vellum, containing some of Gower's poems in Latin, French, and English. By an entry in the first leaf, in the hand-writing, and under the signature, of Thomas lord Fairfax, Cromwell's general, an antiquarian, and a lover and collector of curious manuscripts
He gave twenty-nine antient manuscripts to the Bodleian library, one of which is a beautiful manuscript of Gower's Confessio Aman
is. When the Record-tower in S. Mary's abbey at York was accidentally blown up in the grand rebellion, he offered rewards to the soldiers who could bring him fragments of the scattered parchments. Luckily, however, the numerous original evidences lodged in this repository had been just before transcribed by Roger Dodsworth; and the transcripts, which formed the ground-work of Dugdale's MONASTICON, consisting of for
y-nine large folio volumes, were bequeathed by Fairfax to the same library. Fairfax also, when Oxford was garrisoned by the parliamentary forces, exerted his utmost diligence in preserving the Bodleian library from pillage; so that it suffered much less, than when that city was in the possession of the royalists.
, it appears, that this book was presented by the poet Gower, about the year 1400, to Henry the fourth; and that it was given by lord Fairfax to his
friend and kinsman
sir Thomas Gower knight and baronet, in the year 1656. By another entry, lord Fairfax acknowledges to have received it, in the same year, as a present, from
that learned gentleman
Charles Gedde esquire, of saint Andrews in Scotland: and at the end, are five or six Latin anagrams on Gedde, written and signed by lord Fairfax, with this title,
"In NOMEN venerandi et annosi Amici sui Caroli Geddei."
By king Henry the fourth it seems to have been placed in the royal library: it appears at least to have been in the hands of king Henry the seventh, while earl of Richmond, from the name
Rychemond,
inserted in another of the blank leaves at the beginning, and explained by this note,
"Liber Henrici septimi tunc Comitis Richmond, propria manu scripsit."
This manuscript is neatly written, with miniated and illuminated initials: and contains the following pieces. I. A Panegyric in stanzas, with a Latin prologue or rubric in seven hexameters, on king Henry the fourth. This poem, commonly called
Carmen de pacis Commendatione in laudem Henrici quarti,
is printed in Chaucer's WORKS, edit. Urr. p. 540.—II. A short Latin poem in elegiacs on the same subject, beginning,
"Rex coeli deus et dominus qui tempora solus."
[MSS. COTTON. OTHO. D. i. 4.] This is followed by ten other very short pieces, both in French and English, of the same tendency.—III. CINKANTE BALADES, or Fifty Sonnets in French. Part of the first is illegible. They are closed with the following epilogue and colophon.
O gentile Engleterre a toi iescrits,
Pour remembrer ta ioie qest nouelle,
Qe te survient du noble Roy Henris,
Par qui dieus ad redreste ta querele,
A dieu purceo prient et cil et celle,
Qil de sa grace, au fort Roi corone,
Doignit peas, honour, ioie et prosperite.
Expliciunt carmina Johis Gower que Gallice composita
BALADES
dicuntur.
—IV. Two short Latin poems in elegiacs. The First beginning,
"Ecce patet tensus ceci Cupidinis arcus."
The Second,
"O Natura viri potuit quam tollere nemo."
—V. A French poem, imperfect at the beginning,
On the Dignity or Excellence of Marriage,
in one book. The subject is illustrated by examples. As no part of this poem was ever printed, I transcribe one of the stories.
Qualiter Jason uxorem suam Medeam relinquens, Creusam Creontis regis filiam sibi carnaliter copulavit. Verum ipse cum duobus filiis suis postea infortunatus periit.
Li prus Jason qeu lisle de Colchos
Le toison dor, pour laide de Medee
Conquist dont il donour portoit grant loos
Par tout le monde encourt la renomee
La joefne dame oue soi ad amenee
De son pays en Grece et lespousa
Ffreinte espousaile dieus le vengera.
Quant Medea meulx qui de etre en repos
Ove son mari et qelle avoit porte
Deux fils de luy lors changea le purpos
El quelle Jason permer fuist oblige
Il ad del tout Medeam refuse
Si prist la
le au roi Creon Creusa
Ffrenite espousaile dieux le vengera.
Medea qot le coer de dolour cloos
En son corous et ceo fuist grant pite
Sas joefnes fils queux et jadis en clos
Veniz ses costees ensi com forseue
Devant ses oels Jason ele ad tue
Ceo qeu fuist fait pecche le fortuna
Ffrenite espousaile dieux le vengera.
Towards the end of the piece, the poet introduces an apology for any inaccuracies, which, as an Englishman, he may have committed in the French idiom.
Al universite de tout le monde
JOHAN GOWER ceste Balade evoie;
Et si ieo nai de Francois faconde,
Pardonetz moi qe ieo de ceo forsvoie.
Jeo suis Englois: si quier par tiele voie
Estre excuse mais quoique mills endie
L'amour parfait en dieu se justifie.
It is finished with a few Latin hexameters, viz.
"Quis sit ve
qualis sacer order connubialis."
This poem occurs at the end of two valuable folio manuscripts, illuminated and on vellum, of the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, in the Bodleian library, viz. MSS. FAIRFAX, iii. And NE. F. 8. 9. Also in the manuscript at All Souls college Oxford, MSS. xxvi. described and cited above. And in MSS. HARL. 3869. In all these, and, I believe, in many others, it is properly connected with the CONFESSIO AMANTIS by the following rubric.
"Puisqu' il ad dit CIDEVANT en ENGLOIS, par voie dessample, la sotie de cellui qui par amours aimie par especial, dirra ore apres en FRANCOIS a tout le mond en general une traitie selonc les auctors, pour essemplar les amants mariez, &c."
It begins,
Le creature du tout creature.
But the CINQUANTE BALADES, or fifty French Sonnets abovementioned, are the curious and valuable part of lord Gower's manuscript. They are not mentioned by those who have written the life of this poet, or have catalogued his works. Nor do they appear in any other manuscript of Gower which I have examined. But if they should be discovered in any other, I will venture to pronounce, that a more authentic, unembarrassed, and practicable copy than this before us, will not be produced: although it is for the most part unpointed, and obscured with abbreviations, and with those mispellings which flowed from a scribe unacquainted with the French language.
To say no more, however, of the value which these little pieces may derive from being so scarce and so little known, they have much real and intrinsic merit. They are tender, pathetic, and poetical; and place our old poet Gower in a more advantageous point of view than that in which he has hitherto been usually seen. I know not if any even among the French poets themselves, of this period, have left a set of more finished sonnets: for they were probably written when Gower was a young man, about the year 1350. Nor had yet any English poet treated the passion of love with equal delic
cy of sentiment, and elegance of composition. I will transcribe four of these balades as correctly and intelligibly as I am able: although I must confess, there are some lines which I do not exactly comprehend.
BALADE XXXVI.
Pour comparer ce jolif temps de Maij,
Jeo dirrai semblable a Paradis;
Car lors chantoit et merle et papegai,
Les champs sont vert, les herbes sont floris;
Lors est Nature dame du paijs:
Dont Venus poignt l'amant a tiel assai,
Qencontre amour nest qui poet dire Nai.
Quant tout ceo voi, et que ieo penserai,
Coment Nature ad tout le mond suspris,
Dont pour le temps se fait mino
e et gai,
Et ieo des autres suis souleni horspris,
Com al qui sanz amie est v
ais amis,
Nest pas mervaile lors si ieo mesmai,
Qencontre amour nest qui poet dire Nai.
En lieu de rose, urtie cuillerai,
Dont mes chapeals ferrai par tiel devis,
Qe tout ioie et confort ieo lerrai,
Si celle soule e
qui iai mon coer mis,
Selonc le poni
qe iai sovent req
i
,
Ne deigne alegger les griefs mals qe iai,
Qencontre amour nest qui poet dire Nai.
Pour pite querre et pourchacer i
tris,
Va ten balade ou ieo tenvoierai,
Qore en certain ieo lai tresbien apris
Qencontre amour nest qui poet dire Nai.
BALADE XXXIV.
Saint Valentin, l'Amour, et la Nature,
Des touts oiseals ad en gouernement,
Dont chascun deaux, semblable a sa mesure
Un compaigne honeste a son talent
Eslist, tout dun accord et dun assent,
Pour celle soul
laist a covenir;
Toutes les autres car nature aprent
Ou li coers est le corps falt obeir.
Ma doulce Dame, ensi ieo vou
assure,
Qe ieo vous ai eslieu semblablement,
Sur toutes autres estes a dessure
De mon amour si tresentierement,
Qe riens y falt pourquoi ioiousement,
De coer et corps ieo vous voldrai servir,
Car de reson cest une experiment,
Ou li coers est le corps falt obeir.
Pour remembrer iadis celle aventure
De Alceone et ceix enseinent,
Com dieus muoit en oisel lour figure,
Ma volente serroit tout tielement
Qe sans envie et danger de la gent,
Nous porroions ensemble pour loisir
Voler tout francs en votre esbatement
Ou li coers est le corps falt obeir.
Ma belle oisel, vers qui mon pensement
Seu vole ades sanz null contretenir
Preu cest escript car ieo sai voirement
Ou li coers est le corps falt obeir.
BALADE XLIII.
Plustricherous qe Jason a Medee,
A Deianire ou q' Ercules estoit,
Plus q' Eneas q' avoit Dido lassee,
Plus qe Theseus q' Adriagne
Ariadne.
amoit,
Ou Demophon qut Phillis oubliot,
Te trieus, helas, qamer iadis soloie,
Dont chanterai desore en mon endroit
Cest ma dolour qe fuist amicois ma joie.
Unques Ector qama Pantasilee
Penthesilea.
,
En tiele haste a Troie ne sarmoit,
Qe tu tout mid nes deniz le lit couche
Amis as toutes quelques venir doit,
Ne poet chaloir mais qune femme y soit,
Si es comun plus qe la halte voie,
Helas, qe la fortune me deçoit,
Cest ma dolour qe fuist amicois ma joie.
De Lancelot
Sir Lancelot's intrigue with Geneura, king Arthur's queen, and sir Tristram with Bel Isoulde, incidents in Arthur's romance, are made the subject of one of the stories of the French poem just cited, viz.
Commes sont la cronique et listoire
De Lancelot et Tristrans ensement, &c.
si fuissetz remembre,
Et de Tristans, com il se countenoit,
Generides
This name, of which I know nothing, must be corruptly written.
, Fflorent
Chaucer's WIFE OF BATHES TALE is founded on the story of Florent, a knight of Rome, who delivers the king of Sicily's daughter from the enchantments of her stepmother. His story is also in our author's CONFESSIO AMANTIS, Lib. iii. fol. 48. a col. 1. seq. Lib. viii. fol. 175. a col. 2. seq. And in the GESTA ROMANORUM. [See supr. p. 31.] Percy [NUM. 2.] recites a Romance called L
ONE FLORENCE DE ROME, which begins
A
ferre as men ride or gon.
I know not if this be Shakespeare's Florentius, or Florentio, TAM. SHR. i. 5.
Be she as foul as was FLORENTIUS' love.
, par Tonope
That is Partenope, or Parthenopeus, one of Statius's heroes, on whom there is an old F
ench romance. [See supr. vol. i
p. 123.]
,
Chascun des ceaux sa loialte gardoit;
Mais tu, helas, qest ieo qe te forsvoit
De moi qa toi iamais mill iour falsoie,
Tu es a large et ieo sui en destroit,
Cest ma dolour qe fuist amicois ma joie.
Des toutz les mals tu qes le plus maloit,
Ceste compleignte a ton oraille envoie
Sante me laist, et langour me recoit,
Cest ma dolour qe fuist amicois ma joie.
BALADE XX.
Si com la nief, quant le fort vent tempeste,
Pur halte mier se torna ci et la,
Ma dame, ensi mon coer manit en tempeste,
Quant le danger de vo parrole orra,
Le nief qe votre bouche soufflera,
Me fait sigler sur le peril de vie,
Qest en danger falt quil mera supplie.
Rois Ulyxes, sicom nos dist la Geste,
Vers son paiis de Troie qui sigla,
Not tiel paour du peril et moleste,
Quant les Sereines en la mier passa,
Et la danger de Circes eschapa,
Qe le paour nest plus de ma partie,
Qest en danger falt quil mera supplie.
Danger qui tolt damour tout la feste,
Unques un mot de confort ne sona,
Ainz plus cruel qe nest la fiere beste
Au point quant danger me respondera.
La chiere porte et quant le nai dirra,
Plusque la mort mestoie celle oie
Qest en danger falt quil mera supplie.
Vers vous, ma bone dame, horspris cella,
Qe danger manit en votre compainie,
Cest balade en mon message irra
Qest en danger falt quil mera supplie.
For the use, and indeed the knowledge, of this manuscript, I am obliged to the unsolicited kindness of Lord Trentham; a favour which his lordship was pleased to confer with the most polite condescension.
Pag. 31. Notes, col. 2. l. 5. ADD,
"A Greco-barbarous translation of the romance of APOLLONIUS OF TYRE was made by one Gabriel Contianus
. Perhaps
.
, a Grecian, about the year 1500, as appears by a manuscript in the imperial library at Vienna
Lambecc. CATAL. BIBL. CAESAR. Nesselii SUPPL. tom. i. p. 341. MSS. Graec. CCXLIV. (Vind. et Norinb. 1690. fol.) Pr.
"
."
Fin.
"
, &c."
This is in prose. But under this class of the imperial library, Nesselius recites many manuscript poems in the Greco-barbarous metre of the fifteenth century or thereabouts, viz.
The Loves of Hemperius; Description of the city of Venice; The Romance of Florius and Platzflora; The Blindness and Beggary of Belisarius; The Trojan War; Of Hell; Of an Earthquake in the Isle of Crete,
&c. These were all written at the restoration of Learning in Italy. [See vol. i. p. 348. 350.]
; and printed at Venice in 1503. [See vol. i. p. 350.] Salviati, in his
Avvertimenti,
mentions an Italian romance on this subject, which he supposes to have been written about the year 1330. Lib. ii. c. 12. Velser first published this romance in Latin at Ausburgh, in 1595. 4to . The story is here much more elegantly told, than in the GESTA ROMANORUM. In Godfrey of Viterbo's PANTHEON, it is in Leonine verse. There has been even a German translation of this favorite tale, viz.
"Historia APPOLLONII TYRIAE et Sidoniae regis ex Latino sermone in Germanicum translata. August. Vindel. apud Gintherum Zainer, 1471. fol."
At the end is a German colophon, importing much the same.
Pag. 41. Not. p . DELE
"author of the Lives of the Dramatic Poets."
[The author of the ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS, was Gerard the son of doctor Langbaine, provost of Queen's college, Oxford. This book was first published under the title of MOMUS TRIUMPHANS, Lond. 1687. 4to . Five hundred copies were quickly sold; but the remainder of the impression appeared the next year with a new title,
A new Catalogue of English Plays, containing comedies,
&c. Lond. 1688. 4to . The author at length digested his work anew with great accessions and improvements, which he entitled as above, AN ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH DRAMATICK POETS, &c. Oxon. 1691. 8vo . This book, a good ground-work for a new publication on the same subject and plan, and which has merit as being the first attempt of the kind, was reprinted by Curl, with flimzy additions, under the conduct of Giles Jacob, a hero of the Dunciad, Lond. 1719. 8vo . Our author, after a classical education, was first placed with a bookseller in London; but at sixteen years of age, in 1672, he became a gentleman commoner of University college in Oxford. His literature chiefly consisted in a knowledge of the novels and plays of various languages; and he was a constant and critical attendant of the play-houses for many years. Retiring to Oxford in the year 1690, he died the next year; having amassed a collection of more than a thousand printed plays, masques, and interludes.]
Pag. 54. Notes, col. 2. l. 19. ADD,
"The most antient complete French copy of LA DANSE MACABRE was printed in folio at Lyons, in 1499, together with some other short spiritual pieces, under the title
La Grand
DANSE MACABRE
des
ommes et des femmes historiée, avec de beaux dits en Latin et huitains en François,
&c. To this work Erasmus alludes in the third book of his RATIO CONCIONANDI, where he says,
"Quin et vulgares rhetoristae censuerunt hoc decus, qui interdum versibus certo numero comprehensis, pro clausula, accinunt bre
em et argutam sententiam, velut in Rhythmis quos Gallus quispiam edidit in CHOREAM MORTIS."
tom. v. Opp. pag. 1007. Naude calls this allegory,
"Chorea ab eximio Macabro edita."
MASCUR. p. 224. I believe the first Latin edition, that of Pierre Desrey which I have mentioned, was printed at Troyes in 1490, not 1460. The French have an old poem, partly on the same idea, LA DANSE DES AVEUGLES, under the conduct of Love, Fortune, and Death, written by Pierre Michault, about the year 1466. See MEM. ACAD. INSCRIPT. et BEL. LET. ii. 742. And Goujet, BIBL. FR. ix. 358. In De Bure's BIBLIOGRAPHIE INSTRUCTIVE, an older but less perfect edition of
Le Danse Macabre
is recited, printed at Paris in 1486, for Guyot Marchant. fol. In this edition the French rhymes are said to be by Michel Marot. tom. i. p. 512. num. 3109. BELL. LETTR. He has catalogued all the antient editions of this piece in French, which are many. Pierre Desrey abovementioned wrote a French romance called LA GENEALOGIE, on Godfrey of Bouloign. Paris, 1511. fol.
Pag. 103. To Not. • . ADD,
"These BRITISH LAIS, of which I have given specimens at the beginning of the FIRST DISSERTATION, and of which sir LAUNFAL is one, are discovered to have been translated into French from the language of Armorican Bretagne, about the thirteenth century, by Marie a French poetess, who made the translation of ESOP abovementioned. See CANT. T. vol. iv. p. 165. edit. 1775. But Marie's was not the only Collection of BRITISH LAIS, in French: as appears, not only from the EARL of THOLOUSE, but by the romance of EMARE, a translation from the French, which has this similar passage, St. ult.
Thys ys on of
Brytayne layes
That was used of old dayes.
MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A ii. fol. 69. (see f. 70.) The SONG of SIR GOWTHER is said by the writer to be taken from one of
the Layes of Brytayne:
and in another place he calls his story
the first Laye of Britanye.
MSS. REG. 17 B. xliii. Chaucer's FRANKELEIN'S TALE was also a
Bretagne Lay,
Urr. p. 107. In the Prologue he says,
The
olde gentill Bretons
in their dayes
Of divers aventoures madin their
Layes,
Rymeyed first in their owne
Breton
tonge,
Whiche
layis
with ther instruments thei songe.
Here he translates from Marie, although this story is not in her manuscript, viz. fol. 181.
Li auntien Bretun curteis.
But in his DREME, he seems to have copied her LAY of ELIDUS. [See Diss. i.] To the
British Lais
I would also refer LA LAI DU CORN, which begins,
De un aventure ci avint
A la court del bon rei Artus.
MSS. DIGB. 86. Bibl. Bodl. membran. 4to . It probably existed before the year 1300. The story, which much resembles the old French metrical romance, called LE COURT MANTEL, is slightly touched in MORTE ARTHUR. ii. 33. A magical horn, richly garnished, the work of a fairy, is brought by a beautiful boy riding on a fleet courser, to a sumptuous feast held at Carleon by king Arthur, in order to try the fidelity of the knights and ladies, who are in number sixty thousand. Those who are false, in drinking from this horn, spill their wine. The only successful knight, or he who accomplishes the adventure, is
Garaduc
or Cradok. I will here give the description of the horn.
—Un dauncel
More properly written
daunzel,
or
danzel.
As in the old French romance of GARIN.
Et li
danzel
que Bues ot norris.
And in other places. So our king Richard the first, in a fragment of one of his Provencial sonnets.
E lou
donzel
de Thuscana.
"For
Boys
Tuscany is the couutry." In Spanish, Lo
Donz
ll.
See Andr. Bosch,
Dels Titols de honor de Cathalanya.
L. iii. c. 3. §. 16. In some of these instances, the word is restrained to the sense of
Squire.
It is from the Latin DOMICEL
US. Froissart calls Richard the second, when prince of Wales, "Le jeune
Damoisel
Richart." tom. i. c. 325.
,
Mout avenaunt et bel,
Seur un cheval corant,
En palleis vint eraunt:
En sa main tont un COR
A quatre bendel de or,
Ci com etoit diveure
Entaillez de ad trifure
Or rather trifore. Undoubtedly from the
atin
trif
rium,
a rich ornamented edge or border. The Latin often occurs under Dugdale's INVENTORY of saint Paul's, in the MONASTICON, viz.
"Morsus [a buckle] W. de Ely argenteus, cresta ejus argentea, cum TRIFORIO ext
rius aureo et lap
llis ins
tis, &c."
tom. iii. ECCL. CATH, p. 309. TRIFORIATUS repeatedly occurs in the same page, as thus.
"Morsus Petri de Blois TRIFORIATUS de auro."
—
"Medio circulo [of a buckle] aurato, TRIFORIATO, inserto grossis lapidibus, &c."
—
"Cum multis lapidibus et perlis insitis in limbis, et quadraturis TRIPHORATUS aureis,"
&c. &c. ibid. p. 309. et seq. It is sometimes written TRIFORIA. As,
"Pannus cujus campus purpureus, cum xiv listis in longitudine
ad modum
TRIFORIAE contextis."
ibid. p. 326. col. 2. TRIFURE, in the text, may be literally interpreted
jewel-work.
As in CHRON. S. Dion. tom. iii. Collect. Histor. Franc. p. 183.
"Il
estoient de fin or esmere et aourné de tres riches pierres precieuses d'
uere
[oeuvre] TRIPHOIRE."
Which Aimon calls,
"g
mmisque ornata
Opere inclusorio,
"
that is,
work consisting of jewels set in.
De GEST. FRANC. Lib. ii. cap. ix. p. 44. G. edit. Paris. 1603. fol.
,
Peres ici ont assises,
Qu en le or furent mises,
Berreles et sardoines,
Et riches calcedoines;
Il fu fust de ollifaunt,
Ounques ne ni si graunt,
Ne si fort, ne si bel,
Desus ont un anel,
Neèle de ad argent,
Eschelettes il ont cent
Perfectees de or fin,
En le tens Constantin,
Les fist une Fee,
Qu preuz ert, et senee,
E le corn destina
Si cum vous orres ja:
Qu sour le corn ferroit
Un petit de soun doit,
Ses eschelettes cent
Sounent tant doucement,
Qu harpe ne viele
Ne deduit de pucelle,
Ne Sereigne du mer
Nest tele desconter.
These lines may be thus interpreted.
"A boy, very graceful and beautiful, mounted on a swift horse, came into the palace of king Arthur. He bore in his hand a horn, having four bandages of gold; it was made of ivory, engraved with
trifoire:
many pretious stones were set in the gold, beryls, sardonyces, and rich chalcedonies: it was of elephant [ivory]: nothing was ever so grand, so strong, or so beautiful: at bottom was a ring [or rim] wrought of silver; where were hanging an hundred little bells, framed of fine gold, in the days of Constantine, by a Fairy, brave and wise, for the purpose which ye have just heard me relate. If any one gently struck the horn with his finger, the hundred bells sounded so sweetly, that neither harp nor viol, nor the sports of a virgin, nor the syrens of the sea, could ever give such music."
The author of this
Lai
is one Robert Bikez, as appears by the last lines; in which the horn is said still to be seen at Cirencester. From this tale came Ariosto's ENCHANTED CUP, ORL FURIOS. xlii. 92. And Fontaine's LA COUPE ENCHANTEE. From the COURT MANTEL, a fiction of the same tendency, and which was common among the Welsh bards, Spenser borrowed the wonderful virtues and effects of his FLORIMEL'S GIRDLE, iv. 5. 3. Both stories are connected in an antient Ballad published by Percy. vol. iii. p. 1.
In the Digby manuscript, which contains
La Lai du Corn,
are many other curious chansons, romantic, allegorical, and legendary, both in old French and old English. I will here exhibit the rubrics, or titles, of the most remarkable pieces, and of such as seem most likely to throw light on the subjects or allusions of our antient English poetry.
Le Romaunz Peres Aunfour
[Alfonse]
coment il aprist et chastia son fils belement.
[See Notes to CANTERB. T. p. 328. vol. iv.]
De un demi ami.—De un bon ami enter.—De un sage homme et de
i
fol.—De un gopil et de un mul.—De un
oi et de un clerc.—De un homme et de une serpente et de un gopil.—De un roi et de un versifiour.—De
ii
clercs escoliers.—De un prodome et de sa male femme.—Del engin de femme del nelons.—Del espee autre engin de femme.—De un roy et de un fableour.—De une veille et de une lisette.—De la gile de la per e el pin.—De un prodfemme bone cointise.
[Pr.
"Un Espagnol ceo vy counter.
]
—De
ii
menestreus.
[i. e. Minstrels.]
—De une roy et de Platoun.—De un vilein de
i
lou et de un gopil.—De un roy fol large.—De maimound mal esquier.—De Socrates et de roi Alisaundre.—De roi Alisaundre et de
i
philosophe.—De un philosofel et del alme.—Ci commence le romaunz de Enfer, Le Sounge Rauf de Hodenge de la voie denfer.
[Ad calc.
"Rauf de Hodeng, saunz mensounge,—Qu cest romaunz fist de sun songe."
See Verdier, BIBL. FR. ii. 394. v. 394. Paris, 1773.]
—De un vallet qui soutint dames et dammaisales.—De Romme et de Gerusalem.—La lais du corn.—Le fabel del gelous.—Ci comence la bertournee.—La vie de un vaillet amerous.—De
iiii
files ...
[Pr.
"Un rois estoit de graunt pouer."
]
—How Jheu Crist herewede helle, &c.
[See
vol. ii. p. 207.]
—Le
xv
singnes
[signes]
de domesday.
[Pr.
"Fifteene toknen ich tellen may."
Compare vol. i. p. 219.]
—Ci comence la vie seint Eustace ci ont nom Placidas.
[Pr. "Alle þat loveþ godes lore
"Olde and yonge lasse and more."
See MS. VERNON, fol. 170. ut supr.]
—Le diz de seint B
rnard.
[Pr.
"þe blessinge of hevene kinge."
]
—Vbi sont ci ant
nos fuerount.
[In English.]
—Chaunçon de nostre dame.
[Pr.
"Stond wel moder ounder rode."
]
—Here beginneth the saw
of seint Bede preest.
[Pr.
"Holi gost þi migtee.
]
—Coment le saunter notre dame fu primes cuntrone.
[Pr.
"Luedi swete and milde."
]
—Les ... peines de enfen.
[Pr.
"Oiez Seynours une demande."
]
—Le regret de Maximian.
[Pr.
"Herkeneþ to mi ron."
MSS. HARL. 2253. f. 82. See vol. i. p. 32.]
—Ci comence le cuntent par entre le mavis et la russinole.
[Pr.
"Somer is cum
n wiþ love to tonne."
See vol. i. p. 30.]
—Of th
fox and of the wolf.
[Pr.
"A vox gon out of þe wode go."
]
—Hending the hend
.
[MSS. HARL. 2253. 89. fol. 125.]
—Les proverbes del vilain.—Les miracles de seint
NICHOLAS.
—Ragemon le bon.—Chancun del secle.
[In English.]
—Ci commence le fabl
et la courtise de dame siri ...
[Pr.
"As I com bi an waie."
]
—Le noms de un leure Engleis.
[i. e. The names of the Hare in English.]
—Ci comence la vie nostre dame.—Ci comence le doctrinal de enseignemens de curteisie.—Ci comence les Aves noustre dame.—De
ii
chevalers torts ke plenderent aroune.—Bonne prieur a nostre seigneur Jhu Crist.—Ci comence lescrit de
ii
dames.—Hic incipit carmen inter corpus et animam.
[A Dialogue in English verse between a body laid on a bier and its Soul. Pr.
"Hon on .... stude I stod an lutell escrit to here."
]
—Ci commence la maner
que le amour est pur assaier.
[Pr.
"Love is soft, love is swete, love is goed sware."
]
—Chaunçon de noustre seigneur.
This manuscript seems to have been written about year 1304. Ralph Houdain, whose poem called VISION D'ENFER it contains
wrote about the year 1230.
The word, LAI, I believe, was applied to any subject, and signified only the versification. Thus we have in the Bodleian library
La
LUMERE AS LAIS,
par Mestre Pierre de Feccham.
Verai deu omnipotent
Kestes fin et commencement.
MSS. BODL 399. It is a system of theology in this species of metre.
Pag. 121. To Not. q . ADD,
"In Jean Petit's edition in 1535, and perhaps in that of 1485, of Premierfaict's translation of the DECAMERON, it is said to be translated from Latin into French. But
Latin
here means
Italian.
Hence a mistake arose, that Boccacio wrote his DECAMERON in Latin. The Italian, as I have before observed, was antiently called
Il volgare Latino.
Thus the French romance of MELIADUS DE LEONNOIS is said to be
translatè du
LATIN, by Rusticien de Pisa, edit. Par. 1532. fol. Thus also GYRON LE COURTOIS is called a version from the Latin. [Supr. vol. ii. p. 117.] M. de la Monnoye observes,
"Que quand on trouve que certains VIEUX ROMANS ont été traduits de LATIN en François, par Luces de Salesberies, Robert de Borron, Rusticien de Pisa, ou autres, cela signifie que ç' a été D'ITALIEN en François."
REM. au BIBL. FR. du La Croix du Maine, &c. tom. ii. p. 33. edi
. 1772. [See supr. ADDIT. ad p. 15. i.] Premierfaict's French DECAMERON, which he calls CAMERON, is a most wretched caricature of the original.
Pag. 148. Not. col. 2. l. 4. For
"1115,"
READ
"1015."
Pag. 153. To Not. c . ADD,
"I have received some notices from the old registers of saint Ewin's church at Bristol, antiently called the MINSTER, which import, that the church pavement was
washed
against the coming of king Edward. But this does not at all prove or imply that the king
sat at the grete mynsterr windowe
to see the gallant Lancastrian, Baldwin, pass to the scaffold; a circumstance, and a very improbable one, mentioned in Rowlie's pretended poem on this subject. The notice at most will prove only, that the king assisted at mass in this church, when he came to Bristol. Nor is it improbable, that the other churches of Bristol were cleaned, or adorned, at the coming of a royal guest. Wanter, above quoted, is evidently wrong in the date 1463, which ought to be 1461, or 1462.
Pag. 156. Notes, col. 2. To l. 9. ADD
"I have observed, but for what reason I know not, that saint Ewin's church at Bristol was called the
minster.
I, however, suspect, that the poet here means
Bristol cathedral.
He calls, with his accustomed misapplication of old words,
Worcester cathedral
the
minster of our ladie,
infr. p. 160. But I do not think this was a common appellation for that church. In Lydgate's LIFE OF SAINT ALBAN,
Minster
is used in its first simple acceptation. MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. Num. xxxviii. fol. 19.
—Seynt Albone
Of that
mynstre
leyde the first stone.
That is, of saint Alban's monastery.
Pag. 164. To the end of the Section, ADD,
"What is here said of Rowlie, was not only written, but printed, almost two years before the correct and complete edition of his Poems appeared. Had I been apprised of that publication, I should have been much more sparing in my specimens of these forgeries, which had been communicated to me in manuscript, and which I imagined I was imparting to my readers as curiosities. I had as yet seen only a few extracts of these poems; nor were those transcripts which I received, always exact. Circumstances which I mention here, to shew the inconveniencies under which I laboured, both with regard to my citations and my criticisms. These scanty materials, however, contained sufficient evidence to convince me, that the pieces were not genuine.
The entire and accurate collection of Rowlie's now laid before the public, has been so little instrumental in inducing me to change my opinion, that it has served to exemplify and confirm every argument which I have produced in support of my suspicions of an imposition. It has likewise afforded some new proofs.
Those who have been conversant in the works even of the best of our old English poets, well know, that one of their leading characteristics is inequality. In these writers, splendid descriptions, ornamental comparisons, poetical images, and striking thoughts, occur but rarely: for many pages together, they are tedious, prosaic, and uninteresting. On the contrary, the poems before us are every where supported: they are throughout, poetical and animated. They have no imbecillities of style or sentiment. Our old English bards abound in unnatural conceptions, strange imaginations, and even the most ridiculous absurdities. But Rowlie's poems present us with no incongruous combinations, no mixture of manners, institutions, customs, and characters. They appear to have been composed after ideas of discrimination had taken place; and when even common writers had begun to conceive, on most subjects, with precision and propriety. There are indeed, in the BATTLE OF HASTINGS, some great anachronisms; and practices are mentioned which did not exist till afterwards. But these are such inconsistencies, as proceeded from fraud as well as ignorance: they are such as no old poet could have possibly fallen into, and which only betray an unskilful imitation of antient manners. The verses of Lydgate and his immediate successors are often rugged and unmusical: but Rowlie's poetry sustains one uniform tone of harmony; and, if we brush away the asperities of the antiquated spelling, conveys its cultivated imagery in a polished and agreeable strain of versification. Chatterton seems to have thought, that the distinction of old from modern poetry consisted only in the use of old words. In counterfeiting the coins of a rude age, he did not forget the usual application of an artificial rust: but this disguise was not sufficient to conceal the elegance of the workmanship.
The BATTLE OF HASTINGS, just mentioned, might be proved to be a palpable forgery for many other reasons. It is said to be translated from the Saxon of Turgot. But Turgot died in 1015, and the battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. We will, however, allow, that Turgot lived in the reign of the Conqueror. But, on that supposition, is it not extraordinary, that a cotemporary writer should mention no circumstances of this action which we did not know before, and which are not to be found in Malmsbury, Ordericus Vitalis, and other antient chroniclers? Especially as Turgot's description of this battle was professedly a detached and separate performance, and at least, on that account, would be minute and circumstantial. An original and a cotemporary writer, describing this battle, would not only have told us something new, but would otherwise have been full of particularities. The poet before us dwells on incidents common to all battles, and such as were easily to be had from Pope's HOMER. We may add, that this piece not only detects itself, but demonstrates the spuriousness of all the rest. Chatterton himself allowed the first part of it to be a forgery of his own. The second part, from what has been said, could not be genuine. And he who could write the second part was able to write every line in the whole collection. But while I am speaking of this poem, I cannot help exposing the futility of an argument which has been brought as a decisive evidence of its originality. It is urged, that the names of the chiefs who accompanied the Conqueror, correspond with the Roll of Battle-Abbey. As if a modern forger could not have seen this venerable record. But, unfortunately, it is printed in Hollinshead's Chronicle.
It is said that Chatterton, on account of his youth and education, could not write these poems. This may be true; but it is no proof that they are not forged. Who was their author, on the hypothesis that Rowlie was not, is a new and another question. I am, however, of opinion that it was Chatterton. For if we attend only to some of the pieces now extant in a periodical magazine, which he published under his own signature, and which are confessedly of his composition, to his letters now remaining in manuscript, and to the testimony of those that were acquainted with his conversation, he will appear to have been a singular instance of a prematurity of abilities; to have acquired a store of general information far exceeding his years, and to have possessed that comprehension of mind, and activity of understanding, which predominated over his situations in life, and his opportunities of instruction. Some of his publications in the magazines discover also his propensity to forgery, and more particularly in the walk of antient manners, which seem greatly to have struck his imagination. These, among others, are ETHELGAR, a
Saxon poem
in prose; KENRICK,
translated from the Saxon;
CERDICH,
translated from the Saxon;
GODRED CROVAN, a Poem,
composed by Dothnel Syrric king of the isle of Man;
The HIRLAS,
composed by Blythyn, prince of North Wales;
GOTHMUND,
translated from the Saxon;
ANECDOTE of CHAUCER, and of the ANTIQUITY of CHRISTMAS GAMES. The latter piece, in which he quotes a register of Keinsham NUNNERY, which was a priory of Black canons, and advances many imaginary facts, strongly shews his track of reading, and his fondness for antiquarian imagery. In this monthly collection he inserted ideal drawings of six achievements of Saxon heraldry, of an inedited coin of queen Sexburgeo, wife of king Kinewalch, and of a Saxon amulet; with explanations equally fantastic and arbitrary. From Rowlie's pretended parchments he produced several heraldic delineations. He also exhibited a draught by Rowlie of Bristol castle in its perfect state. I very much doubt if this fortress was not almost totally ruinous in the reign of Edward the fourth. This draught, however, was that of an edifice evidently fictitious. It was exceedingly ingenious; but it was the representation of a building which never existed, in a capricious and affected style of Gothic architecture, reducible to no period or system.
To the whole that is here suggested on this subject, let us add Chatterton's inducements and qualifications for forging these poems, arising from his character, and way of living. He was an adventurer, a professed hireling in the trade of literature, full of projects and inventions, artful, enterprising, unprincipled, indigent, and compelled to subsist by expedients.
Pag. 165. To Not. b . ADD,
"In the British Museum, there is a poem entitled,
"A CRISTEMASSE GAME
made by maister
BENET
howe God Almyghty seyde to his apostelys and echeon of them were baptiste and none knew of othir.
"
The piece consists of twelve stanzas, an apostle being assigned to each stanza. Probably
maister Benet
is Benedict Burgh. MSS. HARL. 7333. This is saint Paul's stanza.
Doctour of gentiles, a perfite Paule,
By grace convertid from thy grete erroure,
And cruelte, changed to Paule from Saule,
Of fayth and trouth most perfyte prechoure,
Slayne at Rome undir thilke emperoure
Cursyd Nero, Paule syt down in thy place
To the ordayned by purveaunce of grace.
Pag. 169. To Not. u . ADD,
"In Bennet college library, there is a copy of the French CATO by Helis of Winchester, MSS. ccccv. 24. fol. 317. It is entitled and begins thus.
Les Distiches Morales de
CATON
mises en vers par
Helis de Guyncestre.
Ki vout saver la faitement
Ki Catun a sun fiz a prent,
Si en Latin nel set entendre,
Jci le pot en rumainz
In romance. In French.
aprendre,
Cum Helis de Guyncestre
Ki deu met a se destre
La translate si fatemente.
Cod. membran. 4to . The transcript is of the fourteenth century. Compare Verdier, BIBL. FRANC. tom. iii. p. 288. edit. 1772. In the Latin Chronicle of of Anonymus Salernitanus, written about the year 900, the writer mentions a description in Latin verse of the palace of the city of Salerno, but laments that it was rendered illegible through length of time:
"Nam si unam paginam fuissemus nacti, comparare illos [versus] profecto potuissemus Maroni in
voluminibus,
CATONIQUE,
ive profecto aliis
Sophistis.
"
cap. xxviii. col. 195. B. tom. ii. P. ii. SCRIPTOR. RER. ITAL. Mediolan. 1726.
Pag. 173. To Not. g . Add,
"But the same lines occur in the Prologue to Hampole's
Speculum Vitae,
or MIRROUR OF LIFE, as it has been called, written about the year 1350. [See MSS. BODL. 48. p. 47. a. Bibl. Bodl. And ibid. MSS. LANGB. 5. p. 64.] From which, that those who have leisure and opportunity may make a farther comparison of the two Prologues, I will transcribe a few more dull lines.
Latyn
als, I trowe, canne nane
Bot thase that it of scole hane tane,
Som canne
frankes
and
latyn
That hanes vsed covrte and dwelled theryn,
And som canne o
latyn
a party
That canne
frankes
bot febely,
And som vnderstandes in
inglys
That canne nother
latyn
ne
frankys,
Bot lered and lewed alde and younge
All vnderstandes
inglysche
tounge:
Thare fore I halde it maste syker thon
To schew that langage that ilk a man konne,
And for all lewed men namely
Thet can no maner of clergy,
To kenne thanne what ware maste nede,
Ffor clerkes canne bathe se and rede, &c.
This poem, consisting of many thousand verses, begins with the spiritual advantages of the Lord's Prayer, of its seven petitions, their effects, &c. &c. And ends with the seven Beatitudes, and their rewards. [See supr. vol. i. p. 265. Not. • .] These are the two concluding lines.
To whylk blysse he vs bryng
That on the crosse for vs all wolde hyng.
This is supposed to be a translation from a Latin tract, afterwards printed at Cologne, 1536. fol. But it may be doubted, whether Hampole was the translator. It is, however, most probably of the fourteenth century.
Pag. 189. To l. 22. ADD this Note,
"The passion for versifying every thing was carried to such a heighth in the middle ages, that before the year 1300, Justinian's Institutes, and the code of French jurisprudence, were translated into French rhymes. There is a very antien
edition of this work, without date, place, or typographer, said to be corrected,
par plusieurs docteurs
and
souverains legistes,
in which are these lines,
J' ay, par paresse, demourè
Trop longuement á commencer
Pour Institutes
romancer.
See Menage, OBS. sur LE LANG. FR. P. prem. ch. 3. Verdier and La Croix, iii. 428. iv. 160. 554. 560. BIBL. FR. edit. 1773.
Pag. 191. To Not. o . ADD,
"Another proof which ascertains this reading of the controverted passage in HAMLET, occurs in the romance of MORTE ARTHUR. When sir Lancelo
was dying,
"whan he was
howseled
and
eneled,
and had
all that a crysten man ought to have,
he praid the bishop, that his felowes might beare his bodie unto Joyous Garde, &c."
B. xxi. cap. xii.
Pag. 199. To Not. q . ADD,
"These highly painted infernal punishments, and joys of Paradise, are not the invention of the author of the KALENDRIER. They are taken, both from M. Paris, and from Henry of Saltry's Description of saint Patrick's PURGATORY, written in 1140, and printed by Messingham in his FLORILEGIUM INSULAE SANCTORUM, &c."
Paris, 1624. fol. cap. vi. &c. p. 101. See Bibl. Bodl. MSS. BODL. 550. [See vol. ii. p. 298.] Messingham has connected the two accounts of M. Paris and H. de Saltry, with some interpolations of his own. This adventure appears in various manuscripts. No subject could have better suited the devotion and the credulity of the dark ages.
Pag. 200. Notes, col. 2. l. 31. ADD,
"To the reign of king Henry the sixth we may also refer a poem written by one Richard Sellyng, whose name is not in any of our biographers. MSS. HARL. f. 38. a. It is entitled and begins thus,
Evidens to be ware and gode covnsayle made now late by that honovrable squier Richard Sellyng.
Loo this is but a symple tragedie,
Ne thing lyche un to hem of Lumbardye,
Which that Storax wrote unto Pompeie,
Sellyng
maketh this in his manere,
And to John Shirley now sent it is
Ffor to amende where it is amisse.
He calls himself an old man. Of this
honovrable squier
I can give no further account. John Shirley, here mentioned, lived about the year 1440. He was a gentleman of good family, and a great traveller. He collected, and transcribed in several volumes, which John Stowe had seen, many pieces of Chaucer, Lydgate, and other English poets. In the Ashmolean Museum, there is,
A boke cleped the Abstracte Brevyare compyled of divers balades, roundels, virilays, tragedyes, envoys, complaints, moralities, storyes, practysed and eke devysed and ymagined, as it sheweth
ere followyng, collected by John Shirley.
MSS. 89. ii. In Thoresby's library was a manuscript, once belonging to the college
of Selby,
A most pyteous cronycle of thorribil dethe of James Stewarde, late kynge of Scotys, nought long agone prisoner yn Englande yn the tymes of the kynges Henry the fifte and Henry the sixte, translated out of Latine into oure mothers Englishe tong bi your simple subject John Shirley.
Also,
The boke clepyd
Les bones meures
translated out of French by your
umble serviture John Shirley of London,
MCCCCXL,
comprised in
v
partes. The firste partie spekith of remedie that is agaynst the sevyn deadly sins.
2.
The estate of holy church.
3.
Of prynces and lordes temporall.
4.
Of comone people.
5.
Of deth and universal dome.
Also, his Translation of the Sanctum Sanctorum, &c. DUCAT. LEOD. p. 530. A preserver of Chaucer's and Lydgate's works deserved these notices. The late Mr. Ames, the industrious author of the HISTORY OF PRINTING, had in his possession a folio volume of English Ballads in manuscript, composed or collected by one John Lucas about the year 1450.
Pag. 204. ADD to the Note,
"The most splendid spectacle of this sort which occurs in history, at least so early as the fourteenth century, is described by Froissart, who was one of the spectators. It was one of the shews at the magnificent entrance of queen Isabell into Paris, in the year 1389. The story is from the crusade against Saladin. I will give the passage from lord Berners's Translation, printed by Pinson in 1523.
"Than after, under the mynster of the Trinyte, in the strete, there was a stage, and therupon a castell. And along on the stage there was ordeyned the PASSE OF KYNG SALHADYN, and all their dedes in Personages: the cristen men on the one parte, and the Sarazins on the other parte. And there was, in Personages, all the lordes of name that of olde tyme hadde ben armed, and had done any feates of armes at the PASSE OF SALHADYNE, and were armed with suche armure as they than used. And thanne, a lyttel above them, there was in Personages the Frenche kynge and the twelve Peeres of Fraunce armed, with the blason of their armes. And whan the Frenche quenes lytter was come before this stage, she rested there a season. Thenne the Personages on the stage of kynge Rychard departed fro his company, and wente to the Frenche kynge, and demaunded lycence to go and assayle the Sarazins; and the kynge gave hym [them] leave. Thanne kynge Rycharde retourned to his twelve companyons. Thanne they all sette them in order, and incontynente wente and assayled Salhadyne and the Sarazins. Then in sporte there seemed a great bataile, and it endured a good space. This pageaunt was well regarded."
CRON. tom. ii. c. 56. fol. clxxii. col. i. By the two kings, he means Philip of France, and our king Richard the first, who were jointly engaged in this expedition. It is observable, that the superiority is here given to the king of France.
Pag. 212. Notes, col. 1. To l. 2. ADD,
"In the Bodleian manuscript (BODL. 638.) this poem, with manifest impropriety, is entitled the TEMPLE OF BRAS. It there appears in the midst of many of Chaucer's poems. But at the end are two poems by Lydgate, THE CHAUNSE OF THE DYSE, and RAGMANY'S ROLL. And, I believe, one or two more of Lydgate's poems are intermixed. It is a miscellany of old English poetry, chiefly by Chaucer: but none of the pieces are respectively distinguished with the author's name. This manuscript is partly on paper and partly on vellum, and seems to have been written not long after the year 1500.
Pag. 241. l. 2. For
"1494,"
READ
"1470."
Ibid. l. 11. For
"1497,"
READ
"1488."
And ADD this Note,
"With this title,
"Sebastiani Brandt NAVIS STULTIFERA Mortalium, a vernaculo ac vulgari sermone in Latinum conscripta, per JACOBUM LOCHER cognomine Philomusum Suevum cum figuris. Per Jacobum Zachoni de Romano, anno 1488."
4to . In the colophon, it is said to have been
jampridem traducta
from the German original by Locher; and that this Latin translation was revised by the inventor Brandt, with the addition of many new FOOLS
A second edition of Locher's Latin was printed at Paris, in 1498. 4to . There is a French prose translation by Jehan Drouyn, at Lyons, 1498. fol. In the royal library at Paris, there is a curious copy of Barklay's English SHIP OF FOLYS, by Pinson, on vellum, with the woodcuts: a rarity not, I believe, to be found in England.
Ibid. To Not. k . ADD,
"In verse. From which the French prose translation was made the next year.
Pag. 247. To the end of Not. d . ADD,
"Bishop Alcock's CASTEL OF LABOURE was translated into English from a French poem by Octavien de S. Gelais, a bishop
and an eminent translator of the classics into French at the restoration of learning. Viz.
"Le CHASTEAU DE LABOUR en rime françoise, auquel est contenu l'adresse de riches et chemin de pauvretè, par Octavien de S, Gèlais, &c. Paris, Gallyot du Pré, 1536. 16mo ."
Our highest efforts of poetry at this period were translations from the French. This piece of S. Gelais was also translated into English rhymes by one
Done,
or
dominus, James:
the same perhaps who made the following version,
"Here begynneth the ORCHARDE OF SYON: in the which is contayned the revelation of saynt Catherine of Sene, with ghostly fruytes and presyous plantes for the helthe of mannes soule. Translated by Dane James. Prynted at the cost of master Richard Sutton esquyre, Stewarde of the monasterie of Syon, 1519."
For Wynkyn de Worde, in folio, with fine Gothic cuts in wo
d. Thi
Master
Richard Sutton, steward of the opulent monastery of Sion near London, was one of the founders of Brasenose college in Oxford.
Pag. 258. ADD. to Not. a .
"The presents at this marriage ascertain a doubtful reading in Chaucer, viz.
"UN NOUCHE pr. ccc livr.—It. un riche NOUCHE.—UN NOUCHE priz de cynk centz marcz."
—In the CLERKE'S TALE, Grisilde has a crown
"full of
ouchis
grete and smale."
The late editor acquaints us, that the best manuscripts read
nouchis.
—In the same Note, For
"a golden cup
, READ
"a collar of gold,"
colere d'or.
Pag. 288. ADD to Not. z .
"In Chaucer's CUCKOWE
AND NIGHTINGALE, the latter is said to GREDE, v. 135. p. 544. Urr.
And that for that skil ocy ocy I GREDE.
That is,
I cry.
Ital.
Gridare.
The word is used with more propriety, in Adam Davie's GEST OF ALEXANDER, written in 1312. fol. 55. col. 2. [See supr. i. 220.]
Averil is meory, and longith the day,
Ladies loven solas and play,
Swaynes justis, kny
tis turnay,
Syngith the nyȝtyngale, GREDETH the Jay.
Pag. 289. ADD this Note,
"In the last-mentioned excellent old poem, Autumn is touched with these circumstances. fol. 95. col. 2.
In tyme of hervest merry it is ynouȝ,
Peres and apples hongeth on bouȝ,
The hayward bloweth his horne,
In everych felde ripe is corne,
The grapes hongen on the vyne,
Swete is trewe love and fyne;
Kyng Alisaunder a morowe
rist,
The sonne dryveth away the mist,
Fforth he went farre into Ynde
Moo mervayles for to fynde.
Pag. 299. To the first Note ADD,
"There is a manuscript, Of a knight, called SIR OWEYN, visiting saint Patrick's Purgatory, Bibl. Bodl. MSS. BODL. 550. MSS. Cott. NERO. A. vii. 4. [See ad p. 199.] This piece was written by Henry, a Cistercian monk of Saltry in Huntingtonshire. See T. Messingham, FLORILEG. p. 86. seq. In the Catalogue of the library of Sion monastery, which contained fourteen hundred volumes, in Bennet library, it is falsely attributed to Hugo de Saltereia. MSS. C. C. C. C. XLI. The Fr
nch have an antient spiritual romance on this favorite expedition, so fertile of wonders, entitled,
"Le VOYAGE du Puys Saint Patrix, auquel lieu on voit les peines du Purgatoire et aussi les joyes de Paradis, Lyon, 1506. 4to ."
Pag. 342. Notes, col. 2. l. 13. ADD,
"Boccacio borrowed the story of Titus and Gesippus from the GESTA ROMANONUM, or from Alphonsus, FAB. ii. There is another Latin history of these two friends, probably a translation from Boccacio by Fr. M. Bandello, and printed at Milan in 1509. An exceedingly scarce book.
"Titi Romani et Hegesippi Atheniensis Historia in Latinum versa per Fr. Mattheum Bandellum Castronovensem. MEDIOLANI, Apud Gotard de Ponte, 1509. 4to ."
I take this opportunity of pointing out another source of Boccacio's TALES. Friar Philip's story of the GOOSE, or of the Young Man who had never seen a Woman, in the Prologue to the fourth day of the DECAMERON, is taken from a spiritual romance, called the HISTORY OF BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT. This fabulous narrative, in which Barlaam is a hermit and J
s
phat a king of India, is supposed to have been originally written in Greek by Johannes Damascenus. The Greek is no uncommon manus
pt. See MSS
LAUD. C. 72. It was from the old Latin translation, which is mentioned by Vincent of Beavais, that it became a favorite in the dark ages. The Latin, which is also a common manuscript, was printed so early as the year 1470. It has often appeared in French. A modern Latin version was published at Paris in 1577. The legendary historians, who believed every thing, and even Baronius, have placed Barlaam and Josaphat in their catalogues of confessours. Saint Barlaam and saint Josaphat occur in the METRICAL LIVES OF THE SAINTS. MSS. BODL. 72. fol. 288. b. This history seems to have been composed by an oriental Christian: and, in some manuscripts, is said to have been brought by a monk of saint Saba into the holy city from Ethiopia. Among the Baroccian manuscripts there is an OFFICE in Greek for these two supposed saints. Cod. xxi.
Pag. 357. To Not. c . ADD,
"These are the only editions I have seen of Cocciae's work. De Bure says, the first edition was in 1517. See his curious catalogue of
Poetes Latins modernes facetieux, vulgairement appelles
MACARONIQUES. BIBL. INSTRUCT. Bel. Lett. tom. i. §. 6. p. 445. seq.
Ibid. DELE Not. i . And INSERT,
"I believe one of the most popular of Arena's Macaronic poems, is his MEIGRA
Enterprisa Catiloqui Imperatoris,
printed at Avignon in 1537. It is an ingenious pasquinade on Charles the fifth's expedition into France. The date of the Macaronic Miscellany, in various languages, entitled, MACHARONEA VARIA, and printed in the Gothic character, without place, is not known. The authors are anonymous; and some of the pieces are little comedies intended for representation. There is a Macaronic poem in hexameters, called POLEMO-MIDDINIA by Drummond of Hawthornden, printed with Notes, and a preface on this species of poetry, by Gibson at Oxford, 1691. 4to .
Pag. 358. ADD to the last Note,
"Friar Tuck is. h
wever, mentioned in Skelton's play of MAGNIFICEN
. f. 5. b.
Another b
d
shave halfe my berde,
And boyes to the pylery gan me plucke,
And wolde have made me FREER TUCKE
To preche oute of the pylery hole.
Pag. 363. After the last sentence, INSERT,
"The only copy of Skelton's moral comedy of MAGNIFICENCE now remaining, printed by Rastal, without date in a thin folio, has been most obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Garrick; whose valuable collection of old Plays is alone a complete history of our stage. The first leaf and the title are wanting. It contains sixty folio pages in the black letter, and must have taken up a very considerable time in the representation. [See p. 336. supr.] The substance of the allegory is briefly this. MAGNIFICENCE becomes a dupe to his servants and favorites,
Fansy, Counterfe
Countenance, Crafty Conveyance, Clokyd Colusion, Courtly Abusion,
and
Foly.
At length he is seized and robbed by
Adversyte,
by whom he is given up as a prisoner to
Poverte.
He is next delivered to
Despare
and
Mischefe,
who offer him a knife and a halter. He snatches the knife, to end his miseries by stabbing himself; when
Good Hope
and
Redresse
appear, and persuade him to take the
rubarbe of repentance
with some
gostly gummes,
and a few
drammes
of
devocyon.
He becomes acquainted with
Circumspeccyon,
and
Perseverance,
follows their directions, and seeks for happiness in a state of penitence and contrition. There is some humour here and there in the dialogue, but the allusions are commonly low. The poet hardly ever aims at allegorical painting, but the the figure of POVERTY is thus drawn, fol. xxiii. a.
A, my bonys ake, my lymmys be sore,
A lasse I haue the cyatyca full euyll in my hyppe,
A lasse where is youth that was wont for to skyppe!
I am lowsy, and vnlykynge, and full of scurffe,
My coloure is tawny-coloured as a turffe:
I am POVERTIE that all men doth hate,
I am baytyd with doggys at euery mannys gate:
I am raggyd and rent, as ye may se,
Full few but they have envy at me.
Nowe must I this carcase lyft up,
He dyned with DELYTE, with POVERTE he must sup.
The stage-direction then is,
"Hic accedat at levandum MAGNIFICENCE."
It is not impossible, that DESPARE offering the knife and the halter, might give a distant hint to Spenser. The whole piece is strongly marked with Skelton's manner, and contains every species of his capricious versification
Counterfet Countenance
says, f. vi. a.
But nowe wyll I—
In
bastarde
ryme of
doggreil
gyse
Tell you where of my name doth ryse.
. I have been prolix in describing these two dramas, because they place Skelton in a class in which he never has yet been viewed, that of a Dramatic poet. And although many MORALITIES were now written, yet these are the first that bear the name of their author. There is often much real comedy in these ethic interludes, and their exemplifications of Virtue and Vice in the abstract, convey strokes of character and pictures of life and manners. I take this opportunity of remarking, that a MORALITY-MAKER was a professed occupation at Paris. Pierre Gringoire is called, according to the style of his age,
Compositeur, Historien et Facteur de Mysteres, ou Comedies,
in which he was also a performer. His principal piece, written at the command of Louis the twelfth, in consequence of a quarrel with the pope and the states of Venice, is entitled,
Le
JEU
du Prince de Sots et Mere Sotte, joue aux Halles de Paris.
It was printed at Paris in 1511. See Mons. l'Abbè Goujet, BIBL. FRANC. tom. xi. p. 212.
Pag. 372. To Not. w . ADD,
"The author of this Jewish tragedy seems to have belonged to that class of Hellenistico-Judaic writers of Alexandria, of which was the author of the apocryphal BOOK OF WISDOM: a work originally written in Greek, perhaps in metre, full of allusions to the Greek poets and customs, and containing many lessons of instruction and consolation peculiarly applicable to the distresses and situation of the Jews after their dispersion.
Pag. 375. l. 6. ADD,
"The tragedy called JULIUS CESAR, and two comedies, of Jaques Grevin, a learned physician, and an elegant poet, of France, were first acted in the college of Beauvais at Paris, in the years 1558 and 1560. BIBL. VERDIER, ut supr. tom. ii. p. 284. La Croix du Maine, i. p. 415. seq.
Pag. 376. To Not. k . ADD,
"There is also a work attributed to Conradus Celtes, containing six Latin plays in imitation of Terence, under this title,
"HROSVITE, illustris virginis et Monialis Germanae, Opera: nempe, COMOEDIAE SEX IN AEMULATIONEM TERENTII, Octo Sacrae Historiae versibus compositae, necnon Panegyricus, &c. NORINBERGAE,
sub privilegio Sodalitatis Socraticae,
anno 1501. fol."
END OF EMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONS IN THE FIRST AND SECOND VOLUME.
INDEX TO THE SECOND VOLUME OF WARTON'S History of English Poetry.
A. B. C. of Aristotille, 200
Abbas, Benedictus, 317
Abby of the Holy Ghost, by Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 249
Abelard and Eloisa,
Epistles of,
112, 168
Abyndon, Thomas, 40
Achademios,
a Comedy,
by Skelton, 336
Achilleis,
a Tragedy,
by Alberti Mussato, 409
Acuparius, Thomas, 241
Adam and Eve, their Sufferings and Repentance, Death and Burial, 179
Aegidius Romanus, 39, 40, 108
After Dionysius, 49
Africanus, Julius, 10
Agricola Rodolphus, 450, 455
Agynkourte, Battallye of, and Seyge of Har
lett, 36
Ahasuerus and Esther,
a Poem,
178
Ajax of Sophocles,
translated into Latin,
385.
Ailward, Simeon, 41
Alasco, Albertus de, 383
Alba,
a Pa
toral Comedy,
384
Albertus Magnus, 117, 136
Albion's Triumph,
a Masque,
401
Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 249, 419
Alcuine, 168
Aldred, an English Monk, 112
Alexander,
Life of,
by Calli
tines, 8 by Adam Davie 312, 338, 339.
Alexander de Villa Dei, 168
Alexander, a Schoolmaster at Pisa, 347
Alesandreid, by Philip Gualtier de Chatillon, 168
Alfred, King, 32, 208, 311
Alfred of Beverly, 177
All Fools,
a Comedy,
by George Chapman, 394
Almagest, by Ptolemy, 23
Almenhusen, Conrade Von, Game of Chess,
translated into German
by, 41
Alphabet of Birds, by Stephen Hawes, 211
Alphonsus, Peter, 19
Alyngton, Sir Giles, 248
Ambro
ius, 10
Amergot Marcell.
Account of,
333
Amon or Hamon, and Madocheus or Mordecai,
Story of, a Poem,
178
Andalus the Blake, 69 70
Andria of Terence, 380
Anglicus Bartholomew, 116
Ann Queen of Richard 2nd, 326
Antioch, John de, 115
Antiochus,
Tale of,
15, 16
Antoine le Maçon, 121
Antio
hus Epiphanes, 21
Antiochus,
a Latin Poem,
by Joseph of Exeter, 96
Antonio de Beccaria, 49
Antonio de Lebrixa, 416
Antonio and Arena, 357
Apolli
aris, Bishop of Laodicea, 368, 371
Apollo shroving,
a Comedy,
by John Hawkins, 387
Appollonius, 31
Appolyne, Kynge of Thyre, 31
Aquinas, Thomas, 39, 74, 300
Aretine, Leonard, 48
Ariosto, 411
Aristarchus, 24
Architrenius, by John Hanville, 168
Aristophanes, 379.
Translated into Latin
by Reuchlen, 415
Armes et de Chevallerie, Livres de fais d', by Christi
a of Pisa, 115
Arnobius Caius, 420
Aristotle, 7, 8, 22, 39, 40, 6
, 109, 119, 196, 200, 228, 307, 338, 339, 410, 414, 417, 450, 455.
Aristotle's Poli
iques, or Discourse of Government
translated
by Aretine, 48. Oeconomicks into French, by Laurence, 62
Arthuri Assertio, by Leland, 19,
Arthure, Prince, the Auncient Order Societie, &c. of,
in Verse,
19 Creacion of, by Skelton, 336
Arthur, King, 231, 235, 316
Art of Versification,
a Latin Poem,
by Eberhardus Bethuniensis, 167
Arundel, Archbishop, 3
As you like it, by Shakespeare, 349
Ascham, Roger, 380, 447, 453, 460
Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum, 9, 135, 137
Asinus Penitentiarius, 206
Assaillant, l',
a French Romance,
121
Assembly of Foules, by Chaucer, 212
Assembly of Ladies, by Chaucer, 212, 218
Asser, Bishop of St. Davids, 32
Attecliff, William, 426
Avianus Flavius, 167
Aulularia of Plautus, exhibited before Queen Elizabeth at Cambridge, 383
Aurora, or History of the Bible allegorised, by Petrus de Riga, 168
Ausonius, 167
B
Bacon, Roger, 5, 7, 115, 136
Badby, 192
Bade, Joce, Brandts ship of Fooles,
translated into French,
by, 241
Badius Jodocus, his Commentary on Mantuan, 256
Balatyn, or Ballendyn, John, 321
Bale, John, 188, 387, 388
Ballades et Rondelles l'art de dictier, 112
Balsamon, Patriarch of Antioch, 370
Banastre, or Banester, Gilbert, 138
Barbatoria, or Shew of Beards, 362
Barbarus Hermolaus, 425
Barclay, Alexander, 174, 176, 237, 240 to 256, 347, 426, 427
Barlaam, 70, 71
Barnes, or Berners, Julyana, 171, 172
Basset, Mrs. 406
Baston, 132
Bate, John, 421
Batmanson, John, 447
Battailes plusiers des Rois d' Israel
contre les Philistines et Assyriens, 217
Beaumont, 399
Beccaria, Antonio de, 49
Becket, Thomas of,
Legend of,
108, 190, 429, 432
—Life of by Herbert Borham,
translated into English Rymes
by Laurence Wade, 238. Into
French
by Langtoft, ibid.
Bede, 10, 177, 199
Bedford, Jasper, Duke of,
Epitaph on,
by Skelton, 336
Belleperche, 21
Bellovacensis Vincentius, 68, 299, 353
Behn, Mrs. 399
Benivieni, Jeronimo, 256
Bennet, 222
B
noit, Thomas, 99, 111.
Metrical Romance
of the Dukes of Normandy, by, 235, 238
Bercheur, Peter, Livy
translated into French,
by, 113
Bergeretta, or the Song of Shepherds, a
Mummery,
celebrated in the City of Besançon, 368
Bergman, Johannes, 376
Bernard, Andrew, 132
Bernardinus, 377
Berners or Barnes Julyana, 171, 172
Bestiare, a set of
Metrical Fables
from Esop, 108
Bethuniensis Eberhardus, 352.
Latin Poem
on the Art of Versification, by, 167
Bibienna, Cardinal, 411
Bible, 217, 220, 417.
Heroick Poem
on the History of, by Appolinaris, 371.
Translated into Latin
by Saint Jerom, 24.
M
trical Versio
of,
108, 109.
History of,
allegorised in
Latin Verse,
by Petrus de Riga, 168
Blind Harry, 334
Blois, Peter of, 75, 119, 352, 362, 428, 430, 431
Boarde, or Borde, Andrew, 134, 135
Boccaccio, 13, 25, 47, 52, 67, 69, 70, 71, 84, 121, 191, 215, 223, 341, 353, 387
Boccus and Sidrake,
a Romance,
101, 102,
Bo
hius, 4, 32, 33, 76, 111, 125, 208, 305, 321, 353, 432
Boilea
, 373
Boke
ham, Osbern, 138
Borron, Robert, 13, 117
Bosham, H
rb
rt, 239
Botoner, William, 119, 426
Bottom the Weaver, 358
Bouge of Court, by Skelton, 347, 348, 349, 350
Boulay, 37
Bo
illus, or Bullock, Henry, 438
Bouquassiere, by Jean de Courci, 118
Boxhornius, 166
Boy, Bishop,
Ceremony of the,
375, 389
390, 391
Bozmanni, Cardinal, 418
Bradshaw, Henry, 176 to 188
Bradwardine, 7
Braham, John, 81
Brandt, S
bastian, 241, 247
Brandon, Charles and Henry, 453
Bromele, Abbot of Hyde Monastery, 44
Browne, Poet, 358, 401, 402, 403
Brunetto, 116
Brut, Romance of, 69
Bryan Reginald, 344
Brytayne lytel, and Ponthus and Galyce, 227
Buchannan, 380, 461
Bullock, Henry, 438
Bulloker, William, 171
Bulman, John, 130
Buoninsegni Fiorini, 356
Burgh, Benedict, 68, 165, 170, 171
Burlacus, 450
Byngham, William, 419
Byrchensau, Maurice, 12
, 130
C
Ca
sar's Commentaries,
translated into French
by Jean D
Chesne, 119
Cairels Elias,
a Troubadour
of Perigord, 236
Calander, an
I
alian Comedy,
by Bibie
n
411
Calisto,
a Masque,
by Crown, 402
Callot, 272
Calvin, 321, 443
Camped
n, Hugh, or Caumpeden,
Roma
c
of Boccus and Sidrake, by, 101
Camillus Julius, 413
Canning, William, 135, 139. See Rowlie or Chatterton
Can
erbury Tales, by Chau
er,
—Knight
s Tale, 75, 273
—Man of Law
Tal
, 30
—Marchaunt
Tale, 348
—Miller
s Tale, 266
—Nonnes Priest's Tale, 218
—Wife of Bathe's Tale, 30
Candidus Petrus, 48,
Capella Marcianus, 75, 168
Capellanus, Joannes, 34
Capg
ave, John, 45, 46
Capuano, Benedict, 380
Cards and Card-playing,
Account of,
317
Carew, Thomas, 399
Cario's Chronicle, 311
Carlisle, Alexander, Seriant of the Minstrillis unto King Edward 4th, 134
Carmelian, Peter, 248
Carnotensis Bernardus, 168
Carr, Earl of Somer
et, 399
Carols, 211
Cassianus, 110, 111
Cassiodorus, 11
Castelione, Lapus de, 19, 49
Casulis, Jacobus de, 39, 40, 111
Castle of Honour, 199
Castle of Labour,
a Poem,
by Barclay, 200, 247
Catharine, Saint,
Play of,
acted by the Monks of St. Dennis, 367, 374
Cato's Morals,
ranslated,
165, 166, 167, 169
axton, 11, 41, 92, 115, 166, 170, 194, 1
5, 211, 228
Cedrenus, 369
Ce
i, Philip, 13
Celtes Conradus, an early Dramatic Wri
er and Latin Poet, 376, 377, 415, 416, 455
Cerisier, 33
Chadworth, Bishop of Lincoln, 420
Chalcondylas Demetrius, 425
Chapman, George, Dramatic Poet, 394, 399
Charette
le Roman, d
la, 13
Charles the Fifth, 413
Chartier, Alain, 52
Chat
erton, 139 to 164
Chaucer, 1, 5, 11, 25, 26, 29, 33, 43, 44, 50, 51, 74, 125, 165, 169, 176, 211, 212, 218, 224, 231, 257, 259, 266, 271, 318, 329, 348, 353, 441
Chaundler, Thomas, 34
Chess, Game of, 40, 41, 96
Chester, Foundation of the Abbey of,
a Poem,
by Bradshaw, 178, 179
Chester Mysteries, or Whitsun Playes,
Account of,
179, 180, 207, 209
Chorle and the Bird,
a Poem,
by Lidgate, 224
Christ, the History of the Childhood of,
a Poem,
175, 176.
A Poem
on the Passion of, by Walter Kennedie, 319
Christ's Dialogues in Hell, 207
Christ's Passion,
a Tragedy,
by Gregory Nazianzen, 368
Christi descensus ad Inferos,
a Religious Drama,
206, 388
Christi de Passione, 19
Christi Gesta Salvationis, 208
Chris
's Kirk on the Green,
a Poem,
318
Christ, Spousage of a Virgin to, by Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 249
Christian and Jew,
Metrical Dialogue
between, by Sidonius, 168, 231
Christopherson, John,
Latin Tragedy
of Jeptha, by, 379
Christina of Pisa, 67, 85. Morale Proverbes, of, by Widville, Earl of Rivers, 138
Christmas,
a Latin Poem,
on, by John Opicius, 422
Chronica Chronicorum, by Theodoric Engelhusen, 13, 311
Chronica Novella, by Herman Korner, 20
Chronica d
Isodoro, 11
Chronicles of England, by Caxton, 11
Chronicles of the Kings of England, 177
Chronicon breve, by Cassiodorus, 11
Chrysoloras 48, 438
Churche, Daniel, 170
Church, the Figure of our Mother holy, oppressed by the French King,
a Poem
by Barclay, 247
Cicero, 22, 24, 68, 115, 120, 124, 218, 305, 306, 352, 413, 417, 424, 451, 455.
Translated
by Lawrence Premierfait, 62, 119. Dialogue on Friendship,
translated
into English by Tipstoft, Earl of Worcester, 426. Familiar Epistles,
translated
by Skelton, 336
Circe and Ulysses,
Masque
on the Story of, by William Brown, 401, 402, 403
Citta di Vita, by Matteo P
lmeri, 305, 312
City Heiress, by Mrs. Behn, 399
Clamund, 449
Coccaie Martin, 356, 357
Cockneys, King of the, 405
Co
lum Britannicum,
a Mas
ue,
by Thomas Carew, 399
Coldwell, or Colvil, George, 35
Colet, Dean, 434, 441, 447
Colin Clout, by Skelton, 337, 342, 343, 344
College of Poetry, founded in the University of Vienna, by Maximilian the First, 415
Cologne, three Kings of, 174
Colona or Columna, 116
Colvil, or Coldwell, George, 35,
Com
diae Sacrae, by G
win Douglas, 293
Comestor, Peter, 108, 179
Complaynt of the Papyngo, 259, 274, 315, 318, 319
Compound of Alchemie, by George Ripley, 137
Comus,
a Masque,
by Milton, 403
Concubranus,
MS. Life of,
244
Confessio Amantis, by Gower, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 228, 248
Consolation of Lovers, 211
Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius,
translated
into various Languages, 32, 33, 34
Consolation of the Monkes, by Eccard, 33
Consolation of Theology, by John Gerson, 33
Conversion of Swerers, by Stephen Hawes, 210
Corbian, Pierre, 194, 222
Corbichon, John, 116
Corderoy, Mathurine, 169
Cornish, Thomas, 240. William, a Poet and Musician, 363, 364, 365
Corvini, Mattheo, King of Hungary, 417
Cosmographia Mundi, by John Phrea, 423
Cosmographie, le premier livre de la,
in Verse,
by John Mallard, 132
Cossa, Jean, 118
Cosyn, William, Dean of Wells, 302
Covetice, an old Scots
Poem,
316
Court of Love, by Chaucer, 259
Coventry Plays, 53, 201, 207
Courci, Jean de, 118
Courteauisse, Jean de, 118
Cox, Dr. Richard, 380
Coxe, Leonard, 446
Coxeter, Thomas, 401
Cranstoun, David, 294
Crescentiis, Peter de, 116
Croke, Richard, 427
Crophill, John, 196
Crown of Laurell, by Skelton, 336, 350, 351, 352
Crowley, Robert, 361
Cupid's Whirligig,
a Comedy,
398
Cursor Mundi, 24
Curteis, William, Abbot of Bury, 55
Cynthia's Revels, by B. Jonson, 393, 394
Cyriac of Ancona, 411
Cyropedia of Xenophon,
translated,
115, 415, 423, 451
D
D
nce of Death, by Lydgate, 53. In
German Rymes,
by Macaber, 54.
Translated
into
Latin,
by Petrus Desrey, 54
Dancing, Account of, 398,
Daniel, Prophet, 22
Daniel Arnaud, a Troubadour, 60, 223, 235
Daniel, Samuel, 401
Dante, 22, 23, 52, 66, 118, 216, 219, 235, 300, 305, 357
Dares, Phrygius, 68, 90, 109
Davenant, Sir William, 401
Davie, Adam, 11, 312
David's Harp,
Part of the Harmony of,
19
David and Bathsheba, 25
David, King, 307
Davies
Critical History of Pamphlets, 337
Dawes Oegidius, see Dewes
Dead Man's Song, 199
Death, Dance of, by Lidgate, 53.
Translated,
54
Death, Divine
Poem
on, by Michael Kildare, 200
Decameron of Boccaccio,
translated
into French by Laurence, 62
De Cis, or Thri, an old French Poet, 33
Decker, Thomas, 393
Dee John, 379
De Harnes, Michael Turpins Charlemagne,
translated
by, 109
Delight of the Soul, by Hawes, 211
De Lyra, Nicholas, 46
De Monte, Petrus, 48
Demosthenes, 413.
Translated
into German and English, 451, 453
Dempster, 334
Dewes Oegidius, Preceptor in French to Henry Eighth, and Prince Authur, &c. 420
De Presles Raoul, 110
Desrey Petrus, 54
De Thri, or de Cis, an old Fr
nch Poet, 33
Diana,
Latin Play of,
by Conradus Celtes, 376, 377
Dictys Cretensis, 68
Dido,
Play of,
exhibited before Queen Elizabeth at Cambridge, 383, 384. Before Cardinal Wolsey, 434
Didymus, 24
Diodorus Siculus,
translated
by John Phrea, 337, 423
Dion Cassius, 10
Dionysius the Areopagite, 300
Dispucation or Complaynt of the Heart thorough pierced with the lokynge of the Eye,
Lytel Treatise called,
199
Disputation betweene a Crysten Man and a Jewe,
a Poem,
231
Dives and Lazarus,
a Play,
by R. Radcliffe, 387
Doctrinale Puerorum, 347
Dolce Lodovico, 11
Donatus, 24
Dorman, Saint, 175
Douglas Gawen, or Gawin, 280 to 294, 320
Dreme, by Sir David Lyndesay, 295, 296, 297
Dumb Shews,
Account of,
203, 204
Du Chesne, Jean, 119
Dufour, Antoine, 117
Dun, John, first Master of the Revell
, 379
Dunbar, William, 257 to 279, 358, 359
Duncane Laider, or Makgregor's Testament,
a Poem,
326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332
Du Vignay, 40
E
Easter,
a Play,
207
Eccard's Imi
ation of Boe
hius' Consolation of Philosophy, 33
Ecerrinis, or the Fate of the Tyrant Ecerrinus of Verona,
a Tragedy,
by Alberti Mussato, 409
Eccle
ia
tes,
Latin Translation of,
by Robert Shirwoode, 447
Edda, 198
Edmund, Saint,
History of,
by Lydgate, 55, 56, 57
Edward the second,
Poem on,
193
Edward the fourth, and the Tanner of Tamworth,
delectable Historie of,
138
Edwardi de Karnarvon, Lamentatio gloriosi Regis quam edidit tempore suae in
arcerationis,
translated
into
English Verse
by Fabian, 191, 192
Edwards, Richard, a Dramatic Writer, 393
Edyth, the mery Gestys of one callyd, the lying Wydow, by Walter Smith, 365
Ειρηνη of Aristophanes, 379
Eginhart, 109
Eglogues by Barclay, 248 to 252
Elinour Rummyng, the Tunnyng of, by Skelton, 337
Elizabeth, Queen, 382, 461
Engelh
sen, Theodoric, 13
Enniu
, 353
Eparchus Antonius, 413
Ephiloquorus, 20
Erasmus, 169, 360, 427, 433, 438, 443, 446, 447, 455, 456
Erle of Tholouse,
Romance of,
103, 104, 105
Esdras, 20,
Esop's Fables, 108, 319
Ester and Ahasuerus,
a Poem,
178
Eston, Adam, 421
Every Man,
an Interlude,
378
Euripedes, 319, 368, 371, 451
Eusebius, 10, 11, 208
Eutropius, 109
Exemplar of Virtue, by Hawes, 211
Exodus
(Play on)
in
Greek lambicks,
by Ezekiel, a Jew, 371, 372
F
Fabian, Robert, 191, 192, 193
Faithful S
epherdess, by Fletcher, 402,
Falcandus, 217
Falconry,
Account of,
221, 222
Fall of Princes, by Lydgate, 61, 83
Farmor, Mr. 221,
Farringdon Hugh, Abbot of Reading, 446
Ferrers, George, 381
Ferrex and Porrex,
a Play,
by Sackville, 398
Ferron John, Liber Moralis de ludo Scaccorum, of Jacobus de Casulis,
translated
into French, by, 40
Fete de Foux, 367, 369, 389
Fete de Ane, 360, 369
Feylde, Thomas, 219
Field, Master of Fotheringay Castle, 167
Filo
trato di Boccaccio, 25
Firmius Julius, 221
Fl
e from the Presse,
a Poem,
said to be by Skogan, 135
Flemmyng, Robert, 421. Abraham, 423
Fletcher, John, Dramatic Writer, 401, 402
Flies and Ants, War with, or Mos
h
a, 356
Florinus, 168
Floure and Leafe, by Chaucer, 26, 29, 264
Flowers,
Masque of,
399
Foliot, Hugh de, Bishop of London. 344, 431
Folengio, Theophile, 356
Fontius Bartholomew, 416
Fontaine, 206
Fools, Feast of, 367, 369, 389
Fox, Bishop of Winchester, 203, 434, 436, 437
Francis first of France, 413, 414,
Francis, Dauphin of France, Epithala
um on, by Andrew Bermad, 133
Fredegaire, 109
Free, or Phrea, John, 423, 424, 426,
Freebairn, Robert, 281
French, an Introductorie for to lerne to rede, &c. compyled for the Use of the Princess Mary, by Oegidus Dewes, 420
Frigidilles, 20
Froissart, 267, 299, 332, 333
Frontinus, 119
Fryssell, William, 446,
G
Gager, Dr. William, 383
Gaguini, Robert, 353
Galbraith, 320
Galen,
translated
by Jean Tourtier, 120
Galfridus, 168
Gallopes, Jean, 120, 121
Gammer Gurton's Needle,
a Play,
378
Gand, Henry de, 39
Garlandia, Johannes de, 168
Gascoigne, George, Poet, 165, 398
Gauchi, Henri de, 109
Gellius Aulus, 353
Geminus Marcus,
a Latin Comedy,
382
Genealogy of the Gods, by Boccaccio, 228
Genesis,
Commentary on,
by John Capgrave, 45
Gentylness and Nobylyte,
an Interlude,
by Rastall, 364
Geoffry of Monmouth, 69
Gerard Antoine, 121
Gerson, John, 33
Gervais of Tilbury, 121
Gesta, Alexandri, 16
Gesta Romanorum, 12, 14, 15, 18, 31
Gesta Salvationis nostri Iesu Christi, 208
Geta Hosidius, 168
Giffard, John, 221
Gilbert de Stone, 344
Gloucester, Foundation of the Abbey of,
a Poem,
by William Malverne, 178
Gloucester,
Latin Poem
on the Abbot of, by Kildare, 200
God and the penitent Soul,
M
trical Dialogue
between, by W. Lichfield, 106
Godefroy de Leigny, 13
Godefroy of Bologne, 116
Godfrey of Viterbo, 10
Godfrey, a Priest of Sussex,
Tale of,
206
Godfricus, 10
Godrich, a Hermit, 193
God's Promises, by Bale, 388
Golden Legend, 41
Golden Terge, by W. Dunbar, 257, 258, 264 to 279
Goliah,
Psalm
on the Slaughter of, 217
Golias, 360
Goscelinus, 189, 190,
Goulain, John, 111
Gower, John, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, to 26, 34, 50, 125, 224, 228, 248, 271, 318, 353 429, 441
Grandison, Bishop of Exeter, 242
Graund amoure et la Bell P
cell, see Pastime of Pleasure
Gray, 245. William, Bishop of Ely, 423
Grammaticus, 76
Gregory, Pope, the Great, 22
Gregory of Tours, 21, 76, 109, 176
Greville Fulk, Lord Brooke, 402
Grimoald, or Grimalde Nicholas,
Play
on St. John the Baptist, by, 380
Grindall, Archbishop, 461
Grisilde, Patient,
a Play,
by R. Radcliffe, 387
Grocyn, William, 425
Grosthead, Bishop of Lincoln, 32, 367, 368, 428
Grynaeus, Simon, 448
Gualtier de Chatillon, 168, 352
Guerre, Jean de, 121
Guarini, Baptiste, 421, 422, 426
Guiart de Moulins, 108
Guido de Colonna, 74, 81, 82, 90, 91, 97, 116
Guigemar,
Lay of,
215
Guillaume, Prior of Chalis, 120, 337
Guillaume le Roy, 33
Guiscard and Sismond, by W. Walter, 238
Gunther, 168
Gunthorpe, John, 422, 426
Guy, Earl of Warwick, 166
Gyron le Courtois,
a Romance,
117
H
Hamlet,
Play of,
374, 380, 383, 393
Hanville, John, 168
Harding, John, 125, 126, 127
Harflett, Seige of, and Battayle of Agynkourte, 36
Harmony of the four Gospels, 448
Harrowing of Hell, by Christ,
au Interlude,
207
Harvey, Thomas, Mantuan
translat
d
by, 256
Hawes, Stephen, 210 to 237
Hawking,
Account of,
221, and Hunting,
Poem on,
by Julyana Barnes or Berners, 171, 172
Hay, Archibald, 319
Heale, William, 384,
Heber's
Romance
of the seven Sages of Greece, 109
Hector,
Life and Death of,
81
Hegisippus, 10
Heliodorus,
Account of a MS. of,
418
Helis and Guincester, 169,
Henderson, 319
Henry the Fourth,
Play of,
403
Henry the Fourth,
Balade to,
by Gower, 34
Henry the Fifth,
Account of,
35, 36,
Henry the Sixth,
Legend of,
190
Henrici Septimi
de progressu
in Galliam, 420
Henry the Sevent
of,
by Andrew
—
Elegy on,
by Skelton, 338. Miseries of England under,
a Poem,
by Skelton, 336
Henry the Eighth, 254, 436, 439.
Panegyric on,
by Whittington, 131.
Address to,
by Andrew Bernard, 133. A joyful Meditation of all England, &c. on the Coronation of,
in English Verse,
by Stephen Hawes, 211
Henrysount, Robert, the morall Fabilis of Esope compylit by, 319
Hentzner, 448
Herbert, W
lliam, 194
Hermes Bird,
a Poem,
137, 224
Herodotus, 21, 451
Hesdin, Simon de, 114
Heywood, Thomas, 301, 358
Hezekiah,
Play of,
exhibited before Queen Elizabeth at Cambridge, 383
Hickscorner,
an Interlude,
208
Hierarchie of Angels, by T. Heywood, 301
Higden, Ranulph or Ralph, 177, 179
Hilcher, Paul Christan, 54
Hill of Perfection, by Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 249
Hincmarus, Archbishop of Rheims, 33
Hippocrass, or spiced Wine,
Account of,
346
Hippocrates, 22.
Translated
by Jean Tourtier, 120
Historia Aurea, by John of Tinmouth, 189
Hodgkins, 210
Holcot, Robert, 40
Holland, Joseph, 211
Holme, Randal, 179
Holophernes,
Play of,
392
Homiliae Vulgares, by Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 249
Homer, 68, 83, 352, 451. Iliad and Part of the Odyssey
translated into Latin
rose
by Leontius Pilatus, 84—Into
French Verse
by Juques Miles, 84—Into
Latin
by Francis Philelphus, 411, 415
Horace, 352, 431
House of Fame, by Chaucer, 83, 212
Howard, Duke of Norfolk, 254, 255
Hugh de Foliot, 344, 431
Hugh de Sancto Victore, 344
Hugh of Caumpeden, see Campeden
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester 44 to 49, 453
Humphri
s, Laurence, 459, 460
Hunte, Gualter, 108
Hunting,
Account of,
221
Huss, John,
the Tragedy of,
by R. Radclisse, 387
Hussey, Maistress Margare
,
a Poem
by Skelton, 355
Hymen's Triumph, by Samuel Daniel, 401
I
Jack Hare, 228
Jack Wat, that could pull the Lining out of a black boll,
a Poem,
by Lidgate, 228
Jacob and his twelve Sons,
History of,
199
Jacobus de Vitriaco, 96
Jacobus de Voragine, 41
Jaloux Chatie,
a Tale
by Raimond. Vidal de Basaudin,
a Troubadour,
220
James the First, (of Scotland) 125. The Second, (of Scotland) 324. The Fourth, (of Scotland) 357, 294, 316, The Fifth, (of Scotland) 317, 318. The Sixth, (of Scotland) 384, 461
Idoyne and Amadas,
Romance of,
24
Jeptha,
the Tragedy of, in Latin and Greek,
by John Christopherson, 379
Jeranchie, by John de Pentham, 113
Jerom, 11, 24
Jew and Christan,
Metrical Dialogue
between, by Sidonius, 168
Image of the World, 298
Imperator Ludorum,
Account of,
378, 379
Inner Temple,
Masque
by Middleton, 399. By William Brown, 401, 402
Inns of Court Annagrammatist, or the Masquers m
squed,
in Anagram,
by Francis Lenton, 399
Infortunio, 192
Inglish, John, 257, 258. Sir James, a Poet, 320
Interludes by Sir D. Lyndesay, 298
Joan of Ar
, 310
Job's Suffering,
a Tragedy on,
by Radcliffe, 387
Jocelyne, Bishop of Salisbury, 431
John De Meun, 4, 67, 111, 112, 236
John of Waldenly, 172
John of Tinmouth, 55, 189
John of Salisbury, 39, 75, 112, 118, 167, 205, 206
John the Chaplain, 34
Johnson, Richard, Author of the seven Champions, 230, 253
Jonas,
a Tragedy,
by R. Radcliffe, 387
Jones, Inigo, 385, 399
Jonson, Benjamin, 301, 374, 388, 393, 394, 401
Joos, Dan,
Legend on,
by Lydgate, 58
Joseph of Arimathea,
Life of,
200
Joseph of Exeter, 96
Josephus, 10, 20, 118, 311
Jovius Paulus, 216
Islip, Abbot, 338
Isocrates, 451, 461
Isodorus, 11, 68, 168
Israel, plusieur Batailles des rois d
, contre les Philistines et Assyriens, 217
Judith, Fortitude of,
a Trag
dy,
by Radcliffe, 387
Ives, Simon, 399
Julian, Cardinal of St. Angelo,
Greek MS. of,
218
Julius and the poor Knight,
Story of,
16
Junius Patrick, 281
Justinian, 96
Juvenal, 353
K
Kalandre in Englysshe, by Lydgate, 166
Kalender of Shepherds, 195, 196, 197, 198
Kay, John, Poet Laureat to Edward the Fourth, 128
Kederminster, Abbot of Winchecombe, 447
Kennedie, Walter, 319
Kildare, Michael, 200
Kinnedy, Andro,
Testament of,
by Dunbar, 326, 358, 359
King's Complaint, by James the First of Scotland, 125
King's Fool, and Lucius, King of Rome,
Story of,
16
Kircher, 8
Knights Templars,
Account of,
345
Korner Herman, 20
Kymes, Gilbert, 47
Kynloich, 320
L
Lambwell,
Romance of,
see Launval
Lancelot,
Romance of,
12, 13, 24, 117, 235
Langius Rodolphus,
a Latin Poet,
415
Langbaine, Gerard, 41
Langtoft, Peter, 239
Langley, Thomas, Monk of Hulm, 129
Langton, Bishop of Lich
ield, 216, 427
Lapidaire,
a Poem from the Latin of
Marbodeus, 108
Lapus de Castellione, 19, 49
Lascaris, John, 428
Latimer, Hugh, 427, 450
Latin Plays,
Account of,
375, 376, 377
Launval.
Romance of,
102
Laurence or Laurent de Premierfait, 61, 62
Laureate, Poet,
Account of the first,
128, 131, 132, 133
Lawes, William, 399
Leander's Italia, 70
Lear, King, by Shakespeare, 250
Lebrixa, Anton
o de, 416
Lee, Archbishop of York, 447
Le Fevre, Jean, 115
Le Feure Rauol, 81
Legend of good Women, by Chaucer, 165
Legenda Aurea,
translated
by John du Vignay, 111
Leigny, God
roy de, 13
Leirmouth, Thomas, 298
Leland, 38, 218, 446, 448
Lelarmoner, or Lelarmor, John, 167
Lenton, Francis, 399
Leontius Pilatus, 70, 84
Letter of Cupid,
a Poem
by Occleve, 34
Leofric, Bishop of Exeter, 208
Leonard of Arezzo, 118
Lewis the Eighth,
a Romance,
362, the Twelfth, 413
Lichfield, William, 106
Lidgate, see Lydgate
Liess l'Abbe de, or the Abbot of Jollity, 381
Lillie, William, Grammarian, 337, 426, 433
Lilly, John, Dramatic Writer, 393
Lieu Girardus, 15
Life of our Lady, by Lydgate, 57, 58, 59
Linac
r or Linacre, 424
Livy, 49, 113, 114, 118, 122, 311, 353, 430, 455
Lollius, 96
Lombard, Peter, 450
Lomclyn Domingo, 347
London Lickpenny, by Lidgate, 266
London, Panegyric on the City of, by Fabia
, 192
Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, 362, 447
Lord's Prayer,
Latin Elegiac Paraphras
on.
by John Mallard, 132
Love freed from Ignorance and Folly,
a Masque,
by B. Jonson, 401
Lover and a Jay,
Dialogue between,
by Thomas Feylde, 219
Love's Labour Lost, by Shakespeare, 236
Lucan, 114, 167, 352
Lucas or Luce, 117
Lucian, a Dialogue of, reduced into
English Verse
by John Rastall, 364. Icrominippus of,
translated
by Erasmus, 438
Lucillius, 353
Lucius King of Rome, and the King's Fool,
Story of,
16
Ludensis Gilbertus, a Monk, 298
Ludus Scaccorum, by Jacobus de Casulis, 40
Ludus Pascalis, 207
Lully Raymond, 136, 225
Luminalia, or the Festival of Light,
a Masque,
401
Lusty Juventus,
an Interlude,
by R. Weever, 378
Luther, Martin, 411, 442.
Latin Play
on the Subject of the Heresy of, 377
Luxembourgh, Jean de, 120
Lycurgus, Story of, 75
Lydgate, 8, 19, 41, 48, 51 to 180, 166, 170, 171, 193, 200, 201, 210, 211, 219, 224, 228, 237, 257, 266, 271, 318, 352, 353, 441
Lyndsay, Sir David, 259, 274, 295 to 324
Lyra, Nicholas de, 46
Lytel Treatise, called the Dysputacyon, or Complaynt of the Heart thorough perced with the lokynge of the Eye, 199
M
Maccabee, Judas,
H
story of,
21
Macaber, Dance of Death, in
German R
ymes,
by, 54
Macbeth,
Play of,
385
Mace, 109
Macer, 22, 167
Mackenzie, 334
Maçon, Antoine le, 121
Macrobius, 218, 353
Madely, William de, 190
Magnus Jacobus, 121
Magnificence, a goodly
Interlude
and a mery, by Mayster Skelton, 336, 337
Magdalene, Marie,
Mystery of,
361, 363
Magdalene, Queen,
Poem
on the Death of, 313
Magnamontanus Banatusius, 426
Maier, Michael, 135
Maillorie, Sir Thomas, 235
Major, John, 334
Makgreggor's Testament, or Dunean Laider,
a Poem,
278, 326 to 332
Mallard, John, 132
Malverne, William, 178
Mamerot, Sebastian,
Mancini, Dominic, 247
Mantuan, 247, 255, 256
Mandeville, or Maunderville, 223, 230
Mapes, Gualter, or Walter de, 235, 360, 431
Marbodeus, 108, 168
Marcianus, 75, 76
Marcell Amergot, an eminent Robber,
Account of,
332, 337
Marcellinus Amineanus, 15
Marchion of Arezzo, 93
Margaret, Queen, Wife of Henry Seventh, 200
Marie, a French Poetess, 215
Marius Antonius, a famous Scribe and Illuminator, 423
Martius Galeotus, 426
Mary Magdalen,
Mystery of,
361, 363
Mary, Queen, 456
Masques,
Account of,
398, 399
Master of the Revells,
Account of,
378, 379, 405
Matthaeus of Vendosme, 168
Maurilianus Pamphilus, 130, 168
Maximianus, 167, 353
Maximilian the First, 415
Maximus Valerius, 16, 19, 45, 311, 353.
Translated
by Simon de Hesdin, 114
May, Translator of Lucan, 400
Maymonde, the
froward Tale of,
by Lydgate, 228
Medea and Jason,
History of,
13.
Tragedy of,
by Geta, 168
Medici, Laurenzo de, 428. Cosmo de, 428
Meditationes Piae, by Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 249
Medula, by Ripley, 138
Medwall, Henry,
Interlude of Nature,
by, 238, 364
Megacosm and Microcosm, by Sylvester, 168
Melancthon, 311
Memoriae Seculorum, or the Pantheon, by Godsrey of Viterbo, 9, 10, 16
Melibaeus,
a Play,
by Radcliffe, 387
Meleager,
Latin Play,
by Dr. William Gager, 383
Menander, 20, 371
Menestrier, 373
Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare's
Play of the,
16, 17, 18, 19, 383
Meres, 341
Merry Wives of Windsor, by Shakespeare, 358
Merser, 319
Metaphrastes, Symeon, 190
Metriftench
ridion, by John Seguard, 129
Meun, John de, 4, 67, 111, 112, 236
Microcosm, by Sylvester, 168
Middleton, Thomas, Dramatic Writer, 399
Michael De Harnes, 109
Midsummer Night's Dream,
Play of,
358
Miles Owayne,
a Poem,
192, 198
Millemete, Walter de, 7
Milet, Jaques, 84
Miller's Tale, by Chaucer, 169
Millot, Mr. 215, 230
Millyng, Abbot of Westminster, 421
Milton, 13, 286, 299, 300, 301, 403
Minstrells,
Account of,
105, 106, 134, 174, 175
Mirrour for Magistrates, 192
Mirrour of Good Manners, by Alexander Barclay, 240, 247
Mirrour of Love, by Miles Hoggard, 460
Miseriae Curialunn, by Aeneas Silvius, 248
Misrule, Lord of, 380. Abbot of, 381
Mithridates,
a Play,
by N. Le
, 402
Monte, Petrus de, 48
Mopsus and Melibeus,
Dialogue between,
by John Opicius, 422
Moralities, 279, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364
More, Sir Thomas, 364, 365, 387, 428, 438, 439, 440, 449. Laure
ce, 426
Morlier, 40
Mor
erius, Abraham, 169
Morton, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, 238. An Augustine Friar, 121
Moschea, or the War with Flies and Ants, 356
Moses, 307
Mouskes, Philip, 362
Mummeries,
Account of,
204
Muratori, 10
Mussato Alberti, a Dramatic Writer, 409
Mysteries,
Account of,
199 to 209, 294, 369, 374, 391
N
Nangis, Guillaume de, 114
Narrationes Aurea
, by Gawin Dougla
, 293
Nassyngton, William of, 172, 173, 176
Nature a goodly
Interlude,
compylyd by Master Henry Medwall, 238, 364
Nazianzen, Grego
y, 368
Necham, Alexander, 76
Necroman
ia, by John Rastall, 364, 365
Newton, John, 116, 427
Niccols, William, 192
Nicholas, Saint, 375. Pope, the Fisth, 410, 411
Nicholas de Lyra, 47
Nicodemus,
Leg
d of,
208
Nicolson, Bishop, 281
Nigramans
r,
a Morall Enterlude,
and a Pithie by Maister Skelton, 361, 362, 363
Nigro, Andalus de, 69, 70
Normandy,
Metrical Chronicle
of the Dukes of, by Master Benoit, 225, 238
Northern Mother's Blessing,
a Poem,
238
Northumberland, Fifth Earl of, 337, 339, 340
Norton, John, 135, 136. Thomas, 398
Not Browne Mayde, 138
Nugae Curialium, by Walter de Mapes, 431
Nuremburgh Chronicle, 300, 311
Nykke, Bishop of Norwich, 337
O
Obsopaeus, 418
Occleve, 9, 34, 41, 50, 324
Octavian,
Romance of,
173
Odo or Odobonus, 167
Odoricus, 111
Oedipus and Jocasta, 76
Oeni de Vis
one in purgatorio, 298
Offa, King,
Life of,
344
Olynthiacs of Demosthenes,
translated
into English by Thomas Wilson, 453
Olpe, Bergman de, 376
Opicius, a Latin Poet, 422
Oresme, Nicholas de, 115, 116
Orosius, 10, 311
Osma, Don Bernardo Obispo de, 40
Othea a Hector, L'Epitre d', by Christina of Pisa, 85
Overthrow of Stage Playes, by Dr. Rainolds, 383, 384
Ovid, 2, 12, 24, 96, 167, 212, 213, 352, 360. Elegiacs of, copied by Gower, 2. Metamorphoses of, 12, 45,
translated
by Guillaum de Nangis, 114, 119. Art of Love,
translated
by Gawin Douglas, 281. Eneid, by G. Douglas, 281
Owayne, Miles,
a Poem,
192, 298
P
P. S.
Child of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel,
Epitaph on,
by Ben Jonson, 395
Pace, Richard, 427, 439
Pageants,
Account of,
198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 365
Palladis Tamia, or Wit's Treasury, 342
Palemon and Arcite,
Comedy of,
382
Palice of Honour, by Gawin Douglas, 294
P
lingenius, 461
Palmerius, Mattheus, 118, 305, 312
Pa
sgrave, John, 247
Pammachius, a
Latin Comedy,
acted at C. C. C. 1544,—337
Pandas, 20
Pandulph, 20
Pantalcone, or a Chronicle compiled by the Monks of Pantaleon, 10
Pantheon, or Memoriae Seculorum, by Godfrey of Viterbo, 9, 10, 16
Paris, Mathew, 198
Parker, Archbishop, 379, 461
Parlyament of Devylles, 199
Parnel's Hermit, 208
Parr, Queen Catherine, 456
Pastime of Pleasure, by Hawes, 212, 219, to 227, to 233
Pathway to the Toure of Perfection, by Miles Hoggard, 460
Patrick's Cave,
Legend of,
199
Pedegrees of British Kings, 177
Peeris, William, 126
Pelerin, L'Ame de, 120
Pennant, 326
Pennel, Maistresse Isabel,
Poem on,
by Skelton, 355, 356
Penny, Sir,
a Poem,
361
Pentham, Jean de, 113
P
rcy, Henry Algernoon, Fifth Earl of Northumberland,
Account of,
338, 339, 340
Pergamo, Philip de, 169
Perusinus Paulus, 75
Persius, 353
Petavius, a Jesuit, 377
Peter of Blois, 75, 119, 352, 362, 428, 430, 431
Peter of Poitou, 218
Petra
ch, 84, 113, 114, 116, 132, 235, 253, 255, 409, 413. A new
Epitaph,
in
Latin Elegiacs,
composed by John Phrea for the Tomb of, 424
Petronylla, Life of,
a Poem,
200
Petrus de Monte, 48
Phalaris' Epistles,
translated
into Tuscan, by Bartholomew Fontius, 418
Phantasiae Macaronicae, by Theophilo Folergio, 356
Philargyria, the great Gigant of Great Britain,
Fable of,
by Robert Crowley, 316
Philip Sparrow, by Skelton, 243, 259
Philelphus, Francis, and Historian, 44
Phonurgia, 8
Phrea, or Free, John, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 423, 424, 426
Pierce Plowman, 179, 279, 282, 361
Pindar, 371
Pisander, 353
Piscatory Eclogue by Fiorino Buoninsegni, 256
Planudes Maximus, Boethius
translated into Greek by,
33, 169, 218
Platina Baptista, 422
Plato, 22, 48, 76, 307, 371, 410, 415, 449, 455, 461
Plautus, 353, 411, 439, 451
Players, a Company of, under the Direction of John Inglish, at the Marriage of James Fourth of Scotland with Margaret Tudor, 257, 258
Plays, French,
Account of,
110. English
Origin of,
366. Overthrow of Stage Plays, 381, 384
Pliny, 302
Plowman, Pierce, 179, 279, 282, 361
Plutarch, 353
Poenulus of Plautus, 411
Poetaster,
a Play,
by B. Jonson, 393, 394
Poetical Inscriptions on the Walls of Wressell and Lekingfield Castle, 339
Poines Maximilian, one of the Children of Pauls, 392
Poggio, 115, 169, 337, 353
Poli
iano Angelo, 424, 425, 455
Poli
rati
on of John of Salisbury, 167
Ponthus and Sidonia, an old
French Romance,
226
Ponthus and Galyce, and Lytel Brytayne,
History of,
227
Popi
jay,
a Poem,
by Skelton, 337
P
rphyrogenitus, Constantine, 191
Premierfait, Lawrence, 119, 121, 426
Presles Raoul de, 110
Prick of Divine Love, 117
Pride and wast Clothing of Lordis Men,
a Poem,
by Occleve, 324
Proclus, 449
Prodicus, 245
Progne,
Latin Tragedy of,
382
Progymnasmata Scenica, seu Ludicra Praeexercitamenta varii Generis. per Johann
m Bergman de Olpe, 376
Propertius, 353,
Prosper, 11
Protestants displaying of their sundry Practices, by Miles Hoggard, 459
Prudentius, 461
P
lms,
translation
of the first, 2
, 19. Seven Penitential, Fragment of a Comment on, supposed to be written by Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 249
Ptolemy, 302
Pulci Bernardo, 256
Puttenham, 341
Q
Quadripartitum of Ptolemy,
translated
by Nicholas D'Oresme, 116
Queens,
Mosque of,
by Ben Jonson, 401
Quin, the Comedian,
Anecdote of,
253
Quintilian, 352, 417, 453
Quintus Curtius,
translated into Fre
ch,
119, 353, 430, 431
Quintyn, 319
R
Rabelais, 357
Radcliffe, Ralph, 387
Rainold's, Dr. John, 383
Ragusinus Felix, 417
Raphael, 413
Rastall, John, 353,
Accou
t of,
364, 365
Raoul Le Feure, 92
Reson and Sensualitie, by Lidgate, 225
Reuchlin, an early Dramatic Writer, 375, 376
Rhetoricke, Arte or Crafte of, by Leonard Co
e, 446
Rhodes,
Latin
History of the Seige of, by John Kay, 128
Richard the First, 317
Richard the Second, 258, 325
Richard Lewis, Master of Music, 401
Riga, Petrus de,
68
Rightwise, John, Master of St. Paul's School, 434
Ripley, George, 135, 136, 137
Rippe Gui
laume, 119
Rivales,
a Latin Play,
by Dr. W. Gager, 383
Robert de Brunne, 316
Robert of Gloucester, 127
Robert Earl of Huntingdon, Downfall of,
a Play,
358
Robin Hood and Little John, 237, 381
Robin and Marian,
Play of,
386
Robinson N. Bishop of Bangor, 382
Rolewinch Wernerus, 311
Romain Henri, 118
Roman de la Rose, by John de Meun, 4
Romanus Egidius, 96
Romaunt of the Rose, by Chaucer, 218, 264
Romeo and Juliet,
Tragedy of,
394
Romuleon, 114, 119
Roos, or Roo, John, 397
Rosiar, by Skelton, 336
Rosse, J. 344, 421
Rotherham, Archbishop, 389
Rouroy, Jean de, 119
Rowls' Cursing,
a Poem,
319
Rowlie's Poems, 139 to 164, 219
Rufinus, 21
S
Sackville Thomas, Lord Buckhurst, 398
Saint Alboon and Saint Amphiballus, by Lidgate, 352
Saint Austin, 110, 111
Saint Bernard, Lamentations of, 117
Saint Catherine,
Life of,
by Bar
lay, 247
Saint Edmund,
History of,
by Lidgate, 55, 56, 57
Saint Etheldred,
Life of,
by Barclay, 247, 177, 189
Saint Frideswide, 110
Saint Graal,
Romance of,
by G
alter de M
pes, 235
Saint George,
Life
f,
247
Saint Gregories Homilies,
translated,
Saint Hugh, Martyrdom of,
in Frenc
110
Verse,
108
Saint Jerom, 11, 24, 117, 307
Saint John's Descent into H
ll,
a Greek Homily on,
by Eusebius Alexandrinus, 208
Saint John, Erasmus' Paraphrase on,
translated
by Queen Mary, 456
Saint Julian, 198
Saint Margaret, 247
Saint Thomas of Becket, 138, 238
Saint Radegunda,
fe,
200
S
int Sexburgh, 177, 189
Saint Wolfade,
Life of,
by Gilbert de Stone, 190
Saint Werburgh,
Life of, in Verse,
by Bradshaw, 176, 180 to 188, 189
Saints,
Lives of the,
189.
Poem on,
200
Salmacida Spolia,
a Masque,
401
Salpicius Claudius, 20
Salust, 114,
translated
by Barclay, 247, 352
Samson and Dalil
, 25
Sardanapulus,
Story of,
16
Satiromastix,
a Play
by Decker, 393
Schedelius Hartmanuus, 311
Scholastica Historia, by Peter Comestor, 108
Scogan, John, 134
Scogin's Jests, 135
Scot Ales, and other Ludi on Holidays forbade, by Bishop Grosthead, 368
Scotland,
Latin History of,
by Gawin Douglas, 294
Scotus Duns, 449
Secretum secretorum Aristotelis, 7, 8.
Transl
ted
into English, 9
Seculorum Memoriae, or the Pantheon, by Godfrey of Vi
erbo, 9, 10, 16
Sedulius, 461
S
guard John,
Latin Poet,
129
Sellyng William, 424, 425
Seneca, 74, 118, 167, 353
Sergius, seu capitis ca
ut Comaedia, by Reuchli
, 375
Seven Champion
,
History of,
by R. Johnson, 230
Seven Deadly Sins,
Poem on the Daunce of,
by Dunbar, 273
Seven Sages of Greece,
Romance of,
by Hebers, 109
Seven Sleepers, Martyrdom of the, 175. Life of the,
translated
by Syrus, 176
Shakespeare, 5, 16, 22, 221, 236, 250, 256, 349, 358, 365, 374, 383, 385, 387, 393, 402, 403
Shepherd's Kalender, 195, 196, 197, 198
Shew of Beards, 362
Shirly James, 399
Shirwoode Robert, 446
Ship of Fooles, by Alexander Barclay, 237, 240 to 247, 347, 426
Siculus Diodorus, 423
Sidonia and Ponthus,
an old French R
mance,
226
Sidonius, 168
Sidrac,
Romance of,
101, 132
Siege of Thebes, by Lidgate, 61
Sigismunda and Guiseard,
versified,
by W. Walter, 238
Silen
iarius Paulu
, 223
Silkestede, Prior, 217
Simle
us, 375
Simony,
Trial of,
by Skelton, 388
Sincerus, Theophilus, 40
Sinclair, Lord, 293
Sir Bevis,
Romance of,
250
Sir Isembras,
Romance of,
173, 174
Sir Lancelot du La
,
Romance of,
12, 13, 24, 235
Sir Penny,
a Poem,
by Stewart of Lorne, 361
Sir Tristram and Bel Isolde, 14
Sismund
nd Guis
ard, by Wal
er, 238
Skelton, John, 130, 132, 176, 243, 247, 253, 259.
Life of,
336 to 362, 388
Skogan, 135
Smyth, Walter, 365
Socr
tes, 25
Sodom, the Burning of,
a Tragedy,
by Radcliffe, 387
Solinus, 10, 20
Solomon, 25
Somnium Scipionis of Tully
ranslated,
218
Somerset, John, 444
Sophocles, 368, 451
Soulechart, Denis, 112
Spectacle of Lovers, by W. Walter, 238
Speculum Christiani, 193
Speculum Eccl
siae, 111, 168
Speculum Historiale, 299
Speculum Meditantis, by Gower, 2
Speculum Mundi, 109
Speculum Parvulorum, 408
Speculum Regiminis, by Philip de Pergamo, 170
Speculum Regum, 10
Speculum Stultorum, 206
Spenser, Edmund, 192, 238, 273, 301, 365
Spousage of a Virgin to Christ, by Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 249
Standish Henry, Bishop of St. Asaph, 437
Stanley Family,
Poem on the Antiquity of,
200
Staple of Newes, by Ben Jonson, 388
Statius, 74, 96, 352
Stephonius, 357, 377
Stewart of Lorne, 258, 320, 361
Stone, Gilbert de, 190
Strabo, 10
Suetonius, 10
Suron, Henri de, 112
Sulpicius, Johannes, 433
Supposes, by Gas
oigne, 398
Susannah, Delivery of,
a Play,
by Radcliffe, 387
Sylvester or Bernardus Carnotensis, 168
Symeon Metaphrastes, 190
Symeon, a Friar Minor, 216
Synesius, 423
T
Tacitus, 411, 430
Tarquin and his Son Arrous,
Story of,
16
Tasso, 300
Tedbaldus, 170
Tempe restored,
a Masque,
401
Temple of Glass, by Stephen Hawes, 210 to 215
Temple of Love,
a Mosque
by Davenant 401
Templum Chrystallinum, by Stephen Hawes, 212
Terence, 119, 353, 380, 417, 420, 431
Termegis, 20, 21
Testament of Love, by Chaucer, 29, 33
Tethy's Festival,
a Masque,
by S. Daniel, 401
Theatrum Chemicum, by Ashmole, 9, 135
137
Thebes,
Story of,
by Lidgate, 71
Theocritus, 352
Theodosius, 208
Theodulus, 167
Theophylact, 369, 370
Thesied of Boccaccio, 215, 223
Thibaud de Vernon, 108
Thig
onville, William de, 20
Thistle and the Rose, by W. Dunbar, 257 to 264, 279
Tholouse Er
e of,
Romance,
103, 104, 105
Three Kings of Cologne, 174
Thucidides, 451
Thurkhill, 198
Tibu
tinae Lucubratione
,
a Latin Poem in Heroic Verse,
by Robert Flemmyng, 422
Tignonville, Guillaume d
, 120
Tilliot, M. du, 367
Timon of Athens, by Shakespeare, 349
inmouth, John of, 55,
89
Tiptof
, Earl of Worcester, 119, 423, 425, 426
Titus and Gesippus, by W. Walter, 238 341
Titus and Gesippus,
a Play,
by R. Radcliffe, 387
Tobiad, or Book of Tobit paraphrased by Mattheus of Vendosme, 168
Tonellus and Zanina, Amours of, 356
Torkyngton Syr Richard, his Pylgrymage to Jerusalem, 427
Toure of Vertue and Honour, by Barclay, 248, 254
Tourtier Jean, Hippocrates and Galen
translated
by, 120
Townsend Aurelian, 401
Traheron Bartholomew, 448
Tragedy of Princes that were letcherous, by Lydgate, 62
esor, by Pierre Corbian, 222, 225
Trevet, Nicholas, his
Commentary
on Sen
ca's Tragedies, 74
Trevisa, John, 39, 67, 115
Trinity and Unity,
Treatise on the,
and
translated
by William of Nassyngton, 172
Trismegistus, 23
Tristram,
Romance of,
14.
Triumph of Peace, by James Shirley, 399
Troilus and Cressida, by Chaucer, 25, 226
Trou
he and Information,
a Treatise between,
by William Cornish, 365
Troy,
Romance of,
by Guido de C
lonna, 12.
Translated
into Italian by Philipp Ceffi, 13.
Translated
by Lidgate, 61, 81, 92, 93, to 99. By Caxton, 228
Tundal or Tungal,
the Visions of,
299
Tunstall, Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham, 427
Turpyn, 208
Twety, William, 221
Twici Guillaume, grand Huntsman to King Edward Second, 221
Typhernas Gregory, 413, 437
V
Valla Laurentius, 48, 84
V
is, Margaret de,
Vanity of Riches,
a Poem,
by Michael Kildare, 200
Vasque de Lucerie, 115
Udall, 386, 456
Vegius Mapheus, 281
Vegetius, 113, 115.
Translated
by John Newton, 427, 431
Venerie L'Art de, par Guillaume Twici, 221
Ventadour Bernard,
a Troubadour,
215
Vergerius Angelus, Secretary to Francis First, 413
Vertumnus,
a Latin Play,
384
Vetula De,
translated
by Jean Le Fevre, 115, 130
Victor Aurelius, 11
Vidal Raimond,
a Troubadour,
220
Vignay, Jean de, 111
Vincent de Beauvais, 112, 113
Vincent Magister, 426
Vir
li Le, a Sport celebrated on the Feast of St. Nicholas, 375
Virgil, Aeneid of, 15, 25.
Translated
by Gawin Douglas, 212, 213. By Guillaumele Roy, 33, 121, 122, 167, 307, 353. Bucolics,
translated
into Italian by Bernardo Pulci, Fossa de Cremona Benivi
ni, and Fiorni Buoninsegni, 356.
Commentary on,
by Antonio de Lebrixa, 417
Virgil, the Necromancer,
Life of,
229
Virgil, Polydore, 281, 425
Virgin Mary,
Epithalamium on,
by Johannes de Garlandria, 168. Hymns to, 193, 194. Seven Joys of the blessed Virgin,
in English Rhyme,
192
Virtue,
an Interlude,
by Skelton, 336
Visions of the four G
ddesses,
a Masque,
by Samuel Daniel, 401
Vitellus Cornelius, 425
Viterbo, Godfrey o
, 10
Vitri, Philip de, 115
Vitriaco, Jacobus de, 41, 111
Vives Ludovicus, 410
Ulysses and Circe,
Masque of,
by W. Brown, 401, 402
Voinuskius, 425
Voltaire, 368
Volusenus Florentius, 294
Voragine, Jacobus de, 41, 111
Vox Clamantis, by Gower, 2, 429
Upton, Nicholas, 172
W
Wade, Lawrence, a Benedictine Monk, 238
Wakefield Robert, 124, 436 446
Waldenby John of, 172
Wallace Sir William, 334,
Walter de Millemete, 7
Walter William, Boccaccio's
Story of
Guiscard and Sigismunda versified by, 238
Walton John, 34
Walton Bertram,
Satyrical Poem
on the Nuns, by, 165
Watson John, Author of Speculum Christiani, 129, 193
Waynflete Bishop, 426
Way to thrist, 238
Webbe John, 447
We
ver R. 378
Wentworth, Maistress Margary,
Poem on,
by Skelton, 354, 355
We
burgh, Saint,
Life of,
180
Wey William, 427
Whetehamstede John, Abbot of St. Albans, 46, 47, 53
White Friars of Drogheda,
Poem on,
by Michael Kildare, 200
Whitgift, 446
Whiting Richard, 445—or Whyting, 200
Whitsun Playes,
Account of,
179, 180, 207, 209
Whittington, Poet Laureate, 130, 131
Why come y
not to court?
a Poem,
by Skelton, 345, 346, 347
Wiccliffe, 173, 330, 331, 361, 430
Widville, or Wydville, Earl of River
, 20, 138
William de Thig
onville,
0
William of Malmsbury, 191
William of Nassyngton, 172, 173, 176
Williams, Speaker of the House of Commons, Time of Elizabeth, 444
Wilson Florence, or Florentinus Volusenus, 294
Wilson Thomas, Preceptor to Charle
and Henry Brandon, Dukes of Su
folk, 386, 453
Wi
chcomb Abbey,
History of,
by Kederminster, 447
Winter Night's Vision, by Niccols, 19
Wircker, 206
Wit's Treasury, or Palladis Tamia, 342
Wolsey, Cardinal, 131, 330, 337, 345, 374, 397, 398, 428, 433, 434
Wood, An
h
ny, 219
Worke of Sapience, by Caxton, 194
Wressel Castle adorned with Poe
ical I
scrip
ions, 338
Wykeham, William of, 445,
X
Xenophon's Cyropedia,
translated into
French by Vasque de Lucerie, 115.
Translated into Latin,
by R
uchlin, 415. By John Phrea, 423, 451
Ximenes, Cardinal, 416
Z
Zamoren
is Rodericus, 54
Zanitonella, or the Amours of Tonellus and Zania,
a Poem,
356
Zeno Apostolo, an Italian Dramatic Writer and Poet 132
Zoroa
ter, 22